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Friday 2 March 2012

Verity Murphy | 16:52 UK time, Friday, 2 March 2012

The International Committee of the Red Cross says its aid workers have been blocked from entering the Baba Amr district in the Syrian city of Homs, where civilians have endured days of fierce fighting.

Tonight we have a powerful interview with injured journalist Paul Conroy, who is recovering in a British hospital having escaped from Homs, about what conditions are like in the city and Mark Urban assesses how the assault is unfolding.

Also, few doubt that Vladimir Putin will win Sunday's presidential election, returning him to the Kremlin after a four-year stint as prime minister, but there is opposition to his rule. Tim Whewell, who is in Moscow, has been finding out about its nature and scale.

Plus what lies behind the news that David Cameron's strategist Steve Hilton is taking a year-long sabbatical from Downing Street and what will be the impact of his absence?

Comments

  • Comment number 1.

    Baba Amr looks like Stalingrad circa 1942.

    Plenty of evidence of crimes against humanity, has, and is, being accumulated for Bashir Assad and his key people, to answer to at the ICC.

    The Sunni majority in Syria has been repressed for decades, now they will be armed via proxies and a civil war will proceed until the tipping point is reached.

    "If not Putin, then who?" is the refrain from ordinary Russians, and so, Putin it is until a suitable rival candidate emerges from the growing Russian democracy, which is still very much in its infancy.

    Taxi for Steve Hilton, who probably now realises that all of his 'can do' ideas are rapidly turned into 'can't do' by his political masters and the Whitehall machine.

  • Comment number 2.

  • Comment number 3.

  • Comment number 4.

    #3 link


    Not sure they are all 'Good Men' barrie, but this might be the end of 'doing nothing' such as civil disobedience. Will you be there?

  • Comment number 5.

    It just crossed my mind that perhaps Steve Hilton's departure could be the end of Cameron's " Green " aspirations if not yet the final nail in the coffin of the CO2 Climate Change Scam. It would appear that the Tories have amply proven to be potentially more toxic than anyone on the left could have imagined, but the left must look at itself in the mirror as they did nothing to stop Workfare at its concept in 2007, and its only very recently that they have joined the debate. It would appear that the left still clings to the Climate Scam, despite all the firm evidence that Climate Change is influenced directly by activity on the sun, Co2 has been a convenient political red herring all along !

  • Comment number 6.

    #5 You refer to 'the left' but where are they? Not in the wildest stretches of anyone's imagination can 'new' Labour be referred to as even slightly left - Unless you mean left of Cameron which probably applies to 70% of the UK population!

    BTW Newsnight team, what happened to last nights summary and blog?

  • Comment number 7.

    THE ROAD TO IRAN PASSES THROUGH DAMASCUS

    Planned Regime Change in Syria


    Afghanistan, Iraq, Libya, and now Syria had peace and calm until Washington intervened belligerently. Strategies and tactics vary. Objectives are consistent. They involve replacing independent regimes with pro-Western ones by any means, including war.

  • Comment number 8.

    Why Can鈥檛 americans Have Democracy?

  • Comment number 9.

    @6 Quite. Sometimes life imitates Art:



    But perhaps not as well as might be thought - are these two even related?



    I'm sure that the real waxwork would be more realistic!

  • Comment number 10.

    CNN silences Iran war-skeptical soldier

  • Comment number 11.

    #s 6 & 9

    In Praise of Distrust

    Cameron tells us to trust business: as he hands it the keys to the nation.



    The corporations gaining ever greater powers will be subject to less democratic oversight and restraint, in the form of regulation. Despite the obvious lesson of the credit crunch 鈥 that self-regulation is an invitation to disaster 鈥 Cameron wants to extend the principle into every corner of the economy. Trust them, he says: what can possibly go wrong?

  • Comment number 12.

  • Comment number 13.

    TWO QUICK NOTES

    #4 That's the quote IDG2 - but I intend the inference. I have been 'there' for a long time. I turned out against Tony's Folly. Bring it on.

    #9 False Cameron makes me sick. If he can lie to himself in such a humiliating manner, to gain power, TO WHOM WILL HE NOT LIE? And what will ever rein him in?

    WE GOT OURSELVES ANOTHER ONE.

  • Comment number 14.

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

  • Comment number 15.

