Browse content similar to 27/04/2012. Check below for episodes and series from the same categories and more!
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Afternoon and welcome to the Daily Politics. Did Culture Secretary | :00:46. | :00:51. | |
Jeremy Hunt break the ministerial code or not? Now a senior Liberal | :00:51. | :00:54. | |
Democrat has backed calls for an immediate inquiry into Jeremy | :00:54. | :00:56. | |
Hunt's dealings with Rupert Murdoch's News Corporation. | :00:56. | :01:01. | |
Wanted. Big hitter to defend the Tories. Who on earth would want to | :01:01. | :01:06. | |
be their man on the front line? Or woman? | :01:06. | :01:09. | |
And speaking of big hitters, will this former policeman be fighting | :01:09. | :01:13. | |
his way to City Hall? The Lib Dem candidate for London Mayor, Brian | :01:13. | :01:21. | |
Paddick, will be appearing. We need to identify a degree of | :01:21. | :01:24. | |
authenticity and compassion in the way we deal with this, otherwise | :01:24. | :01:28. | |
you just seem like you don't know what you or talking about. | :01:28. | :01:32. | |
Rupert Murdoch wasn't the only star of the show this week. We'll be | :01:32. | :01:34. | |
taking a look back at some glittering moments in the | :01:34. | :01:44. | |
Westminster village. All that in the next hour, coming up, public | :01:44. | :01:49. | |
service broadcasting in its -- at its finest. | :01:49. | :01:54. | |
With us for the duration veteran political journalist, Julia Langdon. | :01:54. | :01:58. | |
And the young whipper-snapper from the Times, Sam Coates. We will take | :01:58. | :02:04. | |
him down a peg or two! Welcome to you both. Now without further ado | :02:04. | :02:07. | |
lets talk about Rupert Murdoch, who apparently has no power and if he | :02:07. | :02:15. | |
had he wouldn't know how to use it. He knew nothing about phone hacking | :02:15. | :02:18. | |
and was the helpless victim of the phone hacking cover-up at the News | :02:18. | :02:25. | |
of the World. Poor fellow. And he was under oath! Hardly worth | :02:25. | :02:28. | |
mentioning at all in fact, but let's talk about him anyway. But | :02:28. | :02:32. | |
first here's some choice clips from the evidence he gave to the Leveson | :02:32. | :02:38. | |
Inquiry this week. There is no question in my mind that maybe even | :02:38. | :02:46. | |
the editor but certainly beyond that, someone took charge of a | :02:46. | :02:51. | |
cover-up. Some might say that all this picture is consistent with one | :02:51. | :02:59. | |
of a desire to cover up rather than a desire to expose. In minds like | :02:59. | :03:08. | |
yours, yes, perhaps. I am sorry. I take that back. Excuse me. Did you | :03:08. | :03:15. | |
have any discussions with Mr Jeremy Hunt about the bid? I don't believe | :03:15. | :03:22. | |
I have ever met him. I am not sure he didn't come to a dinner once a | :03:22. | :03:27. | |
couple of years ago. I certainly did not discuss it. When your son | :03:27. | :03:35. | |
told you about the replacement of Dr Vince Cable, did he tell you, we | :03:35. | :03:40. | |
have got someone better now? Words to that effect? I don't know if he | :03:40. | :03:45. | |
used those words. We couldn't have had anyone worse. I am sure he | :03:45. | :03:51. | |
didn't use those words precisely. I am communicating the gist of the | :03:51. | :03:56. | |
idea. He had Vince Cable, he was dead against News International. | :03:56. | :04:01. | |
You knew that on that 20 -- on December 21st, when it came out on | :04:01. | :04:07. | |
the BBC, so it must have passed through your mind. He has been | :04:07. | :04:11. | |
replaced by Jeremy Hunt, what is Jeremy Hunt like? Didn't you ask | :04:11. | :04:19. | |
your son? I may have. I don't remember. You must have done. | :04:19. | :04:26. | |
mustn't have done anything. I explained to you yesterday, I never | :04:26. | :04:30. | |
saw anything wrong in what we were doing, that it was a commonplace | :04:30. | :04:35. | |
transaction. A large one but a commonplace one. That was not the | :04:35. | :04:40. | |
question, Mr Murdoch. So why would I be worried about the politics of | :04:40. | :04:46. | |
it? Probably the last time Rupert Murdoch will be interrogated live | :04:46. | :04:49. | |
on British television. And we've got a couple of deputy | :04:50. | :04:54. | |
dogs with us now as well. For a first in British television ever, | :04:54. | :04:59. | |
appearing together, Deputy Chairman of the Conservative Party, Michael | :04:59. | :05:03. | |
Fallon, and the Deputy Chairman of the Labour Party, Tom Watson. | :05:03. | :05:07. | |
Welcome. This unique and ground- breaking piece of television. | :05:07. | :05:13. | |
Jeremy Hunt said he will give all the Leveson Inquiry e-mails between | :05:13. | :05:18. | |
himself and Adam Smith to Lord Leveson, isn't that enough? He has | :05:18. | :05:25. | |
obviously not sent any e-mails to him then. Are you that cynical? Yes. | :05:25. | :05:30. | |
You don't think he would want to put into the record any potentially | :05:30. | :05:34. | |
embarrassing communications? This is a ridiculous charade where the | :05:34. | :05:41. | |
Tory party are trying to stop a proper investigation. Michael will | :05:41. | :05:47. | |
have a row about it, he will defend the Tory line, and then in a couple | :05:47. | :05:52. | |
of weeks they will have to do it. The inquiry into Jeremy Hunt's | :05:52. | :05:57. | |
behaviour has gone to Lord Leveson, whose terms of the inquiry do not | :05:57. | :06:02. | |
cover the ministerial code. I think Tom Watson would be more cynical if | :06:02. | :06:07. | |
the government would doing its own inquiry. This inquiry is under way | :06:07. | :06:14. | |
by a senior judge. Jeremy Hunt was already due to appear before it. | :06:14. | :06:19. | |
Other politicians will appear later on, including politicians from that | :06:19. | :06:23. | |
side of the House, the previous government, and we will get to the | :06:23. | :06:28. | |
bottom of what happened. Lord Leveson was not a high it to judge | :06:28. | :06:33. | |
on the ministerial code, he is not an expert on that -- was not | :06:33. | :06:37. | |
employed to judge. You have someone who is an expert on the ministerial | :06:37. | :06:43. | |
code, who is paid to adjudicate on the ministerial code, and you have | :06:43. | :06:47. | |
not referred it to him. The because Lord Justice Leveson said the | :06:47. | :06:51. | |
better course was to allow the inquiry to proceed and he will be | :06:51. | :06:55. | |
able to weigh up the evidence and if anything comes from that that | :06:55. | :07:00. | |
needs to be investigated under the ministerial code, that will be done. | :07:00. | :07:04. | |
I have got the terms of reference for Lord Leveson. Where does it say | :07:04. | :07:09. | |
he should pass judgment on whether a minister has bridged the | :07:09. | :07:12. | |
ministerial code? Your Prime Minister raised the bar on | :07:12. | :07:18. | |
ministerial standards. He said, we will clear this up. Now you have a | :07:18. | :07:21. | |
guy whose adviser has Leeds these e-mails to a lobbyist for James | :07:21. | :07:27. | |
Murdoch and now you a say we are too scared to have an investigation. | :07:27. | :07:32. | |
-- you are saying. Do you think that will hold him up mind of the | :07:32. | :07:37. | |
people in the country? There is an investigation that is going on. | :07:37. | :07:41. | |
