Paul Flynn - Read My Day

Dodgy Donor Droop

Glyn rage therapy

There are encouraging signs today that the 'dodgy donor' stunt is strangling itself with its own hysteria.

BBC Wales were orgasmically thrilled by the news that Peter Hain was involved. In spite of yards of coverage, no-one could explain what he had done wrong, who was hurt and why it was a scandal. The Vox Pop in Neath expressed strong support for Peter. What crime had he committed ? No-one really knew.

Unseated AM Glyn Davies exploded with anger on his blog today . "Absolutely bloody outrageous' was his considered judgement on a phone-in I did with him yesterday on Post Prynhawn. That's because the tone of the programme did not follow the sanctimonious malign humbug of the Daily Mail who are leading the feeding frenzy. Poor Glyn is woefully unaware of the sins of Ashcroft. Michael Brown and the Midlands Industry Council.

The BBC  kindly allowed me to spread similar  balm in English on Good Morning Wales and on the Jeremy Vine show today. Things went well, I thought. Although Rhun did keep interrupting my interruptions. He gave up in the end and allowed me to escalate into hyper-rant.

On Radio two, I was linked with the pleasant SNP MP who stated the Cash for peerages witch hunt. The interviewer (not Vine today) warmed to the idea that dragging police in to settle political scores is not the most sensible use of their time.

There was plenty of time to discuss practical alternatives to party dependence on donors. I asked Angus if he thought Plaid should be reported to the Police for their mis-use of the Communication Allowance.

My  health dip last week did leave me with a few fleeting moments of lassitude. This week has been wonderful. Topping up my stock of indignation at these moronic frenzied bullies is very bracing and extremely therapeutic.

Things can only get better. After a few insubstantial revelations that will bore the public rigid, it will be  time to launch the counter attack with a banner emblazoned with the word ASHCROFT

Democracy Day

In Newport City Centre today, ACCENT will seeking signatures for the Democrcy Day petition. The EDM now has 24 very significant MP backers>

That this House believes that the pioneering sacrifices of those who sowed the seeds of British democracy should be celebrated with a new Bank Holiday on the Monday nearest to 4th November, the anniversary of the killing of more than 20 Chartist insurgents in Newport in 1839, recalling other significant events in the history of the Suffragettes (1903) and the Putney debates (1647); and calls for a fresh appreciation of the value of the courage and vision of past generations in order to defend, promote and develop Britain's democratic institutions.

Flynn, Paul Francis, Hywel Hopkins, Kelvin Corbyn, Jeremy Davies, Dai Vis, Rudi Challen, Colin Efford, Clive Williams, Betty Pope, Greg Foster, Michael Jabez Hancock, Mike McDonnell, John Caton, Martin
Morden, Jessica Simpson, Alan Williams, Stephen Cryer, Ann Austin, John Anderson, David Jenkins, Brian
Etherington, Bill Burgon, Colin Galloway, George
.
Narcissus Bird
Intriguing behaviour from a sparrow who inhabits my small front garden.

He has a mirror fetish. He spends his time communicating with his reflection in the rear window or on the wing mirrors. Sometimes he pecks at his reflection. Mostly he stares at it quizzically titling his puzzled head from left to right.  Occasionally there is flurry of wing-flapping at the  mirrors.

Is this normal behaviour? Is he a Newport mutant? Anyone know? Is there a strain of narcissus sparrows ?

Red Dragons rampant.

A host of new designs are on offer for a dragon addition to the Union Jack. Here are the best.

Weep for the Enron Three

Sweet Martyrdom

It was so upsetting. The threat to three nice, white collared Englishmen was dire. The story was that these deeply wronged men  were about to be  ripped from the bosoms of their families, destined for servitude in a vile penitentiary beyond the reach of civilised law.

Shami Chakrabarti, director of Liberty, the human rights group, said Britain was “trading away the freedoms” of its citizens. Indignation was erupting throughout the nation at the possible fate of the Enron martyrs.

Lover of white human rights Boris Johnston led 140 MPs in demanding  the Government  "defer approval the extradition to the United States of any British subjects." Any  subjects ?

