Paul Flynn - Read My Day

Swiss Sense

Voters in Switzerland today backed a change in health policy that would provide prescription heroin to addicts. Final results from the national referendum showed 68% of voters supported the plan.

The scheme, where addicts inject the drug under medical supervision at a clinic, began in Zurich 14 years ago before spreading across the country. This is great step forward is using health remedies rather than the failed policies of arrest and jail.

The policy already has had positive results - getting long-term addicts out of Switzerland's once notorious "needle parks" and reducing drug-related crime. Forgotten here is that this was our policy in the UK b before 1971. Heroin addicts had medical heroin prescribed to them from the NHS. It was clean, pure and a known strength. There was no need for addicts to resort to crime to get their fix.

It was very successful. There were fewer than a 1,000 addicts and virtually no drug deaths or drug crime. The convention that I am pressing Europe to adopt will included prescribed heroin as a practical ambition to cut drug harm.

One prohibitionist buffoon on Radio Five Live this morning attacked the Swiss ‘needle parks’. Where has he been? They disappeared years ago. All the Swiss anti-drug measures produce outcomes than ours in the UK.

We should follow the Swiss lead.

Poverty choice

Some more ugly pension chickens have come home to roost.

In 1988 Prime Minister Thatcher answered an oral question of mine on the floor of the Commons with a ‘no’ and a sting in the tale, ‘The Hon Gentleman is a socialist and therefore against choice.’ The choice I was opposing was the con that the Tories were foisting on an unsuspecting public. In the belief that Private is always better than Public, the Government was campaigning to persuade people to abandon their safe good value occupational pensions and jumped into the gamble of personal pensions.

Millions moved out of their safe pensions. Banks, Insurance companies, and salespersons made small, and large fortunes, in commissions and charges. At least six million pensions were mis-sold.

Funded occupational pensions were – and still are – the best bet as final salary pensions. Personal pensions depend to a greater extent on the vagaries of the stock market. There was manic optimism in the eighties that the stock market values would always rise.  Many pensioners with maturing policies are now doomed to pensions well below their expectations.

Many of these people were conned out of occupational schemes that are now paying far higher rates. The ‘choice’ the Tories promoted in the eighties is now impoverishing millions of today’s pensioners.

Perhaps they will say ‘sorry.’

Real scroungers

Hats off to the European Commission. They have complained that drug companies are blocking or delaying the entry of cheaper generic medicines into the EU, pushing up medicine bills.

Their actions cost EU healthcare providers 3bn euros ($3.9bn; £2.5bn) in savings between 2000 and 2007, it said. It added that drug firms used legal action and multiple patents to stop rivals getting to market.

The Pharmas trot out their usual nonsense. They said the "perfectly lawful" measures were justified to protect investment in research and development. Sure. What they do not say is that they spend more on marketing their over-priced products than they spend on research.

"Market entry of generic companies and the development of new and more affordable medicines is sometimes blocked or delayed, at significant cost to healthcare systems, consumers and taxpayers," said Competition Commissioner Neelie Kroes. The Commission revealed that innovators filed multiple applications to stop generic drugs getting to market - in one case, there were 1,300 patents for a single drug.

The Commission could impose large fines on drug companies if they have engaged in unfair practices. Enough words Neelie.

Let’s have some action.

Farming for subsidies

Obama is on the trail of millionaire farmers who are getting fat farm subsidies. A large number of US farmers who currently benefit from federal subsidies already have incomes of over $1 million yearly. 

Between 2003 and 2006, more than 2,700 people, benefiting from a gross incomes in excess of $2,5 million, received some $49 million from the federal government. Apparently the US also paid $1.1 billion to 17,000 dead people, for 6 years.

The system here has no restrictions on paying income support for millionaires. 1,647 farm subsidy recipients got more than £150,000 in 2006-07.

A Scottish dairy farmer has caused a political uproar after it was revealed that he is to receive £1 million a year in farm subsidies: nine times more than the subsidy entitlement for the milk his cows produce.

