Brexit. A brittle Britain and Kent, and Common Ground

What a mess. An utter and utter mess.

A few days into Brexit and it couldn’t be much worse if you tried could it?

A 52:48 voting split so close as to be an irrelevance. I say that as a Remainer – and if the vote had gone the other way. The narrowness of the vote means nothing has been decided: many people like the EU and many people don’t.

While the turnout was high at c.70% but that still leaves a third of the nation(s) who haven’t expressed an opinion.

So rather than a 50:50 split we have a 30:30:30 split – and a split that hasn’t changed significantly in almost 6 months of campaigning - if not since the2013 promise of referendum. Certainly the vote wasn’t on the weak as water February 2016 reforms – can you remember those, I can’t.

The people and parties have spoken – and said not very much at all.

The vote also creates Generation Split with the elderly voting against the EU and the young overwhelmingly in favour of it. Research I’ve seen suggests that age 43 is the crossover point.

While the referendum (for either vote) was deeply flawed in not having the Vote16 group as did the Scottish independence referendum –and will certainly be a voting age change in future.

Even without the EU vote we have the UK disintegrating with fundamental differences in Scotland such as tuition fees and dynamic leaders as Sturgeon and Salmond likely to create a tartan version of the Laos Project as Britain’s Battery (as well as education, STEM and agricultural trade) with an emphasis on renewable wind and wave technology.

Speaking of tartan, the new wave of export-led Scottish designers such as www.siobhanmackenzie.com can only enrich an autonomous or independent Scotland.
Even I would suggest, Scotland develops Eire links of its own – Celtic Tigers if you will - with a Glasgow-Belfast-Dublin-Cork bridge and hispeed rail speeding up freight. The Institution of Engineers estimated 30% of UK HGV’s are travelling empty - and gridlocked in the Southern ports around Southampton, delaying trade to Scotland and Ireland.

Scotland voted IN and is already seeking an independence referendum again after barely a year – so as to remain in the EU. Silence on whether Brexit would mean border controls at Hadrians Wall again.

While Northern Ireland, the only UK region with a land border with the EU and Eire, (unless you count Kent and its Euroregion as well as Calais Jungle/Chunnel) is raising the prospect of a reunification referendum with Eire. In the anniversary year of the Easter Rising that led to Irish independence, and the years ahead of the 20th anniversary of the Good Friday Agreement in 1998 that created peace from the Troubles, perhaps that’s fitting.

Those Brits with Irish and Scottish heritage, such as myself, might well be considering an Eire or Scottish passport and citizenship to retain access to the EU along with close and friendly relations with our family of nations.

Britain’s expats in the EU are already questioning the value of freedom to work, travel, live, study and do business from Brexit. For example, will the E111 free healthcare abroad be revoked as with other non-EU nations?

Spain – mired in a similar electoral quandary - with another election in 6 months, no doubt keen to prop up 50% youth unemployment and Med refugees costs, with savings on the 1M Brit expat healthcare, and already moving to urge reunification with Gibraltar and considering tighter border control again rather than say an open Gibraltar and road-rail bridges and links to Morocco and the rest of North Africa as part of the Med Partnership raised by Sarkozy.

Certainly Brexit has resolved the question of the economic value of the EU to UK:

• the worst one day fall in the pound in 30 years
• a stock market crash in France and Italy
• Britain plc downgraded to negative credit ratings for investment
• main banks such as HSBC suffering a 30% fall in shares
• the Bank of England rushing to implement a £250BN(!) emergency fund – handy to know there’s money to prop up the banks again as Britain, and possibly Europe, slides into a deeper recession or at the very least continued recession

Politically, though, the Brexit has turned into a farce.

Within minutes of the Pyrrhic announcement Brexit began to unravel:

• the resignation of PM Cameron - with Europe claiming yet another Tory PM scalp
• Boris and Gove declaring victory but looking as if they’d lost – and the horrifying prospect of explaining there is no plan for Brexit. Nothing.
• astonishing infighting within Labour with the sacking of Hilary Benn Shadow foreign secretary and wave upon wave of c.20 shadow cabinet resignations ahead of a vote of no confidence in Corbyn
• the Greens facing a leadership election anyway with the quiet resignation of Bennett a few weeks ago
• Libdems invisible in the campaign and already shrunken to just 8 MP’s
• questions over the continued existence of UKIP after Brexit – and the new Chair dispute unresolved

While the UKIP-led Brexit platform unravelled within minutes: no £350M of funds to the NHS – indeed funds to the EU may well continue as before in a Single Market arrangement, Hannan MEP confirming immigration won’t be reversed and unlikely to be slowed or halted, Farage changing his mind that he’s lost and now won again and that there’s likely to be a recession but it’s OK, and Carswell, holding his nose at having to deal with Farage, confirming that with 13% of the vote in the last election UKIP is unlikely to have much influence in a new election.

While if that wasn’t enough, within a weekend calls for a 2nd referendum (originally created by Leave when they thought they’d lost) gathered almost 3M votes to Remain.

Britain in week 1 of Brexit looks divided and incompetently governed. Moving from First World to Third World: tipping from the 5th largest economy to the 6th largest in days, with a weaker economy, losing the trust of major corporations such as Nissan and Hitachi for investment. HSBC already preparing to relocate 1,000 workers on the Euro markets to Paris or Frankfurt. And the Tata Steel deal for Wales placed on hold and so on.

While the Chancellor has disappeared and likely to be involved in the caretaker cabinet reshuffle with delays if not paralysis on any new budget, decisions on Heathrow 3rd runway, Northern Powerhouse, HS2/3 and even Operation Stack.

For, in Kent, Brexit follows much the same pattern as the rest of the UK. The percentage of pensioners voting is slightly higher but to be expected in a retirement region already stagnating, and the vote for Remain is higher around the 60% mark. But still the same massive Generation Split with the younger generations (the future of Kent after all) wanting to remain.

While the absence of a Brexit Plan and new PM and new general election (gone are the days of UK PM’s being appointed by the party and simply continuing) will deepen and extend any recession and affect key industries such as tourism. Why would European tourists want to risk visiting a destabilised UK and Kent and possibly currency and ATM problems? UK expats are already seeing one pound to one euro exchange rates and Greek ATM controls on sterling for UK tourists.
The Calais Jungle could well be moved to Dover. Why would France want to cooperate with a non-EU nation, that's the whole point of the EU cooperation agreements?

Although a UK recession may well reduce immigration - and increase emigration.

Kent would face calls such as the absurd situation in Cornwall where a Leave vote instantly leads to the county council calling for more UK funds to replace the lost EU funds! Cornwall, as with Kent and Newcastle and Liverpool and Hull being one of the regions that has consistently befitted from EU funds – whether that’s the Sea2Sea ferries or Channel Tunnel or more local projects such as Thames Crossing or Paramount or Thames Gateway.

