Remarkable coincidence

Total number of British soldiers killed in Afghanistan =232

This blog's preoccupation with the tragedy of the Afghan War has been total recently for understandable reasons. I have neglected parliamentary news which I catch up with today. Today's polls prove that 64% of the population want the troops brought home. It's not poor communication that's angered the public. It's the bleak message of certain failure for NATO  that cannot be plausibly spun.  The war is not 'winnable.'

Next week, I will again seek every parliamentary and media opportunity to press the case for an early exit strategy. Heartfelt thanks to Newsnight, BBC News, the Independent and, today, the Observer for giving me platforms that reach a wide audience.  Thanks too to new friends who have contacted me with informative and supportive messages on this blog and elsewhere. I'm sure we will be in contact again in future.

Coincidence

An extraordinary coincidence was not recorded by the cameras on Newsnight on Wednesday.  Tory Defence spokesman Patrick Mercer mentioned that the day, November 4th, was the 'great  anniversary'. It is for me because it was the 170th anniversary of the Chartists who were shot at the Westgate Hotel in the heart of my Newport West constituency. A week of events commemorated the occasion in Newport.

It was news to me that Patrick Mercer's regiment the Sherwood Foresters celebrate the anniversary because it was the soldiers of that regiment who shot the Chartists. I sensed that the regiment are proud that stopped a revolution. 

Patrick and I have very different views on the heroic events of 1839. My heroes are not his. It's fascinating that 170 years later to the day the MP for the Chartist city is combating an officer of the Sherwood Foresters.

Tredegar House

It was pleasure to welcome the friends of Newport's Stately Home Tredegar House to the Commons.

They are doing a marvellous job in ensuring that this great treasure is cherished and widely enjoyed. I told them a story of the fuss that the Foreign Minister of Poland made at a dinner in Warsaw. When I told him I was from Newport he reacted immediately and told everyone that it is a 'beautiful city'. This is not how everyone reacts to the place.

His experience of Newport was on a glorious summer day when all EU foreign ministers met for a conference at the magnificent 5 star Celtic Manor Resort. The only part of the city that they saw Tredegar House where they had a meal in the Gold Room.

Jessica Morden and I fielded a searching battery of questions from our guests. They included problems with trespassing travellers, Tony Blair's suitability as European President and a  planning decision on a Tesco Store. I am sure our answers were very helpful. But it's always a pleasure to meet constituents who are sharing our enjoyment in the wonders of Westminster. 

Rational Rebuke

Next week science will strike back at the brutal sacking of Professor David Nutt.

On Thursday the splendid group Transform will present the rational case for reducing drug harm. LibDem MP Evan Harris and I will combine to expose the damage of the dominance of redtop prejudice in Parliament. The shame of MPs trying to lynch science still lingers. I am proud of the Commons on most occasions. This was our foulest hour. 

The presence of Transform will provide an antidote to hardcore power exercised without evidence.

Comments

[CC]

Please read Christina Lamb in this weekend's Spectator. Check her website, contact her agent or whatever, and you and she can make real progress together. I read your piece in yesterday's Independent, but couldn't bear to read beyond one and a half sentences of John Hutton.
I'll be in touch with , my MP, about this too. No more Remembrance Sunday's thinking WHAT'S THE POINT?
Thank you,

[Paul Flynn]

Thanks you CC. I have greatly enjoyed Christina Lamb's report from Afghanistan. I did not know that she had changed her mind. She is a voice worth heeding. This is what I found

"Since the war on terror began, Christina Lamb has believed that the answer in Afghanistan was to send more soldiers. Now, after eight years of fighting and no end in sight, she has changed her mind. Victory is not an option

It was Bonfire Night last year in the Officers’ Mess of 2 Rifle and I was jokily explaining how fighting is such a national sport among Afghans that they fight with birds, kites and even boiled eggs, when I suddenly realised my heart had gone out of it. As one of the few journalists to have been reporting from Afghanistan since the days of the Soviet occupation, I had often been asked to visit regiments before they deploy and had always enjoyed talking to young soldiers about a land I love and hearing their expectations.
But that grey November evening in Abercorn barracks in the Northern Irish town of Ballykinler was different. I had been in Helmand the previous month and was shocked at the lack of progress. How could I give a positive presentation of what the troops might achieve when the security situation was so much worse than before British troops arrived in 2006?
In one-camel opium towns like Sangin, Musa Qala and Nawzad, which no one back home had even heard of three years ago, our soldiers were repeatedly fighting over the same dusty scraps of land that previous troops had been killed trying to secure. The top Foreign Office mandarin inside the wire and thick walls of the British headquarters in Lashkar Gah tried to convince me progress was being made because the bazaar was open and we could drive through (albeit at high speed in a heavily armoured convoy). Yet I had stayed in the town for a week before the British deployment when the bazaar was flourishing and people walked around freely.
For the many Helmandis who have lost their homes or relatives in the bombing, it is stretching credulity to say that the British presence has brought them a better life. I’ve met families in tents outside Lashkar Gah who lost everything as they fled from village to village to escape fighting. The cost of one Javelin missile to blow up a compound of suspected Taleban is 80 times what the average Afghan makes in a year."

[Kay Tie]

Glad you're covering things other than Afghanistan. Perhaps you'd consider signing an EDM condemning the beating given to a blogger critical of the Cuban government:

http://www.hrw.org/en/news/2009/11/07/cuba-prominent-blogger-abducted-beaten

A number of your colleagues hailed Castro as a "Hero of the Left" in an EDM earlier this year. Perhaps you'd like to draw their attention to what their hero is doing to his own people?

[Paul Flynn]

Very happy KayTie to pass on the link to Human Rights Watch. There should be freedom of expression everywhere. From the Baptisa days Cuba has made major advances in education and health services. Their NHS is superior for poor people than that in Florida.

