14/10/2012 Sunday Politics East


14/10/2012

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Here: One of our most respected universities heads a task force on

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for students and does our ambulance need a fast response as it loses

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Apology for the loss of subtitles for 2170 seconds

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Hello and welcome. Coming up: In the middle of the controversial

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reorganisation of East Anglia's ambulance service, its chief

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executive steps down. He has always been good to deal with and they

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paid tribute to him, but there is something wrong with the way in

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which there ambulance trust has delivered its service in North week.

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The university in our region heading up the Task Force

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Consulting on the immigration status of students from overseas.

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First, let us meet our guest, Stewart Jackson is the Conservative

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MP for Peterborough. Let us start with the news that we are able to

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batter a burglar without fear of prosecution is the force is

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reasonable. The most high-profile case involved Tony Martin jailed

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after shooting an intruder at his farmhouse in 1999. This week, he

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welcomed the change. We are supposed to live in a democratic

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society. Maybe what is going on today, they are trying to put

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decency back into democracy. Tim, this is a bit of a crowd pleaser,

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isn't it? Very much so. Nobody wants to see innocent people go to

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jail because they have to send -- defended themselves in their own

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home, but I worry that it doesn't become an open licence to tackle

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anyone in your home or garden by mistake - in a garden in particular,

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somebody could find themselves being attacked.

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We have gone from hiding a hoody to battering a burglar. It is a

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realisation that the public were significantly concerned that the

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balance was tilting towards the criminal and away from the victim.

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Chris Froome will take a more nuanced position -- Chris Grayling.

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But there are only a handful of cases like this anyway. And to be

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fair, the Crown Prosecution Service looks at each individual case in

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that way. Nevertheless, the key words are "grossly

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disproportionate" and providing we keep that in mind, it will reassure

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householders that the law is on their side and if they do a

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reasonable thing, confronting a burglar with a weapon in the middle

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of the night, you are going to possibly behave unreasonably. But

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this will reassure people the law is on there side of the law abiding

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citizen. This week, the chief executive of

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the East of England ambulance trust is standing down only a month after

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-- the staff passed a vote of no confidence. There has been growing

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criticism over the service and, in particular, response times. These

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other stations around the region at presence with the original double

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staff to ambulance service. Half of them may change, possibly to a

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rapid response vehicle with one member of staff. Managers insist it

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will not affect quality of service. An ambulance crew on the way to

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another emergency, but as the number of calls grows the budget

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shrinks. The East of England ambulance services Ned -- needs to

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save �50 million over five years and that could be tricky because it

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already seems as if it is at full strength at times -- full-stretch.

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This man's neighbour collapsed and lay face down in the rain for

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three-and a-half hours. Neighbours were looking out, they

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haven't come yet. No sign. It is just incredible. This is 12 -- 2012

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not 1912. If the wrong weight but this baby's life in danger. The

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mother needed an emergency Caesarean and an ambulance was

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called but did not turn up for nearly two hours. Riley is now

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doing well but his grandmother is worried other families may suffer

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if ambulance budgets are cut. worries me a lot because if the

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resources had not been as stretched, there would not be an issue getting

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an ambulance to him. In both cases, the ambulance service apologised

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and said lessons would be learned. But it has intensified worries

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about the effect of saving �50 million. So how is the service in

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to say that money? Calls are prioritised. If a patient's life is

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in danger, the service will try to reach them within eight minutes. If

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not, the patient may wait longer for a different type of vehicle or

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be given advice over the phone. This, says the ambulance service,

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is already saving 900 and necessary ambulance journeys a week. These

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days, different types of vehicles respond. You have the frontline

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ambulance with a crew of two - it ignition and a paramedic. There is

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also a rapid response vehicle driven by a paramedic and that has

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the equipment the same as an ambulance. Also, blanket 24 hour

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cover will end and vehicles and staff will move to areas where

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demand is greatest. Managers say savings will make the service

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better. They also say those living in rural areas have nothing to fear.

