Browse content similar to 09/02/2016. Check below for episodes and series from the same categories and more!
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Hello there, and welcome to Tuesday In Parliament. | :00:11. | :00:12. | |
Coming up: MPs question a Home Office minister | :00:13. | :00:16. | |
about the facilities at one near-empty detention centre. | :00:17. | :00:25. | |
Widescreen televisions, sky satellite channels, and Internet | :00:26. | :00:28. | |
cafe on site. MPs argue over just when | :00:29. | :00:31. | |
the referendum on our membership And he probably wasn't | :00:32. | :00:34. | |
expecting that! One MP muses on the unintended | :00:35. | :00:37. | |
consequences We have what can become at its worst | :00:38. | :00:50. | |
the teaching equivalent of the Spanish Inquisition. More on that | :00:51. | :00:55. | |
later. But first: stop The author of a Home Office review | :00:56. | :01:00. | |
has described a state-of-the-art facility for asylum-seekers awaiting | :01:01. | :01:06. | |
deportation as "an absolute outrage" in a time of austerity | :01:07. | :01:09. | |
for public services. The Cedars, near Gatwick, | :01:10. | :01:10. | |
provides accommodation for families. There are nine flats, | :01:11. | :01:12. | |
cooking facilities, a canteen and extensive play and | :01:13. | :01:14. | |
entertainment facilities, But the report's author, | :01:15. | :01:16. | |
Stephen Shaw, has told MPs on the Home Affairs Committee that | :01:17. | :01:19. | |
although there was a staff of 80, there were no residents at all on | :01:20. | :01:22. | |
the two occasions he visited. And the questioning was picked up | :01:23. | :01:25. | |
by another Conservative last year the government spent ?6.4 | :01:26. | :01:38. | |
million running a removal Centre for asylum seekers and I understand that | :01:39. | :01:44. | |
it held 64 people and all have been removed and it had a staff of 80 | :01:45. | :01:47. | |
even when it was empty and you commented that this was a | :01:48. | :01:50. | |
misdirection of public funds that could have been better used for | :01:51. | :01:54. | |
other purposes. If you were the minister, what would you do with the | :01:55. | :02:03. | |
The Cedars now? There are congratulation is why that hasn't | :02:04. | :02:06. | |
featured thus far in what I have said but at a time when the Home | :02:07. | :02:10. | |
Office, as most government departments, are facing a period of | :02:11. | :02:17. | |
austerity, it seems to me an absolute outrage that so much money | :02:18. | :02:24. | |
has been spent at The Cedars and I also think, and this will surprise | :02:25. | :02:27. | |
you, it is true that hardly anyone goes there and quite a lot of them | :02:28. | :02:31. | |
are released back into the community and there are some repeat detention | :02:32. | :02:36. | |
seekers. On the two occasions I have been there have been nobody there. I | :02:37. | :02:40. | |
actually think it is almost that you are taking, in the main, a single | :02:41. | :02:44. | |
mum, living in probably not very good social housing somewhere, you | :02:45. | :02:51. | |
are removing her to a country with a very uncertain future, and you are | :02:52. | :02:57. | |
putting her in these palatial facilities are two or three days | :02:58. | :03:01. | |
that she is bemused by it, and therefore makes their use of. It is | :03:02. | :03:06. | |
almost an unkindness, not a kindness, to do it in that way. I am | :03:07. | :03:10. | |
sure we would want to put that directly to the Minister. | :03:11. | :03:13. | |
And the questioning was picked up by another Conservative | :03:14. | :03:16. | |
Is it appropriate for Her Majesty 's government to be spending money on | :03:17. | :03:23. | |
all sorts of luxuries that hard-working families can ill | :03:24. | :03:26. | |
afford, like widescreen television, sky satellite channels and an | :03:27. | :03:31. | |
Internet cafe and basketball court on site, are these appropriate for | :03:32. | :03:36. | |
the taxpayer to be spending? I think we need to be looking very carefully | :03:37. | :03:41. | |
at our immigration removal Centre on that balance of striking that it is | :03:42. | :03:44. | |
