Sick Politics

Excuse me, but has anyone else seen the latest item on the Tory Chair of Planning's blog, where he draws a cynical and objectionable parallel between Gordon Brown breaking down on ITV last night while talking about the death of his daughter, and the Tory Mayor of Margate's deliberate neglect of a five week old kitten that subsequently died in an RSPCA officer's arms?

Whatever you think of Gordon Brown and the Labour spin machine, do you really think the two can be compared? The tragic and untimely death of a child, and the murder by neglect of an innocent animal? Our Ken can't even bring himself to mention Ted Watt-Ruffell by name. I've been told Ken has a sense of humour, so the most charitable I can be is that this is some kind of joke. If so, pass the sick bag.

It's not 'an embarrassing situation' Ken. It's not 'MUD SLINGIN' to try and gain short term opinion poll gains.' It's not 'distractions, designed to confuse and take peoples minds off of the real problems that face us.' The man has been convicted of animal cruelty in a court of law. Thems the facts.

Meanwhile to lighten the mood here's something by way redressing the kitten/Tory council balance which I presciently put together almost three years ago:

Night Flight Blight Fight Tonight

I'll be popping along to the Airport Working Party meeting at 7pm tonight, over at Chas 'n' Dave International. Needless to say I'll be the one in the full druid outfit.

The crucial point on this evening's agenda is night flying. Following the ludicrous shenanigans over British Airways World Cargo's 'will they? won't they? move from Stansted to Manston, when our supine council bent over forwards to accommodate Infratil's nightmare/wet dream of freight 747s landing and taking off during the small wee hours, the topic is again up for discussion. Now, instead of just convening a quick meeting at the drop of a hat to OK limited night flights (try getting them to do that if you wanted planning permission to, say, open a fine dining restaurant in a listed building), our beloved council wants to hand the joystick jockies a willy-nilly permit to fly all through the night whenever they feel like it.

That nice Kiwi (another Thanet job for Thanet people!) Matt Clarke, who runs Chas 'n' Dave International, has already made a presentation to the Cecil Square duffers to the effect that the airport is losing money hand over fist, along with an unveiled threat that, 'without an increase in traffic', the airport will close and the 85 direct jobs created over the past ten years will go, and please sir can we have crappy old Jumbos spewing out noise and fumes at 4am? Now that position is being endorsed by the council's Head of Regeneration and Generally Buggering Things Up, Brian White.

Word on the street is that members of Her Majesty's Press will be attending tonight's bunfight, and that some very irate members of Her Majesty's Public will also be there. Should be a hoot!

Chas 'n' Dave International's plea for unrestricted night flights
Up shit creek in a barbed wire KIACC without a paddle

Ruffelling Feathers

Cripes! I see Bertie Biggles over on Thanet Strife has been forced to scotch a rumour that the next Mayor of Margate was involved in a contretemps at the opening night of the new Rokka bar in the town last December.

Tory but ex-Labour councillor (where have I heard that before?) Ted Watt-Ruffell was rumoured to have been involved in an argument at the door on the night, and to have threatened to make life difficult for Rokka after he was refused entry. Rokka subsequently had their licence called in, and were forced to shut for two weeks while they re-applied.

That a man 'claiming to be a councillor' turned up 'drunk and disorderly' and 'extremely abusive' is not in doubt, as the redoubtable Bertie has published a letter from the owner of Rokka, Nick Panteli, to Cllr W-R confirming the fact. Nor is the fact that this mysterious 'councillor' departed 'muttering there would be repercussions'. However, Mr Panteli goes on to explain:

After looking at our CCTV there did appear to be some resemblance however I was still not convinced. Having never met you, I decided to discuss the issue with Sandy Ezekiel, he assured me you were not in the area at the time, do not drink and that you are a strict Methodist. Sandy is a family friend held in high regard and his comments were enough to convince us that maybe we were indeed pointing the finger at the wrong man.

However it does appear your name has been tarnished by association and for this I offer our wholehearted apologies. It was never our intention to bring this into the public domain in this manner.

I can categorically state that I am satisfied that Councillor Watt-Ruffell had nothing to do with the sequence of events that transpired following the opening weekend of Rokka Margate and that he was not the gentleman who was refused entry.

So that clears that up then, thanks to a quick chat with Our Glorious Council Leader, who has himself been up before the Standards wallahs twice for, er, less than moderate behaviour!

For some reason, Bertie has disallowed comments on his item. But that doesn't mean you can't comment here (as long as you keep it clean and legal). For example, can anyone confirm that Cllr W-R is a teetotaller and a strict Methodist? Were you at Rokka on the opening night, and if so, what did you see? And if the mystery 'councillor' wasn't W-R, then who was it?

If this chap's going to be Mayor of Margate, I think we should be told!

Who Wants To Be A Thanet Mayor?

I don't. But I see there's been some discussion over on Thanet? Streuth! to that effect. The idea appears to be to gather a petition forcing our Jurassic junta of Tory duffers to hold a referendum under the Local Government Act or something. Such a petition would only require 5% of the electorate to precipitate a referendum, which amounts to something in the region of 3,500 signatures. Not a difficult target if you ask me. If the subsequent referendum, which TDC would have to pay for, goes in favour of a having a mayor then BINGO!, we get our very own Boris!

I have no idea which side of the Thanetian bipolar political spectrum this suggestion has come from. I assume that, as Thanet? Streuth! is fast becoming the rightful heir to Councillor/Doctor Biggles' 'popular but beseiged (but now completely comatose)™' Thanet Life blog, it must be some sort of dissident faction within the Conservatives, keen to tug Sandy's chain and get their hands on his baubles. If it is, it's hardly surprising. The Tories used to be very good at stabbing each other in the back, if you recall, over Europe. It doesn't take much to get them at each others throats, so why not a game of mayor culpa?