This Prime Minister set up the Leveson Inquiry. But he did not | :07:41. | :07:47. | |
give them the terms of reference to adjudicate on the ministerial code. | :07:47. | :07:51. | |
What the Prime Minister has done is set up an independent adviser on | :07:51. | :07:55. | |
the ministerial code, he is called Alex Allan, simple name, | :07:55. | :07:59. | |
straightforward man. Why he's been not allowed to rule on the | :07:59. | :08:08. | |
ministerial code? There is an inquiry... A but not on the | :08:08. | :08:13. | |
ministerial code, which Jeremy Hunt has been accused of breaking! | :08:13. | :08:18. | |
they are central to what Lord Leveson is inquiring into. If it | :08:18. | :08:23. | |
follows from this evidence that there is the specific issue under | :08:23. | :08:28. | |
the ministerial code that requires further explanation and examination | :08:28. | :08:33. | |
by Alex Allan, that will be done, but the first in is to let Jeremy | :08:33. | :08:40. | |
Hunt put forward the information... Why not to Alex Allan? The | :08:40. | :08:43. | |
ministerial code states clearly that ministers are responsible for | :08:44. | :08:48. | |
the behaviours and actions of their special advisers. Jeremy Hunt's | :08:48. | :08:52. | |
special adviser has resigned so therefore to work out why it and if | :08:52. | :08:57. | |
there has been a breach, why do we not ask the man that the people are | :08:57. | :09:02. | |
paying to police this ministerial code? Because we already have an | :09:02. | :09:05. | |
inquiry into the relationship between government and BSkyB under | :09:05. | :09:10. | |
way, headed by a senior judge, and he himself has said that the best | :09:10. | :09:14. | |
course would be to allow that inquiry to proceed, to see the | :09:14. | :09:17. | |
evidence and test Jeremy Hunt on the evidence and for him to give | :09:17. | :09:22. | |
his side of the story, and if it transpires there has been a breach, | :09:22. | :09:28. | |
that can be looked at. This is preposterous. The Conservative | :09:28. | :09:31. | |
chairman of the Public Administration Committee was the | :09:31. | :09:35. | |
independent adviser to see it. Simon Hughes of the Lib Dems wants | :09:35. | :09:39. | |
him to see it. The only person who does not want it is the prime | :09:39. | :09:44. | |
minister. The truth about this, everybody is running absolutely | :09:44. | :09:49. | |
terrified because they know they will be exposed for being a tied to | :09:49. | :09:52. | |
Rupert Murdoch, and that will happen to people in my party as | :09:52. | :09:57. | |
well by the way, but you are defending the indefensible today | :09:57. | :10:01. | |
and it is unacceptable and ludicrous. This government set up a | :10:01. | :10:06. | |
full inquiry, you never bothered to do that. I am not answering for my | :10:06. | :10:14. | |
predecessors. He was quite keen on the inquiry. This Prime Minister | :10:14. | :10:17. | |
have to take responsibility. A minister may have breached the | :10:17. | :10:21. | |
ministerial code and there is a procedure and you of running away | :10:21. | :10:26. | |
from it and even your own backbench Tory MPs and important members | :10:26. | :10:32. | |
within the Conservative Party say you were wrong. Let's go on to the | :10:32. | :10:37. | |
border story of Rupert Murdoch and his relationship with politics in | :10:37. | :10:43. | |
the UK. What did we learn this week, or what do we know now that we did | :10:43. | :10:48. | |
not know on Monday? We know that Rupert Murdoch has admitted there | :10:48. | :10:52. | |
was a cover-up at News International. We know he | :10:52. | :10:55. | |
disregarded parliament, the blackmail allegation was raised | :10:55. | :10:58. | |
with him when he gave evidence in July and he had forgotten about it | :10:59. | :11:03. | |
by the time he got in front of the judge this week. We know they are | :11:03. | :11:07. | |
fighting like rats and they are shooting each other left, right and | :11:07. | :11:12. | |
centre. What we don't know, what other contexts of the Burton | :11:12. | :11:20. | |
Copeland report...? News International have not given up | :11:20. | :11:25. | |
their privilege of that glory at report. Yes and if that report | :11:25. | :11:29. | |
identified wrong doing at the company in 2006, that might mean | :11:29. | :11:35. | |
the directors at News Corp are potentially questionable under an | :11:35. | :11:41. | |
act in the United States, and they may also be responsible for not | :11:41. | :11:44. | |
letting their shareholders no price-sensitive information so the | :11:44. | :11:48. | |
one thing he has got to do is published that Burton Copeland | :11:48. | :11:54. | |
report. Is it not significant that the two people Mr Murdoch appeared | :11:54. | :12:01. | |
to implicate him the cup a ruck, Colin Myler and Tom Crone, they | :12:01. | :12:06. | |
said they had briefed Mr Murdoch's son -- implicated in the cover-up. | :12:06. | :12:13. | |
Should we not see something thinner step in that? Everybody regards | :12:13. | :12:20. | |
anything to do with that Mr Murdoch as sinister. -- should we not see | :12:20. | :12:24. | |
something sinister in that? judge has got to look at this and | :12:24. | :12:34. | |
draw on it. His every Allsopp of the Conservatives for the -- is | :12:34. | :12:37. | |
every answer from any Conservative in the foreseeable future going to | :12:37. | :12:42. | |
be that we have to wait for the opinion of Lord Leveson? Are you | :12:42. | :12:47. | |
hiding behind Lord Leveson's robes or will you answer the question, of | :12:47. | :12:51. | |
what do you think the significance is of picking Tom Crone and Colin | :12:51. | :12:59. | |
Myler as the people responsible for the cover-up? Nobody is hiding from | :12:59. | :13:04. | |
Lord Leveson. On the contrary, all the politicians and key people from | :13:04. | :13:10. | |
News Corporation will be in front of him. Nobody is hiding. You off. | :13:10. | :13:15. | |
No. The Prime Minister will be appearing in front of him. It is | :13:15. | :13:21. | |
far better done, with great respect, by a judge inquiry than us | :13:21. | :13:25. | |
speculating on various bits of the evidence which we have not heard. | :13:25. | :13:33. | |
quite right so that's continued to speculate. -- so let's continue. | :13:33. | :13:38. | |
think it is enormously significant that the minister in question's | :13:38. | :13:41. | |
Permanent Secretary yesterday refused 10 times to say that the | :13:41. | :13:47. | |
man we had never heard of, Adam Smith, had behaved properly. He | :13:47. | :13:53. | |
refused to comment. I think it is enormously significant that Ofcom | :13:53. | :13:58. | |
is also dusting down the way it is looking at the BSkyB bid. They want | :13:58. | :14:04. | |
to look at hacking out to see if there is evidence to see if they | :14:04. | :14:13. | |
are not fit and proper persons... And if I was a better -- a betting | :14:13. | :14:19. | |
woman, which I am thank the Lord, to say that Jeremy Hunt will not be | :14:19. | :14:25. | |
there next week. Absolutely. Tuesday afternoon, the Prime | :14:25. | :14:29. | |
Minister decided that he wanted to keep Jeremy Hunt and a lot of stuff | :14:30. | :14:33. | |
that has flowed from that, comes from that decision. It is | :14:33. | :14:38. | |
significant that for instance people in government do not think | :14:38. | :14:42. | |
there will be a Jeremy Hunt Amex in the Levison report, there might not | :14:42. | :14:51. | |
