Saturday, December 04, 2010

Margate are we there yet?

Driving along the front, Friday afternoon I paused for a moment to look see the nearly done, Turner Contemporary gallery and thought that this time next year, the harbour area would be awash with art connoisseurs  and wondered if,  the Kent highways/agency and southeastern railways will have the developed not just the technology but the blimin willpower to deliver travellers from London and elsewhere during modest snow falls such as those we have just experienced, like any other civilised society.nearly there
Will the TC gallery result in the renascence of Margate? Not alone, I think, it will take more, than the gallery, still efforts are being made, even small things like painting the light house on the Harbour Arm, with hoops which if nothing else will brighten the seascape even if it offends, Local Labour who recently appear to have a nutty nimby tendency. Local business cafes and gallery's are improving and particular mention ought to be given to those involved with the Harbour Arm I see this weekend, there is as is often the an exhibition, in this case by Martin Meyrick also worth a mention are Caitlin's Beach Cruisers (Bike Hire),  not sure if they were open for business but spotted one of their bikes tethered to the bike stands at the entrance to the Harbour Arm.martin meyrick
Any how, although not necessarily your typical gallery visitor, I can do the Tate Britain in a couple of hours including a cup of coffee and a muffin, Tate Modern in 45 minutes possibly less if I don't stop to mumble about most of it not looking out of place in landfill, so it lets hope local business and other organisations can rustle up other distractions to keep visitors amused.

One particular omission that ought to be rectified is the abysmal decision by local conservatives for whatever reason to close the local museums particularly Margate's, I can only imagine  of what pettiness or spite bought on that decision, perhaps Cllr. Bob Bayford leader of the council could redeem his apparent contempt for the Isle's citizens and do something positive.

Whatever rose tinted glasses, those involved in local regeneration might be wearing, the fact is for a whole new, type and generation of visitors, there wont be any second chance to give a first impression, Kent highways recent fanciful plans, wont matter a flying toss if we cock up the next 12 months.

Eric Pickles the governments communities secretary has suggested local councils dip into their reserves, and what better that dig up a few miserly thousand, for the museum, when there is always loads of money for nonsense like Thanet's CCTV cameras £1.4 million in three years, which allow council staff to snoop and spy on you and I as well as check, that their car is still safely parked for free in Mill Lane car park.

This time next year we will know whether the regeneration game has worked, Kent 's Conservative council is sitting on £100 million+ reserves, most of Kent's spending is carried out in the Maidstone and West Kent, they currently waste more than £5million pounds a year on self congratulatory advertising which I would argue is not in the public interest. 

33 comments:

  1. Just a thought Tony!

    Could it be because many KCC and other councillors/MP's live in Maidstone & West Kent. Maidstone Conservative Leader Christopher Garland is a declared Freemason. Or could it be because KCC Maidstone / West Kent have large numbers of common purpose graduates operating in high places such as , head of legal team in Maidstone( Paul Fisher) and former Maidstone CEO (David Petford ) ?

    It would be interesting to know how many Freemasons are operating within councils who have failed to declare their position. It does seems more likely than not that it is these and the CP graduates that are really running the councils and is definitely not in the public best interests ?

    http://www.whatdotheyknow.com/body/maidstone_borough_council

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  2. Margate is Great we dont need any more of KCC's cash This time next year we will be the envy of Maidstone

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  3. It's not KCC cash its ours collected from council tax , they just decide where it is spent!

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  4. 4:15PM Just what is your problem with freemasons. It is just a men's club where the members gather for a meeting followed by a meal and a chat. Almost like veterans associations and United Services Clubs these days, they struggle for new members and the youngsters are not coming through.

    They do not wield undue influence, despite the odd allegation by failed coppers who never got promoted, and your paranoia with them diminishes your argument more often than not.

    The future of Margate, the success or otherwise of the new gallery and the services bringing in the visitors are not dependent on whether or not certain councillors are masons.

    For heavens sake, man, grow up. The Hell Fire Club packed up centuries ago along with witches, wizards and most other secret societies. Mind you, if you said Harry Potter was involved then I might believe you.

