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Talk about Newsnight

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Tuesday, 1 May, 2007

  • Newsnight
  • 1 May 07, 06:19 PM

blair1_203_100.jpgNewsnight's poll bodes badly for Brown - the majority of those asked favour a general election shortly after Tony Blair leaves Downing Street.

The pressure increases for a public inquiry into MI5's handling of intelligence prior to 7/7; Defence Secretary Des Browne speaks to Mark Urban about Iraq; and Steve Smith takes on the Chinese maths puzzle that's been such a hit online today.

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  • 1.
  • At 10:53 PM on 01 May 2007,
  • Trev wrote:

Why can't that woman, like so many other 'leaders of our country' answer a straight forward question with a straight forward answer. None of the wishy washy rubbish... and they want our votes.... Ask her another Jeremy, made me laugh.

  • 2.
  • At 10:59 PM on 01 May 2007,
  • Fred Garrad wrote:

The reason Tony Blair is leaving early is to let Gordon Brown have enough time to get a judgeship for Cherie Blair. If she were to be appointed prior to Tony leaving, it would look like a put up job.

  • 3.
  • At 11:05 PM on 01 May 2007,
  • Simon wrote:

Why can't Paxman conduct a successful interview without bullying. Get rid of him Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ he is an aggressive angry bully and his interview technique represents all that is bad about our society today.

  • 4.
  • At 11:05 PM on 01 May 2007,
  • Fred Garrad wrote:

Is it possible that the reason Tony Blair is leaving early is to let Gordon Brown have enough time to get a judgeship for Cherie Blair. If she were to be appointed prior to Tony leaving, it would look like a put up job.
This is not "malicious comment" it is an observation.

Tonight's opening interviews with Alex Salmond & Hazel Blears are going to be classics on youtube.com. I was in hysterics!!!!!!Just for that, Jeremy should get 20/10!Oh and Stephen Smith's report on the Chinese being better at Maths was rib tickling too!Ha ha ha ha ha ha

Blair's Final Days

Hazel Blears seemed to be struggling a bit tonight. Jeremy Paxman kept asking her why Tony Blair was going when he had promised to serve a full third term, and she kept avoiding the bait. But we all KNOW why.

The reason for Blair's slow "death" is because he has refused to lie down since the coup. He knew he was about to be buried, yes, but only when HE agreed.

Why do you reckon he's been rushing around like the political proverbial for the last few months? Not just the legacy business, although that is some of it. But he's beeen implementing the next two years' policies and firming up New Labour, when he had expected to have two more years to do so.

So now he is turning his political instincts to preserving the party, since its collapse would be the worst of all results. So he is anointing Brutus Brown. Only Shakespeare could have written a more convoluted script. And it's not over yet.

The Newsnight poll saying that three quarters of us want an election when Blair steps down is interesting. An election is not due for two years, and the only alternative anyway is Blair Mark2, minus political nous, experience, depth, international awareness, originality or policies, i.e. David Cameron!

I argued for an election at my blog, partly as a stance against the motives of those crucifying Blair. They wanted him out - the electorate had no choice and hadn't been asked, but many of us didn't want him out.

They were being discourteous, disloyal and ungrateful to OUR Prime Minister.

They showed short memories of Labour's past failures, and little recognition of who had made them the 'natural party of government'.

And if it's Iraq. Didn't they all say, "yes, Prime Minister" in cabinet decisions on Iraq?

Polls say different things dependent on the questions asked and on other factors. The Independent's poll showing that 61% of the general public and 89% of Labour voters think Blair has been a good PM also begs some questions.

Whatever, looking to "heal" as he said in his conference speech, Mr Blair seems to be resigned to resigning.

Great pity. I'll miss him. I reckon he's been an outstanding force for good in the world, Sierra Leone, Kosova, leading the world on Climate Change issues, Debt Relief, Northern Ireland - and that's without mentioning the minimum wage and the reams of social policy advances.

I suppose I can take my blog down now?

Keep Tony Blair for PM

  • 7.
  • At 11:36 PM on 01 May 2007,
  • James wrote:

Well, excuse me for being mr humourless and politically correct, but could someone explain how it was such a slow news day that that pathetic bit of 'light relief' on Chinese maths got broadcast tonight? Ah yes, glasshopper. Inscrtuable mr chinee he velly good at maths. Funny mr slitty eye, he make so good funny ploglamme. Can we look forward to Paxo grinning like a spotty undergraduate at a report on dem crazee negroes wid dem wild funny riddim, or on yer spaccy mentalists and their hilarious drooling gobbledygook in future? Sad. Very sad.

