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Wednesday 4 August 2010

Lucy Rodgers | 12:45 UK time, Wednesday, 4 August 2010

Here's what we're planning for tonight:

Sorry? What just happened with the BP oil spill? One minute it's being described as the world's worst environmental disaster, the next we're being informed that it might not have been that bad after all - or at least that 75% of the leaked oil has actually evaporated or been contained.

BP is saying nothing. Though you can imagine Tony Hayward might be permitting himself a wry smile and a fun-sized Mars Bar and wondering if he has been vindicated. Does this mean that the right measures were taken in time? Or that a post-Katrina administration in the US might have over reacted? The questions are already coming thick and fast. We'll debate what happened tonight.

First though, we will be looking at Pakistan President Zardari's reasons for being in the UK. Yes we know relations between our two countries are important and there are key talks to be had, but there's also the small matter of his son's political career which some suggest will be launched this Saturday in Birmingham.

We're on the ground there tonight, asking Britain's Pakistani communities what they make of the fact Zardari is 4,000 miles from home at a time of national crisis.

We also have a film on fostering tonight, from Liz MacKean, and we'll be looking at Rwanda before it goes to the poll. Sixteen years on from the genocide it has been called the Singapore of Africa - an emerging beacon of stability and reform in an unstable continent. But lurking beneath the surface are claims the government there - much praised by the international community - is suppressing dissent and even assassinating political opponents.

We'll speak to Rwanda's foreign secretary live in the studio.

Do join me tonight at 10.30pm on Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ Two.

Emily

From earlier:

Pakistan's President Asif Ali Zardari is facing growing criticism for visiting Britain while his country struggles to cope with the worst flood for 80 years.

We'll be canvassing opinion about the trip in Birmingham, where a rally will be held later this week to launch the political career of the president's son Bilawal Bhutto Zardari.

We also have a film on Rwanda ahead of elections next week, and a report from Liz MacKean on foster care.

More later.

Comments

  • Comment number 1.

    Is it Barry Obama's birthday, really!..Happy Birthday Barry! I wonder if he'll produce his birth certificate to the media to confirm his age....and birthplace. I wonder if he'll get a cake with candles? Do you think Goldman Sachs will send him a card. I wonder what they'll put on it.

    Many happy returns Mr President, thanks for all the money...and your doing a great job pushing our agenda, keep up the goodwork. All the very best from us and our friends:

    Goldman Sachs, all the boys froms the insurance group, the military industrial complex, all the banking families and their offshoot corporations; offshore and at home. The chaps at Bilderberg. George Soros. The ADL, the corporate owned media without whom we could not peddle the lies. The CIA and Google and all the special interest groups ...and last but not least,
    David Rockerfella.xxxx

    P:S Sorry to hear you was not invited to the big wedding, Hilary did say she sent out the invite, it must've got lost in the post.

  • Comment number 2.

    #35 from previous page

    I doesn't make the slightest difference who's proved but what is 'essentially' the proof?? And in what area? Male prowess? Hving 'fun' with guns?

  • Comment number 3.

    nothing on this?

    Biggest swoop yet on Europe by Chinese as billionaire buys EDF UK



    he was looking for easy regulation and high profits. so the uk energy market was a no brainer.

    meanwhile all the bt exchanges are being run by machines made by a chinese company run by an ex [?] chinese military intelligence officer.

    uk democracy institutionalises incompetence.

  • Comment number 4.

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

  • Comment number 5.

    An investigation has been launched into claims that the offspring of a cloned cow entered the food chain, it was confirmed today.

    The Food Standards Agency said two bulls born in the UK from embryos harvested from a cloned cow had been slaughtered, one of which "will have been eaten", while the other was stopped from entering the food chain.
    ------------------------

    I know that there is no evidence that cloned cows will necessarily cause us problems. Nor is there substantial evidence that GM crops pose a danger (though there is no evidence of any kind for anything in effect). There is no evidence that plants like the famous knotweed cause us problems on a health level. There is no evidence that there are bacteria brought in accidentally due to globalisation processes cause us problems.

    But I suspect that many people feel an unease that as we experience global warming confirmed by the huge bulk of climate scientists - and even the sceptics tend to agree on most points - we are creating more complexity than we can manage in an oncoming crisis.

