Millstone not milestone, yesterday I counted my new emails as they slumped into my inbox (1219). I try to answer my emails but for god sake how more times, I don't want any Viagra.I can remember back in 1995 or so when an email however impersonal was an exciting novelty to read, now all this shit is just something to be process into the recycle bin.Still as good as they are, getting round to reading, all the local blogs is getting tougher but at least its worth it for now.

Interesting article on the Guardian Unlimited website today which shows that its not just Kent police whingeing about their pay, seems that Peter Smythe vice chairman of the Metropolitan Police Federation is more than tad miffed as well.It looks like hysteria is now effecting the ranks with this character upping the anti by saying *"that London Officers are at war with the Government", if this is so, surely this would be treason, in which case lets hope special branch are still loyal to Queen and Country (you and me).I reckon its time the police looked outside their own narrow world, and take into account how many of us don't get an automatic pay increase each year on time or even a month or two later.For most coppers what we are talking about is a hundred or so pounds after tax, so maybe these police officers, who are so hard done by, might like to consider that they get fat pensions, early retirement, job security etc, I would swap my some what less reliable income for theirs any day even if I had to wait a week or two for a pay increase.Back in the dark days of the 1970's, pay was poor for police officers and as a result not surprisingly, many officers particularly in the metropolitan police were tempted to seek er.. private sponsorship, this I do not believe to be the case today, yes of course they have been shortchanged slightly but again their still better off than most.Its important that police are paid a fair wage, since they deserve it, and since they get more than me I reckon their OK. The vision of a few police officers bleating about society doesn't value them shows what an insular self-centred world some of the live in (did anyone else find that copper on local TV the other day extremely irritating).Coppers know that when they joined the police force right or wrong strike action wasn't an option, which again is something shared in practice with large swathes of the work force, take the hundreds of thousands who work for agencies, if you don't turn up for work they just get another to replace you.Lets hope I haven't upset the police, as well as the freemasons last week!*To see this quote in its proper context click here for the Guardian article, just in case I've got things out of proportion

This is going to be, an is it me post? I'm afraid so if you've any sense you will click on to Eastcliff Richard or Thanet Life, any how I'd like to revisit last weeks astonishing news that Kent council are spending countless gazillions of your wonger on self promotion vanity publishing etcFirst off in this bonanza of media spending is the Kent TV thing, now earlier in the year I corresponded with Peter Gilroy whom if any of the "county Tories" are to go by is the greatest thing since sliced bread, the subject of my emails was the accountability of Kent TV and more importantly the Independence of any governing board.Since that time it looks as if Kent Council have cobbled together their idea to independence, the list looks to me as though it is made up entirely of either those connected with the county administration including quangos or media types. Just for the education of the Kent TV bloke, who should have known better there is indeed a Ten Alps member on the board. see list.Last word for a moment on Kent TV, they have a section on this website entitled "your say" and no surprise to me or you, the comment topics are dictated by er..... well it seems Kent TV and since the guy I spoke with this afternoon who although he thought it a good idea, to ask joe public whether Kent's media spend (6mill) was wise he suggested it might be a while before such a question gets posted. Knowing how egalitarian things are in Kent I have subverted the system by placing a comment on the latest tough "your say" poser " Is Christmas becoming too commercialised? by referring to Kent councils profligate spending.Anyway I just feel that Kent council are spending money on promoting the political agendas of Kent's "county tories", and its about time perhaps our local media other than middle aged bloggers took up this issue but of course they might just be biting the hand that feeds.

