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The Week in Westminster

Factual: Politics

Radio 4's weekly assessment of developments at Westminster

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Week in Westminster

The Week in Westminster: 20/11/2010

20/11/2010

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Peter Oborne of The Daily Telegraph looks behind the scenes at Westminster.

Peter Oborne of The Daily Telegraph looks behind the scenes at Westminster. Who was right about the Euro?

As concern grows over the plight of the Irish economy which uses the euro, Peter Oborne asks whatever happened to the euro-enthusiasts who used to people British politics. 

These days it's hard to find anyone who will speak up for joining the euro as some politicians used to do only ten years ago.

Here he talks to the leading eurosceptic, John Redwood, and Labour's Wayne David, once leader of the Labour group of MEPs in Brussels, and now the party's shadow Europe spokesman in the Commons. 

The decision to pay compensation to former detainees at Guantanamo Bay seems to have been accepted by MPs - but only with a heavy heart. Many have expressed surprise at the payments, said to total millions of pounds. 

Here Labour's Geraint Davies - who campaigned on behalf of one of the detainees - debates the outcome with the Conservative, Patrick Mercer.

Pirates off the coast of Somalia have been attracting unusual attention in Westminster. The House of Lords debated their record of kidnapping and ransoming sailors - including an elderly couple from Tunbridge Wells who were released this week after the payment of a ransom. The independent peer, David Alton, and the Conservative, Archie Hamilton, look for a solution.


Finally, the Conservative MP, Kris Hopkins, reveals how he is setting up an all-party group to look into Islamophobia.

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20/11/2010

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