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Wednesday 15 December 2010

Sarah McDermott | 10:15 UK time, Wednesday, 15 December 2010

Unemployment in the UK has risen to 2.5m in the three months to October, with joblessness amongst 16-24 year-olds now running at almost 20 per cent, and joblessness among women at its highest since 1988.

Tonight Liz Mackean considers if the private sector really can pick up the slack of public sector job losses, and if we are in danger of creating a lost generation of young people.

We'll be joined by a government minster, an economist and a big employer to debate the impact on society and what should be done.

The PM of Kosovo has been named as "The Boss" of an extensive criminal network that dealt in heroin, and human organs and assassinations in a pretty extraordinary report by the Council of Europe.

Mark Urban will bring us the latest. It's a subject that Newsnight has investigated before - .

And we have a stunning film from Lyse Doucet who has travelled to Pakistan's interior Sindh province in search of one of the hundreds of thousands of people who contacted a Ö÷²¥´óÐã helpline after devastating floods tore through the country in July.

Join Gavin at 10.30pm on Ö÷²¥´óÐã Two.

Comments

  • Comment number 1.

    HOW ODD THAT PILGER IS NOT NEWS - OR IS IT

    After he challenged the media with regard to BIAS, COMPLICITY AND CONNIVANCE in criminal wars, as reported endlessly on Newsnight, I thought you might appear as a guest.

    You have the right to remain silent . . .

  • Comment number 2.

    Proof the alleged environmentalists have been operating in the interest of multinational corporations all the time. I was once informed that you can run a good paraffin lamp all week for the same amount of fuel used in a generator for a couple of hours ?

  • Comment number 3.

    "Tonight Liz Mackean considers if the private sector really can pick up the slack of public sector job losses, and if we are in danger of creating a lost generation of young people.
    We'll be joined by a government minster, an economist and a big employer to debate the impact on society and what should be done."
    What do you mean you're going to debate this?
    It isn't a matter of argument, it's a mater of data. Please get some people on the programme (in future) who understand this, instead of inviting people on who just like to speculate about matters which they really have any real understand of.
    I fear many able people might refuse, as these confessions about how you produce the programme will have made many realise by now that they would just be on air having to argue with opinionated nitwits. That is, Newsnight will be getting more and more of what it deserves, at the expense of its viewers (it will be losing those too - is that the idea?).
    PS. It's Minister...

  • Comment number 4.

    barriesingleton (1) "HOW ODD THAT PILGER IS NOT NEWS - OR IS IT"
    No. It's not news. Watch "Manufacturing Consent" made in the 90s. Even that isn't original.
    I forget (you can't be told anything)..... .

  • Comment number 5.

    ..MP to anti-royal constituent: get a life and stop whinging...



    The Bob Russell MP for Colchester reply could have been straight out of the hasbara internet warfare book? ie name calling etc. Given MPs swear an oath of allegiance not to defend the rights of the public but the position of monarchy and its heirs we should not be surprised at such a royal high handed tone and the siding with an inner empire of privilege?

    Monarchy role gaming depends upon calling people by pejorative names like 'common', pleb,'skivvy' proles' etc and the way to keep these called by such names in their 'place' is to be rude and violent.

    does NN openly support such a system of apartheid?

  • Comment number 6.

    ..BoE Governor branded G7 as 'dysfunctional'...



    good job someone was thinking about it.

  • Comment number 7.

    ..A mutiny within WikiLeaks has former associates of leaker-in-chief Julian Assange charging that he's turned the web site into a cult of personality, and asking what has happened to the money

    Assange's ex-colleagues talk about what prompted their falling out with the WikiLeaks founder, and their plans for a new, rival web site to be called OpenLeaks. ....



    'i thought we were the People's Popular Front not the Popular People's Front...He's not the Messiah. he's a very naughty boy'....

  • Comment number 8.

    #4 cotedebeaune

    Re Manufacturing Consent

    Maybe Chomsky leaned heavily on the work of Edward Bernays when making Manufacturing Consent...



  • Comment number 9.

    A story you just know that NN or (the deity) John Simpson won't be covering...

    Do supporters of Nobel winner Liu Xiaobo really know what he stands for?


    The Chinese dissident has praised the invasions of Iraq and Afghanistan and said China should be fully westernised

  • Comment number 10.

    Unemployment numbers in themselves are one of a range of symptoms of the general health of an economy.

    These particular unemployment figures are significant of nothing more than the steady draining of economic activity from UK; this anaemia was disguised by the Bubble, to the great relief of Blair and Brown; now someone has to sweep up the dreck.

