Sunday 1 June 2014

My week ahead, 2 - 8 June 2014

Monday – 2 June, 3pm – WW1 Working group,
4pm - Culture Portfolio meeting
6pm Labour group meeting

Wednesday – 4 June, 6pm, Full Council

Saturday 7 June – 10am, Labour campaigning

A last weekend of rest – no campaigning, no football, no World Cup so a chance to relax (but still find time to watch plenty of sport on TV - football, tennis, rugby and boxing!)

But that will be the last free weekend- most of the next 50 weekends will be taken up with the campaign to see a Labour MP elected for Ipswich and a Labour Government back in power in Westminster.

Most of our involvement in the campaign will take place on the doorsteps in Ipswich, talking to residents is the most enjoyable and rewarding part of any campaign but the election will also be decided in Ipswich on how we (Ipswich Labour) act as the controlling group on Ipswich Borough Council.

Nationally much of the election will be fought in front of us all on TV, in the newspapers and this time more than ever via social media. We all can make mistakes via social media and I will put my hand up and admit i have made a few errors but ignoring social media is not the answer. Not just for campaigning purposes, it is important that all political groups have a web presence so that voters can research your policies and also are able to contact you if they have a question or an issue that needs your help. The local Tories and even our MP Ben Gummer have been slightly lacking in the quality of their websites but not as bad as the Lib Dems whose poor effort of a website can only tell you about what is happening in Colchester!

The new Ipswich Tory leader, Nadia Cenci is a big fan of social media so I am sure we will see the local Tories using twitter and facebook more not that her first weekend as Group Leader saw a great start on twitter with the Ipswich Tory twitter account tweeting about UKIP activists in Newark rather than Tory activity- after a couple of hours the tweet was removed but it does highlight how easy a mistake can be made, Another Ipswich Tory activist is using a bar chart as their profile picture, the reason why? To highlight that UKIP did not win the election when it comes to council seats won. But the bar chart also indicates how well Labour did – 1857 seats won and how badly his own Tory Party did – 1254 seats , so expect more use of social media as we head towards May 2015, but also expect many mistakes!.

Ipswich Spy has a new web design and also the content has changed from mainly Ipswich political gossip to a more general Suffolk news site – not a fan of the new site. Fortunately the ‘Saturday Diary’ column is retained. This week they mention that the new Ipswich Mayor also has a number of County Committees to sit on and Spy seems to wonder if taht is a sensible move. Maybe a valid question but I did not read of the same concerns on Spy when Graham Newman the Tory Portfolio Holder for transport was announced as the new Felixstowe Mayor, you would have thought trying to sort out the mess of ‘Travel Ipswich’ – new toilets at the Old Cattle Market, real time bus times and Queens Street plans would you think have given Mr Newman enough work without having to dash back to the coast to cut a ribbon or slice a cake?

1 comment:

James Harding said...

Alasdair- I have to say that I don't read this blog very often as its full of such twaddle. I put the bar graph fully aware that Labour had won the most seats- unlike you I look at images before posting them on Twitter.. it was to point out the Tories came second when many say they would come after UKIP. It was to point out how badly UKIP did which I thought you would be glad about. Anyway about mistakes you cant talk all that much.. we have had a few from you! like the IDS tweet...