Gavin Maclure's Musings

EU protection racket

2012-03-08T18:17:00.000Z

Just when you had heard it all from Brussels, they have spent our money on this advertisement. For an organisation that loves to bang on about human rights and how evil everyone else is in the world apart from the Brussels elite they seem to have a nasty xenophobic streak in them - who'd of thought it?

It also sums up their views on free trade, as in they don't care very much for it.

The sooner we leave the EU and begin trading with everyone (including our European friends), the better.

Livingstone takes a direct hit

2012-03-08T15:48:00.001Z

When even your own activists are breaking cover you know you're in trouble. This is a very eloquent letter to Labour London Mayoral candidate Ken Livingstone from one of his former footsoldiers.

Dave can wipe that smirk off his face - this blog has been and continues to be forthright against his own betrayals.

Oh how we laughed

2012-03-08T12:13:00.000Z

And then we cried.

Before Dave became PM and formed the "Brokeback Coalition" with made-in-Brussels Nick Clegg, the Liberal Democrats had their annual conference first in the season before the grown-up parties spoke to the public at their respective get-togethers. At the Yellow Peril conference it was common for loony policies to be announced such as banning the sale of goldfish at village fairs and introducing a Mansion Tax.

I remember when Vince Cable announced he was going to invent a new tax on mansions and we laughed our socks off and enjoyed the light entertainment of another Liberal Democrat conference as we packed our bags for our own conference.

But laughing has turned to crying as the Mansion Tax is now being taken seriously by Chancellor George Osborne. It would see owners of properties valued over a certain amount, say £1 million, being clobbered with an additional tax for having the audacity of owning a home, which has only rocketed in value because of the ineptitude of the last Labour Government who deliberately allowed house building to stop to cause a house price boom and therefore mask their economic failure (the rest, as they say, is history).

I think Lord Tebbit puts it quite well in today's Sun:

"I've got a bigger house than most people. That's partly because I need it to house two carers to look after my wife.

"Should I be taxed then on the basis that I live in a mansion? I wouldn't need such a big house if my wife wasn't nearly murdered."

Quite.

I'm all for the rich paying their way but taxing them until the pips squeak is not the way to bring growth back to our stagnant economy. Cutting tax has been proven to do that, as Nigel Lawson showed, but that was when we had a proper Conservative government.

Sir Humphrey's contempt for elected representatives: Part II

2012-03-07T18:17:00.000Z

Back in November I wrote about the narrow dirt path, which connects the road I live on with the bus stop on Foxhall Road, a main road in Ipswich. Three years ago, when I was a councillor, I chaired a Committee at Ipswich Borough Council which approved a scheme to pave this heavily-used dirt path, thereby joining up the path with the already paved section which runs by the side of the Co-op convenience store.

Councillors approved path paving ONE year ago

As part of the approval process because the dirt path would need to be "adopted" by the Council - i.e. they will have to maintain it once it is paved over (well, what do I pay my council tax for?) - a meeting of all 48 Borough Councillors had to approve the works, which they duly did in March 2011. This was ONE year ago!

Since then NOTHING has happened. The bureaucrats at the Council have sat on their hands and fobbed off Holywells councillors, like the ever dutiful Cllr Liz Harsant, with excuses such as "we need to get Secretary of State approval". So some pygmy officer at Grafton House thinks he has to go and ask Her Majesty's Department of Transport if they can pave over a 20 metre dirt track in an Ipswich suburb. Funnily enough it later transpired Ipswich Borough officials didn't need to ask Justine Greening to pave a path but instead could get on with implementing the councillors' decision straight away. But have they got on with it. No, they have twiddled their thumbs for a year and counting!

Last November, the officer gave this update:

I have instructed Legal to make a footpath creation order for the alleyway between Gladstone and Foxhall Road.

The order will be advertised shortly and if there are no objections we will be able to implement the scheme without the need to gain Secretary of State approval, which was the original thought and has delayed things somewhat.
Funding for the scheme has been approved by the Community Improvements Team and is still ring-fenced to this project.

Today, 7th March 2012, the same officer gave this update:

In order to implement any works here it is necessary to create a public footpath order. The attached file outlines the process and I have instructed Legal to proceed with making the order and consulting with the relevant parties initially. This will then allow a decision on when we can proceed and is subject to objections being received. [my highlighting]

So either the officer had not asked the Council's Legal department to make up a footpath creation order or the Legal department did absolutely nothing for four months and it would seem they are still doing nothing. May be the socialists running the Legal department have cottoned on to the fact Holywells is a Conservative ward?

The procedure for a public footpath creation order under Section 26 of the Highways Act 1980 can be read here. The forth bullet point says:

• Post copy of notice AND PLAN at each end of proposed path

I can report this notice has not been displayed. As this task is quite high up in the procedure, the lack of a notice doesn't bode well for the full procedure being implemented any time soon.

No wonder people are fed up with bloated local government.

It's time to remove al-Assad

2012-03-05T18:35:00.001Z

When you hear about your fellow human being being put through the same treatment, if not the same scale, as The Holocaust, the time has come to use our power to stop the pain and wanton destruction of human life.

That time has come in Syria. Apart from the fact Bashir al-Assad's troops have been firing mortars and tank rounds into residential neighbourhoods like Babr Amr in Homs, it is now been reported, through smuggled video footage, that there is also State-organised torture of Syrian citizens. In the style of Dr Mengele, doctors are the ones doing the torture of patients as they are manacled to their hospital beds.

Channel 4 News reports on their website there is a factory of torture in Homs and at 7pm they will broadcast some of the footage showing the evil acts of these doctors. The video files were smuggled out of Syria by a French photojournalist, who risked his life to ensure the world now knows what al-Assad's barbaric regime has been denying for months: that they are torturing their own people, sometimes to death.

The Syrian hospital employee who filmed the torture of wounded civilians at the Military Hospital in Homs said:

"I have seen detainees being tortured by electrocution, whipping, beating with batons, and by breaking their legs. They twist the feet until the leg breaks.

"I saw them slamming detainees' heads against walls. They shackle the patients to beds. They deny them water. Others have their penises tied to stop them from urinating."

The Syrian regime has ordered all civilians to be taken to the Military Hospital for "treatment" rather than the civilian hospitals.

I visited the Imperial War Museum recently and saw the inhumanity of man against man in The Holocaust Exhibition. At the end of the Second World War the allies decreed this must never happen again. But it has happened again: in Cambodia, in Iraq, in North Korea, in Rwanda, in Srebenica. The difference now is we have the means to do something about it. I believe Tony Blair's interventionist doctrine, laid out in his speech in Chicago in 1999, is sometimes moral and right.

If we have the means, we must help our fellow man. Yes, start with diplomacy, covertly arm the Free Syria Army (which is undoubtedly happening) but that is proving now not to be enough. It was said the Jews could hear Allied bombers coming over the death camps in occupied Poland and they prayed their camps would be hit - just so the pain could end.

It's time to stop this sheer evil in Syria before it is stopped for us.

National Express rip-off exposed

2012-03-04T20:06:00.000Z

I had heard about this on the grapevine but Ipswich MP Ben Gummer confirmed it in his weekly ~~Morning~~ Ipswich Star column (not online) on Friday that National Express used a grant from a government quango to install a Wireless network on-board their trains and then CHARGED passengers to use the new WiFi service.

Ben Gummer said:

"Now, I received an interesting little booklet through the post the other day, from National Express. Clearly keen to ensure they can bid again for franchises, the pamphlet trumpeted their achievements on our line between 2004-2012. Peak seating was increased by 11,000 seats, an improvement of 18%; the Ipswich to Cambridge service was upgraded; punctuality (on a loose definition of the word) went from 85% to more than 90%; wifi was introduced on the mainline; an hourly Ipswich to Lowestoft service was introduced; there was increased service frequency across the region, and fewer trains were delayed and cancelled.

All of these facts are true. But many were conditions of the franchise imposed by the government and wifi was largely paid for by the East of England Development Agency, none of which was explained in National Express's text."

So the former train operator for the Greater Anglia mainline and branch services took cash paid by you and I in tax from the now defunct East of England Development Agency - set up by the regionalisation lunatics in New Labour - and then had the audacity to force us to pay the money again to access the WiFi service paid for by us, the passengers. You couldn't make it up.

Mr Gummer continues:

"So, in truth, these were not fully NXEA's achievements at all. The whole thing was rather typical of why the company came to be so despised. Travellers never got the whole story from National Express. You never really felt like they were doing it for you - the passenger. Indeed, they sometimes made it feel like it was you doing them a favour."

Come on, Abellio (now known as Greater Anglia): give us free WiFi from tomorrow!

Ipswich Borough Council Meeting: 29th February 2012

2012-03-02T12:42:00.000Z

Budget day took place in Ipswich on Wednesday this week, also a leap day, which led to strange goings on in the Council chamber.

Council Questions

Firstly, in Council Questions, Cllr Kym Stroet accused Cllr Jones of being a "scandalous" woman because she was a Labour and Co-operative councillor (fair enough) and because she lived with Labour leader Cllr David Ellesmere, which meant she had a vested interest in her campaign to prevent Tesco from taking over the Greene King pub on Woodbridge Road. The theory being Cllr Jones was a protector of the Co-op supermarket but it was unclear what her co-habitation arrangements had to do with this. Cllr Jones retorted she was not "scandalous" and promptly sat down.

We then had a couple of questions from Cllr Debman about snow clearance outside residents' homes and shops in the town centre. Considering we had double figure temperatures outside that evening this was a somewhat surreal set of questions. But Cllr Debman did have a point when he said residents were fearful of keeping the pavement outside their house clear of snow for fear of being sued. Cllr Phil Smart, Transport portfolio holder, said residents should fear not and he would ensure an article was put in The Angle (the council's propaganda sheet) in time for next winter.

Cllr Carnall kicked off a theme which ran throughout the meeting: jobs and investment and Labour's hypocrisy. The Tory leader asked Cllr Jones, Labour's economic spokesman, what she was going to do to make the town centre more welcoming. She listed off numerous schemes, all of which either Ipswich Central (the town centre management company) or the previous Conservative-led administration had done, and tried to carry them off as Labour initiatives. Cllr Carnall reminded her the only thing Labour had done over the last few years was to oppose a major new £70M development on Grafton Way which will create 900 jobs.

Following a planted question from leading Labour backbencher Cllr Alasdair Ross about the Benefits service, which, naturally, Labour's finance chief Cllr Cook answered by stating how wonderful the performance of the Benefits service now was under Labour, Cllr Carnall asked another question about how the Council was getting on with re-cooping the £5M invested in Icelandic banks which went bust in 2008. The answer was around 90% of the money will be returned, which Cllr Carnall reminded the chamber ran contrary to Labour's manifesto at the last Borough elections which said the evil Tories had lost all of the money.

Nevertheless it is another example of how the taxpayer is suffering in the worst recession in modern times.

Cllr Smart was given a kick up the backside by Cllr Tanya Maclure on the late issuing of orders for yellow lines, parking restrictions and the like. She also encouraged Cllr Smart to get on with the verge improvement works in Goring Road which were approved by the Community Improvements Committee over a year ago.

Housing Revenue Account Business Plan

Next up was the Housing Revenue Account (HRA) Business Plan which was presented to the council for consideration with any comments being taken on-board by the Executive Committee who will make the final decision on the business plan when they next meet. The HRA is basically a pot of money used to administer council housing and receive rents from council tenants. It is a complicated financial arrangement which under the last Labour Government saw £7M a year being syphoned off to central government for re-distribution amongst Labour heartlands in the north of England. The new coalition government has now stopped this arrangement.

Cllr Mowles, Labour's housing portfolio holder, also announced Ipswich Borough Council was going back in time and was intending to build council houses again. Although they would love to build council houses at any time as it is another way of keeping their voters in their place (quite literally) it has also become necessary because Labour's John Prescott presided over the lowest number of houses being built between 1997 and 2007 since the 1920s. This directly contributed to the housing bubble which means a whole generation of young people cannot afford a home of their own. Just what the socialists want, of course.

Cllr Carnall quipped during the HRA Business Plan debate that there was no mention of re-instating Ipswich's Area Housing Offices despite Labour saying in the last election they were "indispensable" after the Conservative-led administration closed the inefficient offices down.

Perversely, Cllr Mowles during the debate said he "apologised for raising political terms in this chamber" before he proceeded to say "Labour party". If you can't use political terms in a local government council chamber where can you? A very surreal leap day moment!

Corporate Plan

Then we moved on to the Corporate Plan (keep awake at the back!).

This is the strategy document which sets out what the council will be doing over the next five years. It is stacked full of waffle about bringing in jobs and investment (although Labour vote against any new jobs or investment) and how Ipswich will be looking to benefit from the Olympics legacy. Basically, the corporate plan is a waste of time - it is a typical New Labour document from a by-gone era when councils were encouraged to do everything for their residents and which has created the client state with millions of people dependent on state handouts to live. As Liberal Democrat Cllr Atkins put it succinctly, the council should be providing the basics like emptying the bins and mowing the park lawns and should forget about everything else like ensuring people eat five pieces of fruit a day and looking for non-existent community tensions - because the Socialists can't afford such luxuries any more. Remember, there is no money left!

The Budget

Next up was the business end of the meeting: the Budget.

May be it was the leap day effect but more likely it was because of Cllr Ellesmere's ego which meant he presented the budget rather than Finance Portfolio Holder Cllr Martin Cook. Oh, and may be it was because Cllr Ellesmere is the Labour parliamentary candidate as well!

One thing which struck me immediately was how bad Labour councillors are at speaking and presenting: they don't even try to be coherent but instead mumble on about evil "Tory government cuts" and how their budget was for jobs and investment, despite Labour voting against 900 jobs and £70M investment in Ipswich only very recently. Contrast this with Cllr Carnall's Chancellor of Exchequer style budget speeches over the last seven years.

There are basically two things in the Budget: Council tax will be frozen this year helped by a coalition central government grant and the socialists will be ~~spending~~ investing £1.5M in new jobs and skills development. Labour failed to explain how they will magically create new jobs in Ipswich apart from appointing an Equalities Officer at Ipswich Borough Council to tackle bullying and harassment at the council. From my experience in line management, bullying and harassment is something that mysteriously starts being reported when an employee is told to pull their socks up and do a better job.

As Ben Gummer recently said in his ~~Morning~~ Ipswich Star column (not online), it would be far better if the council gave residents a tax cut which they would spend in the local economy and in turn would fuel more jobs and investment. It's called capitalism. But of course socialists would rather create a bunch of non-jobs tasked with inventing claims of bullying and harassment. It's like a George Orwell novel.

The Conservatives proposed a 3% tax cut in their response to Labour's budget, which would pump £400,000 immediately into the Ipswich economy. This would be funded by getting rid of a redundant director (may be the one who never speaks!) and not bailing out Ipswich Buses' pension fund to the tune of £140,000 (which is probably illegal), transferring the HEARS service to Suffolk County Council who are better placed to deliver an Adult and Social Care service and not recruiting the Stasi Equalities officer.

Tory leader Cllr Carnall, when opposing Labour's wasteful budget, revealed the Labour administration also planned to let Ipswich Town Football Club off the hook by allowing them to not pay an interest bill of £17,500 on the debt they own the council for unpaid land rent.

The Conservative Budget Amendment was voted on, with all Conservatives For, Labour Against and the yellow peril abstaining. Paul Geater from the ~~Morning~~ Ipswich Star then left the press benches in the chamber without waiting to see if Labour's budget was passed by the Council!

Before the vote, Cllr Maclure interjected in the debate and raised again the issue of the Labour council setting money aside for Ipswich Buses. She, rightly, accused them of being disingenuous by not stating what the money was going to be used for. The council is legally allowed to subsidise bus routes if there is a community need but Labour had not stated in the Budget they intended to spend the money on subsidised routes but instead put the money under the header 'Support to public transport in the Town'. This led Cllr Maclure and the Conservative Group to suspect the money was going to be used to prop up Ipswich Buses pension contributions. Something which Cllr Smart did not deny. If Labour were to do this it would be for purely ideologically reasons: they see Ipswich Buses as a means to control the masses (their voters) and it must be protected at all costs. The problem is there is legislation preventing a council from running a bus company, they can only own it and operationally it must be kept at "arms-length". Competition Law may also prevent a council from subsidising a bus company's pension scheme as this would give Ipswich Buses an unfair advantage in the bus transport market (all bus companies would surely then ask why their pension scheme cannot be propped up by the taxpayer?). If Ipswich Buses is run so inefficiently it cannot service its pension scheme then surely it should go bust allowing a more efficient bus operator to take over the routes. Ipswich Buses is not the Labour party's play thing: fair competition must take precedent to protect taxpayers and the passengers. This one will rear its head again I am sure.

Finally, the budget vote was held: Labour were For, the Conservatives finally voted Against something and, of course, the ~~Yellow Peril~~ Liberal Democrats abstained.

Polling Station changes

The Council was asked by acting returning officer and chief executive Russell Williams to note the changes to the polling districts. The Council gave Mr Williams delegated powers to make these changes as Councillors themselves are not allowed to be decision makers in the way Elections are run by the Council, for obvious reasons.

One of the changes is in my former ward, Bixley, where the Broke Hall Primary School polling station is going to be closed and residents will instead be asked to travel to Copleston High School to vote, which is a fair walk from the Broke Hall estate. Cllr Kym Stroet, who represents my old seat, spoke against the proposal but the Council still "noted" the decisions made. To Cllr Stroet's credit he voted Against the proposals and asked for his vote to be formerly noted.

Post-script

Labour Mayor Cllr John Le Grys doesn't even try to be non-partisan as the Mayor's role is meant to be. One case of bias was obvious when the allotted time for each speaker expired. When Cllr Carnall was speaking in the Budget debate he ran out of the time and immediately the Mayor started manically pressing on his microphone button so all we could hear was ding, ding, ding as the mad Mayor tried to stop the Tory leader from speaking.

Of course, it was a different story when Labour leader Cllr Ellesmere ran out of time. The Labour mayor just laid back in his chair and continued to chortle at the Labour leader's bad jokes and even allowed Cllr Ellesmere to cross the chamber floor and slam a handful of 5ps on Cllr Carnall's desk as part of a stunt to demonstrate how little the Tory 3% decrease would save residents. I'd rather have my 5p a week actually then give it to the socialist pigs in the trough at Grafton House.

BREAKING: I think I just agreed with Polly Toynbee

2012-02-23T18:07:00.000Z

I wrote a few days ago about the Government's Workfare scheme, where I condemned the work-shy (naturally) but thought it was out of order for rich corporates to take advantage of the scheme to pay workers nothing!

The Guardian's Polly Toynbee writes:

"Workfare is transparently unfair to most people, substituting slave labour for big companies. Michael Heseltine's scheme that was dubbed workfare had three vitally different ingredients. He paid jobseeker's allowance recipients extra for working, he ensured the work was for charities or community projects – no risk of job substitution – and the job market was rising. Iain Duncan Smith and Chris Grayling breached all those, absurdly calling objectors "job snobs". The protesters gave them the bloody nose they deserve." [my highlighting]

I am the biggest fan of Iain Duncan Smith's Welfare Reform but Chris Grayling should have a word with Michael Heseltine on how not to feather the nests of the big corporates at the expense of the taxpayer. Large companies push the money to the top as it is, the directors do not deserve to be rewarded for it by the Government providing free labour at the bottom. Only positions in charities or the voluntary sector should be used as part of the Workfare scheme to encourage the work-shy to get back to work.

Help free the Greeks from financial ruin

2012-02-22T17:49:00.001Z

Let's face it UKIP are still a one issue party and I would rather be a member of a party which can actually win Westminster elections and put into law the policies I agree with but the Conservative leadership is wrong on Europe, and, frankly, Nigel Farage is 100% right. I know those close to home won't thank me for posting this video below but I feel a duty to help the millions in the southern Eurozone who are now living under the EU elite who are deliberately ruining their lives because of a political ideology.

History will judge Merkel very badly.

Let's be careful with Workfare

2012-02-21T19:01:00.000Z

I'm all in favour of the work-shy being forced to work in charities or other voluntary sector bodies to get their Job Seeker's Allowance (JSA) but what I am not in favour of is large corporates taking advantage of the Government Workfare scheme to get in people to work in their stores for free. There is either a vacancy or not. If there is a vacancy, advertise it and employ the person at the advertised rate. If there isn't a vacancy, then you won't need that person to come in and stack shelves overnight. Will you?

As I've written before, despite being a believer in capitalism and the free market I side with Wilberforce when it comes to slave labour. Employing a man or woman in a charity shop to get their JSA is one thing but helping to increase the profits of a FTSE 100 company without being rewarded by that company is out of order.

So, I must disagree on this occasion with employment minister Chris Grayling, for the reasons stated above, who I usually very much admire, when he said last week that those who criticised the Government's Workfare policy were "job snobs".

But before my Left-wing friends get excited again, I am very much with Paul Staines of the Guido Fawkes parish when he points out we are all had to start somewhere, and, apart from the trust fund babies like Cameron and Osborne, that was at the bottom. We worked for a pittance but with one eye on the opportunity to build a career in the future with far higher rewards. I worked for Hewlett Packard for a year back in 1999 doing a job for very little money because I was on a student placement during my university degree. It was the same job my colleagues who worked in a permanent position were doing for twice if not three times as much as I made. Some might argue that's not fair but that is life: I had not got my degree yet and was therefore being paid commensurate to my qualifications. But when I got my degree I got paid more: that's how it works. But I still got money for my efforts (unlike the poor chap stacking shelves in Tesco for nothing) even if it was hardly enough to live on.

Despite what the Labour party say, there are in fact tens of thousands of private sector vacancies across the UK at the moment. But most of them are being filled by immigrants because they are seen as too lowly by the British unemployed. This is why you hear nothing but foreign accents serving you in our food and drink outlets up and down the land. This is a real problem caused by a cushy benefits system where you can currently get more benefits than you can earn working and an open-borders policy since 2007 (I wonder who was in power then?) which Conservative Home Secretary Theresa May is now having to sort out.

Once we have dealt with this twin problem we might start to see the return of a British strong work ethic, which will bring growth back to our economy that benefits us all. But let's do this without providing free labour to the wealthy corporates.

Lansley walks into union trap

2012-02-20T18:35:00.002Z

As readers will know I am no fan of the Health and Social Care Bill but opponents of the Bill really could have done without the shrieking, hysterical woman who confronted the calm and polite Andrew Lansley. Labour would love you to believe that June Hautot is an elderly grandmother who is only trying to protect the blessed NHS. I suppose it is a bit inconvenient she is a former Unison rep, professional agitator and protector of the vested interests.

Anyway, take a look at the altercation outside Downing Street between Andrew Lansley and June Hautot below.

Also, if you find this kind of thing amusing (like I do!) have a look at this dubbed version here with the words taken from the BBC's 'The Thick of It' - pure genius!

Greece will leave the Euro in months

2012-02-15T11:08:00.001Z

I'm no economist so I won't get bogged down in the detail (I'll leave that to excellent commentators like Andrew Lilico) but as a person who is very politically aware and also as someone who works in the private sector where real economics exist, I think we are now looking at Greece leaving the Euro within months.

