Browse content similar to 11/01/2012. Check below for episodes and series from the same categories and more!
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Morning, folks. Welcome to the Daily Politics. The stand-off | :00:43. | :00:47. | |
between Westminster and Edinburgh. Scotland's First Minister wants a | :00:47. | :00:52. | |
referendum on independence in the autumn of 2014, the 700 for | :00:52. | :01:02. | |
anniversary of Bannockburn. What will the question or questions be? | :01:02. | :01:07. | |
Can the Government meet its net migration targets? | :01:07. | :01:12. | |
2011 did not end well. 2012 has not begun much better. Can the Labour | :01:12. | :01:17. | |
leader win over his doubters at the first Prime Minister's Questions of | :01:17. | :01:22. | |
the year? Add to the's favourite physicist on | :01:22. | :01:27. | |
why it is time to go for the nuclear option. -- and television's | :01:27. | :01:32. | |
favourite physicist. I am a professor of nuclear physics and I | :01:32. | :01:36. | |
have always believed that nuclear power is a good thing. I am not | :01:36. | :01:41. | |
paid by the nuclear industry or any environmental movement and so I | :01:41. | :01:46. | |
have no agenda. All of that in the next 90 minutes | :01:46. | :01:53. | |
of public service British broadcasting at its finest. Yes, we | :01:53. | :01:57. | |
are still the British Broadcasting Corporation, for now at least. To | :01:57. | :02:01. | |
help us through this constitutional morass, we plucked a pair of | :02:01. | :02:06. | |
politicos from the furthest corners of the United Kingdom. We have | :02:06. | :02:09. | |
Labour's Douglas Alexander, a Scotsman, he does not mind popping | :02:09. | :02:13. | |
down to Westminster every now and then. And an Englishman, Damian | :02:13. | :02:18. | |
Green, the immigration minister. He may have a new body to police in a | :02:18. | :02:22. | |
couple of years if Alex Salmond gets his way. He may also have to | :02:22. | :02:26. | |
rebuild Hadrian's Wall to keep out those pesky Celts. Only a Scotsman | :02:26. | :02:31. | |
could use that kind of language, and through. As an independent | :02:31. | :02:35. | |
Scotland moved one step closer? Alex Salmond announced yesterday | :02:35. | :02:40. | |
that he wanted to hold a referendum on independence in the autumn of | :02:40. | :02:45. | |
2014. That was in response to calls from David Cameron for the Scottish | :02:45. | :02:48. | |
leader to come clean on his intentions for the proposed poll. | :02:48. | :02:52. | |
He has been talking to BBC Scotland about what he wants from the | :02:52. | :02:56. | |
referendum. We need a referendum which is built and made in Scotland, | :02:56. | :03:01. | |
produced by the Scottish Parliament and offered to the Scottish people | :03:01. | :03:05. | |
for decision. Those are our conditions. When you see the | :03:05. | :03:09. | |
discussion paper that we put out, everyone in Scotland virtually, | :03:09. | :03:13. | |
certainly reasonable people in England as well, will say that is | :03:13. | :03:16. | |
fair enough. Why on earth should the Prime Minister want to trample | :03:16. | :03:22. | |
over Scotland in his side's 10 boots? That was Alex Salmond. I am | :03:22. | :03:27. | |
joined by our Scotland political editor, Brian Taylor. Welcome to | :03:27. | :03:30. | |
the programme. The question on the ballot paper will be crucial. Alex | :03:30. | :03:35. | |
Salmond does not want it to be a straight yes or no because he | :03:35. | :03:39. | |
presumably does not think he can win it on that basis. He says he is | :03:39. | :03:47. | |
not averse. He says his preference is for the question on independence, | :03:47. | :03:52. | |
yes or no, but he is open to the idea of having also on the ballot | :03:52. | :03:56. | |
paper devolution Max, whereby all spending would be controlled in | :03:56. | :04:01. | |
Scotland, but defence and foreign affairs would be across the UK. He | :04:01. | :04:06. | |
favours that because he favours a range of options, he says, but | :04:06. | :04:09. | |
strategically and tactically he is trying to divide Unionist opinion. | :04:09. | :04:14. | |
That option of devolution Max is pretty close to what the Liberal | :04:14. | :04:17. | |
Democrats would find appealing intellectually. He is trying to | :04:17. | :04:21. | |
prise them away from their Tory coalition partners and prise apart | :04:21. | :04:28. | |
the Unionist perspective on this, more generally. We saw that from | :04:28. | :04:32. | |
the Commons coming from the UK Government. Alex Salmond was | :04:32. | :04:37. | |
critical of David Cameron and then very co-operative towards the | :04:37. | :04:47. | |
:04:47. | :04:47. | ||
Liberal Democrats's Scottish Secretary, Michael Moore. The Prime | :04:47. | :04:50. | |
Minister's spokesman has made clear that David Cameron will be | :04:50. | :04:56. | |
personally involved in Scottish independence issues with other | :04:56. | :05:00. | |
parties. There will be a battle over this. Yes, and at the moment | :05:00. | :05:03. | |
there is a battle between two parliaments and two governments | :05:03. | :05:11. | |
about the nature of the referendum. That sounds like it is just process, | :05:11. | :05:17. | |
but it is not. It is so that the outcome would be accepted as valid, | :05:17. | :05:21. | |
because independence is a matter for the wider UK. Alex Salmond is | :05:21. | :05:25. | |
seeking for a mandate to open negotiations with the UK Government, | :05:25. | :05:29. | |
with the aim of Gordon becoming an independent country. In that regard, | :05:29. | :05:34. | |
of course the UK Government has an interest. But the perspective have | :05:34. | :05:37. | |
to be made in Scotland and designed in Scotland, according to Alex | :05:37. | :05:43. | |
Salmond, and above all held in Scotland. I am sure we will return | :05:43. | :05:46. | |
to Edinburgh over the coming days. We will return in a few moments | :05:46. | :05:53. | |
because we will be joined by Bruce Crawford from the SNP. If Alex | :05:53. | :05:57. | |
Salmond says that he is the Scottish First Minister ante has | :05:57. | :06:01. | |
majority in the Holyrood Parliament, we are having this referendum in | :06:02. | :06:06. | |
2014, what do you do? He introduced me as an Englishman and I am | :06:06. | :06:16. | |
:06:16. | :06:16. | ||
actually blush. I was born in Paris. -- I am actually Welsh. I was born | :06:16. | :06:25. | |
near Cardiff. What is the answer to your question? He should read the | :06:25. | :06:30. | |
law. The law says that the devolution settlement means that | :06:30. | :06:34. | |
constitutional matters are reserved for Westminster. It is absolutely | :06:34. | :06:38. | |
clear that it is for the Westminster Parliament to do | :06:39. | :06:42. | |
constitutional matters. understand that, but what if he | :06:42. | :06:46. | |
says this is a consultation referendum and we are just getting | :06:46. | :06:50. | |
Scottish opinion? Then if he gets the result that he wants, I do not | :06:50. | :06:54. | |
know if that is Scottish independence or devolution Max, | :06:54. | :07:03. | |
that becomes unstoppable, doesn't it? In a democracy acting outside | :07:03. | :07:07. | |
the law does not mean it is unstoppable. That would be very bad. | :07:07. | :07:13. | |
The law does not recognise the difference between a consultation | :07:13. | :07:17. | |
referendum and a decision referendum. It is clear that Alex | :07:17. | :07:20. | |
Salmond is playing Grandmother's footsteps and moving gently towards | :07:20. | :07:24. | |
what he wants. We do not know what he wants. It has the air of | :07:24. | :07:29. | |
somebody talking a big game, wanting independence, and now | :07:29. | :07:33. | |
backing away from it because he is frightened of what the Scottish | :07:33. | :07:37. | |
people will say. Do you welcome David Cameron's decision to | :07:37. | :07:41. | |
basically put this on the agenda? It was put on the agenda by the | :07:41. | :07:45. | |
Scottish people and the decision that they reached in May. The truth | :07:45. | :07:48. | |
is that there is a gap between a political mandate and the legal | :07:48. | :07:53. | |
authority. There is no doubt that the SNP won an overwhelming victory. | :07:53. | :07:56. | |
They campaigned to have a referendum, but they were silent on | :07:56. | :08:03. | |
when that would be. The Scotland Act, which established the Scottish | :08:03. | :08:05. | |
Parliament, made clear that constitutional matters were | :08:05. | :08:12. | |
reserved for Westminster. I always believe that the sensible approach | :08:12. | :08:18. | |
is to align the political mandate with authority. Let's not have | :08:18. | :08:21. | |
Scotland's future dictated by legal wranglings in the court and | :08:21. | :08:26. | |
arguments about process. The central truth is that Alex Salmond, | :08:26. | :08:30. | |
despite a lifetime committed to independence, is looking to fix the | :08:30. | :08:33. | |
question first of all, secondly to fix the timing, and thirdly, | :08:33. | :08:39. | |
despite all of the bluster, to put the question immediately to the | :08:39. | :08:42. | |
Scottish people for a decisive answer. We all know that a | :08:42. | :08:46. | |
referendum is coming. Right now Scotland is pause. The one person | :08:46. | :08:51. | |
that most is the verdict of the Scottish people is Alex Salmond. He | :08:51. | :08:54. | |
knows that the most recent opinion poll published on Monday in the | :08:54. | :08:57. | |
Glasgow Herald showed support for Scottish independence running at | :08:57. | :09:03. | |
29%. That is higher than it has been. For the last 40 years it has | :09:03. | :09:08. | |
been somewhere around 35% support for independence. Of course the SNP | :09:08. | :09:12. | |
are popular in Scotland but they have not managed to close the gap | :09:12. | :09:17. | |
between how they do in Holyrood and how much support they have for | :09:17. | :09:21. | |
independence. Let's go to Bruce Crawford, Cabinet Secretary for the | :09:21. | :09:26. | |
SNP. Thank you for joining us. What official legal advice had you had | :09:26. | :09:31. | |
in Edinburgh about the legality of a referendum? There is lots of | :09:31. | :09:34. | |
legal advice available to us about the legality of an advisory | :09:34. | :09:39. | |
referendum. What have you had? me tell you what is currently | :09:39. | :09:48. | |
available. Hemsworth and O'Neill, the leading constitutional lawyers, | :09:48. | :09:52. | |
they have a legal textbook on that, and they are clear that an advisory | :09:52. | :09:55. | |
referendum can be held by the Scottish Parliament. It is also | :09:55. | :09:59. | |
quite clear from Stephen Tierney, the leading professor at Edinburgh | :09:59. | :10:03. | |
law school that that is the case, provided we craft the question | :10:03. | :10:11. | |
properly. Let me add 1 point. just want to put this to you. I | :10:12. | :10:15. | |
understand these are published works by professors, that have been | :10:15. | :10:20. | |
in the public domain for a while. But have you, as the Scottish | :10:20. | :10:25. | |
Government, consulted your official legal authorities and got official | :10:25. | :10:35. | |
:10:35. | :10:39. | ||
advice? We would not have published a consultation February 2010 paper | :10:39. | :10:47. | |
without that advice. We do not publish legal advice. Apologies for | :10:47. | :10:50. | |
interrupting, but I am actually seeking facts. I am not arguing | :10:50. | :10:55. | |
with you, I just want the facts. You say that you will not publish | :10:55. | :11:00. | |
it, but do you have an official document by Scotland's official | :11:00. | :11:04. | |
legal authorities, giving you advice on the legality of a | :11:04. | :11:10. | |
referendum? Our advice is very clear. We are completely able to | :11:10. | :11:14. | |
hold an advisory referendum. Where we do not have an argument with | :11:14. | :11:17. | |
Michael Moore, who handled this reasonably in the House of Commons | :11:17. | :11:21. | |
yesterday, unlike David Cameron he wants to come in with his side's 10 | :11:22. | :11:28. | |
