Browse content similar to 28/04/2013. Check below for episodes and series from the same categories and more!
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out of the Blues - as county Council elections loom, we look at the | :01:23. | :01:33. | |
:01:33. | :01:33. | ||
Apology for the loss of subtitles for 2296 seconds | :01:33. | :39:50. | |
parties targeting the Conservative Politics in the south-east. Coming | :39:50. | :39:54. | |
up: Could thousands of farm workers lose out to migrant labour over | :39:54. | :40:02. | |
Government plans to abolish their wages board? To talk about that with | :40:02. | :40:09. | |
us is the prospective parliamentary candidate for which the ball and -- | :40:09. | :40:12. | |
Surrey and Whitstable from the Lib Dems and a professor from the | :40:12. | :40:18. | |
University of Kent, Tim Lockhirst. The number of people in the | :40:18. | :40:23. | |
south-east asking for assistance with red has risen by 50% in the | :40:23. | :40:29. | |
past year, according to Shelter. At present, we play the highest red and | :40:29. | :40:36. | |
property prices outside of London. Let me ask you, James, we have major | :40:36. | :40:40. | |
changes to housing benefit. People refer to it as a bedroom tax. So | :40:40. | :40:47. | |
arrears are going to get worse? That is a concern. I am not entirely | :40:47. | :40:51. | |
convinced about the bedroom tax myself. Homelessness is a concern, | :40:51. | :40:55. | |
particularly families that are struggling at the moment. I think it | :40:56. | :40:59. | |
is incumbent on local authorities to support homeless charities and | :41:00. | :41:02. | |
voluntary organisations and to keep supporting them to help counter the | :41:02. | :41:06. | |
problem. They mention food. This is an | :41:06. | :41:11. | |
interesting one, because, ten, we have seen stories about the increase | :41:11. | :41:17. | |
in the number of people going to food banks. | :41:17. | :41:21. | |
I think the biggest mystery in the economy at the moment is that | :41:21. | :41:25. | |
unemployment is not rising, but wages are stagnant or falling. | :41:25. | :41:32. | |
People are facing hard times. So even people who are in hard work -- | :41:32. | :41:36. | |
people live work are struggling to pay their bills. | :41:36. | :41:41. | |
Is there a problem here of greedy landlords? In my street is | :41:41. | :41:51. | |
reasonably, and landlord demanded a �400 increase in Redfern attended. | :41:51. | :41:57. | |
-- in rent. That is very tough. That is part of | :41:57. | :42:01. | |
the problem. There are a number of libraries out there who have taken | :42:01. | :42:09. | |
on a second property. In this case, it is incumbent on the landlords to | :42:09. | :42:11. | |
consider their tenants and consider the rest that their tenants can | :42:11. | :42:17. | |
afford. County Council elections take place | :42:17. | :42:19. | |
this Thursday and a final report on the challenges facing the major | :42:19. | :42:25. | |
political parties in the south-east, we take a look at the Conservatives. | :42:25. | :42:31. | |
They currently hold 75% of the seats in Kent, Sussex, and Surrey. But the | :42:31. | :42:34. | |
smaller parties are hoping to capitalise on tensions between | :42:34. | :42:44. | |
:42:44. | :42:45. | ||
Conservative councils and the Government to gain votes. | :42:45. | :42:49. | |
Gravesend is at hand that enjoys some of the hottest weather in the | :42:49. | :42:54. | |
country, but its political battles are heating up this week as well. | :42:54. | :42:58. | |
The Conservatives gained three County Council is from labour here | :42:58. | :43:03. | |
in 2009 and now hold for out of its five seats. It was a good year for | :43:03. | :43:06. | |
the Tories, who held onto strong majorities in East and West Sussex | :43:06. | :43:13. | |
and Surrey. And in Kent, they made a staggering 19 games, to hold 74 out | :43:13. | :43:19. | |
of the 84 seats on Kent County Council. It means the Conservatives | :43:19. | :43:22. | |
