Browse content similar to 30/03/2012. Check below for episodes and series from the same categories and more!
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Ahead in the polls, kicking the Government after its terrible week, | :00:08. | :00:12. | |
floating along until Friday, then balm, you get trounced in a by- | :00:12. | :00:16. | |
election in one of your safest seats. Ed Milliband was reminded | :00:16. | :00:20. | |
last night, you underestimate George Galloway at your peril. The | :00:20. | :00:27. | |
victory was hailed, by the victor, as the Bradford spring. It was | :00:27. | :00:31. | |
certainly the Bradford swing, the biggest against Labour in 30 years. | :00:31. | :00:41. | |
:00:41. | :00:42. | ||
Six years ago you were lapping milk from the palms of Reulla Lenska? | :00:42. | :00:49. | |
can't have done me any harm. Does a dead cat bounce?! A woman | :00:49. | :00:53. | |
sets herself on fire after decanting petrol in her kitchen. | :00:53. | :00:58. | |
The greater the extent to which people have petrol, have fuel in | :00:58. | :01:03. | |
their vehicles, with maybe a bit in the garage as well, in a jerry can, | :01:03. | :01:07. | |
the longer we will keep things going. The Tory chairman dismisses | :01:07. | :01:12. | |
calls for Francis Maude to resign. We convene our political panel to | :01:12. | :01:22. | |
:01:22. | :01:24. | ||
pass judgment on an extraordinary Good evening, the political | :01:24. | :01:27. | |
establishment is reeling tonight, after a week that has shaken both | :01:27. | :01:32. | |
the Conservative Party, and now, after last night's extraordinary | :01:32. | :01:34. | |
by-election result, Ed Milliband's Labour Party. Having spent the week | :01:34. | :01:39. | |
of accusing the Government of being out-of-touch, could the same charge | :01:39. | :01:42. | |
be levelled at the Labour leadership. Bradford west, Labour | :01:42. | :01:46. | |
for 40 years, was won in the early hours of the morning, by the | :01:46. | :01:50. | |
maverick politician, and who could forget, me owing Big Brother | :01:50. | :02:00. | |
:02:00. | :02:01. | ||
contestant, George Galloway. 12 hours after his most spectacular | :02:01. | :02:07. | |
triumph, Gorgeous George was having a sly smoke of a celebratory cigar. | :02:07. | :02:13. | |
By the heftiest odds he had taken Bradford, now he was ready for the | :02:13. | :02:17. | |
open-topped bus. A uprising and total rejection of the mainstream | :02:17. | :02:21. | |
parties, particularly Labour, they were George Galloway's word, and on | :02:21. | :02:25. | |
the evidence of last night it is fairly hard to disagree. How did he | :02:25. | :02:30. | |
achieve it? At party headquarters, where he stayed until 4.00am, he | :02:30. | :02:34. | |
was back, enjoying embraces and bouquets, did he really think he | :02:34. | :02:40. | |
would win. Yes, surprisingly, he did. When I arrived I was 200-12, | :02:40. | :02:45. | |
by the end the bookies had -- 200-1, the bookies suspended betting in | :02:45. | :02:50. | |
the end. I felt we had the zeitgeist and the mood on the | :02:50. | :02:53. | |
streets, which is one of alienation from the political system and class, | :02:53. | :02:58. | |
from double-dealing, double-talking politicians. And a consensus on | :02:58. | :03:02. | |
issues of war and neo-liberal economics. Iraq and Afghanistan, | :03:02. | :03:07. | |
your anti-war stance, that is the bedrock of your support isn't it? | :03:07. | :03:10. | |
It was a significant factor, but not the most important factor. | :03:10. | :03:13. | |
There were different factors in different areas. For example, I won, | :03:13. | :03:17. | |
I know it is hard to believe, 85% of the votes in the university ward, | :03:17. | :03:21. | |
and the issues there were about tuition fees. In places like | :03:22. | :03:26. | |
Minningham and Tolor the issues were mass unemployment and poverty. | :03:26. | :03:30. | |
In both sets of wards, the war is unpopular, not least because we | :03:30. | :03:34. | |
can't afford the blood and the treasure that we are currently | :03:34. | :03:38. | |
expending there. It is said you relied very heavily on the Muslim | :03:38. | :03:41. | |
vote. You yourself have said in the past that you have the Muslim vote, | :03:42. | :03:48. | |
you like to think you have the Muslim vote? I reject this concept | :03:48. | :03:52. | |
of "the" Muslim vote, Muslims are individuals like everybody else, | :03:52. | :03:54. | |
you wouldn't say there is a Christian vote, because they vote | :03:54. | :04:00. | |
