Paul Flynn - Read My Day

Here we go again....

Well, we are on our third day and still no big cat stories. Sadly we have been threatened with loss of control of this blog if we publish the details of the most recent sighting. Perhaps we could get a job at the Argus and get the sort of exposure these stories require?  To those of you who had hoped to read exciting details of an "almost sighting" of a rare native panther we can only apologise. For everyone else we hope that there has been at least two lines of interest to you in the last few days.

Recess is a thankless time, when most people think we are all on holiday or using the time to perch precariously at the top of the leader board of the Never ending Movie Quiz (see Facebook, though I have to say I am pretty pleased with myself). However we are still here, still working - and yes we know, Parliament is in recess but there is still work to do. Summer is the time to prepare reports, research, ensure all casework is up to date, discourage Paul from writing another book (we like his style but the horror stories from previous staff members are legend in the office. At one stage he seemed to have been writing a book on two different computers one in Newport and one in London which were not compatible - the mind boggles). 

Of course, nothing can compare with the cut and thrust of parliamentary sessions. We are avidly looking forward to the return (hopefully this parliamentary sequel will be the quality of Godfather II rather than the remake of Psycho) . We were disappointed to hear that the free campsite in Parliament Square is no longer available. Apparently the police moved people on because they did not believe they were genuine protesters! So for the next few weeks we will be dedicating ourselves to creating new and more believable placards so that come October we will be living in the heart of Westminster with all the city can offer at very cheap rates. To cover the cost of food the spaces on the placard are available for hire at very reasonable rates. 

  P.S. Just seen a BBC headline "Menzies attacks flood plains" which I'm off to investigate. It seems like an awfully big job for one man and frankly I'm not sure how the flood plains will respond. But good to see them finally taking a stand on an issue. Presumably the rest of the party have organised counselling, an apology, and some blankets for these plains when LD policy flip flops? Sorry - that was actually flood plans...who says recess softens the brain

Horror stories

Unfortunately, it is not uncommon for us to get a call, letter or email from someone who has been innocently duped by a rogue trader. It is always heartbreaking for the people involved and something that turns our stomachs in the office. 

Gwent Police and Newport Trading Standards work in partnership to protect people from this type of crime.  Last year Trading Standards returned almost £140,000 to Newport consumers who had been affected by rogue traders or purchased faulty goods. For some, however, it is very difficult to retrieve deposits or to prosecute the offenders. 

Newport City Council has now launched a free face to face consumer advice service at the Gallery, upstairs in the Newport Indoor Market.  The sessions run on Tuesdays and Thursdays between 10am and 1:30pm.  Trading Standards officers will be able to provide assistance in things such as how to protect yourself against rogue and doorstep traders, internet scams, what to look for when booking a holiday or how to fit child safety seats. 

Filling the Blogging boots

After our successful blog yesterday, Paul has let us carry on.  We hope you like our attempt today!

Breast is best?

We all know that breast is best, right? But do we know how much better it is? The benefits ofBreastfeedingmanifestobaby  breastfeeding for the first six months are enormous for both mother and child and can offer protection even in adulthood (including from cancer, diabetes, obesity, osteoporosis). However for every £1 spent by the Government telling you why it is a great – and cheap – way to feed our kids, £10 is spent by companies who want you to spend your money on their products. This isn’t about those who can’t breastfeed, and certainly no call for them to feel guilty. It is about the shameless manipulation of legal loopholes to get us to splash our cash.

The advertising of infant formula is prohibited, but if you market it as a follow on formula for older (we are talking weeks and months rather than years) children with the same name, logo, and packaging then it seems to be fine. The fact that two thirds of new mothers believed they had seen an advert for baby milk, and that almost one third of women said it was as good as, and 6% better than, breast milk, is irrelevant. Of course there are also the help lines and groups set up to “help” parents whilst promoting their brands. It seems that this is all perfectly legal. However, the Government is about to put into force an EU Directive on the marketing and composition of formula milk. We can put in place stricter rules if we want to and stop misinforming parents. Since 1970 Norway has stopped the promotion of baby milk and 98% of children are breastfed at birth. The Government needs to take a tough line now for the sake of our children. They have already set the precedent with ban on tobacco advertising.

76% of UK mothers initiate breastfeeding

50% still breastfeeding at 6 weeks

21% at 6 months (80% in Norway)

6 months WHO recommendation on breastfeeding

£650 to buy formula milk for a year

£329 million market worth

5 times higher risk of admission to hospital with diarrhoea and vomiting for forumla fed babies

Greater risk of overweight and higher blood pressure as children for those on formula

Lower average scores on tests of neurological development for formula fed babies

Increased risk of allergies

It is not about scaring people, but giving them the best information on which to make their decision.

