大象传媒

Can't quite see the Wall Street Journal going the Page 3 route, but dumbing down is highly likely, given his past record...

Dear Sir,

I like Newsnight talk very much because it deals with different interesting topics!

I would like to know if it麓s possible
for a single Lady to gain British residency & work in Great Britain without being married to a man there!

In order for the Airways to explode to Billion Pounds, the prices of air tickets should be reasonable!

I would appeal to the World again & again for the Release of the Korean
Hostages! They should respect women麓s
lives, who have given Births to all the people in the World! It麓s very shameful if women are killed like animals! I hope they will let the Hostages go home in safety!

Thank you very much for allowing
my voice aired on behalf of Unvoiceless Women around the Globe!

Vicentina

Dear Newsnight

Just a question for the pot-
why did Virgin go along with all this and then call the whistle -what prompted them to do this?
puzzled

best wishes
Bob

Vincentina,

All lives are equal. Men, women, and children. I've never understood the "women and children" first business, in the case of shipwreck. Makes no sense.

Just like it makes no sense to have extra publicity if a woman dies in action as part of the defence forces.

BTW, I'm a woman.

Dear Newsnight,
It is fascinating to read and learm much from around the globe. It is great to read that the scandal on the British airways flight has been taken with much concern by the US department of justice. I hope the price-fixing deal between British Airways and Virgin Atlantic will yield positive results; otherwise, the scandal will impact the airline negativelly.

No way should political parties be funded by the state. If the party has a strong & popular manifesto it will attract enough members to finance its running. If it doesn't then it cannot be fit to govern. The reason the Labour party finances are in a mess is the gross expenditure on spin to get elected in the first place & then paying high salaries to spin doctors to keep them in power.

Dear Newsnight

Re Barrie Singletons comment above, its happened to me too, and you do feel ouch when it happens

However and this is not meant to be a creeply crawly comment, I have need to do this, the whole blog experiment is impressive and the fact it hasn鈥檛 been brought down by people libelling others etc I think is a huge achievement on the part of your staff

only thing is, I hope someone reads the comments -just joking

so a big thank you for this, and hopefully your team can read this comment, that is unless I鈥檓 blocked

best wishes

Bob

PS 10 years from now the viewers will be making the programmes at this rate

I am a British citizen who is married to a foreign national(South Korean) the newsnight article about sham marriages was good but every time an immigration issue like this one crops up I feel angry. I met my wife(we have 2 children) over 5 years ago whilst I worked in Korea, she actually was a co-worker. We fell in love and finally married in 2004 in the UK. We returned to the UK in October 2006, we had to jump through so many hoops. We respect the law and did everything we were told by the British embassy in Korea.(it's a long and difficult process) The thing is we were treated as if we had conducted a sham marriage.(what happened to innocent until proven guilty) I understand the embassy needs to deliberate but plain sense(probably less than 10 people a year get married and then return to the UK from Korea) should suffice.
The thing is if you break the rules or flout them it's okay, but if you are upfront you're persecuted. Thankfully my local MP Tony Cunningham helped us(thanks Tony) This latest situation with Polish women marrying for money can only SOIL the decent, all good people are tarred with the same brush, as is used by the British public. Unfortunately the people who marry for money have thick faces and care little for the good immigrants and their spouses!

RE: Bergman
The strange thing is Antonia Quirke in a DVD Collection special on Bergman a year or two back was a fervent advocate of Bergman, arguing that his films were uplifting as they truthfully explored the human condition. Perhaps the very short snippet of her on Newsnight was another case of judicious editing by the 大象传媒, perhaps overseen by Paxman himself.

Dear Newsnight,

There were two errors in your report on fake "EU marriages":

1) Poland (and other countries) joined the EU on 2004, and not 2005.

2) A much more serious error 鈥� People coming into the UK as spouses of EU citizens only get indefinite leave to remain after five years (and not two years, which is the number you gave, which is only true for spouses of UK citizens). More over, they would only get indefinite leave to remain after proving that they have lived with the EU spouse in the UK for the whole five years, and that the spouse has been exercise EU treaty rights (such as work).

This changes the story quite a bit, and I wonder - Do you not do a basic fact check on your stories before you air them?

Having watched todays report on sham marriages(01 Aug) I felt compelled to email you.

I was disgusted with the response from the Home Office. The impression is given that they actually do something about these "sham marriages"

I am a British born Indian female. I married an Indian citizen with the genuine intent to spend the rest of my life with him. However, unknown to me he had other intentions in mind. After arriving in the UK I was physically and mentally abused. Five months after arriving here, he disappeared. We had only been married 10 months by this time.

I have reported this to the Home office outlining the events along with a statement that I no longer wish to support him financially or in any other way.

The only response received from the Home office was one to gain permission to disclose the letter to my spouse as a reason for refusal of permenant status in this country should he apply to do so.

