ΒιΆΉΤΌΕΔ

ΒιΆΉΤΌΕΔ BLOGS - Newsnight: From the web team
Β« Previous | Main | Next Β»

Thursday 5 August 2010

Sarah McDermott | 11:35 UK time, Thursday, 5 August 2010

Here's Kirsty with news of what's happening on the programme:

We begin with the first in a series of films about an educational experiment in Oldham designed to bring two very separate communities together. At the moment there exist two secondary schools very close to each other - but at one more than 90 per cent of the pupils are Asian, and at the other more than 90 per cent are white.

From next month the schools will merge to become a joint academy, with a brand new uniform. This development grew out of a report into the Oldham riots a decade ago, and the realisation that since then separation of these communities has got no better. Will it work? We'll be following the project for the next year.

Naomi Campbell, supermodel, has dominated today's news stories, not only because she appeared - extremely reluctantly - at the European War Crimes Tribunal in the Hague, but also because she was granted utter privacy on her arrival, and at her departure - no matter the whole testimony in court was live on TV!

At issue, whether she accepted so-called "blood diamonds" from the then President of Liberia Charles Taylor, on trial accused of trading weapons with groups in Sierra Leone, in exchange for blood diamonds.

She told the court she received some dirty looking stones in a pouch after a dinner in honour of Nelson Mandela. But at the end of proceedings today it was unclear whether she was a witness for the prosecution or not, lending the impression that we were witnessing a fiasco which might bring the tribunal into disrepute, or will the fact the court received such publicity, especially in such a serious case that has been largely ignored by the media, be good for its business?

Are standards of grammar, and literacy falling? Simon Heffer has sent an e-mail to his colleagues on the Daily Telegraph castigating them for misspellings and misuse of language, and or course, issuing warnings about a descent into split infinitives. Here are a couple of examples; mixing up prostate and prostrate, and literals like pubic and public. He bemoans simple grammatical errors such as "compared with" and "compared to."

I remember a real clanger of my own. I wrote that MPs were ennervated by the fierce debate on the House of Commons chamber, thinking it meant het up, when it meant the opposite. Do you have such guilty secrets? I have a horror of split infinitives, do you?

Join me at 10.30pm on ΒιΆΉΤΌΕΔ Two.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From earlier:

Tonight we have a film from Oldham in Greater Manchester where two of its most segregated schools are merging in a bold attempt to bridge the racial divide.

Race riots in the town almost a decade ago revealed deep divisions between its white and Asian populations. The ΒιΆΉΤΌΕΔ Office said it was a place of "deep-rooted" segregation, with communities leading "parallel lives".

Nine years on, many feel little has changed, and some fear the education of Oldham's children could be overshadowed by potential racial conflict. .

Then we'll be doing something on model Naomi Campbell's appearance at the war crimes trial of the ex-Liberian leader, Charles Taylor. Ms Campbell says that in 1997 she was given "dirty-looking" stones after a dinner attended by Mr Taylor which she was later told were likely to be diamonds.

Prosecutors had said her evidence could help link Mr Taylor to the stones, which he is accused of using to fund civil war in Sierra Leone.

Then we'll be considering the evolution of language while poring over .

More details later.

Comments

  • Comment number 1.

    the Food Standards Agency scandal goes on.

    ..The Food Standards Agency conceded that it had no idea how many farm animals in Britain were descended from clones, and disclosed that meat from a second bull that was descended from a clone had illegally entered the food chain.

    Animal welfare campaigners accused the FSA of presiding over a fiasco...




    ..The FSA's chief executive, Tim Smith, said it relies on the goodwill of farmers to obey the rules and keep clone food off the high street...


    Innes-96-clone-cows-herd.html#ixzz0vjDI2WoK

    have farmers taken an oath to do not wrong? what a collapse of responsibility at the FSA to just sit back and hope. The FSA is known to be biased towards GM and cloned foods so it could be just turning a blind eye? How much more is out there we don't know about? That the FSA hasn't admitted yet?

    Again we hear those devious words 'we did no wrong it was within the rules'.


  • Comment number 2.

    This comment was removed because the moderators found it broke the house rules. Explain.

  • Comment number 3.

    On Oldham its not hard to guess what some will say that usually post on here and there will be the inevitable references to race and "indigenous" people from the usual suspects.

    As kevseywevsey advised me the other day on the alleged pitfalls of multiculturalism the other day "the road to hell is paved with good intentions". I could make the usual references to the usual far right references to the wisdom of the National Socialist jaded_jean - they don't like to be too open about their views.