something that is not a prison, it is for someone to facilitate their | :03:45. | :03:47. | |
departure from this country and therefore we Ahram -- providing | :03:48. | :03:53. | |
appropriate accommodation, I hope for relatively short periods of | :03:54. | :03:58. | |
time, to see that they are removed. That is my question? Is it | :03:59. | :04:02. | |
appropriate for widescreen televisions on sky channels to be | :04:03. | :04:05. | |
provided to people in these centres when hard-working families can ill | :04:06. | :04:09. | |
afford them? If you actually visit and immigration removal Centre you | :04:10. | :04:12. | |
will find they are not palatial environments. With respect, I am | :04:13. | :04:18. | |
asking your judgment on whether this is an appropriate use of taxpayers | :04:19. | :04:23. | |
money. Having some facilities to make the environment for those who | :04:24. | :04:27. | |
are being removed from the country appropriate is an appropriate | :04:28. | :04:31. | |
spending of money, but it is not, in my view, that this should be | :04:32. | :04:36. | |
sugar-coated or excessive and clearly we keep the issues and close | :04:37. | :04:41. | |
review while balancing off the desire to be fair to those who are | :04:42. | :04:46. | |
being removed and doing that in an appropriate way, but ultimately | :04:47. | :04:49. | |
people with no relief to be in this country should be removed or should | :04:50. | :04:50. | |
depart. James Brokenshire. Now, what's wrong with | :04:51. | :04:57. | |
Thursday June 23rd as the day for the referendum | :04:58. | :05:00. | |
on Britain's EU membership? Quite a lot if a Commons debate | :05:01. | :05:02. | |
is anything to go by. The date's not yet confirmed, | :05:03. | :05:04. | |
but is thought to be the one favoured by David Cameron | :05:05. | :05:07. | |
as he enters the final phase Some MPs from Scotland, | :05:08. | :05:10. | |
Wales and Northern Ireland say June 23rd is too | :05:11. | :05:13. | |
close to May 5th, when there are elections to their | :05:14. | :05:15. | |
devolved assemblies and Parliaments. The Westminster leader | :05:16. | :05:17. | |
of the Democratic Unionist Party said a June referendum would overlap | :05:18. | :05:19. | |
with the other elections. We need to ensure that the | :05:20. | :05:34. | |
government respects the devolved administrations in Northern Ireland, | :05:35. | :05:39. | |
Scotland and Wales on an issue of such import. We must put their | :05:40. | :05:43. | |
national interest above every other consideration, we must respect the | :05:44. | :05:47. | |
rights of the people who go to the polls in May and we must allow for | :05:48. | :05:51. | |
the fullest possible debate on the biggest decision to be made by this | :05:52. | :05:55. | |
country for generations. Could he help clarify the date by suggesting | :05:56. | :06:00. | |
what date he thinks the referendum should be held? I also have concerns | :06:01. | :06:03. | |
that the longer it is left then the more damaging it is to the economy | :06:04. | :06:08. | |
of the United Kingdom. I personally would be content to have the | :06:09. | :06:12. | |
referendum in the autumn. Can I just say, Eurosceptic English point of | :06:13. | :06:16. | |
view, we say to the Prime Minister, we are self-confident, we know our | :06:17. | :06:20. | |
arguments, and we say to the Prime Minister, bring it on. No delay, | :06:21. | :06:24. | |
don't look worried, bring it on and we can have a proper debate and we | :06:25. | :06:30. | |
can win this. For the sake of our collective mental and emotional | :06:31. | :06:33. | |
health, as well as having to say this many times, I'd take the | :06:34. | :06:38. | |
opportunity to advise any amateur criminologists hoping to gain clues | :06:39. | :06:41. | |
about the date of the referendum from closed textural analysis of my | :06:42. | :06:47. | |
remarks not to bother. There are not any clues. The Minister said we are | :06:48. | :06:51. | |
trying to tempt him into naming the day and he will not do that because | :06:52. | :06:56. | |
of career limiting implications. We are not trying to get him to name | :06:57. | :07:00. | |
