Paul Flynn - Read My Day

Rebuilding trust

In denial

Two groups under siege met today.

Both the BBC and politicians have lost public trust. Twelve MPs and eight  senior broadcasters discussed our shared fate.The meeting was under Chatham House rules and I cannot discuss the full details. What I can reveal is the general theme. We concentrated on the recent speech of BBC’s Mark Thompson on trust. The BBC was shocked by the attacks of them for fiddling votes on such weighty subjects as naming the Blue Peter cat. Trust that has been built up over 80 years was undermined.
The BBC has re-sensitised their staff on the need to reforge the precious trust between BBC and its viewers and listeners. The mistakes will not be repeated.

MPs have been bowled over by a more serious loss of trust because of the expenses scandals. The mood of MPs is different. There is deep anger and resentment at the universality of the accusations. Unlike the BBC, we as a group have not accepted that we are culpable.

We certainly are to blame for failing to put in reforms that would have avoided the excesses and greed of a small number of politicians. No protestaions from us will alter the public's perception of sleaze. A painful process of reform is essential. But first there must be an acceptance that the system of expenses is indefensible. That is not going to happen overnight.

Eloquent Absence
More by luck than judgement I avoided minor ignominy yesterday afternoon.

I had an oral question number 19 on fuel charges. A sensible judgement was that I had no chance of being called in the 45 minutes allocated. Usually questions get no further than number 12. Today only question 7 was reached. Yesterday, three previous questions were withdrawn and I was called. But three MPs who had questions 20, 21, 22 decided not to turn up.

They will have been horrified this morning to hear the following broadcast on Yesterday in Parliament. Mr. Speaker: I call Anne Moffat; I call Anne Snelgrove. Is Sally Keeble here? No—what I can do is to move on to Topical question.

Had the three errant absentees been present and asked sharp questions it is very unlikely that they would have been broadcast. Their absence is more newsworthy than their presence.

Laughter denied
All round good guy David Taylor asked a genuinely funny question yesterday. He was rewarded with appreciative guffaws. Hansard reports:

David Taylor (North-West Leicestershire) (Lab/Co-op): I see from the Annunciator that, following these questions, the Chancellor is to make a statement that will help us to deliver on our 1983 manifesto pledge on banking. Will the Secretary of State tell us whether it will be 25 years before we deliver on our 2005 manifesto commitment to a full programme of action to support disabled people in leading independent lives and to increase their inclusion in the economy and in society?

Later I discussed with him the likelihood of Hansard recording the fact that the House laughed. Sometimes they do but there seems to be no rational rules. This time the laughter was not noted for posterity.

David has had bad luck with his jokes. In his first speech, he was brave enough to joke that a foolish government act was rather like, ‘Leaving Imelda Marcos in charge of a shoe shop, then returning two years later and expecting the entire stock to be still intact.’
The joke was well-reported but attributed to another MP. Don’t despair David. Keep informing and entertaining us.

Pharma fiddle

Eightfold risk

Pharma GSK fiddled their trial result for a killer anti-depressant.

For many years I have been the parliamentary voice of the campaign to expose the dangers of SSRI drug Seroxat. Panorama produced two programmes exposing the tragic out of character violent reactions to the drug from patients.

GSK and a complicit charity Depression Alliance attacked the BBC and the campaigners. Now we know the truth. The New Scientist magazine reports this week that court documents released last month that GlaxoSmithKline obscured suicide risks associated with Seroxat for 15 years. Not until 2006 did GSK alert people to raised suicide risks associated with the drug.

An analysis of internal GSK memos and reports suggests that the company had trial data demonstrating an eightfold increase in suicide risk as early as 1989. One psychiatrist, who studied the papers, says it's "virtually impossible" that GSK simply misunderstood the data.

Several pages from the report were withheld by the judge, but a republican senator wrote to GSK on 6 February asking that the missing sections be made public. It is suspected that the regulatory body may have known about the false interpretation of the figures.

