03/03/2013 Sunday Politics South

In the South: After all the national attention, the visits from

big beasts and the tons of leaflets through letterboxes, just what did

Apology for the loss of subtitles for 2199 seconds

the Eastleigh by election do for Welcome to Sunday Politics South,

my name's Peter Henley. So, the voters of Eastleigh have had their

say, all those politicians who trekked down have headed back to

the big city, and householders are clearing up the tons of leaflets

that were squeezed through their doors. But just where does it leave

the four main parties here in the south? Joining me today are the

Conservative MP for Bournemouth West, Conor Burns: the Labour MP

for Southampton Test, Alan Whitehead; and the Lib Dem leader

of Eastleigh Borough Council, Keith An architect of the Lib Dem victory

some might say. We had expected Nigel Farage. -- We had expected

Nigel Farage from UKIP, but sadly the lure of the bright lights in

London proved too great and he's been up there doing interviews this

morning. We'll be hearing from the three who are here in a minute -

first here's Roger Finn with the highlights of Thursday night. What

do you pick it down to? Everybody, this lot, all of them. I alongside

the Lib Dem jury this was also an extraordinary night for Plaid Cymru.

They attracted up to half of the party's votes in some areas. --

UKIP. It was a well-oiled political machine. Labour took consolation in

increasing their share of the vote slightly. Do actually get boards we

have to be organised on the ground, people have to see us in their

communities all-year-round. Dash -- votes. But the night belonged to

the Lib Dems. They have now won at Eastleigh six times in a row.

seats will take real heart in this result. There are probably 30 Tory

MPs quaking in their bids because we can take some of their seats.

UKIP votes rose dramatically. voted for UKIP, I want Britain back.

I voted for UKIP. I changed my vote this time. The result will be

analysed for many weeks more. Can I start with a strange thought that

actually East Leake tells us nothing, this is a basic protest

vote and the Lib Dem share of the vote and conservative vote felt.

course, by-elections are used as a protest. There is a suggestion that

83% of the UKIP boat was a protest bowled. We were here having did

take responsible decisions, running the council. So it is not such a

huge victory? That is not the case because under normal circumstances

you would have expected UKIP to win as they are the vehicle for protest.

The reason they were not able to do that was shown on your clip. We

have am very good team in Eastleigh built up over a number of years and

built on a solid record of delivery. We fought on local issues. There

were enough people out there in Eastleigh who said they thought we

were doing good work and to keep going with it. The votes did not go

to Labour, that must have been a failure? They did go to Labour but

Labour did not get squeezed in terms of its votes. If we had a

national election based on one third of Liberal Democrat votes

going and one-third of conservative votes going to Labour we would have

quite a different scene. They should have come swarming back to

you. Certainly the expectation that might have been there that a large

number of votes might have come to Labour went realised and that is

partly a function of organisation on the ground. Labour has not been

well organised in Eastleigh and trying to make that up over a few

weeks was a hard task. The Labour vote that there was stayed fairly

solid without an enormous advance. As bad as the UKIP boats, they came

from Conservatives and a few from the Lib Dems. It came from people

from all political parties. It came pretty evenly from Conservatives

and Liberal Democrats. Clearly there is a debate to be had because

we do not have an issue of immigration but clearly there is a

fear their in Eastleigh. The Labour campaign was built on the false

premise that there were 29 million Bulgarians about to fetch up on the

doorsteps of Eastleigh. Does it show that Lib Dems might be out of

touch with people's feelings on immigration? No, I think by-

elections are used as a protest opportunity. They want to go big

parties the taking. Normally we would see the benefit of that but

not this time. Generally speaking the protest party picks up the seat.

Generally speaking, where did the Conservative campaign go wrong?

the context of Chris Huhne I would make the points, the Liberal

Democrats have a very effective grassroots organisation. Focus

leaflets come through the door every three months regularly. The

other parties or may appear at election time. Their record on the

council is a strong one. The deliver services and keep a grip on

council tax. The Liberal Democrats have also been working with the

local cricket ground. I think lastly we have no organisation to

speak of on the ground in Eastleigh, that is a huge failure in our part.

