Paul Flynn - Read My Day

Waiting for failure

 Total of British Soldiers killed in Afghanistan = 364

The King’s Fund is shaping up to being the authentic independent critic of the NHS. They report that NHS waiting lists are at a three year high. Colin Leys, Honorary Professor at Goldsmiths College London, and co-author with Stewart Player of 'The Plot Against the NHS' described the future of the NHS in a climate of cuts and reform.

In January I speculated that the Tories have solved the tricky problem of NHS waiting lists that have long been a headache to Governments.

Waiting lists are not an efficient way to measure the quality of the service, but they have a great effect on public perception. Many patients have been driven to unwisely impoverish themselves by going private rather than demanding better NHS treatment for urgent treatment.

In January’s debate on the NHS bill, no Tory had the generosity to admit that Labour has cut the waiting lists down to a level that was insignificant. Those present steadfastly refused to say whether this bill would increase waiting times.

But they have a plan. It's confirmed on Page 59 of the Commons Library note on the bill 'The Department of Health no longer publish waiting times data (the final publication was March 2010).

I tweeted about this today. The claim in the HOC document had been denied by the Department of Health. The figures today came from the King’s Fund, as I understand it, not the DOH.

 

Waiting lists are only one item of Coalition policy that has turned to dross. There were the botched bonfires of the Quangos, Gove’s blunders, the Big Society, plus the NHS reforms.

 

Civil Slaves

A new report from the Institute for Government, Making Policy Better, looks at what has gone wrong in Whitehall's core business. It shows how civil servants are too keen to flatter. One former minister is quoted as saying:

"When you become a minister you become the most interesting person in the world because everybody sits around nodding at you. You also become amazingly funny. Every half-witted remark you make, every pun that you attempt, is met with gales of laughter from the people round the table. It can lull you into thinking: 'I must be right about everything'." By the same token, some ministers are so "scary" that civil servants are too frightened to challenge them. So officials just do what they are told by ministers who are often not up to the job. No wonder coalition policies are going pear-shaped.

 

Ieuan feeble

Why does Ieuan Wyn Jones appear to be weak?

Spotted tonight in his interview with Vaughan Roderick was his failure to make any clear statements. He used the diminishing expression ‘If you like’ at least six times.

What if we don’t like?

Guto's gobbledegook 

An irritating mis-representation repeated ad nauseam this morning by Guto Bebb is that under AV unpopular candidates have their votes counted more than once.

Balderdash. Losers’ votes under AV are eliminated at each round. Votes that are counted 'more than once' are the eventual winners.

 

From the BBC Wales website

 Ie i AV 

Pam cefnogi'r bleidlais amgen?

Paul Flynn

Aelod Seneddol Llafur Gorllewin Casnewydd

 

Er nad yw'r 'Bleidlais Amgen' yn berffaith, mae'n llawer tecach na'r system 'Cyntaf i'r Felin'. O dan y system bresennol, mae Etholiadau Cyffredinol yn cael eu penderfynu gan ychydig filoedd o bleidleiswyr mewn dim ond nifer fach o etholaethau. Mae angen newid yr anghyfiawnder o bleidleisiau pobl sydd ddim yn cyfri'. Mae hwn yn gyfle mawr o ddiwygiad democrataidd a allai arwain at ddiwygiadau pellach.

Byddai Siartwyr Casnewydd wedi dweud 'Ie' i Bleidlais Amgen. Yn fy etholaeth i yn 1839, bu farw 20 o Siartwyr. Roedden nhw'n protestio am ddemocratiaeth, ac yn erbyn yr anghyfiawnderau mawr yn yr etholfraint yn 1839. Heddiw, mae'r holl bwyntiau yn eu siarter wedi'u cyflawni, heblaw am ethol seneddau pob blwyddyn. Petai'r Siartwyr yn fyw heddiw, rwy'n credu y bydden nhw eisiau gwneud pob pleidlais o werth cyfartal. Mae Pleidlais Amgen yn mynd yn bell ar y ffordd i gyflawni hynny. Er nad yw'n cyrraedd y nod terfynol o wneud pob pleidlais o werth cyfartal, mae'n welliant mawr.