are now defending three quarters of the County Council sees in the | :43:22. | :43:27. | |
south-east, but that also makes the party with the most to lose. And | :43:27. | :43:30. | |
after three years in Government, and a big drop in opinion polls, the | :43:30. | :43:38. | |
situation is not as sunny as it was. The Conservatives' hold on key | :43:38. | :43:41. | |
marginal seas could suffer the consequences. | :43:41. | :43:51. | |
:43:51. | :43:53. | ||
Internet terror, there is no question that -- in terms of local | :43:53. | :43:58. | |
politics, there is no question that things are difficult. We are talking | :43:58. | :44:02. | |
about the future of Britain in Europe, the marriage vote, things | :44:02. | :44:06. | |
were the Conservatives are under threat from UKIP. UKIP has a strong | :44:06. | :44:09. | |
line on these issues with its old-style conservative. | :44:09. | :44:16. | |
One-way David Cameron has tried to bolster popularity is by offering to | :44:16. | :44:21. | |
freeze Council tax. Every single pound has been hard | :44:21. | :44:29. | |
error. Early mornings, late nights, the children, long shifts. And then | :44:29. | :44:34. | |
you come home, and there on the doormat is the Council tax bill. | :44:34. | :44:41. | |
There is a clear moral imperative duty that tax down. | :44:41. | :44:49. | |
But some Conservative councils have defied that and raise the tax. | :44:49. | :44:53. | |
Community Secretary Eric Pickles, who visited Gravesend is weak, has | :44:53. | :44:59. | |
not heard in his anger. I think Conservative Council leaders | :45:00. | :45:05. | |
in the south-east are as likely to feel that Labour leaders in the | :45:05. | :45:10. | |
North have been hard done by. Keeping tax down and coping with | :45:10. | :45:16. | |
unprecedented cuts has put pressure on frontline services. Kent has made | :45:16. | :45:20. | |
cuts of �49 million this year, with social services for the elderly and | :45:20. | :45:24. | |
disabled and children's services the worst affected. There has been | :45:24. | :45:27. | |
criticism of the millions of pounds spent on consultants to advise on | :45:27. | :45:33. | |
how to make savings. A Gravesend, the Labour led Council, which also | :45:33. | :45:37. | |
raise Council tax, says local services cannot work without | :45:37. | :45:44. | |
fussing. We are seeing problems on our roads, | :45:44. | :45:48. | |
our street lighting, the sorts of problems we might have an education | :45:48. | :45:52. | |
and social services. What I'm saying is that those people are amongst the | :45:52. | :45:57. | |
most weakest and vulnerable. They are suffering disproportionately | :45:57. | :46:02. | |
more in terms of the crisis of the need, and I don't think Kent County | :46:02. | :46:06. | |
Council have been particularly supportive of those people. | :46:06. | :46:11. | |
The Conservative party itself has admitted that it expects up to lose | :46:11. | :46:17. | |
500 Council sees this week. It is not just UKIP posing a threat, as | :46:17. | :46:21. | |
the right-wing English Democrats are fielding 23 candidates in Kent. The | :46:21. | :46:27. | |
hope that they can win marginal seats like Gravesend. But good | :46:27. | :46:30. | |
enough to challenge Council leadership? | :46:30. | :46:34. | |
From conservative point of view, the worst-case scenario is that they | :46:34. | :46:42. | |
seas. It is very important nationally. It is like a major | :46:42. | :46:47. | |
American state. To lose it visitor to the Conservative party's prior. | :46:47. | :46:53. | |
It happened once in the 1990s and it can't happen on an idea for the | :46:53. | :46:58. | |
party. As voters go to the polls this | :46:58. | :47:00. | |
Thursday, conservative county councils will be feeling the heat. | :47:00. | :47:05. | |
But how nervous will they be? And could the results make nervous | :47:05. | :47:12. | |
reading for David Cameron? Joining us now from Westminster | :47:12. | :47:16. | |