in all sorts of ways. The Labour candidate, I remind you, was a | :04:00. | :04:02. | |
Pakistani Muslim. I don't think that is a valid question, every | :04:02. | :04:07. | |
voter is an individual, and every voter has to be appealed to. | :04:07. | :04:10. | |
you claiming you are a better Muslim than the Labour candidate? | :04:10. | :04:14. | |
That was a response to his campaign that people should vote for him | :04:14. | :04:16. | |
because he was a Pakistani Muslim. If you read the letter, you will | :04:16. | :04:22. | |
see that. The Labour MP for Bradford South, | :04:22. | :04:27. | |
Gerry Sutcliffe, took me through the city's newly revamped centinary | :04:27. | :04:32. | |
Square, and he did -- Centinary Square, and he did what all Labour | :04:32. | :04:37. | |
politicians have to do today, eat humble pie? It is a tough result, | :04:37. | :04:40. | |
we didn't expect t and in the end the votes went to George Galloway. | :04:40. | :04:44. | |
When did you realise you were losing it? It was in the last week, | :04:44. | :04:47. | |
when we realised things weren't going as well as we hoped. One of | :04:47. | :04:53. | |
the lessons we learned, was social media campaigns and social text | :04:53. | :04:57. | |
messages affected the campaign. Text messages and new media, for me | :04:57. | :05:00. | |
they are excuses from the older generation when things are | :05:00. | :05:04. | |
perceived to have gone wrong. But in Bradford, the young leader of | :05:04. | :05:07. | |
Labour's student, says George Galloway did indeed convince the | :05:07. | :05:10. | |
youth. Young people have really been galvanised by this election, | :05:10. | :05:14. | |
they have come out in their droves, and taken part in the democratic | :05:14. | :05:17. | |
process. For me the young people have won the election. It is | :05:17. | :05:20. | |
believed in the campaign there was rebellion against the old clam | :05:20. | :05:27. | |
politics which had been used in the past to get the Muslim vote, the | :05:27. | :05:31. | |
called Brad-ree. I have heard of that name, I think it has no place | :05:31. | :05:38. | |
in politics. I'm glad that whatever the clam system, it has no part to | :05:38. | :05:43. | |
play in politics. People it does play a part? I don't think think so, | :05:43. | :05:49. | |
using family ties, people should focus on the candidate. George | :05:49. | :05:54. | |
Galloway is a maverick, there was a great day on Capitol Hill, when he | :05:54. | :06:00. | |
outfoxed the Senate over Iraq. Senator, in everything I said about | :06:00. | :06:04. | |
Iraq I turned out to be right, and you turned out to be wrong, and | :06:04. | :06:09. | |
100,000 people have paid with their lives. 1600 of them American | :06:09. | :06:15. | |
soldiers, sent to their deaths, on a pack of lies. | :06:15. | :06:21. | |
Pussy cat, yes. Against that there was his display in a leotard on | :06:21. | :06:26. | |
celebrity Big Brother, lapping milk from the palms of Rula Lenska. | :06:26. | :06:31. | |
Today, in triumph, he was unrepentant. Six years ago you were | :06:31. | :06:37. | |
lapping milk from her hands? Amazing, and the people voted for | :06:37. | :06:43. | |
What is it about Ed Milliband's Labour Party? That is a very | :06:43. | :06:47. | |
interesting dichotomy, by the time it goes out, it might be David | :06:47. | :06:55. | |
Miliband's Labour Party. The Labour leadership is in trouble now, they | :06:55. | :06:58. | |
have decisively failed to break from the path that Tony Blair laid | :06:58. | :07:03. | |
out for them F a back side could have three cheeks, they are the | :07:03. | :07:09. | |
three cheeks of the same back backside. The Tories, Labour and | :07:09. | :07:16. | |
the liberals are seen as the same as each other. People in Bradford | :07:16. | :07:19. | |
feel neglected by politicians. They will show you the hole in the | :07:19. | :07:22. | |
ground created years ago for the new shopping centre, they are | :07:22. | :07:27. | |
stilling for it to appear. When politicians are in power, people | :07:27. | :07:29. | |
have expectations of politicians and they expect things to happen. | :07:29. | :07:34. | |
Bradford has had a hard time over the last decade? It has had a hard | :07:34. | :07:38. | |
time in the sense of its image, perceptions people have of the city, | :07:38. | :07:43. | |
the high levels of unemployment, particularly in this constituency | :07:43. | :07:46. | |
