Paul Flynn - Read My Day

Does the loss of one MP matter?

 

Don’t expects objectivity. All MPs believe their own favourite campaigns are important - that’s why we pursue them.

The Timing of this election aims to get the Tories off the hook of the 5-year promises they made in 2015 on the Triple lock and no tax, VAT or NI rises.  They want to jump now before a giant sinkhole opens up in the road ahead into which the economy will fall in a tailspin. The falsehood about Brexit ignores the full support given to the referendum decision by both Commons and Lords. That's settled. We all want the best deal for Britain.

Jamming the revolving door from ministerial office to retirement riches has been a major campaign of mine for the past 12 years. At last we are on the brink of a breakthrough with a Select Committee report on the futility of Governments to police the most potentially corrupt element in our political system.  It not just the public’s anger at an incontinence of greed by former politicians, it’s the likelihood that deals are done while ministers are in office, not in the best public interests but in order secure a retirement sinecure or hacienda in Spain. Some of these deals are worth £billions

While there is no accusations against the individuals involved, the Public Administration Committee  wanted to ask George Osborne about a meeting he had with Blackrock while he was Chancellor and the subsequent decisions he made to change the law and deliver a bonanza to Blackstone. He is now employed on a part-time basis by Blackrock at a salary of £650,000. This may be perfectly proper but it is galling that snap election has got him off the cross-examination planned. As the senior Labour MP on the select committee  I want to continue that campaign.  The press has generously acknowledged my role-especially Private Eye. I know of no other MP who has campaigned on this with the persistence that I have.

Ed Davey agreed an extraordinary generous deal with EDF to buy the dearest electricity in the world with the price guaranteed for 35 years. When he lost his seat he took a job with firm that does EDF’s PR work. It might be perfectly in order but the public would like to hear that from him. I cannot see that happening unless I am re-elected. Human nature being what it, there is a great vested interests among politicians in not losing the possibility of retirement riches. The costs to the public are probably enormous. The present watchdog to prevent absues is run by the Great and the Good to serve the interests of the Great and the Good. Not the rottweiler needed, just a blind pussy-cat without teeth or claws.

All MPs have their own priorities and passions. By choice, I have long been a campaigning backbencher.  I have worked to make killer Bully Bars unfashionable, to expoes the futility of drug laws, for dignity in dying, for assumed consent for organ donations and fore environmental reforms of clean air and sustainable renewable energy.. Some of them successful, others still work in progress.  For the next few weeks I will try to  convince my constituents that my roles in parliament are so vital and unique that they deserve their votes.

Please give me a ring and I will explain further.

Give us the old Time Politics!

Hustings or Public Meetings?

Bring back the old time politics.

I long for the excitement of public meetings of my youth. Politicians spoke at length, developed arguments and preached with passion and sincerity. Questions were always invited. The occasions were uplifting, lively, exciting and informative.

In my eight General Election campaigns, I have attended all Hustings to which I have been invited. This is against the advice given to all sitting MPs by their own parties. They believe it gives an equal platform to challenging candidates and reduces the value of incumbency.

Hustings are displays of conflicts where the weapons are shallow sound bites. Public meetings can be constructive, educational and inspiring. In this election I intend to concentrate my energies on public meetings.

Sitting Tory MP Mark Robinson in 1987 dodged the four Hustings held. Since then I have attended about 25. In the 2015 Election there were games played. One candidate attended one school hustings but made an excuse to be absent from all public ones.  A candidate from another constituency was substituted. He was a disruptive nuisance and soured the atmosphere of calm and respect among the other candidates.  A Hustings was held to which I and other main candidates were not invited. The organisers criticised us afterwards for non-attendance! The interloper candidate of 2015 has resigned from his party and is unlikely to trouble Newport voters again.

While I enjoy the cut and thrust of debate of Hustings, sitting MPs can only claim the same speaking time as all other candidates including those who have little or no chance of success. This encourages frivolous candidates to stand. The Husting debates often have half a dozen candidates when the realistic choice for the electorate is between two or three candidates. There is also a sense of futility in the Hustings because parties send along their faithful supporters. Very few uncommitted voters bother. I have never known a case of anyone being converted to a different point of view at a Hustings. I am not saying that I will not attend any Hustings this time but they are not top of my priorities especially as Theresa May is running away from debates. But I will probably find invitations to well-rum Hustings irresistible.

