Terminal Decline

Holy airports! With just 24 hours to go until the big 'Save Manston' meeting over on the seedier north side of the island, news that he's a 'confirmed guest' appears to have come as, well, news to Councillor Biggles, the island's self-styled resident expert on all things aviation.

In response to a story in The Gazunder alleging that he'd be attending along with usual suspects Sir Roger Gale MP and Laura Sandys MP, Simes sent this rather sharp tweet back to the hacks: 'I have not confirmed anything other than I am working on Saturday!!'

In all likelihood he'll be up in his teeny-tiny plane, hand on joystick, tugging a banner over Old Trafford. Which seems to be his regular gig these days.

Hey-ho. Support for the 'Save Manston' campaign has hardly set the tarmac on fire. I've seen only one 'Keep Calm and Save Manston' poster displayed on the island (in Westgate, natch!), and the mini-mob in the photo seems to be composed of a few old gippers and some embarrassed children who've been dragged along by their grandparents. Do they really think they're going to fill the Winter Gardens? I expect some of you will tell me tomorrow!

Meanwhile it's been revealed via one of those Freedom of Information thingies that Kent County Council couldn't be arsed to even look at the legals when the current owner, Scottish squillionaire Ann Gloag, bought the place for a quid off Infratil last year. Neither, indeed, did KCC's Tory leader Paul Carter, aka Sir Paul Ruddyfaced-Man. And they're not even bovvered about casting their glass eye over any of Sir Rog's current 'negotiations'. Here's what KCC's FOI response says:

I can confirm that neither Mr Paul Carter, nor any officer of Kent County Council (KCC) holds any information relating to the Heads of Terms or the sale by Infratil of Manston Airport. Also, neither Mr Carter nor any officers of KCC were they shown any Heads of Terms either by the buyer or the seller or any third party. Furthermore, KCC holds no information on how many and which businesses who asked for the closure of the airport were prevented from taking it over and in response to your third question relating to negotiations reported in the media, KCC holds no information that you requested. KCC has not been and is not a party to any of these negotiations.

Which is quite surprising really, given the kerfuffle KCC and Sir PR-M have made about Manston. What with their talk about a new railway station, planes 'flying straight out to sea', 'longest runway in Britain', and the like. Not to mention all the lovely taxpayers' lolly they've lavished on it over the years.

The words 'washing', 'their' and 'hands of it' spring to mind. You do have to wonder whether they were just using the place as a stalking horse to chase off Boris Island, thus keeping their lovely, northwest Kent cottages nice and peaceful at night.

Needless to say, Paul Carter, like Biggles, is not a 'confirmed guest' for tomorrow's meeting. Happy landings!!

Time Out

What with Conservative councillors questioned under police caution for conspiracy, and The Duffers in a fighting mood over the Pleasurama Eyesore, it's hard to know which way is up here on the septic isle these days.

Let alone divining the difference between Miles Bar, Milo's Bar, Miles and Barr and a Mars Bar.

So I'm going to be taking a few days respite at the Skegness Home For Bewildered Thespians. Hopefully, once the tablets kick in, I'll be right as rain and back firing on all one cylinder. A bientot!

UKIP's Trembly Finger On The Button

If you're sending a rude email about someone to a colleague, who would be the last person you'd want to copy in? Yes, that's right, the person who you are being rude about.

So North Thanet Constituency Labour Party Chairman Malcolm Bailey was not a little surprised when he opened his inbox this morning to see an email from Herne Bay Ukipper Brian MacDowall to his colleague Nicholas Bond, describing him as a 'socialist agitator'.

Malcolm had been trying to raise awareness of the potential closure of a children's centre in Herne Bay, and had been in correspondence with the UKIP Kent County Councillors over the matter. After one or two 'fobbing-off ' emails, he was then copied in on this:

Nick,

at the meeting yesterday roger drew my attention to this guy.

he is a socialist agitator who has, it seems, little else to do but constantly stir up trouble by getting into protracted correspondence with whoever he wants to annoy

Zena W says she wont deal with him

believe he lives in Thanet not sure; you can either ignore him or draw his attention to your previous reply and say unless you are one of my constituents( don't think he supplied an address) I cannot help you.

Brian

'Roger' there being Sir Roger Latchford OBE, Boer War hero, former Conservative deputy leader of Thanet Duffer Council, supporter of disgraced and jailed TDC leader Sandy Ezekiel, and now ship-jumping Lord Admiral of the newly-elected UKIP opposition at KCC.

In addition to using language that almost certainly hasn't been in vogue since the Spanish Civil War ('socialist agitator'), it seems Brian MacDowall can't even get the name of one of his UKIP councillor colleagues right (it's Zita Wiltshire, Brian, not Zena).

Still, as most of Thanet voted for this shower of See You Next Tuesdays, I can only opine that you get what you pay for!

Five Years To Spend A Penny

Nope, nothing to do with the closure of public conveniences. But, I suppose, you could characterise it as an extreme case of civic constipation.

This sorry saga relates to the inability of Kent County Council to make a minor alteration to a confusing road sign that has been responsible for causing thousands of pounds worth of damage over the last few years. I'll let reader Samantha take up the tale...

I see Kent Highways have finally altered a sign on Victoria Promenade in Ramsgate that I have been complaining about for five years now, with responses ranging from indolence and indifference, to the downright insulting. At one point I was told changing the sign was unfeasible as they would have to commission an entirely new sign at a cost of thousands of pounds! 

But miraculously, here's how the sign looked when I popped out to the shops today:

And here's how it looked during the previous five years I was complaining about it:

To the untutored eye, there's not a lot of change. But the addition of approximately a penny's worth of gaffer tape to the bottom of the arrow directing traffic to London, Canterbury, Dover etc means that lorries and coaches from out of town will no longer be turning up D'Este Road, the narrow back street which the sign is on the corner of, and that my car and those of my neighbours will no longer be subjected to regular damage when they get stuck at the T junction with Truro Road, like this:

I would say 'thank you' to KCC, but after five years of faffing around to find six inches of tape, I'm inclined not to.

Neither would I be, Samantha! Kuh!