Browse content similar to 01/05/2016. Check below for episodes and series from the same categories and more!
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Jeremy Corbyn struggles to get a grip on the turmoil inside his | :00:38. | :00:43. | |
party after Ken Livingstone's comments on Hitler and Zionism. | :00:44. | :00:47. | |
But will the Labour leader's latest anti-semitism review draw | :00:48. | :00:49. | |
Despite demands he should be booted out, Mr Livingstone insists he'll | :00:50. | :00:57. | |
fight to stay in the party, and refuses to apologise for saying | :00:58. | :01:00. | |
We'll discuss the implications for Labour and its leader. | :01:01. | :01:07. | |
The row comes just days before Thursday's elections across the UK. | :01:08. | :01:12. | |
Later in the programme. leader Tim Farron and | :01:13. | :01:19. | |
Who will get in, and who will be kicked out? | :01:20. | :01:22. | |
Just a few days before the polls open, | :01:23. | :01:24. | |
what kind of Assembly are we going to get on Thursday? | :01:25. | :01:28. | |
The Conservative candidate Zac Goldsmith will be here to set out | :01:29. | :01:38. | |
why he should be London now. -- mayor. | :01:39. | :01:40. | |
And with me for the duration - Nick Watt, Janan Ganesh | :01:41. | :01:43. | |
They'll all be tweeting using the hashtag #bbcsp. | :01:44. | :01:46. | |
This time last week Jeremy Corbyn was in a pretty good place. | :01:47. | :01:49. | |
He'd put in a decent performance at PMQs, | :01:50. | :01:51. | |
the Tories were ripping themselves apart over the EU referendum | :01:52. | :01:57. | |
and any Labour rows seemed small beer in comparison. | :01:58. | :02:01. | |
But that was before the Guido Fawkes political blog uncovered | :02:02. | :02:03. | |
anti-Semitic tweets from a novice Labour backbencher called Naz Shah - | :02:04. | :02:09. | |
made before she was an MP - and Ken Livingstone called Hitler | :02:10. | :02:13. | |
in her aid - perhaps not the most helpful of modern | :02:14. | :02:19. | |
political interventions - leading to his suspension, | :02:20. | :02:21. | |
along with Ms Shah's from the party and calls for him to be | :02:22. | :02:24. | |
So what might have been no more than a little local difficulty has | :02:25. | :02:28. | |
become the biggest crisis in Mr Corbyn's leadership. | :02:29. | :02:31. | |
Here's Ellie with a reminder of how the story unfolded. | :02:32. | :02:36. | |
I accept and understand that the words are used caused upset | :02:37. | :02:39. | |
and hurt to the Jewish community, and I deeply regret that. | :02:40. | :02:43. | |
Naz Shah was apologising for this - a Facebook post that suggested | :02:44. | :02:51. | |
She'd shared it and other offensive comments two years ago. | :02:52. | :02:57. | |
On Tuesday afternoon she resigned as Parliamentary Private Secretary | :02:58. | :03:00. | |
to the Shadow Chancellor John McDonnell. | :03:01. | :03:02. | |
The next day a fellow shadow frontbencher was calling | :03:03. | :03:09. | |
There has to be a suspension and an investigation when something | :03:10. | :03:14. | |
like this occurs, because it is so serious and it does have such | :03:15. | :03:17. | |
a knock on effect on people outside of parliament, in the real world. | :03:18. | :03:20. | |
Moments later, the Prime Minister waded in. | :03:21. | :03:23. | |
The fact that, frankly, we have a Labour Member | :03:24. | :03:26. | |
of Parliament, with the Labour Whip, who made remarks about | :03:27. | :03:28. | |
the transportation of people from Israel to America and talked | :03:29. | :03:33. | |
about "a solution", and is still in receipt of the Labour whip | :03:34. | :03:36. | |
After hours of speculation, Naz Shah, who was only elected | :03:37. | :03:40. | |
last year, was suspended from the Labour Party | :03:41. | :03:42. | |
But if the Labour leadership had hoped it would draw | :03:43. | :03:48. | |
a line under the issue, they were sorely disappointed, | :03:49. | :03:51. | |
because the next day, this happened... | :03:52. | :03:53. | |
You didn't find that to be anti-Semitic? | :03:54. | :03:55. | |
You have to remember, when Hitler won his election | :03:56. | :04:01. | |
in 1932 his policy then was Jews should be moved to Israel. | :04:02. | :04:04. | |
He was supporting Zionism, before he went mad and ended up | :04:05. | :04:07. | |
You Nazi apologist, you Nazi apologisist. | :04:08. | :04:15. | |
Rewriting history, rewriting history! | :04:16. | :04:16. | |
Go back and check what Hitler did, go back and check what Hitler did. | :04:17. | :04:23. | |
There was a book called Mein Kampf, you obviously haven't heard of it. | :04:24. | :04:26. | |
Ken Livingstone was on the phone to another radio station | :04:27. | :04:28. | |
when he got interrupted by the Labour MP John Mann. | :04:29. | :04:32. | |
Watched by most of the country's media, they took it inside | :04:33. | :04:35. | |
and continued their interesting difference of opinion | :04:36. | :04:38. | |
You dare say, you dare say Hitler supported Zionism. | :04:39. | :04:44. | |
I think you've lost it, Mr Livingstone. | :04:45. | :04:49. | |
It's a deliberate, calculated attempt to cause problems, | :04:50. | :04:54. | |
You certainly shouldn't be an Labour's National Executive. | :04:55. | :05:00. | |
I've not said Hitler was a Zionist, what I said was his policy in '32 | :05:01. | :05:04. | |
was to deport Germany's Jews to Israel. | :05:05. | :05:06. | |
John Mann was called to the Chief Whip's office for that | :05:07. | :05:11. | |
and told he shouldn't have big rows on the telly. | :05:12. | :05:14. | |
Other MPs voiced their opinion in Parliament instead. | :05:15. | :05:18. | |
Anti-Semitism is wrong, full stop, end of story. | :05:19. | :05:22. | |
I am sick and tired of people trying to explain it away - | :05:23. | :05:26. | |
and yes - I'm talking to you, Ken Livingstone. | :05:27. | :05:29. | |
Less than an hour later Ken Livingstone was suspended | :05:30. | :05:31. | |
from the Labour Party, and chased by the media. | :05:32. | :05:34. | |
Do you want to apologise for causing any offence? | :05:35. | :05:36. | |
While Ken was indisposed, Jeremy Corbyn was trying not to let | :05:37. | :05:44. | |
the issue occupy his local election campaigning, even if he had been | :05:45. | :05:47. | |
forced to suspend one of his closest allies. | :05:48. | :05:51. | |
It's not a crisis, there is no crisis. | :05:52. | :05:54. | |
Where there is any racism in the party, it will be dealt with, | :05:55. | :05:57. | |
I have been an anti-racist campaigner all my life. | :05:58. | :06:03. | |
I suspect that much of this criticism, that you're saying | :06:04. | :06:08. | |
about a crisis in the party, actually comes from those | :06:09. | :06:10. | |
who are nervous of the strength of the Labour Party at local level. | :06:11. | :06:13. | |
But it has been a damaging week for Labour, whose leadership | :06:14. | :06:16. | |
promised to get a grip on anti-Semitism. | :06:17. | :06:18. | |
Ken Livingstone insisted he had nothing more to say. | :06:19. | :06:21. | |
I've got to do the washing now, doing some work on the pond, | :06:22. | :06:25. | |
Well, Ken Livingstone didn't stay quiet for long. | :06:26. | :06:35. | |
In fact yesterday morning he appeared on the London radio | :06:36. | :06:37. | |
After the broadcast, he had this to say to | :06:38. | :06:46. | |
If people have been offended, I'm really sorry about that. | :06:47. | :06:50. | |
But they're not offended because I said the truth, | :06:51. | :06:52. | |
exactly the same thing as the Prime Minister of Israel said | :06:53. | :06:55. | |
48 hours earlier, they've been offended by the scrutiny | :06:56. | :06:57. | |
of embittered old Blairite MPs stirring up all these | :06:58. | :07:01. | |
accusations of anti-Semitism, when I said on the programme 80 | :07:02. | :07:05. | |
Labour Party Jewish members have a letter in the Guardian | :07:06. | :07:07. | |
today saying they've never experienced anti-Semitism. | :07:08. | :07:08. | |
We've had a handful of people who have said things | :07:09. | :07:11. | |
They have been suspended or expelled immediately by Jeremy. | :07:12. | :07:15. | |
It is filled with people campaigning against racism and anti-Semitism. | :07:16. | :07:22. | |
Speaking on BBC One earlier this morning, | :07:23. | :07:24. | |
the new Israeli Ambassador to the UK, Mark Regev, | :07:25. | :07:27. | |
said a line has been crossed in the anti-semitism row | :07:28. | :07:30. | |
Of course people have the right to criticise the government of Israel - | :07:31. | :07:37. | |
If you follow the very vigorous public debates | :07:38. | :07:45. | |
we have in my country, you'll know that every | :07:46. | :07:47. | |
government position is open to debate in the parliament, | :07:48. | :07:49. | |
in the press, in a very, very robust civil society. | :07:50. | :07:51. | |
It's not about criticising Israel, it's about demonising | :07:52. | :07:53. | |
The comments we've heard over the last two or three weeks | :07:54. | :07:57. | |
that were made public, it has nothing to do | :07:58. | :08:01. | |
with criticising this or that particular Israeli policy - | :08:02. | :08:04. | |
it's demonising and a vilification of my country, and its | :08:05. | :08:06. | |
But Jeremy Corbyn's close ally Diane Abbott told Andrew Marr | :08:07. | :08:16. | |
that Labour doesn't have a problem with anti-semitism. | :08:17. | :08:20. | |
The reality is that there have been 12 for incidents in the period | :08:21. | :08:25. | |
when Jeremy's leader, and some of those remarks predate | :08:26. | :08:27. | |
200,000 people have joined the party. | :08:28. | :08:30. | |
What is your message to him now, should he apologise properly? | :08:31. | :08:37. | |
Have you ever known Ken apologise for anything? | :08:38. | :08:39. | |
No, but this might be the time to start! | :08:40. | :08:42. | |
Ken's remarks were extremely offensive. | :08:43. | :08:45. | |
He was suspended within hours, there's going to be an investigation | :08:46. | :08:48. | |
and the party will decide what happens to Ken. | :08:49. | :08:56. | |
