29/04/2012 Sunday Politics East

In the final week of the election campaign we reveal that target

councils. The Essex County Council reveals how badly the expenses

Apology for the loss of subtitles for 1673 seconds

system failed under Lord Welcome to Sunday Politics in the

east. Coming up, how will the political map changed in the

election? Can Labour comeback in this region and will be a Liberal

Democrat push on? Now we will meet our guests. MPs from the Liberal

Democrats, Labour, and Conservatives. Let us start with

news that we are back in recession. The economy shrank by 0.2%.

Elizabeth, at is too far and too fast ringing in your ears? Not at

all. We are in debt -- we're in a different situation. The eurozone

has put in a lot of measures that will help growth but it takes time.

For example, the A11 is being expanded. That will bring in jobs.

In Norfolk we are bucking the trend in manufacturing, getting more

manufacturing jobs, when I speak to more local firms they are taking on

orders. As a country, we have a productivity problem, at

competitive problem, it has been there a long time. These reforms

take time to work. We must not lose the interest rates and the credit

rating. That is right. That is why we need to grow the economy. We

have been saying that austerity is self-defeating if you cut too fast.

If you do that it damages the economy. What we have gone after

all his pain is even more debt, we are needing to borrow �158 million

and George Osborne wanted to. Frankly, it is a disaster. This is

a central plank pure economic policy, you cannot spend your way

out of the deficit. What is to be done? First met in the news is very

disappointing. We hope to see better economic growth. In my

constituency, it was rated as the most successful city in the country.

Actually, unemployment in Cambridge is coming down and it is lower than

it was when Labour were in power. The problem is one of balance. If

you keep borrowing and to the Ed Balls plan of continuing to rack up

more debt, that is a problem. If you cut too much, that is also a

problem. We need to find the right balance in between. I'll come back

shortly. Now to the news that Margaret Moran will not be put on

trial for allegedly fiddling her expenses. She has been found not

fit to stand. The charges against her include 21 counts of fraud and

forgery totalling �80,000. The hearing has been told the 56-year-

old suffers from a depressive illness, extreme anxiety and

agitation. Staying with expenses, the former leader of Essex County

Council, Lord Hanningfield, went back to take his place in the House

of Lords. His return coincided with a report criticising Essex County

Council's oversight of its expenses. Major flaws have been highlighted

about the lack of control in 2009 when Lord Hanningfield was the

leader. Auditors have expressed serious concerns about the use of

corporate credit cards. They said poor record keeping made it hard to

see if chauffeur-driven cars were being misused. They said it and

hospitality were not always been registered. -- presents.

For council tax payers in Essex this was all but how their money

was being spent and the checks that should have been in place. The

auditors look that the expenses system that operate at the County

Hall in 2009 and expressed serious concerns. They felt there was no

clear guidance on expenses and no proper way of scrutinising or

questioning the claims. This was while Lord Hanningfield was the

leader of Essex County Council. These are not small sums of money

in question. In 2008 to 2009, the total a mind of expenses claimed by

all members came to �140,000. That is the sort of sum you would assume

it would be carefully accounted for. But the auditors also said

significant progress has since been made. The current leader was keen

to point this out. We have a new constitution, a new system. We

publish every item of members' expenses on our website. Some

councillors all this report two years ago but it has only just been

made available to the public now. Some people think that delay itself

is unacceptable. I think the whole affair with Lord Hanningfield and

the fact that they have not seen this report brings a question of

our confidence in to politicians. There has been a crisis of faith in

our elected representatives and these measures are not doing

anything to restore that confidence at a time when it is desperately

needed. Even the opposition parties in Essex acknowledge that things

have improved under the new leader. In 2009, under Lord Hanningfield,

it appears there was a markedly -- markedly relaxed approach to

finances, even though it had already announced that they would

save hundreds of millions of pounds a year to balance the books. Lord

Hanningfield is already charged under his parliamentary expenses,

the council expenses are still being investigated.