But the best use of my time is in direct contact with the voters. At the last election I had direct conversations with 2,000. I hope to exceed that this time. Our canvassing work will be the most ambitious ever. The Tories planned to abolish the Newport West Seat. Wales would have been robbed of 11 seats. Now there will be  a new lease of life for Newport West and other traditionally Labour constituencies until 2022.

Newport West Labour will also be active in social media. I am always available to speak to organisations or individuals. It is in direct communications with uncommitted voters where elections are won.

Soon I will publish the dates and venues of my public meetings.

See you there.

Paul Flynn

Related articl

 

A few last words

Here are some contributions I made to the House before the dissolution of Parliament occurs next week. I apoligise in advance for the Minister of State's meaningless two answers. 

A looming crisis for Farming

Paul Flynn (Newport West) (Lab)

What steps he is taking to ensure protection of the Welsh sheep meat trade in negotiations on the UK leaving the EU. [909882]

The Minister of State, Department for Exiting the European Union (Mr David Jones)

The Government are working hard to get the very best deal for the United Kingdom—a free trade deal with the EU that is more ambitious than any other trade deal yet struck. We are considering and analysing the impact of future trading arrangements on all sectors of our economy, including agriculture, developing policies to support our vision for a global Britain that is producing more, selling more and exporting more.

Paul Flynn

That answer was characteristically vacuous and meaningless: could the Minister try to concentrate? Welsh farmers are saying that the door is open to New Zealand competition that could clear Welsh lamb off the shelves because of the price, and the door is not open to new markets in the United States, although that was promised. The Minister will understand the cultural priority of maintaining life on Welsh farms, where one of the most ancient languages in the whole of Europe prospers at its purest and best. Is it not a major priority for the Government to give a guarantee to Welsh farmers?

Mr Jones

May I say that I represent many more Welsh farmers than the hon. Gentleman does, and that I intend to continue to do so after the general election? The Government are intent on securing the best possible free trade agreement for this country, which will benefit all farmers, including Welsh farmers. Furthermore, we intend to ensure that Welsh exports continue after the general election.

 

Why a premature election?

Paul Flynn (Newport West) (Lab)

Will the Secretary of State tell us why we are going into this premature election? Those of us who voted to remain in the EU have fully accepted the decision that was made, and voted for the triggering of article 50, as did those in the other House; so that is not the reason. Will the Secretary of State confess today that the real reason we are having this election is the Government’s wish to escape from the promise that they made two years ago—a five-year promise—not to raise taxes, and to respect the triple lock? Is it not true that what lies ahead on the economic front is a great sinkhole into which our economy will fall in a tailspin?

Mr Davis

I note the attention paid to your call for short questions, Mr Speaker, but I will give the hon. Gentleman’s question a short answer. Throughout this process the Labour party has maintained its interesting schizophrenia, first saying, “We respect the outcome of the referendum”, and then, at every turn, trying to thwart it. Labour Members say, “You have a mandate to leave, but not on those terms.” Well, when the election is over, we will have a mandate on those terms.

Paul Flynn (Newport West) (Lab)

On a point of order, Mr Speaker. I wish to raise a matter that strikes right at the heart of the integrity of our democratic system. It is based on the final report of the Public Administration and Constitutional Affairs Committee, as well as two articles in The House magazine, one by a Conservative Member and one by a Labour Member, all of which sound notes of alarm that our electoral system is the most vulnerable it has been since 1880. There is powerful evidence of foreign Governments interfering in the elections in America and possibly here. There is also overwhelming evidence of money being paid in huge amounts, entirely invisible to the system, by the use of methods including algorithms, botnets and artificial intelligence in a manner understood by nobody except those who participate in it. We should be vigilant in this election, because the Electoral Commission does not have the tools to deal with interference of this kind, and we are trying to run a modern election with the tools of the 19th century.

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Mr Speaker

I am grateful to the hon. Gentleman for his point of order. He has registered a strong and deeply felt concern, and it is now on the record. It is not, however, a matter for me, and I do not say that flippantly. Algorithms are certainly not a matter for the Chair, and I am sure that colleagues will be greatly reassured to hear me say that. The wider issues are ones for us all.

