Kevan Lim

This will be my last post before the election results are declared.

Like 2005 the count is not until friday.  However in 2005 I knew on the thursday night I had won.  The first stage in the count is to verify the total number of ballot papers.  During this stage its possible to watch the ballots being checked and to calculate how well you are doing.  Unfortunetly this time that won’t happen until friday morning so it will be a very nervy thursday night.

The decision today by Hazel Bleers to resign from the cabinet is typical of the attitude of some at westminster who think that elections are all about the national government. Its quite frankly arrogrant disrespect for those of us who think the election is about local services and who is best to run the county council.

However I am still confident.  I think I have done enough to win.  All I can hope for is that people will go into the polling station and vote on my what I have done over the last 4 years and who is best to represent their interests in St Helens.

Thats all I can ask

The current campaign about the future of Heart Attack treatment being lead by the Ipswich evening star has generated an enormous amount of correspondence and views.

Everyone seems to assume that the transfer of some patients to specialist centres will be dangerous for those patients in Ipswich.

However it is clear that the professionals recommending this change seem to believe it will save lives.

The real problem is that none of the implications of the change were clearly spelt out a year ago when it was approved by the Strategic Health Authority which was a major blunder and the evening star never campaigned against the change until a few weeks ago just before it was due to start. Another big mistake.

That’s why I have been pressing the County Council’s scrutiny committee to discuss in detail the proposed changes to understand what they actually mean for patients and why it is claimed they are better for treatment.

That will now happen on the 20th July.

Unfortunately this whole debate has been turned into a political football with the leader of the county council claiming that the changes will put lives at risk and he will stop it.

I don’t think such statements are helpful. We need a decision that saves the most lives and makes the care of heart attack patients better. I am not certain yet whether that should be in specialist centres or in Ipswich.

What we need on the 20th July is a full and clear explanation of the implications of the changes and then the review needs to determine what is best for Ipswich patients.

The current campaign against the changes has given us a delay which now enables a sensible review of the implications.

That review should produce a decision that is in patients and families best interests whether or not it is necessarily in line with any editor or politicians view.

The final weekend before an election is always a very nervy time. You can never be sure if you have done enough.

If you read the newspapers and the opinion polls over the weekend it makes for pretty depressing reading if you are a labour politician. However I still remain optimistic.

Almost every house in St Helen’s has had a least 2 leaflets outlining some of my views.

I get the impression that people will vote differently between the county elections and the European elections. Indeed several people have said they will vote for me, but not for labour at the Europeans.

As my seat is the most marginal in Ipswich then i clearly will be under pressure if there is a swing towards liberal or conservatives..

However all I can do is ask people to vote based on my record over the last 4 years.

The most frustrating thing is when someone says to you, yes you have been a good county councillor, but I want to send the government a message. It does seem strange that often it is someone who does not like what the conservatives have been doing at the county council but are happy to vote against me even though the consequence is a return of a conservative county council doing the very things people have been complaining about. Its not a logic I can follow.

Certainly this is one of those occasions where if I am to win then I will have to persuade enough people to ignore national considerations and vote for me.

Come Thursday I will know if I have been able to do that or whether I will be reaching for the Valium.

Excellent article in the times today from comedian Frank Skinner. I especially liked his paragraph
“You see, I now realise that David Cameron, with his pushbike and his “call me Dave” man-of-the-people-ness, had begun to blur my long-held view of what the Tory party was all about. Thank God, Mr Hogg and his moat have brought me back to my senses. The most damning criticism aimed at MP’s nowadays is that they’re isolated and out of touch. It’s pretty hard to refute that if you’ve got a moat.”

The thing so many of the MP’s who have been bending the system don’t seem to understand is that most of us would find it very extremely difficult to write a cheque for £41,000 or even £13,000. I know if i did it would bounce!

In the current public fury it not surprising but bizarre to see parties like UKIP dramatically increasing in the polls for the European elections, especially as one of their elected MEP’s last time is on police bail pending fraud investigation on his expenses. However if all this fury leads to a system that is open, accountable and strictly regulated then in the long term it may benefit us all.

However the real danger of this fiasco is that the issues that really matter like home care, better education and health get buried in the public demands for heads to roll and we end up with people elected to both the county council or the European parliament who either cannot do the job or even worse don’t want to do a proper job but get there simply because they are none of the above

So if anyone wants to know, no I don’t have a moat and I wouldn’t have anywhere to put it.

We all produce election leaflets hoping to convince electors why they should vote for us.
For a sitting councillor I have always felt they should be positive and reflect what you have actually done.
Unfortunately many now seem to be an excuse for claiming the impossible.

So I read one of the Ipswich liberal democrat leaflets with some surprise. I get on well with most of the county liberal democrat group. On a number of issues they have similar policy positions in opposition to the conservative administration. And they were in a joint administration for 12 years in Suffolk with the labour group until 2005.

However in Ipswich at the borough council we have the strange situation of the liberal democrats keeping the conservative borough administration in power. I see little difference between the fundamental conservative policies at the borough and county councils on key issues.

Yet the county liberal election leaflet in Ipswich spends most of its time attacking the conservative county council and supports restoring policies like the free home care system I introduced back in 2003.

Which raises the very interesting question of which polices they would support if elected at the county council. Because a number of both the Ipswich conservative and liberal democrat candidates are existing borough councillors currently running the borough council. And the conservatives are certainly fighting a conservative county manifesto that makes clear that the existing county policies on cutting social care spending and on charging for home care will continue.

I cannot seriously believe that any conservatives elected in Ipswich will want to radically change the county policies. Whilst they might have some marginal influence on the conservative group it will still be business as usual as we have had for the last 4 years.

So where does that leave any radical liberal in Ipswich wanting change at the county council. How can you promise the electorate to oppose conservative policies at the county and support them at the borough. Indeed how could you be both in a partnership at one council and opposition at another against some of the very same people.

No doubt some libs in Ipswich will say you can do both. For me not only will most electors be confused but I think it is promising something you cannot deliver.

Unless of course you do have two heads.

The surprise news that Ipswich Town have appointed Roy Keane as Manager raises some interesting issues.

I was born in Manchester, taken to old trafford the home of united by my father when I was five and so grew up as a united supporter. My mother an Ipswich supporter having been born in Felixstowe had no chance in persuading me not to support my home town team.  Indeed I represented a part of South Manchester on the City Council for 9 years where lots of united fans live.  So I have seen Roy Keane in action as a player over many years.  And although he is not a mancunian by birth, having been born in Southern Ireland, he does seem to exhibit many of the traits common to Mancunians. One of my colleagues calls it Manchester manners.  Its true we are very direct, often impatient and don’t suffer fools gladly.  We expect things to be done yesterday.    Ipswich and Suffolk will be a culture shock for Roy Keane.  You have to have a little more patience here if you are going to get things done.

Whether Roy will succeed will very much depend on whether he can temper his Manchester manners.  It will be an interesting season next year.

Postscript

I cannot believe that today the County Council have issued a press release from jeremy pembroke welcoming Roy Keane to Suffolk.  Apart from the fact that jeremy probably doesn’t know who Roy Keane is, I certainly don’t remember seeing many Merchant Bankers on the stretford end at Old Trafford.   Its the worst kind of political opportunism.  Cannot imagine that at any other time other than a few weeks before an election that such a statement would be issued.

welcome to the blog of Kevan Lim, County Councillor for Ipswich St Helens