Browse content similar to 03/09/2012. Check below for episodes and series from the same categories and more!
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Afternoon, folks, welcome back to the Daily Politics. After the | :00:46. | :00:51. | |
stunning success of the Olympics it is back to reality as politics | :00:51. | :00:56. | |
returns to business as usual. Top of the agenda, how to get the | :00:56. | :01:00. | |
economy growing again. Chancellor George Osborne is promising | :01:00. | :01:05. | |
billions of Government guarantees for infrastructure. Tory | :01:05. | :01:08. | |
backbenchers want tax cuts, spending cuts and smaller | :01:08. | :01:12. | |
Government. David Cameron plots his first major | :01:12. | :01:19. | |
reshuffle of Government. Who is on the up and who is up for the chop? | :01:19. | :01:24. | |
The current Education Secretary, Michael Gove, says his new policy | :01:24. | :01:29. | |
on free schools in England is a success. Over 50 new schools open | :01:29. | :01:35. | |
this week. Labour disagrees. Remember this? We will bring me up | :01:35. | :01:40. | |
to speak with every political twist and turn of the summer. You will | :01:40. | :01:45. | |
not have missed anything. Do not tell us we do not spoil your. | :01:45. | :01:49. | |
Is that the man who thinks he can be the prime minister? Yes, in that | :01:49. | :01:55. | |
rather elegant position. He is just hanging around. With us for the | :01:55. | :02:01. | |
next 30 minutes, because we could not afford them for the next two | :02:01. | :02:04. | |
hour, two Olympian political commentators. Fraser Nelson, editor | :02:04. | :02:10. | |
of the Spectator and Polly Toynbee, columnist at the Guardian. | :02:10. | :02:13. | |
After a summer of marvellous Olympic high is at Westminster gets | :02:13. | :02:18. | |
back to business today. Parliament has returned to the reality of what | :02:18. | :02:25. | |
they left before they went away, a flatlining economy. Chancellor | :02:25. | :02:28. | |
George Osborne it used a television interview yesterday to set out | :02:28. | :02:34. | |
plans of another goal, just starting UK plc. In the next couple | :02:34. | :02:40. | |
of weeks you will see us introduced in Parliament legislation to speed | :02:40. | :02:43. | |
up the processes that mean we can build roads more quickly that it | :02:43. | :02:48. | |
takes to fight a World War. It means we can guarantee | :02:48. | :02:52. | |
infrastructure projects. We will have a specific piece of | :02:52. | :02:57. | |
legislation published next week so that the Government can use the low | :02:57. | :02:59. | |
interest to underwrite infrastructure projects including | :02:59. | :03:03. | |
housing. We are doing all these things to use the good name the | :03:03. | :03:06. | |
Government has built up internationally, the low interest | :03:07. | :03:12. | |
rates we have got to fund our banks to get the economy moving. | :03:12. | :03:17. | |
Chancellor on the Andrew Marr Show yesterday from Broadcasting House. | :03:17. | :03:23. | |
Fraser Nelson, the prime minister says on the Mail on Sunday, they do | :03:23. | :03:28. | |
an article every week now, he is more determined than ever to cut | :03:28. | :03:33. | |
through the desert that holds this country back. Can you remind me who | :03:33. | :03:41. | |
has been Prime Minister by the past two years? He is going to have the | :03:41. | :03:46. | |
Super planning restrictions, Middle England is not going to like it, | :03:46. | :03:51. | |
but he lacks a fight that suits him. The Telegraph is going to oppose it. | :03:51. | :03:55. | |
It is ideal for him, but it is difficult to work out economic glee | :03:55. | :04:00. | |
how this is going to get the economy moving. There seems to be a | :04:00. | :04:03. | |
strange love affair between the Government and the housebuilding | :04:03. | :04:07. | |
industry. They seem to think the way to get the economy moving is to | :04:07. | :04:12. | |
grant favours to the industry. But Spain and Ireland found this was | :04:12. | :04:17. | |
not the case. When Government feels the market, disaster is not far | :04:17. | :04:25. | |
behind. Everybody is in favour of infrastructure. But it is not | :04:25. | :04:31. | |
necessarily the best and the quickest and even if they succeed | :04:31. | :04:38. | |
in easing the planning rules, what Mr Barack Obama said were shovelled | :04:38. | :04:46. | |
moving jobs, there are not many. you look at building schools for | :04:46. | :04:51. | |
the future, there were lots of projects that could be kick-started. | :04:51. | :04:55. | |
But they are cancelled and great deal of social housing. The | :04:55. | :05:01. | |
developers themselves are sitting on 300,000 plots with planning | :05:01. | :05:06. | |
permission ready to go. They will not go because the demand is not | :05:06. | :05:10. | |
there. If I was the Government I would say, we will withdraw | :05:10. | :05:14. | |
planning permission unless you start building. There are lots of | :05:14. | :05:18. | |
ways the Government can strong arm the industry instead of assuming | :05:18. | :05:24. | |
they will do it for them. The housing market is complicated. You | :05:24. | :05:28. | |
want house prices to come down, on the other hand you need it to be | :05:28. | :05:33. | |
profitable to build and it is a difficult balance. Polly is saying | :05:33. | :05:37. | |
this attempt to jump-start the British economy will involve the | :05:37. | :05:40. | |
Government saying, we are going to restore all the programmes be | :05:40. | :05:45. | |
cancelled a couple of years ago. How does that work? For a start | :05:45. | :05:49. | |
they could not afford it and even it they could, right now the | :05:49. | :05:53. | |
British economy has got this habit of when you go through a | :05:53. | :05:57. | |
construction boom EU import workers rather than shortening the British | :05:57. | :06:02. | |
dole queues. The majority of jobs created since the Government came | :06:02. | :06:06. | |
to power have gone to foreign-born workers. What they should be doing | :06:06. | :06:11. | |
is cutting the taxes of the low- paid and have an incentive to leave | :06:11. | :06:15. | |
benefits and get back to work. If you borrow lots of money and higher | :06:15. | :06:20. | |
lots of people it is a very blunt instrument. If they went down this | :06:20. | :06:25. | |
road, when would we see growth return? You say these things are | :06:25. | :06:29. | |
ready to be done quite quickly. Even quickly in these circumstances | :06:29. | :06:35. | |
takes a while and then that money... Not many people would be employed. | :06:35. | :06:38. | |
The money then has to percolate through the economy from their | :06:38. | :06:44. | |
wages. Of course it is not the only thing you should do. You should | :06:44. | :06:51. | |
stop a lot of the cuts now. We have only had 12% of the cuts announced, | :06:51. | :06:57. | |
88% are still to come. A huge hit is going to come in the next year | :06:57. | :07:02. | |
when unemployment will rise steeply next year. Stop doing that, stop | :07:02. | :07:08. | |
digging when you are in a hole and making it worse. How much bigger? | :07:08. | :07:12. | |
Quite a bit bigger, it has never been cheaper for the Government to | :07:12. | :07:17. | |
borrow. The size of the deficit is no constraint on the Government at | :07:17. | :07:23. | |
all? Not no constraint, but you could do a lot more. People like | :07:23. | :07:28. | |
the IMF are now saying austerity is making matters worse. A bit of | :07:28. | :07:32. | |
stimulus and getting growth that might be worth the price of | :07:32. | :07:38. | |
borrowing more for now. Government is borrowing �250 | :07:38. | :07:43. | |
million a day. They are borrowing to pay for the unemployed. It is | :07:43. | :07:48. | |
not working. I do not think if they were borrowing 280 million that | :07:48. | :07:53. | |
would make much of a difference. What George Osborne is announcing | :07:54. | :07:58. | |
now about Government guarantees for more building and projects, none of | :07:58. | :08:03. | |
that will be real. If it were real, it would have to go on to the | :08:03. | :08:08. | |
