Paul Flynn - Read My Day

Dying for corruption

Afghan reckoning

How much longer can the self-delusion continue?  The Afghanistan mission is a hopeless failure and getting worse.Three international reports today confirm that.

The second top Karsai man in Helmand was killed today. The best hopes for peace, the help offered by Paddy Ashdown and two Pashtun speaking diplomats, have been spurned by the Karzai Government.

Worst of all was President Karsai’s insult to the memory of our soldiers when he said that Helmand has  “suffered because of the British soldiers.” Already 87 of our soldiers have been killed in Afghanistan. The seven years mission has cost British taxpayers £1billion a year.

Prominent members of the Karsai Government are making fortunes from drug trafficking. Now the regime that we have spilled blood for is about to execute a man for reading literature about female equality.

This afternoon I tried to raise these issues at Business Questions in the Commons. Irritatingly I was not called so I put down an Early Day Motion that asked:

836

HELMAND MISSION (No. 2)

31.01.2008

That this House notes the ingratitude of President Karzai's statement that Helmand Province suffered after the arrival of British troops; recalls that 87 British soldiers have been killed in Afghanistan; and calls for a debate on whether the Government should continue to order British soldiers to risk their lives in the service of the corrupt barbaric Karzai regime.
Smears
Relative-gate rolls on with today’s ritual approval by the Commons on a motion that ends the political career of Derek Conway.

Now the scale of the offence of employing three relatives is known, sympathy to the affable Conway has disappeared. There is anger at the guilt by association list of 63 MPs published by the Daily Mail under the title Conway & Co. The only link is because they all employ one relative.

The cumulative effect of a succession of smears against MPs has dragged the reputation of MPs as a group into the gutter. Some of the accusations are justified. Most are fevered inaccuracies and exaggerations. Happily most MPs still enjoy good reputations as individuals.

But the mud sticks. There must be a thorough reform of MPs' expenses and employment practices to increase transparency. It will make life irksome and increase bureaucracy. But it is the only way to restore the unfairly battered image of the 650 MPs.

Comments

Many thanks for the valuable lively comments that have multiplied recently - some in verse!

Two problems have emerged. After about 30 comments, a second 'page' is created. The only indication are two small chevrons that are not obvious. Contributors have not noticed these and concluded that  they contributions have not been published. On 'Afghan Ingrates' a titantic debate is in progress between Patrick and Malcolm. It has now slipped into the world beyond the chevrons. Don't miss it.

Two contributions have been rejected as 'Spam'. It may be because they were lengthy. If this occurs please e-mail me the comment and I will add them directly.

Commons Sex and innocence

Relative-gate

Add sex to sleaze today in parliament.

What a heady mix of scandal is swirling around the Commons. As the Euro-debate dribbles on eternally to no interest, it’s back to the parliamentary scandal fest. Donorgate has been replaced by Relative-gate. One reason that MPs employ spouses is to cement marital harmony.

Nothing much has changed since I wrote about this ten years ago.

In the sexual stakes Parliament fails to live down to its image. Inevitably, there must be some sexual activity. Unavoidable where several thousand sexually active people, separated from their spouses, live jowl by cheek for long periods of the day. No doubt there are furtive encounters in Parliamentary offices when resistance levels are falling and testosterone levels are rising.

Some serial seducers of both sexes roam the corridors. But rampant lechery is still uncommon. Exhaustion is an effective bromide for the great majority of Parliamentarians.

The prime motive for Parliamentary infidelity is the divergence of interests between partners created by Parliamentary work. The good MP must be deeply absorbed in the work. If those interests are not shared by the partner, divisions in the relationship appear and widen dangerously.

More relationships are wrecked by the excessive demands of the Parliamentary workload than by the insistent demands of the loins.

Relationships are secure and strong if there is shared dedication to the work of the MP. There is more than enough activity there to occupy the lives and libidos of both partners.

The new Commons Witch Finder General has hinted at a ban on employing relatives. It would be a bad move.

Making your spouse your secretary is the best way to avoid the disruption and heartache of making your secretary your spouse.

Innocence violated

Two tales of MP innocence are circulating here.

One Welsh MP is freely sharing his own embarrassment. He had a call from a local newspaper, ‘What do you think of the amount of dogging that is going on in your constituency.’

‘I strongly support it,’ he helpfully suggested, ‘There should be more.’

The bemused reporter pressed for more details of the MP's enthusiasm. The MP was under the impression that dogging meant clearing the streets of stray dogs. It was delicately explained to him that there was another meaning to the word. His enthusiasm was withdrawn.

