´óÏó´«Ã½

Oh great, Jeremy is in festive spirit. Does that mean he'll be wearing suitable Xmas attire? Musical tie?

Yet again, Labour have showed how much contempt they hold for Democracy and Parliament. It was an interesting debate today, and Harriet Harman looked disgustingly smug.

make Jeremy stay in the office over Christmas as I cannot bear the disruption.....

On the matter of Michael Martin -

The Tories are using this an excuse to put the boot in to a speaker they simply do not like. They say he is biased towards them, but I have yet to see any hard evidence that he rejects questions from the opposition more than he does from anyone else.

I would dearly love the presenter tonight to say to whichever conservative spokesperson who comes forth with the same claim, "Prove it."

From my completely unscientific glimpses of PMQs, he is as likely to tell the government benches to shut up as anyone else.

What are the actual statistics that prove bias?

We have a fairly right wing media in this country. Even the ´óÏó´«Ã½ who is often historically seen as left wing has in fact been pretty much right wing since the culture encouraged by John Burt (I remember all the new young producers with early mobile phones and sharp suits coming into the studios in the 1980s - they are the senior managers now). Consequently I worry whether this story is being given the fairness it deserves.

I think there are a lot of people out there who, like me, believe the debate is exposing the arrogance of MPs rather than a wish to fight for democracy.

It has become a Westminster Village scandal that seems to forget to refer to the people who vote, pay the salaries, fund the system and, ultimately, should be able to agree the rules.

The great ignored public.

forgo materialism?

Is that the same as also rejecting undirected consumerism. Isn't this against everything the Government has told us to do? We might then have a future, and not crash the planet's ecological systems, but where would we be then?

Greece?

Celtic Lion

Enough is Enough
is he talking to himself?
he should be.
he should also talk to P Tachell, he goad with his gonads a couple of years ago.
Dont try a citizen's arrest today you will get arrested.

the uk should target industries with growth potential. like a feed in tariff. like transport infrastructure, like entertainment industries, etc. debt for new investment that in time will repay it not debt for giveaways or prop ups.

but we won't get economics and enterprise. we will get political economics. ie more muddle.

beam me up scotty.

8th Decemeber 1980

I was in Manchester doing Chemistry and Materials Science.



Do you remember where you were?

Celtic Lion

SHOT ACROSS CIVIL SERVANTS' BOWS

NickThornsby (#1) Frank Dobson on Green having a 'standing order' with his Home Office leaker was good. For observers, I thought some excellent points of law and loopholes in procedures were made. There were few surprises though. This will send a clear signal to Civil Servants whose do not know where their allegiance really lies. One of the messages was be careful who you leak to other than journalists as you may not be protected just because you think it's in the public interest.

David Davis was certainly worth listening to, but overall, I reckon those who said this has been less than a storm in a teacup (e.g. Kaufman) were probably right.

Gulliable British politicians are being softened up by the car industry when, in truth, the car industry is not in trouble at all. Don't believe me - well, look at the evidence!

There are ports and fields in the UK where there stand literally tens of thousands, if not hundreds of thousands, of unsold newly buld cars but when you walk into a UK dealership and try to get a good price on a new car you will be met with complete and utter disdain. At best, on some older models, you might get 1 or 2 thousand pounds off the price of a car costing 20 or 25 thousand pounds or more - about 5% of the ticket price!

Compare that with the likes of M&S, Arcadia et al who are real businesses, who realise that there is trouble on the High Street, and who are slashing their prices accordingly in order to sell - slashing their prices by up to 25%!

Car companies are not yet offering anywhere near such reductions on their vast fleets of unsold cars and are showing no sign of doing so.

Until they do we must assume that they are not in any real financial trouble as real businesses who find themselves unable to sell their product actually do slash their prices considerably! The car industry is conning us all and the British tax-payer should not pick up the tab until we see serious price reductions on new models on all forecourts.

Brown and Darling want the UK tax-payer to start spending again. Well, no better way would be to see those 20K cars on the forecourt for 10K, 25K cars for 12K and so on. If such prices existed there would be no shortage of buyers tomorrow. The only reason car companies are in their so-called trouble is because of one simple thing - their product is ludicrously over-priced but andmthe days of easy credit and MEW are now long gone.

Just because they have not woken up to that fact yet does not mean that Gordon Brown and other MPs should fall for their poor business accumen!

I'm afraid I disagree JadedJean.

The issue today was not whether it was right that Green was arrested, but specifically about the committee being set up to investigate it.

The govt completely bastardised the Speaker's recommendations to its own ends. Though I am not sure why they wanted to do this.

The committee should be made up of those best placed to investigate this matter (and held in public), rather than the arbitrary labour dominated committee that the govt wanted.

It may be true that the warrant/ arrest/ search arguments are a storm in a teacup but what we saw today is most certainly not. It is another clear demonstration of the utter nonsense that our Parliamentary Democracy has become.

I am completely dismayed that Newsnight or the ´óÏó´«Ã½ in general did not report this important debate in the House of Commons today in any detail. I watched the debate and was impressed by the quality of the statesmanship from both sides of the house. The only people who let us down today were the government and the ´óÏó´«Ã½ for not reporting it in any serious way. Zimbabwe and Russia matter, but until we get our house in order, we are powerless to intervene or help in any meaningful way.

Please do not insult your audience by inviting Nancy Dell Olio on to the program to discuss the credit crunch and the hard times faced by us less well off folks. She'll be ok whether or not her knickers get pulled down off the shelves this xmas.

I never thought I'd see an (ex) WAG participaing in newsnight. Did anyone understand what Nancy Dell ^£&? was chatting about? Sounded like total gibberish to me. Am I dreaming? I did just see that right?

