RAMSGATE FIRST - putting the people of Ramsgate first

Ramsgate First is a non-partisan, non-party political organisation. If you are tolerant and inclusive and love Ramsgate you are welcome to join or support us.  We need people who are hardworking and loyal.                               

Contact us on 0781  399  5016 or email us at ramsgatefirst@btconnect.com  

See FEEDBACK for some new observations

THIS WEEK'S HEADLINES

16th November 2008

BABY P died because of INSTITUTIONAL incompetance and negligence on a scale that should alarm us all.

When we are told to trust and rely on those who run our affairs on our behalf here is a sobering lesson. This beautiful little boy was failed by a system that we are constantly told is caring and reliable. When it is anything else but.

Most of us - I'd like to think all of us -  put the care of and welfare of children above everything and anything else. Happy, well-fed, well-cared for, miscievious children playing noisely is a sight and sound that should warm every heart.

Unfortunately that is not the case. That is why we have to be vigilant on behalf of children. Their care is the responsibility of all of us.

Big government fails again and again to give children this protection.

Government of any kind does not know best - get over it.

15th November, 2008

 Georgina Downs – who will protect complacent government ministers from this PESTICIDE

A indefatigable, single-handed campaigner, Georgina Downs has won a legal victory in a long-running battle with the government over the use of pesticides.
A High Court judge ruled Georgina Downs, who lives near Chichester, West Sussex, had produced "solid evidence" that residents had suffered harm.
Mr Justice Collins said a European order aimed at defending rural dwellers from possible exposure to toxins during crop-spraying had not been followed.
Ms Downs said the government "should now admit that it got it wrong".

She is an inspiration to those of us who dislike the ‘we know best’ attitude of elected representatives and central and local government officials who are no more smarter or better educated than the rest of us.

Well done Georgina.
 

Has Gordon run out of OUR money

5th November 2008

WHOOPS!

The International Monetary Fund said that UK economy is the 'worst' placed economy in the developed world. The IMF predicts that the UK economy, so carefully managed by the highly experienced hand - no novice he – of Gordon Brown, will shrink by 1.3%. Hmmm.

 1st November 2008 

Clip art

STATEMENT

For three weeks the Isle Of Thanet Gazette has run three letters about why Ramsgate First is a political party; two of the letters were almost identical and from the same correspondent. (Bad news day?)

The correspondence bewilders us mainly because we cannot understand the point they are trying to make. They object to us claiming to be a non-party political party. Our meaning is clear. We are a party – true. We are not a party in the sense of being left, right or centre, anti-Europe, anti-gay, anti-immigrant, anti-Conservative, -Labour or -Liberal. We are a group that exists to promote the future well-being of Ramsgate. As such anyone who is normally affiliated to national political parties is welcome to work with us. We may be a party, but we are a local party. We won’t be contesting Glenrothes.

So why did we register as a party?

When we decided to fight the District elections back in 2007 the Returning Officer would not give us any assurance that our logo, the charging ram, would be included on the ballot papers. We enquired with the Electoral Commission about this, as we did not want to go into the election only to discover too late that our logo could not be shown. But as a registered political party the Returning Officer would be obliged to include our group logo. And that is why we registered.

Interestingly the Returning Officer’s department still tried to keep our logo off the ballot papers, much to the irritation of the Electoral Commission, who contacted the Returning Officer’s department and told them to read the rules. To say the Electoral Commission was spitting blood over the obduracy of TDC would be an understatement. TDC claimed that there was a very slight difference between the logo we gave them and the one on the Electoral Commissions website. The Electoral Commission nearly blew a fuse. However, as the argument was likely to become protracted and see our logo excluded, the Electoral Commission moved heaven and earth to register both logos so as to snooker TDC. Literally, within the last few minutes of registration (noon), the Electoral Commission’s website uploaded both logos and the Returning Officer’s department was forced to include our logo.

The Electoral Commission’s view was that as long as the logos are clearly and unambiguously the same, even if there are slight differences, then they can be used. They were also of the opinion that TDC should have given us the assurance that as our group was clearly defined in the public’s mind with our logo then they should have printed that logo on the ballot papers without us having to register as a party.

The Electoral Commission’s other view was that TDC was stubbornly pursuing a non-position. They were at a loss to understand why the Returning Officer’s Office was behaving so irrationally.

Ramsgate First would never claim that the Returning Officer’s department, which should be and should be seen to be totally independent, is actually subject to political control by the ruling groups of TDC.

However, as previous and subsequent actions have shown, TDC would use every trick in the book to keep Ramsgate from having its own town council. The Returning Officer’s department refused to give Ramsgate First evidence of why they arbitrarily excluded 1200 signatures from our 5500-signature Petition. We were advised by the Kent Association of Parish (now Local) Councils not to pursue this matter as we had clearly achieved our objective. We felt then, and still do, that TDC used the exclusion of so many signatures as 'their' evidence of our alleged sloppiness. Nor could we get an answer as to why the Returning Officer’s Office printed a pejorative leaflet to accompany TDC’s own Referendum ballot papers.

We would not claim in the words of Marcellus in Hamlet Act 1, scene 4, that “Something is rotten in the state of Denmark” but we would say that the words Democracy and Thanet District Council are not natural bedfellows.

Ramsgate First is not a party-political animal inasmuch as we welcome people from all races, creeds, persuasions and political backgrounds, but we do seek to exclude those who come from political, social or religious groups that preach intolerance or hatred of others.

We’d rather not be a party in some ways, but as long as Thanet District Council is run the way it is then we have to ensure that legally they cannot sideline us. Experience shows that they will use every trick in the book to damage any person or group that opposes their will. Vladimir Putin would highly approve of their methods.

That’s the reality of political and electoral life in Thanet for the present.

“Something is rotten in the state of Denmark”

         We are indebted to a local man who showed us his Steve Ladyman 'bag for life." Its red, of course, and quite small which should easily accomodate the reduced shopping budgets of so many people as the gas, electricty, vehicle fuel bills (The price is still 20% up on last year) and food prices bite. Good timing Steve.

31st October 2008

YOU HEARD IT FROM US FIRST

Some malicious person has put Ramsgate First’s email address on the BNP’s mailing list. The first we knew was when we started receiving emails (29th October) from BNP and their troubled associates.

We have written to the Electoral Commission today asking them to request the BNP to remove our email address from their records.

Now we know that Thanet is full of anonymous tipsters and pranksters who like to indulge in this kind of activity on their bedroom PCs while their elderly Mums are washing-up downstairs.

But it’s an own goal for the person/s unknown who perpetrated this gag. They, he or she, knew the BNP’s email address.

Now if some of you want to associate the BNP with a party that has been recently promoting Britishness and has appointed an Immigration Minister with the task of reducing immigrants from the Third World (it can’t stop them coming from the EU) then you need to contact…

We wonder who that could be?

In the meantime get a girlfriend Mummy's Boy

Jane Wenham Jones highlights our lavatory provision in Ramsgate.  

 

 

 "WHAT HAVE THE ROMANS DONE FOR US?"

	Mummy's Boy Mummy's Boy.jpg