Shoreline seduction

Historian and Labour MP Gordon Marsden describes his love of coastal resorts, recalls a chat with Barack Obama and reveals why he is not comfortable being called a "saint".

Gordon Marsden has always liked to be beside the seaside.

Labour's MP for Blackpool South, who also has a house in Brighton, is a lifelong fan of the bracing walks and brassy days out offered by British coastal resorts.

One of the 57-year-old's fondest childhood memories is of his mother's prowess in the amusement arcade.

"I was born and brought up in Manchester. I got taken to Blackpool on holiday in the 1960s and 1970s," he said.

"Mum used to be really good at using those grabbing machines they have where, if you can operate the claw properly, you win a prize."

Laden with cuddly toys and other spoils of mother's frequent successes, the working-class family's time in Blackpool was a rare chance for leisure.

Trips to the Fylde coast are no longer so relaxing.

Fourteen years ago, Mr Marsden, an Oxford-educated historian, was elected as one of the MPs for Blackpool, which has some of the most deprived wards in England.

He brings something of his previous careers as an Open University lecturer and editor of History Today magazine to describing the resort's predicament.

"Historically seaside towns prospered with an enormous explosion of travel by working-class people, the majority of it in the Victorian era and into the 20th Century.

"In Blackpool a whole street of guesthouses would be taken over by workers from one factory for part of the summer.

"But that's all disappeared, with the rise of more foreign travel and other alternatives.

"[Former US Secretary of State] Dean Acheson once said Britain had lost an empire and still needed to find a role. The British seaside is in a similar position."

During Mr Marsden's 14 years in Parliament, Blackpool and other resorts have gained a reputation among some as run-down frontier towns, dominated by boozy hen and stag dos.

"A minority of people who come to the town behave badly," Mr Marsden said. "The decision we need to make is how you keep Blackpool as vibrant as it has been for 100 years, but also to recognise the needs of families.

"It's about delivering quality. It's how you can continue a tradition of being brash and lively without being tacky. It's possible, as you can see in Las Vegas.

Classic Game Room – BOSCONIAN arcade video game review ...

Classic Game Room reviews BOSCONIAN arcade video game by Bally Midway and Namco released in 1981. Bosconian is a top down free roam style space ship shooter that is rare to find in its original arcade videogame cabinet form because many Bosconian arcade games were turned into Galaga machines because they run on similar hardware and Galaga was more popular. Gameplay is fast and frantic as you blow up enemy space ship based and wipe out waves of space ships. Fans of top down shooters like Thunder Force 2 should hunt down some Bosconian! This CGR review of Bosconian has Bosconian arcade machine gameplay showing the Bosconian cabinet, videogame machine and game play at PAPA world headquarters.

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