Friday, 17th August, 2007
- 17 Aug 07, 05:28 PM
Tonight’s programme is presented by .
TORIES
The former Conservative cabinet minister, John Redwood, has outlined how Britain's tax laws should change if the Tories return to power. As well as abolishing inheritance tax and raising the threshold at which workers pay higher-rate income tax, Mr Redwood wants business costs to be cut by a fifth. Political Editor Michael Crick will be finding out if the Conservative leadership are prepared to go for these policies. So will tax become the new battleground at the next election? We hope to be discussing this issue live with a senior Conservative and Labour politician.
MARKETS
Shares have been recovering on both sides of the Atlantic after the US Federal Reserve cut its discount rates to banks. Our Economics Editor Stephanie Flanders gives us her analysis.
IRAQ
The death toll from four suicide truck bomb attacks near Kirkuk in northern Iraq could be set to rise to 500, according to local officials. We speak to the US Army brigade commander on the ground in Mosul about the recovery operation he's leading and ask him if the surge is really working.
MAGAZINES
Are we seeing the slow death of magazines? Britain's best known titles from lads' magazines to women's weeklies are losing their readers in a big way. We discuss their future with two senior magazine editors.
Comments Post your comment
I'm very pleased to see that the Conservatives might be about to announce a policy of tax reductions. It's high time there was a proper debate on this subject.
I am not in favour of starving public services of cash, but I simply find it impossible to believe that all of the money currently being spent is either necessary or well spent. That being the case, it follows that there must be scope to cut taxes without harming necessary public services (with the emphasis on the word "necessary").
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MARKETS
There is something surreal about a company’s worth being based on the fear/greed ratio of a swathe of people who have never stepped through its doors. More surreal still is the profitable selling of one sort of money for another sort of money, only trumped by selling DEBT for money. The Blair years (not the Campbell book) constantly directed us (though not Blair himself) to the parable of Mote and Beam; we nominal Christians never stopped being hypocritically righteous; never inspecting our own faults while bombing democracy into the unenlightened. This time it is surely the parable of the man who built his house upon sand that we should be contemplating? It is bizarre enough that we live in a world that apparently expects trade and consumption to increase unendingly, but to think that panic, which is a contagion, will never grip all the greedy at the same time, is utterly without foundation – like the stockmarket.
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Can I prebook and pay for 2 of the wonderfull tony blairs book due to be coming out soon, I believe its title will be How to Kill as many Children as possible in 10 wonderfull years or it may be a selfhelp book entitled How not to Stop Killing as many children as possible in 10 wonderfull years.Published By SICKO FANT or PHYSCO FANT Publications
My upstairs Toilet/Bathroom has above the tiles a light blue calming colour with Murals depicting thousands of dead Iraqi children also within the design are the 200 or so of the Forgotten dead UK Servicemen/women, LOL I do forget how many of our and their dead so easily these days. The downstairs Toilet is more like a small portable thunderbox with murals depicting a few dead fathers of children murdered by silly children, also within the design quite a number of other dead children murdered by more silly children with no fathers due to some of the fathers being absent and the other fathers being so savagly taxed they perhaps dont have the time to spend with their silly offspring its all part of tony's wonderfull design. Anyway I diegress does anyone no the colour scheme for the cover of the above book and will it clash with claret colour on my murals Hush Hush Mums the Word the walls have Ears Dont you know there's a War ON. Strange Custom we have in the West I prefer the Arab way myself But you never know best not to get caught short. A mans got to have something to wipe his arse with.
PS when Gordon brings his book out in ten years or so similar title can you give me the nod on the book cover got to make sure his book wont clash with murals dont you know, there will be a dam site more claret on the walls then I can tell you LOL
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jeremy on a friday! have been watching newsnight for about a year and have never seen him on a friday before!
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Dear Newsnight
Do rich people with access to the right sort of legal advice pay the same rate of inheritance tax as poorer people?
and how far should lawyers be able to exploit loopholes so people pay tax according to such advice?
why not reintroduce rent controls as we had up to 1989? since then the housing benefit bill has quadrupled to over Β£12 billion
why not restore start up grants to housing associations to 100% which it has being calculated would lead to an overall saving to the Government because less housing benefit would be paid. This is because 100% grants would lead to lower rents. and Lower rents would provide a greater incentive to work with all the benefits this would bring deprived communities ie better role models - working adults.
increasing Government spending to save it-
and hypothecated taxes to pay for the consequences of some products ie alcohol -illness, policing costs etc
just a thought
best wishes
Bob
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Gawd, who was that moron from Labour on today's show? I didn't catch his name, but I assume he's housewives' favourite John Prescott's son. He had the same style: a faintly cleverer person told him something to repeat ad nauseam and ad nauseam it was repeated. I wish Jezza could punch some of the guests, as does Jezza himself, I imagine.