Greece is now being run by Germany - fiscal occupation you might call it - who have installed a puppet technocrat as prime minister having disposed the elected PM. Some might call that invasion and occupation by fiscal means. Greece looks worryingly like a former Soviet satellite state but this time it is the EUSSR. The Greek elite - i.e. the politicians - are desperately trying to stay in the club, the Euro club and the EU club by accepting ever more draconian austerity measures from their German masters but with no currency devaluation to ease the pain. Meanwhile, the Greek people are being economically tortured to financial death. Unsurprisingly, the Greek public have started to rise up with Athens set on fire on Sunday whilst the Greek Parliament rammed through the German austerity package.

This can't go on. Germany is not saving Greece's economy, instead Angela Merkel is trying to save the EU political project which has nothing to do with sound economic thinking. Greece must now prepare and implement an orderly exit from the Euro within the next six months, which, as Andrew Lilico told me last summer, will lead to Greece leaving the EU. Of course, there will be some pain for the Greeks whilst this transformation takes place but, boy, they will gain the rewards: exports will rocket (especially tourism), they will be able to devalue their currency (the New Drachma) and finally liberate themselves from German fiscal occupation.

Shoot the Health and Social Care Bill today

2012-02-10T10:33:00.000Z

It looks like the Health and Social Care Bill is heading for the operating theatre if not the morgue. The excellent Conservative Home website has sacked the Bill this morning in an editorial.

I agree with them. The Bill is not necessary to reduce inefficiency, that can be done with existing legislation. At the core of the Bill is GP-led commissioning. I think GPs are the worst people to be given more power over my health: they are generally rude, arrogant and many are patently incompetent. One area I would focus on, which again does not need new legislation, is better performance management of nurses who leave our elderly grandmothers to wallow in their own faeces, and thirsty because they don't provide drinking water.

I also agree with Conservative Home because the Bill has been an unmitigated communication disaster: no one outside of Government understands it, the humble Tory activist can't explain it on the doorstep, and it is being led by a dull man called Andrew Lansley.

Now Mr Lansley is a decent chap who I met during the 2005 General Election campaign when I led the Ipswich candidate's campaign. But he was as dull as dishwater. Why on earth did Cameron think it was a good idea to give the mother of all political hot potatoes to Mr Lansley? I do not know!

The Health and Social Care Bill should be taken out and shot. Once we have a real Conservative Government in power we can really start the operation the NHS desperately needs to stop it treating our elderly in such a disgusting manner.

RIP Health and Social Care Bill. No Flowers.

Watermelon Ipswich council takes us back to the dark ages

2012-02-10T00:29:00.000Z

It angers me that my local authorities, Suffolk County Council and Ipswich Borough Council have colluded to switch off my street lights after midnight, plunging my neighbourhood into pitch black darkness. Keeping the lights on and emptying our bins once a week are basic council services, which, on both counts, my council fails to deliver.

I pay hundreds of pounds a year in council tax and the Labour council and socialist bureaucrats can't even deliver the basics. It's as if we live in the third world. In fact, that is what the green zealots at the council want as I can reveal the bureaucrats at Ipswich Borough Council tonight told councillors in a closed meeting that the reasons for switching the street lights off at midnight is nothing to do with saving money but instead to meet central government Co2 reduction targets to stop non-existent anthropogenic global warming.

It would be funny if it wasn't so serious.

Why is Diane Abbott still a Labour MP?

2012-02-09T21:38:00.000Z

The answer to the headline question is the same for why Ken Livingstone continues to be Labour's London Mayoral candidate on 3rd May: they are both people of the Left.

Diane Abbott posted a racist tweet on Twitter which said "White people love playing 'divide and rule'" and apart from being told to remove the offending tweet no disciplinary action was taken by the Labour high command and she was allowed to carry on as normal.

Now we have Ken Livingstone saying the Conservative Party is 'riddled' with gay people 'like everywhere else'. Again, Labour leader Ed Miliband will take no action.

Just imagine if a Conservative MP had sent a racist tweet or if Boris Johnson had talked about homosexuality in such divisive terms. That would be it, game over. End of career.

But not for the Left it would seem. They have spent so long painting the Tories as the devil incarnate they now actually believe themselves to be all holy. This allows people like Ken Livingstone to spout their filth and cosy up to extremists like Yusuf al-Qaradawi, who has praised Hitler and the Holocaust, without any sanction.

As the Left are such strong advocates of equality, should they also not be treated the same as the Right?

Ben Gummer wins health money for Ipswich

2012-02-07T21:46:00.003Z

Despite all the posturing from Labour they never actually did much to improve the NHS. They spent more time saying how evil the Tories were and suggesting we would ruin the NHS at the first opportunity. Undoubtedly, some privatisation would bring in some much needed efficiency and performance management in to the NHS which would allow managers to sack nurses who leave an elderly lady without water all day. But when it actually comes to enhancing the current nationalised NHS, it is left to the Tories to actually provide the improvements as has happened today in Ipswich.

The town's MP, Ben Gummer, has secured £10million from the Government for Ipswich Hospital with £5million be used to set up an elective specialist heart centre, known as a PCI centre. As Ipswich Spy reports, the plans will mean patients who currently have to travel to Papworth Hospital in Cambridge for routine elective surgery will be treated at Heath Road. Evidence used to make this decision will have included a report published by Professor Roger Boyle in December 2010, which advised that an elective (PCI) centre be built in Ipswich while emergency patients should continue to travel to one of the three PPCI centres. This report was triggered by a campaign headed by Ben Gummer before the General Election for Ipswich Hospital to have a facility for invasive heart care treatment when it was revealed Suffolk was the only county in the region that would not have an emergency heart care centre (PPCI centres) built. At the time, Ipswich Labour MP Chris Mole stood by, did his Government masters' bidding, and said it was the best thing for the people of Ipswich. The people disagreed and he was duly disposed in May 2010.

This is a superb achievement by Mr Gummer. It shows he has the capacity to get access to the right ministers in the health department, and I am sure the Health Secretary Andrew Lansley himself, to get funding for Ipswich. Many people in Whitehall would need a map to find out where Ipswich is, hence why our railway line is so diabolical, but on this occasion they have had a constituency bugging them for money. Mr Gummer's little chats with ministers whilst they are trapped in the lobbies has paid off.

Chris Mole never had such achievements. He waited for money to be pushed to him rather than the other way round and when it came to Ipswich Hospital he was his master's voice, the little poodle as he tried to climb the greasy pole of Government and still never achieving higher office than a junior transport minister in nine years of being Ipswich MP.

On the other hand Mr Gummer has communication skills which allow him to talk coherently, and, more importantly, persuade those in power to look at Ipswich. For the best part of two decades, ministers would never have talked about Ipswich as the MP did not. Now, at last, Whitehall is starting to realise Ipswich isn't just a little village in rich rural Suffolk but an urban regional centre with just as many difficulties and needs as most major towns in this country.

Huhne resigns from Cabinet

2012-02-03T17:10:00.000Z

Chris Huhne, Energy Secretary and Lib Dem MP, has resigned from the Cabinet after being charged with perverting the course of justice. At 10am it was announced by Director of Public Prosecutions Keir Starmer that Mr Huhne and his ex-wife Vicky Pryce will be prosecuted over allegations she took speeding penalty points on his behalf in 2003. Within the hour he had left the Cabinet. Dear Prime Minister letters can be read here.

Mr Huhne and Miss Pryce deny any wrongdoing. May I remind anyone who wishes to comment on this post that this case is now sub judice.

BREAKING: Huhne to be charged

2012-02-03T10:06:00.001Z

Cabinet minister and Liberal Democrat Chris Huhne to be charged with perverting the course of justice.

It couldn't have happened to a nicer bloke.

More to follow...

What is a council for if not to collect the bins?

2012-02-03T09:51:00.002Z

Eric Pickles today announced that 80 councils have privately told him they plan to return weekly bin collections. Who these 80 councils are we don't know. I suspect the People's Socialist Republic of Ipswich Council is not one of them.

We give hundreds of pounds a year to the socialist (frankly, most really are) bureaucrats at our local council and how do the trots respond: they remove the basic requirement of a council from their list of things to do - to empty your bins!

Instead they have spent our money on "community cohesion", giving money to charities who are stacked full of socialists who can't get a real job so rely on council grants to pay their mortgage and employing 5-a-day coordinators and diversity officers. That and Labour's perverse motivation to gold-plate every EU directive, including recycling targets.

Of course these 80 councils have not decided to go back to weekly collections out of any moral desire, they have been bribed by Mr Pickles to the tune of £250 million.

Now over to your Cllr Ellesmere: are you going to start collecting our rubbish again or are you still expecting us to rummage through our waste as if we all live on a dump heap in the third world?

Ed Miliband is the Captain Smith of the Labour Party

2012-02-03T09:24:00.002Z

In today's Daily Telegraph, their superb and supremely intelligent columnist Fraser Nelson pretty much sums up my own views on British party politics today. He describes the woes of both Labour and the Conservatives. Fraser's characterisation of Labour's key players in the parliamentary party is spot on with his main premise that both Ed Miliband and David Miliband are Labour losers who are not the answer to any question the Labour Party is asking.

From a Conservative perspective, Fraser states what I have thought all along but not articulately very well that Labour actually did quite well at the last election, considering they were being led by the worst post-war Prime Minister. They have one of the biggest Opposition parties ever as a result. But this isn't because the voters liked Labour, they just didn't understand or like what the Conservatives stood for. This cuts back to my view on why the Conservatives lost the last General Election, which I have written about here. The fact Cameron could not win a majority in 2010 puts him in the bracket of the most electorally unsuccessful Tory prime minister in history - all my Coalition-loving Tories should question why we failed to win so many seats in the last General Election instead of thinking we won the General Election when we patently did not.

Fraser Nelson also has time in his article for a Tony Blair appearance. This section from his article is wonderful:

"One wonders what Tony Blair makes of all this. He visited Britain last month, and, like many foreign dignitaries on tight schedules, held a breakfast meeting with an invited audience. Carefully selected young Labour MPs were summoned and sat like groupies at the Cabinet-style table, as he held court."

Enjoy the full article here.

Labour vote against benefits cap

2012-02-02T13:04:00.000Z

Last night the amendments to the Welfare Reform Bill put down by the Bishops and the Lords to defeat the Government's plan for a benefits cap of £26,000 were over-turned by the Government back in the House of Commons. Labour voted against the cap.

The Government won seven key votes to overturn the House of Lords' amendments, therefore re-establishing the original Bill which includes the cap on benefits. Ministers then used a rule known as "financial privilege" to ensure Parliament approves the cap and therefore preventing another round of 'ping-pong' between the Lords and the Commons. A working person will still need to earn £35,000 to take home £26,000.

Labour expanded the Welfare State whilst they were in power between 1997 - 2010 to buy Labour voters. It is a classic socialist policy to ring fence the masses into a life of dependency, trapping them into voting Labour just to be able to eat and drink as every other avenue of aspiration and betterment has been blocked by the ruling Socialist elite.

The majority of British people are in favour of the handouts cap and many would like it to be even lower, myself included. It is patently unfair for someone to sit at home doing nothing all day but still be able to rake in £26,000 tax-free from the State whilst their next door neighbour is going out to work at 7am every morning and brings home nothing close to the same amount. This goes against the British sense of fair play.

Labour have shot themselves in the head never mind the foot.

Today's capitalism is a like a child which never grew up

2012-01-30T13:30:00.001Z

It may come as a surprise to some of my Left-wing critics, but I am becoming more concerned by the day about the state of capitalism. We certainly don't want to go back to the economy of the 1970s, where mass nationalised industry and crippling union behaviour brought this great country to its knees, forced us to run to the IMF and we were labelled "the sick man of Europe" by our sniggering European cousins. Thatcher rescued us from this great shame and allowed capitalism to flourish during her tenure when she introduced the free market to almost every sector with privatisations of our utilities and the deregulation of The City. Many ordinary people like my mother and father benefited enormously from Margaret Thatcher's policies and the middle class expanded greatly under her rule to the point where hardly anyone calls themselves working class any more. Any that do seem to miss the point as they are likely to be on benefits.

But capitalism has not matured over the last 30 years. It still behaves in an infantile manner and certain immoral people have taken advantage. Bankers, CEOs, non-executive directors have spent the last 20 years lining their pockets off the backs of the low to middle income earners like my mother and father and now my working generation. Frankly, it is immoral and wrong for ANY CEO to earn £1million whilst the next high earner in the company outside of the boardroom will never go above £100,000. Now, don't get me wrong, £100,000 is still a huge amount of money but a) very few senior mangers outside of the boardroom will earn this and b) it is TEN times less than the CEO. And of course, the vast majority of people in a company, myself included, are earning nothing like that kind of money.

So, what makes a CEO so special? Why is he worth £1million basic salary? The answer is he is patently not. In the boom years FTSE 100 CEOs were earning £1million+ whilst their company, for example, was sitting on £20bn worth of debt. The CEO in this instance was certainly not worth a basic salary of £1million. Bankers were trading products they did not understand, merging with companies stacked with toxic assets and yet still they were giving themselves £millions in pay and bonuses. Directors of Remuneration Committees were and still are ensuring their mate in one company is trousering a few £million a year as long as their mate ensures he will get a few £million from the company he runs. There is a word for that: corruption.

And still the vast majority of ordinary workers in companies up and down the land did not benefit from capitalism in the boom years between 1997 and 2008. In fact most hardly received above inflation pay rises during this time. The money, instead, was given to a few thousand at the top our publicly-listed companies. They then proceeded to live high on the hog and, in the case of the bankers, they had so much money they bought up properties in London every year they did not need and have effectively priced any ordinary worker out of the London housing market as a result.

We have since had an economic crash on a par with the 1930s depression. And nothing has changed on executive pay. The elite in the boardroom still take home most of the money whilst the other employees do the real work.

However, before any of my left-wing friends get too excited, let me emphasise I am still an ardent supporter of capitalism, privatisation and free-markets. In shorthand, I am a Thatcherite. But Thatcher, if she was still Prime Minister today, would be revising capitalism, modifying capitalism, maturing capitalism. She would be ensuring the great benefits of capitalism, which saw millions of families like mine become part of the burgeoning middle class, were continued to be received by us in the 21st century. As a grocers's daughter she understood ordinary workers and saw it as her moral duty to ensure the wealth of capitalism flowed down the workforce line. Thatcher certainly did this during the 1980s but successive Governments failed to continue with this policy.

At the present time, I and millions of other workers up and down this land are patently not benefiting from capitalism. This does not mean we are going to vote for the pygmy that is Ed Miliband. No, we don't want a something for nothing society and one that sees a free economy enslaved by nationalisation and socialism. We want to see more fruits of capitalism in our purses and wallets: the complete opposite of socialism.

How can ordinary people benefit more from capitalism in the 21st century? A very difficult question to answer. The Liberal Democrat Business Secretary, Vince Cable, has started to address the issue but only in words not deeds. I think we need to do these two things first:

1. A ratio cap. That is CEOs can only be paid a maximum multiple of a average middle manager's salary. This multiple will be difficult to calculate but it is not beyond the wit of man to derive.

2. Employee representation on a company's remuneration committee (which I commend Labour for proposing). In many companies, there is very much a rule for the workers in terms of performance management and reward and another for the board members. By having employees on remuneration committees a CEO will start to be treated like any other employee is when it comes to their pay - because they are like any other employee.

The above won't be enough, however, until the big institutional shareholders such as the pension fund managers also develop some morality and ethics and start to walk the talk regarding obscene CEO and banker pay.

The Right are starting to wake up to the misbehaviour of the capitalism child. David Davis MP - not exactly a left-wing stooge - has expressed his concern about high executive pay. YouGov has also found that Tory voters want a Mansion Tax introduced on properties worth £2million or more. I'm not in favour of this. I would prefer to cut obscene pay at source by bringing some morality into the boardroom and see the additional money pushed down the line. First and foremost we need a strategy from Number 10 on how to develop capitalism for everyone again: I fear David Cameron and George Osborne don't know how to.

A report from a meeting of Ipswich Borough Council: 25 January 2012

2012-01-26T20:30:00.000Z

After Kevin Algar's excellent report last time round, I was back on 'blog roll duty' this month.

The meeting of all Ipswich Borough Councillors in Endeavour House began in a sombre fashion as all sides of the chamber paid tribute to Russell Harsant who died on Tuesday. I still can't believe I am writing this. My tribute to Russell is here.

Cllr John Carnall, Conservative Group Leader, was first to speak and he recalled how Russell always stood up for Ipswich, even if it meant going against the County Council leadership. Cllr Carnall also spoke about Russell's devotion to the Conservative Party, something I was very familiar with from my time as constituency chairman, and he reminded us how Russell was an aficionado of leaflet delivery organisation!

Labour Leader Cllr David Ellesmere said Russell was respected by every councillor, whatever their political colour. Cllr Ellesmere recalled how Russell loved the political process and council chamber debate and how he enjoyed a good point being raised even it was made by the opposition at his own's party's expense. This is very true: Russell had time and respect for everyone - friend or foe.

Liberal Democrat Leader Cllr Nigel Cheesman spoke about how Russell was "dapper" and always had a "twinkle in his eye".

It was clear from the speeches how much Russell meant to his political colleagues and friends. We will dearly miss him.

The Mayor then moved on to the evening's business.

Council Questions were up first. Cllr Judy Terry asked Labour Portfolio Holder for Culture and Leisure, Cllr Bryony Rudkin, how negotiations were going with potential Broomhill Pool developers. Not very far was basically the answer. No time-scales were committed for if and when a developer will bring the pool back to its "glory days". My bet is it will never happen as the business case just doesn't stack up.

Cllr Kym Stroet asked how the town centre fared in the Christmas shopping stakes. Cllr Carole Jones, Economic Development Portfolio Holder, said footfall was up 7% on last year, which is good news! Cllr Stroet then asked a somewhat pointless question about how the council can improve service standards in our town centre shops. Sorry Kym, but what has the council got to do with customer service? We don't run the shops, even though the Socialists would love to.

Cllr John Carnall then swooped in to take a bite at Cllr Jones: "Does Cllr Jones welcome the news Tesco are due to start developing the Grafton Way site in the next few months and does she now regret opposing the planning application, which will create 900 jobs and bring millions of pounds of investment into Ipswich?" Cllr Jones stood up and said no she didn't welcome the investment and that she "very strongly" opposed the planning application. But then said we are where we are so she does welcome it. Classic anti-enterprise clap trap from a Socialist - I thought she was meant to be in charge of Economic DEVELOPMENT!

Cllr Nadia Cenci raised an interesting point that charity ISCRE had received more money from the Council this year than was awarded by the Community Working Group under the last Conservative-led administration. As ISCRE is stacked full of Labour cronies it is hardly surprising Labour portfolio holder for Communities Cllr Sandy Martin found some extra taxpayers money to put their way.

Cllr Tanya Maclure raised an important point about the cost of setting up the ill-thought-out Area Committees. Why have Special Responsibility Allowances been handed out to the new chairmen of Area Committees without the Independent Remuneration Committee making a recommendation on the amount paid? Cllr Ellesmere waffled on that the Remuneration Committee will still review SRAs for Area Committee Chairmen but they were entitled to an allowance now under the existing rules. Unfortunately for the Conservative Group, the Labour Leader revealed Deputy Tory Leader Cllr Chris Stewart was the first to take up the additional money. If only Cllr Stewart had been at the Conservative Group meeting on Monday to tell his colleagues that!!

Tory Cllr Paul West rounded off the questions by challenging Cllr John Mowles, Portfolio Holder for Housing, on the renovation work at Cumberland Towers, a Council owned block of flats in North West Ipswich. Residents have been complaining of excessive noise, work taking place out of hours, lifts out of order and general mess on the landings. Cllr Mowles said he was aware and that senior officer Joe Howarth had been in touch with the contractor. Cllr West shot back to say this was not good enough and that residents needed a straightforward way of contacting the Council to complain if the works continued to have an unreasonable impact on their lives, such as - shock, horror - a single point of contact! Typically, residents were having to speak with multiple council officers about the same problem in true public sector bureaucratic style. Cllr Mowles promised to tighten up the communication flows.

There was then only one report on the main agenda: Council Houses Rent Increase.
Labour Cllr Mowles announced rent would increase by 5.6% and blamed the Conservatives for it being necessary. Cllr Carnall retorted by saying it was not necessary to increase housing rents in a recession because the Housing Revenue Account in Ipswich was in surplus! So why does Labour need to put up rents? Perhaps because they are addicted to taking and spending public money!

Unfortunately, my Tory friends chose to round off the meeting by deserting their duty to actually vote on behalf of their residents. At the Council Houses Rent Increase vote, Labour naturally voted for it, but instead of voting against the move the Conservatives all abstained despite criticising the increase during the preceding debate. I've given my views on abstaining before here so I won't go on about it again but just to say the electorate don't elect councillors to NOT represent them.

Libya proves itself to be as barbaric as before Gaddafi

2012-01-26T19:40:00.000Z

Today we learn the international medical aid group Medicins Sans Frontieres have decided to leave Libya after they unwittingly found themselves to be the doctor of choice for Libya's new torturers.

I've asked this before but I am none the wiser: why did we go to war with Libya again and overthrow Muammar Gaddafi? Was it because he was a tyrant who tortured his own people, sometimes to death? Well, that can't be the reason as that still continues but under the new management, so to speak.

Routine torture, some so bad it kills the prisoners, is still going on in the new Government-controlled detention centres and in make-shift prisons by militia not under Government control, i.e. with no thought what so ever for legislation of the land, as reported by Amnesty International.

Medicins Sans Frontieres has been providing aid out of Misrata's hospitals. It is here their doctors have been receiving patients with wounds not from the battlefield but clearly from the torture cell. Most of the prisoners have been treated wholly at the detention centres but some were so severely injured from the torturer's instruments of pain their abusers had no choice but to take them to hospital. The final straw for Medicins Sans Frontieres came when they noticed the patients they were treating were being collected by detention centre guards to be taken back to prison and then were brought back later after another torture session. The doctors were being asked to make the victims fit enough for another bout of interrogation and were being complicit in torture. Therefore, the medical aid workers left the country.

Torture is not the preserve of the Arab world. Britain routinely tortured its prisoners but we stopped doing this in the 1800s. Of course, the US recently took up torture again during the war on terror, which single handily justified to the despots they could continue torturing (and killing) their own citizens with impunity.

It really grates me that there seems to be no discernible reason for David Cameron and Nicolas Sarkozy intervening in Libya last year because the only justification given by these two men was we needed to prevent violence and death by the rulers of Libya. With the way Gaddafi was murdered in the street to the way the new Libya regime treats its detainees today, their mission has patently failed.

Or perhaps there was another reason for sending our bombers over Libya?

Ben Gummer presents case for Statement of Taxation

2012-01-26T15:03:00.000Z

Ipswich MP Ben Gummer spoke in the House of Commons yesterday to present his ten-minute rule bill on 'Statement of Taxation' which I wrote about here on Tuesday.

Here is Mr Gummer's speech:

Ipswich MP wants taxpayers to know where their money is spent

2012-01-25T11:00:00.000Z

UPDATE: Ben Gummer has now presented his Bill for Statements of Taxation to the House of Commons this afternoon. Hansard have a record of Mr Gummer's speech and the subsequent Opposition (somewhat pathetic) retort here: http://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm/cmtoday/cmdebate/c_03.htm

Ipswich MP Ben Gummer will today introduce a ten-minute rule bill to provide every taxpayer an annual statement of where their hard-earned tax is being spent. How much on defence, education, health etc.

