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Tuesday 3 August 2010

Sarah McDermott | 12:48 UK time, Tuesday, 3 August 2010

Here's what we're planning for tonight:

Dave and Nick have sent their fellow Cabinet colleagues a billet-doux of sorts, an open letter, really to the voters, reminding them that cutting spending and coming up with ingenious ways to revitalise the public services has to be all cabinet ministers think about when they are in Arran/Tuscany/Suffolk.

The Prime Minister has been speaking to - and hearing from - voters in Birmingham in a hall decorated with banners saying "PM direct", rather like an advert for an internet shopping service.

Tonight David Grossman gauges just how good David Cameron is at selling the cuts.

An astonishing 15 million Americans are unemployed - 10% of the population, and Nevada is the worst hit state.

Peter Marshall has been there visiting some of America's middle class who never thought they'd be out of work, but who are relying on food stamps, and slipping towards poverty with nothing in sight that suggests they'll find their way out of the economic downturn.

.

Is pay-TV the only model that will turn around ITV's fortunes? We'll be looking into the news that ITV is moving into pay-TV after agreeing a deal to launch high definition versions of some of its channels on Sky - part of an overall strategy to increase revenues from non-television advertising sources.

The news comes in the same week as the publication of a report from a right-wing think tank which states that the television licence fee is "obsolete and unfair" and should be replaced with a voluntary subscription service for certain programming. So should we all just pay for the media we consume? We?ll discuss.

And Bikini Atoll is one of the nine sites that UNESCO has added to its World Heritage List. Bikini Atoll in the Marshall Islands was home to a series of nuclear tests in the 1940s and 1950s. UNESCO said the tests "had major consequences on the geology and environment of the atoll and symbolised the dawn of the nuclear age."

We ask how sites such as this should be remembered.

Join me at 10.30pm on ±«Óătv Two.

From earlier:

David Cameron is holding one of his PM Direct sessions (the regular series of town hall style events where the prime minister takes questions from local residents) in Birmingham today. He'll be using the opportunity to explain the need for continuing cuts and tonight we'll consider if this is the best way to sell big controversial government programmes to the public.

Peter Marshall reports from Nevada - the state with the highest unemployment in the US - on the plight of those worst-hit by the economic downturn.

And we'll be looking at the news that ITV is moving into pay-TV after agreeing a deal to launch high definition versions of the ITV2, ITV3 and ITV4 channels on Sky. The move is part of an overall strategy to increase revenues from non-television advertising sources.

The news comes hot on the heels of a report from right-wing think tank the Adam Smith Institute which states that growing use of the internet for viewing has made licensing TV sets outdated, and that the television licence fee is "obsolete and unfair" and should be replaced with a voluntary subscription service for certain programming.

So should we all just pay for the media we consume?

Comments

  • Comment number 1.

    DIRECT DAVE!

    We have got ourselves another one. Will anyone address him with: "Remember you are not a god"?

    I have asked Tory HQ to address the liar-flyer that came through my door 5th May 2010. They don't answer. THEY DO NOT ANSWER. If Dave's HQ is politically blind, I reckon he will prove to be politically DEAF at these show-forums.

    Dave should be over at HQ, HIDDEN FROM VIEW but injecting some respect into his minions, for serious points of dissent.

    Oh it's all going so predictably.

  • Comment number 2.

    DAVE IS JUST A PARTY LEADER - HIS PARTY BEING PART OF A COALITION

    He is not elected as a President. Why then does he have so little humility, and swan around looking for the presidential 'spotlight'? Does it add anything to effective governance OR IS IT JUST INDULGENCE OF JUVENILE NEED?

    The 'presidential PM' is a marker for the Westminster Malaise. Why do we let it continue unchallenged? We have a head of state to do the swanning.

  • Comment number 3.

    The only things I watch on the ±«Óătv are Newsnight and Eastenders, and the odd few shows on ±«Óătv3. That really is it. I don't even listen to ±«Óătv radio either. I choose to have Sky TV, and pay for it and enjoy it. Why should I be forced to pay for a TV licence?

