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Thursday 29 September 2011

Verity Murphy | 14:21 UK time, Thursday, 29 September 2011

Please note that Newsnight is on 10 minutes later than usual tonight at 10.40pm. Here's some details of what's on:

A large majority in Germany's parliament has approved new powers for the EU's main bailout fund, despite opposition from some members of the ruling coalition.

Peter Marshall is in Berlin getting under the skin of what the Germans really think about Europe and the euro, and we will be discussing the latest events in the studio.

We look at the wider implications of footballer Rio Ferdinand losing a High Court privacy action over a "kiss and tell" newspaper story.

We have a live interview with actor Mark Rylance about the stunning success of the play Jerusalem as it returns to London from an award-winning run on Broadway - and what it tells us about being English.

Plus, as Saudi Arabia's King Abdullah overturns a court ruling sentencing a woman to 10 lashes for breaking a ban on female drivers we ask whether he can win the battle against the hardliners in his kingdom.

Comments

  • Comment number 1.

    'A large majority in Germany's parliament has approved new powers for the EU's

    A 'large majority'? Guessing they were presented with some options, saw it debated and then voted based on their personal preferences?

    That must be a nice feeling.

  • Comment number 2.

    "Plus, as Saudi Arabia's King Abdullah overturns a court ruling sentencing a woman to 10 lashes for breaking a ban on female drivers we ask whether he can win the battle against the hardliners in his kingdom."

    No women on the roads. Now call me a 'hardliner' if you like, but that sounds like bliss to me!

  • Comment number 3.

    It`s a mercy that our war dead are not alive to see us treated like this by global elite who run our politics and economies and media to suit themselves.

    I feel ashamed of myself as I attempt to exercise my right(?) to free speech on this blog.

    As for the Saudi "battle against the hardliners" I wish them luck against the hardliners at the ³ÉÈËÂÛ̳.Perhaps I would have more freedom living in Saudi?

    In a real democracy I would cheerfully refer them and their masters without any further consideration!

    But Westminster and the City of London and the ³ÉÈËÂÛ̳ (and other global institutions) serve the global capitalist aristocracy, or lose their well-paid jobs, making absolutely sure we can`t criticise the Vatican or Israel or George Soros,or.............

  • Comment number 4.

    Perhaps interesting to note that apparently all members of the German Greens and but also the alleged " Left " party both voted for the latest installment and enhancement of the Corporate Nazi EU Fourth Reich Welfare State for the Banks and their Stock Market parasites !

  • Comment number 5.

    Can King Abdullah "win the battle against the hardliners in his kingdom"?

    That question rather assumes that he is fighting a battle with them. There is only so far that he can go. There has never been unconditional respect for the hereditary principle on the Arabian peninsula. If there had been, Abdullah of Jordan, as a direct descendant of Hussain bin Ali* and the Prophet Mohammed, would be the monarch.

    The fortunes of the house of Saud were built upon an alliance with the Wahhabi movement. Breaking that alliance would call the legitimacy of the dynasty into question.



    The Iranians and Mesopotamians have always been happier with hereditary principle. This partly lies at the root of the Sunni-Shia rift.

    * The Omar Sharif character from Laurence of Arabia. He in turn was descended from Hussain ibn Ali and his wife Fatimah, daughter of the Prophet.

  • Comment number 6.

    @4 The pretend left has no interest in "hard working people" or protecting their jobs or their savings or pensions Brossen.

    If they did they would probably say the same words but behave entirely differently.Just ask Mrs Duffy,if you don`t believe me.

    They work for the likes of Soros and Wall Street and the CIA Brossen,just like the ³ÉÈËÂÛ̳,with it`s Roman Catholic bosses!

  • Comment number 7.

    @5 I would imagine the Saudis will keep winning their "battles" against the human rights of their subjects until they fall out with Israel, Sasha.

    After that "can spring (and a CIA "revolution") be far behind?"

  • Comment number 8.

  • Comment number 9.

    This comment has been referred for further consideration. Explain.

  • Comment number 10.

