News, Local history and Thanet issues from Michael's Bookshop in Ramsgate see www.michaelsbookshop.com I publish over 200 books about the history of this area click here to look at them.
Comments, since I started writing this blog in 2007 the way the internet works has changed a lot, comments and dialogue here were once viable in an open and anonymous sense. Now if you comment here I will only allow the comment if it seems to make sense and be related to what the post is about. I link the majority of my posts to the main local Facebook groups and to my Facebook account, “Michael Child” I guess the main Ramsgate Facebook group is We Love Ramsgate. For the most part the comments and dialogue related to the posts here goes on there. As for the rest of it, well this blog handles images better than Facebook, which is why I don’t post directly to my Facebook account, although if I take a lot of photos I am so lazy that I paste them directly from my camera card to my bookshop website and put a link on this blog.
Ashamed to live in Thanet.
ReplyDeleteWell, go an live somewhere else then.
DeleteFrankly, I can't wait to leave - the place is a shambles on all fronts. and p.s , I'm not the original anon.
Deleteumm.. that would be you then ? My idea of being positive isn't spending all day making snarky, stupid remarks on blogs. You should get out more.
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Delete@Steve Townsend: You can't be for real? Surely this is a wind up?
DeleteBNP lost all their seats so Ukip extremism is as far as the UK will tolerate and Ukip will decline after they become known as BNP did from their electoral surge. Someone described them here as wackjobs which sounds rigjt and I was astonished to see Neil Hamilton on Question Time as Ukip chairman.
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DeleteThe NHS is rubbish - why should we have to pay for prescription or have air ambulance paid by charity or dirty hospitals and no csncer tests
DeleteSteve, whoever you are, a few English spelling lessons would not go amiss to help you distinguish between there and their, served rather than severed, probably instead of proberly and naïve instead of nieve. Have this lesson on the house, but next time you pay £20 an hour.
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DeleteSteve, due respects if you have served, but what makes you assume I have not? Four campaign medals and a mention in despatches would suggest otherwise and I would proudly stand beside you on Remembrance days. No offence intended, just pointing out the spelling.
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DeleteSo steve, my mothers Irish, should she pack her bags? What does that mean for me, son of immigrants. No vote? Detention centre?
DeleteUtter nonsense, 5:17, for to control future immigration does not mean that all those already living here have to be thrown out. As for Irish, well as you must well know, there is freedom of movement between Eire and the UK and has been since the republic was fist formed. This is the kind of scaremongering nonsense that always destroys sensible debate on immigration and manageable population levels.
DeleteOk 523 tell us how the immigration system should be changed if there is no deportation. And how coming out of EU fits with that.
DeleteThose residents who have citizenship or a right of patriality stay, regardless of race colour or creed, but those who are do not have citizenship or a right of residence leave at the end of their visa time. All new immigrants are strictly controlled according to national needs like other sensible countries. Asylum can only be claimed from abroad, not from falling off the back of a lorry in Dover. Leaving the EU, if such is the choice of the British people in a referendum, ends the right of residence to EU nationals.
DeleteThat, 5:32, is how you control immigration.
Steve just interested to know what the "English Race" is. Brythons, Normans, Saxons, Angles, Jutes, Romans, Danish Vikings, Celts? Even our current monarchy is German.
DeleteWe're also going to abolish so called "equal" marriage for homosexuals and lesbians, regardless of their race or country of origin.
Delete5:41 fair enough but that's exactly how immigration works at the moment isn't it? Youre describing the existing system?
DeleteOk 5:45 so that would go back to the previous civil partnerships system? How would that improve UK one way or the other?
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DeleteNigel will be your next MP he likes Ramsgate
ReplyDeleteDon I think you have to take into account the Scobie factor and what happened in the KCC elections, you also have to remember that in the EU elections there was pretty much no chance, whichever way you voted, of getting an MEP with any connection to Thanet, possibly even an MEP who had even heard of Thanet.
DeleteMy guess it that both Labour and the Conservatives will be having a bit of a rethink about an in out EU referendum and that if that happens before the parliamentary elections then it is not only a game changer but may be the game changer
Michael,
DeleteWith respect, I have studied your post at 10:29 and it does not offer a coherent argument. For example what is this rethink that you imagine the Conservative party will be having about an in out EU referendum?
