Browse content similar to 29/02/2012. Check below for episodes and series from the same categories and more!
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Morning, folks. This is the Daily Politics. Is the Coalition | :00:43. | :00:47. | |
disintegrating before our very eyes? Or is it all political | :00:47. | :00:51. | |
posturing to save Nick Clegg's skin? It is said public spats over | :00:51. | :00:54. | |
health and House of Lords reform are fuelling mistrust between the | :00:54. | :00:57. | |
two Coalition parties. We'll be asking, can the coalition stay the | :00:57. | :01:03. | |
course? Employers are expected to urge the Government to alter its | :01:03. | :01:05. | |
work experience schemes after complaints that young people are | :01:05. | :01:13. | |
being exploited. It's a leap year, it's February 29th. Who will be | :01:13. | :01:23. | |
:01:23. | :01:23. | ||
asking who the questions at PMQs? We'll have all the action at midday. | :01:23. | :01:26. | |
And, as part of its campaign against government cuts, one of | :01:26. | :01:28. | |
Britain's biggest unions calls for civil disobedience during the | :01:28. | :01:34. | |
Olympics. All that and more coming up in the next 90 minutes. With us | :01:34. | :01:38. | |
for the duration we've bagged ourselves a couple of cheap interns. | :01:38. | :01:41. | |
Signing up to the unpaid Daily Politics work experience programme | :01:41. | :01:43. | |
this week are Foreign Minister Jeremy Browne and Shadow Cabinet | :01:43. | :01:53. | |
:01:53. | :01:54. | ||
Office Minister Michael Dugher. us then! You see we have not opted | :01:54. | :01:57. | |
out of any government work programme so far. But then we | :01:57. | :02:00. | |
haven't opted into anything either. And if you've been a tad confused | :02:00. | :02:03. | |
about the Government's different work programmes, don't worry. So | :02:03. | :02:07. | |
are we. The Employment Minister, Chris Grayling, is trying to put | :02:07. | :02:09. | |
people straight about the whole thing this morning. Representatives | :02:09. | :02:12. | |
from dozens of companies are meeting Mr Grayling to discuss | :02:12. | :02:17. | |
concerns about the schemes. Several firms have already withdrawn from | :02:17. | :02:19. | |
certain programmes after protests that unemployed young people are | :02:20. | :02:26. | |
being exploited. We are joined now by Michael Bradley, from Right to | :02:26. | :02:31. | |
Work, who has been campaigning against these schemes. Welcome to | :02:31. | :02:38. | |
the Daily Politics. Who pays your salary? I am paid by trade unions | :02:38. | :02:43. | |
and campaign groups, who give donations against the Right to Work | :02:43. | :02:46. | |
campaign. Are you a full-time employee of the Socialist Workers' | :02:46. | :02:56. | |
Party? I get money from them. Socialist Workers' Party, its | :02:56. | :03:01. | |
policy is against parliamentary democracy. Is that right? It is for | :03:01. | :03:06. | |
a revolutionary, Marxist overthrow of the Government? I would argue we | :03:06. | :03:10. | |
are for real democracy. Parliamentary democracy does not | :03:10. | :03:17. | |
represent people very well. believe in the revolutionary | :03:17. | :03:21. | |
overthrow of the British political system? I believe ordinary working | :03:21. | :03:26. | |
people should have the ability to control their lives. That is a | :03:26. | :03:31. | |
revolution you would like? The sort of thing that is going on in Egypt | :03:31. | :03:38. | |
at the moment. I do not think it went too well for you there. He | :03:38. | :03:43. | |
said, given you back rank, let me just get the right quote... Of he | :03:43. | :03:50. | |
who does not work does not eat? Probably Lenin. He would have | :03:50. | :03:55. | |
supported these work-experience schemes. There are 1 million | :03:55. | :04:00. | |
unemployed young people in this country at the moment. It took | :04:00. | :04:04. | |
protests outside McDonald's and Tesco's to have a serious debate. | :04:04. | :04:10. | |
The sort of thing we saw with claimant after claiming showing | :04:10. | :04:15. | |
letters they had received from the DWP to show these schemes are | :04:15. | :04:20. | |
corrosive. We need to have a serious debate. That is a serious | :04:20. | :04:26. | |
point. It took the protests to get this into the public debate. It was | :04:26. | :04:31. | |
not the Labour Party, nor the Lib Dems. It certainly was not the | :04:31. | :04:35. | |
Conservatives. It took the demonstrations. The scheme was | :04:35. | :04:37. | |
working. People were getting opportunities they would not | :04:37. | :04:42. | |
otherwise have got. It has not come into public debate in a way that | :04:42. | :04:46. | |
has worked well. It has made a number of big companies to have | :04:46. | :04:52. | |
second thoughts about Ted. I find this hugely frustrating. I spend a | :04:52. | :04:58. | |
lot of time in Asia as a Foreign Office minister. People are looking | :04:58. | :05:03. | |
for real opportunities in life. They are trying to establish | :05:03. | :05:08. | |
themselves in working life. These schemes are what young people need. | :05:08. | :05:12. | |
What a great opportunity to get work experience and no more about | :05:12. | :05:18. | |
it! What is wrong with it? Nothing wrong with training schemes and | :05:18. | :05:23. | |
work experience. Do not coerce people on to the schemes. Why can't | :05:23. | :05:29. | |
they receive a minimum age for doing a 30 L week? McDonald's has a | :05:29. | :05:34. | |
turnover of �15 billion. It is hoped this will lead to a job, at | :05:34. | :05:39. | |
least on a minimum wage or better. Companies like Tesco's have decided | :05:39. | :05:44. | |
they will allow a minimum wage. Despite government figures of 50% | :05:44. | :05:49. | |
success rate, there is no real evidence of this battle. The only | :05:49. | :05:53. | |
examples we have are the for 200 people who went on to the scheme | :05:53. | :06:01. | |
that Tesco and 300 you got a job. Everybody is in favour of training | :06:02. | :06:07. | |
schemes and work experience. Do not coerce people. What would be wrong | :06:07. | :06:11. | |
with a bit of coercion? These people are living on benefits that | :06:11. | :06:18. | |
the rest of the tax payers pay. Ed Miliband has said we cannot have a | :06:18. | :06:21. | |
something for nothing society. It has to be something for something. | :06:21. | :06:25. | |
What is wrong with saying, if you're taking benefits, we were not | :06:25. | :06:29. | |
take them away but we would like you to do some work experience. We | :06:29. | :06:36. | |
think that could lead to a job. are in favour of work experience. | :06:36. | :06:41. | |
The New Deal was a tougher scheme. The reason why it is really | :06:41. | :06:46. | |
important is it is not just about skills for work, it is about soft | :06:46. | :06:50. | |
skills - making sure that people are not losing the habit of getting | :06:50. | :06:55. | |
up in the morning and arriving at work. It has to be a proper pathway | :06:55. | :07:02. | |
to a real job. Labour keeps on saying mess. You cannot guarantee | :07:02. | :07:07. | |
that work experience will lead to a real job. You can say, if it gives | :07:07. | :07:12. | |
you some of the softer skills about the work force, then it will help | :07:12. | :07:17. | |
you. It is not an apprenticeship. What you can also do is make sure | :07:17. | :07:21. | |
there when people are on a placement, they are not locked in | :07:21. | :07:25. | |
for too long just doing the placement. They need time to do a | :07:25. | :07:32. | |
proper job search as well. cannot Micra manage that! You can. | :07:32. | :07:38. | |
You can have an agreement between the JobCentre, the job-seeker and | :07:38. | :07:42. | |
the employer. If someone still has time to look for a full-time job, | :07:42. | :07:50. | |
if they get offered a job they can come off the placement. No one | :07:50. | :07:54. | |
objects to any body campaigning. You do not just campaign or stand | :07:54. | :07:59. | |
outside shops you think are behaving badly over work experience. | :07:59. | :08:05. | |
You invade them. You tried to close them down. You break the law. | :08:05. | :08:09. | |
agree with the statement made by Len McCluskey. If working people | :08:09. | :08:14. | |
are not being represented by politicians, they should have the | :08:14. | :08:20. | |
right to take industrial action and they should have the right to civil | :08:20. | :08:24. | |
disobedience. Do you really think it's right? You have put forward | :08:24. | :08:29. | |
your case. You could stand outside McDonald's, Tesco's, or whichever | :08:29. | :08:34. | |
shop has attracted your ire and you could speak to people going in. You | :08:34. | :08:41. | |
could hand out leaflets. You could shout. You do not do that. You | :08:41. | :08:47. | |
intimidate people from going in. Correct? The LEA fitting process it, | :08:47. | :08:52. | |
putting placards outside, is what is going on. If there had not been | :08:52. | :08:58. | |
an occupation of Tesco's or McDonald's, we would not be sitting | :08:58. | :09:02. | |
around this table. The usual political discourse that should go | :09:02. | :09:07. | |
on in this country, those of ordinary people have been abandoned. | :09:07. | :09:11. | |
You think you are within your rights to disrupt trade and to | :09:11. | :09:17. | |
intimidate customers? intimidation at all has gone on. | :09:17. | :09:20. | |
There is long tradition in Britain dating back to the suffragettes and | :09:20. | :09:25. | |
so on. If politicians do not represent you, you have to take | :09:25. | :09:29. | |
industrial action or take action ourselves. Is this the start of a | :09:30. | :09:36. | |
revolutionary moment? It is a process in British society with | :09:36. | :09:41. | |
health, pensions and taxes, ordinary people were not take it | :09:41. | :09:44. | |
anymore. Britain's biggest union has threatened to disrupt the | :09:44. | :09:46. | |
London Olympics as part of its battle against cuts to public | :09:46. | :09:49. | |
sector pensions. Len McClusky, the General Secretary of Unite, urged | :09:49. | :09:51. | |
other unions opposed to the Coalition's pension plans and | :09:51. | :09:57. | |
austerity measures to also target the Olympics. He also called on the | :09:57. | :10:00. | |
public to back the unions by engaging in all forms of civil | :10:00. | :10:06. | |
disobedience within the law during the Games. Well, this is what the | :10:06. | :10:08. | |
Conservative Chairman, Baroness Warsi, said - that Len McCluskey's | :10:08. | :10:15. | |
comments were appalling. Comments like this have far reaching | :10:15. | :10:18. | |
ramifications, not just in relation to the culture they create in the | :10:18. | :10:22. | |
country at a time when the Olympics are on time and on budget and | :10:22. | :10:26. | |
everyone is preparing for this celebration. We do not want people | :10:26. | :10:32. | |
looking at Britain and thinking, well I be said? Will the service's | :10:32. | :10:38. | |
work? And to send out these messages in this year are deeply | :10:38. | :10:42. | |
irresponsible, hugely selfish. I am delighted that some members from | :10:42. | :10:48. | |
the Labour Party are beginning to come out and distance themselves. I | :10:48. | :10:52. | |
would like to see it Ed Miliband condemn these comments and distance | :10:52. | :10:59. | |
himself from them and ask Len McCluskey to retract them. Are you | :10:59. | :11:04. | |
