Paul Flynn - Read My Day

Innuendo beats truth

Sleaze-less

Opinion polls tell us that the public believe British politicians are sleazy. A vast excess of media attention was given to the cash for peerages scandals ad the Abrahams donations to the Labour party.

It was not just the neurotically anti-Labour tabloids. The broadcasters. in spite of their duty of balance, lavishly reported every hint or innuendo of sleaze however minor. The interpretation placed on every set of circumstances was always the worst.

As a member of the sleaze busting committee, I tried to avoid defending the accused until the investigations had been completed. But the media had their agenda: - ‘All accused were innocent until they are proved to be Labour.’

To snorts of derision from broadcasting interviewers, I always maintained that our political system is one of the least corrupt in the world. Besmirching its reputation without evidence was doing permanent damage.

This week’s news that there will be no prosecutions in the Abrahams case as there was no prosecutions for cash for peerages. Anyone notice any screaming headlines – or even modest ones?

The public salivate for bad news. Corrupt politicians’ sell newspapers. Innocent politicians’ are not news.

Brute force
There was no build-up or excitement but the Government came close to defeat in the Commons this afternoon. 31 Labour  MPS backed an amendment to the Energy Bill moved with authority and charm by Labour’s Alan Simpson.

The result was 210 for and 250 against. Nearly 200 MPs were absent campaigning in the London and local elections. Had the Tories got their act together a major advance could have been made for renewables.

The amendment sought mechanisms to feed small renewable energy sources into the grid. This has worked brilliantly in Germany who are far ahead of us with clean renewable energy.

The rejection by the Government Minister Malcolm Wicks was ominous.  Big investors had warned against diverting funds from the main energy developments (i.e. nuclear) into two many renewables.

The head of Electricite de France said recently that the nuclear plans could be scuppered by diverting investment into other areas. The problem is that big nuclear is always late, over budget, expensive and rarely works as promised. Renewables are practical, readily attainable and have worked on a massive scale in Germany.

Alan Simpson produced a killer fact. 'Half the food produced in the UK is wasted. If waste could be used across Europe for energy generation, the continent would no longer need gas from Russia’ There was an audible ‘whow’ from MPs.

On the basis of reason and the environment Alan Simpson won the debate. The Minister spoke up for the brute force of vested interests.

The environment lost.

Cameron's slump

David Cameron boobed at Question Time today.

The subject he picked was the wrong one. The public are on Gordon’s side on 42 days detention. The Conservatives can be painted as soft on terrorism.

On the day before he election, the House was puzzled that Cameron did not go on London or Council issues. He made another tactical error in demanding the Gordon Brown should make the issue one of confidence. The only way hat many of us on the Labour side will vote for 42 days is if it is made an issue of confidence.

Fort the first time ever, Gordon Brown wounded Cameron with sharp insults. Is Cameron losing his touch?

Martyr me!

Malice rampant

Another bid for martyrdom today from the irritating Kate Hoey.  She lusts after victimhood and vengeance. Her life is shaped by her sacking after a brief period as a useless Sports Minister.

Her Labour roots are superficial and the only party she has backed with passion and knowledge is that of the Orangemen. Her current political mission is to incite her own expulsion from the Labour Party. No opportunity to vote against the Government is missed – even on subjects on which she has no strong views. Her presence is a regular embarrassment to other Labour MPs challenging Government policies.

Hilariously today she has accepted Boris Johnson’s stunt invitation to prop up his campaign – as an adviser of the Olympic Games-the bid for which she opposed. The announcement is timed with characteristic malice for maximum effect for Thursday’s mayoral vote.

She is in the pay of the Tory Daily Telegraph and the Countryside Alliance to the tune of £5,000 and £15,000 plus. The Countryside Alliance campaigns in key marginal seats against Labour MPs. On the referendum issue she backed another organization that targeted vulnerable Labour MPs.

There is reluctance in Labour circles to give her the satisfaction of martyrdom. She dreams of the attention. Think of the pained media interviews when she will present herself as the spurned heroine. She will damn the party that made her as intolerant. She will contrive a persona as the principled independent MP. If she was consistent and principled she would resign from the party that she clearly loathes.

Candidate Brian Paddick generously described Kate as ‘Bonkers’ ....why so mealy mouthed? Harriet Harman was woeful on London TV claiming that Hoey was supporting Livingstone while simultaneously stabbing him in the back. It’s a difficult call for Labour. Will more harm be done by kicking her out or by letting her linger on as a festering sore?

