14/04/2013 Sunday Politics East

The county council election campaign builds up, and UKIP,

Apology for the loss of subtitles for 2186 seconds

protest vote for party on the verge Welcome to the local part of the

Sunday Politics, I'm Andrew Sinclair. Coming up, the local

elections: What has accounts Account will -- what has the county

council ever done for you? Apart from looking after the roads,

waste-disposal... UKIP is taking these elections very seriously.

Nigel Farage was back in the region. How seriously can we expect his

counsellor to take the day-to-day grind of local politics? Very

seriously indeed. One of the reasons we have risen in the polls,

I have got this travelling around the country, people say that we

speak for them. If people place their trust in us, we need to do

the job well. First, let's meet our guests. Bernard Jenkin has,

Conservative MP, and Kelvin Jenkins, Labour MP. There has been only one

story, the death of Baroness Thatcher. I heard you speak quite

movingly about Baroness Thatcher in her later years. Sometimes it was

hard to believe this small, frail lady once held the world in the

palm of her hand. Yes. Everyone is testament to the fact that she was

a colossal political figure. She dominated not just British politics

but global politics. The frigid we have seen on the television screens

have been greeted by Soviet leaders, President Reagan... -- the

television footage. This country roads in the imagination and

respect of every country around the world as a result of her leadership.

You used to visit her regularly, what did she talk about? It came

and went in later years... You always needed to be on your mettle,

because occasionally you would just get a flash of the old market, --

the old Margaret Thatcher, she would pick you up on something,

excoriate the weakness of your argument, the lack of logic, the

great brain under there was still powering away, even though she was

not as a live to current events. She was really interested in

talking about the past, childhood, upbringing, that was very

interesting. You are trade-union officer in the 1980s, why did you

not go? I'm a democratic socialist and it would be hypocritical to pay

respect to someone like did not agree with. -- someone who I did

not agree with. She was very popular. If you look at Luton, it

had to Conservative MPs. Different boundaries, democratic changes. --

two Conservative MPs. Just because somebody is popular it does not

mean they are right. In retrospect, many people have been popular and

years later have been proved to be very unhelpful, wrong and damaging

to Sidey. Lady Thatcher's death men lots of campaigning was put on hold.

-- damaging to society. It is less than three weeks until polling day.

If you live in a unitary authority, you will not get to vote this year.

This will be an important set of elections, not least in Essex. It

is being dominated by the Conservatives. Our political

reporter has been looking at the issues. County councils are not

usually high profile. Essex has been the spotlight for the wrong

reasons. Former Conservative leader Lord Hanningfield was jailed for

fiddling his expenses. He stepped down, but will that episode cast a

shadow over these elections. I think people need to recognise that

this is about the county of Essex, on behalf of 1.4 million people in

Essex. People want to recognise what are competent Conservative

administration may have had here. It has saved, although the last

four years, �364 million. -- or the last four years. We have already

provides roads and schools. They have also branched out, launching a

scheme to save post offices in rural areas. High-profile schemes,

but they were all expensive. They have all been scrapped. The focus

is back on main issues like roads. In north Essex, the Liberal

Democrats want a high street pedestrianised. It is one of their

main issues, even though the county council suspended a temporary trial

that this week. The town is a Lib Dem fortress in a largely blue

county. The vehicle ban is controversial, so will it harm them

here? One of the major reasons is the air quality in the high street

was very bad, it will affect people with asthma. If we do not reduce it

we will be fined by the mayor -- by the European Union. Will they care

about it? It will be something they care about it if their council tax

goes up. The council tax saving affects 50,000 potholes, but Labour

say there are still problems. should be more priority given to

pot or repair. One of my constituents damaged their park to

the cost of �2,000. I had reported that before he did it. People get

angry. In the south of the county, shoppers look for bargains. People

in Basildon are among those who will decide the result of this

county council election, but will they vote on local issues or will

they be swayed by the factors? Council tax. Anything else?

Immigration. People coming into the country and sponging off the

government is my main concern. Keeping Basildon clean, keeping the

council tax down. Keeping crime down, that sort of thing. When it

comes to benefits, at the end of the day, it is one of those ones,

people are suffering. Conservatives dominate with 59

seats. The Liberal Democrats have 11. This time there is no European

election, which may well mean a lower turnout. With UKIP and the

Green Party's standing more candidates in Essex than ever

before, they will be hoping to win seats at the expense of the bigger

parties. The Conservatives have saved millions of pounds, but they

lost lots of money on those schemes. Is this a record to be proud of?