 William Hamilton (and Sons) of Meldrum Farm, Blairdrummond, Stirling, is the first Scottish farm to receive a single year payment of more than a million pounds (€1.47 million). The new single farm payment scheme pays farmers on the amount of land they own. Producing crops is irrelevant. They can stay in bed all day and still get the handouts.

 

Even better they can SELL their farm subsidy entitlements to investors - who may never have set foot on a farm

At a recent public auction of farm subsidy entitlements in Scotland an investor paid  £562.82 for a subsidy entitlement that is worth £306 a year indefinitely.

 Under EU regulations, only someone classified as a farmer can buy the right to receive subsidies, but to be classified officially as a farmer, people need only hold a lease on a minimum of 1.7 acres for ten months of the year, and never need to visit it.

Scottish landowners are now leasing out vast tracts of rocky highland for as little as £5 an acre a year, so that investors can claim to be farmers. For each acre you lease, you can buy annual subsidies averaging £100 an acre, but which can rise to over £1,000 an acre.

Still 40% of the EU budget is spent on wasteful single payments. At a time when tottering industry is in dire need of a helping hand, this is a chronic mis-use of money.

Rugby medicine

A doctor I met last night at a Fairtrade Wine and Cheese event  told me that the mood of the Welsh nation is improved by Welsh rugby victories. 'When Wales win,' he told me' I know I have a quiet week ahead in my surgery.'

Today's glorious victory over Australia certainly lifted my sense of well being. The emerged new stars have world class talent. Wales's number one passion is enjoying  a new Spring. This is a great team that can put up another strong challenge in the home internationals.

I think the doctor may be in for a quiet few months next year.

Charitable

On a past blog I was critical of MPs Richard Caborn and Ian McCartney for taking sums of more than £70,000  (Caborn)  and £100,000 (McCartney) from firms bidding for a nuclear contract.

My item named ‘Cash for Comrades’ recently has had some publicity in the Daily Mail. Ian McCartney has written to my select committee pointing out that all the money he receives goes to charity.

This was certainly not made clear at the time. Now I have the information, I am happy to pass on the updated news that a worthy charity is benefiting

Innocent, until proved Labour

Compare two examples of police excess.

Labour aide, Ruth Turner's home was raided by Police at 6.30 am.She had no advanced notice but the press did. Her home  and office was searched and she was arrested and questioned for several hours.

She was questioned over honours allegations and suspicion of perverting the course of justice. She has issued a statement denying any wrongdoing.

Tony Blair gave Ms Turner, one of his closest aides, his full backing. Ruth is a person of the highest integrity for whom I have great regard and I continue to have complete confidence in her," said the prime minister.

In a statement released by 10 Downing Street, Ms Turner said: "I absolutely refute any allegations of wrongdoing of any nature whatsoever. No charge was ever made.

I protested about this at a meeting with the policeman responsible. The media's  sympathy was with the police. They had already decided that Labour was guilty and they turned a blind eye to the use of excessive methods by the police. The guiding rule was 'Everyone is innocent until they are proved to be Labour.'

Similar treatment of Tory Damian Green has provoked universal outrage. Labour's Dennis McShane said, "To send a squad of counter terrorist officers to arrest an MP shows the growing police contempt for parliament and democratic politics," he said.

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"The police now believe that MPs are so reduced in public status that they are fair game for over-excited officers to order dawn raids, arrests and searches of confidential files held by MPs or those who work for them.

McShane fairly added that David Cameron should be careful to be seen backing a civil servant  who had betrayed trust.

Labour delivered on Freedom of Information. There was no threat to security in these published 'secrets.' They should have all been available through FOI requests. It's mystery to me why a list of the anti 42 day Labour MPs should be secret. Any knowledgeable political commentator could have written the list.

We must wait an explanation. Is there a connection between the sacking of Ian Blair and the exceptional police zeal?  Those who remained silent on Ruth Turner created the political weather that has now chilled Damien Green.  A full explanation is needed to the baffling sub-plot in which the Speaker of the COMMONS is alleged to have allowed police to raid Green's office in Parliament.

