Browse content similar to 19/04/2013. Check below for episodes and series from the same categories and more!
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Good afternoon. Welcome to the Daily Politics. Michael Gove calls | :00:44. | :00:47. | |
for a longer school days and Shorter's school holidays. The | :00:47. | :00:53. | |
unions do not like it. Will it be good for our kids? After Thatcher, | :00:53. | :00:57. | |
the politicians are back on the election trail, with David Cameron | :00:57. | :01:01. | |
launching the campaign for the local elections. We will test his | :01:01. | :01:05. | |
pitch with the Tory vice-chairman. There is a big election for the | :01:05. | :01:09. | |
smaller parties. We will ask the Green Party whether their status as | :01:09. | :01:14. | |
the protest party of choice can survive the challenge from UKIP. | :01:14. | :01:23. | |
Remember this? British Gas shares, in November. We reflect on the | :01:23. | :01:27. | |
heady days of privatisation. We will ask if there is any more | :01:28. | :01:37. | |
:01:38. | :01:39. | ||
All that coming up. With us for the first half of the show, two | :01:39. | :01:43. | |
political panellists who were aged six and four respectively when Mrs | :01:43. | :01:48. | |
Thatcher left office. You can decide which is which. We could | :01:48. | :01:56. | |
have a competition. I am talking about Owen Jones and Isabel Hardman. | :01:56. | :01:59. | |
There has been dramatic developments this morning in the | :01:59. | :02:03. | |
hunt for the terrorists behind the attack on the Boston Marathon. | :02:03. | :02:07. | |
Overnight, a shooting at the Massachusetts Institute of | :02:07. | :02:11. | |
Technology, one of the world's greatest universities, a police | :02:11. | :02:15. | |
officer died. It was followed by a shoot-out in the Watertown area, | :02:15. | :02:21. | |
just to the west of Boston, in which one of the two suspects was | :02:21. | :02:27. | |
killed. The other is still on the run. Boston city itself and all the | :02:27. | :02:35. | |
surrounding suburbs seem to be in lockdown. Public transport has been | :02:35. | :02:40. | |
suspended. Residents have been told not to leave their homes. There are | :02:40. | :02:46. | |
reports that the suspect are legal permanent residence of the United | :02:46. | :02:56. | |
States, and intriguingly, of Chechnya in origin. -- Russian | :02:56. | :03:01. | |
origin. The perpetrator went into a neighbourhood not far from here, | :03:01. | :03:07. | |
there was an exchange of gunfire. Two suspects were in and S U V. | :03:08. | :03:13. | |
During the course of that pursuit. Several -- during the course of the | :03:13. | :03:20. | |
pursued, several improvised explosive device is were detonated. | :03:20. | :03:24. | |
In the exchange of gunfire, we believe one of the suspect was | :03:24. | :03:29. | |
struck and taken into custody. A second suspect was able to flee | :03:29. | :03:38. | |
from the car. The police were after two suspect, one of them is dead, | :03:38. | :03:43. | |
killed in the shoot-out, the other is still on the run. You can keep | :03:43. | :03:49. | |
up-to-date with the events in the posterior on the BBC News Channel, | :03:49. | :03:56. | |
and the One o'clock News. -- the Boston area. Michael Gault has been | :03:56. | :04:01. | |
making headlines for a change, with the suggestion that the school | :04:01. | :04:09. | |
holidays should be cut. -- Michael Gove. He said the structure of the | :04:09. | :04:19. | |
:04:19. | :04:45. | ||
school day was designed for an How has that gone down? Here is the | :04:45. | :04:50. | |
deputy general secretary. We think the school day is long enough. We | :04:50. | :04:56. | |
would like to see teachers released more or to concentrate on teaching | :04:56. | :05:00. | |
in the classroom. Outside the school, we need more leisure | :05:00. | :05:04. | |
activities for children, self directed activities. Those should | :05:04. | :05:09. | |
be arranged in after-school clubs. We do not need to lengthen the | :05:09. | :05:15. | |
school day. Many of the Eastern European systems are looking at the | :05:15. | :05:20. | |
UK, saying they want more creativity. We do not think this at | :05:20. | :05:24. | |
this fear that exists in some of the East Asian education systems is | :05:24. | :05:33. | |
the right model. Michael Gove did not refer to East European systems, | :05:33. | :05:41. | |
he was talking about East Asia. Isabel Hardman, to wrap the | :05:41. | :05:46. | |
conference yesterday, as was I. Had this been trailed off was this | :05:46. | :05:52. | |
planned? Was it a rush of blood to the head? Some academies already | :05:52. | :05:55. | |
have longer days anyway, but one thing that is going to be very | :05:55. | :06:00. | |
interesting, regardless of the right or wrong of land than in the | :06:00. | :06:04. | |
school day, whether the unions would accept that, whether he is | :06:05. | :06:10. | |
prepared to fight them, they are already threatening to strike on | :06:10. | :06:16. | |
performance related pay, so this is not going to go down well. That is | :06:16. | :06:23. | |
clear. Is he right to say the current school timetables are a | :06:23. | :06:27. | |
product of the 19th century? problem with what he is saying is, | :06:27. | :06:33. | |
where is the evidence? Anyone who knows teachers, friends of Teachers, | :06:33. | :06:42. | |
the last thing teachers are is under worked. The last thing | :06:42. | :06:45. | |
parents want is teachers who have not had proper holidays, not fresh | :06:45. | :06:51. | |
to teach. In terms of the evidence, if we look abroad, look at Finland. | :06:51. | :06:56. | |
Consistently at the top of the rankings internationally, they | :06:56. | :07:02. | |
actually have much longer holidays than we have, shorter school days. | :07:02. | :07:09. | |
It is that most of the time. That is true. It is not very sunny. | :07:09. | :07:14. | |
does perform very well on the tables. It also does not have the | :07:14. | :07:17. | |
sort of innovations he is introducing like three schools and | :07:17. | :07:23. | |
academies. They do have a lot of -- lots of autonomy. There is, but | :07:23. | :07:29. | |
they do not have selection, far fewer private education. If I live | :07:29. | :07:37. | |
in the north of Finland, I can choose a comprehensive in the north | :07:37. | :07:42. | |
of Helsinki, you can go anywhere. They have usually high professional | :07:42. | :07:46. | |
standards. That is what we should be looking at because teachers are | :07:46. | :07:50. | |
held in high esteem in Finland. One of the things that worries me is we | :07:50. | :07:56. | |
do not want to put off the best and brightest. The evidence is the best | :07:56. | :08:00. | |
and brightest, he claims there is issued increase in quality of the | :08:00. | :08:05. | |
people going in. I was at dinner with a former Labour minister who | :08:05. | :08:10. | |
was saying there is a large percentage of Oxbridge graduates | :08:10. | :08:14. | |
