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Friday 10 June 2011

ADMIN USE ONLY | 12:41 UK time, Friday, 10 June 2011

Tonight we'll be looking at the future of the Labour Party under Ed Miliband. How is he shaping up as a leader and what are his plans for the party?

Leaked documents which detail efforts by Gordon Brown and his allies to speed up Tony Blair's exit from office after the 2005 election have emerged, reminding us of former divisions in the party. Can Ed Miliband unify his troops and outline a convincing vision for Labour?

We'll hear from a senior ally of Ed Miliband and we'll be speaking to Arnie Graf, the US community organiser and mentor of the young Barack Obama, who's been appointed by Mr Miliband to conduct a review of Labour's organisation and campaign structures. How can Labour learn from community activism in the US?

We'll also be discussing whether the death knell has sounded for Nato after outgoing US Defence Secretary Robert Gates said it faced a dim, if not dismal future. Plus the latest on Sarah Palin's emails that are being released by the state of Alaska.

Join Emily Maitlis at 2230 on 大象传媒 Two.

Comments

  • Comment number 1.

    'Ed Miliband. How is he shaping up..?'

    So many questions.

    Maybe to which another can be added from this side of the ether: may 'we' hope that those offering 'answers' will be other than the usual suspects?

    If not, pro or con (in all senses of the word), it all rather seems not (worth) very much, not very new. At night.

    Not looking great by this hint: 'We'll hear too from a senior Shadow Cabinet Minister and ally of Ed Miliband'

    Too? One is sure 'our' breath is bated.

  • Comment number 2.

    BALLS SEEMS TO HAVE ALL HIS 'FACTS' MARSHALLED READY FOR THE 'LEAK'

    Nuff sed?

  • Comment number 3.

    Just been listening to Balls on Radio 4, no apology of course, and made to squirm very nicely!

    I thought politicians were elected to run the country, not to play who can be top dog amongst themselves.

    If ever there was a better example of fiddling while Rome burns, the labour party are exactly that.

    I'm appalled at their behaviour, who on earth do they think they are, the whole lot of them absolutely stink, I don't trust one politician these days.

  • Comment number 4.

    Prince Philip To then Paraguay dictator General Stroessner: 鈥淚t鈥檚 a pleasure to be in a country that isn鈥檛 ruled by its people.鈥



  • Comment number 5.

    Any new leader after an election defeat should avoid firm policy commitments for several years because if colours are nailed to the mast, the odds are they will be overtaken by events, and he or she will be left looking stupid and have to U turn.

    Therefore Ed Miliband is, no doubt to everyone's annoyance, doing the right thing - but as with Labour's "wilderness years" and the Tory post-Major years, the time needs to be spent conducting a root & branch policy review to break with the past and build a new policy portfolio for the future.

    For me, the rely big issue is whether Labour (minus "New") is going to break with the most damaging elements of the "Washington Consensus" and root out the NeoLiberal cancer that has spread through all three main polictical parties. Here are the main elements:

    1.Fiscal policy discipline;
    2.Redirection of public spending from subsidies ("especially indiscriminate subsidies") toward broad-based provision of key pro-growth, pro-poor services like primary education, primary health care and infrastructure investment;
    3.Tax reform 鈥 broadening the tax base and adopting moderate marginal tax rates;
    4.Interest rates that are market determined and positive (but moderate) in real terms;
    5.Competitive exchange rates;
    6.Trade liberalization 鈥 liberalization of imports, with particular emphasis on elimination of quantitative restrictions (licensing, etc.); any trade protection to be provided by low and relatively uniform tariffs;
    7.Liberalization of inward foreign direct investment;
    8.Privatization of state enterprises;
    9.Deregulation 鈥 abolition of regulations that impede market entry or restrict competition, except for those justified on safety, environmental and consumer protection grounds, and prudent oversight of financial institutions;
    10.Legal security for property rights.



    Deregulation, globalisation and free trade have destroyed millions jobs in the UK, have cost every man, woman & child north of 拢40k each in public debt let alone private indebtedness and left us dependent on imported food, fuel and manufactured goods, whilst allowing the financial sector to become bloated and to squeeze out manufacturing, whilst the Blair/Brown years saw a lame attempt to create public sector jobs to mask the problem.

    THe libertarain experiement is over ad it failed - but so has state control and the command economy - Ed needs to be working hard at developing an alternative ASAP.

  • Comment number 6.

  • Comment number 7.

    THE DUKE DID A LOT OF STUFF - BRAVO. NOW HE'S GOING TO RELAX. (#4)

    But he missed out on having to force it in between another lot of ABSOLUTELY VITAL STUFF, as we ordinary folk do.

