My week ahead, 22 - 28 February 2016

Monday 22 February – 6pm, Labour Group meeting

Wednesday 24 February – 6pm, Ipswich Borough Full Council meeting

Thursday 25 February – 7pm, Mayor’s Charity Quiz

Saturday 27 February – 10am, Labour campaigning in North East Ipswich

So we now know officially – the EU referendum will be held in June, and what a mess of the whole show Cameron and the Tories have made of this important event.

I am proud to be described as English (with a bit of Scottish blood), British and European! I will not only be voting to stay in the EU but also campaigning for our continuance as part of the EU.

But what a mess the Tories are making of this, I do not think we even needed a referendum but to stop Tories jumping to UKIP he had to promise a referendum, but then he let his Ministers back the ‘leave’ campaign – weak leadership.

Osborne and his economic recovery plan depends on migration – but we have Tory Minsters demanding our borders are shut- so they do not believe in the Osborne plan?

Where is the ‘leave’ alternative to the Common Agricultural Policy?

The ‘Leave’ group want to get rid of ‘Health and Safety’ rules in the workplace! Do you think this will make you or your family safer.

Then we have to ask why some Tory Ministers are willing to campaign against their own Prime Minister? Leadership aspirations? The classic example is Boris Johnson – allegedly yet to decide, but will announce (probably to say that he will campaign to leave) in his weekly paper column! So Cameron attempting to silence him by giving him a place in the Cabinet has failed – so Cameron today has resorted to trying to embarrass Boris (not hard) by asking how can he campaign alongside other Political nutters- Farage and Galloway?

So  within 24 hours we have seen the Tories split and finding it hard to pretend that they are still friends – we may see a similar fall out in Ipswich with Ben Gummer pro EU but prominent (and not so prominent) local Tories like Nadia Cenci and Kevin Algar so anti the EU. But their own views seem to be based on just one topic- closing the borders, stopping immigration – as if leaving the EU will suddenly see the closure of the ‘jungle’ in Calais! Small minded, ‘little Englander’ views.

What about Labour? I am proud that we are campaigning to say in Europe, and was pleased to hear the pro EU speech from Jeremy Corbyn (that he made in Wales, yesterday). I wish he had been to see more pro EU in the past so glad he now is backing the ‘Stronger In’ campaign.

One does wonder that if he was not leader that it may have been Jeremy or Diane Abbott who had been lobbied to join Galloway and Farage and other Far Right Tories in the ‘Leave’ camp. Very pleased to see that Corbyn has shown real leadership on this subject.

Over the next few months, we must still hold the Tories to account over the NHS and education but we also must campaign hard to stay in Europe but run our own campaign’ a Labour campaign – but that Labour campaign may get Cameron out of mess (of his own making) as he has allowed his Ministers to act in a selfish way rather than doing what is best for the country.

Syrian Refugee crisis - is this Tory Government doing enough to help?

When you think about the Syrian refugee crisis consider these figures & remember it's not mere numbers, it's about people:

But if you want to talk about numbers - Cameron and the Tory Government are going to ask Suffolk to take just 200 refugees, over 4 years - I am sure that most Ipswich people will agree that figure is far too low - This Tory Government should do far more to help those suffering because of the war in Syria.

I believe we should take military action in Syria - but still many questions for Cameron to answer

This is not a simple question, and even though I have made up my mind, there are still a number of questions that have not been answered.

I believe the Labour Party should support the Government on their decision to start air operations in Syria.

Jeremy Corbyn has stuck to his principles and does not believe we should start combat operations, I accept his opinion but I now hope he will allow Labour MPs and shadow Ministers a free vote, if the Tories do decide to put the decision to a vote this week.

Whatever the decision, Labour will be damaged by this issue and it has not helped with the likes of Tory Minister Fallon playing party politics over such an important issue.

David Cameron did not persuade me when he spoke to the commons last week and it seems he still hasn’t got all his own MPs on side so he still needs at least some Labour MPs to vote with him or abstain.

So if Cameron has not persuaded me, why do I support Military operations? I support our involvement in the Syrian bombing campaign because I believe after the atrocities in Paris we have to show a united front against ISIS.

I do not believe Cameron and Fallon and their opinion that the RAF are needed to make the operation a success, we could just increase our bombing missions in Iraq to free up US and French planes to concentrate on Syria. In fact I am sure we are already involved in Syria, with planning, early warning and target acquisition in support of other air forces already bombing Syria.

I do wish the Shadow Cabinet could come to an agreed decision but if not I hope it is a free vote and that Corbyn does not use this important issue as yet another pawn in his battle between the PLP and his supporters. I understand why he has asked members and I applaud his attempts to allow the party membership to be more involved in policy making but when it comes to going to war, we (the public) do not have the full facts, actually MPs do not have the full facts and Yvette Cooper raised that point in parliament. But Jeremy Corbyn and the shadow Cabinet have been briefed by the intelligence services and after that briefing (rather than the points Cameron made) it seems most of the Shadow Cabinet supports military action.