Two PR companies and the Daily Telegraph led the campaign for justice. The media became hysterical with anti-American propaganda. The Iraq war loving  Daily Telegraph wailed that Britain was becoming a 'vassal state of the USA'.

Smothered by more hysterical reporting today on Labour's troubles, the confessions of the Enron Three have hardly been noticed. I had to dig deep into the BBC website to find it.  Deeper in the Telegraph.

They have now, in essence, confessed to a corrupt deal with Andrew Fastow, CFO of Enron, whereby they persuaded Greenwich NatWest to sell its stake in a Cayman Islands investment company at a fraction of its real market value to a small company controlled by Fastow. The stake was then sold to Enron at its true value, and the difference was split between Fastow, Fastow's assistant Michael Kopper, and the Three.

The Gutless Royal Bank of Scotland decided not to prosecute after losing £7 million. No doubt, to avoid having their incompetence on public display. Without the persistence of the US Justice Department, the three would have got away with a mega-theft.

The three bankers allegedly netted £1.1m ($2.3m) each, while Fastow and Kopper made a considerably larger sum. Modern Martyrdom can be sweet.

Can we expect an act of contrition from the Telegraph, Boris and 140 MPs ?

Shrunken Dragon

Ian Lucas's plea for a Welsh presence on the Union Jack is an echo of a similar campaign of my childhood.

The Government agreed then to the reasonable point that Wales is underrepresented on all national flags - including the royal standard. It's not a problem because the injustice  inspires greater loyalty to our only flag, the splendid striking  greatly loved Red Dragon. It cannot be bettered.

It was 1948 when the establishment gave in to demands for an official Welsh flag. What they produced was an abomination. The dragon was shrunken to corgi proportions, trapped in a circle of words with the Crown of Empire firmly on top. That was meant to put us in our place. That flag remains unloved and forgotten.

Will we be conned again?


Botanic Bore

Surely it's obvious? The Eden Project entices, promising a taste of paradise. The National Botanic Gardens sounds like a science lesson. The place is in financial trouble again.

The televised pictures behind tonight's story were as flat and lame as always. Even skilled photographers cannot make it look attractive. A vast dome, concrete paths and a lot of monotonous green with hardly any other colours to excite the eye.

Is it for tourists or scientists? Is is gorgeous or educational?  Someone should decide.

..and the hidden scandals?

Political self-harm
Is the British body politics about to cannibalise itself.

Lib-Dems aspirant leader Chris Huhne has reported Labour to the police. Will police inquiries become a new arena for party point-scoring ? Other parties will retaliate. Police time will be wasted and the reputation of British Politics will be unjustly dragged through the mud again. It's irritating that every Labour scandal, real or imagined, is exaggerated. Other parties problems are downplayed or ignored.

Elfyn Llwyd MP referred to Labour this morning as having 'their hands in the till.' If true, it's our till. Elfyn has a short term memory problem if he has forgotten that he and two other Plaid immaculates  were found guilty last week of grabbing £5,000 each from the taxpayers' till. There may well be breaches of the law in this piece of shameless  chicanery. Another job for PC Plod?

In 1997 I repeatedly raised the funding of William Hague's leadership campaign. £20,000 came from the managing director of the controversial City Mortgage Corporation, David Steene. The City Mortgage Corporation has been criticised for charging some clients penal rates of interest. The City Mortgage Corporation lends to homeowners who have been turned down by other mortgage lenders under contracts which allow for increased rates if borrowers fail to make a payment. In one case, a man was charged 9 per cent interest until he missed a payment and then it jumped to 18 per cent." This was dirty money that Hague should have repaid. He did not. The media were not interested. Could the police have helped shed a little light?

The role of the Midlands Industrial Council in funding Conservative party activity has not been investigated by the police. In essence, by giving money to the MIC rather than directly to the Conservative party, it has allowed big donors to remain anonymous. The MIC in turn, after receiving these anonymous donations, funds Conservative campaigning. After public pressure, they’ve published a one-off list of their currently active members - but won’t say who else has given money in the past or that they’ll publish names of new donors in the future. Time for the police to probe?