borrowing books and it is not going to. It would be Enron style | :08:08. | :08:13. | |
accounting. These guarantees will not be worth the paper they are not | :08:13. | :08:18. | |
yet written on. I were happy think about that. Either they are genuine | :08:19. | :08:28. | |
:08:29. | :08:29. | ||
guarantees or they are not and I think they are not. It is sub-prime | :08:29. | :08:34. | |
business. A new term means it must be time for a quiz for Fraser and | :08:34. | :08:38. | |
Polly. The question for today is all about Margaret Thatcher's | :08:39. | :08:43. | |
dresses, moving away from the economy, some of which are up for | :08:43. | :08:48. | |
auction at Christie's. Which of these does not belong to Margaret | :08:48. | :08:51. | |
Thatcher. There is one little sartorial number that does not | :08:51. | :08:58. | |
quite fit her style. We will give you a bit of time to get your heads | :08:58. | :09:01. | |
around that halfway through the show. | :09:01. | :09:06. | |
Fraser said Margaret Thatcher's dresses are his specialist subject. | :09:06. | :09:11. | |
I think we will move on. Apart from sorting out the economy, | :09:11. | :09:15. | |
what else have the political leaders got to look forward to as | :09:15. | :09:20. | |
the nights draw in? We are expecting a reshuffle quite soon, | :09:20. | :09:23. | |
leadership plots are growing by the day and there is always personality | :09:23. | :09:30. | |
clashes which add to the gaiety of the nation. It is business as usual. | :09:30. | :09:35. | |
It is the start of a new term and for the party leaders memories of | :09:35. | :09:39. | |
summer holiday fun are already fading fast. David Cameron is back | :09:39. | :09:43. | |
in the classroom and needs to assert his authority with a | :09:43. | :09:48. | |
decisive reshuffle. It is going to be difficult if big figures like | :09:48. | :09:53. | |
George Osborne, William Hague and Theresa May stay put. Lib Dems at | :09:53. | :09:57. | |
the Cabinet table are going nowhere. He needs to answer criticism from | :09:57. | :10:02. | |
the right of his party after a summer of nasty name-calling. One | :10:03. | :10:07. | |
backbencher suggested he was a Mars, another a Lib Dem chambermaid. Many | :10:07. | :10:12. | |
are urging him to pursue a distinctive Conservative pro-growth | :10:12. | :10:19. | |
qualities. One MP quest and Nick Clegg's leadership and one said he | :10:19. | :10:23. | |
was a cork bobbing on the waves with no strategic vision. He will | :10:23. | :10:27. | |
be under pressure to distance the Lib Dems from the Conservatives at | :10:27. | :10:30. | |
the party conference. The suggestion his latest wealth tax | :10:30. | :10:35. | |
idea was written by young kids in Downing Street may not help. Ed | :10:35. | :10:39. | |
Miliband should have less difficulty maintaining order. His | :10:39. | :10:44. | |
MPs know they have a ten-point lead in the polls. But this summer has | :10:44. | :10:49. | |
been punctuated by rumours of staff and hostility by shadowed | :10:49. | :10:53. | |
Chancellor Ed Balls leaving some to wonder if a feud to rival Tony | :10:53. | :10:57. | |
Blair and Gordon Brown could be brewing. James Landale is also back | :10:58. | :11:02. | |
from his holidays with a brand-new uniform and a pencil case and joins | :11:02. | :11:07. | |
us now. How dramatic and this reshuffle be if nobody is wanting | :11:07. | :11:13. | |
to buy it? Some people will resist, that always happens during a | :11:13. | :11:17. | |
reshuffle. This will be a test of the prime minister's authority, man | :11:17. | :11:22. | |
or mouse to use a phrase which is being invoked by one Conservative | :11:22. | :11:27. | |
MP. The interesting test one not just be has the Prime Minister | :11:27. | :11:33. | |
asserted authority? But has he signalled any change of policy? | :11:33. | :11:40. | |
What matters is does he changed policy? Does he poured example | :11:40. | :11:45. | |
signal a change on policy towards Heathrow Mr Garbutt does he take | :11:45. | :11:48. | |
Ken Clarke out of justice? The other key test will be party | :11:48. | :11:53. | |
management. Does he do it well and does he wield the axe in a way that | :11:53. | :11:59. | |
minimises the number of unhappy bunnies? It could pose a lot of | :12:00. | :12:04. | |
problems by David Cameron as he runs up with the election. We are | :12:04. | :12:10. | |
expecting that in the next 36 hours. What about Nick Clegg? Name-calling | :12:10. | :12:16. | |
from some in his party as well? How vulnerable is he? If you talk to | :12:16. | :12:20. | |
some people they say it is amazing it has taken this long for people | :12:20. | :12:26. | |
on the fringes to call for his head. For the first time you have MPs and | :12:26. | :12:30. | |
peers saying it openly and in public and On the Record that there | :12:30. | :12:34. | |
should be a change of leadership. People around Nick Clegg say they | :12:34. | :12:39. | |
are not worried, but it shows that he is under increasing pressure as | :12:39. | :12:44. | |
he makes policy choices in the run up to the next election. He is now | :12:44. | :12:48. | |
hemmed in not just by the fact he is in the coalition, but he is | :12:48. | :12:54. | |
under increasing pressure from his own party to differentiate himself | :12:54. | :13:00. | |
from the Conservative Party and that can have an impact on policy. | :13:00. | :13:04. | |
The sun keeps shining and it is a beautiful day in London today. | :13:04. | :13:08. | |
Nothing gets as more excited than a Cabinet reshuffle and we talk about | :13:08. | :13:13. | |
it endlessly although we know nothing at all. Let me put this to | :13:13. | :13:17. | |
you, given that the major positions are not going to change what this | :13:17. | :13:21. | |
will amount to is a bunch of people that no-one has heard of getting | :13:21. | :13:28. | |
the sack to be replaced by a bunch of people no-one has ever heard of. | :13:28. | :13:32. | |
The night of the very short knives. It will make very little difference. | :13:32. | :13:37. | |
I do not think Cabinet reshuffles be much anyway even with big jobs. | :13:37. | :13:41. | |
Their only one that matters is Osborne. It all depends on the | :13:41. | :13:46. | |
state of the economy. If the economy continues to crash in the | :13:46. | :13:51. | |
way it has now, they have had it. The only interesting bit of news | :13:51. | :13:55. | |
would be moving George Osborne, signalling there was a genuine, if | :13:55. | :14:01. | |
you change in direction. No chance of that. There is no alternative, | :14:01. | :14:07. | |
back to Mrs Thatcher. Why has there been no chance of Mr Osborne been | :14:07. | :14:11. | |
removed? Because to use your tonsillar is a major admission of | :14:11. | :14:16. | |
defeat for a British Government. It would send a very dangers message | :14:16. | :14:20. | |
around the world that Britain is in panic when it comes to reducing the | :14:20. | :14:24. | |
deficit. What would you gain from this? There is no suggestion | :14:24. | :14:29. | |
William Hague has got some fantastic plan for growth. To take | :14:29. | :14:33. | |
a drastic step like this you need to have a pretty good alternative | :14:33. | :14:36. | |
and right now there is no suggestion there is anybody out | :14:36. | :14:40. | |
there who could do a better job. Well he had the guts in a | :14:40. | :14:47. | |
Government short of women and of non-white people, will he have the | :14:47. | :14:51. | |
guts to sack the party chairwoman? That is a tricky one for him. She | :14:51. | :14:56. | |
was quoted the other day saying she is not white and she is a woman and | :14:56. | :15:01. | |
I think I fit the bill. Those are not credentials if you want to lead | :15:01. | :15:04. | |
the Conservative Party. She should know better than anybody else. | :15:04. | :15:08. | |
Again, I do not see how a new chairman would radically improve | :15:08. | :15:13. | |
the prospects for the Government. It is not about the people, it is | :15:13. | :15:17. | |
about the policies and the perception they are not working. | :15:17. | :15:23. | |
Will he have the guts to throw Ken Clarke to the wolves? I think he | :15:23. | :15:28. | |
