The Bradley Stoke Journal

Filton and Bradley Stoke MP Jack Lopresti has spoken in the House of Commons in a debate on the response to the summer riots. Mr Lopresti argued that strong role models and an improvement in social mobility are just as important as prosecution and appropriate sentencing.

In the debate Mr Lopresti said:

“Young people tend to be drawn to gang culture largely because of a lack of good role models in the community, a poverty of aspiration and the lack of social mobility in our country.”

After the debate, he added:

“We can all remember the violence and looting of the nationwide summer riots. Bristol was affected along with most other major cities. What I remember to be so striking was that some people weren’t surprised at what was happening. It seems that we lost touch with a proportion of our young people years ago. I believe one of the things our young people need are strong role models who can demonstrate to them that with determination, hard work and persistence they can achieve their goals.”

Young people should join Scouts and similar groups says MP »

Provisional lists of candidates standing for the 5th May district and local elections have been published by South Gloucestershire Council (SGC).

In each of the three SGC wards in Bradley Stoke, the three main parties (Conservative, Labour and Liberal Democrats) have each nominated a number of candidates that exactly matches the number of seats being contested (i.e. one or two).

Beyond the main political groups, a lone independent candidate contests the Bradley Stoke Central and Stoke Lodge ward.

All seven Bradley Stoke Town Council wards look likely to be contested this year, in contrast to 2007, when seven Conservative candidates were unchallenged in three of the wards.

Only the Conservatives are fielding sufficient candidates to win all 15 seats on the Town Council. Labour could win a maximum of eight seats and the Liberal Democrats six.

The deadline for voter registration is Thursday 14th April 2011.

Related link: 2011 District and Town Elections (The Journal)

Bradley Stoke residents have a chance to talk to their MP, Jack Lopresti, this Friday (11th March) when he holds a surgery in the town.

The surgery runs from 4pm to 6pm and appointments may be made by phoning 01454 617783 or emailing jack.lopresti.mp@parliament.uk.

Mr Lopresti has recently honoured his pre-election pledge to publish all his MP’s expenses on his website. However, since the pledge was made, Parliament has decided that the expenses of all MPs should be centrally published; these are now available on the website of the Independent Parliamentary Standards Authority (IPSA).

According a Bristol Evening Post article published in December last year, Mr Lopresti received the largest of the payments made to the ten MPs serving Bristol and the surrounding area.

Bradley Stoke Councillor Robert Jones has attracted criticism from the blogosphere after he published an insensitive message about proposed Council cuts on the social media site Twitter.

The message, sent from the Councillor’s mobile phone as he was waiting for South Gloucestershire Council’s budget-setting meeting to begin on Wednesday evening, read:

“Just arrived at south glos council ahead of tonight’s budget. No sign of protest. Clearly we’re not cutting enough.”

The ‘tweet’ was perhaps referring to protests that had occurred at Bristol City Council’s budget meeting the previous day but the final “not cutting enough” part of the message has been seized upon by left wing bloggers, led by Bristol trade unionist yokelbear.

UNISON South West later tweeted about “a councillor who takes pride in cuts” and numerous other Twitter users have branded the message “disgraceful” and “offensive”.

Cllr Jones appears to have since deleted the message but it has been preserved for posterity on the photo blogging site Twitpic.

Jack Lopresti (Filton and Bradley Stoke) has become the latest local MP to write an article for a weekly series in the Bristol Evening Post.

Mr Lopresti’s article focuses on military matters such as the A400M (Hercules replacement), which is partly built in Filton.

Previous authors have included Dawn Primarolo (Bristol South, on constituency work), Jacob Rees-Mogg (North East Somerset, on the Localism Bill), and Stephen Williams (Bristol West, on health and education).

Local MP Jack Lopresti has recorded a Christmas video message for the troops in Afghanistan.

Mr Lopresti, who himself served with the Territorial Army in Afghanistan prior to becoming an MP, recorded the message on College Green, outside the Houses of Parliament.

The Faces for the Forces campaign is aiming to collect one million video goodwill messages of support for the UK’s troops at home and abroad.

Record your message at www.facesfortheforces.com.