THE Liberal Democrats were criticised from their own ranks   over a decision to accept £2.4 million from a company owned by a Swiss-based financial business. The donor Michael Brown was jailed for two years. The Electoral Commission cleared the LibDems of 'bad faith' but left open the  separate issue which is still under investigation: was the money that Michael Brown gave to the Lib Dems his to give away. Anyone reported this to the police?

 

Lord Ashcroft, the multimillionaire bankrolling the Conservatives' controversial campaign in marginal constituencies is under increasing pressure to explain whether he has honoured pledges, made before he received his peerage, that he would return to the UK and pay income tax. One promise that he would return was made by the then Tory leader, William Hague, in order to secure the peerage more than seven years ago. A similar assurance had already been given by Ashcroft himself when he settled a libel action with the Times newspaper.

However in 2004, five years after the assurances were given, Ashcroft's main residence was declared in the House of Lords expenses register to be the central American tax haven of Belize, thousands of miles beyond the reach of HM Revenue and Customs. Should the police investigate whether any  law has been broken?

Tory peer, Lord Laidlaw, who has taken a leave of absence from the House of Lords after he took no action to change his tax-exile status in Monaco. The House of Lords appointments commission imposed the condition in approving his appointment in 2004 but has no powers to take away this peerage. The Conservative party confirmed that despite Lord Laidlaw's enforced leave of absence, the party had not removed the Tory whip from him. I don't remember any headlines in the Daily Telegraph on this one.

There is bit of suspicion about the Tories' arrangement to sell their HQ in Smith Square. The Party continues to own 32 Smith Square, having recently purchased the freehold of Smith Square and the adjoining 67 Tufton Street, and is continuing to review options on its future use.

The party has been negotiating to sell the freehold to their historic headquarters in Smith Square, together with adjoining offices in Tufton Street, for an estimated £30m. Yet they acquired the freeholds on both properties in March this year for £15.56m, after obtaining a loan from the Allied Irish Bank.    Tory officials have declined to reveal the identities of either the businessmen who sold Smith Square to them in March or any company in the process of purchasing it. Now it is back in the news. In a wide-ranging on Tory fund-raising, the Independent on Sunday names Christopher Moran as one of those involved in the transaction. He was expelled from Lloyds in 1982 for 'discreditable conduct'.


The Sunday Times  article claims that the "party accepts money from a number of unknown or obscure organisations, trusts and companies — devices, it is claimed, that are used to avoid public scrutiny of donors." A Tory spokesman said the party had signed a confidentiality agreement with the new owner at their request, but he said they were not party donors. It is just they have asked for their name not to be disclosed."  The Electoral Commission decided it was a  commercial transaction. Would the police agree?

On June 29th this year a cash for peerages complaint was made to Deputy Commander Yates about Tory cash for peerages. It was disposed of by October 10th without any arrests,  lurid headlines, dawn raids, press coverage of arrests before their were made. The complaint against Labour took 16 moths to resolved. There was never any practical chance of a prosecution. But great damage was done to the reputation of the Labour party and of British politics.

Reform
Opposition parties hellbent on using the police to fight political battles may well themselves be burnt. I am proud that Labour in 2000 introduced the best reform in political funding transparency laws. Irritated, bewildered and ashamed that by our stupidity not our greed, we have embarrassed ourselves.

Drugs Goddess

Woman of every year

Meeting Rhoda Emlyn Jones for the first time was breathtaking shock.

It was in 1973 and I had a disagreement with a fellow Newport Councillor John Marsh. John objected to spending council money on a hostel for alcoholics. He was a teetotaller and complained with passion that alcoholism was 'self-inflicted.' It was my anger that propelled me to visit the newly opened Emlyn House to offer some support.

It was run by Rhoda who is the daughter of the founder of the charity Alun Emlyn-Jones. I was expecting a matronly strapping  women who could handle the demanding tasks of running this all-male hostel.  Rhoda was an exquisitely beautiful slip of a girl who looked about 18. A slim, elegant Goddesss. She had previously worked as a fashion model.

She ran the hostel with skill and authority. Last weekend she was declared overall winner of Welsh Woman of the Year. Her career has stretched over the past 34 years in treating addiction. Last March she kindly let  me make a speech at a conference of drugs she held in Cardiff. We are on the same wavelength on this subject.

