RoboCop? RentaGob!

After just two press statements I’m already becoming rather bored of Ray Mallon the former RoboCop and twice Mayor of Middlesboro – now suddenly the spokesman for Messrs Cartner, Musgrave and presumably Gloag for redeveloping Manston Airport.

And bizarrely the childhood waterpolo(!) friend of Cartner.

Now no longer RoboCop, merely the press spokesman he seems to think his remit extends into demanding some unquantifiable “respect” for Cartner etc. And decrying anything other than their ludicrous plan for Manston.

RoboCop Ray is rapidly becoming merely RentaGob Ray.

Perhaps he could provide some advice around the Manston plans though either as an ex-Chief Constable or Manston spokesman:

1. Is he a Director of the Manston JV or similar or just salaried spokesman? Either way I think we can all assume surprise, surprise he’s in favour of it. (He's confirmed as a NonExec Director apparently).

2. What was his involvement if any in Cleveland Police taking offices at Cartner’s Wynyard Park?

3. Have Gloag/Manston JV covered all the costs for overflight fines and aquifer pollution and cleanup? What are they?

4. The new Manston plans show the aquifer revealed as some sort of boating lake – how will the exposed drinking water thus be protected?

5. Have the CPRE etc been briefed on the environmental plans – along with the existing empty homes and offices in Thanet: some of the highest in UK?

6. How many companies at Discovery Park (with and without demolitions) were already based in Thanet and like say Hornby have just moved within the District. And the costs of the rates reductions we all pay.

Without some detailed responses on the above from Ray perhaps he should shut his cakehole and just send in the invoices to his mates.

Especially as the Manston plans look to have no chance of being developed – nor an airport again – but rather the runway dug up and buildings demolished to allow the East Kent drinking water to replenish and clean.

As KCC Leader in 2017 I will ensure the above as well as the cancelation of the idiotic Parkway and refund of £20M to DofT that seems to have already vanished into KCC’s coffers.

And a criminal investigation for corporate manslaughter of Infratil and the Toxic Three of Carter, King and Wild.

And the Environment Agency and Southern Water for contamination and the Pleasurama tax haven fraud.

Perhaps Ray could put Cleveland Police on alert if Kent Police feel too scared to investigate.

Certainly a better ruse of public funds than the Cleveland Police overbuild that would put even KCC’s Kent Developer’s Group to shame.

Tim’s Misc Bits:
• Ms Homer at TDC silent on the 100SE garden-grabbing: could you contact her to explain: madeline.homer@thanet.gov.uk With Homer keeping her head down despite her being paid by the public let’s hope the new TDC councillors can take up the issue. I am always astonished that despite clear standards on replying to correspondence those clerks who ignore it as there aren't just sacked for gross misconduct.
• O’Regan plans presumably cancelled but silence on Pleasurama being cancelled and returfed for the Summer.
• Numerous cars and dustcarts not just driving on the prom but actually parked on it: registration numbers to follow. The easiest way possible to reduce tourists to the town.
• Silence on the Port and Marina plans other than secret live animal exports.
• I didn’t see the BBCTV Armada programme but interesting to see how Margate’s role is covered and key for the East Kent Landings project.
* Apologies to the GPO who should be included in the Kent public Sector review below - and happily would easily come into the top 5 for excellent service. Full details next month.
* Shambolic Police Commissioner news with Ann Barnes cancelling the Ann Van One nonsense and sacking both Yoof Tsars now. A complete failure of he r manifesto - and worryingly she was actually doing the job for years(!) before the PCC's became elected. Clearly we need better for the PCC elections in 2016 than this idiocy on the rates and mere cheerleading of the police rather than scrutiny and reform.

Time for Change
www.votegarbutt.co.uk
@timg33

Garbutt for KCC Leader 2017 and MP 2020

April Kent Public Sector Review

Best down to worst. Funded by you.

1. Kent Fire Brigade – rather excellent The Byrnes public safety comms programme and excellent Road Safety Experience Project that should be a Kent tourism programme.

2. Kent Ambulance – excellent response times as always. Points deducted for variable paramedics forward-stationed in the towns and comms programmes like The Byrnes or pub kits. Weak on 999 Cup.