where we have had the by-election. Hard times for Bradford, now good | :07:46. | :07:52. | |
times for the man who keeps bouncing back, the indefatigable Mr | :07:53. | :07:58. | |
Galloway. Why didn't the Labour Party, and let's be honest, the | :07:58. | :08:03. | |
rest of us, see this one coming? There is a disconnect, there is a | :08:03. | :08:09. | |
wide disconnect, and we are seeing why people are excited about | :08:09. | :08:13. | |
mayors: a YouGov poll showed people would rather unelected technocrats | :08:13. | :08:18. | |
running the country. There is the broader problem. There is spesif | :08:18. | :08:21. | |
sicks about Labour, they were acknowledge anything their inquest | :08:21. | :08:26. | |
today they have a big problem with places with heavy ethnic votes. | :08:26. | :08:29. | |
They have relied on an old fashioned idea about how you get | :08:29. | :08:34. | |
out that vote. How did we miss it, it was supposed to be somewhere you | :08:34. | :08:39. | |
Way weigh the vote for a Labour MP. You didn't have the tell tale signs | :08:39. | :08:42. | |
like people like Harriet and Ed Milliband running up there to hit | :08:42. | :08:47. | |
the doors, which you normally have if they think they will lose it. | :08:47. | :08:52. | |
Who would have said a few days ago you have a by-election decided, we | :08:52. | :08:56. | |
have to front it up, a war that was nearly ten years ago with Iraq. | :08:56. | :09:00. | |
There were other issues too, but for that to be one of the strands, | :09:00. | :09:05. | |
and then you have the guy who is the leader of the Labour Party, Ed | :09:05. | :09:09. | |
Milliband, is the one who talked about it most during his leadership | :09:09. | :09:15. | |
campaign. He would be the one most able to talk about it. Does Ed | :09:15. | :09:19. | |
Milliband have a real problem on his hands? He could make an | :09:19. | :09:23. | |
argument this is not applicable more broadly. Some of his critics | :09:23. | :09:28. | |
said this evening he has had bad luck, he had a ten-day run and it | :09:28. | :09:32. | |
has ended cruelly. I don't buy it, I don't think we will get many new | :09:32. | :09:36. | |
policies from him any time soon, as long as he doesn't do new policies, | :09:36. | :09:40. | |
you will have George Galloway, admittedly, a unique individual, | :09:40. | :09:43. | |
who will be able to storm a March, and Labour, not yet, has anything | :09:43. | :09:47. | |
to answer with. What are the lessons for the Labour | :09:47. | :09:51. | |
Party from their Bradford West drubbing, the party's deputy leader | :09:51. | :09:57. | |
is with me now. After a long night, thank you for coming in. Did you | :09:57. | :10:01. | |
have any idea it was hurling towards you? I did go up to | :10:01. | :10:04. | |
Bradford a week ago last Thursday, and Ed Milliband went up too. When | :10:04. | :10:07. | |
I was up there people were saying they were going to vote Labour, the | :10:07. | :10:10. | |
same people that said they were going to vote Labour before the | :10:10. | :10:14. | |
general election and did vote Labour. And the question is, | :10:14. | :10:17. | |
whether or not actually we were out-of-touch, and those people | :10:17. | :10:21. | |
weren't going to vote Labour, or whether or not there was a last- | :10:21. | :10:26. | |
minute momentum ahead of steam, a bandwagon built up. Either way, the | :10:26. | :10:30. | |
reality is, that if our connections with those people had been strong | :10:30. | :10:34. | |
enough, deep enough and robust enough, that bandwagon wouldn't | :10:34. | :10:38. | |
have built up, that is why we have to really learn the lessons | :10:38. | :10:44. | |
about...You Are in a position, you should have a Miliband -wagon, that | :10:44. | :10:49. | |
is what this is about for you now? There are particular issues in this | :10:49. | :10:52. | |
constituency. We will have to look into it, if it is a more general | :10:52. | :10:56. | |
issue, which I suspect it isn't, obviously we will have to learn | :10:56. | :11:00. | |
those lessons. I think our starting point is to talk to, not only the | :11:00. | :11:02. | |
Labour Party people in Bradford, but also people who aren't in the | :11:03. | :11:05. | |
Labour Party in Bradford, and particularly those who switch their | :11:05. | :11:11. | |
votes. But if you remember, the last four by-elections, we have won | :11:11. | :11:15. | |
with Ed Milliband's leadership. is extraordinary language, Harriet | :11:15. | :11:18. | |
Harman, 18 months ago, when Ed Milliband was elected, he talked | :11:18. | :11:22. | |
