Browse content similar to 06/07/2012. Check below for episodes and series from the same categories and more!
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Morning, folks, and welcome to the Daily Politics. | :00:40. | :00:43. | |
More coalition trouble this morning with the Lib Dems threatening to | :00:43. | :00:45. | |
withdraw support for parliamentary boundary changes if Tory MPs derail | :00:45. | :00:52. | |
plans for Lords Reform. We'll talk to a Tory rebel who's not for | :00:52. | :01:02. | |
:01:02. | :01:04. | ||
turning. After the anger and acrimony, the Inquiry. But after | :01:04. | :01:07. | |
Balls and Osborne's bust-up, can MPs really get to the bottom of the | :01:07. | :01:11. | |
banking scandal? As the Met Office forecasts a month's rainfall in the | :01:11. | :01:14. | |
next two days in parts of the UK, many homeowners will be living in | :01:14. | :01:17. | |
fear of floods. But with a deal between Government and the | :01:17. | :01:20. | |
insurance industry expiring in less than a year, could they soon be | :01:20. | :01:27. | |
left high and dry - or low and wet - when the waters rise? | :01:27. | :01:31. | |
And it's a long way from anarchy in the UK as Johnny Rotten joins the | :01:31. | :01:36. | |
Question Time panel. So how did the punk legend do? We ask his fellow | :01:36. | :01:38. | |
panellist, and something of a rocker himself, Alan Johnson, for | :01:38. | :01:48. | |
:01:48. | :01:48. | ||
his verdict. So all that's coming up in the next | :01:48. | :01:53. | |
half hour. With us for the whole programme today, Amber Elliott from | :01:53. | :01:57. | |
Total Politics magazine and our old friend Ian Collins. Total madness! | :01:57. | :02:06. | |
And our old friend Ian Collins. You are our old friend? Yeah! Now, the | :02:06. | :02:09. | |
coalition air is thick with threats and intrigue this morning. No | :02:09. | :02:17. | |
change there, then. According to sources to Nick Clegg, there could | :02:17. | :02:20. | |
be "serious consequences". The Liberal Democrats via an interview | :02:20. | :02:23. | |
given by one of the Deputy Prime Minister's departing advisers are | :02:23. | :02:25. | |
warning David Cameron that changes to Parliamentary boundaries much | :02:25. | :02:28. | |
prized by Conservatives could be at risk if Tory MPs derail the Lib | :02:28. | :02:35. | |
Dem's pet project, House of Lords reform. | :02:35. | :02:39. | |
We're going to be joined by one of the rebels that the Lib Dems want | :02:39. | :02:46. | |
to warn off, Peter Bone, MP. Good morning. Good morning to you. Are | :02:46. | :02:51. | |
you frightened, going to act? Are you going to retaliate as a result | :02:51. | :02:56. | |
of this threat? Quaking in my poots, I think, the threat from the | :02:56. | :03:00. | |
Liberals. They just can't be trusted. The deal was they got this | :03:00. | :03:05. | |
wretched AV vote in return for the boundary review. They all voted for | :03:05. | :03:09. | |
that bill. I actually voted against the bill, and now because they | :03:09. | :03:13. | |
didn't get what they wanted in the AV they're now saying it's all | :03:13. | :03:18. | |
about House of Lords reform. Hold on. That was in the coalition | :03:18. | :03:21. | |
agreement. House of Lords reform, bringing forward proposals, seating | :03:21. | :03:25. | |
agreement, but nothing about that. You had the Prime Minister saying | :03:25. | :03:29. | |
it was a third term priority. had a manifesto too. Why are you | :03:29. | :03:35. | |
renegging on it? You did not say that. Your manifesto said you would | :03:35. | :03:38. | |
seek a consensus on House of Lords reform. It's only because of people | :03:38. | :03:43. | |
like you we don't have a consensus. A consensus is a consensus. We're | :03:43. | :03:49. | |
still seeking it, haven't quite made it yet. Do you take the threat | :03:49. | :03:52. | |
seriously? Because it's pretty hard in the current system for the | :03:52. | :03:56. | |
Tories to get an overall majority even if you do well in the polls. | :03:56. | :04:01. | |
