My week ahead 21 - 26 March 2016

Monday 21 March – 6pm, Labour Group meeting

Tuesday 22 March – 11am, Activ-lives ‘Support our Hub’ event at the Town Hall

7pm- Suffolk Fabians meeting – ‘Democratic Reform’

Thursday 24 March – 7pm – Central  Ipswich Area Committee

Saturday 26 March – 10am, Labour campaigning in North West Ipswich

The wheels have fell off the Tory train this weekend, and for once we have silence from local Tory activists!

The problem with the Tories is to work out who is telling the truth!

Did IDS resign over the proposed cuts by Osborne?

Or as Cameron and Number 10 state, he resigned over Europe?

And if IDS was as bad as other Ministers are now saying why didn’t Cameron sack him ages ago?

The budget – I always thought when something was in the budget it meant it was going to happen – but now we hear the cuts that would have hit the disabled, may now be kicked into the long grass!

Now I think we all know what this spat is all about- Europe – and Gove may have spoken in both defence of IDS and Cameron – ‘leader in waiting’ Boris Johnson seems to be only noticeable by his silence!

Then I wonder how Ipswich Tories are going to react – most seem to be in agreement with IDS about the need to leave the EU but at the same time they are very supportive of the cuts being imposed by Osborne!

What we have is a party tearing itself apart – all for selfish reasons – leadership aspirations of certain Tories being more important to some than the future of our younger generations!

In Suffolk we have had the Tories oppose a motion that would have put a stop to the cuts to the Fire Service- on the day of the Council meeting, Tory MP for Felixstowe suddenly supported the campaign to save at least one fire station in the East of the county but her Tory councillors ignored her. The Sudbury Tories also voted for the cuts to be imposed – they seem to have forgotten the recent fire that decimated their town centre.

My week ahead, 1 - 6 February 2016

Monday 1 February - 6pm, Labour Group campaigning

Wednesday 2 February – 9am, Media and communications meeting

Thursday 4 February – 1pm, Visit to Sidegate Primary Specialist Support Centre

Saturday 5 February - 10am, Labour campaigning in South West Ipswich

Yesterday it was nice to be back campaigning in Rushmere, collecting signatures for a petition that will attempt to force the County Tories to debate their proposed cuts to the Fire Service at Full Council, for some reason the Tories are not keen to allow even their own backbenchers a say in the future of the fire service.

One resident in Brunswick Rd asked me what does Ben Gummer (our Tory MP) think of the proposed cuts – a good question but all i could answer is ‘don’t know’ as Ben Gummer would rather use his weekly paper column to discuss ‘public art’ than the cuts forced on us by a Tory Council.

But it is not just the Fire Service that the Tories wish to cut, today I received an invitation to our local primary school – Sidegate Primary who face having their specialist support centre closed, the second time the Tories have attempted to close it. Will Ben Gummer comment on this cut?

I would not hold your breath waiting – I believe it is the role of any politician, national or local to keep residents/constituents not only informed of local issues but also to tell the voters where they stand on important national and international issues.

Ben Gummer, allegedly a pro-Europe MP, still has not used his weekly paper column to inform us if he thinks we are better off in or out of Europe, he may use the excuse of not being able to campaign till David Cameron allows Ministers to. But many Ministers have made it clear where they stand. So whilst Mr Gummer remains silent, we do get the opinions of Ipswich Tory councillors and activists, I say opinions, more like Right wing anti EU rants ( here and here). So if even if Mr Gummer will not tell the Ipswich public his views on Europe, he might be advised to at least put his own Tory members right on the facts about the benefits of membership of the EU!

My week ahead, 25 - 30 January 2016

Monday 25 January - 6pm, Labour Group meeting

Wednesday 27 January - 6pm, Ipswich Borough, Full Council meeting

Thursday 28 January - 7pm, North East Ipswich Labour meeting, speaker from the Refugee support centre - Old Times Guest House, Cauldwell Hall Rd

Friday 29 January - 8am, Culture portfolio meeting

Saturday 30 January - 10am, Labour campaigning in Rushmere Ward


A fine sunny Saturday and great to join 20 other Ipswich Labour members back on the doorstep, we have been campaigning all year but now their is an added bounce in our step as we start to focus on the elections in May (with a possible Euro referendum in June also on our minds).

