Monday, 15 October, 2007
- 15 Oct 07, 04:17 PM
MENZIES CAMPBELL
Sir Menzies Campbell has announced his resignation. Was he pushed or did jump? And who will take on the task of being the third Liberal Democrat leader in just two years?
Michael Crick and David Grossman will be on the case and we will be joined in the studio by senior players in this drama.
CHINA
This week on Newsnight we're going big on China .Today the 17th Chinese Party congress heard a 2 hour 20 minute address from the country's leader Hu Jintao as he began his second five year term in which he castigated corrupt party members, and promised to spread the benefits of economic growth.
The speech was entitled "Upholding The Great Banner Of Socialism with Chinese Characteristics, Striving to Seize New Victory in Building of a Well Off Society in an all Round Way". We'll be hearing from Beijing and speaking to Lord Patten, the former Governor of Hong Kong, who has met Hu Jintao on several occasions.
DRUG REFORM
Have we lost the war on drugs? The Chief Constable of North Wales says we have, and has called for the legalisation and regulation of all drugs, and making heroin available on the NHS. His report for his local police authority will be given to the 主播大秀 Secretary Jaqui Smith as part of a national consultation on drugs reform. Tonight we'll speak to Chief Constable Brunstrom about his radical proposals.
CAPITAL GAINS TAX
And business leaders are ganging up on the Chancellor, Alistair Darling, urging him to suspend Capital Gains Tax reforms which he announced in his pre-budget report warning a single rate of 18% would 鈥渞isk serious damage to this county's entrepreneurial culture." We'll be assessing the danger of that.
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What are the betting odds on Julia Goldsworthy MP? It was 14-1 at the weekend.
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Hearing Sir David Steele's comments on Menzies Campbell's resignation, reminding us of the shabby treatment dealt out to Charles Kennedy by his parliamentary colleagues, just makes me wonder whether this is history repeating itself. There are clearly some very, very ambitious, if not Machiavellian individuals on the Lib Dem benches. As David Steele said, it would have been better to have had Ming as caretaker leader while Charles Kennedy sorted out his personal life. Had they done this, the Lib Dems would definitely have had my vote. The only thing which would get my vote now is the return to the leadership of Charles Kennedy. I'm sure I am not the only one.
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It is so refreshing to find intelligent life on the government or law enforcement end of the War on Drugs debate! This war was lost right after it started, as the only people who gain anything from the status quo are the drug barons and lords who have a phenomenal profit margin, the corrupt government and police officials and some of those in the legal and correctional system who specialize in defending or jailing the poor victims.
The losers vastly outnumber them. They are drug users themselves, who are criminalized insted of being treated for dependency as alcohol and other substance abusers. They are also the lower rungs of the drug trade, as they're often caught and mowed down, as are innocent bystanders, in senseless violence that boils down to sales territory disputes. Finally, the ultimate losers are the taxpayers. They finance a war that is unwinnable by any rational standards, and do not realize any gains that would be generated if the legitimized trade were taxed just like other businesses are. Meanwhile, vast resources that should be directed to fighting much more serious crime, or maybe to education, serious drug education included, line the pockets of numerous undeserving individuals.
I suspect the taboo and hipocrisy will continue as the ones who make the most money out of the status quo will continue paying off, or "eliminating", those who would have a shot at meaningful change.
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The problem with the Lib-Dem's is not due to the leader its due to the policies. Nobody with any common sense supports what is basically an eco-fascist agenda, most people realize that there will be power cuts in future if we don't invest in nuclear power. The alleged gain of a 16p basic rate of income tax to the relatively poor is not that clear, its obvious that the cost of living will soar if more alleged green taxes are introduced. It would appear that the Lib-Dem's have lost the traditional Liberal vote in their foolish attempt to appease the minority eco-fascists. Perhaps only Simon Hughes can put them back on the right track, or is the way open for the return of Charles Kennedy.