applying for the teaching profession. Yes, and one of the | :08:14. | :08:20. | |
things we can praise for that is the teacher first programme, which | :08:20. | :08:25. | |
had an aggressive marketing campaign. It is for people who do | :08:25. | :08:32. | |
not have long college-based training. The Education Minister | :08:32. | :08:38. | |
spoke yesterday about devolution, three schools, if power is being | :08:38. | :08:44. | |
devolved to these individual schools, should not be under this - | :08:44. | :08:49. | |
- up to the school to determine the school day and school holiday? | :08:49. | :08:53. | |
it is important Michael Gove does not dictate to them. He is giving | :08:53. | :08:58. | |
them freedom and then he is saying they need shorter holidays. That is | :08:58. | :09:02. | |
my worry. Imagine having a kid at high school and primary school and | :09:02. | :09:06. | |
they have completely different holidays, that would cause chaos. | :09:06. | :09:14. | |
There is a need for consistency. National standard. Absolutely. If | :09:14. | :09:22. | |
you will. I will. Party-political came as something of a standstill | :09:22. | :09:27. | |
after death. With a by-election on Wednesday, they are returning to | :09:27. | :09:35. | |
the fray. The first, we will speak to the BBC's editor of political | :09:35. | :09:39. | |
research, the man who knows everything about elections. That is | :09:39. | :09:45. | |
why become too. Am I right in thinking the main point of these | :09:45. | :09:51. | |
elections is that we will compare them with a very good Tory year, | :09:51. | :09:58. | |
the Tories did very well last time. Exactly right, in 2009, I'd have | :09:58. | :10:03. | |
the 27 counties coming up for election, the Conservatives won 26. | :10:03. | :10:11. | |
-- but of the 27 counties. That was after nine years in opposition. In | :10:11. | :10:16. | |
a sense, it is payback time. It is a much darker space for them to | :10:16. | :10:22. | |
fight these elections. In the run- up to this, I assume we will hear a | :10:22. | :10:27. | |
lot of Tory spend about losing seats, these will not be good | :10:27. | :10:33. | |
results, and Labour saying they will not do that well. Absolutely | :10:33. | :10:37. | |
right. They will set their own homework. There will be all that | :10:37. | :10:42. | |
taking place. What will be important here, for the | :10:42. | :10:46. | |
Conservatives particularly, is they have a long way to fall, given that | :10:46. | :10:52. | |
spectacular triumph in 2009. They have the added burden of UKIP, | :10:52. | :10:59. | |
which, four years ago, contested one in four seats, and I note | :10:59. | :11:06. | |
fighting 75% of seats. -- now they are fighting. A lot of commentary | :11:07. | :11:11. | |
makes the assumption that the Conservatives lose votes to the | :11:11. | :11:16. | |
UKIP, but in Eastleigh, that was not necessarily the case. It will | :11:16. | :11:21. | |
be interesting to see if they take votes from other parties. Yes, it | :11:21. | :11:26. | |
is far too simple. They are disproportionately Conservative, | :11:26. | :11:30. | |
but there are people they have taken from other parties, the Lib | :11:30. | :11:37. | |
Dems, who were so long the party of opposition. If you work against the | :11:37. | :11:40. | |
Establishment he would vote for them. Now they are part of that. | :11:40. | :11:44. | |
Some of that board has gone to UKIP. They also take some Labour votes | :11:44. | :11:47. | |
and some people there were so fed up with the party system they have | :11:47. | :11:52. | |
not been voting. It is more complex but the reason the Conservatives | :11:52. | :11:55. | |
are more worried than most is more of that leakage comes from them | :11:55. | :12:02. | |
than anybody else. The Tories are on the defensive. Labour are on the | :12:02. | :12:11. | |
ascendant. Where does that leave a party like the Green Party? | :12:11. | :12:17. | |
difficulty. The Green Party, up until now, had a much bigger hit | :12:17. | :12:24. | |
rates than the other small parties. People would talk about BNP, UKIP, | :12:24. | :12:27. | |
but the Green Party were the ones that performed. The difficulty this | :12:27. | :12:31. | |
time is UKIP are really the New Kids On the Block, they believe the | :12:31. | :12:38. | |
forces with them. They have twice as many candidates, and they will | :12:38. | :12:48. | |
:12:48. | :12:50. | ||
not be eclipsed. Thank you very much. The fact that the UK | :12:50. | :12:53. | |
Independence Party are standing in so many seats could have an impact | :12:53. | :12:58. | |
on all the other parties, big and small. For the Green Party the | :12:58. | :13:01. | |
danger is the protest vote that previously lent to them might faint | :13:01. | :13:06. | |
-- might find its way to Nigel Farage. Are they worried? We will | :13:06. | :13:11. | |
find out. Natalie Bennett joins us from Oxford. She has just launched | :13:11. | :13:15. | |
the local election campaign. Welcome to the programme. Are you | :13:15. | :13:20. | |
worried you will be eclipsed by UKIP? Absolutely not. We are | :13:20. | :13:24. | |
confident we will have a strong showing in these elections. We are | :13:24. | :13:30. | |
confident we will seek county councillors elected in Cornwall, | :13:30. | :13:35. | |
and we are confident that in a number of the areas we will see an | :13:35. | :13:40. | |
increase in representation. The party is growing fast in Bristol. | :13:40. | :13:44. | |
Where is the evidence that people are concerned about green issues | :13:44. | :13:48. | |
when the economy is stagnating, living standards are being squeezed, | :13:48. | :13:53. | |
there's no growth, public spending is being cut? The European | :13:53. | :14:00. | |
Parliament cannot even vote for the carbon trading system any more. | :14:00. | :14:04. | |
I was saying in Oxford, we are speaking up for a different kind of | :14:04. | :14:09. | |
economy, we're saying globalisation new liberalism has hit the limits, | :14:09. | :14:13. | |
we need strong local economy is built around small businesses and | :14:13. | :14:19. | |
shops, we need jobs that pay the living wage, that are secured, do | :14:19. | :14:23. | |
not have zero our contracts, we are speaking up for all range of things. | :14:23. | :14:29. | |
We are speaking against the cuts, we are speaking for services. | :14:29. | :14:31. | |
not see you resonating with the public, who have other concerns at | :14:31. | :14:39. | |
the moment. I think concerns about low-paid jobs, concerns about big | :14:39. | :14:45. | |
supermarkets coming in and scooping out local High Street, leaving them | :14:45. | :14:50. | |
without small businesses, they do resonate with voters. We find when | :14:50. | :14:54. | |
we speak up, many councils are fighting to ensure people affected | :14:54. | :15:00. | |
by the bedroom tax do not face eviction. They are issues that are | :15:00. | :15:04. | |
pressing on lives today. Labour are taking that position as well. | :15:05. | :15:09. | |
