Browse content similar to 02/12/2011. 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. Stop me | :00:26. | :00:29. | |
if you've heard this one before, but there's talk of a grand plan | :00:29. | :00:31. | |
emerging from Europe finally, really, honestly to solve the euro | :00:31. | :00:40. | |
crisis. Sceptical? You old cynic. Well, David Cameron's up for it and | :00:40. | :00:43. | |
he's meeting the French President this afternoon, promising to lend | :00:43. | :00:46. | |
his support to plans for deeper fiscal union. But what would that | :00:46. | :00:49. | |
really mean and would it be good for Britain? We'll get the view | :00:49. | :00:54. | |
from Brussels. And what will this week's grim Autumn Statement mean | :00:54. | :00:57. | |
for politics in the UK in general and the Liberal Democrats in | :00:57. | :01:07. | |
particular? After Danny Alexander pledged that his party will go into | :01:07. | :01:09. | |
the next election promising to deliver George Osborne's austerity | :01:09. | :01:12. | |
measures, we ask one senior MP where that leaves the Lib Dems as | :01:12. | :01:16. | |
an independent political party. And as the depth of the crisis sinks in, | :01:16. | :01:26. | |
:01:26. | :01:27. | ||
could voters reject the established parties and turn to UKIP? With a | :01:27. | :01:30. | |
by-election in Feltham and Heston less than two weeks away, this | :01:30. | :01:35. | |
candidate thinks their moment has come. Many people like me will join | :01:35. | :01:45. | |
:01:45. | :01:47. | ||
because we are fed up of the broken promises. And who better to guide | :01:47. | :01:50. | |
us through these stormy times than two of the finest Political Editors | :01:50. | :01:53. | |
on the Sunday beat, Isabel Oakeshott of the Sunday Times and | :01:53. | :01:55. | |
Vincent Moss of the Sunday Mirror? Welcome back. Yet another summit | :01:55. | :02:04. | |
next week. We are told we have 10 days to save the Europe, now we are | :02:04. | :02:13. | |
down to eight, do we really take this seriously? -- the euro. | :02:13. | :02:17. | |
think people are baffled, not a week goes by where we are not told | :02:18. | :02:22. | |
we are staring into the abyss, yet the world never does quite seem to | :02:22. | :02:27. | |
end. But Mervyn King is obviously taking it very seriously. He was | :02:27. | :02:31. | |
very gloomy yesterday. I gather he is even more gloomy in private. I | :02:31. | :02:35. | |
am not sure whether the Treasury is best pleased to hear Mervyn King | :02:35. | :02:40. | |
being quite so negative about it so I guess we must take it seriously. | :02:40. | :02:45. | |
The difficulty is things are getting worse behind the scenes, | :02:45. | :02:49. | |
the Italians are paying an arm and a leg for their debt, the US | :02:49. | :02:52. | |
Federal Reserve had to step in and provide liquidity in the shape of | :02:53. | :02:58. | |
dollars into the European banking system, it may not be getting more | :02:58. | :03:02. | |
difficult in ways people immediately feel but there was a | :03:02. | :03:10. | |
gathering storm but is really brewing. Very much so and there is | :03:10. | :03:13. | |
a gathering sense politicians feel they should shrug and say they have | :03:13. | :03:19. | |
no idea how to save this. They clearly have not. We'll just bit | :03:19. | :03:23. | |
players in this, like the unpopular guest at a wedding, nobody wants to | :03:23. | :03:28. | |
hear our stories, we are not part of the club. He is convincing his | :03:28. | :03:32. | |
backbenchers we are not about to give more powers to Europe, perhaps | :03:32. | :03:39. | |
give up our veto, which we might end up doing. So let's take a look | :03:39. | :03:44. | |
at the latest, and who knows maybe greatest, plan to save the euro. | :03:44. | :03:47. | |
I'm sure you're all already keenly opening your Advent calendars | :03:47. | :03:51. | |
leading up to the big day. Well for the EU, that day is just around the | :03:51. | :03:54. | |
corner. Yes, it's another make or break summit and this time it's the | :03:54. | :04:04. | |
European Council meeting a week today. Speaking yesterday, | :04:04. | :04:07. | |
