:00:22. > :00:25.Hello and welcome to the Daily Politics. Britain is basking in
:00:25. > :00:29.autumn sunshine and Tory ministers are showing a bit of leg ahead of
:00:29. > :00:33.their party conference. They are saying that the speed limits on our
:00:33. > :00:38.motorways could go up to 80 miles an hour. That will please Mondeo
:00:38. > :00:41.Man! But the green lobby is angry, saying carbon emissions will soar.
:00:41. > :00:44.We are also told the weekly bin collection is back. There will be
:00:44. > :00:48.extra money for councils if they take our rubbish away every seven
:00:48. > :00:51.days. So, are fortnightly collections a thing of the past?
:00:51. > :00:58.Meanwhile, Adam is on his travels, almost exactly half way across the
:00:58. > :01:08.Irish Sea. I am in the Isle of Man for the island's slightly less
:01:08. > :01:10.famous race - the general election And with me throughout today's
:01:10. > :01:20.programme, Kevin Maguire of the Daily Mirror and Rachel Sylvester
:01:20. > :01:22.
:01:22. > :01:28.of the Times. We are just looking ahead to the Tory conference. It
:01:28. > :01:32.has already started, hasn't it? When you think there are huge
:01:32. > :01:37.things going on that the economic crisis, the eurozone in meltdown. I
:01:37. > :01:44.think they will have to come up with a bit more. It will set the
:01:44. > :01:49.agenda of the weekend. Ministers will hope they are popular.
:01:49. > :01:53.Rachel says, is it also an indication they have not got any
:01:53. > :02:00.money? They have to do this populist thing that does not cost
:02:00. > :02:06.any money. Is there anything else left in the magic box? They are
:02:06. > :02:12.talking rubbish before they meet in Manchester. Both very populist
:02:12. > :02:19.issues. I believe with them on both. It is fair to deflect the attention
:02:19. > :02:26.from austerity and the fact they do not like the Liberal Democrats.
:02:26. > :02:34.Europe has to rear its head. This Conservative Party is as Euro-
:02:34. > :02:39.sceptic as it was. You can see them frothing at the mouth. What an
:02:39. > :02:43.image! If this is window-dressing, what do you think will be the
:02:43. > :02:50.messages from David Cameron and George Osborne? They need to come
:02:50. > :02:55.up with a package on growth. We have interviewed Philip Hammond. He
:02:55. > :03:00.is saying it is good for business and good for growth. The Transport
:03:00. > :03:08.Department is an economic department. I'm not sure how you
:03:08. > :03:17.get bins into Kriss Akabusi. There is no Plan B but there is a gross
:03:17. > :03:27.in Plan A. -- growth. The pressure is building internationally from
:03:27. > :03:31.the IMF and others. This plant is not working. -- plan. How can a
:03:31. > :03:38.shift and do something else when they say it our original plan is
:03:38. > :03:42.right? How can you do that while shifting? It is a tricky position.
:03:42. > :03:46.They want to take credit for responding to the growing economic
:03:46. > :03:52.crisis but they do not want to say they were wrong. They cannot do
:03:52. > :04:00.that because they do not want to lose credibility. George Osborne is
:04:01. > :04:08.a politician. He is good at strategy. He will have an icon what
:04:08. > :04:14.the opinion polls are saying and what people are feeling. -- an eye
:04:14. > :04:19.on. He is feeling the pressure, when you look at him. He has aged
:04:19. > :04:23.visibly. We were talking about this a few days ago. I'll do it under a
:04:23. > :04:30.lot of pressure or are they relax because there is no real challenge
:04:30. > :04:35.from Labour? -- are they under a lot of pressure? They have not got
:04:35. > :04:39.that much political pressure. have the Liberal Democrats on board.
:04:39. > :04:43.They can see those figures. They are terrified of the double-dip
:04:43. > :04:51.recession because they will get the blame. That could change the whole
:04:51. > :04:58.political atmosphere. Will there be aid David Cameron moment? He will
:04:58. > :05:01.make a point of mentioning Margaret Thatcher. He will emphasise it.
:05:01. > :05:05.internal government battles go, this one was supposed to have been
:05:05. > :05:08.an epic! It will, no doubt, come to be known as the Battle of the Bins.