Yes. Essex has always been a very tightly funded council. To strip

out �360 million without fundamentally affecting public

services, particularly with burgeoning demand on children's

services, social services, it has been difficult but they are running

a tight ship. I hope people will bear that in mind. When these seats

were last up for grabs, it was to those in the nine, Gordon Brown was

on his way out, David Cameron was coming in. -- 2009. You are correct,

this a high-water mark. We are bound to lose some seats across the

whole country. I would be absolutely shocked if we lost

control in Essex, but I expect to see some casualties across the

country because we are coming from a high water mark. Tory councils

are very good at saving money, millions of pounds, they are also

good at keeping down council tax. I do you campaign against that?

of them are in areas where people are much more affluent, have less

difficulty than we do in Luton, for example, where there is lots of

pressure on local authorities. We have a very young population,

children's services are very expensive. I hope we see a big

surge in Labour support in Essex. Your party leader is back here.

You're hoping to do well. It is a conservative region by majority but

we have held up to 22 parliamentary seats. I think we will men -- we

will win many more. Picking up on one point in that film, how much at

ease about local issues? Inevitably, national issues play a part. People

are worried about employment, living standards are falling in

real terms. By common consensus, the party to watch this year will

be the UKIP. Their great breakthrough came in the 2004

elections, taking 16% of the vote. At the next year's general election,

they got less than 3% of the popular vote. In 2009 they were

above 16% in the European election, but down to 3% in the general

election. But in last year's Corby by-election they got more than 14%.

In Eastleigh, they came second with more than 27%. A recent survey put

support at 21%. That is higher than anywhere else in the country. Now

they are fielding more candidates than ever before in local elections.

Critics say they are for protest votes. Nigel Farage disagrees. I

spoke to him earlier this week. are growing political party, we

have succeeded in European elections, we are beginning to do

well in parliamentary by-elections. We now need to establish a base in

local government. Goodness me, there is a need for it. There is a

need for do you Kip -- need for the UKIP vote. We will explain what the

impact of the immigration board is. A you want to get out of the EU, if

you are talking about immigration. These are not county council issues.

Yes they are. It is county councils to pick up the bill. Think about

policing, schools, hospitals, the former police commissioner of

Cambridge said we do not have the infrastructure to support people

coming here who cannot speak English. If you to control, you

would not be able to change that. Local politics can have a big

impact on national politics. We are on the verge of opening the door to

the whole of Romania and Bulgaria next year and these county councils

are a very good means of telling the coalition government we do not

want that. So really, these are not about local issues. It is about

both. One is a big national issue. We are absolutely the only party

opposed to the building onshore and offshore of these ugly discussed in

wind turbines, and they will fight against that. Cutting to use

services in Norfolk, spending on youth services has gone in Norfolk.

Do you support that? If you look at what has happened to the pay of

people work for local councils, an explosion in pay and pensions.

Money is being wasted by county councils on climate change officers.

Would you find you've services? you manage the budget correctly,

and apply a pragmatic businesslike approach, you should be able to cut

money out of the administration to leave more money for frontline

services. We have to accept we are living in straitened times, the

economy is rough, there are going to be cuts. What about the proposed

waste incinerator for King's Lynn, argue in favour of that? No, I am

not. There are plenty of landfill sites, but what has happened, what

has Europe got to do with it? Because of the European union's

landfill director of, councils they use land will have to pay a fine

for doing it, and that is why they are moving towards incinerators. --

directive. Once you have set up an incinerator you need to keep

feeding it. What about the out sourcing of services? Is that a

good idea? All I want is for us to get bank fraud but, for us to have

public services that give us the best possible results.

confident are you feeling? Sensibly optimistic, by which I mean, first

past the post politics is difficult for a party that draws its support

from across the board, without specific geographic locations, but

the trend that has emerged across the last couple of years is the

East of England is our strongest area. Why is this? Is it the spirit

of Cromwell? I do not know. Is it the effect of the migration? Is it

the fishing industry? It could be a combination. We have already

managed to win seats at county council level. I would be

disappointed if we get results we did not expect, a smattering of

county council seats. Thank you very much.

