Browse content similar to 05/09/2012. Check below for episodes and series from the same categories and more!
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Morning, folks. This is the Daily Politics. Today's top story: | :00:40. | :00:42. | |
As David Cameron puts the finishing touches to his Government reshuffle, | :00:42. | :00:45. | |
the Mayor of London Boris Johnson spoils the party, claiming the PM | :00:45. | :00:49. | |
is preparing to ditch his promise not to build a third runway at | :00:49. | :00:55. | |
Heathrow. Deputy PM Nick Clegg is keen to | :00:55. | :00:59. | |
show off his latest recruit. Former Minister David Laws returns as | :00:59. | :01:03. | |
Schools Minister. But as a Tory MP says the reshuffle marks the start | :01:03. | :01:06. | |
of a divorce in the coalition, are the Lib Dems strengthened or | :01:06. | :01:11. | |
weakened? After an eight-week break, Prime | :01:11. | :01:16. | |
Ministers Questions returns. We'll have all the cheers, jeers and | :01:16. | :01:21. | |
tears live from noon. And should British politicians take | :01:21. | :01:23. | |
a leaf out of the American political playbook and push their | :01:24. | :01:31. | |
wives - or husbands - into the limelight? Iraq knows what it means | :01:31. | :01:35. | |
when a family struggles. He knows what it means to want something | :01:35. | :01:40. | |
more for your kids and grandkids. Barack knows the American dream | :01:40. | :01:46. | |
because he's lived it. All that to come before 1.00pm, and | :01:46. | :01:49. | |
with us for the duration the brand new Conservative Party Chairman | :01:49. | :01:52. | |
Grant Shapps and Shadow Chief Secretary to the Treasury Labour's | :01:52. | :02:02. | |
:02:02. | :02:03. | ||
Rachel Reeves. Welcome to the Daily Politics. Before we get started, | :02:03. | :02:09. | |
let's get something out of the way. We hear that wee Grant here has a | :02:09. | :02:17. | |
bit of a problem. He doesn't like wearing ties, which is a bit of an | :02:17. | :02:20. | |
issue for a politician. Apparently Mr Shapps hates them so much he | :02:20. | :02:25. | |
spends as little as possible on them. This one cost �4? Yes, but | :02:25. | :02:31. | |
Marks & Spencer's objected and said it was �5. On the Daily Politics we | :02:31. | :02:36. | |
have noticed you're going for quite shiny ties - I don't want to say | :02:36. | :02:40. | |
too shiny so we think you should go in for a new look in your new job. | :02:40. | :02:45. | |
So how about these that we have rustled up here? Which camera is on | :02:45. | :02:52. | |
here? That's very patriotic. have this one here for you. | :02:52. | :02:58. | |
these yours, Andrew? Less of your heckling. Then we have another one | :02:58. | :03:02. | |
- London too - little guards in a box at Buckingham Palace. That's | :03:02. | :03:07. | |
also very nice, part of the era, and this, of course, is from my | :03:07. | :03:12. | |
hometown, the world famous paisley pattern, which I think we nicked | :03:12. | :03:19. | |
from somewhere in India, Raj Stan in the 19th century. A bit of | :03:19. | :03:22. | |
history there. Yes, from the cotton mills. We have the three ties. | :03:22. | :03:29. | |
Which one would you like? The one on your neck. No, the Lib Dem one. | :03:29. | :03:39. | |
:03:39. | :03:39. | ||
Can't find a tie like this. They're all machine washable, by the way. | :03:39. | :03:44. | |
The 2012 one. Going to try to take this away, like the mug. Oh, you | :03:44. | :03:48. | |
have done that before. The other two will be on eBay later today. | :03:48. | :03:58. | |
:03:58. | :04:04. | ||
LAUGHTER Now, after the big Cabinet moves - | :04:04. | :04:07. | |
not that big - yesterday, this morning the Prime Minister has been | :04:07. | :04:10. | |
finishing off his ministerial line- up with many of the more junior | :04:10. | :04:14. | |
posts being filled. So let's have a look at how the class of 2012 is | :04:14. | :04:17. | |
shaping up. What do we know, Jo? Well, we know pretty much | :04:17. | :04:19. | |
everything. As Number Ten's reshuffle draws to a close, we can | :04:19. | :04:23. | |
now have a good look at some of the key appointments in this new | :04:23. | :04:25. | |
generation of Ministers. At the Business Department the fresh faces | :04:25. | :04:30. | |
are Michael Fallon and Matt Hancock. That's being seen as a way for the | :04:30. | :04:33. | |
Conservatives to keep a closer eye on Vince Cable, the Lib Dem | :04:33. | :04:36. | |
Business Secretary. At Justice Chris Grayling replaces Ken Clarke | :04:36. | :04:39. | |
at the Cabinet table. He's expected to take a harder line over prisons | :04:39. | :04:42. | |
and the European court. Helen Grant, one of the 2010 intake, also gets a | :04:42. | :04:46. | |
job. At Education the Lib Dem David Laws is back in Government two | :04:46. | :04:48. | |
years after resigning over his expenses, and as Minister of State, | :04:48. | :04:51. | |
this gives the party more influence at Michael Gove's Department. Liz | :04:51. | :04:54. | |
Truss, another new girl, is also given a junior job. At Transport | :04:54. | :04:57. | |
the new man in charge is Patrick McLoughlin, who unlike his | :04:57. | :05:05. | |
predecessor says he has an open mind over a new runway at Heathrow. | :05:05. | :05:08. | |
Simon Burns, the former Health Minister, joins him. And at Health | :05:08. | :05:11. | |
David Cameron's old boss Andrew Lansley is out in favour of Jeremy | :05:11. | :05:14. | |
Hunt. He's joined by Norman Lamb, an ally of Nick Clegg, and Anna | :05:14. | :05:21. | |
Soubry and Dr Dan Poulter, both elected in 2010. So what does the | :05:22. | :05:24. | |
Government look like after all these changes? Well, it includes | :05:24. | :05:27. | |
more bright young things, with eight MPs from the 2010 intake | :05:27. | :05:29. | |
beginning their climb up the Ministerial ladder. But as these | :05:29. | :05:32. | |
are all junior posts the average age of the Cabinet is little | :05:32. | :05:37. | |
changed, down from 54 to 52. And the number of women in the Cabinet | :05:37. | :05:45. | |
has fallen from five to four. Baroness Warsi will continue to | :05:45. | :05:48. | |
attend Cabinet despite being moved to a new position at the Foreign | :05:48. | :05:51. | |
Office. Let's speak now to our deputy | :05:51. | :05:57. | |
political editor James Landale. The warning has been at Heathrow, Boris | :05:57. | :06:00. | |
Johnson trying to spoil the party for David Cameron. Yes, he clearly | :06:00. | :06:04. | |
doesn't want to let this one drop. Yesterday he put out a statement | :06:04. | :06:10. | |
raining on David Cameron's parade saying it was wrong to get rid of | :06:10. | :06:12. | |
Justine Greening from the transport department simply because she was | :06:12. | :06:15. | |
against a third runway and Boris Johnson is against a third runway. | :06:16. | :06:19. | |
Today Boris Johnson decided to push that even further and has asked the | :06:19. | :06:23. | |
Prime Minister not just to rule out any change of this policy into the | :06:23. | :06:27. | |
next election, but he wants him to rule it out forever. This was | :06:27. | :06:31. | |
something the Prime Minister's spokesman this morning was fairly | :06:31. | :06:36. | |
dismissive of and saying the policy is the policy. The coalition | :06:36. | :06:39. | |
agreement is the coalition agreement and governments don't get | :06:39. | :06:43. | |
into what may or may not happen after the next election. The papers | :06:43. | :06:46. | |
have reported that it is a tilt to the right. Lib Dems are saying | :06:46. | :06:49. | |
they're going to hold them to the coalition agreement. Does this mark | :06:49. | :06:54. | |
a start of a divorce in the coalition? Look, the point is this | :06:54. | :06:57. | |
coalition remains. However much you change the personnel within it, it | :06:58. | :07:02. | |
is still a coalition, and until such time it ceases to be a | :07:02. | :07:05. | |
coalition it doesn't really matter how you change the personnel. Yes, | :07:05. | :07:10. | |
you could have a bit more nuance here and there, but the agreement | :07:10. | :07:13. | |
is pretty clear. The Liberal Democrats are making sure they're | :07:13. | :07:16. | |
not going to change any of that they're saying if the Conservatives | :07:17. | :07:20. | |
want to make more right-wing noises they can use that to their | :07:20. | :07:24. | |
electoral advantage saying it's more important to have in their | :07:24. | :07:29. | |
point of view Liberal Democrats in Government restraining these new | :07:29. | :07:34. | |
right-wing Conservatives. On, for example, Heathrow, there might be a | :07:34. | :07:37. | |
change of policy, but it's not going to be - Grant Shapps, the | :07:37. | :07:39. | |
party chairman, made clear this - until the next general election. | :07:39. | :07:42. | |
We're not talking about something that's going to happen in the next | :07:42. | :07:45. | |
couple of years. We're talking about change to the Tory manifesto. | :07:45. | :07:48. | |
Also on things like justice, yes, there might be a change in tone | :07:48. | :07:52. | |
from Chris Grayling, but where exactly will he change policy? Is | :07:52. | :07:56. | |
he suddenly going to turn on the taps and allow the prison numbers | :07:56. | :08:00. | |
to go up and increase prison capacity. It won't be Lib Dems's | :08:00. | :08:02. | |
restraining but the Treasury because they're just not going to | :08:02. | :08:08. | |
give them the money. Thank you. Grant Shapps, what did Warsi do so | :08:08. | :08:12. | |
wrong she had to be replaced by you? I don't think anything. I | :08:12. | :08:16. | |
think she was a very good chairman. Whenever you reshuffle you always | :08:16. | :08:20. | |
say why is that person not doing that job and doing something else | :08:20. | :08:24. | |
and vice versa? The truth is at some point you need to move your | :08:24. | :08:29. | |
team around. In the case of this Prime Minister... She went off in a | :08:29. | :08:35. | |
huff to Yorkshire we're told. Before a reshuffle people say | :08:35. | :08:39. | |
they're happy doing the jobs. I said the same about my housing job. | :08:39. | :08:42. | |
It's with some regret I moved from that work because I would like to | :08:42. | :08:46. | |
see it through, but she's about to do a important job at the Foreign | :08:46. | :08:51. | |
