Should KCC Chief Executive Put Up or Shut Up ?

Ray Parker, another Kent blogger, pointed out on his blog recently that Peter Gilroy KCC Chief Exec had written a letter which appeared in this weekends “Kent on Sunday”, now I don’t know whether you share my view of the role of government employees, whether local or national I feel they should confine their opinions to themselves or their colleagues or political masters.

I share Ray Parkers concerns about impartiality, now I don’t care how important Peter Gilroy thinks he is or even how others judge him but its my feeling that he should keep his views to himself unless of course he has been asked to comment by his democratically elected bosses.

Now just to clarify, by Put up, I mean he himself should perhaps stand for public office once he retires from KCC or Shut up by which I mean he should keep his views to himself whilst employed by the Kent Taxpayer.

Still what do I know?

Well what do you expect, Mr Gilroy would support this and me as taxpayer knows, that most do not, and having been given figures concerning the “savings” frankly don’t share his view.

Finally if Peter Gilroy wants anyone to take his views seriously why doesn’t he write as Peter Gilroy member of the public like tony flaig of Bignews Margate.

Democracy running on empty

As you’ll appreciate the pickings are pretty slim here on Bignews Margate of late but fortunately there’s a comprehensive list of Thanet’s bloggers in the side bar. I’ll just run through a few things that caught my eye this last week or so

Nazi News

Firstly along with every man and his dog its difficult not to have noticed Nick Griffin who made more news than was called for, on the “question time” issues, it seems to me and everybody else that the BBC handled this muppet with some incredible clumsiness, I cannot recall anyone else who had their appearance trailed weeks in advance and even by BBC standards the unusually patronising and heavy handed way Question attacked Mr Griffins and his questionable ideology past and present was unnecessarily hostile and did the almost impossible of making him look like a victim of abuse.

God knows why the BBC changed the format of question time, to that of Kangaroo court, not trusting the public to hear the views of a man who’s expressed views that in the past appear to have been sympathetic with neo-Nazi groups.

Did we lose anything by this, yes this sort of hysterical crass treatment of the apparently eccentric leader of the BNP, makes it difficult to discuss the legitimate question of migration which as a result of Labours misguided policy has resulted in large scale job losses by UK citizens, prompting many of us to ask why is it, that UK citizens who wish to work can’t find jobs or have found that wages have dropped to such low levels as to make it impossible to work.

Royal News

The Duke of York has made a powerful case for Britain to become a republic, as Royals often do, Prince Andrew speaks with all the authority of someone of those who come from, a background immense wealth and privilege, clearly demonstrating how out of touch he is by suggesting that Bankers’ bonuses are minute, I suppose the thing is, Andrew is just showing empathy for a similar class of privilege people whose wealth vastly exceeds their worth to society.

Labour sell out labour

Labour support for working people has once again been shown to be non existent as Labour MP’s and Ministers like the down to earth Peter “what a chump” Mandelson have shown no support for postal workers, who have not unreasonably suggested that they and the management get together to under the guidance of Acas (the government agency set up to help settle industrial disputes) to resolve disputes with management.

I like most would hate to see Labour ever revert to the grim extremes of loony lefties of the seventies and eighties with leaders like Michael Foot but come on, Mandelson has for me the appearance of a toadying Tory who happens to be more comfortable with bankers than working people, how sad that as a government minister, he can not back or encourage a government owned business, to use a government created agency, to resolve a damaging postal dispute in the national interest.

I suppose, most senior Labour members MPs, Lords’ & Lady's’ and the like are just too damned bothered about sorting out their expenses (blatant fraud in a many cases), and pensions knowing of course that by June next year many will be in receipt of richly deserved P45’s.

Seasonal Affective Disorder

As you can see I’m about as morose, as its possible for a middle aged git to be. Perhaps its the time of year or the suspension, going on my car put me in a bad mood, still I have to Thank Kwik Fit for fixing it within half an hour.

Dane Valley by - election

Did I read somewhere that the Tory candidate thanked Mr Broadhurst for resigning? I thought he made a botch of resigning? No doubt Labour will be suggesting they give a toss for the people of Dane Valley, when nationally are only interested in sucking up to bankers, business leaders and screwing the taxpayer. As for the Liberals they have my vote I think, its clear to me that nationally Liberals are about the only party that represent the interests of ordinary people in any honest way.