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It is about time that some politicians broached the politically incorrect subject of tax cuts. With a nation of jobsworths created by Labour and funded by taxes, the suggested cuts in corporation tax may well lead to the creation of more real jobs. Taxing the dead has always been obscene, though few of them complain about it. Inhertiance tax is wrong because it encourages people to spend everything before they die, and if they run out of money before they run out of life, the state picks up the bill. A persons accumulated wealth has already been taxed, at least once. Now which political party will stop the spending rot, and commit to lowering Britain's excessively high income tax rates?
By the way, I hadn't noticed the absence of Newsnight Review as this usually sends me to sleep. Doubtless the naughty Jeremy will be slapped on the knuckles for his final comment.
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I'm with 'r' below - for me, all the news stories today were outweighed by the startling fact that Jeremy was presenting on a Friday. This has never happened before. Perhaps with Lord Deedes having died they needed a heavyweight tonight? I am in shock - doubly so, as I was a Deedes fan.
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I'm with 'r' below - for me, all the news stories today were outweighed by the startling fact that Jeremy was presenting on a Friday. This has never happened before. Perhaps with Lord Deedes having died they needed a heavyweight tonight? I am in shock - doubly so, as I was a Deedes fan.
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Sir, I did miss the review, why do we mess things around just because of Edinburgh but at least we got the papers earlier. The reason we had Jeremy on a Friday (and I've been watching since the eighties and never known a Friday appearance is because Jeremy dare not go home with that 'haircut'as nobody at home would recognise him and call the police. Get an 'Irish' for Monday Sincerely, Steve the scouser
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Speaking of JP, when did they update his biog, and who wrote it?
Wonderful, just wonderful!
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FINANCIAL MARKETS CRASH – part #?
The markets have rebounded. Hurray. We can all now relax, safe in the knowledge that the end really isn’t nigh. Or isn’t it?
Why did they rebound?
Over here the Bank of England firmly stated that it would not bail out any bank foolish enough to have saddled itself with such abysmally, and obviously, bad debts. That might have chastened the banks to think twice about their chase after magically profitable derivatives.
Over there, though, the Fed lost its nerve and promised to bail out anyone with a bad debt problem. That is equivalent to the banker in a game of poker saying they will accept IOUs without limit from anyone regardless of their financial probity. Of course the game will go on, and the bets will get bigger; but who will really pay in the end?
For a number of years, unlike the conservative Bank of England, the Fed has been fuelling the US boom – desperate to avoid any hint of recession which might dent the US image of invulnerability. In the process it has happily seen the US national debt escalate by trillions of dollars; so that it – and not the poor of the Third World – is the biggest debtor in history. It has, indeed, led the way to legitimizing ever riskier forms of debt; from the sub-prime loans which are now shaking the financial world, to the private equity holdings by the new robber barons and of course to the derivative markets which are used to cloak the risk. Alan Greenspan should not be amused by the gyrations of his successor!
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JP's interview with the 2 cabbabges about the Tory tax proposals was priceless. It had me in stiches. It would have been very refreshing if his guests has been equally as forthright.
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Well done JP... The Conservative spokesman was at least allowed to deliver his lines without the interviewer interrupting as is the norm' these days!..doing Labours work for them...He put down the Labour Spokesman several times & brought him to order, Andy Burnham was completely out of of his depth..hadn't read the Tory Policies Book at all ...just trying to score cheap points/jibes,not interested in the policies, what a sad reflection on this Government...bring back Patricia Hewitt?... oh God no , no . Any-day now they'll bring on Brown's bossiest Babe Yvette 'yer know' Cooper, to rant & rave.!!They should have got around to discussing(her) HIPS & the roll-out to three bedroom houses ..another OLD/new Labour NEW stealth Tax ... they certainly know how to push the self destruct button...a mini Poll Tax Labour style.
Lets have more sensible policies from the Tories & get our Country back before it's too late!
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