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  5. check out the reduced MP's expenses imagine how much could be further saved if we stopped paying them expenses and made them pay their expenses out of their allowances

    here's just two for an example

    Hugh Robertson Tory MP
    Total for this search = £9,121.41

    Helen Grant Tory MP
    Total for this search = £20,829.57


    http://www.parliamentary-standards.org.uk/Default.aspx

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  6. 05:10:00 PM
    You make it sound more like joining the boy scouts rather than a secret society , if its so harmless why don’t they just declare and be done with it. Why all the secrecy ?

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  7. Don, you may not want more of KCC's (your) cash but at least £8,000,000 has enabled the Turner to be built and what about the million needed as running costs?
    Margate and Thanet will in the future be more dependent on KCC and Essex county council for cash for local project. Under the existing SEEDA quango Thanet's public and private enterprises have received millions to help with regeneration.
    £4 millions for Turner, £6 millions towards the M&S Margate project. Eurokent £5.7 millions etc.
    With the scrapping of this quango and the replacement with the KCC/ECC LEP you can look forward to most of the cash going to the Thames Gateway area and where the new Thames crossing is built.

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  8. Bluenote

    It does sound rather like an old boys club is this why you decided to become a non practicing Freemason?

    I don’t believe those at the lower levels have a clue as to what is happening in the upper ranks, smoke screens within smoke screens.

    Don’t you think the public have a right to know who they are dealing with , within the public sector MP’s/Council/Courts/Police force/NHS/schools/ social services etc who are being paid a wage to serve the public, not protect their pals.

    I am not surprised they struggle for new members and the youngsters are not coming through. May be they see through what is really behind it all and feel rightly aggrieved by failed coppers.

    15 yo Tells It How It Is!
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c_YMMcvP8Tk&feature=player_embedded

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  9. 6:41, The youngsters can tell a bunch of losers when they see one. What an impressive young man!

    Cameron and Clegg, we've got the building surrounded, you'd better come out with your hands up, lol.

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  10. 8.33pm

    Yes a fantastic example of the awake youth of today

    no need to show him this but the rest would be better off watching


    The Disclosure!
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w9hl__A1BOA&feature=player_embedded

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  11. As someone who is not a native of Thanet but who has a vested interest (Business)we hope that the whole of Margate benefits from the Turner gallery when it opens.
    It was nice to see our bike in the snow albeit looking folorn and cold,but we was not open for business we have closed up until the spring and will reopen around the same time as the gallery.

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  12. 6:06PM Think if you bother to check they have declared. There are books on the masons freely available, they issue a leaflet themselves readily available to the public and there has even been a TV documentary. The only secrets now are the ones you imagine or sustain to suit your own conspiracy allegations.

    I repeat, grow up, man, for your obsession with plots and secret societies will ultimately drive you mad. Did I say ultimately?

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  13. BlueNote has got the facts wrong as usual, Mason no longer have to declare (2009). But when they did have to declare how many did, nobody knows.

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  14. Bluenote, I am not the person or part of the group currently lodging conspiratorial posts - I have no interest in that line - but I would challenge your portrayal of freemasons as innocent doers of good.

    I am not sure Roberto Calvi - Blackfriars Bridge suicide/murder in the eighties - would have shared your view, nor do most people feel easy about an organisation that transacts much of its business in secret. You are right that details about the ceremonies and traditions have been made more public, but the purpose, raison d'être, connections between members and other activities have most certainly not.

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  15. 9:32, The BCCI scandal involved kidnapped and abused kids, George H W Bush, Bin Laden, Central American drug trafficking, middle eastern oil interests, the Vatican, the City of London etc.

    No offense intended, you seem to have your heart in the right place, but to state that you have no interest in the conspiratorial business and then follow up with a reference to the Calvi murder is hypocrisy.

    The attempted global takeover is now ubiquitous and out in the open, do a bit of studying and you will begin to see the walls of the gulag rising up around us. We can stop it but we need to get educated first.

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  16. 9:32 Apologies if I have wrongly dumped you in with the conspiracy advocate(s) but you are off beam on the masons. They really are only secret if you accept the myth and don't bother to research them a bit. No doubt, from time to time, they scratch each others back but so do old boys of the same school, former military service friends and a host of other folk with mutual connections. That is human nature.