Ronnie Campbell MP offered to wear a purple shirt to mark National Fetish Day. He was baffled when asked what his personal fetish is. Ronnie thought fetish was something to do with fretting. He wanted to do his bit against depression. He will now have a purple-less day.

Probe off

What promised to be a fascinating session of the Public Administration Committee has been cancelled.

Three MPs who have been or are in the pay of outside bodies were to be asked to inform us on lobbying.

One has recently taken on a £115,000 job from the nuclear industry. Alas the session has been cancelled. The Conservative MP witness is ill.

It would have been unfair to grill the Labour and LibDems on their own. There are hints that the hungry press are baying for more grist for their scandal mill.

Can we trust the Guardian?

No apology for major error

I have long relied on the honesty of my favourite newspaper. A recent event shakes that trust. A major article in Guardian ‘Money’ on the 5^th January was an alarming tale of injustice.

The claim was that one Welsh woman gets 11 times the state pension of a neighbour - in spite of paying a lower contribution. One is alleged to receive £83 a week the other only £7.  MP Lynne Jones was so aghast that she raised the issue in an oral parliamentary question.

An eagle eyed friend raised the issue with the Readers' Editor of the Guardian and the writer of the article Tony Levene, the editor of ‘Money’ supplement?"  The minimum basic pension payable is 25 per cent of the full rate - about £21.80 so the lady in the story can’t be getting a basic pension of about £7.

One of the ladies, Veronica is described in the Guardian's headline (not in quotes) as "a woman who didn't work" and Ruby is quoted as saying "I've paid income tax and national insurance for most of my life and she hasn't paid a penny."  Ruby also says that Veronica will get a pension of £83 a week” helped by 19 years on HRP". 

Levene was told that, to get a basic pension of £83, Veronica would need a record of 24 years' contributions paid or credited, in addition to the 19 years of HRP.  "To achieve this she must presumably have worked and paid full contributions from age 16 until her first child was born, and again from 1997 until now."  And this is a woman who "didn't work" and "hasn't paid a penny"!!

Levene wrote: "I accept there are a number of points in Veronica's figures which give some rise for doubt.  In particular, it now seems that at least part of her state pension may be because her husband is some years older than she is and she may be counting her pension (acquired from his contributions)." 

My friend replied "Veronica's basic pension on her husband's insurance would be at most £52.30.  If she is getting £83 a week, it must be on her own insurance - which ... appears to mean that she paid or was credited with full contributions for 24 years, in addition to the HRP years.  If that is the case, it seems most unlikely that Ruby paid more into the state system than Veronica."

The Guardian would not publish a detailed correction.  Levene wrote: "I do not believe we can publish a correction because we were relying on what we were told.  ...  However, we would consider publishing a letter from you that was couched in non-technical terms ...”  My friend replied: "I don't see why I should be put to the trouble of writing a letter about the errors in your article, without even an undertaking from you to publish my letter.  You wrote the article and you should write the correction.  My friend said he would be willing to read and comment on a draft of Levene’s correction."  That offer has not been taken up and no correction has been published.

This is a profoundly disappointing reaction to a major error by the editor of the ‘Money’ section. It was a headline error and deserves a headline apology.

Future brilliant

The brightest hour today was a chat-in with the alarmingly intelligent embryo journalists from the London College of Communication.

They are likely future radio journalists and I have the inspiring task of being interrogated by then once a year. It’s great for me to ventilate to journalists in a private session. Journalists and politicians have so much in common. We strut as the world greatest experts on a dozen subjects today and a dozen more tomorrow.

One student asked me for ‘advice’ on his career. Am I that old? The profession has a fascinating mix of heroes and villains. If they are likely be become tabloid journalists spewing out the foul propaganda their editors demand, they could have a more honourable, self –respecting career by selling their bodies on the street. If they develop into writers like Matthew Parris, Robert Fisk, Polly Toynbee or Andrew Marr they will have a creative satisfying lives and may shape history.

Thanks very much, students, for a stimulating session. See you next when you are introducing Panorama or Newsnight.

MPs to be fleeced

Select Committees have some strange requests.

A letter received from Tory MP Bernard Jenkins asked for us to ape an odd American practise. Bernard was impressed in the USA when he accompanied a Congressman at public events.

The Congressman wore the official Congress fleece which has the Congress Symbol of a bald eagle emblazoned on its back. Bernard would like our committee to commend an MP’s outfit that would have a portcullis on it. People could then, presumably, treat us with the deference we deserve. Or not.

Most MPs think that with our present status in public opinion, the portcullis might be treated as a target.

Cripple abuse

Limping out of the lobby after voting tonight, I felt a sharp kick on my left heel. I stumbled and almost fell.

