Start of a new "Cod War" - Ipswich v Iceland!

Myself and my Labour councillors have today called for an urgent investigation into the circumstances surrounding Ipswich Borough Council’s £5m losses resulting from its loans to collapsed Icelandic banks.
Labour councillors want the investigation to focus on:
* Were the council’s investment procedures followed correctly?
* What impact this loss could have on council services?
* What steps have been taken to minimise future risks?

Labour finance spokesperson, Cllr Martin Cook said:
“This is a huge amount of money for the council to lose, equivalent to £125 per band D property. Ipswich council tax payers need to be reassured that procedures were followed correctly and that everything possible is being done to eliminate the potential for similar losses in future.”

So a new "Cod War" or "Cash War" - Lucky for us Herman is now at Portsmouth!

100 Years Strong- Centenary of the TA

As an ex soldier it was very pleasing to be able to attend the drum head service held at the Ipswich Corn Exchange to mark the centenary of the Territorial Army. Horrendous weather forced the service from the Cornhill to inside the Corn Exchange, but it did not dampen the celebration.

I must admit as a regular soldier we did not always have much time for the TA but that has changed over the last few years as they are now closer linked to the regular army. Currently a TA unit from Ipswich is helping on the convoy routes between Kuwait and Iraq.

This commitment to support the regular army will have to continue. The statements this week by Brigadier Carleton-Smith about the situation in Afghanistan have shown that. The Brigadier of 16 Air assault Brigade had this to say about the current situation-

"We're not going to win this war. It's about reducing it to a manageable level of insurgency that's not a strategic threat and can be managed by the Afghan army," he said.
He said his forces had "taken the sting out of the Taliban for 2008" but that troops may well leave Afghanistan with there still being a low level of insurgency.

This is a view held by many in the military and this is one reason why the Territorial Army is as important now as it was when Richard Burdon Haldane reformed the army in 1908.

A vision for sport in Ipswich

As a councilor you do get invited to a number of events, you can't go to them all but I do feel it is my duty to attend as many as possible. As a great fan of all sport, I do try to attend as many sport events in Ipswich as possible. This week I went to town hall to help celebrate the announcement that Ipswich will host the 2012 European Cyclo-Cross Championship. the event will be held in Chantry Park.

The council and Team Ipswich have helped Ipswich get the event but most of the hard work has been done by local Cycling guru, Steve Grimwood.

The highlight of the launch event was the attendance of the BBC cycling commentator, Hugh Porter, who spoke about how proud he had been to commentate on the GB cycling golds at this years Olympics.

It is great news that we will host such a big event in 2012 and this along with the gymnastics centre likely to be used as an Olympic training venue by one of the competing nations are all feathers in the cap of the council and Team Ipswich.

But it did get me thinking- do we have a vision of where sport is going in Ipswich?

I remember as a school kid in Ipswich we had very few facilities in the town but an Officer at the council- Randal Bevan had a vision and with the Labour run Ipswich Borough Council was able to deliver, sports centres at Whitton, Maidenhall, Northgate, an athletics track at Northgate, Crown Pools, a cycle speedway track at Whitton and the Gymnastics centre at Gainsborough.

But now we seem to have promises of more facilities- a cycle velodrome was mentioned by Hugh Porter at this event but Cllr Judy Terry seems keen to make such announcements, as she did over a 50M pool for Portman Road but we never seem to see any concrete proposals. at the same time we have Broomhill Swimming Pool being refused a Lottery Grant, with the lack of council commitment being given as one of the reasons for the failure to get a grant.

At the same time Crown Pools is need of urgent repairs but all we get is statements in the press saying how keen they are on Broomhill, how a cycle velodrome will be built and so on.

What is needed is a proper plan for the provision of sport in Ipswich over the next 20 years, what new facilities will be built and what money will be spent on improving and maintaining present facilities.

I am afraid that all we get at the moment from Judy Terry are some great idea's but with little chance of any being pushed through. Maybe if Mrs Terry can't deliver she should take up cycling or as Norman Tebbit would have told her- "get on your bike!"

Fuel for thought!

One thing that annoys me when talking about Northern Ireland to those who have an interest in the subject but have never been to the Province is how some (mainly on the left) have this romantic view of those in the IRA being some sort of freedom fighters.


