Browse content similar to 25/11/2011. Check below for episodes and series from the same categories and more!
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Afternoon folks, welcome to The Daily Politics on Friday. The | :00:24. | :00:27. | |
Government unveils a one billion pound Youth Contract, but how many | :00:27. | :00:30. | |
of the over one million unemployed young people will it help get back | :00:30. | :00:38. | |
to work? I'll be speaking to the Employment Minister. 12-hour delays | :00:38. | :00:40. | |
predicted for passengers at Heathrow, on top of school closures | :00:40. | :00:47. | |
and cancelled hospital operations. How costly and disruptive will next | :00:47. | :00:52. | |
Wednesday's co-ordinated strike action be? And how a squeeze on | :00:52. | :00:55. | |
incomes, tax credit cuts and the rising cost of childcare are a | :00:55. | :01:05. | |
:01:05. | :01:08. | ||
turn-off for some women voters. We're going back 20-30 years, where | :01:08. | :01:14. | |
it is a presumption that women will And with me today are writer and | :01:14. | :01:16. | |
broadcaster David Torrance and former political editor of the | :01:16. | :01:22. | |
Observer Gaby Hinsliff. Welcome to you both. First this morning, more | :01:22. | :01:24. | |
dire predictions about the impact of next week's co-ordinated strike | :01:24. | :01:29. | |
action by members of public sector unions. Bosses at Heathrow are | :01:29. | :01:32. | |
warning of 12-hour delays as border staff walk out - sounds like a | :01:32. | :01:37. | |
pretty typical day at the airport to me. Most schools are predicted | :01:37. | :01:41. | |
to be shut, with many parents having to take a day off work to | :01:41. | :01:45. | |
look after their children. The strike is also likely to hit the | :01:45. | :01:47. | |
NHS, where agency staff are being drafted in and some non-urgent | :01:47. | :01:53. | |
operations are being postponed. Yesterday the Government warned the | :01:53. | :01:56. | |
action would cost the country as much as �500 million - a figure | :01:56. | :02:06. | |
:02:06. | :02:10. | ||
contested by the unions. So, David Torrance, it is a day not to fly | :02:11. | :02:14. | |
into Britain if you're a normal passenger, and if you're a suicide | :02:14. | :02:20. | |
bomber, probably a good day to fly in. Absolutely, what I find | :02:20. | :02:24. | |
interesting in this is tracking public opinion. The Daily Mail | :02:24. | :02:29. | |
today says, is this something of really big? -- is this the | :02:29. | :02:34. | |
beginning of something really big? It suggests there is a war fund to | :02:34. | :02:39. | |
cater for several strikes after this one. Will public opinion put | :02:39. | :02:43. | |
up with one strike, let alone several? That is the question. | :02:43. | :02:46. | |
Although there is one strike planned for next Wednesday, it does | :02:47. | :02:50. | |
not change anything, the question is, will the unions do this again | :02:50. | :02:55. | |
and again, and if so, which way will public opinion go? Lots of | :02:55. | :02:59. | |
people will put up with one day's disruption, a lot of people will | :02:59. | :03:02. | |
have some sympathy, actually, with have some sympathy, actually, with | :03:02. | :03:05. | |
public sector workers, and will feel, fair enough. But if it goes | :03:05. | :03:09. | |
on and on, will people blame the unions, or will they blame the | :03:09. | :03:14. | |
Government for not negotiating it to a peaceful settlement? Our TV | :03:14. | :03:19. | |
screens are full of riots in Athens and Rome, Portugal had a one-day | :03:19. | :03:25. | |
strike this week, Tahrir Square is up in flames again... The general | :03:25. | :03:32. | |
attitude might become a we do not want to go down that road. Yes, | :03:32. | :03:36. | |
absolutely. And there is a sense that the trade unions are out of | :03:36. | :03:42. | |
touch with reality. Public opinion polls demonstrate that most Brits | :03:42. | :03:46. | |
accept that some sort of austerity measures are necessary. So if they | :03:46. | :03:50. | |
continue to go on strike after this one, there will be that disconnect | :03:50. | :03:57. | |
between what is reasonable and what Well, here's a radical idea. If | :03:57. | :04:00. | |
some of next week's striking public sector workers don't want their | :04:00. | :04:02. | |
jobs, there are plenty of unemployed young people out there | :04:02. | :04:06. | |
who just might be interested. No, that's not government policy - yet. | :04:06. | :04:09. | |
