Paul Flynn - Read My Day

Caught holding the sleaze parcel?

Honours dis-honoured

For 60 years there has been an understanding and tolerance of soft corruption among all major political parties in Britain. Big donors greatly enhanced their chances of getting honours. That was the way it worked. It was a nod and a wink.

Labour reformed the system with a committee to oversee honours. It worked. the committee rightly question some appointments to the Lords. A SNP MP complained and the cash for honours probe was opened. Labour appeared to have been caught holding the parcel when the music stopped.

The select committee on which I sit was already investigating the honours system. Yates of the Yard in a series of private meetings with us asked us to suspend our investigations. Witnesses could have incriminated themselves in evidence to us without a caution and escape subsequent retribution. We reluctantly agreed. This is a possible parliamentary mess and it's up to parliamentarians to clean it up.

Now we must re-open our inquiry. It will be fair, impartial and free from the self-serving leaks that inflated Yates' probe into a major scandal that devalued the work of politicians who were generally doing what they thought was the honourable accepted thing. Our democracy remains, apart from Scandinavia, the cleanest in the world. No-one should be able to pay for a role in public office and certainly not in the legislature.

With some enthusiasm, the committee will reopen our 'paused' inquiry. If we do not restore confidence,  the honours system will become so discredited that it may be more prestigious to refuse an honour and use the title Has Refused Honour or H.R.H.

Jumping the gun John

In the  Dods Online profile  John Prescott says that he is Leader of the UK Delegation Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe.

The election for that job will be held on Monday. Christine McCafferty MP for Calder Valley is standing. An EDM has been put down praising her nine years of service to the Council of Europe, applauds her contribution to the work of the Social Health and Family Affairs Committee, often acting as rapporteur on key human rights issues; recognises her pioneering work on the Equal Opportunities Committee and on the Sub Committee on Children and Sub Committee on Violence Against Women; pays tribute to her abilities in her role as Chair of the Labour Group; and wishes her well in the forthcoming election for Leader of the Labour Group on the UK Delegation to the Council of Europe.

The chickens have not hatched yet, John.

Labour Ready

It was great day to open something named "Labour Ready". It's an instant supplier of Labour on a daily basis and their Newport branch was launched today. Their amiable manager Scott Hall told me about their high standards of safety and their social conscience.

Fellow MPs Helen Jones and Brian Iddon told me that they are good guys. The large influx of Eastern Europeans and the many construction projects  should make life busy for the Newport branch.

Although their sign is in blue, to-days spectacularly good bye-election results spell the same message. there was a time in the Major and Thatchers years when it was said that it was impossible for a Government to win a by-election. Labour and LibDems won them all for several years.

The Cameronian droop to third place is mildly catastrophic. Another 'impossibility' is now possible. I'm keeping the diary free for a busy October General Election.

Let's talk drugs

Public meetings are dead.

All politicians know that. But I thought I would try. There are frustrating restrictions in  communicating with letters, e-mails and blogs. Tomorrow is the second conversation on drugs laws. There is a lot to talk about.

The slippery slope.

The widely accepted carnard is that cannabis is a slippery slope leading to addition, degradation, madness and worse. In the case of  Jacquie Smith, Tony Macnultyand Vernon Coaker they slipped down the slope to the Home Office and the Commons Frontbench. All three Home Office ministers are past druggies and should have some understanding of recreational use.

Unlike cannabis-virgins such as Anne Widdecombe, who has never touched the stuff, that will not believe the exaggerated fables. Seven members of her party took cannabis and ended up as spokesmen on the opposition frontbench. Their Leader is affectionaltly known as 'Druggie Dave' who was very courageous as a backbencher advocating a change winning health solutions rather than more futile  criminal justice.

This is the core of my 'convention' that I hope the Council of Europe will adopt in October. Three Tory MPs plan to support it. One will speak in favour in the Strasbourg Hemi-cycle. After 35 years of  shared error by all political parties, we may be on a slippery slope to common sense. That's real progress. 

Newly minted myth

Myth one: Welsh speakers always speak in English until a non-Welsh speakers walks into pub then they change to Welsh. Author? Antique myth reproduced by Tory Welsh Minister John Redwood.

