Alasdair Ross - local councillor

My week ahead 30 January - 5 February 2012

2012-01-29T12:59:00.004Z

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.

Opposition with no strategy

2012-01-27T13:58:00.003Z

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.

Gummer, Ipswich Hospital and the NHS

2012-01-22T19:29:00.004Z

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

My week ahead 23 - 29 January 2012

2012-01-21T18:34:00.005Z

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.

Beating Berlusconi! back in Ipswich‏

2012-01-15T11:14:00.003Z

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.

My week ahead 16 -22 January 2012

2012-01-15T10:40:00.002Z

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

Thatcher was good for the British Economy – Fact or fiction?

2012-01-13T15:21:00.003Z

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.

Why we need a rethink on resettlement for the Armed Forces

2012-01-13T11:56:00.002Z

Why we need a rethink on resettlement

I have always been a Labour supporter. Perhaps not surprising when both my parents were Labour councillors. But I also had an admiration for the Army that came through my late father who was proud of his time both in the Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders, where he served in the Korean war, but also afterwards where he joined the TA in Ipswich.

He was very proud of me when I joined the Army at 16 (though disappointed that I joined the Royal Green Jackets rather than a Highland regiment).

I went on to spend 24 years in the regiment, much of it under a Tory government. The Labour Party at that time was not popular in the Forces, mainly due to uncertainty about our aims in Northern Ireland. But let’s not be fooled into thinking the Tories were the solders’ friend.

A winter tour of the Falklands in 1988 saw most of us wearing uniform and using equipment that we had purchased ourselves. I remember the local East Anglian Daily Times journalist visiting us in West Falkland and surprised to see that other than my trousers and beret all other clothing and my boots had been purchased myself.

The end of my career saw a Labour Government win control and straight away a noticeable change when Labour Ministers visited military units. George Robertson, John Reid and even Tony Blair wanted to speak to military men and women. This was far different from when we used to have Tory ministers visit. A visit by Heseltine to Germany in 1985 led to a number of us being hidden away on some range in Sennelager in case we said the wrong thing, and the only chance of seeing Soames when Armed Forces minister was if you ended up washing up in the Officers’ Mess when he was having lunch.

But the Tories have learnt from Labour and now you will see Cameron mixing with Rifleman and others in the dust and the dirt. But I suspect this is just for show.

I went back to the Army in 2009 and had the honour to be part of 2 Rifles as we attempted (and succeeded) in making Sangin a safer place. Improvement came with a high penalty to pay in terms of those who were killed or badly injured over that summer of intense fighting, but what I saw was undoubted bravery and sacrifice of Rifleman who had not changed since when I was serving the first time.

I am still in touch with many who are still serving. When I speak to them I sense a fear – a fear of the unknown. Will their regiment even exist by 2020? Where will they be based? Will they have to uproot their family again? Will they be made redundant? Will the resettlement package enable them to make the transition back into Civvy Street smoothly?

For some it will be even harder. For example those who are suffering from injuries they picked up in Afghanistan or Iraq; injuries which can be physical and mental. Or those who have chosen to make Germany their chosen home, marrying Germans and even sending their children to the local German school.

The Government has made initial statements about which camps will close and where those soldiers will move to. So from a thriving and busy German Garrison town they may find themselves in a remote part of Norfolk on an old RAF camp, or in a newly built camp in Scotland which has no history or experience of having a military community on its doorstep.

My experience of resettlement in not a good one. The role of resettlement officer is just deemed to be a side-line for the education officer. The civilian advisers are no better – I was an infantry Warrant Officer when I left and as far as my adviser was concerned that meant I could be a warehouse manager! If he had asked my QM or even the Rifleman in the Recce Platoon of 2RGJ they would say the last job I should have is to be in charge of stores!

In 2002 the resettlement scheme had problems. I know the Government sought to improve these but I worry about how it will cope now, with thousands likely to be made redundant or leaving as they see no future for themselves in the Armed Forces. And how will the scheme cope with those who want to remain in Germany?

I am not sure the Government has not thought any of this through and that is why I am very glad that ‘Labour Friends of the Forces’ has taken resettlement as its first major campaign issue. If you have had an experience of the programme please do tell us here. Now more than ever, at a time of cut backs and redundancies, we need to get this service right.

The Coalition Government is just interested in cutting numbers and cutting costs, with no concern for those soldiers and their families who have to either move to a new home or leave the military. This is yet another betrayal of our Armed Forces by this Government.

My week ahead 9-15 January 2012

2012-01-08T19:57:00.004Z

Wednesday 11 January 5.30pm - North East Area Committee, Grafton House

Thursday 12 January 7.30pm - Fabians Meeting, Ipswich Library Lecture Room

Saturday 14 January 10.30am - Campaigning in South Ipswich

This week we will see the start of area committee's, it seems some Tory bloggers are not keen on the idea here and here but the Tories who attended the training last week seemed keen to make them work. In the North East we are keen to get them not only to work but also to hold them in our part of the town.

The first meeting at Grafton House will enable us to set targets and aims for this new idea and I know that we all agree that resident participation is one aim that we see to being the key to the success of the committees.

The two Tory bloggers who seem so set against Area Committees both live in the South West of the town. Pity their own Tory councillors from Stoke Park were unable or did not want to attend the training last week. If they had attended the training they may have been able to inform their fellow Tories that if we all work together, Area Committees will be a success.

Championship Cycling in Chantry Park, Ipswich

2012-01-08T19:22:00.007Z

British National Cyclo-Cross Championship Sunday 8th January 2012
Chantry Park, Ipswich

Today I was fortunate enough to be able to attend the Cyclo-Cross Championships which were held in the town.

I was also honoured to be given the task of handing out the medals to the winners of the women's race,

Even I get on the podium!

Local interest came in the form of Hugo Robinson who won his second GB Junior title, the is was also great for Steve Grimwood, of Elmy Cycles in Ipswich as Hugo rides for his team and it is Steve who has been the main person in getting not only the British Championships in Ipswich but we are also getting the European Championships coming to Ipswich in November.

The three highlights of the day (on top of the win for Hugo)
1. Witnessing the great Roger Hammond (in possibly his last race in Cyclo-Cross)
2. Meeting and listening to the commentary of the legendary Hugh Porter
3. The finish to the men's race where GB Mountain biker Liam Killeen fell at the last serious bend in a wheel to wheel tussle with eventual winner, Ian Field.

The legendary Hugh Porter with local lad- Hugo Robinson

Roll on November

Life in Nahr-e-Saraj – Winter 2011

2012-01-03T10:42:00.004Z

As most of us worry about a few extra pounds we put on over Christmas or sit here moaning about the football, many others will have far more serious things to worry about, debt, unemployment, poverty and then we also have those who are worried about their loved ones serving in Afghanistan.

To remind us of how these brave men and women were spending their Christmas, I attach an email that the Colonel of 5 Rifles ( a good friend and former colleague sent me yesterday)

Life in Nahr-e-Saraj – Winter 2011

5 RIFLES BG / CF NES(S)

Life has settled down into a sort of routine now, in the 6 weeks since we set up home here in Patrol Base 2 – a funny little community fashioned out of tents and sand-bags, countless ISO containers and a forest of radio antennae. We are in Nahr-e-Saraj District, which forms part of Helmand Province. On Google Earth you’ll find us just South West of a town called Gereshk, near a community called Paind Kalay, sandwiched between the Nahr-e-Bughra Canal and the River Helmand. Everything here is related to land and water, and the area that we are responsible for was first settled in the 17th Century, with water diverted from the River to our South, which created very fertile arable land where the Pashtun people found that they could make a comfortable enough life for themselves. To our North there is the Canal, built in the middle of the 20th Century and the area around it has been settled since then, with land claimed from the desert as irrigation ditches have spread out in a complex spider’s web. The people who control the water-flow in each community, called mirabs in Pashtu, are seriously important people. Alongside the mullahs, whose religious education and knowledge varies widely, and the senior Tribal figures and village headmen called maliks, the mirabs are essential to community cohesion and economic well-being.

The area is still overwhelmingly a farming community, with a range of subsistence crops grown – mainly wheat and maize, in terms of consumables. But the largest crop by some margin, and the primary cash crop, is the poppy, which is relatively easy to grow even in the areas with a very poor water supply. Poppy took over from cotton – previously the prevalent currency-earner – decades ago and it is now a central part of rural life in Helmand, which is one of the many different reasons that it is proving so hard to convince the Helmandis to stop growing it. Where there is plenty of water the farmers will manage to get two or even three harvests a year of different crops – there’s not much we can teach them about eking out growth from the soil, though we can help them with access to seeds that deliver increased yield, and of course they would all benefit from easier and freer access to markets so that they could get a better price for their crops. There are all sorts of ‘alternative livelihood’ programmes out here, which seek to find a viable alternative to growing poppy and selling the produce as ‘wet opium’; and as well as the ‘carrot’ of other crops, there is a fairly brutal ‘stick’ used by the Afghan Police to try and deter farmers from growing poppy. It’s an intractable issue which goes to the core of so many of Afghanistan’s issues – corruption, patronage, land rights, the insurgency, poverty and so on. But it is hard not to agree with the Afghan Government’s line that there will be no lasting security in Afghanistan as long as its major source of income (other than International Community funding) is from an illegal drug – you probably don’t have to be John Maynard Keynes to work out that this isn’t a sustainable economic base on which to build a cohesive country.

Families are large here, typically half a dozen or more children per household; marriage is often between cousins or with the children of neighbouring villages, and all of them tend to be ‘arranged’ in this rural area. Life is tough; violence, brutality, death and injury are part of people’s lives from an extremely early age. I visited a school the other day with the senior UK diplomat in Helmand, and was surprised to see the older kids (10 or 11 years old) casually whipping the younger kids into line with 3-foot lengths of rubber tyre. What was extraordinary was the ease with which this was taken by the other kids; they don’t cower or flinch, it’s all part of the routine. And the people have to be tough because the environment is incredibly harsh. During my recce visits this summer I was sweltering in the mid 40s Centigrade; now winter is here the nights are below zero, made much colder by the days rising to 20 degrees Centigrade…. quite a temperature range and it is bloomin’ cold. So the locals are hardy people; almost inured to physical hardship; immensely conservative religiously - and therefore socially. Women are veiled and kept out of sight behind compound walls except when working in the fields. You do not engage with women here at all unless you are yourself female and even then it is done with immense circumspection. Children, of both sexes, are a different matter – huge brown eyes, incredibly cute, inquisitive, wearing brightly coloured mini shalwar-kameez and pyjamas, the girls often with levels of kohl eye-shadow that would credit TOWIE. They are incredibly accurate with stones (Afghanistan has just won the Asian Cricket Cup, though there’s not much played down here), which they will throw at a heavily armed and armoured vehicle just for the pleasure of hearing it ‘ping’. Always asking for ‘chocklat’, they run alarmingly close to the side of the road as you drive past (picking up a stone to chuck as they run…). On foot patrol they will come and stare and walk alongside you, asking ‘Are you Commander?’ – which doesn’t (always) mean that they have been put up to it by the Taliban, but it still puts the willies up everyone, especially the Commanding Officer who starts to wish he wasn’t wearing his rank badge……

Our camp is austere, and there ain’t many luxuries – but we do have warmish showers, albeit of the most basic variety. Ablutions come courtesy of a ‘Portable Restroom’ – surely one of the great inventions of the past few years. It’s a foil bag with a larger fold-out plastic bag with a drawstring, in which one does one’s business and then it’s all sealed in the foil with a zip-lock before being burned (the unique and lingering smell of burning poo-bags is one of the memories that will never leave those of us who serve in the forward areas here). Loo-paper and one of those sterile towelette things are also included and they should really be compulsory for picnics, long car journeys and shooting parties the world over. In the smallest checkpoints the facilities are even more limited; there is still hot water for shaving and showering, but it’s a case of pouring hot water into a shower bag and standing under the dribble until you’re damp all over. But food is plentiful and the chefs and 'hobby cooks' do a fantastic job of making it all as exciting as possible. At larger locations there is an adequate supply of ‘fresh’ – including fruit and vegetables – but at many of the more remote checkpoints, of which we have a large proportion, the blokes are mainly on boxed rations, which whilst packed with calories are a bit monotonous. We all much enjoy our boxes sent from home with little treats in them to add some spice and variety to an otherwise healthy but slightly tedious diet. And there is a fantastic initiative known as ‘Come Dine With Me’, where one of our most senior chefs, with an assistant, flies into a remote base by helicopter with a rucksack full of steak and fresh vegetables, cooks the chaps a slap-up meal, and flies out again. It’s a real morale-booster, however infrequent.

In their tents, the Riflemen get a camp-cot and a large mosquito net that covers it and provides the same width again as private space and in most places they will at least have one of those Ikea-style hanging shelves to put some kit in. But that’s about it – they survive on the contents of one large rucksack and a big holdall and whatever extra is sent out from home. We’re either in uniform or occasionally PT kit, though with the cold weather you now find a range of ‘pyjamas’ being sported at night – some have flowery and fancy purpose-built numbers, others tend towards the issued long-johns, which aren’t quite so sartorially elegant. Personally I favour the White Company creations that my clever wife sent out in spite of my protestations that I never wear pyjamas – that macho pretence lasted until the water in my tent started freezing every night…... There’s a wide range of other warm kit out here – down jackets and polar fleeces of every sort, and enough merino wool to repopulate New Zealand with sheep, but there’s not much chance of keeping the chill out completely until one gets back into the sleeping bag at the end of the day.

The trip to the shaving and shower area in the mornings is a particularly bleak one in the winter – but it sure does wake you up. Shaving is done in the open air, albeit with hot water, and there is a shower tent that is basic but worth its weight in gold. The girls have a little sign that they hang outside to stop the blokes from stumbling in, but apart from that there is little concession to gender out here and the dozen or so female soldiers that are here at PB2 do a fantastic job of mucking in with the lads whilst retaining, each in their own way, some trace of femininity amongst all the drab khaki and camouflage. On a serious note, in a conflict in which killing people provides only a very small part of the solution, having a diverse community from which to draw ideas and inspiration is pretty important. There is a real danger that any Western Army, predominantly led by ‘middle-aged white men’, can quickly drift into groupthink – which usually means reverting to our comfort zone of ever-increasing doses of organised violence. I have come to really value having some other viewpoints to draw on out here. Some of our most important injects have come from the least likely sources; and keeping heresy and lateral thinking alive is a critical element of framing and solving the sort of wicked problems with which we are confronted.

The work we do is incredibly varied and deserves a PhD thesis all of its own; but in essence our task here is to protect the Afghan people and help to connect them to their Government (in full, the Government of the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan – or GIRoA). The first bit is tough – but in a land where violence is common currency and has been for at least the past 40 years (and arguably 400…), the people are well and truly sick of being fought over. Most would accept any form of governance that gave them a steady life where they could tend their crops and bring up their children; what they have had for the past 2 generations is a succession of rapacious warlords, militias, invaders, fanatics and self-interested, corrupt governors. I’m sure that some would place us in one of those categories. Although there are some real signs of progress, albeit slow, this level of instability cannot fail to shape the people and they are well and truly traumatised, at least down here in Helmand. But as I found in Iraq, the weird thing about extreme violence is how quickly it becomes utterly normal; the speed with which humans adapt to a new environment is pretty astonishing - it is how we survive. As a result, many ‘ordinary Afghans’ are now part of the violence that they all want to put behind them; it is part of the fabric of society. Young men join the insurgency or the Government’s security forces because their fathers, uncles and grandfathers fought in their time – for the Russians, for the mujahideen, in the civil war, against ISAF, against the Taliban. In many Helmandi families you will find one or more sons joining the Government forces and others joining the insurgency; in a society like this, hedging ones bets is a fundamental tool of group and family survival. We are not, in the main, fighting ideological fanatics – though there are a few of them. But they are committed; and they uncomplainingly suffer and die for a cause that may be no more than a misunderstanding of what ISAF is doing here; a deep mistrust of central Government; a poor comprehension of Islam and its tenets; or because there is no other prospect for employment.

The insurgents are good at what they do; and their mid-level leaders tend to have come through a fairly Darwinian process of selection. If they’re still alive then they are either pretty good; or they’re sitting in relative safety out of reach of Afghan and ISAF forces. The lower-level fighters are less experienced and capable, but even they will have been around guns and explosives since they were teenagers, so they are pretty dangerous and know their business. But even the good ones are fallible and so far we have had some significant successes against their middle tier of leaders. When you kill or capture a couple you do see a noticeable drop in capability for a number of weeks – they are replaced but it takes some time for their successors to get into the swing of things. It is in these gaps that we can achieve some real progress – the real value of our targeting operations is in buying the time and space to bring Afghan governance a step closer to the people. It might provide an opportunity to bring a District Governor into the area to hear people’s complaints and concerns, or it might allow us to set up a new ‘Afghan Local Police’ programme, which will prevent the vacuum being re-filled by the insurgency. This is where GIRoA has a serious advantage - the insurgency has very little to offer the people. There's plenty of intimidation, at best protection of the poppy crop and the cash that comes from it, but nothing in terms of a better, fairer or more peaceful life. So it is these ‘soft’ activities that provide real advances here, rather than the ‘hard’ activities that we are more familiar and comfortable with as soldiers. So, much of my time out here is spent ‘drinking chai’, in endless rounds of discussion with local governance figures, village elders, Afghan Army and Police commanders, and the various International Community representatives who are here to help the Afghans bring some development to the farthest reaches of the country. The talking I find easy; the chai is very pleasant; what is hellish is the attempt at sitting cross-legged for hours on end….. seventy-year-old Afghans can do it but this forty-odd-year-old Brit fails miserably; luckily they find it amusing rather than insulting and, as in all these matters, they are grateful that one at least makes the effort.

The blokes on the ground do a fair bit of tea-drinking too, but typically it’s a bit more testing than that. Almost all of our patrolling and operations out here are on foot, sometimes following a helicopter drop-off. It is a thoroughly gruelling process, with the boys carrying upwards of 40 kg in body armour, radios, weapons, ammunition and water – that’s not far off 90 pounds and when I first saw that written down I thought it was nonsense too. They are in an out of irrigation ditches, across water-logged fields, over compound walls, and all the while straining their eyes for the tell-tale signs of an improvised explosive device planted in the earth. We have taken an equal balance of casualties from IEDs and gun-shot wounds. It’s a miserable part of our business but the blokes cope extremely well and are incredibly resilient. The medical care is quite literally better and quicker than you could hope for if you were shot in Central London. Our medical helicopters come with multi-disciplinary Consultant teams on the back of them – and several of our blokes have been on the operating table in our hospital back at Camp Bastion in under 30 minutes from point of wounding - truly remarkable. Sadly some are less fortunate and we have lost two very good men to IEDs – Private Tom Lake and Rifleman Sheldon Steel. They were both exceptional soldiers, in their prime and surrounded by friends, doing a difficult job in a tricky spot, and doing it very well. We'll not forget them.

We run a slightly sombre but very touching Vigil Service for our Fallen, back at Camp Bastion, which the dead soldier’s immediate team and closest friends are usually flown back for, and the hundreds of soldiers of all nationalities based at Bastion also attend. It is a chance for tributes to be paid, formal and informal, and for prayers to be said. And then there is an even more moving ceremony during which his closest mates carry the coffin onto a waiting aeroplane to begin the journey home to UK. These events are truly cathartic, and do a huge amount of good for the immediate team members who were part of the incident in which he was killed. For those who can’t get back to Bastion (the vast majority of the Battlegroup) we run a parallel service in all of the forward locations, so everybody gets a chance to say farewell. It does the trick; and lets people move on, or at least to put it all to one side for the rest of the tour so that we can press on with the task at hand. Fortunately the Padre doesn’t just do the sad bits; he’s constantly travelling all over the Battlegroup, doling out his never-ending supply of sherbet-lemons and listening to the fears and fancies and hopes and dreams of the old and the young, the faithful and the notso – everyone values a Padre out here.

On a lighter note, we’ve just had a surprise visit from HRH The Earl and Countess of Wessex, who are Royal Colonels for 2 and 5 RIFLES respectively. They were in great form, as always, with the Countess looking impossibly elegant in her camouflage kit, in spite of less than 3 hours’ sleep and a pretty adventurous helicopter ride across the desert. The blokes were delighted to see them; to be able to show off their kit; and tell a few tales of their scrapes over the past weeks. The Royal protection officers were understandably a little less relaxed about the whole situation, but all went off smoothly and with a minimum of fuss and bother. And luckily the whole visit was complete before the dust-storm arrived that has kept the Prime Minister stuck back at Kandahar.

