Operation Undynamic – Dunkirk forgotten in Kent amidst the corruption and now Dreamland collapse

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 then the disgusting farce of the remembrance and celebration of the Ramsgate Little Ships.

A steel thread that run through Britain with the Dunkirk Spirit and Miracle of Dunkirk as the stiff upper lip made real.

330,000 troops saved from the clutches of the Nazis in 10 says or so. Hundreds of ordinary boats some little more than dinghies heading across to Dunkirk from Ramsgate to ferry the soldiers from the beaches out to the warships and make the return journeys as well.

Usually it’s a major event in Ramsgate, as you’d expect, with the yacht club and Port and beer tents and so on.

And this year?

Nothing.

Nothing arranged at all.

No notices in the weeks running upto the Bank Holiday.

Nothing.

And I stumbled upon a religious service with 20 of the Mayor’s pensioners on the tatty promenade at 3pm on Bank Holiday Monday. Under the shadow of the derelict eastcliff bandstand and corrupt BVI Pleasurama site. Even cars parked on the prom and the RNLI driving around an empty beach on a quad bike.

Dismal.

Frankly the place looks as destroyed as Dunkirk in 1940.

Heads must roll at TDC and RTC.

All the more appalling as this week as the cameras were rolling in France and Belgium for…Dunkirk the movie. Starring Tom Hardy of Mad Max, Cillian Murphy of Peaky Blinders and Kenneth Branagh and one of the One Direction moptops, and directed by Christopher Nolan probably Britain’s greatest living film director: Inception, Batman Dark Knight and Interstellar.

I’ve already raised this with KCC as ideal for my Project EKFOS - the East Kent Film Office and Studio.

We need our own film office to work with Kent Film Office but bang the drum for East Kent rather than just Chatham Dockyard or Maidstone Studios yet again.

While our own film studio will drive regeneration with Dreamland and Paramount theme park as well as creating other jobs beyond the cement mixer. Ideal for that would be the BFI digitisation of old films before they literally rot into dust. The need is there, the money is there, we can and should do it in East Kent.
Clearly though with the Nolan movie, Dunkirk still resonates with younger generations in films and TV and books and websites, and even more so when the film is released this time in 2017.

One example I’m reading is Dunkirk Retreat to Victory and P.224:

“In all some 848 vessels served under Admiral Ramsay for Dunkirk…with meticulous organisation (of the) issue of charts to the skippers...many of whom had never crossed the Channel in their lives. Lieutenant George Grandage RNR working in the Naval Control Office at Ramsgate had three large boxes of charts delivered to his office by London taxi…1,500 charts in all covering the route from Ramsgate to Dunkirk…Grandage worked out the route and his typist produced 500 copies- one for each craft...he and one assistant laid off the courses and positions on about 1,000 of the charts. It took them all day and most of the night.”

He shouldn’t have bothered should he given the current Ramsgate council of duffers?

Just as the Ramsgate SAR naval teams based at the Oak Hotel rescuing 300 downed airmen shouldn’t have bothered. Or 1,700(!) Spitfires shot down over Dunkirk.
The beginning of disaster after disaster for two long years for the UK and Allies from Dunkirk, the Blitz, fall of Singapore – what Churchill considered a defeat even worse than Dunkirk - and sinking of UK aircraft carriers, Pearl Harbour, and greatest US Navy defeat in the Solomons, that only began to turn with Guadalcanal and El Alamein in 1942.

And for Kent didn’t really end until well after Operation Fortitude and DDay, and the V1 and V2 rockets through to March 1945. Frontline Kent indeed.

Just as with WW1 and Ramsgate as the main Canadian Army and Canadian Red Cross base.

We will not remember them.

Mayor Shonk is into this 2nd year as Mayor and sits on all 3 Kent councils: RTC, TDC and KCC and seems incapable of organising Bank Holiday events. Last August we had the amateurish damp bra event from Chief Clerk Styles that was literally a bag of washing and since then nothing.

The lazy pensioners can’t even keep cars off the pavement our out of the pedzone – and I’ve a lot of time for the RNLI but why on earth they are riding quad bikes around on the beach escapes me. More charity money than sense. RNLI money that could be spent on resiting the Margate Lifeboat or revamping the Ramsgate RNLI memorial boards or funding the TDC Beach Volleyball, Beach Soccer and Beach Polo events. Silly of them.

Even defibrillators in pubs and phone boxes and schools would be more useful than building on the beach.

While RTC has £400k in budget and even a fake 30% increase, TDC £16M if not more if they didn’t keep stealing or wasting it and KCC £2BN in tax funds. Each and every year...

Failing to put anything in place for Dunkirk and the Little Ships is disgusting.

In America they are celebrating Memorial Day for their troops – even in Belgium the Wereth 11 massacred in the Battle of Bulge (as the weather would almost certainly be too bad in December).

HMS Kent is even celebrating the WW1 battle of Jutland off Denmark. Why wasn’t here in Kent for Dunkirk? I watched one of the HitlerTV shows on Jutland and was horrified that only now some 100 years later has the royal navy worked out where the sunken ships war graves are. 6,000 British sailors without a recognised war grave. After 100 years. Unbelievable. In America the USS Arizona and other ships at Pearl Harbour are almost shrines after 70 years of preservation and protection.
Even on prime-time Saturday night television with Britain’s Got Talent we have a magic show celebrating some of the River Kwai prisoners.

And an interesting HitlerTV show on how well-treated were German prisoners of war of the Japanese in WW1. Perhaps before Japanese militarism took full effect and the brutality of Nanking and Kwai. Japan in WW1 was then an ally of UK and seized the German colonies in China and Marshall islands, and - after Jutland - the Japanese navy supported the UK in the Mediterranean and North Sea.

Reassuring that the CWG Commonwealth War Graves dept is repairing cemeteries from Flanders to Papua New Guinea and hopefully the Japanese graves of Malta and Anzac graves of Long Thanh.

But how shameful no memorial in UK or Europe to the thousands of Asian soldiers of WW1: Chinese and Vietnamese and Thai and Indian – yet there’s a memorial for animals.

The first VC paving stones are unveiled too in advance of Somme W1 remembrance: interesting to know of any in Kent?

And Turner on the £20 note to be issued before 2020 as one of the new plastic banknotes.

And excellent Pink Floyd stamps as a part of the Great British Music campaign - how long before Dartford’s Rolling Stones or Ramsgate’s Van Gogh with the new Rijksmuseum is recognised?

But here in Ramsgate? Here in East Kent and the White Cliffs of Dover? For the miracle of Dunkirk?

Nothing.

Not just undynamic for Operation Dynamo but absolutely appalling.


* 21st century Britain agenda article: http://lovekentloveramsgate.blogspot.co.uk/2016/05/a-21st-century-britain-agenda.html

* No Tobacco Day Smoking Sincerity article:http://sincerityagency.blogspot.co.uk/2016/05/axaing-tobacco-and-china.html

* EK Remedial points 2016: http://lovekentloveramsgate.blogspot.co.uk/2016/05/kent-remedial-work-and-uk.html

* EK strategy 2016:http://lovekentloveramsgate.blogspot.co.uk/2016/04/garbutt-time-for-change-2016-east-kent.html

* Time for a Free Economy article: http://lovekentloveramsgate.blogspot.co.uk/2016/05/time-for-free-economy-tobacco-china-and.html


Time for Change
@timg33

Tim’s titbits:

1. The Dymchurch immigration scandal seems much ado about nothing: 2 Kent blokes trafficking a dozen or so Albanians is hardly the tsunami of immigration the Daily Mail would have us believe. And as anyone who reads my Kent Public Sector reviews knows how useless the Coastguard is: merely calling out the lifeboat for maritime problems. And they were fast of the blocks in calling for more money and ships for their failure. The sooner they’re merged with the coastal fire brigades the better – a saving of pretty uniforms and offices and effort. And the sooner Fire is merged with Police too. It’s worth noting that the public noticed the Dymchurch dinghy…and then the police turned up. The Coastguard no doubt in bed fast asleep with the RNLI telephone on speed-dial. Useless.

2. Pretty Uniform Watch – an occasional series – I may have actually dreamt it but I’m sure I saw on twitter (@timg33) some police with LGBT Gay epaulettes. You couldn’t make this up. They must have been sat there in the station or panda car sewing on some pretty rainbow epaulettes. The Royal Navy too it seem have another pretty shoulder badge of not the Union Jack but an ensign or St George flag with a Union jack in it. The Highways Agency are beyond parody for their pretty uniform to sit in the office watching CCTV. No wonder troops turn up in Afghanistan or wherever with little more than flip-flops. And invariably the wrong camouflage…Please send me examples of lavish public sector pretty uniforms: timgarbutt@yahoo.com

3. 76 Sussex Police Most Wanted court warrants. What are they doing?

4. DDay Anniversary next week and we can expect little from Kent councils and the Military Covenant. Even the appalling lack of help for service men with homeless or mental health problems or in prison. But there’s DDay Kent playing an unsung role with General Patton and Operation Fortitude in making the Nazis believe the invasion would be at Calais not Normandy. So successful was the deception with blowup tanks and so on that not only were 22 German divisions held at Calais. But even after the invasion they remained there for another 4 weeks(!) waiting for Patton to land from Kent into Calais.

