Saturday, May 01, 2010

Blue Tracey Makes Sandy Turn Red

Phew! It's good to be having a quiet night in after all the Eminent shenanigans of the past couple of days!

One of the things I've noticed about hobnobbing with the Margate arts set is that you don't half meet a lot of Tories, property developers, and Tory property developers. Her Traciness herself declared she'd be voting for the Bullingdons this time, which seemed to make outgoing Thanet Tory chief Sandy Beach all puffed up, until she let rip at the council for having allowed her home town to get into such a parlous state over the last three decades. As she called for a public inquiry the poor Chief Duffer turned about as pink as a man of his complexion can get! Still, he must be used to it by now as I gather Mrs Beach, the lovely Cheryl, is a staunch Labour supporter.

After last night's turning on of the illuminations (which went out again around 10pm - you don't get much for your 50p these days), Thanet's finest gathered at Margate's Rokka bar to schmooze with the self-styled 'f***ing brilliant artist'. How she must have been charmed by the likes of diminutive developer Tiny Terry, looking very dapper in a dark suit and red tie (voting Labour this year Terry?), and Gargantuan Graham, looking, er, less dapper in his habitual Man at Wilkinsons get-up.

Still, perhaps it wasn't such a bad mix as virtually every 'artist' I talked to boasted of having made a killing on the property market, presumably backed by some kind of Arts Council grant. Luckily there were bouncers and a strict guest list to keep any real Margate oiks out, but they proved insufficient to deter a true Ramsgate blogger-blagger like me!

Click here to read today's interview with Trace in the Times
Click here to read Tracey moaning about Margate in the Sun
Click here to watch Tracey's Droit House speech on YouTube

24 comments:

Peter C said...

It was good to see you there ECR!

Richard Eastcliff said...

Yes, enjoyed the chat Pedro!

Anonymous said...

Your use of the word 'enjoyed', kinda gives away the fib, Richard.

Anonymous said...

ECR on a subject indirectly related to this a Margaret Allfree of Broadstairs is advocating the abolution of TDC and instead having each town council. Although according to the furore in another letter it looks as if Ramsgate town council is another spend thrift machine too! Get rid of the Mayors have one elected mayor or let independants run TDC - wouldnt be following each other like sheep wants a group of independant upright people who want the towns to improve for everyone's sake not just their own. Didnt know Cheryl was labour, dont think she was very sympathetic to the last labour mayor, made his life a misery with racial problems etc
GET RID OF THE LOT THE SOONER THE BETTER

Bluenote said...

Many years ago, when I was a young teenager, my dear old Dad was on the Broadstairs & St. Peters Urban District Council, pre TDC and all that. Most councilors in those days stood as independents but seem to recall my father always raging about estate agents and developers on the council lining their pockets. Presumably being independent and having separate town councils did not make much difference then so why should it now?

Jeremy Jacobs said...

An amusing post. My take on the Eminent one.

Anonymous said...

I think you will find 6:51am that the letter you refer to from the awful Cllr Kirby regarding Ramsgate Town Council was motivated by a petty desire for revenge for the fact that her own pet project did not get funding.

Anonymous said...

you can see Emin's full speech from the steps of Droit House on Friday here: http://is.gd/bQS2x

Anonymous said...

I hope that us taxpayers, via the Turner Contemp, did not pay a cent for this. Anyone in Thanet could have written better for free -like:

I'am leaving on a jet plane

Margate - I am never comming back

Where are the town planners?

Take me to a seaside

And it could have been in any colour.

Peter C said...

I think it would be a bit difficult to cram that much on a sign that size 12:02!

Anonymous said...

I just read Jeremy Crackers' item that he refers to and he seems to think all Margate's problems will be solved if Manston becomes London's third or fourth airport.

What an A-hole. He also states that Manston has the third longest runway in the UK. In fact it has the 14th longest. Useless, ill-informed pr*ck.

Anonymous said...

Yawn. It's been over ten years since Manston went private and it's been a financial disaster throughout. The w*nk*rs who were promoting it more than a decade ago are still blathering on about it solving the Isle's problems. None has the decency to admit they were wrong and have damaged the Isle by promoting something uselss. When oh when will these idiots get real? It's in the wrong place and it is failing. It isn't the answer to any of our problems and it's time, to stop talking as if it is.

Anonymous said...

to me she looks a bit like a man

Anonymous said...

As a man, I hope I never find out.

Anonymous said...

Who let the dog out ????!!!

Anonymous said...

ECR do you know what the spat about £20000 and the Ramsgate town council was all about!?

Richard Eastcliff said...

The RTC spat was over the August bank holiday Summer Squall arts festival here in Ramsgate.

RTC councillors Nicholson and Kirby believed that authority had not been given by RTC to pledge the money to the festival. However, when it was pointed out that they had indeed voted for it, and that the vote had been minuted, Cllr Nicholson backed down while Cllr Kirby continued to moan and asked for her nay vote to be recorded. One of her Tory colleagues, however, praised the work of Ramsgate Arts on Summer Squall and said we were all very lucky to have such professional people working on it.

I suspect the real agenda behind Cllr Kirby's hissy fit is that she would have preferred the money to fund some kind of lager-fuelled piss-up for the masses on the front!

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Richard Eastcliff said...

I agree she does arouse strong emotions, but those were a bit too strong 10:45!

annie1947@live.co.uk said...

6:51am; Agree, why not have the one Mayor to oversee Thanet, would cost less, or why not let the Chairman of TDC have the role, they are out there anyway, why double up at events? You could hardly call the current lot ambassadors for their respective towns could you?
Just a moot point though, I didn't think Mayor's were suposed to be political, so having a "Labour Mayor" smacks that theory in the face. Maybe if you checked your facts, Cheryls union backed her 100% on her claim of harrasement and bullying in the workplace, and asked for restrictions to be put on Cllr Clark, I think you would find he made her life a misery for several months. Bet that shook them up in the old town hall, Leaders wife labour union member, picked on the wrong girl there then.

Anonymous said...

12.02, 3.51,
Sheesh! What grouches. Tracey is doing more for Margate than moaning about what others are doing. What's your contribution then?

Anonymous said...

Emmin gets paid - and we the tax payers have paid in excess of £40 million to safeguard Margate's so called visitor attractions, for the last few years and what have we got to show for it...a pink sign,

We stopped loving TDC and the Turner centre some time ago.

Anonymous said...

Who is now reponsible for the fast becoming eye sore.The old M+S building in Margate High Street??