Eurovision given red card as candidate chooses match

DAMIAN Green is a great fan of the Eurovision Song Contest but had to give it a miss this year – but not because he was on duty as one of Theresa May’s chief cheerleaders.

The Conservative candidate for Ashford was watching Reading FC play in the first round of its play-off match.

Asked if he would find the time to get in front of a TV screen, he said: “Sadly not. I will be emotionally drained by the end of the Fulham-reading game, which is tense and constitutes my leisure time this weekend!”

Well, there is always next year. Provided there’s no election…

A RESHUFFLE of Kent County Council’s cabinet - the top team - by leader Paul Carter proved rather modest and certainly wasn’t the night – or day – of the long knives.

Most of the key figures remain and there is an intriguing promotion for Peter Oakford to deputy leader, replacing John Simmonds who remains as cabinet member for finance.

Other than that really not much else, although it is worth noting the 10-strong cabinet has only woman, Susan Carey.

LABOUR has a new leader at County Hall after the party lost more than half its councillors. He is Dara Farrell who is a professional DJ and plies his trade at various nightclubs in Kent, notably the Cameo club in Ashford.

When it was suggested that it would be a first for County Hall to have a councillor who was a DJ, we were surprised to learn it wasn’t.

Gravesham councillor Bryan Sweetland posted a picture on Twitter featuring him behind the decks when he had a stint working for Radio Luxembourg; he reached the heady heights of being a stand-in presenter on Saturday nights.

PERHAPS it is for the best that attempts by the Green party to persuade the Lib Dems and Labour to have a single ‘progressive alliance’ candidate foundered.

The Green candidate for Canterbury Henry Stanton berated them as “parochial and deluded” and said their intransigence had effectively handed the Conservatives victory.

A good platform on which to base future talks.

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