about the need to reconnect with the party, and learn the painful | :11:22. | :11:26. | |
truths, that started nearly two years ago, why hasn't it worked? | :11:26. | :11:30. | |
have had the process of refounding Labour. Which is looking at our | :11:30. | :11:34. | |
organisation from top to bottom, it is based on the notion that we have | :11:34. | :11:38. | |
to deepen our engagment, as well as reviewing our policies. And we are | :11:38. | :11:42. | |
doing that. But that doesn't happen overnight. But, we made progress | :11:42. | :11:47. | |
last May in the council elections, taking 450 seats off the Liberal | :11:47. | :11:51. | |
Democrats, and 350 off the Tories, and we won four by-elections. So | :11:51. | :11:54. | |
actually, the question is whether or not this is a particular thing | :11:55. | :11:58. | |
that has happened in Bradford, which is very serious, and we need | :11:58. | :12:01. | |
it address, or whether it is a general thing. I would say to you, | :12:01. | :12:05. | |
George Galloway wants to generalise it. The Tories want to generalise | :12:05. | :12:09. | |
it, anybody who wants to predict our problems will generalise it. My | :12:09. | :12:14. | |
own view is it is actually...It not just politicians, it the people | :12:14. | :12:18. | |
of Bradford you heard -- it was the people of Bradford you heard there, | :12:18. | :12:22. | |
locking at the shopping centre never built. It must have shown you, | :12:22. | :12:26. | |
when you are in opposition and you have a Government doing | :12:26. | :12:30. | |
phenomenally unpopular thing, you have to do more than bash the | :12:30. | :12:33. | |
Tories, you have to come up with policies and come off the fence? | :12:33. | :12:37. | |
has shown us that the people in Bradford voted 2-1 for Respect, | :12:37. | :12:42. | |
compared to Labour, that is not what happened in Oldam or Barnsley, | :12:42. | :12:45. | |
or Feltham or Leicester. The question is, how we understand this. | :12:45. | :12:50. | |
I think we do have to learn lessons, but I don't think that we should | :12:50. | :12:54. | |
generalise it if that is not actually the situation. We do have | :12:54. | :12:59. | |
to deepen our engagment across the piste, and we do have to review our | :12:59. | :13:04. | |
policies, we are doing that. years, when Ed Milliband was | :13:04. | :13:07. | |
elected Labour leader, did you ever think that you would be sitting | :13:07. | :13:11. | |
here, on a Friday night, two years after Gordon Brown had left, | :13:11. | :13:16. | |
Labour's most unpopular leader since records began, explaining why | :13:16. | :13:23. | |
Labour had lost a safe seat. Parliament tearly, you are worse | :13:23. | :13:27. | |
off -- patrol men tearly you are worse off than under him. There is | :13:27. | :13:31. | |
no disguising it, it is very disappointing, that is why we have | :13:31. | :13:39. | |
to learn our lessons from it, we have to rebuild in Bradford. And | :13:39. | :13:45. | |
win again at the next general election. It might well be it was a | :13:45. | :13:48. | |
laid bandwagon, but we should have had deep connections so that | :13:48. | :13:51. | |
wouldn't have happened. How long has he to prove he is a winner and | :13:51. | :13:54. | |
somebody with the charisma and force to take you into the next | :13:54. | :13:59. | |
election and win it? At the last council elections in May, we had a | :13:59. | :14:03. | |
bigger share of the popular vote than all the other parties. | :14:03. | :14:07. | |
start by saying the fightback begins in Scotland, that was a | :14:07. | :14:10. | |
disaster? If you look across England, we had more of a share of | :14:10. | :14:14. | |
the popular vote than the Tories. We won seats off them. I'm not | :14:14. | :14:19. | |
saying we are all the way there yet, or we have the engagment we need at | :14:19. | :14:23. | |
local level, or all our policies are where they need to be, we need | :14:23. | :14:26. | |
to make further progress. To generalise out from Bradford, a | :14:26. | :14:30. | |
very bad result, to take it to the general picture, it is wrong. We | :14:30. | :14:35. | |
have work to do, but we will set on doing it. | :14:35. | :14:38. | |
There is no threat of a petrol strike over Easter, that much | :14:38. | :14:42. | |
became clear today. This week Britain learned how to act as if it | :14:42. | :14:47. | |
was in the middle of the crisis even though it wasn't. Panic hit | :14:47. | :14:52. | |