    The best thing to do is to axe the licence fee altogether and have a subscription or pay per view based service. Failing that, just let it become commercialised :p

    I thoroughly agree with the report that the ±«Óătv licence fee is "obsolete and unfair."

  • Comment number 4.

    Toxic foods: food additives, cloned beef and all that jazz.
    There is a mention of Hitler/the Nazis in the Vid so there's even something for Gango to get his teeth into.



    There is a part two to this vid.

    Just watched NN. The warkster looked good, Its been a long time since I've seen the woman.
    Steve Smith: He really should have his own show. ±«Óătv, you've got talent going to waste but you still insisit giving big fat cheques to zero-talents such as Yentob.


    Yo gango dude. I like your post (Monday) I would like to say how witty it is but I can't because its so full of nastiness. Remember the advice I gave you, the one about humour and hate and how they don't mix -unless your prepared to bring it back on yourself in the form of self-deprecation - well, you appear to have either forgotten or discarded this advice.
    I would've got back to you sooner but I was in A&E all day yesterday. I decided to park-up the Merc and give the skateboard a try. Unfortunately I fell off and grazed my knee - wasn't wearing the appropriate protection pads and spent the afternoon having some young nurse rub my wound with some cream.

    Anyhow gango, race realism...yes, its very real.

  • Comment number 5.

    previous#6. gangofoney wrote:
    “Over the weekend I stepped cheerily on my path as somebody who welcomes an inclusive and multi-cultural society.
.all of the races are pretty much the same with common ancestors genetically
.(mandatory repetition of Hitler, National Socialism, English Democratic League and the Holocaust)
 Most of their views are based on ignorance or racially motivated tribal instincts that bias their views.”

    You identify ‘racially motivated tribal instincts’ amongst the E.D and others, yet constantly deny the existence of any tribal or racial instincts elsewhere in the population! Your repetitive cut-and-paste homilies also fail to respond to any of the specific examples of ‘tribal instincts’ and cultural differences in this multi-cult mess that have been posted and debated by other bloggers.(FGM and other forms of punishment mutilation, beheading, honour killing, stoning, sorcery and witchcraft beliefs resulting in the physical, mental and sexual abuse and deaths of children – imported into our society.

    “Then I momentarily considered the European Athletics championships where we got a record haul and some wonderful champions that brought joy to the country. Many are of different ethnic backgrounds and all were enthusiastically cheered on from home.”

    I’m not a big ‘sporting fan’ and do not share the obsession with expensive sports promotions and overpaid ‘celebs’ that get fame and fortune on the basis of an otherwise unemployable physical skill, such as running, jumping, and kicking or hitting a ball. But I have to observe that these ‘skills’ are distributed disproportionally amongst the races. Why is that?

    My celebrations are for other talents, notably in music and arts, where people of many races ((Chinese, Polish, South American) bring real skills and pleasure. On my visit to the Proms on Sunday, the audience were, as usual, almost entirely of one ethnic group, but gave ecstatic applause to an amazing performance of Wagner’s music on the Royal Albert Hall organ by W.M. – not White Male:-



    “That's a shame but my path is set and so is that of our society.”

    The real shame is that we do not focus on giving citizenship to people of real talent that will enrich our society, preferring to ‘Welcome Diversity’ however alien and damaging to our own culture.

  • Comment number 6.

    Liberal Democracies only promote the Liberal Arts

    Only scientist in Commons 'alarmed' at MPs' ignorance


    The only scientist in the House of Commons has called for all MPs to be required to take a crash course in basic scientific techniques.
    Julian Huppert, a research biochemist who became the Liberal Democrat MP for Cambridge at the last election, said he was alarmed at the lack of scientific knowledge among colleagues.

    Proof....if ever proof was needed, that ‘statist’ was right all along!



  • Comment number 7.

    Nobody who is used to the far right posters on here - who are often relatively oblique about their views - will be surprised by the mind boggling confusion of the far right in Mongolia.

