Manston spirals downwards and GarbuttMP2020 points

Garbutt draft KCC Leader 2017 and MP 2020 manifesto out for consultation and a few points in more detail below:

1. Lebanon: women’s rights tweak – illegal for a woman to vote unless she's completed elementary education. Doesn’t apply to men. A minor gender equality tweak though as both sexes c.94% complete elementary education. Nevertheless gender discrimination given all Saudi women can now vote. Only UAE and Brunei have equal opportunities of not allowing anyone to vote(!).

2. EU vote at 16: #whennotif the EU introduces a universal vote at 16. How can territories such as Jersey or various German regions or nations such as Scotland and Austria allow vote at 16 but not elsewhere? Wasn’t a key point of the EU to introduce consistent standards?

3. UK elections exams: politicians are the only public sector workers without exams. Elected then 5 years of fixed term power. Kent has politicians that can barely read or write. A simple multichoice exam on various political points should be introduced. While a minimum and maximum age for such roles say 30 and 80 should be introduced as well as fixed terms.

4. Royals and Military Oath: abolish the loyalty oath of the military to the royals and replace with to parliament and the public. A 17th century leftover.

5. End Dictators: one of the greatest threats to UK eg Saddam, Gadaffi etc. End the last 5 African dictators with fixed terms and no extensions eg Equatorial Guinea, Cameroon, Zimbabwe etc.

6. UN Secretary-General: clear election procedure and public and UN Assembly choice rubberstamped by Security Council. No more Buggins Turn empty symbolism and secret rotas of tame officials: an East European this year or a woman next year. Maybe both at once to solve a non-existent problem. Closed shop discrimination.

7. Nuclear disarmament: the only WMD not limited. Reduce stockpiles to under 1,000 for USA and Russia and under 50 for existing nuclear nations with roadmap to zero.

8. Rabies: 70,000 deaths every year mainly in India nb the global death rate is 0.88% pa: c.54m deaths – and 90% of those could be reduced with existing infant care eg measles vaccinations etc. Why should UK have twice the infant death rate than Sweden for example?

9. G20 Third World aid: roadmap to 0.7% GNI aid budgets nb the EU spends more on dog food than the global Third World aid budget.

10. #GlobalGoals: now launched and ratified 1stjanuary 2016 to achieve zero poverty etc by 2030. Not one Kent public sector organisation as yet signs up. Road accidents to be halved etc but Tobacco Framework feeble. Strangely no mention of a unified Space Programme for 2030.

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

Tim’s Titbits: Misc points:

A. Predictive policing: Kent Police’s Mystic Meg policing experiment results in…an 11% increase(!) in crime according to The Economist last week. Who would have seen that coming? Yet strangely Kent Police seems to be hailing this as a great success and the basis for more research. More later and details of Kent Police Panto and 007 review…

B. Worth noting the excellent Kent Police drug den raids in Operation Jupiter: a drugs den raid every day, and Knife Amnesty 2016.

C. Kent Tourism silent on James Bond/Fleming Trail given the launch of Spectre after Skyfall the biggest Bond and British move ever. Shocking. Positively shocking.

D. Ann Barnes yet again with over a year(!) for CPS/Police/PCC/KCC and Uncle Tom Cobley and all to investigate a minor insurance car prang. The Yoof Tsars and DaftAnnVan mobile police stations twaddle. What an utter, utter waste of time and money. 2016 Police election in May.

E. Silence from FOI Finchy and the Kent Fire Brigade £1M fire station on the rates. Interesting too with the Jack Straw review on the effectiveness of UK FOI. I’ve never understood how having the EU EIR provides FOI yet the UK introduces its own law – with numerous (possible) exemptions. The British Disease of Secrecy.