I think this is a great idea and I would be very suspicious of those opposing it. Do they not want the public to know how much money is wasted on handouts, or international development or pointless climate change policies? Did you know that £4000 out of £10,000 you paid in Income Tax and National Insurance went straight to some work-shy sponger sat at home all day? Well, everyone would know if these tax statements became a reality.

The Sun newspaper covered the story yesterday here as did Peter Johnston in his Daily Telegraph column. The ConservativeHome website honoured Mr Gummer by depicting the idea in a drawing of him in a cartoon.

Courtesy of ConservativeHome

Supposedly, Chancellor George Osborne likes the idea so it might be one of those ten-minute rule bills that is more than just hot air.

The ten-minute rule bills usually take place after PMQs so Mr Gummer might actually be in the chamber for PMQs today...

Why do men of God mistake handouts for compassion?

2012-01-25T06:00:00.000Z

The bishops in the House of Lords have proven how confused they are by defeating the Government again yesterday over the long due Welfare Reform Bill, ably devised by Iain Duncan Smith. The Bill will eventually be returned to the House of Commons where the Government has promised the amendments will be overturned.

Paying someone, who is perfectly capable of work, £60,000 to sit at home and do nothing is not right. The Government has proposed legislation to bring in a benefits cap of £26,000, which because this is tax free, is equivalent to a salary of £35,000. If I was in charge, the benefit cap would be far lower. Let's be frank here: being on benefits should not be a pleasant experience. It should be a worse life than having a job so one is motivated to get back into work as soon as possible and save us all billions of pounds a year. The bishops should realise that handouts which provide a comfortable living for a family which many hard working families cannot afford is not compassionate: it is exactly what drives despair for the people trapped in dependency and ruins an economy for the rest of us.

Unemployment is going up for the British indigenous population but is going down for economic migrants to this country. Boris Johnson, Mayor of London, called it the 'Pret a Manger phenomenon' after he noticed how there were hardly any 'native' Londoners serving him in Pret a Manager shops. I have seen this myself and can report I have never been served by anybody other than a chirpy polite hard-working foreigner.

The wider point Boris was making is the private jobs are there but British people don't want to take them.

Therefore, we have to make it much harder for the indigenous population and the newly identified 370,000 immigrants to want to collect state handouts.

As a nation, we also need to get more accustomed to moving to where the work is. It's what my parents did in the 1980s and what I did in the early 2000s when I moved to Ipswich. There is terrible mindset in some towns which means people are born, grow up and expect to find work for life in the same town. What century do they think we live in - the 18th?

The Government, of course, is pleased with the defeat it has suffered in the Lords. The public are full square behind them and the Labour Party know they are on a hiding to nothing if they oppose the very sensible benefits caps proposal. The Government will win the day, using the Parliament Act to force through the legislation if necessary. And because of the 'noise' created by the Upper House the public will actually notice the policy being brought into effect. The Conservatives (we all know Wally does not like the policy) will then be duly rewarded at the ballot box.

UPDATE: Former Archbishop of Canterbury, Lord Carey, backs the Government on Welfare Reform in this brilliantly written article: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2091330/Lord-Carey-benefits-cap-Fuelling-culture-welfare-dependency-immoral.html?ito=feeds-newsxml

Russell Harsant

2012-01-24T11:46:00.002Z

In the early hours of this morning, Russell Harsant, a friend and former colleague, lost his fight against cancer and passed away peacefully at St Elizabeth Hospice, Ipswich.

My thoughts and prayers are with his wife Liz and their family.

Cllr Russell Harsant was a gentle and intelligent man who warmly welcomed me into the Ipswich Conservative Party fold back in 2003. After the General Election in 2005, when the former constituency chairman made it known he intended to step down, Russell was quick to put my name forward to succeed him showing how much he valued younger people coming through the ranks: a strength not always shown by senior members of local parties. Russell was older and more experienced but always thoroughly modern.

Russell had an illustrious political career in Ipswich, serving as a borough councillor and county councillor for several decades and was leader of the Conservative Group on Ipswich Borough Council soon after he was elected for the first time in 1983. Twenty years later during my time as chairman of Ipswich Conservatives, Russell served as a Vice-President of the Conservative Association where he offered wise words to a young and far less experienced politico. I was also fortunate to share a Borough Ward with Russell when we were both Bixley ward councillors on the Council between 2007 and 2011: his deep knowledge of Bixley was a superb help to me during my time as a councillor.

Ipswich will be a poorer place by his passing. Russell, may you rest in peace.

Angry commuters take on railway bosses at public meeting

2012-01-21T20:48:00.000Z

Today I attended a public meeting at the St Nicholas Centre on our railway service, especially the Great Eastern mainline between Ipswich and London. On the platform with Ipswich MP Ben Gummer, who organised the meeting, was Dave Ward, regional director for East Anglia and a very senior representative from Network Rail who reports directly to the MD, and James Steward, a National Express East Anglia spokesman (and soon to be TUPE'd across into Abellio, the new Great Eastern operator). The BBC and ~~Morning~~ Evening Star reporter Paul Geater were also in attendance.

The meeting gave those who attended (unfortunately only about 30 turned up) an opportunity to vent their anger for having to pay a small fortune for a diabolical railway service. The audience, although small, was nonetheless representative of commuters and travellers: young, middle-aged and retired. After about 40 minutes of speeches from Network Rail and NXEA the floor was opened up to questions. Everyone was scathing of the service, with particular hostility targeted at the NXEA representative, James Steward. Some of the topics raised were trains consistently delayed, cleanliness, lack of information, rude station staff. One chap even raised the point there was no clock on the front of Ipswich station, which I followed up moments later by explaining there were no visible clock from platform 1 and I challenged Mr Steward to get one erected within the next 4 to 6 weeks! The Network Rail representative at this point had his head in his hands not quite believing what he was hearing.

I also raised the issue of the rolling stock, which are hand-me-downs from the West Coast Mainline: why is it that the carriages inside were so dirty and the toilets disgusting? The NXEA representative nodded and agreed it should be better but fast turnarounds at Liverpool Street (usually because the train from Norwich was delayed in arriving) meant it was not always possible to ensure the carriages were completely clean. I challenged him to at least ensure there was soap in the dispensers, that the pedals to pump the water to the taps work and the towels pull through. From the reaction of the audience it was clear many understood first-hand the points I was making. Mr Gummer even relayed an experience where he had dispensed soap on to his hands in one NXEA on-board toilet only to realise there was no water...unfortunately, I have first-hand experience of that too.

The price of tickets were raised by nearly every member of the public who spoke but it was eloquently put by a young lady, probably in her 20s, who said she would soon be priced out of commuting to London and made the very serious point she would not be able to find like-for-like work in Ipswich. She also said it was "insulting" of NXEA to charge for WiFi when the travelling experience is so poor. Quite right. A season-ticket costs £5500 a year and NXEA charge for WiFi, a utility which should be treated like water: a case of immoral capitalism if there was ever one. Mr Steward from NXEA (soon to be from Abellio) responded as if it was the first time he had considered charging for WiFi might be wrong and said he would look into offering WiFi for free if customers would feel better about the train service as a result. Frankly, that is the least he could do.

Time and time again NXEA said they appreciated our views. I retorted by saying I don't want you to appreciate it, I want you to fix it. Mr Gummer also emphasised these weren't views, they were facts.

The Network Rail representative was impressive: he was very very well informed but then when you are that senior in an organisation I expect you to be. Some of the audience didn't quite appreciate Network Rail was a 'not-for-profit' organisation, which Mr Ward had to emphasise. He was very much in favour of nationalisation though and said if Network Rail was privatised on the Monday he would leave on the Tuesday. One audience member put the case for privatisation of Network Rail, which Mr Ward vehemently opposed and cheekily said his view was not political, which of course it is. My view is privatisation would help to remove Network Rail inefficiency, which means the mainline is still closed on Sundays, 20 years after maintenance work began. But it would also probably mean less money, as shareholders and CEOs would want to ensure they took a handsome cut. Unfortunately, as Mr Gummer said, we need to work with what we have got today, which I tend to agree with.

All in all this was a very useful meeting. At least now us weary commuters have some names and faces in senior positions to hold to account. Abellio will soon take over the franchise (a major press release is due out from them on Monday) for 29 months at which time the Government will invite tenders to pitch for a 15 year franchise, hopefully with caveats to motivate the operator to invest in better rolling stock and improve the time it takes to travel between Ipswich to London. This is not going to happen without close cooperation between the rail operator and Network Rail, which both representatives said was crucial, but even today I think this is one reason for such a poor service: one example is the complete lack of information for why a train is delayed.

Finally, Ben Gummer is to be congratulated in pulling together this public meeting and getting the senior people from Network Rail and NXEA (Abellio) to attend. With the media presence and blog write-ups like this, hopefully the meeting will act as another catalyst to drag our railway service in East Anglia into the 21st century.

And Mr Steward, I expect a clock up on platform 1 by 5th March!

A bit of fun for a Friday

2012-01-20T12:43:00.000Z

Have a look at this raw footage of President Obama and President Medvedev enjoying a burger together whilst Medvedev was in the US for talks.

Obama is very at ease unlike Medvedev. Sure, he's in a foreign country but he hasn't had to hone the same skills to win elections in a democracy unlike Obama.

Parish Notice

2012-01-18T19:46:00.000Z

The issue with threaded comments has now been resolved. You should now be able to reply to another person's comments, which allows 'comment conversations' to take place.

Happy commenting!

The Left are living in cloud cuckoo land

2012-01-17T23:22:00.000Z

Here's a prediction: Labour are never going to win back power at Westminster until they elect a Blairite leader. Forget it Ed, yes both of you. Listen carefully: you two are never going to be in Government again.

Ed Miliband has spent the last 18 months opposing every single cut the Coalition Government has had to impose because Labour had done it again and bankrupted the country. The public have not exactly warmed to Labour's message. Why would they? If your house is set on fire, you go to the fire brigade not the arsonist. It seems the dismal polls have started to hit home and so the Labour leadership has decided to change tack. But instead of hauling their limping ship back on to the centre ground the Labour Opposition (get used to those words being contiguous) get torpedoed by their own side: the unions.

On Saturday, Shadow Chancellor Ed Balls made a speech to the Fabian Society where he said Labour would not reverse Coalition cuts and he would also introduce public sector pay freezes to help tackle the deficit, which will still be an issue at the next General Election in 2015.

Then on Sunday, Ed Miliband popped up on the Andrew Marr show to say he agreed with his Shadow Chancellor, disagrees with the cuts, but will not be able to reverse the cuts if Labour won back power. So clear as mud then.

This quote from Mr Miliband's interview with Andrew Marr pretty much sums up the Labour leader's incoherent message:

"If Labour was in power now we wouldn't be making those changes. We wouldn't be cutting as far and as fast as the government.
"But when it comes to the next Labour government, if I was saying to you: 'I can absolutely promise to restore this cut or that cut', you would say: 'Well, where is the money going to come for that?'

Jon Snow on Channel 4 News tonight reminded Ed Miliband that when he was running for leader of the Labour Party he said the government's pay freeze was "an ideological attack on the public sector by the Conservatives". So how does this tally with the Labour leader now being in favour of public sector pay freezes? There was a lot of bluster but no answer.

This change in policy has been too much for his paymasters and the union bosses were today dispatched. Mark Serwotka, the PCS public sector union, told Adam Boulton on Sky News this lunchtime that Ed Miliband's leadership had been an "unmitigating disaster". But this was nothing compared to the man who launched the torpedo personally: unite's boss, Len McClusky. Writing in Labour's bible, The Guardian, Mr McClusky accuses the Two Ronnies of staging a Blairite policy coup. Now, I'm not too sure about that. You could never call the two Eds Blairite. And considering the complete balls-up they have made of the policy change it was not exactly successful, unlike the real Blairites when it came to elections.

Ed Miliband does not get it: the only reason Labour won three elections in the row was because Blair at least gave the impression his party was economically literate. Then along came Brown and his crew, with Miliband and Balls on the bridge, and that put paid to the public's trust in Labour on the economy. To add salt to the wound Miliband is dangerously in denial. His Today interview with John Humphrey last Tuesday was astonishing. The Labour leader prattled on about how Labour did not spend too much and the deficit was caused solely by America. This rhetoric would be funny if it wasn't so serious.

I really hope Ed Miliband hangs on. Labour will never win an election whilst this fool is in charge.

Parish Notice

2012-01-15T10:28:00.000Z

Thanks to all those who comment on my posts.

You may have noticed a 'Reply' link at the bottom of each comment. This is part of 'threaded comments', which allows readers to reply to individual comments rather than just add their comment to a long list. Google were meant to have implemented it last week but unfortunately it doesn't work.

I have sought answers from Google on when a fix will be deployed. Meanwhile, please just continue to comment in the traditional way.

Modern cruise liners should not run aground

2012-01-15T09:08:00.000Z

As many readers will know, a cruise ship carrying 4000 people ran aground on Friday night off a small island called Giglio Porto off the coast of Italy near Rome. Here is some dramatic amateur footage taken by an evacuated passenger:

The Costa Concordia disaster has been likened to the sinking of the Titanic. Thankfully only 3 people have died so far compared to the 1500 who perished when the Titanic struck an iceberg in 1912 in the North Atlantic but a modern European cruise liner should never have ended up like this. I really hope this is not a case of certain EU states flouting Health and Safety directives which Britain gold plates.

No one yet knows why this happened. Some experts have predicted an electrical failure took place which meant the officers could not steer the ship away from danger. However the liner ended up with a fifty metre gash in its hull, the people to blame must face justice and, if found guilty, the inside of a prison cells for several years. Incidents like this are unacceptable in Europe.

If the teaching unions are unhappy you know you've hit home

2012-01-15T08:05:00.002Z

Michael Gove, who is probably one of only two true Tories in Cabinet - the other being Iain Duncan Smith - announced last week he was going to make it easier to sack bad teachers. As Education Secretary, Mr Gove has persistently pushed ahead with the Government's Free Schools policy, which sets schools free from Local Education Authority control and allows parents and teachers to set up and run a school. Under Labour, Academies were introduced: schools funded by central government but freed of LEA control. There is no real difference between an academy and a free school apart from parents and teachers can initiate the creation of a brand new school if they deem their local state school is not doing a good enough job.

Michael Gove showed his Tory credentials again on Friday by announcing he was going to make it easier for headteachers to get rid of incompetent teachers. Instead of it taking a year to sack a poor performing teacher, the disciplinary process will be streamlined so the teacher who is damaging our children's future by every word they utter and every action they take can be shown the door within eight to nine weeks, the length of a school term.

Cue howls of protest from the teaching unions: "You're bullying us"; "It's unfair to the vast majority of 'hard working' teachers"; "The children will suffer". I think they protest too much M'lud. Most right-minded people know a sizeable number of our schools are riddled with poor performing teachers whom headteachers can't sack, so great is the power of the teaching unions.

For many who enter the profession, becoming a teacher has been seen as a job for life because, with the heavily-unionised schools and a disciplinary process which is not worth the candle, it has been almost impossible to sack a failing teacher once they get on the payroll. This is more of a State-controlled school problem because the academies and free schools can set their own Terms & Conditions for the teaching staff rather than follow the national State T&Cs - i.e. they can actually say to their employee they must be able to effectively teach their subject and must control their class whilst doing so, or we will dismiss you. Sounds fair enough but this is why bad teachers kick up such a fuss when their school looks likely to convert into an academy. When you hear them bleating on about how the children will suffer should the change take place, remember they don't actually care about the children but rather their own skin.

Michael Gove said in an interview for the Daily Mail:

"You wouldn’t tolerate an underperforming surgeon in an operating theatre, or a underperforming midwife at your child’s birth.
Why is it that we tolerate underperforming teachers in the classroom? Teachers themselves know if there’s a colleague who can’t keep control or keep the interest of their class, it affects the whole school.
Children themselves know they are being cheated. Ultimately we owe it to our children. They are in school for 190 days a year. Every moment they spend learning is precious. If a year goes by and they are not being stretched and excited, that blights their life.
We have got to think of what’s in the children’s interests first."

Even former prime minister Tony Blair in an interview in Friday's Times newspaper said he should have done more to remove teachers who weren't up to the job and admitted the quality of teaching was a concern throughout his premiership. But as with most difficult domestic issues during his time in office, Blair talked a good fight but could never bring himself to pull the trigger.

Only 18 teachers have been struck off for incompetence by the General Teaching Council in the last 40 years, which proves the point that preventing bad teachers from blighting the future of our children has been almost impossible. There are undoubtedly some very good teachers in our schools but they are being dreadfully let down by some of their colleagues. Let's hope Michael Gove's rhetoric turns into reality so we can prevent more British children being condemned to the scrap heap.

The Socialist Republic of Ipswich is re-born

2012-01-13T10:57:00.000Z

I've been reading the various reports of the new Area Committees set-up at Labour-run Ipswich Borough Council in a state of incredulity. I always knew David Ellesmere's Labour Group were archetypal unreconstructed Socialists from the Michael Foot era but I did not believe they would be so blatant about it.

The new Area Committees have been set-up by Labour to replace the Area Fora. The speed at which this happened was interesting: in eight months the Area Fora have been dismantled and replaced with the authoritarian Area Committee meetings where councillors, surrounded by officers, stare down at the public from their position of power at Grafton House. It's as if the officers, normally reticent to any change unless it benefits them, were keen to remove the inconvenience of the voters having a say on decision-making as much as Labour were.

The Area Fora had their faults: the same people always turned up, meetings got hijacked by nimbys etc - but at least they were democratic. The new structure firmly closes the door on democracy. Kevin Algar over at A Riverside View excellently compares the Area Committees with the way the USSR was structured. The biggest affront to democracy is Labour have replaced an informal gathering of residents at public meetings with their councillors with formal, stifling Committee style meetings in the unwelcoming environment of Grafton House. When I was the Chairman of Overview & Scrutiny, my Committee was a public meeting where anyone could sit in the gallery to observe our deliberations. Very rarely did any member of the public turn up, and I wondered why this was until I noticed there were no lights on at reception and the front-door to Grafton House was locked: just two little reasons for the public not being present! Has this changed? At least my Committee started at 6pm and not the worker unfriendly time of 5.30pm, which is when the Area Committees started with the intention to ram as many Area Committees into one evening as possible.

Unsurprisingly, the North West and North East Area Committees on Wednesday evening only had one member of the public in attendance: one Sally Wainman. The South West Area Committee last night only had one non-politico member of the public present in the gallery. Kevin Algar was there as a resident but also as one of Ipswich's political bloggers. Glen Chisholm, the Labour candidate in Stoke Park at the local elections this May, also attended but forgot the public hadn't actually elected him yet and proceeded to try and sit with the councillors (socialists just think they are born to rule Ipswich don't they?).

Reports from the front-line suggest that Labour councillors are already buckling under their monumental mistake by agreeing to set-up an ADDITIONAL meeting in North West Ipswich to make it easier for residents to have their say - isn't this called an Area Forum? And the Area Committees for North East and South West Ipswich will be trying to have their next Committee meeting out in the "community" with the location yet to be arranged.

The cost in setting up Area Committees has been taken out of the Locality budgets each councillor was due to have to spend on community projects, as decided by the former Conservative-led Council but then abruptly stopped by Labour when they took back power in May last year. So instead of spending money on worthwhile projects Labour have wasted it on another layer of bureaucracy (officer time, report preparation, allowances for Chairman etc.) and now they will be spending MORE of your money setting up an another meeting in North West Ipswich with expensive officers undoubtedly needing to attend. Additionally, officer time and money will need to be allocated to arrange Committee meeting venues in North East and South West Ipswich. Labour are either bad or mad when it comes to money or possibly both.

I note Cllr Peter Gardiner was elected Chairman of the South West Area Committee last night and as Kevin Algar points out Cllr Gardiner does not even live in South West Ipswich but resides in St John's ward on the other side of town. As a side note, at another committee meeting a few years ago, when I was a councillor, the lack of money for a particular project was being discussed and Cllr Gardiner quipped: "If we run out of the money, we normally just go to the public". As in we'll increase your council tax. This is the true face of Labour in Ipswich: money wasting, anti-investment and wholly undemocratic.

HS2 is a no-brainer

2012-01-10T18:32:00.000Z

Sometimes I do wonder how we managed to build an Empire where the sun never set, saved Europe three times from tyranny and became the fourth largest economy on Earth until Blair and Brown managed to royally mess up our economy.

The reason I say this is because of the massive fuss the project to build a high-speed railway track between London and Birmingham and beyond, known as HS2, has caused. The Secretary of State for Transport, Justine Greening, has today given the green light to HS2 but not until a consultation which received 54,909 responses was completed. A thorough debate over a project which is estimated to cost at least £32bn is very worthwhile in any democracy but some of the argument against it was becoming almost luddite. High-speed railway lines are a common occurrence in France and Germany and help to integrate their dispersed cities across their respective countries. In the UK, we have no such infrastructure. Our railway lines, when you look at the population size and landmass in Britain, are, frankly, a disgrace. The North of England might as well be in a different country for how long it takes to get between Manchester and London. Is it any wonder there is hardly any what economists call "fluidity of market" in the UK, i.e. people travelling relatively long distances to find work or do business.

The anti-HS2 brigade seem to be a distinct bunch: they are wealthy Home Counties dwellers who don't want to see their English countryside altered one tree or hill, even if means more people languishing on the dole queues or economic development in the North of England not taking off. They disguise their selfishness by playing the green card and harping on about the environmental benefits. It always make me laugh when people say this country is already concreted over with housing and roads: it is not. The vast majority of England is still fields and forests (just look out the window when you fly into any London airport). A new, relatively narrow, infrastructure corridor really is not going to make much difference to the landscape in the grand scheme of things.

Some local Conservative Associations, whose town and villages are on the route, have stopped sending tens of thousands of pounds to Conservative HQ in protest and normally sensible Tories like Jonathan Isaby over at the Tax Payers Alliance have also come out against Britain starting to catch-up with the rest of Europe when it comes to a rail service fit for the twentieth century never mind the twenty-first century. Of course, the Conservative (allegedly) Prime Minister, David Cameron, is in favour and is another reason I am slowly warming to him again. It is rumoured the Welsh Secretary, Cheryl Gillan, had threatend to resign if HS2 went ahead but I doubt that will happen.

I personally believe HS2 to be entirely necessary to help drag Britain's rail infrastructure into the twenty-first century and to better integrate our economy between the north and south of the UK. The new railway will also free up capacity on existing commuter links, as Justine Greening outlined in her statement to the House of Commons today. The cost is enormous but the economic return is calculated to be greater and let's face it the early railways and the motorways built in the 1960s have quite clearly enabled economic growth. HS2 will be another booster to economic growth during the next 60 years.

The trains on the new network will travel up to 250mph allowing commuters to travel from Birmingham to London in 45 minutes, reducing the journey time by almost half from one hour and 24 minutes. A Birmingham to Leeds journey will be reduced from two hours to 57 minutes and a Manchester to London journey from two hours and eight minutes to one hour and eight minutes. Wow.

Of course, HS2 is a line which will go up the centre of England. From what I can gather, the release of commuter space on existing lines will only occur on the West Coast mainline and the benefits of better intercity links (for example direct trains to Glasgow and Liverpool) will only be provided to people whose current railway line will interconnect with the new HS2 line. The Great Eastern line won't be one of them and this is another reason why our local MPs must continue to press for vast improvements in our railway infrastructure in the East of England or by the time HS2 is finished Suffolk and Norfolk might be devoid of working age people.