:05:08. > :05:11.And now, it seems, we have a winner. Today, the Local Government
:05:11. > :05:13.Secretary, Eric Pickles, is trumpeting the return of the weekly
:05:13. > :05:16.bin collection. More than half the local authorities in England no
:05:16. > :05:19.longer pick up the remains of your chicken tikka masala every seven
:05:19. > :05:24.days - something Mr Pickles once declared the basic right of every
:05:24. > :05:27.Englishman. Weekly collections had been around since 1875 but they
:05:27. > :05:32.started to disappear under the last government, for reasons of cost and
:05:32. > :05:34.in order to encourage recycling. The Tories fought the last election
:05:34. > :05:38.promising to bring them back with householders complaining of
:05:38. > :05:42.horrible smells, fly-tipping and rats. But back in June, the
:05:42. > :05:46.Environment Secretary, Caroline Spelman, stepped in. She said this
:05:46. > :05:50.would all cost far too much, at least �130 million a year. And
:05:50. > :05:53.things rapidly got a bit unpleasant. Why don't you spend less time
:05:53. > :05:57.speaking to your officials and more time listening to the electorate?,
:05:57. > :06:01.Mr Pickles apparently said. And the two ministers stopped speaking. So
:06:01. > :06:04.today we hear that 250 million of new money has been found down the
:06:04. > :06:08.back of a sofa somewhere. Weekly bin collections are back. The
:06:08. > :06:13.horrid smells and rats are banished. And the worries about extra costs
:06:13. > :06:22.are simply rubbish. Or are they? And joining us is the Local
:06:22. > :06:27.Government Minister, Bob Neill. Was Caroline Spelman wrong when she
:06:27. > :06:32.said weakly bin collections cost too much? You have been listening
:06:32. > :06:35.to too much Westminster gossip. They have been working jointly on
:06:35. > :06:40.it right the way through. Both of them supported the announcement
:06:40. > :06:45.that we said we would have a review and where Catt a way to go with
:06:45. > :06:50.local authorities to encourage them to bring back weekly bin
:06:50. > :06:56.collections. -- work out. Are you really trying to tell me and tell
:06:56. > :07:02.the viewers that there has been no rift over this? It is a
:07:02. > :07:08.departmental victory for Eric Pickles. It is in the nature of
:07:08. > :07:14.journalists... And it is in the nature of politicians... It is a
:07:15. > :07:20.case of two government ministers working well together. We have been
:07:20. > :07:25.making economies consistently in the running cost of our departments.
:07:25. > :07:28.It is savings within our current budgets. We can use them for an
:07:28. > :07:33.initiative which will be very popular with people. Nothing wrong
:07:33. > :07:38.with that. It will make a difference to the quality of
:07:38. > :07:44.service. Why don't you let local councils decide what to do? It
:07:44. > :07:49.flies in the face of your localism strategy. That is what we are doing.
:07:49. > :07:53.We are letting local councils decide. Eric Pickles has already
:07:53. > :07:59.said, we will encourage them, otherwise there will suffer at the
:07:59. > :08:04.ballot box, to bring back weekly bin collections. Encouraging is not
:08:04. > :08:08.the same as telling. Under the previous government, local councils
:08:08. > :08:13.were being very directly financially penalised if they did
:08:13. > :08:17.not go down a one size fits all model. We are saying we do not want
:08:17. > :08:21.to have a financial obstacle to going back to weekly collections,
:08:21. > :08:26.if that is what you and your residents think is the right thing.
:08:26. > :08:31.We are giving them the choice. All the evidence suggests that most
:08:31. > :08:35.people particularly want the smelly stuff taken away on his weekly
:08:35. > :08:40.basis. I think they will listen to the electorate when it comes to
:08:40. > :08:44.election time. Why not just give them the money? Let them make the
:08:45. > :08:50.decision about where they would like to spend part of that �250
:08:50. > :08:55.million, if they want to spend it on mental health strategy, why
:08:55. > :09:01.don't you do that? The department has been able to provide some money
:09:01. > :09:06.and we are determined we are keeping a promise. That is a shop
:09:06. > :09:12.with some politicians. We made a promise we will find a means of
:09:12. > :09:17.helping local authorities to move back to more weekly collections
:09:17. > :09:21.where they thought it appropriate. That is what we are doing.