    In the Guardian there is a piece on allegedly non-violent Tsagaan Khass leaders :

    ------------------------------------------
    ""We don't agree with his [Hitler's] extremism and starting the second world war. We are against all those killings, but we support his ideology. We support nationalism rather than fascism."

    It is, by any standards, an extraordinary choice. Under Hitler, Soviet prisoners of war who appeared Mongolian were singled out for execution. More recently, far-right groups in Europe have attacked Mongolian migrants.

    Not all ultra-nationalists use this iconography; and widespread ignorance about the Holocaust and other atrocities may help to explain why some do.
    --------------------------------------

    So when you think of English "nationalists" who revere a man who bombed London and whose forces committed many atrocities against civilians everywhere and so on and so on they are perhaps not atypical. Stupid but not atypical.

    Its also little wonder that apparently when you put a lot of different nationalist groups together violence and feuds often break out.

    So we need not fear as there are very few neo_Nazis in Mongolia and its just the same over here.

    The factual void and intrinsic intellectual conflicts mean that they could only ever be a very minor grouping - though their capacity for violence does mean we should be watchful.

  • Comment number 8.

    On the far right theme again its hard to miss the many references to Jews each day.

    Whilst the mind set and faux science and faux history routines do turn the stomach there is always the chance to derive a better understanding of these Iago thinkers with their inexplicable motivations.

    For instance some will bring out the same views in almost all details as Jaded_jean the self avowed National Socialist advocate.

    The posters views were, in my view, just the same as Von Bruun who is, I believe, currently awaiting trial for shooting dead a security guard at a US Holocaust Museum. There was a previous conviction for trying to kidnap a US Federal Bank member who was Jewish due to perceptions about the alleged "Jewish hegemony".

    So do these far right - or "nationalist" - people who post on here and always are ostentatious about the validity of their views in this regard agree with the mindset of Von Bruun or are their views quite distinct?

  • Comment number 9.

    I would hazard a guess we will also have those on here today who will bypass the fact that science shows the races are pretty much the same genetically and will try to go for the cultural argument - whilst still talking about people of other races.

    The trouble of course is that race and culture are distinct so people of different races could have the same culture and people of the same race different cultures and so the sleight of hand fails.

  • Comment number 10.

    Geithner at New York University's Stern School of Business. "But as we put in place rules for those mistakes, we have to strive to achieve a careful balance and safeguard the freedom, competition and innovation that are essential for growth."

    If innovation means that the banks can create new derivative instruments that are not fully understood by them, the rating agencies and the regulators and that may not be fully regulated then we are still faced with great risk in the future Newsnight?

  • Comment number 11.

    #1 barriesingelton

    "Dave should be over at HQ, HIDDEN FROM VIEW but injecting some respect into his minions, for serious points of dissent. "

    Should you not practice what you preach? Do the lettuce not call for you yearning to know more about "differencism" or how in reference to Raoul Moat you feel "there but for the grace of God go I".

    Others may feel today that when they think of his victims "there but for the grace of God go I".

  • Comment number 12.

    A thought for kevseywevsey:

    Was yelling at the British Army "On me head son!" the best idea in retrospect when they firing those rubber bullets in your childhood Belfast?

    Meanwhile I remain on the road of multiculturalism and I don't see this as a road that leads to hell as you have suggested.

  • Comment number 13.

    #46 Just so you know Gof, some criminals for you....

    /news/uk-england-lancashire-10849352

    /news/uk-england-10825238



    And some mindless cretins who did this....



    Are they as bad as Nick Griffin? By the way, why was he mentioned at all, I believe he was proved innocent, although I'm not sure as I don't follow the BNP as closely as you do.

  • Comment number 14.

