Can Burma's junta be trusted?

Channel 4 News 06 May 2008

Inside the morning meeting...

More than 10,000 people were killed when a cyclone struck Burma over the weekend.

"Now we are into the stage where Burma needs help with aid - and there is all the politics that come with that."

Burma's military junta are not trusted by the international community, to put it lightly.

"How sure can anyone be that aid will actually get to the people that need it? They can't be."

We'll also be looking at the impact of the damage in Burma - as well as the tragic loss of life - as it appears vital rice fields could be lost for a decade.

Closer to home, it is the launch of the Crewe and Nantwich by-election today.

If the previously safe Labour seat is lost; the storm clouds will gather in even more abundance for the PM.

"Cameron, Straw and Cable are all there today - so it's worth keeping an eye on.

"On the back of this it's worth looking at the rubbish bin tax - has it been scrapped or not? I don't know what is going on.

"After Brown talked about it - and it was assumed it would be dropped - Defra came out and said the pilots would still be going ahead.

"But he's said he would be dropping it before, last October, and they made noises about dropping it after the last set of local election results too. I'm not sure they are allowed to decide anyway!"

"We also don't really know what's going on with the 10p tax either. What exactly are the changes?"

"Frank Field is putting down an early day motion about it today, so we can follow it up."

"I don't wish to speak ill of the 'dead', but we really are seeing a transition form the great communicator [Blair] to the leader [Brown] who can't communicate at all.

"I mean, what is Labour's territory now? They don't seem to have one."

A British couple on holiday in the Algarve face neglect charges after an alleged all-day drinking session left them in hospital and their three young children in care.

"It's interesting to see what the Portuguese think of us now. Every taxi you get into, the drivers say that the McCanns did it.

"Now they will have seen this too."


Source