Tuesday, 4 December, 2007
- 4 Dec 07, 06:16 PM
DAVID SOUTHALL
We've just learned that the controversial paediatrician has been struck off the medical register for serious professional misconduct. Last week the GMC decided he had abused his position by accusing a mother of drugging and murdering her son. John Sweeney was the 成人论坛's investigative reporter who revealed flaws in the case against . Her verdict was subsequently overturned. Tonight John will be reporting for Newsnight on where this leaves the role of expert witnesses.
HOSTAGES
As I write we are also discussing in the Newsnight office how we will cover the story of the release of a new by the kidnappers of five Britons who have been held in Iraq since May. In the video the kidnappers demand that Britain withdraws all its forces from Iraq within ten days. The Foreign Office has confirmed that the hostage in the video is one of the British people who were kidnapped. He sat underneath a sign reading 鈥淭he Islamic Shiite Resistance in Iraq鈥. The video has been condemned by the government.
NIMROD
鈥淰ery thorough and very damning" - that was the reaction of Graham Knight the father of Sergeant Ben Knight, to the report into the which killed his son and 13 other service personnel when the plane blew up over Afghanistan.
The report concluded a fuel leak was probably to blame and the defence secretary apologised to MPs, victims and their families for 鈥渇ailings for which the Ministry of Defence must take responsibility". These planes are still flying because they are a key component of our military operations in Afghanistan and Iraq, and allegedly incidents of fuel leaks are continuing in their dozens. I hope to be speaking to a defence minister.
BROKEN BRITAIN
And at this time of year we return to some of the big stories and issues Newsnight has led the way on during the past 12 months. In a series of films we have examined 鈥淏roken Britain". Tonight we report from Wythenshawe a few miles south of Manchester which was built as a Garden City in the 1920s, but now this post-industrial, largely white working class community is struggling with gangs, knives, drugs and guns.
We are also keen to hear from you - do you think crime is really falling?
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Sir, I do not agree with censorship but I would make a limited case out not showing the latest video of a British hostage being held with an ultimatum that unless British troops get out of Iraq he will be killed. We have seen these grotesque images before and do they help in any way? Is it not insufferable for the families of the hostages and whilst we all yearn for a successful outcome, the insurgents we are dealing have a ruthless agenda.
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BROKEN BRITAIN BROKEN WORLD
Robert Ardrey dubbed us the 鈥淏ad Weather Animal鈥; seeing us as wonderfully suited to a very much harsher planet, and a very different life, in the mists of time. Our curse is that the weather eased, and we took the opportunity to do farming, industry, cities, armaments, transportation, intermixing, medicine and the crowning glory: money! (Also finding time for a sexual orgy of exponential growth.)
Now we get progressively angrier, more unstable and nihilistic 鈥 mining our "doorstep" for its minerals even as we s - - t on it. How ironic that our activities may well bring a return of the bad weather that we so desperately need to recover some semblance of balance.
Make it so.
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Great to see that Wendy Alexander and today's debate in the Commons has fallen off the news agenda already...
What it is to have friends in high places..
Or are you just keeping your powder dry for next week ?
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Re: Nimrod Crash
I find it quite amazing that the MOD having known about the numerous problems with fuel leaks etc. for over three years did not do anything to rectify the matter, but were willing not only willing for the plane to crash at a cost of millions of pounds but willing for the aircrews to perish every time these planes took off.
The trouble is nobody will take responsibility, no one will fall on their sword, and we have a government that hope that after a few months it will all be forgoten, so there will be nothing done, and there will then be another crash, another fourteen killed and another enquiry and so it goes on.
We are now in a position because of cutbacks on the armed forces the UK could no longer defend itself!
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Des Browne should have turned round to the Prime Minister and asked him to take direct responsibility for the lack funding to the armed forces during his time as Chancellor when he preferred to pour money into his pet projects which have yet to bear fruit.
Don't worry about the government hoping that after a few months it will all be forgotten. Newsnight already pushed this story down their list of stories, choosing instead to lead with a mis-guided denigration of the role expert witnesses.
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It sounds as if Dr Southall may have been rash, or at least careless, in his allegations. This should not be allowed to obsure the general point: there is no doubt, statistically, that many more parents injure and kill their children than are ever charged with such an offence. An uncomfortable truth that we will have to deal with as a society in ever more agonising detail. Can we proceed from a position of honest enquiry, and support first the children, and then the parents, so as to mitigate harm as far as possible; at the same time as seeking to reform attitudes and procedures whilst keeping the tabloid frenzy at bay.
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Objections to defence cuts took place in Mrs Thatcher's time and Sir Keith Speed resigned in protest.
Also, there is nothing new about bad behaviour. 'Hooligan' by Geoffrey Pearson writes of pistols, knives and other violence on the streets in Victorian times. The Manchester Scuttlers, apparently, carried 'old cutlasses, pokers, pieces of strap having iron bolts affixed to the end, tops of stone pop bottles fastened to the end of a piece of string and used for whirling around the head....knives...' There appears also to have been some exaggerated reporting (which appeared again with the arrival of Teddy Boys).
Blame was directed at 'penny dreadfuls'
A teenager phoning some programme recently complained about the behaviour of adults. What can progress mean in these circumstances? Can we ever learn from experience?
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'Broken Britain' has come about over decades thanks to, at best misguided, attempts at social engineering based on inflexible dogma by both Labour and Conservative governments. They got it wrong, very wrong, creating an environment where gang culture could flourish unchecked.
The interview with the pub landlord could have easily have been shot back when the Krays and the Richardsons ruled the streets of London. Then the police were nobbled by bribes and corruption. Now they are hobbled by the corruption of political dogma.
Britain most certainly is broken. Close to lost as well if those who govern us don't stop dreaming about 'one day' and wake up to the reality of today.
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I have heard a senior public figure coined your term. I have been working with him trying to do some research. We are both glad that you have picked up our term for your programme and hope we will be able to provide you with some material ourselves.
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STERN
Did I nod off? There seems to be a Kremlinesque silence. Did he get asked any of the 100-odd questions?
I thought there would at least be murmuring. Are we being suppressed?
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We have 2 cultures in the Uk. One is not reporting crime. The other is not recording it when reported. I have been shot at twice and when i reported it not even a statement was taken.
If the police are not the dominant 'gang' in the area then the reality is someone else is.
security is at the root of peace. iraq should show us that.
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Yeah, Where is the Stern interview? It isn't as if there was a lack of interest.
Salaam, etc.
ed
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