Part of it ties to local Government leadership. The leader of the

council will celebrate 50 each year's service this year. His focus

has not been on rebuilding our organisation. Those things coming

together delivered the result. In the context of the weakness of our

organisation in the constituency it was a very good campaign but it

relied on bussing people in from outside to did not have the local

knowledge and connections that the grass roots embedded organisation

within a constituency would have had. The one lesson we need to take

away from this is that we cannot win elections purely on the

airwaves from Westminster, we have to win them on the ground in the

constituency. Particularly in the context of what is happening with

UKIP, the do identify with local concerns. This was a cost of living

election to some degree, food prices are going up, petrol and

utility prices are going up but incomes are at fixed or falling.

People are feeling the pinch. They want to know that the politicians

charged with the responsibility of Government get that. We have a huge

opportunity in the forthcoming Budget to show the people of

Eastleigh that we do get that and have a cost-of-living budget.

Ed Miliband if he wants a One nation party that fights in the

south he has to find a way of changing the way Labour is

organised? Yes. The question of organisation on the ground anywhere

in the country is becoming increasingly important in elections.

It is clear in the south of England that Labour, with the exception of

a number of important places, have not been well thought of in the

past. It is not just a question of the message you are putting a cross,

Jean Jean the message for this week or next week, it is a question of

being there over a period of time and making sure that message is

discussed, disseminated and people are brought along with it. Tough on

the side of immigration maybe? is one which featured to some

extent within the campaign. I have to say my experience of talking to

a lot of people on the doorstep in Eastleigh was actually that does

the you might have thought would have voted for UKIP on immigration

were actually doing so for a whole variety of reasons. It was not

quite the issue I thought it might be. Certainly the wider issue of

how you make sure that you have secured boundaries, that you are

actually making sure there are proper opportunities for those

people who are UK jobseeker's and workers along with other people,

things such as minimum wage agencies, making sure they recruit

everybody and not just people from certain parts of the world, those I

think our real issues that have to be discussed in a more robust way.

Both parties are moving on this and you are not? The underlying issue

that was spoken about was that party organisations need to be more

resilient and more embedded in the communities and talk to people

routinely. We had a great machine in Eastleigh. The question for UKIP

was the issues of Europe where you party want to just keep going.

was an opportunity for protest and UKIP were able to capitalise on

that. Our campaign was on housing and local issues, we will keep on

to those campaign issues because they are what matter to people on a

day to day and month to month basis. Hopefully our machines across the

other parts of the area will have been enlivened by the success we

have had in Eastleigh. That is that election dealt with! Now let's look

at another one. The Police And Crime Commissioners passed their

hundredth day in office this week. It's a completely arbitrary

benchmark of course - they've still got another three years in the job

- but it's also the week in which a survey showed that nine out of ten

people can't name their local PCC. So we sent our Home Affairs

Correspondent Alex Forsyth out to see what they've really achieved in

100 days. It was meant to be a big job for a big local personality to

be in charge of a police force and make local decisions and whom local

people could go to with their concerns about policing. After 100

days in the job how many people here in Hampshire know who their

Police And Crime Commissioner is. Do you recognise this guy? Um?

not sure who. I do but I cannot think too. I imagine someone like

the police commissioner. Excellent, spot on. He has been on the

television recently. Have not a clue who fears. Sorry. He is

Hampshire's Police And Crime Commissioner. Oh, right, OK, Hello!

He asked him whether he thinks the role has had any impact so far?

has only been 100 days. There is still a lot more to do. I hope the

people are beginning slowly to know what I can do and how I can work

with them in their communities and certainly where I have been, where

I have spoken, people have seen the benefit of it and are prepared to

be engaged with me and in my office. I am encouraged by that.

South's six commissioners have all approach the job differently. This

man has appointed paid deputies. This man has met around 3,000

people at public meetings and is setting up forums for the public.