:09:21. > :09:25.Government made such a big deal about saying, we will distance
:09:25. > :09:30.ourselves from decisions being made at a local level. They are
:09:30. > :09:34.dictating from the top. It is populist and popular as well. He
:09:34. > :09:40.kept the great straight face when he said there were no rows between
:09:40. > :09:47.Eric Pickles and Caroline Spelman. Can anyone afford to buy anything
:09:47. > :09:55.to put in the rubbish anyway? It is popular. I hope the sums are being
:09:55. > :10:03.done right. If it is �250,000,000.18000000 households do
:10:03. > :10:09.not get weekly collections, it means about �30. Can you get an
:10:09. > :10:14.extra 26 collections out of that? think you can if you use it
:10:14. > :10:22.cleverly. The median cost of four likely as opposed to weekly, it
:10:22. > :10:26.does not cost any more. A lot of councils are caught in clever
:10:27. > :10:31.contracts. Part of the tests is, are you going to encourage
:10:31. > :10:35.recycling and get better value for money? Can I just clarify? When you
:10:35. > :10:41.talk about weekly bin collections might have come up all the rubbish
:10:41. > :10:45.or you collect the main rubbish but all the recycling is still done on
:10:45. > :10:48.a fortnightly basis? What we're saying is they should have the
:10:48. > :10:55.opportunity to go back to weekly. That should vary from place to
:10:55. > :11:00.place. Her all the rubbish? It will be a local decision. If you think
:11:00. > :11:05.about it, the City of Westminster has a huge volume of rubbish. They
:11:05. > :11:14.collect the rubbish several times a week. In my area, like cures, they
:11:14. > :11:22.take fruits double wave weakly. -- like yours, they'd take the rubbish
:11:22. > :11:26.away weekly. Most of these councils will be Tory councils who want the
:11:26. > :11:33.fortnightly collections. They are going to tell them when Tory
:11:33. > :11:38.councils what to do. Want to make of it? There is a wider thing about
:11:38. > :11:43.localism. -- what do you make of it? You realise you will get the
:11:43. > :11:46.blame for every local decision. You realise the idea of letting
:11:46. > :11:50.everything go and letting people make the decisions is a nightmare
:11:50. > :11:55.if you are going to take responsibility. It is going to come
:11:55. > :12:03.across on other issues as well. They need to control it from the
:12:03. > :12:09.centre. What if local councils make the wrong decision?! Are you saying
:12:09. > :12:14.that on some issues you're stepping in because the timing is good? You
:12:14. > :12:21.keep -- you need something to give to your party faithful.
:12:21. > :12:24.understand the point from Rachel. It is very much compatible with
:12:24. > :12:30.localism. We are reversing the situation we inherited from the
:12:30. > :12:33.previous government. They were marked down if they did not move to
:12:33. > :12:38.fortnightly collections. They were being obliged through various
:12:38. > :12:42.directives which were being scrapped. We scrapped a lot of the
:12:42. > :12:51.directives which said to have to move to smaller been sizes and
:12:51. > :12:59.fining people -- bin. What about rows and rows of unattractive
:12:59. > :13:04.wheelie bins being left out? thing we're keen to use this money
:13:04. > :13:12.for is to encourage new technologies. One particular
:13:12. > :13:22.technology is about the Cannich ingestion. In one of The bin, it
:13:22. > :13:27.gets taken away to separate the recyclable things from the non
:13:27. > :13:32.recyclable. You are still going to get these things. At the moment
:13:32. > :13:42.local authorities do not have any incentive to move away from that.
:13:42. > :13:48.The technology needs to be there were one bin takes the lot. It is
:13:48. > :13:54.said to be another dad get in the heart of local decision-making.
:13:54. > :14:00.think they ought to be listening to the electorate. In Windsor and
:14:00. > :14:05.Maidenhead they have done it locally. Recycling has gone up 35%.
:14:05. > :14:08.We will see you at conference no doubt. So, did you stay up all of
:14:08. > :14:11.last night for the results of the most nail-biting general election
:14:11. > :14:17.in a generation? Don't worry, you have not fallen in to some weird
:14:17. > :14:27.time warp. Our neighbours on the yesterday. We sent Adam to
:14:27. > :14:33.