5. Silence from Cllr Lin Fairbrass and Shonk on 100Se RD

6. Silence on the fake Wetherspoons consultation etc

7. Kent Oriental Restaurant Association underway – a group for the Great British Chinese, the Great British Thai, the Great British Indian, the Great British Japanese restaurants of Kent

8. 2LB in progress

9. Silence on the Manston monitors and Infratil and Gloag and TDC contamination and missing fines

10. Silence from Cllr Jenny Matterface, labour leader on Howes switching off councillors emails

11. Silence from CEO Homer at TDC and RTC on the TDC/RTC Cllr Leys election: my manifesto below: later this week

12. A squadron of UK Typhoons to be based in Japan this Autumn as a part of the new defence treaty and North Korean nuclear exercises and Chinese Spratlys tensions – surely it’s time HMS Kent had a regular ASEAN sailing roster rather than random AmbreSolaire tours on the rates?

13. Spanish Armada July 1588 and 430th anniversary 2018: fought between Flanders and Margate with British sailors brought ashore to be left to die in the streets. They could no doubt expect the same again today. Perhaps it would be for the best with Kent’s dirty hospitals – almost all of them in special measures. The astonishing BBC report on Canterbury hospital having a DNR Do Not Resuscitate notice on a patient’s file without their permission. In effect a death sentence. Surely a monthly review is needed of all DNR notices along with blood supplies and pandemics? Lavish £300k salaries don’t seem to provide better public services do they?

14. Crimes against humanity #1: life sentences for the Argentine junta president in Operation Condor with most of the Latin American dictators such as Pinochet and Stroessner cooperating with the CIA and FBI in coordinating the death squads across the Latin American nations in the Dirty War. It’s the first court case to reveal the links with Kissinger, Fort Benning, the torturers training ground, and CIA-FBI coordination with the Latin American dictators, military and secret services, to kill off dissidents.

15. Crimes against humanity #2: Chad’s president jailed for genocide. How much longer for Bashir of Sudan under sentence by the ICC? And Assad of Syria using chemical weapons? Even the dictators-for-life in Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Kazakhstan and Zimbabwe’s Mugabe replacement. Or the monstrous Obiang of Equatorial Guinea or Cameroon. A toothless African Union failing to enforce rubbery-weak constitutions.

16. No Tobacco Day Tuesday: cigarettes almost completely banned now – I cannot understand how lighters, matches, and rolling papers and machines, and even bongs are so visible when cigarettes themselves are not just no longer on display but in uniform packaging? Shouldn’t they all be off-display in the tobacco cupboards? if elected I would ensure that as well as no outside table for smoking, and no more than one cigarette brand for prisons

17. Sincerity article on Coca-Cola: http://sincerityagency.blogspot.co.uk/2016/05/sweet-moves-from-coca-cola.html

18. Surin restaurant review: top Thai restaurant in Kent:


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 restaurant in Kent, and one of only two restaurants in Thanet.


The Surin review is:


SURIN, RAMSGATE CT11 8HA


Thai restaurants may be two a penny, but the Surin offers astonishing bang to the baht. It’s cheap and cheerful but with a freshness and verve you’d expect from a high-end London establishment. Chef and owner Damrong Garbutt has West End training, but it’s her home cooking learnt from her mother and grandmother in north east Thailand, near the Cambodian border, that really hits the spot. Cambodian and Laotian dishes throw in an element of the unexpected and there are locally brewed house beers, blonde or dark, to complement the flavours. Among reviewers who have dug deep for sufficient superlatives to do justice to Surin is food writer Jay Rayner.
http://www.surinrestaurant.co.uk/


The full KM listing is:

http://www.kentonline.co.uk/whats-on/news/our-guide-to-the-best-96108/


Time for Change
@timg33

Kent Corruption: special TDC Tim Howes

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 restaurant in Kent, and one of only two restaurants in Thanet.


The Surin review is:


SURIN, RAMSGATE CT11 8HA


Thai restaurants may be two a penny, but the Surin offers astonishing bang to the baht. It’s cheap and cheerful but with a freshness and verve you’d expect from a high-end London establishment. Chef and owner Damrong Garbutt has West End training, but it’s her home cooking learnt from her mother and grandmother in north east Thailand, near the Cambodian border, that really hits the spot. Cambodian and Laotian dishes throw in an element of the unexpected and there are locally brewed house beers, blonde or dark, to complement the flavours. Among reviewers who have dug deep for sufficient superlatives to do justice to Surin is food writer Jay Rayner.
http://www.surinrestaurant.co.uk/


The full KM listing is:

http://www.kentonline.co.uk/whats-on/news/our-guide-to-the-best-96108/


xxxxx

Chris Wells is proving a gift: tax problems happen- but he claimed it was 2 months’ worth of problems and it’s actually 4 years(!) including bankruptcy(!).

http://www.kentonline.co.uk/thanet/news/council-leader-in-tax-arrears-96375/

Special. And do NOT mention his role in the Airport Committee at Manston as a Tory.

2008 Manston documents onwards available here: http://www.m-a-g.fsnet.co.uk/macc/08_11_25Minutes.htm

Or even KCC corruption and the Toxic Three and the Manston monitors/fines illegally removed by TDC: more aiding and abetting in keeping shtum after financing much of Manston over the years as the jewel in the crown of Kent regeneration.

You may even remember Paul Carter’s infamous “the planes fly straight out to sea” comments as jumbo jets and banned planes illegally flew over the towns.

We never hear much from Pedro in the control tower any more do we? I wonder where he ended up?

Indeed the Egyptair crash in the Med is interesting (to lose a Malaysian airlines flight is careless but to lose an Egyptian one too suggests aviation radar and black boxes etc isn’t ideal) – as you may remember Egyptair often flying into Manston and Ostend at 3am. When the airports closed at 11pm. And would have been closed even allowing for the Cairo time difference when the planes set off…

Making up your own flight rules certainly...but ideal for a plane full of heroin or simply saying stuff it in jihadi and flying into Big Ben just a few minutes away. Maybe even a plane full of guns rather than a tiddly boat at Cuxton Marina in Rochester for Britain’s biggest ever gun haul of 30 machineguns.

Big lumps of gunrunning and blood diamonds is what Ostend is notorious for after all.

You may remember some of the planes that were UN-embargoed from the Congo eg DASAir or even IranAir or KAMAir flying in from Kabul with a fresh load of heroin (the largest ever crop this year despite US/UK NATO and 400 UK troop deaths) With Shan state in Myanmar a close second.

Take a look at the tsunami of junkies and dealers washing around on East Kent’s streets for the effects.

Maidstone is a far, far country though where the Toxic Three do things differently.

But Tim Howes at TDC.

My raising the corruption at TDC has obviously irked him somewhat.

As when I raised BVI Pleasurama etc – and in the week of the AntiCorruption Summit.

A reminder of my note/blogpost: below 12th May "Fantastically Corrupt"

This is the email Howes sent last Friday:


"For a prolonged period of time, you have contacted the council on numerous occasions, asking for
information, and making comments/complaints, most of which are sent to multiple officers, and which
invariably result in further contact from you, despite being already responded to in detail.
You have been provided with a copy of the council’s Policy on Vexatious and/or Unreasonably
Persistent Complainants. This appears to have made no difference to the way in which you conduct
business with the council, and therefore you have now been formally designated a vexatious
complainant.

The consequence of this decision is that the council will not respond to any emails relating to
subjects that have already received a response. This includes emails specifically relating to the
following subjects:

1. The Royal Pavilion/Wetherspoons
2. 100 South Eastern Road
3. Toni’s Newsagents
4. TDC information rules
5. Allegations of corruption at the council
6. Staff salaries and costs

I have instructed our IT department to set up an ‘auto-forward’ rule which means that any emails you
send to the council will be held centrally, and my staff will co-ordinate any necessary responses. To
be clear, this means that any email with a ‘thanet.gov.uk’ suffix will be automatically forwarded to a
central point within the council.
For the avoidance of doubt, this designation does not affect:
 Your right to make service requests
 Your right to complain of service failure
 Your right to complain to the Standards Committee alleging a breach by an elected member
of the Member’s Code of Conduct
 Your right to attend Council or Committee meetings during such times as the press and
public are not excluded
 Your right to lobby councillors and seek the assistance of your ward councilor
 Your right to make a request under the Freedom of Information Act 2000 or the
Environmental Information Regulations 2004 (subject to the council’s policy on vexatious
requests) or to make Subject Access Requests under the Data Protection Act 1998; and
 Your right to complain further to the Local Government Ombudsman
I will review this designation in six months’ time and determine in the light of your conduct whether or
not to remove the designation or extend it for a further six months.
Yours sincerely
Timothy Howes
Director of Corporate Governance and Monitoring Officer"



Funny I know.

TDC’s lawyer says it’s illegal to raise corruption issues at TDC.

And in the week of the AntiCorruption Summit.

Special.

