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Hi Newsnight Team

You could always invite me to talk about things like that. I do have what I think are interesting and revealing stories on the subject of online identities, and not just my own.

Monika

I am pro-coalition but I would be unhappy if the fuel allowance was cut but I think I recollect it actually was not to be cut but the eligible age was to be increased - I still don't like that and can't believe the changes would be worth it economically or morally or politically desirable.

I think much the same on the bus pass but clearly perhaps that would come down more to means testing where if it was not critical.

Clearly Labour will carp but just as Abbott last night they won't acknowledge their part in our downfall and won't suggest alternatives.

You can't run an economy or services on desire or we could all give up work and go and have fun.

So far as I know the Schmidt idea is redundant as you can change your name if you want but I can't see really that that many young people are going to have said such stupid things that they would want to do that.

Perhaps some on the far right who have realised how malicious and nasty and incorrect their views are in science and history and in ethics.

But then people like that are always waiting for an Armageddon or blood letting so that they can sate their negative energies in destruction.

But the huge majority of people don't fit that bill.

Those that should be looking at security probably can find the kind of evidence on the net hard to fake so that would make it more difficult for the probable sleeper agents from Russia and elsewhere to fake.

Also would it be that hard to restrict the freedoms of companies to make use of the web so that they could effectively spy on existing and potential employees?

For me the biggest problem is that the web can be used by those that propagate malicious lies such as Holocaust Denial and can hide behind their anonymous identities.

That balance of accountability and privacy may be harder to balance but then even there recently Aryan Strike Force members were prosecuted for inciting racial hatred.

Things like the Winter Fuel Payment and Free Bus Pass need looking at. I was invited to the local Golf Club and a group of retired people said that the Winter Fuel Payment helped with their green fees. They knew that it wasn't right and wouldn't complain if it was taken away. A really bold government would take the risk of cutting back and making this and other benefits means tested. the means testiong being done by a series of thresholds (no more than three)based on income. Bus passes could be done similarly with two levels - free, child'd fare, or full fare. The point is that those who lost their benefits wouldn't really mind and wou few would change their voting intentions.

What really annoys me is that Clegg, today, says that the present older generation shouldn't be a burden on the younger generations and then is part of a government which is perpetuating the situation. When all these advantages come to the older generation they get labelled by Willets et al as being 'greedy'. My wife and I were shocked when we started receiving the winter fuel payment. Nice to receive it, but I would rather pay less tax or that it was spent where it was reaaly needed.

I don't think anybody inclined to the Lib Dems will be shocked by his assertion that there should be no barrier to a future coalition with Labour.

But neither should there be any barrier to a coalition with the Tories or they run the risk of being Tory-lite or Labour-Lite.

If one of those parties were to make the commitment to full or close PR then clearly the party should get behind them.

At the moment though as the Tories are distinct from the Lib Dems there is no blurring of the lines and so decoupling should be much easier and there is no threat of the kind where Labour calls the Lib Dem voters to the lifeboats with advice to pull towards them.

As the dust from the election settles and the truths about thirteen years of Labour sand their legacy sink in I would think some voters will return and others will see that Lib Dem policies are not pie-in-the-sky wishes but potentially attainable realities.

For example many floating voters are probably happy that two parties can work constructively together in the interests of the nation whilst another has a former leader on a bank board donating millions and owning seventy odd properties whilsy they pretend to wear flat caps and clogs and return to class warfare instincts. Not class politics as it is all mostly hollow rhetoric.

Whilst Fox, who I am not impressed with, tries to square a circle and renew Trident that we cannot afford I cannot help but muse on the carrier issue.

Would it not be typical for us to get carriers and then find the strategic game has changed due to the development of carrier killer missiles such as China is developing.

Is now not the time to look ahead and perhaps consider, as instances, very long range alternative fuel aircraft and Aegis type cruisers and radical ideas that could keep us secure and at a price we could afford rather than belated catchup moves?

Do we have Patriot and should we have it or something like it?

"Former UN envoy John Bolton said Israel has just "eight days" to launch a military strike to halt Iran's nuclear ambitions before such an attack would be too risky."

So Yee Hah Bolton is not becoming calmer as he grows older.

I would hope that Israel will not do anything that precipitates grave and incalculable risks when the benfits are not clear as they can simply rebuild after an isolated attack - I assume.

