Drugs hypocrisy exposed

Cowardice

A blast of truth from a former civil servant exposes the endemic hypocrisy of Governments' drugs policy.
Many ministers and civil servants hold drugs prohibition in contempt but meekly implement laws that have increased drugs harm including deaths.

Julian Critchley is to be applauded for telling the truth. Minister Mo Mowlam had the same views when she was the minister responsible for drugs. Successive governments lacked the courage to face down tabloid myths.

Julian should give evidence on the Good Government probe by the Publlc Administration Committee. 'The unimportance of being right'  is the civil service rule. Why did no civil servant or minister assert themselves when in office?

Succesive governments have surrendered to the moronic demands of tabloids insisting on being 'tough' on drugs. The UK has had 37 years of he toughest drug laws in Europe. We have as a direct result he worst drugs outcomes in Europe. Governments' drugs policies are killing people.

 

http://news.bbc.co.uk/today/hi/today/newsid_7557000/7557867.stm


http://transform-drugs.blogspot.com/2008/08/former-director-of-uk-anti-drug-co.html

Free insurance

The Times reported on Monday the Government "has ruled out subsidies for nuclear." But it is not true.

In a written reply to me, released on 22 July, the last day of the Parliamentary session before recess, energy minister Malcolm Wicks explained why ministers have agreed to an insurance "indemnity" against claims deemed to be uninsurable being granted to the successful bidder to manage Sellafield (i.e. AMEC, with its partners, US engineering group URS and France's nuclear giant Areva) by asserting:

"Whilst the impact of any call on the proposed nuclear indemnity could be very high, there is only an extremely small possibility of the indemnity ever being used, and it is therefore not possible to put a meaningful financial value to the indemnity. The impossibility of quantifying the monetary value of the indemnity is the main reason that there is no commercially available insurance, and the reason an indemnity is needed. "

In an earlier written response to me, the energy minister revealed, "it would not be viable for any of the bidders [for the Sellafield management contract] to proceed without an indemnity because any fee earning benefits of the contract would be overwhelmed by the potential liabilities.

This is something AMEC and its commercial partners do not like to advertise. There is "big money" to be made in running Sellafield - £1.3 billion a year. And as Mr Brikho points out in
his interview, "UK-based energy companies can increase domestic and international revenues from $180 billion (£98.3 billion) now to $400 billion by 2030."

Why is it that these companies in the AMEC consortium are being encouraged to participate in such a lucrative money earner, but are totally unprepared to carry any of the future financial risk? Surely this is a matter that ought minimally to be debated in Parliament, before taxpayers are lumbered with the liabilities, and private operators awarded the very lucrative protected profits.

Oil or personal

Two national newspapers have picked up on the possibility that the Russia-Georgia clash is personal between the KGB educated Putin and the American educated Saakashvili.

The other explanation is oil. Georgia is a vital link between the Caspian Sea and the Turkish Mediterranean coast, and it is the route through which Europe receives some of its oil supplies.

“.... The most promising new source of world [energy] supplies is the Caspian region,
Which appears to contain the largest petroleum reserves discovered since the North
Sea,”

Wrote an American Commission in 2000. 

“This geopolitical crossroad, which includes Iran, Russia, and a number of newly independent states struggling with post-Soviet modernization and dangers of Islamic extremism, demands more attention by American policymakers.”

The greatest single investment project in the Caspian is the Baku-Tiblisi-Ceyhan crude oil pipeline (BTC). It starts at the Caspian Sea port of Baku (capital of Azerbaijan) and passes through Tibilisi (Georgia) to the deep water port of Ceyhan on  Turkey’s Mediterranean coast.   

Georgia’s domestic conflicts in South Ossetia, Ajaria and Abkhazia have given Russia the opportunity to intervene, and give it potential strategic control over the pipeline.   Azerbaijan also has its longstanding, devastating and intransigent dispute with Armenia over the enclave of Nagorny-Karabakh, both countries looking for support from the US. Oil, separatism and Russian fears of NATO on its border produce a potentially explosive mix.

What a shame the threat is to the genuine democracy of Georgia rather than the oppressive regimes in the other two Caucasus states. America has been feeble when strength was called needed. Russia is a growing menace. They will draw new confidence and strength from this crime. Their aim is to re-build the Soviet Empire.

Lucky for some

The soaring price of food is swelling the income of farmers. In the past two years grain farmers’ income has more than doubled.

Milk now fetches 26 pence per litre. This is eight pence more than a year ago and almost double what it fetched in 2001 when things were at their worst. Yesterday it was reported than land that was worth £3,000 an acre a year ago is selling for £9,000. It is judged to be a valuable investment.

The UK's total income from farming, including subsidies, rose to £2.54bn last year - an increase of 10.2%. Wheat and barley farmers enjoyed a windfall year in 2007, with the value of production up 44% as increased global demand and a lower harvest worldwide led to higher market prices. Beef heifers now fetch a "fat price" at auction of £2.20 a kilo - some £1200 to £1300 per animal - up sharply from £1.50 a year ago.