I don’t know what the Law Society whould make of that. Probably membership fee reduction and a pat on the head for the most absurd defence.

More later on One Essex Court and a rather special clerk at the barrister Inns of Court.

But this is double-funny.

Howes created some Vexatious Public Policy (I’ve asked for a copy but he hasn’t deigned to reply – you can only make so much up I suppose…) and I’ve certainly never heard of it before his email that bans me by describing the public as Vexatious Complainants.

No appeal necessary or allowed it seems. All Heil Howes.

The double-funny part being: he didn’t ask the councillors.

A council lawyer not knowing that. And making the decisions for 56 councillors himself. Shades of Philip Bensted at TDC with the Wetherspoons approved by…Philip Bensted and nobody else(!)

And triple-funny.

Howes actually banned me for communicating with any TDC civil servants and elected councillors by redirecting the 56 cllr.first.lastname@thanet.gov.uk email addresses...to his email.

(I’ll come back to the council-issued email in a moment).

But the 4x funny bit is…he didn’t even ask the councillors about that either.

And then…5x funny: he then agrees that I can contact the council about…FOI(!). As well as formal complaints(!). As well as lobbying(!).

So according to Howes, corruption banned from discussions at TDC. Except for FOI. Or complaints. or lobbying.

You just couldn’t make it up.

Sniffing glue would be the only credible explanation for this tripe.

I’m tempted to charge for even reading his nonsense produced on the rates.

Maybe he’ll be banning Christmas next. Bank Holidays events certainly seem a stretch for TDC and £400k Styles at RTC don't they?

I won’t even mention the democratic abuse in a political candidate being blocked in this way – Howes seems to have forgotten my manifesto is…”Stop the Corruption etc…”

And here’s 6x funny.

Stop tittering at the back.

The twerp forgot that not all councillors use the council-issued email.

Many prefer – as I would – to use their own email address eg timgarbutt@yahoo.com etc for convenience.

And he can’t block those.

Jenny Matterface is coordinating a response although she's no sure what’s going on: jenny.matterface@gmail.com

And as well it now raises the Stalinist prospect of a Howes or whoever at councils or public organisations censoring emails from the public by refusing to pass them onto councillors – simply switching the email on and off or redirecting it wherever and whenever they feel like it.

A separate issue I have is with email forms rather than an email address as you simply never know if the email form has been sent, or have a copy of it.

But with Cllr emails (cllr-first.lastname@thanet.gov.uk) I think all TDC councillors should remember who elects them and pay their and Howes’ wages and cancel their TDC email and use their own. They’re not council staff after all but paid to regulate the council staff.

At least then they and the public know they will actually be receiving public emails.

Another TDC niggle seems to be councillors refusing to issue their home address/telno but using the TDC council office address – a piece of information usually rectified by using the phone book or asking them.

Again a democracy deficit.

I've had problems with the publc complaining Shonky's not replying to letters or phone calls on 100SeRd (one of Howes' Do Not Discuss issues). To be fair he's not the only councilor doing that.

There's even an argument that we seem to have councillors that get elected and do nothing. A few monthly council meetings if that. Simply a sheepdip for clerk decisions. Or nothing at all.

Civil servants should issue their home addresses too. Why just councillors? At the very least it would highlight how any/who actually live in the area they are making decisions on/for – localism and all tht. esy for example to rush through 16,000 extra houses at TDC if you don’t actually live there. Why would you care? 16,000 houses or 60,000 is irrelevant to you and merely a task on the way to your paycheck or salary.

Especially if the calibre of councillors is weak – say the Stolen Valour brigade etc. Now driving over a shop assistant’s foot while shoplifting it seems(!).

My view is clear: Howes should be sacked sharpish.

Civil servants banning councillors contact and information – especially when it revolves around corruption is horrifying. But we’ll see.

The calibe of the councillors is now in question as to how they deal with this. Public representatives or clerk's patsy's to sheepdip decisions and hike tax for pensions and payoffs?

As a councillor, I’d sack Howes on the spot. No salary or payoff. No pension. Gross misconduct and out the door. A written formal warning to Madeline too for allowing it.

What would you do?

Howes’ Do Not Discuss ban has one purpose and one purpose alone: to try and hide and dampen down criticism of TDC for corruption by any means possible.

As well we have no the strange saga of Cllr Mo Leys who resigned from TDC/RTC a week or so ago – is anybody left? What are their policies apart from a nice natter on the rates? And the election notices are up by Madeline Howes as TDC Returning Officer.

I’m going to stand. Garbutt for RTC/TDC. But it’s rather baffling.

But contacting TDC on elctions is like juggling treacle. 3 days of requesting forms to silence and Pauline McGandy at TDC saying there aren't any TDC elections until 2019(?). How difficult can it be. Elections come around every year or so. Much the same sports hall or volunteers. It’s not rocket science nor reinventing the wheel.


And no further reply in TDC. Strange. Mo defintely was both a TDC and RTC councillor. Maybe Madeline doesn't want to have an eletion at all or one with me in it? I had similar problems way back when I was refused an election slogan on a ballot paper fo “Stop the Corruption”.

Stalin, I think, again said don't rig the election just bribe the one who counts the votes. I paraphrase.

Kent elections are so weak. Why would any delay in counting them the next day? As with PCC and local elections take all the ballot boxes…and leave them overnight before counting them.

Apart from the dilemma of a day with nobody in charge of PCC or whatever (or someone elected but sharing it with the incumbent for a few days!).

What’s to stop the ballot boxes being stuffed or fiddled with?

I'm not suggesting Madeleine would creep around the TDC election warehouse prising open the boxes and stuffing in votes for herself or an increase in the £60k Returning Officer fee. (There’s a tax cost that could be cut instantly). Indeed increasingly I think no local government salary should be more than £80k. Certainly at TDC we can see a competence and productivity gap (thick and idle in old money) in the service. While the horrific Birmingham council failures in social serices is exactly as happened with KCC albeit fewer deaths and injuries.

But I wouldn’t put it past Vexatious Howes to prise open a ballot box ort two and declare it illegal-but-legal. Maybe a TDC ballotbox stuffing policy?

High on glue or whatever he’s been sniffing in his cubicle at TDC, maybe Howes decides he’ll pad out the ballot for say elderly Trevor Shonk, too forgetful or frail to remember the election or where he’s put his glasses (on top of your head), but he wins with 99.5% of the vote? Hurrah! Mayor for Life? UKIP on and on? Shonky’s Big Book of Farageisms? KCC and TDC and RTC roles? OK that last one is real. So many titles, so little done.

I joke – but it’s not that long ago we had the TDC Panama councillor who was signed into council meetings by colleagues despite living 5,000 miles away wasn’t it? (I dread to think what expenses or pensions are being signed off at TDC or RTC?).

Or Steve Keegan the Terry Painter handyman owning the BVI Pleasurama company in the Caribbean with Kent’s largest seafront development and no blueprints other than building above the clifftop?

Coincidence. Of course. Silly me.

And let’s not forget Berry, Button and Sproates at TDC and their deadly decision to secretly remove the Manston monitors and fake the fines and pollution data – pollution 4x the EU safe limit.

400% dangerous.

How many deaths and early deaths and injuries has that crime caused?

I think they should be jailed. 3 years would be my guess. What do you think?

Elderly Paul Twyman as Airport Chair confused month in and month out for years over by Button and Infratil’s Fitzgerald and Clark and then Gloag, over where the monitors were and why they weren’t or were working. And there was no danger anyway. Phew, he must have said, as he signed off the Manston Airport minutes, no cancer at all.


Twyman like Latchford and Gale is elderly so would likely die in prison if arrested and jailed. Maybe just an electronic tag to keep him out of the Darby and Joan club too late of an evening? Certainly none of them will be in politics again. If they ever were.

Vexatious Howes may well scurry around trying to cover that up. Certainly a qualified lawyer has a duty covered by perjury and perverting the course of justice to raise crimes they know of.

Being a lawyer doesn't give you the right to lie and cheat, despite the liar-for-hire view – quite the oppostite in fact. As with the Police, and Plebgate cops in jail and doubt soon enough the Hillsboro cops too.

More than a few TDC officials will be joining them despite Howes’ feeble efforts.

A minor but strange point for RTC; Styles is advertising for a cleaner: 6 hours over a week (frankly that’s hardly worth bothering with a staff of 5 is it – take it in turns to vacuum and washup yourself? The office is closed every afternoon anyway). But I don't think of a 6 hours on minimum wage job also having a auto-enrolment public sector pension? Have you? Maybe if it was the bottomless fund of tax?

That’s why bureaucracy chokes off economies: ever more expensive to do ever less and ever more burden back onto the private sector. Work harder. Work longer. Pay more. Shut up.

Time for Change

Garbutt for TDC/RTC June 2016 – unless it’s Madeline’s fake election
Garbutt for KCC Leader 2017

@timg33

Tim’s Titbits

1. FOI Finchy at Kent Fire is the same. Simply refusing to provide salaries etc because it would raise questions around the value of the service etc.

