Paul Flynn - Read My Day

No charges-but all guilty

There were no prosecutions arising from Yates of the Yard's probe into cash for peerages. But the Public Administration Committee declares all three major parties guilty.

There is an obvious correlation of party donations and the gift of seats in the House of Lords. The system is rotten. It always has been. Our committee calls for an Anti-corruption Bill.

We want to sever the link between a peerage as an honour or as a job of legislator. The privilege of a seat in the Lords should be on merit alone, until we get around to electing them.

Not that we should wait for a new law to be  passed. We should immediately rule out the possibility that individuals can buy a seat in parliament. Tony Blair has made a start. He is the first retiring prime minister not to have a retirement list of ermined cronies.

We also call for a mechanism to expel Lords. One suggested is Lord Laidlaw who agreed as a condition of appointment to live here and pay UK taxes. He did neither. He cannot resign so he is on leave of absence. We have yet to get any clear answer of the status of Tory mega-donor Lord Ashcroft. My friend Gordon Prentice has a private members bill to end this anomaly. With Government support it could make it to the statute book.

Find the Leaker

The impact of our Select Committee reported has been blunted by a talkative leaker.

The Committee Chair, Tony Wright, and all  other non-leakers are furious. Two Sunday papers carried stories from the report and some details of what was said in a confidential briefing. This is soul destroying and undermines the confidence we have in one another.

In the past we have discussed issues openly between members of different parties in the certainly that it would not be blabbered to the press. Now someone is running to the papers, we must all go onto the defensive and watch what we say. This is damaging because uninhibited debate produces the best outcomes.

The report was embargoed for midnight tonight. Because of the Sunday leaks the Guardian today ignored the embargo and used the report as their front page lead. This will reduce the coverage on radio and television because tomorrow it will be stale news.

The purpose of  embargoes is to give all media an equal chance of being first with the news. Presumably the leaker believes that he/she will get favourable headlines in the papers as a reward. It doesn't need a Sherlock Holmes to identify the culprit. On another committee I served on in the past, a leaker was easily spotted and pressure was mounted to expel him from the committee. Something similar may happen here.

Cameron-gate

You may have to search hard to find the headline Cameron-gate in the Mail or Express. But the Tory Leader's local party has broken the law in exactly the same way as anyone in the over-hyped Donor-gate.

David Cameron's constituency party has admitted receiving more than £7,000 in illegal donations. The benefactors were not British voters.

No sign of any contrition from the Tory Leader who is in China. He might have ensured his own hearth was clean before spraying around the accusations.

Anyone with any faith in the objectivity of the British Press should observe the attention this crime receives. Compare and contrast with the hysteria dished out to Peter Hain. Peter's sin was a venial bookkeeping one. Cameron's was a mortal sin of lawbreaking. Will Cameron call in the police to investigate himself?

Campaign victory

Wrath

Not many ministers have been clapped recently on entering a meeting of Labour MPs. It was treat for pension minister Mike O’Brien from MPs involved in the loss of their constituents' pensions.

The 140,000 victims have campaigned imaginatively, sometimes exasperatingly, for five years in the case of the Cardiff based ASW company. One victim is a close relative of mine and I know well that this will be his family's best Christmas since 2002.

It was hoped that there would have been a chance to congratulate all concerned in the Chamber this afternoon. But there was no statement on this positive initiative. There were three on issues that are unhelpful for the Government.

Mike O’Brien told us today that the campaigners and the union are very happy with the deal. It should be allowed to proceed speedily through parliament. The only impediment is the lawyers who are advising the trustees of the failed pension schemes. This deal will benefit pensioners but rob the advisers of future fat fees. They should not be allowed to obstruct the progress of essential legislation. Without problems it should be passed by July with the money in the pensioners’ pockets soon after. Obstructions could delay the pay-out to the autumn or beyond. Part of the deal is to use the remaining assets of the failed pension schemes.