Christmas will soon be on us and we have made some preparations that I won’t go into here and now. We’re entirely ‘dry’ out here, so Christmas spirit will be of the ecclesiastical variety and the Padre will be doing his rounds. But the important work will continue, albeit with a brief moment to pause and reflect on what we are doing, rejoice that we are here, and remember our mates who are not. It’s not a great time to be away from our husbands and wives, our children, our wider families and friends, but there is a pretty special shared bond in being far from home and in a difficult and dangerous place at Christmas. So we’ll hold onto that feeling, secure in the sense that we are doing something that is selfless and honourable and something to tell stories about over future pints, and keep warm in the knowledge that most of us will be home next year, and some other poor bugger will be ‘stagging on’ in a bleak sangar on the other side of the world. And two weeks of ‘Rest and Recuperation’ won’t be far away now for most of us, and before you know it Spring will be here and we’ll be cursing the heat and wondering if it really was so very cold……

Happy New Year and My week ahead, 2 - 8 January 2012

2012-01-01T11:04:00.003Z

Wednesday 4th January 2012, 4pm - Area Committee Training, Grafton House

Saturday 7th January 10.30am - Campaigning in East Ipswich

Sunday 8th January 10am - British Nation Cyclo-Cross Championships at Chantry Park.

A quiet week politically (Christmas and football getting in the way!)

This week will see the start of training for councillors that will help ensure that the Area Committees are a success - interesting to see how many Tories attend the training!!

For many of us 2012 will all be about the Olympics and for those who can't wait till July, I urge you to join me at Chantry Park on Sunday (or Saturday) for the British National Cyclo-Cross Championships. Even better we have a chance of a local rider winning this prestigious event. Get along and cheer Hugo Robinson.

To have a look at what is involved have a look at the website or watch the video with Hugo testing the track.

Ip-Cross 2012 from Carl Thompson on Vimeo.

Olympic Year - but will the drug cheats win?

2011-12-29T13:57:00.002Z

I can’t wait till 2012 and getting closer to the Olympics coming to London. I have my tickets and I hope and believe it will be one of the greatest games ever – and that there will be a sporting legacy left behind.

I was disappointed not to get tickets for cycling, as it is a sport that I love to watch and one that Britain has come to dominate but not only on the track as we now are a force in road racing.

I also expect GB to collect medals in a number of sports and for all our athletes to preform to their highest level but I do have one worry and that these games are again overshadowed by the use of performance enhancing drugs.

I have just finished reading the fantastic, ‘Racing through the Dark’ by GB cyclist David Millar. Not only is it a fantastic book on cycling but it gets you close to the seedy world of the sports doper.

We keep coming up with new drug tests, but the chemists keep coming up with new drugs. We catch cyclist, athletes but they appeal and come back but we need to do more.

The reason why Millar’s book is so readable is that he admits he took drugs and in most cases names to doctors, trainers and managers who either advised him to take the drugs or turned a blind eye to the doping.

People will always cheat, always dope but we need to not just catch them and ban but it is those who supply both the drugs and the knowledge of how to use them who need to be caught then both banned for life and if a criminal offence has been undertaken – jailed.

As a young soldier I was on a mountaineering trip in the Italian Alps – one of our climbers had been a promising female hurdler, she was in the top 3 in the UK in the early 80’s but she gave up. I asked her why, she said her coach told her she had reached her ceiling and that if she wanted to go further she needed to use chemicals and he could supply. At that time she was at one of the leading Athletic clubs in the UK, I believed her and remembered what she had told me after a leading British female was caught at a later Commonwealth games – she was a member of the same club!

When an athlete is caught in particular a young g one, we need to find out who supplied him and whilst he is banned his coach should be banned at the same time.
David Millar could soon be allowed to appeal against his Olympic ban alongside Dwaine Chambers. Millar would have far more support than Dwaine because of his honesty but I believe they should stay banned. Millar does not ride for the Sky team as they have a nil doping policy but he was welcomed back by the GB and Scotland teams for the World Cycling Championship and the Commonwealth Games but even so the Olympic ban should stay and all countries should follow the GB lead.

We need to catch not only the athletes but the coaches and managers who pedal this filth – there is a pressure to win, even more so as the host nation. This has been highlighted by the recent bans placed on Indian athletes are the Commonwealth Games.
Let us just hope London 2012 are the games where the cheats do not win – and that will only be achieved if other competitors who do cheat come clean and tell us of those who helped them. A certain Lance Armstrong is one ex cyclist who could help so much – did he cheat?

Happy Christmas

2011-12-24T09:51:00.004Z

I would just like to wish all the readers of this blog and Rushmere residents a 'Happy Christmas'

2012 will be a difficult year for all of us and I with my Labour colleagues in Ipswich will be trying our hardest to do the best for the people of Ipswich.

But this Christmas I will also be thinking about my friends and comrades serving in Afghanistan, both 2 and 5 Rifles will be away from their families this Christmas. I remember the Christmases I had to spend away from my family and to be honest it is easier for the troops than those who are left behind.

So this Christmas if you wish to help our troops away from home visit the Care 4Casulaties website or Labour Friends of the Forces.

HAPPY CHRISTMAS

My week ahead- 19- 25 December

2011-12-18T13:28:00.003Z

Monday 19 December 2pm - North East Ipswich Partnership Meeting
4pm - Culture Portfolio meeting
6pm - Political debate on ICR Radio
7.30pm - Labour Group Xmas dinner

Seem to be packing in all my work into one day!

Last week we had the last Full Council meeting of the year, we did wonder how the Tories and Lib Dems would vote when it came to adopting the Council Core Strategy and Policies Development Plan. I was quite amazed that they voted with Labour! But there was far more to this agenda item that the unanimous vote. Lib Dem Cllr Richard Atkins attacked the Tories for the NIMBY attitude that had plagued the writing of the plan. Cllr Goldsmith the Tory Cllr from Castle Hill did not rise to the bait but did speak on behalf of the Northern Fringe Group. Lib Dem Inga Lockington also spoke and maybe Richard Atkins should have also attacked some of his own party who have acted in a NIMBY way towards the development of the Northern Fringe including Cllr Lockington.

Even now the plan has been approved; I am sure that when planning permission is being sought for the area North of Valley Road we will still have a number of Tories and Lib Dems looking to refuse permission to build in this part of town.
Will be interesting to read Tory/Lib Dem leaflets over the next few months (if they deliver any!) as they both seemed to be anti any development on the Northern Fringe in their leaflets in the St Margaret’s by-election.

The Council meeting also looked at changes to Polling stations in Ipswich, the Tories tried to keep a polling district in Bixley that is not only the smallest in the town but the polling station is situated outside the Borough. As no Tories had turned up for the two Working group meetings on polling stations there was not much sympathy for them.

We also debated setting up Area Committee’s, all seemed to agree that Forums were not working but the Tories were also not keen on area committees, and in the end the Tories and Lib Dem Ken Bates, abstained - the Tories seem to becoming the abstain party - something that Tory Gavin Maclure is not happy about.

After all the debating and arguing the most significant statement of the meeting was when Cllr John Mowles, our Housing spokesman declared that Labour run Ipswich Borough Council is planning to start building council houses again in Ipswich. This development should help a number of young families as they seek their first home in the town.

Street lighting in Ipswich over the holiday period

2011-12-17T10:51:00.001Z

As you know over the last few months the lights in Rushmere have been turned off between midnight and 5.30 in the morning. In some parts of the town there has been some concern over this.

The vast majority of the lights in the Ward are owned by the County Council. The Borough and the County are working together over the holiday period to change the lighting system times over this busy period, I thought you would be interested in those changes:

STREET LIGHTING SWITCHING OFF REGIME OVER THE FESTIVE PERIOD.

Suffolk County Council and Ipswich Borough Council over that last few months have been introducing an Intelligent Lighting system.
All street lights managed by both Authorities that are six metres in height and below are in the process of being switched off between the hours of midnight and 5:30am. In many areas of Ipswich this system is already up and running.

Both Suffolk County Council and Ipswich Borough Council have recognised that there is always and increase in activity over the festive period. With this in mind, street lights in Ipswich will follow the following regime over this period

Friday 23rd December - On all night (from dusk till dawn)
Saturday 24th December - On all night (from dusk till dawn)
Sunday 25th December - On all night (from dusk till dawn)
Monday 26th December to Friday 30th December - street lights will be left on until 1am.
Saturday 31st December - On all night (from dusk till dawn)

Outside of the dates detailed above, the street lights in Ipswich will continue to operate the normal switching off regime

I hope that is of some use to you, it just leaves me to wish you all a 'Happy Christmas'

My week ahead 12- 17 December

2011-12-11T11:26:00.005Z

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.

Gummer, interns and knives!

2011-12-10T10:41:00.004Z

Ipswich Spy led in the local blogging world with a story that first came to prominence in The Daily Mail (so even though it seemed like a story attacking the Tories - I had to check the facts as it came from the Daily Fail).

The story was about a former intern of Ben Gummer who was caught with 2 knives in his bag as he went to hand in a petition to Nick Clegg as part of a delegation from the Oxford University Conservative Association.

The post by Ipswich Spy - here - concentrated on the fact that Henry Evans had escaped with a caution and that Ben Gummer had made a number of statements both in the Evening Star and in Parliament on stiffer sentences for those caught with knives.

Ipswich Spy then declares they are then surprised that Mr Evans escaped with a caution after what Mr Gummer had said. But of course whatever Mr Gummer or any politician tells us it is the police and the legal system who should decide what happens. Reading further into the story it becomes obvious that Mr Gummer employed Henry as an intern after he had been caught with the knives.

I decided to ask Mr Gummer his thoughts on the matter and also asked him did he know of the caution before he employed Mr Evans. Mr Gummer said he would not discuss Mr Evans as it was improper to comment on someone who he had employed as it would be improper for me to comment on a pupil who may have come under my charge. I understand that but as Mr Evans was over 18 not sure that argument adds up. Mr Gummer is only being asked the same questions as Mr Cameron is over Mr Coulson. Like Mr Cameron, Ben believes in giving people a second chance.

I agree with Ben that the sentencing should be left for the Police and the judiciary but politicians need to remember when they are quoted on sentencing or punishments for knife crime that it will then surprise the public when someone who seems to have treated quite leniently by the police is then employed by Mr Gummer, let alone allowed to work in Parliament.

But what interested me about the story is the use of interns, now after asking Mr Gummer it seems Mr Evans was employed on more of a work experience type scheme than as an intern and possibly would have received expenses from Ben.

But I feel it is wrong that MP's uses interns, they should employ and pay people a decent wage or possibly offer apprenticeships. Interns seem to be only those who can afford to live and work in London and therefore come from a more privileged background. Labour and Lib Dem MP's are also as guilty as the Tories for employing interns. But it seems the Tory Party leads on the number of interns employed.

Guido Fawkes - the Tory blogger is running a campaign against such misuse of the system and states the case of Tory minister Jeremy Hunt as Guido puts it; Multi-millionaire Jeremy Hunt, Cabinet minister's salary £134,565, paid himself £2 million bonus last year. Total pay to 7 interns: £0.00.

The Tories are recorded to have employed at least 125 unpaid interns in the last year. A number will do this so they can say to their constituents “look how low my expenses are?”

Mr Gummer informs me he has employed a number if interns and as he has not got a huge budget, he only pays expenses to those who if they did not have that money would find themselves excluded from looking at how an MP works.

Mr Gummer states he also gives priority to those from Ipswich, I am pleased to hear this as the ‘Evans – knife’ story concerned me because it seems that Mr Evans is an ‘old boy’ of Ben’s former Public School in Kent. Now I expect this last sentence will be seized on by the Tory bloggers, highlighting the fact that I work in a Public School. I understand how the ‘old boy’ network operates but possibly Ben should have put a good word in for Mr Evans with a Kent MP and offered the place to an Ipswich resident – whether they went to Ipswich School or Chantry.

Now Ben may state that he chose the best candidate! I hope not as the Chair of the Oxford University Conservatives stated that Mr Evans was probably saved from jail because he is stupid! You do wonder why someone at one the best universities in the world goes to London to see the Deputy PM, with 2 knifes in his bag, that he had put in there on a school trip to France a number of years ago!

In conclusion, I accept that people should have a second chance and am not concerned that Mr Gummer employed Mr Evans, It does emphasize the point though that when a politician issues a quote in a paper that he must remember that it could come back to bite them.

I am also happy that Ben allows young people to work with him in Westminster to get work experience, but let’s call it that then – rather than an internship.
Interns should be stopped, it should be an apprenticeship (paid) at least.

Choosing those for work experience, where possible they should come from your own constituency but if not they should be at least someone who is going to offer something to Ipswich residents rather than the class clown from your old school.

Do Ipswich Tories talk to each other?

2011-12-04T15:43:00.005Z

Today the former Tory leader of Ipswich Borough Council, Liz Harsant has blogged about some bollards being placed in Gladstone Road. She was so pleased she even said 'Thank you' to the council - Read more here about Gladstone Road

Liz Harsant mentions that residents have complained about indiscriminate parking - did Liz Harsant ask for the bollards?

The reason why I ask, is that former Tory Councillor Gavin Maclure has also put up a post about the same issue here. Now Gavin lives in Gladstone Road along with his wife who is also a Tory councillor and former portfolio holder for transport in the Borough. He seems to have a slightly different opinion about the bollards, he states; "However, the Council has still found time to put up five bollards on a pavement on my road, supposedly to stop cars parking on the pavement (although I only ever saw one car), but it is totally unnecessary as there are already double yellow lines...pure incompetence and waste!"

So are the bollards a good idea like ex Tory leader Lz Harsant states or "pure incompetence and waste"? The senior Tories in Ipswich can't seem to make their mind up!

Also on Liz Harsant's blog she mentions that she is happy that the council may put a stop to their new grass management plan, as the residents were against it. What surprises me is that at no stage has Liz Harsant mentioned that the new Grass Management idea was one her administration (when she was leader) came up with. Plus the savings this new scheme would make were already included in her budget! So it seems the Tories were happy to come up with all these schemes to help cut Council Tax by 1 % and then once they lost power say how stupid the schemes were. Double standards?

My week ahead 5 - 11 December

2011-12-04T11:46:00.002Z

Monday 5 December - 4pm Culture and Leisure portfolio meeting
6pm Labour Group meeting

Wednesday 7 December - 7.30pm Labour Purple Book Tour, Ipswich Library

Thursday 8 December - 6pm Ipswich Borough Council Scrutiny meeting, Grafton House

Friday 9 December - 9am Sidegate Primary School Panto
7.30pm Ipswich Labour Christmas Party

Saturday 10 December - 10.30am Labour Campaigning, North Ipswich

A visit to Sidegate Primary School this week,it was good to hear how the school continues to advance , also I was able to pass on my concerns about the payment for the School Crossing patrol. The Head Teacher and the Chair were able to inform us that the sponsor had made his initial payment to the County Council. It seems the sponsorship deal was not as simple as the Tories initially made it out it to be.

On Wednesday I joined those on strike at the rally at the Cornhill, David Ellesmere and the union leaders all spoke with David empasising that this is not a Public sector v Private sector dispute, all workers should be able to benefit from good pensions.

On Thursday I attended a training session at the Borough Council, the session was centred around the proposed changes to the benefit system. Never have I left a meeting at Grafton so angry and also depressed.

The Tories (with the help of the Lib Dems) are planning the biggest attack that I have ever seen on the poor and vulnerable in this country.

We all know that changes are needed to the benefit system and that the public would also like to see those who are making illegal claims are caught and punished but of all the changes planned I could only see one that would help the public. the remainder are just attacks on the poor, disabled and to be blunt - those who are not seen as Tory voters.

The good bits? Councils will be able to levy a full council tax on second homes - but up to Councils, so do not expect to see this happen on the Suffolk Coast, more tax can also be placed on empty homes. This may be of use in Ipswich as currently we have about 800 plus empty homes in the Borough with over 70 being empty for a number of years.

The remainder of the changes were horrific, a conservative estimate is that in the first full year of the changes, Ipswich residents will lose over £3 Million in benefits.

For instance the bereavement benefit will no longer be assessed locally but you will have to phone a call centre in Scotland! The Government has been clever, most of the brunt of the anger of those who will find themselves homeless will be aimed at local councils and once the changes are complete the benefit staff will be made redundant and the payments will be made by Central Government.

The Labour Councillors in Ipswich asked the officer a number of questions whilst the Tories and Lib Dem's sat quietly, were they ashamed of what their Government is planning?

The two Lib Dems in the evening session just sat quietly, making no contribution to the exchanges. At least from the afternoon session, the Lib Dem Ken Bates seemed worried enough about the changes to say that he will write to Mr Clegg, will be interesting to hear what Nick Clegg has to say on the matter.

The two Tories at the evening session also sat in silence but if I was an Ipswich resident I would be more concerned that they were the only two Tories out of 14 who even turned up for the training - Carnall, Harsant, Cenci and Terry all failing to attend a session that highlighted changes to a system that will cause havoc for many Ipswich residents ( but maybe not many in Bixley)

Will the changes happen? Many Labour members present hope that the Tory and Lib Dem MP's will listen to the Church, CAB, Councillors and stop a number of their plans, their is also the belief that they will not even have an IT system ready in time to implement a number of them, but I fear the worse. so all I can do is campaign harder to make sure we get rid of this Government as quick as possible.

300 Suffolk Police jobs axed

2011-11-27T10:51:00.003Z

This week it was sad to see Inspector Mark Lewis leave his role as head of the North East Ipswich Safer Neighbourhood Team. Mark was one of those who has been heavily involved in the implementation of the SNT's in Ipswich from the start. They have been a resounding success.

Mark will continue to run the South East Team and we will be joined in the North East by Inspector Coe.

We have been promised by the Tory Government that there will be no front line cuts to the police service, but in Ipswich we are going down to 5 inspectors from 9 - according to the Tories, inspectors are not front line policeman. How can running a SNT not be front line?

We also hear that members of the SNT will now be doing some of the work formerly done by the transport division, this may possibly mean that the SNT will be less effective than they previously were.

The Labour Party in Ipswich will continue to campaign to try and stop the Government destroying our police force

My week ahead 28 November - 3 December

2011-11-27T10:28:00.004Z

My week ahead 28 November - 3 December

Monday 28 November 9am - Radio interview ICR

Tuesday 29 November 5pm - School Governors Meeting, Sidegate Primary School
7.30pm - Suffolk Fabians Meeting, Citizens Advice Bureau

Thursday 1 December 6pm - Councillor training, Grafton House

Saturday 3 December 10.30am - Campaigning in North Ipswich

The highlight of my week was on Tuesday when I attended the launch of 'Labour Friends of the Forces' at the House of Commons and it was an honour to be chosen to be the advocate for the Eastern Region. I have already had some good conversations with Labour colleagues from Cambridge and Colchester about the way ahead.

This week we have had a number of senior Tories (with support from Lib Dem Cllr Ken Bates) moaning about the possible loss of the area forums - possibly to be replaced by area committees. These committees would have real power and also possibly a small budget. So strange the Tories so against it when they were so keen on locality budgets. The Tories talk about there being no consultation, in the North East of Ipswich we had a partnership meeting where the Area committees were discussed - guess what? None of the five Tory councillors turned up!

Labour 'Friends of the Forces'

2011-11-23T12:34:00.006Z

There has probably been no time since the Korean War that the Labour Party needs to align itself with the Armed Forces. I write this listening to Prime Ministers question time and as often over the last few years it starts with a tribute to the fallen.

Dan Jarvis MP, Alasdair Ross and Jim Murphy MP - 'Forces can join for £1'

For far too long the Conservatives were seen as the party of the Forces, I for a long time saw this was a myth and if anyone else was in doubt the cuts to our armed forces and the future cuts show that the Tories can no longer describe themselves as the forces friends.

So once I heard that Jim Murphy MP, the shadow defence minister was helping set up the ‘Labour Friends of the Forces’ I quickly volunteered to join and have since become an advocate for the group in the East of England.

Last night I was invited to the shadow Cabinet room at the House of Commons for the official launch of the group. It was an honour to be invited to the launch and to enter this famous building but what was more humbling was meeting some of the other veterans who have joined the group including a number of ex Ghurkha soldiers. One of these brave warriors from Nepal has even become a Labour councillor. If anyone has a doubt that this group is not being taken seriously then you only had to see the number and quality of the Labour MP’s present, all keen to sing the praises of our armed forces and also to offer their support.

Dan Jarvis MP, tell us why he joined the party, with Jim Murphy and Gurkha veterans listening intently

But it was not only MP’s and veterans who were present there were other Labour activists at the event and it was great that both Colchester and Cambridge were represented at the event.

