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Thursday 1 December 2011

Verity Murphy | 17:30 UK time, Thursday, 1 December 2011

Banks should brace themselves to withstand the "extraordinarily serious and threatening" economic situation, the Bank of England Governor Sir Mervyn King has said.

Sir Mervyn said the Bank itself was making "contingency plans" in case of a eurozone break-up.

Tonight Paul Mason will be assessing the scale of the threat and what those contingency plans could entail.

We have the results a joint investigation between us and the Bureau of Investigative Journalism on a British company involved in the sale of telecommunications surveillance technology to Syria.

And we ask whether politics has changed in recent weeks, with the death of green politics, changing arguments on fairness, and Danny Alexander's admission on Newsnight that the Liberal Democrats are signed up to the extra rounds of cuts in 15/16 and 16/17 announced by Chancellor George Osborne in his Autumn Statement - beyond the next general election.

Plus we have an interview with celebrated film director Martin Scorsese.

Comments

  • Comment number 1.

    If the banksters give themselves enormous bonuses in the coming weeks... and then come cap in hand for yet another bail-out from the British people I fear that it will result in blood on the streets.

    The British people are some of the most tolerant on Earth, but there is a limit to which even the British people can be pushed.

  • Comment number 2.

    ARE YOU SURE IT IS TOLERANCE 57?

    Might it be we are EFFETE or INDOLENT? Or perhaps APATHETIC (=/-A)? Or maybe we are now 'educated' DOWN to such a level of UNAWARENESS, that the idea we are, for example, UNDER THREAT FROM OUR OWN ADMINISTRATION, is unthinkable?



    ADVISORY NOTE:Ignore the link if you think we live an a democracy under the rule of law.

  • Comment number 3.

    This will get out of control very quickly - quicker than politicians, bank governors or those in global financial organisations think.

    History teaches us that once a tipping point is reached those in authority often still think they are in charge when the power has already moved elsewhere. As pilots have to constantly keep asking themselves: "Are we flying the aircraft?"

    The political and financial elite will now probably make the mistake of looking after number one again - themselves. Are they really still in charge?

  • Comment number 4.

    ARE WE FLYING THE AIRCRAFT? - THAT SAYS IT ALL (#3)

    I had not met that one before 57. That is a total "nuff sed"!

  • Comment number 5.

    "We have the results a joint investigation between us and the Bureau of Investigative Journalism on a British company involved in the sale of telecommunications surveillance technology to Syria."

    interesting, hopefully followed by an investigation who, in Britain, knew about this:
    /news/technology-15982225

  • Comment number 6.

    "Sir Mervyn said the Bank itself was making "contingency plans" in case of a eurozone break-up.

    Tonight Paul Mason will be assessing the scale of the threat and what those contingency plans could entail."

    What's the problem?

    Surely what it means is a reversion back to domestic currencies in circulation back in 1999? It's just a common currency.

    People are being bamboozled into thinking it's something else. It was part of a tool to create a united Europe whilst depriving nation states of sovereignty by stealth.

    Say Wales or Scotland had the Wound or Sound and there was an exchange rate set relative to the English Pound. What would really change other than the appearance of the banknote and coin (we already have this incidentally).

  • Comment number 7.

    Remember AIDS, the Millennium bug, bird-flu, global-warming? Now it's reversion back to domestic currency (1999) hyperbole. Don't fall for it.
    It's all political in aid of a united Europe and loss of national democracy getting in the way of it..

  • Comment number 8.

    The One SHOW tonight had a piece on the consequences of relaxing Resale Price Maintenance whereby, back in 1964, manufactures could no longer fix the price that retailers sold their goods.

    Which body lobbied for that?

    Supermarkets.

    Which are the main supermarkets?

    What was the effect on statism and thus nationalism.



    Next, we had the European Commission making this an EU obligation:

    "In relation to competition, Article 81 and Article 82 of the EC Treaty are paramount over all member states' national laws relating to competition. The ECJ and the Commission have both held that Resale Price Maintenance is generally prohibited. UK law must apply this interpretation when dealing with inter member-state agreements between undertakings".




