Browse content similar to 12/05/2013. Check below for episodes and series from the same categories and more!
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today's programme, why can't a woman be more like a man and get involved | :32:44. | :32:48. | |
in local government? Three quarters of the people who contact local | :32:48. | :32:51. | |
councils are women but when you get into the chamber they are | :32:51. | :32:57. | |
outnumbered to two one. Let's me the two politicians who are with me. | :32:57. | :33:03. | |
Carolina Noakes got involved in politics and is still there. The | :33:03. | :33:07. | |
Conservative MP for Romsey and Southampton. John denim is a former | :33:07. | :33:11. | |
Cabinet Minister. Welcome to the programme. The Queen's Speech this | :33:11. | :33:17. | |
week. John, what would you pick out as telling? The government has lost | :33:17. | :33:22. | |
sense of direction. Two major announcements. One was on childcare | :33:22. | :33:26. | |
which fell apart. We did not have a build to sort out the banks and get | :33:26. | :33:30. | |
them lending. We did not have a Bill to guarantee jobs who were out of | :33:30. | :33:33. | |
work for a long time so they stop claiming benefits. We did not have a | :33:33. | :33:41. | |
Bill to use top employers abusing the minimum wage. There were key | :33:41. | :33:46. | |
things that should have been in the speech and were needed to get the | :33:46. | :33:49. | |
economy going. How many more years can we go on with the economy | :33:49. | :33:56. | |
flatlining with unemployment too high? I think I would say that one | :33:56. | :34:00. | |
of the most important things we saw from the Queen's Speech was the | :34:00. | :34:03. | |
announcement on crime and anti-social behaviour, and | :34:03. | :34:06. | |
immigration, and you only have to look at the results from elections | :34:06. | :34:16. | |
:34:16. | :34:18. | ||
to see that these results are important. People who are not | :34:18. | :34:24. | |
entitled to use the NHS should not use it. This is a Queens speech that | :34:24. | :34:28. | |
was made on the back of an envelope. There was nothing in there to deal | :34:28. | :34:32. | |
with real issues get the economy going. There was nothing on mansion | :34:32. | :34:42. | |
tax. Was it a thin legislative programme? You i think the economy | :34:42. | :34:47. | |
is the make or break but I don't think it was then. I know later we | :34:47. | :34:52. | |
will be talking about HS2 and that is unimportant and big project. The | :34:52. | :34:57. | |
government is getting on with a focus on the economy and making sure | :34:57. | :35:01. | |
we cut tax for the lowest paid and they have made massive strides on | :35:01. | :35:07. | |
immigration but want to do more. pills got a mention in the Queens | :35:07. | :35:15. | |
speech. Two of them were to do with High Speed Two. As well as the | :35:15. | :35:20. | |
high-speed rail ale, the government has announced a preparation Bill so | :35:20. | :35:24. | |
they can spend money ahead of the next election. Opponents of the | :35:24. | :35:29. | |
project say it is disregarding due process and it is trying to give a | :35:29. | :35:32. | |
future government the excuse of saying High Speed Two cannot be | :35:32. | :35:39. | |
cancelled because so much has been spent on it. Joining me now is | :35:39. | :35:41. | |
Martin, leader of Buckinghamshire county council. He opposes High | :35:41. | :35:47. | |
Speed Two. No surprise, in the end, that there was this preparation | :35:47. | :35:53. | |
Bill, but do you think there is something sneaky going on here? | :35:53. | :36:01. | |
morning. Yes, I think the Bills were leaked in advance by the government | :36:01. | :36:08. | |
and what we have here is a cabinet trying to give the impression of | :36:08. | :36:12. | |
momentum of this project, when the reality is that it is over budget | :36:12. | :36:18. | |
and well behind schedule. They say they are cracking on and it has | :36:18. | :36:23. | |
cross-party support so why wait? Certainly, within government, it | :36:23. | :36:29. | |
has. There is a lot of opposition to this and the business case has | :36:29. | :36:34. | |
fallen apart. It is poor value for tax payers money. It is at a time | :36:34. | :36:39. | |
when we should be investing in high-value projects and not waiting | :36:39. | :36:44. | |
