Entries from October 2009 ↓

I believe in giving politicians a hard time and making them work for their titles.  It’s time to pester another politician, Ben Gummer is going to be at the Station Hotel tomorrow (Thursday) from 8pm onwards.

I won’t be there but please give him a hard time.

By the way sorry for the sporadic posting – it’s been a busy couple of weeks.

I can’t believe the amount of discussion that Nick Griffin coming on the BBC has generated.  What has been disapointing is that he’s come across as a victim.  I can’t see how the people who want to ban him from the airways can’t don’t recognise that.

Jack Straw came across as a robust but essentially complacent member of the ruling class, Labour’s Michael Howard.  Why couldn’t they have put someone like Jon Cruddas who would at least put up a fight?  Chris Huhne was unbelievably weak except, ironically, when he attacked the weakness of the Tories and Labour on immigration.  Bonnie Greer is irritating enough on Newsnight, and she came across as irrelevant with her talk about Churchill being, perhaps, just a little bit Mohawk – although her parting comment about the British . 

There were some clever people from the audience, but Baroness Warsi was a surprise.  She (along with Dimbleby) made Griffin appear evasive and boldly stole his clothes on immigration – by admitting that the political classes had got it wrong. 

This was no reverse for the BNP.  However the BNP did suffer a reverse when they attacked the “Tory generals” who complained about the BNP appropriating British millitary symbols, comparing the war leaders to Nazi war criminals who were hanged. 

The BNP can’t be defeated by shouting “racist”.  It can’t be ignored.  In Bridge they got more than 200 votes without even trying.  I’m in a mixed race marriage.  I live here.  I can’t escape to a plush house on the other side of the river. I’m invested in the BNP getting no further in Bridge. 

The BNP have to be confronted as a serious party.  I’ve praised a couple of Tory moves earlier in this post but when I stood for council for Bridge I got a letter from the party chairman Eric Pickles (well it wasn’t to me in particular but to every candidate who faced the BNP).  It told me not to debate the BNP, not to address “their” issues and to ignore the whole thing.  It was this attitude, shared across the political class, that helped them get a million votes.

It’s not just that.  It’s also the silly moves over time by various members of the media and political classes to play down any mention of our Christian heritage, to stop the British flag from being flown and – until recently - to only address immigration from the viewpoint of employers.  The East European mass migration may get marginally cheaper cleaners and builders for the residents of Corder Road, but in Rectory Road its driving up rents, driving down wages and crowding out public services such as schools and hospitals.

The reason why the fruitcakes of the BNP do well is because the political class spent a lot of time talking to itself rather than listening to the voters.

If that doesn’t change things will get a lot worse.  And Bridge will be the victim of a complacent absentee political class that has forgotten how to speak up for it’s voters, if it ever knew how.

BBC Look East were publicising a public meeting about the Southern Cement noise in Ipswich today.  There is as far as we know no such meeting.

There is a meeting of Babergh district council which is discussing the noise.  Email me if you need any further information.

I’ve got an exam that I’ve not done enough study for so the posts will be less frequent until the Monday after next.

I’ll still be watching Spanish cement ships, though.

One thing that is commonly said to the council about the port noise is that the cement hoover has sound proof casing.  Can you see it?  Me neither.

Now, I’m not saying they weren’t doing anything, but if they only talked to the residents – like just about any similar company does – then they would be able to show us what they are doing.  Instead they are leaving themselves to the mercy of telescopic lenses.

So David Wilshre, the rather unpleasant Tory MP has been thrown out of Parliament because he paid money to a company controlled by him.  (Yes, I know he’s the same party as me, but it’s about theft not party identity)

(Photo courtesy of Guido Fawkes).

Oddly this issue was about the misuse of constituency office allowances and not about second home allowances, so it’s not covered by all the letters that MPs are getting.  This set of abuse is going to be examined later by Sir Thomas Legg.

So which MP do we know who has diverted public money intended for his constituency office to an otherwise cash-strapped Ipswich Labour Party essentially controlled by him?  Why it’s no other than our own Chris Mole.

I won’t hold my breath, Mole’s not a critic.  Unlike the Norwich North MP Iain Gibson, Chris Mole is a pliant member who won’t raise a peep against his party leadership, even when the most important hospital in his constituency is being systematically run down.

The wages of sin are death.  The wages of ignoring your constituents are promotion.

Look East has an article on how Ipswich is going to be asked by the government to choose a street in which they will flatter or bully the residents into recycling more and undoubtedly foist on them more and more bins.

Don’t they see the inconvenience that the current policy is forcing on anyone without substantial gardens.  It’s no surprise that most councillors, of all parties, have spacious and well appointed gardens.  Three bins are not filling up a good proportion of their back garden.  If you live on a terrace in Rectory Road then it’s a different story.

It’s no surprise that the original policy originated in Brussels, another one size fits all European law, Directive 75/442/EEC.

Ben Gummer will be addressing the Maidenhall Residents’ Association on Thursday 12th November at the Bowls Pavillion off Halifax Road (opposite the Bourne Vale Social Club). Here’s the map on Google and if you have a sat nav the postcode is IP2 8RE. The meeting will start at 7pm, and Ben will be speaking some time after that.

If you wish to see him and you are not on the Maidenhall Estate, please note that this is a normal committee meeting of the Residents’ Association, and so there will be the normal committee work, such as reading the last meetings minutes, and Ben will primarily be addressing issues that are important to Maidenhall Estate. If there are questions then priority will be given to residents on Maidenhall. He will be discussing the port noise, but there are other issues affecting Maidenhall.

As some of you know I’m moving from Rectory Road to Belstead Avenue soon (I’ll give out the address when I’m in the house).  However BT in their enthusiasm have jumped the gun which means I’m effectively without a landline until then.

Normal service will resume and emails will be answered then. 

I’ve had someone complain about not getting through to my home number, so sorry about that.

I was at the Maidenhall Residents Association yesterday and they have been a victim of typical bureaucratic heavy handed over-reaction.  Essentially due to out of area drug users sheltering in the flats in Station Street they’ve cut the trade access to all the flats across the ward.

This makes sense near the town, for example Station Street and Vernon Street, but the Maidenhall Estate is not in the same position.  It’s a decent walk from the town and there have been few complaints of drug users sheltering down there.  This means that there’s no post, no milkman, no visitors.  If you are out in Station Street you have around twenty neighbours to buzz you in, in Maidenhall Approach you only have three.

The solution – to petition separately for each group of flats – is not practical.  So Station Street has a genuine problem and the housing department did the right thing there.  But Maidenhall Estate was happy with the current set up.  Can’t they just get it back?

This sort of one size fits all knee jerk solution is what Labour specialises in.  A Conservative led administration should do better than this,