Browse content similar to 16/05/2012. Check below for episodes and series from the same categories and more!
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Morning folks, welcome to the Daily Politics. On the show today... | :00:46. | :00:49. | |
Torrential rain, lightning and even snow - Europe's economies are being | :00:49. | :00:57. | |
blown off course. So how will Britain navigate the storm? Managed | :00:57. | :01:02. | |
to get info on the plans for tomorrow, although absolutely | :01:02. | :01:08. | |
illegal. David Cameron predicted it would be the next big scandal | :01:08. | :01:10. | |
waiting to happen. Now it's happening, so will the government | :01:10. | :01:13. | |
regulate the lobbying industry? had a mini re-shuffle of his pack | :01:13. | :01:17. | |
yesterday. Today, geared up by positive polls, Ed Miliband faces | :01:17. | :01:26. | |
the Prime Minister in PMQs. We'll bring it to you live. Ban the | :01:26. | :01:34. | |
packed lunch and provide free school meals for all children. Kick | :01:34. | :01:37. | |
boxer, reality TV star and political hopeful Alex Reid gives | :01:37. | :01:39. | |
us his prescription for improving children's health. All that to come | :01:39. | :01:43. | |
before 1pm. And with us for the duration two politicians with a | :01:43. | :01:49. | |
future so bright, I might need to send for my shades. Who wrote this? | :01:49. | :01:53. | |
A except there is no sun! Cabinet Office minister Mark Harper, and | :01:53. | :01:55. | |
shadow secretary of state for Scotland Margaret Curran. Welcome | :01:55. | :02:00. | |
to you both. Now, Theresa May has been addressing the Police | :02:00. | :02:02. | |
Federation annual conference in sunny Bournemouth. It's a rite of | :02:02. | :02:05. | |
passage for most Home Secretaries, but when you're pushing through 20% | :02:05. | :02:08. | |
budget cuts and some of the most radical reforms for decades to | :02:08. | :02:11. | |
forces in England and Wales, it's perhaps no wonder that relations | :02:11. | :02:20. | |
between government and the police are so frosty. We are waiting to | :02:20. | :02:24. | |
hear from Theresa May, she is just about to get on her feet at that | :02:24. | :02:32. | |
conference. The chairman of the Police Federation was on the show | :02:32. | :02:36. | |
earlier, we expect that is still him speaking there, in fact, he has | :02:36. | :02:46. | |
:02:46. | :02:49. | ||
been speaking so long, we cannot It is a bit of a rite of passage | :02:49. | :02:52. | |
for any home secretary when you appear in front of the Police | :02:52. | :02:56. | |
Federation, but when you are carrying 20% of the budget you can | :02:56. | :03:02. | |
expect a bit of a mauling I suspect. Why is a Conservative-led | :03:02. | :03:07. | |
government being criticised for being "on the precipice of | :03:07. | :03:10. | |
destroying the police service"? are having to make tough decisions | :03:10. | :03:14. | |
about the funding going into the police and 80% of spending on the | :03:14. | :03:19. | |
police is on pay, so clearly we have to take tough decisions on pay, | :03:19. | :03:23. | |
but two you pay freeze along with the public sector and tough | :03:23. | :03:27. | |
decisions on pensions. But police officers after this will still end | :03:27. | :03:32. | |
up well-paid, with some of the best pensions in the public sector and | :03:32. | :03:35. | |
the Windsor reforms do not take money out of the service, they are | :03:35. | :03:38. | |
about making sure hard-working officers get paid for the jobs and | :03:38. | :03:44. | |
skills they have. Is it really your contention that 20% could be cut | :03:44. | :03:49. | |
from the police budget without any deterioration in front line | :03:49. | :03:56. | |
services? HMIC said you could take out at least 12% without any change | :03:56. | :04:01. | |
in front line services. They did not say at least. So of the extra | :04:01. | :04:04. | |
savings we are making on paid do not affect frontline services but | :04:04. | :04:08. | |
also we want policing to be more flexible. As a government we have | :04:08. | :04:12. | |
produced some of the red tape and bureaucracy so you can have a | :04:12. | :04:15. | |
larger percentage of officers on the front line rather than in the | :04:15. | :04:20. | |
back office. I understand that, you are attempting to make it more | :04:20. | :04:26. | |
efficient. But my question was are you saying that by doing that, by | :04:26. | :04:32. | |
going for efficiency as well as a 20% cut you can really do a 20% cut, | :04:32. | :04:36. | |
cut the number of police officers and leave the front line untouched? | :04:36. | :04:43. | |
It is the budget being cut, not the number of police officers. We think | :04:43. | :04:47. | |
you can still deliver a very good for online services, still keep | :04:47. | :04:57. | |
:04:57. | :05:00. | ||
driving crime down. We have not had a big fall in numbers for -- | :05:00. | :05:05. | |
numbers. It is still falling. You leave it up to individual | :05:05. | :05:08. | |
authorities and Constable's to make the individual decisions based on | :05:08. | :05:11. | |
local circumstances but we are confident they can continue to do | :05:11. | :05:15. | |
that. Does Labour support police opposition to changes in pay and | :05:15. | :05:20. | |
conditions? Their position has been there is always a case for reform | :05:21. | :05:25. | |
in any service at any time, that is the nature of government and public | :05:25. | :05:28. | |
services so what did not take opposition to anything. But we are | :05:28. | :05:32. | |
saying the government has got it wrong. Who would have thought a | :05:32. | :05:35. | |
Tory lead government would have such a severe relationship with the | :05:36. | :05:40. | |
police, were you have 30,000 police officers demonstrating last week? | :05:40. | :05:47. | |
That is unheard of. I understand that. You would have any cut by 12%, | :05:47. | :05:54. | |
you say? That is in line with the report but do you support major | :05:54. | :05:59. | |
changes in the pay and conditions of the police service? I think | :06:00. | :06:03. | |
changes in pay and conditions must be properly negotiated with the | :06:03. | :06:07. | |
police and you have to have the conscience of the service with you | :06:07. | :06:12. | |
and the government's approach has been wrong. That is the kind of | :06:12. | :06:19. | |
thing he said. Let me be specific... Should there be an end to automatic | :06:20. | :06:22. | |
retirement after 30 years? You would have to talk to the police | :06:23. | :06:27. | |
force about that? What is your view? You would not talk to them | :06:27. | :06:31. | |
about a Anne Lesley daughter should be done. Not at the moment I do not | :06:31. | :06:38. | |
think it should end. Have some of the payments being too generous? | :06:38. | :06:42. | |
Not necessarily. It would not be proper for a government or shadow | :06:42. | :06:49. | |
minister to say they would select... Hang on, let me make my argument. | :06:49. | :06:52. | |
The nature of negotiations between public service officers and | :06:52. | :06:57. | |
government is when you look at a package of change and when the | :06:57. | :07:00. | |
confident of that change. I would negotiate what to change with the | :07:00. | :07:05. | |
service. What would you change? would not pick one thing out. | :07:05. | :07:10. | |
you would not change? In terms of the public services, funding for | :07:11. | :07:16. | |
them, the 12% cut, which most of us would want to go through... | :07:16. | :07:19. | |
understand that but you cannot say one thing you would change. I would | :07:19. | :07:23. | |
have a better relationship with the police and negotiate with them. | :07:23. | :07:27. | |
Labour has supported our changes. When we put these to the Police | :07:27. | :07:30. | |
negotiating Board we accepted the tribunal's judgment and Yvette | :07:30. | :07:35. | |
Cooper made it clear she supported it, and wrote to Paul Likido and | :07:35. | :07:41. | |
said it was a difficult decision but Labour supported it. They | :07:41. | :07:46. | |
accept our savings and the changes we are making. We say there is a | :07:46. | :07:50. | |
case also Evans, told the scent is a more viable Cup but could be made, | :07:50. | :07:54. | |
you can detect fun run services and you would not make police officers' | :07:54. | :07:58. | |
pay for your cups. There was a big fall in crime when Labour was in | :07:58. | :08:02. | |
power and ran the police service. Well, at least the sun's out in | :08:02. | :08:09. | |
Westminster today. His is still out? It is. Apologies if it's still | :08:09. | :08:12. | |
raining where you are. There's little else to be cheerful about. | :08:12. | :08:15. | |
The governor of the Bank of England has just downgraded growth again | :08:15. | :08:19. | |
and revised upwards his forecast on inflation again. The Treasury's | :08:19. | :08:22. | |
blaming our problems on the eurozone of course, they've let | :08:22. | :08:25. | |
their frustration be known this morning urging Brussels to make a | :08:25. | :08:28. | |
decision either way on Greece and do something to make Europe more | :08:28. | :08:36. | |
competitive. Here's Jo. Welcome to this special Olympic race for | :08:36. | :08:41. | |
growth. And as the starting gun for 2012 is fired, the UK host has got | :08:41. | :08:45. | |
off to a bad start. Our 0.2% backward step in the first quarter | :08:45. | :08:47. | |
contrasted with 0% growth figures for the eurozone published | :08:47. | :08:52. | |
yesterday. But the stronger German performance of 0.5% is credited | :08:52. | :08:58. | |
with preventing the eurozone from slipping back into recession. The | :08:58. | :09:01. | |
UK trainer, Mervyn King, this morning revised the Uk's chances | :09:01. | :09:11. | |
:09:11. | :09:11. | ||
down from a 1.2% growth forecast for 2012 to 0.8%. -- UK's. Growth | :09:11. | :09:14. | |
is expected to zig zag throughout 2012 due to events such the Queen's | :09:14. | :09:18. | |
Diamond Jubilee with an additional bank holiday. And we found out | :09:18. | :09:21. | |
today the rate of inflation is expected to remain above the 2% | :09:21. | :09:24. | |
target "for the next year or so". There is one piece of encouraging | :09:24. | :09:27. | |
news for Team UK - unemployment has fallen by 45,000 between January | :09:27. | :09:35. | |
and March to 2.63 million. The detrimental impact that the | :09:35. | :09:38. | |
eurozone crisis could have on a worsening economy is shown by trade | :09:38. | :09:41. | |
figures yesterday that show Britain still sends half its exports to the | :09:41. | :09:49. | |
eurozone and only after 3% to fast growing China. Andrew, William | :09:49. | :09:59. | |
:09:59. | :10:02. | ||
Hague is come around the corner. Look busy! We're joined now by | :10:02. | :10:09. | |
Allister Heath, the Editor of City AM. The Governor has had to revise | :10:09. | :10:12. | |
upwards its inflation forecast, it is not falling as fast as he said | :10:12. | :10:18. | |
it would. The significance of that, I would suggest to you, is that it | :10:18. | :10:23. | |
means the squeeze on real living standards still continues and that | :10:23. | :10:26. | |
is the major reason why the economy is not growing, people are not | :10:26. | :10:29. | |
spending. I think that was one of the most important figures to come | :10:30. | :10:35. | |
out today, this gulf between inflation and pay rises. Pay rises | :10:35. | :10:39. | |
are virtually nothing when Pate -- bonuses are included. The country | :10:39. | :10:44. | |
