Brian Dixon
- Location: Dover
- Registered: 23 Sep 2008
- Posts: 23,940
that went out the window 6 years ago howard.its more like a dictatorship now.
Guest 943- Registered: 15 May 2013
- Posts: 449
A lot of people have given their views and opinions on this thread..I assumed that our Labour Councillors and Labour party branch officers would be eager to tell the Forum, Labour party policies not only this one but others.Simon Bannister and Mike Eddy are constantly banging on about minor issues in the letter pages of the Express and Mercury. With the new era of kinder politics,they will be kind to us and keep us informed..How I miss Keef and Reg.
Brian Dixon- Location: Dover
- Registered: 23 Sep 2008
- Posts: 23,940
peter r,they are the same as the torys but different.
howard mcsweeney1- Location: Dover
- Registered: 12 Mar 2008
- Posts: 62,352
Much easier and safer to bash out a letter to the local press get away with almost anything there. Very different on a forum where people will immediately pick up on inaccuracies. We used to have councillors by the dozen on here but most don't like their decisions challenged.
Guest 698- Registered: 28 May 2010
- Posts: 8,664
With proper democracy comes accountability to the people who elect politicians, union officials and others. At least in Parliament there's a detailed record of who voted for what, unlike in councils where you have to attend a meeting to find out which way your councillor voted.
Merely using the word democracy in the same sentence as the EU is worthy of a laugh. Joining the EU in the first place was a Faustian deal, we are now reaping the rewards.
I'm an optimist. But I'm an optimist who takes my raincoat - Harold Wilson
howard mcsweeney1- Location: Dover
- Registered: 12 Mar 2008
- Posts: 62,352
Town Council meetings and District Council Committee metings start at 6 PM which is too early for most working people. The local press rarely attend so social media is the best way to get any info, of course a lot of that is opinion.
Guest 943- Registered: 15 May 2013
- Posts: 449
Howard,you may be interested to know there is a DDC Full Council Meeting at Whitfield it will start at 6pm on Wednesday March 2nd.
The main item will be the increase of council tax by 2.96%,it is noted that Tesco and the Harbour board have appealed their rateable value.Council housing rents will be tweaked,it is not clear how. DDC will receive from the Government a Extra 21% bonus for New Homes Building.All items start from 2016-2017.
Standby for increase of house building.
Another main item on the agenda is a question from Cllr Simon Bannister Labour Group to Cllr Paul Watkins.Leader DDC, it states.
Does the Leader of Council agree with me that the violence that occurred in Dover on 30th January should be deplored and that the Police should be adequately supported so that,at all future demonstrations,all the laws of Britain can be enforced,including those covering the breaches of the peace,intimidation,criminal damage,use of racist language and incitement to racial hatred.
My comment on this. There is no praise of the Police who had to endure insults and injury by the Right and Left wing thugs on 30/1/16
No mention of local people and businesses who had to endure disruption and fear.
Charlie Elphicke made a similar comment about the Police as Cllr Bannister, again lack of praise.It annoys me that Public Servants who cannot answer back are used as a political football,for political failings..Just showboating.
It is worth noting that Cllr Bannister was one of the organisers of The initial peaceful demonstration which ended in disorder and cost taxpayers £250,000 which is not mentioned in the question by Cllr Bannister..
Charlie Elphicke knew before the event on 30/1/16 that there could be problems,yet spoke after the events on 30/1/16.
Captain Haddock
- Location: Marlinspike Hall
- Registered: 8 Oct 2012
- Posts: 8,075
The talented Mr Ripley is correct about the homes expansion.
But don''t worry. New Homes Bonus keeps your Council Tax down for a few years whereupon we build even more new homes to keep the previous new home owners' Council Tax down and so on ad infinitum!
Here's news of expansion at Dover Christ Church Academy:-
http://www.kentonline.co.uk/dover/news/class-numbers-to-grow-91483/
It will probably come as a bit of a surprise to those who move into the breeding boxes for London over-spill that having left schools with rising results (mostly from children of immigrant stock) they are now firmly joining the failing Coastal Community of white working class under achievement!
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/education-34647827
Christ Church 'Academy' last year scored 43% GCSE A*-C which means over half the kids leaving Yr11 were either semi-numerate, semi-literate or both!
However since they are in a country where we have been found to be too unskilled to drive our own buses, too thick to train our own doctors and now too lazy to pick our own vegetables they should fit in well when they leave education, education, education with their meaningless certificates innit!