Perhaps this would not have happened if Parliament had stirred itself on the arrest of Ruth Turner. This one will run and run.

Future classic cartoon

Very occasionally a cartoon  burns an indelible image in the brain.

For its simplicity and truth Steve Bell's Torytubby Vat Bombshell strikes with stiletto  accuracy. There was fretting when Gordon Brown became an object of mockery. The main reason for new members joining the Labour Party last month was  George Osborne. Dislike laced with ridicule is  a toxic brew. The Tory Tellytubbies are now downing a deep measure  of hostility. In the short term it can only get worse.

An early General Election is now their scariest nightmare.

Listen carefully.

A high pitched banshee wail of despair will soon be emitted from the nuclear groupies in Government.
They have been frustrated in their attempt to slip the £17 billion (increasing to £93billion) clean-up of the last nuclear mess through parliament without touching the sides.  A couple of Select Committees are aghast of the new doctrine that  only two MPs can rubber stamp vast, novel and possibly illegal multi £billion commitments.

The packaging of nuclear in its 'new' wrapper is unravelling. ' New' nuclear's incarnation  was due this year in Okiluoto in Finland. It is suffering the identical fate of 'old' nuclear'. The original contract cost was £2.5 billion. Now it's £5billion and rising. The nightmare construction is already two years late. The only other 'new' nuclear lost leader in Northern France is also deep in the merde. Americans are rapidly backing off nuclear because of its uncontrollable costs.

All renewable options are flourishing. They are 'New' and developing strongly into better value alternatives that are also kind to the planet.

Wake up Whitehall, and hug the 'New' green technologies.

Drugs scourge

'Is your journey really necessary?" was the accusing Wartime poster of my childhood.

The question is still valid. Did I have to travel to Warsaw to promote a new drugs convention?  As the main cheerleader and now midwife of this convention I need to explain and answer the questions from experts of the Pompidou Group. They are considering its feasibility. They allowed me generous time to bombard them with arguments at formal and informal meetings.

My ambition is a convention that will improve anti-drug policies throughout Europe. If I ever doubt the need, two images jump-start my enthusiasm. One near,  the other far away.

A vast ugly hospital stands on the outskirts of Moscow. All its patients are children born with Aids. Nearly all the offsprings of drug addicts. Their doomed lives are largely the fault of inept politicians in denial.

The other image is of grieving families in my constituency. One had a son, the other a daughter who were imprisoned as drug addicts. Both were 'clean' on release. The daughter lived a week, the son a day.

Part of the reason for the scourge of drug tragedies is the deadly results of drug laws created by cowardly irrational politicians on the make for popularity.

Trying to change that is worth a journey.

Pearls for politicians

Subtlety, innovation and science on drugs  are rife here in Warsaw. Meanwhile reefer madness rules at Westminster.

The Pompidou Group introduced new awards today for successful drug prevention initiatives. The choice of the three winers was made by a jury made up entirely of young people from six European countries. The winners were from Bulgaria, Greece and the Netherlands.

They all appear to be original bright ideas. Th awkward translation from Bulgarian produced the unconvincing slogan about 'sweeping weed out of the gate'. Perhaps surprisingly the three winners did not concentrate on illegal drugs. Their aim is to cut the use of the equally lethal alcohol and tobacco.

The more I see of the Pompidou Group the more I admire their thinking. Representatives  of European Governments are known in the awkward translation from French nomenclature as "Permananet correspondents.' The quality of their research and decision making is exemplary. I fear they are fashioning pearls for ingrate politicians to spurn.

Mocking the quality of their work was yesterday's vote in the Lords to move cannabis from class C to B. The only effect will to allow courts to send cannabis users to prison for longer periods. We have no drugs-free prisons. Cannabis users in: heroin addicts out. 