until 2033. I doubt there is a constituency in the whole country | :36:44. | :36:50. | |
that does not have roads that need repairing. This is where we should | :36:50. | :36:56. | |
be putting our money rather than the big white elephant. You talk about | :36:56. | :37:01. | |
costs and the indication is that it has gone past the billion. Is that | :37:01. | :37:04. | |
the latest big? They will be spending up to a billion, I would | :37:04. | :37:10. | |
guess. This is even before an inch of track has been laid. This is | :37:10. | :37:14. | |
going into PR companies to try and sell the project. This is not the | :37:14. | :37:20. | |
way money should be spent. Is there a sense that getting the preparation | :37:20. | :37:27. | |
Bill through means they are tying the hands of a future government? | :37:27. | :37:29. | |
am not sure about a future government because there is | :37:29. | :37:34. | |
cross-party support but I think what they are doing for the country as a | :37:34. | :37:41. | |
whole is giving the impression of momentum and the fact that they | :37:41. | :37:46. | |
cannot go back on this. The reality is that there are better | :37:46. | :37:49. | |
alternatives to kick-start the economy when we really do need jobs | :37:49. | :37:56. | |
and growth, rather than investing in this project. Let's bring in our | :37:56. | :38:06. | |
:38:06. | :38:09. | ||
guests. It does feel, John, that this has cross-party support but | :38:09. | :38:19. | |
:38:19. | :38:20. | ||
people are still opposed to it. us look at the underlying problem... | :38:20. | :38:26. | |
They are not convinced! We are quite incapable of taking any long-term | :38:26. | :38:30. | |
decisions and sticking to them. No decision on Heathrow or nuclear | :38:30. | :38:37. | |
power. No decision on wind power or transport. One of the things holding | :38:37. | :38:44. | |
this country back is the inability to get together and say there are a | :38:44. | :38:50. | |
few big things we need to do. We need to sort out our rail system, | :38:50. | :38:55. | |
our transport system more generally, our energy supply. Agree them, do | :38:55. | :38:59. | |
them and say what ever happens at the next election, these things will | :38:59. | :39:04. | |
go ahead. If we don't we will never bring the strength to the country. | :39:04. | :39:13. | |
It does look like hesitancy. It needs a preparation Bill, surely? | :39:13. | :39:18. | |
think it looks like the opposite. The government stated clearly that | :39:18. | :39:21. | |
they want to crack on and laid the groundwork, and they are committed | :39:21. | :39:29. | |
to a project which, although there are environmental impacts north of | :39:29. | :39:33. | |
here, in the south it has the potential to free up capacity on the | :39:34. | :39:39. | |
existing rail work and put more freight on the railways. They sound | :39:39. | :39:46. | |
like arguments in favour was you've just lost the argument? It was | :39:46. | :39:50. | |
interesting listening to John. I said the complete opposite. I think | :39:50. | :39:54. | |
we should be cracking on with infrastructure investment now and | :39:54. | :40:00. | |
not wait until 2033. We have so much rail investment we can make on | :40:00. | :40:07. | |
existing lines and how many roads in this country are breaking up? We | :40:07. | :40:12. | |
have infrastructure that needs putting down. It is not sexy or | :40:12. | :40:17. | |
glamorous and we won't have Nick Clegg cutting a ribbon, but it is | :40:17. | :40:23. | |
the nitty-gritty keeping the economy going. You need investment now and | :40:23. | :40:31. | |
you need investment in housing which is a good way to boost the economy. | :40:31. | :40:36. | |
I don't agree with Martin that you need to fix the potholes now or the | :40:36. | :40:42. | |
railways in the future. If we can't say that we need to manage in | :40:42. | :40:51. | |
difficult circumstances today, but there big projects ahead, then we | :40:51. | :40:57. | |
will be losers. John, you know the answer is you can't spend the same | :40:57. | :41:01. | |
money twice. You can't have your cake and eat it. You can't have the | :41:01. | :41:07. | |
potholes, the roads upgraded and High Speed Two. This country is in a | :41:07. | :41:13. | |