    Me - I'm too knackered to relax. See you in the care home Duke.

  • Comment number 8.

    MY LIST OF REFORMS (#5)

    1) Party Games Spoil (re-ordered to defeat profanity censor)

    2) Dismantle Westminster

    3) Er - that's it (Private Eye)

  • Comment number 9.

  • Comment number 10.

    '6. At 15:07 10th Jun 2011, brossen99 wrote:


    In the spirit of cause and effect appreciation,, it seems only polite for all involved - companies, governments... and media - to stop hiding a bunch of one set of stuff, whilst obsessing about another. Especially when not mutually exclusive.

    Doesn't seem quite cricket otherwise.

  • Comment number 11.

    just what does the Duke actually do?

  • Comment number 12.

    WHAT IS LATIN FOR: 'MASKING ATTACK WITH INJURY'?

    Radio 4's 'PM' has named Balls as an injured party in the current papers-leak. How simplistic. 'Cui Bono' is in the air, but I would guess Balls' gain will outweigh his loss. So what is the Latin for: "Who leaked the papers?"

  • Comment number 13.

    Can any decent person take these quasi-religious criminals and their twisted statistics seriously anymore ?

    /news/science-environment-13719510

  • Comment number 14.

    Ed Balls, I am sure, is rattled by all this talk of undermining Blair in favour of Brown; why else would he refer to the leader of his party, during a 大象传媒 News interview, as "Ed Bellybutton"?

    Balls is another good example of the "professional" politician, whose purpose is to first gain power, then hold on to it for as long as possible; there are far too many of these "professionals" in the Labour Party now, another shameful legacy of the Blair regime.

    The tragedy of Labour is that John Smith died before gaining power; Blair would have joined the Conservatives officially then.

    Labour are too timid, another legacy of Blair, who actively prevented the Party flexing its collective muscle in favour of a rather flaccid "dance around the edges" approach - except when toadying to Bush.

    There are no Labour people at or anywhere near the top of "Labour" now. It is run by professional politicians for professional politicians and the challenges facing this country regarding education, work and a civilised society are brushed aside with a few empty slogans while their attention is focussed on game playing and posturing.

    True Labour? No chance.

  • Comment number 15.

  • Comment number 16.

  • Comment number 17.

  • Comment number 18.

    "Ed Milliband came out of an academic household"...a naked-to-the-core Marxist household. Lets not forget Ed's dad communist leanings. Just think what madness would've been put into Ed's head.

    Labour is a top-heavy activist party still reliant on the voting habits of the working and the dependent class. Trying to learn from Obamas administration is rather foolish as all he's done so far is trickle up the poverty to the middle class, increase the national debt to eye watering levels, 40 million recieve food stamps etc (you won't hear that on the 大象传媒 as the Beeb luv Obama) All thats gonna be learned from the Obama mob is that socialism doesn't work, but when its tried its always expensive and given certain circumstances, socialism kills too readily and all thats left is a mountain of skulls as a monument. Beware the liberal socialist idealist with no known history of holding down a real job ...he'll take you to hell.

  • Comment number 19.








    Here鈥檚 the - point blank honest - way for the Labour Party to win the next election. (Whomsoever leads the Party.)

    One simple statement of intent needs to be said by the numero uno - and effectively acted upon by all the party (hanging on) plebs which will need a lot of honesty, will undoubtedly involve considerable strife and will require total and resolute determination to meet the full expectations of it鈥檚 - all to willing to listen - audience .....

    鈥楾he problem is, at it鈥檚 most basic, we are full. And I pledge sic that the Labour Party will never again shy away from doing it鈥檚 utmost to reverse this situation!鈥

    The 鈥榤an in the street鈥 labour supporter has turned it鈥檚 back on the suited socialist, cloud cuckoo land, ivory tower, PPE-wise policy makers and advisors. The working classes i.e. those that have a job and those that don鈥檛, are deliberately being suffocated in this 鈥榤odern day real world sic鈥 and just basically want the PLP to do what the the Cons - covertly - do so very well, namely....


    鈥楲ook after your own!

    (And then worry about others!)

    The real and obvious danger is that the coalition 'waffle' i.e. pointless drivel lacking action and devoid of any concrete policy, on this issue will - as is increasingly the case these days - be believed by the relatively small number of naive people whom actually bother to vote in any election and will therefore completely destroy any chance of the Labour Party regaining power for the foreseeable future. Whomsoever say鈥檚 it first - and means it - will take the prize!