I was surprised to see that my assailant was Ian McCartney, who is before our Select Committee on Thursday. ‘Getting in your retaliation for Thursday?’ I winced. He apologised profusely and denied any deliberate intent. They always do. Going into hyper-limp, I sneered, ‘What is it, kick a cripple day? Just as I was thinking of being nice to you on Thursday….”

Further denials followed. Being nice on Thursday is no longer an option.

Over drugged

Medicalising 

There was a strong reaction to this afternoon’s mini-debate on the Jeremy Vine show on the swelling drug budget. On Radio Two, there was more heat than light from an excitable doctor who thought she was personally under attack. She was not. Her use of a 'non-prescription' pad is commendable.

The facts are dire. In five years, prescriptions have increased by 27%. More than a £1bn has been wasted on drugs that were never used by patients. Enough for a year’s worth of breast cancer drug for more than 10,000 women. There has been a threefold increase in anti-depressants prescribed and they now almost match the number of antibiotics. The Audit Office say a fortune would be saved if more GPs prescribed the better value generic drugs. The swelling drugs budget is eating away at the essential good value NHS services and distorting priorities. Political issues rarely arouse much comments but today’s health issue has provoked a stream of e-mails. I was expecting a hostile reaction but there was very little. No-one supported the mass use of anti-depressants. There are a lot of people who are worried about the perils of  overtreatment.

These are typical:-

"I was in the car listening to the discussion and all that you said, really lifted my spirits. Not many folk have such an insight about health matters and the danger that some medicines pose to people and society , I certainly wish I knew of more. Thank you and well done, I want to move to Newport now!!"

"Just heard you on the Jeremy Vine show and you echoed the views shared by myself and a large number of colleagues working in the arena of mental health re over reliance on pills. I have have been teaching mental health awareness for many years now and have had mental health difficulties in the past, and recovered not with pills (they made me worse) but through reflection, exercise, good food, change of lifestyle - all the things you mentioned."

A fair point made is that many worthwhile preventive drugs such as statins have added to the increased drugs bill. But the massive increases have been in medicines for minor complaints that can be treated without side effects by deploying exercise, coping techniques or changes in diet and lifestyle.

Comatosed

Parliament is slipping into a coma of euro-drivel. Endless days of euro debate that fascinate 40 or so euro-nerds are as welcome to most MPs as a shot of Novocain. Up till the time of writing today, four hours have been squandered entirely with complaints that the euro-bill does have enough time allocated to consider it. If they had all kept quiet, the day could have been used to discuss the substance of this unamendable treaty.

The euro debate is not an area for sensible discussion. One constituent wrote to me saying:-

“Are you aware that Article 8A-1 to 4 prepares the way for the abolition of Westminster? This would mean that you would lose your job, salary and expenses, and as an MP, you may been seen by the EU as the biggest threat to what they would establish, namely a dictatorship ruled by unelectedCommissioners. Article 8A-4 will also abolish the Labour party as well as other British parties in favour of European-wide parties. "

It’s all reminiscent of John Redwood’s claim that the Amsterdam treaty would lead to end of Great Britain. There's no exaggeration like an anti-Euro exaggeration.

Afghan ingrates

Dying for what?
The Karsai Government’s rejection of Paddy Ashdown as UN envoy is an act of suicidal folly. Blaming British soldiers for the worsening situation is the lie of an ingrate.

87 British soldiers have died to bring peace to this far off country. 6,000 Britons have toiled in work of reconstruction and aid.

The Karsai Government has members who are profiting richly from the drugs trade. One is a relative of the president. The Karsai-appointed provincial governors and police bosses include warlords, former Taliban, drug barons and other criminals. The lubricant that moves the Karsai Government is the dollar bribery from NATO countries. Their ethos is corruption

Pressure from Karsai forced the expulsion of the two Pashtun speaking diplomats. They had proud records of winning hearts and minds. This was foolish and counterproductive.

The best hope for a negotiation that could avoid 30 more years of slaughter and futile military activity was Paddy Ashdown. He succeeded brilliantly in the Balkans in another impossible situation.

How many more British lives must be sacrificed to serve Karsai’s foolish, venal ingrates?

CA=Cruelty Again

Thee third world war seems to be breaking out with 32 comments on my posting Hain Pain. But not about Peter. It’s hunting that has enraged the tormentors. Some believe the delusion that a future Government will repeal the ban of foxhunting. Why?

Remember the Countryside Alliance warned that a hunting ban would: -

* Destroy the countryside
* Lose 35,000 jobs
* End the pageantry of hunting
* Increased the fox population and sheep killings
* Cause 1,000s of hounds and horses to be put down

The results of the Ban are

* Countryside economy is healthy
* Increased jobs, because more people are hunting without cruelty
* The Pageantry continues
* The fox population is down - because foxes are no longer bred to be tormented.
* No animals put down.