One interesting statistic that emerges from the Fire Service nationally (the reforms of having Police mergers etc) is the Fire Brigade is 95% white and 96% male. UKIP’s accused of wanting to turn the click back to the 1950's but the Fire Britage seems to be in the 1920’s.

I'm not really one for quotas in principle and certainly not tokenism but that's astonishing. As is women on boards or parliament ar under 20%. Kent Police achieves 50% BAME membership and there you’d probably say Kent is more white, ethnic minorites may not want to join, work to be done etc etc. but 96% in KFRS?

So a factor either deliberate or not is preventing a more balanced workforce/society. Norway passed a 40% gender equality law c.3 years ago and lo and behold it achieved a more equaly society. UK needs to do the same.

Nick Chard at KCC seemed capable initially but has let things drift with FOI Finchy and now there’s calls for the PCC to take over from councils on Fire Brigade reviews as well as Police-Fire mergers. Seems sensible to me: only 400 fire deaths in UK, and those would invade the police anyway. 43 forces whether police or fire and certainly both of them is far too many and backoffice bloat.

Sometimes Chief Constable Alan “Chief” Pughsley rings me late at night – he’s either preparing for a drug den raid the next morning or he’s jumped in the Jacuzzi to relax with a team debriefing – almost in tears as to what the cops are all doing in the station, and trying to keep tabs on them.

CCTV he reckons or banning Candy Crush and Ginsters. I don’t know, it’s upto him.

But if they do end up being stabbed with a machete on a drug raid then he’ll know they’ll be moaning about Trade Station machetes and daggers and crossbows and bongs and LeftisLife blood tests. Stick to parking tickets is what he should tell them. At the very least charge them for their police vest and underpants. Why should the public fund those? And not enough catalogue trousers. Or Deputy Chief Paul “Marlon” Brandon will when he’s back from PredPol Vegas tomorrow.

2. An interesting article on Central Asian Dictators: http://thediplomat.com/2016/02/central-asias-presidents-for-life/

3. Magnitsky Act and List: progressing

4. EKFOS: East Kent Film Office and film Studio underway; Christopher Nolan, perhaps the UK’s greatest living film director, shooting Dunkirk next month. And an interstellar cast too: Cillian Murphy, Peaky Blinders, Kenneth Branagh, One Direction popstar etc. Should be good for Ramsgate and Little Ships, maybe not. An opportunity missed. Styles at RTC too busy on his afternoon nap – what do they do all day/ And the afternoon within the office closed? An expensive way to waste the rates on meaningless meetings and memos. Small merices they’re not actually doing anything though. Imagine the mess.

5. KORA underway

6. 2LB later

7. 100 SE Rd: Lin Fairbrass in hiding. I've in not so many words called her a lying so and so basically in saying that she had replied to the November minutes. A foolish lie but a fairly common clerk trick. And certainly foolish for the Deputy Leader to attempt. But if she can’t provide the email when requested several times…Public meetings are the only real pace where councillors can be held accountable. The smell of the crowd and baying of the mob and all that.

8. The drought in ASEAN is one of the worst ever – certainly in Vietnam. Concerning with the multi-million UK investment in DaNang University and CCU University exchange programmes. More needed by KentUni and CCU and EKCollege and Churchill House and KSE etc.

9. Discovery Park and #STEM focus and Third World vaccines massively underdeveloped as yet. A random business park of random businesses is destroying East Kent’s future in #STEM.

10. Sincerity Agency article on tobacco and China –

http://sincerityagency.blogspot.co.uk/2016/05/axaing-tobacco-and-china.html

and an interesting SkyTV news report on the Philippines and Chinese Spratlys bases (one a grounded rusting ship rather than a reef!). the UNCLOS ruling due soon: the Chinese claim seems absurd as the Spratlys are further South than HCMC, and even the Paracels are on a parallel with DaNang. As absurd as the UK claiming the Falklands in our 9,000km dash line. The sooner we have the end of such Empire fragments, along with Gibraltar, with a HongKong style handover the better. Argentina and Spain are now modern demcraices and Uk allies, even in the EU, to be held hostage by 3,000 sheepfarmers. Just as Germany and japan are. And again massive waste of Uk troops and kit. And, separately, both Argentina (with much of the Southern Cone) and Spain are massively underdeveloped in terms of UK trade.

11. Nadeem Aziz the PCC Returning Officer silent on my complaint over Henry Bolton standing given he’s a civil servant at OECD etc on borders. Surprising as Nadeem’s usually one of the more capable East Kent clerks. Maybe not

12. EK Remedial points: http://lovekentloveramsgate.blogspot.co.uk/2016/05/kent-remedial-work-and-uk.html

13. EK strategy 2016:http://lovekentloveramsgate.blogspot.co.uk/2016/04/garbutt-time-for-change-2016-east-kent.html

14. Chilcot Inquiry to be published at long last – I ws in favour of the Iraq War: remove Saddam and potential danger of nukes etc. We’ve seen subsequently both the disarming of Gadaffi and Assad and chemical weapons in Syria. 3 monsters. Some of the justifications were weak eg the 15 minutes nonsense which referred to NATO nuclear howitzers. I certainly can’t see how Blair is a war criminal though by declaring war as PM on the information he had, and potential dangers.

Rather, what has been disastrous is the post-conflict development of Iraq and Libya – for much of Iraq to subsequently be overrun by ISIS is astonishing. And same with Afghanistan and loss of Helmand again. Certainly disastrous handling of the war (and all the fancy GCQ/NSA kit) but as reasonable as it could be in declaring war. Chilcot report due c. 7th June: taking longer than the Iraq War itself

15. UK doubles its peacekeeping troops to Sudan and Somalia: two other basketcase nations left to rot and descend into chaos. And an interesting report that almost all UN peacekeeping troops are from Bangladesh, India, Nepal (but not the Ghurkas) and Rwanda. Peacekeeping on the cheap funded by USA, UK etc. What’s the point of our military I they’re incompetent at wars such as Iraq and do almost nothing in terms of peacekeeping? A military training and training and training and kit and kit and kit – to do nothing or to do it so badly so often in the rare instances it’s required.

16. LuckyIronFish a superb product combatting anemia in Cambodia and ASEAN: http://www.luckyironfish.com/ - can you Tweet

17. 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 restaurant in Kent, and one of only two restaurants in Thanet.


The Surin review is:


SURIN, RAMSGATE CT11 8HA


Thai restaurants may be two a penny, but the Surin offers astonishing bang to the baht. It’s cheap and cheerful but with a freshness and verve you’d expect from a high-end London establishment. Chef and owner Damrong Garbutt has West End training, but it’s her home cooking learnt from her mother and grandmother in north east Thailand, near the Cambodian border, that really hits the spot. Cambodian and Laotian dishes throw in an element of the unexpected and there are locally brewed house beers, blonde or dark, to complement the flavours. Among reviewers who have dug deep for sufficient superlatives to do justice to Surin is food writer Jay Rayner.
http://www.surinrestaurant.co.uk/


The full KM listing is:

http://www.kentonline.co.uk/whats-on/news/our-guide-to-the-best-96108/



Surin is also recommended by The Good Food Guide, The Times, The Independent, Thai Embassy Select: UK and European restaurants, and Time Out, BBCTV and The Observer: http://www.surinrestaurant.co.uk/



18. Brexit arguments very dull. Are these the best politicians and arguments we have on the unity of Europe? The flaw in both sides seems that they are unable to detail how wasteful the EU is and what reforms would be required. Simply saying it costs Xmillion is too vague. and 0.3% of UK GDP is hardly outrageously wasteful or problematic – with reform. And it would hardly be redeployed to the NHS. Which departments are wasteful? If we stayed in which I think is for the best and likely then how would it be improved? Certainly it seems the end of the ever more ridiculous Boris.


19. Surprising BBCTV report on 200 London families placed into the redeveloped Howes Barracks site in Canterbury (good to see the prison turned into a CCU site) by London Redbridge council...ahead of East Ken families on the council housing list. Bizarre. First time ever and largest quota ever apparently. And at the very least it knocks into a cocked hat all this tripe about immigrants coming here and taking our jobs etc etc – the largest quota of non-Kent families and vulnerable children are placed form London. Not Calais or Kabul. And much of it could be controlled by the councils already anyway. Mere lack of effort.

20. As with the live animals export: the 1847(!) Ports Act could be tweaked to ban UK exports and it anway allows for Special constables ie the Port staff or police to refuse ships or animals etc. Vexatious Howes our own legal beagle preferring to take up council legal time banning councillors and the public from discussing council corruption or competence it seems…


Time for Change
@timg33

Time for a Free Economy - Tobacco, China and Corrupt Kent, words fail me

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 work week and Public Holidays as EU average: c.11 not 8

# abolition of zero hours contracts and interest rates over 10%

# OneGOV: free email and mobile tel no.

#whennotif

The 21st century will see the NHS or Police and Fire Service commodity pricing extended throughput society. Only premium products and services and business services will be charged for initially.

As with the water supply why would an elected democracy want to charge its citizens for core services? And why would it want to incur cumbersome and wasteful charging and collection processes?

Especially when many such services and production will be both digitised and automated.

Inflation is based on a basket of goods so why shouldn’t a similar process be used for daily rations etc?