Shared responsibility

When shopping for food, you can’t fail to notice the unnecessary amount of packaging.  It seems that virtually nothing is sold loose anymore.  Packaging creates around 100,000 tonnes of household waste per week and 5.3 million tonnes of waste per year.

It's not just the excess packaging sent to landfill that is the problem. We have become a nation frivolous with our food.  The Observer recently followed some eco-minded 'freegans' searching through bins behind a branch of Marks and Spencer.  All of the food was in packets and was beyond their ‘display until’ date at midnight.  They retrieved £340 worth of food in one night.

Although there is still a long way to go, supermarkets insist that they are making efforts to keep food waste to an absolute minimum.  All the major supermarkets except Morrisons and Asda contribute their own brand surplus to FareShare, a charity that re-distributes to homeless shelters and other organisations.

We as consumers have to take responsibility too.  Most of the food that is thrown away is not from supermarkets or warehouses, but from our own homes.  In 2005 about 17 million tonnes of food worth up to £20 billion was put in landfill in the UK even though 25 per cent could have been eaten by people, animals or turned into compost and energy.

In real terms, food is cheaper now than ever before in modern history and that has made us lazy.  It is easier to throw away and buy new than make meals from leftovers.  Simple changes to our eating habits and how we think about food would make a real difference.

Tetra-Pak Heaven

Following its tremendous success in increasing recycling rates it was great to hear that five new recycling collection banks have been placed around the city to allow residents to recycle food and drink cartons. In an environmental sense this really is sending them to tetra heaven.  As this type of packaging constitutes so much of our rubbish it is about time we were able to recycle it, and leave even more space in the green wheelie bins. The scheme has been introduced alongside Tetra Pak Ltd and the Alliance for Beverage Cartons and the Environment (ACE UK) and is hoped to help the council towards their target of 40 per cent recycling by 2010 and reduce the amount of waste sent to landfill sites.

Recycle Fingers crossed that eventually this will expand to a kerbside collection scheme (please Wastesavers!) so we can all save petrol in our bid to save the planet.

The new carton recycling banks are located at the civic amenity site, Harlech Retail Park(by Cardiff Road Tesco) , Sainsburys in Crindau, Maindee car park and Tesco in Spytty.

Alastair Campbell does not live here....

Well, as August continues its damp and soggy process Paul has decided that now would be a wonderful time for us to try on our blogging shoes and give you the highlights and lowlights of recess behind the scenes in an MPs office. As it is August we may even throw in the obligatory summer big cat story.

(Do not stop reading, do not turn to another blog, do not fear). This is not a permanent state of affairs, normal service will resume, and Paul is ready to take over if it becomes too drop dead boring. Having read Alastair Campbell's "The Blair Years" we have agreed a Bloggers Charter (with thanks to John Major and his Citizen Charters) which we hope will avoid the worst excesses of myopic pretension.

1) Never to talk about ourselves in the third person, or use our own initials.

2) Not to suggest that any academic institution would be interested in our musings as a basis of an academic project, or that they are key to finding solutions for Middle East Peace, climate change, or the ending of developing country poverty.

3) To try and avoid overt pomposity, over use of acronyms, and the assumption that any royal  or famous figure is in love with either of us (though as two extremely charming and beautiful people this is a devastating blow to our morale).

(With thanks to AC for his guidance on how not to write .)

Hamas or bust?

With recent news that 70% of those living in Gaza are now in receipt of aid from UNRWA (United Nations Relief and Works Agency) and that food prices have rise 10% in July life in Gaza continues to be difficult and dangerous. The shutting down of the main power plant after the EU halted finance of fuel deliveries can only worsen the situation. Leaving many without power and the authorities unable to continue functions including security and humanitarian necessities (like process sewage).

Those who hope that progress in the West Bank, and continuing stagnation under Hamas in Gaza will lead to the collapse of Hamas politics and a return to the fold of a Fateh movement who Israel can deal with are at best idealistic. If the last 60 years should have taught us anything it should be that divisions among peoples and governments has only fuelled the conflict without gaining much for those at the bottom of the pile. Any agreements made between Abbas or Fayyad and Israel or the international community can not be sustained progress without Hamas. A divided Palestine cannot function as a state, and a state cannot be viable if it is only a cantonised West Bank. Without Gaza how can there be a final two state solution?

