Six good reasons to remain in the EU (with an Ipswich angle)

These people being involved in the 'Leave' campaign should be good enough reason for anyone to vote to 'Remain' in the EU!

Tory run Suffolk still seem incapable of looking after education

Education is one topic where we should have campaigned harder on during the General Election, the reason may have been that we did not have a stronger message nationally but I do believe education is one issue where the message is different in each region.

Tory run Suffolk has – and still is letting our children down, poor Ofsted reports from all over the county and their only solution was ‘Raising the Bar’ which seemed more about glitzy awards evenings and consultations with London organisations that actually getting into schools and helping. At the same time as they were running ‘Raising the Bar’ they were cutting the funding to school improvement service!

But I do have a small crumb of sympathy for Tory run Suffolk, the Ofsted inspections were held in such a way that many schools could not gain a good report- the reason? To make it easier for the Tory Government (Gove and bag carrier Gummer) to push through forced academisation. Not that the County Council fought their corner there seemed to an unwritten policy to get rid of many schools as possible from their control.

The Government said you had to accept the Ofsted report and if that means you had to become an academy, that so what? It had to happen, no matter what staff (or parents of they were asked) thought.

But when Ofsted failed the County Council School Improvement service it then seemed OK to ignore their findings – no threat of the County Council being taken over!

As we approached May, even the local Tory MPs broke their silence and criticised the Tory Council over their slow progress in improving educational standards but since May silence again other than try and take some sort of credit when a good Ofsted report arrives.

So have Suffolk got their act together now? It seems not. This week i received an email from the Suffolk Governor Services, now informing me that I can book Governor Courses online and they have set me an account up. Trouble is I stopped being a Governor when Sidegate Primary was forced into being an academy; in fact they stopped having a Governing Body (no they seemed to have changed their mind since).

So we have Suffolk Education services sending me a letter thinking I am a governor at a school that they no longer run! A further letter will arrive soon giving me a password so I can book courses! Of course it is us the council tax player who has paid for this letter and the next one – and there is not even an email address or phone number I can phone up to tell them off their mistake!

If they can’t get a simple matter like this right how can Tory run Suffolk be trusted to look after our children’s education?

My week ahead, 15 - 22 February 2015

Thursday 19 February, 7pm – Ipswich CLP meeting

Saturday 21 February, 10 am – Labour campaigning in East Ipswich

Saturday 22 February, 11 am – Labour campaigning in East Ipswich

Another week of Tory confusion here in Suffolk- the County Scrutiny Committee accepted the arguments of the Labour call in, over the decision to shut Children’s Centres in the county. This will now go back to the Tory Cabinet but then we had the County Budget setting meeting when they pushed through a 0% Council Tax rise even though they may now have to spend money to keep the centres open.

More criminal is the Tory plan to keep reserves high not raise council tax but at the same time preside over one of the worst education authorities in the country. Our children are being failed by a very selfish set of Tory councillors. These children just get one chance at education and are being let down by a council whose only wish is to bribe constituents with a 0% council tax rise.

Here in Ipswich, another Academy is under fire – our Tory MP has crwled out from somewhere and said the school has 7 days to sort the problem out. That is the same school and Academy Chain that he was so quick to praise when they started, and so happy to atke along Michael Gove to be photographed with the new building and meet staff. Not so keen now, hey Mr Gummer.

But it seems that the Academy Chain currently running the school – on Swedish methods has actually almost handed over the running to another chain already in everything but name. The situation at the Ipswich Academy/Holywells is a complete mess that Mr Gummer and Gove through the DfE were heavily involved in causing.

There are many reasons for us needing to get rid of this poor MP, but the state of education in the town (as he works for the Education Secretary) should be the one reason at the top of every voters list.

Mr Gummer also accused me of being a liar – and that some of my tweets were not only lies but aggressive – the term he used is not a common one as he attempted to show off his vocabulary but I asked him for evidence of these lies – he replied that he was busy to look through my time line to find them. I asked him again and this time he said that my blog showed I had little grasp of any real facts.

I asked for an apology for him calling me a liar – he said I would not be getting one. To be honest, I am not that bothered now and hope rather than having pointless arguments on twitter – he seems to have many – he is spending his time attempting to get the schools in Ipswich the help that is so evidently needed, because we know it will not come from the selfish bunch of Tory councillors we have in this county.

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, 9 - 15 June 2014

Monday – 9 June, 2pm – North East Area Committee Agenda setting,
3pm – Commonwealth Games Baton – Schools Athletics event – Northgate School
5pm – Commonwealth Games Baton – Celebration in Christchurch Park

Wednesday – 11 June, North East Area Committee – Councillors meeting

Saturday 14 June – 10am, Labour campaigning

It looks like I have a hectic (but enjoyable) week ahead. Now the new municipal year has started we begin the first set of meetings, I have high hopes for the North East Area Committee and I hope the Conservatives will now become more involved in the Area ‘Action Plan’ rather than sniping from the side as they have done over the last few years.

Monday will be busy but enjoyable as we welcome the Commonwealth Games Baton to Ipswich, this will be a great event and I see it as a reward for the town. We are getting known as a local authority that can put on big sporting events – the Olympic Torch, Tour of Britain and the Sky ride. But it is not just having a proactive authority and a great events team, the baton is coming to Ipswich as the organisers know the Ipswich public will turn up and support the event.

This week Mr Gummer has been involved in a number of arguments on twitter. The arguments started after commuters were handed out the latest glossy (expensive?)Tory leaflet. The leaflet focuses on planned improvements to the Norwich – London rail link. Norwich in 90 and Ipswich in 60 seem to be the targets that Mr Gummer and his fellow Tory MPs seem focused on but that will not happen without new trains and new tracks. This is where the arguments start – the leaflet mentions new trains and Mr Gummer admits that improvements in speed will not happen till the new trains arrive, he then stated that the new franchise will bring new trains then after further tweets it seems that is not for certain and not all the existing rolling stock will be replaced and that any new trains will not be seen for at least 6 years! Making the use of the words ‘new trains’ on the leaflet seem rather misleading – deliberate?

Mr Gummer may have more to worry about this week than the state of local trains as his boss faces MPs after having to apologise to the Prime Minister and a senior civil servant after a spat with the Home Secretary.

From the outside it seems both Gove and the Home Secretary have broken the Ministerial Code, but yet again as with Mr Hunt it seems Mr Cameron is either unable or unwilling to discipline senior ministers. It will be interesting to know how involved Mr Gummer is in the whole shenanigans.

The losers in this whole event? The children in Birmingham as they have been let down by this Tory Government the only real issue is by which Tory Ministers door the blame lies.

Expect this post to lead to a local blogger/Tory/Gummer apologist to state (without knowing) that Gummer is not implicated as he was away on his honeymoon. Now as most of the briefings from Gove and May have taken place the day before the Queens Speech, I hope Mr Gummer was back at work – he deserves a honeymoon but he does have a long break in the Summer to fit that in.