be a section on him. It is unclear that it is his job to go into the | :14:51. | :14:55. | |
line by line details of a Minister's relationship with his | :14:55. | :15:01. | |
special adviser. That does not seem to cut it. I take a different view. | :15:01. | :15:04. | |
I do not think Jeremy Hunt will necessarily go. I think the | :15:04. | :15:08. | |
government have done an effective political and backroom job to make | :15:08. | :15:14. | |
sure there are not any unexploded bombs. Next week they will hand | :15:14. | :15:19. | |
over e-mails and texts which will not contain anything dangerous, | :15:19. | :15:24. | |
Downing Street Arkley on that. Actually I think there are not any | :15:24. | :15:28. | |
problems on Jeremy Hunt and he will probably end up staying in his job. | :15:28. | :15:34. | |
We shall see. What usually happens is the unknown bit. These stories | :15:34. | :15:44. | |
go places you never think so we Now we admire and love the | :15:44. | :15:48. | |
Financial Times on this programme. Daily Politics researchers are seen | :15:48. | :15:55. | |
scrapping over bits of pink paper from an early hour. Nothing to do | :15:55. | :15:59. | |
with the fact that the editor has been mentioned as a future director | :15:59. | :16:04. | |
general of the BBC, we have always just loved the Financial Times. But | :16:04. | :16:07. | |
we had to take umbrage at one article this week, that dubbed | :16:07. | :16:10. | |
Michael Fallon here, Minister for the Today Programme. Writers of the | :16:10. | :16:19. | |
FT, he's ours. The Daily politics! And Mr Fallon has certainly been | :16:19. | :16:28. | |
busy, batting for the government from dawn to dusk. Like one of | :16:28. | :16:32. | |
these Test-match opening batsman who you cannot get out. After all | :16:32. | :16:37. | |
it's not been the best of months for Mr Cameron. Some have asked, | :16:38. | :16:43. | |
where is Baroness Warsi, Mr Fallon's boss? After all, you can | :16:43. | :16:46. | |
be party chair, or you can be camera shy, you can't surely be | :16:47. | :16:56. | |
:16:57. | :17:10. | ||
What is your reaction to those to resign? Two out of two isn't bad. | :17:10. | :17:16. | |
Though a charitable man, I find it... I find it harder to feel | :17:16. | :17:26. | |
:17:26. | :17:40. | ||
sorry for Mr Kinnock. The more he That is a second Tory victory being | :17:40. | :17:47. | |
announced. So we have a rival for the leadership. I as party chairman | :17:47. | :17:53. | |
have enjoyed it because most party chairman end up with sniping and | :17:53. | :18:03. | |
:18:03. | :18:15. | ||
So, why do we always get the monkey and not the organ grinder? You had | :18:15. | :18:20. | |
Baroness Warsi on this programme just two weeks ago, she was on | :18:20. | :18:23. | |
Newsnight, she did Question Time last week. She is up and down the | :18:23. | :18:29. | |
country. A rich you are on much more than her! Why is that? If all | :18:29. | :18:33. | |
the ministers worked as hard as her getting over the government's | :18:33. | :18:37. | |
message, we wouldn't be as far behind in the polls as we are. She | :18:37. | :18:41. | |
was on this programme last week. you were asked to take the | :18:41. | :18:47. | |
chairman's job, would you accept? We have got a party chairman. | :18:47. | :18:53. | |
if she was to fall on her sword, follow the ways of Adam Smith, I | :18:53. | :18:58. | |
don't mean the 18th century economy, if she was to do that, and her | :18:58. | :19:02. | |
position was to become vacant, would you be up for this? It is not | :19:02. | :19:08. | |
a yes or no, we have got a party chairman. So the answer is No. She | :19:08. | :19:12. | |
has these huge advantage at not being an MP, so she can get out in | :19:12. | :19:17. | |
the country, talking to activists, I saw her on Question Time last | :19:17. | :19:24. | |
week. I don't know if it has quite a big audience... Don't you slag | :19:24. | :19:30. | |
off this programme! She has been on all these programmes, putting the | :19:30. | :19:35. | |
government's message over. They pull the other cabinet minister -- | :19:35. | :19:38. | |
if all the other cabinet ministers worked as hard as her, the | :19:38. | :19:44. | |
government would be better shape. Part of your party organisers | :19:44. | :19:48. | |
fundraisers, and it is beamed around the titanic event. Did you | :19:48. | :19:54. | |
serve the same food as on the night of the Titanic went down? You | :19:54. | :19:58. | |
invite Baroness Warsi and you hold it on Friday 13th. What could | :19:58. | :20:04. | |
possibly go wrong?! I wonder. I hadn't heard of that won't. But | :20:04. | :20:11. | |
there have been a lot of a titanic commemoration dinners. They need a | :20:11. | :20:18. | |
strong chairman? They have got two, actually. They are doing a good job. | :20:18. | :20:24. | |
It is a very typical, Sam Coates might agree, but governments get | :20:25. | :20:29. | |
rough periods, and people stop blaming the chairman. They take the | :20:29. | :20:36. | |
incoming fire, and you get this Corus. I'm glad you mentioned Sam | :20:36. | :20:44. | |
Coates. I will just refresh his memory. "he works 25 hours a day, | :20:44. | :20:49. | |
defending the indefensible, he gives a withering looks to certain | :20:49. | :20:54. | |
questions. He is what they need, not a crony. Baroness Warsi is | :20:54. | :21:02. | |
sackable. Please continue. course Michael is chairman in all | :21:02. | :21:06. | |
but name, because few people are willing... All of us want you to | :21:06. | :21:12. | |
get a pay rise, I don't know why you're resisting it! You should get | :21:12. | :21:17. | |
the chairman's salary. The point about this government is that it is | :21:17. | :21:24. | |
interesting how few are prepared... How few cabinet ministers come out | :21:24. | :21:28. | |
and make the core argument about why this government is doing while | :21:28. | :21:34. | |
it is doing. I'm thinking about the charity changes, explaining in | :21:34. | :21:39. | |
public why the change was made in the Budget, or the NHS changes. | :21:39. | :21:44. | |
There is always a bit missing in the speeches, justifying why the | :21:44. | :21:49. | |
changes are being made. So there is a bigger shyness about this crop of | :21:49. | :21:53. | |
politicians, about exploding to the public are difficult things they | :21:53. | :21:58. | |
are doing, they don't want to be boxed in and say difficult things, | :21:58. | :22:03. | |
but Michael is one of the few who does. One of the things going wrong | :22:03. | :22:09. | |
with this government, and is a reason why it is in trouble is | :22:09. | :22:15. | |
because they have not got the strategic situation sorted out of | :22:15. | :22:20. | |
who is doing what and where. George Osborne is in charge of policy | :22:20. | :22:25. | |
making, and bring the economy into the ground. Who is the chairman of | :22:25. | :22:32. | |
the Labour Party? I know my place. Harriet Harman. I don't want her | :22:32. | :22:40. | |
job, she is in charge, I do what she tells me. But he is the general | :22:40. | :22:49. | |
secretary? Ian McNicol. We used to have people in these executive | :22:49. | :22:53. | |
position to which stand up to the leadership of the party. That is | :22:53. | :22:58. | |
not happening at Central Office. used to have general secretary is | :22:58. | :23:00. | |
attacking their leader from there rostrum of the Labour Party | :23:00. | :23:05. | |
