I really, really hope Kieran McKenna and the boys are able to build on last week's fine performance against Fulham over the next few months.

Because there's damn-all else to look forward to in Ipswich in the foreseeable future!

We've had national politicians - MPs, ministers, and opposition leaders - queuing up over the last few weeks to tell us how dreadful things are with the country.

Now in Ipswich we've got the local council getting in on the act telling us how they've got so little money they don't have the resources to make the town any better.

Sir Keir Starmer's "Things can only get worse" speech was a real downer for the country because he actually gave us so little real hope.

His suggestions that he could eventually rebuild from the shattered rubble of the previous government's legacy had no timescale, no targets attached.

Hospitals like the West Suffolk and James Paget are crumbling now but plans to rebuild them were put on hold with no indication of when work might start except for a nebulous "when the economy starts to recover."

I understand the problem he faces. The last government was monumentally incompetent which left a economy teetering on the brink and a Whitehall administration on the edge of implosion.

But just running around telling everyone how rubbish everything is hardly inspires hope for the future - Sir Keir sometimes appears to be in charge of an administration of Eeyores!

Now we have the same in Ipswich. This week the borough council published a document outlining all the cuts it needs to make if it is going to stand any chance of making the budget balance next year.

I do have sympathy with the councillors facing these really tough choices because there really is nothing they can do about it.

The fact is the Whitehall machine regards local government as an inferior species and very few MPs and even fewer ministers have the guts to stand up against this mindset.

As was pointed out to me this week: "None of the parties had anything to say about local government during the election campaign!"

So we shouldn't be surprised that Ipswich council is facing a financial crisis and needs to take action to address that.

But is it asking too much for those of us who live in or near the town not to feel a deep sense of disappointment that yet again Ipswich has failed to deliver on its promises?

Arras Square has been a disgrace for years. In 2019 a government minister came here and promised cash. Since then nothing has happened and now nothing will continue to happen for another year or three.

The Waterfront could - should - be the jewel in the crown for Ipswich. But the main entrance to it is grotty.

Ipswich's Jewel in the Crown? Proposals to improve the entrance to the Waterfront have been put off yet again.Ipswich's Jewel in the Crown? Proposals to improve the entrance to the Waterfront have been put off yet again. (Image: Newsquest)

It's dominated by a silo that's been empty for decades and derelict buildings that are now set to remain derelict for longer because there's no money to improve them yet.

And thousands of residents in the north west of the town who have been promised a new surgery for the best part of a decade have now been told they'll have to wait even longer because the council and NHS have run out of cash.

I've seen bad times before - I started my career in the early 80s when unemployment was hitting 3m.

I remember worrying about our first mortgage in the early 90s when interest rates shot up.

We were just getting over George Osborne's austerity in the early 2010s when some genius of a Prime Minister decided it would be a good idea to hold a referendum on the EU just as a load of voters were in the mood to give politicians a good kicking - and we ended up putting ourselves in an economic maelstrom just as the worst pandemic for a century was heading our way.

But I've never felt as gloomy about the prospects for my home town, my country, and indeed the world as I do right now.

Maybe it's my age - but I feel we desperately need something to lift us. Over to you Kieran McKenna!

The opinions expressed in this column are the personal views of Paul Geater and do not necessarily reflect views held by this newspaper, its sister publications or its owner and publisher Newsquest Media Group Ltd.