It should be remembered that these lawyers are same ones who ‘advised’ the trustees into bankrupting their schemes. While the Government has shouldered their share of the blame and their responsibility, the trustees of the failed schemes have escaped without blame.

If they start to procrastinate now, the wrath on campaigners and government will fall on them.

Hi-tech Joy

Yes, it’s lamentable that computer discs have been lost but there is no evidence that anyone has been harmed. There are energetic efforts being undertaken now to strengthen a system that was culpably weak. But there is another side to it.

I told the Commons today that for more than 50 years I have trekked to the Post Office every year with a fistful of documents to complete the tedious chore of applying for a new tax disc. This year, I did it on line. It took less than three from a computer at home. Millions are doing the same.

While high-technology brings new risks, there are superb advantages as well. I hope that disc-gate does not inhibit the Civil Service from continuing to provide a greatly improved service.

Lurid

First day back in parliament. I have heard lurid accounts of my episode four weeks ago. I did not know that it took 40 minutes for the ambulance to arrive from their base less than a mile away.

There was sympathy from many who feared that might have been final moments. ‘What a terrible thing,’ one confided in me today, ‘if your last view of life had been the faces of Bob Paxton and Lindsey Hoyle’.

Only kidding. Bob, Lindsey and Gordon Prentice were a great comfort even if I did not fully appreciate it at the time.

Good news - bad consequences

Unintended consequences
Today's 'good news' that the Government has compensated trafficked women because of their trauma will be welcome. Few will begrudge them the payments or deny that their have been severe abuse of these women. Trafficking in women is an international scourge. Those campaigning against it deserves our admiration and support. But if this is the only action Government is taking, the consequences will be to multiply the problem.

The first payouts of more than £140,000 were made last week to four women who suffered a 'sustained period of sexual abuse'. Another 10,000 are estimated to be eligible under a new interpretation of Criminal Injuries Compensation Authority guidelines.

Authority officials told the London law firm Lovells, which is acting for a number of the victims, that it would 'officially recognise' the trauma experienced by thousands of women and children. Fine.  But not all women come here against their will.

In one local case a Newport man married a Lithuanian prostitute he had never previously met. The deal was entirely financial and he received £15,000 for going through with the marriage.  The woman had been deported from Britain on five previous occasions. There was no suggestion that she was acting under duress. This is not an isolated case.

Accepting the Council of Europe policy of allowing trafficked women to remain in Britain indefinitely will also have unintended consequences. Many of the Eastern European prostitutes are here for sound business reasons. There is a great more money to be made. Already the attractions of working the streets of Cardiff or London are financially superior to  working the streets of Vilnius or Warsaw. Add to that the right to stay in Britain for life and this country will become an irresistible magnet. £140,000 is a fortune in Britain terms, several fortunes in Eastern European terms.

Compensation is not the best way to ensure the problem does not multiply. The suffering of the  serious abuse of trafficked women should be reduced by a purge of the traffickers and those who live off the women's' earnings. The great majority of these are themselves illegal immigrants. Like other criminal migrants they deserve no mercy and they should be deported. 

Immigration cases are a large part of my workload. It is a joy to deal with genuine cases who have found refuge here from threats to their lives. Other cases are resented when it is known that our work is shoring up the trade of the gangsters who charge £5,000 a package deal to bring migrants here. The deal includes flights and tutoring in providing plausible reasons for acquiring residential status. Often it's the richest who come here, not the ones under greatest threat.

Welsh television's  Dragon's Eye were gullible last week in presenting a distorted view on failed migrants. Happily BBC Radio Wales gave a balanced picture next day. Dragon's Eye suggested that the UK had a cruel policy that was driving genuine asylum seekers to sleep on the streets. This is a long way from the true picture of the patient humane policy that is, almost always,  welcoming and generous. There are very few countries in the world that allow migrants years to remain here and make their cases before tribunals. The process is not perfect but the vast majority of cases that are rejected have little or no justification.

