±«Óătv

UK schools slip down global table

First science, now maths and reading.
Alarm bells should be ringing.

Question: Finland has non-selective education together with x. What is x?

It probably isn't super casinos.

Dear Newsnight

Surely the Nimrod story must be your lead story tonight ?

re the Iranian intelligence assessment, I agree that the rug has being pulled from under Bush, I would suggest those in America who love their country might have being alarmed that he would attempt to completely destabilise the Middle East before leaving office, and simply had to be stopped,

Bush is an enigma, on one hand he appears to be a nice guy but his actions suggests someone who places no value of the sanctity of human life?

the Muslim extremists can easily be beaten if we deploy the right weapons ,ie those of ideas. Most people wherever they live do not wish to exist in the sort of regime they would wish to create, so if the West stops dropping bombs, there are millions of natural allies who would drive the extremists out , we wouldn’t need to?

Those in authority try and frighten us with the threat from Muslim fundamentalism and we seem a lot more scared now perhaps and thus far less effective in dealing with issues but much more malleable than when we faced a far graver threat of 40,000 Russian tanks in Western Europe. Where is the perspective on all of this?

Talking of the short shelf life of the Muslim extremists and their very limited potential support in any country, that said when will we rid ourselves of our own war mongering extremists? back to the first point, the US intelligence community have behaved patriotically and with great courage to release this information on Iran but I would guess the witchhunt will have already begun against them,

Long live decent people everywhere, strength to us all, what separates any of us is our values not what we look like or our language, colour or religion

best wishes
Bob

Some of the media has now moved to talking about failure to REGISTER donations rather than talk of who KNEW what and when, which is clearly a great improvement given the law on this matter (as I read it):
/blogs/newsnight/2007/11/friday_30_november_2007_1.html

It would be good to see Newsnight get down to the detailed facts of the matter, i.e. who was registered in the appropriate Party log as primary donor and agent, for each of the alleged controversial donations. Surely who KNEW what when is of rather secondary importance in the absence of the precise details of registration or the absence thereof?

This is all about book-keeping and accounting is it not? All else is just dirty tricks/politics.

Many viewers would be grateful if, when reporting on the current donor problems within the Labour Party, it was made clear that senior politicians were not 'breaking the rules', but 'breaking THE LAW'.

Nimrod is the top story in Scotland.

Given the comments in the Lords by the defence chiefs that seems to be further evidence of underinvestment
in frontline services by Brown when
he was Chancellor. Some of the fuel
seals were 38 years old it appears!

Meanwhile, Wendy Alexander clings on
but the ±«Óătv's Brian Taylor has got a
big interview with the Jersey-based
donor involved who has accused her of "gross mismanagement". But she also seems to have broken the law.

The Dundee Courier has focussed on misspelling of the word 'privileged' in her than-you letter to him in his Jersey tax bolt-hole - she spelled it
'priviledged'(sic)! - and one letter writer comments 'thank goodness Ms Alexander is not in charge of Scottish education'. The story has some way to run, most commentators seem to agree.

NB 'Gross mismanagement' may run in the family ... her brother Douglas presided over the Holyrood election
fiasco and was England's Minister of Civil Contingencies a couple of years before the floods .......

What on earth was Peter Hain doing? I
think it is a real shame he is now in trouble as well for not recording donations to his deputy leadership attempt. But the rules were pretty clear - and used rather ruthlessly to keep Michael Meacher off the ballot - so there is no excuse!

As Helene Mulholland explained on December 18, 2006 in The Guardian:

"Under new rules, all candidates for the leadership and deputy leadership must donate 15% of the money they raise to central funds. Any surplus at the end of the contests must also be given to the party".

Yet Peter wasn't even keeping his books straight it seems (with all
these 'off-ledger' transactions??)

Gordon's team were tearing up and/or returning cheques to Mrs Kydd after they were no longer needed ????

And after her unopposed 'coronation' as 'Brown's woman in Scotland' Wendy
spends ÂŁ17,000 of donations on trips to Inverness and Dundee and a video?

Why not ring up Major Denis Healey for a comment on the Nimrod story? If bits of the plane were indeed 38 years old he was at the Ministry of Defence when they were commissioned.

Alexander appears to be pinning her future on the outcome of an enquiry by The Electoral Commission - a UK body which was leaned on and forced to issue a 'clarification' recently
after Canadian elections expert Ron
Goold criticised wee Dougie (her wee
brother) for partisan behaviour in a Scottish election in which thousands
were disenfranchised because of big mistakes at Westminster when he was Secretary of State for Scotland. As
if that did complicate things enough,
a quick check of the membership of the Parliamentary Advisory Group on the Electoral Commission website is quite interesting as well .. one of its members turns out to be Lord Elder (former flatmate of Gordon
Brown and a fellow Special Advisor of Donald Dewar with Wendy Alexander during the Holyrood building fiasco).

It is also fascinating to note from the list of donors to Ms Alexander's campaign obtained by Paul Hutcheon of The Sunday Herald who broke this story that one of the contributors to her campaign was a 'Lord Elder'.

I live in Wythenshawe and have had no problems with crime, drugs or social or family breakdown.
Like most of my friends we all went to university and now have good careers and have moved out of our parents houses and into our own in Wythenshawe.
Why didnt the programme interview people who are happy in Wythenshawe and have bought houses/ flats in the new up and coming areas in Baguley, Sharston, Brooklands etc?
Fill anyone up with free beer and interview then in a pub and they are bound to boast about crimes, drugs etc.

I was born in Wythenshawe and now work here for Connexions, helping young people get jobs, education and training. Why didn’t the programme interview the vast majority of young and old alike in Wythenshawe that have jobs, don't commit crimes and have loving families. Wythenshawe also has an award winning park, good leisure facilities and huge investment going into the retail area, schools and the social housing stock.
My Grandad and my extended family have lived here all their lives and love the place. The select few that your reporter chose to interview such as Tory Boy Cameron’s mates of the so called “United Estates of Wythenshawe” are not representative of genuine Wythenshawe folk. Anyone from Wythenshawe with half a brain will never forget the consequences of the Tory Years.Wythenshawe is on the up and not a slum as one of your self selected interviewees direspectively claimed.
Get your reporter back to provide some balance please.

It's strange that you should mention Meredydd Hughes and Jack Straw in the same nightly report. - Jack Straw was clocked doing over a 100 mph on the M4 a couple of years ago when he was the ±«Óătv Secretary (I think) for blairs regime and although it was well publicised in all the media NOTHING WAS EVER DONE ABOUT IT - If I was driving I would have been locked up. "Politicians" and the "police" are the biggest and worst criminals in this country and there seems to be nothing whatsoever that we are able to do about it (I still believe Princess Diana was murdered).