Thursday, 20 March, 2008
- 20 Mar 08, 06:09 PM
City limits?
The Bank of England is extending the support it gives to commercial banks. Heads of high street lenders have been meeting with the bank's governor to ask for guarantees of funds to help them through the credit crisis. They've also raised the issue of rogue traders spreading malicious rumours to cash-in on falling share prices.
Paul Mason is looking at whether the Bank of England has done enough. And he'll be examining how close we might be to collapse in the UK banking system.
Emily is currently out and about in the City of London asking people there if it's time for greater regulation in the markets to avoid rogue trader activity. We'll also be bringing together a big hedge fund manager, a City lawyer and a regulator to discuss all these issues live.
Tibet
Thousands of soldiers were seen in Lhasa on Thursday amid reports of a huge military build-up as China admitted for the first time it had shot Tibetan protesters.
State-controlled Xinhua news agency reported four people were shot and wounded last weekend by police in a Tibetan area of southwestern China, as the Dalai Lama expressed fears that the crackdown on unrest had caused many casualties. Long military convoys were on the move in Tibet while troops poured into nearby provinces after a week of violence directed against China's rule of the Himalayan region, witnesses, activist groups and media reports said. A week of protests against China's 57-year rule of Tibet erupted into rioting in Lhasa last Friday. Demonstrations have since spilled over into nearby Chinese provinces with sizeable ethnic Tibetan populations. Peter Marshall will have the latest on this story and will be examining what the Dalai Lama wants from China.
Sarkozy's France
Next week French President Nicolas Sarkozy makes a state visit to Britain with his new wife Carla Bruni. Sarko's had a difficult few months following negative publicity around his private life and bad election results for his centre-right party in the final round of nationwide local elections. Allan Little travels through the South of France for Newsnight to find out what the people of France think of Sarkozy's presidency and his policies.