When cannabis was moved from class B to C, the prohibitionist  forecast that  use would mushroom. In fact cannabis use has gone down. The classification system is futile. Cannabis and smoking tobacco are now 'naff' among young people. Use is determined by fashion. Classification is irrelevant.

With magic mushrooms and ecstasy in the same category as heroin and cocaine the system should be laughed out of existence. The only purpose classification serves is give instant gratification for politicians. They believe that acting 'tough' will bring in a harvest of votes. Following the Pompidou Group's path of reason and courage will save lives and cut drug crime. But that's too much to expect.

Not everywhere

John, a regular correspondent, cheered me up this morning with this news.

" Cities across Holland are planning to grow their own cannabis crops in order to control the supply of the drug to the country's famous 'coffee shops'.

Amsterdam's  Mayor, Job Cohen, 
"Look what happened during prohibition years in America and how criminals took over and look at Belgium, France and Britain where soft drugs are not legal but are available and are a part of the criminal world," he said. "We can't avoid them, so it is better to legalise them to keep them under control."

Such enlightened tolerant policies are in stark contrast to ours. We seem to be going back to the dark ages".

Rightwing politicians have taken over in many areas of the Netherlands. But it's encouraging to know that good sense prevails. Harsh prohibition has given Britain four times the cannabis use of Holland after 25 years of regulated de-criminalisation.

Conventionally better

'How would you like to be remembered?' was an unexpected request I had last week from a constituent.

'As a good MP' was the fairly obvious answer.  But there is another thing, if it happens. A European Convention of Drugs took another step forward today. I have bored people from most European nations on this subject over the past four years. Today I am in frozen Warsaw to persuade the Pompidou Drug Group to accelerate their work. The view from my hotel looked more like New York.

 

 

Conventions are the mechanisms that European institutions used to advance reforms. Some have been remarkably successful. My ambition is that a convention on drugs will set a gold standard of science and evidence based drugs policies. It will be based on what works to reduce harm. Many of our policies are evidence free and do not work.

The draft of the convention emphasises the good value efficiency of health solutions of treatments, needle exchanges and injection rooms. They are at least 12 times better value than using the criminal justice system. Arresting and banging up drugs users in prison is usually worse than useless.

 

An Albanian politician told me that her country had no idea how to deal with the tsunami of drugs that invaded her country when the Iron Curtain disappeared.  "We asked you guys in the West' she said 'because you had experience of these problems. What we had was not good advice, just a Babel of conflicting advice.' A Convention could provided a framework of excellence to be emulate by other nations.

 

The Pompidou group is made of top civil servants from all European countries. Today, they unanimously supported working on the  plan for a Convention. It has been worth braving the cold of November in Poland to take another step forward.

Swish

Welsh baseball has got a smart new image

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Andrew Wetlch  has sent me these stunning images from a new brochure.

Crunch shrinks the Tories

Today we witnessed a brilliant stroke of political magic.

The opposition front bench have shrunk. Already they are dwarf size. Soon the will drop out of view. On the other side Gordon and his team are growing taller with each debate on the credit crunch.

From last September to this September, Labour has stumbled from public relations foul-ups to propaganda disasters. Not calling an election last year was act of self-crucifixion. The abolition of the 10p tax rate  was our foulest moment. Labour party members, allies and friends were dumbfounded. The party that they had long loved has changed into a mean machine for robbing the rich to enrich the poor.

 Now we have returned to full sanity.  Traditional voters are reassured that the classic Labour heart is still beating strongly after the recent decisions on 42 days, climate change and Post office. The slow dribble of announcement on the pre-Budget goodies were successfully calculated to gain three days of favourable headlines. I thought we had forgotten how to maximise the value of media attention.  Not only good decisions that benefit the poorest but, good news professionally presented.

The Tories were nonplussed today when their quarry was shot. Their threat that  'Jam today mean tax rises tomorrow' boomeranged back on them. Yes, it will mean  bigger taxes tomorrow - for the super-rich. Those are the taxes rises we all love. What a great incentive to vote Labour in 2010. 