If you don't get boundary reform, it's almost mission impossible. | :04:01. | :04:04. | |
don't agree. I think if we had a strong Conservative Government, | :04:04. | :04:07. | |
perhaps as a minority Government for six months to a year then went | :04:07. | :04:11. | |
to the country, we'd get an overwhelming vote and have a clear- | :04:11. | :04:14. | |
cut Conservative majority. I think the Liberals messing around like | :04:15. | :04:18. | |
this just proves the sooner we get to a minority Government, the | :04:18. | :04:21. | |
better. How high would you put the chances of getting a Conservative | :04:21. | :04:25. | |
Government? I think if we govern as a minority Government and for | :04:25. | :04:28. | |
instance brought in definite plans for an EU referendum, a bill of | :04:28. | :04:31. | |
rights, tougher on immigration and things like that... You're not | :04:31. | :04:36. | |
going to get any of that are you? Not with the Liberals. Not getting | :04:36. | :04:39. | |
it even from David Cameron. I don't know. If he was free to be | :04:39. | :04:42. | |
Conservative Prime Minister, we could govern and put our case to | :04:42. | :04:46. | |
the country in due course, and I think that's - nobody really | :04:46. | :04:50. | |
seriously thinks this coalition can stagger on to 2015 when you can't | :04:50. | :04:53. | |
trust for one moment the Liberal Democrat members of it. Is this | :04:53. | :05:00. | |
just the normal sort of coalition politics, or do we take seriously | :05:00. | :05:04. | |
the Lib Dem threat? I think, you know, it's quite fun politics, | :05:04. | :05:08. | |
really, because Nick Clegg has upped the ante without saying a | :05:08. | :05:12. | |
word. You have had his advisor who left yesterday, and he's put the | :05:12. | :05:14. | |
situation out there where the Lib Dems have said, look, if you don't | :05:14. | :05:19. | |
do this for us, we'll stop boundary review - stop the boundary changes. | :05:19. | :05:22. | |
Would you leave them? I think this is just the beginning step. Given | :05:22. | :05:28. | |
it's a here-today-gone-tomorrow advisor following Steve Hilton to | :05:28. | :05:31. | |
the United States. It's great for Nick Clegg because if it doesn't | :05:31. | :05:35. | |
work out he can say it was just my advisor. That's why you wonder what | :05:35. | :05:40. | |
it's all about, Alfie, even though your name not Alfie! Because when I | :05:40. | :05:44. | |
interviewed Nick Clegg on the Sunday Politics and said, "If you | :05:44. | :05:48. | |
don't get Lords reform, will you retaliate?" He said, "One of the | :05:48. | :05:54. | |
good things about this coalition is we don't in for tit for tat | :05:54. | :05:58. | |
retaliation." Peter Bone needs to have a word with Mrs Bone on this | :05:58. | :06:01. | |
occasion because they seem to have lost the idea of what a coalition | :06:01. | :06:05. | |
is all about. If Peter thinks seriously the Conservatives can | :06:05. | :06:09. | |
govern with 50 less seats in a minority Government such as that I | :06:09. | :06:13. | |
am afraid he's living in cloud coup-coup land. One final thing - | :06:13. | :06:18. | |
stand back from it all and give me your prediction, when this | :06:18. | :06:22. | |
timetable - call it the guillotine notion determine debate on the | :06:22. | :06:25. | |
House of Lords reform comes before, there will be Tory rebellions, | :06:25. | :06:28. | |
given that Labour will abstain or vote against, will you have enough | :06:28. | :06:34. | |
rebels to win this vote to stop Lords reform in its tracks? | :06:34. | :06:37. | |
wouldn't stop Lords reform in its tracks, but it would cause problems. | :06:37. | :06:41. | |
Will you? I think there is enough votes it in, but I don't think in | :06:41. | :06:45. | |
the end the Government will move the programme motion. Why move a | :06:45. | :06:49. | |
motion when you know you're going to be beaten? Carry on with the | :06:49. | :06:52. | |
legislation... That would mean the Lords reform would carry on in the | :06:52. | :06:58. | |
