Betting on the general election in South Thanet and some pictures of Ramsgate with some comments on them.

One of the aspects of press coverage about the election that interested me this week was the Daily Mirror’s guide to tactical voting, see http://videos.icnetwork.co.uk/m4/Tactical%20voting%20guide.pdf with so many people talking not so much about who the want to win the election, as who they don’t, I was surprised that Thanet south didn’t figure in this guide.

The betting odds see http://sports.williamhill.com/bet/EN/betting/g/136946/Constituency-Seat-Winner.html have the Conservatives as odds on favourites.

Talking to local people this doesn’t seem to be the case so at 7/1 a bet on Steve Ladyman may be quite a good price, or perhaps a flutter on the Lib Dems at 100/1.

Once again I am reminding people of the BBC poll indicator (click on the poll and it shows the result) at http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/election_2010/8609989.stm as I look at it every day it’s handy to have the link near the top of the blog.

On to today’s pictures of Ramsgate see http://www.michaelsbookshop.com/510/id4.htm AMCO Express another small supermarket is to open in Queen Street, something I find interesting, one wonders if Tesco were wise to pull out when they did. The centre of the town was too busy to take photographs today.

The council seem to have got rid of all of the large unnecessary and unsightly road signs in the harbour area apart from one, I wonder if they just missed it.

The town council still haven’t appeared in The Custom House.

The roof drainage pipe is still being laid from the Pleasurama site to the harbour, I gather they keep encountering problems.

Where the trees were planted on Harbour Parade has been paved over, so presumably there will be no more trees going there.

Work still hasn’t started on the Pleasurama development, despite assurances from the council that it would start in January.

The Maritime Museum is still closed, let’s hope there is some progress on this before the Operation Dynamo commemorations and it would be a great shame if it wasn’t open then.

Thanet General Election in Thanet internet update.

With the general election looming I thought I would check our candidates web presence. If anyone spots anything I missed please let me know.

With the internet supposedly a major factor in this election some of the candidates failure to grapple with it at all is pretty incredible.

Thanet North

Roger Gale Conservative, last MP.

Website http://www.rogergale.com/

Ability to comment; none.

Michael Britton Labour

Website; none.

Presence on party site; none.

Laura Murphy, Liberal Democrat

Website; none.

Presence on party site http://www.libdems.org.uk/people_detail.aspx?name=Laura_Murphy&pPK=849cebcc-6334-431d-b9a7-65c8a0bff0a0

Rosamund Parker UKIP

Website but without any content about candidate; http://www.rosamundparker.co.uk/

Ability to comment http://www.rosamundparker.co.uk/?page_id=2

Jim Dent English Democrats

Website; none.

Presence on party site; none.

Thanet South

Stephen Ladyman Labour, last MP

Website http://www.stephenladyman.info/

Ability to comment http://www.stephenladyman.info/ft_have_your_say_f10d7a59-ba0e-2054-e1a5-a819cdee611a (Only members of The Labour Party can comment here, so no one has for about a year.)

Facebook http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=390010120438

Laura Sandys Conservative

Website http://www.voteforlaura.org.uk/

Ability to comment; none.

Tim Garbutt Independent (I am not sure he is a registered candidate yet)

Website and ability to comment http://lovekentloveramsgate.blogspot.com/

Trevor Shonk UKIP

Website; none.

Presence on party site; none.

Peter Bucklitsch Liberal Democrat

Website; none.

Presence on party site http://www.libdems.org.uk/parliamentary_candidates_detail.aspx?name=Peter_Bucklitsch&pPK=5f985397-2dd8-44d7-aec8-9e5189577fb6

The polls are swinging about a bit, but have been predicting a hung parliament for some time see http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/election_2010/8609989.stm



Oh I also meant to mention that both Laura and Steve have feeds on their sites and both have got them slightly wrongly organised so only some of their new information actually feeds.

As a floating voter my estimation of the different parties goes up and down like a yoyo, the following from today is an example not a final judgment.

Labour up as Brown admits mistake.

Conservatives down as I am pretty sure they would have been leaning on Labour at the time for more deregulation of the banks, not less, so a silly one to lay into Brown about.

Lib Dems down for stupid mistake over tax threshold in manifesto.

Steve's campaign for a mobile post office for Woodnesborough

I get a fair few political press releases, Thanet Life used to publish some and I thought perhaps I should publish the ones I get so here we go first one from Steve Ladyman.

Following the news that the Woodnesborough Post Office is to close, South Thanet MP Steve Ladyman is campaigning for Woodnesborough to be served by a Mobile Post Office.

Steve said,
"I'm very disappointed that Woodnesborough is closing as that closure will mean real hardship for some people, especially older people, in the village. Perhaps it was inevitable since the Post Mistress was keen to let the office go and you have to respect her desire to move on with her life even if it will be a sad day for the village when the Office closes."
'However, I intend to write to the Post Office to see if there is any possibility of a peripatetic service attending the village. If there was a visiting mobile service every week that would certainly allow older people and people with difficulty using public transport to get their pension."
This news follows Steves welcoming the decision by the Post Office not to close Cliffsend Post Office.
"The decision means that a much needed village resource has been saved and the village hall has a chance to prosper. I am grateful to everyone who responded to my survey and helped me give the Post Office the constructive feedback they needed to arrive at this decision. As I said at the time, crude petitions make little or no difference in this process but the detailed responses I was able to feed to the Post Office thanks to the efforts of everyone who responded to me have won the day."
On the other hand, Dr.Ladyman professed himself disappointed that two Ramsgate Post Offices are still to close.
"We gave the Post Office good feedback about the two Ramsgate offices but in the end I think the Post Office have decided there were good enough alternatives at St Lawrence and in the Town Centre. It's a disappointment."
The Government has put a great deal of money into the Post Office and no other political party has even said they would match it. The Liberal Democrats say they would privatise Royal Mail to pay to keep some branches open and the Tories have done no more than shed crocodile tears over closing branches without offering one penny more to save them. Thanks to the Government the remaining branches will provide a wide ranging and sustainable service into the future. Cliffsend and the many other branches currently operating in South Thanet will be part of that service; it's a great shame that these two Ramsgate branches and Woodnesborough will not be."