Who knows?

Elder abuse

Today an impressive group of experts deliberated on what may be the country's worse example of drug abuse.

Up to 105,000 people with dementia are given the anti-psychotic drugs inappropriately, according to expert predictions in the new All-Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) on Dementia report, 'Always a Last Resort'.

Although there is thin evidence that drugs work they are still a first resort for dealing with challenging behaviour in people with dementia, such as aggression or agitation. But there is massive evidence that neuroleptics cause devastating side effects of misery and confusion, doubling risk of death and costing us over £60 million a year.

I gave a whoop of joy when I read this report. The campaign is not new. I put down EDM is 2000 in 1999, 1998, 1997, 1996, 1995 and 1994. One in 1998 read:-

"That this House is shocked by the evidence from the Alzheimers Disease Society and Age Concern on the dangers of the over-medication of the elderly; is alarmed by reports that up to one in five admissions to hospital of the elderly are caused by the misuse of medicines and by investigations in England and Scotland that found 54 per cent. and 88 per cent of prescriptions of powerful neuroleptic drugs to elderly residents in homes were not needed, so were "wrongly prescribed". The early-day motion calls for an improvement in care services, and calls on the Government to replicate the reviews nationally"

I attended today’s two hour meeting and backed the report. Its recommendations are familiar.

'Always a Last Resort' identifies five vital steps to reduce antipsychotic use and reveals there is currently no audit or regulation of the issue. It urges the Government to use its new National Dementia Strategy to address the problem and the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence to conduct a thorough review.

The ninth commandment of the Back Bencher's 10 commandments says, "Neglect the rich, the obsessed and the articulate, and seek out the silent voices". There are no voices quieter than those of people who are in residential homes for the elderly. 

Treasured view

The view from my office window has greatly improved

Since 1997 I have stared at the grime stained looming façade of the Treasury. It been cleaned-up and a new pavement has been constructed with low colonnades. It’s very attractive but the bus stops have been moved.

They were so convenient for me and thousands of others who work in parliament. Thanks for the makeover. Now bring the bus-stops back.

Burying the Body

Strangers become friends

No-one ever liked the name ‘Body’. I once urged that it we called it by its Irish name Comlacht.

Today the British Irish Parliamentary Body has metamorphosed into the British Irish Parliamentary Assembly.

It was launched in 1990 and the first plenary session was a meeting of strangers. Large delegations from the British and Irish Parliaments meet in Westminster.

Today we met as old friends. We know each other well. The gulf of suspicion and misunderstanding that separated us in 1990 has gone. The Assembly now has parliamentarians from the devolved parliaments and assemblies and the Channel Isles. The body has been a wonderful instrument for building trust and confidence in an atmosphere of mutual respect. It’s impossible to believe hostile myths about fellow parliamentarians when you have shared a meal or a pint or two with them.

The body has played a large part in breaking down the barriers in the North.  Last year for the first time ever we had a plenary meeting in Belfast. Ulster unionists have addressed our meeting. The ‘Body’ was a catalyst for the peace process. Today Peter Hain took over as the British co-chairman from Paul Murphy who has taken over from Peter as Secretary of State for Wales.

In future we will no longer spend hours talking about the crisis in Ulster. The future is the environment. We are small islands with a population of about 65 million in a world of billions of people. We have so much in common. The seas washed around our shores and their energy is wasted. If the force of the Bristol Channel and the Alderney race could be harnessed it would remove the need for 5 nuclear power stations.  It’s not high technology. Simple tidal current turbines working on both tides could produce energy that is clean, carbon free and eternal. The assembly could be a force for pushing the merits of marine power.

The ‘Body’ is no more. Long live the Assembly.

Irish saved Welsh

Thatcher's u-turn

It was Irish history than guaranteed the survival of the Welsh language.

Waiting for the flight to Dublin this morning, I was chatting about the unexpected vigour and strength of the Welsh Language especially in the Assembly. In the sixties, its demise was confidently forecast before the year 2000.

The issue of the proposed Welsh Language Channel dominated my political life in the seventies. I shared the gloom that the language would die without it. With a Labour colleague Gerard Purnell, I wrote a report that became Labour Party policy in 1973. Sadly the Labour Government of 74 to 79 did not honour our manifesto promise.

