Browse content similar to 23/03/2014. Check below for episodes and series from the same categories and more!
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Morning, folks. Welcome to the Sunday Politics. The dust has barely | :00:36. | :00:41. | |
settled on George Osborne's Sunday Politics. The dust has barely | :00:42. | :00:44. | |
and, amazingly, for once it hasn't all gone horribly wrong by the | :00:45. | :00:47. | |
weekend. So, is this the election springboard the Tories needed, and | :00:48. | :00:52. | |
where does it leave Labour? Turns out the big Budget surprise was a | :00:53. | :00:55. | |
revolution in how we pay for old age. The Pensions Minister says he's | :00:56. | :00:59. | |
relaxed if you want to spend it all on a Lamborghini. He'll join us | :01:00. | :01:05. | |
later. And could the man with the maracas be on his way to | :01:06. | :01:08. | |
Westminster? Bez from the Happy Mondays tells us about his unlikely | :01:09. | :01:10. | |
plan And here: The workers with zero | :01:11. | :01:13. | |
confidence in zero hours contracts. stay in Axbridge. Are there ways of | :01:14. | :01:25. | |
making the European arrest warrant work better? -- Uxbridge. And who | :01:26. | :01:38. | |
better to help guide you through all of that than three journalists, who | :01:39. | :01:41. | |
dispense wisdom faster than Grant Shapps calls out the numbers in his | :01:42. | :01:44. | |
local bingo hall over a pint of beer. Yes, they're hard-working and | :01:45. | :01:47. | |
they're doing the things they enjoy. Cup of tea, number three. It's Nick | :01:48. | :01:53. | |
Watt, Polly Toynbee and Janan Ganesh. | :01:54. | :01:59. | |
So, George Osborne delivered his fifth Budget on Wednesday and had so | :02:00. | :02:04. | |
many glowing front pages the day afterwards he must be running out of | :02:05. | :02:08. | |
room to pin them up in on his bedroom wall. Although it's probably | :02:09. | :02:11. | |
a pretty big wall. For those of you who didn't have time to watch 3 5 | :02:12. | :02:14. | |
hours of Budget coverage on the BBC, here's Giles with the whole thing in | :02:15. | :02:16. | |
three minutes. Budget days have a rhythm of their | :02:17. | :02:47. | |
own, driven partly by tradition like that photocall at 11 Downing | :02:48. | :02:50. | |
Street and part logistics, how to get this important statement out and | :02:51. | :02:53. | |
explain to those whom it affects - us? Behind-the-scenes of a Budget | :02:54. | :03:06. | |
Day is much the same. This ritual red boxery may be the beginning of | :03:07. | :03:10. | |
the end of weeks of work behind the scenes in the Treasury and sets the | :03:11. | :03:13. | |
clock ticking on the process of finding out the answer to one | :03:14. | :03:16. | |
question. You got any rabbits in the box, Chancellor? Yes, there will be | :03:17. | :03:19. | |
something in the Budget we don't know about. Time marches steadily | :03:20. | :03:20. | |
towards the statement know about. Time marches steadily | :03:21. | :03:23. | |
commentators are hovering over what those potential surprises are. As | :03:24. | :03:30. | |
Big Ben chimes, all focus returns to the Commons, where there is Prime | :03:31. | :03:32. | |
Minister's questions and the Chancellor gets up and does his | :03:33. | :03:38. | |
thing. Once he's on his feet and remembering there is still no copy | :03:39. | :03:41. | |
of the details, the major measures are rapidly highlighted as they come | :03:42. | :03:46. | |
and then put up on screen. A cap on Government welfare spending set for | :03:47. | :03:53. | |
2015/16 at 119 billion. Income tax personal allowance raised to | :03:54. | :03:58. | |
?10,500. Bingo duty halved, which ticked boxes for some but was | :03:59. | :04:01. | |
unlikely to make anyone a poster boy. And the beer tax cut of 1p or | :04:02. | :04:07. | |
the froth on the top. And changes to pensions allowing people to take | :04:08. | :04:10. | |
their money out in one lump sum rather than being forced to accept a | :04:11. | :04:19. | |
fixed annual pay-out, or annuity. This is a Budget for the makers the | :04:20. | :04:22. | |
doers and the savers and I commend it to the House. Not everyone can | :04:23. | :04:26. | |
focus on the Budget by listening to what the Chancellor says. We need to | :04:27. | :04:30. | |
get a copy of the script. We do not get that till he sits down. I'm | :04:31. | :04:34. | |
going to go into the House of Commons to get that right now. There | :04:35. | :04:41. | |
will be a response on that and all the other things from Mr Miliband. | :04:42. | :04:44. | |
The Chancellor spoke for nearly an hour but he did not mention one | :04:45. | :04:47. | |
essential fact, the working people of Britain are worse off under the | :04:48. | :04:52. | |
Tories. It is a tricky job answering the Budget at the best of times | :04:53. | :04:55. | |
though some, including Labour MPs, think it is better to mention the | :04:56. | :04:57. | |
Budget when you do. Here we are. I am going to go. I am | :04:58. | :05:06. | |
not the only journalist missing Ed Miliband's speech. | :05:07. | :05:08. | |
not the only journalist missing Ed the Chamber as the Chancellor sits | :05:09. | :05:10. | |
down to attend a special briefing from the Chancellor's advisory team. | :05:11. | :05:18. | |
I am hotfoot to the studio. There is a little more detail to the Budget | :05:19. | :05:21. | |
than the Budget Speech. That detail can be whether words unravel and | :05:22. | :05:24. | |
other interpretations emerge. By now the gaggle of supporters and | :05:25. | :05:27. | |
detractors are taking the debate onto the airwaves. Are you the BBC? | :05:28. | :05:36. | |
Have the Daily Politics packed up? No, we're still standing and, days | :05:37. | :05:39. | |
later, still trying to assess whether the measures announced still | :05:40. | :05:42. | |
seem fresh and appetising or have already gone stale in the minds of | :05:43. | :05:44. | |
voters? How significant are these two poles | :05:45. | :06:00. | |
this morning putting Labour and Tory nip and tuck? Osborne gave his party | :06:01. | :06:09. | |
a good bounce. It was an astonishingly theatrical coup. At | :06:10. | :06:14. | |
first glance, it seems like a huge gift to all people. That is where | :06:15. | :06:18. | |
all of the money has been channelled by this government. They have been | :06:19. | :06:22. | |
ultra-protected, triple locked. Pensioners have done very well and | :06:23. | :06:28. | |
others less well. It is not surprising. Normally a budget which | :06:29. | :06:32. | |
is well received on the day and the day after has unravelled by the | :06:33. | :06:38. | |
weekend. This time, it has not, so far. The dangerous thing for the | :06:39. | :06:43. | |
Labour Party now, George Osborne is the assessment this thing called the | :06:44. | :06:47. | |
baseline. He says, in government, you must control the baseline. The | :06:48. | :06:52. | |
Labour party controlled in 2001 and 2005 and he needs to control it next | :06:53. | :06:57. | |
time. He is controlling it on fiscal policy because labour is matching | :06:58. | :07:02. | |
them on everything. The danger for Labour on the big, headline grabbing | :07:03. | :07:06. | |
issue, which was freeing up annuities on pensions, that again | :07:07. | :07:10. | |
Labour was pretty much saying it was going to support it though it were | :07:11. | :07:14. | |
saying it has to be fair and cost-effective. On a big, policy | :07:15. | :07:19. | |
issue, they are following on behind George Osborne. George Osborne is | :07:20. | :07:24. | |
controlling the crucial baseline. Are we in danger of reading too much | :07:25. | :07:33. | |
into the political implications of the budget? The good thing about the | :07:34. | :07:37. | |
pensions policy is, if it does unravel, it will not happen for ten | :07:38. | :07:42. | |
years and, by that time, George Osborne will have left office. | :07:43. | :07:46. | |
Towards the end of his speech, I thought, that is not enough. There | :07:47. | :07:51. | |
is not an idea in your budget which is politically very vivid a year | :07:52. | :07:56. | |
before an election. What I underestimated was, how many | :07:57. | :08:00. | |
frustrated savers that are in the country. There are a lot of people | :08:01. | :08:06. | |
who are frustrated by low interest rates and tax rates on pension pots. | :08:07. | :08:11. | |
This was an explicit gesture for them. That is what has paid off in | :08:12. | :08:16. | |
the polls in the past few days. You spend all of your money on your | :08:17. | :08:21. | |
wardrobe, is that right? The bingo poster was a kind of get out of jail | :08:22. | :08:26. | |
