Naked in Thanet

As you can see from the picture of Ramsgate in the 1700s Ramsgate has a long history of naturism that dates back to when the human species discovered the beach.

It has come to my attention that Thanet District Council are discriminating against Thanet’s naturists. If like me, you are older or fatter than you would like to be, then like me your first reaction may be to laugh, or is that snigger.

But there is a very serious point here, our naturists Thanetoneons who pay their taxes like you and me, need a beach where they can pursue naturism legitimately, and most importantly where they are protected by the law of the land so that should anyone go there and engage in an indecent or obscene act they can call the police and be protected like anyone else.

The cost of bread and butter soar

This press releases from Laura Sandys, the Conservative Parliamentary Spokesman for South Thanet (will contest South Thanet seat at the next election).

New research exposes soaring cost of living across East Kent

“The cost of living in East Kent is rising faster than many families’ incomes,” said South Thanet’s Laura Sandys and hitting out at the Government’s measure of ‘inflation’.

Although Gordon Brown claims that official inflation is running at 2.5%, new research reveals how anyone who does a weekly household shop, pays energy bills and receives a council tax bill is experiencing a far higher cost of living.

It reveals that since Gordon became Prime Minister nine months ago:
· The price of butter has increased by 37%
· The price of a dozen eggs increased by 34%
· The price of a loaf of bread increased by 28%
· The price of flour increased by 22%
· The price of a pint of milk increased by 17%
· The price of cheese increased by 17%
· The price of a sack of potatoes increased by 11%
· Gas and fuel prices have increased by 10%
· Petrol prices have increased by 8%.

The new research shows that the prices of goods and services which are bought frequently have tended to increase far more rapidly than the ‘official’ consumer inflation rate. The prices of many basic household items – bread, butter and eggs – have seen double digit rises in recent months. Petrol prices have been rising rapidly. Gas and electricity prices have jumped by 10 per cent in the last month alone. And tax changes in the Budget will push up families’ costs yet further.

Laura said:
“In a modern economy, a government can’t control the cost of living directly. But it can avoid making it worse. Sadly, Labour now seem so out of touch with the lives of working people that they keep on piling on the misery, with an extra £110 of taxes a year in the Budget for the average family.

“A new Conservative Government will be on the side of working people, with a long-term plan to fix the country’s finances and make sure public money is spent properly. That way, over time, we can cut taxes and the cost of living.”

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."

Reflections from the book trade.

I was saddened to hear that Albion Bookshops in Broadstairs and Cliftonville are to close, this doesn’t effect Albion secondhand bookshop in Broadstairs which will remain open.

It has been said that for a town to be a proper town it has to have a bookshop, for me theatre, library, butcher, baker, grocer, green grocer, fishmonger and so on are all essential, however with the interminable yellow lines and the rising value of real estate and hence shop rents, the future doesn’t look very promising.

With bookshops there is another factor, it’s fairly complicated but I will bore you all with it anyway. In the UK we had a thing called the net book agreement, this meant that the publisher fixed the price of a book and it was illegal to sell the book new under that price. What this meant was that a supermarket couldn’t buy huge quantities of the new Harry Potter and sell it cheaper than the bookshops. This meant that the bookshops, an arts facility, didn’t need to be subsidised like other arts facilities because of the profits from mass-market bestsellers.

The overheads of bookshops were relatively low and the discounts to bookshops about 35% off of retail so that in the case of a book selling for £10 the bookseller got £3.50 the author £1 and the publisher £5.50 the overall effect of this was that books in the UK were the cheapest in the world.

The supermarkets and the big chain bookshops managed to end the net book agreement by saying that price fixing was unfair to the customer, so now most books are bought from publishers by a few very powerful retail chains that expect a minimum discount of 60% so with the same £10 book selling through Amazon Waterstones Tesco and so on the bookseller gets £6 The author £1 and the publisher £3.
Publishers have resolved this by increasing the price of books in real terms so that now apart from the promotional titles where the big chain retailer reduces their profit cut, books in the UK are now amongst the most expensive in the world.

The Pictures of Ramsgate Library That KCC Don’t Want You to See

I just couldn’t believe this, I went round the town today taking pictures as I often do, when I started taking pictures of the progress rebuilding the library out came the site foreman and told me to stop taking pictures. Why I asked incredulously, he said that their client Kent Count Council didn’t want people taking pictures of the building work. Click here to see the pictures I took before I was stopped, any ideas anyone, can you see something I can’t?

Click here to see rest of the pictures I have taken this week sorry about the ones that aren’t much good I’ll go through and delete them some time, frankly it’s a bit of a chore, much easier to bung the whole lot up in one go.

Tall Ships Come to Ramsgate

An early reminder that the tall ships are due back in Ramsgate in about a fortnights time. They are due to arrive here on the morning of Thursday April 17th this however, as always, is subject to weather conditions.

I took a few pictures of this event last year, sorry about the bits in the camera I used an old mirror lens to take the long distance shots of the ships at sea and it had some bits in it that fell into the camera. Click here to look at the pictures.

Ramsgate library

This Friday April 4th 2008 from 9am to 5pm in Waitrose supermarket, there is to be a consultation to seek local peoples views on the rebuilt Ramsgate library, due to open in the autumn.

My greatest concern has been that we would get a “Thanet Gateway” like Margate library, so we would have to struggle through people doing their council business in order to get to the books. I have been assured by the library staff that this won’t happen and that there will only one TDC enquiry desk staffed by one person.

Ramsgate town council

Where is the town council that we voted for? Click here for the answer

What can it do when we finally get it? Click here for the answer

I have been snooping around trying to get some answers please post any further information. We had similar problems wresting power form the decayed government of Sandwich in the 1800s and as not much has happened wresting power from Thanet District Council you may wish to read about what happened last time. Click here read about what happened.