Time to stand up and call it out

I have not posted on my blog for over a year, political, work and home life too busy and maybe like many of you, a feeling that it is better spend more time in the 'real' world than what can become quite toxic - the 'on-line world'.

But the events of the last few days has made my decide to put my head above the parapet, not that I have been 'hiding' away, I have been campaigning every week for what I believe in, and on most occasions it has been Reform that have been the party that has posed the biggest threat to maintaining Ipswich as a decent place to live for everyone.

I am sure many of you could have easily missed the recent news about the protests at Dover and last night in Portsmouth, easy to dismiss as another EDL, 'Tommy Robinson' type protests, but these seemed more sinister, the way the police seemed to have little early warning, the way some Tory and Reform Politicians seemed to have quite easily found excuses for the intimidating behaviour of some of those who attended the two events.

The right to protest is part of British life, however when people seemed to come dressed in some sort of uniform which includes balaclavas then that is a point when we have to think are these people here for peaceful protest.

To me it has too many similarities to the way the Nazi Party behaved in Germany in the 1930, the way the Brown Shirts acted on the streets, in particular the events of 1938, Kristallnacht - 'The Night of Broken Glass' or closer to home and the 'Battle of Cable Street' in 1936, when Mosely led his own uniformed thugs through the East End of London.

This new group, with Danny Thomas as their leader have been gathering activists over the Summer, calling themselves the 'Patriot Platform' and they also seem to be declaring they are a Christian organisation, however they still seem to recruit similar people who follow Tommy Robinson, often they hold criminal records but can also include military veterans and those who work but feel they are being left behind, very similar to where Hitler recruited many of his own stormtroopers between both the World Wars.

I understand people are concerned about how many boats are arriving in the UK each week, there is legitimate concerns that some of our newer arrivals seem to find it difficult to accept British customs and our laws and rules. The facts are most of those arrive, want to settle here, accept our rules and work hard and pay taxes - a small minority may break the law but that should not tarnish all those who arrive, many escaping war and famine and currently a war started by one of our own allies. 

However it is now time to stand up and call out those who are obviously fascists. We should also call out those like the Tory Police and Crime Commissioner in Hampshire who seemed to want to blame others and even make excuses for those who attacked her own police last night in Portsmouth. Even Farage said protests from those wearing balaclavas is not acceptable, unfortunately many of his own party like some senior Tories are willing to make excuses for those who turned up in Dover and Portsmouth, who just seemed to want to intimidate rather than protest.

Even here in Ipswich, we have recently elected Reform councillors ask questions at Full Council on how many people seeking asylum are residing Ipswich, but once they were given an answer they then decided to ignore that and use Facebook to spread gossip and false facts', we saw just up the road from Ipswich in Thetford what happens when people start to listen to gossip and rumour.

What can we do? Get the real facts over, the number of boats arriving are going down, we are working better with the French and other European countries, educate people on the difference between refugees, asylum seekers and those here legally to work.

Then we have to ensure Reform do not take control of our local councils, they are already making a mess of Suffolk ( and Essex) we can't let all the positive work that is going on in Ipswich go to waste. 

So if you act like a fascist, talk like a fascist - I will call you a fascist - but I will also work as hard as I can in my own Rushmere ward to get a message of hope across, Ipswich has always been a welcoming place to those who had come here for a better like or those fleeing war, that should continue, there is no place in this town for people 'protesting' in black uniforms, wearing balaclavas..

It just needs the 'silent' majority also to speak up. We defeated fascism in 1945 now we have to do it again but closer to home. 

We are listening, we are delivering, but we know we need to do more

Thursday was not a great night, election wise for Labour - we get little satisfaction from knowing the Tories had an even worse set of results and the Green party also seem to hit the buffers. We would have wanted to retain all our County Councillors and added to our total, however we lost hard working councillors.

Why? Nationally we have have made mistakes - taking the fuel payment from pensioners certainly cost us votes- but our main issue may be communication, with a hostile press we need to be the people shouting out about all the good things we have done - workers rights, NHS Waiting times down, pay rises for many and we now have a Prime Minister who is helping set the international agenda rather than being laughed at, which is what was happening under both Johnson and Truss.

But we need to do more and as Keir Starmer stated- faster . More people need to benefit from the changes we are brining in.

Local, we are also delivering - and over the next year we will see more improvements to the town centre, from Lloyds Avenue make over to the reopening of the Grimwades building, we continue to build new council homes, all of a very high quality.