:14:33. > :14:37.# This is my island in the sun... Besides motorbikes and low taxes,
:14:37. > :14:42.what do you know about the Isle of Man? It is a British Crown
:14:42. > :14:45.dependency, like the Channel Islands. That means the united
:14:45. > :14:49.Kingdom is responsible for defence and foreign affairs. The government
:14:49. > :14:53.here is responsible for pretty much everything else. You will notice
:14:53. > :14:58.from their own money that the Queen is still head of state. This week
:14:58. > :15:06.we have had election fever here. More than 60 candidates have been
:15:06. > :15:14.competing for 24 seats here at the oldest parliament in the world.
:15:14. > :15:19.This is our parliament, which was established in 979. This is the
:15:19. > :15:26.lower house. What is different from Westminster is that here, they do
:15:26. > :15:31.not really do political parties. Most members are independent.
:15:31. > :15:35.all about size. How our Yes. Works is because it is small. You could
:15:35. > :15:44.not do it in a very large Parliament, like Westminster. Here,
:15:44. > :15:49.it is very small, the constituency is small, generally. Which means
:15:49. > :15:54.campaigns tend to be small, with friends and family mucking in.
:15:54. > :15:59.just giving moral support. My uncle is running. My uncle is running as
:15:59. > :16:07.well. Pieces of paper going through the post or delivered through
:16:07. > :16:11.letterboxes, but more often than not, it is family who do it.
:16:11. > :16:16.this fairly new party is rolling in with the island's first ever battle
:16:16. > :16:21.bus. They have 10 candidates, and they want to break open a system
:16:21. > :16:25.which they think is a bit too insular. The problem is, going back
:16:25. > :16:29.to what it was when I was a youngster, as far as, it is not
:16:29. > :16:33.what you know, it is who you know. It is the patronage of so many
:16:33. > :16:37.aspects, as far as I have seen. There have been some changes,
:16:37. > :16:45.though. This young man can cast a ballot because five years ago, the
:16:45. > :16:51.Ireland gave the vote to 16- to 17- year-olds. That was quick. Yes, it
:16:51. > :16:56.is a bit intimidating, but apart from that it was all right. I think
:16:56. > :17:01.it is about time that the franchise was extended to our age group.
:17:01. > :17:07.Because at 16, you do start to get that interest in politics. And what
:17:07. > :17:09.was the biggest issue at the hustings? Us. The British
:17:09. > :17:13.Government as we negotiated an agreement to share revenues from
:17:13. > :17:20.VAT, which means the island is facing cuts of more than �100
:17:20. > :17:25.million a year. All the results are coming in, and if you want to know
:17:25. > :17:32.which candidates got in to the parliament on the Isle of Man, then
:17:32. > :17:36.go to the website. The members will decide which one of them becomes
:17:36. > :17:40.the chief minister next month. Earlier, we were talking about
:17:40. > :17:44.bringing back weekly bin collections. The other hot
:17:44. > :17:46.political story this morning, ahead of the Tory conference, is the news
:17:46. > :17:53.that ministers are planning to raise the speed limit on motorways
:17:53. > :18:00.in England and Wales to 80mph. I don't know if that means we will
:18:00. > :18:04.have to slam on the brakes as we crossed the border to Scotland.
:18:04. > :18:09.Starting with you, Sean O'Grady, where is the evidence that this
:18:09. > :18:14.will actually have significant economic benefits? You just have to
:18:14. > :18:19.think about it. If you're late for a meeting, if an important
:18:19. > :18:24.component for a factory is late, or stocks for a supermarket, that
:18:24. > :18:27.causes economic damage. The faster the goods move around the economy,
:18:27. > :18:32.the more the economy generates income and wealth. Will it make
:18:32. > :18:36.that much of the difference? It may well do, if you fall very late for
:18:36. > :18:45.a meeting or a flight or something like that, it could well make a big
:18:45. > :18:52.difference. But isn't safety the key here? Depending on the figures,
:18:53. > :18:58.for example, Brake say there will be 10% more casualties. They claim
:18:58. > :19:01.that, but nobody actually knows. The general trend in road
:19:01. > :19:11.casualties in the UK and Europe I think is favourably downwards, and
:19:11. > :19:15.in Germany, on the autobahn, I think they have a lower rate of tax.
:19:15. > :19:20.The statistics we have got say the opposite, they say there are twice
:19:20. > :19:25.as many fatalities in Germany, the same as France, compared with us.
