Snowmail: T. Hezza returns?
Updated on 15 January 2009
As Heathrow MP John McDonnell seizes the Commons mace, Jon Snow asks: has the ghost of Tyrannosaurus Hezza returned to the chamber?
Not since pre-history, when Tyrannosaurus Hezza stalked the jungle of politics, has parliament seen an event like today's. For it was the then golden-maned Michael Heseltine who wielded parliament's treasured mace above his head and brought proceedings to a halt.
The MP for the district of Heathrow, John McDonnell, was unable to bring quite the wildlife panache that Hezza brought to the proceedings in the dark mists of history.
Indeed, Mr McDonnell appears merely to have raised the thing from its perch in front of the speaker's chair. But it was enough to get him evicted and enough to ensure that at least his constituents know that he protested about today's decision to build a third runway at Heathrow.
We'll have a full report on why the government has gone for it. And why they should. And why they shouldn't. At seven.
UN hit in Gaza
From Gaza tonight, the UN building has been hit in Israeli shelling. We'll be talking live with John Ging, the senior UN official there. And we'll be talking with the Israel minister charged with dealing with Gaza after the ceasefire - whenever that comes.
War on terror 'mistake'
David Miliband, as foreign secretary, has declared the war on terror a mistake. He argues that it has militarised the response to 9/11 and served merely to consolidate the people it was designed to defeat.
I've been talking to the foreign secretary, who is in Mumbai, and asking, if it was such a profound error, should no-one be held to account? Should there not be an inquiry? Victoria Macdonald will be looking at the human, diplomatic and moral cost of the war on terror.
Up to a point, Lord Lebedev...
Loads more moving in the mainstream news. London's evening paper, the Evening Standard, looks as if it will be bought by an erstwhile KGB man.
And the Bafta film prizes nominations have been announced. They are one of the precursors for the Oscars. Stephanie West is peering through the strange, one-eyed sculpture that accompanies the Bafta winner from the podium.
