Browse content similar to 21/04/2013. Check below for episodes and series from the same categories and more!
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on the rise was up 35 on the Isle of Wight alone. Are we falling out of | :01:19. | :01:22. | |
love with the party machine? Without that machine, could you get anything | :01:23. | :01:32. | |
:01:33. | :01:33. | ||
Apology for the loss of subtitles for 2070 seconds | :01:33. | :36:03. | |
name's Peter Henley. On today's programme: ? The Isle of Wight has | :36:03. | :36:05. | |
35 independents standing for 40 seats. | :36:05. | :36:08. | |
All over the South, more people are going it alone and shunning the | :36:08. | :36:11. | |
established parties. Have we really fallen out of love with the | :36:11. | :36:18. | |
political mainstream? More on that shortly. First, let's meet to | :36:18. | :36:22. | |
politicians who will be with me for the next 20 minutes was up Layla | :36:22. | :36:28. | |
Moran is the Parliamentary candidate for Oxford West and Abingdon. Alok | :36:28. | :36:35. | |
Sharma is the MP for Reading West. Have you got a conservatory on your | :36:35. | :36:45. | |
:36:45. | :36:47. | ||
house quest you Mark? I do, yes.Do you have planning permission? | :36:47. | :36:55. | |
is Labour Party hypocrisy. It was the Labour Party that introduced | :36:55. | :36:58. | |
permitted developments so that it was not just roof extensions but | :36:58. | :37:08. | |
rear extension six well. We have to be clear that we are talking about | :37:08. | :37:11. | |
small excesses. You try to stop small ventures that were | :37:11. | :37:15. | |
inappropriate. What is going on? Secretary of State has said very | :37:15. | :37:18. | |
clearly that he is cleared to build a broad consensus and there will be | :37:18. | :37:22. | |
some more odysseys coming out very shortly and C but that comes up | :37:22. | :37:26. | |
with. The key point to make here is that people have said that somehow | :37:26. | :37:30. | |
this is having a go at localism and all that was the pit is about having | :37:30. | :37:34. | |
local people have a chance to build small extensions but councils still | :37:34. | :37:38. | |
have an opportunity to turn down permitted development rights under | :37:38. | :37:44. | |
section four. It is not a free for all. People also have to abide by | :37:44. | :37:49. | |
building regulations abide by the right to light. A whole bunch of | :37:49. | :37:54. | |
regulations will stop it is not a free for all. I'm a little concerned | :37:54. | :37:58. | |
by it all. It is a recipe for getting neighbours to fight with | :37:58. | :38:02. | |
each other. We have local democracy for a reason. My view is it should | :38:02. | :38:07. | |
be left to local government to decide how best to fulfil these | :38:07. | :38:13. | |
policies will stop. Surely it will create some demand in the local | :38:13. | :38:19. | |
economy? But the source policies don't usually have long-term | :38:19. | :38:26. | |
results. The Secretary of State's has said he wants a broad consensus. | :38:26. | :38:29. | |
Before any judgements, let's see what he comes up with. This is about | :38:29. | :38:33. | |
to stimulate in jobs and the local economy and work for small companies | :38:33. | :38:36. | |
and builders was up that is something we should welcome. The you | :38:36. | :38:40. | |
think that will happen? Supporting local businesses is something the | :38:40. | :38:44. | |
liberal Democrats like to do but in the context of making sure it is | :38:44. | :38:52. | |
good for everyone in the local community. Would I worry about is it | :38:52. | :38:59. | |
will be taken out of the hands of the local government. The funeral of | :38:59. | :39:02. | |
Margaret Thatcher this week certainly caused plenty of heated | :39:02. | :39:06. | |
debate will stop part of it being about Conservative proposals to name | :39:06. | :39:11. | |
a new non-residential Street in Portsmouth after her. The city has a | :39:11. | :39:15. | |
bit of form in commemorating former premises was up their streets named | :39:15. | :39:18. | |
