Madeleine McCann, Britain in recession and welfare reform

Last Modified: 21 Jul 2008
By: Newsroom blogger

In the morning meeting.

The case of Madeleine McCann leads discussion in the news meeting. An email announcement from Portuguese police, declaring that the case of the missing child is being dropped and her parents cleared of official suspect status, is expected at 4pm.

An announcement from the McCanns - perhaps via their spokesperson, may happen in our time.

The story looks set to continue this week as Goncalo Amara, former top policeman in the investigation, is set to publish his account of the case later this week.

How do we say something new about a story that has been the object of such tabloid fascination?

'If we have a discussion about the Diana hysteria, it's only adding to it.'

"I don't know if there's anyone worth speaking to on the story who we haven't heard from?"

"I wonder whether it's worth exploring Diana hysteria?"

"If we have a discussion about that, it's only adding to it."

"The family themselves created a lot of press synergy, by them trying to keep the story alive.

What impact has the case had on the way the missing children are now handled - if any? "We could ask the media, politicos and the police - if it happened today, would anything be different?"

The Guardian reports this morning that Bank of England adviser David Blanchflower is warning that Britain is going into recession, and needs to cut interest rates.

"It is interesting - it is just one member of the nine-strong monetary policy committee and people sniffily refer to the fact that he lives in America, but it gives us an insight into the way he is thinking," says one of our economics team.

'Incapacity benefit was designed for when there were a lot of manual jobs - there aren't so many now.'

Another big domestic issue is the government's plans to cut the number of people claiming incapacity benefit - or as one of the news team puts it, "the green paper on welfare reform sees Labour converging into the Tory party".

"For a long time, people who've been claiming unemployment benefit for a number of weeks have had to go on a training course - it's just an extension of that."

"What does it mean for doctors? Is it changing the culture of what is seen as being 'unfit of work'?"

"Incapacity benefit was designed for when there were a lot of manual jobs - there aren't so many now."

"But won't that mean retraining people to do other jobs?"

"There will always be some people with disabilities that mean they aren't able to work - how do you avoid penalising them?"

"Isn't there an argument the government should have done this three or four years ago?"

"It's only a green paper, which means nothing will happen until after the next election. Why isn't this a white paper?"