Paul Flynn - Read My Day

From coalition to consummation?

Welsh politics is in hyper-flux.

The suggestion from a reputable sane group of Plaid matrons is that Labour and Plaid should merge. First a friendly understanding, then a binding coalition, then jumping into bed together leading to blissful consummation. Has the earth wobbled on its axis? Plaid MP and ex Peter Hain researcher Adam Price MP has similar musings.

So much sweetness and light is intoxicating. Where is the rivalry, hatred and bitchiness that’s endemic to Welsh politics? Well it’s still about. A squeak of petulant rage from north Wales compared ‘Nationalists’ to 'Nazis.' Difficult to imagine Elfyn Llwyd going in for mass slaughter. There are also mutterings that Plaid is ‘too right’ and, of course ‘too left’.  Ex AM Ron Davies says that Labour has conned Plaid. Some Labour MPs say Plaid has conned Labour. Neil Kinnock erupted in the Welsh Labour group.

There was a time when Labour represented almost all Wales. All the coastal constituencies from Merioneth, Lleyn, Anglesey, Conwy, Denbigh were held by Welsh speaking Labour MPs. Betty Williams and Albert Owen are the survivors now in Westminster but the Assembly has few Labour AMs from prodominatly Weslh speaking areas. If Plaid did not exist, Labour would still represent North Wales which continues its loyalty to radical anti-Tory traditions.

Although greatly exaggerated, there is some truth in the jibe that the Assembly is run by Glamorgan. A Labour-Plaid coalition could fairly claim to represent all parts of Wales and speak for 54% of the population that voted for the two parties.

The political divide is still Left and Right. Tribalists from Labour and Plaid should lick their wounds and see how little divides the two parties. A grown-up  working coalition could give Wales strong stable Government and reforms that all progressive radicals want.

I believe good sense will prevail when Labour takes its decision on Friday.  We must trust the AMs and Rhodri.

English vision

A splendid new book by Mike Parker, named Neighbours from Hell chronicles  England's relations with Wales. Mike Parker is a proud Englishman and lists centuries of insults, injustices and indignities hurled at Wales and Welsh institutions by our neighbour.

His English view of the value of the Welsh Assembly puts many MPs to shame:

"Something very important is happening in the Welsh Assembly. Welsh issues are getting seriously examined in a Welsh context, a new civic society is being nurtured and a whole political and social infrastructure created across the nation. Those, including many Labour MPs, who crave the demise of the Assembly want to turn their backs on that and tie us firmly in with Westminster as our sole source of government, somewhere that has never really understood or empathised with Wales."

For the first time for centuries Wales has its own government in a beautiful building standing on our own soil. This was the hopeless dream of generations of our ancestors -not the crachach but Y Werin - the ordinary folk who toiled in the pits and the quarries. The Assembly  is the achievement of our generation. Let’s strengthen it and ensure that our grandchildren will be grateful for our vision.

Fresh Start- late 
Lest we forget , the coalition crisis is entirely the fault of one man. He was urged to go by Welsh Labour MPs so that the Browne Bounce could give Labour an overall majority in the  Senedd. This is not being wise after the event. That what Welsh Labour said last June. Last September I seen him this ( hitherto unpublished) cri-de-coeur;

Dear Tony,

Of course the present row is damaging the Labour Party. It's futile to apportion blame on the two main factions and the intertwined layers of ambition and resentment that create these divisions. But there are no innocents or heroes on either side. As neither a Blairite nor a Brownite, I am certain that the only solution is for you to relinquish office very soon. To delay until next May would be grossly unfair to the Party in Wales and Scotland. Welsh MPs made this clear when we met you

The change must come as quickly as possible for another reason. We need a fully independent foreign policy to challenge an increasingly bellicose Bush who is spoiling for war against Iran/Syria. British soldiers continue to lose their lives because we joined the war in Iraq and the mission impossible in the Helmand Province, which could develop into a British Vietnam. Our failure to support the rest of world (except the USA) in calling for an immediate ceasefire in the Lebanon was abject folly. We share some of the blame of the terrible consequences.

You have been tough on terrorism but not on the causes of terrorism. On the 23rd of March 2003, I wrote to you: “Our involvement in Bush's war will increase the likelihood of terrorist attacks. Attacking a Muslim state without achieving a fair settlement of the Palestine-Israeli situation is an affront to Muslims from our local mosques to the far-flung corners of the world. The great lesson from Northern Ireland is that the best way to defeat terrorism is to win over the hearts and minds of terrorists, their supporters and their potential supporters. Pre-emptive attack of the kind we have on Iraq will only deepen the sense of grievance among Muslims that the  Western/Christian/Jewish world is out to oppress them. This will provide a propaganda victory to Osama Bin Laden and can only increase his support and the likelihood of more acts of terrorism.”

Leaders of Muslim organisations were castigated for pointing out the obvious fact, that Britain's failure to be even -handed on conflicts has again inflamed Muslim opinion. Of course, Britain is not responsible for the original atrocities by Al Qaida - but we are responsible for increasing and deepening the sense of grievance that spawns terrorism and acts of martyrdom.
We need a fresh start. 