Superb speeches were given by Jim Murphy and also Lord Robertson and Dan Jarvis, ex Par Major and now the MP for Barnsley.

The evening flew by and I managed to have quite a long chat with both Lord Rosser and Gemma Doyle MP, both who work with Jim as members of the shadow defence team. Gemma seems to be an MP with a bright future at Westminster.

So what next? Well as the groups advocate in the East, I want to visit troops, speak to them and their families not just to tell them of our vision for the future of the Armed Forces but also to hear their fears and get their thoughts.

Lord Robertson launches the group

We also want to see those who support our forces to join the group, you do not need to have been a member of the armed forces to join but just someone who is a Labour supporter and has a empathy with the armed forces. Join here.

On top of that members of the armed forces and veterans can join the Labour Party for £1.

My week ahead 21- 27 November

2011-11-20T16:22:00.004Z

Monday 21 November 2pm North East Ipswich Partnership Meeting
4pm - Culture and Leisure Portfolio Meeting
6pm - Campaigning

Tuesday 22 November 7.30am - Breakfast briefing with TA and Reservist soldiers - Bury St Edmunds
7pm - Launch of Labour 'Friends of the Forces' - House of Parliament

Saturday 26 November 10.30am - Labour campaigning, North West Ipswich

This week I have been the target of a number of personal attacks, some would say if you 'live by the sword, you die by sword'. I understand and enjoy the rough and tumble of politics, I understand that when you say (or write, or tweet) something it may be used against you in the future. But when it is just out and out lies it can make you angry. I was accused this week of having my mind set on being the Mayor of Ipswich - rubbish!

More serious were the accusations made about how I have acted as a Governor at Sidegate School - this was most hurtful.

Even more strange was the timing of theses attacks, they came in the same week that the Tories in Ipswich were up in arms after Ipswich Spy had published a post highlighting the current in-fighting in the Ipswich Conservative Constituency party. Maybe they should look at the posts they publish themselves first.

A true friend of the Armed Forces

I am looking forward to Tuesday when I am the launch of the Labour 'Friends of the Forces' at the Houses of Parliament, it will be an honour to walk into that building and then meet and talk to Dan Jarvis, Jim Murray and Lord Robertson - men who really care about our Armed Forces - unlike a certain Liam Fox.

Liberals leaving a sinking ship

2011-11-20T13:35:00.004Z

Whilst looking at recent local election results came across this interesting set of statistics.

Since the May 2011 local elections there have been 28 instances where councillors have defected from one party to another:

Labour have had 9 councilors Join them from other political parties and had one member defect to another group.

The Tories, have lost 3 to defections but gained seven from other groups, but it is no surprise to us involved in local politics that it is the Lib Dems who have seen the most defections since May. they have gained one councillor from another political group but have had 16 of their councillors leave for other groups.

Liberals leaving a sinking ship?

Have edited this post after a Lib Dem complained- I was just using a common English term used when anyone flees what has become a lost cause . Apologies for any offence caused.

Knives out For Cameron

2011-11-13T15:34:00.006Z

Under two years in Government and certain Tory MP's have already got the knives out for their leader and Prime Minister, David Cameron.

There will always be politicians in any party that do not like their leader and even at times let the public/press know they are not happy. But I am sure many of us are surprised how quick his own party has turned against Cameron.

I don't think Cameron is either a great leader or Prime Minister but the Tory MP's are not rebelling because they are concerned about the state of the country it seems that most are just bitter as the junior minister posts they were expecting have ended up in the hands of Lib Dems. So many posts that at times it seems that the Lib Dem MP for Portsmouth and Bob Russell at Colchester are the only Lib Dems still on the backbench.

The latest attack by a Tory MP came this weekend with Patrick Mercer accused of calling the Tory leader an 'arse' it makes interesting reading - more here

Cameron would have expected a small rebellion on the Europe referendum but he would have still been surprised by the size of the mutiny, the Tories still confused on where they exactly stand on Europe. Some of those who rebelled will be well known Euro sceptics, others would have been in 'disgruntled because Lib Dems got my job' band and a third group would be those who will state that they rebelled because their local association members expected them to vote for a referendum. Note 'what their association expected' rather than their constituents.

Where does this leave Gummer and his fellow Suffolk Tory MP's? All voted with the Government and all are seen as ultra Cameron loyalists and it could also be said that they voted for what is best for their constituents. We must remember that 60% East of England trade is with EU, one-third more than other UK regions.

I expect our Tory MP's to stay loyal to Cameron, Coffey is allegedly rated highly and may be close to a junior minister post, Dan Poulter seems to be in the Evening Star every day and has taken the role of 'saviour of Ipswich Hospital' from Ben Gummer. But Gummer does seem to have a problem with his own association and in particular the Tory activists.

Gavin Maclure makes it quite clear that he has fell out of love with Cameron and some of his posts have more of a UKIP feel than Tory Party but he at least states that they knew Ben Gummer's view on Europe before they elected him but will Ben find it hard to get people to campaign for him when so many seem anti - Europe? James Spencer their habitual Bridge Ward candidate has made a number of attacks on Ben Gummer and as usual his 'follower' Kevin Algar also seems keen to join the anti Europe brigade. Ben Gummer was probably not surprised that may of his association are so anti Europe but I am sure that he is disappointed that at one of their flagship lectures they have invited Mr Campbell Bannerman MEP to be the guest speaker. Now Gavin describes Bannerman as a Conservative MEP, but in fact he was elected as a UKIP MEP and that there is a call for him to resign as we elect political groups as MEP's rather than individuals - more on this at the Ipswich Spy site.

So what does Ben Gummer do? Turn up to the lecture to confront Mr Campbell Bannerman, to tell the association members the benefits of being part of the European Union, or does he just keep a low profile, and hope that come the next General Election, the activists will forget his pro Europe stance and get behind him in his fight to keep Ipswich as a Tory seat?

The good thing about so many Tory activists now tweeting or using blogs - we will soon find out.

The Tory MP's, the Tory activists and the Tories in Ipswich- all falling out of love with David Cameron, Gavin Maclure even suggested that putting Cameron on their leaflets in St Margaret's Ward may have been a contributing factor to their defeat last Thursday.

My week ahead 14 -21 November

2011-11-12T22:07:00.002Z

Monday 14 November 6pm - Labour Group meeting

Wednesday 16 November 11am - North East Ipswich Forum, Ransomes Sports and Social Club - Sidegate Avenue

4pm - Polling Stations Working Group, Grafton House

Thursday 17 November 5pm - Sidegate Primary School, Finance Meeting

A number of reminders of my schooldays this week, Monday I was at Fore Street Swimming Pool for the launch of our free i-card for members of HM Forces residing in the town, this was where I learnt to swim when I was at St Helens School. Then on Thursday at the St Margaret's by-election I found myself knocking up voters in Devereaux Court off Bolton Lane. Before becoming luxury housing this was once part of Tower Ramparts School.

Talking of the by-election at first it seems a disappointing result as we worked tirelessly to increase our vote. But it was not to be and it became obvious during the day that many of our voters were returning to tactical voting as they would rather have a Lib Dem Cllr than a Tory. But all our good work will not go to waste and it will be of enormous benefit to us when we come to getting David Ellesmere elected as our MP at the next General Election.

Wednesday gave me the opportunity to represent residents at the Planning Committee. The good news was that the planning proposal for the Golden Key pub site was turned down. More strange was the Tory decision to all abstain.

Today (Saturday) I was provisionally selected to stand again as the Labour candidate in the Borough election for Rushmere Ward next May.

North East Ipswich Forum - 16th November

2011-11-12T21:36:00.004Z

The North East Ipswich Forum will be held next week, the 16th November. The forum is normally held in the evening but this is our annual daytime forum.

The event starts at 11am on the 16th and the location is the Ransomes Sports and Social Club in Sidegate Avenue.

Topics up for discussion include the Suffolk County Council budget and we will also get an update on police priorities for North East Ipswich.

I will be attending the forum and hope some of you can join us on Thursday morning.

Golden Key - planning application refused

2011-11-09T21:05:00.004Z

Good news for Rushmere residents – the planning application to build a supermarket on the Golden Key site on Woodbridge Road was refused by the planning committee in Ipswich this morning.

Greene King has stated that the retailer was not Tesco and that they may still open a shop in the existing building.

I was allowed to speak for 7 minutes at the meeting, I emphasised the traffic issue and also the detrimental effect that a supermarket may have on our small independent shops.

Greene King may appeal, in my conclusion I stated that if they wished to build a shop then a joined up plan with the BP garage would be a better option as that would put less pressure on the traffic as they could share entry and access. We will see what happens next.

It was disappointing that the Tories and Lib Dems spent much of the meeting having a go at myself and the local Labour Party for delivering our leaflet about the plan for the Woodbridge Road site. I thought this was because they were for the proposal but only the Lib Dem councillor eventually voted for the plan. The Tories all abstained, (including our own Tory councillor for Rushmere – Judy Terry) so we are not really sure where the local Tories stand on this issue.

I am sure this was not be the last we will hear about this plan but at least for now we will not see a large supermarket on the site.

I must thank all those who supported our campaign; it was an honour to represent the views of Rushmere residents this morning.

Everest - every mountaineers dream

2011-11-08T22:32:00.005Z

As a young soldier I was fortunate enough to visit the Himalaya's as part of a mountaineering expedition. A team of 20 including 12 soldiers who were under 18 climbed Mera Peak. The young soldiers also visited Everest Base Camp whilst a smaller team (including myself) climbed Lobuje Peak.

I had read some books about climbing in the High Ranges, by the likes of Bonnington but I also took two books with me about the successful 1953 expedition. One by the leader John Hunt and one by a former Officer in my Regiment, Wilfrid Noyce. Reading those two books whilst following their long walk in was an unforgettable experience.

Made even better when I found out that they climbed Lobuje as a training peak for Everest. It is amazing how they climbed it with ease in 53 when we had difficulty in 1989 even with all the latest equipment. I even came close to death after falling on the decent.

I have not been back to Nepal but after today I am determined to return. I visited the Hooper Gallery in Clerkenwell, London. They currently have (till November 25th) on show a number of photographs from the early Everest expeditions right up to the 53 trip. The faces of those mountaineers seem to have so much to tell, Hunt, Hillary, Shipton, Mallory and Tenzing Norgay, each picture has so much much detail. So if in London get along and visit and just a couple of doors down is the pub, the 3 Kings - try the French sausage sandwich - completes a great day out.

My week ahead 7- 13 November

2011-11-05T20:09:00.004Z

Monday 7 November 11am - Launch of i-card for HM Forces, Fore Street Swimming pool

6pm - Campaigning in St Margaret's Ward

Tuesday 8 November 9.15am - St James Palace, Duke of Edinburgh Gold Award presentation.

Wednesday 9 November 9am - Planning committee, speaking on behalf of residents.

Thursday 10 November 7am - St Margaret's by-election

Saturday 11 November 10.30am - Campaigning in East Ipswich

Sunday 12 November 11am - Armistice Parade, Christchurch Park.

Seemed to find myself spending every spare minute this week talking to residents in St Margaret's Ward. There is no doubt that speaking to residents is the best way to find out what people care and worry about in this great town. I am sure all three political groups would agree that talking to residents is the best and right thing to do, but even if they do agree the Tories seem to be carrying on from the Borough election in May and only attempting to talk to their own supporters.

The other big event this week for me was representing the council at a conference looking at building closer links between the military and civilian communities - more on that here.

Tory Veterans Minister- out of touch with Armed Forces

2011-11-03T21:34:00.007Z

David Ellesmere , soldiers and tickets to watch Jools

Tory Veterans Minister - out of touch with Armed Forces? - Some would say no surprise that a Minister is out of touch with those who he is meant to represent, but I was surprised how much Tory Minister, Andrew Robathan was out of touch with not only veterans but serving members of our Armed Forces. Why surprised? Mr Robathan is a veteran himself. Without being seen to be playing the class card it may be as an ex Guards Officer he does not understand the pressures that both serving soldiers and veterans are living under.

Andrew Robathan - out of touch?

I attended the Local Government Association sponsored conference in London on Tuesday. It was attended by councillors and council officers from all over England plus representatives from the Ministry of Defence, serving soldiers plus representatives from Service charities.

Most of the councils represented were County Councils and the idea of the conference was to get councils to sign up for the Community Covenant Scheme. Hampshire, Oxfordshire and North Yorkshire have led the way. By signing up you are able to access grants from the MOD to help both the local and Military communities.

Disappointingly Suffolk County Council did not attend but I represented Ipswich Borough Council and we will be looking at joining the Community Covenant Scheme. We have already started working closely with our local military units. On Saturday a number of troops from Wattisham received free tickets to see Jools Holland at the Regent and next week those who reside in Ipswich will get access to our sports facilities. Most of the troops residing in Suffolk live in our more rural districts and the County Council would be best placed to set up a scheme with the military. But as Suffolk seem more keen on getting rid of the services it is already responsible for it seems unlikely they will want to commit to the scheme.

I was fortunate to be able to ask the Veterans Minister a question and then get into a discussion with General Rollo, the senior soldier presentm both my questions led to further debate.

General Rollo, waiting for my question?

Most of the councils were Tory run, and I expect that Mr Robathan expected an easy ride but that did not happen. Mr Robathan was quick to boast about how the Tory Government had doubled the Operational Allowance, a Tory councillor from Huntingdon (and a veteran) was quick to tell the Minister that this increase had come at the same time that many other military allowances were being cut, including Disturbance Allowance and grants for education.

The Minister was then warned by Dawn McCafferty, chairman of the RAF Families Federation, about the impact of redundancies and cuts to allowances on service personnel.

She told the Local Government Association conference on the covenant that many were "keeping their heads down" in an attempt to avoid the next rounds of job cuts.

"Families are hurting and actually the covenant doesn't mean a great deal to those who have just received a redundancy notice," she said.

This was disappointing to hear and I hope the Minister took note but as he did not stay for the afternoon session, I am not sure he understood how many in the military and those working for military charities feel totally let down by the Tory Government.

What was good, is that many in the Ministry of Defence are keen to work with local councils to improve the lives of those in the military, veterans and their families.

You can be certain that Ipswich Borough council will be playing it's part.

My week ahead 31 October - 6 November

2011-10-30T10:25:00.003Z

Monday 31 October 6pm - Labour Group meeting

Tuesday 1 November 9am - Communities supporting our Armed Forces … our Armed Forces supporting their communities - conference in London

Saturday 5 November 10.30am - Campaigning in East Ipswich

Sunday 6 November 7pm - Labour Bonfire Night - Fund raiser

This week has seen further campaigning in St Margaret's, seen the occasional Tory out delivering leaflets but the Lib Dems seem to have given up or are very confident.

On Thursday I attended a meeting of the licensing committee at Ipswich Borough Council, one of our more important meetings this year as it gave us an opportunity to discuss the new Governments proposals for licensing (in short, it looks like it will be self regulation and only one of the committee thought this was an improvement on current legislation)

As it was such an important meeting it was very disappointing that 3 Tory councillors failed to turn up and did not even send in their apologies, now they are not in power seems that some of the Ipswich Tories have lost interest in attending meetings (and representing their constituents).

I was in London on Saturday so missed the Jools Holland concert at the Regent. Not only was it disappointing to miss Jools but this was the event where we launched Ipswich Borough Council's partnership with 'Tickets for Troops'. This will enable members of our Armed Forces to enjoy free tickets for events at the Regent and the Corn Exchange. A number of soldiers and their partners from the Army Air Corps at Wattisham were the first recipients of tickets from this scheme.

Glen Chisholm - The man for St Margaret's Ward - Ipswich

2011-10-26T17:16:00.003Z

GLEN CHISHOLM WANTS TO BE AN IPSWICH BOROUGH COUNCILLOR. This may seem obvious. Why else would he stand for election in St Margaret's ward on 10th November?

But when you know how this by election came about, perhaps it is not so strange that this is an issue in this election. Back in May, St Margaret's ward elected a Tory councillor for the first time since 1998. Within four months she had resigned from the Council.

Local Tories tried to hide the reason she had resigned, citing "personal reasons", but Mrs Stokes was prepared to go on the record. She has told the Evening Star that she was misled into standing by Ipswich Conservatives, who did not make her aware of the commitment involved, told her she would not win and left her almost completely unsupported as both a candidate and a councillor. Ipswich Tories have cost the Council Taxpayers of Ipswich £10,000 through this unnecessary by election. They do not deserve your support.

The Tory candidate is Stephen Ion - now the Tories will make a big deal of Stephen living in the ward, but after losing there in 2010, he jumped ship to Rushmere ward (where he lost again) and the Tory leaflets kept going on about how he has been working tirelessly for Rushmere residents - so where does his loyalty lie?

Labour's Glen Chisholm has done his research. He attended a non-partizan training event organised earlier in the year, and after deciding that he has something to offer, he spoke to Labour councillors about his next steps. He actively campaigned in Whitehouse and Whitton wards earlier in the year, helping Stephen Connelly win Whitton for Labour, for the first time since 2002, and Martin Goonan to massively increase Labour's share of the vote in a ward the Conservatives had hoped to win. He has been an active campaigner against Tory cuts to school crossing patrols, libraries and legal aid.

Glen was born and brought up in Ipswich attending local schools and Suffolk College, before working for a local insurance company. He previously served our community as a Special Constable for five years. Glen will not let you down.

I was one of 4 councillors from different political groups who spoke to members of the public interested in being councillors at an event held in the town, I am glad that I never put Glen off and that he thought the Ipswich Labour Party best represented the views of someone born and bred and living and working in this great town - Vote Gen Chisholm on the 10th November

Taking Decision Making Closer to the People

2011-10-24T08:52:00.001Z

The Tory/Lib Dem coalition talk about their 'localism' agenda, but in reality all we have seen is Eric Pickles telling councils when they must empty their bins, or on the other hand we are told 'localism' will mean more say for communities but in reality again it means we will allow developers able to build what they want, where they want.

In Ipswich we have for a number of years tried to enable the local community to have more say in local decisions, we currently have area forums, these have had success in getting information over to local residents but they have not had any real power. Councillors have attended but not been put in a position where they can answer to the public for the deeds they have carried out. There has been money available to each forum area but both local councillors or residents have had no real say in how that is spent. Ipswich Labour had seen the influence of the forums wane under the last Tory administration where it seemed the power just sat in the hands of one person- not even the leader but John Carnall.

We have now started changing that, we have already seen the all party working groups have their first meetings, the one I attended worked well. It gave backbench councillors an opportunity to have a say in policy, and that was backbench councillors from all 3 party's. It was then slightly disappointing that the Tories did not attend two of the working groups.

Labour are keen to hear what local residents think about these new proposals, including area forums being replaced by area committees -Here is the statement from IBC.

Ipswich Borough Council is looking at ways of moving power closer to the people through an ambitious programme to give communities a real say.

"We are looking at options for devolving decision-making to the local level," says the Leader of the Council, Councillor David Ellesmere.

"This would involve ward councillors working with community groups, businesses and residents on a wide range of services, based geographically on the five existing forum areas.

"In order to deliver this, we have published for consultation a paper entitled 'Taking decision-making closer to the people'."
Among its key proposals are:

Developing local Area Committees to devolve specific powers to ward councillors.
Giving councillors more opportunities to be informed by residents and users on how services can be improved through Panels.
Giving backbench councillors a role in developing policies and advising the Executive on its forward plans through active Working Groups.
Making better use of new technology including websites, social networking and Twitter; to reach and engage new people and improve services.
Reducing the number of other meetings that take place, as we seek to focus decision and policy making in these new and cost effective bodies.

Councillor Ellesmere added: "I believe these changes could make a real difference to how Ipswich is run. They would enable councillors of all political parties to take a more active part in the running of the council and better able to represent their constituents."
More information is available in the report Taking Decision Making Closer to the People. Comments must be received by 11th November 2011 and should be submitted by email to areacommittees@ipswich.gov.uk or by post to:

Councillor David Ellesmere
Ipswich Borough Council
Grafton House
15-17 Russell Road
Ipswich
IP1 2DE

My week ahead 24 - 30 October

2011-10-23T11:33:00.004Z

Monday 24 October 4pm - Meeting with officers, discussing culture in Ipswich
Thursday 27 October 9am - Licensing meeting - Grafton House

Not many meetings this week but that leaves plenty of time to join residents in their campaign to stop the Golden Key becoming a supermarket and also helping with the Labour campaign in St Margaret's Ward.