financial mess, it has limited amounts of money and if you are | :41:13. | :41:17. | |
going to be spending it on High Speed Two, which as a dire business | :41:17. | :41:23. | |
case, you are not spending it on existing infrastructure. You can do | :41:23. | :41:29. | |
both. You can't spend the same money twice. Thank you very much. I think | :41:29. | :41:33. | |
it is clear there is still a big argument. The dust is starting to | :41:33. | :41:38. | |
settle on last weeks local elections and we have seen some changes in the | :41:38. | :41:46. | |
make-up of our town halls. One thing that hasn't changed is that there | :41:46. | :41:55. | |
are far fewer women in politics. But how do we solve it? A survey | :41:55. | :41:59. | |
suggests that 75% of all phone calls made to councils are made by women. | :41:59. | :42:06. | |
It is women who pay the council tax. It is women who get things | :42:06. | :42:13. | |
done. There is no question that women engage with what councils have | :42:13. | :42:19. | |
two offer but it is a different story when it comes to the politics. | :42:19. | :42:29. | |
In our council chambers the fairer sex are outnumbered to 21 by men. In | :42:29. | :42:34. | |
Parliament, it is even worse with less than a quarter of MPs women. In | :42:34. | :42:44. | |
:42:44. | :42:47. | ||
the House of lords, you are down to one in five. I am the first female | :42:47. | :42:51. | |
ever in Portsmouth City Council. In 2013, that is a sorry state, | :42:51. | :42:58. | |
actually. It is a male dominated world but there is no reason why I | :42:58. | :43:04. | |
should not be in politics and speaking on these key roles. Women | :43:04. | :43:09. | |
need to be represented. So what is happening? It is not as if young, | :43:09. | :43:16. | |
smart women haven't stormed ahead in every other profession. Why is | :43:16. | :43:23. | |
politics such a turnoff? Jackie Raymond was favourite to become the | :43:23. | :43:26. | |
new leader of Southampton City Council but she has decided not to | :43:26. | :43:30. | |
stand. People think politicians don't do much. We work ridiculous | :43:30. | :43:35. | |
hours and that doesn't help when we still have a stereotype about women | :43:36. | :43:39. | |
running the home, having children and how they can fit in and balance | :43:39. | :43:44. | |
those things. Someone said to me there is a meeting coming up and he | :43:45. | :43:49. | |
said to me can you do December the 3rd, and I open the diary and I open | :43:49. | :43:54. | |
the diary NZ, of course I can do it. As I flicked to the 3rd of December | :43:55. | :44:02. | |
in my diary I saw it was written, mum, can you spend some time with me | :44:02. | :44:08. | |
today, it is my birthday? I thought, actually, I need to refocus | :44:08. | :44:15. | |
my life because my kids come first. Over the years various methods have | :44:15. | :44:25. | |
:44:25. | :44:25. | ||
been sought to get women into politics. Remember Blair's babes? | :44:25. | :44:34. | |
Yes, we can change it. We have two really demonstrate that as an | :44:34. | :44:40. | |
individual you can make a difference and perhaps there is too much of an | :44:40. | :44:46. | |
attitude, oh, it is not worth doing that and my voice will not be heard. | :44:46. | :44:50. | |
You can change things and look back and say, I have achieved something | :44:50. | :44:59. | |
there. We must keep on with this. More women in politics, more | :44:59. | :45:09. | |
:45:09. | :45:09. | ||
consensus, more collaboration. knows? Maybe when a teacher next | :45:09. | :45:16. | |
asks, do you know what you want to be? You can reply, yes, prime | :45:16. | :45:24. | |
minister. Is it all about children, do you think? I think there are | :45:24. | :45:29. | |
still sexist attitudes and prejudices. They are not what they | :45:29. | :45:34. | |
were. In 1979, when I got married, my wife was a Labour councillor and | :45:34. | :45:40. | |
had suffered an indignity of a full council debate about whether she | :45:41. | :45:48. | |
should keep her maiden name. That stuff has gone but there are | :45:48. | :45:52. | |
assumptions and it is still the case in most households that women are | :45:52. | :45:57. | |
expected, and may also want, to be there in the early evening. Look at | :45:57. | :46:05. | |
how many political meetings take place in the early evening. We need | :46:06. | :46:11. | |