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if the CC of North Wales has been psychologically defeated then he should make way for someone who isn't. What use to society is a guard dog who has lost his bark?
Alcohol and tobbaco are legal yet there is still multi billion smuggling. So it doesn't stop the fight against crime.
Maybe North Wales Police need to be merged into a bigger force to stiffen their backbone?
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Sir Menzies Campbell has proved to be a rare politician, he voluntarily resigns when everything goes 鈥榩ear shaped鈥. I think that this shows a level of integrity rare in modern politicians. It might well be that he was pushed to go, but at least he knew that an unseemly dispute would harm his party still further.
Now, we need a big personality in charge to inspire people to return. I suggest Charles Kennedy. Not that I vote Liberal (I don鈥檛), but it is good to have a broader base for British democracy.
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The CC says he has lost the war on drugs. Any other head of an organisation saying he had failed in his job would resign or be sacked. Even the NHS in Kent knew that. He has now been criticised by ACPO. He should go and get a job selling radar guns so he can continue in his Crusade against motorists
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please update your blog, the liberal demcrat leader sir menzies campbell HAS RESIGNED, not "maybe resigning be christmas
He announced his resignation at 6:30pm, surely it could have been updated by now?
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Illegal drugs support the economy which they do because opioids etc are a quick way into the brain' monoamine (dopamine, noradrenaline and 5-HT/serotonin) and endogenous opioid systems, which play such a critical role in what behavioural scientists refer to as 'reinforcement' (i.e what changes our rates of behaviours).
Given that all our natural 'strokes' (and relief from aversive stimulation) work through these systems, it's almost impossible to enforce prohibition.
The police are (bravely in my view) just telling it as it is. Laws which are not enforceable are just window dressing legislation. Nobody wants to legalise this scourge, but it may turn out to be the only way for us to better control it (as we have to some degree with alcohol and tobacco, which also work through the above systems, as do anti-depressants and anti-psychotics etc).
The stuff is now so cheap and accessible that it is literally like making sweets available to kids (or all ages) who impulsively can't say no, as the stuff works on the very systems which subserve 'self-control'.
Fact.
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Those with a keen political eye and certainly friends, family and colleagues of Liberal Democrat MP Tim Farron would have noticed we incorrectly named him as Conservative MP Michael Fallon. Apologies to both for getting this wrong. A busy night....but not THAT busy to have made such a silly mistake. Neil
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Wow. I've just seen Kirsty Wark interview Simon Hughes and Vince Cable as they desperately tried to distance themselves from Ming Campbell's decision to resign. Neither man had spoken to their former leader today! Pathetic. Well done for exposing them Kirsty.
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James Reynolds film + his commentary on Chinese Communist Party leader Hu Jintao was very poor -laughably so. It seemed like a piece of negative propaganda -ironic, no?
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Time to skip a generation .... bring back Shirley Williams - and outflank
everybody by moving decisively to the left, going after the youth vote, women of a certain age -
and every liberal thinking man!
She was looking great - and she
was wearing red ...............
Social democracy lives on, Polly!
And she is pro-Europe ..........
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My head is spinning so much. I'm dizzy with the math. So hold on, Inheritance tax is effectively unchanged. It is reasoned that we now have to wait for our parents to die before we can have any hope of home ownership, and we have been spiking our parent's food, but unwittingly poisoning ourselves. And in our chaotic stupor, unaided by any medical assistance from the nhs, we are robbed again, stung with an increase in capital gains tax. This Labour Government are a disease on Britain. Don't worry, our democracy won't be restored, it will be given away to the unelected Europe Bureaucrats in Brussels. We may as well have been invaded by the Communists.
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So I get home at 1am and want to watch last night's episode and it's still not available at 1.36am. Distinctly unimpressed!
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Just watched tonight's show on computer - what were Simon Hughes & Nick Cable like?? Would you buy a used political party from them? They looked well shifty.
loved it when Kirsty Wark pulled Hughes up on being party president and not having spoken to the resigning leader at all!
