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Friday 31 July 2009

Sarah McDermott | 16:37 UK time, Friday, 31 July 2009

News from Jon Sopel and Tim Marlow about this evening's Newsnight and Newsnight Review.

From Jon Sopel:
What else do you expect to see but murk when it comes to whether Binyam Mohamed was or wasn't tortured before he washed up in Guantanamo Bay detention camp? However, today, perhaps, a little shard of light. An MI5 official visited Morocco three times during the period when Mohamed claimed he was being treated none too kindly. The ³ÉÈËÂÛ̳'s security correspondent Gordon Corera will be reporting for us.

To parley or not to parley? The history of live televised debates between British party leaders in election campaigns is - err - short. We have never had one. Yes, the subject comes up, there is a brief glimmer, and then it fades away. The normal pattern is for the opposition leader to call for it, and for the incumbent prime-minister to poo-poo it. But Lord Mandelson this week has given the subject real air. So will it happen and would it be good for democracy?

And one of the giants of football, Bobby Robson has died. He has seen football move through all its different stages - from the 'noble' working class game watched on packed terraces with players taking public transport to the ground. Through the dark days of soccer hooliganism - the skinheads and the skirmishes, to its current incarnation as a game played by Ferrari-driving millionaires and watched by the prawn cocktail-munching, Chablis-drinking middle classes, and paid for by millions of satellite TV subscriptions. Gabby Logan and Arthur Smith will be with me to consider his contribution and the changing face of football.

Join me at 10.30pm with your rattle and scarf.

From Tim Marlow:
Tonight's Review looks at the life story (both human and simian) as inspiration for a recent spate of books and films, and will try to explore how art and fiction enlightens or clouds biographical fact.

The Booker longlist was announced this week and included two very different biographical novels. Hilary Mantel's Wolf Hall is an epic account of the life of the Tudor enforcer Thomas Cromwell , while four hundred years later Me Cheeta chronicles the life journey of a chimpanzee captured in Liberia who becomes a Hollywood star.

Our panellists are film historian and broadcaster Matthew Sweet, biographer Kate Williams and actor and writer Kerry Shale.

We'll also discuss two new French biopics -Coco Before Chanel and Mesrine: Killer Instinct. Aside from the blurring of fact and fiction, we'll also be considering why the biopic is such a staple of the film world.

So join us on the purple sofa at 11pm for a mixture of crime, punishment, political scheming, elegant simplicity, psychological contradiction and some monkey business to boot.

Comments

  • Comment number 1.

    Hi

    how is abandoning our values and descending the level of the terrorists intended to protect our values?

    we need to first restore the rule of law and decency over our own side seemingly before we can hope to exercise it over those who hate us

  • Comment number 2.

    british gas profits 80%. all year and before my posts on this board have been saying the energy ripoff is one of the biggest national scandals ever seen in the uk. Of a transfer of wealth from poor to rich. where the winter fuel payments are a further subsidy for extortionate bills in a non competitive market.overseen by this diabolically incompetent govt who still believes in 'light touch regulation' and that the markets are the best determiner of national affairs. They might determine for the best but not for the public.

    how long will the govt cling to their false beliefs of 'market knows best' that simply and effectively transfer wealth from the poor to the rich?

    supra profit demands a supra tax and a payback to thoise who forced to pay monopolistic prices.

  • Comment number 3.

    poodle time again, guys, that is when we cower in the corner and feel desolate that we , an independent free country has to sacrifice...again any self respect we may have had in surrendering a computer hacker to the 'fair' inquistorial USA, the country that gave us illegal wars, Guantanamo and George Bush and Tony Blair. Like I said let us hang our heads in collective shame!

  • Comment number 4.

    hacker

    was mark thatcher be extradicted? Pinchett avoided been sent to spain.

    curiously the uk has no similar treaty with the usa. its all one way.

  • Comment number 5.

    bookhimdano (#2) "a non competitive market.overseen by this diabolically incompetent govt who still believes in 'light touch regulation' and that the markets are the best determiner of national affairs. They might determine for the best but not for the public.

    how long will the govt cling to their false beliefs of 'market knows best' that simply and effectively transfer wealth from the poor to the rich?"


    As long as there are lots of people like thegangofone, mimpromptu and others who naively glorify it as democracy, and freedom of choice every 4 por 5 years, rather than the anarchism that it truly is in support of the predators you rightly berate.

    Alas, anyone who challenges it is allegedly one step away from turning the population into lampshades, soap, or wanting to blow people up with nail-bombs etc etc etc....

  • Comment number 6.

    Torture is committed everyday in this country. Nobody will anything about it and the media, including 'flagship news programmes' will not report it.

    It is a fact of everyday life. The 'concern' over Guantanamo Bay is just a diversion.

  • Comment number 7.

    Has NN dropped the item on the UK citizen's proposed extradition? It could be relevant to discuss this case alongside the concerns about the suspected terrorist.