The Tory Government gave the thumbs-down in 1979. I resigned as stand-in chair of the BBC Governing Body, the Broadcasting Council for Wales. My period of service as chair was a record one that’s unlikely to be repeated. It lasted 15 minutes. Not that my resignation had any influence on the Government.

Plaid leader Gwynfor Evans announced that he would fast to death   in protest. By a stroke of luck Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher was reading Irish history for the first time. She learned that a weak Irish republican movement became a mass issue only when they had martyrs killed at the Easter rising.

Thatcher saw a news report of televisions of an audience in Sophia Gardens pavilion in Cardiff chanting ‘Gwynfor! Gwynfor!’ after he had addressed them on his farewell tour. She feared that a Welsh martyr would incite violence from nationalists. She was probably correct.

To create an elegant u-turn she avoided accusations of surrendering to Gwynfor's  'blackmail' by summoning three wise men from Wales.  A pantomime was played out; when she announced that her mind had been changed – but not, of course, by the death threat.

S4C has been a glorious success beyond the most extravagant hopes of my report in 1973. There was no expectation that they would inspire so much original work of top international quality. S4C is the new habitat in which one of Europe’s most ancient languages has grown and prospered.

If only more Prime Ministers read history! Pass I send a short history of the Afghan war to Gordon Brown.

Cameron's Con
David Cameron is begging voters to commit an irrational act.

He wants fine Labour councillors with great records of service and achievement to be punished for a foul-up entirely beyond their control. He wants Ken Livingstone hammered too for the 10p foul-up.

Happily voters are cannier. When they hover over the choice on the ballot papers, a serious choice will draw then to the candidates with a proven record.

Newport Councillors have a solid record of achievement. A new city is emerging from the rubble of redevelopment. Newportonians will gain immensely from the legacy left by the Ryder Cup Tournament here in 2010.

The challenge is from a ragbag of opposition parties who threaten the city’s award winning green achievements. The city would pay dearly if it dropped its brilliant pilot and crew now. Newportonians are proving their good sense on the doorsteps and rejecting the Tories as they have in all election here since 1968.

Neglected renewables
The body that is made up of Irish, British and devolved administration MPs meets in Wexford over the next two days.

Two years ago I was made the vice-chair or its Economic Committee. It was surprise to discover that almost all its past reports have been preoccupied with the problems of small farmers. This made have had some connection with the fact that the chair of the committee and more than half its members were small farmers.

I gently suggested that it was time to take a look at the other 98% of the economy. Tomorrow we will plan the next stage of our study of renewables energy sources. Germany and Scotland are leading the way. Britain and Ireland are lagging behind.

We need action.

Everlasting stupidity

A subsidy isn’t just for Christmas

It’s forever.

It was 22 years ago that the cloud of radioactive filth from Chernobyl rained down on North Wales. You, the taxpayer are still paying the bill.

UP to 359 farms are still operating under restrictions imposed in the wake of Chernobyl. That’s 200,000 sheep that are being reared at massive subsidy cost. They cannot enter the food chain. There is no likely prospect of more than a handful of farms being freed from restrictions in the near future.

I know one of the farms well. It is Trawnant in Ysbyty Ifan farmed by Mr Glyn Roberts. I did a Welsh language television programme with Glyn a few years ago. I wanted to call ‘In search of a poor farmer.’ – a vain search of course. S4C called it ‘Flynn versus Glyn.’

The unanswered question is how long will sheep be reared on farms that will be free of radiation for thousands of years. Should another use now be found for the land instead of his expensive pretence that one day everything will be back to normal. The acreage is vast and hilly. Surely ideal sites for hydroelectric schemes.

The nuclear establishment want to forget our 200,000 radioactive sheep. Also embarrassing the World Health Organisation estimate that at least 4,000 died of cancer due to the catastrophe.

My wife fell out with our milkman in 1986. She cancelled fresh milk immediately after the nuclear rain. The milkman and the Government said this being alarmist. Now they admit that cancers resulted from drinking fresh milk then. Government scientists promised the North Wales farmers at the time that the radiation would wash away in six weeks.

The whole sorry history of nuclear power is of danger, waste, deceit, inefficiency, extravagance and cover-up. Nothing has changed in the new rush for nuclear.

