Ipswich Tories, at war with each other?

Actually I don’t think they are – it seems they are very united – they all want to leave the EU – Who stated this~? No other than their Party Chair, Cllr Liz Harsant – the Guardian newspaper even put it on their front page – Liz was quoted as telling the paper, said of the Ipswich Conservative Association: “They are all for out at the moment. Our MP [Conservative Ben Gummer] is in favour of staying but frankly we all want to leave.”

So that seems very united and with such a small membership and looking at the tweets and blogs of their council group leader, Nadia Cenci and Tory activist and candidate Kevin Algar you can see a real hatred of everything the EU stands for. Their tweets and blog posts do read like the traditional views of ‘little Englanders’ in most cases it seems their one real concern is ‘open border’s and that they have some belief that if we leave the EU, we will suddenly stop being a destination for those seeking to make a better life for themselves and their families.

They often do mention that there is too much ‘red tape’ because of the EU but what the Tories want is return to the time where there was little legislation to protect both workers and the general public.

Today it has been announced that the owners of Alton Towers will be prosecuted after the horrific accident involving their roller coaster, this is the sort of legal action that we would not see if the Tories had their way – children back working in factories or climbing inside chimneys could be seen as new job creation schemes!

So why can we claim the Ipswich Tories are at war   when it seems they are united in their desire to leave the EU and their opposition to what their own MP thinks?

It is because their Tory association, through its twitter feed seems keen to say their Chair Liz Harsant is either wrong or has been miss-quoted by the Guardian they seem very keen to tell anyone that will listen that do not know the views of all their members and they will just have a friendly debate and still call each other friends at the end of it. Or has pressure come down from Tory Party HQ that local associations should remain neutral when it is obvious to most that in places like Ipswich the (very large) majority are for us leaving Europe as soon as we can?

Here in the Labour Party there are some who wish to leave Europe, I for one wish our national leader, Mr Corbyn was taking a more leading role in the ‘Stronger In’ campaign but here in Ipswich it seems the large majority of members wish to remain in the EU. So maybe Mr Gummer will be out campaigning with us on the doorsteps in Ipswich when he makes one his fleeting visits back to his constituency?

He would be most welcome to join us, because for all the waffle from the local Tory association it is quite obvious that if he wants to go out campaigning for us to stay in Europe the only Tories he could go out with live outside the Borough- his fellow Suffolk Tory MPs and the Tory County leader – now that would be an interesting canvass team!

Now some of the Tories seem annoyed to be described as ‘little Englanders’ by me so wonder what they think of comments by Gummer who declares that maybe by wanting to leave the EU they are being unpatriotic? A recent tweet by Mr Gummer declared; "The patriotic choice is for Britain as a leading nation in the world's largest trade bloc. We are stronger in."

For once I agree with something Mr Gummer has said!

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.

I will not be singing the National Anthem on Sunday

Some might think a slightly strange and even maybe an attention seeking title for a blog post but I believe I have no choice but to put down my fears for what may happen on Sunday at not only the Ipswich Remembrance Parade but also for other parades over the country.

Armistice Sunday has always been a big event in my family and I guess for about the last 45 years I have always attended an event (I’m 53). I started going to the Christchurch Park event with my late father, first of all when he was a councillor and then when he carried the standard for the Ipswich Branch of the Korean Veterans. The event in Ipswich in the 70’s and 80’s had some similarities to the current parades but what was missing then was the hundreds of Ipswich residents who now turn up to join in the event.

When I joined the army in 1978 the event was still quite low profile, we commemorated it on the 11^th hour of the 11^th day but the rest of the country just carried on their normal working lives- unlike now and on the Remembrance Sunday, local events were often low key with only the parades in London, Belfast and Edinburgh having large crowds. The tide changed with the Armed Forces becoming both popular and respected after they participated in the more recent conflicts in the Balkans, the Gulf and Afghanistan.

It still cheers me to see all the families at the Ipswich Cenotaph, sun, rain or shine that is what soldiers fought for to enable the public to go out and enjoy a Sunday as a family but now it seems politics has reared its ugly head and we have some sort of ‘poppy’ police operating in this country.

Of course politics becoming involved Remembrance is nothing new, we had it in between the wars, we had the white poppy, one of the reasons the events became so low key in the 80’s was due to threat of IRA attacks and protests by such groups as ‘Troops out’ and then we had the furore over Michael Foot and his duffel coat.

It seems now that wearing a poppy is now a ‘must do’ and if you do not you are not a true Brit! What rubbish, the freedom to do what you want, wear what you want is what the hundreds of thousands of servicemen dies for in the Second World War. I wear my poppy with pride and it helps me remember the friends I lost in conflict, in fact I wear a small metal poppy all year but I don’t care if other people wear one or not, in fact it disgusted me more that politicians are so worried about being seen without one that Number 10 decided to photo shop a poppy on to the profile picture of David Cameron.

But my real fear is this year it has become even more of a political football because of our new Labour leader, Jeremy Corbyn. I do not like some of the relationships, Jeremy has had in the past with certain Irish groups, I am no great fan of the ‘Stop the war’ coalition but I respect Jeremy for having his own views and I do not care if he wears a red, white or no poppy at all. Now on Sunday I would expect him to wear a poppy at the cenotaph as he is laying wreath on behalf of the Labour Party not himself but we saw how Tory MP’s and the right wing press attacked Jeremy for not singing the national anthem and so people will be watching closely on how Jeremy acts.

