Ipswich Tory MPs insulting words

Not for the first time , our at times embarrassing Tory MP for Ipswich has decided to attack our local Labour Party, not on policy, not on how we run the council? He decided to question our patriotism - for Mt Hunt it seems to show you are patriotic, you have to at least wear a union jack face mask in parliament, if not you might as well go and live in North Korea.

Many of us, a bit older still cringe when we see the Union Jack used as a tool to show how patriotic you are, we remember when it was 'hijacked' by the likes of the National Front. Unfortunately a number of the 2019 Tory intake at Westminster seem to employ tactics the National front would have been proud of, highlighting our differences rather than promoting what we all share.

As a veteran, I could not stand quietly and allow Mr Hunt attack us over our patriotism, so I wrote to my local paper the Ipswich star, who printed the letter on Monday 29 March 2021. This is the full version of the letter that i sent to the Star.

To the Ipswich Star,

Last week in your newspaper, the MP for Ipswich, Mr Hunt used his column to explain why he was happy to vote for the Police and Crime, Sentencing and Court Bill. He then went on to accuse the Ipswich Labour Party of ridiculing the bill, in particular the part that proposed tougher punishments  on those who desecrate our War Memorials. i found his comments both very insulting and unjust.

I am not only a member of the Ipswich Labour Party, but also a veteran and the Armed Forces Champion for Ipswich Borough Council, now the protection of war memorials may not be my top priority as Armed Forces Champion. My highest priority is in fact making sure that veterans  in Suffolk have access to the best mental health care available, just over a year ago I lost a close friend from my regiment who committed suicide, he was still serving and no one was aware that he was suffering from PTSD. That came only a year after we lost another fellow Rifleman to suicide. That along with trying to help veterans who have found themselves in prison is far more pressing issue currently for veterans.

However, I fully understand the importance of war memorials, not only to veterans but also to the families of those who have fallen. It is one of my proudest moments as a councillor in Ipswich, assisting to get a street and a square named  after two soldiers from our town who lost their lives in Northern Ireland and Afghanistan.

My own Regiment, the Royal Green Jackets, lost many men in the 41 years of our existence, all those Riflemen are remembered on various war memorial's, all over this land. I served with 2 Rifles in Afghanistan in 2009, 25 men of that Battle Group never returned home, all their names are on the memorial at the National Arboretum . On that same memorial to those from the Armed Forces who have died in conflict since 1945 are the names of Paul Harding and Mark Hale. Paul was a close friend, my mentor, my hero, who rose to the rank of Major only to die, leading from the front in Basra, Iraq. Captain Mark Hale, I only knew for a short time, but we hit it off straight away, we were from the same era, shared many of the same views on the army, on the 12 August 2009, we had dinner together in the dusty mess tent in Sangin, Afghanistan, less than a day later, he was dead, killed by an IED, whilst helping others.

I often visit the National Arboretum in Staffordshire, I find both their names on the memorial, trace my fingers over the letters of their names and when I do that my emotions are mixed, often both sorrow and anger, and then I sit on a bench by the Royal Green Jackets Memorial and I am often close to tears, those memorials are important to me  - would I forget those two fellow Rifleman if the memorial was not there? No - but it is important to me, my comrades, their families, that there is a proper memorial and hope the presence of those memorials reminds politicians and national leaders that there are deadly consequences when you send soldiers into conflict.

So Mr Hunt, as a local Labour Party member and also a veteran, I fully understand the importance of War Memorials and I certainly need no lesson from you on that subject.

I would ask you to think carefully in the future when writing such comments, there are many Labour members  and voters, who are veterans, and your words insulted all of them.

Cll Alasdair Ross

Rushmere Ward

Ipswich

 

Mark Hale 

Paul Harding

Network fail!

 

 

Network Rail – ‘We got it wrong’

 

Over the last few weeks, Network Rail have removed a large number of trees beside the railway line close to Belvedere Road, Moat Farm Close and Brunswick Road - with chainsaws and large lifting equipment. Now they admit they got their communications very wrong. They sent a stock letter saying they were just going to be cutting foliage back with hand tools.  They should have explained exactly why they needed to cut down so many mature trees.

