I was asked on my previous post for info on the current Liberal Democrat stance, I'm sure this will help. (I've not added my own to comment for one I'm struck down with some stomach bug and two it looks like Lib Dem candidates for the up coming general election are doing their best, unlike some)
PRESS RELEASE: 19th December
Liberal Democrats publish 10-Point Plan, calling for a referendum on Manston Airport's future.
In response to the chaos at Thanet District Council reported by local media this week, the two Liberal Democrat Prospective Parliamentary Candidates for North and South Thanet – George Cunningham and Russ Timpson - launched a ten point plan today to put the future of Manston Airport on much more solid footing.
The core of this fresh Liberal Democrat initiative in Thanet calls for a referendum on the Manston Airport Compulsory Purchase Order (CPO), to be held at the same time as the 7 May 2015 General Election and District Council Elections.
Such a move would ensure that the people of Thanet could give a clear mandate to TDC to go ahead or not with the CPO, finishing the debate about its future once and for all.
The ten-point plan also lays out a very practical programme to bring more investor interest to Manston Airport and to engage the aviation industry directly in assessing its potential.
The Liberal Democrats are the only political party in Kent that unanimously supports Manston Airport becoming operational again.
Prospective MP for North Thanet, George Cunningham, said: "The compulsory purchase process must not die and should be separated from doubts concerning the RiverOak company. Manston airport can become an international success given proper visionary management based on the will to realise its potential".
Prospective MP for South Thanet, Russ Timpson, said: "We need to rise above the petty politics that is miring the future of the airport. We support a positive agenda with practical solutions. All political parties should work together in a transparent way to find a way forward".
Liberal Democrats believe it was a mistake that Riveroak was declared by Roger Gale MP as the "only show in town" to run the airport. Valuable time has been wasted in not finding a more suitable airport operator. Manston is a viable business as was witnessed earlier this year by Liberal Democrat efforts in getting Gulf investor interest in using Manston as the base of its European aircraft recycling operations. The Taiwanese also undertook a high profile visit to Manston at the invitation of George Cunningham and Russ Timpson to assess its potential as a freight hub for its goods.
Given developments at the Thanet District Council, the Liberal Democrat team will also be making fresh efforts to find a suitable airport operator.
*
For further information and comment, please contact:
• George Cunningham, Prospective Parliamentary Candidate for North Thanet. E-mail address: gfjcunningham@gmail.com
• Russ Timpson, Prospective parliamentary Candidate for South Thanet. E-mail address: thanetsouth@russtimpson2015.
LIBERAL DEMOCRAT ACTION PLAN FOR SAVING MANSTON AIRPORT
1. Propose a referendum on the Compulsory Purchase Order (CPO) of Manston, to be held at the same time as General Election and Local Council Elections.
2. Attend and promote Manston Airport at the Aviation Expo in London 2-4 February 2015 http://www.
3. Get an open letter of support for Manston Airport, signed by leading opinion formers in the local area.
4. Hold an aviation round table meeting with potential stakeholders in 2015.
5. Offer to host the next Aircraft Recycling Conference in Thanet in 2015.
6. Make public details of possible Aviation Apprenticeships which are available.
7. Highlight need for standby airport in times of crisis (e.g. recent failure of air traffic control).
8. Propose twin-track approach of CPO and standby development scheme as a plan B.
9. Promote value of Manston if Heathrow and Gatwick expansions are blocked.
10. Compare costs with Boris Island and promote new high speed link to London.
What opportunistic drivel. How about another point to the plan everyone who signs a petition or votes yes in a referendum takes a proportion of the costs risk ?
ReplyDeleteThanet council has exposed the local taxpayer to many millions in lost money through negligent decisions, that don't involve Manston airport , and to add insult to injury the council is now wasting large sums of money on legal cost to protect its reputation.
DeleteLook at how local establishment has stuffed up things so far.
Opportunistic drivel indeed: point 9 is just stupid, and point 6 how can they promote Manston for aircraft recycling when it's not an airport and the owners don't want it to be an airport? Will Russ and George be telling other businesses what they should and shouldn't do?
DeleteTony you are surely not suggesting that TDC should repeat its moneywasting history by pursuing a Manston CPO ?
