Monday 30 January 4pm - Culture Portfolio meeting
6pm Scrutiny Working group
Wednesday 1 February 5pm - Rushmere Youth Club, working group
Friday 3 February 7pm - The Ipswich Suffragettes – Talk by local historian Joy Bounds. The Reg Driver Centre, Christchurch Park - contact Ipswich Labour for more details and tickets.
Last Wednesday we attended the full Council Meeting and it was obvious from the first questions to the Executive right through to the vote on the Council rent rise at the end that the Tories and Lib Dems have no strategy on how to form an effective opposition. More on the Council meeting here.
Yesterday it was an Ipswich Labour awayday as we took the short trip to help our Labour colleagues campaign in Kesgrave. It is noticeable even outside Ipswich how unpopular the Tories are becoming, I expect Labour to increase their share of the vote in the the by-election that is to be held in Kesgrave on the 9th February.
This week though has been a sad week for politics in Ipswich, with the death of leading Ipswich Tory, Russell Harsant. As soon as I was elected I hit it off with Russell and loved to banter with him. It was always a pleasure to substitute on planning as you knew Russell would also be there. He will be missed by members from all sides of the political divide.
Sunday, 29 January 2012
Friday, 27 January 2012
Opposition with no strategy
The Tories and Lib Dems in Ipswich seem to put little thought in how to be an effective opposition. This was highlighted again by their performance at the Full Ipswich Borough Council meeting that was held on Wednesday (25 Jan )
It started with their questions to the Labour executive, Cllr Stroet seems to be struggling to ask anything useful and has not yet learnt the art of not asking a supplementary if the answer to the first question has made it obvious there will no value in pursuing the matter. Even former leading Ipswich Tory Gavin Maclure seems to have the same view on Cllr Stroets’ performance so far.
I have asked a number of questions at Full Council but the Tories seem very loathe to allow their backbenchers ask any questions.
Then we had yet again an attack on Area Committees by the Tories – not only in the Council Chamber but also in the local media. Cllr Carnall and Cllr Maclure both had questions on Area Committees and both would seem to imply that the Tories have a negative view on their aims and chances of success. This may not seem strange to residents but it is to myself and other Labour councillors as we hear Tory Councillors in meetings saying that Area Forums did need replacing and also how keen some Tories are not only to make them work but also it is obvious that certain Tory backbenchers are very happy about the new set up as it will give them far more opportunity to discuss issues they are concerned with than when they were actually running the council.
Cllr Terry used the Ipswich Flyer’ to attack Area Committees (and to print a thinly veiled attack on myself) but in our first Area Committee she seemed keen to make them work and had a number of ideas on how they should go forward.
So where do the Tories stand on Area Committees?
The question that most highlighted the lack of any Tory policy on the matter was when Cllr Tanya Maclure asked Labour about the allowance that chairs of the committees would be paid, it became quite apparent very quickly that the Tories did not only know that their deputy leader had agreed to take the allowance but also was the first to get back to the officers to agree to the payment!
We then had the debate about the recommended 5.6% rent rise for Ipswich tenants, the chair of the Ipswich Lib Dems has been critical of the rise on Ipswich Spy but then went and voted for the rise! The Tories then attempted to portray themselves as ‘Friends of Ipswich tenants’ forgetting to mention the rent rise is not only below what the Tory/Lib Dem Government recommended but also below the rise that the Tory/Lib Dem administration in Ipswich imposed on tenants last year (again voted for by Lib Dem Ken Bates)
I can see it is hard for the Tories and Lib Dems in Ipswich to be an effective opposition at the same time their Government is cutting anything it can and must be even harder for the Tories when their colleagues at the Suffolk County Council still seem to see Ipswich as the poor relation in the County.
The lack of any thought to the questions put forward by Tory front bench was even more noticeable when Cllr Cenci criticised the increase in grant to Ipswich Council for Racial Equality (ISCRE) without mentioning that we have decided to help ISCRE with an increase after they had their grant by the Tory Government reduced. ISCRE was even complimented on their good work by Ben Gummer MP but that still did not stop one Tory describing ISCRE as : stacked full of Labour cronies.
Do Ipswich Tories even talk to their own MP?
It seems rather than being an effective opposition, they are just interested in quick sound bites, decide to be negative on anything that we propose and at the same time be first in the queue for any extra allowance.