  • Comment number 8.

    Have been requested by a NN blogger to post this here.



    This is an example of green lies, green washing, green deception and green stupidity. The now use of eco without even the most basic understanding.

    How can a solar powered advertising sign, encouraging people to consume more, which with collapse the planet's ecological life support systems, be considered green and eco.

  • Comment number 9.

    I hope there is a LIVE televised debate of Brown, Cameron & Clegg all together in a live televised debate hosted by Jeremy, Jon Sopel & Nick Robinson as a three member panel. It would be a great idea. Remember NN did one for the London Mayor Elections - and it was a huge success. Please NN do one for the General Election - it's about time we had them all head to head live on air! Perhaps (as in the London Mayoral elections) the viewers could send in their questions to the panel via the NN website.

  • Comment number 10.

    ...Britain's foreign minister has said that people in his country are supportive of troops fighting in Afghanistan, despite polls which suggest a majority of Britons want the soldiers to be brought home. David Miliband, speaking alongside Hillary Clinton, the US secretary of state, said British people were aware of the importance of the military mission in Afghanistan. "I think the British people will stay with this mission because there is a clear strategy ...




    what is milliband on?

    can he explain this brilliant strategy to the british people before talking FO neocon rot to the rest of the world?

  • Comment number 11.

    The U.S would not hand over the IRA members that murdered men, women and children in the U.K and blew the legs off policemen and women and even blew up the police dogs in London.
    The U.S would not hand over the Soldiers that murdered ITN newsman Terry Lloyd.

    I think to maintain the important relationship between the US and UK, this extradition case needs to be sorted out, bascially dropped,
    as for our Government that transports the defence secretary in Afghanistan by eeeelicopter.... no wonder none have arrived, they probably couldnt understand the order, because its too dangerous to go by road, and behaves in such an immoral way, and by the way ID cards are on their way, not by eeeeeeeeeeeelicopter I presume,

    what can we do,
    except fight them?
    how can any decent person vote for the Labour party?

  • Comment number 12.

    Marlow is one of those who is beginning to have the all powerful power to *give value* One of those feudal art being's; Art God Curator from the white cube. When are we going to get some form of art regulation to look at your up and coming art god power Mr Marlow, Why dont we talk about THAT ?

    Art God Power = financial (money god delusion) fortune to the very rich *art* dealers.

    "Socrates is guilty of crime in refusing to recognise the gods acknowledged by the state, and importing strange divinities of his own; he is further guilty of corrupting the young."

    Xenophon pupil of Socrates 431BC - 354BC from THE MEMORABILIA

  • Comment number 13.

    gangofone
    Thank you so much for backing me up yesterday. Although you declare yourself to be on the side of the LD and myself, I tend to support the Tories, we obviously share similar views on some global issues which JJ is such an enemy of. Personally, as I wrote to you some time ago, I wouldn't bother with JJ any more. We see what he writes and we know your views by now on things he 'promotes', so I would suggest discussing other issues on this site. I won't mention what I think and know about him myself. It's enough to look at some of the remarks he has made today in response to a few of the comments made by other bloggers to realise that there is something seriously wrong with him.

  • Comment number 14.

    #9 Mistress 76UK

    We suggested similar re the competition to run the Millennium Dome. In fact without checking I am sure it was part of the initial submission which got us through to the next round and then the subsequent shortlisting. "The proposals should be subject to full public examination etc..."

    That NN reported on the other proposals and completely ignored ours, despite ours being the one that should have won on the competition criteria, says something about public interest and service broadcasting.

    As ours, in 2001, contained the knowledge, magnitude and extent of of the recent economic crash, and how to prevent it. Also would have stopped the recent waste of ³ÉÈËÂÛ̳ resources, having a stream of talking heads pontificating on a economic crash that was known about and could have been prevented 7 years before.

    Being slightly more astute now. Not having open discussion is one way of hampering the best or the favourite candidate/ proposal etc. It removes the datum of excellence on which others would be judged.

    Not that it would apply to Brown, Cameron and Clegg. NN may as well invite 3 golfers to debate which is the best sport.

    Celtic Lion

  • Comment number 15.

    IN BROKEN BRITAIN, EVEN THE LIGHT IS SHATTERED!

    "a little shard of light." (Jon Sopel)

    The Iraq War, 45 minutes, rendition and the Chagos islands, Guantanamo, WMD, Dr David Kelly, and no doubt much I have forgotten, have all brought forth lies and deception from 'politicians with an agenda'. As always the cover-up is slowly eroded on a timescale that allows the evil-doers to get off, with status and riches intact. Until we define that agenda properly (the expenses fiasco was a start) and bring down, TOTALLY, the current ethos, we just have to decline and lump it.

  • Comment number 16.

    mimpromptu (#13) "I won't mention what I think and know about him myself. It's enough to look at some of the remarks he has made today in response to a few of the comments made by other bloggers to realise that there is something seriously wrong with him."