Unfortunately, they have not said they would abolish the bedroom tax. | :15:09. | :15:16. | |
You will not have a chance do. will see what happens! I am happy | :15:16. | :15:19. | |
to take any kind of bet you name on that that you will not be forming | :15:19. | :15:26. | |
the next government of the country. Would you like a bed? Name your | :15:26. | :15:34. | |
price. I would put a million pounds. Isabel Hardman will lend me alone. | :15:34. | :15:38. | |
I will put a million pounds on the table that you will not be the next | :15:38. | :15:44. | |
government of this country. afraid the underwriting does not | :15:44. | :15:49. | |
stretch that far. Let me ask you about the citizen's income. It will | :15:50. | :15:54. | |
be an unconditional payment made to everybody as a right of citizenship. | :15:54. | :16:01. | |
How much would I get? It will start out on a basis of the jobseeker's | :16:01. | :16:05. | |
allowance. The idea is the benefits system is hugely affected. | :16:05. | :16:12. | |
Jobseeker's Allowance is �71 per week. Only �71? That is the | :16:12. | :16:16. | |
starting point, then you can choose to do what ever work you would like | :16:16. | :16:22. | |
on top of that. Everybody would get it? Indeed. The chairman of | :16:22. | :16:30. | |
Barclays Bank would get �71? would get it back off them in tax. | :16:30. | :16:33. | |
It is a situation where people on Jobseeker's Allowance, on other | :16:33. | :16:40. | |
benefits payments, if they take a couple of hours' work, the benefits | :16:41. | :16:44. | |
are thrown into chaos. This eliminates the problem of means- | :16:44. | :16:50. | |
testing. We would have a situation where people are provided with | :16:50. | :16:55. | |
basic support and it is up to them to build on that. I think with this, | :16:55. | :16:59. | |
we will see lots of bad poetry but I do nothing that is the worst | :16:59. | :17:09. | |
:17:09. | :17:20. | ||
People in poverty will have to get a lot more than that. What about | :17:20. | :17:28. | |
the people who do not need it? idea is we believe in universal | :17:28. | :17:35. | |
benefits. We would defend things like pensioner bus passes. Even for | :17:35. | :17:42. | |
the Duchess of Buccleuch? Yes, and we would have a tax system which | :17:42. | :17:47. | |
would recover it from the wealthy. We need to ensure it multinational | :17:47. | :17:51. | |
companies and wealthy individuals pay their fair share of taxes. | :17:51. | :17:56. | |
would get unemployment benefit. This would replace unemployment | :17:56. | :18:04. | |
benefit. I am not any better off if I am unemployed? I thought you were | :18:04. | :18:10. | |
supporting the poor and the disadvantaged. If we form the next | :18:10. | :18:14. | |
Government we would introduce that, but we are looking at the moment | :18:14. | :18:21. | |
more directly at looking at making the minimum wage a living wage. We | :18:21. | :18:26. | |
want to see many more councils being living wage employers where | :18:26. | :18:30. | |
all of their contractors are paid at least a living wage, which is | :18:30. | :18:35. | |
more than a pound a week more than the national minimum wage, which is | :18:35. | :18:41. | |
inadequate. What is a good result for you? We are confident we are | :18:41. | :18:47. | |
going to see an increase in our numbers. We have got 138 | :18:47. | :18:52. | |
councillors and I am confident that will be growing. What is your | :18:52. | :18:59. | |
target? We hope we want to hit double figures in growth. You are | :18:59. | :19:04. | |
in double figures if you have got over 100. I was talking about the | :19:04. | :19:12. | |
increase. A so you are hoping for 11. I said approaching that. This | :19:12. | :19:15. | |
is the first time these elections have been held independently of | :19:15. | :19:20. | |
other elections for many years. We are in a situation where many | :19:20. | :19:24. | |
people are feeling dissatisfied with the three largest parties and | :19:24. | :19:29. | |
we think our model of strong local economies, decent jobs and decent | :19:29. | :19:33. | |
services for the people who meet them will have some resonance with | :19:33. | :19:40. | |
the electorate. Natalie Bennett, thank you for joining us. | :19:40. | :19:44. | |
These elections are expected to be a significant challenge for the | :19:44. | :19:49. | |
Conservatives. David Cameron has been lodging the party's campaign | :19:49. | :19:55. | |
and this morning he made a speech in Warwickshire. If you want good | :19:55. | :19:59. | |
Government that costs less, vote conservative. If you want waste and | :20:00. | :20:05. | |
propaganda, vote Labour. Do not let Labour do to your council what they | :20:05. | :20:09. | |
did to our country. Let that be our message in the run-up to these | :20:09. | :20:17. | |
elections. We I joined by Bob Neill, vice-chairman of the Conservative | :20:17. | :20:22. | |
party responsible for local Government. Let's start the process | :20:22. | :20:25. | |
of downgrading our expectations. How many seats are you going to | :20:25. | :20:34. | |
lose? I think the truth is this is going to be a tough call for us and | :20:34. | :20:42. | |
I am not going to pretend otherwise. How bad? I am not going to put | :20:42. | :20:48. | |
numerical figures on it, because the only thing Natalie said that I | :20:48. | :20:52. | |
agreed with is we are fighting these elections separately from | :20:52. | :20:55. | |
their general elections and that will affect turnout and that can | :20:55. | :21:00. | |
make a big difference. We are starting from almost a record high | :21:00. | :21:05. | |
base and it will be very tough to defend all those seats, despite | :21:05. | :21:08. | |
good work at the Conservative councils. One unnamed Cabinet | :21:09. | :21:14. | |
minister says terrible would be a great result for us. I am not going | :21:14. | :21:18. | |
to put it in those towns. At the time these elections happened four | :21:18. | :21:25. | |
years ago the Labour Party was 11% behind as in the polls. Most of the | :21:25. | :21:32. | |
polls which suggest that that position is reversed. You would | :21:32. | :21:37. | |
expect something like that to show up in the election figures. | :21:37. | :21:42. | |
addition to that you have got UKIP to worry about. We have and what we | :21:42. | :21:49. | |
can say is firstly, splitting the vote in any election because you | :21:50. | :21:55. | |
want a firmer line on things like our relationship with Europe, | :21:56. | :21:59. | |
letting in Labour and the Lib Dems is cutting off your nose to spite | :21:59. | :22:04. | |
your face. They are all across the south of England and that is where | :22:04. | :22:10. | |
your seats are. They only fought last time in 2009 and they only | :22:10. | :22:17. | |
fought in 24% of seats. They are now in 73% of seats. You are now in | :22:17. | :22:24. | |
real trouble. You will be whacked by Labour and whacked by UKIP. | :22:24. | :22:29. | |