House and gum up the works. We'll see how much it does. Remember, all | :06:58. | :07:03. | |
parties before the election were in favour of scrutinising legislation | :07:03. | :07:08. | |
fully, full scrutiny. What does it matter that MPs stayed through the | :07:08. | :07:12. | |
night to look at it? It's about time you did some work. Good to see | :07:12. | :07:14. | |
you. Now, there is another inquiry on | :07:14. | :07:18. | |
the way - this time about the rate- rigging scandal that took down Bob | :07:18. | :07:20. | |
Diamond this week. But agreement did not come easy. | :07:20. | :07:22. | |
Yesterday's debate on the banking inquiry was dominated by | :07:22. | :07:25. | |
acrimonious exchanges between Ed Balls and George Osborne about | :07:25. | :07:27. | |
comments by the Chancellor alleging that his Shadow had questions to | :07:27. | :07:30. | |
answer over pressure put on Barclays to lower the LIBOR rate in | :07:30. | :07:40. | |
:07:40. | :07:43. | ||
2008. It was quite a piece of parliamentary theatre. | :07:43. | :07:50. | |
Impugned my integrity - he has said - no, and he has made an allegation | :07:50. | :07:54. | |
in The Spectator and all over the newspapers. He has no evidence - | :07:54. | :07:58. | |
because there isn't any because it's untrue - and he knew there was | :07:58. | :08:02. | |
no evidence because he knew it was untrue, and he said it anyway | :08:02. | :08:07. | |
because that is the character of the man, Madam Deputy Speaker. | :08:07. | :08:13. | |
idea that I am going do take lessons in integrity from a man who | :08:13. | :08:19. | |
smeared his way through 13 years of Labour Government, who half the | :08:19. | :08:21. | |
people who ever served in him thinks he was a disgrace in his | :08:21. | :08:29. | |
post is another thing. Another quiet day in Westminster. | :08:29. | :08:32. | |
Where does this all leave the banking inquiry? Well, Labour had | :08:32. | :08:35. | |
wanted a judge-led public inquiry. But after the Government won the | :08:35. | :08:37. | |
vote in the Commons, the opposition offered qualified support to a | :08:37. | :08:40. | |
parliamentary inquiry led by the Tory Treasury Select Committee | :08:40. | :08:42. | |
chair Andrew Tyrie. Questions remain about the effectiveness of a | :08:42. | :08:44. | |
parliamentary inquiry following criticism of Mr Tyrie's Committee's | :08:44. | :08:54. | |
:08:54. | :08:54. | ||
cross-examination of Bob Diamond. If you could call it a cross- | :08:54. | :08:57. | |
examination. It's also unclear whether a politician-led inquiry | :08:57. | :09:00. | |
can overcome the increasingly partisan tone of the debate about | :09:00. | :09:02. | |
where responsibility lies for the rate-rigging and wider banking | :09:02. | :09:06. | |
scandal. With us now is Michael Fallon, | :09:06. | :09:08. | |
Conservative Deputy Chairman and Chris Leslie, Shadow Financial | :09:08. | :09:18. | |
:09:18. | :09:19. | ||
Secretary. Welcome to you both. Let's not go through the whole | :09:19. | :09:23. | |
argument again we had yesterday afternoon. We're going to have a | :09:23. | :09:26. | |
parliamentary inquiry. The Government wants it. Labour will | :09:26. | :09:30. | |
reluctantly go along. Do you have a view as to what shape this | :09:30. | :09:35. | |
parliamentary inquiry should now take? Obviously, we would have | :09:35. | :09:39. | |
preferred the judicial, but given we are where we are, there are a | :09:39. | :09:45. | |
number of things to be resolved. There is the question of is there | :09:45. | :09:49. | |
going to be officials and secretariat? Couldn't be Treasury | :09:49. | :09:52. | |
officials. They're in the frame. think the Chancellor said there | :09:52. | :09:57. | |
were going to be discussions in the usual channels. We want to see what | :09:57. | :10:00. | |
those are. I have to say, you mentioned in the outset, because | :10:00. | :10:04. | |
this is more than just Barclays, because we're talking about | :10:04. | :10:07. | |