3. Kent Police – excellent drugs den raids: £20M in Margate for example also two trawlers seized off Ireland and Scotland each with some of the largest ever cocaine hauls. Points deducted for dithering over machetes, Tramps, seafront parking, pretty trousers, stolen property and £1.2M in PR for a monopoly service.

4. Kent universities: CEO of Universities UK but points deducted for weak CCU performance and EKC reductions.

5. Kent schools: OK

6. Kent GP’s: OK

7. KCC: OK but very expensive at £2BN per year – the most £100k salaries in local government. Pointless talking-shop quangos such as £1M SELEP and KCC tobacco investments(!) while being responsible for public health. Weak on developing EU-KCC £100M funds.

8. Utilities: unknown – except Southern Water abysmal. EDF/Dungeness: should close earlier after more leaks.

9. Environment Agency: criminals over Thor etc.

10. SouthEastern Rail: rather good but smelly toilets, weak wifi and no sandwich cart anymore. Goon-guards at Victoria for buying tickets.

11. Military: weak. Ghurkas active in Nepal. Royal Engineers idle with SS RichardMontogmery explosives wreck. Navy suntan tours weak: regear HMS Kent East of Suez eg Spratlys, RAF weak over Lydd and Ostend gunrunners, MOD Police/Redcaps: bloat for merger with RAF Regiment and end of BAOR Germany. Weak liaison with Police helicopters/Bristow/Belgian SAR/RNLI.

12. Highways Agency: pretty uniforms to watch CCTV and no catseye sensors for robocars.

13. Kent hospitals: bad. Inadequate pandemic policies and virus protection. Farce of reducing A&E at Margate despite extensive backoffice bloat ripe for cuts without damaging frontyline services

14. TDC: useless. Weak on gardengrabbing at 100 SERd - possible brown envelopes again - and non-existent policies for Pleasurama corruption and Thor contamination: perhaps the UKIPUnknowns will improve things through P45 reform of expensive/failed civil servants after political clearout.

15. Coastguard: useless. Merge with Fire Brigade and RNLI.

Time for Change
www.votegarbutt.co.uk
@timg33

A Jockowi not Farage election in Contaminated Kent

What surprising election results - to some extent.

At a national level though, the flurry of excitement around the Tory victory, on reflection, seems somewhat exaggerated.

The majority is the weakest since 1974 and a vociferous SNP clique will be demanding both independence and anti-austerity measures for Scotland.

And quite right too.

So much for Ukip’s 25 seats forecasted. And now the UK largely run by the Jocks and Welsh and Belgians.

The majority victory surprised everyone even the victors – but to some extent is understandable in three areas:

• The over-reliance on polling a few hundred people - and where the 5% variance would mean a surprise winner from the tied result anyway
• The weakness of Labour under Miliband
• The punishment of the Libdems for reneging on tuition fees

You can flesh out your own detailed views around those points. But already it seems incredibly foolish to ditch reducing MP’s from 650 to 600 as pledged in the manifesto, and wasted and spurious effort on trying to rework the EU Human Rights Act that is in effect Magna Carta or the UN Declaration.

And the loss of so many talented politicians such as Cable, Murphy and Hughes could delay more sensible policies such as cancelling the BBC licence fee and reducing the headcount at BIS, FCO Prosperity and DECC etc.

Even robust policies on reforming the bloat and waste of the EU while fast-forwarding the accession of Serbia, Russia, Turkey, Caspian and North Africa.

While with the 40th anniversary of the liberation of Saigon, Europe and Asia are in the throes of an outpouring of more Boat People from broken nations such as Libya and Somalia and the ethnic cleansing of Burma and trafficking death camps in Thailand and Malaysia and as far afield as Jokowi’s Indonesia and Australia.

And in Kent we have the defeat of UKIP Leader Farage yet the UK’s first UKIP council at TDC.

There too perhaps easily explained by a narrow Tory victory over Farage due to his parachute candidate status and as a love-hate Marmite politician with no real policies beyond race-war and being photographed drinking beer.

For me his low point came with the unpleasant and foolish attack on foreigners with HIV using the NHS – a repulsive and inhuman policy that for similar pandemics would actually jeopardise every UK citizen and anyway costs but a fraction of a percent of the NHS.

Plaid Cymru cited it well that Estonian waitresses and Polish plumbers weren’t responsible for the bank crash - but Cityboy traders like Farage speculating on tin or wheat. Even now few fines and fewer jail sentences are handed out for the LIBOR fraud etc.