The only argument for repeal is to restore the pleasure of killing living animals that some hunters get off on. That will never win a majority in Parliament.

As the superior species, we have a duty to protect all others creatures from gratuitous cruelty. That is a measure of the quality of our civilisation. Slowly we progress. Permitting wanton cruelty desensitises us. Those who are indifferent to animal suffering are close to indifference to human suffering.

Piffle

The press piffle artists are on the loose again.

Because the last year has been vibrant with counterfeit indignation on shadowy scandals, thee minds are set. Any combination of the words ‘donation, politician, election and declaration’ adds up to new scandal.

Today’s lead story about Alan Johnston is a vacuous non-story about non-scandal of non-sleaze. Alan has does everything according to the book. He checked the donor's address, Labour Party membership and nationality. What else is a politician to do when someone offers a donation? Subject the donor to a third degree inquisition? A touch of the thumbscrews, perhaps?

There are dozens of oppositions sleaze-stuffed scandals that have been ignored by the media. I repeat, the media believe that all politicians are innocent until they are proved to be Labour.

Tory blocks sleaze probe

Sabotage

Tory Dominic Grieve blocked MP Gordon Prentice’s persistent probe into possible Tory sleaze in the Commons yesterday.

The self-righteous Tories who condemned Peter Hain before his investigation used a parliamentary gag to frustrate Prentice’s search for the truth on possible Tory shenanigans.

The unanswered question is whether Tory mega-donor Lord Ashcroft is legally entitled to fund candidates in marginal seats and upset the fair balance of funding. The purpose of electoral spending laws is to ensure that rich parties cannot buy seats by spending more than their opponents.

Lord Ashcroft paid £280,000 in donations to 33 candidates in marginal constituencies in the first three months of 2005. As a result, 11 of these candidates unseated the Labour MP and five Tory marginals were saved.

It transpired that this was just part of Ashcroft's contribution. He had also loaned the party £3.6m. A consortium of donors, including Ashcroft, the casino tycoon Lord Steinberg and the car importer Robert Edmiston, had funded 93 constituency campaigns.

According to research by Peter Bradley, who lost his seat in the Wrekin after a 5 per cent swing to the Tories, it turned out that, of the 36 gains, the consortium had targeted 24. In some seats, such as Bradley's own, the Conservatives outspent Labour tenfold. This was engineered by spending before the election campaigns began in earnest. The strict controls to limit spending per candidate to about £10,000 apply only during the campaign period.

Gordon Prentice in November pressed the head of the Civil Service to give him details, "I just want to know if Lord Ashcroft is a UK resident for tax purposes” We still do not know if Ashcroft has honoured pledges, made before he received his peerage, that he would return to the UK and pay income tax.

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. He has said that if ‘Home is where the heart is, my home is in Belize.”

Ashcroft has repeatedly declined to say where he does reside, however, and it is unclear whether he currently pays a penny in UK income tax. If he does not live here, or did not live here in 2005, then the Conservatives are guilty of taking illegal donations.

Gordon Prentice had a go at speed legislating yesterday by trying to get a bill through which insists that all MPs and Lords should be UK residents paying UK taxes.  Not much to ask for. He made a brief speech and his former wife Bridget Prentice answered briefly for the Government.

If the matter had ended there, the bill would have passed its second reading. But Tory Dominic Grieve sabotaged the bill by talking it out.

What sort of person could object to this reform? Only someone from a party with a lot to hide.

Gang agley

A day late but tonight I will be celebrating Burns Night with a few friends.

It’s a pleasure to honour a nation that has a poet as their hero - especially a poet who was a firm democrat with an understanding of the interdependence between humankind and wildlife. After this week it’s fitting that we contemplate those schemes that have ‘gang agley.’

But Mousie, thou art no thy lane,
In proving foresight may be vain:
The best-laid schemes o mice an men
Gang aft agley,
An lea'e us nought but grief an pain,
For promis'd joy!

Still thou art blest, compar'd wi me!
The present only toucheth thee:
But och! I backward cast my e'e,
On prospects drear!
An forward, tho I canna see,
I guess an fear!

The Secret life of Paul Murphy.

Mystery

Paul Murphy MP for Torfaen has done a Lazarus. He is restored as Secretary of State for Wales and reunited with his beloved red boxes, chauffeur driven car and swish Gwydir House. Paul is a politician of mystery.  Even after years of service in the cabinet, he is still the unknown politician.

