Twas the season of spending all your wonga

Well that’s it for another year,,,thankfully and we can all get back to what passes for   normal although the whole country has come to a stand for the week until after New Years Eve has passed. Another awful American ‘tradition’,  the holidays taken between Christmas and New Year. Of course “ when oi were a boy”  only Christmas Day and Boxing Day were days off and News Years Day was a normal working day. It was first made a national Bank Holiday in 1974.

 I say the country has come to a stand, that is not quite correct as most shops were open on Boxing day, indeed some opened as early as 5 am for something known as ‘the sales’ quite what that means I am not sure as stores had been heavily discounting for weeks in the run up to Christmas in a hopeful attempt to part hard pressed shoppers from their cash. I must confess that I watched some TV adverts rather incredously as potential must have presents were being advertised at ‘only £299’ or some other stupid amount that equates to more than a weeks income for most folks in Thanet. The pressure on parents at this time of year is immense to buy their offspring the latest Xtube PS 490 gizmo as the insinuation given in some of the adverts is that all their mates will have it and they will be the odd one out. Long gone are the days when kids were happy with a hoop and a tangerine and if they were lucky a wooden toy that gave you splinters or some lead soldiers that allegedly gave us all lead poisoning!

People say that I am wrong or out of date for harking back to the ‘good old days’ but life was definitely better then, we didn’t have the constant commercial pressures we have now to acquire the latest, biggest, fastest most expensive gadget or game, people were happier with their lot and didn’t aspire to own possessions they could not afford or quite frequently didn’t need.

Ironically as I write this Star Trek is on the telly and I am prompted to think that if my Grandad was to be suddenly transported into this century it would be much the same as me being transported into the 24^th century although in the 24^th century the overwhelming desire for possessions has been eliminated. I can imagine the wonder he would feel at being able to communicate with anywhere in the world at the push of a button, send emails instead of letters and telephones smaller than the size of a packet of cigarettes that fit in your pocket. Imagine the feeling that he would have at being able to do your weekly shop from your front room, be able to buy anything at the click of a mouse button, of course he would think a mouse is something small and furry.

So there you have it, hundreds of pounds wasted on food that will never get eaten, even more hundreds of pounds spent on the latest electronic toy that will be out of date come your childs birthday, all for a couple of days relaxing without the worry of will you still have a job to go to on January 3^rd, will I get through the winter without catching some exotic flu, will my car pass its MOT, will I break down in the bad weather, will the central heating pack up at the first sign of snow, will I be able to afford the January bills, will Charlton Athletic actually get promoted this year?

Happy New Year to you all.

R.I.P. Manston Airport.

Today’s sad announcement that Flybe are to cease operations from next March will come as an unwelcome Christmas gift to the employees at Manston. Couple this with the rumored breakdown of talks to link with Schiphol Airport and you have a recipe for potential closure.  Flybe spokesman Niall Duffy has posted on Michael Child's blog
"It is fair to say that Manston is one of the airports with the smaller catchment areas in the United Kingdom, and you have Gatwick not too far away.
We tried different routes and the numbers simply weren't there. It's impossible to sustain routes without the passengers. Manston is in the wrong place for a sustainable airport. All the airlines know it, hence none of them are there. Bugger all to do with TDC.

All this will no doubt come as a welcome Christmas gift to those whose sole objective has been to close the airport while masquerading as No Night Flight campaigners.

 This may well throw into doubt the need for a consultation exercise on any night flying and I have no doubt that the new Cabinet will be approaching the Airport seeking an urgent meeting to discuss the future.

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  Moving on to other matters with Christmas rapidly approaching I thought I better go and do some festive type shopping. Having heard so much about dire times and folks cutting back I was somewhat surprised to have to drive around Sainsbury’s car park twice before I spotted someone leaving and quickly nipped into the only vacant space I could see. As I was only going to get some chives and milk I didn’t think I would be that long, how wrong can you be! Some 40 minutes later I dragged myself back to the car bruised and battered with my enthusiasm for present buying rapidly diminishing. Not wanting to subject myself to the rigors of fighting my way through Westwood Cross I made my way into Ramsgate to make my purchase. I was going to go and see Michael Child but thought better of it as I wouldn’t be buying an actual book as my Wife is an avid Kindle fan! Readers will be happy to know that I did in fact buy the present and card I set out to buy, of course this would not have been necessary had my original present for my wife been delivered in plain wrapping that I paid extra for so that she would be surprised on Christmas Day when she actually got the present she wanted. The surprise was somewhat ruined when the parcel arrived while I was out and the contents were written all over the packaging!

Incidentally I have had a great Christmas present already, thanks to the wonders of the interweb thingy I am now back in touch with two very old mates that I worked with at Butlins back in the 60’s. We will be having a reunion in the New Year and mebe revisiting some of our old haunts. Maybe some of my older readers will remember the 49 Club or the Jaguar Club, sadly both gone now.

As it’s the season of goodwill and extra grandchildren minding I think I shall refrain my blogging for a few days, hostilities will be resumed after Christmas.

Unless of course there is anything in tomorrows paper that demands comment!!

Tis the season of peace and goodwill to all men except on Simon Moores blogsite.

Following the defection of Cllr John Worrow to the Independants there has been an eruption of bile and vitriol from the direction of Simon Moores on his blog. I could be charitable and put this down to disappointment at losing his Cabinet post and saddness at the Tories losing overall control at TDC, or I could say that it is in fact the true nature of Thanet Tories coming out at last.
Having sat opposite and watched the way they operate in one guise or another more or less continiously since 1979 I think I am qualified to say what their true nature is.
More so than most Tories they seem to think that they are somehow born to rule and the ' we know best ' attitude prevails, this is particularly true of those Tories with an academic or senior management background. It is this superior, supercillious  attitude that particularly gets under the skin of the local proletariat. Despite their alleged higher intellect and ability to see things that other mere mortals miss they have failed to see what was happening under their noses. Cllr Worrow is not the only disaffected Tory and I know that several were quite uneasy about the autocratic manner in which Bob Bayford and co ruled Thanet.
And so to the current situation, reading his blog it seems that Simon Moores either has a crystal ball or a bugging device that anticipates future events. For the record IF Clive Hart was even thinking of offerering John Worrow a Cabinet post he would certainally have to get the Labour Groups approval, no such conversation has taken place, 
also for the record , Tuesdays Labour Group meeting was to discuss the proposed changes to the budget to be presented to Council, and not the offer of a position to any individual Cllr.  In particular parking was discussed and proposals will be put forward at the right time. Some of the figures being bandied about vary wildly and give no confidence in their accuracy. A full and in depth reveiw will be needed with carefully costed proposals that will be fully questioned and scrutinised in depth, unlike the processes that have been followed in the past, Cabinet have been presented with something and just agreed it. The evidence of this is blatantly clear in the reluctance of the Tory Members of Scrutiny Committee to have things investigated in greater depth. Scrutiny Committee also requested additional support to enable it to do its job with greater efficiency. In line with the paranoia that reigned it seemed likely that this request was going to be shunted to one side in case a better resourced Scrutiny found something flawed in a Cabinet proposal.

I know Clive Hart is commited to a more inclusive administration and if that includes Members of other groups well so be it and Simon Moores and others of his ilk should just shut up and get used to life as opposition Councillors and try and be constructive and refrain from the paranoid rantings aimed at those who have found them out.