Bent Thanet? Surely not Public Meeting tonight 7pm

Shock horror the very suggestion of corruption in Thanet council seems incredible, incompetent yes, over time I've heard some outrageous examples of the poor standards, at TDC such as,  at the comic level a council officer telling me that the Tudor House in Margate was built in the 1950's, seen reports of the planning office misleading the public about planning a significant planning application in Newington, and of course witnessed first hand how two chief executives failed to allow unfettered access to public meetings although at least one had the manners to respond personally to complaints unlike the current.

Anyhow Cllr Ian Driver and Louise Oldfield will be on hand to discuss this issue of corruption which has loomed large since Sandy Ezekiel's conviction for abusing his position in public office.

The location is the RED HALL, 11 Grosvenor Road, Broadstairs, 7PM.  All welcome apparently, I myself would suggest that anyone speaking exercises caution, since these days local authorities are more than happy to spend taxpayers money on defamation cases, I myself some years ago found myself being threatened not directly by Kent County Council but by one of their contractors running KCC project for daring to criticise media policy.

Shameful - Pope greets Robert Mugabe

Not often that I'd agree with Peter Tatchell, but if I heard right he described, the Papacy as shameful for inviting Zimbabwe President and alleged human rights abuser Robert Mugabe, to be greeted by the Pope, and of course he is right.

Shame on Italy for allowing a suspect human rights abuser to travel unimpeded, and even more shame for the Catholic Church endorsing criminals.

Half cock Thanet council plumbs new low

Life is not as clear cut as it once was, and the sight of a cross-dresser, emerging briskly from the gents toilets in Ramsgate's Cavendish St. was hardly a shock, particularly not here in Thanet, given that even our councillors are clearly comfortable with their sexuality, still the authenticity was remarkable.

On entering the toilet, I realised my mistake,  the urinal had been hastily segregated, with a plastic barrier, and above a note from the council stated  this "GENTLEMEN" "PLEASE USE CUBICLES ONLY TOILET IS FOR UNISEX USE" until leaving the toilet, I had the weird thought,  that maybe Thanet council were acting on some EU directive, perhaps a crazy harmonisation policy with the continentals, as per the French with their more basic standards.

Exiting the toilet there's a couple of scrappy notices one clarifying the situation "LADIES TOILET IS CLOSED FOR REPAIR PLEASE USE GENTS AS UNISEX TOILET" the other a duplicate of previous mentioned.

Once the penny dropped that despite Council Leader, Clive Hart's assertions that Thanet was somehow better under Labour, I realised that nothing could be further from the truth, even I suspect with his humble beginings, sharing a public toilet not designed for unisex use, is the pits and  a bit third world.

A mark of civilisation is sanitation and frankly Thanet council not being able to offer adequate toilet facilities is plumbing new depths which even the Tories didn't reach.  However right-on Clive Hart and his Labour comrades might be, I'm sure that most of us, would agree that it is shameful to expect women to share toilets with men, when they have not be designed for such a purpose.

I cannot help thinking the money spent on extra jobs to councillors is money down the drain and would have been better spent on sanitation.  I've often thought Labour were taking the pee and now I know. 

My cat Missey has higher standards than Thanet Council.

Advertising with public money - a lunchtime thought

A lunch time thought as you can imagine it cannot be easy for public institutions to reach every demographic and I'm not sure that Thanet leisure force is acting in the best interest.

The latest edition Thanet Watch has I guess a readership comprising of curious individuals such as myself and diehard lefties who wish for the days of Mrs T and a Labour Party full of earnest socialist instead of social climbing politicians on the make.

Anyhoo surely Thanet Watch has a minuscule readership and circulation, so why is an organsation such as Thanet leisure force, part funded by the taxpayer advertising in what I always assume to be a magazine with an extreme bias to socialist causes.

pizza and chips through the letterbox

Thanks to Thanet socialist nutters probably from the Broadstairs red building, I'm reminded of why I detest socialists as much as their flipside fascists.

Along with my daily diet of pizza, kebab themed fast food junk mail, came a glut of leaflets from lefties attacking all and sundry chipping away at working people, as they make the case for their utopia of sofa hugging benefit claimants.

As if I'm not working hard enough to fund through tax, the many workshy, and by this *I do not refer to those in need due to health, age or indeed those who've lost jobs due to Labour's policy backing industry in exploiting east european workers, it seems the Red blighters, now want me to spend my leisure time demonstrating in Canterbury , and worrying about lazy benefit claimants (*see previous qualification) or right wing nazis as well as the socialist ones.

Sorry but if I have any leisure time, it will be devoted to a commonsense approach to politics not revolutionary muppets on  some weird 1980's nostalgia trip. Pizza anyone?

PS I've not much time to blog at this time so could Richard Card post his increasingly fantastic comments somewhere, that the sun dont shine!

PPS I found Clive Hart particularly annoying in today's Gazette the suggestion that his administration is somehow squeaky clean?

And the result is

Guilty! Shock horror "On a personal level, I'm as shocked and surprised as anyone else" says  Tory blogger and former colleague, "Today's news from the court in Maidstone should shock me, but sadly it doesn't." Says Labour leader,  who has in his short time as leader of the local council done little if anything, other than deals and given jobs to independents to keep his party in office.

Even the great dormant one from Ramsgate, appears to have been jerked out of a virtual coma, by the Sandy Ezekiel trail. Schadenfreude is evident, in much of the media coverage, for myself I stand by what I wrote last May, that I always found Ezekiel to be well mannered and able to separate political attacks from personal and that Sandy was council leader when much groundwork was done for Margate regeneration.

Still a can of worms has been knocked over, you've got to wonder, what else goes on here in Thanet, many years ago I heard a rumour that an earlier Tory crook on the council, whom it was later revealed specialised in reproduction bank notes, had bullied council staff into giving misleading references to a mortgage company.

Thanet council has rarely inspired confidence, as being either competent or efficient, unfortunately looking at the people well meaning as most of them are, its clear to me that there are a fair few chancers in both parties whose ambitions conflict with the public interest.

Not sure (see comments) whether local Tory leader will be making any statement, but if I were he I'd wish to condemn Sandy Ezekiel pronto, particularly given other notorious Conservatives  from the past, Jonathan Aitken and Cyril Hoser associated with Thanet.