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Wednesday, 14 January, 2009

Ian Lacey | 17:26 UK time, Wednesday, 14 January 2009

left hastily a short time ago to speak to a certain peer. We'll bring you a preview of her interview as soon as we can, but here's her outline of tonight's programme.

mandelson203100blog.jpgI'm penning this missive to viewers quickly before I head out to interview Lord Mandelson - and there's a lot to ask him. Does this amount to a few sweeties or a whole chocolate factory of help for small and medium size businesses - and how do you enforce loan deals? Also, does he agree with his fellow peer, Business Minister Baroness Vadera, ? Then there's the stacking over Downing Street of the decision on , what's going on? And I'll also be asking how he's going to deal with a ?

Ahead of Barack Obama's inauguration as president next week, Peter Marshall has a timely story from America:

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And we'll be celebrating the life of Patrick McGoohan, best known for the cult 1960s drama The Prisoner, .

See you later. Kirsty

Comments

  • Comment number 1.

    WOULD YOU CREDIT THEM?

    The problem is, one has no choice. First it was spread the toxic risk abroad to the unwary, now it's dump it on those at home and not even that, those many years down the line. It's just pass the **** parcel is it not? At least when people buy stocks and shares there's a semblance of choice. One might ask why the Government hasn't floated these 'investments' on the market.....??

  • Comment number 2.

    TOO MUCH VADERA M'DEAR

    ³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖ has learned that a blogger posted: "Lend me your ears." Has this country sunk so low that ears can be sliced off and thoughtlessly passed around?

    Or was the blogger just using and idiom already in common use (hence in inverted commas?)

    Shoots, but only an honest reporter leaves.

  • Comment number 3.

    With the FTSE down almost 5% it would appear that the stock market parasites don't like Mandy's " small business loan guarantee " scheme. It puts a stick in the spokes of the wheel of the Corporate Nazi plan to force all non stock market listed ( or franchised ) companies out of the market. The Corporate Nazi's were hoping to use cartel members ( the banks ) to withhold funding from any serious smaller scale competitors, but it would appear that smaller industrial companies are now a safer bet for the banks than hedge funds.

    One union rep on More4 news last week claimed that funds to lend to industry were short because the Hedge Funds were sat on most of the capital. Perhaps the banks could now call in this hedge fund money and redirect it towards real industry, it could crash the FTSE in the coming weeks. Bank stocks would appear to be under particular pressure but it could make it simpler to take the most productive longer term option of nationalizing all the UK banks in full at the earliest opportunity.

  • Comment number 4.

    When Jeremy is absent, the quality of Newsnight plummets. The slurring last night was worse than Rab C Nesbitt on a bath full of buckie.

    Oh, how I laughed when Paxman put Osborne back into his box last week, but Channel 4 news has trounced Newsnight for days, no comparison whatsoever.

    I do hope the interview with Mandelson is better than the one with Blears. If Kirsty can think of more than one question to ask, that will be a vast improvement.

  • Comment number 5.

    #1 JadedJean

    If only the government were more like Hitler and Mussoloni in the 30's?

    I don't see much support for your ideas happening anytime soon.

  • Comment number 6.

    There isn't going to be any recovery until the government stops spinning and accepts ownership of problems and is seen to fix them. I appreciate they will have to wait on some international measures until the G30 but I would have thought discussions about better UK regulation could be initiated. Standardizing risk analysis. The future of CDS etc. etc.

    Green shoots of recovery. Perhaps for those homeless people who take refuge in the countryside in a few months.

  • Comment number 7.

    Ah, this brings to mind one of my 'most embarrassing moments'..

    I was at a wedding in Ireland where one of the more important people present mentioned that he was related to Patrick McGoohan..

    Knowing him principally from the brilliant 'Danger Man', I proceeded to put my foot in it by saying..

    "Ah, yes, he was in that brilliant series 'Prisoner Cell Block H'.."

    Luckily I was corrected politely, though I bet they had a laugh later on...

    Please do show a clip of 'Danger Man' if possible - would bring back some happy memories...

  • Comment number 8.

    5. thegangofone (#5) "If only the government were more like Hitler and Mussoloni in the 30's?"

    As you would discover for yourself if you looked into the history, in the 1930s, both Hitler and Mussolini were widely regarded (in Europe and the USA) for the effective way in which they a) fought off anarchistic, Jewish Trotskyism/naked capitalism and b) rebuilt their economies.