The system is wasteful and inefficient. A dash or realism is needed if we are to avoid compounding the problems that arise from the unintended consequences of a naive belief that all migrants are of a saintly disposition. The two poles of the immigration debate are both wrong. The tabloid anti-immigrants hysteria ignore the great benefits that migrants bring to our economy. The gullible myth that all immigrants never deceive gives a cloak to damaging criminal imports. We could make a start by concentrating on expelling those running trafficked women  or other criminal rackets.

Pleased with failure.

Fuel flop

In spite of lavish pre-publicity given to today's promised fuel protests, the loud mouths and the petrol heads stayed at home. Never has so much fuss been made about so little.

Protests were promised at oil refineries across the UK. One protest in Essex consisted on one person. Cardiff saw a massing of eight people and not a single banner to say what they were doing. There was the  same number in Chester but they abandoned the protest in embarrassment.

At Grangemouth in Falkirk, no-one turned up. Welsh mega petrolhead in charge David Handley  insisted he was 'not disappointed with the turnout.' You've got to laugh. He obviously intended to organise an embarrassing flop. Give it a rest. Stop now you're losing.

Thanks Goodness for Bali. The world in moving towards fuel sanity.

Mr Guntrip's thrill

You could not make it up. The wonderfully name Mr Guntrip starred in the Carmarthen journal this week. He confesses that hunting animals turns him on. ""The buzz that it gives you cannot be explained. It makes the hairs on the back of your neck stand up."

No fantasises about liberty or  livelihood there. Just a straight admission that he loves killing animals for pleasure. Members of the Countryside Alliance, and other supporters of the hunting, told the recent hearing at the Court of Appeal that their human rights were violated by the ban on hunting with hounds. The campaigners also argued that the ban breached European law.

The Court flatly rejected their absurd claims. How can tormenting sentient creatures for fun be a human right? A sadist's right, perhaps.  Guntrip looks forward to the return of Tories in government to reverse the hunting ban.

That's great news for Labour. It is not an enticing election slogan ' Vote Tory and put the cruelty back into hunting.'

Secret news
When I was campaigning to gain the then Tory seat of Newport West in 1986, I had  one great issue.

Every week I posted huge figures on the car park overlooking John Frost Square proclaiming the city's latest unemployment figures. They increased relentlessly to record heights. So desperate were the Tories, they encouraged redundant miners and steelworkers to sign on the sick. Many were given a nod and a wink that could rely on sickness benefits to top up their income for life.  That promise made redundancy more palatable.

The idle lifestyle was seductive. Many stayed on the sick. It diminished their enjoyment of life.  Local economies were sluggish with a small army of economically inactive middle-age people. It would be difficult to overstate the damage of unemployment in the eighties.

Why no triumph now the situation has been reversed? Where were the screaming headlines this week that show that unemployment is continuing to fall, with 11,000 fewer people claiming unemployment benefit than this time last month, record numbers in work and the number of vacancies in the UK economy swelling to 680,000.

At the same time over 250 businesses have now committed to working with government to form Local Employment Partnerships, helping longer term benefit claimants move off welfare and into work.

It's great to see the number claiming unemployment benefit fall for the fourteenth month in a row to reach its lowest level for over thirty years. 

Work is the best route out of poverty and the best medicine for all ills. Couldn't our mean minded and petty media squeeze out one rousing cheer for this great triumph? I did not see a single mention among the dross of anti government drivel.

Glenys Kinnock to go

Achievements

Sad news that Glenys Kinnock is not standing as a candidate in the next European parliamentary Elections. Her 15 years as a MEP have been distinguished by a tremendous personal campaign to assist the developing world.

She is Co-President of the African, Caribbean and Pacific / EU Joint Parliamentary Assembly and Labour Party Spokesperson on International Development in the European Parliament.

Glenys is President of One World Action, the Development NGO. She is also Patron of the Drop the Debt Campaign, Vice President of Parliamentarians for Global Action, Board Member International AIDS Vaccine Initiative, Board Member World Parliamentarian Magazine and a Council Member of Voluntary Service Overseas.

