³ÉÈËÂÛ̳

I can't believe you send emails out with these sorts of questions. I pay my licence fee to watch your programme, hopefully produced by a team of experts - not find myself solicited for Questions to put to your guest, advice on what issues to discuss in your programme. For goodness' sake, get a grip.

It's all so tiresome and tedious. Why don't you just have the night off, put your feet up and watch High Society.

Why has ³ÉÈËÂÛ̳ news gone so quiet on Guantanamo Bay? There are still hundreds of innocent people being held captive, illegally, and supposedly in the name of freedom and democracy. If a single Englishman (particularly a reporter) were being held hostage by terrorists, in the Middle East, we'd hear about it every single day until they were either confirmed dead or released. Why not the innocent people held captive by the Americans?

A good hard look at where Mr. Brown is going.
or has Mr. cameron and Co. got the breath of fresh air we all need.

Was mr. Browns speech aimed at sending us all to sleep!!!??

Please stop doing this. You are the news experts; we expect you to make decisions on what is important based on your wider knowledge of current affairs.

I don't want my news to be interactive; I want it to be accurate, considered, balanced, and give me an indication of the important issues affecting the world today. I don't want news that simply panders to the agenda of those who shout loudest. I don't have time to keep up with everything and make decisions about what is and is not important; that's your job!

Your current approach smacks of lack of confidence in your own knowledge and judgement. That will taint my opinion of your ability to deliver the quality of news reporting that I expect.

Why not ask Sir Ronald Cohen about the carbon footprint of the businesses from which he is making so much money. What if they were all to go carbon-neutral, as they must if we are to minimise further rises in carbon dioxide?

one thought, ignoring those above of course.... :-) is to ask this question. About the proposed peace process meeting / conference - call it what you will - in Annapolis.

Israel's are being called upon to make "confidence building" measures.

Perhaps the questions should be asked, What are the Palestinians being asked to make - and in the wider area, should the onus always be on Israel to make confidence building measures / concessions, in the run up to these sorts of conferences?

I think that the question of party funding is likely to be the most long-lasting issue in terms of how our democracy is shaped over the next generation or so. the only 'party funding' from teh State at present is the Leader of the Opposition's salary and car. Were we to move to a more corporatist state-funded model I believe that it wiould have profound effects on how our democracy works, barriers to new and minority parties; and indeed teh princiople that people who believe in a party's principles should be prepared to fund them. Why should I as a hard-working taxpayer be made to suppport financially parties which hold political ideals to which I am implacably opposed?
State funding would make parties politically flabby, unadventurous, and safe, whereas political debate should be bold, adventurous and radical. The dead hand of state funding would not only be unjust to taxpayers but would stifle real debate.

This is all rubbish - lets get back to the newsnight as it was.

The lead story should be the government's ongoing attempts to introduce detention without trial.
So far, it has failed to convince that these powers are needed, that the police are unable to monitor and survey then act on information to arrest and charge people of ill-will. The more one reads of the justification for detention, the more uneasy one gets. 'Unable to prove'; 'suspicion but no hard evidence'. These are like the Lettres de Cachet of pre-Revolutionary France. The accused don't know what evidence there is against them - if any; the police rely on 'intelligence' that may include anonymous accusations made with malicious intent - gossip, in other words. You seriously going to allow people to be locked up because of gossip?
Meanwhile, the government sets its face firmly against use of phone-tapping and intercept evidence being allowed in Court.
Where is the logic? Is intercept evidence excluded so that the government can strengthen its case for longer detention? If so, it should hang its head in shame. And those who support it should be aware of the longer-term implications. Even 28 days detention is too long - longer means we are sleepwalking into a police state.
The guy who was burned attacking Glasgow Airport? What, really, is the problem? He was in intensive care and he really wasn't going anywhere. there was no need to detain him formally in any way. And then he died.
Hard cases make bad law and that's a particularly bad example to choose when seeking to shore up a shaky case for a simply unacceptable measure.