    Has the Chicargo mob or one of their affiliates got rid of Obama's biggest critic. A critic that had big dirt on Obama and recently said he would release video of Obama in his Uni days that would put an end to his presidency. The tittersphere is talking conspiracy. Andrew Breitbart, it was reported, had a fatal heart attack. I think he was still hitting the floor when that report came out, regarding the reason for his demise.. in the lame stream paid-up, owned and controlled media.

    A generic overview of the man was reported in the Telegraph:
    (You'll have to look elsewhere for the conspiracy chatter)

  • Comment number 16.

    'what lies behind'

    Ne'er a truer set of words, all round. Or, as it is often spun, 'analysis', by 'experts'.

  • Comment number 17.

    Cameron did not change the law for , but he would have had to do something similar.

    Even the last government knew that the public finances were shot to pieces for a decade, though publicly they mostly kept quiet about it (Darling let slip once) and the media seemed (?) unable to comprehend , well in public anyway, its consequences.

    If you look at tax rates you will see everyone is going to . It falls to us to clean up the mess and that means paying.

    Btw , I never advocated bailing out failed banks, nor borrowing or printing of money for a in the run up to the last general election. I would have preferred to let the capitalist system run its course , with a few tweeks here and there. I also believed the stimulus would not work because there was a hole in our bucket , our trade deficit, therefore it would just trickle away to countries who held trade surpluses with us, further putting the country in debt.

    I did not vote for the Labour party because I remember 1976-79. But I am going to have to pay for it all the same, how fair is that.

    #5 Nolly
    I hope your right about the CO2 scam ending. As we need to reduce the costs of living for people, not increase their costs.

  • Comment number 18.

    A number of years ago I said I did not want my children fighting for the EU in their border wars , I still hold such an opinion.

    If the Arab League wants to do more, that's for them to decide. We should give as much diplomatic support as requested to stop the killing of civilians.

  • Comment number 19.

  • Comment number 20.

    There have been over 30 protests against workfare across the UK today including London's Oxford Street where people marched down the road chanting " Chris Grayling hear us say, we wont work if you wont pay ". Both Pizza Hut and McDonald's were forced to close during the lunchtime peak dining period, the protest later moved on to Holland & Barrett and Holiday Inns, no arrests reported. I am informed that 3 people were arrested in Manchester, similar protests against including Gregg's in Leeds and Birmingham also took place.

    The corporate establisment must be pretty desperate to keep the lid on what could easily turn into an " Arab Spring " style popular revolution against the status quo when none of the above is reported on the 大象传媒 rolling news. Perhaps they leaked the story about possible Police privatisation deliberately to take the focus off the workfare protests whilst Sky filibustered with live coverage of the funeral of a well past 1980s sell by date comedian. It really would appear that we have all the worst basic freedom aspects of Nazi Germany and Stalinist USSR combined if legitimate peaceful protest is totally ignored by our media institutions appeasing government propaganda purposes by gagging themselves. Perhaps in the 大象传媒 case it could be possible that its got something to do with Chris Patten in executive control ?

  • Comment number 21.

  • Comment number 22.

  • Comment number 23.

    SURELY THE CO2 SCAM HAS TO BE 'BAILED OUT' (PROPPED UP) AS IT'S TOO BIG TO FAIL? (#17)

    Do the manipulating elite operate on this basis? Take 9/11: you only have to watch a few seconds of collapse and the lie is apparent. A vast array of other evidence shows WHAT DIDN'T HAPPEN. But the 9/11 Big Bang Illusion expands like the faux Universe, and is now 'too big to gainsay'. GLOBAL GROWTH is declared the only way to survive. Hello?
    HomSap lasted a long time in viable STASIS. Might the growth MYTH be too well established to dispense with? And so on.

    THIS IS THE AGE OF PERVERSITY - CUI BONO?

  • Comment number 24.

    Please Newsnight don't ever dare do any sensationalist articles on China or Iran suppressing news and public information either on the web or state TV, especially after today's 大象传媒 absolute " denial " non performance over the Workfare protests !

  • Comment number 25.

    THE OLD HEART ATTACK PLOY KATO

    How many convenient heart attacks does it take to make a conspiracy theory? NONE
    The C-theory PRECEDES the 'heart attack'.

  • Comment number 26.

