Hog Out!

As there's not much news to report today, here's a picture of some bikers in Margate for my erstwhile chum UKIP Tony. Be seeing you!

Little White Dot

In Memoriam
Kent TV
A brave and bold innovation

So farewell
Then, Kent TV.

'The new internet channel for everyone living and working in Kent'
That was your
catchphrase.

I never watched.
Nor did
Anyone else.

Your boss
Bob Geldof
Said Margate
Was ugly.

My former friend
Bignews Tony
Said you were
Shit.

You sent him
A nasty letter.

E. C. Richard (29)

Bad News Margate?

After this week's revelation that Margate tops the UK league for boarded up shops, could it be about to lose the one thing that's still worth going there for?

A bit of background. Not having a Valentine to spend Valentine's Day with, I wasted this morning forlornly looking through the fluffy-buns and luvvy-lambs in this week's Isle of Thanet Gazunder in a desperate but ultimately vain attempt to spot my name. After those come the birthdays, then the deaths, and then we get to a section called 'Public Notices'.

And it was there that I saw this: 'Avada Restaurants Limited Company No. 05801294: Notice is hereby given pursuant to Section 98 of the Insolvency Act 1986 that a meeting of creditors of the above named company...' etc etc

You can read the full notice in the London Gazunder, where all such notices have to be published, by clicking here.

Now, who or what are Avada Restaurants? Well, the eagle eyed will remember the name from their credit card bills as none other than the Indian Princess, Margate's recently be-Michelined Indian eatery and for my money one of the best restaurants in this part of Kent. Avada Restaurants is also listed as the copyright holder at the bottom of their website here. Could it really be possible that they've gone into creditors' voluntary winding up (for this is, dear reader, the effect of Section 98 of the Insolvency Act 1986)?

I do hope this is all some ghastly mistake. Maybe it's just a holding company being wound up, and it won't affect the restaurant. I have enjoyed Vik and Dev's fine Indian fusion food and charming hospitality on many an occasion (even, in happier times, on Valentine's Day) since they set up shop in 2006. The Princess is nothing less than the jewel in Margate's crown, and as well as the Michelin mensh, Dev has just been made operations director at the Quex dining rooms. But on a more gloomy note he's been issuing dire warnings about slow business on his blog and Facebook sites recently. So much for the vaunted 'Turnip Effect'.

If the worst turns out to be true (maybe Dev can clarify it via Facebook or his blog) perhaps history will recall that the turning point was when it became known that Margate's top duffer, Sandy Beach, who has presided over the slow death of his town for seven long years now, had declared the Indian Princess to be his favourite restaurant!

Click here for Indian Princess website
Click here for Dev's blog

Bignews Margate

I really am beginning to get rather hacked off with all the snide comments being lobbed at me from the seedy north side of the island.

Just what are these 'defamatory' remarks Chippy Tone is accusing me of? And in whose opinion are they 'defamatory'? Has Tony gone and hired himself a top libel lawyer or something? Or is he just bandying the D-word about in much the same way our doctor/councillor does whenever he reads something about himself he doesn't like? And as for me being a nobody, isn't that just stating the bleedin' obvious? Or does he really think the thousands of people who read this blog each month imagine I actually am some kind of millionaire sleb with a media empire to rival Murdoch? If so, he must be nuttier than I thought!

I really didn't want to return to this topic, but poor old Tony is still blogging on like a man obsessed, so some response to his paranoid vendetta is appropriate I feel. At the end of the day two Thanet bloggers, one an anonymous nobody and the other a named nobody, banging on about who is more of a nobody than whom, is probably about as interesting as what I had for breakfast. Which was a formule petit dejeuner at a Maccy D's just outside St Malo, if you must know!

Update: For all those who've commented about other commentators' grammar on this post, I can thoroughly recommend one of our local centres of learning excellence:

Dilemmas - How To Respond To Margate Blogger Who Spits His Dummy?

Er, 'feck off' just about sums it up for me!