A few years ago, GSK here wrote to their local MPs urging them not to sign my EDMs that attacked them. They pleaded a threat to local jobs. Although I have asked for copies of these letters, GSK have refused to produce one.

An unknown numbers of lives have been ruined by Seroxat. It is now banned to those under sixteen. Recently the ban was extended to the under 25s. How people’s metabolism and mental health differs from the age of 24 and 26 is unexplained.

Further confirmation is awaited from the court. This could be the world’s worst distortion of scientific information in pursuit of profits.

Flip flopped

The expected immolation of Alistair Darling on Northern Rock today in Parliament did not happen.

Tory spokesman George Osborne may be more impressive when his voice breaks. It’s impossible to squeak authority and indignation. The Conservative MPs behind him were quiet and subdued while Labour MPs were fired up.

The Tories shot their bolt yesterday. They had no solutions on offer today. The Lib Dems were magnificent - mainly because there was no sign of Nick Clegg. Vince Cable was amusing and self deprecating. David Cameron was sullen. Someone had stolen his treat.

The pooled wisdom of parliament believes that there is no serious alternative to nationalisation.

My ‘noia’ has been ‘meta-ed’

Gaia

A stunning and mind-blowing DVD was sent to by author/ musician Simon Powell. Titled Metanoia, a new vision of nature. ‘Meta’ means – to change: noia mind.

My 'noia' has been ' profoundly 'Meta'-ed. It has shifted my perspective on the miraculous intelligence of the natural world. The ideas are fresh and startling to me in my ignorance of Gaia.  The images are ravishing and the music is upbeat.

My head has been buzzing with the wonder of how the eye developed independently in many species, the accumulated intelligence of fungi and the barbarism of our species in vandalising nature and obliterating species.

I was in contact with Simon Powell when he was the principal opponent of the patently insane example of political cowardice and opportunism of recent years. It was the re-categorisation of magic mushrooms into the same category as heroin.

In this DVD Simon and his cameraman have delivered on the promise in their title of providing a new vision of nature.

Powell shows that this entire evolutionary sense making is only possible because the Universe itself is sensible. The Universe, in terms of its laws, provides the sensibleness that evolution feeds upon, learns about, and reflects. And the only reason the Universe is sensible is because it is intelligently configured.

The conventional view that Nature is dumb and mindless is no longer tenable. The Metanoia DVD shows us that Nature is better understood as a system of self-organising intelligence. Currently however, both science and religion (in all its forms) steadfastly deny the existence of natural intelligence. Unlike artificial intelligence, natural intelligence is totally unheard of. Until now.
Test your 'noia'. Being 'meta-ed' is refreshing.

Oppositionitis
Before the avalanche of heavy duty hypocrisy falls on the Government tomorrow. Let’s remember:

The Tories began by welcoming the loans and guarantees made to Northern Rock.  David Cameron said he ‘we support wholeheartedly’ this, with George Osborne adding “the guarantee that he [Mervyn King] put in place on Monday night was necessary.'

Never have they come up with a credible answer to the question: what would you do?  They won’t tomorrow.

George Osborne has today flip-flopped back on ‘administration’ as a remedy conveniently forgetting in November he said ‘“the winding up of the bank would pose a significant risk to the taxpayers money … and of course significant risk to the jobs of those people who work at Northern Rock”

All options had to be tested. They have been and nationalisation is the best choice for now for taxpayers and staff. The shareholders have lost their gamble. But they know; the values of shares of a company in trouble always fall.

Kosovo- now Wales

In the January session of the Council of Europe, today’s declaration of independence by Kosovo was anticipated.

There was a fierce debate with Serbs and Russia making blood-curdling threats on the ugly consequences of Kosovo independence. One Serbian MP warned that the unity of all the nations of Europe would fracture.

‘In the U.K. Scotland and Wales will break way too’ he assured an untroubled audience. The council were  overwhelmingly supportive of independent Kosovo. Fingers crossed on a peaceful nation birth.

Wales is unlikley to follow Kosovo's lead. After all, even John Redwood was no Milosevic.

