Been too busy campaigning to blog recently but with just a few days to go I thought I better comment on the latest newspaper from Ben Gummer our Tory MP.
Ben seems to have done plenty for the town, but has he done it all on his own? Or has he even done some of the things he mentions? Also noticeable that he seems to have forgot a few things he was involved in.
Education - takes credit for Chantry being re-built but forgets to mention it was already planned to be re-built under Labour but the Tory Government delayed it for over 2 years. Gummer also 'forgets' to mention Ipswich Academy - a school a few years ago he was taking credit for having it built - but after the Scandinavian Academy chain (that Gummer was quick to praise) left after failing to improve the school we are now left with a new academy trying to improve a school that has been built to a design suited just to the Scandinavian style of teaching.
Gummer also forgets to mention the forced acdemisation of a number of our Primary Schools or the failure of the Tory County Council to build much needed Primary schools.
Better trains - still waiting! Normally on a platform after further disruption.
Revive our town centre- Buttermarket developers praised the Planning system at Ipswich Borough Council for their assistance in helping with the re-development of the complex. But according to latest Tory junk mail it was Mr Gummer who was the force behind the development.
We might not want him as our MP but as a Labour run Borough Council we have worked with Mr Gummer, private business and the County Council to help improve our town - those partnerships have worked but Mr Gummer just seems to want to take all the praise.
Trees - Ben is taking credit for all the County Council now agreeing to plant new trees, but Ben forgets to mention that it was Tory County Council that was not planting trees, he mentions the 6 trees in Westbury that he has got planted - well the residents are still waiting as no trees been planted yet and the County Council seem to be implying it may only be 2 trees not 6 that get planted. Mr Gummer also fails to mention that it was Labour County Councillor, Sandra Gage who has worked the closest with residents to get the council to change their rules.
Northern by-pass - seems Mr Gummer is now keen on a northern route (has he told Dr Dan?) but why has it taken him so long? In 2015 he kept telling residents in the north of the town that he would do what he could do delay building much needed homes and only 3 weeks ago the Tory County Council candidates were still telling residents they would fight development of the northern fringe- what is the real Tory vision for the north of our town.
But the biggest bit of hypocrisy, Mr Gummer uses the strapline of 'home for all', funny that as in 2015 he managed to stop the Labour Council building much needed homes in the Borough, a decision that also cost residents millions of pounds- wonder why he never mentioned that?
So on Thursday, vote for Sandy Martin- he does care about the town, loves Ipswich and lives here- because if Ipswich is so great thanks to Mr Gummer why does he not buy a house and actually live in the town he represents?
Showing posts with label Ipswich Academy. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Ipswich Academy. Show all posts
Sunday, 4 June 2017
Sunday, 18 January 2015
My week ahead, 19 - 25 January 2015
Monday 19 January, 8am – Angle editorial board meeting.
6pm – Labour Group campaigning
Wednesday 21 January, 9am – Ipswich Borough Council Planning Committee
Thursday 22 January, 6pm –Ipswich Labour Party and Fabians meeting on the ‘Living Wage’
Saturday 24 January, 10am – Labour campaigning in South East Ipswich
Sunday 25 January, 10am – Labour campaigning in South West Ipswich
More campaigning ahead this week, and it is still months to the election! We spend most of our campaigning time talking to residents and the Tories also seem keen to get their message over, with their main form of communication being expensive and large leaflets/papers. National issues are covered but most of the focus is on Mr Gummer, not sure many will believe his promise of getting Ipswich the best schools, the fact is in the last 4 years the standard of education in the County has spiralled downwards. With two of the key causes to the poor standard of education being the Tory run County Council not seeming to be interested in improving education, their priority seems to be get rid of as many schools from their responsibility as they can and they have been helped in that task by the Tory Government who have forced a number of primary schools to take the path to becoming an academy, in most cases against the wishes of both staff and parents.
It was not long ago that Mr Gummer could be found at the drop of a hat outside Ipswich Academy having his picture taken; he even joined Mr Gove on a visit to the school. Noticeably this week with the publication of yet another poor Ofsted report he does not seem so keen to be associated with the school.
So maybe there should be a ‘health warning’ printed at the bottom of all his leaflets?