distancing yourself from these comments? Last night, Tessa Jowell, | :11:04. | :11:11. | |
the shadow Olympics Minister, made the position absolutely clear. I | :11:11. | :11:15. | |
made a comment on Twitter this morning. Ed Miliband has made his | :11:15. | :11:22. | |
position clear, that it is totally unacceptable. Len McCluskey is the | :11:22. | :11:32. | |
:11:32. | :11:32. | ||
General Secretary of Unite. The policies of Unite are up to the | :11:33. | :11:37. | |
union. As Jeremy Brown is implying, the financial links between Labour | :11:37. | :11:43. | |
and Unite are clear. They have the biggest financial backer. If you | :11:43. | :11:51. | |
think it is so disposal, get him to retract them. People like Jeremy | :11:51. | :11:55. | |
says we're in the pockets of the unions where we agree with them. We | :11:55. | :12:01. | |
have made it clear, we do not think it is acceptable. It is not in the | :12:01. | :12:08. | |
interests of Unite members. We are not going to cut links with people | :12:08. | :12:17. | |
who work the factory floors, work in hospitals. Kid you not say, we | :12:17. | :12:24. | |
are financed by the union but we do not agree with what it says? | :12:24. | :12:29. | |
will say that. Labour Party campaigns relied and healthily on | :12:29. | :12:33. | |
funding from the union. We have seen the Labour Party checked with | :12:33. | :12:37. | |
the unions before tabling amendments, questions in the House | :12:37. | :12:39. | |
of Commons to make sure that the unions approve of what Labour is | :12:39. | :12:44. | |
doing in the House of Commons. The idea that there is a distance | :12:44. | :12:47. | |
between the union that made Ed Miliband the leader of the Labour | :12:47. | :12:51. | |
Party and Ed Miliband being able to act freely from the union, no one | :12:52. | :13:01. | |
:13:02. | :13:03. | ||
believes that. Donors do things that political parties do not like. | :13:03. | :13:06. | |
The Labour Party have vastly more money than the Liberal Democrats | :13:06. | :13:10. | |
because they get huge amounts of tied donations from the unions. It | :13:10. | :13:15. | |
comes with votes at Labour conferences, selection of the | :13:15. | :13:20. | |
Labour leader. There are tens of thousands of politicians around the | :13:20. | :13:24. | |
camp a -- country who have put themselves forward so to help with | :13:24. | :13:29. | |
the Olympic Games. The fact that Unite wants to sabotage the games, | :13:29. | :13:36. | |
along with the Labour Party... do not think you can say that. | :13:36. | :13:40. | |
have an honest relationship with a number of trade unions. I will not | :13:40. | :13:45. | |
apologise for the historic links of the Labour Party with working | :13:45. | :13:49. | |
people. It is an honest relationship. We can say, we do not | :13:49. | :13:54. | |
agree with you. It is not right for the country. Ed Miliband has made | :13:54. | :14:00. | |
that clear. We have made our position absolutely clear. What | :14:00. | :14:05. | |
will you do as a government with the disobedience and strikes? | :14:05. | :14:13. | |
will put contingency measures in place. A lot of people will have | :14:13. | :14:17. | |
cause for great alarm. We need to make sure they remain a celebration. | :14:17. | :14:23. | |
Millions of people want the Games to be a success. Now, the evenings | :14:23. | :14:26. | |
are getting lighter, the weather is getting warmer, spring is in the | :14:26. | :14:36. | |
:14:36. | :14:37. | ||
air. So, it's time for the political party spring conferences! | :14:37. | :14:44. | |
Even I do not have to go to them. But, as the Conservatives meet this | :14:44. | :14:47. | |
weekend, and the Lib Dems get ready to assemble next weekend, the | :14:47. | :14:53. | |
tensions between the parties have once again risen. The last few | :14:53. | :14:57. | |
weeks have seen coalition waters get ever more choppy. Other parties | :14:57. | :15:01. | |
drifting apart? In the latest Lib Dem intervention on a Health Bill, | :15:01. | :15:05. | |
Nick Clegg wrote to MPs and peers of principle for more amendments. | :15:06. | :15:10. | |
He said we want to see changes made to the Bill. The official spokesman | :15:10. | :15:14. | |
of the Prime Minister said, we do not see any need for any further | :15:14. | :15:18. | |
significant changes to the Bill. Another story is the House of Lords | :15:18. | :15:23. | |
reform. It is a totemic Lib Dem policy. Over 80 Conservative | :15:23. | :15:27. | |
backbenchers will try to scupper the introduction of elected peers. | :15:27. | :15:31. | |
Lord Matthew Oakeshott said the Conservatives could kiss goodbye to | :15:31. | :15:35. | |
propose changes to constituency boundaries that could favour the | :15:35. | :15:38. | |
Conservatives. There are other clouds on the horizon. The | :15:38. | :15:41. | |
Government is calling for the European our Convention of Human | :15:41. | :15:46. | |
Rights to be rewritten. Many Lib Dems are happy with how it operates. | :15:46. | :15:52. | |
I am joined by Philip Davies and Andrew George. Should Nick Clegg | :15:52. | :15:56. | |
really be conducting, effectively, a campaign against government | :15:56. | :16:00. | |
legislation, when he is the Deputy Prime Minister in terms of writing | :16:00. | :16:03. | |
to Lib Dem peers and MPs about concessions under members to the | :16:03. | :16:13. | |
:16:13. | :16:14. | ||
No, his responsibility is to support the Government. Those of us | :16:14. | :16:22. | |
who want to disagree we sit on the back benchers. -- backbenches. He | :16:22. | :16:26. | |
can't be part of the Government when he wants and part of the | :16:26. | :16:31. | |
opposition. Andrew George, isn't this all posturing? There are no | :16:31. | :16:35. | |
real concessions? This was to save his own skin? I think there have | :16:35. | :16:39. | |
been some important concessions. It's made the bill less bad, but | :16:39. | :16:43. | |
not good enough yet to pass. I disagree with Philip. I think one | :16:43. | :16:47. | |
of the great things about this being the first coalition in living | :16:47. | :16:51. | |
memory is that we are in unchartered waters and I think it's | :16:51. | :16:57. | |
great that we are having debates in open rather than behind closed | :16:57. | :17:00. | |
doors of the Cabinet and that in fact it enables the whole country | :17:00. | :17:07. | |
to take part in the kind of debates which really - that allow | :17:07. | :17:10. | |
Parliament to hold the Government to account. What happens to | :17:10. | :17:16. | |
collective responsibility then? Well, is that such an important | :17:16. | :17:20. | |
thing, or is it more important to make sure there is genuine debate | :17:20. | :17:24. | |
in the country and people can see the process by which political | :17:24. | :17:28. | |
decisions are taken? I don't think it damages the coalition or the | :17:29. | :17:31. | |
strength of the Government. I think the Government is doing a very good | :17:31. | :17:38. | |
job and I think it's doing a doubly good job because it's enabling open | :17:38. | :17:41. | |
debate. Collective responsibility isn't that important and on Lords | :17:41. | :17:46. | |
reform there are many who won't support those proposals? Well, yeah, | :17:46. | :17:50. | |
but we are backbenchers. We are not part of the Government. We are not | :17:50. | :17:56. | |
picking and choosing as a minister what we'll support and what we are | :17:56. | :18:00. | |
not. That is the job and that is what we intend. Rather than running | :18:00. | :18:07. | |
a Government within a government. How important is the reform? | :18:07. | :18:12. | |
not sure it's as important as some people make out and I think that, | :18:12. | :18:16. | |
my own personal opinion, is that we should approach the opinion of | :18:17. | :18:22. | |
Lords reform considering first what we want, if we want, a second | :18:22. | :18:26. | |
chamber. It's only after we have answered that question, what do we | :18:26. | :18:31. | |
need a second cham ber for, is it for -- chamber for, is it for | :18:32. | :18:35. | |
scrutiny, then in which case some of the options under the reform | :18:35. | :18:39. | |
proposals coming out of Government I think will actually cause debate | :18:39. | :18:44. | |
across the parties. Briefly, in the next election would you like to see | :18:44. | :18:50. | |
joint coalition candidates? Philip Davies? Absolutely not, no. | :18:50. | :18:57. | |
Gentlemen, thank you. Speaking of unsurprising stories, we just heard | :18:57. | :19:02. | |
two there. The Prime Minister has condemned Len McClusky now. That is | :19:03. | :19:06. | |
also filed under least surprising story of the day. We are joined by | :19:06. | :19:16. | |
:19:16. | :19:17. | ||
let's call them the coalition eJanke lists. -- evangelist. The | :19:17. | :19:22. | |
Conservative MP, Nick Boles. I was trying to think of that American | :19:22. | :19:27. | |
movie, where there was the great evangelist there and he talked in | :19:27. | :19:33. | |
tongues. Held snakes. You've not done that. No. Let's see if we can | :19:33. | :19:38. | |
help you here. On this Health Bill now, with Nick Clegg and Shirley | :19:38. | :19:42. | |
Williams with this posturing letter, it's licence dissident isn't it? | :19:42. | :19:45. | |
think what British people want us to do is get on with the bill and | :19:45. | :19:49. | |
get it into law and get on the job of improving the NHS and dealing | :19:49. | :19:53. | |
with the big challenges that are coming up, integrating social care | :19:53. | :19:58. | |
and healthcare to make a real difference. It's licenced dissent, | :19:58. | :20:01. | |
isn't it? The House of Lords has to pass legislation and they are | :20:01. | :20:04. | |
entitled to put forward amendments and I think the Prime Minister's | :20:04. | :20:07. | |
made clear that so long as they are about clarifying the intent that is | :20:07. | :20:12. | |
already in there in the bill, not changing the fundamental measures, | :20:12. | :20:18. | |
then that is something - That's undergraded the role of competition. | :20:18. | :20:21. | |
We had the health minister telling Nick Robinson on the news last | :20:21. | :20:25. | |
night he's had a complete rethink about the role of competition. That | :20:25. | :20:29. | |
is not clarifying, but rewriting? It's not true. That's what he said. | :20:29. | :20:32. | |
It's always been clear that what works in competition and what works | :20:32. | :20:37. | |
with the reforms that the last Government brought in, was on fixed | :20:37. | :20:42. | |
price and the LSE did research and discovered that helps increase | :20:42. | :20:47. | |
standards. What doesn't work is competition on price. The original | :20:47. | :20:51. | |
draft of the bill perhaps wasn't as clear as it could have been on that. | :20:51. | :20:53. | |
What the Lords have done, they've made that clearer. We have accepted | :20:53. | :20:57. | |
it in the Commons. If they need slightly different language to make | :20:57. | :21:01. | |
it even clearer, than that won't cause any problem. Is there anyone | :21:01. | :21:04. | |
who wants to keep this on the road? The coalition is very important for | :21:04. | :21:08. | |
the national interest. This country is teetering on the brink of a | :21:08. | :21:11. | |
disaster. Many European countries have slipped over that brink. We | :21:11. | :21:14. | |
have not, because two parties came together to do some very difficult | :21:14. | :21:21. | |
things. One of the difficult things and you agree in principle, but the | :21:21. | :21:24. | |