conference, we have moved beyond that. Michael Fallon, you have been | :23:05. | :23:10. | |
a good sport, so you will have the last word. I was trying to say, I | :23:10. | :23:15. | |
think Sam makes a good point, it is up to all ministers to defend the | :23:15. | :23:20. | |
government commission be left to Baroness Warsi ought to me. We saw | :23:20. | :23:25. | |
Michael go out on Wednesday defending the decision over Leveson, | :23:25. | :23:30. | |
and ministers have got to do that. It cannot be left to David Cameron | :23:30. | :23:35. | |
or George Osborne or Baroness Warsi. You have a train to catch. The | :23:35. | :23:41. | |
Harry Potter Express. constituency. Tom Watson, Michael | :23:41. | :23:45. | |
Fallon, thank you for being with us. Now, the last few days have seen | :23:45. | :23:48. | |
allegations of widespread postal fraud and vote harvesting in the | :23:48. | :23:50. | |
London borough of Tower Hamlets. Labour and Conservative councillors | :23:50. | :23:52. | |
have written to the Electoral Commission detailing instances | :23:52. | :23:57. | |
where they believe postal fraud may have occurred. The Electoral | :23:57. | :23:59. | |
Commission has passed the allegations on to the Metropolitan | :23:59. | :24:06. | |
Police who are now investigating. To find out more we can speak to | :24:06. | :24:08. | |
one of the MPs for the Tower Hamlets area, Labour's Jim | :24:08. | :24:18. | |
Fitzpatrick. Mr Fitzpatrick, thank you for joining us. Tell us what do | :24:18. | :24:22. | |
you know has been happening in Tower Hamlets? We have been | :24:22. | :24:26. | |
concerned for some time about allegations of voting | :24:26. | :24:32. | |
irregularities, there was a council by-election in the Spitalfields | :24:32. | :24:38. | |
ward, last week, and as a result of that, residents have registered a | :24:38. | :24:41. | |
number of concerns with some of my councillor colleagues over | :24:41. | :24:48. | |
potential voter fraud, coast applications, people suggested who | :24:48. | :24:53. | |
had voted, who had moved away or had died. Somebody who apparently | :24:53. | :24:59. | |
supposed to be in prison. I have got no idea ability -- the validity | :25:00. | :25:03. | |
of these allegations, but what we thought was appropriate to do was | :25:03. | :25:08. | |
pass on these concerns to the authorities, and the matter has | :25:08. | :25:12. | |
been referred to the Electoral Commission and the police, they are | :25:12. | :25:16. | |
investigating. It is up to the operative to examine the | :25:16. | :25:21. | |
allegations and see if there is any truth in them. In the working have | :25:21. | :25:25. | |
been giving, and the work of your colleagues in the local Labour | :25:25. | :25:30. | |
Party, do you have any sense, I know this is just anecdotal, but | :25:30. | :25:35. | |
any sense of how widespread you think this is? No, we haven't. | :25:35. | :25:42. | |
Tower Hamlets, as you know, is a dynamic, exciting political | :25:42. | :25:48. | |
landscape. We got rid of the BNP in 1993, we have got rid of the | :25:48. | :25:54. | |
Respect party, he has been resurrected in Bradford West, sadly, | :25:54. | :25:59. | |
but a lot of dynamism in Tower Hamlets politics. They're always a | :25:59. | :26:03. | |
distant and stories and anecdotes, but when a residents raised | :26:03. | :26:11. | |
concerns which to us seemed worth reporting, it is our duty to report | :26:11. | :26:15. | |
them to the authorities. It is a complicated political position in | :26:15. | :26:22. | |
Tower Hamlets. Let me summarise it for our viewers, and see if it is | :26:22. | :26:26. | |
relevant to potential fraud, but you have a Mayor who was in the | :26:26. | :26:33. | |
Labour Party, but isn't any more. He was backed by Ken Livingstone | :26:33. | :26:41. | |
against the Labour candidate to become a Mayor, and Mr Rahman is | :26:42. | :26:46. | |
now backing Mr Livingstone to be Mayor? Is that the situation, | :26:46. | :26:50. | |
roughly, and is that relevant? Could Livingstone didn't endorse | :26:50. | :26:57. | |
his candidature Je, but I understand Mr Rahman is supporting | :26:57. | :27:04. | |
can's campaign. He is looking at the two differences between Boris | :27:04. | :27:08. | |
and Ken Livingstone, and the Tower Hamlets, the biggest issue is | :27:08. | :27:13. | |
housing. Ken Livingstone's has a policy when he was Mayor was much | :27:13. | :27:18. | |
better for Tower Hamlets -- housing policy. So it is night and day | :27:18. | :27:23. | |
between the two on that core policy, so why would be surprised if people | :27:23. | :27:31. | |
in Tower Hamlets didn't support Ken Livingstone. But the London mayoral | :27:31. | :27:37. | |
election could be close, polls suggest it might be close, so | :27:37. | :27:41. | |
electoral irregularities become very serious. Should we be | :27:41. | :27:45. | |
suspicious, all right to be suspicious that so many people have | :27:45. | :27:50. | |
recently applied for postal votes in Tower Hamlets? Well, as I said | :27:50. | :27:55. | |
at the beginning, we have been concerned for some time, we monitor | :27:55. | :27:59. | |
the situation very carefully, we know that we have problems with | :27:59. | :28:02. | |
people joining the Labour Party over a number of years to have been | :28:02. | :28:05. | |
signed up, there are suggestions that their membership has been paid | :28:05. | :28:09. | |
by people who needed their boats to suggest candidates for local | :28:09. | :28:16. | |
government. We have worked very hard with the council and the | :28:16. | :28:18. | |
Electoral Registration Office declined Tower Hamlets's act up, | :28:18. | :28:23. | |
and when we get allegations such as those, we obviously want to make | :28:23. | :28:28. | |
sure that these are examined very closely. So if there is fraud, and | :28:28. | :28:34. | |
I am saying it if, it can be nailed, and those responsible can be held | :28:34. | :28:38. | |
to account and prosecuted vigorously, because this is the | :28:38. | :28:44. | |
essence of our democracy, to have openness, transparency and honesty. | :28:44. | :28:48. | |
I understand that, but we know the way it works with postal votes, it | :28:48. | :28:53. | |
ends up in a particular household, these postal votes are then | :28:53. | :28:56. | |
harvested, the people who have the bird macro are not the ones are | :28:56. | :29:03. | |
filling it in, NGC are all sorts of boats being filled in by the same | :29:03. | :29:07. | |
person or group. Is it the best way to make sure that doesn't happen is | :29:07. | :29:11. | |
to go back to the old system, you only got a postal vote if you were | :29:11. | :29:17. | |
not in the country at the time of the election? If you were going to | :29:17. | :29:22. | |
be in Tower Hamlets, you didn't have. This is dynamic democracy, | :29:22. | :29:26. | |
and there are changes all the time. The tightening up of the rules of | :29:26. | :29:31. | |
postal voting, making sure the applications are valid, and now the | :29:31. | :29:35. | |
requirements for signatures and date of birth, to validate the | :29:35. | :29:41. | |
forms, means they are more easily identifiable if they are fraudulent. | :29:41. | :29:45. | |
So if there are fraudulent forms being used, that should be able to | :29:45. | :29:49. | |
be demonstrated much more easily than previously, when people to | :29:49. | :29:55. | |
harvest them, and could send them in. So checking to see if the voter | :29:55. | :29:59. | |