Refusing to work with Hamas has only strengthened its right wing militant faction. We can't pretend they are angels but neither were the IRA, UDA, or UVF.  No party in the Occupied Territories or international community is without responsibility, or blame. Experience has shown that the only way to make progress is to work with what we have. If a Fateh- Hamas peace agreement is reached the international community should work with it. A divided Palestine, revival of PLO organisations, and an increasingly poor and isolated community cannot create a lasting peace. And turning out the lights will not help. What we can't see can still hurt us.  Indeed, it all sounds like the perfect ingredients for an explosive civil war which none of us will be able to escape.

Riding the rapids against cruelty

Staff at Summerhill Avenue Veterinary Clinic swapped their uniforms for wet suits this weekend to raise money to help the dancing bears of India.

The dancing bears are a tragic spectacle, trapped in a cycle of abominable cruelty they are forced to dance as “entertainment”. At the age of three to five weeks, tiny sloth bears are kidnapped and their mothers are killed. Sixty to seventy percent of the cubs taken die before they reach the Kalander village where they will start their training to become a real dancing bear.

A rope or chain forced through the cubs nose and most of its teeth removed, without anaesthetic. The bears are trained to dance through a strict regime of pain and starvation. The bears live the rest of their lives at the end of a four foot long rope and with no stimulation whatsoever.

Money raised by the staff at Summerhill   Avenue will go towards the World Society of the Protection of Animals campaign to build a sanctuary to give these bears a better life.  The money will also be used to train and educate local people to prevent cubs being poached and used in this vile way. 

You can join this campaign on: http://www.wspa.se/flash/dancingbear/default-se.asp

Click to enlarge pictures.

Trust us with your wheels

Peril in France
Would you trust this garage to service a second-hand pram? I entrusted my 6 year old Skoda with them, but not any more.

Today I had a plaintive note from them asking if I have 'deided' (sic) to take my car elsewhere. 'My comments" may help them, they write  "to further improve" what they describe as "the best quality of service in the area."

If true, that's worrying. Last September they did a big service for me including fitting four new tyres. On the first major run I did afterwards, three of the five wheel nuts fell off the front neared wheel while I was hurtling down a French motorway. They argued about responsibility. The full story is on Newport Video - Fear on the Autoroute.

Have a look at it. It may help you keep your wheels on.

Winnable...How?
'Every life lost here is an utter waste,' a British veteran of the Falkland War said. Day after day he watched British men, filthy and exhausted, troop home after hours of fighting. Often they could celebrate another tactical victory. Yet the enemy kept growing stronger.

Defeated in the morning, the insurgents strengthened overnight. British infantrymen are locked in combat against a hydra: chop off one head and it sprouts two more.'

Today's Observer presents a vivid, detailed account of the heroism and futility of the Helmand mission. Absurdly the editorial spin is that the war is winnable - just. This is a familiar Observer policy. They have always been cheerleaders for the Helmand Mission.

The report is a shocking account of the daily life of our troops. What bit can we win?
Drugs? We have gone backwards. Hearts and minds? We have lost ten of thousands of those through collateral damage. Reconstruction ? Little achieved and hope is based on a western attitude response that is not there. Military victory? Unachievable. Ending corruption? Not a chance. What can we win?

The article makes chilling reading on:-
http://observer.guardian.co.uk/focus/story/0,,2151830,00.html

Blogging fest

What is the verdict on Wales 20:20 ?

Certainly it's drawn attention to the dire May 3rd result  and highlighted the reasons for it. It was great opportunity from my point of view to highlight the major, largely ignored, reason of 'Blair / Iraq' for the poor result.

The latter end of the web debate was reasonable and constructive but it was at best bloggers talking to bloggers. The promise of moderating political opponents and loudmouths out of the argument was not honoured. There is difficult choice to make between allowing space to those  who have good reasons to remain nameless and  at least one manipulative political opponent  who has got past the moderator. It's impossible to have a frank debate when the media and opponents are reading and  contributing destructively.

Many of the contributions are bleakly predictable. The response to election results is unchanging. Successes are credited by candidates to their own personal brilliance, agents/ organisers to their master plans and canvassers to their doorstep persuasiveness. When results are poor, everyone blames everyone else but  not themselves.

Yes, the horror of our lost support in May was spun by the party into a success. That's their job.  It does not help that now we are on the crest of wave, to indulge in self-flagellation and doom-mongering.

