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Showing posts from 2019

Tobias MP and Yellow Peril 2.0 for China and 77th Brigade?

The Tobias Ellwood MP article in last week’s Mail on Sunday (and a full page no less) was chilling for several reasons. https://www.dailymail.co.uk/debate/article-7592503/TOBIAS-ELLWOOD-China-winning-war-West-cyber-space-dark-moon.html The blaring headline of: "From cyber space to the dark side of the moon, China is waging war on the West - and it’s winning" is concerning not just for Pink Floyd fans worried that China’s counterfeit music industry extended from their back catalogue to the Moon itself. But also that a former Defence Minister was peddling such Yellow Peril 2.0 nonsense in the 21st century. And all the more concerning with Tobias not just as a Colonel Blimp eccentric MP hyping up the military and its tax budgets, but somehow extending a minor captaincy in the Army into a Lieutenant-Colonel role in the 77th Brigade, the military psyops function. No doubt Bill Cash MP or the fightin’ bank manager reservist Mark Francois MP, or Nigel Farage already...

Here’s £100M worth of Damn Good Advice on advertising Brexit Boris

The Boris announcement of £100M for an advertising campaign for Brexit struck a chord as I was rereading United States of Advertising guru George Lois’ memoir Damn Good Advice. Lois famous for the passion of Muhammed Ali cover for Esquire magazine of The Louisville Lip struck by arrows in St Sebastian style for being martyred over refusing the Vietnam draft. Lois, one of my advertising gurus along with Osborn (Alex not George), and even stuffy old David Ogilvy, and Drayton Bird DM guru. I was pondering though the Lois 20 Times Square property branding (a number 20, a multiplication sign and a square - and a healthy dose of creative genius) for an article on the NYC Hudson Yards. But the potential waste of £100M of tax funds on a Brexit propaganda campaign shovelled into less than 3 months before the Halloween exit of 31st October stuck out. I would point out I’ve worked on various ad campaigns for Labour and LibDems, and Public Health and NHS too, but the vast majority of my...

Letter to Parliament on Dreamland etc corruption

Hi Meg In your PAC Chair role can I flag up the very fishy sale of the Dreamland amusement park site in Margate - the largest site in Kent. I've copied Madeline Homer and Tim Howes as TDC council CEO and lawyer as the sale featured in no recent election manifesto. Nor were tenders issued for competition - and the sale was nodded through in a 6 minute unanimous council debate last week - lead by Bob Bayford TDC Leader previously Deputy Leader in the Ezekiel regime jailed for council fraud for similar compulsory purchases. Dreamland and Pleasurama and Manston stink of council corruption. TDC as you know is one of UK's most corrupt and incompetent councils and has form with: * Grayling fishy ferry of Seaborne without ships * Wetherspoons mega booze barn * Brett port aggregates #1 and #2 * Pleasurama mystery insurance fire and BVI tax haven * Manston airport - Infratil removed monitors/pollution data and sudden sale to Delware/Swiss tax haven company Riveroak last m...

Cuba Renaissance on track with UK and A Different Gringo strategy?

Certainly a Cuban Renaissance with UK is underway with dynamic new Ambassador Stokes and the first UK Royal visit to the Communist nation by Prince Charles and Camilla earlier this year. Charles lounging next to John Lennon on a Malecon bench, before leading British Classic Cars through the throng of USA sanctions 1950's classic cars. Those Chevy's and Cadillacs probably powered by old lawnmowers or offcuts of vintage John Deere tractors - Nothing runs like a Deere after all, or after 60 years of sanctions. Although none of those vehicles capable of lobbing a nuke onto USA in some notional rerun of the 1962 Missile Crisis. While North Korean tractors towing its missiles in parades before returning to the fields, a testament to POTUS Trump in moving beyond Cold War frameworks and forbearance on USA military action as with Iran's nukes programme. Prince Charles also pausing over a Duchy Original biscuit to view a Cuban organic farm - certainly a Communist - and Caribb...

