Browse content similar to 30/04/2012. Check below for episodes and series from the same categories and more!
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Good afternoon, a welcome. Gloom descends over the eurozone as | :00:46. | :00:50. | |
Spain slips back into recession. David Cameron says we are only | :00:50. | :00:55. | |
halfway through a crisis which is tracking down the world economy. | :00:55. | :00:59. | |
Location, location, location, well appointed apartment block in a | :00:59. | :01:04. | |
prime position adjacent to the Olympic village, perfect for an | :01:04. | :01:08. | |
anti-aircraft battery. They are in coalition now, but how | :01:08. | :01:11. | |
will the Liberal Democrats look different from the Tories at the | :01:11. | :01:18. | |
next general election? We debate live. | :01:18. | :01:22. | |
Commons authorities consider giving MPs iPads amid claims they will cut | :01:22. | :01:30. | |
down on printing costs and increase efficiency. Yes! | :01:30. | :01:36. | |
All of that in the next hour, and with this, the Liberal Democrat | :01:36. | :01:41. | |
deputy leader Simon Hughes. First, the Prime Minister is under renewed | :01:41. | :01:46. | |
pressure this afternoon to answer questions about his embattled | :01:46. | :01:49. | |
culture secretary Jeremy Hunt. The Labour Party are calling for a | :01:49. | :01:53. | |
statement from David Cameron, who admitted he might not be in the | :01:53. | :01:57. | |
clear. He insisted that any further questions should wait until he | :01:57. | :02:00. | |
appears before the Leveson Inquiry, which will be mid-May at the | :02:00. | :02:10. | |
:02:10. | :02:11. | ||
earliest. Do we have any news about the statement? We will have to wait | :02:11. | :02:15. | |
about another half an hour or so before the Speaker makes up his | :02:15. | :02:22. | |
mind on this. Clearly, behind the scenes, sources will say, the | :02:22. | :02:26. | |
minister made a statement last week, the Prime Minister answered | :02:26. | :02:32. | |
questions at PMQs, but against that, the Labour Party say there is a | :02:32. | :02:37. | |
huge amount of interest, there are still questions to be asked about | :02:37. | :02:40. | |
why the Prime Minister has not referred the matter to his adviser | :02:40. | :02:47. | |
on potential breaches of the ministerial code. Even if the Prime | :02:47. | :02:51. | |
Minister is called here back before MPs to answer more questions about | :02:51. | :02:54. | |
this, it seems pretty clear that for now at least he will be | :02:54. | :02:57. | |
sticking to what he has been telling us, that he does not | :02:57. | :03:02. | |
believe at the moment there is evidence that Jeremy Hunt has | :03:02. | :03:06. | |
broken the Ministerial Code. He wants to give him time to give his | :03:06. | :03:11. | |
evidence under oath before the Leveson Inquiry, and even -- if | :03:11. | :03:16. | |
something emerges at that stage, he will either refer the matter to his | :03:16. | :03:19. | |
adviser to see if the Ministerial Code has been broken, or he could | :03:19. | :03:24. | |
take action himself. That is the line he will stick to, but if he is | :03:24. | :03:28. | |
called back before MPs, that will be another uncomfortable session | :03:28. | :03:33. | |
for the Prime Minister. Do you think David Cameron should | :03:33. | :03:38. | |
give a statement to Parliament? is the speaker's call, I will not | :03:38. | :03:44. | |
second-guess that. Do you think he needs to, politically? I do not, | :03:44. | :03:50. | |
because he gave a full interview yesterday. Everybody has reported | :03:50. | :03:57. | |
that. The position is clear, there is the Leveson Inquiry and the code | :03:57. | :04:01. | |
of conduct, that has been accepted by the Prime Minister, and we know | :04:01. | :04:05. | |
they will be resolved next month, because he is likely to be before | :04:05. | :04:09. | |
the Leveson Inquiry next month, and the Prime Minister has made a | :04:09. | :04:13. | |
commitment he accepts there might be a further issue, and it will be | :04:13. | :04:18. | |
dealt with. He has to refer something if there is a breach of | :04:18. | :04:23. | |
the Ministerial Code. You were the first Liberal Democrats to break | :04:23. | :04:27. | |
ranks and say quite clearly that this issue should be referred to | :04:27. | :04:33. | |
Sir Alex Allan, and we do not know if that is going to happen. Is the | :04:33. | :04:37. | |
Prime Minister being slow? understand the sequence he argues | :04:37. | :04:44. | |
for. White issue is the substance, I am clear what the substance is. | :04:44. | :04:50. | |
The Rupert Murdoch empire, for years, have been chasing after all | :04:50. | :04:54. | |
been chased by Labour and the Tories. We have argued that | :04:54. | :04:59. | |
relationship was unhealthy, Vince Cable has had a tough opposition, | :04:59. | :05:04. | |
the question is, has the government continued to be as tough in being | :05:04. | :05:08. | |
independent and resisting the blandishments when Jeremy Hunt took | :05:08. | :05:12. | |
over as it was when Vince Cable was there? We will get the answers next | :05:12. | :05:21. | |
month. You were the person who raised the issue, should he be | :05:21. | :05:26. | |
referring to Jeremy Hunt now? Prime Minister has accepted there | :05:26. | :05:30. | |
might be an issue. If there is, the code is clear that the Prime | :05:30. | :05:35. | |
Minister has a duty to refer, and it seems to be that the Ministerial | :05:35. | :05:40. | |
Code has to be followed. On the face of it, it looks surprising if | :05:40. | :05:44. | |
it will not be, but I am prepared to let Jeremy Hunt give his | :05:44. | :05:50. | |
evidence and then I assume it will have to be referred before the | :05:50. | :05:55. | |
ministerial code. The Prime Minister said he will listen to | :05:55. | :06:04. | |
what Jeremy Hunt says. Under the rules, it is his responsibility, | :06:04. | :06:09. | |
but the code is clear that in certain circumstances, the Prime | :06:09. | :06:12. | |
Minister has to use the adviser to make sure the code is followed. | :06:12. | :06:18. | |
Ever since -- evidence has emerged that George Osborne was lobbied by | :06:18. | :06:26. | |
James Murdoch. Would you like to see George Osborne before the | :06:26. | :06:33. | |
Leveson Inquiry? I have appeared before Lord Justice Leveson, he is | :06:33. | :06:38. | |
robust and no nonsense. He is clear as to who needs to appear before | :06:38. | :06:42. | |
him. I have no doubt that he will say if he thinks that other | :06:42. | :06:47. | |
ministers need to appear, and I have no doubt they will appear. | :06:47. | :06:52. | |
think George Osborne should and will appear? That is Lord Justice | :06:52. | :06:57. | |
Leveson's call. If we are talking about things that have emerged from | :06:57. | :07:02. | |
e-mail correspondence between the Murdoch empire and ministers or | :07:02. | :07:06. | |
their advisers, if we expect the Jeremy Hunt answers questions, do | :07:06. | :07:10. | |
we expect George Osborne? Lord Justice Leveson is looking at the | :07:10. | :07:14. | |
relationship between that politicians and the media. We have | :07:14. | :07:20. | |
heard from Mr Murdoch, he is coming to the political phase next month, | :07:20. | :07:25. | |
and one of those people who will potentially give evidence, he has | :07:25. | :07:31. | |
made it clear he will not be bullied by a government ministers, | :07:31. | :07:34. | |
he will want to go to the bottom of the question, what were the links | :07:34. | :07:40. | |
between Murdoch and other media and ministers? If he thinks the | :07:40. | :07:43. | |
Chancellor or the prime minister or others have something to tell the | :07:43. | :07:48. | |
inquiry, he will have them in front of him. Yesterday, Harriet Harman | :07:48. | :07:51. | |
suggested that Rupert Murdoch should be stripped of his | :07:51. | :07:57. | |
broadcasting licence in the UK. Do you agree? No. I was the first | :07:57. | :08:01. | |
person to raise this issue with Ofcom. I argued that, given there | :08:01. | :08:08. | |
is now a fit and proper person Test party invite us, against the Labour | :08:08. | :08:13. | |