*I sometimes have difficulty in getting motivated, particularly when I'm working nights, which is one reason, why I didn't give you the benefit of my concise and opinionated ramblings yesterday, one thing that has effect of motivating me, is when what used to be referred to as civil servants, get up off their bottoms and start venting what must be their personal opinions.It may be going to far but to my mind but large swathes of the civil service, have become politicised, an example I think of is that of the chief executive of a large local authority, who seems whenever I hear of him, to be driving his authorities policy, being assisted by a compliant conservative leader.The way I always understood that our society was governed, was that it was safeguarded by separation of various functions in society, so basically in our democracy elected representatives would create laws and policy, these would be applied by agencies of the state Treasury, Home Office, Local authorities etc., finally the lawyers judges and juries would in our system be the final arbiter.Currently our police force have been given a pay rise backdated to December 1st, rather than September 1st, now disappointing as this may be, to those of us outside the public pay gravy train this seems trivial and it is if you put it in the context of the thousands of people in the county of Kent who work in manual unskilled industries who consider themselves lucky not to be receiving cuts in the wages, due to the governments failure to protect low income groups.So the imagine the irritation of seeing Mike Fullers (Chief Constable of Kent) interview on the front page of Kent on Sunday, apparently criticising the Home Office's pay deal to police officers. Outside of publicly funded institutions any senior manager in a private company or Plc who openly criticized the boss for not being more generous to staff would probably find themselves updating their CV.The police earn their money but so do many of us, who earn considerably less, I don't know whether its the same in the police force but in most workplaces if you moan about your employer, the advise is generally the same, get another job.Everyone is entitled to their own opinion, I would find refreshing if occasionally paid civil servant could refrain from venting the own opinions in public that's what we have politicians for.Maybe if Mike Fuller reckons that Jacqui Smith has made a mistake perhaps he could hang up his truncheon and see if he would make a better politician, I feel he should concentrate on policing Kent not criticising the Home Office.*I omitted the first two paragraphs when I posted this yesterday, probably makes little difference to anyone except me, and the first 2 comments where prior to this addition.

ROUGH DRAFTWITHOUT PREJUDICEThis blogging business is time consuming, even when its the ranting however well consider of a middleaged git.There are several topics I would like to cover but unfortunately I have other fish to fry this weekend, such as police (acknowledging their workload)pay increase being held back, upsetting as it is the fact that its being delayed, might like to console themselves that they are not facing competition from the east such as those of us in mainly manual roles such as construction and even in my world.I would like to expand on the influence of Kents large sums of wonger into the media world, I could mention my discussion with the BBC top dog who thought, bbc coverage of this topic was adequate. It will be interesting to see if Kent on Sunday titles make any mention particularly as they supply news to Kent TV. If I had time I would research how many media personnel moonlight on Kent council media communications jobs.On the Kent TV thing I spoke with a busy top er knob RE your money promoting freemasonry, the upshot was that it was suggest I make a film for Kent TV, on suggesting a bit of dosh this character got even more busy, obviously so many meeting s and not enough time in the day.As for Thanet councils chopping money to local museum this short sighted penny pinching, best have a lie down.Nice to see that after all those gazillions spent on the marks & Spencer building and the best thanet can come up with is as temporary home for turner contemporary.Finally as I type these random thoughts I see Mike Fuller chief copper for kent speaking out on the police deal, I suggest he keeps to crime rather than politics.This has not been honed to my usual near incoherent perfection and needs some revisions. I dont have time to edit so this is as good as it getsOne final thought if someone giving their own money to Labour is sleaze just what is a local authority spending 6500000 pounds on advertising Tory S.....?Enjoy the weekend DISCUSSps FILL IN ANY MISSING WORDS AND PUNCTUATION

Stumbled across this photo I took a couple of years ago.

COMMENT MODERATION TURNED OFF

I have enable comment moderation for a while as a reminder to contributors that personal accusations are unacceptable on this website.To elaborate criticism of someones political stance or some element of their public life, office etc. is fine by me. However defamatory statements are not acceptable without substantiation, my suggestion to anyone who has a legitimate statement they wish to make, is that they get their own website. It takes about five minutes.I would also advise anyone that most activity on the internet leave a trail back to the originator.