  • 8.
  • At 11:47 PM on 01 May 2007,
  • We know them so well we can bowl them out in an over! wrote:

Tales of Blair..lies ruined lives but most know the world ....Heads of the future: can get the job done and discuss workable ways forward

The truth is there no more money in blair's way of life economics anymore... no one will work for them and the socialisms to get rid of them are so popularised his people will not last ...

The work they couldn't do has to be done for the sake of the country...they haven't cared about the opportunities... they have only cared about themselves...people can argue with them with their beliefs out of their jobs...

The morale of young people is worth more and their establishment have failed to improve despite education and the money given to them...

The probe all billity has changed in both Heads and Tales throughout the many societies socialisms communisms economies parties and views of remedial speculators...

Tales of Blair ....Heads of the future:

Tales of Blair ....winning money for them causes fatal expenses and costs for others...

ASBOs: Action Station Battle Orders.... encouraging fighters' culture in streets into waste of life
MODearnism: Mental Or Dangerous... knowledge and warnings meet selective economic pride victimisers in battles of deterioration and waste of life paused learning liar's defenses
ETC: economically trivial conservatives....and the enjoyment of the distress of a discontinued culture has caused waste of life...

Heads of the future: free to enjoy the companionability of a society where it is worthier to care ...where moralities are separated differentiated from criminal securities... where the authorities and certainties are debatable ...where a conscientious objective honest world is discussed for the purpose of suitable progress rather than reasons of self betterment ...worlds where actions and results are rewarded more ..a world where anyone can get done what is wanted as available expected and requested...a world of known consequence and rational responses...

Those who are up were supported all the way..those who are down were fought by b!tch sh!t for having all it took....

The idea that we could not just lock up and remove their criminals from education from the NHS from the police was astonishing ...their actions and deceits were so offensive... and so obviously were people mislead and deludedly believing in hopes and fears it seemed ridiculous to the point of civil war!

Their beliefs will die ..the public world class working practical views and expectations will be considered discussed and acted on instead...and most of the world know their own views and can prepare them themselves using the world already won rather than their beliefs that their tales could nick it off us!

Bully Leader And Image Ruiner...they are like batsman so long in their creases we know them moves so well we can bowl them out in an over!



  • 9.
  • At 11:52 PM on 01 May 2007,
  • andrew pembrooke wrote:

I agree the chinese maths report was really racist

  • 10.
  • At 12:06 AM on 02 May 2007,
  • sir prize wrote:

It was disappointing, given the constant criticism of politicians using spin, that the opportunity was not taken to ask about policies. They are what the manifestoes are about and,supposedly, voted on though there must be wide variations in motivation and perception. Accusations are often made that prime ministers behave in a presidential manner. This sort of questioning can only make matters worse. No one can know what another leader of anything will be like till he/she has carried out the job one way or another. This is supposed to be about the governing of the country not a celebrity contest though one does wonder.

  • 11.
  • At 12:29 AM on 02 May 2007,
  • Frank Hudson wrote:

The real reason Blair has dragged out announcing the date of his departure for so long is that he is hell bent on completing his fanatical (ten-year-long) agenda of handing over the remaining dregs of the Nation's sovereignty to Europe before he leaves.

If he persists in reneging on his agreement to a referendum then not only should there be an immediate general election, but MEP's of all parties should be instructed to serve notice on the EU that his signature on any subsequent agreement relating to the re-hashed 'constitution' will be deemed invalid thereafter by the British Electorate on the grounds that in so signing, he has commited an act amounting to high treason.

  • 12.
  • At 01:38 AM on 02 May 2007,
  • Neil Barrett wrote:

I too thought the Chinese maths skit was in very poor taste. It didn't merit inclusion on so many levels!