government's wishes... Ofcom had assured me and have now said | :08:13. | :08:18. | |
publicly they are actively pursuing an ongoing consideration both about | :08:18. | :08:20. | |
individuals and about the company, and they will come to a decision as | :08:21. | :08:25. | |
soon as possible. We have to leave them to do that independently. It | :08:25. | :08:29. | |
was wrong for the Labour Party to say that Jeremy Hunt should resign, | :08:29. | :08:33. | |
and it is wrong for them to say that they should be stripped of | :08:33. | :08:38. | |
their licence now, without letting Ofcom... The have had serious | :08:38. | :08:43. | |
doubts. Yes, but the regulator is there to adjudicate. Has that | :08:43. | :08:49. | |
changed your mind? Since I went to Ofcom and said, can you look at | :08:49. | :08:53. | |
their suitability, of course, James Murdoch has resigned his post. | :08:53. | :08:58. | |
Things have changed. Ofcom is there to regulate, they ought to win the | :08:58. | :09:05. | |
case, they say they are being active, they will adjudicate. | :09:05. | :09:12. | |
We will stay on the subject of Jeremy Hunt for the quiz. Yesterday, | :09:12. | :09:15. | |
Michael Gove Cup for the revealed that Jeremy Hunt has an interesting | :09:15. | :09:21. | |
item in his house, so what is it? Is it a Sky dish, a sign that Take | :09:21. | :09:29. | |
That poster, a sprung dancefloor or a copy of Vince Cable's book? At | :09:29. | :09:33. | |
the end of the show, Simon will give us the correct answer. No | :09:33. | :09:38. | |
prizes, it is just for fun. For something more serious, is the | :09:38. | :09:41. | |
economic crisis in Europe about to enter another even more painful | :09:41. | :09:46. | |
phase? Last week, in the first three months of the year, Britain | :09:46. | :09:50. | |
slipped from weak economic growth back into recession. The infamous | :09:50. | :09:54. | |
double-dip. This morning, Spain has also fallen into technical | :09:54. | :09:57. | |
recession, joining other eurozone countries in the double-dip, | :09:57. | :10:02. | |
including Belgium, Ireland, Italy and the Netherlands. The backlash | :10:02. | :10:06. | |
against authority continues with protests a familiar sight on | :10:06. | :10:10. | |
European streets from Madrid to Athens. In France, Francois | :10:10. | :10:15. | |
Hollande is poised to take power, Bank -- vowing to end deficit | :10:15. | :10:17. | |
cutting programmes and reopening the austerity pact brokered by | :10:17. | :10:24. | |
Germany. Nicolas Sarkozy has previously accused David Cameron of | :10:24. | :10:26. | |
interfering in the eurozone. This weekend, the Prime Minister risked | :10:26. | :10:31. | |
doing so again by blaming Europe for the UK's economic problems. | :10:31. | :10:36. | |
What is happening it is a massive tension between the single currency | :10:36. | :10:43. | |
that countries are finding difficult to adapt to. It is going | :10:43. | :10:46. | |
to be a very long and painful process in the eurozone as their | :10:46. | :10:50. | |
workout, do they want the single currency with a single policy and | :10:50. | :10:54. | |
all the things that go with it, or are they going to have something | :10:54. | :11:04. | |
:11:04. | :11:06. | ||
quite different? They have to Do you think the eurozone is facing | :11:06. | :11:12. | |
a renewed threat of collapse? we saw it this month, it can get | :11:12. | :11:19. | |
worse. It depends on the reactions of the ECB and of politicians in | :11:19. | :11:25. | |
Europe. What to do me? We heard David Cameron defend gloomy | :11:26. | :11:29. | |
predictions and St that the eurozone is facing a renewed threat | :11:29. | :11:34. | |
of collapse. What does that do to market speculation? It is the | :11:34. | :11:38. | |
politicians within the eurozone that can have the bigger impact, | :11:38. | :11:42. | |
because they are going to be called upon to solve the crisis. In the | :11:42. | :11:47. | |
first quarter of this year, the ECB have calmed down the tensions by | :11:47. | :11:51. | |
throwing it liquidity into the markets, but that does not solve | :11:51. | :11:59. | |
the problem. It bought a politicians' time. There is an | :11:59. | :12:03. | |
irony, every time we get a pinnacle in the tensions of the crisis, and | :12:03. | :12:07. | |
this has been going on for years, it is then that politicians have | :12:07. | :12:10. | |
the desire to come out with something really firm in terms of | :12:11. | :12:15. | |
structural reform. It is then they can go back to their electorate and | :12:15. | :12:22. | |
say, we have to do something. If you like, the ECB has potentially | :12:22. | :12:29. | |
prolonged the crisis. What is the reaction in Germany to this idea of | :12:29. | :12:33. | |
pressure for either pumping up and backing that the ECB or any risky | :12:33. | :12:38. | |
bail-out fund? What is the German government feeling? They are | :12:38. | :12:44. | |
waiting for Sunday. Election day. The French have to decide their | :12:44. | :12:50. | |
President. The Greeks have to decide their government. It is | :12:50. | :12:54. | |
another fortnight until we have elections in our biggest state, | :12:54. | :12:59. | |
North Rhine-Westphalia. Until then, nothing will happen. What about the | :12:59. | :13:03. | |
prospect if the polls are to be believed that Francois Hollande | :13:03. | :13:09. | |
becomes the next president? How will Angela Merkel react? There | :13:09. | :13:13. | |
will be much gnashing of teeth in Berlin and they will then get on | :13:13. | :13:17. | |
with it. As every German Chancellor and every French President has done | :13:17. | :13:21. | |
for the last 40 years. It will not make any difference to the crisis | :13:21. | :13:29. | |
in substance? She was ill-advised to support Nicolas Sarkozy in the | :13:29. | :13:35. | |
way she did. She will have to make up to Francois on bond. She will | :13:35. | :13:42. | |
give some way on some measures or some personality decisions. Apart | :13:42. | :13:47. | |
from that, it will be business as usual. What is the reaction to the | :13:47. | :13:53. | |
Prime Minister's comments, possibly years of recession or minimal | :13:53. | :13:59. | |
growth, and blaming the eurozone for Britain's economic woes? Who is | :13:59. | :14:08. | |
David Cameron? Is that still the feeling? In terms of eurozone | :14:08. | :14:13. | |
politics, in terms of overcoming the financial crisis, who is David | :14:13. | :14:19. | |
Cameron? Who is David Cameron, Simon Hughes? Somebody who is | :14:19. | :14:25. | |
outside the inner circle. The wrong decision? We obviously were unhappy | :14:25. | :14:32. | |
about that, we have always argued for maximum participation. I | :14:32. | :14:37. | |
absolutely agree... We should not write-off Nicolas Sarkozy, my | :14:37. | :14:41. | |
friends I was speaking to today, they say, do not assume it is all | :14:41. | :14:45. | |
over. I am not a supporter of either, there is not a strong | :14:45. | :14:52. | |
Liberal candidate. Secondly, absolutely, we have got to see what | :14:52. | :14:55. | |
happens in the Greek election, we have got to replace the | :14:55. | :15:00. | |
bureaucratic government with a political government. This is going | :15:00. | :15:06. | |
to take a long time to resolve. Our job was always to make sure that we | :15:06. | :15:10. | |
helped as far as possible a smooth landing for the most difficult | :15:10. | :15:14. | |
economic turbulence we have had in my lifetime. Has David Cameron done | :15:14. | :15:19. | |
that? We had the blip in December, when we had a different view as to | :15:19. | :15:24. | |
whether we should have participated, but life has moved on, and there is | :15:24. | :15:28. | |
participation. We have to continue working with our colleagues, | :15:28. | :15:32. | |
because the eurozone future is important to Britain's future, our | :15:32. | :15:42. | |
:15:42. | :15:48. | ||
biggest trade is with Europe, so if It's being said it faces a renewed | :15:48. | :15:52. | |
threat of collapse and it is as a result of turmoil in the eurozone | :15:52. | :15:56. | |
that Britain is facing the double- dip recession. The eurozone has not | :15:56. | :16:00. | |