But the Deputy Prime Minister, Nick Clegg, has been setting out plans | :04:09. | :04:14. | |
this morning to create 400,000 work and training placements. Last week | :04:14. | :04:17. | |
youth unemployment reached the youth unemployment reached the | :04:17. | :04:21. | |
toxic figure of 1 million. There were 1.02 million unemployed 16- to | :04:21. | :04:25. | |
24-year-olds between July and September. That means almost one in | :04:25. | :04:34. | |
five young people who are looking for jobs can't find one. Figures | :04:34. | :04:37. | |
released yesterday also show the number of NEETs - young people not | :04:37. | :04:40. | |
in education, employment, or training - has risen to over 1 | :04:40. | :04:48. | |
million. That does not include students. Acutely aware of the need | :04:48. | :04:51. | |
to act, the Government has promised �1 billion across the UK for a | :04:51. | :04:54. | |
Youth Contract to tackle youth unemployment. The hope is to | :04:54. | :04:57. | |
provide at least 410,000 new work places for 18- to 24-year-olds This | :04:57. | :05:00. | |
would see firms being given a subsidy of more than �2,000 for | :05:00. | :05:07. | |
each unemployed young person they take on for six months. Firms would | :05:07. | :05:11. | |
also get �1,500 for every apprentice they employ. And there | :05:11. | :05:14. | |
will be cash, too, to subsidise 250,000 work placements lasting up | :05:14. | :05:22. | |
to eight weeks. The Government hopes this will silence critics who | :05:22. | :05:25. | |
accuse it of inaction - and more importantly that it will stem the | :05:25. | :05:33. | |
tide. I'll be talking about the Government's plans in a moment with | :05:33. | :05:35. | |
the Employment Minister, Chris Grayling, and Labour's Stephen | :05:35. | :05:39. | |
Timms. But amongst all this doom and gloom, there is apparently some | :05:39. | :05:42. | |
good news, because a survey out today suggests that there's been a | :05:42. | :05:44. | |
significant increase in the number of young people escaping the | :05:44. | :05:49. | |
competitive jobs market and starting their own businesses. I'm | :05:49. | :05:52. | |
joined now from Liverpool by Nikki Hesford, who runs a business called | :05:52. | :06:01. | |
Hesford, who runs a business called Miss Fit UK. Thanks for joining us, | :06:01. | :06:04. | |
I understand you ended up running your own business because you found | :06:04. | :06:06. | |
your own business because you found it hard getting a job with the | :06:06. | :06:11. | |
company. Yes, in April 2008 I was looking for a job in financial | :06:11. | :06:15. | |
services, going to interviews, and finding that after 35 interviews, | :06:15. | :06:18. | |
they were all, thank you for applying, but somebody else has got | :06:18. | :06:24. | |
the job. That was even jobs in �9,500 a year. I had a degree, but | :06:24. | :06:30. | |
I was not able to get the job. There were 15, 20, 30 people going | :06:30. | :06:33. | |
for a minimum wage receptionist job. There was just too much competition. | :06:33. | :06:38. | |
Even though I was more than qualified. You said that tax | :06:38. | :06:41. | |
credits were important to you go as a single mother, allowing you to go | :06:41. | :06:46. | |
out to work - have you had any other help from the Government? | :06:46. | :06:51. | |
There have been some small local grants for starting the business, a | :06:51. | :06:54. | |
couple of 1,000 pounds here and there. They have been useful. But | :06:54. | :06:58. | |
the tax credit has been brilliant, because it enables you as a single | :06:58. | :07:01. | |
parent to have something coming in whilst your business is perhaps not | :07:01. | :07:09. | |
making anything, to start with. The tax credits will also pay for the | :07:09. | :07:14. | |
child care so that you can get your business off the ground. Now, or | :07:14. | :07:18. | |
and employer, what is the quality of the labour market like, the | :07:18. | :07:24. | |
quality of people? It is quite difficult. We also have a family | :07:24. | :07:29. | |
restaurant, as well as Miss Fit UK. We have been trying to find waiters | :07:29. | :07:32. | |
and waitresses and chefs for the past year, and we have been unable | :07:32. | :07:36. | |
to find people suitable for the job. We're finding that a lot of people | :07:36. | :07:41. | |
like initiative. There is a sense of entitlement, a lot of people, I | :07:41. | :07:45. | |