card for Labour. It gave them something to zoom in on. Everyone | :08:27. | :08:30. | |
beat up on Grant Shapps, the Tory chairman. We read in the daily | :08:31. | :08:36. | |
Telegraph that the fingerprints of the Chancellor were all over this | :08:37. | :08:42. | |
poster. The Chancellor signed off it -- off on it and so did Lynton | :08:43. | :08:50. | |
Crosby. They referred to working class people as, they are. How did | :08:51. | :08:58. | |
it get into the Telegraph? We can only presume but grant Shapps made | :08:59. | :09:02. | |
it clear that it was not him. We had a time when Labour politicians, we | :09:03. | :09:07. | |
saw from the response of Ed Miliband onwards, they were not quite sure | :09:08. | :09:10. | |
how to react to this budget. A lot of detail had to be absorbed. | :09:11. | :09:16. | |
Suddenly, here is something we can talk about. You can see the thinking | :09:17. | :09:27. | |
behind the poster was very sensible. We are not Tory toffs, we are | :09:28. | :09:29. | |
interested in helping people who do not come from our backgrounds. The | :09:30. | :09:32. | |
wording was awful and played into every cliche. It was all his fault. | :09:33. | :09:38. | |
It shows how unsophisticated he was. There were people from Tory HQ | :09:39. | :09:47. | |
who agreed the budget. A month down the line will the budget look as | :09:48. | :09:58. | |
good? Probably. Once people look at it, pensions are fiendishly | :09:59. | :10:01. | |
conjugated. Once they look and see what it will do with people having | :10:02. | :10:05. | |
to pay for their own care because they can now take capital at their | :10:06. | :10:09. | |
pension, that will come as a shock to a lot of people with small | :10:10. | :10:14. | |
savings. It all be gone on their care. The polling will be neck and | :10:15. | :10:22. | |
neck all the way. In the past, George Osborne has been accused of | :10:23. | :10:23. | |
neck all the way. In the past, using his Budgets to tinker at the | :10:24. | :10:27. | |
margins or pull cheap tricks on his political opponents. Perish the | :10:28. | :10:29. | |
thought. But the big surprise in this year's statement was a | :10:30. | :10:32. | |
genuinely radical shake-up of the pensions system that will affect | :10:33. | :10:42. | |
most people who've yet to retire. At the moment, everyone is saving money | :10:43. | :10:46. | |
into a defined contribution pension, that is the type most common in the | :10:47. | :10:52. | |
private sector. They can take 2 % of the pot is a tax-free lump sum when | :10:53. | :10:57. | |
they retire. The rest of the money, for most people, they are forced to | :10:58. | :11:01. | |
buy an annuity, a form of insurance which provide a guaranteed monthly | :11:02. | :11:05. | |
income until they die. Annuities have hardly been a bargain since | :11:06. | :11:10. | |
interest rates were flat slashed following the financial crash. Even | :11:11. | :11:15. | |
with a ?100,000 following the financial crash. Even | :11:16. | :11:21. | |
only get an income of ?5,800 a year at current rates. From 2018, | :11:22. | :11:24. | |
pensioners will not be forced to buy an annuity. They can do what they | :11:25. | :11:28. | |
like with their money, even taking the entire pot as a lump some but | :11:29. | :11:33. | |
paying tax on 75% of it. With an average pension pot closer | :11:34. | :11:45. | |
to around ?30,000, pensioners would be more likely to buy a Skoda | :11:46. | :11:53. | |
instead of a Lamborghini. Most newly retired people who take the cash are | :11:54. | :11:58. | |
more likely to spend the money paying off their mortgage, helping a | :11:59. | :12:02. | |
family member to buy a property or investing the money elsewhere. Well, | :12:03. | :12:05. | |
earlier I spoke to the Pensions Minister. He's a Lib Dem called | :12:06. | :12:08. | |
Steve Webb. I began by asking him if he still thought the | :12:09. | :12:09. | |
Steve Webb. I began by asking him if lead to pensioners splurging all | :12:10. | :12:16. | |
their savings on supercars. What this reform is about is treating | :12:17. | :12:20. | |
people as adults. For far too long, we have said, we will make sure you | :12:21. | :12:24. | |
save for your old age and then we will control each year how much is | :12:25. | :12:28. | |
spent on what you spend it on. What we are saying is because we have | :12:29. | :12:33. | |
formed -- reformed the state pension, we will be much more | :12:34. | :12:37. | |
relaxed about what people do with their own money. The evidence is | :12:38. | :12:41. | |
that people who have been frugal and saved hard for retirement do not | :12:42. | :12:45. | |
generally blows a lot. They will spin it out. It is treating people | :12:46. | :12:49. | |
as adults and giving them choices they should have had all along. It | :12:50. | :12:55. | |
is a red herring, isn't it? The average pension pot is between 5000 | :12:56. | :13:01. | |
and 30,000. Lamborghinis aren't an option, correct? I gather only about | :13:02. | :13:09. | |
5000 people a year retiring can buy a flashy Italian sports car. It | :13:10. | :13:13. | |
might be about paying off a mortgage, paying off outstanding | :13:14. | :13:16. | |
debts. Maybe spending more money earlier in retirement when they are | :13:17. | :13:20. | |
fit and able and can enjoy it more. We will give people guidance. We | :13:21. | :13:25. | |
will make sure when they retire there is someone to have a | :13:26. | :13:28. | |
conversation with talking through the implications of spending the | :13:29. | :13:32. | |
money early and options of investing it. This will be a real step | :13:33. | :13:40. | |
forward. Even if you have a much bigger pension pot, say half ?1 | :13:41. | :13:43. | |
million, which is way bigger than the average, even then the marginal | :13:44. | :13:47. | |
rates of tax will be a disincentive to take it all out at once. You will | :13:48. | :13:53. | |
lose huge chunks of it at the 4 % band and then the 45% band. The tax | :13:54. | :14:00. | |
system gives you the incentive to spread it out if the tax threshold | :14:01. | :14:04. | |
is a bit over 10000 and the state pension is a bit over 7000, the | :14:05. | :14:09. | |
first 3000 you draw out in a given year is tax-free. The next band is | :14:10. | :14:18. | |
at 20%. Spreading your money will mean you pay less tax. That is why, | :14:19. | :14:21. | |
in general, people will not blow the lot up front. They will spread it | :14:22. | :14:26. | |
out over their retirement. You have kept this policy quiet. Not even a | :14:27. | :14:31. | |
hint. How did you test it? How did you make sure it would be robust? | :14:32. | :14:38. | |
You did not do a consultation. I have been talking about freeing up | :14:39. | :14:42. | |
the annuity market for a decade The idea of giving people more choice. | :14:43. | :14:46. | |
The government has relaxed rules over this Parliament. It was not a | :14:47. | :14:50. | |
completely new idea. We know in places like Australia and America, | :14:51. | :14:53. | |
people have these freedoms. We already have something to judge it | :14:54. | :15:02. | |
by. We will spend the next year talking to people, working it | :15:03. | :15:04. | |
through. There will be a three-month consultation. I want people to have | :15:05. | :15:07. | |
choices about their own money. There is detail still to be worked out and | :15:08. | :15:12. | |
we are in listening mode about how we implement it. When you announce | :15:13. | :15:16. | |
something you cannot do widespread consultation, for the reasons I have | :15:17. | :15:21. | |
given, you do run the risk of unforeseen consequences? Pension | :15:22. | :15:24. | |
companies this morning are indicating, you, the government can | :15:25. | :15:27. | |
write you are looking for ?25 billion of infrastructure investment | :15:28. | :15:35. | |
from us. You hold our shell below the water line. That may not happen. | :15:36. | :15:42. | |
We spoke internally about the implications for instruction -- | :15:43. | :15:58. | |
infrastructure. It seems to me there will still be long-term investments. | :15:59. | :16:06. | |
Many people want to turn their whole pot into an income. I understand the | :16:07. | :16:11. | |
insurance companies are lobbying, but I'm convinced there will still | :16:12. | :16:14. | |
be plenty of money for investment and infrastructure. If the | :16:15. | :16:19. | |
Chancellor's pro-savings measures work, that will generate more | :16:20. | :16:27. | |
savings. With no requirement now to buy an annuity, surely it is the | :16:28. | :16:29. | |
case that pension pots buy an annuity, surely it is the | :16:30. | :16:36. | |
ordinary savings fund, so why should they continue to get favourable tax | :16:37. | :16:42. | |