Office. She's at a senior level, still going into the Cabinet, so I | :08:51. | :08:57. | |
am sure her contribution will be there for a long time. I am told | :08:57. | :09:01. | |
three Cabinet Ministers cried when they were fired or moved. Were you | :09:01. | :09:06. | |
one? No. Are you sure? You're making me very emotional about it. | :09:07. | :09:12. | |
Let me see if I can make you cry about something else - how many | :09:12. | :09:16. | |
have you inherited? I haven't gotten into that. You're the | :09:16. | :09:20. | |
chairman, and you don't know how many your party - any general | :09:20. | :09:24. | |
fighting a war would want to know how many soldiers he has? | :09:24. | :09:30. | |
appreciate the advice. Maybe I can help you because when Mr Cameron | :09:30. | :09:32. | |
became Prime Minister - became leader of his party - not Prime | :09:32. | :09:37. | |
Minister - in 2005, there were 300,000 Conservative members. | :09:37. | :09:41. | |
According to a Conservative home survey just gone in July, there is | :09:41. | :09:49. | |
now between 130 and 170,000, losing almost 50%. I treat this with | :09:49. | :09:52. | |
scepticism for one reason because the truth is membership isn't | :09:52. | :09:56. | |
entirely pooled centrally - some of it is, through a central system. A | :09:56. | :10:00. | |
lot of place still work... You're denying the Conservative Party | :10:00. | :10:03. | |
membership has plummeted? The truth is, and it's impossible to | :10:03. | :10:06. | |
absolutely know because Conservative Party membership, | :10:06. | :10:10. | |
actually, probably as with other parties, is handled at a local | :10:10. | :10:15. | |
level and then pooled at a national level to try the find out figures. | :10:15. | :10:20. | |
When I find out more about this, no doubt I'll come back and talk to | :10:20. | :10:25. | |
you, but there will be lots of members not registered nationally. | :10:25. | :10:28. | |
All the polls show people are worried about the economy, about | :10:28. | :10:32. | |
jobs, about growth, about business, whether their business will still | :10:32. | :10:36. | |
be in business. The Prime Minister has arranged the deck chairs on | :10:36. | :10:40. | |
International Development, and who runs the Commons - not exactly in | :10:40. | :10:44. | |
touch with public opinion, is he? think there has been change in | :10:44. | :10:48. | |
probably half the Cabinet posts. Not the posts at the top. What he's | :10:48. | :10:51. | |
tried to do is this - we want some stability within the Government in | :10:51. | :10:54. | |
order to continue to tackle the really big issues of things like | :10:54. | :10:59. | |
dealing with the deficit, but actually what you want to do have | :10:59. | :11:03. | |
people who have a proven track record of delivery, so we have - | :11:03. | :11:06. | |
we're about to bring into the Government - the man who delivered | :11:06. | :11:10. | |
the Olympics, who got all the stadium built on time, the Chief | :11:10. | :11:17. | |
Executive of LOCOG. That's somebody with - right, business people. | :11:17. | :11:20. | |
me in the British history - a businessman who has been a success | :11:21. | :11:24. | |
in British politics? Typically what we have seen from businessmen who | :11:24. | :11:29. | |
have come in - I am thinking of Archie Norman or someone who has a | :11:29. | :11:33. | |
very specific business background. What's different about this is he's | :11:33. | :11:37. | |
not been running a business in the traditional sense - | :11:37. | :11:39. | |
PROBLEM WITH SOUND Correct? Let me explain. There is a | :11:39. | :11:47. | |
difference here. He's delivered through the public service the 2012 | :11:47. | :11:50. | |
Games, add staith stadia and had to battle the Whitehall machine from | :11:50. | :11:54. | |
that perspective. He's an insider but good at delivery. The theme of | :11:54. | :11:57. | |
the reshuffle is putting in place people who understand how to get | :11:57. | :12:00. | |
the job done. We have passed all the legislation. We have had all | :12:00. | :12:04. | |
the policy ideas. This half of the Parliament has to be about | :12:04. | :12:07. | |
delivering it. That's what this team is about. You came in without | :12:07. | :12:12. | |
a team for delivery? You wasted two years because you had people who | :12:12. | :12:15. | |
couldn't deliver? Not at all. What you have in politics and in | :12:15. | :12:18. | |
Parliament - you know, the process is a two-stage thing - three, | :12:18. | :12:23. | |
really. You have to design the policy, something which has yet to | :12:23. | :12:26. | |
happen for Her Majesty's opposition but a stage you have to go through. | :12:27. | :12:32. | |
You have to implement that by passing the laws, which is a very | :12:32. | :12:37. | |
elongated process. It took two years the pass the first bit of | :12:37. | :12:40. | |
housing legislation getting through Parliament. We're into the third | :12:40. | :12:44. | |
stage. What the Prime Minister has done is brought... You're into the | :12:44. | :12:47. | |
first stage of implementation by what you just said. You said you | :12:47. | :12:51. | |
designed the policies. You said you then had to make these policies law. | :12:51. | :12:54. | |
Now you're going to implement. It's only after two years in power | :12:54. | :12:58. | |
you're going to... I have said on your programme before democracy is | :12:58. | :13:01. | |
a very slow process. I wish it was a lot faster. Let me ask you this - | :13:01. | :13:07. | |
the deficit has started to rise again. The cuts have barely begun. | :13:07. | :13:10. | |
88% of cuts have to be introduced. There is no growth in the economy, | :13:10. | :13:13. | |
and you have increased the tax and regulatory burden on the economy. | :13:13. | :13:19. | |
What difference will the reshuffle make to any of that? Well, let me | :13:19. | :13:22. | |
just challenge your assumptions first of all. You're right that the | :13:22. | :13:26. | |
deficit is proving difficult this year. It's absolutely true. No-one | :13:26. | :13:30. | |
imagined the world economy in this position in Europe in particular | :13:30. | :13:33. | |
all this way through. No-one - I think you have said that you have | :13:33. | :13:37. | |
predicted it, but mainly economists weren't predicting three or five | :13:37. | :13:40. | |
years after the start of this we'd be in this situation, so it's | :13:40. | :13:44. | |
difficult. We're fighting strong head wind, but secondly it's not | :13:44. | :13:48. | |
true to say that the deficit overall hasn't been cut. No, I | :13:48. | :13:51. | |
haven't said that. I said the deficit is starting to rise again, | :13:51. | :13:55. | |
and these are your Government figures, but never mind... Let's be | :13:55. | :13:59. | |
clear. We dealt with a quarter... You have only cut the deficit by | :13:59. | :14:06. | |
25% last year. It's now rising again. The deficit is under | :14:06. | :14:09. | |
pressure. I absolutely agree. It's clear we're not getting as much | :14:09. | :14:12. | |
growth as we would like, and the rest of Europe is getting none too. | :14:12. | :14:15. | |
Let's not underestimate the problems. I must challenge your | :14:15. | :14:19. | |
point about regulation. The surveys typically show that actually we | :14:19. | :14:22. | |
have been making some headway on cutting regulation. I'll give you | :14:22. | :14:26. | |
one simple example. Last week I got a housing development going which | :14:26. | :14:31. | |
has been stalled for more than ten years in Kent. It will build 22,000 | :14:31. | :14:34. | |
homes in the next 20 years. How many quangos were involved in | :14:34. | :14:39. | |
trying to get that going over those ten years? Answer: 63 of them. We | :14:39. | :14:45. | |
have cut the number of kanggos down to virtually nothing and we are | :14:45. | :14:49. | |
cutting the bureaucracy. Rachel Reeves, you're not denying the | :14:49. | :14:52. | |
overall tax burden has risen under your Government? We have always | :14:52. | :14:57. | |
said if we're going to deal with the deficit, we're going to reduce | :14:57. | :15:04. | |
the spending... Yes or no? Let me explain. 8/10 of it has been | :15:04. | :15:09. | |
reducing spending and the other has been reducing the tax burden. One | :15:09. | :15:13. | |
last thing - people flippantly say most of the cuts have yet to come | :15:13. | :15:17. | |
in. That's true if you work off the spending that was projected to go | :15:17. | :15:20. | |
like this, but since we have already reduced the expenditure, | :15:20. | :15:24. | |
you can take any moment in time, project forward and say, by there | :15:24. | :15:28. | |
point you would have had all of that extra spending and the pain is | :15:28. | :15:34. | |
going to be felt. It's not spent - you get that. I get you. You use | :15:34. | :15:39. | |
the word "cut" where it matters. You must think it's much ado about | :15:39. | :15:43. | |
nothing. The key personnel haven't changed, and the policies haven't | :15:43. | :15:47. | |
changed. It's all well and good to say now we're going to move to | :15:47. | :15:50. | |
implementation stage but we have had over two years now and all | :15:50. | :15:54. | |
that's been delivered is a double- dip recession. I am still not at | :15:54. | :15:56. | |
all convinced there are any policies in place to get us out of | :15:56. | :15:59. | |
that situation. Of course there are problems in Europe and elsewhere. | :15:59. | :16:03. | |
The reality is apart from Italy, we're the only one of the 20 most | :16:03. | :16:06. | |
industrialised economies that's come back into recession, and the | :16:06. | :16:11. | |
fact that we're in recession has to be due to the policies that have | :16:11. | :16:14. | |
been implemented here in the UK, the decisions to cut as far and as | :16:14. | :16:18. | |
fast as the Government have done have choked off economic growth, | :16:18. | :16:22. | |
resulted in us going back into a recession. As you say, Andrew, also | :16:22. | :16:26. | |
means that this year in the first four months of this year we're | :16:27. | :16:32. | |
borrowing 25% more than we were doing a year ago, whereas -- with | :16:32. | :16:36. | |
most people predicting borrowing this year will be more than last. | :16:36. | :16:39. | |
