Why Labour won the Election in Ipswich

The election now seems ages ago but it was just 10 days ago that the people of Ipswich put their trust in a Labour run administration in the town.

A number of other local websites have already posted and debated why Labour did so well or as in most of their blogs – how bad the Tories and Lib Dems did!

There is no doubt that the national political picture helped Labour in Ipswich and the Ipswich Tory website is already blaming their defeat on the economy and other Tory bloggers on ‘mid-term blues’. But even after 12 years of a Labour Government, we were still holding our own in Ipswich. The Tories have only been in (shared) power for 2 years.

It can be quite amusing for us to watch the other political groups tear each other apart as they look at someone to blame. We have the former Ipswich Tory Chair blaming Cameron and closer to home Cllr Terry, we have the Tory Gipping candidate blaming the wet day and then launching a very personal attack on the former Tory activist who writes for Ipswich Spy and then to top it off we have the independent candidate blaming the mother of the Lib Dem candidate.

The Lib Dems got their excuses in before polling day, blaming the heavy rain for their lack of door knocking – nothing to do with a lack of members then?

As I said before there is no doubt the weak budget and the poor leadership of Cameron did cause the Tory vote to stay at home and many will now believe in Ipswich that the Lib Dem vote will never recover from joining the Tories in a coalition. In most of the Borough they now find themselves in fourth place behind the Greens.

But the success of Labour in Ipswich can also be put down to the hard work we put in, not just in the 5 week ‘short’ campaign but every week since 2010, in fact we had increased our work and started more focusing campaign in 2004.

We had an increase in members and activists after the General Election defeat in 2010 and it was good to see a number of those who joined IN 2010 elected to the Borough Council last week. But I would also put down our success to our discipline, we do not agree on everything but our arguments/discussions are kept within the Labour Group room, compare that to the latest Tory in fighting and the reported in-fighting over the Bixley candidate selection.

That loyalty and feeling of being a united group helps create a great campaigning team- each day of the campaign (even in the rain) we had up to 20 members out all over the Borough, and on a number of occasions we had over 35 members out. The national party also helped with the visits of two ministers and our MEP. We saw the Tories out on the doorstep but obviously short in numbers (and morale). The most I ever saw was 7, and they looked very disorganised. There may be more Tory supporting blogs but even on the Social Media front we were way ahead, the Lib Dem website only re-launched a few weeks before the campaign and the Tory website never had any mention of the election or candidates – it still has Tanya Maclure down as a councillor.

On twitter- we kept our supporters updated on local news and on how the campaign was going. We even had twitter followers join us out on the doorstep.

I do not want to give the Tories (and Lib Dems) advice on how to campaign and win elections but maybe they just have to see what we were doing yesterday- 20 of us out in South West Ipswich delivering leaflets- just 9 days after the election and the Lib Dems can’t even use the ‘heavy rain’ excuse this weekend for their lack of activity.

So why we may amuse ourselves smiling at the Tory in-fighting we will continue to campaign hard with the Suffolk County Council elections and the 2015 General Election as our next two key targets.

A cross for Ross for Rushmere

9 Hours to go and then the polling stations open, I hope residents believe I have been a good councillor and that they feel they can vote for me again this year. I won by 13 votes in 2008, hope it is not as close this year. A CROSS FOR ROSS FOR RUSHMERE

Promoted by John Cook c/o Ipswich labour Party, 33 Silent Street, Ipswich, IP1 1TF on behalf of Alasdair Ross and the Labour Party Candidates, . Hosted (printed) by Blogger.com (Google Inc) of 1600 Amphitheatre Parkway, Mountain View, CA 94043 who are not responsible for any of the contents of these posts

Elections – From Rushmere Ward, Ipswich to Sangin Afghanistan (and then back to Rushmere)

I write this new post with just a week to go after a month of long, hard campaigning.

I won Rushmere Ward for the first time in 2008 that was after being the runner up in 2006 and 2007. The night of the count seems a very distant memory but I just remember the nerves, the excitement and most of all the pride in winning- even if it was only by 13 votes.

I love elections and campaigning but this election in 2012 will be very different to the election I was involved in during 2009.

That summer I found myself back with the army for a year and acting as the Operations Warrant Officer with 2 Rifles. We found ourselves based in Sangin in the Helmand Province and in seven months we had many of our regiment wounded and 25 of our battle group paid the ultimate sacrifice.

But on the 20th August 2009, the Afghan people were able to vote in their second presidential election. But instead of knocking on doors and delivering leaflets I found myself involved in planning a massive security operation that would enable the people of Sangin to vote.

The Taliban had other ideas. On the eve of the election this year, I will be delivering my last ‘Vote Ross’ leaflets but on the 19th August in 2009, I was stood with my helmet and body armour on as our base, FOB Jackson came under attack from rocket fire. A further 21 rockets would hit our camp over the next 24 hours.

Election day this year, will see me up in the early hours, delivering leaflets, knocking on doors but in Sangin, I spent the morning running up the stairs in the Fire Support tower helping replenish ammunition as we came under constant attack. So heavy was the fighting that we fired a total of 12 Javelin ant-tank missiles at the enemy – just so people could use their democratic right to vote.




From early afternoon though to the early hours of the next morning, I was in the Operations room as we continued to protect Sangin, it was not easy and we lost two men that day. Private Young and Sgt Macalese. I had got to know Mac quite well and we used to sit and try and do the crossword together back in the UK. He was highly rated and would have gone far in the army, his father had been in the SAS and was part of the team that was involved in the Iranian Embassy siege.



Sgt 'Mac'

Their loss was felt by many but we had to continue, we had a mission.

In 2008, I gained 1,026 votes as 2,333 people voted in Rushmere, the cost? A few hundred pounds on leaflets, a few blisters and two dog bites.

In 2009 in Sangin, 434 people voted, some of the bravest people I had ever met, they had been threatened by the Taliban, the town had been under attack for over 24 hours but they still went and placed their cross and handed in their ballot paper. The cost? Two dead from 2 Rifles, our camp hit by 22 rockets and in defence we had fired millions of bullets, artillery rounds and 12 missiles.




You do not have to vote in this country, you have that choice because in 1939 our ancestors fought to maintain our freedom but do not take the right to vote lightly, there are many places in this world where the right to vote is still being fought for.

On the 8th April I visited the National Memorial Arboretum in Staffordshire, on the Armed Forces Memorial I saw inscribed the names of Private Young and Sgt Macalese. I will remember that they gave their lives to help 434 Afghans vote. Democracy does not come without sacrifice.

Labour ensure democracy is still alive in Ipswich

Labour wins battle for democracy in Ipswich
Ipswich will go to the polls in 2008, after Government Minister John Healey, backed Labour calls for early elections to the new unitary Ipswich Council. The Tories and Liberals who currently run the Council had called for 2008 elections to be scrapped, and elections only to be held in 2009, after the new council had already been running all Ipswich's services for at least a month.Following John Healey's announcement, all 48 members of the new authority - to take power in April 2009 - will be elected in May 2008 and will initially serve a three-year term until May 2011.After then all-out elections will be held every four years on the same day as other districts and boroughs - there will no longer be an election every year in Ipswich.The Labour Group had called for the elections to be held next May, and group leader David Ellesmere is delighted about the decision.David says: “It's the right decision from a democratic point of view, and its an election we are looking forward to. It was always right that there should be an election next May, and I was always confident that the government would back that view.”