Psychic Dick

Well, I can't delay blowing my own trumpet and showing off my crystal balls any longer.

Yep, you read it here first. On the 18th of November last year to be precise. Our beloved council's' legal beagle Harvey Patterson is off to pastures new.

The story was splashed all over the front of Friday's Isle of Thanet Gazunder. Harvey's departure is part of a shake-up that will see The Duffers' Chief Exec, Dr Sue McGonigal, relinquish some of her power, but not any of her £100K+ per year salary. As I wrote at the time: '(Harvey's departure) could mark the start of an admin shake-up at Duffer Central'. We've yet to be told whether Harve'll be collecting any dosh as he passes 'Go'.

You know, it's hard being so right all the time. But I do it all for you, my dear readers!

Click here to read my exclusive scoop from last November.
Click here to read The Gazunder's story, which came out two months later.

Before They Were Famous

I'm indebted to one of my eagle-eyed readers for this.

A long time ago in the year 2000, in the beautiful Buckinghamshire hills, there was a council. And this council was called Chiltern District Council. Now, the good councillors of CDC wanted to save some money, so they decided to create a trust and hive off their three leisure centres, which meant they could avoid paying business rates. They called their not-for-profit trust the 'Chiltern Leisure Trust', and off it sailed, and everyone lived happily ever after.

Well, not quite.

Four years later, the trust had run up almost £1.2m in debt. More than half of that was owed to the council itself. So the poor councillors were left with no other option than to write the money off. They were very sad, as the amount represented roughly 10% of their council's annual income.

Does that story sound familiar? A little like writing off the £3.4m that Thanet Council idiotically allowed the decrepit TransEuropa Ferries to run up before it went bust?

Well it may not surprise you to learn, then, that one of the directors of Chiltern Leisure Trust was none other than Thanet Council's very own Corporate and Regulatory Services Manager Harvey Patterson, star of my previous post. Not only that, but HP was also Head of Legal Services for CDC during the same period.

So, now you know what Harvey was doing before he was famous!

Click here to read the full story of the Chiltern Leisure Trust debacle on the Guardian website.

Happy Bunny?

Word has reached the perfectly formed Eastcliff lugholes that Thanet Council's Corporate and Regulatory Services Manager Harvey Patterson may be heading for pastures new.

If the rumour is true, and I have to emphasise that I'm only running it up the old flagpole, it could mark the start of an admin shake-up at Duffer Central. Mr P has been the legal mandarin in the eye of many a recent Thanet storm, including the loss of £3.4m in the secret Ferrygate deal, the ongoing Pleasurama eyesore, and the recent row over the Royal Victoria Pavilion.

Of course, the head honcho in all these dubious doings has been Chief Exec Dr Sue McGonigal, and in my ever-so-humble opinion it should be her who's throwing in the towel. But then who am I to explain the Machiavellian machinations of the Margate machinery?

If the rumour proves true, I wonder if, in time-honoured Cecil Square tradition, Mr P will be offered a huge wodge for walking away? I think we should be told!

Meanwhile I see that the four independent members of our beloved council's Standards Committee, who are all members of the public rather than politicians or apparatchiks, have today reported that 'there is a local suspicion of secrecy, corruption and distance between the Council as it is perceived in the offices in Cecil Square, the reality of people’s lives and the needs of the district'.

They can say that again!

In fact, I think I'll say it again! 'There is a local suspicion of secrecy, corruption and distance between the Council as it is perceived in the offices in Cecil Square, the reality of people’s lives and the needs of the district.'

You can read their tut-tuttings in full by clicking here.

Update: After a, er, lively meeting of Thanet Council on Thursday, the Standards Committee report was rejected by our arse-covering councillors, following which the four independent members of the committee resigned en masse. Nuf said.

Update Feb 2014: My scoop about Harvey Patterson's departure finally makes it to The Isle of Thanet Gazunder. Quite why they get paid to print 'news' that I've already published two months earlier is beyond me. Kuh!

Thanet Blog Wars 2010 - Big Guns Go In!

The 2010 Thanet Blog Wars appear to be hotting up nicely with the news that London libel specialists Carter-Ruck are now representing Labour councillor/blogger Mark Nottingham in his ongoing legal tussle with Tory councillor/blogger Simon Moores.

My spies tell me that Cllr Moores has received a letter from the firm that Private Eye frequently refers to as 'Carter-Fuck', due to its controversial involvement in a number of high profile cases. Er, I'm going to stop there and refer you to their Wikpedia entry, where it says that they offer some of their services, including libel actions, on a 'no win, no fee' basis.

Dr/Cllr Moores has alleged that Cllr Nottingham libelled him on his blog. Strange, though, that none of the local rags have reported any of this, isn't it?

Blog Wars 2010 - First Shots Fired!

Just when you thought the island's blogosphere might go an entire year without a skirmish, the chap who brought you Thanet Blog Wars 2006-2008* has, rather predictably, launched the first salvo in Thanet Blog Wars 2010!

Yes, I can exclusively reveal that Tory Dr/Cllr Moores, proprietor of Thanet Life, has apparently told everyone within earshot that he's suing Labour Sherriff/Cllr Nottingham for something the latter wrote on his From One End of Kent blog. Of course, I'm not at liberty to repeat the alleged libel as that could also be construed as libellous. And, to be perfectly frank, I'm relieved it's not me staring down the barrel of Simes' trusty Lee Enfield for once!

