An alternative “national lottery” takes place in Parliament each week, being the draw for Prime Minister’s questions, to be heard each Wednesday between midday and 12.30pm. I regularly enter the draw, as do 400 other MPs, so it was pleasing to be selected last week. I used the opportunity to highlight the work of the Ramsgate Regeneration Alliance, the body set up in response to my regular Ramsgate regeneration meetings. I obtained an assurance that the PM would visit Ramsgate, as would the Coastal Communities Minister Mark Francois more immediately. Within hours the Minister’s office contacted mine to arrange dates. The Regeneration meetings have been bursting with enthusiasm and ideas, but to achieve the vision that we share for Ramsgate will need serious cash, from the government and grant agencies, notably the Heritage Lottery Fund. The view of many local residents is that Margate has received the lion’s share of regeneration money in recent years, and it is now surely Ramsgate’s turn. Keep Britain Tidy are heading up the “Clean for the Queen” project nationwide in advance of H.M. The Queen’s 90th birthday. This weekend of 4th to 6th March is clean-up time. There are a number of local projects to support the local clean-up, but even if you can’t join the more formal work-parties, do consider filling up a sack in your locality, as a well-known supermarket might say “every little helps”. I will, as ever, be cleaning graffiti! The 80th anniversary of the Spitfire will be celebrated this weekend as well, with a fly past at 2.30pm on Saturday at Ramsgate’s harbour front, more food for thought about our aviation heritage as I hear that 80,000 letters across Thanet will be landing on our doormats from the new owners of Manston under the guise of Stone Hill Park.. The major announcement has of course been the firing gun for the EU referendum. An issue that brings out deeply held views and crosses the political divide. I have never made a secret of my opposition to the UK’s membership of the EU, as I feel we would have a brighter future as a normal, independent nation looking outwards to the world, of course trading with the EU, but not part of its political ambitions, costs and bureaucracy. I pay a tribute to the Prime Minister in bringing the referendum; only possible because we have a Conservative government of which my election here in South Thanet was an important part. My constituency office recently received a protest by local activists concerned about the EU’s TTIP negotiations on our behalf (a new free-trade agreement with the US), an interesting alternative take on concerns about the direction of the EU. On this we may agree, far better for international trade deals to be negotiated by our own team. We are, after all, the world’s 5th largest economy; if Switzerland or Norway can negotiate their own trade deals, I’m sure we can as well.