I received this today from Councillor Alasdair Ross, the Games Master at Ipswich School:

James
This local candidate issue does not stand up to scrutiny- I live in Rushmere and I am the Cllr for the ward- unlike Mrs Terry or Smith who both live outside the ward, but Mrs Smith is a great local Cllr, so are people that bothered? And before you keep going on about Cllr Smart – sort out your own party- Cllr Pope lives in East Ipswich but represents Stoke Park, I think you will find that is further way than Cllr’s Smart and Rudkin. even in Bixley the safest Tory seat, only one of the Cllr’s lives in the ward.

Well let’s ignore the fact that it was apparently Soo Smart, Mrs Philip Smart, who brought up the question.

The fight for Bridge will be within the ward, not in Bixley. Yes I do believe that local councillors are better. And that does put me at odds with many in my own party (not for the first time),

All politics is local. It is not about party. Party is important but one of Alasdair Ross’s (and Philip Smart’s) abiding failures is their inability to see that the party should come behind their duty to their constituents. A long way behind.

The party is simply a label. I believe in low council tax, economic growth, efficient services and strong families. The Conservative Party by and large believe in these things too, and so it is a good label for me. If I stand under the Conservative banner then people know where I’m coming from.

However, it is merely a label. What is most important is representing your patch. Although I don’t doubt that Philip Smart cares about Bridge, I don’t believe that he originally chose Bridge because of the links he had with the place. I’d love to be proven wrong. And as for Dame Bryony…

I simply think that a person is not as good a representative if they don’t live in the ward, shop in the ward and socialise in the ward. This is not some silly point of contrariness this is why I’ve refused to stand outside Bridge. I don’t mind another (local) candidate taking over – well I mind quite a lot, but I’ll accept it – but I will not stand where I don’t live. And yes, writing things like this paragraph does drive other Tories in the Association to the point of distraction.

I want to represent my patch and do what’s best for my neighbours. To me that is a far higher honour than being the youngest recorded mayor of the borough or the chairman of Ipswich Buses. I know that this does not “stand up to scrutiny” if your party is more important than your constituents. If your constituents are more important than your party, then what I said makes perfect sense.

Some miscellaneous notes before politics stops being as interesting. I’m going to squeeze in as much as possible, as I don’t think I’ll get away with it otherwise.

When Chris Mole saw the figures, instead of calling for a recount (as we all feared) he reached over to Ben Gummer, extended his hand and said “well done, Ben”. He then read a pre-prepared speech which was peculiarly graceless – not even mentioning Ben’s campaign in the same way that Bill Rammell had. Then on TV the next day he is gracious again.

Why this split behaviour, this departure from the norm? Well it was the Labour Party activists, who seemed to have stitched him up by concentrating on winning the borough, who had stayed to listen. It was very clear that Chris Mole was talking about an imminent election, and he dearly wanted to be the candidate. And Ipswich Labour Party was in no mood to let a conciliatory speaker be there candidate.

I think we won’t see Chris Mole stand again, and instead see a senior figure from the current Labour group emerge as the candidate. Just coincidentally they will probably be one of the same people who decided to cut Chris Mole off.

In other news Alasdair Ross is going as Labour’s candidate as mayor. Yes a real uniter, not a divider. If the Liberals do give it to him then it should keep him busy and away from internal Labour matters. Funny that he’s the candidate as he would be almost as troublesome as John Cook if he rumbled what the Labour group had done. But some people find it hard to think about more than one thing at a time.

Finally my builder called up today to talk about the coalition, he’s barely talked more than two words about politics – and that was just to say that my wife was in a leaflet. It was the main topic in the office, although the known Labour supporters were not chatting so much. At least I know where all the Tories are now should this get to be like the 1990s again.

That’s a lot done.

I will start going back to normal and courting the smaller Bridge specific readership now that the excitement of coalition building and elections seems to have worn down.