The Iron Lady: A review

2012-01-08T00:58:00.003Z

I've just got back from watching The Iron Lady starring Meryl Streep as Lady Thatcher. Streep is beyond good and is close to perfection in her portrayal of Margaret Thatcher. She is worthy of an Oscar for Best Actress, which undoubtedly she will get later this year.

If you want to go to and see The Iron Lady for an accurate biopic of Thatcher's time as Britain's first and only female prime minister then you will be disappointed. But it is still an excellent production which is basically an emotional love story between her and Denis Thatcher, mostly through hallucinations which the writers perceive is one of Lady Thatcher's dementia symptoms. It is very sad in places and reminds us all to enjoy our lives before old age catches up with us.

The political aspects of The Iron Lady are scenes of very good acting but show the writers' poor grasp of history. It constantly comes across as a bunch of Americans producing a film about our country but showing they have not bothered to do their research but instead have relied on their own world view.

The worst inaccuracy is when the film shows a scene where Mrs Thatcher is being affected by the stench from the rubbish piling up in Central London under a Conservative Government in the mid 1970s. This episode of course happened in 1978 under a Labour government as a result of the ruinous economic policies under prime minister James Callaghan and became known as the Winter of Discontent, which saw Margaret Thatcher win a vote of no confidence against Callaghan and her sweep to power in 1979.

Other scenes which are fiction are when she is portrayed as a half-hysterical over emotional woman in Cabinet berating Geoffrey Howe for poor preparation. Undoubtedly, she was tough on her colleagues and had very strong points of view but Mrs Thatcher did not rise to the top of the Conservative Party and become the twentieth century's longest serving British Prime Minister by not knowing how to communicate appropriately. This scene is a fallacy.

There were a lot of absences in the film, mainly Lady Thatcher's achievements. The gaps were filled with repeated scenes of protesters smashing on the prime minister's limo window and marches against the necessary cuts to salvage the country after Labour practically bankrupted the nation in the late 1970s (ring a bell?).

Missing from the film were Mrs Thatcher's three election victories and the economic recovery of the 1980s which expanded the middle class and brought a higher standard of living to millions of ordinary people up and down the land.

Terrorism is a running theme in the film, firstly with the Mumbai hotel attack in 2008 as a background in the early scenes and then, twice, The Grand Hotel bombing in Brighton. The scene of Margaret Thatcher writing her conference speech in her suite at The Grand (a rare accuracy) and then the bomb exploding is stirring: the way she reacted immediately afterwards showed inner steel, which of course is stronger even than iron.

Despite the producers paying more attention to the dissent and protest against Thatcher, they still could not hide what I admire so greatly about this great lady. There is a scene where the Cabinet is discussing taxation and how Margaret Thatcher equated taxes (low taxes) as people giving something back to the country they wish to live in and that she had no time for the work-shy who wanted something for nothing - i.e. "just let the Government deal with that" attitude. Her cabinet ministers are worrying about people being asked to contribute and Margaret Thatcher sums it up succinctly when she says she had to work hard to earn success, it wasn't just given to her like the men in grey suits sat beside her were used to - and therefore she didn't feel guilty about the ordinary man having to work hard and pay their taxes. It's as if she was the only Conservative in the room.

Socialists love to deride Thatcher as a hater of the ordinary person when in fact she WAS an ordinary person who, through hard work, rose to the pinnacle of power in this country. Her belief in striving hard to succeed rippled through the UK in the 1980s and led to a revolution in our economy: one reliant on the small businesses not on a Socialist's dream of large State-controlled industry. Unfortunately, from 1997, Gordon Brown worked hard to take us back to a large state through the expansion of millions of non-jobs in the public sector. And this led inevitably to economic decline once again which the Coalition are today trying to fix. As George Osborne said: "Labour have done it again!".

The Iron Lady is a film I would recommend you see as a piece of fictional entertainment, as that what it mainly is. However, the political philosophy of Thatcher spoken by Meryl Streep is true and is the reason why Britain became Great Britain again under her premiership.

Cameron takes on the nurses (sort of)

2012-01-07T14:42:00.000Z

I've written before about the terrible nursing care in some of our hospitals, graphically described in the Care Quality Commission reports. Elderly people have been worst affected by nurses thinking that the basics like washing a patient, taking them to the toilet, giving them water and managing their pain are beneath them. This is a horrific scandal with the CQC reporting that at some hospitals, including Ipswich Hospital, the standard of nursing care was so bad it was actually illegal - although I haven't seen anyone up in front of a judge yet!

So it was a welcome intervention from David Cameron yesterday when he outlined an action plan to force nurses to care properly for their patients. Of course, being the blessed public sector, you can't sack them for leaving an elderly man wallowing in his own faeces, which would be one way of improving nursing standards overnight. Hence why private sector health provision provides higher quality and greater efficiency than the NHS could ever manage, despite receiving billions each year from the taxpayer.

The Prime Minister announced nurses will be told to do regular ward rounds, speak to patients once an hour to see if they need help with drinking and eating or need to be moved to be made more comfortable, and the Government will also allow the public to inspect wards for cleanliness, ensure food is being provided and that patients are being treated with dignity. Anger is boiling inside me as I write this. Why should the most senior politician in the land have to step in and tell nurses to care first with everything else coming second? The nurses who allowed patients to suffer unnecessarily, as the CQC found during their inspections last year, should be found, sacked and then prosecuted in a court of law. But of course this won't happen as David Cameron recognises.

Mr Cameron said on Radio 4's Today programme yesterday:

"Politicians frankly have done nurses a disservice by not talking about this. Such is our respect for nurses that we have almost hidden away concerns about this."

The Prime Minister went on to say he had heard some "chilling" stories from his own constituents in Oxfordshire and now was the time to "speak up and act".

For too long every politician in the land, as I have written before, has gone on about how "wonderful" our nurses and doctors are, as if they were all one step away from Canonisation. Instead, a large number of NHS hospital staff were one step away from being arrested for abuse.

Naturally, Labour, in response to the Government's initiative, were quick to spout the Left's rhetoric which has led to our elderly relatives being treated so appallingly when they are most vulnerable. The Shadow Health Secretary, Andy Burnham said:

"If the Prime Minister really wants to help nurses focus on patient care, he should listen to what they are saying and drop his unnecessary Health Bill."

As with race relations and also with public health, the Left has hijacked the English language. During Labour's 13 years in power if anyone was ever to criticise our beloved doctors and nurses they would be howled down. This forced David Cameron to prostrate himself in front of the NHS altar when in Opposition. It took a Government quango, the Care Quality Commission, to report what many NHS users and relatives already knew about the health service: apart from being highly bureaucratic and inefficient our hospitals are very dangerous places to be in through a lack of care for patients and infections (caused in part because of a lack of care for cleanliness).

Disappointingly, Mr Cameron's announcement yesterday was heavily hedged. He knows he can't go head-on to root out the nurses who think they are above even feeding an elderly lady as the unions and Guardianista would eat him for breakfast. Perhaps a conviction-oriented leader, one not pinned down by the yellow peril, would deal with the impact "our beloved NHS" has on the health of the people? The time for serious surgery is still to come.

Thatcher hatred displays great ignorance

2012-01-05T21:06:00.000Z

This Friday a film biopic on the political career of Baroness Thatcher is released at cinemas nationwide.
I have deliberately not listened, watched or read any reviews on The Iron Lady as I find doing so spoils the enjoyment when I get round to seeing the film but I see the usual suspects haven't missed an opportunity to peddle their abuse towards an 85 year old woman.

More websites have been set up to count down the days until the former Prime Minister dies, including isthatcherdeadyet.co.uk and social networks such as Twitter and Facebook are peppered with grotesque insults about her. Labour controlled Sunderland Council have officially condoned the revolting comments of their Deputy Council Leader who said she hopes Margaret Thatcher "burns in hell".

And yet I feel more pity than anger towards these ignorant Socialists. They harp on about how Thatcher destroyed communities by winding down inefficient state controlled coal mining but in fact many miners and their families who had two brain cells to rub together and the nouse to move to find work took the opportunity to enter the burgeoning wealth creating private sector industries which helped take Britain from the basket case of an economy in 1979, and labelled as the "sick man of Europe" by our sneering European cousins, to the fourth largest economy on Earth by the time her legacy had been cemented in 1997. I personally know people who worked in the mines in Yorkshire who moved into the IT sector and saw their income rocket with a nice detached house to match. They aren't weeping for the good ol' days because they weren't.

Socialists seem to forget what a mess this country was in before Margaret Thatcher came to power: three-day weeks, nightly power cuts, the dead laying unburied. Before Brown almost bankrupted the country again the UK was a transformed, rich country. People became two or more car families, they had yearly holidays abroad, enjoyed lower taxes and bought affordable electronic goods - do the loony Left think this happened by accident? No, it happened because a brave, shrewd, tough, intelligent woman fought to the top of the Conservative Party and became our Prime Minister, implemented the policies of free markets and monetarism, which were rewarded by her winning three elections in a row. The likes of Cllr Florence Anderson should stop and think why it is she has a standard of living only dreamt of by ordinary people in the 1970s, despite the economic mess her party has today got us into.

Margaret Thatcher was so successful that her second greatest legacy after the economic is the Left had to become more like her to get elected. Isn't that right Tony?

There has also been premature talk of Baroness Thatcher's funeral, which I hope is many years away. But when the great lady does pass away I would strongly support a State Funeral. This would be the only way of reflecting the incalculable positive impact of Thatcher's economic policies on millions of lives in this country and the impact her foreign policies, along with President Reagan, had in freeing millions of Europeans from tyranny.

Quite frankly, Baroness Thatcher is our greatest living Briton - and long may that continue.

Ipswich MP starts ball rolling to improve rail service

2012-01-03T06:00:00.000Z

As we head back into the first working week of 2012, commuters are looking down the barrel of ticket rises well in excess of inflation and a railway line in the East of England which would have shamed a former Communist republic.

At least our MP, Ben Gummer, recognises the problem and is addressing it at the highest levels of Government from the Prime Minister down. Just before Christmas, Mr Gummer had a meeting in the Houses of Parliament with his fellow MPs whose constituencies the Great Eastern line passes through between Norwich and London, Network Rail, the hated National Express and representatives from the new railway service operator Abellio, who will shortly take over the Great Eastern franchise for two years prior to the award of a 15 year franchise. Let's not get carried away: not much was fixed at this meeting but a least the extent of the problem was laid bare to all the key players. Network Rail also admitted they were at fault for much of the infrastructure issues (i.e. track and signalling) - however, they were forced to make this admission by the fact delegates to the meeting were DELAYED on the mainline into London by signalling problems in the Stratford area (I've heard that one before!).

After the "rail summit" Ben Gummer explained in his weekly ~~Morning~~ Evening Star column his hopes for the railway into the future:

I expect that we will see small but nonetheless important improvements in reliability and customer service in the next two years; new rolling stock in the next five to seven years; and faster journey times in the next decade to fifteen years. All of this is going to take hundreds of millions of pounds. But we will get it, because for the first time all the regions MPs are fighting for it. We know that we need those better rail links to bring jobs and prosperity to our towns and cities, jobs and wealth that will otherwise go elsewhere.

When I read this I felt both pleased and disheartened at the same time. Pleased because at last our MP has given his constituents an action plan for improving our diabolical railway service but also disheartened because if his predecessors in both Ipswich and the neighbouring constituencies had pulled their finger out at the beginning of the century, when incidentally I moved to Ipswich to start working for BT, we would now be close to getting the railway service we deserve.

Much of the blame for inaction must be laid at the door of Mr Gummer's Labour predecessor: Chris Mole. He knew fine well that the railway service under "Anglia Railways" and then "One" was a disgrace and that it was having a detrimental effect on the Ipswich economy. He then became a rail minister under Gordon Brown. But what did he do over the nine years to improve the Great Eastern mainline service when he was our MP, latterly in the Government with responsibility for railways? Ah that's right: a big fat nothing! Instead he wasted millions on A14 gantry signs which did not work and a pointless traffic lights scheme at Copdock. The guy should be barred from holding public office ever again.

But, to be fair, the Conservatives should also take their fair slice of blame: Tim Yeo in South Suffolk, Sir Michael Lord in Central Suffolk and North Ipswich, and inconveniently for Ben Gummer, a certain former Member for Suffolk Coastal, Lord Deben (John Gummer), also sat back and took no discernible action during the 2000s.

However, we cannot dwell on the past. Ben Gummer has a plan and I intend to keep the pressure on him to deliver the goods (and offer my support where I can).

Happy New Year

2012-01-02T18:50:00.000Z

Firstly, I hope you and your families have a happy and successful 2012.

2011 was a tumultuous year for many, abroad and at home. I fear this will continue into 2012. A lot of the financial woes in Europe are being caused by dithering politicians who would prefer to re-arrange the deckchairs on the Titanic than work out how to get out of the mess they put themselves in, with regards to the Euro crisis, and the economic pain back in Britain is only been lengthened because the yellow peril are holding back George Osborne from taking the deep cuts which are really necessary to put this country back in the black.

We are only two days into the New Year and still the Government is allowing people who can't be bothered to work to take home £40,000 a year in handouts, including a housing benefit of £340 a week (yes, a week!). With economic policy like this, hard-working people will be dreaming of that holiday for a few more years yet with the only prospect being a life of poverty in retirement. Not so for the public "I'm alright, Jack" sector though.

So it seems this is the week, across the dead tree press and blogosphere, when us writers make up some predictions for the year ahead with the wonderful caveat that no one can predict the future (especially economic forecasters!). Therefore, my five predictions are:

1. One Eurozone country at least will leave the Euro and, shock horror, it won't lead to the end of the world but instead that country's exports will rocket.
2. Boris will win a second term as Mayor of London.
3. The Olympics will be a success but paranoid security requirements will cause chaos in and around London (if you work in London and can work from home from July to September then do so!). The Opening Ceremony will be a bit embarrassing compared to Beijing but, hey, I guess that is the price you pay when you cannot force thousands of acrobats to train 18 hours a day, seven days a week (without pay) in preparation.
4. Obama will hold on to the Presidency, just!
5. Ed Miliband will still be Labour leader by the end of the year (which will be great for the Conservatives).

Happy Christmas

2011-12-25T00:00:00.000Z

May I wish all my readers and their families a Happy and Peaceful Christmas. I hope to get one or two posts written between Christmas and the New Year.

Meanwhile, please join me in enjoying listening to the Choir of Kings College, Cambridge sing 'In the Bleak Midwinter'.

The football industry is not above the law

2011-12-22T17:06:00.000Z

In this anti-Christian country we live in, football has almost become a new religion. The stadiums are the new churches (note I don't say mosques or temples: there are still plenty of practising Muslims and Jews around), the fans are the congregation and Sunday morning football sees the gathering of the faithful.

The fact people have turned their backs on religion is one thing but it also seems the substitution of faith with football is contributing to what David Cameron calls the "moral-collapse". There are the obscene wages, the petulant players and serious lack of intelligent thought. But this is small fry compared to players thinking a different set of laws should be applied to them.

This has become prevalent this week with the cases of Luis Suarez and John Terry. In the former's case, the FA has charged Mr Suarez with racial offences and given him an eight match ban and fined £40,000. The CPS has advised the police to charge John Terry with a racially aggravated public order offence.

What was the reaction of Liverpool Football Club to Luis Suarez being charged with making racist comments? Humility, remorse, sorrow? No, his colleagues (i.e. fellow players) went to the effort of organising t-shirts with a silhouette of Suarez on the front and his name and squad number on the back in 'solidarity' with their wronged team mate so they could show brazen contempt for the FA's ruling. In any other walk of life, if the employee had been found guilty of racism, that would be it. P45. Out of the door. But a footballer, oh no that's not right: he's a hero, no one cares he's also a racist do they? Well, if you are not wrapped up in the euphoria of worship for men who would most likely be in prison if they weren't kicking a dead cow around a field, then yes we do care he is a racist. Suarez should be treated like any other employee who find themselves in a similar situation and be sacked.

Now Mr Terry is a foul-mouthed lout even before he, allegedly, racially abused Anton Ferdinand and is another example of a man who would be cleaning municipal toilets or be in prison if he wasn't born with a "talent" people are prepared to pay a lot of money for. This matter is now sub judice so I will not comment any further. I suspect, however, considering the response of Liverpool FC players and manager, Kenny Dalglish, to the Suarez case, Mr Terry will be welcomed back with open-arms by Chelsea and Fabio Capello should he be found guilty. It doesn't matter does it? He's a footballer after all...

Councillors are elected to vote not abstain

2011-12-19T18:51:00.001Z

I was not able to make the Ipswich Borough Full Council meeting last Wednesday as I was away on business so I wasn't able to take up my usual position as scribe for the blogosphere. Instead, my fellow Tory blogger, Kevin Algar from A Riverside View, kindly stepped into the breach to report on proceedings. His excellent report can be found here and yet again the blogosphere trumps the dead tree press over at the ~~Morning~~ Evening Star for political reporting and commentary in Ipswich.

In reading Kevin's report, I was disappointed to see that "Conservative Councillors all Abstained" on the 'Taking Decision Making Closer to the People', also known as Area Committees, paper. Now, I am no advocate of this Labour policy by a long shot: it is a classic case of 'command and control Socialism" which will do the opposite to the title of the paper. I can't understand how taking community engagement from community halls to the austere and formal environment of Committee Rooms at Grafton House will help take decision-making closer to the people of Ipswich. It won't. But, of course, Labour don't want to have the inconvenience of having to associate with us great unwashed do they? It's not as if they really care about the common man anyway.

But putting the weaknesses of Labour's policy to one side, I believe it was wrong for Conservative councillors to abstain. Councillors are elected by their constituents to represent them at the Council and when you are in Opposition, as the Tories are, the Full Council meeting is the only place you can exercise your vote on behalf of your residents. To not vote For or Against but instead to do nothing is, frankly, a cop out. They might as well have not bothered turning up.

In the House of Commons when a vote is called (which will be counted by tellers) there are only two lobbies: the No lobby and the Aye (Yes) lobby. There is not an Abstain lobby. If the MP decides not to vote, he does not turn up to the preceding debate. In fact, any MP who doesn't vote (unless they are ill) really does not deserve his place on the green benches and neither does a councillor deserve their seat in the council chamber.

Now, this isn't just an issue with the Conservatives. Labour abstained many a time on Ipswich Borough Council when there was a Conservative-Liberal Democrat administration, which also demonstrated contempt for their electorate, and Liberal Democrat Cllr Ken Bates also abstained during the Area Committees vote on Wednesday.

I just hope all councillors (and MPs) take heed and understand they have a duty to represent the views of those who sent them to the chamber. Abstaining is shirking responsibility.

I'm starting to warm to Cameron again

2011-12-19T18:03:00.000Z

With the dulcet tone of the word "No" still ringing in our ears after David Cameron wielded the veto at the European Council meeting ten days ago, the Prime Minister has moved even further back into the Conservative fold by extolling the values and morals of Christianity.

Now, before someone gets up on their high horse, a slight little "calm down" note: Christian values of compassion, humanity and love for your common man are not exclusive to Christianity. Muslims, Jews and other religions believe in the same values and they, I am sure, would be the last to take offence when David Cameron said: "We are a Christian country. And we should not be afraid to say so." The PM, is, of course, right.

Mr Cameron made a keynote speech last Friday to Church of England members at Christ Church Cathedral, Oxford, as part of events to celebrate the 400th anniversary of the King James Bible. So, oddly enough, the PM speech was on Christianity. Mr Cameron, also reminded people he is a practising (albeit "vaguely") Christian of the Anglican denomination who will "stand up for the values and principles of my faith". He goes on to say:

"Whether you look at the riots last summer, the financial crash and the expenses scandal, or the on-going terrorist threat from Islamist extremists around the world, one thing is clear: moral neutrality or passive tolerance just isn’t going to cut it anymore. Shying away from speaking the truth about behaviour, about morality, has actually helped to cause some of the social problems that lie at the heart of the lawlessness we saw with the riots."

As a Tory, who is a practising Christian myself, I find this encouraging. I've always agreed with Mr Cameron on his social responsibility agenda but have been disappointed he has allowed the yellow peril to water down the tough action needed to encourage everyone to work hard and remove the "something for nothing" culture which is one of the worst legacies of the last Labour government. Welfare reform should be going faster and deeper; justice reform should not see ways to let criminals off but should see more prisons built to communicate that crime leads to punishment to name but two policy areas.

In his speech David Cameron referred again to the "moral-collapse" in some parts of the UK, a phrase he used back in August to describe the riots. Of course, this moral collapse was a deliberate policy of the Left. I refer to the Left here not just in the case of Labour Governments but the Guardinistas who pervade town halls, art theatres and most damaging, our schools. For decades they have have pedalled their attacks against this country, which they hate, and its Christian values. The modern political embodiment of the Left is Nick Clegg who does not believe marriage provides for the stable environment to bring up children, which countless studies have found assists in providing for a better future for our children. Mr Clegg's warped world-view sees marriage as not something which should be encouraged by the State (through a tax break) but instead he believes society would be better without the nuclear two-parent family. This kind of rhetoric is dangerous. By the way, a marriage tax break has absolutely nothing to do with money, but is about sending a signal that marriage supports families and is good for society.

David Cameron has had a good two weeks - if he continues to drive down a Conservative track, he can expect great support. However, like all we Christians, doubt is not far away.

Senior Liberal Democrat advocates leaving EU

2011-12-12T20:38:00.004Z

For a sign of how far we have come since Thursday you need look no further (if you are one of my local readers) than the latest view of senior Ipswich Liberal Democrat councillor, Andrew Cann. Cllr Cann has written on local blog Ipswich Spy that his view has moved towards the UK leaving the EU. Let me say this again: a senior Liberal Democrat is advocating leaving the EU.

Cllr Cann poses a number of questions in his article which debunk the EU fanatics theory that we would all go to hell in a handcart if we took back our independence and forged our own way in the world (again). He goes on to say:

"Firstly we’d make our own rules again regarding labour flexibility, working time and continue to improve competitiveness vis-a-vis our European counterparts.
We’d be responsible for our own agricultural and fisheries policies.
We would be free to make our own bilateral agreements with states within the EU regarding movement of labour across borders (something I think benefits the UK).
We would save billions of pounds per annum in net contributions to the EU.
We would not elect Euro MP’s or take part in any of the European Unions institutions.
We would be free to make our own laws regarding public and private procurement subject to what agreements we come to with the WTO and bilaterally."

So we have a Conservative Prime Minister who vetoes an EU Treaty for the first time in history to protect British interests. We have a Labour opposition who hate Britain so much they would rather side with the French than the British people. And now we have a senior Liberal Democrat who graciously admits he was wrong on the Euro and leaving the EU might be quite a good thing after all.

The political world has changed. It is now highly plausible the United Kingdom will leave the EU within the next decade.

Where's Cleggy?

2011-12-12T20:38:00.001Z

Nick Clegg is one of those intellectual types who really is hopeless at the simple things. Like turning up for work.

We are used to the sight of the man who hates Britain peering over the left shoulder of David Cameron at PMQs: a most irritating spectacle that makes you want to put a brick through the telly, right where Cleggy's face is. But today, when the subject on the order paper in the House of Commons was the one he loves the most he failed to turn up.

Never mind, this PR error by Clegg will just compound the view the public have of the Liberal Democrat leader: a flip-flopping hypocrite who will always put limo before principle.

