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Talk about Newsnight

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Wednesday, 21 March, 2007

  • Newsnight
  • 21 Mar 07, 06:13 PM

gb2.jpgGordon Brown's last budget as Chancellor - we analyse, explain and chew over what happened today.

Jeremy assesses with politicians from the main parties, and reflects on Brown's 10 years in the job with a former chancellor, a treasury minister and a Brown ally.

Plus continues. John Bolton the former US ambassador to the UN tells us his thoughts - 4 years after the invasion. What does he think now?

Comment on here.

Comments  Post your comment

  • 1.
  • At 06:57 PM on 21 Mar 2007,
  • Maurice - Northumberland wrote:

Just a quicky:
If the additional tax on the likes of 4x4 vehicles is all to do with the Green Bandwagon, then why when all new 4x4's etc. produce less C02 than a 15 year old banger are they not also getting hammered.
It is a few minutes job to test the output of any vehicle - so why are those with old vehicles not being penalised or removed from the roads altogether.
Could be they are the more likely to be Labour Voters?
PS - Must have been a very shrewd move to turn the nations roads into crumbling tracks where the only suitable vehicle is a 4x4 - clever that!

  • 2.
  • At 07:14 PM on 21 Mar 2007,
  • Gordon wrote:

It is interesting to note that the chancellor has failed to mention anything about council tax in his budget speech. It looks like all talk of a revaluation has been kicked into the long grass, ( perhaps until after a long overdue housing price crash ) but are we missing an opportunity for debate on a fair solution to the problem. Perhaps the fairest way to re-value a house would be to use the current purchase price to determine which band it should be included in. For example, a house which sold for say 拢200k would immediately go into the 200K band, irrespective of what band the house was in before the sale. With hindsight this principle should have been included in the original council tax legislation, I know of at least one former local Tory politician which thought that this was the case at the time, but like most legislation prepared in a rush to win an election it was poorly thought out. With re-valuation of council tax band at every sale you get the subtle advantage that it would probably subdue property price inflation, as people could shop around looking for the house with the cheapest running costs. The trouble is that the average " ten bob fat cat " has no idea how to use the market to significantly reduce their total expenditure and improve their real living standards. The trouble is the easy availability of credit, the secret for any sound economy is to save up for it in real money and not buy anything unless you can pay cash on the nail.

If you stick to a cash only budget and only buy things when you really need them it is possible to have a good lifestyle including running a modest car on a quite low income. Any new green taxes are likely to screw up this this real economy which promotes solid growth ( which everybody benefits from ) and eventually destroy it. That is unfortunate as living in such a way is the only way people can avoid eventual virtual enslavement to the banks. If people collectively stopped buying what they could not afford in cash up front the economy would collapse in fine style. It is probable that most of the false money floating around in false capital growth institutions like the stock market would evaporate in quick style. The only shares to retain any of their value would be those which pay a half decent dividend ( at least 5% ) in relation to their quoted face value. If we are ever going to survive as an overall competitive nation in the global economy the aforementioned crash has to happen.

Gordon Brown the rich man`s chancellor and no mistake...

"Gordon Brown is tinkering with the tax system while presiding over an economy where hundreds of thousands of families, pensioners and children live in poverty. Young people can no longer afford his property ladder, and public services are being slashed in the name of efficiency.
In 2003 when we invaded Iraq, Brown said that cost of the war would be 鈥渨hatever it takes鈥. We apply that same principle to the only war worth fighting, the war against poverty and inequality."

Source

  • 4.
  • At 07:54 PM on 21 Mar 2007,
  • dicky wrote:

Has Stalin locked us in to a tax gulag?

  • 5.
  • At 09:36 PM on 21 Mar 2007,
  • Maurice - Northumberland wrote:

After 10 years in office - Why is there ANY Poverty in Britain?
The reason, Socialists like it that way! Creating a grateful population for any crumbs thrown from the table of Socialism!
Who are the idiot's that vote for these morons?
Obviously the mediocre who can't hack it in a Meritocracy.

  • 6.
  • At 09:42 PM on 21 Mar 2007,
  • Effie Notts wrote:

Thatcher never ever achieved a tax rate of 20%, even after selling off all the utilities.
In the past decades we had higher unemployment than America, Japan, France, Gemany and the rest of Europe
We now have a higher proportion of men and women in work than America, Japan and all our major European neighbours, this can't be bad.
The debt level we had in 1997 was 44% it is now 38.2%.
10 years ago we had the lowest investment of the G7. Now along with America we have the G7 fastest growing business investments.
So no matter which way people want to play with figures these are the facts.
As for the Stalanist jibes from Cameron, this record certainly beats the debacle of Black Wednesday when he was an advisor to the then Chancellor Norman Lamont, and interest rates were at 15%, plus Whitehall Mandarins running the treasury creating havoc.
Brown has proved to be a formidable Chancellor who has taken bold decisions which required nerve as well as leadership.
Cameron will under estimate him at his peril.