boots all the time and dictate to Scotland, where we do not have an | :11:28. | :11:32. | |
argument with Michael Moore is that we do not have the power for a | :11:32. | :11:35. | |
binding referendum. If they want to bring in legislation in that regard, | :11:35. | :11:40. | |
so be it. Would you be happier to have an early referendum Van Orton | :11:41. | :11:46. | |
2014? We made it very clear in the election campaign exactly when the | :11:47. | :11:52. | |
referendum would be. It is for all of the sensible reasons. We will | :11:52. | :12:02. | |
bring forward the legislation in 20th January 13, -- in January, | :12:02. | :12:07. | |
2013. Then there are issues like the gold report, which said there | :12:07. | :12:10. | |
must be six months between are the passing of the legislation and the | :12:11. | :12:17. | |
holding of the election and the European elections in 2014. We said | :12:17. | :12:21. | |
we would do it then and that is exactly what we will do. I am still | :12:21. | :12:25. | |
not quite clear whether you have a document with official legal advice | :12:26. | :12:30. | |
on it as opposed to a professor here or there. He seems to think he | :12:30. | :12:34. | |
has legality. He is quoting a professor at Edinburgh University. | :12:34. | :12:38. | |
I am a graduate of Law at Edinburgh University. The fact is that the | :12:38. | :12:42. | |
British Government has legal advice that confirms the position, we | :12:42. | :12:46. | |
understand from what Michael Moore held in the Commons yesterday, | :12:46. | :12:52. | |
which is widely held, that Westminster holds the constitution | :12:52. | :12:55. | |
when they devolve powers to the Scottish Government. That does not | :12:55. | :12:58. | |
mean they cannot be a referendum and I would like to see one. That | :12:58. | :13:02. | |
is why Michael Moore did something reasonable, aligning the political | :13:02. | :13:06. | |
mandate with the authority. Bruce Crawford has been a lifetime a | :13:06. | :13:09. | |
stylist and he cannot give you a credible isolation as to why it | :13:09. | :13:17. | |
should be in 2014. -- lifetime nationalist. It should be 2013. Why | :13:17. | :13:24. | |
delay? We have had this argument for 40 years. Bruce Crawford? | :13:24. | :13:27. | |
said during the election campaign that we would hold it in the second | :13:28. | :13:31. | |
half of the Parliament. I think it would be strange if we suddenly | :13:31. | :13:35. | |
decided not to do that. It might be for others to change their minds on | :13:35. | :13:38. | |
the basis of what they have said in election campaigns but we stick to | :13:38. | :13:48. | |
:13:48. | :13:51. | ||
that. You did not but the time in your manifesto. -- put the time. I | :13:51. | :13:56. | |
do apologise for interrupting you. I want to get my point across. | :13:56. | :14:01. | |
viewers are short on facts. They do not follow this every day. Can we | :14:01. | :14:04. | |
establish that the time of the referendum, that to claim a mandate | :14:04. | :14:12. | |
for, was not in your manifesto? True? Yes, but... Yes? But Alex | :14:12. | :14:18. | |
Salmond said that was when it would be throughout the campaign. | :14:18. | :14:23. | |
have been interrupting me quite a lot. On you go. I apologise. This | :14:23. | :14:27. | |
is one of the most important decisions in Scotland's history. It | :14:27. | :14:30. | |
is right that we give the people of Scotland time to consider the | :14:31. | :14:34. | |
matter properly, in an orderly fashion, with the proper | :14:34. | :14:37. | |
information in front of them so they can make their decision about | :14:37. | :14:41. | |
the future of their own country. Can I come back to a factual issue? | :14:41. | :14:44. | |
You said you made it clear throughout the campaign for the | :14:44. | :14:48. | |
timing of the referendum. My journalistic colleagues in Scotland | :14:48. | :14:52. | |
who covered the campaign so that did not come out until four days | :14:52. | :14:56. | |
beforehand. There was a seven-week campaign and Alex Salmond did not | :14:56. | :15:03. | |
give them the timing until four days before. Isn't that true? | :15:03. | :15:11. | |
anyone disputing... Is that true? Four days before. Is anyone | :15:11. | :15:15. | |
seriously disputing the fact that in terms of the process in which we | :15:15. | :15:18. | |
are involved currently, in terms of what the people of Scotland | :15:18. | :15:22. | |
understood when they went to the ballot box, when we were talking | :15:22. | :15:26. | |
about an election campaign for referendum but it would be in 2014? | :15:26. | :15:30. | |
Is it or is it not true that Alex Salmond only gave us the timing of | :15:31. | :15:35. | |
the referendum four days before Scotland went to the polls? I will | :15:35. | :15:41. | |
repeat that... No, answer the question. I would need to go back | :15:41. | :15:45. | |
and look at the detail. What is absolutely clear here is that | :15:45. | :15:49. | |
everyone understood exactly what they were doing on the day of their | :15:49. | :15:54. | |
particular election campaign in 2007, when they gave the Scottish | :15:54. | :15:58. | |
National party a clear mandate to run the referendum. Even Jim Murphy | :15:58. | :16:02. | |
said in the New Statesman in November last year that this should | :16:02. | :16:06. | |
be built in Scotland and for once I agree with him. We know it is a | :16:06. | :16:09. | |
busy time for you up there so I thank you for joining us and | :16:09. | :16:14. | |
putting up with my interruptions. I will be in Edinburgh tonight so if | :16:14. | :16:23. | |
you are around I will buy you a What would you say to Alistair | :16:23. | :16:27. | |
Darling, a man of huge credibility who saw the country through the | :16:27. | :16:31. | |
banking crisis, heading up the pro- union campaign against Alex | :16:31. | :16:36. | |
Salmond? I hope he will have a prominent role in the case | :16:36. | :16:41. | |
defending Scotland's interests in the UK. I don't think we need to | :16:41. | :16:45. | |
assign jobs yet, but it is clear this will be a cross-party campaign. | :16:45. | :16:48. | |
I got that, but what about Mr Darling heading up the people | :16:48. | :16:53. | |
against it? It has to be a very credible figure and Alastair | :16:53. | :16:58. | |
Darling is, but I will not pick the leader of the campaign. I will take | :16:58. | :17:04. | |
that as an maybe. Not ruled out. Now, immigration to Britain from | :17:04. | :17:06. | |
outside the European Union is linked to unemployment in these | :17:06. | :17:09. | |
depressed economic times - that's according to the Government's | :17:09. | :17:12. | |
Migration Advisory Committee. "No, it's not" says another report | :17:12. | :17:15. | |
published yesterday - this time by the National Institute of Economic | :17:15. | :17:17. | |
and Social Research which found no correlation between immigration and | :17:17. | :17:23. | |
unemployment. Oh well, you pays your researcher, you takes your | :17:23. | :17:30. | |
choice, I suppose. But whatever the truth about the impact of | :17:30. | :17:33. | |
immigration this government has committed itself to reducing it. So | :17:33. | :17:36. | |
how's it going, and are they anywhere near hitting their target? | :17:36. | :17:41. | |
Here's Jo. Yes, Andrew. Now net migration - the difference between | :17:41. | :17:45. | |
the number of people entering and leaving the UK - hit a peak of | :17:45. | :17:50. | |
252,000 in 2010. David Cameron has pledged to reduce it to the 'tens | :17:50. | :17:56. | |
of thousands' by 2015 and it was a key part of his party's manifesto. | :17:56. | :17:59. | |
To achieve this, the government have so far imposed restrictions on | :17:59. | :18:01. | |
non-EU workers, overhauled the student visa system and will | :18:01. | :18:05. | |
announce reforms of the family migration and settlement routes. | :18:05. | :18:15. | |
:18:15. | :18:34. | ||
But many critics don't think it's Oxford University's Migration | :18:34. | :18:37. | |
Observatory found the biggest issue is that we cannot control or limit | :18:37. | :18:40. | |
British or EU migration, so all cuts need to be made to non-EU | :18:40. | :18:42. | |
immigration. And even the independent Office for Budget | :18:42. | :18:44. | |
Responsibility, the Coalition's fiscal watchdog, has estimated that | :18:44. | :18:47. | |
average annual migration will be 140,000 until 2016, saying "there | :18:47. | :18:49. | |
is insufficient reason to change our average net migration | :18:49. | :18:59. | |
:18:59. | :19:04. | ||
Well, as chance would have it, the immigration Minister Damian Green | :19:04. | :19:11. | |
is still with us, along with Douglas Alexander. Damian Green, | :19:11. | :19:16. | |
the net migration in 2010 was over 250,000, nearly quarter of a | :19:16. | :19:21. | |
million, and last year it looks like being just under 250,000, so | :19:21. | :19:26. | |
basically No change. Are you sure you're going to get it down to tens | :19:26. | :19:32. | |
of thousands in three years? seems to peak in 20th September 10. | :19:32. | :19:35. | |
We note that in the last three years of the Labour government the | :19:35. | :19:41. | |
migration was going through the roof. In 20th September 10, he was | :19:41. | :19:46. | |
slightly up, and 20th March 11 was down further. You cannot go from a | :19:46. | :19:51. | |
quarter of a million to under 100,000 in three years. That is why | :19:51. | :19:55. | |
we have taken the longest of measures that were just detailed | :19:55. | :20:01. | |
and why we took them early on. you expected to be this year? | :20:01. | :20:09. | |
will be lower than 250,000. It will be in the tens of thousands. | :20:09. | :20:17. | |
the 100,000? -- under 100,000? Yes, that is the same thing. That is why | :20:17. | :20:23. | |
we took the action early on. We knew it would be a huge job, and it | :20:23. | :20:33. | |
:20:33. | :20:34. | ||
was turning round an oil tanker. Almost everyone agrees, even Chris | :20:34. | :20:38. | |
Bryant and he agrees net migration is too high. We all know we have to | :20:38. | :20:48. | |
:20:48. | :20:50. | ||
bring it down. And you will do that without any further action? You'll | :20:50. | :20:53. | |
get from 250,002 down to 80 or 90,000 that the most in three | :20:53. | :21:01. | |
years? There will be further action. We have had to consultations in the | :21:01. | :21:04. | |
last part of the year which will make announcements in the coming | :21:04. | :21:08. | |
months, the first on breaking the link between coming into work and | :21:08. | :21:14. | |
stain and settling permanently, and then the family migration. But also | :21:14. | :21:18. | |
the point is often lost in the debate is that we announced all of | :21:18. | :21:22. | |
our student measures last year that they actually come into place bit | :21:22. | :21:26. | |
by bit so some have been in place since last April, but another a | :21:26. | :21:30. | |
huge slice will commend this April, so there will be new, effective | :21:30. | :21:34. | |
measures. We have abolished the automatic right for students who | :21:34. | :21:44. | |
:21:44. | :21:46. | ||
come here to come in and that only comes in in April. Britain's future | :21:46. | :21:52. | |
to be a creative hub for the world, to develop our creativity, and at | :21:52. | :21:56. | |
one of the ways of doing that is to get the best and brightest Dudus | :21:56. | :22:01. | |
from around the world to come and study here. They have to pay fees - | :22:01. | :22:05. | |
- brightest students. If they get good degrees and they work hard, | :22:05. | :22:11. | |
why would we not want them to stay here and get jobs? We do want the | :22:11. | :22:14. | |
best and brightest to stay here and that is the key to a successful | :22:14. | :22:18. | |
policy. First or getting the numbers down, that is the bedrock, | :22:18. | :22:26. | |
but also making sure that we are much better at being selective if | :22:26. | :22:30. | |
the that not just to we allowed to stay that encourage, amid all the | :22:30. | :22:34. | |
measures we have taken to cut the numbers, we have taken measures to | :22:35. | :22:39. | |