It would be nice to see Labour and Tories upset, particularly Sandy Ezekiel the Tory Leader who so often mentions his concern for Margate and lives in Broadstairs and Clive Hart who will to do what’s necessary to defend Margate Flower beds, bus routes etc even if means looking glum and staring down the lens of a camera. see Mark Nottingham’s blog.

May I suggest

Given the little spare time I have at the moment, as much as I enjoy contributing to the blogosphere, its not possible so I shall suggest you have a read of Paul Francis KM (Med-edt) writing on a frequent topic of these pages Kent TV.

One thing I did note this morning around 4:20 was that on top of the frankly inappropriate spending, on Kent TV ( 2 million) KCC has now compounded this excess by trying to ramp up interest and advertise the much criticised “Hollywould” soap.

I’m just wondering if, as I’m one of the few to have heard this, whether I’m their target audience, a whingeing middle aged blogger and white van man.

Still if you want to know more you can always click the Kent TV label at the bottom of this post.

What a turn up for Turner

I have to say I was extremely sceptical that KCC would get a penny back from money rather naively spent, in my opinion on the original project “Turner Contemporary MK1” which would have been a ground breaking experiment (wrong metaphor) as Britain’s first off shore, ocean going art gallery.

To me the gallery seemed destined to fail from day one, and also the day a test structure floated off with in minutes of being anchored to the sea bed or not as the case may be.

As we all know those boffins at county hall (KCC) who manage these things eventual cancelled the project designed by Snohetta Architects when the projected cost reached the fifty mill mark.

Frankly I think the contractors are not entirely to blame since their bid was the only one not proposing to build on the Rendezvous site but out to sea, someone at KCC should have spotted the anomaly at the time and thought why has no other bid chosen the sea bed rather than the safe relatively dry land to build on.

Some may recall the public meeting when Paul Carter suggested a more realistic project, also I think he mentioned doing up the Winter Gardens, which he has as far as recall not mentioned again.

Anyway today those businesses sued by KCC have agreed to settle out of court with KCC around the 6 million mark. Well done for once to KCC, anyhow since that money results from the Turner debacle and many have suffered as the timetable for opening has slipped a few years maybe Kent council will have the good grace to spend this money on projects in Margate like improving the Winter Gardens by way of compensation for a cock ups involved with the Turner issue.

I think Chris Wells may well have struck the right note with this comment Chris Wells “This is wonderful news for both KCC and the Turner Contemporary project. The last of the ghosts of the original. Project have now been truly laid to rest, and we can look forward unfettered by the past to the opening of the new gallery in 2011

the agreed press release “Kent County Council, Snohetta AS, Davis Langdon LLP and Ramboll UK Limited have been involved in a dispute and court proceedings in connection with the architectural design, engineering advice, cost advice, project management and intended construction of Turner Contemporary Gallery at Margate. That project was abandoned in February 2006. The parties are pleased to say that they have reached a settlement of the dispute without any admissions as to liability and that the court proceedings have been brought to an end by way of a payment to Kent County Council of £6 million inclusive of interest and costs.”

Connectivity and service interruption

You'll appreciate that I have not contributed much to the local Blogosphere of recent, I'd like to be able to tell you, that this is the result of working on other fantastically more interesting projects but it's not the case. Plain and simple I no longer have the time.

Still fortunately for you the reader, there are plenty of alternatives, a favourite being the newly arrived Thanet Waves blog, which combines cynicism, humour and better grammar than what you're likely to get here.

Apart from listening to the news on radio four going to work, I'm pretty much out of touch with what is occurring in the greater world, my connection with Thanet and what goes on is at this point tenuous, not helped by lack of available copies of local newspapers like yourthanet and Thanet extra. The Gazette which is readily available seems pretty patchy in its coverage of local issues probably the consequence of losing one of their reporters Thom Morris.

Maybe I'm just peculiar in my tastes, but for Margate itself the biggest story or perhaps most important story is to be found in the classy Margate architecture blog. Now the subject matter of the blog to which I'm referring is not necessarily the most sexy item you're likely to read unless that is that you happen to be a train buff.

Dull and unexciting as it might be, according to Margate architecture, train services to London from Margate are about to get ten minutes slower and and there'll be fewer of them, in what would appear to be a blatant attempt force travellers to use the expensive and not particularly fast service from Ramsgate to Saint Pancras it looks like Margate will be suffering considerable economic damage. Not something likely to interest those down at Gazette towers but probably more important that the endless drivel about Manston.

