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Monday 22 June 2009

Sarah McDermott | 17:30 UK time, Monday, 22 June 2009

Here's Emily Maitlis with news of what's happening on tonight's Newsnight:

SPEAKER OF THE HOUSE
If a Martian landed in the Commons this afternoon to listen to (and was not immediately expelled under anti-terror legislation) he would have heard one candidate arguing she'd be great for the job because she wouldn't be in it for long. And another seeking to reassure voters he was not too mentally agile, and another re-iterating he was the perfect choice because he'd once played rugby against the Springboks. It has been, in essence, a curious afternoon and as I write, it is far from over. But by the time we go on air we hope to have a new Speaker of the House and we will be asking them what will actually change now.

And don't forget to watch film. This week he traces the seismic shifts of Speakership candidate John Bercow's career.

IRAN UNREST
Also, . Our own bureau there is down to one man - following the ejection of our Tehran correspondent at the weekend. Despite that, we will endeavour to put together a flavour of what is actually going on there and who is in charge - and we will be speaking to John Simpson in the studio - fresh back from the streets of Iran.

EUROPEAN CONSERVATIVES
Plus, when your new bedfellows are called things like PIS and ODS you may have some explaining to do to the electorate. Nonetheless, . They now have a new party consisting of 55 MEPs from eight countries. But do they hold any real power in Europe? And what makes them so different now to the Eurosceptic grouping in which UKIP sits? We'll be asking Shadow Europe minister Mark Francois and Nigel Farage of UKIP.

POLITICS PEN
This is (the words of my producer) a "rip off of Dragons' Den". Just for anyone who didn't pick that up from the name. We've been asking four luminaries - Greg Dyke amongst them - to listen to policies on taxation and spending cuts and judge which of them could actually work. Thus, Newsnight boldly goes where politicians have so far refused to step. in which Day of the Jackal author Frederick Forsyth faces our political animals to make the case for scrapping the national ID card scheme.

Do join us at 10:30pm tonight on ³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖ2.

Emily

Comments

  • Comment number 1.

    FO Failure?

    why are the french much better at getting its captured nationals out alive?

    European Groupings

    NN seem keen to ask for explanations on strange views in the eu but not about why brown cameron and blair are patrons of the jnf that has discrimination polices incompatible with uk law and human rights for all? The dodging and ducking NN needs to do some explaining?

    Dentists

    12 years of nulabour and things are worse. doesn't the dentistry failure demonstrate the divorce between labour and the people?

  • Comment number 2.

    "Also, the foreign office is evacuating families of staff based in Iran amid continued violence.

    Our own bureau there is down to one man - following the ejection of our Tehran correspondent at the weekend.

    Despite that, we will endeavour to put together a flavour of what is actually going on there..."


    Just be sure that Newsnight isn't exclusively presented by yourself, Gavin and Jon OK?

    The FCO has got us into enough trouble already! ;-)

  • Comment number 3.

    bookhimdano (#1) I fear you are asking honourable questions of people who have presided over the creation of a duplicitous, narcissistic and dishonourable culture.

    We live in times when cosmetic surgery isn't frowned upon, let alone prosecuted as fraud (yet people obtain by deception), and people can even change their sexual identity by law without changing their biological sex. As to the second part of your post, I agree, but note, New Labour may well have held socialist policies, but did they ever say that they would implement them? eh? eh? ;-)

  • Comment number 4.



    I guess the lesson all round is be careful what one infers from what one sees and hears? People may die in protests, but who causes the deaths?

  • Comment number 5.

    POST 2 There's a Caper There dont envolve evolve me IN That caper there could Be A Caper

  • Comment number 6.

    From the top deck No 10. Monday, 22 June 2009 Part One.

    NN Review .....

    Mr Goering is attributed as having said When I hear the word culture, I draw my gun! Has anyone got a spare nuclear arsenal?

    Are any of the guests ever living in the real world, do they know the price of a pint of milk? Do they care? Do these anachronisms know what year it is? Do any of them know a word of less than five syllables and would any admit it? And can any of them talk for two minutes and actually say something worthwhile? Doubtful!

    Egos feeding egos, courtesy lacking and patronising arrogance toward the mass of the GBP. Yet another Public Enquiry required, but then when are public enquiries ever for the benefit of the majority of the GB public?

    A couple of years ago publishers were saying that books about illegal immigrants, asylum, seekers and economic migrants had reached saturation level sic, and there was no more space for said books. Yet still they keep coming! sic. And still they get treated with pseudo-reverence by the Blitheratti and Bleateratti


    The Islamic state of .....

    ..... suppression.

    News 24 ....

    Q .... that child had a chocolate mousse at 5 pounds 50..... unQ Sorry, how many of those do you get from one weeks JSA?


    Mr Amenehei .....

    Nice to see a balance of the population at the mosque for the diatribe.

    The fraud that is , any, religion .....

    No more need be said.