We did ask the Labour Party for an interview with someone | :08:57. | :08:59. | |
from the Shadow Cabinet, but no one was available. | :09:00. | :09:03. | |
We're joined now from Exeter by the former Labour culture | :09:04. | :09:05. | |
Welcome to the programme. In your view how big a problem does Labour | :09:06. | :09:20. | |
have with anti-Semitism? Well, in a week where the Conservatives are | :09:21. | :09:24. | |
doing terrible damage to our education system, the National | :09:25. | :09:26. | |
Health Service and are themselves apart on Europe, I would not want to | :09:27. | :09:29. | |
be on your programme on Sunday talking about this. In a way I agree | :09:30. | :09:33. | |
with Diane Abbott, I don't think we have a massive problem but the way | :09:34. | :09:37. | |
we have mishandled this whole crisis, which has been going on for | :09:38. | :09:41. | |
weeks, although Ken Livingstone has done his best to make it worse, the | :09:42. | :09:44. | |
way we have handled the crisis has made it seem worse than it is. What | :09:45. | :09:51. | |
do you make of Ken Livingstone's claim this is just basically a group | :09:52. | :09:54. | |
of embittered old Blairite MPs trying to undermine the new order? | :09:55. | :09:58. | |
I've seen you would include you in that. | :09:59. | :10:03. | |
One of the first people to call for Ken Livingstone to leave the party | :10:04. | :10:10. | |
was John Lassman, the head of Momentum, on the hard left. I think | :10:11. | :10:15. | |
the popular left-wing commentator Owen Jones was also very quick to | :10:16. | :10:20. | |
call for Ken Livingstone's resignation so to try to describe | :10:21. | :10:27. | |
this as some Blairite... , it looks more like some left on left battle. | :10:28. | :10:32. | |
I am increasingly of the view Ken Livingstone is a Conservative Party | :10:33. | :10:36. | |
spy who has been planted in the Labour Party and has now emerged to | :10:37. | :10:40. | |
do as much damage as he possibly can to the Labour Party. That is | :10:41. | :10:44. | |
certainly the view of my loyal Labour Party members and activists | :10:45. | :10:48. | |
and voters who came up to me asking what was going on. They were | :10:49. | :10:52. | |
outraged by his comments and defeat comes back into the party, they | :10:53. | :10:57. | |
won't vote for the party. Jeremy has finally gripped it this week with | :10:58. | :11:00. | |
the inquiry but we have got to act quickly and decisively. Has Jeremy | :11:01. | :11:10. | |
Corbyn let it drag on? There have been very sensible voices across the | :11:11. | :11:14. | |
political spectrum in the Labour Party who, for several weeks if not | :11:15. | :11:19. | |
months, have been raising concerns about this and calling for quite | :11:20. | :11:22. | |
simple and sensible solutions to wait. I think if they had been | :11:23. | :11:26. | |
listened to earlier, we could have nipped this problem in the bud. I | :11:27. | :11:36. | |
hope it has now been gripped but it will be judged on what we do. | :11:37. | :11:41. | |
Parties are judged on what they do, not what they say. The leadership | :11:42. | :11:45. | |
have said all the right things, we now need to see action. What is the | :11:46. | :11:52. | |
difference between Ken Livingstone's attitude to Israel and the Jews and | :11:53. | :11:56. | |
Jeremy Corbyn's attitude to Israel and the Jews? I'm not quite sure I'm | :11:57. | :12:02. | |
qualified to comment on either of their attitudes to Israel and the | :12:03. | :12:07. | |
Jews. All I know is someone who has been a very strong friend of | :12:08. | :12:12. | |
Palestine, a supporter of the two state solution, the Labour Party has | :12:13. | :12:16. | |
a proud tradition of believing and supporting Israel as a state with | :12:17. | :12:20. | |
the right to exist but I think there is a problem on parts of the left. | :12:21. | :12:25. | |
They don't seem to recognise where criticism... Legitimate criticism | :12:26. | :12:33. | |
crosses over to hatred for Israel and anti-Semitism. The Labour Party | :12:34. | :12:38. | |
supports absolutely Israel's right to exist. We always have and I hope | :12:39. | :12:43. | |
we always will. We also support a Palestinian state and if we allow | :12:44. | :12:46. | |
ourselves to be diverted from that sensible position which is held by | :12:47. | :12:50. | |
all progressives all over the world, that will be a very dangerous path | :12:51. | :12:56. | |
in my view. Are you clear in your mind that Ken Livingstone and Jeremy | :12:57. | :12:59. | |
Corbyn support Israel's right to exist? I cannot speak for them, I | :13:00. | :13:07. | |
can just speak for myself. I am not inside their brains and I think | :13:08. | :13:12. | |
anybody who tried to get inside Ken Livingstone's brain would find that | :13:13. | :13:16. | |
a very challenging process. So you are not sure your leaders support | :13:17. | :13:22. | |
Israel's right to exist? The Labour Party and Jeremy Corbyn I am sure | :13:23. | :13:28. | |
100% support Israel's right to exist, but these are questions the | :13:29. | :13:31. | |
leader can speak for on behalf of himself. The chance would be a nice | :13:32. | :13:36. | |
thing but we are grateful to speak to you. In your view, I know there | :13:37. | :13:49. | |
is due process to follow, should Ken Livingstone be rejected from the | :13:50. | :13:54. | |
Labour Party? Countless Labour Party members and supporters came up to me | :13:55. | :13:57. | |
on the streets of Exeter yesterday where we are fighting very important | :13:58. | :14:02. | |
and tough local council elections on Thursday to say that if he came | :14:03. | :14:10. | |
back, they wouldn't vote for us. If he was brought back, what would be | :14:11. | :14:13. | |
the reaction amongst your colleagues? I think they would be | :14:14. | :14:19. | |
dismayed. There is genuine anger about the damage this has done at a | :14:20. | :14:23. | |
time when the Conservatives should be on the ropes. We should be 20% | :14:24. | :14:28. | |
ahead in the opinion polls, we are behind, facing very difficult local | :14:29. | :14:37. | |
elections. We are not being an effective opposition because the | :14:38. | :14:41. | |
talk is all about turmoil in Labour. Labour people are furious about | :14:42. | :14:44. | |
that, they want the leadership to get a grip, they want to be an | :14:45. | :14:47. | |
effective opposition and they want to make sure we win the next | :14:48. | :14:52. | |
election and the elections across the UK and in London. Thanks for | :14:53. | :14:59. | |
joining us. Apologies for the quality of the sound. Nick Watt, how | :15:00. | :15:05. | |
much is this being used by those opposed to Jeremy Corbyn to | :15:06. | :15:11. | |
undermine his leadership? Yes, certainly the majority of the PLP | :15:12. | :15:15. | |
don't support his leadership. A significant number of them would | :15:16. | :15:20. | |
like to get him out, hope to do so after the European referendum. That | :15:21. | :15:23. | |
had appeared to go away and now we have this crisis so maybe it will | :15:24. | :15:26. | |
come back but I think those people who want to get rid of Jeremy Corbyn | :15:27. | :15:31. | |
are not rubbing their hands and saying doesn't this make him look | :15:32. | :15:36. | |
awful. They are, as most people in the Labour Party are, horrified by | :15:37. | :15:40. | |
what this makes the Labour Party look like to the electorate as a | :15:41. | :15:43. | |
whole and would like to deal with it. If you have two senior figures | :15:44. | :15:49. | |
running after each other on stairways, whatever the cause, that | :15:50. | :15:52. | |
looks dreadful for voters but then the issue you are talking about is | :15:53. | :15:57. | |
supremely sensitive issue of anti-Semitism and the people I talk | :15:58. | :16:02. | |
to who want to get rid of Jeremy Corbyn just hate what is going and | :16:03. | :16:09. | |
feel that it is very dangerous and sensitive territory for the Labour | :16:10. | :16:13. | |
Party. Where does it go from here? It depends whether the party decides | :16:14. | :16:16. | |
this is just an embarrassment that can be got over. This is when Jeremy | :16:17. | :16:23. | |
Corbyn's leadership stopped being funny, it is serious and it is not | :16:24. | :16:27. | |
an accident or the mistake of judgment that meant he didn't get | :16:28. | :16:32. | |
rid of Ken Livingstone immediately. They are very old allies, they go | :16:33. | :16:36. | |
back a long way and you have to understand that this juncture of | :16:37. | :16:39. | |
reality, the perception is so confused. I started my life on the | :16:40. | :16:47. | |
Trotskyist left. I knew people, in fact I was in Hornsea when Jeremy | :16:48. | :16:52. | |
Corbyn was on the council there. These people socialise with each | :16:53. | :16:57. | |
other, marry each other, they never go outside of their very closed self | :16:58. | :17:02. | |
referring political activist circle. So that picture that Jeremy Corbyn's | :17:03. | :17:08. | |
first white painted of him standing over a photocopier eating baked | :17:09. | :17:14. | |
beans, we all knew that person in the 1970s. These people live within | :17:15. | :17:17. | |
their closed political frame of reference, that's why there was this | :17:18. | :17:23. | |
horrendous misunderstanding of the significance of what Ken Livingstone | :17:24. | :17:28. | |
had done and said. When they called John Mann in, they insisted the | :17:29. | :17:32. | |
whip's office called him in to be disciplined as if there was some | :17:33. | :17:36. | |
kind of moral equivalence between what Ken Livingstone had said and | :17:37. | :17:40. | |
what John Mann had said in reprimanding him, that is another | :17:41. | :17:43. | |
reflection of how out of touch they are. People will wonder why the | :17:44. | :17:49. | |
Labour Party, which has a long historic track record of fighting | :17:50. | :17:56. | |
racism, introduced legislation going way back to the 1960s on something | :17:57. | :18:01. | |
