Good news blind

Hidden Best
Wales doing better than the rest of the UK?

Is it impossible for the Western Mail to print a good news story about Wales?

Two days ago they reported on world's cancer deaths. They made the fair point that the UK was not getting increased survival value for increased Government spending on cancer. The reason  is that so much on the extra cash has cascaded into the pockets of the consultants and pharmaceutical companies.

But there is credit for Wales in the details of the report. Wales has a better survival rate than England, Scotland or Northern Ireland. Worth a mention by the paper that believes that it's the voice of Wales.

It's a certainly that if Wales had the worst outcome, the story would have been a page one lead.

Oh No Gordon.

Yes I know that the Labour party is strapped for  cash, but why take a donation from an Internet Betting Firm. What are they after?

The little experiences I have had of them has been foul. A constituent who had never bet in her life, strayed on to a 'Deal or no Deal' site. Familiar with the television version of the game she had a go. At first she won. Then it was all downhill. She lost her winnings, but continued to gamble to get her money back. She stopped when her losses amounted to her life savings of £40,000. She was playing with a debit card and the money has gone irretrievably.

If the firm who made this donation think they are buying goodwill, they are entirely mistaken. I, and many other MPs want their activities severely restricted. There is only way to ensure that political parties are not dependent on Mega-greed PLC out to buy favours. That is to reduce election spending limits and fund parties from national sources - preferably trusts.

Invisible Tide
It's good news that Uskmouth Power station is to  reopen creating 60 permanent jobs and 650 construction ones.

The Friends of the Earth fairly point out that a combined heat and power station  would have been environmentally kinder. What is ironic if that the station is sited on the mouth of the River Usk where it spills into the Severn - or the 'sea' as it is locally named.

This is the exact spot where the rise and fall of tide is the second highest in the world. Why use an imported  power source while the immense power of the tided is unused?

Guests triumph

Thanks to my staff for their great guest blogs in the past three days. I have been on an odyssey to France. I visited a very close friend in  Brittany who has been seriously ill and then drove down south to a village near Toulouse. The widow of my brother Terry has set up home there. She is very feisty, in her late seventies and decided that she needed a change. It was a wonderful surprise for me. More tomorrow.