after Jim Callaghan, Clement Attlee, Winston Churchill and even Lord | :39:18. | :39:21. | |
North if you can remember as far back as 18th century. The modern | :39:21. | :39:29. | |
plan hasn't gone down quite so well. You were saying that you thought it | :39:29. | :39:34. | |
was too soon to do this? That was my initial reaction when I heard that | :39:34. | :39:38. | |
the proposal had been put forward. The proposal was made before the | :39:38. | :39:46. | |
funeral had taken place. How long that you wait? You have quoted the | :39:47. | :39:50. | |
other streets we have named, Bowser been established. Jim Callaghan had | :39:50. | :39:54. | |
been out of office for a long time. Certainly a long time after Winston | :39:54. | :39:58. | |
Churchill and Clement Attlee. That was certainly my initial reaction | :39:58. | :40:06. | |
but reflecting upon it, I felt that it was unlikely to have the backing | :40:06. | :40:13. | |
of the community. A bit like the minute silence at the football? | :40:13. | :40:16. | |
have seen how polarised people are in terms of Margaret Thatcher, in | :40:16. | :40:22. | |
terms of her legacy. I think it would be a focal point for that type | :40:22. | :40:26. | |
of protest and highlighting how divisive Margaret Thatcher was seen | :40:26. | :40:34. | |
as. A connection with Portsmouth, with the Falklands, is something | :40:34. | :40:39. | |
that the city should be proud of? reflected upon that and when you | :40:39. | :40:42. | |
reflect on Margaret Thatcher's link with Portsmouth, she was not born in | :40:42. | :40:46. | |
Portsmouth, there was the fleet for the Falklands was prepared in | :40:46. | :40:56. | |
:40:56. | :41:02. | ||
Falklands. I was part of the defence review, just before I took up the | :41:02. | :41:08. | |
work in the dockyard. The reality is that Margaret Thatcher's government | :41:08. | :41:13. | |
was running down Portsmouth dockyard and had the Argentinians invaded the | :41:13. | :41:18. | |
Falklands a year later, who knows what had happened? They would not | :41:18. | :41:21. | |
have been the workers in the dockyard to prepare the fleet. There | :41:21. | :41:24. | |
is a rewriting of history going on in terms of Margaret Thatcher's | :41:24. | :41:30. | |
connection with Portsmouth and what she has done. And so you thought the | :41:30. | :41:33. | |
suggestion from the Conservative candidate would have been part of | :41:33. | :41:42. | |
it. I suppose you think they should be no U-turn is. Has there been a | :41:42. | :41:48. | |
rewriting of history? Look, firstly it has not happened. The Liberal | :41:48. | :41:52. | |
Democrats are not in favour of this will stop let's remember that they | :41:52. | :41:57. | |
have some say on the council. We must remember that she does not have | :41:57. | :42:02. | |
a real link to Portsmouth. Callaghan was born here. Churchill had the key | :42:02. | :42:08. | |
to the city, is that right? There are good reasons why they did that. | :42:08. | :42:10. | |
Clannad Attlee had a street named after him because the Labour | :42:10. | :42:14. | |
government was naming streets after him all over the country. We could | :42:14. | :42:17. | |
not have done much about that. If that came before the council now, we | :42:17. | :42:24. | |
would have been against it. It is not appropriate for here. Grantham, | :42:24. | :42:31. | |
Vinci, sure. Portsmouth, why? do is pick up on the point of | :42:31. | :42:34. | |
rewriting history? I was relatively young when Margaret Thatcher came to | :42:34. | :42:39. | |
power but I remember how disastrous it was in cells of this country at | :42:39. | :42:44. | |
the time. We were referred to as the sick man of Europe. Whatever people | :42:44. | :42:49. | |
say, she restored British competitiveness and our pride. There | :42:49. | :42:54. | |
will be people who have differing views about Margaret Thatcher. They | :42:54. | :42:59. | |
can all agree that she was a trans formation or leader. It is more than | :43:00. | :43:05. | |
that. It is about recognising someone who made a huge con to be | :43:05. | :43:11. | |