It started with their questions to the Labour executive, Cllr Stroet seems to be struggling to ask anything useful and has not yet learnt the art of not asking a supplementary if the answer to the first question has made it obvious there will no value in pursuing the matter. Even former leading Ipswich Tory Gavin Maclure seems to have the same view on Cllr Stroets’ performance so far.
I have asked a number of questions at Full Council but the Tories seem very loathe to allow their backbenchers ask any questions.
Then we had yet again an attack on Area Committees by the Tories – not only in the Council Chamber but also in the local media. Cllr Carnall and Cllr Maclure both had questions on Area Committees and both would seem to imply that the Tories have a negative view on their aims and chances of success. This may not seem strange to residents but it is to myself and other Labour councillors as we hear Tory Councillors in meetings saying that Area Forums did need replacing and also how keen some Tories are not only to make them work but also it is obvious that certain Tory backbenchers are very happy about the new set up as it will give them far more opportunity to discuss issues they are concerned with than when they were actually running the council.
Cllr Terry used the Ipswich Flyer’ to attack Area Committees (and to print a thinly veiled attack on myself) but in our first Area Committee she seemed keen to make them work and had a number of ideas on how they should go forward.
So where do the Tories stand on Area Committees?
The question that most highlighted the lack of any Tory policy on the matter was when Cllr Tanya Maclure asked Labour about the allowance that chairs of the committees would be paid, it became quite apparent very quickly that the Tories did not only know that their deputy leader had agreed to take the allowance but also was the first to get back to the officers to agree to the payment!
We then had the debate about the recommended 5.6% rent rise for Ipswich tenants, the chair of the Ipswich Lib Dems has been critical of the rise on Ipswich Spy but then went and voted for the rise! The Tories then attempted to portray themselves as ‘Friends of Ipswich tenants’ forgetting to mention the rent rise is not only below what the Tory/Lib Dem Government recommended but also below the rise that the Tory/Lib Dem administration in Ipswich imposed on tenants last year (again voted for by Lib Dem Ken Bates)
I can see it is hard for the Tories and Lib Dems in Ipswich to be an effective opposition at the same time their Government is cutting anything it can and must be even harder for the Tories when their colleagues at the Suffolk County Council still seem to see Ipswich as the poor relation in the County.
The lack of any thought to the questions put forward by Tory front bench was even more noticeable when Cllr Cenci criticised the increase in grant to Ipswich Council for Racial Equality (ISCRE) without mentioning that we have decided to help ISCRE with an increase after they had their grant by the Tory Government reduced. ISCRE was even complimented on their good work by Ben Gummer MP but that still did not stop one Tory describing ISCRE as : stacked full of Labour cronies.
Do Ipswich Tories even talk to their own MP?
It seems rather than being an effective opposition, they are just interested in quick sound bites, decide to be negative on anything that we propose and at the same time be first in the queue for any extra allowance.
Sunday, 22 January 2012
Gummer, Ipswich Hospital and the NHS
Today we have been told that the All Party Commons health select committee is expected to say that plans to scrap primary care trusts and other changes are hampering efforts to save billions
But Lansley has been nowhere to find and so Nick Clegg was wheeled out to answer the questions by Marr.
A national newspaper quoted the committee's report, due to be published next week, as saying: "The reorganisation process continues to complicate the push for efficiency gains."
"Although it may have facilitated savings in some cases, we heard that it more often creates disruption and distraction that hinders the ability of organisations to consider truly effective ways of reforming service delivery and releasing savings."
The committee is made up of MPs from all parties and chaired by ex-Conservative health secretary Stephen Dorrell.
The same time we hear of this attack on the Tory/Lib Dem plans we are also told that the Royal College of Nursing is also critical of the plan and it is impossible to find any Health Union, Health body or professional organisation who agrees with the Tory plans for the NHS.
But somehow every Tory MP wheeled in front of the cameras can tell you of a group of GP’s in their constitiancy who are very happy with the new plan!