That same nasty attitude of certain Tory MPs was then copied over the country by other Tories and here in Ipswich I was attacked for not singing the National Anthem at an event to commemorate the two men from Ipswich who won the Victoria Cross in World War I, I actually felt very privileged to not only attend the event but to be asked to speak and read out the two VC citations, I did this wearing my Regimental blazer and wearing my medals but still that did not stop certain Tories attacking me. They obviously decided the attacks on Jeremy Corbyn by Tory MPs were worth repeating against local politicians in Ipswich and they also showed what a bunch of hypocrites they are as they made every excuse possible to explain the absence of both our Tory MPs for the town from the Civic Event.

There attacks on me seemed to backfire but that has not stopped them, only this week an Ipswich Tory candidate has made yet another attack on me, over the last few weeks he has been accusing me of being a ‘red Tory’ and stating that I would be the target of the Corbynistas but suddenly he has decided I am from the ‘far’ left and accused me (and most Ipswich Labour councillors) of adhering to a terrorist sympathising, Britain hating, security threatening ideology.

That must be why I spent 25 years in the Armed Forces! What rubbish, but worryingly there seems to be a lack of leadership in the local Tory Party and it only makes me believe that both Ben Gummer and the Tory leader, Nadia Cenci either believe the mad ramblings of this Tory candidate or are just happy for him to attack Labour politicians even if it they know there is no truth in his attacks.

So on Sunday, I will attend, I will march up to the cenotaph, I will wear my medals and I will remember those from both Ipswich who have paid the ultimate sacrifice and those who paid the same sacrifice from my regiment. But I will not sing the National anthem, not out of any republican protest but in my regiment we do not sing it, we stand to attention and stay silent as a mark of respect to Queen, Country and our fallen comrades.

But I am aware that there will Tories in Ipswich and further afield watching carefully how Labour politicians behave on Sunday. That is not what Remembrance Day is for but it seems to have been hijacked for political use by those on the right and their friends in the press.

It is a sad state of affairs that one now has to worry how you will be perceived at such an event rather than going there to pay respects to fallen comrades and those from Ipswich who served their country.

On the Falls Road in Belfast, in Crossmaglen, in Pristina, in Bosnia and in Sangin, Afghanistan I met and served alongside ‘real’ warriors, it is their opinion that matters to me not the thoughts of an Ipswich Tory ‘keyboard’ warrior!


Footnote;
Forgot to add that even certain Police Forces  are using Remembrance Day this years as a vehicle to highlight police cuts, stating that certain parades may have to be cancelled as there are not enough police to help close roads.

Ipswich Tory activist- can't even remember what he said last week

An Ipswich Tory activist seems to have a slight memory problem, earlier in the week in a tweet he declared that some Syrian refugees were just men dodging conscription!

Kevin Algar ‏@KevinTAlgar   Sep 10

@AlasdairRoss We are helping genuine refugees rather than better off Syrians who did a bunk when they got their conscription papers.

Even for Kevin this was a quite shocking statement , so I tweeted:

Alasdair Ross ‏@AlasdairRoss  Sep 10

An Ipswich Tory activist/candidates description of refugees > "better off Syrians who did a bunk when they got their conscription papers."

But Kevin today seems to forget that he had described certain refugees as conscription dodgers:

Kevin Algar ‏@KevinTAlgar   3h3 hours ago

@AlasdairRoss No Tory activist has described Syrian refugees like that. You're being disingenuous. #TypicalAlasdair

It seems Kevin has a memory issue, then again when we highlighted that the Tories had been silent over the new development planned for Chantry Vale, but today he seemed to use the excuse that the development was outside the Borough, strange then that he has tweeted and posted on his blog a number of posts about the building of a wind turbine - also in Babergh and actually further away from houses in Sprites and Gipping. In April 2013 he even boasted that it was only himself and fellow Nadia Cenci who had stood against the turbine.

Is that why senior Ipswich Tories like their MP and leader block me on twiiter? Do they also have 'memory' problems!

My week ahead, 10 - 16 August 2015

Monday 10 August, 4pm – Meeting with Suffolk FA at Ransomes

Tuesday 11 August, 11am – Welcoming the World Rugby Cup to Ipswich, Cromwell Square 5pm – meeting with Deputy Leader candidate, Ben Bradshaw, Station Hotel

Thursday 13 August, 6pm – Area Committee Chairs meeting, Grafton House

Saturday 15 August, 10am – Labour Campaigning, North East Ipswich

A good week ahead for me a mix of politics and sport – with two big cycling events coming up over the next few weeks this week it is football and rugby taking centre stage.

On Monday I am attending a meeting with the Suffolk FA looking at our plans for Ransomes, work on the pavilion should start next month.

Some might have expected an apology from certain Ipswich Tories as they were always quick to go to print and tell anyone who would listen that we planned to build council houses on the site, but I never expected the ;likes of Judy Terry, Kevin Algar or Eddie Phillips to apologise.

We also have the Rugby World Cup coming to Ipswich on Tuesday, slightly more low profile than the Olympic Torch relay and the Commonwealth Baton event but I am sure Ipswich residents will make Tuesday a great day for all.