    BY EXTENSION (#18)

    I still can't rid my head of the notion that an abhorrence of despotic "KILLING ONES OWN PEOPLE", when set against gung-ho, willy-nilly, civilised, democratic slaughter of Johnnie Foreigner - BUT ONLY IN HIS OWN LAND - is DIFFERENCISM of a high order. 'Jesus' instructed us to lay down our life for a friend, and to befriend the stranger. Now - I shall refrain from mentioning Dave's recent, public espousal of Christianity, and simply say: "Muddled thinking makes me sick".

    My overall interpretation is that, if a state must go killing, it should KILL ITS OWN FIRST. The greater crime, by far, is killing JF - especially from a heavenly (cowardly) position. Dave?

    In passing: my crime at #14 may have been to refer to "Heir to Blair" Cameron's "blood on hands" tirade, as having "resonance".

  • Comment number 27.

  • Comment number 28.

    Double helping !



  • Comment number 29.

    #26 barrie wrote:
    鈥淭he greater crime, by far, is killing JF - especially from a heavenly (cowardly) position.鈥

    Whilst I share your anger over the killing of (innocent) Johnny Foreigners, a greater crime is the indiscriminate killing our own innocent citizens - on the false grounds that WE are to blame for killing THEIR 鈥榖rothers鈥 - when far more 鈥榖rothers鈥 are killed by their own folk, simply because they have a DIFFERENT interpretation of their shared religion (Sunnis and Shiites).

    This surely is cowardice AND difference-ism carried to an extreme form of logic?

  • Comment number 30.



    I was probably on one of the aforementioned " Blacklists ", despite my first rate technical qualifications I could never even get an interview with any of the better paying " corporates ". All the social engineering is done by employment agencies these day's and it could be the case that job seekers are now discriminated on on postcode area. It leaves the door wide open for corporate social engineering, attempting to economically cleanse rural areas of all low income people by claiming that the job applicant is over qualified in some cases, immigrants they can exploit always first in the queue.

  • Comment number 31.

    CORRUPTION AND ALCOHOL - WESTMINSTER'S IDEA OF CULTURE (#30)

    I have often written of alcohol as the weft of a warped culture. It is becoming clear that the warp is in fact CORRUPTION. What a tangled web.

    Westminster is fuelled by alcohol, and corrupt in every aspect of its function. Might we now revisit the cash for honours matter? Step forward ourPM of that regime. Time for MPs to drop the unearned 'honourable' charade?

    One stark reality is that until we have integrity in the country, WE SHOULD STOP BOMBING OUR DISGRACEFUL WAYS INTO OTHERS.
    CORRUPTION AND ALCOHOL - WESTMINSTER'S IDEA OF CULTURE (#30)

    I have often written of alcohol as the weft of a warped culture. It is becoming clear that the warp is in fact CORRUPTION. What a tangled web.

    Westminster is fuelled by alcohol, and corrupt in every aspect of its function. Might we now revisit the cash for honours matter? Step forward our PM of that regime. Time for MPs to drop the unearned 'honourable' charade?

    One stark reality is that until we have integrity in the country, WE SHOULD STOP BOMBING OUR DISGRACEFUL WAYS INTO OTHERS.

  • Comment number 32.

    ARE SPACE AND TIME RELATED? (#29)

    Conquering the distances around this planet, by cleverness, did not bring the wisdom needed to take due note of 'time zones'. Our missionaries, barely out of our own age of religious burning, breaking and mutilating, went to other lands to (slightly less brutally) impose God's will. Now we send mercenary killers where we can, and posture and tirade, where we do not have the courage of those convictions - imposing political will.

    Today, OUR internal 'internecine' horrors are psychological - WE kill spirit and joy - in an acceptable way. Poignantly the Muslims recoil from our decadent culture, and see need to reign us in with their 'ways and means'; while in their zone, they wreak equivalent physical mayhem. The world is mad, and The Ape Confused by Language, lacking wisdom, is a prime agent of madness.

  • Comment number 33.

    No comment:



    and, again, no comment


    :(

  • Comment number 34.

    'and, again, no comment'

    Oo, I think I will.

    Took some media a wee while to catch up, and even then in muted and placatory terms.

    Now, as I hark back a wee while to an accidental religious tome burning, it seemed all heck was unleashed on the perps.