  • 7.
  • At 10:38 PM on 21 Mar 2007,
  • Liam Coughlan wrote:

His demeanour was that of a millionaire throwing a 2p coin at the poor. He forgets that its our money, hot the personal multi billion pot he has been buying votes with all these years.

He has been a thundering disgrace as a chancellor, and well he knows it.

Out, Out, Out.

  • 8.
  • At 11:00 PM on 21 Mar 2007,
  • adam grose wrote:

No one seems to answer any direct questions about how this effects people like me who only earn 13,000 pa. Will I be worse off? From what I can gather I will be around 拢90 worse off pa in taxes as well as being worse off for using public transport due to the fact I gave up my car. Where are the incentives? I can't even buy a house/ flat or caravan, let alone afford the increases in income tax, council tax and public transport services. How am I supposed to survive and have some kind of life?

  • 9.
  • At 11:01 PM on 21 Mar 2007,
  • Bob Goodall wrote:

Dear Newsnight

Is it a return to ya boo politics or did we never really leave the station, or the zoo?

I thought Mr Cameron said a year or two ago that he would behave in a different more civilised way in parliament, whatever happened to that?

could someone ask him. Do we take this that something he says might, well change?

why the usual jeering and boorish behaviour from both the Conservative and Labour party benches that so puts people off politics and causes voter disengagement?

as for people who carelessly bandy around words. How dare anyone compare any Westminster politician as Stalinist? How can such remarks be justified? comparing them to a monster who murdered 20 million+

it might sound clever to use langauge like this but do the people saying it, know what they are saying? and as such perhaps its says a lot more about anyone saying or repeating it, than Gordon Brown.

sorry if sounds a bit harsh tonight
perhaps I鈥檓 a bit of a Stalinist tonight
Best wishes
Bob

  • 10.
  • At 11:02 PM on 21 Mar 2007,
  • Steve Fuller wrote:

Having not been home from work long, I have not fully absorbed all of the detail from Chancellor Gordon Brown's last Budget yet. From what I have learned so far though, he as usual, is giving with one hand and fastly taking with the other. I like the 2p reduction in income tax but I have no doubt that that will be taken from me in other ways, so my gain will be nothing as usual. Not enough again has been added to the cost of cigarettes and alcohol which due to the health risks should be vastly more. There still seems to be a very unfair tax system all round where a vast majority of hard working people do not gain anything from the Budget. Still we always have next year's to look forward to. I fear however that the outcome will be the same.

  • 11.
  • At 11:07 PM on 21 Mar 2007,
  • Alan Burgess wrote:

After using the 成人论坛 Budget calculator I find that under this budget I will be almost 拢500 a year worse off. I earn 拢18030 per annum, have grown up children, support my wife, have a mortgage and my only pleasures are an occasional pint and a cigarette. Labour voter? NOT ANYMORE. They are only interested in unmarried unemployed mothers and big business.

  • 12.
  • At 11:09 PM on 21 Mar 2007,
  • Adam Grose wrote:

What is John Bolton on?

Can I have some so I can deny facts too?

  • 13.
  • At 11:10 PM on 21 Mar 2007,
  • Chris Dyson wrote:

Your guest鈥檚 comments from all parties in support of yet another tax on the motorist (4x4 vehicles - I do not own one) on the frounds that they are an attempt to save 'tons' of carbon emissions is absolute rubbish. Do they not know that dozens of eminent scientists have debunked much of the popular myth surrounding the theory that mankind鈥檚 industrialization has anything at all to do with global warming? We know beyond doubt that in the history of the planet we have experienced at least four ice ages and so at least three periods of global warming (where did the ice go?) without the help of man. Explain that! The current hysteria is just another way to squeeze more money out of the populace. I now know what it must have been like to live under the reign of King John!

  • 14.
  • At 11:13 PM on 21 Mar 2007,
  • Maurice - Northumberland wrote:

So dear Effie (from the Sky Blog, where no one takes her seriously anymore) produces the words of the Socialist (the Global scourge of humanity)Labour Party - again, when most can see right through it - And she wonders why they have a 'Save The Labour Party' Web Site.

1 - Will someone explain to me and maybe others, if they want to tax the most polluting vehicles on the roads, why aren't they?
2 - Also can someone explain the declaration we hear so often - 'The poor are subsidising the Rich'.

  • 15.
  • At 11:16 PM on 21 Mar 2007,
  • vikingar wrote:

BUDGET 2007

Watched today's Budget Speech.

1st part Brown delivered a traditional Stalinist speech, crammed full of meaningless figures, stats & percentages, to prop up the lie of incompetence.

2nd part, in English, revealed some policy.

However, further examination of the figures reveal slight of hand (typical New Labour financing trick)

Just used the 成人论坛 budget calculator 2007[1] - on an gross income of 拢40,000 (tested upto 90,000 in increment of 10,000) you are 拢319 better off *

* Stalin would be spinning in his grave

SUMMARY:

Blair (as PM) lost trust given proven spin on truth (policy & decisions & actions)

Brown (as Chancellor) has lost trust given his proven method of dubious number crunching.