    You may genuinely believe what you post, but a lot of it is factually wrong. I also suggest that you look further into what I say here (see also #53 and #54, rather than just being abusively dismissive.

  • Comment number 9.

    uk gas prices rise.

    despite saying for 6 months prices could not fall because of long term contracts 1 week of the russian dispute that supplies a fraction of uk gas and prices go up.

    why is price sensitivity only one way. up.

    the govt and regulator are asleep in a rigged market that extorts money from the british public.

    did not the minister claim on NN we had months of gas storage. so why the price sensitivity? or is the reality we only have 13 days gas storage unlike the eu that has 100 plus days.

  • Comment number 10.

    I hope that Newsnight has not forgotten the people of Gaza? As I see no mention of this story in your synopsis...

    A story with no coverage is not 'News'.

    'Old Hat' then, is it?

    I also see that The International Criminal Court prosecutor in The Hague said on Wednesday that it lacks jurisdiction to investigate possible war crimes recently committed in the Gaza Strip.

    The prosecutor's statement came after a Palestinian rights group called on the ICC to investigate Israel for committing war crimes during its 19-day-old offensive in Gaza.

    The office of the prosecutor said the court's jurisdiction is limited to war crimes, crimes against humanity and the crime of genocide committed on the territory of, or by a national of, a state party.

    "In Gaza at present, the ICC lacks such jurisdiction," the prosecutor said in a statement.

    The prosecutor said crimes committed in other situations can come before the ICC if the relevant non-party state voluntarily accepts the jurisdiction of the court on an ad hoc basis or if the United Nations Security Council refers a situation.


    Oh well, a quick cup of Horlicks, put the cat out and off to bed....

    Nighty night everyone, sleep tight, hope the Zionists don't bite....

  • Comment number 11.

    At 8:38pm on 14 Jan 2009, bookhimdano wrote:
    uk gas prices rise.

    Don't blame the government for the lack of gas storage in the UK. Every time the energy companies propose large gas storage facilities the Eco-fascists steam in and whip up local objection. Its happened twice here in the north west over old salt workings in Cheshire and on the Fylde coast.

  • Comment number 12.

    I suspect Peter Mandelson, as the most brilliant strategist in the government, will survive the interview. I certainly hope so.

    One of the paradoxes of the current situation is that the greatest need is for the public to regain their confidence in the future. Ministers are attempting, with varying degrees of success, to rebuild this confidence; albeit with their own future opinion polling in mind. The probme is that its opposition, not just the Tories but also the journalists looking for the dirt to dish, are working just as hard to undermine this confidence; again for various 'personal' gains.

    I know this is how our political system works, David Cameron's hours-long pledge that he would back a consensus, was an exception to the rule of the jungle. But wouldn't it be marvellous if they, and we, all worked to rebuild confidence; and create a better future that much faster.

  • Comment number 13.

    mercerdavids (#12) "I suspect Peter Mandelson, as the most brilliant strategist in the government.......

    One of the paradoxes of the current situation is that the greatest need is for the public to regain their confidence in the future........But wouldn't it be marvellous if they, and we, all worked to rebuild confidence; and create a better future that much faster."

    What, precisely is the rational basis upon which such confidence building is to be built?

    This empty rhetoric is precisely how this fantasy economy was constructed in the first place and why it ran aground.

    The real world operates according to different rules to Hollywood. I've looked at your models. You need to understand that whilst you're eager to plug psychological variables into your models, behaviour science has been busy trying to strip them out because they are so unreliable!

  • Comment number 14.

    When listening to Peter Mandelson being interviewed by Kirsty Walk, I was left with the impression that he'll says anything that's expedient and nothing which is worth remembering. As with Mark Regev of Israel, one's left with the impression that he'll say anything which fits the tale he wants believed but whether that has anything to do with the truth really is totally irrelevant.

    The reality is that the Government is not in control. They devolved control to the markets long ago and as the latter no longer has a safe way of securitizing risk and spreading it anymore, they're not prepared to take risks and lose more money for their shareholders.

    As they said not long ago when urged to lend, they're not charities.

  • Comment number 15.

    #8 JJ

    "As you would discover for yourself if you looked into the history, in the 1930s, both Hitler and Mussolini were widely regarded (in Europe and the USA) for ....."

    Try more recent history. Their popularity has waned a little.

    As I suggested in an earlier post (9th inst.) you should go out for a walk. It really isn't dangerous and it would do you the world of good to meet people.



