FROM KATE MCANDREW, PROGRAMME PRODUCER
Hello,
"Boozing Britain" shouts the front page of the Daily Mail today, with dire warnings about the future shape of the country with more liberal licensing hours: nightmares of casualty departments filled with drunks, maps to "prove the link between booze and bloodshed"; and stories of councils rising up in legal revolt against the costs of having to manage the new legislation.
This is all part of the Mail's campaign, as it says, to "say no to 24-hour pubs", the paper is no doubt flushed with it's own success after its campaign to limit the expansion of super-casinos, but concern is growing elsewhere that the government's plans for more flexible drinking hours may not have been thought through.
At the weekend, a leaked memo from the former Home Secretary David Blunkett to Tony Blair warned that the changes to pub hours were "a leap in the dark" which risked worsening the crime situation.
An old cabinet colleague, the former Health Secretary, Frank Dobson, has expressed his concern too. The Association of Chief Police Officers, and certain sections of the entertainment industry themselves, are backing away from the plans. Local authorities have stuck their oar in too - they're worried their new responsibilities for licensing are going to cost them. So what's going on?
The government says that more flexible hours will bring to an end the "kebab and fight" culture so familiar to anyone who's walked through a town or city centre after eleven o'clock at night.
The Prime Minister says decent people should be able to enjoy a drink and it's only a tiny minority that's spoiling it for everyone. But has he got it wrong? Are we just not ready, or is money and the cost of these new plans the cause of all this hasty backing-away? We'll be asking the Secretary of State, Tessa Jowell.
Three British soldiers have gone on trial in Germany accused of abusing Iraqi civilians.
Lance Corporal Mark Cooley, who's twenty-five, and thirty-three year old Corporal Daniel Kenyon, entered not guilty pleas. Lance Corporal Darren Larkin, who's thirty, admitted assaulting one man, but denied another charge.
The prosecution has produced a series of graphic photographs which are being released to the media later tonight. We'll bring you more on that if we can.
Dr Condoleezza Rice has been talking about "outposts of tyranny" as she begins the hearings process to become Secretary of State. Our own Stephanie H Flanders is in Washington watching the proceedings.
Can women count? I certainly can't, and according to the President of Harvard University I'm not alone.
Women, he suggests, may be genetically less able than men to excel in maths, science, and engineering.
Needless to say his remarks have caused uproar, not least in our morning meeting, with endless gags about car-parking, spatial awareness, and navigation...
But is he on to something? Our Science Editor, Susan Watts, will be giving him a serious run for his money.
And who do you vote for if you're a disaffected Labour voter? The author of the book, "So Now Who Do We Vote For?" goes on a tour to find out who and what's on offer.
Finally, on 30 January, we'll be 25 and in keeping with the times we need a bracelet... tell us what slogan it should carry.
Click here to tell us what the slogan should be
Hope you can join us at 10.30pm.
Kate McAndrew
If you have a story for Newsnight, please send us an email via our website:
bbc.co.uk/newsnight
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