Sunday 30 March 2014

From Kamikaze Kent to Kaizen Kent

Kent has failed.

Deep structural Meiji-style reforms are required.

25% youth unemployment is a disastrous legacy from Kent’s pensioners.

Manston airport is yet another failure. And the councils removing the air pollution monitors to poison their own citizens for this vanity project of tarmac.

Discovery Park is mired in the mud of building more housing estates.

90% of the Garden of England’s orchards have gone – when food security is ever more important in a Climate Change world.

The grinning Deaths-Head of cattle-truck UKIP racists of like Farage and Latchford blaming the Romanians or Bulgarians or Swiss for Britain's problems or borders.

And no Climate Change policies at all.

The County with the longest coastline in an era of hotter summers and wetter winters will slip beneath the waves. Or at least the rows of empty housing estates built on flood plains will.

All policies designed to cut Kent’s own throat.

Kamikaze Kent.

Yet it doesn’t have to be this way.

Discovery Park can focus on science jobs and a TB focus. We’re already seeing TB mutate from animals such as cattle and cats and dogs to humans.

In the Third World 1M people die every year from TB. Why? Not enough vaccines. It’s completely preventable. IT just needs some research and production of the vaccine. Discovery Park and the Rotary folks did that before with polio.

And good jobs. High-end research jobs. Production jobs. Shipping jobs through the ports of Ramsgate and Dover. Clean jobs. Jobs for Kent Youth. Low Climate Change impact.
Tourism jobs with conferences and delegations to East Kent.

And spin-off production with Sittingbourne Science Park. Flu vaccine. No more dead pensioners stacked up in the morgue each Winter. More than in Sweden. 20,000 wrinkly lives cut short.

Tetanus and other antibiotic research not done.

Cancer drugs in remission.

And Kaizen Kent.

Foolishly Britain banned learning a foreign language in school.

How silly in the Global Age - and for Kent when we live next to Europe.

That policy has been reversed though.

But the EU recommends at least two foreign languages to be learnt.

That’s what they’re studying in Germany and Italy and Spain – and speaking better English than you or me.

And where are the Asian languages?

Half the world’s population. The focus of UK economic growth in the 21st century.

Just 3,000 British students studying Chinese.

Even worse: just 300 studying Japanese.

The world’s largest economies and we struggle to speak to them.

Thai speakers? 60M people: the same population as UK? 2 University graduates each year. Vietnam? 90M people? I don’t think there’s any.

Myanmar? 60M people emerging into democracy? The prospect of hispeed rail from London to Long Thanh at last. Zero again.

Indonesia? 250M people? Maybe a dozen. You tell me.

Cambodia? 15M people? Have a guess. Not even a phrase book.

Korean? Different types of Chinese? Go whistle.

And dozens of UK radio and TV channels? Not one on language learning. Whither the Open University and BBC and Sky?

Time for Kaizen Kent with Meiji reforms and learning 2 European languages – and one Asian language.

Giving Kent’s young people the best chance of work in the 21st century.

Jobs as teachers. Jobs as website programmers. Mobile phones and wifi installers. As film and television programme-makers. Translators. Even jobs building schools or cleaning out asbestos.

Kent’s 400 schools should be able to choose the languages of the future – Japan certainly provides enough effort and incentive to learn their language and culture with books, games, conferences, films, courses etc. The UK’s Teacher of the Year teaches Japanese.

Britain should sit at Japan’s knee and learn – and Kaizen Kent with every Kent school and University offering an Asian language rather than Beckham Studies nonsense.

Hispeed rail 1 as a benchmark for HS2, and Hitachi Ashford (and a new UK depot in Newcastle and London) and Fujifilm Broadstairs and in Kent we are not maximising opportunities in Asia.

With 2015 and the end of WW2 only months away. And so little done so far for WW1 Centenary.

And Kent’s 4 Universities should provide Asian language and translation courses, East Asia and South East Asia Studies programmes. Half the world and we know nothing.
Kent has the language schools already. Time for growth not stagnation.

And in Asia time for British English to be the focus of growth.

Kaizen Kent not Kamikaze Kent.

I urge every Kent headmaster and teacher and pupil to explore the possibilities of 2 EU languages and 1 Asian language.

It’s your future.

Time for Meiji Kent. Time for Kaizen Kent. Time for Change.

