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

Marvellous to see East Kent’s role in Waterloo celebrated at Broadstairs with the landing of the Napoleonic Eagles from HMS Northumberland on their way to London to declare the victory over Napoleon 200 years ago. A shame that Wellington’s headquarters in Ramsgate and the Arches built for the embarkation to Waterloo were ignored but there we are. And Walmer Castle near Deal Wellington’s retirement home will be celebrated in the future which is good. East Kent really should be thinking though of commemorating Waterloo more substantially with an Eagles Museum for example. And fun to see Nigel Farage turning up at Waterloo described as “a man in a pinstripe suit drinking beer from a plastic cup and joking with Napoleon”. After the Farage defeat in last month’s election and a month into the UKIP district council it looks like the wheels are coming off in slow-motion. Nationally this week UKIP dissolved into more bickering - with Farage’s deputy Suzanne Evans both insulting him a...

David Cameron at the G7 Summit cites both the "cancer of corruption" that needs exposing and "disease detectives" to combat pandemics. Clearly that's relevant in Kent with the silence around the Pleasurama BVI tax haven over the years - surely Bayford as an accountant and senior cabinet member can cast light on this? Or the strange issue of Edwina Crowley the TDC property chief setting up her own property company cited on Ed Targett's blog. Or Infratil and the missing monitors and fines at Manston: several million quid ignored by the council but without a vote. As secretive as the Port multimillion writeoffs of our tax or MOD Fire pollution. Or the laughable disastrous delays again at Dreamland. Money that could have been spent on say the Cyberknife hitech removal of cancer tumours sprouting from the lack of pollution controls or the MIT medical mirror to improve health. All the more peculiar as Gloag is currently in the USA citing her billion...

It's early days for UKIP at TDC and Kent's institutions are certainly not racist, yet with UKIP as opposition at KCC, a TDC UKip council and Kent Farage along with TingTong Janice, NegroRoz etc means there is - and certainly the potential for - a problem. The first green shoots of Golliwogs and BNP racism are already popping up from the TDC UKIppers which is not good. All the more disappointing as the UKippers - being amateurs in the best sense of the word - and new to TDC, have the opportunity to instigate real change. I would already single out, for example, Cllr Sam Baimbridge in helping on points such as garden grabbing etc. Today though for example Private Eye magazine at length describes both Manston as a foolish project and details: “..the former Conservative regime run by the disgraced Sandy Ezekiel…there’s no doubt that Thanet council a byword for corruption and skullduggery was crying out for new blood. Whether Wells’ band of inexperienced elderly blokes an...