    HMPs .....

    aka Non commuting, property magnate Gastronomes. Question .... What is the current state OAP pension for a single person

    Q .... H.MPs were encouraged to take this money ..... unQ And these are some of the brightest minds - representing the GBP - whom yet cannot differentiate between right and wrong.

    Food Allowance. Q .... my bill hasnt gone down but my claims have. .... unQ. would seem to indicate that the food allowance isnt actually necessary stroke essential

    Mr Brown .....

    Q .... could walk away from this tomorrow .... unQ. Dont! .... Period.

    Dinosaurs and logarithms .....

    At last, a simple, and painless solution to obesity ...Maths

    New Mayor in Doncaster ....

    Politics versus Democracy ......... Ding, ding. Round one.

    Mr Goodwin ....

    A placebo for the masses? Or a distraction for the media. And it would appear that RBS still havent learnt their lesson.

    ³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖ ........

    Q .... we cant show you the full sequence - its too horrific. unQ. News can be horrendous but why does everything have to be at the Lowest Common Denominator? How are the GBP supposed to make a considered and valid judgement if they are mollycoddled. Or is having the opportunity and choice to be fully informed only for the Blitheratti?

    Media .....

    Q .... You need to play the game. unQ. .... By our rules or, in due course, you will pay the price.

    Ms Greer .....

    .... has to pay 750 pounds annually to stay in the UK. In advocating an amnesty is she primarily thinking ..... Self interest?

    Q .... Earned regularisation ..... unQ

    An amnesty by any other name, yet with the gates opened wider. One million illegal immigrants approx versus approx 3 million unemployed, Hmm! Suggestion ..... take The Big Question on the road to - say - Nottingham, have the expert sic panel made up from the GBP and ask the same question. Farmers short of workers to pick strawberries, yet there are roughly 3 million unemployed, and evidence exists that indigenous workers are being rejected for said labour shortages.

    Mr M Cambell ....

    Q ..... 73 hours including travel from Glasgow to London .... unQ Discounting travel time -do that many get paid for time taken to commute - is your hourly remuneration below the National Minimum Wage? Ageism aside .. if you are concerned about your terms and conditions of employment could you not consider an alternative job? Perhaps re-skilling sic on a Government training scheme, Further education could be considered perhaps. How old are you, could you retire? Perhaps your pension is insufficient?

    HMPs .....

    Differential Earnings .... Would potential HMP then opt to work for only the minimum number of hours to gain the tag HMP which then would benefit their external career choice exponentially. If being an HMP is so demanding how do people have the time and energy to do another job? Surely ... Full time equals Full time, does it not?

    Belfast ....

    Four houses, twenty one families, one hundred plus individuals - dont forget the baby - to be rehoused stroke repatriated. No mention of how many OAPs terrorised by thuggery and segregationalism that would like to be moved to different accommodation.

    Ms T(iffany) Jones .....

    From the Institute of Ideas. Funded by The Bleateratti Coalition perhaps?

    Please ... Beg, - knees on the carpet - beg!

    No more of the all female yacht crew .... Enough! What has it got to do with anything? (Surely if they are not making themselves available for work they are not eligible for JSA are they? Can they still claim benefits?)

    HMPs 2.

    Do HMPs get professional training to talk out allocated media editorial time? Or do Editors receive a bonus for interviews that finish before any question gets answered?

    Ms May ....

    Q .... Judge (H)MPs on how they do their jobs. .... unQ.

    Which is a very apt link to ......

  • Comment number 7.

    From the top deck No 10. Monday, 22 June 2009 Part Two.


    50 to 400 .....

    Civil Servants are concerned that there may be as many as 400 new HMPs at the next - new - Parliament. Resettlement allowance times 400 - with little or no increase in the number claiming JSA one presumes - would pay for a hospital would it not? And how much could be saved on parachute re-packing?

    NN .....

    Q .... boldly goes where politicians have so far refused to step. .... unQ. Come on Lady Em? This is bold ..... not! Bold is engaging and listening to the GBP, no other political programme does it ..... Be innovative, or be square!

    EU Tories .....

    55 out of ....? Now theres power for you Boyo!

    Mr Simpson .....

    A knighthood for services to truth perhaps?

    Mr Johnson .....

    Time to review your recruitment procedures perhaps? Dont worry, law of averages say you must get it right eventually.

    NN 2. .....

    Q .... we will be asking them what will actually change now. ....unQ Ask perhaps if anything will actually change at all considering, in the view of most commentators, the speaker has no power. Or does he stroke she?



    Nomination for statement of the week .... Blitheratti and Nimbies exempt from voting please .....

    Q .... Not up to the middle classes to decide .... unQ

    Nomination for understatement of the week .... Used whilst referring to using Data Protection to redact ACA claims.

    ... Q .... a bit of a smoke screen ..... unQ


    Nomination for Statesman of the Century ....