These are formidable achievements. Forget the 'gravy train- image of Euro-MPs, Glenys's has been a dedicated campaigner for the major crises that assail humankind. She has tirelessly used her position to the invisible unglamorous suffering people of the developing world. Her work is greatly appreciated. She will be greatly missed.

With luck she could continue her work from an ermine decorated new platform in the Lords. That would be a deserved   peerage for valuable services. No scandal there.

New Clever Scam

I am grateful for this warning issued today by a Gwent Trading Standards Department.

"This one is pretty slick since they provide Y O U with all the information, except the one piece they want. Note, the callers do not ask for your card number; they already have it. This information is worth reading. By understanding how the VISA & MasterCard Telephone Credit Card Scam works, you'll be better prepared to protect yourself. One of our employees was called on Wednesday by “VISA” and I was called on Thursday by “Mastercard”. The scam works like this: person calling says, "This is (name), and I'm calling from the Security and Fraud Department at VISA. My badge number is 12460. Your card has been flagged for an unusual purchase pattern, and I'm calling to verify. This would be on your VISA card which was issued by (name of bank) did you purchase an Anti-Telemarketing Device for £497.99 from a Marketing company based in London?" When you say "No", the caller continues with, "Then we will be issuing a credit to your account. This is a company we have been watching and the charges range from £297 to £497, just under the £500 purchase pattern that flags most cards. Before your next statement, the credit will be sent to (gives you your address), is that correct?" You say "yes". The caller continues - "I will be starting a fraud investigation. If you have any questions, you should call the 0800 number listed on the back of your card (0800-VISA) and ask for Security. You will need to refer to this Control Number. The caller then gives you a 6 digit number. "Do you need me to read it again?“

Here's the IMPORTANT part on how the scam works the caller then says, "I need to verify you are in possession of your card." He'll ask you to "turn your card over and look for some numbers." There are 7 numbers; the first 4 are part of your card number, the next 3 are the security numbers that verify you are the possessor of the card. These are the numbers you sometimes use to make Internet purchases to prove you have the card. The caller will ask you to read the 3 numbers to him. After you tell the caller the 3 numbers, he'll say, "That is correct, I just needed to verify that the card has not been lost or stolen, and that you still have your card. Do you have any other questions?" After you say, "No," the caller then thanks you and states, "Don't hesitate to call back if you do",
and hangs up.

You actually say very little, and they never ask for or tell you the Card number. But after we were called on Wednesday, we called back within 20 minutes to ask a question. Are we glad we did! The REAL VISA Security Department told us it was a scam and in the last 15 minutes a new purchase of £497.99 was charged to our card. Long story - short - we made a real fraud report and closed the VISA account. VISA is reissuing us a new number. What the scammers want is the 3-digit PIN number on the back o f the card. Don't give it to them. Instead, tell them you'll call VISA or MasterCard directly for verification of their conversation. The real VISA told us that they will never ask for anything on the card as they already know the information since they issued the card! If you give the scammers your 3 Digit PIN Number, you think you're receiving a credit. However, by the time you get your statement you'll see charges for purchases you didn't make, and by then it's almost too late and/or more difficult to actually file a fraud report.

What makes this more remarkable is that on Thursday, I got a call from a "Jason Richardson of MasterCard" with a word-for-word repeat of the VISA scam. This time I didn't let him finish. I hung up! We filed a police report, as instructed by VISA. The police said they are taking several of these reports daily! They also urged us to tell everybody we know that this scam is happening."

You have been warned!New clever scam

Poisoned on a jet plane?

Is cabin air poisoned?

Always reluctant to add the inevitable anxieties of life, the strong evidence persuaded me to raise a new one 18 months ago.

A responsible group of air crews approached with their fears. They said that there is  medical and scientific evidence which shows that as many as 200,000 passengers a year are exposed to air contaminated with organophosphates and hydrocarbon compounds on UK registered aircraft. In  2005 events reported by the British Airline Pilots Association were a record high.

