Like paying protection money to people who have caused the danger.
04.03.2026 22:46
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Like paying protection money to people who have caused the danger.
Tomorrow (Tues) the Scrutiny Committee at Kent County Council will debate Reform's plan to sell off Grace Hill Library in Folkestone
Reform's plan is despite:
- local people being strongly against it
- an offer by Folkestone Town Council to take over the maintenance costs
I can't quite say why/how, but I think a type of "friction" is why, in election campaigns, a piece of paper through the letterbox still beats social media posts.
Or why a paper book can be a better read than an e-book.
That picture triggers 🎶 "Get up and make it happen" in my head.
I did a radio hustings in EURO2019 against Alex Phillips of the Brexit Party where at the end we had to each pick a track to be played.
Alex went for an old suffragette anthem.
I chose "Get up and..", because of Lesley Knope.
We've seen before what happens when an American president launches an illegal war with no idea how it is going to end.
Does the Prime Minister not understand that when he fails to stand up to Trump, especially when he's breaking international law, it makes our country less safe?
Whiteboard updated.
Lovely write up of the event..
www.kentonline.co.uk/kent/news/ke...
The event was attended by councillors and former councillors from all political parties, Ukrainian residents in Kent and a representative of the Ukrainian government.
A number of very powerful, moving speeches were made.
I organised an event at County Hall today to remember the 4th Anniversary of the outrageous Russian invasion of Ukraine.
We remembered the victims of the war and expressed our hope that Ukraine will win and western countries will continue to support them until they do.
Nope, haven't had enough here to build a snowman for approx 4 years.
Half term in the Cairngorms was pretty good though!
It's a myth that you can't make new friends as you get older. You can literally *make* them.
For any politician, let alone the head of gov/state, to attack judges because he dislikes their judgment in this way is disgraceful.
If the SCOTUS has misinterpreted Congress's intent in the Act in question (which I can't see they have) it's open to Congress to amend said Act.
Britain courts France to stay in 'Made in Europe' club. Trade Minister Chris Bryant is heading to Paris next month to court France, the EU's toughest industrial hawk, in a bid to ensure new EU procurement rules don't harm British manufacturers. Politico, 16 February.
British officials fear that a new 'Made in Europe' initiative will "freeze UK companies out of key supply chains, just as the reset gathers pace". The answer is simple - let's rejoin the Single Market and Customs Union.
They kinda "ping" visually though.
I've now turned off instant notifications of WhatsApp messages and never looked back.
I'm not concerned with the 2011 AV referendum result. Neither of the modifications mentioned above are AV and that referendum wasn't about by-elections, which are different to General Elections.
Electoral reform will mean parties can focus on advocating for their policies and principles rather than spending half of every leaflet with competing speculation about who is and isn't in the two horse race.
Use by-elections to trial such a modified system and see if voters like it better than basic FPTP.
Have a second round between the top two candidates or allow votes to transfer to people's second choices as in mayoral elections.
The bickering between progressive parties about which is best placed to stop Reform in Gorton & Denton is tiresome.
Reform can win if and only if the progressive vote is split.
This underlines the point Labour ought to reform the electoral system for by-elections to give voters more power.
That would place restrictions on honest people who are serving the country as ministers and not serving themselves, but you make a choice.
Random drug tests for certain professions inconvenience good people but we have them for a reason.
E.g:
- one could prohibit serving ministers from soliciting future employment at all until they leave office
- place an earnings cap of ex-ministers, or
- require ministers to publish their tax returns and do so for X years after leaving office
Corruption is a problem you can always mitigate though, and we have done in the past (e.g. the public sector is subject to levels of audit that were once unknown).
In this case one could think about prohibiting the specific acts that are problematic.
Mandelson traded inside information for future jobs.
How can we be sure no other minister has done this?
How can we make sure it doesn't happen in future?
When I go canvassing here in Faversham I meet many people who work at the three Canterbury universities (as academics or in other roles) and they tend to be people who are very community minded. The kind of people you are glad to have as neighbours.
Thank you
Maybe the e was cut for efficiency.
Not AFAIK.
Oh.. we will...
Breaking: the head of DOGE in Kent has resigned.
My impression of Matthew was that he was a decent man leading a fundamentally ill-conceived project.
Residents of Kent deserve better than failures of political leadership from the past and present administration.
Stop punching down. Start stepping up.