the country, fuel tanks ran dry, and the Fire Brigades' Union urged | :14:52. | :14:56. | |
the Government to make the public aware of the dangers of storing | :14:56. | :15:03. | |
fuel, after a woman accidentally set herself on light. The minister | :15:03. | :15:06. | |
had urged people to store fuel for a strike. | :15:06. | :15:10. | |
Today unions made clear no tanker strike was imminent, making this | :15:10. | :15:20. | |
:15:20. | :15:21. | ||
seem as nothing. Yet as the Easter gt gettaway grb gettaway -- get | :15:21. | :15:27. | |
away begins it has turned into a political disaster. People may have | :15:27. | :15:33. | |
fuel in their vehicles and a little bit in the garage in a jerry can, | :15:33. | :15:37. | |
the longer we will keep things going. Yesterday a woman in York | :15:37. | :15:41. | |
suffered 40% burns after attempting to decant petrol in her qichen. We | :15:41. | :15:47. | |
don't know if there is -- kitchen, we don't know if there is a link, | :15:47. | :15:54. | |
but calls for Francis Maude to resign followed quickly. | :15:54. | :15:58. | |
Are people supposed to have jerry cans in garages they may or may not | :15:58. | :16:03. | |
have. You can't store that amount of petrol. It was a mistake by the | :16:03. | :16:08. | |
cabinet minister, he didn't understand the size of a jerry can. | :16:08. | :16:12. | |
Nobody quite seems to know to whom he apologised or when, it all adds | :16:12. | :16:16. | |
fuel to the narrative of a failed communications strategy. | :16:16. | :16:20. | |
The Conservative Party has had arguably its worst week since David | :16:20. | :16:27. | |
Cameron entered Downing Street, earlier I spoke to their chairman. | :16:27. | :16:30. | |
Labour's disappointment in Bradford has disguised what was also a | :16:30. | :16:33. | |
terrible night for you there. This is the kind of place you need to | :16:33. | :16:38. | |
win seats? It wasn't a good result for us, it was a disastrous night | :16:38. | :16:42. | |
for Labour. And this was a seat which even in 2010 for us didn't go | :16:42. | :16:46. | |
our way. We made some great strides in Yorkshire, and in the north | :16:46. | :16:50. | |
generally in 2010, but again, this was one of the seats that swung | :16:50. | :16:53. | |
against us towards Labour. So we knew it was going to be a difficult | :16:53. | :16:57. | |
night for us. The Tory of the night really is that this was a terrible | :16:57. | :17:00. | |
night for, and a bruising night for the Labour Party. | :17:00. | :17:03. | |
We are dealing with Labour acceptrately but you came second | :17:03. | :17:08. | |
here last night. Your share of the vote dropped last night by 23%. | :17:08. | :17:15. | |
What went wrong for you, the Conservatives? That that's right. I | :17:15. | :17:20. | |
think the swing really notable last night was the 36% swing away from | :17:20. | :17:24. | |
Labour. This hasn't been the best of weeks for the Government. What | :17:24. | :17:28. | |
surprises me is that if the Labour Party and Ed Milliband can't win a | :17:28. | :17:31. | |
seat in the week that the Government have had at the end of | :17:31. | :17:35. | |
this week, then when are they going to win seat. It says a lot for the | :17:35. | :17:38. | |
weakness in the leadership within the Labour Party, and the fact that | :17:38. | :17:42. | |
the people of Bradford West have woken up and said Labour can no | :17:42. | :17:49. | |
longer take us for granted. That is why we have delivered this stunning | :17:49. | :17:52. | |
change in result for George Galloway. You concede it has been a | :17:52. | :17:56. | |
bad week for you, let's turn to the fuel chaos, worrying many people | :17:56. | :17:59. | |
tonight, would you agree the Government got us into a right mess | :17:59. | :18:08. | |
by advising motorists to fill up their cars and jerry cans? | :18:08. | :18:12. | |
remember before being stranded in London during the last fuel crisis, | :18:12. | :18:16. | |
that was because the Government didn't prepare, didn't put in place | :18:16. | :18:20. | |
contingency plans, and didn't advise the public to be prepared, | :18:20. | :18:23. | |
and use common sense and make sure we had fuel resilience, fuel | :18:23. | :18:27. | |
outside the picket line. So Francis Maude was right, was he, to tell | :18:27. | :18:31. | |
people to fill up cars and jerry cans? I think it was right for the | :18:31. | :18:35. | |
Government to say that people have to be resilient, and have to be | :18:35. | :18:40. | |