Cabinet boredom measured in 'Huttons'

'A government of all the bores' is Simon Hoggart's bleak judgement on Brown's cabinet. Time for a boredom roll call. The new minister for odds and ends, John Hutton is stunningly, cruxifyingly, soporific ally boring. The  mind-numbing qualities of all others are measured in 'Huttons.' He is the supreme, unchangeable  gold standard 10 Huttons.

John is entranced by hard core Blairism. He could have been a Scientologist, a Parsee or a Creationist if they'd got to him first.  His faith is total. He dresses, walks and talks in the Blairist mode, starting every other sentence with 'Look!' and wallowing in meaningless jargon.  He fillets his speeches of all humour, colour or frivolity and sticks to chanting the litany of Blairist nostrums.  He is the keeper of the flame on choice, PFI, and the war against terrorism.

He has his rivals whose boredom level can be expressed in the scientific measure 'Huttons'. Remember plus is bad: minus is good.

Allan Johnston. An attractive presence, sharp, persuasive and humorous. Is there gravitas behind the grin? NHS could be his Golgotha.
Rating: minus three Huttons.

Jack Straw. Wily self-preservationist. His 'low cunning' would have secured him a job in the Governments of the Vatican, the Kremlin or Mao Tse Tung. As fascinating as a solved crossword puzzle, as tedious as a repeated joke.
Rating: plus four Huttons.

Des Browne. Has interesting heron nest hair a droning hypnotic delivery plus an unfathomable gullibility. Possibly genuinely believe that NATO will win in Helmand. Rating: plus five Huttons.

Geoff Hoon. Good mind infected at an early stage with a eurodrivel virus. Too un-thuggish to be Chief Whip. Couldn't bully or threaten with a straight face.
Rating: minus two Huttons.

Hazel Blears. Birdlike motor mouth of the Blairist catechism. Went down in the deputy leadership election carrying  aloft the flickering Blair torch. Occasionally plausible. Always quick witted. Rating  plus two Huttons.

Peter Hain. Successful frontline politico and shapeshifter for 40 years. Deftly straddled left and right camps - painfully did the splits between the two in deputy poll. Ambitiously strives to be uninteresting and universally acceptable by hiding his talents.
Rating: plus 1 Hutton

David Miliband. Highly intelligent, creative and humorous. A political  phenomenon. Will Viagra the staid Foreign Office from its coma. A Blairism/ Iraq war apostate.  Rating : Minus 9 Huttons.

Ruth Kelly. Scary, fecund, tormented soul who believes in punishment and retribution.   Unlikely to frighten the horses in transport role.
Rating: plus two Huttons

Hilary Benn. Churchy, tedious Tony Benn talk-and-gesture-alike. Wounded by move from International Development but will shine at Environment. Main career obstacles are his decency and lack of guile.
Rating: plus 3 Huttons

Alistair Darling. Protestant, unexitingly, able and predictable. Doomed to disappoint with Chancellor chalice poisoned by Brown's brilliance.
Rating: 4 Huttons.

Jacqui Smith. Barely adequate nervy junior minister, talents are buried deed under several bushels but strangely visible to Gordon Brown. Intelligent charmer. Brown's greatest gamble.
Rating: plus two Huttons.

Ed Balls. Alone in undervaluing his own formidable talents. Present role is a starter job for future Chancellorship. Affable.
Rating:  minus three Huttons

Shaun Woodward. Generally soporific but with startling views on sexual politics. Son of a porter and a barmaid married a Sainsbury heiress. Expresses his socialism by limiting the number of his butlers to two.
Rating: minus one Hutton

Tessa Jowell. Weepily clinging on the rim of Olympic political volcano  that can blow anytime. Angst- wrecked Blairite, ultimately doomed.
Rating: plus one Hutton

James Purnell. Refreshing, open, breezily optimistic. Shows regular glimpses of brain activity. Wasted on dullards task of sport. Will shine on culture. Rating: Minus four
Huttons.

Douglas Alexander. Brown's vicar on earth. Political brilliance will dazzle in Brown's favoured work of International Development. Frighteningly competent.
Rating: minus three Huttons.

Beverley Hughes. Competent spear carrier who unnecessarily self-immolated over immigration foul-up. Warm empathy for new role in youth justice. Aimiable and acceptable face of Brownism. Rating: Zero Huttons

Lord Grocutt. A rare backbencher by choice. Good humoured wit who crafted PMQ ripostes for backbenchers while Blair's PPS. Unambiguous, saintly guilt free disposition, admirably suited to be their Lordships' sheepdog.
Rating: minus 6 Huttons

Harriet Harman. Comforted by deputy-leadership triumph into denial that the victory was a Pyrrhic one. Carries irremovable stains for grammar school choice and single parent robbery. A valuable, reliable and competent Brown ornament.
Rating. plus one Hutton.

John Denham. Skilfully choreographed his return to office by acting a backbench Government groupie and nark. Ability has propelled his trajectory from full-time Friends of the Earth worker to Innovations supremo.
Rating: Minus one Hutton.

