Our MP's Roger Gale and Steve ladyman both cliam that Thor mercury is safe and water pollution from Thor, Sericol and Infratil is our fault for tipping paint or oil down the sink.
The fire at Thor in 2007 was claimed by Roger and the Police as off no danger and simply "close your windows".
Thor in Margate closed in 1988 after health and safety concerns over poisoning workers, neighbours (Thor Margate sits next to a business park and housing estate and main road) and the water table.
20 people were subsequently poisoned in Africa and Thor closed in 1994 in Cato Ridge.
Thor Margate still operated until last year. Confirmation of chemical storage and water pollution rests with the Environment Agency.
What has been going on for 20 years?
Below is an extract from the United Nations (UNEP and WHO) mercury report in Bangkok 2007.
As you can see there is no safe dosage level (droplets can kill): as breathed in or passed onto the skin or drunk from the water or eaten from fish, it builds in your body tissues and fats and causes genetic defects in children and body damage as the mercury poisoning takes effect:
· Mercury and mercury-containing compounds are highly toxic and have a variety of significant adverse effects on human health, wildlife and the environment.
· In recent years, environmental mercury levels have risen.
· Once released, mercury can persist in the environment where it circulates between air, water, sediments, soil and biota in various forms.
· Atmospheric mercury can be transported long distances in the atmosphere, incorporated by microorganisms and may be concentrated up the food chain.
· Localized hot spots exist from the use of mercury in industrial processes, mining, waste sites, and other air emission point sources.
· Bacterial processes convert some of the mercury deposited in bodies of water into methylmercury, a form that can bioaccumulate up the food chain, becoming concentrated in larger, predatory marine mammals and fish, such as seals, swordfish, shark, marlin, mackerel, walleye, sea bass and tuna.
· In the human body, mercury damages the central nervous system, thyroid, kidneys, lungs, immune system, eyes, gums, and skin. Neurological damage caused by mercury and that has reached the brain cannot be reversed. There is no known safe exposure level for elemental mercury in humans, and effects can be seen even at very low levels.
· The most common exposure to mercury is through ingestion of fish and other marine species contaminated with methylmercury.
· There are two general types of subpopulations susceptible to mercury: those who are more sensitive to the effects of mercury (the fetus, newborns and children) and those who are exposed to higher levels of mercury through their livelihood and/or culture (anglers, subsistence fishers).
· People may also be exposed to elemental or inorganic mercury through inhalation of mercury vapour during occupational activities or spills or through direct contact from mercury use.
· Over the past 50 years mercury’s toxicity has been well documented and many countries have taken steps to reduce its uses and releases, and to protect their citizens from exposure to mercury.
What has been going on at THor, Sericol and Infratil to allow such massive pollution and no clean-up.
Thor from 1988.
Sericol from 1993.
Infratil since 2005.
Haven't our politicians and civil servants been cavalier with the public's safety?
And even now?
Tuesday, 31 March 2009
Monday, 30 March 2009
policy #2: close Manston airport - nose bleeds and nausea
Some interesting facts from the Aerotoxic website on contaminated crew and passengers within aircraft – as detailed to Parliament.
Worth remembering that the site: www.aerotoxic.org deals with contamination only inside the aircraft – you must use your imagination as to the effects of aviation fuel and chemicals on people on the ground around airports.
Well you don’t need to as the symptoms for exposure are detailed below and many reports are available from US and Europe on the death rates around airports – as you’d expect breathing aviation fuel vapour is not good for your health.
Especially children, the elderly and infirm.
No doubt soon TDC and Infratil will be confirming exactly why noise and air monitors were removed from the tower blocks and schools in Thanet and where the much-promised mobile monitors to situate them in the towns as aircraft fly at low level are.
And exactly what forecasts of the impact of 30 night flights or more as promised by Planestation and higher forecast figures will contribute to the local economy and population.
Here’s some information just on jet engine oil – not the far more toxic aviation fuel (or kerosene as it’s largely constituted).
Just the jet engine oil.
As with a car it seeps out of the engine or burns in the air and at Manston washes onto the runway and aquifer and into the UNESCO Pegwell bay.
Our MP’s and Councillors vote for these increases of flights and repeatedly assure us that all the proper safety processes are in place.
They’re not.
But let’s pretend they are.
Because if they’re not then these are the likely effects and symptoms on the surrounding population and water table – my underlining:
The label for the post-1998 (Mobil Jet Engine Oil) container contained the following warnings, risks and safety phrases:
Avoid spilling on insulation, plastic, rubber or paint
WARNING!
Contains Tricresyl Phosphate.
Swallowing this product can cause nervous system disorders, including paralysis.
Prolonged or repeated breathing of oil mist, or prolonged or repeated skin contact can
cause nervous system defects.
PRECAUTIONS:
Never swallow. Wash hands after handling and before eating. Never use in or around
food. Avoid prolonged or repeated overexposure to skin or lungs.
FIRST AID:
If swallowed, seek immediate medical attention. If medical attention is delayed, induce
vomiting. In case of contact, wash skin with soap and water. Remove contaminated
clothing.
FOR INDUSTRIAL USE ONLY
Not intended or suitable for use in or around a household or dwelling. Never use empty
container to carry water or food. Do not cut or weld on empty container.
(In thirteen languages)
Many of the signs and symptoms of exposure being reported by exposed flight crew - inside the aircraft.
Symptoms arise from single, short term or long term exposures include:
_ Symptoms from single or short term exposures include: blurred or tunnel
vision, disorientation, memory impairment, shaking and tremors,
nausea/vomiting, parasthesias, loss of balance and vertigo, seizures, loss of
consciousness, headache, lightheadedness, dizziness, confusion and feeling
intoxicated, breathing difficulties (shortness of breath, tightness in chest,
respiratory failure), increased heart rate and palpitations, nystagmus, irritation
(eyes, nose and upper airways).
_ Symptoms from long term low level exposure or residual symptoms from short-term exposures include: memory impairment, forgetfulness, lack of
coordination, nausea/vomiting, diarrhoea, respiratory problems, chest pain,
severe headaches, dizziness and feeling intoxicated, weakness and fatigue
(leading to chronic fatigue), exhaustion, increased heart rate and palpitations,
numbness (fingers, lips, limbs), hot flashes, joint pain, muscle weakness and
pain, salivation, irritation (eyes, nose and upper airways), skin itching and
rashes, skin blisters (on uncovered body parts), signs of immunosupression,
hair loss, chemical sensitivity leading to multiple chemical sensitivity.
Steve Ladyman quoted in KM: "of course there are rsiks surrounding activities at the airport but these are being managed properly"
Here's a list of Infratil breaches at Manston:
* overflights of towns at low level
* night flights
* training "loop" flights - and over the towns
* removing noise monitors
* no air monitoring
* no mobile monitors
* banned EU aircraft: dangerous Russian cargo planes
* no functionig complaints system
* a Masterplan consultation without consultation
Sure Steve. Everything's fine.
And of course: runoff of fuel, oil and chemicals on top of the drinking water and into the sea.
ChinaGate (policy #3: End ChinaGate) couldn't provide confirmation of the correct drainage - yet both MP's approved ChinaGate with £25,000 donations and China visits.
But no-one could even say what it was. Roger Gale called for councillors to approve it and reduce tax on empty commercial properties.
Silence from Sandys.
Cargo warehouses for a cargo airport. By stealth.
For more details of the fuel and chemical impacts on people see: www.aerotoxic.org for over a dozen reports.
What stupid and scoundrel MP's we have.
Failed. Failed. Failed.
Time for Change.
Worth remembering that the site: www.aerotoxic.org deals with contamination only inside the aircraft – you must use your imagination as to the effects of aviation fuel and chemicals on people on the ground around airports.
Well you don’t need to as the symptoms for exposure are detailed below and many reports are available from US and Europe on the death rates around airports – as you’d expect breathing aviation fuel vapour is not good for your health.
Especially children, the elderly and infirm.
No doubt soon TDC and Infratil will be confirming exactly why noise and air monitors were removed from the tower blocks and schools in Thanet and where the much-promised mobile monitors to situate them in the towns as aircraft fly at low level are.
And exactly what forecasts of the impact of 30 night flights or more as promised by Planestation and higher forecast figures will contribute to the local economy and population.
Here’s some information just on jet engine oil – not the far more toxic aviation fuel (or kerosene as it’s largely constituted).
Just the jet engine oil.
As with a car it seeps out of the engine or burns in the air and at Manston washes onto the runway and aquifer and into the UNESCO Pegwell bay.
Our MP’s and Councillors vote for these increases of flights and repeatedly assure us that all the proper safety processes are in place.
They’re not.
But let’s pretend they are.
Because if they’re not then these are the likely effects and symptoms on the surrounding population and water table – my underlining:
The label for the post-1998 (Mobil Jet Engine Oil) container contained the following warnings, risks and safety phrases:
Avoid spilling on insulation, plastic, rubber or paint
WARNING!
Contains Tricresyl Phosphate.
Swallowing this product can cause nervous system disorders, including paralysis.
Prolonged or repeated breathing of oil mist, or prolonged or repeated skin contact can
cause nervous system defects.
PRECAUTIONS:
Never swallow. Wash hands after handling and before eating. Never use in or around
food. Avoid prolonged or repeated overexposure to skin or lungs.
FIRST AID:
If swallowed, seek immediate medical attention. If medical attention is delayed, induce
vomiting. In case of contact, wash skin with soap and water. Remove contaminated
clothing.
FOR INDUSTRIAL USE ONLY
Not intended or suitable for use in or around a household or dwelling. Never use empty
container to carry water or food. Do not cut or weld on empty container.
(In thirteen languages)
Many of the signs and symptoms of exposure being reported by exposed flight crew - inside the aircraft.
Symptoms arise from single, short term or long term exposures include:
_ Symptoms from single or short term exposures include: blurred or tunnel
vision, disorientation, memory impairment, shaking and tremors,
nausea/vomiting, parasthesias, loss of balance and vertigo, seizures, loss of
consciousness, headache, lightheadedness, dizziness, confusion and feeling
intoxicated, breathing difficulties (shortness of breath, tightness in chest,
respiratory failure), increased heart rate and palpitations, nystagmus, irritation
(eyes, nose and upper airways).
_ Symptoms from long term low level exposure or residual symptoms from short-term exposures include: memory impairment, forgetfulness, lack of
coordination, nausea/vomiting, diarrhoea, respiratory problems, chest pain,
severe headaches, dizziness and feeling intoxicated, weakness and fatigue
(leading to chronic fatigue), exhaustion, increased heart rate and palpitations,
numbness (fingers, lips, limbs), hot flashes, joint pain, muscle weakness and
pain, salivation, irritation (eyes, nose and upper airways), skin itching and
rashes, skin blisters (on uncovered body parts), signs of immunosupression,
hair loss, chemical sensitivity leading to multiple chemical sensitivity.
Steve Ladyman quoted in KM: "of course there are rsiks surrounding activities at the airport but these are being managed properly"
Here's a list of Infratil breaches at Manston:
* overflights of towns at low level
* night flights
* training "loop" flights - and over the towns
* removing noise monitors
* no air monitoring
* no mobile monitors
* banned EU aircraft: dangerous Russian cargo planes
* no functionig complaints system
* a Masterplan consultation without consultation
Sure Steve. Everything's fine.
And of course: runoff of fuel, oil and chemicals on top of the drinking water and into the sea.
ChinaGate (policy #3: End ChinaGate) couldn't provide confirmation of the correct drainage - yet both MP's approved ChinaGate with £25,000 donations and China visits.
But no-one could even say what it was. Roger Gale called for councillors to approve it and reduce tax on empty commercial properties.
Silence from Sandys.
Cargo warehouses for a cargo airport. By stealth.
For more details of the fuel and chemical impacts on people see: www.aerotoxic.org for over a dozen reports.
What stupid and scoundrel MP's we have.
Failed. Failed. Failed.
Time for Change.
Thursday, 26 March 2009
Thanet's polluted water: MP misinformation and deceit.
Thanet’s polluted water: MP’s misinformation and failure
The Environment Agency is clearly struggling with the problems of their own making:
"The Environment Agency last week revealed a 20-year plan to improve the water quality, which it says is “lower than we would hope.”
The groundwater, which forms part of the drinking water supply, contains a variety of nitrates, pesticides and solvents, although the agency insisted there was “absolutely no risk” to human health.
