Paul Flynn - Read My Day

False Hopes raised

Cross-examining Ombudsman Ann Abrahams yesterday was a queasy experience.

She is very able, fluent and persuasive. But she is on a sticky wicket with her report of Equitable Life. In 2005 she said that she was not going to re-investigate the losses suffered by EL’s customers because she did not want to raise ‘false hopes.’

‘Isn’t that precisely what you’ve done?’ I asked her. My position is clear. Many of my constituents lost a great deal of money through the EL debacle. I will fight to get them compensated. Two members of the seven on the committee declared their own financial interests. Probably over 150 MPs have suffered losses.  But I am fearful that news of the Ombudsman’s new report has convinced large numbers that a bonanza is on the way.

Some believe they will get enough to pay them the sums they expected their pensions to pay 15 years ago. Sadly there is no chance of that. Nearly all pensions have lost 50% of their expected value because of market turbulence. EL pensions maturing this year are only a small amount less that those paid out to untroubled companies like Standard Life.

The only compensation that can be paid is that lost by incompetence and maladministration. A rough calculation of the proportion of blame would by EL 70%. EL’s auditors 10%, EL’s actuaries 10% and the regulators 10%. Ann Abrahams has no authority to report on anyone but the regulators. It would be totally unreasonable for the regulators to cough up the full compensation. It will come, of course, from the pockets of taxpayers. It would be grossly unfair if the taxpayers were saddled with providing free insurance for the customers of all failed companies that may have been reckless and incompetent.

No Government can land taxpayers with bills of £4 billion for commercial failures. If an appraisal is made of the regulators’ responsibility it is likely to be the 10% share or somewhere similar. The ‘False Hopes’ are alive and rampant on EL message boards.

I fear it will all end is disappointment.

Lembit's doom?

A fun evening on the Patrick Hannan's radio show Call to Order.

I was taken the place of the usual Labour contributor Wayne David. He has been promoted to the oblivion of junior ministerial office. My sparring partner was retiring Welsh LibDem leader Mike German.

Patrick and Mike were both eerily nervous about the coming Obama victory. No pollsters, since the Dewey election of the forties, have got a result so wrong that the Republicans would have a hope of victory. A pall of failure hangs over McCain and Palin.

Mike refused to say whom he voted for in the other presidential election for the Caudillo of the LibDems. His faint praise and body language suggest that Mike will be found weeping quietly in a corner if Estonia’s pride is elected. Lembit modestly describes himself as an ‘inspired’ person in his web message.

Do the party take seriously an MP who is heckled in the Commons with cuckoo noises? At the LibDem conference during the debate on housing, a subject that Lembit lead one, he was outside the hall parading on his motorised pogo stick.

He has invited ridicule with his love life and his relentless pursuit of the title of top media tart. He has ability and charm and certainly appeals to young voters. Best if he offers his services to Radio Two. I understand there is a vacancy there.

Oops

Heard at lunchtime on BBC Wales ‘If my friend was alive today, he would be turning in his grave.’

The Splendid Gwent Police publication Guardian has a signed editor note that starts, ‘ Gwent has it’s share…’ A case for the apostrophe police

Chartist Week

An an exciting week of  Chartist events begins of Saturday. November  4th is the 169th anniversary of the Chartist insurrection at Newport when at least 20 Chartists were killed.

Colin Thomas, prize winning film director, has dug into the TV archives to find footage of the chartist films he made in his early career.

 

On this forthcoming Saturday, he will be showing excerpts from films he made over twenty years ago for ITV, S4C and BBC about the Chartist Rising at Newport.   

The public will have the chance to see the re-enactment that he staged “all guns blazing” at Newport’s Westgate Hotel in 1989.   150 years earlier in 1839, more than twenty supporters of the People’s Charter died in this bloody confrontation between Chartist protesters and the army.   As well as the right to vote, the Chartists stood for free speech, opposing Government censorship and the imprisonment of their leaders charged with making ‘seditious’ speeches.

In 1978, Colin Thomas resigned from his position at the BBC over their censorship of a documentary he was making about Northern Ireland and to ensure his own ‘take’ on events, he became an independent film maker.   Three times BAFTA Wales winner of the Best Documentary/Drama-Doc Award, he recently won honours at the Celtic Film and TV Festival for “Border Crossing; the Journey of Raymond Williams”.