'Not guilty' thrice = no news

Good news blues
Farmers have been bellyaching about unfair competition since Tesco’s opened their second shop. Once I found listening to the dawn chorus of whining farmers on the radio useful. It helped me  to top up my stock of indignation and convinced me that I was needed to lead a truth crusade .

A regular nagging source of ear ache was the whinge that supermarkets are ripping-off farmers with unfair prices. The thunderous complaint persuaded the Competition Commission to investigate. Not once, not twice, but three times.  Their conclusion yesterday was exactly the same as the other investigations.

The supermarkets emerged unscathed. There is no evidence that farmers are being ripped off. Nothing. Zilch. Nada. These  hoary complaints have occupied vasts prairies of newspaper space. The ‘third ‘Not Guilty’ verdict yesterday was hardly mentioned. Good news is no news.

Have you got the message, ‘Farming Today’? Give us a rest. How about six months without repeating the same complaint and without demanding a fourth probe? That’s probably too much to ask. Perhaps three months?

Dirt seeking Mail
Proof that the Daily Mail are keeping an open mind on immigration is revealed by a leaked e-mail. This will explain a future story that we all eagerly anticipate.

Subject: Response Source - Diana Appleyard , Daily Mail (Request for personal case study)

PUBLICATION: Daily Mail  (Request for personal case study)
JOURNALIST: Diana Appleyard  (staff)
DEADLINE: 14-February-2008 16:00
QUERY: I am urgently looking for anonymous horror stories of people who have employed Eastern European staff, only for them to steal from them, disappear, or have lied about their resident status. We can pay you £100 for taking part, and I promise it will be anonymous, just a quick phone call. Could you email me asap? Many thanks, Diana

HOW TO REPLY:
Email: mailto:dianaappleyard@aol.com
Phone: not provided for use
Fax: 01296 738083 (preferred)

£100 is today's equivalent of thirty pieces of silver. Diana is waiting to hear from you. Don't disappoint her. A few well-chosen words on the need for objective balanced reporting might be suitable

106
A great day today for my favourite senior constituent, May Mendleson.

She celebrated her 106th birthday. Technically she is no longer my constituent because she moved three years ago to a residential home in Cardiff. As she lived in Newport for 80 years, she has honorary Newport citizenship for life.

Today she was on fine form again, entertaining her relations and friends for tea. She reads the Times every day and has lively views on all current issues. Her husband ran a tobacconist and sweet shop near St Paul’s Church for many years. Mr Mendleson also lived to 100. May could be the oldest person in Wales. Any other challengers?

She was well enough to have a birthday lunch in a restaurant in Cardiff. There are two videos of May on this site Newport TV (Newport Nouveau). They are also on Google video (search for Newport TV Paul Flynn MP).

Have a look and marvel. file:///Users/paulflynn/Desktop/Mandleson-1.mov

Bet it wasn't Night-nurse

Drugs link
Another school shooting tragedy prompted this e-mail today from Peter Hitchens, the Mail on Sunday Columnist.

“Note that Stephen Kazmierczak,(picture right) shooter in North Illinois killings, is said to have recently come off (un-named)  medication'. Any guesses as to what that medication  might have been? Bet it wasn't Night Nurse.”

There are only two things on which Peter and I agree. The non-existence of ADHD and the anti-depressants link in nearly all the school shootings. The Internet and the availability of guns are usually blamed. Peter Hitcjens spotted this EDM which I put down after the Finnish tragedy.

That this House is horrified at the recent increase in school shootings; is puzzled that the English language media failed to mention that in the Finnish tragedies, Mr Pekka-Eric Auvinen said that he 'ate SSRI anti-depressants' which, he said, made him feel 'aggressive'; notes that the perpetrators of 28 other school shootings, including at Columbine and in Minnesota, were also on anti-depressants; notes that anti-depressants, especially selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs), have been proved to both sweep away self-regulating internal inhibitions while triggering explosive acts of violence and murderous behaviour; and calls for a study of the links between SSRI use and almost all school shootings and a rethink on the wisdom of the mass prescribing of anti-depressants to young people.