increase some routes. We have set up an entrepreneur's route and have | :22:39. | :22:48. | |
twice as many coming in. In London, and the number of leading | :22:48. | :22:50. | |
universities in the country, they are complaining that it is | :22:50. | :22:54. | |
difficult for them to attract the best and the brightest. | :22:54. | :22:59. | |
transition causes people to worry. We found with the work is a limit | :22:59. | :23:04. | |
we put on and with the student changes that in anticipation of | :23:05. | :23:10. | |
change, everyone predicted the -- doom and gloom. But we did find the | :23:10. | :23:15. | |
system was perfectly efficient and as a hard example we introduce the | :23:15. | :23:19. | |
limit which was supposed to stop the doom-mongers saying that we | :23:19. | :23:22. | |
would not get skilled workers, but that limit has been under | :23:22. | :23:28. | |
subscribed every month since we brought it in so it is not stopping | :23:28. | :23:34. | |
a single valuable worker from coming to the country. I have | :23:34. | :23:37. | |
details of software engineer companies find it difficult to | :23:37. | :23:41. | |
attract people, but I cannot go into the details because of time. | :23:41. | :23:44. | |
There was a net migration of 2 million into the country during the | :23:44. | :23:49. | |
Labour years. Was it too much? said the transitional controls at | :23:49. | :23:55. | |
the time of the accession of the new countries to the European Union | :23:55. | :24:00. | |
should have been changed. We should have acted earlier and more | :24:00. | :24:04. | |
decisively and we introduced an Australian points based system to | :24:04. | :24:08. | |
get the skills you want, but not the unskilled workers you don't | :24:08. | :24:13. | |
want. In retrospect, could we have moved earlier, I think we could. | :24:13. | :24:17. | |
But in that sends you have to judge the issues dependent on the economy | :24:17. | :24:21. | |
at the time. The rules do matter. You want controlled immigration | :24:21. | :24:26. | |
that enforcement matters as well. And this is only a few months after | :24:26. | :24:30. | |
one of the biggest fiascos we have seen at UK borders for many years, | :24:30. | :24:35. | |
which was where the most generous description was that we did not | :24:35. | :24:39. | |
know what was happening on Britain's borders. It is now a | :24:39. | :24:45. | |
matter for the courts. Rules matter, but enforcement matters as well. | :24:45. | :24:50. | |
you think there is a link between the 600,000 people who came from | :24:50. | :24:54. | |
Eastern Europe after 2004, hard working, often well-educated, | :24:54. | :24:58. | |
picked up English quickly, became an asset to the country, and the | :24:58. | :25:02. | |
fact that youth unemployment rose by 450,000 in the same period? | :25:02. | :25:07. | |
There has to be something. There is contested evidence in terms of the | :25:07. | :25:13. | |
accession countries. Some suggest that the level of skills did not | :25:13. | :25:17. | |
impact on job creation at the time because they tended to be less a | :25:17. | :25:21. | |
skilled jobs, but is it the case that the net outflow of people | :25:21. | :25:27. | |
compared to the rest of the European Union broadly matches, | :25:27. | :25:34. | |
those were about equal. We hope you will come back and we don't have to | :25:34. | :25:38. | |
cheat by getting you in at the guest of the day. -- Getting Even | :25:38. | :25:41. | |
as the guest of the day. Now finally some good news on | :25:41. | :25:45. | |
government delivery. On Monday it was revealed that after some 20 | :25:45. | :25:48. | |
months in office the David Cameron had completed every stage of the | :25:48. | :25:58. | |
application - or app. He has got to the end of Angry Birds on his i-Pad. | :25:58. | :26:08. | |
:26:08. | :26:08. | ||
What will he do with his time? Fear not, Prime Minister, for your ever- | :26:08. | :26:11. | |
loyal education secretary, Michael Gove, has announced this morning | :26:11. | :26:14. | |
that school pupils will be learning how write new games for tablet PCs | :26:14. | :26:17. | |
and smart phones for the Prime Minister and the rest of us to | :26:17. | :26:27. | |
:26:27. | :26:30. | ||
enjoy. But if you can't wait that long, we've got a real game for you | :26:30. | :26:34. | |
to play with a real prize. One of these in fact, a brand spanking new | :26:34. | :26:43. | |
Daily Politics mug. We'll remind you how to enter in a minute, but | :26:43. | :26:53. | |
:26:53. | :26:53. | ||
Apology for the loss of subtitles for 56 seconds | :26:53. | :27:49. | |
let's see if you can remember when It what it in this quiet street of | :27:49. | :27:59. | |
:27:59. | :28:14. | ||
detached Victorian houses that the To be in with a chance of winning a | :28:14. | :28:16. | |
Daily Politics mug, send your answer to our special quiz email | :28:16. | :28:19. | |
address. That's [email protected]. And you can see the full terms and | :28:19. | :28:22. | |
conditions for Guess The Year on our website - that's | :28:22. | :28:32. | |
:28:32. | :28:40. | ||
Feed in the oil. The sun shining and others look for, and I was | :28:40. | :28:43. | |
looking forward to only two things, Prime Minister's Questions and Nick | :28:43. | :28:50. | |
Robinson. I am just doing my Angry Birds. I wonder if Alex Salmond has | :28:50. | :28:56. | |
done all it? A I bet he has. What is going to happen? Westminster is | :28:56. | :29:02. | |
a buzz about Scotland but it won't necessarily come up. Angus | :29:02. | :29:07. | |
Robertson may get his chance to ask a question. Interesting to know if | :29:07. | :29:11. | |
Ed Miliband chooses to use any of his questions to talk about that as | :29:11. | :29:14. | |
a way of expressing solidarity amongst Unionist parties. Clearly | :29:14. | :29:19. | |
Ed Miliband needs to find a subject on which she is on Secure ground. | :29:19. | :29:22. | |
He has had a shaky few days since the start of the new year. The last | :29:23. | :29:27. | |
thing he wants to do is give David Cameron opportunity to taunt him | :29:27. | :29:31. | |
off for his backbenchers to look grim while the Tories waving order | :29:31. | :29:35. | |
papers, so it is the sort of day where people were last something | :29:35. | :29:44. | |
If you are cruel to Ed Miliband, and the last thing he said he | :29:45. | :29:49. | |
wanted do was dispatching as Labour leader, but we know that David | :29:49. | :29:54. | |
Cameron pays a price when he seems dismissive and arrogant. The truth | :29:54. | :29:58. | |
is he reserves enormous amounts of courtesy for everyone in the House | :29:58. | :30:05. | |
of Commons, except for two people, and they are both called Ed. He is | :30:05. | :30:07. | |
uncharacteristically rude to them personally in a way he is not | :30:07. | :30:10. | |
really with people. Even if he fundamentally disagrees with them. | :30:11. | :30:19. | |
He goes out of his way to question the wisdom of their points. Do you | :30:19. | :30:21. | |
get the impression that the Westminster Establishment is | :30:21. | :30:26. | |
running around now trying to get up to speed on Scotland? Absolutely, | :30:26. | :30:33. | |
on the legalities, how it works. is different for you. It was just a | :30:33. | :30:39. | |
question for me, and we naturally excluded you. He just excluded you | :30:39. | :30:42. | |
from the Westminster Establishment. Paisley lads don't have to rush to | :30:42. | :30:47. | |
get up to speed. They are looking at the legalities of it, what | :30:47. | :30:51. | |
unearth devolution maximum means. I am trying to find myself a nice | :30:51. | :30:54. | |
flat in Edinburgh. I will look for one tonight. Let's go over to the | :30:54. | :31:01. | |
I am sure the whole House will wish to join me in paying tribute to the | :31:01. | :31:04. | |
servicemen that have fallen in the service of our country since we | :31:04. | :31:10. | |
last met. Captain Tom Jennings from the Royal Marines. Squadron Leader | :31:10. | :31:13. | |
Anthony Downing from the Royal applause. Private John King from | :31:13. | :31:23. | |
:31:23. | :31:24. | ||
first Battalion the rifles. And a member of the Gurkha regiment who | :31:24. | :31:30. | |
died after a long time in hospital. Their outstanding courage and | :31:30. | :31:32. | |
selflessness will never be forgotten. They gave their lives | :31:32. | :31:36. | |
defending our country and making it more secure and our thoughts should | :31:36. | :31:40. | |
be with their families and friends. I had meetings with ministers, | :31:40. | :31:43. | |
colleagues and others this morning and I will have further such | :31:43. | :31:49. | |
meetings later today. The whole House would wish to associate | :31:49. | :31:54. | |
itself with the Prime Minister's tribute to the fallen. Can I ask | :31:54. | :31:59. | |
the Prime Minister in joining me in congratulating crowns which country | :31:59. | :32:03. | |
food on a �15 million in best met in creating a state of the art | :32:03. | :32:13. | |
:32:13. | :32:13. | ||
facility in my constituency? -- �50 million investment. They are now | :32:13. | :32:18. | |
employing 1200 people. Unfortunately the Food Standards | :32:18. | :32:21. | |
Agency is blocking exports from this excellent plant to the Far | :32:21. | :32:30. | |
East. Can the Prime Minister assure me that job-destroying and an | :32:30. | :32:33. | |
necessary regulation will not be tolerated by this Government? | :32:33. | :32:41. | |
joined my friend in welcoming them to his constituency. It is vital | :32:41. | :32:45. | |
that we balance our economy with greater emphasis on business | :32:45. | :32:49. | |
investment and exports. In terms of exports to China, they went up by | :32:49. | :32:53. | |
over 20% last year. I will certainly do everything I can to | :32:53. | :32:59. | |
help resolve the situation and I am happy to ask a minister from DEFRA | :32:59. | :33:07. | |
of to meet with my honourable friend to discuss this issue. | :33:07. | :33:12. | |
Miliband. Can I join the Prime Minister in paying tribute to | :33:12. | :33:15. | |
Captain Tom Jennings from the Royal Marines, Squadron Leader Anthony | :33:15. | :33:19. | |
Downing from the Royal Air Force, Private John King from first | :33:19. | :33:23. | |
Battalion the Yorkshire Regiment, and the riflemen from the Gurkha | :33:23. | :33:31. | |
regiment? All of them showed enormous courage and bravery. They | :33:31. | :33:36. | |
are making sacrifices on our behalf and our deepest condolences go to | :33:36. | :33:41. | |
their family and friends. Mr Speaker, the Chancellor said in the | :33:41. | :33:44. | |
Autumn Statement that train fares would only rise by 1% above | :33:44. | :33:48. | |
inflation. Can he therefore explain why railway companies this month, | :33:48. | :33:51. | |
on some of the busiest commuter routes, have increased their fares | :33:51. | :33:56. | |
by up to 11%? The power was given to them to do that by the last | :33:56. | :34:06. | |
:34:06. | :34:07. | ||
Labour Government. Ed Miliband. Mr Speaker... No, Mr Speaker. The | :34:07. | :34:13. | |
Prime Minister is wrong. The last Labour Government stopped them | :34:13. | :34:18. | |
doing that and this Prime Minister, when he came to office, reversed | :34:18. | :34:24. | |
that policy. The policy that we introduced. That is why the | :34:24. | :34:28. | |
companies are able to rake the fares. That is why someone | :34:28. | :34:32. | |
travelling from Northampton to London will see a rise on the | :34:32. | :34:36. | |
season-ticket of over �300. Will he now stand up to the train companies, | :34:36. | :34:43. | |
get a better deal for commuters and change his policy? I know the | :34:43. | :34:45. | |
honourable gentleman has had a difficult start to the year. He has | :34:45. | :34:50. | |
made it worse by getting it wrong. Labour allowed in 2009 fare | :34:50. | :34:55. | |
increases of up to 11% because they introduce this idea of flexibility | :34:55. | :35:01. | |
of 5% over and above the RPI plus 1% which was the case. And what was | :35:01. | :35:09. | |
the case in 2009 is the case today. The key issue is this. There are | :35:09. | :35:13. | |