There has been little  research into the danger of exposure to pyrolised engine oils that may be contaminated the cabin at certain times.  Effective filtration systems costing less than £10,000 per aircraft are available but rarely fitted.

The Government has repeatedly dismissed this fear. This week the House of Lords Science and Technology Committee’s  underlined the need for urgent action.  To give high priority to research is clearly long overdue, as the committee concludes.

"We recommend that the CAA carries out an awareness campaign aimed at airlines and pilots to highlight the importance of reporting contaminated air events and encourages airlines to follow the spirit as well as the letter of the rules on reporting these events ."

They further call for research to identify the substances produced during a fume event and for an epidemiological study on pilots to ascertain the incidence and prevalence of ill health in air crew.

The Pilots and air-crew have persistently asked for this action. With the heavy weight backing of the Science committee, action now must be taken.

Poppies for Medicine
Hopes for a fresh approach to the spiralling failures of our Afghan policies were dashed by Gordon Brown yesterday.
It the same litany of denial and futility with a few minor nuances. The Independent gave hope with the headline that Gordon was to negotiate with the Taliban. Alas, he was frightened off.

The new policy of drugs is likely to be eradication by spraying. the perfect recipe for losing more hearts and minds leading to more British deaths.

One of the few sane voices in Afghanistan emitted a wail of despair.
“It is incomprehensible that eradication is still part of the British Government’s strategy for counter narcotics in Afghanistan, despite evidence clearly showing that it is failing dramatically,” said Paul Burton, Head of Policy Analysis at The Senlis Council. “. Poppy crop eradication has driven rural populations into the arms of the Taliban.

There is only one rational policy but the Americans will not allow us to pursue it.

A sound, free-market economic response to the crisis is available the  Poppy for Medicine initiative in southern Afghanistan. By allowing farmers in the rural communities to grow opium poppy for the production of essential medicines such as morphine would support the creation of a legitimate agricultural economy. This would give   farmers a strong financial incentive to sever ties with the insurgents. The scheme would also address the global pain crisis; 80% of the world’s population currently has no access to morphine, the most effective pain medicine.

No-one believe that there can be a military solution to the conflict. Yet that is where we put our faith.  We need the Afghan people on our side. This initiative could go a long way to winning back much-needed hearts and minds, which would have dramatic  positive consequences for our troops fighting there.

The Poppy for Medicine initiative was overwhelmingly endorsed by the European Parliament in Strasbourg in October . A nation-wide poll commissioned by ORB on behalf of The Senlis Council revealed that 8 in 10 members of the British public supported the Poppy for Medicine initiative. 73% of the 1,000 polled believed that Prime Minister Brown should personally endorse the proposal. Furthermore, the British public demonstrated their rejection of eradication by a margin of 47-42%.

This policy is popular and practical. It should be irresistible. Why isn't it?

Worthy and unworthy winners

Why?
An uncomfortable experience at another  Welsh Politicians of the Year award ceremony last night.

Guest speaker Peter Hain sprayed unfunny venom in all directions. Most painful was a reference to an unpleasant canvassing experience coping with horizontal rain and the former girlfriends of Kim Howells. Kim was in the audience accompanied by two female relatives.

Ieuan Wyn Jones was the deserved choice for the main prize at both events. An inspired  lifetime award was given to former Tory Minister Wyn Roberts. He probably achieved more for the Welsh language than any other Westminster politician of his generation.

The mysterious award of Welsh MP of the year went to Kim Howells because, “It’s quite unusual for a Welsh MP to play a major diplomatic role on the international scene."  Well yes, but which part of that role deserves  a prize?

Was it his comment in  July 2006 when he said that  calling  for a cease-fire in Lebanon was a "meaningless gesture"? Only Israel, USA and the UK failed to demand a ceasefire. It would not have been meaningless for the children buried alive at Qana, the thousand killed and the million whose homes were destroyed in the subsequent invasion.

Was it his  flippant dismissal of the 7th February 2006 of a warning that his Afghan drug eradication programme would lead to the alienation of Aghans and the deaths of more British soldiers ? He describes the questioner as a muesli-eater. Then 12 had died. Now it's 86.