Those EU funding taps will be turned off.

While UKIP-Kent at KCC, TDC or RTC has hardly achieved anything in the last 5 years. Not even it's own manifesto on Manston, let alone improving regeneration and securing UK or EU funds. Nothing.

The analogy with UKIP-UK is clear as with the NHS £350M claims: lots of hyperbole to won an election and then brazen backtracking if not rot and decline and inaction.

Even Crossrail in London benefitted from a £1BN EU loan of the sort that’s important for cross-Europe transport links whether the autobahns to Moscow or Istanbul or hispeed rail or airport overhaul and safety.

Kent Police may well want to consider the purchase of an armoured car already – less as a command and control vehicle than riot control - for what could well be a long, hot, summer of discontent and confusion through to a new Tory Leader by the Tory conference in October. And simultaneous Labour and Green leadership elections. And then a new general election in late 2016 or early 2017.

Certainly Kent's universities and languages and schools would be bracing for the decline in international students - why wouldn't say Scottish universities scoop up more candidates?

Undoubtedly rejecting the EU referendum (the vote isn’t binding or law without Parliament’s approval) so to remain in the EU will be a key policy of many if not most of the political parties. Even a Brexit policy is likely to be fluff and facesaving quibbles meaning no real change in UK membership of the EU.
There’s even an argument, given rather silly calls for London independence, that East Kent despite being a hotbed of UKIP support would eventually seek an autonomous arrangement as a part of Europe’s only cross-border county.

Certainly that’s no more absurd than claims of Gibraltar or the Falklands as British territory or the jerrymandered sectarian fudge of the truncated Six Counties of Ulster.

Brexit has exposed the value of Europe to many people, the danger of losing the close political, diplomatic and economic and cultural ties. And Generation Split with younger people wanting to remain in Europe.

The damage is already incalculable with weeks and months if not years of delay and incompetence to be revealed.

The USA and John Kerry are already signalling support for the Special Relationship…with Germany. Why wouldn’t USA focus on Europe’s largest economy, the political and trade links, and in the heart of Europe and the EU?

They even speak good English.

While with Operation Anakonda16 and Rapid Trident (and the USA bases and troops for Europe and Africa in Germany) from the Channel ports to the Ukraine and Crimean borders is a US-EU focus, prior to Russian and Turkish accession to the EU.

Brexit Britain looks brittle and confused, even before Article 50 is invoked, in comparison as EU27 and USA concentrates on a united Europe with Bosnia and Serbia and Albania.

After a year of Corbyn nothing has been done and I was astonished at how few of the Shadow Cabinet I actually knew.

Certainly wiser and more capable heads are needed such as May and Fox, or Benn (who didn't then stand against Corbyn for Leader), Hodge, Onwurah, Blackman-Woods and Creasy, and Lucas and the aforementioned Sturgeon and Salmond and Robertson could be surer hands on the tiller than the sinking hulk left by Boris and Gove and Corbyn and Farage.

While a revitalised Cameron focus from the Lords on trade could help stop some of the damage that will ripple outwards for years.

Trending on Twitter is the hashtag #whathavewedone and you might well ask.

Time for Garbutt KCC leader 2017 and MP 2020 – or is that 2016 or 2017?

What an utter, utter mess.

Time for Change.
@timg33

* Sincerity article: Soda Wars go pop http://sincerityagency.blogspot.co.uk/

* Surin Charity: Malaria a brief thought: http://surinvillagecharityschool.blogspot.co.uk/

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

* 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


* 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:

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

http://surinrestaurantramsgate.blogspot.co.uk/

* The Bridges of Battambang to follow


Tim’s titbits:

• Who should pop up last week in the BHS pension scandal with Philip Green and Chappell…Lord Grabiner of Britain’s most corrupt barristers One Essex Court with Glick QC and Hollingworth. Grabiner it seems was Chair of BHS (appointed by his brother the CEO – you couldn’t make this up could you) although didn’t turn up for many of the Board meetings when the pensions black hole was created. Frank Field referred to his diminishing reputation while Private Eye described him as “a boiled old sausage” for the previous LIBOR scandal he led for the Bank of England while the Financial Times described him as “Lord Grabafee”. More later, but as Vince Cable stated, what an advertisement for British business – and now the rather rancid High court these scoundrels make.

• Common Ground: a superb initiative by advertising supremo Martin Sorrell and Climate/Presidential expert Al Gore with Ban Ki-Moon the outgoing UN Secretary-general for the 6 main advertising groups to take on the UNSDG30 goals with broad themes:
o WPP: Gender (quite an easy one both strategically and creatively for agencies of the scale and skill of WPP – whether the Norway 40% role, or a Woman on Mars by 2030 under the UN flag or FGM/Child Marriage)
o Havas- Climate
o IPG - Water
o Omnicom – Education
o Dentsu - Health
o Publicis – Food (waste/source/share)
o And a cluster of other issues for other agencies such as Refugees and Immigration and Isolation/Separation
• I’ve already raised Surin School Charity with Omnicom as ideal for case study and promotion
• And, without, unravelling all the UNSDG30 goals and c.170 sub-goals, certainly goals 8-12 are omitted so far but ideal for agency consideration, whether Sincerity or not, in terms of consumption, sustainable economies and cities etc
• Common Ground is a massive initiative that the ad agencies – with their clients - are leading on and need your support over the next 15 years: more later
• While, as I’ve written before, there are some major gaps in the UNDG30 goals: Space, War and more effort needed on killers such as tobacco: 5M deaths every year and Cancer: 8M deaths every year and 39M blind people globally. Issues I’ve highlighted with Discovery Science Park and all 130 University Chairs for Cancer, Cataracts, DNA etc required

• A really superb effort though by WPP and the main ad agencies: more later but look out for dynamic brands in UK supermarkets near you such as Lucky Iron Fish in Cambodia and Unilever’s Lifebuoy soap and handwashing in Ethiopia

• Interesting research on #STEM that physics is boys’ 4th most favourite subject and 19th for girls, while 46% of UK schools don’t send any girls to study physics (never mind brain surgeons or rocket scientists) – a massive failure for education and pharma #STEM

Time for Change
@timg33

RapeNation. RapeKent. What a fucking disgrace.

114 rapes reported in 2015 in Thanet.

3 convictions.

What a fucking disgrace.

A detection rate of around 2.5%.

What a fucking disgrace.

One Rape Crisis Centre...in Maidstone, c.2 hours’ drive away.

What a fucking disgrace.

The West Kentification of KCC by Leader Carter. No wonder Maidstone has appalling traffic jams - all the public sector offices are there. A basic failure that the Whitehall out of Whitehall programme is overcoming nationally with Salford Media City etc.

East Kent funds it and West Kent gets it. Whether it’s roads or schools or hospitals or bumf jobs. What have our elderly kippers such as Latchford and Heales and Shonk achieved except Cancer Victim coverups at Manston and Thor?