probably well, given that Ken Clarke sounds like he has been | :15:28. | :15:33. | |
embalmed prior to burial right now. I think he would probably cause the | :15:33. | :15:43. | |
:15:43. | :15:44. | ||
In a sense, what has happened, rather than running the coalition, | :15:44. | :15:49. | |
they are struggling to run after their parties. I do not think | :15:49. | :15:54. | |
either of them I am much trouble from their parties. Inevitably, | :15:54. | :15:58. | |
noise on the right, noise on the left for Clegg, but basically | :15:58. | :16:03. | |
neither of them are going to be removed in a hurry. The crisis for | :16:03. | :16:07. | |
Clegg, he has to think that this had, comes nine months before the | :16:07. | :16:10. | |
election, when he has to decide whether he will run again, should | :16:10. | :16:15. | |
he stand down himself, and I think he should, new leader, a bit of a | :16:15. | :16:20. | |
honeymoon, he might save a few seats. But not now, and I do not | :16:20. | :16:23. | |
think any of this noise is politically significant. It is | :16:23. | :16:26. | |
interesting ideologically, because the Tory backbenchers do not | :16:26. | :16:29. | |
understand they have the most right-wing government we have ever | :16:30. | :16:34. | |
had, far more right-wing than Mrs Thatcher. It is austerity, far more | :16:34. | :16:41. | |
austere, although they would like more, like you do. You know, this | :16:41. | :16:47. | |
is more austerity than we have ever had. The Lib Dems do not think it | :16:47. | :16:53. | |
is a left-wing government. No, the Lib Dems think they have no choice. | :16:53. | :16:57. | |
Labour does not think that. Labour thinks it is a very right-wing | :16:57. | :17:01. | |
government. Labour thinks it is an extraordinary right-wing government, | :17:01. | :17:07. | |
and next April big cuts hit. We are in the middle of the Paralympics. | :17:07. | :17:13. | |
All of the disability cuts hit in a big way, 90,000 mobility scooters | :17:13. | :17:17. | |
and motor ability cows are going to be repossessed next April. I do not | :17:17. | :17:23. | |
think most MPs know this. They do not know what is going to hit them | :17:23. | :17:28. | |
when 80% of extra cuts is still to come. Polly says Mr Cameron and Mr | :17:28. | :17:31. | |
Clegg are not going to be challenged, but they are worried | :17:32. | :17:37. | |
men. Mr Cameron is clearly worried about the lack of support on the | :17:37. | :17:39. | |
back benches, hence the kind of article he wrote in the Mail on | :17:39. | :17:44. | |
Sunday yesterday. Mr Clegg is worried he has no favours in the | :17:44. | :17:49. | |
bag, otherwise he would not come out with the wealth tax plan. | :17:49. | :17:53. | |
think a lot of Tory MPs are thinking of their futures, and they | :17:53. | :17:57. | |
are not thinking of Kamal Clegg as party leaders, and that makes it | :17:57. | :18:04. | |
more difficult to intimidate them. -- Cameron or Clegg. Nick Clegg has | :18:04. | :18:07. | |
got far more to worry about, because right now the Lib Dems have | :18:08. | :18:11. | |
seen half of their support eliminated, and they reckon that | :18:11. | :18:16. | |
the Tory embrace is toxic. When he was attacked by Lord Smith of | :18:16. | :18:23. | |
Lifton, didn't you have to Google that was?! Matthew Oakeshott, rent- | :18:23. | :18:31. | |
a-quote. He is a powerful player, because he is a surrogate for Vince | :18:31. | :18:35. | |
Cable. I think he speaks for Vince Cable, they are very close. | :18:35. | :18:40. | |
much should we make, or is it just Tory wishful thinking, of the | :18:40. | :18:47. | |
divisions between Mr Ed and Mr Ed? I think almost nothing. It came out | :18:47. | :18:51. | |
of nowhere, a real Auguste story that came out of a poll which | :18:51. | :18:59. | |
showed that by 2% Ed B had slightly more favourable points, and I do | :18:59. | :19:04. | |
not see this. I think it is true, and I have been told, that if | :19:04. | :19:08. | |
Miliband loses the next election, there will be another leadership, | :19:08. | :19:12. | |
Ed Balls would stand aside for Yvette Cooper, that he has given up | :19:12. | :19:17. | |
leadership ambitions himself. So whatever this friction, which is | :19:17. | :19:21. | |
inevitable, because most of the Labour Party wants Ed Balls to go | :19:21. | :19:26. | |
for a bigger and bolder and austerity movement, so it is about | :19:26. | :19:36. | |
:19:36. | :19:37. | ||
policy, not leadership. There is fiction, and Labour has got to get | :19:37. | :19:40. | |
a head of the game and be quite a lot bolder. Should Labour be | :19:40. | :19:45. | |
further ahead in the polls? I think 10 points is not bad. At this time | :19:45. | :19:50. | |
when we have a flatlining economy, coalition ripping itself apart? | :19:50. | :19:54. | |
gives them a comfortable overall majority if there were an election. | :19:54. | :19:58. | |
We know the midterm lead is bigger than reality. We will see what the | :19:58. | :20:02. | |
reality is. New line assuming we are in a time like any other. I see | :20:02. | :20:06. | |
no reason why this government should pick up. If Cameron could | :20:06. | :20:10. | |
not win against Gordon Brown on his knees and a Labour Party exhausted, | :20:10. | :20:16. | |
how on earth is he going to do better next time? Isn't that the | :20:16. | :20:20. | |
key watershed moment this summer, when it really dawned on the Tories | :20:20. | :20:26. | |
that their chances of an overall majority in 2015 was probably the | :20:26. | :20:30. | |
least likely outcome of the election? You are right. Before the | :20:30. | :20:33. | |
summer, the tourists thought the balance of probability was then | :20:33. | :20:38. | |
being re-elected. After the boundary review was kibosh, your | :20:38. | :20:42. | |
average Tory now thinks it is more likely they will lose than win. | :20:42. | :20:47. | |
This changes the way in which they behave and plan. That shows how | :20:47. | :20:50. | |
dumb they are, because they've brought about these backbenchers | :20:50. | :20:56. | |
who brought about the non-happening of the boundary changes. They have | :20:56. | :21:01. | |
just woken up to what they have done! Tory backbenchers done? | :21:01. | :21:06. | |
I will not be repeating that, it is not just MPs who are going back to | :21:06. | :21:10. | |
school this week. Many pupils will be returning to school and some two | :21:10. | :21:15. | |
new schools entirely. Some 55 new free schools will be opening this | :21:15. | :21:18. | |
month. They are state-funded but not under local authority control | :21:18. | :21:23. | |
and they have more control over teaching and budgets. This morning | :21:23. | :21:25. | |
Education Secretary Michael Gove has been promoting his policy. He | :21:25. | :21:28. | |
was asked if money was being taken away from existing schools to pay | :21:28. | :21:33. | |
for the new ones. We desperately need free schools. People need a | :21:33. | :21:37. | |
chance to send their children to a good school where schools are not | :21:37. | :21:40. | |
good enough. People also need additional places because the | :21:40. | :21:44. | |
population is growing. If all we were doing was hoping free schools, | :21:44. | :21:49. | |
we would be open to criticism, but we are doing much more. We are in | :21:49. | :21:53. | |
the largest number of New Academy Schools that were underperforming | :21:53. | :21:56. | |
under local authority control but now have a great new head teachers | :21:56. | :22:02. | |
and a chance for the children in them to flourish. We are joined by | :22:02. | :22:05. | |
Labour Shadow Education Minister Karen Buck and by Craig Whitaker, a | :22:05. | :22:10. | |
Conservative member of the Education Select Committee. Craig | :22:10. | :22:12. | |
Whitaker, first of all, we heard Michael Gove say that these schools | :22:12. | :22:16. | |
are a success, but they are unproven as yet. We do not know how | :22:16. | :22:20. | |
successful they will be. What we do know is that internationally, when | :22:20. | :22:25. | |
you give schools autonomy away from local authority control, give them | :22:25. | :22:28. | |