studio is the Conservative MP for Sevenoaks, Michael Fallon, who is | :47:16. | :47:20. | |
also the Government's Business and Energy Minister. Everyone | :47:20. | :47:25. | |
acknowledges that he will lose seats. What does acceptable failure | :47:25. | :47:29. | |
look like in Kent? We did spectacularly well for years | :47:29. | :47:36. | |
ago. We are defending this time, across the country, 1500 seas. | :47:36. | :47:44. | |
Labour are only defending 250. Concentrate, if you will, on the | :47:44. | :47:49. | |
south-east. What do you expect to happen in Kent, East Sussex, and | :47:49. | :47:52. | |
Surrey? We have not set a specific target, | :47:52. | :47:58. | |
but clearly, we did so well in 2009, so we will clearly not do as well as | :47:58. | :48:01. | |
that again. We are in the mid-term of a very difficult period for the | :48:01. | :48:08. | |
Government. Obviously, we will not repeat our success of 2009, but we | :48:08. | :48:11. | |
will not set a specific target this time. | :48:11. | :48:17. | |
Could you lose control, overall control, of Kent? | :48:17. | :48:22. | |
I certainly hope not. Kent has been a good Council. It has managed cuts | :48:22. | :48:26. | |
to its budget very efficiently. It has done well in Council tax. | :48:26. | :48:32. | |
certainly hope we will not lose it. Let's talk about Council tax. Three | :48:33. | :48:41. | |
of our county councils, Kent, East Sussex, and West Sussex. Those three | :48:41. | :48:49. | |
have frozen Council tax. But let me ask you this. Do we have a moral | :48:49. | :48:53. | |
duty to have enough school places? Surrey Saint with the extra 2% that | :48:53. | :48:59. | |
they added to their Council tax that they did add 2000 more school | :48:59. | :49:04. | |
places. Kent 's needs more school places by 2015. Who will the voters | :49:04. | :49:10. | |
think has done the right thing? Let me answer that directly. Kent | :49:10. | :49:17. | |
are providing more school places. They are nowhere providing as many | :49:17. | :49:22. | |
as they need. They are doing that in my own | :49:22. | :49:26. | |
constituency in Sevenoaks. It is perfectly possible to provide new | :49:26. | :49:30. | |
school places and live within your means. I am very proud of Kent for | :49:30. | :49:35. | |
keeping the Council tax down. The thing that would benefit their | :49:35. | :49:38. | |
constituents who are struggling most is not to get the poorest people to | :49:38. | :49:43. | |
pay more Council tax. As a direct result of your Government changing | :49:43. | :49:47. | |
Council tax benefit and 1310% less into the pot, there are people who | :49:47. | :49:51. | |
are genuinely struggling on tiny salaries will have to pay Council | :49:51. | :49:54. | |
tax for the first time or pay more Council tax. | :49:54. | :50:00. | |
I think people should pay more Council tax. -- I think people | :50:00. | :50:04. | |
should pay Council tax. I do not think it is very people do not. I | :50:04. | :50:10. | |
think most people who get up in the morning and go out to work one to | :50:10. | :50:15. | |
see a benefit system that properly rewards work and does not, | :50:15. | :50:18. | |
necessarily, favouring those who are not prepared to do what they are | :50:18. | :50:24. | |
doing. Let's pick up on another issue. | :50:24. | :50:33. | |
Commentators say he will be punished for -- commentators see you will be | :50:33. | :50:40. | |
punished for, because your Government wants to legalise gay | :50:40. | :50:45. | |
marriage. You could have offered them an alternative. | :50:45. | :50:54. | |
Of course, the marriage has been controversial. But there are young | :50:54. | :50:57. | |
people who do not see what the fuss is about. I would hope that when | :50:57. | :51:01. | |
people come to look at how people vote on Thursday, they would not | :51:01. | :51:06. | |
simply treat the vote as a protest that they would look overall at what | :51:06. | :51:10. | |
this Government is doing on the big things, getting the deficit under | :51:10. | :51:14. | |