seen to Britain. I was at the funeral service in Saint Pauls and | :43:11. | :43:18. | |
it was very moving. You will know that as the Coffin was taken out of | :43:18. | :43:20. | |
the cathedral, there were spontaneous applause was stop there | :43:20. | :43:27. | |
was recognition of the fact that he was someone who was greatly admired. | :43:27. | :43:37. | |
:43:37. | :43:38. | ||
-- here was someone who was greatly admired. EU not think there has been | :43:38. | :43:45. | |
a rewriting of history? Lots of people have been commenting who were | :43:45. | :43:50. | |
not even born during the Margaret Thatcher era. That is unfortunate. | :43:50. | :43:54. | |
But as someone who lived through it, we were in a very bad place as a | :43:54. | :43:58. | |
country. We had to go to the IMF, cap in hand. The Labour Aardman | :43:58. | :44:01. | |
tabloid this country to its knees was that is something that Margaret | :44:01. | :44:11. | |
:44:11. | :44:12. | ||
changed. We should be grateful for that. There were a lot of people who | :44:12. | :44:17. | |
actually very upset by the fact we were spending millions of public | :44:17. | :44:26. | |
money who was hugely divisive. Other prime ministers had not had the same | :44:26. | :44:30. | |
treatment. If you watching her cortege as it made its way through | :44:30. | :44:37. | |
London, people were applauding. You are doing a great disservice to the | :44:37. | :44:39. | |
memory of someone who made a huge contributing to Britain. John | :44:39. | :44:45. | |
Ferrett, just quickly. The Labour Party has not led criticism in this | :44:45. | :44:51. | |
situation. Was that the right idea? We are seeing the polarisation that | :44:51. | :44:56. | |
Margaret Thatcher has caused. Polarisation, discussion? There is | :44:56. | :45:00. | |
interest in politics and history. She got me interested in politics. | :45:00. | :45:04. | |
Without her, I might not been a union wrap and I might not have been | :45:04. | :45:09. | |
a politician. We have seen the polarisation. On the left, over the | :45:09. | :45:11. | |
last two weeks, we have seen Margaret Thatcher blamed for | :45:11. | :45:14. | |
everything that has gone wrong over the last 30 years will stop on the | :45:14. | :45:19. | |
right, we have seen her held up as an omnipotent figure that invented | :45:19. | :45:29. | |
:45:29. | :45:29. | ||
Mr whippy ice cream. I must have missed that one! Let's move on. None | :45:29. | :45:32. | |
of us wants a politician who is a slave to the party machine. I'm sure | :45:32. | :45:40. | |
none of our guests today fit that bill. If they do go alone, will they | :45:40. | :45:44. | |
be able to go it alone? We have been looking at the rise of the | :45:44. | :45:54. | |
:45:54. | :45:57. | ||
independent candidate in next months local elections. Party politics is | :45:57. | :46:01. | |
simple. Someone somewhere has a bright idea was that Labour, Liberal | :46:01. | :46:06. | |
Democrat, Conservative, put it to a vote, Bolger uncle. Imagine if | :46:06. | :46:13. | |
County Hall was full of independent councillors. What would it be like? | :46:13. | :46:20. | |
Would it be a bit like, well, herding ducks? Come on, lads. Over | :46:20. | :46:28. | |
here! Altogether now. May the 2nd is Independence Day here in the south, | :46:28. | :46:38. | |
:46:38. | :46:39. | ||
with scores of independents standing in the local elections. These areas | :46:39. | :46:47. | |
see a good and councillors. In treasure, there will be nine. In | :46:47. | :46:50. | |
Wiltshire, 28 independents have put their names forward. Voters in | :46:50. | :46:56. | |
Dorset will have the chance to elect ten. Leading the way is England's | :46:56. | :46:59. | |
smallest county, the Isle of Wight sees a grand total of 35 | :46:59. | :47:09. | |
independents. So what is going on? What we are seeing is the beginning | :47:09. | :47:14. | |
of a revival of independents standing in elections. There are far | :47:14. | :47:19. | |
more of them standing then there were a few decades ago. In a way, | :47:19. | :47:24. | |
what independents do is bring a lot of issues, a lot of concerns, a lot | :47:24. | :47:27. | |