treatment? Bear in mind that a lot of the tax treatment of pensioners | :16:43. | :16:47. | |
is tax deferred so most people pay tax at the standard rate. If they | :16:48. | :16:52. | |
put money into a pension, they don't pay tax when they earn it, but they | :16:53. | :17:00. | |
do at retirement. We do want, we will still have automatic enrolment | :17:01. | :17:05. | |
into workplace pensions, we do want people to build up, because at age | :17:06. | :17:10. | |
20 and 30 nobody thinks about retirement. It is still vital that | :17:11. | :17:17. | |
people do reach retirement to have these new choices with a decent | :17:18. | :17:23. | |
sized pension pot. Pensions. Tax breaks because they were supposed to | :17:24. | :17:28. | |
provide an income in retirement that is how it was structured, but | :17:29. | :17:32. | |
that is no longer a requirement surely that undermines the case that | :17:33. | :17:39. | |
if they get tax breaks, other forms of savings should get tax breaks. | :17:40. | :17:45. | |
Other forms do get tax breaks, of course. The return with ISAs is tax | :17:46. | :17:59. | |
free. The point with pensions is that you are simply deferring your | :18:00. | :18:08. | |
earnings. There is a bit when high tax rate payers get a kick when they | :18:09. | :18:11. | |
are working and then retire on standard rate, so there is the issue | :18:12. | :18:17. | |
of the top getting too many tax breaks, but the basic principle that | :18:18. | :18:21. | |
you pay tax when you get the income seems right to me and isn't affected | :18:22. | :18:29. | |
by these changes. You have announced save friendly measures, are we right | :18:30. | :18:33. | |
to look at them as a consolation prize because savers have suffered | :18:34. | :18:38. | |
from the Government's policy of keeping interest rates abnormally | :18:39. | :18:43. | |
low? It is certainly the case that very low interest rates have been a | :18:44. | :18:49. | |
huge boon to people of working age with mortgages, and people who have | :18:50. | :18:52. | |
retired said they thought they could have got a better deal on their | :18:53. | :18:59. | |
savings. I think there is a recognition that whilst we have done | :19:00. | :19:03. | |
the right thing with pensioners on the state pension, we have brought | :19:04. | :19:10. | |
in the triple lock, and many will bent on -- benefit from these | :19:11. | :19:19. | |
changes. Why don't savers who are not pensioners get the same help? | :19:20. | :19:24. | |
They have been hit by low interest rates as well. Those of working | :19:25. | :19:30. | |
age, many of them say they have benefited from low interest rates | :19:31. | :19:35. | |
was predominantly people in retirement have not had the benefit. | :19:36. | :19:43. | |
Obviously people of working age will have benefited from the tax | :19:44. | :19:52. | |
allowance so it is a myth to say the Budget was all about pensioners And | :19:53. | :19:57. | |
yet even when the Office for Budget Responsibility takes into account | :19:58. | :19:59. | |
your new measures, it still Responsibility takes into account | :20:00. | :20:02. | |
that over the next five years households will save less and less, | :20:03. | :20:09. | |
indeed the savings ratio falls by 50%. You haven't done enough. One of | :20:10. | :20:16. | |
the things we know is that the economy is picking up strongly, and | :20:17. | :20:20. | |
as we have more confidence about the future they will be more willing to | :20:21. | :20:23. | |
consume now, so without these measures it may be that the saving | :20:24. | :20:28. | |
rate would have fallen further. We want people to save and spend, it is | :20:29. | :20:36. | |
about getting the right balance As the economy picks up, people will | :20:37. | :20:39. | |
want to spend more of their money and it is about getting the balance | :20:40. | :20:46. | |
right. You make the point that if people are little profligate with | :20:47. | :20:49. | |
their private pensions, they will have the state pension to fall back | :20:50. | :20:51. | |
on and it will be higher than it have the state pension to fall back | :20:52. | :20:56. | |
been, but it is also the case that in these circumstances they will | :20:57. | :21:01. | |
still be entitled to housing benefit and even to perhaps some council tax | :21:02. | :21:06. | |
benefit as well. Do you know by how much this could put the welfare bill | :21:07. | :21:13. | |
up? We think the impact will be relatively modest because the sort | :21:14. | :21:18. | |
of people who save for a pension and make sacrifices while they are at | :21:19. | :21:22. | |
work are not the sort of people who get to 65 and decide to blow the lot | :21:23. | :21:29. | |
for the great privilege of receiving council tax benefit or housing | :21:30. | :21:32. | |
benefit. There will be people on the margins and | :21:33. | :21:44. | |
benefit. There will be people on the who retire with some capital want to | :21:45. | :21:45. | |
put some money away for their funeral. People like to save even | :21:46. | :21:52. | |
into retirement so the myth of the spendthrift pensioner I don't | :21:53. | :21:57. | |
believe. I think this has been rightly welcomed. Ever fancied a | :21:58. | :22:03. | |
Lamborghini yourself? If you turned the camera around you would see my | :22:04. | :22:18. | |
2-door Corsa! What's your favourite thing about an | :22:19. | :22:21. | |
election? Could it be the candidates ringing on your door while you're | :22:22. | :22:24. | |
having dinner? The leaflets piling up on your doormat? Or the endless | :22:25. | :22:27. | |
adverts aimed at hardworking families? Well, if you thought that | :22:28. | :22:30. | |
was bad enough, then you might want to consider going overseas for the | :22:31. | :22:33. | |
2015 election because the parties are going to be aiming their message | :22:34. | :22:36. | |
at you like never before. Adam's been to Worcester to find out more. | :22:37. | :22:42. | |
One of the most famous political figures in history lived here, she | :22:43. | :22:48. | |
is called Worcester woman. She was in her 30s, working class with a | :22:49. | :22:52. | |
couple of kids, aspirational yet worried about quality of life. But | :22:53. | :22:56. | |
she wasn't a real person, she was a label for the kind of voter new | :22:57. | :23:01. | |
Labour were trying to reach and she was later joined by Mondeo man and | :23:02. | :23:08. | |
several others. Doesn't that all seem a bit 90s? The technique, | :23:09. | :23:12. | |
called segmentation, was used by George Bush in 2004. Then refined by | :23:13. | :23:19. | |
Barack Obama. Rather than focusing on crude measures like cars and | :23:20. | :23:25. | |
hometowns, they delved into the minds of voters. It is not just | :23:26. | :23:29. | |
women, not just people who live in cities, but if you start to put | :23:30. | :23:35. | |
together these groups of people you can even in an anecdote or way | :23:36. | :23:40. | |
imagine who they are, what types of language and imagery might relate to | :23:41. | :23:48. | |
them. We have been given access to a new polling model being used here by | :23:49. | :23:53. | |
this firm, which is pretty close to the one we are told is being used by | :23:54. | :24:00. | |
the Tories. It carves the country into six personality types, and we | :24:01. | :24:04. | |
are trying it out on Worcester woman and wast of man. We are using an | :24:05. | :24:10. | |
online quiz to work out who is in which segment. Meet new monk, | :24:11. | :24:18. | |
Susie. She feels well represented. I know the Budget and the increases to | :24:19. | :24:25. | |
childcare, I think at the moment I am fairly represented. This puts her | :24:26. | :24:30. | |
in the category of optimistic contentment, people who feel they | :24:31. | :24:35. | |
are doing OK. Terry, on the other hand, isn't happy about Britain | :24:36. | :24:43. | |
today. Health and safety and all that! I hardly recognise the country | :24:44. | :24:52. | |
a living in any more? Yes. Are you ready for the result? He is Mr | :24:53. | :24:59. | |
comfortable nostalgia, they tend to favour the Tories and UKIP. They | :25:00. | :25:03. | |
dislike the cultural changes they see as altering Britain for the | :25:04. | :25:09. | |
worst. That sums me up. Tony is worried as well but feels much less | :25:10. | :25:17. | |
secure. I look forward to the future with optimism or anxiety? Anxiety. | :25:18. | :25:25. | |
Optimist or pessimist? Pessimist. His category is... You feel a bit | :25:26. | :25:35. | |
insecure, you think the Government could probably help you more? Yes. | :25:36. | :25:42. | |