Since Roger Gale will soon be asking for us the electorate to keep him in the luxury he's become accustomed, maybe the rail time table is something he could sink his teeth into once of course he's finished polishing off the monthly £300 + plus food expenses courtesy of you and I.

Warnings of further disruptions to Bignews Margate, its likely that contributions will be erratic for a while particularly when my own journeys are subject to their own quaint disruptions more on that later.

Blair the final nightmare

In 1997, I along with probably most of the country felt things could only get better as the rather irritating pop tune used by New Labour kept reminding us.

Twelve years later, what was it, that could have got better, well for me, it was the climate and constant stream of sleazy scandals involving Conservative politicians.

Did things get any better under Labour clearly not, since they’ve had their fare share of scandals, from early on the Blair’s first Foreign Secretary, was given an half hour ultimatum dump his mistress/wife or lose his job, rather cowardly the wife was dumped, since then we’ve seen Peter (what a chump) Mandelson resign and come back for the third time.

Labour lords and MP’s have it seems spent more time devising creative ways to fleece the taxpayer by deploying in many cases clearly fraudulent claims for expenses than doing anything to improve the lives of those who voted them in.

Its worth noting on many occasions Bignews Margate has pointed out Labours negligent care of the working people in our community, but the only thing that ever stirred Thanet’s supreme Labour being (not Clive) S Ladyman MP into response was the issue of expenses and I’m sure he still believes that despite his sixty grand plus salary he’s entitled to claim food expenses which I assume he is but is it right?

Still who could blame Labour’s minnows, Blair did little for anyone but himself, and now after plunging this country into a pointless war in Afganistan, and getting out of office before the Sh*t hit the fan the final nightmare is the possibility of Blair the European President head of an un elected crooked State.

Still if you’d like to know more about Tony Blair check out his website with the in no way megalomaniac title of “The office of Tony Blair”, another pompous Labour Chump I think.

Local Thanet Blogger quoted in today’s Sunday Times

Another example of just how influential Thanet Bloggers are is found in the pages of today’s Sunday Times, admittedly mention is not found until somewhere in the middle but it is in the news section, I usually dont get that far before Tuesday evening except when I’ve the weekend off, as is the case this week.

Any how page 12 “Kent Blogger” gets a mention, if you’ve not a copy then click here.

If you’d like to read more about the subject matter Kent TV click here

Dane Valley Matters - Labour continues to campaign in the phony by-election

I get the impression that it takes a lot to stop Cllr. Clive Hart (Labours supreme commander in Thanet) once he embarks on a mission.

Its clear to me that it takes more than a botched resignation from Tory boy Cllr Stephen Broadhurst and a non-existent by-election to stop local Labour activists lead by Clive Hart to call a halt to mass leafleting.

Right now in Dane Valley, nobodies safe from Labours election bumf, yesterday’s deliver is typical, clearly Sandra Hart’s been reading Bignews Margate as a big mention is made of rubbish building up on the burnt out development site at the bottom of Millmead Road.

Were told that Sandra Hart reported this issue on the 23rd of September, some time after ward Cllr Martin Jarvis one to the Conservatives more active councillors had, still its nice to see that with an election likely that Dane Valley is getting some much needed attention and about time really as we’ve seen gazillions spent on Cliftonville and Central Margate.

One interesting item in Labours latest “Dane Valley Matters” is the chronology or timeline given to the Broadhurst er non resignation, I’m probably overstating the my role but I just wonder had it not been for the vigilance of Bignews Margate in spotting Thanet Councils flawed attendance records its possible that Cllr Broadhurst would never have been put in a position of putting in his resignation. A fact revealed exclusively on this site on August 18th See “Cllr Broadhurst almost the invisible man”

Anyway this “by-election” is not over till the fat lady sings, since there’s an outside chance that our man in Panama might still turn up at the council as I understand he has until October 23rd before being automatically disqualified from office.

Any way time will tell so far the groundswell of support for me as an independent has yet to occur, so its most likely I’ll be backing Liberal man Bill Furness since the Liberal party don’t discriminate against working people as do Clive Harts bosses like Peter (What a Chump) Mandelson, Brown etc.

Kent TV a last throw of the dice or indeed “What the Hells going on”*

In yet another attempt to make Kent TV work, it seems our county councils TV boffins have come up with the ultimate weapon in attempting to justify the least essential council services ever.

Its been said before that nobody has ever lost out, in under estimating the peoples intelligence and it seems that theory is being put to the test, in

a final attempt to justify Kent Council throwing our money down the drain toward the Kent TV experiment.