Lost Cause
Tomorrow’s Independent will revive their foolish scare campaign on cannabis.  It is a shame that they have conned themselves into believing an evidence free argument.

I have tried to steer back to the splendid brave stand they took a decade ago. In answer to his question whether my opinion on cannabis has changed, I have told him: -

No. The information has remained the same but there has been a hysterical exaggeration of the long recognised harmful effects on mental health. Stronger forms of cannabis result in changed use- in the say that beer drinkers changing to wine drink less in volume. Examine the science not the tabloid headlines. If changing cannabis classification had any effect, it reduced use and presumably harm. Will reversing that policy increase use?
In 2005 with the agreement of all three main parties, magic mushrooms were absurdly placed in the same classification as heroin.  All because politicians were scared witless in fear of being caught in possession of an intelligent drugs policy just before a General Election.

Changing classifications gives politicians gratification and an excuse for not thinking. Drug's classes were irrelevant.  The UK's 10 year drugs strategy spent £billions and achieved almost nothing. Moving policies to harm reduction away from the criminal justice solutions will cut drug use, crime and deaths. Examine Portugal, which has halved drug deaths since 2001.

Night Mayor
For the first time ever I will be voting n London next week.

It’s possible to vote for the London mayor and vote for my local council candidate in Newport. The horror of giving power to Boris, the Etonian effete is too awful to contemplate.

Labour lost touch with our own people in Wales and London in 1999. Poor Frank Dobson had a mere 16% of the vote in Labour London. Ken Livingstone was the deserved victor and he has been a courageous green leader.

The Government refused to commit themselves to the congestion charge unless it proved to be a success. Congestion and pollution has been cut and public transport s more popular an efficient than it’s ever been.

Both Ken and Boris were useless MPs – petulantly prancing around waiting for for a bigger role to come along. Sense is returning. Most Londoners are now moving away from their flirtation with Boris – the joke mayor.

Gross Misconduct

The independent verdict

No one has published the unvarnished facts about a candidate standing in the local elections in Newport. He is described in election literature as an "adviser to Newport West Conservative Association on Social Services issues." A reasonable conclusion is that if the Conservatives gain control in Newport he would have a prominent role in charge of Social Services.

Labour has questioned his suitability for the job of councillor or for a position of responsibility in the department from which he was sacked. The Tories hint that the man’s dismissal was politically influenced. Totally false statements have been made verbally to me claiming that he was unfairly sacked and later compensated. The truth is simpler.

After his dismissal the man appealed to a tribunal. They heard the evidence and their fully independent conclusion could not be clearer.

“The unanimous decision of the tribunal is that the applicant was fairly dismissed and the application fails.

The reason for the dismissal was the involvement of the applicant in three incidents, two which displayed an unacceptably arrogant and rude behaviour towards the family of a relative of a morning at the old peoples’ home at which he was employed, the passing of incorrect and unauthorised information to a relative and most seriously the allegation of frightening an elderly resident.

We are satisfied that because of the nature of the applicant’s employment and the allegation involving the frightening of a resident that the conclusion that the misconduct was gross meriting instant dismissal was one which was appropriate.”

No local paper has published this crucial bit of evidence. The people of Rogerstone deserve to have the full information on the suitability or otherwise of their candidate Mr Andrew Cooksey. Up until now, this has been denied to them.

When Dafydd-El wept.

It was extraordinary night that’s imprinted forever on our memories.

The first time I have met Kirsty Williams since, as she put it, ‘we spent the night together’ was Wednesday. It was a weary six hours of slow torment that ended beautifully. She was on the Terrace of the House of the Commons and our emotions of that golden night were churned up again.

Four of us were in the BBC Wales studio to comment on the results of the referendum on Welsh Devolution. Jonathan Evans was insufferably smug, convinced that it would be a final ‘No’ vote. Dafydd Ellis Thomas, Kirsty and I suffered weary hours at what appeared to be growing certain defeat – until the glorious Carmarthen result clinched victory in the final result.

Kirsty recalls that she and I were dancing around the studio, Jonathan put his smacked-bum face on and Dafydd Ellis-Thomas wept. A marriage and three babies later, Kirsty is as splendid as ever. Surely she must become the leader of the Lib-Dems in Wales ? It will give the Assembly of bolt of much-needed colour and chutzpah. It might even resurrect the Welsh Lib-Dems from their zombie trance.