    But in fact I would tend to the wisdom of Voltaire whose notion that "if you can make people believe absurdities then you can make them commit atrocities".

    When your clip showed a lady declaring that the immigrants lived like Kings and Queens was it based on fact or perceptions caused by those who would pour poison into peoples ears?

    There are of course totally legitimate questions about immigration levels that are being addressed under the coalition.

    But lets hope that resource is put into making sure that ordinary people can make judgements based on the facts and not on fanatical distortions that derive largely from a long refuted ideology that brought the world to ruins.

  • Comment number 4.

    Would you like an Indian education, apparently our government is aiming in that direction

  • Comment number 5.

    In this conference season I wonder whether the remnants of the Collett mob and Griffins crew will get along at their conference in a field?

    What with the the former allegedly threatening to kill the latter you would think there may be tension.

    Meanwhile I can't help but speculate that some of the English Defence League types will be sitting in their full face balaclavas in the dark and thinking about Griffin at the appropriate moment as they can't attend being part of a spontaneous and unrelated movement as it were.

  • Comment number 6.

    'OLDHAM IN MANCHESTER'

    Good grief, even a denizen of Paris-France would raise one eyebrow.

    A wonderful marker for our time.

  • Comment number 7.

    Last night the Republican was saying that most deep water drilling sites had been operated safely.

    Is it not the case that in fact there are many hundreds of abandoned wells - some since the sixties - and an imprecise knowledge of what there safety status is i.e. were they capped or not?

  • Comment number 8.

    #1 Well Jaunty with luck it was killed by the halal or kosher method, then we wouldn't have eaten it! NOT! ; ) 10 million animals a year killed by that method here now, what a kind animal loving country we are these days! : (

    I haven't eaten beef since I saw the minister John Gummer getting a child to eat a burger, then I knew something was wrong. vCJD is still around it hasn't vanished, some unfortunately will still die from it. And as can be seen by this cloned animal getting into the food chain, all animals are not labled and accounted for. And in an halal death surely some of the spinal chord contents must end up in the muscle so we people must eat a bit of it. But hey, it's alright it's a religious freedom, so must be kosher! ; )

  • Comment number 9.

    HEY - HAVE A STIFF DRINK AND A SMOKE, THEN SAY NO TO CLONEBURGER!

    Clone-meat is evil. YET THEY SELL IT ON THE HIGHSREET! What sort of country are we becoming?

    Oh it's all so unbelievably irrational.

    PS, Many cloned animals die horribly - like the warnings on a ciggy pack?

  • Comment number 10.

    Hhhmmm what chance has Oldham when you read what Yasmin has to say?



    Why do muslims want to live here, they know we have decadent ways, according to their beliefs, so why don't they go to a strict islamic country, they would be much happier there.

  • Comment number 11.

    There are some on here who come out with the most outrageous, and often evil, conspiracy theories like the third tower in 9/11 being demolished, the Holocaust being "made up", climate change being used to fleece the world and so on.

    Often they are of a specific ideolgical strain and thats probably no coincidence as they would like to whip up hysteria and be done with democracy.

    So when we hear of a "Welsh Roswell" in 1974 - aliens are obviously very bad drivers - I wonder what their views are and how they feel about the threat to the "indigenous" population?

    Who is the indigenous population in this context?

    They are so very muddled and spitefull in their turmoil.

    Myself I tend to agree with the official view:

    "a private investigation done on behalf of the British Astronomical Society concluded however that the meteor may in fact have disintegrated over Manchester, and that its appearance was preceded at 8.32pm by an earth tremor in the Berwyn mountains with which it had no connection".

  • Comment number 12.

    Apologies as my #3 was typed quite quickly.

    A passing thought: lets remember that there is not as big a gap between the "differencists" and the National Socialists as you may imagine and some MAY USE CAPITAL LETTERS!

    Oh it is all going terribly well.

  • Comment number 13.

    Jaunty # 1

    I thought that you had more common sense, but why are you getting so wound up over the " cloned beef and milk gate " non story. It has always been the case that top breeders / dealers etc have had plenty of money to splash out but the vast number of smaller especially tenant farmers in this country are on the breadline. I am willing to bet that thousands of farmers are after gross profits over hours worked working for less than the minimum wage.

    The eco-fascist wing of the Corporate Nazi ideology are now assembling a bunch of their useful idiots to attack our farming industry. They attempt to portray how farmers are nasty horrible people like the German Nazi's poured scorn on the Jews, when the only really " nasty " people in the UK are the eco-fascists and their stock market parasite mates.