    Funnily enough, some were even trying to link the two until the timeline proved a wee bit iffy, but that's what edit suites are there to smooth out.

    Speaking of hearing only what is wished to be heard, anyone catch Ms. Harman on Marr? Outside a very insular bubble, the claims made, and indeed facilitated, have caused ripples of derision throughout the twittosphere not followed by our most rusted (I'll leave that typo) source of 'news'.

  • Comment number 35.

  • Comment number 36.

    WHILE YOU WERE AWAY 76 (#33)

    Great War Leader Jingo-Dave (he who roars at Syria about BLOOD ON HANDS!) said of one of our mercenary dead: "He will never be forgotten". But by the end of Prime Minister's Questions (half an hour) HE COULDN'T REMEMBER THE HERO'S NAME.

    Those who see war, as a noble way to peace, should always be in the front line.

  • Comment number 37.

    WESTMINSTER WAS AND IS A TYRANNY PRESIDED OVER BY A DESPOT (#35)

    Westminster will attack, exploit, demean, oppress, vilify, insitutionalise, ethnically cleanse, sacrifice and dispossess, ANYONE THEY CHOOSE. Where is the difference from those Dave loves to hate? Calling yourself 'honourable', and being good at lying, does not absolve.

    POLITICS: THE ART OF DECEIVING ONESELF WRAPPED IN THE CRAFT OF DECEIVING OTHERS FOR THEIR OWN GOOD.

    "We can't go on like this."

  • Comment number 38.

    FREEDOM OF SPEECH DEMOCRACY AND THE RULE OF LAW (3 British fundamentals)

    Have any other of my fellow posters, tried to challenge, HEAD ON, our Westminster regime (regime used advisedly)?

    I have found they have myriad ways of NOT ENGAGING AND/OR NOT REPLYING.
    I have free speech - they have the RIGHT TO IGNORE ME. There goes one.

    Westminster empowers my MP to CHOOSE WHETHER HE WILL TAKE A MATTER FORWARD. There goes two.

    I have proof that he (and the Conservatives) used a False Instrument in Election 2010 - he has decided NOT TO BRING IT TO WESTMINSTER. There goes three.

    There you go Mr Pickles: WE are all in it together. But somehow I don't think YOU are. What a farce.

  • Comment number 39.

    THIS IS PRICELESS - I READ IT AFTER POSTING THE ABOVE (#38)

  • Comment number 40.

    IS IT ME? (#39 link)

    鈥淲hile Government has an important role to play, this new approach is based on a conviction that the challenges facing local communities today are too complex to be tackled simply by blanket solutions - OR BY SINGLING OUT SPECIFIC GROUPS FOR SPECIAL TREATMENT. An integrated society is vital to building strong , prosperous sustainable communities.鈥(my emphasis)

    5. 鈥淭he Secretary today spoke at the launch of the MAMA (Measuring Anti-Muslim Attacks) project. Developed by Faith Matters, the project will collate and analyse anti-Muslim incidents in England and provide a mechanism to offer support to victims. This project will contribute to the improvement of our own evidence and understanding of Anti-Muslim Attacks, and build confidence in the Muslim community that action is being taken.鈥

    Eric Pickles

  • Comment number 41.

    #39/40 barrie:-

    An integrated society is vital to building strong, prosperous sustainable communities.鈥

    MAMA (Measuring Anti-Muslim Attacks) project will collate and analyse anti-Muslim incidents in England and provide a mechanism to offer support to victims. This project will contribute to the improvement of our own evidence and understanding of Anti-Muslim Attacks, and build confidence in the Muslim community that action is being taken.鈥

    Are there also to be MACAs 鈥 measuring anti-Christian/Catholic incidents?

    More Mixed Pickles? Wikepedia:-
    'Eric Pickles vowed to reverse the High Court decision, despite a recent Yougov poll showing 55% were against councils holding prayers with just 26% in favour. and brought forward his Localism Act, due to become law in April 2012, and made it law on 17 February 2012.' and

    'Pickles announced a consultation aimed at 鈥淢aking it easier for people to celebrate an identity or an organisation that means something to them.鈥 Will this include EDL?

  • Comment number 42.