The hon. Gentleman, who has now served in this House without interruption for three decades, the overwhelming majority of which, by his choice, has been as a Back-Bench Member, has demonstrated once again, not least for the benefit of Members completing their first Parliament, that he has written the textbook on how to be a Back Bencher. He has written the textbook in that he has published such a book, which is a well-thumbed tome of which I am proud to possess and to have read a copy, and he has written the textbook in the sense that he exploits—I use that word non-pejoratively—every last opportunity to give voice to his concerns. Unless someone is about to surprise me gratuitously, his has been the last point of order. I thank him, and I hope that we can leave it there.

The sitting is suspended. Shortly before the sitting resumes, I shall cause the Division bells to be sounded.

Troubles in Newport Tory land.

The Argus informs us that not all is well in the Newport West Tory Party.  They still have no candidate.

 

• Nobody bothered to tell the city's Top Tory Matthew Evens that the Prime Minister was visiting this week.
• Their Parliamentary candidate in 2015 Nic Webb has been refused a place on their shortlist this time. He does not sound pleased about it in a tweet. I respect him as a courteous and forceful opponent- well above the standards of Tory challengers in Newport West since 1987. 
• The Tory Assembly seat challenger in 2016 has announced he is not a candidate for the parliamentary seat. The result was disappointing one especially having pulled out all the stops in getting Boris here with his bus.

I am excited and exhilarated at the prospect of another election campaign. The Tories planned to get rid of the Newport West seat along with ten other Welsh seats this year. Possibly there is less interest from their prospective candidates in a parliamentary career that will last only one term if the Tories get their way.

Future of Welsh lamb remains uncertain

 

 

Welsh lamb has had protected status by European law since July 2003 and is worth (approximately) £200 million to the Welsh economy. 

35 percent of sheep meat produced in Wales is exported to the European Union.  EU has 93 percent of the Welsh lamb export market.  Welsh lamb exports to the EU have been rising every year since 2007.

Theresa May and New Zealand Prime Minister Bill English met in January to discuss post-Brexit free trade deal between the two countries.

Farmers’ Union of Wales fears bilateral trade deal with New Zealand will price Welsh lamb off the shelves in the UK.

In 2014, £240m was given to Welsh Farmers in direct payments alone. Half made a loss, or would have done so that year, without those payments.

There is uncertainty over any potential export deal of Welsh lamb to the US.  In July 2016, the government put out a press release suggesting such a deal was imminent.

However, no progress has been made since then, and reports that Donald Trump is putting a trade deal with the EU ahead of the US is cause for concern.  Foreign Minister George Eustice, in response to a written question from Liberal Democrat MP Mark Williams, stated:

“The US authorities are conducting the necessary steps to formally lift their restrictions on exports of EU lamb to the US. Defra is working with the US authorities to ensure exports of lamb from the UK can commence as quickly as possible once the restrictions have been lifted.”

Supposing the UK leaves the single market and has to rely on World Trade Organisation rules, the extra cost of exporting UK lamb would be £90 million a year.

There are no guarantees over what proportion of a UK agriculture budget would come to Wales. If Wales’ proportion reflected current allocations, Wales would be worse off by around £85 million per annum.

Without the profits made by Welsh lamb, the Welsh Assembly would struggle to subsidise Welsh farming and many farmers will be lost.

Oral question on Welsh sheep farming - Thursday 27 April 2017

Paul Flynn (Newport West) (Lab)

12. What steps he is taking to ensure protection of the Welsh sheep meat trade in negotiations on the UK leaving the EU. [909882]

The Minister of State, Department for Exiting the European Union (Mr David Jones)

• The Government are working hard to get the very best deal for the United Kingdom—a free trade deal with the EU that is more ambitious than any other trade deal yet struck. We are considering and analysing the impact of future trading arrangements on all sectors of our economy, including agriculture, developing policies to support our vision for a global Britain that is producing more, selling more and exporting more.