Best wishes

Ruari

I think 28 days detention and Wisconsin would be of most interest

Your in depth reports, such as the excellent ones from White Horse Village in China are so much more interesting than the day-to-day Westminster tittle-tattle (with the exception of Micheal Crick who, Paxo-style, gives the politicians a good run for their money). How about more reports from Europe, there must be *something* interesting going on there - we have so much drivel from the US... like they govern us?

Hello Carol Rubra,

On a lighter side for our newsnight programme for today tomorrow some time soon, how abut a report on the Clipper Race 07-08 that is on going now (Round the world yacht race).

Best regards
Marek J Kozniewski

I'd simply ask why he is supporting the Labour Party and not the Conservative Party (or does he not want others to be as successful as he is)?

Today I received an on-line copy of POST newspaper (Pakistan) featuring an article on the Pink Ribbon - Breast Cancer Awareness month campaign in Pakistan run by the Women's Empowerment Group and the awareness/public education programme it is running in Women's Colleges this year.

Don't you think Newsnight should be looking at the impact of the West's reaction to the current emergency on voluntary work of this kind rather than those things that interest the chatterati?

Let's start looking behind the headlines at impact and outcomes ..please.

I confess a vested interest our firm in Pakistan works pro-bono on WEG programmes.

PLw

Has the globalisation of the news lead to us taking our eye off the ball domestically? We've moved from guys like Gavin Esler and Matt Frei in Washington, a one-man band bringing us the US perspective to having whole news teams across the States, ³ÉÈËÂÛ̳ America and all it's ilk. The 24 hr news channels have filled their airtime with foreign stories but should so much of our flagship reporting, 1pm, 6pm, 10pm, Newsnight, be foreign? Do we learn things from foreign events that we don't from domestic? Is the collapse of Northern Rock the big story or is it the American sub-prime crunch?

Hello all.

Why is the ³ÉÈËÂÛ̳ so fearfull of haveing discusions and debates about all religions.
Fors and againsts would make a wonderfull programe, this would of course have to include is there or isn't there a "God".
Openness is a wonderfull thing but this one does seem to be sidesteped!!!!!

Cheers
Mick.

First thing to do is to ignore the whingers who clearly haven't got the mental capacity to form an opinion!

Second thing would be to take a serious look at the 28 day (plus) detention issue. I listened to the Home Secretary on the radio this morning; it sounds very much as though the Government are flapping about . intellectually bankrupt on this, as they are on many other matters.

If you cover the state funding of political parties why not talk to UK
Independence Party.
They wrre the only party to oppose it even though as a small party they wopuld benefit by about a million pounds.

I can suggest again a story on how the ³ÉÈËÂÛ̳ has already spend over £400k of license payers money fighting the release of Balen report from the public and how that relates with an organisation that uses the Freedom of Information act as an essential tool for their work.

Contrary to the stick-in-the-mud views already expressed, I think it's a great idea to to see if there is scope for enlisting your viewers suggestions for programme content. Well done!

My suggestions:

1. The Independent has front-paged today on a possible banking crisis involving several high street banks. An item on what the possibilities are.

2. A look at/interview with, the two LibDem leadership runners.

Hello Newsnight
I sent a comment in early this morning about how you represnted the story from Culpeper Virginia. I would like that discussed further on Newsnight.

How long does it take for comment to show up on the blog space? Mine still is not there.

28 days detention is the big subject for me at present - I recognise and understand the concerns for human rights BUT I am a human too and we expect the Police and Security Services to protect us - they want and need us to trust them - we need and want to trust them - if they say that its in our interests to enable them to do their jobs successfully then we should trust that judgement and allow the extension - even given that in some circumstances it may prove to be less than fruitful and there is a risk that an injustice may occur we should accept this in the belief that its for the greater good - for all of us - including the dissenters !!!