control, rebalancing the budget, and making the welfare system much | :51:14. | :51:18. | |
fairer. Those are the big things that happen to most of my | :51:18. | :51:22. | |
constituents. Do you recognise the description in | :51:22. | :51:28. | |
the report their of UK as old-style conservatives? Because if he is | :51:28. | :51:33. | |
right, they are going to be the people you're voters will turn to. | :51:33. | :51:37. | |
They are certainly getting protest votes and I don't think they're just | :51:37. | :51:39. | |
getting from former conservatives. They are getting them across the | :51:39. | :51:46. | |
spectrum. They have become the party of protest, because if you want to | :51:46. | :51:48. | |
protest you can't vote Liberal Democrat and more because they're | :51:48. | :51:53. | |
part of the Coalition. At the mid-term Government, when tags have | :51:53. | :51:59. | |
been tough, people look for a protest vote and you can buy the | :51:59. | :52:01. | |
obvious recipients of that at the moment. | :52:01. | :52:11. | |
:52:11. | :52:12. | ||
I called file, thank you for joining us. -- Michael Fallon, thank you. | :52:13. | :52:18. | |
Let's turn to the panellists. Could we see the resurgence of | :52:18. | :52:20. | |
labour-intensive and UKIP is something people are overexcited | :52:20. | :52:24. | |
about? That's what makes the south-east | :52:24. | :52:31. | |
interesting. If you don't think the Conservative party is conservative | :52:31. | :52:37. | |
enough, you can vote for UKIP. Michael Fallon says they do not have | :52:37. | :52:40. | |
a specific target in this part of the world. I can tell you that they | :52:40. | :52:47. | |
have one target. The Conservative party wants to know whether Labour | :52:47. | :52:51. | |
or UKIP will take most votes from them. You can not entirely a red | :52:51. | :52:57. | |
herring. They can take votes from the Conservatives. They don't really | :52:57. | :53:00. | |
need to take seats to do a lot of damage. | :53:01. | :53:06. | |
What your party, James? Liberal Democrats at a local Council level | :53:06. | :53:10. | |
have helped ask because the brand is seen as toxic because of the Liberal | :53:10. | :53:13. | |
Democrats being part of this Government. | :53:13. | :53:16. | |
What we're are finally on the doorstep at the moment is that | :53:16. | :53:21. | |
Liberal Democrat support is still there, particularly in my area. Due | :53:21. | :53:28. | |
in Kent, we are the opposition to this to -- we are the opposition to | :53:28. | :53:34. | |
the Conservatives. We have a county councils year were Council tax was | :53:34. | :53:38. | |
mentioned, where the County Council was not spending that and | :53:38. | :53:41. | |
prioritising that properly on local services such as education, which | :53:41. | :53:47. | |
matter most to people. Let's think about Council tax. Let's | :53:47. | :53:51. | |
remember that we're not just broadcasting to Kent, but also | :53:51. | :53:55. | |
Surrey, where the Council tax went up. They said it will create wealth | :53:55. | :53:59. | |
as a new school places. Will people punish them at the County Council | :53:59. | :54:04. | |
elections next week for putting up Council tax, or only reward them for | :54:04. | :54:08. | |
these priorities? I suspect the answer is neither. I | :54:08. | :54:12. | |
suspect that people will vote on national issues, and in that sense, | :54:12. | :54:16. | |
the Conservatives in Surrey have been very clever. They think that | :54:16. | :54:20. | |
the Government will take a kicking at this election and they are not | :54:20. | :54:23. | |
necessarily going to take a greater kicking for doing something that | :54:23. | :54:28. | |
they think serves the interests of the local population. I admire him | :54:28. | :54:38. | |
:54:38. | :54:39. | ||
for trying it. A... I think it might work. | :54:39. | :54:43. | |
At a Commons debate this week, the Shadow Environment Secretary, Mary | :54:43. | :54:49. | |