helped us at all, but it's very important that we remain as strong | :16:00. | :16:02. | |
as possible as an economy. What will happen after the elections | :16:03. | :16:09. | |
that we have this week, across Great Britain, is that we will need | :16:09. | :16:13. | |
to review whether we are doing everything we can to move on with | :16:14. | :16:20. | |
growth. Clearly, it's been difficult. There's a new session of | :16:20. | :16:24. | |
Parliament. I want us to pull every single lever for growth and if | :16:24. | :16:29. | |
there are more to pull, we need to pull. What do you say to this | :16:29. | :16:33. | |
insistence that we can do something to help the eurozone and help | :16:33. | :16:41. | |
growth, is that just empty words? think the whole word is becoming | :16:41. | :16:46. | |
far more important to all of the people, especially in the UK. Many | :16:46. | :16:48. | |
economists don't believe that number that came out, but | :16:48. | :16:52. | |
regardless of that, I think for all politicians growth is going to be | :16:52. | :16:58. | |
the real watchword. Are the programmes the wrong way to go, in | :16:58. | :17:03. | |
the countries which are under huge pressure to make severe cuts? | :17:03. | :17:07. | |
politicians are realising that they've got to be efficient by pro- | :17:07. | :17:13. | |
growth policies. If you are from the point of view of Germany, that | :17:13. | :17:16. | |
certainly you need structural reform. Unfortunately, that can | :17:16. | :17:22. | |
take years to pull through. Look at Thatcher's labour market reforms. | :17:22. | :17:26. | |
In the meantime, we need to stop the spiral, such as we are seeing | :17:26. | :17:31. | |
in Spain, where banks are under pressure from 25% unemployment and | :17:31. | :17:35. | |
drop in property prices and that meaning that banks haven't got the | :17:35. | :17:39. | |
money necessarily to lend. The slowing down of growth too, so you | :17:39. | :17:47. | |
need some pro-growth policies to stop this spiral. What is the | :17:47. | :17:51. | |
structural reform you are advocating? Pension reform, labour | :17:51. | :17:58. | |
market reform and budgetary reform. This has been going on for some | :17:58. | :18:02. | |
time. If you take the eurozone in general, many countries were | :18:02. | :18:07. | |
supposed to have done that prior to 1999. Generally speaking, it's when | :18:07. | :18:12. | |
that's done that invest towards start to buy the bonds from those | :18:12. | :18:15. | |
countries. The social Democrat Government failed because they did | :18:15. | :18:18. | |
all those structural reforms. The employment rate in Germany is | :18:18. | :18:21. | |
higher than in most countries in Europe. The pension system is still | :18:21. | :18:27. | |
in need of reform, because we get older all the time, but they did | :18:27. | :18:30. | |
reform it. I'm not entirely sure whether that's correct. Do they | :18:30. | :18:35. | |
take the idea that it all comes down to what Germany does? | :18:35. | :18:39. | |
course not. Look at the Netherlands. That is a net contributor. The | :18:39. | :18:43. | |
Government has collapsed. France is important whatever else. America | :18:43. | :18:47. | |
may be the more important partner, but France is extremely important, | :18:47. | :18:54. | |
and so is Italy and Spain. absolutely clear that given the | :18:54. | :18:56. | |
Government's form when there was a disruption in Greece at the time, | :18:56. | :19:00. | |
we were right to make sure we protected ourselves against | :19:00. | :19:04. | |
reputational loss, which meant ratings would go down and weighed | :19:04. | :19:08. | |
start to see either further inflation or whatever. Now | :19:08. | :19:13. | |
everybody is say we must pull the growth levers, but there are issues | :19:13. | :19:18. | |
for France. They have retirement age much earlier than we do and | :19:18. | :19:23. | |
they won't be able to afford that. We've taken the difficult decisions. | :19:23. | :19:28. | |
But were the Liberal Democrats a block on the reform here? That's | :19:28. | :19:32. | |
the argument being put against them, saying they tried to slow it down. | :19:32. | :19:37. | |
We have clearly been willing to say that the pension age must rise, but | :19:37. | :19:40. | |
look at a whole restructuring of the system so people get a much | :19:40. | :19:44. | |
more secure pension by 2015 at the end of the exercise. That is | :19:44. | :19:47. | |
sensible, because it accepts the reality of longer life, but | :19:47. | :19:54. | |
realises you have a different way. Thank you all very much. It emerged | :19:54. | :19:58. | |
yesterday that the MoD is proposing to station surface-to-air missile | :19:58. | :20:03. | |
on top of a block of residential flats in East London in the | :20:03. | :20:10. | |
Olympics. Residents in Bow Quarter have received leaflets. It says the | :20:10. | :20:15. | |
missiles will only be fired as a last resort. Over now to Ross | :20:15. | :20:21. | |
Hawkins, who is on College Green for us. Noisy neighbours, somewhere | :20:21. | :20:28. | |
safe to put your bins, you don't normally have to worry about high- | :20:28. | :20:32. | |
velocity missiles being put on your roof, but that is a real concern | :20:32. | :20:39. | |
for some. Over now to two MPs. It's your constituents, who we are | :20:39. | :20:45. | |
talking about here. They and you must accept that we do need to | :20:45. | :20:47. | |
defend the stadium and that can be difficult and people are just going | :20:47. | :20:53. | |
to have to make allowances. Yes. People are excited and they are | :20:53. | :20:56. | |
working closely with the authorities to make sure that there | :20:56. | :21:00. | |
is proper security and that's what we are all concerned about. But, | :21:00. | :21:05. | |
what is really worrying about this situation is that it's been done | :21:05. | :21:12. | |
within a -- dealt with in a cack- handed way. People have received | :21:12. | :21:15. | |
leaflets and they've seen army officers going through the flats | :21:15. | :21:19. | |
without proper explanation and that's quite alarming and there are | :21:19. | :21:24. | |
questions that people are asking. The first thing some of the | :21:24. | :21:27. | |
constituents knew was they got the leaflets from the pizza company and | :21:28. | :21:33. | |
from the local Tay-away and there was one saying, "By the way there | :21:33. | :21:39. | |
may be a surface-to-air missile on your roof."? That's right. It's | :21:39. | :21:42. | |
unacceptable. Everybody would expect a bit more consultation and | :21:42. | :21:46. | |
explanation of what this entails, what this would mean and what would | :21:46. | :21:56. | |
:21:56. | :21:57. | ||
be the worst-case scenario in a heavily-built area. These missiles | :21:57. | :22:03. | |
are being put above residential properties in a heavily built-up | :22:03. | :22:07. | |
area and that's unprecedented. Patrick Mercer, a quarter of a | :22:07. | :22:11. | |
century in the army, so you must know that when the military come so | :22:11. | :22:15. | |
close to civil society they have to think about what they're doing and | :22:15. | :22:18. | |
handle themselves with tact. It doesn't sound like they're done | :22:18. | :22:22. | |
that, does it? It's very difficult. I think she made some very good | :22:23. | :22:26. | |
points and you are right, this has to be with the content of the | :22:26. | :22:28. | |
people. The more the people agree the more they understand the better | :22:28. | :22:34. | |
the result will be, however, ultimately, the defence is needed. | :22:34. | :22:38. | |
The experts, the officers, who will have carried out the reconnaissance, | :22:38. | :22:41. | |
will have decided this is the best area and the weapons are designed, | :22:41. | :22:46. | |
if necessary, to be used in built- up areas, not necessarily with | :22:46. | :22:49. | |
people present. I'm reassured by the fact it's been carefully | :22:49. | :22:53. | |
thought through and that we have got this particular weapons system | :22:53. | :22:58. | |
in place. You say designed to be used in such areas, but we are | :22:58. | :23:01. | |
