My week (s) ahead - now till 7 May 2015

Monday 30 March – 7 May – Campaigning (hard pounding)

From now till Election day, I will be spending any free time campaigning for a Labour gain in Ipswich.

Much has been made of the debate/ well it wasn’t a debate because Cameron refused but at the end of the leaders question time it seems that Ed and Labour have had the boost and even took a healthy lead in the latest YouGov poll. But i will not be taking any notice of that, it is talking to residents, delivering leaflets and then talking again to more residents that will win this seat.

As Tony McNulty stated today: Best thing @UKLabour can do with that poll - forget about it. Fight for every vote, every street, every seat. It ain't over till it's over.

But it seems the Tories have got themselves into a panic over the debate and the latest poll, local Ipswich Tories have blamed the BBC!!! (the debate was on Channel 4/Sky)

Now to blame the BBC is just stupid but it is the national Tory Party that has shown its true colours – the #nasty party

Certain Tory MPs, Ministers and Grant Shapps have quickly started attacking Ed Miliband (other Tory Mps in marginal seats have also been quick to attack Cameron!)

One scare tactic the Tories use is to suggest that the SNP will be calling the shots in Westminster if Labour win, they are less vocal about a possible coalition between the Tories and the two Unionist groups from Northern Ireland.

You get used to political opponents attacking each other but I was surprised to see our Prime Minister resorting to attacking Ed with a quite nasty attack – why? Running scared?

“A man fixated on hurling abuse at his opponent or a man focused on bettering the lives of the many? #MilibandMustWin”

A Socialist and a Patriot

No ‘my week ahead’ for a few weeks as i will be spending most of the next 30 days either climbing in Wales or Northern India – where I am taking a group of teenagers to trek near to the city of Leh and work on a community project in a small settlement close to the Tibetan border.

This week I was very fortunate to be invited to attend a ‘Labour Friends of the Forces’ reception in London.

Those at the event included most of the Shadow Defence team and Ed Miliband also we had three Potential Parliamentary candidates, all ex members of the Armed Forces.

As soon as I arrived I was approached by another ex- Greenjacket – 1 rather than 3 RGJ and slightly older than me as he was a Borneo veteran, but we had a good laugh as we discussed how the ‘Black Mafia’ were once again running the army.

I then had a long conversation with two serving soldiers both had served in Afghanistan and it was informative to hear what had changed since I was in Sangin in 2009.

Then I met Frankie Caldwell, ex tankie who had taken a short break for campaigning for a ‘No’ vote in the up and coming Scottish independence vote to come to London to support the event. It was nice to catch up with someone who I had corresponded with via twitter.

Then the two highlights of the night, first to meet an ex RAF Officer but one with a number of tales to tell. As a young Sergeant he had been in the same Prisoner of War camp as those who had taken part in the ‘Great Escape’ and he himself had endured a long march across Poland as the Germans closed the camp with the Russians approaching. A real British hero.

Then I met Lord West, not only a former Ist Sea Lord but who had also been Captain of a ship that was sunk in the Falklands War.

I had a long conversation with him and asked him about a quote that had appeared in the papers this week that was attributed to him, I asked him if it was true he smiled and then confirmed it was.

The quote? It was true he informed me that he had asked Michael Gove if he wished to discuss the accusation (that Gove had made) that you can’t be a socialist and patriot. Lord West is happy to be described both as a socialist and a patriot and he did tell Mr Gove that he was willing to discuss the issue either inside or outside the boxing ring!

Not surprisingly Mr Gove had not yet responded; maybe he was till busy arguing with Mrs ‘no passports’ May.

With our new candidates and a shadow Minister like ex Para, Dan Jarvis – we are now ready to be the party of the Armed Forces.

My week ahead 23 - 29 June 2014

Monday – 23 June, 8am – Ipswich ‘Angle’ Board meeting
6pm –Labour Group campaigning session

Wednesday – 25 June, 6pm – North East Ipswich Partnership Group meeting
7pm – North East Ipswich Area committee, St John’s Church, Cauldwell Hall Rd

Thursday - 27 June, 7pm – Labour ‘Friends of the Forces’ reception in London with Ed Miliband

‘No anger is worse than a jilted woman’ – or should it now be ‘ no bitchiness is worse than a criticised blog’?