Creagh, said that getting rid of the Agricultural Wages Board which has | :54:49. | :54:54. | |
existed since 1948 will mean a race to the bottom in terms of wages for | :54:54. | :54:58. | |
managers and labourers in the industry. The Government however | :54:58. | :55:05. | |
argued that the AWB is simply out of date. Will this pave the way for | :55:05. | :55:11. | |
jobs when the EU migrants who are willing to work for less? We can | :55:11. | :55:18. | |
sleep at a representative from the TUC. -- we can speak narrowed to a | :55:18. | :55:25. | |
representative from the TUC. Yes, this will see a race to the | :55:25. | :55:28. | |
bottom. Even the governments own figures suggest that farm pay will | :55:28. | :55:33. | |
fall by �141 million. Why do farming workers need appeal | :55:33. | :55:39. | |
board when we have a national minimum wage? There is only 80p | :55:39. | :55:41. | |
difference between the farmers wait at the national minimum wage, so | :55:41. | :55:47. | |
what is the problem? That minimum rate from the | :55:47. | :55:52. | |
Agricultural Wages Board is for trainees, and they are mostly | :55:52. | :56:00. | |
nationally by more that -- mostly nationally on more than that. When | :56:00. | :56:05. | |
the economy starts to recover as people have a choice, reducing | :56:05. | :56:10. | |
go-karting cabbages, bending over and doing hard work, or would you | :56:10. | :56:14. | |
stack shelves unless the market? There is a worry, and there should | :56:14. | :56:16. | |
There is a worry, and there should be a worry for farmers, attracting | :56:16. | :56:19. | |
be a worry for farmers, attracting the right kind of leader. | :56:19. | :56:25. | |
Why does this particular industry, or why to the workers in this | :56:26. | :56:29. | |
industry, need this kind of protection? 1848 seats for itself. | :56:29. | :56:39. | |
It is out of date. -- 1948 speaks for itself. | :56:39. | :56:42. | |
I don't think going back in town would be good for anyone, because it | :56:42. | :56:46. | |
would have a gone through those communities. But it might not be | :56:47. | :56:53. | |
good for employers either. There are a whole number of problems, and one | :56:53. | :56:55. | |
is that small employers and medium-sized employers, for the | :56:55. | :57:00. | |
first time, all have to think about setting pay rates for the workers | :57:00. | :57:03. | |
and now that Unite, the trade union, is gearing up to negotiate with | :57:03. | :57:09. | |
them, so that'll be a painful process and time-consuming process. | :57:09. | :57:13. | |
If it is painful and time-consuming, why is the National Farmers Union | :57:13. | :57:19. | |
favour? ( RSA. James, the Liberal Democrats do not have a clear policy | :57:19. | :57:24. | |
on this. What you as an individual thing should happen to wages in | :57:24. | :57:29. | |
agriculture? I agree with Paul in that I think we | :57:29. | :57:33. | |
should be keeping the ad also wages fall. My concern is that if it is | :57:33. | :57:38. | |
abolished, wages could come down. The board is more than just wages, | :57:38. | :57:42. | |
excess conditions and sick pay. There is a whole raft of issues | :57:42. | :57:46. | |
involved in that. If we abolish the board, those could threat. | :57:47. | :57:54. | |
Is there a problem here that British workers don't want farmers? If we | :57:54. | :57:57. | |
are talking about if it is an option of going out and working in a field | :57:57. | :58:02. | |
or staying at how my benefits, there is a sense that Eastern Europeans | :58:02. | :58:04. | |
don't mind. There is an element of truth in | :58:04. | :58:09. | |
that. There are experienced agricultural workers who come in | :58:09. | :58:12. | |
from Eastern Europe because they have skills which are useful to | :58:12. | :58:15. | |
farmers and people running agricultural business. I do not | :58:15. | :58:19. | |
think that is a bad thing and I am not opposed to immigration. I think | :58:19. | :58:23. | |
