Well, almost immediately
Posted by Alan Collins on Wednesday, April 11th, 2007 at 00:08

I have now finished adding the list of candidates to this blog, although it wasn’t as quickly as I had hoped.

Medway published the list at about 4.45pm, which gave me just about enough time to print off and read through the names before eating then going out canvassing Rainham Central with Reh. I returned at about 9.45pm, starting to type up the names by 10.45pm.

It’s all a bit hectic here at the moment. I have exams next month which I am revising for, I am going away for two weeks on Friday, I am helping Reh out as much as possible, and now he has an important task for me to complete. However, tomorrow I shall write and publish my last full post for a while, on the candidates.

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It’s getting close
Posted by Alan Collins on Tuesday, April 10th, 2007 at 10:22

Today is the day that the statement of persons nominated to stand in the ever-closer local council elections is published. In fact, there is now less than 40 minutes before the noon deadline.

This morning, I looked on Medway Council’s website to see if they had published or if they were hanging out until the deadline. Their election page was the same as it was last month.

But when I looked at it five minutes ago, the previous two elections (2005 general and 2003 local), which had been linked to from the top of the page, had been archived under a new link, “previous elections”.

The hard-working Council webteam (who still have one Councillor listed as Conservative, despite the fact he resigned from the Party last month) are preparing for the impending election. I will list all candidates in Medway as soon as the statement is published.

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Before anyone else gets to it first…
Posted by Alan Collins on Friday, April 6th, 2007 at 19:37

The Medway Messenger reported today that Brigita Amey is the new Chairman of the Gillingham & Rainham Conservatives Association. However, it failed to mention that John Amey and Reh Chishti were elected as her Deputies.

I shall update my page on Reh Chishti after the local elections, for obvious reasons, but I think that, together, they can turn the association round.

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Medway’s Conservative Council delivers double-blow to “non-political” CRAG and failing Labour MP
Posted by Alan Collins on Friday, April 6th, 2007 at 12:58

“Tell me, Alan,” Reh said to me after another evening delivering leaflets, “what do you think the public’s response would be if the Council re-opened the flyover and gave £50,000 to the Sunlight Centre?” Obviously, I immediately saw scenes of jubilation eminating from campaigners who have worked hard to see this happen, before coming to a stark realisation. “They’d never do it,” I responded. How wrong I was.

Reh just looked over his glasses at me, and said “don’t tell anyone”. So I didn’t. And, sure enough, the front page of today’s Medway Messenger said it all: Medway Council’s Conservative cabinet plans to re-open the flyover and is also giving the Sunlight Centre a £50,000 interest-free loan!

Continue Reading “Medway’s Conservative Council delivers double-blow to “non-political” CRAG and failing Labour MP” »

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“You were wrong,” Brigita tells those who doubted in today’s Medway Messenger
Posted by Alan Collins on Friday, April 6th, 2007 at 11:44

To Mrs Collinson the message from Mrs Amey in today’s Medway Messenger was simple: “you were wrong, now have the courage to admit it!”

Mrs Amey, who my source outside the party has confirmed to me is the same Brigita Amey announced elsewhere in the paper as the new Chairman of the Gillingham Tories, was referring to a letter which Mrs Collinson wrote in February, doubting whether or not Cllr Chishti would run the Reading Half Marathon for charity. Brigita’s first punch, then, was “I am sure Mrs Collinson will be delighted to join me in congratulating Cllr Reh Chishti for completing the Reading half-marathon.”

As Brigita pointed out in her letter Cllr Chishti raised £500 for various charities. With Cllr Chishti running again in August, Brigita then delivers the second punch “perhaps Mrs Collinson would like to pledge a donation to the St Margaret’s Church Well Fund, to be paid when Cllr Chishti completes his second marathon this year”. Ouch!

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