Also on Tuesday, we have another Deputy Labour Leader candidate coming to Ipswich to speak to members and supporters, it will give at least one Ipswich Tory activist another opportunity to put numerous lies in his blog. Last week for the visit of Angela Eagle he informed his readers how many Labour councillors attended the event and even used a photograph as evidence, trouble was there were more councillors in the photo that he counted!

Ipswich Tories were out in Rushmere Ward on Saturday, not that I or my neighbours received a leaflet but rumour has it Mr Gummer was asking for residents views on the town centre, thought it may be a bit late to ask as he has nailed his support to the Ipswich Central Plan – and rubbished the plans of the Borough Council - what now if residents do not agree with that Ipswich Central Plan?

Was the playwright Allan Bennett talking about the Ipswich Tories?

The playwright Alan Bennett has been asked to name what the English excel at and he's gone for ‘Hypocrisy’.

Did he decide that after witnessing the Ipswich Tories in action at the last Full Council meeting?

Last Wednesday we had the Full Council budget debate, from the start the Tory Group were on the defensive as their amendment was not an alternative to our medium term plan as other than a few specific proposals for this year there was nothing set in concrete for further budgets – so more (very) short term rather than medium term.

Labour have also attempted to include all councillors in planning the budget, with councillors able to suggest further spending plus possible cuts at working groups and at a final scrutiny meeting. But surprisingly none of the suggested savings in the Tory amendment had been mentioned before, in fact the opposite as at the budget scrutiny meeting, Tory Cllr George Debman was very vocal in his opinion that no money should be cut from the area committee budgets – surprise, surprise – cuts to area committee budgets were the mainstay of the Tory amendment!

But when it came to hypocrisy the Tories really came into their own when it came to their attitude to ‘name calling’ banter’ ‘insults’ .

Now I am not making excuses for some of the childish (at times) behaviour in the council chamber and I have been no saint myself but it can only be described a sheer hypocrisy when the Tory leader moans about a comment about her when only minutes earlier she had applauded a Tory councillor for calling me the ‘mouth of the north’.

A number of commentators have compared Full Council with the behaviour at PMQ’s – stating the standard of debate puts people off politics, but is that true? Do more people watch PMQ’s to see the passion shown by politicians? Mr Cameron did promise (another broken one) that he would stop the ‘punch and Judy’ style of PMQs but has done the opposite and has even allowed his whips to organise planned heckling of Ed Balls during the last few budget debates.

Cllr Cenci seems to have got very angry over some of the comments made last week but then describes the actions of Tory Cllr Stroet as just ‘banter’. Of course you often wonder if Cllr Cenci is actually angry or just ‘posturing’ – her own description of the way she has acted at certain meetings.

But let me tell Cllr Cenci and Cllr Stroet you can call me as many names as you like, one of your activists (and a candidate) has spent the last few years calling myself and fellow councillors names on his blog – all it proves is that you have lost the argument.

I have certainly been called far worse in the army – and often by close friends and colleagues but when former opponents in the army have spent most of their time either attempting to shoot me or blow myself and my fellow soldiers up, I am not going to get too upset when Cllr Stroet calls me the ‘mouth of the north’.

What I will not accept is when false accusations are made at Full Council and that is what also happened at Full Council and since then further inaccurate statements have been made by certain Ipswich Tories.

Cllr Stroet indicated that when a former Tory Cllr, Richard Pope was chair of the North East Area Committee he did not take his allowance but when I became chair, I rushed to get my allowance.
Now a simple fact check – Cllr Pope was never chair of the area committee and never entitled to or even offered an allowance.
Back in 2013, a Labour councillor was stuck on a train and the Tories decided to play silly games and not support my nomination to be chair, this left a stalemate and would have left an officer in the chair, and a public meeting would have ended without anything being discussed. Now I was disappointed that the Tories decided to try and score cheap points over the election of the Chair but I then decided to quickly second Cllr Pope rather than have another 4-4 vote and leave the meeting to be chaired by an Officer. The reason I did this was that I was sure the many residents who had turned up for the meeting were there to hear about matters concerning our local area rather than witness petty party squabbling and this seemed to easiest way to get the meeting to go ahead as planned.

So Cllr Pope was chair for that meeting – not the committee, we also agreed that myself and Cllr Pope would attend the agenda setting meeting with officers later in the month to make sure the work on our action plan for the North East continued.

So Cllr Pope did not refuse his allowance and was never chair. Now since then we have heard that he would have donated his allowance to charity- not I can’t remember ever hearing that claim before- and it is not as simple as it sounds as much of the allowance goes in tax- so would he had given the full allowance to charity or taken off the tax part first?
Then we have the point of me rushing to get an allowance- Almost correct, I did rush – but to stop my allowance after the Tories played their stupid games over the election of a chair. I asked officers on the night to ensure my allowance stopped and backed that up with an email in the morning. When I was elected chair 2 months later the officers informed that they would start my allowance again.

Now I have mentioned this to the Tory leader, who can’t remember hearing Cllr Stroet accuse me of rushing to claim my allowance but she did give me an apology for her own behaviour when she clapped (not that I asked for one) Cllr Stroet but as I have already indicated she can call me as many names as she likes or applaud when someone else does but I will complain if false statements are made at full council.

Now I would have thought the former Cllr Pope would not have been too happy that his name has been dragged into the argument but then again he may not want to say too much as it is believed he may be competing with another former Tory councillor (Mrs Terry) to replace Cllr Stroet in Bixley.