  • Comment number 14.

    3

    the only reason the govt gives for immigration is to support the pension scheme. so lets looks at this pension scheme. it has no assets. payments are made from new members subscriptions. this is a definition of a ponzi scheme that requires an exponential increase in numbers just to stand still. its bound to blow up even if all the people in the world moved to the uk. just as a chain letter would.

    so to prop up a ponzi the govt now have a domestic insurgency that cost billions to police, billions are lost from the economy as migrants send their money 'home' and a fractured society where the bnp gets a million votes.

    the far left have dreamt of flooding the uk with migrants because they know it will destroy the unity of the state and so make it 'ripe for revolution'. its working. employers like migrants desperate for work willing to take marginal rates and conditions as it increase their profits.

    so between the two we see, regardless of how many rosy tinted empire documentaries the bbc puts out, an increasing trend of polarisation and fragmentation.

    because the dominate philosophy of equality and fairness, like a parasite that clouds the brains of its host, denies the good as the highest idea of the mind so there is no or little good in their public policies.

    there is no good in ponzi schemes, no good in using mass migration to prop it up and no good in using propaganda to deny its effect and eventual outcome upon society.

    yes the lefties have rubbed the middle class noses in 'it'.

  • Comment number 15.

    I am not an expert in polls of course but when I hear that the Lib Dems are down to low double digits and that Labour is picking up the votes I am sceptical as there was a preceding narrative suggesting that based on little more than Labour aspirations.

    But of course the polls do show something - as polls suggesting many deserted Labour as they feel they were out of touch.

    So is the thing that they aren't good at establishing how hard or soft a vote is? They believe they have a right to power because they are Labour as opposed to having the policies that people enthuse about and are beneficial to the country.

    They will pretend to be outraged about "gerrymandering" and won't contemplate electoral reform but managed to calm their disquiet when it took 35,000 votes to get a Labour MP and 44,000 to get a Tory. They could have been third in the popular vote and been the largest party. That's not something that bothers them at all.

    If recent stats are not a blip and the economy starts to double dip and correct the issue in these very fluid and volatile times then I would have thought that the some way down the line many will see Labour as the party of the past indeed and the Lib Dem vote should surge strongly as people see them as the real party of constructive change benefiting all of society.

    Obviously even though the coalition is understood to have left an absolute disaster as an inheritance to the new coalition government if there is a real double dip and no correction due to ideological Tory zeal then both the Tories and Lib Dems suffer but I don't see that Labour gains in a hard vote.

    There is no reason to not think that Labours enthusiastic support of the finance sector and deliberate light touch regulation with warning noises from Blair to the FSA on "perfectly respectable banks" did not contribute greatly to the economic catastrophe.

    Its also possible that in dribs and drabs we will learn more about the renditions and torture and so on that may undermine their new expected leader Miliband Major.

    If Alistair Campbell, synonymous with Iraq war sofa politics, becomes an MP as has been mooted -by him I believe - will they be able to shake off their past associations?

  • Comment number 16.

    Breaking Segregation in Oldham schools.
    This was attempted in Northern Ireland and had some benefit. Yes, kids may forge friendships from any attempt at breaking down cultural barriers but Northern Ireland needs a good 50yrs and clever social engineering to meld the two communities into one even though the moral and cultural differences between the Protestants and Catholics are virtually the same. The children of oldham of different mix don't have that advantage. Family and moral values are generally stronger within the Asian communities; not so within the white communities.
    Traditional Asian families look upon the white British with horror: morally bankrupt, sexual deviancy, spiritually dead and drunk. Its a sweeping generalization but thats the archetype they see so who can blame them from keeping themselves segregated from the white English. Add to that the years of 'progressive' socialists desire to promote lifestyles such as homosexuality, the break-up of traditional family values, divorce etc..these are anathema too even the more Liberal Asian minds. The irony i find is that the socialist left introduced the idea that there is something called the commonality of man; that we can all live together happily regardless of cultural differences. Today the left are floundering, trying to fix something they introduced. Meanwhile the rest of us look on with great concern, mindful - thanks mostly because we understand history and actually look around the world without the rose tinted glasses - we know that different cultures generally stay with their own, that inturn grows, they naturally take over a town or city, regional politics follows not of the host nation, democracy gives them power and we are then even more fractured. In effect we are Balkanized...can you guess what follows that ladies and gentlemen?

  • Comment number 17.

