Manston's dreams and nightmares

The all-knowing Nostrildamus spills the beans. Read, nod, sigh, gnash!  bit.ly/ooMicM

Manston dragging its heels over night flights

One year on, and nothing. No haste = no need. bit.ly/oa610D

Green vs Greed

Manston's freedom from environmental conscience or obligations... bit.ly/qPABmM

Sleep tight before the night flights bite

If you live within earshot of Manston, a good night's sleep will soon be something you can only dream of.

Make the most of your shut-eye before your Council sells you down the river... bit.ly/rbVl4a

Sleep-shattering noise? Grand. Fine.

It's Liberty Hall at Manston. It will be Living Hell with night flights. bit.ly/r6NZ2R

Infidel over Ramsgate

Fly over Ramsgate all you want. Whatever. The S106 at Manston is basically permission to do pretty much as you like... bit.ly/qk2rur

Manston swept away

Ruritanian-based airport operator Infidel has thrown caution to the wind and is sniffing around Thanet, looking for an airport to buy. Instead of, ahem, doing any proper research to find out if the airport is financially viable... bit.ly/nqbJbu

Whoops Apocalypse - The Sequel?

Iran Air: banned in Europe, but flying at Manston... Really? Why? bit.ly/nUcduE

Glasgow kiss-off

Manston's sister airport at Prestwick gets a bloody nose... bit.ly/pWAstR

Blimey! A politician talking sense! I wish she was my MP.

It's Mary Macleod, MP for Brentford and Isleworth, who is lucky enough to have Heathrow Airport in her constituency. She is concerned about the health effects of night flights, and advocates phasing them out. How sensible! bit.ly/nkJ1zP

(By way of contrast, my MP is Roger Gale.)

Manston Q&A: tourism

Would a busy passenger airport at Manston help local tourism? bit.ly/qRJZxR

Q&A: What is an "indirect job" anyway?

The Manston Master Plan promises hundreds of them, but what (and where) are they? bit.ly/oQyODh

Q&A: employment at airports

Is it true that every 1 million passengers creates 1,000 jobs? It's the number Manston keep trotting out. It's the number the press obediently repeats. It's the number some councillors believe. bit.ly/qMuCLl

Q&A: Surely we can trust Infratil’s numbers?

"In short, no" says one worldly-wise reader, who then explains exactly why - compelling reading... bit.ly/qoMDo9

Q&A

If it’s in the Manston Master Plan, it must be right. Right?  bit.ly/q2ocpr

Consultation news

I'm peeved that the most we've been told about the consultation process has come from a bunch of lawyers based in London, Birmingham and Bristol. When will TDC have the sense and decency to speak to us directly?  bit.ly/mWCPRz

Can a map make you cross?

See the Manston flightpath, and see where the TDC councillors live. Now wail and gnash your teeth... bit.ly/p8OsEl

Straight from the horse's orifice...

In the interests of even-handedness and fair play, I thought I would publish Manston's statement on the importance of night flights, despite it being crap. If you can bring yourself to plough through this litany of self-serving distortions and special pleadings, do please bear a few things in mind... bit.ly/nQAZlW

Dear Bob...

An excellent letter to Cllr Bayford that "may be of interest and stimulate other residents to convey their views to our councillors". A rattling good read. bit.ly/nV88K1

Needle and threat

Charles Buchanan, CEO of Manston Tumbleweed Airport, has launched the next round of his campaign to make the airport more sellable... bit.ly/nHkWeA

More on the night flights bid

Yet another "independent" report, written by an aviation lobbying group and commissioned by Manston, is coming out. It will probably forecast employment apocolypse for Kent if Manston doesn't get its way... bit.ly/qIpib5

No more cheap flights

The aviation industry has finally twigged that the price of oil is going up (because it's running out) which means that they won't be able to sell flights at daft prices... bit.ly/nahqEG

What a difference a letter makes...

(A) Fair Tax On Flying: clearing up the confusion... bit.ly/neNHnU

Big Apple pie in the sky

Job losses at Manston: definitely, now. Flights to New York: maybe, sometime. bit.ly/p6Z78n

Shameless greed

Regional airports have the cheek to demand yet more special treatment, when the aviation industry is already being feather-bedded by the Treasury (i.e. every tax payer in the country, fliers and non-fliers alike) to the tune of £10bn or more. bit.ly/q43C0r

How KCC chooses a consultancy to write a report

It's all about how "calculation of the additional employment" and "quantification of the economic benefits". There's no mention of accuracy... bit.ly/pzeSXx

Night Flights motion killed

The motion on night flights policy was scotched at the very last minute. Incompetence on the part of officers for accepting an illegal motion? Or political finesse on the part of the majority party? You decide: bit.ly/q9a3Xp

Airport Working Party neutered

Crumbs!  "Consideration of the airport's proposed night flying policy" is no longer the AWP's responsibility - so whose is it? bit.ly/pVmfwz

Caption competition

After the wisdom of crowds comes the wit of crowds... exercise yours: bit.ly/nahqEG

Night Flights: too hot to handle?

Calling all TDC-ologists: what's going to happen on Thursday? bit.ly/orpulo

Trickle of funding for Manston Parkway

"Trickle" may be over-stating it a bit. This is more of a slight dampening - enough funding for 0.13% of a station... bit.ly/osLkfV

Infratil's 2011 results...

... make grim reading for Charles Buchanan, and carry an ominous threat for Manston: bit.ly/jpbxxw

Manston unmonitored

At last - TDC explain how important the S106 is to them... bit.ly/jnCrZ8

90 days: time's up, what's happened?

Charles Buchanan said the 90 day consultation was "not planning to identify significant redundancies". That was just over 90 days ago. Anyone know what's happened? bit.ly/lol0PL

Southend vs Manston: easyJet decides

Manston must have been competing for easyJet's business, so they'll be sorely disappointed that Southend got this 10 year deal. Could be a game-changer. Could be the final nail? bit.ly/ke8UHJ

Sound-activated video recording

The wisdom of crowds: does any know how to set up a sound-triggered video recording (for planes over Ramsgate)... bit.ly/lJTBWH

Air Anon at Manston

The once-secret document kindly spares Air Anon the shame of being associated with Manston airport by scribbling out their name with the blackest marker pen money can buy. You can win a priceless prize by identifying the mystery flying machines... bit.ly/jMg6nM

Airport maths: irrational numbers and variables

In public, Manston use the laughable statistic of "one thousand jobs per million passengers".  In private, the numbers are VERY different... http://bit.ly/llGBmj

KCC: daft beggars

Thanks to the Freedom of Information Act, we know why KCC's bid for £10.8m to feather-bed Infratil was doomed to fail: http://bit.ly/kERtqA

Manston Parkway

Why the secrecy? KCC want £millions to start Parkway, and to bribe an unnamed foreign airline to use Manston, thus profiting the airport's foreign owners. Oh, maybe that's why they're being so secretive... maybe, just maybe, they realise that pouring our money into foreign companies won't go down so well when they should be boosting UK and Kentish companies... http://bit.ly/jibnVI