    Don't keep us all in suspense. Tell us what you know, and what's wrong with 'him'.

  • Comment number 17.

    MAD MADAME MIM - TELL US ABOUT 'HIM' (:o)

    Last one who 'knew stuff' but couldn't tell, was Tony. Hey - you're not Tony, pretending, are you Mim? If we are investigating 'something seriously wrong', Tony/Mim is a much more rewarding study. JJ never lied us into a war.

  • Comment number 18.


    From the top deck. No. 18.

    Ask 1,030 of the GBP the following questions:

    Do you know whom Binyam Mohamed is?

    Do you care whom Binyam Mohamed is?

    Do you think think that the rights of individuals accused of terrorist activities are equal to the rights of society as a whole, should have precedence, or should be restricted?

    Should Binyam Mohamed, or any other individual previously incarcerated in Quantanimo, have the right to seek compensation from the UK or anyone else?

    Are the sums being paid out in compensation - for almost everything - directly relevant to the hurt inflicted?

    Would the answers be interesting?

    Or what!!!!!!

  • Comment number 19.

    @ #14 KCL - Good point you raised - as many parties as possible could be given a chance to go on the debate - Michael C raised that very issue in his report tonight (ie, include parties such as the Greens, UKIP etc not just the big 3).

    Sorry to hear about your Millenium Dome proposal not receiving any coverage. Pity, because it may have been a success!

    @ # 18 JAperson - it's true, Binyam Mohamed etc is a cure for insomnia. What were all those people doing in Afghanistan in the first place?

    Excellent debate by Jon Sopel and Anne McElvoy & Steve Richardsal. I agree with Anne on this one - we need to have a debate with party leaders for the general election.

  • Comment number 20.

    It's strange how the banks have not pulled the plug on BA!...which must surely now be 'trading' whilst technically insolvent.

    Maybe the free market anarchists (aka international socialists) still need to travel around the globe in order to market their debt slavery.

    It's a funny old world eh!

    #13 mimpromptu ...probably the most pathetic post I have ever read.

  • Comment number 21.

    #13

    Don't let you Karma run over your dogma!

  • Comment number 22.

    Did anyone catch PM this evening? There was a reporter following Queen J around Nepal. She was saying the Nepalese are now worrying about people and money leaving their country to come here. In one village 20per cent were planning to, although they also said they wanted to go back home eventually. The reporter spoke to several elderly men planning to come over. Some people (sorry I don't know who they were, but Nepalese) were worried about the economy, they said that over the years 60billion pounds of pensions had gone into Nepal. It had helped to build roads, infrastructure and schools, and generally supported the people. They are now worried the whole economy will fail, without the gurkha's pensions coming in.

    And a question, when a child of a gurkha who lives here grows up, and wants to join our army, which regiment do they join? Surely it can't be the gurkhas, as they are now british people.

  • Comment number 23.

    #19 Mistress76uk

    Thanks.

    And the Millennium Dome would have been a success. Even the Government find nothing factually incorrect, yet the media weren't interested.



    Am in 'conference' with a NN blog regular, check by default. Some how we are into life cycle analysis of wind farms. So have a stack of flow charts, and environmental impact assessments on the go.

    This is the stuff that should have been on NN. Looks OK, but need to check back over 1200 tonnes of concrete and the service roads.

    Can't post them as they are PDFs

    #22 Ecolizzy. Could see this coming. Don't know how they changed policy so quick. Something called an RIA, (Regulatory Impact Assessment) I thought had to be done, (tried to get one for the Iraq War, 7 years later still waiting, perhaps a letter to Chilcot?).

    Any blogger here proficient in RIA

    Anyway the RIA should/would/could have shown this up. Any way back to turbines.

    PS have a Colby Toxic legacy do da you might be interested in.

    Celtic Lion

  • Comment number 24.

    bookhimdano (#10) "David Miliband, speaking alongside Hillary Clinton, the US secretary of state, said British people were aware of the importance of the military mission in Afghanistan. "I think the British people will stay with this mission because there is a clear strategy ..."

    Miliband is on Mandatax i.e. as far as he is concerned, the English democractic system voted in his Party for 5 years giving them/him the right to speak on behalf of 'the people'. Sadly, this really is how it works, even if the polls were all to say that they hate the govenment etc. Same with Iraq. The law lets you protest, but it doesn't mean HMG has to pay any attention.

  • Comment number 25.

    THAT OL' BLAIR MAGIC . . .

    Looks as if Magic Obama can't 'do Blair' any more than Brown can. When the 'enquiry' gets to Blair, will he have lost the magic too? Perhaps charisma - like the earth's magnetic field - is declining to zero. If so, there IS hope.

  • Comment number 26.

    barrie (#25) As I saw it, Blair was a pop star. It's their fund managers that one has to watch.