    Bear this in mind (along with the bewildering choices which one is faced with these days), not to mention the demise of the small producers/manufacturers as supermarkets drive them out of business through importing form elsewhere where labour is next to nothing along with other overheads..

    This is why all talk of demanding that the Government does this and that is naive. The EC overrides national Governments (largely run by PR types it seems these days, and they really are getting younger and younger, and have no police powers). If any nation state stands up to the EC, the Ratings Agencies will be called in..

    Who runs the Rating Agencies? Wall Street effectively. Who runs Wall Street? Look at the demography of NYC.

  • Comment number 9.

    barriesingleton wrote: "ADVISORY NOTE:Ignore the link if you think we live an a democracy under the rule of law."

    I suggest you reconsider taking this line for this reason.

    Those in the Public Sector employee or Civil Service are employed to occupy posts in a structure just as in any organisation. As in the military, they're required to execute the responsibilities of their posts as instructed by those above them and according to a set of rules.

    If someone occupying a post does what they choose outside of their job description and contrary to policy, they're considered "rogue officers"
    or "loose canons", and disciplined, and if that fails, they're expected to either resign or may be suspended and subsequently dismissed.

    This was what the complex issue was over the Head of UKBA not long ago.
    Civil Servants are answerable to their Minister, and so it goes, all the way down the chain of line-management (command). These are NOT democratic organisations, if anything they are a Democratic Centralist like the former USSR, and most people soon learn that when they're employed.

    I'm sure it's much the same in the Private Sector.

  • Comment number 10.

    #8 b-d wrote:

    "This is why all talk of demanding that the Government does this and that is naive. The EC overrides national Governments (largely run by PR types it seems these days, and they really are getting younger and younger, and have no police powers). If any nation state stands up to the EC, the Ratings Agencies will be called in..

    Who runs the Rating Agencies? Wall Street effectively. Who runs Wall Street? Look at the demography of NYC."


    Spot on analysis yet again.

    tawse57 re trade barriers...you have to take into account the geopolitics (Jewish politics?) in play here.

    According to the late news tonight Sarkozy is proposing Eurobonds as the solution. This effectively means an stepping stone to a federal EZ.

    Note how NN had another agent of Wall St on to head the prog tonight (i.e. Rogoff)

  • Comment number 11.

    Not sure if it's all a global, financial, political conspiracy so much as the fact that there are too many cooks and they're greedy, incompetent and hopeless. Cock-up is more common that conspiracy.

    Granted the EU is largely a front for centralising power and people domination, but they're completely useless at that too. Any organisation built on fallacious grounds will always eventually fail, but as usual its the people who have to pick up the pieces.

    The world is an entirely different place to when Churchill advocated a European Union. We'd just had a devastating war. We didn't have instant worldwide communication, we couldn't zip around the globe so easily to do trade and import/export goods and we didn't interact with other countries in the everyday way we do now.

    I believe that's the interaction he desired, not an overwhelming bureaucratic, dominating union like the old USSR. We're not threatened in our republic by weapons, but by economic collapse.

    In the end strong currency is mightier than the sword, and lost somewhere in the fray, a decent society. Decency seems to have dropped out of our culture.

  • Comment number 12.

    The banks need to recognise that there cannot be another bailout - the UK simply does not have the political will or the money and the only alternative will be to let them go to the wall, then establish a new national bank out of the ashes.

    This will leave HMG in effective control of the economy, responsible for directing all investment, lending and interest paid to depositors. It will end the illusion of a free market for once & for all and there will be no excuse for failing to invest in the UK.

    The upside of this would be to clear out the hedge funds, the speculators and the rest of the parasites in the City and allow the country to be run in the interests of all its people, not the 1% who currently extort us all for their own enrichment.

    Our leaders need to spell out the No "nd Bailout message loud and clear - the banks are on their own.

  • Comment number 13.

    They should stop talking about a "bazooka" and start calling it what it really is, a "bamboozla".