Experts said that while previous industrial accidents had exacerbated the problem, much of the contamination was caused by local people disposing of harmful substances like white spirit or engine oil incorrectly."
No mention of the real problems:
# Thor mercury: no clean-up in 20 years since the site supposedly closed in 1988
# Sericol: 500 tonnes of industrial solvent lost to the water table: the equivalent of about 4,000 oil barrels of chemicals
# Infratil: deliberately allowing the drainage of aviation fuel and chemicals into Pegwell Bay a UNESCO site: and the Environment Agency warned them to stop 3 years ago
Manston itself: the whole airport – and the ChinaGate plans – built on top of the aquifer
# 90% of the aquifers contaminated with diuron weedkiller – as previously used by TDC in error -as detailed by the Geological Society
You may recall the sudden seminar meeting announced in Ashford a week or so ago. Maybe it was actually a press conference.
Clearly for the MP’s and Environment Agency to suggest that pouring paint thinners down the sink is a bad thing is absolutely correct.
But it clearly pales into insignificance compared to the above massive industrial pollutants – over years and decades.
A deckchairs on the Titanic piece of misinformation and misdirection.
As is suggestions of a 20 year clean-up given the inaction to date.
No threat to human health? Then why is water already piped in from West Kent and why has the Thor aquifer spread beyond the factory site?
The time when Messrs Gale and Ladyman were in power as elected by the public to safeguard and improve the area.
For Roger Gale to suggest that there is no problems harks back to his statements at the time of the Thor fire in 2006.
Remember that Thor Africa was closed down in 1994 after poisoning dozens of its workers and the water table.
While for Steve Ladyman to suggest that the airport is well-managed for drainage and any other aspects including the 106 is clearly nonsense as he well knows and has bene documented wiht the various breaches at Manston.
Sadly we have the EA struggling to deflect criticism and the 2 MP’s glossing over the massive problems.
Fortunately Corporater Manslaughter and a failure of duty of care applies to the EA and the other organisations including our two failed MP’s
From my conversations with Andrew Pearce at EA it’s clear that there is no credible clean-up at Thor, and no provision of summary status on Sericol and Manston.
Paul Carter as of Monday had still not heard back form the KCC civil servants regarding Thor.
We have what can only be described as disastrous management of our aquifers and political nobbling to allow unrestricted industrial development knowing the very real dangers.
But these can be demonstrated.
Solvent poisonings affect the very young and the very elderly the worst.
Will Roger Gale not share a weekly foaming pint of Thor water – or Sericol or Infratil - Harvey Bradshaw of the EA on BBCTV? A few weeks of that and elderly Roger may be feeling a little green round the gills.
Where are the EIR/FOI requested reports from Thor of clean-up status, volumes of mercury, clean-up to date etc? Clearly there are none and allowing Ecologia to recruit Thor’s own Health and Safety person into the clean-up crew is dubious at best.
Infratil of course are notorious for breaching all safety guidelines and regulations under the 106 with TDC’s direct support and the indirect support of KCC and Messrs Gale and Ladyman.
It’s worth noting too that the massive ChinaGate development had the support of both MP’s - and timely £25,000 developer donations - with not a shred of information as to what the development actually was nor how the drainage would work.
The lives of 250,000 citizens are being deliberately endangered by the failures of the Environment Agency and our MP’s.
I await the EIR information on Thor, Manston and Sericol: it’s gone very quiet on the reports. As you’d expect if nothing had been done.
Feel free to contact Andrew Pearce at EA, Addington and Andrew.pearce@environment-agency.gov.uk
Tel: 0870 506506
Simply request the clean-up reports from Thor, Sericol and Manston/Infratil under EIR.
No credible exemptions are allowed and the documents, emails, reports, notes must be provided within 20 days in paper or electronic format as you prefer.
No reports? What have they been doing?
The same question could be asked of our 2 failed MP’s.
The Environment Agency is clearly struggling with the problems of their own making:
"The Environment Agency last week revealed a 20-year plan to improve the water quality, which it says is “lower than we would hope.”
The groundwater, which forms part of the drinking water supply, contains a variety of nitrates, pesticides and solvents, although the agency insisted there was “absolutely no risk” to human health.
Experts said that while previous industrial accidents had exacerbated the problem, much of the contamination was caused by local people disposing of harmful substances like white spirit or engine oil incorrectly."
No mention of the real problems:
# Thor mercury: no clean-up in 20 years since the site supposedly closed in 1988
# Sericol: 500 tonnes of industrial solvent lost to the water table: the equivalent of about 4,000 oil barrels of chemicals
# Infratil: deliberately allowing the drainage of aviation fuel and chemicals into Pegwell Bay a UNESCO site: and the Environment Agency warned them to stop 3 years ago
Manston itself: the whole airport – and the ChinaGate plans – built on top of the aquifer
# 90% of the aquifers contaminated with diuron weedkiller – as previously used by TDC in error -as detailed by the Geological Society
You may recall the sudden seminar meeting announced in Ashford a week or so ago. Maybe it was actually a press conference.
Clearly for the MP’s and Environment Agency to suggest that pouring paint thinners down the sink is a bad thing is absolutely correct.
But it clearly pales into insignificance compared to the above massive industrial pollutants – over years and decades.
A deckchairs on the Titanic piece of misinformation and misdirection.
As is suggestions of a 20 year clean-up given the inaction to date.
No threat to human health? Then why is water already piped in from West Kent and why has the Thor aquifer spread beyond the factory site?
The time when Messrs Gale and Ladyman were in power as elected by the public to safeguard and improve the area.
For Roger Gale to suggest that there is no problems harks back to his statements at the time of the Thor fire in 2006.
Remember that Thor Africa was closed down in 1994 after poisoning dozens of its workers and the water table.
While for Steve Ladyman to suggest that the airport is well-managed for drainage and any other aspects including the 106 is clearly nonsense as he well knows and has bene documented wiht the various breaches at Manston.
Sadly we have the EA struggling to deflect criticism and the 2 MP’s glossing over the massive problems.
Fortunately Corporater Manslaughter and a failure of duty of care applies to the EA and the other organisations including our two failed MP’s
From my conversations with Andrew Pearce at EA it’s clear that there is no credible clean-up at Thor, and no provision of summary status on Sericol and Manston.
Paul Carter as of Monday had still not heard back form the KCC civil servants regarding Thor.
We have what can only be described as disastrous management of our aquifers and political nobbling to allow unrestricted industrial development knowing the very real dangers.
But these can be demonstrated.
Solvent poisonings affect the very young and the very elderly the worst.
Will Roger Gale not share a weekly foaming pint of Thor water – or Sericol or Infratil - Harvey Bradshaw of the EA on BBCTV? A few weeks of that and elderly Roger may be feeling a little green round the gills.
Where are the EIR/FOI requested reports from Thor of clean-up status, volumes of mercury, clean-up to date etc? Clearly there are none and allowing Ecologia to recruit Thor’s own Health and Safety person into the clean-up crew is dubious at best.
Infratil of course are notorious for breaching all safety guidelines and regulations under the 106 with TDC’s direct support and the indirect support of KCC and Messrs Gale and Ladyman.
It’s worth noting too that the massive ChinaGate development had the support of both MP’s - and timely £25,000 developer donations - with not a shred of information as to what the development actually was nor how the drainage would work.
The lives of 250,000 citizens are being deliberately endangered by the failures of the Environment Agency and our MP’s.
I await the EIR information on Thor, Manston and Sericol: it’s gone very quiet on the reports. As you’d expect if nothing had been done.
Feel free to contact Andrew Pearce at EA, Addington and Andrew.pearce@environment-agency.gov.uk
Tel: 0870 506506
Simply request the clean-up reports from Thor, Sericol and Manston/Infratil under EIR.
No credible exemptions are allowed and the documents, emails, reports, notes must be provided within 20 days in paper or electronic format as you prefer.
No reports? What have they been doing?
The same question could be asked of our 2 failed MP’s.
Wednesday, 25 March 2009
Is Carter-nomics failing Kent?
Paul Carter Leads Kent County Council and works with all the other public bodies and agencies on the public's behalf as funded from Westminster and Council tax.
In the run-up to the County elections here's a selection of policies to date:
40% public sector economy
KCC the County’s largest employer
No inward investment of any size
Failure to reform defunct councils like Thanet and Dover
KCC bonuses and pay rises
Thames Gateway: stalled
No reform of KCC structures
Margate centre: burned down
Turner: 10 years for work to begin
Pleasurama: derelict
Infratil: breaching all safety guidelines and polluting a UNESCO Bay
Thor mercury poisoning
China Gateway failure
Manston cargo airport: failure, water pollution and public endangerment
Lydd airport: see Manston
Rochester airport: see Lydd
Boris Island airport: see Rochester
Cliffe airport: see Boris Island
SaveWye-Imperial: failed
Margate: burned down
Sericol: 500 tonnes chemical water pollution
Pfizer: cutbacks
Glaxo: closure
Grupo Antolin: closure
Margate unemployment: 12%!
And a 4% council tax increases (plus separate 5% Police and District increases) for a £2 Billion council only spending £15-20M directly for each of the 12 Districts.
With inflation at 0%.
Surely as the electoral season draws to a close for June’s County election Paul will detail how he proposes to reform the County?
A County with a 40% public sector economy, some of the worst deprivation in Europe for decades and stagnant democracy.
Or have the election manifestos and policies been and gone?
And the council tax increase was the one and only policy?
Surely Carter must be sharpening the axe to clear out the Old Guard, lead reform at County Hall and regenerate the economy?
As MP I will encourage him to do so by raising Kent issues and funding in Parliament.
Or is Carter-nomics dead? And we now just have a knee-jerk reaction to anything Boris says or that originates as national poolicy.
With the above track record perhaps that's the best we can hope for?
In the run-up to the County elections here's a selection of policies to date:
40% public sector economy
KCC the County’s largest employer
No inward investment of any size
Failure to reform defunct councils like Thanet and Dover
KCC bonuses and pay rises
Thames Gateway: stalled
No reform of KCC structures
Margate centre: burned down
Turner: 10 years for work to begin
Pleasurama: derelict
Infratil: breaching all safety guidelines and polluting a UNESCO Bay
Thor mercury poisoning
China Gateway failure
Manston cargo airport: failure, water pollution and public endangerment
Lydd airport: see Manston
Rochester airport: see Lydd
Boris Island airport: see Rochester
Cliffe airport: see Boris Island
SaveWye-Imperial: failed
Margate: burned down
Sericol: 500 tonnes chemical water pollution
Pfizer: cutbacks
Glaxo: closure
Grupo Antolin: closure
Margate unemployment: 12%!
And a 4% council tax increases (plus separate 5% Police and District increases) for a £2 Billion council only spending £15-20M directly for each of the 12 Districts.
With inflation at 0%.
Surely as the electoral season draws to a close for June’s County election Paul will detail how he proposes to reform the County?
A County with a 40% public sector economy, some of the worst deprivation in Europe for decades and stagnant democracy.
Or have the election manifestos and policies been and gone?
And the council tax increase was the one and only policy?
Surely Carter must be sharpening the axe to clear out the Old Guard, lead reform at County Hall and regenerate the economy?
As MP I will encourage him to do so by raising Kent issues and funding in Parliament.
Or is Carter-nomics dead? And we now just have a knee-jerk reaction to anything Boris says or that originates as national poolicy.
With the above track record perhaps that's the best we can hope for?
Tuesday, 24 March 2009
Lazy Labour ahead of the Torpid Tories: council tax strike for democracy
As if by magic the Labour manifesto for the County elections appears. Good. Tony Flaig has managed to fend off the attentions of Geoff Wild the Kent County Censor to obtain one manifesto. With 8 weeks to go.
No sign of the Tory or LibDem or other manifestos.
Now the details of the Labour manifesto.
Most of it’s general flannel: “working with the Labour government”: I take that for granted as I think most people would.
“Better education, lower crime”: as opposed to the alternative? Worse education, higher crime?
Not worth the paper it’s printed on as a policy.
A few “not invented here” policies - good "yah boo" stuff: cancelling Kent TV and the Local Boards and replacing them with the same but with a different name. What a waste of time and effort now these have been created instead of reforming and improving them: where is the detail on the alternatives?