only two places that money for railways can come from, the | :35:13. | :35:16. | |
taxpayer or the traveller. What really matters is whether we are | :35:16. | :35:20. | |
going to put money into railway investment and that this Government | :35:20. | :35:26. | |
is doing that. We are electrifying the Great Western main line. We are | :35:26. | :35:29. | |
building CrossRail. We are led to find the line between Manchester | :35:29. | :35:35. | |
and Liverpool. We are putting millions into CrossRail and we are | :35:35. | :35:41. | |
building HS2 as well. I am afraid the Prime Minister is just wrong | :35:41. | :35:44. | |
about the facts. The last Labour Government saw the train companies | :35:44. | :35:48. | |
taking advantage of consumers, ripping them off by increasing | :35:48. | :35:53. | |
fares more on the busiest routes. We stopped it. We took a way that | :35:53. | :36:00. | |
power from them. He came to office and he brought the power back. He | :36:00. | :36:04. | |
made the wrong decision. As for the idea that this is all to help the | :36:04. | :36:08. | |
passenger, the Audit Office warned last month that the problem was | :36:08. | :36:14. | |
this money would result in increasing train operating company | :36:14. | :36:21. | |
profits. Will he now go back and reverse his policy? We originally | :36:21. | :36:27. | |
set out an RPI plus 3% policy the train fares. We found money in the | :36:27. | :36:32. | |
Autumn Statement to reduce that to RPI plus 1%. I have to say to him, | :36:32. | :36:37. | |
if you want to see more money going into our railways, presumably he | :36:37. | :36:42. | |
supports the latter occasion of the Great Western main line and | :36:42. | :36:48. | |
electrification of the railway lines in the North West, he will be | :36:48. | :36:51. | |
touring the country saying that his support these things but he is | :36:51. | :36:54. | |
never prepared to take difficult decisions in order to support them. | :36:55. | :36:59. | |
But it is time... The answers from the Prime Minister will be heard. | :36:59. | :37:03. | |
The Prime Minister. I think it is time for him to listen to his | :37:03. | :37:07. | |
defence secretary who wrote very candidly over Christmas there is a | :37:07. | :37:10. | |
difference between populism and popularity, and that differences | :37:11. | :37:16. | |
called credibility. Time to have some, I think. Instead of his pre- | :37:16. | :37:22. | |
prepared lines, he should get his facts right about his own policy. | :37:22. | :37:29. | |
He is just wrong. He is wrong. He says that he is continuing the | :37:29. | :37:32. | |
policy of the last Labour Government and he is simply wrong | :37:32. | :37:35. | |
on the facts. The last Labour Government saw what the train | :37:35. | :37:39. | |
companies were doing and said we were going to put an end to it. The | :37:39. | :37:43. | |
Prime Minister said at the weekend that he wanted to take action | :37:43. | :37:48. | |
against crony capitalism and he has failed at the first hurdle. I ask | :37:48. | :37:55. | |
him for the last time, Mr Speaker, will he now reverse the policy? | :37:55. | :38:00. | |
are now on to the issue of how people are paid. On the issue of | :38:00. | :38:04. | |
the rail fares, let me be absolutely clear. Labour introduced | :38:04. | :38:10. | |
the policy of 5% flexibility. They changed it for one year only for an | :38:10. | :38:14. | |
election year. But they had no intention of making that permanent | :38:14. | :38:24. | |
:38:24. | :38:25. | ||
and if he does not know that, he should. If he wants to get on to | :38:25. | :38:28. | |
the issue of executive pay, I think he is entirely right to raise this | :38:28. | :38:38. | |
issue. Order! I want to hear the answer and however long... Order! | :38:38. | :38:43. | |
Order! However long it takes, I will. The Prime Minister. Thank you, | :38:43. | :38:48. | |
Mr Speaker. I think he is right to raise the issue of executive pay, | :38:48. | :38:51. | |
and unlike the last Government that did nothing for 13 years, this | :38:51. | :39:01. | |
:39:01. | :39:04. | ||
Government will act. Roger Gale. Thank you, Mr Speaker. I understand | :39:04. | :39:08. | |
that my right honourable friend has recommended me for one you present | :39:08. | :39:13. | |
and I am about to ask for another. -- new present. He is talking | :39:14. | :39:18. | |
drivel, I am afraid. My constituents have been paying up to | :39:18. | :39:23. | |
10% increases under the last Labour Government for the last four years. | :39:23. | :39:28. | |
In congratulating this Government in its courageous decision to | :39:28. | :39:33. | |
pursue HS2, can I ask my right honourable friend now to turn his | :39:33. | :39:36. | |
attention to a piece of unfinished business left by the last | :39:36. | :39:40. | |
Government? High-speed one at present only runs effectively from | :39:40. | :39:44. | |
St Pancras to Ashford. Can it be driven through to Thanet so that we | :39:44. | :39:50. | |
can enjoy the sort of benefits that in the future will be enjoyed by | :39:50. | :39:56. | |
Birmingham? I congratulate my friend for his well deserved honour | :39:56. | :40:00. | |
for his service to his constituents over many years. He is entirely | :40:00. | :40:04. | |
right. Regulated fares went up by over 18% and unregulated fares by | :40:05. | :40:09. | |
over 23% under the last Government. On the issue of high-speed one, I | :40:09. | :40:12. | |
will certainly look at what he says, but I think it is an advertisement | :40:12. | :40:17. | |
of what you can get by linking up our country with high-speed rail, | :40:17. | :40:20. | |
shortening commuter distances and helping change the economic | :40:20. | :40:24. | |
geography of our country, so that we can actually build a stronger | :40:24. | :40:32. | |
economy. Over 80,000 pensioners in Liverpool will lose up to �100 this | :40:32. | :40:39. | |
winter following the Government cuts to winter fuel allowance. Will | :40:39. | :40:43. | |
the Prime Minister a Dock Labour's policy so that elderly customers | :40:43. | :40:50. | |
are automatically put onto the cheapest tariff for gas and | :40:50. | :40:53. | |
electricity? Rather like the leader of a party, there seems to be an | :40:53. | :40:58. | |
outbreak of collective amnesia on the potty benches. What we have | :40:58. | :41:04. | |
done is keep the last policy on the winter fuel allowance. -- on the | :41:04. | :41:09. | |
party benches. We are keeping all of our promises about the winter | :41:09. | :41:13. | |
fuel allowance what we have gone one further than that. They | :41:13. | :41:16. | |
introduced higher cold weather payments only for election year and | :41:16. | :41:22. | |
we have made them permanent. Prime Minister will have | :41:22. | :41:27. | |
experienced first-hand the quality of nursing in my constituency. What | :41:27. | :41:31. | |
steps are being taken to make sure that the patients throughout the | :41:31. | :41:36. | |
country are receiving the highest possible standards of nursing out | :41:36. | :41:43. | |
from the NHS? The honourable lady is right because I will never | :41:43. | :41:46. | |
forget the time that I spent at the Royal Cornwall Hospital and the | :41:46. | :41:49. | |
happy days that I had there. It was a privilege to go back last year. | :41:49. | :41:53. | |
We do have high standards of nursing care in our country. The | :41:53. | :41:57. | |
overwhelming majority of nurses do a great job. I do not think we are | :41:57. | :42:00. | |
serving a constituent properly if we highlight the few cases where it | :42:00. | :42:04. | |
does go wrong. As we have seen in the reports, there are areas where | :42:04. | :42:08. | |
it does go wrong. It is incumbent on Government to remove the | :42:08. | :42:13. | |
bureaucracy that can get in the way of nurses. It is also important to | :42:13. | :42:17. | |
higher at best practice in the best hospitals in our country. -- to | :42:17. | :42:22. | |
highlight the best practices. I saw a wonderful hospital in Salford and | :42:22. | :42:25. | |
I want to copy that so that we look after the nutritional and care | :42:25. | :42:33. | |
needs of people that are vulnerable in our hospitals. Ed Miliband. | :42:33. | :42:38. | |
want to ask the Prime Minister about Scotland. We, on this side of | :42:38. | :42:44. | |
the house, believe that United Kingdom benefits the people of | :42:45. | :42:48. | |
Scotland and the people of the rest of the United Kingdom in equal | :42:48. | :42:52. | |
measure. We are stronger together and weaker apart. Does the Prime | :42:52. | :42:57. | |
Minister agree with me that we must make the case for the union, not | :42:57. | :43:01. | |
simply against separatism, but the positive case about the shared | :43:01. | :43:07. | |
benefits to us all of Scotland's part in the United Kingdom? The | :43:07. | :43:14. | |
shared economic interests, the NHS, the Defence Systems, at the BBC, | :43:14. | :43:20. | |
and above all the values that we share together? I am happy to say | :43:20. | :43:23. | |
that the honourable gentleman and I will be 100% in agreement. I | :43:23. | :43:26. | |
passionately believe in the future of United Kingdom and I | :43:26. | :43:29. | |
passionately believe that we are stronger together, rather than | :43:29. | :43:33. | |
breaking apart. I am sad that we are even having this debate because | :43:33. | :43:37. | |
I support United Kingdom so strongly. We have to respect the | :43:37. | :43:40. | |
fact that Scotland voted for a separatist party at his | :43:40. | :43:43. | |
parliamentary elections. The first thing that it is right to do is to | :43:43. | :43:48. | |
make clear the legal position about a referendum. That is what my right | :43:48. | :43:50. | |
honourable friend the Scottish Secretary has been doing. We have | :43:50. | :43:54. | |
made the offer that we will devolve the power to hold that referendum | :43:54. | :43:58. | |
so that a referendum can be held and made in Scotland. I look | :43:58. | :44:01. | |
forward to having the debate, friendly, because I think there | :44:01. | :44:06. | |
have been too many in the SNP that are happy to talk about the process. | :44:07. | :44:11. | |
-- frankly. They want to talk about the process but not the substance. | :44:11. | :44:16. | |
When I listen to them, it is not a referendum that they want, but then | :44:16. | :44:21. | |
never-referendum. Let's have the debate and keep our country | :44:21. | :44:25. | |
together! Can I agree with the country and say that this is not a | :44:25. | :44:30. | |
fight about process between the Westminster Government and the | :44:30. | :44:33. | |
Scottish Government or between the British Prime Minister and the | :44:33. | :44:36. | |
Scottish First Minister? I think the way to tackle that is to have | :44:36. | :44:40. | |
immediate cross-party talks in Scotland about issues around the | :44:41. | :44:43. | |
timing of the referendum, the nature of the single question | :44:43. | :44:46. | |
referendum, and the vital involvement of the Electoral | :44:46. | :44:53. | |
Commission. Does the Prime Minister also agree with me that we must get | :44:53. | :44:56. | |
beyond process and have a discussion about the substantial | :44:56. | :45:02. | |
issues involved? This is a momentous decision that our | :45:02. | :45:05. | |
children and grandchildren will have to live with if we get it | :45:05. | :45:09. | |
wrong. We need a serious, thoughtful, and inclusive debate on | :45:09. | :45:12. | |
what the choices are other benefits to Scotland of staying in the | :45:12. | :45:16. | |
United Kingdom. On this important issue, the people of our country | :45:17. | :45:20. | |
deserve nothing less than that serious debate about the benefits | :45:20. | :45:28. | |
I think the Right Honourable Gentleman is right on those three | :45:28. | :45:32. | |
points. On the process of negotiation it is important that | :45:32. | :45:37. | |
the SNP have made clear what it is they want to do. I am very happy | :45:37. | :45:42. | |
for the UK government to speak directly to the Scottish government | :45:42. | :45:46. | |