Who Me?

The post always has a surprise. Today’s was this very resistible invitation

"I am writing to you with a view to recruiting political personalities to partake in a potential television series. We are developing a series that will involve Politicians competing against each other in an environment that will develop mental and physical strength under the tuition of the SAS. Our Producer would be more than happy to run through the idea in more detail with you."

I’m taking a rain check on this one. Not been in training much lately.

End of world.

Welsh language news bulletins this morning produced a line guaranteed to wake the nation up with a start- ‘The world is coming to an end’. Happily, not this world,  but a planned Welsh language daily newspaper named ‘Y Byd’ – the World.

There is not enough money to support it.  While the work of its backers has been prolonged and praise-worthy, it’s never been a runner.

Why should anyone in the 21st century want to print information on bits of paper then deliver them to a myriad of far-flung destinations? It’s ludicrously inefficient.  Gwent’s local paper the Argus sells 28,000 (and dropping) printed copies but has 90,000 (and rising) unique hit on its website.

For a fraction of the cost Y Byd could be launched as an electronic newspaper. There are no rivals apart from the BBC web site, which does not pretend to provide a newspaper service.

Forget the sentimentality and the smell of newsprint; let’s have an electronic Welsh World.

Guido shy?
Does Media Strategy/ hanover PR company have some influence over  Guido Fawkes? An informative  comment from rwandland posted on my site and  on Guido's. It was speedily deleted from Guido’s 
What can be going on ? It followed yesterday item on this blog ‘History PR-ed”

Rwandland wrote:

By coincidence I was looking at Media Strategy a few weeks ago. Around May 2007 they rebranded as "hanover", Charles Lewington still MD. I found their website quite extraordinary:

http://www.hanovercomms.com/what_we_do/case_studies/27.asp

"After eight years of planning, the £1.1 billion PFI scheme to rebuild Barts and Royal London was threatened by a last-minute Treasury review. ...

What we did. We put immediate pressure on the Treasury and Department of Health by securing a front-page story in The Times, as well as a barrage of other media coverage in the first week. Behind the scenes, a broad Labour Party and ethnic community coalition was built to pressure the government, while possible compromises were publicly knocked-down. As decision-time arrived, the media campaign was silenced and replaced by discreet lobbying of the Treasury and No.10."

http://www.hanovercomms.com/who_we_are/7.asp

"Our Connections

Our regular lunches and seminars bring together corporate leaders to hear and discuss views from the top in the world of business and politics.
Our recent speakers have included the Cabinet Secretary Sir Gus O’Donnell, the Chief Scientific Adviser Professor Sir David King, the Chairman of NICE Professor Sir Michael Rawlins and the Chief Executive of the OFT John Fingleton."


This Westminster village insider lobby game just seems outrageous to me, looking in from the outside.

This evening rwandland told me about the sad fate of his comment.

"Amusingly I posted the above as a comment on a Guido Fawkes story, but half an hour later it was deleted!

Guido's story was about Morgan Allen Moore/T M Communications & Peter Hain & Newport Networks. I pointed out that "hanover" used the same registered address, so not to make much of that coincidence - they just seem to use the same media lawyer as registered address. But for some reason it appears someone did not like that comment, with the website quotes above!"

NB You can read the Brand Republic story without registering by accessing via google - just google search for "PROFILE: Charles Lewington".

Any other examples of censorship from the Guido Fawkes site?

STOP PRESS: Within an hour of posting this Guido zapped back. See Comments

Fly away Guto

Oh No!

Guto Harri is deserting journalism and the BBC . Can politics be so tawdry that Public Relations is attractive? He is good journalist who rose, like Huw Edwards, from the role as Welsh Language Parliamentary correspondent.

In 1953 I attended the Eisteddfod in Rhyl alongwith with other sixth formers from each education authority in Wales. Another sixth former on that exciting trip was later to be Guto’s mother.
His father Harri Pritchard Jones is a distinguished writer, doctor  and catholic scholar. There is a strong family likeness.