    The eco-fascists and safety-fascists are all bleating about this now,

    /news/uk-politics-15116064

    But far more important for improving road safety, reducing fuel consumption and benefiting our economy would be to increase the large goods vehicle speed limit on single lane A roads to 50 Mph !

    Apparently the only time the eco-fascists complain is when speed limits go up yet they support 20Mph zones in current 30 areas which increase pollution by at least 10 % ?


  • Comment number 11.

    @10

    I think our roads are quite dangerous enough without lorries the size of a terrace of houses hurtling at me on a narrow strip of tarmac! They don`t seem to observe speed limits in the rural roads around me anyway.

    Down with Petrofascists and Mr Toads I say!

  • Comment number 12.

    #11

    Al vehicles proceed under the very same Newton's laws of Motion regardless of size and the mass cancels itself out in all the motion equations. I suppose that you would prefer more fatal head on overtaking accidents, brakes on HGV's have been transformed since the 1990s, they no longer suffer from " fade " and their is now no technical justification whatsoever for the current 40 Mph limit. Most decent HGV drivers ignore the stupid 40 Mph limit anyway !

  • Comment number 13.

  • Comment number 14.

    @12 Yes of course I want far more fatal head on collisions! And I want you to be constantly approached and followed closely by vehicles the size of mount Everest which observe Newton`s laws of motion,because that`s the only criterion of any importance to the Petrofascists.

    Like all people who dare to disagree with you I also eat babies for breakfast and am plotting the end of the world in one great festival of freedom in which we choke to death on petrol fumes for your amusement.

  • Comment number 15.

    #14

    Why do you attempt to label me as a " Petrofascist ", if you had been open minded enough to read the fb link perhaps you would know that I only have a 1000cc car, hardly Clarkson territory. Perhaps you are just another numptie who fears anything their narrow mind can't comprehend, perhaps you should have studied Newton's laws of motion in 4 dimensions instead of relying on pure superstition ?

  • Comment number 16.

    @15 Numpties like me can`t comprehend the significance of Newton while we are being approached at speed by enormous vehicles that may obey the laws of motion but clearly don`t obey speed limits or stay on the right side of the road,because they are far too large to do it Bro. Forgive me,for I have sinned.

  • Comment number 17.

    I'm sure Rio and Saudi Arabia are far more important than this NN!



    More billions for us to chuck around at people in Europe

  • Comment number 18.

    It sounds like you may have significant problems with your eye-sight if you are a Leg-Iron getting under the feet of HGV's on A roads which are now virtually the standard of any Motorway. You should consider getting an eye test at the earliest opportunity, after all you do qualify for a free bus pass if you fail the current pretty liberal driving eyesight standards. Of course all HGV drivers have to meet far stricter eyesight criterion and face a stringent medical every five years at age over 45 !

  • Comment number 19.

    Peter Oborne is now praising Ed Miliband on QT tonight!!!

    Nuff said.

    Read my previous posts (as well as JJfivenames posts) for a better understanding.

  • Comment number 20.

    #19 museV

    It could take a bit of time to sink in to the politicians thick skulls but it would appear that UK politics is no longer a simple left / right question ?

  • Comment number 21.

  • Comment number 22.

    Thought Gavin Esler was a bit rude tonight continually interrupting his guests in the discussion about the euro. Do ³ÉÈËÂÛ̳ reporters go on 'how to stop interviewees finishing their sentences' courses? I appreciate broadcasting time is tight, but what is the point of asking a question if you don't leave enough time for people to answer it?

    Came to me today the spark missing from this blog is there's no interaction from the Newsnight team. It's as if they're in some distant, ivory tower somewhere, allowing us through this medium to have our say, but remaining silent, reactionless to the thoughts of their viewers.

    The thought crossed my mind when I saw some tailors' dummies in a shop window today. Well it had been a long shopping trip with my wife.

  • Comment number 23.

    #21

    Climate change fear is now the new mantra, lifted from the techniques of the old style, fire and brimstone 'end of the world is nigh' preachers, but in modern disguise

    Just like people take bits of the bible to justify their individual beliefs, so do people take bits of scientific data to do likewise. Just depends on whose PR machine and money is mightier to produce 'the truth'.