and let's come to a conclusion about the best time and wait to | :45:46. | :45:51. | |
hold this referendum. It must be clear, legal, decisive, he must be | :45:51. | :45:56. | |
fair. Those are the absolute keys. I agree with the Honourable | :45:56. | :46:00. | |
Gentleman. As soon as those processes are settled, we need to | :46:00. | :46:06. | |
get on to the substance. The only point I would make about the timing, | :46:06. | :46:09. | |
as the animal gentlemen who are so keen to leave the UK, I don't | :46:09. | :46:15. | |
understand why they wanted put off the question for so long. What | :46:15. | :46:18. | |
action will the Prime Minister take to tackle the appalling issue of | :46:18. | :46:23. | |
false marriage both in the UK and globally? I think the Honourable | :46:23. | :46:30. | |
Lady is right to raise this issue. We have taken some steps to crack | :46:30. | :46:35. | |
down on the practice of false marriages which takes place is in | :46:35. | :46:39. | |
too many communities in our country. We are looking specifically as to | :46:39. | :46:42. | |
whether we should take further legal powers and make it it a | :46:42. | :46:46. | |
criminal offence. We're taking a personal interest in this and we | :46:46. | :46:50. | |
should take every available step to say it is an acceptable in 2012 in | :46:50. | :46:56. | |
a civilised country like ours to have such a barbaric practice. | :46:56. | :47:00. | |
Nottinghamshire police surveys eight deep area of deprivation and | :47:00. | :47:05. | |
faces high crime levels and have ambitious crime reduction targets, | :47:05. | :47:11. | |
but HMI see say they are one of five forces facing some of the | :47:11. | :47:13. | |
biggest challenges on the front line forces and government cuts | :47:14. | :47:17. | |
will impact on frontline policing. Is it not time to implement the | :47:18. | :47:20. | |
police funding formula to give my local police the resources they | :47:20. | :47:25. | |
need? I will look carefully at what the Honourable Lady says, but all | :47:25. | :47:30. | |
police forces are having to make efficiencies. I would raise the | :47:30. | :47:33. | |
chief constables for the steps they have taken to deliver the | :47:33. | :47:37. | |
efficiency is without affecting frontline policing. And that the | :47:37. | :47:40. | |
same time they should still be delivering a reduction in crime | :47:40. | :47:45. | |
levels. In terms of Nottinghamshire police, there are still 47 officers | :47:45. | :47:49. | |
working in back office jobs and trained police officers working in | :47:49. | :47:52. | |
HR, finance and corporate development. There is still further | :47:52. | :47:56. | |
work to be done to civilian eyes those parts of the police force and | :47:56. | :48:02. | |
make sure we get all of our officers on the front line. | :48:02. | :48:07. | |
Following the murder of my constituents, Jane Clough, by a | :48:07. | :48:12. | |
former partner and a rapist, I presented a bail Amendment Bill to | :48:12. | :48:17. | |
the house. In October, a justice team agreed to change the law. | :48:17. | :48:21. | |
Could the Prime Minister confirm to the house, and to Jane's parents, | :48:21. | :48:26. | |
who was at in the gallery today, when that will happen? On behalf of | :48:26. | :48:32. | |
the house can I pay tribute to my Honourable Friend on what -- on the | :48:32. | :48:37. | |
work he has done on this case, and our sympathies go out accordingly. | :48:37. | :48:40. | |
We accept there should be a right of appeal against Crown Court | :48:41. | :48:44. | |
decisions allowing bail. There is that right in magistrates' courts. | :48:44. | :48:47. | |
So there is a strong case for changing the law and we will be | :48:47. | :48:51. | |
tabling an amendment in the Lords to the legal-aid sentencing and | :48:51. | :48:55. | |
punishing offenders Bill creating the right of appeal to High Court | :48:55. | :48:59. | |
judges against the granting of bail by a Crown Court. I hope this will | :48:59. | :49:02. | |
improve the law and be more helpful to victims and give some | :49:02. | :49:10. | |
satisfaction to the family he is The Scottish government was elected | :49:10. | :49:14. | |
with an overwhelming mandate to deliver an independent referendum | :49:14. | :49:21. | |
in the second half of the parliamentary term. It is a fact. | :49:22. | :49:26. | |
In contrast, the Conservative Party has less Members of Parliament and | :49:26. | :49:32. | |
there are giant pandas in Edinburgh Zoo. -- then there are -- than it | :49:32. | :49:36. | |
there are giant pandas. Why is the Prime Minister tried to emulate | :49:36. | :49:40. | |
Margaret Thatcher by dictating to Scotland? Why the opposite, we want | :49:40. | :49:46. | |
to give the Scotland took hold a lead -- hold a legal referendum. | :49:46. | :49:49. | |
That is the power we hold and right across this house there is a | :49:50. | :49:52. | |
uniform believe it needs to happen. Discussions can now be entered into | :49:52. | :49:56. | |
about the timing of the referendum, about the precise nature of the | :49:56. | :50:00. | |
referendum so we make sure it is fair, decisive and the people of | :50:00. | :50:09. | |
Care of our elder people is one of the most pressing issues facing | :50:09. | :50:15. | |
this country today. Will the Prime Minister join me in welcoming page | :50:15. | :50:20. | |
UK's Care in crisis campaign launched on Monday and will he | :50:20. | :50:24. | |
commit that the White Paper due in the springtime will represent a way | :50:25. | :50:29. | |
forward on this vital issue? Can I pay tribute to my Honourable Friend | :50:29. | :50:32. | |
for the work he has done on this issue and also to the Age Concern | :50:32. | :50:37. | |
campaign. We have a huge challenge to rise to this agenda and we want | :50:37. | :50:41. | |
to do so through the white paper. There are three elements. We have | :50:41. | :50:45. | |
to make sure we do something about the rising cost of domiciliary care, | :50:46. | :50:49. | |
we have to improve the quality of care people receive and we have to | :50:49. | :50:53. | |
address the issue of people having to sell their homes and assets to | :50:53. | :50:58. | |
pay for care. So we are looking hard at all of these issues and | :50:58. | :51:00. | |
working out a way forward that will be right for our care system and | :51:00. | :51:08. | |
that the country can afford. Since the Sunday Times showed that in the | :51:08. | :51:17. | |
last two years but 1,000 richest persons in Britain by �137 billion, | :51:17. | :51:22. | |
enough to pay off the entire deficit, will he therefore tax them | :51:22. | :51:27. | |
to fund the creation of one million jobs which is a far better way of | :51:27. | :51:31. | |
cutting the deficit than prolonged war austerity? For a minute I | :51:31. | :51:37. | |
thought he was talking about the Prime Minister he served under. I | :51:37. | :51:41. | |
think it is absolutely essential that as we reduce the deficit and | :51:41. | :51:44. | |
take difficult decisions that we are fair and seen to be fair. The | :51:45. | :51:50. | |
fact is, what we have done so far is having the top 10 % of the | :51:50. | :51:54. | |
country Payne 10 times more than the bottom 10 %. And crucially, the | :51:54. | :51:58. | |
top 10 % of earners are not paying just more in cash terms, but as a | :51:58. | :52:02. | |
percentage of their income. As we go ahead with the agenda I want to | :52:02. | :52:05. | |
make sure that people behave responsibly and the government does | :52:05. | :52:12. | |
as well. The I am sure you and the Prime Minister both want to | :52:12. | :52:17. | |
congratulate Tony wattling here has served as a postmaster for over 60 | :52:17. | :52:22. | |
years and has still not retired. He is carrying on. However, residents | :52:22. | :52:29. | |
have been let down by no post office out reach position. Can we | :52:29. | :52:34. | |
encourage the Post Office to use their general subsidy to insure | :52:34. | :52:39. | |
that villagers are served and not left stranded? I joined my friend | :52:39. | :52:46. | |
in paying tribute to the postmaster, and it is people like that who keep | :52:46. | :52:50. | |
our country going. In terms of the government, we have committed �1.3 | :52:50. | :52:54. | |
billion to improving the network. As a condition of the funding, the | :52:54. | :52:58. | |
Post Office must maintain at least 11,500 branches but the point she | :52:58. | :53:02. | |
makes about mobile post offices is a good one. This is a way you can | :53:02. | :53:12. | |
:53:12. | :53:14. | ||
serve many communities and make They the Deputy Prime Minister is | :53:14. | :53:19. | |
reported to have said in the last few days that, in due course, the | :53:19. | :53:23. | |
United Kingdom will sign up to the same EU treaty that the Prime | :53:23. | :53:28. | |
Minister rejected only a short time ago. Was the Deputy Prime Minister | :53:28. | :53:37. | |
The position is very straightforward. We did not sign | :53:37. | :53:45. | |
the treaty because we were not getting the safeguards, so that | :53:45. | :53:50. | |
situation will not change. What coalition partners what to put in | :53:50. | :53:53. | |
their manifesto for the next election is entirely up to them -- | :53:53. | :53:57. | |
want to put in. Does the Prime Minister agreed with me that people | :53:57. | :54:03. | |
should pay their taxes, keep their businesses onshore Switzerland and | :54:03. | :54:07. | |
leave pensioners high and dry. What is the Prime Minister doing to | :54:07. | :54:12. | |
stamp out these predatory business practices? A my Honourable Friend | :54:12. | :54:16. | |
makes an interesting point. That all the lectures about predatory | :54:16. | :54:20. | |
capitalism and different taxation, that the one person that the leader | :54:20. | :54:27. | |
of the opposition chose to advise him on this basis or his companies | :54:27. | :54:31. | |
in the British Virgin Islands. funding for the United Kingdom | :54:31. | :54:37. | |
Resource Centre in the technology sector has been cut. Given that | :54:37. | :54:40. | |
there are one million women unemployed and women make up only | :54:40. | :54:44. | |
12.3 % of people in science and technology, could the Prime | :54:44. | :54:49. | |
Minister look again at funding and then look at Ghent to restore | :54:49. | :54:55. | |
Britain as a leading role for science in this country which | :54:55. | :55:00. | |
nurtured the talents of Rosalind Franklin. The I will look THE | :55:00. | :55:03. | |
Honourable Lady sets out. Despite having to make difficult decisions | :55:03. | :55:07. | |
across of spending areas, we did not cut the science budget. Indeed | :55:07. | :55:11. | |
in the Autumn Statement, the Chancellor provided a series of | :55:11. | :55:14. | |
enhancements for specific science- based projects. I would have a | :55:14. | :55:19. | |
specific one she mentioned and get back to her. -- I will have a look | :55:19. | :55:24. | |
at the specific one. Today is the 10th anniversary of the opening of | :55:24. | :55:27. | |
Guantanamo Bay, a despicable institution which still holds one | :55:27. | :55:31. | |
UK National to this day. Will the Prime Minister commit to do all | :55:31. | :55:36. | |
that he can to make sure that 2012 is the last year that that | :55:36. | :55:41. | |
institution operates? Mike Wright on will Friend the Foreign | :55:41. | :55:43. | |
Secretary is working hard much - my Right Honourable friend the Foreign | :55:43. | :55:47. | |
Secretary is working hard with the US to bring this chapter to a close. | :55:47. | :55:52. | |
He will know we have also taken steps as a government and country | :55:52. | :55:58. | |
to achieve some closure about what happened in the past as a | :55:58. | :56:01. | |
settlement of those people, and setting up a proper inquiry to make | :56:01. | :56:06. | |
sure that the British government was not complicit in any weight in | :56:06. | :56:14. | |
terms of torture to those people or elsewhere. A moment ago the Prime | :56:14. | :56:19. | |
Minister was clear that his government economic policy should | :56:19. | :56:24. | |