442 rapes in East Kent in 2015 – and 65 still being investigated over a year later.

What a fucking disgrace.

100,000 rapes in RapeNation UK last year – the highest ever.

What a fucking disgrace.

A national detection rate of 5% - unchanged in almost 30 years.

What a fucking disgrace.

The Broadstairs rape lawyer writing to a victim to call her a liar…then their client admits in court they raped her after all. Who is that lawyer and law firm?
DCI Max “Minimum” Davidson of Kent Sex Crime Division says rape is a very difficult crime to solve. Gosh. Well I never. You don’t say. And water is wet.
You don’t need to go to Hendon, or get Paul “Marlon” Brandon’s PredPol Cops back from Vegas to give their crystal balls a rub, to work that one out.
Appalling rape statistics. Who is running Kent Police? Chief Pughsley or Peter Sutcliffe?

What a fucking disgrace.

And what is The Boy Police Commissioner Matthew Scott doing in his first few weeks? We have gun-nuts in Orlando with USA’s worst massacre given the loose gun controls, and now the first killing of an MP, since the IRA in 1990, with another gun-nut, and Kent awash with machineguns in the UK’s largest hauls.
Yet The Boy PCC is crumbling to the gun lobby in handing over £39,000…to speed up issuing gun licences rather than ensuring tighter controls and that all Kent’s population have rapid access to a Rape Crisis Centre near them.

What a fucking disgrace.

The same with Mental Health units and Orphan/OAP Care Homes and Homeless hostels. Een hospitals that aren’t filthy would be a start.
The Boy PCC needs to raise his game if that’s the best he can do, swanning in as a Tory MP teaboy rather than making sure the police perform.
And it would be interesting to detail the number of cop-on-cop incidents ie the police suing each other on the public dime and time? Whether it’s tripping over the kerb or stung by bumblebees or words of advice shifting them onto non-jobs for the pension?

When I stood as PCC before refusing to support the Kent corruption of Infratil and TDC monitors and Thor mercury contamination, the gun lobby was the main vociferous lobbying voice. The Boy PCC is kow-towing to them already.

Kent Police aren’t corrupt, like many of Kent’s councils and politicians, with being involved in the Infratil and Thor crimes – but they’ re stood on the sidelines preferring inaction.

And with Hillsboro (2 S.Yorks Chiefs resigning in a day – one being investigated by Kent Police), Deepcut-Surrey Police and now Orgreave and Birmingham Six retrials it’s hardly a good year for policing. Never mind the Goldfinger shotgun-heart attack or CementMixerDrowning or Manston-Ostend IranAir and gunrunning/drugs flights, or Essex Police affiliated with Kent through the Serious Crime Squad.

Will Kent Police be cooking up a Hillsboroesque story about the Infratil and TDC monitors and cancer victims caused by Berry and Button and Sproates?
Maybe drunk Scousers removed the pollution monitors and faked the data for years?

Maybe helping TDC and legal beagle Howes to shred the evidence?

Maybe investing in some wipe-clean Met notebooks to fix the Thor pollution data too?

Maybe Beggs QC for Surrey Police at Deepcut could be funded on the rates with support from crooked barristers and lawyers like Hollingworth and Glick QC at One Essex Court and Palmer Biggs and Downs Law?

Maybe some tame or best mate judges such as Lord Grabiner QC of One Essex Court could dismiss these crimes all as stuff and nonsense?
But for £300M budget a year and 6,000 cops and clerks (and more with the CPS and Courts), maybe the Kent Police Rape Cops should be back handing out parking tickets or picking up litter, if a 5% detection rate is the best they can do.

Certainly Special Branch could be doing more than putting elected councillors on a mysterious Domestic Extremist Database or wiretapping MP’s such as Caroline Lucas. What are the Burberry Boys of Special Branch doing? Follow councillors back from the town hall or MP’s from parliament?

They’d be better off following the Kent Police Rape Cops and see what they’re doing.

The sooner this Domestic Extremist Database is revealed the better, and Kent Police and Special Branch’s role in it. Which councillors and MP’s knew of it and saw it?

That’s a lot of Burberry overcoats and The Sex Cops trailing after elected councillors and shagging demonstrators.

And 1:1 cops and clerks is an outrageously high backoffice skew, ripe for Kent, Surrey, Sussex mergers to reduce the 43 forces. And another 43 Fire Office-Police mergers needed given only 400 UK fire deaths a year (a dozen or so in Kent and South East?).

We already have an ineffective desk-bound Coastguard wasting budget on expensive offices and pretty uniforms on the rates - and calling out the charitable RNLI to do the work.
While FOI Finchy and Million dollar Millington’s fancy fire station garage instead of a swimming pool is absurd waste.

The Courts granting a year’s extension (and at least 3 years in prosecuting Steve Uncles of the English Democrats for the previous election(!) and voterigging scandal) after last year’s Tory election fraud with LocalCraig (and him a Chatham magistrate as well as an MP) etc bussing in rent-a-crowd supporters from Central Office due to inaction suggests a police force and Courts asleep at the wheel – or rather scared to put their senior pensions in harm’s way.

While 5% is unbelievably feeble - even worse than random or fitup – almost as if they’re trying to let rapists wander free.

What will it take to get an arrest? A rapist wandering into a police station with his pants round his ankles, and wiping his cock on The Desk Sergeant’s shirt-tails?

So many tasers and trousers and cars and helicopters and pensions and forensic kits and guns and salaries and bodycameras yet so few rapists arrested.

RapeNation. RapeKent. A fucking disgrace.

Time for Carter to Go.

Garbutt for KCC Leader 2017
Time for Change
@timg33

* Sincerity article: Soda Wars go pop http://sincerityagency.blogspot.co.uk/

* Surin Charity: Malaria a brief thought: http://surinvillagecharityschool.blogspot.co.uk/

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

* 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


* 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:

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

http://surinrestaurantramsgate.blogspot.co.uk/

* The Bridges of Battambang to follow

Misc:
1. Broken Kent Elections #1: at last a reply from Nadeem Aziz the Dover Council CEO and PCC Returning officer some 6 weeks (and with a £60k fee remember for what mot would describe as a basic election task of a council CEO) after raising the issue of henry Bolton the leaky borders UKIPper illegally standing as a serving civil servant and why Fergus’ forms were rejected for not being hand-delivered(!). It only took the Electoral Commission and OESCE observers to raise it too…

2. Broken Kent Elections #2: the increasingly slippery and incompetent Tim Howes legal beagle at TDC making up excuses for using in the EU referendum illegal letterheads – as specified by the Electoral Commission. A basic lack of competence that only P45 reform can resolve…

3. Broken Kent Election #3: no news as yet from claire.l.hawkwen@thanet.gov.uk the TDC Election Clerk (as point 2) on why the TDC/RTC election forms were only notified an hour before the deadline(!)