:19:25. > :19:31.The it is important that technology has overtaken the speed limit. Cars
:19:31. > :19:36.nowadays are built to do far more than 70mph. In 1965, when it was
:19:36. > :19:41.brought in, hardly any were capable of doing that speed. But now, they
:19:41. > :19:45.are capable of doing it, and doing it safely. You have got can --
:19:45. > :19:50.cruise control, regulating the distance from the current front.
:19:50. > :19:54.These safety features were not in existence in 1965. Are you
:19:54. > :20:03.convinced by these safety arguments? I am not a safety expert,
:20:03. > :20:08.I do not know. Let us hear these arguments, if they have got them.
:20:08. > :20:12.Appraisal of road schemes used to be done on archaic and silly
:20:12. > :20:18.assumptions, and this decision seems to be done on the same basis.
:20:18. > :20:24.Basically, those rules would say, if you have got a barrel of oil,
:20:24. > :20:28.Burnet, it is good for the economy. Well, we are now importing oil, and
:20:28. > :20:33.every extra gallon burnt on the motorways is something we will have
:20:33. > :20:39.to import. We will have to do so either from unstable regimes or
:20:39. > :20:43.from places where it is quite difficult to get it out. This is
:20:43. > :20:46.why we think it is a bad decision, not the safety, we do not know
:20:46. > :20:51.about safety at Greenpeace, but what we do know about is the
:20:51. > :20:56.environment. Why would we want to try and make it worse, carbon
:20:56. > :21:02.emissions? Speed and the environment are now the coupled,
:21:02. > :21:06.because of new technology. If you take electric cars, for example...
:21:06. > :21:10.You get the electricity from wind power or nuclear power, it is
:21:10. > :21:14.completely green, no matter what speed they go at. Cars are far
:21:14. > :21:21.cleaner and more economical and environmentally friendly than ever
:21:21. > :21:26.before. Sure, the direction of travel is towards cleaner cars,
:21:26. > :21:30.which is great. But if we're going to be predominantly dependent on
:21:30. > :21:35.the internal combustion engine for another decade, possibly two, the
:21:35. > :21:40.figures are roughly that going at 80mph compared with the money, you
:21:40. > :21:43.will burn 20% more fuel. More research says that if you just
:21:43. > :21:50.enforce the existing speed limit, then you get about a million tonnes
:21:50. > :21:57.of carbon saving. When you put that through... And you criminalise half
:21:57. > :22:03.the drivers on the motorway. We do not say that because loads of
:22:03. > :22:08.people are using drugs, we should decriminalise them. On drugs and
:22:08. > :22:14.Speed, that is probably not true, actually. I do not see any evidence
:22:14. > :22:17.that this government is looking to treat -- to decriminalise drugs.
:22:17. > :22:21.The point I'm trying to make is about whether this is a good
:22:21. > :22:23.decision in the current context, and whether government should be
:22:23. > :22:32.setting standards of performance and behaviour which contributes to
:22:32. > :22:37.a good society, in the round. And this is a bad decision. That is the
:22:37. > :22:44.key, it is it a good decision in the current context? If you look to
:22:44. > :22:48.the future, in the end, might it be a decision with foresight, really?
:22:48. > :22:52.The law has to keep up with the reality. Philip Hammond's most
:22:52. > :22:58.persuasive point is that more than half of drivers actually go at
:22:58. > :23:03.80mph. In Denmark, when they raised the speed limit by 10mph, in fact,
:23:03. > :23:13.the speed only went up by 2.5mph, because people were already going
:23:13. > :23:14.
:23:15. > :23:19.at that speed. But will it not make it de facto 90mph? They say not.
:23:19. > :23:23.The police could decide not to raise that higher. And most people
:23:23. > :23:26.actually drive at a level which they believe to be saved, I think.
:23:26. > :23:31.It is not really to do with technology or business or the
:23:31. > :23:39.environment. It is personal behaviour? People will not drive a
:23:39. > :23:43.huge amount faster. Is this going to be a fight between two
:23:43. > :23:51.departments, the transport department, and the Department for
:23:51. > :23:54.Environment, Food and Rural Affairs? It could be, but I think
:23:54. > :23:57.David Cameron has come a long way since he was trying to put
:23:57. > :24:03.windmills on his house. The Department of Transport will win,
:24:03. > :24:07.because it will be popular. There are drivers in cars which are safer,
:24:07. > :24:12.cleaner and on nice clear roads in good weather, and they're having to
:24:12. > :24:18.go along at 70mph. Are you were read you have lost this argument?