Aqua, about Margaret Moran, do you understand the public anger? Very

angry. Those of us who sat through the public anger during that period

know how bad it is. The problem is wider than one of expenses. The

Government has told councils to curb the spending on high salaries

to GE executives. We found this week of the 10 councils with the

highest paid chief executives, nine of them are Conservative, four of

them in this region, the highest is Essex, paying �271,000 to the chief

executive. With regard to Margaret Moran, what do you think the

reaction will be? There may be a sense that justice will not be done.

We still have a sense of frustration and fury. I think it

was a very sad episode and I hope we will not see anything like that.

We are much more transparent now. Does this finally draw a line under

it? I do not think so because I think we have lots of public bodies

that need to be more transparent about the money their spending.

That applies to central government, local government, and things like

the police service, Network Rail. Bodies that serve public money --

spend public money must be transparent. I think we have made a

lot of changes in terms of transparency but there is a long

way to go. It is interesting you mention that because moving on to

the report about Essex County Council, what about people in

general losing confidence in politics? I think it is good if

people question politics and politicians, because we need to be

accountable to the electorate, we need to be transparent about what

we do, and we do not want a culture like this. Although it is painful

in the short term, the expenses scandal has created a demand for

more transparent culture, which will ultimately result in better

performance for public bodies. you think that reform of the House

of lards, meaning people who have committed reform -- committed

offences are not able to take up their seats, is that better?

think so. The idea that people got thrown out of a House of Commons

for transgressing serious rules, but could still going to the House

of Lords, I believe Jeffrey Archer was allowed to go back. The rules

need to change and I believe that House of Lords should be wholly

elected anyway and they believe they would have to fall in with the

same rules as a House of Commons. People will want to know I this

happened. There are lots of questions. People will want to know.

One of the key things is getting every councillor in the country to

be transparent. Every council except one in the north is

publishing everything they spend above �5,000. I agree completely

about the reform of a House of Lords. We need to get rid of party

patronage. We will come back to you shortly. First, the local elections.

We are into the last few days of the campaign with voting on

Thursday in this year's local elections. Labour is fighting to

wrest back control of the target councils. The Liberal Democrats are

fighting off challenges in there and the Conservatives are still

hopeful they may have an ace up their sleeve. Elections are taking

place on 19 of the region's councils next week, and here they

are. Cambridge, controlled by the Liberal Democrats, the Labour

authorities of exit and Stevenage, Norwich, Colchester and Milton

Keynes, they all have no overall control. All these other councils

are run by the Conservatives. It seems very likely that most of

these councils will still be run by the Conservatives after Thursday.

The party has enormous majorities in places like Daventry and

Huntingdon share. But in some places, there have been battles

going on. Not least, are low. -- Harlow. In most places the

campaigning has been low-key but not here. With a Conservative

majority of just one, Labour and Conservative have been sending in

the big guns. Labour what is to be a referendum on the government's

record. And hearing people say they want action on jobs, help for

pensioners, they do not understand why cutting the tax for the

wealthiest is the priority. Conservative message is cutting

council tax and running authorities more efficiently. We are embracing

transparency, procurement, innovation, and enjoy working.