4. Breaking news: Broken Election #3.1 – my spies tell me there is after all a separate RTC election with a handwritten(!) notice of 9th June and deadline of 24th June for 21st July election (via Madeline Homer Returning Officer at TDC again). Who knew? And why only 2 weeks’ notice for candidates yet then 4 weeks before the election? Surely it should be the other way round – and detailed on the RTC and TDC websites? A medieval muddle and shambles. At least we know the TDC and RTC (and KCC) elections are separate not just a tool for doublehatters to crowd out democracy. The public should refuse to vote for any doublehatter. Indeed, any candidate without a written manifesto.

5. Broken Election #4: no news from TDC CEO and Returning Officer Madeline Homer on why/how non-national elections ballot boxes are stored overnight without being counted? Maybe it’s not important.

6. Quite frankly we need OESCE election observers in Kent given these feeble performances – maybe from another Third World nation like Chad?

7. Too corrupt Kent councils: OLAF EU fraud silence, White Finger Scandal Silence, Sands Hotel Dreamland court cases silence, 100SE Rd garden grabbing silence – why haven’t councillors insisted all these details are released? They’re all funded by the taxpayer so why should they be hidden. If they’re court cases then the documents need to be checked the council isn’t making things up…I doubt the councillors have even seen or approved any of these cases. Or even the accounts and salaries and pensions and expenses…

8. Remain is the only sensible choice in the Brexit debate with over 90% of economists, businesses, banks, Bank of England, organisations such as IMF etc all citing Britain being worse off with Leave. But especially feeble of George Osborne in Kent to cite Operation Stack being cancelled if Britain leaves. Is that it? Supposedly no impact on science or university research and exchanges? Or on Kent’s language schools and tourism industries?

9. While the Out arguments on immigration are laughable racism. UK expats in EU are almost the same as EU immigrants at c.2-3M. I was surprised there’s only c.50k EU bureaucrats – about the same as at KCC. While its desperation to be PC rather than Racist, to suggest that Jamaican or Indian rocket scientists are being banned from Britain from because of an EU priority. Where are the hordes of Jamaican rocket scientists when you need them? As feeble as the scare tactic of every Romanian or Bulgarian and now Turk moving to UK. Much of UKIP such as TDC’s NegroRoz or GolliwogBertie would want them all banned anyway. And City trader Farage all too willing to divert from quibbles on the Euro to descend to racist depravity with hatred of HIV patients previously and now the Breaking Point poster of Syrian refugees. Rightly condemned by politicians of all sides and even the Archbishop of Canterbury – with Farage sidelined throughout the Brexit debates. Vote IN – and for massive EU reform ie Sarajevo Shift to support and fund prosperity in the Balkans, and end wasteful symbolism such as the Strasbourg Shuffle. Or don’t bother – the debates have been weak and the result will be within a percentage point or two, so no great victory either way, and rather ho-hum after almost 6 months of nothing much.

10. Rather it’s the end of Boris as a mainstream politician, and no doubt we’ll have resignation countdowns from Farage and Cameron for successors. Probably Corbyn too in a few months. The 2015 election and now EU Referendum has shown the weakness of the current crop of UK politicians. Probably only John Major and Michael Gove have had anything approaching a competent election.

11. Astonishing research by former Cllr Driver on the Parkway-Manston railstation, bizarrely still being discussed at KCC some 2 years after Manston closed? What must the conversation be each month when that appears again on the agenda given there is no airport? Where is the £17M on the Parkway being spent? Tea and talking shop biscuits for bureaucrats? Abysmal County Planning as usual nothing more than vanity projects involving pouring cement.

12. Dismal too that former RoboCop now RoboGob Mallon and SHP Stone Hill Park is trundling along – again with the Gloag missing fines and contamination information and aquifer protection, and half-empty/nonpharma jobs at Discovery Park. An idiotic New Town overbuild project worthy of KCC Leader Carter’s last days... before the May 2017 KCC election. And all the more appalling that the next-door Thanet Earth greenhouses are the second-worst light polluter in UK(!) narrowly pipped to that unwanted prize by Tata Rotherham steelworks(!). They don’t have blackout blinds at Thanet Earth? And interesting from aerial photos, they seem to have dug into the (polluted) drinking water aquifer for reservoirs for their tomatos…

13. On talking shops: astonishing that the Commonwealth hasn’t already specified the end of the death penalty in Commonwealth for all crimes, and for gay and disabled rights in Africa and FGM Female Genital Mutilation mainly in East Africa and modern slavery/trafficking. Why are the Commonwealth and African Union dragging their heels? These are minimal problems now to be swept away along with the half-dozen Last Dictators of Africa and Central Asia – and UK and EU sanctions and DFID aid should be leading the way and with a tax havens ban in UK overseas colonies.

14. Terrific the Space buzz around Tim Peake’s mission – and well done to the East Kent schools involved in Space #STEM research and Space foods/seeds. Superb as UK seeks to develop its Space Industries such as Space Junk clearance, weather satellites and Space Ladder. How astonishing that over 60 years of satellites still hasn’t yet girdled the Sun and every planet with dozens of sensors?

15. The P53 genome causes most (about 50%) cancers and tumours – where is the NHS DNA rollout, cyberknives in hospitals (I’ve written on this before, but also detailed now in The Sunday Times with the Imperial College Hamlyn Centre), and globally coordinated research programme to fix this, and thus most of the 8M cancer deaths a year? When are these RoboDocs and iKnives rolled out to NHS hospitals rather than noodling around forever on research?

16. Surely soda/sugar manufacturers would speed up introduction of diet sodas (about 50% of the market already) if the half-dozen supermarkets eg Tesco etc that make up 90% of the food sales market in UK specified it as a SKU/shelf stocking policy? All sodas should be the diet versions within a year. The taste differences are minimal and diabetes/obesity benefits massive. And the supermarkets could easily draw up and publicise and label a list of their highest fat etc products for public review? It would take a matter of moments. Breakfast cereals and health bars seem notorious for hidden sugar. Just as the pressure is on for the UK supermarkets to be the first to end tobacco sales as did Walgreens in USA. One for the good folks at Waitrose? While schools and vending machines in sports centres and hospitals should only stock diet soda.

17. The good folks at Venomtech at Discovery Park could be developing #STEM vaccines for 40k deaths from Rabies in India as well as supplies for UK hospitals. One too for the good folks at Rotary and Lions (still a horrifying 39M blind globally for lack of specs and cataract expertise/vaccines) after the massive success of polio vaccination. 2015 the first year ever for polio-free Africa. And only Pakistan and Afghanistan left with a few dozen polio cases.