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Those areas whose research -- resources are changing does not

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mean they will get a worse or different service, but it means we

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will were closely with our partners to make sure we can provide the

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right level of service. I members are telling us they are being sent

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further to respond to jobs. That means patients already are waiting

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for a longer period of time. Last week, the chief executive of the

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East of England ambulance trust stood down one month after staff

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passed a vote of no confidence. The Department of Health, meanwhile,

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says the savings the service faces are part of savings being made

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across the whole of the NHS. The EEAS says it will have to do more

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with less. Earlier this week, Chris Bond spoke

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to Norman Lamb who has been actively campaigning over cuts in

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his constituency. She began by asking about the Chief executive

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quitting his job. He has always been courteous and good to deal

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with, but I met with the ambulance trust a year redo, making clear my

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concerns about response times in rural Norfolk. One year on, we

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haven't achieved the up - where improvements we were hoping for. It

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is an enormous area the service is covering. The last government

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decided to amalgamate ambulance trusts to create a mammoth area. We

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need strong leadership to make sure the service delivers the care

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people need. You are campaigning about the reorganisation of the

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ambulance service, but it is your department, the Department of

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Health, that is courting -- causing the savings to be made had do you

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square that circle? The government has ring-fenced government spending

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so there has been no cut, but a marginal increase. Every year,

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because of the ageing population, costs keep going up so reform is

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necessary to make the money go further. Do the paramedics and so

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on understand that you have almost a foot in both camps? Of course

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there are enormous challenges. I'm doing it as a member of parliament

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for North Norfolk and I have a responsibility to represent those

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people to make sure the service is of high quality in gets the care to

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people when they needed. That is my job as Member of Parliament. As

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Minister in the Department of Health, it is a question of how we

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ensure the NHS remains sustainable. Isn't he being hypocritical there

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some what? I couldn't possibly comment on that particularly. He is

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well known as a diligent and hard- working constituency MP. But, yes,

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you could say he also has to robustly defend government policy.

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He touches on an important point about the size of the region. He

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also probably would make reference to the fact that there is a mixture

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of rural and urban and we are a fast-growing population. I want to

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put that to Tim Hagen. Your area is a rural. Can we expect the same

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service in rural areas? We should expect a good level of service that

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meets patients' needs. I was talking to ambulance drivers a few

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weeks ago and they told me that, on the basis of expected demand, they

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might be in King's Lynn or Newmarket the next moment or

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shunted took Ipswich. When that happens, apart from tiredness, it

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leaves a lack of, -- cover in rural areas. In my area, if they are in

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King's Lynn, it is no use to a patient who need -- needs an

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ambulance in Newmarket. contributor said it is not 1912 but

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2012. Coalition funding is having an impact on the health service and,

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in particular, on ambulance services. To wait three hours when

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someone is possibly in a life threatening situation, I can't

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believe there isn't someone who could have got that person to get

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them to hospital. Are you saying that is what people have to resort

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to doing? No, I'm just saying... That is ridiculous! There should be

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a level of help. The ambulance service can't be everywhere and

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people need to understand that There are walk-in centres, clinics,

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hospitals and accident and emergency departments they

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themselves can reach. It is a factor of a huge growth in

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population... What we are talking about is a bus service cut with our

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out-of-hours GP services being reduced. It means people have less

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means of getting to that service. We will keep you informed about

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that. The future of foreign students in

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our universities. According to migration watch, foreign students

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contribute millions of pounds to the economy of the East. Weeks

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before the new term started, the UK Border Agency decided to revoke

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London Metropolitan he's -- Metropolitan's universities licence

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causing concern over the future of the whole sector. The question for

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the government is whether to count foreign students in immigration

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figures or not. East Anglia will be taking a leading role in shaping

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government policy. Its results day here at the

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International Centre ate in Norwich. Around 17% of students are from

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outside the EU here on a long-term visa. The best thing about here is

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that... It it is a beautiful chapter in a person's life. He's

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students have fees ranging from -- up to �24,000 a year. It can bring

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an extra �16 million to the local economy. But here they say it is

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not just about the money. A number of graduates go back to their

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country's and become very good ambassadors with a nascent --

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natural inclination to do business and a cultural affiliation to this

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country. The London Metropolitan or -- Metropolitan University was

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stripped of its Visa status ability in the summer. Some cases, students

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just did not turn up to classes. Here, they are leading the charge

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against what they say is a heavy- handed Home Office attitude. It

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could damage for ever the academic and cultural benefits that

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international students bring. Across the East, 17 smaller schools

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and colleges have had their licences to grind feeders revoked

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since 2009 -- grant visas. One professor who has been appointed to

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chair a task force looking at these is his calling for a change to the

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way student numbers are counted. would like them to remove

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University sponsors from their net migration target and say this bit

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of so-called migration we actively wish to grow. The Home Office,

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however, told us it will not remove students from the immigration

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The system puts the UK in line with other countries. The net migration

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figure is exactly the same with other countries in the way it is

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calculated. The United States, Canada, Australia all include

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students in their net migration figures. There is no reason why we

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shouldn't. For the government it is about getting the balance right.