Some interesting points: scrapping Kent Healthwatch: a cost of £400,000! For an existing call centre! I contacted them over the air pollution at Manston airport. I was told that cancer around airports is largely a myth. Sure.
And:
* Calling time on Manston airport: £200,000 of Kent taxpayers money invested: I’m sure this figure is wrong and would be far higher with civil servant time and the death rate from lost working time and NHS support included.
* Scrapping the Turner Centre: I can’t see any point to this policy. It's a superb initiative that's been fidged and farcical for 10 years. the failure lies with the politicians and civil servants not the plan.
* Reforming Kent Highways: a £17M saving: good but are we really spending that much on road repairs? Does KCC do anything except highways?
And plenty of omissions:
# No “scores on the doors” for transparency of each KCC department and District dept: salaries, costs, staffing numbers etc
# No commitment to wider FOI and EIR transparency with no exemptions
# No details – at all – for policies applied to a District level
# No evaluation of the KCC Budget Book: £110M in bank charges!
# £6M in publicity: that’s more than most national brands like Kelloggs or Persil – for a monopoly regional public council. And with quango costs on top of these again? Is this wise when costs savings are failry easily done from any strategic marketing plan?
Is this latter point not the failure of Kent democracy: the politicians can’t even be bothered to explain what you are voting for at a County or District level - in any detail or at all?
No mention of the Labour heartlands of deprived areas like Thanet, Dover, Folkestone, Chatham in a Labour manifesto. No mention at all - and certainly no specific policies. Hopeless.
No environmental policies: a Natural East Kent, reducing road expansion, canning the Kent Airport policy, restricting building on flood plains, restricting building of flats, no air, water and noise monitoring independently produced and monitored for Kent's tourism industry.
No mention of job cuts at County and District public sector: Labour’s policies would be a mere 1% point reduction on the Tory policy increase.
What on earth is the point of having two groups of identikit politicians simply to scrap each other’s policies, not say what you’re voting for, and then offer a 1% reduction.
All on a 3.99% increase as inflation hits 0% and the banks’ debts are written off through printing a year’s worth of Government money for them.
And the KCC tax increase is bizarrely billed to the public as the lowest ever increase in a recession!
Whatever happened to democracy ensuring better and cheaper services? The two aims are certainly not incompatible. It must be time for Elvis Gilroy to steer a path between a little less conversation and a little more action?
All public sector jobs – in the nicest possible way – need reducing to the lowest possible level. Public services are vital. But as few as possible.
Clarity on what is exactly front-line delivery and back-office bureaucracy through a “Scores on the Doors” would provide this.
Almost all public sector roles should be outsourced to the private sector with a small central core of oversight.
I cannot understand why in a 40% public sector economy(!) and KCC as the County’s largest employer with over 40,000 people(!), that the axe is not taken to these overstaffed and overfunded services and quangos.
Is County Hall stagnating?
We seem to have a tacit agreement between the public sector and the politicians that there is a rising cost of council tax and public sector staffing each year.
Not so.
Slash the budgets. Slash the staffing levels. Drive these services out of the public sector and into the private sector.
All contracts can then be displayed and evaluated with “Scores on the Doors” for best value. Serco does it already as a mini-monopoly. The key now is to create lots more mini-Serco’s and remove quangos or drive those into the public sector for oversight – and ultimately outsourcing to the private sector.
With an ageing population and computers many public sector jobs can be done by volunteers.
Similarly many councillor and MP jobs can be slashed. Too many people in non-jobs soaking up public money for petty purposes. The plethora of Government ministers soaking up job titles in Education is a sight to see.
No mention of creating elected roles in the Police, Fire, Ambulance and NHS services for greater accountability and less party politicking. Labour's given up on public accountability in Kent.
No economy can operate with a 40% public sector. Or certainly not a growth economy. Or an economy that maintains the NHS and pensions.
The options are to increase public sector funding to 70% so we all effectively work for the Government or in SME businesses or reduce it to 15% and ensure better services through greater performance and better outsourcing and lower taxation to encourage a growth economy.
If the last years of the 20th century witnessed the stripping out of featherbedding in the private sector and Trade Unions then the early years of the 21st century must be the time for stripping out featherbedding in the public sector and political sector.
The Labour manifesto for Kent has none of these just bland platitudes. Are we reaching the point where there are in fact no policy differences between all the main parties?
Labour now has no NHS or Clause 4 or Minimum Wage or Trident differences with the Conservatives any more. Have we a US or Japan political system of stasis? But without the economy or growth to match?
Shouldn't the main parties merge and shed political and council jobs given that 75% of legislation is - rightly - produced in Europe?
Just minor jockeying for position and tiny adjustments of tax levels?
No wonder the Kent and UK economy is stagnating.
Time for more Independents at Local and County level and Green Growth policies and wider reforms of our faltering economy and society.
As MP I will call on Parliament to implement all these policies with or without Labour and take a fresh look at funding in Kent.
I await the other manifestos – if anyone has bothered to produce them: 8 weeks to County, Town and Europe elections – to see what exactly we are voting for in our Tweedledum and Tweedledee democracy.
Nothing from the Conservatives in Thanet or County Hall. Looks like democracy is a moveable feast under Paul Carter and the now-Gang-of-Three in Thanet.
A council tax strike seems far the best policy in Kent:
* cancel direct debits
* delay cash payments
* return postal payments without cheques
With 60% of KCC and TDC funding from citizens and their council tax it must be time to regain control of the bloated purse strings.
Time for Change.
No sign of the Tory or LibDem or other manifestos.
Now the details of the Labour manifesto.
Most of it’s general flannel: “working with the Labour government”: I take that for granted as I think most people would.
“Better education, lower crime”: as opposed to the alternative? Worse education, higher crime?
Not worth the paper it’s printed on as a policy.
A few “not invented here” policies - good "yah boo" stuff: cancelling Kent TV and the Local Boards and replacing them with the same but with a different name. What a waste of time and effort now these have been created instead of reforming and improving them: where is the detail on the alternatives?
Some interesting points: scrapping Kent Healthwatch: a cost of £400,000! For an existing call centre! I contacted them over the air pollution at Manston airport. I was told that cancer around airports is largely a myth. Sure.
And:
* Calling time on Manston airport: £200,000 of Kent taxpayers money invested: I’m sure this figure is wrong and would be far higher with civil servant time and the death rate from lost working time and NHS support included.
* Scrapping the Turner Centre: I can’t see any point to this policy. It's a superb initiative that's been fidged and farcical for 10 years. the failure lies with the politicians and civil servants not the plan.
* Reforming Kent Highways: a £17M saving: good but are we really spending that much on road repairs? Does KCC do anything except highways?
And plenty of omissions:
# No “scores on the doors” for transparency of each KCC department and District dept: salaries, costs, staffing numbers etc
# No commitment to wider FOI and EIR transparency with no exemptions
# No details – at all – for policies applied to a District level
# No evaluation of the KCC Budget Book: £110M in bank charges!
# £6M in publicity: that’s more than most national brands like Kelloggs or Persil – for a monopoly regional public council. And with quango costs on top of these again? Is this wise when costs savings are failry easily done from any strategic marketing plan?
Is this latter point not the failure of Kent democracy: the politicians can’t even be bothered to explain what you are voting for at a County or District level - in any detail or at all?
No mention of the Labour heartlands of deprived areas like Thanet, Dover, Folkestone, Chatham in a Labour manifesto. No mention at all - and certainly no specific policies. Hopeless.
No environmental policies: a Natural East Kent, reducing road expansion, canning the Kent Airport policy, restricting building on flood plains, restricting building of flats, no air, water and noise monitoring independently produced and monitored for Kent's tourism industry.
No mention of job cuts at County and District public sector: Labour’s policies would be a mere 1% point reduction on the Tory policy increase.
What on earth is the point of having two groups of identikit politicians simply to scrap each other’s policies, not say what you’re voting for, and then offer a 1% reduction.
All on a 3.99% increase as inflation hits 0% and the banks’ debts are written off through printing a year’s worth of Government money for them.
And the KCC tax increase is bizarrely billed to the public as the lowest ever increase in a recession!
Whatever happened to democracy ensuring better and cheaper services? The two aims are certainly not incompatible. It must be time for Elvis Gilroy to steer a path between a little less conversation and a little more action?
All public sector jobs – in the nicest possible way – need reducing to the lowest possible level. Public services are vital. But as few as possible.
Clarity on what is exactly front-line delivery and back-office bureaucracy through a “Scores on the Doors” would provide this.
Almost all public sector roles should be outsourced to the private sector with a small central core of oversight.
I cannot understand why in a 40% public sector economy(!) and KCC as the County’s largest employer with over 40,000 people(!), that the axe is not taken to these overstaffed and overfunded services and quangos.
Is County Hall stagnating?
We seem to have a tacit agreement between the public sector and the politicians that there is a rising cost of council tax and public sector staffing each year.
Not so.
Slash the budgets. Slash the staffing levels. Drive these services out of the public sector and into the private sector.
All contracts can then be displayed and evaluated with “Scores on the Doors” for best value. Serco does it already as a mini-monopoly. The key now is to create lots more mini-Serco’s and remove quangos or drive those into the public sector for oversight – and ultimately outsourcing to the private sector.
With an ageing population and computers many public sector jobs can be done by volunteers.
Similarly many councillor and MP jobs can be slashed. Too many people in non-jobs soaking up public money for petty purposes. The plethora of Government ministers soaking up job titles in Education is a sight to see.
No mention of creating elected roles in the Police, Fire, Ambulance and NHS services for greater accountability and less party politicking. Labour's given up on public accountability in Kent.
No economy can operate with a 40% public sector. Or certainly not a growth economy. Or an economy that maintains the NHS and pensions.
The options are to increase public sector funding to 70% so we all effectively work for the Government or in SME businesses or reduce it to 15% and ensure better services through greater performance and better outsourcing and lower taxation to encourage a growth economy.
If the last years of the 20th century witnessed the stripping out of featherbedding in the private sector and Trade Unions then the early years of the 21st century must be the time for stripping out featherbedding in the public sector and political sector.
The Labour manifesto for Kent has none of these just bland platitudes. Are we reaching the point where there are in fact no policy differences between all the main parties?
Labour now has no NHS or Clause 4 or Minimum Wage or Trident differences with the Conservatives any more. Have we a US or Japan political system of stasis? But without the economy or growth to match?
Shouldn't the main parties merge and shed political and council jobs given that 75% of legislation is - rightly - produced in Europe?
Just minor jockeying for position and tiny adjustments of tax levels?
No wonder the Kent and UK economy is stagnating.
Time for more Independents at Local and County level and Green Growth policies and wider reforms of our faltering economy and society.
As MP I will call on Parliament to implement all these policies with or without Labour and take a fresh look at funding in Kent.
I await the other manifestos – if anyone has bothered to produce them: 8 weeks to County, Town and Europe elections – to see what exactly we are voting for in our Tweedledum and Tweedledee democracy.
Nothing from the Conservatives in Thanet or County Hall. Looks like democracy is a moveable feast under Paul Carter and the now-Gang-of-Three in Thanet.
A council tax strike seems far the best policy in Kent:
* cancel direct debits
* delay cash payments
* return postal payments without cheques
With 60% of KCC and TDC funding from citizens and their council tax it must be time to regain control of the bloated purse strings.
Time for Change.
Monday, 23 March 2009
council tax strike: electoral reform
News of the official complaint for Tony McNulty's expenses claims as a Minister must surely provide greater reform of the system.
Surely Messrs Gale, Ladyman and Sandys will step forward and sign up to the electoral refoms I will implement as MP:
* full disclosure of all expenses - with receots: none of this "no receipt up to £250" business
* full disclosure of staff and office costs: none of this "all lumped together " business
* no family member employed: when did representignthe public become a family business?
* an MP "annual report": successes and fasilures from the region and Westminster: who knows what Messrs Ladyman, Sandys and Gale think or do - expecept the decline of our towns
* an open diary: all meetings listed and displayed for full transparency: too many MP's spedn their time with lobby groups or other MP's
* all additional costs/expenses detailede: none of this "vouchers for John Lewis kitchens" business
In short full and open disclosure of all costs - and a monthly running total of costs and expenses and all receipts available for inspection and an annual report provided.