still lives at the address, is alive, not in prison, if these | :29:59. | :30:05. | |
allegations can be checked by the authorities, that would clean the | :30:05. | :30:09. | |
act up, and in that instant, postal voting can be convenient for people, | :30:09. | :30:14. | |
especially those working, with children, shift workers. I did in | :30:14. | :30:19. | |
postal voting itself is a bad thing, -- I don't think postal voting | :30:19. | :30:29. | |
:30:29. | :30:33. | ||
Sam Coates. Let me come to you first. In Tower Hamlets, if there | :30:33. | :30:38. | |
is an irregularity, the beneficiary is Ken Livingstone. That would seem | :30:38. | :30:43. | |
to be clear. If the election is very close, this is potentially a | :30:43. | :30:50. | |
huge story. We have seen during ministers make exactly that point. | :30:50. | :30:56. | |
-- Tory ministers. Postal fraud has been prevalent in Britain in | :30:56. | :31:02. | |
different parts of the country. Done by different groups. It is a | :31:02. | :31:06. | |
very serious matter and if the result is close, we could be | :31:06. | :31:11. | |
heading for the court. Eventually what is happening in Tower Hamlets | :31:11. | :31:15. | |
is there are two distinct parts of the Bangladeshi community and you | :31:15. | :31:19. | |
have different politicians using different tactics to try to get one | :31:19. | :31:23. | |
and the other side on board. You see this in Birmingham and you | :31:23. | :31:29. | |
probably saw it in Bradford with George Galloway, how reluctant | :31:29. | :31:33. | |
politicians are to spell out the claims of tactics they use when | :31:33. | :31:38. | |
they are in those areas, as opposed to how they talk about how they try | :31:38. | :31:43. | |
to attract those voters. Jim Fitzpatrick just said, I think they | :31:43. | :31:47. | |
preferred Ken Livingstone's manifesto. I suspect they have | :31:47. | :31:50. | |
specific techniques they use in Tower Hamlets that they do not want | :31:50. | :31:57. | |
to tell us about. Not only is postal voting a problem but | :31:57. | :32:01. | |
personification is also easy to do once you have people registered as | :32:01. | :32:06. | |
living in your house, and one of the allegations it there was seven | :32:06. | :32:10. | |
people registered living in one room in Tower Hamlets, and in this | :32:10. | :32:17. | |
recent by-election, someone in prison was on the register. The BBC | :32:17. | :32:23. | |
has been doing quite a lot of this in Tower Hamlets. Had the media, | :32:23. | :32:27. | |
have we not been alive enough to the corruption of our electoral | :32:27. | :32:33. | |
system? Quite right. It is very easy to do. I have a number of | :32:33. | :32:39. | |
people registered in my house who live abroad, I am met on it, and | :32:39. | :32:48. | |
they have a British address. -- I am their Auntie. No, I am not come | :32:48. | :32:52. | |
to personify them, if you are watching, officer! Personified, | :32:52. | :32:56. | |
that means you fill in the ballot papers of all the people | :32:56. | :33:03. | |
registered? Yes. Jim said to they can check signatures. How do they | :33:03. | :33:09. | |
know what people's signatures look like? People signed, yes, I am this | :33:09. | :33:15. | |
person. I could sign my niece's a dress if we wanted to. There is | :33:15. | :33:22. | |
more to go on this. We are talking about London, although it is | :33:22. | :33:29. | |
happening in other parts of the country. Tower Hamlets. Time now to | :33:29. | :33:32. | |
speak to another candidate for London Mayor and today it's the | :33:32. | :33:34. | |
turn of the Liberal Democrat contender, Brian Paddick. First, | :33:34. | :33:40. | |
let's take a look at some of his The former police commander wants | :33:40. | :33:43. | |
an increased emphasis on community sentencing and is proposing the | :33:43. | :33:46. | |
creation of a pay-back programme where criminals are made to do | :33:46. | :33:49. | |
community work like cleaning up graffiti. | :33:49. | :33:52. | |
Mr Paddick wants more training for police to help deal with rape | :33:52. | :33:54. | |
victims and more funding for support groups. | :33:54. | :33:57. | |
He wants a large house building programme and pledges to build | :33:57. | :34:03. | |
360,000 homes in a decade. And there are proposals for cheaper | :34:03. | :34:05. | |
fares for commuters travelling before 7.30am in the morning, as | :34:05. | :34:09. | |
well as a one-hour bus ticket so people can hop on and off busses | :34:09. | :34:19. | |
:34:19. | :34:21. | ||
Brian Paddick joins me now. Welcome to the Daily Politics. Thank you. | :34:21. | :34:26. | |
Can I get your reaction to these allegations in Tower Hamlets? | :34:26. | :34:31. | |
moved address six months ago, because my post has been redirected | :34:31. | :34:37. | |
and I used to have a postal ballot, I now have a postal ballot at home | :34:37. | :34:42. | |
and a polling card for me to go in person and vote. It would be very | :34:42. | :34:49. | |
easy for unscrupulous people to vote often and vote early. So you | :34:49. | :34:55. | |
are sure of two! Of course I shall only be using one of those! These a | :34:55. | :35:00. | |
serious allegations about Tower Hamlets. Are we right to take them | :35:00. | :35:05. | |
seriously? Is this an endemic problem in parts of the country? | :35:05. | :35:09. | |
There is a serious problem that needs to be investigated if we are | :35:09. | :35:14. | |
to have confidence in the voting system that we have. The in Athens, | :35:14. | :35:19. | |
you are in a good position in with the election -- in a sense of. You | :35:19. | :35:23. | |
can, is what you want in the pretty certain knowledge that he will | :35:23. | :35:29. | |
never be asked to deliver. A similar question was put to George | :35:29. | :35:35. | |
Galloway a week before he won a by- election in Bradford. This could be | :35:35. | :35:42. | |
the year of four much reality TV show's stars, you never know! -- | :35:42. | :35:50. | |
former. He wasn't on 5% of the opinion polls. You are out of date. | :35:50. | :35:55. | |
Has there been a late surge? A poll in the Telegraph today shows me on | :35:55. | :36:03. | |
10.3%. These postal votes really are working! When we did the BBC | :36:03. | :36:09. | |
London debate. Which you did very well, I have to say. Thank you, you | :36:09. | :36:15. | |
have more votes now. We spoke about housing with you and the other | :36:15. | :36:20. | |
candidates and I put a question to you that in a sense, our ambition | :36:20. | :36:24. | |
for house building in the capital has been quite limited. Even the | :36:24. | :36:30. | |
promises are not enough. You are promising more but 360,000 houses | :36:30. | :36:34. | |
over ten years in a city that many people think is already crowded. | :36:34. | :36:39. | |
Where will you put them? That number was not plucked out of thin | :36:39. | :36:45. | |
air. It is because we have identified brownfield sites, not | :36:45. | :36:49. | |
back gardens and green spaces, but brownfield sites, where you can | :36:49. | :36:55. | |
build these homes. Am I right in thinking that one of the powers | :36:55. | :37:02. | |
that is now coming to the London mayor is that the mayor's office is | :37:02. | :37:06. | |
responsible for the land bank, which is about 350 hectares, and | :37:07. | :37:14. | |
has a budget of over �3 billion? It is a big deal, housing policy? | :37:14. | :37:18. | |