Email to TDC CEO Madeline Homer etc on Pleasurama and Dreamland etc East Kent corruption

Friday 12th July 2019 Hi Madeline As CEO of TDC can I briefly flag up to you 3 major concerns raised in my MP campaign and to you/Tim Howes previosuly: 1. TDC planned sale it seems to Sands Hotel etc of Dreamland - the former a tax haven company and latter the largest seafront site in Kent and receipt of public funds etc. I've never hear of such a main site simply been allocated and that against corruption concerns as with the Fishy Ferry of Seaborne and Wetherspoons Booze Barn allocation and Brett aggregates. 2. Pleasurama - site ownership murky and BVI tax haven. Will the site be cleared this Summer even if a £1 CPO is needed? 3. Manston £16M sale to Riveroak: Delaware tax haven and missing monitors/fines - have these been reissued to Gloag/Riveroak etc? And corporate manslaughter raised? I'll write more fully later but clearly 3 tax haven sales by a small District council is a concern and given the Gang of Four council staff/councillors resignations/jailed etc. ...

ASEAN 2030 World Cup back of the net for Thailand and Indonesia but UK fumbles the ball?

Even with the confusion of the Thai elections now resolved for the moment with a PM Tu party and Pheu Thai and Future Forward opposition, the ASEAN Chair Summit last month, raised some interesting actions. An ASEAN Space Agency is wise for weather satellites and 5G - surely an opportunity for UK/EU Space Agency support, and the new Australia Space Agency celebrating a slightly rusty first birthday at Woomera lauch site. Even the potential of a Cambodia Space Project banging the drum for a retooling of the ASEAN car industry with a Morlam or Kundrum inspirational ditty. The crashed Australian car industry may even be galvanised again through Space Agency retooling its POTUS Trump missions to Mars and Europa. A woman on Mars by 2030 and space colonies of 3M people also factored in by the Bezos and Tesla and Branson space missions. An ASEAN Military Medicine programme is realistic in USA DARPA terms as something of a sticking plaster over expanding military budgets and perhaps mo...

Fast track Thailand and Cambodia rail - and UK?

A vigorous full page editorial today from the Bangkok Post emphasises the success and potential for the new rail link from Bangkok through to Phnom Penh in Cambodia. The link opened in April by both Prime Minister Chanocha and Hun Sen just a few weeks before the ASEAN Summit chaired by Thailand emphasised connectivity. https://www.bangkokpost.com/opinion/opinion/1709027/rail-link-a-worthy-effort That all the more relevant for the next link from PP through to HCMC in Vietnam as Vietnam chairs next year's ASEAN sessions. Indeed the Vietnam Transport Minister urging a hurry up on such links. That at the Strategic Dialogue in London last week between UK and Vietnam - usually the discussions more tea-and-biscuits Dialogue than Strategy and even less on delivery over the last decade. Perhaps the current rail timetable not factoring in the potential to ease congestion on Thailand's roads - as well as a road safety boost beyond the zooming minivans. The Bangkok Post again thi...

Police review update: Ramsgate and Kent

Crediit where it’s due I wanted to point out, almost 2 weeks after the first police review meeting, things are much improved in the town centre with tramps, pedzone cars etc. Some issues remain: 1. In 2 weeks I haven’t seen any police foot patrols day or night. Prowl cars excellent. 2. Some tramps remain at the BetFred benches: drunk and yelling and litter before 6pm and drug gangs/groups: 3. Lots of bicycles in the pedzone: zooming through, wheelies, groups of kids and often going the wrong way through – is CCTV working? Road Safety generally 20mph (and road crash maps) and future bike reg/insurance/helmets? An OAP/child will be seriously injured or killed soon. 4. Cars on pavements: mainly the kebab shop Slovak reg car and beach kiosk owners – the pedzone and seafront should also be extended soon: 8am to midnight? And marina/harbour car reduction. Same day towing/fines and clamp/crush should be viable: plenty of free car parks 5. Street drinking from news...

Dividends end at Dover and Osaka for UK and G20?

