Tues 21 Nov 2006

Politics under fire

Joining Clive Anderson tonight (David Starkey is away this week) are: Craig Murray (former UK ambassador to Uzbekistan), Sir Andrew Green (Chairman of Migration Watch UK), and Shappi Khorsandi (Iranian stand-up comedian).

Assassination is firmly back on the political agenda this week: in Beirut today, the Lebanese Industry Minister was shot dead, and in the UK Scotland Yard's anti terrorist officers have taken over the investigation into the poisoning of a prominent Russian dissident and Putin critic, Alexander Litvinenko.

The Russian government deny any involvement in the Litvinenko affair, but London is home to many of Putin's severest critics and the alleged poison plot has echoes of Russian agents' activities in Britain during the Cold War era.

Is Lebanon stuck in a cycle of violence? How should Britain react to the alleged activities of what is now a friendly country and ally, and one which is very important for our energy supplies? Russia may be a democracy, but is Putin a democratic president, and has Russias attitude to dissidents changed?