The week just gone has also seen plenty of time spent campaigning in St Margaret's but also time to work on issues concerning Rushmere Residents,on Sunday the 16th October, I met local residents outside the Candy Box in Woodbridge Road as they handed over a petition against the planning proposal that would see the Golden Key pub becoming a site for a supermarket. An hour later along with Labour colleagues we met an even larger group of residents who are very concerned that a supermarket may be built next to what is a major road junction.

The evening was spent at a Labour fundraising 'Harvest Supper' - great food, good company but no quiz!

Monday saw North East Ipswich councillors meet the local police to talk about police priorities for the area.

Wednesday was meeting day - 3 of them - starting with planning, the committee turned down a proposal for a building development in Levington Road - more here. In the afternoon I met the manager of the Regent Theatre to discuss 'Tickets for Troops' and then the day finished off with a meeting of the Leisure and Culture Working Group where we discussed the savings we will have to make next year. It was good that both Tory and Lib Dem councillors contributed towards the discussions, something that was not even permitted under the last Tory/Lib Dem administration. It is far more democratic to allow all councillors to have an input, slightly disappointing that no Tory Councilor was able/or could be bothered to attend a similar working group about housing.

Thatcher and friends!

2011-10-22T20:00:00.004Z

Those in the Tory supporting media and even Tories closer to home have enjoyed going on about Tony Blair and Gordon Brown meeting Gaddafi, or as they put it being friends of Gaddafi. An example here from Tory supporting blog 'A Riverside View'.

But I was surprised that our local Tory MP, Ben Gummer even linked Blair, Brown and Gaddafi in one of his tweets,

Now all national leaders often have to meet, shake hands and discuss issues with people they would rather not even have to spend 10 seconds with. As an ex soldier I still find it hard to see politicians of all sides having to meet and talk with the likes of Gerry Adams and Gerry Kelly. But I also know by doing that it has helped cement peace in Northern Ireland.

Mrs Thatcher and General Pinochet - actually forget that she probably enjoyed meeting him (as many other Tories would) but even Ipswich Tories and Ben Gummer may not be so happy to be reminded of this photograph.

The Levington Road problem

2011-10-20T21:56:00.004Z

Planning issues have been the topic of a number of posts on various Ipswich political blogs recently, a number of these posts have been about the proposal to turn the Golden Key into a supermarket but two of the Tory supporting blogs have had an identical post about a planning application to build a bungalow in Levington Road.

Nothing wrong with that you may think? That is what political activists should do, inform residents of local issues that they may be interested in. But what has annoyed me with these two Tory posts is the assumptions, some may even say accusations made by a senior Tory councillor- someone who should know better.

The same post by Cllr Liz Harsant is published on both the Ipswich Politics and A Riverside View blogs. The post is a copy of her Evening Star column that was in the paper this Tuesday (18th October) but this is where it starts to go wrong. It seems after sending her column to the local paper she handed it over to one of her Tory colleagues to place on their blog, the post went up on the two Tory supporting blogs a week before it appeared in the paper. You would have thought they would have at least waited till the article had been printed, especially as the post is date sensitive, referring to a planning meeting that will take place tomorrow (the 19th). It makes you wonder if Nadia Cenci or Kevin Algar even read it before putting it up on their blog.

But the Evening Star decided not to publish all Cllr Harsant’s article and though it has the item about the bus shelter on Nacton Road, the ‘Star’ decided not to print the item about the Levingon Road planning application. I am not sure if that was because there was not enough room on the page or if they thought the article may be not what was expected from a senior councillor.

I have printed below the article so you can read it:
So tomorrow we will know the outcome of another application which has been submitted to the Planning Department for a bungalow at the rear of 34 to 40 Levington Road and using part of 36 and 38 Levington Road. A precedent was set back in June this year when an application for a bungalow was approved further up Levington Road towards Felixstowe Road in spite of the residents fighting against this for over 6 years – can you imagine their dismay when this was agreed. So my prediction that this would happen again is about to come true – we shall soon have another street between Levington and Salisbury Road! The site in question had some lovely trees on it and suddenly overnight the developer cut them all down. The residents are very distressed by this as many of them saw what they believed to be a bat roost in there. I am told by the Planning Officers that it is the Wildlife and Countryside Act that offers protection to any protected species and any offences under the Act are criminal offences to be dealt with by the police rather than the local planning authority. So we shall see but it is strange that biodiversity is important along the greensward on Nacton and Clapgate Lane but not important at the rear of these properties. Let’s hope the Planning Committee listen to the residents’ concerns this time. The application will be heard tomorrow Wednesday October 19th at Grafton House.

Now from the tone of the article it seems to me that Cllr Harsant is implying that she thought a decision had already been agreed on before the planning application had been heard by the committee, now as a senior councillor she should know better than most that planning decisions should not be political and certainly not decided on before the meeting. That has certainly been the way it works since I have been a substitute on planning and quite often we find ourselves as Labour Councillors not always voting together. Cllr Harsant repeated again that she thought the decision had already been made when she gave her comments at the planning meeting. Now I am sure many of the public think that planning is dealt with behind closed doors but it is not, I have never heard of a planning decision being made by a group before the meeting, certainly not by the Labour Group. She also implied that many of the residents, especially some of the more elderly were not happy with the way the property company had behaved – that should be a police matter not something that the planning committee should or could deal with. Cllr Harsant was also concerned about a possible bat living in one of the trees, I am glad she seems to be now caring about our local wildlife as she certainly did not seem to display the same passion for protecting wildlife when she gave the reasons behind the last Tory administration’s plan to sell off Kiln Meadow.

Anyway for all of Cllr Harsants predictions, on Wednesday the application was refused by the planning committee. (However, Christchurch can appeal against our decision, in which case an Inspector will investigate the case and make a final decision.)
But the posts by Cllr Harsant all seem to be part of a tactic to blame the Labour administration for building on back gardens and any small available space in East Ipswich.

We need to correct that misleading impression that Labour committee members have supported building on backland plots in Levington Road. This was not the case on Wednesday. Nor was it the case on any of the occasions where Christchurch Property applied to build on a similar backland plots behind 8-18 Levington Road.

In reality, Labour have consistently led the arguments against every application (and in every case, against the council officers’ recommendations.) The planning committee won two appeals against Christchurch Property. In the end the committee were left with no planning reasons for refusal, and planning committee members of all political parties voted for the single bungalow behind 34-40. Nobody was happy about this, but it was better than Christchurch’s first application – a row of terraced houses and chalet bungalow.

However, Labour members were so worried by this attempt by a developer to build what amounted to another, unplanned street in between two roads, Levington and Salisbury, that in 2009 we added a proposal into the Council’s Local Development Planning Framework. We wanted to give the local authority the power to refuse applications like Christchurch’s. We actually called it the ‘Levington Road problem’ because this was the place where we had found ourselves, in the end, without strong enough planning reasons to refuse an application nobody wanted except the developer.

We are also very worried by the government’s new National Policy Planning Framework (which has been described as a ‘developer’s charter’), and by local Tory MP Dan Poulter’s comments – he thinks there should be more building in places like East Ipswich because he doesn’t want any building on North Ipswich. As we know, this means more houses crammed into places like Levington Road – which already have enough houses and people and traffic.

Purple Book Tour - comes to Ipswich

2011-10-20T19:37:00.003Z

Good news for Labour members in Ipswich - Progress have chosen Ipswich as one f their locations for their Purple Book Tour, it seems we are the only political party in Ipswich that is interested in political debate.

With the launch of The Purple Book, Progress are going round the country to debate the ideas it contains. These events will give local members a chance to hear from authors of The Purple Book about their chapter and discuss the wider theme of the book, redistributing power. In particular, the event will explore, whether or not Labour should get back in touch with its decentralising tradition and if so how it should achieve this.

Progress will be in Ipswich between 7:30-9pm on the 7 December 2011 in Ipswich Library Lecture Hall (Northgate Street IP1 3DE)

Speakers:

•Author: John Woodcock MP
•Author: Richard Angell (Progress)
•Speaker: Cllr David Ellesmere (Ipswich PPC)
•Speaker: Cllr Carina O’Reilly (Cambridge)
•Chair: TBC
Sign up for the event here
Buy your advance copy of The Purple Book here:

Not another supermarket

2011-10-16T15:18:00.007Z

Today I joined local residents and other Labour colleagues at the Golden Key pub in Woodbridge Road, Ipswich.
Not in the pub for a lunchtime drink or a Sunday campaigning session but to join residents in protesting against the plan to turn the Golden Key pub into yet another supermarket. Rumours abound that Tesco are the supermarket chain who wish to buy the site from Greene King.

If you wish to know more about the planning application visit the Ipswich Borough Council website here and the application reference is 11/00740/FUL

Time is running out and submissions have to be in by the 17th October (tomorrow)

Cllr Alasdair Ross, speaking to residents

But this is only the start of our campaign to stop this development. we are not just against supermarkets or Tesco, but we are fortunate in Rushmere, Bixley and St John's that we have such a variety of small shops in our wards. This development could see the end of our little row of shops on Woodbridge Road

Portman Road- safer under IBC rather than in the hands of club owner.

2011-10-14T19:01:00.002Z

IPSWICH TOWN FOOTBALL CLUB’S PORTMAN ROAD GROUND

The last generation has seen a common theme amongst a number of football clubs – a new owner arrives, acquires the ground from the local authority (if they need to), and then looks to sell the land for a significant profit, while either not building an alternative, or being financially assisted by multinational companies to build a replacement on greenbelt land, in an out of town location, in order for the multinational companies to capitalize on the land losing its greenbelt status.

This summer, Brighton & Hove Albion finally moved into their new ground, fourteen years after their owners sold the Goldstone Ground, without buying a replacement (the site is now a retail park), instead agreeing a deal to ground-share with Gillingham FC, over seventy miles away.

The last decade at Wrexham has seen a number of property developers look to acquire the club, purely with a view to being able to sell the well located Racecourse Ground. It has only been in the last month that their fans have been able to engineer a deal to buy their club in order to secure their future.

If we look at the current financial turmoil at Plymouth Argyle, we see a club that just two seasons ago were preparing to host Ipswich in a Championship fixture, yet today sit at the bottom of the football league, in administration, with the future of their Home Park ground as key as the future of the club itself. The Pilgrim’s largest debt is that owed to the mortgage company that funded the recent improvements of the ground, and attempts to sell the club have revolved around the future of the ground, with the original preferred bidder seemingly intent on passing the club on (but not the ground) for a nominal fee, as soon as they purchased the club.

Ipswich Town have always been a fortunate Club in terms that they own all of the buildings on the land that the ground is situated on, yet the land itself is owned by Ipswich Borough Council. Such a situation has always protected the club from property developers and asset strippers, because the value is in the land, and not the fixtures and fittings situated on that land. However, over the last 24 hours, news has surfaced that Simon Clegg has again confirmed that the club had offered to purchase the land that the Club is situated on. Such a deal would put us in the same situation as those other clubs who have been forced out of their homes in the past.

These words may seem alarming, but with an owner who has talked to the fans on just a handful of occasions since he acquired the club four years ago, it is impossible for us to know his intentions – and those of his successors. Marcus Evans may be looking out for the best interests of the Club, in light of the current disagreement between the club and Ipswich Borough Council, but having seen so many clubs lose their homes through the actions of an unaccountable owner, we have to consider all options, even if those options may not come to pass for years, or even decades. However, if the Club buys the land, any attempt to stop a future sale of the land for personal profit will be at best difficult - which is why we have to speak up while the land is still owned by the Council.

Instead of changing the ownership or freehold status, we instead call on the Club, having resolved the current rent dispute, to look to the long term future and withdraw from attempting to buy the ground. Moreover should the Club continue to pursue this avenue, we call on the Council to stand firm and refuse all offers, regardless the temptations to cash in on such an asset at a time of austerity.

In amongst this story, the comments we find most disappointing are those from Simon Clegg regarding the suggestion that he may need to increase the cost of season tickets to cover the extra rent. The Club already has one of the most expensive ticket policies within the division, and for a Club that has an annual turnover of around £15million, £111,000 per year rent is not excessive (we are aware of higher private rents for much smaller buildings on the edge of town), and is less than 0.7% of the staff costs for the last year of annual accounts. In the current climate, Ipswich Borough Council, like most councils up and down the country has reduced funding from central government, and at a time when local public services and jobs are at risk, the Council and local taxpayers should not be subsidising private business activities.

The Committee

Ipswich Town Independent Supporters Trust

13th October 2011

Suffolk Mobile Library Service

2011-10-09T11:56:00.003Z

Suffolk Mobile Library Service - last chance for you to have your say on the future of the service.

Consultation ends on October 16th 2011, just under a week to go.

Suffolk County Council are now consulting the public on the Mobile Library service, and how savings can be made.

More information can be found on the consultation and the consultation paper can be found online here, or in paper in any public library.

In the 2010 Modernisation Review of Public Libraries, Suffolk’s mobile service was shown as an example of best practice in the ‘Stronger Communities’ section, noting that the mobile service

“has longer stops for community activities allowing other advisers and services to reach rural communities. New satellite dishes on the vans provide full online use of the internet and the library catalogue’.

Will leave the last line to those great campaigners from Rosehill Library:

Mobile libraries are a lifeline to those who can’t easily make it to a public library, hopefully the Council will carry out this consultation with more grace and intelligence than the full library consultation.

My week ahead 10 - 16 October

2011-10-09T09:01:00.003Z

Monday 10 October 4pm - Meeting about Ipswich Museum
6pm - Labour Group Meeting

Thursday 13 October 6pm - Scrutiny meeting - Ipswich waterfront

Saturday 15 October 10.30am - Campaigning North Ipswich

Only one council meeting this week, a scrutiny meeting that just seemed to be an opportunity for certain Tory councillors to make political statements, seems all the good work carried out by scrutiny under the chairmanship of Gavin Maclure will be forgotten as the Tories just see scrutiny as a way of making cheap political shots. More about the meeting here.

Spent a couple of mornings campaigning in St Margaret's Ward, we may not have won the seat since 1919! But there was a positive reaction from most residents we spoke to, the Lib Dems will find it hard to get back to the level of support they used to have in the ward.

Thursday was a meeting of the Suffolk Fabians, a debate on what history can teach us about the future of Europe. Not sure I agreed that we needed a system based on Athenian democracy but an interesting debate never less. Great to see a large attendance and such a vast spread in age of those participating. The Fabians in Suffolk have a bright future.

Scrutiny call - in - Locality budgets

2011-10-07T18:09:00.004Z

Ever since I was elected to be Rushmere Ward councillor, I have sat on Overview and Scrutiny. The first three years were as a member of the opposition. The first two years were wasted as the chair of Scrutiny used the committee for his own personal reasons. Then along with most of the Tory/Lib Dem Executive failed to turn up for training. Scrutiny improved in 2010 under the chair of Gavin Maclure. We saw the use of task and finish groups and we managed to achieve results and even undertook joint scrutiny with the County Council.Gavin even seemed as critical of the Tory executive as we were at times.

But much of scrutiny was taken up with call-ins. We, the Ipswich Labour Party Group found the call-in procedure the only way to get our message over as we were refused a seat on the executive (even though we were the largest party).

This week we had our first taste of a call-in by the Tory opposition, some may say time we learnt how it felt to have a decision called in, the difference of course is that the Tories were offered a seat on the executive but refused to take it up.

There is also another difference with Scrutiny under Labour, as is recognised 'best practice', we have given the chair of scrutiny to the opposition.

This call-in was about the Labour decision to stop the implementation of locality budgets for Borough councillors.

Tory councillor Nadia Cenci called in the decision and gave her reasons on her blog. Though they may no longer be in a coalition in Ipswich, she seemed to be supported by the Ipswich Lib Dems - here.

There main argument seems to be now they feel Libraries in Ipswich are safe and that we have also been told that we will retain all our school crossing patrols, the money Ipswich Labour put aside is not needed. They even got Tory County Leader Mark Bee and Ben Gummer to meet the press at Rosehill Library and plead for the locality money to be introduced as they never meant to close any libraries.

Well first off Mark Bee would have been better off using his talk with the press to call on his fellow Waveney Tory councillor Andrew Draper to resign after assaulting a police officer. But we still wait to hear him mention that but what Cllr Bee also forgot to mention is that we are still waiting for the re-introduction of school crossing patrols at Alan Road and also near Sprites School.

We will also not even know till November, when the Tory County Cabinet sits that the libraries have been saved.

But let's say that they are safe, of the £240,000 saved by not introducing locality budgets, £186,000 was to go into IBC reserves. That money is still needed as we have found gaps in the last Tory budget including not receiving as much money from the Tory Government in the form of the 'New Homes Bonus' as the Tory budget had us down to receive. So it is only sensible to keep that money in reserve.

Cllr Cenci gives her view of the meeting here, not so much a report on the meeting but just her opening statement. After she and Cllr David Ellesmere had given their views it was then a question and answer session. Big difference to Tory run scrutiny is that the questions came from both sides. Under the Tories only Cllr Debman used to ask questions with the remainder of the Tories sitting still then voting against Labour at the end.

Paul Geater from the Evening Star was at the meeting so Tories, Liz Harsant and Kim Stroet decided instead of asking questions to make prepared political statements. We did eventually get down to some serious questioning with Cllr Cenci creating some laughter with her answers about council reserves and Labour propaganda.

Then when that part of the meeting was over, and the press had left. We should have then debated the decision and there is a debate needed. For example, should even County Councillors still have locality budgets when the County is about to shut care homes and close Youth clubs?

But there was no debate, the Tories put it straight to a vote- with Liz Harsant stating, 'now the press has gone let's just get on with it'.

This statement more than any showed that the whole meeting had been a charade, they had no interest in debating the decision. The vote was lost and locality budgets will not be introduced this financial year.

There was also a sub plot - big hitting Tory, Judy Terry is a member of scrutiny but a sub replaced her. Instead we expected to see Judy Terry be called to give evidence as a County Cabinet member with the responsibility for libraries. But she never turned up - I asked Cllr Cenci, why? The answer given was that she had been advised not to turn up. 'By whom?' I asked. Cllr Cenci said she did not know who by.

So Ipswich Conservative group, two questions:

1. Who advised Cllr Terry not to turn up?

2. Why did she take that advice, has she something to hide?

My week ahead 3 - 8 October

2011-10-02T10:56:00.003Z

Monday 3 October 6pm - Campaigning in North East Ipswich

Wednesday 5 October 6pm - Scrutiny, Call in of decision to delay paying of locality budgets

Thursday 6 October 7pm - Fabians meeting - Debate on Europe

Saturday 8 October 10.30am - Campaigning all over Ipswich, focus on Tory plans for NHS

Only one meeting this week but an important one as we looked at the plan to manage the refurbishment of Crown Pools, making sure that we look after those who have used Crown Pools regularly over the last few years.

We have also started campaigning hard in St Margaret's Ward, Ipswich. Maybe not our most fertile area for votes but have had some excellent contacts with local residents. Many seem to be keen to vote for us as they feel they have been badly let down by the Lib Dems, issues such as tuition fees are important to many in St Margaret's and they are not willing to allow the local Lib Dems to distance themselves from the decision that Clegg and his colleagues made to vote for Tuition fees at Westminster. Even Tory voters were keen to talk to us, as they are confused what the Tory policy is on building on the Northern Fringe. The Tory Government seem to be saying developers can build anywhere, Dr Poulter said it does not mean this and even the local Tory Cllrs seem split one what should happen. We still wait for Ben Gummer to make a public statement on the issue.

One thing for certain is that most residents have not got a clue what the Tories plan is for developing this part of the town and maybe the Tories are not even sure themselves!

Ben Gummer - an apology

2011-09-29T18:54:00.003Z

A short post just to enable myself to apologise to our MP - Ben Gummer. A week ago I posted an article that was based on a story broken by the 'Morning Star'. The post is here. Though Ben was 'told off' by the chair for talking during a meeting I have no doubt that he meant no disrespect to those who suffer from mesothelioma and that he did indeed listen carefully to Labour MP Kate Green's speech on Legal Aid and cases of mesothelioma.

I have always found Ben Gummer polite and I know that he is a conscientious and hard working MP, due to his interest in penal reform I know he was keen to be involved in the committee looking at Legal Aid. I do not agree with his views on the changes to the Legal Aid system (posted here) and it seems from the comments to Ben's article that many others are also concerned where the government are going with Legal Aid.

I unreservedly apologise to Ben and will make sure that I ask for his view before printing any story on him in the future.

Total Politics Blog Awards

2011-09-25T19:06:00.004Z

The results have just come out for the Total Politics blog awards - and I was hoping I might sneak in at the bottom of a list but I ended up doing far better than expected.

