I am off to Ghana today, and it leads me to think about how very much I have come to love Ramsgate. Walks along the cliffs and beach and across Pegwell Bay with my family are a major part of my life. The sea has always been important to reviving my spirits. Ramsgate’s magnificent Edwardian esplanades stretch for miles, and the Ramsgate Society is now putting a commendable effort into their restoration. Ramsgate has almost entirely ceased to be a seaside holiday destination and I really do not quite understand why.
All these pictures are of places within an easy 15 minute walk of my house:
The depressingly ugly Turner Modern at Margate continues to attract the visitors, 99.99% of whom are blissfully ignorant of far greater art – and infinitely greater architecture – just down the road:
The lack of public interest in St Augustine’s and its highly limited opening hours (Tuesday, Wednesday and Saturday afternoons only, from memory) appear to be a vicious circle.
Pegwell Bay still looks precisely as it did when Dyce painted it:
Right on the street where I live we have a particularly good ghost story:
All this just one hour and ten minutes from St Pancras. Unfortunately Ramsgate town centre has suffered disastrously from the decision to build a huge out of town shopping centre at Westwood Cross, but is showing some first signs of revival.
Want another reason to hate the big supermarkets? They are building a new Asda at the top of the High Street, and a fortnight ago the builders cut through a main sewer, flooding several houses including the local vet, where a number of recuperating animals in cages were drowned.
Here is a picture of a jumbo coming in to land over Ramsgate, taken from the Open at Sandwich. You can see my house in this photo:
I am baffled by the scheme to build a new airport in the Thames Estuary, when just down the road at Manston, and already right on Britain’s first HS1 High Speed Rail route, you have the second longest, now civil, runway in the UK, fully operational but working at 1% capacity. Manston can take the A380 without modification. I have seen proximity to Schiphol given as the reason Manston cannot be used, but it is further from Schiphol than Heathrow is from Gatwick.
Anyway, time to pack…
More power to John Pilger. How many Pilgers and Fisks have we got left?
A powerful piece by John Pilger – thanks for the link Azra.
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Chicksands
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The Defence Intelligence and Security Centre (DISC) is located in a 12th Century Gilbertine Priory at Chicksands. The DISC is the UK Defence Agency responsible for training all personnel in psychological warfare.
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The unit shares space with the United States Air Force Security Unit.
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In the UK psyops has been renamed ‘Information Support'(IS) an decidedly Orwellian name change. Thousands of British service personnel have passed through the psyops course run by DISC.
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A UK psyops or ‘black propaganda’ team worked during the Iraq war according to Major Taylor who explained the purpose of misinformation via radio and TV psyops stations, he clarified how the unit encouraged the Republic Guard to desert or face terrible consequences. An attempt to target Saddam in his bunker by a cruise missile was a classic botched psyops job.
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The same techniques have been tried in Iran after the Presidential elections with psyops operations recorded and uploaded to YouTube. In Libya and now Syria the team again target government forces encouraging them to desert or face the music. The technique involves showing pictures of officers who complied and then gross images of tortured victims who did not.
http://www.davidsmail.info/harper.htm
This appears to be the guy writing on PressTV (about BBC). I had not read this before
http://petereyrepatch.blogspot.com/
Talk about brass neck. “We have asked for our plane back, and are awaiting their response” said Obama trying hard to hold back his laughter. A kid would be more bashful asking for his ball back from the neighbours yard, than the Yanks, asking for their spying kit.
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The notion of asking for their spying kit back is designed to make sense to whom? Is this some kind of denial about Iranians forcing down the oh so; stealthy, invisible, super duper, fandabidozi, technological marvel. In an attempt to distort the story to; RQ170 did an ET and has “phoned home”? ie the damn thing landed all by its little stealthy self, and rang home to be picked up after having had a chat with the natives?
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Fact that Iranians have spanked the yanks butt, aside, this turn of events still has not sunk in; Iran can and will look after herself. The predators always look for an easy meal/prey/victim, hence as any sane crack-head would do, Yanks ought to try and find a li’ll old lady that has left the bingo hall, instead of going after some guy whom can look after himself, in a manner of speaking sort of.
@Antelope Gazer
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The only laziness here is your own. You clearly haven’t read the thing and that’s sufficiently demonstrated in your erroneous claim that the “full reckoning of the terrible sins of the Kwok Family” are as follows:
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“Environment: Sun Hung Kai Properties (SHKP) does not appear on the Dow Jones Sustainability Index.
Nonetheless, Sun Hung Kai Properties proudly boasts that it has won several awards for environmental
excellence.”
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That’s demonstrably not the case to anyone who reads the thing. Nor is what you claim of Jindal.
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http://ifg.org/pdf/IFG_plutonomy.pdf
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If you want to be taken seriously I’d suggest you aim for factual accuracy, as a first step at least.
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Harping on about typos or errors in verb agreement is a rather pubescent skill, but thus far the only skill you’ve demonstrated.
Peter Eyre the man behind the ‘missing nukes’ yet by putting together a number of ‘Not for South Africa Eyes’ communications we realise the whole affair duped South Africa into providing Israel with a viable nuclear weapons program. That is the real secret.
What exactly are you saying about Peter Eyre, Mark? His blog says, “If you support war in any shape or form please do not enter my space. If you are a Christian Zionist or Jewish Zionist please do not enter my space.” (and a whole lot more)
Nuid,
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Peter is a respectable genuine chap compromised to a degree by twisted information from dubious sources.
Ok, Mark, thanks.
@ Mark Golding. Others have referred to the creakability of the russian carrier. It is a heavily armed ship with Granite missile.
Granite was the missile that was so secret the russians were prepared to go to war over whoever sunk the Kursk, to ensure no other nations, or individuals gained access to it. The Russian military deployed nuclear weapons on warplanes and on ships. They were told to deploy the nuclear weapons by someone not connected to the RG. The intelligence source told the Russians to prepare to fight an enemy that was not the United States, or NATO. And would most likely possess military technology far surpassing our best equipment
A big problem we have in society is appointing legal people to run a business. They are no match for bankers. I remember the people who went into politics and those finance. The finance are happier and seem to have aged well. The politico’s on the other hand are close to death. The finance makes more income over the term because they have to think hard to keep winning while the politico is unable to think and syptom of bloated administration
Yes the pictures of your aree are nice craig.
@ In my final procedure I will outline the reason why I need to act
1 There is probably no easy way..to remove th cancer of badness without me acting
2 Nato which means the USA with a coat on, much like the wolf in red riding hood, must stop its outright slaughter of humans
3 Netanyahoo & Lieberman, i’m gonna beat the shit of of these turkey’s. They made my job a little harder.
4 I know the main intelligence supporting Iran and what it is doing, but do not assumne the americans are wrong,
5 That intelligence is not sourced from any agency of any representative system across the globe
6 I know the only intel USA has on Iran is old, circa 2001-2003
Ishmael
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The tragedy of the Kursk was particularly agonising and distressing for me. I knew these Naval men were still alive entombed in a metal coffin with 300 feet of water above them. Awful.
Mark,
Yes they died a horrible death. I think of them now and then.
I feel uneasy pulling it all together, their suffering is painful. There was a reason the Russians deployed their most powerful weapons and that is all I can say.
It is difficult for me now because I am effectively gagged. You will notice the Russians have suddenly woken up. Parking in the Moray. Checkmate.