14/11/2011 Daily Politics

Afternoon, folks. Welcome to the Daily Politics. New Prime Ministers

in Italy and Greece bring relative stability to the Eurozone but what

damage has all the uncertainty done to the UK economy and is there

anything the Government can do about it? At the moment, they are

predominantly white and male. So, should women and ethnic minority

candidates be favoured in the selection of our senior judges?

Unemployment is set to rise over the coming months we are told today

but is a good workout what the long term jobless need to help them get

back to work? Students were back on the street again last week

protesting about higher tuition fees. The internet's money saving

expert is here to tell us they All that in the next half hour. And

with us for the whole programme today is Nikki King, who is

managing director of Isuzu Truck UK. Later we will have Martin Lewis of

Money Saving Expert on the programme to talk student tuition

fees. If you have any questions about what the new system means for

students please e-mail us at [email protected] and we

will try to put them to Martin. Now, first it was monarchs, now it is

top judges. The Master of the Rolls - the most senior judge in England

and Wales - has said he sees no problem with women being favoured

for top legal jobs. Lord Neuberger said that if there are two equal

candidates in line for a job he has no difficulty with it going to a

woman or ethnic minority candidate. Currently, only one of the 11

Supreme Court judges is a woman. In the Appeal Court, only four out of

37 judges are women. What do you think? We are not Green spotted

frogs. We are 50% of the population. Positive discrimination is a

mistake. We need to be much more flexible than the way we employ

women so they do not have to give up their jobs during a very

important part of their career. still do not represent all reflect

the community at large in the top echelons of industry. What was your

experience? It was pretty good. Once you are at a certain level,

you actively encouraged. The tough part is when your children are

small, your parents are ill. It is always the women who have to make

the sacrifices in their career. If we are more flexible and more

sympathetic and allow homeworking, flexible working, we can keep our

women and encourage them to get to the top. You said your experience

was pretty good but you are told she could not run a fleet cells

caused because you were a woman and they were men. Was that true?

Absolutely true. You did come across prejudice. I did. It was

very easily and quickly dealt with by me. I think positive

discrimination will lead to a certain amount of resentment within

the workforce. It is not a good idea. Do see a defence with there

being two equal candidates and they're saying, we will give it to

the women, rather than the discriminatory policies where, if

the woman is less qualified, she would get the job? If that is

ridiculous. Any sort of discrimination is wrong. You need

to encourage people in the workplace, at the same time as they

are looking after families and other things. If women decide to go

part-time, is their career path stored? Absolutely not. Why not?

am a woman myself. Many of my staff had to -- had started working full-

time - part-time from home and part-time in the office. Nobody has

to work in the office all day these days. A lot of jobs can be done

from home or half from home. We have to chuck out the chintz and

think outside the box. We have children coming to the office if

they are not that six. Why not? We have now got a whole team of 17-

year-olds and 18-year-olds who can operate holiday cover for us.