Now where does Ben Gummer stand in all this, because as well as Lansley and his plan we start to hear rumours of Ipswich Hospital losing more services? Now I mentioned this on twitter and Mr Gummer was quick to answer and ‘have a slight go at me’ his tweet said: the trouble with you Alasdair is that you always confused noise with activity. Watch carefully and you'll soon see progress
Now that is funny as before he was elected we never went more than a couple of weeks before finding Mr Gummer in the Evening Star, criticising Chris Mole for not doing enough for our hospital, now I know Chris was doing his best and as a junior minister himself had a number of meetings with the hospital management and Heath Department ministers. But that was not enough for Mr Gummer who made plenty of ‘noise’ in the Evening Star.
Now he seems to think there is no need to tell the local paper what he is doing, funny how the MP for North Ipswich, Dan Poulter is in the paper every week on some issue with GP’s, the NHS in general or Ipswich Hospital. Is he just making ‘a noise’, Mr Gummer?
Now Mr Gummer is in the paper every week and even holding public meetings about the state of our railways – is that just ‘a noise’. Because over the first 20 months of the coalition I have seen no improvement to the service but have seen extortionate fare rises.
Mr Gummer, I care about not only the NHS but Ipswich Hospital, my late mother came here in 1959 to work at Anglesea Road as a freshly qualified Nurse from Birmingham. My father also worked at the same hospital as an optician, my sister is a nurse in Suffolk. Wonder why my parents joined the Labour Party? It was because they worked and believed in the NHS – the greatest social invention the world has seen.
The NHS is not safe under the Tories, as you can see from reading this post by a senior Ipswich Tory, so unsafe that even senior Tories and former Health Ministers are saying it.
The NHS is only safe and will only improve under Labour, many say what would Nye Bevan think of the latest Tory plan, I also think what would my late father and mother think of the way the Tories are trying to destroy the service they devoted their lives to. I know what they would do, they would get out in Ipswich and fight even harder to get rid of Mr Gummer and elect an MP who wants to defend the NHS not dismantle it and that is what I will be doing from now till 2015.
"It is time for David Cameron to listen to what doctors, nurses and now his own senior MPs are saying and call a halt to this reckless reorganisation”
Andy Burnham
Shadow health secretary
But Lansley has been nowhere to find and so Nick Clegg was wheeled out to answer the questions by Marr.
A national newspaper quoted the committee's report, due to be published next week, as saying: "The reorganisation process continues to complicate the push for efficiency gains."
"Although it may have facilitated savings in some cases, we heard that it more often creates disruption and distraction that hinders the ability of organisations to consider truly effective ways of reforming service delivery and releasing savings."
The committee is made up of MPs from all parties and chaired by ex-Conservative health secretary Stephen Dorrell.
The same time we hear of this attack on the Tory/Lib Dem plans we are also told that the Royal College of Nursing is also critical of the plan and it is impossible to find any Health Union, Health body or professional organisation who agrees with the Tory plans for the NHS.
But somehow every Tory MP wheeled in front of the cameras can tell you of a group of GP’s in their constitiancy who are very happy with the new plan!
Now where does Ben Gummer stand in all this, because as well as Lansley and his plan we start to hear rumours of Ipswich Hospital losing more services? Now I mentioned this on twitter and Mr Gummer was quick to answer and ‘have a slight go at me’ his tweet said: the trouble with you Alasdair is that you always confused noise with activity. Watch carefully and you'll soon see progress
Now that is funny as before he was elected we never went more than a couple of weeks before finding Mr Gummer in the Evening Star, criticising Chris Mole for not doing enough for our hospital, now I know Chris was doing his best and as a junior minister himself had a number of meetings with the hospital management and Heath Department ministers. But that was not enough for Mr Gummer who made plenty of ‘noise’ in the Evening Star.
Now he seems to think there is no need to tell the local paper what he is doing, funny how the MP for North Ipswich, Dan Poulter is in the paper every week on some issue with GP’s, the NHS in general or Ipswich Hospital. Is he just making ‘a noise’, Mr Gummer?
Now Mr Gummer is in the paper every week and even holding public meetings about the state of our railways – is that just ‘a noise’. Because over the first 20 months of the coalition I have seen no improvement to the service but have seen extortionate fare rises.
Mr Gummer, I care about not only the NHS but Ipswich Hospital, my late mother came here in 1959 to work at Anglesea Road as a freshly qualified Nurse from Birmingham. My father also worked at the same hospital as an optician, my sister is a nurse in Suffolk. Wonder why my parents joined the Labour Party? It was because they worked and believed in the NHS – the greatest social invention the world has seen.