control of budgets and what they offer the local community, they | :22:28. | :22:32. | |
work incredibly well, so that is the basis on which the free school | :22:32. | :22:37. | |
and academies are being put in place. But what do free schools | :22:37. | :22:40. | |
bring to state education that cannot be achieved in existing | :22:40. | :22:44. | |
comprehensive schools if it is about raising standards? A whole | :22:44. | :22:47. | |
heap of people and the country are incredibly frustrated with local | :22:47. | :22:51. | |
schools. They cannot get in them, a lot are underperforming, so it is a | :22:51. | :22:54. | |
great opportunity to get local parents and teachers involved in | :22:54. | :22:58. | |
setting up their own school, and that is what the programme is about. | :22:58. | :23:03. | |
Are you against, in principle, the idea of free schools? What we need | :23:03. | :23:07. | |
to have his schools where they are needed, where they meet parental | :23:07. | :23:11. | |
demand, which is a real issue about free schools. I think the idea of | :23:11. | :23:14. | |
the dead hand of local authority control is a red herring and has | :23:14. | :23:18. | |
been for many, many years. Local authorities do not manage and | :23:18. | :23:22. | |
control everything that goes on in local schools. There is a very high | :23:22. | :23:27. | |
degree of autonomy within schools. The Academy Schools, which was set | :23:27. | :23:31. | |
up under the last Labour government, enjoyed a degree of freedom as well. | :23:31. | :23:35. | |
The point with free schools, I have one in my constituency which opened | :23:35. | :23:40. | |
last year, it is called a free school but it is actually an | :23:40. | :23:44. | |
academy, it is fine, it is needed. There are other schools where there | :23:44. | :23:48. | |
has not been demand and they do not meet the requirements. Andrew | :23:48. | :23:52. | |
Adonis said that Labour should be claiming the free schools policy as | :23:52. | :23:56. | |
its own because they are academies in all but name. Frankly, I do not | :23:57. | :24:01. | |
care what you call an initiative. What I care about is spending the | :24:01. | :24:05. | |
money where there is demand, and in fact interestingly, in his last | :24:05. | :24:09. | |
year, we have seen an increase in a 3,000 children whose parents cannot | :24:09. | :24:13. | |
find any place for them at all. The fact is we have a �900 million | :24:13. | :24:16. | |
programme investing in free schools which is clearly not meeting demand, | :24:16. | :24:20. | |
which is not preventing parents from being left with no school at | :24:20. | :24:23. | |
all for their children, and which is doing nothing for the | :24:23. | :24:27. | |
overwhelming majority of pupils. Picking up on that point, if they | :24:27. | :24:31. | |
are in areas where there are already good comprehensive schools, | :24:31. | :24:35. | |
then it is a waste of money, isn't it? It could be better spent | :24:35. | :24:40. | |
improving existing schools. No, not at all, because the free school | :24:40. | :24:45. | |
programme is part of a much bigger picture, you know. It is about | :24:45. | :24:48. | |
academies, too. You accept they are in areas where there is no demand? | :24:48. | :24:53. | |
They are in areas where there is a chronic shortage of places, where | :24:53. | :24:57. | |
local authorities have not been able to create places quickly | :24:57. | :25:01. | |
enough, and that is where the free schools generally pick up and fill | :25:01. | :25:06. | |
a niche. You agree with Karen Buck that they could be taking money | :25:06. | :25:11. | |
away from other schools, and that is self-defeating? Not at all. | :25:11. | :25:15. | |
Diversity and autonomy are the key things that will drive standards in | :25:15. | :25:19. | |
the education system. One thing that we know is that standards have | :25:19. | :25:22. | |
been slipping for a very long time, and we need to raise standards, and | :25:22. | :25:26. | |
if that means giving more autonomy, more diversity within our community | :25:26. | :25:33. | |
schools, that is what we need to do. On the issue of raising standards, | :25:33. | :25:36. | |
with the free schools to raise standards in the sense that they | :25:36. | :25:41. | |
have marvellous GCSE results or there is a rise in measures of | :25:41. | :25:45. | |
children's ability, will that be a good thing, regardless of where the | :25:45. | :25:49. | |
money comes from? Of course, but only if it raises it across the | :25:49. | :25:53. | |
piece. If they have simply creamed off the best kids and the average | :25:53. | :25:58. | |
of the area stays the same, nobody is checking. What really matters is | :25:58. | :26:02. | |
that 20 of the schools which are opening now are in areas which do | :26:02. | :26:05. | |
not need them. They are using money from that area to build those | :26:05. | :26:09. | |
schools, taking away from schools that desperately needed, creating | :26:09. | :26:14. | |
surplus of spaces. Free schools are not one thing. Some are very good, | :26:14. | :26:17. | |
set up by groups of teachers or other schools, some of them are | :26:17. | :26:21. | |
religious schools, which we absolutely do not need more of. | :26:21. | :26:25. | |
Free school covers a multitude of the good and bad, so we should not | :26:25. | :26:29. | |
talk about them as one type of thing. It depends where and what. | :26:29. | :26:33. | |
There is a question about regulation. They say they are not | :26:33. | :26:37. | |
selective, but is there a bit of self-selection. In the end, they | :26:37. | :26:41. | |
are getting better pupils, so they will get better results, so it will | :26:41. | :26:45. | |
not be down to improving standards or better teachers. That is not | :26:45. | :26:51. | |
true. It is amazing to say Polly -- it is amazing to here police say | :26:51. | :26:55. | |
that these schools are not needed. We are moving into a wonderful year, | :26:55. | :27:00. | |
moving away from the idea that politicians say this school is | :27:00. | :27:04. | |
needed, into an era where parents and teachers decide what is needed | :27:04. | :27:07. | |
and where. There is an incredible power flip going on away from the | :27:07. | :27:11. | |
government towards teachers, and it is really heartening to see. It is | :27:11. | :27:16. | |
about parents demand. We must not let the tail WAG the Dog. Of course, | :27:16. | :27:21. | |
Polly is right, there are examples of free schools being set up which | :27:21. | :27:25. | |
clearly meets demand, which are based on both parents of and | :27:25. | :27:31. | |
teacher requests, but some are not, and it is not a good use of public | :27:31. | :27:33. | |
resources to spend such an amount of money on a small number of | :27:33. | :27:36. | |
schools which may or may not have anything to do with meeting local | :27:36. | :27:41. | |
demand. But you are not going to close any of these schools if you | :27:41. | :27:45. | |
were to come into power, because if they do the right thing, they | :27:45. | :27:48. | |
should stay. You have to look at the schools in existence and see | :27:48. | :27:52. | |
what they are doing and see if they are meeting demand, look at the | :27:52. | :27:55. | |
provision of service in and around them. We are not going to go | :27:55. | :27:59. | |
stomping in and closing popular and successful local schools of course | :27:59. | :28:05. | |
saying that the overwhelming majority of children in our schools | :28:05. | :28:10. | |
need to be served well, not have money being distorted for a tiny | :28:10. | :28:16. | |
number of pupils in a scheme which simply takes a box and allows | :28:16. | :28:19. | |
Michael Gove to claim a revolution in schools, which is not touching | :28:19. | :28:25. | |
the overwhelming majority of pupils. Briefly on the sort of story on the | :28:25. | :28:30. | |
GCSE results, the number of Dead In The Boot to C grades fell for the | :28:30. | :28:36. | |
first time in the history of the GCSE results. -- A to C grades. | :28:36. | :28:42. | |
That is because the boundaries have been reset by the examination | :28:42. | :28:45. | |