Mewn dau Etholiad Cyffredinol diweddar yng Nghymru, enillodd y Torïaid 20% o'r pleidleisiau ond dim un o'r 40 o seddi yng Nghymru. Mae hynny'n newyddion braf i mi fel AS Llafur ond mae'n ddemocratiaeth erchyll. Mae Cyntaf i'r Felin yn ystumio'r dymuniadau'r pleidleiswyr.

'Swydd am oes'

Lwc yw hi bod y glymblaid presennol wedi gorfodi'r Torïaid i roi refferendwm i ni.

Mae llawer o'r gwrthwynebiad gan ASau yn cael ei ysgogi gan hunan-les. Maen nhw'n meddwl, 'rhaid bod y system sy'n ethol pobl mor wych â ni yn ffordd dda o wneud pethau. Pan fyddwn yn cael ein ethol dro ar ôl tro mae'n rhaid i'r system fod yn berffaith. Pam newid?' Y gwir trist yw bod y system Cyntaf i'r Felin yn galluogi ASau i gael 'swydd am oes' yn y rhan fwyaf o etholaethau.

Fel y mae pethau ar hyn o bryd, gall ymgeisydd ennill etholaeth gydag ychydig dros draean o'r bleidlais, tra bod dau ymgeisydd arall gydag ychydig o dan draean yr un o'r bleidlais. Byddai'r enillydd ddim yn dderbyniol i'r rhan fwyaf o etholwyr ond fe fyddai'n AS beth bynnag. Gallai Bleidlais Amgen sicrhau bod yr enillydd ddim yn ennill ei sedd tro nesaf.

Er gwaethaf y newidiadau enfawr mewn cymdeithas ac yn ein harferion pleidleisio yn y 50 mlynedd diwethaf, mae gennym system bleidleisio sydd heb newid i gydnabod y newidiadau hyn. Y gwir syml yw bod y system Cyntaf i'r Felin yn gweithio pan fydd y rhan fwyaf o bobl yn pleidleisio dros un o ddwy blaid wleidyddol. Nid yw'n gweithio pan fydd pobl yn pleidleisio ar gyfer amrywiaeth o bleidiau fel mae pobl yn gwneud heddiw.

Dyna pam y byddaf yn pleidleisio 'Ie' ar Fai 5.

 

Hustings phobia

 

Why are Tories Hustings-phobic?

There was a Newport Hustings that was attended by five Assembly candidates but no Tory.

They have a full range of candidates standing – but not speaking. The sitting A.M. John Griffiths took a leading part in the debate and was by far the most impressive of the candidates.  Retiring AMs seeking re-election are usually advised not to give their opponents a platform. Those standing for minor parties have few chances to get the publicity that elected members have had during their terms of office. 

In 1987 the Tory sitting MP Mark Robinson stuck to the advice and refused to attend any of the Hustings. In the last five General Elections when I have been the retiring MP I attended every Hustings. Even challenging Tory candidates have been reluctant to attend.

All have been very enjoyable occasions. The most memorable was when Tory candidate Peter Clarke said that Newport pensioners would be better off financially if they were shipped to Eritrea.

Those were the days. Would that the new Tory candidates could be as interesting.

Inviting 

Life is fascinating for MPs even in the recess.

Among the invitations I received today is this:

You are invited to a guided tour of the Royal College of Arms on Monday 16^th May by Peter O’Donoghue, the Bluemantle Pursuivant starting at 6 p.m., followed by a reception.

Curiosity makes it hard to say no.

 

Fukushima has brought the anti-nuclear movement to life all over Europe. A man whose mother tongue is being used gave me this version of the smiling sun sticker. It’s obviously a European language. But which one? Any guesses?