coalition agreement doesn't lay down what the proposals would be, | :21:24. | :21:30. | |
House of Lords reform. How many Conservative backbenchers will | :21:30. | :21:35. | |
oppose the reform? I think there will be clearly some rebellions. I | :21:35. | :21:39. | |
don't think there will be so many that it threatens our majority. We | :21:39. | :21:43. | |
are hoping that the Labour Party will support the reforms, given | :21:43. | :21:50. | |
they have - Will they support Nick Clegg? Our manifesto commitment was | :21:50. | :21:54. | |
for 100% elected House of Lords. I think we need to reserve judgment | :21:54. | :22:00. | |
until we see what the proposals are from the Government. We don't know | :22:00. | :22:06. | |
what the Government proposals are. 80% over a period of time will be | :22:06. | :22:10. | |
elected and a chamber of 450. is a massive change. There are | :22:10. | :22:18. | |
different views. I know that. What about your views? We are saying | :22:18. | :22:22. | |
it's not unreasonable to wait until the Government puts the proposals | :22:22. | :22:28. | |
out there. Would you be in favour of an elected chamber in which -- a | :22:28. | :22:32. | |
second chamber in which 80% is elected? Our manifesto commitment. | :22:32. | :22:37. | |
Never mind that. I'm asking you. It's 100%. Your view? I'm saying | :22:37. | :22:42. | |
that my view is that we stood on a manifesto and some of us - | :22:42. | :22:48. | |
haven't made up your mind? Yes. are the Government. We'll wait to | :22:48. | :22:55. | |
see the proposals. Our manifesto is 100%. Depressing, isn't it? Not | :22:55. | :23:01. | |
even in favour of democracy. We'll let our viewers pick up on that. | :23:01. | :23:06. | |
Why not talk about your manifesto? It's such a reactionary party. | :23:06. | :23:11. | |
puttier manifesto in the bin and broke the promises. You had your | :23:11. | :23:19. | |
chance to answer the question. Let me ask you this - was it -- the | :23:19. | :23:22. | |
boundary changes that the Conservatives are keen on, was the | :23:22. | :23:28. | |
deal with the Lib Dems, was the AV referendum for the boundary changes | :23:28. | :23:33. | |
or is it the House of Lords for the boundary changes? I haven't been | :23:33. | :23:37. | |
involved in any deals. You are getting as bad as him. I support | :23:37. | :23:42. | |
the changes on their own merits. understand that. It's better to | :23:42. | :23:49. | |
have fewer MPs. You see, on the Sunday Politics, we had this debate | :23:49. | :23:53. | |
between Matthew Oakeshott and Philip Davies there and Matthew | :23:53. | :23:57. | |
Oakeshott said if you don't give us reform of the House of Lords we | :23:58. | :24:01. | |
won't give you the boundary changes. He speaks for himself. I understand | :24:01. | :24:08. | |
that. What I'm trying to ask was, what was the prid pro quo? I'm in | :24:08. | :24:14. | |
favour of AV referendum. Oh, no. listen. I'm in favour of AV and the | :24:14. | :24:18. | |
boundary changes and Lords reform and I voted for all three. There | :24:18. | :24:28. | |
:24:28. | :24:28. | ||
was no deal. There is no trade-off. I support all three independently. | :24:28. | :24:33. | |
The Conservatives I have spoken to -- I just voted for what I believed | :24:33. | :24:37. | |
in. Some have thought that the boundary changes had been in return | :24:37. | :24:40. | |
for the AV referendum and you've had that. Is that true or not? | :24:40. | :24:45. | |
don't know whether they think that or not. I think it's the | :24:45. | :24:47. | |
understanding in the Parliamentary party, but we have a commitment in | :24:47. | :24:50. | |
the programme of Government for the coalition to bring forward a bill | :24:50. | :24:53. | |
on the House of Lords reform. We had a commitment in our manifesto, | :24:53. | :25:00. | |
as did the others, for a democratic chamber. It was not Lords reform, | :25:00. | :25:04. | |
so even if your party can't deliver Lords reform you still think you | :25:04. | :25:10. | |
should get the boundary changes? Yes, because as Jeremy said they | :25:10. | :25:14. | |
are independent in themselves. Matthew Oakeshott is a licenced | :25:14. | :25:19. | |
grenade thrower for the party. They don't make party policy. They are | :25:19. | :25:23. | |
out there to broaden the envelope of debate. I wasn't holding him up | :25:23. | :25:30. | |
as the font of all wisdom. opportunity -- there's only four | :25:30. | :25:34. | |
Prime Ministers alive and I had the opportunity to talk with John Major, | :25:34. | :25:38. | |
which was a privilege and I asked him about the coalition. He thought | :25:38. | :25:46. | |
it was the better than when he was Prime Minister. We'll leave it here | :25:46. | :25:50. | |
and move on. Gentlemen, thank you. We'll move on to something a little | :25:50. | :25:55. | |
lighter. Now, as it's the 29th February, I'm going to read the | :25:55. | :25:59. | |
next link. There's been uproar after it's been reported in the | :25:59. | :26:02. | |
Daily Mail that Woking Borough Council has spent �30,000 on | :26:02. | :26:04. | |
Diamond Jubilee mugs for all their primary schoolchildren, despite | :26:04. | :26:09. | |
being heavily in debt. Mugs indeed! Especially when all they really had | :26:09. | :26:13. | |
to do if they wanted a piece of high-class crockery, that could be | :26:13. | :26:16. | |
passed down from generation to generation to help remember a | :26:16. | :26:23. | |
golden age, was of course... Enter the Guess the Year competition. | :26:23. | :26:27. | |
Someone who I imagine will be quite cross to hear about this is the | :26:27. | :26:30. | |
Communities Secretary, Eric Pickles. You may remember after we discussed | :26:30. | :26:39. | |
him last week, he tweeted this, "I claim my tag, cough up at AF Neil." | :26:39. | :26:44. | |
We are pretty strict about giving away mugs. You've all been warned, | :26:44. | :26:49. | |
but just this once. Eric Pickles we got your request, so I'm proud to | :26:49. | :26:53. | |
present you with a mug for your big lunch. I could not be happier. Let | :26:53. | :27:00. | |
us check where it is made. I hope it's a British mug. I could not be | :27:00. | :27:05. | |
happier! I regard this as the pinnical of political success! | :27:05. | :27:10. | |
said he couldn't get a mug unless he came on the programme. | :27:10. | :27:13. | |
Apparently I'm going to be reminding you how to enter, but | :27:13. | :27:22. | |
let's see if you can remember when this happened. | :27:22. | :27:32. | |
# Bad boys, stick together, never sad boys... # | :27:32. | :27:38. | |
# Give me your money just give me your money #. It's like toy money. | :27:38. | :27:45. | |
Not impressed. Too heavy in my purse. | :27:45. | :27:55. | |
:27:55. | :28:09. | ||
# I hopped into my car... # MUSIC # What a feeling | :28:09. | :28:17. | |
# I can have it all, now I'm dancing for my life... # | :28:17. | :28:26. | |
# Gold, always believe in your soul # You've got the power to know... # | :28:26. | :28:36. | |
:28:36. | :28:41. | ||
So, to be in with a chance of winning the mug send your answer to | :28:41. | :28:51. | |
:28:51. | :28:53. | ||
our special quiz e-mail address: You can see all the conditions - | :28:53. | :29:03. | |
:29:03. | :29:04. | ||
yawn, yawn - six committees have looked at it. Go to the website! It | :29:04. | :29:10. | |
will be up on the screen somewhere! 23 boxes have been ticked. Let's | :29:10. | :29:16. | |
move on. It's coming up to midday. We'll look at Big Ben. It's Prime | :29:16. | :29:20. | |
Minister's questions. There it is. That's not all. Nick is here after | :29:20. | :29:27. | |
his splin did interview last night with the health -- splendid | :29:27. | :29:32. | |
interview with the health last night. The competition -- the | :29:32. | :29:36. | |
Health Secretary last night. The competition will be there. All MPs | :29:36. | :29:40. | |
will have been told talking about Len McClusky as much and as often | :29:41. | :29:44. | |
as possible. It's a gift to the coalition. I think there will be a | :29:44. | :29:49. | |
contest between two stories. Maybe the gift that keeps on giving. | :29:49. | :29:55. | |
suspect it will. Len likes a turn of phrase. People tell us we | :29:55. | :29:58. | |
shouldn't be like Greece. What's wrong with Greece? The food is | :29:58. | :30:05. | |
great and the weather superb and they have general strikes. Len is a | :30:05. | :30:08. | |
man with a lively turn of phrase, but if you were sitting in Ed | :30:08. | :30:13. | |
Miliband's office at the moment you might think he would have thought | :30:13. | :30:17. | |
more carefully before opening his mouth. I watched the interview on | :30:17. | :30:22. | |
the news with the Health Secretary. He seemed to do and this might be a | :30:22. | :30:25. | |
slight exaggeration, but a U-turn in regard to competition, but just | :30:25. | :30:31. | |
as a viewer, watching him, he seemed to me to be - to say a | :30:31. | :30:37. | |
broken man would be an exaggeration, but he seemed subdued and exhausted | :30:37. | :30:41. | |
and how did I ever get into this? He's weary of it. There has been | :30:41. | :30:46. | |
more scrutiny for this bill. The number of days and amendments. It's | :30:46. | :30:51. | |
a record. They thought they were through and more amendments now. | :30:51. | :30:55. | |
The change on competition, be clear, is over years not days, weeks or | :30:55. | :30:58. | |
months. What he is saying when he became Shadow Health Secretary he | :30:58. | :31:02. | |
thought you could have competition on price and he was persuaded after | :31:02. | :31:05. | |
becoming Health Secretary that that was a bad idea and in theory at | :31:05. | :31:09. | |
least the competition is on quality only. We'll see if it is four times | :31:09. | :31:19. | |
:31:19. | :31:28. | ||
According to Revenue and Customs, some families earning just 13,000 | :31:28. | :31:36. | |
ear bullies over �1,000 a year in tax credits from April. -- a year | :31:36. | :31:44. | |
will lose over �1,000 a year. Did he mislead the public? What we have | :31:44. | :31:48. | |
done is increase tax credits for the lowest paid people in our | :31:48. | :31:53. | |
country. We have lifted over a million low-paid people out of | :31:53. | :31:57. | |
income tax altogether by raising the personal allowance. If he is | :31:57. | :32:02. | |
worried about taxation issues, he should have a word with Ken | :32:02. | :32:11. | |
Livingstone, and asked if he will pay his taxes. Many Irish people | :32:11. | :32:17. | |
were moved by what the Prime Minister said about Bloody Sunday. | :32:17. | :32:22. | |
Is it becoming increasingly clear that eurozone support for Ireland | :32:22. | :32:27. | |
is conditional on them saying less in their referendum? Will the Prime | :32:27. | :32:32. | |
Minister's support Ireland whatever it decides? We are certainly very | :32:32. | :32:35. | |
good friends of the Republic of Ireland and the people of the | :32:35. | :32:40. | |
Republic of Ireland. It is their choice to sign the treaty and their | :32:40. | :32:45. | |
choice to have a referendum on that treaty. People's views in a | :32:45. | :32:55. | |
:32:55. | :32:56. | ||
referendum should be respected. Speaker, before turning to other | :32:56. | :33:01. | |
matters, does the Prime Minister agreed that the allegations by | :33:01. | :33:04. | |
Deputy Assistant Commissioner at the Leveson Inquiry about | :33:04. | :33:09. | |
widespread corrupt behaviour at the heart of the pressure and police a | :33:09. | :33:13. | |