mayor effectively have the same powers that the GLC used to have to | :37:18. | :37:23. | |
build social housing. The majority of that land we are talking about | :37:23. | :37:30. | |
are owned by the mayor. So we have the land already. 60% of the cost | :37:30. | :37:36. | |
of building homes in London is the land cost. Take that out of the | :37:36. | :37:42. | |
equation, you can build a 40% and therefore rent of 40% of the value. | :37:42. | :37:48. | |
But how can you pay? We can borrow from the City. Pension funds in | :37:48. | :37:52. | |
Europe and America invest in social housing. In the past it has been | :37:52. | :37:58. | |
office blocks. In this country it has been yet another Westfield | :37:58. | :38:03. | |
shopping centre. But economic times are tough. I would have thought | :38:03. | :38:08. | |
pension funds would have seen this as a much better bet financially to | :38:08. | :38:13. | |
invest in social housing and in the commercial sector. You say you will | :38:13. | :38:17. | |
be tough on crime, and have been a police background obviously helps | :38:17. | :38:24. | |
in that regard, but you have also said that police are wasted on | :38:24. | :38:31. | |
cannabis. It may be right, it may be wrong, but doesn't it undermine | :38:31. | :38:36. | |
your position as, I am a tough guy on crime and I know more about it | :38:36. | :38:42. | |
than you? People misunderstand this. When I was police commander in | :38:42. | :38:47. | |
Lambeth, local people said, crack cocaine and heroin is destroying | :38:47. | :38:51. | |
young people, we are not interested in them being arrested for small | :38:51. | :38:56. | |
amounts of cannabis for their own use. So we concentrated on | :38:56. | :39:01. | |
arresting people for hard drugs. I want the police concentrating on | :39:01. | :39:06. | |
local people's priorities. I was the police commander in Merton in | :39:06. | :39:11. | |
south London before I went to Lambeth. The crime was fairly low. | :39:11. | :39:16. | |
There was no question of not arresting people for cannabis | :39:16. | :39:22. | |
because we had a time to do that. In Lambeth, we had too much crime, | :39:22. | :39:27. | |
we will 100 police of his short, so it was priorities, and that is what | :39:27. | :39:36. | |
this campaign is about -- we were 100 police officers short. It all | :39:36. | :39:41. | |
seems so blue skies and apple pie and it all sounds wonderful, and it | :39:41. | :39:47. | |
isn't going to happen because it is Ken against Boris. Has that been | :39:48. | :39:54. | |
frustrating? The media particularly. Because we right personalities. | :39:54. | :40:00. | |
These are enormous personalities. - - we like personalities. And you | :40:00. | :40:04. | |
like a fight! But the public are fed up with these two scrapping. | :40:04. | :40:11. | |
You will benefit a bit from that but 10.3%, you know. It is not | :40:11. | :40:20. | |
gonna happen. That is what they said to George Galloway! I think | :40:20. | :40:26. | |
the Independent will do very well... Not according to the opinion polls. | :40:26. | :40:35. | |
She is behind the BNP and UKIP. is the media candidate. Sam Coates? | :40:35. | :40:40. | |
I was fascinated about what you said about Tower Hamlets. Do you | :40:40. | :40:45. | |
think if the result between Ken and Boris is very close and there is a | :40:45. | :40:49. | |
big amount of postal fraud in Tower Hamlets, do you think the election | :40:49. | :40:54. | |
could end up in the courts? That is always a possibility. Ken | :40:54. | :40:57. | |
Livingstone desperately wants it because he can't think of anything | :40:57. | :41:02. | |
else to do with his time. He has got his tax returns to do. | :41:02. | :41:08. | |
Boris Johnson is very, very ambitious. If it comes very close | :41:08. | :41:12. | |
and there is a possibility that borrowers can get it by taking up | :41:12. | :41:18. | |
this issue of voter fraud, it could end up in the court. Are you giving | :41:18. | :41:21. | |
any guidance to supporters on where they should put their second | :41:21. | :41:26. | |
preference? No, only on where they should put their first preference, | :41:26. | :41:31. | |
which is to vote Liberal Democrat. You may have a private one but you | :41:31. | :41:35. | |
will not say that. Is it true you go home at lunchtime to watch the | :41:35. | :41:40. | |
Daily Politics? Of course! It is essential viewing! I don't get to | :41:40. | :41:45. | |
do that every day obviously but I am very lucky because the campaign | :41:45. | :41:48. | |
headquarters is around the corner from where I live. They do allow me | :41:48. | :41:55. | |
to feed occasionally on this campaign, which is good. Your | :41:55. | :41:59. | |
campaign can afford it TV! I don't want to interrupt these very busy | :41:59. | :42:03. | |
people who have hard work to do so I would rather go home and watch it | :42:03. | :42:09. | |
there while I eat my sandwich. Brian Paddick, thank you. | :42:09. | :42:17. | |
Now, more elections. We go from London to Scotland. Voters are | :42:17. | :42:21. | |
being asked to choose who they want as their local councillor. But a | :42:21. | :42:24. | |
year after their sweeping victory in the Scottish Parliament in | :42:24. | :42:29. | |
Holyrood, will the SNP still manage to win new supporters? Or are they | :42:29. | :42:32. | |
now the incumbents? And how is Scottish Labour planning to fight | :42:32. | :42:38. | |
back? BBC Scotland's reporter, Laura Bicker, has been looking at | :42:38. | :42:44. | |
the battleground of Glasgow. This local election campaign needs | :42:44. | :42:49. | |
to be the fight back for Labour. But on the Clyde, they are bruised | :42:49. | :42:54. | |
and broken. Splits within the Glasgow party have led to a | :42:54. | :42:58. | |
breakaway group and Scottish Labour's new leader finds herself | :42:58. | :43:03. | |
with a real battle on her hand it's. Our test, not to presume that | :43:03. | :43:07. | |
people will vote, but to go and argue for every vote and that is | :43:07. | :43:11. | |
what has happened across Scotland. Labour members right across | :43:12. | :43:16. | |
Scotland, determined to get the message across that we will put the | :43:16. | :43:21. | |
priorities of people first. fight in Scotland is for more than | :43:21. | :43:26. | |
Glasgow's City Hall. 1200 council seats, all of them, up for grabs. | :43:26. | :43:31. | |
Most of the 32 local authorities are coalitions. The nationalists | :43:31. | :43:37. | |
take the lead in 14 of them. They want at least two more. If the F M | :43:37. | :43:45. | |
B do really well and pick -- if the SNP do really well and pick up | :43:45. | :43:50. | |
control of a couple more councils, then certainly Alex Salmond will be | :43:50. | :43:55. | |
able to say, the people of Scotland are still behind me, that mandate I | :43:55. | :43:58. | |
have got in terms of taking the country forward towards a | :43:58. | :44:04. | |
referendum has been reaffirmed. Westminster politics still cast a | :44:04. | :44:08. | |
long shadow over Scotland. The Liberal Democrat vote in some areas | :44:08. | :44:15. | |
collapsed. But they are hoping to win back at least some support. | :44:15. | :44:19. | |
are coming across a lot of people who voted SNP last year and are | :44:20. | :44:24. | |
worried about them using this as a stepping stone to independence, and | :44:24. | :44:28. | |
as a result, they will not vote for them. They do not want their | :44:29. | :44:33. | |