President Sarkozy warned that the euro could not survive without more | :04:07. | :04:10. | |
convergence and argued Europe had to be "refounded" with a new treaty. | :04:10. | :04:13. | |
Mr Sarkozy also indicated a two- speed Europe was inevitable, | :04:13. | :04:15. | |
something David Cameron will want assurances about in today's talks | :04:15. | :04:19. | |
with the French President. The Prime Minister backs further | :04:19. | :04:25. | |
integration but wants to ensure that Britain won't lose out. The | :04:25. | :04:28. | |
ECB President, Mario Draghi, has said the bank is ready to act more | :04:28. | :04:38. | |
:04:38. | :04:38. | ||
aggressively. But he urged leaders to agree stronger deficit and debt | :04:38. | :04:43. | |
rules leading to a new "fiscal compact". Next Monday the German | :04:43. | :04:45. | |
Chancellor Angela Merkel and President Sarkozy will meet to try | :04:45. | :04:52. | |
to thrash out a plan. This morning Mrs Merkel spoke to the German | :04:52. | :04:55. | |
Parliament and promised concrete steps towards a "fiscal union" and | :04:55. | :05:05. | |
:05:05. | :05:07. | ||
declared the start of a new phase of European integration. Well, | :05:07. | :05:09. | |
Richard Corbett is the spokesman of the President of the European | :05:10. | :05:18. | |
Council and he's in Brussels. When the French President talks about a | :05:18. | :05:25. | |
new treaty, is it a new treaty for the European Union, or eurozone? | :05:25. | :05:30. | |
depends on what the content of the treaty is. Their ideas that would | :05:30. | :05:35. | |
require all 27 countries to agree because it would require changing | :05:35. | :05:40. | |
the European Union treaties. There are some ideas that could be done | :05:40. | :05:43. | |
among the 17 eurozone countries because they would not concern the | :05:43. | :05:49. | |
non- members. What is Mr Sarkosi talking about? We will see. He has | :05:49. | :05:54. | |
not yet tabled proposals. There are many ideas coming in and the | :05:54. | :05:57. | |
challenge next week will be to get agreement among the different | :05:57. | :06:02. | |
member states of the European Union presented by the heads of state and | :06:02. | :06:12. | |
:06:12. | :06:15. | ||
The markets move at the click of a mouse but political processes take | :06:16. | :06:21. | |
longer. Are you saying Nicolas Sarkozy, in this keynote speech | :06:21. | :06:27. | |
last night, which we were all briefed about, he has called for a | :06:27. | :06:31. | |
resounding of Europe and a new treaty for this resounding, but we | :06:31. | :06:36. | |
do not know if he is talking about the eurozone, or the whole of the | :06:36. | :06:46. | |
:06:46. | :06:48. | ||
European Union. -- re-founding. Every country has the right to come | :06:48. | :06:52. | |
up with ideas but you have to have a solution acceptable to all member | :06:52. | :06:56. | |
states, which is what the meeting will be about. With respect, you're | :06:56. | :07:00. | |
not telling us anything we do not know. That is the point of a summit, | :07:00. | :07:04. | |
for everybody to get together and agree. Calling for a new treaty and | :07:04. | :07:12. | |
a re founding of the eurozone, isn't that like saying let's build | :07:12. | :07:21. | |
a new house while your own house is still on fire? No, it is saying we | :07:21. | :07:24. | |
have gone a long way in addressing these problems but what has been | :07:24. | :07:28. | |
done so far is insufficient, let's look at what else we need to do. We | :07:28. | :07:32. | |
know some decisions need to be taken next week that affect the | :07:32. | :07:36. | |
short run, they are crucial for now, but you also need a longer term | :07:36. | :07:40. | |
perspective. You need to address both the legacy of past mistakes | :07:40. | :07:43. | |
and the procedures to make sure you do not repeat those mistakes again | :07:43. | :07:50. | |
in the future. They are two sides of the same coin. So what is the | :07:50. | :07:56. | |
minimum this summit has to achieve next week? On the one hand it has | :07:56. | :08:04. | |
to deal with the immediate crisis, the legacy of accumulated debts, | :08:04. | :08:13. | |
