When the Conservatives were in a titanic battle with UKIP in the 2015 general election, the epicentre of the contest was South Thanet.

With UKIP leader Nigel Farage attempting to pull off what would have been a hugely symbolic victory, both parties fought tooth and nail in a ferocious fight.

The Conservative campaign was notable in one way: rarely a day passed without a visit by some party VIP or another to drum up support for its candidate, Craig Mackinlay.

These did not always generate much interest; Theresa May pitched up one day to ‘launch’ a series of poster billboards on trailers that trundled around Thanet.

Tumbleweed rolled through an industrial estate to monumental indifference. No-one witnessed this event (which may have been some relief) and May was gone without pressing the flesh with anyone.

The visit that got most attention was the one by Boris Johnson, who was paraded around Ramsgate surrounded by a seething mass of Tory activists and banner-waving Ukip supporters and camera crews and journalists.

Under a baking sun, Johnson was jostled in various directions, posing for selfies, chatting with shopkeepers and, naturally, eating ice cream.

Fast forward to this week and the Prime Minister was back in Kent, along with Chancellor Rishi Sunak.

Only you wouldn’t have known: when it comes to media coverage of Prime Ministerial visits, Downing Street has become inexplicably coy.

He visited a cancer clinic at Maidstone Hospital and went on to Chatham Football Club to chat to apprentices.

Standard issue events that, on paper, are programmed in precisely because of the potential for some ‘positive’ coverage.

We know this happened but not because we were there; Downing Street instead reached for the Pravda playbook and opted not so much for a media lockdown but a media lockout.

We don’t have a divine right to quiz politicians and ministers who frequently make private visits away from the public eye: it’s a way of informing themselves about issues.

But this seemed to be an event that was an uncomfortable hybrid, wanting to be a PR opportunity but one without the opportunity bit, at least so far as the media was concerned.

Perhaps his advisers feared a repeat of a previous interview in a hospital when he looked like a leader who was in decline and on the brink of throwing in the towel.

Still, maybe his new PR director will engineer a more open and accountable approach, although he will have his work cut out.

You won’t find many people unhappy with a £150 cut in their council tax bill under the Chancellor’s energy crisis fund, (except perhaps those households in those bands which won’t qualify).

But the cost of living crisis is ironically impacting local councils who will be administering the rebate to council taxpayers.

Rising inflation is having an impact on Kent County Council, as many of its contracts with the private sector incorporate clauses that allow for what is described as an uplift in prices should the inflation rate rise.

As the council puts it: "The council has a number of contracts which include indexation clauses as well as negotiated uplifts.

"An example of index linked contracts are those for waste recycling and disposal where uplifts for 2022-23 range between 3.0% to 5.0%.

"Energy prices, affecting council buildings and street lights, are budgeted to increase between 19.7% to 22.5%."

Perhaps this is one reason why the authority is looking to sell off some of its property estate.