Can you not admit that you, along with others, got it wrong about the UKIP results.
Or it may be you you are doing nothing more that courting argument in the belief that this will attract visitors to your blog and as a result increase your book sales? You have form on this.
Michael, whilst I would agree a general election, where we choose who is to actually run our own country for the next five years, is different to any local or even EU vote, I still think this has to be a major wake up call for both main parties. I really do not know what you mean by the Scobie factor, other than Labour have managed to get themselves a young educated candidate for a change, for he is not an established political name in South Thanet yet, and UKIP will play a part, even if less so than this time. From the results, the Conservatives still beat Labour with a 10% better vote share in the constituency and UKIP seem to have taken votes from both main parties.
DeleteNot sure all the mud slinging at UKIP serves any purpose, something the two main parties need to learn as well as contributors to this blog, for by labelling them racist or fascist one is effectively applying the same label to many of our neighbours. I think it is more of a case of saying it is time to listen for the people have been fobbed of by those claiming to know best for too long.
Ukip in thanet have hardly proved different to the other parties. What have they done?
DeleteThe Margate and Cliftonville result clearly reflects the burden placed on us by Europe encouraged by Labour Liberal and conservative politicians.
ReplyDeleteParts of Margate are without a doubt no go areas, or at the very least somewhere you're not going to linger.
It is shocking that 55% percent have chosen UKIP including me, but with a background of rising crime and pressure on the health service, education law and order, what else can be expected.
As understandable as a majority of people turning UKIP is, what continues to baffle me and I suspect most of you is why politicians continue to ignore public opinion.
Cameron witters on about a having a referendum sometime never, Millibland claims to understand the situation but clearly has nothing but typical labour contempt and Clegg is a former EU Muppet.
The strategy of the establishment is clear, loads of empathy and bull hoping we surrender to the unelected undemocratic eurocrats, I hope that doesn't happen.
Tony so what ukip policies are you voting for? Kent ukip are simply elderly tories and have no policies at all - unless you can outline say 5 policies?
DeleteThe electoral turnout was again only 36% so over two thirds of people did not vote for these parties
DeleteThe 2015 vote for our 56 TDC Councillors is going to be interesting. A UKIP Council is on the way, Hooray!
ReplyDeleteThe only reservation is that Colonel Blimp aka OBE will be back as leader as everyone forgets he was as close to the criminal Ezekiel as a banana skin to a banana. Interesting to watch will be the 'professional' local politicians who will switch allegiance to UKIP, both Labour and Tory. I hope UKIP will find its own potential councillors and a good clear out occurs at Cecil Square.
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DeleteYour argument interests me. I had a close friend who committed suicide - does that make me suicidal; I had a close friend who was homosexual - does that make me a homosexual; I had a close friend who was a lesbian - does that make me a lesbian (on reflection I'd rather like that); and I read your comments - does that make me an idiot?
DeleteMy above is addressed to anon 11:10
DeleteNo Peter, it's more like an idiot trapped in an idiot's body.
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DeleteThe Lord Ashcroft poll of marginals for Thanet South taken in the last week of April and sampling 1000 residents shows percentages of con 31, lab 31, libdem 8 and UKIP 26 for hose that intended to vote in the 2015 gen election.
ReplyDeleteIn the meantime we can look forward to a few local councillors crossing over to save their skins (allowances).
The Lord Ashcroft poll of marginals for Thanet South taken at the end of April using 1000 residents show percentages of 31% for lab and cons, 8% for libdems and 26% for Ukip when only those that intend to vote in 2015 are taken into consideration.
ReplyDeleteWe can look forward to a few local councillors crossing over to save their skins (allowances).
UKIP's own description of the demographic that hasn't voted for them in London as 'young, cultured and educated'.
ReplyDeleteDo new thanet UKIP supporters Peter Checksfield and Tony Flaig do anything to suggest anyone but the exact polar opposite of that demographic are voting for UKIP here on our beloved Isle?
I think you have hit the nail very precisely on the head there.
DeleteYou may be poorly educated but that's no excuse for being stupid. I would place UKIP somewhat to the right of the Conservatives. Their policies (when they finally reveal them) are not likely to be policies which speak on behalf of white-van man. In fact, the quote above suggests that their policies will be constructed to appeal to people who are young, educated and cultured (so, not Showaddywaddy fans).