Better still, it's the best way to jump-start our economy. The rest of the world thinks so. The Tories disagree. Obama will administer the Roosevelt medicine. From today's it  seems to working here and in the USA.

The bold moves of Darling and Gordon Brown  give  real hope that the job losses in manufacturing industry in Newport will be restored after a shallow slump. Optimism is infectious.

No easy answer

A constituent writes demanding the return of the death penalty.

All right-thinking people were outraged and angered at the violence inflicted on Baby P by his tormentors. Every parliamentarian wants to do all that is possible to avoid further tragedies.  The heart-piercing pictures of the infant churn up our emotions.

Since the publicity of this case, there has been a large increase in children taken from their parents and put in 'care'.  This is an understandable safety first reaction. However, it could do more harm that good. The fate of children in care is not always a happy. Many end up with broken lives .

The advocacy of capital punishment is a wholly understandable reaction against this dreadful murder. If MPs believed that it would end these killings they could agree. But on all occasions since abolition, when parliament considered the return of capital punishment, they rejected it by increasing majorities. I have heard no MP suggest that the deaths sentence should be introduced because of this case. 

It is interesting to note that no Newport MP since the war has voted for capital punishment. There have been seven of us including one Conservative Mark Robinson. Peter Freeman (Pictured)  was in a group of half a dozen who  campaigned courageously for its abolition as long ago as  1945.

It was only one of  his many far-sighted decisions. The brave half dozen were led by Sidney Silverman. Public opinion was disbelieving and denounced them as friends of murderers.

The good sense of the people of Newport prevailed and Peter Freeman remained the city's darling in spite of his progressive views.

Any decision parliament takes  will be based on the evidence put before us.

Clegg clunks

A fascinating picture is emerging of the shifting sands of support for political parties. The greatest mystery is what has happened to the disappearing LibDem voters.

The latest poll puts David Cameron's Tories on 40% - down five points on a similar poll by the same organisation last month - and Labour up seven points on 37%. Liberal Democrats were on an appalling 12%. Labour are two points ahead of their winning share of the vote in 2005. The Prime Minister's satisfaction rating has risen six points since October to 41%, while satisfaction with the Government improved by seven points to 32%, with 59% remaining dissatisfied (down from 69% last month).
No wonder Cameron is looking queasy.

The result of the 2005 General election was Labour 35.2%, Conservatives 32.2% and Liberal Democrats 22%. Even with the dollop of salt that we take with all opinion polls, the halving of the LibDems support is intriguing. 

Even if the election is still 18 months away, victory will be determined by who secures the largest share of dis-affected LibDem votes. If Nick Clegg remains invisible, their support will remain in the doldrums. Vincent Cable is their greatest asset. The sight of Nick chatting with Vince looks like a teenager asking his father for a loan of the car keys.

After dumping Charles Kennedy, then Ming Campbell, they surely cannot ditch another leader?  Not unless the polls continue to conjure up nightmare images of p45s advancing towards LibDem MPs.

My money is on May 2010 as the election date. Enough time for full-blown hysteria to overcome the LibDems.

Euro-Cymraeg

 Not exactly the first time in Europe's Councils, but certainly a breakthrough at this elevated level.

Welsh Heritage Minister; Alun Ffred Jones was the first person to speak Cymraeg (Welsh) formally at an institutional meeting of the European Union as he led the UK delegation to the EU Council of Culture Ministers in Brussels. Speaking after the meeting he described it as a historic event and that the move would help normalise the language and help to strengthen the image of Wales at the international level, economically and culturally.

Gwynoro Jones and Tom Ellis both spoke in Welsh in the European parliament. In a debate about minority languages, I believe I was the first to use Welsh in the Council of Europe.

There was official consternation. I was told the only languages permitted were ‘national’ languages. There was no precedent for the use of minority languages. As the purpose of the debate was the promotion of minority languages, I suggested that this was a good chance of demonstrating our sincerity.