Yvette Cooper. An abundance of talent and charm in charge of the newly sexed up housing portfolio. Magical ministerial rise to cabinet without making errors or enemies.
Rating : Minus two Huttons.

Mark Mullock Brown. An exciting inspired Brown coup. Will start Labour's self-absolution of Iraq war guilt. Rating: Zero Huttons.

Andy Burnham. Potential star, ability marred by pedestrian presentational skills. Still ridiculously young.
Rating: Plus two Huttons.

No Bienvenue for Prescott

Worst publicity

The anger of the British delegation to the Council of Europe at the news that John Prescott’s plans to join them have spilled out into the national press.

The group are serious about human rights, the environment and social affairs. These issues dominate the Council’s agenda. It is not a retirement refuge for MPs who are slowing down. The work is difficult and exacting, seeking international agreements among 48 quarrelsome nations. Prescott’s presence would bring the worst sort of publicity. The newsrooms of the tabloids will offer big bucks for pictures of John among women with a drink in his hand in some swish reception.

The script has already been written and the council has been dubbed a ‘gravy train.’ As the present leader Tony Lloyd has said, ‘If it is, the gravy is very thin.’ Delegates give large chunks of their week-end time to attend meeting and to serve as rapporteurs on issues that offer long term benefits for the continent but no personal aggrandisement to themselves.

There is intense resentment that Prescott’s elevation to be leader of the delegation is a ‘done deal.’ No deal has been done with the delegates of all three parties. The last three leaders, Tony Lloyd, Terry Davies and Peter Hardy have all been elected. It would be an appalling start to our consulting new PM if a leader was imposed on this vital all-Party body.

Whoever thinks they have done a deal should rapidly undo it and think again. If not, they’ll be tears before bedtime.

The ‘Da Marty’ code

If President Bush is sad at losing a loyal friend in Tony Blair, he can take comfort in welcoming two new poodles.

Polish and Romanian MPs put up a stout attack on Swiss MP Dick Marty’s report on extraordinary rendition. There is a mountain of   circumstantial evidence that international standards of human rights have been broken by transferring suspected terrorists to destinations where torture has been used on them. The Swiss MP Dick Marty has a formidable reputation as a jurist and politician. He said yesterday that he was no going to put that at risk just to gain a few headlines.

But Bush’s new friends from former communist countries dubbed Dick’s report as the ‘Da Marty code.’ Unfair, exaggerated but a deadly blow that hits the report main weakness-the lack of firm evidence that would convict in a court of law. Dick convincingly argued that his masses of quoted evidence were from intelligence and other sources that can never be revealed.

The Council of Europe’s full Assembly of 48 nations voted by the necessary two thirds majority to support Marty. The horrors of terrorism are known to all of us. But that is no justification for breaching all global standards of human rights. The excesses of extraordinary rendition could give a propaganda victory that will incite new terrorism.

So British                                                                                                                                                    

Today’s main French newspaper believes that the handover from Blair to Brown was ‘tres british’. In every other European nation, a handover of power from individuals with very different philosophies would have been stormy and vicious. But we Brits are ultra civilised. That’s the French fable.

The writer does not know the angst of expectation of an internal Labour bloodbath that was avoided because there was no right-wing challenge. It is regrettable that left candidates did not get past the MPs primary.  If they had they would been crushed. But nerves were jangling that a right-wing candidate of the calibre of John Reid or Charles Clarke carrying a Blairist banner would have divided the party dangerously. Brown would still have won but only after a bitter replay of past rows.

So British? So lucky.

‘Le swirling’ and ‘le scrapbooking.’

It’s reassuring that not all Europe is exclusively fascinated with a few major sports and pastimes. French newspapers are agog with the latest news of ‘le swirling’ and the ‘le scrapbooking.’

Also known as ‘les ricochets’ it is about bouncing stones across a lake of still water. The ‘stones’, made of glass, are a standard weight and shape. George, the Belgian is the world champion bouncing the stones as far as 200 metres. The world championship this week was in the Alsatian capital. One of the aficionados from the six nations competing said, ‘As these stones fly they create an ephemeral sculpture in space.. .’ Not just a sport but a work of art.

In the same city was the reunion of ‘Scrapcopines’. Described as the Alsatian passion of  ‘scrapbooking.’ The pastime begun in Britain and America with families making scrapbooks to recorded village and family histories.  The groups used the English word and confess that ‘scrapbooking’ is hard to pronounce. The devotees are highly competitive experimenting with new materials, images and designs.

Not much chance of either of these activities catching on here. Vive le difference

Ten brushes with Blair

 

Ten brushes with Blair.

 

He was an exceptionally young aspirant candidate in 1973 hawking his wares around winnable seats. We both tried for the vacant Labour seat of the City of

Gloucester.

We both failed to Ann Clwyd who sadly lost the seat. His speech was remembered and the local party said his day will come but he was not ready yet.

 

In 1987 he was junior opposition spokesman on energy. I had the same job on Social Services. It was a cordial relationship and he was a very bright, sunny companion for eating and occasionally drinking. His fellow opposition spokespeople judged him to be less able, funny or weighty than Gordon Brown. He was obviously a political giant in the making.

