Ipswich Tories still love Thatcher

Not sure David Cameron would be that pleased but only months after he gets into Parliament we have local Tories in Ipswich forgetting all this new green cuddly Tory image and getting back to worshiping Thatcher.

Tonight at the Full Council meeting in Ipswich we had Cllr Pope the Tory Housing portfolio holder informing us that Margaret Thatcher was the saviour of social housing, and to make the evening even more absurd the Lib Dems nodded their heads in agreement and went and voted for his amendment!

Labour was asking for Full Council support in a motion that asked for the Government to secure Tenancy rights for Council House occupants. Instead of support all we got was a 10 minute "Thatcher" worshiping session.

For many of us on the Labour side this was hard to stomach, especially as this morning all councilors received a letter asking us to join Borough Council staff in celebrating the 90th anniversary of the first council house in Ipswich. Tories and Lib Dems could not see the irony in this.



Allenby Road, Ipswich - where our first two council houses were occupied in 1920

But just to show where the Tory loyalties lie we were then informed by the Tory leader how they intended to solve the housing problem in Ipswich - no, they were not going to show great leadership and build on North Ipswich with a master plan, their great idea?? Build on Council House back gardens! You couldn't even make it up, Maggie would be pleased.

The real fight will start after we have elected a new Labour Leader

My ballot papers arrived though the letter box last week but I still haven't filled them in yet.

Like many Labour members, I am still undecided, and as we are told on many occasions, our second preference vote is also very important. Plus we have votes for the NEC and policy forum. So the next few days I have to make my mind up and send the papers in.

But for me I wish it was already over, I had hoped for more from the leadership campaign, I wanted it to inspire more Young members and also for it to be used as a tool to get out and meet the public. Some people have been inspired and the party has seen a rise in it's membership as many have joined to be able to vote in the election. We have had hustings, debates and the candidates have bombarded us with leaflets, e mails, texts and phone calls but I believe we would have gained more in the long run if each candidate had gone out and knocked on doors with members rather than speed from one constituency to another, often visiting over 5 a day, just to meet members rather than the general public

Then to make our job even harder we have Tony Blair and Mandelson with their books! Now I do believe we should be proud of what Tony and Gordon achieved and the two of them along with Campbell and Mandleson have helped make a party that is now far more electable than it was in the 80's, but Blair and Brown have had their time and I now want a new leader now so he can form his strong team and start taking the attack to the Tories and Lib Dems and then activists can get out talking to the public rather than trying to encourage other Labour members to vote for their preferred candidate.

So who am I going to vote for?

Well I believe all of them less Abbott would make better Prime Ministers than Cameron (or Clegg) but I am thinking I should vote for the one who is most electable, the one who non Labour members would most vote for. You may say where are your principles? Why don't I choose the candidate whose policies are the closest to mine. But I do believe that we must choose the man who will ensure that we only have 4 more years of this Tory gang. They have already started to destroy the Education system and in 10 years, the NHS, the Armed Forces, all would be unrecognisable and even worse probably destroyed beyond repair.

So my vote will go to David Miliband, but my second preference? Still have not got a clue, so keep sending those texts and phoning me up because David may have my first choice but the rest of my votes are still up for grabs (Ms Abbott save your money)

So what I am looking forward to is October when we will have a new, young, strong leader with a strong shadow cabinet, then the real fightback and the real work will start.