prepared for this. Let's not forget, the unions may have rowed back now, | :18:40. | :18:43. | |
but what they were saying is they were intending to strike over the | :18:44. | :18:47. | |
Easter break. The time when most families do get in the car with the | :18:47. | :18:51. | |
kids and go out for a day or couple of days. Had that strike happened | :18:51. | :18:53. | |
over the Easter break, it was important that the Government was | :18:53. | :18:58. | |
preparing for that, and making sure that all necessary measures were | :18:58. | :19:02. | |
taking place, and were informing the public. In York a woman has | :19:02. | :19:06. | |
suffered 40% burns, reportedly after decanting petrol in her | :19:06. | :19:10. | |
kitchen. Labour is suggesting Francis Maude should resign if her | :19:10. | :19:14. | |
tragedy can be linked back to his comments. Should he go? I have | :19:14. | :19:18. | |
heard about the strategy about Diane Hill, she is being treated | :19:18. | :19:22. | |
not far from where I live, at the specialist burns unit in Wakefield, | :19:22. | :19:27. | |
this is a strategy for her and her family. At the moment our thoughts | :19:27. | :19:31. | |
should be with her and her family. His words were incredibly | :19:31. | :19:35. | |
irresponsible, it wasn't about being resilient or advising people | :19:35. | :19:40. | |
to be resilient. His words were incredibly irresponsible? I think | :19:40. | :19:43. | |
what is deeply irresponsible, and frankly, quite sickening, is the | :19:43. | :19:49. | |
fact that the Labour Party want to make political points out of this | :19:49. | :19:53. | |
personal tragedy for this lady. Putting the case aside, should | :19:53. | :19:59. | |
Francis Maude apologise for words and phrase that is were deeply | :19:59. | :20:02. | |
irresponsible? Francis himself would agree that the way in which | :20:02. | :20:06. | |
he phrased what he was basically saying to the public, let as use | :20:06. | :20:10. | |
our common sense and have some resilience, and let's be prepared | :20:10. | :20:13. | |
for when the unions cause an irresponsible strike, they are | :20:14. | :20:18. | |
words I might not have used. have not heard a public apology for | :20:18. | :20:21. | |
him? That is a matter for Francis. I would much rather be part of a | :20:22. | :20:27. | |
Government. We would love to, he won't do interviews. Do you feel as | :20:27. | :20:30. | |
Party Chairman he should apologise? I would much rather be part of a | :20:30. | :20:33. | |
Government that is looking ahead, and saying to the people of this | :20:33. | :20:37. | |
country, the unions are being deeply responsible for calling for | :20:37. | :20:41. | |
a strike over the Easter break. last been a bad week for the | :20:41. | :20:44. | |
Conservatives, you have recognised that, the job of the Party Chairman | :20:44. | :20:47. | |
is to connect the party to real people, you have failed to do that? | :20:47. | :20:51. | |
That is a matter of opinion, Emily. I have been out on the streets | :20:51. | :20:56. | |
campaigning each and every week, up and down this country, as I do each | :20:56. | :21:00. | |
and every week. I'm deeply connected to the area here, in West | :21:00. | :21:04. | |
Yorkshire, I was born and raised here. I have deep connections in | :21:04. | :21:08. | |
the comounties, it is my job to make -- communities, it is my job | :21:08. | :21:12. | |
to make sure the Conservative Party remains connected and committed to | :21:12. | :21:16. | |
campaigning, and remains committed to listening to people up and down | :21:16. | :21:19. | |
the country, especially in the north. Why is the Conservative | :21:19. | :21:23. | |
Party home website saying they need a new Party Chairman, is it time | :21:23. | :21:27. | |
for you to go? It is a matter for Conservative Home, you have to ask | :21:27. | :21:34. | |
them why they have that view. The script of the last few days has | :21:34. | :21:40. | |
been bluntly, could have been drept up for The Thick Of It, we have | :21:40. | :21:44. | |
Daniel Finkelstein and our other guests. Great of you all to come | :21:44. | :21:52. | |
far and wide, and see us. We could start anywhere, let's do | :21:52. | :22:02. | |
:22:02. | :22:03. | ||
the Maude thing. Is he finished now? I don't think it is a | :22:03. | :22:07. | |
resignation issue. All of the things that have dominated your | :22:07. | :22:12. | |
programme are all interconnected. When there is an economic backlike | :22:12. | :22:18. | |
we have, whacky things happen. You have a petrol panic when there is | :22:18. | :22:23. | |