  • Comment number 16.

    #13 JJ

    "What, precisely is the rational basis upon which such confidence building is to be built?"

    People losing their jobs likely don't give a monkeys whether it is rational or not.

    It seems unlikely confidence can be kick started rationally, because it is about the attitudes of real people, not pseudo-scientific models that are built on evidence of inadequate samples (the past provides only very small samples of all possible human behaviour) by people prejudiced by their preconceptions.

    You might find it useful to read chapter 12 of Keynes's General Theory. Learn from those wiser than you.

  • Comment number 17.

    13thMan (#16) "It seems unlikely confidence can be kick started rationally, because it is about the attitudes of real people, not pseudo-scientific models that are built on evidence of inadequate samples (the past provides only very small samples of all possible human behaviour) by people prejudiced by their preconceptions."

    Gibberish.

  • Comment number 18.

    JadedJean Memsahib/Sahib, nearly time to move to the mountains where cool breezes calm hot flushes. Meanwhile I pull the punkah faster?

  • Comment number 19.

    ..Don't blame the government for the lack of gas storage in the UK. ..

    if they can manage to get a third runway then they could insist on gas storage on the basis of a national strategic necessity.

    the reality it suits gordon to have high fuel bills because then he can sell nuclear.

    why else would they block a feed in tariff. there is no economic reason for doing so.

  • Comment number 20.

    13theMan (#15) a) Read what was written in context. b) Follow rather than naively defending what you already think (which is intensionl).

  • Comment number 21.

    13thMan (#15) a) Read what was written in context. b) Follow rather than naively defending what you already think (which is intenSional).

  • Comment number 22.

    Was UNWRA HQ in Gaza sheltering 'anti-Semitic' workers/propagandists? ;-)

  • Comment number 23.

    JadedJean (#22) Don't you find it alarming that out of 22 comments we were the only two people to mention Gaza. Not even Newsnight mentioned it in the program.

    "Oh, Peter Mandleson, isn't he just a wonderful person...."etc.

    What short memory's the British people have....

  • Comment number 24.

    wanabee07 (#23) They've been conditioned to fear being called or know when to rally to the cause (some don't know how they are being politically used). In the States the politics have been more openly discussed/argued for years. Jews comprise a very significant element of the intellectual elite in the USA as a consequence of the higher mean IQ of the Ashkenazim. This is well known in academia. The hostility stems from the fact that they are largely just self-interested.

  • Comment number 25.

    wanabee07 (#23) Today, Judaism is more like a political movement than a religion. That would have been a non-controversial thing to say a few centuries ago when there was less of a distinction between Church and State. Today, barring some understandable exclusions, Jews have the Right of Return to Israel which effectively gives them dual citizenship, although they would have to spend some time in Israel's armed forces. Some in the UK and elsewhere do voluntary work as it is which is definitely on the border of legality as has been mentioned in Parliament. Yet if Muslims do anything like that they would be immediately treated far more critically. If Israel is an ally of the UK and USA I think one has to ask who our collective enemy is, as it appears to me that Israel just abuses the USA and UK in order to wage its self-interested war of military and economic expansionism.

    As you have highlighted, there are Jews in Israel and abroad who appreciate that this does their collective long-term interests no good. More peole should wake up to this in everyone's best interests, including Israel's.

  • Comment number 26.

    WHAT SHALL IT PROFIT A MAN

    If he has a genetically conferred high IQ and a culturally delivered, intense education, but has been moulded in a climate of immature beliefs and attitudes? Religion thrives on immaturity. Ability to compromise with others is dependent upon maturity. Self-pity, anger, affront, superiority, contempt, oppression, deviousness etc are the attributes of the immature. Whether found in British governance, UN posturing, American arrogance or Zionist omnipotence, immaturity in individual and state is the key.
    Paradoxically, immature 'wielding' of IQ and education, is far more devastating than any unsophisticated, homicidal rabble.


  • Comment number 27.

    BITING THE HAND

    So - Miliband D condemn's Tony's War. It's all in the timing.

  • Comment number 28.

    Wannabeee,

    "A story with no coverage is not 'News'.

    'Old Hat' then, is it?"


    ;-)
    ed
  • Comment number 29.



    All has been said , by politicians, but it hasn't made much difference.

    So, does this mean that in the next week or so there will be a new fantasy to rally the people, economic this time perhaps - something which alarms almost all?

  • Comment number 30.

