I'd like to take a moment to introduce you to a local business. This is not a business with a shop or even a local building this is a local Internet business called BootFair.net.

It is the brain child of two Thanet guys who I happen to know read this blog.

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» Continue Reading: Local business International reach

Stop the Press! I almost agreed with Cllr Simon Moores just then.

I find myself somewhat in agreement with Cllr Simon Moores, my some times dance partner, on the issue of available statisitcal information. However Dr Moores does not go far enough in his demands and as they currently stand would produce nothing but sensasionalist headlines in the like of the Daily Mail and the Sun.

In his article Expanding Sarah's Law. He's talking, of course, of the pilot of the so called 'Sarah's Law' a sex offender alert scheme. Cllr Moores suggests that we should be able to enter a postcode and get the number of registered sex offenders nearby.

This is all well and good but what does "nearby" actually mean? Canturbury is nearby to most people's minds but the criminal activity the people at the other end of the 8A bus route is not exactly going to impact greatly on the suitability of letting little jonny go to the shops by himself.

Keep reading as I take a look at what else is needed beyond the popularist demands

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» Continue Reading: Expanding Sarah's Law: Implications

Taking a peek about the old youtube to see if anyone has posted anything interesting about the area I found this intriguing video.

It appears to be the highlights from a "game" of Streetball a form of basket ball with very few actual rules where style is as important as anything else. The game took place, by all accounts, in Ramsgate.

The combination of postal strikes and Christmas have left Thanet District Council with a real headache.

Thousands of letters have failed to be returned and have had to be assumed lost in the postal system.

TDC are required to confirm that those people entitled to the single person's council tax reduction are indeed getting it and that those claiming it are still entitled. To do this they send out a simple form where respondents need only tick a box and sign the bottom.

Not a big deal you might think. However around 2,000 replies have failed to come back leaving TDC with the task of visiting each and every household in person just to collect a signature or post the form "by hand".

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» Continue Reading: Postal services still hurting TDC

The world awoke this morning to the news that Google has told China "enough is enough".

In an official Google blog post Google has said that they ...have evidence to suggest that a primary goal of the attackers was accessing the Gmail accounts of Chinese human rights activists. It would seem that Google has noticed a Chinese based attack not only on their own servers but on 10 other companies as well.

Google then announced that they would be taking steps against China. We have taken the unusual step of sharing information about these attacks with a broad audience not just because of the security and human rights implications of what we have unearthed, but also because this information goes to the heart of a much bigger global debate about freedom of speech they said.

Google have gone on to say that they will no longer censor their search results for China. This has had the implication of reigniting the debate on human rights abuses in China.

Google made it clear from the outset that they would not trade unconditionally with China and true to their word are shutting down a profitable arm of their operations because ethics must sometimes be more important than profit. Something Thanet District Council would do well to take notes from.

Keep reading to see how the search Giant is unintentionally making Thanet look bad by doing the right thing.

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» Continue Reading: Google leads the way on China

I learned a lot from writing this series not least of all about the complex and frankly undemocratic limits of many election and voting systems. Here are some of the other things to come out of it.

I learned that I am not alone in seeing Liberal Democrats rising. They seem to be making a strong comeback. What are the odds that they'll get half a hung government this year?

I had assumed that the TDC elections would be at the same time as the national ones as this is usually what happens but I am informed that the elections will be 2012. If you can update me with a link so I can avoid assumptions like that again please do.

It seems that much of the change in Thanet is pre-set by the nature of Thanet and swings of the voting system. What might it take for a party to ride out the rule of opposites that TDC seems to sit in whereby when the government changes so do does the council so that they are always at opposites. If Clive can pull off a change of pattern there then that will be something to remember him for. Is there anyone who doubts that my next funny picture will be Clive not Sandy?

Any other thoughts on the whole topic before we put it to bed for a bit?

This is the fourth in a series of articles looking at the state of Thanet's politics in the run up to the 2010 elections. This article will look at the a possible outcome locally with a Coalition Council being formed.