talking potentially about the British military shooting down an | :23:01. | :23:04. | |
aircraft, but whether it falls down in bits because it's been blown up, | :23:04. | :23:10. | |
it is going to do damage in the area and endanger lives. That is | :23:10. | :23:13. | |
the situation we have on a day-to- day basis anyway. The difference is | :23:13. | :23:23. | |
:23:23. | :23:23. | ||
if this happens now, as we are speaking, that two very high -- | :23:23. | :23:29. | |
high-quality aircraft will be used. Here we are talking on TV about | :23:29. | :23:32. | |
national security. It's no accident this is so high profile? This is a | :23:32. | :23:36. | |
PR campaign for the bad guys? don't think so at all. The fact we | :23:36. | :23:41. | |
are all standing here, including the MP and her constituents, what | :23:41. | :23:46. | |
we are saying to the bad guys, "If you dare and try, you know what | :23:46. | :23:51. | |
will hit you." It's a good thing. Reassuring? No. Patrick needs to | :23:51. | :23:55. | |
recognise if you want to give out signals, it's very important to get | :23:55. | :23:58. | |
the people to understand exactly what this involves and they've been | :23:59. | :24:05. | |
left in the dark and that's not reassuring. Thank you both very | :24:05. | :24:08. | |
much. We all know there's going to be lots of inconvenience and | :24:08. | :24:11. | |
struggle with special lanes. Some people, it seems, will have a | :24:11. | :24:16. | |
particular sort of anxiety, but it doesn't look like taif got much of | :24:16. | :24:22. | |
a choice. -- they've got much of a choice. We'll look to the general | :24:22. | :24:26. | |
election in 2015. If the coalition makes it that far, of course. The | :24:26. | :24:30. | |
Liberal Democrats are trying to implement the differentiation | :24:30. | :24:34. | |
strategy, but just how possible is that when your tied up in | :24:34. | :24:38. | |
Government? How much can you promise when your only realistic | :24:38. | :24:42. | |
chance is in coalition? We have been trying to find out what Simon | :24:42. | :24:46. | |
Hughes' next manifesto might look look. It's the list of promises a | :24:46. | :24:50. | |
party makes to win votes, but these manifestos were written before the | :24:50. | :24:53. | |
age of coalition Government. Next time around, the Liberal Democrats | :24:53. | :24:57. | |
could take a very different approach, according to the peer who | :24:57. | :25:02. | |
led two of the party's election campaigns. Aim sure what we'll do | :25:02. | :25:09. | |
will be, we'll listen one, two, three, five-five numbers of issues | :25:09. | :25:14. | |
which are crucial for us and we'll say that the more Liberal Democrat | :25:14. | :25:17. | |
MPs you elect, if you like those policies, the more of those | :25:17. | :25:19. | |
policies are likely to be implemented by the next Government, | :25:19. | :25:22. | |
whether it's a Liberal Democrat Government or a Labour Government | :25:22. | :25:31. | |
or Tory Government or coalition. The coalition agreement that these | :25:31. | :25:35. | |
men helped hammer out took bits from the two manifesto $, but both | :25:35. | :25:40. | |
sides got their red-line issues in. In the future, should a party's | :25:40. | :25:43. | |
manifesto outline the areas where they might compromise if they end | :25:43. | :25:49. | |
up around the table in here again? The institute for Government, which | :25:49. | :25:52. | |
has carried out into research on how it was formed, warned that | :25:52. | :25:56. | |
could be a bad move for the Liberal Democrats. I don't think it would | :25:56. | :25:59. | |
be sensible for parties to put in their manifesto, "These are the | :25:59. | :26:04. | |
things we really want to do. We'll definitely stick to these, but | :26:04. | :26:10. | |
these are the others we'll basically drop if we have to." It | :26:10. | :26:14. | |
would look rather odd and it would weaken their bargaining position in | :26:14. | :26:22. | |
any negotiations too. Beware the manifesto pledge. It was a mistake | :26:22. | :26:26. | |
for us to fight the last election on the basis that the candidates | :26:26. | :26:30. | |
are signing a pledge that there would be no increase in tuition | :26:30. | :26:34. | |
fees and I think that's a lesson I'm sure that all three political | :26:34. | :26:40. | |
parties will learn, that you have to couch it rather than saying, | :26:40. | :26:42. | |
"Over my dead body." That was something that we are still | :26:42. | :26:50. | |
recovering from. The dawn of the TV leaders' debate is another reason | :26:50. | :26:54. | |
to leave contentious bits out of the manifesto altogether, according | :26:54. | :26:59. | |
to one backbencher. Nick Clegg boosted enormously Liberal Democrat | :26:59. | :27:04. | |
support through his performance in the hustings on the TV. Then the | :27:04. | :27:07. | |
media looked through the Liberal Democrat manifesto and found some | :27:07. | :27:10. | |
deeply unpopular things. I think manifestos will have less in them | :27:10. | :27:16. | |
in the future and I think they will be more about general direction and | :27:16. | :27:20. | |
the philosophy and value of parties rather than specific policies. | :27:20. | :27:25. | |
Although the two main parties might stick to the usual approach. | :27:25. | :27:28. | |
Tories and Labour Party won't campaign on the assumption there's | :27:28. | :27:31. | |
going to be a coalition, because they'll campaign to win and | :27:32. | :27:38. | |
therefore they'll have much more traditional styles to their | :27:38. | :27:45. | |
manifestos. A list of maybes then, rather than promises. Joining Simon | :27:45. | :27:53. | |
Hughes now is Conservative MP and coalition fan, Nick Bowles. We | :27:53. | :27:57. | |
advocated a pact at the next election, do you still support it? | :27:57. | :28:00. | |
I'm still a fan of the coalition. It's given the country a strong and | :28:00. | :28:05. | |
stable Government. What about it? have to accept on the pact I'm | :28:05. | :28:12. | |
really much a lone voice. Siem son will confirm this has not been | :28:12. | :28:15. | |
warmly -- Simon will confirm this has not been warmly embraced. I | :28:15. | :28:19. | |
would like to see a majority. don't want to campaign, but you | :28:19. | :28:24. | |
would rather have a pact in order to have a coalition? I will be | :28:24. | :28:28. | |
campaigning for a Conservative majority and I am now, but what I | :28:28. | :28:32. | |
think we need to recognise is that as a party, a the Conservatives, we | :28:32. | :28:36. | |
have found it hard traditionally in the last few years to build that | :28:36. | :28:39. | |
majority Government. I think this coalition Government has been a | :28:39. | :28:42. | |
very good Government at a time of difficulty for the country. Much | :28:42. | :28:45. | |
better than my minority Government would have been. I don't think that | :28:45. | :28:49. | |
we should burn our bridges. We'll campaign as independent parties and | :28:49. | :28:52. | |
have different manifestos and different plans, but I hope we | :28:52. | :28:55. | |
won't be trashing the Liberal Democrats and they won't trash us, | :28:55. | :28:58. | |
because we might need to work together again after the next | :28:58. | :29:01. | |
election in the national interest. That's the difficulty, isn't it? If | :29:01. | :29:03. | |
you are going to campaign separately, then one would expect | :29:03. | :29:09. | |
there will be a bit of trashing. If, as you had suggested in Liberal | :29:09. | :29:13. | |
Democrat seats, the Conservatives would not put up a candidate and | :29:13. | :29:16. | |
urge supporters to vote Liberal Democrat, then obviously there | :29:16. | :29:19. | |
wouldn't be the problem for that. Is that something you would still | :29:19. | :29:24. | |
like to see? I'm a realist. I'm a junior MP. Nobody else in my party, | :29:24. | :29:29. | |
nor in the Liberal Democrats, thought this was good. Let's deal | :29:29. | :29:32. | |
with reality, rather than hopes. That would help the Liberal | :29:32. | :29:36. | |
Democrats. If there wasn't a Conservative up against them in the | :29:36. | :29:41. | |