:24:18. > :24:22.Well, it is not about being popular. It is about being responsible.
:24:22. > :24:27.Weariness situation where we have a carbon budget, a legally-binding
:24:27. > :24:35.carbon budget. If we increase the emissions from roads, we have got
:24:35. > :24:40.to decrease them from other areas. If you increase the emissions from
:24:40. > :24:46.cars, which you do not have to do, he did not have to do this, you
:24:46. > :24:50.have got to reduce it from somewhere else. Why don't we all
:24:50. > :24:55.just get her horse and carts? have got to thank our guests are
:24:55. > :25:05.very much for coming in. Before we go, let's have a quick speed
:25:05. > :25:07.
:25:07. > :25:11.With the country basking in an Indian summer, it was Labour's turn
:25:11. > :25:15.to shine at their party conference. Ed Balls was in bullish form the
:25:15. > :25:19.football field. But the Balmy weather must have affected his mood,
:25:19. > :25:23.as he apologised for Labour's failure to regulate the banks. But
:25:23. > :25:28.what of Ed Miliband? There was plenty of red meet for the left of
:25:28. > :25:34.the party in his speech, as he attacked predator businesses. But
:25:34. > :25:39.he seemed keen to emphasise who he wasn't. I'm not Tony Blair. Have
:25:39. > :25:44.they already forgotten who won them three elections? Away from
:25:44. > :25:48.conference, the eurozone crisis rumbled on. Angela Merkel won a
:25:48. > :25:53.crucial vote in the Bundestag. In Liverpool, a reminder that it is
:25:53. > :25:56.tough at the top. How could eight macro be expected to remember the
:25:56. > :26:06.name of the front runner to become Labour leader in a little country
:26:06. > :26:12.
:26:12. > :26:19.called Scotland? Ken Macintosh, yes. There for the grace of God go I.
:26:19. > :26:27.Just quickly, intelligence on Shadow Cabinet reshuffle? Either he
:26:27. > :26:32.does it in the next 10 days, during the Tory conference or just after.
:26:32. > :26:36.Who would you like to see? I think Rachel Reeves has done very well,
:26:36. > :26:41.Tristram Hunt has done very well. Some of the new MPs I think he
:26:42. > :26:46.should promote. This is the stage at which he has still got a few
:26:46. > :26:49.years till the election, so he could experiment. Yes, but you want
:26:49. > :26:53.a bit of momentum. I thought he took a step forward at his
:26:53. > :26:59.conference, but not a big step. He needs to be doing better,
:26:59. > :27:03.unquestionably. So, get that team together, and hope it works. You do
:27:03. > :27:08.not want to experiment too much. Next week, what will they be doing,
:27:08. > :27:12.do you think, in the Shadow Cabinet, trying to think of ways to get the
:27:12. > :27:16.attention of the electorate? think they should not worry about
:27:16. > :27:20.next week. They have had their week in the sun. When Parliament comes
:27:20. > :27:25.back, then they should think about what to do. Do you think they were
:27:25. > :27:29.cheering in Tory Central Office when that speech was going on?
:27:29. > :27:33.actually. It was idealistic but there was the risk of looking
:27:33. > :27:42.really naive. How do you differentiate between good business
:27:42. > :27:46.and bad business? It is the argument, don't give the
:27:46. > :27:50.corporation tax cuts to banks, who wrecked the economy, give it to
:27:50. > :27:54.manufacturing, people who make things. But he had not thought it
:27:54. > :27:58.through, it was difficult for Labour people to come up with
:27:58. > :28:06.specific examples on the spot. Maybe you need to give them some
:28:06. > :28:11.coaching. I have got enough problems. That's all for this week.
:28:11. > :28:15.Don't forget to watch Jon Sopel and The Politics Show on Sunday, when
:28:15. > :28:19.he will be speaking to the chairman of the Tory Party, head of their
:28:19. > :28:23.conference. Andrew and myself will be back next week. Just time for
:28:23. > :28:30.one last look at one other highlight from the Labour