18. Just as the good folks at Panasonic, as part of the Kent-Benelux Strategy, could be developing P53 genome technology in bathroom mirrors and electric toothbrushes, or toilets and sinks and handheld devices.

19. Cambodia Rail: PhnomPenh-Sihanoukville route to the coast/port now open and I understand work commencing on an HCMC route although I have no details as yet. 2 years for links through to Bangkok? And then the Kwai-Yangon link again?

20. Riots in Papua New Guinea over calls for more democracy and prosperity. And calls for an EU-ASEAN trade focus, and defence overhaul, given the EU HQ in BKK and the first US-ASEAN Summit in April with a tech focus from Microsoft etc. Another reason why Brexit would create a diminished and underperforming Little England.

21. Astonishing statistics on the debate over a Hong Kong handover of the Falklands: only 570 children under 15 (and only 144 people in all of West Falkland) – I’m no demographics expert but surely this is both massively unsustainable, and likely to lead to problems of inbreeding and incest that plagued the Pitcairns?

22. Bizarre an RNLI quad bike driving up and down Ramsgate Blue Flag beach: noisy and dangerous and pointless, and part of the syndrome of beach and prom becoming roads and carparks: reg no. WG63 HCL and NippersNook W445 YSB – best to clamp then and tow them away.

23. Similarly with Pleasurama best to tear the wall down: it will never be built and it’s just an eyesore while the Pavilion and Wetherspoons (notorious for Tesco-style chain pubs and zero hours contracts) is mere rigged sales as with the Slipways and Dreamland. Same Old Corrupt and Coverup TDC under Wells and Shonk and Homer. Weren’t they meant to be a breath of fresh air and new broom rather than the same stale pensioners letting East Kent stagnate and rot?

Time for Change
@timg33

Queen's 90th. Time for Royal Reform in UK.

Tim Garbutt, KCC Leader 2017 and MP2020 candidate said:




"The Queen's 90th Birthday today marks the end of era.



With Queen Elizabeth as one of the world's longest-reigning monarchs, beaten only by the King of Thailand now in his 70th Anniversary of reign, it's time to reflect on Royal reform.



Clearly the sycophantic delight in the Queen walking and talking and breathing harks back to a medieval Britain that ended in 1649 and 1688, if not earlier with Magna Carta, rather than the 21st century.




It's time for 21st century Royal reforms:



* end the Military Oath to the Royals for an Oath to Parliament and Public - the Royals have no roles except ceremony ie the Queen-in-Parliament. The military reports to Parliament.


* end the last Hereditary Lords: how absurd that the only Lords election as it becomes a Senate since 1999's reforms is for the last 92 Hereditary Lords to elect their replacement as they die off


* end the Empire designation in medals and all Royal titles eg Baron etc - Prince Charles has already called for this. Britain has no Empire, and hasn't for decades, except tax havens and fragments of colonies such as the Falklands and Gibraltar


* reduce the Civil List to 5 Royals (and reduce the hundreds of butlers and courtiers on the rates) as in Spain and open all royal palaces/houses eg Sandringham to the National Trust and public


* end Royal sinecures such as the Lords Lieutenants and 70(!) Deputies tripping over each other in each of the counties - ceremonial bloat along with the Council Chairmen etc


* replace the Royal Dieu et mon droit crest etc, in public buildings with Union Jack and Parliamentary portcullis




Britain's Royals have minimal, if any roles, in a modern nation - while Commonwealth, and charitable and tourism functions such as Princess Diana and landmines or Prince Charles and Climate Change, and faces on coins and stamps, are useful but not essential as most nations have found.

And the Royals funded from Kent's public purse have no practical function on say Infratil corporate manslaughter at Manston or Thor mercury cancer victim contamination, or even fraudulent Kent elections and crooked barristers and lawyer and judges such as Lord Grabiner and One Essex Court or Dungeness and Belgian nuclear contamination. Their subjects have no role except funding waving and patting corgis.

While the variances now on UK law whether Scottish votes at 16, free tuition fees or Caribbean Commonwealth death penalties or even the continuation of the Union Jack for the Scottish saltire make a mockery of the Royals as a uniting institution.

Perhaps Scandinavian bicycling Royals are nearer the mark for a modern nation.


A Royal rubberstamp to perpetuate themselves is an irrelevance in 21st century Britain.



Time for Royal reform."




Time for Change.

@timg33


* Sincerity article: Soda Wars go pop http://sincerityagency.blogspot.co.uk/

* Surin Charity: Malaria a brief thought: http://surinvillagecharityschool.blogspot.co.uk/

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

* 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


* 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:

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

http://surinrestaurantramsgate.blogspot.co.uk/

An EU Army – again? And Kent Corrupt elections.

One of the more interesting scare tactics to emerge in the last month from the Brexit debate was the fear of an EU Army. Strangely both sides, Remain and Out, rushed to deny such a thing, and they‘d be against it anyway even if it did exist. No doubt amidst fears of British Tommies being goosestepped around by the Hun.

Or wave after wave of Eurocrats in tanks landing at the White Cliffs of Dover to take over completely. Perhaps only presaged by a scouting force of Albanians at Dymchurch.

But, such silliness aside (and isn't the debate dull, and Boris increasingly ludicrous with his silly gags?), an EU Army not only exists already, but has done for decades - if not for centuries.

An EU Franco-German Brigade of 5,000 troops exists in Strasbourg, although admittedly that’s largely for ceremonial symbolism and show. But rather that, than another hundred years of the tribalism, with France and Germany at each other’s throats. That's what a fledgling European Union was designed to prevent with a Coal and Steel Union after the carnage of both World War 1 and 2 that destroyed most of Europe and North Africa.

Perhaps now a Solar and Wave Union would be more relevant, with even Saudi Arabia’s 2030 plan downplaying oil for the likes of Desertec solar. Even oil-rich Norway moving to electric cars only by 2025.

Yet with the EU Army, there’s also the EU BattleGroups with 18 Brigades each of 1,500 troops from at least two EU nations in rotation every 6 months – including British troops serving as of 2005, 2008 and 2010.

And the British Commander at one point was David Leakey now Black Rod in Parliament so an EU Army can hardly be a surprise to any UK politician.

The current 6 month tour of duty for the EU BattleGroups is the Visegrad Group of Hungary, Czech, Slovak and Ukraine. And then for the rest of 2016 there’s the Central Group of Germany, Czech, Belgium, Eire, Luxembourg and Croatia.

And yes, you read two of those nations correctly: Croatia the most recent EU member already taking part in its military functions. As is Ukraine although not yet an EU member – and nonEU members such as Norway and Turkey also take part in the Groups as does Macedonia. The latter, as with Ukraine not even a NATO member yet.

And the EU Army also has the EuroForce of c.2-4,000 troops deployed since 2002 in Macedonia, Congo, Chad and Central African Republic.