    As to the London Bridge incident, think that was much more likely a Mafia job, especially arising from the Italian connection, than masonic but, why spoil a good story.

    Do you know the really sad thing is that, all the time people choose to find bogeymen to blame for life's evils, we never get to the real source of our problems.

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  17. 9:05AM It is you that is wrong. I was only talking about the fact that information on freemasonry, their rituals and lodges is readily available if you care to read about it.

    You are talking about declaration of interest and that is something very different, usually applying to people holding public office who could have a financial interest in a matter before the body to which they belong.

    Freemasonry is a club, not in itself a financial interest and is no more sinister than belonging to your local cricket club.

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  18. You are wrong Bluenote they do not all declare nor do they have to.

    All public figures are protected if they are freemasons. Virtually all of the legal system is involved one way or another and includes Judges.

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  19. Lets hope these dont have a say in what goes into the new gallery especially the childrens section.


    As seen on TV ! CBeebies episode - banana and pineapple
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RrNlHYV0dmg

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  20. 9:38 PM Yet again you display your difficulties with reading the written word so I say again 'I am not talking about declaring interests' but the availability of information on freemasonry.

    Individual members holding public office, whether masons or not, have to declare if they have a conflict of interest with an issue under consideration. For your simple mind, an interest would arise if, say, a school governor was at a meeting discussing repairs to the building where he/she was also a director of a tendering building company.

    Declarations of interest are also routinely taken at the start of a new session but these again are of a financial nature and not about what clubs one belongs to. That is totally irrelevant except in the minds of the demented.

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  21. You lot are the demented ones! My God, when the general public wakes up to the litany of crimes perpetrated against them, I would not like to be in your shoes.

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  22. Whose shoes might one ask? What crimes? How will the general public identify these alleged perpetrators or is it going to be like most uprisings where sundry old scores are settled in the name of the cause?

    Answers these questions 10:05AM and I just might start to take you seriously. Sadly you contradict yourself though on most occassions. You go from laying all the world's evils at the feet of masons one minute to writing them off as a bunch of old nutters the next. You really cannot have it both ways.

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  23. I notice you don't ask the question "which litany of crimes?". Do you want me to list them?

    I didn't write them off as a bunch of old nutters, I remarked on the fact that our youngsters can tell a BUNCH OF LOSERS when they see one.

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  24. Losers or nutters hardly matters. Neither are likely to manipulate the world as you imply. By all means list the litany of crimes but only if you answer the other questions I asked as well.

    By the way, any crime list must be substantiated by evidence, not hearsay or someone's else's opinion in some obscure article.

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  25. Why trust Freemasons? (in 6 parts):

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d1xG6xfMpFU

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  26. As suspected, no evidence but just another of these tiresome links as though what they reveal can be regarded as undisputed fact. Sadly for your case, we are not all as gullible as you.

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  27. Bluenote it is you who is being to sound like a conspiracy loony constantly defending the Freemasons and labeling everyone else mad because they disagree with your view and rightly so in my opinion.

    Why dont you go back to being a practicing Freemason if they are so good and above board in their dealings.

    Any one for cricket old chap !

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  28. You really don't get it at all 5:07PM do you? I don't have to be a mason or have any desire to join them to find your obsession with blaming everything on freemasonry irritating.

    Furthermore, you do not debate or respond to actual points raised but persist with your unsubstantiated claims regardless of anyone else's opinion, even I might add your own. It was you who described them as losers but you failed to explain how losers can have the influence you allege.

    You are either a total incorrigible bigot, too blinkered to see beyond the end of your own nose, or a couple of prawns short of a barbie.

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  29. Bluenote I have never described anyone as a loser and I certainly dont blame everything on freemasonry but do object to the secrecy, as do many others going by the many different posters.

    You really do yourself no favours coming across so rude and obnoxious.

    Everyone is entitled to their opinion including you.

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  30. Interesting to see that the prime minister of Kent lord Carter has managed to get planning approval for another property on his country residence in Maidstone.

    Funny that nobody else can no matter what their circumstances !!!

    Better not mention the obvious FM & CP !

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  31. Many different posters. Now you are really having a laugh!

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  32. anon 10.35

    i think your find bluenotes comments were directed at me

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