He is Incurably Blairist. Sybaritically fond of classical music and fine food. Blissfully recalls using gold cutlery when guest of the French government. Son of a miner, he loved being Minister-on-call in Hillsborough Castle. Third generation Irish, did not attend a Catholic secondary school and is thus a devout Catholic. Views his political life as a preparation for beatification.

Francophile. Possibly the only politician regularly accompanied by his spiritual adviser when on holiday. Has frontbench low level gravitas. Fierce opponent of devolution in 1979. Passionate on curbing new powers to the Welsh Assembly, tribally Labour, good mimic (especially of Leo Abse), Oxford-educated historian, an enthusiastic cook and bachelor.

Paul’s Odyssey

Murder
In the bad old days of overcrowded offices, I shared a room with seven MPs plus assorted researchers. Order and tidiness were impossible. Desks disappeared under a tip of papers. To compensate, a sign was fixed on the door saying 'A tidy desk is proof of a diseased mind.' We learned to survive in and love our squalor - except Paul Murphy. There was never a scrap of paper on his polished desk. For hours it gleamed mockingly at us. His desk was polished and paperless. A remedy frequently contemplated by the other six of us was homicide.

Identity crisis
Paul and I have long suffered the irritation of being confused with each other. I have seen Paul on the television being harangued by an interviewer, ‘Tell me Mr Flynn…'
I gave a talk to the Gwent police some years ago. I was asked to be provocative so I mugged on the then imprisoned Birmingham six and Guildford four. All had been wrongfully jailed because of faulty identification.

The Chief Constable introduced me, ” Good of the local MP to give up his Saturday to talk to us. Give a big hand for Mr Paul Murphy”

It was the best possible introduction, “So much for the accuracy of police identification…” He had made my case for me.

Jarred
When SOS for Northern Ireland he told the Parliamentary Labour party 'There are pros and cons for this and pros and cons against. '
He was quoting the words of a past Labour Party Chairman in setting out his stall for his tough task. 'As number one, you have no one else to blame' he confessed. A symbolic legacy left behind in the office by John Reid was a 'vegetarian haggis in a jar’.

Lazy
A few years ago a hideously unfair accusation of laziness was hurled at Paul. He was one of the few MPs left behind to work through a Thursday night on a dreary Finance Bill. The rest of the House had gone home to bed or back to their constituencies for the weekend. Paul had made his fifteenth speech that day and was feeling hard done by.

He rang home to Cwmbran and asked if there was any news. 'Yes' a relative explained,’ the local television company has analysed the workload of the 38 Welsh MPs. They have put them in league table, with the busiest on top and the laziest on the bottom.' Paul was horrified to hear that he had been branded as one of the least hardworking MPs. 'Am I on the bottom of the list?' he shrieked indignantly. 'Not the bottom' his relative consoled him. 'There are two MPS below you. But they're both dead'.

Dumped
In 2005 the triumph of the election victory turned to sadness for a crop of able ministers including Chris Mullin, Paul Murphy, and Dennis MacShane. By universal consent they were all performing superbly well. Each had the usual call, 'Sorry, I'm going to have to let you go. I need your job.' Their replacements are able and talented and will give the Government new vigour. There remains the puzzle of why blameless ministers are churned and cast aside in a process of perpetual renewal.

Big spender?
In the first publication on MPs' expenses, the Argus announced that Paul Murphy MP had claimed more than £18,000 in travel expenses. This made him the top spender for Gwent. There was a picture and a headline. The true amount was nothing. There was a minute correction a few days later but no apology. They had confused him with Scottish MP Jim Murphy.

Progress
The British-Irish Parliamentary body has been meeting for 16 years now. Composed of British and Irish MPs, TDs, AMs, and MSPs, it has bridged many of the deep misunderstandings of politicians on both sides of the Irish Sea. It has succeeded in sweeping away many of the old prejudices.

The only absentees have been the Ulster Unionists and the DUP. Their contribution is vital. Pictured is DUP deputy leader Peter Robinson addressing the 'Body' with Paul Murphy chairing on the platform and Sinn Fein TD Arthur Morgan (with glasses) listening intently. It's substantial progress.

Bond
Since early childhood Paul Murphy and Don Touhig have been pals. They bonded like brothers. Their shared Labour Party loyalties got them both elected to Gwent County Council. They stood shoulder to shoulder in opposition to devolution in 1979. Now they are both Papal Knights.

Inertia
Paul Murphy was a reluctant convert to a weak brew of devolution when he was a Shadow Welsh Office Minister. As the new Welsh Field Marshal, he tried to rally his army at the Bournemouth Conference in September 1999 with a unique battle cry. It was not ‘Forward to battle, troops! ‘ or even ‘Full Retreat!’. Rather, it was, ‘Stay exactly where you are’. He described the present wretched, weak and unstable Welsh devolution as ‘settled’.

