Rushmere is a Lib Dem free zone

As it is now 22 months since we last saw a Lib Dem leaflet in Rushmere (let alone a member of that party actually campaigning on the doorstep in Rushmere) I thought it may be the right time to declare Rushmere as a Lib Dem free zone.

Thanks to Kerron Cross for the picture- maybe we should all print one and put it in our windows!

Check out Kerron's website here

Deliberately misleading or a spelling mistake?

Liz Harsant- the Tory leader- not a Tory misleader (just a spelling mistake!)

Now I know I am not the best at spelling (or typing)but I can't believe the Tory Council leader in Ipswich (Liz Harsant) is blaming a factual error in their last Tory leaflet (and only leaflet for about the last 10 months!) on spelling!

The full story can be found on the Evening Star website here. Liz Harsant may feel unlucky that she has been asked to explain the "mistake", but she is the only Tory councilor who actually gets much of a mention in the leaflet as the rest is all about the 'young' Gummer.

In the leaflet Liz was quoted as saying that every council house in Ipswich has been upgraded to the 'Ipswich standard' , which dictates maintenance necessary to meet national minimum standard requirements.

However it is now confirmed that 1,670 homes in Ipswich are still waiting to be upgraded and estimated completion is not till December 2010!

Liz will next blame the schools for not teaching spelling up to a correct standard!

She states that the leaflet should have read - "all council houses are being upgraded" rather than what it did state - " all council houses have been upgraded".

Seems more than a spelling mistake to me.

Mr Gummer is meant to be happy to make a statement about the 'mistake' in his next 'Changes' leaflet. why wait? Put it on your Ipswich Tory (really only about Gummer) website, and what about the Liberals? Well I know certain Liberals read this site, are you going to join Labour in asking Mrs Harsant to make a formal apology- or are you going to stick to your normal modus operandi - and claim it is the Liberals who have forced their Tory partners to get all council houses to the 'Ipswich standard' , - even if 1,670 houses have another 2 and half years to wait!

The Military Covenant- Tory commission- a right wing author and no money!

Frederick Forsyth- right wing friend of Mr Tebbit!

Cameron and the Tory Party are going to make the state of our Armed Forces an election issue. Over the last 12 months, much of the media has started to get rightfully behind our Armed Forces and the Tory Party have tried to make themselves seen as the party that is most in tune with the needs of the Armed Forces.

The media has made much of the supposedly broken 'Military Covenant '(with the help of a number retired Generals and Admirals who were deafeningly quiet when they themselves were in the higher echelons of the Ministry of Defence!)) Cameron has now set up a commission to look at the state of the Military Covenant, the commission is led by the right wing author- Frederick Forsyth and also includes a number of ex military men such as Simon Weston, one of the survivors from the ship that caught fire at Bluff Cove during the Falklands War.

As an ex military man, I am concerned about over stretch of our Armed Forces, I believe that we need to make sure we look after our Armed Services, their families and veterans- but that will take more money- the Tories will say they have all the answers but look at their Commission website to spot the obvious holes in their plan- the most obvious failing being at the bottom of their introductory page:

" 4. Any recommendations made by the Commission must be paid for within existing and planned defence budgets."

Well as the MOD is not just over stretched but overspent- I can't see the Tory option of repairing the Covenant but spending no money in the process is going to work!

As someone who spent most of his 24 years service under a Tory government, I remember well the times we were under equipped- with the excuses of "it went down on the Atlantic Conveyor" or "it was destroyed in the fire at Donnington" used when we were still walking round in equipment from the 50's. Simon Weston should remember more than most that the Guards Regiments left for the Falklands with blue civilian rucksacks as most of the Army was still walking round with 1958 webbing. Tory Secretary's of State for Defence never seemed to speak to the rank and file, I can remember being hid away on a range in Germany with any one else who they thought would say the wrong thing when Mr Hesseltine turned up (wearing a new combat jacket- when we were in old kit) and Nicholas Soames was only interested in a lunch in the Officers Mess with his old Eton cronies. it was not till Labour's George Robertson got into the post that the rank and file soldier were deemed worthy of meeting the minister.

The Armed Forces are not looked after better by a Tory Government and we need to get that message over not only to the general public but also to members of the Armed Forces, their families and veterans.

Fairtrade fortnight starts with a glass of wine!

Last night my wife and I joined a large group of people at St Mathews School in Ipswich for a Fairtrade Wine tasting, this was the second year the event had been run and it is masterminded by the Ipswich Fairtrade Steering committee which is led by our own Councilor Carole Jones. Last year they only had 3 full tables for the wine tasting and the quiz but this year the hall was packed and everyone seemed to enjoy themselves.

The event in Ipswich was helped by the support of the local Co-op who are at the forefront of Fairtrade in this country. You can see that it is success just from the announcement yesterday that all Tate and Lyle sugar is now to be Fairtrade.

thanks to work of Sue and her committee, Ipswich should have been named today as a "Fairtrade Town".

What did surprise me that the local Liberals, believe themselves to be the champion of anything deemed to be 'fair', 'green' or 'eco', but only a Small handful of Liberals were present last night- no Tories that I noticed, but over 20 Labour activists including at least 10 Labour Councilors- and thanks to Carole- we were the last to sample the Fairtrade cheese and biscuits!

More on the Fairtrade fortnight can be found here.

The most inspiring moment of the night was when Vernon, a young South African who work for the farmers of Thandi. In 2003 Thandi became the world's first Fairtrade wine following the certification of its grape growers. His speech on how this year they actually made a profit so they were to sponsor the first girl from Thandi to go to university. After listening to his passionate speech, the Fairtrade stand did a brisk business.

Fantastic facility for fantastic children.