Back in the chamber, Cameron was on excellent form, fielding no less than 101 questions after his statement on the EU Summit last week, where he deployed Britain's veto to protect 10% of the UK's economy and millions of British jobs. Although he felt the need to ramp up the rhetoric on Britain being at the centre of Europe to offer some biscuits to the Lib Dems he still, rightly, received the praise of Conservative backbenchers, including none other than arch-Eurosceptic John Redwood (who received the biggest cheer of the session).

The last few days have seen the tectonic plates move in the UK political landscape. Almost every media outlet (other than the criminally bias BBC) recognises that the public have shifted to a position where they are seriously considering leaving the EU. The Daily Mail found two thirds of Britons want a referendum on the UK's membership of the EU with 62% saying Cameron was right to use our veto. Half want to leave the EU now.

When an EU referendum is eventually called in the next few years the full truth of this wasteful, corrupt, anti-democratic organisation which is the EU will be told to the public. And at that point the British people will vote to leave the European Union and we will revert to a straightforward trading relationship without paying £billions into Brussels coffers, which, of course, was what the country voted for back in 1974.

Cheers or cries: what will it be Mr Cameron?

2011-12-11T18:54:00.001Z

Tomorrow, when he makes a statement on last week's EU Summit to the House of Commons, the Prime Minister, has the opportunity to build on his magnificent decision to veto Merkozy's plans for a Treaty which would have enacted crippling regulation on 10% of our economy and risked the jobs of millions of British people, or he can throw it all away by snuggling back up to Nick Clegg.

David Cameron needs to remember his Party are the senior Party and Nick Clegg's yellow peril are the political pygmies of the Commons. They will put limos before principle any day of the week (Vince Cable has already backtracked from his Observer interview with Will Hutton where he threatened to resign). I remember saying the same thing to Cllr Liz Harsant when the Conservative Party was in coalition with the Liberal Democrats in Ipswich (although special responsibility allowances were enough to keep them placated). Basically, the Prime Minister can almost do anything and the Liberal Democrats won't budge an inch from the Government benches.

Now with that in mind, David Cameron must not unravel the victory he took against the bully boys of Europe in the early hours of Friday morning by appeasing the Liberal Democrats. Let them let off steam in the wings, for sure, but don't acknowledge their screams for a moment. If his rhetoric during his Commons statement continues to talk about always putting Britain first then he will sail through his statement with the sounds of cheers and ruffling of order papers in his ears. Because this time, we know he means it.

If he backtracks and ramps up the Europhile rhetoric then the Liberal Democrats will be wiped out by the country sooner than he thinks.

Cameron says No to Europe

2011-12-09T09:17:00.001Z

David Cameron said "No" last night and Sarkozy and Merkel told him to "get lost" (or words to that effect). As Tim Montgomerie has written on Conservative Home: "For a long time the debate has been about whether Britain should leave Europe. Overnight it appears that Europe left Britain."
I congratulate our Prime Minister for actually putting into action his rhetoric that he would stand up for Britain. He can expect cheers from Tory backbenchers when he enters the House of Commons chamber next week, and rightly so.

It was completely unacceptable for the European fanatics in Brussels to think they could put Britain's most successful industry which gives employment to thousands of people in jeopardy. Today, David Cameron has proved his mettle and, for the time being on this issue, he will receive great support from the centre-right blogs and mainstream media. But when the Prime Minister gets back from Brussels he has got to go home to a certain N. Clegg, who must be seething today that Britain has effectively taken one foot outside the EU. As UKIP leader Nigel Farage said this morning on Sky News, "the touch paper has been lit". The British people, on the whole, want to leave the EU, and it seems today that could just happen in the coming years.

The comments from French President Nicolas Sarkozy that it was all the fault of the United Kingdom a Treaty between all 27 EU member states could not not be reached to douse the flames of the Euro, which would have included an attack on the City of London through crippling financial regulations, will leave a sour taste in the "islanders" as the French like to call us Brits.

As I have written before, the EU is a club. UK Prime Ministers, past and present, feel the urge to belong to the club and its trappings: chummy one-to-ones with German Chancellors and French Presidents, fine wine and food. Very nice, I'm sure. The problem is the British people don't get any of the trappings themselves but instead they are subjected to Brussels technocrats dictating our immigration policy, our employment laws, our agriculture policy and much more besides but with none of the benefits of EU membership: we paid out £10.5 Billion to the EU last year but got far less back.

Now, it's not just the British people who feel like this. An example of this is Poland. Here, the Polish Prime Minister, Donald Tusk, is desperate to clamber aboard the Titanic: he still wants to ditch the Zloty and swap it for the Euro. But the Polish people are not so keen on the sinking Euro. I was speaking with my cleaner, a very hard working Polish national living in Ipswich, and she told me that her fellow Poles have looked at what happened in the 17 Eurozone countries when they adopted the currency and saw the prices shot up overnight: funnily enough the Poles don't want to find it harder to buy their food and pay their energy bills. My Polish cleaner put it very succinctly: "Having one currency for all the different countries across Europe doesn't work because each country has a different economy". Quite.
But that doesn't matter to the Polish Prime Minister: he just wants to be part of the EU club and enjoy its trappings in Brussels.

It really didn't have to turn out like this. You'd have thought the Germans and French would have learnt from the last century on what happens if you try to harmonise Europe under one Government. Unlike on the previous two occasions, Europe is not going to be rescued from it's own folly by the British. Therefore, it is now up to the French and Germans to arrange an orderly exit of the Euro for countries that need to devalue their own currency to survive.

Meanwhile, Britain will start moving to the other exit.

UPDATE: Excellent post from Neo-Guido on the fallout from the Cameron veto: http://order-order.com/2011/12/09/the-right-people-are-upset/ What a lovely morning indeed.

Criminal scum stalks A12 bridges

2011-12-08T17:28:00.001Z

One of our new MPs makes a very good point on Twitter this evening. Zac Goldsmith, Conservative MP for Richmond Park & North Kingston and part of the new 2010 intake, sent this tweet on the horrendous attack on a car passenger who had a concrete block thrown at her from an A12 bridge in Essex last week:

Carol Manley was travelling with husband, Steve, along the A12 in Essex when a person or persons threw a piece of concrete the size of a bucket off an overhead bridge on to their car. The concrete block went through the windscreen of the car, which was travelling at 45mph, and landed on Mrs Manley face and chest. She is now in hospital with serious internal injuries and fractures to her face and ribs. Police believe the criminals struck earlier in the evening when another concrete block smashed the windscreen of Lisa Horne's car on the A12. Both incidents are being treated as attempted murder.

Mr Goldsmith makes the point that those who are caught, charged and convicted of these mindless crimes should be handed down a sentence of twenty years. I completely agree and every day of those twenty years should be served at Her Majesty's pleasure. Unfortunately, we have a government front bench stuffed with liberals, especially Ken Clarke the Justice Secretary, and a judiciary who loves to favour the criminal and now has the Human Rights Act as its great defender of weak justice. If anyone does go to prison for these sickening crimes I suspect they will be walking the bridges of the A12 again within 5 years tops.

Let's hope Zac Goldsmith and his like-minded colleagues can bring back tough justice to our courts.

David Cameron quizzed on Ipswich

2011-12-06T17:50:00.001Z

The ~~Morning~~ Evening Star had a meeting with David Cameron at their Lower Brook Street offices yesterday whilst the Prime Minister was in the region with his Cabinet.

The interview can be read in full here.

What always strikes me when David Cameron speaks in the provinces is how immaculately briefed he is. It also helps he has a memory like a sponge, as was witnessed in all its glory when he gave a "look, no notes" speech during the Conservative Party conference's leadership contest in 2005 in Blackpool, which catapulted him to the finishing line and the rest, as they say, is history.

It was good to hear the Prime Minister talk about our dreadful railway line and rolling stock but it looks as if it is down to the rail operator who wins a new 15 year franchise to decide if it is worthwhile giving Ipswich commuters decent carriages and seats (it seems Government cannot force the monopoly operator to give us a decent service!). The East Anglian Daily Times editor, Terry Hunt, who was also present at the meeting with the PM, summed it up well when he said: "It is a deterrent to business growth at the moment. The line has a poor reputation. This town is just an hour from the city yet it can feel a lot longer." It certainly does!

I can't help thinking that a lot of the problems we have in this town is a lack of confidence, not just the economic variety, but in local people as well. Ipswich has so much to offer but all you hear is moaning about the town. The town centre is not as bad as people make it out to be: there are new shops and there has been work done on Giles Circus which undoubtedly contributed to Waitrose choosing to set up shop in the Corn Exchange. And the Council officers have finally got round to launching the Town Centre Masterplan: the brainchild of the last Conservative-led Administration and the best effort so far to help integrate the Waterfront with the Town Centre.

Ipswich does have a problem with attracting businesses. So much so, that if BT pulled out of Martlesham, the impact on the town's economy would be catastrophic. But why are businesses and employers not keen on Ipswich (even in the boom years!)? The mainline railway service certainly doesn't help but that can't be the only thing. When I chaired the Strategic Overview & Scrutiny Committee we did a piece of work scrutinising the effectiveness of the Economic Development department at Ipswich Borough Council. Three weaknesses stood out:-

1. A lack of political leadership required to drive the work of Ipswich Borough Council Officers but also sell Ipswich to potential investors. Cllr Richard Atkins was the Liberal Democrat Portfolio Holder for Economic Development at the time and he told my Committee he "steered" his department and did not "lead".

2. An ill-thought out strategy by the Officers to sell Ipswich. Officers were quizzed by all three parties on the Committee, with Labour's Cllr Martin Cook repeatedly asking what sales collateral (brochures, magazines etc) were being used to sell to businesses the benefits of locating to Ipswich. Time and time again there was no answer (most likely because there was no sales collateral). Civil servants by their very nature are lackadaisical but there was something fundamentally wrong with their responses to councillors' scrutiny of their work. They just didn't seem to get it.

3. Low educational attainment. Qualifications at NVQ Level 4 or above held by Ipswich residents aged between 19-59/64 years is 17%. The regional percentage is 27.8% and the national (England only) percentage is 30.5%. Businesses need skills and will only set-up shop where the skills exist. It's up to local people to ensure they have the right skills to find work when they leave school. The opening of University Campus Suffolk is a great first step in helping to raise the skills bar in our town.

If local authorities do anything with our money, it should be helping to kick-start areas of the economy and then step back and let the private sector take over. This has been seen recently with the Giles Circus development and the way-finding maps around the town centre (both driven by Conservative councillors).

Today we need action more than ever and less talk from our politicians to get us out of the current economic gloom.

Cabinet visit Ipswich (well Martlesham)

2011-12-05T18:14:00.001Z

Today my ultimate boss welcomed David Cameron to BT's Adastral Park in Martlesham, just outside Ipswich, as the Prime Minister took his Cabinet on the road to visit the provinces.

BT's CEO Ian Livingston welcomed David Cameron and the full Cabinet, including Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg, to BT's world renowned Adastral Park complex and showed the PM examples of BT's cutting-edge technology solutions. The Prime Minister then held a Cabinet meeting on the site. I no longer work at Adastral Park day-to-day so, thankfully, did not have to experience the inevitable disruption that would have occurred as a result of the security operation.

Our MP, Ben Gummer, met the Cabinet off the train at Ipswich and used the visit, amongst other things, to press home the need for improvements to the railway line between London and Norwich. Typically, the PM's train was on time (a rare event indeed)! But I hope David Cameron noticed the crumbling rolling stock we ordinary commuters have to put up with on the mainline - and I hope he didn't have to use the very poor toilet facilities!

Mr Gummer has articulated well the issues we have with our railway infrastructure in the East of England and he is to be congratulated in getting David Cameron and his Cabinet to visit Ipswich (well some merely passed through Ipswich but never mind!) - now we need to see action and improvement in the railway, the rolling stock and the service. We will be watching.

UPDATE: The BBC have a report on the visit to BT's Adastral Park here.

Public sector strike branded a damp squib

2011-11-30T21:39:00.001Z

I was prepared to write a lengthy post tonight to counteract the selfish action of striking public sector workers today, predicted by the unions to cause mass disruption to millions of workers up and down the land, but it seems I don't need to bother.

After all the rhetoric from the likes of Dave Prentis of Unison and Brendan Barber of the TUC it turned out the biggest walkout "since the 1920s" was, in the words of the prime minister, a damp squib.

The chaos the unions were hoping to cause at our borders never materialised: a better service would be had if the strikers stayed away from work all of the time. Yes, there was disruption for parents up and down the land as schools were closed but in watching the Geography teacher being followed around Birmingham today by ITV News it just proved the point that teachers aren't exactly the brightest tools in the box these days.

The thin crowds during the marches, as shown in the aerial footage in the rolling news channels, was somewhat embarrassing for the unions. Where were the hoardes of disgruntled public sector workers? In bed? Most probably.

So, what has this General Strike achieved? Answer: little sympathy from the vast majority of working Britain and the imposition of a worse pension deal by the Government. Not a good day for the unions.

George Osborne capitulates to Lib Dems

2011-11-29T20:55:00.001Z

The Chancellor announced today in his Autumn Statement that the patently unfair 5.2% increase to benefits, money which is also paid out to those who are fit and able but refuse to work, will go ahead next year after George Osborne was forced to climbdown after Nick Clegg wouldn't approve a smaller increase.

This really sticks in the claw of the strivers who get up early to contribute to sorting our economy out. A real divide is opening up in this country. We have the strivers and wealth creators in the private sector who are looking at zero pay increases, just so they can keep their job, and a pension based on the success of the stock market and those in the public sector who at least will get a pay increase, as announced by George Osborne today, and also have a nice government-backed final salary pension scheme to look forward to. And then the public sector workers have the audacity to cause chaos to millions of people, who pay their salaries and pensions, when they walk out tomorrow.

The unions say they shouldn't have to pay more into their pensions. Really, why not? Ever thought they were too generous in the first place? The maths argument no longer works for the public sector unions. Compared to their private sector peers, public sector workers are paid more and have larger pensions to look forward to. It's not as if higher pay has improved performance: children are still leaving school illiterate and unable to add up, and doctors have to prescribe water as nurses are not ensuring their patients remain hydrated.

The party is over and it's about time the public sector realised and joined the real world.

Cameron acknowledges Tories lost General Election

2011-11-26T17:52:00.001Z

There's an interesting piece in The Guardian today which sets out questions to David Cameron from key figures in the media, arts and politics.

Cameron is an eloquent speaker and has an easy turn of phrase which makes his words pleasant to listen to and read. But putting that - rare - compliment to one side, he makes a telling admission in his answer to Lord Lamont:

Lord Norman Lamont, former Tory chancellor of the exchequer:
If there were no coalition and you were governing as a Conservative prime minister alone, what three things would you most like to have done that you have not been able to do in coalition?
"Further action on welfare reform. Perhaps the control of immigration. But I don't buy the argument that because it's a coalition it's an inactive government. It's a pretty rolled-up sleeves reforming government." [Guardian: And the third?] "I thought two was enough."

It shows you that the Coalition is having a damaging effect on the policy areas which the public put in their Top 5: Welfare, Immigration. Cameron's dodge on providing a third shows some slight contempt for Middle Britain and his Conservative base.

Another question from Alastair Campbell hits the nail right on the head:

Alastair Campbell, Labour spin doctor:You fought an election with the fallout from the economic crisis still dominant, people worried about jobs and living standards, MPs expenses having done considerable damage to Labour, Time For A Change as a powerful force, Gordon Brown getting battered daily to take his ratings even lower, with your party's finances in great shape while Labour was close to being bust, a hugely supportive media promoting the image of you as a new leader of a changed or at least changing Tory Party… why on earth didn't you manage to win a majority?
"Well, there's clearly something eating Alastair Campbell. How did I upset him so much? Look, I'm responsible for the election campaign and I take full responsibility for the result. We had a massive mountain to climb. We didn't quite make it over the line. I think that at a time of economic difficulty, people were nervous of change. And we were quite frank that we'd have to make spending reductions and I think that probably held us back."

A post I wrote back in August gives my view on why we lost the General Election in 2010, despite it being a Perfect Storm.

Sir Humphrey's contempt for elected representatives

2011-11-23T17:39:00.001Z

Still waiting for Council to take action

Where I live there is a narrow dirt path which connects the road I live on to the main road where there is a row of shops. My neighbours and I use the path often. A few years back, the local convenience store opened another branch at one end of this dirt path on the main road: as part of the works they paved over one half of the path with some nice concrete slabs. But no one - that is the Ipswich Borough Council's planning department - thought it wise to either force the local convenience store, through what's called a Section 106 agreement, to pave over the remainder of the path or do it themselves with all that lovely taxpayers money they have taken off local residents.

So 6 years on, my neighbours and bus users, who cut through from their stop on the main road, still have to trudge through the mud and dirt on one half of the path. In addition, because it is not paved over, the Council is not looking after our half of the path so it has become an eyesore with fly tipping including beer cans and empty vodka bottles. However, the Council has still found time to put up five bollards on a pavement on my road, supposedly to stop cars parking on the pavement (although I only ever saw one car), but it is totally unnecessary as there are already double yellow lines...pure incompetence and waste!

It is already illegal to park here!

Now when I was a councillor I actually chaired a committee at the Borough Council which APPROVED, over two years ago, a scheme to pave the second half of the dirt path. But due to the elongated decision-making process, the decision made at my committee had to go up to the Executive committee (also known as the Cabinet) for Executive councillors to approve. Due to some bureaucratic hold-ups it didn't get to Executive until February this year but they approved it without even a whimper - but that wasn't the end of the story. The Council's legal advisor - the same legal advisor who does not know the rules of Council meetings - said the decision ALSO had to be taken at a full meeting of all 48 Ipswich Borough Councillors. When it got to the full council meeting in March this year we all approved it unanimously. And now eight months later not one concrete slab has been laid.

Therefore, I decided to contact one of my ward councillors, Cllr Liz Harsant, to find out what was or isn't happening. The Council officer in charge of the scheme gave Liz an update:

I have instructed Legal to make a footpath creation order for the alleyway between Gladstone and Foxhall Road.

The order will be advertised shortly and if there are no objections we will be able to implement the scheme without the need to gain Secretary of State approval, which was the original thought and has delayed things somewhat.
Funding for the scheme has been approved by the Community Improvements Team and is still ring-fenced to this project.

Secretary State of approval! So, not content with one committee, the Executive and all 48 elected representatives of the people of Ipswich approving the paving of a 20 metre path, Sir Humphrey wanted to ask the Transport Secretary.

You couldn't make it up.

Broomhill saga drags on

2011-11-23T13:10:00.001Z

Sometimes I wonder why local government finds it so easy to be sucked into wasteful pet projects which interest only a small section of the community. One of the reasons is because only the minority bother to vote in local elections and therefore it is necessary to pander to these small groups to keep in power. It is no wonder the silent majority have such contempt for politicians. But, as Winston Churchill once said, democracy is the worst form of government except all the others that have been tried. So, I guess we are stuck with pointless special-interest campaigns which waste time, effort and taxpayers money.

Our own special-interest wasteful pet project in Ipswich is the ongoing saga to restore a dilapidated lido stuck in a built-up area of north west Ipswich closed by the last Labour administration at Ipswich Borough Council.

It was a millstone around the former Conservative-Liberal Democrat coalition at the Council and it is proving to be so again now the people - i.e. Labour - who closed it are back in power.
The grandly titled Broomhill Pool Trust have demanded £1M of taxpayers money to try and turn a pocket of Ipswich back to the 1950s.

I am old fashioned kind of guy who would have probably suited the 1950s quite well with its national pride and polite values but I am also a realist and know we don't live in the 1950s any more. We live in the year 2011 and things have somewhat moved on since then. I hate to point it out to the Broomhill Trust but most people, and especially the core working generation (those in their 30s and 40s) don't want a lido in Ipswich. They would prefer it if they could buy a house, or could drive along a smooth road or, shock horror, had more of the money which the Council seems to have available to give special-interest groups in their own pockets!

Last night, Ipswich Borough Council's Executive were presented with three options on what to do with the closed lido site. They were listed by Sally Wainman at Ipswich Spy. It seems from the ~~Morning~~ Evening Star article that Option 1 was chosen and the Labour Council will support Fusion Lifestyle in restoring the pool by offering £1M of taxpayers money IF Fusion Lifestyle can obtain another £3M, probably from a bid to the Heritage Lottery Fund.

I'm going to stick my neck out and predict that Fusion will not get their money: there are strict rules on HLF not being used for leisure purposes and it is patently obvious Fusion want to make a profit out of running a leisure facility. And why should the State be propping up private enterprise anyway?

What would I do: turn the site back to parkland with some land set aside for housing.

Housing is in such short supply and is one of the reasons why the current working generation will end up poorer than their parents. Surely the Council, who get most of their money from the working generation, could target their efforts at helping the majority of its residents out first. Unfortunately, good old democracy and low voter turnout will get in the way of this bright idea.

Labour-run Ipswich Borough Council cancels Christmas

2011-11-19T14:13:00.001Z

Since stepping down from Ipswich Borough Council in May and now Labour are back in charge at the Council I am somewhat out of the loop. Councils and Government like to think they are transparent in their decision-making but I'll let you into a little secret: most decisions affecting the public take place behind closed doors. The Executive Committee at Ipswich council is the only committee with any actual decision-making power and the public meeting is merely theatrical. The real debate and decision-making takes place in "pre-meetings" in closed meeting rooms before the councillors walk on to the stage and pretend to have a debate before making decisions.

Therefore, I have no idea if this story on the ~~Morning~~ Evening Star website is true. But if it is, heads should roll at Grafton House. The local rag reports that Ipswich did not and will not have a big Christmas lights switch-on this year. The paper reports Ipswich Central - the town centre management company - were too busy trying to win a second term, called BID2*, to manage Ipswich town centre (in conjunction with the local council) to find time to organise the Christmas lights switch-on. And the ~~Morning~~ Evening Star doesn't even mention what Labour-run Ipswich Borough Council were doing to help with organising the event.

Now, I don't know who is meant to be organising the Christmas lights switch-on event. It may well have been delegated to Ipswich Central for a fee or Ipswich Borough Council have full responsibility but either way the fact the powers that be could not be bothered to organise an event to kick-start the biggest annual trading period in Ipswich is disgraceful. Some town centre retailers, especially the smaller businesses, rely solely on the pre-Christmas trading period to remain solvent. Without this trading period their business would be dead in the water. And what does Ipswich Borough Council and Ipswich Central do to help them and their employees: nothing, zilch, zero.

This is yet another example of Labour council leader Cllr Ellesmere and his apparatchiks not giving two hoots about improving the local economy. They are more content sitting in Grafton House talking about climate change and how evil the Tories are than thinking how Ipswich Borough Council can help to get our town back on its feet. The only things helping at the moment: Giles Circus improvement, way-finding maps scheme, Crown Pools refurbishment etc. were ALL decisions made by the Conservative-led administration BEFORE the socialists got their feet under the Executive Committee table back in May.

You can't trust Labour to help protect Ipswich jobs.

*BID stands for business improvement district, which is a defined area within which businesses pay the management company (i.e. Ipswich Central in our town) an additional tax or fee in order to fund improvements within the district's boundaries. BID2 refers to Ipswich Central's campaign to run the BID in Ipswich for a second term. Ipswich Central, who were the only candidate, won the ballot in early November with backing from 93% of the businesses who took part in the vote.