Comrade Browns 10 year legacy is self evident of controlling domestic policy, policy, delivery, control of departments & financing of such.

I wonder if the FSA would sanction the management, strategy & tactics of The Treasury under Gordon Brown, if this New Labours finance department, was a commercial trading entity.

vikingar

SOURCES:

[1]

  • 16.
  • At 11:18 PM on 21 Mar 2007,
  • Bob Goodall wrote:

Great interview with John Bolton, very informative and illuminating. the camera doesnt lie does it, you just have to let the line out a bit
sometimes, sorry to use a fishing term which I think is cruel, but there wasnt a fish at the end of the line to be hauled in
best wishes
GB's just come on the box to talk about never going back to the days of misery caused by increasing mortgages, doesnt he know whats going on out there

  • 17.
  • At 11:26 PM on 21 Mar 2007,
  • vikingar wrote:

LIES LIES & DAMM LIES !

Following Newsnight Wednesday 21.03.07 - just watched Gordon Brown promo broadcast

The Chancellors boast was that income tax was the lowest in 75 years.

Then why oh why Gordon Brownites & other mathematical dyslexics 鈥. is the overall tax burden the biggest ever in the History of The United Kingdom [1] *

"Ernst & Young, the accountants, said the tax burden will be 37.6 per cent of GDP this year, rising to 37.8 per cent next year and 38 per cent in 2010-1. This will be higher than the 37.7 per cent peak reached in the early 1980s when the top rate of income tax was 60 per cent. It will also be more than the burden of the 1970s when the top rate was 83 per cent."

Browns boasts & sums do not add up :(

vikingar

SOURCES:

[1]

  • 18.
  • At 11:27 PM on 21 Mar 2007,
  • wrote:

I fall into that category of tax payers who will be worse off because of Brown's budget. I am single, childless & earn just under 拢18,000 per year. What is easily overlooked about this group in society is that they help form what is called "the white working class", i.e., those who are most susceptible to the poisonous propaganda of the BNP. Make no mistake, an adverse change in the personal finances of this group in society will feed into the myths which the fascists peddle.

  • 19.
  • At 11:33 PM on 21 Mar 2007,
  • M Alderson wrote:

Well done paxo for the jousting with Bonkers Bolton.The look of feigned surprise when the whole WMD issue was laid firmly at the door of HM government by Bolton summed up the attitude of the Beeb all those not to distant years ago. An hour's internet research would have quickly shot down the ficticious and spurious claims made by the US and GB administrations,but seemingly not as important as televised Shock and Awe,the wonders of Depleted Uranium and cluster/white phosper bombing falluja etc etc.

  • 20.
  • At 11:44 PM on 21 Mar 2007,
  • wrote:

Well done Jeremy, a brilliant interview!
I noted the amount of big mistakes John Bolton made and there were many!

  • 21.
  • At 11:45 PM on 21 Mar 2007,
  • Lesley Boatwright wrote:

I am very disappointed about the abolition of the 10p tax band. As an erstwhile Labour supporter, I feel as if I am hanging on to the top of the cliff of my ideals by my fingertips, and now G Brown is thwacking away at my fingertips with a cosh to make me let go. Vince Cable spoke a lot of sense about it. I think I shall become a Liberal Democrat. To parody the best cricket poem in Eng Lit,'I see through my tears, a silent clapping host, where a ghostly Parliament cheers to the Socialism of a ghost - O, my Attlee and my Bevan, long ago!'

  • 22.
  • At 11:46 PM on 21 Mar 2007,
  • Simon wrote:

Given a choice, I think that self-reliant people want the freedom to make a living without being beholden to anyone.

To many that boils down - conceptually - to running a one or two person business, doing something they enjoy and for which there seems to be a need.

In the past this included bakers, butchers, blacksmiths, tailors, carpenters, *craftsmen* ... you get the idea.

Nowadays there are other sectors where people think they can make a living - different and perhaps more 'niche' than the traditional ones - but the underlying desire is the same, being the wish to be the master of your own destiny.

Perhaps one in a thousand wants to be a tycoon, the majority do not. Not everyone is driven to become a multinational - some folks are content to provide for themselves and their family and have some free time to enjoy the simple things in life.

Sometimes it makes you wonder whether this type of person is being actively discriminated against for some mysterious socio-economic reason.

Is this type of self-reliant, small-scale, free-thinking individual somehow economically undesirable?

It sure doesn't feel like they're being encouraged at all, certainly not in GB's most recent budget.

Just for once, I wish there was an opportunity taken to explore the political, economic and social philosophy and find out what the reasoning behind the decisions might be.

Who knows, maybe the entire global economy is predicated on the assumption of the mass of humanity becoming voracious consumers all depending upon a munificent State for survival.

If there are arguments for that approach, I'd like to see them aired by the people supposedly in 'control' of the rest of us (though you might have to mask their identities before they'd give their thoughts honestly)

Who am I kidding - a genuine debate about ideas? Ain't never gonna happen.