boards, and there is an absolute stopping of this dumbing-down and | :28:45. | :28:52. | |
sliding towards, you know, as as a nation doing worse. Standards have | :28:52. | :28:56. | |
got to raise, and this is a great start, I think, in lifting | :28:56. | :29:00. | |
standards back to where they should be. The end of dumbing-down under | :29:00. | :29:05. | |
Labour. Pupils who got exactly the same marks in the June examinations, | :29:05. | :29:09. | |
or in some cases better than they did in the January examination, but | :29:09. | :29:13. | |
who failed whereas in January they would have passed. It could be as | :29:13. | :29:18. | |
many as 65,000 students who on not able, in some cases, to proceed on | :29:18. | :29:21. | |
to A-levels, apprenticeships and further education, which is what we | :29:21. | :29:26. | |
want them to do. We have asked the Select Committee to raise in the | :29:26. | :29:30. | |
look into what has happened, and it is essential, it is a question of | :29:30. | :29:34. | |
fairness that pupils who got as good marks as they did in the | :29:34. | :29:36. | |
earlier part of being in a summer examination should not be | :29:36. | :29:40. | |
disadvantaged as a result. Karen Buck, Craig Whitaker, thank you | :29:40. | :29:43. | |
both very much. It is tough being the leader of a | :29:43. | :29:47. | |
political party, just as Nick Clegg, or David Cameron, or Ed Miliband, | :29:47. | :29:51. | |
for that matter. But one party leader is feeling on top of the | :29:51. | :29:58. | |
world, Natalie Bennett. Who?! Come on, Natalie Bennett, elected the | :29:58. | :30:01. | |
new leader of the Green Party of England and Wales. We can talk to | :30:01. | :30:06. | |
them now. Welcome to the Daily Politics. It is a bit of a poisoned | :30:06. | :30:12. | |
chalice, this, isn't it? Rightly or wrongly, many voters think Green is | :30:12. | :30:15. | |
for the good times, they do not want to be green when they are | :30:15. | :30:18. | |
worried about their next pay cheque or whether they are going to keep | :30:18. | :30:28. | |
:30:28. | :30:29. | ||
Absolutely not. We understand there is a great political opportunity | :30:29. | :30:34. | |
for the Green Party at the moment. Voters are looking around saying | :30:34. | :30:38. | |
there are three parties offering exactly the same. The Green Party | :30:38. | :30:43. | |
is offering the chance for a different kind of economy, where we | :30:43. | :30:50. | |
invest in the future, housing, jobs, renewable energy and interest in | :30:50. | :30:53. | |
keeping people warmer in comfortable homes, and this is | :30:53. | :30:59. | |
attractive to more and more people. Why did only 3000 members of your | :30:59. | :31:04. | |
party bothered to vote in the election? If you hold an election | :31:04. | :31:09. | |
during the month of August, you would expect that turn out not to | :31:09. | :31:17. | |
be high. People could not decide and that is the way it works, and | :31:17. | :31:22. | |
they felt they did not want to vote. But we have a vision for the future | :31:22. | :31:27. | |
of Britain that is attractive to large numbers of voters and I am | :31:27. | :31:32. | |
confident we can elect many more councillors. How many people voted | :31:32. | :31:42. | |
:31:42. | :31:42. | ||
for you? I think the actual, final count was 42% of the first | :31:42. | :31:48. | |
preference. Her many? I do not know the numbers of hand. You do not | :31:48. | :31:55. | |
know how many people have voted for you? No, but I know I got about 500 | :31:55. | :32:01. | |
more votes than the second person. He was an MEP in the north-west. | :32:01. | :32:08. | |
a year's time if we were speaking to you again, what were you have | :32:08. | :32:13. | |
achieved? I will aim in the next two years, it is a two-year period, | :32:13. | :32:18. | |
to see that we have collected many more councillors up and down the | :32:18. | :32:21. | |
country and that in the European elections week treble our number of | :32:21. | :32:26. | |
MEPs, which will mean many more people in England and Wales will | :32:26. | :32:30. | |
have an elected Green representative working for them. | :32:30. | :32:35. | |
You will treble the number of MEPs you have? That is what we are | :32:35. | :32:41. | |
aiming for. If you take a blanket swing, it needs a 1.3% swing and | :32:41. | :32:47. | |
that is achievable. Event that you your predecessors have staked the | :32:47. | :32:52. | |
Green Party on the left of British politics, and some would say the | :32:52. | :32:56. | |
far left, if you are eight Tory inclined green or a moderate | :32:56. | :33:04. | |
inclined Green, they cannot vote for you, can they? I think policies | :33:04. | :33:08. | |
like the minimum wage should be a living wage, that is a policy I | :33:08. | :33:12. | |
find resonates with people who live in multi-million-pound houses or | :33:12. | :33:19. | |
who live in council estates, saying people should get benefits for a | :33:19. | :33:22. | |
decent light. That his policies people right across the political | :33:22. | :33:27. | |
spectrum understand. Do you also think the maximum wage should be 10 | :33:27. | :33:31. | |
times the minimum wage? We do indeed and that is a policy we find | :33:31. | :33:36. | |
is also very popular. We made a great deal of that in the London | :33:36. | :33:42. | |
elections and we finished third. Let me get this right, let's be | :33:42. | :33:47. | |
generous and say the living wage would be �20,000 a year. It is your | :33:47. | :33:52. | |
policy that no-one in this country should be paid more than 2000 -- | :33:52. | :33:57. | |
�200,000 a year? That is something we want to work towards two and | :33:57. | :34:02. | |
that is perfectly enough to live on decently. So farewell the English | :34:02. | :34:10. | |
Premier League? Well, I think we would have a healthier team and a | :34:10. | :34:16. | |
much better English national team if we did that. But there are many | :34:16. | :34:20. | |
industries in this country, I picked for all because it is the | :34:20. | :34:24. | |
most easily recognised, there are many recognised industries in this | :34:24. | :34:28. | |
country that depend on paying their top people more than �200,000 a | :34:28. | :34:33. | |
year. We can agree the bankers are overwhelmingly over pay, but there | :34:33. | :34:38. | |
are many industries from the head of Rolls Royce to the head of | :34:38. | :34:43. | |
Airbus in Britain who will not stay if you keep their salaries at | :34:43. | :34:49. | |
�200,000. What would you do? First of all, it is worth saying we are | :34:49. | :34:53. | |
not talking about doing this in terms of putting out legislation. | :34:53. | :34:58. | |
We want to explain why it is a good idea and have it happen in the | :34:58. | :35:02. | |
public sector and work on from there. You mention the bankers and | :35:02. | :35:05. | |
we have got this great talent by paying them lots of money, but it | :35:05. | :35:10. | |
has broken the world economy. Giving people huge incentive | :35:10. | :35:16. | |
payments and huge bonuses, it encourages people to play again in | :35:16. | :35:21. | |
the system, not do their job well. Most people want to do a decent job | :35:21. | :35:25. | |
during the day, whether you ran a national company or work in a call | :35:25. | :35:30. | |
centre. Natalie Bennett, thank you for joining us. It is a very green | :35:30. | :35:35. | |
backdrop, it looks perfect for your election today. Polly Toynbee, D | :35:35. | :35:40. | |
the Greens have an opportunity now given a lot of younger Lib-Dem | :35:40. | :35:44. | |
voters, particularly the students who are hardly likely to queue up | :35:44. | :35:49. | |
to vote again, do the Greens have an opportunity or his Labour were | :35:50. | :35:54. | |
likely to get the next votes? think the Greens have done very | :35:54. | :36:00. | |
well, they have done very well in Brighton and they have got Brighton | :36:00. | :36:04. | |
council and they beat the Lib Dems in the mayoral elections. There is | :36:04. | :36:09. | |
room in the spectrum for a party to the left of Labour. It used to be | :36:09. | :36:15. | |