    Think again, if you might even remotely think the above is in any way a con!







  • Comment number 20.

    When did Sarah Palin become a British politician?

    The Grauniad's and 大象传媒's obsession with Palin, Tea Partiers and Republicans, in general, is rather tragic.

  • Comment number 21.

    Just had to put this up....



    How to spend 90 billion and have nothing to show for it, except a massively increased population.

  • Comment number 22.

  • Comment number 23.

    HALLMARK OF A FAILED STATE

    Honours for being noticed a lot.

    Nuff sed

  • Comment number 24.

    THE CRIME OF 'NEGLIGENT IMMIGRATION' - PUNISHABLE BY DEPORTATION? (#19)


    Those coming here as 'overcrowders' should be as unwelcome as resident malingerers and work-shy. Let's have that in the Statement of Intent!

    My personal priority is 'emigration' on demand . . .

  • Comment number 25.

    '20. At 23:31 10th Jun 2011, Strugglingtostaycalm wrote:
    When did Sarah Palin become a British politician?
    The Grauniad's and 大象传媒's obsession with Palin... is rather tragic.'


    The sisters do seem to have decided to sink their nails in...



    Plus many of the women in these 'media' organisations too.

    Meanwhile...



    'He explained that he had been rung by a desperate researcher, trying to set up an argument that didn鈥檛 really exist, and anxious to find anyone to take up a position.'

  • Comment number 26.



    Good to see Ms. Maitliss contributing to the objectivity stakes on her twitter pages too.

    Not so sure she, or the Graun have very long memories.

  • Comment number 27.

    the Duke of Edinburgh who had tea with a dictator whilst discussing the finer merits of 'polo' and less than a mile away the screams of prisoners being tortured were heard, and who when told by a proud father that it was his daughters birthday replied curtly and without grace....'so what' is that the reason why I am supposed to respect this odious, uncaring and appalling person....no thank you (source Johann Hari, Independent)

  • Comment number 28.

    Wasn't Emily enthusiastic about the Palin e-mails story?

    "What are your top faves so far Ed?" - Question from Emily to Ian Katz of the 'Guardian' on last night's edition of 'Newsnight'.

    "#Newsnight aaaannnnd tonight. The Palin Papers. (of course). (yiippee)." - Tweet from Emily to Mr. Katz yesterday.

    Good to see serious journalism still has its place at the 大象传媒!

    The comments pages of the 'Guardian', however, are overflowing today with comments from people, many critics of Sarah Palin, tearing the paper to pieces over this exercise in prurient and obsessive time-wasting. There is very little enthusiasm there for it. Can the 'Graun' ever have had such an overwhelmingly hostile response to one of its stories? The paper seems to have miscalculated badly and so, if I may say, has Newnight's Emily.

  • Comment number 29.

    '28. At 15:21 11th Jun 2011, Derek_Watson - The paper seems to have miscalculated badly and so, if I may say, has Newnight's Emily.

    Well, if the cred as an objective media type is too thin for even the 大象传媒's reputation for genetic impartiality to sustain, there is always a career in politics that beckons the feisty high-profile woman about town.

    One supposes.

    At least, going poacher, most of the girls holding the mics and reading the teleprompters are more likely to be more 'empathetic', views-wise.

  • Comment number 30.

  • Comment number 31.

    SNPs election pledges:

    remove private from State health care,
    retain/improve services such as free dental care,
    invest in job creation, and renewable energy,
    improve transparency and accountability,
    care about the ALL people in their country,
    believe in regulation to maintain truly Free Markets
    have a Leader who is intelligent, amusing, moral, and thinks about more than his career.

    even these extremely mild social-democrat policies would utterly destroy the "Labour" party in England at the polls, if the SNP were running in England. Ed Milliband, EVEN if he agreed with such policies (which is doubtful) would not be believed genuine by the majority of working class people in the UK. Frankly, we're NOT THAT STUPID!!

    Labour: dead.
    Lib-Dims: dead.
    Tories: evil, Taliban-like fanatics, with more similarity to Lenin's "revolutionary Vanguard" than any British democratic notions.
    UKIP: Tories without the social connections.
    BNP/EDL: what's a spot of ethnic cleansing between friends?
    Greens: allied with UKUncut, the unions, students, doctors, nurses, cleaners, teachers, psychologists, librarians and firemen, - clearly far too radical to be taken seriously by the Tabloid Elite.

    so why bother voting at all?

  • Comment number 32.