    The third Heathrow runway will not happen; the issue has the potential to be New Labour's Poll Tax and Mandelson will not allow such a dangerous development.

    As for Israel; before Obama's inauguration, they will have packed up their phosphorous shells and be ready to withdraw; afterwards, talks will take place... and then the Israelis will find a pretext to attack again, this time to eradicate the new green shoots of Hamas planted by their current incursions. It is this "next time" that Obama has to plan for now.

  • Comment number 31.

    On the ex-KGB officer bid for the Standard perhaps the Russians feel its the only way to get their point of view across?

    The general reporting of US missile defence, Litvinenko, Georgia and Ukraine hasn't been as even handed as usual.

    They are not the perfect democracy but in fairness they acknowledge that and they are making efforts n'all.

  • Comment number 32.

    Ed Iglehart (#28)

    I agree and think the media - Newsnight included - is trying to bury this story.

    I am sure that the media will cover the story again on Saturday after the protest in Trafalgar square.

    No doubt they will be concentrating on any trouble that is caused and not on why the protest happened.

    Thanks.

  • Comment number 33.

    #29 Jaded_jean

    "... there will be a new fantasy to rally the people ...."

    Hot from the exponent of the "science" of IQ relates to race; Hitler did "good things and bad things", not being sure about the Holocaust but liking dubious statistics about the survival rates of Jews in the 30's etc etc.

    People in glass houses should not throw stones.

    You would probably prefer "political education" and Nuremburg rallies.

    But multi-cultural Britain rejects you and all of your works.

  • Comment number 34.

    barrie (#26) Not much matters if we have policies which, whilst prima facie promising freedom and equality, in practice only serve to slowly reduce the number of people who are necessary to sustain the infratructure for delivery. That's my main concern. We've seen past and present governments LOWER standards.

  • Comment number 35.

    How to avoid being charged with war crimes? Simple, just tell 'em you're coming...

    Pathetic! Shades of ,

    "Yigal Allon, a Hagannah and IDF commander, had Jews talk to the Arabs in neighboring villages to plant rumors that a large Jewish force was about to burn all the Arab villages in the Lake Huleh region and expel or massacre the inhabitants. The rumor spread, and many villages were abandoned. In Beersheva, Magdal (Ashkelon) and Ishdood (Ashdod) , most Arabs fled when the Egyptian army withdrew, but the remaining residents were forced out by Israeli authorities as late as 1950. Mass flight followed by forced expulsion was typical of many other towns as well."

    but this time, there's nowhere to run.


    ed
  • Comment number 36.

    The ³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖ does not have the balls to state facts or show objectivity on Gaza. It is in thrall to the government and it's overseas coverage could well be written for them by the FCO.

    The ³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖ thinks that an equal number of complaints from both sides is good journalism.

  • Comment number 37.

    thegangofone (#33) "People in glass houses should not throw stones."

    'Absence makes the heart grow fonder' ;-)

  • Comment number 38.

    kashibeyaz #30

    "The third Heathrow runway will not happen; the issue has the potential to be New Labour's Poll Tax and Mandelson will not allow such a dangerous development."

    Well, they passed it this afternoon. Let's just hope what you say is so and it will bring down Flash Gordon and his chums.

  • Comment number 39.

    No Hasbara comments anymore? Have they given up explaining or is the Newsnight audience smart enough to see through their nonsense?

  • Comment number 40.

    Tonight (Thursday), we will probably be told all about the new runway at Heathrow...All the discussion is likely to take the "need" for travel and transport at the present (or growing) levels as unquestionable. Can we not recognise that spending such a large portion of our time budget on just scurrying around is silly?

    " "Past a certain threshold of energy consumption, the transportation industry dictates the configuration of social space. Motorways expand, driving wedges between neighbors and removing fields beyond the distance a farmer can walk. Ambulances take clinics beyond the few miles a sick child can be carried. The doctor will no longer come to the house, because vehicles have made the hospital into the right place to be sick. Once heavy trucks reach a village high in the Andes, part of the local market disappears. Later, when the high school arrives at the plaza along with the paved highway, more and more of the young people move to the city, until not one family is left which does not long for a reunion with someone hundreds of miles away, down on the coast. "
    "
    And
    " "The model American puts in 1,600 hours to get 7,500 miles: less than five miles per hour. In countries deprived of a transportation industry, people manage to do the same, walking wherever they want to go, and they allocate only 3 to 8 per cent of their society's time budget to traffic instead of 28 per cent. What distinguishes the traffic in rich countries from the traffic in poor countries is not more mileage per hour of life-time for the majority, but more hours of compulsory consumption of high doses of energy, packaged and unequally distributed by the transportation industry. "
    In the future, historians will refer to this as the Age of Scurrying

    Scurry on!
    ed

  • Comment number 41.

