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The giant pachyderm in the council chamber

In which we ask Steve Dyke to give us the green view, so he offers us a terrifying vision of our climate future..

‘Brexit’ seems to have dominated the news for years, so some may have forgotten that last October, the United Nations’ Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) released a special report on the impacts if ‘global warming’ raises the Earth’s temperature by 1.5°C above pre-industrial levels. At the current rate of increase this temperature will be reached sometime between 2030 and 2052 – and then continue to rise.  Please do not be deceived by phrase ‘global warming’, which suggests something pleasant and harmless, because in reality we are in a state of climate emergency and seem headed inexorably towards a climate breakdown.

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Recap: The final Cabinet of term

Medway Council Cabinet meetings are where the majority of important decisions are made. With the Conservatives holding a majority on the council, the decisions taken at Cabinet become de facto council policy.

Rather unhelpfully, Cabinet meetings are held at 3pm on a Tuesday afternoon, and while these are in principle public meetings, they are incredibly difficult for the public to attend if they have basic things like, you know, a job.

We’ve tried to cover them when we can, but it’s been fairly few and far between. We can only afford to cover these meetings if our costs in doing so are covered. Last month, via our Ko-fi page, you called our bluff and put enough in the pot to send Jennings down to live tweet the final Cabinet meeting of the current administration.

Highlights of the meeting are below, and honestly, we use the term loosely:

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Political Figures: Can independents win?

Once a month we are going to hand over to Alan Collins from Medway Elects who is going to dig into the Medway electoral data, and try to tell us what it all means..

This week marks Medway Elects’ fourth anniversary and, in that time, like this very blog, it has gone from strength to strength. I am incredibly grateful to everyone who has helped and supported the project – and will continue to be open to ideas for new features over the coming months and years.

But given this important milestone, it is, perhaps, fitting that this is the week I post my last article in this series, on the very blog I launched Medway Elects four years ago. If you thought Jennings’ analysis of the candidates in each of Medway’s 22 wards was long, strap in tight: you ain’t seen nothing yet…

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iFAQ: So, farewell then, Rehman Chishti

Following nine years of being both the MP for Gillingham and Rainham and a councillor for Rainham Central, Rehman Chishti has finally decided to stand down from his councillor role at the upcoming elections. As such, we decided to ask all other sitting Medway councillors the following question:

With Rehman Chishti standing down as a councillor for Rainham Central, what do you feel has been his biggest contribution to Medway Council?

As usual, we told all councillors that we would present their answers entirely unedited. They are published below in the order they were received:

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State of the candidates 2019

So following months of campaigns getting underway, two days ago the final list of candidates was released for our upcoming local elections in Medway. 199 candidates spread across seven different parties and a record number of independents will compete for 55 council seats on May 2. Let’s take a look at the options in each of our 22 wards.

Strap in.

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Virtual Doorstep: Four weeks to go?!

It is said that elections are won on the doorstep, and that may well be true. Being armchair activists, it’s difficult to check up on that.
Twitter and blogs however are part of our social media present and future, and if the election was decided there, how would each of the wards be looking?

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Voice of the Opposition: April

Once a month we will be offering the Leaders of both Medway Council and the official opposition the opportunity to talk unedited about.. well, Medway politics.

Today we hear from Vince Maple, leader of Medway Labour, the official opposition on Medway Council.


They often say that a week is a long time in politics – that can certainly be true, but if a week is a long time then seven years is almost a lifetime!

Seven years ago, back in 2012, was the first time I raised concerns around Fixed Odds Betting Terminals or FOBTs at overview and scrutiny.

What then followed was a long campaign which I was proud to play a part in. That campaigning has led this week to the change in law taking place, removing the ability for people to gamble £100 every 20 seconds in our high streets and town centres. It was the high stakes, quick speed of the product which led many to calling it the “crack cocaine of gambling”. I’ve heard from many individuals who have lost their home, their job, and their family as a result of these machines.

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The state of the far-right in Medway and Kent

All photos © Phil Dillon All Rights Peserved

In which Andrew Day takes a look at the far-right groups operating in our part of the country..

With anti-racist organisation Hope Not Hate’s ‘State of Hate 2019’ report stating that ‘divisions within Britain are likely to increase…and boost the far right’s populist anti-politics message’, we decided to take a look at the far-right, fascist and fascist-adjacent groups operating in Medway and Kent.

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iFAQ: Whose leaflet isn’t it anyway?

The local election campaign in Medway is now properly underway, with a surge in activity across Medway from a wide range of candidates and parties. One of the most striking things early in the campaign was this leaflet being distributed throughout Watling ward, not in favour of any one party, but solely against Conservative candidate Andrew Lawrence.

Andrew Lawrence has since responded to the leaflet via his blog. We reached out to all Medway parties that took part in the 2015 elections and those taking part in this one to get their views on the leaflet, and if they fancied admitting being behind it. Well, it was worth a shot.

As usual, we told all parties that we would publish their responses entirely unedited. They are published below in the order they were received.

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