Guto is the product of his family, Urdd Gobaith Cymru and Welsh language education in Cardiff. It was reassuring to see his reporting the news interpreted from his sound Welsh hinterland.

Guto Harri, a literate, objective, skilled journalist said today : “After a fascinating career in broadcast journalism, I am thrilled to take up an exciting new opportunity with Fleishman-Hillard. Playing my part in a dynamic, impressive team, wrestling with a broad range of tough and complex challenges is a daunting but inspiring prospect, and I look forward to it with relish."

That's it from now on then - predictable, hyperbolic, unconvincing PR-speak.  If PR is exciting, tough and complex, then politics must be in a deep quagmire.

History PR-ed

One PR firm rose to the challenge of a comment I made about them in a session of the Public Administration Committee.

They were named Media Strategy (now hanover) when they jumped before they were kicked out of their trade association. Their boss, Charles Lewington, assures me it was a minor spat of no consequence- a mere matter of the ‘interpretation of rules.

Their trade association disagreed.  An EDM that I put down in 2005 claimed Media Strategy resigned from the APPC before disciplinary action could be taken against them for a clear breach of their rules. Clause 8 of the APPC’s code says that lobbyists should not employ peers or MPs. Media Strategy had Lord O’Neil on their books and he was paid a five-figure sum. The APPC said ‘the appointment compromised the profession’s integrity’.  How can a rule that says no politician should be employed be interpreted to a rule that says a politician can be employed?

I have written to the company today and now eagerly await their explanation.

The EDM in 2005 read: -

ASSOCIATION OF PROFESSIONAL POLITICAL CONSULTANTS AND MEDIA STRATEGY
13.07.2005

Flynn, Paul

That this House notes with profound concern that the public affairs consultancy Media Strategy, which represents a wide range of public sector and commercial organisations, has been forced to resign its membership of the Association of Professional Political Consultants after a flagrant breach of the Association's Code of Practice; further notes that the breach involved a contravention of Clause 8 of the Code, which prevents the employment of any honourable Member or Peer, or the payment of money or other awards to such honourable Members; is shocked that Media Strategy's response to the investigation of this complaint was to resign from the Association to prevent a formal inquiry rather than to put its house in order; is appalled at the flippant comment of the Media Strategy Director, Charles Lewington, that although Lord O'Neill was indeed to be paid for services to the agency `he won't be doing much given the money'; welcomes the statement by the Association that the appointment compromised the profession's integrity; urges all Right honourable and honourable Members to have no contact with the clients of Media Strategy until this matter is resolved; and believes that it is inappropriate for public sector organisations such as the Audit Commission, the Police Federation, Southwark Council, Westminster City Council, The Royal Parks, The Environment Agency and others to retain the services of a company that behaves in this manner.

The New Kennedy

Aegean task
The Obama momentum looks unstoppable.

I’m grateful for a blog reader's comments on his victory speech broadcast long after my bedtime last night. Roger Jardine Thomas, Director of Celtic Lion writes,

“There was no holding back on his contempt for lobbyists in the political process. He will have made many enemies but he didn't seem to care. None of this pussy footing about like Blair. Brown and Cameron.”

Can he really clean up the Aegean stables of American lobbying? In November I met Melanie Sloan the prime campaigner against corruption in American politics.

Her book is titled Beyond DeLay: The 20 Most Corrupt Members of Congress (and two to watch). This encyclopaedic report is on the egregious, unethical and illegal activities of the most tainted members of Congress. She has compiled the members’ transgressions and analyzed them in light of federal laws and congressional rules.

Two members have been removed from last year’s list of 13. Rep. Randy “Duke” Cunningham (R-CA) is now serving an eight-year jail term for bribery and Rep. Bob Ney (R-OH) has agreed to plead guilty to crimes that will likely result in a minimum two-year prison term.