Andrew Cann has another reminiscence of the Labour mask slipping:

One comment I would have made, if technically able, on the post you make about Mrs Duffy and the local labour candidates not condemning Brown is that I recall in 2004 when the Labour Party got stuffed in the local elections they blamed the electorate for not voting for them. For being ‘ungrateful’. Always stuck in my mind. It betrays that statist do ‘do as we say’ attitude of them.

Thank God we didn’t have Mark Battersea Dyson rather than Andrew Cann as the Ipswich candidate. The Lib Dem surge would have been very threatening with a candidate. There’s a film on the Guardian website which really shows the difference between the two.

By the way the comment on Comrade Ross and the other Labour twitterers (twits?) still stands. Every day you refuse to condemn that Scottish pension snatcher for his imperious attitude is another day you betray the voters that you presumably came into politics to advance and defend.

On the twitter feeds:

Alasdair Ross thinks that Mrs Duffy should be grateful (even as a joke that’s poor taste)

Soo Thomas thinks that she should lap it up like a good soldier

Julian Swainson thinks its their fault for being working class

Ipswich Labour say nothing

Not one “That was awful” or “She was not a bigot”. Was there a condemnation of the Prime Minister’s behaviour and a clear statement that talking about immigration is perfectly legitimate? Was there hell.

This is the real face of Labour, when they are safely in their car and the microphone is turned off. To Labour activists Gordon Brown’s crime was not the hateful thing he said, but being caught.

Whatever you say about the Tories, they don’t hate 80% of the people who vote for them.

My majority was this big before you became leader

So I get two emails in fairly quick succession on the blog about Comrade John Cook. I got a rather nice email from a person called Clive:

Hi James

Just reading your blog, John Cook is no Town fan, Iain Dale made the same assumption when he was chosen as candidate http://iaindale.blogspot.com/2009/11/norwich-north-labour-party-gives-up-on.html but John is a season ticket holding Norwich city fan, which should at least garner him some sympathy from blues supporters in Ipswich

Clive

Compare that polite tone to Comrade Alasdair Ross, a man that parents pay thousands of pounds a year to teach their children good manners:

James
Need to check your facts, J Cook is a Norwich fan, Norwich born and a City season ticket holder. John supervised the ITFC Trust elections as a neutral and as an expert on election counts, that is why his name is on the Trust page. By John doing it, we (the Trust) saved a considerable amount of cash that could be used for the benefit of fans.

Of course John Cook was neutral and Alasdair Ross was a succesful candidate. Oh well. It’s a small cosy circle in the Ipswich Labour Party.

Comrade Ross didn’t tell us if John Cook has sold his home, because that’s where he’ll consider his roots to be, whatever he says on his election leaflet – he wasn’t exactly keen to put his support for Norwich on his Ipswich leaflets. A mortgage is a bigger financial commitment than a season ticket. Even in Norwich.

I also note that Comrade Ross didn’t defend John Cook’s IQ. But even a private school rugby coach knows when he shouldn’t fight.

The Battle of the Anoraks, sorry Ipswich political blogs
OK, this is a quick and (very) dirty break down of the influence of blogs. But there are three blogs, all of whom who have linked to me, and only recently, and I thought it would be interesting to compare the number of incoming links.

Ipswich Spy 105
Tendance Coatsey 17
Alasdair Ross 1

Now, I know that this is not perfect. Ipswich Spy has mentioned me a few times although I’m way down on the side bar. I tried to get in as a Conservative link because, well, I’m sad and I saw that the Conservatives were much higher. It should also be pointed out that it is only recently that
The Ben Gummer local links page sent me 30 hits, but I’ve been on there for a much longer time.

OK, this is outside Bridge Ward and in Rushmere, but some of the Tory activists (Ben Gummer’s on the phone)  have been spotted by the Google Street map van canvasing on the Rushmere Estate:

View Larger Map

(You’ll have to go to Ter to see them.)

As Comrade Alasdair Ross seems to be spending all his time in Bridge or on Twitter these days they were getting some good results.

This was actually taken a while ago, as I looked at my house and the old owners’ cars were in the driveway.