    In a changed environment and the possibility of cloned cows eating experimental GM crops affected by unanticipated bacteria and pests with background pollution and unexpected temperature variations with virus transport increased to modern travel speed are we quite likely to start experiencing the unexpected?

    I can understand individual scientists and farmers becoming frustrated but in my view when there are so many variable factors that could interact in totally unexpected ways we should be very cautious and consolidate our science and technology so that the big picture is always in consideration.

  • Comment number 6.

    I think the criticism of Zardari is not fully merited as with modern communication it probably makes little difference whether he is in Islamabad or London.

    There is the political gesture of course but Pakistan probably has as much, or more, interest in the outcome of the Afghan war than we do as its hard to conceive of the extreme views and ruthless methods of the Talibs not impacting on Pakistan if we lose.

    I do get the feeling that a lot is "lost in translation" and that there really does need to be a brutal and frank and complete examination of all detail so that we get a coherent and viable strategy that interface on both sides of the border.

    The Bhutto assassination clearly was a personal tragedy and so accusations of collaborating with the terrorists probably goes down like a lead balloon. Pakistan loses many troops and police and civilians to the Talibs.

    On the other hand it is not unexpected that we should get quite stressed that we, apparently, know roughly where the Talib and al Qaeda leaders are and so does Pakistan but they won't go after them.

    Notions that they would then be considered neo-colonial lackeys domestically ring hollow as they clearly will suffer greatly if the Pakistan Talibs ever get a strong foothold in that nuclear state.

    On the one hand our MI5 cooperate with ISI and on the other are long standing and not unreasonable suspicions about them.

    Conversely would anybody over here be surprised if the CIA in Pakistan went "off the reservation" in terms of mission focus and started trying to get a better permanent foothold in nuclear Pakistan. Its what they do but countering that is what the ISI does.

    Questions remain about LET and the ISI and Mumbai.

    But now is a good time for "full and frank" discussions between the leaders and I would assume Obama will not be slow to separate the objective basis of mutual interests be affected.

  • Comment number 7.

    #1 kevseywevsey

    "Is it Barry Obama's birthday, really!..Happy Birthday Barry! I wonder if he'll produce his birth certificate to the media to confirm his age....and birthplace. I wonder if he'll get a cake with candles? Do you think Goldman Sachs will send him a card. I wonder what they'll put on it."

    Kevseywevsey!

    This is a mjor step forward for you as you are not only writing your words and ordering your thoughts but you are wishing well a man of race and a civil rights lawyer. This only weeks after you managed to say "check" and you could have said "check mate" but you decided to hang back.

    Only the other day you were suggesting that when it comes to multiculturalism "the road to hell" was paved with good intentions.

    So you aren't that affected by the views of the National Socialist jaded_jean and your declared "nationalist" leanings to "the Griff" - who probably also did not get an invite to the wedding - don't inhibit the general warmth of your personality.

    Again some weeks back you mentioned embracing religious hatred in your childhood Belfast and your general view on that place recovering from decades of senseless tragedy could be summed up as "All we are saying is don't give peace a chance".

    Now this.

    You mentioned that you were as strong as Mike Tyson and now you are going to work on your "brain muscles"!

    Look out world!

    PS there was a little sarcasm worked in there.

  • Comment number 8.

    #3 jauntycyclist

    "uk democracy institutionalises incompetence."

    But democracy corrects itself and other totalitarian regimes usually just collapse under the weight of their own internal contradictions.

    If you look at those suspected of not being genuine democrats, like say the BNP in this country, you don't find much competence there.

    They would get rid of the banks and build "things" and then sell the "things" around the world.

    Profound.

  • Comment number 9.

    Its difficult to not conclude that far right activist's are gutless cowards.

    First off they usually hide their views behind oblique notions of nationalism and always hint at their views but never declare them.

    Secondly if you believed that they believed their own many and various conspiracy theories then they must have tangled trains of thoughts like a spaghetti junction designed by a drug addict.

    But when push comes to shove they retreat into the darkness and you would never, for instance, hear of them presenting all of their "scientific" evidence that the races are significantly different by simply gathering up the said evidence and taking it off to court and challenging the EHRC.

