大象传媒

Please please no more Zimbabwe for now! Enough already with that. Let's really discuss the abolition of the 10% tax band and why it is that those who try to better themselves by working are so often worse off than those who choose not to work.

Why have MPs waited until now to protest about the abolition of the 10% tax band? If they wanted to stop it, why wasn't this done at the time it was announced? It's a bit late now that it's actually come into force.

I would intrested to hear a discussion about MPs expenses claims or perks they get. For example i read that Tony Blairs TV Licence Fee gets paid out of the public purse. Rotten scumbags! Zimbabwe - Why won't we do (as a country) something about it. Diana - 10 years of news storys and headlines, can the media let this woman just rest in peace?

Rant over!

1) MPs costs - i.e. Tony Blair uses the public purse to pay his telly licence, this is just stupid!!!

2) Zimbabwe - why do we as a country never actually bother doing something about it.

3) Diana - poor woman died 10 years ago and has never been out the media, can we just leave her to rest in peace??

4) London 2012 - who cares??? the rest of the country doesn't.

The answer to Dominic Kearney's question ("Why have MPs waited until now to protest about the abolition of the 10% tax band?") lies in the fact that MPs of the party in government - this govt in particular - must toe the party line. Once the finance bill is approved they are free to say what they like, but the harsh treatment of potential rebels in effect means we do not have quite the level of democracy that we think we do. Unfortunately, while places like Zimbabwe continue to set the worst kind of example, we will continue to think ourselves lucky instead of questioning some of the more dubious practices within parliamentary politics.

Why not interview the former May 1968
student activist Daniel Cohn-Bendit
(now a French MEP) about the Olympic
Games in China and the torch ......?

Dany made a blistering speech in the
European Parliament about this on 26 March 2008 - arguing that: "We need
to kick up some dust during the Olympic Games in China".

Despite much coverage on this subject, I am still very confused about the current financial crisis the world seems to be in.

I would very much like this question to be put to a financial expert: Why is it so bad if a bank (e.g. Northern Rock) goes bankrupt? It happens to other types of businesses all the time. I can't see the problem.

The abolition of the 10p tax band means that for a number of poor pensioners, they have effectively had their winter heating allowance withdrawn.

Can you report more about the Chinese'Men in Blue' who escorted the torch through London yesterday. According to Radio Four this morning these men were acting as a sudo police force, even against our own Met Police aswell as protestors. Have we really allowed the Chinese government to impose their own strict policing methods in our capital, indeed with their own 'police or secret service'. If so this is very sinister, and if it has occured without our governments knowledge what do they intend to do about it?

Apart from the list you suggested, I think it might be time for a piece on the ethical business management of sport. I'm not just concerned about the Beijing and London Olympics, but also the FIA (Max Mosely) and the ownership of various Premiership clubs.
Come to think of it, that's probably enough for a complete series.

Will the dial-eye-lama be paying for the Met Police overtime bill for a Sunday to police that circus yesterday ?
No- way gorgeous Gordon will just have it added to our council tax next year
Policing these fiascos is costing us a fortune meanwhile the crime statisics are rising. I think someone needs to think these things through in addition it caused chaos on the roads yesterday.

This Labour Government,a LABOUR Government, to paraphrase Neil Kinnock's rant at Derek Hatton, in one breath says it wants to get people into work and off benefits, then penanlises those who are low paid, like my deaf son, who preferred to work at Tesco's rather than live off Disability allowances. (I am eternally grateful to them for giving him a job)

Earning less than 拢11,000 per year with overtime he is now penalised by this duplicitous Government which
then has the cheek to say that they MAY address it by, guess what, benefits!!
Added to its closing down of REMPLOY with other lies that "normal" industry will find jobs for the handicapped, none to date, no wonder back bench MP's are revolting--I would say the front bench is more revolting than they!!!??

In the light of the bloggers above I want to see EVERY MP's expenses list exposed. Why is the media and the 大象传媒 backing off from this scandal?

News headlines focus on Tony Blair's claim for his TV licence but his total expenses are less than 拢9,000. Cameron claims more than 拢21,000 for his mortgage in a year, which is the bigger story?

Question...Will the protests stop the games? Answer No, Will the protests make China think about their postion on Tibet? No. Has any country actually got the balls to question China? No. Is this goverment going to do something about it? Guess what? No.