The pensioners at KCC and TDC and RTC councils have failed us. Just dog-in-a-manger politics clinging on for another month for a paycheck and their pension despite the failure.

Skulking around appointing each other to non-jobs and ceremonial guff rather than democratic elections.

I am Ramsgate’s Mayor-in-Waiting.

I am the future.

The pensioners have failed us.

They are the past.

You know that.

They know that.

Time for a list of councillors to resign. Sandys has done so and Gale will too.

Time for a Police investigation into Manston and Infratil.

Time to reverse the failure of Kamikaze Kent spiralling down into oblivion.

Time for Meiji Kent reforms. Time for Kaizen Kent and Asian languages.

Time for Change.

Wednesday 19 March 2014

Time for Meiji reform in stagnant Kent

Time for Meiji reform in the UK too.

With less than two years to a general election UK governance has simply ground to a halt.

Nothing.

HS2 hi-speed rail is not such a bad project - now it’s starting from the North rather than minor improvements to London-Birmingham rail.

But 15 years before it’s finished.

The economy has barely scraped back to 2008 pre-recession levels and no substantial growth in sight.

A few Budget tweaks or blaming Romanians are irrelevant.

And we now have the collapse of the national Parties into regional groups: Labour in the North and Tories in the South and SNP in Scotland and Plaid Cymru in Wales.

And not one Climate Change policy.

The greatest threat to humanity.

Nothing.

A Georgeville 20,000 housing estate in Kent is as random as Boris Island – especially as nobody in Kent has even been consulted and there are 23,000 empty houses already.
So much for voting for Carter or anyone else in Kent.

While the collapse of Kent and certainly East Kent is almost total. Decades of failure at Chatham Dockyard. Bloated quangos refusing FOI. Geriatric governance riding the decline down. Or tarmacking everything in sight.

And rampant corruption and civil service fraud at Manston, Thor, Pleasurama and EKO.

Such blatant and ongoing corruption as if the councillors and civil servants and MP’s are revelling in stealing and lying and failing us.

And perhaps worst of all over 20% youth unemployment.

Here’s various rather excellent award-winning videos by a mate of mine, Phil at Bedlam TV, on the importance of Apprenticeships and NEETs: http://www.bedlamtv.com/
A difficult subject to do well - and a measure of how seriously the 14-19 agenda and apprenticeships are being taken and driven forward in other parts of the UK – Doncaster in this instance.

And, to show how serious this Wasted Generation problem is, at a recent conference I met a Taiwan delegate who mentioned their concerns and work over, wait for it, 6% youth unemployment.

6%.

6% in Taiwan.

We need Meiji reform.

Japan has shown how substantial and deep and organised reform can turn around societies and economies. And worth remembering they did it not just once 100 years ago - but then again in the nuclear ashes of their country.

The blazing growth of ASEAN and China is notable by how far Britain has fallen behind investors such as Germany and USA.

(Before I forget here’s a link to the first Surin School in Thailand – can you help build more? www.surinschoolcharity.org)

And in Thailand - in a policy of sparkling genius – the Yingluck government are providing every schoolchild with a tablet PC. We wouldn’t dare do that in Britain. We couldn’t. Imagine the committees. The procurement workshops. The form-filling. The delay and dithering.

In Thailand and China they are turning the whole rail network into hispeed rail. All of it.

Cambodia has one of the world’s most modern telecoms and free wifi networks.

Australia has overhauled its Asian language learning: 20,000 students learning Japanese. UK? 300. And only 3,000 learning Chinese in UK.

Does that mean everything in Asia is better than Britain. Of course not that’s silly. But there is much we can learn.

Half the world is simply invisible to us. And George Osborne has rightly overhauled Chinese visas that prevented half the world’s tourists visiting us.

Time for Meiji reform not rearranging the deckchairs on the Titanic.

Hi-Speed rail. Hi-tech industry. Government and Business and Academia working together.

It was called Great Britain for a reason. It’s not now. And it won’t be in future.

A future your children and grandchildren will live in.

We need Meiji reform.

Deep and substantial and sustaineed reform to reverse the stagnation and rot of decades and a Lost Generation.

If you’d like a copy of my manifesto please email me: timgarbutt@yahoo.com
Many of the points are in the blog posts below.

Kent has failed.