  • 23.
  • At 12:39 AM on 22 Mar 2007,
  • Blue Tax wrote:

Comrades, what joy that dear Uncle Joe has answered my request to remove the threat of income tax being charged where one owns an overseas dacha via a company. I had pleaded with the Revenue that this was so unfair but they still took the tax off me. I said to my comrades at the local golf collective that I would write to Joe to ask for a change and they laughed at me. But look for yourselves - HMRC Budget Note 50 says I am in the clear!
I have told others of this good news today and they dismiss my faith in our political process saying that some group of MPs or Revenue mandarins or Joe's many buddies must have found that they were in the same fix and got this considerable tax break sorted out.
You might ask why we hold the offshore property in a company in the first place. Well, I am sorry to admit that I don't fully understand why we do but it is some sort of tax wheeze but it's OK as it is only overseas tax that is being avoided! I am not proud of this but I feel better now that I know good old Joe is supporting my effort to avoid nasty foreign tax. So, no chatting this over with the neighbours when you are offshore and no embarrassing questions for Joe please. I don't know how much this has cost the nation but I get my tax back!! He really does care for the ordinary overseas property owning man in the street!

  • 24.
  • At 01:58 AM on 22 Mar 2007,
  • A motivated contributor wrote:

Britain's under-utilised contributors...

100s of graduates in every town every year in engineering marketing media studies business studies... + every demographies above...

They don't have to work for brand named companies...

They all thought on a need to know basis that was conservatively discriminatory self motivating ideas full and optimistic but unbelieving and writing against believer lecturers and raging status priviligisers and avoiding other peoples' approaches...but some days they were beaten by new economic games...

But All the banks are generous with credit...?

But companies are squandering 拢millions and wasting lives ....the corporate culture needs to be reawoken out of obedience toward task focus, and outcomes oriented out of income centred but wasteful and digressive degenerative behaviour role and psyche conceptions..

Humans need lives.. not every one has them... all the toolkits of optional approaches and leadership understanding could be there....instead people are deliberately redirected to wasteful activities...

So a competitive budget speaker would think to expose the weaknesses of behaviourist economic establishments and their models with economically degenerating selective determinisms and tax them out of business...for the sake of all young companionable players ambitious with potential morale enthusiasm opportunities and contributions to society...

Society is underperforming by 60%...we should vote GB for life worth more in new companies set up to adapt their own customisations for each generation of under-represented underutilised undercontributing under paid customers....

We welcome stalinist antithesists no-one wants to wait in line for the sake of greedy mindful economic failures who thought other cultures were underserving...


  • 25.
  • At 02:14 AM on 22 Mar 2007,
  • Chris Gudgin wrote:

The Bolton interview was just incredible.
"wahsing his hands of the whole affair" he certainly was.
He is sickening.

  • 26.
  • At 02:23 AM on 22 Mar 2007,
  • David wrote:

Anyone else notice the men in black suits walking across the top of the white house during the John Bolton interview?

  • 27.
  • At 03:31 AM on 22 Mar 2007,
  • PUGHtonyum wrote:

Just an ordinary, 56 year old bloke -

I've seen a few budgets, and this is much the usual same old tosh that gives a little here and takes a little there. Generally quite meaningless, leaving most of us with no improvemed lifestyle that we would desire for our families or us as individuals. I dare say that ther will be a quite high administrative cost to implement this one as with all previous.

Really, what is the purpose of insignificant tweaks? Surely the percentage of taxation remains much similar for us all, and we might debate that the richer folk are better off yet again, which I doubt is true in most cases.

But to make meaningful changes for us to have a better lifestyle or environment, we must surely all have some earned income to spend, with a fair and suitable taxation to enhance society, the environment or whatever else concerns us and the government. It would be so enlifting to have a budget that does something for us and improve our lives and our social environment.

Perhaps it is time for a complete review of taxation, where its spent where economies might be made and so forth. Surely the government must minimise administration costs in all areas especially with regard to collateral and pensions.

My guess is that there are very high and uneccessary costs associated with the administration of our government and these could surely be reduced to improve the tax burden and improve social services such as the NHS, police, and education.

And should our government be asking considering....
- Why doesn't the man in the street have little confidence that he belongs to a fair and just society where the government and its legal system does much to support him, his family, his religion, and his social and ethical values?
- why are there so many charitiable organisations that our businesses and population are willingly contributing?

Yea but, no but, yea but.... I expect to hear from our parliament.

Can anyone advise on pensioner emigration?

  • 28.
  • At 03:43 AM on 22 Mar 2007,
  • wrote:

Absolutely brilliant Jeremy tonight (16/10) - and it's the last Martha on Newsnight :-(. Excellent debate on the Budget and the untimely death of Bob Woolmer, John Bolton (seriously brilliant) and the return of Norman Lamont to the couch with Jeremy! Fantastic stuff.