seats, under boundary changes, or marginals, they would increase the | :29:41. | :29:45. | |
number in Parliament? I promise you that the Liberal Democrats | :29:45. | :29:52. | |
conference will not allow us to not fight every single seat in the | :29:52. | :29:56. | |
election. Nick put up an interesting idea. I agree with him | :29:56. | :29:59. | |
that we've had the Government we needed in this difficult time. The | :29:59. | :30:02. | |
only majority that could have been formed was a Conservative and | :30:02. | :30:04. | |
Liberal Democrat majority. There wasn't a majority with Labour. We | :30:04. | :30:08. | |
did the right thing in the national interest. I'm clear it will last | :30:08. | :30:12. | |
for five years, because we have to show that coalitions can work, if | :30:12. | :30:17. | |
that's what the people ask us to do. At the next election wail draw up | :30:17. | :30:21. | |
the manifesto. You saw the example and I think Nick is right in one | :30:21. | :30:24. | |
respect, we will be much more careful that we are not pretending | :30:24. | :30:28. | |
that only majority governments are the outcome and Tim made that point. | :30:28. | :30:35. | |
Secondly, it will therefore be more helpful not to have too many gos at | :30:35. | :30:38. | |
what others have done or what they are saying, because we may have to | :30:38. | :30:48. | |
:30:48. | :30:52. | ||
How can you differentiate? We will all due that they should not be | :30:52. | :30:57. | |
money spent on a like-for-like replacement of Trident. The Tories | :30:57. | :31:01. | |
will argue for a like-for-like replacement, we would save a lot of | :31:01. | :31:05. | |
money by doing that, which we would spend on other things. We want tax | :31:05. | :31:09. | |
policies that help the people at the bottom end, we oppose giving | :31:09. | :31:13. | |
tax concessions to people at the top, because we want the gap | :31:13. | :31:17. | |
between rich and poor closed. We want more regulation of the banks, | :31:17. | :31:24. | |
the Tories want less regulation. What about more cuts after the next | :31:24. | :31:29. | |
general election? Than it Alexander admitted it will be in the next | :31:29. | :31:34. | |
Lidl Democrat manifesto -- Danny Alexander. The economy will not be | :31:34. | :31:39. | |
sorted in five years. What he said it was not about death and it cuts, | :31:39. | :31:43. | |
he asked all departments to think about where they would find savings | :31:43. | :31:47. | |
if they needed to move budgets around. When asked about going to | :31:47. | :31:53. | |
the election, promising further cuts, he said, I am afraid so. | :31:53. | :31:56. | |
is him speaking in a coalition government on behalf of the | :31:56. | :32:03. | |
government having corresponded with colics. We will form our own view | :32:04. | :32:09. | |
in 2015. That sounds like Simon Hughes is trying to say they would | :32:09. | :32:14. | |
not necessarily go into the next election promising further cuts. | :32:14. | :32:17. | |
Differentiation would mean more attacks on Conservatives. How much | :32:17. | :32:26. | |
does that worry you? Not at all. We are separate parties. Two years in, | :32:26. | :32:29. | |
Conservatives are now frustrated about some of the things we would | :32:29. | :32:31. | |
have liked to have done as a majority government that we have | :32:31. | :32:36. | |
not been able to do, and we will want to assert them more clearly | :32:36. | :32:45. | |
and more firmly in our manifesto. Renegotiation and were -- over our | :32:46. | :32:50. | |
membership of the EU. The introduction of the British and | :32:50. | :32:52. | |
have rights to replace the European Convention of Human Rights, so we | :32:53. | :32:56. | |
can get rid of a bigger target without waiting eight years for the | :32:56. | :33:02. | |
European Court to make up its mind. We feel strongly, and they will be | :33:02. | :33:05. | |
underlined in our manifesto, in the way they were not the last election, | :33:06. | :33:13. | |
because we did not note there would be such contentious issues. | :33:13. | :33:17. | |
would see that outlined in a Conservative manifesto? You cannot | :33:17. | :33:21. | |
make it explicit which policies you will throw away, because you might | :33:21. | :33:27. | |
as well not put an end. But what you can do is spend more time | :33:27. | :33:31. | |
elaborating your policy positions on things that really matter to you | :33:31. | :33:35. | |
and less time on things that matter less. Do you agree that the Liberal | :33:35. | :33:39. | |
Democrats are blocking the recovery? No, which are in | :33:39. | :33:44. | |
government together. There are some things we would like to do, but we | :33:44. | :33:48. | |
have got to work through this as a coalition and get some sensible | :33:48. | :33:55. | |
policies in place. I agree with him, we need to pour every lever on | :33:55. | :33:59. | |
gross. A day you accept your party brogues and Series promises that | :33:59. | :34:05. | |
were made in the last manifesto? your party broke a series of | :34:05. | :34:12. | |
promises? We wanted to drop tuition fees, the Tories wanted tuition | :34:12. | :34:18. | |
fees. We were stuffed, we could not deliver. It was difficult for us. | :34:18. | :34:24. | |
They might have been another way of dealing with it. We could have put | :34:24. | :34:28. | |
in a new graduate contribution system. It would have allowed us to | :34:28. | :34:33. | |
confirm what we have said, but we have learnt the lesson. You cannot | :34:33. | :34:37. | |
make a pledge that you cannot deliver. What would you say on | :34:37. | :34:41. | |
tuition fees in the next election? You have to look at things as they | :34:41. | :34:47. | |
are. It will be a lot Blanda, because you cannot make promises, | :34:47. | :34:53. | |
because of the risk of coalition. In Scotland, we were in collision, | :34:53. | :34:57. | |
we delivered residential care for the elderly free and a better | :34:57. | :35:01. | |
system of student tuition. There was a Labour Party minority | :35:01. | :35:06. | |
government in Wales, we made a deal to ensure money for pupils in | :35:06. | :35:12. | |
schools. In coalition, we have delivered all four of those things | :35:12. | :35:17. | |
in the manifesto you showed. The other partner in a coalition has to | :35:17. | :35:21. | |
put its priorities on the table, and we negotiate, but we will | :35:21. | :35:24. | |
continue to make a more fair, Moorgreen, more international | :35:24. | :35:34. | |
:35:34. | :35:36. | ||
Britain. We will take them on. look forward to it! | :35:36. | :35:41. | |
Breaking news. A spokesman for John Bercow says there will be two | :35:41. | :35:44. | |
urgent questions asked on the floor of the House this afternoon, Ed | :35:44. | :35:50. | |
Miliband to the Prime Minister, about referring Jeremy Hunt to the | :35:50. | :35:53. | |
independent adviser on the ministerial code. The other is from | :35:53. | :35:59. | |
Keith Vaz, about the queues at Heathrow. You are forewarned! | :35:59. | :36:02. | |
We are in the last few days of a parliamentary session that began | :36:02. | :36:08. | |
with the Queen's Speech, almost two years ago. The longest in 150 years. | :36:08. | :36:13. | |
With local elections on Thursday, the politics will continue, so | :36:13. | :36:18. | |
there is no break for Pippa Crerar and Andrew Pierce. Such hard | :36:18. | :36:25. | |
working hacks! Can I get your reaction about the urgent question? | :36:25. | :36:31. | |
The Prime Minister will not be happy, but it is the right end. If | :36:31. | :36:34. | |
the Prime Minister says he has got nothing to hide, and it has got | :36:34. | :36:38. | |
nothing to hide, and he should deal with it. It was a nonsense that | :36:38. | :36:42. | |
Lord leathers and should be the moral arbiter, he is investigating | :36:42. | :36:48. | |
phone hacking! -- Lord Justice Leveson. Some people ask about what | :36:48. | :36:54. | |
the point of Alex Allan was. Do you think, in the end, David Cameron | :36:54. | :36:59. | |
will have that independent inquiry by the independent adviser? They | :36:59. | :37:04. | |