There has been an ongoing conflict between myself and kevseywevsey that commenced with his declaration of war as I "was always saying things about the BNP".

Today I continue this conflict by suggesting that the BNP will happily always be full of splits such as their only London Assembly member Barnbrook refusing their whip (the mind boggles with the far right) after his leadership challenged failed and Collett arrested for allegedly thratening to kill his leader Griffin.

So whilst they are full of National Socialists who pretend not to be "a Nazi Party" aren't such splits inevitable?

They have failed to provide any viable counter argument to the EHRC requirement that they comply on racial equality law because their views are not based on reality or science or law or philosophy. Conscience needs to be founded on coherent principles and they don't have any.

They are a busted flush that relies on a cult like belief system and a hard core of people with unhinged tribal instincts.

Dakka dakka dakka.

#3

Gango

Do you think there English 'sleepers' in the service of the Russians and the Chinese, for example?

Regarding prosecution for online 'crime' and so on - I'm quite sure that's the thing of the near future. I've spoken to bright young lawyers about it feeling livid for example that a young girl had committed suicide as a consequence of malicious and nasty blogging.

Re yesterday 42.

Would anyone be interested in Paxman's books if he hadn't had so much exposure on TV? The same goes for books by other celebrities which you will find on supermarket shelves. There is a type of person who craves to be in the limelight and a type who doesn't. Why do some crave the limelight and some not? Have you read anything by John Rawls?

"What's wrong with earning money for a job well done,anyway?"

That depends on what defines "a job well done" surely? Do you see how that could beg the question? A publisher might hype someone in order to sell merchandise. That is what some people do for a living. In fact, that's what lots of people do these days. In fact, in this service-sector economy sometimes it seems as if everyone is at it.

"Plus, democracy is the only system I wish to live in, tb01".

But there are several forms of democracy: e.g. liberal-democracy and democratic-centralism. Both say they are democracies and yet both consider each other's system so undesirable that they want to destroy each other. In liberal-democracies, there are different approaches, hence more than one party, and even they abuse each other, so I'm not entirely sure what you're referring to when you refer to democracy.

Can you tell us what you contribute to this democracy (or did contribute in the past) in order to earn your keep? Or does it keep you? If the latter is the case, is it any surprise that you wouldn't like it any other way?

I often stare at the sky thinking that we might be the only human beings in the universe and ask myself why so many individuals are so nasty to others. It might be that they were born with strong tendencies towards cruelty or it's their upbringing and personal history, or indeed a combination of both.

Shattering really how little kiddies can turn to despots, murderers, rapists, and unscrupulous thieves, etc.

@ Tabblenabble01 # 11 - You're right - a celebrity selling a book gets far more exposure than a complete unknown. Would someone like Katie Price really be a best seller if she wasn't a famous glamour model? Of course not - that's why she's topped the Sunday Times Best Sellers List! Without being famous and without hype, it's true we really wouldn't be interested the vast majority of "celebrity" books.

I had to read John Rawls "A theory of Justice" as part of my LLB years ago :o) Unfortunately, large sections of the public won't have heard of him (unless they studied Law/Jurisprudence/Philosophy etc), which is a pity.......they'll stick to "Paradise" by Katie Price instead.....

no 3.

"Perhaps some on the far right who have realised how malicious and nasty and incorrect their views are in science and history and in ethics."

If "malicious and nasty and incorrect" VIEWS were all censored, would what they refer to go away or pass unnoticed? If the latter, would that make the world a better place?

Surely all intelligent discussion and practice requires people to be able to discuss and deal with unpleasant issues? Forbidding such discussion makes many practices difficult, e.g. learning about diseases, dealing with criminal acts etc. People in professions have to be able to talk about unpleasant matters. One should be able to discuss the pros and cons of any issue objectively.You appear to be unable to discuss matters without being abusive. I'd be interested to know what you do for a living.

DAVE WILL RENEGE

Or he is not the Dave I know, who presided over the issue of a Conservative flyer that said (verbatim) "A HUNG PARLIAMENT WOULD MEAN ANOTHER 5 YEARS OF GORDON BROWN".

If it reads like a 'False Instrument' and smells like a False Instrument, then, under the Representation of The People Act, it probably IS a False Instrument.

