Thanet Green Party Announces Newington By-election Candidates

Thanet Green Party will be fielding Andy Jefferson and Ian Driver as their candidates in the Newington by-election on 21 January 2016. Andy Jefferson, our candidate for the Ramsgate Town vacancy, is a mature student in law and politics at Canterbury Christchurch University who lives in Ramsgate and has a daughter in her 20s. He was the Green Party candidate for Cliftonville West in the May 2015 elections, and is a keen cyclist and surfer who is passionate about the environment, especially Ramsgate’s seafront and beaches. He was brought up on a large council estate in central Kent and trained and worked as an electrician.  He has also spent time working in the hospitality industry, eventually becoming a pub landlord. Andy has had periods of unemployment and knows how hard it can be to make ends meet when living on benefits. When unemployed, Andy volunteered for community organisations in Thanet, where he developed a passion for helping people. This is what led him to get involved in local politics. Integrity, honesty and putting people first are key to Andy’s politics. If elected he will fight to revitalise Ramsgate Town Council, transforming it from a talking-shop into an organisation which is relevant to the needs of Ramsgate people and which better supports local communities such as Newington.

Ian Driver, our candidate for Thanet District Council, is a highly experienced former TDC councillor who stood as the Green Party Candidate for the Ramsgate area in the 2015 General Election. Ian is widely known and well respected throughout Thanet for speaking his mind and fighting against cover-ups, secrecy and incompetence at TDC. He trained and worked as a gardener, spent time travelling abroad and then moved into public sector management. Throughout his working life Ian has been an active trade unionist, holding various positions including shop steward, branch secretary and member of his union’s national executive. Ian’s last job was manager of Thanet Citizens Advice Bureau which he says “taught him the value of volunteering and how volunteers can turn people’s lives around”. He is married with 3 daughters and gave up this job to become a full-time carer for his disabled daughter 2 years ago. If elected, Ian will put the interests of Newington and its people first and will fight hard for a fair deal for the Newington community. His top priority is regenerating Thanet to create new jobs and training opportunities. He will also ensure that regeneration and development in Thanet will be managed carefully and sensitively so as to protect our beautiful local environment.

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For more information about Andy and Ian and our election polices please check out the following links

Thanet Greens blogsite http://thanetgreenparty.blogspot.co.uk/

Thanet Greens Facebook site https://www.facebook.com/groups/535208279955767/?fref=ts

Ian Driver’s blogsite (views expressed are his own) http://thanetgreencouncillor.blogspot.co.uk/

Contact our election agent ianddriver@yahoo.co.uk 07866588766
promoted and published by Ian Driver 45 Sea View Rd CT101BX on behalf of Ian Driver and Andrew Jefferson Green Party candidates in the Newington by-election.

Thanet Greens & Manston Airport

A letter explaining our position on Manston Airport was published in last week's Thanet Gazette. We reproduce it below.

Dear Editor,

We welcome news that the owners of the former Manston Airport will soon be submitting a planning application for a mixed commercial and residential development on the site (Airport Owners Push On Gazette November 27th ). The long drawn-out saga of the airport Compulsory Purchase Order has, in our view, held back progress on what is one of the most important opportunities in a generation to secure investment, jobs, and training for Thanet.

 

As the Gazette regularly reports, Thanet is one of the most deprived areas in the country. It has one of the highest rates of unemployment, especially amongst young people, a larger than average dependency on in- and out- of-work state benefits, the lowest average wages in south east England and a shamefully poor record of educational attainment. The development of the former Manston Airport site and further expansion of Discovery Park, coupled with plans to transform Ramsgate’s Harbour and Port into a 21st century Marina and leisure destination will, in our opinion, bring about a major transformation of Thanet’s social and economic fortunes.

However, we are not uncritical cheerleaders for Messrs Mallon, Cartner and Musgrave and will judge them by their actions. We believe that, in order to be sustainable and continue to generate jobs into the future, any development of the site must meet the highest eco-standards utilising micro-generation, water re-use, and insulation technologies. We would also hope to see part of the site used for leisure, nature conservancy and food growing purposes, and substantial tree planting. To ensure that jobs at the site are accessible to local people, excellent public transport links to the Thanet towns are extremely important. We remain concerned that this crucial step may be neglected in favour of an  expensive, environmentally damaging and entirely unnecessary Parkway station.

Yours sincerely

Tricia Hartley (secretary), Ian Driver (co-ordinator) Thanet Greens

Thanet Green Party Statement on Bombing Syria

Thanet Green Party is saddened by, and strongly disagrees with, Parliament’s decision to join the bombing of DAESH in Syria. There is little evidence to suggest that the massive bombing campaign already taking place in Syria is seriously weakening DAESH’s power and capability. Indeed an expanded bombing campaign may actually assist  DAESH  recruitment and increase  terrorists attacks across the world. This decision will almost certainly lead to the deaths of hundreds, if not thousands, of innocent men, women and children many of whom will be used as human shields by the barbaric DAESH.

Even assuming DAESH is defeated, what then? We are not convinced that the allies have developed any sort of plans for building a new society in Syria to replace the brutal dictators Assad and DAESH. Worse still no genuine  effort has been made  to involve the people of this war-torn nation in determining their future post- DAESH and Assad, particularly the Kurds who have no desire to be part of Syria. This lack of genuine and inclusive post-conflict planning is likely to give rise to a deeply fractured and unstable post – Assad and  DAESH society leading to further  bloodshed in Syria. The Western powers’ long history of reckless and badly planned interventions in Palestine/ Israel Afghanistan, Iraq and Libya should serve as a warning.

We have no confidence that there are, as claimed by our Government, 70,000 fighters of the Democratic Syrian Army, or that their efforts will focus exclusively on the defeat of DAESH, should the UK join the bombing campaign. Indeed they came into existence originally to oppose the murderous and brutal forces of the dictator Assad, and are therefore unlikely to abandon this cause. The likely outcome, therefore, is a long drawn-out civil war.

Thanet Green Party is totally opposed to the cruel and brutal dictators DAESH and Assad. We would support the use of force against these  despots  providing that:  

·     comprehensive and inclusive post- ISIS and post-Assad plans for Syria are prepared and agreed;

·     robust diplomatic efforts are made  to cut off ISIS’ supplies of weapons, money and volunteers for Assad or DAESH;

·     our relations with those countries who support Assad or DAESH are reviewed and re-evaluated;

·     credible ground forces are available to be deployed under the auspices of the United Nations against DAESH.

Without these actions, violence, warfare, the death of innocent people, the growth of refugee numbers and the expansion of extremism and terrorism are sadly likely to continue for many years to come.