And all that is without the rather arcane distinction of whether NATO forces in action, without a USA or even Canadian component, are an EU force. Certainly USA troop and bases cutbacks in Europe and the new US Central Command for Africa are designed to encourage Europe to take on more of its defence and planning.

There’s even a EUGendarmerie force, since 2006, of c.3,000 riot police/troops from at least 5 nations – handy for the collapse of Greece, Spain and Southern Italy after both the Recession and Refugee failures.

And there‘s the EU Navy, primarily coordinating individual nation’s ships, for the Mediterranean now and Somalia before that. An EU Airforce seems the only main element missing, albeit with ship-borne helicopters filling that role and NATO again.

Indeed the only EU nations that don’t take part in the EU Army at all are Denmark and Malta, although both are in NATO.

With Germany seeking to end its conscription of troops as wasteful and pointless, there’s an argument that Europe requires only the 3,000 BattleGroup troops and Riot gendarmerie for internal security, and the EuroForce for MENA deployment. The question then being why is Europe funding an extra 1M troops in its various militaries to sit in barracks with little to do beyond Europe, and nothing to do in Europe?

Brexit would raise the prospect of the UK having no oversight of an EU Army – and bearing a fuller cost for the UK's own military. The Cold War peace dividend took decades, if all to occur, while recent NATO claims of requiring 2% of GDP looks weak if even Germany is around the 1.3% mark and seeking to reduce its costs.

NATO specifying NATO'as tax-take is of course fraught with difficulties...

And it certainly raises questions why UK is already paying 2.5% of GDP for the UK military.


And even predating the formation of NATO in 1949 (and some years before a fully-fledged EU) is the WEU Western European Union formed from 1948 and comprised of 7 nations including UK. The WEU as an EU Army in effect came into being before the EU itself.

And the WEU lasted from until in 2011 when it was subsumed into the new EU Security Policy. And it certainly was active in 1999 for the only use of military force in Europe over Kosovo.

So as you can see an EU Army (and one of several components) not only exists but has done for decades and has been deployed in Europe mainly for training and abroad for peacekeeping.

While EU peacekeeping forces are active as both a police and military function in Somalia and Sudan along with UN peacekeeping troops – now augmented by UK troops for the first time in decade.

It may well be post-Putin, given the Georgia and Ukraine conflicts and Baltic threats, that Russia joins the EU (as well as Turkey and Ukraine) but certainly not impossible, and again likely to require another wave of disarmament in Europe.

While the North African and Levant nations are likely candidates for EU Accession too as part of the Mediterranean Partnership and as with the Chad and Kony war crimes, a resurgent African Union and EU-ICC must crackdown on the last few dictators such as Bashir, Assad and Obiang and the last few Presidents-for Life in Africa and Central Asia.

And even before WEU it’s worth remembering the very real contribution of the Brexiters main enemy of the moment, the Poles. Not for nothing is Polish the main foreign language in UK now or the recent Polish blood donations http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-34006542 amidst the scaremongering of first 19M Romanians or 7M Bulgarians and now 75M Turks – the whole populations for those countries supposedly shifting to Brent or Bradford.

British troops landing at Sword Beach in June 1944 did so under the watchful eye of not one but five Polish Navy warships: ORP Blyskewica, ORP Dragon, ORP Krakowiak, ORP Piorun and ORP Slazak. And alongside the troops of the 1st Polish Armoured Division. Polish troops that would also launch into the air over Arnhem knowing the battle was in danger of being lost.

Those Polish troops carried the same insignia of eagle’s wings on their uniforms as 300 years previously in resisting the Turkish advance on Vienna, that as with D-Day itself formed the basis of modern Europe.

While the troops that relieved the tremendously brave airborne assault on the Merville Battery and Orne Pegasus Bridge were 3 Troop of 6 Commando. A vital task in preventing (as with Kent’s role in Operation Fortitude with General Patton) a tsunami of the 22 divisions of German panzers held in reserve, sweeping down from Calais and across the invasion beaches.

3 Troop were an EU army in microcosm of Belgians, Dutch, Norwegians and Poles again and the X Troop of German Jewish refugees given English names and CofE religious disks in case of capture.

And overhead the Spitfire pilots of Czechoslavakia and Poland - and of course French, American and Canadian soldiers and sailors and pilots. How very different in that June 6th, compared to now, was the perception of a proto-NATO and an European Army Allied to liberation and freedom, not one of fear and hatred.

While a European army of alliances goes back even further, whether in the killing fields of the Somme and French and British and Canadian troops – the latter based in Ramsgate, with the Canadian Red Army Cross hospitals in the converted tourist hotels and secret Richboro Port.

And all across Flanders fields the soldiers and sailors from USA, Japan, Thailand, China, Australia, New Zealand, Russia, Vietnam, Italy, Cambodia, Morocco, India, Senegal and Algeria.

Or further back, there’s the French and British and Turkish alliance for another war in Crimea.

And perhaps the most European Army of all, under the Duke of Wellington, launching from Ramsgate to Spain and Portugal and France, to stand with the Dutch and Germans and Russians to twice defeat Napoleon.

Another June day in 1815 that celebrated a European Army and European unity rather than the petty and divisive nationalism veering into racism of Farage’s Blackshirts that at worst besmirch Kent and Europe. Or at best prove to be a laughable saloon-bar Roderick Spode in French cuffs.

Indeed it’s not so outrageous to argue that an EU Army works best in restraining the USA in acting alone, given the wreckage of Iraq and Afghanistan and Libya and Yemen and Somalia and now Syria.

And perhaps the greatest failing of the Brexit debate is the case not being made for a Stronger Britain in a united Europe – certainly an EU reformed – and one looking out beyond a Fortress Europe and Fear of The Other drawbridge mentality, to unity with Turkey and Russia and the Levant and North African nations.

Time for Change
@timg33

* Sincerity article: Soda Wars go pop http://sincerityagency.blogspot.co.uk/

* Malaria a brief thought: http://surinvillagecharityschool.blogspot.co.uk/

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

* 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


* 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:

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

http://surinrestaurantramsgate.blogspot.co.uk/


• A footnote on the appalling Little Ships remembrance in Ramsgate last week by Our Council of Duffers: interesting article by the Kent Messenger on the Dunkirk movie by Christopher Nolan I’d mentioned as relevant for my EKFOS project: the East Kent Film Office and Studio – why should all Kent film activity be centred on Maidstone Studios and Chatham Dockyard? And certainly with regeneration tanking we need a more diverse economy in East Kent than just tarmacking fields. but beyond that the KM highlighted, I’d forgotten to mention the horrific German war crimes of the Wormhoult barn massacre as well as the Le Paradis executions and Vinkt – British troops as well as Belgian civilians