 

After being challenged by your councillors, they have claimed that those trees will be replaced at ecological projects somewhere in East Anglia.  That’s not good enough - we are demanding that they plant replacement trees in Ipswich.

 

They have also still not fully apologised to residents.  We will carry on contacting them on your behalf. In future they should consult with residents first before undertaking such work.

 

Alasdair Ross and Sandy Martin

Has Ipswich ever had a more embarrassing MP?

 As you can never tell if Mr Hunt has taken any posted comments on board, I decided to email him and he replied- twice- but with his last email stating he would not be responding again.

In his email he did not  apologise for comparing the Ipswich Labour Party emblem (1924) with the North Korean Workers Party emblem ( 1950s) and it was obvious he could not understand any hurt that it would cause to Labour members and voters like myself whose father had fought in the Korean War.

Mr Hunt did admit he had sent messages to at least one local Tory with a previous attack on the Cambridge Labour Party for having a similar emblem to the North Korean WP, so he could not even be original in his attack on the Ipswich Labour Party. Best bit was he seemed to imply he just sent it to the local Tory Leader for interest, he was not asking him to use it to attack myself again. So he would take no responsibility for two local Tories using it to defend him/attack me! Make a mistake, you should own it! Best thing about when the Tory Leader used it, he left Mr Hunt’s name on the message. Not sure MI5 or MI6 will be calling to ask for his services.

Now I have received his replies, I feel now I can answer the points he made in his Facebook post/rant/attack.

He did not like my comment that he was playing to the ‘right-wing crowd’. His explanation was > I think I'm simply expressing the views shared by the vast majority of my constituents, We don't like it when people come here illegally and then when here commit  criminal damage and threaten members of staff.

How does he know what his constituents opinion is? He has blocked many on Facebook, does not answer on twitter and when I looked down the replies to his posts, many were from people outside Ipswich -  Kent, Essex, Mansfield, Felixstowe – so not sure he will know how many are from Ipswich.

He also used the line – when people come illegally – no mention that these people are refugees- some may be economic migrants but others will be fleeing war torn countries – interesting the same day, he was retweeting a Tory post that highlights that a refugee from North Korea was to stand as a candidate to be Tory Councillor in May – Did she come here illegally? Should he not just want to send her back to where she came from,  as many of the comments on his Facebook post seemed to wish?

His next paragraph was his bizarre attack on Ipswich Labour for our emblem being similar to the Workers party of North Korea, which I have already commented on.

In my original tweet that seemed to cause this rant – I said he would be better of spending time on Ipswich issues such as the Northern by-pass. This caused the local Tory Leader to tweet in a supposedly humorous way that did I not know that the by-pass had been shelved, Mr (student politics?) Hunt liked the tweet.

What was funny – in his Facebook post, Mr Hunt stated > As for your advice for activity on local issues Cllr Ross, perhaps you ought to give my Facebook page a follow or look at my website.

I took the advice of my MP and guess what? On his website, he declares > I will continue campaigning for a Northern Bypass to ease congestion through the middle of Ipswich.

Does he not know it has been shelved? Scrapped by the Tory run Suffolk County Council? Maybe he should have told me to take a look at his 'out of date' website?

In his letter to me he indicated that by reading my social media posts that he had decided I was defending and explaining away criminal behaviour. How wrong he is.

In fact, I expected my tweet on the subject to see criticism from the left as I stated that as I knew Napier Barracks well, having spent my 20th birthday there and operating from the camp as recently as 2009, that I doubted the arson was due to the state of the accommodation.

In later tweets, i did comment that how a COVID outbreak had been dealt with by the private security firm had been given as reason for the unrest. Again at no time giving this as an excuse for the criminal behaviour, what is probably more telling, that even when the COVID outbreak became common knowledge, Mr Hunt failed at any time in his post to mention COVID, as if that would dilute his message of dealing harshly with illegal immigrants.

Some of the comments on the post by Mr Hunt stated that they thought I wanted the camp closed and the asylum seekers/ human beings/immigrants- choose your own title - should be put up in hotels. Again I never mentioned anything like that, in fact it was the Tory MP and Tory Council leader for Folkestone who demanded that the camp is shut.