I'm told letters have been sent, so it's not just a case of Dr Biggles having a word in the ear of one of the local hacks, who then repeats his allegations verbatim in the paper without going to the bother and nuisance of checking any of the facts. Which, if you recall, was what happened last time. Although quite why anyone should willingly volunteer to buy another Bentley for m'learned friends over something as inconsequential as a blog is beyond me.

But hey-ho. I can only assume that Simes' ego has been well and truly pricked, and that he must have made a bob or two banner-tugging recently!

*The 2009 Thanet Blog Wars having been initiated, by way of a change, by Tony Flaig of Bignews Margate.

Libel To Offend

I've just received this email from Mr Dudley of the Gazunder:

Hello Mr Eastcliff,

I read your recent blog about Ramsgate FC with great interest and decided to look into the story. You might be interested to hear that the chairman of the club has asserted to the Gazette that the blog entry is untrue and libellous and that the club is taking legal advice. He told us the issue is not related to money. This will be mentioned in my story and I thought you might like to give us your response to the chairman’s reaction.

Best wishes, Joel

To which my response was:

Not really. I've had it up to my ears with you lot printing crap libel stories about my blog.

All the best, ECR

A trifle harsh, perhaps, but really! Ever since the Thanet Blog Wars earlier this year, when the Gazunder printed unsubstantiated allegations from a certain blue rinse councillor about 'anonymous blogs', I must say I've read our local blue top with a considerable portion of salt. In light of the fact that my original story was liberally peppered with phrases like 'rumour', 'word is', 'talk of' and 'apparently', I can't imagine even the quickest witted of m'learneds (of which there are few) being able to trump up a charge of malicious falsehood. And the question must also be asked, if the Rams are that cheesed off with the post (although I doubt they even read it until Mr Dudley kindly told them about it), why haven't they done the simplest, and cheapest, thing and emailed me demanding an apology? It's ever so easy. Just click on my email address in the top right hand corner.

Finally, I note they haven't denied arsing off the youth teams, according to Mr Dudley. Just that the issue isn't related to money. Kuh!

Legal Beagles Sniff My Blog

Crumbs! I must say I feel very privileged to discover an internationally renowned firm of libel lawyers taking a keen interest in my humble jottings. London based Schillings specialise in what they call 'reputation and brand protection', and according to my counterstaterometer they spent the best part of 15 minutes this afternoon studying the 109 comments appended to my initial posting of the Dreamland fire.

In the past Schillings have successfully had the plug pulled on a number of UK based blogs on behalf of ultra-wealthy clients, without the expense and inconvenience of having to go to court to actually prove defamation or libel. This they achieve by sending strongly-worded letters to quivering ISPs who generally without a 'by your leave' cave in quicker than a Thanet cliff face. Many people have had their life's work (well, their blogs at least) zapped as a consequence, including such luminaries as Craig Murray, the former British ambassador to Uzbekhistan, and Tory candidate for Mayor of London Boris Johnson. To read more, click here.

Quite why, and who, sent them this way one can only speculate. There again if you are thinking of speculating, on balance I'd rather you didn't.

Abuse

Apologies for the lacuna but I've been consulting with my wolf pack of highly trained media lawyers following abusive comments about yours truly placed on the One Voice in Thanet blog. I am reprinting these comments here, as I have been advised by m'learned friends that by doing so I may well be able to sue myself, as well as the anonymous perpetrator, for a substantial sum. Here's the first:

ECR and One Voice share so many attributes. Their many and varied achievements in Thanet are there for all to see. Their rapier wit and immense courage in tackling the issues of the day is legendary. We, the people of Thanet should be forever grateful to these two paragons of all that this country now stands for. On a personal note, I just wonder how they are able to walk the streets of Thanet without the benefit of spines, unable as they are to identify themselves with their rather hysterical outbursts. Two FICTIONAL characters slagging off REAL PEOPLE. What a joke, ECR is a middle class patronising pratt, unloved by Mummy and Daddy who feel he has to explain things to the people of Thanet because we're too thick to understand current events. One Voice has yet to master chewing gum and walking at the same time.

Which was followed by a further example of shining wit:

Friday 13th April. Shock horror! ECR & One Voice are the same person. ECR sobbed on local radio this morning "Yes its true. One Voice and I are two halves of the same moron". "Its time to tell the truth at last. I CANNOT reveal my identity now because the Police are still scanning my hard drive and video collection. My credit card was stolen and used to download pictures from the internet. The pictures on my hard drive (as I have explained to the authorities) are simply resaerch for my book on the corruption of youth. The fact that between 3 and 4 pm most weekdays I'm outside wearing a large raincoat whatever the weather when I sit in the local park is (again as I have explained) mere coincidence. If a certain law gets passed I may have to move or no longer register myself as there are several people alredy who want to put me in a coma. Hope you my TRUE adoring public will understand this quite innocent set of unfortunate circomstances".

To put these comments in perspective, I had earlier commented on the same post that I found Simon Moores' Thanet Life blog 'nauseating'. These comments appear to be the Wildean riposte.

I'll leave you to draw your own conclusions.