Paxman's pants, Northern rocks
Updated on 21 January 2008
Inside the morning new meeting...
More pre-meeting chatter than usual - especially this early in the week.
"Can we not talk about this at 9.30 on a Monday?" comes a plaintive cry. No chance.
The "this" in question is "widespread gusset anxiety". Widespread, that is, to Jeremy Paxman and friends.
The Newsnight presenter, you see, is concerned about the quality of Marks & Spencer underwear.
The programme editor calls the meeting to order with two magic words: 'Northern Rock'.
In a leaked email to M&S chief executive Sir Stuart Rose, Paxman wrote: "There's no other way to put this. [M&S] pants no longer provide adequate support. When I've discussed this with friends and acquaintances it has revealed widespread gusset anxiety.
"I do feel someone should take up the mighty battle."
"I think we should do it," says a senior editorial voice, tongue only partially in cheek.
"They [Newsnight] did it to us when they asked if ties were still de-rigueur." (A sly dig at Jon Snow if ever there was one. Indeed Paxo came to the studios to speak to Jon about it for the piece. Talk about rubbing it in...)
The programme editor calls the meeting to order with two magic words: "Northern Rock".
Unfair, in fact, because today there's real news in the ongoing saga of the troubled bank.
Alistair Darling, the chancellor, will detail a rescue plan to the House. In short the government plans to convert the £25bn loan into bonds. The bonds will be underwritten by the government making them attractive to investors and - in theory - making a buyout more likely.
Shares are up over 40 per cent on the news.
"It's not nationalisation," says our man on the story, "but in every aspect of this - except the day-to-day running of the bank - the government is taking all the decisions including the terms of the sell-off."
On the other side of the world - in China - the prime minister is preparing to fly home. Not before his final press conference, and our man on the PM's plane Gary Gibbon will be putting these points to him.
On the foreign front, the fall out of power cuts in Gaza and South Africa compete with a film about race and the South Carolina primary.
Domestically, meanwhile, several political stories battle for air-time. Among them the potentially charged second reading of the European Treaty bill and the odd story of how Jacqui Smith, the home secretary, enjoyed dinner for one in a Peckham kebab shop.
Smith's donner and Paxman's pants? It's unlikely both will make it all the way to 7pm.