    How do the panellists see the upturn in employment manifesting itself?
    Not so much when but how?

    Just for once, I'd like to see a comparison with other European countries such as Germany or France with regard to their solutions to the same problem.

    Please no comparisons with US; I understand the bbc and its staff are besotted with the Land of the Free, but really, do you think there are any relevant lessons there for us?

    We could shut the NHS , I suppose.

    "All our working lives", an excellent series on Ö÷²¥´óÐã4, documented the highs, lows and eventual death of UK's manufacturing base; arrogance, complacency, short termism and lack of vision were the disturbing common factors in the demise of coalmining, shipbuilding and car manufacture.

    Anything changed in this great country of ours?


  • Comment number 11.

    Cynicism is despair dressed up in a smart suit, my old boss told me; stay healthy, stay sceptical; know the difference.

    Pilger's programme was good; I liked the quote from an American journalist who said, "Believe nothing until it's officially denied."

    Listen to what they say with an open mind; actions,however, are all important.

    Pilger's filletting of bbc's Head of Newsgathering(?) was enlightening.

  • Comment number 12.

    Winston! who exactly is writing this history?
    Was there two Richard Holbrooke's?
    I only ask because the Richard Holbrooke I'm aware of was responsible for the deaths of many, land grabs in the 90s, pipe line installations and ever more money for the fraudulent banksters and insurance companies ..whilst the Richard Holbrooke NN was going on about (Tuesday) sounded more like a Mother Teresa figure with diplomatic skills.

    Do the peeps at NN ever get out and away from the confines of the Ö÷²¥´óÐã compound and their skewed data base of information?
    I wonder also, do the good folk at the Nobel institute give out posthumous awards? or did Holbrooke already have one.

  • Comment number 13.

    10

    as hayekists the govt has no 'plan' to create jobs as they hate the word. They believe only 'the market' has wisdom. This is a false belief. The market is there to make money not deliver peace and harmony in a nation state.

    the govt are 'market fundamentalists' with a shinning eyed zeal that the market will deliver heaven. Not sure many have clicked on to this fact yet. You are on your own against the chinese currency manipulation. Don't be surprised if you lose. We are not in this together. There is no room on their horse for two.

  • Comment number 14.

    When 27 Iraqi's and Iranians die as illegal immigrants in a shipwreck off the coast of Australia, it's worlwide newsworthy.

    When hundreds of Iraqi's or Iranians civilians are killed in their own homeland by the West's military, it's just another number.

    As the US reporter on Pilger programme stated, there are the worthy and unworthy victims.

    'ITV 1 - Bringing you the brighter side' was the enlightened statement at the start of the programme.

  • Comment number 15.

    TERESA HOLBROOKE 'MOTHER' OF ALL MOTHERS? (#12)

    Holbrooke was never on my radar Kev. But when 'they' all bang on about how in-yer-face he would get, but how he solved all these humanitarian problems, I sense a power-trip, with the pawns just pawns. Hence your comments register with me. We recently had a PM who was of a similar ilk to Holbrooke, it would seem.

  • Comment number 16.

    THE UNDERSERVING DEAD (#14)

    I posted in similar vein about violent mercenary heroes v violent unpaid hooligans. Under state direction, the former wreck the lives of Johnnie Foreigner to become heroes; the latter damage London, receiving state beatings and opprobrium.

    Beats me.

  • Comment number 17.

    Well the jobless numbers are going in the right direction for the government and it's plans to make Unemployed work for benifit

    Local government lose jobs replace them with Unemployed on work for benifit system it's a win win for the government and local government they are seen to cut there cost and all those who get over sized pay packets are safe they are seen to of earned there bonus for cutting local government costs

    if you cut most local council CEO pay to the same rate as that of the PM most councils could hold on to 5 to 20 front line staff

    And if you apllied the same scaling back in pay rates to all council department heads most councils could hold on to another 5 to 20 front line staff

    Any council that say it as to over pay there top staff to keep them is falling for the myth that the private sector will take them on .

    This is a myth that as grown up when the private sector hiring left right and centre

    The private sector as no need for over priced staff at the top any more they are just trying to stay in profit



  • Comment number 18.

    For the attention of Mr. Snow:

    Reference to the two U.K. nationals, killed in North Waziristan, as "white, British", is not a politically incorrect observation, as you fear, but factual. Don't be afraid of the facts. To coin a glib expression: 'the truth will set you free'. You would think that providing 'evidence' against 'profiling' would make both of you extremely happy. Although there was a barely concealed smirk, from Jonathan, presumably in response to yours, I presume that owed more to the tiring requirement to stick to the facts - those that can be verified and not those you wish to be true, otherwise known as 'fiction' - than a desire to make combating Muslim terrorism more difficult.