 

Cameron's 'No-Buddy'

John Reid’s political legacy is not a glorious one. He would love to unsay the comment he made as the minister in charge of the worst mistake in British Military history in decades  Four times he said he hoped that no bullet would be fired in Helmand and the troops would be out in 3 years. That was in March 2006. Then only 2 British soldiers had been killed in combat. Now it’s 363 – twice the number of the UK's Iraq war dead.

Since finishing as a minister he has been politically semi-dormant. He picked up some lucrative jobs elsewhere. His total outside earnings in 2009 were £109,000, the Independent claimed.

Why did Cameron pick Reid as his “No-buddy”?

 

Nuclear phut

How reliable is nuclear?

The carefully constructed myth is that it is more reliable than renewables. Piffle. Wind energy works for 80% of the time. Nuclear works for 80% of the time.

The point was underlined in the US this weekend. Their nuclear-power output fell to the lowest level in 4 ½ years. The tornado forced Surry Units 1 and 2 in Virginia to shut on Saturday.

In fact twenty-nine of the nation’s 104 reactors were offline.

Two reactors automatically shut down when a tornado knocked out offsite power. The incident was declared an “unusual event.”  This news was reported on 24 hour channels this afternoon. It appears to have been dropped since.

I wonder why.

 

Newport's Pride

Saturday’s concert at Newport Cathedral was pleasing and inspiring.

Three former choristers in the Cathedral Choir are carving out musical careers.  The musical education they enjoyed with Christopher Barton was of the highest quality.

James Taylor gained the highest marks in Wales for his Grade V111 piano examination. He is now studying for his B.Mus degree.  James Lawrence has already graduated and sings regularly in musicals. Andrew Hayman is an elected ‘Demy’ at Magdalen College Oxford  and he was an organ scholar at Newport Cathedral.

Members of the audience were invited to take small plates for the buffet. A hundred people were expected. More than 200 turned up. There was a good feeling of shared pride in the achievement of the Cathedral and the talent of three young men. They sang and played with distinction and aplomb.

We look forward to even greater progress for them.

 

Referendum of two lies

It''s enough to lose faith in democracy. Which pack of lies will the public back? Who believes that the cost of AV will deny British combat soldiers their bullet proof vests? Some might. It's a fair bet that some voters are that stupid.

How many are convinced that MPs will work harder because of AV? Whatever criticisms can be made of MPs, lazy they are not. Nor are they a bunch of high living thieves - even though many believe that.

Both campaigns have trialled their propaganda with focus groups. The 'Vote 'Yes" to punish your MPs' line had the strongest reaction for the Yes planners.  Their leaflets and broadcast concentrated on this untruth. It may work. The nay-sayers presumably found resonance that any public spending is bad - however minute. There are voters who are that innumerate.

On the margins there is a debate on a once-in-a-lifetime chance of a reform to our cheat of FPTP. But the decision of the mass of voters is likely to be swung by advertisers' fiction. 

Who says referendums prove anything?

Gestation of hope or fear?

Why is the media allowing itself to be bounced by the nuclear lobby?

Presented as 'good news' tonight is the claim that the Japanese hope to get Fukushima under control within nine months. 

There is another way of reporting this. The unprecedented screaming doomsday nightmare mass poisoning of Fukushima will not be controlled for nine months. That is appallingly bad news.

The truth will out.

 

Yesterday's ignored news

Japan Plant Fuel Melted Partway Through Reactors

Friday, April 15, 2011

Nuclear fuel has melted in three reactors at Japan's Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant and fallen to the lower sections of their container vessels, raising the specter of overheated material compromising a container and causing a massive radiation release, the Atomic Energy Society of Japan said in a report released on Friday (see GSN, April 15).The group played down the possibility of a container breach, though, noting that only a small amount of fuel had melted so far and affected material had assumed a granulated structure and remained relatively cool, Kyodo News reported. The six-reactor plant was crippled by the 9.0-magnitude earthquake and devastating tsunami that hit Japan on March 11; the confirmed death toll from the events now exceeds 12,000 people.