Corbyn on the Marr show this morning (where he was very impressive) slated the Tories for playing party politics over this important decision but if Jeremy is playing internal politics then he is not showing the leadership that is expected from the leader of the opposition.

I for one have not received an email from the party asking me my opinion on the bombing of Syria so am not even sure this asking members their opinion is actually valid. Where Corbyn is right is that he is in the majority – I am sure the majority of Labour members do now want to bomb Syria, in fact I am sure most of the country do not want to see us involved in Syria but politicians have to be prepared to make decisions that are not always universally popular. That is why they take positions in the Shadow Cabinet, Jeremy must act differently to when he was just a back bencher.

So I support our involvement in Syria and expect the Shadow Cabinet to have studied the evidence in front of them, read the intelligence reports and then make a sound judgement.

Cameron needs Labour support because he can’t even lead his own party, his performance at the dispatch box last week was poor and he failed to show there was a real plan (I am sure there is – just he could not explain it) he also leaves a number of questions unanswered and though many may blame Blair for Iraq, the mess Cameron left behind in Libya is nothing to be proud of.

So we still need more answers, to help get the correct facts over to the British public;

1.         Where and who are these 70,000 fighter who are both against ISIS and Assad?

2.         Where is both the plan (and the money) to reconstruct Syria after peace is secured?

3.         Remember Cameron has not even got the support of all Tory MPs

4.         Remember when Cameron wanted us to bomb Syria last time, it was to bomb Assad that would have helped ISIS

5.         If ISIS are routed, will the bombing campaign end or continue against Assad?

So many questions still to be answered but I still believe we should join a military campaign against ISIS in Syria.

Many in the Labour Party will not agree with my opinion, some who are friends and i respect them for the opinion, I may even suffer some abuse from the trolls that seem prevalent in some sections of the left who support Jeremy Corbyn (they need to follow his example about taking the abuse out of politics)  

I do not just support military action because I was in the army for over 25 years; it is because I believe that on certain circumstance combat operations are needed. Remember the successful military operations (under Blair) Kosovo and Sierra Leone.

We should and must not just become an inward facing country, in 1939 it was the working classes in their thousands who joined the forces to not only defend this country but to defeat fascism, and some of my first heroes on the left were those Labour men, socialists and trade unionists (like Jack Jones) who left these shores to fight against Franco in Spain. What do you think those men and women would do now?

15,000 new members in one day – and some still say it is the end of the Labour Party

I did not vote for our new leader, Jeremy Corbyn and I still have some serious concerns about both his past actions, his views on NATO, Europe and Northern Ireland and some of his close ‘entourage’ and many of those who may join (or in most cases re-join) the party because he is now our leader.

But I will not be leaving the party, or throwing my toys out of the pram – I will give him my full backing and the actions and words of David Cameron and the Tories after the result makes me even more determined to work hard to gain a Labour Government.

The words of David Cameron were certainly not the ones you would expect from the Prime Minister, to declare that the Labour Party were now a threat to national security and our families security was an act of pure arrogance.

Of course in Central London, it could be said that Cameron and the Tories are a threat to peoples security as David Cameron has increased the number of members of the House of Lords so there are now more Lords in London than on duty firemen!

As I stated I have not been a Corbyn fan in the past but happier to accept his behaviour in the 80s – being arrested in a demo against the South African apartheid regime that that of Cameron and Boris Johnson smashing up Oxford restaurants!

The comments from Cameron were made worse as MP’s like our own Ben Gummer dutifully repeated the Tory HQ tweet on their own twitter line – does Gummer now believe we are a threat to national security or does he just do what he is told by the Tory hierarchy?

Where I was wrong as many MPs also were, is that we had lost what our members and supporters wanted or possibly (and I hope more likely) we had not got our message over to them, to explain why we have to be seen a competent enough to run the economy and that does not mean becoming ‘Tory lite’.

Jeremy won a with a fantastic majority among members, supporters and union affiliates but he has little (or did) support from MPs and I guess the same may be true of MEPs, Cllrs, Council Leaders and more importantly the activists who are out every week on the doorstep canvassing and delivering. Jeremy must not forget us – we understand our members want change and we must now work together to make it happen.

The 15,000 who joined yesterday is a fantastic boost to the party and we welcome them into this great democratic organisation but for those re-joining, a warning, we can’t and won’t go back to the Labour Party of the 80’s – endless CLP and ward meetings, motions proposed to support some little known left wing organisation in South America, we are not going to run a council like Liverpool Militant did in the past, just look at the mess the Green Party have made in Brighton and we are also not going to be ashamed of what Labour achieved in 3 terms in power – if you’re not happy with that then maybe we are not for you but if you wish to join an organisation based on community campaigning, a party that wants to get things done not just talk about it then we are the party for you.

