A re-opened building

Christchurch Park’s cafe is open again!! Great for dog walkers like me who want a quality coffee to drink in the lavender garden.

The newly refurbished playground is also open, with its fantasy castle. Must take the grandchildren next time they come over.

THE SILENT MAJORITY, THEN IN 2012 AND NOW IN 2020

THE SILENT MAJORITY, THEN AND NOW, IN 2012 AND 2020, THE UK IS A GREAT COUNTRY.

The United Kingdom is a tolerant, open and ambitious country

Despite what left wing organisations such as the Labour Party , the Marxist organisation known as “black lives matters”, the criminal-damage-creating members of “extinction rebellion”, and other snowflakes who take great exaggerated offence at any remarks of anyone they disagree with, I believe our country is a place of tolerance and freedom. Even the BBC with the furore over the possible removal of patriotic songs at The Last Night of the Proms, now has to be grouped directly into this group of out-of-touch organisations.

In July, some of the London Olympics 2012 was repeated on the BBC (national events is about all that the BBC is good at) and (along with the Paralympics that year which was broadcast on C4), 2012 demonstrated the best of our country and “Inspired a Generation”, as Lord Coe promised.

It brought together people of all different ethnic and social backgrounds in harmony and with a sense of national pride which brought together the whole country, in our common desire for our participants to succeed.

British participants , like all nations that summer, were not judged by their ethnic origin or where they come from, but their ambition. When they won, we cheered. We celebrated some nations sending female contenders for the very first time.

The opening ceremony celebrated British history and the image of the statue of Churchill saluting Her Majesty in her helicopter ride to the Stadium with James Bond is not diminished by those people who don’t understand who Winston was and his strength of character and how he helped us win the War.

Her Majesty the Queen showed her sense of humour in this unique portrayal before she apparently parachuted into the stadium.

At the time, not even Captain Hindsight’s predecessor Red Ed Miliband, talked the Olympic effort down (despite him spending the previous 2 years talking down the economy).

But Labour members have spent the last 5 years turning their organisation into a student protest lobby, since the bearded Comrade Corbyn turned it into an anti British laughing stock which is beyond repair. The current leader is incapable of reversing this trend as a large portion of the membership seems to consist of a mindset which remains thoroughly anti British. The leader himself, Sir Sneer, tried to stop Brexit because he doesn’t understand British thinking. Why on earth did the bearded one appoint someone who didn’t believe in his shadow portfolio to be Labour’s chief spokesman?  And we all know about Lady Nugee’s distaste of national pride.

However, outside the metropolitan North London bubble elite, the real people of this country retain those values demonstrated so eagerly in 2012. The negative impression Labour and their media outlets known as the BBC’S Laura Kuensberg (who had to be security protected at Labour’s Conference because they hate her so much), Robert know-it-all Peston and Beth droaning-moaning Rigby bears little resemblance to reality.

The Conservatives under Boris Johnson were re-elected last year because we share those values of national pride and tolerance and celebrate our pride in our Wartime leader and our real Bristish values.

It’s time for Boris Johnson and the Government to swat away the left wing cynicism, bash down the awful TV journalists in their endless attacks and say to the Left: We Won The Election. You do not represent the majority.

I don’t pretend everything is perfect and yes, many do suffer from discrimination and unfair behaviour. But the country has NOT turned into some loony rascist country since 2012. We are one of the most diverse countries in the world and welcoming to people who wish to contribute.

Lefties and so-called liberals launch protest groups , launch tirades on twitter and march on Parliament Square if they don’t like something (whatever it is this week).

People of small c conservative thinking , don’t try to shove their dislikes down other people’s throats so visibly. Instead we might write a letter to the paper or switch off the TV and do something else. We are the silent majority.

 

Why does the Left now hate the working class?

