I have been investigated at great public expense following complaints from 3 councillors that I took photographs at a Council meeting against the rules. Dead right I did! And here they are (they were also published in the Gazette at the time) They are photographs of a row between two councillors at a meeting which almost turned into a fight.
Surely your councillors should be accountable for their actions? Especially when the Government has asked Councils to let the public film at meetings. In fact Eric Pickles Secretary of State for Local Government has said that Thanet Council should let the cameras in. Rules or no rules, I make no apologies for taking these photographs and will do the same again if incidents like this are repeated. In the meantime I would encourage the citizens of Thanet to attend meetings of the Council to photograph, record and film proceedings. The worst that can happen is that you are asked to leave. Now turn up your speakers and dance to Jimmy Cliff at the bottom of the page.
General Giap head of the Vietnamese Revolutionary Army died at the grand old age of 102 yesterday. He led an army than defeated the French in the 1950s and which threw out the Americans in the early 1970s. I was a youngster at school and I remember reggae godfather Jimmy Cliff 's song Vietnam which played at all the youth clubs at this time. It was one of the first singles I bought. It had to be a protest song didn't it ! Right on Jimmy! RIP Gen Giap you kicked some ass.
please grow up mr driver
ReplyDeleteLet that little girl have more time!
ReplyDeleteChristine
Please keep doing what you are doing Ian, the videoblog is a great idea by the way.
ReplyDeleteDid you see this interview about wifi radiation in school classrooms?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xTRu03LueP0
again Ian, hear hear! these peeps need to learn about transparency and democracy!
ReplyDeleteKandy
Hi Ian. Here's an idea. Why don't you contact the BBC with an idea for a new programme? It would be a documentary about the life of a town councillor. You could get the camera crew to follow you to meetings with developers. ferry operators, council officers and to council meetings. I imagine the programme will simply expose the abject lack of transparency in Planet Thanet; a culture of secrecy and obstruction with doors being shut on the cameras at every opportunity and an elected representative being prevented from investigating incompetence and waste. It isn't that I want Thanet to be portrayed badly, but that's how it is and has been for a long time. In my opinion, it can never get any better until the arrogance is exposed, and local people get motivated to replace the entire administration with people who have a genuine commitment to democracy and transparency.
ReplyDeleteplease grow up mr driver didn't you know this is the 1950!
ReplyDeleteOn the subject of secrecy and transparency I hope you will soon publish the 2008 FOI response about the massive ground water contamination history at Sericol.
ReplyDeleteI doubt the epetition will get off the ground, requesting a full public inquiry, but nonetheless with UKIP probably contesting both Thanet parliamentary seats it would be appropriate to examine Tory and Labour history in Thanet.
A public inquiry would determine whether the engineering qualifications of Sericol Site Safety Engineer were bona fide or if indeed they were forgeries possibly the work of Thanet tory's very own Cyril Hoser's presses.
At the time of the Thanet tory gaining work as an engineer at Sericol in 1988 male unemployment was reported at 27.1% in Margate. With former skilled men of the dockyards and the mines queuing to sign on and very keen to put their skills and genuine qualifications to work. But who got the scarce local engineering job and how ?
At the time this tory got the job there was a crime complaint alleging he committed offences against the Explosives Substances Act 1883. Alleging that he had tried to obtain mining explosives from Kent mines. So there are serious questions for Roger Gale MP. Did he or did he not support the tory "Engineer" in asking Kent Police to drop inquiry and re-issue his firearms certificate ? The importance of this question is huge. Because the Crime Complaint by ex miner(s) re Explosives Sunstances Act 1883 was just one of 42 lines of inquiry put to Kent Police as a security warning on Deal Royal Marines Barracks.
It gets worse. Whilst putting aside nil actioned (Mr Gale surely you couldn't have been happy with such a situation ?) many of the 42 lines of inquiry, embarrassing to Thanet tory circles, Kent Police did help a Reliance Security Guard Deal Barracks into a Thanet job. 10th April 89. So he could leave Reliance quietly with a good reference and no issue was made of his alleged forged Army Service Record. By 22.9.89 the day of the terrorist bombing of the barracks the fact was that Kent Police had played a part in failing to notify the Royal Marines of security warnings. That this was at a time all barracks were on high warning after the Feb 89 IRA attack on tern Hill Barracks. It is also true that by that time a man, subject of crime complaint under explosives law, had been enabled to have work access to explosive chemicals for twelve months.
In the early 1990s Sericol, suspecting thefts of cyclohexanone, carried out inquiry. It remains an unanswered question whether spillage to ground was an act to maks thefts. But absolutely massive ground water contamination occurred.
At TDC Labour cllrs were lied to that spillage was mnior and had been discovered before the solvent hit the aquifer.
Best wishes Richard
Thanks for the report I will publish it in the next week or so but might need to check the background with you. Will e-mail in next few days. Ian
ReplyDeleteLoving your vlog, Ian - keep it up!
ReplyDeleteMr Driver when will you grow up and realise that this is the 1950s, its so childish of you not to do as you are told!
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