But most of those 15,000 members from yesterday will be new, not many will even remember Thatcher and the 80s – they do not care what Corbyn did or said then – they just want something new, not just a rehash of old policies – that is why this may just work – it is up to us already in the party to take that enthusiasm of those new members (many of them young) and take the fight to the Tories. In Ipswich this week we are holding two social events with new members – finding out why they joined, what they want to happen and what they can offer to the party and to the people of Ipswich.

Jeremy Corbyn showed the way this morning, he was not sat on twitter, he was at a local mental health event in his own constituency – a great example to many, that is how we will beat the Tories – campaigning hard rather than calling fellow party members, new labour, old labour, red Tories, Tory lite, Blairites, Corbynistas - we are all just LABOUR members and supporters.

But of course it will be a difficult time for the party, many are concerned about the direction we may now move, the strength of the Shadow Cabinet but I was impressed by our new leaders acceptance speech, the proof wil be in the pudding when we see who is on his front bench, and Jeremy is not the youngest and he may just be the person to help turn us back into a mass movement to regain power in the future.

I hope he quickly decides to put the whole party behind the pro-Europe campaign, and that he does not allow people like Galloway to sneak back in.

But we will stay loyal to the party and we will keep fighting for what we believe in.

What about the others? The Green Party probably last as many members as we gained this week and they will be just left with those of the far left who will never come back and those we would not want back. The Lib Dems continue to lose members – mainly to the Tories here in Ipswich, as we always thought many were just ‘yellow’ Tories. The SNP seem now set to go for another vote on independence, probably hoping to get it in before a Labour resurgence north of the border.

The Tories? Will laugh but they should be worried maybe not by Jeremy but by the opposition now being one of the largest political (and campaigning) parties in the Western World. They should also remember a certain IDS – he got over 60% of the Tory vote and was gone in two years. They also have their own impending civil war (or 2) over Europe and their 2019 leadership election.

So we fight on, taking the battle to the Tories, 15,000 new members in one day – I would be worried Mr Cameron, very worried.

#kiyiyavuraninsanlik - the picture that may have shocked Europe into action

The distressing picture of the young Syrian child washed up on a Turkish beech has shocked the world - will it become like the 'Napalm girl' from the Vietnam war- a picture that will go down as one that defines a generation, one that marks us down for what we have become- selfish?

There has been plenty said over the last few days on what we have done to help, or how little we have helped or what we should do to help. We know that many people no longer believe politicians - but the speech from Yvette Cooper seemed to hit the nail right on the head and her call for this Government to do more have been echoed by church leaders, politicians, celebrities and more importantly - the public - so much so that within 24 hours, Cameron has had to make an embarrassing climb down after stating that we would not let more refugees settle in this country today he has stated that the UK had a "moral responsibility" to help those displaced by the four-year conflict in Syria. But then again Cameron has always been more of a PR man that a PM!

His behaviour (and more distressing - his silence) over the last week has been far from we would expect from a world leader let alone our Prime Minister. We have not done enough as a country, a few local commentators have been quick to say how much money we have spent helping those in war torn zones but where we could and should help more is allowing refugees into this county.

The figures do not lie- we have done very little - but of course the mixing of the words refugee, migrant and illegal immigrant by the media do not help the public to understand that we have been pathetic in our attempt to help those from Syria.



25,771

People applied for asylum in the UK in the year ending June 2015


2,204

Were from Syria

87% of Syrian requests for asylum were granted


216 Syrians have been granted protection under a special scheme to relocate vulnerable people - this is the most embarrassing figure of them all- 216!


4,980 Syrian asylum seekers and their dependents have been granted asylum since 2011


145 Syrian asylum seekers have been removed from the UK since 2011

Now David Cameron is right on one thing we should take from Syria and the camps in Jordan and Turkey - but trouble is he should have done that 3 years ago- now it is too late, so Cameron the PR man lets the media dictate policy, Germany will take 800,00, in Sweden for every 1,000 of their population they will allow an asylum seeker in and hear Cameron says we will take more but no figures and a plan will come out some time next week - how many more will die whilst he keeps a low profile?

Recently the British hero Nicholas Winton passed away- one of the people behind the Kindertransport, what would he think of some of the selfish attitudes displayed by many over the last few weeks. When you’re next in London at Liverpool Street station, seek out the statue on the station forecourt that celebrates the actions of many that saved those children from persecution, and maybe compare that with the scenes being acted out today in railway stations in Austria and Hungary.

History is an important subject, but only if we learn from it- where it seems with the likes of Farage and the far right of the Tory Party that many wish to re-enact the 1930's rather than learn the lessons from that era.

We have those making any excuse they can to stop refugees being made welcome - the worst one - peddled by many in the Tory Party including their local leaders here in Ipswich is that some of those fleeing Syria maybe from ISIS! That terrorist organisations seems to have little problem brainwashing people already here in this country to commit hideous crimes not sure they need to sneak them into the country. in fact with their oil wealth, pretending to be a refugee would be their last option of getting terrorists into Europe.