council services to be used as a tool to get the SNP their stated | :44:33. | :44:38. | |
policy of independence. That has changed since last year. But the | :44:38. | :44:43. | |
Conservatives say they offer something different. The other main | :44:43. | :44:48. | |
party manifestos are fairly similar. The Tories also think they could | :44:48. | :44:54. | |
win votes at the expense of their UK coalition partners. We have been | :44:54. | :44:58. | |
the fourth body of local government in Scotland since 1992. We expect | :44:58. | :45:02. | |
we will be the third and we will increase our voting share so we are | :45:02. | :45:07. | |
looking to improve. But it is the nationalists who on the march, | :45:07. | :45:11. | |
fielding more candidates than ever before. But can they really win | :45:11. | :45:16. | |
Glasgow? The SNP is fighting to win local elections in every single | :45:16. | :45:22. | |
part of Scotland, not just Glasgow. We believe people want good and | :45:22. | :45:25. | |
competent local government, in the same way they want competent | :45:25. | :45:31. | |
national government. The SNP is all about jobs, families and fairness. | :45:32. | :45:36. | |
Even if the SNP do not manage to take Glasgow, the fact that they | :45:36. | :45:40. | |
are being listened to in this city is a sign of how the political | :45:40. | :45:45. | |
landscape has changed. If the nationalists vote across Scotland | :45:45. | :45:50. | |
increases with them -- with a referendum looming, it could have | :45:50. | :45:53. | |
implications for Westminster and it is a voice that David Cameron and | :45:53. | :45:58. | |
the coalition cannot avoid. We can speak to our Scotland | :45:58. | :46:07. | |
It seems to me that the question in Scotland is whether the SNP are | :46:07. | :46:11. | |
still the insurgents or the incumbents, and whether they will | :46:11. | :46:16. | |
make huge gains. Let me start with Glasgow, what is the latest | :46:16. | :46:22. | |
thinking on how that will go? have to go back to 2007, it is one | :46:22. | :46:30. | |
of only two local authorities are where Labour won with an outright | :46:30. | :46:33. | |
majority, but they wouldn't have done so if the SNP had bothered to | :46:34. | :46:38. | |
field more candidates in a proportional election under the | :46:38. | :46:42. | |
single transferable vote. So you can be sure that the nationalists | :46:42. | :46:46. | |
are bothering to field more candidates this time, in the | :46:46. | :46:49. | |
meantime, they have won another national election, and have the | :46:49. | :46:54. | |
momentum of that behind them. So they certainly expect to pick up | :46:54. | :46:59. | |
extra seat, but in truth, under the system, no one party should have an | :46:59. | :47:04. | |
outright majority. A Labour hoped it will still finish as the largest | :47:04. | :47:09. | |
party, the SNP hope that they will finish in that position in the end. | :47:09. | :47:15. | |
It may be that there needs to be some haggling in Glasgow, and some | :47:15. | :47:19. | |
kind of coalition formed to run the city in the future. That in itself | :47:19. | :47:23. | |
will be a big change, because it has been a Labour-dominated city | :47:23. | :47:27. | |
for so many years. Have you the impression that in terms of the | :47:28. | :47:31. | |
campaigning, it is still the Scottish nationalists who have the | :47:31. | :47:36. | |
verve and the drive, and Labour is still very much on the defensive, | :47:36. | :47:42. | |
trying to repair itself on its -- from its recent miserable years? | :47:42. | :47:47. | |
think the Labour Party expect to be the second party of local | :47:47. | :47:51. | |
government after these elections this year, that is the position | :47:51. | :47:56. | |
they are in, and they don't expect this time around to get back into | :47:56. | :48:02. | |
first place. The SNP certainly broke the mould of Scottish | :48:02. | :48:06. | |
politics with the results they achieved in the Scottish parliament | :48:06. | :48:10. | |
last year, people will be looking at these elections are not just to | :48:10. | :48:15. | |
see what happens in each of the 32 local authorities, but the that | :48:15. | :48:20. | |
overall national picture, is the SNP juggernaut still chugging ahead | :48:20. | :48:26. | |
or it is starting to stall? Certainly for nationalists expect | :48:26. | :48:29. | |
to pick up extra council seats across the country, that is | :48:29. | :48:33. | |
important for them for another reason, because they are aiming for | :48:33. | :48:38. | |
the referendum on independence in 2014, and dump more councillors | :48:38. | :48:46. | |
they have locally, the less other parties have. -- de Mort | :48:46. | :48:53. | |
councillors that they have a locally. Just finally, what is the | :48:53. | :48:57. | |
revelation that not only is Alex Salmond of the only major | :48:57. | :49:01. | |
politician who will now be seen in public with Rupert Murdoch, but was | :49:01. | :49:07. | |
prepared to lobby on behalf of Mr Murdoch's company to get BSkyB, | :49:07. | :49:11. | |
what has been the implication of that for the campaigning for him? | :49:11. | :49:17. | |
Alex Salmond has had a bad week, trouble with two tycoons, Donald | :49:17. | :49:21. | |
Trump, who he has previously been close to, turning against him. I | :49:21. | :49:26. | |
don't think these dealings do him any favours, I don't think they | :49:26. | :49:31. | |
would in any vote, but we are talking about local government | :49:31. | :49:34. | |
elections, when the most motivated people are the only ones who tend | :49:34. | :49:39. | |
to turn out, and I guess different people in different places | :49:39. | :49:43. | |
Northwest Airlines Flight 253 for different reasons. In Edinburgh, | :49:43. | :49:48. | |
there is one big local election, with the runaway tram project, | :49:48. | :49:52. | |
people saying they were used polling day to punish the | :49:52. | :49:55. | |
politicians and parties they believe are responsible for that | :49:55. | :50:01. | |
particular mess. Thank you for that. The problem is that the trams do | :50:01. | :50:09. | |
not even work yet. After several hundred million pounds! There we go, | :50:09. | :50:16. | |
Glasgow, an important battleground, just as London is. We will be here | :50:16. | :50:21. | |
on the BBC on May 3rd. So, it's been a week of ups and downs. Two | :50:21. | :50:24. | |
penguins in Scarborough are said to be making a full recovery after a | :50:24. | :50:32. | |
break-in left them depressed. The Huddersfield MP, Barry Sheerman got | :50:32. | :50:35. | |
upset over a bacon butty and Prince William gave a passionate speech | :50:35. | :50:38. | |
demanding protection for endangered cats. Yes, it's been a busy few | :50:38. | :50:43. | |
days. Other things may have happened as well! Here's Susannah | :50:43. | :50:53. | |
:50:53. | :50:53. | ||
It is official, we're in a double dip, but the government isn't | :50:53. | :50:57. | |
budging on austerity, recession or no recession. Was this the week of | :50:57. | :51:03. | |
the Murdoch's revenge? He told us Gordon Brown was an balanced, and | :51:03. | :51:08. | |
we found out how close the media mogul is to his papers. If any | :51:08. | :51:12. | |
politician wanted my opinions on major matters, they only had to | :51:12. | :51:17. | |
read the editorial in The Sun. other Murdoch put the culture | :51:17. | :51:23. | |