Was it for announcing that Arial Sharon was dead, when he is still alive?

Was it for the serial failure of his anti-drugs policy and repeated assurances that drugs production in Afghanistan was dropping. It cost British taxpayers £250 million to engineer a 60 % increase in heroin production to the highest level ever. The price of the drugs on the streets of Britain is the lowest ever.

Was it his impassioned speech on Britain's 'shared values' with Saudi Arabia? ....bribery, torture, anti-democratic, feudal...?

If this really  the best performance of any Welsh MP?  I'm puzzled. is this a Cardiff-centric decision? As a former Communist he has moved seamlessly from a  Blairite to a Brownite minister doing what he was told and clinging to office.  Can anyone tell me what Kim the minister  has achieved  except his own survival? Has he made any significant impression or reform in any of his  jobs?  Any suggestions?

Rail unready

Friday's big day has been abruptly dumped.

Only today I was told that a sick Ieuan Wyn Jones had been replaced by Leighton Andrews to inaugurate the new railway line from Cardiff to Ebbw Vale. I was invited to join the celebrations from my constituency in Rogerstone.

For Newport it was always going to be a bitter sweet occasion because we have to wait another three years for our train. Passengers will have to board shuttle buses at Rogerstone to travel to Newport city centre.

A.M. Rosemary Butler, Rogerstone campaigner Jayne Bryant and I intended to make that point on Friday in a dramatic way. Now the event has collapsed in a storm of accusation and counter-accusation. There is talk of spending another £2million to get the rail track safe. The Blaenau Gwent Council is being blamed and so is everyone else. How could the ugly mess  remain undiscovered until 48 hours before the grand inauguration?

Who fouled it up? Answers please.

Hitched
My new best buddy is Peter Hitchens of the Daily Mail.

We have exchanged mutually admiring e-mails over the last few days . A shared friend is Doctor.Fred Baughman He exposed ADHD as an evidence-free theory that has become part of the accepted foolishness of medical folklore. Peter Hitchens has inflamed the readers of the Mail but boldly denying the the existence of this invented illness.

Perhaps I'm lowering my standards. But any enemy of Ritalin is a friend of mine.

Wales, Go Italian

Drugs sense

Yes, the NHS in Wales could learn a lot from Italy. Without a blush the Western Mail calls for sensible drug policies. They have forgotten they ramped up the Herceptin hysteria.
Helpfully they report that  prescribing all over-hyped drugs would bankrupt the NHS and deprive patients of treatments that work.

The new cancer drugs are effective on only 9% of the patients who receive them. The Italian Government told the Pharmas,  " Test the drug on 100 patients and we will pay the drug costs for those patients in which the drugs are successful.” This is a neat solution. It could silence the evidence-free PR claims that all of the new drugs are miracle universal cures.

The paper ignores the other Italian model and seems to accept that our regulatory body is a Government organisation. The MHRA is funded entirely by the Pharmaceutical industry and its chairman worked for years for Glaxo Smith Kline. Confidence is  collapsing  in trials of medicinal drugs by pharmaceutical companies. There is  mounting evidence that companies' trials are overwhelmingly biased in their conclusions compared with independent trials. They have concealed adverse effects that have killed tens of thousands of patients.  Sir Iain Chalmers' in evidence to the Health Select Committee said that one anti-arrhythmic drug in the 1980s killed more U.S. people than all the Americans killed in the Vietnam war. That was in  spite of evidence of its fatal consequences t had been  suppressed for 13 years.

The painkiller Vioxx was blamed for 144,000 heart attacks and strokes in the USA alone. There are claims that Merck suppressed information on Vioxx's dangers in the same way that GlaxoSmithKline denied access to evidence of adverse reactions to Seroxat. When our MHRA set up a committee to examine the dangers of Seroxat, it was disbanded after 6 months. The majority of its members had interests  in the Pharma that makes it.