    "In the report, he singled out the UK's Digital Economy Act which focuses heavily on protection of copyrighted material and includes provisions to take "technical measures" to restrict or even remove internet access from those deemed to be breaking copyright laws.
    Mr La Rue condemned such practices, writing in his report that he was "deeply concerned by discussions regarding a centralised 'on/off' control over Internet traffic"."


  • Comment number 33.

    just to add: a modern Society is EXTREMELY complex, and there are good reasons for this. "Simplifying" tax and benefit systems may sound good to tabloid readers, but IRL they are nearly always catastrophically mistaken.

    it is like a music scene with only one genre, a car with only one gear. Not all people have the same benefit needs, and attempting to unify them all results in massive (private) bureaucracy, simplyfing taxes also ignores the complex nature of people's incomes and earnings.

    as so often, such changes, supposed "simplifications", are nearly always to the benefit of the already rich-and-powerful, and take resources from those most needing them. That it is a Tory (supported by New Labour) Govt doing this just makes that absolutely certain.

    do the Tories really believe the NHS reforms will make the service better? Of course not - however many of their generous friends in private health-care/insurance will make a great deal of money from disembowelling the NHS.

    no further State-owned enterprises should be sold-off - unless it is to the very people working there (all of them), and cast-iron contracts to prevent the de-cooperatisation of the new body. Its really that simple.

    there IS a place for the 'Private Sector', but there is a vast difference between people owning their own company and working in it, and having global KKKorporatist control of our resources and economy - and that goes for Health as well as Energy, Transport or Communications.

  • Comment number 34.

  • Comment number 35.

    it has become clear why the KKKorporate media started to "spin" all ecology troubles into "Climate Change" - it is easy to spread turbulence around it.

    few could deny the ACTUAL, DEFINITE, and CONCRETE destruction of our rain-forests, the growing desertification of formerly temperate climes, the various poisonings of our seas, land and air - and very specific things could *easily* be achieved to reduce those problems.

    but by tying everything into "Climate Change", the issues get obfuscated, and the KKKorporate sector can try to take control over the measures implemented - so we get "Corporate wind-farms", instead of community-owned turbines, we get "Carbon Credits", rather than investments in sustainability and efficiency.

    and we get lost in time-wasting debates about how "man-made" the disaster staring at us is.

    when our grand-children look back at us, and they read the stories of how 'we' can afford to build aircraft-carriers, and new nuclear submarines, and allow the corporates to avoid taxes and take over our economies, about how the Banks and their colleagues in Govt screwed us over, - and they also read how ideas about energy-efficiency, sustainability, and simple human dignity were considered "unelectable", and i suspect our generations remains will be dug up, and reburied under nightclubs and discos - if they are able to have such things, considering the dire mess we are leaving them.

    the Tories bang on and on about "not leaving our debt to our children", a laudable aim, but again - i suspect our descendants would prefer that debt to the Banksters to be considered both "toxic and illegitimate" (just as the Icelanders have), and maintain services that improve the chances of the UK remaining a civilised and advanced nation (education, health, infrastructure), whilst telling the banksters where to stick it.

    of course, by then they will also have the open record of this Govt's corruption, nepotism and outright Class-based larceny, and they will wonder how we put up with them at all!

    i'm pretty sure they will not have a high opinion of us in the slightest, and i'm *certain* that "paying the National debt off in 5 years or 10" is going to sound incredibly like "how many angels can dance on the head of a needle" to them, sitting there in the future.


    here's what a SANE, FAIR, REALITY-BASED GOVT would do:

    [Unsuitable/Broken URL removed by Moderator]




  • Comment number 36.

    Archbishop William's now infamous article:




    and due to NS's even *worse*(!!) blogdog than NN's, here is my reply:

  • Comment number 37.

    Its high time the population woke up and protested against the current 15-20% " Private Tax " on their energy bills to pay for wind farms and all this other green nonsense. Meanwhile its the environmental groups who are stopping real progress towards true sustainable energy like a full Severn Barrage and Morecambe Bay has potential also. Likewise energy from waste, we could get up to 10% of our electricity this way and far cheaper, but that would smash open the current energy producers cartel, ( as always in the last 20 years environmental groups working in the interest of big business ).

  • Comment number 38.

    This comment was removed because the moderators found it broke the house rules. Explain.