  • 29.
  • At 05:11 AM on 22 Mar 2007,
  • Mr Wallace wrote:

John Bolton,good questions from paxman but Johnny boy Bolton smiled and lied.Can we not inject some truth serum into these people and get some real answers.Can you imagine John Bolton only answering truthfully to paxmans questions. A four hour newsnight special with Bolton spilling the beans on how the Bush led administration conned the public into supporting a war that was really in the interest of a few at the top of the USA corporate world,with tens of thousands murdered for the sake of greed and self interest.Bolton would blubber and cry with snot running down his shirt as he was telling paxman the list of crimes he and others have commited whilst he was part of the George Bush team ,his actions he would say, was akin to the infamous joseph goebbels, and he would be begging for forgiveness for playing a big part in the illegal Iraqi war.
yeah, i would watch that newsnight special, and then look forward to the hanging, did i tell you i am a hardliner...
I have been informed that Stalin was actually a lovely fella ,and been one for believing any old nonsense ,and i am prone for calling people stupid about not knowing stuff i only found out about yesterday,well er ,i take back all i said about Gordon Brown, he's a great bloke. Nurse,there are fairies at the bottom of my bed again,lovely pink ones.
Marthas gone to 成人论坛 radio 4,
how sad.(is radio 4 a step up?) i will miss her on newsnight,but i wont be listening to womens hour,who thought that one up? i bet it was a woman..
I hope this will not be a trend, vine left a few years ago to replace jimmy young,who next?paxman?wark?gavin?or that new presenter?,my god,i refuse even to imagine that happening,i will have to start watching channel 4 news ,the horror of that thought..
Double their salary,bring forward their appraisals, do it now newsnight wages dept, before they get itchy feet and bugger off to radio..

Gavin, can you send me that newsnight dulux mug and t-shirt now please,..xtra large

  • 30.
  • At 08:07 AM on 22 Mar 2007,
  • Neville Taylor wrote:

Surely a tax on 4x4's is not right. How can they be more polluting than other cars. The only way to tax to vehicles to become less polluting is to tax on fuel. The more you drive, the more you pay. I say this as I drive over 500 miles per week. I am personally contributing to the pollution of this world, whereas a local neighbour who has a 4x4 who nly uses the vehicles a few times a week is being penalised. I think that Gordon Brown has introduced this tax to try and rid the Uk of 4x4's due to the safety implications which has yet to be proven.

  • 31.
  • At 09:21 AM on 22 Mar 2007,
  • Cinna wrote:

The Junior Minister's Lament

Please Newsnight person don't get pithy with me,
You know I don't have access to my own vocabulary.
I'm safest when I'm in my box, don't make me think outside it,
Don't take my hackneyed utterance and casually deride it.

You Great Patrician Sceptic, you don't know what it's like,
To navigate this unquiet terrain not knowing what might strike.
This ritual dismemberment might keep me safe today
But dilute the message twice and there's no third way.

And I do want to be different, I'm here to do good,
I can't come unglued now, though your viewers wish I would.
The government I dreamed I'd join has disappeared from view,
Now I have to play these games to do what I want to do.

Process is not policy, spin has not served us,
My party's noblest efforts did not deserve thus,
Cut down, discarded, ridiculed, made over by outsiders,
They used their power rashly, those slick bully-boy outriders.

When our leader has disdain for us there's nowhere left but down,
From north to south we're hurting and the fault is our own.
But the media can't govern us, the pundits haven't money,
Just mouths to tell us once again our party trick's not funny.

You think that I've made my life and now I'm lying in it,
But an election is coming and we may not win it.
Isn't it just possible I'm more spun against than spinning?
Will the neo-Cons really give you your new beginning?

There wouldn't be an NHS, it took us to create it,
Magnanimity gave us power, you cannot negate it.
It took benevolent vision, a collected act of will,
And maligned as we are, we can be admirable still.

The Junior Shadow Minister's Response

Please interview me, I'm ready and I'm able,
And I'll kick their bruised legs underneath the table.
We sit agape, delighting, with the odd compassionate gag,
As they strangle themselves with a spectral Red Flag.

Who cares for Labour's Forties, the future is what matters,
And in these centrist Noughties their chances are in tatters.
Our history is greater, it's been bigger and it's brighter,
Our power may be diminished but our grip is still the tighter.

And we've got the answers for our valiant little isle,
We've done philanthropy before with dashing Tory style.
We'll do it again if need be; we hug those who give the finger,
We'll go to their constituencies and look, though we won't linger.

We're not the hypocrites, we've always loved the market,
We shopped there unrestricted, heard its wisdom and yet hark it.
Let business roam unfettered, Red tape's not our way,
Legislate them out of business and there's no payday.

Let the best of us rise up, like cream to the top,
The deserving will prosper, and the triers get a sop.
Encouragement: a bike to ride on their industrious way,
To putting back the Great in the Britain of today.

Bang up the yobbos, what on earth is wrong with that?
They blemish our homeland and they're often rather fat.
Bang them up and starve them, two birds with one just stone,
It's all they'll understand; they've had their time to moan.

