Life after Blair

Sir David Frost

Every week, Sir David Frost, one of the most celebrated broadcasters, offers you a programme which takes its stories and guests from every part of the globe.

 

The world’s news makers will be interviewed with Sir David’s incisive style; getting behind the headlines and examining the decisions and policies which shape global politics today.

 

 

 

 

Coming up this week on Frost over the World:

 

 

Menzies Campbell, leader of the Liberal Democrats

Tony Blair has announced that he will step down as British prime minister next month. His political opponents claim that one issue will dominate his legacy: Iraq.

 

Menzies Campbell, the leader of the Liberal Democrats, has been a staunch opponent of the war and he joins Sir David Frost to discuss Tony Blair’s legacy.

 

Campbell tells Frost Over The World that Blair’s first term in office was marked by a series of positive measures – devolution for Scotland and Wales, economic stability as a result of the decision to make the Bank of England independent and the Freedom of Information Act which made the workings of government more transparent. However, he suggests that Iraq has coloured Blair’s time as prime minister and overshadowed his earlier achievements.

 

 

Jorge Taiana, Argentina’s foreign minister

It has been over twenty years since the dark days of Argentina’s Dirty War but the country is still coming to terms with its gruesome past.

 

Between 9,000 and 30,000 people were killed or simply disappeared in the late 1970s and early 1980s as the military government waged a campaign against its political opponents.

 

In 1990 the then president, Carlos Menem, pardoned some of the perpetrators of the Dirty War; a decision that caused outrage in Argentina.

 

Now, 17 years later, a court has overturned those pardons and Jorge Taiana, the Argentinean foreign minister, joins Sir David Frost to discuss why this move was necessary and why a sustainable democracy cannot be built on impunity.

 

 

Thomas Ricks, author and journalist

It has been four years since George Bush’s mission accomplished speech but the situation in Iraq only appears to be deteriorating.

 

Thomas Ricks, the author of Fiasco: The American Military Adventure in Iraq joins Sir David Frost to discuss what will happen next in Iraq and how the US can learn from what has already happened.

 

He talks about whether the fiasco in Iraq could have been avoided by better planning or more troops on the ground or whether the current situation in the country was, in fact, inevitable.

 

 

Shilpa Shetty

Bollywood star Shilpa Shetty has 51 movies to her name and won the UK’s Celebrity Big Brother in February after a racism row sparked outrage and even threatened a diplomatic incident between India and the UK.

 

Still making the headlines, she is now facing a court summons after she was pictured being kissed by Richard Gere at an Aids benefit in New Delhi. She could even be charged with offending Indian culture.

 

She is in London promoting her new film, Life in a Metro, and talks to Sir David Frost about the most recent controversy surrounding her and some of the tougher topics her new film tackles.

 

 

Michael Bergman, from the Center for Middle East peace

Often mentioned but rarely discussed, Palestinian refugees make up the largest refugee population in the world.

 

Estimates suggest there are at least four million scattered around the world and living in camps in Arab countries.

 

Many Palestinian refugees were disappointed when the relaunched Arab peace initiative failed to call for a full automatic right of return and instead asked for a just solution for the refugees.

 

Karma Nabulsi, from Oxford University, and Michael Bergman, from the Center for Middle East Peace in Washington, join Sir David Frost to discuss how any future peace agreement can satisfy both sides.

 

 

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