Please do an insightful programme on the recent (Oct 1 07) change in UK law allowing the Govt & over 762 minor Govt/charity & private organizations to literally snoop on every UK citizen's landline and mobile phone calls. The govt used an arcane 1972 law that was never designed for this purpose combined with a new EU law to control all phone companies to keep a digital recording of every phone conversation in the UK for one year WITHOUT RECOURSE OR DEBATE IN PARLIAMENT. The Home secretary signed this bill in July to come in to effect on 1st Oct, timed so that the media was headlining political party conferences & this important piece of legislation wiping our civil liberty of privacy off the statue books. In Germany over 50,000 people too to the street in protest within hours of a similar loss of their civil liberties being taken away, but in the UK not a peep. No one I have spoken to even knows about it. I rang my (Labour) MP's clerk, who told me they knew of the law and then proceeded to argue with me about it. I told him he was missing the point, as prior to this law, a judge was required for the police to obtain in order to bug a citizen's phone calls. He backed down then and said, oh this is a civil liberites issue. Amazing! What is Newsnight doing about this law, I would have thought Jeremy Paxman would be screaming from turrets of Big Ben at the House of Parliament to do something about this. I rang the ³ÉÈËÂÛ̳ and got a chap in Scotland who was in the dept for deciding about future programmes. He had not heard of this law either, took my phone number and said he would get back to me, but not a sausage. I highly suggest you do a programme on this issue to get our civil liberties back, and to also do an investigation on how the Govt is using technology to control the populace. I for one do not like being treated in such a cavilier manner. The Govt here & in the USA are using the problem of terrorism to give themselves undue power to control and snoop on the majority who are law abiding citizens. I got this info from the Mail on Sunday on 29th Sept 07. The editorial that day stated this law is open to abuse as there are no controls on who can use it, anyone can get a job in a local council for example and have access to anyone else's private phone conversations. I guess the way forward is to alert big business to this as their competitors can check their dealing out as they are occuring, the private citizen is unlikely to be listined to unless programmes like Newsnight actually do some investigative reporting on a national scale. Big Brother is here and not on Channel 4!!! Regards Pam Kish

PS the Govt also has in play with benefits offices/ tax offices etc, software that is in effect a lie detector test. The software shows inspectors if one's voice pattern is incongrous with their bench mark of "truth". They do not inform anyone of this either.

I am afraid I need to echo Hannah's comments particularly the reference to those who shout the loudest. For global balance I have started to watch TF1 with Patrick available on broadband as apart from being dumbed down (newsnight excepted) UK news broadcasting is obsessed with finding populist and "emotional" subjects. I am thinking of offering a prize for the UK journalist who can say the word reunion without preceeding it with the E word.
If you are looking for a subject you do not have far to Travel, the state of UK TV Broadcasting. How can a medium that on one hand can produces "Poliakoff" and "Genius of Photography" contain so much output based on satisfying the ugliest human qualities, confrontation, greed and schadenfreude.

I would be interested to know if Sir Ronald Cohen's book on how to be an entrepreneur advises one to steer clear of Countries that tax you to the hilt and tie you up in legislative bureaucracy? Such as the UK.Perhaps if he's that close to Gordon Brown he could have an entrepreneurial word in his ear.

I disagree with the previous comments and think this is an innovative approach to gathering news and presenting news programmes.

On the issue of party funding I don't think enough attention is paid to the short comings of our electoral system which actually promotes the financial 'arms race' between the political parties.

While we continue with a system that creates 'safe seats' and 'marginal seats' political parties will continue to require large amounts of money to pour into the few parliamentary seats that matter.

On the issue of the detention of terrorism suspects I think you should just re-run the clip of Walter Wolfgang the elderly gentleman manhandled and bundled out of a Labour Party conference. He was subsequently detained and questioned under the Prevention of Terrorism Act. His crime? He heckled the Home Secretary!

We all need to understand that these increasingly draconian laws apply to all of us and not just people of Asian origin with beards.

A parallel is CCTV originally erected to combat crime. Research now shows there's not much of that being done but quite a bit of nicking residents parking their cars to drop off their shopping.

What about a feature on the 25th anniversary of Alan Bleasdale's magisterially bleak Boys from the Blackstuff? Today is exactly a quarter of a century since "George's last ride" was shown on ³ÉÈËÂÛ̳2 and that was especially resonant as 27 days earlier the Daily Mirror opined about a city which was tagged the Bermuda Triangle of British Capitalism that: "They should build a fence around Liverpool and charge admission. For sadly, it has become a 'showcase' of everything that has gone wrong in Britain's major cities".