The melted fuel was thought to have dispersed uniformly across the lower portions of the containers of reactors No. 1, No. 2 and No. 3, making the material highly unlikely to resume the fission process in a "recriticality," according to the organization, which said fuel rods in all three reactors had been harmed. Fuel in the No. 1 and No. 2 reactors has made contact with air, while the No. 3 reactor's rods have remained underwater, the group said.

Bringing the fuel under control could take between two and three months if restoration work moved forward as expected, said Takashi Sawada, the group's deputy chairman. 

http://www.worldwatch.org/nuclear-power-after-fukushima

April 14, 2011

Nuclear Power After Fukushima

New Worldwatch Report Previewed in Berlin

Berlin, Germany—The future of nuclear power was bleak even before the Fukushima disaster, said energy expert Mycle Schneider Wednesday at a press conference in Berlin, where he previewed an upcoming Worldwatch Institute report on the outlook of nuclear power.

To obtain a free copy of the draft report, click here.

“The industry was arguably on life support before Fukushima. When the history of this industry is written, Fukushima is likely to introduce its final chapter,” said Schneider, lead author of the new report, which was previewed in Berlin today at an event hosted by the Heinrich Böll Foundation.

Preliminary findings from the World Nuclear Industry Status Report 2010-2011: Nuclear Power in a Post-Fukushima World, which will be released around the 25th anniversary of the Chernobyl disaster, point to a bleak future for the nuclear industry. Nuclear reactor startups have been in steady decline since the 1980s, with only China bucking the trend in recent years. China, which has frozen all new projects since the Fukushima crisis started, already has 4.5 times more installed wind power than nuclear capacity and in 2011 will likely generate more electricity from wind than from its reactors.

“U.S. news headlines often suggest that a 'nuclear renaissance' is under way,” said Worldwatch President Christopher Flavin. “This was a big overstatement even before March 11, and the nuclear disaster in Japan will inevitably cause the governments and companies that were still considering new nuclear units to reassess their plans. The Three Mile Island accident caused a wholesale reassessment of nuclear safety regulations, massively increased the cost of nuclear power, and put an end to nuclear construction in the United States. For the global nuclear industry, the Fukushima disaster is an historic—if not fatal—setback.”

Will Fessenheim be next?

A Swiss local Council joined the chorus calling for the closing of France's oldest nuclear power station. The Germans are also unhappy. Fessenheim is located on the borders of three countries.

The nuclear spin doctors are in full rant. The terrifying news from Fukushima confounds them daily and will continue for many months.

En Alsace, la centrale de Fessenheim cristallise l'attention des anti-nucléaires français, suisses et allemands depuis la catastrophe de Fukushima. Les mois d'avril et mai devraient apporter des réponses quant à la poursuite de son activité.

S’imaginer que ce qui est arrivé ailleurs peut arriver en France est une grande manie hexagonale. La catastrophe de Fukushima a réveillé les ardeurs de manifestants anti-nucléaires, et questionne l'avenir de Fessenheim.

Active depuis 1977, la plus vieille centrale du parc nucléaire français, tenue par EDF, est assise sur une faille sismique et se situe en contrebas du Grand Canal d’Alsace. Dans la tête des anti-Fessenheim, le spectre d’un tremblement de terre, couplé à celui d’une inondation est plus que jamais présent.

"Aujourd'hui on ne sait pas si les failles peuvent générer ou non un séisme et surtout de quelle magnitude", explique le sismologue Antoine Schlupp.

 

Two chickens roost

If you wait long enough, the truth emerges.

On the 19 November 2008 I had a nasty spat with then Minister Mike O'Brien. He was twitching and throbbing with feigned anger. My complaint was a secret taxpayer handout to an American company in the event of a catastrophic accident at Sellafield during part of the massive £93 billion clean-up of the nuclear legacy.

