Toxic KCC election: the candidates

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 scrapped. All this awaits them.

Here’s a summary of the KCC candidates for the 2nd May election.

And you have 3 choices:

1. Refuse to vote or spoil your ballot paper
2. Vote Conservative – essentially stagnation and supporting the Toxic Three of Carter, King and Wild and the corruption at TDC scapegoated with Sandy
3. Vote for any of the other candidates

It’s your choice.

Any electoral turnout under 30% should be considered null and void, and re-run with better candidates/policies.

KCC has been Conservative for decades – which isn’t especially surprising as most of the shires are – but the Conservative councillors are now over 90% of the council which even Conservative councillors find ludicrous for democracy.

Kent on Sunday described KCC as “stifling democracy” and I think that’s fair. While, no directly-elected Leader means the council becomes essentially a Party meeting and tends to be weighted towards West Kent.

Hence East Kent and Thanet stagnating and deprived of funding or used as a dumping ground.

Perhaps worse, your children and grandchildren are expected to be polluted. And that’s OK. They deserve nothing better.

A couple of principles on the election to consider:

• Do not vote for doublehatters: roadblocking democracy and unnecessary seats/costs
• Do not vote for councillors from other towns/shifting seats: the Party games of parachute candidates
• A too-large council that could be halved: 7 councillors at Town level, District abolished and c.30 at County
• FOI pledges from councillors: why are public funds and meetings and documents still secret? How can you – or they – make any electoral decisions without knowing staffing levels, salaries, pensions, cars, expenses, office space etc
Here’s the candidates and my views for your consideration:

Bad:

• Roger Latchford, UKIP: formerly the Gang of Four and astonishing he’s standing again albeit switching to UKIP. Do not vote for this man. After the horror of the Manston monitors he should not be in elected politics and he’s too old for a jail cell. Do not vote for this man.
• Rick Everitt, Labour: a scoundrel. I raised the corruption at RTC’s previous annual meeting and he simply laughed and brayed “call the police, see what they’ll do” etc. Do not vote for this man.
• Jo Gideon, Conservative: Airport Committee - years of refusing to raise the missing monitors. Do not vote for her. No votes for poisoning your own citizens.
• Bob Bayford, Conservative, Party leader, former Leader after the Gang of Four. Silence on Manston, Thor and Pleasurama. 20 years in the council. If he could have improved things he would have. Do not vote for this man.

Dubious:

• Chris Wells, Conservative: I know Chris worked hard for his constituents but I understand he was on the Airport Committee and failed to take action on the monitors. A Doublehatter. Vote with your conscience.
• Bill Hayton, Conservative, KCC Chair previously. Silence on Manston, Thor and Pleasurama. Vote with your conscience.

Good:

• Liz Green, Labour: works hard for Ramsgate and one of only two Labour candidates at KCC which must be difficult. But a triplehatter. Vote for Liz.
• John Kirby, Conservative: works hard on improving Westcliff and town signage. Vote for John.
• Trevor Shonk, UKIP: cares about the town. Vote for Trevor.
• 2 Labour: Amy Rutland and Will Scobie: new blood. Vote for Amy and Will. They couldn’t make it any worse. Could they?
• 3 LibDems: Tony Flaig, Bill Furness, Matt Brown. Vote for Tony, Bill and Matt.
• 2 Independents: Ian Driver and Tom King: Vote for Ian and Tom.
• 3 Greens: Mike White, Ed Targett and Tim Spencer. Climate Change. Climate Change. Climate Change. Vote for Mike, Ed and Tim. A Green Kent. A Green Coast.
Some of the candidates/districts may overlap and so this needs fine-tuning.

I don’t know of the other candidates.

But you have 3 choices:

1. Refuse to vote or spoil your ballot paper
2. Vote Conservative – essentially stagnation and supporting Carter’s Toxic Three and the corruption at TDC
3. Vote for any of the other candidates – an Alliance for Democracy

Here’s the Conservative manifesto released today: it’s mainly the same empty guff for failure. No zero Asbestos in schools. No White Elephants or the Road to Nowhere. No zero landfill. No winter pensioner policies. No free windfarm electricity. No 10% interest rate cap. Although it is an improvement in KCC’s civil servants not drafting policy for the politicians. But a dozen powerpoint pages for a £2Bn council? That’s it?

http://www.kentconservatives.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2013/04/Kent-Conservative-Manifesto-2013.pdf

It could have been written on a pair of slippers any time in the last 100 years.

And the horror of still endorsing Manston and Lydd.

No votes for poisoning your own citizens.

Rather, we need: No Manston. No Thor. No Asbestos. No Pandemics: TB, Rabies, SARS, Measles/MMR, Swine flu and Bird Flu.

I know of no manifestos for Labour, LibDems, Greens, Independents or Labour: if there are any then please email me at timgarbutt@yahoo.com and I’ll include links.

I’m hearing rumours Dave has stood down as Mayor and Chair at RTC. I will ask him to stay on as my Deputy Mayor.

I will be a Mayor for East Kent, Eastern Europe and East asia.

And as Mayor I will ensure: No JunkyTown. No RapeNation. No Pandemics.

Can you help? I need volunteers, office space and fundraisers.

Time for a drugs den raid every day. No JunkyTown.
Time for rape policy improvements after the G8 Congo rapes: 85,000 UK rapes. No RapeNation.
Time for Pfizer UK vaccine strategic facility. No vaccine shortages.
Time for Change.