    3

    yes i agree with the mistress.

    these days the only public service needed is a news service [and a resurrected investigative journalist cadre that has been airbrushed out] and i would say a news messageboard [which the bbc closed down ie the great debate board that used to break news].

    education is now much better done elsewhere e.g through university lectures etc.
    entertainment is saturated. no need for public money.

    the current bbc model is a dinosaur of the 20th century. Everybody hears it clunking around and have begun to ask 'why are you still here?'.

  • Comment number 15.

    OUR CULTURE OF PERVERSITY SUBVERTS THOSE WITH LITTLE HOLD ON LIFE (#13)

    Just thinking out loud Lizzy - no attack.

    An overview of what sells newspapers/magazines and what fills prime-time TV and what preoccupies the majority of internet users and what percentage of the population rely on drugs (including alcohol and cigarettes) and how long relationships last, illuminates a country in CULTURAL DECAY. That is without getting into crime/prison and education statistics.

    In a swamp, such as we have (proudly) created, there are bound to be some pretty basic organisms lurking - even thriving. If I am an uncaring, self-obsessed abuser of my fellow man, I may be an 'honour killer' burning a British house down - or I can do the same (still with honour) in the Name of Tony Blair - but the house is that of Johnnie Foreigner. (Indeed, I might simply have MP after my name.)

    When a culture cloaks its dishonour in the name 'Honourable', how can we demand any particular standard from those languishing under its aegis?

    Dave's self-serving posturing is a million miles from the remedy.

  • Comment number 16.

    no6. -
    "Only scientist in Commons 'alarmed' at MPs' ignorance"

    He's not going to last long is he? Poor sod...

    no.12 -

    You keep telling us what you see and don't see, but what you don't grasp is that you are simply telling many of us that you are not very smart.
    if you look throughout the animal kingdom, you will find that like mixes and mates with like. One doesn't see sheep mating with goats, or lions mixing with jaguars, gorillas with chimpanzees etc. Why is that do you think? Why does one observe Chinese British marrying other Chinese British and Black British marrying Black British and British Indians marrying British Indians etc? Do you not see why like goes for like throughout the animal kingdom?

    Don't be so proud of your cognitive deficits.

    Watch Big Brother at the moment to see how your kind of 'interesting stimulation' goes down with normal people. They got rid of one and put another one in. Those thrown in are clueless like you.

  • Comment number 17.

    EDGY DINOSAUR (#14)

    Oh come on Jaunty. Never mind the quality - watch the studio wall! And on Radio there are the LHOTP* moments of the Today Programme. As for hearing it clunking around - all I hear is the intrusive musack.

    *Little House on The Prairie.

  • Comment number 18.

  • Comment number 19.

    18

    no no no. climate is only changed by man and the only cure is taxation to give to china in 'climate justice' [while they open a new coal power station a week].

    how it can be just that those who endure the uk climate and so need central heating must pay those who don't need it in hotter climes money? surely it should be they other way round? for there to be climate justice they should pay us as our climate is worse?

  • Comment number 20.

    Bearing in mind that the US population is about 5 times that of the UK ... and the US are more honest about their unemployed statistics ... 15 million unemployed in the USA shows that their unemployment is not as difficult as in the UK as having 8.2 million inactive and more than half the UK population strugglingg economically.

    The Anglo Saxon economic model of free market capitalism is failing the USA just as it is the UK who are also losing the 'global trade war' and importing too many of the wrong kind of finished products that kill real jobs in the USA just as they have done and are still killing local British jobs in the UK.

    Will our politicians on both sides of 'the pond' wait until it is too late before recognising the 'import/trade/BoP problem' and do something about it?

    The global trade war is not just the 'elephant in the room' that our politicians do not wish to see ... its a jumbo stampede!

  • Comment number 21.

    Multiculture

    Gango,

    When I go to Poland I miss in some ways the rich variety of races which is so plentiful in London though on the other hand it's kind of compensated by the richness of familial, including extended familial, richness of warm and interesting live exchanges between us. In this respect, I'm rather tribal and tend to be quite selective. I'm very open with most people at first but then, step by step, I begin to, spontaneously and by natural by natural process, choose, especially these days having experienced so much disappointment over the years.