Margate Blogger A 'Chippy Twat' Says Ramsgate Blogger

Well honestly, if he's going to have a pop at me! You'd think he'd have something better to moan about, but I'm afraid poor old Tony is rapidly running out of ideas, and has had to steal a few crumbs from the table of Thanet's premier blog (moi).

Should have gone and got yourself a decent education, Tone. Then maybe your blog would be better written and more popular. Oh dear, that's put the cat amongst the pigeons, methinks.

Jade Goody - An Apology

It's been pointed out to me by Fannit's peerless arbiter of good taste, Tony Flaig of Bignews Margate fame, that I may have overstepped the mark today with some of my remarks about Jade Goody (see below).

I would therefore like to take this opportunity to apologise to, er, Mr Flaig for offending his rather sensitive nature. Night all!

Cold Wind And Hot Air

Holy cajones! They didn't stint on the old whatsits when they erected this magnificent statue here in Moose Jaw, did they?

I've just popped in to say a cheery 'What ho!' after a gruelling day's filming in the wilds of the Canadian north yesterday. We're on a day off, and blimey it's cold! I've also had time to do a spot of poo-jabbing around the Thanet blog scene and oh dear oh dear oh dear... things really have gone pear-shaped without the rapier wit of yours truly, haven't they?

First off, I see that Councillor Unemployed from Newington has me down as 'working the clapperboard on some obscure travel show for an even more obscure cable TV company'. Hmm. Well if you must know, CU, I'm producing this epic under the auspices of my own production company, and earning some much-needed export dollars off the Canadian Tourist Board to boot! What are you doing to haul the UK economy off its arse, eh? Gone on, tell me, I'm all ears... go on... toddling back and forth to the Jobcentre is it?

And secondly it seems as if BigNews Margate has found a new boyfriend in the Kiwi boss of Chas 'n' Dave International Airport, Matt Clarke. The simpering tone of his report on Clarke's lecture last night at Canterbury Christ Church Uni had me reaching for the sick bag, in much the same way as the footage of Our Gordon Master cosying up to Prez O'Bama did earlier in the week. I can just imagine Tony sitting there with that same, sycophantic gaze of admiration. Only it would be twice as nauseating, given that Tony would presumably have had two doe eyes, whereas Gordon can only manage the one. Our Tone used to be an opponent of unfettered, unmonitored, unregulated foreign conglomerates riding roughshod over UK citizens, but one look at Matt's baby blues appears to have turned him weak at the knees.

Still, it's not all bad news. I see the new fast ferry service to Boulougne will be starting at the end of the month, once again cementing Ramsgate as the island's premier town. And presumably it'll be generating real jobs for Thanetians, not the pie-in-the-sky ones Matt Clarke's so fond of promising!

Posted from Moose Jaw via iPhone

Tony Flaig - An Apology

Tony Flaig, the author of Margate's premier blog, seems to have taken some comments I made about him to heart. They were meant in the spirit of jocular banter, but I guess tempers were rather frayed yesterday, and I have today received a personal email from him detailing my failings and culminating in the word 'Prick'.

It was never my intention to alienate Tony, or disparage his good name. He and I agree on many things. However, the airport is not one of them. I take it rather personally when the council votes to build an overhead motorway for 24/7 747s above my house without so much as a 'by your leave'. Tony, who lives in Margate, seems to think it's a good idea and that I should move to Poole.

I have now personally apologised twice to Tony, and removed any offending remarks from his 'ECR Censorship' post. I do happen to think it rather rude to post comments in capital letters, which is why I deleted his initial remark about the airport on this blog. He is not banned from commenting on this blog generally.

I wish to make it clear that I generally rate Tony's views. Just not on the airport.

Finally, for those of you who were expecting Sister Assumpta to return to your screen today, I'm afraid she's been called away urgently to cap an oil well in the Ukraine. Which is to say, I'm really not in the mood.