must ask if they were let us bring our children in there! Now it is

time for our daily quiz. The question for today is... Which

former European Prime Minister, did Conservative MP Patrick Mercer

reportedly compare David Cameron unfavourably to? George Papandreou,

Silvio Berlusconi, Herman van Rompuy or shacks Santa, who had the

same honour in Luxembourg? At the end of the show, Nikki will give us

the correct answer. If you flick through the financial pages this

morning, there is a sense that the Eurozone is out of intensive care

but there is no doubt that its condition remains critical. What is

more we are beginning to learn how the crisis is affecting the real

economy. First, let's have a look at the good news. Italy and Greece

have new Prime Ministers. And the cost of Italy's debt has come down

slightly, after hitting a record high last week. Meanwhile major

stock markets in Asia finished up overnight, while European markets

have seen some gains this morning. -- drops. And what about here in

the UK? Well, the interest rate we are paying on our debt has also

dropped, hitting a record low last week. But now the bad news. New

data out today shows the UK job market is facing a slow, painful

contraction. Meanwhile, other new figures out today show banks are

still failing to meet targets for lending to small businesses,

although overall lending is ahead of target. But, since 2007, lending

to small businesses has shrunk by about 10% a year. On Wednesday the

Bank of England is expected to downgrade this year's growth

forecast for the UK, from 1.5% to 1%. With us now is Labour's Chris

Leslie, the Shadow Financial Secretary, and the Conservative MP

Reports of the �50 billion infrastructure investment programme,

does that represent a Plan B or Plan A Plas? It is really important

for pension funds to find very long term investments. As I understand

from the reports in the papers over the weekend, the Chancellor is

tokamak making it easier for pension funds to invest in those

kinds of projects. -- talking about making it easier. It is very

sensible to be thinking about, for a pension funds, at a time when

they are looking for really good, long-term investments, the value

that infrastructure can play in that particular problem -

investment problem. At the moment, long-term interest rates will

government bonds are extremely low. A lot of pension funds are looking

for investments that give them a stable yield. It is a PFI project

essentially. That is what they are encouraging. It will not be on the

balance sheet but that is what cities. There are lots of different

approaches around the world. It is worth seeing whether we can use the

big pools of capital that up in pension funds in the UK to see

whether there is a way in which we can find investments to match

liabilities. This is the sort of thing you would welcome, these

sorts of projects filling the gap being left by public-sector cuts.

Anything is better than nothing. I wish they would get on with it. We

have had a m economy flat lining for more than a year. -- and

economy. The idea of bringing forward capital projects, that is

one of the five points we suggested. We do not know any details. We have

the Autumn Statement. The Chancellor will probably as a --

outline what he is planning. said the Chartered Institute for

personal development are predicting a slow and painful contraction for

jobs. This is an incredible -- incredibly important time. They

really need to get on and pull out all the stops. Is Labour still

really saying the Government is cutting too far and too fast?

Absolutely. I can explain why. It is very simple. If you look at all

the data, you cannot simply use the eurozone as an alibi for action. If

they believe all our woes are down to the eurozone, that is incredibly

worrying. You do not accept the reason we have so low rates on

interest repayments it is because of the strict deficit reduction

plan. I do not accept that. must be the only person who does

not accept that. I was in the City last week speaking to bond traders

in very big banks. We have our own independent currency and our own

Central Bank. The reason why people are fleeing from the eurozone is

that we have those independent arrangements that were established

well before the Dublin came in. Very low bond yields are a sign

that people are predicting interest rates will never change because the

economy is so weak. It cuts both ways. If the Government is only

targeting yields and Barnes, rather than jobs and growth Macro, that is

a flawed strategy. The Government is not stepping up to the plate.

Only 40,000 private-sector jobs have been created. The approach by

Labour is completely... What you going to do about the big gap

between private sector growth and job creation? We have to get the

private sector growing. They cannot bear a sells out of a debt problem.

-- bail ourselves out. You are having to fund unemployment and

benefits. About cutting corporate taxes, it is extremely important.

Creating enterprise zones across the country, at regional gross

funds going into was to share and other parts of the country. The

regional growth fund used to be twice as high. Can I just bring in

Nikkei at this point? Would you like to see public money being

spent to kick-start the economy? I would not. If you do not have the

money, you cannot spend it. Business is supporting the idea

that the fact the austerity plan means Britain is in a better

position. The position they are in now is the better one. In your

industry, you are looking at exports and imports. Various

factors underpin growth. Exports have been pretty good for the

eurozone recently. We struggle with investment from the Government.

Consumer demand is low. What would you do to boost consumer demand?

Increase confidence. All this is about lack of confidence.

Government has invested over �100 billion. Businesses are investing.

I do believe that confidence is important. The economic statement

will be playing a very important part. It is a sign of confidence.