Myth two: If children in Welsh School fail to ask  to leave the room in Welsh, they will be ignored and have to take the consequences. Author? Lord Neil Kinnock originated myth. He failed to apologise, even after an investigation proved it to be baseless.

Myth three: Rail passengers are missing trains and running around like headless chicken because train announcements are in Welsh first. Author? Don Touhig MP who hallucinates that he sees passengers on Newport railway station running round like headless chickens because they don't know which train to catch. Invisible to me, Don and  I use the station every week. The only person who claims to have missed a train is journalist Matthew Parris. He left himself two whole minutes to get a connection.

Not that this one is anything to do with stations. It's the defeated anti Red-Green coalition MPs soothing the hurt of their bloody noses by putting the boot into the Welsh Language. A new Welsh Language Act is one of the coalition's aims. Sad really that our two Gwent ex-ministers and papal knights cannot find anything more useful to fill their lives. Cheer up, Don and Paul and return to serious politics.

Britain's Vietnam

For the first, and probably last time, I am grateful to the Daily Telegraph. On the day this week that I had an oral question on Afghanistan, they headlined the news that the casualties are  the worst since WW2.  That novelty aspect won this familiar question top billing on BBC's Parliament  coverage. 

" The original hope for the Helmand mission was that it would last for three years without a shot being fired. Half a million shots have been fired and it may last for 30 years. There has been no improvement in the drug situation, no reduction in the threat of terrorism, and precious little reconstruction because the non-governmental organisations will not operate there—all bought at the cost of the worst casualties that Britain has suffered since world war two. Do not those awful outcomes, particularly the loss of life, cry out for a reassessment of the nature and scale of the Helmand mission before it drifts into Britain’s Vietnam?

Sensible and daft

 

Category blind alley

 

Gordon Brown dropped a minor- if predictable- bombshell at Questions Time today.

The national ten year strategy comes up for review next year. It’s been a dismal flop. Gordon suggested more treatment which is eminently sensible. That’s been one of our few successful policies. But it’s daft and a blind alley to raise again the re-categorisation of cannabis.

He is slavishly following weak or faulty evidence and shooting the Tories’ fox. Dropping cannabis from class B to C did not increase use or harm. Reversing the process will do no good. The penalties of the two categories are very similar. There have been greatly exaggerated scare stories about skunk that the tabloids have hyped up. Yes cannabis is bad for people with mental health problem – so are alcohol and other mind altering drugs.

What is mind-sappingly depressing is the realisation that the Government believes that the categories make a difference. They don’t. Alcohol and tobacco should be in category A if they are judged on toxicity and addictivity. The Drugs Act 2005 is an act of utter madness to putting magic mushrooms in the same category as heroin. Before we had categories in 1971 there were less than 1,000 addicts. Now there are 280,000.

The path to progress is to emphasise the health solutions of treatment, needle exchanges, injecting rooms. They work. The criminal justice system does not.

Miracle Doctor

A wise Member of the Public Administration Committee revealed part of his medical history yesterday.

We were in looking at a scheme of ‘navigators’ who guided patients with long term disease through the intricacies of the health and benefit systems.

He said he recently visited his doctor to pick up a prescription for some tablets that he had taken before. The young doctor said he did not believe in drugs. Recently he had an ‘experience’ and he now believes in miracles.

He gave him a tract to take home with him. Always willing to try anything new, he is waiting for the miracle to happen. The doctor said that it may take some time.

If this catches on, it would save the NHS a fortune in expensive drugs.

Lazarus

An ancient Welsh Parliamentary body is about to be revived from its long hibernation.

The Welsh Parliamentary Party is more than 100 years old. It is made up of Welsh MPs of all parties. It rarely meets. The last time was when William Hague was Secretary of State. He wanted to give John Major a platform.

The deal was that the Welsh Grand Committee could meet in Wales. Several of us insisted that we should not export the monolingualism of the Commons. It was decided that the Welsh language would be permitted. Three or four meetings were held with translation facilities and a little bit of history was made.

In working with the Red-Green coalition, it will be necessary for Assembly Ministers to brief MPs on new legislation. It would be awkward for a Plaid Minister to address a Labour Party meeting but no problem to address the Welsh Parliamentary Party.