A Free Economy is a faster way to free up society.

Somebody alive today in 2016 may well remember the poor houses of the 1920’s and General Strike of the 1930’s and destruction of WW2: no NHS, grinding poverty, education to age 12, few university places, and women only just allowed the vote.

Surely society will improve even more by 2116.

GDP and GNI and a monetised society will be replaced by GDH.

Britain is already trailing many EU nations. Why shouldn’t UK be a world leader and set the pace?



Time for Change
@timg33


Tim's Titbits:

* Sincerity article on AXA tobacco and Future China: http://sincerityagency.blogspot.co.uk/2016/05/axaing-tobacco-and-china.html

* a bizarre note from Tim Howes the legal bod at TDC making up some vexatious accusation for asking about TDC corruption or illegal Pavilion and cutting off access to elected councilors(!)...without telling them(!) etc - more later, although he may not last long

* Words fail me on the £500k EU fraud by TDC and now the White Finger £2M health scandal: Ian Driver's blog covers both the scandals in detail http://thanetgreencouncillor.blogspot.co.uk/ - more later. You couldn't make it up if you tried could you?

* No news yet from Kent police on the undercover Sex Cops - will they shag you? Is it a Police breeding programme on the rates? More seriously, a concern of no democratic scrutiny. And no news on the bizarre Domestic Extremist databases by 43 forces of elected councillors and MP's. Don't Special Branch handle wiretaps of MP's? - more later

* Kent elections weak: no news on the Kent PCC election and Henry Bolton as a civil servant standing. Blatantly illegal. What must they think in the Congo with these Mickey Mouse elections?

* Nor news on the RTC and TDC election from Cllr Mo Leys resigning: TDC aren't sure and RTC shunt it to TDC. So much for UK elections being crisp and clear and clean

Time for Change
@timg33

A 21st Century Britain Agenda

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 brainer, simple and easy but nothing done.




3.Third World UK aid: a review of the balance between DFID activity and providing funds to NGO’s.




4.Space: an overview of how will UK be a world-leader in space – and in what niches? Japan for example leading on Space Junk cleanup, also a UK role in first woman on Mars before 2030?




5.UKPS21C: UK Public Sector in 21st Century: what will/should UK look like in 2100? There seems no longer-term UK plan beyond a parliament or at best SDG2030?




6.Recession Plan: an end to boom and bust is a not unreasonable approach. UK Government should have off-the-shelf projects eg prison build ready to implement at the first signs of recession to ensure they’re as short and shallow as possible. Similarly better warning signs of recession. Also given steel or coal mines in previous years (and Heseltine’s previous work on regeneration) an overview on economic and societal planning/diversity.




7.Free Economy: a term I refer to, as point 5, whereby the UK economy moves towards free services eg Switzerland and the Basic National Income or GNH Gross National Happiness.




8.Digital Britain: given the importance of digital across the UK economy and society an overview of the depth and speed of ensuring UK is a world-leader eg South Korea as a benchmark with 88% smartphone penetration and UK only 68% - but also Latvia and Finland etc. Especially within schools eg Yingluck policy of free computers etc




9.Pandemics: one of a trio of key threats with Nukes and Meteors. UK seems extremely weak: London as TB capital of Europe, weak NHS reporting, lack of blood/organs etc. A massive danger.




10.Strategic Industries and Growth Markets: a huge improvement on previous years yet weak knowledge amongst the public and even civil service.




11.Misc:

a.Hinkley and nukes - foolish in the 21st century


b.Graphene: a huge UK success being wasted – and the UK failing of Great Inventions then monetised elsewhere


c.OneGOV: a Garbutt initiative ie digital government by providing free email/mobile tel


d.Left is Life: a Garbutt initiative: police/military/civilian carrying emergency contact/medical info in a left hand pocket – and police blood tests etc for blood stocks etc


e.100X faster internet, phone and car batteries: as point 8 already exists but USA (often the Pentagon) far better in stimulating markets with Government investment in such key products


f.1960’s Tower blocks/asbestos/pylons cleanup and improvements


g.Obvious scandals shortened: Hillsboro, Deepcut, Bloody Sunday, Chilcot (now scheduled) etc


h.EU Review: aside from the debate on Brexit there seems a massive weakness on evaluating the performance of the EU organisations and UK budgets


i. Undercover Sex Cops/ammo: astonishing police spying and getting demonstrators pregnant, also lack of scrutiny of police guns and ammo stocks - as well as spying Caroline Lucas and Sian Berry London mayor candidate: StasiState and waste of public funds and the decisions seem to have been taken within the police force – wider concerns on GCHQ/NSA out of control spying on everyone and everything.


j.UK spheres of influence given Sarkozy Med Partnership lead and collapse of Central Africa: Sudan, Somalia and UN-UK Police.


k. High Court-law: complete lack of oversight eg Clementi Review and Hollingworth/GlickQC and Lord Grabiner QC fraud



12.Kent specific points:


a.SS Richard Montgomery: explosives ship: dithering on cleanup


b.Live Animal Exports: massive public opposition on animal cruelty grounds (40 sheep shot) and SS Joline ship on Channel routes


c.Operation Stack: a weak consultation


d.As point 11.a – concern at police spying on Cllr Ian Driver and elected councillor and MP's


e. Libya navy-EU dithering

f. More on Howes corruption and Port £500k fraud Treasury/OLAF censored report later

Sincerity blog: Time for Thai rice: http://sincerityagency.blogspot.co.uk/2016/05/thai-rice-hunger-game-or-white-gold.html

Dirty Kent: the corruption and failure continues

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, GlickQc and Lord GrabinerQC and Clerk Darren Burrows ( but previous clerk an MBE too resigned) - but the legend Judge BA Suitcase Smithy pops up today insulting QC's. He has a point.

And bizarre with FOI/EIR OLAF censoring the names in its report. Why? If public funds has gone astray who was responsible? This isn't some guessing game on the rates. Who are the officials - or criminals - we funded who have messed up so badly?

And now up steps Tim Howes TDC's increasingly ludicrous lawyer on the rates, with the following email of bluster (and my reply) from the TDC Anticorruption points last week (apologies for some of the line breaks that have tech gremlins for some reason - A4 PDF document available if needed):



Tim Garbutt 2017 KCCC Leader candidate said:




"It's clear TDC is still stuck in its bad old ways as one of the UK most corrupt and failing councils - mired in the bottom 10% of UK councils as reviewed by Whitehall and Westminster.





While the latest Private Eye pours cold water on the latest, and laughable, Local Government Association review (funded by the public) describing TDC as excellent.




And as if to reinforce the point of TDC stagnating - on the day of the Anticorruption Summit - I received the following letter from Tim Howes, the TDC in-house lawyer (albeit with the wrong date):





12 April 2016

Re: Contact with the council

Dear Mr Garbutt,

I have been shown your email of the 12 May 2016.

I am now writing to make clear to you that it is wholly unacceptable for you to make personal or

derogatory comments or use inappropriate language about staff or councillors in your

correspondence.

To discourage such poor behaviour I have given an instruction that no response should be made to

any correspondence from you which contains such comments or language.

I trust that you will therefore amend your behaviour accordingly.

Yours sincerely

Timothy Howes, Solicitor

Director of Corporate Governance and Monitoring Officer




My email, and blog article, detailing the corruption around Manston and Gang of Four and BVI Pleasurama etc is detailed below.




http://lovekentloveramsgate.blogspot.co.uk/2016/05/anti-corruption-summit-and-kent.html




It's perhaps apt with the BVI refusing to attend the Anticorruption Summit that its only presence is in Kent with TDC and Pleasurama.




I've asked for an explanation of who approved Tim Howes' letter and exactly which points he considers are inappropriate or derogatory. Silence so far.




Without a credible explanation, Tim Howes should be sacked/resigned off as with the previous Gang of Four officials.




And, not to even attempt to address the blatant corruption and fraud around the Infratil monitors removed by TDC is of grave concern.




And certainly for a publicly funded lawyer grounds for dismissal and removal by the Solicitors Regulation Authority as well as criminal action for aiding and abetting, and misconduct in office.




A review is needed on public sector payoffs and padded pensions and future public sector pop-up jobs.




While a Magnitsky Law and List of corrupt public officials would be a step forward in ensuring better public service at TDC and elsewhere.




Thanet and East Kent deserves better, especially the cancer victims exposed to 4xEU safety levels of pollution at Manston who fund Tim Howes' lavish salary and pension on the rates - but not to cover up these crimes.