    Nicolas Sarkozy for supporting the full equality of (all) women.

    Shame that we have no leader that will stand up and condemn the social isolation and subservience of women in the UK in this day and age. But then whom, now or in the foreseeable future, is brave enough to be accused of Religionist?

    Oops! Sorry! Should have said Racist.

    Much better to allow women to be down-trodden than to be openly criticised by the religious supremos sic and blithering Bleateratti?

    (Intellectual) heaven - sorry the two words can never go together - forbid these women ever learn english!

    In this 21st century religion is morally and socially corrupting.

    Corruption is the new religion.

  • Comment number 8.

    dAllen169 (#5) .

  • Comment number 9.

    no they are not, they are what goes on behind the Speakers chair...like right now...

  • Comment number 10.

    Post 6 Sex
    ye get/git my vote mate sort of/dont tell erindoors

  • Comment number 11.

    134 billion dollar bond brain.

    official sources still dead so we are back to blogs. The two japanese passport holders caught with the bonds have been released. One report says they were employees of the finance ministry of japan and the serial numbers belonged to those that japan held.

    the story is still like a bruce lee film and this is the room of mirrors scene.

  • Comment number 12.

    CHUTZPAH INCARNATE: DISCOUNTING VIA DELAY

    ³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖ 4 TV Tonight, Thatcher at 1987 Election Rally:

    Thatcher: "Privatisation has been a huge success; it's selling the family silver back to the family"

    People applauded!!! Oy vey....what family could be fooled into buying its own silver???

    Abandon all hope ye of Britain, is it any wonder the Iranian govt describes HMG as evil?

  • Comment number 13.

    See Channel 4 news were at it.

    "Police fired tear gas at pro reform demonstrators". I thought they were anti government demonstrators.

    Or rioters. Well they were last week despite what the ³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖ narrative said over the pictures, they were a gang of blokes setting fire to someone else's car.

    Strange how the ³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖ didn't pick that one up. Not very pro anti-climate change. How many years must I have my my mobile phone charger unplugged so pro reform demonstrators can set fire to a car. Not very 'Green'.



    Celtic lion

  • Comment number 14.

    11 #BHD

    This was the last I read on my own searches

  • Comment number 15.

    SPEAKER ADMITS WEAKNESS IN CHARACTOR ASSESSMENT SKILLS

    Taking the chair, Mr Bercow, 46, said: "We need to reform" but added that the "vast majority of Members of this House are upright, decent, honourable people."

    SPEAKER ADMITS U TURN IN MODERNISATION OF THE POSITION

    In keeping with tradition, Mr Bercow was 'reluctantly dragged' to the Speaker's chair by his supporters.

    Celtic Lion



  • Comment number 16.

    2 A's

    JJ Pass me the Pastie its A Caper isnt IT

  • Comment number 17.

    The Politics Pen was introduced with the statement that "Everyone agrees there must be cuts in public spending" - but has Newsnight done a poll to confirm that? How do they know? Is it just the fact that the presenter moves in those circles that do believe in public spending cuts? Most people I know are outraged, as I am, that the bankers - 0.01% of the population - get public spending handouts and the rest of us are told we have to have cuts.
    It would be much more in tune with public feeling if Newsnight set up a politics pen discussing British banks. You could start with a statement - which would absolutely true:"Most people think that bankers are a menace to society". And then get members of the public to send in their ideas as to how this menace can be eliminated.

    Public spending is not a problem - it is public debt that is the problem and that could easily be eliminated by raising taxes - especially at the higher income levels. Sinmce inequalities have reached such high levels we could return to the taxation of the 1960s and 1970s and be in surplus. And if a few bankers choose to leave the country as a result I for one would shed no tears.

  • Comment number 18.

    PATHETICS PEN - FOI DISCLOSURE

    How revealing was the RELISH of Matthew Taylor, in taking the position of head bully. Odd when you consider he was once close to that sweet natured Tony Blair. Speaking of himself, could it be that times are so Armageddonish that Blair might ACTUALLY get his come-uppance? Or will contacts, elevation and obscene wealth protect him? Yeah - thought so.

  • Comment number 19.

    HOW IMPRESSIVE IS THAT?

    Did we all notice that OPERATION DEVILS CLAW (or similar) i.e. the flattening of more swathes of Afghanistan, was cleverly set to coincide with little Jimmie Brown saying; "We will leave no stone unturned in finding hostages" (or similar). That'll show 'em we Brits know how to turn over a few stones Jimmie. Yeeee Hah! Dead or alive.

  • Comment number 20.

    THE DOUBLE ZERO - OVERT OBFUSCATION - FILE

    Out they troop to say "no one wants to BLAME" (correct - we want ACCOUNTABILITY) "everyone wants to learn LESSONS" (no - we know the lesson, it is that deluded leaders coerce cypher-politicians into vile wars. WE just want the lesson ACKNOWLEDGED.)