    Gango wrote this:

    "When your clip showed a lady declaring that the immigrants lived like Kings and Queens was it based on fact or perceptions caused by those who would pour poison into peoples ears?"

    I'm glad you noted that. With due respects to the woman in question, the ΒιΆΉΤΌΕΔ always gets someone such as her for this kinda topic. The can't-string-three-words-together-brigade have a mike shoved up their nose and are then asked 'what they fink of immigration'. I'm also lookin forward to the Chealsea t-shirt tattoed fella and the bloke at the fish mongers for their take on the immigration issue. ΒιΆΉΤΌΕΔ, we know what your doing.

  • Comment number 18.

    Gango also wrote this:

    "Myself I tend to agree with the official view"

    yes gango, you certainly do!..and to think I thought it was only the good folk at the beeb who were in a bubble.
    Paxman and the Warkster ain't though..I know they know. They just don't let on.

    Emily don't get much of a mention on here, so lets rectify that.
    She did a good job yesterday evening, especially the piece about Rawanda, good probing questions. I enjoyed her relaxed manner, this could be her signiture style. This woman is growing on me..not as much as the Warkster though.

  • Comment number 19.

    Gango, do your best buddy. You never let us down. And you've been a great source of inspiration for helping me with some material...you got a mention in front of 60odd merry punters recently. I just hope you can handle the fame buddy.

    Mod. No mention was given to this site. So rest assured, there will be no obnoxious drunken first-timers coming on here giving-it-out.

  • Comment number 20.

    JUST BEEN WATCHING 'DEFINITE DAVE' aka 'CERTAINTY CAMERON' (#16)

    Never since 'BELIEF BLAIR' has one so full of the right answers stood, akimbo, midst his flock, and spouted vacuous rhetoric for his own self-aggrandisement.

    WE HAVE ANOTHER ONE.

    Dave promised a female police person she would get audience with some appropriate minister - but made no attempt to ensure we can track her progress.

    Oh - it's all going wonderfully like last time and the time before.

  • Comment number 21.

    I wonder when Dave will be off to China Barrie, he could ask them about this...

  • Comment number 22.

    13

    what has any of that to do with law breaking and fsa incompetence? does it excuse it?

    tenants choose their job?

    i agree landowners get 4 billion a year that mainly goes to millionaires who also exact high rents and can establish local monopolies. Which is why we need a land tax.

  • Comment number 23.

    UNIFORM - CONFORM OR DEFORM

    "From next month the schools will merge to become a joint academy, with a brand new uniform."

    Oh - hooo rah!

    Why not have TWO brand new uniforms, and let the kids choose? Then have lots of lessons on how HomSap functions, and fails to function, emphasising the part that DIFFERENCE plays in initiating and fuelling strife, unless WISDOM of a high order is part of the culture.

    Then explain the Westminster Malaise and how it messes up all our lives.

  • Comment number 24.

    IS THIS A WIND-UP KIRSTY?

    How am I going to spot indiscretions of syntax when I am so exacerbated by your delivery? There is an old song: "We heard what she said but we knew what she meant." It now goes: "We couldn't work out what she said, so we had no idea what she meant."

  • Comment number 25.

    DAVE IN CHINA (#21)

    Hi Lizzy. On current form, Dave will Tirade against Taiwan and praise the humanitarian work done by China in Tibet. He will hint that the Dalai Lama is a chum of Bin Laden.

    Then HQ will explain what he really meant. . .

    PS Is this Naomi Campbell some sort of pop star? I can't see how the story merits top billing otherwise. Edgy Beeb - real edgy.

  • Comment number 26.

    25

    "get with the beat baggy"

    the story is 'supermodel, diamonds,immense wealth, shady men of power, jet set lifestyle etc'- for this kind of story the NN sisterhood is all agog as if jacking up in a pride and prejudice gossip house.

    NN is after ratings. So it has to mirror the dreams and desires of those it wants as an audience.

    thus its an aspirational story chic flit for the 'shelias'? which is why we don't 'get it'?

  • Comment number 27.

    #8 ecolizzy

    "And in an halal death surely some of the spinal chord contents must end up in the muscle so we people must eat a bit of it. But hey, it's alright it's a religious freedom, so must be kosher! ; )"

    Yes I am sure you eat halal all the time.

    Meantime your reference to kosher jars a little with your frequent references to the National Socialist jaded_jean doesn't it?

    Ah I still recall your saying that you did not like to visit London due to the racial mix and then house prices went up .... time for a second announcement?

  • Comment number 28.