F. Silence on the Broadstairs rape lawyer.

G. Silence on Gale MP being sued by the council for criticising the council.

H. Just awful Vagina Added Tax: bizarre VAT charge on tampons www.bloodydisgrace.org not instantly rectified as a medical or public health issue and even available on prescription like condoms or the pill

I. Manston: Freudmann offers sweeties and a pony to the Carter and the councillors with holidays to Torremolinos for a cargo airport on the rates. Just like EUJet then… And never mention the missing monitors and 4x EU safe cancer levels. But nothing else done in 6 months. Nothing. No TDC or KCC activity at all. Nothing. Only fake election promises and another dance around ignoring the aquifer.

J. Silence on Discovery park and pharma/science jobs.

K. Silence on the bizarre slipways building at the only(?) Royal Harbour in UK if not the world: first a restaurant then a Hornby thingummy. A bungalow in search of a reason on the rates.

L. Silence on Button and Sproates at TDC the Manston pollution clerks.

M. Silence on the aquifer pollution and Thor mercury contamination.

N. Silence on the BVI tax haven Pleasurama reshuffle and fake Wetherspoons Pav consultation.

O. Litter Police: £50k to the contractor and c.£3k to TDC? Why aren’t the normal police handing out tickets or council staff on an afternoon rota?

P. Silence on the £12M shortfall and council tax strike requiring more budget cuts. Who would you sack at TDC?

Q. Silence on 100 SE Rd gardengrabbing: bizarre planning permission approved despite being repeatedly rejected excuse. And Daniel Gent Construction carbuncle.

R. Grabbin’ Grabiner speaks: Lord Grabiner, the head of the GlickGate fraud firm One Essex Court finally speaks in the Lords – silent all this year – to resign the Tory whip (amend: it was the Labour whip but how would you know?). But still silent on why as a Lord he was charging hundreds of thousands of pounds for chairing a Bank of England review of the LIBOR fraud – and heavily criticised by Parliament for a feeble report. Silent on GlickGate of course with hatches battened down to avoid explaining Glick’s review and the Ali Bongo barrister Hollingworth providing fraudulent invoices to High Court – but refusing to do so to BSB. Silence. More time as a director at Wentworth the £125k entry-fee golf course, advising Parliament on tax(!) or director of Lincoln’s Inn selecting barristers for the High Court closed shop…no doubt.

S. On the tax point I don’t understand how barristers employed in a barrister company are described and taxed as self-employed? Do you? Even LLP lawyers aren’t classed as self-employed?

T. Silence on Judge Smith’s missing underpants. Dread nought he says in the Smithy Code - although it seems to have come out as Fister not Fisher(!). Although it is the Royal Navy. The underpants must be found – even if the CEO of BA is arrested and jailed and brought to High Court on the rates. 100 High Court judges seems about 80 too many.

U. Red Meat and Sugar Tax cancer etc: feeble UK food safety standards and delays for #whennotif reform.

V. COP12 Climate Change in November in Paris: talking shop of inaction. Why has every public sector office not switched to solar or wind electricity? A simple and quick and cheap no-brainer. A UK lead potential too in a Climate Parliament of Mayors of smaller towns beyond Big City Bloomberg initiatives etc eg Kirklees rather than New York etc.

W. NemoLink Planning permission for cables through Pegwell Bay the SSSI and Ramsar UNESCO site. Surely the whole point of such designations is that they are meant to simply avoid such construction work? Silence on burying the pylons too. More to follow.

X. Redcar SSI/Scunthorpe/Motherwell UK steel industry etc: how foolish to allow the destruction of the UK steel industry with the growth of hispeed rail and UK car industry – State Aid twaddle given the German government for example actively funds say Volkswagen and China’s State steel industry has been illegally dumping cutprice steel for years. Northern Powerhouse and Maker’s Britain falls at the first hurdle.

Y. Payday Loans reforms underway but Victorian Living Wage reforms weak: credit to Aldi introducing the 2020 Living Wage of c.£9ph already(!). More reasons to shop at Aldi!