 

As an opposition spokesman he won a reputation for attractive speeches that commanded the attention of the House. He was promoted by Neil Kinnock to be the main spokesman on energy with Rhodri Morgan in his team. There was respect for him an actor lawyer. He had a ‘nuclear tax’ day, planned to highlight the expense and futility of nuclear power. His team admired him but were irritated by his ephemeral interest in subjects. It bloomed briefly than rapidly died.

 

On the death of John Smith, I made an impassioned plea on Radio Four in favour of Blair. I had debts of loyalty and admiration to Margaret Beckitt and Robin Cooke. But after long years of opposition, we ached for a Labour Government. The polls said that he was the one to deliver. There were doubts about Gordon who lacked his present image as a settled married man and neither Margaret nor Robin had the attractive images that voters now demand.

 

I attacked Tony’s manipulative choice of school for his child. In a PLP meeting, at which he was present, I said I had been a serial loyalist to Labour Leaders since Attlee. But Tony had proved he was alien to the values of the Labour Party. In the Guardian, I suggested that if an alien force from outer space wanted to take over the planet, they could raised embryonic life here in veal crates, fed them with diets that stunted their idealism but enlarged their ambitions. These beautiful creatures would be welcomes with applause and high office by political parties. Their odyssey of world domination would be in train.

 

Harriet Harman repeated the Blair sin and sent her child to a grammar school. A vote on the shadow cabinet was pending. Tony Blair said he did not want any challenges to the sitting members. He was worried that Labour MPs would assert themselves and give him and Harriet bloody noses. With trepidation, I stood as a candidate. It could have been a humiliating disaster for me. It was a score draw and I had a respectable but losing 66 votes from colleagues. They shared my horror at the retreat from Labour’s basic values.

 

Exhilarating joy of 1997 victory. Perhaps it could only get better. Asked him a first question to publish records of all meetings with ministers and lobbyists in order to keep Labour camped firmly on the moral high ground. He refused. The scandal of money received from the motor racing tycoon followed. Welcomed to 10 Downing Street by Tony Blair. I wanted to punch the air with joy. He looked strained and worried. He warned us about our behaviour in case we lost the next election. That overriding fear weakened and impoverished the value of the Government’s work for the next four years.

 

Wrote to Blair that invading Iraq before achieving justice in the Israel-Palestine would be seen a provocation among Muslim from our local mosques to the far corners of the planet. More terrorism was a certainty. Said his ambition to have close relations with the USA was fine when a Roosevelt, a Carter or a Clinton was in the White House but damaging when it was a Reagan or a Bush. Spoke in debate about the implausible claims on WMD. Did the right thing by resisting the Whips’ threat that Blair would resign if he failed and joined the 139 Labour MPs who voted against the UK joining Bush’s attack on Iraq

 

Attacked Blair’s claim that the invasion of Afghanistan would reduce the problem of Afghani heroin on the streets of Britain. Opposed the expedition to Helmand Province as a mission impossible. 155 deaths in Iraq and 54 Helmand deaths later, the poppy harvest is the biggest ever and the price of Afghani heroin on the streets of Britain is the lowest ever.

 

He has earned many of today’s plaudits. In spite of great doubt, I hope that Tony Blair can use his sumptuous talents, reputation and influence to bring peace to the Middle East. Good luck, Tony.

 

 

 

Welcome Quentin the brave

Welcome to Labour Quentin Davies MP.

I once named him as the perpetrator of the most heroic act I have ever witnessed. It was in a Baltic state in 1990. We were on delegation funded by the unconventional diplomacy fund – something I have never heard of before or since. Demonstrators had been shot a fortnight earlier at the television studios by the Red Army. We visited the radio station where the expelled staff was protesting by fasting in a caravan.

We chatted to them. Then Quentin decided to confront the Russian who were blocking the entrance to the radio station with their armoured personnel carriers. He crossed a chain barrier in the road marked ‘Don’t Cross’ in Lithuanian and Russian.  Scottish MP Margaret Ewing and I meekly followed. He spoke fluent Russian. He harangued the squaddie with the question; ‘What are you doing here?’ A bit taken aback the squaddie said he was guarding the radio station. ‘Guarding against what?’ Quentin demanded.’ Against thieves’ said the soldier. Quentin bounced back ‘You’re the thieves; you have stolen the radio workers’ equipment.’ The squaddie was not amused. ‘I’d love to go home,’ he said’ I’m from a warm country. . Do you think I want to be in Vilnius in January? '

At this point we all noticed that we were unlikley to build international understand with the soldier, who was waving his Kalaskinov at us and suggesting it would good idea if we went home. We beat a dignified retreat. I’m looking forward to further examples of Quentin’s courage on the Labour backbenches.

Prescottish*  panic.

News that John Prescott plans to get elected to the Council of Europe delegation has set off multiple panics.

Most of the delegation members are Real Labour not New Labour. The sort of MPs that Blair and Prescott like to see abroad- permanent exile would have been preferable to them. John may have difficulties getting elected from the PLP – even more problems getting voted in as Leader of the delegation.