devastating and such behaviour can have no place in the national | :33:13. | :33:17. | |
institution of our country? Does he further agree that this underlines | :33:17. | :33:21. | |
the importance of the police inquiries which should get to the | :33:21. | :33:24. | |
bottom of the allegations without fear or favour and the Leveson | :33:24. | :33:28. | |
Inquiry itself? I completely agree with the right honourable gentleman | :33:28. | :33:33. | |
about this issue. There is all- party support for the Leveson | :33:33. | :33:38. | |
Inquiry, which needs to get on with its work which it is conducting in | :33:38. | :33:43. | |
a thorough way. Also proper support for the police inquiry. Of course | :33:43. | :33:48. | |
there is always a debate about what is right for newspapers to do to | :33:48. | :33:52. | |
get stories in the public interest but it is hard to think of any | :33:53. | :33:57. | |
circumstances in which it is right for police officers to take money. | :33:57. | :34:03. | |
Can I thank him for that answer? On the Leveson Inquiry, can I ask in | :34:03. | :34:06. | |
the weeks and months ahead to ensure that none of his senior | :34:06. | :34:11. | |
ministers do anything to undermine its work? Would he accept that the | :34:11. | :34:15. | |
Education Secretary was billed judge to say last week that the | :34:15. | :34:22. | |
inquiry is hoeing a chilling effect on freedom of expression? -- is | :34:22. | :34:25. | |
having. Will he disassociate himself with these colleagues and | :34:25. | :34:31. | |
urge his colleagues not to undermine the Leveson Inquiry? | :34:31. | :34:36. | |
answered this question last week. The Education Secretary, as the | :34:36. | :34:40. | |
rest of the Cabinet fully support the Leveson Inquiry. They wanted to | :34:40. | :34:46. | |
proceed with the very important work it does. That is the position | :34:46. | :34:50. | |
of the Education Secretary and the position of the entire government. | :34:50. | :34:54. | |
I do thank the Prime Minister for that answer. The Education | :34:54. | :34:57. | |
Secretary said the big picture is there is a chilling atmosphere | :34:57. | :35:01. | |
towards freedom of expression which emanates from the debate around | :35:01. | :35:05. | |
Levison. I hope the Education Secretary will have heard the words | :35:05. | :35:09. | |
of the Prime Minister of the start let me move on from one area where | :35:09. | :35:12. | |
I hope they can be cross-party agreement to an area where there is | :35:12. | :35:19. | |
not. On Sunday, the man who ran the NHS for six years, said about the | :35:19. | :35:24. | |
prime minister's bill, it is a mess. It is unnecessary. It misses the | :35:24. | :35:29. | |
point. It is confused and confusing and is setting the NHS back. Why | :35:29. | :35:33. | |
does the Prime Minister believes that with every week that goes by, | :35:33. | :35:39. | |
there are more damning indictments of the NHS bill? Let me make one | :35:39. | :35:42. | |
further point Macro about the Leveson Inquiry. What my right | :35:42. | :35:47. | |
honourable friend, the Education Secretary was saying, what is | :35:47. | :35:51. | |
important for all of us in this House to say, while these inquiries | :35:51. | :35:56. | |
are going on, I think it is important for politicians who come | :35:57. | :36:01. | |
on and benefit at times when the press is less hard-hitting than in | :36:01. | :36:06. | |
recent years, it is important for us to say we support a free, | :36:06. | :36:11. | |
vibrant, robust press. That is an important point and that is what he | :36:11. | :36:17. | |
is saying. Turning to the health reforms, the right honourable | :36:17. | :36:20. | |
gentleman did actually say something last week that I agreed | :36:20. | :36:26. | |
with. He said the NHS will have to change because of the rise of the | :36:26. | :36:32. | |
age of the population, to -- because of the rise in long-term | :36:32. | :36:36. | |
conditions and the rise in expectations and cost. He is right | :36:36. | :36:39. | |
it has to reform. The problem for the Labour Party is they are | :36:40. | :36:45. | |
against the money that needs to go into the NHS, which they say is | :36:45. | :36:48. | |
irresponsible. They supported competition and choice in the past | :36:48. | :36:54. | |
but they do not support it any more. Mr Speaker, he seems to have | :36:54. | :36:59. | |
forgotten the question I asked. It was about Nigel Crisp, who ran a | :36:59. | :37:03. | |
health service for six years. He was the chief executive of the | :37:03. | :37:07. | |
National Health Service. He says the bill is a mess and confusing. | :37:07. | :37:13. | |
Let me ask about somebody else who appeared on the Conservative | :37:13. | :37:22. | |
Party's platform of the spring conference in 2010. He hosted a | :37:22. | :37:25. | |
Health Secretary's health speech and he advised the Labour | :37:25. | :37:29. | |
government and he is a GP at the head of the clinical commissioning | :37:29. | :37:33. | |
group in Tower Hamlets. He said, we care deeply about the patients we | :37:33. | :37:38. | |
see every day. We believe the improver we all want to see in the | :37:38. | :37:44. | |
NHS can be achieved without the bureaucracy generated by this Bell. | :37:44. | :37:49. | |
They say no. This man is in charge of a clinical commissioning group. | :37:49. | :37:53. | |
Isn't it time you recognised he has lost the confidence even of the GPs | :37:53. | :38:00. | |
he says wants to be at the heart of his reform? There are 8200 GP | :38:00. | :38:04. | |
practices covering 95% of the country implementing the health | :38:04. | :38:11. | |
reforms. That is what they want to see happen. He asked me if I will | :38:11. | :38:17. | |
be sent to those people who run the NHS over the last decade. -- I will | :38:17. | :38:23. | |
listen. Let me give him a selection of people and what they think of | :38:23. | :38:26. | |
competition. Log das I said, the right competition for the right | :38:26. | :38:35. | |
reasons can drive us to do more. This is what John Hatton said. They | :38:35. | :38:41. | |
do not want to listen to Labour ministers! Competition can make the | :38:41. | :38:46. | |
NHS more equitable. That is the view of a Labour Secretary of State. | :38:46. | :38:51. | |
What about an adviser to the last government whose specific date | :38:51. | :38:55. | |
looked at competition. He said, the measure the effects of competition | :38:55. | :38:59. | |
have not been trivial. The introduction of competition within | :38:59. | :39:06. | |
the NHS could be credited with saving hundreds of lives. The truth | :39:06. | :39:11. | |
is, he does not want to listen to past Labour ministers because he is | :39:11. | :39:17. | |
taking a totally opportunistic position in opposition to their | :39:17. | :39:23. | |
spell. -- this Bill. The reason we think that 95% of GPs are now | :39:23. | :39:30. | |
having to implement part of these changes is that he has imposed them. | :39:30. | :39:35. | |
One doctor the text -- addresses this in the last line of his letter. | :39:35. | :39:40. | |
He says, your government has interpreted our commitment to | :39:40. | :39:47. | |
patients and support for the bill. It is not. 98% of the Royal College | :39:47. | :39:52. | |
of GPs oppose the bill. I have to say, it is hard to keep track of | :39:52. | :39:58. | |
opposition to this Bill. In the last seven days alone, the Royal | :39:58. | :40:01. | |
College of Physicians have caught their first emergency general | :40:01. | :40:06. | |
meeting in their history about the Bill. He has lost the support of | :40:06. | :40:10. | |
the British Geriatrics Society and the Royal College of paediatrics | :40:10. | :40:14. | |
and Child Health. Every week that goes by, more and more health care | :40:14. | :40:18. | |
organisations come out against this Bill. Can the Prime Minister gives | :40:18. | :40:23. | |
that has a list of significant health organisations who are still | :40:23. | :40:30. | |
wholehearted supporters of the Bill? He specifically said... It | :40:30. | :40:35. | |
this is important. The Prime Minister has been asked a question. | :40:35. | :40:41. | |
Let's hear the answer. He said that 98% of GPs oppose the reforms. | :40:41. | :40:48. | |
was the figure. Beth we give him the actual figures. There are | :40:48. | :40:54. | |
44,000 members of the Royal College of GPs. Out of a total of 44,000, | :40:54. | :41:02. | |
just 7% responded opposing the Bill. 7%! What about the Royal College of | :41:02. | :41:10. | |
physiotherapists? 50,000 were College of physiotherapists, 2%. | :41:10. | :41:16. | |
2%! I know that is enough for the unions to elect to leader of the | :41:16. | :41:26. | |
:41:26. | :41:28. | ||
Labour Party but that is about as far as it will go. Mr Speaker... | :41:28. | :41:36. | |
They are obviously well trained today, Mr Speaker. Let me tell them, | :41:36. | :41:40. | |
their support for the Health Bill is digging their own burial at the | :41:40. | :41:48. | |
next general election. Now, I did ask him a specific question. I know | :41:48. | :41:54. | |
by now he does not like to answer the questions. I asked him a simple | :41:54. | :42:00. | |
point, who supports this Bill? No answer came from this Prime | :42:00. | :42:06. | |
Minister. Let me refresh his memory as to who opposes the Bill. There | :42:06. | :42:11. | |
is no need for the Deputy Prime Minister to be smacking. He | :42:11. | :42:19. | |
supports the Bill. He supports it, Mr Speaker. There is firm | :42:19. | :42:23. | |
leadership for you. Mr Speaker, let me refresh his memory as to those | :42:23. | :42:29. | |
who want the Bill withdrawn. The Royal College of GPs, the Royal | :42:29. | :42:33. | |
College of Nursing, the Royal College of Midwives, the Royal | :42:34. | :42:38. | |
College of radiologists, the Faculty of Public Health, the | :42:38. | :42:42. | |
Chartered Society of physiotherapists, the Community | :42:42. | :42:47. | |
Practitioners and Health Visitors Association and the Patients' | :42:47. | :42:57. | |
Association. Mr Speaker, doesn't it ever occurred to him... Mr Speaker, | :42:57. | :43:01. | |
doesn't it ever occurred to him but just maybe they are right and he is | :43:01. | :43:11. | |
wrong? -- that just may be. didn't mention the National | :43:11. | :43:15. | |
Association of primary care, the Association of Chief executives and | :43:15. | :43:18. | |
voluntary organisations supporting the Bill, the foundation trusts | :43:18. | :43:28. | |
:43:28. | :43:31. | ||
network supporting the bill. Lord Darzai, Labour minister. For weeks | :43:31. | :43:36. | |
in a row of the NHS questions but not a single question of substance | :43:36. | :43:44. | |
- not one. All about process -- process and politics. We all know | :43:44. | :43:49. | |
it is leap year. Maybe just this once and get to ask the question. | :43:49. | :43:59. | |
:43:59. | :44:00. | ||
We all know what he is against but what is he for? Thank you Mr | :44:00. | :44:06. | |
Speaker. In my area, there are plans for 120 metre high wind | :44:06. | :44:13. | |
turbine is between the beautiful villages just than a mile apart. | :44:13. | :44:16. | |
Does the Prime Minister agree that such giant turbine should not be | :44:16. | :44:21. | |
built so close to residential areas without local people having a say? | :44:21. | :44:28. | |
We do want to see a balanced energy policy. There are two changes we | :44:28. | :44:33. | |
