'There's a lot of economy stuff'
Updated on 27 October 2008
By way of contrast to other such gatherings over the last month, today's morning meeting is dominated by economics.
Just in case you didn't know, there is (in the words of today's programme editor) "a lot of economy stuff" around today. Markets are in a dire state yet again as global shares resume their slide.
The morning meeting addresses the case for an interventionist, or Keynesian, approach to the present banking turmoil. Someone notes that the government now has to rebuild the case for public spending in a new economic climate of high government borrowing, which has in effect blown the government's fiscal rules out of the water.
Another journalist asks, in view of the pound's dramatic slide against the dollar in recent weeks, whether there isn't room for a piece explaining currency markets. Where do you put your money when every major economy is doing madly? The dollar, it would seem - but why?
Syria has reacted with outrage to the death of eight of its citizens after an apparent incursion by two US helicopters into Syrian territory. By coincidence, the Syrian foreign minister is in London today - but not doing interviews. "Presumably," someone suggests in view of the recent thaw in relations between Syria and the west, "it's interesting that the minister is here at all."
With just over one week before the US elections, tonight we'll be broadcasting a piece by our US correspondent, Sarah Smith, on the disparity in turnout numbers between Barack Obama's rallies and those of John McCain. Obama is generating record attendances.
Oligarchgate will be with us for some time, as questions are asked about Business Secretary Lord Mandelson's contacts with Oleg Deripaska while he was a European commissioner. The European Commission says it has investigated the meetings and concluded there was no conflict of interest. But what was the nature of the commission's investigation?
Also tonight, watch out for our arts correspondent Nick Glass's interview with an eminent British artist (that's all we can say at the moment) and further deliberations on the Bullingdon Club. Are the Tories more vulnerable to accusations of class elitism during a recession?