    Music also fulfills my love of richness of multicultural expression. One minute I may be listening and twirling to Mozart's 'Ave Verum Corpus' or Susan Boyle singing 'Who I Was Born to Be' while another I'll switch happily abd smoothly to a contemporary avangarde piece or some folk music from some far off distant land in a language that I may not even understand. Music and mood of a piece, however, are ususally enough to keep mmy blades or simply shoed feet going, and with them the rest of my body, including my nose and ears playing a part.

    That's what art is about, or can be at least, cutting across ages, continents and cultures.

    mim

  • Comment number 22.

    I haven't seen a single argument in favour of the ±«Óătv licence fee..... nor can I think of one :p

  • Comment number 23.

  • Comment number 24.

    A new campaign to help the long term unemployed is gaining strength in the US; desperate and abandoned by the US government, with many joining the ranks of the homeless everyday, the long term unemployed and their supporters are now appealing to foreign governments for help. Hundreds of countries are now being inundated with emails and faxes in an intensive effort to save the lives of unemployed Americans.

    Following is the letter being sent to foreign embassies in Washington:
    Dear (Mr./Madam) Ambassador:
    I am writing to you on behalf of the suffering, long-term unemployed citizens of the United States. I respectfully appeal for your government’s urgent assistance. Many of the long-term unemployed feel that they have been abandoned by the United States government, and now turn to your country for help. Because of the economic situation in the United States, millions of jobs were lost and now, unable to find any other employment, many have used up all available government assistance available to them. Millions are hopeless, frightened and desperate. Consequently and sadly, suicides are on the rise.

    Millions of the unemployed have been without any income for months and many are now homeless with little food for their families. The unemployed have been contacting government representatives daily yet their situation continues to be ignored. The number of homeless unemployed grows every day. As a result, even charities are overwhelmed, with little food to offer and homeless shelters full. These unfortunate unemployed are hardworking people, they once had homes and a bright future, now many must take refuge in the woods with their families or ride the city buses for shelter--they have nowhere to go. The long-term unemployed have been seeking a Tier 5 extension of unemployment benefits so that they may provide for their families until a job is found, but their cries for help have been largely ignored. They are in dire need and appeal to you for any help you may offer.

    I respectfully implore your government to intervene on their behalf by contacting the United States government and requesting that they act quickly to help resolve this unnecessary tragedy, which has impacted many of the unemployed and their families. If nothing is done, millions more will be following in their footsteps in the months to come.

  • Comment number 25.

    @ #24 - the Americans voted Barak Hussein Obama in and now they are living with the consequences :p

  • Comment number 26.

    BUT 'DEFINITE DAVE' SAYS CLIMATE IS REAL (#23 link)

    And Definite Dave (aka Certainty Cameron) knows right from wrong.

    Stand by for a high profile initiative, in Dave's name, clamping down on heavy breathers.



  • Comment number 27.

    It's Barack Obama's birthday today. I shall send him very best wishes on both the personal and presidential levels.

    His is not an easy task of making sure that everything goes smoothly internally and internationally after the mess he inherited from G W Bush's administration, just as it's not easy for the current UK coalition after Gordie and Mandy beint at the 'steering wheel'.

    mim

  • Comment number 28.

    #24 I wouldn't bother writing to the British embassy Shannon317. We will be following down exactly the same road as the USA shortly. Our unemployment will rocket once Cameron and Clegg put all their plans into action, with massive job cuts. We are the same as you, mass immigration has forced wages down and given foreign people work to the detriment of the indigenous people. The only difference being you have mainly catholic south americans, we have the whole world and it's religions.

  • Comment number 29.

    WARS AND RUMOURS OF WARS - RIOTING IN DIVERSE PLACES (#28)

    Hi Lizzy. Did I read that Obamaland is setting up a ±«Óătvland Militia of some sort, with internment pens, ready for civil unrest?

