Jolly Boys Outing

It seems that our local worthies are going on a coach tour of Thanet tommorrow. The purpose of this outing is to introduce Councillors to Thanet. Now I am probably a bit niave but surely our local Councillors should know a bit about where they live already without having a guided tour and a nice lunch no doubt, paid for by the proletariat?
Presumably they will be shown the blank space where the never to be built Turner Contempt is proposed, then its quickly up the High street to veiw the 'major regeneration project' the old Marks and Spencer building, (soon to be a Primark,oops, cat out of bag again? )
Then it will be on to Christchurch University so that Sandy and co. can claim credit for that then if they can get through the traffic on to claim credit for Westwood Cross, ( conveniently forgetting to mention that they shelved the Labour plans for road improvments in May 2003 )
I suppose a quick visit to some empty Business Parks will be on the Agenda and the rest of the day will be spent pointing out to some Tories exactly where their Ward is, while proudly telling these gullible folks how 'we are going to create an Economic Development Unit' (conveniently forgetting to mention that they scrapped the last one.) So if you see this Grand Tour passing be sure and give them a quick wave as it may well be the first and last time you see your Tory Councillor

Down the pan , up the Swannee

So, Margate football club have finally been given their come uppance from the 'Authority'. Keith Piper has a long and distinguished history of making public statements that turn out not be 'not quite what I meant' or 'you obviously misunderstood me'.
Margate have tried several time to 'redevelope' their ground, only to change the plans at the last minute presumably hoping that no-one will notice the flats/houses/night club that have been slipped in.
The main trouble is that they have tried to run before they could walk, small wonder that there have been many transfer requests since the end of the season.
True Margate fans will be truly disappointed at the news of their clubs apparent demise.

Turmoil and Defections

Observer was reliably informed as far back as last Thursday from three separate and usually reliable sources that all was not well with the Ramsgate First Boys and Girls.
Apparently there had been a big falling out followed by resignations galore, this has been confirmed in todays Gazette.
All this may have something to do with the rumours that are circulating Ramsgate that Ramsgate First’s Cllr Mike Taylor is about to ‘cross the floor’ and join his old chums the Tories. For those that don’t know he used to be the Chairman of what was the Westcliff branch of the Conservative Party, he then defected to UKIP as the Conservatives “ weren’t right wing enough for me “. He is as far as I know still a member of UKIP, indeed he stood as a UKIP candidate in the Sir Moses Montifiore by election caused by the sad demise of Labours Dick Dickinson.
Now you have to understand that I am a bit thick but how can you be a member of one Party, get elected on the ticket of a second Party and then represent another in a public forum,,???
Allegedly one of his reasons for defecting to the Tories is financial, apparently he seems to think he hasn’t got enough Committee’s as a member of a small ‘Group’ ( oh yes, the err, Independents have formed a Group) so by being a member of the Tory Group he will get more committee’s and so increase his income. He obviously doesn’t know that Councillors Allowances are not determined by how many committee’s a member sits on, they get a standard allowance, maybe the Tories answer to Marta Hari who was apparently seen deep in conversation with said turncoat at a recent meeting should have explained that to him.
All of the foregoing doesn’t take into account the fact that he was elected as a Ramsgate First Councillor and the good voters of Central Harbour rejected three Conservative candidates in favour of alternative policies. When this becomes public knowledge (oh dear, have I let the cat out of the bag?) there will inevitably be a public outcry and calls for him to resign and refight the Central Harbour seat under his true blue colours.
If he has an ounce of honour or decency he will, but don’t try holding your breath until that time.

Olive Branch

I have changed the title back to Observing Thanet to please Tony Flaig.
I shall also be taking issue with him, politly of course, on his assertions about 'false science' in relation to global warming, if I can ever find the post again!!!
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He has also accused me of erupting "in a rather venomous and bitter way", well, yes guilty as charged.
My venom and bile was directed at the Tories as usual but was charged by the devious, blustering and spin ridden way they have conned the good people of Thanet into returning them to power again locally, although good sense prevailed in Ramsgate, I am unable to comprehend how certain areas returned Tory Councillors.
Listening to them sometimes I think they are actually starting to believe their own publicity.
The plain fact is that underneath all the touchy feely, huggy, huggy hype of David Cameron if you peel back the mask underneath you will find the same unpleasant, selfish I'm all right Jack Tory party and if you dont believe me follow the postings on Simon ( I'm Gods gift to everything) Moores Blog.

Whatever next !

from Tuesdays paper I glean the the new Tory Housing chief Zita Wiltshire has been guilty of kerb crawling and offering young children large sums of money to grass up whoever is doing the graffiti in Millmead.
I understand that there is a database of 'tags' available to Officers to indentify perpetrators.
Why then this desperate effort to get a small boy to give information?