Z. KORA and 2LB and EKFOS nearly ready.

Tim’s Bits: some personal bits and bobs of mine:

1. Looking for university lecturer role at Kent Uni, CCU, or LSE or Thammasat: advertising/business studies. Anyone know of anything?
2. DVD or online shop link for Contraband movie set in WW2 Ramsgate.
3. Insurance company client wanted: www.sincerityagency.co.uk
4. Volunteers wanted: charity tenders www.surinschoolcharity.org nb weblink changing in the next day or so.
5. Kent’s apples and orchards. Anyone know?

Broken Kent and UK elections

FAO Michael-georg Link, Director OSCE, Office for Democratic Institutions

Dear Michael-georg

In your OSCE election observer/reporter role I wanted to raise various issues with the UK/Kent 2015 elections:

1. Not free: £500 or £5k charge for candidates
2. Illegal candidate: LibDem in in Thanet North election George Cunningham a civil servant for the EU/Taiwan
3. Dual roles: MP and magistrate – not strictly illegal but not a separation of powers
4. Doublehatters: numerous candidates standing for roles ie 4 seats but the same person so reducing democracy and increasing costs
5. Parachute candidates: numerous candidates from out of area ie diminishing local representation
6. Numerous family members and ex-civil servants standing
7. Police silence on point 2 despite being the required investigative authority
8. Electoral Commission: ditto
9. Vote at 16: bias to some UK regions eg Scotland (as well as in EU eg Austria) with greater representation
10. Postal ballots: numerous and weak
11. Election night ballot box counting discrepancies: some counts returned within two hours and some 12 hours for similar numbers of ballots
12. Hereditary Lords: a strange internal/undemocratic election when a hereditary Lord dies
13. Lords: excessive numbers – the largest assembly outside of China
14. Civil service £62k fee for election night – excessive cost and should be contractually required
15. FOI: weak and presumption towards seeking exemptions and minimising EIR and illegal eg Environment Agency and Fire Brigade refusing Public Interest test
16. UK High Court: fraud and weak BSB/SRA regulatory oversight as Clementi review
17. Sangcom – previously Al-Yamamah – Saudi guns for bungs bribes by MOD with specific MOD and civil service departments to bribe Saudi princes
18. Local Government Ombudsman: a tame whitewash facility
19. Ostend/Manston/Lydd/Vienna airports gunrunning and banned flights
20. Election manifestos vague/incomplete and not provided unti 10 days before an election despite fixed terms
21. Thor/Southern Water pollution ignored/illegal

It is worth noting the various corruption incidents in Kent – by the councils eg Infratil monitors, Pleasurama BVI tax haven, 0% salary fraud etc as detailed in Private Eye describing the councils as: “ a byword for corruption”.

Can you advise on the above are OSCE election observers seem invisible in UK and the above should form part of your reports and recommendations for reform.

Kindest regards
Tim Garbutt

The end of Wells and UKIP with Manston.

Clearly Manston is already a dead duck.

Indeed one point that seems to have escaped UKIP et al’s notice is the sale of Jentex at the corner of the airfield – which was the fuel store.

So UKIP – and Tories - are trying to reopen an airport without planes or fuel or radar or buildings – only a runway that could be a lorry park.

Maybe a Parkway train station soon.

Don't titter.

And after, almost 6 months, nothing for UKIP to show for being elected but an internal revolt and end of their majority to just one - and now none.

And the DCLG poverty figures slide backwards to one of the worst in UK. Today Medway cited as the worst in UK for Year 4 schools.

Not exactly a flagship process for Britain’s only – and last? - UKIP council.

While at KCC any plans for Manston and trust in Latchford and Shonk and the NF chap were completely rejected. So UKIP at County has absolutely no policies.

And to lose one District councillor is careless. But five?

And are election promises so weak in a British election that all the parties are idiotic enough to want an airport on the aquifer? What next? A free Ferrari for everyone? A nuclear reactor on the aquifer? Free cancer?

Bayford and Gale and the Tories have hardly covered themselves in glory by remaining silent on their policy for Manston.

Surely attention must focus on Bayford rather than Wells now for explanations on Manston and BVI Pleasurama.