of matters that the parties have been neglecting to the fore and then | :47:27. | :47:31. | |
it is down to the parties to think about responding and taking up | :47:31. | :47:35. | |
positions. Even if an independent doesn't win the election, they can | :47:35. | :47:40. | |
affect what happens in their area to a significant degree by making the | :47:40. | :47:45. | |
parties pay attention to the issues that they are raising. The Isle of | :47:45. | :47:48. | |
Wight by be the smallest county but it has the most independent | :47:48. | :47:52. | |
candidates standing in this election. What do local people make | :47:52. | :47:58. | |
of it all? It can be a good thing. Our hats we are fed up with the same | :47:58. | :48:00. | |
old faces that aren't doing anything. The little chap that | :48:00. | :48:07. | |
called at my home yesterday, he is independent and had several things | :48:07. | :48:11. | |
on his list that I would vote for. So I think I might give him hit my | :48:11. | :48:16. | |
vote, make a change was up it is not what you know but it is who you | :48:17. | :48:21. | |
know. If you go independent, you've had best know a view people. Being | :48:21. | :48:27. | |
the right circles. The more variety you get, the better. But you have to | :48:27. | :48:31. | |
have true independence. They will always have a leaning to the left or | :48:31. | :48:36. | |
a leaning to the right. I find true independence would be difficult to | :48:36. | :48:42. | |
get. Independents to me was important. I did not want to be tied | :48:42. | :48:47. | |
or type of the political brush. Charles Hancock was the independent | :48:47. | :48:53. | |
counsel in East Cowes. I have been in council chambers where other | :48:53. | :48:56. | |
political party members had been frustrated because they were gagged. | :48:56. | :49:01. | |
They are not allowed to speak out against policy and party line. | :49:01. | :49:09. | |
you get anything done is every one is a free spirit? If you put a | :49:09. | :49:13. | |
number of free spirits together, you get a team working for the benefit | :49:13. | :49:21. | |
of the local communities overall. That has got to be better. Come on, | :49:21. | :49:27. | |
lads. If we are going to make a breakthrough, we need to work | :49:27. | :49:37. | |
:49:37. | :49:37. | ||
together. Just listen! It is the future! Follow me! I have been to a | :49:37. | :49:41. | |
few council meetings like that one! Very noticeable, the number of | :49:42. | :49:45. | |
independents but also the number of UKIP candidates, hugely up. We have | :49:45. | :49:49. | |
Diane James, a candidate for UKIP from the Eastleigh by-election | :49:49. | :49:53. | |
joining us. You were an independent and now you have a UKIP group with | :49:53. | :49:59. | |
defections from the Conservative ranks. Does it feel better to be | :49:59. | :50:03. | |
part of a group? Clearly it does but the comment was made in your footage | :50:03. | :50:08. | |
just then that the issue is that has brought the three UKIP people | :50:08. | :50:14. | |
together, myself and the other two Conservatives is this complete | :50:14. | :50:19. | |
borrowers of the party whip. And having been a independent for a long | :50:19. | :50:22. | |
time on Waverley Council and being part of an independent group, I have | :50:22. | :50:26. | |
seen many examples of how that can work against localism, a good local | :50:26. | :50:36. | |
decision-making and so on. It works of the detriment of voters. We are | :50:36. | :50:41. | |
very clear that the whip should not be employed. For the defectors from | :50:42. | :50:45. | |
the Conservative party, that was the attraction to join me. We have to | :50:45. | :50:49. | |
know what you are standing for. In these local elections, UKIP, we know | :50:49. | :50:52. | |
about the EU, we know about immigration. Do people know what | :50:52. | :50:59. | |
they would get from a UKIP councillor? First of all, we have | :50:59. | :51:02. | |
launched a national manifesto. Everyone can look at on the website. | :51:02. | :51:07. | |