The final display of Tory hypocrisy has been by a Tory activist who claimed that full council “There was also a personal attack on former Tory councillor, Richard Pope.” – Now I know that this activist and Cllr Stroet may not see eye to eye but I have to point out to Mr Algar, the only person who mentioned Mr Pope at Full Council was Cllr Stroet! He did this of course when he painted us all a picture of Cllr Pope as a hard working councillor who gave away his allowances to charity, funny that as I believe Mr Pope claimed his full councilor allowance in his last 9 months as a councillor but in the same period only attended one meeting.

So Alan Bennett may be partially right as certain people in Britain do excel at hypocrisy!

Being disingenuous - something Ipswich Tories are expert on!

If there is one subject the local Ipswich Tories are expert on it is on being disingenuous, but it seemed quite comical when they accused us (Labour) of being disingenuous.

On the same day as a local Tory activist accused us of being disingenuous he also wrote a further post about his year ahead where he seems to be the master of the ingenuous comment. He attempts to claim that local Tory councillors were instrumental in the refurbishment of a local park. Local Tories were involved but so were all the local Labour councillors in North East Ipswich but all the hard work for the refurbishment was done by local residents and it is Jim Jenner and his friends who should take all the credit. If any councillor deserves any praise it is Labour’s Sandy Martin who helped fill in the application for a grant from Viridor.

Where all councillors were involved is the support the scheme was given by the local area committee, a structure the Tories have never supported. A point that has been mentioned before on other blogs such as Ipswich Spy, back in February, ‘Spy’ commented;

“Tories in North East Ipswich seem to have got themselves a bit confused. Pushing out a new leaflet, and promoting one of the stories on the Ipswich Tory website, they celebrate funding from Viridor and the “NE Committee” for somewhere called “Cherry Tree” rec.
Presumably they are celebrating the funding provided through the North East Area Committee for the Cherry Lane Recreation Ground. Not only did they oppose Area Committees (and they voted against them again last week) but they also don’t seem to know where the recreation ground in question is. If they’re going to use this to promote their new Bixley candidate, Eddy Phillips, they’ll have to up their game.”

But it is no surprise that local Tories seem to want to take credit for anything and everything even if they were just partners or not even involved at all as their MP, Ben Gummer seems to be the master of taking credit for all sorts. If you believe everything bit of expensive literature from the Tories pushed through your door, you would have thought that it was Mr Gummer who singlehandedly raised every penny spent on the town in the last 5 years. But interestingly very few mentions of Ipswich Academy in recent leaflets as promised educational improvements have failed to materialise not that seems to have been noticed who claimed in his ingenuous post that one of Mr Gummer’s achievements is (sic) ‘education improved’ !! As the bag carrier for the Education Minister does Mr Gummer see different Ofsted results to the rest of us?

Ransomes the truth not Tory lies!

For some reason the Tories continue to peddle lies about the future of Ransomes Sports Ground – you would think by now they would admit that they were barking up the wrong tree and support the council in the future plans for the site. But instead we continue to get lies and deliberate misinformation promoted via leaflets, blog posts and comments from prominent Ipswich Tories about the future of Ransomes.

The latest tirade of untruths come (no surprise) from the former Tory councillor for the ward, Judy Terry. Now I am sure that a number of Ipswich Tories know that Mrs Terry is being very economical with the truth but their leader informs me that she can’t stop former Cllr Terry from giving her ‘opinion’ but you would think she would possibly ask her candidates for the council next year not to repeat the accusations as she is well aware that a new pavilion is being built on the site and that we have (and never did) have any intention of building a council estate on Ransomes Sports field.. But she seems to think it is OK for Tory activists to give Mrs Terry a platform to continue her campaign of misinformation as by posting her version of events it does not mean they agree with her!

Last month, Mrs Terry used her ‘Flyer’ column to be very critical of politicians – so you may understand my anger when she continues to be very economical herself with the truth in her latest rant about Ransomes.

Let us look at some of her comments;

First of you may wonder how much Mrs Terry knows about Ransomes as she sates it is in Sidegate lane – in fact it is in Sidegate Avenue.

She then states IBC had a fierce legal battle with the clubs management – fact is we had a legal dispute with one person – the site manager.

She is right in stating the clubhouse has been condemned and is now being demolished but forgets to mention that the various sports clubs are very happy with the new changing rooms – temporary but far better that what they had before.

She also mentions we will not talk to local football club Ipswich Valley Rangers, who were interested in the site – wrong again, we have and still are talking to Ipswich Valley Rangers, and helped facilitate their move back to the town from their former ground in Melton and they now play on IBC owned pitch at Gainsborough. As Ransomes FC play in the same league not as easy as Mrs Terry would think – moving one club in and asking another club to leave.

She also states there has been no consultation with residents – the residents of the three closest roads have had regular newsletter delivered to them to keep them informed of what is actually happening rather than them having to listen to Tory canvassers inform them we were planning to build a council estate on the site!

Then we have yet further proof to show that she has little knowledge of what actually happens at Ransomes or the local sports scene ( disappointing as that used to be her portfolio!)

Judy Terry comments (Ransomes) has thrived, with hundreds of youngsters, as well as adults, coaching and playing sport every evening and at weekends – and all day in the school holidays. Now, this level of activity is just a distant memory; a great loss to the community

Distant memory? I called in today, a packed car park and youth and adult football matches being played side by side. School holidays – football courses were run by ex ITFC player Jason Dozzell before we took the club back over and guess what? Every holiday since Jason has continued to run his football courses at Ransomes .