is interesting. Nigel Farage was going around early on boasting that | :22:29. | :22:35. | |
he was going to fight over 2000 seats. It never happened in reality, | :22:35. | :22:40. | |
like a lot of his boasting. We had a council by-election last night in | :22:40. | :22:46. | |
the south of England in Sussex which the Conservatives won with a | :22:46. | :22:51. | |
very big increase. On the previous occasion UKIP had a candidate who | :22:51. | :22:54. | |
got a very respectable score and they could not find a candidate for | :22:54. | :23:00. | |
last night. John Major used to tell me about all the local council by- | :23:00. | :23:06. | |
elections when the Poles were bad for him in 1995. Could you remind | :23:06. | :23:12. | |
be what the election result was in 1997? Absolutely, and that is why I | :23:12. | :23:19. | |
am realistic about not said in too much store by it opinion polls. | :23:19. | :23:25. | |
was not a good guide for what happened to John Major. You are | :23:25. | :23:30. | |
saying we are in trouble in the south of England with UKIP, but I | :23:30. | :23:33. | |
am saying in this by-election they could not find a candidate, | :23:33. | :23:36. | |
although of course we take the fact they are fighting more seats | :23:36. | :23:43. | |
seriously. A you want to reduce Labour's expectations. I do not | :23:43. | :23:47. | |
want to agree with the Conservatives too much, but 2009 | :23:47. | :23:53. | |
was the fag end of Gordon Brown's Premiership. Labour got devastated. | :23:53. | :23:58. | |
Labour themselves are spinning their own figures and say they are | :23:58. | :24:03. | |
going to win only around 200 extra seats, but that would be a disaster. | :24:03. | :24:09. | |
They need to get about 500. That is more likely what they will get. It | :24:09. | :24:17. | |
is only two years until a general election. The problem with UKIP is | :24:17. | :24:21. | |
interesting. The Green Party have got these great strongholds like | :24:21. | :24:27. | |
Oxford and Brighton and Norwich. UKIP do not have that, they are | :24:27. | :24:32. | |
sparsely distributed. There is no point getting 50% consistently in | :24:32. | :24:36. | |
opinion polls and less that is evenly everywhere. Otherwise they | :24:36. | :24:40. | |
will not pick up the seats. In the European elections they did very | :24:41. | :24:46. | |
well, but I would be surprised if they did as well as Nigel Farage | :24:46. | :24:53. | |
says. But Labour have the Conservatives coming down from the | :24:53. | :25:00. | |
top and UKIP coming up from the bottom. The idea of Labour's | :25:00. | :25:04. | |
southern discomfort is a phrase that is being used. Labour is going | :25:04. | :25:08. | |
on a mission to win seats in the south, and if they do not succeed | :25:08. | :25:12. | |
like they did in Eastleigh, that is something you will hear a lot about | :25:12. | :25:18. | |
from the Tories. Your election broadcast says council tax has | :25:18. | :25:22. | |
fallen by 10% in real terms because this Government has helped fees the | :25:22. | :25:27. | |
council tax. You could be forgiven for thinking that everybody's | :25:27. | :25:32. | |
council tax has fallen, not risen this year, but that is not true. | :25:32. | :25:37. | |
The majority have taken up the council tax freeze and we are in a | :25:37. | :25:43. | |
third year. It is accumulating. This is misleading, it is not a cut | :25:43. | :25:48. | |
of 10%. If you look across the period since we have had the | :25:48. | :25:53. | |
council tax regime in place, it is a proper figure. In some cases the | :25:53. | :25:58. | |
councils have not frozen, but the majority is have and that includes | :25:58. | :26:03. | |
some of the councils that have an election. Why should people vote | :26:03. | :26:08. | |
for the Conservative councils that have ignored you freeze? 10 of them | :26:08. | :26:13. | |
have increased the council tax. seven out of 10 have frozen the | :26:13. | :26:23. | |
:26:23. | :26:23. | ||
council tax. But they may not boat for three out of 10. The council | :26:23. | :26:27. | |
tax doubled under the Labour Government and it makes a big | :26:27. | :26:31. | |
difference to people on modest incomes in particular. It is a | :26:31. | :26:35. | |
larger percentage of their cost of living, so that is an achievement. | :26:35. | :26:40. | |
But we are doing that at the same time as we are protecting money | :26:40. | :26:47. | |
that goes on frontline services will stop what are the figures? I | :26:47. | :26:53. | |
am not going to get into the figures came, we are all quarters | :26:53. | :26:58. | |
about the opinion polls, my job is to make sure we fight for every | :26:58. | :27:03. | |
seat recant. If David Cameron does badly with these results and Labour | :27:03. | :27:12. | |
wins even more, it is yet another dream beat -- drumbeat in the | :27:12. | :27:19. | |
background among the Tories who are and habit. Cameron's enemies have | :27:19. | :27:25. | |
set him up for a higher threshold in success. One of the tests is the | :27:25. | :27:30. | |
effect game marriage has had on the party grassroots. This is shire | :27:30. | :27:35. | |
England where people may have been upset by the policy. MPs who are | :27:35. | :27:41. | |
campaigning in these elections if they see the team going around | :27:41. | :27:45. | |
knocking on doors as the mayor's, they will blame that on a marriage. | :27:46. | :27:52. | |
If you have ever read a map, or bought a house, or posted a letter | :27:52. | :28:01. | |
or enriched uranium one, you have a mundane, but dangers like. All of | :28:01. | :28:05. | |
these things may well soon be provided by the private sector. | :28:05. | :28:10. | |
This Government is looking at another wave of privatisations. | :28:10. | :28:15. | |
Giles has been looking at how a certain Prime Minister made a once | :28:15. | :28:19. | |
controversial idea mainstream. On entering Downing Street, Mrs | :28:19. | :28:24. | |
Thatcher looked at the nation's assets and had a plan. It was | :28:24. | :28:29. | |
radical and eventually had to be convinced it could be done. | :28:29. | :28:34. | |
started making a case for privatisation in the 1970s and to | :28:34. | :28:37. | |
kick to Margaret Thatcher's opposition leader and she said, I | :28:37. | :28:43. | |
am interested, but they will not let me do it. Prior to that it was | :28:43. | :28:47. | |
bitterly contested and it was thought to be whacky. Emboldened, | :28:47. | :28:54. | |
the whacky became policy. British Telecom was sold, British Steel | :28:54. | :29:00. | |
offered 450 million shares and the public applied for 1 billion. | :29:00. | :29:03. | |
Jaguar was oversubscribed and there were queues around the block for | :29:03. | :29:08. | |
Rolls Royce. The sake of water companies and rail networks was | :29:08. | :29:13. | |
more controversial. The sale of British Rail took off and so did | :29:13. | :29:19. | |
pick airports Authority. And then there was Sid. These days, | :29:19. | :29:23. | |
