- Verity Murphy
- Tue 27 Mar 12, 07:51 PM
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- Verity Murphy
- Mon 26 Mar 12, 06:16 PM
Tonight our Political editor Allegra Stratton has the latest on the "cash for access" row surrounding Number 10 and we will be discussing the issue with Cabinet Office minister Francis Maude.
We have our full interview with German Chancellor Angela Merkel and look at the role Lutheranism plays in shaping German policy.
And Joe Lynam has more on the story he broke earlier that the government is in talks with Abu Dhabi over the possible sale of a significant stake in RBS.
- Verity Murphy
- Fri 23 Mar 12, 07:14 PM
Tonight Susan Watts reports on the government proposals for a minimum alcohol price in England and Wales and we discuss whether such a measure is likely to be effective.
We look at the Florida shooting of unarmed black teenager Trayvon Martin and US President Barack Obama's decision to speak out on the issue.
We have a live interview with MP Eric Joyce, who was forced to resign from the Labour Party and apologise to victims after being convicted of assault over a bar brawl in Parliament.
And we have the latest on the A4e story.
- Verity Murphy
- Thu 22 Mar 12, 07:02 PM
Tonight we have a report on work-to-welfare company A4e.
We have obtained the results of a confidential 2009 internal audit of work by A4e's top recruiters in which auditors found examples of staff claiming for putting people into jobs which did not exist, jobs which did not qualify for payment and fabricating paperwork to back up claims. Read more about it here.
Tim Whewell is in Toulouse where police shot and killed the gunman who carried out a spate of murders, but where questions are now being asked about how a known radical returning from al-Qaeda-controlled areas of Afghanistan and Pakistan was able to stockpile weapons and carry out the attacks with the intelligence services having little or no idea of his whereabouts.
We have more on the Budget and whether plans to change tax allowances for the elderly amount to a raid on pensioners' incomes.
Plus musician Mark Ronson talks to us about his Olympics theme which is to be the music for Coca Cola's London 2012 adverts.
- Verity Murphy
- Tue 20 Mar 12, 06:55 PM
Tonight we look ahead to tomorrow's Budget asking how much room for manoeuvre the chancellor has and what we are likely to see.
Susan Watts has a report on fracking, a controversial method for extracting natural gas, and concerns that the regulation meant to ensure its safety are not fit for purpose.
And Stephen Smith has been to meet American musician Jack White, best known for being one half of the White Stripes, but now going solo.
- Verity Murphy
- Mon 19 Mar 12, 06:04 PM
Tonight Allegra Stratton examines David Cameron's call for a nation of Telfords and Brunels as he urges the country to "build for the future with as much confidence and ambition as the Victorians once did".
We get the latest from Toulouse where police are linking the shootings of four people at a Jewish school to the killings of three soldiers of North African descent and assess the impact of the attacks, particularly how it is likely to affect the presidential election campaign.
Jeremy Paxman interviews Democratic Congressman Barney Frank, a former chairman of the House Financial Services Committee, considered the most prominent openly gay politician in the US.
Plus, BBC Director General Mark Thompson has said he will leave the corporation this autumn after nearly eight years in the job. How will the longest-serving DG since the 1970s be remembered?
- Verity Murphy
- Fri 16 Mar 12, 04:27 PM
Good shepherd or turbulent priest? As Dr Rowan Williams announces that he is to step down as Archbishop of Canterbury in December, Newsnight looks back at his time in the role and forward to who his successor might be.
Lyse Doucet is in Kabul reporting on the relationship between Afghanistan and the West and the breakdown of trust after the shooting of 16 civilians last weekend and the failed attack on US Defence Secretary Leon Panetta.
Also, the Quad - aka David Cameron, George Osborne, Nick Clegg and Danny Alexander - have a conference call today and meeting on Monday to finalise the details of next week's Budget. Will the rumours that they will cut the 50p top rate of income tax prove true? David Grossman will have the latest on the negotiations and what's at stake tonight.
