Paul Flynn - Read My Day

Passport chaos predictable

 

It was an abysmal performance by Theresa May  today on the abject failures of her department. Two years ago, Newport was told that the job losses were regreattable but would create a 'smaller but more efficient passport service'. The present crisis is one of predictable and predicted chaos.The cost of overtime and emergency staff will outweigh any reductions that the cuts achieved. Many thousands of people have suffered severe worries and financial losses because of the failures to distribute passports on time. Today's measures are panic ones. They must be replaced with a restructing of the Passport Service.

Paul Flynn (Newport West) (Lab):

Two years ago, the lives of 150 loyal and efficient workers in my constituency were devastated by a closure that the Government described as creating a smaller but more efficient passport agency. Others predicted today’s chaos. Will the Home Secretary find it in herself to have the common sense and the humility to apologise for the ineptocracy the Government have created?

Mrs May:

Yes, there have been changes in the way the Passport Office operates. The Passport Office has been operating efficiently and effectively in dealing with people’s applications since those changes were made. We now have a period of higher demand than we have seen for 12 years. That high demand is now being addressed by a number of steps that have been taken, but we will look at how the Passport Office should operate more efficiently in the future to ensure that it offers the best possible service.

 

Paul Flynn (Newport West) (Lab):

When the Government get around the restoring the Passport Office from its present emaciated and failing state to the efficient service it had been for the previous century, may we have a debate on the need to ensure that those areas that suffered the savage cuts two years ago, such as Newport, have the first call on new jobs?

Mr Lansley:

The hon. Gentleman had a chance to ask the Home Secretary a question about that earlier. I fear that his characterisation of the Passport Office is not helpful, not least for his constituents and others. As he will have heard from the Home Secretary, the Passport Office is continuing to provide substantially the service intended. Where problems have occurred, new staff are being deployed, both in call centres and in case handling, and the Home Secretary has just announced other measures that will enable constituents to get the service they are looking for.

 

 

Newport's richly multi-racial romp.

Weather forcasts of monsoons and a deluge almost persuaded organisers to cancel today's Maindee Festival

It went ahead in all its glorious multi-racial splendour.

 

 

 

 

 

 
 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Censored Establishment cover-up

Weak reply to a call for the whole truth from Chilcot providing closure to loved ones of the fallen, not a censored Establishment cover-up.

 

Business of the House on 5 Jun 2014 

 

Paul Flynn (Newport West) (Lab): When can we debate the need to provide closure for the grieving families of the 179 brave British soldiers who were killed in the Iraq war? They demand the truth, the whole truth and every syllable of the truth, and not a censored Chilcot report that will, in John Major’s view, result in suspicions that will fester for years of an establishment cover-up?

Mr Lansley: The hon. Gentleman will have seen that an agreement was reached during the prorogation between Sir John Chilcot’s inquiry and the Government about the terms on which information will be made available and can be published. That is very much welcome, and it enables us to look forward to the publication of the Chilcot inquiry.

YOUR MP WRITES: Paul Flynn, Labour MP for Newport West

4:05pm Monday 2nd June 2014 in News

 

 

YOUR MP WRITES: Paul Flynn, Labour MP for Newport West

From South Wales Argus

WILDINGS had already been in business for 32 years when the Transporter Bridge opened in 1906.

Now it’s recreated itself with a stylish new identity as fresh as tomorrow. The re-opening was a joy. Ladies of mature years recalled that they bought their utility school uniforms there ‘in the war.’

Wildings have earned the trust and loyalty of Newportonians who will repay the friendly shop with their custom. Other ingrate firms betrayed us and fled to bleak warehouses on the city’s periphery.

After recent nightmares, the only way forward for city centre retailing is up. The Phoenix will rise from the ashes. The happy optimism of the Wilding’s re-opening celebration will spread in a Newport renaissance.

* Politics is in a rare turmoil.

Part of the collateral damage of the Euro vote was that Newport was denied our own MEP by a smidgeon of votes. Happily, Jayne Bryant is established as a charismatic serious politician. She won the primary election in Welsh Labour with a 66% vote. Her tireless campaigning won her respect throughout the country.

She will have a bright future.

* The value to Newport of the NATO summit must not be exaggerated in the way the Ryder Cup was over-hyped.

But it is a unique world event that will shape Newport’s image. Jessica Morden and I want the influential visitors to witness the best of life here. We plan to ensure that the favourable publicity is not hi-jacked by other cities.

The Newport summit comes as a turbulent point in European history. Decisions taken here could have profound consequences for world peace. Protests are legitimate and necessary. All views should be ventilated. That’s the Newport tradition.

The venue was chosen to show the best of Wales and the UK. The most powerful leaders of the Western world will be our guests. We must greet them with respect and courtesy. Newport earned international goodwill as the splendid venue for the meeting of Europe’s foreign ministers in 2008.

In September we can further enhance our good name worldwide.

* It’s an omen-not to be ignored.

Fryar the Chancellor of the Exchequer's cat escaped from Downing Street and padded down to the area of my London flat in Vauxhall. He was captured and returned to George Osborne in a limousine, the only appropriate transport for Conservative fat cats.

Time to worry when the cat leaves the sinking ship.

Commandments of 'GIST-ISM"

 

 

The ‘Gist’ of the Tony Blair-George Bush exchanges is all that we will be allowed to see in Chilcot’s report.

Is this the modern way? Don’t fret about the details. Following the ‘gist’ will suffice to secure eternal life. I sense a fresh cult coming on. Why not New Muscular Modern Christianity - JUST KEEP TO THE 'GIST'- practical and attainable.  The commandments could be re-drafted.

 

Thou shalt not steal-if there’s a chance you'll get caught.        

Thou shalt not commit adultery - too frequently.

Thou shalt not have other gods before me – except greed and avarice.

Thou shalt not murder – unless authorised by the state.

Thou shalt not covet your neighbour’s property – unless it’s a positive act of wealth re-distribution.

Further suggestions invited.                          

This is not the first time that the chance to modernise religion has been suggested. Some years ago the Church had eccentric guidelines that allowed them to invest in any company as long as no more than 30 per cent per cent of its production was in arms. So it’s OK to invest in GEC. They are big-time merchants of death producing millions of deadly weapons. But they also make other things. But not OK to invest a penny in a small firm making nothing but £30,000-worth of hand grenade pins.

 

I produced a spoof press release from the Archbishop of Canterbury announcing the 30 per cent threshold of sinning. His Grace wrote:

 

‘As a practical, attainable religion for our times Christians would in future be allowed to sin for 30 per cent of the time as long as they were virtuous at other times. No longer need anyone strive to do the impossible and obey the full ten commandants. Seven would be enough and three could be ignored. Free choice would be given in the selection’. His Grace added that he hoped that not many would deny themselves the chance to covet their neighbour’s ox in exchange for rampant adultery.

 

By a stroke of luck, one of our most original contemporary writers, Dr Dorothy Rowe, noticed the story. She used it in her thoughtful book The Real Meaning of Money. It neatly illustrated how morality is relative to most religions.