That's not because the Government haven't made the cuts and put up | :16:39. | :16:44. | |
tax. It's because tax revenue isn't coming in because businesses aren't | :16:44. | :16:54. | |
:16:54. | :16:56. | ||
succeeding and Unemployment is high Before we move on, why is Downing | :16:56. | :16:59. | |
Street spinning against Justine Greening for sticking to your | :16:59. | :17:03. | |
party's promise not to build a third runway? He's been attacked | :17:03. | :17:06. | |
and she had to be moved and only in the job for ten months. She's the | :17:06. | :17:10. | |
one who is sticking to the manifesto pledge? We are all | :17:10. | :17:13. | |
sticking to it. That's to be absolutely clear. For now. We are | :17:13. | :17:23. | |
:17:23. | :17:23. | ||
not going to build a runway. It's back on - That's a bit disingenuous. | :17:23. | :17:32. | |
Firstly, you went into the election - You were in favour of one. | :17:32. | :17:39. | |
There's no problem. At least we are being honest. People in put any and | :17:39. | :17:41. | |
Richmond didn't think you were going into the election saying you | :17:41. | :17:46. | |
weren't going to build it in the next couple of years. When you go | :17:46. | :17:49. | |
into an election you publish a manifesto and people expect you to | :17:49. | :17:53. | |
stick to it and we are absolutely going to stick to it. I would | :17:53. | :17:58. | |
suggest that you are both all over the place when it comes to this. | :17:58. | :18:03. | |
You came to power being against it. And you are now in the process of | :18:03. | :18:06. | |
changing your mind. You fought the last election being in favour and | :18:06. | :18:10. | |
now you're against it. It's what called a muddle on the left and | :18:10. | :18:14. | |
right. We'll come back to this after PMQs so hold that thought. We | :18:14. | :18:18. | |
need to move on. Right, as we have been discussing, the reshuffle | :18:18. | :18:21. | |
hasn't been solely a Conservative affair, with Nick Clegg getting in | :18:21. | :18:25. | |
on the action too. The big news bringing David Laws back into | :18:25. | :18:30. | |
Government as schools minister, and a Minister of State in the Cabinet | :18:30. | :18:35. | |
Office. He was keen to show him off. The two joined the Breakfast Club | :18:35. | :18:40. | |
in East London, where the Deputy Prime Minister enjoyed a bowl of | :18:40. | :18:45. | |
porridge, whilst David Laws stuck to a single piece of toast. Mr | :18:45. | :18:49. | |
Clegg used the visit to champion the pupil premium, money for | :18:49. | :18:52. | |
schools for children from deprived backgrounds. The Liberal Democrats | :18:52. | :18:59. | |
see this as one of their principal successes in Government. I attach | :18:59. | :19:02. | |
particular personal significance to this. I heard and saw about this | :19:02. | :19:05. | |
when I was travelling different cubs ten years ago and I first | :19:05. | :19:09. | |
wrote about it ten years ago and David and I put it into our | :19:09. | :19:12. | |
manifesto and put it into the coalition agreement and now it's | :19:12. | :19:16. | |
coming to a school near you, so to speak. That is a very exciting | :19:16. | :19:20. | |
journey for us to have seen. David in his new position in the | :19:20. | :19:24. | |
department for education, among other things, will make sure that | :19:24. | :19:28. | |
all schools use the premium as well as you have done. Nick Clegg there. | :19:28. | :19:33. | |
We have been joined now by the Liberal Democrat MP, Martin Hoard. | :19:33. | :19:39. | |
Welcome to the programme. He has two jobs, which is the most | :19:39. | :19:43. | |
important? They are both important. In education he's clearly going to | :19:43. | :19:48. | |
be championing the implementation, but the Cabinet Office role, with | :19:48. | :19:51. | |
the free-roving brief is really quite significant. It will enable | :19:51. | :19:55. | |
him to troubleshoot across issues where we don't have Lib Dem | :19:55. | :19:59. | |
ministers, so that could be a very significant one that watch. What | :19:59. | :20:05. | |
you like to see? Like defence? That's an obvious one. The Trident | :20:05. | :20:12. | |
review is contentious within the coalition and there was a defence | :20:12. | :20:16. | |
with Nick Harvey, but he's not there, so that's one area where | :20:16. | :20:22. | |
David could offer advice and support. You have got David Laws | :20:22. | :20:26. | |
back but everybody is saying this reshuffle is a move to the right. | :20:26. | :20:29. | |
Menzies Campbell has also said so. Does that weaken the Liberal | :20:29. | :20:33. | |
Democrats? I don't think it is. There are obviously the same number | :20:33. | :20:36. | |
of Lib Dem ministers as before. We have important changes not just | :20:36. | :20:40. | |
David, but people like Norman Lamb at health and Paul Burstow did a | :20:40. | :20:45. | |
great job on the social care side, but Norman has enormous experience | :20:46. | :20:48. | |
in mainstream NHS politics and policy, so that's going to be very | :20:48. | :20:53. | |
important. I think overall, where there are some ministers who are | :20:53. | :20:58. | |
being portrayed as sort of right- wingers going in, I think the point | :20:58. | :21:01. | |
is if we stick to the agreement and the same is true on aviation, then | :21:01. | :21:05. | |
we should be in for a reasonably smooth path. I think where the | :21:06. | :21:09. | |
coalition has had problems in the last couple of years is where we | :21:09. | :21:13. | |
have deviated from the agreement. That's the problem, because you say | :21:13. | :21:17. | |
if you stick to the agreement, but we are seeing the Conservatives not | :21:18. | :21:21. | |
sticking to the coalition agreement and you just haven't got that | :21:21. | :21:24. | |
influence in Government to stop things happening like House of | :21:24. | :21:27. | |
Lords' reform or tuition fees, which you went into the election | :21:27. | :21:32. | |
promising one thing and did the total opposite. I wouldn't like to | :21:32. | :21:36. | |
speculate if if we had in coalition with the Labour Party. There are | :21:36. | :21:42. | |
issues like the NHS and - Which your conference voted against. | :21:42. | :21:46. | |
Lords reform, that's where we have seen Conservative ministers perhaps | :21:46. | :21:51. | |
not delivering or going off piste a little. The key message of the | :21:51. | :21:56. | |
reshuffle is we now need to stabilise Government again. We have | :21:56. | :21:59. | |
had a jittery year and we need to stabilise and look forward, but it | :22:00. | :22:04. | |
needs to be rooted in the agreement and there's still plenty to do. | :22:04. | :22:07. | |
Picking up on what Rachel is saying, do you think Jeremy Hunt should | :22:07. | :22:13. | |
have been promoted to health? raised a few eyebrows. That's being | :22:13. | :22:19. | |
nice. Do you think he should have been? It has raised Lib Dem | :22:19. | :22:29. | |
:22:29. | :22:30. | ||
eyebrows too. With the exception of BSkyB issue, he's proved to be a | :22:30. | :22:37. | |
part of a good team. Conservative ministers have been describing this | :22:37. | :22:40. | |
as removing obstacles to getting policies done. That sounds like the | :22:40. | :22:43. | |
Liberal Democrats here in those departments. Do you agree? No, I | :22:43. | :22:48. | |
don't, obviously. I think there are some - actually there is a lot of | :22:48. | :22:52. | |
stability on the Lib Dem side within senior ministerial level and | :22:52. | :22:59. | |
the Secretary of State levels. The key people - Vince Cable and Ed | :22:59. | :23:02. | |
Davey will be there pursuing the green business agenda and | :23:02. | :23:05. | |
delivering on things like the Green Investment Bank and the green deal. | :23:05. | :23:09. | |
Which we are still waiting for? Absolutely. They are on track and | :23:09. | :23:12. | |
they'll be delivered, so the commitments are still there and | :23:12. | :23:15. | |
they're powerful. On issues like aviation and planning we have to | :23:15. | :23:19. | |
stick to the agreement and we'll be fine. Making sure that nothing | :23:19. | :23:24. | |
happens before 2015. Do you see it as the start of divorce, hold on to | :23:25. | :23:30. | |
what they've got, but planning for the 2015 election? Not at all. On | :23:30. | :23:34. | |
Heathrow Airport, you may see both parties probably starting to begin | :23:34. | :23:39. | |
to think about 2015 manifestos and when they might promise in the next | :23:39. | :23:43. | |
Parliament. Ministers have - didn't have any policies in the | :23:43. | :23:50. | |
south-east. You are against any new runways. The coallation agreement | :23:50. | :23:54. | |
says none at Heathrow Airport, Gatwick Airport or Stansted Airport. | :23:54. | :23:57. | |
If the Conservative Party want to discuss it and changing what goes | :23:57. | :24:00. | |
in their manifesto that's fine, but they need to stick to the coalition | :24:00. | :24:03. | |
agreement in the meantime. Talking about business and how important | :24:03. | :24:06. | |
the economy is and there are many in business who feel that there is | :24:07. | :24:11. | |
still a block on reform, on things like employment law and supply-side | :24:11. | :24:15. | |
measures that could be done and Vince Cable, as Business Secretary, | :24:15. | :24:20. | |
two new hench man around him, obviously he is seen as someone who | :24:20. | :24:25. | |
has brought in the reports. Do you think it needs to change? I found | :24:25. | :24:29. | |
it was not very motivating to staff to threaten employment rights. I | :24:29. | :24:32. | |
don't think that's the solution to jobs and growth. We need to | :24:32. | :24:36. | |
concentrate, but Vince and others are consVinced that's much about | :24:36. | :24:41. | |
the green economy and stimulating Britain in the areas in which we | :24:41. | :24:45. | |
are exceptional and not about deregulating and damaging | :24:45. | :24:48. | |
employment rights. There may be changes that we can work through | :24:48. | :24:51. | |
and trying to support Europe in trying to rescue the eurozone, | :24:51. | :24:55. | |
which I think is actually the biggest block to growth, these are | :24:55. | :25:01. | |
the important things and I don't think we need to focus on things | :25:01. | :25:04. | |