  • Comment number 39.

    repost of the "broken" URL #35:




    #37: had the Energy Utilities NOT been broken up and privatised, with the usual resulting vast increase in salaries for the executives, job losses for the workers, tax-avoidance, and investments non-existent, then it is FOR ABSOLUTELY CERTAIN those publicly owned utilities would have spent the last 20 years investing in renewables, and energy security, because they were mandated to do so by the Govt. Come privatisation, come deregulation, come [bleep] all planning and investing for the future!

    look at the banks - that is where our utilities will be soon. Demanding the Public step in and bank-roll what a sensible sector would have done itself over the long-term. ALL the profits have been taken out of the UK to tax-havens, usually with the connivance of the Big拢3 Parties, the companies avoid tax, use every kkkorporate connivance to avoid obligations to community, workers, environment, and Nation, and now leave us looking at the multi拢Bn bill to do what THEY should have been doing.

    so now we see high price rises in energy costs, naturally some want to blame the Greens, because clearly the one Green MP (for the last year), is entirely responsible for a policy of privatisation and deregulation of the energy utils over the last 30 years. Nothing to do with the gross incompetence, even complete malfeasance of our elected officials in the Big拢3 Parties, nothing to do with the mind-blowing irresponsibility and profiteering of the KKKorporate raiders who bought those formerly Publicly-owned bodies, nothing to do with the corruption of the kkkorporate media that did not KEEP SHOUTING about these problems clearly on the horizon, - no, obviously it is all the Green Party's Fault, that wasn't even born when these future problems were created.


    brossen, do you know what an "obsessive" is defined as?

  • Comment number 40.

    Mork #39

    There are none so blind as those who will not see, its patently obvious that the environmental movement as a whole has been working in the interest of your beloved KKKorporates for at least the past 20 years. We would have had waste incinerators everywhere by now if it were not for eco-fascist Aristotle science, land fill would be down to around perhaps only 10%. Similarly with the Severn Barrage, its been on the drawing board as long as I can remember yet as soon as it looked like getting off the ground the eco-fascists were and still are in there bleating stupidity again. That is not to say that energy privatisation is a good thing, but there was nothing against the government doing it on their own bat if a private bidder had not been forthcoming ?

  • Comment number 41.

    #40

    And when you actually need the environmentalists to put up a good fight on GMO they have blown all their credibility on numerous scams in the interest of big business. Similarly they stopped the construction of the new Kingsnorth clean emissions coal fired power station which will be sorely missed in a few years time.

  • Comment number 42.

    And in any case the Green Party is probably just a receptical for frustrated Marxists, its now the 21st century not the 19th, to which much of the ideology belongs.

  • Comment number 43.

    YOU MEAN CHRIS HUHNE IS A FOOL/KNAVE?

    Nuff sed

  • Comment number 44.

    #40:

    "There are none so blind as those who will not see,"

    how very true. Environmentalists have fought for better environmentalism - for instance pushing for recycling rather than burial or burning of our waste. Is it environmentalists fault that corrupt politicans took the words, green-washed themselves thoroughly, but then broke the pledges on recycling when it suited their corrupt backers? That's the environmentalists fault?

    is it also the environmentalists fault that so many existing UK 'incinerators' so frequently broke legal emissions, that the State actually reduced the money allocated to checking the safety levels of emissions, and warned of the inspections, to support the incinerators to continue even whilst they broke safety laws almost daily at times?

    is it environmentalists fault that the good policy of locally-owned turbines and other renewables was hi-jacked by the kkkorporate scammers and their corrupt friends in Govt, to use the Govt subsidies not for small-holders, but for the large kkkorporate wind-farms? This is environmentalists fault?

    do you also find those Libyans who were so terrified by the spectre of Ghaddafi's troops entering Bengazi they asked for "western Aid" - do you find them personally responsible also for the choice the French and British Govts made to massively bombard the entire west of Libya to "get Ghaddafi out"? There is a difference, you know.

    many Americans were concerned about Al Qaida, is it their fault therefore Goebbels W Bush invaded Iraq, to grab the oil amongst other reasons?

    are the kkkorporates synonymous with the Greens?

    obviously not. (except in alex jones and other American wing-nut paranoid fantasies).

    how many senior UK Green party members sit on the boards of kkkorporations? How many have "executive directorships"? Now compare that to the Tories or New Labour!

    how ANYONE can sit at a keyboard and tell me the UK Green party is THE corrupt party in the UK blows me away, it demonstrates, sorry to say this, but it demonstrates that scary "obsessive" thing again.


    #41: as far as i am aware the Green organisations are still fighting GMO tooth-and-nail, i have no idea why you said this. Granted, a few Green do accept GMO, as some accept Nuclear. If they were all forced to agree, you would scream TOTALITARIAN FASCIST CONTROL OF DISSENT!!! It is ALWAYS possible to find something to criticise, it takes no great talent or mental constructiveness, but such one sided, unbalanced criticism tends to turn an individual into something resembling an Alex Jones. You may not believe it, but that is a HIDEOUS fate for any person. I feel for him, even though he IS a right-wing funded paranoid wing-nut who lost all sense of reality years ago. Unfortunately, paranoia is transmittable.

    i wonder how the neuro-fanatics explain *that*??