So do I still think Mr Hunt plays to the 'right-wing crowd'?

I am afraid the answer still has to be 'yes', when he commented on Millwall fans booing players for taking a knee in support of 'Black Lives Matter' - he defended the Miwall supporters, I expect he would say he was speaking on the behalf of his constituents, however a week later Ipswich played the first of two games at home permitted by a relaxation in lockdown rules. On a miserable (football wise) afternoon, when both teams took a knee, the vast majority of the crowd stood up and applauded in support of the players, i am not sure if Mr Hunt was in the Directors Box, could not see him as he may have been sat down and too far away to ear him booing!

If you want further evidence of why I think he craves the support of those on the right just look at some of the comments to his original post attacking me, some are disgusting, some outrageous, some sensible but very few are factual, however at no time does Mr Hunt comment or attempt to put the true facts.

Terms used, and quite often include > 'illegal immigrants' 'Send them back to where they came from' 'they only look after the scum who can't be bothered to work' and then 'they support anything or anyone who is not from the indigenous population' ( hate to see that person go on 'Who do you think you are? he might be in for a few shocks).

So if you read this Mr Hunt, I do believe you go after the Far right vote, your comments do not help build relationships between our many communities and in fact I find your comments embarrassing and would not expect them from any MP- Tory or Labour. At times you sound more like a UKIP candidate than a Tory MP.

As a son of a Korean veteran and former Labour Councilor, I found your comment comparing the Ipswich Labour logo to that of the North Korean Workers party disgusting. 

As a veteran and one who was proud to serve for over 24 years in the army, you remind me of those jingoistic MPs, stood up in Parliament, waving their union jacks as Tommy Atkins is sent off to war, but nowhere to found when he returns.

You talk o' better food for us, an' schools, an' fires, an' all:

We'll wait for extry rations if you treat us rational.

Don't mess about the cook- room slops, but prove it to our face

The widow's uniform is not the soldier-man's  disgrace.

For it's Tommy this, an' Tommy that, an' chuck him out, the brute!"

But it's "Saviour of 'is country" when the guns begin to shoot;

Embarrassing comment from an embarrassing MP

Yesterday Tom Hunt, our Conservative MP for Ipswich decided to post a critical attack on me of his Facebook page - I have been critical of him via twitter, so I must and do accept that I may be criticised in reply, but he decided to not reply on twitter but to use his facebook page, it was not till someone phoned me that I became aware he had done so.

Much of what he said was inaccurate and actually by reading many of the comments to his post it proved my point - he does seem to playing to right wing crowd in fact that comment may have been slightly on the conservative side as many of the comments seem to have come from a 'far right crowd'.

However his strangest comment was one that has actually upset me - disagreements on political issues are to be expected and are nothing new but this comment was very bizarre and the more I look at it, the more it upsets and angers me;

His comment was:

"And also , what is it with this bizarre Ipswich labour party banner in his profile picture on twitter that makes it look like he's campaigning  for the North Korean Communist party"

Now the banner he is on about is the Ipswich Labour Party banner, and the emblem is from 1924 – 'a quill, a shovel and a torch’  - in fact when comparing emblems an old Tory one seems closer to the North Korean emblem than this.

  

         

 

North Korea and an old Conservative Party emblem - more in common?

But the more I thought about it the more it upset, if he had seen the full picture, he would have seen my late father holding the banner. My dad volunteered for the Army, straight from school and ended up fighting in the Korean War with the Argyll’s. 31 of his comrades would not return from South East Asia. So I find it personally disgusting that he compares my party banner with that of North Korea.

          

My dad in a hospital bed in Japan, after being injured in Korea, and part of a Christmas Card he sent home to Ipswich 

I suggest Mr Hunt, walks to the far North East corner of his constituency and visits the Millennium Cemetery, where he will see a memorial to those from Ipswich who fought in Korea. I am sure my dad is not the only Labour voter on that memorial and I am sure there will be trade unions members, socialists, and even Conservative voters, names on that memorial. They all would understand the threat of North Korea, and am not sure that they would be impressed with Mr Hunt comparing the two emblems.

