Ffwrrwm and lobby secret

A glorious afternoon spent with my old friend  retired Doctor Russell Rees and wife Gillian. 

 

Russell has built his own paradise in what was once a builders yard.  He has commissioned a new work. it stands with many other marvellous recreations of tales from the Mabinogion and Arthurian legends in the beautiful Caerleon village in  Newport West. This is the home of the world's biggest love spoon and a wealth of unique statues.

   

The world's longest love spoon cannot be photographed in its entirety because it disappeared  under the branches of a tree halfway down its length. It has the characteristics of everything that Russell has commisioned, Weslh, bold, unique and beautiful.

The village of Caerleon stands on the River Usk. Tennyson wrote the Idylls of the Kings and the Lady of Shallott when he stayed at the Hanbury Arms. Russell and Gillian have realised a dream. The Ffwrrwm is a restaurant, a barber shop, a jewellry shop, a guitar makers shop and a new age treasure house.

Central Lobby secret

Parliament is full of surprises. Soon I will be working on a new version of my guide to Parliament, 'Commons' Knowledge.' 

A new insight into the role of the Central Lobby was revealed to me shortly before the recess. An MP friend found himself sitting next to a woman in the Central Lobby last week. She was waiting to see her Tory MP. My friend chatted to the lady 'as you do', he told me.

The following week he had a letter from her saying that she would like to see him again. She said she hoped he did 'not have a girl friend.' Gosh! A member of the cabinet who was sharing our dining table recalled an MP for a northern town who explained the role of the Central Lobby to him. 25 years ago he had advised the cabinet member that if he was ever 'short' of a bed warmer for the night, the best way to solve the problem was to linger around the Central Lobby and engage a stranger in conversation. The lecherous MP spent so much time pursuing his passions in the Central Lobby, he lost his seat in 1983.

In my sheltered life, I have always seen the Central Lobby as a beautiful mock Gothic  cathedral-style forum at the heart of the Palace. It's an inspiring place in which to  meet constituents and now do television interviews in the dry. I must reveal its alternative sleazy  role when I re-write my book. 

The public deserve to know the truth.

Comments

[Paul Flynn]

Thanks, Huw, Patrick and Adam. Media, politicians and military all joined in a state of denial. Thanks for the new links that add further evidence of this immense tragedy.

[Adam]

The self-righteous condemnation of the Taliban from those who support this war is usually delivered in ignorance of what the change of regime has brought to Afghanistan. Reassuring themselves with faulty arguments about national security and the war on drugs whilst citing the supposed benefits of ‘democracy’ and even claims of improved women’s rights, which the links above from Huw OS show to be rubbish. The country is now run by warlords who treat women the same as the Taliban according to those authoritative Afghan women and the ‘democracy’ is a government of warlords picked by the American backed Karzai regime.

As Huw’s second link says, ‘there are 67 women in the Afghan parliament, most of them are pro-warlord and are themselves enemies of women's rights. When the famed marriage rape law was passed in the parliament, none of them seriously raised their voice against it.’

Poverty is one of the main problems. Corruption has seen much of the aid money disappear and have no effect. It is a fraction which goes to its intended use. Extortion and corruption is commonplace. Western businesses also took their share. Unemployment is at huge levels. Rural farmers in some areas depend on opium farming as their only realistic living. Yet NATO forces have always sought to try and put an end to this by force. Many Afghans have joined an insurgency which gives them a substantially better income than they would otherwise have; you can see how this has been another unjust, self-righteous and short sighted failure. Karzai himself is closely involved with opium.

Tribal differences have always played a part. Afghanistan culture has always resisted occupation. Yet the resistance is painted as a fearsome fundamentalist cult, which the west must defeat. It is NATO forces which are occupying their country, and these forces are directly responsible for several thousand deaths. Those who take up arms in resistance must be destroyed we are told.

Some of the warlords who comprise the current Afghan government are of an Islamic fundamentalist persuasion. The second article I posted earlier names one who is said to have been an ally and mentor to Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, the supposed mastermind of 911.

Many of the insurgents NATO are fighting are grassroots fighters driven by economic necessity, resentment of the criminal government (supported by NATO) and the killing of their friends and family by NATO.

The NATO presence is not helping. This fight against the Taliban must cease. A peace settlement and withdrawal has to be sought.

[HuwOS]

Funnily, I have just read an article about a swimming pool in France banning a woman from swimming wearing a "burkini"
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/8197917.stm

I did a quick search to see what they looked like and found this
http://www.ahiida.com/index.php?a=results&subcat=59

While I understand the thinking in wanting to ban the burkha and other things that do seem to us to denigrate women.
This has got to be a hard one to support logically.
What is it we should be objecting to here.
Covering the hair? Swimming caps
Covering the breasts? Not uncommon
Covering the stomach? not all swimsuits for women are bikinis.
Covering the private areas? Umm not sure we want to start arguing that.
Covering from thigh to knee? Males wear quite large and baggy shorts for swimming fairly often now.
So the principle subjugation of womanhood here is covering from knee to ankle and not leaving arms bare?
A fairly esoteric stance to take for female liberation I would suggest.

[patrick]

The links are powerful evidence that our nations actions are yet again shameful.
Shame on our puppet parliament.
Shame on the spin doctors of the MOD.
Shame on the British voters for being more concerned about day to day trivia.

[HuwOS]

Talk about typo king

First post should have read
"A piece ..."
Second post should have read,
"... for those of you who believe that alone justifies our actions"

[HuwOS]

and another article offering the same view of how to best serve the women of Afghanistan, for those of you who believe that along justifies our actions

http://www.zmag.org/znet/viewArticle/21956

[HuwOS]

An piece from Malalai Joya, an elected member of the Afghan national assembly, offering a female perspective on a small part of the Afghanistan we have made.

http://www.zmag.org/znet/viewArticle/22127

[Paul Flynn]

Thanks Adam. I wish the national media would print the ugly truth about the corrupt, depraved Karzai regime for which British soldiers are dying

[Adam]

Paul, following your recent criticisms of the Karzai government, I thought you would be interested to read this article about the forthcoming Afghanistan presidential election.

http://www.wsws.org/articles/2009/aug2009/pers-a10.shtml

Mass abstention, voter registration fraud and disruption by the Taliban are likely to be features of this election.

It is expected that Karzai will win. He has the support of a number of influential warlords, two of whom are his vice-presidential running mates. By giving key appointments and bribes to these warlords, Karzai has made them his supporters. According to the article these men:

‘effectively control the local governments, police, Afghan army units and electoral officials in their respective spheres of influence.’

Also, as a follow up to the report about the rape and extortion carried out by the police in Pankela, Helmand this second article gives a bit more information about police abuses in the province.

The Helmand police are effectively a militia controlled by a warlord called, Sher Mohammed Akhunzadeh. He was Karzai's appointed governor until 2006 when Karzai was pressured into sacking him after 'a British-trained counter-narcotics team found nearly 10 tonnes of heroin in the warlord's basement.' Karzai then forced the replacement governor to accept Akhunzadeh's brother as his deputy.

http://www.atimes.com/atimes/South_Asia/KG31Df02.html