Interesting that today’s Private Eye details c.60% of property sales by value in Kensington are to tax havens…and the most popular destination for tax haven funds in UK is…BVI - as funded with Pleasurama.

With a Tory crackdown on tax havens Bayford as the senior Tory figure from Ezekiel onwards must have details of Painter’s and Keegan’s plans for the site and funds? And I don’t understand why a council would get involved in building a hotel without a hotel company? And shunt the money offshore?

And why are TDC – despite Crowley leaving – allowing the bizarre new sale of Pleasurama to Keegan/Cardy (see point 7 below) to cover their tracks when the whole thing expired and could have been cancelled instantly in February?

As KCC Leader I will halt the development and call in the police. Sussex Police if Kent Police are too scared.

For this we pay over £3Bn in Kent tax?

Chimps and lame duck governance.

But the new spat between Wells and Yerrall of River Oak is revealing for a couple of things:

1. Despite public utterances to the contrary there have been neither meetings not emails between TDC and Riveroak until last Wednesday when Wells supplied a whole bunch of rather lame excuses for Riveroak to respond to. These have suddenly emerged? Not before May? Or in the last 6 months? And very bizarre Wells rounds on the Manston supporters to get them to source crowdfunding - despite his election pledge!

http://www.kentonline.co.uk/thanet/news/manston-negotiations-on-the-rocks-44590/

2. Astonishing that Tony Freudmann of Riveroak and formerly Wiggins at Manston was not only Leader at Shropshire County Council but was banned from that role as well as struck off as a solicitor and Deputy Judge(!) for stealing client money. So much so that his law firm partners not only withheld his company car when they sacked him – but let the tyres down to make sure he didn’t take it(!).

https://www.facebook.com/manstonpickle/posts/967829353240959

The latter raises some key issues:

A. How on earth did TDC and KCC think Freudmann at either Wiggins or now Riveroak was suitable to run Manston? So much so as Wiggins when it went belly-up after the EUJet scandal had various other accounting fraud issues raised.

B. The increasingly ridiculous LocalCraigMP - now reduced to highlightiong tax on public loos, yawn - and Gale and Bayford remaining silent on the Tory election promises to reopen Manston. How will they do that without fuel and on the aquifer?

C. An interesting point in Yerrall’s emails that TDC had previously hired KCC for legal advice(!) before using their own lawyers – presumably Geoff Wild of the Toxic Three and his huge lawfirm on the rates of 150 lawyers at KCC?

D. As with Glick QC and Hollingworth of One Essex Court (the former a High Court Judge) we have the astonishingly feeble oversight of lawyers and barristers. The SDT Tribunal for Freudmann made much of the outrage of stealing client money but excused it on the basis that it may have been the lawyers funds later! Presumably if they’d issued a large enough invoice to take it! And rather than jailing him as they admitted was the main route, chose to issue a fairly minor fine. And up he pops again.



As with the Broadstairs rape lawyer, in hiding for accusing a rape victim of lying about their client and to withhold testimony we need far tighter implementation of the Clementi reforms.

Silence so far on Smithy’s suitcase: Judge Peter Smith’s (he too was involved in GlickGate briefly you may remember) lost suitcase where he threatened the arrest of the BA CEO(!) in a separate BA case in High Court unless he had his underpants returned.

I will be writing to the Chief to see if Kent Police have had any lost property handed in.

http://www.legalcheek.com/2015/07/full-transcript-of-judges-luggage-rant-at-british-airways-lawyers-emerges/

Smithy’s a bit of a character with his Smithy Code in the Da Vinci case. You couldn’t make it up.

He's at it again. But the Judge must have his underpants back.

The SRA and SDT and BSB are tame whitewash organisations designed to dissolve away complaints and boost law costs. And often taken over by lawyers themselves despite meant to be independent. While secret courts and lack of jury trial ensure courts are closed shops for lawyers.