Next year's European Capital of Culture? What a difference a quarter of a century makes? AND more recently Bleasdale's Blackstuff came second out of the top 50 TV dramas, only topped by Tony Soprano. Liverpool's scouse Dickens still loves life too much to want to upset Tony!

Are we sleep walking into a police state?
The Home Sec wants to be able to lock us up for what - 56 days - without trial or even an appearance before a Judge and probably no 'phone call'. Why? Which other countries have these laws - Pakistan maybe, Myanmar, China?

ID cards will infringe on the normal tax paying citizen and have no impact on terrorism - at least according to Charles Clark when he was Home Sec. I just googled 'do it yourself id cards'and 267,000 sites were found.

Anything who thinks 'if I am innocent I have nothing to fear' just ask Mr de Menezes - oh sorry he was shot.

These are real concerns and I would like to know what is being done to counter them. Or is the introduction of these measures inevitable.

One thing about your program - whilst I like seeing politicans in difficulty when you force them to answer the question, they treat us all with so much contempt spouting their political party line each time. Push them harder.

Last week saw some coverage given to abortion; but for the most part only in the context of time limits. There was a polite tut-tutting in the direction of the number of abortions, but little more.

I would like to see Newsnight and its editors give the coverage to abortion, and annual UK death roll from from it(now approaching 200,000;and over 6 million since 1967)that this number of killings clearly needs. No child in the womb asks its parents to kill it.

How can any society in good faith treat the unborn child in one hospital bed as a patient; and the one in the next bed as so much incinerator waste?

With so much of the ³ÉÈËÂÛ̳`s news output dominated by politic speculation it would be refreshing to have one hard news item at the core of each programme. Do you remember when the news contained news? There is a whole world out there....get digging and reporting.

The debate, on this forum, between those who welcome an opportunity to have a real input into Newsnight's coverage - and those who see this as an desperate soliciting of ideas by an editorial team bereft of them is, itself, fascinating.

We now live in the birth of highly inter-active age. Or perhaps it has grown somewhat and these are its teenage years? Either way, the debate is wider than Newsnight, the ³ÉÈËÂÛ̳ or broadcasting.

Newsnight's editorial decision to seek viewers' input into coverage-decisions might be seen as an abdication of responsibility. However, it equally might be regarded as a courageous and adventurous step: attempting to grapple with opportunities and dangers offered and posted by the phase in the Information Age. It is, after all, much easier not to seek inter-active vox pop and there are plenty of subjects to cover if the team is in need of more.

Whilst one might well have misgivings about the whole interactive culture, it seems rather harsh to lambaste Newsnight editors simply for trying new concepts. It may be a concept viewers do not want but at least let us recognize the boundary-pushing at Newsnight and praise them for not simply stagnating.

TC.

Good day.
I am writing to introduce a topic for discussion, in today's Newsnight for example.
Ministry of Healthcare and Social Development of Russia has violently cut down a list of permissions for abortion, leaving only 2 of them: rape and family relation. This policy is thought to improve state vital statistics.
Perhaps it would be interesting to summarize the global experience of government interference into this area.

Yours faithfully,
Alina S Bolgareva

Are you asking the public to supply Newsnight with ideas because the ³ÉÈËÂÛ̳ has sacked its researchers? If this is the case, you should not dress it up as an experiment in 'media democracy'.

However, here is an idea worth a good report supported by sound research: "the NHS and lymphoedema (primary and secondary)". Do take it up, please: the overwhelming ignorance of GPs and nurses about lymphoedema and the lack of care and provision for its sufferers are a shame and a scandal which flies in the face of the 'care for all' and 'cancer care' rhetoric that the ³ÉÈËÂÛ̳ is far too eager to propagate.

Why not do a special on the rouge debt collection agencies that use harrasment and bullying tactics.

A fine idea of getting your viewers more involved. I like it! Now then, I would like the ³ÉÈËÂÛ̳ to educate me more on what the Pakistan crisis means for nuclear stability. To what extent are safeguards are in place, and how credible are those safeguards? Thank you. HP.

i see the blog is under organised attack. So what is their vested interest? Are they NUJ? Friends of Kirsty? They protest too much.