    #19 kevseywevsey

    "And you've been a great source of inspiration for helping me with some material...you got a mention in front of 60odd merry punters recently. I just hope you can handle the fame buddy."

    Meantime I can only imagine that as a DJ who allegedly likes Blues you would comment to your audience as you did to me "Remember kids when it comes to multiculturalism ... the road to hell is paved with good intentions!".

    Yes sir and the other thing you forget is would I really ever want to be liked by people that like you.

    The answer has two letters and one is a vowel.

    #16

    "Add to that the years of 'progressive' socialists desire to promote lifestyles such as homosexuality, the break-up of traditional family values, divorce etc..these are anathema too even the more Liberal Asian minds."

    Yet the BNP by contrast who are "nationalists" like you say they are not a Nazi party but are "modern and progressive". Oh and your pal jaded_jean thought modern music was a corruptive influence due to the racial background to much of the music. Divorce eh nah never let them suffer together in disharmony as its good for the kids.

    Your old pal "the Griff" thought that the victims of an EX-bnp member who nail bombed them were "disgusting creatures".

    Meanwhile hism old pal, allegedly, Hitler got on quite well with the gay Rohm until he plotted against Hitler and then Hitler had him shot.

    Total consistency.

  • Comment number 29.

    #23 barriesingelton

    "Then have lots of lessons on how HomSap functions, and fails to function, emphasising the part that DIFFERENCE plays in initiating and fuelling strife, unless WISDOM of a high order is part of the culture.

    Then explain the Westminster Malaise and how it messes up all our lives."

    Barrie you are slipping as you could have used a LOT MORE MEANINGLESS CAPITALS TO ADD PSUEDO-SENSE to tripe.

    For newcomers if you take the differencism of our friendly lettuce loving barrie and compare it to the overt National Socialism of his old pal jaded_jean there probably is nowhere near, or should I say NEAR, as much difference as you would expect.

    But then if you belong to a racial minority you probably guessed that.

  • Comment number 30.

    #18 kevseywevsey

    "Emily don't get much of a mention on here, so lets rectify that.
    She did a good job yesterday evening, especially the piece about Rawanda, good probing questions. I enjoyed her relaxed manner, this could be her signiture style. This woman is growing on me..not as much as the Warkster though."

    Yes when they know you are an English Nationalist who thinks those who enthuse about multiculturalism are "on the road to hell" and that there is value in the sub-Powell thoughts of the National Socialist jaded_jean I can only guess that one day they will team up and find you and ask for your autograph!

    So how often did those rubber bullets in your childhood Belfast hit your head and did they leave dents?

    Still on the other hand if you have a sheep skin lined Orgone Energy Accumulator ready to impress I suppose the women just flock to your apple blonde hair and your muscles that are stronger than Tyson.

  • Comment number 31.

    #17 kevseywevsey

    "I'm also lookin forward to the Chealsea t-shirt tattoed fella and the bloke at the fish mongers for their take on the immigration issue. ΒιΆΉΤΌΕΔ, we know what your doing."

    I think in the premiership and beyond the catch phrase is "Lets kick racism out of football" so a genuine Chelsea enthusiast probably would not be in your mob.

    Its also 'you are' and not 'your' and that kinds negates your argument.

    So will we get the geezers like that dodgey ex-Barking BNP councilor who reported local "race" murders that never happened due to the mixture of dyslexia and church bells?

    You just don't get integrity like the far right has anymore ... but then they never had integrity did they!

  • Comment number 32.

    #16 kevseywevsey

    Did you hit the beers first tonight K?

    "In effect we are Balkanized...can you guess what follows that ladies and gentlemen?"

    Let me guess its "the road to hell" as with those of "good intention" who endorse multiculturalism?

    A few general contrasts though with your old National Socialist pal jaded_jean , not just on aforementioned music, but that poster thought that we are "all Catholics" though I beg to differ.

    My mind boggles at the contradictions in your thought that would overwhelm most thinking people.

    Perhaps though that is the clue I am missing.

  • Comment number 33.

    I'M THE KING OF THE 'SINGERS' OOOH! (#26)

    But totally lost in the Newsnight jungle Jaunty.

    "If Newsnight can fill the undiscerning telly, with forty minutes worth of worthless carp. The blog is Gangofone's, and all that's in it, and which is more, he's free to, endless, 'harp'."

  • Comment number 34.

    #19 kevseywevsey

    "you got a mention in front of 60odd merry punters recently"

    I forgot to encourage you.

    Kevseywevsey!

    You counted to sixty!

    Actually with the far right in retrospect I would probably double check if they said it was day or night - as most people in the UK do hence their voting patterns.