And I will call on councillors and councils for similar transparency with:
* Scores on the Doors: salaries, costs and expenses by depratment
* annual reports - and manifestos 6 months before an election: the County elections are 2 months away and no policies have been made public
* pension disclosure: 20% of all council tax is estimated to go on civil service pensions
* all meetings and muinutes FOI and EIR and transparent
* voting records published: the night flight councillors and ChinaGate councillors must surely struggle in the next elections
Implementing the above reforms will help ensure flagrant abuses such as ManstonGate and ChinaGate and Thor and Sericol - and Infratil and the Gang of Four's dodgy 106 become rare rather than the norm.
A council tax strike will help ensure reform of the area:
* cancel council tax and business rates direct debits
* delay all payments
* supply payment without cheques or to the wrong amounts
* as MP I will seek rebates for the dedecades of public sector failire and pollution of the water supply
And, with the sacking of the Gang of Four and end of ChinaGate and missing £25,000 the years and decades of failure will begin to be reversed.
Steve Ladyman has a 600 vote majority: he cannot win. Laura Sandys is an empty parachute candidate from the Party Machine.
Both remain silent on every major East Kent issue.
Their time is over.
Time for Change.
Surely Messrs Gale, Ladyman and Sandys will step forward and sign up to the electoral refoms I will implement as MP:
* full disclosure of all expenses - with receots: none of this "no receipt up to £250" business
* full disclosure of staff and office costs: none of this "all lumped together " business
* no family member employed: when did representignthe public become a family business?
* an MP "annual report": successes and fasilures from the region and Westminster: who knows what Messrs Ladyman, Sandys and Gale think or do - expecept the decline of our towns
* an open diary: all meetings listed and displayed for full transparency: too many MP's spedn their time with lobby groups or other MP's
* all additional costs/expenses detailede: none of this "vouchers for John Lewis kitchens" business
In short full and open disclosure of all costs - and a monthly running total of costs and expenses and all receipts available for inspection and an annual report provided.
And I will call on councillors and councils for similar transparency with:
* Scores on the Doors: salaries, costs and expenses by depratment
* annual reports - and manifestos 6 months before an election: the County elections are 2 months away and no policies have been made public
* pension disclosure: 20% of all council tax is estimated to go on civil service pensions
* all meetings and muinutes FOI and EIR and transparent
* voting records published: the night flight councillors and ChinaGate councillors must surely struggle in the next elections
Implementing the above reforms will help ensure flagrant abuses such as ManstonGate and ChinaGate and Thor and Sericol - and Infratil and the Gang of Four's dodgy 106 become rare rather than the norm.
A council tax strike will help ensure reform of the area:
* cancel council tax and business rates direct debits
* delay all payments
* supply payment without cheques or to the wrong amounts
* as MP I will seek rebates for the dedecades of public sector failire and pollution of the water supply
And, with the sacking of the Gang of Four and end of ChinaGate and missing £25,000 the years and decades of failure will begin to be reversed.
Steve Ladyman has a 600 vote majority: he cannot win. Laura Sandys is an empty parachute candidate from the Party Machine.
Both remain silent on every major East Kent issue.
Their time is over.
Time for Change.
Saturday, 21 March 2009
council tax strike: sack the Gang of Four and MP's
Good to see Roger Gale MP meeting with the Commonwealth MP’s from Kenya and other parts of Africa.
Let’s hope they provide aid and democratic support to Margate.
“Your town burned down Mr Gale? You had 2M tourists when you became MP but it’s now none? And your council is one of the worst in Europe? Thor has poisoned the water table and workers with mercury? How can Kenya help?”
Surely Roger should be calling an emergency regeneration conference in Margate and drafting in KCC?
Why is Thor mercury Margate still not cleared up under Roger’s watch?
Has Roger given up? With the failure of the Gang of Four it looks as though he has.
A council tax strike seems the only way forward given the massive failures of Coastal Kent: decades of under-investment, corrurption and plain incompetence.
I've no doubt that Roger is a good constituency MP but the political failuire and regeneration failure from the Party machine in his constituency is clear to see.
The old guard is changing in Thanet: Steve Ladyman cannot win and Laura Sandys has achieved little as a parachute candidate.
With the destruction of Margate and failure of TDC surely Roger's time is over.
Did he not smell the smoke as Margate burned down? Did the fire at Thor mercury not alert him? Did TDC as one of Britain's worst councils not gain his attention?
20 poisonings in Africa at Thor mercury caused the factory to be closed down. In Margate it was still operating last year. And no clean-up has begun.
For years and decades?
As MP I will call on all MP's to adopt Policy #6: electoral reforms: full and transparent declaration of expenses, no payments to family members, open diaries and an MP's "annual report".
With over £100k of salaries and expenses and misc. allowances our MP's need to detail these costs and their work.
Steve to his credit has some of the better MP expense reports etc but Roger some of the worst.
Will they both adopt the improved standard? This way lies greater public accountability to help ensure public sector failures like TDC and Margate are resolved sooner.
The ChinaGate £25k donation needs returning to the public rather than the Labour Party.
Like Roger I have an interest in democracy and I will adopt Lord Boyce of Dover as one of my Lords for Commons scrutiny of the Peers: Lord Boyce was one of the Peers who saw the ships sat off the Burmese coast and did nothing. Please let me know any suggestions for the 2nd Peer.
Britain is the home of democracy but the roof's fallen in in Margate on Roger's watch.
No time for failure.
Time for Change.
Let’s hope they provide aid and democratic support to Margate.
“Your town burned down Mr Gale? You had 2M tourists when you became MP but it’s now none? And your council is one of the worst in Europe? Thor has poisoned the water table and workers with mercury? How can Kenya help?”
Surely Roger should be calling an emergency regeneration conference in Margate and drafting in KCC?
Why is Thor mercury Margate still not cleared up under Roger’s watch?
Has Roger given up? With the failure of the Gang of Four it looks as though he has.
A council tax strike seems the only way forward given the massive failures of Coastal Kent: decades of under-investment, corrurption and plain incompetence.
I've no doubt that Roger is a good constituency MP but the political failuire and regeneration failure from the Party machine in his constituency is clear to see.
The old guard is changing in Thanet: Steve Ladyman cannot win and Laura Sandys has achieved little as a parachute candidate.
With the destruction of Margate and failure of TDC surely Roger's time is over.
Did he not smell the smoke as Margate burned down? Did the fire at Thor mercury not alert him? Did TDC as one of Britain's worst councils not gain his attention?
20 poisonings in Africa at Thor mercury caused the factory to be closed down. In Margate it was still operating last year. And no clean-up has begun.
For years and decades?
As MP I will call on all MP's to adopt Policy #6: electoral reforms: full and transparent declaration of expenses, no payments to family members, open diaries and an MP's "annual report".
With over £100k of salaries and expenses and misc. allowances our MP's need to detail these costs and their work.
Steve to his credit has some of the better MP expense reports etc but Roger some of the worst.
Will they both adopt the improved standard? This way lies greater public accountability to help ensure public sector failures like TDC and Margate are resolved sooner.
The ChinaGate £25k donation needs returning to the public rather than the Labour Party.
Like Roger I have an interest in democracy and I will adopt Lord Boyce of Dover as one of my Lords for Commons scrutiny of the Peers: Lord Boyce was one of the Peers who saw the ships sat off the Burmese coast and did nothing. Please let me know any suggestions for the 2nd Peer.
Britain is the home of democracy but the roof's fallen in in Margate on Roger's watch.
No time for failure.
Time for Change.
Thursday, 19 March 2009
council tax strike: sack the Gang of Four
Council tax strike: you might want to think about the Audit Commission responsibilities on ensuring good Governance, value for money and general proper use of public funds.
http://www.audit-commission.gov.uk/complaints/whistleblowing.asp
Rare I know at TDC.
But there’s the document and telephone contact and email for reporting any misused of public funds (or time). A couple spring to my mind:
# closing museums: no manifesto item
# ChinaGate: where is the £25,000 developers donation: is that being returned top the public?
# Margate burning down
# Ramsgate’s seafront buildings falling down
# Noise and air monitoring at Manston: the Gang of Four’s Samuel and White tell us there is since 2005 but can’t actually confirm what
# Salaries, allowances and pensions
# Disabled budget double glazing for council offices
# Years and decades of deprivation and failed policies
# Thor mercury poisoning
# Infratil pollution into the sea and the aquifer under the airport
# 500 tonnes of industrial solvent in the aquifer form Sericol
Take your pick from almost any failed policy
MP salaries and allowances and expenses: nothing wrong with having them but where’s the full disclosure?
It’s your money raised through council tax and provided from the Government that you pay for through national tax and VAT.
A council tax strike should encompass:
# delayed council tax payments
# cancelling council tax direct debits
# returning paperwork late
# providing unsigned cheques
The normal process of civil disobedience when a region exerts more control over its public servants.
Council tax is probably the single biggest household bill after your mortgage/rent and car.
And rightly so: to improve the area for the benefit of all.
Ask the Audit Commission for their view on a council tax strike and TDC’s policies for failure.
Separately has anyone seen any manifestos from the County elections or MEP elections or Town Council elections in 2 months time?
When I 'm elected MP I will go further and insist on full MP and council salaries/allowances disclosure council tax rebates for the years and decades of failure. As a Parliamentary policy.
Time for Change.
http://www.audit-commission.gov.uk/complaints/whistleblowing.asp
Rare I know at TDC.
But there’s the document and telephone contact and email for reporting any misused of public funds (or time). A couple spring to my mind:
# closing museums: no manifesto item
# ChinaGate: where is the £25,000 developers donation: is that being returned top the public?
# Margate burning down
# Ramsgate’s seafront buildings falling down
# Noise and air monitoring at Manston: the Gang of Four’s Samuel and White tell us there is since 2005 but can’t actually confirm what
# Salaries, allowances and pensions
# Disabled budget double glazing for council offices
# Years and decades of deprivation and failed policies
# Thor mercury poisoning
# Infratil pollution into the sea and the aquifer under the airport
# 500 tonnes of industrial solvent in the aquifer form Sericol
Take your pick from almost any failed policy
MP salaries and allowances and expenses: nothing wrong with having them but where’s the full disclosure?
It’s your money raised through council tax and provided from the Government that you pay for through national tax and VAT.
A council tax strike should encompass:
# delayed council tax payments
# cancelling council tax direct debits
# returning paperwork late
# providing unsigned cheques
The normal process of civil disobedience when a region exerts more control over its public servants.
Council tax is probably the single biggest household bill after your mortgage/rent and car.
And rightly so: to improve the area for the benefit of all.
Ask the Audit Commission for their view on a council tax strike and TDC’s policies for failure.
Separately has anyone seen any manifestos from the County elections or MEP elections or Town Council elections in 2 months time?
When I 'm elected MP I will go further and insist on full MP and council salaries/allowances disclosure council tax rebates for the years and decades of failure. As a Parliamentary policy.
Time for Change.
Wednesday, 18 March 2009
council tax strike: resign Sandy and Roger
And sack the other two in the Gang of Four on your way out.
Remaining in power now is simply impossible.
A Failed Council. Failed Leaders.
Failed policies such as ChinaGate.
Endangering public health with ManstonGate and Thor and Sericol.
Resign.
A council tax strike is necessary.
I advise the public to stop paying council tax in a campaign of civil disobedience:
* cancel direct debits
* delay cash payments.
* delay then post council tax payments with unsigned cheques.
As MP I will enforce a council tax and business rates rebate for years and decades of failure.
Our councillors, civil servants and MP's have failed us.
Sack them and begin a council tax strike as part of my Parliamentary election manifesto.
Our sheep-MP's remain silent.
I call on them to adopt the electoral reform policies: Policy #6.
As MP I will provide "open book" reporting on MP salary, expenses and allowances.
Our current MP's have nearly £100,000, with payments for wives and family, for representing a failed region.
As MP I will do none of these things: every penny will be receipted, published and accounted and open for inspection. On a monthly basis.
The same will be required for civil service heads and "Scores on the Doors" for departments and councillors.
Plus an annual MP report of successes and failures: no excuses for letting the towns fall down and burn down.
Sack the Gang of Four.
Begin a council tax strike.
Close Manston.
Close Thor.
No reward for failure.
Time for Change.
Remaining in power now is simply impossible.
A Failed Council. Failed Leaders.
Failed policies such as ChinaGate.
Endangering public health with ManstonGate and Thor and Sericol.
Resign.