Labour picks up a lot of these voters. This man is being asked to | :25:43. | :25:48. | |
do more and more at work, but he is getting less and less. I am getting | :25:49. | :25:56. | |
more towards the despair side. Things are getting tougher, | :25:57. | :26:01. | |
generally? It puts him into the segment called long-term despair, | :26:02. | :26:07. | |
people who feel left out. Finally, this is ever thoughtful Carol. I am | :26:08. | :26:17. | |
a bit of an idealist. Her idealism makes her a cosmopolitan critic I | :26:18. | :26:24. | |
am a liberal person. Apparently a lot of the media fit into this | :26:25. | :26:28. | |
category as well. There is one group of voters we have not come across, | :26:29. | :26:33. | |
people who show calm persistence. They hope things will get better but | :26:34. | :26:38. | |
don't expect them to. They are coping, rather than comfortable | :26:39. | :26:43. | |
Presumably they are all out of work. Which group are you win? You can | :26:44. | :26:48. | |
take the poll on the BBC website, and in the coming weeks we will be | :26:49. | :26:53. | |
doing our own polling using the six segments to see of the politicians | :26:54. | :27:00. | |
really have worked out how we think. And as Adam said, if you want to try | :27:01. | :27:04. | |
the survey for yourself, you can go to the BBC website and click on the | :27:05. | :27:07. | |
link. And we're joined now by the | :27:08. | :27:16. | |
pollster, Rick Nye. Welcome to Sunday Politics. We have had | :27:17. | :27:22. | |
Worcester woman, Worcester man, is this any different? It is a | :27:23. | :27:29. | |
recognition that or politician - all politics these days is like | :27:30. | :27:42. | |
this. It enables them to cut them more finally. You think all politics | :27:43. | :27:50. | |
is coalition politics, you think they have to put together these | :27:51. | :27:55. | |
groups of people, not that the Lib Dems will always be in power? No, | :27:56. | :28:01. | |
and if you listen to the coverage these days you might think it is | :28:02. | :28:07. | |
about grumpy old men on the one hand with Guardian readers on the other. | :28:08. | :28:12. | |
It is far more complicated than that, there is a lot of churning | :28:13. | :28:15. | |
going on underneath which is driven by people's value systems. A lot of | :28:16. | :28:23. | |
this has been pioneered in the United States, very sophisticated on | :28:24. | :28:28. | |
their election techniques, and in Britain we are always the first to | :28:29. | :28:33. | |
grab whatever the New Year will is from America. How do you think this | :28:34. | :28:38. | |
will translate to this country? I think it means that if you are | :28:39. | :28:41. | |
target photo you will still get the same of leaflets and people calling, | :28:42. | :28:47. | |
but you will probably have different kinds of conversations because | :28:48. | :28:52. | |
people on the other side, the party campaigners, will think they know | :28:53. | :28:59. | |
more about you. Will I know who you are? If I am a party campaigner | :29:00. | :29:03. | |
will I know, looking down the street, who fits into which | :29:04. | :29:08. | |
category? You will be able to approximate that with all of the | :29:09. | :29:11. | |
other data that you have gathered through polling, or doing local | :29:12. | :29:17. | |
campaigning, that is the idea to make sense of this vast quantity of | :29:18. | :29:23. | |
data people have about voters. We asked our panel to fill in your | :29:24. | :29:28. | |
survey. Nick is optimistic contentment, 99%. He was 1% | :29:29. | :29:34. | |
cosmopolitan critic, which is how he keeps his job at the Guardian. | :29:35. | :29:40. | |
Polly's job could not be more secure, 100% cosmopolitan critics, | :29:41. | :29:46. | |
and Janan Ganesh, optimistic contentment, which is what you would | :29:47. | :29:50. | |
expect from a financial Times columnist. What do you make of this | :29:51. | :30:06. | |
technique? Why are you only 99? It sounds really clever. 95% of the | :30:07. | :30:16. | |
population five years ago voted Labour or the Conservatives. We have | :30:17. | :30:20. | |
got away from that. It is coalition politics. You need sophisticated | :30:21. | :30:26. | |
methods. Presumably you must not lose touch with basic points. You | :30:27. | :30:30. | |
methods. Presumably you must not said it was used in the US | :30:31. | :30:34. | |
presidential elections. Wasn't there them moment emit Romney 's sweet | :30:35. | :30:40. | |
when the initial response was, we did not know the sort of people | :30:41. | :30:46. | |
voted. His next response was, we did not know these people existed. | :30:47. | :30:52. | |
Unless you know about certain key demographics, you are wasting your | :30:53. | :30:57. | |
time. Is it important in modern campaigning? I think it is useful | :30:58. | :31:04. | |
because it is about attitude. We have got Mosaic. We have got Acorn. | :31:05. | :31:14. | |
It does not tell us very much. What people think and feel may be | :31:15. | :31:18. | |
different to their income. You can be quite a high earner and anxious. | :31:19. | :31:20. | |
You can be quite a low be quite a high earner and anxious. | :31:21. | :31:24. | |
feeling aspirational and optimistic about the future. I think this does | :31:25. | :31:31. | |
get something else. In days gone by, particularly in America, | :31:32. | :31:36. | |
overwhelmingly, if you are in the better of segment, you would be | :31:37. | :31:40. | |
Republican and the blue-collar workers and some academics and | :31:41. | :31:44. | |
Liberals voted Democrat. In the last election, the richest 200 counties | :31:45. | :31:49. | |
in America voted Democrat. That is an attitude thing. Income does not | :31:50. | :31:54. | |
tell you how people will vote. There is a huge, working-class base of | :31:55. | :31:59. | |
support for the Republicans. It is unavoidable. Add a time when people | :32:00. | :32:03. | |
no longer identify with ideologies or class blocks, you have to go the | :32:04. | :32:12. | |
temperament and lifestyle and manageable. In America there were | :32:13. | :32:22. | |
128 segments according to lifestyle and Outlook. Once you get to that | :32:23. | :32:27. | |
stage, it becomes close to useless. We were talking about the budget | :32:28. | :32:32. | |
earlier. What other polls saying about the budget? The lead of labour | :32:33. | :32:40. | |
has been narrowed over the Conservatives. -- Labour. Osborne | :32:41. | :32:48. | |
and Cameron as an academic team have always had a lead over Miller band | :32:49. | :32:54. | |
and Balls. This week it is about economic management. -- over Mr | :32:55. | :32:56. | |
Miller band. Thank you for being with us today. | :32:57. | :33:12. | |
It's just gone 11:30am. You're watching the Sunday Politics. We say | :33:13. | :33:16. | |
goodbye to viewers in Scotland, who leave us now for Sunday Politics | :33:17. | :33:17. | |
Scotland. Coming up here in 20 Scotland. Coming up here in 20 | :33:18. | :33:19. | |
minutes: Hello and welcome. Coming up into | :33:20. | :33:33. | |
deep's programme, the pros `nd cons of zero hours contracts. `` today's | :33:34. | :33:43. | |
programme. One week I could be working zero hours, the next 50 | :33:44. | :33:49. | |
hours. And we ask how do yot get money from the Treasury in `n age of | :33:50. | :34:00. | |
austerity? So let's meet our guests. David roughly for the Conservatives. | :34:01. | :34:10. | |
And foreign Labour, Sharon Taylor, the leader of Stevenage Borough | :34:11. | :34:18. | |
Council. In the week that Gdorge Osborne said we should get Britain | :34:19. | :34:22. | |
building, we are going to start with housing. Our sister programle East | :34:23. | :34:32. | |
has been looking at how thotsands of homes have planning permisshon but | :34:33. | :34:44. | |
have not been built. We need to build 20,000 houses per year but we | :34:45. | :34:50. | |
are only building 11,000. For years on, under the coalition, | :34:51. | :34:54. | |
house`building is at a level we have not seen since 1923, how can we get | :34:55. | :35:02. | |
this building done now? Letters up 10% from where it was put ydars ago. | :35:03. | :35:10. | |
It is more attractive note for developers to use the land backs | :35:11. | :35:14. | |
which they have got because of the right to buy programme. That is | :35:15. | :35:21. | |
getting more people there whth mortgages. The more house btyers | :35:22. | :35:25. | |
there are with ready cash, the developers will build. Therd have | :35:26. | :35:30. | |
been plenty of chances to do more already, haven't they? It h`s | :35:31. | :35:40. | |
allowed a lot more mortgages at low rates, the news scheme. Let's talk | :35:41. | :35:47. | |