The WPP once supported the Disestablishment of the Church in Wales.That was in 1870.  It last meet in 1996. The present officers are Allan Rogers (long retired), Ieuan Wyn Jones (now an Assembly Minister) and me. I will write to all Welsh MPs suggesting the Lazarus touch.

Exciting?... well for some of us.

Oh no, John.

Capital folly

The failed Labour Leadership candidate John MacDonnell has provocatively attacked the standing of our local Statistics Office. In a parliamentary Early day Motion he talks of  ‘current and future risks to the quality of the ONS's statistical outputs as a result of the loss of key staff; believes that ONS's plans to close its London site constitute a serious risk to vital public services.

It’s all cobblers. In every planned move of jobs from the capital, there is civil service reluctance. In every case it turns out to be a great success. John is the only signature on his EDM. Today Jessica Morden and I exocetted the EDM with an amendment designed to discourage future signatories.

Jessica and I had a great day at the local office recently. Praise was heaped on the city from dozens of statisticians who have been relocated here. Although few of then have settled in the city itself, they all love our wide open spaces, mountains, beaches, schools, low council taxes and prices.

It was a greatly encouraging visit and a stout denial of all the negative nonsense printed from hostile sources. Very few of the ONS staff in the capital are originally local. A surprise was that many, having escaped unavoidable long commuting journeys to centre of the capital have chosen to live in areas a long way from the new local office. 'Ah' one explained' previously commuting was a misery. Here it's a pleasant ride through lovely countryside.'

Our amendment reads ‘ That this House  applauds the decision to make Newport the Headquarters of the Office of National Statistics; welcomes the ringing endorsement by the Chief Statistician of the high quality of work by the Newport Office which already employs more statisticians than London,  recalls the Lyons report conclusion that moving the Patent Office to the city in 1990 was an exemplar of a high value happy relocation although initially there was sparse enthusiasm from staff to migrate from the South East of England to Newport; is delighted that thousands of civil servants and their families have settled happily in the congenial city of Newport and its beautiful rural hinterland; and welcomes the stability provided to the Gwent economy by the new jobs.’

Grinding the air

There is real sadness at the sad performance of Neil Kinnock in trying to frustrate the Red-Green Assembly coalition.

He is held is high respect in for his courage and leadership. I did attend the meeting to decide the view of the Labour. It clashed with my public meeting on pensions. Several people have told me that his angry red faced rant over-ran the three minutes allowed. He continued shouting although the microphone had been turned off. It’s a comic but demeaning sight.

The adored saviour of the party that hung on his every word was reduced to soundlessly mouthing and grinding the air to a hostile audience. How could he have got so out of touch with the party rank and file?

‘Serial Liar’

There is general air of happy expectation of the prospect of a mayoral joust between Ken and Boris.

Polly Toynbee in today’s Guardian salivates at the prospect of Cameron’s greatest error. Generously she describes Boris as ‘Jester, toff, self-absorbed sociopath and serial liar, the man could still win. Even Conrad Black called him "a duplicitous scoundrel", and he should know.

Living half my life in the capital city, I am queasy at the prospect of a victory for a shallow buffoon who no ideas on improving the city. In

New York

last year, I visited City Hall and I was greatly impressed by the leadership of Mayor Bloomberg. He and his predecessor have transformed the most deprived part of the city . 

Politics aside, Boris is abjectly unsuited to run a great city.

See Harlem Reborn on

Newport

TV

Shambo and the Killing Fields

Round one to common sense in the Shambo Saga.

The Judge said the Assembly will be obliged to ‘reconsider the public health objectives that underlie behind the surveillance and slaughter policy, and come to a view as to whether, in the reasonable pursuit of those objectives, the slaughter of this animal (or some less intrusive measure) would be proportional given the serious infringement of the community's rights under Article 9 that slaughter would involve.’

This is great news. The almighty farming lobby has been frustrated. Their answer to most farming crises is mass slaughter of cattle, foxes, badgers and now Shambo. Hundreds of thousands of healthy animals were put down in the foot and mouth crisis. They now want to contradict science and slaughter all badgers.

Today on a phone-in on Radio Cymru, a vet argued that ‘rules are rules.’ Yes, but exceptional situations cry out for exceptional decisions. The risk to animal and human health from Shambo is so microscopically small to be insignificant. Trampling on the monks core belief in the sanctity of life is serious.