is going through a national pay cut, this has been going on for a couple | :10:44. | :10:48. | |
of years, people are becoming poorer. Savings are going down in | :10:48. | :10:54. | |
real terms, so a house prices and so on. -- prices. In a way there is | :10:54. | :10:57. | |
nothing anybody can do about that because wages are high compared to | :10:57. | :11:02. | |
the size of the economy. But the government could have been doing | :11:02. | :11:07. | |
more on inflation, they could have done something about inflation but | :11:07. | :11:12. | |
unfortunately it has beaten the target of the court. It follows | :11:12. | :11:16. | |
from this inflation upgrade and the effect of the squeeze on spending | :11:16. | :11:22. | |
it has that he has then downgraded his growth forecast as well? | :11:22. | :11:28. | |
course. There is a drag on spending from this inflation. People's in | :11:28. | :11:33. | |
comes are falling by 2% every year, much more than the real terms | :11:33. | :11:37. | |
public spending cuts. Public spending is falling by about 1% a | :11:37. | :11:43. | |
year, but wages are falling about two at the cent a year, as our | :11:43. | :11:50. | |
savings, so that is the drag. The eurozone plays a role and other | :11:50. | :11:55. | |
factors, but let's not forget that according to official figures the | :11:55. | :11:58. | |
eurozone did better than the UK in the second quarter. Because of | :11:58. | :12:04. | |
Germany? Yes, in other words, you could say the UK is dragging down | :12:04. | :12:10. | |
the eurozone. I would not go that far but Germany is a powerhouse and | :12:10. | :12:16. | |
everyone else is in crisis. Did I hear right this morning when he | :12:16. | :12:25. | |
said the economy might not recover to its 2007, 2008 level for -- | :12:25. | :12:32. | |
until 2018? That is plausible now because the economy is still about | :12:32. | :12:38. | |
3% smaller, it is shrinking again, we are stuck here, much poorer than | :12:38. | :12:41. | |
they were a few years ago and we have wasted several years of | :12:41. | :12:46. | |
progress. How does it feel to preside over a lost decade? One of | :12:46. | :12:50. | |
the problems was that the peak of economic output that happen under | :12:50. | :12:54. | |
Labour was at the scent, the largest fall from peak to trough in | :12:54. | :12:59. | |
the developed world and we are still recovering from that. We | :12:59. | :13:03. | |
never told anybody it would be fast, dealing with the deficit is a | :13:03. | :13:09. | |
necessary condition of growth. Excuse me, you did tell people, in | :13:09. | :13:12. | |
20th June 10 in the Chancellor's first Budget you told us about the | :13:13. | :13:18. | |
sum of 2012, -- by the sum of 20 told that economy would have grown | :13:18. | :13:28. | |
:13:28. | :13:30. | ||
We did not say we would recover from the deficit and debt problems | :13:30. | :13:36. | |
we have. You just told this programme but nobody told us the | :13:37. | :13:42. | |
economy was going to grow fast but your first set of projections of | :13:42. | :13:46. | |
the government was that it would recover. We never said we would | :13:46. | :13:51. | |
recover from the big drop quickly. Since then the problems in the | :13:51. | :13:54. | |
eurozone have happened. One of the things the Governor said this | :13:54. | :13:58. | |
morning was that the problems in the eurozone was the single biggest | :13:58. | :14:02. | |
risk to economic growth in this country, which backs up some of the | :14:02. | :14:05. | |
things you were saying the Treasury were telling you this morning, it | :14:05. | :14:13. | |
is a big risk because we export 50% about put to the eurozone. | :14:13. | :14:18. | |
output. You never told us at any stage that by the time you come up | :14:18. | :14:22. | |
for re-election that the economy will still be smaller than it was | :14:22. | :14:28. | |
in 2007. I challenge you to give me any time you told us that. | :14:28. | :14:34. | |
economy is not going as well as hoped, we have set out the reasons | :14:34. | :14:39. | |
why. This was always going to be difficult to recover from a big | :14:39. | :14:43. | |
drop in output and inheriting the worst deficit we have had in | :14:43. | :14:48. | |
peacetime. More difficult when you thought, right? Absolutely. | :14:48. | :14:53. | |
Business will have to help us, we saw good output of cars yesterday, | :14:53. | :14:59. | |
for example, we have a surplus on that since 1976. Exports of cars | :14:59. | :15:03. | |
grew 20% so There is a sign of our manufacturing business is | :15:03. | :15:12. | |
If he if more debt was the solution, this would be a tiger economy and | :15:12. | :15:17. | |
yet Labour's proposals is more debt. In fact, we have more debt because | :15:17. | :15:20. | |
of the plans... First of all the Government said categorically we | :15:20. | :15:25. | |
are out of the danger zone when clearly we were not. The it was | :15:25. | :15:29. | |
pre-emptive, to put it mildly. Their actions are making the | :15:29. | :15:33. | |
economy worse, it's not just that they are engulfed by forces beyond | :15:33. | :15:38. | |
their control. It is their lack of intervention. How would more debt | :15:38. | :15:44. | |
help us? It's a balance, you've got to get it right. They are cutting | :15:44. | :15:52. | |
too far and too fast. How much do you think they are cut so far? | :15:52. | :15:57. | |
of the police force for example. How much have they cut so far? | :15:58. | :16:04. | |
Across the whole economy? Yes. Overall spending. 10% of something | :16:04. | :16:11. | |
like that? 1%. So, if you don't know the answer to my question, how | :16:11. | :16:14. | |
can you say they are cutting too far and too fast when you don't | :16:14. | :16:20. | |
know how much they have cut? you can't do at policy by policy. | :16:20. | :16:23. | |
The macro economic impact is the overall total. You didn't know how | :16:23. | :16:30. | |
much they had cut, so how can you say they are doing it too fast? | :16:30. | :16:38. | |
out, all of that is unemployment is No, it's going down. Overall | :16:38. | :16:44. | |
unemployment is falling. When unemployment was falling, it's now | :16:44. | :16:49. | |
long-term unemployment increasing. It's a different matter. Part-time | :16:49. | :16:53. | |
jobs have increased. And it is the whole economic impact they are | :16:53. | :16:59. | |
having because they are not getting the balance in the economy by two. | :16:59. | :17:05. | |
Let me come to the eurozone. I think we are being agreed, it's the | :17:05. | :17:09. | |
biggest threat to the UK economy at the moment. You follow these things | :17:09. | :17:14. | |
more closely. There was a real mood shift in the European elite over | :17:14. | :17:17. | |
the weekend and in the German newspapers and magazines close to | :17:17. | :17:24. | |
the Government. And what is happening now is they are preparing | :17:24. | :17:32. | |
to let Chris go now. It's looking likely, yes. -- Greece. It looks | :17:32. | :17:35. | |
like there will be a new set of elections which was confirmed | :17:35. | :17:39. | |
yesterday and the anti- austerity parties are in the lead, so it | :17:39. | :17:44. | |
increasingly looking likely that in a few weeks' time we have an anti- | :17:44. | :17:47. | |
austerity government in Greece thumbing its nose is that the | :17:47. | :17:52. | |
Germans and the EU and saying, you were too scared to let us go from | :17:52. | :17:56. | |
there eurozone, so give us some money and let us go away. You can't | :17:56. | :18:00. | |
accept that if you are a bank. It's looking likely they will go and | :18:01. | :18:05. | |
people have started to plan for that. I was alarmed when I spoke to | :18:05. | :18:09. | |
sources in Berlin who said one of the reasons they moved to this view | :18:09. | :18:13. | |
of they thought there was a big enough firewall in place to stop | :18:13. | :18:19. | |
contagion. Greece was 2% of the EU GDP, and they had a firewall in | :18:19. | :18:24. | |
place. Now, when I last looked, there wasn't one in place. That is | :18:24. | :18:29. | |
utterly implausible. It is a concocted mechanism with very | :18:29. | :18:33. | |
little cash in it and a lot of public-relations spinner. I'm | :18:33. | :18:37. | |
worried everybody will start to look if Greece goes for the other | :18:37. | :18:40. | |
countries could leave and that could be the solution and therefore | :18:40. | :18:43. | |
there will be a domino effect but in the short term I think they | :18:43. | :18:49. | |
could leave earlier than we think. We haven't got much time and if you | :18:49. | :18:54. | |
can't answer it, I would argue just say, but would it be better now if | :18:54. | :19:00. | |
Greece left the road? I don't think it sensible for me to speculate. | :19:00. | :19:07. | |
You don't want to speculate? I do don't think so. We shouldn't blame | :19:07. | :19:12. | |
the ordinary Greek people. It's a problem of the lead rather than the | :19:12. | :19:16. | |
people. I don't think it would be good for Greece to go. I think it's | :19:16. | :19:20. | |
better if we see this as a European problem and solution and we | :19:20. | :19:23. | |
shouldn't be the powerhouse economies. We have to be concerned | :19:23. | :19:27. | |
about all the people of Europe, not just those doing well. It will be | :19:28. | :19:32. | |
on the agenda for quite some time. Before the last election David | :19:32. | :19:34. | |
Cameron said that lobbying was the "next big scandal waiting to | :19:34. | :19:37. | |
happen". That followed an expose of former Labour ministers saying they | :19:37. | :19:40. | |
could influence government decisions. The Coalition Agreement | :19:40. | :19:43. | |
included a promise to introduce a statutory register of lobbyists but | :19:43. | :19:48. | |
there was nothing in last week's Queen's Speech. In recent months, | :19:48. | :19:51. | |
though, there's been no shortage of new revelations, including details | :19:51. | :19:53. | |
of links between News International's chief lobbyist, | :19:53. | :19:56. | |
Frederic Michel, and the office of Culture Secretary Jeremy Hunt. | :19:56. | :20:03. | |
Here's a reminder of what Mr Michel reported to his boss James Murdoch. | :20:03. | :20:09. | |
Managed to get some information on the plans for tomorrow. Although, | :20:09. | :20:17. | |
absolutely illegal. What do you make of that? I thought was a joke. | :20:17. | :20:27. | |
:20:27. | :20:29. | ||
The! Makes it a joke. Is it? It was completely unethical, wasn't it? | :20:29. | :20:38. | |
And not so sure. I'm really not familiar with the ins and outs of | :20:38. | :20:43. | |
Westminster protocol. I know the rules around lobbying and those | :20:43. | :20:52. | |
bits and pieces are of some debate. James Murdoch. Debate, we will come | :20:52. | :20:56. | |
on to that a moment. But yesterday, Lord Leveson annouced that Frederic | :20:56. | :20:59. | |
Michel and Jeremy Hunt's former special adviser Adam Smith will | :20:59. | :21:03. | |
give evidence to the inquiry later this month. Let's get back to the | :21:04. | :21:08. | |
issue of lobbying. Last year, you promised there would be legislation | :21:08. | :21:11. | |
in the second session of this Parliament on the register but it | :21:11. | :21:16. | |
wasn't in the Queen's Speech, was it? We did a consultation from | :21:16. | :21:20. | |
January through to April, it closed a couple of weeks ago, and we said | :21:20. | :21:24. | |
we will take the results of that, produce a white paper and a draft | :21:25. | :21:30. | |
Bill which will be put out for pre- legislative screening. We're not | :21:30. | :21:35. | |