privatisation is something that governments do. Even this | :29:23. | :29:27. | |
Government is looking at privatising the Royal Mint which | :29:27. | :29:33. | |
has been National since 800 AD. The Royal Mail, the Land Registry and | :29:34. | :29:38. | |
the Ordnance Survey, part of the MoD. The opposition is unlikely to | :29:38. | :29:42. | |
oppose any of this, indeed if it had been in Government, it would | :29:42. | :29:48. | |
have had to look at selling the same things. It is driven both by | :29:48. | :29:53. | |
cash and the Duke that these would be better functioning as businesses | :29:53. | :29:57. | |
within the private sector. But not everyone likes the idea of | :29:57. | :30:02. | |
privatisation. Look at the public reaction to the proposed forestry | :30:02. | :30:07. | |
sell off and the 4G network did not bring in the cash expected. What do | :30:07. | :30:13. | |
you get rid of when you want nothing left to sell? There is no | :30:13. | :30:16. | |
danger of that because there has been a huge increase in the number | :30:16. | :30:24. | |
of things at the state owns, starting with the banks. How you do | :30:24. | :30:28. | |
that and when you do that and what the framework is is going to be a | :30:28. | :30:33. | |
big issue for a Government of whatever party. When that time | :30:33. | :30:43. | |
:30:43. | :30:50. | ||
comes, will somebody please tell You are going to privatise Ordnance | :30:50. | :30:54. | |
Survey. Why bother? It is falling through the logic, but so much of | :30:54. | :30:58. | |
it has been done already. It is partly why David Cameron was right, | :30:58. | :31:07. | |
she has shifted the terms of debate. I am suing for defamation. She has | :31:07. | :31:11. | |
shifted the terms of trade, it is regarded as mainstream. You have | :31:11. | :31:16. | |
done it. Don't you need to move on? What is the point of privatising | :31:16. | :31:23. | |
Ordnance Survey? How much will you get for it? I do not imagine it | :31:23. | :31:28. | |
will break the bank. A lot of these things work better in the private | :31:28. | :31:38. | |
:31:38. | :31:41. | ||
sector. Have you tried to use Apple Maps? That is the private sector. | :31:41. | :31:49. | |
Think about how many things to operate better, gas and utility. It | :31:49. | :31:54. | |
is a question of what is logically available. Owen Jones, what bits | :31:54. | :32:01. | |
were wrongly privatised? Should British Telecom be renationalise? | :32:01. | :32:05. | |
The old form of nationalisation in to do by the post-war Labour | :32:05. | :32:12. | |
governments were responsive, I would not support that, the sort I | :32:12. | :32:16. | |
would support his democratic ownership. If we take the railways | :32:16. | :32:21. | |
back into public ownership, I do not want to go back to British Rail, | :32:22. | :32:25. | |
I want representatives of passengers and workers on the board | :32:25. | :32:31. | |
to run the sector in the interests of people, rather than that model. | :32:31. | :32:40. | |
Should Jaguar be renationalise? key point, this is what David | :32:40. | :32:45. | |
Cameron was saying, the idea that people support these huge | :32:45. | :32:50. | |
privatisation plans just is not true. What is the answer to my | :32:50. | :32:55. | |
question? Should Jaguar be taken back into state ownership? Nobody | :32:55. | :33:00. | |
is demanding Jaguar gets renationalise. At the time, what I | :33:00. | :33:03. | |
would have argued for... I do not care about the time because you | :33:03. | :33:07. | |
were not around. Should Rolls-Royce be taken back into public | :33:07. | :33:14. | |
ownership? I am not going to call now for the renationalisation of | :33:14. | :33:19. | |
Rolls-Royce or Jaguar. What about your socialist roots? I would like | :33:19. | :33:24. | |
to start with the main utilities, 61% of people according to a poll | :33:24. | :33:30. | |
yesterday, just a bonus point out of the water, 61% of people thought | :33:30. | :33:34. | |
gas and energy and water would be better run in the public sector. I | :33:34. | :33:38. | |
would like to start with those main utilities. It does not make any | :33:38. | :33:43. | |
sense, they are a natural monopoly. In a sense, that is where the | :33:43. | :33:49. | |
debate is moving. It is not about privatising Ordnance Survey, | :33:49. | :33:52. | |
privatisation is probably not to have worked were there was | :33:52. | :33:58. | |
competition in the market already. It has been more problematic we you | :33:58. | :34:01. | |
have been privatising natural monopoly. The point that Owen Jones | :34:01. | :34:05. | |
makes about the railways, the utility providers, owes a markets | :34:05. | :34:10. | |
was not much competition, the government is involved, so the | :34:10. | :34:15. | |
railways was a very statist privatisation. It created natural | :34:15. | :34:22. | |
monopolies. Even Conservative voters want to see it renationalise. | :34:22. | :34:26. | |
I am not Jaguar. Win will start with railways then Jaguar. Come in | :34:26. | :34:32. | |
up, we have a look at European politics. Now it is time to say | :34:32. | :34:39. | |
goodbye to her two guests, and to Bob Neill as well. It has been a | :34:39. | :34:43. | |
busy week for members of the European Parliament, meeting in | :34:43. | :34:47. | |
Strasbourg to debate issues, grill senior officials, and do their | :34:47. | :34:57. | |
:34:57. | :34:59. | ||
expenses. Here is our guide to the You might not know it, but Croatia | :34:59. | :35:03. | |
joins the European Union in July. This week, they voted for their | :35:04. | :35:09. | |
first ever European politicians, 12 of them. Turnout was 27%, one of | :35:09. | :35:17. | |
the lowest in any election. The Commissioner for budgets met any | :35:17. | :35:19. | |
Sabah Usmani, her sons Sohaib, Rayyan, Muneeb and daughter Hira to | :35:19. | :35:23. | |
discuss the budget up to 2020, and the view that there is many extra | :35:23. | :35:33. | |
billions of Euros needed. Politicians have planned to open up | :35:33. | :35:40. | |
airports to competition, needing to operate with three grown providers. | :35:40. | :35:50. | |
:35:50. | :36:04. | ||
Difficult new rules on the amount For the next 30 minutes I am joined | :36:05. | :36:12. | |
by Timothy Kirkhope and Glenys Wilmott. We will look at one of | :36:12. | :36:16. | |
those stories, the vote on new banking rules, including the Caporn | :36:16. | :36:26. | |
banker bonuses. -- cap on. By water authority does the European Union | :36:26. | :36:30. | |
take the right to limit salaries? Is to was not just about bankers | :36:30. | :36:35. | |
bonuses, -- this was not just about bankers bonuses, it was a range of | :36:35. | :36:41. | |
measures to stop casino capitalism. It makes sure there is enough | :36:41. | :36:46. | |
liquidity to deal with crisis. understand that, regulation of the | :36:46. | :36:51. | |
banking system, but what gives you the right to determine how much | :36:51. | :36:56. | |
somebody's bonus should be? George Osborne had a chance to deal with | :36:56. | :37:03. | |