Alasdair With Chris Mole MP and members of staff from both 'Little Acorns' and the 'Cabin Crew'.

I was fortunate enough yesterday to be invited to the "Grand Opening" of the 'Little Acorn' playschool and the 'Cabin Crew' after school club. Both organisations have just moved in to a joint location at Sidegate Primary School in Ipswich.

This was the culmination of over two years hard work mainly undertaken by the staff of both 'Little Acorns' and the 'Cabin Crew' . They received fantastic assistance and guidance through the whole process from Mr Andrew Waterman, the Head Teacher at Sidegate Primary.

I was joined at the opening by our local MP, Chris Mole.

Labour has come under some criticism for some of it's education policy, but here was a fine example of a policy that is working- the one of extended schools and of the school becoming the hub of the community. We now have the 'Cabin Crew' providing a breakfast club and an after school club, whilst the 'Little Acorns' can now provide a playschool for both morning and afternoon sessions.

This project has received the largest grant in the County yet, but it was still not enough so we were fortunate that members of the local community, Sidegate Primary and fund raising by both organisations has helped reached the final total. My Labour colleague, Clr Sue Thomas was able to allocate some of her locality grant to the centre.

One of this Labour Governments objectives should be to have a centre like this at every Primary school in the town. This is a fine example of what 'extended schools' is all about.

Kosovo- Declares itself independent from Serbia.

Well the week’s worst kept secret happened this afternoon as Kosovo declared itself independent from Serbia. I have followed this story very closely as I spent the end of 1999 and the start of 200 in Pristina, the capital- as part of the NATO Peace keeping force.
We arrived only a few weeks after the NATO led invasion and it seemed to be a very quick transition from Serb rule to a UN/NATO led state. It seemed that the UN/NATO and the aid agencies had learnt many lessons from earlier conflicts in the Balkans and that a peaceful turnover of power to the Albanian majority could take place.
It has surprised me that it has taken 8 years to get in this position but in the main, i believe an independent Kosovo is the best solution.
But reading through the national and international press, some of the worries that I have are hardly mentioned. Much is made of Serbia and Russia not being happy and that Serbia may man some sort of blockade from the North and East (in reality this will make no great difference to Kosovo- they will just trade with Macedonia, Greece and Bulgaria and it will be Serb's who lose out on income). there is also talk of Russia recognising breakaway regions in Georgia and Rumania.
The press also mention that the remaining Serb's will not be happy- that may seem obvious, but in 2000, many of those Serbs who stayed behind- especially in the capital Pristina- were very anti the Serb nationalist Government in Belgrade. Many of those have since left and a majority of those Serbs that are left are very poor or very old, the only real area of Serb influence is in the north in the city of Mitrovica, a city where my former regiment, the Royal Green Jackets were involved policing large Albanian protest at the start of 2000.
My worry is that many of the Albanian leaders will look to increase their own territory- not so much a Greater Albania- as they have little interest in joining Albania but it is the parts of Macedonia that are inhabited by a mainly Albania population and the area where my main worry is the parts of Serbia to the direct east of Kosovo, there is a large Albanian population and right from the start of the withdrawal of the Serb Army in 1999 the Kosovo Liberation army have made raids on that part of Serbia. Many of these attacks seemed to come from the American sector where there seemed very little will of the American commanders to stop the KLA- very unlike the North east where the British put a large amount of

resources into stopping the KLA and keeping the border area under control.
If you look at the map on the BBC News site here, and tick the box above the map to show the percentage of Albanians outside Kosovo and Albania you will see where there may be future trouble spots.
I do believe in independence for Kosovo but NATO must continue to keep a strong presence not only to help protect the Serb minority but also to stop those in the KLA (and possibly CIA!) from using this historic step today as a springboard for future land grabs from Serbia and Macedonia.

Myself in Pristina in 2000.

Ipswich Tories pretend they want consultation.

St Clement's Hospital- soon to be houses?

The Ipswich Tories, with plenty of input from their Lib Dem allies have recently launched their plans for housing in Ipswich over the next 13 years. The Local Development Framework (LDF) outlines a number of options for housing across Ipswich. Their "preferred option" includes building 442 houses on gardens across the town and 43 housing units on the Halifax Road play area- a place where the council has spent thousands on play equipment recently!

One option not in the LDF is to build on the Northern Fringe (Valley Road area). It seems they will build on any brown/green space in the town rather than build in the North. They feel there will be no need to build on the northern fringe till after 2021.

Of course their excuse is to blame the Government for setting a figure of 15,400 dwellings to be built in Ipswich by 2021.

In Rushmere we have a possibility of 16 dwellings on the site of the Colchester Road Fire station and of an even greater concern is the plan to build 97 homes on the site of the old driving test centre on Woodbridge Road, this of course is right next to the current building development on the site of the old Hayhill's allotments.

A number of residents are only finding out about these plans thanks to a leaflet campaign by my fellow Labour colleagues. There does seem that no major effort has been made by the Tories or Lib Dems to get the views of local residents. No plans to arrange any public meetings, this is particularly distressing for those residents who live near some of the sites which are earmarked for large housing developments such as the plan for the St Clement's Hospital site.

The Ipswich Labour Party will keep working to inform as many residents as possible, you have till February 25th to send in your views to Ipswich Borough Council. you can find more details of the LDF here.

The local paper 'The Evening Star' are also running a story highlighting the concern of local residents that there seems to be no real attempt by the Tory/Lib Dems to include the residents of Ipswich in any meaningful consultation on the plans for housing within the Borough. You can read that story here.

Remember you have at present till the 25th February to get your views listened to by the Tory/LibDems. You can contact me through this blog if you want further details on the LDF.