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Thursday, 17 July, 2008

Brian Thornton | 18:27 UK time, Thursday, 17 July 2008

Here is Gavin's look ahead to what's on tonight's programme:

"By-elections at one level don't reveal much more than the views of a small number of people in one area of the country. But Glasgow East - where voters go to the polls next Thursday - is different. It is the Labour heartland voting on what could prove to be the future of a Scottish Labour Prime Minister.

At the end of a hugely important political week, we'll have a report from Glasgow, and we'll also be hearing from the Lib Dem leader Nick Clegg on why his party has now moved firmly in favour of tax cuts. Yes, tax cuts.

We'll also be assembling our political panel to discuss Gordon Brown's future, the latest Lib Dem moves, and whether the Conservatives really are ready for power.

All that and Stephen Smith concludes our Hard Times season with a very entertaining look at how Old Technology may be the way of the future."

Comments

  • Comment number 1.

    Brown is on Â鶹¹ÙÍøÊ×Ò³Èë¿Ú's 'One Programme' as we speak ....... he has just refused to give the Elgin Marbles back to Greece; and tells the
    team that 'Little Britain' makes him laugh ..

    'There's a huge esplanade in Kirkcaldy but not much sand .....' - so he is going on his
    holidays to Southwold in England instead.

    He hopes there won't be strikes .............

  • Comment number 2.

    I hope you ask the panel what Cleggs chances are beyond the conference. He did not look convincing today and he has not made progress. You live by the sword you die by the sword.

    Gordon is doomed its just when or whether it is so bad they don't want to send a potential long leader "over the top" in impossible circumstances.

    Is there a poll on Glasgow East yet. I thought it most probable that Labour would hold it with a massively reduced majority. But there seem to be many, like Andrew Neil, who think the SNP could win it.

  • Comment number 3.

    Re #2 thegangofone

    Some excellent questions to ask.

    I believe it's still too close to call at Glasgow East but Labour seem to but trying to make it closer still with gaffe upon gaffe.

    Re Clegg, there should be some consideration of his candidate siding with Labour and the Tories in attacking the SNP for being a "one-issue party" in the candidates' debate. The LibDems do seem to be losing their way on the devolution issue and should be challenged hard on their proposals.

  • Comment number 4.

    You are asking the "political panel" "whether the Conservative Party is ready for power"
    You should ask them if we have any political party ready for power.
    Until someone shows us a viable alternative, I think Gordon is safe to soldier on.

  • Comment number 5.

    CLEGG - ONE OF A COMIC TRIO

    I remember Clegg saying to Foggy and Compo (before deaths impinged): 'As I get older, I find I appreciate more a man who can make a really good cock-up'. Well, that puts him in the right job! He might also have said: 'Rule one of party leadership is to get the party into power at any cost to integrity'. Hence the promise of tax cuts.
    Personally, I would pay him more attention if he said he would stand at the next election, as an Independent, on his record as a person of integrity, to represent his constituents' aspirations to Parliament, undiluted through serving two masters. In this respect, David Davis let us down. How about it Mr Clegg? Will you stand tall as Nick Clegg - People's Champion - or stoop to Nick Clegg -Rosette Stand?


  • Comment number 6.

    Gordon Brown is now out of line on the issue of the return of the Elgin Marbles
    with not just Stelios but also: Michael
    Foot, Spike Milligan, Neil Kinnock, Bill
    Clinton, Sean Connery, Ken Livingstone
    and Vladimir Putin ................................
    not to mention Prince Charles, Judi Dench,
    Sir Kenneth Alexander, Joanna Lumley, Jonathan Dimbleby and Julie Christie -
    as well as Stelios ............................

    "The Parthenon without the Marbles is like a smile with a tooth missing" (Neil Kinnock)

    "The Parthenon Marbles are a serious matter to Greece .... Our relations with
    democracy in Greece could be greatly
    improved if the Government could show the intelligence and magnanimity to deal with that matter" (Michael Foot)

    "If it would be me. I would give them back immediately" (Bill Clinton)



  • Comment number 7.

    NOO labour flapping auntie beeb?
    2 PEE or not 2 pee fool tax
    happy showbiz smiley gord on the uno show in cack hoots wiv anti beeb?(spin people puting the oars/hours in) (COST?)
    double compo for service people injured MM The SMA print anti beeb, hay a butchers. oops no need, glasgow east next weak antee 4 two n 2 4 T 2 sweetners 4 me maybe

  • Comment number 8.

    Can someone ask the Glasgow East candidates some questions relating to the non-devolved areas they will actually be in a position to influence such as foreign policy and benefit reform instead of having them pontificating about things they actually can't vote on ? Is it just me or are they endlessly going on about the policies of the Scottish Parliament .

  • Comment number 9.

    The grimey cor blimey crime figures auntie, down? ahh yes the credit?debit card fraud they dont count as crime anymore, do they. where do u leave your card auntie? can i nick it? you wont notice

  • Comment number 10.

    Definitely a better than average edition last night. Thanks for the Glasgow East coverage, but more detail please.

    Possibly trying to cover too much too thinly by having the political panel the same night as the by-election coverage and sad that they weren't put on the spot about their own views on devolution and the union.

    A bit odd to have 3 unionists debating politics when the SNP are making the running in the only fight the public can take part in just now.

  • Comment number 11.

    there is no newsnight on iplayer but 2 newsnight scotlands. is this the new regionalism?

  • Comment number 12.

    Re #11 bookhimdano

    To the contrary, I'm afraid. London Newnight is still available to the world on Real Player from their website whereas Newsnight Scotland is only available on the iPlayer and so confined to UK viewers.

    Pity us poor expats.

  • Comment number 13.

    NATIONLISM AND INTERNATIONALISM

    bookhimdano (#11) "..is this the new regionalism?"

    They take their anti-nationalism VERY seriously do the Socialist International (now there's a name that has the ring of history to it....).

    Who was it that the last 'axis of evil' made a pact against?




    and just prior to the formation of Tripartite Pact in 1940, the Soviet Union was informed of its existence, and the potential of its joining....that's because the Soviet Union didn't much like the internationalists either, it had spent the 1930s purging them.

    Food for thought?

  • Comment number 14.

    A ROSE (AND FIST) BY ANY OTHER NAME..

    Hence all of the ('subversive' given the empirical evidence) Lyenkoist equalities legislation and 'regionalisation' (regional assemblies)?



  • Comment number 15.

    The Electoral Reform Society estimated that in the 2005 General Election, MPs required the following numbers of votes to get elected:

    Labour: 26,858

    Conservative: 44,241

    Liberal Democrat: 98,484

    With odds like that, no policy changes the Lib Dems make are going to significantly improve their position.

    Labour are in a hole and are very unlikely to win the next election.

    So maybe it's time for another Lib/Lab pact, with a low tax for the low paid philosophy and a commitment to introduce some form of proportional representation. Gordon Brown would get to be the Prime Minister who reinvigorated English democracy and social justice and kept the Tories out of power for another generation, Nick Clegg would get to be the Leader who delivered PR for the Lib Dems. The Conservative party would with any luck self-destruct.

    It won't happen because the Labour Party would rather deliver us to the Tories than change the system. They bleat occasionally about being worried by low turnout, but why should we believe them when they were happy to form a goverment only voted for by 22 per cent of the electorate? Their personal turf wars trump us every time.

  • Comment number 16.

    nick robinson must have been under the impression his report was to a daytime chat show. Is the concept of fiscal rules difficult to understand for a newsnight audience?

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