like Beecroft. Thank you. The new Cabinet will meet this afternoon to | :25:04. | :25:09. | |
have the first get-together since yesterday. There will be a run for | :25:09. | :25:11. | |
the chairs, since there probably aren't enough. The Conservatives | :25:12. | :25:15. | |
believing in a limited government of course. The Prime Minister is | :25:15. | :25:18. | |
expected to say warm words and outline what he expects, but what | :25:18. | :25:24. | |
the Cabinet really wants, all of them, is one of these. They don't | :25:24. | :25:28. | |
care about their new jobs and smart offices. They just want a Daily | :25:28. | :25:33. | |
Politics mug. And if they're lucky David Cameron might be giving them | :25:33. | :25:38. | |
out this afternoon, but for all of you at home you have to enter the | :25:38. | :25:41. | |
Guess the Year competition. We'll remind you how to enter, but we'll | :25:41. | :25:51. | |
:25:51. | :25:53. | ||
see if you can remember when this happened. | :25:53. | :26:00. | |
# Turn and face the strain # Changes... # How are you getting | :26:00. | :26:10. | |
:26:10. | :26:11. | ||
on with the new coins? It's just terrible. | :26:11. | :26:21. | |
:26:21. | :26:22. | ||
# You're never going to get my love # Mr Big stuff... # | :26:22. | :26:26. | |
# The ink is black # The page is white | :26:26. | :26:36. | |
:26:36. | :26:39. | ||
# Together we learn to read and write... # The Times and financial | :26:39. | :26:43. | |
times will go to the tabloid shape. It's the modern thing. We're just | :26:43. | :26:47. | |
doing it first. # I tip my head to the new | :26:47. | :26:57. | |
:26:57. | :27:19. | ||
To be in with a chance of winning the mug send your answer to our | :27:19. | :27:29. | |
:27:29. | :27:32. | ||
special quiz e-mail address: Now, it's coming up to midday here. Just | :27:32. | :27:36. | |
looking at Big Ben. It's a beautiful day here in Westminster. | :27:36. | :27:42. | |
A lovely late summer's day or early autumn day, depending on how you | :27:42. | :27:50. | |
look at it. There hasn't been questions for eight weeks, so we | :27:50. | :27:56. | |
welcome back Nick Robinson. I was told by a leading Tory that what | :27:56. | :28:00. | |
happened early in the summer, when it was clear that they couldn't get | :28:00. | :28:03. | |
the boundary changes through and that the economy still wasn't | :28:03. | :28:06. | |
growing, that the Prime Minister looked over the abyss and thought, | :28:06. | :28:11. | |
"I could be a one-term Tory Prime Minister. I better do something | :28:11. | :28:14. | |
about it." And the reshuffle is part of doing something? Somebody | :28:14. | :28:18. | |
said to me yet, he might only have two-and-a-half years and I think | :28:18. | :28:22. | |
there is that sense that when you look at some of the ruthless | :28:22. | :28:28. | |
changes, shoving Justine Greening out and having someone who is a | :28:28. | :28:34. | |
climate change spep tick as the new Environment Secretary and -- | :28:34. | :28:37. | |
sceptic and the new environment and moving around Vince Cable, this is | :28:37. | :28:41. | |
a man who has not lost faith in his economic strategy or Chancellor, | :28:41. | :28:45. | |
but patience with the system to deliver the policies he's already | :28:45. | :28:50. | |
announced. That's partly why they are so delighted to get the guy in | :28:50. | :28:54. | |
from the Olympics, Mr Delivery, Paul Deighton to go around | :28:54. | :28:59. | |
Whitehall saying, "Why isn't this working?" but that's partly because | :28:59. | :29:03. | |
he thinks he might not be here any more and because it's the best | :29:03. | :29:08. | |
chance of winning the next election, and get growth. You get a sense | :29:08. | :29:14. | |
from David Cameron and Nick Clegg that when they make changes, like | :29:15. | :29:18. | |
Mr Nick Clegg's wealth tax, or the change that David Cameron has made, | :29:18. | :29:24. | |
which you have been through, they very much have an eye on their own | :29:24. | :29:28. | |
backbenchers and they know have very few favours and they are doing | :29:28. | :29:31. | |
things to play to that gallery? striking thing about this | :29:31. | :29:36. | |
government and I find it a surprise constantly is it's much tighter at | :29:36. | :29:39. | |
the top than many single party governments and much weaker at the | :29:39. | :29:44. | |
bottom. In other words, you look back at economic crises of the past. | :29:44. | :29:49. | |
Wilson devaluation and Heath on the U-turn and Thatcher on wets and | :29:49. | :29:53. | |
dries and then devaluation. There were great battles in Cabinet. | :29:53. | :29:57. | |
There is no battle in Cabinet about economic strategy. The Labour Party | :29:57. | :30:02. | |
will probably say they wish there were, so I'm not making a point | :30:02. | :30:05. | |
saying aren't they clever, but observing there is no that fight. | :30:05. | :30:08. | |
Where is the tension in politics? It's between Liberal Democrats who | :30:08. | :30:11. | |
don't like the direction their leadership is taking them in and | :30:11. | :30:15. | |
many Tories who just dream of that majority we saw on Guess The year. | :30:15. | :30:18. | |
Did you see that huge figure? Why haven't we got that, they'll be | :30:18. | :30:22. | |
thinking. They want to be able to do things they think Tory | :30:22. | :30:28. | |
governments ought to do and with a new justice sect who knows or the | :30:28. | :30:33. | |
new party chairman. In a sense, they are ditching policies, because | :30:33. | :30:37. | |
this was a Conservative reshuffle. It wasn't a Government reshuffle. | :30:37. | :30:42. | |
It's a Tory reshuffle. The ditching policies hug a hoody and the husky | :30:42. | :30:46. | |
and the greenness and no runway at Heathrow Airport. These are all | :30:46. | :30:50. | |
positions they took in opposition for PR reasons. They didn't have | :30:50. | :30:53. | |
big debates over the rights or wrongs. But took the positions | :30:53. | :30:58. | |
because they were trying to reBrandt party and that rebranding | :30:58. | :31:03. | |
is all unravelling now. Party organisations have those as symbols | :31:03. | :31:07. | |
and much of that is unraveled. There is a big change since then, | :31:07. | :31:17. | |
:31:17. | :31:18. | ||
the economic crisis. Hold that House will wish to pay tribute to | :31:18. | :31:23. | |
the servicemen who have fallen, Lance Corporal Matthew Smith of 26 | :31:23. | :31:31. | |
Engineer Regiment and Guardsman Jamie Shadrick of the Grenadier | :31:31. | :31:34. | |
Guards. We send our deepest condolences to their friends, | :31:34. | :31:42. | |
family and loved ones. Their selfless service to our Government | :31:42. | :31:46. | |
will never be forgotten. I would like to say to the House one word | :31:46. | :31:50. | |
about the huge success this summer of the Olympic and Paralympic Games. | :31:50. | :31:55. | |
I want to send our congratulations to the superb performance of | :31:55. | :31:59. | |
Britain's athletes and Paralympians. Want to say a huge thank you to all | :31:59. | :32:04. | |
the volunteers who put such a smiling fas on these Games and a | :32:04. | :32:06. | |
large well-done to all the organisers. I think they made the | :32:06. | :32:10. | |
entire country proud and as they have promised, they have indeed | :32:10. | :32:13. | |
inspired a generation. This morning I had meetings with Ministerial | :32:13. | :32:18. | |
colleagues and others. In addition to my duties in the House I shall | :32:18. | :32:23. | |
have further such meetings today. Is the Prime Minister aware that | :32:23. | :32:33. | |
:32:33. | :32:44. | ||
Look at the loud boos that greeted the Chancellor will halt the posh | :32:44. | :32:47. | |
boys forever. Why doesn't he be a man and do the decent thing and | :32:47. | :32:57. | |
call a general election? Very good to see the honourable gentleman | :32:57. | :33:00. | |
back in such good form. I'm sorry when I was forming my government of | :33:00. | :33:06. | |
all the talents I couldn't find him on my speed dial. But I have done | :33:06. | :33:10. | |
something that new Labour never managed. I have taken a minor and | :33:10. | :33:20. | |
:33:20. | :33:27. | ||
put them in the Cabinet and they Order. Order. The House must calm | :33:27. | :33:31. | |
down. Nadine Dorries. Thank you, Mr Speaker. Mr Speaker, you will be | :33:31. | :33:37. | |
aware that the Deputy Prime Minister and local Democrats | :33:38. | :33:42. | |
renegged on a promise. They said they'd deliver boundary changes. I | :33:42. | :33:46. | |
wonder if the Prime Minister could answer if the Deputy Prime Minister | :33:46. | :33:49. | |
goes to him and says in exchange for state funding of political | :33:49. | :33:53. | |
parties he would deliver boundary changes, what would the Prime | :33:53. | :33:58. | |
Minister's answer be? Well, I'm not in favour of extending state | :33:58. | :34:01. | |
funding. I think it's very important that all political | :34:01. | :34:04. | |
parties work hard tie tract members, to attract donations, and frankly, | :34:04. | :34:11. | |
when we get those, we pay credit to people for funding political | :34:12. | :34:16. | |
parties, which is in in the public interests. Mr Speaker, let me join | :34:16. | :34:19. | |
the Prime Minister in paying tribute to Lieutenant Andrew | :34:19. | :34:27. | |
Chesterman to have 3rd Lieutenant the Rifles, Lance Corporal Smith | :34:27. | :34:35. | |
and Guardsman Jaimmy Shadrick of the Green deer Guards. They all | :34:35. | :34:38. | |
died serving our country. They will never be forgotten, and our | :34:38. | :34:42. | |
thoughts are with their family and friends. I also want to join the | :34:42. | :34:45. | |
Prime Minister in thanking everyone involved in the Olympic and | :34:45. | :34:51. | |
Paralympic games, our athletes, our fantastic volunteers and indeed our | :34:51. | :34:55. | |
whole country that united in support of Team GB and did come | :34:55. | :34:58. | |
together. It did show our country at its best, and we should all be | :34:58. | :35:01. | |
proud of the achievement. Mr Speaker, after two-and-a-half years | :35:01. | :35:06. | |
in Government, the Prime Minister returned from his summer break and | :35:06. | :35:10. | |
told the nation that he now realised it was time to cut through | :35:10. | :35:15. | |
