The Great Train Shed and a Small Outdoor Museum

Talking about the upcoming reopening of Dreamland it was rather aptly described as a  Small Outdoor Museum. Although I wish them well and hope it is a success I fear that after the opening hoo ha it will again slowly retreat back into a little used facility due mainly to the somewhat exorbitant admission fees. I have a friend who is planning to come with his girlfriend. Between them they have 6 children so just to get in will cost £ 107 plus the cost of getting there on the train plus the cost of food while there and possibly a souvenir or two therefore just for a day out they are looking at something like £200. I doubt very much if the average East Kent family would be prepared to spend that much on a day out at a Small Outdoor Museum. Needless to say my friend is having second thoughts. It is thought by those we must not contradict that while visiting the Dreamland 'attraction' folks will also take advantage of a visit to The Great Train Shed aka The Turner Centre. In my rather twisted view of the world I find it unlikely that people who want to visit a Dreamland type park would be very likely to want to visit an art gallery or indeed vice versa !
 With thanks to Andy McCulloch for the descriptions. 

Moving on, the debate about the pros and cons of Manston rumbles on. For the record I have always in the past and will continue in the future to support the airport, basically because  I would rather back the 147 local people who lost their jobs and the two dozen or so small businesses that relied on the airport not to mention the other businesses that had small factory units running and employing people their also TG Aviation. The simple fact is that successive operators have failed to invest in either proper marketing, modern facilities or staff development, the airport has been used as a tax loss and not been run in a business like manner. In my view backing peoples livings is a preferable position rather than backing the  people who moved down from London and immediately started a campaign to get it closed. The disquiet about the airport started then and they seem to want to blame the airport owners for the fact that there were planes flying overhead. I would suggest that they take that up with their solicitors who failed to advise them that they were buying a house under a flight path and not vent their spleens on local people who have lived quite happily side by side with the airport for many years.

Bitter Sweet moments.

Now the dust has settled and the hoo hah is finished it is time for reflection. For me it is a bitter sweet result, one one hand and given the way I was treated by the Labour Party ( I am now a former member ) I am happy that they got more or less wiped out. I am exceptionally pleased that the two carpetbaggers didn't get elected in Newington. I am deeply saddened that the architect of the anti airport stance, Peter Campbell got reelected supported by another anti Michelle Fenner. I suppose that it says that they are good ward Councillors. I know that Jenny Matterface and Iris Johnston are both excellent ward Councillors and that is why they got reelected. Obviously given my political outlook I am disappointed that UKIP have taken control. In all the excitement people seem to have overlooked the fact that being a Councillor is about a lot more than getting Manston reopened. They will have my full wholehearted support in that but we will have to see what else they do in the future.
 UKIP have talked the talk but we will see if they can walk the walk. Just out being nosey I took a look at their local Manifesto expecting to see something relevant to Thanet and Ramsgate in particular. Imagine my surprise to find nothing about Thanet at all, not even a word about Manston !! Chris Wells has been a busy boy talking about how TDC is going to set the ball rolling on a CPO, I feel though he would be best advised to wait for the Price Waterhouse Cooper report in the unlikely event that they give the arrangement a thumbs down otherwise it could be egg on face time. 
I also hope that they dont get caught up in concentrating on Manston and CPO and forget about all the other things that a Council has to do. 
We are promised a return to weekly bin collections, more expensive, more road sweepers, more expensive, a complete rewrite of the Local Plan, very expensive, I hope that they can do all these things within the current Council Tax take otherwise our bills will rise dramatically !! 
While on the subject of money and the Council, while I dont know yet who will be responsible for the Councils finances they would be well advised to ask what are we committed to ? At the time of leaving I was aware of nearly £8 million of committed expenditure by way of compensation and requirement to pay for things in which TDC is a partner. 

I quite like this article by John Prescott.
 http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/labour-lost-election-5-years-5671406

Ramsgate Labour Party.......................... The Truth.

I have decided to resurrect this blog so that the truth about Ramsgate branch of the Labour Party can be told.
So where do I start, I suppose that the rot really set in when we had an influx of DFL's. These people moved down to Ramsgate and set about educating the local yokels with their Lattes and Prosecco and other nouveau habits. Sadly they also imported their own particular brand of intolerance and bigotry.
A good example of this started with the iniquitous No Night Flights campaign. The people involved were mainly retired or wealthy DFL's who didnt want planes flying at any time and NNF was just an excuse to hang their prejudices on. The irony is that probably a lot of these people flew away on holidays to a nice villa in Tuscany or a sweet little Portugese village where the locals presumably cow towed to them thus feeding their superior attitude. Just not liking flying from the local airport as it disturbed their precious weekends. These NIMBYS slowly infested our Labour Party like some insidious cancer and systematically set about undermining all the work being done by local people to attract jobs and prosperity to Thanet.
Another consequence of DFL's is that they have driven property prices up beyond the reach of a lot of local people who now find that apart from the daily struggle to make ends meet they also have the worry of finding a home that they can afford on the piss poor wages on offer in Thanet generally.
These awful self righteous, self centered people also seem to belong in a culture of perpetually offended thin- skinned busy bodies constantly getting offended about something, someone or some group that did or said something and then demanding apology, followed by furious public outrage.