DeleteTony's in a bind now: either support UKIP and their Chinky racism etc or support the LibDems and an illegal candidate. And Manston will still be closed.
DeleteComplete barking fantasy, even for the LibDems. Constitutionally and without any Liberal Democrat Councillors to 'Vote' to support a referendum in Council, how might this be achieved? May is far too late to save the airport.
ReplyDeleteseriously simon what have you ever contributed to Thanet, your lot are as complicite as the labour group in saddling Thanet with multi million debt., seriously what objection do you have, to perhaps a brand new plan A
DeleteWhy knock other people for trying to offer help,
I suggest it would be handy if people like you forgot your own pisspot concerns and though a little harder Id like to see all Thanet councillors stand up to the carpet baggers, and tell them to stick their plans for where the sun don't shine.
I suggest all councillor s get behind the idea of maybe creating a country park for local people and weeks life, if the airport is now reopened.
Finally I've only briefly looked at the suggestions. However I'd say it has a lot more credibility than some of the nonsense you've come out with over the years. Id also suggest that George Cunningham has some fairly strong experience in business.
It is barking mad Tony. I don't like agreeing with Simon but he has a point.
DeleteSuppose Simon stands again for election for the Don't Stand a Chance of Getting Elected Party. Then he says let us have a referendum at the same time so people can vote to try to impose one part of Simon Policy on all the elected councillors whose manifesto proposed no such thing ?
How we have worked it so far is that a politician offers his policies and himself as a package. If he gets a majority he has the mandate of his electorate to pursue the policies in his manifesto.
It is a constitutional madness being proposed Tony.
If the legal basis for this absurd plan is "Parish poll" then the outcome can only at best be advisory.
Tony don't make a fool of yourself you have been a leading blogger. This Lib Dem "Plan" isn't "Trying to offer help" it is adding to the crackpot Thanet reputation.
Agree with 11:00 that a referendum alongside an election is ridiculous. The election candidates detail their policies. Not their policies and then separate policies as a referendum. The flaw of this of course is that most candidates don't detail any policies other than standing under their party banner.
DeleteAnd in Thanet we now have lots of party carpetbaggers who only represent their party not the area. Maybe the locals are too stupid to have any candidates and need them importing?
Does George Cunningham have business experience? He's an EU civil servant isn't he? It's illegal to stand as a serving civil servant isn't it? Why is he standing knowing it's illegal?
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
DeleteRICK PLEASE NOTE THAT I'VE REMOVED YOUR COMMENTS AS THEY ARE OFF TOPIC
DeleteDoes Rick have his own website for his comments? His Thor pollution points are interesting
DeleteTry googling it 10:24 Frankly along with Irish terrorists and all his other bullshot, his output is fantastical and plain boring with endless repetition.
DeleteWhy he thinks necessary to publish his comments here I don't know, if nothing else it is f**king bad manners rick!
Tony, is it illegal for George Cunnigham to stand if he is a civil servant? A simple question for you as a libdem.
DeleteThe silence on Cunningham's legality of standing is becoming deafening: is it legal? Otherwise the ballot papers will be incorrect?
Delete0% fraudster Moores is right the LibDems are idiots. Why is a serving civil servant standing in Cunningham? That's illegal isn't it Tone?
ReplyDeleteThis ten point plan is the nail in the coffins for the Libdems with these two idiots. Timpson even told us Manston was the only aircraft recycling facility in UK: utter tosh.
Democracy is dead in Thanet. A referendum would go some small way to addressing the balance and possibly give the people of Thanet hope that their voices will be listened to. Alas, May could be too far away to save the Airport.
ReplyDeleteRuss and George seem nice boys but couldn't run anything. And do they always have to do everything together? Perhaps they need to rely on each other's vote as the Libdems are doing so badly!
ReplyDeleteLet's hope the Libdems get Cllr Moores to repay the 0% monies...
ReplyDeleteTony, looks like your PPC pals will be losing their deposits if this is all they can come up with. Don't they know that Manston was on the market for over 2 years and there was only one taker who bought it for a £1. The soft market trawl found one potential CPO backer. The far east interest party they found seems to be history. Have they costed some of the other ideas in their 10 point plan? Even holding a referendum at the same time as a general election will still cost TDC over £100,000. Holding a recycling conference in Thanet would cost plenty and most hotels in the area are of a standard that delegates would avoid.