the dither. LAUGHTER | :35:15. | :35:22. | |
Who did he have in mind? LAUGHTER | :35:22. | :35:26. | |
I must say, he's had all summer to think of a question, and that's the | :35:26. | :35:33. | |
best - is that really the best he can do?! Let me - let me set it out | :35:33. | :35:39. | |
for him. Let me explain what this reshuffle is all about. It is not - | :35:39. | :35:42. | |
it is not that there are two economic departments in our country | :35:42. | :35:47. | |
- the Treasury and Business. I want every single department to be about | :35:47. | :35:52. | |
the economy. I want the Transport Department building roads. I want | :35:52. | :35:56. | |
the Communities Department building houses. I want the Culture | :35:56. | :36:00. | |
Department rolling out broadband. I want the Agriculture Department | :36:00. | :36:03. | |
backing British food. This is gaff that means business, and we've got | :36:03. | :36:07. | |
the team to deliver it. Mr Speaker, he mentions the reshuffle, and of | :36:07. | :36:12. | |
course, it's good to see the Chancellor still in his place. I | :36:12. | :36:17. | |
have to say to the - I have to say to the Prime Minister, he's come up | :36:17. | :36:20. | |
with an ingenious solution to the problem of his part-time Chancellor | :36:20. | :36:26. | |
- he's appointed another one - the former Justine Greening -- Justice | :36:26. | :36:29. | |
Secretary. It's a job share. We'll see how they get on. I don't know | :36:29. | :36:34. | |
if he remember, but a year ago, he published his national | :36:34. | :36:37. | |
infrastructure plan alongside the autumn statement, and he said at | :36:38. | :36:41. | |
the time of that plan it was an all-out mission to unblock the | :36:41. | :36:47. | |
system. So can he tell us one year on of the road building projects | :36:47. | :36:53. | |
announced in that plan, how many have actually started? Well, first | :36:53. | :36:57. | |
of all, I'm glad he mentioned the issue of Chancellors because, of | :36:57. | :37:01. | |
course, I have got my first choice as Chancellor. He's got this is | :37:01. | :37:08. | |
third choice as Shadow Chancellor. And apparently, he still has to | :37:08. | :37:13. | |
bring in the coffee every morning. That's just how assertive and butch | :37:13. | :37:17. | |
the Leader of the Opposition really is. Now, he asked about | :37:17. | :37:20. | |
infrastructure. He asks about infrastructure. If you look at what | :37:20. | :37:30. | |
:37:30. | :37:30. | ||
is planned by this Government between 2010 and 2015, we will be | :37:30. | :37:35. | |
investing �250 billion in infrastructure. That compares with | :37:35. | :37:40. | |
just �113 billion between 2005 and 2010. That shows he's absolutely | :37:40. | :37:43. | |
not got a clue. The difference between the Shadow Chancellor and | :37:44. | :37:46. | |
the Chancellor is the Shadow Chancellor was right about the | :37:46. | :37:52. | |
economy, and the Chancellor was wrong, and look, and look, I have | :37:52. | :37:56. | |
to say - I have to say, Mr Speaker, the Paralympic crowd spoke for | :37:57. | :38:00. | |
Britain. APPLAUSE | :38:00. | :38:04. | |
Now, of course, characteristically, it's another Prime Minister's | :38:04. | :38:07. | |
Questions - we're back. He doesn't answer my question. The answer is, | :38:07. | :38:12. | |
none of the red-building programmes announced in his grand | :38:12. | :38:15. | |
infrastructure plan have started. Let's look at another grand claim | :38:15. | :38:22. | |
he made. In March he published his housing strategy, and he said our | :38:22. | :38:25. | |
housing strategy is beginning to get Britain building again. Before | :38:25. | :38:28. | |
he starts talking up his next announcement about housing, let's | :38:29. | :38:32. | |
look at the last. Can he tell us since his announcement how many | :38:32. | :38:37. | |
houses have started to be built? Housing starts are up 30% since | :38:37. | :38:41. | |
2009, which was the lowest rate of house building since the 1920s. | :38:41. | :38:47. | |
That is what his Government left. Now, he prays to the gunwales. Let | :38:47. | :38:53. | |
us remember it is the Shadow Chancellor who landed us in this | :38:53. | :38:59. | |
mess. Who was the City Minister when the City went bust? The Shadow | :38:59. | :39:02. | |
Chancellor. Who was the man who gave us the biggest deficit budget | :39:02. | :39:06. | |
in the developed world? The Shadow Chancellor. That is what that team | :39:06. | :39:10. | |
has developed. That is why British people will never trust them again. | :39:10. | :39:15. | |
Mr Speaker, I think sometimes he forgets - he's been Prime Minister | :39:15. | :39:19. | |
for two-and-a-half years. He's got to defend his record, and he can't | :39:19. | :39:23. | |
defend his record. Of course, again, he didn't answer my question. I | :39:23. | :39:29. | |
asked him - I asked him about what happened to housing starts since he | :39:29. | :39:35. | |
made his announcement. The reality is housing starts have fallen since | :39:35. | :39:41. | |
then and are 20 - 24% lower than they were a year ago and lower than | :39:41. | :39:44. | |
they were at time of the last Labour Government, so another grand | :39:44. | :39:48. | |
claim, another grand claim that hasn't materialised. Now let's talk | :39:48. | :39:54. | |
about planning. In March after 18 months of consultation, he hailed | :39:54. | :39:57. | |
his flagship planning policy and said it was the biggest revolution | :39:57. | :40:01. | |
in 60 years, but on Sunday, Mr Speaker, he said he was frustrated | :40:01. | :40:07. | |
by the system, and the hoops we have to jump through, and he wanted | :40:07. | :40:10. | |
to change it again. Mr Speaker, how is the Prime Minister so | :40:10. | :40:15. | |
incompetent that he brings in a flagship planning bill, calls it a | :40:15. | :40:20. | |
revolution, then six months later says it's not fit for purpose? | :40:20. | :40:25. | |
national planning statement we inherited from Labour was over a | :40:25. | :40:32. | |
thousand pages. It is now down to just 52 pages. We have radically | :40:32. | :40:34. | |
simplifyed the planning system, something he should be praising | :40:34. | :40:39. | |
rather than attacking. He might want to notice that today the World | :40:39. | :40:43. | |
Economic Forum has come out and said for the first time in a decade | :40:43. | :40:47. | |
instead of Britain going down did world competitiveness ratings, | :40:47. | :40:51. | |
we're back in the top ten and rising. Let me read what they said: | :40:51. | :40:56. | |
"The United Kingdom continues to make up lost ground in rankings | :40:56. | :40:59. | |
this year, lost ground that happened under the last Labour | :40:59. | :41:03. | |
Government." Now, there is a reason for that. It's because this | :41:03. | :41:07. | |
Government is cutting regulation, cutting corporate tax, taking | :41:07. | :41:12. | |
people out of tax, getting our businesses moving in this country, | :41:12. | :41:15. | |
investing in the regional growth fund, delivering more | :41:15. | :41:18. | |
apprenticeships than any other Government. That's what we're doing. | :41:18. | :41:22. | |
What's he done this summer? Where are the policies on welfare and on | :41:22. | :41:27. | |
education? Nothing. Where is the great plan for our economy? His | :41:27. | :41:30. | |
only answer to a debt crisis is to spend more, borrow more and put up | :41:30. | :41:38. | |
the debt. Back to the bunker, I'm afraid, after that one, Mr Speaker. | :41:38. | :41:42. | |
I notice - I think the crimson tide is back as well. | :41:42. | :41:45. | |
LAUGHTER Mr Speaker, over the last two-and- | :41:45. | :41:48. | |
a-half years we have seen announcements on infrastructure | :41:48. | :41:52. | |
failed, announcements on housing failed, announcements on planning | :41:52. | :41:57. | |
failed. Now, what's the reason for this economic failure? The reason | :41:57. | :42:00. | |
is his fundamental economic approach is wrong. After the summer, | :42:00. | :42:04. | |
we now know that in his whole two- and-a-half years as Prime Minister, | :42:04. | :42:12. | |
the British economy has not grown at all. So why doesn't he admit it? | :42:12. | :42:17. | |
The real problem is this: plan A has spectacularly failed. Let me | :42:17. | :42:21. | |
tell him what is actually happening in our economy, which is you're | :42:21. | :42:26. | |
seeing the private sector growing and expanding. There are 900,000 | :42:26. | :42:30. | |
more people employed in the private sector than there were two years | :42:30. | :42:35. | |
ago. We are now a net exporter of cars and motor vehicles for the | :42:35. | :42:39. | |
first time since the 1970s. You're seeing the fastest rate of business | :42:39. | :42:43. | |
creation that you have seen for decades. That is what is happening. | :42:43. | :42:48. | |
Our economy is rebalancing. There is growth in the private sector. | :42:48. | :42:54. | |
Our exports to China are up 72%,ed to inia, up 94%, to Russia up over | :42:54. | :42:59. | |
a hundred per cent. That is what is happening. It is a hard road, a | :42:59. | :43:02. | |
difficult road but we'll stick to that road because we'll deliver for | :43:02. | :43:08. | |
the British economy. Mr Speaker, we're in the longest double-dip | :43:08. | :43:12. | |
recession since the Second World War. How out of touch does this | :43:12. | :43:18. | |
Prime Minister sound? And I - I have to say - and I have to say to | :43:18. | :43:21. | |
Tory Members of Parliament, if they go to their constituents and start | :43:21. | :43:25. | |
trying to blame everybody else - they have been in Government two- | :43:25. | :43:28. | |
and-a-half years! It's happened on their watch. Now, Mr Speaker, Mr | :43:28. | :43:32. | |
Speaker, we saw a reshuffle yesterday. He brought back the | :43:32. | :43:37. | |
member for Yeovil who had been sacked. He promoted the Culture | :43:37. | :43:41. | |
Secretary, who should have been sacked, and he left in place the | :43:41. | :43:43. | |
part-time Chancellor that the whole country knows should be sacked. | :43:43. | :43:49. | |
It's the same old faces, the same old policies and no change | :43:49. | :43:54. | |
reshuffle. Mr Speaker, if he really wants to cut through the dither, | :43:54. | :44:00. | |