Ransomes this morning - still thriving

I attended Ransomes on a Sunday at the end of last season, and there were hundreds of children playing football with their parents and families watching – As Ransomes successfully hosted the end of season local youth football league finals.

She mentions a Labour leaflet where we accuse the Tories of wanting to build houses on the sports ground – as I have delivered 90% of the leaflets in that area, I can’t remember one! Best bit is she then states she did want to build houses on the site! (The Tory candidate who blogged this misinformation is not sure if that is still Tory policy)

What Tory Judy Terry forgets to tell readers is as telling as the information she does give out.

One sports club has left the site, the Bowls Club, who were forced out by the old club management, they were soon followed by the sequence dancing club – even though they had raised much of the money needed to keep the hall up to standard. IBC has since found a new home for the dancing club at Gainsborough.

The cricket ground had already stopped being used by the County after the old groundsman was forced out by the club management.

She gives IBC no credit for planning to build a new pavilion or restoring the memorial gates. She talks about making the club a community social enterprise – does she not read local papers? St Clement’s, John Player (Bourne Vale) all local sports clubs having problems. Multi sports clubs are hard to run, football and cricket seasons now overlap, very few players play both sports their is always friction between sections and that friction is where probably Ransomes went wrong with the bowls club being the first victims of that inability to work together.

As both a local councillor and a sports fans I will continue to campaign hard for the future of Ransomes, I look forward to the new pavilion opening, the newly restored Memorial Gates being placed back on Sidegate Avenue and the continued success of Ransomes Football Club, Ransomes Youth FC, St Margaret’s Cricket Club.

But none of that will be made easier by the local Tories continuing to spread rumours and scare residents with talk of housing estates being built on the site.

Cllr Cenci the Tory leader seems happy for one of candidates to continue to help spread lies about the future of Ransomes - he seems to do it every year. A post he did last year upset a member of the cricket club so much that he wrote to Mr Algar who maybe not surprisingly did not post this sportsman's view of what is really happening at Ransomes, and the writer is not only a member of Ransomes but also lives in a house that backs onto the site!

Worth posting his reply to Mr Algar again , maybe Cllr Cenci and Mrs Terry should read it!

Dear Mr Alger

I have recently read your blog dated 25th April 2014, concerning Ransomes Social Club and the apparent labour agenda under the leadership of David Ellesmere as the parliamentary candidates to eventual use the land as a building site.

I feel compelled to email you to express at first hand the inaccuracies of your article and politely request you retract elements of your blog. As a member of St Margaret's Cricket club for over 10 years we had witnessed at first hand the unfortunate decline of standards and facilities over recent years. In the 2013 season, we did not have hot water at times, electrics were in a dangerous state of repair and asbestos was rife throughout the building (to name but a few). Financially, one could argue, the club was being mismanaged and no longer financially viable.

When the Ipswich Borough Council took over the grounds with a labour run local government we (along with the other sports teams) had some real reservations about political interference initially. As a resident, with my property backing onto the land, I was concerned. However, we had consultation meetings, our committee members met with the council and labour representatives regularly and we have continued with these dialogues. Slowly my worries have somewhat eased.

Let's examine how things look in late April 2014. The Ipswich Borough Council under the labour leadership of David Ellesmere with councillor Mr Ross, Ms Rudkin &Mr Grant have done the following within the past few months.

1. Rightly condemned the building due to safety reasons to protect the public
2. Hired the correct equipment for maintaining the ground
3. Improved facilities by adding quality temporary facilities with showers and toilets
4. Improved the electricity and water supplies
5. Improved our meeting room with new kitchen equipment
6. Cutting the ground regularly
7. Ensured that cleaning is done regularly of the changing rooms and to a high standard

I could not be happier with the progress and could not have asked for more from the council. I have had letters reassuring me the council have no plans to build on this land. The money being spent on this and the time and effort seems to overwhelmingly support these statements. The futures, is looking brighter with the community rightly taking a more active role within collaborative with all parities.

Your comments in my opinion are unsubstantiated with a lack of primary evidence and personal experience. I urge you to readdress the blog at your earliest opportunity. In my opinion, Ransomes Sports & Social Club as a community sports area should not be used as a political football, particularly as in my opinion on this occasion Mr Alger you have scored an own goal!

Yours sincerely

Carl Fitch

If the Tory leader is happy for lies to be spread about Ransomes by one of her council candiadtescan we trust what her councilors and candidates say about the Northern Fringe of any other issue that involves the residents of Ipswich?

Then again Tory candidate Mr Algar also once posted about his own Tory Group " Then you have the Tory ‘opposition’ - utterly shambolic and pathetically weak. One of the reasons Ipswich Conservatives abstain in votes so often is the fact that they have no policies and don’t believe there is a need for any" - so maybe he gets his facts right some time!

Tories at war – with each other!

Yesterday Ipswich Tory activist, Kevin Algar posted a blistering attack on his fellow Ipswich conservatives.

It will not make great reading for Ben Gummer and Tory leader, Chris Stewart. Gummer needs a unified Tory Group for any chance of making it a contest at the General election in 2015 and the comments by Algar show that Chris Stewart (and constituency chair- Liz Harsant) have little control over local Tories with very little self-discipline being shown by Tory members.