These people having slithered into a position of becoming candidates now also claim to be the candidates fighting for change, but actually what they are doing is rolling the clock back to the days of absentee MPs and rotten borough politics, when well-off people from London like them made decisions for everyone else and now they want to take us back to the days when ordinary people did not have proper local representation.

So for these reasons and others, I have cancelled my Labour Party membership and regrettably for the first time in nearly fifty years I shall not be voting Labour. I have always been a socialist and I believe in the principles of socialism. I have stood in successive elections on these principals and never failed to get elected, therefore I will continue to believe in them.

But this lot?  I can’t, in all seriousness, go into a booth and put my mark against any one of them.

Come election day, I shall give my vote to another party. Almost any other party. Or maybe more likely Ruth Brackstone until the Labour Party both locally and nationally is once more led by people who at least pay lip service to socialist principles.

My Take On labours TDC Candidates 2015 Council Elections.

Thanet District Council Elections: 

 Newington Ward :

 Karen Constantine, seems more interested in her Trade Union activities and being seen at Trade Union meetings, also likes being seen with the Cafe Society along the seafront. Known to be ageist. Not sure if she knows where Newington is.
 David Green. Formerly Mayor of Ramsgate and Eastcliff councillor. Decided to stand down at the 2015 election but suddenly changed his mind when a 'safe seat' became available. Anti airport. Suspected to be scheming and devious, described as Machiavellian by a former Leader of TDC. Not a very involved Ward Councillor. Appalling public speaker barely able to string two words together consecutively. Seems to think that the world begins and ends with Ramsgate seafront.

 Northwood Ward : 

David Cooper, An unknown quantity, seems to be a socialist but no concrete evidence. Replaces Kay Dark.
Elizabeth Green. Like her husband said she wasnt standing but inexplicably changed her mind at the last minute. Anti Airport.
 Susan Kennedy. Rabid anti airport campaigner, appears out of touch and nothing in common with working class people. Probably only in it to further her anti airport views and personal ego. Only started attending meetings when the possibility of being selected as a Councillor arose.

 Central Harbour Ward :

 Peter Campbell, Another rabid anti airport person. When discussing airport closure said “ I am glad the airport closed “ and repeated it later, presumably also glad that 147 people lost their jobs and also those small businesses and employees that fed the airport were also affected plus the tenants on airport land who lost theirs and their staffs livelihoods. Thinks shouting louder than anyone else wins debates. A bully and has known anger management issues. Also believes the world starts and ends on Ramsgate seafront.
 Corinna Huxley, A very sound and hard working Ward Councillor.
Highly recommended.
 Raushanara Rahman. Owns a restaurant in Harbour Street. Anti airport. Nothing else known, a fairly new Labour Party member, Also only started attending meetings when the possibility of being selected as a Councillor arose.

Eastcliff Ward :

 Mary Dwyer, Sound, solid and works for her constituents.
 Rick Everitt, Corinna Huxley's partner, also a very sound and hard working Ward Councillor. Recommended.
 John Worrow. Currently a Councillor in Birchington, is moving to Ramsgate. Strong campaigner on equality issues especially LGBT. Recommended.

 Moses Montefiore Ward : 

 Michelle Fenner, Former TDC Cabinet Member, approved the spending of nearly £200.000 of TDC Taxpayers money on a lost cause despite being told that the case would be lost. Boring public speaker, soporific almost, audience loses interest within seconds.
 Alan Poole. Former Deputy Leader of TDC, rabid anti airport, also solely responsible for the introduction of the disastrous new Waste and Recycling service. Still thinks it was a good service from the start. Removed from involvement with several delicate negotiations as being unsuitable. Another appalling public speaker, also barely able to string two coherent words together consecutively. Known as Poole the Fool.

 Nethercourt Ward : 

Steve Alexandrou, Another rabid anti airport campaigner. Owns a small business white lining roads and thinks that qualifies him as an expert on every subject under the sun. Barely literate.
Pat Moore. Currently Mayor of Ramsgate.

Cliffsend and Pegwell Ward : 

 Penny Newman, Campaigns on disability issues. Token Candidate.
James Young. Token Candidate.