    So you know that they know, despite their protests and whining, that there is no evidence or they would take that logical step to realising in law what they believe in their addled minds.

    Its also clear that you will hear those who rant about Jewish hegemony but after seventy years since the Nazis there is no simple proof its always the pseudo Hitler emphatic accusation based on non-existent supporting information.

    Yet when they look in the mirror they don't see cowardice and emotional bile and that is amazing and shows their inherent weakness.

    Oh there will be some who will try the sleight of hand of saying that the science could not be proven as it is effectively like a point of faith.

    Except that that contradicts their rants that they have plenty of "evidence" in science and in any event science requires solid evidence and consensus and so those that believe there is no difference between the races have very solid grounds. Thats partially because of recent knowledge that we are all descended from a very few people who walked out of Africa and there is very little variation from those who did not walk out of Africa. Genetic variation is greater within a race than between races.

    Notions of culture when linked to race are nonsense of course as there can be no no link between genes and culture - its something of the mind and is clearly totally dependent on environment.

    So the far right depend on distraction, and illusion and propaganda and feigned complexity because when simple questions are asked they have no answers and they know it.

  • Comment number 10.

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

  • Comment number 11.

    OBAMA DOES NOT HAVE CANDLES ON HIS CAKE KEV (#1)

    They reflect off the Autocue and spoil his spontaneous oration of thanks. It has been suggested it it might be something to do with heat-seeking missiles, but that is just conspiracy theory - like 9/11 and we don't talk about that - especially on his birthday.

  • Comment number 12.

    CHINA DOOMED - THEY ARE LISTENING TO US! (#3)

    Surreal Jaunty. When their listening station reports British intentions, as announced by Nick-n-Dave, the operatives will be publicly humiliated and sent to the Noodle Mines for stupidity in translation.

  • Comment number 13.

    #7

    What a 'strong' male to model oneself on. Wasn't Mike Tyson convicted of rape?

    Thanks for keeping tracks of who said what, Gango.

    mim

  • Comment number 14.

    gango wrote (about my post):

    "This is a mjor [sic) step forward for you as you are not only writing your words and ordering your thoughts but you are wishing well a man of race and a civil rights lawyer"

    Gee thanks gango buddy, praise can go along way..I'm all skip-a-de-do now.

    One slight problem. Should that be a man of colour rather than race. Do black people have a monopoly on such a word as 'race'? I thought race was just a figment of the imagination of folk such as the Griffins and the hitlers..so you keep telling us. Anyroads 'colour' could denote someone who is white as well as black. Where does one draw the line of distinction?! We could say - in the pursuit of finding common ground - that Obama is human and of the African/American variety.
    Would that not still suggest there is difference...that there is an inescapable truth, an inescapable truth that we can not er, well, escape.. that there are differences between the races.

    P:S I liked the way you linked my Imaginary Barry Obama Birthday greetings card and Nick Griffin..clever that. I would even go so far as to suggest that your the master of phraseology...even if most are cut-n-pasted of the Huffington Post.
    Now don't take that wrong, I'm only playing. Talking of playing, mummy says I have to go out and play..climbing frame, the swing etc, and I'll have another go on the skateboard, I'm determined to get up to your skill level. See you later buddy.

  • Comment number 15.

    5
    by the same logic there is no evidence the food agency is competent. its not enough to say there is no evidence. what trials have they done?

    there was no evidence of wmd in iraq but we still went in. much of the terror laws is not based on evidence but that something might happen?

    there is no evidence, no legal test, that can prove anyone is sane.

    the FSA have an agenda?

    ...The FSA should halt this patronising process and undertake a dialogue not simply aimed at contriving a yes to all GM technology from a population that it wrongly assumes is anti-science. ...

  • Comment number 16.

    Barry, you share the same christian name as Obama.
    By the way barry, we don't call it 'conspiracy theory'..we call it alternative research...others call it 'the truth'.

  • Comment number 17.

    For the sake of Mim.

    Get gango to pull-up that "quote" of mine.
    In all the years that I've been on this planet, I can safely say, and without fear of contradiction that I've ever likened myself to Mike Tyson. I did once give a clue to my great physical condition due to exercise -jogging, weights and that I once worked in the skin flicks industry (pornography)..i'm embarrassed somewhat of my past and its still a cross to bare but I have never..repeat never likened myself to Mike Tyson. Hope thats cleared that up. And anyhow, I don't even like boxing..goodness sake!