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Yes, Ming Campbell was pushed, but only metaphorically. He is one of few principled politicians able to take dispassionate view of himself as well as the party he led. I hope he stays on the front benches.
As for a new leader, please no shifty men who just nod or try to evade answers. What a good idea, bring back Shirley Williams and then make Julia Galsworthy her deputy. Let us see what true mentoring can do. And make Charles Kennedy spokesman. Some colour and zest is needed to get LibDems moving.
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so crack is the opiate of the masses and machiavelian (sp) egotism the gag on the elite minority
and doped and brainwashed we focus on our belly buttons of who's going to be king of the (imaginary) castle and who's going to (pretend to) shoot the dirty rascals
meanwhile the rest of the world is carving up these islands between themselves
when you're on the western fringe of corruption and the financiers have taken your land where is there to go except the atlantic?
you want free energy and a healthy population? ok, install free exercise-based battery chargers on every high street - it's so simple
but that isn't what the elite want, primarily they just want control, so they prefer to create fat traps and then punish people for falling into them
the latest I heard is that coal may be making a comeback and here we all are, bags over the ladies' heads, worshipping wind and local food
the last time we had a truly local diet was about 5000bp but hey, those were the good old days, yeah?
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Breaking News at 6.30pm becomes boring news @ 10.30pm....
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Many of the people spinning don't even seem to know that they're doing it. With many, it isn't so much that they tell lies as their not being bright or competent enough to be able to tell the truth (which often requires one to just say "I don't know"). That's the problem, as if they were to just say the latter, it would be political suicide. The essence of pursuit of truth (science) on the other hand is to get to a point where one can see that one just does not know, as that's the only way to advance current practice.
Yet politicians and their advisors live in a world where to ensure political survival they're told (from personal experience and their advisors) that they're not only expected to have *an* answer, but *the* answer, or at least, upstage their opposition. Their world is one of coherence, populism, argument and debate, all of which is anathema to 'pursuit of truth' (science).
This is why anyone with a research background invariably regards politicians and their ilk with nothing but contempt.
No wonder science, education and behaviour is in decline in this country, that's what happens when one puts coherence before correspondence, narrative before fact.
I hate to admit it, but we live in a feminised culture where words matter more than what they refer to.
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Sir, What charletans. Hughes and co grilled by Kirsty...what a shower. Ming goes with much dignity, they do not deserve a man of his integrity with the whispering campaign so reminiscent of the Charlie debacle. But wasn't Ming one of the arch-destroyers of Charlie? First you can't have a drink and then you cannot grow old. What standards the Lib Dems are setting for the future. At this rate even Nick Clegg will look frail. So many Labour voters upset at the leaderships adventurist wars turned to the Lib Dems will now have to return to the fold holding their noses over Trident, ID cards and PFI's. Still, there is hope...Gordon is looking a lot older these days. Sincerely, Steve
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Iain
Normally the programme is available to watch back about 10-15 minutes after broadcast.
There have been some problems with the "high quality" Windows edition. A fix was deployed but it seems there is still an issue. Technicians are looking at this again.
If you find the programme has not updated try changing your preferences in the 主播大秀 News player (top right hand corner of the player) to Real Player or to "Standard quality". But hopefully this problem will be fixed and you won't need to try this.
Apologies for the inconvenience.
Ian Lacey, Newsnight website.
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REQUIEM FOR A DECENT POLITICIAN
So Ming Campbell has fallen on his sword, as I suggested he should, on this blog just over a week ago. It is clear, however, that he did this to himself. The rumours of assassins stalking the corridors of the National Liberal Club were grossly untrue. His party not merely respected him, they loved him; even, almost uniquely, those in his shadow cabinet. If you had ever have met him, as I was fortunate enough to do 鈥 one on one 鈥 for any length of time, you too would have been overwhelmed by his sheer integrity.