The Italians no longer allow the Pharmas to be prosecutor, judge and jury on drug safety. They have established an independent drugs testing agency funded by a levy on pharmaceutical companies. It's called the Italian Agenzia Italiana del Farmaco. Time for us to go Italian.

Croseo
It's easy to be cynical about the motives for the 'Welcome Home' for soldiers returning from Iraq. Beautiful pictures of Cardiff Castle and heart-warming stories  made a very agreeable news item.

There are some hard headed reasons why the parades have been organised. The current wars are unpopular and little understood. There is also an alarming dropout of trained soldiers. New recruits are not being attracted in numbers sufficient to fill the vacancies. The prospect of war without end in Afghanistan is daunting .  Army officers, I know, tell me that they 'all want to get out.'
The cheers and flag-waving of the relatives in the march through Cardiff today is a great boost to sagging morale. The soldiers are not responsible for the futility of the jobs that they have been ordered to complete. As in all recent wars, our squaddies believe they are superior soldiers  to Americans. The Americans are relying on crude bombing to suppress the Taliban. Our troops are frustrated  because of the impossibility of deploying the subtle hearts and minds strategy that won peace in Ulster.

Our soldiers have performed well and thoroughly deserve today's cheers. Good luck for the future - you deserve better political leadership.

Lib Dumb

This is weird.

No denial by Welsh LibDem Peter Black of the wicked calumny that he had mocked fellow LibDem  Eleanor Burnham with a forged document in her name. Could it possibly be true?

Now another shocker. The source is the rejected Tory AM Glyn Davies. He reveals one of the favourite fantasies of another LibDem A.M Mick Bates. He is reported to have   told his audience in Cardiff that in his days as a schoolteacher, "he imagined going to school with a gun and shooting all of the children."

Glyn Davies is a tainted source as the parliamentary challenger to the entirely sane, publicity shy Lembit Opik. So a swift denial is expected.

Otherwise the nation may start to believe the whole party is seriously deranged.

'No Dr Brydon, this time'

Unread footnotes
It would be foolish to claim Musa Qala as a victory. Time after time in Afghans history, immediate victory by invaders  descends into long term defeat and bloodshed. Mercifully there has been comparatively little loss of life. But the future will be a nightmare.

The Taliban have melted back into the hills and will now conduct a guerrilla war. That is a greater threat to Nato troops that direct confrontations. Is anyone reading the history of Britain's previous three war with Afghanistan from 1839 to 1919? There are unread footnotes in history to us. To the modern Afghans they are the bedrock of their national pride.

Every Afghan child is told how their ancestors drove out the 'Ferengi' who had invaded their land. They vow that there will be no Dr William Brydon this time. He figured in the first Afghan war.  Like all Afghan wars, it started well for the invading force of 14,000 British and Indian troops. Then it went disastrously wrong. The Afghans attacked the retreating armies. Only one Briton Dr Brydon escaped with his life.

In 2001 an ebullient member of the Russia Duma slapped me on my back and said

"Congratulations! You Brits have conquered Afghanistan. We did that too. It took us six days. We were there for 10 years and we killed a million Afghans. They killed 15,000 of our army of 120,000. When we  ran out of the country, there were 300,000 mujaheddin surrounding Kabul. It will happen to you."

The modern Afghans still called the British Ferengi. It's a word for foreigners is several eastern languages. It's easy to kindle a fire on an old hearth. Even though the circumstance are very different, the passions of young Afghans today  are readily roused by the call to drive the Ferengi out of their country.

Up until now in Helmand our forces have been garrisoned in barracks that can be defended. For the first time in Southern Afghanistan they will be occupying  urban areas similar to those in Basra. The Taliban are using the tactics of the Iraq insurgents of suicide  bombings. The dangers are probably worse than anything our immensely courageous soldiers have faced.

Nato Governments have consistently underestimated the dangers of the threat in Afghanistan. It's time to reassess the purpose of the Helmand mission before the casualties increase again.

