My blog has spelling errors in it.

Most people who have read this site for long enough have realised that this bloke Matt can code for Britain but can still let the odd spelling error through. As can his guest writers sometimes.

The reason is that my brain is wired up differently to yours - we call this alternative wiring dyslexia. It means that I am naturally likely to excel at some tasks and yet may find other things a bit more of a challenge.

For example I can visually organise massive amounts of data in my head and almost instinctually spot anomalies in data. This means that I tend to make very quick and insightful statistical analysis and, as you might know, have a tendency to present charts with my blog posts.

On occasion I have ideas that defy expression in words and I turn to art to convey these ideas.

Sometimes words come out with a few letters a little bit wrong. Not so much that people don't know what I want to say but less than one hundred percent perfect. On the whole I think I would prefer to stay good with data, charts and code logic at the cost that sometimes I spell things squiffy.

I am looking for things to do today but I have come up short can you help me?

Aside from the basics - beach, park and pub (all classics in their own right, I have no doubt) the list of things that one can do on a bank holiday seems a touch short.

11am - Half Hour Tour of the Touner contemprary. Price: Free. A Turner Contemporary Navigator leads a free 30 minute guided tour of the exhibition. Other activities include the family friendly Feel, explore, play and build with different materials.

Ramsgate May Fair, last day today. Although after the free entry you really want to have some money to spend.

If you can get out to it there is the Monkton Nature Reserve set in 16 acres of abandoned chalk quarry, that has been dramatically reclaimed by nature. It features many important habitats, fascinating geology and rare orchids. The reserve also houses the Thanet Observatory and the first artificial bat cave built in the UK. Opens 10am - 4pm. Members get in free (I think) but as the price of membership or the price otherwise the site is not exactly clear.

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» Continue Reading: Things to do in Thanet this bank Holiday?

Will Scobie continued to show us what a powerhouse he is taking the only Labour Win.

At a time when Thanet chose protesting against all three main parties rather than choosing people to act in the interest of Kent for Kent issues Will Scobie showed us that he was made of more popular stuff and won the only non-UKIP seat in Thanet.

With strongly racist undertones in the comments around the web (especially in certain forums) the discussion is entirely around national politics with the needs of Kent coming a poor third to mid-term protesting. And people wonder why our council is so inefficient...

However my warmest congratulations to Will Scobie - you're going to be representing all of Thanet in Kent my friend - good luck with that.

What have the local bloggers been saying about election day?

For goodness sake make the effort to vote Urges Michael of Michael's bookshop while Simon Moores reminds us that (in the face of an ellection) Jokes are seriouse.

Despite the message from leaders of all flavours to please go out and vote this time as currently it's all Conservatives with a few really good Liberal Democrats holding on but the blue could switch to a more blue and yellow format.

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» Continue Reading: Stop, Vote Time! What the blogs are saying.

It's voting time and in more ways than one.

As Thanet and Kent head to the polls to pick new councillors that, we hope, might actually show up for meetings this year there is a second secret vote afoot. Signed up members of Thanet Star (you secret few that found the link) are now voting on comments and rating them on helpfulness, insightfulness and homour. Great comments will be highlighted while poor ones will be hidden (but unhideable if you want to read them).

That means long rambly off topic rants get tucked neatly out of the way and good comments are awarded with some recognition. There are bound to be a few teething troubles but lets see how it works out.

In other news it's time to sack the politicians just in it for money and elect people who want to do a good job.

I would like to present this un-award to Chris Wells for being particularly bad value for money these last six months.

This special non-credit goes to Councillor Chris Wells who seems to have spent a little too much time in the local boozer (or where-ever he hides) and too little time in meetings for which he is hansomly rewarded for attending.

Mr Wells managed just 50% of his TDc meetings and the only councillor to attend fewer was seriously (as in life threateningly) ill. At KCC Mr Wells also fails to impress managing just 38.5% of his meetings making his also the lowest attendance in all of Kent.

While I doubt that Mr Wells missing two thirds of his Kent commitments and half of Thanet commitments is likely to be explained any time soon this particular Conservative can comfort himself with the Thanet Star un-award for Laziest Councillor in Kent.

Jolly poor show old chap.

In the last six months Cllr David Green has been to more meetings than Cllr Chris Wells (who has missed half of his) and Cllr Simon Moores (who hasn't) put together. While Cllr Douglas Clark failed to show up for around three quarters of his meetings. This is our review of Councillor attendance.

Thanet District Council publish the attendance records of thier council members. Here I've chosen to focus on the best and worst of the Thanet Districts elected council. Although for reference a school would have something strong to say about any child dipping below 95% (the worst this (half) year was less than 29%).

The figures cover the six month period From the third of November last year to the twenty-eigth of April this year. In attendance means that there was a meeting that they were not listed for but they showed up for anyway.

The most absent councillors in Thanet

While the lowest attendance by any councillor award goes to Douglas W Clark who missed a staggering three quarters of his meetings the next most tardy councillor in Thanet District is Chris Wells. Chris who inexplicably is standing for election to KCC while clearly struggling to manage his TDC responsibilities managed to attend just 4 of his required meetings.

These absent without leave councillors are joined by councillors Ken Gregory and Michael Roberts who tie for third place in the failed to show up top three. Even so these two both managed to attend slightly more of their meetings. Ken missed just 2 of the mere five meetings he was supposed to be at while Michael attended the most meetings making it to a whole 6 gatherings.

Cllr	Expected	Present	In attendance	% Present
Cllr Michael J Roberts	10	6	0	60.00%
Cllr Ken Gregory	5	3	0	60.00%
Cllr Christopher T Wells	8	4	2	50.00%
Cllr Douglas W Clark	7	2	0	28.57%

If these councillors are struggling to do their duty then there is no shame in standing down and making way for someone who will do the job.

Next up: we've seen who has been bad - now lets see who has been good.

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» Continue Reading: Which councillors are AWOL?

Ramsgate-Ostend ferry route appears to have closed according to shippingtv.co.uk.

After weeks of confusion and service suspensions, Ramsgate-Ostend ferry operator Transeuropa Ferries has reportedly filed for bankruptcy in Belgium ending services out of Ramsgate according to one source. Here's the video report in question.

Driver is demanding that we turn the cameras on the council and while he's right to demand it came we really expect the lepard to change it's spots?

I made the point back in 2009 that Thanet District Council was not ellected and nothing much has changed.Indeed in some ways it has gotten worse. The most powerful men in Thanet District Council right now are a few independent councillors who have the power to play King Maker.

Yes we need to put the spotlight on our council members. Yes we need them to answer for what they do. Yes we should hold them to account. We need something more.

We need to hand choice back to the voter and the only way we, in Thanet, can do that is by switching to a mayor and cabinet model. The very model that Thanet District Council under Tory leadership shafted carefully into a well executed PR non-thing which they then dismissed.

I recently asked Kent County Council about the number of children taken into care last year now they have (slightly late) replied I am working my way through the numbers.

My freedom of information request to KCC resulted (late) in some interesting numbers. I originally only asked because KCC had not answered a similar question that was not worded particularly well. I broadened the scope to the year and asked for 8 points of data. I got 4 of those the distribution of children taken into care by age and gender has left me a little puzzled.

I am hoping that you can help me flesh out this picture.

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» Continue Reading: 956 Kent children were taken into care last year