My week ahead, 2 - 8 February 2015

Monday 2 February, 4pm – NE Area Committee agenda setting meeting
6pm – Labour Group campaigning

Thursday 5 February, 6pm –Area Committee Chairs meeting

Sunday 8 February, 11am – Labour campaigning in South East Ipswich

This week we had to vote on a rent rise for our council tenants, we followed Government guidelines but we still came under attack from the Tories for raising rent – but they had no alternative plan, they had failed to attend two of the housing panels where the rise was discussed with tenants and they could not explain how they could be critical of us but ignore the fact that our neighbouring Tory run councils put their council rents up by a higher percentage.

It was just a case of poor opposition politics, being critical but with no alternative to put forward themselves and after the fiasco with their alternative budget last year, you would have thought they would have learnt by now. But it is obvious that this is a Tory Group that discuss very little between themselves, do very little preparation and that are split ideologically with very little in common between any of them.

There is little if any group discipline and that was obvious not only at full council but at other Borough meetings during the week.

Not a great week for the Tories, the poor performance of their leader at Full Council, their campaign for improved car parks (when it was already in our budget) the closing of Ipswich Children’s Centres by Suffolk Tories (with no opposition from them) and then at an Area Committee one of their councillors seemed to be against a 20mph speed limit on a housing estate because if a child gets run over it is either their own fault or due the failure of education.

It was not only the Tories who had a nightmare at Full Council, the Lib Dems were an embarrassment – first of all only two of their 3 members turned up and then we had a mumbled apology for the absence of their third councillor about being held up by traffic whilst at the same time a member of the Press seemed to be indicating that the missing Lib Dem was never aiming to attend!

But more embarrassing in my mind was the way they voted with the Tories against the rent rise, they seem to have no political thoughts of their own and just have become the St Margaret’s branch of the local Tory Party - #YellowTories