Time for Meiji reform.

Time for Change.

Thursday 6 March 2014

Corrupt and Failed Kent. Time for Change in 2014 and 2015.

Stop the Pollution. Stop the Corruption. Stop the Construction.

Old Kent and KCC and TDC councils have failed us with numerous corruption and pollution incidents, massive waste and incompetence and white elephant construction projects.

Along with broken coastal towns, 20% youth unemployment and pensioners dying of cold - and no Climate Change policies at all.

A County for pensioners and thieves stuck in the 1970’s. With a Westminster Village Parliament only concerned with Eton trifles and Party bickering in the worst recession in living memory.

In Kent, Sandys has resigned and Gale will go too.

Failed.

Time for Change

Vote Garbutt for Mayor in 2014 and Parliament in 2015:

1. UN Parliament elections for global democracy and reduce tax waste in the UN, EU, IMF, OECD etc: already agreed by the UN but drifting through inertia. Time for UN elections in 2015.

2. Global vote at 16: agreed for Scotland in 2014 and already in Brazil, Austria etc. Time to be made law in 2015.

3. Time for the vote in Brunei and Dubai/UAE and for women in Saudi Arabia and Lebanon, Pakistan and Afghanistan – why is UK funding and arming Brunei and Dubai when they do not allow the vote? Time for arms and funding sanctions from 2015.

4. Time to end the death penalty in ASEAN: leaving only China, Texas, Florida Pakistan and Iran killing their own citizens. Ban death drugs exports from UK and EU.

5. Time for arms exports ban from UK and EU. Let grubby regimes like Dubai buy their guns elsewhere. Time for an arms industry restricted to UK and EU needs not speculating in death.

6. Time for Disarmament: develop zero-deployed nuclear weapons and navy restrictions: nuclear weapons cannot be used and only UK, France and USA and Russia now deploy them - and navies have little purpose with drone attacks.

7. Time for Gender equality law: minimum of 40% women as Board Directors and Parliament as Norway. UK has less than 10% women Board directors and 20% women in parliament.

8. Time for a Nuclear –free Kent: close and decontaminate Dungeness and Chatham and ban nuclear waste, and ships with nuclear weapons. Close all nuclear power stations in UK and EU for solar power. Radiation has no place in 21st century Kent or UK.

9. Interest rate cap of 10% on all loans and credit cards – as in Germany. Ban payday loans of no more than 0.5% per month and through banks – with a free bank account. Develop youth start-up funds with low costs. Ban speculative food investments as Barclays. Time to repair a broken bank system and get UK working.

10. Create OneGov: free email and mobile tel no and bank account at birth to reduce Government costs and ease of epidemic warnings etc.

11. Abolish the last hereditary Lords: Parliament failure to make meaningful reform.

12. Compulsory routine monthly FOI for all public organisations: civil service continuing to hide its failure and bloat 7 years after the FOI law and 40 years after USA. A disgrace. And waste such as UNDP royalty-bureaucracy or the UN Office of the Paperless Office or IMF and World Bank duplication.

13. Create County Health and Education Commissioners elections similar to the Police Commissioner: greater and earlier scrutiny and responsibility of school and hospital failures.

14. Judge quotas: no more than 20% of High Court judges from Eton and Oxbridge: currently over 90%. Massive failure of social mobility and freedoms.

15. Police Commissioner to cover Courts as well as Police: lawyer and barrister fraud and High Court closed courts to end.

16. Publish Government Department league tables and County league tables of public spending etc: massive MOD and CAA and Environment Agency bloat and failure. Time for Special Measures programmes within 6 months.

17. UNMDG2 reform: include in every public sector organisation – and seek inclusion of Tobacco, Road Accidents, Space Programme and achieve before 2020 not 2030. Too slow.

18. Typhoon Haiyan aid reforms: too slow aid for typhoons in the Pacific and India and famine in Africa for 70% of incidents and casualties. Never again.

19. Tobin Disaster Fund: establish central fund with UN Parliament/World Bank for ease of response to disasters rather than waiting for fundraising.

20. Establish Desertec: solar power in the desert already part-funded by Germany.

21. Police reform: scrutiny of private detectives, bailiffs, undercover policing and Special Branch secret police, and FOI on guns and bullets and MOD liaison/procurement, and Missing persons, Most Wanted and UK prisoners/stranded abroad.

