Sunday 26 April 2009

DISHONOURABLE AS TO BE DESPICABLE?




These words are a description of Gordon Brown from Simon Heffer's Column in Saturday's Telegraph and it struck me that they are apposite in regards to matters in Thanet as they are to the financial state of this country and the risible Budget forecasts and measures we heard on Wednesday.
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However, just like Gordon Brown who has lost all credibility, I am sure Cllr Ezekiel will similarly attempt to hang on to his position as 'Leader' at TDC despite what appears to be a serious attempt by more principled Conservative Council members to remove him. Rumours seem to point to a two week repertoire of threatening, bully-boy, cajoling behaviour and even 'crumbs' being offered to those of weaker character.
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I find it strange that the antics at Westminster by Brown have echoes in Thanet. Brown too close to Banking interests; Ezekiel too close to businessmen. Spin by Brown and spin by Ezekiel (via Cllr Moores) to show that the TDC senior officers got 0% payrises but failed to mention new banding meant more pay. (Consultancy bills for TDC would indicate that these new higher banded officers still need lots of expensive outside help.) Politicisation of the Civil Service and the disgraceful business of McBride and the politicisation of Council Officers in Thanet (how else can you describe Mr Bunnet's deposition to Standards?).
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All good Conservatives can list the slease, hypocrisy and crass stupidity of a Labour Central Government but why do our local Conservatives fail to see the same in Thanet? There is no Conservative Council Leader in the South-East who has ever been hauled before Standards and found to have breached acceptable conduct, let alone twice in 18 months on THREE counts.
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But what else can our Conservative Councillors consider?
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Carpet and flooring contracts with TDC by his business Northdown Carpets and even with a developer with a live application before TDC? Not criminal but inappropriate perhaps? A TDC expenses declaration of July 2008 that states that Chinamex organised and paid for a visit to China reference China Gateway when Mr Wills of CGP stated on BBC TV that CGP organised and paid for it with re-imbursement to come from Chinamex. Misleading? You bet. Even Mr Samuels received a CGP letter asking him and his 'colleagues' to submit to CGP any other out of pocket expenses for this trip to China.
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An acceptance of £12,500 sponsorship for The Big Event 2008 from CGP whilst its application was before his own Council's Planning Dept? An attempt to get Thanet Conservatives to accept £25,000 from Mr Wills as a political donation with an application pending? Fortunately Roger Gale shot this foolishness down quickly despite Dr Steve Ladyman accepting a similar amount for Thanet South Labour. Cllr Broadhurst's (Con) Security business has the TDC Security contract? The chief security officer for this business is Cllr Watt-Ruffell (Con but very much ex-Labour)? Nothing illegal but all very much in-house.
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Projects with TC and Old Town get funding but museums can be closed and Northdown House flogged off? A Dreamland site decision that flies in face of Planning Inspectors advice and benefits a property company by doubling the value of its holding but ends up with the site remaining derelict as the Planning Inspector forecasted. Again , nothing illegal or criminal but for many highly worrying. The decline of Margate in particular and Thanet in general has ocurred in the 'boom' years with our 'carpet fitter' at the helm since 2003. What a sad record.
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Could I draw your attention to an article in The Evening Standard of Tuesday 21st April by the former editor of New Statesman, John Kampfner. http://www.thisislondon.co.uk/standard/article-23679151-details/Darlings+all+boxed+in++and+his+partys+lust+for+power+is+to+blame/article.do
Here is a little extract; if you insert Thanet and Ezekiel instead of Westminster and Labour you can see the parallels I have tried to make.
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"Since 1997, their every working day has been based around the task of prolonging their term of office. It is what drives them all when they wake up in the morning. It fills in the hollow. Sure, we can all point to various changes for the better, but as a check list for 12 years of virtually untrammelled power, it is deeply disappointing. And they know it. Their anger is not manufactured; it is deeply ingrained and directed at anyone who criticises them. I would suspect - although psychologists would have a better understanding than I - that deep down it is directed at themselves.What is so frustrating is that those few MPs, and the odd minister, who do have strong principles and deep ambitions to change Britain felt forced to hide them. They began to look and sound like automatons in order to avoid ritual humiliation at the hands of the Prime Minister's henchmen for speaking out of turn."
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How ironic that this is a left wing journalist of impeccable Labour credentials who outlines for us all, with a TDC led by Ezekiel, the price we pay because of those who lack principles.
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14 comments:

Anonymous said...

Bertie,
You have very eloquently (once again!) summarised the shady dealings and i am sorry to hear that he is threatening and intimidating those brave enough to even think of opposing him - "stand up to him for the sake of Thanet" is the message i would like to pass on. We know he has unpleasant and unsavioury hangers on but try to fight them off please for the sake of our towns, nothing will improve whilst he is at the helm that is the message i would send out to supporters and potential supporters of any plotters.Very disappointed in Cllr. Moores' performance in spinning the salaries and blind support of the leader, thought he was made of better stuff!