the day, we are trying to get him to name when the day is not going to | :07:01. | :07:08. | |
be. It is a question of elimination. If I could commend him to the poem, | :07:09. | :07:12. | |
when you have mislaid a certain thing, keep your cool and don't get | :07:13. | :07:18. | |
hot. Elimination or it helps a lot fuller. The way to help missing | :07:19. | :07:22. | |
something is to find out what it not. The referendum will absorb the | :07:23. | :07:29. | |
minds and hearts of people throughout the United Kingdom, like | :07:30. | :07:33. | |
it hasn't done for 40 years and that we must do that unencumbered with | :07:34. | :07:38. | |
any other electoral consideration at the same time. It is perfectly | :07:39. | :07:43. | |
feasible to have an overlap, providing you accept that you have a | :07:44. | :07:46. | |
six-week gap as a minimum between two poles. I would remind the house, | :07:47. | :07:51. | |
Mr Speaker, that a six-week gap is the full length of a general | :07:52. | :07:56. | |
election campaign. We decide the government of this country on the | :07:57. | :08:02. | |
basis of a six-week campaign. My constituents are pretty cheesed off | :08:03. | :08:05. | |
with politics and I think that we need to understand that not everyone | :08:06. | :08:09. | |
in the country is as excited about politics as we are in this place and | :08:10. | :08:14. | |
actually you need a short campaign where people can focus on the issues | :08:15. | :08:17. | |
and make a decision at the end of their short campaign. Just a point | :08:18. | :08:22. | |
in this compressed time period with the possible date of June 23, the | :08:23. | :08:27. | |
Scottish schools are about to go on holiday at that point and many of | :08:28. | :08:30. | |
the electorate will be either planning or starting to take their | :08:31. | :08:37. | |
holidays. The 22nd in some local authorities will be the day and it | :08:38. | :08:41. | |
is unthinkable to have a vote of such importance during English | :08:42. | :08:44. | |
school holidays and yet this vote could actually take place during | :08:45. | :08:48. | |
Scottish school holidays. The bottom line is if this referendum is held | :08:49. | :08:53. | |
on the 23rd all the 30th of June, for instance, this would be over a | :08:54. | :08:57. | |
month and a half after the fifth of the May elections and I believe the | :08:58. | :09:00. | |
people of the UK are perfectly capable of making an important | :09:01. | :09:05. | |
decision a month and a half after local elections and to suggest | :09:06. | :09:08. | |
otherwise in my view is patronising and disrespectful. | :09:09. | :09:09. | |
The Commons gathered as it was confirmed that informal talks | :09:10. | :09:12. | |
aimed at averting a planned strike by junior doctors were taking place. | :09:13. | :09:16. | |
A 24 hour stoppage covering all but emergency care was scheduled | :09:17. | :09:20. | |
to get under way at eight o'clock on Wednesday morning. | :09:21. | :09:24. | |
Junior doctors are in dispute over pay and working hours, | :09:25. | :09:32. | |
as the government tries to negotiate a new contract | :09:33. | :09:35. | |
Labour accused the government of being the blockage in the talks. | :09:36. | :09:43. | |
Independent reports that a potential deal on the junior doctor contract | :09:44. | :09:48. | |
was put to the government that would have resolved the junior doctor | :09:49. | :09:50. | |
concerns without costing any more money and potentially could have | :09:51. | :09:54. | |
avoided tomorrow's industrial action. A source said it to the | :09:55. | :10:02. | |
newspaper that the one person who would not agree was the Health | :10:03. | :10:07. | |
Secretary. He said no. Let me ask the Health Secretary are very direct | :10:08. | :10:11. | |
question. As the government at any point rejected a cost neutral | :10:12. | :10:16. | |
proposal from the BMA on the junior doctor contract, yes or no? Mr | :10:17. | :10:21. | |
Speaker, the only reason that we do not have a solution on the junior | :10:22. | :10:26. | |
doctors is because in December, on the one outstanding issue, which is | :10:27. | :10:31. | |