like this, why does it now have to have an investigation into racism | :18:02. | :18:08. | |
and a code of conduct on racism? Because they have at the very least | :18:09. | :18:12. | |
turned a blind eye to this kind of behaviour, I would imagine for about | :18:13. | :18:16. | |
30 years now. I'm only surprised that other people are surprised by | :18:17. | :18:20. | |
this incident. In the 1980s people like Ken Livingstone were giving | :18:21. | :18:26. | |
views not just on Zionism but on the foreign policy issues that were | :18:27. | :18:30. | |
strident to say the least. When Frank Dobson was installed rather | :18:31. | :18:35. | |
than Ken Livingstone as London mayoral candidate, a huge part of | :18:36. | :18:45. | |
the soft left took Ken's side, now we have this disproportionate | :18:46. | :18:51. | |
punishment of John Mann versus Ken. For a pattern of my lifetime there | :18:52. | :18:55. | |
is an indulgence towards this behaviour and the only surprised | :18:56. | :18:58. | |
that it has taken this amount of time for it to manifest in a crystal | :18:59. | :19:03. | |
clear crisis which I imagine makes the average swing voter look upon | :19:04. | :19:07. | |
Labour as something unpalatable. Will it have an effect on Thursday's | :19:08. | :19:14. | |
elections? Sadiq Khan is nervous it will have an effect on him as the | :19:15. | :19:18. | |
candidate for London mayor. He nominated Jeremy Corbyn but has done | :19:19. | :19:22. | |
a good job of distancing himself from him. And he was one of the | :19:23. | :19:28. | |
first to criticise him. He did it immediately. He is nervous but it is | :19:29. | :19:34. | |
probably too late to affect the campaign. OK. | :19:35. | :19:38. | |
After their disastrous results in last year's General Election, | :19:39. | :19:40. | |
the Liberal Democrats are hoping for some better luck this week. | :19:41. | :19:43. | |
Their leader, Tim Farron, says the local elections are utterly | :19:44. | :19:45. | |
critical for the party's "survival, revival and rebirth", | :19:46. | :19:47. | |
as they go in defending just over 300 seats in England. | :19:48. | :19:50. | |
But has Mr Farron's leadership over the past year made any difference | :19:51. | :19:53. | |
The last general election left the party in a sorry state, | :19:54. | :19:58. | |
going from 57 MPs down to a measly eight. | :19:59. | :20:02. | |
The result caused former leader Nick Clegg to resign the very | :20:03. | :20:05. | |
next day, triggering a party leadership election. | :20:06. | :20:08. | |
Two candidates went head-to-head - the then Party President Tim Farron | :20:09. | :20:13. | |
and former Care Minister Norman Lamb. | :20:14. | :20:19. | |
I am up for this, you are up for this, I am optimistic | :20:20. | :20:27. | |
but it will take hard work and bloody mindedness. | :20:28. | :20:31. | |
Over the last year, it's been an uphill struggle for Mr Farron, | :20:32. | :20:34. | |
having to prove to the political classes that, even with eight MPs, | :20:35. | :20:37. | |
his party is still a force to be reckoned with. | :20:38. | :20:40. | |
Although the Lib Dems successfully used their hundred-odd peers | :20:41. | :20:42. | |
to defeat the Government in the Lords over tax credits, trade | :20:43. | :20:52. | |
union reform and child refugees, | :20:53. | :20:56. | |
Lord Rennard's resignation from the party executive | :20:57. | :20:57. | |
and the legal action over the election of MP | :20:58. | :21:00. | |
Alistair Carmichael only made the journey more challenging. | :21:01. | :21:05. | |
And next week, Mr Farron will once again be put | :21:06. | :21:07. | |
Both the big parties are polling badly, it couldn't be a better time | :21:08. | :21:26. | |
for a Lib Dem could -- come back, could there? You have summed it up | :21:27. | :21:36. | |
very nicely. The general election result last May was obviously | :21:37. | :21:40. | |
devastating, and I am going to argue it was devastating for the country | :21:41. | :21:44. | |
as it was for the Liberal Democrats. You think of these issues going on | :21:45. | :21:51. | |
at the moment, the attack on junior doctors, the Balkanisation, even | :21:52. | :21:53. | |
potential privatisation of our school system across the UK, the | :21:54. | :21:58. | |
heartless approach to orphaned refugees in Europe, and yet we are | :21:59. | :22:02. | |
talking about divisions within the Labour Party. They are indeed the | :22:03. | :22:06. | |
most ineffective official opposition probably in British political | :22:07. | :22:11. | |
history. What would come back look like? It would look like a 50% | :22:12. | :22:18. | |
increase in our membership and gaining more council by-election | :22:19. | :22:21. | |
seats and more votes in those by-elections than any other party, | :22:22. | :22:25. | |
which incidentally is exactly what is happening. There is a real sense | :22:26. | :22:29. | |
we are finding people on the doorsteps being very ready to listen | :22:30. | :22:33. | |
to our message. We have got to fight for attention and to get onto the | :22:34. | :22:39. | |
stage at all. The results last May but us in that position but I am an | :22:40. | :22:44. | |
optimistic kind of person. We have an enormous challenge on our plate, | :22:45. | :22:56. | |
we have a Tory government which is very arrogant, taking for granted | :22:57. | :22:58. | |
the fact they are in office, being all the more arrogance because their | :22:59. | :23:00. | |
official opposition is shambolic, and the desperate need for the good | :23:01. | :23:03. | |
of Britain to be a Liberal Democrat revival. Given that you are doing so | :23:04. | :23:09. | |
well in local government by-elections, you must hope to do | :23:10. | :23:15. | |
much better on Thursday than the 331 English councillors you currently | :23:16. | :23:22. | |
have? I think I would be in dangerous territory if I start | :23:23. | :23:24. | |
giving you figures but I am increasingly confident we will do | :23:25. | :23:28. | |
much better than we did last May. The sense I am getting on the | :23:29. | :23:33. | |
doorstep around the country is positive, people listening. Lots of | :23:34. | :23:36. | |
people who are progressive, centre-left voters who feel utterly | :23:37. | :23:40. | |
disappointed with the Labour Party as a movement at the moment. And | :23:41. | :23:45. | |
many people switched off by the Conservatives, one example of that | :23:46. | :23:49. | |
was a councillor in Yeovil who is a case worker for the Conservative MP | :23:50. | :23:54. | |
there who defected to the Liberal Democrats, actually having to give | :23:55. | :23:57. | |
up her job in the process because she realised that what the Tories | :23:58. | :24:06. | |
were offering last May is not what they are delivering. We have started | :24:07. | :24:10. | |
down the road of serious unfairness, taking money away from people with | :24:11. | :24:15. | |
disability, people dependent on the NHS and care services, and behaving | :24:16. | :24:22. | |
in an inhuman way towards the child refugees. Will you add to your tally | :24:23. | :24:32. | |
of council seats? I hope so. I hope so and I couldn't tell you either | :24:33. | :24:37. | |
way. You have been telling me how good you are doing in the local | :24:38. | :24:40. | |
government by-elections, why wouldn't you do just as well on | :24:41. | :24:46. | |
Thursday? I am telling you things that have happened, I'm not capable | :24:47. | :24:49. | |
of telling you things that will happen. Let me come onto your key | :24:50. | :24:56. | |
message. Your key message for the local elections is you are pledging | :24:57. | :25:03. | |
to fight unnecessary cuts to university services, how credible is | :25:04. | :25:06. | |
that when you spent five years in power with the Tories presiding over | :25:07. | :25:08. | |
these cuts? We spent five years writing the | :25:09. | :25:16. | |
economy and protecting front-line services from those cuts. What | :25:17. | :25:19. | |
happened is over five years we help to get the country in a position | :25:20. | :25:23. | |
where the books were all but balanced. We got to a crossroads | :25:24. | :25:27. | |
where we make a decision as a country, do we carry on cutting or | :25:28. | :25:31. | |
is this the time we say, we have stabilise the financial situation, | :25:32. | :25:35. | |
now it is the time to go easy and to put money into front-line services? | :25:36. | :25:39. | |
You will see at this point in time we have a Conservative government | :25:40. | :25:45. | |
that has chosen to give away tax cuts to the wealthy at a time it is | :25:46. | :25:51. | |
passing on cuts through local government to social services, to | :25:52. | :25:55. | |
schools, highways and so on. We say politics is about choosing. At this | :25:56. | :26:00. | |
point, having got the economy from the brink, this is the point of | :26:01. | :26:03. | |
government, and if the Liberal Democrats are in government, we | :26:04. | :26:07. | |
would be choosing not to give tax cuts to the wealthy but supporting | :26:08. | :26:11. | |
public services such as those run by local authorities. When you were in | :26:12. | :26:17. | |
power, in government, you close to 350 libraries, closed 350 youth | :26:18. | :26:23. | |
centres and around 600 sure start centres. Now you are posed as the | :26:24. | :26:28. | |
anti-cuts party, no one will believe you? When we were in government we | :26:29. | :26:32. | |
prevented the Conservatives making far greater cuts. One of the great | :26:33. | :26:39. | |
sadness is for me, or an irony is it has taken the last 12 months of | :26:40. | :26:43. | |
seeing what the Conservatives do without us to see what a difference | :26:44. | :26:51. | |
we made. They managed to do that with you in power. And now you are | :26:52. | :26:55. | |
trying to tell the voters who are against all these cuts, cuts you | :26:56. | :27:01. | |
presided over in government. I am not Jeremy Corbyn, I won't come onto | :27:02. | :27:05. | |
this programme and say you never need to make tough decisions in | :27:06. | :27:08. | |