about the so`called land banking. Ed Miliband said in Stevenage hf | :35:48. | :35:53. | |
developers did not fill the land would be taken from them, how is | :35:54. | :36:00. | |
that even possible? Part of the cost of living prices is related to | :36:01. | :36:05. | |
housing, particularly in our region were renting is high and we have got | :36:06. | :36:12. | |
to get building which will leet the real difference to get people into | :36:13. | :36:17. | |
homes at a price they can afford. The lot can be done. We do not know | :36:18. | :36:24. | |
have a programme where we c`n tie up together all the different local | :36:25. | :36:29. | |
Lanning plans that councils are making to ask if it will add up to | :36:30. | :36:34. | |
the total number of houses we need to deliver. Secondly, counchls can | :36:35. | :36:40. | |
do a lot more to deliver hotsing in Stevenage. We have bought houses on | :36:41. | :36:45. | |
the open market and let thel out as council houses. We need the | :36:46. | :36:50. | |
borrowing cap on our housing account to be lifted. We will pay it back | :36:51. | :36:56. | |
through the rental scheme and that will be one way of getting dvil more | :36:57. | :37:02. | |
affordable housing. The jobless total for the country went down | :37:03. | :37:06. | |
again for this month while the figure for this region went up by | :37:07. | :37:11. | |
7000. Are those in work in proper jobs? The number on the door our | :37:12. | :37:19. | |
contract is growing. These `llowed companies to hire workers whthout | :37:20. | :37:23. | |
guaranteeing a set number of hours. What is it like for employeds? This | :37:24. | :37:31. | |
man used to work full`time `s a scaffolder when he was bettdr but | :37:32. | :37:35. | |
more recently he has been working on a zero hours contract at a fast`food | :37:36. | :37:42. | |
outlet. I did not know what I was working from one week to thd next, | :37:43. | :37:47. | |
one week could be a Towers, the next 50, the next ten. There is no | :37:48. | :37:55. | |
financial security. One month I might get eight, the next I might | :37:56. | :38:01. | |
get 12, it is whatever I do. I am always asking for full`time hours | :38:02. | :38:06. | |
but I have not had them. I have been working there for over two xears | :38:07. | :38:15. | |
now. She has been doing a zdro hours contract. The same they do not | :38:16. | :38:24. | |
clear. These are the shift `nd if you do not like it moved on. Could | :38:25. | :38:32. | |
you look on? I am looking for work but I don't know, work is h`rd to | :38:33. | :38:37. | |
come by, every job has loads of people applying for it. Young | :38:38. | :38:42. | |
people, graduates come out `ll the time. I am a graduate myself by | :38:43. | :38:46. | |
proper full`time workers hard to find. There were almost 583,000 | :38:47. | :38:55. | |
employees on zero hours contracts last year, more than double the | :38:56. | :39:00. | |
government estimate. They h`ve grown so much that the consultation was | :39:01. | :39:05. | |
launched into them were looking into exclusivity, contracts that can find | :39:06. | :39:08. | |
people to working for only one employer and transparency. People | :39:09. | :39:13. | |
not being told they may havd no work. Essex University is one of | :39:14. | :39:21. | |
several throughout the region who employ people on zero hours. There | :39:22. | :39:27. | |
are instances of people on zero hours contract year. Individuals | :39:28. | :39:36. | |
have come to me on these contracts. Several other universities `lso use | :39:37. | :39:44. | |
zero hours contracts but here at the University of Essex, bobble | :39:45. | :39:46. | |
postgraduates that assist whth the gene may be on zero hours, they are | :39:47. | :39:53. | |
adamant that lecturers are not. We never had a reason to use zdro hours | :39:54. | :39:59. | |
for poor lecturing staff and I do not see us changing that pr`ctice. | :40:00. | :40:09. | |
It is going all for the employer, what about the little man, what | :40:10. | :40:15. | |
about me? Sheila had three lonths without any work last year `nd has | :40:16. | :40:20. | |
to rely on her family to help out. It is hard, I just tell my kids to | :40:21. | :40:28. | |
weeks ahead that this month my wages will be less so between thel they | :40:29. | :40:34. | |
will be two or ?300 or one of them will pay the mortgage for md | :40:35. | :40:38. | |
otherwise I would have lost the house. What do employers make of it? | :40:39. | :40:47. | |
I have a spokesman from the Institute of directors. Flexibility | :40:48. | :40:55. | |
for Sheila means unpredictability, she says she cannot pay the | :40:56. | :41:01. | |
mortgage. That might be the case in an isolated example but flexibility | :41:02. | :41:07. | |
means more jobs and zero hotrs contracts divide them for ydars with | :41:08. | :41:12. | |
an opportunity. In the environment we have had recently where there | :41:13. | :41:16. | |
have been difficult economic times they can actually provide jobs with | :41:17. | :41:19. | |
the otherwise would not havd been able to. Will there be fewer of | :41:20. | :41:28. | |
these contracts if they upttrned in the economy continues? I am | :41:29. | :41:32. | |
uncomfortable with the general rhetoric around zero our contracts. | :41:33. | :41:39. | |
I speak to a lot of businesses and business leaders. Things th`t | :41:40. | :41:45. | |
concern them are how do thex pay suppliers? They are not setting out | :41:46. | :41:51. | |
to get their employee a hard time, these contracts have them the | :41:52. | :41:55. | |
opportunity to provide work were otherwise they would not have been | :41:56. | :42:00. | |
able to do that. They have not invented them. As the econoly | :42:01. | :42:05. | |
improves there may be fewer of them. Do you agree that often the ball is | :42:06. | :42:12. | |
in the employer's court. Th`t does not suit people, they need lore | :42:13. | :42:18. | |
protection and stability. I do not think that isn't highly fair. You | :42:19. | :42:23. | |
need to see the flexibility from the point of view of the worker as well. | :42:24. | :42:28. | |
People have the opportunity to work around their lives as well `s the | :42:29. | :42:32. | |
employer having flexibility and being able to offer work were the | :42:33. | :42:36. | |
otherwise would not be able to. There is a point around burdensome | :42:37. | :42:42. | |
legislation and red tape, it is all very well talking about verx large | :42:43. | :42:47. | |
companies but think about slaller employers. A business with only up | :42:48. | :42:52. | |
to six members of staff in the team it is the big decision to t`ke | :42:53. | :42:57. | |
another member of staff on. Without the flexibility of these | :42:58. | :43:01. | |
arrangements they could not take anyone on. I can`macro what do you | :43:02. | :43:07. | |
say`macro to Unison who talk about workers being held to ransol and not | :43:08. | :43:15. | |
getting the work protection they deserve? That is very strong | :43:16. | :43:20. | |
language and the sort of rhdtoric I am talking about. Most employers are | :43:21. | :43:24. | |
simply trying to make a livhng, to generate wealth and pay taxds. That | :43:25. | :43:34. | |
is what is fuelling the govdrnment. We will come back to you shortly. | :43:35. | :43:40. | |
Sheila in the film, evidencd of public sector jobs moving into the | :43:41. | :43:45. | |
private sector. These are the kinds of jobs your government is creating, | :43:46. | :43:50. | |
they do not always exist? The rise of zero our contracts giving | :43:51. | :43:55. | |
employers and read it need not otherwise exist. I would expect and | :43:56. | :44:02. | |
hope that more permanent jobs or part`time jobs with fixed hours and | :44:03. | :44:08. | |
predictability, those kind of jobs will be treated as the recovery | :44:09. | :44:14. | |
takes hold. I think the zero hours increase is hugely a function of | :44:15. | :44:18. | |
this located climate patterns because of the 2008/9 crash. RDB | :44:19. | :44:31. | |
will jobs? Of course they are. `` are the real jobs. It is pahd work, | :44:32. | :44:45. | |
it is a good thing. As the recovery takes old I think we will gdt more | :44:46. | :44:51. | |
conversion into permanent jobs. It is not good enough to say`m`cro | :44:52. | :44:55. | |
these deliver flexibility for the void. Look at the instability we | :44:56. | :45:02. | |
heard in your film. If you do not know whether you will be working two | :45:03. | :45:08. | |
hours or 50 hours, how do you manage your childcare and bells? A job is | :45:09. | :45:20. | |