A council tax strike is necessary.
I advise the public to stop paying council tax in a campaign of civil disobedience:
* cancel direct debits
* delay cash payments.
* delay then post council tax payments with unsigned cheques.
As MP I will enforce a council tax and business rates rebate for years and decades of failure.
Our councillors, civil servants and MP's have failed us.
Sack them and begin a council tax strike as part of my Parliamentary election manifesto.
Our sheep-MP's remain silent.
I call on them to adopt the electoral reform policies: Policy #6.
As MP I will provide "open book" reporting on MP salary, expenses and allowances.
Our current MP's have nearly £100,000, with payments for wives and family, for representing a failed region.
As MP I will do none of these things: every penny will be receipted, published and accounted and open for inspection. On a monthly basis.
The same will be required for civil service heads and "Scores on the Doors" for departments and councillors.
Plus an annual MP report of successes and failures: no excuses for letting the towns fall down and burn down.
Sack the Gang of Four.
Begin a council tax strike.
Close Manston.
Close Thor.
No reward for failure.
Time for Change.
Tuesday, 17 March 2009
Time for a Council Tax Strike: Sack the Gang of Four
You have to wonder don't you:
* the most underperforming Council in Britain
* Standards Boards nonsense from two of the Gang of Four instead of policy to improve the area
* domestic tourism with its greatest potential in 30 years and no TDC policies
* disastrous town centre and seafront management: buidlings burning down and falling down
* TDC policy failuire: unanimous votes for dodgy ChinaGate: not a brick laid and £25,000 mislaid
* ManstonGate: sheep-councillor votes
* Ignoring the water pollution by Infratil with 106 fines of a DVD player
* Richard Samuel and Brian White of the Gang of Four allowing the removal of noise monitors and fudging air monitoring
* Thor mercury pollution and no clean-up except in Africa
* Sericol 500 tonnes of pollution
* silence from our sheep-MP's
The social contract is broken. Failure and 72% of council tax sent to Maidstone and the £2B KCC.
As MP I'll call for a council tax rebate and reductions for failure for the years and decades of disaster.
In the meantime it seems eminently sensible to commence a council tax strike and non-payment.
Cancel direct debits and standing orders.
Delay cash payments.
Commence civil disobedience in the face of such public failure.
If anyone asks say it's Parliamentary election policy.
Failed. Failed. Failed.
* the most underperforming Council in Britain
* Standards Boards nonsense from two of the Gang of Four instead of policy to improve the area
* domestic tourism with its greatest potential in 30 years and no TDC policies
* disastrous town centre and seafront management: buidlings burning down and falling down
* TDC policy failuire: unanimous votes for dodgy ChinaGate: not a brick laid and £25,000 mislaid
* ManstonGate: sheep-councillor votes
* Ignoring the water pollution by Infratil with 106 fines of a DVD player
* Richard Samuel and Brian White of the Gang of Four allowing the removal of noise monitors and fudging air monitoring
* Thor mercury pollution and no clean-up except in Africa
* Sericol 500 tonnes of pollution
* silence from our sheep-MP's
The social contract is broken. Failure and 72% of council tax sent to Maidstone and the £2B KCC.
As MP I'll call for a council tax rebate and reductions for failure for the years and decades of disaster.
In the meantime it seems eminently sensible to commence a council tax strike and non-payment.
Cancel direct debits and standing orders.
Delay cash payments.
Commence civil disobedience in the face of such public failure.
If anyone asks say it's Parliamentary election policy.
Failed. Failed. Failed.
Sunday, 15 March 2009
Sack the Gang of Four: a round-up
A round-up of various points today:
1. The Standards Board and Gang of Four. What childish behaviour and waste of public time and funds. Silly of all concerned when a proper apology would have done.
2. The Standards Board: used incorrectly in Thanet as part of childish name-calling and politicking. Councillors refusing to comment on the issues they’re elected on for the people they serve. Bureaucracy, waste and childishness. The Standards Board is designed for major breaches and proper corruption not this pointless jockeying for position. Wasting time and effort in improving Thanet. One of the most deprived areas in Western Europe.
3. Policy #1: Sack the Gang of Four. It’s good Roger Latchford is offering his resignation. It should be accepted with good grace, and Sandy’s too. I hope Roger and Sandy will serve the council and area in other ways. I already seek their support for the Legion Free Town and the Surin Village School Charity and many others would seek their commitment and industry. As the Dunkirk Group stands down surely this should be reinstituted through the Legion with a permanent memorial for Ramsgate.
4. It's clear none of our councillors or MP's have any plans to regenerate Thanet: mere empty words and fake consultations and pointless research on ChinaGate and the like.
5. Separately as MP I will seek a Korean War and UN Peace Keeping memorial for Ramsgate with the Legion: details to follow.
6. Steve Ladyman on the SEEDA Oversight committee. Good. About time. Why is £400M for the South East not spent in East Kent? And where is the other oversight of the other quangos and pseudo-KCC departments? See Policy #6: electoral reform
7. Thor mercury. Week #2. No plans for clean-up.
8. Sericol. Same.
9. Infratil. Close the airport: Policy #2. Suspend flights as a danger. Arrest Matt Clarke. Seek the extradition of Steve Fitzgerald.
10. The 106 training flights have been unilaterally changed by Infratil. No proper aviation company behaves in that way. Except under the Gang of Four. And our sheep-councillors and sheep-MP’s with no regeneration plans.
11. As MP I will recommend the withdrawal of Infratil from Prestwick and Lubeck. The pollution and political corruption in safeguarding the public must end. Steve Ladyman at least, at last, begins to realise Manston is a failed airport. As detailed by the Department of Transport in 1993. No airport on an aquifer. No over-flights of the town. No 100 or 200 jobs for an area of 200,000 people.
12. No Jobs for Cancer. The Cancer Circle widens around airports. Thanet has the highest lung cancer rate in Kent. Coalmines. Sure. Cigarettes. Not really. Cargo airport with low-level flights over the urban population without air monitoring. Yes.
13. The Viking Boat Tea Shop. TDC at its finest. A 20 page(!) tender document. For a tea cabin. With a toilet. Health and safety? Cutting yourself with the sandwich knife or falling in the toilet. Another 20 pages. Time well spent as Margate burns down and Ramsgate falls down. A cargo airport by stealth without air or noise monitoring. Let the Gang of Four’s Richard “Nixon” Samuel and Brian Whitewash brush that under the carpet: Policy #1: Sack the Gang of Four for failure.
14. Anyone seen the plans to improve the Eastcliff Bandstand or the Landings? I’d appreciate a copy of them if anyone has. Good plans. It’s such a long time since anything happened at these sites. Or the Marina restaurant. Or Pleasurama. Or the Westcliff Lift. Or Pegwell Bay clean-up. As MP I will call on Ramsgate Town Council to take over these institutions for the public good with direct KCC funding. And Margate Town Council to remove the 1960’s and 1970’s blots in the town centre. Bizarre that the unpaid Dreamland Trust produce better and faster plans than the paid civil servants?
15. Albion House, Ramsgate’s Town Hall, still locked to the public. No sign of policies from the current Town Councillors/Charter Trustees.
16. A mini-policy to end today: on election as MP I will not only close Manston airport (Policy #2) but drive a wrecking ball through the airport terminal and the Jet Summit back to front building, and cargo sheds - all built with incorrect and illegal Planning permission. I will pay for it from savings of the civil service pension funds at TDC.
What kind of shabby little towns have we let our councillors and MP’s create. Make a start: Sack the Gang of Four.
Time for Change.
Tomorrow: closing Manston and regenerating the Tourism economy. More jobs than we could ever handle. Jobs. Real jobs.
1. The Standards Board and Gang of Four. What childish behaviour and waste of public time and funds. Silly of all concerned when a proper apology would have done.
2. The Standards Board: used incorrectly in Thanet as part of childish name-calling and politicking. Councillors refusing to comment on the issues they’re elected on for the people they serve. Bureaucracy, waste and childishness. The Standards Board is designed for major breaches and proper corruption not this pointless jockeying for position. Wasting time and effort in improving Thanet. One of the most deprived areas in Western Europe.
3. Policy #1: Sack the Gang of Four. It’s good Roger Latchford is offering his resignation. It should be accepted with good grace, and Sandy’s too. I hope Roger and Sandy will serve the council and area in other ways. I already seek their support for the Legion Free Town and the Surin Village School Charity and many others would seek their commitment and industry. As the Dunkirk Group stands down surely this should be reinstituted through the Legion with a permanent memorial for Ramsgate.
4. It's clear none of our councillors or MP's have any plans to regenerate Thanet: mere empty words and fake consultations and pointless research on ChinaGate and the like.
5. Separately as MP I will seek a Korean War and UN Peace Keeping memorial for Ramsgate with the Legion: details to follow.
6. Steve Ladyman on the SEEDA Oversight committee. Good. About time. Why is £400M for the South East not spent in East Kent? And where is the other oversight of the other quangos and pseudo-KCC departments? See Policy #6: electoral reform
7. Thor mercury. Week #2. No plans for clean-up.
8. Sericol. Same.
9. Infratil. Close the airport: Policy #2. Suspend flights as a danger. Arrest Matt Clarke. Seek the extradition of Steve Fitzgerald.
10. The 106 training flights have been unilaterally changed by Infratil. No proper aviation company behaves in that way. Except under the Gang of Four. And our sheep-councillors and sheep-MP’s with no regeneration plans.
11. As MP I will recommend the withdrawal of Infratil from Prestwick and Lubeck. The pollution and political corruption in safeguarding the public must end. Steve Ladyman at least, at last, begins to realise Manston is a failed airport. As detailed by the Department of Transport in 1993. No airport on an aquifer. No over-flights of the town. No 100 or 200 jobs for an area of 200,000 people.
12. No Jobs for Cancer. The Cancer Circle widens around airports. Thanet has the highest lung cancer rate in Kent. Coalmines. Sure. Cigarettes. Not really. Cargo airport with low-level flights over the urban population without air monitoring. Yes.
13. The Viking Boat Tea Shop. TDC at its finest. A 20 page(!) tender document. For a tea cabin. With a toilet. Health and safety? Cutting yourself with the sandwich knife or falling in the toilet. Another 20 pages. Time well spent as Margate burns down and Ramsgate falls down. A cargo airport by stealth without air or noise monitoring. Let the Gang of Four’s Richard “Nixon” Samuel and Brian Whitewash brush that under the carpet: Policy #1: Sack the Gang of Four for failure.
14. Anyone seen the plans to improve the Eastcliff Bandstand or the Landings? I’d appreciate a copy of them if anyone has. Good plans. It’s such a long time since anything happened at these sites. Or the Marina restaurant. Or Pleasurama. Or the Westcliff Lift. Or Pegwell Bay clean-up. As MP I will call on Ramsgate Town Council to take over these institutions for the public good with direct KCC funding. And Margate Town Council to remove the 1960’s and 1970’s blots in the town centre. Bizarre that the unpaid Dreamland Trust produce better and faster plans than the paid civil servants?
15. Albion House, Ramsgate’s Town Hall, still locked to the public. No sign of policies from the current Town Councillors/Charter Trustees.
16. A mini-policy to end today: on election as MP I will not only close Manston airport (Policy #2) but drive a wrecking ball through the airport terminal and the Jet Summit back to front building, and cargo sheds - all built with incorrect and illegal Planning permission. I will pay for it from savings of the civil service pension funds at TDC.
What kind of shabby little towns have we let our councillors and MP’s create. Make a start: Sack the Gang of Four.
Time for Change.
Tomorrow: closing Manston and regenerating the Tourism economy. More jobs than we could ever handle. Jobs. Real jobs.
Thursday, 12 March 2009
Electoral reform: Policy #6 or Who are these people, Hazel and Gus, and what are they doing exactly?
Politics should be representing and safeguarding the public and providing fair and open debate. Too much now is simply funding the political parties that are already well-funded by the State – or public already.
And covering over failure and incompetence. In the name of ther Party Machine.
A return to early Nineteenth century politics of the affluent and well-educated excluding the majority. With the Party Machine, badly, substituting for the affluent and well-educated.
After 100 years Labour has now achieved its aims and lost its way. The Tories are still trying to recover from the radicalism of the Thatcherite era and Nasty Party policies. The LibDems do a bit of everything.