    As for Clegg - the flint in his welly is affecting his mind. The 9/11 enquiry was a model alright - a model of stitchup structuring and cover-up reporting. He should stop googling himself, and use the web for current info.

  • Comment number 21.

    The idiots have voted for an idiot.

    Frank Frield was the only honourable MP of note who was interested in the speaker job but sadly he had very little support so didn't even bother putting his name forward. Having an honorable untainted character can go against you when your colleagues are as bent as Mandleson or grubby as Cherie Blair. The speaker race was revealing in that there was not many candidates of quality: Anne widdicome - the virgin, devout Christian and anti-abortionist Tory MP?! and that caravan lovin out-of-touch Margrette Beckett, whose recent performance on ³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖ Question Time, proved that you can become more arrogant the longer your time is spent in one place. Parliament have yet again shown the rest of us they are very short on talent and honour in its members and today they hammered the final nails into its own coffin.

  • Comment number 22.

    "UPRIGHT DECENT HONOURABLE PEOPLE"

    Oh well - here comes the deluge. In those words, Bercow can only be fool or knave. I notice he applied the double zero principle of saying what all the decent folk DO NOT come into politics for. WHAT? JUST THE ONE THING?
    What about unearned status and trappings? The chance for 'nobodies' to be 'somebody' - if only in their own heads? The lure of high office with no other skill that a clean, if brown, nose and the ability to obfuscate?
    Time to choose Mr Bercow: fool or knave; either you don't know, or you choose to pretend not to know. Same old Westminster ethos. Weep Britain.

  • Comment number 23.

    20. At 11:46pm on 22 Jun 2009, barriesingleton:
    Out they troop to say "no one wants to BLAME" (correct - we want ACCOUNTABILITY) "everyone wants to learn LESSONS" (no - we know the lesson, it is that deluded leaders coerce cypher-politicians into vile wars. WE just want the lesson ACKNOWLEDGED.)


    Indeed. Though, without presuming to speak for others, above all I want tangible ACTION. If the UK could export establishment talk we'd have that trillion back and paid off in a month.

    My last hope is for that precious vote I can only wield once within the next 10 months. Sadly, with all sides of the House complicit in this latest anti-democratic, public-exclusive farce, it is no magic bullet even if I had clue yet where best it can be aimed.

  • Comment number 24.

    Politics Pen:I was very disappointed that the panel turned down abolishing quangos.The presenter of the subject should have been better prepared. I would like to give one example: "The Housing Corporation":The following copied from their Annual Report freely available:
    Operating cost statement for the year ended 31 March 2008 2008 2007
    £000 £000
    Expenditure
    Capital and revenue grants (net) (2,012,785) (1,924,038)
    Staffing costs (30,103) (28,722)
    Other running costs (17,278) (16,547)
    Interest (80) (68)
    Total (2,060,246) (1,969,375)
    Income
    Interest 3,068 1,400
    Other income 586 634
    Total 3,654 2,034
    Other revenue transactions
    Pension fund finance costs (700) (560)
    (Increase)/decrease in provision for bad debts (4) 16
    Corporation tax (7) (20)
    Total (711) (564)
    Net operating costs for the financial year (2,057,303) (1,967,905)
    Other gains and losses
    Pension fund Actuarial gain/(loss) 14,427 (410)
    Total loss recognised during year (2,042,876) (1,968,315)
    Balance sheet as at 31 March 2008
    Fixed assets and investments 9,109 8,510
    Current assets 18,782 4,506
    Creditors and other provisions (353,200) (170,654)
    Advance from the National Loans Fund (1,400) (1,400)
    Provision for pension liabilities (31,540) (45,340)
    Total liabilities less total assets (358,249) (204,378)
    Reserves (358,249) (204,378)
    Annual accounts
    at a glance
    Grant in aid received 1,889,005 1,875,616
    Housing used to be managed by Local Authorities who know their areas better than anyone.Then they were forced to hand over to Housing Associations, some very good some very bad.LAs then turned their own Housing Depts into 'so-called' HAs but the LA still controls the strategy and the purse strings.
    My suggestion is: That LAs should take back full responsibility of Housing and the corporation should be closed down. Housing Associations should then form into self controlled businesses operating in the private market. The money allocated to the HC Quango should be distributed between all LA's to offset costs.

  • Comment number 25.

    brightBoudicca (#17) "Most people I know are outraged, as I am, that the bankers - 0.01% of the population - get public spending handouts and the rest of us are told we have to have cuts. It would be much more in tune with public feeling if Newsnight set up a politics pen discussing British banks. You could start with a statement - which would absolutely true:"Most people think that bankers are a menace to society". And then get members of the public to send in their ideas as to how this menace can be eliminated."

    People won't see it. They have been too well conditioned to believe 'noble lies'. The 'The Politics Pen' with Mr Taylor et al. is bad joke like 'The Apprentice', same formulaic, anarchistic, nonsense. Gillian Tett, you should be ashamed of yourself.