In the last election Labour did not have what it took to control the District Council in Thanet with Labour holding 14 less Council wards in Thanet. Since then the Dane Valley by-election has shown a massive loss of votes from Conservative to Liberal Democrat. The end result of this is that it is likely that Conservative will become an insignificant minority in the next elections.

If this trend continues to any degree Liberal Democrats may be able to take over strong Conservative Council wards while where the contention is more even Labour may gain the upper hand do to insufficiently big gains from Conservative voters.

When the dust settles it may be that while Labour hold more seats wards than any other single party they do not hold a clear majority. The British way is to negotiate support from a smaller party and this is what Labour will probably do.

However what is best for Thanet might be something we normally save for war time and for other times of crisis (like now for example) - A Coalition Council made up of Labour, Liberal Democrats and Independents. Less likely but potentially possible might be a Liberal Democrats led Coalition Council supported by Conservatives and Independents.

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» Continue Reading: Thanet Politics: Coalition Council

This is the third in a series of articles looking at the state of Thanet's politics in the run up to the 2010 elections. This post will look at the Thanet Liberal Democrat showing.

This Thanet Liberal Democrat article was inspired by Thanet and the general election and how the two main parties are using the internet by Michael Child.

We currently have exactly zero Liberal Democrat's in Thanet at any level. Just a year ago Labour and Conservative had written them off as an irrelevance and then they showed up for the Dane Valley by-election.

Thanet Liberal Democrat came from nowhere to come a close second in the Dane Valley by-election an onslaught against which Thanet's Labour party managed to not loose ground to but the Thanet Conservative Party were humiliated by.

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» Continue Reading: Thanet Politics: Thanet Liberal Democrats

This is the second of a series of posts looking at the state of Thanet's politics in the run up to the elections. This post will look at Thanet Labour.

This Thanet Labour article was inspired by Thanet and the general election and how the two main parties are using the internet by Michael Child.

Thanet Labour face a mixed bag this election. On the one hand the Dane Valley by-election showed mass desertion of voters from Conservative to Liberal Democrat handing an easy win to the Labour party who only needed not to spoil things. On the other hand nationally Labour are on the rocks.

Labour are carrying the can for the economic state we are currently in. This gives them a huge disadvantage to fight back from. Additionally in Thanet the Conservatives have a fairly safe seat occupied by MP Roger Gale. So can Thanet Labour come out trumps in the 2010 elections?

When it comes to parliamentary election I can see Thanet Labour acing at most one of the two seats but even that is pushing it somewhat. They will need a strong local representative that has support independent of their party affiliation. No one springs to mind.

For council based elections though, Thanet Labour are going to get an easy ride of things. Their arch rivals - the Thanet Conservative Party - seem to be deeply wounded from a spate of very public failures magnified by the attention of bloggers. All Thanet Labour have to do to walk a good victory and gain control of Thanet District Council (TDC) is not cock up between now and then.

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» Continue Reading: Thanet Politics: Thanet Labour

This is the first of what I hope will be a series of posts looking at the state of Thanet's politics in the run up to the elections. This post will look at Thanet Conservatives.

This Thanet Conservative topic is inspired by Thanet and the general election and how the two main parties are using the internet by Michael Child.

In 2010 we can well expect Thanet to see two main election battles. District Council and National. That is Thanet District Council (Currently Conservative) and British Parliamentary representation (MPs for Thanet South and Thanet North).

Nationally the Thanet Conservative view looks very promising with, on the one hand, a national disenfranchisement with Labour who were in power when the credit crunch hit us but, on the other hand, we have a disenfranchisement with Thanet's Conservative group over a long list of issues.

Such issues as the granting of planning permission to the China Gateway despite public outcry, the decay of town centres and the expensive town centre parking especially in Margate, the embarrassing by-election in Dane Valley, the scandle of a Thanet Conservative leader and the repeat encounters with the Standards Board, Conservative Councilor Simon Day (Birchington North Ward, Head of Planning) and the sorry story of the highly contentious planning consent and the poor example of adherence that followed, The OAP who died shortly after being Billed £16,000 to cover TDC spending over which she had no control...

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» Continue Reading: Thanet Politics: Thanet Conservative