[Kay Tie]

I'm sure that a better health system is of great comfort to the brutalised people of Cuba. No doubt it helps to get free treatment for bones broekn by the secret police.

Again we see the hypocrisy of the Left, that good intentions excuse the inevitable brutality. The anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall has brought all kinds of excusive comments from the Guardian, overlooking the brutality of the East German regime ("but at least people were equal and had jobs!"). This mentality explains why few in the Labour Party are concerned that Stasi-style surveillance of parents is wrong. Socialism is a coercive ideology and always leads to brutal treatment of the very people it purports to help.

[Tony]

Just seen the letter to the Guardsmen parents from Brown reproduced on Army Rumour Service. I could accept the sentiment but just how insulted would you feel if you got a letter that looked like that regarding the detah of your son? Handwritten may try and make it personal but spelling mistakes just negate that and are insulting ..

[Kay Tie]

"Handwritten may try and make it personal but spelling mistakes just negate that and are insulting .. "

I've just had this debate with a friend.

There are lots of reasons to loathe Gordon Brown, but I don't think this is one of them. If one is going to accuse someone of something heinous, like disrespect to a dead son, then you'd better be sure of one's facts.

Gordon Brown has sight problems and cannot easily read what he's written. He also has TERRIBLE handwriting (I've seen letters he exchanged with the Governor of the Bank of England and they look like a 5-year old wrote them in felt-tip pen).

Critics have said the letter should be typed. But that's the point of a hand-written letter: it takes time and demonstrates that the subject is worth the time. Yes, he may have dashed off the letter, but his handwriting is so bad I don't think you can say for sure. And I think one needs to be sure for such a harsh accusation.

Of course, Gordon Brown lacks empathy and if he can't see how things are going to be perceived he needs a trusted assistant who will check things for him. Alas he has terrible judgement in selecting assistants: such as Damien McBride, a poison-filled man who himself needed to be checked.

The underlying problem is that Gordon Brown isn't fit to be Prime Minister. The Labour Party needs to take its share of the blame for the fact that he is.

[Tony]

I saw the suggestion that the Afghan government should appoint an 'anti-corruption czar' - possibly a little insensitive given their experience with Russians in the 80's ?

[PD]

live in Newport West and as one of your constituents I implore you to gain the support of other MP's to put pressure on the Prime Minister to bring home our troops from this futile war in Afghanistan. After the the deaths of another seven soldiers during the last week I cannot see any sense in us being in that country at all. Is it just to satisfy the ego's of senior politicions or justify the existence of Generals at the Ministry of Defence. I am not a pacifist but we cannot afford the cost of young lives let alone the monetary cost of continuing to support this war in this lawless country. History should have warned us before we embarked on this debacle.
I support your views that you expressed on this subject when you appeared on news night last week.

[Sally]

Very happy KayTie to pass on the link to Human Rights Watch. There should be freedom of expression everywhere.

Yes, except this country.

The anniversary of the Berlin Wall coming down was a great advertisement for the people of this country in what Britain has become. A controlled state. One free for just 20 years, and now the EU will take over where the stasi, communists & fascists left off. Then East Berliners and the rest of us, accept the elite & rich of course, will be manacled and controlled. Another Berlin Wall, albeit without the stones, but a wall nonetheless.

As Mr Flynn, is well aware, from the 1st December, 2009, we'll offically be serfs of the EU.

I detest every politican, feel nothing but contempt, for what they have done to myself & family and the people of this country.

So Mr Flynn, why we are going to be asked to vote to put 600+ back into the House of Commons, when from 1st Dec, it will only be The House of Caretakers, as you very well know it's all they'll be, caretakers, that will have no power, it's disgraceful. Basically it's fraud having to pay for all these politicans for doing nothing. All it will need is one or two to rubber stamp the diktats as they arrive from Brussels.

Tell me Mr Flynn, what will happen when Brussels decides to install their own candidates in the House of Caretakers, because they will, make no mistake. But to me this will be the only consolation for being sold to a foreign entity, without a mandate from the people, to see all the treacherous bast***s made redundant and rendered unemployable.

Labour are always going on about what Thatcher, did to thousands of miners, I wonder will these same Labour supporters will be saying what Blair, Brown and the rest of them have done to the millions upon millions of people here. Somehow I don't think so, somehow I think they'll still blame Thatcher, it's all Labour is good for, blaming & smearing others. To be fair Cameron & Clegg are no better, all three parties are rotten to the core.

One dangerous person Labour should have got rid of years ago is that rich Harpicperson, she's an absolute danger to humanity.

So Mr Flynn, I believe the people of this country have been trafficked, without consent to the EU (trafficking is illegal isn't it) therefore their human rights have been abused, will you be passing this on to the Human Rights Watch. No didn't think so, but I will.

[Sally]

There are lots of reasons to loathe Gordon Brown, but I don't think this is one of them. If one is going to accuse someone of something heinous, like disrespect to a dead son, then you'd better be sure of one's facts.

I take it, hopefully, you haven't lost a child Kay. The soldiers mum may have gone off the deep end, but believe me when I say that all reason and rational thoughts go out the window. You're rendered absolutely senseless. People who have not been in this horrible, despairing, nightmare position haven't a clue. I have no time for Brown, I detest him, but in this I don't believe he meant any insult, perhaps it's why Brown, 'phoned the woman so promptly, he understood it wasn't really his mistakes but her despair of losing her son and seeing his name spelt wrong so soon after, she just flipped. Anything, no matter how trivial, petty or inadvertent relating to a lost child lights a fuse.

Mr Flynn, all what I said in my previous post abut politicans I stand by, but in saying that I have to give you credit for your stance on Afghanistan.