    We have, in the UK and USA (but it goes for much of Europe and the Eastern Liberal-Democraies too) essentially recreated (and sadly embraced) essentially the same anarchistic conditions which undermined Germany in the 1920s and which led to the Tripartite Pact of the Axis Powers against the COMINTERN. We've acted as if millions of people who welcomed the Anti-Comintern polices (note, contrary to popular opinion, the Nazi government represented socialism at war with free-market anarchism - the Comitern was being purged as such by Stalin in the 1930s in one looks into it carefully) were totally irrational, and that we could carry on aftre WWII regardlesss, i.e without it all ever happening again on an even larger scale. See Iran and the SCO today :-(

    Just look at how agitated people get about the BNP - the BNP doesn't even have the policies which the agitators assert they do. Why does the media not wnat the BNP to get airtime? Is it because as their MEPs say, this will expose the lies?

  • Comment number 26.

    brightBoudicca #17

    "Housing Associations should then form into self controlled businesses operating in the private market."

    What would be the outcome of delivering what is left of 'social housing' into the hands of the likes of Alan Sugar do you think? Who would lose and (oh dear I'm asaying it again) who would gain?

  • Comment number 27.

    brightBoudicca #17

    My apologies, my comment at 26 is in response to

    missproliberty #24

    I am in agreement with your post at 17, but like JJ, sadly I don't think it would work.

  • Comment number 28.

    GOVERNMENT PRIORITY IN NHS AND in BRITAIN ITSELF

    I am currently embroiled in some unbelievably heinous trickery by medical staff in an NHS hospital. The vast money that has gone in, does not return a space-age bed to an agreeable height for the inmate, after being raised for his servicing; that requires human focus. And no amount of money can buy a return of kindness and dedication.

    Scale that up to Britain as a whole: we are (were) a rich nation but human decay and misery is everywhere, propped physically by money but hollowed out, soulless, and with governance that, having no soul itself, cannot focus on the malaise, let alone address it. So much easier to bung some cash to Africa with a side order of quango-administered CBT here.

    Brown can't even acknowledge his own misery. And he's supposed to be leading us!
    What a civilised, democratic mess. No wonder 'they' fight us to the last man.

  • Comment number 29.

    THE NEOCON MORPH

    missproliberty (#24) "Housing used to be managed by Local Authorities who know their areas better than anyone.Then they were forced to hand over to Housing Associations, some very good some very bad.LAs then turned their own Housing Depts into 'so-called' HAs but the LA still controls the strategy and the purse strings."

    The Housing Associations were often run by Trotskyite groups which in practice were compatible with Thatcher's agenda of private ownership 'by the people'. Whgat many did not see was who thoise peole would ultimately be and how such individualism would inevitably lead to disempowerment of people collectively as there can be no power in individuals, just anarchism which serves free-enterpise corporativism. Both of these prima facie groups opposed were, if one looks closer, practically opposing state ownership and thus oiling the works for the privatisation of state property like gas, telecoms, mining etc - note who got to own it all, and who became powerless (see below replacement level indigenous birth rates in the Liberal-Democracies). For the most stark illustration see Russian and East European people's TFRs vs. the power of the Russian Oligarchs.

    The real enemy of both Thatcher's anarchism and the various Trotskyite groups, was Old Labour's national socialism/statism. Which is deja vu. British 'communists' in the 60s and 70s weren't statists of teh Stalinist sort, but i.e. saboteurs of the state.... ultimately, free-marketeers - hence the NeoCon morph. See SPIKED or Living Marxism's history.

  • Comment number 30.

    Further to previous post No.27:I should have added that all HA homes built and purchased with Government funding through the Housing Corporation should be returned to Local Authority Housing Departments and managed by existing overstaffed offices, so increasing Council housing availability with fair rents applied.Existing HAs who want to stay in business could keep those houses that they hold in Shared Ownership schemes and continue to make charges for maintenance which the occupant pays in addition to mortgage.(I do not believe that Shared Ownership is a good way to get on the home ownership ladder, too many anomolies).

  • Comment number 31.

    Correction: My previous comment No: 24 not 27, sorry.

  • Comment number 32.

    missproliberty #31

    "Correction: My previous comment No: 24 not 27, sorry."

    Glad it's not just me. :-)

  • Comment number 33.

    POLITICS PEN

    Newsnight - have you reported that the overwhelming response of males to formulaic celebrity programmes like 'The Dragons's Den, The Apprentice, Celebrity-this-that-and-the-other, The X Factor, etc etc is negative? How often does one hear that TV is now made for women? This is based on market research is it not?

    Whilst it is true that human males like competitive sports, examined closely, one sees (by audience subscription) that this interest seems to focus on team games and fair play does it not?