His Newport audience will sample his ground breaking ‘The Dragon has Two Tongues’, an ITV series applauded by The Times newspaper for “its uniquely provocative two tongued approach to history”.  Through the vigorous contentions of Professor Gwyn Alf Williams and Wynford Vaughan Thomas, the film confirms that the historical past is not a single story, but a matter of debate.

At St. Mary’s Institute on Saturday November 1st, Colin Thomas will be running extracts from "The Dragon has Two Tongues", "Cyrchfan Cyfiawnder" ("Destination Justice") and "Cut Me Loose".

Also showing will be the newly made film 'Riot of a Time?'   It's about Sylvia Taylor's ancestor Wright Beatty, a Newport Chartist who was one of the crowd fired on by the soldiers at the Westgate Hotel in 1839.   Accused of firing a gun at the window where the Mayor was standing with the soldiers, he was sentenced to three year’s hard labour.

The film, made by two University lecturers, David Mayer (University of Glamorgan) and Les James (University of Wales, Newport), shows Sylvia Taylor telling her family story to local children at Newport Museum.

For further information, contact Les James 029 20613359 or 07949909548

History Professor to reveal Severnside Chartist plot

A Welsh born historian at Staffordshire University has unearthed records that show the Welsh chartists, who marched on Newport in November 1839, were not acting alone.  Professor Owen Ashton, a native of Builth, has discovered that magistrates in the West of England were convinced that many of the unemployed weavers in their own localities planned to join the protest.  

This major reassessment of the chartists’ intentions will be revealed in his lecture at Newport on Saturday November 1st.   The evidence that Professor Ashton has gathered suggests that if the guns of the 45th regiment had not repelled the armed protesters at the Westgate hotel at Newport, both sides of the Severn would have erupted into a full scale rebellion against the government in London. 

One of Britain’s foremost historians of the chartist movement, Prof Ashton has recently written a study of the ‘Western Vindicator’, a chartist newspaper published in Bath by Henry Vincent.  On the night that the Chartists of the valleys set out on their fatal encounter with the authorities, Vincent was serving a prison sentence at Monmouth for a seditious speech that he had made  much earlier in the year of 1839 at Newport.

The chartists demanded a six point plan, the People’s Charter, and five of these, including the right of all men to vote in elections and secret voting, are the basis of our parliamentary system today. 

The lecture forms part of the city’s celebratory weekend, which is the brainchild of a band of local volunteers.   Pat Drewett, committee secretary, commented that this year’s wide ranging events have been made possible ‘by the willingness of so many organisations and individuals in the City to get involved and the backing of a small grant from the National Lottery Fund.”

Newport Chartist Weekend 1st – 4th November 2008

On the 4th November 1839 thousands of men from across south Wales marched on Newport. Over twenty died in this protest to seek the vote for all – and three of the leaders were convicted of treason and exiled to Tasmania.

Join in and Celebrate the pioneers of democracy

Saturday 1st Nov        Chartist Convention
09.30am start at Newport Museum and Library
10.30am guided ‘chartist walk’ to the Westgate Hotel
11.30am – 4.30pm continues at St Mary’s Church, Stow Hill.
Explore the Chartist stories – Programme includes: ‘Chartist Trials’ documents and artefacts on display; a guided walk; talks by leading chartist historian Prof Owen Ashton and by people who have discovered chartist ancestors; films about the Chartists – old and new.   
Entrance is FREE, but as last year’s event was a ‘sell out’ please book tel 01633 414859 (Rosalin). Lunch is available (bread and soup).

Sunday 2nd Nov        Chartist Coach Tour Knowledgeable guides will take us around sites in south east Wales connected with the Chartist Movement – such as Blaenavon, Bedwellty House and Blackwood.
Departs St Woolos Cathedral 9.30am.    Returns 5.30pm.
Tickets £7 per person Contact HERIAN to book 01685 723968

Tuesday 4th Nov        Chartist Remembrance
A group of children from Newport will retrace the steps of the Chartists down Stow Hill to the Westgate Hotel 1.30pm.

At 6.30pm - annual commemoration at the Chartist memorial stone in the churchyard of St Woolos Cathedral.

A rebel without applause

The Greenest of all MPs Alan Simpson will be the guest speaker at the Chartist Dinner in Newport on Friday November 7th. 

He is one of my main parliamentary heroes because of his brilliant presentation of environmental issues. Eloquent, serious and extremely funny and entertaining. He has put his convictions into action at his own home.

He has converted his home into his new energy efficient house in the Lace Market, central Nottingham. It has a microchip power unit, which he believes is the way homes need to be heated. ‘I'm the only MP who has built a real green home’, he said.

