Cross partying

Bob's Jokes?

A whisper has assaulted my ears that Labour's MP Bob Marshall-Andrews is supporting David Davis. When we had party discipline, there were rules forbidding this sort of thing. As nothing was done about Kate Hoey’s support of Boris Johnson, I presume nothing will be done about this. The rules may well excuse Bob, as there will be no Labour candidate.

Nor should there be. We cannot dignify this pantomime – especially as we had only 12% of the vote last time. What is Bob doing? Bob (pictured at work and at play) has a rich sense of humour. He is also the best and wittiest speaker in the House of Commons. He would add a touch of class to the toe-to-toe bare-knuckle fight between David and Kelvin. Will Anne Widdecombe coming screeching for the Sun?

There is a danger that this contest could become interesting.

 

Doctored to death

News in tomorrow’s Sunday Express of a great increase in the number of children being drugged for ‘psychological’ problems emphasises the need for a look at the harm of medicinal drugs. Also news from America.

An analysis of autopsies in 2007 released this week by the Florida Medical Examiners Commission found that the rate of deaths caused by prescription drugs was three times the rate of deaths caused by all illicit drugs combined.

Law enforcement officials said that the shift toward prescription-drug abuse, which began here about eight years ago, showed no sign of letting up and that the state must do more to control it.

The Commons Drugs Misuse Committee heard evidence on Thursday of the scourge of deaths and addiction caused by prescribed drugs. Pictured are Michael Behan, Professor Heather Ashton and Barry Haslam. They shocked the committee with the news that 20 million prescriptions are still been written for benzodiazepines in spite of their harmful effects. Over 40% of the elderly in residential are prescribed them.

Pam Armstrong, the founder of Counselling and Involuntary Tranquilliser Addiction (CITA) made a powerful case against the multiple problems caused by the wanton over prescription of tranquillisers.

The Seroxat users assocation reminded the committee of their long-standing campaign, which has, unearthed the deadly perils of SSRIs.

I chaired this session in the company of two of my colleagues from the Lords and two from Drugscope. We have a heavy responsibility to produce a strong report that do justice to the impassioned pleas we have heard on behalf of the millions whose lives have been damaged by prescribed drugs.

Wopped

Ambitious Alun Cairns, an AM resigned as shadow education spokesman and chair of the Assembly's finance committee for committing a dreadful crime.

"In light of the inappropriate comments I made yesterday regarding Italy I believe I can no longer continue in these roles in the national assembly," he said.

"I very much regret the remarks and wish to apologise once again for the offence they may have caused.

No doubt he is beating himself with birch twigs and having his brain cells reprogrammed. In today’s world he has committed a mortal sin for using a word that was a term of endearment in my childhood. My best friend at school was Basil Salvatore who was happy to be introduced as a ‘Wop’. It was later in life that I discovered that Wops came from Italy.

Another sensitive soul, former MP & AM now Councillor Ron Davies has volunteered to teach Alun to avoid the use taboo words. The expression ‘greasy Wops’ was used in answer to the final light-hearted question in the Welsh language radio programme Dau o’r Bae.

I appear on the show regularly and feel entirely uninhibited about what I say. Some words are used in a derogatory way to describe racial characteristics and they are rightly banished. But descriptions such as Taffies, Jocks, Poms and Wops do not carry the same overtones.

Alun has imposed a heavy sentence on himself for a joke that mis-fired.

Irish stew

The Irish have done better out of the EU than any other nation.

Farm subisdies to the new EU countries of Poland etc are 18% of their total income. UK, France and Germany get 34%. Ireland gets 75%. They grab a disproportionate amount of all other EC funds.

The reasons they rejected the Lisbon treaty varied from the eccentric to the insane. Very few of the reasons had anything to do with the treaty. Yet they will delay the decisions taken by informed governments of the other 98% of the EU. A way will be found to get this through. Why not a two tiered EU as we have for the sale of SNUS? and other derogations? The Lisbon Treaty would not apply to Ireland and their farm subsidies could be  harmonised with those of Poland.

That might concentrate their minds onto serious issues.