Thursday's prospects
- 29 Nov 07, 10:51 AM
Donations
The Labour Deputy leader, is in Parliament today, and is likely to come under from MPs about how she came to accept Β£5,000 from a conduit for . She has said that she didn't know that the donation really came from him, but what did she know and when? Newsnight has some other awkward questions for Ms Harman.
The Economy
Mervyn King is also in front of MPs today, is the economy really heading for the of slow growth and rising inflation? Stephanie Flanders looks at a more fundamental problem for Gordon Brown's Government.
Climate Change
We have an exclusive interview with Sir Nicholas Stern ahead of next weeks . In a speech tonight he will make alarming warnings about the risk of failure.
Boom Town
We have a fascinating film from on a newly built oil boom town. Glitzy buildings, entertainment and public facilities all built from the energy reserves that are transformimg Putin's Russia
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Dear Newsnight
sorry, to me it looks as if the Government is being set up,
who and why I'm not sure, but in all of this the media need to exercise caution and keep alive its sense of curiosity and to always keep asking, and searching for the truth
best wishes
Bob
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I thought Jeremy Paxman was a little bit too mischievous for comfort last night when he suggested direct rule to the N.Ireland minister if the IRA were seen to be involved with the recent murder in N. Ireland.
N. Ireland is just too sensitive a topic to be trying to make a story of like this - in such a black and white way. We all hate what terrorists on both sides of the divide have done. And yet, at the same time, we live in the real world. It is living in the real world, compromising, and keeping our mouths shout - at times - when we would love to scream, that has helped bring about peace in Northern Ireland.
That doesn't mean the men behind the murder shouldn't be brought to justice. They should and must. But it was the way Jeremy Paxman was politicizing the event - in such a black and white way - in such a way as to make a story out of it, that i object to.
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THE VERB βTO KNOWβ (Donations)
I remember the re-enactment of the arms to Iraq enquiry βScott of the Arms Anticsβ.
Margaret Thatcher would say: βThat document never came across my deskβ and the like. There was a great deal of which she βknew nothingβ. It dawned on me that one of the many peculiar skills that go to make the consummate parliamentarian and loyal party animal is an instinct for what the leader βmust never knowβ yet wants done. I am firmly of the opinion that this applies to Brown and the bizarre donations.
I suppose the practice would be called: βSafeguarding honest denialβ? We should never forget that parties choose their own, to function in an atmosphere that most normal people would find repugnant. That such a group get up to the sort of chicanery now emerging into the light, on reflection, is almost predictable. These are the people who, at election time, wear a rosette of allegiance to party, while attempting to seduce voters β vowing to serve them, with an entourage of fawning nobodies carrying balloons and placards. Any normal person would die of cringe.
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Pat Smythe ? didn't she used to be a Show-jumper back in the 50's - as for her comment re JP I think she is just plain wrong - JP was smart enough to ask the question re direct rule whilst anticipating that there could be a demand for direct rule to be re-implemented by some disaffected parties in Northern Ireland without fuelling that thinking on TV. When it comes to Political Interviewers the ΒιΆΉΤΌΕΔ have got it sewn up with Jeremy Paxman, Andrew Neil and David Dimbleby - there's just no-one else worth watching in this sphere.
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ΒιΆΉΤΌΕΔ got it sewn up? You're joking. Apart from Neil and Paxman most of them are fawning lefties. Give me the non-fawning lefties of Channel 4 News any day.
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'whilst anticipating that there could be a demand for direct rule to be re-implemented by some disaffected parties in Northern Ireland without fuelling that thinking on TV' - get real (i'd like to see you go into a pub in Belfast, or something, and say that).
'When it comes to Political Interviewers the ΒιΆΉΤΌΕΔ have got it sewn up with Jeremy Paxman, Andrew Neil and David Dimbleby' - they're good but they're not that good.
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Bob, Are you Ed Balls?
The government is being set up!
By Labour supporters?
Its too early to say that whole wings of Belmarsh prison need to be set apart for the coming influx of Labour politicians and officials.
But it sounds as though Labour were accepting (by choice) donations through an illegal mechanism at the same time that Yates of the Yard was chasing then on Cash for Honours.
I only hope that Yates finally runs down the Belmarsh Kid (aka Tony Blair) if it becomes clear that this arrangement did start on his watch and he knew about it. The irony of the "Blair Years" where he talks of "doing the right thing....". Do ex-PM's get special cells?
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Bob - are you Ed Balls or Stephen Pound?
The government are being set up by lifelong Labour donors.
They were forced to accept donations via an illegal mechanism that was probably running when Yates was persuing the Cash for Honours - which hopefully means the Belmarsh Kid, aka T. Blair, may still face justice.
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