Labour did well here last year and they want to show that the

fightback is more than a flash-in- the-pan. Norwich is a key target

council, they hope to make greater gains in Great Yarmouth and here in

Cambridge. We have a better street cleaning record in the city centre

and the further you go away, it declines. Much as we like to

present a great city for tourists, residents count as well. Often they

do not provide enough parking spaces. They have an unrealistic

expectation that people will be able to ditch their cars, and that

is just not true. We are putting new money into detox problems Bogg

-- detox programmes for the homeless, helping young people,

getting young people into employment, and this is a real

priority for us. Cambridge is the only council in the region

controlled by the Liberal Democrats. The party knows this could be

another difficult year. It is talking up the benefits of being in

the coalition. The whole message is about helping hard-working families

who need a bit of a break. People on the whole understand that things

are really difficult. We are clearing up an enormous economic

mess. Housing has been a big talking point in Colchester in

Milton Keynes where both the Tories and Lib Dems are buying for overall

control. In Norwich, the shambles of her outsourced council contract

is being raised on the doorsteps. It is very tight in places. Some

votes could make all the difference. Not surprisingly, the Tories are

defending the largest number of seats. 182, twice the number being

contested by Labour and Liberal Democrats put together. With the

coalition on the ropes, it will be very interesting to see how much

this graph changes by next weekend. It will indeed. Another bad weekend

for the Conservatives. That was after the Budget, the Jeremy Hunt

affair, and the recession. It will affect you on the polls. Added a

lot of people understand we are in a very difficult time, we faced an

unprecedented budget debt left by the previous government and we are

addressing that. Obviously they are art issues -- they are issues about

working in the coalition. I think fundamentally the key issues about

welfare reform, they are having massive impact in the schools in my

constituency. That is what voters will judge us on. As the party,

Labour is a minor player in this election. We suffered some bad

years but I think this is when we will come back. Sadly for local

government, I think for the councillors and one to be -- ones

that want to be, they will not be judged about local issues, people

will use them as a verdict on central government. We have a

government that inherited an economy that was growing, and have

landed us back in recession, I think it is quite reasonable.

you agree with Bob? He is right to say that people will be judged on

what is happening nationally. In Cambridge, people have been running

it very well, and I hope the people will vote on local issues that

affect people wherever they are. I think nationally there have been

some issues. The economy has been bad for some years. What has been a

real shame for me is some of the good things in the Budget have been

lost. 2 million people light of tax, 25 million people have had some in

Cup tax back. -- income tax. We have increased pensions. Howard is

being in a coalition get in the way of campaigning? As long as you

focus on local issues I do not think it is an issue. Nationally,

it means you have problems because we have different ideas. The

Conservatives were absolutely obsessed with the 50 pence rate.

You guys voted for it? You guys fail to vote against it. Is it

difficult to work in a coalition and bite at local level? I think

there are difficulties. What is different is the proposals for a

directly elected mayors. That is having a bigger impact in London.

Elsewhere, voters are not engaged with that. That is what I am saying,

we should extend the number of directly elected mayors we have

because then the race becomes about the specific policies for that area,

rather than a referendum on the government, which it shouldn't be.

You need to gain a foothold in this region, if you're going to form a

government. We do. I think we will see significant steps forwards at

these elections because people are very angry. We have all the people

who have lost their pensions and tax allowance, we have families on

about 20,000 a year with kids who are hundreds of pounds worse off.

People are going to send a message to David Cameron, you have got it

wrong and we want a change. The Lib Dems lost a third of their seats in

the local elections, will it be the same? I hope it will be a good

result. We have given money to pensioners and local people. Labour

did spectacularly badly four years ago. Thank you. Now the 62nd

political round-up. David Cameron I think not only are Cameron and Oz

0.2 mac posh boys who do not know the price of milk, but two arrogant

posh boys. Damning criticism of the Prime Minister and his Chancellor.

The future of Lotus cars in North it was raised in Parliament. This

has got concern. Reform of the privileged few in the eyes of lards

could put more pressure on the public purse. Conservatives are

reducing the number of MPs. What they did not say to the electorate

was, in return, we will give you 300 more are elected paid party

politicians. The probe history of local newspapers attracted praise.

Local newspapers were the most trusted news organisations in the

pub -- in the country. Quality we can all aspire to. Was Nadine

Dorries being disloyal? What she does voicing the concerns of many?

I don't think she was being very loyal. I think what people care

about is what the Government does. What people will judge us on is, at

the next election, has the economy improved, have we build new roads?

I think these personal attacks are missing the point. Charles Clarke

was not backward in his criticism of Gordon Brown, is it something

leaders need to expect? Nadine Dorries knows Cameron and Osborne

personally, so the comments are significant. Many people will agree

with her. Well the rest of us are suffering, David Cameron and George

Osborne gave a massive tax cut to millionaires, the richest people in

our society, and the Liberal Democrats like poodles all the men.

Are you surprised there is more dissent between the Conservatives

than the coalition? Nadine Dorries has a long track record of speaking

her mind, and his somewhat erratic in terms of what she says, but I am