    My exhortation, to the public, to re-double their efforts to boycott Channel 4's advertisers, in response to the staggering lack of professionalism on Channel 4, that remains, still stands. In fact, people should contact the companies concerned, to let them know their products and services are being boycotted, so long as they advertise on Channel 4.

  • Comment number 19.

    Good grief!

  • Comment number 20.

    How edifying to hear Keir Starmer QC resort to the 'Japanese Justice Minister' defence strategy on Radio 4's Today programme this morning when questioned about Julian Assange's forthcoming appeal for bail later today.

    /news/world-asia-pacific-11808242

    Starmer was questioned as to why was Assange's bail request was still being denied when Swedish authorities confirmed overnight that THEY were not querying Assange's bail conditions.

    At one point Starmer thought he could counter the interviewer's questions with a typically bombastic, oblique/legalistic answer (the UK courts are only acting as agents on behalf of the Swedish judiciary)... but upon further scrutiny he had to resort to the 'Japanese defence' in order to avoid his (and perhaps his Gov't's) embarrassment over the Assange bail affair.

  • Comment number 21.

    I don't know why every talks of surprise around unemployment figures, it's obvious. Over the last ten years we've imported 3 million people, so that's the unemployment figure, why is it such a mystery.

    Young people are directly unemployed because of immigration. What employer wouldn't employ a young educated person from eastern europe or elsewhere, compared with a not very well educated brit? They can employ an intelligent person who picks up the job quickly, goes the extra mile, because the foreigner want's to prove him/herself, that's the whole point of immigration isn't it?!

    To keep the poor man in his place, and get the job done quickly and cheaply, not all of us are fools here. We see the manipulation!

  • Comment number 22.

    ^ re; my above post, big business just gets richer and richer, while the poor old taxpayer just pays for this situation! Did I hear 7 billion in bank bonese, surely not!!!!

  • Comment number 23.

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

  • Comment number 24.

    THAT WOULD BE AN ECUMENICAL MATTER (#20)

    There cannot be a TV viewer in Britain who (if/when sober) can't spot the 'political answer'. But, to my knowledge, only Andrew Neil actually TELLS the devious politician TO THEIR FACE that the viewers KNOW what is going on. Of course - the coup de grace: MAKING THE POLITICIAN ADMIT THEIR PLOY, is never administered. The GAME endures.

    The most ambitious of these devious game players, are marked for high office, PRECISELY FOR SUCH CHARACTERISTICS, and get to travel the world to play GLOBOPOLY with foreign equivalents of themselves. The 'best', retire to a totally fictitious life of elevated claptrap. Blair is BY FAR the best example, having invented HIS OWN GAME as LORD HIGH REPRESENTATIVE OF INTERFAITH. He, literally, strides the world (on the stepping stones of multiple religions) LIKE A COLOSSUS - an insubstantial Colossus!

    While these impoverished beings play out their fantasies, using mundane folk as pawns, we shall spiral down. Compared with this fundamental drain on world functionality, ecology, energy, poverty, hunger etc, are just side-shows.

    Weep world.

  • Comment number 25.

    Eureka!

    Solution to unemployment; start a gift wrapping business employing 25+ people, probably, based on the owner's own admission, from outside UK but inside EU.

    This was a very disappointing package, surpassed only by the featherlight interview of darling Al; Gav seemed fixated by knowing how Al "felt"; is Gav practising for life after NN as a stringer for Heat?

    If this really is the best NN can do on such a meaty topic as unemployment and its alleviation as part of a rebalancing of this country's stagnating economy - then give up and concentrate on how politicians "feel".

    Staggering in its shallowness; what would John Tusa or McCormack think?

  • Comment number 26.

    @ Ecolizzy #19 - THanks for the article. I am shocked to see another £500 rise on OUR energy bills! Disgusting. Maybe that's why this was raised by Bob Ainsworth:



    People will forget their troubles in a haze of their choice ;o)

  • Comment number 27.

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

  • Comment number 28.

    got really emotional this morning at the petrol station.....Don't know why...just started filling up!

  • Comment number 29.

    YET ANOTHER DRUG TRIP - HIGH OFF THE GROUND (#26)

    Across the world, and as far back as we can perceive, man has bombed his mind with a range of substances. Why? My best guess is that the mind of the Ape Confused by Language has just three dominant modes: BORED, IN PAIN, BOTH.