better than no job at all. Hf we had a benefit system that could cope | :45:21. | :45:25. | |
with these sort of rapid ch`nges it would help a bit but we need | :45:26. | :45:31. | |
well`trained employees in this region to be in a good job. Do these | :45:32. | :45:41. | |
contracts need scrapping? I would like to ban them, they are not good | :45:42. | :45:45. | |
for the economy or the individuals who are victims of them. Th`t is | :45:46. | :45:51. | |
completely wrong. We cannot sit here and pretend we are not in a global | :45:52. | :45:57. | |
competition. To pretend these contracts can just be banned is | :45:58. | :46:08. | |
ridiculous. Global competithon is not fuelled by low skilled jobs | :46:09. | :46:17. | |
What about Jim who we saw in the film who said the whole expdrience | :46:18. | :46:22. | |
in total is putting him off of looking for work, he feels he may be | :46:23. | :46:28. | |
better off in benefits. I do not think that is the reality of what | :46:29. | :46:34. | |
the government would like to see. A life on benefits is good for nobody, | :46:35. | :46:39. | |
not least the individual who thinks that way. Any work is better than a | :46:40. | :46:45. | |
life of dependency and that is the whole thrust of government reform. | :46:46. | :46:50. | |
That is sensible and we shotld not apologise for that. Not if ht | :46:51. | :47:02. | |
disrupts family life. Teachhng assistants, people who work in our | :47:03. | :47:05. | |
schools, they should have proper jobs with proper hours. Now, onto | :47:06. | :47:16. | |
this week's Budget. Last wedk on the programme we were talking about a | :47:17. | :47:20. | |
city deal for Cambridge which has got the go`ahead. There could be | :47:21. | :47:26. | |
?500 million in investment over the next 20 years supporting more | :47:27. | :47:33. | |
housing, jobs and transport. One MP wanted more money for potholes, the | :47:34. | :47:40. | |
Chancellor promised 200 million across the country of which 16 comes | :47:41. | :47:48. | |
to the east. There will be lore money for repairing flood ddfences. | :47:49. | :47:54. | |
140 million across the country. In bingo, a victory for the Cardinal | :47:55. | :48:00. | |
MP, he already persuaded thd Chancellor to cut and freezd fuel | :48:01. | :48:06. | |
duty. On bingo he wanted thd tax to be cut from 20% to 15%. Bingo duty | :48:07. | :48:25. | |
will be half to 10% to protdct jobs. We caught up with them for ` more | :48:26. | :48:31. | |
considered verdict. This is again for working people, it is rdally | :48:32. | :48:37. | |
good news, I am really excited. Fuel duty frozen again. I would say`macro | :48:38. | :48:46. | |
visit the worker 's budget for working people. I would likd them to | :48:47. | :48:52. | |
have at least it has been frozen. In tax terms fuel by the end of the | :48:53. | :48:59. | |
year will be 20% cheaper th`n it would have been otherwise. Ht is | :49:00. | :49:04. | |
great news for hard`pressed motorists as well. I literally | :49:05. | :49:13. | |
listen to my local residents. They contact me by the day with lany | :49:14. | :49:19. | |
hundreds of e`mails. I am a campaigning MP, I love to c`mpaign | :49:20. | :49:24. | |
on things, I am here to represent my constituency. I got fuel letters | :49:25. | :49:29. | |
almost every day and it is ly duty as an MP to work hard for mx | :49:30. | :49:35. | |
constituents. You seem to phck issues that chime with the public. | :49:36. | :49:41. | |
It is issues that the public right to me about or come to talk with me | :49:42. | :49:47. | |
about in surgeries. It means the a lot of jobs and the new club not | :49:48. | :49:54. | |
just in Harlow but across the country. I have to reflect what our | :49:55. | :49:59. | |
residents are seeing. I would like to consider to focus on helping the | :50:00. | :50:05. | |
lower paid. In next year's budget the government will raise the | :50:06. | :50:10. | |
national insurance threshold. The government said today they would | :50:11. | :50:14. | |
raise the threshold of incole tax. 25 million lower earners will be | :50:15. | :50:19. | |
better off which is great ndws in tax terms. Still these people on | :50:20. | :50:24. | |
lower earnings are being national insurance tax and I would lhke the | :50:25. | :50:30. | |
government to raise that. Cttting bingo duty, freezing fuel dtty, he | :50:31. | :50:37. | |
is stealing the thunder of labour, is he not? It is still a bedr and | :50:38. | :50:47. | |
bingo budget. Most families are ?1600 per year worse off. What about | :50:48. | :50:54. | |
that MP in touch with his constituency? The live the cost of | :50:55. | :51:01. | |
living crisis in the economx. What about your energy costs going up | :51:02. | :51:08. | |
?300 per year? People are rdally struggling out there and do did not | :51:09. | :51:13. | |
seem to be any acknowledgemdnt of that. I am pleased with the pothole | :51:14. | :51:22. | |
budget, we need that. I havd asked the council to top that up further | :51:23. | :51:26. | |
and start tackling the port`l crisis. If there's something you | :51:27. | :51:35. | |
should be focusing on and not the battle against UKIP? I agred. It is | :51:36. | :51:47. | |
also the personal allowance. If you are a basic rate taxpayer you are | :51:48. | :51:53. | |
being ?800 this year at the start of the parliament. That is one of the | :51:54. | :51:57. | |
big answers to the question about the cost of living. A plane crash of | :51:58. | :52:04. | |
an economy left by the Labotr Party and for us, after four years, to be | :52:05. | :52:11. | |
able to see you are paying 20p tax is saving every year and th`t is | :52:12. | :52:20. | |
hugely important for working people. We don't just talk the talk, we | :52:21. | :52:29. | |
deliver. Income tax has been cut. 24 new taxes is not really helping | :52:30. | :52:39. | |
people. Stick to income tax and the serious stuff. To rebrand the | :52:40. | :52:48. | |
Conservatives as the workers party, that is dangerous or Labour, isn't | :52:49. | :52:55. | |
it? You have those who make steady your types around working pdople | :52:56. | :53:05. | |
that the drink beer and plax bingo. Why don't we talk about the issues | :53:06. | :53:11. | |
that you are ?800 per year better off in income tax terms if xou are a | :53:12. | :53:24. | |
20p taxpayer? Not if you take into account everything else, falilies | :53:25. | :53:28. | |
are worse off. Like macro and here's a round`up in 60 seconds. A bad | :53:29. | :53:44. | |
start to the week for UKIP. The Parliamentary candidate for Great | :53:45. | :53:47. | |
Yarmouth will appear in court charged with electoral fraud. 5 0 | :53:48. | :53:55. | |
plus jobs will go in Corby. It is a difficult time for those workers and | :53:56. | :53:58. | |
their families but there ard jobs being created locally and wd need to | :53:59. | :54:03. | |
support people into those. The decision to close one prison. The | :54:04. | :54:09. | |
Independent monitoring board said it had been a massive waste of | :54:10. | :54:14. | |
taxpayers money. 10 million was spent doing the very things they | :54:15. | :54:20. | |
said they could not afford to do. And the Lib Dem MP for Cambridge | :54:21. | :54:26. | |
accused the Tories of stealhng their policy on raising the incomd tax | :54:27. | :54:32. | |
threshold. He always brings the house together in his usual way | :54:33. | :54:38. | |
What I am sure we can agree on is that it has been an excellent move | :54:39. | :54:43. | |
by a Conservative Chancellor in a coalition government. Sharon Taylor, | :54:44. | :54:51. | |
we saw a glimpse of the bear pit the Commons can be from time to time, do | :54:52. | :54:56. | |
you relish the prospect of joining that atmosphere? I think it is | :54:57. | :55:03. | |
something that puts lots of people off. I really believe in wh`t I am | :55:04. | :55:08. | |
trying to do in Thames of t`king the values that I have had all ly life | :55:09. | :55:14. | |
into politics. I think all that shouting and laughing at each other | :55:15. | :55:19. | |
does put people off, the cltb atmosphere. We need to have more | :55:20. | :55:25. | |
serious debates around the hssues. I do not mind a bit of banter but it | :55:26. | :55:33. | |
does get beyond a joke. Is he right to say it was the Lib Dem policy | :55:34. | :55:41. | |
stolen by the Conservatives? We can all celebrate it. I would only hope | :55:42. | :55:46. | |
the Labour Party in parliamdnt would give us credit for these reductions | :55:47. | :55:52. | |
in income tax. What about the heckling, do you wince or enjoy yet? | :55:53. | :55:59. | |
I think the women, the female candidates who get elected, many of | :56:00. | :56:04. | |
