Thursday, 17 May, 2007
- 17 May 07, 04:58 PM
From , Newsnight Presenter.
Prime Minister Elect
Just how many Prime Ministers does a country need at any one time? And who, exactly, is in charge as we speak? As Gordon Brown formally sees off his challengers to become Prime Minister Elect for the next six weeks, Tony Blair has started the long goodbye in Washington - a place where he often joked he was more warmly received than at home. So if a critical decision has to be made over the next 6 weeks, who does the cabinet listen to?
At Newsnight, we've risen to the challenge and appointed one political correspondent to each PM, each side of the pond. Gordon Brown says his conversation with the country is just beginning, but how will he cope with arguably the most controversial relationship of them all - his dealings with George Bush over Iraq? Michael Crick and David Grossman will give their assessments.
Gaza
As I write, the troubles in Gaza are increasing. We've had a report of an Israeli air strike and Hamas has threatened to retaliate with suicide attacks. We'll give you the latest on the fighting there, as tensions between Hamas, Fatah and the Israelis heighten.
The Iraqi Government
And in our final film in this week's series of exclusive reports from inside Iraq, Mark Urban turns his attention to an assessment of the effectiveness of the Iraqi Government.
It is crucial to the viability of a future state without the coalition forces, but its record is distinctly patchy. Corruption is a serious problem, and it seems they've significantly underspent the money allocated to them to reconstruct their own country. So is the government is capable of delivering?
If you'd like to watch the other films in the series, they are available .