Dave has form.

Of course state benefits need to be means tested; the day of the universal benefit need never have dawned, but for Labour's two pronged approach; give the middle classes "something back" and make life just tolerable enough for the underclasses so they either don't vote at all or vote Labour to keep the rut as comfy as possible.

I know a retired teacher who uses the winter fuel payment to buy herself a piece of jewellery every year.

Blair told us quite clearly, and Mandy underlined it, that they wanted the middle classes onside but would make the disadvantaged life one which was less hard than it had been.

Diddly squat about social mobility; I hope the Coalition is able to cement some foundations for social mobility which Nextlabour are unable to unpick.

#13

But how about Jeremy's books? Do they sell only because of what you call hype or is it because they are informative, very well written and interesting? Is it why you've read them all or is it only because you have a 'thing' about.him?

By the way, I suspect that the readers of Katie Price's 'Paradise' will be rather different to those of Paxo's broad selection of titles?

Mods - please remove the following question if you think it might upset tabblenabble.

I suspect, Mistress76uk that tabblenabble has chosen to talk about the subject as a way of 'getting' at Paxo.

mim

#16

It's only a question, Kashibeyaz, how much means testing would cost although I suppose that a creation of new jobs might take some of those currently on the dole back to work and thus get some more tax money for the Treasury.

mi

'BRITAIN' KNOWN FOR GENEROSITY

That should read 'POSEUR BRITISH PRIME MINISTERS KNOWN FOR GIVING AWAY MONEY ENTRUSTED, WHILE TAKING PERSONAL CREDIT'.

When I, personally, make a donation, it does not earn me high profile 'SWAGGER TIME' but I can choose where I put my money.

How about a law that requires PMs to give a fixed ratio OUT OF THEIR OWN POCKETS when spraying UK tax money abroad?

Well sir come and have a look at Hull and the dwp's brand new Range Rovers 2010 models used by the spy teams!! Public spending cuts? Its a city with some of the highest levels of unemployment Range Rovers cannot be justified... nice work if you can get it............

This is why i never vote for no party and i do not plan to either. I'am a lone parent on state benefits and i think its absolutely disgusting the way the government wants to treat us. cutting child benefit?? we hardly get anything now for child benefit as it is now. The eldest child get £20.30 a week and the youngest child gets £13.40 pw. so how are the government going to make cuts on a benefit that is already low?. I have a 6 month old baby and i receive £20.30pw for CB and £65pw for CT but once my child turns one it will go down to £50pw plus my income support and its hard as it is trying to provide for my children and to pay bills and care for myself as-well. If the government carry on threaten to cut state benefits they will surely have a riot on their hands. Why discriminate people on benefits?. Maybe they should concentrate on the emigration situation if they didn't let so many people enter the country then maybe the tax payer wouldn't be paying so much towards state benefits.

NICK FIXED IT FOR NICK

Interviews with Nick today showed just how the Blair denial gene is found in all of them. As he is inexorably subsumed in the Coalition Without Mandate, Nick continues to protest his distinct LibDem credentials, and his dedication to all those (sold-out) LibDem voters.
(Remember how Tony denied a million war-dissenters? And still does.)

With the camera on Nick, he felt moved to - oh so awkwardly - put a hand on a young mum. We know you are a showman Nick (that YouTube psychologist said you seek the limelight) but best not to demonstrate your lack of stagecraft quite so consummately, eh? Can you use your two weeks to close those 19 Westminster bars Nick? (Dave didn't seem to care.) A user is A USER - whatever the drug.

Oh - it's all going awfully well.

@ Mim #17 - Yes I'm a fan of his, and yes he is a celebrity, so yes, that is what first bought my attention to his books. It is an added bonus that he is an amazing writer too. If he wasn't a journalist (he'd make a great barrister), and he wasn't so well known, would I have read his work - probably not. Would you have seriously read his books if he wasn't such a well known figure?

#23

Precisely, Miatress76uk. I wrote about it yesterday but then it was his intelligence, wit, depth, personality, knowledge and that, as the French say 'je ne sais quoi', that drew my attention to him and made me read his 'Through the Volcanos' and 'Friends in High Places' which wanted me to read all the subsequent books rather than any sort of marketing whatsoever. And it's neither his so-called celebrity status that made me go to the Media Society Gala in 2009 and a few of his talks on Victorian paintings. I simply, on the whole, like and appreciate the way he is, what he has to say and how he says it, etc.

mim

"Steve Smith has employed a PR firm which specialises in online profiles to smarten up his and create a new identity...." [Why use an ellipsis?]