    Using fear to manipulate populations is as old as the early human primates and still very much alive in the world today, sophisticated though we think we are.

  • Comment number 24.

    Sadly, Peter Oborne does not appear to be anywhere near as effective in a live debate forum as he is presenting the printed word.

    Having seen him on QT tonight as well as NN yesterday, credit for trying to bring some home truths out into the mainstream and displaying moral courage in the way he tried to go about it, but he was not, unfortunately, particularly efffective in my opinion.

    It seems to be a common problem that those whom understand / care about what is really going on are ( funily enough) not trained in the dark art of public forum rhetoric and come accross as lacking in the public persona charisma stakes.

    If you get it right, it is possible to crack open the myth, this is my favourite example of how it should / could be done if you have the right skills (but not the baggage of this particular example).



    The first minute and the last minute of the above are particularly illuminating for the uninitiated into the world of Sky and Fox and Tony Blair attending the private baptism ceremony in israel of Rupert Murdochs daughter on the banks of the river Jordan, Tony dressed in a white ceremonial robe aparently... This is the man who is the middle east peace envoy..... if you put that in a plot of a fictional novel the publishers would consider it too preposterous a plot line to publish.. yet it is the truth...and nobody does anything about it.

    or this



    Shame the clip is cut short as it misses the 'rabbit caught in headlight' looks from the Us senate members.

  • Comment number 25.

    @17 Yes ecolizzie.Well noticed!

    While the ³ÉÈËÂÛ̳ and our American run capitalist regime divert us with trivialities about fox hunting and gay marriage (and sneering at an EU we are not allowed to leave) thousands of slaves are brought in by organised crime in order to milk the benefit`s system every year.

    If you can get up Lord Laming`s report on the life and merciful death of poor Victoria Climbie you will discover what the odious piffle mongers on Newsnight will skilfully avoid bringing to your attention,in case it calls into question their crazy ideas about open borders.

    Yes, Victoria was brought first to France, to be used to milk the benefits system there.When that was exposed as a fraud ,she was brought here and the process was resumed under the protection of the sort of gibbering "humanitarian" do-gooders who decide what the ³ÉÈËÂÛ̳ tells us and what it avoids telling us!

    Vulnerable people are not safe in the hands of a nation that has entirely lost its moral and ethical compass and is run as an offshoot of Wall Street and Hollywood!

  • Comment number 26.

    @21 and 22.

    Good point about the interviewing style adopted by journalists in our modern age,but you are missing the point about the purpose of journalism if you think it`s about discovering the truth restassured.

    In Britain we entertain the fantasy that politics delivers us "democratic" power when in fact our society is governed by a variety of powerful interest groups all vying for control.

    Examine any political or social issue and then compare compare how different parts of the media report it and you can detect whose axe they are grinding.

    Why do we "allow" any person with money to control parts of our media and the enormously rich ³ÉÈËÂÛ̳ to practically form aspects of our government policy while pretending only to "report" it?

    NN presenters are the new politicians in our media age.They "interview" people with a view to getting NN`s views across!

  • Comment number 27.

    @24 Come off it Jericoa! Can anyone of us thinkers really imagine QT and NN are about giving people like Obourne or Will Self or David Starkey anything more than just enough rope to hang themselves?

    Presenters and chairpersons are there to control the "show" like ring masters.It`s their job manage the message that Obourne gets across!

    Get up the QT with Huw Edwards just after 7/7 for a perfect example of the ³ÉÈËÂÛ̳ in it`s role as manager of public opinion.

  • Comment number 28.

    #27

    ''Come off it Jericoa! Can anyone of us thinkers really imagine QT and NN are about giving people like Obourne or Will Self or David Starkey anything more than just enough rope to hang themselves''


    Agree it often looks that way, but wrt the ³ÉÈËÂÛ̳ anyway, why take the risk of inviting such free thinkers on at all if they are as controlling as you suggest?

    Even if it is a set up job, it can backfire spectacularly if the 'free thinker' is skilled enough.