government. We were very clear over those five years we were acting in | :27:09. | :27:13. | |
the national interest to balance those books. | :27:14. | :27:16. | |
Whether you blame Labour or the banks, the mess was there. We | :27:17. | :27:25. | |
responded responsibly. But one of the issues we should be talking more | :27:26. | :27:29. | |
about this week but sadly Labour's internal divisions has taken it off | :27:30. | :27:34. | |
the front pages is the junior doctors scandal. Remember, just over | :27:35. | :27:37. | |
a year ago it was my colleague Norman Lamb who prevented that | :27:38. | :27:40. | |
contract being written in the first place. It was only the Conservatives | :27:41. | :27:44. | |
getting into power on their own without us which meant they pushed | :27:45. | :27:48. | |
forward on that cart to our national health service. If forcing of | :27:49. | :27:53. | |
schools to turn into academies, something we blocked. Further cuts | :27:54. | :27:57. | |
to the police, we blocked, the Conservatives are now putting in | :27:58. | :28:00. | |
place. We were the party that believed we should live within our | :28:01. | :28:05. | |
means, in our ability to fund public services on the basis of how wealthy | :28:06. | :28:10. | |
the country is. Over five tough years the Liberal Democrats helped | :28:11. | :28:14. | |
balance the books and get us out of the financial crisis. We say you | :28:15. | :28:18. | |
don't then make more cuts you don't need to. You didn't lose the books, | :28:19. | :28:25. | |
Mr Farron. You left behind a deficit of about ?80 billion. Let me just | :28:26. | :28:31. | |
finally ask you this, you have five members in Holyrood, five in the | :28:32. | :28:36. | |
cabinet is amply, two in the London assembly. Of the seats up for grabs, | :28:37. | :28:45. | |
three and 31 councillors. If you don't improve in at least a couple | :28:46. | :28:48. | |
of these areas, does your leadership come under pressure, doesn't have | :28:49. | :28:55. | |
consequences for you? -- 331 councillors. You set out the case | :28:56. | :28:58. | |
clearly at the beginning of this interview, in the last couple of | :28:59. | :29:01. | |
months we have been coming back from a devastating result for us. I don't | :29:02. | :29:07. | |
expect it to be an overnight success, but my sense is as I have | :29:08. | :29:11. | |
been knocking on doors is you find a warming towards a Liberal Democrat | :29:12. | :29:15. | |
message. A sense if you vote Liberal Democrat, makes a difference. That | :29:16. | :29:19. | |
you have people working on the ground in your local community to | :29:20. | :29:24. | |
get things done. So you will do better? I just want to know if you | :29:25. | :29:28. | |
will do better or not? I am no more others since sales and new, but I'm | :29:29. | :29:32. | |
optimistic about how we will do this week. It feels more positive than a | :29:33. | :29:38. | |
year ago. With a shocking Tory government, arrogant as it is, and a | :29:39. | :29:42. | |
Labour opposition so shambolic, this is a moment where the Liberal | :29:43. | :29:46. | |
Democrats need to recover and I'm hopeful this week we will. Tim | :29:47. | :29:48. | |
Farron, thank you for your time. Well that's the Liberal Democrats, | :29:49. | :29:51. | |
what about the Conservatives? Their local election campaign has | :29:52. | :29:53. | |
been relatively low key these last few weeks, | :29:54. | :29:56. | |
with the small matter of an EU referendum campaign taking | :29:57. | :29:58. | |
up most of their time. You could say with Labour | :29:59. | :30:00. | |
in the spotlight the pressure is off the Conservatives | :30:01. | :30:04. | |
in the English local elections. These set of seats were last | :30:05. | :30:06. | |
up for grabs in 2012, when George Osborne's so-called | :30:07. | :30:08. | |
'omnishambles budget' had hit the headlines and the Tories slumped | :30:09. | :30:10. | |
to winning only 884 seats, However, Ukip are targeting | :30:11. | :30:15. | |
Conservative seats and significant losses to Mr Farage's party could be | :30:16. | :30:23. | |
a sign the referendum campaign isn't What's more, there's been | :30:24. | :30:26. | |
a lot of friendly fire in the last few months, | :30:27. | :30:33. | |
with councillors across the country criticising government policy | :30:34. | :30:35. | |
on a range of issues, including turning all schools | :30:36. | :30:37. | |
into academies, more directly elected mayors and reductions | :30:38. | :30:39. | |
in the grants from It is not just the EU | :30:40. | :30:41. | |
that the Conservative Party And the Conservative's Local | :30:42. | :30:48. | |
Government Minister Brandon Lewis joins me now from Chelmsford in | :30:49. | :30:54. | |
Essex. Let me go straight to this business | :30:55. | :31:05. | |
of forced academies in England. The Tory Cabinet member for Oxfordshire | :31:06. | :31:12. | |
County Council says she will have to suck it up, but she thinks you have | :31:13. | :31:17. | |
gone bonkers. Why have you gone bonkers? We haven't. I have to say, | :31:18. | :31:22. | |
from my own experience, if I look at what I have seen in East Anglia and | :31:23. | :31:29. | |
Great Yarmouth, the academies have reformed education. It is a good | :31:30. | :31:34. | |
step forward, about making those schools autonomous, giving them | :31:35. | :31:36. | |
independence. I understand councillors who have been involved | :31:37. | :31:40. | |
in education want to continue to be involved in education. We have to do | :31:41. | :31:44. | |
what is right for the pupils to get that improvement in educational | :31:45. | :31:48. | |
standards. She is not against academies but against you forcing | :31:49. | :31:51. | |
every schools to be academies. Plenty others share her concerns. | :31:52. | :31:56. | |
Why don't you listen to your own people? We are listening to people. | :31:57. | :32:04. | |
What we are saying is... You have to have a two way conversation. | :32:05. | :32:07. | |
Academies have the ability to improve education. I have seen this | :32:08. | :32:11. | |
first hand myself, with vast improvement in the offer of | :32:12. | :32:16. | |
education for pupils. We have to put the pupils first. This is about | :32:17. | :32:19. | |
making sure young people today are getting the best education, the best | :32:20. | :32:22. | |
life chances to move forward and benefit from economics, growth and | :32:23. | :32:29. | |
jobs for security. This is about making sure we do what is right for | :32:30. | :32:34. | |
the pupils and to make sure they are getting the best education. We | :32:35. | :32:37. | |
believe by putting schools in direct control of their destiny is the best | :32:38. | :32:41. | |
way to give pupils the best opportunity. Whom are academies | :32:42. | :32:45. | |
responsible accountable? I didn't hear that. Whom are academies | :32:46. | :32:54. | |
accountable to? They have shown across the country having that | :32:55. | :32:58. | |
independence, the knowledge of the teachers, the headteachers who run | :32:59. | :33:02. | |
those schools and know what is best in that area... Who are they | :33:03. | :33:09. | |
accountable to? It is important they have the opportunity... I asked, to | :33:10. | :33:14. | |
whom are they accountable? Ofsted will judge schools and Ofsted goes | :33:15. | :33:19. | |
in and looks at schools and gives a review of what the school's position | :33:20. | :33:23. | |
is and if it needs to improve, Ofsted is very clear. It is | :33:24. | :33:26. | |
transparent, there is no secret and is well covered in the press local | :33:27. | :33:30. | |
and national when schools have a challenge. No local accountability? | :33:31. | :33:40. | |
I have never seen the school that has had a bad Ofsted report be able | :33:41. | :33:45. | |
to keep it secret. It is a public thing and therefore there is a clear | :33:46. | :33:48. | |
responsibility for the people in that school to move things forward, | :33:49. | :33:52. | |
improve things. And looking at what is right for the pupils. You don't | :33:53. | :33:56. | |
want now to have parent governors, so even if you get a bad Ofsted | :33:57. | :34:01. | |
report, how do the parents hold that school accountable if under the | :34:02. | :34:04. | |
white paper you propose they shouldn't be parent governors? | :34:05. | :34:10. | |
Actually there can be parent governors. What it says is there | :34:11. | :34:13. | |
doesn't have to be. There can be parent governors. I have seen | :34:14. | :34:16. | |
academies in my own constituency and elsewhere where parent governors are | :34:17. | :34:21. | |
important. Key to this is making sure the school itself, with the | :34:22. | :34:26. | |
headteachers and the teachers themselves, who know what is best to | :34:27. | :34:29. | |
move education board, have the opportunity to do that. This is | :34:30. | :34:33. | |
about looking what is right and best for pupils, to get the best possible | :34:34. | :34:37. | |
education, the best start in life. Let's look at local government | :34:38. | :34:41. | |
spending now. You have slashed grants to local government over the | :34:42. | :34:45. | |
years. Paul Carter, Conservative leader of Kent Council, he says the | :34:46. | :34:52. | |
tank is now an empty and we really are, to use another analogy, | :34:53. | :34:58. | |
scraping the barrel. Councils, even Tory councillors are saying under | :34:59. | :35:00. | |
your government they are now scraping the barrel. Local | :35:01. | :35:08. | |
government accounts for about 25% of all public expenditure. We have | :35:09. | :35:11. | |
never been shy about being clear it has to play its part in dealing with | :35:12. | :35:15. | |
debt and deficit. Over this parliament we will see local | :35:16. | :35:18. | |
government in a very strong position. What local government can | :35:19. | :35:23. | |
do and what it is doing when you look Oxfordshire, the Midlands, the | :35:24. | :35:27. | |
North, East Anglia sharks, is making sure they are efficient. -- East | :35:28. | :35:37. | |