    Being too clever for his own good, man always discovers one or more natural substances that interact with his brain chemistry, to alter its 'state' to CHEERFUL, ELEVATED or ASLEEP. He goes on to be a USER, DEPENDENT or ADDICT, with slow destruction of mind and body as the price to be paid.

    In Britain we have deeply established, state-condoned (taxed) tobacco and alcohol, these two have 'opened the way' (culturally, psychologically and physically) for intake of a range of other substances. Cleverness has led on to synthetics.

    Before ANY authority-figure pronounces on their pet initiative for tackling drug-use, which includes alcohol, THEY SHOULD DECLARE THEIR OWN STATUS. Few are 'clean'

    The irony in all this is that having, and using, ones mind can be immeasurably rewarding, yet the higher faculties are the first to shut down under alcohol. (The Ape-drives being the last to flicker out, as unconsciousness descends.) I might just point out, the even greater irony of Islamic prohibition! (Blessed are the cheese&wine-makers?)

    So: if we try to tackle drug use, without first understanding WHY we cannot endure the mind we are stuck with, then we are as addicted to deckchair shuffling, as we are to 'substance use'. But then - virtually ALL politicians are user and, what is more, I have never seen one who wants to SUCCEED, so much as he wants to ANNOUNCE and MAKE SPEECHES, regardless of ultimate outcome.

    When did Parliament last address the fundamental make-up, and drives, of The Ape Confused by Language?

    Nuff sed.

  • Comment number 30.

    #24 barrie

    Hear, hear!

    But they all also toe the free-market/libertarian ideological line (aka Trotskyism) - as stat/tab has countless times pointed out in the past on this blog. And for that they are all generously rewarded to maintain 'The Lie'.

    The Pilger film the other night highlighted this exquisitly with regard to the journalists. I wonder if any of those self flagellating journalists (in the Pilger film), that all felt so bad and shameful, returned any of their blood money to their 'employers' (or should it be...their bribers).

    Ö÷²¥´óÐã 'impartiality and integrity' indeed.

  • Comment number 31.

    ecolizzy (21) "Young people are directly unemployed because of immigration. What employer wouldn't employ a young educated person from eastern europe or elsewhere, compared with a not very well educated brit? They can employ an intelligent person who picks up the job quickly, goes the extra mile, because the foreigner want's to prove him/herself, that's the whole point of immigration isn't it?!
    To keep the poor man in his place, and get the job done quickly and cheaply, not all of us are fools here. We see the manipulation!"
    Is it that, or is it negligence? I suggest we dispense with the
    'inner- rkings' (motivation etc) explanations as those are fictions which we have no control over, and instead look to hard wired i.e inherited aptitudes, as all our corrective motivational and teaching inputs don't appear to be paying off (see OECD PISA and Sure Start etc). If there are East Europeans, Asians or Africans with ability, businesses will take them over lower genetic ability Brits (of whatever ethnicity). One can't argue with that as it will be largely Private Sector and what can the government do about that? In terms of race, one should not discriminate, or even in terms of nationality (see the Equality Act 2010). But surely the important question remains: what does the country to do with all those people who lack marketable ability but still need to feed themselves and enjoy their other Human Rights? Those who tend to talk in terms of 'inner-workings' never face up to any of that. As to being poor, well, substitute low native, hard-wired ability and one should see that the Points System doesn't help.
    Stripped of the 'inner-workings' (motivation) linguistic refuge (and it really is a refuge for scoundrels - just think of that Sure Start report you linked to as one example of many) how can all our politicians justify the all but open border recruitment policy (even given the Points System)? I know the lines which they come out with, we all do, but they never seem to address (or redress) the problem of an ever growing population amongst the lower ability, do they.

  • Comment number 32.

    brossen99 (2)
    Today it's light bulbs, tomorrow.... it will be everything else. We are being softened up with global ideas, I bet.
    Interesting that he who drafted the EU policy is an ex USSR (Latvian)ommunist Party politician.

  • Comment number 33.

    kashibeyaz (11) "Cynicism is despair dressed up in a smart suit, my old boss told me; stay healthy, stay sceptical; know the difference."
    Your old boss clearly didn't understand the basis of cynicism.
    clueless people aren't despairing at present because they don't see what's going on - they've let others pull the wool over their eyes as some would have them believe that it's all a matter of confidence whilst they strip their assets and inflate away savings. Note how the media abruptly went quiet on all that. Instead we got Wikileaks, a Chinese Nobel, FIFA antics, student fees and localism...

  • Comment number 34.

    didn't like Holbrook. I am aware that you shouldn't speak ill of the dead but once Wiki gets on his case a few unsavoury facts will emerge, he demonised the Serbs and the truth will emerge...it always does.....

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