Gathering at the Gales` family home at Preston, near Wingham, this weekend , to celebrate Roger`s 30 years in Parliament were more than a hundred friends, family, Canterbury City, Thanet District and Kent County Councillors and Members of the North Thanet Conservative Association.   Eleven members of the original selection committee (ten pictured) that convened at the Margate Winter Gardens to select Roger as the parliamentary candidate for the then new North Thanet constituency in 1983 heard the MP thank them all for their “staunch support over so very many years”. 

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Commenting on the inscription on the cake, which read “1983-2013 – And On!” the MP said: 

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“I have another two years to serve during this parliament and I have been selected as the Conservative candidate to fight the next election. I know that there is no remission for good behaviour in this job but I cannot guarantee that we will all be together at the end of the next thirty years. Let`s try to make it to thirty-five years and then see how we are getting along after that!”