The subsidy is an insurance indemnity.  During the previous six months I had deployed the full backbenchers’ armoury of questions, letters and points of order to reveal the cost and fairness of dumping a new potentially vast financial liability on taxpayers. Malcolm Wicks on 22 July replied  “While the impact of any call on the proposed nuclear indemnity could be very high, there is an extremely small possibility only of the indemnity ever being used.”

I am sure the Japanese were similarly reassuring about the minute risk is not a massive £130 billion bill and rising. Mike O'Brien was very angry that I had raised the issue. He blamed a junior civil servant for misleading parliament and accused me of creating a conspiracy theory.

Not a theory Mike. A conspiracy. Not an 'extremely small risk' Malcolm. A massive one.

 

Who advised Blair?

Light has also dawned on why Michael Meacher was sacked from Government. I was barking up the wrong GM tree in 2004 at a Select Committee:

Q34  Paul Flynn: Were your views on GM a significant factor in your leaving the Government?   Mr Meacher: That is a rather wider question.   Q35  Chairman: That is a Newsnight question!   Mr Meacher: Well, Mr Paxton always keeps the best until last! I think you would have to ask the Prime Minister that since, perhaps not surprisingly, he did not tell me and many people have surmised about that and I have thought about it. I do not know. It is certainly true that my views were outspoken. They were outspoken in Government. There was a period of four years when my views were perfectly clear and perfectly well known to the Prime Minister and everyone else. Why at this point I should have been dropped, as I say, I do not know. GM may well have had something to do with it but I really do not know." In today's Independent Michael gives a convincing reason for his ministerial demise and the brutal treatment that ministers suffer

"A former minister has demanded an official investigation into Downing Street's approval of a controversial nuclear fuel plant at Sellafield in Cumbria that has already cost the taxpayer £1.34bn – with little return.

Michael Meacher MP, who was environment minister underTony Blair, said that he would be asking the National Audit Office and the House of Commons' Public Accounts Committee to investigate the economic evidence used to justify the licensing of the Sellafield Mox Plant. Despite the cost, since the plant opened it has failed to fabricate more than a tiny fraction of the uranium- plutonium mixed oxide fuel it was designed to produce for foreign customers – just 13.8 tons over 8 years compared to a projected output of 120 tonnes a year.

Mr Meacher was the minister responsible for giving the plant an operating licence in 2001 but signed the licence only after he was pressured to do so by Tony Blair's chief of staff, Jonathan Powell, who had told Mr Meacher that the former Prime Minister was adamant the "Mox fuel" plant must open.

"The effort to get the Mox plant agreed was held up by me for at least two years because I was never persuaded that Mox fuel had a commercial market. I thought the cost was exorbitant," Mr Meacher told The Independent. "I repeatedly expressed my doubts and concerns, and asked [officials] to go away and do further work.

In September 2001, Mr Meacher was attending a European conference when he received a mid-morning phone call from Mr Powell.

"It was fairly terse and straight to the point; that this had been held up for far too long, that the Prime Minister is concerned about this and that he is expecting an answer to this and wants the matter settled by 3pm that day," Mr Meacher said."

 

Metsamor, the next Fukushima?

 

Already the Fukushima fallout has rocked the planned nuclear renaissance. 

Yesterday there was a stark contrast between nuclear enthusiasts and representative of the people in the Council of Europe (COE). Three industry 'experts' cooed their support for more nuclear power. The Russian spokesman said that 'radiation levels were already falling in Japan'

No one was convinced. All the contributions and speeches from MPs were hostile to New Nuclear on cost and safety. As a stunt to reassure us of the joys of nuclear, the debate flopped.'  

The experts' spoke for yesterday, the MPs for tomorrow.

Elsewhere in Strasbourg, the Municipal Council remarkably voted unanimously to close the Fessenheim nuclear station that provides local jobs. It is on Swiss border 20 kilometres from the city. A petition calling for closure was signed by 63,000 local people.

 

The chairman of the Socialist Group in the COE Andreas Grosss has demanded an inquiry into nuclear power - especially those reactors built on national borders. 