be fair and seen to be fair. Could he therefore confirm that the 50 % | :56:25. | :56:29. | |
tax rate on incomes above �150,000 will remain in place for the | :56:29. | :56:36. | |
duration of the Parliament? We take the view of the former Shadow | :56:36. | :56:38. | |
Chancellor when he introduced it, saying it should be a temporary | :56:38. | :56:42. | |
measure. We should also take a judgment on how much money this tax | :56:42. | :56:46. | |
is actually raising. The purpose of the tax system is to raise money | :56:46. | :56:49. | |
for the funds we need to put into the public services, and I think | :56:49. | :56:59. | |
:56:59. | :56:59. | ||
it's important we look at how it Would the Prime Minister | :56:59. | :57:02. | |
congratulate the Secretary of Transport and the good workers of | :57:02. | :57:08. | |
bombarding a for securing a �188 million contract on 28th December | :57:08. | :57:11. | |
and the announcement on the Toronto stock exchange that was so | :57:11. | :57:15. | |
important to the workers in Derbyshire? I congratulate everyone | :57:15. | :57:19. | |
for winning that contract, and as I said from the dispatch box before, | :57:19. | :57:23. | |
I want the government to be a good customer of British firms and to | :57:23. | :57:26. | |
work with its supply chain, and not to make the mistakes that the last | :57:26. | :57:31. | |
government made, which drew up the contract for the railway service | :57:31. | :57:40. | |
The Prime Minister will probably be aware that the chief executive of | :57:40. | :57:45. | |
the Stock Exchange top 100 companies is paid 35 times much as | :57:45. | :57:49. | |
a hospital consultant who keeps saving lives. If he is going to act | :57:49. | :57:53. | |
tough on high pay, can he give a date, a year from now, in the | :57:53. | :57:59. | |
lifetime of the parliament, when we will see that obscene 35 times | :57:59. | :58:03. | |
multiple can't cover -- come tumbling down? On the issue of pay | :58:03. | :58:07. | |
ratios, we should make progress. We can start with the government | :58:07. | :58:11. | |
setting out its own pay ratios as an act of leadership. I think this | :58:11. | :58:15. | |
government has shown some leadership, not least by cutting | :58:15. | :58:19. | |
ministers' pay or freezing them and by having total transparency across | :58:19. | :58:23. | |
government on pay. On the issue of the specific case, the point of it | :58:23. | :58:29. | |
make is this, if this year we have seen a 49 % increase in pay but | :58:29. | :58:34. | |
only a 4% increase in the FT-SE 100 index. I am not against people | :58:34. | :58:37. | |
running great companies being paid lots of money if they are growing | :58:37. | :58:40. | |
and expanding them, but what we shouldn't have his rewards for | :58:40. | :58:43. | |
failure. Frankly, the last government had 13 years to deal | :58:44. | :58:53. | |
:58:54. | :58:55. | ||
Does the Prime Minister think that it can ever be fair for a single | :58:55. | :59:01. | |
family to receive �100,000 per year in housing benefit alone? I think | :59:01. | :59:05. | |
my Honourable Friend makes an important point. The top people's | :59:05. | :59:11. | |
pay issue and this issue are linked. We need to get rid of something for | :59:11. | :59:15. | |
nothing culture in this country, because frankly we inherited and | :59:15. | :59:19. | |
out of control benefit system way you did get families on tens of | :59:19. | :59:22. | |
thousands of pounds in housing benefit, and out of control | :59:22. | :59:26. | |
immigration system where it paid to cheat, and then out of control | :59:26. | :59:30. | |
banking system where reward was not linked to success. Unlike the last | :59:30. | :59:37. | |
government, we will deal with all these things. Prime minister, the | :59:37. | :59:40. | |
Cumbrian healthy economy is in crisis, a real crisis. How does he | :59:40. | :59:45. | |
propose to deal with it? The first and most important thing is that we | :59:45. | :59:50. | |
are committed to year-on-year increases in NHS spending. That is | :59:50. | :59:53. | |
not a position backed by his own party. Alongside the extra money, | :59:54. | :59:58. | |
we also need to make sure there is reform so we give clinicians a | :59:58. | :00:02. | |
leading role in the health service and also, frankly, we need to do | :00:02. | :00:04. | |
more on the public health and health promotion agenda because | :00:04. | :00:09. | |
that is the best way to reduce demands on our NHS. But there is | :00:09. | :00:13. | |
one extra thing to achieve, which is to look at the links between | :00:13. | :00:17. | |
alcohol and crime and alcohol and hospital admissions which is | :00:17. | :00:21. | |
putting massive pressure on our NHS and is an issue Y one the | :00:21. | :00:31. | |
:00:31. | :00:34. | ||
government to deal with. -- I want Ethnic cleansing and apartheid are | :00:35. | :00:40. | |
evil. Sadly, successive governments have supported a country where | :00:40. | :00:47. | |
these vile actions are inflicted on indigenous people. We welcomed the | :00:47. | :00:53. | |
Arab Spring, but the longer Arab winter continues for Palestinians. | :00:53. | :00:57. | |
Prime minister, on Tuesday last week, the Israeli government said | :00:57. | :01:02. | |
it was to recede the forced evictions of -- proceed with the | :01:02. | :01:06. | |
40,000 evictions of Bedouin Arabs. Is it not time we treated Israel as | :01:06. | :01:13. | |
we did apartheid South Africa? I would say to my Honourable Friend | :01:13. | :01:17. | |
is, first of all, we should respect the fact that Israel is a democracy, | :01:17. | :01:21. | |
a country that has a right to exist and the country frequently | :01:21. | :01:24. | |
threatened by its neighbours, but we are also a country that should | :01:24. | :01:30. | |
stand up for Clear human rights and for clear rights and wrongs in | :01:30. | :01:32. | |
international relations. On the issue of settlements, this garment | :01:32. | :01:36. | |
has been very clear that it does not agree with the practice -- his | :01:36. | :01:39. | |
government has been very clear he does not agree with the practice. I | :01:39. | :01:43. | |
raised the issue with the Israeli Prime Minister in a new year | :01:43. | :01:45. | |
telephone call and the government will continue to act and vote on | :01:45. | :01:54. | |
the issue of illegal settlements. 14-year-old girl in my constituency | :01:55. | :01:59. | |
has leukaemia and desperately needs a bone marrow transplant. Despite | :01:59. | :02:03. | |
an incredible campaign by her family to get more people to join | :02:03. | :02:06. | |
the blood stem cell register, Bethany still does not have a match | :02:06. | :02:10. | |
and is having to look overseas. What plans does the government have | :02:10. | :02:14. | |
to improve public awareness about this vital issue and increase the | :02:14. | :02:19. | |
number of potential bone marrow donors in the UK? First of all, the | :02:19. | :02:24. | |
Honourable Lady is right to speak up for Bethany specifically, but | :02:24. | :02:27. | |
also for all bone marrow cancer sufferers. It is not widely | :02:27. | :02:31. | |
understood enough about the need to get more people on to the register | :02:31. | :02:34. | |
because of the importance of trying to get a match and the government | :02:34. | :02:38. | |
will be spending about �4 million this year to help promote that and | :02:38. | :02:42. | |
make it happen. But all this in our own constituency and way can | :02:42. | :02:48. | |
promote the idea and encourage people to do what she says. Could I | :02:48. | :02:53. | |
draw my Right Honourable Friend's attention to the excellent paper | :02:53. | :02:57. | |
published this morning which seeks to build on the government's | :02:57. | :03:03. | |
initiatives in building up Cadet forces on the one hand, and getting | :03:03. | :03:06. | |
more military personnel into schools as teachers on the other | :03:06. | :03:12. | |
hand, and proposes that we set up in some of our most deprived | :03:12. | :03:16. | |
communities military academies and free school administered by the | :03:16. | :03:20. | |
Reserve forces and cadet associations. Let me pay tribute to | :03:20. | :03:24. | |
my Honourable friend who does so much to speak up for our reserve | :03:24. | :03:27. | |
forces and for our cadet forces which I incredibly valuable assets | :03:27. | :03:31. | |
in the country. It is worth noting that this year the cadet force will | :03:31. | :03:36. | |
be doing a huge amount to save and preserve our war memorials from the | :03:36. | :03:40. | |
appalling crime they have been suffering in terms of metal theft. | :03:40. | :03:44. | |
I will look very carefully at the report suggests. I think we should | :03:44. | :03:48. | |
be empowering our cadet forces to expand and maybe go into parts of | :03:48. | :03:51. | |
the country where they have been present in the past, and I think | :03:51. | :03:54. | |
the link he makes between cadet forces and schools is one that is a | :03:54. | :04:04. | |
:04:04. | :04:08. | ||
very, very good idea and one we Thank you Mr Speaker. My | :04:08. | :04:15. | |
constituent is 32 years of age, has lived alone for eight years and was | :04:15. | :04:19. | |
forced on to housing benefit because of redundancy. That benefit | :04:19. | :04:28. | |
has just been cut by nearly 50 %. Which does the Prime Minister think | :04:28. | :04:34. | |
is most likely? That her landlord will reduce the rent by 50 % or my | :04:34. | :04:39. | |
constituent will be made homeless? Can I congratulate the Honourable | :04:39. | :04:43. | |
Lady before her conferment in the New year's Honours List. Although I | :04:43. | :04:46. | |
disagree with many of the thing she has tried to do over her political | :04:46. | :04:52. | |
career, mostly disarm Britain at one decidedly, I praise her for her | :04:53. | :05:01. | |
persistent efforts and she quite rightly... I'm sorry, let me answer | :05:01. | :05:07. | |
the question directly. All parties are committed to reform housing | :05:07. | :05:11. | |
benefit. That was Labour's commitment before the last election. | :05:11. | :05:14. | |
The housing benefit bill is completely out of control. Labour's | :05:14. | :05:19. | |
own welfare spokesman said last week that at �20 billion it had to | :05:19. | :05:26. | |
be -- be changed. As we have seen housing benefit reform, we have | :05:26. | :05:32. | |
seen rent levels come down. We have stopped riffing off the taxpayer. | :05:32. | :05:41. | |
The first PMQs of 2012 have finished. The Prime Minister had to | :05:41. | :05:46. | |
deal with questions first from Ed Miliband on rail fares. We do not | :05:46. | :05:50. | |
hear much about that at PMQs, but if you are commuter paying those | :05:50. | :05:55. | |
increases, then it is a big issue. He used his final two questions to | :05:55. | :06:00. | |
ask about Scotland, where there seemed to be almost complete | :06:00. | :06:03. | |
agreement on a two front benches about the union. But not | :06:03. | :06:08. | |
necessarily about how to handle Alex Salmond. We will hear from our | :06:08. | :06:12. | |
experts in a minute. They have just downgraded eurozone growth in the | :06:12. | :06:17. | |
third quarter of last year to 0.1%, which is pretty much flat. It looks | :06:17. | :06:24. | |
like the eurozone is in the process of entering recession. What other | :06:24. | :06:28. | |
viewers saying? There was basically a debate about whether Ed Miliband | :06:28. | :06:33. | |
was right to go on railway fare to begin with. "Of all the big issues, | :06:33. | :06:38. | |
Ed Miliband chose rail fares, and they are increasing to support | :06:38. | :06:43. | |
investment. You can agree or disagree with the policy but the | :06:43. | :06:52. | |
money has to come from somewhere. He is trying to look serious." "He | :06:52. | :06:59. | |
failed to address the issues of rail fares properly." "Who was | :06:59. | :07:02. | |
right on the welfare question when they both said each other was | :07:02. | :07:10. | |
wrong?" To "I thought Ed Miliband's performance was flash on rail fares. | :07:10. | :07:20. | |