While the first document was about organisation, none of the correspondence have come up with any single new policy idea that I have seen. It's again the theory of eternal reorganisation of structures that's  on offer- a Utopian party in which the Co-op is talking to the MPs talking to AMs talking to Fabians talking to Trade Union Bosses. That is not a panacea. It's an excuse for evading the challenge.  None of the eternal reorganisation of councils, health services, police has achieved sufficient in improvements to justify the chaos and waste that the reorganisations caused. Instead of chasing the hare of structural change, we should concentrate on the reasons why we have lost the enthusiasm of many of out natural supporters.

Martin Eaglestone had rightly said that 'Blair / Iraq' was heard again and again on the doorstep. It's a sound bet that party structure was never mentioned. Why is there not  any reference to Compass? They are leading the way in new ideas.

If Wales 20:20 is to become useful, it must have papers written by those on all sides of the present Welsh Labour divide of pro and anti - coalition. Verdict? The jury is still hearing the evidence.

No more religions, thanks

Credo Pasta
A fascinating e-mail invitation today from someone who is an avid listener to Yesterday in Parliament. He wants me to promote his faith as an official religion so that it can qualify for charity status.

It's an undemanding creed. It also have a moral code, embodied in the eight "I'd really rather you didn't" rules handed down to their prophet, the FSM. It's all very reasonable and peace-loving stuff. For instance, rule 7 states ‘I’d really rather you didn’t go around telling people I talk to you. You’re not that interesting’.

Intrigued ?  I was. It gets better.

It arises out a Select Committee session with the Charity Commissioners on what is acceptable as a religion. Scientology ?  Religious cults ?  They were cagey and said they had turned down Scientology but accepted religions that preached intolerance- 'tolerant of intolerance' was the way they put it.

I enquired whether Pastafarianism would count? They say it probably would not because it does not worship a supreme being. Now my correspondent has confounded that. They believe in the Flying Spaghetti Monster. The carbohydrate based almighty deity who, they assert, created the earth, life on earth and the universe around it during one of His many drunken spells.

Pastafarianism was born out of the ridiculing of Intelligent Design (ID) as science. ID is a modern version of Creationism advocated by its proponents in many western countries including the UK and in several Arab countries as well. It is often peddled under slogans like 'attention to alternative theories' or 'hearing all sides of the story'. Those are  transparent excuses to add Creationism to science classes. Is atheism allowed as an alternative?

To lampoon Creationism being taught as science an American physics graduate created his own totally ridiculous religion of Pastafarianism which has  every bit as much scientific validity as Creationism. Then he wrote an open letter to the Kansas school board -who had mandated the teaching of ID alongside evolution- applauding them for their attention to alternative theories and suggested his alternative of Pastafarianism be taught alongside evolution too. They were not keen. But it's a reasonable point.

I had to say 'no' to the invitation. My constituents would not understand.

Subsidy obsessed

BBC Wales evening television programme has a serious obsession problem.

The recess is a rare chance to watch their evening television programme. Every night this week they had an item whinging on behalf of farmers. The stories were all news-thin but heavily jerked the sympathies to shell out even more subsidies.

One was a potato farmer who imported some dodgey seed potatoes from the Netherlands and lost his crop. This is a business hazard which every other industry covers by insurance or legal redress from the supplier.  Why should the taxpayer cough up?

Tory MP Brynle Williams begged for subsidies for horse activities because their insurance premiums have been increased. Again WAG is asked to pay. From education and health budgets, perhaps?

Because no animals took part in two agricultural shows, demands are made on the taxpayers purse to meet any shortfall. The Royal Welsh had a similar request for a handout a few year ago. They had £millions in the bank at the time.

There was next to no flooding in Wales, except in places that flood every year. A small patch of field was shown - damaged by floods. The cry went up  for more taxpayers' cash.

All these tales are presented with a sob in the voice and a tear in the eye. Farming contribute 1% to the Welsh economy and each family in Wales pays £540 a year in farm tax already. Subsidies robbed developing world farmers of their markets. Apart from one sector, farm incomes soared last year. Why is BBC Wales so intent in perpetuating the  farm poverty myths? This is the dependancy culture gone mad.

If Mozart had been on Ritalin....

Medicines out of control

If Mozart had been on Ritalin and Beethoven and Leonardo da Vinci on anti-depressants, we would never have heard of them.These are exactly the drugs that doctors would recommend for them now.

