Happy Birthday Blog

Blog and be damned
My first blog celebrated St Patrick’s Day 2007.  340 blogs and 1000 items later a moment to take stock. High points were winning the British Computer Society’s award for style and getting fourth place in Iain Dale's top politician’s blogs.

Iain is the supreme guru of the Blogosphere and he said,’ Most MPs think that MPs who blog are clinically insane’
Almost all MPs now have websites but only about 70 have daily blogs. The non-bloggers fear offering ‘hostages to fortune’. The firmly held view expressed today may look daft next year, next week or, in the fast moving world of politics, tomorrow. Safer to say nothing is the limp fearful response of non-blogging MPs.

We bloggers are incurable communicators – restless to put the world right. The rule of the Blogosphere is that true bloggers write daily. Starting on the 21st of March last year, I have blogged with about 800 words almost every day.

The response has been marvellous. Hundreds of people read the daily offering. No longer do I bother to send out press releases. Constituents and journalists drop in to the site to find out what’s going on.

The bane of politicians’ lives is the media reducing and distorting a serious view to a single sentence. Blogs provide the space to present detailed arguments. Our constituents deserve to know the details and have the chance to argue back.

Blogs liberate politicians. We can talk to constituents and the wider world un-edited, un-spun and un-abbreviated. Comments can also be dressed up with attractive pictures. This one of GLC and both Newport MPs is a favourite.  Here is platform to present campaigns that challenge orthodox opinion – on the impossible Helmand mission, the over-prescription of medicinal drugs, the exploitation of the 3rd world, the counter-productive illegal drugs policy.

The audience is both local and worldwide. Recent posts have wallowed in the joys of Newport and Wales’ successes, - the County beating Cardiff City, the independent acknowledgement of the superb work of good-value Newport Council, champagne Welsh rugby and the great Newport Nouveau that is emerging from the rubble of building sites city-wide.

Modern Chartists
It’s not just a one-way process. More than a thousand comments from readers have been published. One writes in verse, two wrote from the USA last week. Some are perpetual nags: others are encouraging and supportive. One story on hunting produced 50 readers’ letters. The Welsh blogosphere is rich, diverse and exciting. The British Computers Society gave two of their four awards for politicians’ blogs to Welsh MPs.

The process for the merging of the coalition parties in the Welsh Assembly was lubricated by Welsh blogs. Ways forward were suggested at a time when parties were not talking directly.

Blogs are continuing a proud Newport tradition. When John Frost had messages for his Newport Chartists in the 1830s,  he sent his words to Partridge the printer and then delivered his handbills door to door. This was direct personal communication without the intervention of any media.

Blogs perform the same immediate direct task of personal contact and reaction. The future platform of political debate is on the Blogosphere.

Prison Drugs Con

The Government are fooling us and, probably, themselves on the success of their prison drugs policies. Two of my constituents are among their ''successes'' Both went to prison as heroin users and came out clean. One, a young woman, lived for a week after discharge. The man lived for a day. Both took their usual heroin dose and the body would not tolerated it after a period of abstinence.

They are both there somewhere in the Government’s statistics as instances of prisoners leaving prison drug-free. UK Drug Policy Commission today said that for the 40,000 prisoners who go through detox while in jail, a lack of proper aftercare meant many went straight back to using hard drugs when they left prison.

And that one in 200 injecting heroin users would be dead from an overdose within a fortnight of being released. 'Success' has a bitter taste for their loved ones.

After ten years of vast investments, no prison in Britain in free of illegal drug use. One prisoner told a visiting Tory MP’, ‘I need an aspirin for toothache. I can’t get it until tomorrow when I see the doctor. But I go out from here now and get heroin, cannabis or cocaine in the next five minutes.’

The Commission complained of a lack of evidence for the effectiveness of drug-treatments in prison. Yet still we blunder on, fearing to think because the real solutions are un-popular.

Easier to do what Governments of both parties have done for the past 40 years. Stick to the  slogan,

‘The Policy is not working – so let’s do more of it.’

Any offers?

This e-mail was received today. I cannot help at the moment.

All Labour MPs ,

You and your government will clear my mortgage arrears and pay off my mortgage in full. If this does not happen I will destroy your political careers. I can see to it that every single Labour MP loses his seat at the next local election. Thereafter, I will ruin your future careers, job opportunities and ensure you never acquire a decent job again.
The last time I experienced mortgage problems, Blair lost power. This time, it could be Gordon Brown. Your party does not have anyone else to take his place. No one else in Labour is prime ministerial enough to take on the role and you all know it. If you lose another Prime Minister, your government will be lost.

You will pay off my mortgage in total. It is somewhere in the region of £39,000. If any of you attempt to fight me or retaliate, I will destroy your party.
My mortgage details:
Account holder: Miss Mary  ******
Account Number: ***************
Mortgaged property:  *************, Ilford, Essex IG3 9RE
Current Arrears: £6,411.49

Post Office news

Announced at midnight tonight is the mixed news of Newport Post Office changes.

The Christchurch Road PO is reprieved, Malpas Road is to close, West Park is to be re-considered.

Comments

[Chris Gale]

Thanks for a great first year of the blog Paul.
Your defence of the Hunting Act and the brave people who monitor the hunting fraternity and campaign against them is greatly appreciated by so many.

[Paul Flynn]

Thanks Bustin' Loose. I'm reluctant to contact this lady directly after bitter past experiences. She would certainly reply and reply and reply....

Obsessives are not just for Birthdays. They are for life.

[Paul Flynn]

Thanks John A. In spite of pleas at Business Questions from Brian Iddon and me, there is no sign of a debate or statement on the new Ten Years Drugs strategy. In 1998, the old Drug Czar strategy had the full treatment with bells and trombones.

This time, it's softly, softly in case someone notices that hardly any of the 98 targets have been met.

[Paul Flynn]

Thanks you James Schneider - very generous of you and greatly appreciated coming from a fellow blogger.

[Bustin' Loose]

You could suggest to that lady that she advertises in Private Eye - those ads can't keep appearing every week without someone laundering some cash into those bank accounts ?

Penblwydd Hapus and all that..

[John A]

I could not agree more regarding heroin - there really needs to be a complete u-turn on government drugs policy. Why are doses strong enough to kill even available? Because the market is unregulated.

[James Schneider]

Congragulations on a superb first year. Your blog is an excellent read and fully deserves the high praise from Dale. Many elected members blogs can be so dry, yours adds humour, interest and colour to the day. Thank you and long may it continue.