My week ahead, 19 - 25 January 2015

Monday 19 January, 8am – Angle editorial board meeting.
6pm – Labour Group campaigning

Wednesday 21 January, 9am – Ipswich Borough Council Planning Committee

Thursday 22 January, 6pm –Ipswich Labour Party and Fabians meeting on the ‘Living Wage’

Saturday 24 January, 10am – Labour campaigning in South East Ipswich

Sunday 25 January, 10am – Labour campaigning in South West Ipswich

More campaigning ahead this week, and it is still months to the election! We spend most of our campaigning time talking to residents and the Tories also seem keen to get their message over, with their main form of communication being expensive and large leaflets/papers. National issues are covered but most of the focus is on Mr Gummer, not sure many will believe his promise of getting Ipswich the best schools, the fact is in the last 4 years the standard of education in the County has spiralled downwards. With two of the key causes to the poor standard of education being the Tory run County Council not seeming to be interested in improving education, their priority seems to be get rid of as many schools from their responsibility as they can and they have been helped in that task by the Tory Government who have forced a number of primary schools to take the path to becoming an academy, in most cases against the wishes of both staff and parents.

It was not long ago that Mr Gummer could be found at the drop of a hat outside Ipswich Academy having his picture taken; he even joined Mr Gove on a visit to the school. Noticeably this week with the publication of yet another poor Ofsted report he does not seem so keen to be associated with the school.

So maybe there should be a ‘health warning’ printed at the bottom of all his leaflets?

The other party you would think are campaigning hard if you are someone who uses twitter is the local Green Party, but it seems that the social media campaign is the only work they are doing as talking to residents, face to face is not yet a priority for them.

Then we have the Lib Dems and UKIP. Both seem to have no local campaigning planned, UKIP seem to be happy to let all their national politicians do their work whilst the Lib Dems seem to be unable to go more than 400m from the confines of Christchurch Park, no social media presence unless you include one of their councillors writing for a blog then arguing with someone who had the audacity to comment on one of his posts! Locally they seem to be a party that no longer seems to have the will to continue. The way they jumped into bed locally with the Tories, means to many they will not be missed.

My week ahead, 1 - 7 December 2014

Monday 1 December, 4pm – Culture portfolio meeting
5pm – North East Area Committee agenda setting meeting
6pm – Labour campaigning

Wednesday 3 December, 5pm – Students Question Time, Northgate School

Saturday 6 December, 10am – Labour campaigning in South East Ipswich

This week all eyes will be on Westminster and the chancellor making his Autumn statement and it seems it will be full of election bribes, after 4 years of telling us there is no money in the pot it seems billions have been found. Starting with money for the NHS, which they will hope will get them through the winter with A & E Departments expected to be at crisis level.

Money will also be found for infrastructure projects, with Norfolk expected to get further money for A11 improvements, where here in Suffolk we are unlikely to hear of any funding for a Northern by-pass as Poulter and Gummer would rather have excuses for not building much needed family homes when they should be lobbying for funding for a Northern Link Road.

Disappointingly the Green Party in Suffolk also seem keen to join the NIMBY brigade and see no built in the north of the town. They seem to have no alternative sites in mind.

What I am looking forward to this week is the Student Question Time being held at Northgate School, I do believe all elected representatives have a duty to try and increase the number of people who are both interested in politics and also who will then vote – and there is no better way to start than with our younger residents.

Back from Scotland

Returned yesterday from the Duke of Edinburgh Award trip to Scotland - amazing weather and managed to get up a number of peaks, including Ben Nevis.
But now it is back to the serious job of getting the Tories out of Ipswich.
This morning I joined twenty other Labour activists in the south West of the town as we delivered leaflets and knocked on doors. the good weather had reached Ipswich and the reception we got from residents was also on the 'sunny side'.
A good win for the Town in the afternoon made it a good first day back.
In Rushmere whilst I was away, a leaflet was put out telling the residents of Khartoum road that we are chasing up a number of matters that have been bought to our attention whilst meeting voters. Tomorrow, I will be out delivering leaflets on the Rushmere Estate and the rest of the week will see myself and other members in all four wards in the east of the town.
I now expect to be facing a Green candidate as well as a Lib Dem and the sitting Tory. the Green Party seem to be very buoyant at the moment. it may have something to do with people realising that the Lib Dems are just Tories in yellow coats. At least three of the Lib Dem candidates are former members of the Labour or Conservative Party!
The Green Party ended up destroying the Lib Dems in Norwich, we mat have seen the start of something similar in Ipswich.