For too long the Welsh Assembly has buckled under the demands of the farming lobby. Abandoning the plans to get rid of duplicated Tir Gofal/ Tir Mynydd payments was wholly unjustified now that the Single Payment system is working. It’s double compensation.Slaughtering badgers or Shambo will not reduce the threat of Bovine TB. Improving farm transport and market contact from bovine to bovine will.

I hope the Welsh Assembly will see sense and not waste more taxpayers’ money on an appeal.

Sloping pain-killing fields

More evidence of the lethal insanity of Britain's suicidal mission in Helmand Province.

One: British farmers are cultivating the same crops that cost the British taxpayers £260 and 64 lives to eradicate in Afghanistan.
Two: The rate at which British soldiers are being seriously injured or killed on the front line in Afghanistan is about to pass that suffered by our troops during the Second World War. The casualty rate suffered  in Helmand is  approaching 10pc. That's  just 1% off the rate suffered in WW2.

Yet, as our soldiers risk their lives daily, large swathes of the English countryside are being turned over to the very same crop - with the full backing of the Government.

Farmers are cultivating the poppies to combat a critical shortage of morphine in NHS  hospitals, and are finding it a lucrative crop. Extracts from the plants can either be turned into the much-needed painkiller - or deadly heroin.

The Home Office has granted pharmaceutical company Macfarlan Smith a licence to harvest the poppies, and now they are being grown in tens of farms across Oxfordshire, Northamptonshire and Lincolnshire. One farmer Guy Hildred told the Daily Mail, that he has dedicated more than 100 acres of his farm near Ipsden, Oxfordshire, to poppies. He said: "It is worthwhile from a farmer's point of view and it's an  expanding market."

Organ donors

All London Cyclists have gone mad. Well, madder than usual.

The hospitals here called cyclists ‘organ donors’ because of their high accident rates. In the past week, there is a new fury in their cycling.

They hurtle past each other, dangerously riding two – sometimes three abreast, to reach the next traffic light. They take up a whole lane and force car to cower behind them nervous of what their next stunt will be.

.

There is only one explanation. They are all fantasying. The road alongside the river is the track, they are all international riders in the cycle race that is fascinating the continent for reasons that escape me.

Perhaps it will all settle down when the final yellow jersey has been won.

Go Monkey - Boris.

Go Monkey - Boris.

At noon tomorrow we will know.  Have the Tories found a candidate with the ghost of a chance of defeating ken Livingstone as mayor of London. Blair failed and conned Frank Dobson to sacrifice himself. He was rewarded with a humiliating 13% of the vote in Labour London.

Steve Norris's nicknamed of 'five shags' gave him insufficient notoriety to seriously challenge Ken. Of course there was the flop of the Lord Archer's challenge. Will Boris abandon Henley to commit political Hara -Kiri?

His is the essential rascal reputation. He can be funny. He is gaffe prone. those are all the basic qualifications. But even Londoners expect a bit more for their mayor. Boris is a political vacuum. He has held a couple of frontbench roles without anyone really noticing anything he has said, with the possible exception a of a battle cry to bring back Latin.

My advice him is ' Go monkey, Boris'. It worked in Hartlepool. Boris has a head start with a convincing gibber,  wayward tousled hair and a simian gait. Better even than the Hartlepool Monkey, he can tells jokes.

Boris, the talking orang utang  could out-clown Ken. Go for it!

Despair tinged with Optimism.

Tim Davidson the magnificent chair of the Celf Caerleon Arts Festival  said the week peaked on  the few occasions where his despair was tinged with optimism.

It was a week of tempests, downpours, fields flowing towards the river and archaeological discoveries of layers of the deposits created by generations of cattle. Yet this fifth festival was a success, drawing crowds to see seven sculptors from around the world at work, enjoying  free entertainment on the field, browsing among craft stalls and attending  a variety of other events.

Fortunately, most sculptures were complete before the rain came, including this commemoration of the Caerleon-born writer Arthur Machen by Jiri Netik of the Czech Republic, and Bulgarian Alexander Ivanov's ornate bench form "Spirit of the Waves"

At the Festival Dinner tonight sponsored by Dylan Matthews at the Celtic Manor Resort,, Tim delighted with his stoicism and humour. The event has many generous sponsors and is a herculean achievement by the people of Caerleon. It was an unforgettable cultural orgy of creativity in the face of adversity.