Each of the constituencies have been able to take that major manifesto | :51:07. | :51:12. | |
and translate it into one which is applicable for them locally. If you | :51:12. | :51:17. | |
don't mind, I'd like to go back to the EEC experience and just say that | :51:17. | :51:20. | |
the accusation was made that we were just a single issue party out of the | :51:21. | :51:26. | |
EU. What was coming through clearly in Eastleigh was that the vast | :51:26. | :51:28. | |
majority of people could see that the root cause of the problems that | :51:28. | :51:32. | |
they were seeing and experience in on a daily basis was from the EU | :51:32. | :51:36. | |
membership. For them, that translation has been made and that | :51:36. | :51:43. | |
translation has been made across the country. So still EU at the top. It | :51:43. | :51:49. | |
is a fresh start, against tired parties like yours. When you are | :51:49. | :51:58. | |
single issue, it is easy to maintain the whip. When you have a wide set | :51:58. | :52:00. | |
of constituencies across the country, like the liberal Democrats | :52:00. | :52:07. | |
do, you have to balance. All things to all people? You have to listen | :52:07. | :52:11. | |
and then act. Within a family, there might be discussions between the | :52:11. | :52:20. | |
parents but the direction of travel has to be decided. What I will say, | :52:20. | :52:24. | |
I understand what Diane is saying, but you can still be able single | :52:24. | :52:26. | |
issue party and they don't have very many councillors, they are not a | :52:26. | :52:31. | |
party of local government. That might change after these elections! | :52:31. | :52:37. | |
What I would say to anyone who wants efficient services, is vote | :52:37. | :52:45. | |
Conservative. Weiss and they bowed UKIP to keep those things? From a | :52:45. | :52:49. | |
local perspective, they are very much single issue. If you look at | :52:49. | :52:53. | |
what the Conservatives believe in comic David Cameron has clearly said | :52:53. | :52:56. | |
that after the general election, if we win, we will have a referendum on | :52:56. | :53:02. | |
Europe. That is not something that UKIP is going to be able to | :53:02. | :53:06. | |
deliver, not even Nigel Farage is suggesting that UKIP is done to be | :53:06. | :53:12. | |
running the country in 2015. We're talking about local councils. | :53:12. | :53:19. | |
finish the point. Immigration is down by a third. We're getting to | :53:19. | :53:21. | |
sustainable levels of immigration. If they want a referendum in Europe, | :53:21. | :53:29. | |
they want sustainable... It should be about local issues. Why aren't | :53:29. | :53:33. | |
Labour not providing the sort of opposition, particularly on local | :53:33. | :53:41. | |
issues, that people are turning to UKIP for? These are not natural | :53:41. | :53:47. | |
Labour territories, Labour seats. You have them written off? | :53:47. | :53:53. | |
haven't got elections in Portsmouth and Southampton. These are county | :53:53. | :53:55. | |
elections. We are working hard to try and get every Labour voter out | :53:55. | :53:59. | |
we can, just as we did in Eastleigh. We saw that it was a very tough call | :53:59. | :54:05. | |
in Eastleigh to get voters out. On the UKIP point, I listened to Nigel | :54:05. | :54:09. | |
Farage talking about building the UKIP brand. Doesn't want to talk | :54:09. | :54:12. | |
about UKIP policies because they don't have policies except for | :54:12. | :54:19. | |
immigration. It is a fresh start!If you're talking about local elections | :54:19. | :54:21. | |
at a national elections, you are talking about the need to have | :54:21. | :54:25. | |
credible policies. They need to have edible policies locally, in | :54:25. | :54:29. | |
Portsmouth, we are looking at �17 million worth of cuts this year. We | :54:29. | :54:33. | |
have a Lib Dem council. I understand, those cuts have to be | :54:33. | :54:37. | |
made because the cuts we are getting for central government will stop | :54:37. | :54:42. | |
what is UKIP's position on cuts. cannot just say will get money back | :54:42. | :54:46. | |