UPDATE: Ipswich Spy lets the local blogosphere down

2011-11-18T17:41:00.001Z

Credit where credit is due: Ipswich Spy have today apologised to Cllr Carnall for their untruthful article on Tuesday.

Ipswich Spy say:

"The earlier version of this post contained a number of allegations against Cllr John Carnall that were unfair or inaccurate. We removed the post and we apologise to Cllr Carnall for any offence caused."

I don't intend to write any more on this for the time being.

UPDATE: Ipswich Spy lets the local blogosphere down

2011-11-17T11:52:00.001Z

Overnight Ipswich Spy has reacted to the complaints (here, here and here) levied at their editors for submitting a disgraceful article on Cllr John Carnall, which might be argued is libellous and defames his character and could lead to substantial damages awarded to the plaintiff under English Law if proven.

A retweet by me of an article by Politics Home's Paul Waugh on a theoretical blogging complaints commission may have pricked the conscience of Ipswich Spy but more likely their fear for their financial future saw Ipswich Spy take the offending article down last night and replace it with a post on 'Review of Standards'. They also submitted a new article which is a de facto apology (although not a direct apology to Cllr Carnall) for Tuesday's article. The blog also says one or two of its spies/editors may have to 'come out of the shadows' to re-build their credibility. Ipswich Spy also say they may be posting less frequently in future, which I hope does not happen: despite their behaviour this week they are still a formidable political blog in Ipswich and I stand by their excellent coverage of the St Margeret's ward by-election, which surpassed the ~~Morning~~ Evening Star by a wide margin.

Unfortunately for Ipswich Spy, the internet remembers everything and the article attacking Cllr John Carnall is still available on a Google caching server here. We hope Ipswich Spy will offer a full apology to Cllr Carnall in due course.

On the issue of including online blogging in the same ball park as traditional print and broadcast media, I think this episode shows self-regulation works very well in the blogosphere because retorts, criticisms and complaints can be levelled immediately and in real-time - and in this case have patently led to positive action. I will blog in detail on potential blogging regulations as a result of the Leveson Inquiry another time but my initial view is existing laws and common sense is working quite well in the Ipswich political blogosphere at least.

Ipswich Spy lets the local blogosphere down

2011-11-16T17:37:00.001Z

I'm usually an admirer of Ipswich Spy, the political blog in Ipswich which has regular informative articles on the activities of local authorities and councillors. On some stories the writing on the blog is ahead of the so called professional journalism at the ~~Morning~~ Evening Star.

But yesterday they published an article which could see their editors end up in court on charges of libel and defamation of character.

The story I am referring to centres around my fellow Conservative Cllr John Carnall. John is the leader of the Conservative Group at Ipswich Borough Council and when the Conservative-Lib Dem coaltion was in power at the Borough John was the excellent Finance Portfolio Holder who no one could really lay a political hand on: his intellect and no-nonsense approach made him formidable. I worked with John on the Borough Council as a Committee chairman of Community Improvements and in my final year as the Chairman of the influential Strategic Overview and Scrutiny Committee. Although John, as an Executive member, could be a bit forthright in his views, he was always polite and never caused me offence. This also seems to be the nature of the views of County Cllr Andrew Cann and Borough Cllr Tanya Maclure from their Comments under the Ipswich Spy piece.

So, when I read the Ipswich Spy article, I immediately thought it was a hatchet-job. The article goes out to defame his character and although we can all expect a bit of rough and tumble in the political jungle, Ipswich Spy may have crossed the line. One sentence in particular may see Cllr Carnall reach for his solicitor's telephone number. Frankly, the whole article is a disgrace and should be withdrawn with a full apology offered to Cllr Carnall.

Now, I have been active in the Ipswich Conservative Party for nearly nine years, was the constituency chairman for three years and therefore know many of the influential members well. Ipswich Spy have recently being going round saying they KNOW what happened on planning, they KNOW what happened at the St Margaret's ward Conservative Party candidate selection meeting. Well, based on what has been written in the article and the style and tone I KNOW who their source is: all I can say is Ipswich Spy has shown themselves to be very naive and easily influenced.

I hope they can restore their reputation for good, informative and interesting blogging but for now I am afraid they have let themselves down.

How do I get to here in Ipswich?

2011-11-14T19:57:00.001Z

Those of my readers who live in Ipswich may have noticed a few pieces of street furniture popping up in the town centre over the last few weeks.

Firstly, I must declare an interest here as it was actually my wife, Cllr Tanya Maclure, who was the driving force behind the walking and cycling maps now being installed, when she was Portfolio Holder for Transport.

The way-finding maps use sophisticated mapping technology to show the current location and key landmarks in 3D on a street map rotated to the direction the user is facing. The map-based monoliths, pictured, also incorporate information on walks through the town centre.

I believe they are a great addition to our town centre and help to inform visitors and residents alike of how to get to a particular location, and in many instances they will help the local economy by assisting people in finding the place they want to spend money: this will be critical during the make-or-break Christmas trading period.
Naturally, Labour were against the maps at the time of the decision.

The street maps will also encourage inward investment, as the Giles Circus scheme has done by attracting Waitrose to Ipswich for the first time: there is no way Waitrose would have opened a store next to a bunch of motorbikes and a very poorly laid out pedestrian thoroughfare.

My belief is Ipswich Borough Council and any district council, which does not have major responsibilities such as education and adult social services, should be targeting most taxpayers money at schemes which will 'kickstart' private investment and not by wasting it on recruiting diversity and climate change officers or setting up pointless projects to get people to eat their 'five a day'. That way councils could be making a real effort to help Britain out of the current financial mess we are in. Sadly this is unlikely as Labour are now in charge of Ipswich Borough Council.

Lest We Forget

2011-11-11T09:56:00.001Z

Today is Armistice Day and this year we commemorate those who have fallen for this country in pursuit of freedom on the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month in the year 2011.

I like many across the country will stop what I am doing at 11am today and stand in silence for two minutes to remember those who went to the battlefields of Europe in the first and second world wars to fight against tyranny and for our freedom and those who went to war to fight for this country in the many wars we have seen since and are still fighting today in Afghanistan. We remember all those who have fallen and their families who have been left behind.

We owe so much to those past generations and present generations who gave their lives in war fighting for our country.

As time passes, our links to the World Wars fade. My link to the Second World War were my grandparents, when they were still alive, which just shows how close we are to a time in history when the world could have turned out very differently and a time when millions died in the hell of war so we can live in freedom today.

I am reminded today of the famous poem 'For the Fallen' by Laurence Binyon, of which the fourth stanza reads:

"They shall grow not old, as we that are left grow old:
Age shall not weary them, nor the years condemn.
At the going down of the sun and in the morning
We will remember them."

Lest We Forget.

Lib Dems gain St Margaret's Ward

2011-11-11T09:09:00.001Z

Counting to elect a new councillor on Ipswich Borough Council in the ward of St Margaret's (a more affluent ward in the town) took place overnight.

The winner were the Liberal Democrats whose candidate, Cathy French, won with a majority of 71 over the Conservative candidate, Stephen Ion.

Firstly, a hat-tip to Ipswich Spy who have provided a comprehensive post on the by-election result first thing this morning and are miles ahead of the ~~Morning~~ Evening Star in their election AND results coverage. As Ipswich Spy pointed out a few days ago in their comments section, if you want an intellectual read on Ipswich politics stick to the blogosphere and not the dead tree local press who are now woefully lacking in quality journalism. Most of the political blogs in Ipswich are far superior than the rubbish printed in the political reports of the ~~Morning~~ Evening Star.

The full results were (hat-tip to Ipswich Spy):

Cathy French LD 942 (41.8% (+6.7%))
Stephen Ion Con 871 (38.7% (+1.7%))
Glen Chisholm Lab 439 (19.5% (-1.8%))
Spoiled Papers 9
Majority LD 71 (0.03%)
Total voted 2261 (6276 voters (36.03%))

As you can see from the above the turn-out was high for a by-election but not unusual in St Margaret's where turn out is always above average. The Liberal Democrat vote is up compared to the local elections in May this year but I prefer the comparison to 2008 before the national Liberal Democrat collapse. Cathy French now has a larger majority than her party had in 2008 - 71 compared to 45. This should be disturbing for Labour as it looks from this result that the Lib Dems are on the ascendency again in Ipswich after their political collapse earlier this year. However, by-elections, especially local by-elections, do have a tendency of obscuring the national trend. The real test will be the local elections in May next year.

Labour, despite the spinning of Labour MEP Richard Howitt, have nothing to be smug about in St Margaret's: their vote is down compared to the May local elections this year and one opposition councillor has been replaced with another opposition councillor on the Borough Council.

I had predicted Stephen Ion would win for the Tories but I was proven wrong by underestimating the Liberal Democrats' motivation for a fightback after their disastrous polling in May's local elections this year.
Mr Ion is to be congratulated for his hard work in the by-election and he would have made a good councillor, drawing on his experience from when he represented Rushmere ward. However, I had my doubts during the campaign on how effective election literature which linked Mr Ion with David Cameron would be in a ward which has a lot of traditional Tories (the same Tories who the Conservatives call on every General Election). It should be remembered, as I've written before, that David Cameron didn't win the General Election in 2010 mainly due to the Conservative leader's message being at odds with the views of the party's base. Reminding Conservative voters of this during the St Margaret's by-election was, in my view, not a good move.

In summary, nothing, as yet, has changed on the political landscape in Ipswich. The real test of opinion is May 2012 when 16 council places are up for election across the Borough.

US medical scrutiny vs. NHS scrutiny

2011-11-08T18:28:00.001Z

Am I alone in feeling a little uneasy about the verdict handed down to Conrad Murray, Michael Jackson's former doctor, who has been found guilty by a US court of involuntary manslaughter: effectively Murray was negligent to the extent his patient died.

However, to have the judge say Conrad Murray is a danger to the public is laughable. There are actually doctors being allowed to practice today in the NHS who are far more dangerous.

Michael Jackson was a drug addict and was also a very wealthy man despite having no common sense when it came to money (one of his many childlike behaviours). People are seduced by money and Conrad Murray was no different: his fault was he shouldn't have listened to the crazy demands of his patient, despite how much money he was being paid. Dr Murray should have refused to administer the drug propofol, so powerful it should not be used outside of a hospital. And Murray, rightly, has paid a high price for that. But Jackson's behaviours and actions are as much if not more to blame for why he died.

Now, why am I mentioning this on a political blog. Well, the scrutiny placed on medical professionals in the United States, such as Dr Murray, is something we need more of in this country. The NHS is such a bastion of Socialism it has become almost heresy to criticise its "wonderful doctors and nurses". But as discussed before on this blog here and here, there are devils operating in the NHS never mind angels.

One locum doctor the NHS brought over from Germany firstly couldn't speak English and then he proceeded to kill his patient with an overdose of morphine. What action was taken against him in Britain for his negligence: zero, zilch, nothing. He carries on practising back in Germany.

Another surgeon who killed or seriously injured patients on the operating table is back at work in St Thomas's Hospital, opposite the Houses of Parliament. Now if this was the US, this guy would have been looking at 20 to life. But not in our "wonderful" NHS.

And today we hear Ipswich Hospital is in the top 12 in the country with the most complaints by patients. Freedom of Information requests made by the Daily Mail found the complaints made across multiple UK hospitals included a nurse who laughed at a patient calling out in pain, a patient who was told to 'shut up' by night staff and a doctor who was on the phone during a consultation.

No doubt many more would complain if they weren't scared of being singled out for special treatment...

Boris-Foster Island

2011-11-07T09:00:00.000Z

My MP, Ben Gummer, last week alerted me in one his tweets to an announcement by Mayor of London, Boris Johnson, showing again his support for a new Thames airport. But this time the idea is a bit more specific.

Boris has teamed up with Lord Foster, the brilliant architect who designed the marvellous Willis Building in Ipswich and has designed both the Hong Kong International Airport and the terminal building at Stansted Airport so he knows one or two things about designing airports!

Foster's proposal would see a new UK London airport built on the Isle of Grain in the Thames estuary, Kent. A railway station would also be built underneath the terminal building to cope with 300,000 passengers a day and would link with Crossrail.

I've always been a fan of all things aviation: airports, aeroplanes, the history of manned flight etc. Since 9/11 travelling by plane is a stressful experience but putting that to one side aviation technologies have made the world smaller and allowed people to visit places they could never imagine visiting even 50 years ago, which must be celebrated.

Aviation has also brought great wealth, in terms of enabling trade, to the masses and is the reason why the Government needs to pull its finger out and get on with planning and building a new London airport before further economic damage is done to Great Britain. Both London and Gatwick will reach capacity in 20 years and, quite frankly, Heathrow should never have been allowed to expand from the hut and a small airfield it was in 1929 to the third busiest airport in the world it is today. Not just because the airport is IN suburban west London but because the flight path is over central London, which I believe makes Heathrow the only airport in the world which has its flight path over a major city.

Unfortunately, I don't have much trust in the Coalition actually doing something about this any time soon. In fact the Conservative Party manifesto in the 2010 General Election said the party was against airport expansion. The new transport secretary, Justine Greening, is yet to comment on the new Thames estuary airport but she is expected to publish a draft aviation policy for consultation in the spring. An important point is, as Labour succinctly put it, there is no money left so private foreign investment would be needed to build the airport.

The fact environmentalist Ben Gummer is for the new airport is a good sign and hopefully the Conservative leadership's position against airport expansion takes a different course soon or we will only make our dire economic outlook even worse.

UPDATE: Non-EU nationals waved into Britain

2011-11-06T19:44:00.000Z

It seems I was on to something in my post yesterday when I suggested, somewhat tongue in cheek, the reason UK Border Agency senior officials ordered border guards not to bother checking non-EU nationals' passports this summer. My suggestion was...well...somewhat on the money.

Phil Woolas, an ex Labour MP, is quoted in today's Daily Telegraph stating his Government's policies to get a grip on immigration (albeit very late in the day!) were constantly obstructed by Whitehall civil servants. Now as a former local government councillor, I know what Mr Woolas means, albeit on a smaller scale. The civil service is full of vested interests and thoroughly left-wing, especially in local government. Strong political leadership is essential to overcome the hurdles and obstructions civil servants throw in the way of elected politicians or all you get is government by unelected bureaucrats. The Sir Humphrey's of the civil service will always find a reason, procedure, protocol, or directive why a minister or councillor should not do something. The key is for the politician not to be persuaded and to always question: some are better at doing this than others.

However, it seems the Home Office officials have gone one step further and actually changed government policy without consulting the Home Secretary, Theresa May. Their actions may actually mean a civil servant ends up in prison as they could have threatened national security. And today it has been made known UKBA officials have accepted bribes for allowing non-EU nationals to enter the country illegally.

The issue of controlled immigration or lack of in the UK is always at the top of the issues voters most care about. The e-Petition 'No to 70 million' calling on the government to get immigration down to a level that will stabilise the UK population as close to the present level as possible is now very close to attracting the 100,000 signatures required for it to be considered by Parliament's Backbench Business Committee, which is one step before a full debate in the House of Commons. The current number of signatures are 92,984. You can sign the petition here.

Non-EU nationals waved into Britain

2011-11-05T17:33:00.001Z

News has broke today that senior officials at the UK Border Agency (UKBA) told border guards to not bother checking passports of non-EU nationals at the UK border in our seaports and airports.

When anyone enters the UK - British citizens or not - our passports are meant to be 'scanned' against databases of known names of those who are a risk or threat to the UK. That is what border guards are doing when they place your passport under the scanner at their post. But it seems this summer somebody, undoubtedly very senior, at the UKBA - without the permission of ministers - ordered border guards not to bother checking non-EU passports and instead just to glance at them and let anybody in. The reason for this given so far were the queues at the border were too long; I at least hope this was the reason and not a left-wing culture in the Home Office that would prefer to continue rubbing the Right's nose in diversity.

Compare this to entering the United States. Firstly, you can't even get on the plane in the originating country without telling the US Government in advance you are coming and then you have to tell them the same information you told them before you left in your landing card, and then, typically, you need to wait an hour in an immigration queue before being grilled by a border guard. Now, that is what I call immigration control. It seems the UK Home Office wouldn't know the meaning of the word 'control'.

The head of the UKBA, Brodie Clark, has already been suspended, as well as two other senior officials.
Theresa May needs to get a grip and fast.

Ipswich Conservative Policy Forum Lecture: Europe

2011-11-04T18:27:00.000Z

I don't normally advertise events on my blog but on this occasion I will make an exception because of the pertinence of the subject.

Ipswich Conservative Association's Conservative Policy Forum, led by the very able Stephen Lark, is hosting David Campbell Bannerman MEP later this month.

Mr Campbell Bannerman is a Conservative Party MEP for the East of England and he will be giving the 13th Annual Ipswich Conservative Policy Forum Lecture on the EU and European policy at the Central Conservative Club in the town centre on Friday 25 November at 19:00 for 19:30.

Tickets are £10 (which includes a traditional fish and chips supper).
To buy tickets please either call 01473 691 347 or email stephenmlark@talktalk.net. Tickets need to be purchased by Friday 18 November to ensure numbers are available for catering.

Our economy needs an efficient mail network

2011-11-03T19:24:00.001Z

Another chain around our economy's neck was revealed today: the Royal Mail.

My wife recently posted a package on a Friday and paid extra, twice, once for Special Delivery then twice for Saturday Delivery, to ensure receipt of the package the next day. Unfortunately, the package did not arrive until Monday afternoon.

But you can get your money back. Just not easily. My wife duly returned to the post office she sent the package from and was told to fill a form out and send it to some obscure address. Instead of apologising for the lack of delivery at the paid time my wife was subjected to a diatribe by the post office staff about how "since TALK of privatisation" service at the Royal Mail had gone down and the number of missed deliveries had gone up. A friend of ours had the same issue and when she called Royal Mail they said: "We do get a lot of Special Deliveries you know?".

So, instead of becoming more efficient in difficult economic times, like the growth inducing private sector, the staff at Royal Mail go in the opposite direction. Not that it is at the top of the Government's agenda but should Royal Mail workers really be so surprised one half of the Government wants part privatisation of the service to sort their operations out.

What are the Government afraid of?

2011-11-02T17:56:00.000Z

Coalitions are, in my opinion, weak forms of Government. The stronger partner is always scared the junior partner will leave them and thereby removing the Government's majority. It means there is never a policy which is adhered to during its passage into law, as concessions are made to the junior partner, and leadership is often weak.

And this is the case with public pensions, which I have blogged on before. Today the Liberal Democrat and Chief Secretary to the Treasury Danny Alexander has buckled under the threat of a General Strike and made the gold plated extremely generous public sector pensions even better.

No one who is due to retire in the next ten years will see a change in their pension. And teachers and nurses (remember not all are angels) will actually see an increase in their career average schemes (which will, rightly, replace final salary schemes). As Nick Robinson reports on his blog a teacher with a final salary of £37,800 would receive a pension of £25,200 each year, up from the £19,100 they would earn under their current scheme, whilst a nurse, with a final salary of £34,200, would get an annual pension of £22,800 rather than the £17,300 they would have been entitled to under the old scheme. Compare this to those retiring in the private sector on a similar salary and you are looking at an annual pension of around £8,000 to £10,000.

Naturally, the unions say the General Strike will still go ahead anyway. How can someone wake in the morning, do as little work as possible and still demand a pension which only those who are Directors in a large private company could expect to retire on?

This is how the Institute of Directors has reacted to the Government climbdown:

"It is not reasonable that private sector employees who will never enjoy defined benefit pensions should continue to subsidise public sector workers insulated from economic reality."

It's time the public sector woke up and smelt the coffee.

Newsflash: The birthplace of democracy wants to hold a referendum

2011-11-01T17:32:00.003Z

Greece's prime minister, George Papandreou, threw an almighty spanner in the works of the Franco-German fix for the Euro crisis and announced last night he intends to put the deal to the Greek people.

The only slight problem with this is it goes against the European Union way of doing things. That great undemocratic institution doesn't like the slight matter of the people getting in the way of the Project.

Markets have nosedived today as a result of the referendum announcement but the Franco-German sticky plaster fix only serves to kick the Euro crisis a few months down the track. It's time Greece put itself out of its misery and left the Euro immediately and also seriously considered leaving the EU.

That way Greece can get back the Drachma (supposedly its Central Bank has already printed billions of Drachma in expectation), devalue its currency and then export (i.e. tourism) its way back to growth.

Pass the Ouzo.

Anti-capitalist protesters cause men of God to resign

2011-10-31T17:19:00.001Z

For a protest that is meant to be targeting greedy bankers, I think the Occupy London movement have somehow missed their target.

They have instead indirectly or directly forced the resignation of two senior St Paul's Cathedral clergymen in less than a week.

Bankers are targeted. Priests resign. What a strange world we live in.

Euro burning but let's ask for the time

2011-10-31T10:59:00.001Z

Those with dubious Europhile tendencies - Tim Yeo, Nick Clegg etc - want to diminish Britain's standing in the world further by ending our alignment to GMT for half the year and switching us to Berlin Time. GMT, of course, stands for Greenwich Mean Time. That's the same Greenwich in South London and London being the capital of Great Britain. I can never understand why subjects of Her Majesty hate Britain so much and still they are not charged with treason.

The latest person to raise the issue of us never living aligned to GMT again and would also like us moved to Berlin Time is Vince Cable - hmmm, now what does he have in common with the two MPs above? Mr Cable, who is obviously easily distracted from his day job - i.e. trying to help British business (which he is exceptionally bad at) - wants us to be one hour ahead of GMT in winter and two hours ahead in summer. This would mean come late December the sun would not rise in Ipswich until 9am - that would be great for our collective mental health and wellbeing wouldn't it? We are, of course, aligned to GMT for half the year because of our position on the globe and therefore to ensure we gain the maximum light possible across the working day but I suppose Europe fanatics don't care about basic physics.

Here's how the Daily Telepraph Leader put it today:

Our reaction is one of astonishment that Mr Cable has resurrected this scheme when the Government is so preoccupied. May we suggest a compromise? While the rest of us rise at our normal time, let Mr Cable get up an hour earlier. That way he might actually get some productive work done.

Quite.

Another Ipswich Tory enters the blogosphere

2011-10-31T10:20:00.000Z

It was brought to my attention last week that Conservatives continue their domination of the blogosphere: this has already happened nationally but has now occurred locally, here in Ipswich. There are far more Conservative blogs than Socialists blogs. I think apart from the good blog Cllr Alasdair Ross writes, I can't think of another blog written by a prominent Ipswich Socialist.

So who is this new Ipswich blogger? It is Cllr Liz Harsant, the former leader of Ipswich Borough Council. Liz continues her work as an effective ward councillor in Holywells which her blog now predominately focuses on. You can read more here.

The European issue hasn't gone away

2011-10-28T14:28:00.001+01:00

Now that the dust has settled, let's take a moment to reflect on Monday night's EU Referendum motion vote and the resulting rebellion by 81 Conservative MPs, double the number who rebelled over the Maastricht Treaty during John Major's premiership in 1993. 19 Labour MPs also voted for David Nuttall's motion.

Many of the Conservative parliamentary 2010 intake are Eurosceptics and they also put principle before a potential ministerial career. They know who the real boss is: their electorate.
My MP, Ben Gummer, is a Europhile (like father like son) and that is no shock: we knew this when I, along with the people of Ipswich, selected him as the Conservative Party candidate in 2007. As I tweeted a few days ago, there is more to candidate selection than their view on Europe.
My fellow Tory blogger, James Spencer, has his own take on Ben's decision to vote with the Government here.

