Where angels fear..

With trepidation I shall watch Channel Four News tonight (Sunday).

 In spite of exhaustive efforts to find any MPs prepared to take part in an item on MPs’ expenses I was the only one they found.

I suggested several names but the vow of Omerta in binding on all parties. Perhaps they remember with horror the howls of public anger that Eric Pickles  suffered on Question Time. In the bubble of Westminster, it is reasonable to say that you need a second home if you live 37 miles from the Commons. In the real world it a grasping, greedy absurdity.

I trust the Channel Four journalist Girish Juneja who has produced tomorrow’s item. I am sure he will turn my stumbling meandering comments into a polished message. Some of my colleagues may not like what I say. They will, however, agree that it is true.

 There will be some wincing and griping from the backbenches. But it will be invisible and silent. Will I regret my own comments? It’s possible. Have I rushed in where angels fear to tread.”?

Fingers crossed.

Blogging bad

Last night’s raffle at Llandrindod Wells was offering a real prize.

I was intrigued that even though I had won, the details of the prize were revealed only this morning. We had a splendid, well-informed pep talk on the use of hi-tech communications by MPs. The advice was don’t blog or use twitter. Blogs provides hostages to fortune and tweeting is for idiots.

Using a lively website was encouraged and Facebook.  Mature MPs and AMs present said they found Facebook an alien hostile habitat. The prize was a flip camera worth a £100. It is simplicity to operate and videos can be instantly downloaded to YouTube. Search for PF first to see my test on using this slick minute camera. I have not yet succeeded in loading it here. I have forgotten how to do it.

But this minute camera is likely to become a constant companion.

 Blood Price

No one now believes in a military victory in Afghanistan.

Obama is bound by an election promise to send his surge of troops. What’s our excuse?

The need to maintain solidarity with the President who has backed Gordon Brown G20 policy? A belief that the military surge is just one element is a peace strategy that might just work?

Troops are risking their lives to win the re-election of a deeply corrupt government. To claim this is a noble and just cause is an insulting lie. Karzai’s family has enriched themselves from the drugs trade and he ditching the few progressive reforms that have been made in order to win fundamentalist votes.

Perhaps the Defence Minister will agree to attend all the funerals of our brave soldiers that result from our surge? 

Sadly I cannot ask him. Parliament is in recess for a week.

Comments

[Kay Tie]

Not quite everyone. Some people predicted much of this. Ambrose Evans-Pritchard at the Telegraph has been spot on. Roger Bootle, too. And John Redwood has a pretty good track record - as documented on his blog.

The Treasury has had a dismal record, as has the BBC. Both have been politically directed, which is a lesson we have to learn again and again - I remember well hearing Norman Lamont's woeful forecasts in the early '90s. You can make good money betting against ministers - as George Soros proved in 1992 and again in 2008.

[Paul Flynn]

You are right KayTie, I would have had a hard time as a minister. That is why I resigned from the frontbench in 1990.

But PASC is working on a 'Good Government' report. Some of these ideas will be in it
.
Thanks goodness today Alistair Darling confess he was wrong about the economic prsopects las year. Everyone was.

[Paul Flynn]

Rwendland you are a wonder. You know more about my past comments than I do. thanks for the links. I am fascinated.

[Paul Flynn]

Many thanks Baneswell Boy. It was good of you to let me know how the item came across. If it did not work, I have only myself to blame. Sadly we will not be back in parliament next week. I hope the penny drops among my fellow MPs by then.

[Baneswell boy]

Just watched your piece to camera on C4 news. Came across as perfectly reasonable and balanced.

Let us know what reaction you get from your fellow MPs when you get back to the House tomorrow.

[Kay Tie]

"I regret very little of what I have said. When facts changes opinions should change too."

I can see why you aren't a minister..

Yes, you're completely right. But it's important that the opinions change in line with the new facts rather than are bent to support a preconception. For example, this is not the "end of capitalism": capitalism hasn't failed any more than the climate has changed because a storm blows in.

[rwendland]

Obnoxio, Paul Flynn was I think the first MP to use the internet to communicate with voters in a blogging-type way. A 1997 post is still online even though the datestamp has been lost. In 1998 Paul described himself as a "fully paid-up nerd"!

http://old.paulflynnmp.co.uk/commonsdetail.jsp?id=219
http://old.paulflynnmp.co.uk/commonsdetail.jsp?id=53

Unlikely that he would be critical of trying a new method.

[Paul Flynn]

Kay Tie, I have been happily blogging daily for two years now. Any hostages I have provided have not been problems.

I regret very little of what I have said. When facts changes opinions should change too. In two years we have seen the world turned upside down.

[Paul Flynn]

Huw, Obama is not perfect. He said there would be disappointments in his term of office. But he has had a great start. there are limits to the face of reform. He cannot change deeply ingrained public opinion overnight.

There has been no advance on reduction of nuclear weapons for decades.

He has held out the hand of friendship to Iran. You are expecting too much too soon.

[Paul Flynn]

I have not come across you before Obnoxio the clown. You clearly have difficulty understanding simple English. I did not say if I agree with the statement on twitters and I blog daily. Tut. Tut.

[Kay Tie]

You were told that blogging provides hostages to fortune, eh? Giving the public an insight into your opinions and character must be a bad thing then. What do these people think of a manifesto or of the hustings?

[HuwOS]

Paul your Obamophilia remains unchecked.
This man, while infinitely more presentable than the previous tenant of the white house is the president of the United States, and no different from the generality of them than any other.
He has declared that the US will keep nuclear weapons while there is a "nuclear threat", just as with Britain's keeping of a nuclear deterrent this is a declared, deliberate and ongoing breach of nnpt signed up to in 1968.
He has also confirmed that the US will continue to press forward with their missile defence shield, which has so damaged their relationship with Russia.
Why?
Well, according to Obama
"As long as the threat from Iran exists, we will go forward with a missile defence system,"
This is twisted head Bush mindset back again, there is no threat from Iran, US intelligence has confirmed there is no threat from Iran, that there is no nuclear weapons program in Iran.
But if we can pretend that the non threat, is a threat then we will be able to justify all kinds of horrors as we did with the non threat that Iraq represented and the non threat that Afghanistan represented.
The added advantage is that it is impossible for the victim nation to prove it is not a threat as there is no evidence for them to challenge.

While I detest myself for doing so
I must quote
"A man may smile and smile and be a villain"

[HuwOS]

Obnoxio fails on english comprehension.
On his blog, Paul Flynn, quoted advice he and others were given.

[Obnoxio The Clown]

So, on your blog you have just called the entire Twitter community idiots, creating a hostage to fortune.

Are all MPs this short of self-awareness, or is it a Labour speciality?