about pay on Saturdays, the BMA said they would negotiate by last month | :10:32. | :10:35. | |
they said they refused to negotiate. That is the only outstanding issue. | :10:36. | :10:39. | |
If they are prepared to negotiate and be flexible on that, so are we. | :10:40. | :10:46. | |
What is noticeable is that despite 3000 cancelled operations, no one in | :10:47. | :10:49. | |
the Labour Party is condemning these strikes. By refusing to condemn the | :10:50. | :10:54. | |
junior doctors strike the pair -- that the lady opposite as that shown | :10:55. | :11:00. | |
she has little regard for patient safety. Will my honourable friend | :11:01. | :11:02. | |
repeat his condemnation for the strike which will seriously endanger | :11:03. | :11:05. | |
patient safety and will he ensure me that they will continue to press for | :11:06. | :11:09. | |
the new contracts which will guarantee safe patient care and a | :11:10. | :11:14. | |
better contract for doctors? Mr Speaker, I think she got a bit of a | :11:15. | :11:19. | |
reaction, don't you, by those comments? The party opposite are | :11:20. | :11:23. | |
saying that if a negotiated settlement can't be reached then we | :11:24. | :11:27. | |
should not impose a new contract, in other words we should give up on | :11:28. | :11:32. | |
seven care for the most vulnerable patients. There was a time when the | :11:33. | :11:36. | |
Labour Party used to speak up for vulnerable patients, but now it is | :11:37. | :11:39. | |
clear that unions matter than patients. | :11:40. | :11:40. | |
You're watching Tuesday In Parliament, | :11:41. | :11:42. | |
here on BBC Parliament, with me, Alicia McCarthy. | :11:43. | :11:50. | |
The Government has said it will not send troops into Libya to take | :11:51. | :11:53. | |
But a Foreign Office Minister has said the UK would respond | :11:54. | :11:56. | |
to requests for assistance - as and when a unity | :11:57. | :11:59. | |
Tobias Ellwood would not be drawn, however, on RAF flights over Libya | :12:00. | :12:05. | |
or whether special forces were there. | :12:06. | :12:08. | |
His comments came in the wake of attacks targetting Libya's oil | :12:09. | :12:11. | |
industry by mililtants linked to the group calling itself | :12:12. | :12:15. | |
There are discussions being had as to what we can do to facilitate | :12:16. | :12:24. | |
assistance once a Government is actually formed | :12:25. | :12:25. | |
as to what we can do to advise, assist, support and train. | :12:26. | :12:28. | |
Just to confirm that we are not going in there in order to hold | :12:29. | :12:38. | |
and take ground in that sense whatsoever. | :12:39. | :12:41. | |
I should make the distinction between | :12:42. | :12:43. | |
support that is being given for stabilisation in Tripoli | :12:44. | :12:45. | |
versus the ground forces, which is what I'm | :12:46. | :12:49. | |
alluding to, as to what support may come through. | :12:50. | :12:51. | |
Separately to support that might be required to deal with Daesh. | :12:52. | :12:59. | |
When you say sport, you're talking about military? | :13:00. | :13:02. | |
Help in terms of whether it is a pilot or drones, | :13:03. | :13:05. | |
The first question that has to be answered is confirmation | :13:06. | :13:22. | |
and invitation because otherwise it would be illegal for us to send any | :13:23. | :13:25. | |
Once the Government is in place, if an | :13:26. | :13:31. | |
invitation is then given to us to provide them assistance | :13:32. | :13:38. | |
in training of their Armed Forces, then we are happily going | :13:39. | :13:41. | |
So you are saying that at the moment, | :13:42. | :13:44. | |
if there is an invitation from some kind of Government of Libya, | :13:45. | :13:49. | |
then the only thing we're going to dealing with is systems | :13:50. | :13:54. | |
Therefore we are not going to go in, for example, | :13:55. | :13:59. | |
using drones are using planes to carry out some targeted bombing? | :14:00. | :14:01. | |
As the situation stands at the moment, that is the case. | :14:02. | :14:18. | |
That possibility of the spread of Isis, could the United Kingdom | :14:19. | :14:22. | |
intervene effectively in Libya against Daesh without an invitation | :14:23. | :14:25. | |