   

  Paul Flynn

  That answer was characteristically vacuous and meaningless: could the Minister try to concentrate? Welsh farmers are saying that the door is open to New Zealand competition that could clear Welsh lamb off the shelves because of the price, and the door is not open to new markets in the United States, although that was promised. The Minister will understand the cultural priority of maintaining life on Welsh farms, where one of the most ancient languages in the whole of Europe prospers at its purest and best. Is it not a major priority for the Government to give a guarantee to Welsh farmers?

   

  Mr Jones

  May I say that I represent many more Welsh farmers than the hon. Gentleman does, and that I intend to continue to do so after the general election? The Government are intent on securing the best possible free trade agreement for this country, which will benefit all farmers, including Welsh farmers. Furthermore, we intend to ensure that Welsh exports continue after the general election.

Voter manipulation in referendum cause for grave concern

 

Following piece was published in Friday's new edition of House magazine before news over the weekend of the Electoral Commission's decision to launch an inquiry into "potential offences" by the Leave.EU campaign during the 2016 referendum campaign.

 

Undue influence

Not since the 1880 reforms have our systems for election and referendums been in greater peril.

The single thunderous lesson from the Euro Referendum is that new technology trumps long-established democratic safeguards. Clandestine artificial intelligence, algorithms, and invisible money sources can overwhelm surface democratic rules.

PACAC’s report Lessons learned from the EU referendum gained considerable attention for highlighting the possibility that foreign Governments interfered with the referendum.

The voter registration website crashed last June threatening disenfranchisement of thousands, forcing the Government to extend the registration deadline. The committee reported that the crash had indications of a botnet attack on the voter registration website.

The crash may well have been the result of an attack designed to influence political outcome. Worryingly There is no chance to address these concerns before Theresa May’s opportunistic snap Election.

As we enter this Election campaign period an alarming narrative is emerging of online voter targeting calculated to cause mass interference and influence. An elite group is shaping world politics to suit their private beliefs, their behaviour having untold and unquantifiable affects. Whilst the plot reads like that of a comic book this cyber manipulation is no fiction and played a role in both the EU Referendum and President Trump’s election.

Exceptional investigation work by journalist Carole Cadwalladr has exposed the wide reaching implications of issue including the probity of June's General Election.

Billionaire Robert Mercer is Donald Trump’s biggest donor. He is also reported to be an owner of Cambridge Analytica, a company specialising in election strategies and involved in both the Trump and Brexit campaigns.

The company proved to be instrumental to Leave.EU and taught the campaign how to build profiles, target people and gain data from Facebook profiles.

When interviewed by Cadwalladr, Leave.EU’s communications director admitted, “Facebook was the key to the entire campaign. A Facebook ‘like’ was their most “potent weapon”. Using artificial intelligence, as we did, tells you all sorts of things about that individual and how to convince them with what sort of advert. And you knew there would also be other people in their network who liked what they liked, so you could spread. And then you follow them. The computer never stops learning and it never stops monitoring.”

So worrying is Cambridge Analytica’s actions that the Information Commissioners Office has launched an investigation into their reported use of personal data.

There is contempt for the electoral process they are manipulating. Leave.EU have not declared Cambridge Analytica’s work as services in kind to the electoral commission. Arron Banks of Leave.EU has since declared “I don’t give a monkey’s about the Electoral Commission.”

In June the Electoral Commission is expected to deal with tomorrow’s problems. The Referendum proved their outdated tools will ensure a free ride to those wishing to exploit it.

Broadcast advertising is subject to controls. Recent shifts have proved unfair advantages are now to be gained from online activity which lacks regulation.

Sir Tim Berners Lee has condemned the disgusting practice of selling private citizens online data. He summed up the problem best “We’ve lost control of our personal data…it’s too easy for misinformation to spread on the web” and “Political advertising online needs transparency and understanding.”

Lobbyists and Billionaires are manipulating media and public opinion in defiance of transparency regulations.

We are in the disturbing era where lobbyists can weaponise fake news for the highest bidder. They can track voters’ personal data and manipulate public opinion. All of this they can do under cover of anonymity and without regulation or oversight.

The EU Referendum was a battle of dishonesty. It was won by the side with the means to distribute the most plausible lies.

 

 

Jamming the revolving door.