Those of us of a certain age might just recall a time when 70’s ITV drama Crossroads, was perceived as the ultimate in poor story lines, cheap production values and the frequent look of terror from startled actors who appeared shocked to be in front of a camera.

Why mention the above, well, its seems as part of an attempt to get an audience, KCC TV media experts, have come up with the tried and tested audience generator the Soap Opera “Hollywould”.

I strongly advise you take a gander at the trailer, a word of caution, Corrie it aint, but just taking a glance at the trailer might amuse and I feel could become a cult in a “What the hells going on” sort of way. I’d imagine that poor acting, plot will be combined with heavy, none to subtle, public service messages. God knows Kent council seems to full of clowns so the chances of a comedy classic are high.

Anyway honed under the exceptional circumstances of public indifference, failure to attract an audience and against a back drop of Kent Council cutting genuine services to the public, I think this mini soap opera could be so appallingly bad that it will be required viewing for our Youtube generation.

I reckon with a bit of luck not only will we Kent taxpayers be laughing at “Hollywould” but also Bob Geldoff’s execs might just salvage something from this which has so far failed to justify any of the money invested.

Its still my view that Kent TV is an outrageous waste of local Taxpayer money, and even in the world of public authority waste Kent TV has been so far a star, I’d just love to know how Kent top Conservative Paul Carter justifies this nonsense particularly if he attended the Tories conference last week, when Cameron was letting us know that how tough life is about to get in the public sector.

Although vaguely aware of this latest Kent TV tosh I’d much like to thank the journalist, who flagged it up for me.

* A line from KCC’s Kent TV drama “classic”

The happy complacent world of Kent Conservatives

I’m often amazed at just how stupid Kent Tories think we are or perhaps how stupid they are and we are to elect them.

Example Kier the building firm have been awarded business worth 600 million pounds to build 36 secondary schools in Kent, and it just so happens that Kier have been fined 17 odd million for “cover pricing” by the office of fair trading which is basically understood by many to be what we would more likely call price fixing.

Therefore its rather extraordinary that Kent Council is not about to review the massive contracts it has with Kier even more remarkable are the comments made by Paul Carter Kent Councils Conservative Leader take a gander at this load of tosh from Kent on Sundays story.

“In the good days before the global recession when firms were working flat out, contractors were very worried about not filling in tender documents for fear of being struck off future lists.

“I don’t know the details of the cases, some companies have been found wanting in terms of collaboration through the tender process, which is not good or right.

“But I have not read the details… It is a highly complex area.”

Cllr Carter stood by the company and said he was “enormously” confident.

Now I’m also enormously confident that not reviewing contracts when a firm has been found to have been involved in misleading tenders smells like a week old fish grilled on hot radiator.

Still I’m sure Cllr Paul Carters spot on and right as ever, just as he has been with the in no way negligent Iceland Banks issue, as we all know a cheque for 50 million quid from Icelandic banks is on its way because Kent Tories have told us so.

BBC to expand political reporting on local radio and its business as usual on South East Today

As some readers will know the BBC has become one of my recent special interests.

A few weeks ago I devoted one of my more pompous outpourings of bile, on the broadcasters dire local news content, which for some inexplicable reason gives politicians in Kent an easy ride, either through the absence of reporting or inadequate scrutiny.

The reason the BBC is publicly funded is so that it can report in an impartial way but I just wonder if BBC Radio Kent’s sparse coverage of the workings of regional government is more than just an omission and favours the Conservative administration in Kent Council.

Anyhow I’ve been in correspondence with David Holdsworth BBC’s Controller of English Regions, as you can imagine I despatched my usually whinge about BBC’s poor contribution to local understanding of government. I wont bore you any more than I have already

Even so I thought I'd let you have a butchers at his reply interestingly the BBC are about to recruit 12 specialist political reporters to local radio stations.

Whether the one and a half million residents of Kent will finally get a hook on local politics will be interesting to see, certainly having caught the tail end of Sundays Politics show on BBC 1, I noticed once again the bland topics and questions had much to do with Westminster and damn all to do with Westgate or Kent.

Still assuming I'm wrong (which I don’t think is the case) its nice to see BBC might be coming to a similar conclusion to me, that heart warming stories about animals and cranks are all well and good but we also need to know what’s going on in local government as well as Westminster.

Anyway here’s the reply I received, I didn’t entirely agree but what do I know.