will continue to be pressure on him. Jeremy Hunt seems to be on | :37:04. | :37:09. | |
probation. Until he appears before the inquiry, we will continue | :37:09. | :37:13. | |
having questions from the Labour Party, starting this afternoon, | :37:14. | :37:17. | |
putting pressure on David Cameron to have more information. It has | :37:17. | :37:21. | |
not gone away yet, it is likely to get even worse for David Cameron, | :37:21. | :37:26. | |
we have got Rebekah Brooks releasing texts and e-mails to the | :37:26. | :37:30. | |
Leveson Inquiry, which she set to the Prime Minister, so there will | :37:30. | :37:33. | |
be a lot of nervous advisers in Number Ten, waiting to see what | :37:33. | :37:38. | |
they reveal. Well Jeremy Hunt survive? I think he will, not least | :37:38. | :37:41. | |
because that does not appear to be any new information that has come | :37:41. | :37:47. | |
to light since the story broke. The Prime Minister likes him, I was | :37:47. | :37:50. | |
talking to Tory backbenchers, they like him, there is little pressure | :37:50. | :37:55. | |
from within the party to get rid of him. He is an effective human | :37:55. | :38:01. | |
shield for the Prime Minister. Let's look ahead to local elections, | :38:01. | :38:06. | |
and the mayoral elections. The pulse of the road between Ken | :38:06. | :38:08. | |
Livingstone and Boris Johnson over the past few weeks, how big a | :38:08. | :38:12. | |
factor will national politics be? Boris Johnson is doing everything | :38:12. | :38:17. | |
in his power to present himself as Boris Johnson first, and a | :38:17. | :38:21. | |
Conservative candidate second. He was deflecting questions left, | :38:21. | :38:25. | |
right and centre about the impact of the party's national woes. He | :38:25. | :38:28. | |
says it is irrelevant, nothing to do with what people are concerned | :38:28. | :38:34. | |
about. That will have some traction, but I think we will begin to see | :38:34. | :38:38. | |
him brought down slightly. He is massively ahead in all of the | :38:39. | :38:43. | |
opinion polls so far of his own party, and Ken Livingstone is | :38:43. | :38:46. | |
behind the Labour Party, so he is doing everything he can to ally | :38:46. | :38:52. | |
himself with the party and persuade voters that he is the Labour man in | :38:52. | :38:59. | |
power. David Cameron needs Boris Johnson to win. This reminds me of | :38:59. | :39:04. | |
1990, Mrs Thatcher was in big trouble, so Ken Baker span before | :39:04. | :39:08. | |
the local election votes that if they held Wandsworth and | :39:08. | :39:12. | |
Westminster, that was a decisive victory for her. They won those | :39:12. | :39:16. | |
boroughs, but the results in the rest of the country were disastrous, | :39:16. | :39:20. | |
but nevertheless, it was carried off as a great day for her. This is | :39:20. | :39:25. | |
what they are doing with Boris Johnson, but I would remind viewers, | :39:25. | :39:31. | |
only six months later, after Thatcher's victory, she was gone. | :39:31. | :39:36. | |
An ominous tone! The double-dip recession, on the doorsteps, how | :39:36. | :39:40. | |
much will that play for all of the Party's pin-up prospect? To a | :39:40. | :39:46. | |
certain extent, Boris Johnson is the candidate most likely to print | :39:46. | :39:49. | |
London after of recession, both by job-creation measures and also his | :39:49. | :39:53. | |
relationship with the Treasury, he had a lively relationship with | :39:53. | :39:56. | |
George Osborne in the past, but he insists he can get more money out | :39:57. | :40:02. | |
of them for London. It will have an impact, but not as big as some | :40:02. | :40:06. | |
people might suggest. The National Party leaders will knock-on very | :40:07. | :40:12. | |
intently, Ed Miliband appears to be sending out signals that if Ken | :40:12. | :40:15. | |
Livingstone loses, it is a reflection on him and not on the | :40:15. | :40:20. | |
Labour Party. He said that if the election was on Labour policies, | :40:20. | :40:25. | |
London would be taken. Labour is expected to do well in the assembly | :40:25. | :40:29. | |
elections, and to put on seats there. The Conservatives expect to | :40:29. | :40:34. | |
lose seats. We will have a strange situation, may be doing well as a | :40:34. | :40:38. | |
party in London, but not able to get their man into power. Ed | :40:38. | :40:43. | |
Miliband will say, he is not my candidate, but it will have some | :40:43. | :40:51. | |
fall-out. On the sort of independent nature of David | :40:51. | :40:56. | |
Cameron's 2010 intake of MPs, the various groups of MPs from wind in | :40:56. | :41:01. | |
their tuppence to the debate, how were Richard BP buy them? They are | :41:01. | :41:06. | |
the liveliest, most independent- minded intake I can recall. They | :41:06. | :41:09. | |
are terrific news for journalists like me, because they give great | :41:09. | :41:16. | |
headlines. You cannot silence them, because they know they are not | :41:16. | :41:19. | |
necessarily going to get ministerial jobs, because 20 of | :41:19. | :41:22. | |
them are backed by the Liberal Democrats. They have decided to go | :41:23. | :41:26. | |
for it, and they are flexing their muscles, which must be to the | :41:26. | :41:33. | |
despair of Tory whips. Alongside Simon Hughes, as if by | :41:33. | :41:41. | |
magic, Jon Ashworth and Pauline Latham had -- Pauline Latham. Do | :41:41. | :41:46. | |
you belong to any of these independent groups? Not a specific | :41:46. | :41:50. | |
membership, but I tend to go in and out of meetings if it is something | :41:50. | :41:54. | |
that is of particular interest for me. Why are you an independent | :41:54. | :42:00. | |
voice? I am fairly loyal, but there are a few things that will happen | :42:00. | :42:05. | |
in the future that I think I might have a voice on. Which are those? | :42:05. | :42:10. | |
We will have to wait and see! are the areas that you or | :42:10. | :42:15. | |
interested in, going into the meetings? I am concerned about the | :42:15. | :42:19. | |
House of Lords reform. I am not happy about throwing the baby out | :42:19. | :42:24. | |
with the bathwater, which is what I think we are going to do. And same- | :42:24. | :42:27. | |
sex marriage. I do not have anything against gay people, I have | :42:27. | :42:33. | |
no problem, but I have a problem with any form of marriage ceremony. | :42:33. | :42:36. | |
How would you describe the feeling amongst you and your colleagues | :42:36. | :42:42. | |
about Moore's reform? There are a significant number of us that are | :42:43. | :42:46. | |
concerned. We are looking at what the final proposals will be when it | :42:46. | :42:53. | |
comes to the House of Commons. do you say to that? You are in for | :42:53. | :42:59. | |
a big fight, what message do you send to Pauline? I respect of you. | :42:59. | :43:05. | |
Neither of the issues she mentions are easy. Why have a principled | :43:05. | :43:09. | |
view on the House of Lords reform, it will have to beat a compromise, | :43:09. | :43:13. | |
it will have to be mainly elected and some appointed, to get | :43:13. | :43:20. | |
agreement. They do not want it to happen. But the principle must be, | :43:20. | :43:26. | |
those asked to obey the laws Chew's who make the laws. Only one other | :43:26. | :43:31. | |
country in the world has a wholly nominated top house. We are behind | :43:31. | :43:38. | |
the curve. Once you stop -- once you start paying them, they would | :43:38. | :43:42. | |
challenge the supremacy of the House of Commons. I understand, I | :43:42. | :43:45. | |
was on the commission which looks at the relationship, and we might | :43:45. | :43:53. | |
need to make that even clearer. The reason it is already clear, we are | :43:53. | :43:57. | |
elected every five years at most, so we have a mandate, but the Lords | :43:57. | :44:00. | |
will be elected in thirds, so they will never have a recent mandate. | :44:01. | :44:09. | |
But we need to have that debate. On the other matter, I say this from a | :44:09. | :44:12. | |
Christian background, they should be a difference between what the | :44:12. | :44:16. | |
state recognises as a partnership, like in the rest of continental | :44:16. | :44:20. | |