no petrol strike, and pasties, and a row about party funding. You can | :22:23. | :22:26. | |
see how there is disillusionment, which feeds on different subjects, | :22:26. | :22:31. | |
and a basic fear over the economy. I think it is all interconnected, I | :22:31. | :22:34. | |
don't think it is about one individual cabinet minister and one | :22:34. | :22:39. | |
rather misjudged interview. And nor will any of this end if he were to | :22:39. | :22:46. | |
go. We have all gone loopy because the economy is so rocky? I do think | :22:46. | :22:50. | |
he should go. You have a minister saying something possibly illegal, | :22:50. | :22:54. | |
it is illegal to store these things in your house. Secondly, there was | :22:54. | :23:02. | |
a fantastic piece in the Telegraph tomorrow, by Charles Moore in the | :23:02. | :23:06. | |
Telegraph, saying the Government concocted this in order for the, | :23:06. | :23:09. | |
the Labour Party gets its funding are from the unions, it is exposing | :23:09. | :23:12. | |
the facts that they are trying to blame everything on the Labour | :23:12. | :23:17. | |
Party, it undermines their competence. If you have Charles | :23:17. | :23:21. | |
Moore in the telegraph, criticising the Government for its intelligence, | :23:21. | :23:25. | |
it is something, because they are trying to make everything into a | :23:25. | :23:30. | |
political issue rather than running the country. The reason why your | :23:30. | :23:34. | |
blog is called "conspiracy" is revealed. Nobody will put the | :23:34. | :23:37. | |
communications strategy of the Government over the last week on | :23:37. | :23:45. | |
their CV. Someone has to? Jo I agree with Steve, it gets it out of | :23:45. | :23:47. | |
perspective to suggest Francis Maude should resign. I also think | :23:47. | :23:53. | |
it is about low growth. In fact, in that way, it is more serious for | :23:53. | :23:57. | |
the Government. It now has reached the point, the budget was the point, | :23:57. | :24:02. | |
where it can't give to anybody without taking from someone else, | :24:02. | :24:05. | |
the politics become scratchy. The Conservative Party has had a long | :24:05. | :24:08. | |
standing brand problem, people think it is for well-off people. | :24:08. | :24:13. | |
This becomes a particular issue when there is low growth. This was | :24:13. | :24:18. | |
the week that narrative finally took hold, where they looked at the | :24:18. | :24:24. | |
cabinet and said too rich, too posh, too unconnect today anyone else? | :24:24. | :24:28. | |
has always been an issue for the Conservative Party, and the reason | :24:28. | :24:34. | |
which led it not to win the general election. The gradation of poshness | :24:34. | :24:37. | |
between David Cameron and Ed Balls which people don't know or care | :24:37. | :24:40. | |
about it, but the fact that the Conservative Party is thought, they | :24:40. | :24:44. | |
are worried that the Conservative Party would look after its well-off | :24:44. | :24:47. | |
friends. And when there is low growth, that becomes a particular | :24:48. | :24:51. | |
issue. Yes, I think around now, it is going to be a big issue. | :24:51. | :24:55. | |
Of course what the Government has to try to do is get the growth that | :24:55. | :25:01. | |
moves you away from that. reason why these stories are | :25:01. | :25:05. | |
interconnected, there is a playing on all the houses mood about. -- | :25:05. | :25:13. | |
plaeing on all the houses right now. The failure of Cameron to win an | :25:13. | :25:18. | |
overall majority. We have a hung parliament, the last time we had | :25:18. | :25:24. | |
one was in 1974. And Bradford into the mix now? Yeah, Labour did badly, | :25:24. | :25:28. | |
but it was bad for the other two mainstream parties. The Liberal | :25:29. | :25:32. | |
Democrats lost their deposit, they may have wanted to win such a seat | :25:32. | :25:40. | |
on the back of the protest vote before. All three parties are being | :25:40. | :25:46. | |
challenged by events. One will get itself together, and it has been | :25:46. | :25:51. | |
since 2008, I didn't think a party would win from an overall majority. | :25:51. | :25:55. | |
I don't think they will the next. We are in hung parliament territory, | :25:55. | :25:58. | |
during that period all kinds of strange things will happen. | :25:58. | :26:03. | |
point I disagree about Bradford, someone said this to me, if your | :26:03. | :26:06. | |