Then we have our own MP- Ben Gummer trying to blame the crisis on the opposition refusing to back Cameron in his proposal to bomb Syria- forgetting to mention that the PM did not even have the full support of his own party. I always thought Mr Gummer was a more 'liberal' Tory but his actions - or lack of them over this humanitarian crisis have shown him to be as bad as his leader.

We should do more, we should welcome refugees into this country - as we did in the 19th Century and in the early 20th century, as we did those fleeing Uganda and Sri Lanka.

But as long as we have a PR man as our Prime Minister- be prepared to always take the easy option
We must allow refugees in and we must act now.

#RefugeesWelcome

Should we have ordered air strikes on Iraq?

Ben Gummer (our Tory MP) has a regular column in or local paper, the Ipswich Star – some have been informative, some interesting and some poor but I would describe this week’s offering as both atrocious and pompous.

He started his column telling us about the birth of his son but then seemed to used most of the time making excuses for his son not being born in Ipswich, quite sad that he feels he has to do this I am positive no one in Ipswich Labour would have made any sort of issue about his wife giving birth in London, in fact most of us would not have been surprised by the news as we would expect Mr Gummer to spend more time in London than he does in Ipswich and as his wife is also from London not sure his son not being born in Ipswich is any sort of a story at all, but I am not being critical of Mr Gummer explaining why his son was not born in Ipswich I am just disappointed that the way modern politics is going that he thought he needed to explain the details of the birth of his son.

But what made me angry was the second part of his column – Ben Gummer used the second half of his column explaining why he was going to vote for air strikes in Iraq, he even went further to say that he believed we should also be bombing ISIS in Syria. Now I do believe Mr Gummer was right to use his column to tell Ipswich residents of why he was going to vote to allow our forces to enter the conflict though I was surprised that he was willing to state how he was going to vote before he listened and joined in the debate at Westminster.

I like Mr Gummer would have voted for Britain to join the coalition so him voting for us to join the US and others in bombing Northern Iraq but it was the pompous manner he put over his view and how he then used the column to not only attack Putin and Farage but also the Labour leader Ed Miliband,

The pomposity of his column was highlighted to me by what seemed him showing off, by describing the theatre of operations as Northern Mesopotamia. Now I may expect someone with an Oxbridge history degree to know what this part of Iraq was formally called and maybe even use that knowledge to understand some of the tribal and territorial issues that make this such a volatile region to live in but you would have just thought he would have called the area Northern Iraq rather than Mesopotamia.

To me it came over pompous and showing off and that is the last sort of reaction you should be after when explaining why you have voted to commit our Armed forces to combat.

Then after getting over his pomposity we had the attack on Ed Miliband, stating that the situation in the region now and the rise of ISIS is down to Ed and Labour MPs not voting to order air strikes on Iraq last year. What rubbish and he also seems to forget that a large number of Tory MPs also voted not to go to war in Syria and they were not your usual ‘little Englander’ Tory rebels.

Many including me actually believe that ISIS would have even been stronger if we had attacked Assad, the trouble is the Syrian rebels have never been united and ISIS was already attacking other Syrian rebel groups at the time of that last vote. My view is shared by many and a Labour MP asked Ed Miliband a leading question that indicated he had the same view but instead of Ed using his answer as an excuse to attack Cameron, instead he said the debate was about ordering air strikes on Iraq now not debating what would have happened if we had voted for action last year. The answer of Ed Miliband was statesmanlike, the sort of answer you would expect from a politician when such a grave matter as sending British planes into action was the subject of the debate. I am afraid our own Tory MP decided to use the vote as an opportunity to score cheap political points.

What Mr Gummers column does come over is one of desperation as he knows the tide is against him in Ipswich


I did state earlier that I, like Mr Gummer would have voted for air strikes in Iraq and like Mr Gummer agree that the RAF should be able to follow and then bomb targets into Syria but that is not to say that I applaud Mr Cameron for the stance he has taken in fact he has just failed to show any sort of leadership over the matter.

The coalition has been in action for a number of weeks but Mr Cameron did not see fit to recall Parliament earlier.

Like Mr Gummer and myself, I believe Mr Cameron believes we should also take action in Syria but he does not have the confidence to be even sure that he can persuade his own party to support him let along persuade his coalition colleagues or Labour or any other smaller political groups, a fact that Mr Hauge seemed to admit on the BBC this morning.

Former Generals and Air Commanders have been critical of Cameron, with one stating that to defeat ISIS it will need ‘boots on the ground’ and another senior ex British General with a former NATO command also being very critical of Cameron, the General disappointed in the way we have left others to lead not only in the battle against ISIS but also in the Ukraine conflict but that is the direct consequence of the drastic cuts to our Armed Forces by the Tories.

We have committed 6 planes to the mission over Iraq, less than Denmark and Australia. Mr Cameron does needs to learn that once you reduce the size of your armed forces you will find that you can no longer expect to be seen as one of the key decision makers in NATO, Europe or the UN.