Charade
An MP once did a party charade in which he invited others to guess ‘Who am I?’ He then opened and closed his mouth like a goldfish, shifted from one foot to the other while gazing at the ceiling. The answer to this conundrum was ‘Paul Murphy, singing the Welsh National Anthem’.

Bigotry
Paul’s antagonism to the Welsh language is not skin deep. He shares with MPs Alan Williams (Swansea West) and Llew Smith a tribal phobia of Welsh. His high office will inhibit him. He did a splendid job in Northern Ireland where his sincere devout Catholicism was no impediment in his work with all denominations. Miraculously he won the respect pf Ian Paisley who teased him about where he parked his Papal Knight sword. Both set aside their religious views in side silos and cooperated well in a bigotry-free space of their own creation. Paul earned the admiration of all sides. He will do the same again in Wales.

Hain pain

Who will be pleased with Peter Hain’s departure?

•    The nuclear power industry. He was their strongest opponent in cabinet with his constructive advocacy of clean renewables – especially the barrage.
•    The mean vindictive witch-hunters who have judged him guilty on the basis of smears and innuendos.
•    The anti Welsh-language, Welsh devolution, little Englanders and West Britons who resent his unique work on devolution.
•    Racialists and others with nostalgia for apartheid.
•    Hardcore tribalists in Northern Ireland who resent the results of his peace building.
•    Those who put sport above human rights and resent his leadership of the Stop the Seventies Tour campaign.

Those who will be sorry.

•    The 140,000 cheated pensioners who will have 90% of their pension restored  because of his work in cabinet.
•    The majority of the people of South Africa of all communities, who appreciate his work in ushering in a just peaceful transition to majority rule.
•    Those who value having our own Government on the soil of our own country in Wales.
•    Many of his mutton headed political opponents who have been calling for his resignation without considering the alternatives.
•    His parliamentary colleagues and millions of other people who have long admired his prodigious work, his honesty, integrity and decency.

Cheated ?
The Channel 4 Political awards have been hijacked. The prize for the most inspiring political figure of the decade went to the Countryside Alliance. The Spectator describes the scene: 

"I was at the Channel Four political awards last night, where the strangest thing happened. Their main award - (most inspiring political figure of the last decade) - was given to the Countryside Alliance, introduced by Jeremy Irons. As he spoke, boos came from the crowd. At first, I thought it was a joke. Then when the award was accepted (by Ann Mallalieu, president of the Alliance) the booing grew louder and cries of "get off" could be heard as she delivered her acceptance speech. In front of an invited Channel Four audience. Incredible.

The incredulity of the audience was because CA had won only because the vote was rigged.

An un-named, unknown panel short-listed the hunting fanatics of the Countryside Alliance for the award. The full shortlist was  Tony Blair: Ian Paisley and Martin McGuiness: Ken Livingstone: Alex Salmond:  The Countryside Alliance and Anti-Iraq war protesters:

There was campaign for mass voting for the animal abusers and – surprise, surprise - the  CA won. It’s hard to believe that the non-achievements of the CA could compete among reasonable people with any of the other nominees. What have they done? Lost a campaign against the Hunting Act and lost a fortune in appeals to courts against the Act ?  All the other nominees have  changed the course of history. The CA will not merit a footnote to a footnote when the history of the decade is written.

There is no check on multiple voting. This even after the string of recent scandals on rigged telephone ballots. The result is meaningless and the audience should be congratulated for greeting  it with contempt.

The awards and Channel Four are demeaned.

Famine
There is bonanza in the price of grain. Farmers producing grain have doubled their income this year in most European countries.

The world is facing the most severe food price inflation in history as grain and soybean prices climb to all-time highs. Wheat trading on the Chicago Board of Trade on December 17th breached the $10 per bushel level for the first time ever.

Lester Brown’s group The Earth Policy News sound a powerful alarm. As a result, prices of food products such as bread, pasta, and tortillas, and pork, poultry, beef, milk, and eggs, are everywhere on the rise. In Mexico, corn meal prices are up 60 percent. In Pakistan, flour prices have doubled. China is facing rampant food price inflation, some of the worst in decades.

World grain prices have increased dramatically on three occasions since World War II, each time as a result of weather-reduced harvests. But now it is a matter of demand simply outpacing supply.

The World Bank reports that for each 1 percent rise in food prices, caloric intake among the poor drops 0.5 percent. Millions of those living on the lower rungs of the global economic ladder, people who are barely hanging on, will lose their grip and begin to fall off.

