Friday, 15 January 2010

STOP WHAT YOU'RE DOING!!

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Well, another Tory turned up after all on last night's Newsnight - George Osborne. The interview lasted 5 minutes (I.C. of 1.3).
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Emily Maitlis's introductory words could have been scripted by Charlie Whelan:
"If you're planning your budget for a nursery, a residential care or school, if you're joining the army or starting a training course, you might want to stop what you're doing and look up." Tonight the shadow chancellor George Osborne warned that a Conservative government would be willing to start making cuts to public spending by as early as June. They've admitted a future Conservative government would follow the Swedish model based on fast and furious cutting."
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Emily returned to the theme during her interview:
"You are talking about telling, what, care home workers, army, teachers, medical research projects, they're going to have to start cutting their budgets."
"OK, but if I'm running a care home...but how do I prepare for that...just a second, a very concrete example, if I'm listening to this, I'm running a care home, how do I know I won't have to shut my doors come July because of the decisions you will make 50 days after coming into government?"
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Thankfully the programme's bleeding-heart Guantanemo series has now come to an end. It finished with a studio discussion between BBC favourite Clive Stafford Smith of Reprieve (naturally) and our friend Michael Scheuer - though he certainly wasn't Emily's (or Clive's). She kept interrupting and misinterpreting him. His argument is an unusual one, far from what we're used to hearing from all sides of the debate. It was hardly surprising that it shocked Emily Maitlis, or that she failed to grasp what he was saying. She's much more comfortable with the conventional left-liberal line of Mr Stafford Smith. Mr Scheuer is certainly not conventional (though his hard line on Israel & his rejection of the Iraq and Afghan Wars clearly appeals to the BBC).

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