An August 2006 Harris poll shows that 77% of Americans have a negative view of Congress and a May 2006 Gallup poll indicates that 83% of Americans consider corruption a serious issue.

Not only is corruption a key task for the next President, it’s a popular one. Obama’s rally last night was hypnotic. His audiences grow and are wildly enthusiastic. Hillary’s are smaller and quiet.

This excitement has not been experienced in American politics since the Kennedy era. The future will be fascinating.

Pharma fury

Jean-Pierre Garnier, boss of the Pharma Glaxo Smith Kline, has had a strop.   He said   "My wish is for the media is to be more sophisticated when they report scientific news, Debates now are being thrown into the public domain before scientists have given their opinion."

Dr Aubrey Blumsohn, (pictured) a real scientist has pummelled him.

“I am a scientist and a doctor Mr Garnier ....... and the science stinks. How does one have a "sophisticated" discussion about scientific misconduct?

They just can't stop themselves - first looking to discredit scientists, then to discredit patients, then to discredit journalists - instead of addressing the shortcomings of their science and ethics.

Never mind the non-transparent science. Never mind the apparent cheating of results in Seroxat clinical trials. Never mind the selective publication of "positive" data. Never mind the false and evidence-free statements made about the safety of Seroxat. Never mind the bullying of academics, withholding of information from prescribers, threats of legal action, involvement with the UK government, and non-existent criminal self investigations. Never mind Keller, Buse, Laden or study 329. Never mind the patients. Never mind the failure to answer actual scientific questions.

To quote Matthew Holford:

    "He's got a f_cking nerve to demand that "scientists" (all scientists, or just the ones that agree with and are paid by GSK) are the only ones who are able to proclaim blatantly evident truths. We have only to read the correspondence between McCafferty, Oakes, Keller and Laden (who were responsible for the travesty of science that was the write-up of Seroxat. "

The Pharmas are panicking. Sales are plummeting and the stock market isn't too pleased. They have long prospered on junk science, twisted to send their profits soaring. There is quality, transparency and honesty in their research. But not in their dishonest marketing. Of course, they spend more on marketing than on research. The truth is dawning Garnier.

Blemished joy

Bijou demo
It’s a dream come true – but with a major blemish.

Thirty years ago, I had a meeting with British Rail to urge them to re-open the Newport to Ebbw Vale rail line to passenger traffic. I was then Chairman of the Gwent Transport Committee and the line was operating for freight only.

BR said that higher safety standards were required for passengers and they were looking for a handout of about a quarter of a million from the County Council to bring it up to passenger standards. There was insufficient belief that passengers would use the service and the County Council was struggling to keep bus services going on a modest budget. We could not afford it.

The link is now open to passengers but it is from Ebbw Vale to Cardiff. It does stop at Rogerstone in Newport and a bus is available to the city centre. Signalling is the problem that will not be corrected for three years.

There was a modest demo this morning led by Assembly Member Rosemary Butler, Councillors Eddie Burke and Erryl Heath and activists Jayne Bryant and Victoria Colly-Wall. On display were tickets from Rogerstone to Newport – significantly without a date on them.

In spite of the disappointment, the sight of the train was a beautiful one as it purred into the tidy new station. The bus is a few steps away. Eighteen years ago, a giant polluting coal-fired power station dominated this area. It is now the delightful Avon Village of hundreds of sturdy attractive new homes - a newly minted community.

That’s real progress – even if we have to wait for the Newport centre link.

Moss inspectors
A welcome versifier is adorning my comment page. Two contributions on the expenses saga from less than Jolly Roger, including this:

Whilst you may not be the typical trough snouter.
There's plenty about, so don't be a doubter.
Urgent reforms are rapidly needed.
The garden of Parliament needs to be weeded.
With regard to the state of your ground.
I'll be sending the
Moss Inspectors around.
Those who have chosen to be fish tankers.
Will soon be exposed as Aquarian skankers.

