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

At the going down of the sun and in the morning we will forget them. In fact let’s not pretend. We already have forgotten them in Kent. The sacrifices of our troops and citizens in WW1 and WW2 has been forgotten already. Sure on Remembrance Sunday there’s a few warms words and faded flowers. But the millions killed have been forgotten. D-Day last year was forgotten in Kent. Not one piece of activity in East Kent. And in previous years, the disgusting spectacle of the veterans having to scurry around to obtain funding from KCC, for what would most likely be their last visits to Normandy to see their pals graves. Or the Ramsgate British Legion veterans besieged by skateboarders and vandals and tuppeny food vouchers requiring Mayor Green and Kent Police to step in. Or the feeble preparations for the WW1 Centenary next year. There are no preparations – yet Flanders and Mons are remembering the British dead already – a year in advance. And only the War Graves Commission...

Well actually both Manston and Prestwick airports sold for a quid. Good. The sooner Infratil leave Europe and the airports close the better. The Kiwi Killers have breached every safety regulation repeatedly and seen the closure of all their European airports and now the last UK airports. No doubt the last sites at Wellington and Rotorua will go too. They did it here. They will do it there. Ann Gloag of Stagecoach’s shell company is Infratil scurrying away. Messrs Bogoieveski and Baker have done nothing more than tweak their financials at the last minute as extradition papers and corporate manslaughter charges edge nearer. No doubt Fitzgerald and Clarke will be put in the frame and Buchanan – and rightly so. Removing monitors, faking pollution reports, allowing banned-from-Europe aircraft and illegal flights such as sanction-busting Iran Air or gunrunners such as MK Airlines is horrifying. Frontline Kent in the 21st century with gunrunners, drug smugglers and poll...

A busy few weeks for me around the excellent UK trade mission to Vietnam. I’m also close to opening the first Sincerity offices too. Also interesting meetings on the next Surin Schools. Why Vietnam? 90M people and an incredible culture. And after the China debacle of the UK failing to develop the greatest economic growth ever, now an increasing focus for the UK on ASEAN prior to the AEC launch in 2015 and especially Vietnam with the 40th anniversary of diplomatic relations activity this year now concluded, and the preparation underway for the key Vietnam anniversaries in 2015, of April 1975 and September 1945. And unfortunately one of the less positive and almost unknown aspects of the UK policy of the time with Operation Masterdom in 1945 when British troops landed to work with the Japanese troops(!) to pave the way for the reinstatement of the French colonial power despite the Vietnamese declaring independence (even citing the US Declaration of independence). And so began alm...

Like many an old soldier Colonel Latchford of UKIP is mistakenly fighting the last war given his letter in the Gazette a week ago. Syria now is not Iraq in 2003: they definitely do have chemical weapons and have used them several times. Saddam gassed many of his own citizens in 1988 and got away with it. And then invaded Kuwait two years later and was let off the hook and ran rings around the weapons inspectors and no fly zones until he was finally ousted in 2003. Several tons of chemical weapons have been revealed since then by the existing Iraqi government, and Al-Qaida and Osama Bin Laden were then largely confined to Afghanistan. A monster like Assad is now desperate to hand over his chemical weapons before a US-French-Arab missile strike, as with Kosovo or Libya or Yemen, wrecks his palaces and barracks and tanks and jets and warships. Such bombing attacks would undoubtedly aid the rebel alliance, we are already funding and arming, in toppling him. Or at best Assa...

What a disastrous Summer for Kent. Yes the weather hasn’t been wonderful. But that aside we’re seeing the faster spiral downwards now of years of neglect and incompetence. The shambles of the secretive FerryGate decisions and Port closure. Southern Water with more sewage leaks and permanently blocked drains – an Environment Agency court case is the right direction bu t a fine of £300k on £300M profits is laughable. And the funds will not be spent in Kent. More silence on Thor and Infratil and Cargolux/KLM deciding that they will fly when and where they like and to heck with the pollution. Jail is best for Buchanan and Pedro and extradition for Bogoievski and Baker. And the grubby corruption scoundrels of Moores and the 0% salary fraud with Samuel and White – and McGonigal and Button and Berry and Sproates silent on the missing monitors and fines. And Latchford returning form the dead as an ex-Deputy Leader to UKIP Leader but remaining equally tight-lipped o...

With the UK economy struggling, much of Europe too and few answers from the politicians then electoral reform becomes more important. If the system is failing to provide answers then the system needs changing. Or at least the pace of reform improved. There are simple measures already underway: * UK votes at 16 - following the Scottish referendum decision to allow 16 year old to vote in 2014. time for a global vote at 16 with Brazil and Austria leading the way already. * World Parliament: a democratic assembly for the UN. Mired in delay with the EU and the UN itself agreeing that democracy is required amongst the unelected ministers and bureaucrat of the UN. Time for national elections to be held. * 30% minimum election turnout or elections rerun. With the national party's' membership less than 1% and lower than the RSPB, we have representative democracy that's unrepresentative. And State funding of parties on the quiet. Rerunning elections would require better pol...

Speaking from the Maidstone police headquarters, Chief Constable Learmonth of Kent Police said: “Not many people know that I am a keen film fan so here is some of my favourite police films what I like that I found in the mucky films cupboard after Pughsley took most of the really naughty ones home for review. These are classic though: 1. Scarface. Just goes to show what can happen if you can allow a flood of drugs into the region whether it be Florida with them Cubans or my patch with Belgium via Ostend then Manston and the like, with them narco-states like Guinea and Mali too. Crack down on crack dens is what I say! Nice use of electro-pop on the soundtrack as well. And unfortunately the only policeman is a rotten apple copper failing to root out the drugs dens and supply routes. The exception becomes the emphasis. Sigh. 2. Serpico. One policeman’s lone fight on rooting out corruption. Tell me about it. Within the bleedin’ police department as well. I ask you. Luckily in Kent ...