    I suppose, any minute now - announced as a measure to buffer unemployment - Dave will reconstitute the ±«Óătv Guard. (As one of our posting chums was advocating I think?)

    When Tony was fending off Terror and doing the Heathrow tanks thing, I full expected him to take Emergency Powers, putting Alastair Campbell in charge of 'Highstreet Hygiene' with a special force called the 'HH'. (Shudder.) In the new spirit of inclusive governance, I suppose Ala (sounds familiar) might still hear the call? (Dave is not very bright.)

    Do we have a Reichstag to burn down?

    Oh - it might all go awfully well, for some.

  • Comment number 30.

    @ Ecolizzy #28 - isn't it more to do with making profit? For instance, if a Polish builder will do the same job as a British builder but charges a lot less, but work to the same standard, who is likely to get hired? The one who costs less......

  • Comment number 31.

    CONCERT FOR HEROES

    This morning I found the info about the concert on one of the Polish websites. Just goes to show that those who have stayed and carry on working in Eastern Europe, in this case Polish Journalists, care about what's going on in the UK and about the fate of injured British soldiers and their families. After all they could have chosen another subject for this particular item, like for instance some silly droll about pornography or doggies, for example.



    Mods

    I hope you'll be able to accept this one as the concert in question is a non-profit and worthy event.

    mim

  • Comment number 32.

    SHOULD THE SECOND AMERICANS APPEAL TO THE REAL FIRST AMERICANS? (#24)

    My history is bunk - but didn't the 'Red Indians' come to the aid of a bunch of Bible-Reading Starvation Monkeys some time back?

    Perhaps the owners of America (whom Barack forgot to mention in his Inaugural Eulogy) might show the incomers AGAIN how to live sustainably in the land? Or have they had all their old ways beaten out of them by a 'superior culture'?

  • Comment number 33.

    #30 Oh yes Mistress you're right! ; ) But keep forcing wages down means people have little money to spend or no job, so how does the economy keep going? The Polish plumber, (as your example) sends a lot of his money home to improve Poland, and also gets child benefit for his children at home, so all's lovely in Poland, but not so good here. Everybody yells we're a rich country, yes banks and big business are, but the ordinary man in the street isn't! : (

    Shortly we are going to see thousands of brits losing their homes again, just as we did under Thatcher. And look where that left us, with a poor underclass that have never really participated in a normal life again.

  • Comment number 34.

    #29 Ah don't worry Barrie, Daves big society will sort it all out. We'll all be in the workhouses again, working hard for our bread and water. The banks are all making enormous profits, so you just know how that all trickles down to the man in the street, don't you?! NOT!

  • Comment number 35.

    Geneticly I am better than anyone else Its been Proved

    dont ask me who proved'it

  • Comment number 36.

    Be Veiled/led/Unled

    Does the veil hide/coverup/camoflage

    Scares/Bruises

  • Comment number 37.

    Pass me The Gusset/set

    I've worn this 2 out
    again/gain

  • Comment number 38.

    This comment was removed because the moderators found it broke the house rules. Explain.

  • Comment number 39.

    THE SCRABBLE CODE (#35)

    Ah-ha! I guessed from your posts that you were the product of some sort of code d.

  • Comment number 40.

    nevada

    any party that focussed on giving people the dignity of work and affordable housing would sweep the uk. its a sign that uk politics is so self absorbed in personal ambition rather than public good that no one does it.

    itv

    do the companies not ask the customer as to what need they need to fill? or is it just the delusional [and lazy] 'build it and they will come' attitude?

    heritage industry

    is a middle class fetish that deserves no public money.

    wheat

    there is no 'shortage' its just the usual speculation bubble. commodities should not be traded by those who don't take delivery. otherwise it just becomes a wealth transfer from poor to the rich who push the price up.

    chinese companies are looking to buy uk utilities because they wanted something that would give them easy regualtion and high profit!!!!!!! what does that say about the 'free market' and the regulator?

  • Comment number 41.

    This comment was removed because the moderators found it broke the house rules. Explain.

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