  • Comment number 27.



    The times they are are a changin'?




  • Comment number 28.

    #25 Barrie

    I love your analogies.

    The magnetic feld actually flips every millenium or so, with the effusion of boiling lava spewing up from the Earth's crust on the ocean floor, pushing the countries further apart. I'm sure your agile brain could extend the analogy with Blair, incorporating this piece of pedantry.

  • Comment number 29.

    THE OLD ORDER CHANGETH (#28)

    It is nice to be loved - even if only for my analogies IDG2. But I must lead you from the darkness of old theory to the sunlit uplands of the 'Electric Universe'. If the Blogdog allows, this link will make you a Born Again Cosmologist:

    It is highly likely that earth's magnetism is part of a greater configuration, ultimately 'plugged in' to the cosmic currents flowing between galaxies. If your house is struck by lightning, you are in touch with Creation!

  • Comment number 30.

    THEY ARE READING EVERYTHING JADED JEAN (#27)

    And it's no good putting a cross, in sheeps blood, on your door.

    Excellent link - very telling with regard to what you have been telling.

    AND we have UFOs over Newbury!

  • Comment number 31.

    #29 Barrie
    Thanks for the enlightenment, but I think I'll switch to Astrology.
    For us Virgos this week it's "A source of aggravation represents your past, not your future: what you're not keen to enter, you'll soon be sad to leave" ? Sounds like another wet weekend in the garden then.
    You keep the pen flowing and I'll keep the hoe going.

  • Comment number 32.

    barrie (#30) It's the names that give these games away. It's all in pursuit of celebritism/attention, never truth. That's what's so ugly about narcissism.

  • Comment number 33.

    From the article on the LHC in the link given in #29


    In 1852, Charles Mackay wrote in the preface to his classic work, Extraordinary Delusions and the Madness of Crowds,

    Men, it has been well said, think in herds; it will be seen that they go mad in herds, while they only recover their senses slowly, and one by one.


    If the above quote is relevant, at the moment there are a large number of mad people, who appear in the media, questioned by more mad people, to give a message taken in my more mad people, that:

    The correct and only way to run a planet is to convert the tangible useful reality of the ecological life support system of the planet into something called called increasing economic growth. Which only exists as numbers, made by things called noughts and ones, in the computers of things called banks.

    Numbers which on the morning of Monday 21st January 2008 disappeared or changed their values. So the mad people, with the help of other mad people, tell the rest of the mad people, that the only way to get these numbers back is to turn more of the real useful planet into more and bigger imaginary numbers inside their computers.

    It's completely mad, but some find it funny




    Celtic Lion


  • Comment number 34.

    The Binyam story is clearly an example of slective reporting by the ³ÉÈËÂÛ̳. They take the least possible attractive victim (not British no demonstrated loyalty to Britain & clearly not in Pakistan & other places where al Quaeda work as a tourist) while continuing to censor mention of the thousands of completely innocent people murdered by our government's employees in the Dragodan & other massacres or dissected, while alive, for their organs. In any objective assessment these crimes are individually hundreds of times worse & numerically thousands of times worse so if the ³ÉÈËÂÛ̳ weren't censoring would have recieved something approaching 100,000 times as much coverage.

    Quite obviously they have received at least hundreds of times less.

  • Comment number 35.

    SITTING ON TWO CUSPS (31)

    Nice one IDG2. I 'fall' on the Taurus/Gemini(Sun) and Virgo/Libra(Asc.) cusps.

    Hence my pain. (:o)

    Never mind the Heavens, Hom Sap can't even manage a little planet. Do you think a first step might be for Britons to

    SPOIL PARTY GAMES?

  • Comment number 36.

    Re: Jon Sopel

    What else do you expect to see but murk when it comes to whether Binyam Mohamed was or wasn't tortured before he washed up in Guantanamo Bay detention camp?

    Not anything good, when the information is murky....

    ~Dennis Junior~

  • Comment number 37.

    TELEVISED DEBATES

    So will it happen and would it be good for democracy?

    I think it will happen so...No date available; And, yes, it will be
    good for democracy...

    ~Dennis Junior~

  • Comment number 38.

    Re: And one of the giants of football, Bobby Robson has died.

    My heartfelt condolences and prayers, are being sent to an excellent
    footballer, Sir Bobby Robson....

    ~Dennis Junior~

  • Comment number 39.

    Astronomers are puzzled by a strange bright spot which has appeared in the clouds of Venus.

    It has begun, they will be here by Monday, I'm off to the Pub

  • Comment number 40.

    #35 Barrie

    Those who are running it now can't manage a little planet.

    Please don't include everyone. You know how I don't like Jimmy Brown using the all 'inclusive'.

    One thing that puzzles me, Barrie you have never once referenced this direct. Surely you haven't forgotten it. Surely it is a Jimmy Brown classic.



    Celtic Lion

    Celtic Lion

  • Comment number 41.