    The Germans (USA) know that the ECB can't print money without a fiscal union of some EU states as it would be ILLEGAL. The more states the better as far as the USA (Germany) is concerned...

    This is all crooked

  • Comment number 14.

    If Newsnight keeps up these OTT Observed vs Expected statistical discrepancies (given the UK population base-rate of 0.5%) it should seriously consider changing the first letter in it's name, just to make it 100% clear to those who haven't picked up on this. I'm sure many wouldn't mind. There may be the odd complaint from the British Chinese population though, as they're pretty smart, same proportion of the population, and may feel discriminated against. The odds are, given the Chinese economy, they'd make a better job of running the country too..

  • Comment number 15.

    /news/uk-15991116



    Spin on which? I'll give you one guess!

  • Comment number 16.

    POOR DAVE

    Now he has to persuade the Mekel/Sarkosy menage a deux, NOT to enact any treaty change that will give US the right to a referendum.

  • Comment number 17.

    3.At 19:35 1st Dec 2011, tawse57 wrote:

    Excellent post again Tawse - Thank goodness you & Barrie S. posting as would otherwise not be worth a look on here.

    What concerns me about big issues in UK political economy is e.g.

    We've just had a national strike by unions over pensions but not over the huge number of public sector & related private sector job losses that will coming through in next few years - over a million as likely to take UK official stat. unemployment to somewhere between 4 & 5 million minimum - no matter how many UK jobs created - because of repeated UK govt failure to control UK immigration & tackle EU red tape.

    In other words we have Union/TUC headquarter 'barons' organising national strikes on Hutton proposed pension reforms - but not over massive job cuts which despite 'oversize' of UK public sector - will do massive damage to British workers & their families.

    How is it that all of UK media & politicians have failed to spot that the TUC baron choice of strike is 'politically correct' and is not challenging e.g. mass immigration effect on those set to lose their jobs - so that the job losses can be better managed & phased and UK immigration is cut to a trickle and also be managed on a regional basis so that e.g. Scotland takes more of immigrants & the British unemployed ex-public & private sector workers stand a much better chance of finding a job?

    Over a million jobs in public sector (& related private sector support jobs) & unions organise main strike over pensions.

    Coalition govt at fault also for not having the spine to stand up against EU red tape and forced flood of EU & other immigrants obn the UK?

    Rank & file union members need to understand that they're paying their union fees to a politically corrupt union organisation that is more than happy to see them as 'economically inactive' - indefinitely - and will not lift a finger or say a word in question of the libertarian UK foreignising policy that is now being pursued by all major political parties.

    This is what, IMO, no one will discuss - and Ö÷²¥´óÐã is at the root of the problem?

  • Comment number 18.

    17.At 09:28 2nd Dec 2011, You wrote:
    3.At 19:35 1st Dec 2011, tawse57 wrote:

    Excellent post again Tawse - Thank goodness you & Barrie S. posting as would otherwise not be worth a look on here.

    ++
    Correction + muse, ecolizzy & 'some others' ... sorry if I left you out

  • Comment number 19.

    FAIT ACCOMPLI?

    Eurozone crisis: Merkel pledges push for fiscal union


    "Merkel's comments that the eurozone is on the "verge of" fiscal union to the German parliament this morning chime with what ECB president Mario Draghi and French president Nicolas Sarkozy said yesterday about the "fiscal compact". It is clearly an orchestrated attempt to present a common front on this controversial issue, ahead of the summit meeting next week."

  • Comment number 20.

    This NGO is clearly off (libertarian) message…

    Canada urged to arrest and prosecute George W. Bush



    Arrest George W. Bush during Africa tour for ‘torture crimes’: Amnesty International


    It will be interesting to follow Susan Lee's (Americas Director at Amnesty International) career in the near future.

  • Comment number 21.

    nautonier wrote: "Excellent post again Tawse - Thank goodness you & Barrie S. posting as would otherwise not be worth a look on here."