The short answer is that the “little people” have developed minds of their own. Brexit is a great example, where long-term Labour-supporting families voted Leave in the referendum and supported that result through two subsequent general elections. It is easy to forget that Corbyn, as a backbencher from 1983-2015, was a fervent and vociferous Leaver, only to become a prisoner of Sir Sneer‘s Remoaniac faction. This faction includes Lady Nugee (above, who doesn’t use her title), who sneered at a white van driver in Kent, flying a cross of St. George (left). Patriotism, like the desire to run one’s own country, is so infra dig to Her Ladyship and her ilk. However, Labour still claim to “own” manual workers as they do visible ethnic minorities (which must be news to our Chancellor, Home Secretary, Business Secretary and Attorney General, inter alia) and gay people.

As a result of their arrogance, December’s general election was Labour’s worst since 1935 and they haven’t won an overall majority or even been the largest party since 2005. Last month, we reminded you that the Liberals’ last overall majority win was in 1906, twice being the largest party in 1910, by two and one, before retaining the premiership via the wartime coalition and the Liberal tail continuing to wag the Conservative dog for four years.

Is Labour heading the same way? Was Blair the new Henry Campbell-Bannerman (left)? Does that make Captain Hindsight (below) the new Lloyd George?

Tom’s Statement on the BBC Licence Fee

Like many, I’ve had concerns about the BBC for a number of years now. The coverage of Brexit and last year’s General Election are just some of the high-profile examples of where the Corporation’s output has fallen below the standards the public expect from their national broadcaster.

However, I’ve always stopped short of joining others in calling into question the future of the licence fee. For me growing up, the BBC represented a unique part of our national identity and the role it played in our country’s life always gave me an emotional connection which I wouldn’t have with any other broadcaster.

I also recognised that the BBC has come in for criticism from both Conservatives and those on the radical Left over the years so perhaps the BBC was getting somewhere near the middle ground.

This has been my view on balance until the last few months where the BBC’s coverage and the actions of many of its publicly funded executives and journalists have unfortunately become completely out of control; leading me to reflect seriously on whether the licence fee continues to be justified.

Last week I sought the views of my constituents by setting up an online poll, asking people whether the licence fee should be abolished.

In total 4773 people took part and 97% were in favour of doing away with the licence fee. I asked people to enter their postcodes so I knew which responses came from constituents. The results were just as clear. Over 870 Ipswich residents voted with 90% in favour of abolishing it.

I understand this isn’t a scientific poll and that there is no perfect way to capture the views of everyone in Ipswich. I also know some will be disappointed they didn’t know the poll was up. Nevertheless, I do think the feedback provides a window to where many local people stand and how considerable their concerns are.

It’s with great reluctance that I now have to say I’ve reached the same conclusion as them on the licence fee. I’m reluctant because I do think in principal having a national broadcaster can be a public good. But the negative direction the BBC is heading in has only accelerated over recent months and I don’t believe the Corporation can ever get back to a position where my concerns will be alleviated.

This hasn’t come from a lack of warning from those of us who continued to hold out hope that the BBC could change course for the better. In June I spoke in Parliament about the important role local BBC services like Radio Suffolk and Look East play in our local democracy. And how plans to cut funding for popular regional news broadcasting would only heighten the sense among people in the country that senior executives at the BBC are out of touch with their audience and determined to take the Corporation on an ever more London-centric trajectory.

At time when the BBC should be further localising its services and looking beyond the M25 it seems to be going in the other direction.

Add to this the BBC’s decision to remove free TV licences for most over-75s and it becomes clearer how seemingly at every turn the BBC’s leadership makes bad situations worse.

This has been a bitter pill to swallow for many of my older constituents who have told me they’ll struggle to pay for a service which has anyway become completely detached from mainstream public opinion.

While the BBC has been making plans to cut back what makes the licence fee stomachable, it’s been chipping away at many of our most cherished cultural institutions. And has been played like a fiddle by woke Leftists who have demonstrated their determination to radically change the character of this country.