How can for example Glick QC run One Essex Court yet sit as a High Court Judge in the same court where most of his cases are heard? What an outrageous conflict of interest.

We need far reaching legal reforms if the UK legal system isn’t to remain the laughing-stock of the world for only Russian oligarch libel cases on the court rates:

• Fixed and transparent fees and end of fees upfront – the latter a licence for invoice shaping
• End Judges working for law firms
• End barrister and lawyer secret meetings with Judges
• End magistrates sitting as MP’s – as with LocalCraig
• End secret courts and reintroduce jury trial and a minimum of 3 judges per case
• Limit shunting cases to different courts
• End LLP law firms and barristers/staff as supposedly self-employed
• End the new guilty court fees in advance
• Uphold courts financial limits eg High Court £100k
• Overhaul SRA etc to act for the public not lawyers

No wonder only one barrister in 800 years(!) has been jailed.

And astonishing with the breathtaking corruption in Kent through most political parties and councils, not one lawyer or law firm has stepped forward to highlight such injustice. Given their whole work ethic is supposed to be upholding justice – and often funded for it through Legal Aid or CPS as well as practising it in public-funded courts it seems astonishing.

Perhaps Kent lawyers and judges don’t drink or bathe in Southern Water.

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

Tim’s Titbits; Misc Points

1. KCC have finally issued under FOI their latest investment funds details – your tax funds for council and police etc pensions. And c.£40M invested in 2 tobacco firms. And c.£100M(!) with Climate Change oil and gas firms. Hardly sensible given both KCC’s public health remit and Climate Change cant. Please email me at timgarbutt@yahoo.com if you want the full list of investments

2. On the latter Climate Change point, it’s astonishing that Ashford’s recycling rate is only 13%(!) despite signing various empty Climate Change council pledges – I do have my doubts as to whether Kent’s recycling after being sorted by the public is simply dumped in the same landfill hole?

3. G20 Summit in Turkey next month and an astonishing bit of guff from the pre-Summit tourism pledge – more later

4. 2LB and KORA almost ready to launch

5. Dreamland wooden railway to reopen this weekend – announced this week. Shambolic marketing. Who knew?

6. Silence on the ownership of Dreamland and 100 SE Rd gardengrabbing still although I’ve been asked to another TDC meeting (5th November is the earliest they can apparently), and Wetherspoons and the Pav given Edwina’s recent resignation given this murky activity. Ask Simon: simon.thomas@thanet.gov.uk

7. Pleasurama clifftop scaffolding only just finished being put up- after repairs were due to be completed. So much for Cllrs Townend and Evans in Planning. Silence too on the weird sale by TDC from tax haven Keegan et al to Cardy. Surely Messrs Bayford and Painter must know something about this? And why exactly a council would be building a hotel without any hotel buyer? And on the largest seafront plot in Kent if not the UK? And the whole lot registered in a Caribbean tax haven? Surely Bayford as Tory Leader or LocalCraig MP/Magistrate or Gale will speak up given Tory and EU policy of clamping down on tax havens? Why not call in the police? As KCC Leader I will and cancel the whole stinking mess.

8. UK heroin deaths triple – and rise in knife crime. Kent Police snoozing in the station rather than sorting out machete sales. They’re already banned.

9. FOI Finchy silent: still no news from CEO Millington and James Finch at Kent Fire Brigade on the fancy Ramsgate Fire Station: james.finch@kent-fire.org.uk can you help? Simply email Finchy and say

“Dear James, Under EIR please advise to me the issues Tim has raised with you.”

Some 10 years after FOI legislation (that was required way back in 1948 by the UN and nations such as Sweden and USA have had for almost 50 years) we still have the public sector desperately trying to cover up what it’s doing on our dime.