The French are the least tolerant and it was a French official who was putting his foot down. I said that I would speak in Welsh and it would be up to them whether they would switch my mike off. They relented to the consternation of my wife who was to be my translator.

She has a lovely speaking voice but is under qualified for the task because she is not a Welsh Speaker. We rehearsed carefully but never ended at the same time. Even worse, in mid-speech I though of some new things to say and wandered off the script. By a great stroke of luck she ended her translation a sentence after I had finished. Perfect.
I will not do it again. It would place too great a strain of the future of my marriage.
For the devoted, the video is on this site on Newport TV, Wales Best, Strasbourg.
or

http://www.paulflynnmp.co.uk/PaulFlynnMP-NewportWest-NewportTV.strasbourgfirst.html

Deal or Afghan ignominy?

Few are saying it, but it’s all over in Afghanistan.

In a penetrating article in today's Independent Robert Fisk draws exact parallels between Nato's hopeless position now and the hopeless position of the Russians 29 years ago. In both cases the propaganda machines pumped out optimism about overcoming the 'terrorists'. Then it was the Mujahaddin now the Taliban.

Fisk writes: "This is not déjà-vu. This is déjà double-vu. And it gets worse.

Almost 29 years ago, the Afghan "Mujahaddin" began a campaign to end the mixed schooling of boys and girls in the remote mountain passes, legislation pushed through by successive communist governments. Schools were burned down. Outside Jalalabad, I found a headmaster and his headmistress wife burned to death. Today, the Afghan Taliban is campaigning to end the mixed schooling of boys and girls – indeed the very education of young women – across the great deserts of Kandahar and Helmand. Schools have been burned down. Teachers have been executed."

http://www.independent.co.uk/opinion/commentators/fisk/kabul-30-years-ago-and-kabul-today-have-we-learned-nothing-1029920.html

Our parliamentarians are in denial

They fondly offer the gains in the education of girls as a justification for the loss of 125 British lives. All the improvements of the early years are disappearing.

They ignore the all-pervasive crimes of drugs, kidnapping and blackmail that are burgeoning untroubled by corrupt police, army and Government officials.

Corruption starts at the top. Government ministers are earning extra salaries from the UN, EU and Development Agencies.

The deadly peril of America's extension of the bombing to Pakistan is disregarded- even though Pakistan is a nuclear state.

Where there is no security, fears grows and hope dies. A deal in inevitable. An early one could protect some gains. A late one could lead to a repeat of the ignominy of America's exit from Viet Nam.

Green bonanza

We lead the world with our Formula One champion. It’s a good feeling to be in pole position. Less good that it’s in races that consume vast amounts of fuel to end up in the same position from where they start.

Nervously and tentatively we progress on renewables, Germany is in pole position in Europe for all renewables. They are already halfway towards their goal of 30% renewables by 2020.

Their feed-in tariffs guarantee growth and a bonanza of jobs. The sources of sun, earth, wind, water and plants are harnessed efficiently. Already Germany is using advanced technology in wind turbines, photovoltaic panels and geothermal probes that a generation beyond our feeble efforts.

The earth emits four times more energy into space than all of humanity uses. The energy of the sun falling on the surface of 1,000 square kilometers of the Sahara is enough to cover the whole energy requirements of humanity. Even in a Northern country such as Germany, daily solar energy exceeds the country’s energy requirements 80 times over. The potential is nearly infinite.

The German are building hundreds of plants to utilize biogas, geothermal and hydroelectric energy. Much of this splendid concentration on renewables is attributed to the Green Party’s anti-nuclear stance.

The government of former Chancellor Gerhard Schröder, which saw his Social Democrats paired with the Greens in a governing coalition, announced in 2000 that the country was phasing out its nuclear power plants, it seemed that decades of anti-nuclear activism in Germany could be laid to rest. Indeed, protests stopped until a fortnight ago.