Anglia. It is under pound cheaper than Liberal Democrat equivalents, | :35:38. | :35:41. | |
showing really good efficiencies to deliver good quality front line | :35:42. | :35:45. | |
services. At the same time. Paul is an excellent leader, but Lemi -- let | :35:46. | :35:53. | |
me be clear, local government surpluses has gone up from 13 to ?22 | :35:54. | :35:59. | |
billion. That is a testament to the efficiencies local governments have | :36:00. | :36:03. | |
shown. It shows there is capacity to go further and also bearing in mind | :36:04. | :36:07. | |
the grant from central government is a small part of the finance for | :36:08. | :36:13. | |
local government. It comes from as a tax, rates and new home tax. Why | :36:14. | :36:19. | |
does he he now Xavi cuts would have a real impact, are having a real | :36:20. | :36:27. | |
impact on people and communities? It is a Conservative saying this? We | :36:28. | :36:32. | |
have to live within our means and make those difficult decisions. They | :36:33. | :36:38. | |
deliver the best decisions to do that. We have seen those | :36:39. | :36:43. | |
efficiencies. Councils are ?80 a year cheaper than the Labour | :36:44. | :36:48. | |
equivalent. Or local authorities, particularly the district councils, | :36:49. | :36:51. | |
though smaller local councils, as Great Yarmouth is doing, should see | :36:52. | :36:56. | |
how they can share chief executives to make sure the efficiencies can | :36:57. | :37:02. | |
deliver good front line services, dozens of councils across the | :37:03. | :37:07. | |
country from Oxfordshire through to Staffordshire, East Anglia and the | :37:08. | :37:10. | |
Midlands are doing this. We can see more of that. There is more | :37:11. | :37:13. | |
opportunity for that. It doesn't just a liver efficiencies by better | :37:14. | :37:17. | |
front line services. When you have been making these funding cuts, why | :37:18. | :37:22. | |
have they disproportionately fallen on Labour areas, which tend to be | :37:23. | :37:27. | |
poorer, and not Tory areas which tend to be richer? Why have you hit | :37:28. | :37:30. | |
the poorer parts of this country with your cuts? With the best of | :37:31. | :37:36. | |
respect, I think the framing of that is slightly misleading. Let's get to | :37:37. | :37:39. | |
the core of what's going on. One of the worst hit councils in the | :37:40. | :37:43. | |
country has been my own in Great Yarmouth. The reason for that goes | :37:44. | :37:47. | |
back historically, before they left power Labour cut the fund that hit | :37:48. | :37:52. | |
councils with the poorest background. And those are the same | :37:53. | :37:55. | |
authorities that have the highest spending power. They had more to | :37:56. | :38:02. | |
spend per household than the equivalent Conservative verities. | :38:03. | :38:07. | |
More needs. Labour led councils like Liverpool, even if they just | :38:08. | :38:10. | |
collected the council tax, it would be ?500 per house better off | :38:11. | :38:15. | |
roughly. We need to make sure these efficiencies are there. The average | :38:16. | :38:21. | |
cup per household in the Tory area is calculated to be ?68 per person | :38:22. | :38:26. | |
per household by the end of this parliament. The Labour councils per | :38:27. | :38:32. | |
household is ?340. You are picking on the poorer parts this country. We | :38:33. | :38:38. | |
also have to bear in mind the spending power in the first places | :38:39. | :38:43. | |
much higher. Because they had more than they needed to spend on. That | :38:44. | :38:48. | |
is why their spending power can be up to ?1500 more in some places than | :38:49. | :38:52. | |
the equivalent smaller district area. They still do have higher | :38:53. | :38:56. | |
spending power per household. And that is why extra money, an extra | :38:57. | :39:01. | |
?300 million was put in for those transitional works, because as we | :39:02. | :39:04. | |
get to the end of this parliament, the change we made to put more money | :39:05. | :39:08. | |
in with a focus on social care, those authorities start to get more | :39:09. | :39:12. | |
money coming through again. Thank you for joining us, Brandon Lewis. | :39:13. | :39:15. | |
It's just gone 11.40am, you're watching the Sunday Politics. | :39:16. | :39:17. | |
We say goodbye to viewers in Scotland who leave us now | :39:18. | :39:20. | |
Coming up here in 20 minutes, the Week Ahead. | :39:21. | :39:29. | |
Hello, and welcome to the Sunday Politics Wales. | :39:30. | :39:32. | |
By this time next week it'll all be over, or will it? | :39:33. | :39:34. | |
The election will certainly be done and dusted, but what kind | :39:35. | :39:37. | |
We'll find out what my panel think in a moment. | :39:38. | :39:42. | |
Meanwhile there's plenty more to be done to win votes before Thursday. | :39:43. | :39:46. | |
Cemlyn Davies now on the parts of the campaign other | :39:47. | :39:49. | |
Who do Welsh voters want to be, or not to be | :39:50. | :39:55. | |
That's the question we have answered later this week. | :39:56. | :40:01. | |
Carwyn Jones isn't ready to leave the stage yet, and striking his | :40:02. | :40:04. | |
best Shakespearean pose at Swansea University the Labour | :40:05. | :40:09. | |
leader explained why he deserves an encore. | :40:10. | :40:13. | |
We don't make wild uncosted promises that we know we can't deliver on. | :40:14. | :40:16. | |
We will put more resources into the NHS, education standards | :40:17. | :40:21. | |
will continue to rise, and the performance of our economy, | :40:22. | :40:24. | |
which has been really good over the last few years, | :40:25. | :40:26. | |
The Welsh Conservatives have their own blueprint, | :40:27. | :40:34. | |
their leader believes the party can build enough support to blow | :40:35. | :40:37. | |
We are working to be in government after Mayfest, and be in a position | :40:38. | :40:44. | |
to implement our key investing in NHS, delivering excellence | :40:45. | :40:48. | |
in education and quality jobs with decent take-home pay. | :40:49. | :40:54. | |
If you want real change share in Wales, and to secure that | :40:55. | :40:56. | |
change, you have to vote Welsh Conservatives. | :40:57. | :40:58. | |
As we approach the final furlong Plaid Cymru said only two | :40:59. | :41:01. | |
parties are in the running to win this election. | :41:02. | :41:03. | |
And, despite the long faces, Plaid remain confident they can | :41:04. | :41:06. | |
But we'll never be satisfied in coming second. | :41:07. | :41:14. | |
We are in this race for one reason, and one reason only. | :41:15. | :41:19. | |
To win and to be the next government of Wales. | :41:20. | :41:23. | |
Bold words, but then what else should we expect | :41:24. | :41:25. | |
Yes, Adam Price is that man, writes Plaid MEP Jonathan Edwards | :41:26. | :42:00. | |
But away from Welsh mythology Nigel Farage was back | :42:01. | :42:07. | |
The Ukip leader was actually in Caerphilly where he was keen | :42:08. | :42:13. | |
There's a statue of Tommy Cooper as well, I want to see that. | :42:14. | :42:18. | |
Ukip are hoping to win their first Assembly seats on Thursday, | :42:19. | :42:22. | |
and Mr Farage is determined to help his party achieve that aim. | :42:23. | :42:27. | |
I've come back again and again to Wales, repeatedly, | :42:28. | :42:30. | |
I'm here today and back again next week. | :42:31. | :42:33. | |
The Lib Dems are hoping to avoid another puncture | :42:34. | :42:41. | |
And the party's UK leader has been busy trying to ensure | :42:42. | :42:51. | |
they still have enough AMs for a five-a-side team | :42:52. | :42:53. | |
The Liberal Democrats definitely need to recover for | :42:54. | :42:59. | |
I think the Liberal Democrats have seen an increase in our performance, | :43:00. | :43:04. | |
it looks like it will carry on to Polling Day. | :43:05. | :43:08. | |
It could be a very good result for us. | :43:09. | :43:12. | |
The final score will soon be clear, but with a few days to go the teams | :43:13. | :43:15. | |
Plenty to chew over there as we move into the final | :43:16. | :43:25. | |
Valerie Livingston knows all about what makes a good | :43:26. | :43:33. | |
campaign, Roger Scully knows more than is decent about polling, | :43:34. | :43:37. | |
and Helen Reynolds, who spends much of her time laughing | :43:38. | :43:39. | |
Thank you for joining me. Helen, rather than laughing at political | :43:40. | :43:54. | |
tweets, I guess there is a serious point to be made as well. We've been | :43:55. | :43:59. | |
predicting for years that this will be the social media election. To | :44:00. | :44:06. | |
what extent is that true? It is as true as it was last time. I don't | :44:07. | :44:12. | |
think anything has really changed. It's pretty much like they are | :44:13. | :44:16. | |
taking their leaflets and sticking them at an line thinking that's | :44:17. | :44:21. | |
going to work. Everyone is saying they've had a wonderful reception on | :44:22. | :44:25. | |
the doorstep so it has the blanket effect of nothing less. At the end | :44:26. | :44:34. | |
of the election debate it seemed that everyone thought to their | :44:35. | :44:38. | |
leader was the winner. It seems like not a great deal of engagement or | :44:39. | :44:42. | |
listening. Roger, it is it a problem that this | :44:43. | :44:46. | |
election has suffered because at the same time there have been some | :44:47. | :44:52. | |
really big important issues on a UK level from steel, to the EU, to the | :44:53. | :45:00. | |
Panama papers and the anti-Semitism row, is that overshadowing what is | :45:01. | :45:05. | |
happening in Wales? Undoubtedly, to a large extent for many voters this | :45:06. | :45:11. | |
is the default election that has been most overshadowed by UK level | :45:12. | :45:17. | |
political issues since 2003 when the Iraq war dominated the headlines. It | :45:18. | :45:21. | |
has created challenges and difficulties all over the parties, | :45:22. | :45:26. | |
but most of it for the Labour Party and the Conservative Party who are | :45:27. | :45:31. | |