Wouldn't hiring a P.I. firm, rather than a P.R. firm, be a little more productive and even, perish the thought, offer some insight in to Eric Schmidt's claims?

Perhaps a newspaper could track down all there is to know about Steve Smith and his activities, so Mr. Smith can continue to burnish his credentials as a comedian ... at tax-payers' expense.

Mistress76uk

The other day you wrote that you were shccked to read the article in the Telegraph about some Councils sponsoring prostitutiom for the disabled and I replied that I'd report whether the scheme exists in the Borough of Wandsworth.

Well, today I had the chance of 'bumping into' a few of the local Tory members with one of them currently serving as a Councillor. I asked them about the above issue and they said that this particular scheme was not in operation in 'this neck if the woods'. If perhaps there is some kind of a prostitution ring operating in Wandsworth then it must have been set up by other 'forces'. just to be absolutely sure, however, I shall confirm my findings when I next meet the Leader of the Wandsworth Council.

mim

mim

So its pretty clear, David Miliband simply doesn't care about the chronically sick and disabled, perhaps just what his Corporate Nazi labour leadership campaign financial donors ordered. Why is it that all benefits are not means tested over the 40% rate of income tax, ( but some are if you have quite modest savings yet little income from them ). And if you could theoretically fund winter fuel payments for the disabled out of means testing over the 40% rate why was it not done years ago ?

It would appear that David Miliband simply doesn't care about the fate of the chronically sick and disabled, perhaps just what his Corporate Nazi labour leadership campaign financial donors ordered. Why is it that all benefits are not means tested over the 40% rate of income tax, ( but some are if you have quite modest savings yet little income from them ). And if you could theoretically fund winter fuel payments for the disabled out of means testing over the 40% rate why was it not done years ago ?

please ask labour candidate the following (for a straight answer):

1. what is the structural deficit that needs reducing (£120bn)
2. how much should be tax:cuts (I assume say 50:50 for labour?)
3. how much is that (I assume 60bn)
4. how much did you identify in last budget (£19bn)
5. where is the additional tax coming from?
6. how much cuts did you identify in gov
7. where specifically are you going to find the additional cuts

I don't care what their view is of the govt - what is their alternative tax rises and spending cuts.

brossen99 - i agree how can it be right if you have £23k of assets and no income (i.e. your home) as an old person you paid for care needs, yet a £50k pa income family with home gets child benefit.

LOOK AT THEM - THEY ARE REARRANGING THE DECKCHAIRS ALL WRONG!

As this titanic failed-state settles in a silver sea, party politics is vibrant among the deckchair attendants. There is a very real danger that we shall sink with ENTIRELY THE WRONG CONFIGURATION OF OPEN-AREA RECLINING UNITS, GOING FORWARD, unless we awaken to the extent of 'lost motion' engendered by party politics.

Mr Bandleader - do you know the popular refrain: 'SPOILPARTYGAMES'?

rebecca - would you prefer 33% more if say families with 40k income got nothing, or, say a child care contribution 8am-6pm for the pre-school years after 1yr so you could make a decent earnings level? I would support that.

Mim, 24 - "it's neither his so-called celebrity status that made me go to the Media Society Gala in 2009 and a few of his talks on Victorian paintings. I simply, on the whole, like and appreciate the way he is, what he has to say and how he says it, etc."

The point was that most people tend not to know why they LIKE things.
They do things and give themselves plausible reasons for doing what they do, but these explanations are not always the true causes of what they do. For example, many women dress in a manner which is attractive (to
men) but then assert that they are not doing this to please or attract men, but just dressing to please themselves. It does not mean they are lying, it may just mean that they are not aware of why they behave as they do. Similarly, people give themselves all sorts of reasons as to why they may be sick, but history shows that much of what they posit io false. Objective analysis and discussion requires people to look at behaviour (including their own) from a perspective which is not just how they immediately construct it or even or prefer to view it. This is the essence of higher and professional education.