Thank you for those who voted for me.

237th in the Top UK political blogs category

34th in the Top 100 Labour Blogs

and 15th in the Top 35 Councillor blogs

My week ahead 26 September - 1 October

2011-09-25T18:54:00.003Z

Monday 26 September 4pm- Meeting at Grafton House about museums
6pm - Campaigning In St Margaret's Ward, Ipswich.

Saturday 1 October 10.30am - Campaigning in Rushmere Ward, Ipswich.

The weeks started by showing the strength of the Ipswich Labour Party, with an excellent hustings as we chose our Parliamentary candidate. A great turnout of members at Dance east, saw David Ellesmere selected to take on Ben Gummer.

Monday gave me an opportunity to talk to our local North East Ipswich Police team on concerns residents have about speeding in Woodbridge Rd and Selkirk Rd.

Wednesday was the last ever meeting of the Polling Stations working group, the next meeting of this body will see it take on the role of looking at all matters connected to elections.

Thursday was an all members meeting of the Ipswich Labour Party, where we had a great debate on housing, loads of good points raised, on various housing topics - council Houses, sheltered housing and Private Landlords were just three of many discussed.

Flashback to 2007 - selection the Tory way!

2011-09-18T19:41:00.003Z

A number of Tory blogs seem to think their use of a Primary = open to all - to select Ben Gummer was a roaring success. Below I have posted my original piece from 2007 to remind us all it was not!

Just after the Ipswich Primary, the Tories in the South West of England used one to select a candidate. The person selected was not the choice of the local Tory Party, so they just did not endorse him.

So Mr Spencer, West and Algar - remember that the local party could overturn the decision of the primary.

I attended the Ipswich Conservative Party's new fangled "select a candidate" Primary in Ipswich last night. Two big adverts in local papers plus they distributed 9,000 flyers in Ipswich advertising the event and the outcome? 55 Ipswich constituents turned up to attend the evening, and as well as myself there were four other non Tories from a Pro Life organisation attending. At least 14 Conservative councilors attended and the remainder were made up of their partners and other Tory party members. So it had not got the people of Ipswich that interested though the local Tories are hailing the Primary as a publicity success.

The Four candidates were, Chloe Smith, James Tumbridge, Samantha George and Benedict Gummer.

The evening consisted of each candidate being interviewed for 10 minutes by a moderator then facing 20 minutes of questions. The second candidate, Chloe Smith was asked two questions by the Pro Life supporters- on abortion and embryo research, when she gave her answer it led to a shout of "shame" from the back of the hall. Now the first candidate had not been asked that question, so a quick pause and the Tories decided to make sure that the remaining two candidates received the same questions that Chloe had received.

Gummer replied that he would like to see a restriction on 'abortion on demand', this answer was welcomed by the Pro Life activists.

All four candidates were asked for their Three Tory heroes- all named thatcher and Churchill, Gummer's third choice was Lord Shaftsbury.

I thought that Samantha George, the most experienced candidate but the only one without an East Anglian connection was the best candidate, but after the vote it was announced that Benedict Gummer was the winner with over 50% of the vote.

So now we may see a father and son double act as John Gummer MP's seat borders the Ipswich constituency- maybe the local burger vans will do a roaring trade when the Gummer family are posing for local media pictures!

Ipswich Labour select David Ellesmere to fight Gummer

2011-09-18T19:32:00.003Z

This afternoon I attended the hustings to help select the next Labour parliamentary candidate for Ipswich.

I estimated that the attendance was over 130 and with postal votes added, it led to a total of just under 200 people voting. - There has been criticism from certain Tories that the selection meeting should have been open to all. I don't believe they are right and I am going to repost the piece I wrote about the Gummer selection in 2007 so you can compare the two processes.

The 4 candidates all spoke for 10 minutes and then answered questions for 15 minutes, all received similar questions, and the topics included: Europe, strikes, Ed Milliband, Abortion and creating jobs.

I was very impressed with the passion shown by both David Ellesmere and Neil MacDonald. They had to be at their best as Jeremy Miles possessed many of the attributes that made Ken Weetch a great Ipswich MP, Francis Rehal did not impress me with her 10 minute presentation but her strength was answering the questions.

I am sure the 3 losers will go onto other selections and I am positive that Jeremy Miles will become an outstanding MP in another seat. Thinking of what will be best for Ipswich, I hope that Neil does not look for another seat as he would make an excellent leader of the Ipswich Labour once we get David elected to Westminster.

Now the real fight starts - with the St Margaret's by-election giving us an unexpected opportunity to campaign in what once was a Tory safe seat.

My week ahead 18 - 24 September

2011-09-18T08:45:00.005Z

Sunday 18 September 2pm - Ipswich Labour Party Parliamentary candidate hustings

Monday 19 September Lunchtime - Meeting residents at Selkirk Road shops, Rushmere Estate, Ipswich

2pm - North East Ipswich Neighbourhood Group Meeting

Wednesday 21 September 5.30pm - Ipswich Polling Stations working group

This week I attended a meeting looking at future plans for parks in Ipswich. The Labour Group meeting enabled me to talk to members about the possible link between the Ipswich Academy and Gainsborough Sports Centre.

Wednesday was the full council meeting, where even a leading Tory - Gavin Maclure seems to think the Labour Group got the upper hand when it came to answering the questions put to them by the Tory/Lib Dem Groups

Yesterday was a busy day, with an early morning start to see the race start of the Tour of Britain in Bury St Edmunds - more here. I then got back to Ipswich in time to see the pelaton cycle through Christchurch Park. Managed to meet up with a number of Labour members in the park and we left to join others in campaigning in St Margaret's Ward.

Gummer and Asbestos

2011-09-17T16:47:00.003Z

I might not agree with Ben Gummer on many things but when I have met him on the campaign trail or at events in Ipswich he has always been courteous. From talking to other Ipswich residents who have had dealings with our MP, they also speak highly of his ability to listen and in cases sympathise with the plight of many residents.

But from what I have heard this week, he may have a different side to him when speaking to people who can't vote for him.

I heard a number of days ago that whilst attending the committee looking into changing the way we get Legal Aid, Ben decided to spend the time in the meeting reading the 'Economist' rather than listen to the debate. Not the behaviour you would expect of an MP, and I for one was surprised that Mr Gummer was acting in that manner. But a report about the same committee this week seems to show that Mr Gummer is making a habit of acting like a respectable MP in Ipswich but when in Westminster acting like a rowdy Public School boy.

The article below is from this weeks, 'Morning Star':

A support group for asbestosis sufferers has condemned the behaviour of two Tory MPs during a committee debate on legal aid.

The group, which attended a hearing of the public bill committee this week to hear a debate on the Legal Aid, Sentencing and Prosecution of Offenders Bill, said that Conservative MPs Ben Wallace and Ben Gummer had behaved like "rowdy public schoolboys" and displayed "contempt" for working people.

The Asbestos Victims Support Groups Forum said it was shocked at the behaviour of the two MPs when Kate Green MP was speaking about the effect of the Bill on asbestos victims dying from mesothelioma, citing the suffering of her own constituents.

Under the proposed legislation those who have suffered work-related illness or injury and seek compensation would be responsible for success fees which are to be capped at 25 per cent of damages.

Campaigners argue that, without the alternative of legal aid, claimants are returned to a worse position than prior to 2000 when legal aid for such cases was scrapped.

The Asbestos Victims Support Groups Forum said its research suggests that many mesothelioma sufferers, defeated by illness, will never make a claim because of the additional stress and the financial risk they will face.

Jim Sheridan MP, chairman of the public bill committee, was apparently forced to rebuke Mr Wallace and Mr Gummer for disrupting the proceedings.

Mr Sheridan is minuted as saying that conversations between the two Tory MPs were "becoming longer and louder" and that they were "showing great discourtesy to the rest of the committee."

Forum chairman Tony Whitston said: "These MPs not only showed discourtesy to the committee, they showed utter lack of concern for asbestos victims whose plight deserved a proper and respectful hearing in the committee.

"These Conservative MPs from privileged backgrounds, behaving like rowdy public schoolboys, showed contempt for hard-working men who helped build industry in this country and who now face a death sentence as a result of their labour.

"Their disregard for the debate on important issues on the committee they serve shows that they would see this Bill driven through despite the many compelling arguments for change.

"If this is their party's position then working-class victims of the worst occupational disease can forget justice."

Ipswich Tory in blast at Ipswich Tories!

2011-09-13T15:34:00.004Z

It seemed quite obvious to us fighting to win seats at the local elections in Ipswich last year, that the Tories were either not expecting to win St Margaret’s Ward or were not attempting to win it so that they could still guarantee the support of the 5 or 6 Lib Dems left on Ipswich Borough Council.

But once the votes started being counted it became obvious that the Tories had got their campaign all wrong, losing Rushmere, Stoke Park and Whitton but with little if any work ending up winning St Margaret’s.

Since May the true nature of the Tory/Lib Dem coalition has come to light in the town, they may have run the town together but there was little love lost between the parties. This has now seen attacks on each other in Full Council and the Tory supporting blogs have been keen to inform us that they never had any time for their former colleagues in power anyway.

But what may have surprised many is that some Ipswich Tories are stating that they always expected to win St Margaret’s. The Tory blog ‘A Riverside View’ has even accused Ipswich Labour of getting the facts wrong about St Margaret’s. Kevin commented here that we were wrong to say this – “Former Cllr Stokes didn’t look too chuffed at winning St Margaret’s ward in May. Tories didn’t work it and it fell into their lap”

He also commented on the Ipswich Spy website after they stated that they thought the Tories were surprised to win this – “Tories were surprised to win the seat in May? We were surprised that it was by such a small margin of votes but we were expecting to take it. Next May the Lib Dems four will be reduced to two.”
Now he may be right, there may be only two Lib Dems left come next May but he certainly got it wrong (lied?) by stating they expected to win.

Now Labour thought that, the local press and Ipswich Spy thought that, but ‘A Riverside View’ egged on by the Ipswich Tory twitter account have rewritten history. How do we know?

We know because the Tory who won the seat in May has told us. In an Evening Star article on Saturday the 10th September she doesn’t hold back in her attacks on her former colleagues.

Sarah Stokes resigned last week after just 4 months as a councillor and it has only taken a few days for the real reasons why she has given up to come to light.
She states she was not an active member of the Tory Party and only stood at the last minute after the original candidate had dropped out (or moved to the Rushmere Ward to lose?) She was not made aware of the level of commitment required to be a councillor.

But her most damming comments prove that many of us were right and that ‘A Riverside View’ is being very economical with the truth.
She states that “I had a load of leaflets dropped at my house to be delivered. I asked who could help me, I was given three names – one had just had a hip replacement, one was suffering from bunions and the third was on holiday!”
So much for expecting to win, or did they think it would be so easy they did not have to bother to campaign?

She then informs us that only two Tory councillors were willing to help her, and those two names certainly do not include the name of the Tory leader, John Carnall.
Senior Ipswich Tory Paul West then chips in to inform us they find it difficult to recruit volunteers (not a problem we seem to have at the moment).

But though all above does not make great reading for the Ipswich Tory Party, I expect they may have a chance of retaining the seat whenever the by-election is held – even though up to Sarah resigning, it had only been Ipswich Labour who had delivered any sort of leaflet in the St Margaret’s Ward since May.

But what may surprise many residents but will come as no surprise to us who have witnessed the local Tories both in power and in opposition is that Sarah found she was not being given the opportunity she would have wanted to help voters with their problems.

So we seem to have the had a glimpse of the true Ipswich Conservative Party, one not interested in helping residents or even letting their councillors do so.
Of course a by-election will cost thousands of pounds to be held, and we all know that John Carnall hates to see money wasted; maybe we would not be in this position if they had taken more care when it came to the selection of candidates. Maybe we should send the bill for the election to the local Conservative Association? Local Tories are often critical of Officers when things go wrong and believe they should be held to account. Well this time we know who is to blame for wasting Ipswich tax payers money- are you going to stump up the cash John Carnall?

My week ahead 12-18 September 2011

2011-09-11T17:55:00.002Z

Monday 12 September 4pm - Meeting at Grafton House on Parks and culture
6pm - Labour Group Meeting

Wednesday 14 September 6pm - Ipswich Borough Council, Full Council Meeting

Saturday 17 September Tour of Britain - race start- Bury St Edmunds

Sunday 18 September 2pm - Ipswich Labour selection of parliamentary candidate

This week started with campaigning on Monday night in North West Ipswich. On Thursday I attended the North East Ipswich forum, the importance of maintaining a Safer Neighbourhood team in North East Ipswich was mentioned by many residents.
Friday was the highlight of the week as I went and met residents at Dundee House on Renfrew Road, the residents are very concerned about the future of sheltered housing in Ipswich. The Tory Government is cutting the money given to councils to assist in running these highly valued schemes.

Abortion, Nadine Dorries and why Ben Gummer should have told us how he would vote.

2011-09-07T19:57:00.003Z

Today in Parliament, the Tory MP Nadine Dorries's abortion proposals were heavily defeated.

MPs voted by 368 votes to 118 – a majority of 250 – to reject the amendment by the Tory Nadine Dorries after she lost the support of her co-sponsor, the former Labour minister Frank Field.

But what many Ipswich voters may not know is that our own MP Ben Gummer was one of the 118 who voted with Dorries.

I had asked on this blog and by twitter for Mr Gummer to inform us on how he intended to vote. To be fair to Ben, he did email me this morning and indicated (if not in a direct answer) that he would support Dorries. indicating that as Frank Field was supporting the amendment it was not just a straight Right v Left vote.

He also indicated that his view had not changed since he was interviewed by the Guardian (before the last General Election) and that he has always been open about his views and was elected on that basis.

Now I was aware of Ben's views on abortion and I have no problem with them even if I do not agree with them, and I am sure that a number of other Ipswich residents were also aware of how Ben feels on the matter but I am not sure many would have read the interview in the Guardian and that his views had any influence on his election win.

I respect Ben for sticking to and voting for what he believes in, his principles were so strong that this was the first time he has not voted with the Prime Minister.

Where I do have a problem with Ben, is in a matter like abortion where many residents have very strong opinions, he should have used his Evening Star column to inform residents of his support for the amendment and how he planned to vote for it. But instead his column last week did not mention the matter at all or even the NHS debate which the abortion amendment was part of.

I would not have expected Mr Gummer to change his opinion but at least he may have become more aware of what his constituents thought.

So I hope in a future Evening Star column he gives us his opinion on the new Conservative proposals for gaining planning permission for housing development and how he feels this will effect plans for development of the Northern Fringe in Ipswich.He might even state if he feels we should build on the Northern Fringe or continue to build on brownfield sites in the town.

Going back to the Nadine Dorries amendment, I am glad it was defeated heavily but still concerned that a number of senior ministers voted for it. I see the Dorries proposals as a move towards Far Right USA style Christian thinking.

But Nadine blamed the Lib Dems and even stated that Cameron originally supported her!

Dorries claimed that the prime minister had advised her on the wording of her amendment by saying that she should describe abortion counsellors as independent.

Dorries said: "I went to see the prime minister regarding this amendment and he was very encouraging. In fact it was at the prime minister's insistence that I inserted the word 'independent'. I attended a meeting at the Department of Health and at that meeting it was decided what the outcome, the process that would be implemented, to make this a reality."

The Dorries amendment would have stripped non-statutory abortion providers such as Marie Stopes and the British Pregnancy Advisory Service (bpas) from offering counselling to women. This was designed to provide greater opportunities for independent counsellors, some of whom are influenced by pro-life groups, to provide counselling. NHS abortion providers would still be free to offer counselling.

Dorries claimed that the prime minister changed his mind under pressure from Nick Clegg, after the deputy prime minister was lobbied by the former Lib Dem MP Evan Harris. Dorries said: "Basically the Liberal Democrats, in fact a former MP who lost his seat in this place, is blackmailing our prime minister. Our prime minister has been put in an impossible position regarding this amendment. Our health bill has been held to ransom by a former Liberal Democrat MP."

One of the Tory MP's who spoke against Mrs Dorries was Louise Mensch, the trouble is for the Tories is both these women seem more interested in raising their own profiles rather than representing their constituents

My week ahead 5 - 11 September 2011

2011-09-04T15:24:00.003Z

Monday 5 September 6pm - Campaigning in North West Ipswich

Thursday 8 September 7pm - North East Ipswich forum, St Alban's School (Digby Road)

Last week saw my first presentation the the Council Executive as I briefed councillors on the plans for sharing the Gainsborough Sports Centre site with the new Ipswich Academy.

On Thursday I joined councillors from the Scrutiny committee as we had an informative tour of the Ipswich waterfront, finishing off at UCS.

Saturday was 'Love our NHS' day, I joined other Labour colleagues and Union members, there was no problem getting the public so sign our petition, very hard to find anyone who thinks the NHS is now a better service since the Tories took control of the country.

Mr Gummer, have you lost your voice?

2011-09-04T14:21:00.004Z

At the start of his time as MP for Ipswich, I quite often found myself criticizing Mr Gummer for the time he took to set up an office and get a website up and running.

His office is now open and a website is up - it looks flashy enough and also informative in parts. you can find out when Ben speaks in Parliament and you can also check his expenses on line. But for all that, with the length of time it took I would have thought the news stories and blog posts by Mr Gummer would be more up to date.

That is one of the problems I have with Mr Gummer, he is in the paper most weeks, often commenting on national and local issues but when it comes to something vitally important to Ipswich residents we hear nothing!

So Mr Gummer if you read this post, I (and I am sure other Ipswich residents) would like to know your views on these matters, and how will you vote in Parliament on them?

I believe so far, Mr Gummer has always voted with the Government.

1. NHS Reforms, the public are concerned, nurses are worried and even Doctors do not seem keen on the Tory proposals for the NHS - Mr Gummer, what do you think, and how will you vote this week?

2. New proposals for planning - Supposedly, the reduction in paperwork and red tape will make it easier to build homes. In Ipswich we have the Northern Fringe Development. Not heard much from Mr Gummer. Dr Poulter our other MP, believes the new plans will not see building on the Northern Fringe for at least ten years, and Dr Dan just thinks we should continue to build on brownfield sites in Ipswich (your constituency, Mr Gummer) Not sure residents on Foxhall Road would like to see any more brownfield development in East Ipswich, our roads already struggle with the current traffic. Even a senior Ipswich Tory (and ex Councillor) does not seem keen on what he is hearing from Dr Poulter and also Tim Yeo - read it here. But Mr Gummer, what do you think? Will we see building on the Northern fringe, or do you want it to stay as greenbelt and would rather see more buildings on brownfield sites in the town?

3. Nadine Dorries, your fellow Tory MP is trying to get through a bill that would make it harder for women to get an abortion. The Prime Minister has even let it be known that he will not be voting with her, but what about you Mr Gummer? Will you vote with the PM or with Mrs Dorries? I remember attending your selection meeting, slightly ruined as an example of democracy by certain questions only being asked to certain candidates on the pro-life debate. I am sure many Ipswich residents would like to know your view, and how you will vote (on their behalf)

Over to you Mr Gummer, maybe you could use your next Evening Star column (or your own or Ipswich Tory website) to answer these three questions.

North East Ipswich Forum - 8th September

2011-09-04T14:08:00.002Z

The next North East Ipswich Forum will be held this Thursday (8th September) at 7pm. The venue will be St Alban's High School in Digby Road.

I will be there, come along if you get a chance

Care for Casualties

2011-09-03T21:24:00.005Z

This morning I was campaigning in Ipswich town centre with fellow Labour colleagues as part of 'We love our NHS Day'. But whilst in town I noticed another stall decked out in Rifle Green. I went over to speak to the two men who were raising funds for my old Regiments charity- The Rifles and 'Care for Casualties'

Neither of the men had been in the Royal Green Jackets or the Rifles but they were doing their bit for the regiment as their father had served in the Kings Royal Rifle Corps.

Bob McHenry is now 85 but spends every weekend raising funds for 'Care for Casualties'. this weekend he had two bookings, so whilst he was in Clacton he had sent his son to Ipswich.

Their effort is much appreciated by those who have served in the Royal Green Jackets and the Rifles - Thank you.

My week ahead 29 August - 3 September 2011

2011-08-28T16:41:00.004Z

Tuesday 30 August 6pm - Ipswich Council Executive. Grafton House

Thursday 1 September 4.30pm - Scrutiny Committee, Tour of the Ipswich Waterfront

Saturday 3 September 10.30am - Campaigning in North West Ipswich

This week started with a Labour Group meeting on Monday. Tuesday should have been the highlight of the week, but the 5 mile cycle ride that was part of the media launch for the Tour of Britain was cancelled!! - A severe weather warning put pay to my opportunity to pretend I was Bradley Wiggins or Mark Cavendish!