One In The Eye For KCC

Cripes! I see my old chum Lord Gnome has published a piece about Kent TV's rather ham-fisted attempts at silencing Tony Flaig of Bignews Margate fame! The article, in the 'Rotten Boroughs' section of this week's Private Eye, begins:

FOCKING KENT

KENT county council’s bold experiment in being the first local authority to run its own internet TV station has not been universally welcomed in the Garden of England. Or universally watched, for that matter.

One man of Kent who thought he had a democratic right to criticise the use to which his council tax was put got a shock when he did so. Bob Geldof’s production company Ten Alps, which makes Kent TV, threatened him with m’learned friends for having the temerity to say he didn’t think it was up to much.

Margate blogger Tony Flaig had been a regular critic of KTV. Not only did he describe the £1.6m spent on the channel - launched in September 2007 by Nigel Dacre, brother of the Daily Mail’s Paul - as 'Kent’s most contentious waste of money' but he also claimed that it devoted too much time to interviews with members of the ruling Tory party.

Although Mr Flaig wasn’t glued to KTV, they were paying close attention to his blog. He received a pompous letter from Jo Phillips, 'director of communications' for Ten Alps, claiming he had made 'inappropriate, unlawful and damaging defamatory allegations about Kent TV and the people who work there'. Ms Phillips, who has since left the company, concluded: 'Please therefore ensure that your blog does not publish any further defamatory statements about Kent TV. I trust you will not do so, but if you do, you should note that Ten Alps reserves the right, if appropriate to protect the reputations of our staff, to initiate legal proceedings without further reference to you.'

The letter had the desired effect. Since receiving it last year Mr Flaig, a railway tracklayer, has desisted from criticising KTV for fear of a writ. 'What next?' he asks the Eye. 'Will Tarmac sue me if I say Kent’s roads are crap?' He has been unable to establish whether council leader Paul Carter endorsed Ten Alps’s threatening letter. Last week he received an opaque missive from Geoff Wild, Kent CC’s director of law & governance, containing the line: 'If you continue to choose to exercise your right to free speech in the manner that you do - as is your right - you must expect to take whatever consequences the law provides…' Very reassuring.

Kent resident Geldof - he lives in a modest priory near Faversham - countered criticisms of KTV by appearing on it before Christmas. With his customary exactitude, Saint Bob explained: 'It’s the old establishment versus the new kids on the block. This spurious beating up of Kent TV on the notion that it’s political is rubbish, it’s a commercial attack. It’s a great service - it’s precisely what should happen with this amazing thing.'

Oh, do fock off, Bob!

Oops, silly me. I seem to have reprinted the entire article there. I'd better scarper before Lord Gnome's m'learneds come after me for copyright infringement!

Bignews Goes Ballistic!

Cripes! Tony Flaig, keeper of Margate's premier blog, has written to every KCC councillor following a shocking lack of response from Tory leader Ruddy-Faced Man to his complaint about a KCC contractor's ham-fisted attempt to shut him up!

Tony, aka Sausage Man, recently called a halt to his Bignews Margate blog in protest at the resounding silence from R-FM concerning a legally threatening letter from Sir Bob Geldoff's Kent TV. So far our lovely county council has spent around £2m of our money on Kent TV, and our Tone, quite rightly in my opinion, feels he has a democratic right to criticise the channel's output. But apparently not according to Ten Alps, the Bob-backed company which makes it.

Anyway, here's the text of Tony's council-wide email:

Dear councillor,

I am a local blogger, I write about local issues predominantly concerning Kent and generally more specifically Thanet.

I frequently write about policy issues concerning Kent Council. Naturally Kent council's high profile project Kent TV is one of those issues I considered worth referring to, since broadcast media would appear to many people a departure from the normal services taxpayers expect from their local authority.

At the end of June last year, I received a letter from a Kent County council contractor taking exception to comments I had made about Kent TV, the first line of their letter being 'I am responding to the comments posted on your blog regarding Kent TV'. This letter appeared to carry an implied threat that should I make further comments, they might well sue me.