it and he did not. People across Europe feel this is ridiculous, | :37:03. | :37:08. | |
getting more than twice your salary in a bonus. Most people would like | :37:08. | :37:13. | |
to have doubled their salary as a bonus at the end of the year. | :37:13. | :37:18. | |
prescriptive approach from Europe is an agreeable. We agree that | :37:18. | :37:23. | |
making banks have enough capital is good. This is a crazy issue. It | :37:23. | :37:29. | |
should not be done in this way. We hope the Bank will show sensitivity | :37:29. | :37:35. | |
in future bearing in mind what has happened, -- the banks. Doing this | :37:35. | :37:39. | |
in a prescriptive way from Brussels seems to last to be unacceptable. | :37:39. | :37:44. | |
Most people would say they would not mind having their bonus limited | :37:44. | :37:50. | |
to 100% of their salary because it is nothing like that. The point is | :37:50. | :37:54. | |
if you do this, you simply open up the whole idea of renumeration from | :37:54. | :37:59. | |
other sources. Goodness knows what mess you get into. It is poking | :37:59. | :38:03. | |
into something in a specific manner. We know what we want, we want | :38:03. | :38:10. | |
restraint. What we do not want his this authoritarianism. It led to | :38:10. | :38:15. | |
recklessness, and that was the point. People were chasing big | :38:15. | :38:22. | |
bonuses and did not take care. they will just increase salaries. | :38:22. | :38:28. | |
It is precise we what will happen. If you ask those people, they would | :38:28. | :38:32. | |
say this is the right thing to do. What people were disgusted at the | :38:32. | :38:42. | |
:38:42. | :38:42. | ||
way the banks handled this. Why not 50%? Can I am move on? -- can I | :38:42. | :38:46. | |
move on? Should businesses be forced to pay for polluting the | :38:46. | :38:53. | |
atmosphere? A voter in the EU has let the main mechanism going to | :38:53. | :38:58. | |
disarray. MEPs voted down a proposal to delay an option of | :38:58. | :39:03. | |
polluter permits. It was said to be necessary to increase the cost and | :39:03. | :39:08. | |
encourage industry to reduce emissions. | :39:08. | :39:12. | |
Cutting the level of carbon emissions has been the driving | :39:12. | :39:16. | |
force behind the European union's battle against global warming. In | :39:16. | :39:22. | |
order to hit a 20% reduction target by 2020, they came up with the idea | :39:22. | :39:28. | |
of a carbon market. Great in theory, but after eight years the project | :39:28. | :39:33. | |
is at risk of going up in smoke. Some believe it was doomed from the | :39:33. | :39:39. | |
start. It is time to put the impetus into alternative policies. | :39:39. | :39:44. | |
That is what investors want to see. There are many other things you | :39:44. | :39:54. | |
:39:54. | :39:54. | ||
could be doing. The trading system was set up in 2005, putting a price | :39:54. | :39:58. | |
on carbon, and letting the industry decide whether to clean up their | :39:59. | :40:06. | |
act. The problem is the price of carbon has slumped. With it, there | :40:06. | :40:13. | |
is no incentive for companies to invest in cleaner technology. This | :40:13. | :40:17. | |
German steelworks company decided to invest heavily in green | :40:17. | :40:21. | |
technology. As a result they have cut their emissions by 25% since | :40:21. | :40:27. | |
2005. They are leading the way in the electric steelmaking industry. | :40:27. | :40:30. | |
We are have been implementing a very strict discipline about carbon | :40:30. | :40:35. | |
conception. We are still on the market, producing steel, making | :40:35. | :40:42. | |
profits. It is difficult to make a profit in this industry. It is one | :40:42. | :40:46. | |
of the success stories but it has not been cheap, particularly in the | :40:46. | :40:50. | |
recession, competing against American and Chinese companies who | :40:50. | :40:59. | |
do not operate in the car market. - carbon market. In order to fix it, | :40:59. | :41:04. | |
they proposed intervening. They called on M8 -- called on MEPs to | :41:04. | :41:09. | |
back the plan. I am really worried and uncertain about what the future | :41:10. | :41:14. | |
holds. This board might suggest that Europe is turning its back on | :41:14. | :41:21. | |
global warming, and no longer cares case, we are cutting our own | :41:21. | :41:26. | |
throats. The fears that an increase in the carbon price might boost | :41:26. | :41:33. | |
energy costs resulted in MEPs voting against the proposal. | :41:33. | :41:36. | |
voted against because this is a short-term solution that is not | :41:36. | :41:41. | |
really a solution. There are problems but they need structural | :41:41. | :41:49. | |
changes. More than 50% of the Conservative MEPs voted against the | :41:49. | :41:55. | |
plan, to howls of hypocrisy. The Liberal Democrats claimed David | :41:55. | :41:59. | |
Cameron claimed -- David Cameron's claim to care about the environment | :41:59. | :42:06. | |
is now a distant memory. The European carbon trading system has | :42:06. | :42:14. | |
not really worked. The price collapsed. This board has been the | :42:14. | :42:18. | |
nail in the coffin. -- this board. There is no doubt it needs reform | :42:19. | :42:28. | |
:42:29. | :42:33. | ||
to. The British Government was trying to reform it. I hope it is | :42:33. | :42:37. | |
not over because we need to encourage businesses to get into | :42:37. | :42:41. | |
new technology. British business is at a disadvantage because they have | :42:41. | :42:48. | |
a minimum carbon price that other people across Europe do not. | :42:48. | :42:51. | |
suggests the European Parliament, by voting the way it did, is in | :42:51. | :42:55. | |
tune with the changing mood of Europe. This is a Europe in | :42:55. | :43:05. | |
:43:05. | :43:06. | ||
recession, 25 million unemployed, companies clearly closing down. The | :43:06. | :43:11. | |
priority is jobs, growth, living standards, not some theoretical | :43:11. | :43:17. | |
carbon price. We are also looking at imports, but that is another | :43:17. | :43:27. | |
:43:27. | :43:29. | ||
issue. This is something the British Government was lobbying for. | :43:29. | :43:38. | |
Labour MEPs supported them. You did not. I was not rebelling. I | :43:38. | :43:44. | |
followed the party whip. We did not agree with the Government on this. | :43:44. | :43:53. | |
As you have not agreed on working- time directives. Urine a position | :43:53. | :43:57. | |
where you are part of a party in power in Britain which is | :43:57. | :44:07. | |
:44:07. | :44:07. | ||
implementing unilateral carbon prices, and you get to vote against | :44:07. | :44:15. | |
a much lower one in the European Parliament. We said the system | :44:15. | :44:22. | |
needs reform. To reform it in the short term, refer it back for | :44:22. | :44:31. | |
debate and discussion, and because the only reason we are where we are | :44:31. | :44:34. | |