Ipswich Tory councillors may just place their heads in the sand and think this is just a one off attack by a disgruntled member but it does follow on from James Spencer (Bridge Ward) no longer feeling he can stand for the Tories.

It is not only within the local constituency they seem to be falling out, all over Suffolk they have members unhappy with Dan Poulter and Ben Gummer voting for the legalisation of Gay marriage and in the last two weeks there has been a fall out between Ipswich and Suffolk Tories over plans for traffic lights in parts of Ipswich.

It was not long ago that Ben Gummer was attempting to take all the credit for the massive investment in traffic infrastructure in Ipswich but strangely he has gone very quiet since his own constituency Chair has taken a dislike to certain parts of the scheme- from what I can seethe main issue is the attitude of Suffolk Tories who do not seem to believe in public consultation, especially with residents of Ipswich or Lowestoft.

Going back to the outburst by Kevin Algar, he accuses the local Tories of having no policies or any interest in coming up with any and accuses the Tory Group of failing to be a formidable opposition to the Labour Party, his feelings are best summed up with this comment about the Tory Group: “utterly shambolic and pathetically weak. One of the reasons Ipswich Conservatives abstain in votes so often is the fact that they have no policies and don’t believe there is a need for any “

Now some would say why the sudden outburst he seemed very happy with the direction the local Tories were going at the start of the week, one local Tory councillor put it down to him being drunk! But it seems it is because he has just found out that he has not been selected to stand in the local elections next year.

Not sure why the Tories have dropped him, he has stood for them in Chantry and Gipping in both the County and Borough elections and though I agree with very little he says he does seem one of the keenest of their very few activists.

Now today, Kevin seems to have mellowed and gone back to his normal anti-Labour posting and informing us that he will still be campaigning for Ben Gummer in 2015. The trouble for Gummer is will other local Tories want him helping on the campaign. Algar also does bring up the thorny subject of Ipswich Spy and the main contributors close links with a number of the Tory Group. This issue is one that seems to continue to cause trouble within the Tory ranks.

Kevin now seems to be backtracking fast and will probably be out delivering again for the local Tories by next week (if they will have him) and I for one hope he continues – even just for the comedy value he adds.

The classic was this week, I used twitter to wish our candidate in the Hadleigh Town election ‘good luck’ –Angela has worked hard with a number of volunteers to improve the Labour presence in this South Suffolk town, Kevin read this and quickly tweeted: ‘If you live in North Ward of Hadleigh Suffolk, get out and Vote Conservative.’

Trouble for Kevin, he had made the effort to find out it was North Ward but what he failed to check was the list of candidates – and so he went very silent when we informed him that no Tory candidate was standing, but looking at his tweets today I am sure he will provide us with many more comedy moments.

What the local Tories do about him will be more interesting, will they put an arm around his shoulder and welcome him back or as they have done with others like Paul Carter just ignore him?

Trouble with the social media he will never be far away and he has just tweeted that the Tories had asked him to deliver leaflets for a whole ward – making the local Tory Party seem not that organised not the sort of image Ben Gummer would like to see portrayed and last night Cllr Cenci was telling us, Kevin was wrong and they have a very organised delivery team! Someone is not telling the truth – Kevin or Nadia?

Currently Australian Cricket is the laughing stock of sport, and so bad that some people are starting to feel sorry for them, don’t – the Aussies made us suffer for years. Similarly now some would say don’t feel sorry for the local Tories – and I don’t but the residents of Ipswich are being let down when the opposition can’t even agree amongst themselves let alone contribute to helping run Ipswich in difficult times.

I am sure that even with their limited presence on social media that this weekend Mr Gummer and leading Tories will be discussing the attacks by Algar – what they do about it will be more interesting!

May Day celebration causes Tory bloggers to fall out!

It has been amusing this week as Ipswich Tory bloggers and Ipswich Spy ‘fall out’ over May day!
Maybe I should describe the group as Ipswich Tory bloggers (but some thinking of joining UKIP) – The Three Tory bloggers all seem to be attempting to take the credit for the increase in fees now charged to the organisers of the annual ‘May Day’ event held in Alexandra Park.

Sorry to disappoint them all but as the Deputy Portfolio holder for parks, no one has ever mentioned their blogs- fees are constantly being looked at as we suffer from savage cuts to the local government grant from this Tory/Lib Dem Government.

But they also seem to be annoyed that Ipswich Spy keeps reminding them they said nothing when the Tories/Lib Dems were in power in Ipswich and they hired the park to the same ‘May Day’ organisers at the same low community rent that the current council does.

This is where the Tory blogs sudden and rare show of unity falls apart, Gavin Maclure informs us that backbenchers’ never know what is going on whilst Kevin Algar states it is because he was not a backbencher and if he had he would have kicked a fuss up about it.

So is Kevin telling us the Tory backbenchers are not up to the job? Many are still there- Goldsmith, Vickery, Terry – if they are not up to it why does he keep campaigning to get them re-elected? But more interesting is the comment that the backbenchers on the Tory Group are not informed of what their executive were up to – even funnier as Mrs Maclure was a member of that same executive! Or is the truth that actually the executive were also kept in the dark and that John Carnall and a smaller group of senior Tories ran the show?

As a Labour Group, we discuss all policy and our executive are left in no doubt about our feelings on certain matters and our views are always taken in to account. It seems that was not happening when the Tories were in power in Ipswich.