My line up

The big story is the dollar. When even fashion models want to be paid in euros something is up. Some suspect we are watching the end of the dollar as the world currency?

Does Bush have a 'new best friend' in Sarkozy?

Olympic Stadium cost comes in at nearly double estimate before building has begun? Is this Dome 2?

On the run Imran Khan goes underground? What's the point?

Time to rehabilitate Anna Goldi the last witch to be executed by a court of law in Europe? But are witch hunts coming back?

why not do anything about the political crisis in Belgium, which will reach a new highth this afternoon

Todd Congreve - that would be a great point if they really were pushing boundaries, but they aren't. They're following in the footsteps of the worst excesses of reality TV.

Interactivity is deeply fashionable at the moment, with scant regard paid to whether it may be appropriate or not. I find it frankly disturbing that Newsnight feels the need to become a slavish follower of fashion.

As one who has served time trying to extricate useable vox pops from members of the public, I have observed first hand how willing people are to offer comment or opinion without any knowledge or understanding on which to base them. The team at Newsnight have the knowledge, skills and editorial discernment to do the job far better than any of us posting on here. They should be allowed to get on with their jobs without feeling they are somehow failing their audience by doing so.

The 3 priorities are immigration, immigration,immigration. And I say that because as a by product of it we are loseing our freedom. I had always welcomed it and the way it enriched our society and still would if only incomers would to some extent integrate. It's not the immigrants who are taking away our freedoms it's their religions. Ours is a secular society and should remain so. If you utter anything like this you are considered racist. I think discrimination is a bad thing, positive as well as negative discrimination, as in the long run positive discrimination backfires and the indiginous population who have suffered the negative end of the discrimination will stand for it no more.

Why not use your programme to quote exactly and then discuss what Enoch Powell actually said rather than what the politically correct industry version uses to denigrate him? He did not use the words "Rivers of Blood", but was quoting Virgil's writings. See Hansard. Far from being a racist he had a fine humanitarian record in India and Kenya.

What about Nicolas Sarkozy's trip to see George Bush - pourquoi pas ?

My question has nothing to do with politics but with culture .
After many days of reporting about the disasters in
Tabasco and Chiapas i did not find any mention of the
condtion of the great archeoligical park in Villahermosa , " The Parque de la Venta " where all the monumental remains of the Olmec civilisation are on display .
Is there any information available ?

Dear Newsnight

Hello there too, I echo the majority, this is a great idea,

The positive side

• Already 34 viewers using this opportunity you have given us, 3 against, -overwhelming

and now a tie in with 5 live –great stuff, go for it !

re Positive stuff

• a general question for Sir Ronald Cohen, to do with setting up and running a successful business, and to do with every aspect of our lives -including even thinking of this innovation on this website, trying out such stuff and persevering with new idea such as this despite the detractors and discouragers?

• Positive stuff- an attitude, how do you acquire it if you haven’t got it, how important is it to do with setting up a business and not least how do you insulate yourself (without becoming unfeeling) from the vast cloud of negativity and pessimism that seems to exist in our nation at the moment?

-I had an interesting chat with a successful local businessman I know along these lines,

Hope helpful -particularly for anyone trying to push things forward, improve their local community or fight for things they care about despite discouragements from the doom merchants or for wannabe entrepreneurs like (me)

• How often do we hear from all around us, how hopeless everything is, no one listens, its all impossible, we can never improve things, ah there what do you expect,

It’s all garbage of course,

Many people seem conditioned in our society to expect the worse, expect to be ignored by those making the decisions, to believe they can’t make a difference, basically to expect to fail.

I don’t believe this is true. I certainly do not accept it and hope I never will.

What does Sir Ronald Cohen think about this? What is his experience of other countries and cultures and how does this impact on their performance such as in business and say in a sport.

How important was being positive in setting up his company?

If we continue to expect failure does Sir Ronald think we may eventually see our predictions come true and the UK will become a second world country?

best wishes, hope helpful
Bob

For the exclusive interview with Sir Ronald Cohen, I would like to ask, why private equity have unequalled tax privileges. When they make an insignificant contribution to the UK's future wealth creation?