    HOW'S ABOUT THIS THEN IDG2 (#41)

    Another gobsmacking piece of Choice Pickles:

    "Extending the free entitlement to early education to around 40 per
    cent of two-year-olds by September 2014 while maintaining the
    network of children's centres accessible to all families but focused on
    those in greatest need."

    Two year olds? TWO YEAR OLDS! We must be mad - literally mad.
    This is the PSYCHOLOGICAL equivalent of KILLING OUR OWN PEOPLE. (See my #32)
    And what has it got to do with integration? There is ample indication that WELL NURTURED infants grow CONDUCIVELY STRUCTURED BRAINS that can, at least, attempt to overcome DIFFERENCISM - fundamental to our Ape.

    It seems clear that Eric pickles has no expertise in this area, and is simply led by Westminster's Mammon-friendly dogma.

    DISMANTLE WESTMINSTER BEFORE THEY DISMANTLE US.

  • Comment number 43.

    NOT ALL HATE IS CRIMINAL - NOT ALL ANATHEMA IS PHOBIA - NOT ALL ANTIPATHY UNJUSTIFIED

    I hate hypocrisy in those who term themselves 'honourable', I have a rational revulsion at male-male coupling, and some identity groups DO espouse annoying credos.

    I am in no doubt many MPs can match me on all three. There is much said of transparency in government - let's 'look into' one (currently high minded) MP in particular!

  • Comment number 44.

    Barrie and Indi, if the government have to tell people to behave in a community way or an integrated society......

    Surely if they were they would be, NATURALLY, and not have to be told how to live and behave.

    It shows the extreme failure of our society if government instructs us how to live our lives.

    George Orwell wus rite!

    Instead we sound Kafkaesk.

  • Comment number 45.

    Watching morning news and the latest meddling by the nanny state and its legions of paid or over-funded finger-waggers.

    So far I have seen what appears a child porn video that is supposed to persuade horny teens not to take things too far, and advocacy that the fuzz and ex-NotW investigators get called upon to serve up the full scoop on the possible suitors various partners who like to date demand be provided to meet their expectations before putting out.

    Uh-huh.

    Here's one aspect's coverage:

    /news/uk-17254163

    And, to be fair, it IS highlighting the meddle vs. results disconnect.

    Here's the other one:

    /news/uk-17254977

    Back to PR as news. Educate & inform? Uh-uh.

    Research suggests that research suggests that researchers will say anything... and get willing complicity from broadcasters if the ratings look promising.

    As to equating grooming with teenage lack of constraint.... only the 大象传媒 could try and spin that one in light of what is going down in areas they feel they need to 'manage' as the perps keep messing up their carefully created ideals by doing worse and getting caught.

  • Comment number 46.

    DOES THE MALE HOMOSEXUAL ELEPHANT 'IN THE ROOM' MAKE YOUR EYES WATER?

    大象传媒 "Today" had an appalled bishop followed by "not appalled in the least" Lionel Blue, gaily discussing "what is marriage?" No one seemed to notice the elephant.

    Blue Lionel is not Blue Peter; although I seem to remember the BP elephant made a statement of preference.

    THIS IS THE AGE OF PERVERSITY.

  • Comment number 47.

    /news/uk-17254977t=55s

    'older boyfriends'.

    Bless.

  • Comment number 48.

    At least Monday exists. Sort of.

    Though there is a certain irony, given the lead on Putin, dodgy practices and complicit state media that trying to access the thread gets you:

    Error 404 - Page not found
    This might be because:
    You have typed the web address incorrectly, or
    the page you were looking for may have been moved, updated or deleted.


    Well, I simply clicked a link. Back to you 大象传媒.

  • Comment number 49.

    I like the way museV talks, just wonder if he or she listens to Max Keiser and has looked at the truth about 911 as this can be linked to most of newsnights news for the past decade.....yours in truth steve.

  • Comment number 50.

    #39

    /news/uk-17063513

    Well maybe they are as confused as I.
    I thought religious hatred (all faiths and none) was a big big problem in our society , but now the figures have been separated from other categories for the first time , across England , Wales and Northern Ireland (55 million people) does seem a little confusing to me , given all the politicking and media attention over the past decade.

    So if MAMA can help victims in making such complaints and it leads to more wrongdoers successfully being charged and convicted , I think it will be worth twelve months of public investment.

    Good citizenry should never have to live in fear , perceived or otherwise.

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