is because the economy is in a difficult state. That is why the | :44:34. | :44:39. | |
price has fallen. The market we set up is no longer operating | :44:39. | :44:48. | |
effectively. We need to look at it again and come up with a sensible | :44:48. | :44:54. | |
approach. This Government is doing a lot. We're doing all kinds of | :44:54. | :45:03. | |
things. Let's get to the position we find ourselves in in Europe. | :45:03. | :45:08. | |
There is bipartisan support. You have got us in a position where | :45:08. | :45:14. | |
there is no floor price in carbon. You have lumbered British Industry | :45:14. | :45:24. | |
:45:24. | :45:26. | ||
with a four place -- floor price of �30 per tonne. You come on to this | :45:26. | :45:30. | |
show and talk about rebalancing the economy, manufacturing, getting | :45:30. | :45:35. | |
away from services and financial industries, you have put an | :45:35. | :45:39. | |
albatross around their neck. That is not true. The short-term fix | :45:39. | :45:44. | |
would not have dealt with the underlying problems of the scheme. | :45:44. | :45:48. | |
We have to look at the fundamentals of this. It would sound good, but | :45:48. | :45:54. | |
it was not going to work. That is why we voted against it. My point | :45:54. | :45:59. | |
is even if you reform the scheme, European companies would be subject | :45:59. | :46:05. | |
to a much lower floor price than British companies because you | :46:05. | :46:15. | |
:46:15. | :46:25. | ||
government volunteer a higher one The real marketplace competition is | :46:25. | :46:31. | |
against China and India. Why did you not make the prices lower? | :46:31. | :46:36. | |
European basis we have to have had something that works. It is not | :46:36. | :46:40. | |
working in Britain, we have lumbered our companies are a higher | :46:40. | :46:46. | |
cost of energy. What is next? have to make sure companies invest | :46:47. | :46:51. | |
in new technology. I agree, the carbon price has dropped | :46:51. | :46:59. | |
dramatically. Are we right to have our own �16 a tonne carbon fuel | :46:59. | :47:04. | |
price? It would have been better if we had the support in the European | :47:04. | :47:10. | |
Parliament. It is now going to rise to �30 a tonne, are we right to do | :47:10. | :47:16. | |
that? It is difficult to predict things in terms of price. A excuse | :47:16. | :47:20. | |
me, this is Government policy, this is an administered floor price to | :47:21. | :47:27. | |
get it up to �30. It is a Government mandated, minimum price. | :47:27. | :47:33. | |
The each Government has to take its own view. This it right? I can see | :47:34. | :47:38. | |
no way that governments should not take the decisions that they wish. | :47:38. | :47:44. | |
What was proposed by the commission was not going to work. As far as we | :47:44. | :47:49. | |
were concerned, we wanted to have another look at it. The British one | :47:49. | :47:54. | |
may well work. British companies are wrapping massive disadvantage | :47:54. | :48:00. | |
to European competitors. We are not at the end of this at all. Maybe | :48:00. | :48:06. | |
the interest will move on. I invite you both to read the statements of | :48:06. | :48:11. | |
people representing industries in Teesside. Read the Financial Times | :48:11. | :48:16. | |
this morning and the opinion comment. I think it is quite | :48:16. | :48:21. | |
helpful. It is not really plugged into Teesside. | :48:21. | :48:25. | |
The European Commission questioned George Osborne's planned tax relief | :48:25. | :48:31. | |
for Britain's video-games industry. He announced a tax relief of 25% | :48:31. | :48:36. | |
last year which is supposed to come into effect in April. The industry | :48:36. | :48:44. | |
is big business. It is thought to be worth around �55 billion. The UK | :48:44. | :48:53. | |
industry, says the tax break will help safeguard over 4500 jobs. It | :48:53. | :49:00. | |
will boost the economy by �283 million. The European Commission | :49:00. | :49:04. | |
says the plans will breach the rules over state aid and has now | :49:04. | :49:14. | |
:49:14. | :49:15. | ||
launched an inquiry. Is it game over? Let's go to Alyn Smith for | :49:15. | :49:20. | |
the SNP. There is a huge chunk of this industry based in Scotland and | :49:20. | :49:25. | |
it is going to turn over �1 billion a year. Why does it need a tax | :49:25. | :49:31. | |
subsidy? This is precisely the question. Yes, these things need to | :49:31. | :49:35. | |
be signed up within the rules of the single market, but our stance | :49:35. | :49:39. | |
is that the European Commission is looking at this on too narrow a | :49:39. | :49:45. | |
scale. We are not just competing with France or Germany, we are | :49:45. | :49:48. | |
competing with Canada and America weather are federal and state | :49:48. | :49:54. | |
incentives. We think the relief is necessary. We are seeing a number | :49:54. | :49:57. | |
of manufacturers are increasingly finishing their product in the | :49:57. | :50:01. | |
States and Canada in order to take advantage of those incentives. The | :50:01. | :50:05. | |
French have forked out a similar scheme that this would generate an | :50:05. | :50:09. | |
extra amount of money and would generate money in Scotland and the | :50:09. | :50:13. | |
UK and we want to see this go forward. It has been a long time | :50:13. | :50:21. | |
coming. The video games industry in Britain should have tax relief | :50:21. | :50:24. | |
because its competitors outside the European Union have generous tax | :50:24. | :50:30. | |
relief? Very generous tax relief in a number of cases. The Canadians | :50:30. | :50:34. | |
have ploughed a great deal of strategically important money into | :50:34. | :50:39. | |
this because they wanted to develop a Canadian games industry. Unless | :50:39. | :50:44. | |
we get our act together, we will export high-skill, created jobs at | :50:44. | :50:50. | |
a time when much of the creativity is Scottish, UK, European. We need | :50:50. | :50:53. | |
to make sure the Government is lining up behind those industries | :50:53. | :50:57. | |
and this is hugely important for the development of this in the | :50:57. | :51:02. | |
street and in the future. We need to maintain the Crucible with an | :51:02. | :51:07. | |
Scotland, the UK and Europe to maintain its competitive advantage. | :51:07. | :51:11. | |
The European Commission can look into this, but this needs to go | :51:11. | :51:16. | |
ahead and the sooner the better able stock the danger is that in | :51:16. | :51:20. | |
the event and industry survives or fails knock on the basis of the | :51:20. | :51:23. | |
quality of its products or brainpower and innovation of its | :51:23. | :51:29. | |
people, but simply by who is given the biggest tax breaks? That is a | :51:29. | :51:34. | |
risk to be sure, but what is created need not last in perpetuity. | :51:34. | :51:40. | |
Our stance is the UK games industry is at a competitive disadvantage | :51:40. | :51:43. | |