from a UN-backed Government of national accords? | :14:26. | :14:29. | |
So basically, can we go in unilaterally, without their | :14:30. | :14:35. | |
agreement if we feel that the nature of the threat posed by Daesh | :14:36. | :14:38. | |
is to such a degree that it would cause | :14:39. | :14:43. | |
high volatility within the oil sector and, indeed, a humanitarian | :14:44. | :14:48. | |
crisis across the Mediterranean, as we have | :14:49. | :14:52. | |
You again ask a hypothetical question but you | :14:53. | :15:02. | |
have touched on something very important, which we have not really | :15:03. | :15:05. | |
dealt with yet and that is the consequence of a lack | :15:06. | :15:07. | |
of governance in a country which is being utilised | :15:08. | :15:11. | |
by the criminal gangs in order to ferry people who are not | :15:12. | :15:14. | |
necessarily from Libya but indeed from other | :15:15. | :15:17. | |
That is why we need the ports and the maritime peace secured | :15:18. | :15:27. | |
From the perspective of the scenario that you spell out, | :15:28. | :15:33. | |
I can only repeat what I said about the Prime Minister | :15:34. | :15:36. | |
If there is an immediacy and a threat to the UK, | :15:37. | :15:40. | |
then he will make that judgment itself but sadly | :15:41. | :15:46. | |
--certainly there is no planning whatsoever from the current | :15:47. | :15:49. | |
situation to pursue what you are suggesting. | :15:50. | :15:54. | |
At the start of the year David Cameron said it was time | :15:55. | :15:57. | |
to demolish the worst "sink housing estates" and rebuild | :15:58. | :16:01. | |
Speaking to the BBC the prime minister said there should be a big | :16:02. | :16:10. | |
shift towards more affordable housing to buy. | :16:11. | :16:12. | |
A panel to be chaired by Lord Heseltine will report on how | :16:13. | :16:15. | |
investment from bodies like pension funds might be unlocked and draw up | :16:16. | :16:18. | |
a list of sites that could benefit from regeneration. | :16:19. | :16:20. | |
In the Lords peers wondered how it would all be paid for. | :16:21. | :16:23. | |
Estate regeneration provides a big opportunity to turn around run-down, | :16:24. | :16:27. | |
low-density public sector estates to produce many more new homes | :16:28. | :16:30. | |
The funding announced is only part of the package we are working on. | :16:31. | :16:37. | |
An advisory panel, co-chaired by my noble friend Lord Heseltine | :16:38. | :16:40. | |
and my honourable friend Brandon Lewis, will explore how | :16:41. | :16:43. | |
we can help the projects to go forward. | :16:44. | :16:48. | |
The panel will meet for the first time today. I thank the noble | :16:49. | :16:59. | |
Baroness for her response. I am sure she is aware that in many parts of | :17:00. | :17:02. | |
the country the number of households in severe housing needs is | :17:03. | :17:07. | |
increasing. It is 3000 in my own city. With the numbers of people | :17:08. | :17:12. | |
sleeping rough, having gone up by 41%. Could the noble lady tell me | :17:13. | :17:16. | |
when precise funded proposals will be published? And could she also | :17:17. | :17:23. | |
assure us that decent, affordable homes will be provided for those | :17:24. | :17:25. | |
families in the most severe need? The noble lady underlies why we're | :17:26. | :17:42. | |
doing this. We are trying to introduce more than 1 million new | :17:43. | :17:47. | |
homes into this country by 2021. In terms of the funding, that funding | :17:48. | :17:53. | |
that was announced was purely seed funding to attract other forms of | :17:54. | :17:57. | |
funding, both in the public and the private sector. And in terms of the | :17:58. | :18:03. | |
mix of Tanya, that certainly will be on the panel's minds. -- Kenya. -- | :18:04. | :18:07. | |
Kenya. One of the ways to make homes | :18:08. | :18:08. | |
affordable is to ensure that they are energy efficient, | :18:09. | :18:10. | |
so that people do not have to pay Will she assure the House that these | :18:11. | :18:14. | |
homes will not be built so energy inefficiently that they have to be | :18:15. | :18:20. | |