from Europe, because that might happen. The key issue and we have | :54:46. | :54:49. | |
this is our top priority in our local manifesto, and I didn't raise | :54:49. | :54:53. | |
immigration, by the way, is this issue of the local referendum. If I | :54:53. | :54:59. | |
present of the voters in a given constituency, county council or city | :54:59. | :55:02. | |
council or whatever, were to put their lead to a petition, they can | :55:02. | :55:05. | |
then ask for a review of that particular decision. For instance, | :55:05. | :55:15. | |
:55:15. | :55:18. | ||
if they don't want building on Green out... What if you don't get control | :55:18. | :55:20. | |
of the Council? This could be embarrassing after putting up Sony | :55:20. | :55:25. | |
candidates. I think we will do well. We have 40 defections, if I | :55:25. | :55:31. | |
remember, in place already. If we lose a few of those, fair enough. | :55:31. | :55:35. | |
Our target is more than that but I won't give you an exact number. What | :55:35. | :55:40. | |
I did is more likely is we will have two or three UKIP councillors on | :55:40. | :55:45. | |
probably every single Council across the country. That will give us the | :55:45. | :55:48. | |
balance of control. That is a very important position to be in, having | :55:48. | :55:53. | |
been there before. In they would be independence. I just want a comeback | :55:53. | :56:03. | |
on the point of Labour's expectations will stop in 2009, they | :56:03. | :56:08. | |
were on 31% in the opinion polls. They need to demonstrate they can | :56:08. | :56:12. | |
reach across the country. We have a couple of target set. Let's see how | :56:12. | :56:16. | |
we go. Now a round-up in 62 seconds. This time, it is about | :56:16. | :56:26. | |
:56:26. | :56:28. | ||
bridging the divide. -- 60 seconds. The funeral of Margaret Thatcher | :56:28. | :56:30. | |
dominated the week. Little common ground between those travelling up | :56:30. | :56:35. | |
from the south. I was very moved, been part of the crowd. It was a | :56:35. | :56:39. | |
sombre experience. Margaret Thatcher divided the country, she still does | :56:39. | :56:44. | |
today. In Reading, they are to build bridges, a pedestrian 18 least | :56:44. | :56:51. | |
between two crossings. In Dorset, Paul councils has been defending the | :56:51. | :56:56. | |
closure of the twins sales closing bridge. The old one may have the | :56:56. | :56:59. | |
committees. In Bournemouth, they using an old bridge for a new use. | :56:59. | :57:04. | |
The new extensive sign is controversial. A bridge is one of | :57:04. | :57:10. | |
the few things not stolen from Army bases on Salisbury plain. MP John | :57:10. | :57:16. | |
Glenn slammed a cut in MOD police. Therapists be no military police on | :57:16. | :57:21. | |
Salisbury plain. Meanwhile, South London and Reading universities are | :57:21. | :57:31. | |
:57:31. | :57:31. | ||
spending to Asia to meet the growing demand for education. It seems to be | :57:31. | :57:35. | |
whether money is for university education, eating student in from | :57:35. | :57:42. | |
abroad. Is that a good thing? voice believed that immigration and | :57:42. | :57:46. | |
people coming in at making sure that they are contributing to this | :57:46. | :57:50. | |
economy is very much a good thing. And going to universities it is a | :57:50. | :57:57. | |
start? We charge quite a large amount of these. That does country | :57:57. | :58:02. | |
to the economy and they then get jobs, if they can, here. | :58:02. | :58:07. | |
Unfortunately, current Conservative immigration policy is stopping them | :58:07. | :58:11. | |
from coming. It is a coalition government. Can I come back on a | :58:11. | :58:15. | |
point, education is a world-class sector forums. People want a British | :58:15. | :58:19. | |
education. It is a people coming here, there are no limits on numbers | :58:19. | :58:23. | |
of students, since they satisfy criteria in terms of convocation is | :58:24. | :58:31. | |
in image and so on. We are running at of time. I was in Indonesia and | :58:31. | :58:37. |