    Here's what you left out."posting as would otherwise not be worth a look on here"...IN MY OPINION



    Note how so much of what you read and post is SELF-centred but leaves off the giveaways? What contribution does it make to share one's personal feelings? It's like telling the world one is off to eat some chocolate or going to the loo. Why should anyone be interested in that?
    This is the self-centredness of social-networking. It's why so many miss so much in the way of detail as to what's actually true and false - they're too SELF-centred rather than world-centred to have time to discriminate. When corrected they feel slighted because they haven't discriminated between them and what they have to say. What if what they post is false? Do they not want to know that it's wrong? If not, why do they communicate with others? It's like saying they are going to the bus-stop to get a 19 buss to the shops, and not listening when someone tells them its the number 8.

    Another example may help make a more general point clearer. Watch TV programmes where presenters or interviewers ask unfortunate victims (not least of which is having to be interviewed) how they FEEL about X, Y and Z. at the expense of what's actually been going on in the situation.
    This is why so much of the news today is so uninformative, or ambiguous.. It's too intenSional. It's low of matters of fact. It's often just an opportunity for the crew to make a piece, the content doesn't mater. It fills a slot in a schedule. The presenter (usually female these days) gets to perform for the camera - to look good. The piece is a mere vehicle. Why else do they do it?

    If every time one is checked, one goes on the offensive, or turns spiteful, in the end, others will stop correcting (regulating) one, and like many people who end up making a mess of things, it will all end in tears.

    This has been happening for decades. We've ended up with toothless regulators as a consequence - see FSA, SFO etc. Yet you advocate more of the same whilst complaining about the consequences. The mark of the feminised brained. Many give up on them.

  • Comment number 22.

    .

    The above could have been written by someone from the New Left Frankfurt School, the post WWII, US Left Communists (Trotskyites) who are difficult to differentiate from Neoconservatives other than the latter being later morphs/makeovers

    The following about Harris is therefore no surprise:

    "A member of the Social Democratic Party from 1985, he joined the newly formed Liberal Democrats in 1988"

    "Social Democrats" were those which Lenin accurately described as "infantile disordered".given that their policies were self-centred, short-sighted, and anarchistic not statist. Such activists were useful in the 1917 revolution which overthrew the Tsar on behalf the Germans at the end of WWI so they didn't have two fronts to fight on (see Churchill on this in Hansard 1919), but they were hopeless at governance, i.e statism, understandably so, so they had to go and in the 1930s they did, but where did they go? Given they were the very antithesis to governance, they were free-marketeers in all but name so NYC and California must have been seen as Eldorado.

    Beware of people bearing promises of freedom as they are like pushers, and they push to the child-like who need protection by adults (see the red squirrels on crack).

    This so-called "secularist manifesto" is just another anarchists' i.e.
    Libertarians' manifesto.

    .

    So one need not look too far to see which group this politics favours.
    It's the deregulators across the pond. Groups other than this (political, religious) are systematically and legalistically undermined as "authoritarian" given that regulation is bad for free-market business practices. Secularising Muslims, for example, by a "war on terror" promised an end to their riba (proscription of usury), or at minimum, a herding of them towards Sunni Islam which brings debt in via the back door (Islamic banking is being embraced by our main banks - but look at it closely). Such secularisation is just a modern version of the Protestant revolution against Catholicism which began back in the C16th and C17th. That's how we arrived at the debt-based system and the pseudo-wealth which we're grappling with today, i.e with the likes of Goldman-Sachs allegedly doing "God's business".



    But whose business is it really? Doesn't the USA govern via NGOs and Agencies?

  • Comment number 23.

    21.At 11:56 2nd Dec 2011, brown-dog wrote:

    Don't blame me for your 'cognitive ability'!

  • Comment number 24.

    Trade unions would be better being less politicised & more cognitive & trying to deliver what their membership requires - as is assistance in competing with a flood of immigrants when a million or more lose their jobs over the next few years.

    Takes good cognitive ability to get to grips with that!

  • Comment number 25.

    nautonier wrote: "Trade unions would be better being less politicised & more cognitive & trying to deliver what their membership requires - as is assistance in competing with a flood of immigrants when a million or more lose their jobs over the next few years."

