Tuesday, 18 March, 2008
- 18 Mar 08, 06:15 PM
ECONOMY
The US Treasury Secretary Hank Paulson has admitted the American economy is facing a "sharp decline" and economists are forecasting the fifth US interest rate cut today since the credit crunch began. US house prices have fallen for the first time since the 1930s; can we now avoid another Great Depression? Hugh Pym has been investigating how central bankers are trying to learn the lessons of history.
VOTES
Is the British electoral system fit for purpose? A Conservative politician has been thrown out of office and had his election overturned for using scores of bogus postal votes in last year's local elections in . The judge said the combination of postal voting on demand and the ease of registering voters had made fraud of this type "childishly easy" to commit, despite recent legislation designed to enhance its security.
So are the government's attempts to make it easier to vote part of the problem? Michael Crick has the details.
10 DAYS TO WAR
On the fifth anniversary of the parliamentary vote over going to war in Iraq we'll be talking to two back bench Labour MPs, one who supported the government position and one who opposed it. They'll be telling us about the difficulties they experienced in making their decisions.
ANTHONY MINGHELLA
And we'll be looking back at the life and work of British film director, , who died suddenly this morning.
Comments Post your comment
MINGHELLA
The Blair/Brown "big number" was gauche to a degree seldom encountered and cringe-inducing in the extreme. I'll get me coat.
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IT鈥橲 THE SUFFRAGE STUPID
By far the greatest problem with our voting system is US. Most of us can be bought, bamboozled or browbeaten by Machiavellian party machines, while relying on information supplied through the distorting lens of media. I don鈥檛 vote, because I not only don鈥檛 know what is really going on, but any MP I vote for is pre-promised to his party, and by definition 鈥減arty鈥 means broken promises and routine lies. The notion that universal suffrage is some sort of 鈥渁bsolute truth鈥 is ludicrous. I have to pass a test to fly a plane, or drive a car. Why should I be put in charge of a vote when an election can seriously damage my health 鈥 or that of thousands of foreigners? If a citizenship test is a great idea, let鈥檚 have a test for a 鈥淐ertificate of Voting Competence鈥. Never mind the length of a cricket pitch; ask potential voters to explain the Midlothian question, and the meaning of 鈥渄isingenuous鈥. Oh, and while I鈥檓 here: SPOIL PARTY GAMES.
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Just a short note to pay respects to Anthony Minghella.
It is appalling that a relatively 'routine' operation which had appeared to be successful could have gone so terribly wrong during the post op period. My sympathies to the family of this marvelous film-maker, but also to the surgeon and his team. To lose a patient must be about the worst imaginable disaster for a surgeon.
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I hope your man Hugh will be explaining why JP Morgan seem to get richer through each downturn and how they always buy other banks on the cheap with Fed support. This 'news' is 100 years old and is often repeated!
Instead of looking at electoral fraud which seems to be a marginal activity, why not look at the bigger picture which is why so few people bother to vote.
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If you check you'll find today is Tuesday 18th March 2008, NOT Thursday.
And to answer a question:
No, the British electoral system is not fit for purpose if that purpose is to serve and protect a democractic country.
I agree with barrie singleton, above, regarding the nature of party games, and I now despise 'career politicians' who have no real working experience, and so are far removed (or cushioned) from the realities that most of us have to face.
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its tuesday...
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I hope your man Hugh will be explaining why JP Morgan seem to get richer through each downturn and how they always buy other banks on the cheap with Fed support. This 'news' is 100 years old and is often repeated!
Instead of looking at electoral fraud which seems to be a marginal activity, why not look at the bigger picture which is why so few people bother to vote.
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Did I just hear Paxman say that Arthur C Clarke invented the satellite? Oh dear, oh dear....
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British chaps have conventional approaches ..and do not need elections... we need banks.. banks worked to civilise participation...company law is so much more natural...than unnatural promotion and disqualifying selectivisims of new judgementalist behaviourism...
We don't want to elect anyone... we want to talk to the bank manager and think of our bank accounts every morning not our philosophies or partisanities...we would be late for work and quickly divorced...
Provision Taxes and Advantage Taxes..should be scheduled by Banks... Westminster should be demolished ...or recarpted in prince charles wedding blue and sold out at 拢60,000 a day for confirmation hearings...拢1200 a seat after the pews are hacked out... for those companies capable of public works ...
A phone poll from Yellow pages companies and corporates could be used to swing tax back into the hands of the customising public...
拢MPs have used the embankment meeting rooms by westminster bridge as for unemployment revenge systems ...
...they should be cast out of the limelight and into ReMastery Prisons... and their ethics networks resigned...
...democracy is a daft altruism that puts us all at risk... their peasant immigrant beliefs are not wanted..
..the public should grow up and talk to their bank managers...for the future when Banks sort out provision... and each person is free from socialist unionism ....
TLC BCD
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:( Very sorry to hear about Anthony Minghella's untimely death - what a beautiful & moving tribute by Jeremy & Sir Alan Parker to him. Also sorry to hear about Arthur C Clarke's death too.
Excellent interview with Prof Eichengreen on the economy, and even more so with Ann Campbell & Paul Stinchcombe on their votes against and for the Iraq war. :-)
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Re Anne Campbell and Paul Stinchcombe.
P Stinchcombes feeble excuse on why he had to vote with his party because "either way the invasion would have happened any way" beggers belief althougth not really surprising. The body language said it all, complete and utterley spineless. Some conscience he has !!. Hats off to Anne Campbell.
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Re Anne Campbell and Paul Stinchcombe.
P Stinchcombes feeble excuse on why he had to vote with his party because "either way the invasion would have happened any way" beggers belief althougth not really surprising. The body language said it all, complete and utterley spineless. Some conscience he has !!. Hats off to Anne Campbell.
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I am absolutely disgusted at Jeremy Paxman / Lord Butler interview. Jeremy let this establishment figure walk all over him. Jeremy has totally lost my respect, the one guy you think will uphold in-depth reporting just rolled over and died
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I found the film about the two MPs considering how to vote on the matter of the Iraq war very interesting and even moving. The same for the interview with the actual MPs. What a contrast with the nasty affair at Slough.
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Excellent wee dramatisation, as have been the others. Good follow-up interview, and I too found Anne Campbell came out best. Bully for her and all the others who voted their conscience, even knowing it was futile.
Salaam/Shalom/Shanthi/Dorood/Peace
Namaste -ed
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Good news:
Goldman Sachs and Lehman Brothers did better than expected.
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