On a separate matter but one linked to the ‘May Day’ story – is the use of ‘Freedom of Information’ requests – FOI’s. I think they are an important piece of legislation that keeps Governments, councils and public bodies on their toes. But there is a cost to them both in time and money – and often they are just used by lazy journalists when they are short of a story - such as how many biscuits have been purchased for council meetings! Also as a council the public already have the ability to ask questions both at Full Council and now Area Committees – and in particular on the issue about the cost of the May Day celebration – why haven’t Algar, Spencer or Maclure asked a question at Full Council? Or even more importantly why hasn’t a Tory Cllr asked about the costs? The answer is they know the reply would have mentioned that the Tories charged the same community rent the whole time they were in power.

Who pays for these FOI requests? Us – the Ipswich Council Tax payer!

Tory candidate claims Ipswich Labour have a special printing machine!

After being actually taken by surprise in that the Tories are delivering leaflets beyond Bixley, Rushmere and St Margaret’s – I thought I would take a quick look to see what the Tories are actually saying.

In the South West the Tory candidate (who is still failing to remove inaccuracies from his own blog) is claiming that he helped Ben Gummer in his successful campaign to get Chantry High School (Suffolk New Academy) re-built – funny that when I drove past it today whilst campaigning it looked the same as iit did last year. When researching the claim that Mr Gummer and Algar have been successful in their campaign, all I can find is a claim that it will be re-built in the future, but no start date.

Mr Algar then continues with one of his favourite topics – in that candidate’s should live in the ward, hypocritically in his next post he is promoting Cllr Judy Terry – who does not only live outside the ward she represents but seems hell bent on upsetting Rushmere residents. Mr Algar claims that Judy Terry and her Tory colleagues saved the Suffolk Library service, but forgets to mention that the mobile library service in Ipswich has been decimated. In Rushmere we have lost mobile library rounds in Meadowvale Close, Sidegate Avenue and Sidegate Lane. We also lost the service in Inverness Road – home of the Ipswich prefabs – what has Judy Terry got against our senior citizens who live in the North East of our ward? First of all she wants to build a care home on top of their homes and also feels they do not need a library service. So maybe I should ask Judy Terry why she thinks we do not need a mobile library service serving the prefabs.

As she has not answered my five previous questions, I will post them again and add a question about the mobile library service. I am sure if Judy will not answer the questions her personnel spokesman Kevin Algar will – if he can take a break away from claiming that he influences Labour candidate selection!

Over to you Judy Terry (or Kevin Algar)

1. Why did she say Colin Noble had not visited the prefabs?

2. Why did she make an incorrect statements about the attendance of Tracy Grant without checking the facts?

3. Who are the two developers, did they approach her or did she approach them?

4. Are Care UK involved with the proposed care home?

5. Will the replacement 220 homes be council owned?
And the new one –

6. Why does she think Rushmere residents do not need a library service but Bixley ward still keeps a stop?

Kevin Algar has now added a footnote to his blog posts, a common practice once you are declared as a candidate- but what someone also should have told him is that you are not supposed to print inaccurate statements when you are a candidate - though his claim that Ipswich Labour have a special printer to make our leaflets look cheap - is comedy gold!

Sidegate – a school to be proud of.

At the end of 2012, Sidegate Primary School in Ipswich faced an Ofsted inspection. Many of you will have already heard the results. Perhaps because you are a parent with children at the school or through neighbours or from even reading about the results in the ‘Ipswich Star’
There is no way of hiding the fact – it was not a great report – it is not nice to be told that your local community school is described as ‘Inadequate’.

I have been a governor at the school for over four years and have seen over that time the work that has been put in by the leadership team at the school, the teachers, support staff and most of all the pupils. But still the results were not what we hoped for.

It would easy to just become defensive and blame the inspection system but even if the system is flawed (and it is) we are stuck with it. When you find out that the Ofsted inspection team are run by SERCO, it does not give you a warm glowing feeling.

Lessons were just briefly looked at and judgements made after a very short time in the classroom. In the end the school being declared ‘inadequate’ is down to past results. So Ofsted could save money, the school would not have to waste a day being inspected and Ofsted could just write their report in London on looking at past results.

I have total faith in the leadership team at the school to improve the results, and even Ofsted declared that there have been recent improvements.

My own daughter went to the school and has recently graduated from University and hopes to start teacher training soon - and I have no hesitation in stating that Sidegate is a far better school now than it was then.

Sidegate is one of the largest Primary schools in the county but still manages to feel small and friendly; most pupils also seem to have no difficulty in the transition to senior school at either Northgate or Copleston. But this is not what Ofsted is looking at. But from the little experience I have from teaching and instructing in the army not sure how any inspection team can assess the ability to teach in less than 20 minutes in a classroom.

When looking at the results in detail you can see that the majority of lessons were of a good standard or above but of course there is still room for improvement.

I was concerned on Tuesday when at the school that morale of the staff would have been destroyed by this report but when returning Wednesday morning all I found was determination to improve and also to prove that Sidegate is a quality school.

