Chippy Tone Rides Again

Yikes! The north side's two-faced pillock has crawled back out from under his stone - and is still bleating on over at BigSnooze Margate about some imagined slight from yours truly! Really, is it any wonder they call him Chippy Tone? Just how long can the stupid fat prick hold a grudge? And how long will it take him to realise the comments he's bleating on about were removed yonks ago? Er, yonks it seems.

I see he's now implemented comment moderation, presumably so that anyone who disagrees with his perverted, semi-literate vendetta can be censored without embarrassing him on his own comments section. Er, yes, of course, comment moderation is still in force here, but that's, um, merely to facilitate intelligent debate without interruption from the cheap seats!

Hmm... now... if I take this threatening and abusive voicemail, convert it to a .wav, load it onto BoobTube... Nyaha!

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!

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

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.