going slow on this. I think everybody assumed because it was | :21:35. | :21:38. | |
such a key issue, particularly raised by David Cameron, it would | :21:38. | :21:42. | |
be in the Queen's Speech. No, we want to get this right. I did a | :21:42. | :21:46. | |
number of meetings with both the industry, pro transparency groups, | :21:46. | :21:50. | |
and a lot of people didn't like what was in our initial proposals, | :21:50. | :21:53. | |
so running off and doing this in a hurry, coming up with something | :21:54. | :21:57. | |
badly drafted people don't think a sensible and will solve the problem, | :21:57. | :22:02. | |
is not sensible. What people will want us to do is to listen to the | :22:02. | :22:06. | |
consultation, draw up some sensible well thought-through ideas, make | :22:06. | :22:10. | |
sure they will solve the problem and then introduce legislation and | :22:10. | :22:15. | |
get it done. What is so complicated? If you want to | :22:15. | :22:19. | |
introduce a statutory register of lobbyists, what is so difficult | :22:19. | :22:24. | |
about that? The scope of such a register, one of the debate is, do | :22:24. | :22:29. | |
you just include lobbying companies, those who lobby for third parties | :22:29. | :22:34. | |
for money question up if you don't include in house people, people | :22:34. | :22:38. | |
like Frederic Michel would be included. Do you include trade | :22:38. | :22:48. | |
unions? If you do that, how do you stop legitimate lobbying which is | :22:48. | :22:51. | |
help for, and making sure its transparent. If you don't think it | :22:51. | :22:55. | |
through, we will have lots of unforeseen consequences and then we | :22:55. | :22:58. | |
will be back in a year or two and you will say to me, why didn't you | :22:59. | :23:03. | |
think it through properly and get it right? Can you see why people | :23:03. | :23:07. | |
are looking at the sceptically? David Cameron said there was an | :23:07. | :23:10. | |
issue which exposes the far too cosy a relationship between | :23:10. | :23:14. | |
business, government and money, a scandal we have got to do something | :23:14. | :23:20. | |
about. And now, you are saying lobbying is a very legitimate | :23:20. | :23:24. | |
practice will that do we really need any legislation on this? If | :23:24. | :23:28. | |
people are transparent, elected officials right down and report the | :23:28. | :23:33. | |
meetings they have, do we need to register? Well, we've said | :23:33. | :23:36. | |
ministers are transparent with who we meet and we need a cab to people | :23:37. | :23:40. | |
who lobby for third parties, where it's not clear who they are | :23:40. | :23:46. | |
lobbying for. Lots of people, the industry, from the charitable | :23:46. | :23:50. | |
sector, think it needs to go much further, so this clearly | :23:50. | :23:54. | |
controversy. There's no point rushing on to do something. Our | :23:54. | :24:03. | |
initial proposals, we could have a narrower, just excluding enhanced | :24:03. | :24:07. | |
lobbyists. If ministers meet people from in-house lobbyists for its | :24:07. | :24:11. | |
other, we say who we are meeting with, published information so that | :24:11. | :24:15. | |
transparent but people responded to the consultation in meetings are | :24:15. | :24:19. | |
held and don't agree with us. Clearly this and controversy. | :24:19. | :24:24. | |
you confident that special advisers for government ministers know what | :24:24. | :24:30. | |
the rules are? Well, I would hope so. I think if they didn't, the | :24:30. | :24:32. | |
events of the last few weeks and what happened to Jeremy Hunt's | :24:32. | :24:40. | |
special adviser will make them run off... Mark, but mention trade | :24:40. | :24:43. | |
unionists for the do you think you should be broader and should | :24:43. | :24:48. | |
include trade unions bearing a man they have so much in evidence in | :24:48. | :24:55. | |
the Labour Party? I do think the problem with this is the Government | :24:55. | :25:00. | |
is hiding behind events because it's not just the Jeremy Hunt and | :25:00. | :25:05. | |
Leverson Inquiry, but Adam Verity, and Liam Fox. I do think all | :25:06. | :25:14. | |
politicians have to be not just a party thing, but can see questions | :25:14. | :25:18. | |
and who are these people, who are the special advisers? Labour had | :25:18. | :25:23. | |
plenty of time to do something about this, too. It does look like | :25:23. | :25:28. | |
after the MP's expenses, David Cameron properly said this could be | :25:28. | :25:33. | |
the new wave of accountability and transparency that we need. And I | :25:33. | :25:35. | |
think the Government are trapped by these events rather than guiding | :25:36. | :25:44. | |
them. No, I think it's important to get it right. Obviously. The does | :25:45. | :25:49. | |
it just applied to the Government, for example. Should have applied to | :25:49. | :25:56. | |
just ministers or appears or ministers? If we get it wrong, I'll | :25:56. | :26:02. | |
be back on his programme in a year's time... You will be saying | :26:02. | :26:06. | |
why did you get it right? Why didn't you listen to people? | :26:07. | :26:16. | |
:26:17. | :26:22. | ||
long as we are not seen to be dragging our feet. Now if you were | :26:22. | :26:24. | |
watching yesterday you will have seen the Transport Secretary | :26:24. | :26:26. | |
extolling the virtues of mode shifting. That's civil service | :26:26. | :26:30. | |
speak for walking to work rather than taking the train or car. Where | :26:30. | :26:32. | |
do they get this language from? We've had literally several | :26:32. | :26:35. | |
requests for more of the same from viewers. Well, you're in luck. | :26:35. | :26:38. | |
There's an absolute treasure trove of public information films from | :26:38. | :26:41. | |
the Department for Transport available at the click of a mouse. | :26:41. | :26:43. | |
And to save you even that bother, here's the Transport Minister | :26:43. | :26:50. | |
Norman Baker. Hello. Thank you for asking me along to a conference | :26:50. | :26:57. | |
today. It will be good to meet you all in person. My virtual | :26:57. | :27:00. | |
appearance arise be to demonstrate that if the mode of transport. We | :27:00. | :27:05. | |
also have a further option, alternatives to travel. I wonder | :27:05. | :27:14. | |
what they are? Great production values. I think we produce it, | :27:14. | :27:18. | |
didn't we? Joke! And Mr Baker's always happy to send you one of | :27:18. | :27:21. | |
these recorded messages for your conference, wedding or Bar Mitzvah. | :27:21. | :27:28. | |
Whatever you want, he will send one and you can show it to your friends. | :27:28. | :27:30. | |
Alternatively, pay attention for the next couple of minutes and | :27:30. | :27:36. | |
we'll send you something much more valuable. We'll remind you how to | :27:36. | :27:46. | |
:27:46. | :28:01. | ||
enter in a minute. But let's see if # God only knows what I'd be | :28:01. | :28:11. | |
:28:11. | :28:15. | ||
And # And no, don't bring me down, I beg of you, darling. | :28:15. | :28:25. | |
:28:25. | :28:37. | ||
# Baby, everything is all right. It was in this quiet street, almost | :28:37. | :28:43. | |
identical houses, whoever helped him to escape last Saturday, dumped | :28:43. | :28:53. | |
:28:53. | :29:03. | ||
# Wild Thing, you make everything Wild Thing! Thank you. That's the | :29:03. | :29:09. | |
best introduction you have given me for a while. I am a blushing. We'll | :29:09. | :29:18. | |
remind you how to enter in a minute. To be in with a chance of winning a | :29:18. | :29:21. | |
Daily Politics mug, send your answer to our special quiz email | :29:21. | :29:24. | |
address. And you can see the full terms and conditions for Guess The | :29:24. | :29:28. | |
Year on our website. It's coming up to midday here. Just take a look at | :29:28. | :29:31. | |
Big Ben and that can mean only one thing. Yes, Prime Minister's | :29:31. | :29:34. | |
Questions is on its way. There hasn't been one since the end of | :29:34. | :29:42. | |
April. Speaking of Wild Things, here is Nick Robinson. Economy, | :29:42. | :29:48. | |
economy, economy, stupid. Yes, a battle about two arguments. Ed | :29:49. | :29:52. | |
Miliband will want to say Britain is in recession when the eurozone | :29:52. | :29:55. | |
is not, Britain's economic problems are created in Downing Street and | :29:55. | :30:00. | |
not in Europe. David Cameron will say, held on a second, at the | :30:01. | :30:05. | |
unemployment figures. Much better than Europe, comparable with | :30:05. | :30:10. | |
America. It's an argument they have to have. The Prime Minister as a | :30:10. | :30:13. | |
big speech on the economy tomorrow because it will define it not just | :30:13. | :30:18. | |
the next few months, but the battle at the next election as well. | :30:18. | :30:23. | |
getting tougher for the coalition. There's no good economic news | :30:23. | :30:30. | |
around apart from the unemployment. No, particularly because the cut in | :30:30. | :30:37. | |
real wages. Even unemployment is a statistic. You either like it or | :30:37. | :30:42. | |
fear it. What is not a statistic for real people is when you say, I | :30:42. | :30:46. | |
have got less money than I had a year ago and bills are going up and | :30:46. | :30:50. | |
that sense of wage cuts is a phenomenon which is incredibly hard | :30:50. | :30:54. | |
for a government to get up from underneath. A Stormer looming | :30:54. | :30:58. | |
across the channel which, despite the Treasury review this morning, | :30:58. | :31:02. | |
will be of no control. The only thing which helps the Government | :31:02. | :31:05. | |
politically is the governor -- Governor of the Bank of England | :31:05. | :31:10. | |
clearly blames the return for that. He said was the same problem we've | :31:10. | :31:14. | |
had for the last 2.5 years and Europe had to make his mind up. | :31:14. | :31:19. | |
Interestingly, he said it was not about whether they were in or out | :31:19. | :31:23. | |
of the euro but said it was about imbalances, basically the wealthier | :31:23. | :31:27. | |
countries had to take up some of the slack from the poorer countries. | :31:27. | :31:31. | |
It had to be dealt with rather than having an argument about Greece's | :31:31. | :31:41. | |
:31:41. | :31:44. | ||
future. Let's go straight over to I am sure the house will join me in | :31:44. | :31:49. | |
paying tribute to the servicemen killed on Saturday. Corporal Brent | :31:49. | :31:52. | |
McCarthy and Lance Corporal Lee Davies from first Battalion Welsh | :31:52. | :31:56. | |
Guards. Our condolences are with their families and loved ones. They | :31:56. | :32:00. | |
were courageous and highly respected men who were engaged in | :32:00. | :32:03. | |
the important work of training and mentoring the Afghan police. Their | :32:03. | :32:08. | |
service to our nation must never be forgotten. This morning I had | :32:08. | :32:14. | |
meetings with people and I will have further such meetings later | :32:14. | :32:20. | |
today. They associate myself for the Prime Minister's correct | :32:20. | :32:24. | |
tribute to Al-Faw and servicemen? It is the right thing to do. Can I | :32:24. | :32:28. | |
also welcome the fall in unemployment we have seen today and | :32:28. | :32:33. | |
perhaps more importantly, the rise in employment. Can the Prime | :32:33. | :32:38. | |
Minister assure me he will continue to invest in the apprenticeships, | :32:38. | :32:42. | |
the work programmes and the other schemes that get my constituents | :32:42. | :32:48. | |