there's no place like home. The big difference in British politics is | :44:00. | :44:04. | |
that I don't want to move my Chancellor. He can't move his | :44:04. | :44:09. | |
Shadow Chancellor. The fact is in spite of all the economic | :44:09. | :44:15. | |
difficulty, this is a strong and united Government, and in spite - | :44:15. | :44:18. | |
and in spite - in spite of all the opportunity, this is a weak and | :44:18. | :44:28. | |
:44:28. | :44:29. | ||
divided opposition. THE SPEAKER: Order. Order! Order! | :44:29. | :44:33. | |
There is going to be more, and it's going to be from a knight, Sir | :44:33. | :44:38. | |
Malcolm Bruce. Thank you, Mr Speaker. I wonder if the Prime | :44:38. | :44:43. | |
Minister has seen today that PWC have produced a report saying that | :44:43. | :44:46. | |
Aberdeen needs to recruit 120,000 skilled people in the next ten | :44:46. | :44:51. | |
years if we're to deliver our capacity in the global energy | :44:51. | :44:56. | |
economy? Will the Government take steps to ensure that an energy | :44:56. | :44:59. | |
academy and the necessary support for training is put in place so we | :44:59. | :45:02. | |
can deliver growth for the United Kingdom? I think my Right | :45:02. | :45:05. | |
Honourable friend raises a very important point, which is the | :45:05. | :45:11. | |
growth of the economy around Aberdeen obviously linked to that | :45:11. | :45:14. | |
area which has been extremely successful. I want to see that | :45:14. | :45:17. | |
continue to expand. I'll listen carefully to what he says and what | :45:17. | :45:20. | |
the Government can do to help provide that extra capacity, which | :45:20. | :45:25. | |
I have seen for myself. Can the Prime Minister confirm that we know | :45:26. | :45:31. | |
in the summer that the UK have borrowed �9.3 billion more in the | :45:31. | :45:34. | |
first four months of this year than it did in the corresponding period | :45:34. | :45:43. | |
We have cut the Budget Deficit by a quarter in two years, but obviously | :45:43. | :45:46. | |
it's very challenging to get the deficit down. I would just note | :45:46. | :45:52. | |
that Labour's answer to getting the deficit down is to borrow more. To | :45:52. | :45:57. | |
borrow an extra �200 billion. The one way you cannot get borrowing | :45:57. | :46:06. | |
down is to put borrowing up. Speaker, my constituents were | :46:06. | :46:11. | |
delighted when BMW announced 250 million to increase Mini production | :46:11. | :46:15. | |
and call their axe Ford plant the heart and home of this great | :46:15. | :46:19. | |
British success story, does the Prime Minister agree that this kind | :46:19. | :46:22. | |
of inward investment is vital to kickstart the economy and we must | :46:22. | :46:26. | |
do more to prioritise policies to make the UK more attractive to | :46:26. | :46:34. | |
investors? My honourable and friend have neighbouring constituencies | :46:34. | :46:38. | |
and many constituents who work there say it's very good news that | :46:38. | :46:43. | |
BMW are investing 250 million, on top of the 500 million announced | :46:43. | :46:47. | |
last year. That is safeguarding over 5,000 jobs in the Oxford and | :46:47. | :46:52. | |
Swindon plants. It is part of a huge recovery story for the British | :46:52. | :46:55. | |
motor manufacturing industry. We are now net exporters. That hasn't | :46:55. | :47:00. | |
happened since the 1970s and it's a huge credit to Jaguar Land Rover | :47:00. | :47:06. | |
and Nissan and Toyota and BMW, to all the companies that are invest - | :47:07. | :47:10. | |
- investing and choosing Britain. They are not choosing Britain | :47:10. | :47:14. | |
because of the weather, but because we are cutting tax and investing in | :47:14. | :47:23. | |
the infrastructure and they know this is a country open to business. | :47:23. | :47:27. | |
Poor Wirral families face the indignity of food banks and Save | :47:27. | :47:31. | |
The Children are launching their first campaign for British children. | :47:31. | :47:36. | |
What is the Prime Minister doing to help? We target families who are | :47:37. | :47:43. | |
the poorest in the country with the tax credits. But we should also | :47:43. | :47:47. | |
praise the voluntary efforts that help the poorest families in this | :47:47. | :47:50. | |
country too. Would my right honourable join me in paying | :47:50. | :47:54. | |
tribute to the 23 people in our country who work with such | :47:54. | :47:57. | |
commitment in the private sector, the one that generates the wealth | :47:57. | :47:59. | |
of this country and would he welcome the fact that under this | :47:59. | :48:03. | |
government we now have more people employed in the private sector than | :48:03. | :48:07. | |
at any time in our history? I think the point he makes is very | :48:07. | :48:12. | |
important. If you actually look at the figures and include all of the | :48:12. | :48:15. | |
financial sector, there are more people employed in the private | :48:15. | :48:19. | |
sector today, in Britain, than at any time in our history. What you | :48:19. | :48:23. | |
seek - oh, the Shadow Chancellor says that's because we are if | :48:23. | :48:26. | |
recession. It's because companies are choosing to employ people and | :48:26. | :48:30. | |
the private sector is getting larger and that is good news. | :48:30. | :48:34. | |
Employment is up 201,000 this quarter. Unemployment is down | :48:34. | :48:38. | |
46,000 this quarter. The claimant count has fallen. The rate of | :48:38. | :48:41. | |
unemployment is down. Youth is down and I would have thought the whole | :48:42. | :48:47. | |
House would welcome those figures. Last Sunday, the Prime Minister | :48:47. | :48:51. | |
told us there should be no more excuses for failure. Given that his | :48:51. | :48:56. | |
policies have produced the longest double-dip recession since the war, | :48:56. | :49:00. | |
with output down and borrowing up and a collapse in consumer | :49:01. | :49:04. | |
confidence, is his failure to apologise because he doesn't take | :49:04. | :49:10. | |
his own advice or because he considers that a record of | :49:10. | :49:13. | |
outstanding success? This comes from an honourable lady who served | :49:13. | :49:18. | |
in a government which after 13 years delivered us the longest and | :49:18. | :49:21. | |
deepest recession since the war. And gave us the biggest budget | :49:21. | :49:24. | |
deficit virtually any country in the developed world had. Of course, | :49:24. | :49:28. | |
it takes time to get yourself out of a hole, as deep as the one that | :49:28. | :49:38. | |
was dug by the Shadow Chancellor and the Leader of the Opposition. | :49:38. | :49:43. | |
Does - over the summer Jaguar Land Rover announced the creation of | :49:43. | :49:49. | |
1100 further jobs. This is in addition to the 750 jobs they are | :49:49. | :49:54. | |
creating in my constituency. Does the Prime Minister agree there is a | :49:54. | :49:58. | |
stark contrast between the rhetoric of the last Labour Government about | :49:58. | :50:01. | |
reriefg the industry and the actions and delivery -- reviving | :50:01. | :50:05. | |
the industry and the actions and delivery of this Government? He's | :50:05. | :50:12. | |
right. In the last two years Jaguar Land Rover has hired an extra 8,000 | :50:12. | :50:16. | |
new workers. That is a massive success story for the West Midlands | :50:16. | :50:23. | |
and for a great British brand, but also a big success for massive | :50:23. | :50:25. | |
inward investment from the Indian parent company. We should praise | :50:25. | :50:30. | |
all these and recognise we have to do even more to make Britain a | :50:30. | :50:33. | |
really business-friendly country. With low rates of regulation and | :50:33. | :50:36. | |
tax and lots of support for apprenticeships and infrastructure. | :50:36. | :50:40. | |
That is what we are delivering on this side of the House and we'll | :50:40. | :50:45. | |
continue to do so. Hundreds of young people from outside Europe | :50:45. | :50:51. | |
chose London Metropolitan University, confident in British | :50:51. | :50:54. | |
higher education. He needs to tackle visa fraud, but will he lift | :50:54. | :51:00. | |
the threat to deport students who paid their fees and complied with | :51:00. | :51:05. | |
all the rules? I know that the honourable gentleman speaks with | :51:05. | :51:08. | |
considerable experience and obviously wants to speak up as well | :51:08. | :51:11. | |
on behalf of his constituency. Having looked at this case and look | :51:11. | :51:15. | |
at the action that the Border Agency has taken, it seems to me | :51:15. | :51:19. | |
there was some real abuses going on. What I want to see is Britain open | :51:19. | :51:23. | |
to students - and let's be clear, anyone who can speak English and | :51:23. | :51:27. | |
who has a university place is able to come here and study at our | :51:27. | :51:31. | |
universities, but quite rightly the immigration minister has been very | :51:31. | :51:35. | |
hard in terms of closing down bogus colleges and making sure that good | :51:35. | :51:38. | |
universities like this one, if they are not meeting the rules, they | :51:38. | :51:41. | |
have to take action. That must be right if we're going to control | :51:41. | :51:49. | |
immigration. Does the Prime Minister -- is the Prime Minister | :51:49. | :51:54. | |
aware that in Watford in the last quarter of 2012, where the numbers | :51:54. | :51:58. | |
have just come out, 327 new companies were incorporated? This | :51:58. | :52:02. | |
is a record. This is way beyond anything else in history and I | :52:02. | :52:06. | |
think he would agree it shows the Government's poll for encouraging | :52:06. | :52:11. | |
private enterprise is succeeding. He makes a very important point. As | :52:11. | :52:16. | |
I understand it, 2011 saw the fastest rate of new business | :52:16. | :52:19. | |
creation of any year that we have seen in decades. That's what our | :52:19. | :52:24. | |
economy requires. It takes time and patience, because we need a massive | :52:24. | :52:26. | |
rebalancing, away from the public sector, towards the private. We | :52:26. | :52:31. | |
need to see other industries, not just finance and retail succeed. We | :52:31. | :52:34. | |
want to see the business regeneration happening right across | :52:34. | :52:38. | |
