Just took a week

Last Saturday was a key moment in Labour history, the day that the members decided (by a large majority) that the party needed to return to it's main core function- getting elected to govern this country.

However with the current Corona crisis, it may take longer for Keir Starmer and his new Shadow Cabinet to start to show the public that we are now serious about wanting to govern, because it is obvious to many of us at the moment that the public do not just want to see the opposition attacking the Government but in fact they want politicians to work together, to help us get out of this crisis as quick as possible. that does not mean the Shadow Cabinet should not highlight the failings of Ministers, and today both Starmer and Raynor have highlighted again the lack pf PPE and that the daily press briefings held by Ministers, are failing to give the public honest answers.

But Corbyn supporters, the so called 'left' of the Party, (or as they describe themselves ' the only true socialists in the Party) have decided today to use a leaked internal report into how the Party handled antisemitism, to show that antisemitism was used as a weapon to attack Corbyn and that the right of the PLP cost us the election in 2017. Yet again the 'left' of the Party show they have no rivals for top spot. when it comes to rewriting history

Antisemitism was used by some to attack Corbyn, I think that is obvious to many but he himself could have put a stop to that very easily, his failure to defend or even speak to Louise Ellman, his inability to openly criticise Livingstone and Williamson and then his failure to follow the report by Chakrabarti with immediate action, were just indications that he put misguided loyalty to former comrades ( like Livingstone) and keeping the support of the 'far left' above making the Labour Party electable.

The fact is, as highlighted by Starmer in his leadership speech, "Anti-Semitism has been a stain on our party" - and to go forward as a united party we all need to accept that as fact.

However instead we have some members, a vocal group picking up on this internal report (helped by the support of Owen Jones) and trying to deflect away from the true facts, John McDonnell admitted antisemitism was a problem in the Party, why cant others who supported Corbyn?

I never liked Jeremy Corbyn but I continued to campaign hard for a Labour Government, I was publicly critical of him at times and that often meant Labour members, some local attacked me, told me to leave the Party, but iI stayed, I kept campaigning- it was hard, I was not sure Corbyn could be a good Prime Minister, however I wanted Ipswich to have a Labour MP, and even if I thought Corbyn was weak, he was still better than Johnson and I hoped others in The Shadow Cabinet would step up and the PLP would act as a brake on any stupid policies that the likes of Milne, McClusky were likely to come up with.

Even when I was critical of Corbyn, it was not after just one week of him being leader, I kept campaigning - but after just 8 days we have a local Suffolk member calling on all party members to go on strike! We have others highlighting the lack of BME members in the Shadow Cabinet, but it is just one less than under Corbyn, and we have now have Nandy as Shadow Foreign Secretary, the likes of Lammy in important roles, but what they really mean is we do not have Corbyn supporting BME MPs  on the Front Bench. But how could Starmer have Dawn Butler on the Front Bench ( or Burgon) when they would not sign up to the pledges from the Board of Deputies that he had? Even if Rebecca Long-Bailey had won she would have had the same problem.

So will those already calling for Starmer to resign, stay in the Party? I am sure most will, they know that to leave they will never be elected themselves again, just look at how Williamson did in December or how the Militant left overs have done in Coventry, where they stand each year. Respect did get some seats, and those same seats could see rival left groups prosper again but in most towns and villages, the Labour Party is the only show in town.

I may not be happy that they are critical of Smarter, However I would be a hypocrite to say they must leave it they are not 100% behind the leader, I was often critical of Corbyn, but I still went out and campaigned hard, and I would still expect them to campaign for a Labour Government, not to call for a strike of members, and I would also hope that they would have given him more than a week to prove himself as leader!

I have found that often those most shouting about how we are no longer a socialist party (after just 8 days of getting a new leader!), are the same people who hardly ever campaigned, happy to go to a socialist book club, or wave  a banner at a mass rally in London, but knocking on doors, talking to voters on Ipswich council estates, was something they were never going to do. For those people the Party is probably better off without you.

For those who are elected members, I would expect nd hope you to join us when the Corona crisis is over by campaigning hard for a Labour Council and Labour Government, if you do not want to you should then think of standing down as a Councilor. We all need to be out there talking to voters, rebuilding their trust so that we can yet again have a Labour Government, so we can make real changes, like we did when we were last in power - Surestart, minimum wage, more investment in education and the NHS - rather than as now, where all we can boast of is that we had a good manifesto or if you are still living in a Corbyn dream world, that we won the argument!

What are the Lib Dems and Andrew Cann playing at?

Ipswich will continue to be run by a Tory administration - with Lib Dem support. The local paper- the Evening Star did mention that the Lib Dems would have to decide what direction they would take after a poor election result. - would they stay in the administration with the Tories? Or join in power with Labour? Or decide that their principles were more important than token power and join neither.

We can only wonder how long they debated their future plans, but all the Labour Group received was short letter asking us to apologise for a number of supposed crimes! The letter had no date for when a reply was needed and seemed lacking in any concrete proposals. so they may in future state that they did ask Labour about sharing power but in reality they quickly jumped back in with the Tories. As one of their Councilors was already talking about her plans for when she became Mayor - it seems that the decision had been made before the election!

Where does this leave Andrew Cann - for those not from Ipswich - Andrew Cann is the son of the late Labour MP for Ipswich, Jamie Cann (pictured above). after his father died, Andrew did join the Labour Party but soon left in a blaze of (self) publicity to join the Lib Dems. In 2005 he won a seat on the County Council for the Lib Dems but failed in 2006 to win a seat on the borough council. He did manage to win Westgate this year- with a majority of 13.

The Lib Dem elation at this result was short lived as the work they put into Westgate made them forgot about all their other seats/targets in the town and so they lost Whitehouse, had their majority in St Margaret's slashed and were pushed into third place in Holywells.

Andrew does have the ear of the local press and already since the election has been in the local paper criticizing the Tory run Suffolk County administration but forgetting to mention that he is now part of the Tory led administration that runs the Borough of Ipswich.

Andrew Cann has also made it quite clear that he would like to be the Lib Dem candidate at the next General Election.

Why? It does seem to be that Andrew does hold number of Labour members responsible for not helping his father as much as he thinks they should of.

I was not in the party then, so I cannot comment on that, but much of my political learning come from hearing Jamie Cann and my late father discuss politics over a pint in the Duke of York. I remember both of them during the dark days of Militant, continuing to fight for what they believed in and not taking the easy option of leaving the party. this enabled Ipswich to continue to be run by Labour for 25 years - most of that during the dark days of Thatcher.

I for one can't believe Jamie would have left the party over some difference of opinion.

Andrew may have thought he was being clever by not taking a place on the ruling executive of the Ipswich Borough Council - but Andrew YOU ARE a member of the Tory run administration- what ever you would like the public of Ipswich to think.