My week ahead, 4 - 10 January 2016

Monday 4 January, 7am – Labour campaigning

4pm - Culture Portfolio meeting

7pm – Labour Group campaigning

Wednesday 6 January, Culture working group

Friday 8 January, Lecture to Public Service students at Suffolk New College

Saturday 9 January, 10am – Labour campaigning in the town centre

For many work in 2016 will start tomorrow and many will start their day by using a train, our Tory MP, Ben Gummer has banged on about the great improvements that he and his fellow Tory MPs from Witham and Norwich have provided for us on our local railways – what a load of rubbish – most of us have just seen the system get worse but fares increase.

It has become obvious for many that all Mr Gummer is really interested in is the Ipswich-London line, the cry of ‘Norwich in 90 and Ipswich in 60’ but in fact tat will just mean a worse service for those who just want to travel to Colchester or Chelmsford, maybe Mr Gummer is becoming more like the former Tory MP for South Suffolk – Tim Yeo and just more interested in making it back to London as fast as he can?

What i think most commuters and occasional passengers would rather have is a guaranteed Ipswich to London in 75 minutes but with a clean train, seat, wif-fi and maybe a buffet.

Yet again yesterday there were no trains between Ipswich and Felixstowe, but if it is not going to London, Mr Gummer does not seem interested – actually I maybe wrong as he was keen on the varsity line for Cambridge to Oxford , but not sure how it will help those of us in Ipswich when the Ipswich to Cambridge line is so slow. We have also not seen the promised improvements to the Ipswich – Peterborough service, an important link to trains to the Midlands and the North East. Only a few weeks ago we had no trains on that line but thankfully Tory MP for Suffolk Coastal did give her constituents the advice that they could o go via Cambridge! A tweet that indicates how out of touch Therese Coffey is with her constituents, at least it was a tweet giving some sort of advice as most of her tweets seem to be written by Tory HQ (something she has in common with Mr Gummer).

It might not be all pain sailing for Mr Gummer on his rail crusade, the latest franchise deal was thrown into chaos when one of the bidders pulled out of a joint bid and the new MP for South Suffolk may have realised that ‘Ipswich in 60’ may not mean a better service for his constituents, who in fact may see less trains from places like Marks Tey an important junction for many from South of the county.

Mr Gummer mentioned the railways and the town centre in his ‘New Year’ message but no mention of Europe – strange when it now seems that Mr Cameron may even want to go to the country with the Euro referendum in the Summer. I believe Mr Gummer is pro the EU but we hear nothing from him whilst the local Tory Leader is anti EU and one of their candidates for the local elections in May even blamed the flooding in the North of England of Europe. So I for one think it is about time our MP tells us his constituents what his views e on Europe and the EU referendum .