and all constituents back to work? I find my honourable friend for | :32:48. | :32:52. | |
what he says about the scheme's we are putting forward. It is welcome | :32:52. | :32:56. | |
that we have had the largest rise in employment for over one year. | :32:56. | :33:01. | |
The number of people at work since the last election is up by 300 and | :33:01. | :33:06. | |
some 2000 and private sector jobs are now up by over 600,000. We are | :33:06. | :33:09. | |
not remotely complacent about this because although there is good news | :33:09. | :33:13. | |
about youth unemployment and the claimant count coming down, there | :33:13. | :33:17. | |
are still too many people in part- time work he won full-time work and | :33:17. | :33:21. | |
we still have the challenge of tackling long-term unemployment. | :33:21. | :33:26. | |
We're not complacent, whereas the flexible new deal took four years | :33:26. | :33:30. | |
to put in place the work programme has been put in place in 12 months | :33:30. | :33:33. | |
and is targeted at helping be difficult to help and long-term | :33:33. | :33:42. | |
unemployed who we want to help back Can I join the Prime Minister in | :33:42. | :33:47. | |
paying tribute to Corporal Brent McCarthy from the Royal Air Force, | :33:47. | :33:50. | |
Lance Corporal Lee Davies from first Battalion Welsh Guards? They | :33:50. | :33:54. | |
both showed the utmost bravery and courage and our thoughts are with | :33:54. | :33:59. | |
their family and friends. We need to make sure the welcome reduction | :33:59. | :34:02. | |
in unemployment today is sustained by economic growth. Can the Prime | :34:03. | :34:06. | |
Minister tell us what discussions he has had about a great plan for | :34:06. | :34:12. | |
Europe with the new President of France? -- Growth Plan. Many | :34:12. | :34:16. | |
welcome the fact that on this occasion he has welcomed the fall | :34:16. | :34:21. | |
in unemployment. It is not just that unemployment has come down, so | :34:21. | :34:25. | |
has the claimant count and it is worth saying that the number of | :34:25. | :34:29. | |
people on out-of-work benefits has fallen by 70,000 since the election | :34:29. | :34:33. | |
but there are still challenges, we must go on investing in | :34:33. | :34:36. | |
apprenticeships and in the work programme. I had a brief discussion | :34:36. | :34:41. | |
of the President of France after his victory. I look forward to | :34:41. | :34:46. | |
having a longer bilateral with him before the G8 starts this weekend, | :34:46. | :34:51. | |
and specifically to discussing what more we can do to help in terms of | :34:51. | :34:57. | |
European growth. Together with the Italian Prime Minister and other | :34:57. | :35:00. | |
prime ministers we have put forward steps that can help the European | :35:00. | :35:05. | |
economy to move, let's complete the energy single market, the digital | :35:05. | :35:09. | |
single market, the services single market, these things could | :35:09. | :35:13. | |
seriously at to growth in Europe. That is what we should be focused | :35:13. | :35:16. | |
on and I look forward to discussing that and more with the French | :35:16. | :35:23. | |
President. It is a shame he did not sue the French President three | :35:23. | :35:33. | |
:35:33. | :35:40. | ||
months ago when he was in the UK. - I am sure a text message and Ella | :35:40. | :35:50. | |
:35:50. | :35:53. | ||
well go down well! -- LOL will. This government needs a proper | :35:53. | :36:02. | |
growth plan, which -- plan, as does the UK. Does he really agree with | :36:02. | :36:05. | |
the Foreign Secretary that the problems of our economy is that | :36:05. | :36:11. | |
British business is not working hard enough? I have to admit | :36:11. | :36:15. | |
perhaps I have been over using my mobile phone but at least I know | :36:15. | :36:18. | |
how to use one rather than just throwing it at the people who work | :36:18. | :36:28. | |
:36:28. | :36:36. | ||
There will be common ground between the British view of what needs to | :36:36. | :36:40. | |
happen in Europe and the French view, I note that the French | :36:40. | :36:44. | |
President, when asked how he would stimulate growth, he said the means | :36:44. | :36:50. | |
cannot be extra public spending since we want to rein it in. So it | :36:50. | :36:53. | |
is interesting that the French President does not back the Labour | :36:53. | :36:57. | |
view that the way out of a debt crisis is to borrow more, spend | :36:57. | :37:05. | |
more and add to your debts. I think in Britain we need to have the low | :37:05. | :37:08. | |
interest rates that we do, because when this government came to power | :37:08. | :37:13. | |
we have the same interest rates as Spain, today, ours are below 2%, | :37:13. | :37:19. | |
where Spanish rates are over 6%. To the Shadow Chancellor, who was | :37:19. | :37:24. | |
saying from a sedentary position that this was delusional, let me | :37:24. | :37:27. | |
remind him what he said... The simplest measure of monetary and | :37:27. | :37:31. | |
fiscal policy credibility is long- term low interest rates. Those were | :37:31. | :37:40. | |
his words. That is what Britain has and what we must not lose. | :37:40. | :37:45. | |
totally failed to answer the question about the Foreign | :37:45. | :37:49. | |
Secretary who is saying the problem in our economy is that British | :37:49. | :37:53. | |
businesses not somehow working hard enough. I notice he is now trying | :37:53. | :38:01. | |
to claim the President of France is There is one group of people that | :38:01. | :38:06. | |
we know are losing their jobs, the police. 30,000 of them marched on | :38:06. | :38:09. | |
the streets last week. Can the Prime Minister tell us how many | :38:09. | :38:16. | |
frontline police officers have been lost since he came to power? | :38:16. | :38:20. | |
not surprised he wants to rush of the economy after the first few | :38:20. | :38:23. | |
questions. Let me remind him what the government is doing to boost | :38:23. | :38:33. | |
the economy... We cut corporation tax, boosted enterprise zones, | :38:33. | :38:35. | |
investing in building an infrastructure, but because we have | :38:35. | :38:38. | |
a plan to deal with the deficit we have the lowest interest rates | :38:38. | :38:45. | |
where as he would give us the highest interest rates. -- whereas. | :38:45. | :38:49. | |
A majesty's Inspectorate of Constabulary have found police | :38:49. | :38:51. | |
forces are planning to increase the proportion of police officers and | :38:51. | :38:56. | |
staff working on the front line. So they are taking people out of the | :38:56. | :39:02. | |
back office and putting them on the front line. Let me say this to the | :39:02. | :39:05. | |
honourable gentleman... Both parties are committed to making | :39:05. | :39:09. | |
cuts in police budget. He is committed to a billion pounds of | :39:09. | :39:13. | |
cuts, but the point is this, we are reforming allowances, cutting | :39:13. | :39:17. | |
paperwork, freezing pay, reforming pensions. He would not do any of | :39:17. | :39:21. | |
those things, so his cuts will be deeper because he does not have the | :39:21. | :39:28. | |
courage to do the right thing. the economy, we are in double dip | :39:28. | :39:33. | |
recession, a recession made in Downing Street, made by the two of | :39:33. | :39:43. | |
:39:43. | :39:43. | ||
them. That is the reality. On policing, everybody will have | :39:43. | :39:51. | |
noticed his answer. He is sucking so many police officers from the | :39:51. | :39:55. | |
back of this, but what is happening to the number of frontline police | :39:55. | :40:03. | |
officers? 5,000 fewer frontline officers, fewer 999 responders, | :40:03. | :40:09. | |
fewer neighbourhood police, fewer traffic police. What was his sales | :40:09. | :40:14. | |
pitch? They were elected for the promise of more police officers! No | :40:15. | :40:18. | |
wonder they are losing the elections. What was a sale pitch | :40:18. | :40:28. | |
:40:28. | :40:30. | ||
just before the election? -- his. Any Cabinet minister who says to me | :40:30. | :40:34. | |
here on my plans, they involve far my reductions, will be sent | :40:34. | :40:37. | |
straight back to their department to go away and think again. Is it | :40:37. | :40:43. | |
any wonder the police are furious with his broken promise? Oh dear, | :40:43. | :40:50. | |
he is having a bad day. Whoever was standing here right now would have | :40:50. | :40:55. | |
to cut police budgets, they accept that, we accept that. But if you | :40:55. | :40:59. | |
don't have the courage to deal with allowances, paperwork, pay, you | :40:59. | :41:09. | |
:41:09. | :41:16. | ||
I'm extremely calm! This is what his own police spokesman said, he | :41:16. | :41:22. | |
was asked the question aren't you accepting the need for a freeze on | :41:22. | :41:27. | |
police pay? That is what Yvette Cooper has said recently. No it. So | :41:27. | :41:31. | |
they don't accept a freeze on pay, the pension reform, they would not | :41:31. | :41:34. | |
do the paperwork cuts, they would be cutting the police more deeply. | :41:34. | :41:40. | |
That is that the slick -- their position. No policy ideas. I know | :41:40. | :41:46. | |
he will have extensive training before he goes before Leveson. I | :41:46. | :41:52. | |
have got a suggestion... I think it should include anger management. It | :41:52. | :41:57. | |
would be good for him. It is not just policing when he broke | :41:57. | :42:01. | |
promises, we all remember the promises three years ago to the | :42:01. | :42:06. | |
nurses. He told the conference there will be no top down | :42:06. | :42:10. | |
reorganisation. He did not go back to the Royal College of Nursing | :42:10. | :42:13. | |
conference this year, I noticed. Can the Prime Minister tell us how | :42:13. | :42:18. | |
many fewer nurses there are some see came to power? The number of | :42:18. | :42:23. | |
clinical staff in the NHS has gone up. The reason for that is because | :42:23. | :42:28. | |
this government has put more money into the NHS every year! What is | :42:28. | :42:35. | |
his commitment? His commitment is that spending on my chest is | :42:36. | :42:43. | |
irresponsible. -- the NHS. What is happening in the NHS is the lowest | :42:43. | :42:47. | |
number of people waiting for 18 weeks in our NHS, that is because | :42:47. | :42:53. | |
we have more doctors, more clinical staff and fewer people who what | :42:53. | :43:01. | |
Eurocrats working in the NHS. Hill of bureaucrats. Back to the | :43:01. | :43:06. | |
bunker with that I'm afraid. There are fewer nurses now. They could | :43:06. | :43:10. | |
not even get the figures right on the radio, they could not tell us | :43:10. | :43:17. | |
how many nurses. All because he has diverted billions from patient care | :43:17. | :43:21. | |
to it top-down reorganisation that nobody voted for and nobody wanted. | :43:21. | :43:25. | |
I know he does not like being reminded of his words but that is | :43:25. | :43:30. | |
because he broke his promise. That is the problem with this government, | :43:30. | :43:37. | |
they cut taxes for millionaires and cut services for the rest of us. I | :43:37. | :43:43. | |
know they don't like hearing about it but what did the honourable | :43:43. | :43:46. | |
member for Cleethorpes say, we cannot convince voters we are on | :43:46. | :43:50. | |
their side when we give top earners a tax-cut, leaving Mr and Mrs | :43:50. | :43:55. | |
Average reeling. That is the truth of this government. They are unfair, | :43:55. | :44:01. | |