It has become clearer since the vote that the Cabinet was not exactly wholly united on the issue of the three-line whip with Iain Duncan Smith (one of probably only two real Tories still left in the Government) making it known he told the Conservative Chief Whip, Patrick McCloughlin, never to ask him again to vote against a referendum on our continuing membership of the European Union. I just hope IDS saw that the motion would not be binding and consequently fell in line behind Cameron but would never consider voting against legislation to provide for a referendum on this vital of issues. Not just vital to over half the Conservative parliamentary party but a vital issue for the public at large. The polls have shown the public want their say on Europe and by plebiscite.

Last night's BBC Question Time had on the panel the UKIP Leader Nigel Farage and the Work and Pensions Secretary Iain Duncan Smith. IDS looked uncomfortable at times as Farage launched into his usual rhetoric. I believe IDS agrees with Farage on Europe but finds he is held back by the Liberal Democrats and a liberal Conservative prime minister. At least in the 1990s it was just a liberal Conservative PM!

David Cameron said before the vote on Monday he was going to use the Euro crisis to repatriate powers from Brussels. But at the first opportunity he had to do this at a European Leaders summit in Brussels on Wednesday he bottled it. Eurozone leaders announced a package to delay the Euro crisis for another few months and then David Cameron flew off to Australia for the Heads of Commonwealth conference. But the problem with delaying an issue where a single currency and one interest rate is used in 17 different economies is that it will only get worse until it is solved. Now, this may mean the 17 Eurozone countries will, probably in the next 12-18 months, have to become a single fiscal entity with a single policy on tax as well as interest rates but that can't happen without a new treaty and this is the moment Cameron must either side with Britain and his party and give the country a referendum or with the eurocrats in Brussels and his friends in the Liberal Democrat Party. If he chooses the latter, he risks a leadership challenge and several Tory MPs defecting to UKIP.

Time will reveal all.

Ipswich is coming of age

2011-10-24T18:38:00.002+01:00

My wife is away at the moment and has taken our car. Being only a one car family (not out of some loony aversion to CO2 but out of economic necessity) I have gone about my business on foot.

This has been a lovely experience and demonstrated to me how Ipswich has come on leaps and bounds since I came to live here ten years ago. I've shed a few pounds but more importantly I've been able to visually devour Ipswich town centre and our Waterfront which when whizzing around in my car I don't get to appreciate.

There are a fair few doomsayers in Ipswich who think our town centre has gone to wrack and ruin. I'm not convinced by this. Instead, I am particularly pleased by how lovely Giles Circus looked yesterday - a piece of regeneration led by Conservatives and rabidly opposed by Labour at the time. The town also has many more decent shops than there were ten years ago with White Stuff, Fat Face and Office now open.

But of course the absolute jewel in the crown is the Waterfront with the new bars, restaurants and the UCS campus. I also like the new housing developments around Duke Street and the shops which have sprung up to serve them. And even the new traffic scheme at the bottom of Back Hamlet is a vast improvement. The town has grown up and feels far more forward-looking than at the turn of the century.

Now there are always issues and the shell commonly known as the 'wine rack' on the Waterfront still stands as a monument to the recession and the woeful management of the banks by the last Labour Government and foreign governments, especially the Irish whose government, or so I am told, actually owns the 'wine rack' as it is in their toxic bank. Sadly, until the Irish sell it, it won't be finished any time soon.

However, there is a problem down the Waterfront the newly selected Labour parliamentary candidate and leader of Ipswich Borough Council, Cllr David Ellesmere, could solve soon, and that is the horrid rubbish stagnating the marina. This is something Ipswich Borough Council should be sorting out as although they don't own the marina I believe they do own the marina bed, which the rubbish along with the water sits on. Over to you David.

The British people want an EU Referendum

2011-10-23T20:29:00.000+01:00

Tomorrow would have been a day of interest in politics but it wouldn't have been a watershed moment in the People vs. The Establishment if it wasn't for the ludicrous decision made by David Cameron to enforce a "three line" whip on David Nuttall MP's motion on an EU Referendum.

The reason there is a motion and debate for an EU Referendum is because over 100,000 UK citizens signed a petition demanding a debate in Parliament with a YouGov poll on Friday showing 67% of voters support Nuttall's motion.

The European Union is not some side-show which supposedly the Right are obsessed with but it is a fundamental reason why Britain is no longer the economic power house it once was. Of course, there are a few odd-balls in the movement to have a EU Referendum but as in any large organisation there are always a few weird individuals, hey Ed Milliband! In 1997, when Ken Clarke (ironic I know) handed Tony Blair a golden economic legacy, Great Britain was the 4th largest economy in the world. We now hover around 7th and 8th largest but in terms of world competitiveness we have plummeted to 22nd. Over the last century, we had swapped our powerful empire for a powerful economy but all this was trashed by a) wasteful spending on a criminal scale by Gordon Brown and b) suffocating regulations from Brussels. As Bernard Jenkin in his Sunday Telegraph column tells us today, the British Chamber of Commerce calculates the cost of EU regulation to the UK economy introduced between 1998 and 2010 has been £60.75 billion. This isn't just an attack on private sector growth but also on pubic sector efficiency - the working time directive (which deprives junior doctors of vital hands on training which in the end will save lives) costs the NHS £300 million per year.

George Osborne yesterday at a gathering of finance ministers in Brussels said the Eurozone crisis is a danger to our country and is putting Britain's economic recovery in peril. That's a currency we are not part of putting us in danger because we are a member of the EU. So when Government ministers and pseudo-Tory MPs suggest now is not the time to discuss our continuing membership of the EU superstate as we must concentrate on sorting the economy out, what planet are they on? Our membership of the EU IS the reason why our economy cannot take off again. When on earth would be a good time to discuss our relationship with Europe?

Not wishing to sound like a Sun columnist but Great Britain is not the same as the rest of Europe. We are different: our mother tongue is the world's language used by every other country who wants to do business outside its own borders, we are an island nation with special defence needs as a result and by our nature we are more conservative and less socialist minded as a people. Labour tried to create a socialist state through the welfare system and by gold plating every EU directive that came our way but British people aren't afraid of working long hours and don't believe in a something for nothing society.

The EU elite wants us to stay but because of our money not because they have any affinity with us. We contribute more than we take out of the EU - each British household lost £299 to Brussels last year with the UK ploughing £10.5 billion into EU coffers. In contrast, Poland put in £2.9 billion and took out £10.2 billion. Why should we stay in a relationship where we give much more than we take?

The Europhiles tell us we could not survive as non-EU members as 40% of our trade is with EU countries. Oh so that's why we can't trade with India, China, the US - no, sorry, we do don't we. This is an argument which does not wash. Now it is certainly true many southern or eastern European countries could not survive without being in the EU. And they know it - when I was in Sicily a few years ago, I could hardly see the sky for the fluttering of EU flags. The Italians certainly know who their paymasters are. As Britain puts in much more than it takes out, we are not in hock to the EU. If our leaders grew some balls and started seriously taking steps to leave, the eurocrats in Brussels wouldn't be able to get to London quick enough to negotiate.

The motion isn't binding tomorrow but I hope as many MPs (including Mr Gummer) as possible represent their constituents' view, vote for the motion and send a message to the Government and the EU that we've had enough.

The NHS is not wonderful

2011-10-11T18:44:00.000+01:00

One thing I am tired of hearing from our politicians, especially rabid Socialists, is how wonderful the nurses and doctors in our beloved NHS are, as if every employee is a saint. With even Tory (at least I think he is a Tory) Prime Minister David Cameron espousing how great the NHS is, it has almost become sacrilege to differ.

Well, I do differ. Even Lenin would have found it difficult to dream up the NHS - it is a perfect Communist organisation where everyone is treated the same as if we were all the same.
Newsflash: we are not all the same.
A first year UK medical student knows that but still he/she falls hook, line and sinker into the mentality of a USSR apparatchik once he/she can add Dr. in front of his name. Well, it is hardly difficult to ignore this fact when the prospect of several hundred thousand pounds a year in wages is dangled in front of them. Never mind about the patients hey.

Politicians love to say how wonderful NHS staff are until their elderly mother ends up in an NHS ward and then they see their rhetoric hasn't turned into reality. There are of courses some very good health care professionals but then there are some whose care is so bad it is illegal, as Ipswich Hospital were told by the Care Quality Commission.

I recently had the misfortune to visit my local GPs' surgery. Firstly, despite paying thousands of pounds in taxes every year I was told I could not see a doctor but had to do with a 'nurse practitioner' - whatever one of those is - who, unsurprisingly, was not competent enough to assist. Once she pulled out her laminated crib sheet I knew I was in trouble! Luckily, I am not an elderly person and was able to stand up for myself and demanded to see a doctor, who was able to assist, although he failed to spot I had a perforated ear drum. Finally after seeing a third health professional, I was diagnosed correctly and provided with the medication I required. I despair what the experience must be like for a confused elderly lady.

I then heard an anecdote from my wife who was told her friend's sister had recently, after much head scratching by doctors at Ipswich Hospital, been diagnosed with a brain tumour and was booked into see an oncologist at Addenbrooke's Hospital, Cambridge. On the day of her appointment, she was called by Addenbrooke's and told not to bother coming in as "there is nothing we can do". Now, anecdotal evidence is not scientific but there is never smoke without fire and there are too many horror stories circulating for this story to be discounted.

The respected Channel 4 'Dispatches' broadcast a programme on the incompetence of GPs only last week, where one doctor failed repeatedly to spot the symptoms of bowel cancer.
It was astonishing to learn that GPs never have to be re-tested* once they qualify so in effect they can be a GP for 30 years without ever having their qualifications validated. An airline pilot must be re-tested every five years! Why not a GP? No wonder they think they can walk on water, when in one ear they are told they are too good to be re-tested and in the other they are told by politicians everyday how wonderful they are. The care of patients is tertiary never mind secondary in that performance-management vacuum.

This has led me to be convinced that the last people who should be given more powers as a result of the Health and Social Care Bill are GPs - that would be a recipe for terrible suffering and the Lords should not allow the GP Commissioning aspect of the Bill to gain Royal Assent.

We wait and see.

*As a result of The Shipman Inquiry, re-validation pilots of GPs have started but a date for a full roll-out of the re-validation process has not been set.

Credit Easing

2011-10-04T18:56:00.000+01:00

The word 'Easing' is the operative word in my headline post. It looks as if it is related to Quantitative 'Easing'. That's because it is. Both are about creating money out of nothing. IOUs, printing money, bonds, whatever you want to call it. It will only end up (and has already) in inflation - but then, may be inflation is the only mechanism the Government has got to reduce the national debt.

This would certainly do the trick for them except it would push us consumers further into the economic gutter. Employers are certainly not going to increase your wages to keep up with inflation and food and fuel prices aren't going to come down any time soon.

Whichever way you look at it, with the weak decisions being made by politicians in the Eurozone and by George Osborne back in the UK we are in a full scale Japan-style 1990s recession. Unofficially, we are not in recession as the economy has its mouth above water, just! This is because growth is at 0.2% or thereabout. But for all intents and purposes we are in a recession.

I can't help thinking if we had some real Tories in the Conservative Party high command and we were relieved of the Yellow Peril things might be slightly different.

Guido Fawkes sums it up well:

When the government starts lending money to companies that no one else wants to lend to, you can be sure of one thing, they are going to lose a lot of taxpayers’ money. Billions.

It's time to get out

2011-09-30T17:51:00.000+01:00

Watching Question Time last night, from Liverpool (that no-go city for Tories!), it struck me how Euroscepticism really isn't just the preserve of the Right. Full on Socialists were baying for the EU's blood: they were furious with the faceless Brussels bureaucrats and the fact that our politicians here in the UK just blindly gold-plate all EU directives into law (70% of British laws originate in Brussels) without a moment's scrutiny or thought. Contrast this to other European countries, as Janet Street-Porter eloquently (not a word used often in the same sentence as JSP) put it, where, for example, they decide how much 'elf and safety' really is necessary. Having just got back from Ibiza I can attest that anti-slip paths and barriers to death are merely optional requirements of business and councils - of course, back in Blighty, our children aren't even allowed to play conkers!!!

And then I read this morning that Brussels wants Iain Duncan Smith to water down his new welfare rules which will save billions in the long term and re-introduce the incentive to work rather than vegetate all day at home on the X Box whilst the next door neighbour heads out early each morning and arrives home late after another hard day at work. Guess what. The EU commission says we aren't allow to stop paying people to do nothing and in fact we aren't even allowed to stop paying immigrants, who have never paid a penny in tax in this country, generous benefits as well. Enough is enough.

For many years I was sure most of the time we are better of out of the EU but never 100% convinced as I was always slightly concerned about the trade implications and freedom of movement across European borders being an EU member state brings us. This year's Eurozone farce has made me fully convinced - if it's good enough for Norway and Switzerland it's more than good enough for us. With the Eurozone in crisis, a building with no exits as William Hague recently said, the Right has won the argument in monumental fashion that Britain is better out of the EU. Of course, the Germans and French knew the Euro was merely a stepping stone to full fiscal and political union. The Germans and French are not stupid - they knew Greece couldn't cope with not being able to control its own interest rates or devalue its currency to tame its basket case of an economy. They knew all along it would end in tears - and it has. But, they hope, not enough tears that a few billion Euros won't wipe away. And Britain will not escape bailing out Greece, Spain, Italy, and the rest, as we contribute hundreds of millions of Sterling to the IMF.

Now, I am sure the Euro fanatics were hoping Britain would carry on as before the Eurozone ~~crisis~~ Armageddon, and just let Brussels carry on as if nothing had happened, writing more busy-body (aka Socialist) directives, driving the EU project further forward to a United States of Europe. Fortunately, they are wrong. The tectonic plates have shifted and it is becoming acceptable even to moderates that being out of the EU might not be such a bad thing.

Now is time to hold a referendum on our membership of the European Union. If this happened tomorrow, I predict the result would be similar to the AV vote (that other loony left infatuation), with 80% + voting for our immediate withdrawal from an organisation that is thoroughly un-British. It's time we got our independence back and felt proud to be citizens of Great Britain again.

New Ipswich politics blogger

2011-09-25T12:49:00.001+01:00

Blogging has been light this week as I have been on a short break to Ibiza to get some sun as my honeymoon earlier this year, predominantly in Derbyshire, was distinctly lacking in fine weather! The major political issue of last week in the Balaerics for me was the dreadful Sterling to Euro exchange rate, another contributory to the Eurozone crisis. Tourism is a big export for southern Eurozone countries and I suspect Spain as well as Greece wishes it could devalue its currency at the moment. I certainly can't afford to holiday in Europe again any time soon.

Whilst I've been away, there has been a new entrant to the Ipswich politics blogosphere. I'd like to take this opportunity to welcome Liberal Democrat Ipswich Borough Councillor Ken Bates who has begun blogging here.

Tories fight hard but Labour big beasts show no mercy

2011-09-15T21:46:00.000+01:00

A full council meeting of all 48 (minus 1 who has resigned) councillors at Ipswich Borough Council took place yesterday evening. I went along but I felt somewhat uncomfortable by the mauling which took place as Labour answered questions from my fellow Conservatives.

The leader of the Conservative Group, Cllr John Carnall, rightly tackled the leader of the Council, Cllr Ellesmere, on why the Executive Committee meeting was postponed on 23rd August. Some may say it was only a meeting so why all the fuss. Well, the Executive Committee is another term for the Cabinet and in a 'Leader and Cabinet' model which we have at the Borough Council, this Committee (which only consists of 8 councillors out of 48) is the only power base for elected members. It is here where all decisions on policy are made and this Committee must legally meet on a regular basis so for the meeting to be cancelled is an erosion of democracy and accountability. The reason for the cancellation was an administration error which meant reports were not ready in time. The leader assured the Council that he and the Chief Executive had addressed the shortcomings to prevent a repeat.

Cllr Carnall then asked how much it had cost to cancel the meeting. The figure - who knows how these things are worked out - came to £35. But Cllr Ellesmere pounced on the opportunity to highlight the forthcoming by-election (not yet officially called) which has been caused by Tory councillor Sarah Stokes resigning from the council. David Ellesmere estimates it will cost £10,000 to stage the by-election. Is that £10,000 spent by the political parties, £10,000 to be spent by the Council holding the by-election (manning polling stations, counting the votes etc)? Who knows where he plucked that figure from? Needless to say Paul Geater from the ~~Morning~~ Evening Star swallowed the figure hook, line, and sinker and stated it as a fact in his column today (not online).

Embarrassingly for my party, Cllr Ellesmere also pointed out that Conservative Cllr Kym Stroedt had said in his diary in the ~~Morning~~ Evening Star on Tuesday: "After a short break I head off to Grafton House to take part in a Conservative group meeting. It's not long before realisation strikes that we don't have the papers that we should have. Subsequently the meeting is postponed", which caused the chamber to erupt in laughter. Cllr Kym Stroedt quickly informed the Council he had been misquoted, which no doubt he was. There is always a risk when Conservatives use a paper which has a patently left-wing agenda to convey a "diary" of thoughts to the electorate and on this occasion it has backfired.

Other Council Questions were on the problem of Street Drinking and what was being done to address the issue. This was a good question from Cllr Stroedt. Cllr Neil Macdonald, the Labour portfolio holder responsible for 'Safer Ipswich' claimed the evil Tories were driving people to drink. This was a gross trivialisation of addiction and mental health problems which are prevalent in street drinkers. Cllr Stroedt was not talking about people having a couple of glasses of wine at home after a hard day's work - he was talking about people who through a medical condition were drinking on the streets during the day. Unfortunately, Cllr Stroedt did not tackle Cllr Macdonald's comments in his supplementary question but it is not always easy to react quickly in the bear pit of a council chamber.

Cllr Tanya Maclure (and I declare an interest as she is my wife!) asked a good question to Labour's Transport man, Cllr Phil Smart, on why one lane of the Star Lane gyratory had been closed during the Ipswich Maritime Festival last month. This, as you will see from a previous post caused gridlock in the town centre. Cllr Smart was asked if he had made the decision. The Labour Council's transport chief said he had not made the decision and that he didn't even know such a decision had been made until he also got caught up in the traffic that day. I'm sorry but this is ridiculous - who on earth is running the council? Elected members or officers? Obviously Labour are happy for unelected bureaucrats to run our town (but then most are probably Labour voters!).

The last item on the agenda was the Strategic Overview and Scrutiny Committee Annual Report. As some of my readers may know, I was Chairman of this Committee during my last year as a councillor before I stepped down in May this year. I was humbled to hear kind words spoken about my chairmanship from all three parties, from the current Liberal Democrat Committee Chairman, Cllr Nigel Cheesman to Cllr Roger Fern from Labour and the Conservative Group Leader, Cllr John Carnall. I greatly appreciated their words of thanks.

Train Chaos hits MP

2011-09-15T20:59:00.000+01:00

Further to my post last week, I've learnt that my MP, Ben Gummer, is also suffering this evening on the railway line between London and Ipswich. He is furious and rightly so. There has been another suicide, the second in a week. As sad as it is, why has the poor soul been allowed to get on to the railway track in the first place and why does it take so long for British Transport Police to clear up the incident?

Mr Gummer has articulated well the extent of the railway chaos on the Great Eastern mainline on Twitter this evening with one tweet having a particularly serious tone. I know he has been lobbying the Transport Secretary, Philip Hammond, for major investment on the mainline but I doubt in this current economic climate there will be much cash forthcoming. It is not just a matter of money but a case of tackling the RMT union, the incompetence of Network Rail and the lack of incentives for operators to invest in the track infrastructure.

As a fellow Conservative has said, the extent of the problem is enough to withold one's vote.

British tradition and values exemplified by Royal Anglians

2011-09-11T21:51:00.002+01:00

Today has been a poignant day as we remember those who were murdered on 11th September 2001 in New York, Washington and Pennsylvania. Our thoughts and prayers are with their friends and families on this sad 10th anniversary.

It was particularly fitting that I was able to attend the Ceremony to award the Freedom of the Borough of Ipswich to The Royal Anglian Regiment, held at the Corn Exchange last night. Colonel Julian Lacey, Deputy Colonel of the Royal Anglian Regiment, received the Freedom of the Borough of Ipswich Presentation Scroll from The Mayor of Ipswich, Councillor John Le Grys.

Serving and retired members of the Royal Anglian Regiment were present as were local Army Cadets from 'C' Company Suffolk ACF. All the uniformed soldiers and cadets were impeccably dressed.

We were then treated to some excellent music, at the Celebration Concert immediately after the Presentation, played by the The Minden Band of The Queen's Division and supported by members of The Royal Anglian Territorial Army Band. The music had an international sound as it featured American, Russian and, of course, British composers. As there were two bands, there were two conductors, who were very amusing during their very knowledgeable introductions to each piece.

The audience was also entertained by a bizarre performance of The Huntsmen by Leo R. Stanley, where one member of The Minden Band played several household items, such as a vacuum cleaner or even a bicycle handlebar, instead of the traditional horn. I believe this style of performance of The Huntsmen is played by other military bands but it may be a first where a ceramic toilet was used as a substitute horn!

The concert ended with the Regimental Marches of the Queen's Division and The Royal Anglian Regiment followed by a stirring rendition of The National Anthem, which, right on the cue of the drums, we all stood up to listen in respectful tribute to our Monarch and our Country.

The Celebration Concert was a public event but it was shame more did not turn out. It is, I believe, very important to be reminded of our country's values and traditions, exemplified by our military, during these difficult times our world faces. It is the traditions which hold our communities together and should not be dismissed as old fashioned as without them we are nothing.

I very much look forward to seeing The Royal Anglian Regiment march through out town centre, drums beating, colours flying and bayonets fixed as is now their right to do!

Chaos on British railways damages economy further

2011-09-10T13:52:00.000+01:00

I was on business this week in Belgium and travelled back yesterday evening on the Eurostar from the centre of Brussels to the centre of London in two hours. The Eurotunnel, Eurostar tracks and rolling stock are a great feat of engineering and is something for British, French and Belgium people to be truly proud of.

However, the other side of British transport reared its ugly head about 15 minutes after my arrival in London. I got to Liverpool Street station to find huge crowds at a time of day on a Friday I would normally expect to see thining crowds as most commuters had headed home. Unfortunately, someone had committed suicide by train on one of the lines in the Romford area of Essex, one of the mainlines heading out of London to the East of England where I live. Now, when a person is so depressed they kill themselves that it is a very sad event. But it is not unusual.

The poor person's death had a major knock-on effect on thousands of people's lives. It had happened around two hours before I had even arrived at Liverpool Street and since then severe disruption to trains arrivals and departures had occurred. I arrived at the tail end of the long wait for a train out of London. My next train was due to leave at 20.00 but instead pulled out of Liverpool Street at 20.40 (not a big delay in the scheme of things). But the reason it was able to leave was because the earlier incident had been "cleared up" or so the announcements suggested.

The first question to our Government is why does it take at least two hours to remove body parts from the line and then to re-open the line? The second point is why, once the line has been cleared, did it take me two and half hours to get back to Ipswich from London, eventually pulling into Ipswich at 23.10, TWO HOURS later than scheduled.

I decided to ask my MP, Ben Gummer, from my packed train carriage using Twitter. This was the exchange:

My tweet to Mr Gummer:

@ben4ipswich could you tell my followers and I why we have to put up with such lousy railway services in this country?

