Newport Treasure Coming Home?

Could a beautiful watercolour of Newport Castle make an appearance in the city?

 

At the prompting of a constituent I wrote to the British Museum about Turner’s splendid picture of Newport Castle.

Deputy Director Andrew Burnett tells me that it was bequeathed to the British Museum in 1910 and has been exhibited recently in Llandudno, Swansea and Beijing. There is no mention of it being on display in Newport but other pictures have been loaned to Newport Museum and Art Gallery.

Mr Burnett writes of the fragile nature of the picture, which is sensitive to fading. He firmly the rejects the possibility of a long term loan to Newport. Museums are neurotically retentive. But he states that he would ‘certainly help’ to ‘lend the picture for a specific exhibition'.

The picture is a fascinating record of Newport Castles' use by local boatmen. The castle has deteriorated now but the Watergate is still preserved.

Nice Party

Labour has become the nice party since the second coming of  Peter Mandelson .

When he first returned to the fold we were subterranean on 24 points. Two days ago we were up to 35. The threatening charge of the approaching p45s has disappeared from Labour MPs' nightmares.

The threat to beloved Post Offices was extinguished today. The card accounts stays with them and more goodies are on the way. The Climate Change Bill has been transformed on the lines demanded by enviromentalists. The foolish 42 day detention threat has been comatosed. Then there is the superb by-election result.

To think that there were those who did not want Mandy back. We are the nice party again.

Sellafield Debate Won

Next Wednesday I have a debate of the Sellafield cover-up.

Taxpayers have been left with unlimited liability amounting to billions of pounds should there be a repeat of a nuclear accident at Sellafield. This is one of the conditions of multi-billion deal to clear up the mess left by the nuclear industry. The indemnity is a slightly disguised subsidy that even covers accidents and leaks that are the consortium's fault.

I was outraged to discover that parliament was not informed until 75 days after the deadline for MPs to complain. It appears that the former energy minister, Malcolm Wicks, broke Treasury guidelines by failing to inform MPs properly with the result that no backbencher could object.

The former minister  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.

Letters have been received from Ministers but no satisfactory explanation has been given so far of this disgraceful parliamentary chicanery. 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.