Since the budgets of international food aid agencies are set well in advance, a rise in food prices shrinks food assistance. The U.N. World Food Programme (WFP), which is now supplying emergency food aid to 37 countries, is cutting shipments as prices soar. The WFP reports that 18,000 children are dying each day from hunger and related illnesses.

Rising food prices are translating into social unrest. It began in early 2007 with tortilla demonstrations in Mexico. Then came pasta protests in Italy. More recently, rising bread prices in Pakistan have become a source of unrest.

Corn futures prices for December 2008 delivery are higher than those for March, suggesting that market analysts see even tighter supplies after the next harvest.

The repercussions of the farmers’ new wealth  are grave. This is the a greater threat to world harmony than terrorism. When will the world wake up and see the danger?

Duped

Screaming main headlines in the Tory papers have howled for weeks that greedy MPs were about to vote themselves an above inflation pay rise this year.

In spite of an independently recommended rise of nearly 3%, the MPs have agreed to stick to the virtuous 1.9%. It will need a hard search of  tomorrow's press to find the minute reports of this restraint. There will no retractions by the papers for their repeated misleading of their gullible readers. Their bovine readers will continue to believe the previous headlines that MPs have grabbed a bumper rise as promised in the big headlines. You can fool lots of the people all of the time.

Invisible Slaughter

News silence
Yesterday’s worst world news is least reported.

This month, 45,000 people are being killed in the Congo. 5.4 million people have died in a decade. Most of the deaths are caused by disease that followed the collapse of health services because of the continuing conflicts.

This month’s death toll is equivalent to nine-eleven fifteen times over, or 865 times the total killed in Britain’s recent terrorist killings. The equivalent of the total population of Denmark have been wiped out. Most of the victims are women and children.

This is the worst slaughter since the two world wars. But we are scarcely aware that anything is going on. It’s not easy country for reporters. The conflicts are complex and solutions are not easy. It is a far away county of which we know nothing.

But that is no excuse for a news silence as the tragedies continue on a scale that dwarfs all other world disasters. There was widespread upset because an African’s woman’s healthcare in Cardiff was interrupted. A benefactor has paid for her treatment to continue in her country.

We are deluded if we believe that we have a balanced picture of the travails of the world. Our policies are distorted by ignorance. Compassion follows where the television cameras point.

New blasphemy
Sunday’s posting on Shelter on this blog caused a stir. Criticising a charity is the new blasphemy. The well-swallowed myth is that the ‘third sector’ is made up of saintly people whose work is above criticism.

Amazingly the blog led the Wales BBC news website in late afternoon. Of all the 900 items that I have blogged on since April, this would rank as of only average importance. About half a dozen times I have aired similar views on the homelessness myth. It’s news worthiness, I understand, is that the language used was more direct than the soporific verbal banalities that’s expected of MPs. One Welsh MP said the postings was 'spot on' but he would have used different languages.

I turned down invitations to do media interviews yesterday. This is a blog item. It can only be understood by reading the blog, not by reading the headline summary of the liveliest comments.  Yesterday that subject was not my agenda. The Severn Barrage was and I happily did an interview about that. Global warming dominated the day in Strasbourg. A remarkable proof of the Governments' full-blooded commitment to urgent action was provided by the Foreign Office.

The BBC publicity increase the number of hits on this blog by about 350 over the Monday average. Can there be that many people in the homelessness industry? I had one, very reasonable, e-mail from someone in Shelter Cymru but not a single comment on the blog.

Later this month the Public Administration Committee will report on the third sector. That will be the time to discuss Charity Empire building in detail.

NEWS FLASH:Due to increasing staff salaries of more than £1million a year, increasing competition to win Government contracts and the worsening economic climate, Shelter UK has been forced to make changes which will mean up to five people from 827 employees being made redundant                     

Stick power
Walking has not been straightforward for me since I was child. Sideways forward and some times backwards forward. It’s all thanks to my lifelong faithful companion arthritis.  When I was first elected to the Commons, I abandoned the demon drink. Unkind people might have decided my uncertain gait was alcohol induced. Bumping into furniture and ricocheting from wall to wall needed an explanation.

The title I used for my autobiography was ‘Baglu ‘Mlaen” – Staggering forward. In the last couple of months, things have been more difficult and I used some sticks in hospital. On Monday in Strasbourg, I improved my walking speed fourfold by using a crutch. It’s a French one that I have now nationalised and brought it home with me.

Using a crutch has a remarkable effect. Everyone becomes much nicer. Taxi drivers get out of their seats and help with cases. Boarding the TGV in Strasbourg today, the throng parted to let me through and a young woman carried my case on to the train. Dogs tend to snarl as they see you an alien tin man.