The Civil Service is overpaid, ineffective and slow. The Quangos and Civil Service expansion or the Serco-isation of the civil service are a symbol of this failure.
The purpose of a small and efficient civil service providing social policies for the public and scrutinised by the public’s elected officials has been lost.
Here’s the reforms I will implement as an Independent MP:
1. Fixed election dates: for national and local elections: the disgrace of any Prime Minister especially an Unelected Prime Minister such as Gordon Brown choosing the date of his own election is absurd. The American system of fixed 4 year terms is far better.
2. Fixed terms: I will serve 1 term as an MP. Possibly 2 terms if I can stand the stench of Westminster. But then no more. A 21st century politician should be elected with a job to do, do it (or not) and then go. Rather than the dead wood we see in Kent clogging up the system. 8 years is enough. Then no more.
The abuse of co-opted candidates ie seats "elected" with no opposition candidate, should be left unfilled to indicate a failure of democracy.
Similarly electoral ballots should carry “none of the above” as an opt-out to improve democracy.
3. Manifestos: too many politicians are of the “we’ll reduce crime, working for a better world" flannel – who isn’t. That’s not policy. It’s a wish-list. Manifestos should be produced in detail 6 months before an election or the candidate is withdrawn. Margate’s dead wood Tories have never produced a manifesto. Labour’s Ramsgate party produce bland generalities. Steve and Laura remain silent.
4. MP and Councillor candidacies: a presumption should be for local and single-job candidates: the abuse of Laura Sandys and Mark Nottingham parachuting in or wearing several Party hats is no good for local people representing their local interests. Or democracy.
5. Electoral boundaries: a greasy little secret of the parties to indulge in a spot of gerrymandering eg splitting Margate in two. Boundary changes need to be listed on the Council and MP and MEP websites as a standard item. Fixed elections will remove the need for many changes.
6. Age/Gender: I will consider suggestion to reduce the number of very senior OAP’s and men disproportionately filling council and civil service positions - see point 13. As well as an education/exam - similar to the Citizenship exam - aspect to council and other positions as good practice on the job roles.
7. Finances; civil service salaries and pensions are too high at the senior level. MP (and Lords)salaries need to be evaluated by an independent body: probably rolled into the Electoral and Boundary Commission with the Standards Board. Possibly the Audit Commission too. As a “Super-Oversight” body.
8. FOI: replaced by the stricter EIR – and a “Scores on the Doors” for each Civil Service Dept. The days of switching job titles but not roles needs to end. A full detail of headcount, salary, expenses, major - Serco - contracts and so on for each department published on websites and libraries will allow bettter and easier scrutiny of performance.
9. Quangos: see 5. And double it: detail the elected representative accountability eg a Minister or Westminster civil servant. All Quangos listed in the Transparency section of the 34 County authorities with "Scores on the Doors" for clarity. Public funding is simply being spent on civil service jobs not end-funding or delivery.
10. KCC: 72% of all council tax goes to this massive organisation: the County’s largest employer. The Budget Book should be published quarterly. £110M in bank charges for handling Government and Council Tax money is absurd.
The KCC-isation of the economy with 40% in the public sector and pseudo-independent quangos needs to end. And all pseudo-independent quangos allocated and itemised under the County budget for clarity. Along with Police and District budgets and increases and shareholdings rather than the current piecemeal approach.
I support much of what KCC does but the failure of such deprivation and incompetence at TDC etc is a stain on their record. Faster action for improvement is required as an example to the UK and Europe.
The County and the 9 UK Euroregions are the right structure outside London but greater cohesion and clarity and effectiveness is required. This being the case I see little need for GOSE or other regional assemblies except for Wales and Scotland.
Greater clarity of MEP roles is required for even greater transparency at the EU.
11. IT transparency: TDC IT dept is already trying the age-old trick of transparency by convoluted IT systems. Simple Word and Excel document swill be required to be listed for citizens to compare and scrutinise. I will call on the Gang of Four before they leave office to provide a “Civil Service Cheat Sheet” of tricks and duplicity, such as faked customer complaint records, for publication - along with “TDC: 35 Years of Failure 1974-2009” as a guide to local government incompetence.
Payment of pensions will require disclosure and compliance. Civil service pensions should be rationalised and reduced. Too high. For underperformance.
12. MP’s: do we not need fewer of them? And with fixed terms. And as MP I will go further than FOI/EIR and detail all my salary, expenses etc: with receipts available for inspection. And I will produce an online diary of meetings and/or timesheets ensuring scrutiny of lobbyists and expenses. And I will produce an “MP Annual Report” of work done and work to do each 12 months. I call on Steve and Laura and Roger to issue their versions this month. All this is done in USA and Canada and Australia.
The culture of secrecy around MP's councils and the like finally needs to end.
13. Volunteers: with an ageing population and pensions many MP, Councillor or Civil Service jobs can be done for free by volunteers, reducing governance bloat, cost and incompetence.
14. Lords: I will shadow 2 Lords as an MP for greater scrutiny of the unelected Chamber by the Public. I support the removal of the final hereditary rights and reforms as point 8.
15. County reform: in 70 years KCC has had 1 Cabinet member from TDC or other deprived areas. I will call for a fixed “Deprived Region” KCC Cabinet position for Thanet, Dover etc. The West/East Kent divide must end with quarterly Cabinet meetings in East Kent and relocation of offices away from the bloat and gridlock of Maidstone.
16. County electoral reform: it is absurd that I cannot vote for or against Paul Carter or any other Leader of KCC. The division of County seats is quietly allocated, and changed around, at District level. This must end with the creation of clear “County Senate” elections and guidelines.
17. Civil Service: a presumption of no more than 25% of national and local budgets for governance. A small and effective civil service provisding those social policies the private sector accannot or will not provide. And 6 month targets to "hand off" any project to the private sector. To prevent the absurd planning and replanning of policies.
18. Audit Commmission: greater "early warning" powers when faced with a failed council. How absurd to witness a failed council and do nothing but record the failure.
19. Elected officials: the heads of Police, Fire, Ambulance, NHS and Universities (and their regulatory bodies) will hold 4-year terms and their organisations should present 3 candidates for public scrutiny and election. These should be held with “County Senate” elections, and Quango mandates, for greater local accountability.
20. MEP’s: greater reform of policy, cost and expenses is required: see the points relating to MP’s. I will support the end of the absurd gravy train circuit between Brussels and Strasbourg in favour of Brussels. And support the reallocation of NATO to Strasbourg with the World Parliament Assembly for Europe. Two buildings partly used. Absurd.
The result?
Make no mistake.
This would create an American-style grass-roots and transparent democracy where policy, costs and results are open and clear. For Thanet, Kent, SouthEast, UK and Europe.
Along with a top tier of elected officials (and quango officials) who must bear in mind the needs, not of their organisation, but their public’s needs and wants from their organisation.
The result should be less cost, less bureaucracy and far greater effectiveness.
I call on Steve Ladyman and Roger Gale to resign as failed MP’s.
Their towns have burned down or fallen down. Their areas have some of the worst deprivation in Europe. For years and decades. They have been in power for too long for no purpose.
Resign gentlemen. Resign.
As their last act I call on them to support the above electoral reforms with any impartial suggestions of their own, and request the abolition of TDC and an overhaul of KCC and SEEDA, and the prototype East Kent Council and Margate Town Council.
Failed. Failed. Failed.
Time for Change.
Tomorrow: Regeneration. Closing Manston and encouraging Tourism and the wider Economy.
And covering over failure and incompetence. In the name of ther Party Machine.
A return to early Nineteenth century politics of the affluent and well-educated excluding the majority. With the Party Machine, badly, substituting for the affluent and well-educated.
After 100 years Labour has now achieved its aims and lost its way. The Tories are still trying to recover from the radicalism of the Thatcherite era and Nasty Party policies. The LibDems do a bit of everything.
The Civil Service is overpaid, ineffective and slow. The Quangos and Civil Service expansion or the Serco-isation of the civil service are a symbol of this failure.
The purpose of a small and efficient civil service providing social policies for the public and scrutinised by the public’s elected officials has been lost.
Here’s the reforms I will implement as an Independent MP:
1. Fixed election dates: for national and local elections: the disgrace of any Prime Minister especially an Unelected Prime Minister such as Gordon Brown choosing the date of his own election is absurd. The American system of fixed 4 year terms is far better.
2. Fixed terms: I will serve 1 term as an MP. Possibly 2 terms if I can stand the stench of Westminster. But then no more. A 21st century politician should be elected with a job to do, do it (or not) and then go. Rather than the dead wood we see in Kent clogging up the system. 8 years is enough. Then no more.
The abuse of co-opted candidates ie seats "elected" with no opposition candidate, should be left unfilled to indicate a failure of democracy.
Similarly electoral ballots should carry “none of the above” as an opt-out to improve democracy.
3. Manifestos: too many politicians are of the “we’ll reduce crime, working for a better world" flannel – who isn’t. That’s not policy. It’s a wish-list. Manifestos should be produced in detail 6 months before an election or the candidate is withdrawn. Margate’s dead wood Tories have never produced a manifesto. Labour’s Ramsgate party produce bland generalities. Steve and Laura remain silent.
4. MP and Councillor candidacies: a presumption should be for local and single-job candidates: the abuse of Laura Sandys and Mark Nottingham parachuting in or wearing several Party hats is no good for local people representing their local interests. Or democracy.
5. Electoral boundaries: a greasy little secret of the parties to indulge in a spot of gerrymandering eg splitting Margate in two. Boundary changes need to be listed on the Council and MP and MEP websites as a standard item. Fixed elections will remove the need for many changes.
6. Age/Gender: I will consider suggestion to reduce the number of very senior OAP’s and men disproportionately filling council and civil service positions - see point 13. As well as an education/exam - similar to the Citizenship exam - aspect to council and other positions as good practice on the job roles.
7. Finances; civil service salaries and pensions are too high at the senior level. MP (and Lords)salaries need to be evaluated by an independent body: probably rolled into the Electoral and Boundary Commission with the Standards Board. Possibly the Audit Commission too. As a “Super-Oversight” body.
8. FOI: replaced by the stricter EIR – and a “Scores on the Doors” for each Civil Service Dept. The days of switching job titles but not roles needs to end. A full detail of headcount, salary, expenses, major - Serco - contracts and so on for each department published on websites and libraries will allow bettter and easier scrutiny of performance.
9. Quangos: see 5. And double it: detail the elected representative accountability eg a Minister or Westminster civil servant. All Quangos listed in the Transparency section of the 34 County authorities with "Scores on the Doors" for clarity. Public funding is simply being spent on civil service jobs not end-funding or delivery.
10. KCC: 72% of all council tax goes to this massive organisation: the County’s largest employer. The Budget Book should be published quarterly. £110M in bank charges for handling Government and Council Tax money is absurd.
The KCC-isation of the economy with 40% in the public sector and pseudo-independent quangos needs to end. And all pseudo-independent quangos allocated and itemised under the County budget for clarity. Along with Police and District budgets and increases and shareholdings rather than the current piecemeal approach.
I support much of what KCC does but the failure of such deprivation and incompetence at TDC etc is a stain on their record. Faster action for improvement is required as an example to the UK and Europe.
The County and the 9 UK Euroregions are the right structure outside London but greater cohesion and clarity and effectiveness is required. This being the case I see little need for GOSE or other regional assemblies except for Wales and Scotland.
Greater clarity of MEP roles is required for even greater transparency at the EU.
11. IT transparency: TDC IT dept is already trying the age-old trick of transparency by convoluted IT systems. Simple Word and Excel document swill be required to be listed for citizens to compare and scrutinise. I will call on the Gang of Four before they leave office to provide a “Civil Service Cheat Sheet” of tricks and duplicity, such as faked customer complaint records, for publication - along with “TDC: 35 Years of Failure 1974-2009” as a guide to local government incompetence.
Payment of pensions will require disclosure and compliance. Civil service pensions should be rationalised and reduced. Too high. For underperformance.
12. MP’s: do we not need fewer of them? And with fixed terms. And as MP I will go further than FOI/EIR and detail all my salary, expenses etc: with receipts available for inspection. And I will produce an online diary of meetings and/or timesheets ensuring scrutiny of lobbyists and expenses. And I will produce an “MP Annual Report” of work done and work to do each 12 months. I call on Steve and Laura and Roger to issue their versions this month. All this is done in USA and Canada and Australia.