  • Comment number 35.

    This comment was removed because the moderators found it broke the house rules. Explain.

  • Comment number 36.

    Loved the final interview of the night by Liz and the subsequent discussion with Kirsty on the decline of grammer in the English language. The tabloid vocabulary is prevalent in all papers these days, eg, hike in interest rates instead of steep rise in interest rates. Although language evolves (how many new words are added to the dictionary each year?), basic grammer/spelling etc isn't taught in schools, so how are the public supposed to learn?

  • Comment number 37.

    This comment was removed because the moderators found it broke the house rules. Explain.

  • Comment number 38.

    THE UNSPEAKABLE BACKED BY THE UNBEARABLE

    Inverse ventriloquist, Kirsty, presiding over a discussion about the irritations of language (that lost its way) backed by the irritation of half-illuminated page-turning.

    Award-winning stuff.

  • Comment number 39.

    The people who irritate me are the ΒιΆΉΤΌΕΔ weather forecasters who regularly refer to a places called Northern Wales and Southern Wales etc. Imagine the fuss there would be if they started talking about a place called Eastern Anglia.

  • Comment number 40.

    How strange that Dr.Lamb from the Queen's English Society should object to the use of language as he does. The word 'hike' to describe interest rates is the same as 'steep rise' as this is also a metaphorical way of describing a numerical amount- figures can no more rise steeply than they can hike.The only difference is that one is an older metaphor that we barely recognise as such any longer.
    As for not being sure whether young people really intend the original meaning of 'wicked' or the new meaning, I can only think he hasn't listened to many young people. I have never been in any doubt when a kid has used 'wicked' as a positive adjective, because, as Kirsty said, the facial expression, tone of voice etc would all be part of their intended meaning. Incidentally I think 'wicked' in its original meaning had already fallen out of common usage except in fairy tales, so little danger of confusion anyway. And finally the dreaded split infinitive. Surely its critics can hear that the rhythmn and stress pattern of "To boldly go" is more dramatic than either of the other two alternatives so entirely appropriate to its context.
    Language is our servant not our master, there to do our bidding not the other way around.

  • Comment number 41.

    Further to comment #35 (awaiting moderation!) it is of course a matter of record that Naomi Campbell appeared with Michael Jackson in a video
    called 'Keep It In The Closet' in 1991. In 1990 while Charles Taylor's
    troops were approaching Bong and I was in Monrovia ΒιΆΉΤΌΕΔ World Service's
    'Dr Grammar' was indeed parsing the lyrics of 'Liberian Girl' on their
    West African service. Presumably too that was being picked up by Taylor
    in the bush? Naomi Campbell is not listed, of course, in the credits of
    that earlier Michael Jackson hit - which featured Campbell and Taylor's
    fellow dinner guest in South Africa in 1998 Quincy Jones .. But it is a
    bit suprising, however, is it not that in today's court proceedings she
    claimed never to have heard of Liberia - despite appearing in a Jackson
    video and claiming Quincy Jones as a close friend along with Mr Taylor?

  • Comment number 42.



    Naomi Campbell with the composer of 'Liberian Girl'.

  • Comment number 43.

    This is how The Guardian is reporting Naomi Campbell's testimony in The Hague ........

  • Comment number 44.

    Taylor denies involvement in the death of Education Minister Jackson Doe
    who ran for President of Liberia against dictator Master Sergeant Samuel
    Doe who set aside the result of the election ..... sparking a civil war:

    [Unsuitable/Broken URL removed by Moderator]

  • Comment number 45.

    This is how The
    Mail is reporting Naomi Campbell's testimony in The Hague ............

  • Comment number 46.

    The broken URL link inserted at my comment #44 was to the Sierra Leone Transcript evidence of 3 Feb 2010 in the case against Charles Taylor -
    a document which deserves close scrutiny ..... not least for the long
    list of executions and unexplained deaths/disappearances in Liberia ..

  • Comment number 47.

    Standards of literacy

    Kirsty, you have made another clanger in your anecdote about your clanger. The spelling of the word is enervate with only one 'n'. May I suggest that if you speak decent French, your misuse of the word may come from the faux ami 'Γ©nerver' which does mean het up.

  • Comment number 48.

    This comment was removed because the moderators found it broke the house rules. Explain.

  • Comment number 49.

    Such a pity that whilst Newsnight presenters and interviewees are discussing and bemaoning the misuse of the English language (questioning whether 'wicked' should mean 'wicked' or 'wicked', they then themselves misuse the word 'fantastic' a number of times in the discussion. They were not discussing fantasy they were discussing the use of the English Language, a reality.