In a post I wrote last week, I criticised local blog ‘Ipswich Spy’ over what I thought was lazy journalism over his comments about attendance of councillors at the Queens Commonwealth Baton event.

So it seems one of their two writers has waited just one week to strike back but it seems to many that it just another sign that as we get closer to the General Election of 2015 that the blog has become an unofficial cheer leader for Tory MP Ben Gummer and would be better if titled ‘Tory Spy’ rather than ‘Ipswich Spy’.


Rather than admitting he had made a mistake or thinking maybe best to not mention it again, he decides to attack my article on the baton at the same time defending the County Council. I indicated that local County Councillors had not been invited to the events though there seemed to be a heavy Tory attendance at the Lowestoft event.

I was also critical of the county as there seemed to have been a lack of publicity about the event. He defended the county, informing us that they had sent out at least a dozen press releases and it was not their fault that the local media had ignored them. Maybe rather than just sending out numerous emails they should have arranged a closer tie up with local media over the event. Ipswich Borough Council certainly did their bit, I did a BBC Suffolk radio interview along with our baton carriers and David Ellesmere did a piece in the local paper.

He excused the County for not inviting their own County Councillors by stating they should have read at least one of their own twelve press releases! I can imagine that the number of emails that a County Councillor receives that reading numerous press releases is not one of their top priorities where a short email from the Council leader or Portfolio holder asking them to support the local events would have achieved a far better attendance.

‘Tory Spy’ then has yet another pop at me for my use of twitter and at the same time acting as an unpaid Press Officer/Social media outlet for Tory MP Ben Gummer. (If you have had the misfortune to look at Mr Gummers website you will see that he does need some help on the use of social media).

During the week a large number of Ipswich residents had a nightmare of a journey either from or to London and I tweeted that Mr Gummer was notable by his silence on the subject as he is often quick to tweet with (what he perceives is) good news about our local rail service. ‘Spy’ praised Mr Gummer for not rushing to twitter, though I think commuters would have been pleased to hear that he was going to take up their concerns immediately with the executives of the franchise and Railtrack. But then ‘Spy’ added when Mr Gummer does take to twitter at least he can communicate with over 5,000 followers rather than the 279 who follow Mr Ellesmere. But what ‘Spy’ forgets/decides not to mention is that Mr Gummer himself only follows 265 as with many Tory MPs they see twitter as just a one way line of communication but at least those who follow Mr Gummer can now read the apology he has gathered from the rail franchise over the events of last week. As a tweet today links to his blog which now has an apology from the franchise (making that post his 9th of the year).

But Mr Gummer was quick to take to twitter this week to inform us of potential good news for rail users – we will be getting an Ipswich to Bristol rail route. Emphasising in his tweet that it will happen, this tweet was picked up quickly by many – was their a timescale – no answer, so like the ‘new trains’ mention on his recent leaflet no real detail. I would appreciate a good East/West link but find it hard to envisage when the current Ipswich to Cambridge/Peterborough lines are so slow. Mr Gummer did indicate then that this development would include electrification of the Cambridge route – good news there but it was then indicated that this had not been confirmed. So once you get to Cambridge you would then get on the re-opened ‘Varsity Line’ between Cambridge and Oxford then change at Oxford for Bristol. Sounds great?

Is a ‘Varsity line’ needed? I am sure there are far more routes that are in need of funding, and would this trip to Bristol (with at least one and maybe two changes) be any quicker than taking the current journey via London. It may be cheaper as many routes to the Midlands via Peterborough are but currently few of those routes are quicker/reliable or of any use for those who wish to use the route for business reasons and wish to be be at a meeting and back the same day.

Then we have ‘Cross Rail’ with a change at Stratford, and a final destination of Maidenhead – will that not make a trip to Bristol easier than it currently is?

So maybe Mr Gummer should have followed his own advice and not rushed to twitter to inform us of this great news when it reality we will not probaly see an Ipswich - Bristol line for over 10 years - if ever!

