May Day celebration causes Tory bloggers to fall out!

It has been amusing this week as Ipswich Tory bloggers and Ipswich Spy ‘fall out’ over May day!
Maybe I should describe the group as Ipswich Tory bloggers (but some thinking of joining UKIP) – The Three Tory bloggers all seem to be attempting to take the credit for the increase in fees now charged to the organisers of the annual ‘May Day’ event held in Alexandra Park.

Sorry to disappoint them all but as the Deputy Portfolio holder for parks, no one has ever mentioned their blogs- fees are constantly being looked at as we suffer from savage cuts to the local government grant from this Tory/Lib Dem Government.

But they also seem to be annoyed that Ipswich Spy keeps reminding them they said nothing when the Tories/Lib Dems were in power in Ipswich and they hired the park to the same ‘May Day’ organisers at the same low community rent that the current council does.

This is where the Tory blogs sudden and rare show of unity falls apart, Gavin Maclure informs us that backbenchers’ never know what is going on whilst Kevin Algar states it is because he was not a backbencher and if he had he would have kicked a fuss up about it.

So is Kevin telling us the Tory backbenchers are not up to the job? Many are still there- Goldsmith, Vickery, Terry – if they are not up to it why does he keep campaigning to get them re-elected? But more interesting is the comment that the backbenchers on the Tory Group are not informed of what their executive were up to – even funnier as Mrs Maclure was a member of that same executive! Or is the truth that actually the executive were also kept in the dark and that John Carnall and a smaller group of senior Tories ran the show?

As a Labour Group, we discuss all policy and our executive are left in no doubt about our feelings on certain matters and our views are always taken in to account. It seems that was not happening when the Tories were in power in Ipswich.

On a separate matter but one linked to the ‘May Day’ story – is the use of ‘Freedom of Information’ requests – FOI’s. I think they are an important piece of legislation that keeps Governments, councils and public bodies on their toes. But there is a cost to them both in time and money – and often they are just used by lazy journalists when they are short of a story - such as how many biscuits have been purchased for council meetings! Also as a council the public already have the ability to ask questions both at Full Council and now Area Committees – and in particular on the issue about the cost of the May Day celebration – why haven’t Algar, Spencer or Maclure asked a question at Full Council? Or even more importantly why hasn’t a Tory Cllr asked about the costs? The answer is they know the reply would have mentioned that the Tories charged the same community rent the whole time they were in power.

Who pays for these FOI requests? Us – the Ipswich Council Tax payer!

Knives out For Cameron

Under two years in Government and certain Tory MP's have already got the knives out for their leader and Prime Minister, David Cameron.

There will always be politicians in any party that do not like their leader and even at times let the public/press know they are not happy. But I am sure many of us are surprised how quick his own party has turned against Cameron.

I don't think Cameron is either a great leader or Prime Minister but the Tory MP's are not rebelling because they are concerned about the state of the country it seems that most are just bitter as the junior minister posts they were expecting have ended up in the hands of Lib Dems. So many posts that at times it seems that the Lib Dem MP for Portsmouth and Bob Russell at Colchester are the only Lib Dems still on the backbench.

The latest attack by a Tory MP came this weekend with Patrick Mercer accused of calling the Tory leader an 'arse' it makes interesting reading - more here

Cameron would have expected a small rebellion on the Europe referendum but he would have still been surprised by the size of the mutiny, the Tories still confused on where they exactly stand on Europe. Some of those who rebelled will be well known Euro sceptics, others would have been in 'disgruntled because Lib Dems got my job' band and a third group would be those who will state that they rebelled because their local association members expected them to vote for a referendum. Note 'what their association expected' rather than their constituents.

Where does this leave Gummer and his fellow Suffolk Tory MP's? All voted with the Government and all are seen as ultra Cameron loyalists and it could also be said that they voted for what is best for their constituents. We must remember that 60% East of England trade is with EU, one-third more than other UK regions.

I expect our Tory MP's to stay loyal to Cameron, Coffey is allegedly rated highly and may be close to a junior minister post, Dan Poulter seems to be in the Evening Star every day and has taken the role of 'saviour of Ipswich Hospital' from Ben Gummer. But Gummer does seem to have a problem with his own association and in particular the Tory activists.

Gavin Maclure makes it quite clear that he has fell out of love with Cameron and some of his posts have more of a UKIP feel than Tory Party but he at least states that they knew Ben Gummer's view on Europe before they elected him but will Ben find it hard to get people to campaign for him when so many seem anti - Europe? James Spencer their habitual Bridge Ward candidate has made a number of attacks on Ben Gummer and as usual his 'follower' Kevin Algar also seems keen to join the anti Europe brigade. Ben Gummer was probably not surprised that may of his association are so anti Europe but I am sure that he is disappointed that at one of their flagship lectures they have invited Mr Campbell Bannerman MEP to be the guest speaker. Now Gavin describes Bannerman as a Conservative MEP, but in fact he was elected as a UKIP MEP and that there is a call for him to resign as we elect political groups as MEP's rather than individuals - more on this at the Ipswich Spy site.

So what does Ben Gummer do? Turn up to the lecture to confront Mr Campbell Bannerman, to tell the association members the benefits of being part of the European Union, or does he just keep a low profile, and hope that come the next General Election, the activists will forget his pro Europe stance and get behind him in his fight to keep Ipswich as a Tory seat?

The good thing about so many Tory activists now tweeting or using blogs - we will soon find out.

The Tory MP's, the Tory activists and the Tories in Ipswich- all falling out of love with David Cameron, Gavin Maclure even suggested that putting Cameron on their leaflets in St Margaret's Ward may have been a contributing factor to their defeat last Thursday.

The lights are going off in Rushmere....

By now many of you would have started to see orange Suffolk County Council signs appear on Rushmere Ward streets, informing you that your street lights will soon be switched off between midnight and 5.30am.

I believe in principle it is a good idea to turn the lights off, not only saving the County money but also helping reduce our carbon footprint. What I have not been happy about is the way the Tory run County have failed to inform residents and not to have in place a procedure that residents can follow if they believe their street should stay lit.

What has even been more disappointing than the failure of the County to inform residents of the switch off is the way certain Ipswich Tory councillors, candidates and activists have attempted to scare residents with talk of muggings and petty crime but then to say the Labour run Ipswich Borough Council are the ones who are turning the lights off!

Thankfully this week at least two senior Tories have been more honest when talking about the proposed light switch off. In his Evening Star column this week, the Tory councillor for Bixley, Kym Stroet was quoted 'Although we (IBC) are responsible for only a small proportion of the street lights, as councillors we need to allay fears of residents'. Former Tory councillor Gavin Maclure even commented on a previous post by me that Ipswich Tories should not be saying it is the Borough turning the lights off.

Hopefully that message will get over to former Tory Candidate James Spencer who believes the streets of Bridge will become more dangerous because of Labour and Kevin Algar who also blogged how it was a Labour plan to turn lights off.

As both these Tory supporting blogs often get their facts wrong it is no surprise they got the 'lights off' facts wrong, but there was little excuse for the Tories in Holywells ward to put out a leaflet that was very unclear on who was behind the plan to turn them off (even if the Tory County councillors from Ipswich voted for the plan).

We will see how the 'switch off' goes, but if any Ipswich resident feels that they need to have their street stay lit up, please contact your Labour councillor and we will take the matter up with the County Council.