    Female humans, (like female cats perhaps), on the other hand, tend towards being spectators of individuals competing, probably in the hope of getting off with the best genes? This is not done intentionally, i.e consiously of course, but the pattern can be observed in group level behaviour. What else explains the differnce in interest?

    If the above sexually-dimorphic strategy is basically what is going on (and there is of course brain-gender overlap trough polymorphisms like NCAH), which interests are likely to a) encourage and b) discourage social stability in the Liberal-Democracies? Is this why we see 'oppression' of females in Islamic/statist regimes (even amongst the Orthodox in Israel etc)?

    Is there a conflict here? How might the media facilitate/foment domestic social stability/anarchism in Liberal-Democracies?

    Big question:- Why, if it is so civilized, does neo-liberalism naturally result in below replacement level fertility everywhere (West and East)?

  • Comment number 34.

    iran

    NN interviews someone from a group called terror free tomorrow on iran? NN is now talking the pish with its neocon agenda?

    politics pen

    does the top talent behind this idea not feel happy about revealing themselves in the credits? about why they are wasting 10 minutes of a news programme with this tosh. what next bargain hunt?

  • Comment number 35.

    [Unsuitable/Broken URL removed by Moderator]

    Where is the evidence she was shot by a GOVERNMENT sniper? Which government? When one of our citizens died after an 'exchange' with one of our police, there is an inquiry. Here we are led to infer the worst, even though that there are vested interests at work to destabilise Iran.

    Why, last night, did Richard Watson cite 'Western researchers' when the that the Iranian Guardian Council reported anomalies in the voting process? Are we not to believe that Western/Israeli interests could just as readily have been behind in order to discredit the election? Why is that possibility never discussed on air by the ³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖ? Is it so that we infer that it is the Iranian regime which is corrupt?

    On the one hand interviewees on Newsnight say that they have no direct access or evidence and yet they are said to have done 'research' and logic tells one that the only people who can have access to the evidence is the Iranian government. Look at what they are saying. Look at what happened to Ukraine and other before and after Iraq (we even saw a Russian/Jewish Oligarch in exile on TV here bragging about funding the Organge Revolution).

    We appear to be punching above our weight with Russia and the SCO... We do not have the resources to compete on behalf of Israel, but the latter won't care about that I suspect :-(

  • Comment number 36.



    A reminder about the nature of dimorphism. It is not just mean height, but it has probably come about for the same reason, i.e to reduce conflict.

    This more conservative/limited range in 'g' has dramatic implications for differences between teh sexes in the tails of teh normal distribution, and this is critically important in the upper tail of the distribution. When one consider numbers in the population which are already diminshing as one moves to the right of the normal distribution, i.e only 100-84=16% of the population has an IQ above 115 in the first place, one is talking about double the number of males:females even at IQ=120, and much higher ratios beyond that.

    This makes equality of representation and judgement in demanding work impossible does it not? 'g' or intelligence operates like vision. Lack of ability means people just don't 'see' i.e conceive of things.

    Why is what we see about us today so at odds with what the evidence suggests should be observed? Where are all the bright males?

    Just for the record, this got about a few years ago after somebody studied the sex differences in Key Stage 1, 2 and 3 SATs ;-) It is a reliable observation based on population level data - i.e 560,000 x 3 age groups every year for over a decade.

    It's a fact as obvious as the height difference - so what is going on if not anachistic subversion?

  • Comment number 37.

    The CHapMan Family Move The Right/Left Hand Faster/her The Kids/skids ar not allrifight/they will B

  • Comment number 38.

    'One hundred Romanians who fled their homes in Belfast after a spate of recent attacks have decided to leave Northern Ireland and return home'

    A shameful day for Britain - the people who induced the perpetrators to these acts are clearly incapable of shame.

    Still at least society is starting to react. I gather the CRE are looking at the racial BNP membership and employment processes.

    More importantly I hope that people are making sure that "break away" groups from the BNP - like the UPP in NI.

    The American Friends of the BNP sported Von Bruun who killed an innocent guard at a Holocaust Memorial in the US. You would hope somebody was checking other names and examining "agendas".

    Also some people were arrested in NE England who were stocking Ricin and encouraging terrorism.

    Their associations would be of interest.

  • Comment number 39.

    On the Dragons Den cuts I strongly agreed with Gillian Letts that Quangos seemed to be a way forward and her complaint of the labyrinth of obfuscations you would need to get past to get hard facts.

    Does the Audit Commission not have a requirement to examine the expenditure on Quango's - or is it outside their remit.

    Otherwise scrap ID cards and switch expensive Trident for a more limited and focused nuclear deterrent. The Cold War is over - and even if it is not the deterrent could not be fired by us alone and we can't afford it.

  • Comment number 40.

    #36 JadedJean

    Clearly you can't grasp the science, the real science, behind The Incredible Human Journey.

    Genetic variation is greater within a race than between races and any ideology based on racial discrimination is one of perception and not one based on facts.