out of touch and they stand up for the wrong people. This government | :44:01. | :44:05. | |
has delivered a tax cut for every single working person in the | :44:05. | :44:10. | |
country. We froze the Council Tax we're every household. We have | :44:10. | :44:16. | |
taken 2 million people out of tax in our country. But what is the big | :44:16. | :44:26. | |
decision? -- at that the lead at it this week? He did the person who | :44:26. | :44:30. | |
said they had to be serious about the deficit, about welfare reform, | :44:30. | :44:34. | |
the person who told us they had run out of money and they replaced him | :44:34. | :44:38. | |
with a policy chief who thinks Labour's problem is they are not | :44:38. | :44:42. | |
close enough to the trade unions. That is his big decision. I often | :44:42. | :44:46. | |
wonder whether his problem is whether he is weak, or left wing, | :44:46. | :44:55. | |
Perhaps we can now make some progress with short questions and | :44:55. | :45:05. | |
:45:05. | :45:12. | ||
Does my right honourable friend supposed that the Chancellor Merkel | :45:12. | :45:19. | |
now regrets that she did not take the advice which he gave her last | :45:19. | :45:26. | |
October about the big bazooka? If she had fired at them, it would | :45:26. | :45:36. | |
:45:36. | :45:37. | ||
have spared the European Union from its present crisis. I can't quite | :45:37. | :45:42. | |
give a direct answer to that. What I would say is the eurozone has to | :45:42. | :45:46. | |
make a choice. If it wants to continue as it is, then it has got | :45:46. | :45:51. | |
to build a proper firewall, it has got to take steps to Secure the | :45:51. | :45:56. | |
weakest members of the eurozone, or it's going to work out it has to go | :45:56. | :46:00. | |
in a different direction. It either has to make up or looking at a | :46:00. | :46:04. | |
potential break-up. It's a choice they have to make and they can't | :46:04. | :46:12. | |
put it off. Mr Speaker, if Andy Coulson was not vetted, why did he | :46:12. | :46:17. | |
attend secret briefings and what documents did he see? Isn't this a | :46:17. | :46:24. | |
mess? I know the honourable lady is desperate to find a smoking gun but | :46:24. | :46:28. | |
I absolutely tell her this is absolutely not it. We took a view | :46:28. | :46:34. | |
on coming to office that, in the past... Order, order. The question | :46:34. | :46:38. | |
has been put and the answer must be heard. We took a view they had been | :46:38. | :46:42. | |
too many people who had been cleared at the highest level and it | :46:42. | :46:46. | |
led to some of the problems in terms of Alastair Campbell. | :46:46. | :46:51. | |
Actually, when it came to it, Andy Coulson was in the prices are being | :46:51. | :46:56. | |
development vetted, so there is absolutely no mystery about this at | :46:56. | :47:04. | |
all and I would ask it to go and look somewhere else. Britain has | :47:04. | :47:14. | |
:47:14. | :47:14. | ||
just posted its first quarterly trade surplus in cars since the | :47:14. | :47:17. | |
1975 nationalisation of British Leyland by one of the last Labour | :47:17. | :47:21. | |
governments before last. Will the Prime Minister welcomed the news | :47:21. | :47:25. | |
that Britain has not only cut its deficit, by 25% over the last two | :47:25. | :47:32. | |
years, but is, once again, a huge car exporter? My honourable friend | :47:32. | :47:35. | |
makes an extremely good point and the party opposite do not want to | :47:35. | :47:40. | |
hear the good news. He's absolutely right that, while we're taking | :47:40. | :47:43. | |
difficult decisions, the deficit has now been reduced by one quarter, | :47:43. | :47:47. | |
so we are on our way to balancing the budget and dealing with our | :47:47. | :47:51. | |
problems but on the issue of motor- car manufacture, it is encouraging, | :47:51. | :47:57. | |
the first time since 1976 we have a surplus in car manufacturing. It's | :47:57. | :48:03. | |
because of the Hardwick people have put in at the various companies -- | :48:03. | :48:08. | |
hard work. It extremely good news that it's taken this long to get | :48:08. | :48:11. | |
back to a surplus in car manufacturing and Britain is a real | :48:11. | :48:19. | |
home for manufacturing. Two years ago during the general election, | :48:19. | :48:25. | |
your press reported not to bring in VAT increases. Has the Prime | :48:25. | :48:30. | |
Minister considered if he were to honour that pledge, and reverse the | :48:30. | :48:35. | |
VAT increase, it would put money in people's pockets, stimulate the | :48:35. | :48:39. | |
economy, and get Britain out of a double-dip recession made in | :48:39. | :48:44. | |
Downing Street? The reason we had to put up VAT is we were left to | :48:44. | :48:48. | |
the biggest budget deficit anywhere in Europe, bigger than Spain, | :48:48. | :48:55. | |
Greece, Portugal. The complete mess left by the party opposite, we now | :48:55. | :48:57. | |
know from reading a former Chancellor's memoirs, he was going | :48:57. | :49:05. | |
to put up VAT, too. Mr Speaker, you may be aware this is adult learning | :49:05. | :49:09. | |
week and Gosport's inspirational read and grow charity has received | :49:09. | :49:16. | |
a lottery funding. Can I invite the Prime Minister and the education | :49:16. | :49:20. | |
team to visit to see for themselves how this could be rolled out to run | :49:20. | :49:25. | |
the rest of the country to benefit people? I think she's absolutely | :49:25. | :49:29. | |
right to raise this issue. It's a tragedy there are too many adults | :49:29. | :49:36. | |
in our country who don't have proper reading skills. It's vital | :49:36. | :49:39. | |
we put that right through initiatives like the one she | :49:39. | :49:42. | |
recommends in terms of adult learning week, but we have got to | :49:42. | :49:46. | |
do better in our schools in the first place to make sure no one is | :49:46. | :49:52. | |
that behind. You can teach reading so no child gets left behind | :49:52. | :49:56. | |
through the phonic scheme the Secretary of State is leading. And | :49:56. | :50:01. | |
we must make sure it's available for every child in every school. | :50:01. | :50:08. | |
The police service in Northern Ireland has revealed that between | :50:08. | :50:14. | |
1960 and 2005 it kept body parts and tissue samples of 64 cases of | :50:14. | :50:19. | |
suspicious deaths without notifying families concerned, many in my | :50:19. | :50:22. | |
constituency and other police forces in England have done the | :50:22. | :50:26. | |
same. The whole House will sympathise with the families | :50:27. | :50:30. | |
concerned and obviously the shock which has been felt throughout | :50:30. | :50:37. | |
Northern Ireland today. Will the Prime Minister demand a speedy | :50:38. | :50:42. | |
answer as to what happened in these cases so that families can no was | :50:42. | :50:46. | |
quickly as possible? Does he want an independent review to explain | :50:46. | :50:52. | |
exactly how this practice went on for so long right across the UK? | :50:52. | :50:56. | |
thank him for his question. I speak for everyone in the House to | :50:56. | :50:59. | |
express sympathy for the families who found out this terrible news | :50:59. | :51:04. | |
about their loved ones. It must be a time if you'd anguish for them. I | :51:04. | :51:08. | |
am extremely sorry this report has been leaked because was going to be | :51:09. | :51:12. | |
announced properly on Monday when they could be a proper statement at | :51:12. | :51:18. | |
explanation about what has gone on. I'm sure the Secretary of State for | :51:18. | :51:21. | |
Northern Ireland will listen carefully to the inquiry but first | :51:22. | :51:24. | |
of all let's publish the information on Monday so everyone | :51:24. | :51:31. | |
can see what went wrong and why this happened. Growing up in a | :51:31. | :51:35. | |
council house, I remember how proud people in my timidity were to be | :51:35. | :51:40. | |
the first in their families to own their own home. That people in my | :51:40. | :51:50. | |
:51:50. | :51:50. | ||
I think my honourable friend makes an important point. The right to | :51:50. | :51:53. | |
buy your council house was a hugely important social and economic | :51:53. | :51:57. | |
change which gave people a stake in their society, the community, and | :51:57. | :52:00. | |
led to a huge improvement in many housing estates up and down the | :52:00. | :52:05. | |
country. It's very sad that, under the last government, discounts were | :52:05. | :52:12. | |
allowed to go away. We are going to increase the discount rate away to | :52:12. | :52:17. | |
�75,000, which, in some cases, will quadruple the available discount | :52:17. | :52:22. | |
for for years of Labour neglect. Hopefully we can get council | :52:22. | :52:32. | |
:52:32. | :52:35. | ||
In recent weeks, we have had Britain back into recession, a | :52:35. | :52:40. | |
botched Budget, crazy advice from the Cabinet Office to stop our | :52:40. | :52:48. | |
petrol at home, -- stock. Which of these dizzy think has caused the | :52:48. | :52:54. | |
collapse of his reputation for competence -- does he think? Today, | :52:54. | :52:58. | |
unemployment is falling, more people are in work, yes, we had a | :52:58. | :53:01. | |
difficult economic situation, but he listens to the Governor of the | :53:01. | :53:04. | |
Bank of England this morning, and he would have heard we are coming | :53:05. | :53:08. | |
up with a textbook response to what needs to be done to clear up the | :53:08. | :53:16. | |
mess made by people like him. Businesses and homeowners in my | :53:16. | :53:21. | |
constituency of my Derbyshire are having a tough time at the moment. | :53:21. | :53:25. | |
It would be worse if it wasn't for consistently low interest rates. | :53:25. | :53:30. | |
Under Labour, they were the same as Spain are full of this week we are | :53:30. | :53:37. | |
at a record low under 2%. Spain's are at 6%. Will the Prime Minister | :53:37. | :53:40. | |
assure the people of my Derbyshire he will do nothing to put the | :53:40. | :53:45. | |
situation into jeopardy? She makes a very important point which is | :53:45. | :53:50. | |
that for every increase in interest rate of 1%, it will add �1,000 to | :53:50. | :53:56. | |
the typical family mortgage. British interest rates are below 2% | :53:56. | :53:59. | |
because the world has confidence that, in spite of our economic | :53:59. | :54:03. | |
difficulties, we have a plan to deal with a deficit. You can see | :54:03. | :54:07. | |
from that and around Europe what happens if you don't have a plan, | :54:07. | :54:10. | |
interest rates go up and is bad for business, homeowners, the economy, | :54:10. | :54:18. | |
and that's what we would get if we listen to the party opposite. | :54:18. | :54:21. | |
agencies led down their children involved in the Rochdale sex-abuse | :54:21. | :54:30. | |
cases. The whole house must agree that children need a safe place to | :54:30. | :54:34. | |
live. In that context, given the wide scope concerns about the | :54:34. | :54:39. | |
private children's homes operating in this area, will the Prime | :54:39. | :54:41. | |
Minister look at having an inquiry into whether they are properly | :54:41. | :54:49. | |
funded and have properly trained staff? Will he make sure they work | :54:49. | :54:53. | |
effectively? It I'm glad he bases this issue for that a truly | :54:54. | :54:57. | |
shocking case for the we need to look carefully at what went wrong. | :54:57. | :55:01. | |
I've asked my friend the Secretary of State for Education, to do this, | :55:01. | :55:04. | |