am entitled to this or that. It is difficult to get a strong work | :07:45. | :07:50. | |
ethic. Just little things like appearance, timekeeping, you would | :07:50. | :07:56. | |
think that people would be nailing these things, but yet people are | :07:57. | :08:00. | |
continuing in the Lake for jobs, or they do not turn up, or they do not | :08:01. | :08:06. | |
come in on Mondays, people do not seem to have the heart and soul to | :08:06. | :08:13. | |
do a job. Good luck with your business. And joining us now are | :08:13. | :08:15. | |
the Employment Minister, Chris Grayling, and his Labour Shadow, | :08:16. | :08:25. | |
:08:26. | :08:27. | ||
Stephen Timms. Chris Grayling, this �1 billion scheme would not have | :08:27. | :08:32. | |
happened without the Lib Dems, would it? That's not true, this is | :08:32. | :08:36. | |
a coalition programme. We have been looking at it for some months, we | :08:36. | :08:39. | |
put the plan together in the department. It is an extension of | :08:39. | :08:43. | |
the schemes which were already in place, doubling the size of the | :08:43. | :08:47. | |
existing work-experience scheme... Wasn't it like getting a vegetarian | :08:47. | :08:54. | |
to going to a kebab shop? That's simply not the case. So, the Lib | :08:55. | :08:58. | |
Dems are wrong to claim the credit for it? Mr Clegg has been out and | :08:58. | :09:03. | |
about this morning... That's natural, when you have an important | :09:03. | :09:07. | |
announcement, either the Prime Minister or the Deputy Prime | :09:07. | :09:11. | |
Minister will go out and announce it. We are a team. So, you do the | :09:11. | :09:16. | |
work and he takes the credit. Inevitably, one all the other will | :09:16. | :09:20. | |
want to play a major part in a big announcement. Oh, yes, we have seen | :09:20. | :09:25. | |
that. Where is the money coming from? You will have to wait until | :09:25. | :09:30. | |
the Spending Review or until the Autumn Statement next week. I | :09:30. | :09:34. | |
cannot pre-empt what will be announced. But is it additional | :09:34. | :09:41. | |
money? I am not going to respond, I'm afraid. The Autumn Statement | :09:41. | :09:51. | |
will set it all out. Will the money be coming from tax credits? | :09:51. | :09:58. | |
still not going to answer that one, I'm afraid. I hope you will be | :09:58. | :10:01. | |
impressed when the statement comes out by the range of measures to | :10:01. | :10:08. | |
deal with unemployment. You will have to decide if you're happy or | :10:08. | :10:14. | |
sad on Tuesday. Can we just get it clear, 4,000 new jobs are not being | :10:14. | :10:21. | |
created by this �1 billion. Within that figure, it includes 250,000 | :10:21. | :10:25. | |
work-experience placements for up to, and I say again, up to eight | :10:25. | :10:29. | |
weeks, that's not a new job. work experience scheme has proved | :10:29. | :10:33. | |
enormously successful, since we launched it in the spring. More | :10:33. | :10:36. | |
than half the young people going through that scheme have been | :10:36. | :10:39. | |
getting off benefits and into work. It is by far the most cost- | :10:39. | :10:42. | |
effective scheme that we have seen in the country in recent years. It | :10:42. | :10:45. | |
really works, and if you have something that works, you should | :10:45. | :10:50. | |
build on it. Stephen Timms, you must be happy, this job creation | :10:50. | :10:54. | |
scheme is not unlike yours, and it will probably just as useless as | :10:54. | :10:58. | |
yours. It is very welcome, the fact that the Government has recognised | :10:58. | :11:01. | |
finally that something needs to be done. It is a tragedy that we had | :11:01. | :11:04. | |
to get such awful youth unemployment figures before the | :11:04. | :11:10. | |
Government acted. The Future Jobs Fund did not work, either. Well, it | :11:10. | :11:14. | |
did, of course. This announcement underlines what a serious mistake | :11:14. | :11:17. | |
it was for the Government to scrap the Future Jobs Fund just after the | :11:17. | :11:24. | |
election. There's lots of detail we do not yet know. It seems that a | :11:24. | :11:30. | |
lot of it is about eight-week work experience placements. I would be | :11:30. | :11:34. | |
interested to know, is the money which is supporting employers going | :11:34. | :11:38. | |
to go direct to the employers, or is it going to go to the work | :11:38. | :11:42. | |
programme? I think it is likely to go straight to the employers. We | :11:42. | :11:47. | |