And the election simply failed to answer how the parties would drive economic growth or solve Climate Change.

And Farage’s silence on the TDC corruption and Manston contamination is detailed in my blog posts below.

With a UKIP TDC though it means something of a breath of fresh air in uprooting many of the stagnant and corrupt Labour and Tory groups in Kent – indeed decimating Thanet Labour to just 4 candidates and 1 at KCC. And even decimating both Labour MP candidates to c.10k votes each.

Albeit with similarly low turnout as previous elections with over 30% of electorate not voting - and over 800k votes lost nationally by the weird new voter registration scheme actually managing to reduce voters!

The party memberships have similarly plummeted from 10% of the electorate in the 1950’s to under 1% now.

All the UKIP candidates are unknown so it remains to be seen what policies if any they will have.

Coupled with Farage’s laughable un-resignation the UKIP bubble for Thanet seems to have burst already.

Happily the voters rejected both Von Latchford and NF Heale as well as Negro Roz. Some of the UKIP KCC seem to have been rejected too.

And the scoundrel Everitt booted out with the Port and Pleasurama scandals. And only 2 or 3 family teams and fewer doublehatters to reduce democracy.

TingTong Janice as MEP seems to have been rejected in her bizarre appeal to UKIP’s sacking of her.

My concern though was best expressed by one of those word cloud thingies that flashed on the screen during election night where the 3 main words were FARAGE, KENT and RACIST.

Sickening and not true of Kent or the councils.

But that’s what people now know South Thanet for.

I must admit to be surprised the Independents, Thanet United and Reality Party and Green candidates didn’t do better but reassuring that Illegal Cunningham of the LibDems is rejected and I’ll be writing to Kent Police on that one. Civil servants are banned from standing in elections.

The Returning Officer and Police and Electoral Commission seem deeply flawed if not bone-idle for their salaries and pensions and expenses. I am astonished that while the candidates have to pay £500 to stand in a free and fair election, that clearly isn’t, the Returning Officer for the night gets a fee of £62k.

Yes you read that right a £62k fee to the council chief executive for election night.
No wonder the candidates are fined £500 for standing as citizens.

In Thanet it proved especially shambolic with boxes unopened at 7am and the District and town elections not even provided until Saturday. Sunderland managed all their results in a few hours – some 12 hours earlier.

My complaint against the Gazette for refusing candidates coverage and censoring my manifesto is with the Press regulator. No wonder we end up with the same old-same old if the reporting is so weak. While I asked Farage about the Manson and Thor manslaughter the press were asking if he’d have a drink to celebrate.

The wider point of electoral reform seems fair with both Greens and UKIP gaining millions of votes but few seats – and contribute to a revived UK politics with multiple parties rather than the declining influence and vote for the two main parties. Voting reform was another fumbled Libdem policy from a few years ago.

While in Kent Manston is something of a damp squib with the rejection of the Manston Party of only c.200 votes, the rejection of Farage as leader of UKIP and Wauchope in Thanet as Manston candidates, and a narrow Tory victory in South Thanet and Gale returned – the man who closed Manston at least twice.

The parachute candidates will undoubtedly – like Farage now angling for a Labour seat to stand in – disappear without a trace until the next election somewhere.

Maybe the Police Commissioner elections in November 2016 possibly London Mayor next year.
Who knows maybe parachuted in for the John O’Groats byelection.

While without answering the pollution and corruption issues around the removal of monitors of Manston – both under the Tory regime of turncoats such as Latchford and Wells now UKIP - and subsequently - it seems a farce of hot air and bluster to claw a few votes then sink without a trace.

Although the real threat from delayed contamination and cleanup continues: see Ed Targett’s excellent dirty water blogpost for full details on mercury poisoning etc here:

greentargett.com

Gloag plc have launched some laughable doodles about concreting Manston – although some of them do unearth the aquifer as a boating lake. Perhaps a paddling pool if it isn’t replenished.
The reality is Manston is bust, none of the staff that makeup SMA would be rehired anyway, the pollution records have been falsified by TDC and KCC, and the runway is on the aquifer.

It's a mess.

Only marginally improved by being closed, so there are just a few dumped jets and less chance of the gunrunners and banned planes crashing.