It has not instil confidence in the public. Do you accept that the

austerity plan, will there it has worked in the markets, it has

choked off consumer demand? Put it on its head and ask what would be

happening if we were now following a credible plan which the IMF

believes in and everyone else believes him. Of course it is

important to have a credible plan. If you are so stubborn as to

neglect all those people who are unemployed. In my constituency

youth unemployment has doubled. If you do nothing about the economy,

we will continue to flat line and possibly reverse. That is what we

are facing. Our company is doing quite well. We took the pain in

2007, 2008. A lot of my friends who run companies are having a similar

experience. We lack the confidence for next year saying we need to

start using funds and start growing and taking on more people. What

we're doing is keeping our overhead as fluid as possible because we

might have to turn it off tomorrow. How helpful is it for the

Government to continually blamed the eurozone crisis? It is making

life very difficult here. The Labour have said the difficulties

started before the eurozone crisis. This is creating a chilling effect

on our economy. The real problem is the problems we had from be

previous government. We had one had and �20 million a day interest. --

�120 million. Wire countries outside the eurozone growing much

faster? -- wide our countries? were given a terrible economic

legacy from the previous government. You are blaming the previous

government and the eurozone crisis. You are being left in paralysis. Do

you think the Government has Bell to come forward with a

comprehensive plan? The economy needs to be put on a longer term,

stronger footing. No one said coming out of the debt crisis would

be an easy economic recovery. glad that Harriet is confident. I

hope she is right. All the evidence suggests that things are going into

really dangerous territory. The eurozone is worse but we are

fragile. I wish the Government would take responsibility for the

current state of affairs. I wish we had an opposition that was

constructive. We should be putting and repeating a bank bonus levy so

we can get affordable housing and jobs for young people. We should be

putting national insurance contributions stand for small

employers. We have a five-point plan. I am asking for a hearing

from the Chancellor who is sticking, regardless of the evidence in the

economy. What would you like to hit The idea of a bank levy tax is

ridiculous. I'm talking about the bonuses.

One of the problems is we have is this concentrating for shareholder

value. They are looking at.

If I was Prime Minister I would make it a rule that all heads of

all major companies in the UK would commit to stay for ten years and

that stops two year plans where you get your bonus because you've cut

costs, you don't care what's going to happen in two years. "I have May

made more -- I've made more money for the company. I'll get my bonus.

I'm off.". Talking about confidence is one thing, there are no

specifics in terms of how to create it. All the things that we are

doing and the bond markets show that investors have confidence in

the UK's plan. Investors are seeing the UK as a safe haven in in

troubled times across Europe and those low low interest rates are so

important because it means mortgage rates are lower. People are not

having to pay as much every month and that over time will give an

economic recovery. The one thing Government could do,

rather than giving small amounts of money under tremendous conditions

to business, if they would guarantee loans to the banks it

would make a hell of a lot of difference.

I am looking forward to hearing about that in the autumn statement.

There are predictions today that unemployment will rise in the

coming months and on Wednesday, youth unemployment could reach one

million. Private companies running the Government's work programme in

Britain are looking at ways of getting some of those without jobs

It sounds like an idea from the manifesto of the Nasty Party, you

put the unemployed into the hands of a PE instructor who makes them

do press-ups until they have got a job, but the reality for these

unemployed people in Plymouth is different. Working links, which is

a company rolling out the Government's work programme here in

the south-west, has started a voluntary group, The Friday Club.

Today, they are going for a walk in the rain in the city centre. A lot

of it is routine, it is about getting them doing something. It is

taking them them outside their comfort zone with help from myself

to sort of nurture them through a little, just getting them them back

into a normal routine. Once you are comfortable, it is easier to get

back into work. Martin has been in the group a

while. Leanne is 22 and never had a job. This is Teanna and has her

first day. Walking in the rain might seem pointless, but this club

is getting people into work. Leean and Martin have both got jobs.

Having a personal personal trainer helped them to break the mould and

have a little bit more confidence in themselves.

I'm 22 stone, I'm overweight. I have been told if I don't change my

way, I will have died by the time I'm 30. One of my con consultants

from Working Links say they do a fit club every Friday. It turned my

life around. Having a personal trainer for the

unemployed is a waste of money. is getting results. I mean, the

work programme which is what we are delivering here in the south-west

is payment by results. The majority of the funding comes once we have

successfully placed people in long- term work. So it is for us to

speculate if you like or to invest money in schemes that might help

people move into work. If it doesn't work, then it is at our

cost. I came to to Plymouth expecting to

fin people forced out of bed and forced into track suits. They are

not, that will come as a disappointment to some of you. This

shows a few walks in the rain can What do you think about that? Is it

going to be the answer to helping young, unemployed people back into

work? No, I don't think so. It will make them them feel better. We

should be harnessing businesses and providing mentors. We should be

providing, maybe the Government should be giving assistance to

companies to bring in young people on work experience.

Paid work experience? Paid work experience, but maybe paid for by

the Government than rather by us. The education system has let down

industry and young people. For you, is it the calibre and the

quality of students come nothing the workforce? What are they

lacking? They lack commitment. They think it is OK to come in and go

out at lunch time and not come back. That might teach them commitment,

just the sense of training and discipline and all the rest of it?

My experience is we do a lot of work experience with young people.

One of the things I find is that they are fed-up with school and yet

when they come to work, they really enjoy it. I think the more they get

the experience of work, and increase increase their parameters,

I think that's really the most important thing we could do.

Are you hiring? Yes, but not young people, sadly.

You are hiring better qualified, older people? Yes.

What would per said you you to hire a young person? Putting aside the

fact that you think the calibre isn't that great? Because they are

not experienced in work, because very little in their education

teaches them to be experienced in work, I haven't got time to spend

two years training a young person. You mention planning is a problem.