There is serious angst among the interpreters, none of whom understand Prescottish. Perhaps they can import a Hansard writer who can translate his speeches into English, to be retranslated into dozens of other languages. The effect of Chinese whispers may turn John's ramblings into dignified statesmanlike utterances in Turkish or Swedish.

*Prescottish: dictionary definition. A language derived from English with chaotic syntax. Only one known speaker.

 
Pastafarianism – the religion for everyone.

Is this the answer to a spiritual emptiness in your life? A newly registered religion in American may be the answer. It makes few demands. No tithes, no services to attend, no collections, no sins and you can even covet your neighbour’s ox to your heart’s content. All that is essential is a love of pasta and you must be prepared to have faith in a fairly unlikely theology.

The main tenet of the faith is that the world was formed from a giant blob of foaming spaghetti that voyage through space for millennia before settling on this spot in the galaxy to remain. The founders of the religion are seeking approval for it is considered a bona fide religion to be taught in school alongside creationism. Convincingly they argue that there is as much scientific proof of their religion as there is of creationism.

A report before the Council of Europe objects to creationism being taught as an alternative to evolution as theories for the origin of mankind. There have been 90,000 hits on the COE website, almost entirely from evangelical Christians . They see this as further evidence of Christianity being under attack.

It’s nothing of the sort. It’s reason under attack. The COE appearing to be teetering on the brink of shelving the report for a while tempers die down. I have had two letters from constituents. I disagree profoundly with their conclusions that measures of this kind threaten to repeat the kind of  oppression of religion suffered in former communist states.

There is no move to suppress any religious teaching. But it does seek to halt placing a minority extreme Christian view alongside objective science as knowledge of equal validity. There are no objections to religions teaching what they like as along as it does not threaten the lives and liberties of others, but education should not be sullied with subjective views that have no rational scientific basis.

Country calls

Even before the Quentin Davies’ defection there was a rare glow of happiness breaking over the Labour.

The trajectory for the Tories is down after the grammar school confusion and murmurings of discontent. A killer criticism that appeared in the Sunday papers is cruelly true and memorable. A financier said after listening to speeches by the economic spokesmen, that 'after Gordon Brown, Cameron and Osborne sounded like a boy band.’

Labour has emerged triumphant from the potentially party shattering leadership elections. Anti-Brown challenges from the left and the right did not happen. They could have been immensely divisive. The election for the deputy jobs was good-humoured, comradely and left no wounds. The party has been shown in its best light. No wonder Labour has overtaken Conservatives in the polls. Will Labour’s upwards trajectory continues for a few months?  If it does prepare for a snap General Election. Brown has been accused of not being legitimate because he was not elected as a PM. Watch the demands for an election die down if the gap between the parties widens.

The temptation to seize legitimacy may be too great a temptation for Gordon to resist.

Melting Pot

A happy gathering of people from Newport’s diverse minority communities demonstrated one of the city’s greatest strengths.

Last week, I repeatedly mentioned the Newport experience when trying to bridge the gap in perception between the Egyptian journalists and me. They saw the UK as hostile to muslims, out to plunder Iraq for fat contracts and denying fundamental rights.

I told them of the Newport schools where the day starts with prayers. The christian children joining their hands together in the Christian way, the muslims cupping theirs in their traditional manner. But, crucially, they are saying the same prayers. In a fortnight I will join other city representatives to mark the inauguration of a new burial grounds for the muslim community.

Newport has a long and honourable history as a melting pot for immigration from all corners of the world. One of my favourite stories that i frequently tell immigrant children is that 160 years ago, there was nobody in Newport with the alien names of Brennan, Murphy, Flynn or Touhig. Then starving economic immigrants arrived from Ireland. Now MPs from neighbouring constituencies in South Wales  are called Brennan, Murphy,Flynn and Touhig. It will not take that  long before we are represented by Ahmeds, Hayats or Mohammeds.

Saturday’s event was part of the work of Community First in assisting BME groups. This is a very welcome Welsh Assembly initiative to lubricate the process of happy community building.

Once confined to the Pillgwenlly and Maindee areas of Newport,  growing prosperity has seen the resettlement of ethnic minority families in every corner of the city. Neil Kinnock once said that there was only one one black family in his Islwyn valley constituency. That was the local doctor. Expanding businesses, especially among the entrepreneurial Bangla Deshis, has seen  the relocation in every valley town with new restaurants and corner shops

The new mayor of Newport Allan Morris gave a rousing welcome to the new initiative. He rejoiced in the city’s happy history of a melting pot of peaceful integration and joyous diversity.

Discontent only please

The sad decline of the Western Mail accelerates. Truth is mangled and intertwined with prejudice and fiction. All in the sacred cause of shoring up their collapsing circulation.

The propagandists have even taken over their their news quiz. Try these alternatives to the question. Has the Welsh Assembly spent enough on education:

How are these for alternatives? the Western Mail is running a poll on what people think of whether enough money is being spent on education. The possible answers allowed are:-

Yes, not that it seems to be having much effect
Yes, but like the health service it's not targeted properly
My wage slip says yes and I don't even have any evidence
No, education is still woefully underfunded
Not where I live apparently
Don't know

The simple truth is that education spending  has doubled to its highest level ever.  No chance of a ‘write-in’ vote with a simple ‘Yes.’?