    I just love the way this government keeps spending our money....

    Then in the next breath they tell us we have skills shortages, and need all these immigrants to fill the vacancies. How can they be right on both these counts?!

  • Comment number 42.

    #23 Just read your Corby piece Leo. And what about us dumping our rubbish in Brazil... No-one was thinking of the damage about to be done to Brazalian children!

  • Comment number 43.

    NANCY MILLSTONE JENNINGS ALL OVER AGAIN (#40)

    Sorry Celtic, but your wildly anomalous depth of perception, and breadth of abilities, is nevertheless diluted to being of no account, in the greater Hom Sap - 60 billion plus - scheme of things. While you might be a success, Hom Sap, en masse, is a failure. One bolus doesn't make a swallow.

    But then, you already know that.

    As for the Bong Song: If I never wrote of it (are you SURE?) I could hardly write 'Jimmie Brown' without its tones intruding, could I. But my particular use of 'Jimmie' has more to do with Brown's revealing eschewal of his first given name, with all that is signalled by so-doing, and with cathartic (for me) indication of his juvenile state of mind, through use of the diminutive ending.

    Ah - bliss.

  • Comment number 44.

    Hello Ecolizzy

    For some reason the Government(s) seemed to have played a part in getting rid of 'skills'. Whether it is in engineering or construction, what I am familiar with. But also horticulture and agriculture.

    These are the joiners, plumbers, electricians, welders, machinists etc etc. They got replaced with service and media etc.

    Skill is about work.

    Forget what I have just wrote. The UK is in a mess, the world is in a mess. What we need is solutions, don't you think?

    Have a think about the media? The other week when we needed solutions to be discussed. NN main feature was James Purnell talking about being part of a think tank, that would discuss and in 3 years decide what being 'left' means. How many TV licence payers funded that 20 minutes of pointlessnes? Why?

    Anyway I am falling into 'The Trap' that we need to avoid, so easy.

    All I can suggest is instead of finding the problems and stupidity we have to deal with. What are the solutions?

  • Comment number 45.

    Sorry. Anyone watch Family Guy tonight. Made the last post while trying to watch it.

    Could we arrange something so we don't post or mods don't mod during Family Guy

  • Comment number 46.

    Now American Dad

  • Comment number 47.

    #40 KCL
    Haven't heard that music since 1952 when my French pen-pal brought it over on a visit to UK. Monsieur Raymond Fermaud was the first foreigner I had ever set eyes upon then! Can you just imagine a time when this was really England. Very nostalgic; thanks for the link.

  • Comment number 48.

    I've just come across this article in today's Guardian:



    I hope the summer stand-ins we've been seeing all week do not mean that the ³ÉÈËÂÛ̳ will axe Jeremy from Newsnight!!! The only people to benefit from getting rid of them will be dodgy politicians. Grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr

  • Comment number 49.

    #43 Barrie

    I did include the word 'direct' in #40, in a legal/political back tracking got out of that clause type of way. Every time you wrote Jimmie Brown, the tones were there for me. Had to get it out in the open, and it brought back memories for indignantindegene #47, pleased you appreciated that.

    Though for Ecolizzy concerned about the skill shortage and what we make. Surely dropping the Gordon and reverting to James would be more appropriate.



    In the Corby article I had to present the case of Mr Nasty. There are a lot of dumped and stored up problems that will have to be tackled. The Corby ruling could make it difficult or make us (as a planet) less inclined to resolve them. For whoever does, working for the greater good, is more likely to be held liable, than those who do nothing and allow all to suffer in a toxic stew.

    The Brazil link is a good example of what is really going on below the radar.

    Anyway the planet needs sorting out, especially this madness that politicians and the media seem to have been afflicted by.

    Converting the life support systems of the planet into meaningless numbers in the computers of banks and stock trading floors is not a clever idea.

    Celtic Lion



  • Comment number 50.

    On Binyam Mohamed one of the unanswered questions to me remains the calibre of those viewing the interrogation evidence.

    Either they were getting "false evidence" due to the torture and then realising he was just telling them what they wanted to hear or they were getting nothing.

    In my world that means that leaving aside the serious ethical and legal issues the process was incompetent.

    It also may suggest that torture does not in any event provide anything other than sadistic pleasure and the belief that they are being "tough" - in place of a quieter effectiveness?

  • Comment number 51.

    Is Mandelson signaling that the political body of Brown is lying in Stalin-like stillness and that it is now OK to start thinking of the next phase of the next Labour fiefdom?

    There are rumours in the Guardian I think that Mandelson intends to give up his peerage for a safe seat so that he can have a run for the leadership. Perhaps Gordon has given him the nod. Perhaps there are safe seats.

    So he fully grasps the profound disillusionment with New Labour that is exemplified by so many policy disasters and events such as Iraq and the economic crash that was NOT a "unique global phenomenon".