 

The Council has been asked to approach Armenia to persuade them to close down what could be the next Fukushima. Metsamor has two first generation Russian VVER reactors. It's situated in an active earthquake zone.  Metsamor was closed down in 1988 after the Spitak earthquake. But Armenia faced down international protests and reopened it  in 1995. In 2011, the EU offered Armenia €100m to close it down. They refused.

A Fukushima accident at Metsamor could spread death and contamination thought the Caucasus and large tracts of Europe. Fukushima will intensify opposition to what is probably the most dangerous nuclear power stations in the world. 

It's poor engineering  located in a lethal zone.

 

 

Europe's disgrace

Europe has almost entirely been cleansed of the death penalty. 

No Newport MP since before the war has voted for the death penalty. Peter Freeman, the town's MP in 1945 was one of a half dozen of MPs who tried to abolish the death penalty. All subsequent MPs have been opposed including the Tory Mark Robinson.

Only Belarus continues legal killing with a bullet to the back of the head. There have a few recent executions. In many way the Stalinist regime of Belarus is a disgrace to our continent.

 

 

 

Stooges for poodle unions?

 

As a supporter of Georgia I was shocked to hear the story of Maia Kobakhidze. Today I passed on her story to the Council of Europe (COE). The Monitoring Committee presented a report on the progress of Georgia in attaining the human rights advocated by the COE.

Maia Kobakhidze is the chosen leader of the 100,000 strong union that represents teachers and science workers in Georgia. I met her on a visit to Georgia in February. She was called to the Ministry of Education and invited to resign her post in order to be replaced by a woman who was not even a member of the union. On offer to Maia was a comfortable job in the Education Ministry. She refused. In the Georgian idiom she said 'They were trying to break a stick over my head'. To agree to this deal would be to sell out her members and destroy the bargaining power of the union. It would have become a poodle compliant union like the ones of Soviet days.

A second approach was made to Maia when it was clear that she was not going to cooperate. She was warned to be careful and reminded of a person who was murdered a year ago in mysterious circumstances. Maia is convinced this was a veiled threat to her life.

The Georgian Government must be embarrassed into realising that this conduct cannot be tolerated if they hope to join fully the European family of nations. Naming her today in an open debate will cause ripples in Tblisi. With luck they may hesitate on their plans to put stooges in to run poodle unions.

 

Recent tweets

 

Strasbourg debate on Fukushima, all 3 'experts' in favour of nukes, all international MPs hostile. Nuclear renaissance stillborn?

The forgotten Afghan war at last has grown-up treatment by a leading political voice. First step to peace? Ahttp://blogm.in/NMQKM

I campaigned for David Miliband for Leader because of his private change of mind in 2009 that the Afghan War was futile. To be confirmed now

So the Grand National injuries and deaths were caused by safety enthusiasts? The racing fraternity couldn't blame themselves. Ever thus.

Cameron suffering 'junior moments'? Confuses 41 with 1, bog standard birthday treat, on the NHS he doesn't know his farce from his foul-up

Who does Cameron blame for a mere10 street royal wedding parties in Newport? It's a ConDem council. Couldn't be that enthusiasm is low?

Fortnightly bin collections are popular good value in Newport West, only one person againstI. Is Government again bewitched by Mail agenda?

 

Poverty role of rich

 

To establish happiness and equality we must both make the poor richer and the rich poorer. Ot at least ensure that the rich do not become even richer devouring a wholly disproportionate share of the limited wealth of our planet.

This is almost impossible to achieve because the rich are very good at becoming even richer by repeating the same things that made them rich in the first place.  

The Council of Europe debated poverty today using the same wooly concepts that fog our policies here. If we define poverty by measuring it with the lethal poverty of Africa or the dirt poverty of Europe of 60 years, there is a little poverty in the U.K. Relative poverty, yes ; absolute poverty, very little. Tomorrow the COE will debate the massive problem of obesity in the young. Our main Euro crises are not a poverty of resources but an over provision.