The Independent’s Colin Brown paid a tribute to him.

'Alan Simpson is an MP who stuck to his principles. He gives politicians a good name.

For Alan Simpson, the turning point came with the birth of his daughter Elie, 13 months ago. After carving out a successful career as a familiar and colourful figure on the Labour backbenches, enough was enough.'

The MP arrived at a stark conclusion: if his daughter were to enjoy a secure future, more would have to be done to combat global warming. Disillusioned with an increasingly ineffective Parliament, he decided Westminster was no longer capable of listening to his demands for more radical action.

Tony Blair and Gordon Brown, the frequent recipients of Mr. Simpson's critical tongue, may weep few tears at his departure at the next election, but many believe Parliament will be a poorer place. And for those who fear politics is increasingly dominated by spin and is bereft of principle, Mr. Simpson's decision may offer some reassurance.

The 58-year-old has become a fully paid-up Member of Parliament's awkward squad, the band of irrepressible trouble-makers on both sides of the House who refuse to be silenced by whips and are prepared to sacrifice careers for principles.

Alan summed up his philosophy: "I never went into Parliament to have a career. I went in to change the world. I'm leaving because I still want to change the world, and I don't think you can do that in this Parliament. My worry is that it has become a comfort zone in which MPs are paid more and more to stand for less and less.

Previous speakers at the Newport Chartist dinner have included the late Tony Banks, Rhodri Morgan, Bob Marshall Andrews and Stephen Pound. I am sure that Alan’s speech will be as inspiring and entertaining as those of all his predecessors.

Of his decision to leave parliament he said, “I haven't got anything lined up. I'm giving up the security of my MPs' salary to do something for the security of my daughter's future. The Stern Report said it would cost one per cent of GDP to bring about the scale of change we need to affect climate change. Instead, we are stuck with a series of Mickey Mouse measures that are either short-term and insufficient, or hopelessly misdirected or dishonest." He may have a more optimistic view after yesterday’s Climate Change Bill.

He has been described as "the rebel without applause". We will put that right on November 7th in Newport. The annual event is a pleasant social occasion and includes a very enjoyable dinner. Some tickets are still available on 01633 262348.

Crowded bandwagon

MPs demean themselves by elbowing their way through the mob to leap onto popular bandwagons.

Monmouth MP David Davies inevitably has thrust his view forward that he thinks Russell Brand and Jonathan Ross should be sacked. Yawn.

About 95% of the country thinks so too. But David always has had an impressive command of the obvious. Why bother wasting energy pushing against an open door? David must find some more productive topics to adopt.

 One newspaper published this friendly picture of David on his charm offensive to the Black Police Association. He engagingly told them that they were as bad as the Apartheid regime in South Africa. The audience was entranced by his delightful expression and his heart-warming advice.

No surge

Today’s debate on Afghanistan had a powerful message to the Government.

Views expressed from all but the LibDems were critical of NATO policy and were firmly opposed to a surge of British troops. New troops will inflame local opinions and provide more targets for the Taliban.
Minister Bob Ainsworth made a reasonable fist of trying to reply to the debate. Most ministers don’t.  He took me on and said the Afghan War had protected us against terrorism.

He allowed me to intervene and say that I agreed with the original invasion's justification to weaken the Taliban and destroy the safe haven for El Qaeda. This was intended to weaken their ability to plan terrorists’ attacks. But tragically even the 121  deaths of heroic British soldiers have not achieved those aims. The Taliban now control half the country, are stronger than ever and El Qaeda have a safer haven in Pakistan. The terrorist threat has not diminished.

LibDems Bob Russell said that the visiting Head of the Provincial government of Helmand Province was well pleased by the results of the Nato presence. I intervene and asked whether the visitor was ‘well pleased’ by the fact that the Taliban now control three-quarters of his province. Bob said he had not raised that with him.

There is real hope that the cerebral David Milliband, General Petraeus and Prseident Obama will create a new peace strategy based on negotiations. Three quality brains are better than the present no-brainer policy.

 We must stop wasting lives in a war of futility, consolidate the gains made, end the bloodshed and bring stability to Afghanistan and Pakistan.

Tory to the rescue

The Government has now publicly confessed that Parliament had no chance to discuss a new subsidy to nuclear power. Former Minister Malcolm Wicks admits that he was wrong to tell Edward Leigh, Chair of Commons Public Accounts Committee,  that he had put the document in the library when his officials failed to do so.

