Thursday, 14 June, 2007
- 14 Jun 07, 05:02 PM
By , Newsnight presenter.
Palestinian conflict
Jordan's King Abdullah prophesied in December last year that the truly pessimistic scenario for the Middle East would be three civil wars in 2007 - in Iraq, in Lebanon, and in Palestine. Well, it looks like about two and a half. Tonight we'll have the latest from Gaza and the West Bank and what now looks like the schism between two Palestinian statelets, plus we hope to hear from a top level Israeli.
Control Orders
The government has been consistent in its loathing of control orders for dealing with terrorist suspects against whom there is insufficient information to bring charges. Now we learn that one of those who absconded had links to a key player in the 7/7 London bombings and the leader of the gang which tried a similar kind of mayhem but were stopped just in time. We'll debate what can be done about suspects of this type - if anything.
Live Leak
The British based company gets 200 videos from US soldiers a day. They show a side of Iraq you rarely see on the television screens. Some are incredibly distrubing showing US soldiers taunting Iraqis. And the Pentagon is trying to stop them showing their personal record of the war.
Broken Society
Do you know what a "shank" is? If you don't, then our very disturbing film from Hackney tonight will tell you about the nastiest side of our youth culture, the violence, and the hopelessness of one young man who says that if he fails his exams he will pursue a career opportunity as a crack dealer. It's the stuff of nightmares, but it is happening in our country. You can watch the film right now here and even download it as a podcast from .
And tell us what subjects you'd like to see us tackling as part of our "Broken Society" series by joining the debate here.
Comments Post your comment
Every day a new topic, or a new facet of an old topic, is put up for discussion here while those in power – of one sort or another – make another ill-equipped guess at how to improve matters. But the mechanics of human life are such that the most mature, the most able, are not elevated to positions of benign influence; rather, the most driven and bizarrely motivated either seize power or use that most insidious of qualities – charisma - to gain it by popular appeal to the sleepwalking masses. This is not a recipe for "global anything".
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Imagine what it must be like to live in Gaza if you are a halfway sane person.
It must be awful.
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Very good programme tonight.
A bit of 'gangsta' playing up to the camera, but it was a piece worth showing esp the bit about 'they don't know what a ghetto is'
As to the Palestinians.
Should any of us be surprised?
When agencies of their government, Hamas & radical Shia Muslim news organisations have a proven track record of the deliberate promotion & marketing of suicide via cartoons, adverts, books & games ... targeted at their own CHIDLREN, any wonder such people devoid of human niceties have turned in on themselves, this is rather small beer.
Bet the radicals in Iran funding & directing Hamas, see this as part of their grand plan.
To the rest of the world, its another stark reminder of cultures & a religion gone badly wrong.
Given these developments, the start of another Islamic Infracticide (notably amongst the same sect) ….
Q. are those British liberal left organisations & Islamic groups still so keen of an educational boycott of Israel?
… perhaps they would be better served stopping Palestinians killing each other & a great opportunity to put into practise their theories about intervention ... how about a protest about this
vikingar
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Someone needs to pull Shami off her sanctimonious high horse and throw her organisation 'Liberty' into the river.... blurp blurp blurp.
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When I see Shami on a programme billing now I just switch off or change channel- the woman is just tedious,her pinched and bitter facial expression just make for dull and unbalanced telly.
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The world is a very dangerous place to live in.
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To Nishi post 6
The world is a very dangerous place to live
The world will become a very dangerous place to live when Iran starts to make NUCLEAR BOMBS
The way things are going America and the rest will not be able to stop Iran makeing NUCLEAR BOMBS they will not have the resorces to do this because they are fighting the war on terror in the wrong place in Iraq also Russia and China will object any war with Iran to stop them makeing NUCLEAR BOMBS
Iran then can attack all the countrys knowing they will be taken out them selves becoming one big suicide bomb if it is true they are a terrorist state unless we all submit to Islam there distorted way they could also supply terrorist all over the world with dirty bombs there is a danger we will lose this war on terror in the futcher or every body gets blown to bits
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you want to know my experience of gangs? well let me tell you i read all the secret seven books and in my postcode it was considered dangerous to own a rotary pencil and to go out to a tea shop and order macaroons. The girls loved it as we swanked around in our blazers and short trousers. Often they would search our pockets looking for a bag of revels or a curly wurly but usually all they would find were conkers.
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Excellent Alex Salmond interview last night on Newsnight Scotland. Surely it was worth airing for the whole country ?
Oh and is there a Newsnight Scotland website or am I just being a bit dense in not being able to find it?
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The Hackney piece was great but the response from the council and police that it was not representitive of the whole area seemed to miss the point. The film was specifically about the experiences of young black people living on the estates in hackney.
It was clear from the film that whilst some were and some weren't directly involved in street crime/violence and drugs there was a burden on all of them from these. Mainly the constant possibility of confrontation leading to violence. This seems to encourange "sticking to your estate." In the long term you get a high rate of people on the estate sticking with the low productivity and/or criminal activity already present.
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