Out the mud came magnificance.

For more gorgeous detail see the website:-

http://www.caerleon-arts.org/contacts.htm

Bettws-rich tapestry of a mixed community

Break in monsoon
Today was carnival day in Bettws, Newport. It's a lucky area with a remarkable character - a blend of the new, the young and the mature. When I first spoke in parliament in 1987 I had Bettws in mind when I praised the quality of council building in Newport that had created; what Aneurin Bevan called ‘the rich tapestry of a mixed community.’

Today's procession had a Japanese theme - with glorious orange dragons on sticks carried high above the snaking ground dragons. Assembly Member Rosemary Butler and I were cowardly in our awards of prizes. The choice was, one 'overall winner' and lots ' highly commended.'  That means making one friend and many potentially resentful enemies. Tricky for politicians. We gave the first prize to the dragon designer Granville John (picture with Rosemary and me) and highly commended to everyone else.

The plan for the route of the procession were designed to cope with the unseasonable monsoon we are suffering. Luckily today was a blessed break in the rains and the procession was welcomed with warm sunshine.

High on the hill over Bettws is St David’s Church, which was ancient when the Chartist leader John Frost was married there 170 years ago. Although it’s surrounded by modern houses the church and grounds still have the atmosphere of a quiet rural retreat.

Then Bettws was rolling farmland dotted with  farmhouses, fields and woods. Thanks to the wisdom of the planners, development was sensitive and farsighted. When it was built there was a fashion for giant multi-storied flats. They now disfigure many English cities. Some have become uninhabitable and have been pulled down.

Our planners rejected giant flats. They were inspired by the traditional ideal of a two storied house with a good size decorative garden in the front and a utilitarian one behind. They remain the most popular dwellings. Young couples who moved in in 1950s to brand new houses, now welcome their grandchildren to mature, extended and beautifully improved homes. The few flats built in Bettws have been the least successful dwellings. Some have been demolished.

Well done to all who organised an exceptionally successful and happy day.

Prezza Peril

There will be no automatic coronation for John Prescott as Leader of the Labour group in the Council of Europe.

On Monday nominations will be invited. One long serving capable woman member of the delegation is certain to challenge any nomination for John. There has never been a woman leader and there are strong feelings that it is high time there was.

The woman candidate is greatly respected as a regular attender and a doughty champion for human rights. She would have been the obvious choice without Preeza. There is irritation that John has attracted bad publicity to the delegation. That will continue if he is elected as leader. He has no recent experience of the council and there is strong possibility that he could be humiliated in a ballot.

Even if he won, he knows that many, probably a majority, of the active members of the delegation oppose him. Working relations would be dire. The wise thing to do would be for him to decline nomination and try again next year. then the tabloids will have quietened down.

All other other alternatives are bloody.

Solemn and binding

The scale of the event was a great surprise.

The opening of new area for Muslim burials in st Woolos Cemetery Newport was likely to be a minor event- which I was looking forward to attending. Sadly a number of distinguished senior Muslim citizens have died recently. None more prominent that 'Dada" Muhammad Hyat who served in the Indian Army and was captured in Iraq.

It was gratifying that all the British Legion's banners were paraded in his honour and in tribute to the many other other Muslim soldiers who have served our country. Representatives of all three services, the Queen, the Police and the Gurkhas attended. Prayers were offered by the Newport Iman.

The service was unique, dignified, solemn and binding. It proved the unity of the people of Newport as a mixed community based on mutual respect.

It was powerful statement of rejection of the divisions that are so dreadfully exposed elsewhere.

Go soft, Gordon

Hard power heresy

If true it's the best Brown news yet. Soft power in place of hard power.

One of Blair's theme that he got wrong.  "In the 20th Century a country's might was too often measured in what they could destroy. In the 21st Century strength should be measured by what we can build together," said new minister Douglas Alexander.

It was a  hard power stance adopted by Kim Howells in July 2006 by describing calls for a cease-fire in Lebanon as a 'meaningless gesture'. It was not meaningless for the children subsequently buried alive at Qana, the thousand killed and the million whose homes were destroyed. The  soft power option of an early cease-fire would have avoided these tragedies, which weakened Israel and strengthened Hezbollah.