DeleteAnon 12:31 (aka pompous git),
DeleteI did not spot you as a pundit on last night's BBC election coverage. The BBC missed out there. I could have done with a good laugh.
Which translates as that if you wish to be taken seriously and influence opinion then you should not be so free with the word 'stupid'.
Anyone who prefers Showaddywaddy to Miles Davis shouldn't be allowed to live let alone vote.
DeleteIn fact, I'd introduce a sort of Electoral Test before allowing people to vote. Any Showaddywaddy fans, anyone who thinks there are "no-go areas" in Margate, anyone who believes Nigel Falange is an "ordinary bloke" and anyone who thinks that Ukip could run a pi$$ up in brewery would probably end up exempt from voting.
Peter, you're not young. You are far too embarrasing to be young.
DeleteYoung cannot be anyone who has even heard of shawaddywaddy, let alone like them.
Remember that Adolf would have gassed you for liking men.
Peter how about two laps of the disused airfield at Manston?
Delete11:32, many of Thanet's young, just able to vote but still in education, voted UKIP. Those are our sixth formers and college students who share others concerns about the direction of this country and distanced main party leadership personalities who are out of touch with the people.
Delete4:51; Any proof to back up your claims?
DeleteUkip don't have any one under 70!
DeleteYes, two teenage daughters and a host of their friends, all sixth formers in a local grammar, who voted UKIP and were even persuading parents to do likewise. That is not all, a group of teaching colleagues, who normally vote Conservative, all declared their intention to vote UKIP with an age range from 24 to 48.
Delete5:14, must have been a massive turn out then by the geriatrics if all those UKIP voters were over 70.
DeleteYes 5:18 and you're agreeing Thanet Ukip councillors are over 70? And tell us the UKIP Youth policies
Delete@5:15: I asked my 20 year old son, at Durham University, how his friends voted. He said 21 voted Labour, 13 Conservative, 9 Green, 4 LibDem and only 1 UKIP.
DeleteIt's funny what moving away from small coastal and market towns does to young people.
And what moving to them does to old people!
DeleteSo much for the secret ballot then, 8:39, but you are yet again telling porkies to support your own argument. Nobody believes a word you write.
DeleteThe snag with your claim, 8:39, is that the universities are on holiday, many students have completed their final exams and populations on campus are well down as a result. Just how did your son get those figures, involving the votes cast by 48 students? Presumably he sat on the phone ringing round all his fellow undergraduates and they all told him truthfully how they voted. You really do treat the blogging public as a bunch of plonkers when, in reality, we all know who the real plonker is!
DeleteHolyer and Cheggers are ruining this blog again.
ReplyDeleteThey are still infinitely preferable to you 1:11 pm and at least they know who they are.
DeleteIt does not surprise me that all the people that have been vocal in the saving of Manston airport are ukip voters. The biggest bunch of idiots I have ever seen. I just hope when the army is goose stepping around your town lining up all the people that are not white/Christian your all happy with yourselves. They are a far right party the same sort of party that came to power in Germany in the 1930s.
ReplyDeleteWELL DONE I JUST HOPE YOUR ANCESTORS AREN'T LOOKING DOWN ON YOU NOW !!!!!!!!!!!!!
General Winter will see off most of the Ukip nazis...
DeleteLol let's hope so
DeleteIt's amazing when people get to a certain age they all become like Alf Garnet, "saying im not racist but"
DeleteWhen did Alf ever say he was not racist?
DeleteThe Kentish Fourth Reich lives!
ReplyDeleteFirst they came for the Romanians, but I was not Romanian so I said nothing
DeleteThen they came for the Bulgarians, and I did not speak out because I was not Bulgarian
Next they came for the Socialists, but I did not speak out, because I was not a Socialist.
Then they came for the Trade Unionists, and I did not speak out, because I was not a Trade Unionist.
Then they came for the Jews, and I did not speak out, because I was not a Jew.
Then they came for me--and there was no one left to speak for me.
With apologies to Martin Niemöller
Wondering when UKIP will start issuing yellow stars
Your comment about UKIP anon of 3.12, is disgraceful and unworthy of you.