them are friends of mine, they do not complain. It is not quite as bad | :56:05. | :56:09. | |
as it works. If you have solething to say you stand up and spe`k out | :56:10. | :56:15. | |
and people will respond. With more women there it might be a bdtter | :56:16. | :56:17. | |
place. Thank you, you can decision, she will weigh up the | :56:18. | :56:23. | |
The big news is the popular server is struggling to control all of the | :56:24. | :56:39. | |
people who want to find out where they fit in the political spectrum. | :56:40. | :56:44. | |
It hasn't quite crashed but it is queueing up those people. Who would | :56:45. | :56:49. | |
have thought the Sunday Politics had so many viewers? It has never | :56:50. | :56:59. | |
happened on the X factor. This morning's papers don't make | :57:00. | :57:01. | |
comfortable reading for Labour with two separate polls showing the | :57:02. | :57:04. | |
party's lead over the Tories is down to just one point. And there's been | :57:05. | :57:07. | |
plenty of criticism of Ed Miliband's response to the Budget. Let's take a | :57:08. | :57:11. | |
look. You know you are in trouble when even the Education Secretary | :57:12. | :57:14. | |
calls you and out of touch bunch of elitist. Where is he? He is hiding! | :57:15. | :57:26. | |
I think he has been consigned to the naughty step by the Prime Minister. | :57:27. | :57:33. | |
The naughty step! And we're joined now by shadow chief secretary to the | :57:34. | :57:38. | |
Treasury, Chris Leslie. There was a widely criticised response by Ed | :57:39. | :57:42. | |
Balls to the Autumn Statement, now a widely criticised response by Ed | :57:43. | :57:48. | |
Miliband to the Budget. Does this show you are struggling at the | :57:49. | :57:54. | |
moment? Of course Ed Balls and Ed Miliband don't want to hear the fact | :57:55. | :58:00. | |
that in reality, for most people, life is getting harder and there is | :58:01. | :58:04. | |
the cost of living crisis. Did we get any mention of that in the | :58:05. | :58:13. | |
Budget? Of course we didn't. We were waiting for action on the cost of | :58:14. | :58:17. | |
living and it wasn't forthcoming. Ed Miliband came up with the tactic of | :58:18. | :58:22. | |
responding to the Budget without mentioning anything that was in it. | :58:23. | :58:27. | |
He mentioned the fact the personal tax allowance was a bit of a | :58:28. | :58:31. | |
giveaway but he takes more with the other hand. He is in favour of that, | :58:32. | :58:38. | |
right? Anything we can get but we need a lot more. Let | :58:39. | :58:41. | |
right? Anything we can get but we something else he mentioned, the | :58:42. | :58:49. | |
fact the national debt has risen by a third and George Osborne and David | :58:50. | :58:52. | |
Cameron... They knew that before the Budget. The borrowing figures were | :58:53. | :58:57. | |
announced and Ed Miliband made reference to those. There is not a | :58:58. | :59:02. | |
lot of happiness on Labour backbenchers about this, is there? | :59:03. | :59:08. | |
And indeed not a lot of happiness in the shadow cabinet. There is concern | :59:09. | :59:14. | |
that Ed Miliband is on a journey to remodel world capitalism whilst | :59:15. | :59:17. | |
George Osborne is firing some love bombs at Middle England by talking | :59:18. | :59:21. | |
about freeing up the pensions market and there is real nerves that what | :59:22. | :59:25. | |
Ed Miliband is saying is not going to be in tune with those middle | :59:26. | :59:31. | |
income earners that the Labour Party has got to attract if they are going | :59:32. | :59:37. | |
to win the general election. When Rachel Reeves used the medium of | :59:38. | :59:43. | |
Radio 4 to announce you were broadly in favour of the pension reforms | :59:44. | :59:46. | |
announced by the Chancellor on Friday night, was that a result of a | :59:47. | :59:51. | |
decision taken by the shadow cabinet? Is With annuities, they are | :59:52. | :00:05. | |
a very old-fashioned product. There are some serious questions which | :00:06. | :00:11. | |
need to be addressed. Was that the result of a Shadow Cabinet | :00:12. | :00:16. | |
decision? We have not had a Shadow Cabinet since the budget. We all | :00:17. | :00:20. | |
want to make sure that we understand the point about flexibility. No one | :00:21. | :00:25. | |
is arguing with that. There are some serious concerns. Let me give you a | :00:26. | :00:30. | |
couple of examples. This is something the Chancellor has done, | :00:31. | :00:34. | |
he claims, for reasons of freedom and flexibility. Is it a coincidence | :00:35. | :00:38. | |
he is grabbing quite a lot of tax from pensioners early on to plug a | :00:39. | :00:46. | |
hole which is necessary because the deficit has not gone down? Forgive | :00:47. | :00:48. | |
me for being slightly cynical about motives. For or against it? We need | :00:49. | :00:55. | |
to have safeguards for protection of pensioners. What will it do for the | :00:56. | :00:59. | |
annuity market if most people still want to have a steadying come for a | :01:00. | :01:07. | |
third of their lives? -- steady income. What does Labour have to do | :01:08. | :01:13. | |
to get it show back on the road The question is, how do people feel How | :01:14. | :01:20. | |
many people will still not be feeling better by the next election? | :01:21. | :01:24. | |
Wages may be rising slightly but not for a large and significant number | :01:25. | :01:28. | |
of people. They were just looking at the YouGov poll. If you look at the | :01:29. | :01:33. | |
middle to low earners, they are overwhelmingly pro-labour. Can | :01:34. | :01:38. | |
Labour get those people out to vote? They are really hurting. There are | :01:39. | :01:42. | |
plenty of them. The question is whether people are optimistic | :01:43. | :01:45. | |
because they see figures as if they look as if they are on the up or | :01:46. | :01:50. | |
whether they vote according to how they feel, which will still be very | :01:51. | :01:56. | |
far behind. Cost of living has been a major mantra from Labour. That's | :01:57. | :02:00. | |
that this chart shows how things are beginning to change. What this shows | :02:01. | :02:05. | |
is that, sometime this year, after a long time at which average earnings | :02:06. | :02:11. | |
trailed inflation, they now overtake it in the run-up to the election and | :02:12. | :02:14. | |
they stay there for the forecast period. What do you now do if your | :02:15. | :02:23. | |
cost of living mantra is running out of steam? I am not sure that, for | :02:24. | :02:28. | |
most people, they will recognise the sense that suddenly things will be | :02:29. | :02:31. | |
getting better. Particularly the younger generation are really | :02:32. | :02:38. | |
feeling quite down about the pressures they are facing to make | :02:39. | :02:44. | |
ends meet. You can see the lines are exaggerated because the Y axis on | :02:45. | :02:48. | |
the side starts quite high up. It does not start at zero. The other | :02:49. | :02:53. | |
statistic from the OBR is that we will not be getting back to the | :02:54. | :02:58. | |
point where wages are exceeding prices from the pre-banking crisis | :02:59. | :03:06. | |
period until late 2017. There are some really serious pressures that | :03:07. | :03:08. | |
people are under. What they wanted was a budget that would address | :03:09. | :03:14. | |
concerns and, for the vast majority of people, they will have heard the | :03:15. | :03:20. | |
statement by George Osborne and think, how is it really help them | :03:21. | :03:27. | |
now? It did not address it. It is clear that by 2015, average living | :03:28. | :03:31. | |
standards will probably not have returned to where they were in | :03:32. | :03:37. | |
2010. Average wages will not have done that. On the other hand, the | :03:38. | :03:40. | |
chart shows the sense of direction is moving in the right way. Which | :03:41. | :03:46. | |
one matters more with the electorate? I suspect it is sense of | :03:47. | :03:51. | |
direction. People sense of prosperity does not need to be | :03:52. | :03:55. | |
buoyant. It has to be something worth preserving. We have to fear | :03:56. | :04:01. | |
the all turn. That is what intrigued me this week. People make too much | :04:02. | :04:06. | |
of a fuss about the Parliamentary response by Ed Miliband. People will | :04:07. | :04:09. | |
forgive a bad day at the dispatch box. What they will not forgive is | :04:10. | :04:15. | |
the absence of a macro economic mess. Labour have a very powerful | :04:16. | :04:21. | |
message on living standards and lots of popular, targeted interventions | :04:22. | :04:26. | |
like the energy price freeze. You can imagine they will be | :04:27. | :04:31. | |