I can understand that the political climate of the 1960's and the start of the troubles in the 1970's would lead some to joining paramilitaries on both sides of the divide with what they thought were good intentions such as feeling they were defending their communities but within a very short time both the IRA and the Loyalist organisations were taken over by criminal gangs. When I was in Ireland we often believed that the rival sides were in collusion when it came to criminal activity in Belfast but it seems that even the supposed Republican stronghold of South Armagh are working hand in hand with the Loyalist gangs of West Belfast.


This BBC news story here details recent arrests in Loyalist West Belfast at a suspected illegal fuel dump, with the smuggled fuel originating in Republican South Armagh.


I spent many months watching fuel tankers move across the South Armagh border and we knew that some of the profit from selling this fuel would end up in the IRA war chest but not many of us would have thought it would have also been helping fill the pockets of Loyalist terrorist gangs.


So forget this romantic views of Michael Collins, Freedom fighters, the majority of the members of both the IRA and the Loyalist gangs were nothing more than gangsters.

A fuel tanker leaves the complex owned by Slab Murphy on the South Armagh border, after a raid by Police from both sides of the border in 2006. Slab has been accused on a number of occasions of being a senior member of the IRA Army Council, wonder if any of his fuel ended up on the loyalist Shankill Road?

Ipswich show the way in campaigning.

Ipswich Labour Party's efforts recognised by Conference

Ipswich Labour Party was presented with an Award for Best Practice for Community Campaigning at Labour Party Conference. The certificate was presented by Rt Hon Harriet Harman MP and Party General Secretary, Ray Collins. In announcing the award, Conference Chair, Dianne Hayter, paid tribute to the all-year-round campaigning of Ipswich Labour Party, its MP, Chris Mole and of Labour councillors. The community focused work of Ipswich Labour Party had paid off in May, when the Party gained three seats; two from the Tories and one from the Liberals, in the Borough Council elections.

Pictured collecting the award are: Keith and Lindsey Rawlingson, John Cook, Bryony Rudkin and Chris Mole MP.

Vote for Roy Burgon

Tomorrow will see a by election held in Woodbridge, Suffolk. The election is for Town, District and Suffolk County seats. The election was caused by the Tory, Ben Redsell having to resign after being found guilty of serious sexual offences.


On Monday myself and a large group of Ipswich Labour Party members joined our comrades from Woodbridge and Felixstowe in campaigning for the Labour candidate, Roy Burgon.


It made a nice change from trampling the streets of Ipswich and we were treated to a beer and some lovely food afterwards- so it was not all work!


It is also important that even in an area that would be seen as Tory- we are sending out a Labour message and not just giving up on places like Woodbridge, that is the sort of policy that has led to the Tory Party still totally missing from area's like Liverpool and large parts of Scotland. After reading the Tory leaflet it makes one even more determined that we should continue to fight all seats in Suffolk. It was a leaflet that on one side made no sense with what looked like an attack on the Lib Dems but making no mention that it was the behaviour of the Tory Councillor that had caused this election. More strange is that the Tories have a different candidate for each different council. On arriving in Woodbridge it was nice to see a Labour poster up in a house opposite Notcutts Nursery.


A good night but one did go away feeling that it is the party members in Woodbridge who are being let down by the behaviour of some of our parliamentary members- I am not asking for MP's to just always toe the party line, but it does seem that once the going gets tough there is little loyalty shown by many MP's.


Maybe instead of going to conference, they should be sent out to campaign in seats like Woodbridge and actually listen to what the voting public and Party members want rather than be panicked by the (a Tory run) press.

Woodbridge- not known as a Labour heartland?

Good and bad politicians.

Politicians get a bad press but in most cases that is unfair and in East Anglia we are fortunate to have a fantastic Labour MEP in Richard Howitt, not only does he do a great job for the Eastern region at the European Parliament but he also campaigns all over the east. He also sends out a very informative newsletter.

Below is an interesting article from his September/October newsletter.

In a recent survey in the East Anglian Daily Times on the openness of our region's Euro MP's in relation to claiming their expenses. Richard was described as "number one" for transparency. But the best bit is still to come! Two of the Tory MEP's and both UKIP MEP's refused to give details of the amount they claimed. But for comic value the Lib Dem MEP, Andrew Duff takes the biscuit, he declined to give amounts for travel or subsistence saying "I have no idea how many days I worked last year." And as Richard answers " neither do we know how many days he works!"

Andew Duff the Lib Dem MEP who doesn't know how many days he works!

To read more abour Richard Howitt and the good work he does, check his website, here.