A rigorous Sunday Times article "Go East income seeker" details the potential for UK growth alongside the stock markets of Australia, China, South Korea, Malaysia and Singapore. Indeed Chancellor Phillip Hammond inking a deal with the Shanghai and London Bourses for such growth ahead of this week's G20 meet in Osaka. And the Thai-Cambodia new railway not just creating the strategic linkage of Bangkok and Phnom Penh and no doubt HCMC but already delivering value for UK/European and Asian investors in the £500M redeveloment of Phnom Penh railway station with new retail concourses etc. The St Pancras of South East Asia? With the Sunday Times detailing the Asian funds of Henderson and Schroders for continued growth, brands such as South Korea's (and North soon?) Samsung, Taiwan's Semiconductor Manufacturing Company and Aussie Vintner Treasury Wine estates likely to deliver on that growth. While Aussie wine brand 19 Crimes and UK's Brewdog beer new crowdfu...

Uncle Tu and ASEAN workaday politics for UK and Thailand

So it’s all over bar the future shouting and debates as Uncle Tu is crowned PM last week by King Rama from the lengthy election campaign. And more twists and turns of the election than a nest of cobras as Cabinet roles are handed out in the 20 party coalition and Senate majority of Uncle Tu. Khun Thanathorn and the Future Forward party settling for second place in opposition with Pheu Thai - and a majority of House of Representative votes. And not one but two Prime Minister Shinawatra’s settling for the booby prize of exile in Dubai and Hong Kong and warm praise and support from Princess Ubolratana. The non sequitur of Democracy by Dictatorship rearing its ugly head in UK too not just with the S44 King Henry VIII laws of the Executive changing parliament laws at random but also the threat of a proroguing of Parliament (ie closing it down) to pass any Brexit laws. Is the Tower of London big enough to hold 600 MP’s? That last prorogue one of the most peculiar bids for supp...

Oz and UK and Treble Club exports/FDI

A choice for Australia: merely a Chinese Farm dwarfed by Indonesia’s population, or a UK and Commonwealth 21st century trade hub. And a strengthened Pivot South with UK Irish Guards at Darwin– or the risk of more Pacific radiation from India-Pakistan nuclear conflict or Spratlys/Guam and North Korea nukes? And Pacific Resilience Group on monsoon/typhoon floods, volcanos, earthquakes, forest fires and tsunami. Beyond Project Chaika, there are various other possibilities for UK-Australia growth: 1. BBC Murray-Darling river eco disaster shades of Aral Sea/Cape Town water disasters, and Barrier Reef coral and tourism degradation and decline. 2. Oceania recycling: 20M Oz and 2M Pacific populations not including 7M PNG and 200M Indonesia – 21st century Oz recycling and sewage upgrades with Pacific islands cleanup: AIIB and ADB. Geraldton port expansion and WA rail spurs? 3. Woomera Rocket Ranges again with new Oz Space Agency and UK Space agency: Surrey Satellites and Gl...

Isaan report and UK

Excellent report on Isaan region in Thailand by Asia Foundation and UK DFID aid funding: https://asiafoundation.org/publication/thailands-inequality-myths-reality-of-isan/ The basis of further/expanded UK activity in Thailand and ASEAN. Time for Change @timg33

#2 South Sudan a beacon for Africa with UK and USA and Thailand?

The Parliament review of the monstrous failure of providing the cystic fibrosis drug Orkambi from USA and now the Channel 4 Dispatches documentary on Italian Mafia fake drugs infiltrating the NHS is no doubt a further scalp for Kent Pocahontas Elizabeth Warren on the warpath in her POTUS bid on drugs prices. And Norman Lamb MP of Parliament Committee raising the issues. The Collapse of Southern Italy under the Mafia matched only by the NHS Medicinees Agency denying and denying the problem then calling an urgent inquiry as patients sicken and die from fake drugs. POTUS Trump probably also pondering the Rust Belt opportunities – and Treble Club possibilities with UK trade on focused investment – as the Presidential race crunches into first gear with Democrat debates this month. With my Sincerity Advertising hat on I’ve long argued for the regeneration strengths of Buffalo beyond Madison Avenue. As with Somalia and Yemen and Libya though, the opportunity for South Sudan is to d...