to take positive action and my party have said that they want to select a | :46:11. | :46:16. | |
woman candidate to take my seat at the next election. That guarantees | :46:16. | :46:22. | |
some places. It is positive discrimination, but what about | :46:22. | :46:29. | |
practical steps? One of the most difficult things is not whether you | :46:29. | :46:35. | |
have all women shortlists or positive discrimination but it is | :46:35. | :46:41. | |
about encouraging women in the first place to apply to become a | :46:41. | :46:49. | |
candidate. When you look at the way Parliament and Council Chambers | :46:49. | :46:51. | |
behaved, it is not very attractive and not very appealing. Contrast | :46:51. | :46:57. | |
that with some of the work that goes on in the committees and it was | :46:57. | :47:00. | |
largely consensual and collaborative. We had brilliant | :47:00. | :47:04. | |
debates. As the chairman of the committee said to me on one | :47:04. | :47:08. | |
occasion, this is Parliament at its best. I think it we saw more of that | :47:08. | :47:13. | |
and there was greater understanding then you might find more women | :47:13. | :47:19. | |
applying. I know that 25% of people who go on to the Conservative | :47:19. | :47:23. | |
candidates list are women. Is it any surprise that the numbers in | :47:23. | :47:31. | |
Parliament are so poor? Thank you. One of those big council changes I | :47:31. | :47:37. | |
mentioned was on the Isle of Wight where do 20 candidates were | :47:37. | :47:45. | |
elected, and for women. They have joined forces. He is Richard Priest. | :47:45. | :47:55. | |
:47:55. | :47:55. | ||
You do have a slightly different approach as an independent. You all | :47:55. | :48:01. | |
feel that you are more connected to your communities. That is how we | :48:01. | :48:06. | |
come together. We were keen to form a group to have control of the | :48:06. | :48:09. | |
council, but we recognise the connection we have with our | :48:09. | :48:15. | |
respective communities, and that is important to us. We are disappointed | :48:15. | :48:22. | |
that some of our female candidates were not successful. Across the | :48:22. | :48:26. | |
chamber I think we will have to look at how we do our business but I | :48:26. | :48:32. | |
think that is refreshing and interesting as we go forward. | :48:32. | :48:37. | |
see yourself as less politician as the people that went before you? | :48:37. | :48:45. | |
Absolutely. People told me are you going out to celebrate tonight? I | :48:45. | :48:50. | |
said, no, we are running the youth club tonight. We are still connected | :48:50. | :48:54. | |
with the community. I think we won back connection but we recognise we | :48:54. | :49:00. | |
have a wider responsibility and we will happily take that. You can't | :49:00. | :49:03. | |
just continue with your daily lives and say you are one representative, | :49:03. | :49:08. | |
because you have two run things and take this seriously. A council that | :49:08. | :49:18. | |
:49:18. | :49:21. | ||
has a lot of challenges. Absolutely. We recognise that but all of the | :49:21. | :49:26. | |
areas of the island have schools and there is a connection between the | :49:26. | :49:36. | |
:49:36. | :49:44. | ||
issues. I was very fortunate. The cross chamber support on the island | :49:44. | :49:49. | |
is very good and we are keen to do policies in a different way. It is | :49:50. | :49:56. | |
interesting you call Alan Turner the island MP, he is a conservative. | :49:56. | :50:05. | |
recognise he is the island MP. There are a few liberal Democrats in | :50:05. | :50:13. | |
there. If you are truly independent, you are going in different ways, | :50:13. | :50:23. | |
aren't you? And that is a healthy debate is to have. We are about | :50:23. | :50:28. | |
debate and discussion, and that is not unhealthy. It could be unhealthy | :50:28. | :50:32. | |
decisions are not taken. It is clear that decisions have been taken but | :50:32. | :50:36. | |
they have gone in the wrong direction. Sometimes openness is not | :50:36. | :50:41. | |
a bad thing. If it takes a long time and you get the right outcome, it is | :50:41. | :50:46. | |
not a bad thing. Has its KU that this is the people standing and | :50:46. | :50:53. | |
taking over at council, independent of the party? Absolutely not stop it | :50:53. | :50:57. | |