Were it not for the fact, that news of Kent's profligate spending of £6.6million on propaganda, is coming out of your pocket and mine, then Paul Carters performance on Meridian TV last night, would have been quite enjoyable, during which he appeared for once, to me at least, to be in some discomfort as he attempted to explain Kent's excessive spend on advertising.Still I don't want to be too tough on Mr Carter, since he is one of the main reasons I write this blog as without his calm unruffled performance when he came down to Margate's Winter gardens, to explain how another huge waste £8 million (The Turner Contemporary gallery (Mark 1)) was part Margate regeneration, his attitude and that of other politicians is all the motivation I need.Mr Carters justifications for Kent high spending never ceases to amaze me, such as Peter Gilroy's salary, wasting money on trips to America, spending on Manston.Conservatives have in the past pointed to loony labour councils I just find it funny how things have changed, look a Kent TV you might just double the viewing figures, one gem on this service I think you will find is Paul Carter inspirational performance in the classic "Towards 2010".I think what we have in Kent is a conservative administration who look to me at best amateur, surely the tories could run a tighter ship.Remember this blog along with my youtube site cost you nothing unlike Kent TV @ £800.000 this year. Again I would like to thank Paul Carter and his ilk, for providing the reason for me to ignore my slight dyslexia, and express my thoughts.

It's some apparent measure of the arrogance and lack of impartiality that the new taxpayer funded Kent TV shows little if any embarrassment, at promoting and presumably funding what appears to be a PR exercise on behalf of Kent Freemasons. If you do not believe me, click here to view " Freemasons of Kent".Now whether you happen to be one of those who dresses up with an apron, and exposes yourself in a secret ceremony or the vast majority who at best a view freemasonry as a club for those who seek personal advantage outside public scrutiny or at worst have images of Roberto Calvi allegedly murdered by Italian Freemasons.Anyway whatever stance you take on freemasonry, the fact is they are a secret society, they are unaccountable, membership lists are not published.So really you have to ask, just what a public authority thinks it's playing at promoting freemasonry in the unchallenging, way it does on Kent TV.What next for Kent TV, the benefits of a sharia law, why we should become scientologists etc.Now I see belatedly that a board of governors has now been appointed, and not surprisingly it seems it is stuffed to the gunwales with those who work with KCC or quangos and or local media. Probably as independent as any lodge might be.Perhaps it's time for Peter Gilroy KCC's chief executive to justify this enterprise once again, and explain how this Kent TV channel is in any way impartial, perhaps also as a public employee he might also let us know whether he's also a freemason.For many people freemasonry is a corrupt and corrosive influence in public life, although it's only anecdotal, of those whom I know to be freemasons the vast majority, have made it abundantly clear that their membership is all about personal advancement.

Leader of the house of commons Harriet Harman*, thanked local Kent MP Stephen Ladyman, for raising the subject of the apparent abuse of taxpayers' money, by spend thrift councils like KCC, who recently decided to spend 1.4 million pounds of your money and mine on what most see as a vanity publishing exercise in self promotion.Now this project Kent TV, bares all the hallmarks of a hastily ill judged project, perhaps the most, outrageous lapse, has been the lack of any properly thought out independent regulation of this enterprise.Last month I spoke with someone at Kent Council, who informed me that a governing Board would be formed (cobbled together?) sometime this next month (November). The makeup of which will, not surprisingly I understand contain Peter Gilroy, various council employees including police and fire services, but no members of the public as yet.I understand that they will be meeting shortly, so maybe they'll to consider this, much of the content so far seems to be local council propaganda, anyway to redress this balance, I have bodged together a quick video commentary, mainly as an experiment just to see how democratic this TV station is.I will of course update you, if it passes the Kent censor, whilst we're waiting you can form your own opinion and by clicking the link let the world know what you think.Please remember Tony flaig TV costs you nothing, as does this blog Kent TV however is coming out of your wallet.Link to Kentnews story Link to Kent TV

It appears that Thanet's expeditionary delegation led by council leader Sandy Ezekiel to China has arrived home safely, and according to the leader, the Chinese are keen to get things moving.Disappointingly none of the local papers, reflect how tough negotiations must have been in China, perhaps a small glimpse, of the condition our boys were working under is given in this week's Isle Of Thanet Gazette, where on page two a photograph shows, what I surmise to be Sandy Ezekiel, being forced to hold a business discussions on the great wall of China. Right now, it looks as if it Chinese businesses are doing Thanet a favour, and maybe they are but maybe it is worth showing some attention on the roles played by KCC, SEEDA etc. because I suspect, we might see a bit of taxpayer money subsidising all this.Anyway well done to our local representatives, presumably good manners and diplomacy (and possibly censorship), will prevent us from ever knowing the full story of their journey