Councillor Lloyd Delahaye

A dreadful blow this morning was the news that Bettws Councillor Lloyd Delahaye had died.

He had a long illness but recently he had seemed hale and hearty. For the past few months he braved the elements to campaign for Labour Council votes throughout the city. He was the best of councillors, dedicated, intelligent, energetic, idealistic, practical and wise.

It was always pleasure to be in his company and that of his beloved wife Val. The couple have been a marvellous team, serving Bettws and the City – Lloyd as councillor and Val as the driving force in the Credit Union.

Lloyd was cabinet member for public affairs in the City of Newport. But above all his other work he was immensely proud of Bettws and the results of his work. Councillors’ work is rarely appreciated. It consists of thousands of acts of support, help and kindness.  I prized the memory of Lloyd’s faithful untiring dedication to his people.

May he rest in peace.

Human Pit Bulls

Baby fight club.

What a sickening spectacle on Channel Four tonight.

I was asked to watch it for a future comment programme follow-up. Named Baby Fight Club, it graphically showed manic parents training their 5 to 10 year old children to be human pit bulls.

It is the growing spectator sport of Thai Kick boxing. Kicks and punches to the head are sometimes banned. But the bouts filmed showed children being repeatedly punched and sometimes kicked in the head. To the adult brain, blows to the head inflict irreversible brain damage. With the maturing brain the damage can be severe.

A five-year boy and girl twins were visibly pressured into fighting. The girl was upset. She wanted to spend her time with dolls and pretty clothes. Even her tears on entering the ring did not persuade her father to stop the spectacle.

All the parents had ambitions to achieve fame and wealth through their children. One bout showed two ten year olds fighting in a cage before an audience who paid £35 each to gawp at dangerous violence being inflicted to young bodies. Why?

The regulations of the sport seem to be haphazard and vague. Some clubs do not ban blows to the head. Some allow kicks to the head. The parents’ lust for success seems to have blinded them to the perils.

This is child abuse. Why has no one stopped it?

Secret Pension Bonanza

It took three attempts, but at last I have the astonishing answer I wanted from a parliamentary question.

Constantly I have raised the subject of the growing  £billions of pounds that are accumulating as a surplus in the National Insurance Fund. The money is collected with a disproportionately high share coming from low earners.

With the help of my brilliant researcher Tony Lynes, a question was drafted that could not be dodged. What I wanted to know is if the surplus was paid to pensioners what effect would it have on the level of basic pensions payments.

The reply is breathtaking. It reads: -

“If the equivalent of the national insurance fund's annual excess of receipts over payments projected by the Acting Government Actuary for the years 2009-10 to 2012-13 were paid in its entirety to recipients of basic state pension, this would lead to an estimated percentage increase in the basic state pension of around 24 per cent in 2009-10 and around 6 per cent in the years 2010-11 to 2012-13

Any increase in basic state pension expenditure has a cumulative impact on Government spending going forward."

This means that, if each year's surplus was used to increase the basic pension (now £90.70 for a single pensioner), the pension would rise, at 2008 prices, to £112.45 in 2009-10, £119.20 in 2010-11, £126.35 in 2011-12, and £133.95 in 2012-13. 

If the present policy of increasing the pension only in line with prices continues, it will still be worth £90.70 in today's prices.  Spending the whole of the annual surplus on the basic pension, therefore, would give a single pensioner an extra £43 a week by 2012-13 - an increase of nearly 50 per cent.

Well I’m gob smacked. The Government argued that the surplus is used to fund general Government spending. But that is not the purpose of the National Insurance Fund. Nor should it paid largely by the lower paid.

Is the Government listening?

Independence threatened

The stand-in Tory shadow Leader of the House had a whine at Business Questions yesterday about the work of the Newport Based Statistics authority. How long will it take for the penny to drop.

Paul Flynn (Newport, West) (Lab): When can we have an educational debate in the House to inform the Conservatives about one of  the most serious reforms to go through this House in the past 10 years is the establishment of the UK Statistics Authority, which in its compilation and publication of statistics will be free from interference from political parties or any political narrative. Is it not disappointing that less than a month after it was set up, the Conservative party is trying to interfere with the work of the authority. 

