Snowmail: it's official, we're in recession
Updated on 23 January 2009
The economy shrank by one and half per cent last year, according to figures out today.
I've been down to talk to the chancellor, Alistair Darling. That interview is on Channel 4 News tonight. In fact highlights are already on the website.
opposition are slagging off the government for mismanagement, the Tories effectively declaring Britain bankrupt.
It's rather interesting that Britain's debt ratio to GDP is running at 47.5 per cent. Italy's is running at nearly 120 per cent.
Jonathan Miller is in Gaza, looking at Hamas and the allegations that they have intimidated the populace and used civilians as human shields. Israel also claim that Hamas have used the cover of the Israeli invasion to move against individuals in Fatah, the rival Palestinian political grouping, by denouncing them as Israeli "collaborators".
Karen Matthews has been jailed for eight years for the abduction and false imprisonment of her daughter, Shannon.
The judge suspects many more people were involved in the abduction and in the attempt to extort money from the news media for her finding.
I confess this seems to me a very sad insight into poverty and the overwhelming materialism of our age. These were not well-off people and they were clearly looking for any route out of it, not that any of that could even begin to excuse what Matthews did.
A government report has recommended giving compensation of £12,000 a head to every family who lost someone during the Northern Ireland Troubles, which would apply for civilian fatalities, members of the security forces and, most controversially, the compensation would also go to the families of paramilitaries who died.
The proposal is based on the idea that there should be no "hierarchy of victims" and that everyone should have equal treatment.
There's already very strong reactions to the proposal and it illuminates the pain that accompanies the process of "peace and reconciliation".
A remarkable bust-up at the tennis in Australia: a bust-up over nothing to do with Australia and everything to do with the Balkans.
There's loads more moving; I shall be relatively static, at seven.
