Tories up to date blog???

The Tories do not make much effort to keep the Ipswich Public informed, well not exactly true as they are starting a blog! Well they told us in September 2008 they were - their website today tells us it is a work in progress!
Maybe they know the public do not want to hear about the Tories closing the local area Housing Offices and now selling the Ipswich Bus Company , maybe it is best to keep stum

So here it is the September 2008 blog (and how it still looks today -29th January 2010) - remember a work in progress!!

Ipswich Conservatives Blog


This is the Ipswich Conservatives' blog where you will find comments and thoughts from your local Councillors on the issues affecting your community and our town.

The comments on this blog are those of the individual Councillor and do not necessarily reflect the views of the Conservative Party in Ipswich.


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Monday, 08 September, 2008
Work in progress - please check back soon

Vist to the 2012 Olympic site

Today I attended a conference in London about communities getting involved in the London 2012 Olympics.
An interesting day but the highlight was the afternoon tour of the Olympic park, it was probably one of the most inspirational visits I have ever been on. It may still look more like the set of a sci - fi film but within minutes of being on the site you are at a loss for words.
Where to start? The main stadium down to the electric generating station all fantastic. the highlight? The aquatic centre roof wins at the moment but the velodrome is coming up right behind it.
Just can't wait for 2012 now.

Ipswich buses - Hell on Wheels!

Spent this evening at a meeting of Ipswich Borough Council Scrutiny committee, tonight we looked at transport in Ipswich.
What the meeting showed is that the Tory run County Council and the Tory run Borough Council aren't even talking to each other when it comes to transport.This week the local press were full of the new transport development that you can now buy bus tickets over your mobile and guess what? The Tory Borough Council did not know anything about it till Tuesday this week, so much for a joined up transport policy.

But it was later in the meeting that the Tories showed their real views on public transport, a leading Ipswich Tory councillor declared that traveling on Ipswich Buses was like "Hell on Wheels",

Obviously he has never been on the 13 route up to Chantry, with the buses that were ordered under a Labour Council.

Young guns!

In the front line we work hard for the Labour cause, collecting signatures on a freezing Monday night in Ipswich. then all our good work seems to be wasted when the likes of Hoon and Hewitt come up with an attempted coup, or as Gordon called it - 'a storm in a tea cup'.
But do not despair, the Labour Party has some fantastic young activists- Ellie Gellard, better known as BevaniteEllie, who is a fantastic campaigner and also a great example to younger members. you can follow her on twitter here or read her blog, The Stilettoed Socialist
Closer to home, we have young candidate in Suffolk Coastal, Adam Leeder, as of yet he does not know his opponent with the sudden departure of Jon Gummer. You can follow Adam on twitter here, and have a look at his blog here.

Ipswich has an advantage- we know the Tories are still the same 'nasty' Party!

Just had a Tory Ben Gummer leaflet through my door- as a politics anorak, I read it - and I quite like Ben but I could see no mention of the mess the Tory (with help from their Lib Dem friends) have made of Ipswich.

We have an advantage in this great town as we know for all Cameron's talk the Tory Party is still the 'nasty' Party. In Ipswich they can't even get on with the Tories running Suffolk County Council.

All we have seen is mis management - with the latest Tory/Carnell scheme the maddest of the lot - selling off Ipswich buses. We have also had:
Crown Street Car Park shut
Crown Street Swimming Pool neglected
A promise of a million pounds towards Broom Hill Swimming Pool removed
Planning to close the area Housing Offices
Passing on as much work as they can to private consultants
Planning to close West Villa

And most of this done behind closed doors!!

What next?

Selling off the Refuse collection?
Council Housing?

So in Ipswich use that knowledge of knowing the Tories have not changed by voting Labour this year - in both the local and General Election.

But it is not all bad news in this town as a Labour Government has seen the building of new schools, the current building of a new 6th Form Centre, a new University, a new building at Ipswich Hospital and millions about to be spent on the A14.

On top of that is it just me? But every time Cameron talks about the NHS, it seems he is attacking the brilliant staff that the NHS has, no praise for their sterling work.

I make it onto Radio 4 - PM Programme, 29th December 2009

Made it onto Radio 4, talking about Afghanistan on the PM programme on the 29th December - you can listen to it full for a few more days , see the link on 'John's Labour blog'

Tories/Lib Dems to sell off Ipswich buses

Ipswich Buses Ltd has been owned by the People of Ipswich for more than a hundred years, but the Tories and Liberal Democrats are planning to sell off the company to a private operator.

Any company that takes a stake in the bus company will only do so to make a proft. We have already seen what this means since the Tories and Liberals took control of the council: by trying to get as much money out of the bus company, instead of treating it as a public service, they have forced fares up by more than 60% and services have been cut.

The demands of a private operator will only accelerate this trend.

Privatisation could also cost council tax payers more in the long run. Higher fares will mean that concessionary bus schemes will cost more. In other areas of the country private bus companies claim that services in the evenings and at weekends are not "commercially viable". They demand tens of thousands of pounds of council subsidies to continue running these services.

Even if we thought privatisation was a good idea, now is surely not the time to do it? We are in the middle of a recession and asset prices are depressed. Any sale now will mean a poor deal for the council tax payer. The only reason the Tories and Liberals are desperate to sell now is because they are short of money due to their own mismangement. £1.5 million has been lost "investing" in dodgy Icelandic Banks. £400,000 of revenue has been lost from the enforced closure of Crown Car Park.

Ipswich Labour Party believes in a publically owned bus company, run as a service for the People of Ipswich, not to maximise profits.

We are totally opposed to the Tory and Liberal plans to sell the bus company off cheaply to a private operator.