We are told (ad nauseum) that with tax changes '..there will always be winners and losers...'
In which case:

Why engineer things so that the losers are the poorest of all: No children (any more) so little access to tax credits etc.

Why engineer things so that you make low earners so poor that they need to be receiving benefits to 'break even?

If HMG need more cash why take the money from those with least so that the better off can have more?

Govt. advertisements say that families can qualify for Child-Tax-Credits even with family incomes of over 拢50,000 ! (yes, really) and this government is taking money from people poor but proud enough to want to work.

The usual lazy, incompetence or an agenda (more benefit-serfs means more voters)?
No chance of a change of policy without an change of regime. I feel betrayed!

John B
Redditch

I would like to see the protesters interviewed; what degree of understanding do they really have of Chinese politics and the issues of Tibet; what are their motivations for the protest; are their protest as much about needing to find a political voice on something / anything?; why are people so keen to jump on anti-Chinese bandwagons? Is there something inherently anti-Chinese built into our establishments?

If the government are that short of cash and have to claw money back from the lower paid, how about leaving the E.U. That would give us approx. 拢40bn a year to spend on key areas such as nursing, pensions and police officers.

Far better than paying a load of unelected crooks in Brussels.

"Chinese torch protests - how can we move this on?"

Quire simply - get all the old anti-apartheid campaigners like Hain in and ask them why "politics must be kept out of sport" now.

Lawson - just ignore him as he messed up the economy last time round.

to anon (above. im sure plenty of the protestors have at least some knowledge of what they're protesting about otherwise they wouldnt bother. just because people are not always involved in politics does not mean they do not understand it. as far as the "anti-chinese" asumption you make its just that. an asumption. its movement against the government not the people. thats the whole point. Why would people waste their time protesting for better human rights if they were anti-anybody. it wouldnt make sense. If there are no issues in China why havent we heard their side? and why is there a ban on western media?

JUst a thought on the postings above over protests.

Human rights? When are we going to see the same "professional protesters" (Not Tibetans) take the streets against Mugabe and the way he treats his people in that country. Not much different than the Chinese.

Hi, I would like to see the 大象传媒 take a stand on their news coverage and report the full story rather than keep trying to compete with the private channels for the best headline grabbing headline ??

Quite often they could take the high-ground so to speak and not just report a headline grabbing statement but actually take the time to look into both sides of the same story and report an unbiased balanced view so most people could understand the real news item. This would in my view perhaps go towards justification for the licence fee.

As i am sure there is a lot more information regarding the Chinese/Tibet situation than just the headlines and the same goes for Zimbabwe, so please take the time and trouble to provide us with a fuller story on these and other situation, rather than just headlines which are then perhaps followed up by more detailed programs some weeks or months after the event.

The Diana verdict.

Did you think that the verdict would be any different? 3 jurors did NOT agree. Why not?
Did you think that any verdict would go against the establishment? Just look at all these people (including the French Police) that refused to give evidence.
I repeat....this was a "majority" verdict...by not means conclusive.

BA - people go to jail for long periods on majority jury verdicts. Legally, it's regarded as pretty conclusive.

What I wouldn't like to see is the 大象传媒 giving Nigel Lawson a platform to promote his new book and put forward his ridiculous views about climate change.

Wikipedia -

Corporate roles
2007: Chairman of Central European Trust (CET). Clients include: American Express, Bank of America Barclays, BNP Paribas, BP Amoco, Bristol-Myers Squibb, British Telecom, CGNU, Cygna, Cisco Systems, Coca Cola, Compaq Computers, Dow Chemical, E.I. du Pont de Nemours,General Electric, Glaxo Smith Kline,k GTE, IBM,Lehman Brothers Holdings, Lockheed Martin, Merck, Microsoft, Mitsui, Nestl茅, PepsiCo, Procter & Gamble, Royal Dutch/Shell Group, Sara Lee, SBC Communications, Soci茅t茅 G茅n茅rale, Sun Microsystems, Texaco, Total Fina Elf, Unilever, Xerox, Yamanouchi. (CET Website)
2007: Chairman of Oxford Investment Partners (OXIP Website)
2002: Non Executive Director NM Rothschild (Reference

NATURE RULES.During cold war the scientists warned us about a nuclear winter.
After krakatoa "GLOBAL temperatures plummeted not recovering until well into the 20th.century".This was slowed by nuclear testing and industrial activity.
Scientists acknowledge that both California and Vesuvius are overdue ??