Over 15,000 people turned out to disrupt a delivery of nuclear waste across Germany -- one of the largest such protests in years. The German press expects the nuclear issue to play a big role in next year's election campaign. That, though, has changed recently. A series of revelations about leaks at a nuclear waste dump, combined with a fresh political debate about the nuclear phase-out has led to a revival of the movement. And this weekend saw the clearest evidence that the issue is still very much alive as thousands of people turned out to disrupt the transport of radioactive nuclear waste from France to a dump in Germany.

The anti-nuclear campaign should flex its muscles here. New Nuclear in Finland is already two years late and £1 billion over budget. The delusion of the nuclear blind alley must be exposed. Then we can follow Germany into efficient sustainable ways to slash carbon levels and keep our human habitat safe.

Outrage - or cunning publicity?

If was a publicity stunt, I fell for it, hook, line and frothing indignation. Richard Evans of BBC Wales told me this morning that Police Chief Barbara Wilding had said that drinking and violence defined Wales. Not my Wales, it doesn't. At 12.00 Richard let me ventilate my rage on his lunch time radio programme. 

My Wales is defined by our warmth, friendliness and hospitality. We give our greatest honour, not to someone who is rich and powerful,  but to a personwho has created a poem of beauty in the Eisteddfod. That defines us. No other nation does that.  We have a small middles class. Most of us see ourselves as the common people, the working class, y werin not y crachach. That defines us. Not booze or violence. 

That's an ugly UK insanity that disfigures night life throughout the UK. The lust to get bladdered senseless contaminates Manchester, Glasgow, London and all our alcohol  sodden land. Why blame Wales?

Yesterday, the excellent Archbishop of Wales and the police chiefs kicked off an anti-booze campaign , 'not for temperance but for an end to excessive drinking.' The claim that Wales is worse seems to be based on some dodgy statistics. To their credit the four Welsh Police Forces list offences of domestic abuse as crimes of violence. Other forces do not. That is what is probably distorting the figures.

But the campaign is right. We neglect the horrors of drink.  For every pound we spend on alcohol misuse which threatens 60 million of us, we spend  thirty pounds trying to deal with illegal drugs that threatens 2 million.  Someone stoned might give you a big hug. A drunk might give you a good kicking.  We test for drugs in jails not for booze. 

But were we duped? The campaign grabbed the headlines today because of Barbara's gratuitous insulting hyperbole. Could it possibly have been  a deliberate ploy? Are the police that subtle?

I'll be happy to be a cheerleader for their campaign. Attitudes can be turned round. The accepted drink driving of 20 years ago is now  denounced. How long before we shun the brain wrecked boozed as social lepers?

Cens-less

It's almost useless, creakingly inefficient but we will still spend £500 million on it.

As in  Biblical times, in 2011 a census of the entire population will be held. It will take months to publish the results. By then, they will be out of date. 2,000 years ago there was no alternative. Now we have dozens.

Why interview 60 millions people? Accurate results can be found by taking a small representative sample. Just 1% of the population would be a huge sample of half a million people and cost a modest £5 million. The results could be published while they still have some validity.

Even better would be a six-monthly delve into existing data-bases held by the NHS, the National Insurance and Inland Revenue. A huge amount of information could be produced at the swivel of a keyboard. The information would be instant, current and relevant.  Inertia will ensure that the 2011 census will go ahead. 

It will be the last.

No Silk sulk

My loathing for Robert Kilroy-Silk is deep and abiding.

I hated his posturing as pseudo left wing MP exposed as superficial by  his desertion to the riches to the media. His television persona was a revolting blancmange of of self-love, prejudice and lechery. His messianic delusion  was atomised by the collapse of his one-ego party, leaving only his sickly grin behind.

Last night, I had a bat's squeak of pleasure to see his mild humiliation on 'I'm a Celebrity.' It did not stop there. Then  more humiliation was heaped on him without mercy. His stoicism was splendid, even against a mocking cackling laugh from a loon-faced nonentity. 

Kilroy-Silk controlled his seething anger. To his credit he did not attack

 his tormentor. 

 All my prejudices lie shattered in a heap.