    The Public Sector workers comprise 20% of the work force (6 million of 30 million people). less than 10% of that 6 million are "Civil Servants". These people are complaining because they went into these jobs to provide PUBLIC services and not primarily for money. It was a condition of employment that money was paid into a pension fund for their future instead higher pay each month. In the Private Sector (80% of the workforce) what employers pay their workers is NOT determined by politicians but by "market-forces", that is, the Government has NO say in what Private Sector companies pay their workers beyond a minimum wage. That is why the Government can't stop banks paying their workers "astronomical" salaries and bonuses even when the banks have been bailed out with public money.

    Unlike the Private Sector, those in the Public Sector largely have to accept membership of their pension schemes, but THEIR pay CAN, and HAS been capped by the Government. The pay rises have been capped BELOW inflation, and that means they are getting pay CUTS. Do you see that?

    The Government is CUTTING PAY and PENSIONS in the Public Sector (its workers), whist using Public Sector assets to bail out the Private Sector banks (i.e. not its workers), which as we have seen results in them continuing to pay themselves massive salaries and bonuses.

    Do you see anything wrong with that?

    Do you know what a "rip-off" is?

    Do you think rip-offs are a good thing? See Wonga etc.

    if you don't see anything wrong you won't understand why the Public Sector (and the Civil Servants who help manage the state, i.e Public Sector), are so angry. It's not just here, but across all of Europe.
    This is largely what led to Germany taking its hard line in the 1930s.
    That many people don't see what is going on is because they lack the ability and they won't be told anything anymore, even when it is in their best long term interests to listen.

  • Comment number 26.

    THE PRICE OF EVERYTHING CLEVER AND THE VALUE OF NOTHING WISE (#18)

    This blog feeds both hope and despair nautonier. Hope engendered by some balanced posts showing humanity in both maturity and flaws; and despair that a 'brain the size of a planet' can be so blind to its own nature and workings.

    I am glad you expanded your 'approved list' (:o) - the 'quick and the dead' are very apparent.

  • Comment number 27.

    I'm rather disappointed in Jeremy Clarkson. I was hoping his recent remarks on the one show was spontanious ..but no. He ran through his jokes passed the producers like a performing money -I'm familiar with the process and its very demeaning..especially when there's a couch in the room, it can sometimes leave a bad taste in the mouth.

  • Comment number 28.

    nautonier wrote: "Perhaps your posts reflect your own 'cognitive abilities' & how you yourself relate to others?"

    Yes, the behaviour is different to yours. That is what I am drawing your attention to. Try to identify the fundamental difference and you will gain something not lose anything.

    "IMO, that is exactly about one's opinions, mine, yours and everyone else's."

    yes, but that's because you are NOT making an important discrimination.
    You are NOT seeing the difference. It's a bit like some people asserting that all fizzy wines are the same to them. They are just reporting that they can't tell the difference.

    "But, I agree it is not is it a mater of who agrees, disagrees or how many agree or disagree with opinions as is a matter of free speech & not just the domain of a few killjoy whingers hijacking the blog."

    Only if you don't see the difference. You don't seem to be interested in anything but your own "opinions" and as such, you may as well talk to yourself, as agreeing with others is much the same thing if you stop to think about it.

  • Comment number 29.

    BBT (#27)

    Spot on Kev.

    The trend is unmistakable - the BBT trent - Broacasting Bad Taste.

    Clarkson is just a pwan in the game.

    Nuff sed

  • Comment number 30.

    26.At 13:31 2nd Dec 2011, barriesingleton wrote:
    THE PRICE OF EVERYTHING CLEVER AND THE VALUE OF NOTHING WISE (#18)

    This blog feeds both hope and despair nautonier. Hope engendered by some balanced posts showing humanity in both maturity and flaws; and despair that a 'brain the size of a planet' can be so blind to its own nature and workings.

    I am glad you expanded your 'approved list' (:o) - the 'quick and the dead' are very apparent.

    ++

    Thing I like about your posts is they're always concise and straight to the point & just about always add something that wasn't there previous.

