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

Dear Editor Here we go again. Barry Coppinger Police PCC of Cleveland writes in today’s Independent that police budgets should not be cut. Because he’s spoken to senior police officers. Well I never. Xmas and turkeys are nearer than I thought. Rather than ratchet the fear and paranoia levels up a few notches, why not cut police budgets? At the very least they didn’t prevent terror attacks so to paraphrase Dave Brown’s thoroughly unpleasant scaremongering cartoon heads must roll. And the Paris attacks weren’t deterred by Frances’s nukes or aircraft carriers or even 20,000 UK Cold War troops still sat nearby in Germany watching their tanks rust. Or even with GCHQ already monitoring every phone and internet call. Surely we should consider the effectiveness of a mish-mash of 43 police forces (larger than the Royal Navy) tripping over each other. Or the ludicrous procurement waste of different police boots costing from £25 to £125. Or the Police Scotland £737k copper. Or even th...

Cheer up Cancer Victims. It’s not so bad. It could be worse. Before we talk about the problems in Kent from Infratil and Thor mercury and Southern Water and TDC and KCC have a think about cancers Agent Orange or Minamata or Thor Cato Ridge. Almost all the info is googleable. There’s a few interesting points in the book “An Army Waiting to Die” perhaps the definitive source on Agent Orange. The book is useful in summarising the problems of Agent Orange but also the battles of US army veterans with the government for medical screenings and treatment – the book title referring to the policy of simply waiting for them to die off. Similar to the UK more recently with Ghurka pensions or soldiers in the Pacific nuclear tests or Gulf War syndrome of uranium and chemicals or even medals for the Arctic Convoys. Wait long enough and they’ll die off and hey presto no extra costs to be found. Also relevant for the Syrian War and Assad’s use of chemical weapons even more recently. ...

I wanted to write on the FOI review by Jack Straw: email, below and you can write too or copy and paste/amend this note if you want before 20th November: foi.commission@justice.gsi.gov.uk Dear Sir/Madam Page 37 of today's Private Eye eloquently lists the outcomes of various FOI investigations: MP expenses, offshore companies, Saudi/MOD arms bungs etc. I would particularly cite though here similar Kent outcomes: * Infratil secretly removing airport monitors at Manston with the council thus contaminating 100k people * Ostend gunrunning and secret IranAir flights * Pleasurama tax haven corruption by council * Greg Clark's gardengrabbing review * 0% TDC salary fraud - declaring no pay increases but secretly providing 10% increases * KCC salaries the most over £100k in UK etc * Southern Water sewage and faeces in the drinking water * Thor mercury banned factory open and contamination by Env Agency inaction Also the failures: * Environment...

Speaking from the Great British Shakespeare room at Maidstone Police HQ Chief Constable Alan Pughsley said: "Many people have congratulated me on the Kent Police haiku from last week and asked for more. Especially as in the bustle of our everyday policing days it's often relevant to take time out and reflect on reform - whether that be procurement, tasering junkies and dealers, wider social policy or verse. That's why I'm delighted to be continuing the Meiji Kent initiative to promote such activities through the medium of haiku. I wandered lonely as a cloud on my beat Winter draws in Many pensioners dead from cold" Chief Constable Pughsley went on to point out that no more than £50M of the Kent Police £300M budget would be spent on poetry, and the cost would anyway be far cheaper than normal Kent council corruption or social failure. Time for Change www.votegarbutt.co.uk @timg33 Tim's Titbits: * a useful meeting at TDC this wee...