How about an alternative poll with this choice:-

Is the Western Mail crap?

Is the Western Mail utter crap?

Is the Western Mail the crappiest newspaper ever?

What's crap?

Tough questions.

Full-speed futility

President Karzai’s issued a ‘cri de coeur’ on the increasing slaughter of Afghan civilians in the sacred cause of bringing the nation to democracy. Are we fated we repeat the follies of the french in Indo China, the Americans in Viet Nam, the Russians in Afghanistan/ Probably Yes. As a gentle reminder I put this Early Day motion down last week.

EDM 1738 DEATHS IN AFGHANISTAN

That this House records its sorrow at the deaths of 54 British soldiers in Afghanistan in the past 14 months and salutes their courage and professionalism; regrets the misplaced optimism of the belief that the Helmand mission could be over in three years `without firing a single shot'; notes that half a million rounds have already been fired and little reconstruction has been finished because of the absence of non-governmental organisations; calls for a reassessment of the Helmand mission; is appalled at the abject failure of the poppy eradication programme, which has resulted in record production and the lowest ever price of heroin on British streets; is convinced that the threat to destroy the main livelihood of the people of Helmand has incited murderous resentment against UK troops and increased both support for the Taliban and the threat of terrorism in the UK; and believes that the only practical reform would be to license poppy farmers to use their crops to end world shortages of morphine and codeine.

Lab-Plaid coalition, best for Wales.

A vote for coalition

Within the next two weeks he shape of Welsh politics for a generation may be settled.

Many MPs, AMs and most  of the public have not grasped the reality of proportional voting. The late Peter Law repeatedly said that the voters had given Labour power and we had thrown it away. An MP said that Labour won the 2007 Assembly election. Wrong.

In terms of a first past post election, we would have won. But in the reality of new Welsh Democracy all we have is the largest share of the vote. Wales voted 32% Labour, 22% Plaid, 22% Tory and 15% LibDem.  That is not a vote for one-party rule. It's a vote for coalition.

The common canard is that all Welsh Labour MPs want a deal with the LibDems and reject coalition with Plaid. This is not true. The LibDems are hopelessly divided. Habitually they spilt 3 to 3. Their condition for a Lab-Lib coalition is  PR in local government. That cannot be delivered by Labour. Labour councillors would go ape.

The tentative agreement with Plaid can be adopted without betraying any Labour values. It sticks in the craw of the anti-devolution MPs because it would push for a referendum on more powers to Cardiff.  It would divide the party. Nothing new there. In both previous referendums, Labour MPs have campaigned against Labour's line. Some are viscerally opposed to devolution. Others rely on their obvious vested interests. A Scottish solution for Wales would reduce Welsh seats at Westminster. Welsh MPs careers are at stack. A Lab-Plaid unity Government is a serious threat to ours jobs at Westminster.

It's naive to press for the worst option of a continuing minority Labour government.  How could policy be plannedknowing that the liquorice allsorts alliance hold the sword of Damocles hanging over the Government's head.  The initiative would be  with the opposition parties to topple the Government whenever they choose. It would be at a moment of crisis after an unpopular decision by the minority government. Labour will be branded with that  for the future.

The most stable, progressive way forward for Wales is a Lab-Plaid coalition.

Tax easy

How could a new car tax disc be issued on line? Surely it would be cumbersome scanning through an insurance, certificate, MOT, and Registration certificate ?

A member of my staff convinced me it was simple. All that is necessary is to key in the number of the registration certificate and within seconds the DVLA announced that the insurance and MOT are in order. The disc is then sent in the post within five days. It took all of three minutes.

For 45 years I have made tiresome pilgrimages to Post Offices armed with a fistful of documents. Never again. It is about the only reason I visit post offices now. Can they really have a future without diversifying?

Defences down
In spite of  many reason to believe the contrary, The Daily Mail does have some useful functions.  One of their reporters has kept an eagle eye on the adverse reactions of pharmaceutical drugs. He will soon write about our lackadaisical approach compared with tighter rules in the USA.

Their regulatory body is the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has banned several drugs that are prescribed in their millions here. Detected side effects are serious and often fatal. It was the FDA who claimed 18 months ago that the pain killer Vioxx had caused 144,000 heart attacks and strokes. Here our ramshackle yellow card system for reporting adverse reaction had let us down. Only about half a dozen adverse reactions were reported each year. If it had not been for the FDA, we would still be prescribing more than a million doses of Vioxx every year.

Our regulatory body is the MHRA. It is entirely financed and largely controlled by the pharmaceutical industry. The Commons Health Committee called for it to be reformed three years ago. Nothing has happened. This is a cause for serious concern.

Will the Mail mount a campaign?  It's possible. With their circulation it could make a difference.

paulflynn@talk21.com

Touching voters’ erogenous zones

The Brown Bounce is leaping high.

A dream headline in today’s Guardian was ‘Go Back and stand up to the French, Brown orders Blair.’ The elongated good-bye is showing Tony Blair as a wasting asset diminishing to nothing.  Brown’s stature grows.