Any Old Iron Guv ?

Oh dear, oh dear, it seems that Labour turncoat Ted Watt-Ruffell who now sits as a Tory on TDC has been slacking off at work as Thanets enterprising villians have been nicking stuff from under his nose.
It seems that our Ted is a security officer at the old dreamland site and is supposed to stop things like this happening, not content with stripping most of the site of precious metals they have stolen the power supply to the security hut !!!
It appears that the security staff thought there had been a power cut, presumably when they woke from their slumbers although they must be heavy sleepers not to hear toilets and sinks being ripped from walls.
I am probably casting aspertions on Mr Watt-Ruffells character when I say that maybe if there had been one or two foot patrols around the site these audacious theives would have had far less chance to make off with their booty!

No , my first thought was right,.

If you cant do the Time,,,,

Plenty to get our teeth into in what passes for Tuesday's 'newspaper'

It seems from reading the front page and talking to one or two people this poor chap was quietly catalouging his collection of pressed flowers or collating his collection of used postage stamps that had apparently come from a Post Office mail bag that was later removed from the scene, when Plod unceremoniously burst in the front door. The poor fellow was so suprised he leapt up and flung himself from his fourth floor window coming to a sudden stop when he hit the ground.
According to Chantelle 'The Chav' Webster who is pictured smiling inanley into the camera, about 30 police were in attendance plus ambulance and other assorted Agencies.

A message to all Thanet scroates:-

If you cant do the time, dont do the crime.

Now the dust has settled and election fever has subsided it is time to stand back and take a look at some of our new Councillors.
Where to start ?
Lets begin with the so called Ramsgate First Councillor who has covered himself with glory already, Mike Taylor has tried several times under different guises to get himself elected, having finally succeeded he now represent an organisation that wants to abolish the Ramsgate Charter Trustee’s.
One of his first acts was to dress himself up in the Trumpton like fancy costume that passes for ‘The Robes of Office’ and parade himself in front of the assembled multitudes at the annual Mayor making.

Hypocrisy of the first order methinks !!

While on the subject of Ramsgate First, it’s nice to see that their website is kept up to date, (NOT) it currently looks like they have forgotten to take the Christmas deccies down!!!

Another new boy is also in Central Harbour Ward, Westcliff to you and me, is Labour’s Peter Campbell. Cllr Campbell worked hard during the election and knocked on every door in his Ward. It remains to be seen if he walks the walk having talked the talk to good effect during the election.

Over in Eastcliff Labours Dave Green and Steve Ward are joined by new girl Kerry Harker. Kerry is apparently a nurse so has probably had plenty of experience of daft old duffers who have seen it and done it all. No doubt she will benefit from some sage guidance from the two senior Labour members.

Up in Sir Moses Ward Michelle Fenner and Alan Pool both retained their seats no doubt helped by their campaign the stop development of land at the side of King George Park. Observer hears that they continue to poke a sharp stick into the wound that is the Tory fiasco over this site.
More power to their elbow I say.


Meanwhile down in Nethercourt poor old Dennis Hart was unceremoniously dumped in favour of Brenda Rogers who looks like an airheaded bimbo who has never had a political thought in her head, I may well be doing the poor girl an injustice but only time will tell.

In outer Ramsgate all is well in the Labour heartland of Newington and Northwood where despite a furious onslaught from all sides sanity prevailed and the sitting Councillors were all returned with the addition of Labour new boy Mark Nottingham in Northwood.

Further afield Ella Lodge-Pritchard and Harry Scobie swept the board for Labour in Salmestone so poor old James Maskell was consigned to the loser’s enclosure, destined to look on from the sidelines for another four years.

Also elected was Gods answer to just about everything, well according to him anyway, Simon Moores. It seems that good old Simes has now got this Councillor business sussed,
he buggers off to exotic parts Chairing all sorts of obscure conferences leaving his co-Councillor Brian ( not me Guv ) Goodwin to do all the work, I bet that’s not what the good folk of Westgate signed up for when voting for him.

Finally who have the Tories chosen as Chairman of the Council this year?
Well its none other than the incompetent, mumbling, stumbling, incoherent former chief of Planning Disasters John Kirby, who’s performance at the Annual Council led Observer to think that he appeared very tired and emotional. No doubt he was drained from his exertions in Cliffsend during the election period.

Stop Press,

Ooops, I have just taken a look at the Ramsgate First website it seems that having run out of original ideas they are reduced to copy and pasting from the Times website.