My week ahead 12- 17 December

Monday 12 December 6pm - Ipswich Labour Group meeting

Wednesday 14 December 6pm - Ipswich Borough Council - Full Council Meeting

Saturday 17 December 10.30am - Campaigning in South West Ipswich

This week has yet again highlighted that the Tory Group is slightly confused on what to campaign on or even debate at council meetings.

This week at Scrutiny they seemed more concerned in working out how much the 'State of Ipswich' report costs to compile rather than discuss what we can use the report for. They kept going on about "how much does it cost?" They have even asked that when we review the report in 12 months time the cost of the report is looked at. It is only logical and right that we do look at the cost of the report but what the Tories seem to have forgot is that the idea to create this report was theirs! We mentioned this to the Tories but they said they never knew anything about the report which is slightly worrying when one of the Tory members on Scrutiny was also on their executive.

So when the likes of Cenci and Harsant go on about us keeping the public in the dark over such issues as the future of forums, they should remember that they made decisions that they did not even tell their fellow executive members. So who was the Tory who came up with the idea of 'The State of Ipswich' report, any idea Cllr Cenci?

Wednesday gave me a chance to listen to fellow Labour members discuss 'The Purple Book' a book put together by those in Progress, a group within the party. Now Labour has always had a number of different groups within it's ranks and we currently have Purple, Black, Red and Blue books!

But what I do like about Progress is that it is just not about talking, they also get out and campaign not just within the party but also out on the street and always have a big turnout at by-elections. It was great to meet Richard Angell from Progress but also to hear the thoughts of David Ellesmere, Chris Mole and Carina O'Reilly. I had met Carina at the launch of 'Labour Friends of the Forces' and hope to do some work with her on that issue over the next year. Not sure I support all that is in the Purple Book but at least in the Labour Party we have people who are thinking about how we can help improve this country in the future. After what Cameron did this week in Europe it is obvious we have a Tory Party still stuck in the 1980's.