    IQ's can be boosted by training and are only an indicator of intelligence.

    Must do better.

  • Comment number 41.

    dAllan169 (#37) "The CHapMan Family Move The Right/Left Hand Faster/her The Kids/skids ar not allrifight/they will B"

    Please translate. Or, anyone else:- please translate the above for the benefit of some of the less linguistically skilled amongst us.

  • Comment number 42.

    "Genetic variation is greater within a race than between races"

    So what is the definition of a race. Is it not both genetic and cultural factors?

  • Comment number 43.

    #35 jaded_jean

    "We do not have the resources to compete on behalf of Israel, but the latter won't care about that I suspect"

    The Holocaust Agnostics - who are not Nazis - but revere Hitler and his racial policies offer their views on Israel.

    The "rationale" behind their obsession with Jews (for instance Von Bruun who attended the AFBNP meetings in the US killed a guard at a Holocaust Memorial) seems to rely on Stalin ejecting people - including Jews - in the thirties because he thought them "anarchists and Trotskyites". I think the Russians also hated "fascist pigs" - especially after Stalingrad.

    Its like Iago, consumed by a fierce hatred with obscure origins and no clear logical focus.

  • Comment number 44.

    My contribution to the Dragons Den would be to take on board a system like they have in the US with their "whistle blowers charter" where they get - I think - 0.25% of anything they save the country and legal protection. I would make it an arm of the Audit Commission.

    Should the Torygraph informant, who did in fairness get circa £300k allegedly, have had to take a career risk for something that clearly served the country well?

    In this country we fudge and kick the ball into the long grass at every opportunity (Hutton and the attempted "private Iraq inquiry" for instance) - its all very "men in tights with procedures".

    If somebody found that a top defence firm, as an example, was fleecing the country they would not stand a chance and would probably at best hint to a journalist what was going for fear of financial ruin and public prosecution.

  • Comment number 45.

    Emily got it wrong when she said to Kelvin, "what would wake up the Sun readers?".

    You can't. They are brain dead.

    HOSTAGES.

    The French paid, we don't.

    On another note: if I had children would I take a job
    in Iraq? No. The risk of money to death ratio is quite high.

    The British Government did not ask those people to go and
    work there.

    -------

  • Comment number 46.

    #26 Newfazer

    "What would be the outcome of delivering what is left of 'social housing' into the hands of the likes of Alan Sugar do you think? Who would lose and (oh dear I'm asaying it again) who would gain?"

    I'm asaying it again too - the BNP would try to exploit anything via any lie or innuendo.

    The Romanian woman with a five day old child beaten by thugs in NI probably has a clear view of what makes the BNP tick.

  • Comment number 47.

    The Kids are alright?



    The Skids?

    Stuart Adamsons band before he formed Big Country as in We Are Not in Kansas. In a Big Country, Fields of Fire (400 miles)



    Chapman?

  • Comment number 48.

    #13 kingcelticlion

    "Strange how the ³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖ didn't pick that one up. Not very pro anti-climate change. How many years must I have my my mobile phone charger unplugged so pro reform demonstrators can set fire to a car. Not very 'Green'."

    Its curious but your hero Hitler was quite green, vegetarian and so on. Loved the Heck cow n'all.

    Is your car with the mobile phone the one you drive to the fields to work with East Europeans - speaking many languages and offering words of kindness (but quite unsympathetic to Romany in NI where you have been) - or is it the one you drive to work to do the top secret defence work that brought you into contact with Nobel prize winners?

    By the way how often have you been to Belfast recently?

  • Comment number 49.

    thegangofone (#40) "Clearly you can't grasp the science, the real science, behind The Incredible Human Journey."

    Perhaps you can explain why dogs (which are all the same species) are genotypically so much the same and yet phenotypically so different? in size, and behaviour? The key words there are same and different.

    The ability to discriminate is central to intelligent behaviour, but as we can all observe from your posts, you appear to have been conditioned not to discriminate by agents of political correctness (free-market protagonists?) and you now appear to be encouraging the inhibition of intelligent behaviour in others. To what end one must ask? Is this a Liberal-Democrat activist at work?

    "Genetic variation is greater within a race than between races and any ideology based on racial discrimination is one of perception and not one based on facts."

    The differences between Great Danes and Chiwawas, or Labradors and Bull-Terriers in just one of perception, not fact? It's only ideology which makes people think otherwise? Maybe it's you who is confusing science with ideology?

    "IQ's can be boosted by training and are only an indicator of intelligence."

    Really? There's no evidence for that that I know of. Can you please tell us where, since Jensen (1969) first published the opposite of what you assert have shown him to be wrong? That's what scientists do, they try to falsify what the received wisdom is. and guess what, they have not been able to do so even though they would have liked to have done so. Yet you assert the contrary. Why is that? Intelligence is largely genetic we now know from twin studies.

    "Must do better."

