It seems, in a Labour group lead by Clive Hart and his mates, the last thing they need is an open and full enquiry into any suggestions of gerrymandering, Labour has with last night's decision lost any credibility or moral authority in my opinion and to me the idea that Cllr Mark Nottingham, has in revealing the machinations, bought the Labour Party in to disrepute is bonkers!
As I understand it Mark Nottingham is to be commended for "whistleblowing", and it's clear to me, that Clive Hart could have done more and didn't.
I imagine Clive will be like a dog with two appendages for a day or so, until he realises that failure to examine in a open manner the Northwood selection process will not enhance his or Thanet Labours standing in the broader community.
Still whilst Cllr Mark Nottingham is to be commended, the lack of coverage by local newspapers is a disgrace, I don't think either the Gazette, Times, Yourthanet or Thanet Extra did any sort of job on this, local papers are part of local democracy, editors please report it.
As I understand it, Labour party members, will be meeting to discuss whether or not Mark Nottingham has somehow brought the party into disrepute , I have to say this sounds a bit far-fetched since my impression of Mark is one of a rather puritanical practitioner of labour politics, basically its a choice between Kay Dark, with Labour Party's old boys and hard working Cllr Nottingham with honest commitment.
It will be of some interest to see if Clive Hart can justify, his position or credibility and convince anyone other that himself and pals have acted in a fair manner with regard to the selection process in the Northwood Ward, I myself am in no doubt that Mark is indeed a hard-working conscientious political activist, an asset to any party, it's just a pity he supports Labour and not the more inclusive Liberal Democrats.
Labour activists should be worried in as much as it looks as if the leadership have boxed themselves into a corner and I'm not quite sure how they will get out of it since Clive Hart told everyone that he would resign if Mark Nottingham were he to remain in the Thanet group, which he has, at this point also it seems clear given the documentary evidence, that he will be found to have acted in the interests of the party.
Whatever your political persuasion it would seem that personal ambition has resulted in a messy diversion from the issues that labour presumably will wish to be pursuing during the forthcoming local council elections.
Anyway some time tomorrow, we will know whether Labour will be going into the May elections with a clean slate, or a lot of excess baggage.
Its suggested that BBC local radio will only be maintained with maybe a morning news offering and a programme in the drive time period, now although I rarely get a chance to listen into daytime output of BBC radio Kent, it is unique ish, admittedly I have trouble with listening to the B list actors, authors and artists plugging plays, books and exhibitions but who else would have them and amongst the dross there are often interesting contributions from local people, that wouldn't be heard elsewhere.
This is a subject I shall return to, in the meantime, I've received an email from a reader who cares enough, to have set up a forum with a friend. Click Here to find out more
If anyone thinks Kent's grammar school system has anything to recommend it by way of social mobility, think again, new research undertaken by academics involving a sample of 3300 adults across the country has revealed that children do no better than those who attended comprehensive schools, at this point some of you are thinking so what?
Well here is the so what?, this morning's BBC Radio Kent, breakfast news revealed that despite 20 children from Sheppey qualifying for entry to Kent's grammar schools, at present they will be excluded from Kent's grammar school system, why because there are no places available to them.
In recent years in the West of Kent, children have regularly been deprived of grammar schools places as glory hunting schools, have cherry picked kids from outside Kent to the detriment of the communities that fund them.
So why does Kent hang on to this system, who knows, I'd take a guess at Kent's Conservatives being comfortable maintaining the social division that Kent's two tier system creates.
It's well known that children from "comfortable" backgrounds are frequently assisted by expensive tuition, coached in some cases by moonlighting teachers, to pass the Kent test, which undermines the suggestion by supporters of grammar schools about any fairness or indeed social mobility.
Kent's two tier education system is socially divisive, but even worse than that is the immense grief to the children and families effectively cheated by the system, having worked hard to qualify for a grammar place and Kent councils education can't offer the standard of education there so eager to promote.
"It's down to the schools' " Said Cllr Sarah Hohler, Conservative KCC Cabinet member for Education, Learning & Skills on this morning, on BBC Radio Kent when asked about the situation for Sheppey's unfortunate.
I just wonder if Cllr Sarah Hohler has any idea of the pain families are experiencing who've been cheated by the system, which has failed once again to meet basic expectations. Still for more info and just to educate yourself you click on this link for info about the Conservative Cllr Hohler ( £36,521.51 allowances for 2009-10)
This story is also reported on BBC 1 South East Today.
Having just taken a gander a few points are worth consideration, of course the biggest issue is will it be finished on time, from where I was standing it looked as of there was a heap of materials to the rear of the lifeboat station, which assuming they're needed looks like a couple of weeks work, add to that snagging work then I'm wondering if things are getting a little tight, hopefully not.
Looking at Margate's readiness overall some items that stand out are the open spaces set to be tarted up shortly, the lighthouse was to have been painted up this has now been shelved, dreamland is a tangle of scaffolding.
Still in the vicinity of the Harbour arm and old town, things look more lively, and not bad at all, it just worries me that things could have been better coordinated, still we only had about 10 years to prepare.