are making which will be welcomed. We are cutting the subsidy to | :44:33. | :44:38. | |
onshore wind. It has been over subsidised and wasteful of public | :44:38. | :44:43. | |
money. When the localism at fully comes into place, it will give | :44:43. | :44:47. | |
local communities a greater say over issues like wind turbines. We | :44:47. | :44:51. | |
try to do that earlier by abolishing the regional special | :44:51. | :44:55. | |
strategies the last government put into place. We lost back case in | :44:55. | :45:01. | |
the court and we need the localism act to come into force. The Prime | :45:01. | :45:05. | |
Minister answered the question to might honourable member for | :45:05. | :45:09. | |
Hammersmith with a little more abuse than we wanted. Does he | :45:09. | :45:17. | |
recognise there are 200 couples in his own constituency who will lose | :45:17. | :45:25. | |
working tax credit, possibly to the level of �3,800 or more? Can he say | :45:25. | :45:35. | |
:45:35. | :45:36. | ||
how would he answer those couples We have had to take difficult | :45:36. | :45:39. | |
decisions because of the deficit. In taking those we have protected | :45:40. | :45:44. | |
the poorest families by increasing the child tax credit. We have also | :45:44. | :45:49. | |
held the poorest, who are in work, by lifting one million people out | :45:49. | :45:53. | |
of income tax. The question is back to Labour. You left us with this | :45:53. | :46:01. | |
mess. What would you do about it? This summer, in my constituency as | :46:01. | :46:05. | |
Gloucester, as everywhere around the country, people will be looking | :46:05. | :46:09. | |
forward to the start of the Olympic Games in our country. A great | :46:09. | :46:13. | |
opportunity to celebrate ow well the UK manages the great global | :46:13. | :46:17. | |
events, but not everybody sees it as that sort of an opportunity. The | :46:17. | :46:21. | |
General Secretary of Unite sees it as an opportunity for a general | :46:21. | :46:24. | |
strike. Does the Prime Minister agree with me that nothing could be | :46:24. | :46:28. | |
further from the spirit of the Olympics? Nothing could do more | :46:28. | :46:35. | |
damage to the reputation of our country? Thank you. I think my | :46:35. | :46:41. | |
honourable friend speaks for the whole country when he says what the | :46:41. | :46:46. | |
General Secretary said "I'm calling upon the general public to engage | :46:46. | :46:51. | |
in civil disobedience." Let's remember, it's the biggest, single | :46:51. | :46:55. | |
donor to the party opposite, providing around one third of their | :46:55. | :46:58. | |
money and had more role than anybody else in putting the right | :46:58. | :47:02. | |
honourable gentleman in his place. It's not good for them just to put | :47:02. | :47:11. | |
out a tweet. They need to condemn this utterly and start helping. | :47:11. | :47:16. | |
top-down re-organisation of the NHS, no reduction in front-line police | :47:16. | :47:20. | |
officers, and no cuts to tax credits for low-income families. | :47:20. | :47:23. | |
Why does the Prime Minister find it so hard to keep his promises to the | :47:23. | :47:28. | |
British public? We promised to increase spending on the NHS. We | :47:28. | :47:33. | |
are boosting spending. We promised the cancer drugs fund and it's | :47:33. | :47:37. | |
10,000 people who have had extra drugs through the fund. We promised | :47:37. | :47:41. | |
to have doctors growing faster than the number of brewer cats and since | :47:41. | :47:45. | |
the election the number -- bureaucrats and since the election | :47:45. | :47:48. | |
the number is up. That's what coalition policies are doing for | :47:48. | :47:56. | |
the Health Service. Will the Prime Minister close the loophole for | :47:56. | :48:00. | |
multi-national companies that allows the migrant cap to be | :48:00. | :48:06. | |
flouted using Inter company transfers, or is this another | :48:06. | :48:12. | |
policy that would fall victim to the curse of Nick Clegg? I think on | :48:12. | :48:17. | |
this one my honourable friend is being unfair. We do have a tough | :48:17. | :48:22. | |
migrant cap for migrant workers. Business said how important it was | :48:22. | :48:26. | |
to have intercompany transfers, but only at relatively high salary | :48:26. | :48:28. | |
levels. That is what we have put in place. I think that demonstrates | :48:29. | :48:32. | |
that over time we'll be able to both control immigration, but do so | :48:32. | :48:39. | |
in a way that doesn't damage business. We now know that the | :48:39. | :48:43. | |
Government was made aware of fraud allegations at A4E before the Prime | :48:43. | :48:50. | |
Minister appointed that company's chairman as his family Czar. As the | :48:50. | :48:53. | |
Prime Minister is in danger of requiring a reputation for ill- | :48:53. | :48:57. | |
judged personal appointments, bill he tell the House what independent | :48:58. | :49:01. | |
checks he believes should be carried out before such | :49:01. | :49:05. | |
appointments are made and whether any were carried out in respect of | :49:05. | :49:09. | |
Emma Harrison? Let me be absolutely clear. I was not aware of any | :49:09. | :49:13. | |
allegations of irregularities when she became an adviser to the | :49:13. | :49:16. | |
Government on troubled families. At the time she was appointed there | :49:16. | :49:22. | |
were no formal investigations into A4E, just the company's own probe | :49:22. | :49:25. | |
into irregularities. I do think this issue needs to be properly | :49:25. | :49:29. | |
dealt with. I'm concerned that subsequent to her appointment | :49:29. | :49:34. | |
information needed to be passed up the line more rapid l to ministers. | :49:34. | :49:40. | |
I've asked the Cabinet Secretary -- rapidly to ministers. I've asked | :49:40. | :49:44. | |
the Cabinet Secretary to look into it. He perhaps might want to put | :49:44. | :49:49. | |
into his question that Emma Harrison was given a CBE by the | :49:49. | :49:56. | |
last Government. Of course, all of the allegations that are being made | :49:56. | :50:01. | |
are all intercontracts that the Government handed out. A little | :50:01. | :50:06. | |
more transparency about that might be a good thing. Will the Prime | :50:06. | :50:13. | |
Minister join me in paying tribute to the courage of Paul Conroy who | :50:13. | :50:17. | |
was injured showing the world the horrors of the Syrian regime and | :50:17. | :50:20. | |
thanking all those who helped to secure his safe possessage to | :50:20. | :50:24. | |
Lebanon? I certainly join the honourable lady. It is very | :50:24. | :50:29. | |
important, the role that the media do in being in very difficult | :50:29. | :50:34. | |
places, like in Homs, in Syria, to brick the truth and news to the | :50:34. | :50:38. | |
world -- bring the truth and news to the world. That is what Paul | :50:38. | :50:43. | |
Conroy was doing. I pay tribute to him and above all pay tribute to | :50:43. | :50:47. | |
the very brave people who helped to get him out of Syria, many of whom | :50:47. | :50:50. | |
have paid an incredibly high price. I can tell the House that Paul | :50:51. | :50:56. | |
Conroy is now safe. He's been in our embassy in Beirut in Lebanon. | :50:56. | :50:59. | |
He's been properly looked after and I'm sure that soon he will want to | :50:59. | :51:05. | |
come home. Last October the Chancellor announced a new policy | :51:05. | :51:08. | |
called credit easing. Can he tell us how many businesses have been | :51:08. | :51:14. | |
helped? The Chancellor said at the time of the statement that the | :51:14. | :51:18. | |
policy would be in place at the time of the Budget that is what | :51:18. | :51:28. | |
:51:28. | :51:32. | ||
will happen. THE SPEAKER: Order: Thank you, Mr Speaker. High streets | :51:32. | :51:37. | |
across the country, including those in low soft in my constituentcy, | :51:37. | :51:40. | |
are facing tough trading conditions at present, including the prospect | :51:40. | :51:45. | |
of a 5.6% increase in business rates. Can the Prime Minister | :51:45. | :51:50. | |
outline what the Government are doing to support traders, to enable | :51:50. | :51:55. | |
hem to grow their businesses and to create jobs? I think the honourable | :51:56. | :51:58. | |
gentleman is right to raise this. There are real concerns about the | :51:58. | :52:01. | |
hollowing out of some of the high streets and number of empty | :52:01. | :52:05. | |
properties. What we have done is doubled small business rate relieve | :52:05. | :52:10. | |
schemes and that has helped an estimated 330,000 small firms and | :52:10. | :52:13. | |
removing legal red tape requiring rate payers to fill in paperwork to | :52:13. | :52:18. | |
claim that relief, which Labour refused to do in office. Also, | :52:18. | :52:24. | |
working with Mary Portas, we have a whole plan to try to help the high | :52:24. | :52:27. | |
street, and it is vital for towns and cities across the country. | :52:27. | :52:30. | |
Prime Minister may have seen the headlines in the newspapers today | :52:30. | :52:40. | |
:52:40. | :52:45. | ||
that the happiest people live in Northern Ireland? As the major | :52:45. | :52:48. | |
party of Government for the last five years, we in the DUP are not | :52:48. | :52:53. | |
surprised by that. One thing that overshadows that happiness of | :52:53. | :52:56. | |
course is the high and escalating price of petrol and diesel, which | :52:56. | :53:00. | |
is the highest, not only in the United Kingdom, but the highest in | :53:00. | :53:05. | |
the European Union. Can the Prime Minister bring happiness to all | :53:05. | :53:10. | |
parts of the United Kingdom by agreeing to do away with the August | :53:10. | :53:15. | |
fuel tax rise and reduce fuel allowances as soon as possible? | :53:15. | :53:17. | |
delighted to hear that the people of Northern Ireland are the | :53:17. | :53:21. | |
happiest in the United Kingdom. I have to say that their | :53:21. | :53:29. | |
representatives in this House don't always give that impression! Maybe | :53:29. | :53:33. | |
I've been missing something! We recognise that families and | :53:33. | :53:36. | |
businesses are continuing to feel the pressure from very high prices. | :53:36. | :53:42. | |
We cut fuel duty and scrapped the automatic stabiliser. That has made | :53:42. | :53:45. | |
prices six pence lower than they would have been under previous | :53:45. | :53:52. | |
plans, but clearly we are impacted here by the high oil price. This | :53:52. | :53:55. | |
week the Government took tough action on unacceptable tax | :53:55. | :53:59. | |
avoidance. Does the Prime Minister agree with me that the principle of | :53:59. | :54:03. | |
paying a fair share of tax should apply to both banks and former | :54:03. | :54:09. | |
mayors of London? I think he makes an important point, whether it is | :54:09. | :54:12. | |
Barclays bank or frankly it is Ken Livingstone, people should pay the | :54:12. | :54:17. | |
proper amount of tax and I hope that HMRC will look carefully at | :54:17. | :54:22. | |
all these cases. Frankly, for Londoners, many of whom live in | :54:22. | :54:26. | |
Labour-controlled areas, with high Labour council taxes, will be | :54:26. | :54:33. | |
pretty angry about what they have seen and probably say that Red Ken | :54:33. | :54:38. | |
has been caught red-handed. The IFS has reported that the Government's | :54:38. | :54:41. | |
tax and benefit changes will hit families with children five times | :54:41. | :54:45. | |