Mr Gummer did take to twitter yesterday to have his picture taken at Cherry Lane Recreation ground alongside two local Tory councillors with the tweet indicating that two councillors had secured a new play area for the rec. I myself have thought carefully how we use the good news of the new play area, because it certainly was not secured by just politicians- it was mainly down to the work of a team of dedicated local residents and then supported by councillors both Labour and Tory and also Borough and County. The key funding had come from the Labour dominated North East Area committee with additional funding from Labour and Tory County Councillors. The final piece of the jigsaw was funding from the Viridor Landfill Communities Fund and our success in gaining a grant was down to local residents and Labour County Councillor Sandy Martin who helped complete the application.

It certainly was not just the work of the two Tory councillors pictured, in fact one of them had no involvement at all in the project as it was planned, paid for and built before he was even elected but then as Mr Gummer is keen to tell me (via Tory Spy) we should not always rush to twitter – instead he could have spoken to the Chair of the North East Area committee (he has my email)!

But back to this week – it will be great to get back to the North East Area committee as we have a busy year attempting to work with local partners within our ‘action plan’ to improve the lives of local residents.

Then Thursday it is off to London to meet Ed Miliband and the Labour ‘Friends of the Forces’ reception – speaking only this week i know that the morale of the army is the lowest it has been for many years – hopefully the last forced redundancies are over and the army can now get back to what it does best- serving this country. I will certainly be lobby the Labour Defence team to have a plan in place to replace the coalition plan of dependence of a large Reserve force, current recruitment of reservists already indicates that this plan is failing miserably.

Crimea - always more important to the Russians than the Ukrainians

In 1993, I was fortunate to visit the Ukraine and the Crimea. The 10 days in the Crimea were to be spent in Sevastopol studying the Crimean The war famous for Florence Nightingale, Charge of the Light Brigade and the Battle of Balaklava. But for my regiment – The Royal Green Jackets, it was the action when crossing the Alma that we hoped to look at.

Crossing the Alma - will British soldiers be crossing it again soon?

Arrival in Kiev was smooth enough and we quickly settle in, helped by our lowly paid guide being a former Colonel in the Soviet Air Force. Ukraine in 1993 was still a ‘young’ nation but even then in Kiev there were many who wished to still be part of the Soviet Union and many more who had wished to stay communist.

We boarded the overnight train to Sevastopol, no tickets but the train guard seemed to be expecting us and we soon settled into our beds , waking in the morning we were now in the Crimea – the ‘bread basket’ of the Ukraine, on the last part of the journey we were asked for our passports, not by Ukrainians, but by Russian (plainclothes) Military police. They soon left us – trouble was, they left with our passports.

We got off the train and had to decide between buying a bottle of vodka for 40p or trying to get our passports back – we decided on both! After paying a fine (in dollars) we were told we had to leave Sevastopol/Russia and return to Ukraine – a taxi ride took us to Simferopol, the Crimean capital. Not much there so after a night we took a bus to Yalta where we planned how we were going to get back into Sevastopol.

We found Yalta (in 1993) to be a run down resort, full of Russian gangsters/new money and elderly Germans. We made friends with a German couple who now lived in Australia. The gentleman had found himself in Sydney via a POW camp in Huddersfield.

The Germans were in two distinct groups, both ex German Army and in some cases SS veterans but one group mainly from the West were quite affluent whilst those from the former East Germany were not as well off but far more friendly.

They had permission to visit Sevastopol so allowed us to tag on and we were soon made welcome on their coach. The city of Sevastopol was amazing but other than a recent monument and the small building hosting a historical panorama there was little evidence of the 19th Century war but we found many memorials to those who defended the city in the 1940’s. The other sight that quickly was noticed by myself and fellow soldier travelling with me was the amount of Russian ships and submarines – many rusting but we could see nor sign of any Ukrainian military in the whole city. They would have seen as much out of place as the Spanish Navy in Gibraltar.

So Ukraine is a complex situation, Crimea is already an autonomous region and though my visit was over 20 years ago, it is still quite obvious that the second largest city in the region – Sevastopol was full of Russians and completely under their control.

The other issue which has slight similarities to Syria, are we certain that the ‘opposition’ (who are now the interim government) the people we want to work with. There is no doubt that the far right have got them into positions of power and there is also the religious link to the ethnic problem. When I was in Kosovo in 1999, the Russians saw themselves not only defenders of the Serbs but the Slav race and the Orthodox Church. In Kosovo it was defending the Slavs against the Muslims but the Ukraine has closer similarities to the Serbia/Croatia conflict – Slav v Catholic.