Many thousands of addicts have benefited from her work and that of her sister Lucy and father Alun. The family have never espoused the simplistic solutions. Their drug care has been practical and humane. It was a pleasure to nominate her for this award. Congratulations to judges for their decision. There has never been a worthier winner.

Llongyfarchiadau, Rhoda.

Greedy succubus

It was squirming in embarrassment and shame day for Labour Supporters. Yes, the Tories and Plaid Cymru have done worse in the past year, but no - party has been stupider. Given the circumstances, Gordon Brown came out of it with some dignity intact.

My convalescence allowed me the rare pleasure of watching the whole press conference. The questioning by the hacks was relatively gentle. Unusually for jackals, they did not bite him when he was down.

The Tories better not crow too loudly as they have been franchised by Lord Ashcroft. Oh for a tabloid attack on his addresses and status as a ' tax exile'. Lord Laidlaw is another case that would reward probing.

The public's perception is far worse than the reality. A caller on radio Five Live last night told me that there is no party left to vote for, because they are all corrupt. Rubbish! With the exception of Scandinavia we still have the cleanest politics in the world. That goes for all  parties.

The great corrupting succubus eating away at the body politic is our dependence on outside financial donors. The sums involved are piffling. My election every four years cost £4,000. The national spending by the Labour party has little influence. The taxpayers are already shelling out £25 million every parliament to opposition parties to pay advisers.

An increase of no more than 10% on the present 'national funding' of political parties would liberate politics from dependence on Mega Greed PLC or the national Union of Riggers and Fixers. Either all parties agree on this, or Gordon should pull off an act of political heroism and go it alone.

There is an alternative. The cash could probably be raised by a group of rich trusts who could combine to fund elections in the name of the public good. Five years ago, I suggested this in a Today programme interview. I had a few meetingswith the man who organised the introduction of the two minutes silence on Remembrance day. He did try to get trusts together, but I have heard nothing further for years.

This is an idea that deserves to be resurrected. It's the only way to avoid shameful days like today that besmirch the reputation of our politics world-wide.

Anti-depressant hell

 

My  posting, the day before yesterday, on the cynical marketing of the anti-depressant Effexor brought this alarming letter from an old friend and regular correspondent.


Dear Paul,
I was interested and alarmed to read about Effexor from Wyeth on your blog.
I have been on this awful drug for very nearly 5 years!
Started off on it for a bout of mild depression and have been on since, even though long since over depression.
I once forgot to take my tablets with me on a weekend away at friends and it was truly awful, head shocks, fear and intense irritability, not to mention the most awful nightmares you can imagine.
Recently I got to work and had forgotten to take pills before setting out and had none in car spare.
I spent the day feeling worse and worse, within 20 mins of getting home and taking tabs (by then feeling like death) I was ok.
These bloody things are awful and if I ever get off them it is going to take several years and a lot of hellish times.
Thanks for bringing this to public attention and feel free to use any of above, minus my name.
Cheers.

 

Right at the wrong time

Cassandras

The unimportance of being right in politics is proved again.

The Cassandras of 2003 on the dangers of the Qinetiq deal were ignored and they are ignored now. The perpetrator or this massive error is waltzing round TV studies as Lord Moonie the pundit.

Researcher David Lowry, MP Llew Smith and 34 other MPs  complained vociferously that it is wrong to encumber taxpayers with liabilities while selling off public assets to the private sector. There were bitter exchanges on procedure with the Speaker as this major financial scandal was smuggled out in a hidden announcement. There was no significant  debate at the time. The media were numb with indifference in spite of the matter having raised repeatedly on the floor of the House.

Lord Moonie now beams with 20/20 hindsight self satisfaction. It would educational for him to read his blind faith in the deal at the time. It would be helpful if just one journalist did the homework and exposed the culpable complacency of Government in 2003.

As always , no credit to David Lowry, Llew Smith et al. We were all right at the wrong time. Before the event. How foolish of us.

Tabloid Induced

Stupid but not wicked, we hope.

David Abrahams wanted to give money while protecting his privacy. He did not want to hunted and hounded by the jackals of the national press.