Time for Change

@timg33

I think we need a Magnitsky list: a global version for human rights and Panama Papers fraud and a Kent-specific (and other counties) version. the days of corrupt public officials relying on coverup and now simply ignoring FOIU are over. So are the days of pension payoffs and resigned-off and then and then another public service role:


Magnitsky List - a draft for debate



1. Magnitsky judges/officials: courts, prison, police, tax office



2. Infratil directors NZ: Fitzgerald, Clarke, Bogoievski, Baker: Manston/EU fines and monitors



3. Infratil directors UK: Buchanan – Lydd



4. Gloag Scotland/Stagecoach: Manston fines/monitors



5. KCC UK: Toxic Three: Carter, King and Wild



6. TDC UK: Berry, Button Sproates



7. 0% fraud: Macgonigal, Moores and Latchford



8. TBC: Environment Agency Andrew Pearce, and Southern Water Matthew Wright



9. TDC Planning: Raymond, Fibbens, Thomas, Bensted and Kenyon


Tim's Titbits: misc points:



TG Kent successes



1. Total petrol stations banned and removed



2. Richboro coal power station demolished: 3 cooling towers



3. Arlington House 30-storey 1960’s tower block demolition underway



4. Ramsgate gasworks demolished: 2 gas towers



5. Gang of Four sacked and jailed: Ezekiel, Samuel, White and Latchford (nb latter returned as UKIP)



6. Macgonigal and Moores, TDC Chief Executive and Cabinet member resigned off: 0% salary fraud with Gang of Four



7. Manston airport closed: Infratil/Gloag removed/faked monitors and fines with KCC/TDC



8. Infratil EU airports closed: Prestwick, Germany and Rotorua – only Wellington left



9. Ostend gunrunning/blood diamonds: banned aircraft stopped eg DASAir, Iranair etc



10. Kent Police: Missing, Most Wanted and Cold Cases developed



11. MP resigned early: Laura Sandys



Involvement:



1. Dreamland reopened 2015 after 10 years derelict



2. Pleasurama BVI: cancelled at least twice



3. FOI begun: salaries, pensions, expenses, cars etc



4. Pedestrian zone/parking enforcement: tickets/clamp



To be completed:



1. Latchford – Gang of Four



2. Buchanan – Lydd



3. Ostend airport closed



4. Toxic Three



5. Infratil Directors/Gloag extradited and unpaid fines



6. Berry, Button and Sproates arrests: corporate manslaughter



7. Thor cleanup



8. Pleasurama BVI closed and cleanup



9. Pavilion: Wetherspoons illegal planning cancelled and missing repairs



10. Van Gogh gallery



11. 2nd swimming pool



12. Tonis noisy newsagent







Politics misc needed:



1. Benefit sanctions targets/suicides



2. Rental agencies: letting fees



3. Electricity meter: extra charges



4. Trains: cheapest fare



5. Arms to Saudi: UK MOD Sangcom/GPT/Al-Yammamah



6. Remaining 3 Deepcut murder-suicide inquiries



7. ASEAN death penalty: 15 Indonesian executions – more than rest of ASEAN put together



8. Space Ladder



9. Free Economy



10. Left is Life: blood/organs



11. Margate’s Joshua French Death Row Congo – other UK citizens?



12. BBCTV licence fee cancelled: 90% of court cases



13. HFSS: high fat, salt sugar – food improvements: product, labelling and advertising



14. Air pollution: 40k UK deaths and 9k London deaths



15. Cancer/Stroke/Cataracts improvements: 110x University Chairs



16. Whitehall Out of Whitehall: Salford success- other depts plan



17. UK university at DaNang University: £1M invested so far



18. HS3/HS2: fastforward – from Newcastle down not from London

Anti-Corruption Summit and Kent: Fantastically Corrupt

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 subsidiaries. So have the main accountancy firms (Private Eye this week cites the Luxembourg LuxLeaks with Price Waterhouse Cooper arranging 1% tax deals and offshore tax havens) and even crooked UK Judges sacked from Caribbean courts.

So if Nigeria and Afghanistan are “fantastically corrupt” as they are – then that’s largely because of the UK and City institutions and waves of bankers and accountants and lawyers helping them to shift money into London or BVI or Jersey etc.

Indeed Private Eye has repeatedly pointed out that various Government HMRC tax office buildings(!) are registered offshore – in effect the taxman reducing tax from the taxman by shifting your tax offshore.

While on barristers and lawyers we have silence from One Essex Court of Hollingworth and Glick QC and Lord Grabiner QC on their frauds – but again systemic of a crooked High Court and legal system of fake invoices and dodgy rulings. All the more crooked as involving several of their colleagues and clerks to seek rulings etc.

The sort of fraudulent behaviour exposed in the Clement Review – but condoned by the Law Society and SRA and Bar Standards Board even the barrister Inns of Court – and a rather strange character there- that like any regulator are there to ensure high standards not whitewash. Even the Crying Judge nearly in tears at refusing to accept their testimony although the Teacups Judge was keen to whitewash for Glick.

How can any UK court take instructions from Hollingworth or Grabiner or Glick – the latter not just Judges(!) and one a Lord(!) but actually advising parliament on…tax fraud. Grabiner even being hired by the Bank of England to investigate LIBOR fraud – and being described in Private Eye as a boiled old sausage talking bullocks.

Nigerian and Afghan courts have nothing to worry about in comparison.

While the Deepcut and Hillsborough inquiries have taken a turn for the worse as it seems John Beggs QC represented respectively Surrey Police and South Yorks Police at both. Although Deepcut isn’t actually a trial just a coroner inquest. And Beggs represented Chief Inspector David Duckenfield who was then exposed as lying about drunk Scousers etc. Bizarrely, Beggs QC has now hired lawyers(!) – the notorious Carter-Fuck – to hassle Private Eye. Can’t he defend himself? That’s what QC’s do isn’t it?

Let’s hope more of this is detailed in advance of the other Deepcut inquiries. 4 bullets is a suicide?

And the Corruption Summit is something of a damp squib with British Virgin Islands refusing to attend (a UK and Commonwealth territory) cited as being responsible for over 50%(!) of the Panama Papers corruption – and count ‘em - not one but 16 UK colonies tax havens. All of them under UK Parliament law so could have been cancelled years ago – certainly at the Lough Neath Summit. It’s absurd Ruritania as if the Isle of Sheppey claimed to be a tax haven beyond UK jurisdiction.

Maybe it was Hollingworth advice, signed off by Glick and ruled on by Grabiner? Maybe one of their mates. Cosy.

Thank goodness the UK doesn’t have the death penalty with these legal beagles – but concerning if they’re ruling on the Commonwealth death penalties that still exist.

Obviously questions will be asked over Kent’s Pleasurama and its BVI ownership through several political parties and now UKIP. Especially when the BVI ownership register is made public – maybe just Steve Keegan will be carrying the can. Questions must be asked of Messrs Painter and Keegan who actually owns or operates SFP (Site of the Former Pleasurama), and indeed even now TDC with say explanations from Bob Bayford as a senior councillor through the Ezekiel and Gang of Four years.

What did they know and when?

For the largest seafront development in Kent (ever?) to be stalled for a decade is incompetent and now can only realistically be described as blatant fraud along with the BVI Connection. Or is it perfectly normal for TDC? It may well be. Was it really just a big payday for the senior civil servants and councillors of the Gang of Four – all now jailed or sacked and resigned off?

More importantly what are the current TDC senior management doing? Every statement so far has been that nothing is wrong. Even supposedly commencing construction this month. And possibly funnelling money offshore to BVI. Even the strange rejig of the contracts after February 2015 when they could have been cancelled – although Edwina Crowley the previous Planning Director subsequently also became cancelled.

What development is purchased by the builder – to build a hotel without a hotel company?

It stinks.

It’s as blatant as Amanda Berry, Amanda Button and Sproates removing the Infratil/Manston monitors and pretending they were still monitoring, causing over 4x safe levels of pollution – and still clinging onto their jobs rather than sewing mail bags in jail.

Silence too on the Manston and Thor pollution coverup after a year from the new CE Madeline Homer and senior councillor Lin Fairbrass and Mayor Shonk.

In Flint, Michigan similar civil servants and pollution has resulted in arrests for corporate manslaughter.

And certainly that’s relevant here and certainly for the Infratil Directors now down to their last Airport: Wellington – and presumably doing the same monitor fines fraud and cancers there.

I wouldn’t even want to fly into that airport with Fitzgerald and Clarke and Bogoievski et al in charge. Would you? Radar beacons removed to save costs? TDC saying how wonderful they were at Manston?

It stinks.

Just as Charles Buchanan still at Lydd airport and not jail stinks.

And TDC has form on dodgy deals to say the least.

And yet again in Private Eye Rotten Boroughs this week we have Chris Wells and his tax woes – along with laughter at the Local Government Association peer review cobblers describing TDC as much improved etc. The LGA like its offshoot the Local Government Ombudsman is a council trade union – funded by your tax – to either say councils need more money or to whitewash failure with a tame group of councillors and civil servants from other councils.

I can find no explanation as yet for how Sands Hotel ended up owning Dreamland – from TDC ie you. And for what price. And why they sued TDC and won – as they went bankrupt within 6 months. Anyone know?

Not TDC’s finest hour to say the least. Chris Wells abacus would be working overtime to explain that financial arrangement – but let’s hear from him.

Silence on Thor mercury – a massive contamination problem helped by Environment Agency and TDC silence and refusal to show the contamination statistics.

Silence on the asbestos register for buildings in Thanet and Kent.

And UKIP in Thanet seem to have imploded to nothing much at all.

