Tory MPs's chief of staff charged with rape

Conservative Craig Mackinlay MP's chief of staff, Samuel Armstrong, has been charged with raping a woman in the MP's office in the Houses of Parliament.

Armstrong allegedly raped the woman in October last year and has been charged with two counts of rape and one of sexual assault by penetration.

He will face Westminster magistrates on 31st March.

Thanet Labour council apologises for selling charity donations for her election campaign

A Thanet Labour councillor and magistrate has been forced to apologise after it emerged that she had sold charitable donations to fund her election campaign.

Cosmetics company Lush gave 100 tons of cosmetics and beauty products to a charity called the Kindness Offensive to be given directly to the homeless, vulnerable and disadvantaged. They expressly forbade the sale of any of the products, even if the proceeds were to go to charity. Some of the cosmetics were handed over to a charity shop called Food for All who then handed them over to Cllr Karen Constantine to sell for Labour Party funds.

Charities are not allowed to make political donations and candidates are not allowed to accept them. They have both broken the law.

Cllr Constantine says that when she found out that she had unwittingly sold products donated to charity she made arrangements for the proceeds to be donated to a charity. She claims that she didn't know they were intended for charity and not the Labour Party but she collected them from a charity shop. A charity shop. What else were they going to be in a charity shop other than donations to charity?

Cllr Constantine's apology is meaningless when she continues to claim that she didn't know donations to a charity shop were donations to charity. If she won't admit that she basically stole from charity - at the very least in a moral sense, if not a legal one - then she clearly isn't sorry. She should do the honourable thing and resign. The Charity Commission also need to launch an investigation into the political activities being carried out at this charity and ban any trustees involved in the illegal political donations or any other political campaigning.

Cllr Constantine (left) with Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn demonstrating their support for the Socialist Workers Party's militant Stand Up toe Racism group

UKIP hold Newington ward on Thanet District Council

UKIP candidate, Roy Potts, has won a by-election for the Newington ward on Thanet District Council.

The by-election was called after the resignation of UKIP councilor, Mo Leys, earlier in the year.

Candidate	Party	Votes	%
Roy Potts	UKIP	295	40.19
David Green	Labour	281	38.28
Adam Dark	Conservatives	125	17.03
Matthew Brown	Lib Dems	33	4.50

UKIP still in control of Thanet District Council despite resignation

A UKIP Thanet councillor has left the UKIP group and joined the independents, losing UKIP its overall majority on the council.

Thanet District Council was the first major local authority to come under UKIP control and it is disappointing to see Cllr Jeff Elenor leave the UKIP group over a perceived lack of action with regard to reopening Manston airport when there are concerns from the council, the Department for Transport and consultants that the proposed buyer of Manston airport can't actually afford to run it.

Although UKIP is now 1 councillor short of an absolute majority there are still 28 UKIP councillors on Thanet District Council out of 58 and UKIP continue to lead the council. With a party like the Conservatives or Labour a majority matters because they whip their members but there is no whip in UKIP and therefore no guarantee that all UKIP councillors would vote the same way as their colleagues do.

The four UKIP councillors that have joined the Democratic Independents group over the last few months were clearly not travelling in the same direction as the rest of the UKIP group and were unlikely to vote with the party anyway making their defection largely irrelevant to the way the council is run.

UKIP Thanet councillors to compulsory purchase Manston Airport

UKIP's Thanet councillors are to proceed with the compulsory purchase of Manston Airport.

Bringing the airport back into use was a key manifesto pledge for UKIP councillors in Thanet who took control of the council in a landslide victory earlier this month.

Manston airport is a former RAF base and has one of the longest runways in the country. Reopening the airport could boost the local economy and ease pressure on London's congested airports.

UKIP takes control of Thanet District Council

UKIP have taken control of Thanet District Council, making it the first UKIP-controlled local authority.

The landslide victory has seen 33 UKIP councillors elected to Thanet District Council compared to just 18 Conservatives, 4 Labour and one independent. This means that the council will now have a UKIP leader and cabinet until the committee system can be reinstated, giving the opposition Labour, Conservative and independent councillors a fair share of the decision making.

The far left extremist Green councillor, Ian Driver, who spent more time organising anti-UKIP protests than he did being a councillor now has more time to devote the cause after losing his seat to UKIP councillors Janet Falcon, Sarah Larkins and Hunter Stummer-Schmertzing.

Prior to Thursday's elections, the political balance of the council was very different. Labour controlled the council with 26 councillors, the Conservatives were a close second with 22, UKIP had 2 councillors and there were 6 independent or unaffiliated councillors.

Thanet Green Party Councillor still on police domestic extremists databse

The Guardian has reported on Green Party councillor, Ian Driver, having a whinge about the police holding a file on him as part of a database on domestic extremists. But Driver knew in 2013 that the police were monitoring him and it's been in the public domain since the Thanet Gazette reported on it last year.

This isn't news, it's olds but seeing as how Cllr Driver is so desperate for publicity let's take a look at his record and association with extremists.

Cllr Driver has close ties to Comrade Bunny La Roche, the rent-a-mob left wing extremist with an all-consuming irrational hatred of Nigel Farage who organises the protests against UKIP in Kent and further afield. Comrade La Roche and Cllr Driver organised the violent protest against Nigel Farage during which one of Cllr Driver's prominent supporters, Andrew Scott, assaulted Farage with a placard.