The other party you would think are campaigning hard if you are someone who uses twitter is the local Green Party, but it seems that the social media campaign is the only work they are doing as talking to residents, face to face is not yet a priority for them.
Then we have the Lib Dems and UKIP. Both seem to have no local campaigning planned, UKIP seem to be happy to let all their national politicians do their work whilst the Lib Dems seem to be unable to go more than 400m from the confines of Christchurch Park, no social media presence unless you include one of their councillors writing for a blog then arguing with someone who had the audacity to comment on one of his posts! Locally they seem to be a party that no longer seems to have the will to continue. The way they jumped into bed locally with the Tories, means to many they will not be missed.
6pm – Labour Group campaigning
Wednesday 21 January, 9am – Ipswich Borough Council Planning Committee
Thursday 22 January, 6pm –Ipswich Labour Party and Fabians meeting on the ‘Living Wage’
Saturday 24 January, 10am – Labour campaigning in South East Ipswich
Sunday 25 January, 10am – Labour campaigning in South West Ipswich
More campaigning ahead this week, and it is still months to the election! We spend most of our campaigning time talking to residents and the Tories also seem keen to get their message over, with their main form of communication being expensive and large leaflets/papers. National issues are covered but most of the focus is on Mr Gummer, not sure many will believe his promise of getting Ipswich the best schools, the fact is in the last 4 years the standard of education in the County has spiralled downwards. With two of the key causes to the poor standard of education being the Tory run County Council not seeming to be interested in improving education, their priority seems to be get rid of as many schools from their responsibility as they can and they have been helped in that task by the Tory Government who have forced a number of primary schools to take the path to becoming an academy, in most cases against the wishes of both staff and parents.
It was not long ago that Mr Gummer could be found at the drop of a hat outside Ipswich Academy having his picture taken; he even joined Mr Gove on a visit to the school. Noticeably this week with the publication of yet another poor Ofsted report he does not seem so keen to be associated with the school.
So maybe there should be a ‘health warning’ printed at the bottom of all his leaflets?
The other party you would think are campaigning hard if you are someone who uses twitter is the local Green Party, but it seems that the social media campaign is the only work they are doing as talking to residents, face to face is not yet a priority for them.
Then we have the Lib Dems and UKIP. Both seem to have no local campaigning planned, UKIP seem to be happy to let all their national politicians do their work whilst the Lib Dems seem to be unable to go more than 400m from the confines of Christchurch Park, no social media presence unless you include one of their councillors writing for a blog then arguing with someone who had the audacity to comment on one of his posts! Locally they seem to be a party that no longer seems to have the will to continue. The way they jumped into bed locally with the Tories, means to many they will not be missed.
Thursday, 1 January 2015
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?
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?
Sunday, 1 December 2013
My week ahead, 2 - 7 December 2013
Monday – 2 December, 4pm – Culture and Leisure Portfolio meeting
5pm – IBC and LGA Peer review
Wednesday – 4 December, 10am – Ipswich Borough Council Planning and Development meeting
Saturday 7 December, 10am – Labour campaigning, South East Ipswich
This week we had a visit from a Labour big wig, Harriet Harman – a meeting with grassroots members, Harriet was here to speak about changes to the Labour Party but also she wanted to know what members in Suffolk were concerned about and no surprise to me that education was the number one concern for us in Suffolk.
There were a number of passionate speeches about the way our children are being let down by a Tory run County Council combined with the bullying tactics of Michael Gove and the DfE.
Then on Friday, the bully himself turned up to open the new Ipswich Academy, a school that would have been built far earlier if Osborne had not put a halt to Labour plans on school building.
But unlike Harriet, Gove did not have time to talk to Tory members, pity as you would have hoped Ipswich Tories would have pointed out how education seems to be such a low priority to their Tory colleagues running Suffolk.
Gove did find time to speak to local radio and TV, but talking to the public was certainly not on the agenda as the visit was kept as secret as possible, rumour has it that they were not even keen on inviting the local councillors to the ‘grand opening’ . Secrecy and lack of transparency seem to be the way Gove likes the run education in this country – so much for parental choice.
But Tory policy does seem to be written on the bag of a fag packet (you can write more on the back of the packet now, thanks to yet another Cameron U-turn this week)
On Monday, David Cameron changed his position on payday lending, having spent three years resisting calls to cap the cost of credit, and even whipping his MPs to vote against it in Parliament.