    Sofa politics controlling "tick box" politics via quangos.

  • Comment number 52.

    #44 kingcelticlion

    "All I can suggest is instead of finding the problems and stupidity we have to deal with. What are the solutions?"

    I hope Newsnight looks at problems and solutions and those who create and provide both.

    For instance the BNP will always be telling some lie, like the three murders local to their London Assembly member - that did not happen. Their "solutions" would implicitly include National Socialism in some form and exclude democracy.

    Economic analysis is best done by eminent people some of whom may have Nobels and have therefore stood the test of both academic rigour and exposure to the real world of business.

  • Comment number 53.

    Is Harman's "top down" analysis, that one of the two senior positions should always be a woman, the best approach to ensure greater equality and opportunity for women?

    Surely the issue is "bottom up" in that not enough women are active party members and hold positions at local levels to rectify any bias. Parties need to consider ways to encourage, say, mothers to participate during hours that are more convenient. Job sharing as per some of the Scandic countries?

    I don't vote Labour but I would have thought in general voters don't want to see any "token gesture" leaders - they want to know they have good candidates who are pursuing genuinely enlightened social policy and equality.

    They have to be able to cut the mustard.

  • Comment number 54.

    #52 Go1

    Conservatives, Labour, Lib Dems, BNP, UKIP and to some extent the Greens, capitalists and national socialists all share a similar position. They all have an extreme and shared narrow perspective in a model spectrum of philosophy regarding planetary management.

    In this model a contrasting view to what the above all share is the ecocentric perspective.



    What is that phrase you keep quoting from the incredible human journey, there is a greater similarity between all the parties, than withing them. Or something like that.

    On one hand you have your loosely labelled techno and anthropo centric views. Whether shared by market capitalism and national socialism, it is irrelevant, they are all more or less the same, just slightly different methodologies.

    These exclude the ecocentric perspective. While if you take an ecocentric perspective. Humans are part of the planetary ecological systems, so are included.

    Deep ecologist's would tend not to be interested in a critique or comparison of the shared techno centric economics of all our similarly ideologically related political parties. There is very little difference between market capitalism, national socialism or similar; when compared to the spectrum of options, possibilities that could be considered.

    Is part of the problems the world is experiencing, that politics and the media only concentrate on one narrow and extreme perspective of sustainable planetary management?

    Celtic Lion

  • Comment number 55.

    Waiting for a good day to bury bad news?

    Skimming through the weekend papers, revealed the following articles:

    Killers, hijackers and terrorists whose human rights DO count:
    Suspected terrorists like Abu Qatada, Khalid al-Fawwaz and others have so far cost the UK taxpayer legal aid bills of over $1m defending their rights to avoid trial in USA; still awaiting yet more legal 'action' in European Court of Human Rights; contrast that with the hacker.

    Families could be £10,000 better off if they break up.
    Thanks to Laour's taxes and benefits policies.

    Bailed-out US banks keep on dishing out bonuses.
    US Congress expected to pass new legislation on pay of bank bosses and banning excessive bonuses; Hope they have more success than UK.

    Father drowned in 18in of water,999 teams told rescue too risky.
    More nanny state Health & Safety logic?

    Migrants may still jump council house queues.
    Giving priority to local families on waiting list for a long time would breach HR and equal rights laws.

    Pregnant woman with 13 children in care wants Social Services help.
    Article suggests sterilisation, but a review of benefits would help.

    Criminals on probation committed 105 rapes,94 murders,18 attempted murders,78 kidnappings,43 convictions for arson with intent to endanger life and 657 other violent or sexual offences during past 2 years.

    All the above in the first few pages of one newspaper. Too much bad news to bury, but the government no longer concern itself with public opinion and reaction anyway (viz Harriet Harmen's line on extradition this morning with Stephanie Flanders.

    Maybe NN could research and tackle some of these issues of direct concern to our degenerating society?

  • Comment number 56.

    #48
    Mistress76uk
    I wouldn't worry. I don't think it at all likely that Jeremy Paxman would be forced to go. There have been quite a lot things going on behind the scenes for some time now in this respect but I wouldn't worry. Really! My feeling is that his position now is stronger than it has ever been. One day I might be able to tell you why, one way or another.

  • Comment number 57.

    #55 indignantindegene

    "Killers, hijackers and terrorists whose human rights DO count:
    Suspected terrorists like Abu Qatada, Khalid al-Fawwaz and others have so far cost the UK taxpayer legal aid bills of over $1m defending their rights to avoid trial in USA; still awaiting yet more legal 'action' in European Court of Human Rights; contrast that with the hacker."

    Grateful others have noticed this. Together with the media coverage given to such cases if they involve other than white British born.

    From personal experience I was tortured by in England some years back. No such Health and Safety approved water boarding with these boys.

    Just a few weeks in setting up a project and the local cops got me. Another organisation with better connections than me who didn't want the project to succeed, had approached the local boys in blue to 'close me down'.