At last a prominent doctor in Australia has spoken up. Normal emotions are sometimes being treated as mental illness because the threshold for clinical depression is too low, according to Professor Gordon Parker. Too many people are being diagnosed with depression when they are merely unhappy, a senior psychiatrist said today.

In March 2004, I celebrated  a splendid book with this early day Motion:-That this House hails the publication of the book 'Medicines Out of Control' as a remarkable account of history repeating itself over the last 150 years in the promotion of anti-depression drugs; congratulates Mr Charles Medawar and Anita Hardon for revealing mountainous evidence of incompetence and inaction by regulatory authorities and profit-driven pharmaceutical giants in advocating the use of cocaine, bromides, barbiturates, benzodiazepines and anti-depressants as safe drugs until use by millions of patients have proved them to be addictive, dangerous and of little or no utility; and regrets that more than six million people in Britain and 10 million children in the USA are currently using anti-depressants in spite of mounting evidence that they have been vastly over-prescribed for the mild depression that is an inevitable part of the human experience.

Prof Parker's language is very similar to that three year old EDM. He says, "Depression had become a "catch-all" diagnosis, driven by clever marketing from pharmaceutical companies and leading to the burgeoning prescription of antidepressant drugs.

Writing in the British Medical Journal, he said the drugs were being marketed beyond their "true utility" in cases in which people were unhappy rather than clinically depressed. His 15-year study of 242 teachers found that more than three-quarters met the current criteria for depression. Qualifying symptoms included "feeling sad, blue or down in the dumps" for two weeks, or appetite change, sleep disturbance, drop in libido and tiredness. The psychiatrist said these symptoms were so common that most people would have them at some point in their lives.

We have been conditioned to believe that if we , or our children or our grannies, feel sadder today than we were yesterday, then we should reach for the happy pills.  We cannot go through life with a rapturous smile on our faces from cradle to grave. Essential to the human condition is grief, pain, desolation and misery. if we were never sad we would not know what it felt like to be happy. If artists are dulled into sleepy bliss their creative forces will atrophy. Mozart, Beethhoven and Da Vinci would has pass their days in vacant angst-free idleness.

We need a campaign of demedicalisation. We have deregulation, but more is necessary with the onslaught of companies finding new diseases and inventing new treatments.

We live in an incredible world. In the United States, 10 million children are on anti-depressants, and the third greatest cause of death after cancer and heart disease is medical intervention. The Americans are the greatest buyers of medical health—they spend almost three times what we in the UK spend —yet their life expectancy is lower than in the UK and most European countries.

We in the western world waste billions on drugs and medicines for trivial and non-existent complaints, while people in the underdeveloped world are dying from lack of simple medicine, sanitation, immunisation and clean water. Meanwhile, the scandal of the over-prescription of neuroleptic drugs to those in homes for the elderly and to women in prison continues. We are pushing people into a dependency culture. The disease-mongers gnaw away at our self-confidence by playing down the strategies of self-coping.

There are better ways.

Great journalist

Bill Deedes is no more. His death is a great loss to political life and to journalism.

Ten years ago, I was  astonished and abashed when he came down from London to interview me. This was the wrong way around. A prince of journalist, a distinguished parliamentarian and a great writer spending his day visiting a backbench MP. I was embarrassed by his courtesy and patience. I am not easily star-struck but I had innate respect for his unique record as seemingly indestructible Tory with a ingrained  deep sense of justice and compassion. He pursued his campaign against land mines with the enthusiasm of a teenage zealot.

His writing continued to inspire and provoke even in the last few weeks. He had a long, great fulfilling life.

Heroism
Very sad news that Captain Henry Hicks aged 26, a cousin of Emma Cairns  was killed whilst serving in Afghanistan. Emma is married to A.M. Alun Cairns. She originally hails from Newport.

David is the 70th soldier to have lost his life in Afghanistan.  The many friends of Emma and Alun will be greatly saddened by this dreadful news.  It brings home vividly the heroism and sacrifice of our warriors who are fighting in abominable conditions.

The deaths rate in Afghanistan in now greater for British soldiers than it was in the second world war. Our heartfelt sympathy to the family.

"Stop taking the tablets...

Killing pills
Stop taking the tablets and avoid men with knives. Sound advice for anyone with arthritis.
Today's minor bombshell is that another Cox2 inhibitors kills people. The last time I asked, there were four million prescription for Cox2 doled out in the U.K.