Helen Goodman: My hon. Friend is right in that the new independent Statistics Authority that we set up under legislation earlier this month will firmly guarantee the independence of statistics. He may also be aware that scrutiny of the authority will be carried out by the Public Administration Committee. I hope that it will be able to consider the authority’s work. As he knows, all Select Committee reports may be debated in Westminster Hall.

 

‘42 Days’ dead?

Docile no more

There was pleasant euphoria today among the 40 MPs who put their heads over the parapet to challenge Gordon to repent and rebuild his budget. This was an act of solidarity among a mixed bag of backbenchers who have joined together for the first time.

The myth of subservient docile Labour backbenchers is dead. There is an organised group of backbenchers that has unity or strength. The Campaign group is divided and small. Tribune no longer exists. But there is a group of about 50 to 70 backbenchers with no personal ambitions but a great deal of mutual respect. They came together to oppose an outrage.

The change could not have been made without Frank Field’s furious forty. Today they are walking tall and looking towards a climb-down on another futile policy. The 42 days is intended to wrong-foot the opposition parties as friends of terrorists. It’s crude, unnecessary and counter productive. It will lose Muslim hearts and minds and be judged as a form of internment.

I have attended backbench briefings on this by Government ministers. Never have I had a persuasive answer on why the law is necessary. There are far more than 40 Labour MPs who are opposed to the 42 days. The opposition parties are united and parliamentary defeat is certain.

Why bother Gordon?

Hypochondriacs lead

The Hong Kong miracle was celebrated by a Parliamentary gathering of political luminaries and business leaders.

There was deep gloom from royalty and Chris Patten when the handover took place. One said that it felt like the Americans running from Saigon in 1968. A new dark age for Hong Kong was gloomily promised.

Out of their canny self-interest, the Chinese have midwifed in an era of glittering prosperity and self-confidence.

Britain is still the dominant foreign power in the region and our businesses are serving us well.

Now the task is to combine burgeoning growth with reverence for the environment. A former British Ambassador said the Chinese are the most neurotic hypochondriacs in the world. The fear of ill-health is driving the campaign for a clean environment.

China has undergone a metamorphosis in 30 years from a peasant economy to the second world super power. Hong Kong is the essential prosperous hub of the new China.

Bruised Brown

The exceptional Labour Leader was Tony Blair. Gordon Brown is morphing into a typical Labour Leader. Blair was supreme and dominant. Any whispers of rebellion were silenced by his Elmer Gantry style revivalist sermons in the PLP. He always won gales of adulation – even on the frequent occasions when he was wrong.

Brown did not dominate the PLP this week. He was more emollient than three weeks ago but he failed to heal the fresh wounds inflicted on canvassing MPs. Even the withering insults to Frank Field failed to hit their targets.

The so-called rebellion was the expression of the authentic voice of traditional classic Labour. The PLP under Blair was an adoring uncritical fan club. After Monday, it has lost the habit of servility and found its voice and conscience. Gordon Brown can take his place in the pantheon of Labour leaders who led by persuasion and argument.

Welcome Gordon to Real Labour.

Prove me wrong, Gordon.

Has 39 become 45?

Commons rumours are that five additional backbenchers have joined the 39 ‘rebels’ who have signed Franks Field’s amendment to give compensation to those who have lost by the abolition of the 10p tax band.

The whips have failed dismally in their attempts to peel off individuals. Their main plea is again the threat that the Government will fall and an immediate General Election will result. The whips believed this was a clincher argument at the Iraq war vote. The hope is that the fear of the possibility of the P45 will terrify MPs into submission.

The threat did not work then when Labour was riding high in the polls. All that would precipitate a General Election would be a vote of no confidence in the Government. No Labour MP would be so manically suicidal to vote for a General Election when Labour is at rock bottom in the polls.

Any pressure the leadership and whips can impose is trivial compared with the storm of e-mails, letters and phone calls from Labour loyalists who feel that the Government has betrayed them. It not just those who are affected. Messages are coming from friends, relatives and neighbours of the large number of low paid who believe they have been cheated.

Frank Field is seeking the compromise we all want. If it is not found we will vote against the Government. The 39 are tough seasoned campaigners who will not be bribed, bullied or bamboozled.  Money can always be found for other unexpected contingencies. The Iraq War and Northern Rock were the two most recent examples. The leadership can emerge with honour if they announce the £1billion deal with a thunderous declaration of Labour’s brilliant record of moving money to the worst off.

