Clive Hart demands apology? but has yet to say sorry to his constituents for vigilante scare?

You couldn't make it up! as Cllr Clive Hart (Leader Thanet Labour) might say, in response to recent remarks Labour made, seemingly worrying up a storm over crime in Margate and now subsequently demanding that  Laura Sandys MP apologise, for  what I'd presume was a hasty response and an inadvertent mistake, to somewhat ludicrous remarks made by Clive Hart and colleagues, that they  "..have serious concerns that decent local people could take matters into their own hands. " referring to local crime, with the obvious implication that residents, were so witless, that they were about to take the law into their own hands, based presumably on Clive Hart's wildest expectations.

Clive Hart why don't you apologise for your orginal insulting and potentially inflammatory claim. It's maybe time for a bit of maturity from Labour, obviously Laura Sandy's remark, was from someone,  who has a bit more to deal, with than Labour's endless photo opportunities. I have no doubt that Clive Hart and his colleagues were endeavoring to create political capital out of a sensitive issue, which since the public are a little smarter than they might give credit, has clearly backfired on Labour.

East Kent not entitled to decent TV reception says Tory Boy Ed Vaizey

Laura  Sandys, fails her first big test, as many of us appreciate local MP's have been a big disappointment here in Thanet, North and South, according to the Kent News Ed Vaizey Minister with responsibilities for vaguely defined cultural stuff, has responded to Thanet South's MP's attempt to get some commitment to improved television transmission, with the opinion that there is "no absolute right to TV coverage.

As I understand it, clear strong transmissions of television programmes here may interfere with France, for me this is not a problem since, the French have never given a toss for the impact of its frequent blockades of Channel ports and the resulting carnage on Kent's motorways, and purely on humanitarian grounds imagine the joy French citizens would experience, being entertained with quality programming like X factor, Come Dancing and Jeremy Kyle.

Finally on a purely financial level, why after years paying our licence fee and subsidising foreign language broadcasting like welsh, Celtic etc.  and now paying for government propaganda BBC World Service,  should we be expected to shell out in addition to the near hundred and fifty a year, for an antenna the size of Joderall Bank to receive digital broadcasts.

See Kentnews item

Laura’s Destination nowhere

I see that Thanet’s premier Tory wannabe Laura Sandys has been busy bodying, holding a gathering of tourism experts with the intention of building on the area’s historical past and good luck to her!

I just wonder whether one of the ideas will be to have guided tours to say, Thanet’s now defunct museums or under used assets like the previously mentioned Tudor House.

I hope Laura is successful in promoting this area,  I just wonder if Sandy “Achievements” Ezekiel was present at the meeting explaining his strategy for conserving the past by err.. closing it, then selling it off.

Whilst were on history, aside from the political stuff I trust they had input from Derek Harding (Margate Regeneration) who has some good ideas on promoting this part of the world.

Obviously Laura Sandys concerns are centred on Ramsgate and Sandwich, the later being the most perfect medieval town, which if it were promoted correctly would be heaving  with visitors.

This area is well known, for its visitors and past residents like Dickens, Turner, Vincent van Gogh but for my money the most significant figure to have resided in these parts would be Thomas Paine who had a business in Sandwich before moving to Margate, since this guy has immense significance to the creation of America, he is obviously a figure worth being associated with in terms of history and tourism.

Anyway perhaps Laura might do more for the area than Ladyman has, although her colleagues in the Conservative party have done little to improve Thanet’s standing in the world so far and given that she seems blisfully unaware of Sandy Ezekiel's handy work in the heritage department, I don't think she offers any great hope.

Stephen Ladyman prepares for next election by getting new job

Stephen Ladyman once again gets himself in the newspapers for all the wrong reasons, and reading between the lines it looks like he is preparing for a bit of a disappointment, come the next general election.

First off this weekend he crops up in the Kent on Sunday Newspaper (rather unfairly) in connection with local business man Ken Wills who has funded the labour party to the tune of £25,000, nothing wrong with that. Mr Wills has apparently a memorandum of understanding with Chinese businesses to lease a large parcel of land and hopes this will attract a 1000 jobs. What might be interesting is whether this business development will require any input from our local authorities in the form infrastructure provision. Remember Broadstairs property company Commercial Group Properties Plc arranged for Sandy Ezekiel and others to go on a junket paid for by the Chinese government, late last year. The only thing that bothers me is that old saying "there is no such thing as a free lunch" or junket?

Second in todays Sunday Times (click here) you can just imagine the ethical dilemma, faced by Stephen Ladyman as he takes on a job with Ltis Holdings as an adviser, not surprisingly in this country's weak regulation and lose ethical environment the advisory committee that vets jobs taken by former ministers has given the thumbs up. Of course Ladyman is not alone in moonlighting whilst representing his constituents, many MP's positively boast about their sidelines, since it gives them experience outside of Westminster, funny how they never take jobs as shelf fillers, warehouse workers or labourers.

Good luck to Mr Ladyman I think he will need it, since as a former transport minister he certainly has the experience for Ltis Holdings as their firm is producing road pricing technology. If you don't know what road pricing is, in simple terms its a way of charging a motorist when their driving, particularly handy for local authority leaches, since obviously you cannot clamp or fine a moving vehicle, very successful in London where most of the revenue goes providing bureaucrats with a job, since they would otherwise be unemployable.