will sit down with the CBI and others to work out whether we make | :11:47. | :11:49. | |
payments through the national insurance system or through | :11:49. | :11:52. | |
different means. But this is a support mechanism for employers | :11:52. | :11:57. | |
when they take someone on. It is a cash incentive. One of the point I | :11:57. | :12:01. | |
should make, you would believe, listening to the Labour Party, that | :12:01. | :12:04. | |
somehow unemployment have rocketed in the last few monks amongst the | :12:04. | :12:09. | |
young. At the time of the general election, there were 930,000 young | :12:09. | :12:15. | |
people out of work, that figure has increased to just over one million, | :12:15. | :12:19. | |
but the idea that this is somehow a creation of the coalition is for | :12:19. | :12:23. | |
the birds. Long term youth unemployment is up 86% since | :12:23. | :12:30. | |
January. That is not the case. The previous government buried young | :12:30. | :12:32. | |
unemployed people on something called training allowance and other | :12:32. | :12:36. | |
schemes, so the figures did not show the true picture. If you take | :12:36. | :12:39. | |
a like-for-like comparison, there has been very... Change in the | :12:39. | :12:44. | |
number of people, young people, unemployed for six months. The fact | :12:44. | :12:49. | |
is, yours is a variation of the other scheme. They're both much of | :12:49. | :12:57. | |
a muchness. Your version was the expensive one, but within a month | :12:57. | :13:03. | |
of it coming to an end, when your time of subsidised work came to an | :13:03. | :13:08. | |
end, 50% of young people were back on the dole, it didn't work. 50% of | :13:08. | :13:12. | |
them, however, were in work, including young people who had been | :13:12. | :13:16. | |
out of work for a long time. does not show how many were | :13:16. | :13:20. | |
unemployed again after six months, or after one month. The Future Jobs | :13:20. | :13:25. | |
Fund broke the mould. If you speak to young people, a lot of people | :13:25. | :13:28. | |
say it changed their lives for the better. It is very welcome that | :13:28. | :13:31. | |
after this very long time, the Government is trying to make up for | :13:31. | :13:39. | |
some of the damage it don't. -- it did. Youth unemployment rose | :13:39. | :13:46. | |
consistently under Labour from 2004 onwards. 2004 was not the recession. | :13:46. | :13:50. | |
Unemployment among young people rose every year from 2004. The | :13:50. | :13:55. | |
recession did not start until 2008. You were asking about the Future | :13:55. | :13:59. | |
Jobs Fund. That was introduced in the recession, and it was | :13:59. | :14:01. | |
successful in bringing youth unemployment down. Since it was | :14:02. | :14:05. | |
stopped, it has rocketed again, but it is welcome that the Government | :14:05. | :14:08. | |
is finally addressing this. If it is true, as the Government said | :14:08. | :14:12. | |
this morning, that the Deputy Prime Minister made a proposal on these | :14:12. | :14:18. | |
lines to the Cabinet in January, why has it taken almost a year? | :14:18. | :14:22. | |
did you scrap one interventionist scheme which does not work, wait a | :14:22. | :14:27. | |
long while, to introduce another one that probably will not work? | :14:27. | :14:32. | |
The Future Jobs Fund paid �6,500 to give a young person a six-month | :14:32. | :14:37. | |
work experience placement, with nothing to follow. The crucial | :14:37. | :14:41. | |
difference was the minimum wage. What we are doing is supporting, | :14:41. | :14:45. | |
through the package we have announced today, and through | :14:45. | :14:49. | |
increased apprenticeships, the start of long-term careers. These | :14:49. | :14:53. | |
are real jobs in the private sector that will lead somewhere, not a | :14:53. | :14:56. | |
six-month temporary work placement, to massage the unemployment figures. | :14:56. | :15:01. | |
You do not know that. One thing we do know is that it does not pay in | :15:01. | :15:06. | |
this country now to be out of work and to be 25 or 26. Actually, the | :15:06. | :15:10. | |
work programme, and I am encouraged by the early stages of that, is | :15:10. | :15:14. | |
delivering personalised support to young people of all ages. Your | :15:14. | :15:19. | |
subsidy stops at 24, like all of these schemes, having unintended | :15:19. | :15:26. | |