Bradley Wiggins - not Cllr Ross!

Wednesday I attended a morning meeting at Gainsborough Sports Centre, looking at the plans for the new Ipswich Academy, who will becoming our close neighbours quite soon.

Saturday, saw yet again a large number of Labour activists out in East Ipswich, informing residents of the Suffolk County Council plan to switch lights off at midnight.

Today (Sunday) I got my chance to follow in the cycle tracks of Wiggins, I joined 10 Ipswich residents on the Sky/British cycling local ride. we left Northgate School, dodged the showers and visited a number of villages to the east of the town. But where did they get those hills from!

The Regimental system – under threat from Tory defence cuts

2011-08-26T21:13:00.003Z

The Regimental system – under threat from Tory defence cuts

Well trained, well-motivated, experienced, battle hardened – all reasons why there is little doubt that the British Army is the best in the world – if not THE best.
But without doubt the current Regimental system is also one of the key reasons that we continue to have an army to be proud of.

But that system is now under threat from proposed Tory defence cuts – talk of up to 8 out of 36 Infantry Battalions being scrapped.

Now here is the funny thing, the Army reduced from 40 to 36 Battalions in 2004 under a Labour Government. The Labour Government plan (that was backed by the Generals), and led to the formation of a number of super Infantry Regiments that were able to keep regional links. But the funny thing was that the Tories did not back the plan, the cutting of the Black Watch was the catalyst for a number of protests and led to Nicholas Soames the Tory Shadow Defence Minister to promise to reform the 4 lost Battalions and return to 40 Infantry regiments.

Anyone heard anything from Nicholas Soames in the last month? No, it is just another broken Tory promise. To make it even harder to swallow, the Scottish Battalion that is under threat is the Royal Regiment of Scotland that has inherited the traditions of the Black Watch. I hope those same Scottish Tory Gentry who led the protests in 2004, return to Westminster this year.

The Generals need to be strong, large Regiments are the answer- more flexable and gives Officer and Senior NCO’s the opportunities to train and operate in different theatres, building up their experience.

I joined the Royal Green Jackets in 1978, but we still took our traditions from the Rifle Regiments that merged into the RGJ in the early 60’s and each of the 3 battalions took a link to a particular Regiment. So those in 3 RGJ were proud to be descendants of the Rifle Brigade. But it was a sad day in 1992 when we were reduced to 2 Battalions (under a Tory Govt) but it was even more galling when the Tories under pressure saved Single Battalions of County regiments like the Cheshires.
Now the Rifles take the traditions of the Green Jackets, The Light Infantry and the West of England Regiments – keeping those traditions alive, keeping regional links but having the flexibility to move soldiers between units and benefit operationally from that movement.

But again we have Cameron under pressure, and leaving instructions that cap badges must not be lost, so it is Regiments like The Rifles, The Mercians, Yorkshire, Lancashire and Scottish Regiments under threat. With other Regiments likely to be saved (including the Guards) because he just wants to save badges.

Cameron and his party lied both to the public and the Army in 2004, this time the Generals must be strong and stick to what they think is best operationally. In reality we cannot afford to fight in Afghanistan and be on call to operate in other theatres if we lose any battalions and definitely not 8. Maybe 2 is nearer the total we could afford to lose, but do not let the Tories just keep cap badges to save face!

My week ahead 22 - 28 August 2011

2011-08-21T17:27:00.004Z

Dr Fox and his defence cuts, or the Ipswich Maritime Festival?

Monday 22 August 6pm - Labour Group Meeting

Tuesday 23 August 10.30am - Tour of Britain Cycle ride, media launch, Diss

Wednesday 24 August 9am - ICR Radio interview about the Tour of Britain
10.30am - Meeting about the new Ipswich Academy

Sunday 28 August 10am - Sky Ride at Northgate School

This week has been quite varied, starting with a birthday party for one of our Labour Councillors, the event was held at the excellent Reg Driver Centre in Christchurch Park.

Monday saw a number of us back campaigning in Holywells Ward, Ipswich. A number of residents commented that it was the first time they had ever had a councillor knock on their door let alone ask for their views.

I managed to also fill in some sport spectating, but the football was ruined by the inability of the current Ipswich team to actually play football and Essex cricket was cut short by heavy rain at Colchester.

The rain may have stopped the cricket but, even with slightly damp feet the Ipswich Beer Festival did go on! Fortunately the weather improved by the weekend for the remainder of the Beer Festival and the excellent Ipswich Maritime festival. Lets hope this becomes an annual event in the Ipswich events calender.

Boats, beer and plenty more!

2011-08-21T16:49:00.012Z

Ipswich Maritime Festival -

Just back from a family trip to the Ipswich Maritime festival, a really fantastic Sunday treat. I had made a pre festival visit to the Ipswich Beer Festival which this year had moved to the waterfront. Hundred turned up Thursday night to taste the many ales but we found ourselves under water! Not great for the first night in a new location but the blitz spirit seemed to work (with the help of a few strong bitters) and the main tent seemed packed all night.

Ipswich Beer Festival - in the rain!

Saturday had seen a couple of late showers but from those who went it seemed the whole day had been a success, with a great finale for the day with the firework display.

Ipswich Beer Festival - in the sun!

Sunday also started off sunny and though it clouded over slightly in the afternoon, it remained dry. We started and finished the day at the beer festival, and from the amount of empty barrels, the new location seems to have been a success. But it was not just beer on offer! There were plenty of food stall, historical displays from Georgian England to WW2, with the Spitfire plane being like a magnet to many young lads (and their fathers).

The atmosphere was very continental, drink, food, sun and people enjoying themselves. The large whale seemed very popular, but I did wonder what was going on onside ot as 20 children and mothers appeared from withing it's grey skin! Not many fathers seemed keen on joining in.

Complaints? Seems petty to mention anything after the hard work by our own IBC Officers, Ipswich Central and the various other organisations involved in getting the festival going. But there are always places where improvements can be made and I would like to see maybe more boats for people to visit and clamber aboard, the Orwell lady was doing a great trade as was the Thames sailing barge but maybe we could get the Royal (or Dutch/Belgian) Navy to visit with a mine sweeper on the same weekend.

But lets not take anything away from a well organised, well attended fun event.

I look forward to being involved in the wash up afterwards and lets hope this now becomes a regular Ipswich event.

Visit the Maritime festival website here, and leave your own comments.

The lights are going off in Rushmere....

2011-08-17T20:05:00.004Z

By now many of you would have started to see orange Suffolk County Council signs appear on Rushmere Ward streets, informing you that your street lights will soon be switched off between midnight and 5.30am.

I believe in principle it is a good idea to turn the lights off, not only saving the County money but also helping reduce our carbon footprint. What I have not been happy about is the way the Tory run County have failed to inform residents and not to have in place a procedure that residents can follow if they believe their street should stay lit.

What has even been more disappointing than the failure of the County to inform residents of the switch off is the way certain Ipswich Tory councillors, candidates and activists have attempted to scare residents with talk of muggings and petty crime but then to say the Labour run Ipswich Borough Council are the ones who are turning the lights off!

Thankfully this week at least two senior Tories have been more honest when talking about the proposed light switch off. In his Evening Star column this week, the Tory councillor for Bixley, Kym Stroet was quoted 'Although we (IBC) are responsible for only a small proportion of the street lights, as councillors we need to allay fears of residents'. Former Tory councillor Gavin Maclure even commented on a previous post by me that Ipswich Tories should not be saying it is the Borough turning the lights off.

Hopefully that message will get over to former Tory Candidate James Spencer who believes the streets of Bridge will become more dangerous because of Labour and Kevin Algar who also blogged how it was a Labour plan to turn lights off.

As both these Tory supporting blogs often get their facts wrong it is no surprise they got the 'lights off' facts wrong, but there was little excuse for the Tories in Holywells ward to put out a leaflet that was very unclear on who was behind the plan to turn them off (even if the Tory County councillors from Ipswich voted for the plan).

We will see how the 'switch off' goes, but if any Ipswich resident feels that they need to have their street stay lit up, please contact your Labour councillor and we will take the matter up with the County Council.

My week ahead 14 -20 August 2011

2011-08-14T08:51:00.003Z

Monday 15 August 2pm - North East Partnership Meeting - Listening to our local SNT Police team, on how they dealt with the events last week.

6pm - Campaigning in Holywells ward, Ipswich - Getting the views of and informing residents about the plan to switch lights off in streets from September

Tuesday 16 August 7.45pm - Football at Portman Road - Someones has to go!

Wednesday 17 August 9am - Planning Committee - Grafton House

Thursday 18 August 11am - Essex cricket at Colchester

Saturday 20 August 10.30am - Campaigning on the doorstep in Ipswich

Last week I spent most days delivering the new Rushmere Rose in Ipswich but also managed to find time to knock on doors in Holywells Ward. Most residents did not seem aware that their street lights will be turned off by the County Council in September. As I have stated before, I agree that it is a good idea to switch off lights between midnight and 5.30am in the morning. what the county should have done is informed residents of the plan with at least an information leaflet. At least they are now putting signs up in the streets in the weeks before the lights are switched off. Hopefully with the Suffolk County Council logo on the notice, it will stop the Tory supporting blogs telling all who will listen that it is the Borough Council who are behind the light switch off.

I also attended a meeting about the plan for the building of the new Ipswich Academy with Labour councillors from South East Ipswich, it will create a fantastic environment for learning, even if the budget is almost half of what was initially promised in the 'Building Schools for the Future' scheme.

Helping to restore peace and calm to the capital

2011-08-10T13:06:00.001Z

A message from Suffolk Police to Ipswich residents

Helping to restore peace and calm to the capital

Suffolk Police is continuing to support the Metropolitan Police restore peace to the capital by sending further officers to London.
A number will be travelling this afternoon and overnight to help arrest, identify or deter people from rioting and looting.
Police would like to dispel fictitious and malicious rumours which are circulating, particularly on social networking sites about disorder on the streets of Suffolk.
Assistant Chief Constable Paul Marshall said: “We would like to inform residents of Suffolk that there is no unrest here in the county. We understand how distressing these rumours must be to residents of Suffolk and can assure people there is no substance in them.”
Despite the assistance being sent to London, Suffolk Police has a significant number of resources still on duty and a high-visibility presence will continue throughout the day and night to deter any disorder as well as offering reassurance to residents who are worried by the events unfolding in the capital.
ACC Marshall added: “We are working hard to ensure the county remains safe and we have sufficient-trained police officers on duty to deal with any situation should it arise.”
Suffolk Police understands that business owners may be feeling concerned following the recent events in London and are subsequently issuing advice.
Retailers should conduct regular checks outside their building for any suspicious activity, identify any areas of their property which are vulnerable to forced entry and ensure CCTV is fully-operational.
As a precautionary measure additional officers and PCSOs will patrolling main towns to provide high-visibility reassurance patrols. They will be visiting businesses, community venues and other places where people gather to engage with local people and provide advice and guidance.
Police in Suffolk are reiterating the words of the Metropolitan Police Commissioner Tim Godwin and would urge parents to be aware of and ask their children where they are and who they are with.
If anyone has information about any possible daytime disorder they can contact Suffolk Police on 01473 613745 or in an emergency call 999.

Lack of leadership

2011-08-08T19:22:00.007Z

"What riot?"

I write this as riots have now spread to Croydon and even Birmingham. No doubt this is copycat actions and has no other link than that to the original incident in Tottenham.

What is needed now is leadership, community support and parental control.

Community leaders are right to highlight the poverty, lack of opportunity and the feeling of being outside society but they must also be brave enough to see that most of these incidents are just occurring as they wish to copy other area's, get a quick buzz and line their pockets with looted goods- all damaging their own communities.

Parents need to know where their sons and daughters are, get them home, keep them at home.

Leadership is what is needed most, I have just watched on BBC as an ex Senior Police Commander from Fulham criticise the Government and senior management in the Metropolitan Police. I have then seen the acting Commissioner of the Metropolitan Police show true leadership in asking for the support of the people of London.

I have seen and heard controlled comments that show a true understanding of his community by David Lammy the Labour MP from Tottenham. I am at this moment hearing measured comments by Simon Hughes the Lib Dem MP. But where are those who pull the strings? Those who control this country?

Cameron, Osborne, May and Johnson all on holiday at the same time. we are told it is OK as William Hague is in charge. Third day of riots and not heard from him once.

Boris Johnson said yesterday there was no need for any one to cut short their holiday, less than 24 hours later the Home Secretary, Theresa May does come back. Johnson then back tracks and will be back by lunchtime Tuesday!

Theresa May was hard line in her words but as the police stated, the yobs are not worried about being caught, they know the jails are full, they will be out in a few hours. In the days of football hooliganism, the thugs knew that in London they were unlikely ever to end up in court. so strong words from Mrs May but no real substance. No show of unity with the police, OK to praise them, but not sure many would have felt any elation when hearing her comments as the same Home Secretary is making thousands of them redundant.

Then we have Cameron and Johnson - the real lack of leadership by staying away the true Tory meaning to - "We are all in it together"

A Tory blogger from Ipswich asked me why should they come back? Maybe he should ask the leader of Tottenham Tories who has criticised Boris Johnson for his (chosen) absence.

Gavin Maclure has even blogged that Cameron may not be the leader he thought he was but even he states that the PM and Osborne deserve and need their overseas breaks.

Brigadier Radford - true leadership

But when I was in Afghanistan in 2009, under the command of 19 Brigade we were facing the bloodiest Summer of fighting the British Army had seen since Korea in the 1950's. What did our leader do? Brigadier Radford refused to take his two weeks leave, he spent the whole seven months in Helmand Province. More than that he knew that his men needed the rest and recuperation so he made them all take their R & R but he chose not to take his - true leadership in what was a difficult time for many of us.

So Cameron and Johnson may be able to keep in control from Italy (and where other Boris is)but there is no way they will get a true feel of the fear that London is living under. The PM wherever he is would be spending time in contact with Downing Street what ever was happening but what about the extra cost that Johnson is running up by constantly being on the phone with London, especially at the time when the Met Police has only a stand in leader. He needed to be on that plane home on Sunday.

When I was in the army, we had to sort out our leave that meant that leaders were always in place, this meant that none of the leadership ever took leave at Christmas or New Year. Even last week, the leader of our own Ipswich Borough Council informed us that he would be away for a week but whilst he was away (he would still be contactable by phone or email) that his deputy would be in charge. So if IBC can do it, why couldn't the Government - so I ask again where is the leadership? How can it be that one of the leading countries in the world can allow the PM, Deputy PM, the Chancellor, the Home Secretary (and London Mayor) all be on holiday (and out of the country) at the same time? Answer- Incompetence.

LATEST

At 4 this afternoon both Cameron and Johnson said there was no need to end holiday earlier, by 6 we heard Johnson would be on a plane and home by lunch Tuesday and now we hear Cameron (9.20) is coming back- trouble is for mamy it is not when he should have come back- incompetence

Rest of the week - 14 August 2011

2011-08-08T19:05:00.003Z

Back from a short break and straight back into campaigning!

This week I will be delivering to and calling on residents in Rushmere Ward, Ipswich.

I will be passing on good news to residents that it seems likely that we will be getting parts of Renfrew Road re-surfaced. We also should see this month a new bus shelter being built outside Dundee House in Renfrew Road. Very good news for our Senior residents who live in this great council home.

This Saturday I will be joining a number of other Labour members both in Rushmere and Holywells, as we continue to talk to residents about their concerns and interests.

Then it is off to Portman Road for the first home game of the season.

My week ahead 31 July - 7 August

2011-07-31T13:14:00.003Z

August is the month with few meetings but I will be spending the first few days of the week catching up on case work and then a short city break to Lisbon

This week started with campaigning in Great Cornard and the hard work paid off as Tracey Welsh won the parish seat for Labour on Thursday. This could help make Cornard a winnable seat when it comes to the Suffolk County Council election in 2013.

Yesterday we were campaigning in Holywells and Alexandra Ward in Ipswich. Informing residents the good news that their support has helped our campaign to get Tory led Suffolk County Council to recruit a new lollipop person for Foxhall Road.

Like Rosehill Library, the local Tories have always stated that the crossing patrols are safe now Hill/Pembroke have gone. But we have had mixed messages from the County.

First Cllr Bee told us that all crossings would continue (where there is a need) but no mention of Sidegate Lane, Hawthorn Drive or Foxhall Road where the crossings had not been replaced (County imposed recruitment ban). then we were told that all would be saved with the County paying for them, that soon changed again to be told that the County would undertake assessments to see how many children crossed unaccompanied and that some patrols could be scrapped.

We were then told that the Hawthorn Drive crossing would not be replaced and that it was unlikely that the Foxhall Road crossinmg would see someone appointed as no youngsters were seen crossing the road. Then we got the good news - they would recruit a new patrol for Foxhall Road.

Ipswich Tories accuse us of misleading residents about the Library and Crossing patrol situation but they should ask their County colleagues why so many mixed messages are being sent out. We are told this week by Ipswich Tories that Rosehill Library is now safe, implying that it was not safe before??

Back to crossing patrols, we hope that the County can recruit a new patrol before September, if you are interested in the post or know someone who is- contact Mary Jarrett on 01473 265006 or email: mary.jarrett@suffolk.gov.uk

My week ahead 25 - 31 July 2011

2011-07-24T15:34:00.003Z

This week, I will be In Mid Wales, supporting some young Ipswich residents as they tray to gain their Duke of Edinburgh Gold Award.

Saturday 30 July 10.30am Campaigning in North Ipswich

This week started with 3 meetings on Monday, the first was spent looking how we can get more local residents involved in the North East Ipswich forum, the second was a meeting with Council Officers as we looked at the plan for the Olympic torch arriving in Ipswich. The day finished off with the Labour Group meeting.

On Wednesday, I joined fellow Labour councillors, Bryony Rudkin and Peter Gardiner at Crown Pools in Ipswich as we met users of the pool to discuss the next stage of the pool refurbishment. the users seemed impressed (and surprised) that we were keen to hear their views.

The council meeting that night saw unanimous support for the motion that will see Ipswich form closer links with Nettuno in Italy, what should have just been a formality was slightly soured by Tory leader John Carnall trying to make a fuss about why the meeting was being held. But from the speakers on the night, it seems he was a lone voice and the comments by Lib Dem Richard Atkins and even some of Carnall's own group also indicated that the opposition had wished to form a link with Nettuno during their time in power but for some reason (Carnall?) it never happened.

On Thursday I was at the Colchester Road Fire Station to see the handover of the Needham Market Fire engine and then I finished the week by spending Saturday campaigning for Tracey Welsh in Great Cornard.

Rural Parish elections - important for Labour

2011-07-24T14:47:00.003Z

On Saturday, I joined a number of other members from the Ipswich Labour Party as we made our way towards the Essex border. Great Cornard was our final destination as we joined local members in campaigning for Tracey Welsh.

Tracey is standing for Labour this Thursday in a local parish by-election. I feel it is important that we have a Labour candidate in every election, County, District, town or parish - all part of our Labour fight back in the South and East of England. Now the Lib Dems have shown their real (Tory) face it is even more important that residents have a Labour candidate to vote for.

There is always much talk of how Parish Councils should not be political and that candidates should be Independents. But the reason for this election is that an Independent won this seat in May but then decided not to take up the seat. Money could have been saved as the Parish Council could have just co-opted another candidate from the election in May but the Tory Party wanted an election. So in the last 4 years, the council has had to spend almost £10,000 on elections caused by internal squabbling between Independents (and Tories).

From talking to residents on Saturday, Tracey has a good chance of winning. Many voters state that we were the only party they had call on them, plus the Lib Dems could not even find a candidate (remember this is part of Babergh - a seat the Lib Dems see themselves as the official opposition). The Independent candidate has distributed a leaflet but strangely with a drawing of a can of beer on the back of it!!

So if you live in Cornard, or know friends and family who live in the town, tell them to get out and vote for Tracey on Thursday the 28th July.

Needham Market Steamer Fire Engine

2011-07-23T17:28:00.003Z

On 20th November 1962 The Fire Authority for Ipswich opened a new fire station in Colchester Road. In readiness for the opening event the Service installed the 1911 Shand Mason steam pump as a static display in a cabinet at the front of the station.

The pump was originally purchased by Needham Market Town Council. The Council passed a resolution on 2nd October 1911 to purchase the new steam fire engine from Messrs. Shand Mason and Co and the pump was delivered to them on 1st June 1912.