It does not mean that just deploying armed forces is the only thing we can do as a country to help the situation in Iraq/Syria, we should be proud of the help we have given in overseas aid, something we would not be able to do in the future if Tory right wingers get their way and our aid budget is reduced but there is even more we can do – we are helping the refugees on the ground in both Turkey and Iraq but what I found both surprising but then more embarrassing is that by June this year only 43 Syrian refugees have been allowed to enter this country!

In the late 30’s many politicians did not cover themselves in glory with their willingness to appease Hitler (you can also add the Daily Mail to that list) but many of the British public did not just sit and do nothing, and I am sure many of us have been through Liverpool Street station and have looked at the statues that were erected to remember the Jewish children rescued by the Kindertransport’ – when you lean the story of those children, the contribution to British life by those children rescued it does make a total of 43 Syrian refugees accepted seem quite pathetic.

'All in this together' More holidays for the PM or more foodbanks for everyone else?

David Cameron finds Mr Osborne has produced a budget that has made him laugh! Not sure he would be smiling if he was queuing up at a Foodbank rather than queuing at an airport for yet another holiday!

Dave's special offer- Cameron and his 'no clue' energy policy!

My week ahead, 2 - 7 December 2013

Monday – 2 December, 4pm – Culture and Leisure Portfolio meeting
5pm – IBC and LGA Peer review

Wednesday – 4 December, 10am – Ipswich Borough Council Planning and Development meeting

Saturday 7 December, 10am – Labour campaigning, South East Ipswich

This week we had a visit from a Labour big wig, Harriet Harman – a meeting with grassroots members, Harriet was here to speak about changes to the Labour Party but also she wanted to know what members in Suffolk were concerned about and no surprise to me that education was the number one concern for us in Suffolk.

There were a number of passionate speeches about the way our children are being let down by a Tory run County Council combined with the bullying tactics of Michael Gove and the DfE.

Then on Friday, the bully himself turned up to open the new Ipswich Academy, a school that would have been built far earlier if Osborne had not put a halt to Labour plans on school building.

But unlike Harriet, Gove did not have time to talk to Tory members, pity as you would have hoped Ipswich Tories would have pointed out how education seems to be such a low priority to their Tory colleagues running Suffolk.

Gove did find time to speak to local radio and TV, but talking to the public was certainly not on the agenda as the visit was kept as secret as possible, rumour has it that they were not even keen on inviting the local councillors to the ‘grand opening’ . Secrecy and lack of transparency seem to be the way Gove likes the run education in this country – so much for parental choice.

But Tory policy does seem to be written on the bag of a fag packet (you can write more on the back of the packet now, thanks to yet another Cameron U-turn this week)

On Monday, David Cameron changed his position on payday lending, having spent three years resisting calls to cap the cost of credit, and even whipping his MPs to vote against it in Parliament.

Then he changed his mind on introducing standardised cigarette packaging - even though he announced just this summer that he was ditching the policy, shortly after appointing the tobacco lobbyist Lynton Crosby as his election adviser.

And then at the end of the week we have seen total confusion on energy, with the Tories denying that they had begged the energy companies to freeze prices up until the election. Then the energy companies saying they had been asked/begged to reduce prices- well at least till after the election! David Cameron has shown he can't and won't act on energy bills, because he won't stand up to the big energy companies. There is only one strong and credible plan which is Labour's plan to legislate for an energy price freeze until 2017.

My week ahead, 25 - 30 November 2013

Monday – 25 November, 3pm – World War One Centenary, working group meeting
6pm – Labour campaigning, in North East Ipswich

Tuesday – 26 November, 5pm – Ipswich Labour Party meeting with Harriet Harman – Ipswich Library

Saturday 30 November, 10am – Labour campaigning, North East Ipswich

This week we had another display of Tory Hypocrisy, with local Ipswich Tory Nadia Cenci explaining away the nasty behaviour of the Prime Minister at PMQ’s as just ‘banter’. But this the same Tory who walked out of a Full Council meeting because of joke comment that resulted in a Tory councillor being offended even if that was not the aim of the joke.

With Lynton Crosby running the Tory General campaign it will be interesting is she keeps defending the behaviour of the Westminster Tories as they sink further into the gutter in a vain attempt to retain power in 2015.

Even after PMQ’s Cameron looked embarrassed as he was made to apologise to the House for his behaviour. The other trouble is with the Tories seeking to smear Labour for our links with the CO-OP Bank, is that they have not got their facts right.

Reverend Flowers was the Chair of the bank and his job was to chair meetings, not to be a financial expert and where the CO-OP got into big financial problems with talk of taking over Lloyds Bank in 2011, they were being encouraged by the Chancellor – a certain George Osborne!