- Verity Murphy
- Thu 15 Mar 12, 06:34 PM
Tonight we have an in-depth look at the gay marriage debate as the government begins a 12-week consultation on allowing gay couples in England and Wales to marry.
Jeremy Paxman has an interview with the Catholic Archbishop of Westminster Vincent Nichols and in the studio we will be joined by supporters and critics of the plan including
Nick Herbert from the government, the former canon of St Paul's Giles Fraser, comedian Rhona Cameron, writer Stella Duffy, Peter Bone MP and the bishop of Willesden, Peter Broadbent.
Also an independent review into police pay and recruitment commissioned by Home Secretary Theresa May has recommended that police officers' fitness be checked annually with disciplinary procedures facing any officer who fails the test three times.
Is this a good plan, or is there more to being a good police officer in the 21st Century than being able to chase down a criminal on foot?
- ADMIN USE ONLY
- Wed 14 Mar 12, 02:39 PM
Why isn't big business investing in UK plc and what can the chancellor do about it in next week's budget?
Plus we speak to Sir Michael Wilshaw, the chief inspector of schools, ahead of his first biannual report on the state of our education system. There have been alarming recent reports about literacy and numeracy standards in Britain, so what will the man charged with setting and monitoring school standards do about this?
A year after the Syrian uprising began, we'll be looking at the make up of the Free Syrian Army and considering their prospects for ousting President Assad.
And David Cameron and Barack Obama shoot the breeze while watching college basketball players shoot hoops. They seem best pals - but why aren't the Tories more pally with the American right?
- Verity Murphy
- Tue 13 Mar 12, 06:36 PM
A week ahead of the budget we take a longer look at the black hole in the public finances, assessing what the state is going to be able to in decades to come.
We will hear from our Economics editor Paul Mason and our Political editor Allegra Stratton as well as guests Lord Lawson, Ruth Porter and Lord Skidelsky.
David Grossman has the latest on the newspaper phone hacking allegations, which today saw former News International chief executive Rebekah Brooks being arrested as part of the police inquiry.
Five other people, including Mrs Brooks' husband, the racehorse trainer Charlie Brooks, were also detained.
We will be discussing the latest developments with media lawyer Charlotte Harris and former editor of The Scotsman Tim Luckhurst.
And Stephen Smith has the first broadcast interview with ballet superstar Sergei Polunin since he shocked the dance world in January by unexpectedly quitting the Royal Ballet where he was the youngest dancer ever made a principal.
- ADMIN USE ONLY
- Mon 12 Mar 12, 07:03 PM
Seven water companies across drought-affected southern and eastern England are to introduce hosepipe bans after two unusually dry winters have left water levels a well below normal.
What is causing the drought, could it spread, and could the water companies have been better prepared to deal with its effects? Susan Watts will be reporting and in the studio we will be hearing from guests including a representative of Thames Water.
Mark Urban looks at the situation in Afghanistan in the wake of an attack on civilians by a US soldier based in Kandahar and in the studio we debate whether the war in Afghanistan has made Britain safer, as successive governments have claimed, or left us more vulnerable to attack.
We have more on the violence in Syria. Plus Stephen Smith has been to the Wedgwood Museum pottery collection in Stoke-on-Trent where time is running out for saving one of the most important ceramic collections in the world.
- Verity Murphy
- Fri 9 Mar 12, 06:07 PM
Allegra Stratton has been despatched to the Liberal Democrat Spring conference in Gateshead where Nick Clegg has told attendees that the bill has been changed "in a thousand ways" since it was first published. Will his audience agree, or will activists grasp their last chance to derail the NHS bill?
One year on from the crisis at Japan's tsunami-hit Fukushima nuclear plant Newsnight debates what should be the future of nuclear power.
And Paul Mason reports on the news that an investigation has been launched into an allegation of attempted fraud against welfare to work company A4e, the Department for Work and Pensions.
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