Labour party supporters are right to be furious that again we are being portrayed as the bad guys. Idiotic administrative failures of this kind do not compare to other  scandals. Buying peerages is a utterly wrong. So is stuffing £50 notes in brown envelopes to ask PQs. Lobbyists treating politicians to buy votes is abominable.This is perceived to be worse than it is  because it comes in the wake of other scandals involving party funding.

It happened before when the Tories went mad over sexual scandals. They were  knocked off their 'back to basics- family values' pedestal by a serious of cases of matrimonial infidelities. Some of these bad news stories were strung out for weeks. Major ordered MPs to resign swiftly if another scandal broke.

It was the hapless  MP Mr Hartley Booth who starred in their scandal free scandal. His researcher published a love poem he had written to her. There was no suggestion of any physical contact whatsoever. At worse, he may have had a naughty thought, But the hysteria won and he resigned never to hold office again. It was dubbed 'Coitus non-startus' or 'Hartley's seedless jam.'

There are worrying latent scandals now that have not stirred a ripple of interest among the tabloids. Are Lords Ashcroft and Laidlaw living abroad after promising to move to the UK as a condition of their peerages? Are they paying UK taxes? MP Gordon Prentice has raised this and has a bill to strip Lords of their peerages.

Why is no-one interested in exposing the truth of these scandal-rich scandals?

Drug-pusher doctor confesses.

Money addiction

In a remarkably frank article an American doctor confesses why he promoted a drug he knew to be dangerous. At lease 200, 000 American doctors are in the pay of the pharmaceutical companies.

"Receiving $750 checks for chatting with some doctors during a lunch break was such easy money that it left me giddy. Like an addiction, it was very hard to give up.

"Psychiatrist, Daniel Carlat MD, in The New York Times Magazine, describes his year long foray into pitching Effexor for Wyeth Pharmaceuticals.  Effexor is a toxic antidepressant drug that is linked to hypertension, even at low doses. Furthermore, the drug was linked to severe withdrawal symptoms: "dizziness and light-headedness, bizarre electric-shock sensations in their heads, insomnia, sadness and tearfulness."

Some patients, Dr. Carlat acknowledges, thought they were having strokes or nervous breakdowns and were showing up in emergency  rooms. Indeed, as Wyeth's own studies show, patients prescribed Effexor has a 50% increased risk of developing severe withdrawal symptoms compared to placebo.

Despite the drug's serious risks, Wyeth had no problem recruiting psychiatrists, like Dr. Carlat, to pitch their drug to other psychiatrists and primary care physicians at events labelled, "Lunch and Learn".

Daniel Carlat explanation of his money addiction explains why  "physicians" sworn to do no harm rationalise promoting toxic drugs to other psychiatrists when they suspect that the end result will harm
patients.

He describes that first conference attended by a hundred or so other psychiatrists from different parts of the U.S. " I recognised a couple of the attendees, including an acquaintance I hadn’t seen in a while. I’d heard that he moved to another state and was making a bundle of money, but nobody seemed to know exactly how. I joined him at his table and asked him what he had been up to. He said he had a busy private practice and had given a lot of talks for Warner-Lambert, a company that had since been acquired by Pfizer. His talks were on Neurontin, a drug that was approved for epilepsy but that my friend had found helpful for bipolar disorder in his practice. (In 2004, Warner-Lambert pleaded guilty to
illegally marketing Neurontin for unapproved uses. It is illegal for companies to pay doctors to promote so-called off-label uses.)

A recent study found that it worked no better than a placebo for this condition. I asked him if he really thought Neurontin worked for bipolar, and he said that he felt it was “great for some patients” and that he used it “all the time.” Given my clinical experiences with the drug, I wondered whether his positive opinion had been influenced by the money he was paid to give talks.

I felt rattled. I wondered if he saw me for what I feared I had become — a drug rep with an M.D. I began to think that the money was affecting my critical judgment. I was willing to dance around the truth in order to make the drug reps happy."

Before his conscience led him to quit, Dr. Carlat was but one of an army of physicians pimping for drug manufacturers. Experience show that the worst American excesses in drug marketing arrive here eventually.

Military Morons

This years prize for team hypocrisy  goes to the retired military buffoons who savaged Gordon Brown last week.