22. Prison reform: meat-free Monday and vegetarian-only meals for prison cells and military – as with Norway’s army. Also schools and hospitals: reduce costs and Climate Change meat. And reoffending reduction progamme: year-long prison release supervision.

23. Achieve chemical weapons ban/disposal with Egypt, Angola and Sudan – no chemical weapons and ban on napalm and phosphorous as war crimes.

24. Create integrated military as Canada to prevent inter-service waste and squabbling.

25. Ban asbestos in schools and public buildings and detail all asbestos, Thor mercury sites and pollution suites in UK and EU. Environment Agency failure.

26. CAA failure: late flights and illegal/banned flights detailed weekly and airlines/airports closed.

27. Electoral reform: ban State funding for parties, elections null and void and rerun with less than 30% of the electorate, FOI and Manifestos 6 months before elections, and civil service and politician exams.

28. Bury all electric pylons before 2020.

29. Create Recession Plan for indicators and public spending against next recession. Shorter and shallower recessions with government activity.

30. Electricity and water free daily ration – reduce dead pensioners in Winter and Summer to less than Sweden – and free when over 50% renewables. We have deaths by charging for tax progammes funded by previous generations.

31. Epidemic programmes: quarterly public sector drills, FOI on biohazard equipment etc and weekly updates of TB etc and school curriculum and vaccination details.

32. Free Tablet PC and Mobile for every school child and pensioner – as in Thailand.

33. Right to Zero Pollution law – as Vietnam and link to Corporate Manslaughter Law. No more lessons learned and public officials fudge and lies for public deaths and injuries.

34. Public inquiry into Deepcut Barracks and LIBOR and Saudi arms deals eg National Guard and GPT/Eads and BAE etc.

35. Green High Court specialism for trials of pollution etc.

Time for Kent:

1. Create Margate Town Council and link to East Kent Council of Mayors to reduce costs and increase scrutiny.

2. Reduce KCC and TDC councillors to 9 per town and end double-hatters and more than one family member per party.

3. Extradite Infratil Directors for trial over Manston corporate manslaughter and pollution: Bogoievski, Baker, Fitzgerald and Clarke and Buchanan and Pedro in the control tower.

4. Close and cleanup Thor mercury and Police inquiry into banned factory from 1988 still open and polluting: Environment Agency and HSE failure.

5. DFID Broken Society Office in Ramsgate for Third World and emphasis on Discovery Park for TB research/manufacturing.

6. East Kent Economic Development annual report and direct Westminster funding for clarity and end Maidstone waste, and GDP, GNP and GDH comparisons.

7. Establish East Kent-West Europe programmes with Belgium, Holland and France and increase/improve twin towns activity eg with Africa etc.

8. Provide a foot passenger ferry for Ramsgate Port: ultra-green and non-HGV with Ostend, Dunkirk and Boulogne.

9. Establish East Kent Film Studio and Office in Ramsgate, and link with Dreamland and Paramount theme park.

10. Ensure sewers and water supply fit for purpose and zero landfill, cremation or waste export.

11. Fund food banks and detail DSS/Housing benefit restrictions and create OneGov.

12. Ban ships off Margate and provide flood/tsunami warning system and repair cliffs and flood defences.

13. Seek City of Culture after Hull 2017.

14. East Kent-East Asia focus for sustainable and Climate Change growth.

15. Publish embedded water and Climate Change product info and ban Total, Union Carbide and tobacco, arms, booze and non-Kent KCC investments. Establish Civil Service ban list: no public sector jobs for civil servant failure.

The pensioners have failed us.

KCC and TDC have failed us.

The main political parties have failed us.

Our councillors and civil servants are mere criminals hiding behind the rosette and bureaucracy whitewash.

The 1970’s are over.

Sandys has resigned and Gale will go too after 30 years of failure and Third World deprivation levels in Kent.

Failed.

Time for Young Kent.
Time for 21st Century Kent.
Time for Climate Change Kent.

A cleaner, greener and younger Kent.

Time for Change

For office and volunteers and fundraisers and info please email: timgarbutt@yahoo.com and a copy of this leaflet and a poster to put in your window or email/photocopy and pass to a friend.

Garbutt for Mayor in 2014 and MP in 2015.

Time for Change.