At the time, I contacted the company concerned, asking the author of the letter whether there were any statements etc. that they wished me to withdraw, and at no point was I asked withdraw any statements.

Also at around the same time I contacted both Paul Carter, and then Peter Gilroy (KCC's £230,000 a year chief executive - Ed.) concerning this matter. Both subsequently wrote to me, apparently both supporting the contractor's rights, but neither appeared to acknowledge my right to express a valid opinion on the wisdom of a public authority wasting taxpayers' money on a questionable enterprise.

At no time do I feel that I have criticised the professionalism or competence of any contractor, although I have certainly questioned the output of Kent TV and its purpose.

I would like Kent Council to make a clear statement to the effect that Kent residents are entitled to make reasonable comments as they see fit about political issues in line with those rights guaranteed under article 10 of the European Convention on Human Rights. If Kent Council don't make a clear commitment to residents' rights to free speech, then what's next? Contractors to other departments sending out letters, when say a resident complains about Kent Highways? Maybe suppliers of cones, tarmac or even advertising might send letters offering legal action?

I have currently suspended posts to my blog site, until such time as Paul Carter responds to the email I sent him on the 13th of January 2009. All I want is a clear statement from KCC making it clear they support free speech even if its critical.

Regards Tony Flaig
Bignews Margate

Bignews On The Small Screen

Good to see local bloggers represented on the BBC's Politics Show this lunchtime, even if they did choose Bignews Margate's Tony Flaig over the isle's premier blog to discuss whether the Ike and Tina Turner Centre will or will not kickstart regeneration in the Arsonists' Playground. Also appearing were Derek Harding from the Margate Renewal Thingy Whatsit, local aesthete Stephen Roper, and some old duffer from Kent County Council.

Still, hopefully I'll get my chance to have my two penn'orth next week when the Beeb are due here in the Millionaires' Playground to discuss TDC and KCC's Ramsgate degeneration policies, such as the closure of all our cultural facilities and the imposition of a Stansted size airport on our doorstep!

Click here to see story on Politics Show website

M(urder)ar(son)gate

I see the cops have spoken out yet again to deny any connection between the shocking murder of David O'Leary earlier this year and the dreadful arson attack on Tivoli Arcade eight weeks later.

In today's excellent yourfannit newspaper (available free in the corner of all your favourite local stores, usually behind the twelve boxes of Haribo etc.) police Superintendent Chris Hogben dismissed the rampant speculation in the town, saying: 'I cannot stress too strongly that the investigations have so far shown no connection between these offences.'

Coincidentally I recently received the following anonymous email in response to a previous post about the Margate rumour mill being in overdrive:

I just read your post about the Tivoli, I know you are saying what people are thinking, but the media did actually f*ck it right up, reporting that petrol was sprayed over the machines. I can confirm this is untrue, it was a device that was left by the two spineless morons who put it there, with no thought to the school kids who were in there. Also I can confirm they didn't leave by the back doors as there aren't any (just a 20 ft drop into the back alley if they dug through a brick wall!). Police are satisfied that the Tivoli and indeed DV8 have no connection with the killing of Mr. O'Leary and as such the arson is not a result of it. These allegations have damaged the reputation to the club and to a certain extent the business too, we have sent out letters to the local press, hopefully some sort of retraction will occur, possibly too late!

As I said, you are one person saying what's on many peoples lips, and I respect your opinions, it is entirely up to you how you use this information I have provided, if at all, but I am trying to get the message out to people.

Which seems to confirm the police denial of any link. And at this point I'm going to get all public service on your ass and say that if you have any information about either of these horrendous crimes, please phone Margate Police Station on 01843 222076 or Kent Crimestoppers on 0800 555111.

Click here to read police denial of crime link in yourfannit

Merry Christmas!

Well, did you see it? Just a few minutes ago, the flying doctor did a double circuit of Ramsgate's trendy East Cliff, on his charity tug with the banner paid for by Bignews Tony, and, of course, me and all you lovely readers here on the island's premier blog site. Proceeds will be going to the NSPCC.