potentially dozens of banks around the world being involved in this, I | :10:07. | :10:13. | |
think the public will be saying, you know, is this an inquiry with | :10:13. | :10:16. | |
sufficient independent importance and stature? I understand that is | :10:16. | :10:22. | |
why we are still... As you said, we are where we are. We had that | :10:22. | :10:27. | |
debate yesterday. Let's not go over old cold milk here. Do you have an | :10:27. | :10:32. | |
idea what - how this inquiry should be constituted? Should it have an | :10:32. | :10:36. | |
independent secretariat? Should it - people testify under oath, which | :10:36. | :10:42. | |
doesn't usually happen? Should there be a QC to teach you how to | :10:42. | :10:47. | |
ask questions? Look, Labour have backed down on the inquiry they | :10:47. | :10:49. | |
wanted. We have agreed we have parliamentary inquiry. In turn | :10:49. | :10:52. | |
we're happy to listen to Labour if they have constructive suggestions | :10:53. | :10:56. | |
about how this inquiry should be framed. In answer to your questions, | :10:56. | :11:02. | |
yes, more resources can be provided. Parliament cost could do that the | :11:02. | :11:05. | |
National Audit Office might be able to help. Your second question I | :11:05. | :11:10. | |
think was on... Should people testify under oath? They can | :11:10. | :11:14. | |
testify under oath. The Parliament can require that at the moment. | :11:14. | :11:18. | |
has the power to do that. It does. Finally, I think you said, should | :11:18. | :11:22. | |
we have a lawyer involved? You can have a lawyer advising the | :11:22. | :11:27. | |
committee. You do have that. Should you have a prominent QC there to | :11:27. | :11:32. | |
advise you as a team, to have back- up questions? Certainly to advice. | :11:32. | :11:35. | |
I don't think our concessions would understand that we would have to | :11:35. | :11:39. | |
hire somebody to ask the questions for us. Certainly, you could have | :11:39. | :11:44. | |
legal advice. The Treasury Select Committee already has a lawyer who | :11:44. | :11:47. | |
advises. The difficulty is, is this the right moment to be trying to | :11:47. | :11:51. | |
sort of forge a new way of Constitutionally investigating this | :11:51. | :11:55. | |
within a parliamentary process - oaths and QCs, and so forth. It | :11:55. | :11:58. | |
would have been better - and the public expect - it should have been | :11:58. | :12:02. | |
straight away, get into that independent judicial inquiry where | :12:02. | :12:07. | |
the rules are already set out. You're revisiting yesterday. | :12:07. | :12:11. | |
can't repeat it three times when we heard it endlessly yesterday. You | :12:11. | :12:16. | |
may be right or wrong, but we are where we are. I am trying to decide, | :12:16. | :12:20. | |
what should the scope of the inquiry be? What lessons can we | :12:20. | :12:25. | |
learn given we have legislation going through. We have already had | :12:25. | :12:31. | |
a judicial inquiry going on by the States. The facts are out there. | :12:31. | :12:35. | |
What we need to do is know how to change the legislation already in | :12:35. | :12:41. | |
front of Parliament to learn the lessons. The inquiry we have had | :12:41. | :12:45. | |
sparked off by the Americans, not the British, was about particular | :12:45. | :12:50. | |
LIBOR fiddling - two types of fiddling - one by officials, one by | :12:50. | :12:54. | |
rogue traders. We have not had an inquiry into why the culture of the | :12:54. | :12:58. | |
City has been dragged down to the level now where every day we open | :12:58. | :13:02. | |
our papers and some other bank is having its collar felt for mis- | :13:02. | :13:07. | |
selling, cheating, lying and paying themselves shed loads of money they | :13:07. | :13:11. | |
don't deserve. Exactly. We have legislation, Andrew, in front of | :13:11. | :13:14. | |
Parliament at the moment to better regulate the City, so we need to | :13:14. | :13:20. | |
learn very quickly from this inquiry. Which isn't good enough. | :13:20. | :13:24. | |