The 100 SE RD garden grabbing in breach of all the TDC Local plans has resulted in bizarre statements by Lin Fairbrass that she’s responded to the November minutes (see below) although when I’ve accused her of being a liar, unless she provides details, she remains silent.

She must be a liar. I can’t think of any other explanation. Let’s hear from her though. It’s a bit of a drab council trick to say they’ve replied to the concerns when they either haven’t or their explanations are laughable. And I’m not sure we should have a liar in public office sanctioning such dodgy deals.

Increasingly I think we need a Public Sector Magnitsky List: it’s too easy for officials to deny and delay and lie. And then use public funds to take Court action again the public that fund them. And whether the public win or not the Court cost simply result in higher tax. And a resigned-off with a pay-off at most to then pop up in another public sector job.

It should be far simpler to withold salaries and pensions and publicly-funded court cases for blatant and serious wrongdoing.

Abigail Raymond is the new Edwina Crowley as Planning Director and responsible for all the above at the moment. Not impressive for the salary. A P45 seems best.

And now we have the Wetherspoons/Pavilion with both the YCMIUP – You Couldn’t Make It Up and OITDC – Only In TDC awards of Britain’s biggest pub derelict for 8 years by TDC suddenly transferred to Wetherspoons – without any approval by councillors. As illegal as you’d expect.

And since when did a company organising its own –feeble – consultation become a rubber stamp for planning?

Philip Bensted and Rob Kenyon at TDC have clammed up for the moment.

Here’s the email format (firstname.lastname@thanet.gov.uk) if you want to contact them or phone 01843 577000 to find what they’ve been doing on your tax-salaries and pensions.

Astonishing this week with Empty Parliament and now Uturn Parliament. I can’t think of anything quite like it.

About 2 years before the 2105 election it was described as the Empty Parliament as they just weren’t doing anything. Then there been a year of no longer the Coalition but no huge changes. But every policy (if they were even in a manifesto which is a separate issue) has become a UTurn: disabled benefits, steel nationalisation, NHS and now Academies. And with that we’re back to the Empty Parliament again after barely 12 months – certainly there’s no major policy after the inane EU Referendum.

The disabled benefits reforms were disgusting, steel a car crash for minor reforms, NHS weekend reforms not unreasonable but woolly and I couldn’t work out what the Academy or SATS policies were.

The 589 Ajax-Scimitar armoured cars have bene purchased but I don’t know how much for – and with Swedish steel which seems absurd for UK defence procurement. And I can’t work out where or why or how you could actually use 589 armoured cars? Where would you park them for a start? What ships would you use to transport them? You could only transport half a dozen at a go? Then why build 589? And you’d need tanks to protect them? And personnel carriers for troops? And weren’t the expensive Apache gunship helicopters supposed to be used as flying armoured cars – and we already have at least 400 of them. Although they couldn’t be used where it was dusty like Afghanistan or Somalia. It seems daft to me.

Good though to see UK Peacekeepers deployed at long last to the basketcase nations of Sudan and Somalia. Why have so many troops and planes etc to not ensure peace in such conflicts? Where are the UN Police too? Private Eye details the UK secret war in Yemen etc with drones – although it seems the UK’s multimillion drones don’t fly when it’s cold or icy. Like in mountains or at night…YCMIUP

I had a nice email from Bill Browder, the corruption and human rights crusader, over Magnitsky murder and the largest ever Russian tax fraud of $230M (see earlier blog article and #rednotice book), on his giving testimony in UK Parliament last week and producing both several UK invoices from the various fraudsters for yachts etc, and news that UK SFO, CPS, Met Police had passed him from pillar to post doing nothing.

Perhaps more idleness than conspiracy, but feeble given USA and France and Canada are introducing a Magnitsky Act that goes beyond specific national sanctions to target human rights abusers.

And, oh no it’s Surrey Police again, as it’s reported at the Alexander Perepilichnyy inquest (he was the whistleblower on the Magnitsky fraud who died outside his home in Surrey) that despite Surrey Police saying there were no suspicious circumstances he had a rare assassination poison in his stomach. And the suspected Chechen hitman was Valid Lurakhmaev AKA Alexander Smirnov (perhaps slightly better than Barry Vodka as an alias) is already wanted by Interpol and held in Turkey.

While Surrey Police have hired a another QC for a coroner inquiry to cast doubt on questioning the hitman – or lawyer Andrey Pavlov who flew out of UK the day after Perepilichnyy’s death and has been brokering talks between Perepilichnyy and Russian tax authorities over the crime.

The sooner Kent Police take a firm grasp of this mess and Surrey Police the better.

Margate, long-twinned with Crimea (perhaps now both the Russian and Ukrainian bits), should have a Magnitsky Plaza when Arlington House is finally demolished and seafront and Dreamland properly developed. Kent University and CCU should take up the batons as with Mandela in previous years for a Magnitsky Room etc.

These are some more of the Magnitsky monstrous judges etc: Red Notice book – page 333 refusals of medical treatment in jail for Sergei Magnitsky:

# Major Oleg Silchenko: “I deny in full the request for a medical examination”

# Tverskoi District Court Judge, Aleksey Krivoruchko: “Your request to review complaints about withholding of medical care and cruel treatment is denied”

# Andrei Pechegin from the Prosecutors Office: “There’s no reason for the prosecutor to intervene”

# Judge Yelena Stashina, one of the judges who ordered Sergei’s continued detention said: “I rule that your request to review the medical records and conditions of detention is irrelevant”

Worth remembering if you’re going to Russia. Or even Latvia and Lithuania with journalists being murdered and arrested and even dragged over the border(!) by the KGB-FSB.

Putin’s regime will eventually end and these scoundrels will be carrying the can.

Important given the above farce – but also given the ICC Court convicting but failing to as yet prosecute Bashir of Sudan, and chemical weapons use by Assad of Syria. You could certainly add monsters like Obiang of Equatorial Guinea or Mugabe of Zimbabwe both in power for 30 years by fiddling the constitution and cannibalism(!).

Silence too on Margate’s Joshua French rotting on Death Row in the Congo. His friend already dead form malaria and a multi-million fine on his head too.

Not one statement from any of our councillors or MP’s.

Perhaps the best we can expect from Fantastically Corrupt Kent.

Time for Change

Garbutt for KCC Leader May 2017

@timg33

Tim’s titbits

•Kent Oriental Restaurant Association underway: thank you for the enquiries but please be patient


•2LB underway


•I might start a regular advertising feature in duff ads as there’s a few that are appalling at the moment – the BBC IPlayer and the 5p pieces/bicycle spanner thingy – incoherent twaddle. Supposedly profound utterly incoherent. And BBC programme advertising is usually awful anyway: a popsong lyrics illustrating the programme etc. And Admiral insurance. 2 shockers in row with the new female Admiral clunking through two inane scripts.


•Kent Police rightly tightening up illegal parking along the seafront and town centre pedestrian zone – it’s a pedestrian zone as in most seaside towns where parking is rigorously enforced even without lots of free parking available. Certainly clamping and towing away should follow on from tickets and repeat fines. Bizarre that Loomis and G4S cashvans think they can drive onto the High St when they feel like it rather than before 10am. Parking on pavements is especially bad forcing people into the road to be knocked down. Many people say should they flip the car onto its roof or kick its wing mirrors off but I say no that’s a bit silly but understandable, If you have a reg no or a photo then by all means email it to me or Kent Police (half day closing Wednesday in most stations remember). And certainly the Port and Marina needs 90% of parking removed and pedestrianisation of the Arches/Road and seafront


•Good to see LocalCraig MP introducing a ban on the repulsive live animal exports and certainly horrifying out Cllr Driver still lives under the shadow of the appalling multi-thousands TDC whistleblower fine – TDC even under the 1847 Act nonsense can designate a Special Constable ie the Harbourmaster, and close the port as per the council’s own ruling and certainly withhold the licence for the SS Joline Soviet tank carrier(!) trundling though the world’s busiest shipping lanes


•Kent knife crime: rather idle policing on issues such as Trade Station stocking machetes and samurai swords and jagged daggers – for £250M budget why haven’t KP just bought them from the good folks there, on expenses and asked them to stock other products in our seaside towns. Indeed I would urge every corner shop and newsagent and SME to think of the resurgence in East Kent seaside tourism – what postcards will be needed, what suncream, what buckets and spades, picnic and beach snacks and so on. What will the good folks at Waitrose or Argos or Thomas Cook or Wilkinsons and Thomsons want to be promoting to the public and our tourist and student guests? Why are the good folks at Boots still advertising Winter medicine in their window? Don’t they know the Summer Season starts 1st March through to 30th September? And it’s meant to rain on the Bank Holiday. Time for AmbreSolaire not Benylin. And will there be a favourable Euros rate for example with the banks and shops for our friends from Ostend or Dunkirk or Boulogne?


•An interesting article on UK having less Bank Holidays than most nations. Interesting that Trafalgar Day drifted away a few years ago. And interesting the CofE calling for a regular Easter Day ie 2nd weekend in April which sounds ideal for tourism and pilgrimages etc. The calendars have all changed several times over the millennia anyway. A Spanish Armada Day in July would be terrific and why not a teachers day or Children’s Day if Britain’s short of holiday s and space them out sensibly? A 4 day week won’t be far away or tweaks to CET, even tweaks to the Victorian harvest school calendar now the leaving age is 18: why not even a Gap Year or a Gap Summer?