The culture of secrecy around MP's councils and the like finally needs to end.
13. Volunteers: with an ageing population and pensions many MP, Councillor or Civil Service jobs can be done for free by volunteers, reducing governance bloat, cost and incompetence.
14. Lords: I will shadow 2 Lords as an MP for greater scrutiny of the unelected Chamber by the Public. I support the removal of the final hereditary rights and reforms as point 8.
15. County reform: in 70 years KCC has had 1 Cabinet member from TDC or other deprived areas. I will call for a fixed “Deprived Region” KCC Cabinet position for Thanet, Dover etc. The West/East Kent divide must end with quarterly Cabinet meetings in East Kent and relocation of offices away from the bloat and gridlock of Maidstone.
16. County electoral reform: it is absurd that I cannot vote for or against Paul Carter or any other Leader of KCC. The division of County seats is quietly allocated, and changed around, at District level. This must end with the creation of clear “County Senate” elections and guidelines.
17. Civil Service: a presumption of no more than 25% of national and local budgets for governance. A small and effective civil service provisding those social policies the private sector accannot or will not provide. And 6 month targets to "hand off" any project to the private sector. To prevent the absurd planning and replanning of policies.
18. Audit Commmission: greater "early warning" powers when faced with a failed council. How absurd to witness a failed council and do nothing but record the failure.
19. Elected officials: the heads of Police, Fire, Ambulance, NHS and Universities (and their regulatory bodies) will hold 4-year terms and their organisations should present 3 candidates for public scrutiny and election. These should be held with “County Senate” elections, and Quango mandates, for greater local accountability.
20. MEP’s: greater reform of policy, cost and expenses is required: see the points relating to MP’s. I will support the end of the absurd gravy train circuit between Brussels and Strasbourg in favour of Brussels. And support the reallocation of NATO to Strasbourg with the World Parliament Assembly for Europe. Two buildings partly used. Absurd.
The result?
Make no mistake.
This would create an American-style grass-roots and transparent democracy where policy, costs and results are open and clear. For Thanet, Kent, SouthEast, UK and Europe.
Along with a top tier of elected officials (and quango officials) who must bear in mind the needs, not of their organisation, but their public’s needs and wants from their organisation.
The result should be less cost, less bureaucracy and far greater effectiveness.
I call on Steve Ladyman and Roger Gale to resign as failed MP’s.
Their towns have burned down or fallen down. Their areas have some of the worst deprivation in Europe. For years and decades. They have been in power for too long for no purpose.
Resign gentlemen. Resign.
As their last act I call on them to support the above electoral reforms with any impartial suggestions of their own, and request the abolition of TDC and an overhaul of KCC and SEEDA, and the prototype East Kent Council and Margate Town Council.
Failed. Failed. Failed.
Time for Change.
Tomorrow: Regeneration. Closing Manston and encouraging Tourism and the wider Economy.
Wednesday, 11 March 2009
Toxic Thanet: Thor, Manston, Smoking, Ferry, Steve and SEEDA
A bit of miscellaneous stuff today in a round-up:
* Manston airport: the Gang of Four allowing repeated noise and air pollution. There seems the bizarre idea that noise may Ramsgate only but that the downdraft of aviation fuel doesn't affect the whole of East Kent. Hence the "political" decision to switch flights from Ramsgate to Herne Bay as the noise and air pollution complaints rise. And removing the noise and air monitors from the towns: no data no problem. The seriousness of aviation fuel pollution hardly needs spelling out but a long article at the end of this post from Caroline Lucas MEP who spoke in Ramsgate with AirportWatch in December on Manston and Infratil: the article is about the dangers to the few hundred passengers INSIDE a jumbo jet as contaminated air is fed back into the plane. Scale that up to the hundreds of thousands of people in East Kent. And Lydd. And Rochester for Kent's cargo airport policy. Lot of pollution. Lot of early deaths. I've bene invited atop a Parliamentary meeting on Climate Change: upto 24,000 deaths in UK just from road pollution. No mention of planes or the "Cancer Circle" around airports. No data. No problem.
* Thor: Environment Agency sloooowly working out a plan after 20 years of doing nothing. Glad I didn't waste a day at the Ashford International Hotel seminar. A nice philosophical debate with Alan Dengate of EA that things could be in hand. Except they're not as the site wasn't closed and the contaminated water has spread beyond the site. Thank goodness it's only 3 years since they warned Infratil and TDC not to allow dumping of aviation fuel into Pegwell Bay. Which they ignored. A permit may be issued or a stiff memo. I've invited Alan and Harvey Bradshaw and Andrews Pearce and Ogden down for a taste test at the sites if all is OK. I'm not touching the stuff.
* No Smoking day: cigarettes are bad for you. Thanet has one of the highest lung cancer rates in Kent if not Britain. It could be a wildly skewed level in smoking. Or a general mix of aviation fuel, old coal mines, a touch of mercury etc. I wouldn't bet on it being Marlboro rather than Manston alone.
* Steve Ladyman heading up a South East Parliament Group for SEEDA: terrific, many congratulations. My experience of SEEDA - and it's probably a template for much of the civil service - is great plans, huge budgets and no action whatsoever. Before hurriedly handing over to the private sector. SEEDA in East Kent have built a few warehouses - with a matching set of developers' houses - on old coal mines that remain empty. To be fair, the destruction of Margate also rests with TDC who draw on SEEDA funding and experience for research - as to why it burned down.
* Ramsgate ferry: I certainly hope it happens. But, sounds like a pre-election stunt. Politicians and civil servants scurrying aropund realising nothing's happened and and elections are looming. Lots of news. No deal signed. Even if it is it would be for one year: safely past the elections. No sign of foot passengers on the - already existing - Ostend ferry.
Tomorrow: electoral reform.
* Manston airport: the Gang of Four allowing repeated noise and air pollution. There seems the bizarre idea that noise may Ramsgate only but that the downdraft of aviation fuel doesn't affect the whole of East Kent. Hence the "political" decision to switch flights from Ramsgate to Herne Bay as the noise and air pollution complaints rise. And removing the noise and air monitors from the towns: no data no problem. The seriousness of aviation fuel pollution hardly needs spelling out but a long article at the end of this post from Caroline Lucas MEP who spoke in Ramsgate with AirportWatch in December on Manston and Infratil: the article is about the dangers to the few hundred passengers INSIDE a jumbo jet as contaminated air is fed back into the plane. Scale that up to the hundreds of thousands of people in East Kent. And Lydd. And Rochester for Kent's cargo airport policy. Lot of pollution. Lot of early deaths. I've bene invited atop a Parliamentary meeting on Climate Change: upto 24,000 deaths in UK just from road pollution. No mention of planes or the "Cancer Circle" around airports. No data. No problem.
* Thor: Environment Agency sloooowly working out a plan after 20 years of doing nothing. Glad I didn't waste a day at the Ashford International Hotel seminar. A nice philosophical debate with Alan Dengate of EA that things could be in hand. Except they're not as the site wasn't closed and the contaminated water has spread beyond the site. Thank goodness it's only 3 years since they warned Infratil and TDC not to allow dumping of aviation fuel into Pegwell Bay. Which they ignored. A permit may be issued or a stiff memo. I've invited Alan and Harvey Bradshaw and Andrews Pearce and Ogden down for a taste test at the sites if all is OK. I'm not touching the stuff.
* No Smoking day: cigarettes are bad for you. Thanet has one of the highest lung cancer rates in Kent if not Britain. It could be a wildly skewed level in smoking. Or a general mix of aviation fuel, old coal mines, a touch of mercury etc. I wouldn't bet on it being Marlboro rather than Manston alone.
* Steve Ladyman heading up a South East Parliament Group for SEEDA: terrific, many congratulations. My experience of SEEDA - and it's probably a template for much of the civil service - is great plans, huge budgets and no action whatsoever. Before hurriedly handing over to the private sector. SEEDA in East Kent have built a few warehouses - with a matching set of developers' houses - on old coal mines that remain empty. To be fair, the destruction of Margate also rests with TDC who draw on SEEDA funding and experience for research - as to why it burned down.
* Ramsgate ferry: I certainly hope it happens. But, sounds like a pre-election stunt. Politicians and civil servants scurrying aropund realising nothing's happened and and elections are looming. Lots of news. No deal signed. Even if it is it would be for one year: safely past the elections. No sign of foot passengers on the - already existing - Ostend ferry.
Tomorrow: electoral reform.
Sunday, 8 March 2009
Toxic Thanet: Thor mercury poisoning update in post below
See post below for latest info on a seminar in Ashford by the Environemnt Agency to debate the water poisoning - for the next 15 years.
Unbelievable after 20 years already.
Silence from our councillors, MP's and civil servants. KCC think it's not their problem. TDC aren't sure and the Environment Agency weren't sure but know it will take a long time.
Did Thor not close down in Margate?
Here's a news artcile from 1997(!) on the Africans who died when Thor was closed down in 1993:
A British multinational chemical company has agreed to pay pounds 1.3m in compensation to 20 South African workers who were poisoned by mercury.
Four of the black workers have died and a number of the others are suffering severe brain and other neurological damage.
The workers had accused Thor Chemicals Holdings, of Margate, in Kent, of adopting working practices in South Africa which would not have been allowed in Britain.
Yesterday's landmark settlement, which followed the filing of claims for damages in the High Court in London, has serious implications for British businesses with operations in developing countries.
The settlement was announ-ced after a report in The Independent last month highlighted the case. Similar claims are being pursued against other Brit-ish companies owning uranium mines and asbestos plants in southern Africa.
One of the Thor workers, Albert Dlamini, 30, received pounds 100,000 for injuries which have left him walking on crutches and unable to speak properly. He said: "Working for Thor has destroyed my life. I feel very bitter that this British company has come to my country and adopted working practices that would never have been accepted in its own country."
The workers first realised something was seriously wrong when three men were taken into hospital in 1992, suffering from severe mercury poisoning.
Peter Cele, 21, died seven months later. Englebert Ngcobo, 55, was in hospital for three years before he slipped into a coma and died.
They had all worked at Thor's mercury plant at Cato Ridge in Natal. The operation had been set up by the English parent company using technology and systems of operation which had been developed in Britain.
Thor had operated a mercury plant at Margate which, during the 1980s, was repeatedly criticised by the Health and Safety Executive for bad working practices and the over-exposure of British workers to mercury.
Under pressure from the HSE, Thor closed down its mercury operations in Britain in 1987 and expanded them in South Africa, where the plant relied on Zulu-speaking casual, untrained and unskilled labour.
In bringing their claim, which was also made against the Thor chairman Desmond Cowley, the workers enlisted the support of experts in occupational medicine and toxicology.
In their evidence, the workers testified that rather than trying to reduce mercury levels in the environment, the company adopted a policy of trying to control mercury exposure by replacing workers who had high levels of mercury with new casual employees. Others, they said, were sent to work in the garden until their mercury levels dropped.
Unbelievable after 20 years already.
Silence from our councillors, MP's and civil servants. KCC think it's not their problem. TDC aren't sure and the Environment Agency weren't sure but know it will take a long time.
Did Thor not close down in Margate?
Here's a news artcile from 1997(!) on the Africans who died when Thor was closed down in 1993:
A British multinational chemical company has agreed to pay pounds 1.3m in compensation to 20 South African workers who were poisoned by mercury.
Four of the black workers have died and a number of the others are suffering severe brain and other neurological damage.
The workers had accused Thor Chemicals Holdings, of Margate, in Kent, of adopting working practices in South Africa which would not have been allowed in Britain.
Yesterday's landmark settlement, which followed the filing of claims for damages in the High Court in London, has serious implications for British businesses with operations in developing countries.
The settlement was announ-ced after a report in The Independent last month highlighted the case. Similar claims are being pursued against other Brit-ish companies owning uranium mines and asbestos plants in southern Africa.
One of the Thor workers, Albert Dlamini, 30, received pounds 100,000 for injuries which have left him walking on crutches and unable to speak properly. He said: "Working for Thor has destroyed my life. I feel very bitter that this British company has come to my country and adopted working practices that would never have been accepted in its own country."
The workers first realised something was seriously wrong when three men were taken into hospital in 1992, suffering from severe mercury poisoning.
Peter Cele, 21, died seven months later. Englebert Ngcobo, 55, was in hospital for three years before he slipped into a coma and died.
