Isle's seedier side exposed

"THIS sums up Thanet!!!" read the e-mail that popped into my inbox this week, containing a link to a certain video on YouTube, which many of you may have seen by now.

In case you haven't, the e-mail came from "The Thanet Loops", who described themselves as "just a couple of local 20-somethings" but who turned out to be one Adrian "The Fraudster" Handley (I understand this is not a description of any criminal activity but a DJ name he goes under, and if the details on his profile on Facebook are anything to go by, he's probably a bit older than that) and his mate James Mason.

The video is entitled Thanet Anthem, set to the music of Jay-Z and Alicia Keys' Empire State Of Mind, with some less than salubrious footage from our three main towns and lyrics that will probably make many a councillor's hair curl!

It is billed on YouTube as "most funniest video" (sic) but I have to say "funny" isn't the first word that sprang to my mind. I say this not in any sense of Disgusted of Broadstairs – it might be lack of sleep and overdosing on caffeine tablets (I still haven't finished my latest book and the deadline has long gone) but I found it touching – heartbreaking even – and hope the considerable talent it displays will strike even those sucking their teeth.

For no doubt there will be the Miffed of Margate or Repelled of Ramsgate and members of TDC who will take a pretty dim view (I tried to draw Bob Bayford on the subject but he hadn't yet seen it so, reasonably enough, wouldn't comment) especially since the Thanet council logo is so prominent throughout. But may I suggest you don't over-exercise yourselves? Yes, such immortal lines as, "So chill out on the beach and watch the Asbos break **** in Margate..." may not be the ultimate in finesse, and I'm not over-struck on Tracey Emin – there are two shots of the notorious photograph of the artist clutching wads of money between her legs – being referred to as "a slut", and perhaps referring to Thanet as "a ****hole" is a little strong, even given the council's short-sighted policy on public conveniences. But while there IS such a thing as bad publicity – we see Sandy Ezekiel's now blurred-out face (this is not symbolic – it was visible in the first incarnation – clearly someone has complained!) and young men doing a line of coke, if it's dire enough, it can come full circle and actually work. This brief, arresting film, which had 7,000 views last weekend alone, is up to 10,000 as I write, and will shortly be available on iTunes (I'm not sure how that works permissions-wise), may catch the public imagination in a way nothing else has. Hot on the heels of the national coverage afforded by the petty bureaucracy over the poster of Marcello Marino's fabulous-looking wife, perhaps Thanet, "where dreams are trampled and robbed by the council" will be the focus of attention once again? Maybe this "place of broken dreams" could see an influx of visitors unprecedented to date, as they gather with morbid fascination to check the reality – in the same way as one might buy a book to see if it's really as awful as its worst review claims.

I can't agree the video "sums up" Thanet; it simply – cleverly – portrays its seedier side. It's not the whole story by any means, but how deliciously ironic, if, for all the bluster and rhetoric about promotion and tourism, it is the council's very failures that bring the attention it craved. Now, that would be funny, don't you think?

Thanet Anthem by the Thanet Loops can be viewed at www. youtube.com