Cameron talking Balls...

David Cameron spoke much about 'fairness' in his speech today. Sadly the Prime Minister failed to practice what he preached...

His attempt to ridicule Labour's Ed Balls doesn't stand up to scrutiny and in my humble opinion, was disgracefully unfair.

Judge for yourself.

Here's verbatim what Mr Cameron said about Mr Balls:

"I want to give you an idea of the mentality we're fighting.

"Ed Balls, the man who used to be in charge of education in our country, said one of the dangers of our schools policy was that it would create 'winners'.

"Winners? We can't have that.." said Mr Cameron. He went on: "Anti-aspiration. Anti-success. Anti-parents who just want the best for their children. What an unbelieveable attitude from the Labour generation..."

Really??

Tonight, BBC Newsnight asked Central Conservative Office for the source of the PM's attack on Mr Balls.

Newsnight then played the tape of what Mr Balls actually said.

Here's the transcript:

"The danger is there will be some winners but it's dishonest to say their will not be losers as well."

If Mr Cameron thinks his attack is 'fair', isn't our Prime Minister even more out of touch with reality than he demonstrated with the unfairness of scrapping child benefit for families with an income of £44,000 while continuing to pay child benefit to families with an income of £87,000...

What do you think...?

Israel's smug response after bombing THREE schools...

Yesterday, I asked how many more innocents would have to die in the Gaza conflict that has become the war of the children.

Today, Israeli forces provide the answer: many more. In the face of growing world condemnation, Israel attempted to justify bombing not one, but THREE Gaza schools in one day.

In the most horrific carnage, more than 30 people died when they attacked a UNITED NATIONS school.

The school was being used by Gazans trying to shelter from the rockets and shells raining in from land, sea and air onto one of the most densely populated patches on earth.

Many of the victims were children, as you might expect in the shelling of a school.

The Israelis claimed mortars were fired from the school and that totally justified their actions. The UN say they have no evidence that mortars were fired from the school.

I thought the Israeli PM's spokesman Mark Regey make an astonishing admission when questioned by the media.

He said Israeli forces were not to know that there might be 'civilians' inside the school.

Unbelievable.

But worse was to come from Israeli Internal Security Minister Meir Shitreet.

His smiled smugly throughout his Newsnight interview with Mark Urban.

When the horror of the school attack was put to him, the apparently uncaring Mr Shitreet responded with two words:

'So what?'

Is that totally sickening or what?

Paxo's one word weather forecast...

'Parky'

- Jeremy Paxman, BBC2 Newsnight presenter, didn't need a map or more than one word to summarise some of the coldest weather to sweep Britain in a decade.

Newsnight Questions over Tory Chairman Caroline Spelman and the public purse...

Tory Party chairman Caroline Spelman appears to have paid the wages of her nanny out of the public purse, apparently breaking rules on parliamentary allowances, according to BBC Newsnight's top story tonight.

Ironically, it was Ms Spelman who was tasked by Tory Leader David Cameron to clean up the Tory image following the £445,000 expenses scandal of Giles 'oops-a-daisy' Chichester.

He was forced yesterday to resign as Leader of the Tories in Europe after admitting breaching European Parliament rules.

Ms Spelman was due this weekend to examine Mr Chichester's expense claims!

Newsnight reporter Michael Crick called into question attempts by Tory HQ to claim that Mrs Spelman's nanny was constituency secretary as well as childminder. A Tory Party spokesperson suggested that a large part of Tina Haynes' work was as a secretary.

But in a telephone interview with Crick earlier today, Ms Haynes made it clear that although she occasionally answered the phone and posted letters, her primary role was childminding...

As former standards chairman Alistair Graham told Newsnight: "These stories are very damaging to our political system."

At least we now know what the Tories mean when they talk about 'The Nanny State'...

UPDATE: The BBC website is now carrying the story.

UPDATE 2: Now also running on the Daily Mail website.

NH exit polls say Obama wins, but not by a landslide...

Veteran American pollster Frank Luntz has called the New Hampshire primary for Barack Obama - but not by a double-digit margin over Hillary Clinton.

With the benefit of exit polls, Luntz was interviewed on BBC Newsnight. He says there's been another record turnout for both parties - similar to what happened in Iowa.

"Something's happening to the psyche of Americans that is getting people engaged..." he told Jeremy Paxman.

So, it looks as though Hillary will survive New Hampshire after all - Luntz says don't write Hillary off yet - he predicts the state of Nevada could be the big decider, which raises the spectre of Las Vegas calling the shots!

Whatever margin Barack Obama wins by tonight in New Hampshire, the electricity generated by Obama is already lighting up South Carolina where he has opened massive 20 points lead ahead of Hillary 19 days before the state decides.

One New York paper is even contemplating the unthinkable - the prospect of Barack Obama beating Hillary Clinton in her own backyard...

3.45am UPDATE: Looks like Hillary managed an astonishing comeback and is now heading to actually WIN the New Hampshire primary. With over two thirds of the precincts now reported, Hillary is ahead of Barack Obama by three points - 39 to 36 with John Edwards in third.

More hot air from the US on climate change...

Sadly, but oh so predictably, as the world grapples to tackle climate change, George 'Dubya' Bush seems intent on derailing any positive plan for global action.

BBC Newsnight reported from the crucial climate change talks in Bali tonight (Friday) with news that the Americans have forced the European Union nations to give up on hard targets for nations to reduce CO2 emissions in coming decades.

As Environment Ministers - including our own very capable Hillary Benn - work through the night to try to prevent total collapse of the talks, the most optimistic outcome likely to emerge from the summit is a watered-down communique with nations agreeing to do 'not a lot' and certainly not enough.

Here's one view of what's going on (or not...)

It seems the Americans, who refused to sign Kyoto, are insistent that the porrer developing nations must cut emissions before the richest nation in the world takes action themselves.

As someone said on Newsnight, it's like Bush happily enjoying the comforts of the first class cabin on an airliner convinced that a catasrophe in tourist class won't affect him...

With the clock ticking, failure at Bali means another two years before there's another chance to replace the Kyoto Agreement.

And the longer the Americans refuse to show real leadership, the more urgent and more drastic the eventual action will have to be.

Let's hope that Al Gore is right and the next US President is more positive than the current one who's now entering his final year in office.