and set down procedures to avoid -- which might involve changes to the | :08:13. | :08:19. | |
treaty and to make sure we do not end up in this situation again. | :08:19. | :08:24. | |
What I am asking is in the short run, you said there were certain | :08:24. | :08:29. | |
things this summit must do, I understand that, so I am asking you | :08:30. | :08:33. | |
what are these things the summit must do to deal with the here and | :08:33. | :08:40. | |
now, rather than the tomorrow? biggest problem in the here and now | :08:40. | :08:44. | |
is those countries whose debt levels are so high that we are | :08:44. | :08:47. | |
having difficulty going to the markets, what has happened within | :08:47. | :08:57. | |
:08:57. | :08:58. | ||
the eurozone is we at least have in place mechanisms to make loans to | :08:58. | :09:03. | |
those countries to give them time to turn a corner. But the funds we | :09:03. | :09:07. | |
have available to that have reached their limits, so in the short run | :09:07. | :09:10. | |
we need to find ways to increase the firepower so that extra loans, | :09:10. | :09:14. | |
if needed, can be given to those countries that need time to turn | :09:14. | :09:19. | |
the corner. You were supposed to do that on 27th October when you | :09:19. | :09:27. | |
announced the supposed... That has not happened, they have announced | :09:27. | :09:31. | |
they are now unlikely to get that money. So where will this firepower | :09:32. | :09:36. | |
come from? The package agreed in October was sufficient to deal | :09:36. | :09:40. | |
would be immediate problem which concerned Greece. Things have now | :09:40. | :09:48. | |
moved on. Markets move faster than political processes. You promised | :09:48. | :09:54. | |
to get a fund of a trillion Euros, and you did not, so where do you go | :09:54. | :10:00. | |
now? We have approached a trillion, we are not there yet but there are | :10:00. | :10:05. | |
other ways in which we need to approach that and to say we are | :10:05. | :10:09. | |
moving more slowly, democracy has moved more slowly, it is not a | :10:10. | :10:14. | |
reason to abandon democracy, you still have to go through democratic | :10:14. | :10:20. | |
procedures involving 27 different countries. So it takes time. | :10:21. | :10:24. | |
should tell that to the Greeks and the Italians, they are unsure about | :10:25. | :10:31. | |
the democracy at the moment. Having... There a change their | :10:31. | :10:35. | |
governments through their own democratic procedures. I am sure, | :10:35. | :10:41. | |
with a gun at their head. The new head of BCB, did you read into what | :10:41. | :10:47. | |
he was saying yesterday which was if the French and Germans commit | :10:47. | :10:52. | |
the eurozone to Rooney convincing fiscal Union integration, that he | :10:52. | :10:58. | |
would be prepared for the ECB to act as lender of last resort, to | :10:58. | :11:03. | |
buy the Italian government bonds or even think of issuing eurozone | :11:03. | :11:13. | |
:11:13. | :11:18. | ||
bombs, is that what he was telling us? -- bonds. The ECB acts as a | :11:18. | :11:22. | |
last-resort lender to banks, the question is whether it should to | :11:22. | :11:26. | |
the government. I think there is a widespread expectation that the | :11:26. | :11:29. | |
bank is willing to do that, providing it has guarantees that | :11:29. | :11:35. | |
this will not be an open-ended process going on forever. It wants | :11:35. | :11:39. | |
to see reforms on the political side as well. Has he convinced Mrs | :11:39. | :11:49. | |
:11:49. | :11:53. | ||
Muggle of that? -- Merkel. It is an independent Bank and takes its own | :11:53. | :12:03. | |
:12:03. | :12:03. | ||
decisions by majority and will continue to do so. -- majority vote. | :12:03. | :12:07. | |
The bad give you confidence? To me it sounds like more meetings about | :12:07. | :12:11. | |
meetings about meetings, and in a month or so we will see more about | :12:11. | :12:15. | |
staring into the abyss. From David Cameron's point of view, his blood | :12:15. | :12:19. | |
must be running cold at all this talk of a treaty change. What he | :12:19. | :12:22. | |