higher than those without. Is this what the Prime Minister means by | :54:45. | :54:49. | |
the most family friendly Government ever? Is it fair or is it just | :54:49. | :54:54. | |
another broken promise? What this Government has done is increase tax | :54:54. | :54:58. | |
credits for the least-well-paid to lift people out of tax and | :54:58. | :55:02. | |
introduce free nursery care for two, three and four-year-olds and expand | :55:02. | :55:06. | |
for those families. All those things have made a difference. | :55:06. | :55:10. | |
Incidentally, she didn't mention she is sponsored by the Unite union | :55:10. | :55:16. | |
and she could have taken this opportunity to condemn their leader. | :55:16. | :55:26. | |
:55:26. | :55:30. | ||
Thank you. THE SPEAKER: Order. Let's here Mr Metcalfe. Since it | :55:30. | :55:34. | |
broke over working -- work experience, has the Prime Minister | :55:34. | :55:39. | |
had any businesses and/or organisations come forward to | :55:39. | :55:42. | |
support this very important and publicly popular initiative that | :55:42. | :55:48. | |
will help young people get the skills they need to get into work? | :55:48. | :55:52. | |
I think my honourable friend is entirely right. The whole country | :55:52. | :55:55. | |
wants to see more young people given the opportunity that work | :55:55. | :56:00. | |
experience provides. The good news is since this row has been going on | :56:00. | :56:03. | |
in the pages of our newspapers, we have actually had expressions of | :56:03. | :56:08. | |
interest from 200 small and medium- sized employers who want to get | :56:08. | :56:12. | |
involved in this programme. I think it's time for businesses in Britain | :56:12. | :56:16. | |
and for everyone in Britain who wants to see people have work | :56:16. | :56:20. | |
experience stand up against the Trotskyites of the Right to Work | :56:20. | :56:24. | |
campaign and recognise the deafening silence from the party | :56:24. | :56:34. | |
:56:34. | :56:35. | ||
opposite. Happily, Mr Speaker, I am able to welcome the Prime | :56:35. | :56:40. | |
Minister's commitment to the reform of the European Convention on Human | :56:40. | :56:44. | |
Rights and the powers of the European Court on human rights. | :56:44. | :56:48. | |
Will the Prime Minister give a commitment to allow this House a | :56:48. | :56:54. | |
proper debate whenever the declaration is published? Will he | :56:54. | :56:58. | |
ensure that once again the principle of subsiduary is | :56:58. | :57:03. | |
respected and the British courts have a proper say on what goes on | :57:03. | :57:07. | |
in this country? I do want to see it get a fairer hearing. That is | :57:07. | :57:10. | |
what was contained in the speech I made at the Council of Europe, | :57:10. | :57:15. | |
about the reform of the court. So it doesn't become a court of the | :57:15. | :57:19. | |
fourth instance, so someone has been in front of a local court, the | :57:19. | :57:22. | |
Court of Appeal and the Supreme Court and then to the ECHR. We have | :57:22. | :57:25. | |
do have proposals for reform. Clearly, what is debated in this | :57:25. | :57:29. | |
House we now have the backbench committee that has a large number | :57:29. | :57:33. | |
of days in this House and perhaps they will give over time - not | :57:33. | :57:37. | |
enough I hear - they've got more than enough and they can make over | :57:37. | :57:43. | |
a day for that. Does the Prime Minister agree that one of the best | :57:43. | :57:47. | |
ways to deliver on our commitment to the fairness agenda is to go | :57:47. | :57:50. | |
ahead as quickly as possible in implementing the coalition | :57:50. | :57:56. | |
agreement to raise the tax threshold to �10,000? What the | :57:56. | :58:00. | |
coalition agreement commitments us to is real increases in that | :58:00. | :58:04. | |
threshold. We have achieved that in budgets over the last two years. In | :58:04. | :58:07. | |
spite of the difficult conditions we face in the economy. I do think | :58:07. | :58:12. | |
it's a good idea to lift people out of tax. It particularly helps low- | :58:12. | :58:20. | |
paid people and low-paid women. MoD is buying tankers from South | :58:20. | :58:26. | |
Korea, when the work could be done here. The MoD says and I quote, "It | :58:26. | :58:32. | |
will not consider wider employment industrial and economic factors in | :58:32. | :58:35. | |
procurement." Why wouldn't this complacent Prime Minister stand up | :58:35. | :58:41. | |
for world-class British industry? do stand up for world-class British | :58:41. | :58:47. | |
industry. As I said, when I travel the globe I'm happy to have Rolls- | :58:47. | :58:52. | |
Royce on an aeroplane with me. It's just a pity when I do so I get | :58:52. | :58:58. | |
attacked by the Labour Party. the Prime Minister aware of the | :58:58. | :59:03. | |
tragic death of my constituent, Penny Heggarty? Her husband | :59:03. | :59:09. | |
believes that his wife's death is just one example of cyst stemmic | :59:09. | :59:14. | |
management failures of the local NHS Trust? Will the Prime Minister | :59:14. | :59:18. | |
assure him and other constituents that recent work to improve the | :59:18. | :59:23. | |
management will continue and that this Trust will be turned around? | :59:23. | :59:27. | |
can certainly give that assurance. Firstly, I'm sure the whole House | :59:27. | :59:33. | |
will want to send the deepest condolences of the family. I know | :59:33. | :59:37. | |
my friend the Minister of State for health has het local MPs. Clearly, | :59:37. | :59:41. | |
patients have got the right to expect far better standards of care. | :59:41. | :59:45. | |
I know that the CQC and Monitor have raised concerns about | :59:45. | :59:49. | |
standards at the Trust. As he says, it is being turned around, but that | :59:49. | :59:59. | |
:59:59. | :00:02. | ||
work needs to be undertaken with all speed.... Bedroom tax as | :00:02. | :00:06. | |
grossly unfair and shows the UK Government simply failing to listen | :00:06. | :00:11. | |
to the voice of reason put forward by housing professionals, social | :00:11. | :00:16. | |
landlords and individuals. Does the Prime Minister accept that widows | :00:16. | :00:21. | |
and widowers, left in the family home can lose up to 25% of their | :00:21. | :00:24. | |
housing benefit support if he continues with this? Is it just | :00:25. | :00:31. | |
he's unfeeling or just determined to get his way? The Irish ewe is | :00:31. | :00:35. | |
this - we need to reform housing benefit. If we hadn't done anything | :00:35. | :00:44. | |
about it it was expected to cost over �24 billion a year. As his own | :00:44. | :00:49. | |
welfare spokesman, the member for Birmingham said, they would | :00:49. | :00:53. | |
scarcely believe it is could costing the UK that much. That is | :00:53. | :00:57. | |
too high. I'm getting slightly frustrated with the statements in | :00:57. | :01:01. | |
principle of reform. They said they are in favour of a benefit cap, but | :01:01. | :01:05. | |
they vote against it. They say they are in favour of welfare reform, | :01:05. | :01:10. | |
they oppose it. They recognise housing benefit's out of control, | :01:10. | :01:15. | |
but every attempt to deal with it, they frustrate it. On this Leap Day | :01:15. | :01:19. | |
when men throughout the country will be nervously hoping that their | :01:19. | :01:22. | |
girlfriends might make a commitment to them, can I ask the Prime | :01:22. | :01:25. | |
Minister to give romance a nudge and to remind us and to confirm | :01:25. | :01:29. | |
with us that the reforms through the welfare system will always, | :01:29. | :01:35. | |
always support hard-working families? I was wondering where she | :01:35. | :01:41. | |
was going with that for one moment or two. She is absolutely right. It | :01:41. | :01:47. | |
is a Leap Year, where all things can happen. The absolute thing is | :01:47. | :01:50. | |
both through the tax system and welfare system, we should encourage | :01:50. | :01:59. | |
families to come together and stay together and celebrate commitment. | :01:59. | :02:06. | |
Is the Prime Minister aware that the entry clearance office in Abu | :02:06. | :02:15. | |
Dhabi has rejected an application by Mrs Makood John to come from | :02:15. | :02:19. | |
Pakistan to attend her granddaughter's wedding in | :02:20. | :02:24. | |
Manchester? Would he specify what kind of employment a 72-year-old | :02:24. | :02:28. | |
woman who does not speak English and has never left Pakistan is | :02:28. | :02:33. | |
liable to be obtaining in my constituency, where unemployment is | :02:33. | :02:43. | |
10.6%? Will he overrule this mad decision and allow her the | :02:43. | :02:47. | |
opportunity to attend her granddaughter's wedding? If the | :02:47. | :02:57. | |
:02:57. | :02:58. | ||
Home Secretary has said - SPEAKER: I'm sure you are bringing | :02:58. | :03:03. | |
this to an end. You have been very lucid. I'm bringing this to an end. | :03:03. | :03:08. | |
If the Home Secretary has whispered to him that she can appeal, the | :03:08. | :03:12. | |
wedding is on 2nd April and the appeal procedure is too slow to | :03:12. | :03:21. | |
make that possible! To answer the question, I wasn't aware of the | :03:21. | :03:27. | |
individual case. There are hundreds of thousands of people who travel | :03:27. | :03:31. | |
between Pakistan and Britain every year. We do have to have tough | :03:31. | :03:34. | |
controls to prevent the abuse of our immigration system, but I would | :03:34. | :03:40. | |
suggest that he takes up the case individually with the immigration | :03:40. | :03:43. | |
minister, who has a superb grip on these issues and will be able to | :03:43. | :03:53. | |
:03:53. | :03:54. | ||
give him some satisfaction. Under Tony Blair's regime we could sleep | :03:54. | :03:59. | |
safely at night, because we knew Lord Prescott could take over if | :03:59. | :04:04. | |
Tony Blair is incapacitated. What would happen if the Prime Minister | :04:04. | :04:10. | |
is so? I've been waiting for some time, because I know that my | :04:10. | :04:13. | |
honourable friend has asked this question to almost every single | :04:13. | :04:16. | |
Cabinet minister, including the Deputy Prime Minister, who I think | :04:16. | :04:20. | |
replied that he seemed to have a more bid fascination with the end | :04:20. | :04:27. | |
of the leader of the party. All I can say is, I have no plans to be | :04:27. | :04:34. | |
incapacitated. Further to the question - to the answer that the | :04:34. | :04:41. | |
Prime Minister gave to my friend on the Leveson Inquiry, he's obviously | :04:41. | :04:48. | |
that we need -- absolutely right that we need a free press. But they | :04:48. | :04:52. | |
will not thank him if he goes along with the chairman of the PCC in his | :04:52. | :04:57. | |
proposal to use the defamation bill to legislate for a new system. That | :04:57. | :05:06. | |
bill is coming forward in September. This would preement -- pre-empt the | :05:06. | :05:13. | |
Leveson Inquiry. I've absolutely no intention of pre-empting the | :05:13. | :05:17. | |
inquiry in anyway at all. I think if we look back to the debate we | :05:17. | :05:22. | |
had, both the leader of the Labour Party and I said it was important | :05:22. | :05:28. | |
to trust Leveson to get on with the job to give every single that we | :05:28. | :05:32. | |
want -- signal to be able to adopt what is recommended. I think there | :05:32. | :05:37. | |
is an understanding, but given that there is that understanding, I | :05:37. | :05:39. | |