The NHS is not safe under the Tories, as you can see from reading this post by a senior Ipswich Tory, so unsafe that even senior Tories and former Health Ministers are saying it.
The NHS is only safe and will only improve under Labour, many say what would Nye Bevan think of the latest Tory plan, I also think what would my late father and mother think of the way the Tories are trying to destroy the service they devoted their lives to. I know what they would do, they would get out in Ipswich and fight even harder to get rid of Mr Gummer and elect an MP who wants to defend the NHS not dismantle it and that is what I will be doing from now till 2015.
"It is time for David Cameron to listen to what doctors, nurses and now his own senior MPs are saying and call a halt to this reckless reorganisation”
Andy Burnham
Shadow health secretary
Saturday, 21 January 2012
My week ahead 23 - 29 January 2012
Monday 23 January 6pm - Labour Group meeting
Tuesday 24 January 5pm - Sidegate Primary School Steering Group
6pm - Culture and Leisure working group
Wednesday 25 January 6pm - Ipswich Borough Council- Full Council Meeting, Endeavour House
Thursday 26 January 5pm - Sidegate Primary School Finance Meeting
Saturday 27 January 10.30am - Labour Campaigning, North Ipswich
This week I seem to have spent most of my time in meetings and next week seems the same but not all bad as one of those meetings last week has had a positive outcome and it looks like we have found a number of residents keen enough to get a Youth club for teenagers up and running on Rushmere Estate.
On Thursday at the Scrutiny meeting we also heard some 'good news' as we were given the details of the joint Ipswich Borough Council/Ipswich Police project to help solve our 'Street drinker' problem.
I am sure most of you will have noticed that there seems to be fewer street drinkers in the town centre area with the old Odeon site now clear of them. the team works at trying to help the drinkers which then helps all of us in the town.
47 street drinkers have been identified and a number of them have now entered rehab- I left the meeting concerned that people are drawn into these chaotic lifestyles but also lifted by the fantastic work being done by the Council staff and the police.
Many of these drinkers actually started at the age of 13 and that is why the Council is also involved in parenting projects, trouble is for all the efforts of the Borough Council and charity organisations we are held back as the Tory run County Council continues to cut back on its social care programme.
Tuesday 24 January 5pm - Sidegate Primary School Steering Group
6pm - Culture and Leisure working group
Wednesday 25 January 6pm - Ipswich Borough Council- Full Council Meeting, Endeavour House
Thursday 26 January 5pm - Sidegate Primary School Finance Meeting
Saturday 27 January 10.30am - Labour Campaigning, North Ipswich
This week I seem to have spent most of my time in meetings and next week seems the same but not all bad as one of those meetings last week has had a positive outcome and it looks like we have found a number of residents keen enough to get a Youth club for teenagers up and running on Rushmere Estate.
On Thursday at the Scrutiny meeting we also heard some 'good news' as we were given the details of the joint Ipswich Borough Council/Ipswich Police project to help solve our 'Street drinker' problem.
I am sure most of you will have noticed that there seems to be fewer street drinkers in the town centre area with the old Odeon site now clear of them. the team works at trying to help the drinkers which then helps all of us in the town.
47 street drinkers have been identified and a number of them have now entered rehab- I left the meeting concerned that people are drawn into these chaotic lifestyles but also lifted by the fantastic work being done by the Council staff and the police.
Many of these drinkers actually started at the age of 13 and that is why the Council is also involved in parenting projects, trouble is for all the efforts of the Borough Council and charity organisations we are held back as the Tory run County Council continues to cut back on its social care programme.
Sunday, 15 January 2012
Beating Berlusconi! back in Ipswich
I have seen some fantastic productions at the New Wolsey in Ipswich over the last two years but as a football fan as well as enjoying the theatre, the show that I have enjoyed the most has been 'Beating Berlusconi' and you don't have to be a Liverpool fan to appreciate the story.
Plus feel free to boo when Margaret Thatcher appears on the tv in the background during the play.
The show returns to Ipswich on the 2 and 3 February- go along, you will enjoy it.
Plus feel free to boo when Margaret Thatcher appears on the tv in the background during the play.