His visa expired last month, and 18 months later, I still have no response/ update has been received by the Home office as to what they are doing.

What's more I have found his picture on matrimonal sites looking for a new spouse.

I have come across many British Indian females who have been duped in a similiar manner, so that their spouse can gain entry to this country illegally.

P.S. If anyone knows in anyway how I can resolve my problem then please get in touch!

Have to say that I don't know whether political parties should be funded by the state or not really. As the labour spokeswoman said, in fact a great deal of political life in this country is funded by the state. The fact that the Tory spokesman was against it tend to make me think maybe its a good idea. Think Jeremy is often at his best in these situations, digging out the issues that matter! Much more his territory than art-house films!

Sham marriages are the consequence of relinquishing a huge chunk of sovereignty by being in the EU and being forced to comply with its rules. When Britain adopts the Euro, it's loss of independence will be complete. How only I wish the British had told America a hundred years ago its sovereignty wasn't important to it. America could have saved countless treasure and lives by not fighting to save it throughout the 20th century.

Will ther always be an England? On the map yes, but in any other meaningful way, maybe not. One consolation though, in a hundred years the people who live in what was once France will all speak English...or Arabic.

Sham marriages - I'm on a level of disgust somewhere around post 3

and consider this, if too many people come here to feel the comfort of the British economy, it will burst,

and if so many people come here to taste the freedom of British culture through means of deception, then eventually the TRUST between individuals in society, on which the British established their freedom, will disintegrate (hence, post 12 - Mark's unhappy experience).

Poster 14 - detail is important in the right place but in this instance the words wood and trees come to mind.

Poster 15 - Karamdeep - I am sorry for your plight but I don't understand the problem - can't you go to a lawyer and file for divorce?

Poster 17 - fascinating website, couldn't quite work out your overall philosophy, to me concepts such as TA are pretty much the same as Tory etc. The words skin and rabbit come to mind. Good news though, the bookies have shortest odds on a hung parliamnet next time round - could be the start of new era?

The piece about sham marriages was a bit of an eye opener. I must say that those women and men involved have done themselves (and others by association) a grave disservice. They have sold themselves cheaply, put themselves at risk of exploitation and allowed the host country that welcomes them to be exploited and all for a tiny amount of money (considering the ramifications). They should all be publicly outed and shamed both here and in Poland. As for the men who get into the country in such a way. Why would we even want anybody of that ilk in our society?
mark botterill, poster 12. I'm sorry to hear of your plight. Clearly the embassy was being idiotic as South Koreans clearly have no economic interest coming to the UK as they are doing very well anyway. They should have used common sense. It's the others that are a problem such as marriages to those from Non-Eu Balkan countries, former USSR satellite states and south east Asia.
I suppose there is no hard and fast rule about how to determine if a couple are genuine, but i suspect common sense and probing questions about the couples' mutual knowledge of each other should be asked.

Yes, I quite agree with Mistress76uk on this. Jeremy did amazingly tonight - great to have him back on his three-a-week again! Unfortunately, he seemed a little casual with the 'newsnight sofa' at one point though ...

Anyway, how on earth could we as a nation police such activities as the recent 'marriage crises' in any form of legal and effective way? We surely would need to con the perpetrators into revealing their own ... could that ever be justified?

Concerning the 'SPOIL PARTY GAMES' man, you were seriously talking about political parties? I know that the two definitions are sometimes caught up in each other ... But seriously, are parties not (generally) organisations of great unity and policy? How could we opt out in favour of a spectrum of colours ranging from Cameron's aquamarine to Labour's red-turned-purple with most lying somewhere in the abyss between the actual identities we know to be well-established political grounds? Result: a blancmange of deadspace and pure, undiluted anarchy. Happy now?

Oh and then there is the small thought of elections - campaigning?

Dear Chris (post 20).

Filing for divorce is easier said than done when I cant even find my spouse to complete the divorce in a straightforward manner.

I am in the process of divorcing him but it is taking much longer as cant find him. Both my religious ceremony and court marriage took place in India.

My fear now is that as the Home office have done nothing, and he will do this to some other poor girl.

As I received no help from police and MP's here, I resorted to taking this up with the authorities in India.

Being a law abiding british citizen, you can imagine my disgust at the lack of help from the british authorities.

No British authority could help me, but now he is facing a jail term in India when he returns. His family are also facing jail terms for supporting him in his deeds.

Dear Karamdeep,

It sounds like a bureaucrati-cultural nightmare.

How much you try and help other women as well as your self is up to you.

Doesn't NN offer a phone line for anyone affected by the issues discussed?

My only suggestion is to contact Liberty and if they can't help they may suggest another group

What is the relevance of the jail terms - are you worried his family will come after you to take their revenge?