• Good to see Margate High St having its pedestrian zone enforced by Kent Police: over 20 cars cluttering up the High St and endangering the public. As with Ramsgate pedzone and seafront and prom there’s no excuse (bizarrely the main culprits the TDC binvans and the kiosk owners) and ticketing/fines and then clamps/fines are needed. There’s no excuse I seaside towns

• Deepcut Scandal coroners ruling now issued for Cheryl James (one of 4 murder-suicides what were Surrey police and the Military Police doing, except coverup?)– the Army’s Shame BBC2 documentary - features in my previous manifesto (point 30, page 9 in the A5 version) if you want to doublecheck the details)
• Good to see the Chilcot inquiry report scheduled for publication

• Also 24/7 London tube services this Autumn – a very nice Royal Mint celebratory £1 Tube coin too and terrific plastic banknote designs of Churchill and Turner etc – increasingly I think Kent Orchid flowers should be recognised by the Royal Mint or GPO whether coins or stamps (fab Pink Floyd music stamps)

• Good too to see UK UN Peacekeeping now expanded in Somalia and Sudan. Time too for the UN police as those broken nations move beyond conflict to working together

• Similarly no excuse from TDC on delays to the Mo Leys TDC and RTC election: it seems the civil servants don’t believe in free and fair elections: reminders below for your view- I refuse to stand in this farce of an election a d rampant corruption - details later. All the more abysmal with Roger Gale MP having the brass neck to lecture Africans on their elections.

• My manifesto you can't vote for it: (blog post below) – and good to see Rotary and Lions with their fridge bottles/stickers for emergencies and Specsavers programme for specs to the Third World: 39M people blind and most of it avoidable with either vitamins, specs or cataracts. Where is the NHS and RN programme of hospital ships? I was astonished at an Africa conference that here is no specific programme for African doctors or nurses or those with an interest in Africa to coordinate with hospitals/NGO’s etc

• Dreamland: what a mess. Bust twice in 6 months – after being purchased by TDC taxfunds of £28M or more – who knows with TDC's dodgy figures and reports. Down to TDC’s usual incompetence and dodgy dealings – the same as Pleasurama BVI and Wetherspoons/Pav

• I often raise the issues of malaria nets: bought for $3 retail almost anywhere in the world – so with 600k deaths that would only be about $2M in nets needed – double or treble it if you like. It’s still peanuts when DFDI now has $20BN in funds?

• On that point, Discovery Park needs to focus its STEM work on AMR antibiotics as well as TB or malaria drugs – and East Kent need sot consider jobs beyond the labcoat in malaria net production and Kent University-CCU research programmes

• A Times article that the Dymchurch dinghy of smugglers was previously owned by….Kent Police. You couldn’t make it up could you? Their Princess Alexandra dinghy (a Royal navy-type RIB boat) had £350k spent on it then auctioned off for £100k then eventually bought by the smugglers….

• British Steel bumbling along: Scunthorpe now sold for £1 – a major UK strategic industry that needs better care, especially with the various towns’ reliance on just one industry – and concerning before the proper development of Graphene products

• An interesting Archbishop of Dover message on CofE and Buddhism: only 87 Buddhist temples in UK, an interesting BBCKent report too on Canterbury diocese with over 41% of priests over 60, the most in the CofE

• Bizarre decision of PCC Scott issuing £39k in funds for gun registration with Kent Police. Hardly a priority, with the onion ring or not. When I stood the gun lobby was by far the most vociferous, much as in USA. Yet Scotland now issues a ban/permit even on air rifles

• Silence on:

o 100 Se Rd – the Robert Fidler illegal planning castle now demolished so no excuse for illegal developments
o BVI Pleasurama and clearup
o Manston aquifer and Infratil/gloag-Stagecoach fines
o Howes censorship of councillor emails
o Port fraud police case
o HSE TDC White Finger scandal details
o Toni’s noisy newsagent and Amanda Button ASBO

• Misc points:

o Time for ASEAN expansion of Timor-Leste, Papua New Guinea and Solomons – desperate poverty in geographical and cultural proximity, and only c.8M population in total barely more than Laos or Singapore out of 600M, and no doubt precursors to formal Australia and New Zealand groupings with ASEAN

o Time for UK-Pacific Commonwealth Group too - whether part of G77 or not

o 33 Australian dead in the Vietnam War repatriated to Australia from graves in Malaysia and Singapore with CWG Commonwealth War Graves Commission – I was astonished at the shoddy care of the Long Thanh graves in Vietnam: presumably the Australian MOD (if all all) rather than the invariably excellent CWG

o A US-Vietnam arms treaty now reversing all the sanctions from the 1970’s onwards, and UK typhoon jets rotated to Japan and the new defence treaty given the tension over the Paracels and Spratlys and North Korea


Time for Change
@timg33

Mega-Transport Projects and ASEAN:

Excellent news: http://www.theguardian.com/travel/2016/jun/05/trains-phnom-penh-sihanoukville-kampot


1. HS1 completed
2. HS2 and HS3 in planning
3. Crossrail completed
4. Crossrail #2 in planning
5. Shanghai-Madrid railway completed: c.10-12 day journey (upgrade to under 7 days)
6. Cambodia rail replacement underway; Poipet and Phnom Penh-Sihanoukville
7. BKK-PP-HCMC: the latter stretch to HCMC never built before WW2 and would link all the main ASEAN capitals through to Yangon(Kwai upgrade via Dawei/Tavoy) and India
8. ASEAN hispeed rail upgrade: all track in place but only single one-way track not double-track and not hispeed rail. Each of the main ASEAN nations is about the size of France
9. Vientiane-Vinh rail in Central Vietnam: links to DaNang port and Vinh as Haiphong #2 given the typhoons and large population of the Red River Delta, and to largest city in Laos and Northern Thailand. And links through to Pacific trade with Philippines and USA etc
10. Indonesia hispeed rail and bridges: 13,000 islands and a G20 nation of 250M and the length of London-Istanbul
11. Philippines: 7,107 islands
12. Australia hispeed rail: Cairns to Adelaide
13. Darwin to Timor-Leste road/rail bridge-tunnel
14. Cape York bridge to Papua New Guinea
15. Shanghai to Vancouver: overland via Baring Strait road/rail tunnel – linking London and New York and Santiago by land
16. Gibraltar road/rail bridge: lining London and Cape Town and Cairo by land
17. Cape Town to Cairo: last road/rail links through Sudan
18. Jeddah Red Sea bridge and Arabian hispeed rail (in progress): Kuwait to Cairo and Basra-Berlin again
19. Bari road/rail bridge: linking Southern Italy and Balkans/Istanbul
20. Space Ladder: Perth or Kazakhstan – link to ISS space station and Mars exploration/colonisation: first woman on Mars by 2030

ASEAN expansion: Timor-Leste, Papua New Guinea and Solomons, c.8M people
ASEAN-Pacific Commonwealth Group:
A. Singapore, Malaysia, Brunei, Australia, New Zealand, Papua New Guinea, Solomons and Fiji
B. Myanmar and Timor-Leste – nb Cambodia previous unsuccessful application
C. Bangladesh, (Bhutan), Nepal, India and Sri Lanka
D. Canada, USA, Mexico, Chile, Nicaragua and Panama

Time for Eire-Scotland road rail: Cork-Dublin-Belfast-Glasgow: far faster freight route than via Southampton?