has to avoid at all cost us anything that could give rise to a | :12:22. | :12:30. | |
case for a referendum. Now, the Coalition Government was supposed | :12:30. | :12:33. | |
to be a project for just this parliament. The plan was to tackle | :12:33. | :12:36. | |
the deficit by 2015 before the partners went their separate ways | :12:36. | :12:42. | |
at the next General Election. Well, like so much else, it hasn't worked | :12:42. | :12:52. | |
:12:52. | :12:55. | ||
This week the Chancellor admitted that cuts would continue all the | :12:55. | :12:58. | |
way to 2017 and the Chief Secretary Danny Alexander agreed. But what | :12:58. | :13:01. | |
would that mean for the Liberal Democrats in 2015? Here's Mr | :13:01. | :13:04. | |
Alexander on Tuesday's Newsnight where he was asked where the extra | :13:04. | :13:12. | |
cuts required after 2015 would be found. In good time, before the | :13:12. | :13:17. | |
next election, we will set out what the measures are to deliver the | :13:17. | :13:21. | |
initial -- the additional savings. But you do not know where you will | :13:21. | :13:26. | |
find more than 28 billion? conducted a spending review | :13:26. | :13:29. | |
detailing the cuts for this Parliament, we have just decided | :13:29. | :13:33. | |
what the path of spending is in the next three years and in due course | :13:33. | :13:37. | |
will set that out in detail. A so you are going into the next | :13:37. | :13:41. | |
election promising further billions of pounds in cuts in public | :13:41. | :13:45. | |
spending? That is what you're saying your manifesto? I am afraid | :13:45. | :13:51. | |
so. And Tom Brake, Liberal Democrat Home Affairs spokesman joins me. | :13:51. | :13:56. | |
Welcome back. Are we clear, the Liberal Democrats are signed up to | :13:56. | :14:06. | |
the longer term austerity measures, taking us now through to 2017? | :14:06. | :14:09. | |
Clearly we are signed up to the Autumn Statement and because of the | :14:09. | :14:13. | |
state of the economy it requires addressing the structural deficit | :14:13. | :14:20. | |
to go beyond 2015, but at the same time we will stand in the elections | :14:20. | :14:25. | |
in 2015 as an independent party without any pacts, we will draw up | :14:25. | :14:34. | |
a man of destiny. -- our manifesto. It would be strange if we | :14:34. | :14:40. | |
maintained the strain - Mike same approach as was -- same approach as | :14:40. | :14:48. | |
was agreed. By at implicit in that manifesto will be two for the years | :14:48. | :14:53. | |
of cuts take nasty 2017 which will be the same as the two years of | :14:53. | :14:57. | |
cuts that will be in the Tory manifesto? I think what will be | :14:57. | :15:02. | |
implicit in that is that there will be both cuts in the manifesto, but | :15:02. | :15:08. | |
also in areas where we might want to increase spending. As we devise | :15:08. | :15:12. | |
our manifesto I imagine we will have different priorities to the | :15:12. | :15:15. | |
Conservatives, different areas where we want to invest and | :15:15. | :15:25. | |
:15:25. | :15:27. | ||
potentially different areas where Danny Alexander said that the cuts | :15:27. | :15:32. | |
imprisoned in the Autumn Statement for two years beyond would be | :15:33. | :15:39. | |
unveiled before the next election, in good time, he said. So, surely | :15:39. | :15:43. | |
you can't govern together saying these are the cuts we're going to | :15:43. | :15:46. | |
make after the election, and in your manifesto put in something | :15:46. | :15:52. | |
different. It is perfectly possible for the Liberal Democrats in | :15:52. | :15:57. | |
coalition to devise a programme which will run until 2015, set out | :15:57. | :16:03. | |
beyond then what our intentions are, and at the same time, as an | :16:03. | :16:07. | |
independent party, to devise a manifesto which sets out our | :16:07. | :16:12. | |
priorities, identified areas where they need to be reductions in | :16:12. | :16:16. | |
spending and areas where there can be increases. But overall you need | :16:16. | :16:21. | |
to have cuts. If you're going to increase spending, you will need | :16:21. | :16:26. | |