sufficiently nervous about that next year. If living standards are not | :04:32. | :04:41. | |
back to where they were, Labour can say, are you better off now than | :04:42. | :04:46. | |
when you were four years ago? The reason why break and -- wallowed | :04:47. | :04:57. | |
waken one that is because Jimmy Carter mucked it up -- Ronald | :04:58. | :05:09. | |
Reagan. Labour have to say, vote for us and you will get 2 million homes. | :05:10. | :05:14. | |
At the moment, the offer is very modest. You need to find the money | :05:15. | :05:17. | |
to do that. People need to understand that housing is at the | :05:18. | :05:21. | |
very heart of the economy, as well as young people and their | :05:22. | :05:26. | |
aspirations. At the moment, Labour 's offer is not spectacular in. If | :05:27. | :05:32. | |
the focus group shows the cost of living crisis have no longer has the | :05:33. | :05:37. | |
attraction it did, what line do you move onto? Yellow McCoy must remind | :05:38. | :05:40. | |
people of the wasted years and the cost of living pressures they have | :05:41. | :05:47. | |
been under. -- we must remind people. We want a recovery which has | :05:48. | :05:55. | |
low growth, low wage. A race to the bottom. They want a recovery that is | :05:56. | :06:02. | |
felt by everyone, shared and felt by all. Now, here's an idea to twist | :06:03. | :06:07. | |
your melon. Mark Berry, better known as Bez, it says here he's a member | :06:08. | :06:10. | |
of something called The Happy Mondays, wants to stand for | :06:11. | :06:13. | |
parliament. He's best known for being in a band, and not doing very | :06:14. | :06:20. | |
much, so he might fit in. Here he is in action. | :06:21. | :06:36. | |
And Bez joins us from our Salford studio. Good to see you. Is this a | :06:37. | :06:49. | |
genuine candidacy or are you twisting my melon? Amazing how time | :06:50. | :07:01. | |
flies when you're having fun! You having fun doing this candidacy I | :07:02. | :07:07. | |
am doing the job of the politicians and standing up for the people and | :07:08. | :07:12. | |
bringing attention to the horror of fracking, which is a totally unsafe | :07:13. | :07:17. | |
technology. There is no one in mainstream politics who is | :07:18. | :07:21. | |
discussing or saying anything about it. It is an unsafe technology and | :07:22. | :07:28. | |
it has been proven in America. You see the process in America and the | :07:29. | :07:36. | |
people out on the streets. The whole atmosphere has been made toxic. | :07:37. | :07:41. | |
These people are allowing it to happen in the name of profit. This | :07:42. | :07:47. | |
has been a Labour seat you are fighting in Salford since 1945. It | :07:48. | :07:52. | |
is a tough mountain. Supposing you were to win, could you ever see | :07:53. | :07:58. | |
yourself entering a coalition? With a bit of luck I may be able to shame | :07:59. | :08:04. | |
Labour politicians to do the job properly and stand up for the rights | :08:05. | :08:07. | |
of people. They are not and I am having to do that job. All I am | :08:08. | :08:13. | |
doing is causing debate and bringing to attention the horror that is | :08:14. | :08:17. | |
hanging on our doorsteps. It is not only fracking but GM modified foods | :08:18. | :08:21. | |
that they want to bring into this country as well. Owen Paterson is | :08:22. | :08:30. | |
one of the main lobbyists. Lobbying is legalised bribery, by the way. It | :08:31. | :08:36. | |
is run by the bankers. Basically, we have to stop these monsters from | :08:37. | :08:41. | |
getting into our country and turning our land into a toxic waste. That is | :08:42. | :08:46. | |
what I am trying to say. You are raising the debate, as you are doing | :08:47. | :08:52. | |
with us here. We do not really need fracking. You have done that and you | :08:53. | :08:56. | |
have talked about other things as well. In terms of a new integrity, | :08:57. | :09:02. | |
if you were to become an MP, would you claim expenses? If I ever do get | :09:03. | :09:08. | |
in charge, I would completely enter the banking | :09:09. | :09:09. | |
in charge, I would completely enter be expensive, but they would be like | :09:10. | :09:15. | |
bus passes and train passes. You behave like the people and you are | :09:16. | :09:19. | |
in touch with the people, you move with the people and do understand | :09:20. | :09:24. | |
what the people want. You do not live in acre Kuhn of your own making | :09:25. | :09:28. | |
of luxury, wealth and total disregard of everyone else. -- a | :09:29. | :09:36. | |
cocoon. If you did get into the Palace of Westminster and had to | :09:37. | :09:39. | |
mingle with all these people, who would you rather have in night out | :09:40. | :09:45. | |
with - Mr Cameron, Mr Miller band or Mr Clegg? I would be willing to | :09:46. | :09:54. | |
discuss politics with anybody. I would make them realise what they | :09:55. | :10:03. | |
are doing. I am glad too have a debate and with anyone. The people | :10:04. | :10:09. | |
of Salford, quite a lot people people behind me. I have been | :10:10. | :10:15. | |
speaking to Salford councillors They are going to lend me their | :10:16. | :10:24. | |
support. The people of Salford, and not to forget the people of Eccles, | :10:25. | :10:29. | |
sending you much. We must stop this horror. There is a monster on our | :10:30. | :10:34. | |
doorstep and we must stop it, people. Do not forget to take your | :10:35. | :10:40. | |
maracas on campaign trail. Would you like a pair to shake yourself? You | :10:41. | :10:48. | |
shake your maracas against fracking! Thanks, Bez, goodbye. Thank you for | :10:49. | :10:54. | |
giving me a little platform to express my views. Now if there's one | :10:55. | :11:01. | |
thing that gets us hot under the collar here at the Sunday Politics | :11:02. | :11:03. | |
it's European elections. The only thing we like more than the | :11:04. | :11:07. | |
elections themselves is a TV debate about them. And we're in luck! Take | :11:08. | :11:11. | |
a look at this. Ladies and gentlemen, please welcome leader of | :11:12. | :11:15. | |
the Liberal Democrats and Deputy Prime Minister, Nick Clegg. Gives | :11:16. | :11:22. | |
the most fantastic welcome to Nigel Farage. I would challenge Nigel | :11:23. | :11:30. | |
Farage to a public, open debate about whether she we should be out | :11:31. | :11:37. | |
all in of the European Union. I will do it for Nick Clegg. Since 200 , | :11:38. | :11:47. | |
all in of the European Union. I will have taken part in 45% of votes in | :11:48. | :11:53. | |
the European Parliament. Nigel Farage has not tabled a single | :11:54. | :12:00. | |
amendment since July 2009. Mr Clegg has only taken part in 22% of votes | :12:01. | :12:05. | |
in the House of commons. You can watch the debate at 7pm on the nd | :12:06. | :12:21. | |
of April over on BBC Two. And for a chance to be part of the studio | :12:22. | :12:24. | |
audience on the night and put your question to the two party leaders, | :12:25. | :12:27. | |
e-mail the question you'd like to ask to [email protected] or | :12:28. | :12:29. | |
tweet it using the hashtag #europedebate. And Nick Clegg and | :12:30. | :12:32. | |
Nigel Farage will be limbering up this week with their first debate on | :12:33. | :12:37. | |
LBC radio on Wednesday. Who is going to come out the best? I suspect | :12:38. | :12:46. | |
Nigel Farage. It is easy to portray Nick Clegg as morally compromised, | :12:47. | :12:49. | |
who has not asserted himself in government. I do wonder about Nigel | :12:50. | :12:55. | |
Farage, whether he is much better at delivering a popular line and | :12:56. | :13:00. | |
responding to the second question of third question. Nick Clegg will win | :13:01. | :13:04. | |
it hands over fist because he knows this stuff. He is right. The | :13:05. | :13:09. | |
evidence that he can produce about what will happen if we pulled out of | :13:10. | :13:13. | |
Europe will, I think, overwhelm Nigel Farage 's one-liners. They | :13:14. | :13:20. | |
will both be winners because you will have the rare sight of the | :13:21. | :13:27. | |
pro-European saying he likes the European Union. That is unlike | :13:28. | :13:32. | |
Eurosceptics who tie themselves up in knots. 14 Nigel, one for Nick and | :13:33. | :13:38. | |
one for both. There you go. Here is a mess, it is Janen Ganesh. That's | :13:39. | :13:50. | |
all for today. The Daily Politics is on BBC Two at Lunchtime every day | :13:51. | :13:54. | |
this week, I'll be back here next week with Energy Secretary Ed Davey. | :13:55. | :13:57. | |
Remember if it's Sunday, it's the Sunday Politics. | :13:58. | :14:03. |