Time for Change
@timg33

Garbutt manifesto: RTC and TDC June 2016 election(s) - and Kent Public Sector Review to May (election update 3pm)

(A D-Day article to follow, but gremlins in the PC delaying it)

(Only TDC...: after two weeks of chasing, TDC say they sent an email last week and then resend it...with an election deadline an hour later at 4pm. Laughable but easier than stuffing the ballot boxes I suppose. Nothing of course on the TDC election. More later, although I've asked for an extension and notified Kent Police/Electoral Commission, but clearly Kent elections are weak if not corrupt with the Tory expenses, LibDems civil servants standing amongst many breaches. TDC are handling the RTC election and neither are sure if there is or isn't an election. Shambolic.)

The resignation of Cllr Mo Leys has opened up seats at RTC and TDC (no doubt soon the 2x Stolen Valour seats as well) and I will stand.

Stop the Corruption. Stop the Construction. Stop the Pollution.

After the May 2015 election clearly TDC is still a disaster.

The UKIP majority has been lost with the non-starter farce of Manston. Neither Tories nor Labour have anything to say with resignations/switching to Independents loosening their roles.

Tory election expenses scandal and Manston now cancelled leaves no policies at all.

Stop the Corruption. Stop the Construction. Stop the Pollution.

Homer the new CE has had no impact in over a year: yet more corruption with the Port dredging and silence on Infratil crimes.

Appalling delays and silence from TDC on how the elections will be run - a concern given the rampant corruption and coverup at TDC and now Kent Police investigation into Tory/LocalCraig electoral fraud - you can ask if you want to know: madeline.homer@thanet.gov.uk

A corrupt and incompetent set of councils wasting tax on themselves.

Nothing done.

A lost year.

Nothing will be done.

Another lost year next year.

The corpses pile up from the Manston and Thor coverups.

Stop the Corruption. Stop the Construction. Stop the Pollution.

Time for Change:

1. Ramsgate’s £17M tax withheld from TDC for RTC spend, and review of TDC services/costs/performance
2. Police Cancer Victim inquiry into Thor, Manston removed monitors/fines, 0% salary fraud and BVI Pleasurama and Dreamland
3. Establish Margate Town Council: 3 towns with agreed shared services and East Kent council – leaner, cheaper, better
4. Ban on doublehatters and family teams restricted: one person, one council – especially Shonk’s absurd multiple roles at KCC, TDC and RTC roles – democratic roadblock and reduction and tax waste
5. Election reform: minimum of 30 days’ notice of election, ballot boxes opened and counted same day, civil servant ban and enforced, councillor phone, address and email published, party switcher: election, independent review
6. Dig up Manston runway and bulldoze buildings and cancel Stone Hill/Manston new town: aquifer replenish and protection, and cancel Stagecoach bus contracts without Manston fines
7. TDC/RTC silverware/artefacts review: insurance/lost/stolen
8. Asbestos review and cleanup all schools
9. Cancel TDC retyped-FOI policy and review costs
10. Review of civil servants locality: localism weakened
11. Cap public sector salaries at £80k and review staffing levels, pensions, expenses/benefits eg TDC-Margate car park and payoffs: 750 staff bloat for failure
12. Public Sector Tax/Performance review with c.44% of GDP in taxation: as a rule of thumb 30% of public sector seems bloat, and review Frontoffice to Backoffice ratio and funds
13. Full FOI: 30 days automatic update, minimal, if any, exemptions sought
14. #STEM focus Discovery Park: Third World vaccines eg TB, malaria nets etc
15. Elected Mayor: public control of council not councillor backroom deals
16. Ramsgate port review: cancel Slipways, publish Port dredging fraud names and seek foot passenger ferry to Ostend not HGV
17. Cancel and clear Pleasurama site and consultation
18. Thor mercury Cancer Victim review and Police inquiry: free blood tests, cancer tests and tissue/hair samples
19. Weekly events/festivals through Summer season and fortnightly for Winter season
20. Cancel Wetherspoons mega-boozer
21. Restore EastCliff Bandstand and Winterstoke gardens
22. Review Ramsgate pier, Pilgrims paths and Landings attraction
23. UNESCO shared listing: Pegwell Bay and Canterbury sites - cancel Shard aerial and National Grid Nemo
24. Cancel and reinstate 100SE Rd illegal garden-grabbing
25. Twin towns expansion: Pakse, Laos; Battambang, Cambodia; Danang, Vietnam; Loei, Thailand; Almeria, Spain; Tavoy, Myanmar; Cebu, Philippines; TBC: Congo, Algeria, USA, Indonesia, Canada
26. WW1 Ramsgate-Canada celebration: Medicine Hat, Red Cross etc
27. Create Education Commissioner Thanet/EK: 40xThanet schools, language schools and 4x universities – Broadstairs CCU campus – tourism focus, EK-College Creative Industries focus
28. Return x12 US Presidential missing medals: Northern Belle 1857
29. Create NHS Commissioner Thanet/EK: GP, hospitals, pharmacies, paramedics review – Pandemics early warning
30. Digital Kent: free school computers/smartphones, 3D printers, library tablet PC loan etc
31. Solar Kent: all public sector buildings switch to green electricity and then solar panels
32. North Sea/Channel: radar/flood/tsunami sensors
33. Free Economy review: utilities, transport fares - end appalling DSS benefit sanctions targets and Disabled welfare cuts etc

Stop the Corruption. Stop the Construction. Stop the Pollution.

Time for Change
@timg33


* Pepsi and Soda Wars: http://sincerityagency.blogspot.co.uk/2016/06/soda-wars-go-pop.html


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


* Surin restaurant review: top Thai restaurant in Kent: and one of only 45 of any cuisine in Kent according to KM:

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


* 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





Kent Public Sector Review: to May 2016

Briefer than usual but fairly self-explanatory and update later (thanks to those with comments/views):

Excellent
1. GPO
2. Police-parking
3. Southern Trains
4. Univ
5. Ambulance

Good
6. High schools
7. Pharmacies
8. GP’s surgeries
9. BT

Acceptable
10. Fire
11. KCC
12. Courts
13. CCC

Weak
14. Prison
15. CPS
16. PCC
17. Primary
18. Electricity/Gas

Special Measures: unfit for purpose
19. NHS hospital
20. Dover- DC
21. RTC- TC
22. Highways Agency
23. Env Agency
24. Southern Water
25. TDC- DC
26. Coastguard