is evidence that people are more engaged and active. I would | :50:57. | :51:01. | |
encourage anyone to stand for election. You would rather they were | :51:01. | :51:07. | |
Conservative, wouldn't you? I will always work to get Conservatives | :51:07. | :51:12. | |
elected but I think engagement in the democratic process is vitally | :51:12. | :51:17. | |
important and, with women, some died to do that, so good luck to them. | :51:18. | :51:23. | |
The Labour Party came out of the ordinary working persons struggle. | :51:23. | :51:31. | |
Has it lost its way? What we are trying to do is, in those areas | :51:31. | :51:36. | |
where it is not as strong as it was, we create the links that will | :51:36. | :51:39. | |
describe. I don't think it is possible for the mainstream | :51:39. | :51:43. | |
political parties to float on top of communities and hope to get the vote | :51:43. | :51:47. | |
every four years. I think what Richard has described for the | :51:47. | :51:51. | |
independence is the relationship that the mainstream parties are | :51:51. | :51:56. | |
going to have to have in the future. I like to think I do that in my | :51:56. | :51:59. | |
constituency and many of my counsellors do. Anyone that doesn't | :51:59. | :52:03. | |
do that is going to be one ruble to the political community based | :52:04. | :52:08. | |
campaigning that Richard has described. It is not a threat, but a | :52:08. | :52:11. | |
challenge, but an exciting one because you will get better | :52:11. | :52:17. | |
representation. Good luck. As I say, it is a challenge. You going to cut | :52:17. | :52:23. | |
the officers pay? There will be a root and branch review and there are | :52:23. | :52:32. | |
lots of challenges. We used it with a PFI contract on the roads? There | :52:32. | :52:38. | |
are things we will look at but we recognise that there are already | :52:38. | :52:42. | |
commitments in place that we cannot change overnight. We have a | :52:42. | :52:46. | |
commitment to be connected to our communities as John says. Thank you | :52:46. | :52:56. | |
:52:56. | :53:02. | ||
very much. Now, our regular round-up of the week in the south. | :53:02. | :53:06. | |
Independent midwives and their supporters marched on Westminster | :53:06. | :53:10. | |
saying they are being put out of business at the rising cost of | :53:10. | :53:14. | |
insurance. They say it denies women choice. New homes for growing | :53:14. | :53:20. | |
families in Hampshire. This new town north of Fareham got the backing of | :53:20. | :53:29. | |
the planning Minister. Planning commercial space and retail space | :53:29. | :53:33. | |
and actually creates new communities. New jobs for Reading | :53:33. | :53:39. | |
with the opening of a Tesco's. Over 6000 applications for 1000 posts. | :53:39. | :53:47. | |
Slamming on the brakes. The RAC calls for an end to Portsmouth's 20 | :53:47. | :53:55. | |
miles an hour zones. Finally, a strange announcement from a franking | :53:55. | :53:59. | |
company. They are going ahead with test drilling in Sussex but are | :53:59. | :54:09. | |
:54:09. | :54:09. | ||
looking for oil not gas. Going back to the Queen's Speech, and with | :54:09. | :54:14. | |
exams coming there was an awful lot that seem to have the hand of gof in | :54:14. | :54:20. | |
it. This idea that exams should be the deciding factor and not more | :54:20. | :54:28. | |
jewellers. What you think about the way it is going? When I was in | :54:28. | :54:33. | |
schools and a focused on kids like me, who would good at passing exams, | :54:33. | :54:36. | |
lots of people came out of school with no qualifications. The reason | :54:36. | :54:41. | |
we have a broader curriculum is because everyone has different types | :54:41. | :54:48. | |
of talent. I fear that Michael Gove will go back to the days when there | :54:48. | :54:52. | |
were good people passing exams but what happens to all the rest? | :54:52. | :54:59. | |
Caroline, were you good at exams? was. I used to opt out of coursework | :54:59. | :55:06. | |
when there was a choice. What I really want to see for our | :55:06. | :55:09. | |
16-year-olds is that they come out with a qualification that they know | :55:09. | :55:15. | |
is worth something and they can know it has achieved something. Thank you | :55:15. | :55:21. |