The show returns to Ipswich on the 2 and 3 February- go along, you will enjoy it.
My week ahead 16 -22 January 2012
Monday 16 January 2pm - North East Partnership Meeting
4pm - Culture Portfolio meeting
6pm - Meeting on Youth Provision on Rushmere Estate
Wednesday 18 January 5.30pm - Elections working group
Thursday 19 January 6pm - Scrutiny Meeting, Grafton House
Saturday 21 January 1030am - Labour Campaigning South Ipswich
This week we had our first Area Committee, the main aim of the Committee idea is to get more resident participation that we did have with the Area Forums.
Now only one resident turned up on Wednesday and she lived in the South East! Tory bloggers have jumped on this to say that Area Committee's are a failure.
The first committee meeting was to elect the chair and work out what we hope to achieve. So we were not expecting a large number of residents to turn up. The success of the Committee's will be down to how uch effort all councillors put into promoting the idea. the good thing is that the Tories on the council seem keen to get them working pity they can't get that message over to their fellow Tories who blog- the three who are so negative, one is an ex councillor and the other two are hoping to be candidates in May.
I have no doubt that they will be a great success and by the end of the Summer the resident participation will be far greater than the forums ever had.
The next North East Area Committee will be held on the 20th March and though the venue is to be confirmed it will be back in the North East of the town
4pm - Culture Portfolio meeting
6pm - Meeting on Youth Provision on Rushmere Estate
Wednesday 18 January 5.30pm - Elections working group
Thursday 19 January 6pm - Scrutiny Meeting, Grafton House
Saturday 21 January 1030am - Labour Campaigning South Ipswich
This week we had our first Area Committee, the main aim of the Committee idea is to get more resident participation that we did have with the Area Forums.
Now only one resident turned up on Wednesday and she lived in the South East! Tory bloggers have jumped on this to say that Area Committee's are a failure.
The first committee meeting was to elect the chair and work out what we hope to achieve. So we were not expecting a large number of residents to turn up. The success of the Committee's will be down to how uch effort all councillors put into promoting the idea. the good thing is that the Tories on the council seem keen to get them working pity they can't get that message over to their fellow Tories who blog- the three who are so negative, one is an ex councillor and the other two are hoping to be candidates in May.
I have no doubt that they will be a great success and by the end of the Summer the resident participation will be far greater than the forums ever had.
The next North East Area Committee will be held on the 20th March and though the venue is to be confirmed it will be back in the North East of the town
Friday, 13 January 2012
Thatcher was good for the British Economy – Fact or fiction?
Thatcher was good for the British Economy – Fact or fiction?
Last night I attended a lecture organised by the Suffolk Fabians and the Ipswich Labour Party. The lecture was given by Dr Graham Gudgin who is a senior research fellow at the Centre for Business Research at Cambridge University.
The title of the lecture was: “Can we continue with a Thatcherite free market economy”
As would be expected with a lecture given by the Fabians it led to a debate that included a number of superb contributions from both Fabian and Ipswich Labour members.
In Ipswich a number of our right wing bloggers have an almost unhealthy admiration for anything Thatcher. Gavin Maclure – probably the best of the Tory bloggers is probably the worst offender and believes Thatcher was behind all that is good in Britain.
Graham proved that is wrong- and that we were better off economically in the 30 years before 1979 rather than the 30 years afterwards. Unlike the Tory bloggers I like Graham accept that Blair and Brown are also to blame for some of the mistakes made over the last 30 years.
Here are some of the interesting facts that Dr Gudgin highlighted to show that Thatcher is to blame for the state we are in rather than praise:
From 1950-1979 the growth per capita GDP was at 2.2 % per annum whilst since 1979 it has dropped to 1.8 %
The economy was far more volatile after 1979
The Trade Gap has in almost every year been negative since 1985
Inequalities in income and wealth have grown considerably since 1979
Household debt has grown since 1979
Government Debt has also grown since 1979
UK share of World trade has continued to decrease since 1979
Positives since 1979
Inflation lower
Strikes are rarer
But Dr Gudgin also poured scorn on the current Tory plans for the economy – he believes the Government should increase spending on roads, rail and energy – this will almost certainly reduce Government debt rather than increase it as the Tories believe.
An insightful lecture and a stimulating debate.
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