    What I uncovered in the process was endemic torture, abuse and corruption. The situation is I have never been able to get legal representation.

    Not that the evidence doesn't stand up. No legal firm would ever even look at the evidence. Don't do civil. too far away, too busy, too complex etc.

    Watching the media coverage of Binyam Mohamed and others I have found depressing and frustrating. I was tortured before them and in a manner more likely to result in my death, yet cannot get legal representation nor are the media interested.

    From what Harmen said this morning re discrimination-ethnic, homosexual, women, etc. Perhaps it is a box ticking thing both legally and in the media.

    If you are white, male, British, heterosexual then you do not fit the criteria for legal representation etc so therefore do not have the same rights in this country as others have.

  • Comment number 58.

    HAS THIS FORUM TURNED INTO THE PYTHON 'WE WERE SO POOR' SKETCH?

    "I say I say - my Blogdog's got no nose." "How does he smell flights of fancy?" "He doesn't."

    Needs a bit of work . . .

  • Comment number 59.

    Hi,

    perhaps we could agree upon a date and all visit ³ÉÈËÂÛ̳ TV centre at the same time and ask if we might be able to put our various arguments to the duty newsnight producer?

    meanwhile the hour of liberation is near, the sacuers must be approaching Planet Earth soon...

    best wishes

  • Comment number 60.

    @#56 - Mimpromptu - I hope what you say is true! I know there have been various times when "people" tried to get rid of Jeremy :o(
    Unlike Jeremy, John Humphreys has just had a 2 year contract awarded to him, whereas Jeremy is a freelancer and has his contract renewed annually to do 100 shows per year. Certain people refuse to be interviewed by him, as it would be detrimental to their career. Another point is that the ³ÉÈËÂÛ̳'s licence fee has already been cut by 25%......

  • Comment number 61.

    #56 If you are white, male, British, heterosexual then you do not fit the criteria for legal representation etc so therefore do not have the same rights in this country as others have.

    Very true words Leo!

    Did anyone read this... ... our bio diveristy falling ever lower as KCL keeps pointing out!

  • Comment number 62.

    #60
    Mistress76uk
    You've raised some interesting points but there is much more to it than meets the eye. For example, there were terrible tensions at Newsnight the previous spring and summer with Peter Barron eventually moving on to Google, etc, and yet he did attend the Annual Media Society Gala on Jeremy's night (23 April this year). And so did Michael Howard giving, in fact, a great speech in Jeremy's honour. The fact that some politician may not want to be interviewed by Jeremy, I don't think, is either here or there. And I don't think it is much to do with money. After all, if Jeremy has an annual contract then it can always be discussed again. Of course, it may be the case that Jeremy wants to move on somewhere else but I suspect we'll be seeing him back in the chair and on the sofa soon.
    There is much more to it than meets the eye, Mistress76uk.

  • Comment number 63.

    #61 Ecolizzy

    Thanks, busy tonight with steam trains;) aluminium smelting and integration of wind energy into the national grid.

    In #57 I pointed out I was tortured. One reason I was told was because of my work on predictive systems to be able to determine when floods and economic collapse would occur, related to complex systems but a whole generation or more than anyone else. I was told there was fear if I wasn't stopped, so many sustainable jobs would be created. The area would lose grants from the Government for creating jobs.

    Though I had been stopped I still had to try and prevent people dying and the collapse of the planet's ecological life support system.

    Part of this was being involved in setting up of the new generation of UK climate models and contributions to UN reports, which was where the agenda for the 2005 G8 came from, climate change and Africa and the climate change/ risk assessment the UK Chief Scientist gave global publicity to.

    What my honest intention was, was to use climate change only as an example of the total global ecological and environmental imperative. Unfortunately what has happened is politics and the media have become obsessed with 'climate change', I assume because it is easy to say and people can pretend they understand it. The real danger is ecological life support system collapse.

    If we take CO2 emissions are related to energy use we have to look at what this energy is used for. Energy is the way we manipulate resources. Cutting down forests, extracting ores and minerals, processing and producing consumer goods etc. Then all the flying and traveling people do in the administration of the whole production and consumption process. So we have resource inputs, and the outputs from the economic system, waste and pollution.

    If we go to a low carbon economy, in respect of our manipulation, processing and consumption of resources. It will make no difference, we will still die. All we will do is still destroy the ecological life support systems of the planet, just emit less CO2 while doing it.

    Also if CO2 does cause climate change, having got rid of the ecological processes which would adapt, respond and control, it will only be much much worse than current predictions.

    At present the media only give mainstream space to one narrow extreme view of planetary management. The consume till we die, shop till you drop school.

    Two things also need to be considered. Quantity and quality of life. The narrow perspective extremist political system we have now talks in terms of having to reach 'climate change' only targets by 2020, 2050.