This has now reached an unbearable crescendo with the farce over the Last Night of the Proms. The reports of plans to expunge ‘Rule Britannia!’ and ‘Land of Hope and Glory’ entirely and then the BBC’s announcement they would be played without their lyrics, represent an assault on one of the most important nights in our cultural calendar.

This decision has been taken under the cover of Covid-19 with no concert audience there to disappoint directly. And the messaging that dropping the lyrics is a one-off this year is ridiculous as the words to other songs will still be sung.

This condescending and judgemental censorship follows the mass removal of past episodes of British comedy programmes like Fawlty Towers and Little Britain. I wrote extensively earlier this year about how this politically correct attack on our sense of humour is not what the vast majority of tax and licence fee payers pay the large salaries of BBC executives to do.

We don’t fund these executives at our supposedly politically neutral national broadcaster for their views on politics, but increasingly this seems to be what guides what they say and do.

Many will have read the disgraceful comments by the Executive Producer of the BBC’s Songs of Praise programme likening the singing of Rule Britannia to Nazis singing about gas chambers because of the slave trade.

In her rush to apologise for the history of this country, she must have forgotten the blood and treasure the Royal Navy spent in abolishing the appalling Atlantic slave trade and how we can be proud of that today.

This is by far not the only abject failure of impartiality by those paid well to keep their biases in check. The article on exam results by Newsnight’s policy editor, Lewis Goodall, which took the front page of the left-wing New Statesman magazine last week, didn’t even pay lip service to the principle of impartiality in its hostile and partisan attacks on the Government.

By all means people should criticise the Government whenever they feel it’s appropriate but too many times journalists at the publicly funded BBC have taken advantage of the special and privileged role they hold and forgotten the responsibilities that come with it.

In other words, if Lewis Goodall wants to make a living out of launching political attacks on the Government I’m sure he can find a well paid job at The Guardian or the New Stateman but I’ll be dammed if I’m going to be silent whilst both I and my constituents contribute towards his publicly funded salary at the BBC.

This bias now also frequently seeps into the BBC’s own news coverage. People won’t so readily forget the Newsnight programme at the height of concerns about PPE which presented the views of five doctors and nurses critical of the Government who all later turned out to be long-standing Labour Party activists or supporters. Or the time when even the BBC felt it had to rebuke journalist Emily Maitlis for her completely one-sided television monologue on Dominic Cumming’s decision to go to Durham (something that I myself expressed concerns with at the time, but that is beside the point).

It’s given me no pleasure at all to go on this journey with the BBC and I’m sad it’s got to the point where I can no longer look my constituents in the eye and justify them paying the licence fee if they don’t want to.

But the BBC has continued its long, and now irreparable, march away from its audience. Not the other way around. The woke, metropolitan and censorious worldview that the BBC is offering no longer interests vast swathes of people up and down the country, many of which have become frustrated at being obliged to pay for content they don’t want, cuts to content they do want and an organisation which fundamentally doesn’t represent them and doesn’t even look like it wants to.

Sometimes it seems as though the BBC exists in its own parallel universe and even if it wanted to change, I believe it would be unable to do so. Outgoing BBC Director-General Tony Hall stated last week that post-Brexit the BBC has a unique responsibility to promote our country’s “voice and values”, sadly, I’m not sure whether the BBC leadership even know what these values are and I can’t think of a group of people less suited to taking on such a pivotal ambassadorial role..

I haven’t taken this decision lightly and my decision is in no way a reflection on the highly effective local BBC journalists that perform such a key role in supporting local democracy in Suffolk, my view is that they’ve been badly let down by the organisation’s national leadership.

As it stands I know the Government is seriously considering decriminalising the non-payment of the BBC licence fee and I will encourage the them to take this step. This would be a significant step and one could well path the way for the whole licence fee structure as a way of funding the BBC being reviewed at the nearest opportunity (most likely when the BBC Charter is next up for renewal). Ultimately I believe its time to look forward to a future where the BBC is no longer our country’s publicly funded state broadcaster.