The military establishment are always insatiable for cash. Britain spends more per head on military budgets than any country in the world except the USA. If we closed down the NHS and education and gave all the  cash to the brass hats, they still would not be satisfied. Irrationally we spend far more that all our European partners.

It not the budget that is the problem, it's our excessive commitments in war zones. The brass hats were gung-ho for the Iraq war and the Helmand mission.  Both have failed disastrously in achieving their objectives. the world is more dangerous place because of our involvement.

Our successes were in peacekeeping  Sierra Leone, Bosnia and  Kosova. Many of the squaddies are demoralised. Not because of cash - but because they are fighting impossible dangerous wars.

It's the planet, stupid.

Howard's End

In spite of spectacular prolonged success with the economy, the Australians have dumped  Howard. It's no longer the economy stupid, it's the planet and the Iraq war and the Monarchy.

What a delightful ray of Aussie sunshine to light our winter political gloom here. Howard has a broad streak of anti-charisma. It was the economy and fear of Labor that persuaded Australians to support this charmless hack who abased himself before every daft idea produced by George Bush. Like skittles the Bush groupies are falling. They  did not have the guts, sense or independence to challenge the mighty war mongering morons in Washington

Probably this is the first major leader felled also because he denies the global warming threat Backing Kyoto will be a first step in reversing Howard's neglect of the environment. Bringing the troops home from Iraq will be a resounding raspberry against  subservience to the USA. Many Australians have died in vain in the war described as illegal in 2003 by Aussie lawyers.

The previous referendum on the Monarchy was a travesty. An alternative politician head of state was on offer. The Aussies were against politicians rather than for the monarchy. Howard greatly influenced the result. It will be reversed by Budd. It's taken  far too long for Australia to free itself from England's apron strings.

Anon P.M.

Atticus in the Sunday Times tomorrow will include an item gleaned from this Blog.

It's the standard simple question asked of stroke patients that I had on Tuesday, " Do you know the name of the Prime Minister?'  Happily I did, and I also knew who I was and where I was.

Atticus reveals that this question has been used for yonks. It had to be changed when John Major was PM. Even the compos mentis did not know him. everyone thought it was still Maggie Thatcher.

My two interesting days.

Part 3

My first endless night at St Thomas's was spent in the emergency ward.

There were no effects from the stroke but it was one of the worst nights I have ever endured. Arthritic pain has been my constant companions for 55 years. So severe was it, that I became convinced that I have broken my left hip in my fall.

My friend Ann Drysdale wrote a wonderfully evocative account of the sounds that disturb in a hospital at night. The constant ringing of distant telephones that are never picked up, the low grunting of those in severe pain, the unanswered voices calling for help or for their mothers..

The following day's x-rays clearly showed the wreckage of my hips but no fractures. I was supplied with crutches to move the short distances from bed to bathroom. My wife had been gently informed in a telephone message from Bob Laxton on my collapses. She got to the hospital by midnight on Tuesday- a  great comfort and balm.

The following day I was conveyed to  the Mark Ward stroke unit by two nurses who were new to St Thomas's. One was beautifully black from South London: the other was beautifully white from Ascot. The 10th floor has a commanding view down the river towards Lambeth Bridge. The other patients in the ward  had suffered severely from their strokes.

A fine team of good-humoured, highly competent nurses did magnificent work in patiently tending the severely injured. Grace, Onessa, Nana and Josette are models of professionalism and dedication beyond any reasonable call of duty. Although it made sleep almost impossible, they toiled throughout the 24 hours to give ease and comfort to their suffering patients.

I believed they regarded me as a little difficult because I declined help for my trivial problems compared with the anguish of my neighbours. Two of them said with a derogatory sniff  that I was 'independent'. I was just trying to cling on to few shreds of dignity.

Without prompting the chief consultant heaped lavish praise on the Welsh Assembly because of the progress they had made recent with the cares of stroke patients. The doctors, nurses, physiotherapists and pharmacist  provided me with frank information on my situation and answered all my question on future precautions and prospects.

It's sound advice to anyone in danger of a  stroke,have  it in  the vicinity of St Thomas's or else in Wales.

Poor relief for millionaires

Win, Win, Win.
How could we have got on the wrong side of a great reform ?

