I guess that saying I am sick to the hind teeth of Thanet
politics, disastered local developments.
Amazon’s crusade to remove any commercial opposition to
their dominance of the whole book world has reached a new peak as they have now
registered a patent to sell secondhand digital books.
Sounds crazy I know but it is apparently true, see http://motherboard.vice.com/blog/used-ebooks-is-a-ridiculous-idea-that-could-ruin-authors-publishers
They did do an app update the other day that deleted the
entire kindle libraries of apple users, so it isn’t all plain sailing for them,
see http://techcrunch.com/2013/02/27/bug-in-kindle-update-for-ios-deletes-users-entire-library-amazon-warns-users-not-to-update/
How one survives in a trading environment where ones main
competition is a huge multinational with unlimited funds that is happy to trade
at a loss for as long as it takes to close down all the opposition should be
more difficult than it is.
Interestingly on a day like to today with humanity running for
cover at one point today produced about thirty individuals hiding in various parts
of my bookshop and I guess whatever they do Amazon never seem to be able to
undercut us significantly on price.
According to Thanet Extra Cardy Construction, Terrence
Painter and SFP are putting up £2,000 to restore the vandalised paintings on
the Great Wall of Ramsgate. It would be better if the explained to local people
why this 20 year saga and 10 year building site has occurred.
I think it was in 1921 that the people of Ramsgate last
rioted, however they seem to be getting pretty worked up about The Royal Sands
now.
A vessel from Denmark with a German
crew was berthed at the inner basin
at
Ramsgate Harbour to take a shipment
of coke from the Ramsgate gas works.
There was violent opposition to this
in
Ramsgate harbour which developed
into a series of full-scale riots. Hundreds of police officers from
London and all over Kent were
drafted in to quell the riotous mob. Canterbury alone sent 10 constables,
who stayed in the town for five
days. The members of the town's Mounted Section were very
much involved. Pc Mockler says ‘I
remember we formed up in Boundary Road, just like the photograph.
Hundreds of people started throwing
bricks and bottles at us. PC Champion was knocked out. I got off
my horse to go to his assistance and
a woman took out her hat pin and ran it right through my neck.
Luckily for me it missed the vein
but I had to go to hospital.’ Several baton charges were made to restore
order. The Rioting lasted for three
days and three nights and was one of the most serious public
disorder
occurrences in the 20th century.
Credit to East Kent NARPO Newsletter
the rest of the article and a picture can be found at http://eastkentnarpo.org.uk/docs/Newsletter%20122%20Nov%2009.pdf
I had wondered about buying myself a Kindle, but after readying a number of recent articles about potential problems with e-books I've had second thoughts.
ReplyDeleteAmazon wipes customer's Kindle and deletes account with no explanation
At least with a paper copy of a book the publisher can't come around to your house and demand to have the book back again !
I have long believed that civil action is the only alternative left for the pleasurama fiasco. I most certainly do not mean rioting or any kind of violence. We do not need the self defeating Scargill tactics.
DeletePerhaps we could emulate the Bulgarian tactics. For weeks now they have been demonstrating on the streets against the monumental government corruption. These demonstrations are peaceful. The demonstrators have done a deal with the police who have promised that they will not follow government orders to break up the demonstrations providing they remain peaceful. The demonstrators are there constantly day night as they shout slogans, wave banners, sing, dance and jeer at the politicians.
Our obdurate TDC Councillors and apparatchiks will not be disturbed by rational argument. Neither would they fear a riot. They would simply call in the police and cast themselves in the image of our saviours rescuing the innocent majority from anarchy.
But they do have a weak point. Their self regard is their vulnerability. They do not like to be laughed at and made to look silly. The demonstrators should mock them and jeer at them, especially in front of the TV cameras. From what little I have seen TDC is not renowned for giving coherent and trenchant interviews. The demonstrators will need a couple of appointed and eloquent interviewees who have all the facts at their fingertips.
(The anonymice need not bother to reply. Those with a blogger I/D are always welcome)
Thanks John, for pointing out as I think you have, how easy it has been for them in the past to use divide and rule tactics
DeleteUpdate on Bulgarian demonstrations.
DeleteThey have been demonstrating now for 20 days. They maintain a 24 presence over weekends and on weekdays the people join the demonstration straight after work. In Varna they have just brought down their egregiously corrupt council.
And there has still been no violence. The demonstrations are ordered and peaceful.
I'm watching the pictures live via satellite.
(The anonymice need not bother to reply. Those with a blogger I/D are always welcome)
I am proud and grateful to be living in the realm that gave us and much of the world Magna Carta and Common Law. With this in mind I endeavour to never forget the following warning:
DeleteThe best way to take control over a people and control them utterly is to take a little of their freedom at a time, to erode rights by a thousand tiny and almost imperceptible reductions. In this way the people will not see those rights and freedoms being removed until past the point at which these changes cannot be reversed.