They had all worked at Thor's mercury plant at Cato Ridge in Natal. The operation had been set up by the English parent company using technology and systems of operation which had been developed in Britain.
Thor had operated a mercury plant at Margate which, during the 1980s, was repeatedly criticised by the Health and Safety Executive for bad working practices and the over-exposure of British workers to mercury.
Under pressure from the HSE, Thor closed down its mercury operations in Britain in 1987 and expanded them in South Africa, where the plant relied on Zulu-speaking casual, untrained and unskilled labour.
In bringing their claim, which was also made against the Thor chairman Desmond Cowley, the workers enlisted the support of experts in occupational medicine and toxicology.
In their evidence, the workers testified that rather than trying to reduce mercury levels in the environment, the company adopted a policy of trying to control mercury exposure by replacing workers who had high levels of mercury with new casual employees. Others, they said, were sent to work in the garden until their mercury levels dropped.
Friday, 6 March 2009
Toxic Thanet: don't drink the water or eat the mercury
I had a quick email invitation last night(!) for a presentation and discussion by the EnvironmentAgency on Monday(!) in Ashford(!) on Thanet's(!) water supply.
I won't be attending at short notice - but shouldn't it be held in Thanet so the tea and coffee and water can be drunk from the same supplies as the rest of the public?
Shouldn't the Taste Test along with scientific data be the EA's proof?
And where are TDC and KCC on Toxic Thanet: Sericol, Thor and Infratil? Last week the EA "suggested" an update for TDC: no response as yet.
No protection of the public and clearly with Infratil all safety standards have been waived to prop up 100 jobs and avoid another political failure like Grupo and all the other failed regeneration programmes.
I drink the water here but it's not recommended.
Infratil and Manston built on top of the drinking water supply.
Broken radar, noise monitors removed: if the politicians want to let the airport remove all the safety checks then fine just tell us and we can vote on it. The politicians know. And stand aside.
500 tonnes of cyclohex chemical - not soil, the chemical itself (a thousand oil drums?) - removed from Sericol.
Thor mercury: poisoning workers in Margate and Africa and the water supply through the 1980's. Until closed by Nelson Mandela. It never closed in Margate and no clean-up has begun.
Harvey Bradshaw, Andrew Ogden and Andrew Pearce are my EA contacts. Also Geoff Wild, Mike Austerberry and Linda Davies at KCC.
100 asbestos deaths in East Kent.
Please don't drink the water if you can help it: be especially careful with the very young or elderly.
Don't bathe in the sea especially near the outflow pipes.
Boiling the water won't remove benzene or other heavy metal chemicals.
What has been going on for years and decades of failure?
Vote for the Gang of Four, TDC and Steve Ladyman for the same.
And remember if there's another chemical fire at Thor as in Xmas 07(!) please close your windows.
Everything's fine say the police and Roger Gale.
Everything's fine. It's meant to be like this.
A seminar in Ashford? The EA and Police should be crawling all over these sites in chem-hazard suits until they're cleaned up.
Time for Change.
I won't be attending at short notice - but shouldn't it be held in Thanet so the tea and coffee and water can be drunk from the same supplies as the rest of the public?
Shouldn't the Taste Test along with scientific data be the EA's proof?
And where are TDC and KCC on Toxic Thanet: Sericol, Thor and Infratil? Last week the EA "suggested" an update for TDC: no response as yet.
No protection of the public and clearly with Infratil all safety standards have been waived to prop up 100 jobs and avoid another political failure like Grupo and all the other failed regeneration programmes.
I drink the water here but it's not recommended.
Infratil and Manston built on top of the drinking water supply.
Broken radar, noise monitors removed: if the politicians want to let the airport remove all the safety checks then fine just tell us and we can vote on it. The politicians know. And stand aside.
500 tonnes of cyclohex chemical - not soil, the chemical itself (a thousand oil drums?) - removed from Sericol.
Thor mercury: poisoning workers in Margate and Africa and the water supply through the 1980's. Until closed by Nelson Mandela. It never closed in Margate and no clean-up has begun.
Harvey Bradshaw, Andrew Ogden and Andrew Pearce are my EA contacts. Also Geoff Wild, Mike Austerberry and Linda Davies at KCC.
100 asbestos deaths in East Kent.
Please don't drink the water if you can help it: be especially careful with the very young or elderly.
Don't bathe in the sea especially near the outflow pipes.
Boiling the water won't remove benzene or other heavy metal chemicals.
What has been going on for years and decades of failure?
Vote for the Gang of Four, TDC and Steve Ladyman for the same.
And remember if there's another chemical fire at Thor as in Xmas 07(!) please close your windows.
Everything's fine say the police and Roger Gale.
Everything's fine. It's meant to be like this.
A seminar in Ashford? The EA and Police should be crawling all over these sites in chem-hazard suits until they're cleaned up.
Time for Change.
Wednesday, 4 March 2009
Honeyballs and Ladymanballs. Rotten boroughs.
Honeyballs and Ladymanballs.
I’ve been rather taken aback at the messages of support and encouragement for Independent MP.
Like most people in Thanet I knew the council and MP’s were failing the public and it just seems to be of a depth of discontent that I’ve never heard of in Britain.
It’s not like this in other regions.
Thanet is in the bottom 10% of councils and deprivation in UK. After decades.
Suspending council tax and rebates seems sensible if a region is completely failed with no plan for improvement as at Thanet.
We have a complete failure of the politicians and senior civil servants in Thanet.
Now in the run-up to the MEP and Town Council elections in June, the politicians are stirring looking for “good news” hence sudden announcements of ferries and so on.
Thor has taken me off track a little from policy - with almost 20 years of failure to prevent mercury poisoning of the soil and water.
And not a peep pout of our councillors or civil servants.
As with ChinaGate. As with Manston. As with 500 tonnes of industrial solvent removed from the soil at Sericol.
Not a peep. No mention in Thanet. No mention in Westminster and none in Brussels.
No policies. Nothing.
Failed. Failed. Failed.
Now we have the strange issue of the Party machine parachuting not just candidates like Laura into the region to toddle into a safe seat for years of sycophancy and silence, but now we have extra support from the MEP’s to the region.
Cllr Mark Notttingham works full time as an assistant for Mary Honeyball, London MEP but is also some kind of cheerleader for Ramsgate Labour and Steve Ladyman.
Aside from wasting public money doing a District job on MEP time there’s the scandal of using MEP time to boost a UK election.
And to soak up a District role that should be allocated to a citizen who wants to serve Northwood.
How can the local butcher, baker, candlestickmaker represent their own town or ward if the Party machines are excluding them?
That’s not democracy.
Something is wrong in British democracy when the Party machines take over seats meant for the public – and then use them as fake “double mouthpieces”.
Cllr Nottingham speaks on Kent issues, then Europe issues but he’s a single paid Party stooge doing it for Party political purposes.
I’ll be writing to Ms Honeyball MEP for details of exactly what and at what cost M. Nottingham provides for the UK or European electorate.
Mary Honeyball seems to work hard on EU issues but this seems beyond the pale and exactly the kind of election thievery that Labour was originally formed to prevent in giving the public a voice not the political professionals.
Resignation from one role for M. Nottingham, or at least to act on a voluntary, unpaid basis seems eminently sensible.
They never do though do they? Love the rosette and the money too much to make it as Independents.
I’ll also call on Laura Sandys to detail her payments from the Conservative Party or think-tanks.
To his credit, Steve details MP expenses better than most although I will improve on this as MP.
2 Labour salaries funded by the Trade Unions and the public to simply boost Labour across the UK and Europe?
Sweetener deals of £25,000 for ChinaGate planning permission funding Ramsgate Labour Party?
No wonder democracy is rotten in Thanet if we have these parachute candidates dropped in and simply boosting the failed organisations.
Steve cannot win after a decade with only a 700 vote majority, and this kind of Euro-boosting does no credit to his final weeks and months.
A little later this week: I’ll map out future policy on Electoral reform to remove these rotten boroughs methods from Britain’s elections and create a 21st century region and nation.
Time for Change.
I’ve been rather taken aback at the messages of support and encouragement for Independent MP.
Like most people in Thanet I knew the council and MP’s were failing the public and it just seems to be of a depth of discontent that I’ve never heard of in Britain.
It’s not like this in other regions.
Thanet is in the bottom 10% of councils and deprivation in UK. After decades.
Suspending council tax and rebates seems sensible if a region is completely failed with no plan for improvement as at Thanet.
We have a complete failure of the politicians and senior civil servants in Thanet.
Now in the run-up to the MEP and Town Council elections in June, the politicians are stirring looking for “good news” hence sudden announcements of ferries and so on.
Thor has taken me off track a little from policy - with almost 20 years of failure to prevent mercury poisoning of the soil and water.
And not a peep pout of our councillors or civil servants.
As with ChinaGate. As with Manston. As with 500 tonnes of industrial solvent removed from the soil at Sericol.
Not a peep. No mention in Thanet. No mention in Westminster and none in Brussels.
No policies. Nothing.
Failed. Failed. Failed.
Now we have the strange issue of the Party machine parachuting not just candidates like Laura into the region to toddle into a safe seat for years of sycophancy and silence, but now we have extra support from the MEP’s to the region.
Cllr Mark Notttingham works full time as an assistant for Mary Honeyball, London MEP but is also some kind of cheerleader for Ramsgate Labour and Steve Ladyman.
Aside from wasting public money doing a District job on MEP time there’s the scandal of using MEP time to boost a UK election.
And to soak up a District role that should be allocated to a citizen who wants to serve Northwood.
How can the local butcher, baker, candlestickmaker represent their own town or ward if the Party machines are excluding them?
That’s not democracy.
Something is wrong in British democracy when the Party machines take over seats meant for the public – and then use them as fake “double mouthpieces”.
Cllr Nottingham speaks on Kent issues, then Europe issues but he’s a single paid Party stooge doing it for Party political purposes.
I’ll be writing to Ms Honeyball MEP for details of exactly what and at what cost M. Nottingham provides for the UK or European electorate.
Mary Honeyball seems to work hard on EU issues but this seems beyond the pale and exactly the kind of election thievery that Labour was originally formed to prevent in giving the public a voice not the political professionals.
Resignation from one role for M. Nottingham, or at least to act on a voluntary, unpaid basis seems eminently sensible.
They never do though do they? Love the rosette and the money too much to make it as Independents.
I’ll also call on Laura Sandys to detail her payments from the Conservative Party or think-tanks.
To his credit, Steve details MP expenses better than most although I will improve on this as MP.
2 Labour salaries funded by the Trade Unions and the public to simply boost Labour across the UK and Europe?
Sweetener deals of £25,000 for ChinaGate planning permission funding Ramsgate Labour Party?
No wonder democracy is rotten in Thanet if we have these parachute candidates dropped in and simply boosting the failed organisations.
Steve cannot win after a decade with only a 700 vote majority, and this kind of Euro-boosting does no credit to his final weeks and months.
A little later this week: I’ll map out future policy on Electoral reform to remove these rotten boroughs methods from Britain’s elections and create a 21st century region and nation.
Time for Change.
Monday, 2 March 2009
ladyman handbagging
MP's latest Gazette article summary: "Everything's great. Everyone else is rubbish. It wasn't me it was someone else".
With a 700 majority one of the lowest in the UK after 10 years.
Steve Ladyman's final weeks and months descend into failure.
Will our lame duck MP not resign and go to the electorate?
The ChinaGate £25,000 remains unpaid to the public for their land.
The Tesco bag of receipts is unopened.
Harbour blocked at a seaside town.
Aviation fuel pollution on the beaches.
Mercury pollution in the soil and water.
Buildings falling down. Margate burning down.
Silence from Laura Sandys.
The party machines collapse.
Failed. Failed . Failed.
Time for Change.
With a 700 majority one of the lowest in the UK after 10 years.
Steve Ladyman's final weeks and months descend into failure.
Will our lame duck MP not resign and go to the electorate?
The ChinaGate £25,000 remains unpaid to the public for their land.
The Tesco bag of receipts is unopened.
Harbour blocked at a seaside town.
Aviation fuel pollution on the beaches.
Mercury pollution in the soil and water.
Buildings falling down. Margate burning down.
Silence from Laura Sandys.
The party machines collapse.
Failed. Failed . Failed.
Time for Change.
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