Right, I've got the biggest bird I've ever had waiting to be stuffed in the kitchen, I'm off to smother some breasts in butter. Happy Christmas to you all. Unless you're a bigot, Oasis Hong Kong Airlines or That Bloody Awful Noel. In which case, I'll wish you a Crappy Mizmas!

Charity Bid's A Winner

Hurrah! The ECR/Bignews Margate axis has won the flying doctor's charity eBay auction to get our very own banner tugged around the island. Well, er, it wasn't that difficult as we were the only people to bid. What a load of skinflints you Thanetians are!

More news closer to the day (Christmas Eve), but we're hoping the banner will read MERRY XMAS FROM THANET BLOGGERS, and that the proceeds will go to the NSPCC. Tony and I are going half each on the £150, but one or two of my readers offered to chuck in the odd fiver, so I'll make my contribution the full ton. Hopefully, if Tony does the same, we'll have raised 200 nicker for a good cause.

And as it's Christmas, I suppose I ought to thank the Doc for contributing his time, plane, fuel and er oh gawd I think I'm going to throw up.

Update: As Tony is over the weight limit (85kg) for the passenger seat, and I'm a purely fictional persona, Dr Moores has asked us if he could auction the spare seat off for more charity wonga via local radio. Which is a nice idea, so listen out for that.

Update update: Er, he's now taking sealed bids via email for the spare dicky, so send your offers to simon_moores@hotmail.com

Run It Up The Flaigpole

Burger loving Margate burgher Bignews Tony Flaig (scourge of the Freemasons, police and Kent County Council) has rung to accept my offer of going 50/50 on the flying doctor's charity Christmas tug.

If you recall, the Doc has so far failed to get any bids for his eBay offer which starts at £150. The deal is that Tone and I will chuck in 75 sovs each, but if any other Thanet bloggers want to make a contribution for a banner that will, we hope, read MERRY XMAS FROM THANET BLOGGERS then there'll be more for charity. Unless the charity is the Oasis Pilots' Benevolent Fund, in which case you can count me out!

Neither Tony nor I will be going in the doctor/councillor's cockpit (Tony's too fat and I'm too anonymous) so who knows, this could be your chance to join the mile high club with your favourite Blue Rinser! Just append your comment with the size of your donation to this post, and we'll work out the details later. Happy tugging!

Click here for the Doc's relisted eBay offer, currently showing our £150 bid

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!

Westwood Housing Scheme Makes Tony Cross

I was wondering where Mr Ceacescu (no relation) had dashed off to yesterday. He was last seen heading in the direction of Westworld Cross in his BMW.

It would seem that he met up with Margate's very own pie-devouring superblogger, Tony Flaig. Together they've made a short film for ECR TV about the new housing estate that's going to be plonked there, and the lack of forethought on the planning front.

Not a bad first effort for Mr Flaig. And, even more gratifyingly, it didn't cost me a sausage!

Man Eating Sausage In Wenceslas Square Speaks

Three cheers for Tony 'Bignews Margate' Flaig for his constant nibbling away at the edges of council waste. No, I'm not talking about his eating habits, peculiar as they may be.

Tony's been 'flaiging up' (geddit!?!?!) the shortcomings of Thanet Council, and regeneration efforts in Margate, for almost a year now. Recently he's been bashing down the doors of bureaucracy over the Theatre Royal and flights to Nowhere Virginia debacles. More power to your elbow, Tone.

Crikey! That's six cheers in one day! I must be in a congratulatory kind of a mood. Makes a change from my usual self-congratulatory mood, I suppose. Although it could be an attack of sentimentality brought on by copious quantities of gin.

PS: If any of my hoards of new readers are wondering why Tony is linked in my sidebar as Man Eating Sausage In Wenceslas Square Speaks, it's because the first profile photo he put on his blog was of himself, eating a sausage, in Wenceslas Square. And because he speaks into his computer rather than use a keypad like us mere mortals.