The drawback is that an extra hand and skill is needed to operate the stick. I have had a few unsteady moments. The choice is between staggering uncertainly or manipulating the stick and coping with the interminable questions of why I am using it. ‘Out to get the disabled sympathy vote?’ was one suggestion from a cynical colleague this morning.

I’ll hang on to the crutch and use it mainly among consenting adults in private.

Journeys - futile.

Absence is golden
A fondly remembered campaign in World War Two should be revived.

Posters asked ‘Is your journey really necessary?’  The great majority of politicians are now seriously worried that global warming is a lethal threat to the habitat of our descendants. We know the solutions but we are reluctant to embrace them.

Last night about half a dozen Labour MPs flew to London to take part in the Euro vote. They were accompanied on the same plane by a similar number of Conservative MPs. Today they flew back to the week long meeting that they attending. The Labour MPs voted for the Government the Tories against. Their votes cancelled each other’s out. The large majority would have been exactly the same if they had all stayed abroad.

The Labour majority was 138. The Daily Telegraph's  ludicrously inflated anticipated Labour revolt of 120 turned out to be 19.

There was a system of ‘pairing’ among MPs that has fallen into dis-use.

It was described in the past as a ‘gentleman’s’ agreement among individual MPs to abstain from voting. Both absences would cancel each other out. In the past I was hostile to the system and I have rarely used it. It was frequently abused as organised truancy and used as an excuse by lazy MPs to reduce their workload.

The environmental imperative and commons sense should prompt renewed interest in pairing and other travel reduction measures. Whips are by nature nervous and prone to unreasonable anxieties. In the past MPs have been hauled back from the far corners of the planets for trivial reasons. One was an expected key vote on the Dangerous Dogs Act. MPs on an delegation to Australia were brought home. There was no vote.

I understand that last night futile journeys were caused by the Tory's whip out to grab political advantage  by exciting the Euro-phobes. Pairing should be revived. Last night’s pantomime need never be repeated. I set an example yesterday - by pairing of course.

Farmers rule O.K.

The Farmers’ voice in the Welsh Assembly still dominates.

This morning’s news media probably over-emphasised the call to kill badgers in order to reduce the spread of bovine TB. Are they entirely disregarding the ten-year national study that concluded that badger culling will do little to prevent the spread of tuberculosis among cattle herds and may even exacerbate the problem by causing outbreaks in neighbouring regions.

The report by independent government advisers concluded that while badgers play a significant role in passing the disease on to cattle, culling the wild animals would not halt the spread of the disease by any meaningful extent and "may make matters worse".

Cattle tuberculosis was nearly cleared from Britain in the 1970s, but recorded cases have since soared, bringing a crisis to the farming industry.

The Independent Scientific Group on Cattle TB, headed by John Bourne, professor of animal health at Bristol University, says the government should introduce stringent measures to protect cattle. It suggests newly purchased cattle are quarantined before having skin tests for the disease and calls for strict controls on cattle moving from high-risk areas to low-risk regions.

These measures are irksome for the farming industry. Slaughtering badgers is easy but almost certainly counter productive. But in Wales, farmers rule.

Breathtaking

It’s taken more than a century, but two rousing cheers should be raised for today’s progress on the Severn Barrage.

We have already had a few studies. The mighty powers of the tides that wash around the shores of Britain are our best hope for power that is clean, non-carbon, British and eternal.

Those howling for Peter Hain’s scalp may not know that Peter is the strong voice in the cabinet for renewables. He has persistently made the case for the Severn Barrage.

There are legitimate environmental objections. But no major energy source  is possible without major changes to our habitat.

There are worries that the scale of the barrage may be used as an excuse for delaying it. There is real enthusiasm in today’s Government statement that describes the plan as ‘breathtaking.’ The proof of the worth of tidal power is at La Rance in Brittany which produces the cheapest electricity in the world.

There should be a Plan B of marine alternatives. The power of tides can be harnessed without building walls across the flow. Simple ‘mills’ placed in the moving waters can use the energy of ebb and flow. The attraction of the Severn is its high tidal reach. The flow of water between Guernsey and France is one many other sites when electricity can be produced on a prodigious scale without barrages.

The Severn Barrage will be the start of a transformation of energy creation.

P.S. Jane Davidson's statement later this afternoon is very reassuring. The key sentence is, "I want to reassure members of the Assembly that this study will look at a wide range of options for capturing the energy of the Severn, including various lagoon and barrage configurations: there is no preferred option and the associated sustainable environment assessment will be as inclusive as is practicable."

Amen to that.