They  are a relatively new class of drugs promoted as reducing arthritic pain with fewer gut wrenching side-effects. Two years ago the American drug regulator said that Vioxx had caused 144,000 heart attacks and strokes.  Another Cox2 Presxige has today been blamed in Australia for the deaths of two people and eight cases of severe liver damage. The Australia do prescribe larger doses of Presxige than other nations.

Another 'super-safe ' medicine ibuprofen was found to increase the risk of heart attack by  almost a quarter (24%) - higher if patients take it  for a year,  - and for a similar drug called diclofenac the risk increases by 55%.

The People Newspaper in December 2004 sounded the alarm bells by quoting a report I gave to the Commons Health Committee. Regularly I ask the Government to ban more Cox2s. The most recent answer in October last year was the same as always, "The Committee on the Safety of Medicines (CSM) has advised that selective COX2 inhibitors should not be used in patients with heart disease or previous stroke, but should remain an option for other patients, with whom the balance of benefits and risk may be favourable."

The CSM is part of our UK regulatory body MHRA. It is funded entirely by the pharmaceutical industry and chaired by ex-employee of GlaxoSmithKline. The warning bells on drug dangers rarely come from them. They had only six adverse reactions on file about Vioxx.  It is impossible to overestimate the greed, the guile and the resourcefulness of the pharmaceutical industry.

The CSM abandoned an investigation into the anti-depressant Seroxat after six months when they discovered that a majority of the committee's members had a financial interest in the drug. The pharmas are so powerful that their tentacles of influence spread everywhere -even into Government. Sadly patients interests are not their prime consideration.

Today is another tragic example that there are only two classes of drugs. Half have dangerous side effects. The other half have dangerous side affect that we have yet to discover.

They are better ways of dealing with the exhaustion and pain of arthritis. Pain is a construct. Arthritis has been a companion of mine for the past 63 years. The most useful work I do is talking to children with bone-ache, trying to persuade them that the disease is the least interesting part of their personalities. I abandoned the use of all drugs in 1974 and happily missed out on a dozen 'miracle safe' medicines that are now banned. Yes, I do walk in a funny way, and have five elbows and weird hands but I am still working at well over my three score years and ten. Saying 'no' to the surgery offered by men with knives also probably helped. But that's another story.

Deadly failures of politics

Slaughter

500 dead in Iraq, ITV report tonight. A million dead 60 years ago in the partition of India.

Almost all the deaths are the result of the failures of politics and politicians. They were predictable and predicted. Do British and American politicians connect the cries of Yazidi children tonight with decisions that we made a few years ago? I vividly remember as a twelve year old,  60 years ago, despairing at the intransigence of politicians who failed to agree on a united India. Religious groups who had lived in peace for centuries were divided with dreadful results

Using the mass slaughter of innocents as a political weapon is beyond sane comprehension. It happened again yesterday in Iraq. In the decisions on the division of India and the invasion of Iraq there was perverted idealism. But the consequent suffering and deaths demean us all. They mock the failed hopes and damaged hubris of world leaders.  Of course it not western countries that are directly responsible for these horrors.  But it was our decisions that changed stability into chaos. For the people of Iraq, life is now worse than under Saddam. Foolish politicians led us into the futile slaughter of Iraq and Helmand. Wise ones must guide us out.

Fearless
Anne Widdecombe is a marvel.

Tonight she took on prostitution for ITV. Not just prostitution as a subject to be discussed. She took on prostitutes, their customers and their pimps. Directly she challenged the clients, insulted the pimps and  tried to persuade prostitutes to phone home.

There was little connection because indomitable Anne and those on the game. She refused to consider the sensible harm reduction reform of legalisation. There are other countries who have reduced disease, squalor and exploitation of prostitution.  She upbraided one street girl by telling her that what she was doing was against the law. What difference would that make to her? The law is often an ass, and you and I make it, Anne.

The programme was irresistible voyeurism television. But those hoping for a meeting of minds were disappointed. Anne's mind is  already firmly made up and not in any progressive mode. Anne is fearless but trapped impotently in the prison of her own prejudices.

Wallowing in defeat
Huw Lewis' pamphlet and the Wales 20:20 website grabbed today's Welsh agenda on a slow news day.

My criticism stands. Huw's diagnosis of the May 3rd's losses is plain wrong. His call for root and branch reorganisation of the party is a depressingly predictable response to an abject crisis that has largely passed. On May 3rd Labour was on rock bottom with 28% in the polls. The results cruelly reflected that. We are now on 41% and rising. The Brown Bounce has met the Cameron Droop.