and he has asked the Children's Commissioner to do a piece of work | :55:04. | :55:08. | |
on it. We need to look at why information was not passed more | :55:08. | :55:11. | |
rapidly from children's homes to please, what action was not taken | :55:11. | :55:16. | |
more rapidly and I think there are issues about inspections, and why | :55:16. | :55:20. | |
action was not taken and I think it's very important we get to the | :55:20. | :55:27. | |
bottom of a truly dreadful case. Huddersfield Town at fans are | :55:27. | :55:30. | |
celebrating today having won a place in the League One play-off | :55:30. | :55:34. | |
final at Wembley. But also, winning in my constituency are local | :55:34. | :55:38. | |
manufacturing businesses who are winning new orders, creating new | :55:39. | :55:42. | |
jobs and apprenticeships. Will the Prime Minister agree with me that | :55:42. | :55:45. | |
the record number of apprenticeships in the UK is a | :55:45. | :55:48. | |
clear sign that this government is committed to getting Britain | :55:48. | :55:54. | |
working? I'm grateful to my honourable friend. I wish | :55:54. | :55:57. | |
Huddersfield Town or the best although that might be a prime | :55:58. | :56:03. | |
ministerial curse. On apprenticeships, we achieved | :56:03. | :56:08. | |
457,000 starts last year and are hoping to achieve another similar | :56:08. | :56:12. | |
figure this year. The budget has been increased. They should deliver | :56:12. | :56:17. | |
250,000 more apprenticeships across Parliament than where planned by | :56:17. | :56:21. | |
the party opposite. There is a lot more to do to make sure these are | :56:21. | :56:24. | |
high quality apprenticeships and we are targeting young people who need | :56:24. | :56:32. | |
help most. My honourable friend, a member for Manchester Central, made | :56:32. | :56:36. | |
reference to the case and situation in Rochdale. I want to speak about | :56:36. | :56:42. | |
the girls in that case, who went to hell and back in terms of what they | :56:42. | :56:46. | |
experienced and a tribute to their bravery in coming forward and | :56:46. | :56:51. | |
standing up to their abusers. They did it to get justice and to stop | :56:51. | :56:56. | |
it happening to others. Of Honourable girls like this are | :56:56. | :57:00. | |
don't usually get heard by politicians. -- a vulnerable. They | :57:00. | :57:04. | |
don't get access to influence. How will the Government responded to | :57:04. | :57:09. | |
these terrible crimes and will the Prime Minister's support a serious | :57:09. | :57:14. | |
case review? Can I pay tribute to the honourable gentleman because it | :57:14. | :57:18. | |
has been absolute divide to say they have been brave to come | :57:18. | :57:22. | |
forward and tell their stories and all the difficulties it involves | :57:22. | :57:27. | |
but also he, himself, has talked about people who have come to his | :57:27. | :57:30. | |
constituency surgeries, and of course this is a problem across | :57:30. | :57:33. | |
communities, but there are particular problems in particular | :57:33. | :57:39. | |
communities and he has been brave to say that. In terms of what he | :57:39. | :57:45. | |
asked, about a review, I will have a look at that. The children's | :57:45. | :57:47. | |
commissioner will come up with recommendations within one month | :57:47. | :57:53. | |
and I understand Rochdale borough has conducted a review of child sex | :57:53. | :57:55. | |
exploitation which will be published but the issue of a | :57:55. | :58:02. | |
serious case review, I'm prepared to look about as well. Next year, | :58:02. | :58:06. | |
Camborne academy will become the first ever British School to host | :58:06. | :58:09. | |
international students science fair, welcoming schools from around the | :58:09. | :58:13. | |
world. Does he agree with me that if Britain are to prosper in the | :58:13. | :58:16. | |
future we need to lead the world in science and technology and we | :58:16. | :58:19. | |
should support the efforts of schools like this leading the way? | :58:19. | :58:23. | |
I think is absolutely right to highlight this issue and the school | :58:23. | :58:27. | |
in his constituency which is clearly doing a good job. If they | :58:27. | :58:30. | |
want to compete in a competitive global market, we need more science | :58:30. | :58:34. | |
teaching, more science graduates, and encourage science graduates | :58:34. | :58:38. | |
back into the classroom to train at the next generation of scientists | :58:38. | :58:42. | |
and engineers. There has been and 80% increase in the number of | :58:42. | :58:49. | |
students taking science GCSEs since 2010 and the second is that the | :58:49. | :58:53. | |
education has put in place some a bursary schemes to encourage our | :58:53. | :58:58. | |
top science graduates back into the classroom -- Secretary of State for | :58:58. | :59:02. | |
Education. It is now clear that the Government does not have a | :59:02. | :59:07. | |
comprehensive long-term strategy for care. So does he agree that the | :59:07. | :59:11. | |
sharp increase in home care charges released in figures today is the | :59:11. | :59:16. | |
result of his cut of �1 billion from local council budgets for | :59:16. | :59:21. | |
older people? A I'm afraid I don't think the honourable gentleman's | :59:21. | :59:26. | |
figures are right. In the spending review, we put �2 billion extra | :59:26. | :59:30. | |
into adult social care. We have inherited a situation where there | :59:30. | :59:35. | |
is not a clear strategy for social care for that we need to deliver | :59:35. | :59:39. | |
one. That's why it is going to be a white paper coming forward this | :59:39. | :59:47. | |
year. It has got to look at... They had 13 years when they ducked | :59:47. | :59:50. | |
decision after decision. Royal commissions were held, nothing was | :59:50. | :00:00. | |
done. Within two years, we have done far more than they did in 13. | :00:00. | :00:04. | |
Summer 2000 highly-paid public servants have been exposed for | :00:04. | :00:09. | |
avoiding their fair share of tax. Would the Prime Minister agree, | :00:09. | :00:13. | |
whenever somebody has paid a salary using taxpayers' money, the | :00:13. | :00:20. | |
Government should insist that they are on the payroll, pay full income | :00:20. | :00:24. | |
tax and national insurance? Up I agree with what she says. We have | :00:24. | :00:28. | |
been shocked by the level of this problem. The Treasury is looking at | :00:28. | :00:32. | |
it closely but the principle she announces, if you are paid by the | :00:32. | :00:40. | |
public, you should pay tax properly, is spot on. Will the Prime as it | :00:40. | :00:46. | |
takes for the Severn barrage project, entirely private finance, | :00:46. | :00:53. | |
the biggest renewable projects in Europe, and does he accept with a | :00:53. | :01:01. | |
flat economy in Britain, this private investment is a no-brainer | :01:01. | :01:07. | |
I heard him waxing eloquent on this project and I think it has many | :01:07. | :01:13. | |
advantages. There is a huge amount of renewable energy to be delivered | :01:13. | :01:16. | |
through this barrage. There's lots of problems and environmental | :01:16. | :01:21. | |
groups have been divided but I'm happy to listen to his views as he | :01:21. | :01:26. | |
takes for this important piece of work and there are many | :01:26. | :01:31. | |
opportunities to look at energy connectors and co-operation, | :01:31. | :01:33. | |
particularly between England, France and other northern European | :01:33. | :01:40. | |
countries. Both the National Audit Office and the Public Accounts | :01:40. | :01:44. | |
Committee have praised the work programme for getting off the | :01:44. | :01:47. | |
ground in an very air in stark contrast to the four wasted years | :01:47. | :01:51. | |
it took for Labour's programme to get off the ground. What further | :01:51. | :01:55. | |
help can the Prime Minister give to my striving jobseeker's in Tamworth, | :01:55. | :01:59. | |
where unemployment figures are falling to find the work they want? | :01:59. | :02:02. | |
I think the honourable gentleman makes an important point because | :02:02. | :02:09. | |
not only has the work programme got up and running quickly, but it has | :02:09. | :02:13. | |
helped 519,000 people and will help over 3 million people in total. The | :02:13. | :02:17. | |
key difference between it and previous programmes is payment by | :02:17. | :02:20. | |
results so we are paying providers more money for the more difficult | :02:21. | :02:25. | |
people who have been out of work for a long time and had serious | :02:25. | :02:28. | |
challenge is about getting back into the workplace are like the big | :02:28. | :02:31. | |
users programme, not just to help people who have fallen out of work | :02:31. | :02:35. | |
recently, but in a totally lost connection with the labour market. | :02:35. | :02:45. | |
:02:45. | :02:48. | ||
In April last year the government announced successful bids in round | :02:48. | :02:51. | |
one, I was pleased to be included, it means 500 jobs, rescuing people | :02:52. | :02:56. | |
from some of the poorest housing conditions in the country. 13 | :02:56. | :02:59. | |
months later it not a penny of that regional growth fund money has | :02:59. | :03:03. | |
materialised. Will the Prime Minister tell me why and if he | :03:03. | :03:08. | |
cannot, will he find out and ensure this money flows before the summer | :03:08. | :03:15. | |
recess? I will look at the case. Around half of the projects are now | :03:15. | :03:22. | |
under way, serious amounts of money are being disbursed. In terms of | :03:22. | :03:25. | |
comparison with the regional development agencies the overhead | :03:25. | :03:30. | |
costs of 3 million compared with 240 million so we can pour more | :03:30. | :03:33. | |
money into these projects but I will look at his specific project | :03:34. | :03:43. | |
:03:44. | :03:53. | ||
and write to him shortly. We come The economy dominated those | :03:54. | :04:02. | |
exchanges. Plenty to talk about. The eurozone did not feature that | :04:02. | :04:12. | |
:04:12. | :04:24. | ||
much. We heard Greece will have new It takes place at a time where the | :04:24. | :04:28. | |
Left Party are in the polls at around 28% so it will be | :04:28. | :04:32. | |
interesting to see another round of elections -- if another round of | :04:32. | :04:42. | |
elections resolves anything. Now we will hear about the e-mails you | :04:42. | :04:45. | |
have been sending. There was a feeling people thought Ed Miliband | :04:45. | :04:51. | |
did not land a big enough blow on David Cameron bearing in mind | :04:51. | :04:57. | |
difficult economic news. This from Karl... He said he was eloquent and | :04:57. | :05:00. | |
direct, David Cameron never answers questions and reverts to futile | :05:00. | :05:06. | |
jokes. David Cameron turns Prime Minister's Questions into a farce. | :05:06. | :05:09. | |
He spins his answers, no credibility, nobody believes for | :05:09. | :05:15. | |
the coalition says, the NHS will be the coalition's downfall. Colin in | :05:15. | :05:19. | |
rugby... There is something amiss with Ed Miliband. Despite the | :05:19. | :05:22. | |
plight the country is in he does not seem able to land any telling | :05:22. | :05:26. | |
blows on David Cameron, I don't see how Labour can win a general | :05:26. | :05:30. | |
election with him as leader. This from Martin Bristol in | :05:30. | :05:35. | |
Wolverhampton... A growth plan is that more borrowing to do with the | :05:35. | :05:38. | |