There is no doubt that much is amiss.
Sometimes I think they're just taking the p**s.
Whilst pensioners like me are scrimping and scraping.
The holes in the 'rules' are increasingly gaping.
We've had enough, out here in realty.
We're sick to death of our serf-like fealty.
So enjoy your £400, four weekly.
But please don't think we'll take it so meekly.

Ouch!

Pill Pride
Lavish praise from satisfied citizens is rare. There was unanimity this afternoon at the newly opened residential centre for the elderly Cwrt y Capel, Pillgwenlly.

The Mayor Allan Morris spoke of the high quality of everything. Residents have individual rooms that would grace a five star hotel. The designs were greatly influenced by people of pensions age who stressed the need for a maximum share of independent life.

They can mix communally when they wish, but everyone has a beautifully appointed room of their own with full en suite facilities.

The children of multi-ethnic Pillgwenlly School chose the name of Cwrt y Capel (Court of the Chapel) and the school council helped to plant a commemorative tree.

This is the third development of this kind.  The Newport City Council deserves congratulations on these splendid homes. Yes, I will put my name down for a place. But not just yet.

Kim the banner carrier

Cuddling the torturers
Kim Howells is a natural banner-carrier. Wherever the flow is heading, he likes to be in front carrying the banner.

Kim’s joined a sit-in at Hornsey School Art when student demonstrations were fashionable in 1968. No one knew what the protest was about, but it was more fun than painting.  The son of communist, Kim was a member of the communist party too when he was employed by the National Union of Miners. It was the thing to do – especially as his boss Arthur Scargill was a party member.

When taxi driver David Wilkie was killed by two striking miners who dropped a concrete block off a local bridge on to his taxi. On being told of the incident in a telephone call from a reporter of the South Wales Echo, Howells rode his bicycle to the NUM offices, and destroyed the maps and information associated with co-ordinating the strike for fear of a police raid. He later commented that same day that the incident was a result of pressure to get the miners to return to work. 

Then his odyssey to right began. He adjusted his views to a mould that was acceptable to New Labour as candidate in Pontypridd. The metamorphosis from communist to Blairite loyalist was swift when he was elected.

Now he has reached his ultimate destination. He had his picture taken cuddling up to soldiers who murder trade unionists.  It’s a matter of pride and displayed on the Foreign Office website. Smiling Kim Howells is close to a general linked to paramilitary death squads and soldiers of a notorious unit of the Colombian army accused, including by Amnesty International, of torturing and killing trade unionists.

Tony Woodley, joint general secretary of the union Unite, called for an end to British support for the Colombian regime: "Colombia is the world's leader slaughterhouse for trade unionists and it defies belief that the British ministers should be cuddling up - literally, judging by the photographs - with the perpetrators."

I wonder if the High Mountain Brigades have a banner. Kim would have been pleased to carry it.

Only 17,000 dead
“Benzodiazepines don’t kill that many people’ said Jackie Ashley in today’s Guardian.  It’s merely 17,000 since the sixties. So that’s all right then.

Not quite Jackie. There are probably a million and a half who are still dependent on them. They were unwell forty years ago and are still suffering from drugs that were freely prescribed by doctors keen to empty their surgeries.

On my comment page yesterday was one that read : “There is no pleasure in using a benzo. This does not mean that the benzo dependent do not face serious and painful withdrawals when they try to stop the drug. The symptoms will vary enormously, but all are either torment or torture.

Who is responsible? It certainly is not the trusting patient who followed directions. I hope that these victims will receive relevant help and not simply denial of the drug. The damaged people deserve help and not censure. They were not complicit in their damage as both government and the press imply.”

Jackie usually writes well. Her trite and trivial piece today excuses the drug pushing pharmas, the complicit doctors and the weak regulators that have created a pill-popping anxiety ridden society.

Moss money
The MPs expenses allowance is wandering into territory that is alien to most MPs.