Anonymous said...

well written and well done more than I can say for those of who you mention

Anonymous said...

Well done once again for highlighting the sorry state of affairs in Thanet. Will it ever improve? Are there people of integrity that will work for the good of Thanet rather than themselves? I do hope so.

Anonymous said...

The trouble is Bertie that there is nobody on either side that I would be proud to call the leader of Thanet.

Hardly any of them have made what you would call a success of their work life and although they might be "worthy" because they are kind-hearted and hard working, those are not really qualities that make a good leader for a council in an area with as many needs as Thanet.

Ezekiel may be an ass, but he must have some good qualities you don't know about if he has been around for so long?

Bertie Biggles said...

12.21, I have no illusions that Cllr Ezekiel might not be a shrewd and a consumate political manipulator(so was Blair and so is Brown) but do I want those qualities in the Leader of TDC? What concerns me is why he appears to want to hang on in office at all costs with some dubiously motivated supporters from another party that wouldn't re-select them?

An intimation of the nature of a man can be judged by the friends, allies and company he surrounds himself with; hardly my idea of principled Conservatives in this instance.

Anonymous said...

\Is bertie a clone of Alistair Bruce. bookies are offering 50/50

Anonymous said...

Power corrupts and it would seem that power has gone to the head of our leader and one or two wholly unprincipled councillor colleagues as well as some of our council officials who, as they are in our pay, should be working for us, the people of Thanet, and not pandering to the wants of Cllr Ezekiel and his his cohorts.

Anonymous said...

Why does he hang on? Power. Money. Connections. Friends in high places. Self-esteem boost. Who knows?

Big fish/small pond comes to mind.

Anonymous said...

Bertie,
You have really hit a raw nerve, hope some of the wavering tory councillors are reading this - no Mr Nasties defending here - all saying very succinctly - SANDY GO!Problem is who fits the "replacement job" - there isnt anyone who immediately springs to mind as a leader with integrity - Bertie or ECR for leader!?

Anonymous said...

I don't know any of the people you talk about personally but it seems to me that you are on a one man campaign to alter the politics of Thanet by your attempts to destroy a man who has been elected by his residents and his fellow Conservative councillors. I take exception to that.

Presumably you know him very well and so are able to judge his character and his motives Bertie. Because if you don't know him then I suggest it is you that it at fault here.

To say the things that you do and to allow others to post on your blog that his hangers on are "unpleasant and unsavoury", does really smack of the nasty politics that you so evidently despise.

Reading back through your blog I think you are paranoid in your hatred of Cllr.Ezekiel. That certainly makes me disregard much of what you say, however eloquent your argument.

Bertie Biggles said...

You miss the point entirely, 16.22 but of course you would.

If you are happy having a Council Leader who has failed to conduct himself publicly on not just one but two occasions that have been found to have breached Standards then that's fine with me.

Do not expect me and other ashamed and embarrassed Conservative Party members to not make our opinions on the matter known or to agree with you. If the Leader of a Labour TDC had behaved in the same way, I would be equally critical. It is not a personal issue but one of simple Conservative values of honesty, integrity, truth that seem to be lacking here in Thanet.

Anonymous said...

Your blog content shows you to be a fairly unsavoury character yourself Bertie, with some nasty followers. What's the difference? If Ezekiel's colleagues and the electorate judge him unfit then he should go. Politics at every level is a hard business and politicians should be left to slug it out for whatever party you look at there are no angels. Your paranoid attacks when there is so much else happening in the country and the world show you to be naiive and rather sour so I question your motives. I have not noticed anything in the papers that show him in as bad a light as you make out and there are signs of progress wherever I look. So why don't you give him a break? And you haven't said whether you have ever talked to him. How can you make judgements like you do if you have never met him?

Bertie Biggles said...

21.13, nice to have you back.
You have failed to grasp where i am coming from completely. I have said on numerous occasions that it is up to our Conservative Councillors to decide the matter of who leads them. I hope they will make a sensible decision.

If you think the sad decline of Margate in particular during years of 'boom' is an achievement then you must be in a minority. God help us all, now we are in a depression that has been worsened by an incompetent Labour Government.

Whilst I from time to time comment on other issues, this is a 'Thanet' blog and is just my take on what I see going on in my little corner of England.

Thank you for your viewpoint and please continue to take me to task on issues you and I must beg to disagree on.

Anonymous said...

I spoke too soon when i said "no mister nasties yet" out he trotted - like a red rag to a bull - always with the personal attacks on you too! Bertie, good job you have broad shoulders!