Of course it may not last but new members are joining the party. Distancing himself from Bush and Brown's initiative on Dafur are refreshing advances from the Blair doldrums. It's convincing now  to talk of the 'New Government.' That's far more productive than wallowing in the failures of May 3rd.

Parties in Government inevitably leak support. The Tories did and Labour party organisers gave themselves excessive credit for by-election victories in the 80's and 90's. We must not scourge ourselves unreasonably for our losses now. Certainly, there should be no wild goose search to discover a miracle formula for success. How? By  destroying present structures to construct an experimental one based on woolly theories.

Innovations on the web are welcome. But Wales 20:20 cannot be an internal discussion while Labour's opponents are watching and participating. There are many things I would like to say about Labour's successes in Newport. We are the largest urban area that still has a strong majority Labour Council. We also have a full set of MPs and AMs in seats that were marginal and Tory in the recent past. That is not due to our election spending (which is minute) or to  help from the Labour Party centrally.  Indeed, we have encouraged visiting Labour Cabinet Ministers to stay away at election time.

Wales 20:20 collected 20 comments. At least 17 are anonymous! Why? The moderator admits to not publishing one. The sponsors are still refusing to reveal their names. Anonymity will provoke accusations of manipulation by sponsors and others. There is divide in Welsh Labour following the overwhelming vote in favour of the coalition. We know where Huw Lewis and the majority of Welsh MPs were in that debate. Until Wales 20:20 sponsors reveal who they are, the suspicion is that they are trying to prolong an argument that they lost. The rejection of the Richard report was a decision taken in London largely influenced by MPs who have a vested interest in keeping power in London. The acceptance of the coalition was a decision taken in Wales by the whole party.

Now is rare respite in the political battle when Labour is doing very well. Today the party has indulged in self-laceration and navel-gazing. Gordon Brown is doing well. Rhodri Morgan is leading  a stable Government that can plan with confidence to implement the Labour manifesto for years ahead.  That's better than anything we have had in Wales for a long time.

file:///Users/paulflynn/Desktop/Wheel%20nuts.mov

'Loser's Lament' by Huw Lewis

Huw, wrong twice

Sacked Welsh Assembly Minister  Huw Lewis ventilates his disappointment in a pamphlet which claims that Labour 'lost' the Assembly Election because  the party organisation was (in last year's cliché) 'not fit for purpose'.

Cobblers Huw.

We lost because of timing. Welsh Labour MPs in June 2006 urged Tony Blair to go by Christmas so that the 'Brown bounce' could win the elections for us in Wales and Scotland. The election date was fixed. Blair's departure date was of Labour's choosing. Blair refused and insisted on his self-indulgent elongated farewell. Had he gone by Christmas, the Brown Bounce of 10% would have guaranteed stunning victories in Wales and Scotland. Blame Blair.

As an ex party-organiser Huw believes in the supreme power of well-funded party organisation to win elections.

Cobblers twice Huw.

It's voters' perceptions that win. Funding and organisation are marginal. In the Blaenau Gwent by-election Labour drafted in scores of professionals and spent, it's claimed,  five times as much as the ramshackle amateurish Peoples' Voice lot. The result was ignominious defeat.

Huw has backed all the wrong horses on Cardiff Bay. Power in the party is shifting from London to Cardiff. The centre of gravity of Welsh Labour should be in Wales.

Double Loss

The deaths of two civilised, kind and  modest parliamentarians are recorded today.

John Biffen was a constant delight. Non-politically-tribal, intellectual and delightfully humorous, he was the best Leader of the House for a generation. I have happy memories of spending a week in Lithuania with him in 1994 on an Inter Parliamentary delegation which included Ieuan Wyn Jones.

He was courteous disarming and unselfish. There were moment of hilarity - especially when we visited a vodka factory. Our hosts insisted on a comprehensive sampling of their product.   We all did our duty.

Tim Garden was a military man who had been in the Lords for a relatively short time. Less than six months ago he chaired a backbench meeting on Afghanistan. He was the LibDem Lords spokesman on Defence.

He never let his encyclopaedic military knowledge dominate debate. He was always rational, tentative and devastatingly persuasive.

Parliament is the poorer for the loss of two rare brilliant, but self-effacing, politicians.

Un-hinged
"I HATE the countryside and everything to do with it, tax-avoiding farmers, blood-lust yokels and inbred simpletons, four-wheel-drive snobs, gun-totting toffs, meat-eating murderers and – finally – I deplore the rural set, who think themselves above anyone else and are wholly out of touch with modern society."