I cannot help thinking that those in Thanet South, will not necessarily warm to Mr Ladymans new sideline, helping advise a company whose business is to make your freedom to travel less er free. I cannot help thinking that Laura Sandys the Tory candidate for Thanet South will be checking her calender just to make sure Christmas hasn't arrive early, already.

With so much social upheaval since labour took office it would be nice if he or one of his Labour colleagues could look at the social and economic damage done by Britain's open or no boarders policy.It seems that Labour have reached the same point as did the Conservatives regarding public standards, still look at the last Labour leader who's trousering millions on after dinner speeches.

Still just to come back to the Kent on Sunday, Headline "No conflict of interests" er yes ex-minister.

New Controversy over Thanet's most famous ex-con

You can't keep a good man down or for that matter a disgraced MP who on past performance put his interests above those of a free and independent press.

It looks as if the Tories are so bankrupt of ideas that they need to resurrect Jonathan Aitken, Thanets most famous ex con who has been asked to head a study on prison reform.

Ian Duncan Smith (who? you know former Tory leader one of the bald ones), shows why he only lead the Tory party for a couple of years with this apparent example of poor judgement, giving Aitken a Job in his "think" tank.

Its interesting how easy it is for, Tories to support this man, who might have got away with his perjury and who knows where he might have been in public life, if he got away with it. There is a fair chance he could have been one of the many in the long list of 3rd rate Tory leaders since 1997.

Roger Gale (MP Thanet North) is an honest decent sort of politician, so its no surprise that he defended the appointment of former colleague Jonathan Aitken and passing these comments “Jonathan committed an offence for which he was tried and convicted and for which he has paid a personal and very considerable price." “Of course there will be minnows within the system who will cite this as a ‘political comeback’ and seek to denigrate him but Jonathan is well used to that." shows his loyalty and fairness.

I must be one of those minnows in the system since although I frequently find myself agreeing with Roger Gale on this, I think he is wrong, seven months in prison does not equate to the scale of Aitkens perjury.

We tend to judge criminals by degrees, if we look at violent crimes, not surprisingly we reserve the most distaste for those who abuse the weak and defenseless, an perhaps we dislike politicians who lie, but Jonathan Aitken pushed the boundaries when he made his "sword of truth and trusty shield of British fair play " speech offering to cut out the cancer of twisted and bent journalism. One possible consequence of Aitkens attack on honest British journalism, in pursuit of a bogus claim against the Guardian newspaper is that he could have caused immense financial damage to one of our more independent news sources.

I cannot recall Aitken making any statements about the corrupt cancer of bent and twisted politicians, I find it hard to erase that past image of Aitken, who at the time of his conviction, epitomised that most odious caricature of political creatures, the self seeking unprincipled sleazy Tory politician (just for balance the Labour party has its equivalents).

I'm sure that Mr Aitken has his regrets but having abused peoples trust in the past in such spectacular fashion he cannot expect the general public, to be anything other than critical, and you would have thought the conservative party would have the sense to leave well alone. I just wonder how local conservative party activist feel particularly Laura Sandys (Tory Candidate Thanet South) having this reminder of a former lag & Conservative MP being associate with Thanet South.

Finally this little event is even more interesting as it shows just what an inept bunch of muppets the Tories are, clearly the Tory party can be very loyal as in this instance, apparently welcoming Aitken back into the fold, so its disappointing to remember that back in 2004, Mr Aitken was showing some support for the UK Independence party, so maybe Ian Duncan Smith has scored a cracking own goal by reminding us of Conservative disharmony over Europe and sleaze.

Further Reading Guardian

Kentnews

Aitken Wikepedia

Post office closure

This week has seen, the announcement of post office closures in Thanet, which has given Laura Sandys much to get her teeth into.

It's an ill wind that blows nobody any good, and this week has seen, the Tories make plenty of capital out of the post office's announcement of local closures. It appears to me that Laura Sandys has almost been omnipresent in our local newspapers.

I am frequently mean to her opponent, Stephen Ladyman so for balance, I examine this week's PR performance. It certainly looks like local Tory functionaries, have got their act together as far as making good use of the local press (if only David Cameron were as competent in the coming up with some solid policies, it would be game over for Labour).

Now if you care to visit, Laura Sandys website, you get the impression that the main motivation for her condemnation of the post office proposals is a good sense of community and public service, which as far as I suspect may well be a genuinely held sentiment although the cynic in me, believes this to be purely a politically motivated stunt.

Still if this is part of a new softer caring, Tory party, I just wonder what or how the old guard of Mrs. T's generation feel, I imagine they're spinning in their retirement homes, let's just consider why these post offices, are being closed, unless the Tories know different, we're told that it's to do with making the post office more competitive (something which conservatives when in government have never had a problem with).

Like it or not, Tory or Labour, in the real world, tough decisions are made by people & businesses every day, and since the conservatives have always claimed to represent the interests of a free market, then regrettable as these changes are, wholesale condemnation seems out of place coming from a Tory candidate.

I doubt when push comes to shove, that David Cameron will have the stature or substance to produce a convincing win for the conservative party in the next general election, but on current form labour candidates in marginal constituencies, ought to be updating their C V's.

PS Local Labour party activists ought to take, a close look post-haste, at how the conservatives are running their campaign in Thanet South and contrast that with their apparently non existent efforts to unsettle Rodger Gale let alone unseat him at the next election.