But we'll let you choose to heed us, we're not into diktat,
It's breezy versus sleazy; we're the leaner kinds of cat.
If you want to hold your own you're welcome in our tent.
Whatever creed or colour, particularity or bent.

  • 32.
  • At 11:05 AM on 22 Mar 2007,
  • Helen Bang wrote:

John Bolton interview - I wish Jeremy had given him a harder time. I was hoping for a repeat of the Howard X 12 scenario.

As for Mr Bolton preferring to live in a failed state to under a dictator, personally I'd like to put him and all his family on the next flight to Baghdad. Let them find out what it's like fearing you or your loved ones are going to be blown up every time you go shopping.

If enabling terrorism was a crime he'd be going down for life.

Love the way the WMD thing is 'our problem'. Oh really? Sounded like he was saying that just 'thinking' about having WMD was enough to justify an invasion.

Washing his hands? Oh yes, John Pontius Pilate Bolton. I guess that's how he sleeps at night.

  • 33.
  • At 12:31 PM on 22 Mar 2007,
  • dicky wrote:

I guess politicians have to keep sniffing the smelly underpants of iraq until they recognise we have a Ministry of Defence and not a Ministry of Adventure?

Michael Crick stepping into Martha's shoes? replacing the bit of glamour with a bit of grammar?


  • 34.
  • At 12:50 PM on 22 Mar 2007,
  • keith fleming wrote:

For once, I find myself in broad agreement with Mr Wallace (gasp!). I'd only say that I disagree that Boltonsmiled and lied - I don't think there was anything disengenuous about what he said at all. Rather, he made it perfectly clear that he is quite the ugliest specimen of war-monger, quite the most callous neocon, quite the most despicable specimen of international brigand.

As others have said, hearty congratulations to Jeremy Paxman for attempting to hold him to account - but it's a singularly difficult task to hold to account a man who fails to see the massive errors made, their effects upon Iraq, Iraqis and the rest of the world.

Keith

  • 35.
  • At 02:31 PM on 22 Mar 2007,
  • wrote:

FINANCIAL EXCITEMENT WITHOUT RISK

Looking back over the decade of Gordon Brown鈥檚 chancellorship, what seems to be the key to his success is that he has steadfastly managed to do almost nothing whilst generating all the excitement which genuinely revolutionary changes might bring. Yesterday鈥檚 budget was typical. Minor, very minor, changes were presented with a theatrical flourish.

But, despite the cynicism of this approach, his obvious success seems to show that really is what people want. More important, it seems to be what the City 鈥 and the international markets 鈥 want. It provides the stable environment for optimism and growth. Alan Greenspan managed a similar miracle. Perhaps this is the main lesson of Brown鈥檚 period in office. Indeed, several decades ago we were already suggesting that the main requirement for sound financial government was stability, almost regardless of on what basis this was achieved. Not least, business wanted stability so that they could make their own plans. Any change which pushed these plans off course, no matter how well intentioned, was unwelcome. Gordon Brown has been the king of doing nothing whilst spinning the idea that he was actually controlling what was going on with an iron fist. Accordingly, his reputation as a control freak may be unjustified.

Paradoxically, Tony Blair 鈥 who is accused of being all spin 鈥 has actually managed to institute a wide range of revolutionary changes; from constitutional changes to social issues. The first question, therefore, is 鈥淲ill Gordon Brown be able to make the leap from doing nothing with flourish to genuinely 鈥 proactively - running the country whilst earning the trust of the electorate.

The second question is what happens when doing nothing no longer ensures stability. Catastrophe Theory, much discussed in the 1970s, has been overlooked in recent years. The lesson of this is that, by sleight of hand, you could push any system 鈥 in this case the global financial system 鈥 far beyond might otherwise be considered to be safe parameters. However, once any outside force pushed the system too far its descent into chaos was immediate and precipitous; leading, literally, to catastrophe. The evidence is that we are fast approaching this break point. We have long know that the US financial markets are living in cloud cuckoo land. After the ephemeral buoyancy provide by the do.com boom, then the boom in equities, and then the boom in property prices, most recently the US financial position has been supported by 鈥榗arry trades鈥 between the undervalued Far-Eastern currencies and the still overvalued US Dollar. As yet, despite losing more than a third of its value, the creditors on the global markets (most notably those dealing in petrodollars) have not pulled the rug from under the US Treasury; which is behaving almost like the maniac who demands you obey his demands or he will shoot himself! How long will this last before the first of these creditors works out that the first bailing out will be better of than the last?

  • 36.
  • At 02:57 PM on 22 Mar 2007,
  • wrote:

HOW CLEAN ARE JOHN BOLTON鈥橲 HANDS?

The interview with John Bolton followed the pattern of that with almost all modern villains caught red-handed; from those who ransacked Enron to Saddam himself. 鈥淣ot me guv鈥︹ is their first reaction. 鈥淚 was just an innocent bystander鈥︹ Everyone else is culpable. As such it is usually impossible to obtain any useful insight into what drove them to their villainy.