Farmers always find a cloud in every silver lining. Certainly some of their costs have increased. But this will be a very profitable year for the industry.

 Not that you will hear many of them saying that.

Comments

[Huw O'Sullivan]

I have no contact with farmers but feel it should be pointed out that price per litre was 22p in 1998, it did drop drastically between then and now, so you could say it is crawling out of the doldrums rather than that farmers are doing particularly well.
4p a litre higher ten years later doesn't exactly sound like price gouging.

http://www.fwi.co.uk/Articles/2008/06/20/110920/uk-milk-supply-can-recover-from-current-low.html

Of course then there's an article from last year which has the cost of production being around 25p a litre.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/money/main.jhtml?xml=/money/2007/09/02/cnmilk102.xml

For this year according to NFU estimates, the cost of production averages 28p per litre.

All that may explain 5-6% of farmers going out of business yearly.

Farmers are not the bad guys Paul.
It does feel as if you are picking on them sometimes, is it because your constituency is not rural?

[paulflynn]

Wrong Huw. I represent a fair number of farmers. These are favourable facts of farming prosperity that are relatively under - reported.
This week the FUW celebrated the collapse of an agreement that would have reduced starvation in the developing world. Farming is a powerful successful lobby that has shaped public opinion. That does not make their views correct.

Milk has been a problem area but has now improved. But it's been a bonanza time for grain farmers. I have long argued for virement of subsidies from grain farmers to those in mlk production.

Very few farmers go bankrupt. Many go out of farming and sell their land.

[John]

And as if to prove Juline Critchleys point

Home office spokesman "We have no intention of either decriminalising or legalising currently controlled drugs for recreational purposes.

"Drugs are controlled for good reason - they are harmful to health. Their control protects individuals and the public from the harms caused by their misuse."

and the Tories

"Drugs wreck lives, destroy communities and are a major cause of crime.

"The answer lies in robust policing and sentences to catch and deter the peddlers of drugs. We also need to establish a dedicated UK Border Police to stop drugs flowing into our porous borders"

THe usual twaddle from the main parties when told that their policies are useless and cause more damage than they attempt to stop. At least Transform had it right

"If you voted in the last election, you probably voted for prohibition. You voted to gift hundreds of billions of pounds to organised crime each year, to undermine the social and economic development of producer countries such as Colombia, Afghanistan as well as transit countries such as Guinea Bissau and Jamaica. You voted to double the amount of acquisitive crime in the UK and to double the prison population with it. Your "X" contributed to misery and degradation for millions of the most marginalised people on earth. Unless we all do something to change it, you will probably vote for prohibition next time too"

[greg]

Hello Paul

I appear to be a few days late on your 'Jolly Roger'/Saunders Lewis comment, however was inspired to google his name, and did appear to find a few disturbing things about him via this link:

http://books.google.com/books?id=uwWIhImk0zwC&pg=PA176&lpg=PA176&dq=saunders+lewis+english+evacuees&source=web&ots=irWfObJdlU&sig=L0hTNhuTbo8B1hd9x8mq0U76dN4&hl=en&sa=X&oi=book_result&resnum=3&ct=result

I would appreciate your comments on some of his apparent opinions!

The last person to speak Welsh in my family was my great-grandmother, so I can appreciate pride in preserving an ancient language, but it seems to be a fine line between this and a much more unpleasant form of national pride - possibly one that has made people step back from pride in Wales and a more moderate form of Welsh nationalism.

Regards

Greg

[PaulFlynn]

Thanks you Greg. That's was a good read and much of it is new to me. I was aware of the fashion among literary figures for the French far Right views in the 30s but I did not know that Yeats, Chesterton and Eliot were attracted to it.

Plaid was judged by many to be the Pope's Party and its progress was hampered by that in non-conformist Wales. They were many who were attracted to that cause in the turmoil of 30s politics.

This had very little to the eventual contribution of Saunders Lewis to literature and politics.

[PaulFlynn]

John, you could not make it up. Critchley makes a deadly accusation and the Home Office and the Tories confirm its full truth.

[greg]

Hello Paul

I spent some time in the East Anglia in the early 2000's, and a lot of what I was reading in the link sounded very much like what the 'white working class' were saying about Poles and Eastern Europeans who were starting to come over to do unpopular and poorly-paid jobs. I personally have a lot of respect for primates, but I don't think Saunders calling evacuees in Welsh Cafes 'Gorillas' was meant to be complimentary!

Depressingly the one thing that unites most people seems to be a dislike of difference and distrust of other cultures.

Regards

Greg

[PaulFlynn]

My memories of the thirties and forties are that racialism was universal and hatred of foreigners was unquestioned.

I was shocked by an incident in Newport recently. Open ugly racialism in an area where I least expected it.

But some of the things in this account do not match the Saunders Lewis that I knew well.