consequences. If I'm an employer faced with two youngsters, 24 and | :15:26. | :15:30. | |
25, I will take the 24-year-old, because I get the subsidy. It is | :15:30. | :15:40. | |
:15:40. | :15:44. | ||
Bye-bye 25-year-old, is that not We are unashamedly helping the | :15:44. | :15:48. | |
youth, because they are in a difficult position, they need | :15:48. | :15:55. | |
experience, but how can they get it? Thatcher had the YTS. The it is | :15:55. | :16:01. | |
the same idea, a subsidy for a job. I am old enough to remember when | :16:01. | :16:07. | |
the coalition didn't believe in subsidised jobs. They felt that | :16:07. | :16:12. | |
they didn't need the state to come in all heavy-handed. So what we are | :16:12. | :16:15. | |
going to see next week is a return to this idea that the Government | :16:15. | :16:25. | |
:16:25. | :16:26. | ||
was quite scornful of. I remember Gordon Brown doing some of these | :16:26. | :16:31. | |
measures at his height. We are Isaac -- we are either reaching a | :16:31. | :16:36. | |
point were the previous government was right, or that they were wrong | :16:36. | :16:41. | |
and this is going to be wrong again. Having said that, I think there is | :16:41. | :16:44. | |
a me to be said young people doing something rather than being | :16:44. | :16:50. | |
unemployed. But it is a gamble on a quick recovery. What is your take? | :16:50. | :16:55. | |
I am rather cynical about all of these schemes. It did bring to mind | :16:55. | :17:00. | |
the YTS of the 1980s. Governments have to be seen to be doing | :17:00. | :17:04. | |
something, and they accept the political reality of that. But in | :17:04. | :17:09. | |
truth, what reduce his youth unemployment is a healthy, vibrant | :17:09. | :17:16. | |
economy on the whole, and not targeted assistance. We see from | :17:16. | :17:19. | |
continental schemes that once the period of assistance has come to an | :17:19. | :17:25. | |
end, they go back on the dole. Let's not be parochial here. Europe | :17:25. | :17:33. | |
is awash with the schemes. You go to Spain, Germany, Italy, France, | :17:33. | :17:35. | |
governments are awash with the schemes, and unemployment among | :17:35. | :17:39. | |
young people there is even higher than it is here. They haven't | :17:39. | :17:44. | |
worked. But we are not creating an artificial scheme for short-term | :17:44. | :17:52. | |
work. What we are doing is in some devising employers. -- giving | :17:52. | :17:58. | |
employers incentives. This is about creating long-term jobs, not about | :17:58. | :18:01. | |
creating temporary job placements that massage the unemployment | :18:01. | :18:06. | |
figures. How is it not temporary of the subsidy runs out after six | :18:06. | :18:10. | |
months? We are giving the employer the incentive to take a chance on | :18:10. | :18:13. | |
someone without experience with a financial boost, and that is what | :18:14. | :18:18. | |
this is about. It is not simply about a short-term job creation | :18:18. | :18:22. | |
scheme. If employers get a subsidy to employ somebody, they will take | :18:23. | :18:30. | |
it. Yes, and we want them to! doesn't mean long-term employment. | :18:30. | :18:33. | |
Time will tell. We have been talking a lot about | :18:33. | :18:36. | |
potential cuts to tax credits, but the Minister gave nothing away | :18:36. | :18:43. | |
there. You'll have to tune in to the Autumn Statement live here on a | :18:43. | :18:50. | |
Daily Politics special on Tuesday. The squeeze on household incomes is | :18:50. | :18:53. | |
one of the factors said to be losing the Government the support | :18:53. | :18:57. | |
of women voters. They're getting tax credits cut, they go to the | :18:57. | :19:05. | |
shops and see how high food prices are. They are not happy. | :19:05. | :19:10. | |
Karen Miller lives with her husband Darren and therefore kids. They | :19:10. | :19:16. | |
both work full-time, and spent almost �5,000 a year on child care. | :19:16. | :19:20. | |
But with their tax credits cut from �90 to �20 a week, Karen says it | :19:20. | :19:25. | |
may not be worth working. I always believed, growing up and working my | :19:25. | :19:31. | |
way up through the work chain, that I would be better off, that I would | :19:31. | :19:37. | |
be able to afford those luxuries. And not to be able to afford those | :19:37. | :19:41. | |
luxuries is really quite shocking. We do have to consider whether it | :19:41. | :19:46. | |
might be worth one of us not working. The Government's not about | :19:46. | :19:50. | |