ReplyDeleteThat's without a CPO being non starter if passengers flights are not in any Manston plan, a scrap yard of which there are already some in operation in the UK, would not be a sufficient good reason to invoke a public interest CPO.
The airport is closed. It is an ex-airport.
ReplyDeleteWell said 19:47 the 2 Libdems look chumps. The use of Cunningham's civil servant role as EU representative for Taiwan is extremely illegal.
ReplyDeleteOut of interest why would the EU have a Taiwan office? How much investment has been raised and its costs?
UKIP have apparently lost Rozanne Duncan for more racist comments so maybe they can win?!
Santa Claus is coming to town. He will be standing in the 2015 general election for the Christmas Party and will be campaigning hard for Manston to be reopened. If successful he guarantees to bring millions of pounds of his world wide freight business to the airport.
ReplyDeleteI see you have re-opened your blog to anonymous contributors. I guess your ego was damaged by only receiving a couple of comments on each of your "restricted" posts. Give it a couple more posts and you'll be complaining about anonymity again, but funny how you are desperate to turn the tap back on when comments slow to a dribble, eh?
ReplyDeleteObviously attention-seeking is your driving force.
What a nasty Scrooge at 12:23 most Thanet blogs are more censored than Tony's, to his credit.
DeleteCrikey, it's Christmas, how weird that 12:23 has nothing better on, my only problem with little ships, like he or she, is why they feel that they speak with any authority, the truth is people like this scum bucket, don't like freedom of expression and like to pervert normal city chat
DeleteChit chat
ReplyDeleteAnd how nice to see that the festive season hasn't dampened your enthusiasm for intemperate language, Mr Flaig. "Scum bucket"…nice. As usual, you read things in to posts that are not there. Where do I suggest that I have any "authority"? Perhaps your usual shoulder-chip is the prompt for your comment?
ReplyDeleteIt's just your pompous manner 10:40...and scum bucket seems about right. You must be either Cllr Moores or a SMA...
DeleteI'm (genuinely) sorry if my manner has offended you, Anon. My point is simply that Tony has in the past castigated anonymous contributors, accusing them - us - of being cowards for not sharing our identities. Some time back he moved to prevent anonymous contributions - fine - but has recently changed tack and allowed them - us - once again. I have simply suggested that this is because his comment numbers dropped through the floor and he wants to see them grow again. You could argue that anonymous contributors are being mucked around a little.
ReplyDeleteWhat I think offends people, 23:29 is disingenuous comments such as your off topic comments, which have the purpose of disrupting free debate, we know that established political interests don't like the public to know to much.
DeleteI'm afraid we live in an age when local councils can rustle up a few thousand at the drop off the hat on protecting their reputation even when they are clearly have little or nothing to defend, forty grand to stop the truth about property deals emerging into the public domain.
You remind me of one blogger who recently, complained to police about abuse and in the same week as the story was reported in the newspaper then went on to publish a clear defamation himself of another local figure!
I'm afraid that your aim is to disrupt discussion, in this case since labour have done little for Manston, you wish to side track into some personal vendetta, so let me just remind readers that this posting was in support of libdems proposals, which I merely published here.
So Tony for future reference from what you say here you support the Libdem PPCs 10 point plan for Manston including the referendum which even if taken at the same time as a general or local election will still cost taxpayers upwards of £100,000 in printing, postage and counting costs.
DeleteYour parallels with other bloggers and blogging incidents make absolutely no sense whatsoever. I shall just watch and wait for you to turn your fire on the principle of anonymous contributions once again - when it suits your purpose.
ReplyDeleteWhat boring prick 1106, tony is right people like you are part of the establishment both labour and Tory/UKIP fwits and of course challenged Thanet council officers who do not wish us the people to discuss their abysmal record
DeleteYes we need to know the pleasurama valuation and dodgy dealings over sfp. What do Painter and Bayford know? Everitt is just out of his depth
DeleteKent UKIP Rozanne Duncan BBC comments revealed: "problem with Negroes faces". You still keen on UKIP Tony or is she a one-off?
ReplyDeleteWhy is Shonk saying the UK is more racist but nothing to do with UKIP?
UKIP looks to be imploding like BNP before as even Farage says there will be no forced repatriation - so what do they stand for?