It is not just Cameron using ‘Crosby’ tactics- the Attorney General, Dominic Grieve seemed to be following Crosby orders as he attacked the British Pakistani community, but like the Ipswich Tories they can’t even all pull in the same direction (even if it the wrong one)– Grieve was quickly criticised by Tory Chair Grant Shapps, Grant was so angry he even used his own name!

The 'link' to a good press

This week we had our local (only) Rushmere Tory making the front page of the local paper, claiming that the Labour run council had no planned 'vision' for the town.

Now Judy Terry and the local Tories know something about vision -the party that sold the old Civic Centre site to one developer and then not long after give planning permission to a rival development (Tesco) on a site at Grafton Way.

No wonder the first developer took the Council to court. Since then Tesco have down sized and it is possible that may never develop the Grafton Way site. But their achievement in gaining planning permission for Grafton Way did stop the development on Civic Drive.

Cllr Judy Terry has had a number of 'visions' in the past - an art gallery to be built near Christchurch Mansion and more recently her 'vision' for Rushmere involved knocking down the pre-fabs on Inverness Road and building a care home!

But more interestingly to me is how did Judy Terry make the front page of the local paper with her accusations of 'no vision'?

It seems simple, mention the 'link'. For the last 20 to 30 years we have constantly heard plans to build on the car parks behind the old Co-op building or as it is known by developers (if not residents) the 'Mint' quarter. But NCP own the car parks and seem in no hurry to do anything as they rake in some of the highest car park tariffs in the town. But the Mint Quarter has had it's day it is all now about the 'link'.

You may ask where is the 'link' - well it's a development to be built on the site of the local papers office in Lower Brook Street. the aim of the development would be to link the town centre and the waterfront. The paper have realised that there is little chance of them selling the 'link' project until the empty sites on the Waterfront are sorted out.

So it seems any chance they now get the Evening Star (and EADT) urges our MP and local council to work together to sort out the waterfront, I am sure it is because it will help Ipswich in the long term but of course it will also help Archant sell their own site to be the new 'link' development.

So we have had Cameron visit the Archant office to look at the plans, Gummer push the Irish banks over the 'winerack' site and now Mrs Terry gets the front page (and did her mentioning the 'link' help?) Will leave it to you to decide!

Just waiting for Mick McCarthy to say he could attract better players to Ipswich Town if the 'link' development went ahead!

You can't trust David Cameron with the NHS

And now he has sold the NHS Plasma service to an American Capital Venture firm!

Tories attempt to destroy the army they promised to enlarge

This week the Government announced further cuts to our Armed Forces – 5,300 redundancies in the Army. Cameron seems very confused, one day he is warning us that the UK must respond to the threat in North Africa by working “across the region”, providing intelligence and counter-terrorism assets to Algeria, a close security partnership with Nigeria, building effective security forces in Libya and appropriate training and support in Mali. This represents a potentially significantly increased role for our Armed Forces across the world.

So one day he said we must be prepared to work across North Africa but at the same time he reduces the army. Some would say that the army has the capacity to be reduced but the Generals are having their hands tied behind their back. To try and stop a public backlash the Tories are insisting on voluntary redundancies but to remain a functional army the Generals need to be able to choose who is made redundant.

But many would say that no redundancies can be accepted whilst we are still fighting in Afghanistan and there is further unrest in North Africa.

Labour has previously argued that the Defence Review should be re-opened after capability gaps such as carrier strike were exposed by the conflict in Libya. But while the SDSR did not mention Libya, Tunisia or Egypt, striking given the events of the Arab Spring, neither did it mention Mali, Algeria or Nigeria. A strategy which was flawed in 2010 looks hazardous in 2013.

The SDSR committed the UK to an Army of 95,000, a cut of 7,000, but while the threats we face have increased personnel numbers are being cut further to 82,000, a total cut of 20,000.

While David Cameron has told us that “we are in the midst of a generational struggle”, he has not told us how the new security strategy can be realised with far less troops. Or is he hoping to get by on the plan of Dr Fox – more TA and Reservists?

According to the Tories the gaps in the regular Army capability arising from redundancies are to be filled by a doubling of the Reserves. A recent survey by the Federation of Small Businesses showed that one in three employers said nothing would encourage them to employ a reservist, and the TA is facing recruitment shortages this year.

Though I have great respect for the TA, there is no way they can replace the Regular Army, not even in high intensity peace keeping operations let alone full scale war like we are experiencing in Helmand Province.

But then again why would you trust the Tories? When they were trying to get elected in 2007 they promised to increase the army and at that time Egypt was just a tourist spot!

What happens to those made redundant? To be honest they will get a good resettlement package and in some cases a good pay off but we should worry about those soldiers who are leaving the army as their time is up, those responsible for organising their resettlement and transition to civie street will be more concerned about dealing with the 5,300 troops being made redundant.

In just over 2 years the Tories are destroying the best army in the world, causing more damage to the Infantry and the regimental system that the IRA or the Taliban could ever dream of.

