An Outsiders View of Thanet’s Latest Political Wrangle and a ramble with a few pictures.

I suppose by now most people must be aware of Labour councillor Mark Nottingham’s blog post, http://marknottingham.blogspot.com/2011/01/whistleblowing-thanet-labour-party.html Whoops Mark's taken it down, however another councillor has published it here http://birchington.blogspot.com/p/open-letter-to-clive-hart-from-mark.html and Cive's response http://thanetpress.blogspot.com/2011/01/response-to-mark-nottinghams-open.html about Mark's deselection from the Thanet Labour group’s list of candidates, for election as a Thanet District Councillor in the forthcoming May elections.

From the point of view of an outsider, neither Conservative of Labour, nor anything to do with the council, one is inclined to make some sort of judgment and I suppose this judgment is likely to be inaccurate.

I think that this is just more about the leadership of the council, it seems pretty obvious that a lot of people are beginning to wonder if the Conservative cuts are going a bit beyond sorting out the mess Labour has made of the national economy and starting to get into the realms of cutting for political reasons.

In short cutting too fast and to deep may cause the economy to crash, some of the things that the government have done look idealistic, rather than common sense to me, mine is an old naval family, on my grandmothers side one was nicknamed Dreadnaught, so perhaps there is something in my jeans – sorry not Levis – here.

The business of The Ark Royal and the Harriers is what I using for an example here, scrapping before you have a replacement looks as though it will neither save much money or makes any sense.

Government cuts for me I am afraid need to start with the bureaucrats not the sailors and pilots.

All that said, I think Labour think they are in with a chance here in Thanet and of course this means that if they get a majority in the May elections then the new council leader would be Labour.

Now the way council leadership has changed this means that the new leader is pretty much guaranteed to stay leader for the next four years, something that is worth about £90,000 in allowances, worth having a bit of spat about if you’re a bit skint.

Of course if the council hadn’t fixed the leadership consultation then we the electorate would be voting for the new leader see https://www.blogger.com/comment.g?blogID=3575321478441277410&postID=6620570707017746636 or even http://thanetonline.blogspot.com/search?q=mayor

As it is I suppose there is a lot of horse trading and back stabbing in both parties and the tip of the iceberg is the part of that is described by Mark Nottingham at http://birchington.blogspot.com/p/open-letter-to-clive-hart-from-mark.html

If I was in Mark Nottingham’s shoes I suppose I would be off organising a mayoral referendum petition, something that would put a stop to the whole unseemly business once and for all.

I have no affinity with the current leader whosoever as he is just too rude to reply to my correspondence, my paternal grandmother the dreadnaught one, once said to me. “The mark of a gentleman is that he is only rude deliberately.” And I am afraid that the current incumbent is being rude by accident. So on this score alone both Labour contenders win outright as the do reply to my correspondence, something that isn’t always easy.

Here in Ramsgate the last Eight years of Conservative leadership at Thanet District Council has resulted in a town that is more like the aftermath of a civil war than the aftermath of good local government, so on that score any change is likely to be an improvement.

Westgate

A new Hospice Charity Shop has opened there, I only looked at the book section, it is very good as charity chop book selections go, well worth a look and a better selection than some small secondhand bookshops.

A few Westgate pictures here http://www.michaelsbookshop.com/netbook111/id5.htm

Birching ton

I had a ham sandwich at Quex Barn in Birchington today, substantial reasonably priced, good WiFi connection.

Redundant technology

I replaced my emergency digital camera with a Traveler 5.25 megapixel one manufactured for Aldi supermarkets about £12 on Ebay.

This is the camera that I keep in my pocket all the time and use either when I forget my main camera, its memory card or its battery goes flat.

Pictures from it, including the roadworks in Harbour Street Ramsgate, here http://www.michaelsbookshop.com/netbook111/id7.htm and full sized ones here http://www.michaelsbookshop.com/netbook111/id6.htm I only mention this as I have to get things like very cheap cameras for children and this is the best I have found so far. The cheap sonny ones are pretty good but they use a non standard memory card which is a pain.

The other thing I have replaced this week is my mobile phone, the other one developed some sort of physiological problem, like all of the small bits of technology I carry bout it didn’t last very long.

As I had already put £10 worth of credit on it and paid T mobile £20 for 6 months internet access I bought another secondhand phone. I have large fingers, poor reading site, can’t spell, am not happy with mobile phones, but I am used to – comfortable with computers of all sizes running Windows – so I bough the largest phone I could find, that is most like a notebook.

My main use of a phone is as an extension to the internet that is mobile and the phone I have bought this time, secondhand for £30 – an Xda Exec - suits my purpose so well, that I will just get another one as soon as it expires.
Anyway once again if you are confronted by which one to get secondhand on ebay and you want a very large phone with a qwerty keyboard, this is the one to go for.

I have just typed the above very rapidly and with out correction as I am a bit short of time and will endeavour both to ramble on and tidy up any errors late if I get time.