even more cuts in other areas, otherwise Danny Alexander has said | :16:26. | :16:36. | |
something which is not true. If you're going to increase spending, | :16:36. | :16:40. | |
in this climate, you will have to cut even more elsewhere, otherwise | :16:40. | :16:46. | |
the envelope does not stick. A at the moment we are doing the right | :16:46. | :16:50. | |
thing in terms of the economy. We will see what impact that has by | :16:50. | :16:56. | |
2015. It is difficult to predict now what will be required in 2015. | :16:56. | :17:02. | |
But it is perfectly achievable in government, when the government is | :17:02. | :17:06. | |
spending �600 billion a year, four are still have different priorities | :17:06. | :17:13. | |
where we can increase in some areas. My point is, there is an overall | :17:13. | :17:17. | |
fiscal framework which the Chief Secretary to the Treasury has laid | :17:17. | :17:24. | |
down. We used it to that overall framework of public spending? | :17:24. | :17:30. | |
principle of reducing spending, and the broad brush of how much will be | :17:30. | :17:34. | |
required to address the structural deficit by 2017 is something I will | :17:34. | :17:39. | |
be very surprised if we do not incorporate in our manifesto. We | :17:39. | :17:43. | |
want to demonstrate we have been credible in terms of our policies | :17:43. | :17:49. | |
towards the economy, and that will need to continue in our manifesto. | :17:49. | :17:54. | |
The fine detail can be different. If you want to increase spending in | :17:54. | :18:00. | |
other areas, that follows you have to cut more elsewhere to stay | :18:00. | :18:04. | |
within the Danny Alexander framework. That is the sort of | :18:04. | :18:08. | |
discussion going on within the coalition where we have argued for | :18:08. | :18:13. | |
instance for a reduction in tax for people on low and middle incomes, | :18:13. | :18:20. | |
which we have achieved. That has meant achieving savings elsewhere. | :18:20. | :18:30. | |
:18:30. | :18:34. | ||
What was his authority for committing you to two years of tax | :18:34. | :18:41. | |
cuts? We have, as a party, when we went into coalition, the Liberal | :18:41. | :18:45. | |
Democrats set out the fact we would address the structural deficit, the | :18:45. | :18:50. | |
economy, as our priority. Because of the economic circumstances, | :18:50. | :18:58. | |
particularly in Europe, it is more difficult to achieve that. He had | :18:58. | :19:02. | |
authority to commit the party to that because the number one | :19:02. | :19:06. | |
priority for the party is to sort out the economic mess we were left, | :19:06. | :19:11. | |
and make sure we deliver. When you hear politicians talking about | :19:11. | :19:17. | |
increasing spending in 2017, do you wonder if they have read the Autumn | :19:17. | :19:25. | |
Statement? Many of them cannot have done, there is no authority from | :19:25. | :19:30. | |
Liberal Democrats I have spoken to commit the party to be ONS the | :19:30. | :19:34. | |
general election. The Lib Dems can define themselves as different in | :19:34. | :19:42. | |
their manifesto, some things will go by the board because you are in | :19:42. | :19:48. | |
coalition. You can map out your own agenda. If you are in coalition | :19:48. | :19:54. | |
again, conveniently dump them. I certainly do not think many of the | :19:54. | :19:59. | |
Liberal Democrats I have spoken to think Danny Alexander has authority. | :19:59. | :20:03. | |
He may be Chief Secretary to the Treasury but he does not have | :20:03. | :20:08. | |
authority to dictate the Liberal Democrat manifesto. Those comments | :20:08. | :20:12. | |
caused a hell of a row behind the scenes. You have spoken to them? | :20:12. | :20:17. | |
They are not happy at all, he is in no position to set out their | :20:17. | :20:21. | |
manifesto at this stage. I get the impression you are less happy in | :20:21. | :20:27. | |
private and public. I am very open about this. As a party, the | :20:27. | :20:31. | |
credibility rests on the fact we deliver it in relation to the | :20:31. | :20:36. | |
economy. Something we have pinned our flag to the mast, if we do not | :20:36. | :20:44. | |