Which isn't good enough. Speed is of the essence. We have learned the | :13:24. | :13:28. | |
lessons. We can get them into the bill in front of Parliament. After | :13:28. | :13:35. | |
the Trace Select Committee in front of Bob Diamond where you barely | :13:35. | :13:41. | |
laid a finger on him, do you think you need a QC to do this? There | :13:41. | :13:45. | |
were three different aspects to the LIBOR inquiry - 2005, 2007 and 2008, | :13:45. | :13:48. | |
and each member was per suing their own line of questioning. Of course, | :13:49. | :13:51. | |
that can be better organised. One of the advantages of this | :13:51. | :13:55. | |
particular new committee is there will be more expertise there. There | :13:55. | :13:58. | |
will be somebody there from the House of Lords there as well. It | :13:58. | :14:03. | |
will be smaller, more focused, a slightly narrower inquiry. It can | :14:03. | :14:08. | |
get on with this every week now until Christmas. Is it Labour's | :14:08. | :14:12. | |
contention that in the autumn of 2008 the Government played no part | :14:12. | :14:17. | |
whatsoever in trying to get the LIBOR rate down? Well, I mean, | :14:17. | :14:20. | |
there is a distinction between governments of all parties who will | :14:20. | :14:24. | |
want to have a view about the level of interest rates, unemployment | :14:24. | :14:29. | |
inflation and then a suggestion - no, no, this is important - then a | :14:29. | :14:33. | |
suggestion that somehow manipulating or fraudulently | :14:33. | :14:36. | |
fiddling figures has to be the route to be pursued. That's not | :14:36. | :14:41. | |
what I asked you. I am not asking you have... Absolutely. I am asking | :14:41. | :14:46. | |
you is it Labour's position that it was not your policy to depress | :14:46. | :14:52. | |
LIBOR in the autumn of 2008? governments want to make sure | :14:52. | :14:55. | |
interest rates are affordable. That's not the answer to my | :14:55. | :14:59. | |
question. The key allegation the chance loor was insinuating is | :14:59. | :15:05. | |
somehow key individual Ministers including Ed Balls had been somehow | :15:05. | :15:09. | |
complicit in the manipulation fraudulently... No, no, that's not | :15:09. | :15:16. | |
the allegation. Is it your position that Mr Balls or Ms Vadera or | :15:16. | :15:23. | |
anybody else played no part whatsoever, directly or indirectly, | :15:23. | :15:26. | |
in influencing LIBOR policy? We'll go through them. Ed Balls has said | :15:26. | :15:31. | |
he's not had those conversations about LIBOR... I didn't ask you. I | :15:31. | :15:37. | |
said indirectly or directly? She's gone on the record and talked | :15:37. | :15:40. | |
about... She said it was a concern. The paper she commented upon. | :15:40. | :15:44. | |
Phillip Hammond, for example, a Shadow Chief Secretary, also talked | :15:44. | :15:47. | |
about LIBOR... You were the Government, Chris. There is a | :15:47. | :15:51. | |
difference between saying interest rates should be affordable and | :15:51. | :15:57. | |
implying you should somehow... sorry. A criminal approach to | :15:57. | :16:02. | |
fiddling the figures. Nobody wanted to do that. The issue is not should | :16:02. | :16:07. | |
interest rates be affordable. was. You need to reread your | :16:07. | :16:10. | |
history. The issue was wholesale lending for the banks had | :16:10. | :16:14. | |
completely dried up and the LIBOR rate was going through the roof. It | :16:14. | :16:18. | |
was a matter of life or death. It was not about affordability. I ask | :16:18. | :16:22. | |
you one more time - are you saying the Labour Government at no stage | :16:22. | :16:27. | |
directly or indirectly put pressure on the bank to lower LIBOR? | :16:27. | :16:32. | |
Diamond himself said in response to a question from Michael, were | :16:32. | :16:38. | |
Ministers putting pressure on you to fiddle LIBOR? His answer was, "I | :16:38. | :16:43. | |
didn't believe that no." Diamond being instructing, which is | :16:43. | :16:47. | |