In a new Kent privatisation initiative, Kent police have reversed the trend of closing things like police stations and pubs by opening an online gift shop. According to Simon Redman (Director of support services) ‘The Kent Police online gift shop is an exciting new venture for Kent Police. The online shop is a positive and innovative way to meet demand for new police-themed products and hopefully raise money to put back into community projects.‘To get the online shop up and running, we have partnered with an experienced organisation which is set up to supply good quality merchandise.Well it looks like Kent constabulary who may not be able to solve many crimes will prove more useful this Christmas by at least solving the big question, what to get Mrs Me, otherwise this year would have found me once again, wandering around gormless an clueless in Canterbury or Westwood, well more likely asda, Tesco or Sainsburys in injury time. Anyway take a gander yourself by clicking here, since Mrs Me rarely reads this stuff I think I can safety let you into my choice, and to honest its been quite a tough decision in the clothing area it came down to the Battenburg "Ladies" Tank Top or Fingerprint "Ladies" Top. Since I'm no skin flint I shall also be choosing the Police Mug as well and maybe the Kent photo frame although it doesn't say whether they come with mug shots, perhaps I shall take a photo of Mrs Me's beaming face as she opens this lot. Apologies for mentioning Christmas at such an early stage. Anyway if you want to avoid any bad taste crimes in the present department this year, you know where to go.I just hope that Kent Police haven't wasted a bucket full of money on stock, or setting up this enterprise, in fairness I have to admit to owning a police sweatshirt, which was purchased "last minute" on holiday in a moment madness as I waited for my airport pick up, with the few remaining dollars in my pocket and although its good quality, warm, even I know, I look a tit, in my NYPD sweatshirt.

As remote and unlikely, as it seems to some of us, this weeks Thanet Extra carries a story on the discovery of a Cliftonville property which may have been used as a brothel, this as part of the polices operation Pentameter 2 investigating people traffickers, some of whom force women into the sex trade as part their business model.I 'll get straight to the point on this one, I think we all know what is meant by "massage services" particularly when advertised in an "an adult services" section of a newspaper, more so when a notice advising whom to complain to is given. As far as I'm concerned people can chose whatever trade they like but I get concerned with advertisements which could be interpreted as or appear to be offering foreign women for massage services in some of our local papers.The conclusions I reach are this, if the "massage" industry, were regulated, then parasites, pimps & people traffickers would have greater difficulty in plying this despicable trade, secondly if advertising were regulated by something other that the ASA (advertising standards authority), then adverts used to promote the trade in vulnerable women could be prevented.Pimps will always exist but considering the small amount of revenue earned by these ads surely newspapers could decline to place them.Just so that publishers understand, whats going on, the Newspaper Society the trade association for publishers, recently highlighted in its newsletter of the 8th of November, work it was doing with the government to tackle sex trafficking.Harriet Harman (Minister for Women & Equality) is quoted in a joint statement from the Government & Newspaper Society “Small ads at the back of local papers are often used to sell trafficked girls – things like ‘new girls every day’, ‘international ladies 24/7’ - which police believe can fuel the demand for these trafficked girls and perpetuate this trade.Some time ago noticing an advert which looked as if it could be connected with trafficking I wrote to the production director, and then after week or so I contacted the owners a large media company, eventually I got a response with comments like this "It is a business decision to run these adverts" and "We have, this year, implemented a further control on adverts that mention foreigners which could imply people trafficking is involved" REALLY I suggest they take a look in any one of their three local titles from this week.I also passed my complaint onto the Advertising Standards Authority and got a reply saying that they had no grounds for action, and after speaking got a further reply with this line " I do appreciate that you felt the references to nationality might encourage pimps or people involved in human trafficking to take out similar ads. However there seems to be little to be gained by the ASA seeking amendments to this ad when the surrounding legal issues are so thorny and potentially serious."In fairness the advert I originally complained about and others are in all probability innocent, however why take the risk. In 2007, the slave trade still exists and its not just in the big cities assuming Kent's police report of having visited 30 premises as part of their Pentameter 2 campaign is correct then its local.Apparently according to the newspapers group concerned decisions on what is acceptable advertising is not made locally, and the person I spoke to(somewhere in London), was quite confident that such advertising was in all our local newspapers, well I have checked out KM newspapers(Thanet Extra) and KOS (Your Thanet) and they both seem to get along without the type of advert, that I refer.As far the advertising standards authority is concerned I'm willing to concede that this is a "thorny and potentially serious" issue but then Slavery always will be. Society has become more superficial, more money driven and as one of my correspondents recently pointed out, we have to be pragmatic, well I'm willing to bet a couple of quid that bosses of the media company I'm complaining about would probably feel fairly uncomfortable discussing this part of their revenue stream.Newspaper Society articlePentameter 2Kent Police news story

