Newsnight 27 November

Presented by Jeremy Paxman.

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Asylum seekers

"I did not come into politics to be the King Herod of the Labour party" proclaimed the Home Secretary in defence of his newest policy for asylum seekers - to take the children of failed applicants into care if their parents refuse to go home. "Necessary medicine" claimed Mr Blunkett, a "despicable proposal" countered Michael Howard. Quite an achievement for this Home Secretary to be attacked from the left by that former one.

But who's right? If a third of the British population think immigration and asylum is the most important issue facing Britain today (Mori Political Monitor, October 2003), isn't the government right to be addressing the problem in the terms it is?

Don McKinnon

The Commonwealth Secretary-General, Don McKinnon is to be challenged for his job when the 54 member countries meet in Nigeria in a few weeks. Our Robin Denselow had the story behind this putsch.

China

George Bush reminded us last week that Britain and America have been "willing to tolerate oppression for the sake of stability" - perhaps nowhere more so than China. After the Tiananmen Square massacre in 1989 China has experienced rip roaring capitalism and harsh suppression of dissent. Under the new leadership of Hu Jintao it's supposed to be changing. But how fast? In the third of our special reports from China, Paul Mason found out.

Northern Ireland elections

And with the latest results in the Northern Ireland elections, Liz Mackean reported live from Belfast.

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