In the case of last night鈥檚 interview, however, a crucial item of information did emerge. This was Bolton鈥檚 claim that the 鈥榙ecisions鈥 should be split into two categories: the first that of removing Saddam Hussein (George Bush鈥檚 personal enemy) and the second that of securing the future of the Iraqui people. His claim - that achieving one of these (literally, as it turned out, the head of Saddam Hussein), though not the second, was enough to justify his actions 鈥 was almost incredibly na茂ve; and offered the clearest possible evidence of his poor grasp to ethical responsibility (indeed of war crimes).

However, in the wider context, it threw a great deal of light on what lay behind the Bush Administration鈥檚 decision-making. It becomes clear that only one thing, the first issue (the head of Saddam), informed their actions. The second (the future of Iraq as a whole, which the rest of the world was concerned about) was ignored! This, by itself, explains why the Administration was so wrong-footed. It had never even thought about what would happen after Saddam was captured; the consequences of their actions were never considered 鈥 as might be expected of such an irresponsible group of villains!

  • 37.
  • At 03:10 PM on 22 Mar 2007,
  • Mr Wallace wrote:

david @ 26 wrote
"Anyone else notice the men in black suits walking across the top of the white house during the John Bolton interview?"

I noticed that dark figure on the top of the white house as well.
Maybe he had a sniper rifle at the ready if Bolton said to much."George,he's getting into deep with this 成人论坛 interview, okey Bob,you know what to do,one clean shot should do it".

back and to the left,back and to the left..

or for your specialist in balistics projectile analysts.

very much forward,very much forward

  • 38.
  • At 03:55 PM on 22 Mar 2007,
  • Effie Notts wrote:

The only thing that 'Poor Effie' wonders about is the mentality of an elderly man who is so unsure of his own masculinity that he resorts to personal insults and slinging mud.
Which in my considered opinion is ground lost when one has to resort to these tactics.
That is more in keeping with the mind of a pubescent teenager

  • 39.
  • At 07:26 AM on 23 Mar 2007,
  • wrote:

Yesterday I was listening to the Jeremy Vine show Budget follow-up... and the 'performances' I heard, from both sides of the table, had me wishing for Jeremy Paxman to be in the chair.

Though, to be fair to Mr. Vine, much can be laid at the door of the facile demands of soundbite media, where interviewers get constrained and now savvy politicians can use the ridiculous timeslots to say nothing, not answer or duck and run to best advantage.

In Eric Morley, Miss World style, let me in reverse order dismiss the talentless robots put forward by the Conservatives and Liberals. I think I could have drummed up more coherent counter-argument from my kids' playground. There was such fertile ground for opposition to shine and show government failings and where they would make a difference. Sadly, rehashing outdated (things can change in minutes and you need to move fast to react) spin-meister training may seem like good micro-management, but doesn't do much beyond making them seem like only being worried about being on-script.

But Mr. Brown....

He was allowed to waffle out facts ... over and over and over again... that neither answered the questions nor excused the positions the country finds itself in.

It is a possible failing of our political system that some parties have only 5 years to effect real change, but you work with what you have got.

This... government has had a long time more to do what it said it wished to do. Not only has it either not done it, but in many cases has changed its tune to suit.

In fact the only real achievement, supported by Mr. Brown's own testimony, has been to pour money into black holes, and/or employ legions more people to help gobble this money up to little or no result.

As just one example, to Mr. Vine's challenge that most people, including Doctors, find the NHS to be in a dire state despite the multi-billions lavished upon it, we were treated to a time-consuming rumbled drone of figures and excuses about 'modernisation'. You can't blame pre-1997 any more Mr. Brown!

And whoever thought up the nonsense of consuming precious challenge time with 'listener questions' should be shot. One, isolated, cock-up is legitimately and reasonably dismissed as not something he has heard about, but write in and it will be dealt with. When.. in another ten years?

And thus he managed to tell the interviewer wordlessly that he was busy and had enough and that was that. What a waste of space.

And speaking of waste, well, the environment, which is my core interest, I came back last night to a post on my site from a reader which sums up how green this budget was (noting some other great points above):

"I'd like to share the fantastic increase in the budget for microgeneration grants administered via the Low Carbon Building Fund. From 拢6Mill to 拢9Mill - brilliant!... that'll make a massive difference! Here's where it will go - half to employ more administrators and bean counters with gilt-edged pensions and half (I hope!!) to those concerned (albeit well entrenched) consumers who would like to do their bit.

So now the LCBF grants will run out at 11:45 on the morning of the first working day of each month rather than at 10:30? Fat lot that goes towards helping. Uncle Gord might as well have stuck two fingers up to the electorate .... or did I blink and miss him doing just that?"

That's our 2p worth anyway.