growth crisis, Ed Miliband needs to understand British business does | :05:38. | :05:48. | |
not want more borrowing. There must be concern in government about the | :05:48. | :05:53. | |
Bank of England downgrading growth, many people, including myself, | :05:53. | :06:02. | |
wonder if not 0.8% is optimistic. We have these foul winds blowing in | :06:02. | :06:05. | |
from Europe, whatever happens it will be a drag on the British | :06:06. | :06:10. | |
economy for the foreseeable future. We are not in a great position to | :06:10. | :06:14. | |
weather that. Strategically the coalition must feel it is in a | :06:14. | :06:18. | |
dodgy position at the moment? think it feels vulnerable but | :06:18. | :06:21. | |
politically feels it can at least say to the country it is over there, | :06:21. | :06:28. | |
not here. Politically that takes a bit of the heat of them. And maybe | :06:28. | :06:32. | |
why Ed Miliband did not really land blows. He did find, but it was one | :06:32. | :06:36. | |
of those sessions that did not seem to change much, it did not really | :06:36. | :06:39. | |
get anywhere. But the debate going on inside the Commission is | :06:39. | :06:45. | |
interesting. -- coalition. We are still not having a debate where | :06:45. | :06:48. | |
parts of the Liberal Democrats begin to peel away and Seychelles | :06:49. | :06:53. | |
we changed plants? The anxiety I hear at the top of the coalition is | :06:53. | :06:58. | |
how to realise things they have already announced, had to get bank | :06:58. | :07:01. | |
lending, the Lib Dems have always believed the banks would probably | :07:01. | :07:05. | |
not deliver that and the way to do it would be to use either one of | :07:05. | :07:10. | |
the nationalised banks to force them to lend money. So that | :07:10. | :07:13. | |
argument is going on behind the scenes, about what you do to force | :07:13. | :07:17. | |
banks to give money. The other is how to get infrastructure spending | :07:17. | :07:22. | |
spent quicker and on projects that would realise growth. I thought | :07:22. | :07:27. | |
underlying it, you got a glimpse of two interesting new strategies. Ed | :07:27. | :07:31. | |
Miliband wanted to ally himself directly with France's President, | :07:31. | :07:36. | |
where the Tories can always say you messed it up, he wants to have a | :07:36. | :07:41. | |
new alliance with the new man in town. The Tories had an interesting | :07:41. | :07:46. | |
new strategy, too. David Cameron said on police cuts look, you are | :07:46. | :07:50. | |
with us, Labour, in identifying cuts but if you resist what he | :07:50. | :07:54. | |
called the difficult choices on pay, pensions, then surely you are | :07:55. | :08:01. | |
actually cutting more staff than we the coalition would do. So post- | :08:01. | :08:04. | |
election a was seen both parties looking for new political | :08:04. | :08:10. | |
strategies and messages. So even though it did not make fireworks it | :08:10. | :08:19. | |
was one for my notebook. Miliband saw the new kid on the | :08:19. | :08:23. | |
block when he came here, but David Cameron and Angela Merkel did not | :08:23. | :08:27. | |
see him. It was the first time either of them had met yesterday, | :08:27. | :08:33. | |
which is interesting. There is a big test coming up and it is | :08:33. | :08:43. | |
:08:43. | :08:45. | ||
difficult to know which way Francis Holland will go. If so Reza do well | :08:45. | :08:49. | |
in these elections and get 50 seats added on and it you add in other | :08:49. | :08:54. | |
left-wing parties you could see a big enough coalition, an anti- | :08:54. | :09:01. | |
austerity coalition, and anti- Brussels package coalition. What | :09:01. | :09:10. | |
does Labour then do? Back at? think Mr Holland is perhaps a get- | :09:10. | :09:13. | |
out clause for Angela Merkel because it does seem the austerity | :09:13. | :09:17. | |
drive in Europe has not really worked, it has created political | :09:17. | :09:24. | |
and economical crisis and a new approach is needed. The thing now | :09:24. | :09:29. | |
the British public are coming round when we see the proles -- polls. | :09:29. | :09:33. | |
You series the same Angelina -- Angela Merkel will say we will redo | :09:33. | :09:41. | |
the package? -- are you seriously saying. Flexibility was a word | :09:41. | :09:45. | |
being used yesterday, we need a more flexible approach, add new | :09:45. | :09:49. | |
ingredients in, I don't think they would just say tear up the previous | :09:49. | :09:53. | |
plan and let's start again, but I think they will use the election as | :09:53. | :09:56. | |
a way to say we need new approaches and that might give breathing space | :09:56. | :10:02. | |
for some new approaches. When you go be on the rhetoric and look at | :10:02. | :10:07. | |
what is being proposed there are even parts of this that the Tory... | :10:07. | :10:14. | |
Euro bonds, for example, the idea you can pay for infrastructure in a | :10:14. | :10:18. | |
new way and get it moving. Or more funds for the European Investment | :10:18. | :10:22. | |
Bank, for example, a whole series of measures which may be good, | :10:22. | :10:26. | |
Mirabad, may make a difference. What they don't really effect is | :10:26. | :10:29. | |
the debate about whether Greece cuts as much, or whether France | :10:29. | :10:38. | |
does. I can see Mr Cameron standing up and we know what will happen. It | :10:38. | :10:47. | |
is quite clear the fiscal pack will be untouched. Angela Merkel is | :10:47. | :10:56. | |
adamant about that. But they have - - but they are not keen on euro | :10:56. | :11:06. | |
:11:06. | :11:13. | ||
bronze. -- bombs. -- bonds. It makes no difference to Greece's | :11:13. | :11:18. | |
situation. We did not say business also working hard enough, we said | :11:18. | :11:24. | |
we will get out of this problem by business going out warning orders. | :11:24. | :11:29. | |
As at some parts of the world are growing very fast and our job as a | :11:29. | :11:33. | |
government is to make our business able to succeed in his part of the | :11:33. | :11:36. | |
world which is why we are putting this it into UK trade and | :11:36. | :11:40. | |
investment, making our Foreign Office network... I understand that. | :11:40. | :11:45. | |
You can say historically under both parties the elite was far too | :11:45. | :11:48. | |
obsessed the durable Jay's -- is a declining part of the world. And | :11:48. | :11:53. | |
not enough effort into the emerging markets. But that is a systemic | :11:53. | :11:56. | |
long-term strategy, it does not get you growth this side of the next | :11:56. | :12:00. | |
election. It does because the rest of the world is growing a bit you | :12:00. | :12:04. | |
have the country's growing by up to 9%, if you can get your business to | :12:04. | :12:08. | |
go and win those markets you can start delivering growth now. That | :12:08. | :12:11. | |
is what William Hague was talking about. A under Labour we exported | :12:11. | :12:17. | |
more to Ireland and China, Brazil, India and I think Russia combined. | :12:17. | :12:24. | |
We have to make the -- meet these challenges. But growth is now the | :12:24. | :12:28. | |
word being used and that was their Aardman before because before with | :12:28. | :12:32. | |
the Tories it was austerity was the word, deficit-reduction were the | :12:32. | :12:37. | |
words. But growth is part of the answer and the thing that is the | :12:37. | :12:42. | |
sort of step change we are beginning to see. The problem is | :12:42. | :12:46. | |
growth is like world peace - everybody wants it but nobody knows | :12:47. | :12:52. | |
what it means. They thought it would produce growth but so far it | :12:52. | :13:00. | |
has not. An interesting moment will come at the G8 meeting, the first | :13:00. | :13:04. | |
chance that going back to the original idea of G8 meetings, a | :13:04. | :13:08. | |
fireside chat, away from cameras and microphones, a chance to retort, | :13:08. | :13:12. | |
there is a moment where a new French President will be surrounded | :13:12. | :13:19. | |
by it not just Angela Merkel and David Cameron, but also Barack | :13:19. | :13:23. | |
Obama, and a look round the room I suspect of come on guys, this has | :13:23. | :13:28. | |
to be sorted. There is a meeting coming up in a couple of weeks in | :13:28. | :13:33. | |
June of the G20 which will give the Chinese, Indians, Indonesians the | :13:33. | :13:39. | |
chance to put on the pressure that comes after these new elections. | :13:39. | :13:44. | |
There is a whole series of pressure points where other leaders will | :13:44. | :13:52. | |
push people to do more. Let's see what reaction at the Home Secretary | :13:52. | :14:02. | |
:14:02. | :14:10. | ||
got in Bournemouth. I think it was Home Secretary. I believe you're a | :14:10. | :14:15. | |
disgrace. We had a sound problem there. He got applause! I think it | :14:15. | :14:19. | |
was quite a hostile question to the home secretary, she got silent | :14:20. | :14:25. | |
treatment, then he asked a hostile question and they all erupted. Do | :14:25. | :14:31. | |
you think the Conservative Party is happy that as a government you now | :14:31. | :14:36. | |
spend more on overseas aid than on the police? We don't spend anywhere | :14:36. | :14:43. | |
near as much as the public think we do on overseas aid. We are not... | :14:43. | :14:47. | |
We're not going to balance the books on the back of the poorest. | :14:47. | :14:51. | |
Coming back to the police, that guy that asked the question, of course | :14:51. | :14:56. | |
the police are finding a pay freeze and reductions in their pensions | :14:56. | :14:59. | |
tough but we are still going to leave them with the most generous | :14:59. | :15:03. | |
pensions in the public sector. They have to play their fair share that | :15:03. | :15:10. | |
everybody is going to have as well. By 2014, 2015 according to the | :15:10. | :15:12. | |
government's projections on public spending, the Total Home Office | :15:12. | :15:17. | |
budget is 8.8 billion, including all spending on the police in | :15:17. | :15:26. | |
England and Wales, and the foreign A lot of the spending on the police | :15:26. | :15:32. | |
does not come from the Home Office. The Government is spending more. | :15:32. | :15:39. | |
More than overseas aid. But it doesn't come from the Home Office. | :15:39. | :15:44. | |
But it comes from a government. not disagreeing with you. But you | :15:44. | :15:50. | |
just did. So, you accept, but your Conservative-led government will | :15:50. | :15:54. | |
spend more on overseas aid than the police? If that's what you're | :15:54. | :15:59. | |
telling me, I don't have the fact. We like to help. It's what public | :15:59. | :16:04. | |
service broadcasting is all about. Andrew, always here to help. | :16:04. | :16:09. | |
have to move on. Thank you very much. Now, despite numerous | :16:09. | :16:11. | |
campaigns by an array of celebrities, school dinners are | :16:11. | :16:13. | |
still being criticised for being unhealthy. Jamie Oliver first | :16:13. | :16:16. | |
targeted them in 2005, where he came across the infamous Turkey | :16:16. | :16:20. | |
Twizzler. Despite improvements and education programmes, the UK now | :16:20. | :16:24. | |
has the highest rate of childhood obesity in Europe. Well, now | :16:24. | :16:27. | |
another celebrity is having a go. This time it's Alex Reid, the | :16:27. | :16:30. | |
former cage fighter and actor, and winner of Celebrity Big Brother. | :16:30. | :16:40. | |
:16:40. | :16:55. | ||
I want to find a solution to the problem of healthy school food for | :16:55. | :16:59. | |
