大象传媒

大象传媒.co.uk

Talk about Newsnight

Newsnight

Friday, 18 April, 2008

  • Newsnight
  • 18 Apr 08, 06:14 PM

Brown in the US

'Who's That Man?' cries the Drudge report website - pasting a picture of Gordon Brown against a stars and stripes background.
Tonight, the prime minister means to answer it. Emboldened by successful meetings yesterday with each of the presidential candidates, he has given a speech about Global Challenges in Boston. The world stage may be a scary place. But it's infinitely preferable, in many ways, to what he faces at home. The 10p tax revolt seems to be gathering steam. He may have stopped one if his MPs, Angela Smith, from resigning yesterday. But there are more emerging from the woodwork as we speak. We'll ask just how comfortable Gordon Brown is looking within his own party.


RBS

Royal Bank of Scotland is about to stage the biggest rights issue in UK corporate history, asking shareholders for some 拢10bn to shore up its financial position. It will be part of an effort to write down its exposure to US sub prime - and any other skeletons still lurking in the cupboard. And in doing so, it marks a recognition - that all has not been well but can now get better. The move has been compared by some to a confessional, others to a ruthless spring clean.
How many other banks will follow suit once the taboo is broken? And does this signal that the worst is now over?


Gwyneth Dunwoody

Also tonight we pay tribute to who has died aged 77. In the words of one parliamentarian and friend, she was the essential 'debunker of humbug'. She will be remembered for her stubbornly principled stance, her commitment to the Labour Party, and for her formidable chairmanship of the transport select committee. A woman, who shone through an age of spin to tirelessly speak her mind.

Comments

  • Comment number 1.

    I've just read Brown's string of platitudes in Boston and oh dear - what a yawn .............

    It reads like a dictionary of quotations with trowel loads of motherhood and apple pie?

    I don't like the sound of this 'new cultural effort on the scale of the cultural Cold War'
    either - spare us from more British Council!

  • Comment number 2.

    compare and contrast: Salmond or Brown?

    NB Salmond wants Trident off The Clyde!



  • Comment number 3.

    Answer Clue to Question at Comment #2:

    Elvis landed at Prestwick Airport - near the birthplace of Robert Burns; not Terminal 5!

  • Comment number 4.

    But before Brown's new cultural cold war begins all Labour Party salsa hacks might
    like to contemplate his complete and utter
    failure to mention JFK's role in Bay of Pigs?

    For the alternative Labour line on Cuba:
    read Brian Wilson or speak to B. Obama!


  • Comment number 5.

    For Scottish Parliament report back on the
    activities during Scotland Week in the US
    and Canada see Thursday's statement:

  • Comment number 6.

    PS The new Newsnight website is great - but is England really 2 hours behind us up here in Scotland? I know that Nepal is 15 minutes ahead of India which is 54 years
    ahead of Britain but this is now summer?!

  • Comment number 7.

    For Scotland's line on the bay of pigs see
    SNP Minister Richard Lochhead's statement
    on the pig meat regimes earlier this week?

  • Comment number 8.

    why aren't any of those reporters questioning the banks, asking them why they aren't raining their savings rates to try and encourage more people to save which is traditionally how banks raised money.

  • Comment number 9.

    I watched Gordon Brown's speech at the JFK Library where he was hosted by Fat Teddy (the undicted felon who drove his car off a bridge while he was drunk one night, killed a woman passenger by drowning, never reported the accident to the police, and bought his way out of prison and into the US Senate, that Fat Teddy.) Brown said he wasn't going to make a long speech...and then proceeded to make a long speech. Well it was late at night while I was watching it on C-Span and it put me to sleep. With all these speeches, he's just a few short of running for US President himself. Maybe he's thinking he might be looking around for another job soon. Sorry Gordon, you don't qualify, just ask Arnold. And NO we are not going to amend the Constitution for him, Tony, or you. And what is the substance of his speeches in the US? America we love you, we need you, come back and help the rest of us. Sorry world, we've tried and falied. It was bad enough when we had to protect very stupid people from each other but one thing we in the colonies have no stomach for is protecting stupid people from themselves. America was much better off in the 19th century than the 20th because it heeded President Washington's warning about getting mixed up in European entanglements. Brown's talk repeating JFKs 40 year old naive platitudes about interdependence was pure hogwash. It's time to bring the boys and girls home...from wherever they are and let the rest of the world do what it will to each other. In the end they will anyway.

  • Comment number 10.

    502 error: end of an era, i'll miss it.

    Like i've always said; Gordon has not got the qualities to be Prime Minister but i was always perplexed that others thought he was the dogs hangers. The problem with Gordon was he actually believed the hype. Its now slowly dawning within his own party that he's a lame duck not unlike Ed Heath's useless premiership..he's all over the shop and there's nobody to take the keys from him.... Well maybe Ed Balls......God help us!

    P:S just like to say Newsnight was on form all week* :)

  • Comment number 11.

    Brown has totally lost the plot, he is far too busy being a good " Corporate Nazi " subsidizing the stock market parasites to realize the groundswell of opinion against him penalizing the low paid. The tax credit argument is pretty thin when you consider that it is simply a bribe to attempt to force the poor to breed yet even more virtual wage slaves.

    Perhaps it would not be so bad if he was not frittering away taxpayers money on foreign aid, often to countries who can technically look after their own poor.

  • Comment number 12.

    sorry about Mrs Dunwoody. She was a stalwart over railway disasters and gave Ministers a hard time over their fingers in the pie attitude to rail privatisation. She will be missed.

  • Comment number 13.

    rathr than Rights Issues why arent banks like RBS raiding the rate they ofer toaves to attreact more money ino their coffer. surely banks usd to use the money frpm davers to inance th lending they wre doing int the core busines of the banks?

  • Comment number 14.

    wgy don't banks like RBS raise the rates they offer savers so they can raise money in th tradional way from savers

  • Comment number 15.

    why don't banks like RBS raise the rates they offer savers so they can raise money in th tradional way from savers

 

The 大象传媒 is not responsible for the content of external internet sites