The Guardian writer David Henke writes on his blog that the government has just landed us with the potential for an unlimited bill fo any nuclear accident or leak from the decomissioning of Sellafield for years to come.

"In a deal that will thrill private investors, Malcolm Wicks, in one of his last acts as energy minister, caved in to a United States-led private consortium's demands that it will be freed from any liability should anything go wrong for the next 17 years whilst it decommissions Sellafield."

The consortium – American company URS Washington, French firm Areva and the UK company Amec – who stand to make hundreds of millions of pounds of profit from the initial £6.5bn contract – insisted that the taxpayers pay the bill for any leak or accident, even if it is caused by errors and mismanagement by the firms themselves.’

The consortium will make huge profits on this £6.5 billion contract. The taxpayer will pick up the bill for future problems The minister used emergency procedures to rush through the indemnity
(scrapping rules that would have made the firms responsible for the first £140m of liabilities) as parliament went into summer recess – shortening the time for consultation for commercial reasons to meet a timetable set by the companies. Only two people saw it, Edward Leigh agreed to waive any objection and rushed it through.

All the excuses have now been dropped by ministers and civil servants. They now admit that they broke the parliamentary rules and denied me and all other MPs to right to challenge this awful deal. Today I have asked the Speaker for time for a debate next week. He is likely to agree.  I am especially grateful to Edward Leigh who is clearly angry by the way that he has been used.

He says in a letter placed in the Commons library today that he passed the deal but thought that other MPs would have a chance to comment on it. He describes the failure to provide them with the opportunity as "unacceptable" and wants the department to go through the exercise again.

David Henke concludes

`’It is often said that bad things flourish when good men are silent. Edward
Leigh, Peter Luff and Malcolm Wicks are essentially decent human beings.
But their collective failure to do the right thing at the time brings both
government and parliament into disrepute. Edward Leigh has partly retrieved
his position by taking a strong stance over the ministry's failings. But
he MPs and the minister should hang their heads in shame for failing to
safeguard the British public.”

Adult Parliament

Labour went Green tonight and all other parties followed.

Only 5 MPs voted against the brave Climate Change Bill. It is everything that enviromentalists demanded. The five dissenters were led by Phillip Davies who is a global warming denier and an opponent of the smoking ban. 

The numbers voted for the world's first national committment  to have legally binding targets. A committee will be set it to ensured compliance. I was one of the 50 Labour MPs who signed Elliot Morley's amendment to included shipping and aircraft in the programe. This was a sensible step that avoided a revolt.

This decision should lead the way and other nations will follow our example.

Croeso Ifan

 Great news that Jessica Morden MP has given birth to a son Ifan.

She already has a daughter Mali aged two. I understand that all is going very well. Jessica has continued working until a very short time ago.

In the sad days of the past, many women MPs had the bleak choice of career or family. Very few combined the two. Then the average woman MP was tougher and more able that the average male MP. They had to be to overcome the obstacles that were put in their way. In our more civilised times, successful female MPs can manage the two jobs very efficiently.

In the year that Jessica had Mali she voted more often that two other Gwent MPs. Members now have staff to cover the absence of the MP from the office. Hi-tech also is a boon and allows MPs to do much of their work from remote locations. It was possible for me to continue my work last year for the two days I was in hospital.

My office in Newport West is in daily contact with Jessica’s team in a very happy harmonious cooperation in our work for the city. Our relationships with our AMs Rosemary Butler and John Griffiths could not be better.

Well done! Tonight I may raise a tiny glass of medicinal champagne to Ifan, Jessica and Sion.

Drugs sense

Great presentation in Lisbon on drugs.

 It is the home of the science-based European Monitoring Centre on Drugs and Drug Addiction. Before 1995, there was no independent accurate statistics of drugs deaths. Now their annual report is eagerly expected.

They have cut through the dense undergrowth of ignorance, scare mongering and prejudice that have long distorted the truth on drugs. Policy has often been evidence-free and driven by media hysteria.

Today we had the facts delivered by two senior scientists from EMCDDA, Felguirerras e Souza and Paul Griffiths. It was refreshing to hear the unbiased statistics of the promising trends in our continent and a few discouraging ones.

Portuguese MP Mme Roseira’s personality dominated the meeting. She was our host and provided a sound summary of the opportunities and dangers on the financial turmoil.

A Russian MP said that the sales of Marxist Leninist textbooks are soaring in the Russian Federation. Our splendid chair Christine MacCafferty said perhaps it’s time to dust down her copy of Das Kapital. Last time she did not get beyond the first page and could not make head or tail of it.