Stewart Agnew is the UK add peat m e p for the region. -- UKIP MP. I

understand you slept on the way to a by-election and broke a leg.

was the first casualty of a campaign that we felt we did very

well indeed in. There are always casualties in every campaign and I

am up for it. It has pretty well healed up. Is it a metaphor? What?

Will you see a party not do well? Quite the reverse, we have never

feel that so many candidates. We get to recognition -- we are

getting recognition and people are realising the impact of the

European Union on their lives. They are clearly conscious, they were

quite willing to risk votes for us and European elections, they are

beginning to do so at by-elections, and this is a big build up to what

we really need, a significant number of seats in Westminster. It

is a long road to travel but we are encouraged. These are local

elections about local issues. Nigel Farage kept coming back to

immigration. That is all he would talk about. This illustrates that

you are policy light. No, it indicates that you have a supply of

local services and demand for them. Immigration is creating a massive

extra demand for our services and we have no control over it, and no

idea how many immigrants will come here, how many languages they will

speak, and yet the local authorities have to cope with that.

It makes it difficult for them. In the past we have had three parties

that sweep it under the carpet. We are pulling the carpet back and

showing them where the problems lie. Let's talk to one of those parties

argue losing sleep over it the UK I p -- losing sleep over the UK

Independence Party? We should all be concerned that the extremes are

getting more tempting. You said you will lose seats, are you going to

lose it to them? They are picking up support from all political

parties, Liberal Democrats lost a great many votes in the Eastleigh

by-election, so this problem is facing all political parties. The

problem is, they are a one-trick pony. They were talking about

immigration as though there was a click of the finger and you can

solve all this by voting UKIP. Ironically, if it costs

Conservative seats in the selection, that this election, they will get

precisely what they don't want, if they form a coalition instead of us.

I was in Suffolk the other day and several Labour activists were

saying they are worried about UKIP. We have to accept they are a party

of the right-wing. There is a big They have made a mistake if they

want support across the board by pursuing a right-wing corner

monarch -- economic policies. If they won support across the board,

they should have actually not portray themselves as a party of

the economic right, which is where they are. Is that how you portray

yourself? We are pleasantly surprised at the level of support

we are getting from what you might call Labour, people work hard for a

living and find their lives are being given no future at all by the

fact that their jobs are being taken, their children cannot get

houses because of emigration. I keep coming back to it but it is a

major problem. We are getting a really good, solid ground support

from old Labour because New Labour have led Old Labour down. You look

at the leaders of New Labour, can you really say they let present --

represent a horny-handed sons of toil? They do not look like

representatives of the working man. They are losing the support of

their bedrock. There is an article in the Spectator that says they are

moving into territory used used to have -- you used to have. I am a

Euro-sceptic of the left, but I am a socialist and I look at the

struggles and I can see why many people a Euro-sceptic. We are

opposed to the kind of free market capitalistic economic policies

pursued by UKIP and the Conservative Party. There is a

message from Margaret Thatcher, but if you want to attack Labour votes,

it is not by attacking to the letter, it is by standing for

people to work hard, save hard, want to do the right thing.

election campaign features heavily Maria Miller breezed into Basildon

this week. She watched an Olympic Legacy project designed to hook

young people into sport. What we are seeing from schools and

community sports activities is there is issued a passion for sport

in this country. Martin Bell is hoping to make dispatch -- to make

a splash. They won more independent candidates. Politicians are all

grey. We need people were fearless. The Labour leader chose Ipswich:

She -- Jaws Ipswich to launch a campaign. We have come to Suffolk

to launch our campaign. It was suspended on Monday following the

announcement of Lady Thatcher's death. Tributes poured in for the

former Suffolk MP. Margaret Thatcher was a very beautiful woman.

She had beautiful plants and she had lovely ankles, and she knew

precisely how to use both. She was more than just a politician. Will

you be at her funeral? I will. It will be quite an event. 2000 people,

leaders from around the world, and her political friends and many of

her political enemies will be gathered at the invitation of her

own family. Kelvin Hopkins, what will you be doing? Political work

in the constituency, and chairing a meeting of the Parliamentary

Science Policy, which is my main issue. Then I will be at a select

committee meeting. You will not be going to any of these parties?

not like personalised politics, I'll be dealing with issues rather