This is of no interest to anyone other than fellow bloggers I guess but just as an indication of relative merit of Thanet blogs, I give you the independent rankings for March courtesy of Wikio . How reliable these rankings are, is questionable but being at the top of the pile however briefly, beats my more comfortable underdog placing. And whilst I might be at the top this month, the ranking for this month is lower than last and with the exception of ThanetOnline all of us appear to be slipping on earlier months.
| Bignews Margate | 852 |
| From one end of Kent | 926 |
| ThanetOnline | 1046 |
| Thanet Press Releases | 1173 |
| Thanet Star | 1426 |
| Thanet Life | 1818 |
| Promote Thanet | 3186 |
| Thanet Coast | 3221 |
Of course, that which is the most gratifying part of blogging is the reaction and comments, which are probably as important in ranking terms the actual posting, anyhow thanks and keep visiting.
Remember the good old days, back in the 1980's when Looney profligate councils were those run by Labour zealots in London and grim cities up north.
Well some time ago things changed, and now here in Kent, I have the suspicion that somehow things have gone completely bonkers, in Kent governance, I wont bore you with a catalogue of past eccentricities, but suggest you take a gander at this story of typical KCC excess (my opinion) in which KM reports on Kent's latest top management appointment of " Shake up Manager " £165 PA
Its worth reminding ourselves that A) a new chief exec (MD in KCC speak) has not long be in post, B) there are blimin big cuts needed in spending, C) by any standards Kent has been extraordinarily inept in the treatment of staff from fat pay offs or as in this case, creating unnecessary management positions to manage organisational change surely the job of the Chief Exec
The sooner Eric Pickles sorts out Kent Tories, the better in my view. Remember its your money being frittered away and KCC still can't stop itself spending? I suggest you contact your local County Councillor and ask them what they are doing for £14,000 a year for few hours a month, meals, mileage expenses.
Some people get the impression that Kent is run for the benefit of hunting and shooting toffs, however Kent is run by a progressive Conservative administration committed to an egalitarian society.
To prove that privilege and social exclusion has no place in our community, Kent County Council have recycled your hard earned money into a short film, to illustrate the life style of ordinary Kent folk.
According to a fragment of info, on Clive Harts Twitter, Labour top bods had a meeting, and that's the wonder of twitter, little detail but broad brush strokes.
Just what did they discuss, exit strategy, regime change, the May elections, sometimes more is less and less can be more, anyway answers on a postcard to the usual address.
(Read POSTCRIPT FIRST)* It would be true to say that I rarely, visit the pages of Top Thanet Tory Cllr Simon Moores, Weblog, I know, if you're a regular you will be thinking, Flaigy your missing out on Thanet's most witty, respected and creative talent, who is in no way boring, prone to hypocrisy or suffering from an inflated ego or any of that malarkey.
Still that said I'm not sure whether Simon is desperate for publicity, since his current posting appears to criticise me for allowing "the same person" to post comments on this site, or as Moores puts it "straddling Tony Flaig's weblog" also "the same person" is accused of being "Mark Nottingham's new best friend" an accolade I thought mine, damn!
All that is in Simon's first paragraph, and the next continues in a similar vein, "It's not in my interest to censor anything on ThanetLife but I do have an acceptable use policy and like it or not, a blogging protocol which I follow. So, no personal abuse, which the usual suspect, suffering as he does from chronic insomnia, will invariably leave overnight and nothing that might be considered libellous, as three other prominent local bloggers have discovered to their considerable cost in the last year or so.
SCHOOLBOY INSULT? ABUSE BY HYPERTEXT LINK? OR INCREDIBLE ERROR?
Now I have only a passing acquaintance with Simon, so I honestly don't know what his motivations are but I personally find it rather extraordinary, for someone apparently so steeped acceptable behaviour and who adopts a "blogging protocol" should deliberately insult me by linking my name, using a hypertext link to a story carried on Kent Messengers website about a beached whale. In what I consider to be an immature, joke intended to be offensive.
I don't know whether this is some juvenile joke of Cllr Simon Moores or whether its some incredible mistake, presumably if this is some error Moores will have the decency to issue an apology. I don't act like some sneaky schoolboy and don't expect others too if they expect to be taken seriously.
Finally I hope Moores is not seriously inferring, that I have any less stringent policy on comments than he, I frequently remove comments, as was the case this week with one referring to himself, admittedly I don't play god over what goes and what doesn't except when things get heated and abusive.
*POSTSCRIPT
AND THE ANSWER IS .......INCREDIBLE ERROR!
You have to be, certainly in my case eccentric to blog as much as some of us do and errors may occur
In fairness to Simon I have spoken to him (read talked loudly) and it appears that Incredible Error is the answer, at the time of posting the link, Cllr Moores was also pasting a twitter link, the two apparently links became switched which has ignited this particular post. I accept Simon's explanation, so take the preceding comments in that context.
If anything can be learnt from this its don't multi task, with blogging and twitter.
Alan Poole is claiming to be investigating complaints about Cllr Mark Nottingham, although for some reason he simply dismisses claims made by Nottingham that events around his de-selection, where not as open as one might expect.
It really is quite simple for Cllr Poole to resolve this issue and save Clive Hart from resignation, just publishing evidence from Labour party investigations proving Cllr Nottingham wrong.
Local Labour led by Cllr Clive Hart seems to do just about everything it can to alienate its traditional voters, it seems under Hart, traditional goals like provision of social housing or encouraging investment and jobs no longer concern Labour, since he and his front bench have spoken against.
Labour have scoured a succession of own goals fought social housing, attacked inward investment, improved infrastructure and job creation, the latest own goal and best is Clive Hart offering to resign if certain criteria are not met and then apparently going back on his word.
If Clive Hart does not resign, in the May council elections who is going to believe any election promises from Labour. Simply put how can you trust a Leader who cannot stand by his commitments.