 Mme Roseira was modest about her country’s great drugs achievements. Portugal depenalised drugs in 2001. All parties are now agreed on he policy. Drugs deaths have been halved and huge savings have been made in court, police and jail costs.

They still have a small number of drugs users, and they tend to be intensive users. There is no silver bullet. But the total use has been dramatically reduced to very low levels.

The lesson is obvious.

Sellafield

MP's anger as state bears cost of any Sellafield disaster

• David Hencke, Westminster correspondent
• The Guardian,
• Monday October 27 2008
• Article history

Taxpayers have been left with unlimited liability amounting to billions of pounds should there be a repeat of a nuclear accident at Sellafield under a deal signed with a US-led consortium which takes over the decommissioning of the waste facility from November 24. The indemnity even covers accidents and leaks that are the consortium's fault.

A row has broken out in parliament over the government's decision to sign the deal after it was revealed that the former energy minister, Malcolm Wicks, appeared to have broken Treasury guidelines by failing to inform MPs properly with the result that no backbencher could object.

The former minister - now the government's climate change envoy - rushed the deal through parliament just before the summer recess. There was no ministerial statement, no document detailing the proposals placed in the House of Commons library and no opportunity for MPs to raise questions.

He used emergency procedures claiming that the consortium, made up of the American company URS Washington, French firm Areva and the UK company Amec, had threatened to walk away unless Britain waived its rights to charge companies the first £140m for the costs of any accident. The contract is worth £6.5bn over five years and could be renewed for a further 12 years. The minister said the deal had to be completed by the beginning of October before parliament reconvened.

Wicks consulted only the chairs of two parliamentary committees, ignoring Treasury guidance that he should issue a statement to MPs and place the details in the House of Commons library.

His arguments persuaded Edward Leigh, chairman of the Commons public accounts committee, who waived his right to object because of the short timescale. Peter Luff, chairman of the business and regulatory reform select committee, had left it to Leigh to respond.

Both MPs were under the impression that other MPs could object because details of the deal had been placed in the House of Commons library. They were not put there until October 14, 75 days after the time any MP could raise questions.

Now Paul Flynn, Labour MP for Newport West, who raised the failure properly to inform parliament with the speaker, is expected to be granted a debate on the matter. He said yesterday: "This is an outrage. The taxpayer has now been left with an unlimited liability while the consortium will make hundreds of millions of pounds of profit on the deal."

A spokesperson for the Department of Energy and Climate Change said: "There is only an extremely small possibility of the indemnity ever being used and so the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority assessed that the benefits of engaging the contractor would far outweigh the small risk that the indemnity may be called upon. Due to an oversight by the department there was a delay in sending this minute to the House library."

Where am I?

A travelling day today in preparation for an important meeting tomorrow.

 I did not have a proper holiday this year, so I have taken a day off before the meeting.

Below are a few pictures I took today.

 Anyone guess where I am?

 

 

 

 

 

   

Self-inflicted sleaze

British Politics is destroying its hard-won and deserved reputation.

The truth is that British Politics is second to Scandinavian politics in being squeaky-clean, equal to New Zealand and Canada and superior to almost all other countries in the world. That is not the popular impression but it is the truth.

The core problem is that politicians believe they need money to win elections. They do not. We all have free coverage on radio and television. Most voters are influenced by the media. Few change their mind because of party propaganda leaflets that are largely un-read.

But parties keep sniffing around dodgy billionaires for cash handouts. It’s demeaning and invites corruption. Today we hear that the Conservative Party has accepted more than £57,000 in cash donations from a British businessman who oversees the assets of a controversial Ukrainian billionaire embroiled in a battle over the control of gas supplies to a large part of Western Europe.

A series of donations over the last two years to Conservative Central Office were made through Scythian Ltd, a company listed at Companies House as “dormant”.

Labour should not have taken money 10 years ago from Bernie Eccleston. They were right to pay it back. The Tony candidate in Carmarthen has had a very questionable donation from an American Hedge fund firm. Lord Ashcroft's money is still dubious. There has never been an explanation for the Tory Midland Industry Council which was used to launder cash to the Tories from shy donors.

There is an answer. Already national funding is propping Tory, Lib-Dem, and Nationalist parties. Doubling this would free parties from dependence on outside bodies. Parties should come to their senses and remove this dependence that is making cynicism endemic in British politics.

All that is a needed is bit of shared common sense.

Panic time

You could not make it up.