    Obfustacators, who avoid getting to the point all the time and deliberately obfustacate the thread of a direct conversation are just plain boring - I don't think some individuals realise just how boring their posts really are?

  • Comment number 31.

    YOU MIGHT SAY THAT NAUTONIER - I TRY VERY HARD NEVER TO COMMENT

    And 'count myself accursed' whenever I allow myself to be goaded beyond restraint.

    But: the other side of that coin is UTTER FASCINATION. The human 'condition' writ large - another angle on Maggie, Tony, James (he that is called Gordon) and Dave.

    WE NEWSYNIGHTY BLOG-POSTERS HAVE, ALSO, GOT OURSELVES 'ONE'!

  • Comment number 32.

    nautonier wrote "I repeat again - Why do TU's organise politically correct strikes and fail to organise action about the damage caused by mass immigration to their current & soon to be ex-members?"

    Partly, it's a matter of law - look up Secondary Picketing - this strike was about pensions :-.



    You need to try to grasp what the problem with psychological verbs is (intensional verbs of propositional attitude i.e. private/mental dispositions or acts towards propositions or statements), Like barriesingleton and no doubt many others lacking Higher Education you don't appear to be very adept at recognising when you're actually asking a question, how to go about finding an answer, and how to behave appropriately when provided with answers. The social convention is to show gratitude not abuse.

  • Comment number 33.

    barriesingleton "WE NEWSYNIGHTY BLOG-POSTERS HAVE, ALSO, GOT OURSELVES 'ONE'!"

    Indeed - and yet, unlike "Screaming Lord Sutch" (who ended it all) - you're still canvassing, against all odds, sourcing supply from those who don't know when they're confused, reinforcing muddled behaviour emitted by others and rejecting helpful criticism from those who might help.

    That's sadly ironic, but a woeful sign of those obsessed with personal identity politics whilst lacking any grasp of what politics is all about for want of, and rejection of, education.

    Please spare us your "wisdom".

  • Comment number 34.

    31.At 14:56 2nd Dec 2011, barriesingleton wrote:

    WE NEWSYNIGHTY BLOG-POSTERS HAVE, ALSO, GOT OURSELVES 'ONE'!

    ++

    Not half! You can say that again!
    But providing some excellent empirical evidence on the 'human condition'?

  • Comment number 35.

    nautonier wrote: "Not half! You can say that again! But providing some excellent empirical evidence on the 'human condition'?"

    This is why it won't be too long before many such people will be experiencing the bite of austerity measures.

    "The Kli Yakar explains that the term 'neshech' (literally meaning bite) applies to the borrower. The interest, he explains, is like a snake's bite causing a small scratch on a person's heel. Initially it appears insignificant but it eventually will take the person’s life. Interest, also, eventually consumes the borrower leaving him no way out from the crushing burden of his ever-increasing debts.

    'Tarbiss' (increase) is the term that applies to the lender. He appears to be increasing his wealth and fortune through this sure-fire strategy of interest. The truth however is that interest, like a cancer, will eventually eat away and destroy even his properly earned wealth.

    The Talmud relates the magnitude of this sin and to what it can be compared to. Rabi Yosi taught: Come and see the foolish blindness of those that lend with interest... They bring witnesses, a scribe, pen and paper and have it written and signed that they have done an action (lending and borrowing with interest) that is tantamount to denying the G-d of Israel."



    This is as old as Judaism - and was a warning about human nature. The proscription applies to WITHIN group Jewish behaviour, but does not forbid this lending to outsiders. Hence a) the old "Financial Advisor/Money Lender/Investor" hats and badges indicating a licence to practice probably, and b) the inadvisability of encouraging "assimilation" (as it can be nothing more than entryism, infiltration or subversion given that aptitudes or skills are genetic not learned. That is, they are not acquired in life, one is born with them. One can't change this except through injury (and we preserve skills via Child Protection and Child Minding ("teaching")...

    Try to grasp this, and its consequences.

  • Comment number 36.

    Just goes to show we shouldn't believe everything that is posted on Wiki!

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