main message is that we are not as bad as the Conservatives, and they | :26:07. | :26:12. | |
are not the main opposition, then you are going to get decimated. | :26:12. | :26:14. | |
This is Labour's problem in Wales, and Bradford. | :26:14. | :26:21. | |
Was it Labour's problem, or was it something to do with the Galloway | :26:21. | :26:24. | |
magical streak? It was a mixture of both. Galloway clearly comes in and | :26:24. | :26:28. | |
he has a message to sell to young people. But the point is, if the | :26:28. | :26:31. | |
Labour Party is not ready for someone who is not the | :26:31. | :26:35. | |
Conservatives, and they are in trouble. I think actually in one | :26:35. | :26:38. | |
sense it strengthens Ed Milliband. It is not a point that even Harriet | :26:38. | :26:41. | |
Harman made. But he has been trying to make this point within the | :26:41. | :26:44. | |
Labour Party that they need to change the internal culture, in | :26:44. | :26:49. | |
terms of campaigning, and in terms of the way they pick selections | :26:49. | :26:52. | |
strongly. There is a lot of dinosaurs in the party who don't | :26:52. | :26:57. | |
want to take that further. I think if some within the Ed Milliband | :26:57. | :27:00. | |
team said they need to make the case stronger and rad qal reform | :27:00. | :27:04. | |
within the party needs to go further. It is a lovely they are | :27:05. | :27:14. | |
year, but they lost lost 58% of the vote in a safe seat. | :27:14. | :27:19. | |
Moving away from Bradford, and going back to the communications | :27:19. | :27:23. | |
strategy. Arguably this all happened with, you know, a moment | :27:23. | :27:27. | |
over a pasty, where George Osborne couldn't find a response, and sort | :27:27. | :27:30. | |
of followed up with, our programme being run by somebody saying it | :27:30. | :27:34. | |
might have been a different situation. It is like asking | :27:34. | :27:40. | |
somebody when they last ate a fish ball, and accusing them of anti- | :27:40. | :27:44. | |
semitism because they can't remember. If you ask somebody | :27:44. | :27:47. | |
sufficiently ridiculous questions, which a question like "when did you | :27:47. | :27:53. | |
last eat a Cornish pasty", frankly is, you will get a ridiculous | :27:53. | :27:57. | |
answer. There was something deeper underneath it, that this | :27:57. | :28:01. | |
Conservative brand problem means, and the fact that they can't | :28:01. | :28:04. | |
finance anything like increasing the income tax allowances, without | :28:04. | :28:10. | |
taking the money from other things. Evens that it is very difficult for | :28:10. | :28:16. | |
them when the fairness agenda dominates. It crystalises the | :28:16. | :28:19. | |
problem, it is a symbol of the fact that they don't really care that | :28:19. | :28:23. | |
the price of pasties was going to go up. The Government has to hope | :28:23. | :28:26. | |
to heaven that a Cornish pasty becomes the symbol of that. I | :28:26. | :28:30. | |
really think it won't. You have a contrast, you are trying to reduce | :28:30. | :28:35. | |
taxes at the top, increasing the price of Cornish pasties. To people | :28:35. | :28:41. | |
says it is you will increase my prices in food. You can't look me | :28:41. | :28:45. | |
in the face and say the pricing of Cornish pasty is the point. This is | :28:45. | :28:51. | |
the whole point, people don't feel the Conservatives are in touch. | :28:51. | :28:56. | |
Government are relaxed if the Cornish pasty becomes a symbol of | :28:56. | :29:04. | |
their economic success. They should be extremely worried about the way | :29:04. | :29:08. | |
the budget went down. The granny tax, the budget was badly handled. | :29:08. | :29:12. | |
I still don't know what they all thought they would get out of the | :29:12. | :29:15. | |
budget. That is a real problem for them. It is very important, they | :29:15. | :29:21. | |
think they are going to get out of it growth and competitiveness. They | :29:21. | :29:24. | |
realise that for the Conservative Party, growth and competitiveness | :29:24. | :29:28. | |
is the solution to the debate about fairness. If you have growth, the | :29:28. | :29:31. | |
distribution issue, that is what they were trying to do, it is much | :29:31. | :29:36. | |
too early to judge if that was successful. As you know, I thought | :29:36. | :29:40. | |
the 50p reduction was a very big political risk, I also think there | :29:40. | :29:44. | |
were strong economic arguments for that, and corporation and tax | :29:44. | :29:49. |