McCain accuses Obama of supporting Bush’s economic policies. As Obama says McCain disagreed with Bush’s policies so much that he stuck it to him 10% of the time. For the other 90% of the time he voted for Bush’s policies.

It’s bizarre hearing McCain denouncing Obama because he want to ‘redistribute wealth. To take it from some people to give to others.' That’s taking  from the rich to give to the poor, a sound principle of taxation.  What’s wrong with that?

McCain word stumbles are repaeted millions of times on the Internet. His hideous mistakes and abject confusion will haunt him for the rest of his life. Saying that he agreed with nasty comments made about one venue baffled the audience. Trying to correct the error entangled him in an embarrassing babble.

Sarah Palin has become a national joke with her spending, ignorance and the charges of mis-use of her office. Only the Western Mail believes that the result will be a dead-heat. Even McCain’s team need to be re-hypnotised into believing that he has a chance a victory.

There comes a point when the sensible action is to panic and give up. For McCain’s supporters that time is now.

Legislative Incontinence

Surely you can do better than this, Civil Servants?

I accused the UK Government of covering up a deal that will land taxpayers with a multi-billion- pound liability in the event of a nuclear accident while a private consortium will reap the profits. Yesterday a civil servant fessed up to the mistake is a telephone call to me. His feeble excuse was that they had some agency staff in at the time. Today’s excuses are even weaker with this statement:

“An indemnity was necessary to ensure that the competition to clean up Sellafield attracted the largest number of world-class bidders as none of the bidders would have been able or willing to continue without one. There is only an extremely small possibility of the indemnity ever being used..”

You cannot have it both ways. If the risk is tiny why would the bidders withdraw from the contract rather than shoulder the risk themselves? The successful bidder said an accident could bankrupt his company. It’s only the taxpayer mugs that will pay for the risks. After 60 years of vast subsidies to the nuclear industry, it has rewarded us with a £93 billion clean-up bill. His next excuse is even worse.

“Due to the urgent commercial nature of the process and the timing of summer recess, it was not possible to lay the Departmental Minute in the House.”

That is fantasy. The process by which they ‘lay the Minute in the House’ is send it by e-mail to the Library database. The civil servant who called me yesterday confessed that he did not know how the database worked.  No time to send e-mail is a preposterous excuse. It would have taken all of 10 seconds.

This is a clear example of how the Government’s own policy that all forms of energy should be treated on an equal basis is being broken. Nuclear energy has always been very expensive, largely because of the cost of dealing with the waste. If there were a nuclear accident at some time in the future, taxpayers would have a liability that could run into billions of pounds. It is completely unacceptable that a contract of this kind should be entered into by the Government without any kind of parliamentary scrutiny.

The Government doesn’t want the true cost of nuclear power to get any public attention. The waste produced at Sellafield has to be treated, but taxpayers deserve to know that while the profits from treating it will go into these three companies, two of which are foreign, it is the taxpayers who will be left with the liability of having to pay up if there is an accident.

The plot thickens

Legislative incontinence

The Daily Mail’s Quentin Letts is the best commentator on my Select Committee. This morning he commented on our visitation yesterday from the four wise men with details that I could not record. He wrote: -

"Mr Raynsford deplored the way ministers are shuffled so often - sometimes before they have had time to master a brief. He himself did four years as Construction minister but his successors have lasted 'two years, two years, one year, one year, seven months and seven months' respectively.

How reasonable these men sounded. Newport's Paul Flynn (Lab) said they were unrecognisable from the 'automatons' they had been when in office.

Mr Blunkett said he had only been trying 'to counteract the Roy Jenkins view of the world that you can do a three-day week and hover above the issues'. Translation: I wasn't a lazy swine like Woy. Mr Clarke said that in recent years there had been 'an infantilisation of the public' (voters thinking politicians can solve all their problems). In Mr Clarke's day ministers had started to use the Government for campaigning purposes only in the last six months of a Parliament.

There were too many ministers. Some had little to do. Whitehall was too concerned with responding to media controversies. Mr Flynn said it sounded as though much of our policy was 'hysteria-driven’. Not quite, thought Mr Lilley, but he admitted that his views on drugs (he is broadly pro some liberalisation) meant that he would never be asked to be a Home Office minister."

The issues are fascinating and the committee will produce a rip-roaring report. The churning of ministers from one half-understood brief to another is crazy. It’s meant to keep MPs happy. Someone deserves a turn as a minister or needs silencing because they are being troublesome on the backbenches.