That the opening sentence of an article today by former Countryside Alliance lackey Mark Hinge who now cavorts around Cardiff Bay as a lobbyist.

Got it in one, Mark.

Top Ten
An experimental parts of this website are short videos. There are 60 of them on the Newport TV section.  many also appear on YouTube and Google Video.

For the first time today, we checked on how often they are viewed. the figures do only included website of Google views, so the totals are probably at least twice the number recorded. The appeal of some of the videos are a bit puzzling. Although I defy anyone to watch the number one without laughing.

It is disappointing the truly pioneering one from the Commons have fewer viewers. Infuriatingly, strict Commons rule prohibit my showing any other MPs speaking. All that is allowed is my questions and answers to them and my speeches. It does not always make for riveting viewing.

Top 10 videos on Youtube are

Corpsing in the Commons – 988

Bettws Lantern festival - 607

Duffryn Infants School – 528

Fear on the Autoroute - 305

Newport Wales personality - 303

New State Radio – 244

May Mendleson 105 - 181

New quilt for Malpas – 136

Transporter Bridge 100 – 93

Heart of a lion, sensitivity of a poet - 90

Weasel Words from Wicks

Rigged
A hideous revelation today that civil servants are planning to rig the energy figures to hide years of failures to reduce carbon emissions.

Thanks to the Guardian and a squirming interview by Energy Minister Malcolm Wicks, it's now a concrete certainty that the carbon targets are unattainable. What worse the Government is not even trying to hit them-'approach them' is Wick's weasel ambition.

One fiddle will be to pretend that expensive nuclear power is renewable. It's not. It relies on a finite fuel. When will the Government break from their torpor, summon a little courage and go tidal? The Severn Barrage will produce 5% of our electricity. A combination of other hydro powers could ensure we meet our energy targets.

Germany and Scotland are doing it. Wake up Government - your mental paralysis could cost us the earth.

Carnage encouraged
Good thinking guys on the Foreign Affairs Committee. But you are a year late.

A Newport rock group New State Radio were well ahead of you with their song " We've come to burn your cities down' on last summer's Israeli invasion of Lebanon. Today the Select Committee reports that the UK's reputation was damaged when the government hesitated in not calling for an immediate end to the Lebanon war.

Any mention of Minister Kim Howells who said that calling for a ceasefire would be a 'meaningless gesture'?  He's still a Foreign Affairs Minister. Only one member of this select committee signed my EDM which said that 'a ceasefire call would not have been  meaningless for the children  buried alive at Qana, the thousand killed and the million whose homes were destroyed.' Our silence encouraged the carnage  that  weakened Israel and strengthened Hezbollah.

Where were the cries of the Select Committee last year? Their mouths were bandaged by timidity and uncertainty. Now. It's too late to matter.

The little hen of summer.

The joyous days of recess allow delicious luxuries like opening a new hairdressers in Newport

Sharon Porretta proudly displayed her stylish new salon in Cardiff Road. An experienced hairdresser, this is her first solo venture which is a delight and enhances a previously unattractive corner of town. The salon is lavishly appointed with elegance and restraint. Her one extravagance is an indulgence of butterflies that are the Snip Snap's motif.

A Sharon favourite, she likes the two Welsh words for butterfly, Pili Pala and Iar fach yr haf (the little hen of summer).

While a great deal is made of Newport's main employers, the vast bulk of Newport's jobs are in medium and small businesses. So well presented is Sharon's Snip Snap, it has a guarantee of success.

The Salon is the result of the Porretta family's labour of love. The name is well known throughout Newport. The Porrettas are more of a clan than a family and they have served the city of Newport well in many walks of life. Happy snip- snapping!

Thanks for letting me cut the ribbon Sharon.

(Click on pictures to enlarge)

Three men in a Sloop.

Meanwhile in the unreal world of Tory Politics, men  behave oddly.
Tory Welsh Leader Nick Bourne, AM  David Melding and escapee ITV hack Lee Waters were eating last weekend at the Sloop Inn in Pembrokeshire. A dreadful thing happened.

Bourne's blog records that they were provided with a fish knife when they were eating  filleted fish!  Boiling with anger Bourne emotes "Apparently had their (sic) been a list of eight deadly sins this would have made it in as number 8 and in the view of some commentators should be in the top five."  Certainly beats killing, stealing or coveting the neigbour's ox.

It's scandalous Nick, that you were treated so abominably. But buck up!  It does make it the  most exciting reading ever on your blog.