Can poverty be a major concern when we brand as 'poor' children who have only Gameboy one instead of Gameboy three?  

Our British experience has been sobering. The Tory Government from 1979 to 1997 changed the country from one of the most equal in Europe to the most unequal. The income of the top quintile of society increased by 2.5%, that of the poorest quintile by only 1%. But Thatcher had no policy of creating equality, Blair did. A host of low income boosting measures including the minimum wage and tax breaks were partly successful. They lifted at least 100,000 out of our national definition of poverty. The poor became richer but the rich became even richer.

In Hungary in 2000 the front of a popular T-shirt read 'What has 10 years of right-wing government done that 50 years of communism could never do?' The answer on the back of the shirts was "Made the people love socialism." Under communism there was a crude equality. Under right-wing Government the rich became very rich and the income of the poor fell behind inflation. 

My own childhood experience is a great teacher. By today's standards we lived in poverty.There was little envy of material goods because of the enforced uniformity of wartime Britain. No family we knew had a car. Food was rationed and there were no luxuries. There was a choice-free solidarity of shared shortages. After all, as we were constantly reminded, there was a war on.

Now in Britain we are trapped by our definition that all those whose 'household income is below 60 per cent of median income’ are living in poverty. That means that if every family in vaillae won a £million in a looter, a % of them would be defined as living in poverty even though they are millionaires.

Poverty in our continent is rarely a matter of a lack of wealth, it's an inequality in the sharing of that wealth.

Goodbye Nina

 

Nina Natham has been a greatly respected campaigner for human rights and peace policies in Newport for as long as I can remember.

She has frequently contacted me on a whole range of issues on which I was delighted to act. She is now leaving the city. She was a very active member of the WILF- the womens' peace movement. The progressive people of Newport are losing a great friend. We lose one of the very few remaining Jewish families in our midst. 

A party was held by WILF to wish her well in her future habitat. Nina was on 'top form' and enjoyed the afternoon spent with old friends. She was presented with some chocolates and a lovely photograph frame to hold a photographic memory of us all. Shalom Nina. Keep up the struggle.

 

Radiation risks from Fukushima 

'no longer negligible'

The risks associated with iodine-131 contamination in Europe 

are no longer "negligible," according to CRIIRAD, a French 

research body on radioactivity. The NGO is advising pregnant 

women and infants against "risky behaviour," such as 

consuming fresh milk or vegetables with large leaves.

Background

After the radioactive cloud emanating from Japan's stricken 

Fukushima nuclear power plant reached Europe in late March, 

 CRIIRAD , a French research body on radioactivity, an NGO, 

said it had detected  radioactive iodine-131 in rainwater in 

south-eastern France.

In parallel testing, the French Institute for Radiological 

Protection and Nuclear Safety (IRSN), the national public 

institution monitoring nuclear and radiological risks, found 

iodine 131 in milk. 

In normal times, no trace of iodine-131 should be detectable in 

rainwater or milk.

The Euratom Directive  of 13 May 1996 establishes the general 

principles and safety standards on radiation protection in 

Europe.

In response to thousands of inquiries from citizens concerned 

about fallout from the Fukushima nuclear disaster in Europe, 

CRIIRAD has compiled an information package on the risks of 

radioactive iodine-131 contamination in Europe.

The document,  published on 7 April, advises against consuming 

rainwater and says vulnerable groups such as children and 

pregnant or breastfeeding women should avoid consuming 

vegetables with large leaves, fresh milk and creamy cheese.

The risks related to prolonged contamination among vulnerable 

groups of the population can no longer be considered "negligible" 

and it is now necessary to avoid "risky behaviour," CRIIRAD 

claimed. 

However, the institute underlines that there is absolutely no need 

to lock oneself indoors or take iodine tablets.

CRIIRAD says its information note is not limited to the situation in 

France and is applicable to other European countries, as 

 the level of air contamination is currently the same  in Belgium, 

Germany, Italy and Switzerland, for instance.