This woman from Sussex has been to neighbourhood panels, hosted a live

Facebook chat and is an avid tweeter. But former police are

authority cheer, Jackie Raymond, who lost out in the Commissioner

elections wonders whether any amount of effort will engage the

public. I am trying to make a difference but I think the public

want to know that the police are doing what they need to do and they

are not really interested in the Government's am less it all goes

wrong. These 100 days have been a chance for commissioners to get to

grips with the job. They are now drawing up their police and crime

plans, setting out their priorities for the next five years, then they

will be expected to deliver. In Wiltshire the focus is on frontline

staff and giving victims are boys. The same, too, in Surrey. In the

Thames Valley rural crime and burglary are key. In Dorset and

Sussex they want to recruit more volunteer officers and tackle

domestic violence. That is a priority for this man, too, who

also wants to reduce reoffending and increase frontline police.

gave myself this financial year to get all that sorted out so that we

have a budget down to plan. And our working relationship with statutory

bodies and a complaint process in place. I want to have the ability

within my job is to respond to what is already a considerable public

interest. It is early days but that is the plan and it is on track.

were just talking around the table here and none of you have met you

police and crime commissioner within the first 100 days. There

were no Liberal Democrat elected, none from UKIP either but there

were quite a few independents. I guess that was a protest? We were

not a fan of this process because we're in the coalition and you have

to go along with something should do not like, that is what coalition

is about. I did vote for it, I was technically and member of the

Government at the time. But you regret it? I do not like the

concept of people elected on party political platforms having control

of policing. I felt that was an opportunity for some people to play

to the gallery. In Bournemouth the number one policing priority

according to many local people is cycling on the promenade. Other

people in the constituency would say drug problems and gangs. The

idea that the middle classes could dictate the priority of the

policing operational decisions I was very nervous about. A neighbour

not happy with the idea of power in one pair of hands. The same as the

idea of elected mayors all over the country. Police in authorities

where a collection of people taking decisions together. You clerk as

shown people do not know who the police commissioners are so there

is no more transparency in this system but at least in the old one

there were a collection of people and communities involved in

decision-making. My preference would be to return policing to the

control of local authorities from whence they came. People across the

place could represent the views of the whole community. Would you like

to see, if Labour got in, this to continue or to get rid of them?

that point it is a question of whether you disentangle as system

which at that point would have started to run. I was not a fan of

the process in the first place. I would have thought the priority of

getting rid of it would not be high after the next election but we

could point to a whole range of mistakes that were made in bringing

this system about. For example, during the election nobody knew who

the candidates were because there was no communication saying who

they were for the election. That was a money-saving exercise. Yes,

we had a 15% turnout and candidates who were universally not known to

anybody. That is translated into what we now know about police

commissioners. I knew and Hampshire knew that the previous chair of the

police authority was not much better than is likely to be the

case for a long time for the new police commissioner. I thought it

was a very strange idea to have an election in the middle of November,

to not give the candidates the opportunity to put out a mailshot

to explain what they wear, what they wanted to do and what the role

was. The Brocket in but did not back him with the resources that

might have given it a more flying start and it has had. Another

criticism of David Cameron? It is a criticism of David Cameron but if

you want a big change in the way policing is done and is held to

democratic accountability, you have the responsibility to pick the

resource behind that to make it a good start. That has not happened.

The bottom line is it is about operational services. The idea this

arrangement will make any difference to that whatsoever is

questionable. Thank you. Now our regular round-up of the political

week in the South in 60 seconds. More council tax decisions this

week. In pool the council came a cropper when people join de Lib

Dems to force a three's. Now the council says it has to find another

4 million end cash. And the farmers' markets are doing well

after the horse made crisis. It is all local. Born here, raised deer

and sold here. You could be getting your copy from criminals. And this

landfill site. Good news for Arctic -- for war veterans to to be

getting their medals this month. So the council tax there. Pool

People's Party, UKIP and keeping the council tax down. Some are

arguing that pool should take Eric Pickles No money. For the third

year in a row we're going for the council tax freeze. The leader in

Bournemouth is cutting spending so we will have a total freeze across

the whole thing. Do you think the three's you have had for some time

in Eastleigh help you? In Eastleigh we have taken the view that council

tax is inherently unfair which is why we have in real terms been

cutting it for the last 10 years. You support these and thing

services should not be cut? Defending services is very

important but local authorities as a whole and a very difficult

position. Taking the "pickles money" is very difficult indeed. We

are going to have no revenue bees because Government cuts of 28% over

four years for local Government services, money to local

authorities to back up their services, is a key factor. We

cannot make that up with council tax increases, local authorities

Adana impossible position. That's the Sunday Politics in the South,

thanks to my guests Alan Whitehead, Conor Burns and Keith House. Normal