A Comprehensive Internet Guide to ‘Medway Brexit’

Medway Council’s ruling Conservative Cabinet have rejected calls to investigate the effect of Brexit on The Medway Towns.
So Keevil set out to find answers, bestowed with the knowledge that everything is available online, including knowledge. Keevil went armed with a search engine and the words ‘Medway Brexit’.
We present to you almost everything we found in all it’s visual (and helpful?) glory.

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iFAQs: Costly concerts

Castle Concerts

This week for inFrequently Answered Questions, we decided to take a look at the Castle Concerts held in Rochester each year. This year, the events ended up causing a loss to the taxpayer of over £300,000, so we decided to ask some questions. Instead of asking every councillor about it, we asked relevant portfolio holders, the councillors for the part of Rochester where the concerts are held, as well as other, non-council voices.

As usual, we told each that we would publish all responses entirely unedited. That is what you will find below, in the order their responses were received by us.

Q1. With reports that the Castle Concerts made a loss of over £300k, what is an acceptable financial loss for the Castle Concerts?

Q2. Are the Castle Concerts an effective way for Medway Council to improve the local cultural offer or the resources be better invested elsewhere?

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The Week in Medway Politics, 25 Nov

Just time for a quick roundup of the week, where we take a look at the big stories in local politics, what each political party has been up to, and of course the latest edition of Rehman About Town.

Our Stories

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The Week in Westminster, 24 Nov

While we tend to focus on the drama of local politics, it can be easy to forget that Medway has three MPs representing us in parliament. What are they doing? What are they saying? Our new feature will try and break that down, while also accepting that many of the workings of parliament are horribly dense and not particularly accessible. Which leads us nicely to:


Kelly, Tracey and Rehman voted Nay.
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Alternate Delivery

The Medway Commercial Group (MCG) has been in the news recently, whether it be over issues regarding CCTV or potential controversy regarding the building of a new Independent SEN School.
Who or what is MCG?
Keevil set to impartially find out, using an alternate delivery model of as many screen shots as possible to save on typing.

Ask Google

Google Image Search result
Inconclusive?

In Their Own Words

Don’t click the link.
MCC sounded busy.
Early ambitions included a large number of social alarms & 25 car park cameras

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iFAQs: Personal data and doorstep breaches

This week for inFrequently Asked Questions, we decided to mix up the format yet again. Instead of contacting every councillor with a question, we decided to ask each party two questions on data protection. Political parties can obtain copies of the electoral register from local authorities to use for political purposes. Each party is responsible for complying with the rules on data protection, and so in light of the recent accident by Medway Conservative Robbie Lammas, it seemed like an appropriate topic.

We sent the following questions to Medway Conservatives, Medway Labour, Medway UKIP, Medway Lib Dems, and Medway Greens. We told each party that we would publish their responses entirely unedited. All responses are published below, in the order that they were received by us.

Q1. What training and resources does your party provide to councillors, candidates, and activists regarding GDPR and the personal data of voters when canvassing?

Q2. Does your party have a clear procedure in place in the event of councillors, candidates, and activists breaching data protection rules? Continue reading “iFAQs: Personal data and doorstep breaches”

The Week in Medway politics, 18 Nov: Two Chishti stories, a survey and the return of..

Just time for a quick roundup of the week..

Our big stories

We also updated our list of local election 2019 candidates. Things are getting busier for us now as we hurtle toward May, so if you’d like to help us out, you can buy us a coffee or even become a contributor to this site.

Now, strap in, it’s the long awaited return of..

Rehman About Town!

If there’s one feature we’re asked to bring back more than any other, it’s our weekly roundup of everything and everyone the MP for Gillingham and Rainham has had his photograph taken with.

This week, Rehman has had his photo taken with the Singapore High Commissioner, people from his Conservative Association, Nick Robinson while appearing on Radio 4, a Pakistani cricketer, the Ambassador of Switzerland, residents and councillors in Wigmore, some folks from Arkansas, some students from Rainham Mark Grammar School, the Bishop of Rochester, the Oast House Christmas Bazaar, the Hempstead Village Fair, and residents in Rainham. Phew. 

Rehman Chishti resigns from government to spend more time with his other jobs

It’s a busy day in Westminster with ministers resigning from government all over the place, a potential leadership challenge, and a fair chance that the government won’t make it until the end of the week.

None of which would be particularly exciting on a local level, until Rehman Chishti, MP for Gillingham and Rainham, announced he was resigning his position as Vice Chairman of the Conservative Party and as the Trade Envoy to Pakistan.

His full letter is below, where he makes it clear that he cannot support the current EU Withdrawal Agreement currently on offer. Chishti is the seventh government minister to resign over this today.

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