The Things They Say...

I read in the Gazette today the story that the council is too mean or worried to webcast the council meetings. What a load of tosh! It's an old story and one I looked into when I started as a councillor.

If you want your council meetings webcast then it's not cheap. We aren't discussing a three minute YouTube clip but a fully duplex high bandwidth facility piped into the offices in Cecil Square. Those readers with a more intelligent grasp of the challenge than the hacks at the Thanet Gazumph will realise that paying £15 a month for their 8mb broadband connection is cheap because the 8mb only goes one way. Ask your ISP for 8mb upstream and you'll be paying rather more than your monthly charge.

Now extrapolate that as bandwidth in and out of the council offices and you'll realise that live webcasting invariably comes with a hefty bandwidth bill. So the simple choice is do you want your council meetings televised and if you do are you happy to pay for it or see one of the other council services cut-back to finance it. At this time in our history, I believe we have more urgent priorities to spend our dwindling budget on.

Councillor/Doctor Simon Moores, Thanet Life, 20 Feb 2009

Cllr. Simon Moores, Cabinet Member for Customer Services, said: 'The council is constantly looking at how we can use new technology to improve the service that we offer to our customers. We're aware that the decisions we make impact on local people's lives and we want to give them the opportunity to see how we make those decisions, without them having to come to the council chamber and attend the meetings. We've looked into this and research shows that people prefer 'on demand' services, where they can watch meetings whenever they want to, rather than being tied to viewing it as it happens. That's why we've decided to go with the 'on demand' as our trial, with meetings available for a certain period of time after they are held.'

Thanet Council press release, 15 Dec 2009

And after all that, it didn't work anyway!!!!

People's Film Festival Announced

The Politburo is pleased to announce the forthcoming People's Horror Film Festival in the State Capital Margate. The Festival has been approved by the Workers' Committee for Leisure and Sport, and screenings will take place at the Central Hall for Heroes of the Thanet Union (formerly Theatre Royal) this Saturday.

Entries must be approved by the Politburo. For the avoidance of doubt, capitalist decadence of the following nature will NOT be approved:



Here is an example of material that HAS been approved by the Politburo:

Bob Marleygate

Well the horror flicks were all a bit predictable. But the after party at Eli's Sugar Lounge rocked! Well, reggaed actually.

The sign outside promised 'Bob Marley', testimony indeed to the restorative powers of the Margate ozone. It wasn't until I fished out the old pince-nez that I spied the word tribute underneath. But I wasn't disappointed, and the band played all the old favourites with a verisimilitude that had me wondering if Bob had indeed relocated to the Arsonists' Playground in his final days, and found it truly to be the invalids' last hope.

Oh well, next up, the comedy shorts festival. I might have a go at that myself. I think I've got a pair up in the attic, a remnant from my Butlins days.

Trick Or Treat

I see the funspoilers at Kent Police and Kent County Council have been divvying out these notices around the Ile for people to put in their windows. Quite what the orange blob is meant to represent, lord knows. But I'm sure if I opened the door looking like that, the poor mites would run a mile. Either that or they'd be spreading the word that mahogany man David Dickinson had relocated to the area.

Personally I don't mind tykes knocking at my door on Halloween. Last year I popped into that joke shop in Arlington Arcade, over on the seemy north side, and bagged myself a heap of those joke sweets. You know, the ones that taste of fish. Then, having devoured a box of Galaxy Celebrations, I carefully packaged the joke sweets up in the wrappers I'd saved. You should have seen their little faces! A trick and treat, all in one!

Anyway, talking of Halloween, I must dash, as I'm off to catch the 2 Days Later film festival over in the Arsonists' Playground. What more appropriate setting for a feast of horror flicks!