Hilariously the Tory Papers dismissed the summit's reasonable deal as a sell-out. What a pity they wrote their headlines early yesterday evening, hours before the summit had reached its conclusions. Nothing like getting your prejudice in first.

Gordon’s offer of cabinet places to members of other parties has touched  voters erogenous zones.  The public are not as neurotically tribal as politicians. They understand that no one party has a monopoly of talent. The LibDems who refused Brown’s offer look petty and negative.

I was invited by the Sunday Times to rage against a Government of all the talents. I told the hack that it is politically sound tactics and beneficial for the country. My favourite for a return to high office is Chris Patten. I’ll be surprised if I am quoted. Sunday Times reporters are usually given the story line the papers wants, then instructed to find MPs who will support it. No doubt they’ll find some for a story tomorrow on the lines of ‘ Left wing MPs slam Brown’s jobs offers.’

Not that it will matter. Brown is on a winning streak. Some Tories  confided in me their fears that Gordon could pull off a few popular stunts, then call a snap General Election. Those calling for Prime Ministerial legitimacy may find themselves hoist by their own petards.

A tender age
A very rapid response in the search for relatives of the youngest merchant navy casualty in the last war.

A website with the url http://www.ss-tregenna.co.ukS has turned a record of STEED, Galley Boy, RAYMOND VICTOR, S.S. "Empire Morn" (Barrow-in-Furness).

Peter Hackling of Pontywaun, Crosskeys, is searching for a forgotten bit of Newport’s history . He reports that  “All the wartime ships (Merchant Navy) that visited Newport Docks, may as well have been ghost ships, because I cannot find these records in any establishment locally or nationally”.

A website Her Name Was.SS Web Site is  helping. Newport has a proud history of service in the Merchant Navy. Many Newportonians seamen suffered dreadful casualties in war. A memorial is erected to their memory.

I am sure relatives of the galley boy are still in the city. The local Merchant Navy Association will assist in ensuring that a suitable memorial is created for this young man killed at the tender age  of 14.

Councillor Fairie

A unique event at Bettws Social Club to remember the late Councillor Steve Fairie was choreographed by Steve himself.

His widow Frances and brother Malcolm recalled his last days. He was funny and feisty until the end. He managed to get a discount of $700 dollars off his funeral by hard negotiating with the New Zealand funeral director. He said he wanted to dispense with a funeral director and be buried in a cardboard coffin. Neither were legally possible in New Zealand.

The funeral director resisted a further discount on the casket, but relented when Steve instructed him on which bits of Mahler to play at the funeral. It was the camaraderie of Mahler’s fans.

Today’s event was a humanist one,with a moving tribute from Malcolm followed by a meal and drinks.  Steve’s great achievement was running Newport world class recycling scheme. His special pride was the reception desk made from recycled wellington boots. It welcomes visitors to Wastesavers swish new building. It will be be a more eloquent memorial to Steve's memory than any gravestone could be.

His pioneering work for Wastesavers was a of great value and as an enviromental exemplar will continue serving the city he loved. Today's happy gathering of his friends was  exactly what he wished,

Will the Ming inherit the earth?

A near life experience.

The telepathometer have been re-calibrated to reveal today’s thoughts in the mind of LibDem leader Ming Campbell.

‘It’s the hope I cannot stand. After a lifetime in this party, I can put up with the futility, the insults, the eternal recurring disappointments. But this week Gordon gave me a delicious twelve hours of hope.

Not that I really saw it coming, in spite of a few hints. A job in the cabinet was like being offered the Holy Grail. The party has been stuck in grinding, joyless opposition for 90 years. However thick a shell-back we grow, the braying jeers in the Chamber when LibDems speak still hurts. At the budget and other great occasions, the two main frontbenchers are heard with respect and attention. Our turn is greeted with the bedlam of hundreds of feet stampeding out of the Chamber.

Even Paddy was damaged by it. Charles had his own internal insulation  against the blows.  But even he went through a ritual angst on big Commons days. My first PMQs were torments. In the past,  I was serenely at home talking about Foreign Affairs. Now, this is alien territory. The baying yah-hoos on the Labour benches vent their spleen and derision at the slightest pause or slip. And there have been a few of those.

What really hurts are the blatantly ageist jibes.  One odious Labour chump, who suffers,  from  parliamentary Tourettes syndrome of heckling incontinence, hit hard. As I was standing in dignity waiting for the babble and jeers to die down, he yelled,   ‘What are all these people doing in my bedroom.?’

It could have been good-bye to all that, if I had accepted Gordon’s offer. For the first 12 hours I basked in anticipation of cabinet office. A  taste of power and high status. Real politics not fantasy ones. Implementing ideas not shaping them for others to steal. An attentive House hanging on every word. No more bleak years waiting for the meek to inherit the earth....but I had to consult the party.

‘Over my dead body’ said Hannibal Lecter. The others were sniffy too. Lots of moaning about junior partners in coalition always losing out eventually. We are just not hardwired for government.

It’s onwards to another 90 years of purgatory.