As the Ipswich Borough Council ‘Veterans Champion’, I will doing all I can to help any Ipswich based soldiers who are made redundant.

Caught peddling a lie - so lie again

Yesterday the UK Statistics Authority rebuked Tory ministers for lies about NHS spending. The watchdog has called on ministers to correct claims the coalition has increased NHS spending in England.

The UK Statistics Authority upheld a complaint about government claims the NHS budget had increased in real-terms in the past two years.

The watchdog found the best-available Treasury data suggested real-terms health spending was lower in 2011-12 than in 2009-10.
The full story is here

So have Cameron or Hunt apologised? Not heard anything yet and to make matters worse, the Conservative website is still printing the same lies here.

It seems peddling a lie comes easy for Tories- Cameron and Hunt on NHS spending and even in Ipswich we have a local Tory activist attempting to tell the blogosphere that a prominent Ipswich blog: Ipswich Spy is Labour supporting even though the main blogger from that site is a former Tory County Councillor and still close to the leadership of the Ipswich Tory Party.

So the lesson to be learnt is you can’t believe anything on a Tory website or blog!

My week ahead 3 - 9 December 2012

Monday 3 December, 6pm – Labour campaigning

Tuesday 4 December, 5.30pm – Governor training – Sidegate Primary School

Friday 7 December, 7pm – Labour Christmas Party – Westgate Ward Club

Saturday 8 December, 10am – Labour campaigning in South East Ipswich

Sunday 9 December, 10am – Fore Street Christmas Market

Our full Governing Body meeting at Sidegate Primary school was cancelled this week as the school found out late Tuesday that it was about to be inspected by OFSTED – we as yet do not know the result of the inspection but I have no doubt that we have the right head Teacher and staff in place to make sure Sidegate provides a fantastic environment for our children to be educated in.

One of our Governors did make an interesting observation, after he was interviewed by the OFSTED team; he declared that it was certainly more grilling than anything he had experienced in 20 years of private sector life. So for those who always knock the public sector, maybe they should take note of that.

The other big story this week was Leveson, the Prime Minister has set himself up for a fall after he declared that he would implement Leveson unless it was ‘bonkers’. Well it was far from ‘bonkers’ but Cameron seems happy to give the press (and their owners) yet one more drink in the ‘last chance’ saloon.

The public may buy the papers but as over 100,000 people have already signed the ‘hacked off petition it seems that most of the public agree with Leveson. Cameron will not be helped as each of the victims of press abuse queues up to have a pot at Cameron. JK Rowling was one of the first to comment and stated on Friday:

"I thought long and hard about the possible consequences to my family of giving evidence and finally decided to do so because I have made every possible attempt to protect my children’s privacy under the present system, and failed. If I, who can afford the very best lawyers, cannot guarantee the privacy of those dearest to me, what hope did the Dowlers, the McCanns and the Watsons ever have of protecting their own children and their own good names?"

So I hope that you may wish to sign the ‘hacked off’ petition here – so Cameron gets the message –listen to the millions not just Rupert!

My week ahead 3 - 9 September 2012

Monday 3 September 6pm – Labour campaigning in South East Ipswich

Tuesday 4 September 6.30pm – Walking tour of Ipswich – Mayors Charity

Wednesday 5 September 4pm – Attending the Public Consultation on redevelopment of St Clements Hospital
6pm – Culture and Leisure working Group – Grafton House

Thursday 6 September 6pm – Scrutiny Call in, Tories calling in the Labour decision to improve the Ipswich Angle

Friday 7 September 7.30pm – New Wolsey, Mod Rox

Saturday 8 September 10.30am – Labour campaigning in North Ipswich

A busy week ahead as all spare time is spent campaigning but now into a full week of meetings but I have still found time to attend the New Wolsey and also learn some more about the history of our town on a guided tour of the Town Centre –and also giving us an opportunity to contribute towards the Mayor’s charities.

On Wednesday we have our Culture and Leisure working group, you may be surprised to know we have thsese meetings after reading Tory Cllr Terry’s article in the ‘Ipswich Flyer’ - she seems to use every opportunity she can to attack us on Culture and Leisure – no words of praise for the Ipswich hosting the ‘Grad Depart’ of the Tour of Britain this Sunday or the outstanding success of the Maritime Festival. But what she also forgets to mention the readers of the ‘Flyer’ is the constant pressure we are under to cut spending due to the Tory Government making drastic cuts to Council funding. Just this week a leading Tory Council leader in England, Sir Merrick Cockell has informed residents that the Tory Government cuts will bleed council reserves dry within 5 years. So Maybe Mrs Terry should also praise Ipswich Borough Council when we have achieved good results and be less critical when cuts have to be made due to her own government drastically cutting council funding.

On Wednesday I will be attending the Public Consultation on the redevelopment of St Clements Hospital. The event is being held both on Wednesday and Thursday, within the pavilion at St Clements between 4-8pm on both days. This consultation is being organised by the NHS Trust. The North East Area Committee are looking at holding a further public meeting about the plans later in the year.