Tabloid interest
we have snarled at each other as guests on radio phone-ins. Never once have I agreed with anything this tabloid journalist has said.

It was a surprise to get an e-mail from him saying it was incredible how little attention has been given to school shootings and anti-depressant use. It's astonishing. 28 shootings in which the assailant had been on anti-depressants. Everything else has been blame - gun laws, videos, education, but no-one has pointed to the known explosion of aggression that accompanies early anti-depressant use.

I'll watch with interest to see if the issue is raised on the pages of the Daily Mail. Even a wild-eyed, right wing fundamentalist hack cannot be wrong all his life.

Other Ferengi

On a lighter note there is another race of Ferengi. They were invented for Star Trek and were inspired by Thatcherite greed. They lives are devoted to profit and guided by wonderful rules of acquisition.    Here are a few:-

  10. Greed is eternal.
  13. Anything worth doing is worth doing for money.
  18. A Ferengi without profit is no Ferengi at all.
    31. Never make fun of a Ferengi's mother ... insult something he cares about instead.
     47. Don't trust a man wearing a better suit than your own.
     76. Every once in a while, declare peace. It confuses the hell out of your enemies.
    89. Ask not what your profits can do for you, but what you can do for your profits. 
    111. Treat people in your debt like family ... exploit them.
     144. There's nothing wrong with charity ... as long as it winds up in your pocket.
     211. Employees are rungs on the ladder of success. Don't hesitate to step on them.
    255. A wife is a luxury ... a smart accountant is a necessity.
    261. A wealthy man can afford anything except a conscience.
    263. Never allow doubt to tarnish your love of money.
    266. When in doubt, lie.

Presence makes the heart grow sourer

Brynle

Gasp! When you think you have seen everything in politics, a new shock comes along like a punch in the solarplexus.

A demented Plaid Cymru spokesperson demands the return  of Brynle Williams AM to the Assembly. Brynle is the most boring person in Wales. Regularly he apologises for his presence not his absence. His speeches are so hypnotically tedious  they can inflict brain damage. Part-time farmer and part-time  A.M. Brynle is playing truant in Australia for five weeks - three of them when the  Assembly is in session.

As always, seeking after the truth, we invite answers to this conundrum. Why does anyone would want Brynle  back in Cardiff? A prize is offered for any plausible suggestion. It's a set of music playing headphones to protect listeners when Brynle torments with his future speeches. Try completing the following.

I want Brynle back in order to:-

1) To hear him threaten for 174th  time that direct action against rising fuel prices is 'inevitable.'

2) To acquire a video of Brynle's wit and wisdom to counteract insomnia.

3) To ask why he has not updated his blog since January 2005

4) To hear again his panacea for most rural problems, i.e.  killing animals, especially foxes and badgers.

5) To witness for the  thousandth time his whinge that farmers should have fatter handouts from the taxpayers.

6) To ask him to explain why the countryside would be 'unrecognisable' if shooters did not annually blast the heads off 40 millions birds ?

7) To check whether his Aussie jaunt and his campaign against the fuel escalator has increased his global footprint to four planets?

8) To repeat the offer made to him by a TV Company to meet a residential homes’ nurse and a hospital porter to explain to them how much more of their tiny incomes should be spent subsidising  rich farmers. Last time he declined to take part.

9) To inquire how sunning himself at the billabong under the shade of a coolibah tree served his constituents.

Eternal
Possibly a little premature to throw our hats in the air, but there are  solid signs of a green conversion by Government. The nuclear obsession is fading.  Enthusiasm is growing for the serious renewables of marine and wind power. There is strong Cabinet backing for harnessing the world's second highest tidal range. The potential has been mysteriously neglected even though its potential is immense, carbon-free, clean and eternal.

All the piffling issues of recent weeks are dwarfed by the crushing global threats. Our  leaders could take us over the precipice. We need a paradigm shift to change our fundamental assumption on the way we live and how we run our economies. Action should be massive and swift.

The alternative is to continue stealing a sustainable human habitat from our grandchildren.