However, we are not just hoping that the Reform surge is just a protest vote, the Tories seem to think their voters will return, I think they are wrong and what they will see, is more Tory politicians jumping ship. As a Labour Party, we should not be scared of talking about immigration, we are already turning the Border Force into an organisation taht can get results, in particular tackling and taking action against people smugglers plus those who are willing to turn a blind eye and employ and house illegal immigrants. This is a good news story, a Labour plan that is getting great results but one that the national media would just rather ignore and that leaves a vacuum where both Reform and Tory MPs like Jenrick can fill and as opposition politicians they can say what they like as they do have to deliver.

Accepting our own short comings and understanding why many are turning to Reform, is just part of the story- I am also angry, we need to pint out that in many cases, Reform politicians are just fail4d Tories. The new MP in Runcorn, an ex Tory councillor, the Reform Mayor in Lincolnshire we a Tory Minister and made a Dame by Johnson. Closer to home the recent Reform candidate in St John's was a former Tory Councillor and 3 of the senior people in the Ipswich Reform Party were Tory councillors with one who was suspended by the Tories after he declared his support for Putin over the invasion of Ukraine.

Reform this weekend have been quick to say it will take them a while to sort things out as they have not been in power before, but the truth is a number of their councillors ( and future council leaders) were Tory councillors previously, the same people who failed to fill in pot holes, ensure SEND  pupils got the education they deserved or sorting out the care system.

Of course, and no one should be surprised, Reform have also got councillors who have a more 'shady' past, supporters of Far Right groups like Britain First, and many who have openly posted racist posts 0r promoted conspiracy theories.

Then you have their leader, Farage who man who seems to be happy to support both Trump and Putin!

But we cant just hope they will implode, we need to get our message over to voters - and with little help from the national press, we will have to do that on our own, so almost every weekend in 2025 you will Labour politicians knocking on doors listening t0 Ipswich residents, whilst the Tories will still be in hiding and the other 3 groups- Lib Dems, Greens and Reform will probably only make their first a appearance on Ipswich streets next April.

So plenty for the national Labour Party to do, as well as us local politicians, however I voted Labour last July to give Keir Starmer a 5 year mandate to do what ever is necessary to get this country back on the right track after 14 years of Tory chaos and a disastrous Brexit, i am not going to give up on him or my party after just 10 months! 

Strange Summer ahead?

Sorry for the lack of posts recently - I kept away from my blog as still felt both anger and sorrow after the Brexit vote - this has not been helped by the behavior of Johnson (and to a lesser extent Farage) who have since run away from the mess they helped to create.

In the end after we finish negotiations with the EU (if the Tories ever start them)  we will find little difference in how we trade or in freedom of movement - we will just still pay into the EU, but get less out and have no vote!

I now have a busy summer ahead, next week is my annual week with the Army and then I take a group of teenagers to work on a community project in Ecuador.

When I return I will continue to be learning (and working on) about my new portfolio- public protection.One of the consequences of the Brexit vote has been the increase in racially motivated crime - I am writing to Police and Crime Commissioner to ask what the Suffolk Constabulary are doing about this issue.

But this will not be a summer that I wish to repeat - it could be one of the worst we have had in the political history of this country.

We have had the Brexit vote, Cameron did a 'runner' and now we have a Tory leadership contest - and two very unsatisfactory candidates - one who will not just become a Tory leader but the Prime Minister - Therese May as PM  sounds bad enough but I hope she wins, because to have Andrea Leadsom as the leader of our country would be catastrophic - her views on fox hunting, gay marriage may appeal to some Tory members but her lack of knowledge of world issues is frightening.

A major issue for me is that the Party, I am a member of is not in a position to hold this Government to account. We are a mess and the blame can not just be placed at the feet of Corbyn - the PLP, activists, members - many of us are at fault, I myself wish I had not made some of the comments on social media I have, but I am passionate about my party and am concerned for our future.

Corbyn has to go and I know and understand that he has the support of a large membership but he will never get us elected. We have members living in a 'dreamworld' if they think we can win in 2020. Some members (and many I would count as friends) seem oblivious to the role the 'Far Left'. and Momentum are taking in this internal crisis - they have an agenda more similar to that of the Militant Tendency of the 80's.

Leadsom and Corbyn seem to suffer from the same problem, both have very inexperienced teams around them - in particular in how they deal with the Press. For me the nightmare scenario is at the end of this Summer we have Corbyn and Leadsom facing each other over the dispatch box.

The Summer of 2016 will not be one I wish to repeat.