Tony

I understood your earlier correspondence had been dealt with in Tunbridge. We do very much set out to scrutinise and report local government, so I'm sorry if you feel we fall short in Kent. I know that council leaders do appear regularly on the air there. As further evidence we are about to start recruiting specialist political reporters for our local radio stations - the first 12 posts are likely to be advertised in about a fortnight.

All the best

David

David Holdsworth

Controller, BBC English Regions

This email was received a few days ago and I have been a bit busy recently but thought it worth passing on.

PS I caught the opening of South East today and despite culling the older presenters, it seemed to be business as usual, teddy bear’s, photographer of bins, strictly come dancing in house promo, I didn’t watch anymore.

Just what have the Tories done for us?

Well if you live in Dane Valley ward, the answer is jack.

Just driving through the local manor in daylight this weekend, something I’ve not been able to do recently I was appalled with the state of fire damaged site, at the bottom of Millmead Road.

Its not just toilets that Thanet Council can no longer sort out but just a short walking distance from Flaig mansions is an unofficial dumping ground where its not just mattresses that appear to be multiplying but I would guess rodents as well.

Despite having three conservative councillors trousering four grand plus each a year as district councillors, with as we know one, not even having the courtesy to reside on the same blimin continent or apparently being able to sign his own name on a letter of resignation, things are clearly not as they should be.

I cannot believe that Thanet council, should be ignoring the state of this site, and neither should those elected to represent the area, still they do live on the edge of the ward in Garlinge, Birchington and err Panama.

Fortunately Dane Valley is one assumes eventually going to have a by-election once Sandy Ezekiel sorts his man in Panama out unless of course Cllr Broadhurst is going to tough it out and make a miraculous return, anyhow Liberal candidate Bill Furness has been out and about working hard to get elected and already making a difference getting KCC Highways to repair the potholes in Hastings Avenue, pointing out poor road markings and getting TDC to clean up some of the worst areas of filth.

Not to sure what Labour or the Tory candidates intend to do to get elected but I feel they might have an uphill struggle the tories because they’ve shown such utter contempt for the residents of Dane Valley and Labour because nationally they’ve stab their own people in the back, even calling for something similar to the 19th century workhouse for teenage mums last week.

 

Oi Emin leave the light on when you go

I’m sure Tracy Emin is not the first and will certainly not be the last “artist” to threaten to leave Britain due to some perceived iniquitous tax regime. As reported in the Sunday Times and Thanet Waves.

I’m sure talented artists have come and gone in the past and will in the future. In some cases who could fail to sympathise such true greats like Kent born artists Mick Jagger & Keith Richard who were forced into exile during the seventies due to draconian tax demands which fell just short of 100%.

Still not knowing Tracy’s age the chances are that she was growing up during the seventies and those of working age were contributing large chunks of their incomes to health provision, education, law and order and that sort of stuff which helped maintain and safeguard this countries civilised life style.

Apparently our Tracy is much enamoured by the French cultural environment, where apparently politicians are more appreciative of art. Big deal.

I’d be interested to know whether Tracy Emin has ever been in receipt of Arts Council money or any other publically funded source, if so I wonder is there a chance she might hand it back.

For millions of us we have no choice, in whether we pay our tax, clearly Emin does, but we can influence where our money’s spent and lets hope if Tracy does up sticks, that we don’t have, as has been planned have one of her “art works” plonked on Droit House in Margate although the pink neon sign with the legend “I never stopped loving you.” is due to be stuck over the door of Droit House anytime soon approve by TDC planning wallahs which says about as much as you need to know.

Its probable that the Sunday Times story is one of those Murdoch specials, to underline their new allegiance to the Conservatives with some hack delegated to get someone famous to say how bad the country is under Labour, if it hadn’t of been Emin it would have been someone else.

Finally I suggest that our Tracy doesn’t slam the door on the way out and leaves the lights on for the rest of us, who either prefer this country or have no choice, god knows surely there can’t be many countries with an Arts Council with such peculiar tastes.

Anyhow I think this country has looked after fringe artists with lunatic funding for too long, myself I reckon the arts council could do worst than bung me a few quid, I’m sure I’m as talented in my own way.

Conservative Thanet Council hasn’t got a pot to **** in

According to the this weeks Gazette, Thanet council under Conservative stewardship are desperate not to spend a penny on conveniences.

Apparently after just a year of recession, Thanet council is so poorly managed that money for basic services is running out fast and councillors were to discuss this last Thursday panic measures to save money.

Basically they’ve been caught short and cannot afford basic sanitation, just a few months after sneaking fat pay increases to senior officers on the preposterous assertion that they were working harder, righteo.