"We are living in very strange times, and they are likely to get a lot stranger before we bottom out"
Dr. Hunter S Thompson
Bob Whysman
- Registered: 23 Aug 2013
- Posts: 1,937
Quoting Capt Haddit,
'However since they are in a country where we have been found to be too unskilled to drive our own buses, too thick to train our own doctors and now too lazy to pick our own vegetables they should fit in well when they leave education, education, education with their meaningless certificates innit!' Unquote.
Captain Haddit, you old cynic, you are missing the obvious. Why wear the grey matter out when you have a choice of getting educated and working until you drop or let others do the work while you live on benefits.
Do nothing and nothing happens.
howard mcsweeney1- Location: Dover
- Registered: 12 Mar 2008
- Posts: 62,352
I think both of you are missing the obvious, how did the fruit and veg magic itself out of the ground or from trees before we imported people to do this for us?
Jan Higgins
- Location: Dover
- Registered: 5 Jul 2010
- Posts: 13,875
That is simple to answer Howard. Mainly done by those who lived in the surrounding areas, especially the women who often took their children with them. I suspect Health and Safety Rules put an end to that, the wages would not be enough to cover child care so the women stopped.
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I try to be neutral and polite but it is hard and getting even more difficult at times.
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Sue Nicholas- Location: river
- Registered: 12 Mar 2008
- Posts: 6,025
I used to help my mother pea picking however potatoe picking was harder .Fruit picking was enjoyable.When I was thirteen I cycled five miles to school then helped my dad single sugar beet finishing about 7.00pm.
howard mcsweeney1- Location: Dover
- Registered: 12 Mar 2008
- Posts: 62,352
Jan and Sue are talking further back, today large scale farmers hire agencies from countries where the minimum wage is far below ours so the workers only get paid that amount. The jobs are not even advertised here.
Captain Haddock- Location: Marlinspike Hall
- Registered: 8 Oct 2012
- Posts: 8,075
Pre EU accession there was the VOLAG scheme which worked perfectly well for seasonal work. Students came from (especially) Eastern Europe for short time periods with conditions stamped in their passport limiting time in UK and precluding other employment.
"We are living in very strange times, and they are likely to get a lot stranger before we bottom out"
Dr. Hunter S Thompson
howard mcsweeney1- Location: Dover
- Registered: 12 Mar 2008
- Posts: 62,352
Fully agree Captain, it used to be our students that done our picking but then thery got more adventurous and went abroad for summer work. I believe it was mainly Bulgarians, Romanians and Hungarians that worked in our fields so everyone was happy at getting paid and seeing a bit of another country
Captain Haddock- Location: Marlinspike Hall
- Registered: 8 Oct 2012
- Posts: 8,075
Correct Howard - though it always seemed a bit odd to me that there were people coming the best part of a thousand miles to do the work whilst you and I were paying others, less than a hundred miles distant, to sit on their ever expanding arses and watch Jeremy Kyle of a morning. Perhaps they did not have the 'skill set' (dread phrase!) to take on the work?
"We are living in very strange times, and they are likely to get a lot stranger before we bottom out"
Dr. Hunter S Thompson
Brian Dixon- Location: Dover
- Registered: 23 Sep 2008
- Posts: 23,940
mr haddock,how many gse,s a or o levals do you need to a bus driver.
Reginald Barrington
- Location: Dover
- Registered: 17 Dec 2014
- Posts: 3,257
Your earlier post answered the picking issue capt. In the mid 80's I did a season strawberry picking Aylesham way the fields were full of teenagers, mums and one french couple travelling europe picking, now our teenagers our too lazy and spoilt. Coincided with the yuppie era and britains affluence at the end of the 80's.
Arte et Marte
howard mcsweeney1- Location: Dover
- Registered: 12 Mar 2008
- Posts: 62,352
The answer for both the Captain and Reg is that fruit growers won't pay the minimum wage if they can get away with it. I doubt today's young people are any less hard working than those in the past but reports I have read indicate that graduates expect to start at the top and are unwilling to take on menial tasks to get established.
howard mcsweeney1- Location: Dover
- Registered: 12 Mar 2008
- Posts: 62,352
I am slowly becoming a non person, Peter Wallace has not only unfriended me on Facebook but also blocked me so that I cannot correct his blatant manipulation of facts about the EU. This also means that I will know nothing of the much vaunted Folkestone Rd all party taskforce.