David Blunkett worked too hard and tried to micro-manage his department unlike the leisurely hands off approach of Roy Jenkins. That suggests that David’s doom was accelerated by over-work.

The myth that there is a new remedy law for every ill is modern neurosis identified by Ken Clarke. But that’s the way politicians are hard-wired. In answer to crises dogs bark, babies cry, politicians legislate. If only politicians could be dowsed down with a bucket of common sense now and again their worries might be cooled. The General Election is still 18 months away and by-elections do not change anything. End the fretting and carry on governing.

The telling confession by Peter Lilley, that he would never be a Home Office Minister because he is in possession of an intelligent view on drugs, is revealing. The ignorant amateurs run governments. Peter wrote a splendid booklet on drugs that I congratulated on at this session. Yet if Peter’s policy is enacted it would reduce all drug harm, save lives and money and cut the pressure on prisons.

Our inquiry is named ‘Good Government”. Our four wise men painted a depressing picture of multi-party Bad Government.

Mutant Club

Well done Pedigree Chum in ditching their sponsorship of the odious Kennel Club.

They have encouraged the breeding of deformed dogs to meet the demands of vanity and fashion. One of Crufts' top winners was a dog crippled with inbred deformities. Even the word ‘pedigree’ is degraded.  Mongrels with mixed genes have full active healthy lives. Pedigree dogs have been weakened by the greed and stupidity of breeders with the collaboration of the Kennel Club and breed organisations.

The Kennel Club should change its name to Mutants R Us.

Automatons humanised.

While they were ministers the spoke like lobotomised automatons. Today they were agreeable, intelligent and very amusing.

Four extinct volcanoes appeared before my select committee today.  Ken Clarke described himself as an ‘elder statesman’ then announced that he had not written his autobiography because he is in ‘mid-career’.

Nick Raynsford was passionate about the plethora of initiatives that Governments produce. David Blunkett promised ruefully that he will not be writing another chapter of his autobiography. Peter Lilley had a list of reforms, which, mercifully, he did not sing to us.

Ministerial office inhibited all of them. There they spoke in defensive platitudes crafted not to upset the voters or disturb their climb up the greasy poll.

All lamented the deterioration of Government decisions because of the need to feed the monster of the 24-hour media. Governments long for 24-hour adulation to be drip-fed into their veins. Government often appears to be a news conference that is in permanent session.

How things have change since the days of Stafford Cripps. He heard that a minister planned to increase the cheese ration a few days before an election to gain political advantage. Cripps said such a person is not fit to be a minister.

In both parties now, anyone who does not put political priorities first is judged to be unfit to be a minister.

This was a great session that I will return to when I get the transcript.

This is an outrage.

I raised this yesterday and a ministerial apology is called for and a reopening of a consultaion period that never was. Two telephone calls this afternoon from a civil servant. The first told me I wrong. The second confirmed that I was right. I raised the issue in a point of order in the chamber,

Paul Flynn (Newport, West) (Lab): On a point of order, Mr. Speaker. May I raise a matter of the greatest importance affecting your role as the defender of the interests of Members of Parliament? A decision has been taken and, sadly, Members have been denied an opportunity to comment on it. It was a decision to give an indemnity to an American company against future accidents that could cost the taxpayers multi-billion pound amounts. Information was given only to the Chairs of two Select Committees, while the minute informing Members arrived at the House only last week, 75 days after the date that was laid down for us to comment on it. That means there is no opportunity for us to comment on what appears to be a reversal of Government policy in subsidising the nuclear industry.

Mr. Speaker: What the hon. Gentleman raises is not a matter for me, but I understand his concern. It sounds to me like a good subject for an Adjournment debate, and I am quite sure he would be more than capable of informing the House of his concerns if such a debate were granted by Mr. Speaker.

To press home the point, I have also tabled this Early Day Motion. As the Speaker suggested, the best way to sort this out is through a special debate. I will apply for one.