  • Comment number 50.

    No comment, but....

  • Comment number 51.

    Will the Oldham child experiment improve this situation?



    #50 Yes Mistress I quietly cried when I read that article.

  • Comment number 52.

    WELL - MAGGIE SET THE TONE - 'IN IT TO WIN IT'

    In this (state!) lottery age, it is small wonder that states join the EU solely to extract all they can get. The idea of 'association to benefit the whole group' is long gone. Who needs altruism? Lottery motto: IT'S YOU! EU motto: "FILL YER BOOTS".

    As for the official response:
    "A UK Border Agency spokesman said: β€˜The new Government is determined to reduce net migration to the tens of thousands per year."
    I believe the polite reply is: "YEAH RIGHT!"

    Oh - EU membership is going awfully well!


  • Comment number 53.

    ISLAAM - ISLAMISM EU - EUISM? (#51 link)

    By George I might have got it! It's not the benign EU that threatens us!
    It is pernicious EUism that ACTIVELY wants to rob us of identity and culture.

    Indigenes of England - rise up and defeat EUism, under any bed where it is found lurking! (See #52)

    Oh - it's all beginning to look the same.

  • Comment number 54.

    I was amazed last night (Thursday 5th) to hear Martha Kearney declare that the Ancient Greeks used to split their infinitives! Nonsense! Like Latin, Greek had (and still has) one-word infinitives, incapable of being split!

    I wonder whether she misread something about German ... well, after all, Greek and German do start with the same letter!

  • Comment number 55.

    This comment was removed because the moderators found it broke the house rules. Explain.

  • Comment number 56.

    #36. Mistress76uk wrote:

    "Loved the final interview of the night by Liz and the subsequent discussion with Kirsty on the decline of grammer in the English language. The tabloid vocabulary is prevalent in all papers these days, eg, hike in interest rates instead of steep rise in interest rates. Although language evolves (how many new words are added to the dictionary each year?), basic grammer/spelling etc isn't taught in schools, so how are the public supposed to learn?"

    ------------------------

    Oh the irony!

    Mistress...I think you will find that basic GRAMMAR is still taught in GRAMMAR schools!

  • Comment number 57.

    :p typo!

  • Comment number 58.

    the experiment

    if this was about education standards then what does it matter who is or is not in a room when you take a test? to insist there must be some racial ratio is just political racial dogma that has nothing to do with education standards?

    migration happened to prop up the ponzi pension system in the bizarre belief in govt that the basic maths of a ponzi scheme can be solved in this way. Integration happens through marriage which is not going to happen because of the practise of honour killing.

    those who view the uk as a racial playground for their experiments must view the ideal brit to be mixed race? the more mixed the better and for them anything else is 'suspicious'? which is a form of racism.

    people who take race as the highest idea of the mind and the template for a society end up with very strange outlooks and polices.

    i haven't seen a bbc presenter in a hijab reading the news or on the weather [rather than the ubiquitous pregnant weather girl]. isn't the bbc supposed to mirror its audience? isn't that 'suspicious' regarding their commitment to multiculture dogma? :)

  • Comment number 59.

    S.O.S. - Save Our Society

    As on most days, we have reports and links posted on this blog (and on others) that confirm the overwhelming and destruction that is continuing to our English culture and way of life. Some refer to β€˜a lengthy suicide’ which is the way in which most once-great societies allowed themselves to be destroyed from within.

    It is mainly we older bloggers who once experienced, enjoyed and identified with any real sense of national pride, whilst the younger (and perhaps more recent β€˜British’) are more interested in further improving their benefits of settling here and wish to change society to meet their beliefs and faiths, many of which are alien (the official and appropriate term once used by immigration authorities).

    It is clear that Newsnight takes little heed of views expressed on this blog, never (to my knowledge) quoting from it or taking up issues first raised here, nor inviting regular contributors on any panel or public opinion/focus groups. (I expect they are simply following the revised ΒιΆΉΤΌΕΔ charter to Titilate, Desecrate and Deform society).

    Instead, we seem to vent our indignation on each others posts – including one or two regulars that have reached the state of irrelevance with their daily dirges and repetitive homilies that never respond, even indirectly, to reports and links posted by others.