secretary in the firing line over the BSkyB bid. Jeremy Hunt has | :51:23. | :51:27. | |
dodged the bonnet so far. A rare bit of glitz and glamour at the | :51:27. | :51:33. | |
select committee, when Russell Brand Through in a gag about Abu | :51:33. | :51:39. | |
Qatada. We cannot run out of time. And his next, Theresa May? She may | :51:39. | :51:46. | |
not show up! And the baker's descended to tell the government is | :51:46. | :51:52. | |
a shambles of a budget was half- baked. | :51:52. | :51:58. | |
I knew other things had been happening, thanks! When the froth | :51:58. | :52:03. | |
has settled over Murdoch and the pastiche, and the charity tax and | :52:03. | :52:08. | |
so on, one thing doesn't go away, and may not for some time. The fact | :52:08. | :52:12. | |
we are in recession, and even if technically we come out of it again, | :52:12. | :52:17. | |
the best you can say is it this economy is flat mining, and the | :52:17. | :52:23. | |
political implications for coalition are enormous. When you | :52:23. | :52:26. | |
consider this government is in place and set itself up as the | :52:26. | :52:29. | |
government that will deal with the deficit, and recession means that | :52:29. | :52:34. | |
the deficit is not going to go away, they're not going to clear it by | :52:34. | :52:39. | |
the next election, I think there is a real political problem. The | :52:39. | :52:45. | |
politics over what to do about the deficit is becoming a rictus, they | :52:45. | :52:54. | |
have ossified between the stick with a Plan B -- plan a or not. I | :52:54. | :52:58. | |
think they're a lot of things you can be half way in between. But | :52:58. | :53:04. | |
undoubtedly come when you get to 2015, you will see the | :53:04. | :53:06. | |
Conservatives are attack from the right for not bringing down public | :53:06. | :53:09. | |
spending more, and attacked by Labour for not dealing with the | :53:09. | :53:14. | |
deficit. All of this is mounting up to be a significant political | :53:14. | :53:18. | |
challenge. The position they could find themselves in is, if it sticks | :53:18. | :53:26. | |
with Plan A, it is staffed, and did it doesn't, it is stuffed. Discuss! | :53:26. | :53:31. | |
Attic or probably find the government -- will probably find | :53:31. | :53:36. | |
the government coming up against it before then, this government will | :53:36. | :53:42. | |
not be hugely enthusiastic about these policies. In a way it is | :53:42. | :53:47. | |
lucky for Cameron that there has been at the Murdoch distraction of | :53:47. | :53:52. | |
this week, it hasn't played well for them either, but it has taken | :53:52. | :53:57. | |
away from this, which is by far the at standing political issue of our | :53:57. | :54:04. | |
day. -- the outstanding. It is in a sense, in terms of the fall-out, | :54:04. | :54:10. | |
which is why I emphasised Glasgow and London, because if Labour | :54:11. | :54:18. | |
cannot win with Mr Livingstone and his glass go to the SNP, on a 4th, | :54:19. | :54:22. | |
despite the ways of the government, the story becomes Ed Miliband again. | :54:22. | :54:27. | |
I think there is a national story to tell, but it is more mixed than | :54:27. | :54:33. | |
that. The Labour Party may never recover in Scotland and will find | :54:33. | :54:36. | |
it hard to form an overall government for the foreseeable | :54:36. | :54:39. | |
future, but also that the Conservatives in the North of | :54:39. | :54:43. | |
England and some parts of the South West are going backwards as well | :54:43. | :54:48. | |
for, and will not themselves be able to form a government. So I | :54:48. | :54:52. | |
suspect that what next Thursday will tell us is there isn't any | :54:52. | :54:56. | |
great queue and cry from one side or another, there is more of what | :54:56. | :55:01. | |
we saw in 2010 and we may be muddling through to another | :55:01. | :55:11. | |
coalition. And huge into the Peter both major parties. Which Mr Galic | :55:11. | :55:16. | |
capitalised on. And now for something completely different. | :55:16. | :55:20. | |
Being arrested isn't a lesson, it is just an AD appears to dig a blip. | :55:20. | :55:25. | |
You need to demonstrate an awareness of the situation. The | :55:25. | :55:30. | |
disease and condition of addiction does exacerbate it, if you were | :55:30. | :55:35. | |
taking expensive drugs, you will end up committing picking -- | :55:35. | :55:39. | |
committing a crime, but we need to identify a degree of compassion, | :55:39. | :55:44. | |
otherwise you look what you don't know what you're talking about. You | :55:44. | :55:49. | |
can tell what party they are in from their questions. What about | :55:49. | :55:53. | |
the victims of the crime! I think all the parties are interested in | :55:53. | :56:01. | |
that. Of course we are, we're not saying, ignore the victims. We are | :56:01. | :56:05. | |
running out of time. Time is in for that, we cannot run out of time. | :56:05. | :56:14. | |
Who is next, Theresa May, she may not show up! It is not quite a | :56:14. | :56:17. | |
variety show have fostered the EU are providing a bit of variety, | :56:18. | :56:27. | |
making it more like Dad's Army. You have a 4.5 million twitter dollars, | :56:27. | :56:32. | |
having gone through addiction and Rehabilitation, what is your | :56:32. | :56:36. | |
message to young people who want to get involved in drugs, what could | :56:36. | :56:40. | |
you say to them about the effect it has? My message isn't for young | :56:40. | :56:44. | |
people, it is by people who have this condition up addiction. If you | :56:44. | :56:49. | |
have that condition, there is help available for you, and I recommend | :56:49. | :56:53. | |
abstinence based recovery. I think some people can safely take drugs, | :56:53. | :56:57. | |
as long as it doesn't turn them into criminals, I did feel it is | :56:57. | :57:06. | |
any of my business. -- I don't feel. His parliament right to reach out | :57:06. | :57:12. | |
to these figures, or is it making a fool of itself? I think he | :57:12. | :57:17. | |
delivered an important message there, and a touch -- it is | :57:17. | :57:23. | |
probably a good thing. Do you people listen to Russell Brand any | :57:23. | :57:29. | |
more than Keith Vaz on drugs? don't think that Keith Vaz has 4.5 | :57:29. | :57:34. | |
million twitter far worse. Following and listening are | :57:34. | :57:42. | |
different things. But we are assuming that if Bristol branch | :57:42. | :57:45. | |
does say things, people do pay attention, do we have evidence for | :57:45. | :57:53. | |
that -- Russell Brand. I do think making Parliament relevant to the | :57:53. | :58:00. | |
next generation... He was grandstanding. But I do think that | :58:00. | :58:03. | |
politicians are always seen as a money permitting things like drug | :58:03. | :58:07. | |
addiction for their own ends, and playing to their audiences, rather | :58:07. | :58:11. | |
than helping those who were suffering, so I think there are | :58:11. | :58:16. | |
gains on both sides. We will leave it there. Thank you very much, it | :58:16. | :58:23. | |
was good to see you both. It has been a busy week. We are going to | :58:23. | :58:28. | |
prepare for the weekend. Thanks to all our guests. If you want to see | :58:28. | :58:31. | |
the full list of candidates standing for the election of the | :58:31. | :58:40. | |
London Mayor, just got to the BBC website a. I will be back on BBC | :58:40. | :58:46. |