For Mr Hunt to compare the Ipswich CLP banner with that of North Korea is disgusting and not the sort of behaviour you would expect from a Member of Parliament.

For over 100 years, thousands of Ipswich Labour members have worked hard to improve the lives of their families and their friends, many will have volunteered to serve their country, others would have been conscripted, some would have lost their lives fighting for this country but that does not seem to bother Mr Hunt, but as a son of a Labour member who fought in Korea, I am disgusted by his behaviour and actually embarrassed to think we have this man as our MP.

Mr Hunt, I have no doubt in my mind that it does not matter how long you are the MP for Ipswich, you will never give as much of your life to the people of Ipswich as my father did – soldier, veteran, NHS worker, Optician, Charity organiser, School governor, councillor and what I remember most is how he helped the very first Bangladeshi residents settle in this town where you seem at times intent on stirring up trouble between our various communities within the town.

Your comments yesterday on Facebook and your behaviour at times over the last year have been embarrassing.

Feel free to comment, Mr Hunt – unlike you I will inform you that I have posted this reply to your initial post.

Labour always strong on defence

 

The latest attack on the Labour Party has seen Tory MPs including our own ineffective MP for Ipswich, Tom Hunt attack Lisa Tandy for commenting on a publication by a Labour supporting group on the future of the Armed Forces.

As usual the Tories just focused on a few short snippets from the report- seeming to forget that the most savage cuts in troop numbers to the Armed Forces since the 1930's have taken place under the Tories in the last 10 years. The forces are fully stretched, even before assisting the NHS in this pandemic.

The Tories are not the party of the armed forces, they pretend to be. So thought this would be a good opportunity to remember the former Labour MP, Edith Summerskill who during World War 2, lobbied for women to be allowed to join the Home Guard to help defend our country - a view that did not go down well with many of the Tory backbenchers. 

In December 1941, the Women's Defence Force was formed thanks to Edith, who was not only a Doctor but the MP for Fulham West, it was still unofficial but far more organised. Members were taught weapon training and basic military training. 80 years later and we have our first women soldiers serving as Infantry soldiers

Edith Summerskill - MP 

Remembrance Day - with a difference

                          

We are at war- a new enemy, an invisible enemy- Covid- with nurses and doctors in the front line- but with close support from the Armed Forces, teachers, council staff, care home staff and most of the public.

                                       

This meant this year we had to remember those who had fallen in conflict in a different way  - those who had made the ultimate sacrifice- the people of Ipswich did not let us down - they remembered those from Ipswich who never came back, but at the same time helping keep our residents safe by making sure social distancing was in place.

Next year, I am sure we will be able to remember together and also think about those from the NHS who have paid the ultimate sacrifice over the last 8 months.

Living in the Border Lands, part 2 – with a Blue Beret on!

Mid-August 1980, with the highest temperatures of the year in Cyprus we found ourselves moving inland, from beside the Mediterranean to just west of the capital Nicosia. We were now to take over from B Company, 3 RGJ and also swap our green berets for the UN Blue beret (and large cap badge).

Our destination was the Greek Cypriot village of Astromeritis and our Company base for the next 12 weeks was to be the Box Factory, before the war it was here that the crates were made for the export of the local fruit crops.

The old Factory was just to the north of the village and we also had within the confines of the perimeter, a large water tower. The tower not only overlooked our front gate but also 12 large oil cans, painted blue that marked the border. The crossing was closed however now (2020) it is a fully operational vehicle crossing and one that many locals and tourists use every day as they cross northwards towards Kyrenia.

Astromeritas Border Crossing - 2019

After spending some of the previous 3 months guarding the buffer zone between the British bases and the Turkish Army, we thought we knew what to expect. There were similarities, the Turkish troops, we did meet were friendly, badly equipped and obviously did not want to be there but the main difference from our time down south was we now found ourselves spending more time working with the local Greek Cypriot community. Our only previous encounters with the local Greek community on the whole had left a slightly sour taste in the mouth, we met them when we were hitting the ‘hot spots’ of Larnaca, and whilst they were happy to take our money they much preferred ‘real’ tourists than us from up the road in Dhekelia.