to reverse cuts the tax credit any time soon. But one MP thinks that | :19:50. | :19:57. | |
you could cut a red tape and get a cheaper alternative. Eggs -- for | :19:57. | :20:07. | |
:20:07. | :20:07. | ||
example, in a small village or town where it is hard to get to work, a | :20:07. | :20:11. | |
mum who is staying at home and looking after her own children | :20:11. | :20:17. | |
might be able to look after her friends' children as well without | :20:17. | :20:24. | |
having to go through all the Ofsted red tape. It is a popular idea in a | :20:24. | :20:31. | |
country with one of the world's most expensive childcare systems. | :20:31. | :20:36. | |
But the ride Down side to cheap childcare. It is about having well- | :20:36. | :20:43. | |
trained qualified staff who understand child development, so | :20:43. | :20:47. | |
that the children and not sitting there doing nothing but getting | :20:47. | :20:52. | |
some input to help them learn. would rather pay for my daughter to | :20:52. | :20:57. | |
go to a childminder. She gets such a lot in terms of early education. | :20:57. | :21:01. | |
But I know that when she goes to school, she will be able to learn | :21:01. | :21:05. | |
at a faster rate than children who haven't had that social skill input. | :21:05. | :21:09. | |
And Karen has a message for politicians hoping they can win | :21:09. | :21:15. | |
over the women voters. I want to work - police tell me. I really do | :21:15. | :21:19. | |
think that we're going back 20 or 30 years to where it is a | :21:19. | :21:25. | |
presumption that women will stay in the household, and all that work on | :21:25. | :21:30. | |
equality has gone out of the window. Kate Conway reporting. Chris | :21:30. | :21:34. | |
Grayling is still with us. At a time when living standards are | :21:34. | :21:38. | |
being seriously squeezed because prices, particularly of essentials, | :21:38. | :21:46. | |
are rising so much more than wages, which are static, more and more | :21:46. | :21:50. | |
families, both parents are having to go out to work, which makes | :21:50. | :21:54. | |
child care all the more important. But child care is getting tough, as | :21:54. | :21:58. | |
we have seen in the film. It is important, and you have to put in | :21:58. | :22:04. | |
context the changes we have made to tax credits. We inherited a system | :22:04. | :22:07. | |
row you're paying tax credits to people who were earning �50,000 the | :22:07. | :22:12. | |
year, and in tough times, you have to draw a line as to how far up the | :22:12. | :22:17. | |
income scale you can provide support. But by looking at the | :22:17. | :22:19. | |
introduction of the Universal Credit, what we're doing for the | :22:19. | :22:22. | |
first time is allow women are going back to work working just a few | :22:22. | :22:27. | |
hours a week to claim credits for child care in a way that wasn't | :22:27. | :22:31. | |
possible previously. So we have unashamedly said we cannot do | :22:31. | :22:33. | |
everything for everyone, but we have strengthened support for | :22:33. | :22:38. | |
people at the bottom end of the scale. I take the difficulties, | :22:38. | :22:45. | |
because you have got no money because you have spent billions on | :22:45. | :22:49. | |
a job scheme, but what would you say to people who want to work, | :22:49. | :22:54. | |
they have to work because they are the squeezed middle, but they can't | :22:54. | :22:58. | |
get the child care. What would you say to them? We are providing | :22:58. | :23:02. | |
through the tax credit system support for child care. That hasn't | :23:02. | :23:06. | |
changed. But equally, we have got to recognise that in difficult | :23:06. | :23:12. | |
times financially, there are limits to how much we can rely on that. It | :23:12. | :23:16. | |
was a hard decision to say that we cannot use tax credits to support | :23:16. | :23:21. | |
people earning more than �50,000 per year. A lot of the people you | :23:21. | :23:24. | |
took that away from think of themselves as the squeezed middle | :23:24. | :23:28. | |
two. Is this one of the reasons why the Conservatives have a problem | :23:28. | :23:34. | |
with women? I think it absolutely is. The change happened since April, | :23:34. | :23:37. | |
meaning that you can now claim back less of your child care then you | :23:37. | :23:40. | |
could, for a lot of mothers who were only just thinking it was | :23:40. | :23:44. | |