Proportional representation. It's about time we were ASKED if PR is what we want. How about a referendum? Do either of the two main parties have the 'bottle' for it?

Fascinating that Lord Drayson has decided to resign as a defence minister, to concentrate on a high-octane career in motor racing, in an attempt to win the 24 hour Le Mans Race.
He must have taken one look at Gordon Brown's performance yesterday and practically lost the will to live. He'd rather put his life on the line than stick with this loser.

Gordon Brown's party is dull, dull, dull, he is even driving party members away (literally), to follow more exciting and stimulating dreams than running the country. How can Labour try and capture the imagination of the public when this Great Pretender of a Prime Minister doesn't even connect with his own party? Gordon Brown is hopeless at the despatch box, completely out of his depth. Where are the bold leadership qualities of a democratically elected leader?

Will there be a slow exodus of political minds, as they desert Gordon's sinking ship to pursue the adrenalin rush of extreme sports?

I think you should cover the "renewed push for artery screening" item on the news webpage.

"Abdominal Aortic Aneurysms" are the third most common cause of death for older men, yet there is still no simple screening programme in place to detect these in the early stages.

I'd like to see a discussion on either the 28-day detention, or the announcement of the Olympic Stadium in London. As the detention story has already been talked about quite a bit already, I'll keep my focus on the Olympics.
At the cost of £496 Million, the stadium is not only awfully bland, it also seems to be too much money to spend on a stadium that will eventually be reduced from 80,000 to a "...25,000-seater community base."
With world class stadiums made in Germany, Japan, Korea, China, Australia, and Greece for previous Olympics and World Cups, this design seems to be, just like our logo, a massive let down.

Both the Times and Telegraph have given prominent coverage to the story involving Kirsty Wark's husband and the email system at RDF. Now surely that's newsworthy? Perhaps little Crick could smirk over that one.

Ronald’s book: ‘The Second Bounce of the Ball’ on how to be an entrepreneur is
a very important document which, in my view has been written at the right time especially
for Sub-Saharan African scholars and students of business studies and commercial subjects.

In which way can Sir Ronald Cohen and his publisher make the book affordable and easily accessible to readers especially in schools and other institutions of learning in low income countries? I believe, it provides several recipes and practical ideas in the fight to ‘make poverty history’ through entrepreneurship skills.

KAYAWE C. PATRICK
Lecturer In Languages And Linguistic Studies
in Livingstone Zambia.

Why not a short piece on the political confusion in Belgium? I even ask my Belgian friends what's going on and nobody knows.

In just over 2 hours there were almost 50 comments on this post; evidence of an interest in participation by Newsnight viewers in by far the best current affairs programme on television in GB. I know that some comments were along the lines of: I pay my licence so don't ask me to think: but most want to join in with the fun.

The subject I would like you to discuss is Christmas Lights. We have become used to local councils funding extra illumination in our streets in December each year but how much longer will this continue?

Spiraling costs, health and safety checks and the need to curtail Council Tax rises are forcing councillors like myself to consider axing these tradiditional displays.

For example, unless something changes early in 2008, there will be no Christmas Lights in Bury St Edmunds next year. Nobody, seemingly, wants to organise or pay for it: everyone thinks someone else should pay.

I'm sure Bury isn't unique and CHristmas Lights in our town centres could soon become a distant memory.

Mark Urban.
Let's hear from him on Pakistan.

Boring Boring Boring.

I think I'll give Newsnight a miss for a while.

Asking us these damn-fool questions now and again is interesting. But every day?!!!! P-L-E-A-S-E NO More.