the country. This rebalancing takes time. It is difficult, but it's the | :52:38. | :52:40. | |
only long-term way out of the economic difficulty that we were | :52:41. | :52:48. | |
left by the party opposite. Prime Minister is right to | :52:48. | :52:52. | |
celebrate the most extraordinary Paralympics that we have seen and | :52:52. | :52:57. | |
are seeing at the moment and the exceptional achievement of Team GB | :52:57. | :53:03. | |
within those Games. What will he then say to Baroness Tanni Grey- | :53:03. | :53:09. | |
Thompson and the others who have warned this week that his decision | :53:09. | :53:13. | |
to cut disability living allowance will prevent disabled people | :53:13. | :53:18. | |
participating in sport and threaten the legacy of the London Games? | :53:18. | :53:22. | |
First, the message I would give to everyone in Paralympics GB, the | :53:22. | :53:27. | |
separate team to Team GB is a huge congrallations for their massive -- | :53:27. | :53:30. | |
congratulations for their massive success. It's been truly inspiring | :53:30. | :53:35. | |
being able to watch on television or the privilege of going there, to | :53:35. | :53:39. | |
see absolutely packed stadiums for the Games. Not something everyone | :53:39. | :53:43. | |
expected, but something that says a lot about our country and people. | :53:43. | :53:47. | |
Answering the question directly, we are not cutting the money that is | :53:47. | :53:51. | |
going into supporting disability. We are reforming the system, | :53:51. | :53:53. | |
replacing disability living allowance with a personal | :53:53. | :53:57. | |
independence payment and it is all about recognising people's needs. | :53:57. | :54:00. | |
It has been worked up with the disability lobby very, very | :54:00. | :54:07. | |
carefully and I think it will be improvement on the current system. | :54:07. | :54:11. | |
The Prime Minister, I know, is well aware of the lack of capacity at | :54:11. | :54:16. | |
Britain's airports, but in seeking to resolve this problem, will he | :54:16. | :54:19. | |
consider of the opportunity presented by regional airports like | :54:19. | :54:23. | |
those in Birmingham, that can help rebalance the economy? I think my | :54:23. | :54:28. | |
friend makes a very good point about regional airports. Let me be | :54:28. | :54:31. | |
frank, the very large infrastructure projects are | :54:31. | :54:33. | |
extremely difficult for individual governments to take and to deliver. | :54:34. | :54:38. | |
I think what we need to do is build a process that hopefully has cross- | :54:38. | :54:43. | |
party support so we can look carefully at this issue and deliver | :54:43. | :54:46. | |
changes that will address the problems of capacity that we'll | :54:46. | :54:49. | |
have in future years and that address the issues of the hub | :54:49. | :54:53. | |
status of the UK. I'm hoping to make an announcement about this | :54:53. | :54:57. | |
over the coming days, but it's important we worse across party | :54:57. | :55:00. | |
lines, because this won't happen unless parties actually sign up to | :55:00. | :55:07. | |
a process that can deliver. wondered if I could cut through the | :55:07. | :55:10. | |
waffle that the Prime Minister gave us in the answer to disability | :55:10. | :55:15. | |
living allowance. The reality is that 600,000 disabled people will | :55:15. | :55:21. | |
be losing an extra cost benefit. Instead of just giving warm words | :55:21. | :55:26. | |
to disabled people in this country, why doesn't he take aside his | :55:26. | :55:28. | |
immovable Secretary of State and say to him it's time we thought | :55:28. | :55:33. | |
again on this one? The move from disability living allowance to | :55:33. | :55:36. | |
personal independence payments has been an exercise of huge | :55:36. | :55:39. | |
consultation, with the disability lobbies, to try to make sure that | :55:39. | :55:43. | |
we get this right. The fact is there are hundreds of thousands of | :55:43. | :55:47. | |
people on DLA, who have never had a recheck since they started to take | :55:47. | :55:51. | |
on that benefit. There are many others on disability living | :55:51. | :55:55. | |
allowance and I know this as a parent who filled out the form | :55:55. | :56:00. | |
myself, who have to fill out reams without getting a proper medical | :56:00. | :56:03. | |
check that would get them the benefit quicker. We are moving from | :56:03. | :56:11. | |
an out-of-date system to a new that will help disabled people. | :56:11. | :56:21. | |
:56:21. | :56:29. | ||
Selective dor sal rhizoo -- dorsal operations are only available | :56:29. | :56:33. | |
outside the NHS. Will the Prime Minister look at this situation and | :56:33. | :56:36. | |
help the families who are raising money for their children to have | :56:36. | :56:41. | |
this operation across the country get NICE to change their mind? | :56:41. | :56:45. | |
will look closely at this. I quite understand, as I said one moment | :56:45. | :56:49. | |
ago, as a parent of a very disabled child, if there was anything you | :56:49. | :56:53. | |
could do to get that child out of the wheelchair you would want that | :56:53. | :56:57. | |
to happen. I've looked at this case. NICE actually says this operation | :56:57. | :57:01. | |
is a treatment option for some children and young people, but it | :57:01. | :57:03. | |
does caution against the potentially serious complications, | :57:03. | :57:07. | |
because it's an irreversable operation and so there are risks | :57:07. | :57:10. | |
involved. I'll look very carefully and see if there is anything more | :57:10. | :57:20. | |
than NICE should consider. Prime Minister always advises the | :57:20. | :57:23. | |
trade unions to go for remembering sillation and in the interests of | :57:23. | :57:27. | |
fairness can I ask you to speak to his new Health Secretary and say | :57:27. | :57:31. | |
would he involve himself in the dispute in Northumbria healthcare | :57:31. | :57:34. | |
and ask their board to do what the people are doing and refer their | :57:34. | :57:41. | |
dispute to the NHS Staff Centre for Resolution. He will have been | :57:41. | :57:45. | |
listening carefully and I'm sure he will be able to discuss it with the | :57:45. | :57:49. | |
honourable gentleman. I think it's very important that motorists have | :57:49. | :57:56. | |
the right to renew their car tax at the Post Office, if they don't have | :57:56. | :58:00. | |
internet access. The DVLA contract is up for renewal soon. Will the | :58:00. | :58:05. | |
Prime Minister make sure it stays with the Post Office? I think he | :58:05. | :58:08. | |
makes an important point, particularly representing, as he | :58:08. | :58:11. | |
does, a far-flung rural constituency with people living | :58:11. | :58:13. | |
across a number of different islands. I'm sure the Business | :58:13. | :58:17. | |
Secretary will have been listening to what he says, although there's a | :58:17. | :58:20. | |
limited amount of interference into contracts like these that can the | :58:20. | :58:26. | |
Government can make. Does the Prime Minister have full confidence in | :58:26. | :58:32. | |
his police and crime commissioner in Hampshire? What I would say | :58:32. | :58:35. | |
about the commissioners is we haven't yet had the elections. We | :58:35. | :58:39. | |
are going to have elections in November. I think it's a very good | :58:39. | :58:42. | |
opportunity to broadcast from this House what an important set of | :58:42. | :58:48. | |
elections these are. I want to see a new form of accountibility, it | :58:48. | :58:50. | |
coming through our policing forces. I think it's an excellent reform | :58:51. | :58:55. | |
and I'm sure one that many people want to turn out and vote and I | :58:55. | :59:02. | |
hope vote for their local Conservative candidate. Over the | :59:02. | :59:05. | |
summer, a number of commuters in my constituency suffered flooding and | :59:05. | :59:10. | |
we were flooded in part because our drainage dykes are not cleared out, | :59:10. | :59:14. | |
because the boards fear prosecution under conservation habitat | :59:14. | :59:17. | |
legislation. Will the Prime Minister meet with his new | :59:17. | :59:21. | |
Environment Secretary and take away this threat of prosecution so that | :59:21. | :59:25. | |
drainage dykes that were built and dug to protect property, can do | :59:25. | :59:29. | |
their job? As someone who represents a constituency that has | :59:29. | :59:32. | |
been subjected to flooding, I know how many frustrations there can be | :59:32. | :59:37. | |
in local communities when things that need to be done don't get done | :59:37. | :59:40. | |
quickly enough. Sometimes that is the fault of different agencies. | :59:40. | :59:43. | |
Sometimes it's the fault of landowners and locals authorities. | :59:43. | :59:46. | |
All sorts of issues have to be crunched through, but I'm sure the | :59:46. | :59:52. | |
Secretary of State will have been list being -- listening carefully. | :59:52. | :59:55. | |
Can the Prime Minister confirm with no ifs or buts that there will be | :59:55. | :00:00. | |
no third runway at Heathrow Airport whilst he leads his party? Clearly, | :00:00. | :00:04. | |
while I do believe we need to establish a form of review that | :00:04. | :00:08. | |
will bring parties together and make a decision about airport | :00:08. | :00:15. | |
capacity, I will not be breaking my manifesto pledge. A letter from and | :00:15. | :00:20. | |
a meeting with the Secretary of State for Defence has confirmed | :00:20. | :00:23. | |
that the seabgd battalion, the Royal regiment of Fusiliers is the | :00:23. | :00:29. | |
only one that should not have been cut on military grounds. Instead, | :00:29. | :00:36. | |
what did happen was the further criteria that regimental losses be | :00:36. | :00:42. | |
capped to one battalion, thus saving more other battalions in | :00:42. | :00:46. | |
Scotland. Would the Prime Minister meet with me and others from across | :00:46. | :00:54. | |
the House to discuss this issue? I'm very happy to around a meeting | :00:54. | :00:57. | |
between my friend and the Defence Secretary and others. I think it's | :00:57. | :01:01. | |
right to see the Army changing the structure not in the overall size, | :01:01. | :01:06. | |