    It seems to me and others that you are in the grip of false beliefs which can not be challenge by reason and evidence. There is a word for such behaviour. Do you know what it is?

    Might you look into that do you think?

  • Comment number 50.

    #48 Go1

    Just as a clarification. I was one of the scientists involved in the setting up of the new generation of UK climate models. Which contributed to the 2007 Nobel. That is how WE have contact with each other.

    When Al Gore was notified of his Nobel he cited the work I did for the UK Government.

    OK. Clear. Got it Go1

    Celtic Lion

  • Comment number 51.

    thegangofone (#43) "Its like Iago, consumed by a fierce hatred with obscure origins and no clear logical focus."

    In your case, your beliefs appear to be sustained by your of the .

    In more recent times one just needs to look to Iraq, Afghanisatan, Pakistan and Georgia which are close to, or which border, Iran - Israel's arch enemy. Whether as pawns of others, or agents acting in their own interests, this group appears to be disproportionately involved in the world's trouble and strife, and as a group, they do appear to do quite well out of it.

    Hatred is usually triggered by hateful behaviour. It is only rarely sui generis.

  • Comment number 52.

    thegangofone (#43) "I think the Russians also hated "fascist pigs" - especially after Stalingrad."

    Do you think Hitler and Stalin

    On the other hand, if you think about these two National Socialists waging war mainly in the Pale of Settlement still populated by their joint enemy, and the Soviets then sweeping over Eastern and Central Europe whilst the Germans withdrew from the West (putting up little resistance to the other 'allies'), maybe something more was going on than you have grasped? What if Germany was sacrified for a greater cause and the Western allies didn't catch on until the Marshall Plan and Cold War?

  • Comment number 53.

    Go1

    If you research into blood transfusions. Bone marrow and organ donations etc. You might find separate campaigns by ethnic minorities to encourage these groups to register or donate.

    There is sometimes a problem in achieving best match and compatibility. So the NHS I think is trying to encourage more minority groups to take part. There are variations in tissue typing between races.

    So I would have to assume there will be underlying genetic differences/variation.

    Check it out anyway. I'm more concerned that we all have a planet to live on.

    Celtic Lion

  • Comment number 54.

    Go1 #43

    Go1 SHOOTS SELF IN OTHER FOOT

    "Its like Iago, consumed by a fierce hatred with obscure origins and no clear logical focus."

    Priceless!

  • Comment number 55.

    BREAKING NEWS: IRANIAN POLICE ARREST CRIMINALS

    ³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖ NEWS is still broadcasting fuzzy pictures of who_knows_what_which_look_like_traffic_and_people_walking_about_in_streets, presumably as evidence that something's awful happening in Tehran.

    Meanwhile, anyone here (or abroad probably) can watch no end of programmes showing our police racing after an ever growing number of criminals. What does it take for a fellow criminal to take some camera phone footage of a colleague being arrested for criminal behaviour whilst making out that it's the evil Iranian state police picking on some poor innocent citizen?

    Is it any wonder that the Iranians are angry? Wouldn't you be?

  • Comment number 56.

    If is true, it won't make Britain look very good in the eyes of Pakistan, Iran or the rest of the 1.4 billion Muslim world and its billion or so other allies in the SCO and its growing entourage.

    Our media should be very careful in their own best interests. Mistakes can be made, but we should be sen to be unbiased should we not? Once again, it apears that Britain is being used in someone else's conflict.

  • Comment number 57.

    THE GREAT AND LITTLE SATAN PROPAGANDA SUBTERFUGE

    Why is the ³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖ making out that Britain is the referent for the when in fact it always has been ?

    Is the answer: So that Britain is lured into supporting Israel's interests against Iran? If so, who is driving this media/propaganda campaign here?

  • Comment number 58.

    Given the bellicose ant-British rhetoric now being directed at us by the Theocratic rulers of Iran, why are we not withdrawing ALL our diplomatic staffs with immediate effect ? These Mullahs have form with regard to ignoring international convention and taking diplomats hostage. Leaving them there means they are vulnerable to the sort of stunt the Iranian regime pulled against the US. Why are we running such a risk ?

  • Comment number 59.

    Huntingdonian (#58) "Given the bellicose ant-British rhetoric now being directed at us by the Theocratic rulers of Iran, why are we not withdrawing ALL our diplomatic staffs with immediate effect ? These Mullahs have form with regard to ignoring international convention and taking diplomats hostage. Leaving them there means they are vulnerable to the sort of stunt the Iranian regime pulled against the US. Why are we running such a risk ?"

    Is it because if the USA and Israel (with Britain essentially a poodle) upsets Iran and their SCO friends, they may drive the SCO into accepting Iran as , the SCO being the new Warsaw-Pact? Pakistan is waiting in the wings too. Israel can't be seen to inflame the situation, nor can the USA, so why is Britain taking the heat?

    However one looks at recent events, the UK media has been provocatively covering Iran's presidential elections.

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