    Prince Charles and Andrew Simms of the New Economics Foundation, who have both quoted or referred to my work, consider we only have 96 months.





    Now this is based on the climate only model. More realistically this could be reduced to 40 months taking a whole earth system model including pollution, species extinction, population, increasing consumption.

    There fore peoples quantity of life will be affected. They and their families will die in a great extinction as the planet can no longer support the demand made on it.

    Then there is quality. If some survive. No birds to sing in the morning. No holidays, polluted seas, burnt and chopped down forests, no animals left to watch, no woods to walk in.

    What will be the quality, meaning and enjoyment of life for those who remain?

  • Comment number 64.

    In the Independent:
    'The world is heading for a catastrophic energy crunch that could cripple a global economic recovery because most of the major oil fields in the world have passed their peak production, a leading energy economist has warned.'

    Is it worth getting (real) economic experts in to assess whether the UK can afford NOT to invest more in alternative energy supplies.

    I don't think any coverage needs to be given to those who will assert its all a Jewish conspiracy or "eco-fascists" are milking the economy.

  • Comment number 65.

    Does rising bank profits (Barclays etc) mean rising bank shares? If so does that no mean that if the BoE is right and we need stronger regulation is there not the possibility of a mini-crash that will then impede confidence for a genuine recovery?

    We can't have business as usual.

  • Comment number 66.

    AND GREAT WAS THE FALL OF IT. (#63)

    If - as would seem pretty apparent - Hom Sap is the 'sub prime loan' - of ecological 'banking', then a collapse is (a) inevitable, and (b) entirely proper, if a more sustainable, planetary balance is to be reached.

    The idea that WE are 'worth saving' when it is we who have rogered the planet (stripped land and polluted seas, but not necessarily warming) is insupportable.

    No collapse has been total, as shown in the geological record. 'Adjustment' is probably a better word. Should the planet adjust us out of existence, and take a breather, perhaps never putting anything so crass and arrogant back in our place, surely that would be an absolute good?

  • Comment number 67.

    Ha! Looks like Newsnight had the last laugh when it came to Press TV!!!!!

    Source:

    Ofcom have SLAMMED Iranian Press TV for it's biased coverage. Well done all the crew who exposed them.

  • Comment number 68.

    #63/66

    It's the poor wot gets the blame.

    Do all Homo Saps deserve to die out? I ain't dun nufink like rogering, well, not of the planet anyway, and I only reproduced at replacement level. You were lucky - I was born in a paper bag..well in the slums of Deptford and after 50 years of work I don't even own a BMW. I was something of a hunter-gatherer, but only do the gathering bit now - collecting fallen timber for my wood fire, and digging up roots in the garden. I've just collected some seeds to share with other minimalists.

    It would be wonderful if nature developed a fair 'adjustment' solution in fighting back against human plunder and excesses. It needs some help from world leaders to contrive that survival of the fittest favours those who do not procreate excessively with no means of supporting their offspring, or those consuming or owning more than their fair share of resources such as land and possessions.

    I believe that Nature (or Gaia?) does it's best with floods, famine, disease and wars to keep the ever-burgeoning human population under some control, but it is not selective enough. All worldwide organisations, UN, G4s-G20s, should focus their minds on world population control and not allow individual faiths and political correctness to get in the way of this great problem, which causes most other problems and disputes - territorial, sectarian, ecological and financial.

    As a start, I'll vote for any party or individual that will pledge to slash our benefits system and tax super wealth.

  • Comment number 69.

    67. At 4:11pm on 03 Aug 2009, Mistress76uk wrote:
    Ofcom have SLAMMED Iranian Press TV for it's biased coverage. Well done all the crew who exposed them.


    Indeed. And woe betide any who would call upon some of Press TV's more colourful representatives at the drop of a producers iPhone for 'commentary', at least without some objective balance and/or competent, informed moderation to hand to allow various 'facts as opinions' broadcast to the national audience be viewed in context.

  • Comment number 70.

    THE STING IS IN THE TAIL (#68)

    Look at the last for letters of your name IDG2! You carry the gene! OK, perhaps you, personally, do not express too-clever-by-half and about as wise as a dead owl (aka Hom Sap) behaviour. But deep in your vitals he is waiting . . . Mankind has gone from sustainable, with positive taboos, via borrowed time (industrial growth and population growth) to today's 'inverted taboos' and a juvenile, wisdomless state of mind that is out of control.

    Ho hum.

  • Comment number 71.

    #70 Barrie
    Can't let this blog go out on a whimper -

    "I hear the human race is falling on its face
    And hasn't very far - to go
    But every whippoorwill is selling me a bill
    And telling me it just ain't so

    I could say life is just a bowl of jello
    And appear more intelligent and smart
    But I'm stuck like a dope with a thing called hope
    And I can't get it out of my heart
    Not this heart."

    from South Pacific by Rogers & Hammerstein

  • Comment number 72.

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

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