Europe, and what faith groups recognise. Sacrament of marriage | :44:20. | :44:24. | |
are very important to the Christian Church and others, but allowing | :44:24. | :44:27. | |
people as adults to join his civic partnership and call it the same | :44:27. | :44:31. | |
think is for me something which is an acceptable way in a modern age | :44:31. | :44:35. | |
of making sure people were given equal recognition. Civil | :44:35. | :44:40. | |
partnerships, what is the difference? We could have a long | :44:40. | :44:44. | |
debate. There is a difference in practice, and people feel they are | :44:44. | :44:48. | |
differentiated in the status they give. With the commission going | :44:49. | :44:54. | |
over these issues, let's refer back to Jeremy Hunt. He is still in his | :44:54. | :44:58. | |
post, you will have the urgent question. Ed Miliband failed to | :44:58. | :45:08. | |
make the killer blow. I do not know about that. The key thing is, David | :45:08. | :45:10. | |
Cameron has to show some responsibility, he cannot hide | :45:10. | :45:16. | |
behind Lord leathers and -- Lord Justice Leveson. He appoints his | :45:16. | :45:20. | |
ministers, and he has responsibility for the ministerial | :45:20. | :45:27. | |
code, show -- so we should request an inquiry. The longer the prime | :45:27. | :45:35. | |
minister delays,... The more he looks weak, and people will ask, | :45:35. | :45:45. | |
:45:45. | :45:45. | ||
The three main parties all face specific concerns on Thursday. In a | :45:45. | :45:49. | |
bout of expectation management, the Communities Secretary, Eric Pickles, | :45:49. | :45:55. | |
has said the Conservatives could lose 400 to 450 to Labour. Labour | :45:55. | :46:02. | |
hope their national lead translates into gains of at least 700 seats, | :46:02. | :46:06. | |
by despite that Ken Livingstone still trails Boris Johnson and the | :46:06. | :46:15. | |
whrds, who were in the words of -- Liberal Democrats, who were in the | :46:15. | :46:23. | |
words of one Liberal Democrat, slaughtered last year, will they do | :46:23. | :46:27. | |
any better? Do you agree that members should hold their noses and | :46:28. | :46:31. | |
vote for Ken Livingstone? I think people should vote for Ken. He was | :46:31. | :46:35. | |
wrong in saying that? He was making a point about the way the election | :46:35. | :46:39. | |
is going, but actually there are other elections going on 3rd May, | :46:39. | :46:43. | |
on Thursday. It's not just all about lon and you have to remember | :46:43. | :46:48. | |
the context -- London and you have to remember the context. In 2010 we | :46:48. | :46:51. | |
had the second-worst general election result. We lost seats from | :46:51. | :46:56. | |
193. We made good progress and we had some gains. I won my own by- | :46:56. | :46:59. | |
election last year and this year we are hoping to make progress in the | :46:59. | :47:03. | |
south. I've been looking out on Thursday evening for Norwich and | :47:03. | :47:07. | |
Reading and Harlow. Those bellweather places where I suspect | :47:07. | :47:10. | |
we saw people voting Tory coming back to Labour. Will it be the | :47:10. | :47:15. | |
amount of progress we want, probably not, but some. We'll | :47:15. | :47:19. | |
return to Ken Livingstone since you didn't want to talk about him. Is | :47:19. | :47:23. | |
the reason that Tom Watson said people should hold their noses, so | :47:23. | :47:28. | |
hardly a wringing endorsement, is because of embarrassment over his | :47:28. | :47:31. | |
tax affairs, which he's defend and his comments over the Jewish | :47:31. | :47:35. | |
community and others that have made him not the best candidate Labour | :47:35. | :47:40. | |
would have chosen? Do you endorse him? Are you saying there should be | :47:40. | :47:45. | |
such? Of course, they should. He's the Labour. I'm not a Londoner, but | :47:45. | :47:50. | |
I'll encourage them to vote on Thursday. This is from a Shadow | :47:50. | :47:54. | |
Cabinet member, "The voters must not think they can wash their hands | :47:54. | :47:57. | |
of responsibility for their actions if they fail to vote against the | :47:57. | :48:01. | |
Tories." Is that what you would have put it? What he's saying | :48:01. | :48:06. | |
directly is that Boris Johnson is a big celebrity, but people who vote | :48:06. | :48:11. | |
for him have to remember they are vote forg a Tory who supports | :48:11. | :48:18. | |
cutting -- voting for a Tory who supports cutting taxes. Whatever | :48:18. | :48:22. | |
that Labour candidate says or does? He's the candidate and he's very | :48:22. | :48:26. | |
good for the Labour Party. He's setting out a programme to cut | :48:26. | :48:30. | |
fares and a programme to bring back London-based educational | :48:30. | :48:32. | |
maintenance allowance. I think that's a great manifesto for London. | :48:33. | :48:37. | |
If I was a Londoner I would vote for him on Thursday. Do you think | :48:37. | :48:40. | |
there's a scepticism about the machine politics, if you like, in | :48:40. | :48:44. | |
Labour, that there's a wider problem? You used to work in Ed | :48:44. | :48:50. | |
Miliband's office. I did. Selected for a safe by-election seat then | :48:51. | :48:54. | |
another selected in Feltham and then we had the by-election | :48:54. | :48:58. | |
selection in Manchester Central, Lucy Powell, also a triumph. Ed | :48:58. | :49:02. | |
Miliband said, "We are trying to do politics in a different way." | :49:02. | :49:08. | |
Doesn't this give the impression of stitchups? I can see why you would | :49:08. | :49:13. | |
make that point. We have a council leader in Scotland and Dan Jarvis, | :49:13. | :49:19. | |
who has served our country in Barnsley and Debbie Abrahams in | :49:19. | :49:22. | |
Oldham, so they are not all people who have worked in politics who are | :49:22. | :49:27. | |
fighting the lections. Sthr how worried -- by-elections. | :49:27. | :49:31. | |
worried are you about things in Glasgow? We know we have a lot of a | :49:31. | :49:35. | |
job to do. These are fought on proportional representation. Last | :49:35. | :49:40. | |
time the same set of elections - You think the SNP will win? If they | :49:40. | :49:44. | |
put up the same number as last time, we would be having a different | :49:44. | :49:49. | |
discussion. Paula, do you agree you'll lose 450 seats? I think in | :49:49. | :49:54. | |
the last four years, in 2008, we had a high. It was in the run-up to | :49:54. | :49:58. | |
the general election, so obviously we did well. I suspect that we will | :49:58. | :50:04. | |
lose some seats. I find it very - Will you lose as many as 450? | :50:04. | :50:08. | |
hope so, but it's possible, because we did have a huge high. We weren't | :50:08. | :50:12. | |
expecting to win many of those seats four years ago. We did win | :50:12. | :50:16. | |
them and we are likely to lose quite a lot. Do you think Boris | :50:16. | :50:20. | |
Johnson's strategy in London to distance and differentiate himself | :50:20. | :50:24. | |
from the national scene, from pasty tax and charity tax, is the right | :50:24. | :50:32. | |
way? Boris is running to run London. He's not running to run the country. | :50:32. | :50:35. | |
The Conservative candidate to run London and he doesn't want to be | :50:36. | :50:41. | |
seen - I've been a counsellor for 23 years before I came here and it | :50:41. | :50:45. | |
used to annoy me and say it was a referendum on the Government, but | :50:45. | :50:49. | |
it isn't. It's about local people. Not what I've done or what Simon | :50:49. | :50:52. | |
Hughes or anybody else has done. Running London is a pretty big job. | :50:52. | :50:57. | |
You have to lobby Government for a lot of money in transport. It | :50:57. | :51:00. | |
doesn't help if - If the referendums go through they'll have | :51:00. | :51:03. | |
to do the same. It's very difficult to divorce national politics then | :51:03. | :51:08. | |
from, if you like, local politics in terms of the London mayorality, | :51:08. | :51:13. | |
so he's got the right strategy to try to push the national scene | :51:13. | :51:17. | |