called the Lib Dems. Yes, indeed. We are not talking about outrageous | :36:15. | :36:21. | |
left like in the days of the eight and sees -- 80s, the Militant | :36:21. | :36:28. | |
tendency, this is moderate staff. It is not old fashioned Labour left. | :36:28. | :36:33. | |
They still want to repeal the union legislation, dove. They want to | :36:33. | :36:37. | |
make friends with the unions and they are quite keen to do that and | :36:37. | :36:40. | |
quite keen to attract some of that element, but they are of a | :36:40. | :36:46. | |
different breed and I think they will attract quite a lot of votes, | :36:46. | :36:50. | |
particularly the Lib Dem ones. There is just time to find out the | :36:50. | :36:56. | |
answer to our quiz. It was not very difficult, particularly for you, | :36:56. | :37:02. | |
Fraser, be an expert on Margaret Thatcher's dresses. Which of these | :37:02. | :37:07. | |
does not belong to Margaret Thatcher? I am going for the pop | :37:07. | :37:14. | |
left because I think Meryl Streep war that in the film. Did you? That | :37:14. | :37:19. | |
is a counter intuitive answer. think it is the pink dress, I think | :37:19. | :37:25. | |
it is not her. You are right. I like the idea you think Meryl | :37:25. | :37:32. | |
Streep war that dress. Did you say? Yes. You are more observant that I | :37:32. | :37:42. | |
am. Polly is right, it is the obvious one. Quite rightly for a | :37:42. | :37:46. | |
lady like her, she never exposed her shoulders. They are bound to | :37:46. | :37:53. | |
raise about �1,500. So of the others were really lovely. There | :37:53. | :37:57. | |
was a lovely pink suit number and I thought, I like that, I will buy | :37:57. | :38:03. | |
that. The Greens want to abolish GDP as a | :38:03. | :38:12. | |
measure of economic success. So did David Cameron. Thank you to both of | :38:12. | :38:19. | |
you for being on our first show of the new season. I had a lovely | :38:19. | :38:23. | |
couple of weeks in the south of France and Jo went camping in | :38:23. | :38:28. | |
Dorset. We have no idea when Giles is planning to come back, but we | :38:28. | :38:31. | |
had one of his unpaid work experience chappies to keep an eye | :38:31. | :38:41. | |
on what happened at Westminster during the summer holidays. | :38:41. | :38:46. | |
Thank you, I had a lovely time. While you have all been sunning | :38:46. | :38:50. | |
yourself, I had a holiday at Westminster, keeping an eye on | :38:50. | :38:56. | |
goings on at S W one and my case is packed full of souvenirs. What have | :38:56. | :39:06. | |
:39:06. | :39:06. | ||
we got here? An Olympic mascot in gold. David Cameron presided over a | :39:06. | :39:10. | |
Games that was virtually hitched free and a gold rush for Team GB. | :39:10. | :39:16. | |
The effect on the opinion polls? Virtually negligible. But perhaps | :39:16. | :39:20. | |
the biggest winner was Boris, hanging around everywhere, most | :39:21. | :39:30. | |
:39:31. | :39:31. | ||
notably on this Olympic zip wire. Everybody he thinks they have | :39:31. | :39:36. | |
reached the highest level, there is no such thing when it comes to the | :39:36. | :39:41. | |
Olympics as this. After two years in the job the Conservative MP for | :39:41. | :39:46. | |
Corby stood down to spend more time with her family. Bring on that by- | :39:46. | :39:50. | |
election. My mug from the House of Lords did not get smashed in | :39:50. | :39:56. | |
transit. Unlike Nick Clegg's plans for a reform of the upper chamber | :39:56. | :39:59. | |
which collapsed because of a lack of support. The Conservative Party | :39:59. | :40:04. | |
is not honouring the commitment to Lords reform and as a result part | :40:04. | :40:09. | |
of our contract has now been broken. He withdrew his support for changes | :40:09. | :40:12. | |
to constituency boundaries, which could have benefited the | :40:12. | :40:18. | |
Conservatives. Why you were hopping on and off real ones of these, | :40:18. | :40:23. | |
Westminster briefly went plain crazy. A prominent Conservative | :40:23. | :40:27. | |
backbencher reignited the row over a third runway at Heathrow. | :40:27. | :40:31. | |
realise we have to do something a bit more to get investment in this | :40:31. | :40:36. | |
country, we have to do a bit more to stimulate the economy. This was | :40:36. | :40:42. | |
all I had to read, a GCSE English revision guide. The Education | :40:42. | :40:45. | |
Secretary Michael Gove denied he pressurised exam boards to be | :40:45. | :40:50. | |
tougher after the number of pupils getting top GCSE grades fell for | :40:50. | :40:54. | |
the first time ever. And you always find a bit of leftover holiday | :40:54. | :40:58. | |
money in the bottom of your suitcase. Except the Government did | :40:58. | :41:04. | |
not. In July George Osborne had to borrow an extra �600 million, even | :41:04. | :41:07. | |
though experts had predicted the public purse would show a surplus | :41:07. | :41:14. | |
of more than �2 billion. So, like the weather this summer, political | :41:14. | :41:19. | |
fortunes have been a bit mixed. At least if you have not gone anywhere, | :41:19. | :41:23. | |
you cannot have the holiday blues when you get back. | :41:23. | :41:28. | |
Adam Fleming reporting. We have been joined by three MPs who will | :41:28. | :41:34. | |
be with us until the end of the programme. The Conservative MP | :41:34. | :41:39. | |
Nadim Zahawi, Labour's Tenby Perkins and Duncan Hames for the | :41:39. | :41:45. | |
Lib Dems. Let's rewind a few weeks because it was a busy summer. Lords | :41:45. | :41:50. | |
reform was dropped, Duncan Hames, an issue close to the Lib Dems. Was | :41:50. | :41:57. | |
it right to drop it? Yes, it was the right decision. There was not a | :41:57. | :42:02. | |
majority to bring the legislation about and the Labour Party made it | :42:02. | :42:06. | |
clear they might claim to support the principle, but they were going | :42:06. | :42:11. | |
to obstruct the means of passing the laws necessary. Do you agree | :42:11. | :42:15. | |
with Nick Clegg when he said the Lib Dems would not be supporting | :42:15. | :42:18. | |
legislation for boundary changes which could deliver 20 extra seats | :42:18. | :42:23. | |
for the Tories? I agree with him and I support him in that and he | :42:23. | :42:27. | |
will have the full support of the party as well. You see it as a | :42:27. | :42:32. | |
broken contract, what do you say to that? I think it is sad because | :42:32. | :42:37. | |
Lords reform was not linked with boundaries. It was clearly linked | :42:37. | :42:41. | |
with the alternative vote referendum which we delivered on. | :42:41. | :42:45. | |
If they had won that, would they then have delivered the boundaries | :42:45. | :42:51. | |
or not? We could get on with reform now without elections. I have spent | :42:51. | :42:56. | |
10 days in America of serving their system. Any American would say you | :42:56. | :43:02. | |
do not need to follow our example and set up a Senate and put a | :43:02. | :43:07. | |
gridlock in Government. We could reform the Government now, get rid | :43:07. | :43:10. | |
of the criminals and the hereditary is, but sadly we are not seeing | :43:10. | :43:15. | |
that. Is this your attempt to get the Lib Dems to back legislation | :43:16. | :43:20. | |
for the boundary changes? No, I think the boundary changes is | :43:20. | :43:24. | |
something that needs to happen and is fair. I hope the Prime Minister | :43:24. | :43:30. | |
does bring them vote to the house. You think it is to the advantage of | :43:30. | :43:35. | |
the Conservative Party, but it is making the system fairer. Do we | :43:35. | :43:39. | |
want a democracy where people in the same size constituencies elect | :43:39. | :43:44. | |
MPs quizzed Denmark or do we want Labour to get fewer of votes and | :43:44. | :43:51. | |
form a Government? It is totally wrong. The 12 largest parliamentary | :43:51. | :43:56. | |
seats are Labour seats. The whole point of the Boundary Change, about | :43:56. | :44:00. | |
having more equal seats, was put into the purposes of the Boundary | :44:00. | :44:06. | |
Commission initially and we support their work. But you do not support | :44:06. | :44:10. | |