deliver, our credibility is damaged. The first test of the political | :20:44. | :20:46. | |
impact of the Chancellor's sobering statement this week comes in | :20:47. | :20:50. | |
Feltham and Heston, where a by- election caused by the death of | :20:50. | :20:54. | |
Labour MP Alan Keen is less than two weeks away. It's a safe Labour | :20:54. | :20:57. | |
seat but, in an environment where faith in the traditional parties | :20:57. | :21:00. | |
has taken a pretty big hit, UKIP have high hopes. Here's Adam | :21:00. | :21:07. | |
Fleming. With the country's busiest airport | :21:07. | :21:16. | |
on its doorstep, some have called this a Heathrow a by-election. | :21:16. | :21:20. | |
Labour touch down in this seat in 1992, and the late Alan Keen held | :21:20. | :21:24. | |
on to it at the last general election or the with a reduced | :21:24. | :21:34. | |
:21:34. | :21:34. | ||
majority which some put down to the scandal of MPs expenses. Labour | :21:34. | :21:42. | |
campaigning lasted for just 15 days, the bare minimum allowed in law. | :21:42. | :21:46. | |
The airport is nearby, it is important to make sure there isn't | :21:46. | :21:53. | |
a gap in representation with all these issues. Hello, I M Roger | :21:53. | :21:59. | |
Crouch. The two coalition partners are campaigning in the wake of the | :21:59. | :22:04. | |
Autumn Statement, which promised an extended period of spending cuts. | :22:04. | :22:09. | |
It is bad, the economic picture is very tough for ordinary families | :22:09. | :22:14. | |
here but when I talk to them, they very much understand why the | :22:14. | :22:20. | |
difficult decisions are taken. Lib Dems are acting in the national | :22:20. | :22:24. | |
interest and we are put in that before party interest. Hopefully | :22:24. | :22:28. | |
local residents will see we are taking difficult decisions but | :22:28. | :22:32. | |
looking after the vulnerable. Hoping to capitalise on the | :22:32. | :22:37. | |
vulnerability of the main party, UKIP, who came second in another | :22:37. | :22:42. | |
by-election this year. A recent poll put them one point behind the | :22:42. | :22:47. | |
Liberal Democrats nationally. Hang on, their candidate looks familiar. | :22:47. | :22:52. | |
Didn't used to be a Tory? A Tory candidate? I was and many others | :22:53. | :22:57. | |
were as well. The pattern of the previous months and years to come | :22:57. | :23:04. | |
will be that many like me will join UKIP. Because we are fed up with | :23:04. | :23:07. | |
the broken promises. Fed up of a party which tells us they will take | :23:07. | :23:13. | |
a tough line on immigration and yet we find it back at record levels. | :23:13. | :23:17. | |
Their battle plan is complicated by the BNP had actually beat them in | :23:17. | :23:23. | |
the last election and a standing again. All this feels a tiny bit | :23:23. | :23:27. | |
pointless, because this seed is heading for the departure lounge in | :23:27. | :23:34. | |
2015, it will be carved up in the review of constituency boundaries. | :23:34. | :23:37. | |
Here is a full list of candidates standing in Feltham and Heston, | :23:37. | :23:41. | |
which you can also see on the BBC politics website. | :23:41. | :23:44. | |
To discuss how the week's economic gloom might affect the parties' | :23:44. | :23:50. | |
fortunes, we're joined by Tomas Mludzinski from Ipsos Mori. | :23:50. | :23:56. | |
It is a new politics in a way. In theory, the government should now | :23:56. | :24:00. | |
do badly because the economy is miserable, but it may not work out | :24:00. | :24:06. | |
that bad? We have definitely seen record numbers of people saying the | :24:06. | :24:11. | |
economy is the most important issue, 62% trapped month from month, the | :24:11. | :24:17. | |
number one issue by far since 2000 and it. Unemployment is now rising | :24:17. | :24:23. | |
as an important issue after relatively low levels of concern. | :24:23. | :24:30. | |
It is now about 32%, much higher than we have seen since 1998. | :24:30. | :24:35. | |
is Labour not much further ahead than you would think at this stage? | :24:35. | :24:39. | |
There is clearly a problem for Labour in terms that they still | :24:39. | :24:44. | |