The Labour leader of Thanet District Council, Cllr Clive Hart, resigned from the Local Government Association because of Cllr Driver's "futile and vexatious complaints and information requests" a year ago.

Cllr Driver had to be removed from a council meeting by the police after refusing to stop illegally filming the meeting and was behind proposals for a cannabis café in Thanet. He planned to stand for election as Police & Crime Commissioner for Kent on a platform of legalisation of drugs and prostitution but couldn't raise the £5k deposit.

Driver is a troublemaker who not only participates in violent protests with far left extremists but is actively involved in organising them. If you organise violent protests, associate with known violent extremists, get yourself into a position of authority and then seek more power you should expect the police to be interested in you.

We need you. Second big action day in Thanet.

There are now fewer than 100 days to the May General Election!
It has been so exciting travelling around the country meeting so many of who are playing a key role in this historic election.

As you know, I will be on the ballot paper in what I think is one of the most fantastic places in our country; South Thanet. On Sunday, February 15th, I need your help.

More than 500 people came and helped on my first action day and it was a tremendous success. On Sunday February 15th we need to do this again.

The reaction I am getting locally has so far been fantastic, and this action day is an opportunity for myself and all the excellent council candidates across Thanet to meet so many voters.

So in order for us to make an impact, I need you to do me a personal favour, and come along on the 15th..

Coffee and Tea will be laid on from 10am, and for those helping all day, a hot buffet and drinks has been laid on for us all to enjoy from 3pm – and since it’s no longer Dry January I’ll be able to join you for a pint!
In order for us to make sure we plan effectively for the Sunday, please can you email Martyn Heale and let him know that you’re coming: ukipthanet@ukip.org

The details for the action day are as follows:

Date: 15/02/15
Location: Northwood Club Ramsgate, 55 Northwood Road, Cliftonville, Ramsgate, Kent. CT12 6RS
Meeting time: From 10am

Limited parking available

Many thanks,

I look forward to seeing you on the 15th of Feb, where we'll all be playing a major role in rocking the political establishment.

Regards,

Nigel

Thanet Conservative councillor defects to UKIP

Thanet Conservative councillor, Chris Wells, has defected to UKIP.

The leader of Thanet Conservatives, Cllr Bob Bayford, said it was "surprising and disappointing" because Cllr Wells had received considerable support from the Tories. Cllr Wells said:

I have become increasingly disillusioned with the direction of the Conservative party under David Cameron, and feel that locally UKIP now offer the best potential for positive change in Thanet.

South Thanet is the seat that Nigel Farage will be contesting in next year's general election and is naturally one of UKIP's top target seats along with the neighbouring North Thanet seat. Cllr Wells will become UKIP's third councillor on Thanet District Council.

Labour leader of Thanet District Council resigns

The Labour leader of Thanet District Council has resigned after the Local Government Association criticised the council for not stopping tackling toxic and homophobic behaviour and "hostility and discourtesy".

The BBC reports Cllr Clive Hart resigning because of the LGA's report and blaming the disgraceful behaviour on a tiny minority of councillors in his resignation letter but Kent Online tells a different story, quoting Cllr Hart as saying that he's resigning because of "futile and vexatious complaints and information requests" during council meetings from Green Party councillor, Ian Driver. It was Cllr Driver who helped organise the violent protest in Kent in January during which local UAF/SWP activist and one of Cllr Driver's supporters, Andrew Scott, assault Nigel Farage with a placard. He was subsequently fined and sentenced to community service for the assault.

Thanet District Council - which has previously been criticised for the suspicion of "secrecy and corruption" at the council - is preparing an action plan to address the LGA's report.

Windmills

Thanet Wind Farm

The opening of the world's largest wind farm off the Kent coast today has been described as "the environmentalists greatest con to date" by Nigel Farage the local UKIP MEP.

Windy Miller is going to be very rich

"The figures being pumped out by the Government and the BBC are utter fiction", he said.

"They claim that this £780 million chimera is expected to generate enough electricity to power 240,000 homes. Well it is expected only by the dishonest," he said.

"Looking at Vattenfall (the operator's) own figures give a lie to this. Wind Farms operate on average at about 26% capacity, at best, which in their own world would provide energy for maybe about 130,000 houses. But even this doesn't take into account night usage where the production goes to waste."

"Happily for the company though it will be picking up enormous subsidies for the production, of £40 million up front and approximately £60 million annually in Renewable Obligation Certificates (ROCs), taken direct from our bills as an undisclosed tax. Given that they claim (though the impact of sea salt on the precision machinery is not yet factored in), that these bird-slicers will stand for 20 years, they stand to make £1.2 billion. Enough to build a small nuclear plant," he went on.

The great scam continues, the press lap it up, and nobody seems to care that the taxpayer is short-changed, the climate is unaffected and Britain will not have the energy generation capacity vital for our future prosperity and welfare".

"21 so called Green jobs have been created. Possibly the most expensive jobs since Niel Armstrong stood on the Moon," said Farage.

Not to mention the fact that wind power is the most inefficient and expensive form of energy production there is and the windmills will never make enough money to cover the cost of building and operating them.