aside? I'm not so sure he's doing that, because he's doing a lot of | :51:17. | :51:20. | |
strategies and increasing the police on the beat and building | :51:20. | :51:23. | |
more houses. He's getting employment up. He's doing a really | :51:23. | :51:27. | |
good job for London and I think he needs to continue. If he's doing a | :51:27. | :51:31. | |
really good job, it will be as a result of what has been happening | :51:31. | :51:34. | |
nationally? I don't know about that. It will be what Londoners decide | :51:34. | :51:37. | |
and it's up to them to decide what they're going to do, but I hope | :51:38. | :51:40. | |
they'll vote for him, because London is a much brighter place for | :51:40. | :51:48. | |
the fact that he's there. I really hope that in Scotland people vote | :51:48. | :51:52. | |
for the Scottish issues that are at local levels and in Wales. I think | :51:52. | :51:57. | |
we run it very well. I hope the people will reward us for that. | :51:57. | :52:01. | |
wouldn't you want to be in coalition? It's important that at | :52:02. | :52:05. | |
local elections. In London I'm an MP and I want people to vote for | :52:05. | :52:09. | |
Brian Paddick. You have a second choice, so you can vote on for | :52:09. | :52:14. | |
Boris or Ken. I think there's a case for Brian. He's a police | :52:14. | :52:19. | |
officer. He knows about security. He wants to deliver 360 affordable | :52:19. | :52:22. | |
homes and more money from the banks. Good policies. Absolutely, people | :52:22. | :52:27. | |
should vote for the Mayor. They should vote for the assembly, | :52:27. | :52:34. | |
because it's important. We should vote elsewhere in the country. | :52:34. | :52:39. | |
There are very good candidates. Liberal Democrat counsellors must | :52:39. | :52:43. | |
be thinking, "We're going to prosper from the Government's | :52:44. | :52:47. | |
difficulties, the Conservative Government's difficulties, | :52:47. | :52:51. | |
particularly over Jeremy Hunt." was in Manchester yesterday. There | :52:51. | :52:56. | |
are no Conservative counsellors in Manchester. The same I think is | :52:56. | :52:59. | |
true in Liverpool. But there are many areas where there are, but | :52:59. | :53:02. | |
there are no Tories present. The battle there is between us and | :53:02. | :53:06. | |
Labour. I think we'll do much better than last year. We had a | :53:06. | :53:10. | |
very bad year for obvious reasons. What would be a good result in | :53:10. | :53:18. | |
footish for any of us to predict. You lost nine out of 19 last year. | :53:18. | :53:25. | |
I hope we hold current ones. With a majority, that is. I hope we'll | :53:25. | :53:31. | |
hold the councils that we are running, but I hope that people | :53:31. | :53:35. | |
like in Manchester or in Headingley in Leeds or in Sheffield, where the | :53:35. | :53:38. | |
former leader of the council is defending his seat, I hope people | :53:38. | :53:42. | |
vote for good counsellors who know how to look after their people. | :53:42. | :53:46. | |
Know what is good for their cities. If they do that we'll all think | :53:46. | :53:51. | |
that local Government is working. You think you'll still have 3,000 | :53:51. | :53:55. | |
counsellors this time next week? think we'll hold a significant | :53:55. | :54:01. | |
numbers. We are in Government. Like Pauline. Governments always - when | :54:01. | :54:06. | |
Labour they got cut off, unfairly sometimes, because people weren't | :54:06. | :54:09. | |
voting on local issues. Tory counsellors and Lib Dems will lose | :54:09. | :54:12. | |
sometimes their seats for nothing they've done. They could be the | :54:12. | :54:17. | |
best in the world, running the best administration. I take the point. | :54:17. | :54:27. | |
:54:27. | :54:30. | ||
plead to your viewers vote on local issues. I hope they're Liberal | :54:30. | :54:33. | |
Democrats. Do you regret not running for Mayor of London? I've | :54:33. | :54:37. | |
done it once and it's very demanding. I don't regret it, | :54:37. | :54:41. | |
because I'm deputy leader. I think Brian Paddick has run a better | :54:41. | :54:45. | |
campaign than four years ago. impact on the race hasn't been very | :54:45. | :54:48. | |
good. We have a fixed system when you have the one, two choice, | :54:48. | :54:52. | |
because it's not a fully proportional system. I think Brian | :54:52. | :54:56. | |
will do better. I think he's communicated a message, tough on | :54:56. | :54:59. | |
will you and order, pay back for crimes and build more housing and | :54:59. | :55:03. | |
help the young people. I hope people vote. Right. We were going | :55:03. | :55:07. | |
to do something completely different, I warn you. Now, which | :55:07. | :55:12. | |
do you prefer, Angry Birds or draw something? We know the PM is an | :55:12. | :55:18. | |
Angry Birds man and has in fact completed it. He's also a fan of | :55:18. | :55:21. | |
the tablet computer and has a specially adapted one, so he can do | :55:21. | :55:24. | |
business on it. Today, Commons authorities are meeting to decide | :55:24. | :55:29. | |
whether all MPs should be issued with iPads or other tablets. We | :55:29. | :55:34. | |
thought we would let our MP panel get used to them. You can count | :55:34. | :55:40. | |
yourselves lucky we found three. We have three here. Angry Birds is old | :55:40. | :55:44. | |
hat, so if you're an expert on that, I'm sorry. We have loaded up the | :55:44. | :55:54. | |
:55:54. | :55:57. | ||
latest hit, temp run for you three. -- Templerun, for you three. You | :55:57. | :56:02. | |
have to make the little man. Siem son Hughes has already lost. You've | :56:02. | :56:07. | |
-- Simon Hughes has already lost. Yuef gone on. You played this | :56:07. | :56:17. | |
:56:17. | :56:17. | ||
before? -- yuef you've gone on. Have you played this before? I have. | :56:17. | :56:25. | |
You don't get another go. What is your score? Zero. 702. What is your | :56:25. | :56:34. | |
score, Pauline? Nil. Are you sure? I don't know. As always happens - | :56:34. | :56:42. | |
No, 2030. We'll leave Jon to carry on to see if he can answer any of | :56:42. | :56:47. | |
the questions. What do you think of the idea they'll save money and | :56:47. | :56:54. | |
will help MPs in their work? theory they should mean we lose | :56:54. | :56:58. | |
less papers, but with computers we use as much as we did before, so | :56:58. | :57:04. | |
I'm not sure. Although I occasionally use it myself, I'm | :57:04. | :57:11. | |
against people sitting in the House using technology. Have you got one? | :57:11. | :57:15. | |
I have one. You are allowed to use it instead of paper for speeches. | :57:15. | :57:20. | |
You are. Do you use it instead of paper? Do you think it would cut | :57:20. | :57:24. | |
printing costs? Yes. It's a very good thing. I find it useful. I'm | :57:24. | :57:26. | |
on the international development Select Committee and I have to go | :57:26. | :57:31. | |
away and I'm out of the country. To have one is better than a laptop. | :57:31. | :57:38. | |
Much more efficient. You would advocate it? Yes. My score is | :57:38. | :57:44. | |
20,678. What about that? That might be the top score. It's beaten the | :57:44. | :57:49. | |
others. How is the Prime Minister completing Angry Birds? Have you | :57:49. | :57:53. | |
tried it? I've tried it. I can't get past the one where the little | :57:53. | :57:58. | |
pigs have the funny cowboy hats. How on earth has he completed it? | :57:58. | :58:02. | |
Where does he find the time? I've got no idea. You'll try to beat him | :58:02. | :58:07. | |
now. Do you think it would be be good? The proposal is that we'll | :58:07. | :58:12. | |
cut back on the printing of Hansard and the older papers, so it makes a | :58:12. | :58:20. | |
sense. We have to do the quiz answer. I can't remember what it | :58:20. | :58:27. | |
was. What is the interesting item that Michael Gove revealed that | :58:27. | :58:33. | |
Jeremy Hunt had in his house? Cable's book. What does he have? | :58:33. | :58:40. | |
It's a sprung dancefloor, because he's apparently a dab hand at the | :58:40. | :58:43. | |
lambada. He shouldn't be allowed to swerve for this inquiry. Oh, very | :58:43. | :58:46. |