we also have to think about job creation. If we want to create more | :58:23. | :58:27. | |
jobs in this sector of the economy, it seems to me to be fair that the | :58:27. | :58:30. | |
market should set the level of wages as it does in every other sector of | :58:30. | :58:37. | |
the economy. People be protected is a good thing. I don't think we need | :58:37. | :58:40. | |
additional controls in this industry. | :58:41. | :58:46. | |
Let's go back to poll for a second. James there be saying this is about | :58:46. | :58:51. | |
more than just pay. This is quite old-fashioned language, isn't it? It | :58:51. | :58:57. | |
says you are entitled to a bed and freshwater. It covers sick pay as | :58:57. | :59:00. | |
well. I'd eat the things you care about, or is it just the pain that | :59:00. | :59:04. | |
matters? The accommodation or is there | :59:04. | :59:08. | |
because there are awful stories of people being offered rotted caravans | :59:08. | :59:12. | |
with no water and no sewage disposal, so that it is therefore a | :59:12. | :59:19. | |
purpose. The abolition of sick pay worries me. Falling back on | :59:19. | :59:22. | |
statutory sick pay meaning that people come back to work where they | :59:22. | :59:27. | |
are not quite ready to do so. Why should we worry about that? Well, | :59:27. | :59:32. | |
because a quarter of death at work are in farming. | :59:32. | :59:38. | |
Then he very much for joining us. It is time for a round-up of the week | :59:38. | :59:48. | |
:59:48. | :59:48. | ||
's other political events in 60 seconds. | :59:48. | :59:52. | |
Geraniums lead to Championship will be marked with a victory parade. The | :59:52. | :59:56. | |
chairman turned down the councils for our open top bus tour through | :59:56. | :59:59. | |
the time. We are very grateful to the Council | :59:59. | :00:03. | |
for the offer, but it just will not happen because it doesn't work with | :00:03. | :00:09. | |
the schedule, but we will see the bus for next year. | :00:09. | :00:13. | |
Dover MP has criticised Google boss Eric Schmidt after was revealed that | :00:13. | :00:19. | |
Google only paying 0.2% corporation tax on profits in 2011. He said that | :00:19. | :00:24. | |
tax avoidance is an ethical and Google must pay a fair share. | :00:24. | :00:29. | |
Brighton and Sussex NHS Trust has been named the worst in England for | :00:29. | :00:33. | |
the number of patients waiting more than 12 hours to be admitted for | :00:33. | :00:35. | |
Accident and Emergency, with 52 waves of 12 hours of recorded since | :00:35. | :00:44. | |
January. And Orlando Bloom has backed a local | :00:44. | :00:51. | |
towns -- ten 's bid to become a centre of culture. He set the town | :00:51. | :00:59. | |
versus fighting to become an actor. Let's pick up, what is going on in | :00:59. | :01:02. | |
Accident and Emergency departments? We had a Secretary of State this | :01:02. | :01:07. | |
week saying it was all about out of hours GPs. They either of you have a | :01:07. | :01:12. | |
sense of the story? I think one of the biggest mistake | :01:12. | :01:18. | |
is the last Government made was to change the GP contract and has | :01:18. | :01:22. | |
created a national crisis whether or not GPs on call for people who need | :01:22. | :01:26. | |
them out of hours. James, what do you think the problem | :01:26. | :01:33. | |
I agree with him honest. In years gone past, we should have been | :01:33. | :01:37. | |
focusing on frontline services such as a key. That did not happen under | :01:37. | :01:41. | |
the last Government and now we are paying. | :01:41. | :01:48. | |
Category. He worked there. Your life is centred. We heard Orlando Bloom | :01:48. | :01:51. | |
being wheeled out there to back it as an uppercut city of culture or | :01:51. | :02:01. | |
:02:01. | :02:05. | ||
cat. -- and there to market as an uppercut city of culture. | :02:06. | :02:15. | |
:02:16. | :02:16. | ||
Category is fantastic! Category is my hometown. I represent | :02:16. | :02:19. |