  • Comment number 18.

    that oil slick vanished just like WMD what a surprise!!

  • Comment number 19.

    STEELING MYSELF TO BE OUT OUT OUT IRONIED (#16)

    Your cheek is legendary Kev, but with the price of tongue, are you going to need a loan - in this CLIMATE?!

    I am off to hide from you in d's cypher cupboard.

    Regards BarrIE

  • Comment number 20.

    THE OIL WAS EATEN BY MILLENNIUM BUGS - STUPID

    "Does this mean that the right measures were taken in time? Or that a post-Katrina administration in the US might have over reacted? The questions are already coming thick and fast."

    Or does it indicate that my - almost immediate - conclusion stands up to scrutiny? It was, as Obama 'helped us to understand' another 9/11 - i.e. not what it seemed, but useful leverage (in the mechanical analogy) to 'alter the public face of oil extraction'.

  • Comment number 21.

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

  • Comment number 22.

    #21 mim

    now you know how the rest of us feel wrt your posts!

  • Comment number 23.

    22

    i second that.

  • Comment number 24.

    mim

    PS...best wishes for your wedding though!

  • Comment number 25.

    I can't believe #21 has caused offence...to anyone one, on any grounds...it was totally innocent!

    What is going on?

    C'mon mods what is going on?

    There are not any posts on here that I have ever wanted deleted! I might not agree with a lot of them (violently in some cases), but I certainly don't want them deleted.

    Please what is going on?

  • Comment number 26.

    #22 & #23

    don't read them then, they are not meant for you anyway

  • Comment number 27.

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

  • Comment number 28.

    Yet Another Corporate Nazi Eco-Scam ?

    /news/world-europe-10846395

  • Comment number 29.

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

  • Comment number 30.

    My, the standard of comments here has plummeted. Now it seems just a placed of somewhat nasty chat between an in-group. Still, maybe someone on the team might read it.

    So... Why is it that Newsnight, in profiling a rise in oppression in Rwanda as development (primarily advised upon by the UK and the Commonwealth, of which it is a new member - the first not to have been a British colony) has been prioritised over democracy, was it ignored that the country has recently criminalised homosexuality? This was remarkable because, not having been a British colony, it had never previously had such a law. And of course it is a clear example of oppression, and without doubt contributes to the atmosphere of fear the filmed report stated pervades the country.

    The move is the more suspect because evangelical and pentecostal preachers, who are very active in that area, as in much of Africa, have, as part of their anathematisation of sexual minorities, pushed the idea that homosexuals were to blame for the Rwandan genocides.

    Is it that Newsnight, even as the the most adult wing of Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ news and current affairs, still isn't comfortable with the human rights of sexual minorities being on the news agenda? Or perhaps you see it as not serious news, and those news organisations that do report such things as having sold out their journalistic values?

    Just wondering.

  • Comment number 31.

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

  • Comment number 32.

    30

    yes i agree. the noise to signal ratio is high. difficult to ignore so much noise. tedious too. some people think this is their bebo or chit chat page where their can witter on about any old rubbish rather than a news site focussed on news. i can see why it would put people off. hopefully the mods will get a grip.

  • Comment number 33.

    BP

    another success of light touch regulation?
    If we had light regulation in air traffic control planes would be dropping out the sky.

    separate lives.

    the uk pension scheme is a ponzi scheme that is bound to blow up no matter how many migrants the establishment want to flood the country with in a pyramiding attempt to keep the scam going.

    no commonality among a people is the death bell of a state. Nations arise from the common feeling from a group of people. destroy that commonality and the nation follows soon after. Which is why we are now spending billions on internal security against people born here. A trend set to increase for 'generations'?

  • Comment number 34.

    LET HIM WHO IS WITHOUT SIN POST THE FIRST POST (#30 and 32)

    Judge not lest ye be judged - mote and beam and all that.

    Wise words but 'who' was it said them again? (:o)

  • Comment number 35.

    I am the 'Frankie Boyle' of these posts...I am always getting pulled....

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