A Right wing Tory blogger took to twitter to attack me for not mentioning the Ofsted report, but it was only right that I did not comment before parents had first received the report and then had an opportunity to question the head and the Governing body. All parents have now received the report and a meeting is planned for this Tuesday. Unfortunately the report became public knowledge after it was reported in the ‘Star’

Kevin Algar was also critical that I had not taken to twitter to criticise the schooll, as he stated that I had been rather outspoken about other failing schools. This was yet another lie from him. I was critical of Tory run Suffolk County Council who found themselves in the bottom three of English counties when it came to primary schools in England not any individual school. Sidegate will get great support from the County through the School Improvement Team but they are handicapped by the Tory cabinet treating education as a low priority with at least two of the Tory cabinet more interested in getting more Free Schools and pleasing Gove than improving the schools they are meant to be responsible for.

But now is not a time for blaming the school, the county of even Ofsted and Gove – it is a time to get behind all the staff and getting the results that will show Sidegate is the great school that most of us already know.

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 5 - 11 November 2012

Monday 5 November, 12.30pm – Homecoming parade for the 1st Battalion The Royal Anglians, Ipswich Cornhill

Tuesday 6 November, 9am – Conference on the Military Covenant, Ministry of Defence, Main Building – London

Thursday 8 November, 7pm – North East area Committee, St John Church – Cauldwell Hall Road

Saturday 10 November, 10am – Labour campaigning in East Ipswich

Sunday 11 November, 11am – Remembrance Parade, Christchurch Park

This week the highlight has been attending the European Cyclo Cross Championships that were held in Chantry Park, Ipswich. There will be a few whinges about cost to the Borough and damage to the park. But for the amount of money it has bought into the town the cost was negligible. Every hotel room in town booked up was just one positive from the competition being held here. I for one would like us to try and get the World Cyclo Cross Championships in Ipswich.

The day was rounded off by Helen Wyman winning the Women’s race, the first time GB has won the Gold.

The downside to the week has yet again been a post from an Ipswich tory blogger, Kevin Algar at ‘Riverside View’. Not only does he have to continue to call myself and other Labour Councillors stupid names he also fills his post full of lies. I was tempted to write a post showing that his latest post – about ‘stupid things that Alasdair Ross has said’ was just full of lies but then I looked at my diary for this week – Homecoming of the Anglians, a Military conference that would look at how we treat veterans and then Remembrance Sunday.

Undentable - Mark Hale

All those three events are more important to me than wasting time answering his stupid comments. On Sunday Ipswich will have an opportunity to remember our Armed Forces and in particular those who lost their lives in conflict. I will be at the cenotaph and I will also remember friends and comrades of mine who have dies in Afghanistan and Iraq – and if I showed Paul Harding or Mark Hale the comments by Algar they would just laugh and ask why I was bothering to even give him the time of day. They would probably print his comments off and put them all over the Sergeants Mess and the Operations Room so that our fellow Rifleman could have a laugh (at me). The point is no one would take his comments seriously – just a pity that his fellow Ipswich Conservatives can’t see the damage it does to their credibility as a serious political group in the town.

So we are mediocre

Ben Gummer has got himself into a pickle by stating many Councils consist of "self-governing oligarchies of mediocre people".

Now Mr Gummer is stating on twitter that the BBC have misquoted him and Ipswich Spy seem to believe him and have written a defence of him. The BBC themselves have no changed their headline here.

But when you read the quotes from Ben, it does not make good reading – so has he is a very junior MP, the only councillors he would know are those from Ipswich (or possibly from Suffolk Coastal) and I would say the only councillors he really knows are his own Ipswich Tory councillors – so are they mediocre Ben?

But to be fair to the Ipswich Tories it is us – Ipswich Labour he was having a go at – with this quote – his description of Labour run Ipswich Borough Council - as all too often "getting in people's way" and "frustrating ambition."

Then he comes up with his real Tory idea- businesses should have their own elected councillors! Seems to me that this is a step back to the 19th century rather than improving democracy.

Gummer then informs the meeting that some councillors can’t understand balance sheets – well I’m learning Mr Gummer as I try and make the budget work at Sidegate Primary School whilst your Government cuts how much we get to spend on education our children.

I’m not a businessman, Mr Gummer but I work hard at understanding balance sheets and business – guess bankers understand them – but would you trust them?

I do understand how soldiers work, what it is like to be shot at and mortared, not sure Mr Hammond the Defence Secretary does- so Mr Gummer- should he step down? Of course not, it does not have to be an ex-soldier to be secretary of State for Defence- and glad about that as we could end up with Tory MP Bob Stewart in charge of the army- totally out of touch when he was a soldier (at least Labour are recruiting soldiers in touch with what the army does – Dan Jarvis)

Closer to home on top of the Ipswich Spy defence, Tory activist Kevin Algar agrees with Ben and puts in a nasty attack on Labour Councillors, probably not realising that Ben may have been on about the Ipswich Tory councillors.

Further afield, Ben has upset Tory Councillors and was publicly criticised on twitter by Tory Councillors and activists from Leicestershire and Warwickshire. With the Tory Councillor from Warwick giving Ben some advice: Can I suggest Ben Gummer MP (2010) needs look beyond London & Ipswich & review his comments about Cllrs..Dont make enemies of you workers ‘

The 2010 inserted into the tweet indicates to me that not impressed by such a junior MP giving advice to councillors who may have worked for residents for years. Another Tory is not impressed by Ben’s excuse that he was misquoted- he wonders what he expected the BBC to write.

Ben does state that Swindon is a good council- maybe we can arrange a lift there for him – in 2015?

Not sure Mr Gummer’s speech will help the residents of Ipswich, maybe if he had told them his views on wind turbines that may have been more beneficial.