worth working and may be feeling a bit guilty and torn about working, | :23:44. | :23:49. | |
you reach a point where you are paying to work. You do start | :23:49. | :23:54. | |
resenting the Government at that point. They are feeling forced to | :23:55. | :23:58. | |
go back and look after the kids, even if that is not what they want | :23:58. | :24:01. | |
to do, and it feels like the Government wants women to be in the | :24:01. | :24:05. | |
home, and I don't think that is what the Government intended. The | :24:05. | :24:09. | |
result is either women working, or black market child care, cash-in- | :24:09. | :24:14. | |
hand to a neighbour because it is cheaper. Do you think they are | :24:14. | :24:20. | |
encouraged to do that? Child care has gone up above-inflation this | :24:20. | :24:28. | |
year, and wages have not risen. What do you think? I have now taken | :24:28. | :24:34. | |
child care, I am a single man of 34 x man but I think it is intriguing | :24:34. | :24:44. | |
:24:44. | :24:46. | ||
that David Cameron seems to be now week with women voters. You are | :24:46. | :24:53. | |
Alex Salmond's biographer, aren't you? I am, and he has appeared on | :24:53. | :25:00. | |
Mumsnet and various interviews. It was a PR exercise, essentially. I | :25:00. | :25:02. | |
wonder if David Cameron might be considering an appearance on | :25:02. | :25:07. | |
Mumsnet and women's hour. I think we can definitely say that that | :25:07. | :25:14. | |
might happen! Is it just economically impossible to allow a | :25:14. | :25:19. | |
child care to be tax deductible? There are a number of things. If | :25:19. | :25:24. | |
you look at the various ideas and pressures and suggestions, that is | :25:24. | :25:29. | |
one of the ideas, and of course there are -- people argue for that. | :25:30. | :25:33. | |
But we are dealing with a very difficult financial position. There | :25:33. | :25:38. | |
are many things that people might argue we should do, but our real | :25:38. | :25:41. | |
task right now is to maintain stability in the economy. If we | :25:41. | :25:45. | |
were to let rip and allow borrowing to rise again in the way the Labour | :25:45. | :25:48. | |
Party seems to want us to do, the consequence would be that we would | :25:48. | :25:51. | |
end up with the kind of financial pressures that we are seeing in | :25:51. | :25:57. | |
other European countries. We do not want to go in that direction. | :25:57. | :26:02. | |
have a women problem, don't you? think it is up to us to win the | :26:02. | :26:06. | |
support of voters, both male and female, over the next three-and-a- | :26:06. | :26:12. | |
half-year us to demonstrate that we are listening. We hear that mantra | :26:12. | :26:16. | |
every day. Thank you very much, Mr grayling. Time now to see what else | :26:16. | :26:23. | |
has been going on in the last seven days. It is the week in 60 seconds. | :26:23. | :26:28. | |
David Cameron and Nick Clegg got to boost the House market, so as a | :26:28. | :26:32. | |
couple, they went house-hunting. is vitally important to build more | :26:32. | :26:38. | |
houses. In Egypt, protesters returned to Tahir Square, demanding | :26:38. | :26:43. | |
that the military stand down immediately. Westminster hard nut | :26:43. | :26:47. | |
Ed Balls reveals he has a softer side when he told an interviewer | :26:47. | :26:51. | |
that he cries at the Sound of Music and the Antiques Roadshow. Figures | :26:51. | :26:56. | |
showed that net migration into 1010 was at a record high, a quarter of | :26:56. | :27:00. | |
a million more people came to the UK then left. | :27:00. | :27:03. | |
The Leveson Inquiry has been hearing evidence, some of it | :27:03. | :27:06. | |
dignified, moving and shocking, plus a string of celebrity | :27:06. | :27:11. | |
witnesses who pitched in with a few lighter moments. You told me | :27:11. | :27:16. | |
backstage you are going to bowl me straight balls. If these are | :27:16. | :27:21. | |
straight balls, I would hate to see your googlies. And unstoppable | :27:21. | :27:26. | |
problems already facing the eurozone, the last beret maker in | :27:26. | :27:30. | |
France said it could close within days. | :27:30. | :27:34. | |
When the Germans cannot sell their debt, and the French can't make | :27:34. | :27:44. | |
their berets. Then I think we are all in trouble! That is it, Jo will | :27:44. | :27:49. | |
be here on Monday, and joined Jon Sopel on Sunday For the Politics | :27:49. | :27:53. |