I’m going to spend most of this post annoying my Labour supporting readers, so I might as well start by annoying the Tories.  The worst election for the Tories was not 1997, but 1992.  They needed a time in opposition and the win in 1992 convinced them that they were invincible.  The lost their humility, and when you lose that you start to lose a grip on your humanity as well.

Labour’s at that point.  If they scrape a win this time they could finish their party off They have lost their humility and humanity and are not fit to direct a parking bay let alone the country.

This little gem from Ipswich Spy shows why we need to have another turn of the wheel.  Labour clearly think government is a freehold rather than a leasehold position.  Not in a democracy it ain’t.

Let’s miss the brouhaha about whether the Labour were at a group meeting or leafleting, it’s perfectly possible to be doing both.  It’s hardly relevant.

What is that there seems to be no humility in their response.  It is possible for both sides to make mistakes.  The Labour councillors for Bridge ward clearly made a mistake here.  Three councillors aren’t needed at a group meeting when two could go.  Councillor Philip Smart would have been told about this meeting as he was a member of the Ipswich Transport  Society, as Ross seems to admit to Ipswich Spy (if either Ross or Ipswich Spy want to send a copy of the email I’d be glad to publish it here).  Did he not see the importance, did he forget?  Who knows.  He made a mistake.  He should have fessed up.  I hope I would have been a big enough man to do so.

But no, it was spin instead. 

Now they claim (or Ipswich spy claims that they claim) that members of the public could not go along to the meeting with First Eastern.  But I was a member of the public.  I was there.   I paid £2.50 to get in.  So did the Wherstead Road residents.  What Alasdair Ross claimed was not true. It was the direct opposite of the truth. What is true is that the councillors made a mistake.  It’s not the original mistake that kills you, it’s the cover up.

This is boring.  Trying to spin your way out of what was clearly a stupid mistake born of complacency, a mistake that Labour has made time and again with Bridge is why we need a real alternative in Bridge.  The fact that the Labour party from the lowliest councillor to the Prime Minister himself need to simply learn humility shows that they need a rest.  It’s time to go in opposition and let the Tories get complacent, forgetful and rusty.

As any regular reader of this blog knows we love and cherish Bridge Ward Labour councillors here, particularly those of them who are not good enough to represent where they actually live.  With their nice web design contracts and their £400 a day consultancy gigs they need all the help they can get and on this blog we do the best that we can to help them along.  And I am told that they are duly grateful for this help. 

So in a newly found tradition for this blog I feel compelled to jump to the defence of the councillor for Corder Road and Bridge, Bryony Rudkin.  According to a phone tip offthat I got from one of my readers (who knows about the internal workings of the Labour group a bit more than I do) our Bryony has very probably been attacked by one of her colleagues.  The bully?  The master at the very expensive Ipswich School, comrade Alsdair Ross.  This caller, whose motives are as pure as mine are in defending our Bryony, says that Ross made a post about Ipswich Spy complaining about councillors who turn up late and leave early.  Of course he said that the main culprits were the non-Labour councillors, but there was another unnamed councillor who is apparantly famous for turning up late and leaving early, and to my shock and dismay I learned that this councillor was Bryony Rudkin.

I naturally defended our Bryony by jumping in and saying “yes, she’s done that at almost every meeting we’ve both been at” and made it clear that this despicable tipster was to retail his rumours somewhere else by forcefully telling him, “why are you telling me?” to which this knave cryptically replied “to put in your blog, you idiot.”  Investigative journalism may not have lost a great talent.

So Councillor Ross if you’re going to have a go at one of Corder Road’s, Chantry’s, Bridge Ward’s councillors then do it in the time honoured way by frustrated asides after Labour group meetings with a couple of your closer friends who are likely on a Friday night to phone up irresponsible Tory bloggers; and don’t do it in your blog.

Seventeen and a half minutes into this interview on BBC Suffolk Gordon Brown commends Chris Mole

Councillor Alasdair Ross (this time on the record) says he is “thrilled this man is our Prime Minister”.

There are quite a few Tories who are thrilled that Gordon Brown is your leader as well.