How about a ‘Stealth Socialism unveiled’ declaration? That will begin to restore our shattered morale. There are rumours of a statement 10 minutes before PM Question Time. That would be the best way to keep the opposition guessing. One of the most painful calls I have had yesterday was from a lifelong socialist who reminded me that in 1996, I said that Labour would win the election but lose the Party.

Prove me wrong, Gordon.

Green transport

Stranded in the rain last night, without a taxi in sight and then blessed relief trundled along in the shape of Polish muscle power.

I hailed it and glided majestically across Westminster Bridge in a rickshaw expertly pedalled by a Polish basketball player. It was a first for the  police on carriage gates. They applauded as I trundled through. Getting across the security glass-well was tricky. The rickshaw has a small wheelbase. Having successfully manoeuvred that, it was a dawdle to take me a foot away from my car parked in Palace Court.

This was a far better pollution-free service than the taxi. The £5 cost was the same with the added satisfaction of contribution to the Polish economy.

‘Stealth Socialism’ exposed

£Billions for banks

It’s been a torrid day for the Government with no clear outcome. A Tory in the Chamber this afternoon dredged up the stale jibe of ‘stealth taxes.’

I was called after him and highlighted Labour’s main achievement of Stealth Socialism. A long litany of money-moving measures has shifted wealth to the poorest, taking millions of pensioners and children out of poverty. It’s ‘Stealth’ because we do not want the Daily Mail to hear about it. They take a stern line with shifting wealth - from the rich to the poor at least. But it’s Labour’s greatest achievement.

Now we are in fix because we have taken money from the low paid to reward the average and well paid. It cannot be justified, excused or dodged. What we need is a clear statement with a bankable promise that action will be taken to restore the money lost.

In the Commons Chamber, I expressed the bewilderment of my constituents after the announcement of the £50 billion to shore up the banks. I asked ‘How is that there are always tens of £billions available to rescue banks from their own incompetence or to pay for an unplanned war with Iraq, but the Labour Government with its brilliant record of re-distributing wealth cannot give a cast iron promise to correct a serious error which is impoverishing low income families?

Alistair Darling’s reply was not helpful. It was reassuring to get an e-mail from two non-constituents agreeing with the point I made. There is a point in speaking in the Chamber after all.

The parliamentary Labour Party is a private affair so I will not directly quote anyone. Nevertheless, I am sure the morning papers will. It was not a punch-up but a reasonable debate. The uber-loyalists appealed for unity – curiously for the sake of our Council Election candidates. They are the ones demanding a volte face in my experience.

The majority of speakers made heartfelt pleas for a change of direction. They are wounded by the loss of trust from life-long Labour supporters. There was anger that the effect of the 10p change has been wildly exaggerated. One MP told how he had taken to the CAB six of his constituents who believed they were about to lose money. Only one is. The rest are gaining.

The dire threat of the horrors of a Government losing a Finance Bill was spine chilling. A revolt on Monday is tonight slightly less likely that it was this morning.

The 40 of us who have signed Frank Field’s amendment will not be frightened off by whips' scare stories about the Government falling. They used the same threat to try to persuade us to vote for the Iraq War. 139 Labour MPs voted against. If we had won that vote, nearly 200 British soldiers who have fallen would be alive today.

If the Government lose a vote, there will be a vote of confidence next day. None of the 40 will side with the Tories then. We must get across to the Government the deep sense of anger and betrayal felt by this foul-up.

Hansard reports

Mr. Darling: To explain it in simple terms, the Government are effectively lending money through the Bank of England to the banks. In other words, that money has to be repaid, so the position is rather different.

Paul Flynn (Newport, West) (Lab): There is money available—tens of billions—to fund the banks because of their own incompetence, and money was available, which will not be repaid, when we had an unplanned war against Iraq, so surely a Labour Government with a brilliant record of stealth socialism in their redistribution of wealth to the lower-paid for the past 10 years can find a mechanism to ensure that those who will lose out because of the abolition of the 10p tax rate will be compensated.

Mr. Darling: As my hon. Friend acknowledges, the Government have done a great deal for people during the past 10 years, particularly those on low incomes, and as I said yesterday, we will continue to do so. It is essential that we put in place the plan before us today because many people in this country, including those on modest incomes, depend on being able to get access to mortgages, and on mortgage payments being kept as low as possible.