Mr Gummer's reply to me:

@gavinmaclure because a)it was nationalised for 50 yrs; b)Network Rail is useless; c)old franchises good for Treasury, bad for travellers

Firstly, I have to say Ben Gummer is now very responsive on Twitter and uses the tool well to communicate with his constituents. Those who criticise Mr Gummer for not being available to answer questions and give his view should take note.

However, he raised three points which might explain the horrific experience on the train last night but does not give solutions to the problems. All these points, raised by Ben Gummer, the Government has control over.

Mr Gummer later said:

@gavinmaclure and don't tell me about the pain - I am all too aware myself. It's going to take an age to sort out, but we are making a start

Undoubtedly, Mr Gummer is right when he says the Government is trying to fix the dire state of our railways but I ask he elaborate on what they are actually doing. I am more than happy to provide a platform on my blog for him to write on this.

One area the Government should look at first are the processes around dealing with a suicide incident. This is inevitably going to cause disruption but the level of chaos it causes is wholly unacceptable when you are paying £70 for a return to London from Ipswich. In addition to my point on the length of time it takes to clear the line and re-open it (at least two hours!) why then are the same union negotiated rules on staff changeovers allowed to continue occurring as if nothing has happened and the public aren't already climbing the walls. It took 20 minutes to get a platform at Colchester after crawling through Essex for two hours because staff changeovers had to take place. We then had to wait whilst they changed the driver!!

For some reason, the same issues we have with our railway services are not replicated on the Continent. European trains run on time and they have plenty of capacity. I travelled twice in commuter time in Belgium and it was bliss - no overcrowding and a punctual service. I had a similar experience in Paris earlier this year.

With London and Thames Valley property being so overpriced, more and more people are having to travel longer distances to get to work. The economy is close to another meltdown but with the workers (yes the workers who pay all the taxes!!) not being able to get to work on time or being frazzled by the incompetence of Network Rail and the dreadful service of National Express and other rail operators we are just making matters worse.

Unfortunately, as the country has run out of money as Labour so succinctly told us, we can't build more capacity on the lines or buy better rolling stock. But what we can do is change police processes and re-negotiate rail worker contracts but has Cameron got the guts to do this?

Babyboomers stand aside, we need new homes now

2011-09-03T23:33:00.000+01:00

Charles Moore writes an eloquent article in today's Daily Telegraph which contradicts the paper's campaign to stop the Government's policy to make it easier for developers to build houses. The Coalition's Draft National Planning Policy Framework is, in my view, a good policy. It will shake up the current failed planning regulations, reducing thousands of pages of planning policy to fewer than 60 and also enact in planning law "presumption in favour of sustainable development". As expected, the nimbys and other vested interets such as the National Trust have swung their influence and money into action to ramp up a campaign to oppose the Government's plans.

Now, I am sure it is lovely if you are a baby boomer recently retired to a cottage overlooking miles of countryside with not one other house in sight but it's not so great for their children stuck in densely populated expensive rented accommodation in the towns and cities without a hope of getting a foot on the property ladder. The banks won't give them a mortgage and there are not enough properties on the market because during the last Labour Government we had the lowest number of houses being built since before the Queen was born (these two factors are very much intertwined). This is patently not fair on the current working generation and their children.

This is where the Government are doing the right thing for the future of this country. We need housing growth or we are condemning millions of people to a life of poverty in retirement in 30 years time. The UK economy, like it or not, is built on a housing market. A Government state pension, even when combined with a private sector pension (let's leave the lucky public sector pensioners out of this one for today), will only give you enough to eat and drink and pay the bills: it won't pay for mortgage payments. It is expected that you will have paid off the cost of your home before you retire. But this is not going to happen if you haven't been able to buy a house in your 20s, which a whole generation might not be able to do unless many many more houses are built and soon. I am lucky in that I do have a mortgage on my house but if I was to move to another part of the country it might not be so easy to buy another house due to the massive difference in house prices across the country brought about because housing supply is no where close to demand. Fluidity of market is very important to ensure economic growth but if workers cannot move because of a lack of homes, high rent and mortgage payments this is another obstruction to economic recovery.

The new policy still has to go through a couple of Commons committees first before Government consultation on the new planning framework completes at the end of October. The legislation will then continue its passage through parliament, especially the Lords, so I don't expect the policy to become law until next year.

One of the chief nimby representatives, Tim Yeo MP, heads up the all-party parliamentary housing and planning group. He said in yesterday's Daily Telegraph many voters were worried about the proposals saying "I fully understand the reasons for concern. It's a highly sensitive area. If it means uncontrolled development, I would be very concerned about that." Now, Mr Yeo represents the very rural South Suffolk and this coupled with his zealous environmental credentials it is hardly surprising he has made such comments. But what he and the other nimbys need to realise is they are acting in an incredibly selfish manner if they try and get in the way of their children being able to own a home for themselves.
The baby boomer generation, many of which are now represented by Tim Yeo, have been the luckiest generation ever to live in terms of economic good fortune. The damage they have done to the economy by the decisions they made when in Government (Bliar and Brown) and when in charge of our banks has almost bankrupted their children's future.
By standing in the way of new house building just so they can enjoy a beautiful view almost borders on criminality.

Both the new Ipswich MPs are my age. I, therefore, expect them to represent my generation in parliament. I fear Central Suffolk and North Ipswich's Dr Dan Poulter is on a collision course with the Government based on his recent comments on the ongoing Northern Fringe development proposal, which would be affected by the new planning framework. He says in the ~~Morning~~ Evening Star: "I still believe there is a need to use the brownfield sites nearer the town centre, and for smaller scale developments in other communities, before you start to look at developing the northern fringe.
“Given the current state of the economy... I would be surprised if anything happened there in the next ten years.”

I hope Ipswich's Ben Gummer stands up for his constituents in their 20s and 30s a bit better than Dr Poulter.
We will be watching.

9/11 Anniversary

2011-09-03T12:42:00.000+01:00

If you only watch one documentary produced for the 10th anniversary of 9/11 then you must see '9/11 - Day That Changed the World'. I saw this brilliant documentary this morning, which had interviews with all the key decision-makers on that awful day in 2001 from the Vice-President to the Captain of Air Force One. The only person it seems that was not interviewed was President Bush.

The documentary vividly shows the lengths taken to keep Bush safe, at one point showing footage of him entering a nuclear bunker on an airforce base in Nebraska. The programme can still be seen on ITV Player.

What was the point of going into Libya?

2011-08-30T15:41:00.000+01:00

James Spencer on his blog, Bridge Ward News, makes a good point regarding our involvement in Libya. It's not as if the oil was at risk under Gaddafi. Brother Leader Bliar saw to that:

We were told that the reason for intervention was to prevent a massacre in Benghazi. The Mad Dog of North Africa would probably have launched an assault on Libya's eastern capital to repel an uprising but it may well be that the number of people killed in the civil war which followed NATO's intervention is greater than would have been killed in a Gaddifi assault on Benghazi.

Now, I detest Gaddafi as much as the next man and the fact this vulgar barbaric leader is no longer in power is pleasing. But the removal or killing of Gaddafi was not the mandate given by UN resolution 1973 for the UK and NATO military action in Libya. It was to prevent civilian deaths. Frankly, that has not exactly been achieved. So, why exactly are we involved in a civil war in Libya?

The rebels are hardly holier-than-thou. They are a fragmented bunch with different tribes, who don't exactly all get on like one big happy family. One of the rebel generals was recently murdered in suspicious circumstances amidst allegations he was killed by his fellow rebels.

And I don't think we are going to see justice served on the Lockerbie bomber, Abdelbaset Ali al-Megrahi, or the Libyan diplomat, who murdered WPC Fletcher in 1984 by shooting her from inside the Libyan embassy in London, any time soon. The rebels have already indicated that no Libyan will be extradited.

Life in Libya for civilians, in Tripoli at least (where most of the foreign journalists are based) is pretty grim at the moment. No water, no electricity, food and medical supplies running low or non-existent in some areas. Wasn't the UN resolution meant to protect civilians?

Men Not Working

2011-08-22T10:13:00.000+01:00

Decision making at Labour run Ipswich Borough Council is in question again today, in particular in the Transport Department.

Whose bright idea was it to close one lane of the Star Lane gyratory going from east to west from Friday 19th to Sunday 21st August this weekend? This caused chaos with gridlock outside the UCS building and traffic backed up to the Bishops Hill/Nacton Road junction and beyond.

As I drove into town at the weekend, when it took me 35 minutes to get from the Cavendish Street/Bishop's Hill junction to St Peter's Street, I saw lots of Ipswich Borough Council barriers and cones but not a single council workman.

Were any works meant to be going on or was this an example of mad 'elf 'n' safety' decision-making because the Ipswich Maritime Festival was taking place nearby?
The Festival was very good, my wife and I enjoyed visiting the different stalls then having a drink at the Ipswich Beer Festival, but did town centre shoppers, residents and visitors have to suffer chaos on the roads as a result?

Over to you Cllr Phil Smart.

Cameron needs to move in the Right direction now

2011-08-19T13:53:00.000+01:00

As pointed out by Tory blog 'A Riverside View' this is an excellent intelligent article from Simon Marcus, who very skilfully explains how the Left tore up the social fabric of our once great nation over forty years.

The liberal intelligentsia infiltrated schools, local government councils, and even our courts (until the conversion on the road to Damascus last week) and then they forced on this country their amoral messages and ideas which led to anarchy on our streets earlier this month. The Left believe the family does not matter, right and wrong are relative concepts, and there is no need to take responsibility for your actions or your life as the State will cushion you from cradle to grave through a bloated benefits system. A Labour Government then came in and actively pursued these ideas in policies and guidelines. Brown and Bliar's children were taught these messages as a matter of course either directly or indirectly by not tacking bad behaviour or setting boundaries and encouraging families to not work as being on benefits made them better off. And guess what, the chickens came home to roost.

People on the Right have known for years the Left were wrong but millions woke up last week to how cruelly wrong the liberal intelligentsia really were.

The task now is for the Right to re-assert themselves. This will be difficult as Cameron, sucked in by the Left's rhetoric, ensured through a Soviet-style control of candidate selections that a number of Tory 'wets' - as the great lady once said - now sit in the Conservative parliamentary party. Luckily, Michael Gove is pushing through the Government's education policy to open more academies (one thing Bliar should be thanked for), which will instil the discipline needed in our schools. But outside of the school, hundreds of thousands of families sit on benefits with no thought of contributing to society. Iain Duncan Smith's welfare reform policies must be stepped up a gear with key announcements made which show the Government's commitment to ensuring those on benefits never take in as much as a family who gets up in the morning and goes to work. Housing benefit - which sees a family on benefits living in a £2000 a week property in West Hampstead, must also be reformed with haste.

We have seen this week magistrates finally wake up to the powers they have to get tough on offenders with people rightly sent to prison for lengthy terms for taking part in the riots of last week. But this justice system must continue when 'ordinary' criminals come in front of the bench. Magistrates were swayed by public opinion - rightly so, considering they represent local people in dispensing of justice - and this opinion was articulated through politicians. So it would be folly to say politicians have no role in the justice system - they patently do as they decide the laws and sentences for breaking them. So stronger political leadership on crime and order is now needed. Cameron should call a taxi for Clarke and soon.

David Cameron has one chance to redeem himself and steer the country in the Right direction. If the yellow peril let him.

Man pulled off his scooter by mob during riots

2011-08-17T13:04:00.003+01:00

New footage has been released on YouTube showing a man being violently pulled off his scooter as he tried to drive through a group of youths in riot-torn Croydon last week. The video also shows the police standing back as shops are looted and set on fire.

This is another reason why the courts must impose tough prison sentences.

Sentences for rioters are just and deserved

2011-08-17T13:03:00.001+01:00

It didn't take long for the bleeding heart liberals to start bleating on about tough sentencing for the scum who wreaked havoc on our towns and cities last week.

I think it is quite acceptable for the two men who incited to riot, using Facebook to do so, to be given four years in jail for their crime. The only shame is that they, of course, won't do the full four years and will be out after a maximum of two years and even sooner if the Court of Appeal judges are taken in by the left-wing claptrap. Jordan Blackshaw and Perry Sutcliffe-Keenan were lucky to not be banged up for 10 years, the maximum sentence allowable.

If we don't have the space to keep convicted criminals inside prison for their full sentence, then build more prisons. Take the money from the 'dictator's private jet fund' to pay for it.

The Yellow Peril, 'yuman rights' proponents and even some in the Cameroon wing of the Conservative Party need to realise people lost their homes, business and some even died during the UK riots last week. This behaviour cannot be tolerated in a civil society and justice should be seen to be very tough in response.

We have gone through a watershed moment with the Left proved completely wrong in their softly softly approach to crime and punishment. Now, the decent law abiding people must insist to their MP that tough sentencing isn't just for rioters but for all criminals.

We need a Conservative Leader now

2011-08-08T08:00:00.005+01:00

I used to be a big fan of David Cameron and was in the vanguard when he first appeared on the political stage as a leadership candidate in 2005. I was an ardent supporter, persuading my fellow Party members to vote for him when I was the Chairman of the Ipswich Conservative Party and trumpeting his appeal to the local media. Back in 2005, when the Conservative Party was on its knees, he was the best man for the job by far.

However, he and his cohort of advisers (Hilton, Letwin, Osborne and then later on Coulson) never seemed to grasp that the country in 2010 was a very different place to that in 2005. We had gone from boom to bust and people were no longer attracted by the airy fairy policies of Blair and certainly did not see merit in the Socialism of Brown. This lack of understanding from Cameron meant he did not re-direct the ship before it was too late and he became the fifth Conservative Leader in a row to lose a General Election.

Instead of talking about the issues which now mattered to voters, like the economy (or the disintegration of ours by a Dr. G. Brown), crime, immigration, and education, he presented a policy at the Conservative Party's manifesto launch which was untested, called The Big Society. This and the terrible decision to take part in the TV debates sank the ship and we lost, again.

Enter a smerking Nick Clegg. David Cameron, unnervingly, could cope with losing an election for his Party for the fifth time and decided to get into bed with the Liberal Democrats and formed the first Coalition since 1945.

By now, I was no longer a Cameroon but many warped members and MPs were and just to see David Cameron become prime minister was the pinnacle. Please, the pinnacle of what? Defeat.
The Liberal Democrats lost seats in the 2010 election and lost votes but now had multiple MPs in cabinet and Government ministries. This was a very unpleasant thing to witness and from my experience as a member of a coalition administration with the Yellow Peril for four years at Ipswich Borough Council I knew it was not going to work for the Conservative Party.

Some say, well, we didn't have the numbers to sustain a minority administration and they are right. Which is why we should have formed a minority administration and then had a second General Election in October 2010 and by then Cameron should hopefully have worked out why he lost the election first time round and started talking about things which matter to the ordinary British citizen. As Clinton said: "It's the economy, stupid".

But he and his inner circle didn't do this and instead sold the Conservative Party down the yellow river and look at the consequences as a result:

1. Far too little cutting back of public spending, which still means we must borrow £150bn a year and is preventing our country's economy from returning to growth.
2. Slashing of the defence budget to the point where we don't now have a fully functioning air, sea and armed forces.
3. Dilution of the NHS Reform Bill which will ensure the vested interests continue to prevail and people die as a result of not being able to get the drugs and treatment they need as managers' mortgages take priority.
4. Held back on cutting immigration to the tens of thousands not hundreds of thousands.
5. Providing £millions to corrupt dictators to buy private jets.

We desperately need leadership but we can't get this in a coalition as the two sides, bound to each other, go in opposite direction and therefore end up no where.
Hard working British people need to feel proud again and not look around seeing their neighbours on benefits greater than their wage sitting around playing on their Xboxes and watching their flat screen TVs, whilst they go out to work early and return late.
These strivers need to feel safe and not wonder what would happen if some mad dictator decided to take a pop at us when we haven't got the armed forces to repel such aggression.
We need to protect our British values and not see people take advantage of our weak immigration policy and civilised way of life.

We need to look after ourselves before trying to solve the world's problems. From the economy to welfare to crime and education, we have enough problems of our own to deal with before looking for more problems to solve.

In Saturday's Daily Telegraph it's reported David Cameron wanted to import a US policeman to take over as the Commissioner of the Metropolitan Police in light of the resignation of Sir Paul Stephenson last month. He was thankfully blocked from doing so by the Home Secretary, Theresa May. But it is a measure of the man that he thought this was such a good idea in the first place. It sums up his lack of regard for putting Britain and British people first. Have we not got at least one decent Chief Constable in the provinces? Perhaps the PM doesn't think much of them. Does he not realise British culture, and especially policing culture, is very different to that of the USA? It would seem not.

On his return from his rightful break in Tuscany, Mr Cameron needs to step up to the plate. We don't want him to become the Conservative leader who lost two elections in a row.

Tottenham riot

2011-08-07T10:10:00.002+01:00

The behaviour in Tottenham last night was disgusting and completely unacceptable. Under planning law, a lot of shops have residential accommodation over the top, i.e. flats. As a result of the arson committed last night on these shops, some people have literally lost everything: their home, their possessions. Looting was rife and was still going on at 5.30am this morning in broad daylight at a local retail park, according to Sky News.

Where were the rudderless Met Police? This behaviour must not be tolerated in our society. There is no excuse. Let me repeat that, there is no excuse whatsoever.

Enter Robert Peston, so called guru on the economic meltdown on the BBC and one of Gordon Brown's biographers (no wonder he knows so much about economic meltdown). And did I mention he works for the BBC - unbelievable bias on their part.
And this was Mr Peston's reponse to the riot: http://twitter.com/#!/Peston/status/100118060588990464. He says: "Not a justification for Tottenham and Wood Green riots and looting, but interesting background" and then links to a Guardian article which excuses the riots because of "Tory cuts" to youth centres.
You couldn't make this nonsensical left-wing clap trap up!

The type of scum who burn cars and buses in the street, set fire to shops and people's homes and steal from shops don't go to youth centres. They are not victims of "cuts". They are criminals who belong in jail for a very long period of time. We need protection from these people.

And guess who re-tweeted Robert Peston's tweet: the editor of the ~~Morning~~ Evening Star, Nigel Pickover.

Public sector incompetence

2011-08-06T17:23:00.000+01:00

As discussed previously, the obstructive nature of Council Officers was the most frustrating part of being a Councillor for four years.

Unfortunately, incompetence was also an issue: instructions were not followed, reports were not written in time, the Monitoring Officer did not understand Standing Orders (i.e. the rules of debate and motions) at Full Council etc.

The incompetence also continued to be obvious even when I stepped down as a Councillor. The Council honours former Councillors with a Mayoral presentation of a Certificate when the Councillor stands down, which states the number of years the person served the people who elected them. This is a considerate thing for the Council to do and is appreciated by former Councillors. Well at least it would be if Officers actually invited the Councillors to the presentation. I only found out I was getting a certificate because my wife, who continued to be a Councillor, told me the presentation was taking place. Several of my fellow former Councillors didn't receive an invitation and therefore did not turn up to be rightly honoured at the Annual Meeting of the Council.

Now, I had let this drop but when my wife received her Council correspondence this morning, I felt compelled to write this post.
The letter envelope was addressed to my wife but the correspondence read as follows:
"The Worshipful the Mayor of Ipswich, Councillor John Le Grys, cordially invites Cllr. G.J. Maclure and Guest to join him...for a Reception and a Presentation of the Freedom of Entry to the Borough of Ipswich to The Royal Anglian Regiment."

For my wife to be shown the discourtesy of being sent an invite to not herself but her husband who is no longer a Councillor is at best incompetent and at worse disrespectful to an elected representative of the People at the Council.

Being the public sector, there will be zero redress with no officer challenged for making these mistakes mentioned above, so I don't expect the situation to improve. I guess we just have to accept it and keep paying for the privilege.

Now I realise the above is trivial compared to the incompetence seen elsewhere, as discussed before, but it is symptomatic of a culture of incompetence and "no blame" in the public sector, which left unchecked does lead to people losing their lives.

Who's got the last laugh now?

2011-08-06T16:45:00.000+01:00

Well, we would be laughing if it wasn't so catastrophically serious.

A video reflecting on UKIP's warnings about the €urozone: "We told you so"

The Death Penalty is just plain wrong

2011-08-04T18:32:00.000+01:00

The Government's introduction of an e-Petition service is on the whole a good idea, as long as the public respect their MPs' right to decide if the motion should be debated in the House of Commons or not. We live in a representative democracy as opposed to a plebiscite democracy. Our views are important and the e-Petition service creates another conduit for our voices to be heard but having a referendum on every decision the Government makes is a recipe for disaster.

The launch of e-Petition today didn't go very well as the servers (at least I hope there is more than one and it isn't just a PC under some civil servant's desk!) crashed as thousands of people tried to access the site. But as a preamble to its launch today, Paul Staines of political blog order-order.com had created a petition calling on the Government to restore the death penalty. This would not be an easy thing to do as Britain is part of the EU and is bound by the Human Rights Act which prevents the use of capital punishment in member states.

I personally think leaving the EU would not be such a bad idea but it certainly would not be so we could re-introduce capital punishment.

I am thoroughly against the death penalty as no one has any right to take someone's life (unless in war according to the rules of engagement) and especially not the State. If we are to live in a civilised society, the first rule is you don't kill your own citizens. Never. Full Stop.

Other countries which have the death penalty are Iran, North Korea, Syria and China. Who wants to be in the same club as them? Now, of course, some USA states also have capital punishment and they are wrong as well. The US is a great country but its use of the death penalty is a blot on its character as a country.

I've signed the petition to retain the ban on capital punishment in our country and encourage you to do the same if you agree with me.

If the e-Petition asking MPs to find a legal way of restoring the death penalty (i.e. leave the EU, opt out of the Human Rights Act etc.) is allowed by the Backbencher's Business Committee to be debated on the floor of the House of Commons then I hope primarily MPs reject it and secondly that the debate is widened to include sentencing. At present, for crimes other than murder and terrorist offences, the sentence passed down by the judge is not actually the sentence the criminal will serve. An automatic minimum 50% discount for good behaviour is applied. Then there is the home detention curfew scheme which cuts the sentence even further. So, for example, prisoners can be released in a matter of 4 months after being given 16 months in jail by the judge. That makes a mockery of the criminal justice system. When we read about sentences such as 16 months handed down to convicted criminals, we should be assured they will serve every day. Whatever your view on the numbers of months which should be served for a particular crime the deterrent effect is minimal at the moment as a direct result of the automatic early release schemes.

David Cameron needs to up his profile

2011-08-01T15:43:00.001+01:00

It seems when our illustrious leader, David Cameron, is away on his hols, he really can feel like an ordinary person again. That's because he is not recognised as the UK's Prime Minister if today's story in the Daily Telegraph is anything to go by.

Mr Cameron and his wife found their waitress was too busy to bring their cappuccinos over to their table and so asked the PM to collect the coffees himself. Quite rightly David Cameron did not reward her dreadful service with a tip (very Tory-like behaviour!). The terrible waitress in question, Francesca Ariani, said she did not know who the man forced to serve his own table was.

Is this just ignorance from the young lady or does DC need to get out more on the international stage?
When you think France, you can see Sarkozy; Germany: Merkel, Italy: Berlusconi. Britain: hmmm...
Now, I'd be pushed to recognise the Portuguese prime minister or even the Spanish leader for that matter but I like to think we operate on higher political plains. Perhaps not.

It wouldn't have happened in Thatcher's day!