Time for Change: Campaign for an Independent Green Thanet MP and Ramsgate Mayor

With Kent on Sunday describing KCC as “stifling democracy” then elected governance is clearly at a low point in Kent. With over 90% of councillors from the Conservatives then a one-party state is the reality. Throw in double-hatters where the same person sits on various councils, and falling turnouts (as low as 15% in by-elections and the Police elections), and monotone politics is the order of the day. Declaring an interest, I’ve stood as MP and now Mayor in Ramsgate as an Independent, to “Stop the Pollution. Stop the Corruption. Stop the Construction.”, against the worst excesses of County governance. We seem cursed with an almost wilfully backward political system: KCC funding Infratil at Manston knowing that the airport is on the water supply, and Infratil and TDC removing the air monitors are heinous crimes. Or there’s the silence over the banned EU aircraft such as Afghanistan’s Kam Air or known gunrunners and blood diamond shippers such as DAS Air, or Jihadist flights such ...

Report on ACG banned from flying: "ACG provides global aircargo transportation with scheduled and chartered long-haul capacity. Besides general cargo they are specialized for heavy and oversized freight, perishables, live animals and dangerous goods.[5] On the 18th of April the company announced that it would temporarily suspend flight operations,[6] this because the airline's Air Operators Certificate was suspended by the German National Aviation Authority; the Luftfahrt-Bundesamt." Abysmal Infratil and TDC and KCC have allowed numerous such flights into Manston. Appart from the new KLM flights last month I think that means there are now no flights into Manston. Perhaps occasional a Lear jet or Cargolux. Nothing - and onto the water supply and with the air monitors removed since 2006. Time for arrests. Time for Manston to close. Time for Thor mercury to close and cleanup. Time for MODFire to close and not pollute the water with fires and chemicals. Time f...

As promised an overview of the KCC county elections, but yet more dismal goings-on at Manston. The Sunday cocaine planes again and a Monarch flight illegally circling over Ramsgate in training circuits. Worth remembering the AfghanAir (banned!) flight that crashed off the runway and the flight from Manston that crashed on landing on Eire. And at the weekend the LionAir flight in Indonesia that belly-flopped off the end of the runway into the sea. Clearly an airport like Manston with repeated safety breaches is a danger simply downplayed and ignored or deliberately supported by those with a duty of care. The early April bounty for the arrest and extradition of the Infratil Directors has risen to by a further £10,000. Bogoievski, Baker, Fitzgerald, Clarke, Buchanan and Pedro in the control tower. Scoundrels. Extradited. The perp walk. Legirons and handcuffs. Pentonville. The runway dug up. The warehouses demolished. The control tower dynamited. And any planes seized and scrapp...

The KCC candidates for Thanet have been announced and I’ll write separately on who I think would be good candidates and an update on the Kent public sector league table. It’s mostly the same old faces and doublehatters though – if they could have improved things they would have wouldn’t they? One notable candidate to avoid is Roger Latchford of the Gang of Four: Manston monitors etc. And a key issue is: when do we question them? Where are their policies? Where are the hustings? It looks like they fill in a form, post if off, are elected and that’s it for 5 years. A sham of democracy especially with such low turnouts and the Party machine: down to 15% for the police election and recent Canterbury by-election. Here’s some questions to ask of them though: 1. Who removed the Manston monitors, why have they not been replaced and where are the fines for overflights and air pollution? 2. How much contamination at Thor and what has been/will be done? 3. Also the Manston aquifer ...