rather battling against significant bad news stories coming from the | :45:32. | :45:35. | |
party at UK level. Valerie, you used to work for the | :45:36. | :45:39. | |
SNP in Scotland is know a thing or two about election campaigns, how do | :45:40. | :45:44. | |
you try to overcome that as a political party, the fact that maybe | :45:45. | :45:47. | |
one not getting as much attention as you would like? | :45:48. | :45:52. | |
You need to focus on your ground more. It's vital that on the day of | :45:53. | :45:56. | |
the election you get your supporters out. | :45:57. | :46:00. | |
You have to do a lot of work before the election to identify their | :46:01. | :46:02. | |
supporters and make sure they turn up to vote for you. | :46:03. | :46:07. | |
How do you go about doing that? Knocking on doors or more | :46:08. | :46:10. | |
sophisticated? It is a combination of the two. You | :46:11. | :46:16. | |
need an army of activists knocking on doors, gathering information. You | :46:17. | :46:19. | |
can also use computers to analyse that information and work out where | :46:20. | :46:26. | |
best to deploy your resources. You're saying that Twitter is a | :46:27. | :46:30. | |
little bit bland, how should they be going about making sure that they | :46:31. | :46:34. | |
get their messages and support out not just on Twitter but on other | :46:35. | :46:38. | |
social media as well? The key is to remember that it is | :46:39. | :46:43. | |
social media not political media. Think about how people interact and | :46:44. | :46:49. | |
adopt the voice and behaviour. People talk about things they are | :46:50. | :46:52. | |
interested in, they don't necessarily want to talk about you | :46:53. | :46:57. | |
was a politician. It's about being fairly clever and targeted. Key word | :46:58. | :47:02. | |
searches on the things people are talking about, join in those | :47:03. | :47:06. | |
conversations. Don't just wait for people to find it and be interested. | :47:07. | :47:15. | |
How much has this campaign changed because of perceptions, to what | :47:16. | :47:19. | |
extent have the polls shifted during the course of this Welsh election? | :47:20. | :47:24. | |
We haven't seen huge shifts but we have seen a movement down for the | :47:25. | :47:30. | |
Conservatives, and a bit of movement up for Plaid Cymru and in the most | :47:31. | :47:34. | |
recent polls some signs of movement upwards for the Liberal Democrats as | :47:35. | :47:39. | |
well. Two or three months ago it looks as if the Conservatives were | :47:40. | :47:43. | |
strong favourites for second place, the most recent pale has Plaid Cymru | :47:44. | :47:50. | |
second on both fronts albeit not so far ahead of the Conservatives that | :47:51. | :47:55. | |
coming second could be guaranteed. I guess the campaign, to an extent, | :47:56. | :47:59. | |
has not gone very well for the Conservatives. But again format | :48:00. | :48:05. | |
matters beyond their control. Maybe, has it worked in Labour Party macro | :48:06. | :48:13. | |
favour the steel situation is awful for the people involved but from | :48:14. | :48:17. | |
Carwyn Jones's point of view he has been able to portray himself as a | :48:18. | :48:21. | |
statesman. Obviously the big issue is people's | :48:22. | :48:26. | |
jobs and livelihoods but there is a political dimension to that. Carwyn | :48:27. | :48:31. | |
Jones has played, I think most people think, that rather well. Last | :48:32. | :48:39. | |
week, Ken Livingstone and so on have not been particularly helping the | :48:40. | :48:43. | |
Labour Party, for the party in Wales they must be very much hoping that | :48:44. | :48:48. | |
the emphasis on this as a Welsh election will mean matters going on | :48:49. | :48:52. | |
in London do not have too much impact in terms of votes or | :48:53. | :48:55. | |
supporter turnout. What do you think about the other | :48:56. | :49:00. | |
parties, Plaid Cymru and Ukip in particular, Plaid Cymru seemed to be | :49:01. | :49:05. | |
going more towards the centre ground, not being such an | :49:06. | :49:09. | |
independent socialist party as being the competent party that want to go | :49:10. | :49:13. | |
into government? I think what Plaid Cymru were trying to get across in | :49:14. | :49:17. | |
their manifesto was their competence. They had a fulsome | :49:18. | :49:24. | |
credible plan. Leanne Wood is a very likeable politician at the front and | :49:25. | :49:27. | |
centre of the campaign in a bid to gain support from all sectors of the | :49:28. | :49:31. | |
Welsh electorate. What about Ukip then? The initial | :49:32. | :49:35. | |
fights and backstabbing seem to have, down to you think somebody has | :49:36. | :49:41. | |
had a word they are or is it the initial interest in the election has | :49:42. | :49:45. | |
gone into proper campaigning? I think now that we have all the | :49:46. | :49:49. | |
candidates in place it has died down. Ukip seems to whether that | :49:50. | :49:55. | |
storm quite well, it didn't seem to have a hugely negative impact on how | :49:56. | :49:59. | |
they were polling. It is interesting that we see Nigel Farage here but we | :50:00. | :50:03. | |
haven't really seen any of the other UK leaders making prominent | :50:04. | :50:08. | |
appearances in Wales. He is a huge asset to Ukip. | :50:09. | :50:11. | |
Let's take a quick break now and bring you a world exclusive. | :50:12. | :50:13. | |
Graphics on election night have come a long way | :50:14. | :50:15. | |
On Thursday evening and into Friday I'll be crunching | :50:16. | :50:20. | |
the figures on BBC One and S4C and bringing you the analysis | :50:21. | :50:23. | |
Let's take a look at your first chance to see this year's BBC Wales | :50:24. | :50:29. | |
election graphics located, where else, but in | :50:30. | :50:31. | |
Hello, welcome to BBC Wales's election virtual reality studio | :50:32. | :50:37. | |
The authorities have kindly allowed us to use the space. | :50:38. | :50:43. | |
We'll be looking at what the key data is telling us ahead | :50:44. | :50:46. | |
First of all, we see how things looked after the 2011 election. | :50:47. | :50:51. | |
I open up the floor to reveal our Virtual Chamber. | :50:52. | :50:55. | |
Now, clearly, as we know, Labour the largest party, | :50:56. | :50:58. | |
They didn't cross that winning line here. | :50:59. | :51:04. | |
The Conservatives are the second largest party, the main | :51:05. | :51:08. | |
Plaid Cymru are in yellow here rather than the traditional green. | :51:09. | :51:12. | |
They are 11, and the smallest party in the last Assembly, the Liberal | :51:13. | :51:15. | |
Just get rid of the members here, because as we know, we haven't | :51:16. | :51:22. | |
Let's have a look at how the parties faired over the last | :51:23. | :51:29. | |
We look back to the first elections in 1999, | :51:30. | :51:33. | |
Basically Labour have cemented their position. | :51:34. | :51:44. | |
There is always this interesting fight between Plaid Cymru | :51:45. | :51:46. | |
and the Conservatives over who can make it into second place. | :51:47. | :51:49. | |
And then the Liberal Democrats have always been in fourth position, | :51:50. | :51:51. | |
This is the latest opinion poll showing the constituencies | :51:52. | :51:57. | |
here from Cardiff University and ITV Wales. | :51:58. | :51:59. | |
Yes, Labour is still the largest party with 33% of the vote, | :52:00. | :52:03. | |
but much lower than they have been before the last election. | :52:04. | :52:08. | |
The battle for second place between Plaid Cymru | :52:09. | :52:10. | |
and the Conservatives is still going on, but this time, | :52:11. | :52:14. | |
apparently, Plaid Cymru have overtaken the Conservatives. | :52:15. | :52:16. | |
The new kids on the block, Ukip, got 15% of the vote ahead | :52:17. | :52:19. | |
of the Liberal Democrats who down to 8%. | :52:20. | :52:22. | |
This is just an opinion poll, so we don't know. | :52:23. | :52:26. | |
What would that mean in terms of seats? | :52:27. | :52:29. | |
Well, my new toy, this is a coalition builder | :52:30. | :52:33. | |
that shows you that yes, Labour would be the largest | :52:34. | :52:35. | |
party with 28, but still shy of a majority. | :52:36. | :52:38. | |
13 for Plaid Cymru, ten for the Conservatives, | :52:39. | :52:40. | |
the new group in the Assembly, Ukip, on seven and the Lib | :52:41. | :52:43. | |
That's what the Chamber would look like. | :52:44. | :52:46. | |
But what would the Government looked like? | :52:47. | :52:49. | |
Let's take them over here and show you what the Labour Party might | :52:50. | :52:52. | |
try to do, which is form a government on its own. | :52:53. | :52:55. | |
But they are short of that overall majority so they might bring | :52:56. | :52:59. | |
in the two Liberal Democrats, according to this opinion poll. | :53:00. | :53:03. | |
They are still short of that overall majority. | :53:04. | :53:05. | |
So they might go back to what they did in 2007 and bring | :53:06. | :53:08. | |
in Plaid Cymru that gives them plenty of Assembly members | :53:09. | :53:11. | |
to get their programme of government through. | :53:12. | :53:14. | |
But how difficult would it be for them to work together? | :53:15. | :53:16. | |
The other scenario, of course, is that one of these | :53:17. | :53:20. | |
parties work together, but if you look at the political | :53:21. | :53:23. | |
policy differences and ideological differences between these parties, | :53:24. | :53:26. | |
that is hell of a job to form any sort of official coalition. | :53:27. | :53:30. | |
I can hear the politicians shouting at the screen, why are | :53:31. | :53:34. | |
We haven't even counted to the votes yet! | :53:35. | :53:37. | |
Absolutely, that is just based on one opinion poll. | :53:38. | :53:39. | |
We have to wait until after Thursday to know exactly | :53:40. | :53:42. | |
There we are. We love our little election ties. I have two apologise | :53:43. | :54:00. | |
to Roger for saying it was just an opinion poll! Apologies there. | :54:01. | :54:08. | |