Is it because you are unconcern about the economy? Yes, they link

together. I would happily welcome young people in to give them work

experience and encouragement because it is about confidence. If

you have small parameters and no confidence, then work becomes a

drag. When you come to work and find you enjoy it and you have a

mentor who shows you that you can achieve mountains, that's what we

should be doing. Now, if you are an English sixth

form student you might be starting to feel nervous, not just about how

well you are going to do in your A- levels, but what impact higher

university tuition fees will have on you. In a moment we will speak

to Martin Lewis, he is heading a taskforce. First David Thompson

spoke to sixth-formers this morning. Hello welcome to LadyWell, South-

East London. Now, first of all, can I ask you,

how many of you are plan to go to to university next year? Good luck.

Did the prospect of paying increased fees put any of you hauf

or make -- off or make you think about going to a cheaper

university? Now, I know I'm going to live at home. I wanted to go off

campus, now I'm not going to have enough money to do that and the

thought of having debt is scary. Do you think you were given enough

information about how the system will work by the Government

wasn't until I started going to university open days that I learned

about how much feesI need to pay, about the student loan system,

about when I need to start paying the money back and how much you pay

back with interest. I think that everyone is aware that

we're going to have �9,000 tuition fees, however, other things such as

living costs and interest rates, people aren't that aware about.

How many of you think you know when you have to start paying the money

back? I think once we are earning around �21,000 a year or over then

we have to start paying back. What do the Government have done to

have explained the system system better? Probably something on TV.

As teenagers, we watch a lot of TV, so if there was to be more

advertisements, maybe posters then we would be more aware overall.

Martin Lewis joins us now. Do you think people are concerned

about the new fee that is will be introduced next year? People are

right to be concerned about the change, but a lot of people have

been scared off for the wrong reasons. The language that we use

of fees, we talk about it as a debt in many ways and we are talking in

England here. It is important to say that.

Yes, it is. This is in many ways more like a

tax than a debt. You pay it through the payroll. It is proportionate to

the amount you earn. You only repay it if you are earning �21,000.

There are no debt collectors. It lasts 30 years. And you pay pay 9%

of everything you earn earn above �21,000 until you have repaid what

you owe plus interest or 30 years and then it stops. If you said to

parents your kids if they are successful would you pay it off for

them. We have to think about the finances of this rather than the

politics of this. You say in that sense, it is mot going to be paid

back until you start earning a certain amount of money, but is

there a sort of pinch-point, let's say if you are a teacher and let's

say you are earning between �22,000 and �30,000, you are paying a large

large percentage of your income and you are paying it for years and

years? People pay 9% of everything above �15,000. Starters in 2012

repay �540 a year less than current graduates. The the impact on your

pocket is improvement in the new system, but because you are

borrowing more, because you are repaying less and because the

interest is higher, you are likely to be repaying longerment many

people will not repay in full over the full 30 years which means they

are going to think it is, I go back to my starting point, it is like a

tax you repay on top of the other taxes for most of your working life.

"If Most of the loans will never repaid and the liability on the

public purse will be billions and billions.". It is not most will

never be repaid, it is many will never be repaid.

The Government gives universities �6,000 and it gives the student

�3,000 to pay the university which it gets money back. In the new

system, it loans the student the whole amount. If they get a smaller

proportion of the loans back, because it is all a loan, it still

gets more back than it does. I'm not saying I'm in favour of the

system, but it is misexplained and the political Spittle in the House

of Commons over this demonised a system that is going to do more

damage than the new fees. When you talk to kids from non-traditional

university backgrounds. The middle- class kids will go, but the bright

kids are the ones much debt averse because of the language we use.

Do you think the Government explained it well either?

that's why I got involved in this independent taskforce. We have only

only been going a few months and we get paid peanuts, but we get to

come on television talk about it. The mistake was made in 1998 when

we introduced loans which you pay through the tax system. In

Australia they call this a graduate contribution. Here, we call it a

debt and the language and the fact that everyone is too scared because

it would be called spin if we changed it, but it is not a loan.

It doesn't go on your credit file. You as a business person will

understand what Martin says? Martin is right. Maybe it is too late to

go back, but some more explanation and if anybody can do it, Martin

can. We have to make everybody

understand it and once they understand it maybe it is time to

change the language. Thank you very much. There is just

time to fin out the answer to our quiz.

The question was which which former European Prime Minister did

Conservative MP Patrick Mercer reportedly compared David Cameron