This is worth bearing in mind.
Me thinks you may not need to protest too much, rumour has it the dominos are swaying.
DeleteReadit,
DeleteI saw in the local paper that the marshal has ridden into town.
John,
DeleteThe trouble with offshore companies is that they are in danger of being washed out with the tide.
With the KCC election in May the 8 councillors will have to agree firm pledges on Pleasurama, pollution etc or be voted out. They have done little over the years so no great loss. Certainly double-hatters are not required.
DeleteDespite your assurances, Anon 9:37, I am quite sure that come the May elections there will still be double and even treble hatters because people for for the candidate of their chosen party regardless of such considerations. As for pledges from politicians you really must be having a laugh. Stunts, performances and promises is what you will get with, typically pre-election, one lot at the moment campaiging to save Westgate Library which is not even under threat of closure.
DeleteOne final thought, if you vote out one politician you simply replace him or her with another.
Let's hope the problem is resolved before May then and not by the politicians.
DeleteThis site is just one big advert for bookshop
Deletemany books on ramsgate can be purchased on amazon.com at a nuch lower price!
DeleteThis comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
ReplyDeleteRichard Card,
DeleteI regret that in my simple way I can only mentally wrestle with one grievance at time.
Bulgarian update,
DeleteAgitators got in amongst the demonstrators with a view to attacking the police. But they were recognised and stopped by other demonstrators.
John that may or may not have been a comment from Richard Card, difficult to say as it was posted anonymously, if the commentators name doesn’t appear as link taking you to their blogger profile like yours does then it is an anonymous comment.
DeleteThe problem I am facing at the moment is that comments are being copied from other posts and elsewhere on the internet, some modified and some not, so this could be a comment by Richard Card, which in this case I would have deleted anyway as it names individuals in a way that I can’t check whether it is libellous.
Alternatively it may be one of Richard’s comments copied from elsewhere which may have been modified to make it hostile to my blogging activities.
I guess as a blog follower you are only too aware of the nature of some of the comment that I am deleting at the moment to think I my be becoming the victim to some conspiracy theory, or may be over reacting.
Michael,
DeleteI must confess that I did not check to see if it was a genuine 'Richard Card' post. I was familiar with the rant and therefore gave it scant attention.
Yes, I do see these offensive posts before you have had a chance to delete them. I do not consider that they emanate from a conspiracy. Your blog is widely read in Thanet and consequently you are bound to attract the odd nutter. You are assiduous in the cleansing your blog and there is not much else you can do.
John I would say looking at the recent spate of deleted posts and closed comments on other local blogs, there are quite a few people around who would like to see a less robust local blogging scene here in Thanet.
DeleteThe increase in comments that don’t fall into the bracket of either normal conversation within the thread, or a reasonable response to the content of the post has been considerable recently.
While I concede that most of this is either spam with a commercial intent, or is the product of the mentally imbalanced, I have to consider that some of it may be aimed at curtailing my blogging activates.
My guess is that a pile of obscenities or libel concealed within a long and rambling comment followed by a complaint about this to Google who host blogger would be likely to result in the removal of this blog. The truth though is that I don’t really know.
Certainly the commercial spam is becoming much more site specific now, whether automatically or manually generated, more of it relates more to the content of the post it appears on.
Michael,
DeleteI believe that Google will know that it is not you who is posting these nasty comments; that you are assiduous in removing them; and that this type of comment is an occupational blogging hazard. I would accept that there are a few people who are dumb enough to believe that they can silence you by posting silly nasties. I also believe that the people at Google are sufficiently bright and experienced not to fall for it.
I think bookshops still have a future since you dont always know what book you want until you browse the shelves and handle the book. There is sometimes an indefinable quality to a book that makes it necessary to purchase. This rarely comes over on line.
DeleteAs TDC owns the freehold of many parts of Ramsgate Seafront (Port, Harbour, and Pavilion to name 3) why are they trying to dispose of the freehold of Pleasurama. They even added it to the spec in 2002. I dont understand this change
ReplyDeleteBarry James,
ReplyDeleteA pregnant question.
The development proposal is here http://www.friendsoframsgateseafront.org.uk/downloads.html also this spec says the successful bidder must submit 3 years audited accounts so why wasn't that complied with. The succesful company was alleged to be registered in the British Virgin Islands.
ReplyDeleteI've just been watching the outcome of the Huhne sentencing.
DeleteHey there! I'm at work surfing around your blog from my new iphone 4! Just wanted to say I love reading your blog and look forward to all your posts! Keep up the superb work!
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