Before we go on to talk about what might happen after Thursday we want | :54:09. | :54:12. | |
to talk a bit more about social media. That issue of everyone | :54:13. | :54:17. | |
sending out the same brand messages. We have one example here from | :54:18. | :54:21. | |
Labour. But all the parties are guilty of this. What's wrong with | :54:22. | :54:28. | |
that? There's nothing wrong with it if it | :54:29. | :54:33. | |
comes with personality and insight, for those people who are undecided | :54:34. | :54:38. | |
they want to vote for a person, a human being. If it feels like a | :54:39. | :54:43. | |
sound bite or a party line, then it's like tumbleweed. You can see | :54:44. | :54:47. | |
from these kind of tweets they get limited engagement. If they are | :54:48. | :54:52. | |
shaded or liked, you can have a look at those and see that these are | :54:53. | :54:55. | |
people who are already allowed to the party. | :54:56. | :54:59. | |
We have another example of something a little bit different. Here we are | :55:00. | :55:08. | |
in North Wales launching our health manifesto. Only the Conservatives | :55:09. | :55:11. | |
are committed to... Why is it so special having Andrew | :55:12. | :55:17. | |
RT Davies on social media not on the television? | :55:18. | :55:21. | |
This is a little insight into who he is. You can see his body language. | :55:22. | :55:28. | |
On Twitter you can only post a 22nd clip, most people don't have time to | :55:29. | :55:32. | |
watch a whole election debate they just want a little taste. This is | :55:33. | :55:37. | |
like looking through the door because it is a long rectangle | :55:38. | :55:42. | |
shape, but it's still good. I'd rather see him and read his | :55:43. | :55:46. | |
words. Is that important to see a bit of the person to see what a | :55:47. | :55:51. | |
Twitter looks like rather than just the words? | :55:52. | :55:56. | |
Yes, politicians have a bit of a job gaining trust with the public, they | :55:57. | :56:02. | |
want to see that it is you saying it in your own voice. They want to see | :56:03. | :56:06. | |
your body language and relate to you as a person as well as someone who | :56:07. | :56:09. | |
represents ideals. The last one we've got is a bit | :56:10. | :56:13. | |
different. This is the former Green party leader in Wales. | :56:14. | :56:22. | |
Is this what you're looking for? I like this. It's showing a bit of | :56:23. | :56:31. | |
personality. You either like her or you don't. It's creating an emotion, | :56:32. | :56:36. | |
some form of response whether good or bad. That is the main point was | :56:37. | :56:41. | |
not give a little bit of yourself. That treat is a good example because | :56:42. | :56:48. | |
she engages with people. They don't just expect to see press releases. | :56:49. | :56:53. | |
Barry, you've worked with political parties is it difficult to get them | :56:54. | :56:57. | |
to understand the importance of political social media? Some | :56:58. | :57:05. | |
politicians use it as a told to engage but others see it as a tool | :57:06. | :57:09. | |
for broadcast that is where it goes wrong. If you're not listening | :57:10. | :57:12. | |
that's where it begins to get a bit tedious. Looking ahead to after | :57:13. | :57:19. | |
Thursday, your latest polls there, we know that during the campaign all | :57:20. | :57:26. | |
the parties have said we want to go for a majority to varying degrees, | :57:27. | :57:30. | |
but what you think is the most likely scenario is macro and putting | :57:31. | :57:36. | |
you on the spot their! Well, what happens after the election depends | :57:37. | :57:42. | |
on two things, the numbers, they can impose their own logic. And then | :57:43. | :57:49. | |
secondly, which parties will be able to work with each other | :57:50. | :57:53. | |
realistically. It looks likely that we will have no party very close to | :57:54. | :57:58. | |
a majority. Labour's almost certainly going to be the biggest | :57:59. | :58:02. | |
party but it will depend how far short of a majority they are. In the | :58:03. | :58:10. | |
current Assembly Labour have exactly half the seats, they have | :58:11. | :58:14. | |
essentially been able to have either the Liberal Democrats or Plaid Cymru | :58:15. | :58:17. | |
as potential partners to push them into a majority. They have been able | :58:18. | :58:23. | |
to play the Liberal Democrats and Plaid Cymru off against each other. | :58:24. | :58:27. | |
It looks like the possible configuration is much more limited | :58:28. | :58:30. | |
in the next Assembly. Are you assuming that any government | :58:31. | :58:38. | |
is going to have, the Labour Party, leading it. They are not going to be | :58:39. | :58:43. | |
any situation where labour is down to 24 or 25 seats, that's not the | :58:44. | :58:46. | |
cards? Even if Labour are down to 24 it | :58:47. | :58:52. | |
doesn't look at the moment as if there is a politically feasible | :58:53. | :58:54. | |
alternative coalition that could reach a majority. You'd need to | :58:55. | :59:00. | |
seize say the Conservatives and Ukip performing at the abhorrent or | :59:01. | :59:03. | |
beyond the upper end of expectations to get anywhere close to 30 or 31 | :59:04. | :59:09. | |
seats that they would need. -- performing at the upper end or | :59:10. | :59:19. | |
beyond. At the moment those parties don't look as if they are in the | :59:20. | :59:22. | |
same sort of place. Valerie, we know that one of the | :59:23. | :59:29. | |
successes of the SNP in 2007 as the minority government was to look | :59:30. | :59:33. | |
competent in government. That helped them in normally, is that potential | :59:34. | :59:38. | |
prize enough to draw in maybe Plaid Cymru and the Tories to work | :59:39. | :59:43. | |
together should the maths add up? I think it's very unlikely this time | :59:44. | :59:47. | |
round that the Conservatives would go into a coalition with Plaid | :59:48. | :59:51. | |
Cymru. Particularly given the currently do ship of both parties. | :59:52. | :59:56. | |
They might prefer to really push Labour and make it difficult for | :59:57. | :00:01. | |
Labour to get their programme for government through without | :00:02. | :00:04. | |
significant concessions to the opposition parties. | :00:05. | :00:06. | |
I assume that both leaders will still be there for the duration of | :00:07. | :00:11. | |
the next Assembly? Leadership elections do seem likely | :00:12. | :00:15. | |
over the next year or so but politically, for Plaid Cymru, any | :00:16. | :00:19. | |
leader of Plaid Cymru to say I will eat my party into a coalition with | :00:20. | :00:23. | |
our archenemies, the Conservatives, seems to be very unlikely. | :00:24. | :00:28. | |
So minority Labour for the next five years do you think something | :00:29. | :00:31. | |
different? Expect and mix, really, isn't it? | :00:32. | :00:35. | |
I can't imagine there is going to be a huge amount of change. | :00:36. | :00:43. | |
In terms of how we've seen things changing over the course of this | :00:44. | :00:47. | |
election, did you think that Labour is more comfortable than it has been | :00:48. | :00:51. | |
in the past carrying on as a minority government or are they | :00:52. | :00:55. | |
depending on the numbers, seeking some form of support, they don't | :00:56. | :00:59. | |
have that many members from the Liberal Democrats to draw on for | :01:00. | :01:03. | |
support? Well, they may be in a situation, | :01:04. | :01:07. | |
whether they are comfortable with it is the only feasible option. It | :01:08. | :01:13. | |
looks as if the range of possible governments after the election may | :01:14. | :01:18. | |
well be limited to simply Labour minority or Labour Plaid Cymru | :01:19. | :01:22. | |
coalition. To have a coalition you need to sides wishing to enter a | :01:23. | :01:26. | |
partnership. It could well be that Labour are, in a sense, condemned to | :01:27. | :01:33. | |
government. They are the largest party, and they may be in a | :01:34. | :01:36. | |
situation where there is no possibility for them to form a | :01:37. | :01:42. | |
majority coalition which could make life difficult for them. | :01:43. | :01:47. | |
In terms of Ukip, if we are expecting them to be in the | :01:48. | :01:50. | |
Assembly, how does that change things? | :01:51. | :01:55. | |
It will be fascinating for Assembly watchers. How long does it last? | :01:56. | :01:59. | |
There are huge issues with discipline within Ukip and we are | :02:00. | :02:03. | |
expecting a leadership election. No matter how many are elected on | :02:04. | :02:06. | |
Thursday I don't think they will be Ukip Assembly members by the end. | :02:07. | :02:09. | |
Certainly a big week ahead for Welsh politics. | :02:10. | :02:11. | |
Don't forget about our special programmes after the polls close | :02:12. | :02:13. | |
on Thursday, with minute by minute coverage of the results | :02:14. | :02:16. | |
That's from 10.30 on Thursday evening. | :02:17. | :02:24. | |
in the Mayoral election on the screen now. | :02:25. | :02:26. | |
And further information is available on the BBC London website. | :02:27. | :02:28. | |
What will Labour's anti-Semitism row mean for the party's election | :02:29. | :02:35. | |
Is Jeremy Corbyn facing a possible challenge to his leadership? | :02:36. | :02:39. | |
And what are the Leave and Remain teams plotting for the | :02:40. | :02:41. | |
Elections to the Scottish Parliament, the Welsh Assembly, | :02:42. | :03:07. | |
English local areas, and London now. Labour is fighting in all of these | :03:08. | :03:12. | |
areas. How do we judge Mr Corbyn's party performance? I think you need | :03:13. | :03:18. | |
a symbolic victory in London. In many ways it will matter less than | :03:19. | :03:23. | |
doing well in English local council elections. Councils are your | :03:24. | :03:26. | |
campaigning base for a general election in four years' time. It is | :03:27. | :03:30. | |
a much more sexy office, the London mayor. It's the Khan wins I think it | :03:31. | :03:35. | |