The only solution is to dig up the runway, demolish the buildings and retain the site as a water meadow to clean the aquifer – and as KCC Leader I will push with Messrs Carter/Musgrave and KCC’s £2BN budget and multi-million EU funds to fully develop the Pfizer site that has gone somewhat awry with non-science jobs and minor relocation and is still half-empty.

Major pharma companies specialising in pharma research and vaccines production and even production of malaria nets are required to define and grow the site for the future.

Returning the site to 6,000 well-paid jobs is not unreasonable as an absolute minimum.

And restoring Dreamland as a top 10 UK tourist attraction.

And restoring a niche foot passenger ferry at Ramsgate to Ostend and Boulogne.

And all along with more effective and rounded economic policies than just building a massive cargo airport to hire everybody in Thanet - or everyone working for the council.

The Parkway-airport-railway-station-without-an-airport is too laughable for words just KCC Big Cement glory projects again. Only in Thanet and Maidstone…with your tax…

Imagine if that £20M had been spent on the town centres.

UKIP TDC have an opportunity to act like responsible Thanet citizens rather than racists or the scum we have been used to and here are a few ideas to begin:

1. Have a contested leadership election with Chris Wells and others not a coronation and preferably a woman candidate too
2. Delay action on Manston until the PWC audit report in the next fortnight or so and then consider the points made
3. Cancel Pleasurama signed by the rejected Labour group – clear and turf the site for a consultation and cliff repairs within 6 months
4. Instigate Margate Town Council: the only East Kent town without one
5. Detail the Port and Motor Museum plans and repairs
6. Sack Grant Thornton and the Andy Mack rascal from the Audit Commission whitewash – review Property Eileen’s role and cancel the prosecution of Cllr Driver
7. Clarify the election rules for District and Town
8. Instruct a Police inquiry into tax haven Pleasurama and Thor mercury contamination – the Environment Agency and TDC seem to be deliberately whitewashing the figures
9. Reject the Gloag plc plans and detail fines due for overflights etc
10. Confirm filming of council meetings
11. Clarify EU funding and tourism/students and language school activity for Thanet
12. End garden grabbing such as the horrifying 100 South Eastern Road sprawl and car/dustcart parking on the seafront/promenade and dog muck/dogs on the beach

The latter a useful Ukip point but not really a national manifesto albeit alongside the tampon tax reduction and end live animal exports which are sensible.

With talented Cabinet members in Kent such as Clark and Fallon, and Crouch as Sports Minister, we have the strange situation in Thanet of a former UKIP Tory who lives in Chatham, and Farage from Orpington who won’t contest his hometown seat.

And resigns then unresigns in a weekend. Blink and you’d miss it.

Not very inspiring along with Wauchope from Tunbridge Wells and now rejected KCCers like Latchford and dozens of unknown elderly Ukippers that may not last another Winter let alone supposedly the formation of the biggest airport near Heathrow on the rates.

And a new TDC Chief Executive which I am already beginning to have Macgonigal-doubts about as pompous and ineffective and overpaid. I hope I’m quickly proved wrong.

All for one of the most deprived areas in UK – and an area that relies on tourists and EU funding eg the KCC Brussels plans for £100M in funding over the next 5 years.

Thanet is broken it’s time to fix it.

Time for Kent’s Orchid Spring.

Time for Garbutt in #KCCLeader2017.

Here are my initial policies:

1. East Kent Council with £1Bn funding as a counterweight to West Kent and Maidstone bias and gridlock

2. Toxic Three of Carter, King and Wild out and Infratil jailed. Bring the Bastards of NZ back in chains: Fitzgerald, Clark, Bogoievski and Baker

3. NZ trade boycott of tourism, airline, cheese, wine and sheep until Infratil are extradited – the Kiwi Criminals can kill Maoris but not Kent’s citizens

4. Police investigation into Thor and Poorhole Lane mercury sites and closure of MOD Fire bloat and waste and contamination

5. Cancel KCC Tobacco shares in public sector pensions: a farce in being responsible for Public health and investing in Marlboro

6. Cancel Kent Developer Group: cementiers on the rates for white elephant tarmac. Sudan not Sittingbourne needs Cape2Cairo Roads and ASEANRail and revitalise Virginia and Hungary links

