Pessimism R Us

An unknown group looked at cities in the UK and made a depressing forecast for Newport's future. 

 

They claim Newport will be hit hard by the recession because our business base is not as strong as other cities. True, but our public sector base is far stronger that almost every other city of our population.

 

 Yes Newport is way down on the set of criteria adopted. But if the city had been judged on the most successful in attracting public sector jobs, we would have been on the top of the table.

 

Newport is home for the Intellectual Property Office (formerly the Patent Office), the shared services of all UK Prisons, the Office for National Statistics and a main Passport Office. These are permanent offices of high repute that required highly skilled staff. It is hope that other public sector jobs will be attracted to the city.

 

BBC Wales swallowed the hook, line and sinker of the story. they need a few local voices to balance these misery mongers.

 

Why are you so silent Newport City Council?

War without End

To get more details of Victor Winstone book (see below) or go on to his website here.

Swine Flu

I have tabled two EDMs to advance the cause of exposing  'The Pandemic that never was'. The British Medical Journal in December 2009, published a detailed account of how Tamiflu was sold on qusetionable arguments by the Drug company Roche.

Warnings of pandemics

That this house believes that exaggerated claims of the dangers of pandemics may undermine the public’s faith in warnings of future serious health emergencies : recalls the claims that SARS would infect 'up to one in four' of the population, Avian Flu up to 750,000, BSE/CJD  136,000, and that Swine Flu could result in 65,000 British deaths: notes that a maximum of 350 deaths have occurred, many of which involved patients with other health problems, concludes that the forecast of World Health Organisation (WHO), and fear mongering by the media, greatly overstated the risk, welcomes the investigation by the Council of Europe to ascertain whether the WHO’s declaration was determined on objective epidemiological evidence or on pressure from the pharmaceutical lobby.

 

Tamiflu

That this House is concerned at the mass vaccination of children with the drug  Tamiflu: notes that the USA Food and Drugs Administration has warned of fatal side-effects including heart attacks: is surprised by the report in the British Medical Journal that the data on nine of the ten trials of Tamiflu has not been published, verified or peer-reviewed and that the drug has not been shown to prevent flu complications: is concerned by the conclusion of Professor Nick Freemantle that the beneficial treatment effects of Tamiflu is ‘vanishingly small’, believes it is unwise to continue with the vaccination programme because of the uncertain knowledge of the safety and efficacy of Tamiflu.

 

Removed

There was a post here about Rod Liddle.

 

I have removed it because one of the comments attributed to him was a quotation that he was using to defend a football player not attacking him. I was mis-informed. I still believe that Rod was rash to express the views he did but I want to re-assess the posting to check  its fairrness.

 

Opportunists and patriots

 

 

From Victor Winstone's blog

Political opportunists are fighting for position in the craze to put their names to the ‘Support our armed services’ petitions.

  They jump on a popular bandwagon.

  Who will dare gainsay the patriotic gestures, the determination to salute the brave warrior, whenever he or she comes within hailing distance?  MPs of all parties, newspaper magnates,  promoters of causes good and bad, anyone and everyone with a suit of cards in his hand dances instinctively to the patriotic theme blazoned from government handouts and BBC bulletins;  to the hero chosen to fight the common battle 'on our behalf', usually it has to be said at a cut price provision of wages and equipment.

 

When the chips are down it's 'Tommy this and Tommy that' and with due acknowledgement to Kipling, 'Tommy how's yer auntie'.   

 

  Kabul town’s a blasted place  -

   Blow the bugle, draw the sword –

    ‘Strewth I shan’t forget ‘is face

  Wet an’ drippin’ by the ford!

    Ford, ford, ford o’ Kabul river,

  Ford o’ Kabul river in the dark!

 

    But is it not time for a question or two before we all submit to the weasel words of the warmongers, including the army's new Chief of Staff, General Sir David Richards, who if we are not careful will have us all signing up to a forty years war?

  Why does nobody on this side of the debate ever ask the obvious question – What would we Brits do or say if the position was reversed, if we discovered that our land was occupied by uninvited visitors? What if we. arrived home to find that following a sudden and unexpected revolution our streets were policed and our homes occupied by trigger-happy Afghans?

    What if we found Afghans crawling all over our homes, dripping with ammunition, armed with the latest weaponry, holding our mother or wife or sister in a corner of the living room, telling them in very impolite language not to move less a vital part of their anatomy be blown to smithereens if they were foolish enough to disobey?

  A silly question? A position that no seIf-respecting Briton could imagine himself in. Let us try to recall the actions of Bush and Blair. Who is the aggressor? The alleged enemies did not attack us. We attacked them.

  I pose the precise position that Afghans, and before them Iraqis, have found themselves in for almost ten years since the US and Britain declared war on them and launched the ‘war on terror’, on the basis of proven lies and absurd pretexts?

Is it not time for a word or two of self examination?

Comments

[Patrick]

What has public sector jobs got to do with a strong business base?

Newport is stuffed full of public sector jobs and when the Tories win the next election what is their top priority?

"Reducing the deficit in the public finances was regarded as the top priority issue by most Tory candidates"
Independant

Which new businesses coming to Newport will then employ all the redundant civil servants?

[Tony]

Quite .. its gets worse in another respect in that over 50% of the jobs in Wales in 2006 were either in the health, education and public administration sectors or in wholesale, retail, hotels and restaurants. Source: ONS

So if BOTH main parties are planning cuts I wonder what effect that will have locally

So if I was looking for a party to vote for for it might have a policy of making industry more attractive to an area but..

Complying with business regulations costs small companies £12bn per year and 37 hours per month, according to data released by the Forum of Private Businesses (FPB).

..and then ..

Dominique Strauss-Kahn (IMF) said countries should not exit from stimulus packages that have bolstered growth through huge amounts of government spending..