the legislation because you are worried about it giving an | :44:10. | :44:14. | |
advantage to the Conservatives? Every time you do every | :44:14. | :44:18. | |
organisation of the boundaries, you will benefit the Conservative Party. | :44:18. | :44:23. | |
The Conservatives always had a big belief in the link between the MP | :44:23. | :44:27. | |
and the constituency and it there had been more tolerant, you could | :44:27. | :44:33. | |
have delivered more equal size of boundaries, without the need for us | :44:33. | :44:37. | |
to break up communities. without the boundary changes the | :44:37. | :44:46. | |
task of the Conservative Party, the pollster has said, it will be | :44:46. | :44:52. | |
difficult for them to win the next election. This is just to create a | :44:52. | :44:58. | |
level playing-field. What do you say to that? Your spike was not | :44:58. | :45:08. | |
:45:08. | :45:09. | ||
part of the deal, it was the ad The deal was the coalition | :45:09. | :45:12. | |
agreement, all of it, and the deal was broken by not delivering on | :45:12. | :45:16. | |
Lords reform, and this is a response which ensures you cannot | :45:16. | :45:20. | |
have a situation where one group of MPs decide which part of the | :45:20. | :45:24. | |
agreement will happen. Is it going to fracture the coalition? I think | :45:24. | :45:29. | |
we are going to move on, because there's more to it. A Tory MPs | :45:29. | :45:34. | |
going to draw a line under it? have got great respect for Duncan. | :45:34. | :45:38. | |
If he reads the coalition agreement, we have delivered on House of Lords | :45:38. | :45:43. | |
reform. I am talking about relations between the parties? | :45:43. | :45:47. | |
the nation cares about, and we will come to it in a second with Andrew | :45:47. | :45:50. | |
is the economy. As a coalition government, we need to deliver on | :45:50. | :45:57. | |
that, because that is what we will be judged on in 2015. So what is | :45:57. | :46:03. | |
this special ingredient for economic prosperity? George | :46:03. | :46:06. | |
Osborne's latest answer is �50 billion worth of infrastructure | :46:06. | :46:11. | |
guarantees, not spending, guarantees, more planning reforms, | :46:11. | :46:15. | |
and a review of airport capacity in the south-east of England. | :46:15. | :46:18. | |
Listening to Nick Clegg and the Lib Dems is a short-term wealth tax on | :46:18. | :46:21. | |
the filthy rich. And then Conservative backbenchers might | :46:21. | :46:27. | |
like the Chancellor to implement traditional Tory policies, bring | :46:27. | :46:32. | |
down public spending, cut taxes. Here is David Davis speaking in the | :46:32. | :46:42. | |
:46:42. | :46:42. | ||
last few minutes. The economics, to understand should not be to excuse. | :46:42. | :46:46. | |
The circumstances should not be an excuse for inaction, they should be | :46:46. | :46:52. | |
a spur to dramatic action. Some will say that there are some who | :46:52. | :46:56. | |
believe that our comparative decline is inevitable. They think | :46:56. | :47:02. | |
that the growth of the great low- cost powers, China, India, Brazil, | :47:02. | :47:07. | |
the other emerging markets, make the West and competitive and make | :47:07. | :47:15. | |
Britain in particular uncompetitive. There -- and competitive. That we | :47:15. | :47:20. | |
face a future of poor growth, low prospects, that we cannot compete, | :47:20. | :47:28. | |
that this is the new normal. This is fatalistic nonsense. David | :47:28. | :47:32. | |
Davies, he is still speaking, so we are not sure what he is proposing, | :47:32. | :47:37. | |
but that was the beginning of his analysis. Nadhim Zahawi, if we look | :47:37. | :47:41. | |
at what George Osborne was talking about yesterday, he is talking | :47:41. | :47:46. | |
about billions of pounds worth of infrastructure guarantees from a | :47:46. | :47:50. | |
government that continues Labour cuts in infrastructure spending. He | :47:50. | :47:53. | |
is talking about more planning reform, you are already had to | :47:53. | :47:57. | |
reform the planning system, and you had to water down your reforms. A | :47:57. | :48:01. | |
review of airport capacity in the south-east, the transport | :48:01. | :48:07. | |
department had been conducting that review, but you said you would not | :48:07. | :48:11. | |
approve a third runway at Heathrow. So it is either a U-turn Orbit does | :48:11. | :48:15. | |
not add up to a row of beans. not agree with you. You will not be | :48:15. | :48:20. | |
surprised if I say that, because what was wrong with that was if you | :48:20. | :48:26. | |
look at where we are today, the private sector has created 900,000 | :48:26. | :48:29. | |
jobs in the last two years. You are right to say we have not got the | :48:30. | :48:34. | |
growth we thought we would get, but we have had eurozone Armageddon, so | :48:34. | :48:39. | |
coupled with that we are not in a bad place. Up until last week, we | :48:39. | :48:43. | |
were borrowing a much higher rate than America. Last week we borrowed | :48:43. | :48:46. | |
at high -- lower rates than even America, so we must be doing | :48:46. | :48:50. | |
something right. It cannot all be bad news. You're also borrowing | :48:50. | :48:55. | |
more. We are, because growth has not come through, because there is | :48:55. | :48:59. | |
a lack of confidence, but I used to be in business, and businessmen and | :48:59. | :49:01. | |
women will be looking at the eurozone headlines and worrying | :49:01. | :49:07. | |
about investing. Their awarding about 750 billion at the moment. -- | :49:07. | :49:11. | |
they are hoarding. That is exactly the point, because business is not | :49:11. | :49:17. | |
short of money. Business is sitting on billions of pounds. They do not | :49:17. | :49:21. | |
invest it because they do not trust your government, that is why. | :49:21. | :49:24. | |
Guarantees only go to businesses that need to borrow. Big business | :49:24. | :49:28. | |
does not need to borrow, it has money in the bank. The question you | :49:28. | :49:32. | |
have to ask is why his business not investing when it has got the cash, | :49:32. | :49:36. | |
and it must be something to do with your government? It is something to | :49:37. | :49:40. | |
do with the government, absolutely, but it is more to do with overall | :49:40. | :49:44. | |
confidence. If you were in business today, would you be putting money | :49:44. | :49:49. | |
into Europe as a whole, which we are part of, our manufacturing, the | :49:49. | :49:52. | |
bulk of it goes to Europe, would you be effectively making that | :49:52. | :49:56. | |
decision? That is the big part of it, but put that aside for a minute. | :49:56. | :50:01. | |
What can we do here to make that decision happen. Things like | :50:01. | :50:06. | |
learning from Germany, where you take away bureaucracy, where people | :50:06. | :50:12. | |
can hold one or two or three many jobs, and the employer pays a flat | :50:12. | :50:16. | |
rate, but the employer has the freedom, if their investment goes | :50:16. | :50:19. | |
wrong, they can go back to a smaller business. That is the sort | :50:19. | :50:25. | |
of thing you'll be hearing, I hope, from the Treasury. Really?! I have | :50:25. | :50:30. | |
not heard that! We have done a hell of a lot on red tape. Are you happy | :50:30. | :50:35. | |
with that? I'm afraid if right sizing is still a term used to | :50:35. | :50:38. | |
describe having fewer employees, we are not getting the answer right. | :50:38. | :50:42. | |
We want to increase employment. There has been nearly one million | :50:42. | :50:45. | |
more jobs in the private sector since this Government started, but | :50:45. | :50:48. | |
we need more measures to ensure that those businesses can grow and | :50:48. | :50:53. | |
that there is more activity to support employment, because it is | :50:53. | :50:55. | |
only with high levels of employment that we will have consumer | :50:55. | :50:59. | |
confidence. Your man Vince Cable does not like the regulation and | :50:59. | :51:03. | |
business. I do not think that is true. What has he the regulated? | :51:03. | :51:08. | |