7. Refund the Parkway £20M to Dept of Transport and cancel HMS Kent suntan tours

8. Cancel Top Temps: staffing up on the rates

9. Create Kent Top 200 global university with Kent Uni and instigate tourism focus at Broadstairs CCU campus with Asian Studies courses and languages and end Beckham Studies courses for Cancer, Flu, Dementia, Antibiotics and Pandemics research Chairs

10. Develop annual Dunkirk, Waterloo, Spanish Armada and Channel Dash celebrations – and VJDay2015

11. Reduce 1.99% referendum limit to voluntary 0.99% limit with details and review KCC £100k salaries: most in UK

12. Create dry-run votes at 16 in schools and £10k election fund for obscene free election failure of £500 and £5k costs and electoral reform eg ban parachute candidates and co-opted and politician exams and manifestos

13. Consult on UNDMG2 and 2016 UN SecretaryGeneral election

14. Fisheries: reseeding oceans

15. Merge Kent Police with Sussex and Surrey police - and Firebrigade takeover of Coastguard to reduce bloat and waste

16. Reduce tobacco in prisons to one brand and introduce store permits for tobacco and end smoking at outdoor pub/cafe tables

17. Full routine FOI each month and detail any (few)FOI requests refused

18. Kent off oil: solar farms, close Dungeness early, and all public sector buildings solar and electric vehicles

19. 0.3% of KCC £2Bn tax as aid and international activity (c.£20M): if all 33 UK councils follow suit then UK would easily achieve 1% in aid along with Benelux etc and be a beacon for all EU nations to achieve 0.7% aid

20. Ban conflict minerals in all public sector IT equipment etc and a blood diamonds certification scheme for jewellers and close Lydd and Ostend gunrunner airports

21. Ban plastic bags and supermarket food waste reduced and donated to foodbanks and pigfarms and reduce aviation produce

22. Zero Road Deaths: zero booze, 20mph towns and traffic blackspot repairs

23. I’d like to create EK Film Office in Ramsgate and EK Film studio linked to Dreamland and Paramount and also take on the Pavilion as a jazz bar/venue

24. University/college space research: food and space elevator and satellite tech

25. Drug dens raid every day: drugs seizures detailed and machete amnesty

26. Rape Nation prosecutions: 85k rapes and only 1k jailed

27. Learmonths Learjet: 1k UK citizens jailed abroad/stranded eg Joshua French 6 years on Death Row Congo – and detailed on UK Embassies with monthly visits

28. Argos catalogue for police pretty trousers and bullets

29. CPS, Courts and Lawyer reform: corruption such as Glick QC or Broadstairs rape letter lawyer whitewashed by Law Society – who was that?

30. Prisoners: beachclean

31. Cliffs xray/sonar and aerial landmine xray and SS Richard Montgomery cleanup

32. Youth Fund: develop post-16 entrepreneur projects eg Creative Industries - fashion, software, programming, pharma-vaccines, graphene, robotics, electrofarms and DNA plus compulsory Gap Year etc. Younger, Cleaner and Greener Kent. The dockyards and farmyards and coalfields are gone

33. Asbestos cleanup in schools – County register of sites

The previous policies still stand as detailed at www.votegarbutt.co.uk

Time for KCC leader election 2017.

Office, volunteers, staff and donations wanted.

Time for Change
www.votegarbutt.co.uk
@timg33

Tim’s Titbits: various random points:

• fascinating Dunkirk book on the 500 Little Ships from Ramsgate and Germany’s My Lai massacres at Wormhout (Sergeant Moore and SgtMajor Jennings both threw themselves on grenades to protect their friends and neither received the VC), Vinkt and Le Paradis – major museum needed and Vimy 2017 with Ramsgate’s Canadians
• US Nukes General highlights how USA could manage with 900 nukes and only half of those deployed instead of 11,000(!). UK has 180 nukes like most nuclear nations except USA and Russia. Utter waste and danger of Nuclear Winter accidents and submarine arms races in Asia.
• USA museum returns another stolen statue to Cambodia. British Museum doesn’t.
• Operation Masterdom anniversary in September and Magellan 2019 underway.
• Shan State heroin 2nd biggest illegal supplier to UK after Afghanistan: 1.5M(!) amphetamine tablets seized at Laos border
• VE Day and Doodlebug Day ignored by the pensioners in Frontline Kent
• Unimpressed with Visit Kent and Visit Thanet websites or tourism cronies with Shepherd Neame, and KCC website appalling
• Thailand WW1: 950 troops with 19 killed and 2 officers recommended for Croix de Guerre – fascinating to know who/where etc
• DaNang University and UKTIAnnam: Vinh to Vientiane
• Gibraltar and Brindisi bridges link to Desertec and Balkans/Sarajevo Shift seem viable
• Sincerity: bank or insurance client wanted: www.sincerityagency.com
• Surin Charity: Thailand swimming pool expert wanted and Africa locations: www.surinschoolcharity.org
• Great British Women’s Footy begins in Canada: 999 Cup defunct?
• Baku European Games soon and Liberation Route Europe Gdansk launch took place on VE Day
• Kwai Rail: Thailand Anzac day celebrated at amazing Hellfire Pass museum
• KORA and 2LB launch soon.