After decades of belly aching about the waste of the Common Agriculture Policy, the British Government is opposing the EU's plan cut in poor relief to billion/millionaires. Paraded as essential help to poor farmers, the Single Payments scheme pours out £billions to extremely rich farmers. Bravely the EU plans to cut the maximum handouts and spend the money saved on green anti-global warming policies. What could be better?

The Queen received just over £465,000. The reform would cut that  by around £140,000. The Prince of Wales received more than £100,000 and that would be cut by just over £3,000. One British agribusiness gets three and a half billion.

In France 25% of the cash goes to the %5 of the country's  richest farmers. In the UK 80 per cent of the public funds for farming find their way to just 20 per cent of farmers.

This is a dream policy Gordon-win, win and win again What the hell are we doing opposing It?

Two Interesting Days.

Part Two

My grip on reality was getting firmer when I was transferred from the wheelchair to a hospital trolley. The atmosphere in the Accident and Emergency unit at St Thomas's was a nauseous mix of intense dedicated frantic activity with a palpable air of danger and menace. There were  no cubicles immediately available and I waited for about ten minutes.

Another patient asked one of the paramedics who brought me in to get her a nurse. 'I have told them, he said. But the're busy. " "They are always busy " the lady said ungraciously oblivious of the strain the staff were under with the impossible demands made on them. An intensive care cubicle was free. It was speedily cleaned and I was wired up to half a dozen bleeping and throbbing machines.

A young doctor called and thoroughly checked the damage that the stroke had done to my body and brain. He told me the protocol was to keep in this cubicle for three hours and then overnight on the ward for observation.  That was comforting.

Pandemonium continued outside. A noisy patient in the cubicle next door was shouting and screaming. The tone changed to a threatening one. It was  wordless, loud and disturbing and totally incomprehens. ible A posse of half a dozen police arrived and persuaded the man to leave the unit.

A soft voiced nurse from Wicklow named Lenna was my Guardian angle. I quoted some verses from my childhood about the vale of Avoca.

'There is not in this wide world a Valley so sweet as the vale in whose bosom the sweet waters meet."

It meant nothing to her but a lot to me - my memory had not been wiped out. Lenna was a calm. chatty and comforting presence is the midst of the swirling bedlam. The staff of  this  A&E unit are heroic , quietly and efficiently coping with multiple crises that threatened to descend at any moment into chaos.  Is life for the staff here a hellish strain?

Half way through my three hours, colleagues Lyn Brown, Nia Griffiths  and Huw Irranca Davies visited. They had just finished their meal in the Dinning Room when I dropped to the floor. At least I had not put them off their food. Their company was as bracing a glass of champagne, humorous, optimistic and comradely.  It was a welcome intrusion of pleasant normality into the Hieronymus Bosch world into which I had been plunged.

Lyn is the successor MP in West Ham to my greatly loved friend Tony Banks. He also had a stroke. A merciless one. Time to count my blessings.

Fatal consequences

One of the best all round good-guys MPs did me a great favour yesterday.

David Taylor MP for North West Leicestershire is a Commons' treasure. He was recognised last year for his astute, literate courageous questioning of ministers. His oral questions are the best crafted of any current parliamentarian. Aware of my absence he urged MPs to sign the 14 EDMs I tabled  listing the names of the war dead of Iraq and Afghanistan.

He also pushed the great Daily Mirror campaign to Honour the Brave.

It clearly worked. On Tuesday 8 MPs had signed, Today it's 24. Additional signatures ensures that list is printed each day in order that MPs are reminded of the consequences of our decisions.

My interesting two days

My interesting two days

Part one

There are two villages on the Thames at Westminster Bridge. One named St Stephen's the pther St Thomas's. The first is a palace, the second a hospital. The first is inhabited by many thousands of mainly white people speaking one language, the second also has thousands of mainly black speaking hundreds of language One is beautiful the other is utilitarian. One is proud, self-regarding and pompous. The other is not.