10. An excellent article in The Economist on the reduction of malaria to under 500k deaths with 44% of at risk groups (mainly under5’s in Africa) now with bednets. As well as the reduction of polio to almost zero and measles to 96k deaths down form 2M in 1980(!). Astonishing though that eradication of such diseases as well as rabies or Chagas or EU rare diseases is supposed to take another decade or two. Why? There are billions in funding and excellent communications in roads and railways and radio and television and internet. And these diseases in EU and USA were eradicated almost 50 years ago. The collapse of Syria has shown that the greatest long-term threat to Britain apart from Climate Change are dictatorships and pandemics not refugees or terrorism as such.

11. Operation Stack in parliament today again – more later. Still with a £500M price tag though as KCC bleats about refugees costing an extra £8M. I’ve asked for details of council reserves – how much is set aside each year for such contingencies. Have a guess. We’ve already seen c.£37M of your money invested in tobacco as above.

12. Homer sues Gale letter – more later. Fascinating the council Chief Executive threatening to sue the MP (as with Cllr Driver before) for accusing the council of incompetence etc. Presumably with public funds. Fascinating. Silly. But fascinating.

13. LIBOR jail sentences progressing with more bankers on trial for rigging the rates on your mortgage and credit card.

14. An interesting point on UK guns for bungs with Saudi – essentially an MOD mechanism to sell jets and pay bribes to Arab princes (as we know in Kent with Jonathan Aitken the former MP and Al-Yamamah case part of the Sangcom fraud). Why are UK civil servants and tax being used in this way? And astonishing that the UKTI dept (DSO)that deals with arms sales has 120 civil servants based in London – more than all the other UKTI sectors put together. No wonder UK does so badly in exports if we’re all busy funding monopoly arms companies and monopoly public services and Arab princes. Shut up! Work Harder! Pay more!

15. Good that both smoking in cars and plastic bag legislation introduced – although reducing stores and banning plastic bags completely and in all shops is a flimsy waystation to real reform. The Pacific Plastic Patch is the size of Texas and will only get bigger as plastic corrodes

16. Ramsgate Port and GEFCO car shippers: more later - although I don’t understand how Wells is claiming 50 new jobs for drivers? Surely cars would be c.10 per car transporter and the drivers of those transporters would drive them on at Ostend or wherever, and off and away from Ramsgate? Resulting in no new jobs at all beyond - perhaps - a few more security guards or cleaners and noise and fumes? Or is it a car park?

17. Pegwell Bay Nemo Link: more later, but apparently TDC has given planning permission to lay cable through the middle of the UNESCO site. What’s the point of UNESCO and SSSI protection then?

http://www.public-notices.co.uk/thanet/view/13117/the-national

18. Kent Police and Manchester Police investigation into Chief Inspector John Buttress who is accused of various spurious crimes by his own police force that were all dismissed – and Manchester Police now lose control of Salford as Mexchester with two gang shootings yesterday, 18 in the last year, plus the deaths of the two policewomen by grenade.

http://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/the-northerner/2015/jan/30/chief-inspector-john-buttress-cleared-manchester-police-officer-gets-his-job-back

19. SDG goals #globalgoals launched last week. Not one Kent sector public sector organisation even pays lip service to them as yet.

20. Marina Slipways - more later but what a mess again.

21. Parkway £17M train station. Stop tittering. You've paid £17M for it.

Chief: Kent Police haiku for National Poetry Day

It's National Poetry Day and The Chief has released a Kent Police haiku to celebrate:



Roses are red, Violets are blue

Kent councils are corrupt and High Court too

But not Kent Police.



Speaking from the Kent Police poetry room, Chief Alan Pughsley said:


"Obviously we is very busy what with drug dens raids and the Kent Police Xmas panto, but we felt it was in the tradition of Great British Policing celebrating the Great British Creative Industries that we should help celebrate National Poetry Day.


Especially in Kent, he said, the county of literary greats like Dickens and Shelley and Keats, we felt that a Meiji haiku would be interesting. It doesn't rhyme properly but that's haikus for you. And anyway the Environment Agency contamination had too many syllables in it to fit.


Meanwhile if anyone knows the whereabouts of good governance then please call 101 as it is missing."

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