Alchemy

Tough time for the Welsh press tomorrow. At this moment,  the news twisters and deceivers are pumping up their creative juices. They have a real challenge ahead in turning base news into gold. How can they present the truth on council tax levels as bad news for Labour and good for the Tories?

A report from Halifax will show that Tory controlled Monmouthshire council has increased council taxes since  1997-98 by 150% - more than any other council in Wales, England and Scotland.

Newport has the lowest average per dwelling council tax in Wales - and the fifth lowest in the UK.  Beaten only by Manchester, the Western Isles Pembrokeshire and Wandsworth.

Got that, local media? High spending Tories. Superb value Labour. That’s the truth.  Will we read and hear the myths tomorrow. I can’t wait.

Aussie sense

Great news from Australia

Drug overdose deaths are down 70% in eight years. In Portugal deaths dropped by 50% in five years. Here things are much the same.

2008 is the year when the UN and UK drug 10 year strategies end. The UN aimed to ‘eliminate, or substantially reduce, all drugs use and cultivation.’ We planned to cut ours by about 25%. Both have failed abjectly.

In world terms there has been an increase in drugs problems. But there is  a clear thunderous message. Countries that rely on the criminal justice system have spent  fortunes and achieved nothing. Portugal, Australia and other countries who favour health solutions  have enjoyed huge reductions in drugs use, deaths and crime.

There is three times the amount of money spent world-wide on chasing drug criminals than helping their victims. The UN will next week publish a review of Australia's national drug strategy so that other countries can learn from their experience.

Our Government is consulting on our absurd 1998 drugs statergy of the happily long-gone drugs Czar. The truth mocks that ambition. Can sense prevail?

Who knew Newport Hero?

Unknown Hero

A freakish coincidence this morning.

An e-mailer from Northern Ireland is looking for the family of the youngest Merchant Navy sailor who died in the last war. He hopes to have his name honoured with a memorial.

He was named Raymond Victor Steed aged 14 when his ship SS Empire Morn hit a mine and sank on 26/04/1943. He is buried in a grave in Morocco. His parents were Wilfred and Olive Steed (nee Bright) 20 Christchurch Road, Newport.

By a remarkable bit of luck, I lived next door in 22 Christchurch Road from 1975 to 1984. The family at 20 was then a lady in her eighties, her son and granddaughter. The elderly lady had lived in number 20 for a many years. She may have been the mother of this young man.

The search is on for relatives. There are 9 people on the Newport West electoral role with the name Steed. Information would be greatly appreciated.

Groupie George
Which UK politician do Egyptians admire?

Today I hosted a meeting with a group of journalists from Egypt. Their British hero is George Galloway and his Respect Party.

I tried to sugar the pill by lavishly praising George’s virtues. He is the most eloquent speaker in the house and he writes well. On Iraq he has been visionary and courageous. But he will never have any significant influence or power.

George is a presidential groupie. He is turned on by the trappings of power. He once groveled before the machine politician and post Ceausescu President of Roumania Ion Iliescu. George promised to write his biography. He never did. Just as well, it would have been a mind numbingly dull read.

Benizir Bhutto enjoyed George’s adoration. He slaved away promoting her interests. But it was his hyperbole in praising Saddam Hussein that dammed George.
Some of heroes were dubious characters, but they were all presidents.

The journalists visit is sponsored by the Thomson Organisation. They shared many of our worries about American belligerence against Iran. Other concerns were the insult of executing Saddam on a holy day, the sacking of a najab wearing teacher and excessive UK security.

I promised to take up an issue of which I previously knew nothing. The El Alamein battlefield is littered with British mines that continue to kill. Help is needed from the Foreign Office to de-mine. I promised to help.

Our Tory readers
The blog is mightier than the press release.

Julie Morgan MP tells me that my howl of anguish against the Assembly’s proposed suspension of council house was used by the Tories to hammer her husband Rhodri. They quoted chunks of a previous blog.

Rhodri stormed back. On the Terrace of the Commons yesterday he told me that my blogged fears were unfounded. It will not be an all-Wales retreat from sales but a relaxation of the rules to allow a flexibility to a few hot spots. Seaside and mountain areas have suffered when  sold council houses are used for holiday lets. Life is drained out of communities with a cut in the permanent populations.

Right Rhod, maybe there is a special case there. But suspending sales generally would not produce more affordable homes. It would force more tenants into years of impoverishing rent.  The jury is out.

No bull
Politicians do not do generosity. Well not often, and rarely to political opponents.

This morning I was abashed and astonished by an amendment to my Early Day Motion on bull bars. Not the first time I am grateful to the avuncular Elfyn for his addition (in heavy type)

That this House warmly welcomes the ban on the manufacture and sale of bull bars from 25th May 2007, punishable by a maximum fine of £20,000 or 12 months imprisonment; recalls with sorrow the loss of lives and the serious injuries inflicted by bull bars; urges the use of improved non-rigid frontal protection systems; and hopes that manufacturers will never again sacrifice pedestrian safety to the demands of macho fashion.
`and recognises the sterling efforts of the hon. Member for Newport West in campaigning on this issue over many years.’

Diolch o’r galon, Elfyn.