And tonight, we are introducing a new set of titles and studio backing on the programme.

Now I know messing with a national institution can be perilous, and this time round we have fiddled with pretty much everything, but I am very pleased with the results.

You can see a preview here:

It is striking how title sequences resonate differently with different audiences.

Newsnight has an incredibly passionate and loyal following, and viewers tend to love the titles sequence that was being used when they first discovered the programme.

The most frightening challenge for me this time was altering the music. We have changed it, but not a lot.

It was composed by the now legendary George Fenton as a favour to the first editor. I spoke to George about the titles and he confessed that he did go to bed sometimes slightly frustrated with parts of the old version.

He has re-worked it slightly to make it crisper and fresher. Hopefully he will now sleep more easily.

From Peter Rippon, Newsnight editor

This week's revelations about the dire state of the public finances seem to be a political game-changer. Forget the old arguments about tax and spend, the discussion and argument now is going to be about how you raise taxes and how you cut public spending.

The main political parties have already started to set out some ideas. For the government it looks like the Titan prisons are gone . David Cameron sketched out his provisional thoughts on the Today programme this morning and Vince Cable was choosing from the Liberal Democrat menu soon after the Chancellor sat down.

We recognise on Newsnight though that it can be hard for politicians to be explicit about the uncomfortable choices ahead - there are going to be many losers. They are also burdened with political strategies, messages to control, images to project.

You though, dear viewer, have no such constraints. So what spending would you cut?

We are keen to hear your views, they can be as radical or counter-intuitive as you like. What could we do without? How much could you save? What is it you really resent having your money spent on?

There have been some really interesting online experiments where the public have helped law makers actually decide the budget, like this one in Minnesota.

We on Newsnight do not have such lofty ambitions but we are keen to hear new ideas and creative thinking about what is going to be one of the defining political questions for the next generation.

So let us know your thoughts. I realise this will prompt a lot of trolls to argue the first on the list should be the BBC. That's fine, but my challenge would be do not just say it, make the case.

Dear Viewers,

My Newsnight career is now three weeks old and we are about to disappear for a Christmas break. My arrival has come in the middle of a great run for the programme. We have delivered some record audiences. I have to admit it has little to do with me. The economic crisis has seen audiences to pretty much all BBC News programmes, on all indicators, spiking sharply in a way not seen since September 11th 2001.

If I had to pick one non-economic item we have done it would have to be Jeremy's film with returning British Soldiers earlier this week. The three contributors say they have had a huge response from friends and colleagues. If you have some iPlayer time I would strongly recommend it or you can read more here.

Newsnight Review is looking at the cultural highlights of the year this evening. Let us know yours or you can view the eclectic picks of people ranging from Nicole Kidman to George Osborne here. Personally on TV I would go for Mad Men or maybe Damages. At the cinema it will have to be Kung Fu Panda as it is the only thing I got to see.

Next year on Newsnight there will be more of this and possibly the return of Ethical Man. The website is also getting a revamp and over Christmas the technicians will be making a change to the Newsnight set. See if you can spot what it is...

Peter Rippon

Dear readers - our esteemed Editor may have departed for pastures new but I'll be attempting to keep the flag flying over the summer.

We - and much of the BBC - have been focussed on events in China this week. Our coverage has provoked a strong response from viewers including the following critical comments about our special What the World Thinks of China poll that asked people across the globe about their perceptions of China:

Natalie, Hong Kong:
"I agree that there are many aspects of China that still needs great improvements - respect for its own diversity, mannerism, democracy, etc; but it is unfair and naive for outsiders to simply judge without visiting China, and without knowing its history and culture."

Shen, Singapore:
"Some Westerners have a kind of inborn prejudice when they face orient cultures and societies. They confuse all orient cultures together from a European heliocentric point of view. How many of those people who criticise China hysterically have travelled in China themselves? Please comment on Chinese government's Tibet policy after you visit Lhasa. The gate is open to all of you."

The point of the poll was to gauge opinions of China around the world - well-informed or not. But we also attempted to analyse the real changes that have taken place through two films by the BBC's former Beijing Correspondent Rupert Wingfield-Hayes. These drew heavily on his own extensive personal experience and knowledge of the country. He was clearly amazed by how freely he was allowed to move around the country but remained unconvinced that those freedoms would be extended to ordinary Chinese.

Yes, our values will inevitably inform our reporting of China but is that really something that should be resisted? What do you think?

After four years at Newsnight this is my final editor's blog. I'm off to Google, which has provoked some head scratching in the blogosphere.

My reasoning was pretty straightforward - I was looking for something at least as interesting, eventful and as much fun as Newsnight. That leaves a short list of options.

Experimenting with new media has been one of the joys of running Newsnight. There have been new products and possibilities almost every week. We've piled into many of them although so far, unlike Downing Street, we've resisted Twitter.

Some of our wheezes proved controversial but four years on I don't think anyone - and certainly not Jeremy - would argue that Newsnight should be simply a TV programme shown once at 10.30pm.

The digital revolution means I've been the first Newsnight editor to look after a programme which can be accessed at any time of the day or night anywhere in the world. You can engage us in conversation and we can - and should - explain our inner thinking.

So I'd like to take this chance to thank publicly the brilliant, creative and committed team who put together Newsnight five nights a week. To thank the six million or so viewers who stick with Newsnight week in week out despite the proliferation of competing demands for their eyeballs.

And to say thanks and farewell to those diehard Newsnight fans who subscribe to the e-mail, read blogs like this one and visit the website every day to catch up on the programme and have fun picking holes in it.

From Friday I'll be joining your number.

I'd feel a bit of a fraud as I only worked with him very briefly on Newsnight as a junior producer in the '90s - a mildly terrifying experience it was.

Instead, by way of tribute, we've asked Newsnight's film librarian Adam Gotch, who lived and breathed the Wheeler years, to pull out of the archive every single piece by Charles he can find.

So here - simply because we can - we present the complete Charles Wheeler, in his own words. Click here.

PS: I should say - if you'd like to look at the old blog, for old times sake (including poring over the 1,700 or so arguments between believers, non-believers, agnostics and the plain contrary under our most successful entry, The God Delusion) it's all been archived here for your nostalgic pleasure.

Both have been quoted this week as saying things they didn't intend to say.

On Newsnight last night, Mr Osborne - speaking from a noisy Mansion house - appeared to say that a Conservative government would be willing to reopen negotiations on public sector pay. We thought that was a significant developoment, but as we reported his comments a Conserative spokesman rang us to say that if he did say that - and if you watch the clip here he clearly did - he didn't mean to.

Less serious perhaps than Michelle Obama's apparent gaffe when she seemed to say that her husband Barack was pathetic. Pathetic not being a great attribute in a presidential candidate, it was quickly pointed out that what she actually said was "I did not want Barack to go into politics because I thought politics was a mean business. And you know, I knew this man that I loved, he was sweet, empathetic."

Glad we got that straight.