Did anyone else notice the Michelin Man sticker on the mechanic's cabinet in the workshop, during the Newsnight (8 Dec 08) car industry feature?

Michelin Woman won't be complaining!

THAT SHOULD WIN A BUMMI A BOOBI A CRAPPI OR A DUMMI FOR SURE!

Oh Newsnight! I did not know you could crash and burn so consummately. Nancy - vacuous beyond endurance; the Dean with the Gaudy Yanky Hanky (did La Olio have a hand in that?) and a struggling Martha Lane Fox, who must have felt she had wandered onto the stage of a Christmas pantomime. It's a wonder Abanaza didn't have one of his tantrums.

What were you thinking? Who hired Nancy?
Surely the whole world knows she has nothing to say? And the Church never has anything to say of any relevance to real issues.

I'll have two tickets to the awards please.

#9

"the car industry is not in trouble at all. Don't believe me - well, look at the evidence!

There are ports and fields in the UK where there stand literally tens of thousands, if not hundreds of thousands, of unsold newly buld cars"

----Isn't that the proof the industry is in desperate trouble? (YES)

Fortunately/Sadly it is not a British car industry.

NUTS, GROUNDNUTS AND SIMPLISTICS

Mandelson is doing ponderous, vacuous oratory that will, apparently, magic a return to past, trade-based, glory. It seems not to occur to this man, of supposed intellect, that the global mess we are immersed in, could be redolent of the Tanganyika mud that defeated the Groundnut Scheme of the 1960s.

We had the sense not to try the same thing again with the groundnuts; not so with the 'Emperor Theory' of global finance. Perhaps, under 'Terror Law', we can frighten into silence any little boy who might expose the naked stupidity of it all? That way it will last longer, and the greater will be the ultimate fall of it.

Could somebody please explain to me what Nancy Dell 'Olio was doing on Newsnight?

I couldn't understand what she was saying and even the few words I could make out were complete gibberish - as Jeremy Paxman clearly thought.

Whose bright idea was it to invite this poser on to a serious news and current affairs programme? Is that who you think your audience wants?

I was absolutely gobsmacked by tonight's report on 'Credit Crunch Christmas'. You managed to turn a reasonable idea into a very lazy piece of journalism. Who sanctioned the idea of basing this report on the views of a panto dame, some woman who writes a blog about saving money and a small scale turkey producer? Things just got worse in the discussion afterwards. What the hell was Nancy Dell Olio doing there? Even if she did have a relevant view I couldn't understand anything the poor dear said. Has the credit crunch hit Newsnight's editorial standards too?

:p I guess it's panto season, perhaps that's why they had Nancy Dell'Ollio on. I couldn't understand what she was talking about either! Maybe she was asked on to cheer up the audience - who knows, although I would love to see Ruby Wax back on Newsnight with Jeremy - now she really would have cheered things up :0)

ALPHA AND OMEGA BUT WHO'S WHO? (#20)

Hey Mistress76uk! Way to go! Stand aside Jeremy et al - import some mud into the studio. Get Del Lollipop and Rude Ruby in for the full session, and let 'em wrestle.

After all, Newsnight has given up on gravitas, we might as well have total vacutas.

Wossy and Brandy-balls will be watching for sure - no finer endorsement.

I know about wind-up radio, but . . .

I am glad Nancy was on, she is a beautiful woman and the rest of the year we have talking heads telling us we are all going to hell in a handcart so as it is Christmas what is wrong with a bit of feminine charm. I know who Jeremy would sooner interview if it was Boris or Nancy, my money is on Nancy.

Speaker’s Committee on the Search of Offices on the Parliamentary Estate

After the Home Secretary, rightly, got sick and tired of persistent leaks from her private office, she asked for a leak inquiry. Cabinet Office officials rightly set up such an inquiry, and then called in the police. There are clearly plenty of precedents for that.

Barrie

I have had a think. Leftie Odd Bod might have a valid point.

How many others make any sense, especially with Newsnight's obsession with getting people to talk about imaginary money.

If the bubble is divorced from reality, does it matter what's in the bubble.

I think she had a very nice purple dress. If you Google her images you will see it was a favourite of hers. She had her eye shadow to match it and I thought her knee length boots accessorised in a very balanced way.

Leftie is correct, I can't remember what other talking heads say, if it's gibberish and not related to a fundamental reality, I also can't remember what they wear.

Who said politics is show business for ugly people. Why not have Nancy at least she isn't pretending she has the solutions to imaginary money. So at least she's honest.

Perhaps starting with simple honesty and evolving to something more complex is better than the delusion we have been subject to.

Celtic Lion

How disappointing that Newsnight choose such an empty-headed and inappropriate guest as Nancy Dell Olio. With all the wonderful minds out there, what on earth were you thinking? Utter gibberish, Jeremy was quite right.

How insulting to the Newsnight audience to be offered Nancy Dell Olio as a serious guest.

Needs to spend less time on her appearance and more time improving her mind. Far too self- conscious and far too much make-up.

Vacuous dribble; I expect higher standards.

alexbw (#26) Does the fact that other guests are more 'articulate' render what they have to say any less vacuous? Newsnight Review commentators tend to be highly articulate, but vacuous and that is because of both of the form and substance of what they talk about. Much of what we hear on Newsnight these days is like this as entertainment value has taken precedence over ('boring') pursuit of truth - it's easier to produce no doubt?

Car industry

~It is probably on life support and it has very little chance of being alive in 2009....

Nancy dell Olio! I thought it was a drag queen. How can anyone be said to be 'beautiful' (leftieoddbod #22) wearing so much make-up and looking so false? She hadn't one intelligent comment to make. She needs less packaging and more content.

Boring piece.

Somebody who is articulate can be nice to listen to regardless of their viewpoint. That's the basis for peaceful debate, but also has potential to charm.