Tuesday, 1 April, 2008
- 1 Apr 08, 06:31 PM
ZIMBABWE
Reports from Zimbabwe suggest the opposition has reached an outline deal with President Mugabe which would see him leave office after 28 years. Unnamed sources say talks have been taking place with representatives from the opposition MDC and President Mugabe's party, chaired by the South African president, Thabo Mbeki. The agreement hasn't been signed yet; it's thought President Mugabe may be preparing to address the nation. We'll have the latest on the ground from our World Affairs Editor, John Simpson in Zimbabwe. We'll also be speaking to Archbishop Desmond Tutu.
MICHAEL MARTIN
The Speaker of the Commons, Michael Martin, is to be investigated over expenses claims totalling ÂŁ4,000 in relation to taxi journeys by his wife. A preliminary inquiry will be conducted by the Parliamentary Commissioner for Standards, John Lyon. David Grossman will be gauging where this leaves the Speaker.
CHINA
China's economy is, by any measure, a success story. Eleven per cent economic growth, rising wealth even among the poor and it's all set to be showcased spectacularly at the Olympics. Amid the celebrations, it's hardly been acknowledged that this is the 50th anniversary of the Great Leap Forward - Chairman Mao's failed attempt to modernise China the first time round. In the second part of Paul Mason's powerful series on China he asks what few in that country's media are prepared to: What are the parallels between then and now? We'll also be getting Lord Patten's analysis of how China is faring economically.
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Forgive me for being so naive, however, I would have imagined that the most important thing that requires time spent on it would be the House of Lords report on Immigration.
The fact that the ±«Óătv is refusing to discuss this topic shows to me that the ±«Óătv is either A, not wishing to upset Labour or B, cannot comprehend that the PC rubbish that the ±«Óătv have inflicted on us all for the last 10 years has been just that.....Rubbish.
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I also second the view that the House of Lords report needs air time.
This report rebuts everything the Government has been saying in the last ten years , with regard to their immigration policy !
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I have to concur with post#1, I find it rather strange that Newsnight are not going to discuss this huge political story tonight.
The fact that migrants contribute 28 pence each to the economy rather than the 10's of billions that the government keeps mentioning means that the governments budget forecasts must be wrong.
Newsnight should investigate how the government have got it all so wrong, and what this means to the economy.
I would also like to hear an explanation from the ±«Óătv on why they have not queried the governments figures on immigration once in the last ten years?.
As poster#1 mentions I strongly suspect that the left of centre mindset of ±«Óătv employees makes them incapable of taking a impartial approach to this most emotive of subjects.
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COCKEYED DEMOCRACY
Whatever the nature of Speaker Martin’s “take” on the delivery of honourable service to his constituents, and to Parliament, I can report that my MP purports to believe he was “elected for his judgement”; utterly failing (or choosing to fail) to notice that the party-aligned voters here, voted “rosette” not “candidate”. It seems the Whitehall Farce of Brian Rix, has given way to the Westminster Farce of Gordon Brown. The only difference is: Brown has not yet been debagged. While we have this mad mix of Party-based elections, yielding de-facto “honourable members” who can sometimes vote according to “conscience” (that has not been declared to their constituents) and only if the leader gives permission, cockeyed government will continue in Britain. Until we SPOIL PARTY GAMES and fill both chambers with LOCALLY IDENTIFIED honourable individuals, this inept charade will continue.
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Post 1-3
I agree the House of Lords report and the immigration report are important. We haven't gone big on it today for a variety of reasons - the midnight embargo means that it has been heavily discussed today and we are also committed to a lengthy, and also important, film from China. The issue of the economic impact of immigration is one which we have examined in detail in the past and we have recently done two special programmes on the immigration debate, one of which is on the Newsnight front page now.
Peter
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Heisenberg's Uncertainty Principle in action this week... "We're now talking live to our correspondent in Zimbabwe, but we can't tell you where he is."
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Shock news Wednesday (tomorrow) as the victorious MDC, led by Morgan Tsvangirai, reveal that the majority of their countrymen are in fact now journalists for foreign news organisations and that the others had all fled to South Africa months ago.
As part of the ±«Óătv's re-structuring the entire ±«Óătv News staff have been in Zimbabwe for 6 months - "the last place they'd look" - and other media organisations have been close on their heels. Poor quality phone lines in the country have reduced workloads for the hundreds of ±«Óătv journalists now happily settled in down-town Harare.
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Seriously... I've heard of four separate ±«Óătv journos in Zimbabwe in the last few days, including John Simpson (who was there a few weeks ago too). It's like the ±«Óătv is some sort of termite collective, or a large multi-spectrum ÂŁ4 billion-budgeted stalker..."It's no use Jimbo, not matter how many times we flush 'em out, they keep coming back! They've just got this insatiable demand for news!"
And they don't even send them in small numbers... how many journalists do you need in one country for one election for one company? I notice that CBC, CNN, Sky and ITN are all there too. Like one big holiday.