dealt with again within 20 years? Can she assure the House that energy | :18:21. | :18:24. | |
efficiency will be high My Lords, I will not be | :18:25. | :18:27. | |
sitting on the panel, but I shall certainly bring that | :18:28. | :18:35. | |
point to my noble friend Of course, my noble friend | :18:36. | :18:38. | |
is absolutely right that, the more energy efficient a house | :18:39. | :18:43. | |
is, the cheaper it is to live in and the cheaper the bills | :18:44. | :18:47. | |
are for the tenants The Minister's right honourable | :18:48. | :18:49. | |
friend the Prime Minister, when he announced this initiative, | :18:50. | :18:55. | |
talked about bulldozing Can the noble Baroness tell us how | :18:56. | :18:56. | |
many families will be living in those sink estates and how far | :18:57. | :19:05. | |
the ?140 million will go --in those sink estates and how far | :19:06. | :19:12. | |
the ?130 million will go towards providing them | :19:13. | :19:15. | |
with adequate accommodation? Perhaps she can tell | :19:16. | :19:16. | |
us whether she agrees with the Prime Minister's | :19:17. | :19:18. | |
terminology in describing those My Lords, "sink estate" | :19:19. | :19:20. | |
is terminology that conjures up a picture of an estate that | :19:21. | :19:30. | |
has become run-down, in which people feel | :19:31. | :19:35. | |
less safe to live or, indeed, where the standard | :19:36. | :19:38. | |
of accommodation is not The ?140 million of funding is seed | :19:39. | :19:41. | |
funding for other types of funding to come in both from the public | :19:42. | :19:51. | |
and the private sector. While that regeneration | :19:52. | :19:57. | |
is being done, I do not expect that the tenants will be | :19:58. | :20:00. | |
living in those houses. An MP has said that assessments | :20:01. | :20:06. | |
of disabled people on benefits may have been falsified to show | :20:07. | :20:09. | |
that they are fit for work The claim was made during a debate | :20:10. | :20:12. | |
in Westminster Hall in which Labour and SNP MPs called for a fundamental | :20:13. | :20:18. | |
rethink of the system. The assessments have been carried | :20:19. | :20:21. | |
out by private companies, Atos and Maximus, on people | :20:22. | :20:25. | |
receiving There seems to be an alarming trend | :20:26. | :20:26. | |
of cases being rejected based on factual errors or even-I hesitate | :20:27. | :20:34. | |
to say this-falsification. I have had several cases of people | :20:35. | :20:40. | |
telling me that their assessment report bears absolutely no | :20:41. | :20:42. | |
relation to the assessment that they experienced | :20:43. | :20:44. | |
with Maximus or Atos. I am sure that other Members have | :20:45. | :20:50. | |
heard similar evidence. One or two cases could be dismissed | :20:51. | :20:52. | |
as an honest mistake, but the situation appears to reveal | :20:53. | :20:55. | |
a disconcerting pattern of behaviour that indicates that the trade-off | :20:56. | :20:59. | |
between cost cutting and profit maximisation is being felt | :21:00. | :21:03. | |
by very vulnerable people. And those who are all work | :21:04. | :21:14. | |
capability assessments that they will tell you they found the entire | :21:15. | :21:18. | |
process at best a demeaning and at worst intimidating. It is a cause of | :21:19. | :21:23. | |
deep distress which is particularly alarming when one considers that | :21:24. | :21:28. | |
some of the claimants live with challenging health and mental | :21:29. | :21:32. | |
conditions. And find going through these assessments almost more than | :21:33. | :21:36. | |
they can bear. These assessments indeed can exacerbate or even | :21:37. | :21:41. | |
precipitate mental health problems. New research from the universities | :21:42. | :21:45. | |
of Liverpool and Oxford found that in areas where more people were | :21:46. | :21:48. | |
assessed for E S H, there was a greater increase in mental health | :21:49. | :21:53. | |
conditions and prescriptions for antidepressants and even the number | :21:54. | :21:58. | |
of suicides the research estimates this could have led to 590 | :21:59. | :22:00. | |
additional suicides. The contract to carry out | :22:01. | :22:09. | |