Dear Chris,

The jail terms my spouse and his family are facing are combinations of marriage by deception, and the abuse I faced from them both in person and when they constantly harrassed me by phone.

Thankfully his family in India are unable to now leave the country as it would carry a heavier jail term if they did. As for his sister and father in America, they cannot return to visit the family in India as they also face jail terms if they return for the parts they played.

Party Funding.

The party in Government has effectively a Trillion pounds a year to promote its case. If they can't persuade the public to re-elect them by providing dentists, justice, housing or what have you then they deserve to lose?

Here's one for Cricky. If the best State is that which employs the best people [those who understand Justice, proportion, balance etc] in the positions of power then do we really believe democracy [that is based upon electing amateurs whose criteria for selection may depend upon other considerations] is a system that can ever deliver the best state? Are we not, by definition, condemned forever to a State of amateurish incompetence?

Top story Sham marriages? Come on that one is so old Noah heard it. However to see the total air of ignorance from the Immigration Office was worth running it.

I see the great satan has been busy buying up yet another paper, this time the Wall St Journal falls into the lap of Murdoch, have you seen fox news lately, nuff said.
Glad to hear that the Daily Mail is one of only a few newspapers that still holds up strong with ever increasing circulation, it leaves its competition pityful and sad looking; quality informative balanced journalism and all for 45p..

Whilst on the subject of the press, i was talking to a hack yesterday, who shall remain nameless, he informed me that Paxman was known to have watched that modern low budget head scratcher cult classic 'Donnie Darko' twice in one day, apparently he was rather taken by it, he even bought the sound track and it was rumoured he attended the directors cut and extra disc box set release of the film at a launch party in some high brow wine bar and resturant a few years ago, i asked my hack buddy did any one have any photographic evidence to prove that he was actually at this function? sadly no as paxo was dressed as a giant bunny rabbit, but he was overheard to have said that the often repeated micheal Howard interview was the pinnacle moment of his career; so it was definaltly him then i said? "yep" said my hack buddy..i got all that for a price of a pint..

Sham marriages

I'm surprised this was such an eye-opener. I had known of this problem for some time. Marrying Lithuanians or Latvians is a lot cheaper by the way, only about 拢2,000. Or you can just buy a Polish passport which will only cost about 拢500.

You can find all this information in the various Polish, Latvian, etc. newspapers printed in the UK.

I am a British citizen, grew up abroad and am currently living in the UK married to an Eastern European national - no this is not a sham marriage. As much as we like living in the UK, it is by no means a very welcoming place to foreigners, especially if they are from Eastern Europe, as my wife has to experience on a daily basis.

I don't think the UK should pride itself all too much in being open to so many nationalities. London will of course find no match in its level of multicultural variety in Europe, but immigrants are not treated very well.

Plus, now that other EU countries have opened up to migrant workers, I'm sure the UK will be the last destination for many a Pole. Countries like Germany attract with higher wages, cleaner and safer cities, shorter working hours, longer holidays and more bank holidays plus lower cost of living. On top of that, you can claim REAL state benefits!

So I reckon that the amount of migrant workers from the new EU member states will drop in the future, along with the number of Brits who themselves prefer living in France of Spain.

You may think it's only 45p, but it's costing you your soul, son. And everyone knows that rabbit was Melvyn Bragg.

Re: GO TO JAIL - DO NOT PASS GO

Well thank goodness for that! I tried to post on another subject the other day, and having got a message, twice, that said something like, "You are not permitted to post on this site", I ran away in fright and tried to recall verbatim what I'd said the last time I was here. I kept telling myself "It couldn't have been THAT bad." I was half expecting a loud knock on the door. Isn't it wonderful when you find that "You are not alone"?

;)

Yes - hope Jeremy stays in his three day slot for a while too - really excellent tele-journalist.

Great political interviews.

I don't mind him relaxing on the sofa!

Poster 29. Good comment. It looks that only those who are married to foreign national can see both sides of the problem.
I strongly believe that the majority of us (Eastern Europeans) who live here, condemn those practices and I would like guys like "Derek" to be removed from the UK and not allowed to come back. However one bad apple does not mean that the whole tree is rotten. I hope that home office has got an idea how to stop sham marriages or selling EU passports. It can be done by cooperation with new EU member states authorities

SHAM MARRIAGES

What was described on Newsnight was a Sham, but ONLY because the Home Office cannot manage (or be bothered?) to ascertain whether 2 people have in fact lived together (as man and wife) for 5 years.......if they cannot manage even this simple task what exactly can they be bothered to do?

BTW I am in the process of trying to get the wife into the UK (so was very interested in the story), folk really would not beleive the aggro, cost and stress it involves to do stuff legitametly unless you have been through this......the default position IS that I / we are lying about everything unless I / we can prove otherwise........