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

What a dismal weekend for Ramsgate. The Bank Holiday a mix of sunshine as you’d expect for a Great British Bank Holiday. But the towns continue their decline. First we have the shock news of Dreamland going bust again – at Xmas and now the Bank Holiday. The knives will be out for the rascal Tim Howes the TDC lawyer-clerk who handled the shady handover(!) of Dreamland owned by TDC through compulsory purchase for the Godden’s housing estate. And then handed it to Sands Hotel. No information as to why or contracts. And Sands even suing TDC –and winning a secret payout so undoubtedly more that Leader Wells is keeping secret this mess. Howes even seems to be making Wells’ decisions for him in TDC refusing to search for other Manston buyers. I agree with the decision but it’s down for the elected Leader to make that call or not. Not the clerks. And if the clerks are making those decisions, either upfront or through backseat driving, then the Leader needs to sack them. And t...

This is funny. Even for Kent corruption and incompetence. I promise you, you won’t believe it at first then find it hilarious. Then be horrified. And I thought I’d write a longer than usual blog post as it is the Bank holiday and there’s only a nothing to do event organised by RTC and TDC. Anyway. It’s only a few million in tax to waste. Tim Howes is the in-house lawyer at TDC. Kent corruption at TDC you’re familiar with say the new Port £165k fraud and coverup: http://lovekentloveramsgate.blogspot.co.uk/2016/05/dirty-kent-corruption-and-failure.html http://tinyurl.com/zmjrkyo xxxxx But quickly a last-minute addition: Surin Thai restaurant: the best Thai restaurant in Kent and one of only 45 of any cuisine in Kent according to KM: Surin is recommended by KM newspaper, Kent's largest newspaper, as one of the top 45 restaurants in Kent. Surin is one of only 3 Asian restaurants recommended in Kent (and the other two are Japanese), the only Thai restauran...

Time for a Free Economy: #Switzerland: now a free Basic National Income being outlined #Switzerland: banks to end printing money - Central Bank only #Italy: now a free daily ration of 50L of water suitable for most domestic needs #Finland: now free internet/wifi as a human right #Germany caps interest rates at 10% #Denmark: now free education at any age and extended maternity and paternity leave #EU: now a cap on mobile roaming charges Time for: # free renewables electricity daily ration # free public transport # free mobile/landline phone: monthly cap, always-on emergency service and free SMS # free food: daily healthy needs eg fruit and veg (30% of all food wasted) upto £5 per person per day # free TV licence: scrap the licence for ring-fenced national tax and end 90% of court cases # free Living Wage and Pension and Maximum Salary # free 2nd class stamps and cap first class next day stamp # free children’s clothes and computer/smartphone # 4 day ...

Agenda points: 1.SDG2030/UNMDG: UK as a world leader in Third World aid – but recent issues such as DFID overspending on the 0.7% budget and the perception of “getting the money out” rather than effective problem-solving. In particular UK hasn’t disseminated SDG etc into every public sector organisation which will only delay delivery. I’d argue that 2030 is too distant a goal and many of the SDG’s could be achieved sooner eg 2022 given the success of UNMDG. As well, no action has been taken on either UNMDG or SDG in UK – unlike say Philippines – where the goals are meant to tailored in each nation as a policy blueprint eg UK probably doesn’t have a famine problem but rather issues around food banks and obesity etc. 2.Climate Change: as point 1 but also UK Government seems to have taken its hand off the wheel now Climate Change Laws have been passed on actually implementing Climate Change polices. One small example: public sector offices switching to renewable energy is a no brai...

Yet another dodgy dossier of corrupt Kent: now the £1M Port dredging missing funds investigated by OLAF the EU fraud organisation and UK NAO: http://tinyurl.com/zmjrkyo Yet another UKIP TDC councilor resigning last week - and with no explanation - making a mockery of last year's elections and guff about reopening Manston. And all with 3 ongoing court cases (at last year's election but kept schtum) for council tax and the Leader(!) and the Stolen Valour and shoplifting councilors. Now Kent Police along with 8(!) other police forces investigating the Tory election fraud - so blatant it's taken KP 12 months to dither an try and not investigate. Yet no explanation why Steve Uncles has had 2 years of waiting for trial on previous election fraud allegations - more serious in ballot rigging. Nor why Fergus was banned from the PCC election for minor admin issues - you have to hand-deliver the forms?? On a silver tray?? Silence from One Essex Court and Hollingworth, ...

David Cameron’s Anti-Corruption Summit kicks off tomorrow. And already he’s cited – not unreasonably - Afghanistan and Nigeria as some of the world’s most corrupt nations. “Fantastically corrupt” he says. One in the Commonwealth, and one propped up by UK and NATO troops, and their lives, for the last decade or so. And the Summit is something of a knee-jerk reaction given the tsunami of information from the Panama Papers rampant corruption and fraud cases. Initial reports of the Summit are of a watered down register of information – for police review only not a public register as originally raised. But it should be interesting on not just flagging up Mickey Mouse regimes like Cayman Islands or Gibraltar or Nigeria or even Delaware and South Dakota in USA. But it’s the UK network of banks and accountants and lawyers that make the tax havens happen – HSBC is just one of the main banks that has repeatedly been fined for drug money through its BVI and Bahamas and Florida subsidi...

Kent Remedial: items dragging/incomplete April 2016 1. Richboro: full site clearance/derelict wind turbine removed 2. Thor: closure 3. Pleasurama: cancelled/consultation/site clearance 4. Arlington House: full demolition - Magnitsky plaza/Crimea twin town (and twin towns expanded with other Thanet/EK towns) 5. Broadstairs rape lawyer - search 6. Liberation Route Europe: Kent – Dunkirk/Fortitude-Patton (also Nolan movie: EKFOS) 7. Northern Belle 1857: missing c.12 US Presidential medals 8. WW1: Canada Military/Canadian Red Cross hospitals centred in Ramsgate 9. Slipways: cancelled 10. Pavilion: Wetherspoons: cancelled 11. RTC/TDC: full FOI – monthly updates 12. Hoverport/Pegwell Bay: site clearance/UNESCO protection with Canterbury x3 UNESCO sites 13. Ramsgate Fire station: new £1M garage cancelled and #2 pool repaired/reopened 14. Manston: airport buildings cleared/runway dug up 15. Lydd/Ostend: airports closed 16. Dungeness: closed faster 17. Ramsgate: c.£17Mpa town...

Dear Editor If the PCC election this week are estimated to be another low turnout, surely they'll only be bettered if that's the word by RTC, and both the Mayor and Freeman elections/appointments. Both shrouded in mystery along with the illegal 30% increase in tax: bizarrely RTC's own accounts make no mention of the £130k salaries of Richard Styles and his team presiding over this murk: http://ramsgatetown.org/upload/docs/Draft%20Budget%202016-17.pdf While illegal references to the 1960(!) Local Government Act rather than 2005 Freedom of Information are simply feeble attempts to hide the mess of nothing done again for Bank Holiday, and the highest pensions in Kent governance. Mayor Shonk's parroting of improving Ramsgate (presumably TDC and KCC too) has proved to be empty words and empty ceremony after a year with Pleasurama still derelict and now the Slipways, 100 SE Rd garden grabbing, Pavilion and Slipways farce. The old folks home for ...