Data for the west coast of the United States, which received the 

Fukushima radioactive fallout 6-10 days before France, reveals 

that levels of radioactive iodine-131 concentration are 8-10 times 

higher there, the institute says.

Rain water and tap water

According to CRIIRAD, a huge proportion of the inquiries it has 

received concern the risks associated with rainwater and drinking 

tap water.

The institute stresses that there is no risk whatsoever, even for 

children, of standing in the rain without protection. But consumption 

of rainwater as a primary source of drinking water should be 

avoided, particularly among children, it said.

As for tap water, underground catchments or large rivers should 

not present any problem. But the institute suggests that the situation 

of water from reservoirs that collect rainwater from one or more 

watersheds, such as hillside lakes, should be examined more 

closely.

As for watering one's garden with collected rainwater, CRIIRAD 

advises watering only the earth and not the leaves of vegetables, 

as absorption is faster and more significant on leaf surfaces than 

through roots.

Food chain

Spinach, salads, cabbage and other vegetables with large surface 

areas are among those food products that are particularly sensitive 

to iodine-131 contamination, if they are cultivated outside and 

exposed to rainwater. Washing vegetables does not help, as 

iodine-131 is quickly metabolised by the plants, CRIIRAD notes.

Fresh milk and creamy cheeses, as well as meat from cattle that 

have been outside eating grass, are categorised as foods that may 

have been indirectly contaminated and must also be monitored. 

Contamination of milk and cheese from goats and sheep may be 

of a greater magnitude than that of produce from cows.

 

Beacons of truth

Arising from the dross and trivia of the national newspapers today are some beacons of truth.

Julian Glover in the Guardian says the unsayable. "Afghanistan is already yesterday's war, though it is still to be tomorrow's defeat". 

The Independent escapes from the current events of the day, to remind us of a predictable and predicted national spending calamity.

One month after the Japanese tsunami, the world's biggest reserve of plutonium waste is reaching crisis point. It was meant to be reprocessed and sold – but now no nation will take it. So where is this vast stockpile? Not Fukushima, but Sellafield, Cumbria. 

Helen Caldicott in The Guardian provides a valuable expert antidote to George Monbiot's superficial claims...

That billions of its dollars are at stake if the Fukushima event causes the "nuclear renaissance" to slow down appears to be evident from the industry's attacks on its critics, even in the face of an unresolved and escalating disaster at the reactor complex at Fukushima. 

The review of the film Armadillo in The Telegraph makes chilling reading.

The soldiers found themselves caught in a firefight with the Taliban, and killed some of them, who were lying in a ditch. What exactly happened is never made clear, but the film suggests that some of the dead Taliban may have been trying to surrender or were already wounded – which would mean the Danes broke the rules of engagement.The presumed brutality of the soldiers shocked the Danish people, many of whom felt their role in Afghanistan was essentially peacekeeping.

 

A subject I have raised frequently in the Commons to illustrate the misplaced optimism of Ministers is the failure of the Kabul Bank.  It's been systematically robbed by the Afghan elite proving that corruption is endemic and permanent. 

President Hamid Karzai says, "Action will be taken against those responsible for the troubles at Kabul Bank, which caused a financial crisis in Afghanistan last year, Shareholders who fail to repay loans and bank managers responsible for negligence will be prosecuted, he said.

Fraud, bad loans and mismanagement brought the bank close to collapse as The  Kabul bank has almost $1bn (£600m) in outstanding loans. The BBC's Quentin Somerville in Kabul says that the bank lent freely and wildly to leading figures in Afghanistan - including the relatives of the president and a vice-president.

Among three senior Kabul bank executives and shareholders under investigation is the brother of Afghanistan's First Vice-President, Mohammad Qasim Fahim. Another major shareholder is Mahmoud Karzai, the brother of President Hamid Karzai, but Mahmoud Karzai is not being investigated.