The upshot was a proposal, to bung local pubs and restaurants a few quid to allow the public to take a leak, I’m not entirely sure how that would work, would you want to eat a meal or have a drink in pub or restaurant that has a constant stream of shoppers using the toilets.

Perhaps one of my readers could let us know how that one panned out. Apparently they might save a hundred thousand by closing town centre toilets, which is probably less than Richard Samuel’s (Chief Executive) salary, really all you need to ask yourself is which would you miss most.

Thanet council have got to start saving money on staff, its time Sandy Ezekiel and Martin Wise took control of the council and its finances rather than posturing from time to time for instance I understand that TDC assistant Chief Exec is leaving, here’s my top tip, don’t bother to replace him, the public would not notice or care but they would be p*ssed off if they can’t have a pee.

Dane Valley anger as Broadhurst resignation bounces and TDC media manipulation?

In what is yet another extraordinary twist in the Dane Valley absent councillor story, Cllr Stephen Broadhurst’s resignation (post dated) has been bounced (rejected) by Thanet Council’s Electoral department, and adds to the already unique features of this story, that has deprived local residents of proper democratic representation in these parts.

Already those of us who actually live in Dane Valley have witnessed plenty of nonsense from local Tories and their commitment or lack, to the democratic process. It all started when Cllr Broadhurst’s absence was noted soon after the last local district elections, it was suggested that he was taking business trips but eventually it became clear to most, apart that is from none to bright local Conservatives, that he was out of the country in Panama for months at a time, and as in my case, not able or willing to respond to his constituents.

In August Bignews Margate exclusively revealed that despite Thanet Council’s assurance, Cllr Broadhurst “the invisible man” had not attended a council meeting in July as falsely claimed by TDC. I insisted that council officers check their facts, which they did and promptly they amended their records, surprisingly a point not mentioned by local politicians or even the rather poor Gazette, that Bignews Margate had discovered the attendance anomaly that has been the catalyst for the current election fever.

Any how this latest news, is proof if you need it of the level bungling within our local council, admittedly a post dated resignation is a rare thing, presumably similar to that old practice in business of sending a post dated cheque made payable, when funds are available at some future date, still it seems odd that council officers hadn’t apparently checked the resignation letter earlier, given the public interest (they’ve had it since early September).

Incidentally despite putting in a call to TDC yesterday morning nobody had the courtesy to ring back despite reading back my phone number, I take it, they must still be upset about my earlier insistence that they’d got it wrong. However it seems wrong to me that council officers appear to manage news in what could be misinterpreted, as manipulation.

It seems a bit partial that TDC were happy to assist yourthanet and didn’t bother with Bignews Margate, seeming a bit perturb with a “who told you this response” my refusal, which might explain the reason, why they were less than forthcoming with me.

So what now, well my guess is this, like most things at TDC, the matter will drift, to a natural conclusion between Sandy Ezekiel’s inspirational leadership and Richard Samuel’s highly competent administration, I’d imagine the most likely outcome is Cllr Broadhurst, will not show up in council, before October 23th in which case he will cease to be a councillor, although given some of the brazen behaviour of current and past local Conservatives he could just turn up and continue to “represent” his constituents in the same questionable manner.

Still if Cllr Broadhurst were to turn up and proceed to go and collect £200 pound sorry that’s monopoly, at the council and continue to bag the councillors allowance of four grand plus it would make things a bit more excitable.

PS I might be wrong but so far most of the “would be” candidates appear come from outside of Dane Valley, and doesn’t it seem remarkable that Labour cannot find a candidate in what was a once a Labour stronghold, I suppose that’s a measure of just how far Blair, Brown & Mandelson have taken “New Labour” perhaps if they went the whole hog they could style themselves “New Conservatives” which is exactly what they are.

Health Scare “exaggerated” says Mr Puss

Mr Puss would like it known, that despite recent conjecture, that his recent health scare, was no where near as serious as some worried readers thought and as the photograph shows is back to work(earlier this morning) helping to produce Bignews Margate.

He would like to thank well wishers and also endorse the benefits of the private health care system which allows him treatment at a time convenient to him, with out all that “is it an emergency?” nonsense or that other favourite “you’ll have to call before 8am” if you want an appointment.

Still typically like many fat cats, he makes no contribution to his private medical care, and rather annoyingly his bills rarely come anywhere near the threshold to trigger payment from his “more than” enough! health insurance premiums.