Snowmail: a push-me, pull-me day
Updated on 11 June 2008
What's coming up tonight...
Live blogging on a push-me, pull-me day
Well, tonight is a push-me, pull-me night when politics are seriously in play and the result could go any which way - in theory. In practice I think everybody suspects that the government knows it is home and dry on the contentious issue of detaining terror suspects for 42 days without trial.
They've been buoyed by polling which says that people are absolutely with them. Mind you, if they were to poll hanging and corporal punishment, they'd find the people were with them too on that.
We've got a LIVE BLOG running on the website here. You won't have been able to miss the signs to it.
My colleagues here online are providing a running commentary on the debate, spiced up with apercus from Gary Gibbon and Cathy Newman, our political team, plus all the scuttlebutt from Westminster, plus video clips of the best bits of the debate.
Do join in, and some of your comments will be fed down to me at Westminster where'll be logging in myself.
Terror blog live: channel4.com/terrorbloglive
On Abingdon Green
So tonight I'll be down on Abingdon Green, the strip of grass across the road from parliament, talking to the great and the good, the defeated and the victorious, about the implications of tonight's vote.
Many see it as a vote on Gordon Brown's leadership, and many are wondering how on earth he got so deeply embedded in this vote in the first place.
Having had to fly back early with David Miliband because apparently there was a vote last night that the government feared losing, I remain at a loss as to why he needed to come home - unless it was to fuel an atmosphere of drama designed to see Gordon Brown rearing on the hind legs of a white charger, coming out of the door of No.10 in pursuit of a great comeback, courtesy of a huge victory on 42 days.
Doing deals
The bribery to try to get MPs to support the measure is said to include a pledge from Mr Brown that he will not support sanctions against Cuba, a pledge on miners' welfare, and a pledge to the DUP in Northern Ireland to write off £200m worth of water bills.
Gary Gibbon is trying to compute what's been spent on trying to get this measure through, whilst at the same time we shall be exploring whether the qualifications for the 42 days have now become so extensive that the measure is unusable anyway.
Fuel crisis bites
Lisbon airport has run out of jet fuel. Yes, the fuel crisis is beginning to bite, together with the protests.
Jonathan Rugman is on the case on a day when it's been revealed here in Britain that the mere price of fuel may have led to a 20 per cent reduction in demand for petrol.
Quake parents get short shrift
Lindsey Hilsum has been with a group of families in China who've gone to the authorities to protest about the collapsing schools that killed their children in the earthquake. It's old order China stuff.
Not only are the families given short shrift, but the police filmed and harassed Lindsey and her crew, together with other western reporters who seek to report what's going on.
UK poverty: not what you think
Faisal Islam, in our continuing series on poverty, has come up with some remarkable figures which show that the north-south divide may be a thing of the past; that Scotland and Wales are doing better than many people think; London is poorer than many people think; and the real poverty victims reside in the Midlands.
His report at seven, on four.
And finally, Lucy Manning is looking at women in the Olympics and the crisis for the British team, which is in urgent need of women athletes for 2012.
People aged 17-25 are being invited to apply if they are of county standard in sports such as sailing and cycling.
I'm cycling off to Westminster. I'll see you at seven, as ever is, for a programme which may see the relaunch of the Brown project; may see the preparation of the box in which to bury it; or may be completely inconclusive about what happens next.
And we'll be live online for the vote. Jon.