Now we would be living among and working with a Greek Cypriot community that was attempting to scratch out a living from the land, a job made more difficult as much of their farmland was now within the UN Buffer zone. Our neighbours to our east were our own Support Company, who worked around the Greek village of Mammari and also had the Western outskirts of the capital to look after.

After less than a few hours in the Box Factory we found ourselves moving out to our new home for 4 weeks, 11 Platoon had been allocated a villa to live in just south of the village of Avlona, the closest Turkish community to the buffer zone.

We soon settled into a simple timetable, of ‘stagging on’ from the top of yet another water tower, that gave us good visibility of the Turkish military positions in the village and also spending hours in small Observation Posts on the unmade farm track/road between Avlona  and two further Platoon locations that sat between us and the Box Factory.

It was not all work, as soon as we had our evening meal, a 4 Tonne Truck would transport a majority of the Platoon back the Box Factory, where within weeks of taking over ,the ‘R’ Company hierarchy had put our attached Engineers skills to work and we now had the best bar in the whole buffer zone, we even had two Corporals whose job for the 3 months was just- barman. The engineers even had time to build a small cinema where the Company Clerk was forced to dress up as an usherette and serve beers to us during the break when the reels on the projector had to be changed.

When we took over from ‘B’ Company there was just one fridge behind the bar, when we left it was up to a total of 6. As well as bar stools and seats, we even had rowing boat in the bar (painted UN Blue) which had been ‘liberated’ on an organised Sunday ‘day out’ to Aya Napa (at a time when the resort just consisted of about 3 hotels).

But it was not all beer and fun with the occasional period of ‘stagging on’ in between, we did find time to keep our fitness levels up, hone our military skills and at times enter various military and fitness competitions, either against other British troops or our UN Allies from Sweden, Austria, Denmark, Australia and Canada.

There was a fine balance to be had between the two, and whilst our Company Commander at the time was very keen on the social side – in particular he seemed to attend a number of ‘long’ lunches with both the local Greek and Turkish dignitaries our Company second in command was more focused on  ensuring we not only competed but also won as many competitions as we could – military or sporting. So as one of the younger members of the company, I certainly had a busy time, doing my share of ‘stagging on’ but finding myself one day playing football against the local Greek village team – game abandoned – fighting! To the next day entering a shooting competition against the Austrian Army, plus I also had to fit in my own daily run and a number of hours sat in the rowing boat drinking the local Keo beer.

After 4 weeks we moved to the Box Factory where we would spend October, the routine did not change much other than of course we had the use of the bar every night, the bar that now included an extension, after the cinema had been built, Tommo (the Company Sergeant Major) had now had the Engineers build a casino!

Box Factory Water Tower - a young Rifleman Ross looking out at the border - 1980

The Army of today, within weeks of arriving at a new camp, would have full gym up and running, telephones, internet and so on- but back in 1980 it was not so easy, fitness in the Box Factory, was either a run, or volleyball – this was a big sport in the Battalion, as often it had been the only team sport that could be played in small army camps in Northern Ireland, and it was taken seriously! Even if the rules were more ‘prison’ than ‘Olympic’.

However by the time we had arrived at the Box Factory, we had another obstacle to overcome, Tommo had now got the local Sappers to build him a budgerigar cage that sat behind his office, what happened to some of those birds will have to stay a mystery but it became quite obvious that misplaced volleyball shots and budgies do not mix.

No internet and one phone call a month, the only real contact with home was newspapers (often about 3 days out of date) and mail – probably the highlight of the day when the mail run arrived.

I also spent as much time as I could learning about the political situation, how long the British Army had been there and how long would we stay. (40 years later, the UN buffer zone still exists and currently Rifleman from 7 Rifles are guarding the Green line). I had already decided by then that I wanted to be an NCO, and that the army life was one I was going to make the most of, I was not the only one – for all the drinking, gambling, and so on there was a large number of us that knew the job came first and we had real pride in both the army and in particular our regiment, some called it cockiness, we just called it soldiering with a swagger – it was just the Green Jacket way.