DeleteAnon 3:12 pm,
DeleteAll the while you are fooling around on here you are depriving some village of its idiot.
anon 3:12 pm,
DeleteAnd before all that the men in the white coats will have come for you.
Perhaps you should check out who Martin Neimoller was first http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Martin_Niemöller, those above, give one or two lines were his words - he certainly wasn't fat - are UKIPers against fat people now as well as women, gays, anyone slightly leftwing, immigrants, anyone with a dark skin colour, etc. etc.?
DeleteYour Porno Plumpers would be upset at your Fattist comments Cheggers.
DeleteYou look in the mirror you're wrinklier than my ball bag
DeleteLol :)
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DeleteSo Checksfield, you've finally owned up.
ReplyDeleteYou are, in your own words, poorly-educated.
It shows.
Turkey voting for xmas then.
DeleteWhy do so many feel ukip is racist.. They are not. They want proper control of borders. The uk is over stretched, its causing poverty while the rich get richer. Gap between low and high wages is now similar to pre victorian times. I am ex margate kent living in wales. Have been horrified at state of cliftonville, its been turned into a third world shanty town. Rubbish muck evetywhere and no one spoke english. We cannot have this situation in the Uk. Don't mess us around. We will hit back hard and we did.
DeleteAgree with Peter and maybe Kenneth let the rot set in before upping sticks to Wales to secure the Taff border
DeleteNobody in Wales speaks Welsh as a first language and the majority of people don't speak it at all. It is ignorant of you to suggest there is any parallel whatsoever between an immigrant in England not being able to speak English and an immigrant in Wales not being able to speak Welsh. As for being horrified at the state of Cliftonville, you obviously haven't been up the Rhondda lately.
DeleteWelsh is still the first language of Wales and only so few speakers as it was not taught in school whereas English was. The importance of learning foreign languages?
Delete3.55
ReplyDeleteThis blog proves once again that Checksfield is incapable of stringing an original thought together and cannot post more than one line at a time. Fatuos, unctuous, toadying lickspittle in search of validation. Poor little Peter.
4.03
ReplyDeleteOoooh! Mummy's little Stormtrooper.
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ReplyDeleteThank you for the corrections of my spelling, its the auto spell on my phone not me! Thank you also for the offer of the lessons but I will pass at £20 an hour lol thank you all & bye. :)
ReplyDeleteLooking at the MEPs they seem exactly the same as before except for 3 new Ukip?
ReplyDelete30%+ turnout in Cliftonville? That would be about 100% of the non-immigrant population then!
ReplyDeleteThat is a percentage of those that are allowed to vote. Most short term immigrants aren't on the electoral register.
DeleteNo that's all the turnout you twit
DeleteI have asian friends here in wales. We have indepth conversations trying to put the world wright. It appears many asians do not vote because of their beliefs. Surely this can be a problem for the UK.
ReplyDeleteThose that do vote are very westernised but majority are not and creating their own segregated communities. Food for thought.
Asians don't vote because of their beliefs? I thought India was the world's biggest democracy?
Delete814M voters in India election and they have a none of the above choice!
DeleteHaven't been on here for a bit, some funny posts, some not intentionally :-)
ReplyDeleteThe UKIP result here in Thanet was predictable, a lot of people are not happy with things in general, not a lot of work about and life pretty hard for most of us, the few hundred immigrants in Cliftonville are an easy target but they're not really the cause of the problems are they?
Low wages, and only part time jobs being created, energy prices house prices and rents creeping up all the time, no real investment in Thanet and so the answer is UKIP? Nigel Farage as our MP? leaving Europe and going it alone? sending all the immigrants back to where they came from? Roll on 2015.
If Ukip are the future then what have they done for the last year or two of being in power though?
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DeleteAlan Sked, founder of Ukip:
ReplyDelete"In 1993, along with backing British withdrawal from the EU, prospective members had to be sympathetic to the following: "It is a non-sectarian, non-racist party with no prejudices against foreigners or lawful minorities of any kind. It does not recognise the legitimacy of the European parliament and will send representatives only to the British parliament in Westminster."
"They got rid of all that after I left," says Sked, who resigned the leadership shortly after the 1997 general election. He claims that the tolerant, liberal and democratic party he founded was taken over by rightwingers and that, outgunned and outmanoeuvred by Farage and other leading figures after that election, he had no alternative but to quit.