Though St Clements is not in our ward, the increased traffic may affect Rushmere residents. Interesting today the Mr Cameron wishes to make it easier to build on the
Green Belt – whilst in Ipswich we have both Dan Poulter and Ben Gummer keener to build on sites within Ipswich and keep the Northern Fringe clear. So we have Cameron saying one thing, our local MP’s something else, the local Tory and Lib Dem Cllrs saying we should not build on the Northern Fringe but voting for development – what do they really want? Your guess is better than mine. Seems to me they just say what they think the voters want to hear.

What Tory Sporting Legacy?

What Tory sporting legacy

After a fantastic Olympics, Mr Cameron was quick to tell the public that the government will continue to fund (elite) sport – even if the promise is only to 2016.
Closer to home, Ipswich Tories (and I guess that means Cllr Terry) have also jumped on the bandwagon and told the public what a sporting legacy they have left the Ipswich public.

Not sure much of a legacy has been left – a further years of the Tories in power in Ipswich would have seen the council pull out of Maidenhall Sports Centre and seen the Whitton Sports Centre given away to an outside agency.

Ransomes Sports Centre is mentioned again, but no credit given to Ipswich labour from saving the club and sports ground from developers in the first place! But surprisingly after all the scare stories put out by the Tories they now seem keen to build some houses on the site, possible on the site of the now disused bowls green!

But Cameron and the Ipswich Tories will not persuade the public they are serious about any sporting legacy whilst Mr Gove has any sort of power.

The Primary Schools Sporting Partnership was one of the first casualties of Mr Gove becoming Education Minister but his next target is selling off school playing fields. Now I will admit Labour should have done more to protect school playing fields whilst in power and the Tories have used statistics to show that they have not closed as many as Labour – trouble is it now has come to light that those figures were wrong and to top it Mr Gove has agreed to the sale of a number of sports fields even though he was advised not to sell them. He has gone against independent advice more times in 15 months that Labour Minister’s did in 9 years.

"Quickly kids, before that nasty Mr Gove sells the field off"

Now there is plenty of money to be made out of selling off playing fields and with Mr Gove and his Free Schools experiment there will be far more fields under threat. In Ipswich we have had much written about the failure of IBC, SCC and The Ipswich Academy to come to an agreement about the building of the sports centre. Wonder if Tory run Suffolk County Council will be asking Mr Gove if they can sell off the sports fields at the Holywells site?

So Mr Cameron has now gone on holiday (Mr Gove must have taken a longer holiday, as we have not heard a peep from him – (about playing fields, teaching sport in schools or even exam results!)

Will Mr Gove now resurface? Will he reverse the decision to axe the 2 hours compulsory PE lessons in schools? If he does will he also ensure that Free Schools and academies also have to make sure their pupils also continue to be taught PE?

As Ed Miliband and Andy Burnham have stated – sporting legacy has to be all party – it has to be a long term plan – the Olympics were a success because of that – Blair, Brown, Livingstone and in particular Tessa Jowell started the whole policy and Cameron and John son carried it on – not sure what Hunt did?

In Ipswich we will continue to promote sport but as many councils find (not just Labour ones) it is hard as this Tory/Lib Dem Government continue to cut funding to local authorities )but at the same time telling the public that the sporting legacy is safe)

My final question – what is the Lib Dem views on Sporting Legacy? I ask as they seem to have had little input into the Cameron and Johnson declarations on sporting Legacy or been critical of the plans to sell off sports fields by Mr Gove. Probably concentrating on reform of the House of Lords!

My week ahead 13 - 19 August 2012

Monday 13 August 4pm - Culture Portfolio Meeting - working on the Olympic legacy
6pm - Campaigning in North Ipswich

Wednesday 15 August 9.30am - Ipswich Borough Planning committee

Thursday 16 August 10am - Campaigning in West Ipswich

Saturday/Sunday 18/19 August - Ipswich Maritime Festival

Saturday 18 August 10.30am - Campaigning in East Ipswich

The Olympics are almost over, I have been fortunate enough to witness some of the live events and the rest of the time has seen me either glued to the TV or the radio.

Our success has put Cameron and the Tories in a difficult position, even today Cameron has been making bold statements but two people have been noticeable by their absence- Osborne (who will have to fund it) and Michael Gove - the Education Minister (same holiday as schools?) who seems keen to stop compulsory PE Lessons. Then we have Cameron saying that all primary schools will have to play competitive sport but forgetting to mention that the Tory flagship Free Schools will not have to !

The feel-good factor has been fantastic over the last two weeks and we want to keep that glow we have all gained - a good way will be to get along to the Ipswich Maritime Festival - brilliant last year and expected to be even better this time. I will certainly be visiting - and not just the beer festival!

Cash for Cameron

Maybe instead of campaigning to save the NHS - we should have just has a whip round and bunged Dave 250 grand?

Lack of leadership

"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