Dear Sir

Will you ask him why does not like to invest in Africa where many Youngers people are available waiting for empowerment, please give me answer as soon as possilbe.
DAVID ( Cape Town, South Africa)

Hello Carol
As one of your regular viewers i wish to express my delight at the editorial comment posted by Peter Baron..I feel it is a good experiment to canvass viewers opinions on what is and is not important to ask such an eminent a person as Sir Ronald Cohen.. if anyone has a problem with that they they obviously want to be spoon-fed by the ³ÉÈËÂÛ̳. So long as it doesnt prevent accurate stories and reporting i feel in this case it is surely a good idea.
The only argument in favour of most peoples objections to this style is that those who have no time or cant be bothered to have any input do not get a say.. but then they can always switch off...
I would like to ask Sir Ronald only one question...why is the Government moving towards a police state and big brother mentality.. as well as ultra high taxation... surely this hampers growth and entrepreneurism.. The number of Brits leaving allied to the (falsely) claimed net immigration figures surely prove this.
If New Labour wants a historic 4th term what is his recipe for success?

I sent a message this morning suggesting some questions for "Sir" Ronald Cohen, but it hasn't appeared.

Do we get to find out whether and why our messages have been deemed unsuitable ?

I would absolutely insist that my questions are the sort the ³ÉÈËÂÛ̳ should be asking, but never do. Refusing to allow people even to suggest certain questions here only confirms that this purported attempt to involve the public is a sham.

An "exclusive" interview with a multi-millionaire with a book to sell. Wow, that's quite a journalistic coup.

You could have him interviewed by Jeremy Paxman, you know, the one with the millionaire salary from the ³ÉÈËÂÛ̳.

may I suggest you discuss the following....
1. gordon brown s career move
and how much better/worse off
we are with him in the driving
seat.
2 Why is the pound now the number
one currency on the
planet and what this
means ?
3.When the dollar is replaced with
the EURO will we be asked to join
euro as the pound joins the
dollar landside.

Respectfully
Rasputin

First of all I think it's a great experiment. However, too many times we have seen politicians set targets etc and then not know how they are going not only to collect the results, but how to evaluate them. But surely you know? So would you share it with us, please?

I can understand you want variety and that there are some subjects that are rather delicate, like Kirsty's news or the royal blackmail for instance, but a lot of thoughtful people watch Newsnight which is far and away the best prog of its type on the box so the important aspect of whatever you choose, I suggest, is depth. We get too much superficiality.

Keep up the jolly good work.

You recently had an interesting item (albeit culled from another ³ÉÈËÂÛ̳ documentary) on whether MPs could be persuaded to support a bill outlawing lying by MPs. Predictably, it was like asking Turkeys to vote for Christmas. I suggest something similar - ask MPs whether it is ever justified to break the law in a democracy? If we've all ascented to the laws made on our behalf (however loosely through the electoral system) how can any individual justify picking and choosing which to obey? Yet we all do, to some extent or other, whether taking drugs as admitted by many members of the cabinet, or by direct action (Greenham comman, Brian Haw etc...). What do our MPs think?

Can you please stop this parituclar little campaign! It may be cheap market research for you, and somewhat perhaps boost staff morale but it really is highly irritating to get these ev ery day. And I am sure there are lots of regular viewers who simply do not have the time to respond and are thus not represented in this forum so even your market research results are not that accurate and only represent the news buffs with nothing better to do than to give you ideas.

So please do stop this particular little caper. Thank you!

I think that as Gordon Brown seeks to put his stamp on the remaining years of the present Government and to find fresh directions it would be interesting to run a series on life in Britain as seen through the eyes of its citizens - perhaps drawing a comparison with life before Labour - this could be related to current issues - eg the situation of the pensioner (with nest egg in Northern Rock?/ inheritance tax issues), the young family (cost of housing/work and care of children issues), family with children in education (literacy & numeracy issues/raising of school leaving age),family with student/young person (move from education to employment), carer/disabled/long term sick (back to work initiatives/ cost and quality of care), immigrant (lots of issues!!), asylum seeker (ditto), family with person in prison (rehabilitation v. punishment) rural families (effect of animal disease on rural economy) etc etc
and ... what do the other parties have to say on these issues??

How about investigating precisely how much hospitals are steadly increasing the amount and frequency of out of court settlements to the public in respect of the ever increasing incompetence and the knock on effect of paranoia about attaining Govt. targets. Because it is causing a huge distrust of the NHS out here in the real world not to mention the heart ache and disbelief of how these things happen.