repeat, it's important that honourable members on all sides | :05:40. | :05:42. | |
stress the importance of a free press in the health of our | :05:42. | :05:52. | |
:05:52. | :05:53. | ||
democracy. Hard-working families in my constituency are absolutely | :05:53. | :05:58. | |
surprised that a benefit cap for some �26,000 is being opposed by | :05:58. | :06:05. | |
the party opposite. Will my right honourable friend agree with me, we | :06:05. | :06:09. | |
will always make work pay and provide benefits for those unable | :06:09. | :06:13. | |
to work? I'm delighted that he caught your eye, because today is | :06:13. | :06:17. | |
the day that the welfare bill becomes an Act. For the first time | :06:17. | :06:22. | |
we will have a proper cap on welfare, supported by this side. | :06:22. | :06:27. | |
Opposed by that side, but backed by the overwhelming majority of people | :06:27. | :06:37. | |
:06:37. | :06:46. | ||
Picking up on some remarks the Education Secretary made about | :06:46. | :06:54. | |
saying how Levison was intimidating proper journalism. We moved on for | :06:54. | :07:02. | |
the 4th week in a road to health. A lot of bounding back and forth as | :07:02. | :07:07. | |
to who supports and does not support the Bill. This is what you | :07:07. | :07:14. | |
thought? Or those points were reflected. Ed Miliband totally | :07:14. | :07:20. | |
mastered David Cameron for the 4th successive week. The Prime Minister | :07:20. | :07:27. | |
quote 8000 GP practices in favour of his attempt to privatise the NHS. | :07:27. | :07:33. | |
This is less than 20%. There are 40,000 practices in the country. | :07:33. | :07:39. | |
Just rights, the real problem is that all sides are twisting facts | :07:39. | :07:44. | |
to support themselves. No one is offering proper proof as to whether | :07:44. | :07:50. | |
the bill is good on not. Ed Miliband was elected as a civil | :07:50. | :07:55. | |
libertarian. We have seen attacks on the Government. We see him today | :07:56. | :08:02. | |
eight leading an attack on Michael Gove and compressed freedom. Alan | :08:02. | :08:07. | |
is saying, Ed Miliband is becoming a one-trick pony. He has found the | :08:07. | :08:12. | |
only thing he thinks he can make headway on - that being house. | :08:12. | :08:17. | |
on the logistics, but what is the timetable for the Health Bill? | :08:17. | :08:23. | |
are waiting to see if the House of Lords will reach the amendments | :08:23. | :08:27. | |
tonight. This is what the Liberal Democrats have asked full. It is | :08:27. | :08:33. | |
not sure if they will be reached tonight. If there was a big defeat, | :08:33. | :08:37. | |
and it would have to be a big one, one that the gunmen want to take | :08:37. | :08:44. | |
back to the House of Commons to reverse, we would have to take it | :08:44. | :08:49. | |
right back. If the guerrilla warfare continues but does not blow | :08:49. | :08:55. | |
the built in an important part, when do we expect this to finish | :08:55. | :09:00. | |
its parliamentary Jenny and get the Royal Assent? Essentially, this | :09:00. | :09:04. | |
week and next week but the end of the process provided the Government | :09:04. | :09:14. | |
:09:14. | :09:16. | ||
does not suffer a major defeat. Prime Minister could not say what | :09:16. | :09:19. | |
the members the Government would table in response to the pressure | :09:19. | :09:25. | |
from Nick Clegg. Some are uncontroversial and have been | :09:25. | :09:31. | |
agreed. There is a dispute from lawyers. Department of Health | :09:31. | :09:37. | |
lawyers say it is not. Shirley Williams is pushing to say surely | :09:37. | :09:40. | |
there is somewhere we can give ourselves protection. At this stage, | :09:40. | :09:44. | |
we cannot be sure whether the detail is enough to win over the | :09:44. | :09:51. | |
sceptics in the House of Lords. Shirley Williams is in her 50th yet | :09:51. | :09:57. | |
of active politics. People are dancing to the tune of Baroness | :09:57. | :10:01. | |
Williams. If she is on side, Liberal Democrat peers will go with | :10:01. | :10:08. | |
her. If she is not on side, Nick Clegg will lose the vote at his own | :10:08. | :10:14. | |
party conference. She has enormous power. They must be dancing in the | :10:14. | :10:20. | |
aisles on the Tory backbenches. is an interesting theme. Ed | :10:20. | :10:28. | |
Miliband has talked about health for for month -- for weeks running. | :10:28. | :10:35. | |
We had the phrase, cursive Clegg, we had Peter Bone, who usually | :10:35. | :10:42. | |
makes a joke about his wife. This week he said, what happened if the | :10:42. | :10:47. | |
Prime Minister is incapacitated? What Nick Clegg become acting Prime | :10:47. | :10:53. | |
Minister? What is the constitutional answer to that? | :10:53. | :10:58. | |
theory, there was always a debate about whether Margaret Beckett for | :10:58. | :11:02. | |
the acting Prime Minister. She was Acting Leader of the Labour Party | :11:03. | :11:08. | |
for a period. It is effectively up to the Cabinet to agree who they | :11:08. | :11:13. | |
regard as their leader and therefore the Prime Minister. Nick | :11:13. | :11:17. | |
Clegg would be unlikely to get the accent, and less it was for a day | :11:17. | :11:24. | |
or two. It is interesting that is not clear. If, God forbid, there | :11:24. | :11:28. | |
should be a terrible terrorist attack on the Prime Minister and we | :11:28. | :11:33. | |
should lose our Prime Minister, in the United States it is quite clear | :11:33. | :11:40. | |
what would happen. It was less clear when Ronald Reagan was shot. | :11:41. | :11:45. | |
In the French and German constitution's it is quite clear | :11:45. | :11:52. | |
what happens. We do not know what would happen. Isn't that dangerous? | :11:52. | :11:57. | |
Nick Clegg said, the convention is that the Cabinet would elect the | :11:57. | :12:03. | |
person they regarded to be acting Prime Minister. What if the Cabinet | :12:03. | :12:08. | |
could not meet? After 9/11, the Cabinet could not meet in the | :12:09. | :12:16. | |
United States. Nick Clegg is quite skilful in as. When terrible | :12:16. | :12:24. | |
unemployment figures come at, Cameron 12... Nick Clegg will be | :12:24. | :12:27. | |
the Deputy Prime Minister. I am trying to discuss the serious issue | :12:27. | :12:32. | |
of succession in the event of a major national tragedy. You went on | :12:32. | :12:38. | |
to Party politics. I guess I should move on. There is a procedure for | :12:38. | :12:42. | |
who take certain decisions. I was talking to a very senior civil | :12:42. | :12:49. | |
servant the other day about the fact, there was a scene in the last | :12:49. | :12:53. | |
episode of Spooks. It was the decision of a minister about | :12:53. | :12:57. | |
shooting down a plane. Civil servants trained ministers for the | :12:57. | :13:03. | |
tension of that sort of situation. Could you make that decision? | :13:03. | :13:08. | |
Although there is a theoretical chain of hierarchy, the Prime | :13:08. | :13:12. | |
Minister, Defence Secretary, Home Secretary, after the tests it is | :13:12. | :13:17. | |
found that certain people would be unavailable on the phone. They were | :13:17. | :13:22. | |
not all that good in a dry run. the United States it is clear that | :13:23. | :13:28. | |
only the President could take that decision. In the aftermath of 9/11, | :13:28. | :13:35. | |
the President was not available. It became a real issue. If another jet | :13:35. | :13:42. | |
approaches New York, Washington, could we shoot it down? Dick Cheney | :13:42. | :13:48. | |
was incapacitated. Who could take that decision? They are big issues | :13:48. | :13:57. | |
that matter in extra mess. Let's move armfuls DUP the Tory Party | :13:57. | :14:04. | |
would want William Hague to do it. -- let's move on. We did not mean | :14:04. | :14:11. | |
to talk about this. In America and France, you were talking about the | :14:11. | :14:17. | |
succession of the head of state. I think the Deputy Prime Minister | :14:17. | :14:22. | |
deputises for the Prime Minister, as the name would suggest. In time | :14:22. | :14:27. | |
you would expect the leader to be from the larger of the two parties | :14:27. | :14:33. | |
in the coalition. How would you sum up the condition of the coalition? | :14:33. | :14:38. | |
Pretty good. We are governing effectively in the national | :14:38. | :14:43. | |
interest. We have a huge economic clout that is hanging over as the | :14:43. | :14:51. | |
start we have a problem with our deficit. -- over us. Some people | :14:51. | :14:55. | |
come together in the national interest. Do you think it would | :14:55. | :15:03. | |
survive the duration until 2015? read lots of newspaper columns St | :15:03. | :15:10. | |
it might last a few months and then collapse. Some said it would | :15:10. | :15:16. | |
collapse in 2011. Some said it would collapse in 2012. Now it says | :15:16. | :15:26. | |
:15:26. | :15:29. | ||
it would collapse in 2013. I will list some commentators if you like. | :15:29. | :15:36. | |
The Telegraph, the Spectator, the recent Spectator. There are a lot | :15:36. | :15:41. | |
of people who have a vested interest in the coalition failing. | :15:41. | :15:47. | |
No party won the last general election. The two parties have come | :15:47. | :15:52. | |
together to govern in the national interest. We do not agree on | :15:52. | :15:57. | |
everything. According to Reuters, the Industry Minister of Argentina | :15:57. | :16:03. | |
has said it is time the country stopped importing UK goods in | :16:03. | :16:07. | |
protest at Britain's position on the Falkland Isles. What is your | :16:07. | :16:14. | |
response to that? I want us to have cordial relations with Argentina. I | :16:14. | :16:20. | |
do not want there to be a tit for tat on-trade. Anyone in a | :16:20. | :16:24. | |
supermarket can see Argentinian wine on the shelves. Many people | :16:24. | :16:29. | |
enjoy buying that. It would be unfortunate if we got into that | :16:29. | :16:33. | |
situation. Do you have your headline for tonight? William Hague | :16:33. | :16:38. | |
is going to be the next acting Prime Minister. We worked it out, | :16:38. | :16:44. | |
didn't we? Should we have an English parliament? It is not top | :16:44. | :16:49. | |
of everyone's agenda, apart from the English Democrats. He ate his | :16:49. | :16:59. | |
:16:59. | :17:02. | ||
Robin Tilbrook. -- here is. Back in 1998, Labour began the process of | :17:02. | :17:06. | |
devolution to Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland. Since then, the | :17:06. | :17:11. | |
only part of the United Kingdom not to have its own voice is England. | :17:11. | :17:15. | |
Opinion polling now shows that we English are increasingly conscious | :17:15. | :17:20. | |
of being English. Overwhelmingly, we are looking for an All-England | :17:21. | :17:25. | |
solution to the unfairness is of devolution. I say that means an | :17:26. | :17:30. | |
English parliament. Colchester was once the capital of the Roman | :17:30. | :17:37. | |
province of Britain. This is the Roman wall and legend has it this | :17:37. | :17:43. | |
is the very spot on which the Civil War cannon, known as hunted empty, | :17:43. | :17:48. | |
had its great fall. The Government has now set up a modern Humpty damp | :17:48. | :17:53. | |
tea in the shape of its West Lothian coalition. It intends they | :17:53. | :18:03. | |
:18:03. | :18:05. | ||
will propose and -- ate vote of English votes for English lords. | :18:05. | :18:10. | |