    #42: most "frustrated Marxists" are in the right-wing of the Tory Party, in fact from personal observations of all major parties and the Greens, it is the Greens who have had the least 'fanatical' ideology, the Greens whose Leaders really DO follow the concerns of the Public and normal members (directly opposed to Leninist-Marxist thinking, which says to think up policies that benefit your class/backers, then lie about them, intimidate opponents, and do anything needed to make the changes you have worked out benefit yourself and your friends, whilst claiming it is for the good of everyone. As i said, most disaffected Marxists are in the Tories now!), the Greens who take seriously consultation and democratic involvement, and the Greens whose word can at least be *slightly* trusted.

    as for the Green philosophy being "19th Century", you are frankly delusional. Some elements may have been around for a while, but it is thoroughly 20/21st Century philosophy that is applying systems theory, that is recognising the Global problems we face (If China makes it rain on its plains, and therefore England is wracked by hurricanes/drought for the rest of the year, is that OK with you?), that is recognising the almost Fractal nature of the emergency.

    19th Century? That is the East India Dock company and its multi-Nat descendants, that is the monopolisation of the media in few hands, that is the re-imposition of medieval 'Poor Laws' rather than the State having a duty to the citizens, that is the privatisation of Health, Education and Roads amongst others. THAT is the 19th Century, and it seems to ME at least that it is the *OTHER* UK parties most engaged in this.


    i'd leave the conspiracy web-sites for a while, t'were i you brossen. You're turning into an AJ. :/

  • Comment number 45.




    the same wing-nuts who believe "women's place is in the home", that "homosexuality is a sin", that "we can and should invade and slaughter where-ever we want to to claim natural resources - because we can", that "Ignorance is Bliss, War is Peace, and GWB was the best president EVER!!" - this is the core of the Climate-Sceptics grouping, and frankly, without any ad-hominems, even the 19th Century will seem too advanced for these lumbering dinosaurs.

    attack the Greens all you want, but as far as i can see it, we have some money, we gave it to the banks. We got nothing back except more bad debt. We gave the money to the kkkorporations, and they just purchased more of the UKs economy and refused to pay taxes.

    HOW can it possibly be considered worse than those routes, to invest some money in new cooperatives building community-owned turbines, amongst other things?

    i keep hearing this farcical claim that "Every New Green Job Costs 1Bn Other Jobs in the Economy!!!!!!!" - here's a VERY simple question for you to ponder: It is very well researched and evidenced that the UK Govt from the early 1980s onwards, pumped money into financial services, and let manufacturing, farming and mining go to hell. So here's the question: "As Banking has clearly cost "other" jobs, due to the effects of guided Govt regulations and support, would you prefer people to be employed in financial speculation, or to be employed creating long-term energy projects that do actually leave behind more than numbers across a screen for our descendants?"

    govt investment and regulation is largely essential in ALL advanced economies (the US is MOST CERTAINLY not an exception to this, investment - as Govt spending - probably amounts to equal most of the rest of the world *combined*!), would you prefer those monies, those jobs, to be in building arms, fighting wars over rapidly diminishing natural resources, in banking, making ever more fantastical and corrupt schemes to bilk the majority out of pensions, mortgages, and savings, OR, in shaping the UK for existence in a post-oil, post cheap-energy future?

    i simply can't comprehend the mental gymnastics required to turn this on its head, to justify hand-outs to banks, but not investments to new manufacturing/energy companies, to blame Environmentalists for the corruption of kkkorporates, and to blame the Greens for policies crafted and implemented decades before the party was even formed.

    i can't believe someone intelligent could watch Alex Jones, and not realise the guy is a complete paranoic, deliberate disinformation specialist, and not someone you should watch more than a few times a year - for laughs, at best.

    thee are VAST amounts of other people putting more rational analysis of what is happening than he, i wish you would find them, brossen!

  • Comment number 46.

    MENTAL GYMNASTICS OF MENTAL GOVERNANCE (#45)


    Homosexual coupling restricted to SAME separation rules as heterosexual.