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course we need to have a rigorous these the system and the vice-

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chancellors would agree with that. We need to make the most of what is

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a brilliant heritage that Britain has in our outstanding universities

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and sell that around the world. Meanwhile, the task force's working

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on a system to count how many students on visas leave the country

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each year. Labour's former higher education

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minister joins us and the Vice Chancellor of the University of

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Bedfordshire. Bill, what percentage of your

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students are from non-EU countries? About 5,500. Very significant. I

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think overseas students at die university and across the country

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bring enormous benefits to universities and students and to

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our economy. Overseas students are worth about �8 billion a year to

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the UK economy apart from the other benefits that we want our British

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students to have a global mindset and skill set. Living, working and

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studying with students from other nationalities is a positive benefit.

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But I universities like yours using students to prop up finances?

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will not delight there is a financial element but it is broader

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than that. At a time when public funding is being cut back, overseas

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students bring financial income strains, but we want our students

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to integrate and have connections internationally. As was said on

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your piece, when the students go home, they link back to the

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university they study being. The connections they have made also and

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that is a powerful benefit to us as a country. Are you in denial about

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the concerns over immigration controls? No, I was a member of

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parliament for 13 years and the biggest element of my postbag was

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concerns about illegal immigration, but overseas students are not the

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same. They are here for a short period of time for a specific

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educational purpose and I don't see why we should lump them together

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with other migrants and actively tried to reduce them. You need to

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reduce illegal immigration and I understand the argument for

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reducing other forms of migration, but overseas students bring us a

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real benefit. Stewart Jackson, is and revoking licences an over

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reaction? No, not at all. Bill will know it was an open secret under

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the last government that there were language schools and other scores

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and colleges that were trading on illegal immigration. To give them

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their due, they did begin to tackle that. The ID you can disregard

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students as being part of the overall Immigration past the --

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package is nonsense. The problem was never ignored and there were

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changes rightly made to tackle bogus colleges. If you listen to

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the argument made about removing university overseas students from

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the migration cab, it is university overseas students and not those

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studying in private colleges or schools. -- cap. There is a real

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benefit in having legitimate overseas students studying at I

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universities. Tim, the colleges here in the he's that lost their

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licences said they pulled out because the situation became too

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complicated. We heard the rules had been changed over a dozen times and

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this is affecting the whole sector, isn't it? When we look at the World

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few and our competitiveness, if this is the message we are sending

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out, that we put owners burdened so on students, that is the first

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message they get -- own arrest burdens. We need to be much better

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at bringing in students with a minimal fuss and making sure

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processes are in place so that they return afterwards with a good view

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of the world. I was on the Public Accounts Committee when we looked

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at this a few months ago and died tackled the gentleman from the

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London School of Economics it was 0.3% of the income thereby getting

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from students and the cost of processing visas. There is a lot of

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what you might call an enlightened self- interest. My challenge to the

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universities are, why aren't you developing more bursaries book

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students in the UK? We are bringing in millions of pounds a year into

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the UK economy. Shouldn't we encourage more UK students to go to

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these universities? Yes, we should. At a university we have the best

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scholarship programme in the country, but we are capped on the

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number of home students we can admit by the government. There is

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not a trade-off between home and overseas students. Home students

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sometimes prop up causes that otherwise would not run -- overseas

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students, but -- prop up some causes that might otherwise not one

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-- and run. Now, the The Week in 60 Seconds.

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The wheat crops failed and food prices are set to soar so the

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former agriculture minister was praised at the conference.

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deserves our praise for bringing farmers and processors together

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before agreeing a code of practice. Councillors -- Business welcomed

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plans for �22 million worth of investment clearing bottlenecks.

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We have identified six schemes which will ease the congestion and

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improve the safety record. As the anniversary of the Battle of Dale

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Farm approach is, Eric Pickles has plans to stop travellers in illegal

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sites in their tracks. A new instant stop notice will allow

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councils to issue finds to those who defy a planning laws.

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Notices and finds, will they stop travellers parking on illegal

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sites? I doubt it, because in many occasions they do have nowhere else

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to go. They have to step up to the plate. Will it work chasing

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travellers for fines? You need to have a policy that is tough and has

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a bit of a carrot aspect to it. We need to give financial incentives

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to local authorities to make greater provision for travellers

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because there isn't that incentive at the moment. In fact, the problem

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of travellers and unauthorised encampments is prevalent across our

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region. So the key is to provide more funding and site? And also be

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