have some of the blame for the economic mess. The banks, the | :24:44. | :24:48. | |
eurozone crisis, the current government are also getting some of | :24:48. | :24:54. | |
that plane. We see quite recently in our poll's in September the | :24:54. | :24:58. | |
Conservatives opened up a ten-point lead as being seen as the best | :24:58. | :25:02. | |
party to manage the economy. Only one in five people now think, | :25:02. | :25:07. | |
despite the government, most people think the government is doing a bad | :25:07. | :25:14. | |
job managing the economy, keeping unemployment down, just one in five | :25:14. | :25:18. | |
thinks it could be better under Labour. The economic backdrop is | :25:18. | :25:28. | |
:25:28. | :25:32. | ||
unprecedented, living standards will be squeezed more than ever. | :25:32. | :25:38. | |
Per capita income has are likely to be 5% down compared with 2008. I am | :25:38. | :25:42. | |
not sure the political discourse has yet risen to confront all of | :25:42. | :25:46. | |
that. I do not think it has really. Speaking to Labour people this | :25:46. | :25:50. | |
morning, they are confident about this by-election, they think they | :25:50. | :25:54. | |
will hold their position. But, really, they should be doing an | :25:54. | :26:01. | |
awful lot better and privately many acknowledge that. There are ongoing | :26:01. | :26:04. | |
issues with Ed Miliband and his popularity. That will be a | :26:04. | :26:09. | |
continuing theme for the next few years. The question is, is it a | :26:09. | :26:12. | |
Gordon Brown situation where they all say privately we know we can't | :26:12. | :26:17. | |
win with the sky, and don't do anything. Or would it come to a | :26:17. | :26:22. | |
head? If this is politics now, with no money. One of the reasons the | :26:22. | :26:25. | |
by-election is such a short campaign, Labour doesn't have | :26:25. | :26:31. | |
enough money. It expects to win it. The real story will be an implosion | :26:31. | :26:35. | |
in the Liberal Democrat vote, they came third last time, we will see | :26:35. | :26:41. | |
UKIP beat them. Nigel Farage saying they are too minus one for the Lib | :26:41. | :26:51. | |
Dems. Bad news for the Lib Dems. UKIP result would be to beat the | :26:51. | :26:56. | |
Liberal Democrats, not to win it. suspect they can certainly beat the | :26:56. | :27:01. | |
Liberal Democrats. Polling at a time of austerity is | :27:01. | :27:07. | |
always interesting. It's been quite a week, and the news has been so | :27:07. | :27:11. | |
bad you might not want to relive it. Well, bad luck. Here's Giles with | :27:11. | :27:17. | |
the week in 60 seconds. A packed week in politics kicked | :27:17. | :27:20. | |
off with the Chancellor's Autumn Statement. It turned out to be more | :27:21. | :27:24. | |
like a full blown Budget from George Osborne, as he predicted | :27:24. | :27:26. | |
much slower growth, and announced a range of new infrastructure | :27:26. | :27:29. | |
projects. Protesters stormed the British | :27:29. | :27:32. | |
Embassy in Tehran, leading to the Foreign Secretary expelling Iranian | :27:32. | :27:35. | |
diplomats from the UK, and more sanctions from EU countries | :27:35. | :27:40. | |
concerned with their nuclear programme. | :27:40. | :27:44. | |
Complete appalling and disgraceful behaviour by the Iranians. | :27:45. | :27:47. | |
Over one million public sector workers took part in nationwide | :27:47. | :27:50. | |
strikes on Wednesday, angry at proposals to change their pension | :27:50. | :27:55. | |
packages. Solidarity forever. | :27:55. | :27:59. | |
On the subject of strikes: Jeremy Clarkson got himself in trouble, | :27:59. | :28:03. | |
again, by saying on The One Show that he thought strikers should be | :28:03. | :28:07. | |
shot. Both Clarkson and the BBC later apologised for what was | :28:07. | :28:11. | |
described as a joke that went too far and was taken out of context. | :28:11. | :28:21. | |
:28:21. | :28:24. | ||
The unions were less amused. That's all for this week. The end | :28:24. | :28:32. | |
to our guests. -- Thanks. Jo will be back on Monday. Don't forget The | :28:32. | :28:35. |