EDM 2321

PARLIAMENTARY OVERSIGHT OF SELLAFIELD INDEMNIFICATION
22.10.2008

Flynn, Paul

That this House notes that when the Government decided to provide indemnification against insurance claims following nuclear accident at the Low-level Waste Repository at Drigg, for the new American management company, the then Minister for Energy published a written statement in Hansard of 27th February 2008 and the associated Minute was placed in the Library to allow 14 sitting days for objections from hon. Members; contrasts this open procedure with the approach adopted for a similar insurance indemnification for the new private sector management company for Sellafield, Nuclear Management Partners, when no written statement was placed before Parliament but instead, the then Minister for Energy wrote on 14th July 2008 to the chairmen of the Committee on Public Accounts and Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform Committee, enclosing a copy of the Minute setting out the proposed arrangements and stating that a copy of the Minute would be placed in the Library; further notes that this Minute arrived in the Library on 14th October, more than 75 days after the period for hon. Members to object officially elapsed; believes it is unacceptable for hon. Members to be denied the opportunity to comment on this Minute, the effect of which is to privatise the profits of the Sellafield management contract leaving the potentially multi-billion pound liabilities with taxpayers; declines to give approval to the proposed indemnification arrangements; and calls upon the Government to reopen the period in which hon. Members may signify objections to Government guarantees for which no statutory authority exists.

Absent rage

An entertaining letter from Tory MP makes some preposterous claims. It was sent to all members of the Economic Committee of the British-Irish Body. Spluttering with misplaced anger on a report on Renewables Stephen O’Brien rages


"I do not believe that this report has, or can have, any credibility if it continues in this pusillanimous vein in trying to push nuclear to one side. We need to resolve that it is renewable or not. If not I can have nothing to do with this report and will not be a party to it. I do not approve the report in its present form. If others wish to proceed and can secure a majority for it then I must be recorded as a dissenting member. If that also means that I am asked to resign from the Committee I shall do so on the explicit grounds that it is defying all reason and evidence to deny nuclear an equal place within the discussion on renewables. It is playing with semantics to think that just saying that the title of the report is renewable energy not including nuclear is to duck the necessary debate."

Regards
Stephen O'Brien

As one of the Chairs of the Committee I have replied to Stephen.

‘The committee gave your letter all the attention it deserves. Nuclear power was not part of the report because it is not renewable. It depends on nuclear ore, which is a finite resource. Also, generating nuclear power is illegal in Ireland.

We will have to be stoical about your threat to resign from the Committee. Your loss will be bearable because you have not attended any of the six meetings on this inquiry or the weekend plenary where it was unanimously approved. Indeed no one could recall any meeting of the Assembly that you have attended.

We look forward to your attending your first meeting.’

Afghan millionaires
How much more will the British public stand?

There is a backlog of inquests into the deaths of our brave soldiers in Afghanistan. Today’s verdict was especially painful. Wiltshire coroner David Masters said the failure to fit Hercules planes with explosion suppressant foam was a factor in the tragedy. Nine RAF personnel and one soldier died when the RAF Hercules aircraft was shot down by enemy fire in 2005.

Many more future inquests will hear of similar failings. More families will feel ‘let down’ and their grief will be intensified. More questions will be asked on the futile sacrifice of young British lives in a mission impossible.

What is heartbreaking is that for every British soldier killed another Afghan becomes a millionaire. Most are in Kabul, many are in Government, some are relatives of President Karzai. The truth will come out and the hopelessness of this war will be apparent.

Come on Gordon. You know that we have passed a tipping point. Forget a surge in troops. It would more targets for the Taliban. Start a peace strategy now.

Weird Mail

The Western Mail today had the weirdest forecast on the Presidential election. It reads “Next US President may not be known until 10 days after election”

It quotes someone who Martin Shipton believes is a ‘Leading Welsh Pundit’ (LWP).

‘The margin between Senator Obama and the Republican candidate Senator John McCain could be so close in such states that votes from Americans overseas could decide the outcome’ says LWP.

“Current polls suggest that not only could the overseas vote make a difference in some of the key battleground states, but in Ohio and Florida where polls indicate a statistical dead heat, the impact of this difference will not be known until November 14.” promises LWP

This Minor Welsh Pudit says ‘Cobblers.  The most recent polls is these two states show Obama leading  51-44  in Florida  and 49-42 in Ohio. DEAD HEAT?

In North Carolina, some 214,000 people cast their ballot on the first two days of early voting, with registered Democrats making up 62% of the number compared with 22% registered Republicans. Meanwhile, a new opinion poll by the Pew Research Center suggests Mr Obama has increased his national lead over rival John McCain in the past month to 14 points, with 52% to his 38%.

I attended a meeting of British Democrats abroad recently. I asked them if they knew of the LWP who claims to be handling the overseas campaign for Obama. No-one had heard of him.

A friendly tip, Martin. Get another pundit. I’ll wager my forecast of the result of a clear Obama win against your pundit’s forecast of a dead heat to be determined by overseas votes.

Go for minor pundits, next time.