  • 13.
  • At 01:39 AM on 02 May 2007,
  • SteveB21 wrote:

Newsnight and Panorama have done a great service in unpicking the evidence against the five convicted "bomb plotters", in particular by broadcasting excerpts from their bugged conversations. Listening to them it soon becomes clear that they were not a serious terrorist threat at all but, notwithstanding their attending training camps in Pakistan and doubtless genuine contacts with al-Quaida, a bunch of fantasists mouthing off to impress their mates. Could one imagine the 9/11 conspirators dithering about whether to crash planes into the World Trade Centre, or maybe to crash a train into Grand Central Station or perhaps to explode a fuel tanker on the Golden Gate Bridge? No, they had a single plan and pursued it with lethal effect. This lot could not make up their minds whether to bomb a night club, a shopping centre or three utilities simultaneously. They even talked about hijacking a plane or robbing banks, for which their big bag of ammonium nitrate would have been no help at all. When one of them suggested they had a trial explosion (how? where?) the next day and then bombed the Bluewater Centre three days after - surely an impossibly tight schedule - the supposedly ruthless leader turned the idea down flat. They were arrested after booking flights to Pakistan at which point, at least as far as can be seen from the evidence which has been released, they had never actually put together a coherent plan to bomb anything. And they further reveal themselves as half-hearted jihadists by not intending to be suicide bombers. The tragedy is that the security services took all their bluster at face value, devoted most of their resources to investigating them, and let the two genuinely dangerous terrorists who were to become part of the 7/7 plot slip through their fingers. No wonder the official line is now to build up the enormity of the atrocity that was supposedly prevented, in which spin exercise the media including Newsnight are colluding, to try to escape criticism for their incompetance in failing to take actions that could have thwarted the actual atrocity of 7/7.

PS In many of the two-handed conversations and e-mails released one of those involved asks really stupid questions. It's almost as if they were agents provocateurs ...

  • 14.
  • At 09:06 AM on 02 May 2007,
  • Mike wrote:

Great to see Paxman on top form with Hazel Blears (does that woman smirk in her sleep?), this is what we pay our licence fee for!
How you can accuse him of bullying I don't understand, she avoided questions and was economical with the truth - I doubt she's 'knocked on doors' since she left school!
In any democracy it is the job of an independent media to ask awkward questions and expose government failings (of any party) - keep it up!

  • 15.
  • At 09:18 AM on 02 May 2007,
  • Brian Kelly wrote:

Thought Hazel Blears seemed rather subdued tonight... almost the end of having to defend Blairs PM'ship... Hazel, time to relax & put your feet up.! I don't like your Politics but admire your tenacity.

Tony Blairs reference to our soldiers fighting in Iraq..paraprased.."Would be proud if my son was fighting in Iraq"...what a crass, thoughtless remark!

Whatever the outcome of the Elections in Scotland "The West Lothian Question" must be amended! & soon.

  • 16.
  • At 09:50 AM on 02 May 2007,
  • Mike Carter wrote:

It's the cronies - like Blears - who have come out of the Tony Blair debacle the worst. Squirming around old leader while setting themselves for the new regime.

Charmless, desperate, simpering, self-promoters.

  • 17.
  • At 11:52 AM on 02 May 2007,
  • Frank Hudson wrote:

Re #15 above:
Blair didn't use the word 'proud' at all, although the significance of its definition might be what he was trying to imply.

The word he actually used gave the Nation a much clearer insight into the overloaded, unhealthy and dangerously robotic state of the man's distorted and confused thinking processes - he said that he would be 'DELIGHTED' if one of his etc...

  • 18.
  • At 12:06 PM on 02 May 2007,
  • csharp wrote:

mark [the bbc journalist] in iraq interview had a brideshead backdrop of gold curtains, a grand piano with a bouquet of roses, a lamp and a gold cat figure on it while des [the govt minister] had an unispiring backdrop of see through doors that looked out into a corridor where there was a fire extinguisher hanging on the wall. very drop the dead donkey. nice one.

can you get mark to confirm if the reason why the helicopter left the boat boarding party was because the bbc crew on board had to get back for an interview? was it a newsnight crew?

only a harpie would continue to whinge about what went on before 7/7 and what went on after? before 7/7 regardless of what people said no one could be expected to be emotionally 'in the game'.

  • 19.
  • At 11:44 PM on 03 May 2007,
  • Jenny wrote:

People seem to be forgetting traditional problems with British "intelligence" services that might well be relevant presently. It seems foolish to forget that the government of England has hundreds of years of history of such services, operating just as much internally as overseas, and very much concerned with minorities and religions.