The fall of English votes for English laws will leave only two | :18:10. | :18:13. | |
workable constitutional options. Either an English parliament and | :18:13. | :18:18. | |
government within the federal UK or independence for England. If the | :18:18. | :18:22. | |
British Unionist establishment does not soon respond to growing English | :18:22. | :18:26. | |
resentment, then the window of opportunity for a federal United | :18:26. | :18:31. | |
Kingdom will close. The only option would beat independence for England. | :18:31. | :18:36. | |
If that happens, then the United Kingdom would be as dead as the | :18:36. | :18:42. | |
die-hard royalist officers who were shot on this spot in 1648 by a | :18:42. | :18:52. | |
firing squad of English Colchester is the fabled come lot | :18:52. | :18:55. | |
of King Arthur and may have been where the original round table was. | :18:55. | :18:59. | |
I say that England now needs a real round table, around which to build | :18:59. | :19:03. | |
a consensus on England's future. Just like the Scots did with their | :19:04. | :19:08. | |
Scottish constitutional convention. The key to that convention was the | :19:08. | :19:11. | |
Scottish claim of right, whichage knowledged the sovereign will of | :19:11. | :19:16. | |
the Scottish people. I agree with that principle. We need to apply it | :19:16. | :19:20. | |
to England. The people of England are the sovereign to any English | :19:20. | :19:30. | |
:19:30. | :19:31. | ||
Democrat. Robin is with us now. Has the publicity surrounding Scottish | :19:31. | :19:36. | |
independence helped your cause? think it has. I think it's focused | :19:36. | :19:39. | |
people's attention on the fact that England's left out of the current | :19:40. | :19:43. | |
devolution settlement. Do you think that will increase over - if it | :19:43. | :19:47. | |
goes on for two years, that campaign, there will be more focus | :19:47. | :19:53. | |
and you'll exploit that, if you like? Yes. We wouldn't say exploit, | :19:53. | :19:56. | |
because what we have been campaigning about this is what we | :19:56. | :20:01. | |
want, ten years ago. We are finding that people are more aware of the | :20:01. | :20:05. | |
issues, they've woken up to the fact that there is that difference. | :20:05. | :20:11. | |
For instance, last year, we had the whole business of tuition fees and | :20:11. | :20:17. | |
that is coming into effect now. People are aware that Scotland is | :20:17. | :20:24. | |
still free and not in England. Some will be required to pay �9,000 a | :20:24. | :20:29. | |
year here. You have said in your film the research by the think-tank | :20:29. | :20:34. | |
IPPR and people are feeling perhaps for the reasons you've laid out, | :20:34. | :20:39. | |
being English, but it's not the same as wanting to advocate for an | :20:39. | :20:43. | |
English Parliament? I think that's right, but you have to bear in mind | :20:43. | :20:47. | |
we are a relatively small party and very little resources apart from | :20:47. | :20:54. | |
what we put into it ourselves and what we are arguing is a big issue, | :20:54. | :20:57. | |
with the establishment parties having had much more ability to | :20:57. | :21:02. | |
argue it and more access to the media. I think what is happening as | :21:02. | :21:06. | |
people become aware of the issue, people are becoming more and more | :21:06. | :21:10. | |
that they want something done. necessarily as far as an English | :21:10. | :21:13. | |
Parliament. For instance, the West Lothian question and the Commission | :21:13. | :21:17. | |
has been set up to look at that, would that not be enough to address | :21:17. | :21:21. | |
that issue of Scottish MPs are voting on matters that don't effect | :21:21. | :21:24. | |
their constituents? It's quite an interesting reflection on the way | :21:24. | :21:28. | |
the Commission has been set up. Firstly, if you look at the | :21:28. | :21:34. | |
membership of the Commission, hardly any of them could be | :21:34. | :21:39. | |
characterised as being English. The terms of reference of the | :21:39. | :21:44. | |
Commission itself, it doesn't mention England. By calling it the | :21:44. | :21:47. | |
West Lothian question you are trying to disguise the fact it's | :21:47. | :21:51. | |
actually an English question being looked at, not some sort of | :21:51. | :21:55. | |
Scottish question. Well, Michael Dugher, do you think the wishes, as | :21:55. | :21:58. | |
Robin said, people want something done, though they are not sure what. | :21:58. | :22:03. | |
The issued are missed, looking at this is the wrong angel and lots of | :22:03. | :22:08. | |
people have written in regard -- angle and lots of people have | :22:08. | :22:12. | |
written in about being concerned in England. There are issues in terms | :22:12. | :22:16. | |
of English identity and I think it's income bent on all the | :22:16. | :22:19. | |
mainstream parties to engage with those legitimate concerns and | :22:20. | :22:24. | |
grievances. In terms of the English Democrats, I'm in Barnsley. We have | :22:24. | :22:29. | |
a Labour-led council which is doing very well. The neighbouring council | :22:29. | :22:33. | |
is run by an English Democrat mayor and he's a basket case as a -- and | :22:33. | :22:37. | |
it's a basket case as a local authority. There is a seriousness | :22:37. | :22:41. | |
to this. You have to be careful what you vote for. Because the | :22:41. | :22:45. | |
Labour councillors on the council are making it so. They've been | :22:45. | :22:52. | |
causing difficulties for many years. Some of them went to prison in | :22:52. | :22:55. | |
Donnagate and we have a mayoral system in place. Is it an issue we | :22:55. | :23:00. | |
don't want to look at? Or is this something that is simmering? | :23:00. | :23:03. | |
think it's a legitimate issue and it's a good subject to discuss. The | :23:03. | :23:07. | |
problem the United Kingdom has is there is such a balance, 84% of | :23:07. | :23:11. | |
people live in England. I don't think there is a big appetite for a | :23:11. | :23:14. | |
whole parallel English Parliament, but whether we can look at trying | :23:14. | :23:18. | |
to get the system to work better so it recognises all four component | :23:18. | :23:24. | |
parts of the country, that is a good debate to have. Thank you. If | :23:24. | :23:32. | |
Scotland goes for devo -max then it can't be ignored. We move on, | :23:32. | :23:34. | |
because we are very international. Apparently he's the bookies' | :23:34. | :23:39. | |
favourite to be the next President of France. He's in town meeting Ed | :23:39. | :23:43. | |
Miliband and Mr Miliband won't be the only person Francois Hollande | :23:43. | :23:53. | |
:23:53. | :23:56. | ||
will want to shmooze. What Ireland the UK and Latvia all have in | :23:56. | :24:00. | |
common, they are one constituency with a seat in the National | :24:00. | :24:04. | |
Assembly of France. The seat of deputy for northern Europe is up | :24:04. | :24:07. | |
for grabs in June for the first time and any French citizens living | :24:07. | :24:13. | |
in the ten countries are able to vote. Some of you are thinking, | :24:14. | :24:18. | |
good Lord, was Joan of Arc not a sign and Waterloo and Trafalgar not | :24:18. | :24:21. | |
enough? London a constituency in the French National Assembly you'll | :24:21. | :24:27. | |
be telling me they are selling bri, in there next. Throwing that aside, | :24:27. | :24:34. | |
this is probably why the French presidential election candidate, | :24:34. | :24:37. | |
Francois Hollande is in town. He would like them on board, because | :24:37. | :24:42. | |
there are more French living in London than there are in Lille or | :24:42. | :24:46. | |
Bordeaux or Strasbourg. That's important because London's home to | :24:46. | :24:52. | |
half the French in this new constituency. Or maybe Francois | :24:52. | :24:58. | |
Hollande wanted to meet Ed Miliband and as he is, but not the Prime | :24:58. | :25:02. | |
Minister. Where does Nicolas Sarkozy first come? Yep, the UK. | :25:03. | :25:12. | |
:25:13. | :25:18. | ||
Perhaps for his rival it seems the UK is an easy does it. He's a man, | :25:18. | :25:23. | |
not a woman! We have Agnes Poirier. He always marks our cards on such | :25:23. | :25:28. | |
matters. London, as it was in the last elections, is a big part of | :25:28. | :25:32. | |
the campaign. Has there been much campaigning? Here. I wouldn't know, | :25:32. | :25:40. | |
because I vote in France. I love the pilgrimage. You just came to | :25:40. | :25:43. | |
see us? I'm based here. Do you know about the candidates? Yes. | :25:43. | :25:52. | |
women? Does the National Front have a candidate too? I don't think so. | :25:52. | :25:55. | |
They probably wouldn't get many votes in London. I know of the two | :25:55. | :25:59. | |
candidates, but it's not only for London. It's for the ten countries. | :25:59. | :26:04. | |
It's Britain by which we mean largely the London area, indeed | :26:04. | :26:09. | |
central London, Ireland, Scandinavia and the Baltic states, | :26:09. | :26:14. | |
but the overwhelming number are based in London? Yes. It's one seat | :26:15. | :26:23. | |
for northern Europe. Covering half a million people? Yep. Explain why | :26:23. | :26:29. | |
Francois Hollande policy of the top rate of tax of 75% would attract | :26:29. | :26:33. | |
French Londoners who fled France because of the high rate of tax? | :26:33. | :26:39. | |
did surprise quite a few people when he said everyone who earns | :26:39. | :26:45. | |
more than 1 million euro a year will be taxed 75%. He did create a | :26:45. | :26:51. | |
surprise there. Ecalled it the patriotism tax, so we'll see. | :26:51. | :26:56. | |
you are so that you are up the road to Geneva, Monaco and London. It's | :26:56. | :27:01. | |
all good news for London? All the well-educated civilised French | :27:01. | :27:06. | |
people will pour into our capital city? Look, you know, with the | :27:06. | :27:11. | |
recession you might come to such a decision too. It is quite daring to | :27:11. | :27:21. | |
:27:21. | :27:22. | ||
say we'll tax the rich by 75%. I just point out, minister, that | :27:22. | :27:26. | |
the socialist Francois Hollande is only proposing this for 150,000 | :27:26. | :27:32. | |
euros or 45%, which in practice is 7% less than your coalition | :27:32. | :27:41. | |
Government pree sides over? Bishop presides over? Do you like that. | :27:41. | :27:45. | |
The Budget next month and subconstituent ones will address | :27:45. | :27:51. | |
all tax issues. Agnes, I smts that Nicolas Sarkozy is narrowing the | :27:51. | :27:57. | |
gap with Francois Hollande -- notice that Nicolas Sarkozy is | :27:57. | :28:00. | |
narrowing the gap with Francois Hollande, with the Le Pen vote? | :28:01. | :28:04. | |
They has led a robust and even vicious campaign, Nicolas Sarkozy, | :28:04. | :28:10. | |
in the sense that he's extremely critical and he has asked former | :28:10. | :28:17. | |
enemies from his own party to come and - It's still all to play for? | :28:17. | :28:27. | |
:28:27. | :28:27. | ||
It's extremely open. Again, you have got Le Pen and another man. | :28:27. | :28:32. | |
75% from Labour? I don't think so. I got an answer there. I'll quit | :28:32. | :28:37. | |
while I'm ahead. Come back and see us. You are our election | :28:37. | :28:42. | |
correspondent. That's it. Thanks to all the guests. The answer to Guess | :28:42. | :28:46. | |
the Year was 1983. We'll pick the winner tomorrow. So many of you | :28:46. | :28:49. |