For example, there was a proposal about the size of businesses that | :51:08. | :51:12. | |
had to have their accounts independently audited. That changed | :51:12. | :51:18. | |
in that department,... That will give us a boom! It has released | :51:18. | :51:22. | |
small businesses from red tape that they could have done without. | :51:22. | :51:26. | |
one major deregulation measure that might grow I will tell you. I am | :51:26. | :51:33. | |
asking him! I have just cited... Let's be honest, one major one, | :51:33. | :51:36. | |
changing that for small businesses is not going to make Britain a | :51:36. | :51:40. | |
tiger economy. I used to run a small business, and I could have | :51:40. | :51:43. | |
done without having to pay accountant's fees on annual | :51:43. | :51:50. | |
accounts. Labour's position is to have more stimulus, and in a sense | :51:50. | :51:54. | |
what Mr Osborne is announcing is a kind of moving on to your side of | :51:54. | :51:59. | |
the argument a bit. But what you can never tell us is how much more | :51:59. | :52:04. | |
stimulus. I think we have laid out very specifically different | :52:04. | :52:08. | |
strategies that would introduce growth, reversing the VAT increase, | :52:08. | :52:13. | |
putting more money in people's pockets, national insurance break | :52:13. | :52:17. | |
for small businesses to encourage them to employ. Remember, back in | :52:17. | :52:21. | |
2010 we had growth in the economy, we actually had the first time in | :52:21. | :52:27. | |
six is falling youth unemployment. We have seen a government coming in, | :52:27. | :52:31. | |
George Osborne dampened down to that growth, and now what we are | :52:31. | :52:34. | |
seeing is the Government constantly talking about growth but actually, | :52:34. | :52:39. | |
as you have alluded to, delivering very little. No matter how quickly | :52:39. | :52:43. | |
you get these infrastructure investments through, it will still | :52:43. | :52:46. | |
be a while, and it will be even longer as the money percolates | :52:46. | :52:53. | |
through the economy. If you cut VAT, you would immediately put �12 | :52:53. | :52:57. | |
billion into the pockets of the British people to spend tomorrow, | :52:57. | :53:02. | |
why don't you do that? Because we have to be responsible. As I was | :53:02. | :53:06. | |
saying about the confidence of the markets, we must be able to borrow, | :53:06. | :53:09. | |
because we are borrowing an enormous amount of money. We have | :53:09. | :53:13. | |
to convince the markets that we are going to balance the books by 2017, | :53:13. | :53:17. | |
which is what the Chancellor is heading towards. You know you're | :53:17. | :53:20. | |
not going to do that. You are going to borrow more money this year than | :53:20. | :53:27. | |
last. Under Labour's plans, you had to borrow 201 billion more. Hold on | :53:27. | :53:31. | |
a minute, you are planning to borrow more than Alistair Darling | :53:31. | :53:35. | |
outlined before labour laws bar. You are going to borrow more | :53:35. | :53:41. | |
between now and 2017 than Mr Darling was in Beijing -- was | :53:41. | :53:45. | |
envisaging. The deficit is likely to be 14 billion higher this year | :53:45. | :53:50. | |
and up to 27 billion higher next year. What he is saying is that it | :53:50. | :53:53. | |
least if you do it in a way that puts money into people's pockets, | :53:53. | :53:57. | |
you might get some growth. There is a perfect example of this happening | :53:57. | :54:01. | |
in Denmark. They have had a new government that promise to do what | :54:01. | :54:05. | |
Labour wants to do in this country, which is an unprecedented amount of | :54:05. | :54:08. | |
more spending, which is what they criticised us for not doing, and | :54:08. | :54:11. | |
look at what has happened. Three quarters of negative growth in | :54:11. | :54:18. | |
Denmark... Like Britain? No, it is not the same thing, because we have | :54:18. | :54:23. | |
a debt crisis. You cannot borrow your way out of a debt crisis. | :54:23. | :54:28. | |
conference last year, Nick Clegg and Vince Cable promised, at the | :54:28. | :54:32. | |
conference, there would be extra infrastructure spending. That is | :54:32. | :54:36. | |
one year ago. What extra spending has there been? The green | :54:36. | :54:39. | |
investment bank has started work a year early. It has not started | :54:39. | :54:45. | |
lending any money! It has started making decisions about investment. | :54:45. | :54:51. | |
It has not started borrowing yet... He promised one year ago, you have | :54:51. | :54:56. | |
passed romance, give me one example. The decision to electrify the Great | :54:56. | :55:00. | |
Western Railway, that is investing in infrastructure. When does that | :55:00. | :55:05. | |
start? Well, the decision has been made, at such major projects need | :55:05. | :55:10. | |
planning. You have at road projects, it is not fair to say that nothing | :55:10. | :55:14. | |
has started. You can go to all parts of the country, you will see | :55:14. | :55:18. | |
projects happening on the ground. At the last Lib Dem Conference, | :55:18. | :55:22. | |
they promised an extra 5 billion over and above what was being | :55:22. | :55:30. | |
promised. I just wanted to ask what was new, that was all in the plans. | :55:30. | :55:33. | |
Let us know, we will put it up on the website. | :55:33. | :55:38. | |
We at the Daily Politics No 8 and Lackham when we see one, so it is | :55:38. | :55:47. | |
time for a Daily Politics special. -- No a bandwagon. As if our quiz | :55:47. | :55:51. | |
was not enough, we have commissioned some extra-special | :55:51. | :55:57. | |
Daily Politics mugs as prizes. We have gold, silver bronze logos. We | :55:57. | :56:01. | |
do not have buzzers, we are not rich enough for that, so you will | :56:01. | :56:04. | |
just have to put your hands up in a polite manner, and we will have to | :56:04. | :56:08. | |
do it fairly quickly. Question number one about summer holidays, | :56:08. | :56:18. | |
:56:18. | :56:21. | ||
In terms of summer holidays... Miliband! Why? David Cameron and | :56:21. | :56:27. | |
Nick Clegg both went to Spain. good, one point. No. Two, in a | :56:27. | :56:37. | |
:56:37. | :56:42. | ||
similar vein, which are these three No? Any clues? He was running the | :56:42. | :56:48. | |
country? Oh, Theresa May. William Hague was running the country. | :56:48. | :56:53. | |
is the opposite, Clegg is the odd one out, because both of them were | :56:53. | :56:59. | |
running the country. No points for that, I am afraid. Number three, | :56:59. | :57:03. | |
this famous picture that we saw earlier. Boris Johnson famously | :57:03. | :57:07. | |
became stuck uneasy acquire over the summer, but can you complete | :57:07. | :57:15. | |
his quote? -- stuck on a zip wire. It needs to go faster? Very good, | :57:15. | :57:22. | |
Duncan. Louise Mensch announced, in a surprise announcement, that she | :57:22. | :57:25. | |
was leaving Parliament to spend more time with her family, but how | :57:25. | :57:34. | |
many days has she been an MP? Let's see how quickly you can work close. | :57:34. | :57:43. | |
I will take the closest. 810. More than that. That was very close, 847. | :57:43. | :57:52. | |
The 5th on, this is the favourite They have all been photographed | :57:52. | :57:56. | |
doing the Mobot, except Prince Harry, who was photographed doing | :57:57. | :58:06. | |
:58:07. | :58:07. | ||
something else! Any suggestions? The crown jewels! I have to say, | :58:07. | :58:12. | |
you have done very well, I might have to present you with the gold. | :58:12. | :58:21. | |
There we go. Silver. That is harsh! At least you still get a man. Do | :58:21. | :58:28. | |
not say we do not give you anything. Duncan Hames obviously very good at | :58:29. | :58:34. | |
the pub quiz! Right, that is it, it is good to be back, politics looks | :58:34. | :58:38. | |
very exciting this September. We thank our guests for being with us | :58:38. | :58:42. | |
today, and we have plenty more in the weeks ahead. Party conferences | :58:42. | :58:46. | |
coming up, the One O'Clock News is starting over on BBC One in just a | :58:46. | :58:51. |