entirely different. The answer you're looking for, for indirectly | :16:47. | :16:51. | |
is yes, because he was the City Minister. You can't be the | :16:51. | :16:56. | |
Government and have no indirect connection between what's going on. | :16:56. | :17:01. | |
Do you understand the interest between fiddling figures? It wasn't | :17:01. | :17:05. | |
George Osborne's best moment. Somehow he was sitting around the | :17:05. | :17:10. | |
table with a calculator and abacus trying to instrument what the rate | :17:10. | :17:14. | |
should be is preposterous. The Government of the day were not | :17:14. | :17:19. | |
indirectly linked at some level with what is going on in the City - | :17:19. | :17:24. | |
you must know that. Part of the problem is we seem to be doing an | :17:24. | :17:27. | |
inquiry before anyone started an inquiry. Yesterday in the Commons | :17:27. | :17:32. | |
we had a situation where it was sort of very unparliamentary to a | :17:32. | :17:35. | |
certain extent. It got very personal. The worry with this is it | :17:35. | :17:42. | |
sets a precedent. You then go into an inquiry which is a parliamentary | :17:42. | :17:46. | |
inquiry... If someone accused you of fiddling figures you would want | :17:46. | :17:49. | |
to defend your position. George Osborne overplayed his position. I | :17:49. | :17:54. | |
have spoken to Conservative MPs who tell me he's overplayed his hand. | :17:54. | :17:59. | |
Some were on the record. Yesterday we saw Ed Balls who can be very | :17:59. | :18:06. | |
tribal - he's not so good at taking it. We're finished. But here's a | :18:06. | :18:12. | |
prediction. We'll come back do this. As you may have noticed, it is | :18:12. | :18:15. | |
chucking it down out there. According to the forecast, parts of | :18:15. | :18:25. | |
:18:25. | :18:27. | ||
the UK can expect a month's worth of rain in the next 48 hours. The | :18:27. | :18:30. | |
Met Office told us it would be dry. It is what makes the British summer | :18:31. | :18:34. | |
great! But for many whose homes are at risk of flood, the threatened | :18:34. | :18:37. | |
downpour is serious stuff. And it could get worse if a deal on flood | :18:37. | :18:40. | |
insurance between the government and the industry expires next year. | :18:40. | :18:42. | |
Here is Len Tingle, our political editor in Yorkshire. | :18:42. | :18:44. | |
This man demonstrates brand new flood defences just fitted to his | :18:44. | :18:50. | |
front door. Affected, he hopes, to keep out the water. Five years ago, | :18:50. | :18:56. | |
this is what happened to his street. This is just outside Barnsley in | :18:56. | :19:01. | |
South Yorkshire. The nearby river burst its banks and locals were | :19:01. | :19:06. | |
rescued by boat, waves up to five feet high burst through doors, and | :19:06. | :19:11. | |
destroyed everything in sight. There had not been a single flat | :19:11. | :19:16. | |
here since the 1950s. The Environment Agency says it cannot | :19:16. | :19:21. | |
reduce the risk of it happening again to less than once every 25 | :19:21. | :19:27. | |
years. That is a risk too far for insurance companies. I would need | :19:27. | :19:34. | |
to pay 800, 900 pounds more. could be far worse. Across all | :19:34. | :19:39. | |
affected areas, at temporary deal between the government and effected | :19:39. | :19:44. | |
insurers are keeping coverage in place. The deal runs out next year | :19:44. | :19:48. | |
and the insurers want a new one, with government agreeing to | :19:48. | :19:55. | |
underwrite property in the highest areas. If we ever managed to get | :19:55. | :20:01. | |
insurance again. This man is the Finance Minister. Last week he | :20:01. | :20:06. | |
toured some of the latest area has to be inundated. Here he is near | :20:06. | :20:11. | |
Halifax in West Yorkshire. We are reducing the spending over four | :20:11. | :20:18. | |
years by 6%. It is a real priority for us. Broadly speaking, we're | :20:18. | :20:22. | |
spending similar amounts as the previous government because we're | :20:22. | :20:27. | |