    Unrelated homosexual pairing 鈥 legal

    Sibling homosexual pairing - illegal

    Random coupling, yielding a new life - legal

    Sale of morning-after pill 鈥 legal (age controlled)

    Assisted dying by choice 鈥 illegal

    Sale of suicide pill 鈥 illegal

    Sale of taxed poisons - legal

    Sale of untaxed poisons - illegal

  • Comment number 47.

    This comment was removed because the moderators found it broke the house rules. Explain.

  • Comment number 48.

    Mork
    So you infer that I actually support the current welfare state for the stock market parasies ????? given all the othert stuff I have blogged on over the past few years ?

  • Comment number 49.

  • Comment number 50.

    This is a joke, the Banks wont lend anybody any money to put up any realistic competition to the big six cartel !

  • Comment number 51.

    The typo's are due to three pints of excellent local real ale, " Chipping Steamer " tonight !

  • Comment number 52.

    just to be plain for readers, i support the Libyan people, and *our* collective future, i do NOT support Ghaddafi himself. He brought great changes, and the possibility of the changes FOR them, but in his suppression he went too far. Imho. I think this is for the Libyans to decide, nor think the intentions of the European/Northern Powers were entirely benign and un-self-interested, no matter the cost to us, and the infinitely greater cost to the Libyan people who they were supposed to be protecting.

    perhaps the Libyan people can rehabilitate Ghaddafi, he is after all a pretty good administrator, yet his crimes may be too serious. But it is up to the Libyans to decide, not foreign intervention and threats.

    i'm sure now the Govt's "military hardware" has been reduced to scrap, both sides are willing tp talk genuine peace - and even if not, that is still enough reason to pull back our military hardware.

    in so far as NATOs action have come to this resolution, where peaceful negotiation can begin, we can be grateful to cameron and sarkozi for pushing the lead on this intervention. Against, i might add, mine and *many* others initial and continuing reservations.

    let us hope this intervention can come to a swift and successful end, now its aims have been achieved.That would actually place both Leaders in a historically almost unprecedented position in NATOs and Europe's history.


    and william hague can start oppressing dictators around the world with a cleaner conscience. 鈾

  • Comment number 53.

    awesome link @#49 :)

    so what *do* you think of AJ, and his "Greens=Nazis" repertoire?

  • Comment number 54.

    50. At 00:49 12th Jun 2011, brossen99



    'urging consumers to desert companies'


    Now there's a precedent... if one has the option (it can be uniquely denied in some cases).

    Courageous too. That's a principle that can be applied on a personal and party basis come the next election, and by then the causes of the effects of some advocacies and policies may have become more mainstream despite many media preferring not to raise such connections in folks' minds.

  • Comment number 55.

    Women should not be in the police force, they should be at home making cakes, hoovering up and other womenly things..but no, they join the police force, get humiliated for failing a fitness test and then recieves 拢30,000 for the hurt of it all...unbelievable.



    George Osborne is at the Bilderberg meeting this weekend...as reported extensively on Russia Today. No mention from the 大象传媒 of the Bilderberg meeting, or the media camping out in the Swiss mountain hotel, or the protests outside, or the Swiss MPs calling this meeting illigal, or the call for Kissinger to be arrested as a war criminal...not one word from the 大象传媒! ..NOT ONE WORD! And thats why I watch Russia Today for the news.

  • Comment number 56.

    just watching Questiontime, Greer is absolutely fantastic!


    #55: we are also having a 'news blackout' about evens in Spain.

    enjoy living under a "free press"??

  • Comment number 57.

    This comment was removed because the moderators found it broke the house rules. Explain.

  • Comment number 58.

    for farmers worried about drought, and people worried about food:

  • Comment number 59.

  • Comment number 60.

    How come this blog space has managed to avoid the 大象传媒's creeping ivy of oppression of opinion dressed as presentational progress?

    I guess by keeping it buried deep within the newsnight website with no front page links to it they feel it is a safe environment to allow some genuine debate to happen providing it does not become accidently popular of course, in which case this blog space would also instantly recieve an 'upgrade' to the 400 character limit and 'backwards thread of debate' format.

    You guys on here may as well just exchange numbers because I am pretty sure you are merely talking amongst yourselves here.







  • Comment number 61.