  • 40.
  • At 12:04 PM on 23 Mar 2007,
  • bernard grose wrote:

All the concern about the environment is an attempt to blind people to the facts. In reality the increased concerns about greenhouse gases have allowed the government to obtain increased taxes from many sources. The scientific camp is divided as to whether it is due to man or whether it is a natural occurrence: in the first of these we ought to ground all planes, ban all transport and turn off the lights and central heating - none of that is going to happen. if it is a natural occurrence we can not change it anyway. The conservative view is no different to labour they all see it as a good tax raiser. The divide between rich and poor is now so wide that the top 40% have no idea of how the lower 60% struggle to survive.

  • 41.
  • At 12:06 PM on 23 Mar 2007,
  • bernard grose wrote:

All the concern about the environment is an attempt to blind people to the facts. In reality the increased concerns about greenhouse gases have allowed the government to obtain increased taxes from many sources. The scientific camp is divided as to whether it is due to man or whether it is a natural occurrence: in the first of these we ought to ground all planes, ban all transport and turn off the lights and central heating - none of that is going to happen. if it is a natural occurrence we can not change it anyway. The conservative view is no different to labour they all see it as a good tax raiser. The divide between rich and poor is now so wide that the top 40% have no idea of how the lower 60% struggle to survive.

  • 42.
  • At 12:30 PM on 23 Mar 2007,
  • Maurice - Northumberland wrote:

Oh tut tut EFFIE - you make a fool of yourself time after time, I have no idea why Blogs continue to give you the space to do it!
Perhaps for a bit of humour!
Or maybe to allow you, a representative of your beloved Labour Party) to show just how much they/you rely on spin, in other words lies and deceit.
The con-men/women of the most incompetent Government in living history.

Can you remind me 'How many Pensioners were jailed in relation to Council Tax's'?
And about Hospital Patients on trolly's etc.
You could add the Boom/Bust NHS under the clunking iron fist of Socialism.
Then tell us about how well the Armed Forces Families are catered for.
Would you do that?
You've got a forum - use it!

  • 43.
  • At 04:08 PM on 23 Mar 2007,
  • Effie Notts wrote:

Not sufficiently interested in a pathetic, jealous, friendless old man.
No wonder you spend so much time on the blogs, you have to live with yourself.
I can at least delete you with a click of the mouse.

  • 44.
  • At 07:30 PM on 23 Mar 2007,
  • Maurice - Northumberland wrote:

#43.
Predicatable as Ever, can't/won't answer a few very easy questions, can't support the words, so what does the socialist do, yep, they have a rant and throw in a bit of name calling.
What's wrong EFFIE - questions to hard? Or are you like your fellow travellers to busy sweeping stuff under the carpet, it must be nearly up to the ceiling by now and then some.

Oh You never said 'How is the
'Save the Labour Party Org' doing' are they getting anywhere?

Oh and by the way - you are AGAIN wrong on all your assumptions, they might be what you want - but like your sleazy self serving lying Government your wrong!

  • 45.
  • At 08:48 PM on 23 Mar 2007,
  • Effie Notts wrote:

Hardly name calling Maurice it was not me that almost got kicked off a blog for being so offensive and then complaining to the blog owner that you were always being edited out, that was after having to eat humble pie.
Did you nearly choke on it?
Not only did you come across as a spoilt child it was more in keeping of a menopausal male.
However on your new found blog I am quite sure the fellow bloggers will soon become aware of just how much of a bigot, how thoroughly nasty and spiteful you are and they will realise that in your vindictive moods, you will come across more akin to a female suffering from PMT than a man. However I am sure the more intelligent of those have realised that by now.
Have a nice evening.

  • 46.
  • At 10:37 AM on 24 Mar 2007,
  • Maurice - Northumberland wrote:

Still no answers EFFIE, still the same old rants when invited to repeat your statements!
How is the 'Save The Labour party' going?

And for your information - No one on any blog has hinted that I would be banned.
Whilst you describe the Sky Blog as anti-Labour, you will note that it was you who were allowed to post a reference in regard to jailed Pensioners and the Council Tax issue.
A posting that was a complete and utter lie! Yet Adam Boulton did not allow any correction nor challenge to your lie - also try the Patients on Trolleys again, and Forces families treatment whilst the husbands/wives are away doing Blair and Co's dirty business.
That is not an anti-Labour Blog by any stretch of anyones imagination.
So would you like to repeat it on this blog, for these bloggers to see just what you are like? they can already see from your tirade a lot!

So still no answers no, apparently not - as usual, says it all doesn't it!
Still Labour through and through no matter what the disasterous results - and there already are many with very many more to come - and it will be the future generations that will have to once again pick up the pieces of the shambles of bankrupcy left by another Labour Government.
And you are a happy clappy bunny at the consequences. So - Be happy, it is your grand kids who will have to live with it!

  • 47.
  • At 11:07 AM on 27 Mar 2007,
  • Maurice - Northumberland wrote:

Typical - When the waffle words of the Labourite are challenged - Nothing!

Other writers - visit Sky's and the Adam Boulton Blog.
It Gives a very strong clue as to which way the company Sky (Murdoch) is travelling.

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