A Select Report will hammer the Government for failing to stop former ministers from profiting from their ministerial experience. George Osborne is the latest example and features in one of these EDMs I have just put down asking for investigations. Allowing former ministers to work in areas they once regulated in the most potentially corrupting element in British politics that needs statutory policing. The present watchdog ACOBA is made up of the great and the good judging the great and good.

ACOBA is a blind pussycat without teeth or claws.

 

Conduct Of The Right Hon. Member For Tatton (No. 2)    

EDM number 1160 in 2016-17, proposed by Paul Flynn on 20/04/2017.

That this House notes the reported employment of the former Chancellor of the Exchequer, the right hon. Member for Tatton, to a post as an adviser to the BlackRock Institute, part of the BlackRock Investment Group, a global investment management company; further notes that it was reported that the right hon. Member for Tatton had had contacts with Blackrock in his previous ministerial role prior to changes in Government policy; and calls on the Government to investigate the conduct of the hon. Member for Tatton in order to protect the House's reputation for probity.

Conduct Of Mr Edward Davey    

EDM number 1159 in 2016-17, proposed by Paul Flynn on 20/04/2017.

That this House notes the reported employment of Mr Edward Davey as an adviser to MHP Communications, the lobbying firm·that conducts the bidding for Electric­ité de France, the French energy firm to whom Mr Davey awarded the controversial contract for the Hinkley Point C power station when he was a Government Minister; and calls on the Government to investigate the conduct of that past Minister in order to protect the House's reputation for probity.

Thursday 20th April 2017

• 
  
• Paul Flynn (Newport West) (Lab)
  
  
  The reputation of politics was rock bottom, but now it is subterranean, as we have done nothing to reform the deep corruption at the heart of our political system by doing nothing about lobbying and the revolving door. What the country needs is a leader of integrity—a man who is not mired in corruption and is not dedicated to seeking office in order to gain insider knowledge that can then be prostituted to the highest bidder upon leaving office. We need a man who is different from what we have had, and that is what the country is looking forward to. When can we investigate the activities between previous Ministers and Electricité de France and Blackstone investments? These are unresolved problems, where we have people leaving this House honoured but then having the consolation of vast salaries of up to £650,000 for a part-time job. This does not honour politics—it drags politics down into the gutter. What we need is a new Prime Minister of probity and integrity.
  
  
  
  
• Mr Lidington
  
    
  As always, the hon. Gentleman speaks with passion, and in this case on behalf of the 25% or so of Labour MPs who support the Leader of the Opposition. He may not have meant it in this fashion, but I think he was being extremely unfair to successive Prime Ministers from both the main political parties in this country, and to the people who have served in their Governments, who have, after leaving office and membership of this House, gone on to work in other capacities in our country. Whether Conservative, Labour or Liberal Democrat, these are men and women who have things to offer and, subject to the various codes and rules that apply, it is right that when they leave office, and particularly when they leave membership of the House of Commons, they should be free to pursue new avenues.

Newport Elections

There is new bounce and confidence in Labour's Welsh Local Government campaign.The widely trusted and admired Carwyn Jones has been in Newport twice. The fresh crop of Labour candidates are a good blend of experienced and new candidates. Newport has had deep-seated to loyalty to the Labour Party since 1945. The most recent example was a salutary warning to Labour's only viable opponents for control- the Tories. The Labour in Wales has avoided the divisions of the party in England and remains strong, united and grounded. Polls show the voters' loyalty is constant

In May 2016 they pulled out all the stops in Newport and were confident of victories in the Welsh Assembly elections. They brought Boris Johnson and his battlebus here-plus two other cabinet ministers. On the night of the Assembly results, the Tory Welsh Leader told BBC Wales that "Labour will get a bloody nose' tonight'. Not quite how it worked out. Labour won back three Welsh seats that we lost to the Tories in the 2015 General Election! In Newport it resulted two triumphs for Jayne Bryant and John Griffiths. Both greatly increased Labour's share of the vote from the previous year's General Election. No wonder the Tories are quiet this time. Their Leader's launch speech was a string of half-baked platitudes lacking a single practical policy.