The`soft power' tactics by the UK in Afghanistan from 2001 to February 2006 resulted in seven British casualties, mostly in accidents. The 57 fatalities since then, mostly in combat, are a result of the change to `hard power' tactics  in the Helmand Province.

On the  23rd March 2003 Tony Blair was told in a letter from me that the UK's involvement in President Bush's war in Iraq will increase the likelihood of terrorist attacks here.  Attacking a Muslim state without achieving a fair settlement of the Palestine-Israeli situation was an affront to all Muslims, pre-emptive attack of the kind perpetrated on Iraq will only deepen the sense among Muslims that the Western/Christian/Jewish world is out to oppress them and increase his support and the likelihood of more acts of terrorism' That hard power led directly to the 7/7 attack by British-born terrorists. The reckless deployment of hard power undermines the soft power strategy of winning hearts and minds.

Cwtch

To many it will be a paradise.

It's a Tardis shed on the hill beside the Bell Inn in Caerleon. Inside there is a cornucopia of beers and whiskies, mostly Welsh and wickedly strong. I called in at lunchtime while tonight's beer fest was being lovingly prepared. The casks were  all labelled with exotic names that tempted the pallet.

What new delights are in store for the happy band that assembled at the 'Cwtch' at the Bell Inn at Caerleon.  It combines the friendly allures of garden shed retreat with the exotic thrill of a speakeasy.

Sadly I had a meeting to attend. Bliss postponed is bliss to be enjoyed on another day.

Tolerance of intolerance

Tolerance of intolerance
Today's Select Committee was meeting peaceful and reasonable- thanks to our splendid intelligent witnesses. The committee is swift to spot the pretentious deceivers. They get forensic aggression unbridled in return for their patronising platitudes.

Meeting Charity Commissioners for the first time was  a pleasant surprise. Led by Dame Suzi Leather, they explained their proposed modernising reforms to ensure public benefits.

They dealt commendably with a barrage of weird and serious questions. Should private schools and their rich parents get tax breaks? Probably yes. Would Pastafarianism be acceptable as a religion? probably no. Could a closed monastic order who  did nothing but pray be a charity? Probably no. What about the Finsbury Park Mosque, if they preach intolerance?

Suzi replied 'There is a certain tolerance of intolerance.'

Fascinating. More later.

Peace triumph

A terrifying report of the deadly perils of a British disaster is published by New Scientist.

The US confirmed that that nuclear warheads could explode – setting off a chain reaction that would be blown across most of south-east England. The entire population of London was at risk of inhaling carcinogens.

Released under Freedom of information, the MoD at the time was warned that Greenham Common was the most dangerous of 11 sites considered.

It was in 1981 that Ann Pettit from Carmarthen wrote an article in the magazine Arcade calling for action against placing nuclear weapons in the UK. She led the march from Cardiff.

I vividly the recall their first stop at Newport on a hot summer day. So tired was everyone, I commandeered a Newport City bus to take almost all 31 of them from Tredegar Park to the city centre at John Frost Square. They judged that there was no reduction in the risk when they arrived at Greenham; so they set up a peace camp for a prolonged protest that lasted 19 years.

A massive chain of protesters linking arms encircled the base in 1982. It was a powerful symbol of women putting their vulnerable bodies between the world and the deadly threatening might of nuclear weapons.

The anxiety was nuclear war. No-one realise how dangerous the peacetime site was. This was an era of madness. E P Thompson said the fate of the world was in the hands of ‘President Andropov of the Soviet Union on a life support machine dead from the neck up, and president Reagan dead from the neck up.’

The world peace movement brought the world to its senses. We withdrew from the nuclear brink. Insanely with a new Trident we are heading back to it.

Killing scares
A double dose of Brynle Williams is a tad irritating at early morning hour of 7.30 am and 8.00 am.

Interviews in Welsh and English showed Brynle at his usual tedious worst. First he is patronising then personally offensive.  Today it was Shambo. He tried bit of a scaremongering on the biblical plague that will be visited on Llanpumsaint unless Shambo is killed. Massive clouds of infection will be breathed and excreted by the sacred bull.  Might make some sense if Shambo was ill. He is not. He is healthy and in quarantine in a structure within a temple isolated from other cattle. There is no risk. If he does shows signs of TB in future, the monks will treat him with anti-biotic.