..but we don't have the money NOT to cut these programs back ..

..hey ho, not very cheery this morning but it seems to me that the next few years are going to be tough and I really don't envy the party that takes this lot over

[Kay Tie]

"..hey ho, not very cheery this morning but it seems to me that the next few years are going to be tough and I really don't envy the party that takes this lot over "

Yes, it's going to be grim. And the grimmer it gets, the brighest and best will leave. It used to be this way for generations in Ireland, and it used to be like this in the 1970s. That's the worst legacy of this decade of Labour incompetence.

[Mark G.]

Dear Mr. Flynn,
Are you that far out of touch with reality? The BBC (UK)report named four other cities also predicted to suffer the same fate as Newport. It is depressing to think the only response you can give to this article is to champion the over burdening public sector "SUCCESS" of Newport and plead with NCC for support. A balanced blog - me thinks not!
Wake up and smell the coffee Mr. Flynn

[Tony]

Gosh Kraft must be quaking in their boots after Brown 'warns them on jobs' ..

We don't have a policy of blocking foreign buy outs of UK companies and this is a private company - so Brown is just wasting his breath and its posturing of thw worst kind..

If Kraft want to cut jobs they will and Brown can whistle all he wants .. it will make NO difference

[Paul Flynn]

This is negativity bias rampant. Alleged bad news is welcomed, exaggerated and repeated even when it comes from a body without any reputation for reliability or objectivity.

The unemployment total for the two constituencies of Newport West and East is 5,000. Too high? Of course. But when I stood first as a parliamentray candidate it was more then 14,000.
Cheer up, there is a great deal of encouraging news. We have weathered the credit crunch without many of the problems suffered by other countries. In retrospect the Goernment will come out of this well as the thorough two hour Channel Four illustrated.

Patrick is right in that the economy of Newport is under dire threat if there is a Tory victory. They intend to slash and burn the vital public sectors job in Newport.

I have had the experience of claiming dole in the early eighties. Not many MPs have.Newport has suffered the dreadful blow of the closure of Novelis and the loss of the skills involved. Unfortunately it was not possible to save it or Anglesey Aluminium even with a large amount of public money.

But there is no point is running the city down. The reputation of failure will put off future investors and discourage those those key worker we are attracting to the city to boost jobs for local people. When the Patent Office came here many years ago, the run-down reputation of Newport as an industrail town was off-putting. Now those jobs are largely filled by local people. Yes, of course we have problems. but we should not accept uncritically the bad opinuion of others.

[Tomo]

Mr Flynn,

Next time you are in Newport, please attend the job centre for a few hours; also, kindly involve the media.
Ask the ever-increasing numbers looking for work if they agree with the assessment of the "think-tank" or your optimistic outlook.

There is no prospect of work for many and for those of us who still have the time/opportunity to do so, the only option that remains is to move.

Why is it that the Labour party are so silent on the unemployment catastrophe that is sweeping across Wales?

[twitter.com/Dara_bhur_gCara]

Isn't it slightly problematic soliciting the opinions of Parliament on whether or not a particular person is appropriate to edit a national newspaper?

[Paul Flynn]

Tomo, I don't 'visit' Newport, I live here. I am a regular viwsitor to the Job Centre - not that the press would be interested. I have been in the situation when I lived on benfits. It's not something you forget.
A charity has asked me to spend the day with an unemployed young man. Even though I know many unemployed people, young and old, I agreed to do this. It's a strange idea that MPs are not in contact with the unemployed and all other people with serious problems.

[Paul Flynn]

The Independent has a valued unique role in British Journalism. MPs should comment if a possibly unsuitable editor is to be installed.

[Kay Tie]

"We have weathered the credit crunch without many of the problems suffered by other countries."

Hey, it ain't over til the fat lady is in the dole queue.

Seriously, if you think we're through this mess you've got some history to read up on. Remember the recession of 1978? That was merely a prelude, held at bay by deficit spending until the reckoning of the early '80s recession.

But let us watch it all play out. Nothing we think or say is going to change the economic reality, so we might as well keep observing.

(I will note that your predictive track record is spotty: your happy-happy-joy-smile event of Iceland repaying the Icesave losses that you relayed a few weeks ago turned out to be false joy).

[Kay Tie]

"The reputation of failure will put off future investors"

We're talking about Newport? Or Gordon Brown's Britain? You see, I get so confused. I thought last week it was all about soak-the-rich "fairness" and hang the consequences. Now this week it's all about aspiration and come to welcoming investor-friendly Britain. You'll have to explain, because I can't be the only one who can't understand these rapid about-face manoeuvres.

[Tomo]

Paul,

Appreciate the reply. I'm aware you live in Newport, was being mischievious.

I too know unemployed people, lots of them: recent education leavers; recently redundant factory workers, out-of-work engineers etc. What do they all have in common? ...little prospect of immediate work within Newport.

Seeing that you believe the findings of the unknown group to be negatively construed, perhaps you could give us the details of the forthcoming investment that is about to impact upon the rising levels of unemployment within Newport?

Mine isn't an anti-Paul Flynn stance, nor is it anti-Labour. However, I do tend to concur that the outlook for the town is very bleak.
Certainly, there is no news on the horizon to suggest a different direction. Unless you know different?

[Mark G.]

Mr. Flynn,
Please take time to read the editorial in the local South Wales Argus tonight - Newport 61st out of a possible 64 worse cities in the UK to come out of recession. Lets all not be negative - put a positive slant on this for your blog - we're three places off the bottom of the table!

Quote "The reputation of failure will put off future investors"

What future investors?

Now compare this with our neighbours Cardiff and Swansea where there has been real investment in PRIVATE enterprise - am I missing something here?
Three cheers for the Government,Newport MPs and WAG members!