The pump was drawn by one or two horses but in the event that no horses were available, it was pulled by an old Model T Ford. It required six or eight fire-fighters to operate the pump. The wheels were originally of solid metal but later they were covered by a rudimentary rubber tyre.

The pump attended its last fire on 30th July 1940 at Gt Finborough. This was the last steam fire engine to attend a fire in the UK.

The pump was on display at the National Fire Service College in Saltdean, Brighton from 1942-1948. After a nomadic few years, it was offered on indefinite loan to Ipswich Fire Service.

In advance of the upcoming closure of the Colchester Road fire station, which is being superseded by the new Ipswich east fire station, the pump is being officially handed over to Needham Market Town Council, which has decided that it should be displayed at the Museum of East Anglian Life in Stowmarket.

This official handover marks the latest chapter in the long and illustrious history of the steam pumper and Colchester Road fire station.

I was honoured to be invited to attend the handover, surprisingly the occasion was quite moving, with a lady whose father had manned a similar type of alliance present at the event, she even had her photograph taken with one of the Colchester Road fire crews.

With the handover of the appliance we get closer to the closure of the station, it seems most local residents are happy that the Council's preferred development is 50 plus houses rather than flats or a large superstore. But since that plan was announced the local paper has informed us that M & S would be keen to include a smaller store in the development.

Speaking to a number of residents, it seems many would be in favour of a Small convenience store within the housing development. I can see that a small food store is needed in this part of town, we will now have to wait and see what the developer comes up with.

Soldiers on the cheap

2011-07-21T07:28:00.003Z

My interview on British Forces Broadcasting Station TV (BFBS), that was shown in Germany on Tuesday night.

Dr Fox - 'Big Society Army' - soldiers on the cheap

2011-07-19T11:00:00.003Z

Dr Fox, the Dr Beeching of the Armed Forces

Yesterday I was interviewed on BBC Radio Suffolk about the latest Tory plan for the Armed Forces, and I followed that up today by being interviewed by the British Forces Broadcasting Service (BFBS) for their TV channel. The more I spoke about Dr Fox and his plans for defence the angrier I got.

It just adds up to an Army on the cheap, Dr Fox will destroy the Army like Dr Beeching destroyed the railways. The Territorial Army cannot replace the Regular Army, you can not model our Armed Forces on what they do in the USA or Australia.

Changes are needed, we do need to make cut backs, the Heads of the three services need to look at the bigger picture, rather than just look at it from what they think is best for their own service.

The territorials can do more, they need to create closer links with the Regular Army- the 'One army' concept.

The Tories state that a smaller Armed Forces is needed as we are pulling out of Afghanistan and that we will no longer try and 'police' the world. So where does our deployment to Libya, or the 'Arab Spring' come into their thinking.

Who will deploy on the streets, when their is a fireman strike, the bins are not being emptied in Glasgow, the Rive Trent bursts it's banks, we suffer a further foot and mouth crisis?

Morale is the lowest I have ever know it in the forces, troops in Germany are warned that they be moving back to the UK, somewhere in Scotland but no land has been found to train on yet.

Most of these troop movements will happen after the next General Election, Labour will be left with the mess that Cameron, Osborne and Fox are creating. So much for the Tories promising extra troops before the last election- we now have plans for 19,000 less troops.

Yesterday on Radio Suffolk an angry mother phoned in, her son was injured in Afghanistan and has just been told he is being made redundant, not sure he would be keen to be told the TA will replace him. She called Dr Fox an idiot, I am sure many members of the Armed Forces would have stronger words for him.

In East Suffolk, we have small towns and villages that still feel cut off by Dr Beeching and his cuts to to the Railway network that he forced through in the 1960's now We have another Doctor trying to implement similar drastic, ill thought out cuts to the Armed Forces. you do not cut the Army when you are at war- Dr Fox , a fellow Rifleman from my Regiment was killed this week in Afghanistan - we are at war Dr Fox.

My week ahead 18 - 24 July 2011

2011-07-17T13:11:00.003Z

Monday 18 July 2pm North East Partnership Meeting
4pm Meeting Portfolio Holder for Culture and Leisure and Officers
6pm Ipswich Labour Group Meeting

Tuesday 19 July 1pm Meeting with Crown Street Swimming Pool users

Wednesday 20 July 9am Meeting with Crown Street Swimming Pool users
6pm Ipswich Borough Full Council Meeting

Thursday 21 July 10am Handover of the Needham Market Steam Pump, Colchester Road Fire Station

Saturday 23 July 10.30am Campaigning in Ipswich

Change their tune?

2011-07-08T15:08:00.003Z

This week we have heard the Tory MP for Suffolk Coastal, Therese Coffey actually defend Rebekah Brooks, stating that the campaign against Rebekah was 'a developing witch hunt'. Not sure I heard her defend Andrea Hill in the same way when she was under attack from her fellow Suffolk MP's.

24 hours later and Therese Coffey MP is involved in a number of arguments on twitter as she attempts to distance herself from her earlier comment.

This is what she said in the House of Commons - "Therese Coffey, Con: “News International has not helped themselves… but they did finally act”. Calls the campaign against Rebekah Brooks “a developing witch hunt”

Seems like a defence of News International to me- a view that I seem to share with Helen Goodman MP and many others on twitter.

Now Therese, I would not worry too much, your fellow Tory, Boris Johnson has no problem attacking News International this week but only last year he had this to say on phone hacking (probably after being briefed by the friend of the PM- Andy Coulson)
Boris Johnson dismissed continuing concerns over the News of the World's use of phone hacking as "codswallop" that "looks like a politically motivated put-up job by the Labour party".

My week ahead 9- 16 July 2011

2011-07-08T15:01:00.003Z

This week I will be away with the Military on a camp in North Yorkshire

Last week started with a meeting looking at the provision of sports facilities in the town, a very important matter to many. plenty of forward thinking needs to be done, we held a second meeting on this important matter on Thursday evening.

On Wednesday I found myself at Grafton House on a Planning meeting, good news for many in Rushmere Ward as planning permission for a phone mast close to Rushmere Hall school was refused for the second time.

Seen a bit of rain this week but it has not managed to spoil what has been a fantastic Ip-art festival- next year should even be more fantastic as we also have the Olympic torch coming to town.

Over the Hill?

2011-07-04T19:36:00.003Z

Andrea Hill has gone- Suffolk is happy, but at what cost?

£218,592 pay off

Amount to be paid to recruit a new Chief Executive £??,???

Fee to be paid to the Legal firm, Wragge & Co investigating the accusations by the whistle blower £???,??? (Doncaster paid Wragge £100,000 plus)

All the Freedom of Information requests the Council will have to deal with after placing gagging orders on Ms Hill and asking Cllrs to say nothing on the matter.

And to top it all, most of the Cabinet who supported NSD and the way Ms Hill was leading on it, are still in positions of power.

NSD may be dead but we seem still to have a Council determined to press on with divesting services.

My week ahead 4 - 10 July

2011-07-03T19:43:00.003Z

Monday 5 July - 4pm Meeting with IBC Culture and Leisure team

Wednesday 7 July - 9.30am Planning and Development meeting

Saturday 10 July - Depart for week long Military Training camp

This week the highlight was the Full Council meeting where I was proud to speak on the motion to give members of HM Forces free entry to Ipswich leisure facilities.

On Friday I was interviewed by both BBC Radio Suffolk and Heart FM, both interviews were to help promote the brilliant 'Music in the Park' day.

Saturday found me in St Margarets Ward, where I found myself delivering Finchley road for the first time ! Straight afterwards I was off to Sherrington Road, where I attended the Broomhill Pool Summer Fete. The week was finished off with a sausage and a kebab at the Ipswich Labour Party Summer BBQ.

Broomhill Swimming Pool

2011-07-03T12:13:00.006Z

On Saturday I attended the Broomhill Summer Fete, organised by the Broomhill Pool Trust but now with the assistance of the 'Friends of Westbourne Library' and the Access to Nature group.

I have fond memories of the pool, spending many a summer day running, diving, jumping and swimming in the pool. As a kid they did look like the highest diving boards in the world - like something more at home in an Elvis film from Hawaii in the late 60's.

There has been plenty of political rhetoric, from all sides on the future of the pool. As the area was once the site of the first home of Ipswich Town, you could say the pool has become a political football. But now it has to be about action not talking. I would expect this year that we see an operator being chosen to run the pool and then a timeline set in place to get the pool up an running. But in times of austerity we need to be very firm that if the time frame does not hold we do not continue just to leave the pool as it is, costing money to be kept secure.

But back to yesterday, it was a well organised event, attended mainly by local residents (plus politicians from all sides) showing that both the pool and the library are well loved by those who live closest. The planned destruction of the Suffolk Library service by the Tories may actually help the Pool Trust as the future of the Library could now be included in any planned proposal for the future of the pool.

Ipswich supports our Armed Forces

2011-06-29T18:27:00.003Z

Monday night (27th June 2011) was a good day for politics in Ipswich. The Tory group on Ipswich Borough Council had put forward a proposal that if passed would have allowed members of our Armed Forces who live in the Borough free entry to Borough owned sports facilities such as Crown Pools and also free entry to events held at 'The Regent' and the 'Corn Exchange'.

The ruling Labour group put forward an amendment that I was proud to second, our amendment was to remove the original target date of August 1st. This was not done out of spite, this was so that we could make sure that when the scheme is implemented, we would have ensured that serving members of our Armed Forces living in the town would have received their free i-card and were aware of the benefits that ownership of that card entitled them to.

Though it would be great to offer free 'Regent' tickets to all our Armed Forces living in the town this would have been hard to implement, we are looking at joining in with the military charity - 'Tickets for Troops', by working with them it would not only enable soldiers who are resident in the town to apply for free tickets but also those who call Ipswich their home but are based in other parts of the UK or even abroad.

This seems to be the way ahead, and after this was mentioned in the 'Evening Star' on Tuesday, I have already had a mother of a local soldier approach me and tell me how excited he was that he would now be able to use the Borough owned gyms in the town.

Many councils and private firms have offered troops similar benefits but I aim to use my links with the military community to help Council Officers introduce a scheme that will see the soldiers and their families use our swimming pools and gyms and that members of our forces come to Ipswich to watch shows both at the ‘Regent’ or the ‘Corn Exchange’.
Why was it good for politics in Ipswich? The amendment was voted through unanimously and with an obvious desire on all three sides to make it work.

My week ahead 27 June - 2 July

2011-06-26T14:36:00.003Z

Monday 27 June - 6pm Full Council meeting, I will be speaking on the motion to allow members of HM Forces to use Ipswich sports and leisure facilities for free.

Tuesday 28 June - 7pm - Sidegate Primary School Full Governing Body meeting

Saturday 2 July - 10.30am Campaigning in North Ipswich
2pm Attending the Broomhill Trust fete.

Last Monday was a busy day, starting at Grafton House as we unfurled the Armed Forces Day flag, in the afternoon it was a meeting at the local Police SNT HQ at Heath Rd and then it was straight to meeting looking at the plans for the arrival of the Olympic torch in Ipswich. Finally it was the Labour Group meeting.

Tuesday I was at Sidegate Primary School where we are looking at ways to help pupils achieve as much as they can academically at the school.

I then spent two days in the west country at a funeral of a former military comrade. Saturday was campaigning day and I joined a team of Labour Party activists in Castle Hill Ward. what was noticeable was that many houses have kept their 'Save our Libraries' posters up- obviously still do not trust the Tory County Council - even with Pembroke gone, NSD dead and Ms Hill away.

The sun came out today and I was joined by my daughter at the St Peters Street Summer market, a fantastic little event that I am sure we as a council can help improve. On the way home I stopped at the 'Goals' centre at the New Suffolk College, not sure the footballers appreciated the arrival of the heatwave! 20 teams were taking part in a community football tournament organised by the North East Ipswich SNT Police team. I will be hoping to get a team up next year!

Not all it seems!

2011-06-21T19:05:00.001Z

I have blogged about how the Tory supporting 'A Riverside View' was not being factually correct when trying to say that the Labour run Ipswich Borough Council were responsible for the plan to turn off street lights in Ipswich from midnight till dawn.

I was not surprised that Kevin was not being factually correct but I am surprised today that the Official Ipswich Tory website seems to be forgetting who is responsible for a number of policies.

Cutting grass- or not cutting it!

The Tories say: Tuesday, 21 June, 2011
The council are proposing not to cut the grass on Clapgate Lane and Nacton Road. We think this will not maintain our community to a decent standard and may leave the streets looking unkempt and untidy.

The truth, this plan was hatched up by the last Tory run administration and the savings to be made are part of the Carnall/Tory budget.

Lights off!

The Tories say: Tuesday, 21 June, 2011
There is fury at the decision to switch off the street lights in parts of the Holywell ward from midnight to 5.30am. We believe that this could be a dangerous decision which could have safety implications for local residents and drivers.

Now what they don't say is that the plan to turn off 94% of the lights in Ipswich is a Tory run Suffolk County council plan and that it was approved by the County Council who included Tory Borough councillors Terry (also a Cabinet member) West, Debman, Harsant, Young and Vickery. They even put out a leaflet in Holywells- but Cllr Debman is their County Cllr, who must have agreed to it!

Then you have a planning issue, now planning should not be political but the Tory website accuses Labour of being political about a planning decision

The Tories say: The council's Planning and Development Committee, which is majority Labour, have unanimously voted for a backland development on Levington Road. The Conservatives are very unhappy at this as many local residents opposed this development and there was a six year protest against it. It is hoped by the Conservatives that there will be no more backlands developments without the full support of local residents.

Now if the decision was unanimously voted for (as the post states) does that mean all the Tory Cllrs also voted for it?

I have a feeling the Ipswich Tories will campaign on a number of issues that when looked at in more detail we will be find to be projects that were thought up by the previous Tory/Lib Dem administration and that money saved by these schemes have already been included in the budget that they left us with!

My week ahead 20 - 26 June 2011

2011-06-19T18:15:00.004Z

Monday 20 June - 10am Armed Forces Day - Town Hall and Grafton House
2pm North East Ipswich Partnership meeting
6pm Labour Group meeting

Armed Forces Day - my first one - Sangin, Afghanistan 2009

Tuesday 21 June - 5pm Sidegate Primary School, Steering Committee meeting

Wednesday 22 June - 7pm North East Ipswich Forum meeting, St John's Baptist Church, Cauldwell Hall Road - come along to hear about Neighbourhood Watch and a Policing Priority update

Thursday 23 June - 10.30am - Military Funeral, Weston Super Mare

Last week gave me an opportunity to meet a number of local community groups, starting with local Scout Groups on Monday and finishing with attending the Colchester Road Allotment Open Day.

Thursday saw the first Scrutiny meeting of the Municipal year and it looks like all those present seem keen to make scrutiny work. This should benefit all Ipswich residents.

Friday was a day I would wish to forget, I was at the opening of the new Profiles Gym at Northgate High School. the equipment (and the enthusiasm to use it by the pupils) should have made me leave the opening with a smile but after I was beaten in a sporting challenge by the Northgate Head Teacher, I left knowing that I needed to start to work on my fitness!

I started my new fitness campaign on Saturday by campaigning in South East Ipswich - Ascot Road is quite hilly!

Needs to check his facts- again!

2011-06-18T19:56:00.004Z

The Tory supporting blog - 'A Riverside View' seems to have decided that when it comes to blogging - it's quantity not quality that counts. The loser in all this? The true facts!

I and others seemed to spend most of our time commenting on his posts, not just trying to put the Labour view across but also just to inform Kevin that he had got his facts wrong. But once it was obvious he had lost the argument he would just revert to abuse. I have decided just not to bother with commenting on his blog anymore, so what does he do? He now actually has a post named 'The Stupid things Alasdair Ross has said this week'

Now again, some would say best just to ignore him but the trouble is, Ipswich residents may come across his blog and believe his posts are factual, (I am not on about the posts about me - they are just make me laugh)but the posts on serious matters - Ipswich Mosques, Street Lights are just two posts recently that are full of misleading statements and seem based more on rumours that the truth.

We have his usual practice of copying his mentor at 'Bridge Ward News' so going from saying how good the Sky Ride was, he then joins Mr Spencer in criticising the date of the event. Now, sorry to disappoint you Kevin, it takes more than a few weeks to plan the Sky Ride. Now I would like to take the credit for the event but it was planned under the Tory administration. We will try and improve the event in the future and more notice of the road closures is one improvement we aim to pursue next year. We are now aware that certain dates are better than other but if you want to moan about why that date was chosen- speak to your own Tory Cllrs. They chose the date.

Then we come to the post where he really is trying to fool the Ipswich public. The plan to switch off some of the street lights in the town between midnight and dawn. Kevin seems to think it is up to us the Labour administration - wrong.
There are over 16.000 street lights in Ipswich and over 15,000 are owned by the Tory County Council. Last October the Tory Cabinet decided to implement a plan to turn off lights. the scheme will start in Ipswich then spread out all over Suffolk. Now Ipswich Borough Council do manage the lights for Suffolk County Council but we have no say about when they turn the lights off (or on).

Now I actually think the dimming of some lights or turning certain streets off is a good idea - as long as local residents can make their views known. Ipswich Borough council will now decide later this month what they will do with the 790 lights we own.

The good thing is that the system that is being used will enable changes to be made with a flick of a switch. If residents are concerned about the lighting in their roads, get in touch and we will chase it up with the County Council.

UPDATE

Today Kevin has accused me of lying about the County planning to turn the street lights off last October:

Maybe this extract from the County Papers last October may make him even admit he is wrong! Don't hold your breath.

Meeting Date: 12 October 2010Lead Councillor/s: Councillor Guy McGregor, Portfolio Holder for Roads, Transport
and Planning
STREET LIGHTING - POLICY PROPOSALS ON PART-NIGHT LIGHTING AND
DIMMING
WHO WILL BE AFFECTED BY THIS DECISION?
2. All Suffolk residents and visitors.
WHAT ARE THE KEY ISSUES TO CONSIDER?
3. The key issues to consider are:
a) the relationship to the ‘Greenest County’ aspirations. By 2025 Suffolk
aims to achieve a 60% reduction in CO2. The Intelligent Lighting
System Project has the potential to deliver significant street lighting
energy savings and a CO2 reduction of 4,150 tonnes by April 2013,
WHAT IS THE CABINET BEING ASKED TO DECIDE?
1. The Cabinet is being asked to:
a) adopt the policy as detailed in Appendix A of this report for the
implementation of part-night lighting and dimming delivered through the
application of an Intelligent Lighting System;

Time to scare those crows!

2011-06-18T18:57:00.006Z

Today I joined Cllr Judy Terry at the Colchester Road allotment site, we had two roles to undertake. First we had to judge the scarecrow competition and then after that officially open the new toilet block.

One of the winning Scarecrows - taking it easy!

Myself and Cllr Smith had gained a grant from the North East Forum for the toilet block and Judy Terry also added a contribution from her locality budget.

It was a great day, and we only got hit by one shower, the scarecrows all made us smile, we even found a tardis and then we had to taste the fantastic cakes! I was joined by youngest (Labour member) daughter and we managed to eat two cakes, a burger, some cherries and nearly win the raffle!

We were even given the opportunity to plant a tree by the new toilet block.

They have a fantastic community feel at the allotment site, my daughter now wants one!

Same old Judy Terry, same old Tory County Council, same old NSD

2011-06-15T09:08:00.003Z

So Mark Bee the new Leader of the Tories on Suffolk County Council declared 'New Strategic Direction' as dead.

The name maybe dead but the rest of NSD lives on, here is a quote from the non aligned Suffolk blog- Wordblog:

'One concern among campaigners is that Judy Terry, the cabinet member responsible for libraries sometimes gives the impression that she wants to get through a policy as close as it can be to the old New Strategic Direction idea.

It seems that we are still no closer to getting an answer to what exactly is going to happen to our libraries than we were when Mark Bee took power, it also seems to me that even though Mark Bee has stated that the new administration (but same leaders) will start to listen to the public, they are not - it is all a sham, even after the Tory chair of scrutiny remarked that: “We [the council] have got ourselves in a hole. Will you help us get out of it?”

My Week Ahead 13 - 19 June 2011

2011-06-12T20:12:00.004Z

Ross Edgar - Olympic cycling star in Ipswich

Monday 13 June - 8pm Meeting with local Scout Groups

Tuesday 14 June - Sidegate School

Wednesday 15 June - 2pm Army Air Corps homecoming parade, Christchurch Park

Thursday 16 June - 6pm Scrutiny meeting

Friday 17 June - 12.30pm Opening of new gym at Northgate School

Saturday 18 June 10.30am Campaigning in North West Ipswich

Last week started with a meeting with the Culture and Leisure portfolio holder - a number of great schemes are being planned for the town, to help mark the Olympics.