assessments in March 2015, it has made a number | :22:10. | :22:11. | |
of improvements to the claimants' The honourable lady mentioned | :22:12. | :22:19. | |
falsification of data at one point as well. We are very clear that we | :22:20. | :22:24. | |
have a clear process which has a validation of data and she also went | :22:25. | :22:31. | |
on to comment on the providers are incentivised as well. Our providers | :22:32. | :22:37. | |
are not incentivised by outcome. We have our full range of a balanced | :22:38. | :22:41. | |
performance measures that are focused on quality and volumes and | :22:42. | :22:44. | |
in customer satisfaction, which brings me back to the point that we | :22:45. | :22:46. | |
are speaking about people. English schools should be given | :22:47. | :22:49. | |
the right to challenge the timing of visits by Ofsted inspectors | :22:50. | :22:52. | |
and appeal against their findings. That was the demand | :22:53. | :22:55. | |
of a Liberal Democrat MP, John Pugh, who said the decisions | :22:56. | :22:58. | |
of schools inspectors had far on a school's reputation, | :22:59. | :23:06. | |
its funding, even its very survival. Introducing a Bill to put his | :23:07. | :23:12. | |
proposals into affect, Mr Pugh said action was needed | :23:13. | :23:14. | |
to redress the balance of power But he began his speech | :23:15. | :23:17. | |
with an announcement which slightly I apologise in advance, Mr Speaker, | :23:18. | :23:21. | |
for my lacklustre demeanour. I recently had a bout of winter | :23:22. | :23:30. | |
vomiting, and I am concerned that I have more to worry | :23:31. | :23:33. | |
about than projecting my voice. Stand over there then shouted | :23:34. | :23:41. | |
the DUP's Sammy Wilson. John Pugh got to the | :23:42. | :23:51. | |
substance of his bill. Good teachers and heads | :23:52. | :23:54. | |
who fear an errant verdict They leave the profession early, | :23:55. | :23:57. | |
or, in the worst cases, We do not have a collegial, | :23:58. | :24:03. | |
peer-reviewed model Instead, we have what can become, | :24:04. | :24:09. | |
at worst, the teaching equivalent of the Spanish inquisition, | :24:10. | :24:17. | |
where careers go up in flames at the mere whiff of | :24:18. | :24:20. | |
educational heresy. I recognise that inspection has | :24:21. | :24:24. | |
a valuable role in education, but the way we currently do it | :24:25. | :24:27. | |
in England, via the bloated bureaucratic beast that Ofsted | :24:28. | :24:31. | |
has become, is clumsy, poor value for money | :24:32. | :24:33. | |
and unaccountable. Critically, there is no independent | :24:34. | :24:40. | |
appeal on matters of substance. The Bill seeks to give schools | :24:41. | :24:44. | |
powers to contest an unfair judgment by appeal to independent | :24:45. | :24:47. | |
regional panels. Currently even lodging complaints | :24:48. | :24:51. | |
was seen as futile he said and few schools did it and it was time | :24:52. | :24:54. | |
to address what he called this Well Mr Pugh won the right | :24:55. | :24:58. | |
to take his bill forward, but a lack of time means it stands | :24:59. | :25:03. | |
no chance of becoming law. Mps flattened the opposition coming | :25:04. | :25:08. | |
home first in the annual Westminster The members of the Commons | :25:09. | :25:13. | |
were victorious, battering the opposing teams made up | :25:14. | :25:18. | |
of peers and journalists. The shrove Tuesday flip-a-thon | :25:19. | :25:22. | |
was held this year in aid The victorious cross party team | :25:23. | :25:24. | |
of MPs was led by pancake veteran stephen pound, | :25:25. | :25:35. | |
aided and abetted by a behatted band including new Mps Labour's Clive | :25:36. | :25:38. | |
Lewis and the Conservative Which flipping nonsense brings us | :25:39. | :25:41. | |
to the end of today's programme, but do join me again at the same | :25:42. | :25:46. | |
time tomorrow for another round up of the best of the day | :25:47. | :25:49. | |
here at Westminster, including the highlights from prime | :25:50. | :25:51. | |
minister's questions. But until then from me, | :25:52. | :25:53. | |
Alicia McCarthy, goodbye. | :25:54. | :25:57. |