:07:20. | :07:21. | ||
Going on Scotland was a way not to take a kicking." And on Scotland, ", | :07:21. | :07:31. | |
:07:31. | :07:32. | ||
--"Why can at the whole of the UK not have a vote on | :07:32. | :07:37. | |
Scotland?""Imagine if we had a referendum on leaving the European | :07:37. | :07:40. | |
union only to hear that the European Parliament said that it | :07:40. | :07:44. | |
would be illegal and would have to be held on their terms. I hope this | :07:45. | :07:54. | |
gives you an idea of the feelings in Scotland."That is not actually | :07:54. | :08:02. | |
the issue. The question is the question and the timing. And also | :08:02. | :08:05. | |
the question is if the Scottish Parliament does it without coming | :08:05. | :08:09. | |
to an agreement with Westminster whether it is then legally binding, | :08:09. | :08:13. | |
and if not, would it be open to challenge in the courts? Not just | :08:13. | :08:17. | |
the referendum results, not just a holding of the referendum, but even | :08:17. | :08:22. | |
the decision of Holyrood to pass a built to call for a referendum, it | :08:22. | :08:28. | |
is blamed in Westminster, that would be open to legal challenge. - | :08:28. | :08:34. | |
- it is claimed in Westminster. Alex Salmond look for a referendum | :08:34. | :08:40. | |
on his own terms, and not those laid out in the Scotland Act? If he | :08:40. | :08:45. | |
does that, it will be challenged, as night follows day. There will be | :08:45. | :08:48. | |
a legal challenge, and a legal challenge long before they get to | :08:48. | :08:53. | |
the vote. It will end up in the Supreme Court in London. It seems | :08:53. | :08:56. | |
inevitable that somebody will challenge it. What was incredible | :08:57. | :08:59. | |
was the lack of clarity as to whether the Government itself would | :08:59. | :09:04. | |
want to challenge it. I heard on the news last night that they were | :09:04. | :09:08. | |
open to negotiations or see you in court. I got calls afterwards to | :09:08. | :09:12. | |
say hold on, they were not threatening to take the Scottish | :09:12. | :09:15. | |
Parliament to court. I asked if they were promising not to take | :09:15. | :09:22. | |
them to court and of course the answer did not come. There is an | :09:22. | :09:30. | |
implied threat, but no explicit threat, that there would be legal | :09:30. | :09:34. | |
action and a chance of success. What do you think the way forward | :09:34. | :09:38. | |
should now be? Everybody has agreed there should be a referendum. Alex | :09:38. | :09:47. | |
Salmond got erected on the basis of one. -- elected. There is an | :09:47. | :09:50. | |
argument about what the question should be and how many there should | :09:50. | :09:58. | |
be. And should it be the Electoral Commission that holds it? One of | :09:58. | :10:02. | |
the founding fathers of modern Scottish nationalism sits on the | :10:02. | :10:08. | |
Electoral Commission. Or should it be something else which would not | :10:08. | :10:12. | |
be quite so impartial? What is the way forward? I think the way | :10:12. | :10:15. | |
forward is for raised more people to say this is a momentous choice. | :10:15. | :10:21. | |
We want a fair, clear and decisive outcome. It is in nobody's | :10:21. | :10:25. | |
interests for the prospect of a referendum to be subject to legal | :10:25. | :10:30. | |
wrangling. Let's get back to basics. If Alex Salmond does not fear the | :10:30. | :10:36. | |
verdict of the Scottish people, what is stopping him getting on | :10:36. | :10:41. | |
with it? What does he fear about letting the franchise being exactly | :10:41. | :10:46. | |
the same franchise as saw him elected as First Minister last May, | :10:46. | :10:49. | |
and David Cameron are elected as Prime Minister of the United | :10:49. | :10:55. | |
Kingdom last year. Let's deal with the basic issues. Affair franchise, | :10:55. | :11:01. | |
fair rules for funding the campaign, make sure the question is fair and | :11:01. | :11:05. | |
the outcome is decisive. People of common sense have a strong interest | :11:05. | :11:09. | |
in that happening on both sides of the border. What we saw in a panic | :11:09. | :11:12. | |
response of the First Minister yesterday, jumping into a | :11:12. | :11:15. | |
television studio in front of the camera, when Michael Moore was | :11:15. | :11:19. | |
speaking at Westminster, that rather gave the game away that | :11:19. | :11:23. | |
despite the fact as First Minister you cannot call the date, as Prime | :11:23. | :11:27. | |
Minister you can no longer call the date for a general election, he | :11:27. | :11:34. | |
regards this as his private placing. This is way too serious and | :11:34. | :11:38. | |
important to be the plaything of anyone at Holyrood or Westminster. | :11:38. | :11:45. | |
Do you think the question should be a simple yes or no to independence? | :11:45. | :11:50. | |
Absolutely. There are two options. Scotland can be a separate | :11:50. | :11:57. | |
sovereign state, which I did agree with that Alex Salmond has spent | :11:57. | :12:02. | |
his life fighting for that. He is only floating devo max as a get out | :12:03. | :12:08. | |
of jail card. He wants to claim that somehow Scotland is still on | :12:08. | :12:11. | |
the march. What we heard from Nicola Sturgeon and the deputy | :12:11. | :12:18. | |
leader of the SNP was very clear. A one question referendum is the | :12:18. | :12:22. | |
position of the Labour Party North and South of the border, the | :12:22. | :12:25. | |
Conservative Party and the Liberal Democrats. There is a cross-party | :12:25. | :12:29. | |
consensus to resolve this with a single question. The reason Alex | :12:29. | :12:32. | |
Salmond keeps talking up devo max is, for all of his bluster and | :12:32. | :12:37. | |
claims to be brave heart, he is scared. I thought that devo max was | :12:37. | :12:42. | |
going to take over from the Angry Birds and I was looking for the app. | :12:42. | :12:49. | |
I can't find it! You wanted to make a point? Douglas himself gave a | :12:49. | :12:51. | |
speech recently talking about whether it would be sensible to go | :12:51. | :12:55. | |
further and give more powers to the Scottish Parliament. Some people | :12:55. | :13:01. | |
read that as suggesting that Labour would back devo max in the future. | :13:01. | :13:06. | |
What is devo max? The truth is that nobody is agreed on what it is, but | :13:07. | :13:14. | |
the concept is clear at least, lots more powers than now. Many people | :13:14. | :13:20. | |
are saying that it needs this will independence, in other words spot | :13:20. | :13:25. | |
and responsible for tax and spending policies. -- Scotland | :13:25. | :13:32. | |
responsible. The Labour Party are interested in devo max. They point | :13:32. | :13:36. | |
to Sir Menzies Campbell, preparing for the Liberal Democrats, and says | :13:36. | :13:39. | |
they will go down that route. difference between Ming Campbell | :13:39. | :13:43. | |
and myself on one side of the argument and Alex Salmond on the | :13:43. | :13:47. | |
other, he sees devolution as a staging-post to independence. I | :13:47. | :13:51. | |
have never bought that. I see it as a fundamentally different | :13:51. | :13:54. | |
destination for Scotland within the United Kingdom. There are ways in | :13:54. | :13:58. | |
which devolution can be improved but that is wholly separate from | :13:58. | :14:03. | |
the fundamental question, which is should Scotland remain part of the | :14:03. | :14:09. | |
United Kingdom? I think there is a really important point about the | :14:09. | :14:12. | |
integrity of the process. We all agree that this is a decision that | :14:12. | :14:15. | |
could have an impact for hundreds of years. The devolution settlement | :14:15. | :14:18. | |
was three years ago and people have been talking about Bannockburn | :14:18. | :14:22. | |
seven centuries ago. This is really big stuff. The fairness us to be | :14:22. | :14:27. | |
beyond reproach. It will be bad enough if we end up with court | :14:27. | :14:32. | |
cases in the run-up to a referendum. Imagine if we had a referendum with | :14:32. | :14:37. | |
three or four questions, several options, no to get more than 50%. | :14:37. | :14:43. | |
What do you do? You would have court cases after the fat, which | :14:43. | :14:47. | |
would be disastrous. Bringing it back to the South of England, where | :14:48. | :14:50. | |
rail fares are particularly important if you are commuting into | :14:50. | :14:59. | |
London, then I have something for you, Mr Alexander. We have | :14:59. | :15:03. | |
Munchkins beavering away in the darkness, it never allowed out, and | :15:03. | :15:07. | |
they have come up with research from House of Commons library. It | :15:07. | :15:10. | |
shows that David Cameron was right when he said that there were rises | :15:10. | :15:15. | |
of 6% under Labour. He was also right about the train fares being | :15:15. | :15:23. | |
waved the year before the election. But it was only for one year. | :15:23. | :15:26. | |
and we said that because economic circumstances had deteriorated it | :15:26. | :15:29. | |
was right to remove from the railway companies the power to | :15:29. | :15:35. | |
adjust, so that some fares went up significant link. When he came into | :15:35. | :15:39. | |
office, he gave the power back to the railway companies to fiddle the | :15:39. | :15:42. | |
figures, if you like, to make sure that the fares could be | :15:42. | :15:52. | |
significantly higher in some areas. Either the taxpayer pays for it or | :15:52. | :15:58. | |
the fair player. We saw a significant report last week saying | :15:58. | :16:02. | |
that the money does not find its way back to the Department of | :16:02. | :16:06. | |
Transport. I should not have brought that up at all! I was just | :16:06. | :16:10. | |
thinking of our English viewers that were bought with its Gotland | :16:10. | :16:20. | |
:16:20. | :16:23. | ||
and wanted something that matters. I was going to go home and play | :16:23. | :16:26. | |
angry birds but there is something else to do. You have to listen to | :16:26. | :16:31. | |
Radio 4 when a new programme will be on where it shows you how | :16:31. | :16:34. | |
decisions are taken and it looks at the question of Scotland. And the | :16:35. | :16:39. | |
man he used to be the top official for Alex Salmond in Scotland, in St | :16:39. | :16:42. | |
Andrew's House, two former Secretaries of State for Scotland. | :16:42. | :16:48. | |
We have someone who was a political adviser to Alex Salmond, all | :16:48. | :16:55. | |
discussing at 8:00pm, BBC Radio 4, because this is an exploration of | :16:55. | :17:00. | |
the way it works, what are the legalities and how this might be | :17:00. | :17:05. | |
decided. I can still play Angry Birds at the same time. But is the | :17:05. | :17:11. | |
joy of radio. 8pm tonight, do not miss it. Until recently it look | :17:11. | :17:14. | |
like Britain was on the brink of nuclear renaissance. Nuclear power | :17:14. | :17:20. | |
seemingly has it all, low carbon, abundant, relatively cheap. But a | :17:20. | :17:23. | |
new era of nuclear power has not a lot -- arrived, because in the wake | :17:23. | :17:26. | |
of the Fukushima disaster in Japan the industry has something of a PR | :17:26. | :17:33. | |
problem. So can at nuclear ever live up to its early promise? One | :17:33. | :17:36. | |
professor thinks it can. He will join us in a moment, but first | :17:36. | :17:46. | |
:17:46. | :17:48. | ||
I am a professor of nuclear physics and have always believed that | :17:48. | :17:52. | |
nuclear power is a good thing. I am not in the pay of the nuclear | :17:52. | :17:57. | |
industry, nor any environmental movement, so I have no axe to grind. | :17:57. | :18:01. | |
I have no agenda, but I firmly believe that if you want an energy | :18:01. | :18:06. | |
supply that is affordable, secured, reliable and isn't going to destroy | :18:06. | :18:16. | |
:18:16. | :18:21. | ||
our planet's climate, then we cannot afford to live without it. | :18:21. | :18:27. | |
"Radioactivity" - Kraftwerk. It is a source of concern to me that | :18:27. | :18:30. | |