As a twenty years long inhabitant of St Stephen's I was teleported in dreamlike circumstances to St Thomas's by two paramedics named Andy and Peter on Tuesday night. I had  spent the previous ten minutes   admiring the beauty of the lozenges in the ceiling of the Members Dining from the perfect vantage point lying flat on my back on the floor. The kindly Bob Laxton had organised a pillow of folded napkins on which to rest my head. It was reassuring to hear the voice of respected GP Richard Taylor MP describing the sagging left side of my face as a Transient Ischemic Attack. 

A few minutes earlier, I had joined Bob, Gordon Prentice and Lindsay Hoyle at our usual table for our evening meal. They were behaving oddly. I said that the loss of the disc with confidential information meant the end of the Identity Card Scheme. Neither understood a word of what I said. I repeated the comment. Not a glimmer of understanding. They talked amongst themselves as though I was not there, and Gordon said mysteriously '  I am going to get Doctor Howard Stoat or someone like that to take a look at him.' He then left. Why?

Undeterred by this irrational behaviour, I crossed the dining room floor and tried to fill a plate with a first course. Bob Laxton pointed out that I was trying to load the plate, not on the top or the bottom but from  the side. Then, calamity. I fell leftwards heavily on the floor. The ceilings lozenges are remarkably beautiful and different on the Labour and Tory halves of the room. Drifting into my field of vision between the two halves was the face of Lord Darzai. The previous day he had saved the life of Lord Brennan by using the Lords defibrillator on him. A first aid man fitted me with an oxygen mask and there was banter because Lord Darzi is a surgeon not a first aid specialist. I was reassured to notice he did not have his scalpels with him. Doctor Richard Taylor was explaining  to the assembled group that I had written a book he liked very much.. Vaguely I fretted. Does he too think  I'm not here. Shouldn't he have been doing sometime about my face was being attacked by these Ischemias - even if they are transient?

Andy and Peter, wrapped me in a blanket strapped me to a chair and wheeled me past the Strangers Bar towards the ambulance . We passed Keith Hill MP who asked 'Are you all right Paul'. I couldn't get the oxygen mask off quickly enough to answer, 'On balance, probably not.'

This evening, Thursday, I arrived home after being released  at 2,30 pm after two and half days at St Thomas's.. They had run out of things to do to me . With possible exception of a pregnancy test they had nothing more on offer. I have been scanned and probed from brain to big toe. My blood pressure had been automatically measured every quarter of an hour and temperature continually. Electrodes were in place on my top body erogenous zones. My heart's thumping had been  has been recorded in  glorious Technicolor. Most alarming was the ultrasound moving pictures in red and blue (happily mostly red) of the blood swishing and gushing its way from brain to heart along the neck arterial channel. Apparently they can get gunged up and produce clots. I presume then they give them a bit of a de-coke, but I did not ask for details. Like all my other bits, they are OK. Or as OK as there were before. Which is not saying much..

More tomorrow.

Working undercover

“What a hell of a complicated way to check out the competencies of the NHS!” That was the comforting message from Huw Irranca Davies MP.

I was attached in 4 or 5 places to  beeping and burping machines in St Thomas’ Hospital last night. Apart from the 20  minutes wait for an ambulance, the NHS came out with flying colours. The paramedics, nurses and doctors have all been friendly, considerate and thorough.

Happily, the incident happened before I had touched any food so no blame can be attached there. I’m told what I had was a very modish, fashionable, bijoux ‘transient ischemic attack’ which has done no residual damage to speak of. Apparently, I’ll have to deny myself the joys of  running marathons and morris dancing for the forseeable future. 

It was a reassuring experience of the first class quality of NHS care including the unique experience of having an MRI scan which was like being buried alive with a church organ bellowing and throbbing in your ears.

Every bit of me has been checked out; arms, legs, nose, fingers, toes, brains. The nurses and doctors have devised a series of hilarious practical jokes on patients to ensure that everything works properly. One of which is to  bend the arms inwards then waggle them  up and down like a chicken.  This is their favourite and i was asked to do it four times. Do they secretly video the spectacle and paly it back at their Christmas parties?

I am sure it is absolutely necessary, but it is odd as a working politician to be asked if I know the name of the Prime Minister. After reading a vast number of negative stories about the NHS it is wonderfully reassuring to find such fantastic staff and the availability of the most sophisticated treatments.

More later.