    #59: yes, and so what? The police should do more to stop these young thugs. End of story?

    or should i point out that if the tabloids and other Press had not blatantly been pushing an ACTUAL Islamophobic and racist agenda, then the Police's hands wouldn't be so tied.

    obviously these thugs, as other thugs of whatever colour or creed, should be prevented from terrorising neighbourhoods, but i also agree with this comment on that page:

    "SearchForTheTruth
    Today 10:05 AM
    Recommended by
    25 people
    There's really nothing new here, everybody knows by now that Andrew Gilligan is anti-Muslim and has his own agenda, he is still citing sources from his dispatches video. If you look at any community, look hard and you will find a black sheep somewhere. I don't think there's ever been a report by Gilligan to show any positives of Muslims living in the UK. Again, suggesting that in Gilligan's world view Muslims and Islam are innately evil. As a Muslim I just want to say I want to live in peace, stop inciting hate, do some proper journalism and humanise people, I think that's one part of being a reporter. It's just really sad to read one article after another by Gilligan on his portrayal of Muslims."

  • Comment number 62.

    #61

    The police are probably far to busy organising stuff like state sponsored eco-terrorism to worry about general law and order, I just wonder what their next false flag to make the government look good will turn out to be ?

  • Comment number 63.

    A fb friend of mine works for Scottish power as a door to door salesman, he tells me that he and his colleagues are getting a 900 quid bonus because the share price has gone up since the announcement of the 19% increase in gas prices.

  • Comment number 64.

    Mr Mindy, may I borrow your rose tinted spectacles please?!

  • Comment number 65.

    #60 "You guys on here may as well just exchange numbers because I am pretty sure you are merely talking amongst yourselves here."

    A very good comment Jericoa, I think you are probably right, especially as few post here now.

  • Comment number 66.

    This comment was removed because the moderators found it broke the house rules. Explain.

  • Comment number 67.

    ONE DOOR CLOSES ANOTHER DOOR OPENS? (#65)

    Much as the 大象传媒 seem intent on 'not noticing' a number of major end-games seem to be in-play (not just exciting slaughter). Concurrently, seeds are being sown which might, ultimately, modify the fertility of manmade deserts that were created in centuries of un-wisdom.

    "THEN I SAW A NEW 大象传媒 AND A NEW EARTH"

    I'll get me coat.

  • Comment number 68.

    '60. At 18:29 12th Jun 2011, Jericoa

    You guys on here may as well just exchange numbers because I am pretty sure you are merely talking amongst yourselves here.


    Well, it is also more than amenable.

    However you may well be right, as one suspects that as things 'improve' still further, talking with anyone, much less amongst like-minded folk, is off the agenda to get back to 'broadcast only' pontification smeared with a veneer of 'tell us wot u fink' Editors' Picks selected and read our as representative of the public mood.

    As Emily and the Graun have discovered, that might not always be the case.

  • Comment number 69.

    I knew it was a fake!

  • Comment number 70.

    #67

    I am now seriously considering moving to Australia before it is too late, I can not bear the thought of what may happen over the next few years with a young family in the UK.

    leadership and vision have gone leaving a vacuum increasingly filled with ever more desperate attempts at titilation and distraction for monetary profit in the absence of a coherent and worth while way forward... which is entirely within our grasp.

    But there is no money in it for large corporations or banks.. quite the opposite.

    So it will not happen, nor will it be allowed to get air time and any kind of traction in mass media or society or political movements.

    I am working on a project in Scotland at the moment which requires a power cable diversion to re-open a vital road which has been damaged. When scottish power were approached ( a private company) they send a business guy to the site to see how much money they can charge to 'help' . Only later do they send an engineer to site to actually work out what needs to be done... they only do that after the bill is paid and, naturally the actual work needed is quite simple and cheaper than billed for, but it has to happen this way. Why? well because they provide an essential service and have statutory powers to protect that essential service...

    Thus do all privatised 'essential services' routinely suck the life blood out of the local taxpayers (who will be paying for it) because they provide a service essential to society and yet are not beholden to society only to thier executives and shareholders whom are not interested in any thing other than a return on thier investment.

    The care for our elderly is infected too as can be seen in the 'blue cross' saga currently unravelling.

    Same thing for the banks as we have seen, the hard won value is sytematically being sucked out of society by corporations which provide essential services to society but are beholden to no-one. That is even more true in a globalised world where corporations can be located anywhere for tax benefit and regulatory reasons.


    We are all happily defacating on the graves of our forefathers who shed their own blood to create a system which was above savagery, letting it slip back by degrees beneath the high water mark in the sewer where soon we will all be swimming again.

    But nobody does anything, there is no outcry from journalists and politicians or academics, no grass roots noises from the unions...no prominent 大象传媒 blog profile to voice such opinions.

    Nothing except the ever increasing volume of background noise provided by access to sanitised porn, violence and calls to 'greed' or other forms of titilation.

    I feel physically sick writting this such is the stench of the truth of it to which we are heading.






  • Comment number 71.

    NUFF SED (#70)

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