Wednesday was a sad day as I attended the funeral of C/Sjt Fortuna in Colchester.

Sunday was a fantastic day as thousands turned up for the Sky Ride in the town centre. I even managed to get a ride on a tandem and meet Olympic cycling star Ross Edgar.

Cllr Rudkin on a penny farthing - almost!

Please switch the lights off!

2011-06-11T20:48:00.003Z

Yet again the Tory supporting blog 'A Riverside View' has got his facts wrong, as usual he takes half a story from his mate at 'Bridge Ward News' then adds some of his own made up facts.

Today we have these gems:

Another area where Ipswich Labour are taking from us is their plan to switch off or dim street lights. Street lights are used by everybody but they don’t employ anybody so they are a service Labour are willing to cut. If the crime rate goes up as a result they would then probably blame it on coalition cuts. They would probably believe this being so blinded by their sanctimonious views.

There’s people wanting to get away from the towns image of being a sleepy little market town advertising it as a vibrant city, while Ipswich Labour are planning on switching the lights off. How many cities have the street lights switched off?

Now it is true that there is a plan to dim some lights and even turn some off after midnight, but this is Suffolk County Council plan - forgot to say- Tory run Suffolk County Council! Ipswich Borough Council acts as a contractor for the county, and I have asked what is the procedure for the public to make a complaint if they think a street should stay lit up- the answer? The Tory county have not yet come up with a procedure. I then stated it is a pity as most residents will see our vehicles and employees working on the lights and we will then be the residents first port of call if they do have a complaint.
I have seen a map of the streets that will see lights turned off and I think the plan will work and that most people will see it as a good idea. All main roads will stay lit, the main transit routes that pedestrians use on their way home at night will also remain lit up, if residents are unhappy with their road being unlit, I will take the matter up for them with the County Council. So yet again a Tory blog has got his facts wrong, funny thing he had the cheek to call Labour liars in the post!

'Our War - 10 Years in Afghanistan'

2011-06-07T14:09:00.003Z

Tonight the BBC will start showing a three part series looking at the life of a British soldier on operations in Afghanistan. The series is on BBC3 but I am sure it will eventually get an airing on BBC1. The significant feature of this series is that most of the footage will come from Helmet cameras that the soldiers carried themselves. I am sure it will be an eye opening experience for anyone watching it - more on it here.

Tonight at 5.20pm, I will be talking on BBC Radio Suffolk about the programme, from the media interest and the trailers on TV, this will be a programme that many will want to watch. The footage includes the incident that leads to a soldier from our local regiment,Private Chris Gray of The Royal Anglians getting fatally shot. We must remember this is not a Hollywood War Film, people get hurt and die. On Thursday, I will be at the Military Funeral of a solder from my own Regiment. How many more will die in Helmand? Is their an end plan?
The title is also misleading, it is not 'Our War'. The pain and fear we felt was also felt by those we left at home, there cannot be many people in the UK who do not know someone who is either serving or has served in Afghanistan - it is 'All Our War'

My Week ahead, 6 - 12 June 2011

2011-06-06T10:51:00.006Z

Monday 6 June - Afternoon meeting at Grafton House looking at a number of Culture and Leisure matters, including the 2012 Olympic legacy.
6pm Ipswich Labour Group meeting, reports from portfolio holders.

Thursday 9 June - 2pm Attending the funeral of C/Sjt KC Fortuna at St Peters Church, Colchester.

A sad occasion as I pay my respects to a fellow Rifleman, killed in Afghanistan on the 23rd May.

Saturday 11 June - 1030am Labour campaigning in North West Ipswich

Sunday 12 June - 10am Ipswich Sky Ride. I will be attending (and joining in!) with the cycle events in the town, the event is being jointly run by Ipswich Borough Council, Sky and British Cycling.

Last week I campaigned in Rushmere and Whitton Wards in Ipswich and attended the Ipswich Labour Party Victory Celebration, sadly (even with a special quiz hat)my team failed to come close to wining the quiz.

I have also been dealing with casework from constituents, issued dealt with this week have included housing, planning disputes, bus shelters and parking.

Getting the (nasty) message across.

2011-06-03T16:56:00.003Z

Getting the (nasty) message across

It did seem that those in politics in Ipswich were starting to use blogs and websites to get their message across but once the local election finished a number of website’s went back into hibernation – to be woken again next April?
The Ipswich labour Party site is kept updated (maybe not as much as we would wish) but the Tory, Lib Dem and even the Green Party sites have not been updated at all since the election finished.

It is disappointing that both the Tories and Lib Dems do not think it is important to keep the Ipswich public informed on what they are doing or propose to do. To be fair (after a long wait) Ben Gummer our local Tory MP has now got a website up and running, it is both informative and easy to use.

The vacuum of political information and debate has been filled by various blogs. The trouble is that one of these blogs has just become a home to attacks on local politicians. They call it humour, but it is more school playground humour rather than political satire (and Primary School at that.)
I am sure my blog upsets people at times (I know Ben Gummer was unhappy about a few comments) and other blogs can sometimes, infuriate, anger and occasionally make you laugh. But at least they did give the residents of Ipswich a flavour of what the local parties are thinking.

The Tory ‘Bridge Ward News’ disappoints me when it has to revert to calling councillors stupid names and the inability to leave comments seems strange but even taking all that it into consideration, a number of James’ posts are both informative and thought provoking. I also find the ‘neutral’ political sites of ‘Ipswich Spy’ and ‘Suffolk Word Blog’ very readable and I hope Gavin Maclure keeps posting on his new Tory blog. If you search hard enough you can even find a blog for a UKIP supporter and a poster from the ‘Far Left’. I am afraid to get the Lib Dem view you can stay in Suffolk but you have to leave the confines of Ipswich. To be honest, I believe James’ blog has opinions far more in tune with Labour than the Lib Dems.

Blogs are a useful tool to help get your message across, along with local radio, local press and your our own leaflets. Some political groups have a slight advantage, the leading (Rushmere) Tory – Judy Terry has her own column in the Ipswich Flyer. This leads me neatly back to why I find a certain Tory blog so disgusting.

Just as the election finished, Cllr Terry used her column in the Flyer to attack Labour – “what a vicious contest it was, with Labour’s malignant personal attacks on candidates and councillors who weren’t even standing for re-election! Leaflets, blogs and verbal assaults were the order of the day”

This comment was repeated in the Tory supporting blog - ‘A Riverside View’ – Fair enough to repeat the views of Cllr Terry you may say if you agree with them, but only 10 days later, Kevin (the Tory behind the blog) insults two Labour councillors in both words and pictures, using his own version of the SexyMP website. It is just a nasty attack on two hard working councillors, not attacking their political views or their work but on how they look.

The post is the height of hypocrisy, how can you print Cllr Terry’s words then publish this post. It is just nasty, spiteful and does not add anything to the political debate in Ipswich.

Now, I know the best thing to do, will be just to ignore his blog. Harder than you think, as a number of his other posts have been about immigration and the posts and comments are just full of the sort of gossip and lies that may be at home in the Daily Mail but do nothing to help bring communities together in Ipswich. Some of the comments are so bad you would have thought a senior Ipswich Tory may have advised him to delete some of his posts or at least moderate his language. But it seems they either don’t care or worse still agree with some of his views. To be fair to them, I am not sure he would take much notice of them. He seems to enjoy the attention his ill thought out views brings to his site.

One positive his blog leads to, it makes me even more determined to make sure people like him are never able to get into a position where they can put their warped views into practice. So rather than be like him and sit behind a computer writing rubbish and then adding even stupider comments, tomorrow I will be delivering Labour leaflets in Whitton ward. Ipswich.

Ipswich Town in Europe

2011-05-30T16:11:00.000Z

This afternoon I visited the 'Ipswich Town in Europe' Exhibition at the Town Hall Galleries. I enjoyed it, as I was fortunate to have seen that great 1981 team ( the exhibition also marks the 30th anniversary of the 1981 UEFA Cup win) it is always nice to be reminded how great that 1981 team was.

The exhibition maybe centered on the 81 season but it also looks at all our travels in Europe from Malta in 1962, Barcelona in 77, Milan in 2001 and then our final trip to the Czech Republic.

The highlight of the trip today was the opportunity to have your picture taken with the 'genuine' UEFA Cup. The trophy was in town for the 30th anniversary dinner tonight.

Not the 'real' UEFA Cup

Most of the items on display are owned by the club, many are mementos given by opposing teams who we have played in Europe, pewter cups, crystal glass, plates - some are more 'regional' based, with a Delft plate from Twente Enschede. wonder what we gave the likes of Real Madrid and FC Koln? A pint of Cobbolds?

Did like the way Lazio Roma gave each player a male grooming kit!

A trick was missed by the Colchester and Ipswich Museum service, far more exhibits could have been found if they had asked supporters to contribute. A few years ago, a previous exhibition was put on that looked at sport and pastimes in Ipswich, this had far more public contributions.

The Cruyff shirt

My favourite piece? - just beating the Lazio Roma grooming kits, the Barcelona shirt of Johan Cruyff, given to Roger Osborne after he had marked the great Dutchman out of the game in a fantastic 3-0 win for Ipswich over the Catalan giants.

My week ahead 30 May - 5 June

2011-05-29T15:14:00.002Z

Monday 30th May - 1pm Visit the Ipswich Town FC in Europe Exhibition (Town Hall) - A chance maybe to even hold the UEFA Cup.

Saturday 4th June - 1030am Campaigning in North West Ipswich

7.30pm Ipswich Labour Party - Election Victory celebration, Westgate Club, Ipswich

Last week I attended the Labour group meeting in Monday, this followed straight after a meeting with the Culture and Leisure Portfolio Holder and Officers. Looking at plans for the Corn Exchange and Ipswich Sports Centres

On Tuesday, I along with many Labour members attended the funeral of Donny Edwards. In the evening I was at Sidegate Primary School. We looked at ways to get the swimming pool back up and running this year.

Thursday was a real boost for Labour in Suffolk, with over 50 members attending the 'Refounding Labour' meeting at the Ipswich Library. A number of topics were discussed, including campaigning and community involvement.

Waveney- sold down the river

2011-05-25T19:56:00.002Z

For that last few years, Labour in Ipswich have at times felt hard done by, the largest party, the most councillors but still the council was run by the Tory and Lib Dem coalition.
If we felt hard done by, how do you think both the residents and the Labour members in Waveney feel tonight?
After the election at the start of the month, it finished Labour 23 seats, Tories 23, 1 x Green and an independent. Tonight the vote for both Chairman and Leader ended up 24-24. On the vote for Chair the casting vote went to a Tory, the outgoing chairman who was now not even a councilor. He decided on a new Tory Chairman, and the new Chair used his casting vote to keep Waveney under control of the Tories.
Some may say, they are the rules, live with them. But it is hard when the majority of people in Waveney voted Labour or Green.

What does that mean for us? Well the outgoing Waveney Leader Mark Bee is now the Leader of Suffolk County Council, but he will have to make sure he does not take his eye off Waveney, he may need to spend many hours on the road- never daring to miss a Waveney Council meeting - even if he is needed at Suffolk County Council HQ to sort out another mess they have got themselves into. More pressure on Cllr Bee, will he manage?

My week ahead 23 - 29 May 2011

2011-05-22T10:34:00.003Z

Monday 23 May - 6pm Ipswich Labour Group meeting, working on our priorities for the year

Donny Edwards RIP

Tuesday 24 May - 11am Funeral of former Mayor and Labour stalwart - Donny Edwards

7pm Sidegate Primary School Finance meeting

Thursday 26 May - 7.30pm All member meeting, Re founding Labour at the Ipswich Library Lecture Hall

Saturday 27 May - 10.30am Campaigning in Rushmere Ward, Ipswich

Last week I attended a North East Ipswich Partnership meeting, where we were briefed on the plan to turn off certain street lights in Ipswich.

I then attended the Labour Group meeting where I was selected to be the deputy portfolio holder for Culture and Leisure.

Wednesday saw the formal occasion of the Council Annual meeting, slightly spoilt by the childish behaviour of the Tory leader (read more about that here)

Friday evening, I visited my old Primary School (first time since 1973!)St Helens. I was part of a family team that managed third place in the PTA quiz, over £300 was raised for the school.

Saturday found me in Stoke Park, campaigning hard, always nice to deliver leaflets in a road that I have never been in before, today that lucky road was Downing Close!

John Carnall - Tory embarrassment

2011-05-19T16:32:00.004Z

Last night I attended the Annual Council Meeting in Ipswich, the main purpose of the evening is to elect a new Mayor, and though most of the evening is about pageantry and tradition part of the occasion does involve politics as a new Leader and an executive are also elected..
Gavin McClure, a former Ipswich Tory Councillor attended the night as a guest and has a different take of the night to me. In his latest blog post, Gavin sings the praises of Tory Leader John Carnall.According to Gavin, "Cllr John Carnall started his tenure as Conservative leader in terrific form. When he challenged a constitutional point regarding the election of the Deputy Leader"

Now I thought Carnall was just trying to score cheap points and ended up making a fool of himself, after the meeting was over I found myself speaking to one of the invited guests. The guest informed me that hew saw himself as a Conservative supporter but that after the antics of John Carnall at the meeting, if he lived in Ipswich he would vote Labour!

He said it was obvious to most of the audience, that John Carnall had marked his copy of the agenda at item 5, and that he had prepared his comments and point of order but as the guest said, if he had noted that item 5 was not correct, why had he not informed the Chief Executive and the Council Officers earlier in the week? Cllr Carnall was correct, in that agenda item 5 was wrong but all he did by pointing it out at the meeting rather than before hand was embarrass the officers and at the same time attempt to embarrass the Borough of Ipswich.

From speaking to the guest, it was obvious all he had done was embarrass himself and make himself and his Tory group look like poor losers.

I can understand why he decided not to take his place on the executive - even if I do not agree with him but (as Gavin should understand) he was letting down the Ipswich electorate in not taking the Chair of Scrutiny, it is recommended 'best practice' for Scrutiny to be chaired by the opposition. Gavin actually improved the running of scrutiny during his tenure as chairman of that committee so I find it hard to understand why he supports Cllr Carnall on his refusal to take the Chair.

Where I do agree with Gavin, his on his opinion of the Lib Dems, on the first vote on item 6, they voted with Labour, when the Mayor had to put it to a vote the second time, they abstained ( I say thay abstained, Cllr Inga Lockington seemed to vote for, against and abstain - all at the same time!)As Gavin states, 'they look both ways again'.

The guest was certainly not impressed with John Carnall, wonder what he would have thought if he had known that he had also refused to allow David Goldsmith the former Deputy Mayor to carry on it that role? David had said he was happy to carry on (Jane Chambers, the outgoing Lib Dem Mayor should have become Deputy, but had lost her seat) but Carnall said the decision was up to the Tory Group not David and he/they had decided they were not even going to take up this ceremonial post let alone a seat on executive or Chair of Scrutiny.

Liz Harsant the outgoing Council Leader had some words of advice for the new Labour Leader of the Council, she would have been far better off trying to give her former deputy leader some advice on civic responsibility. John Carnall not only embarrassed himself, the Tory Group but also the Borough of Ipswich - his antics last night do not give me much hope that he will be the critical friend, that an effective opposition should be.

My week ahead, 16-22 May 2011

2011-05-15T11:51:00.004Z

A new weekly update for my constituents, telling you what I will be doing this week on your behalf and an update on previous weeks.

Monday 16th May - 2.00pm North East Ipswich Partnership meeting - a meeting with local police, councillors, schools and Council Officers.

6.30pm - Ipswich Labour Group meeting - deciding who will be the portfolio holders for the forthcoming year.

Wednesday 18th May - 6.00pm - Annual Council Meeting - Grand Hall, Corn Exchange - voting in the executive and Leader plus Mayor Making for the 2011/12 Municipal Year.

Last week, we had our first Labour Group meeting and I also attended a meeting at Sidegate Primary school, where I had the chance to discuss future plans for the school with the new Head Teacher.

On Monday, I also met Ed Balls, Labour MP and Shadow Chancellor, he came to congratulate Ipswich Councilors on regaining the control of Ipswich Borough Council, it was also great to have fellow Rushmere Ward Labour Councillor, Tracey Grant alongside me to meet Ed.

Labour regain Ipswich

2011-05-08T16:31:00.004Z

After what seemed weeks of non stop campaigning, election day was upon us and 14 hours of non stop delivering and door knocking paid off as Friday at the count, Ipswich Labour made 5 gains including Tracey Grant joining me as a councillor in Rushmere Ward.

When I was elected as a councilor it was a very proud moment, but Friday was also a special moment as I will now be part of the administration in Ipswich as we try and protect the residents of Ipswich from the coalition cuts.

The result on Friday was a reward for a year of hard work by the Labour Party in Ipswich, we were down last May but there was no in-fighting or bickering, we just increased our campaigning work and got on with the job of supporting the people of Ipswich. This feeling of unity has been evident from day one, and it was great to have Chris Mole our former MP, helping in Rushmere all day and then being at the count. Dan Poulter the North Ipswich Tory MP was at the count, he eventually was joined by Ben Gummer but once he was briefed on the possible outcome Gummer soon disappeared.

So why did we win? As the Tory Cllr Paul West said, it is hard to work our what exactly had a positive or negative impact on each party's vote, but no doubt the unpopularity of the coalition Government did hit the Lib Dems hard, but though the Tory vote held up in most wards, the strange decisions by the Tory run Suffolk County Council and Ms Hill did help get the Labour vote out.

Then there is hard work and a well planned campaign, without giving away too much! we worked hard in 12 of the 16 wards and even in the other four we still delivered leaflets and newspapers, and of course we increased our work on polling day in our 5 target wards.

But just hard work will not win an election, we worked hard last year but could not hold onto the parliamentary seat in the town. But we made even more effort this year to talk to everyone, not just labour voters - we knocked on almost every door and spoke to as many residents as we could. this worked. Compare that to the Tories and the Lib Dems, a resident in Rushmere informed that he a approached a Tory canvass team, and they refused to speak to him as he was not on their 'list'. A Tory supporting blog, said ‘probably because he was a socialist intent on wasting their time’. He actually is a leading member of the local community, one who is well known to the Tory Cllr for the Ward. That sort of attitude is not going to win you votes. The Lib Dems also seemed to only knock on a few doors in their two main wards and made no effort in the rest of the wards less a couple of leaflets in two other wards.

Some may say the Tories were very complacent, putting all their effort into Rushmere, and making little effort in the two other wards they lost, did they think they were safe? A leading Tory Gavin McClure even seems to admit that tactical decisions were wrongly made.

How about the Lib Dems, a national collapse was expected but I am sure in Ipswich they still thought it would be closer in Alexandra ward than it was and they were then in total shock when they lost St Margaret's to the Tories (remember the Tories put little effort into st Margaret's and none into Alexandra). A needless recount being called in St Margaret's by the Lib Dems, showed how desperate they got.

There has been a noticeable lack of campaigning in Ipswich by the Lib Dems over the last few years, and no real noticeable increase in this years campaign - that would have hurt them as much as the low opinion their national party and leader are held in.

I often wondered how they sat in coalition in Ipswich when it was obvious that most Tories had little time for them, the resignation speech of leading Tory Wells should have left them in no doubt. Even this weekend they have come under attack from a Tory blog in Ipswich and a leading Suffolk Tory
They may have been fooled by the way the Ipswich Tories did not campaign in the three Lib Dem wards and they even had Ben Gummer write a Pro Lib Dem Mayor Chambers column in the local paper (not that it worked). some Lib Dems may be happy they lost power, they always seem to be happier in opposition - never their fault then.

So where do we go now? Back on the streets campaigning, we will look at the results, learn, target and go again - I am sure the Tories at least will come back strong at us, but a tip for both opposition groups - talk to residents - it works!

Vote Labour - May 5th

2011-05-04T20:28:00.003Z

Suffolk County Council are running scared, the Tories have made 3 U Turns in the last 2 weeks, but do not be fooled, every Road Crossing patrol will not be saved and the Libraries are still under threat. The Ipswich Tories - scream, "Don't blame us, it is the other lot" - but don't be fooled, the mask slipped today and John Carnell, the Deputy Leader of the Tories stated that if they retain power this week, they will sell off 'our' Ipswich Bus Company.

Only way to stop them - Vote Labour tomorrow, and if your in Rushmere Ward, Ipswich - Vote Tracey Grant