Just a further point on universal benefits of which I am not fully conversant with, but perhaps the main reason the " Corporate Nazi's " would appear to be opposing the means testing of some benefits is as follows. Perhaps many of those families on over 50K pa use their child benefit to pay directly into a private pension, or some other stock market parasite investment vehicle. Similarly child care payments, a free state babysitting service so that the WAGS can go out " expensive " shopping with their friends during the week ?

steve smith........absolutely brilliant..watch out, Michael..

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#37 addendum

No respect for supposedly men of 'influence' scrounging around for 'breadcrumbs' and begging for attention.

Rebecca

You made no mention of Housing Benefit. If you are a single Mum with a child of the age you say, living on your own in rented accommodation, you should be getting more than you say. I suggest you look on the various government websites or phone up your local Citizens' Advice Bureau. You made no mention of Maternity Allowance, Child Tax Credit.

The benefit system is a mine field and needs reforming. The starting point should be a single point of access. Rebecca has to contact DWP in the form of Jobcentre Plus (and maybe get referred to other offices), her local council (for HB and CTB) and HMRC. She will have to put the same information into a range of forms or discuss it on the phone for ages. Talk about efficiency!

I switched over from Newsnight half way through Michael Crick's spluttering pantomime about something the coalition might or might not do but whatever they do it hasn't been confirmed yet and they won't tell us till at least September.

I switched back later only to find a pub bore regaling everyone with his fantasies about the Labour Party and David Miliband.

I know its August but is this really the best you can do?

Just a further point on univeral benefits of which I am not fully conversant with, but perhaps the main reason the " Corporate Nazi's " would appear to be opposing the means testing of some benefits is as follows. Perhaps many of those f...amilies on over 50K pa use their child benefit to pay directly into a private pension, or some other stock market parasite investment vehicle. Similarly child care payments, perhaps a free state babysitting service so that the WAGS can go out " expensive " shopping during the week with their friends ?

ALL PRETTY DIRE (#42)

I gave up too Maggiel. To cap it all, a couple Kirsty's deliveries caused my hearing to default to EFL mode (that's TEFL without the T). I really must find a course somewhere.

Out of fairness (and this IS the Age of Fairness) I DO ask myself 'Is it me?' But as I can understand all the other presenters - the answer is: no, it isn't me.

I'll never get the hang of 'edgy' broadcasting.

It was wonderful to watch Allan Little's article on Medugorje on Newsnight. I have returned from the Youth Festival in Medugorje where I was with my teenage daughter. I was at the first Youth Festival back in 1989 when I was a youth.

It was interesting to hear Ivan (he has a reputation of being shy) who isn't always in Medj. While you said he divides his time between Bosnia and USA, unfortunately the programme omitted to explain he is married and his wife is a US citizen.

I have chatted to my host in Medj about his citizenship. He is local born and his family are now living in Mostar. He tells me he is Bosnian although a Croatian Bosnian and talks about the 3 strands of ethnicity in Bosnia. It is confusing for the locals, less than 20 years ago, they were Yugoslavian, which itself was created a few generations beforehand. There is discontent among the Bosnian Croats who feel marginalised by the some of the laws coming out of Sarajevo. There is no obvious human solution to the Balkan's historic and recent traumas.

We are not to be anxious. It is no accident that the Queen of Peace (Kraljice Mira) has chosen Medj to spread her message for her children to listen to her Son. She urges us all the time to reach out for peace. Her children are not divided on ethnic grounds. When questioned she says that members of all faith are equal to God.

Please join us and continue to pray for peace.

universal benefits should die. tax money is for the poor and needy not millionaires such as the 4 billion a year mainly millionaire landowners get [no mention of cuts in that]. It might drive a stake through the heart of the equality priesthood but equality is a parasite that lobotomises those who get infected with that dogma. They lose the power to think rationally.

kirsty the web site slayer has never liked change? i remember the comments she and 'yorrrrshire' paxman used to come out with regarding the NN website users. Baron must have felt like he was banging his head against a brick wall trying to bring it in? Its all changed now. or has it?

laura? working lunch?

NUB R YOU (#46)

Still alert Jaunty. (But Johnnie Foreigner Lert comes cheaper.)

In passing: Have they closed the 19 Westminster bars yet, as an example?

A user is A USER - whatever the drug.