One job at the Box Factory that I enjoyed was the Operations Room runner- I say Operations Room, it was just two desks, two radios and a phone! But it was maned by our own Signals Detachment ( all Scouser’s) and the Company Second in Command. This Captain had only just joined us for the UN tour, little did I know that our paths would cross for the most of my army career. I enjoyed listening to him, seeing how he handled any requests from higher command to how he dealt with the platoons on the ground, I learnt plenty.

As a young Captain, he was also ripe for being taken the mick out of, one conversation he had with one of our signallers made the Battalion magazine, The ‘Green Mole’. The young Captain was alleged to have said, “I am sensual and very physical. I am very erotic but my sexuality exists on a sort of fantasy level” – not sure even now, any of us know what he meant.

When I bump into him next, I should ask – then again as he is now General Sir Nicholas Carter, the Chief of the Defence Staff he may have other matters on his mind!

"What Box factory?"

We did manage to get two trips into Nicosia whilst at the Box Factory, the first was organised by a young officer, Lt Bowden who I believe went on to become an Ambassador somewhere, he arranged a tour of the Carlsberg Beer Factory in the capital, it was free beer after the tour, the tour took about two minutes, the free bar ran for slightly longer. When we eventually arrived back at the Box Factory, Lt Bowden was slightly shocked that when he dropped the tailgate at the back of the lorry, some of the men had decided to have a few further drinks in the city and had jumped out when stopped at a city junction!

I helped organise – well as a young Rifleman, suggested a trip that one of our Corporals then got to run, we went to see Coventry City play a friendly against a Nicosia Select side, remember Gary Thompson the City Centre Forward looking shocked when arriving at the ground to find 20 odd British soldiers sampling the free drinks in the VIP boardroom at the stadium.

As a platoon we managed to survive the Box Factory, the nights in the bar – the Volleyball/budgie battle and we then moved out again to spend the last month of the tour, November split between two small locations, B33 and B35, there was not much going for either of these places, small, it was now getting cold, all our own luxuries had now started making the long trip back to the UK, and so it was just a case of getting through the 4 weeks, and when the sun did appear a quick bit of panic tanning to ensure we went back looking like we had just spent 6 months on a Mediterranean island.

B33 Basic - but livable - love the white stone painting!

We never had the best equipment in the world then, and the few night viewing aids we did have had been dispatched back to the Box Factory to be packed ready for our return to the UK, so often the first we knew the Turkish Army were in the vicinity was when they knocked on the hut door to try and swap some of their local vodka, for tea bags or coffee.

However one part of living in B33 was enjoyable, every morning about 6 of us were driven down to Astromeritas, to a small house where Cpl Tom Evans ( I think) and one other SNCO were based. Here you waited till you were allocated to a local Greek Cypriot framer, you would then spend the day stuck on the back of his tractor, riding shotgun, as he farmed his land which was within the buffer zone. This was not always fun, but in most cases was an enjoyable way to spend the day. My two favourite farm escorts ( as the task was called) was when I was protecting a large family group, picking the local potato crop, at lunch a large blanket was placed down, I was placed at the head of the blanket and feast of local food was served. The second escort, I remember with a smile was when I was picked out to join the local Greek Orthodox priest. I climbed onto the back of his motorbike (no helmet) with my rifle, bullets and a badly made pack lunch. We arrived at small orange grove, the priest picked about 20 oranges, sat down and from his bag pulled out 4 large beers, he gave me one, he drank three! He then slept all afternoon, woke up, got back on the motorbike and we drove back to Astrmeritas – it seemed the local priest enjoyed the occasional day away from his flock, where he could just have a few beers, enjoy the sun and relax!

A few days later, we were back in wet, dark Oakington Barracks, just north of Cambridge, it had been a great 6 months, I had worked hard, played harder and now as ready to move on, I had hoped for the NCO Cadre but my platoon commander wanted me to remain in 11 Platoon and become the Platoon Signaller, not for the last time in my career, I was having none of it, and with the help of an encouraging Corporal, I managed to leave the platoon and head for Support Company and a place on the Ant-Tank cadre.

I wonder if General Carter, ever thinks back to his time at the Box Factory?