people think we can get rid of the reliance on coal and gas by moving | :18:30. | :18:35. | |
to renewables. Solar, wind and wave power will be very important in the | :18:35. | :18:43. | |
future, but if we are to avert the catastrophe of climate change while | :18:43. | :18:47. | |
still retaining standards of living with reliance on energy than we | :18:47. | :18:52. | |
have to change our views on nuclear power. The mood around the world | :18:52. | :18:56. | |
turned against nuclear in the wake of the Fukushima disaster back in | :18:56. | :19:01. | |
March. It is an understandable reaction. But as I learned when I | :19:01. | :19:06. | |
visited Japan, no one died as a result of the meltdown. And, | :19:06. | :19:10. | |
thankfully, so far, there have been no radiation associated health | :19:10. | :19:18. | |
risks. Human civilisation has only been around for 10,000 years. And | :19:18. | :19:22. | |
look what science and technology have achieved in the last 100 years. | :19:22. | :19:25. | |
So to worry about how we are going to deal with nuclear waste | :19:25. | :19:29. | |
thousands of years in the future is utterly irrational. That is | :19:29. | :19:35. | |
assuming, of course, we survive climate change. Nothing is perfect. | :19:35. | :19:39. | |
There are, of course, consequences when things go wrong, and we do | :19:39. | :19:44. | |
seem to have a special fear of radiation. But whatever we decide, | :19:44. | :19:51. | |
it has to be based on a careful assessment of the science. And Jim | :19:51. | :19:55. | |
it joins us now. Thank you for coming onto the programme. You said | :19:55. | :19:58. | |
nobody died in the incident, but tens of thousands of people were | :19:58. | :20:01. | |
forced to leave their homes and many of them will not ever return. | :20:01. | :20:06. | |
It is more than just a PR problem. Absolutely. We should not downplay | :20:06. | :20:12. | |
the effect it has had on 80,000 or so inhabitants who had to be moved | :20:12. | :20:17. | |
out of the exclusion zone. And, yes, it has turned lives upside down. | :20:17. | :20:22. | |
The point is we are not trying to say that this is wonderful and | :20:22. | :20:26. | |
beautiful and safe. Accidents do happen, but they happen in all | :20:26. | :20:31. | |
industries. So it is a price worth paying? They may be fairly rare, | :20:31. | :20:34. | |
but looking at Chernobyl and Fukushima, these are things we | :20:34. | :20:40. | |
might have to risk. The example I always say it is if we think of the | :20:40. | :20:44. | |
disaster in India, in the wake of that we did not say we would stop | :20:44. | :20:49. | |
all chemical industry. Accidents happen and we have to try and avert | :20:49. | :20:53. | |
them. It does not mean we go and live in caves. Were you surprised | :20:53. | :20:57. | |
that after decades of the promises of nuclear power that it hasn't | :20:57. | :21:01. | |
happened? Certainly in the UK successive governments have dilly | :21:01. | :21:06. | |
dally over what we are going to do. Either it is not happening or of | :21:06. | :21:11. | |
something is happening there is a lack of transparency. Damian Green, | :21:11. | :21:15. | |
would you be pushing ahead with this more quickly with nuclear | :21:15. | :21:18. | |
power and a new range of generators if it were not for the Liberal | :21:18. | :21:23. | |
Democrats? I am not sure. Fukushima was such a future event that any | :21:23. | :21:27. | |
sensible government will have looked at it. We got the chief | :21:27. | :21:29. | |
nuclear inspector to look at both the weight we produce nuclear power | :21:29. | :21:34. | |
in the country and also the government arrangements to stop | :21:34. | :21:39. | |
disasters happening and he has given the industry a clean bill of | :21:39. | :21:42. | |
health. There are projects on the go and people planning to build new | :21:42. | :21:47. | |
reactors. There was a delay under the previous government where there | :21:47. | :21:52. | |
was a gap, but we are pushing ahead. He does have to play a role. If you | :21:52. | :22:00. | |
want clean energy in the future, Nuclear has to play a part. Is a | :22:01. | :22:05. | |
big part the subsidy issue? If you do not provide a subsidy for new | :22:05. | :22:08. | |
nuclear power it will not happen quickly because people will not | :22:08. | :22:16. | |
come forward and pay for it. Clearly we are not in an era of | :22:16. | :22:19. | |
subsidies available for big energy companies, but there are companies | :22:19. | :22:24. | |
coming forward with proposals for new reactors. Would Labour have a | :22:24. | :22:29. | |
subsidy? We need to see what the energy companies can do in terms of | :22:29. | :22:31. | |
financing this. But Labour was clear that by the time we left | :22:31. | :22:36. | |
office there was an important role for a new build nuclear, but the | :22:36. | :22:43. | |
financing is complex. About 15 % of the energy mix is contributed by | :22:43. | :22:47. | |
nuclear and all of them are going to be decommissioned by 2027. So | :22:47. | :22:51. | |
that is why we were moving when we left office not just to say in | :22:51. | :22:55. | |
principle we wanted a new-build of nuclear weather complex policy and | :22:55. | :22:59. | |
finance issues, but making sure could be British workers and jobs | :22:59. | :23:02. | |
generated as a result of the construction of the new facilities. | :23:02. | :23:06. | |
Do you think we will see a new range of them? The other point is | :23:06. | :23:12. | |
that without subsidies, certainly Nuclear will become competitive | :23:12. | :23:14. | |
economically long before other renewable energy sources. But there | :23:14. | :23:18. | |
is also the issue of whether we want to impose some sort of a | :23:18. | :23:22. | |
carbon tax on fossil fuel burning. It is not so much worrying about | :23:22. | :23:25. | |
nuclear, people worry more about climate change which is more | :23:25. | :23:30. | |
immediate. Thank you for coming on to the programme. When that they | :23:30. | :23:34. | |
were leaders did Gordon Brown's awkward smiles all William Hague's | :23:34. | :23:37. | |
baseball cap become more memorable than anything they said? | :23:37. | :23:43. | |
Politicians spend a lot of effort telling us about their policies | :23:43. | :23:47. | |
because they save their hot air for something more useful and focus on | :23:47. | :23:51. | |
their image instead. We have been taking a look at whether style is | :23:51. | :24:00. | |
just, or even more, important than At his relaunch yesterday Ed | :24:00. | :24:04. | |
Miliband wanted to talk values, but pesky hacks wanted to discuss | :24:04. | :24:07. | |
whether he is too gawky to the Prime Minister, an accusation he | :24:07. | :24:12. | |
brushed aside. We had a terrible result in the 2010 election. I | :24:12. | :24:17. | |
think people forget about this. We got 29 % of the vote. That is our | :24:17. | :24:22. | |
second lowest result since universal suffrage was introduced. | :24:22. | :24:27. | |
That is pretty bad, right? I don't think anyone is saying we are in | :24:27. | :24:32. | |
that opinion in the opinion polls. I want authority and conviction. | :24:32. | :24:40. | |
Dennis! Dennis! You look How to look and sound like a leader | :24:40. | :24:44. | |
is one of the film's -- themes of the new Margaret Thatcher, has | :24:45. | :24:48. | |
cinemas packed, although she did not always get the photocalls quite | :24:48. | :24:53. | |
right. But, she looked like a superstar compared to Michael Foot, | :24:53. | :24:57. | |
whose brilliant brain was often overshadowed by his dishevelled | :24:57. | :25:02. | |
donkey jacket. Labour had cottoned on to the image thing by the time | :25:02. | :25:07. | |
Tony Blair became Prime Minister, so much so that it is reported | :25:07. | :25:11. | |
advisers agonised over what kind of spectacles he should wear. Though | :25:11. | :25:15. | |
his successor could not quite translate private charm into public | :25:15. | :25:20. | |
poise. One American pollster reckons the best way of spotting | :25:20. | :25:23. | |
leadership potential is to show voters clips of politicians | :25:23. | :25:28. | |
speaking with the sound turned off. Which, luckily, is again we can | :25:28. | :25:38. | |
:25:38. | :25:45. | ||
play at home. What do you think These are the best dancers I have | :25:45. | :25:55. | |
:25:55. | :25:57. | ||
ever seen in my interview career! Mac -- best answers. His style is | :25:57. | :26:02. | |
as important as substance. For the first time in 2010, people said | :26:02. | :26:05. | |
they were voting on the character and personality of the leader as | :26:05. | :26:11. | |
for the policies they were exposing. In an age of televised debate. When | :26:11. | :26:16. | |
there is less ideological differences than they might believe, | :26:16. | :26:21. | |
people make judgments about character. So why bother saying | :26:21. | :26:24. | |
anything at all? Just renewing silence? That might have been the | :26:24. | :26:30. | |
best answer I could have given. I think the issue is authenticity. | :26:30. | :26:33. | |
You talk about Alastair Darling. The reason he is seen is a serious | :26:33. | :26:37. | |
figure is not because of the suits he wears all the way he combs his | :26:37. | :26:41. | |
hair, it's the suggestion that people get him. Kenneth Clarke is | :26:41. | :26:46. | |
the same on Conservative benches. But at some level voters reach a | :26:46. | :26:49. | |
basic judgment about individuals in politics and that is partly about | :26:49. | :26:53. | |
image but more, I would argue, about the longer judgment they | :26:53. | :26:58. | |
reach about character and values. But it does not change easily. Is | :26:58. | :27:02. | |
that the problem for Ed Miliband? It is difficult to shift it. | :27:02. | :27:05. | |
Somebody like Kenneth Clarke, I remember the time of the ambulance | :27:05. | :27:09. | |
drivers' strike, he was hardly cuddly at that point. Many of us | :27:09. | :27:13. | |
were deeply aggrieved with how he conducted himself. But over a | :27:13. | :27:17. | |
lifetime in politics, even his harshest critics would say this is | :27:17. | :27:20. | |
a substantial, serious politician who graces politics with his | :27:20. | :27:26. | |
presence. The danger is trying to create an image. If you're a | :27:26. | :27:29. | |
politician you think you need to create an image and you need | :27:29. | :27:31. | |
something just to do that, then voters will smell you as in | :27:31. | :27:37. | |
authentic. The image of the women in 1975 is very different from the | :27:37. | :27:42. | |
ones we have seen now. But the substance was the same. Does Ed | :27:42. | :27:46. | |
Miliband have an image problem? Do the polls tell us that? He does, | :27:46. | :27:50. | |
but I was listening to the point about him changing. He is less well | :27:50. | :27:53. | |
regarded and David Cameron was when he had been leader of opposition | :27:53. | :27:56. | |
parties for 18 months, but David Cameron became Prime Minister | :27:56. | :27:59. | |
because his position changed dramatically with the public at | :27:59. | :28:04. | |
some point after that. Ed Miliband is not down-and-out but he has a | :28:04. | :28:09. | |
serious problem. People do not quite get him. On three | :28:09. | :28:12. | |
characteristics that you have to have to be prime minister, he is | :28:12. | :28:16. | |
much behind his opponents and some of it is about your opponent. He is | :28:16. | :28:20. | |
well behind on been seen as a capable leader, good in a crisis or | :28:20. | :28:24. | |
having a clear vision for Britain. Put that with the economy, and | :28:24. | :28:28. | |
understanding his position, we do not know. It is almost 1 o'clock | :28:28. | :28:32. | |
and we have to leave it there. Time to but to add your misery for the | :28:32. | :28:36. | |
guest beer competition. It was 1966. But we are still printing out all | :28:36. | :28:42. | |
the answers, so we will pick a winner tomorrow. Right, that is it | :28:42. | :28:46. | |
for today. Our first PMQs of 2012. Thanks to all the guests. We will | :28:46. | :28:52. |