    Just look at how quick the Sky producer 'cuts off' George right at the end of my first link, he is just too late though, George just gets his coup de grace in before he is cut off, he takes the Sky journalist apart with great skill and passion, despite the Sky journalist being clearly briefed and 'up for it' and trying to do exactly as you suggest... but it backfires for them.

    It is that kind of skill that I am talking about and which Peter, brave though he is, does not seem to have.

  • Comment number 29.

    Here`s an idea chaps.

    Let`s brainstorm all the questions we would like NN to be asking but know they never will ask if they want to keep their jobs?

    After a while you may be surprised to learn how much you have been conditioned (by the ³ÉÈËÂÛ̳ and it`s product) into thinking in certain ways?

    For example,that it`s OK for a democratic nation to almost entirely ignore public opinion and pursue policies that are designed to destroy our culture and ship in millions of people to benefit from a society our grandparents worked to leave to us?

  • Comment number 30.

    @28

    I take your point Jericoa,but if Obourne was that skilled my guess is he wouldn`t get the opportunity.

    Examples from the USA have to come with a reminder that the USA is run by right wingers in Israel in order to serve their purposes.

    The American public are living in what Gore Vidal called the "United States of Amnesia" and they are brainwashed into accepting a third world society for themselves while Israelis spend America`s wealth on the expensive job of surviving in a hostile Middle East.

    Americans actually believe they enjoy freedom and democracy! Nuff said?

  • Comment number 31.

    It`s time for me to move on and to thank you for your company.

    I dedicate this thread to the memory of Baby Peter Connelly and Victoria Climbie and Max Gluckman ....and to the countless millions of others who had so much to tell us but never had the opportunity to use the internet to do it.

  • Comment number 32.

    '17. At 22:56 29th Sep 2011, ecolizzy wrote:
    I'm sure Rio and Saudi Arabia are far more important than this NN!'


    The NNelson touch! Very popular.

  • Comment number 33.

    re; My #17 post about us paying the benefits of europe....


    0831
    The European Commission has threatened to take legal action against Britain in a dispute about a residency test that determines which EU nationals are eligible for benefits. Laszlo Andor, EU Commissioner for Employment, Social Affairs and Inclusion, sets out his concerns.

    0835
    An American classics professor, Madeline Miller, has written a modern prose novel that takes elements of the The Iliad for its plot. Professor Miller and Dr Peter Jones, co-founder of the charity Friends of the Classics, discuss whether it will encourage people to tackle Homer himself.

    The Today programme says it spent 4 mins on this at 8.31, could have sworn it was only one, there was this drivvle on after it adverstising someones book.

    We have got to abandon our welfare state, one can't have it with mass immigration. I always loved our lifestyle, I always thought we were a very homogenous society, I thought I'm glad we're not like the USA, I have a feel for most living in Britain.

    Now I haven't a clue what or who we are anymore, especially when I watch the ³ÉÈËÂÛ̳, our history seems a million years ago now, even Who Do You Think You Are, has a distinctly immigrant feel this time, (that we're not really English theme) now that couldn't be bias on the beeb could it?!

    I'm with you Barrie, lets get rid of Westminster and start again, vive the revolution! ; )

  • Comment number 34.

    Ecolizzy wrote:
    "I'm with you Barrie, lets get rid of Westminster and start again, vive the revolution! ; )""

    This would indeed appear to be exactly what Barrie (albeit unknown to
    himself?) and the Westminster politicians are after. Their self destruct IS however, a means of furthering market anarchism (also known as Libertarian or Liberal Democracy). That amounts to minimal or non governance in favour of the markets, which today, largely means empowering the banks. Is that what you want?.

    The way Barrie argues and is like that of most politicians. These days they all appeal to freedom by appealing to self-centredness and short term gain. They all want the British public to dispense with parliamentary democracy and to dispense with services delivered by the Public Sector overseen by Civil Servants and politicians in favour of economic deregulation and control by the free market which is the Private and Third Sectors. It is diabolically done.