    I’ve switched my energies into writing direct to my MP and Local Councillors as appropriate. At least this results in acknowledgement of issues raised with some evidence of action at local level. I intent to reinforce this with posting on government websites and on other online forums that provide voting 'for' or 'against' views expressed - a facility that ΒιΆΉΤΌΕΔ β€˜Have Your Say’ dropped, thus disguising the weight of public opinion for or against the few issues that ΒιΆΉΤΌΕΔ carefully select for offering up to the scrutiny of public opinion.

    In a 'democracy' that's heavily distorted by useful idiots, 'grateful' non-contributors, the Westminster power ethos and other self-interest groups and businesses, what else can one do to leave behind for one's grandchildren and future descendants an epitaph of 'I Told You We Wasn't Well, but Nobody Listened' ?

  • Comment number 60.

    GLASSHOUSES? (#56)

    "arbeit macht frei!"

  • Comment number 61.

    "INTEGRATION HAPPENS THROUGH MARRIAGE" (#58)

    Ho Jaunty. You will know that I see England's fundamental problem as one of creeping madness.

    What you might not know is that a dark brown boy, born to a white father and a dark brown mother, volunteered to his Gran that he had his father's colour.

    Received wisdom is that we acknowledge our mirror-self at around 15 months (from memory). To do the 'thought experiment' of being an infant of one colour, with parents/carers of assorted colours, is pretty daunting - to my mind. What is the newbie to think? I suggest an infant can draw erroneous conclusions that have to be addressed when the mirror 'speaks'. Prior to that, even belief in a two-tone body is not impossible.

    Mixed marriage is, perhaps, a step backward requiring offspring to take on a considerable task of adjustment - at what mental cost?

    One for Prof Winston - if he dare.

  • Comment number 62.

    POST OF THE YEAR - BUT POSTS IN SWAMPS ONLY ROT AND FALL (#59)

    BRAVO IDG2 - Bravo indeed!

    I am currently working my way through the higher-profile but less-grand MPs, with a request to address the Conservative 'liar flyer': apparent 'false instrument' distributed at the recent election. Zilch.

    My own MP openly mocked me in print! Hardly surprising, as he is INSIDE the Citadel of Westminster - a citadel that a million could not breach, let alone take.

    You are right IDG2 - Newsnight seems to run this forum because, in 2010, 'that is what you do'. I suppose it is 'inclusive' or 'interactive' (if a bit one sided). I sincerely wish you luck with your approaches to MPs. I think you will need it. I have been rebuffed by all agencies of control, and told by the Electoral Commission to go to the Police (aka Keir Starmer - 'in his wisdom'). Not this little black duck! I shall spend five years pecking away at their heels.

    Respect and regards IDG2.

  • Comment number 63.

    #59 You have written a very considered and excellent post there indignantindegene. If only it made any difference writing to MPs etc.

    I wrote to our MP explaining I was very concered about mass immigration and the loss of jobs here. On another occasion I said I was worried about Sharia courts gaining ground here, at that time 80 informal ones. I just got back the usual reassuring rubbish, that it would never happen here, (it already has) and that they were determined to bring down immigration, hasn't happened either, only in a miniscule amount.

    I also wrote to Caroline Feldman about the disgusting practice of Halal and Kosher slaughter, needless to say I had no reply. After all it's big business that's booming as we supply that meat to europe as well, and plan massive factories in Wales and East Anglia. That will mean even more immigration as only muslim slaughterers from asian countries have the stomach for such a barbaric death.

    Just where have we gone, vanished down the plughole, as you say young people don't care, they are only interested in where they can go, and what they can buy as cheaply as possible. Morals we haven't any anymore, anything goes, especially if washed down with copious amounts of booze and drugs.

  • Comment number 64.

    THE ΒιΆΉΤΌΕΔ ETHOS (59 & 63)

    Were the edgy Beeb to show public disembowelling (before the watershed) and half the nation rose as one to protest, Radio 4 Feedback would summon a producer and be told: "I think we are getting it about right."

    Remember how dear old Tel (Wogan) sent up the fleeting slogan: 'Your ΒιΆΉΤΌΕΔ'? He saw the irony way back then. All that is left is a rust stain.

Μύ

ΒιΆΉΤΌΕΔ iD

ΒιΆΉΤΌΕΔ navigation

ΒιΆΉΤΌΕΔ Β© 2014 The ΒιΆΉΤΌΕΔ is not responsible for the content of external sites. Read more.

This page is best viewed in an up-to-date web browser with style sheets (CSS) enabled. While you will be able to view the content of this page in your current browser, you will not be able to get the full visual experience. Please consider upgrading your browser software or enabling style sheets (CSS) if you are able to do so.