Yesterday we were in North West Ipswich, and as well as canvassing we were also collecting signatures for our joint campaign with the FBU to stop the savage Tory cuts to our fire service.

I got an interesting response on the doorstep and one that highlights a problem Labour has got nationally. Everyone was keen to sign our petition against the Tory cuts to our fire service, even Tory voters and that is the issue. Many people are happy to vote Tory in the General Election are are very unhappy with the Tory County Council and would not want a Tory run Borough Council. What they seem to be unaware of or happy to ignore is the fact that many of the proposed cuts are due to the way the Tory Government are slashing funding to local councils.

I can understand their concerns about the Tories taking control in Ipswich - they would look to freeze council tax (even if the Tory Government is expecting councils to now raise council tax by 2%) so without Government support a Tory council in Ipswich could lead to the closing of sports centres, swimming pools, cuts to to grants to local charities and a start to charging for your bins.

What we have to do as the Labour party is to persuade voters that they can trust a Labour run Government just like they already trust Labour Councils over Tory run administrations.

This week we also saw one more Ben Gummer column where there is no mention of Europe - with a possible referendum under 6 months away, is it not about time our MP tells his constituents if he wishes us to stay in Europe?

My week ahead, 18 - 23 January 2016

Monday 18 January, 4pm – Culture portfolio briefing

6pm – Labour Group training

Tuesday 19 January, 5pm – Early Warning Group

Thursday 21 January, 7pm – North East Ipswich Labour campaigning

Saturday 23 January, 10am – Labour campaigning in South East Ipswich

On Thursday at the North East Ipswich Area Committee, we had a briefing by senior Fire Officers on what can only be described as a plan for savage cuts to our Suffolk Fire Service with Ipswich seeming to be facing the brunt of the cuts.

The tow senior Fire Officers were very honest in the answers they gave the public and councillors (not surprising but most of the questions came from the Labour councillors as only one Tory councillor out of the 4 present asked a question – are they happy with the planned cuts?)

We had been promised that the Tory Cabinet Member responsible for the Fire Service would attend but he had ended up remaining at Endeavour House trying to explain the cuts to the Fire Service Staff, but we would have hoped to have seen at least one Tory County Councillor present but we had none. Cllr Murray the only Tory County Councillor in Ipswich sent his apologies and there was no sign of Cllr Hudson.

Who is Cllr Hudson you may ask, well he is the supposed Tory solution for Ipswich having no representation on the ruling Tory Cabinet but not sure he spending much time on Ipswich matters, he has been given the dates of all the 5 Ipswich Area Committees but so far has failed to attend any and I am almost certain that he been at no other meetings held in the Borough – Full Council, Executive or Scrutiny.

So maybe he should just give up the role as it becomes more obvious by every meeting he fails to attend that his appointment by Tory leader, Colin Noble was just a simple PR stunt and even more evidence (if it was needed) that the Tories have no interest in what happens in Ipswich – the County town of Suffolk.

One test of the County will be the building of the Wet Dock Crossing, the original plan by Mr Gummer did not seem to me to stack up and just seemed all talk as I could not see how a crossing involving the Island would help alleviate traffic congestion in Star Lane, but I do see some merits in the new plan that was presented this week but Mr Gummer may not be so keen on the new price tag, over £100 million and almost twice the original budget - £100 million may seem cheap when you try and work out what the Tories spent £20 million on with ‘Travel Ipswich’ budget!

The new Wet Dock project would require a financial contribution from local Government, not sure how Mr Gummer will have to cheek to ask for anything off us when his Government has just slashed its direct grant to us. The Tory County Council may also struggle to help pay for the crossing when it also has to contribute to the second crossing in Lowestoft which seems to be above the proposed Ipswich Wet Dock crossing in the major project pecking order.