    This will be at the cost of all regulative Public Sector services, with more and more assets shielded (because the Freedom of Information Act does not apply to the Non Profit Institutions Serving Households sector). The Third Sector, which has mushroomed over the past couple of decades, ha done so just at the time that derivatives and debt mushroomed too. That was used to destroy public services. See Greece etc and the IMF.

    Some of these investigative questions were raised a year ago but nobody seems to have followed them up. May I suggest you follow the theme outlined by the poster in November 2010. Was he/she onto something?:

    /blogs/newsnight/paulmason/2010/11/only_eight_places_away_from_me.html?postId=102680225

    Look also at recent blog entries by Adam Curtis and another George Monbiot.on "THink Tanks". most of which are now "charities" i,e elements of "Non Profit Institutions Serving Households"

    /blogs/adamcurtis/2011/09/the_curse_of_tina.html


    Please think carefully about this."

  • Comment number 35.

    #34

    Got to come to a situation where its even politically acceptable for the Tories to nationalise the Banks without compensation, we could be there sooner than some people wish to believe !

  • Comment number 36.

    BROWN DOG 'ET AL' YOU HAVE NOT READ WHAT I HAVE WRITTEN, ONLY WHAT YOUR NEED AND OBSESSION TELL YOU I HAVE WRITTEN (#34)

    You can find ALL my thoughts under one name. Re-read and think carefully. . .

  • Comment number 37.

    #34 What is it now JJ 10 or 15 names.

    If you read carefully I point out that we start again, meaning right from scratch. People look for and elect candidates locally without a rosette poll, I agree with Barrie on that. Something very radical indeed is needed, if we aren't going to disappear into the black hole of the EU.

  • Comment number 38.

    Ecolizzy. Be careful what you wish for, as you seem to be advocating fascism. It's bad form to try to personally identify anonymous messengers. Instead of shooting at them, defending what you think etc, make an effort to grasp what's being said whether you like what they say or not. It's more constructive.

    Politics is really about legislation and its enforcement (by the Public Sector). More and more these days, Private Sector businesses and Non Profit Institutions Serving Households are operating solely in pursuit of profit and not service to Households. Erode the Public Sector managed by the state and one erodes regulation in favour of these predatory market forces. Many of our politicians and activists just want you to get rid of them in favour of control from Europe (despite what they may tell you, it's outcomes which matter not stated intentions). What you call for will make any opposition to market forces (via appeals to national, or even regional, sovereignty through "post revolutionary" elections, impotent.

    Eighty percent of the electorate works in the Private or Third Sectors.
    That is where the money was made at the expense of the Public Sector which has been sabotaged through poor recruitment and retention, Human Rights and FOIA over many years. Only a small percentage of the Private/Third Sector workforce makes big money, but the entire sectors are offered a Faustian Pact that taxes will be kept low if they just get rid of the red tape which Government is managing (i.e. the 6 million providing Public Sector services).

    They are after the tax funding. Costs will just go up. People never see this. Why? Why are "households" and "Non Profit Institutions Serving Households" amalgamated in the national accounts ("The Blue Book")?

    Is it because most of the population today is not very smart, and can't see what's going on at their expense? As in other liberal democracies across the "Developing World" (those not looking to China and Russia that is), like children, they are easily bought off with SHORT TERM inducements such as lower taxes, human rights, cheap consumer goods, and parent and patient power etc, even when they know they know they don't have the skills to demand professionals do as THEY demand .

    Was this not how anarchism led Germany to abandon democracy in the 1930s?

    Note what the Russian equivalent of the ³ÉÈËÂÛ̳ is broadcasting to the world?

  • Comment number 39.

    @38 What helped lead to fascism in the 30`s was Wall Street`s financial fiddling and theft.

    I am told it was a dead ringer for 2008 with the same sort of slick and devious moneylenders at the helm.

    You know "brown dog",the sort of people who got the Glass-Steagal Acts repealed! And that`s another mystery no one seems brave enough to investigate!

    Perhaps you should spend some time reading up on the ideas of Max Keiser and following ZeroHedge and Alex Jones.

    After all I just sense that you would not want to be unintentionally advocating the sort of right wing ideas allegedly advocated by Wall Street and the Likud and their close friend Geert Wilders.

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