As a country with widespread foreign interests, a government belief in foreign intervention, and a large number of residents with strong foreign connections and loyalties, government "intelligence" here is bound to have multiple purposes, far beyond the protection of innocent travelers on public transport in London. In the past it might, indeed, not every have included that.

When there is reluctance to allow an independent public enquiry of what the "intelligence" services knew, and what they did, in relation to an outrage such as the July 7th bombings, one must strongly suspect that other concerns to which voters might give far less priority are being covered up.

When Newsnight highlights how "MSK" and his colleagues in Leeds were known to the "intelligence" services to be connected with active, Islamist bomb plotters, and to be themselves actively promoting extremist Islamist causes, a year before they blew themselves up in London, and that those services still claim to have no responsibility for not having prevented the massacre because they had not "identified" them in some esoteric, special manner, it must surely be very likely that the intelligence services (plural, and perhaps acting at cross-purposes on a plausible-deniability basis) actually were risking our lives in some other cause.

When we are told that "MSK" was classed "only" as a petty, credit-card fraudster and yet we see his communications were being monitored and transcribed, and his computers seized, the case becomes very strong. Monitoring and transcribing of communications is expensive and not done lightly. Since when are the police not concerned to arrest and prosecute credit card fraudsters? Huge inconveniences have been imposed upon all our lives in the cause of preventing credit card fraud, with it being used to fund drug dealing and terrorism always used in justification. Here was a known credit card fraudster left unarrested. Why? If he had been arrested for that he wouldn't have been bombing the underground.

Having one's computers seized is a clear warning the police are watching, and if they've got your computers then they know what you've been writing too. Yet "MSK" and his friends continued with their plot. That would only seem explicable by their having some assurance of immunity.

One member of a Newsnight studio panel pointed out that British "intelligence" has often allowed British residents immunity to plot actions overseas, and that reflects adversely and unfairly on communities here who find their concerns and warnings being apparently ignored, as a result. He described that as "evil".

One could go further and say that they have often encouraged and facilitated such activities, both here and overseas, when it might, at some time, seem to serve what are seen as British interests, or those of our closest ally. It is very clearly both British and American policy that fighting in other countries reduces terrorism or rioting in our own lands. Many British politicians are easily seduced by the chance to play god in such a way.

Many "communities" in the UK know of people with aggressive ambitions who seem to lead charmed lives, easily get access to funding and facilities, to the considerable disbenefit of people here. The sponsors of the recent campaign against protection of lesbian and gay people against discrimination in the provision of goods and services, who are active in "missionary" work in the former USSR, undermining both the traditional Orthodox Church and the secular stability, for example.

If British "intelligence" sponsors such people it would reveal immense contempt for the well-being and reputations of the communities in Britain with which they may be associated. Or perhaps even malign intent to discredit them. The Muslim "community" in the UK was inevitably going to be "discredited" by association with bombings anywhere.

Could it be that the otherwise inexplicable switch, in the late 1970s, of British social policy from integration of minorities to nurturing divisive "multi-culturalism" and religion was part of a joint British-American refocusing upon using ethnic and religious social groups as assets in foreign (and perhaps domestic) policy? Perhaps against the middle-eastern oil powers who had recently brought crisis to the West, and against the basis of communism in class and economic status?

During the "cold war", and probably since, groups, especially ethnically or religiously divisive ones, relating to most "Soviet Block" countries, were launched or encouraged. This was a policy the nascent CIA learned during WWII in the Balkans from the British, who had long used it in South East Asia, India, and the Middle East. This was the policy that led to support for the Taliban in Afghanistan against the Russian-backed secular government. It could be that it determined how Yugoslavia disintegrated and the atrocities that followed, and the murderous divisions in Iraq.

In the released transcript of "MSK" talking about terrorist activity it was Islamic action in the Russian province of Chechnya being discussed. Russia has complained bitterly that the UK provides asylum for people Russia believes could help in their investigations of what it sees as terrorism in that province. Were the July 7th bombers living charmed lives as potential "assets" against Russia or some other country with potentially restive Muslim residents, rather than being listed as dangers to British people?

  • 20.
  • At 05:01 AM on 17 May 2007,
  • wrote:

Dear Editor,
There won't be any challenge for Gorden Brown's arrival for Briton's leadership,as he has knowingly or unknowingly taken steps to ban and remove uncivilised terror gangs from British soil.If Mr Brown get corrected what Mr. Blaier misplased,world will have another era of praiseworthy.

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