The reason I ask is that for the last hour or so all I can hear is the drone of a helicopter, which for some reason has found a parking spot, just above my home.I assume this is some broadcasters attempt at reporting the appalling crime scene in Irvine Drive, traveling along the St. Peters Road this morning, its possible to see some massive type crane thing parked on the estate, presumably for broadcasters or journalist who cannot afford to have helicopters flying around the clock.You would think that journalist and their handlers could be a little more sympathetic, to family whose home this is an those living in the area who have children for whom, this whole issue is both disturbing and horrifying. I cannot imagine what good it does anyone to have such intrusive reporting.

The gentrification of Margate and surrounding areas has for my liking gone too damn far. In common with many local residents I cannot earn a living locally in the great metropolis of Thanet. Therefore it is necessary for me, along with my co workers to pile into a van.Part of the going to work ritual usually involves stopping at a garage to fuel both vehicle and worker. For various reason its been a while since I stopped at BP's filling station in Westbrook.Imagine the shock of stumbling out of the van in the early hours, to find that the familiar Somerfield store has now been upgraded to an M & S, I must say I find it unnatural, strolling through the superior merchandise of M&S wearing boots & orange Hi Vis clothing on the way to work.Perhaps unrelated to the change in purveyor of grocery's at this location, is the difficulty in obtaining diesel fuel, now if I were a cynic I would think that the sight of vans full of workmen, might just unsettle your more refined traditional M&S customer and deterring work vehicles might be a welcome outcome, although when I asked this morning I was told there were problems with the pumps.Still overall most of the traditional confectionery(Mars bars etc) is available as in any other filling station, an although I'm not entirely convinced that Mark's food is anything special certainly my scotch eggs were no better than Tescos at half the price, although the Melton Mobray was excellent. I suppose Marks is on the whole pricey but when I go to the average petrol station and have to pay nearly 2 pound for a Ginsters sausage role, M&S looks reasonable.I have mentioned the M&S voice over women before, you know the one who seems to be in a state er... excitement, over her food I just wonder if she would calm down bit were she to witness the likes of me chopping on the merchandise.

Has anyone else noticed, the rapid pace of change to reporting staff at Kent regional newspapers Gazettte Office. Looking at yesterday's Gazette, it would appear that most of the journalists who were with paper last year, have now moved on and now been replaced with a whole new line up of fresh faced whippersnappers.I wonder if this has anything to do with the Daily Mail's owners northcliffe media taking over, well I suppose we will never know, I noticed the other day, that one of the papers better and more productive writers Kathy Bailes, wasn't mentioned and this Friday's Gazette appears to be missing a news editor Julian May.Still maybe their on holiday or one of those sabbatical things, I think we should be informed as far as I can tell only the editor, picture guy and sports bloke have been with our local (KRN) papers more than 12 months.