•Kent PCC electionssszzzzzzzzzzz more later, but it seems to be an election where 93% of the pubic didn’t vote for the winner(!). A 7% vote is hardly a Great British Election success.


•Tobacco article on Sincerity blog: http://sincerityagency.blogspot.co.uk/2016/05/ringing-of-bell-on-tobacco-with-plain.html and an interesting client list overview to follow – advice appreciated


•EKFOS my East Kent Film office and Studio underway: good to see the KFO Tudor Trail of Leeds Castle etc rather than just West Kent and Chatham Dockyard (Carters’ KCC seems to being and end in Maidstone and sees East Kent as for nothing but cancer victims) and good to hear that the Christopher Nolan (Inception etc) directed Dunkirk movie will feature Cillian Murphy of Peaky Blinders fame. With EKFOS I would ensure that Ramsgate shares in that movie tourism etc – just as the East Kent James Bond 007 route is rather ignored which seems spectacularly foolish


•ASEANRail: the first Cambodian rail link from the Thai border to Poipet (the Ashford rail junction of Cambodia) should be completed this year. The main bridge across the Mekong is completed - so the way to HCMC is clear and the first rail links. And last week the first passenger rail service opened Phnom Penh to Sihanoukville (Cambodia’s Margate) on the coast. The first service since the Khmer Rouge blew up the railway c.30 years ago. Why does that matter you say? Well, for the first time ever, the railway can link HCMC, PP, BKK and Yangon and onto India. And integrate with the vertical links upto Hanoi and China and down to Singapore and the wider Pacific.

Useful for tourism obviously. But also for the UK and high growth markets such as Thailand and Vietnam and Myanmar – the latter ideally joining the UK-Asian Commonwealth Group with the other Asian nations: Malaysia, Singapore, Brunei, Papua and Solomons. UK would want to have a Special Relationship with USA or Commonwealth so why not Asia and ASEAN in the Asian Century? Here in Kent we can certainly speak on the importance of rail links whether to London or through the Chunnel and onto Europe – and the success of the hispeed HS1 and 2012 Olympics for Kent. We can certainly speak of the importance of STEM, pharma and vaccines, even malaria nets, with Discovery Park and Sittingbourne Science Parks - and the jobs here. And we can certainly speak of the Education Economy whether the 4 universities or 400 schools and Erasmus etc exchange programmes or the English Language Learning Schools. And we can certainly speak of the importance of the Maritime Economy of RNLI and Coastguard and Fishing and Pegwell Bay UNESCO sites – with Canterbury Cathedral - the Angkor Wat or Bagan of Kent.

And we can certainly speak of the importance of better Benelux links with our European friends and neighbours. And this 1st July we can certainly speak of the price paid in blood to have those links from the graves that stretch from the Somme to Yangon through Meiji Malta and onto Kwai and Long Tanh and Port Moresby and Leyte. A price in blood shared with the Chinese and Vietnamese labourers building the trenches and ports and railways in Flanders and France and Thai and USA and Irish and Aussie and Kiwi and Senegal and Canadian troops – the latter with the Canadian Red Cross – and probably the most Canucks outside of Canada based in Ramsgate


•How absurd if all those thousands and hundreds of thousands and millions of deaths came to nought, and CWG work, wasted in a Spratleys or Senkaku or Kuriles or Preah Vihar or Mindanao pointless conflict


•The Solomon Islands, UK protectorate and Commonwealth, detailed as the first nation suffering Climate Change with several islands disappearing: Kent needs to step forward


•How absurd for there not to be a commemoration for Guadalcanal or Truk or Savo – the last and worst USN defeat and turning points for peace in the Pacific – especially with the first US Presidential visit to Hiroshima although not the Agent Orange victims of DaNang and UK’s university


•How absurd for Sergeant Vouza of the Solomons to be as ignored in UK as are the Channel Dash heroes – Britain’s kamikaze pilots


•How absurd in Meiji Kent for HMS Kent not be the key point to fly the flag in the Pacific with our Japanese friends and Commonwealth Group and Allies and Haiyan work? Certainly it’s better for the RAF to selling cargo helicopters than cruise missiles and Saudi guns for bungs on the rates like Sangcom or AlYamamah and the RN arranging supply dumps rather than pointless Pina Colada tours


•Several people have asked me how the Vientiane-Vinh rail route through to DaNang and the UK university there would work; essentially Haiphong#2 given the typhoons and he population of the Red River Delta – and linking through to the main population centre of Laos and Isaan. Perfect for Pacific trade, whether Philippines or USA - and Haiyan safety.


•More on the Royal Road of temples and tourism from Siem Reap to Khon Kaen later.


•Silence so far from the good folks at Wellesley School, and the superb space project with 22 other Kent schools - perfect for UK niche industries in the Space and Climate Change Era whether weather satellites or space food or robotics.


•Robotics that would focus UK Smart Farms for much of the world – not just robotics why till the spoil why you can microanalyse it for yield, and why drive a tractor when you can sit in your farmhouse and drive it from your mobile phone - with the regearing of European food tastes (and Kent’s orchards) with less red meat or sugar surely economies in in Great British Cuba or Argentina or Chile would want to diversify their crops and industries. Pointless selling City Venture Capital to Communists amid a UK nationalised bank industry crash. Certainly Kent’s NHS economy would be more relevant for Cuba – we’d learn a lot from them with our dirty hospitals, abysmal Stillborn/cotdeaths, flu vaccine failure and OAP Winter/Summer deaths


•SDG2030 goals: 4 months on and counting from the launch: which UK public and private sector organisations have taken these on?


•Left is Life campaign underway, Kent Police dragging their heels on 112 campaign


•Silence from the dirty judges and barristers at One Essex Court on their Inns of Court case: Hollingworth, Glick QC and Lord Grabiner QC


•Superb result from Great British Thailand Leicester City footy – owned by King Power a sort of Dixons or Comet. I’m a huge footy fan so when it’s 15-30 and someone scores a touch-down in the onion net it’s very exciting. And surely there could never be a better time for Great British Football and ASEAN? Especially as this week China has announced its Football Plan of thousands of stadiums and teams etc before 2025. A footy market of 1.3BN. The UK has a massive sporting asset in the Football Economy whether Sports Tourism for my favourite team Liverpool at the Goodison Park Kop or the Toffeemen of Manchester City - or the various sports kit manufacturers or training schools or websites or training videos or events.

Certainly more could be done on organised exchanges not just the big-hitters of Thailand football such as the Siamese Foxes or Buriram United, but also Police United in the 2nd Division. And the various Cycling and Swim and Beach Volleyball or Polo teams that form the ASIAN games and Asian Beach Games and various demonstration matches. And that’s even without UK excellence in Golf or Ruby or Cricket or Horseracing or Yachting. How foolish of Kent though to gain the Tour De cycling and then lose it to both Tour De Yorkshire and Tour De Midlands women’s events. And I couldn’t tell you one beneficial point after 4 years of the Olympics on Kent’s doorstep and the various KCC organising committees etc etc – all funded by you. Not even a Tiddlywinks Tournament.


Time for Change

@timg33

Kent Remedial work and UK AntiCorruption Summit for Kent's Infratil etc?

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 tax redirected from TDC
18. Belgian nuclear power stations: dumping/sabotage risk
19. Machetes etc: Trade Station, Harbour St
20. Tonis noisy newsagent
21. Vale Tavern: dumped caravan/airaid shelter listed/illegal ads
22. Berry, Button. Sproates sacked: Manston monitors - also Infratil extradition
23. Margate Town Council created: East Kent Council
24. 2016-17: annual calendar of events – Bank Holidays and Xmas
25. Pedestrian zone: town crossroads and Harbour parade and Arches/port (nb kiosks/Loomis/G4S illegal parking)
26. SS Richard Montgomery explosives/shipwreck cleared
27. Channel Dash remembrance - Dunkirk
28. 27 Air Sea Rescue, Dover HQ: Royal Oak Hotel, Ramsgate: 1942-45: 13,000 aircrew saved
29. UN Remembrance site: Old Ramsgate Hospital
30. Margate Korean War memorial repair/upgrade

Tim's Titbits:

* UK AntiCorruption Summit this week - Time for Infratil, Pleasurama BVI and One Essex Court arrests
* Astonishing Sex Cops UK police shagging demonstrators and Police espying on Caroline Lucas MP and Cllr Driver - horrifying StasiState beyond democratic scrutiny - who approved this? What other police spying operation are still ongoing in Kent?
* Bill Browder of #rednotice testifies in UK Parliament for need of Magnitsky Act: underway in USA, Canada and France

Time for Change
@timg33

Gazette letter: Ramsgate Town Council failure

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 doublehatters at RTC is so far both irrelevant and useless and replacements and call-in of and refunds of costs are required.


Time for Change
Garbutt 2017 KCC Leader
@timg33