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Talk about Newsnight

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Thursday, 21 June, 2007

  • Newsnight
  • 21 Jun 07, 05:59 PM

Sir Menzies Campbell and Gordon BrownA government of all the talents
Really? Gordon Brown's overtures to Paddy Ashdown to join his government might have flattered but ultimately failed to win the former Lib Dem leader, perhaps more importantly though, they have exacerbated tensions within the Liberal Democrats and provoked disquiet on the Labour back benches.

Is this what he wanted? Rather than showing his commitment to building a government of all the talents, was Gordon Brown up to something altogether more machiavellian when he approached the Lib Dem peer? Paul Mason will be on hand to guide us through the murky political waters.

Ask Gordon Brown

Tomorrow in a special programme with Gordon Brown, three of the ³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖ's specialist editors will cross-examine the in-coming prime minister. You can send us your questions and experiences by clicking .

Opium and aid
We have an exclusive report into the growing concern in the Afghan government over whether millions of pounds of British aid money is being spent effectively in the fight against drugs.

Opium poppy growing has risen significantly during the last two years, particularly in the areas under British control. Newsnight has discovered that a fund, set up mainly with British money, to pay for alternative livelihoods for poppy farmers has spent hardly any of the money allocated. David Loyn has been to Afghanistan to investigate.

Watch David's report from earlier in the week on the growing political opposition in Afghanistan here.

Red LinesWhile Brown plays back here in London, Tony Blair is attending his final EU summit in Brussels. This is Blair's big moment; he's long argued that Britain can be at the heart of Europe without ceding power. Can he maintain Britain's red lines and avoid a referendum? And he's doing all the negotiating with Gordon Brown at his shoulder. We've dispatched David Grossman to Brussels where he is following the day's twists and turns.

Tina Brown
Kirsty Wark interviews Tina Brown, the woman who conquered the American magazine industry, about the highs and lows of her career, what she makes of Tony Blair, David Cameron and her new book on Diana.

Comments  Post your comment

  • 1.
  • At 07:17 PM on 21 Jun 2007,
  • Manjit wrote:

Why is Jeremy Paxman not interviewing Gordon Brown? I thought he was the ³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖ's premier interviewer or has he been relegated? Is the real reason Gordon Brown lacks the guts to face Jeremy Paxman on Newsnight? If this is the case, perhaps we should have a statement on the program explaining the reason's the Brown camp give for not wanting to be interviewed on Newsnight.

  • 2.
  • At 10:56 PM on 21 Jun 2007,
  • Colin wrote:

How come Jeremy gave the anti-Europe guy such an easy time? It's disappointing to see the media in England, and the ³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖ in particular, getting angry about some kinds of prejudices while being utterly bigoted in other cases. Tony Blair can sell his army to the US but he cannot switch to a decimal measurement system for fear of being accused of "selling out Britain." Don't fool yourselves that you care about your sovereignty, it's just a feeling of superiority about your nearest neighbours as far as I can see...

Ref: "Red Lines" - the EU charade.
I actually own a copy of the draft constitution which the French and Dutch voted down in referenda. It is, to this grammar school boy, around 90% incomprehensible. One thing stands out: Although your piece above ("Red Lines") touches on the ceding of "power" the word "power" does not, as far as I can discover, appear in that document. This might seem strange until you crack the code of the word "competence" (mostly as "competences") with which the document is peppered. Althought no such meaning is found in my large modern dictionary, "competences" is the non-word routinely used in place of "powers". Now why might that be?? What was it the Queen is reputed to have said to Burrell about "dark forces" at work in Britain? Not dark forces Ma'am - DARK COMPETENCES.

  • 4.
  • At 12:27 AM on 22 Jun 2007,
  • telos wrote:

A blatantly biased anti-European stance was clearly on show tonight. I urge Jeremy to adopt a more even-handed, less propagandist and vaguely incisive approach to this issue next time.

All the Talents . . .
Do you remember Brown's supposed inept coup against Blair? I felt at the time it was just the sort of Machiavellian touch that Blair might engineer, through others of course, duping the hapless Brown. Now that Brown has made the crass move on Lib Dem "Talent" I am getting deja vu.
Blair despises Brown. Watch out for more "inexplicable" gaffes by this Eddie the Eagle of Prime Ministership.

  • 6.
  • At 01:16 AM on 22 Jun 2007,
  • brossen99 wrote:

Perhaps the only reasonable way to sort out the problems in Afghanistan is to legalise the poppy crop and for the government to pay the farmers to take it off their hands. It would appear that poppies are the only suitable cash crop for many Afghan farmers and perhaps the aid money would be better spent in winning hearts and minds if the farmers were left to carry on with the cash crop of their choice. The opium could be amply used in western medicine ( I believe that there is currently a shortage of morphine ), also to collapse the black market in heroin in the west. I would even go so far as to give registered addicts free " smack " if it meant a reduction of crime on our streets, likewise the Afghan farmers would be far less likely to support the insurgents. Once again it is quasi-religious political positions which are preventing progress in the fight against terrorism and organised crime. Perhaps NATO could be almost totally out of Afghanistan within a few years if the poppy crop was legalised.

Brilliant interview with Jackie Davis & Martin Howe on the new EU treaty. Excellent and lively debate on GB’s LibDem selection (which didn’t happen!) with James Purnell and Vince Cable and also with Paul Mason. Brilliant report by David Loyn too.As for GB – what a pathetic scaredy cat! He has to face up to an interview with Jeremy soon enough. Putting things off will only make it worse…..can’t wait to see Jeremy finally getting GB on his own for an interview! And when it does eventually happen, could we have a whole Newsnight devoted to a Jeremy v GB interview? It’d make for very entertaining viewing indeed.:-)

  • 8.
  • At 12:10 PM on 22 Jun 2007,
  • KL wrote:

Very good Paul Mason, whose book, incidentally, is Magnificent.

  • 9.
  • At 12:46 PM on 22 Jun 2007,
  • csharped wrote:

Is there not enough talent within the Labour Party?

the difference between the uk and afghanistan is that the uk media report corruption there but don't here which is why we have Private Eye? Organised crime in the Uk is a growth sector from 900 known gangs [NCIS} to 1400 [SOCA]. How can that happen without there being some political protection? Given the protection the saudis got from Lord 'blind eye' Goldsmith whose to say it doesn't starts at the top?

Yes as JP says the TREND is for a brick by brick [treaty by treaty] building of an EU Superstate. Then when it comes we will wonder how did that happened?

What shall i do without Newsnight Review?

  • 10.
  • At 04:48 PM on 22 Jun 2007,
  • cshap wrote:

what will we do without newsnight review?

  • 11.
  • At 07:42 PM on 22 Jun 2007,
  • csnap wrote:

>Very good Paul Mason, whose book, incidentally, is Magnificent.<

is that the title?
is it an autobiography? :)

  • 12.
  • At 09:58 PM on 24 Oct 2007,
  • wrote:

Tobacco billboards are wrong

  • 13.
  • At 04:45 PM on 18 Jan 2008,
  • wrote:

Sexism is, is not a problem in society

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