Friday, 25 January, 2008
- 25 Jan 08, 05:35 PM
Today's Quote for the Day:
"This is just bad luck, it's Murphy's Law. We discovered it at the same time as the markets plummeted. US markets went up last night and we were really unlucky, but we had to settle these positions as fast as we could and we did so during the three-day market crisis" - Societe Generale chairman Daniel Bouton after it was revealed that a rogue trader lost the group 4.9 billion euros (拢3.7 billion).
In tonight's programme:
Who knew what and when about the French rogue trader? Did his stock market gamble really panic the US central bank, the Federal reserve, into cutting interest rates by 0.75%?
We're hopeful of a big interview from Davos... well, we live in hope.
Musharraf
Pakistan's president Musharraf is in London. Can he now preside over some kind of political compromise? Will the upcoming elections be free and fair?
Cocaine
FARC guerrillas in Colombia have a new way of thwarting the US government's war on drugs. We've a special report.
Watch our previous report from Colombia on cocaine production
Newsnight Review
John Wilson is joined by Sarfraz Manzoor, Jeanette Winterson and Peter Whittle to discuss:
In the Valley of Elah starring Oscar-nominee Tommy Lee Jones; Martin Amis' 9/11 novel, The Second Plane; a new London production of David Hare's The Vertical hour after its New York debut; and the exhibition that caused almost sparked international incident - French and Russian Master Paintings 1870鈥1925 from Moscow and St Petersburg at the Royal Academy.
Details on all those on the .
Comments Post your comment
Hurrah... finally I can comment here on the truly bizarre Robert Peston who usually pops up on the 10pm News. I am sure he knows a lot about economics But The Way He Stresses Every Word In The Sentence means I turn the sound down whenever I see him!
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Hurrah... finally I can comment here on the truly bizarre Robert Peston who usually pops up on the 10pm News. I am sure he knows a lot about economics But The Way He Stresses Every Word In The Sentence means I turn the sound down whenever I see him!
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Dear Newsnight Bloggers
I would argue that the Rogue trader (and anyone who commits non violent offences) should not be sent to prison as they haven't hurt anyone, in his case only stolen money but should be punished in some other way, ie 20 years forced labour working in the sewers and the confiscation of all his money,
whereas on the other hand people traffickers, all sex offenders, drug dealers, violent criminals and other filth should be sent to prison for life in the most unpleasant prison regime imaginable,
what do other Newsnight bloggers think?
Bob
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Hurrah... finally I can comment here on the truly bizarre Robert Peston who usually pops up on the 10pm News. I am sure he knows a lot about economics But The Way He Stresses Every Word In The Sentence means I turn the sound down whenever I see him!
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Apologies for the double posting... the site said twice it couldn't connect after I pressed Enter!!
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Discussing Martin Amis' The Second Plane would have been more satisfying had John Wilson managed to stop Jeanette Winterson from interrupting Sarfraz Manzoor just as he was getting into his stride. She had expressed her opinion; she ought to have been told to shut up. I wanted to hear his opinion - in full. Not that Sarfraz wasn't game enough to hold his own when he saw an opportunity. His intervention: that Martin Amis reads like Julie Birchall gone to uni was brilliant and totally apt. As was his comment that Amis is using long words as a substitute for thinking. But Whittle and Winterson went on to praise What's Left's Nick Cohen for his derision of the left. A pity Sarfraz really had no chance to respond. That would have been interesting since, by that point in the discussion, views on the invasion of Iraq were the elephants in the room...
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Robert Pesten is a magician...he makes Newsnight audiences dissapear. Give him speech therapy...please
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CAREFUL THOUGHTS
I've been told off by The Moderator so this might be a bit bland.
With regard to arresting speech - try Corrie Corfield at her most seductive or Dee Sebastian at her most unbelievable (who manages to combine the seduction of Corfield with the multipe word-stress of Peston). Still not sated? Get some Kirsty McCabe weather - not just ordinary weather. . .
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CAREFUL THOUGHTS
I've been told off by The Moderator so this might be a bit bland.
With regard to arresting speech - try Corrie Corfield at her most seductive or Dee Sebastian at her most unbelievable (who manages to combine the seduction of Corfield with the multiple word-stress of Peston). Still not sated? Get some Kirsty McCabe weather - not just ordinary weather. . .
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There seems to be a number of blips or gremlins making posting here difficult.
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I actually like Robert Peston - and having not bothered with Newsnight since Monday because I'm fed-up with the 'Stephanie Flanders Show' he came as a welcome relief!
Talking of which I noticed JP making one of his 'adjustments' as he sat with her. I think I'll watch the 10.00 news.
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I can't recall the last time i saw a panelist so clearly out of his depth as Sarfraz Manzoor. While Winterson and Whittle discussed Amis in the erudite, considered fashion we expect from Newsnight Review Manzoor stood out for his immaturity. His attempts to deride Amis - his laughable suggestion that Amis desperately plows through a dictionary looking for "big words" when writing - would have been embaressing to hear in a school playground let alone Newsnight.
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Comment 12 I agree totally The programme was very poor
I see Gorgeous George Galloway has gone into print in today's Scottish Daily Record re Paxo's pants I have to say I am pleased i am bored of it all and it appears the players are now getting bigger than the team...
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Virginia MacFadyen - I so agree with your comment about Sarfraz! Both Wilson and Winterson interrupted some really excellent points being made by Sarfraz including the leading question as to whether Amis had ever met any Muslims?
Winterson completely ignored this question, so eager was she to heap praise Amis and declare his work most "important".
Amis made clear on Radio 4 this morning that Bernard Lewis was his point of reference for Islam. Now, that is not clever - Lewis is famous for his own anti-Islamic polemic.
On Radio 5 this afternoon Amis said the reason for the Iraq war was a "mystery". Oh really? Well, let me tell him we would never have invaded Iraq if it had been a Christian country! The reason for the Iraq war was to wipe out Muslims and seize their lands and resources - simple old imperialism in other words!
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What I said in comment no 14, that the aim of the Iraq war is to wipe out Muslims may seem harsh - but not after reading today鈥檚 鈥業ndependent鈥 where the front page story had the following HORRIFIC, mind-blowing statistic on child deaths in one single Fallujah hospital:
鈥淲hen I asked what the hospital lacked Dr Kamal said wearily: "Drugs, fuel, electricity, generators, a water treatment system, oxygen and medical equipment鈥︹
鈥溾"Every day 20 children die here," said one. "Seven in this very room."
鈥淭he doctors said that they were tending their patients as best they could. "The Americans provide us with nothing," said one mother who was cradling a child. "They bring us only destruction."
I don鈥檛 know about anybody else but I call that GENOCIDE.
I ask you, would we allow this to happen anywhere else?
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