gets him out of trouble, gets Joe Clee Corbyn out of some trouble, | :03:36. | :03:39. | |
deservedly or not. The result I'm beginning to think might end up | :03:40. | :03:43. | |
being historic is in Scotland. If the Conservatives finished second, I | :03:44. | :03:56. | |
think it establishes two things. One, the idea that a left-wing | :03:57. | :04:00. | |
Labour Party can recover some of the ground lost to the SNP, a very | :04:01. | :04:02. | |
popular idea in the leadership contest last summer, will suffer. | :04:03. | :04:04. | |
And more significant is if the Tories finished second, it will | :04:05. | :04:06. | |
confirm Ruth Davidson as the most interesting, maybe the most talented | :04:07. | :04:10. | |
politician of the Next Generation and there will be a lot of pressure | :04:11. | :04:14. | |
from the London branch of the Tory to tempt her down. To take away the | :04:15. | :04:19. | |
only winner the Tories might have had in two generations question what | :04:20. | :04:27. | |
yes. She could be a potentially compelling UK wide figure. At the | :04:28. | :04:34. | |
end of the day, if Jeremy Corbyn holds on to London, which the polls | :04:35. | :04:41. | |
tell us he will, then he is OK. I think the Tories must be praying | :04:42. | :04:46. | |
that he will be OK. He is the gift that goes on giving. Is it in the | :04:47. | :04:52. | |
Tory interest the Tories not to hold on to London? I think it is in Tory | :04:53. | :04:57. | |
interests that Jeremy Corbyn survives as leader, no one else | :04:58. | :05:01. | |
could be as good further Tories except maybe the Shadow Chancellor. | :05:02. | :05:05. | |
The people who are not paying terribly close attention to the | :05:06. | :05:11. | |
detail of this row, even though they must be aware of the vague issues, | :05:12. | :05:15. | |
there is a conclusion beginning to surface that the Labour Party is | :05:16. | :05:21. | |
being done by crazy people. If they choose the Shadow Chancellor, who is | :05:22. | :05:25. | |
a much harder character, would be a much more muscular version of Jeremy | :05:26. | :05:30. | |
Corbyn and probably less incompetent looking, more impressive as a | :05:31. | :05:34. | |
personality, that means that the hold of the hard left of Labour will | :05:35. | :05:39. | |
be embedded for a political generation, another three or four | :05:40. | :05:43. | |
years. That would be a different problem for the Tories, because they | :05:44. | :05:47. | |
wouldn't just be able to make him look Ludogrets. How has it come | :05:48. | :05:51. | |
about? This is the first electoral test for the government. A year on | :05:52. | :05:59. | |
from the last election and usually we judge them by how is the | :06:00. | :06:03. | |
government faring? How is it beginning to lose about? And yet the | :06:04. | :06:07. | |
yardsticks all seem to be about Labour, not the Tories. They have | :06:08. | :06:12. | |
been about Labour for the last 72 hours, since they got into this | :06:13. | :06:16. | |
crisis over the row on anti-Semitism. Before that the only | :06:17. | :06:19. | |
thing we were talking about is the referendum. The reason we are not | :06:20. | :06:22. | |
focusing so much on the Conservatives on how they are doing | :06:23. | :06:26. | |
is David Cameron hasn't taken any interest in these elections on | :06:27. | :06:30. | |
Thursday. He is absolutely focused on the EU referendum. For him it is | :06:31. | :06:34. | |
a matter of life or death, whatever he says. He loses the referendum on | :06:35. | :06:39. | |
the 23rd of June and that is the end of his premiership and the of George | :06:40. | :06:42. | |
Osborne and the right life of the party will be in the descendants. | :06:43. | :06:48. | |
But Thursday, what is about Thursday is still London election is the | :06:49. | :06:53. | |
least significant election. When you want to know how is Labour going to | :06:54. | :06:57. | |
do in the general election you need to look at Scotland and the English | :06:58. | :07:03. | |
locals and Wales. But London will be symbolically the most significant | :07:04. | :07:07. | |
election, because if as we assume Sadiq Khan wins, as Janan was | :07:08. | :07:11. | |
saying, that will take the I've got a victory my back pocket box and | :07:12. | :07:15. | |
Jeremy Corbyn will for the moment soldier one. You mentioned how these | :07:16. | :07:20. | |
elections, as important as they are, have been overshadowed by the EU | :07:21. | :07:27. | |
referendum on the 23rd of June. The Leave and Remain campaign have been | :07:28. | :07:30. | |
putting out commercials, let's take a look. | :07:31. | :07:34. | |
At the end of the war, Britain created the NHS. | :07:35. | :07:36. | |
It protects us throughout our lives - but it's in danger. | :07:37. | :07:42. | |
Remaining in Europe will create an extra 790,000 UK jobs by the time | :07:43. | :08:05. | |
There we go. The first one to Leave and second Remain. The poll suggests | :08:06. | :08:18. | |
they are winning the argument on the economy. But private polling | :08:19. | :08:22. | |
suggests the NHS and immigration do well for Leave. What's going on | :08:23. | :08:29. | |
here? They've looked at private polling and concluded on the economy | :08:30. | :08:36. | |
Remain has a lead which is more or less insurmountable. On immigration | :08:37. | :08:42. | |
Leave have an insurmountable lead. Rather than engage in a futile | :08:43. | :08:50. | |
attempt to win back credibility on economy or immigration is better to | :08:51. | :08:53. | |
spend everyday folks think the debate on your home territory. That | :08:54. | :08:59. | |
is why I think if on the ballot in seven weeks' time the average voter | :09:00. | :09:02. | |
sees the question as, what is the best way controlling immigration? | :09:03. | :09:07. | |
Leave Will win. If the question is how do you preserve economic | :09:08. | :09:12. | |
stability then Remain will win. By this time next week when the | :09:13. | :09:19. | |
Thursday election results will have been analysed and so on, the EU | :09:20. | :09:25. | |
referendum campaign starts proper. All the way until June 23. Does the | :09:26. | :09:32. | |
Remain side not have a problem, it seems to have fired a lot of its | :09:33. | :09:36. | |
ammunition already? It does, with that 200 page Treasury report. We | :09:37. | :09:40. | |
have around two of the Treasury report. Ten years ago it was looking | :09:41. | :09:44. | |
at the long-term consequences of an exit from the European Union. There | :09:45. | :09:49. | |
is another report to go. That is the immediate consequences, which will | :09:50. | :09:52. | |
basically say there will be a mighty recession and the pound would go | :09:53. | :09:56. | |
through the floor. But remember, we have two phases of the campaign. We | :09:57. | :10:00. | |
have about two and a half or three weeks after the local elections. Up | :10:01. | :10:07. | |
until that point government can put out any election document it wants, | :10:08. | :10:12. | |
it can get civil servants to write in favour of the European Union. 28 | :10:13. | :10:16. | |
days, from the end of May until the 23rd of June it means ministers can | :10:17. | :10:20. | |
say what they like but they cannot use government machinery and | :10:21. | :10:25. | |
government publications. You will watch a great blast from the | :10:26. | :10:27. | |
government side in the three weeks after the local elections. | :10:28. | :10:37. | |
The remaining side have made claims about what the jobs will be, but | :10:38. | :11:18. | |
this doesn't surprise me at all. I find the British the most resilient | :11:19. | :11:25. | |
people against being threatened amongst any in the world. During the | :11:26. | :11:30. | |
election campaign, every time Nicola Sturgeon said we are going to lock | :11:31. | :11:34. | |
David Cameron out of Downing Street, I heard a chorus from British people | :11:35. | :11:43. | |
saying oh yeah. Last night was the famous White House correspondents | :11:44. | :11:47. | |
dinner, it is a time for comedy, comedy acts even from the | :11:48. | :11:51. | |
politicians. The president began by talking about his visit here. Let's | :11:52. | :11:53. | |
listen. Even some foreign leaders, | :11:54. | :11:56. | |
they've been looking ahead, Last week Prince George showed up | :11:57. | :11:58. | |
to our meeting in his bathrobe. Although, while in | :11:59. | :12:02. | |
England I did have lunch with Her Majesty The Queen, | :12:03. | :12:16. | |
took in a performance of Shakespeare, hit the Links | :12:17. | :12:22. | |
with David Cameron. Just in case anybody is still | :12:23. | :12:25. | |
debating whether I'm black or not... The president there showing he has | :12:26. | :12:44. | |
great comedic timing as well. He can be a stand-up man when he steps down | :12:45. | :12:49. | |
from the White House. You have been to the Westminster dinner, it is not | :12:50. | :12:54. | |
quite on the same scale. It is not. The most important thing this year | :12:55. | :12:59. | |
is George Osborne, the year before it was Ed Miliband, their speech is | :13:00. | :13:03. | |
on the record but not filmed. George Osborne delivered what was generally | :13:04. | :13:07. | |
perceived as a very good joke because he told jokes at his own | :13:08. | :13:12. | |
expense. This quite funny one about now I am on the 52-macro diet, I had | :13:13. | :13:25. | |
to eat my words after the Budget. You are now off to Newsnight so we | :13:26. | :13:29. | |
whipped together to get you a farewell present and there it is. | :13:30. | :13:36. | |
But you only get that if you win a competition! That is how kind we are | :13:37. | :13:40. | |
to you. Enjoy it because you won't get anything like that on Newsnight. | :13:41. | :13:43. | |
The Daily Politics will be back on Tuesday at midday on BBC Two, | :13:44. | :13:47. | |
and I'll be back here on BBC One next Sunday at 11 | :13:48. | :13:50. | |
We will have all of these local election results. | :13:51. | :13:55. | |
Remember - if it's Sunday, it's the Sunday Politics. | :13:56. | :14:04. |