Then he changed his mind on introducing standardised cigarette packaging - even though he announced just this summer that he was ditching the policy, shortly after appointing the tobacco lobbyist Lynton Crosby as his election adviser.
And then at the end of the week we have seen total confusion on energy, with the Tories denying that they had begged the energy companies to freeze prices up until the election. Then the energy companies saying they had been asked/begged to reduce prices- well at least till after the election! David Cameron has shown he can't and won't act on energy bills, because he won't stand up to the big energy companies. There is only one strong and credible plan which is Labour's plan to legislate for an energy price freeze until 2017.
5pm – IBC and LGA Peer review
Wednesday – 4 December, 10am – Ipswich Borough Council Planning and Development meeting
Saturday 7 December, 10am – Labour campaigning, South East Ipswich
This week we had a visit from a Labour big wig, Harriet Harman – a meeting with grassroots members, Harriet was here to speak about changes to the Labour Party but also she wanted to know what members in Suffolk were concerned about and no surprise to me that education was the number one concern for us in Suffolk.
There were a number of passionate speeches about the way our children are being let down by a Tory run County Council combined with the bullying tactics of Michael Gove and the DfE.
Then on Friday, the bully himself turned up to open the new Ipswich Academy, a school that would have been built far earlier if Osborne had not put a halt to Labour plans on school building.
But unlike Harriet, Gove did not have time to talk to Tory members, pity as you would have hoped Ipswich Tories would have pointed out how education seems to be such a low priority to their Tory colleagues running Suffolk.
Gove did find time to speak to local radio and TV, but talking to the public was certainly not on the agenda as the visit was kept as secret as possible, rumour has it that they were not even keen on inviting the local councillors to the ‘grand opening’ . Secrecy and lack of transparency seem to be the way Gove likes the run education in this country – so much for parental choice.
But Tory policy does seem to be written on the bag of a fag packet (you can write more on the back of the packet now, thanks to yet another Cameron U-turn this week)
On Monday, David Cameron changed his position on payday lending, having spent three years resisting calls to cap the cost of credit, and even whipping his MPs to vote against it in Parliament.
Then he changed his mind on introducing standardised cigarette packaging - even though he announced just this summer that he was ditching the policy, shortly after appointing the tobacco lobbyist Lynton Crosby as his election adviser.
And then at the end of the week we have seen total confusion on energy, with the Tories denying that they had begged the energy companies to freeze prices up until the election. Then the energy companies saying they had been asked/begged to reduce prices- well at least till after the election! David Cameron has shown he can't and won't act on energy bills, because he won't stand up to the big energy companies. There is only one strong and credible plan which is Labour's plan to legislate for an energy price freeze until 2017.
Sunday, 14 August 2011
My week ahead 14 -20 August 2011
Monday 15 August 2pm - North East Partnership Meeting - Listening to our local SNT Police team, on how they dealt with the events last week.
6pm - Campaigning in Holywells ward, Ipswich - Getting the views of and informing residents about the plan to switch lights off in streets from September
Tuesday 16 August 7.45pm - Football at Portman Road - Someones has to go!
Wednesday 17 August 9am - Planning Committee - Grafton House
Thursday 18 August 11am - Essex cricket at Colchester
Saturday 20 August 10.30am - Campaigning on the doorstep in Ipswich
Last week I spent most days delivering the new Rushmere Rose in Ipswich but also managed to find time to knock on doors in Holywells Ward. Most residents did not seem aware that their street lights will be turned off by the County Council in September. As I have stated before, I agree that it is a good idea to switch off lights between midnight and 5.30am in the morning. what the county should have done is informed residents of the plan with at least an information leaflet. At least they are now putting signs up in the streets in the weeks before the lights are switched off. Hopefully with the Suffolk County Council logo on the notice, it will stop the Tory supporting blogs telling all who will listen that it is the Borough Council who are behind the light switch off.
I also attended a meeting about the plan for the building of the new Ipswich Academy with Labour councillors from South East Ipswich, it will create a fantastic environment for learning, even if the budget is almost half of what was initially promised in the 'Building Schools for the Future' scheme.
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