I asked a group of four MPs whether they knew that £400 a month could be claimed for food. None of us had ever heard of it. Even more bizarre is the story of the Scottish Lord. Sir Michael Ancram, the millionaire former Conservative deputy leader claimed £22,030 for maintaining his country mansion in his Wiltshire constituency – including repainting the walls and removing moss from the garden. Where are these is the list of expenses that are essential to do the job of an MP?

Light may at last dawn on the Lord Cashcroft and his multi-million donations to the Tories. David Cameron has changed his tune and is backing transparency. Up to now he has failed to give straight answers to straight questions, in the way he has been urging others to do. For all David Cameron's PR on transparency, the reality is persistent secrecy when it comes to the status of Lord Ashcroft.

Will he now learn the truth that Lord Ashcroft’s £millions were illegal donations?

Stop taking the tablets

Biggest killer.

Prescription drugs kill twice as many people every year in the USA as are killed by illegal drugs. The situation here is almost certainly as bad. But our statistics are junk.

Statistics prove prescription drugs are 16,400% more deadly than terrorists

Today the Observer front-page lead was a report from a group I vice-chair. The Commons Drugs Mis-use group report that 'mis-prescribing' of drugs such as painkillers, sleeping tablets and anti-anxiety pills by some doctors is 'leading to addiction and dependence'.

GPs ignore official advice that patients should take powerful benzodiazepine tranquillisers for no more than four weeks by handing out repeat prescriptions without even seeing them in their surgery, says an all-party parliamentary group on drug misuse. The Home Office blames the mis-use benzodiazepines for causing 17,000 deaths since their introduction in the Sixties.

The death of 28-year-old Hollywood actor Heath Ledger is a serious warning. His took a half a dozen drugs that are widely prescribed for depression, pain and insomnia. All would have been harmless if taken separately – but a lethal cocktail when taken together.

My friend Dr Brian Iddon who chairs the group said: 'Some GPs are addicting people by giving them repeat prescriptions without checking to see how long they've been on the drugs in the first place. They are not stopping patients from getting any more of them after the set amount of time.'

Family doctors are contributing to growing problems associated with these substances by not taking seriously enough requests for help from addicts, and by mismanaging patients with chronic pain.

Solpadeine and Nurofen Plus are the two most widely misused such substances, the MPs say, with 4,000 subscribers to one specialist advice website alone hooked on Solpadeine.

A coroner in Lancashire recently called for Nurofen Plus to be reclassified after investigating the case of Linda Docherty, who died after taking up to 64 Nurofen Plus tablets a day.

The Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) said the deaths of 1,135 people were suspected of having been caused by an adverse reaction to legal drugs in the last 13 months, including 25 who overdosed.

This is certainly a gross under-estimate. The MHRA is financed and run by the pharmaceutical industry. They discovered only six adverse reactions to the painkillers Vioxx. The equivalent American body the FDA found the painkiller caused 144,000 hearts attacks and strokes. Without the FDA, British doctors would still be signing more than a million prescriptions a year for killer drug.

Two weeks ago, I clashed with a doctor on the Jeremy Vine show. Like most GPs she delights in providing a pill for every ill. She had no explanation to offer on the deadly side effects or the sudden threefold increase in scripts for mild depression.
Half of all medicines have adverse side effects. Thee other half proably have side effects we have yet to discover. Stop taking the tablets.

“Sharia!”

(To the tune of “Maria” from West Side Story)

Sharia!
I’ve just made a speech on Sharia.
And suddenly that name
Has set the press aflame -
Next me!

Sharia!
I’ve just hit a nerve with Sharia.
And suddenly I’ve found
Hysteria unbound
And free!

Sharia!
Say it loud and a lynch mob is braying.
Say it soft and for blood they’re still baying.

Sharia!

Kim Fabricius    theconnexion.net/wp

Moronocracy

Confirmation that an epoch of barbarism is at hand comes from the judgement on the blog of Glyn Davies (A.M. rejected). He explains the Sharia scandal

“Trouble with Dr. Rowan Williams is that he's a high intellectual.”

No room for that in modern decision making. Glyn is challenging Lembit Opik in the next parliamentary election. Will we notice any difference?