    WE'LL BELIEVE/TOLERATE ALMOST ANYTHING

    Ed Iglehart (#40) Ken Livingstone was quite good on this when interviewed by ³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖ News - then they went to a bunch of people in West London who said that nobody pays any attention to what they want. After Tuesday nights piece where we were pretty clearly told that Israel can effectively do what it wants in Gaza with impunity and abuse anyone who disagrees as rabid anti-semitic apologists for terrorism, is it any wonder that our politicians think they're on safe ground telling the electorate that they're increasing the skills of the population by flooding it with the progency of largely uneducable immigrants whilst lowering academic standards in pursuit of equality?

  • Comment number 42.

    JadedJean Memsahib/Sahib: #41

    ".......the progency of largely uneducable immigrants...";

    I look up "progency" in big book of words for I do not understand and wish to learn from good people like yourself; but all I find is "progeny" meaning "offspring" or "descendants".
    Then I hear that number one destination in Heathrow is Paris, number four is Manchester so am confused; free travel in EU mean no French is immigrant and Manchester in UK for some long time now - so how immigrant?

    Perhaps you mean Scousers, please?

  • Comment number 43.

    STICKS AND STONES MAY BREAK MY BONES BUT HUMILIATION GIVES ME THE RED MIST.

    I have played little part in committees and the like, but just enough to have encountered the way legitimate dissent is stifled. The aggrieved party is given dose after dose of procedural run-around, until they become exasperated, and injudicious. Instantly character assassination is applied and the underlying matter slips into oblivion.

    Isn't this what has happened in The Holy Land? The Arabs have been invaded, defeated, displaced, corralled and humiliated but are still told to 'be reasonable'. If I am any example, men are never reasonable under such pressure - it is not natural. Surely a check-point is a PSYCHOLOGICAL WEAPON, injuring pride as painfully as missiles injure flesh? When rockets pass one way and humiliation the other, a trade-off is clearly possible. Should not a cease-fire include a 'cease-humiliation', if psychological explosive is to be defused?

    When UN et al seem not to take this on board, we are in fool-or-knave territory - yet again. Ah well - Tony should feel right at home.

  • Comment number 44.

    kashibeyaz (#42) If you'd looked through the archives (click on name and use skip of 10) you'd have learned that there are marked differences in mean educability (that's what 'techers' are supposed to do, except they can't turn sows' ears into silk purses as up to 80% of IQ is heritable, so it's intakes which matter, not 'techers') by ethnic group. This shows up in all the education data, and is the bane of many 'failing' inner city schools. Given the higher TFRs of some of these groups (TFR and IQ are negatively correlated) immigrants' 'progency' will further pull down the GDP of London and other inner cities in the future.

    Substitute teachers for 'techers' and progeny for 'progency' if you like, but note that most people are able to spot and ignore typos.

  • Comment number 45.

    kashibeyaz (#42) 99.9% of London's growth over the next three decades will be in BME groups (according the the Lord Mayor's Office). Given the indigenous TFR is below replacement level, expect London to slowly become a Third World city.

    The reality is that ethnic groups are not equal. The Chinese British come top in our education system but only comprise the same proportion of the population as Jews (0.5%) who rank along with them. Both of these group have low TFRs though. Next come a subset of the British Indians, then indigenous White gentile British. Then come the Black African British, then the two Muslim South Asians, then Black Caribbean British (who seem highly (i.e. disproportionately) prone to violent crime).

    You noted, and remarked upon, the typo in the original post, but not the nuance. Why is that do you think?

  • Comment number 46.

    "99.9% of London's growth over the next three decades will be in BME groups (according the the Lord Mayor's Office). "
    but only 78.3% of such statistics are made up on the spot out of thin air....
  • Comment number 47.

    Ed Iglehart (#46) About 23% of the school population in Tower Hamlets is White British at Key Stage 1 (7 years of age). The offical projections are based on demographic trends and birth-rates. Most of this growth will be in the East of London. There is also a degree of 'white flight'.

    Perhaps you have not walked the streets of London recently?

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