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So, for Zimbabwe's feared Central Intelligence Organization, I've prepared a few tips for spotting foreign journalists:
1. They're mostly white and British, Canadian or American.
2. They walk around with a camera crew and often hold microphones.
3. John Simpson always wears a blue armoured jacket which he must never take off to wash.
4. They have lots of foreign currency and can actually afford food.
5. They often drive around in vans looking like they own the world and have a right to speak to it.
6. They have chunky satellite video phones, which are pretty easy to recognise.
I despair. I really do!
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Have just listened to Emily Maitlis
'Inside British Council' on Radio 4.
I hope she gets a real roasting for
naivety when she shows up tomorrow!
What a whitewash ... a few references
to 'critics' but none interviewed??!!
Was Fay Weldon unavailable I wonder?
For more balanced covered of this parasitic UKQuango I refer her to:
Scotland does not normally listen to ±«Óătv Radio Four and no bloody wonder!
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Have just listened to Emily Maitlis
'Inside British Council' on Radio 4.
I hope she gets a real roasting for
naivety when she shows up tomorrow!
What a whitewash ... a few references
to 'critics' but none interviewed??!!
Was Fay Weldon unavailable I wonder?
For more balanced covered of this parasitic UKQuango I refer her to:
Scotland does not normally listen to ±«Óătv Radio Four and no b wonder!
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Thank God for the Zimbabwe elections..eh. Newsnight lets a big story skip any analysis because the story in question is the recent report on immigration. I watched the 10 oclock news tonight and witnessed the most blatent white-wash of any news story ever....EVER!
What must it be like to be in that ±«Óătv cocoon...and Peter, your fooling no one with that answer.
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Further to post #8 I notice as well that the production company Emily
Maitlis used for her Inside British
Council programme on ±«Óătv Radio Four
does indeed have an "inside track".
The website for "Just Radio" and
Ms Maitlis's producer Kate Bland
lists British Council as one of
'a number of non-broadcast clients'
alongside the ±«Óătv! So much for the independence of this ±«Óătv programme!
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Brilliant Jeremy tonight, particularly with Archbishop Desmond Tutu on Zimbabwe. My favourite interview of the night was with Chris Patten on China and a possible boycott of the Olympic torch.
Excellent film by Paul in China. Well we've seen Justin Rowlatt in his underpants on Newsnight...this time we may have Paul in his swimming trunks if he's still there in the summer ;-)
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Brilliant Jeremy tonight, particularly with Archbishop Desmond Tutu on Zimbabwe. My favourite interview of the night was with Chris Patten on China and a possible boycott of the Olympic torch.
Excellent film by Paul in China. Well we've seen Justin Rowlatt in his underpants on Newsnight...this time we may have Paul in his swimming trunks if he's still there in the summer ;-)
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Can you tell us the name of the excitable Labour backbencher who, interviewed briefly in the Lobby, insisted that the Speaker's Mrs not travel on the number 12 'bus but be shown proper deference.
It was just the most comic-opera moment and the man in question has it in him to become the new Steven GissaJob Pound, a Newsnight regular.
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Who really listens to radio 4!
The ±«Óătv ( Paxman ) is as out of touch to the realities within this country as is Mugabe in Zimbabwe.
Archbishop Desmond Tutu made Jeremy look like the sand in the wheel.
Good men keep on turning.
Keep CHurning Jezza!
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The report on China was a missed opportunity: why didn't the reporter in China tell us why the River Yangtze was drying up? He laboured the point that it was, but then didn't explain. Several times recently I have watched a report n Newsnight and asked myself afterwards what it was they were trying to tell me. Is it bad reporting or bad editing?
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It does not really take a visit to China to find out food prices are increasing.
But it is a role of a show like Newsnight to question why nothing is being done to sort the problem in the UK and in Europe.
There are fields left fallow and a reluctance to use GM crops. Both policies will have to be changed. It is Newsnight's role to question the dozy politicians about this.
Similarly, the fact that the ±«Óătv may have been pro-multiculturalism and pro-immigration may explain the lack of coverage of the Lords report - but it does not justify it.
Brown's comments on the report show that it will take some time before the issue is tackled properly.
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ZIMBABWE ELECTIONS
So, where are all the "regime change" proponents now?
Oh right, Zimbabwe doesn't have any oil... yet. If human suffering were the only criteria, surely the world's interventionists would have removed Robert Mugabe long ago.
Now the people of Zimbabwe have surely voted the dictator out--if the 'true vote' were even close, let's face it, Mugabe would have already fixed and declared another massive majority win. But the world's (cheer)leaders for 'democracy' and human rights seem to be waiting for the inevitable civil war and even more suffering.
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Cookie ducker (9)
If we had been trying to bury the Immigration story over the last couple of years, doing all the reports and special programmes we have done would have been an odd way of going about it.
Peter
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ZIMBABWE ELECTIONS
So, where are all the "regime change" proponents now?
Oh right, Zimbabwe doesn't have any oil... yet. If human suffering were the only criteria, surely the world's interventionists would have removed Robert Mugabe long ago.
Now the people of Zimbabwe have surely voted the dictator out--if the 'true vote' were even close, let's face it, Mugabe would have already fixed and declared another massive majority win. But the world's (cheer)leaders for 'democracy' and human rights seem to be waiting for the inevitable civil war and even more suffering.
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