spending the money smarter. couple of days later, the Prime | :20:27. | :20:31. | |
Minister visited and neighbouring town. He had a clear message for | :20:31. | :20:37. | |
the insurers. We need a clear deal with the insurance companies so | :20:37. | :20:42. | |
that they do what it says on the 10, they provide people with insurance. | :20:42. | :20:48. | |
Labour warns of falling insurance crisis. At a flat summit in Hull, | :20:48. | :20:52. | |
there were claims that government spending cuts are deeper than | :20:52. | :20:57. | |
admitted. Spending on flood defences was cut by this Government | :20:57. | :21:05. | |
by more than 30 %. The insurance industry have accepted that but | :21:05. | :21:11. | |
they have said, do not expect us to take up the risk. As the | :21:11. | :21:17. | |
politicians and insurers argue, the tide of fear and uncertainty grows. | :21:17. | :21:22. | |
These pictures must have made many reach for their insurance policies. | :21:22. | :21:27. | |
The fear is that if there is next time, those policies may not exist. | :21:27. | :21:30. | |
Len Tingle there. And Aidan Kerr, who is Head of Property at the | :21:30. | :21:35. | |
Association of British Insurers, joins us. Good morning. If the | :21:35. | :21:39. | |
current agreement is not replace, will you simply stop insuring those | :21:39. | :21:44. | |
at risk? We're committed to ensuring those who are at risk of | :21:44. | :21:50. | |
flux. But the fact is that the risk is increasing over time. -- | :21:50. | :21:57. | |
insuring. But if you do not get that agreement with government, | :21:57. | :22:06. | |
will you stop providing insurance? Insurance will always be available | :22:06. | :22:11. | |
but as the risk increases, the cost will go up. The issue is about | :22:11. | :22:18. | |
affordability. I think I would take that as a no. Does the Government | :22:18. | :22:25. | |
need to ensure that no household in the UK becomes uninsurable? It is a | :22:25. | :22:28. | |
joint responsibility between the government and the insurance | :22:28. | :22:33. | |
industry. What do you need from the government? They a government needs | :22:33. | :22:37. | |
to work with the insurance industry as they have been doing so far. | :22:37. | :22:44. | |
What does it need to do? It needs to work with us to develop a model. | :22:44. | :22:47. | |
We need to agree with government a kind of pooling system that allows | :22:47. | :22:53. | |
those most at risk to be supported by the market more widely. If you | :22:53. | :22:57. | |
have such a system, and the taxpayers going to be or on the | :22:57. | :23:06. | |
line for this? -- are going to be responsible for this? The insurance | :23:06. | :23:10. | |
industry would still hold on to a lot of the risk. There is always a | :23:10. | :23:14. | |
risk of flooding. I was interviewing a meteorologist last | :23:15. | :23:20. | |
weekend he was saying that every year we have this conversation. The | :23:20. | :23:26. | |
risk is always there. You pick and choose where you want to pay and | :23:26. | :23:34. | |
who you want to insure. For most people come my insurance is very it | :23:34. | :23:38. | |
affordable. Flood insurance is part of a standard home insurance | :23:38. | :23:43. | |
package. Where it has happened, people can still get their | :23:43. | :23:48. | |
insurance renewed. The problem with the packages there is no | :23:48. | :23:54. | |
stipulation as to how much that will cost. So you do not want to | :23:54. | :24:04. | |
:24:04. | :24:05. | ||
take the risk? Your parents fear a flood risk. It they live in St Ives. | :24:05. | :24:11. | |
What would you say? There are 5.2 million homes at risk of flooding. | :24:11. | :24:15. | |
The Government is planning to cut flood defences. You have a | :24:16. | :24:19. | |
situation where the last government agreed a deal where they would keep | :24:19. | :24:23. | |
up flood defences in return for insurance companies subsidising | :24:23. | :24:27. | |