All in all it is a mess, what should we do? What did we do when Hungary in the 50s and the Czechs in the 60s stood up to the Russians and then were trampled by the Soviet Army? – Nothing!

Some deranged Tory MP is blaming Ed Miliband for the Ukraine crisis – saying that Putin is taking advantage of our decision not to intervene in Syria! What rubbish, it is more likely that Putin is thinking about what happened in the 50s and 60s rather than what we have not done in Syria.

Will there be war? I hope not but can see the Crimea continuing to be a hot spot and in the end seeking full independence rather than just being an autonomous state.

New Politics, Fresh Ideas

On Monday, I attended an event at the Ipswich Corn Exchange, organised by the Local Government Association, looking to get more people interested in being a councillor, was very disappointed by the attendance, only 11 people from all over Suffolk. I hope poor promotion was the reason rather than a lack of interested people. If it is because a shortage of people, does not leave much hope for 'Big Society'.
There may have only been 11 people at the event, but it turned into a good meeting, as they had an opportunity to listen to then question a councilor from all the three main parties plus an independent. What was interesting is that a number of those there wanted to know what were the fundamental differences between the policies of the main party's.
Cllr Cenci mentioned 'Big Society' but those there seemed to be as confused as the rest of us to what the term actually means. At least three of those I spoke to afterwards want to be local councillors and Labour did seem to be their preferred party.

Last night, I attended another 'political' meeting with a much larger attendance, it was a chance to debate politics and policy with the public and also in the presence of Deputy Labour Leader, Harriet Harman.
This meeting at the Suffolk New College was all part of Ed Miliband's plan to listen to the public to help us create a new way of doing politics, the project goes under the name of 'new politics and fresh ideas'

I came out of the meeting really enthused, the people there were not Labour members, many were Labour voters but there was 'floating voters' 'non voters' and Lib dems, maybe even a couple of Tories but the table led discussions were just what was wanted- 'fresh ideas'.

I would urge you to get onto the website that goes alongside the meetings and register, it really does give you the opportunity to help bring fresh ideas to the table, and many will find their way into future Labour policy.

The website is here - new politics and fresh ideas

Labour have always been the constitutional reformers. And we passionately believe in the value of our public services. Throughout our history we have striven to put power in the hands of people. We believe that world class public services help people achieve much more in life. Widening access to power is as important as widening access to prosperity and opportunity.

Labour worked hard to change the way politics and public services were run. But most people feel the changes did not go far enough and that further radical reform is still needed. Decisions still feel as if they were being taken too far away. On the decisions that really mattered, many did not feel they were allowed either enough control, or enough influence.

Tell us your fresh ideas

Out on the doorstep with Meg Hillier

Ipswich was fortunate to have two cabinet ministers visit in 3 days, but very different types of visit. the first by Ed Miliband was part of the Eastern Region Local election launch, and had Ed also meeting the local police and residents as well as a large number of Labour candidates.

But today the visit was much more low key but far more beneficial(I believe) when it comes down to winning Ipswich back.

Meg Hillier a Minister in the Home Office, just had an hour to spare after arriving from Cambridge to attend an official function in Ipswich, she spent that hour knocking on doors with a number of Labour activists. we were in Alexandra Ward, close to the town centre, we were joined by the candidate for Alexandra Ward - Martin Goonan. I was very impressed by Meg Hillier, she got stuck in and was able to give a number of residents some very good advice- a few more ministers like her and we would be looking forward to a very good election all over the country.

Ipswich election campaign launched by Ed Miliband

The Labour campaign to win back Ipswich was launched at the Priory Centre on Queensway, Ipswich this morning by Cabinet minister, Ed Miliband. He met with a number of local residents and also a good number of Labour councilors and candidates (including myself).

Ed spoke about neighbourhood policing and measures that the Labour Government have bought in and are bringing in to help clamp down on anti-social behaviour. One of our priorities that we must have whilst campaigning is to get over to the public that many of the "good news" stories that the Tories are campaigning on are due to Labour Government money and policy.

Now it is down to the nitty gritty of campaigning- leaflet delivering, knocking on doors and talking to the residents- at least it is not raining!

You can read more about Ed Miliband visting Ipswich here.