The farmers’ cure-all is mass extermination. They want to slaughter all badgers. Science proves that it increases the spread of TB in Ireland and here. The only way of halting the spread of TB is by restricting cattle movements and contacts in cattle markets and farm. But moving cattle around is highly profitable. Slaughtering TB prone cattle is a minor problem because the taxpayers pay the compensation bill.

Exceptional situations call for exceptional decisions. The devotion that the monks have for Shambo is thoroughly exceptional. Strictly enforcing a crude law for no good purpose will deeply wound Hindu sensibilities.

Let’s hope the High Court exercises the common senses the law allows.

Omnipotence flops

Kim Howells in a lame response to a debate on Afghan poppies this morning said, ‘Corruption in Afghanistan is something that we just have to put up with.’ But is it something that British soldiers have to die for?

The only rational posture of a minister on the Afghan debacle should have been contrite and apologetic. But Ministers do not do contrition. The drugs policy is an utter abject failure. Heroin production is the highest ever and grew 60% last year. There is so much heroin on our streets, the price is the lowest ever. And it cost British taxpayer £260 million on narcotics ‘reduction’ in addition to the £1billion we shell out on security

I reminded Kim of his disgraceful attempt at being hip in answering an oral question that could not have been more serious. In February 2006 I made a speech forecasting an increase in casualties in Helmand that could lead us to a British Vietnam.

Kim boasted in an answer to the question that the war on drugs was going well with a 21% decrease in the land cultivated. True but misleading. The decrease in heroin production was only 2%. My main concern was sending troops into Helmand which I said ‘would result in an increase in violence that would drive local farmers into the hands of Taliban.’ This was tragically prophetic.

Laugh-a-minute Kim replied,

“It’s not enough to assume that if people eat muesli, go to Harold Pinter first nights and read the Independent, the drug barons of Afghanistan will go away?”

This was a joke. Some MPs laughed. The loved ones of the 56 brave soldiers who have died since that day in Helmand will not be laughing. Nor will the families of thousands of people whose lives continue to be destroyed by Afghan heroin.

Kim, last month, promised ‘a battle against corruption in Afghanistan.’ This is delusional politics based on the myth of the omnipotence of American-British power. If there is any problem, we will solve it. Turning anarchic Afghanistan to a model Scandinavian democracy? No Problem. Ending corruption that been endemic in Afghanistan for centuries?  We can do it.

If any minister really believes that he can end Afghan corruption, and it’s possible he does believe it, the kindest thing would be to have him ushered away by men in white coats.

There was also a calmer debate. Tory Tobias Ellwood wants a pilot programme to allow a licit trade by using to poppies for the production of the medicines of morphine and codeine. This is a bright visionary idea. Tobias deserves credit for courage.  Everyone agreed.

A delicious act of stupidity or desperation?

The Conservatives have announced the appointment of their team in the House of Lords. They are Lord Glentoran from Northern Ireland and the Duke of Montrose from Scotland.

Asked what he knows about Wales, Lord Glentoran confessed he ‘knows nothing about the politics of Wales but I know about the geography.’ The astonishing example he gave was ‘I once lived with a literally working-class family in Bristol.’ Geography not that good, your Lordship?

I know Lord Glentoran as a member of the body of British and Irish MPs. I have heard him say that he has worn a Union Jack on his chest. An activity that is not common in Wales.

The title of Duke of Montrose was created in 1488. It was forfeited and then returned, but only for the period of the holder's lifetime. Thus, it was not inherited. The title was bestowed anew in 1707, again in the peerage of Scotland, on the fourth Marquess of Montrose, and has since been in the Graham family. The title is also tied as the chieftainship of Clan Graham.

The Tories imposed the incredible John Redwood on Wales as our Governor General. He was reputed to have come from the planet Zog. He never slept overnight in Wales. It was rumoured that he went back to Zog and slept hanging upside down on the ceiling of a cave.

Is the Tories’ understanding of Celtic nations so vague, that they cannot see the differences between Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales? Or are they just stupid?

Suggestions please. I am baffled.

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