In practical terms his achievements as leader were out of sight of the general public. He brought the party together again after the trauma Charles Kennedy鈥檚 departure, he reorganized the party machine and he put in place new policies for the future. In other words he did exactly what any true leader should do, and his party loved him for it. They would have backed him all the way until he was a distinguished octogenarian.
But there still were lots of assassins around, not so much in the opposing parties (for that was to be expected and was in reality quite gentle since they too respected him) but in the media. He provided a nice easy target for the same media who in a not too dissimilar a way drove Tony Blair out of office and Diana to her death. He was the ideal target of the playground for name calling 鈥 鈥淒on鈥檛 you lack charisma?鈥 鈥淎re your party out to get you?鈥 鈥淲hat about the polls?鈥 鈥淎re you too old?鈥 鈥 and, in the final indignity, 鈥淒o you wear sock suspenders like other Edwardian politicians?鈥
The real tragedy is not his decent decision that, by being the story rather than his party鈥檚 policies so that this would swamp the press (as it did with Blair), he should resign. Rather it is what it says about our modern political lives and the media that infest them.
Most of the leading politicians I have met, and spent time with, are decent honourable individuals; in private! In public, under the glare of publicity, their feral nature rises to the surface, to swamp any sense of perspective they might have. It is almost as if, as the red lights on the TV cameras call them to attention, they have an instant lobotomy. The joy of Ming was that he was just as decent in public as he was in private; one of the very few politicians who achieved this. He, not David Cameron, never indulged in Punch and Judy politics; though the media loved Cameron and Brown for the very knockabout which brought politics into disrepute. The truly dedicated politician, egged on by the media, will sacrifice anything for the cheap political trick; as Gordon Brown tried in his trip to Iraq 鈥 though that went too far for even the cynical media observers.
It may be useful to revisit the Judgment of Solomon to see how life has changed over recent years:
The Judgment of Solomon (according to Wikipedia): Two new mothers approach Solomon, bringing with them a single baby boy. Each mother presents the same story鈥 In essence the baby must be hers and Solomon has to choose between them鈥
After some deliberation, King Solomon calls for a sword to be brought before him. He declares that there is only one fair solution: the live son must be split in two, each woman receiving half of the child. Upon hearing this terrible verdict, the boy's true mother cries out, "Please, My Lord, give her the live child - do not kill him!" However, the liar, in her bitter jealousy, exclaims, "It shall be neither mine nor yours - divide it!" Solomon instantly gives the baby to the real mother, realising that the true mother's instincts were to protect her child, while the liar revealed that her only motivation was jealousy.
The moral used to be clear. The problem now is that the baby is awarded to the one who pushes everything to the extreme, and is willing to sacrifice the baby. Moreover, she is the one applauded by the media for her courage in risking all 鈥 even the baby鈥檚 life 鈥 and (especially) for her providing such entertainment value. The values of decency have been overturned.
We, or rather our media, now choose the worst possible leaders; those who 鈥 like most villains 鈥 are 鈥榠nteresting鈥 rather than sound. Even now the media are starting to call for the return of Charles Kennedy, the alcoholic who dragged the Liberals to the brink of disaster, because he is fun!
If you need one more lesson, look to the US; and to Al Gore. Like Ming he was honourable, so much so that 鈥 like the Judgment of Solomon 鈥 he gave in to the political machinations of Bush and the neocons rather than see the US pulled apart. He has since built a reputation in a new (green) field and deservedly won the Nobel Prize for Peace. Yet what does the press have to say: 鈥淲hat has he ever done to deserve it?鈥 This is about one of the great (almost tragic) figures of our time. What do you have to do to win their applause. Of course, like Charlie Kennedy, you have to play the engaging drunk!
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not sure granny kirsty understands the watch again feature. How many people really watch it over and over and over and over and over?
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