Other local opponents are in some confusion. The two most prominent LibDem self-publicists have gone. One has joined another Party and the other Paul Halliday has resigned from the party shortly before the party was about to announce their decision on a disciplinary matter. UKIP's 7 Ams has dropped to 5 with another facing a vote of no confidence. In Newport it is difficult to detect a pulse in their activities. There are a crop of other candidates standing who may pick up enough votes toinfluence some results. Past experience show that a multiplicity of candidates generally helps Labour as our core voters are usually loyal. A choice of parties usually splits the anti-Labour vote.There is no indication of any changes visible on our mass doorstep canvassing.  The choice is a basic Labour or a Tory Council as no other parties are fielding enough candidates to secure a majority in the council even if all their candidates win.

IT is great to see all candidates contesting hard. However with the Tory Government's record of cuts, whoever is elected will face some tough future decisions.

 

Loss of a friend

LAST week, a good friend and comrade slipped out of life.

The end was peaceful with all his family present. Only a few short weeks ago his friends and family celebrated his birthday. It was a warm event full of companionship, laughter and a joyous revival of happy memories. He had accepted the inevitability of an early death with great forbearance, strengthened by his strong Christian faith.

Rev Mark John had a rich fulfilling life of service as a prison chaplain in Cardiff and North Wales.

Forget the stereotype of a doctrinaire humourless vicar. He had experienced all that life has to offer from its spiritual heights to its disagreeable depths. He remained firmly optimistic, practical, idealistic and a convinced socialist.

He candidly described his work, "Yes, perversely. Prisons are horrible. Putting people in custody is horrible. It's society's answer. If you ask me if prison works, I would say no it doesn't. But within that cesspit that we've created there is a need. As a prison chaplain, I'm there to address that need. Every morning I wake up and think that I'm doing something that I'm comfortable with. I'm doing the best I can in an environment that I love."

His zeal was in creating empathy with the prisoners and building on it to transform lives. He said, "During my prison ministry I have worked with many murderers. I've worked with some who've come to a Christian faith and to a spiritual realisation. Only a very few cold people can be murderers and feel no remorse. The majority have a sense of remorse and guilt. As a prison service, we are always looking in to their attitude towards their offence. I want to know their attitude and what strategies they have in place to stop them from doing it again."

Mark had no hint of resentment against the dreadful disease that was to cruelly shorten his life. He planned his burial spot, noting there was a bench nearby where visitors could rest and remember him. Talking to him in his final days was an inspiration. He sought no material benefits from life. His satisfaction was in bringing hope and dignity to others. His family and those who shared his prison work will, at a future event, reveal to us full accounts of a great life, richly lived, in the service of a despised minority.

Rest in peace comrade.

 

UK sense needed to cool crisis

The Cuban missile crisis of 1962 was less worrying that the present tension.

I vividly recall being on a night shift in Llanwern on the crucial night when we waited to hear if the Russians would accept Kennedy's ultimatum. Then, as now. the world had the capacities to wipe all human life off the planet with nuclear, chemical or biological weapons.

The main difference is, then the world had a highly intelligent American President wise enough to listen to the advice of his team. Now we have a dim-witted, ignorant impulsive President hellbent on inflating his ego and scornful of advice from the cooler heads in his Government. Trump's uncertain grasp of foreign affairs is revealed in his verbal blunders. The most recent was saying that he sent cruise missiles to Iraq. His Fox News interviewer had to remind him that they were targeted on Syria. Then two super powers, who had avoided nuclear conflict for 17 years, confronted each other. Now two untried,  infantile forces are posturing in a lethal 'game'.

Emily Thonberry has written a fine article in the Guardian questioning the silence of our PM and Foreign Minister. May is mute because she is desperate to ingratiate herself with Trump to gain some trade to replace that which Brexit will lose. Boris staggers from maladroit comments to strategic errors and fears new humiliation. As an old ally, the UK should be urging caution on the petulant child Trump. His adversary is a country with a brainwashed population led by another deluded fantasist leader.

British common sense has rarely been needed more than now.

 

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We are in the disturbing era where lobbyists can weaponise fake news for the highest bidder - @PaulFlynnMP blogs http://huff.to/2or9upK

Our ethical democracy that was created over two centuries has been undermined by invisible techniques that neither Government nor Parliament has recognised. 

See Huffington Post article or read below 'Lessons not learned from Euro Referendum'.

 

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