"They took out the bit about no prejudices against lawful minorities and, as soon as I disappeared, they all decided they wanted to go to the European parliament and take their expenses."
All those Romanians and such like coming here and getting free medical treatment:
ReplyDelete"Under EU rules member states have a duty to treat emergency cases – such as those brought to A&E. Each country can then claim back the cost of that treatment from the national’s country of origin. That means if a Romanian is hit by a car in London, or a British citizen struck down in Bucharest, they will be patched up.
But for anything beyond emergency treatment EU nationals are expected to have their own health insurance and it is an offence knowingly to travel to the UK purely to seek emergency treatment."
Health care is not free throughout the EU?
ReplyDeleteThe govt of each EU national picks up the bill.
DeleteSo what is the problem? And health care is free in each EU country?
DeleteRecord of UKIP MEPs compared to LibDems:
ReplyDeleteNigel Farage: 45.57 per cent
Paul Nutttall: 44.53 per cent
Other Ukip MEPs range from 50.85 per cent (Trevor Colman) to 90.9 per cent (Stuart Agnew).
The there's dear old Godfrey Bloom: 26.47 per cent
Then there's the LibDems (just as an example). Their 12 MEPs have voted in 87.95 per cent of votes. Even the Lib Dem MEPs’ worst voter, Edward McMillan-Scott, took part in 70.62 per cent of plenary votes. The Liberal Democrats’ most assiduous voter in Europe is Phil Bennion, on 95.01 per cent.
But of course UKIP aren't there to vote on serious issues affecting their constituents, they're there for the easy wonga.
Talking of voting: The European Parliament Resolution ID4635 (12.9.13) Equal pay for male and female workers,
DeleteFor 546 (87%) Against (5%) Abstentions 50 (8%)
Nigel Farage UKIP - Absent
Paul Nuttal UKIP - Absent
Gerard Batten UKIP - Absent
Derek Clark UKIP - Abstain
John Bufton UKIP - Abstain
William Dartmouth UKIP - Absent
John Agnew UKIP - Against
Roger Helmer UKIP - Against
Nice to know that our UKIP representatives either aren't fussed or completely against equal pay. Of course, little women should be staying at home to make sure that dinner is on the table when their men get home and the house is all neat and tidy. They should fetch their slippers and pipe and bring them a glass of whisky before retiring to bed, when they should slip into something attractive.
Is this really how UKIP representatives view women? It would seem so.
The message which it would appear many national and local politicians miss, and some on this blog miss, is that the UKIP message is chiefly emotional in content, harking back to an easier calmer time, when nostalgia tells people things were easier and more settled. Many who vote Ukip
DeleteAnd I have spoken to many, recognise the weaknesses in the UKIP policies etc but will still vote with their emotions during tough times as they feel the other parties are disconnected from their experiences and difficulties. If you attack, name call, or attempt to entrap, as have mainstream media as well as opponents, you reinforce the emotional tie that the others 'just don't get it'. UKIP will only be changed by quiet rational debate, something they tend to eschew in favour of sound bites and blokes humour. UKIP recognise the gap between metropolitan views and the rest of the country, something many of us have warned of in the past. The sorts of mud slinging and attack seen here, and in the media, tend to reinforce support not diminish it.
ReplyDeleteThanet has some expert mud slingers with years of practice, look no further than the elected members of the local council.
ReplyDeleteWhere exactly is the alleged mud slinging by council members, 5:28? If you are going to make such accusations you really should back it up with some substance.
DeleteHave you been away from Thanet anon 5.41? Just take a look at the LGA Council Peer report and you will find details of councillors' bad bad behaviour.
DeleteNot good enough, 10:43, you made the allegation so it is down to you to back it up with substance, not obscure references to some LGA report that does not actually accuse anyone of mud slinging at all. Usual unsubstantiated crap from you whilst elsewhere, your opponents like Peter C actually stand to and get things done. What did you ever achieve?
DeleteThe LGA description of corruption and toxic behaviour by councillors is accurate but denied by Clive hence his resignation. There was also the Scrutiny report before that where they resigned enmasse.
Delete5.41
ReplyDeleteHave you ever read a local paper or looked at the council's own website.
Are you Helen Keller in disguise?