homes at risk, but we have a situation where this government is | :24:27. | :24:33. | |
a bit more free-market about it and not keen on the idea. That leaves | :24:33. | :24:38. | |
people in a difficult situation. They buy annual sled insurance and | :24:38. | :24:42. | |
in one year's time, they do not know what will happen. Do you think | :24:42. | :24:48. | |
you will get a deal with the government? I certainly hope so. | :24:48. | :24:49. | |
Thaw This week, scientists in | :24:49. | :24:52. | |
Switzerland found the God particle, Andy Murray reached the semifinal | :24:52. | :24:55. | |
at Wimbledon and we learnt that TomKat were no more. But what else | :24:55. | :24:57. | |
has been happening in the Westminster village, I hear you | :24:57. | :25:06. | |
ask? Here is the Week In 60 seconds. The former Defence Secretary Liam | :25:06. | :25:10. | |
Fox sparked a debate about a potential referendum on Europe. It | :25:10. | :25:17. | |
sounded a bit like the hokey-cokey. The now ex-boss of Barclays | :25:17. | :25:21. | |
appeared in front of the parliamentary committee to be | :25:21. | :25:25. | |
questioned over the interest-rate fixing debacle. He is such a | :25:25. | :25:30. | |
diamond geezer, as he was on first- name terms with everyone. | :25:30. | :25:36. | |
George, this was reprehensible behaviour. Nick Clegg gave his | :25:36. | :25:40. | |
response on the scandal to the children's programme Newsround. | :25:40. | :25:46. | |
They have got to be responsible for when things go wrong. He said that | :25:46. | :25:51. | |
being in power may 10 feel like he had had a lobotomy. All the really | :25:51. | :25:56. | |
big brains head for Question Time, and John Lydon of the sex Pistols, | :25:56. | :26:02. | |
who disappointed many of his fans by being sane. I do not want my | :26:02. | :26:06. | |
drugs taxed. And to discuss John Lydon, aka | :26:06. | :26:09. | |
Rotten's, performance on Question Time last night, we can speak to | :26:09. | :26:12. | |
his fellow panellist, and something of a rock 'n' roller himself, Alan | :26:12. | :26:22. | |
:26:22. | :26:30. | ||
Johnsosn, who joins us from Hull. Good morning. How it did he do? | :26:30. | :26:37. | |
did all right. It is always easier for someone who is not a politician, | :26:37. | :26:41. | |
because they do not have a constituency to answer to, they are | :26:41. | :26:45. | |
not expected to take blame for things that happen in the past, at | :26:45. | :26:52. | |
the moment are in the future. But I thought he captured the mood. I | :26:52. | :26:56. | |
would think this because I agree with him about having a judge led | :26:56. | :27:03. | |
inquiry. He was nervous beforehand. He had a go about the smoking ban | :27:03. | :27:08. | |
beforehand with me but I do not reveal green room conversations. | :27:08. | :27:14. | |
Did he makes sense on the big issues of our time? Yes, he did. He | :27:15. | :27:20. | |
made sense on banking and he had important things to say. He puts on | :27:20. | :27:26. | |
a bit of an act that he is an anarchist, but actually, there is | :27:26. | :27:30. | |
some establishment in hand. We had this amazing drug confession as | :27:30. | :27:36. | |
well, but that came from the Tory MP who was on the programme. What | :27:36. | :27:44. | |
did you make of him? I want to watch wise old men like Alan | :27:44. | :27:49. | |
Johnson to impart his wisdom. I thought it was preposterous. He | :27:49. | :27:54. | |
wheeled out some vacuous platitudes. He did at this thing that you can | :27:54. | :27:59. | |
do it on a show when you're not a politician, you can come to a | :27:59. | :28:06. | |
crescendo at the end Divya point. He even interrupted the audience. | :28:06. | :28:11. | |
If people want to be entertained, E C was entertaining. It is Question | :28:11. | :28:19. | |
Time, it is not supposed to be entertaining. Alan Johnson, are you | :28:19. | :28:26. | |
telling me that John Lydon is your adviser on banking policy now? | :28:26. | :28:31. | |
but the name is quite appropriate, because something rotten is | :28:31. | :28:37. |