all children. I'm about to be a father and I really don't want my | :16:59. | :17:03. | |
little girl growing up in an unhealthy environment, at school, | :17:03. | :17:13. | |
:17:13. | :17:14. | ||
I visited schools across the country and was horrified to see | :17:14. | :17:18. | |
that some of the children were eating chocolate and crisps for | :17:18. | :17:21. | |
lunch. It's affecting their ability to concentrate and their behaviour | :17:21. | :17:28. | |
in class. And making them very beasts. You know what, I've got a | :17:28. | :17:33. | |
radical solution to the problem -- obese. Let's get big businesses to | :17:33. | :17:38. | |
sponsor school children. Let's get the supermarkets, banks, corporate | :17:38. | :17:41. | |
giants to by marketing in return for investment in the scheme and in | :17:41. | :17:46. | |
return, they will find help the school dinners for all the children | :17:46. | :17:56. | |
rather than putting the burden on To do this I need to raise �1 | :17:56. | :18:00. | |
billion a year. I think it's something these wealthy and | :18:00. | :18:05. | |
powerful corporate giants have a responsibility to do. You know, | :18:05. | :18:10. | |
they can and would still make a profit under my scheme. Essentially, | :18:10. | :18:14. | |
I like to make school meals compulsory and banner packed | :18:15. | :18:19. | |
lunches. Sounds radical. It's going to stop all the junk marketed at | :18:19. | :18:29. | |
:18:29. | :18:32. | ||
I was a chubby kid and a fussy eater. Eating a healthy turned my | :18:32. | :18:39. | |
life around so let's get behind us and let's do lunch. It doesn't get | :18:39. | :18:43. | |
up there than this. OK, let's do lunch then. | :18:43. | :18:48. | |
And we're joined now in the studio by Alex Reid. You said you were a | :18:48. | :18:55. | |
chubby kid and deducts per you want? Yes, I got lots of nieces and | :18:55. | :18:59. | |
nephews and in my family, some of my brothers are feeding their | :18:59. | :19:02. | |
children have bleak and how they perform in school, and the others | :19:02. | :19:08. | |
are naughty. -- held belief. Is it down the packed lunches? I had | :19:08. | :19:16. | |
packed lunches. School dinners were not very nice. You can't regulate a | :19:16. | :19:21. | |
healthy packed lunch, so if we can provide free help the school meals | :19:21. | :19:29. | |
it's going to be fantastic. On that aspect, have you had any interest? | :19:29. | :19:33. | |
It's a lot of money, a billion pounds. It would pay for every | :19:33. | :19:37. | |
child at school to have a free school meals. Yes, I haven't got | :19:37. | :19:45. | |
the exact statistics but that's the starting point. Jamie Oliver had | :19:45. | :19:49. | |
500 million and couldn't achieve, unfortunately. He started the | :19:49. | :19:53. | |
battle so let's try to carry on from there. His was about the | :19:54. | :19:57. | |
school meals people are having rather than raising money. Who are | :19:57. | :20:02. | |
you talking to? Major supermarkets also look what happened with | :20:02. | :20:07. | |
McDonald's. Their plan is to have a McDonald's four minutes away from | :20:07. | :20:15. | |
every person on the planet. If we get somebody like that behind this, | :20:15. | :20:20. | |
McDonald's was a treat for me when I was a kid, but now kids want to | :20:20. | :20:24. | |
go there all the time. If we could get them to go behind us and do | :20:24. | :20:28. | |
healthy food, it's the marketing force of what do you think of the | :20:28. | :20:34. | |
idea? One of the flaws there is you could have school meals but you | :20:34. | :20:38. | |
can't make people have them. One of the issues is about educating | :20:38. | :20:44. | |
parents and educating young people. One thing which is very good in my | :20:44. | :20:47. | |
own private schools, in my constituency, if you get the | :20:47. | :20:51. | |
children to understand healthy eating, growing their own | :20:51. | :20:58. | |
vegetables, they actually then, the past apart argument, they are due | :20:58. | :21:04. | |
to their parents to have helpings. -- they are due to their parents to | :21:04. | :21:14. | |
:21:14. | :21:15. | ||
This less likelihood they would go out and buy the sweets. You have | :21:15. | :21:19. | |
got to persuade people so they don't just do this at school but | :21:19. | :21:23. | |
when they leave school they are in to help the team for the rest of | :21:23. | :21:26. | |
their lives for the would you like to see big business stump up cash | :21:26. | :21:33. | |
for this project? I'm not sure about that for I have to | :21:33. | :21:38. | |
congratulate youth. You probably have a connection with young people | :21:38. | :21:45. | |
that we don't. Glasgow is a particular difficult place. It's a | :21:45. | :21:50. | |
huge issue. We're only beginning to understand the impact of food and | :21:50. | :21:55. | |
the significance of it. Marketing is right. I think the whole debate | :21:55. | :22:00. | |
is really interesting for the is lukewarm of political support here. | :22:00. | :22:04. | |
This is exactly what I want to do, to get the discussion going. I went | :22:04. | :22:07. | |
to schools last year for the bed- and-breakfast campaign across the | :22:07. | :22:12. | |
country, and the standard of the meals was atrocious. The parents | :22:12. | :22:22. | |
:22:22. | :22:22. | ||
don't know. The parents need educating. My plan, we have a | :22:22. | :22:28. | |
healthy, I'm getting tongue-tied and excited... In some schools | :22:28. | :22:31. | |
where they had help the school meals they had their health the | :22:31. | :22:35. | |
shepherd's pie for lunch and they never knew what a shepherd's pie | :22:35. | :22:41. | |
was when they went home. That would inspire the adults to, mum, we had | :22:41. | :22:47. | |
this at school today. Just before you go, though, what about your | :22:47. | :22:52. | |
political ambitions? I probably know as much about politics as you | :22:52. | :23:02. | |
:23:02. | :23:03. | ||
I am passionate. I was a soldier because I believe in fighting for | :23:03. | :23:11. | |
what was right. I would go for Labour. I don't know. The policies | :23:11. | :23:14. | |
that hand-in-hand with the things I believe in but I'm not ready for | :23:14. | :23:24. | |
:23:24. | :23:27. | ||
that. Not ready yet? I will talk to later on. The maybe one day. Is it | :23:27. | :23:33. | |
true in Glasgow curry and chips is the healthy option? You should know. | :23:33. | :23:38. | |
I have not been there for a while. I just wanted to check. Now, it's | :23:38. | :23:41. | |
not just the shadow cabinet reshuffle. Westminster is ablaze | :23:41. | :23:45. | |
with speculation about another series of crucial appointments. | :23:45. | :23:48. | |
It's a bit a exaggeration! Tonight backbench Conservative MPs will be | :23:48. | :23:51. | |
choose which colleagues should represent them on 1922 committee. | :23:51. | :23:57. | |
The 301 group of MPs has put forward a full slate of candidates. | :23:57. | :24:00. | |
Their success though hinges on the support of the 20-20 group of MPs. | :24:01. | :24:04. | |
What influence the 40 group will wield is still unclear. If they | :24:04. | :24:07. | |
abstain they could end up helping the 101 group's candidates win | :24:07. | :24:12. | |
through. What do you mean you're not following me? Now, I'm told | :24:12. | :24:15. | |
there are even some Conservative ministers who don't know their 301s | :24:15. | :24:22. | |
from their 1922s. So here's a little quiz for you, Mark. Lucky | :24:22. | :24:29. | |
you! Which of these MPs are members of which backbench grouping? Your | :24:29. | :24:34. | |
MPs are: David Morris MP. Brandon Lewis MP. Alec Sherbrooke MP. Henry | :24:34. | :24:37. | |
Collingridge MP. Your groups are: The 40 Group. The 2020 Group. The | :24:37. | :24:47. | |
:24:47. | :24:48. | ||
301 Group. The 101 Group. First of all, Henry Collingridge is not an | :24:48. | :24:53. | |
MP. I know the other three. I couldn't tell you which was in | :24:53. | :24:58. | |
which group. Elections today for the 1922 Committee is a matter for | :24:59. | :25:06. | |
backbenchers also. I don't know which groups they are end and I'm | :25:06. | :25:12. | |
not even sure all of those groups exist. Let's see if Mark's got the | :25:12. | :25:17. | |
answer right. He doesn't know any of the answers, so no change there, | :25:18. | :25:23. | |
frankly. David Morris is in 40 Group. Whatever that is. Brandon | :25:23. | :25:33. | |
:25:33. | :25:35. | ||
Lewis a member of the 2020 Group. Alec Sherbrooke a 301 man. And | :25:35. | :25:41. | |
Henry Collingridge is not a real MP. He's a fictitious MP, a fictitious | :25:41. | :25:44. | |
Prime Minister indeed from the drama House of Cards. And the 101 | :25:44. | :25:47. | |
group. That's a not a real conservative backbench grouping | :25:47. | :25:56. | |
either. We made that up. You got two right. What do you say to Mark | :25:56. | :25:59. | |
Pritchard, one able colleagues, but Downing Street should spend more | :25:59. | :26:04. | |
time trying to fix the economy and less time trying to fix the 1922 | :26:04. | :26:08. | |
elections. It's about backbenchers and I don't believe everything I | :26:08. | :26:13. | |
read in newspapers. They are not just at backbenchers. Ministerial | :26:13. | :26:17. | |
aides had been allowed to vote. it was a decision by the 22 | :26:17. | :26:23. | |
executive. I'm going to let my backbench colleagues make the | :26:23. | :26:31. | |
decisions today. You don't get to vote. No, quite right too. Graham | :26:31. | :26:37. | |
Brady presents the user back benches to the Prime Minister. | :26:37. | :26:43. | |
up 301 group of loyalists, they have been wined and dined in | :26:43. | :26:47. | |
Downing Street to vote the right way. That's what they say in the | :26:47. | :26:54. | |
papers also that's what they say. Are you in it? I have talked to | :26:54. | :27:00. | |
them about government policy. It's good that there are so many groups | :27:00. | :27:06. | |
of Conservative colleagues. It's a very vibrant parliamentary party. | :27:06. | :27:12. | |
We discuss issues. You are divided, aren't you? No, all Conservative | :27:12. | :27:21. | |
MPs are united. We want to win an overall Conservative majority. | :27:21. | :27:25. | |
good news is, we have enough Conservative MPs to have a range of | :27:25. | :27:32. | |
groups. We want a Conservative majority government up the next | :27:32. | :27:38. | |
election to love and the right policies. That deliver the right | :27:38. | :27:42. | |
policies. Just time to put you out of your misery and give you the | :27:43. | :27:47. | |
answer to Guess The Year. The answer was 1966. You could tell | :27:47. | :27:51. | |
that because nearly all the footage was black and white before we had | :27:51. | :27:58. | |
colour TV. This is the red button. If you push that, you will get the | :27:58. | :28:08. | |
:28:08. | :28:15. | ||
winner. Mary, in Lincolnshire. Alex, thanks very much for being here. | :28:15. | :28:20. | |
Thanks to the two of you for joining us today. Thanks to our | :28:20. | :28:23. | |
guests. The One O'Clock News is starting over on BBC One now. Jo | :28:23. | :28:27. | |
will be back tomorrow at noon with all the big political stories of | :28:27. | :28:32. | |
the day. You won't be joining me, will you? No, I have other things | :28:32. | :28:39. | |
to do tonight, I'm afraid. I will be back on BBC One later. I'll be | :28:39. | :28:42. | |
joined by music impresario Harvey Goldsmith. And we'll be discussing | :28:42. | :28:46. |