internationally in physical terms. A number of other governments are | :51:43. | :51:47. | |
specifically buying into this industry and once it is there, it | :51:47. | :51:51. | |
will stay there. We want to make sure we do not lose these jobs or | :51:51. | :51:57. | |
this industry and we are backing the Chancellor's proposals. The | :51:57. | :52:00. | |
European Commission can look into this by all means, but the French | :52:00. | :52:05. | |
have calculated in a similar scheme that this generates money and jobs, | :52:05. | :52:10. | |
which can only be good for all of us. I will be knocking on the | :52:10. | :52:14. | |
European commission's door to protect and promote these plans. | :52:15. | :52:19. | |
Every vested interest always says it will generate more jobs and | :52:19. | :52:24. | |
income. What should we tell the European Commission? This is | :52:25. | :52:29. | |
something we are really good at, we are up there with world leaders. | :52:29. | :52:35. | |
Shall we tell the European Commission to back off? We should | :52:35. | :52:40. | |
have more flexible rules on state aid. That is our party's position. | :52:41. | :52:46. | |
It is a reform we need in Europe. am nodding in agreement because | :52:46. | :52:50. | |
when I was a minister in the UK I had something to do with this | :52:50. | :52:54. | |
industry. We had been ahead of the world in technology, there are | :52:54. | :52:58. | |
certain things about this country that we really can export and it is | :52:58. | :53:03. | |
very good for Europe as a whole. Let's get on with it, let's get | :53:03. | :53:09. | |
some help and get this industry develop even more. Does the | :53:09. | :53:13. | |
European Commission have any flexibility? As I understand it, | :53:13. | :53:17. | |
its job is to ensure a level playing field within the European | :53:17. | :53:23. | |
Union, rather than take into account non-European Union tax | :53:23. | :53:29. | |
regimes. Indeed, there is flexibility and the EMS would | :53:29. | :53:33. | |
justify the means and there are internal rules that we need to make | :53:33. | :53:41. | |
sure are fixed. That is a discussion the commission wants to | :53:41. | :53:45. | |
have and we can have, but there is a bigger picture where we need to | :53:45. | :53:49. | |
be conscious that this is a very mobile and global industry and | :53:49. | :53:55. | |
market. We need to get our act together. I want to see the | :53:55. | :53:58. | |
Scottish Government to incentivise the industry to grow in Scotland. | :53:58. | :54:05. | |
That is not where we are now, so I back the UK proposals. If the | :54:05. | :54:09. | |
commission wants to look into this, by all means, but we need to | :54:09. | :54:15. | |
protect and promote his industry. What is your favourite game? | :54:15. | :54:20. | |
enjoy stealing a car and joyriding around town. Where are you from? | :54:20. | :54:28. | |
Glasgow? Originally Glasgow. That is a great city, I was at | :54:28. | :54:35. | |
university there. The forerunner to today's European | :54:35. | :54:41. | |
Union was the European stoat -- the European Coal and Steel Community, | :54:41. | :54:46. | |
made into a treaty in 1951. Since then dozens more treaties have been | :54:47. | :54:55. | |
signed into the EU. Where are all the treaties kept? Adam has been | :54:55. | :55:05. | |
:55:05. | :55:06. | ||
finding out. This is where they store the EU's | :55:06. | :55:12. | |
sacred texts, the treaties, well, copies of them. The real ones are | :55:12. | :55:18. | |
in Rome. Philip Evans prepares them for a signing and looks after them | :55:18. | :55:24. | |
in a climate controlled strongroom. The first surprise is they do not | :55:24. | :55:29. | |
come in books, but in big boxes. This is the Croatian Accession | :55:29. | :55:38. | |
Treaty. It is quite a tome. What you have here is the treaty and the | :55:38. | :55:44. | |
annexes, the primary law and the final act. All this here is | :55:44. | :55:50. | |
Croatian. A treaty has to be agreed by every Prime Minister and | :55:50. | :55:53. | |
President through a process called the Inter-governmental Conference. | :55:53. | :55:59. | |
Once they are drafted they go through a process called toilettage | :55:59. | :56:02. | |
or scrubbing where linguists support over every word. Then a | :56:02. | :56:08. | |
chilly has to be ratified by every member state. Some are put to a | :56:08. | :56:14. | |
referendum. Here is the one that started it all. The Treaty of Rome | :56:14. | :56:19. | |
signed in 1957 by the six original member states. It sets out the idea | :56:19. | :56:22. | |
of a common market and the principle of an ever closer union | :56:22. | :56:30. | |
of the peoples of Europe. The UK did not join until much later. This | :56:30. | :56:35. | |
way is an absolute ton. This is what Britain signed to join the | :56:35. | :56:40. | |
European Community in 1973. And here is the Maastricht Treaty | :56:40. | :56:46. | |
signed in 1992, which transformed the plain old European Community | :56:46. | :56:51. | |
into a fully-fledged European Union. Each new treaty and Mensah the | :56:51. | :56:54. | |
original Treaty of Rome, so if you want to be up-to-date about how the | :56:54. | :57:00. | |
EU operates today, you need to read the Treaty of Lisbon, signed in | :57:00. | :57:04. | |
2007. Some governments prefer getting their treaties in this | :57:04. | :57:10. | |
format nowadays. The treaties are way the EU takes its great leaps | :57:10. | :57:17. | |
forward, or backwards depending on your point of view. Our friend | :57:17. | :57:21. | |
Philip also organises the signing ceremonies, giving him a ringside | :57:21. | :57:26. | |
seat to history. One thing I have always try to ensure is there is a | :57:26. | :57:31. | |
pen on the table that works. His parents get used more than you | :57:31. | :57:35. | |
might think. The EU signs around 100 other types of official | :57:35. | :57:40. | |
agreements every year. How a man with the treaties, Adam Fleming. Is | :57:40. | :57:46. | |
there going to be another treaty to add to this? We have got more | :57:46. | :57:51. | |
fiscal union, more banking union, which it lead to a new treaty? | :57:51. | :57:57. | |
may well do, but it depends who you talk to it. At one time it was up | :57:57. | :58:01. | |
we would do that, but now Angela Merkel says we want once again. Who | :58:01. | :58:10. | |
knows? She is going to win again in September. When the Prime Minister | :58:10. | :58:13. | |
has successfully renegotiated our position with Europe, we will need | :58:14. | :58:22. | |
a new treaty. Should that not be if? My simplification of the treaty | :58:22. | :58:30. | |
on the website is very much to the point. None of this GMB stuff from | :58:30. | :58:36. | |
you. Do you think the European establishment is up for another | :58:36. | :58:42. | |
treaty? No, not at the moment. We will be, but I think they will want | :58:42. | :58:48. | |
it by that time we have negotiated. He is very optimistic. He is very | :58:48. | :58:53. |