Something I have been meaning to mention for a while is the various tools that most bloggers use to keep some of handle, on how effective or popular their site is or not as the case may be.For me the sitemeter tracking software/facility is the one I prefer, this gives information such as the location of a visitor, what website they came from, and if they used a search engine the key words used in their search.As far as I can tell this does not, identify individuals, although some companies, do have their own domain name, which can identify an organisation or establishment. generally media companies and large corporations are an identifiable as are the occasional smaller firms that have their own domain name (including a local law firm that checked out my Aitken rant of yesterday DAMN! (I don't think I went to far?)).I merely mention this as a reminder to any user of the Internet, that trawling through the web leaves a trail.Getting back to Westwood Cross, something like ninety per cent of the web searches arriving on my site have been inquiries about Westwood Cross and few of these are local coming from places as varied as Worcester, Sheffield, High Wycombe, City of London, Chelmsford, Bedford, Europe etc. Now I know that the new cinema will be opening there this weekend, but surely that wouldn't generate that much interest.So if you know of anything occurring at Westwood do let us know.For information about the new cinema at Westwood click hereFor details of what information is revealed by sitemeter click here. For what I've written on Westwood in the past click here

You can't keep a good man down or for that matter a disgraced MP who on past performance put his interests above those of a free and independent press.It looks as if the Tories are so bankrupt of ideas that they need to resurrect Jonathan Aitken, Thanets most famous ex con who has been asked to head a study on prison reform.Ian Duncan Smith (who? you know former Tory leader one of the bald ones), shows why he only lead the Tory party for a couple of years with this apparent example of poor judgement, giving Aitken a Job in his "think" tank.Its interesting how easy it is for, Tories to support this man, who might have got away with his perjury and who knows where he might have been in public life, if he got away with it. There is a fair chance he could have been one of the many in the long list of 3rd rate Tory leaders since 1997.Roger Gale (MP Thanet North) is an honest decent sort of politician, so its no surprise that he defended the appointment of former colleague Jonathan Aitken and passing these comments “Jonathan committed an offence for which he was tried and convicted and for which he has paid a personal and very considerable price." “Of course there will be minnows within the system who will cite this as a ‘political comeback’ and seek to denigrate him but Jonathan is well used to that." shows his loyalty and fairness.I must be one of those minnows in the system since although I frequently find myself agreeing with Roger Gale on this, I think he is wrong, seven months in prison does not equate to the scale of Aitkens perjury. We tend to judge criminals by degrees, if we look at violent crimes, not surprisingly we reserve the most distaste for those who abuse the weak and defenseless, an perhaps we dislike politicians who lie, but Jonathan Aitken pushed the boundaries when he made his "sword of truth and trusty shield of British fair play " speech offering to cut out the cancer of twisted and bent journalism. One possible consequence of Aitkens attack on honest British journalism, in pursuit of a bogus claim against the Guardian newspaper is that he could have caused immense financial damage to one of our more independent news sources.I cannot recall Aitken making any statements about the corrupt cancer of bent and twisted politicians, I find it hard to erase that past image of Aitken, who at the time of his conviction, epitomised that most odious caricature of political creatures, the self seeking unprincipled sleazy Tory politician (just for balance the Labour party has its equivalents).I'm sure that Mr Aitken has his regrets but having abused peoples trust in the past in such spectacular fashion he cannot expect the general public, to be anything other than critical, and you would have thought the conservative party would have the sense to leave well alone. I just wonder how local conservative party activist feel particularly Laura Sandys (Tory Candidate Thanet South) having this reminder of a former lag & Conservative MP being associate with Thanet South.Finally this little event is even more interesting as it shows just what an inept bunch of muppets the Tories are, clearly the Tory party can be very loyal as in this instance, apparently welcoming Aitken back into the fold, so its disappointing to remember that back in 2004, Mr Aitken was showing some support for the UK Independence party, so maybe Ian Duncan Smith has scored a cracking own goal by reminding us of Conservative disharmony over Europe and sleaze.Further Reading GuardianKentnewsAitken Wikepedia

Was going to do a long tedious blog about the rendezvous site but due to the fact its taken all weekend to post this video you'll have to wait! Look for locals washing their vehicles, don't look if your building on this bit of coast.