Me and Farage and Manston corruption and Thor today

By one of those quirks of fate I bumped into Nigel Farage today about 10am outside The Goose pub on Harbour St and then Shipshape café on the seafront.

He was surrounded by about 20 press and TV journalists from BBC and ITV: Nigel holding a pint, Nigel drinking a cup of tea, Nigel shaking hands with a few passersby.

You know the sort of thing. Yawn.

So I shouted a few questions to him:

• Manston is in your manifesto to reopen – but it’s on the aquifer: when did you know that?
• Is it a good idea given Manson is contaminated?
• Will you call for a Police inquiry into Infratil and TDC and KCC removing the monitors?
• What about Thor mercury contamination?
• Where have you been Nigel – when will we see you again?
• What about the TDC corruption – a Police inquiry?
• Your senior politicians: Latchford and Wells were involved in many of these issues weren’t they?

I'm annoyed I forgot to ask him about the Manston Parkway airport rail station - without an airport. Or the 2% NATO and EU army etc.

At first he ignored me as you’d expect.

Then he said Manston was raised in public to him back in 2012 (you can seem my notes on this blog at c.March 2012) – then went silent when I said he’d done nothing.

And I asked him what he would do. Silence and looking sheepish. Bizarrely at one point one of his c.20 activist cronies shouted “leave him alone” as if being questioned by the public on his manifesto was some sort of outrage(!).

He harrumphed about manners at one point but I said this was local politics and public unlike his ticketed meetings or non-attendance at hustings.

Bizarrely on the TDC corruption point he admitted he knew about it(!). But then went silent when I asked him what he’d do about it.

And that some of his senior Ukippers were involved in it as Tories(!).

A few utterly pathetic questions from the journalists like “how will you celebrate if you win” etc and then he ducked into a Range Rover and cut his walkabout short.

So there we are.

He knew about Manston and the aquifer and Infratil/TDC fraud back in 2012.

He did nothing despite his promises.

Now in 2015 he has reopening Manston in his national manifesto.

And dodging any meaty questions as to why. Or the contamination.

If he’s going to lie and prevaricate he needs to do better than this.

And how would he a stand up to rigorous questioning in parliament?

I think he’s an utter scoundrel.

But vote for him.

That way Manston will be prominent in terms of Infratil and TDC/KCC for months and years.

KCC election in May 2017 and MP2020 - if not an election before then.

Tim's titbits: a few misc. points:

Use you vote as you see fit. But my view is don't vote - falling turnouts deny legitimacy and ensure better and more different policies than the parties crowding around tuppence off tax.

If you do vote then vote Farage or Targett- let's ensure the spotlight is on Manston when Farage disappears.

Vote out the rascals:

* Everitt - Port secret £3M loss and Pleasurama tax haven fraud
* Bayford - Pleasurama tax haven fraud
* Eileen property civil servant: fake consultations and delays on Pleasurama and Pav and bizarre property company
* Wells: Ukip turncoat chancer
* Latchford: Manston and Infratil fraud with monitors
* Heale: NF-er and nothing done at KCC

NATO 2% defence plan: this annoys me with Farage wittering on about it as:

* it was only agreed last year...by NATO. Well I never NATO voting for a larger budget for itself!
* UK defence has been running at 2.4% for several years with Afghanistan etc - one of the highest defence budgets in the world never mind EU
* 2.4% would probably be even higher with Trident renewal
* Germany - most at risk form Russia - along with almost every EU nation spends about 1.4%
* So much of a danger is Russia (yawn sabrerattling) that the USAF is closing its main air bases in UK and reducing troops in Germany to their lowest ever levels
* And the UK is ending its own 20k troops in Germany (from 1945) by 2018
* the new F35 fighter jet may never fly as its too expensive and delayed...says the US Defence Secretary and cheaper drones may be used
* and the same issue with the Eurofighter: expensive junk
* and the MOD is probably the most incompetent gov dept eg helicopters that can't fly, launch codes lost - even Trident being unable to get out of its loch: giving them more money would be idiotic
* UK troops outside UK are 3k in Cyprus, 1k in Ulster and 1k in Falklands. Hardly the Cold War.
* the USA has a more sensible policy with a reduction in Western Europe and more support to Ukraine, Georgia and Turkey
* an EU army? There's 2 already. The French-German c.2k troops in Strasbourg, and the Nordic Battle Group rotations every 6 months - including UK. Each of about 2k troops. Both of which not really used while France deploys 2k troops to Mali and Chad etc - where the real conflicts are. And of course nothing done about the slaughter in Syria or Libya and collapse of Iraq and Afghanistan.

Despite border/ethnic disputes by Putin in Georgia and Ukraine and Bear bomber (more Cold War junk) radar tests in Europe and Guam there has never been a more secure Europe, Americas and Asia.

Britain's threats are not Russian nukes or tanks rolling into Berlin but dictators and failed states in Africa and the Middle East. Or a few pirates in dinghies off Somalia or Nigeria.

Afghanistan and the 10k UK troops deployed there will probably be the last large deployment in our lifetimes. Certainly outside of Sudan or Liberia or Congo.

Rather those failed nations require diplomacy and aid and good governance not tanks rusting in Aldershot or HMS Kent on suntan tours.

Or twits like Farage wrapping himself in the flag for a world that ended in 1991.

Time for Change
www.votegarbutt.co.uk
@timg33

Broken Election. Scared Cops. Corrupt Council.

What a dull election.

And what flimsy candidates.

With no clear majority no party will have a mandate to lead in Kent or elsewhere.

And at District it's even worse with not one manifesto published: a few random people filling in forms to stand for something other for the next 5 years.

Here are some wider principles for District/Town candidates if you want to vote:

a. Avoid doublehatter candidates: desperately trying to crowd out dissent by standing in multiple seats
b. Avoid candidates who aren’t standing in their own town
c. Avoid turncoats – scraping around just to be elected
d. Avoid candidates who’ve served 10 years or more: they’ve had their chance
e. Avoid candidates without a manifesto for Thanet – you’ll struggle on that one again just 10 days to go
f. Vote Other ie Green/Reality/Ind/Lib to end Corrupt TDC
g. Avoid family team members in the same party - again essentially duplicate votes

Rascals to vote out:

i. Latchford – repulsive, and failure at KCC and the Infratil monitors. Our Little Corporal is likely to defeated either by General Winter or in KCC 2017 – by me
ii. Heale – repulsive and failure at KCC
iii. Everitt – the Port and Pleasurama secrecy/fraud
iv. Bayford – silent on Pleasurama/tax havens and Painter
v. Negro Roz
vi. Eileen the civil servant

But here’s the key thing: Vote Farage in South Thanet and Ed Targett in North Thanet.

What I hear you cry? Tim says vote Farage?

Yes. With one proviso: vote out Latchford and Heale.

Why hold your nose and vote Farage? UKIP are a spent force with or without him of perhaps 3 or so MP’s and some polls say as low as 1 ie Carswell. And along with Cameron a leadership election before 2020.

We may even have a collapsed parliament and election before 2020 due to gridlock and inaction – it was already the Empty Parliament for 2 years before 2015.

UK politics is largely regional now: SNP in Scotland, Labour in the South, Tory in the South and Plaid Cymru in Wales and DUP in Ireland. And a sprinkling of Libs, Greens and Inds.

So let’s get Farage elected as unpleasant as he is.

Already he's backtracking on Manston and indeed every other policy as nothing to do with him but at TDC responsibility. So why be MP?

Every television or newspaper interview will be about Manston – and Latchford and the Infratil removed monitors - and the contaminated aquifer.

The Police are too scared to do anything now about the corruption and 0% fraud but will have to.

Broken Election. Scared Cops. Corrupt Council.

Time for Change
www.votegarbutt.co.uk
@timg33