As an American, I would like to see you run a full investigation on the state of adoptions in Guatemala and the way the government is implementing The Hague convention. Part of what is going on has been largely under reported by the press. The interference by UNICEF paying 28 million dollars to President Berger, most of which goes to his own personal accounts in exchange for stopping international adoptions. Lining politicians pockets NEVER solves social and economical problems.

There are practical realities in this world, some of which are cited on UNICEF’s website that are being ignored. Guatemala has one of the highest poverty rates as well as malnutrition rates in the world with 60 children under the age of 5 dying daily due to poverty. While international adoptions are still going on, adoptive parents pay for medical care and foster care for orphaned children. When this ends, these orphaned children will be placed in over crowded underfunded orphanages, with very little hope of finding a forever family.

There has to be a better way than this.

Here's one for you - how about the economy and the lack of strategic planning over the last ten years. And no, I don't mean the square mile economy of banking, service and finance - fuelled be corporate and personal debt. I mean the real economy that effects real people outside of London. Come to the manufacturing and engineering heartlands of the West Midlands and Lancashire and see if Mr Brown's great economic miracle is as well thought of up here. Visit that most iconic of manufacturing sites in Longbridge and ask the people if they feel that New Labour has helped them. Ask the Treasury or the DTI for a definative policy on promoting British engineering and manufacturing. Ask them what they are now doing to help restore car production at MG Rover, which is due to begin tenative production again in December. Then ask the government why it is that it has taken so long for the enquiry into the collapse of MG Rover to conclude - because there are so many of us that strongly suspect that both the DTI and the Trasury are implicated by their incompetence, leading up to the joint venture talks with SIAC in 2005.

These are the real stories and real questions that real people outside London want answering.

I think this is a good idea in principle but in reality suggesting something a.m. and expecting to see it p.m. might be a bit far fetched. Perhaps it would be better to have a sort of 'deposit' box for ideas that might be seriously researched. Unless this is an underhand way of trying to find out what people care about....?

Please can you not send out 2 emails every day, or if you must give us the option to opt out of the early one

Dear Newsnight

Perhaps some follow up questions in a vote might include

Q-do you think viewers should influence Newsnight?

Q -If not where should these influences that set the programme schedule come from and why?

Q- Should people with influence be able to influence Newsnight and not ordinary people?

Q- Isnt one strenght of this forum for viewers is it is an immediate way to suggest story ideas?

wouldn’t these questions also reflect what is being attempted by Newsnight?

We are not deciding what appears, just making suggestions,

WHATS SO SCARY ABOUT THAT?...............................huh

if people really do not think that ordinary people should influence Newsnight (or other news programmes) (and we could develop that theme in a wider context within our society ) could they explain why not? Is this so dangerous? What is the harm in it?

Question for the anti vote?

What is your fear will happen if this experiment continues? Open question

What is your evidence for this and why do you think this will be repeated on Newsnight?

Please justify your position on this –another open question

then wouldn’t your position have a bearing on say letters from the public to the media, texts to news shows, calls to phone in programmes?

I believe that allowing people a forum to put forward ideas is a great idea,

it might also help develop and strengthen the case for certain stories and subjects to be covered. Ie At present people may send you letters raising the same points many times over,

With the blog we can see a point has being made and then if wish to we can add new points and generally embellish it based on our own experiences or knowledge, without going over the same points again. Some duplication may be avoided and the arguments perhaps developed more than they might otherwise be.

Best wishes
Bob

we should not allow trends in tv production to divert us from our course. on france24 you can watch children living on a rubbish tip (and thoroughly enjoying a visit from the travelling library - very moving - story-reading stops when a rubbish truck comes in and resumes after the new rubbish has been sifted). that is what we should debate not the ethics of interactive production. meanwhile on radio4, melvyn is airing yet another promotion of the all encompassing brilliance and total fantasticness of islam. coca cola, watch and learn.

Perhaps it would be appropriate to ask why the Heath and Safety Executive chose not to consider prosecuting the police for failing to prevent the horrific death of 52 citizens on the 7 July 2005? It is unjust that consideration has been limited to the death of one victim of terrorist atrocity.

It is time that the Government was called to account, for its failure adequately fund the war against terrorism.