because with 82,000 regular soldiers and 30,000 territorials, | :01:06. | :01:09. | |
the Army won't be changing in its overall size. It was difficult and | :01:09. | :01:13. | |
it is difficult to do that in a way that respects regimental decisions | :01:13. | :01:17. | |
and issues that I know a number of honourable members hold very dearly | :01:17. | :01:20. | |
and it's important we do that across the United Kingdom. That is | :01:20. | :01:23. | |
what the Government has set out, but I'm happy to arrange that | :01:23. | :01:33. | |
:01:33. | :01:36. | ||
Comes to an end on a point of order, first PMQs in the new parliamentary | :01:36. | :01:42. | |
season. The economy dollnating the exchanges between the two sides, as | :01:42. | :01:49. | |
expected. We'll come to analysis of that in a | :01:49. | :01:53. | |
moment but first, we'll hear what you thought of this exchange. | :01:53. | :01:56. | |
the comments were about the economy - whoever and whichever party you | :01:57. | :02:02. | |
support. So Diane from Truro, Cornwall said, "A reshuffle that | :02:02. | :02:05. | |
failed to address the economic woes or failed economic policies was | :02:05. | :02:11. | |
doomed to quickly break down. Ed Miliband left off from the break | :02:11. | :02:17. | |
with a strong performance today" but heather said, "His dither at | :02:17. | :02:21. | |
the start of PMQs is lame. He should be scoring multiple goals | :02:22. | :02:29. | |
against David Cameron. If he can't, Labour are sunk" this one, "What is | :02:29. | :02:31. | |
Labour's plan? Ed Miliband says their economic plan is wrong, that | :02:31. | :02:34. | |
the Prime Minister has been in for two-and-a-half year, yet this | :02:34. | :02:40. | |
follows a 30-year spending binge which accelerated under Gordon | :02:40. | :02:45. | |
Brown", from Nathan in Kent, "I am one of the few Tory Party members | :02:45. | :02:49. | |
Grant Shapps inherited, although my membership does expire this month, | :02:49. | :02:54. | |
Ed Miliband has made a stack point at PMQs. David Cameron has been in | :02:54. | :02:57. | |
for two-and-a-half years. He can't keep blaming the last Government. | :02:57. | :03:02. | |
We're not buying that excuse anymore." There we go, not sure if | :03:02. | :03:08. | |
we should be helping the Conservative Party to recruit. That | :03:08. | :03:16. | |
may be the way - before we come on to the less important analysis, | :03:16. | :03:19. | |
let's just get out of the way immediately the big issue that was | :03:19. | :03:24. | |
raised at PMQs, which was that the Prime Minister accused Mr Miliband | :03:24. | :03:29. | |
of not being butch enough. Are you butch enough, Grant Shapps? Well, I | :03:29. | :03:32. | |
think what he was probably trying to describe... I am not asking | :03:32. | :03:38. | |
about that I am asking about you. Yes, yeah, yeah. You are? Of course. | :03:38. | :03:42. | |
What evidence do we have to show this? Do you make coffee for | :03:42. | :03:46. | |
anyone? I haven't gone about making coffee for other people. Does that | :03:46. | :03:51. | |
count? You write under another name. That's not butch. That's a pen name. | :03:51. | :03:59. | |
That's right. Michael Brown. Green. I thought he used to advertise cars | :03:59. | :04:03. | |
on television. Look, I think the point he was trying to make is | :04:03. | :04:05. | |
simple - you have a shadow Chancellor he doesn't want. He | :04:05. | :04:08. | |
didn't ask for this man. He actually appointed somebody else | :04:08. | :04:13. | |
who ended up not doing it, tried to appoint a second person, has ended | :04:13. | :04:17. | |
up with his third choice. Who was the second one? Nick will fill us | :04:17. | :04:21. | |
in with the detail. Maybe I have had too long on the is unlounger. | :04:21. | :04:26. | |
Clearly Alan Johnson was the Shadow Chancellor. I think he tried then | :04:26. | :04:32. | |
not to appoint Balls and delayed. I... How can I forget - he was | :04:32. | :04:36. | |
trying to get his brother David back in and convince him to do it, | :04:36. | :04:41. | |
and he refused to do it for the second time. Who told you that? | :04:41. | :04:46. | |
didn't reappoint straight away. did. It was done within an hour. I | :04:46. | :04:50. | |
understand there was a conversation. You may know better. Look, he | :04:50. | :04:56. | |
wanted his brother to do it. He wouldn't. He has ended up with Ed | :04:56. | :05:05. | |
Balls. In the Cabinet meetings Balls is disrespecting his leader | :05:05. | :05:09. | |
on his Blackberry, not interested in anything he says, but back to | :05:09. | :05:12. | |
the Blair-Brown division that dogged the last Government, we | :05:12. | :05:15. | |
realised how divisive it was and how it affected the running of this | :05:16. | :05:19. | |
country. Of course, if David Cameron was butch enough he might | :05:19. | :05:23. | |
have taken on his Chancellor and put a new one in. I think the | :05:23. | :05:26. | |
Chancellor is doing a job any person who wants to see this | :05:26. | :05:29. | |
country avoid the Greek deficit crisis or what's happening in Spain | :05:29. | :05:36. | |
where, you know, rates are six, 7% to borrow money... That's... We're | :05:36. | :05:39. | |
1.5% here. We have come to the conclusion you cannot solve the | :05:39. | :05:42. | |
debt crisis by spending more money. I have this question for you, which | :05:42. | :05:46. | |
is this: when are we actually going to hear anything at all from Her | :05:46. | :05:49. | |
Majesty's opposition about what you would do in Government? Not a | :05:49. | :05:54. | |
single policy, nothing. You have asked the question. I raise the | :05:54. | :05:59. | |
question. Normally what you would do is allow the person to answer. | :05:59. | :06:02. | |
We have been very clear that if we were in Government now, we would | :06:02. | :06:07. | |
put forward a plan for jobs and growth that include teampsrary cut | :06:07. | :06:12. | |
in VAT... More borrowing. genuinely bring forward more | :06:12. | :06:15. | |
investing. This Government talks about infrastructure and roads, | :06:15. | :06:23. | |
planning, housing, and as Ed Miliband said today none of it has | :06:23. | :06:28. | |
been delivered. A bank bonus tax of 50% and using that money to create | :06:28. | :06:33. | |
jobs for young people and the construction of 25,000 new | :06:33. | :06:37. | |
affordable homes. Those - wait a second. Let me finish - that would | :06:37. | :06:41. | |
help get the economy growing again, but by getting people back to work | :06:41. | :06:50. | |
and helping businesses succeed and pay tax would help get that down. | :06:50. | :06:54. | |
Without the tax receipts flowing in and with the benefits bill going up, | :06:54. | :06:57. | |
the Government ends up borrowing more, not less. We need to get the | :06:58. | :07:02. | |
economy back on track if we're going to get the deficit down. | :07:02. | :07:08. | |
come to you in a minute - I have not forgotten you're there. Ice- | :07:08. | :07:12. | |
skating - I have to hold up - LAUGHTER | :07:12. | :07:17. | |
A quick reply? All it is, is a list of more taxes and more spending | :07:17. | :07:22. | |
because, hold on... A tax cut for ordinary families? A tax cut for | :07:22. | :07:27. | |
small businesses. We know the tax cut would be about �12.5 billion, | :07:27. | :07:30. | |
so more debt, higher taxes. The question is when we were two-and-a- | :07:30. | :07:34. | |
half years into opposition people were saying, where are the detailed | :07:34. | :07:37. | |
policies? What would you actually do in all of these areas of | :07:37. | :07:41. | |
Government... She just gave you some detail. You might not like | :07:41. | :07:45. | |
them. That's a different matter. Policies that'll help get the | :07:45. | :07:49. | |
economy moving again and the recession in. We're in a double-dip | :07:49. | :07:52. | |
recession, the longest since the Second World War, and the deficit | :07:52. | :07:57. | |
is beginning to increase by 25% in the first four months of this year. | :07:57. | :08:01. | |
You have those two problems, and they're related because without the | :08:01. | :08:07. | |
jobs and growth, the deficit goes up. Rather than a few abstract... | :08:07. | :08:12. | |
Can I bring in the - ALL SPEAK AT ONCE | :08:12. | :08:17. | |
He's a very patient man. Someone said to me this morning that the | :08:17. | :08:20. | |
real - we saw these exchanges on the economy, and the Government is | :08:20. | :08:23. | |
in a difficult position on the economy at the moment. There is no | :08:23. | :08:29. | |
growth. If the third quarter produces no growth as well, that's | :08:29. | :08:32. | |
a really difficult position the Government finds itself in. It is, | :08:32. | :08:36. | |
but you have just seen them absolutely double up on their | :08:36. | :08:39. | |
economic strategy. Clearly Labour and a lot of people think that's a | :08:39. | :08:43. | |
mistake. They came under a huge amount of pressure in the build-up | :08:43. | :08:45. | |
to this reshuffle including business. Business groups were | :08:46. | :08:49. | |
saying why aren't you delivering? I thought the strike thing about | :08:49. | :08:52. | |
Prime Minister's Questions were those facts. Ed Miliband in fact | :08:52. | :08:57. | |
deployed a trip used against Gordon Brown when he was Leader of the | :08:57. | :09:01. | |
Opposition. I remember in 2008-09 David Cameron would say how many of | :09:01. | :09:05. | |
this opposition have happened - and the answer was always nil because | :09:05. | :09:09. | |
it's easy to announce policies, and they get frustrated, whether Lib | :09:09. | :09:13. | |
Dem or Tories, where's it gone? I suspect David Cameron will go back | :09:13. | :09:18. | |
to the office and say, why aren't we getting roads built? It's one of | :09:18. | :09:23. | |
the reasons he's trying to bring someone in. You're right. It would | :09:23. | :09:26. | |
be incredibly hard if there is no third quarter growth. Remember | :09:26. | :09:30. | |
behind the scenes in Government there is confusion about whether | :09:30. | :09:33. | |
employment statistics are giving the real picture or growth | :09:33. | :09:36. | |
statistics. The growth statistics are down. Some people think they're | :09:36. | :09:43. | |
wrong and slightly overstated. Is the economy flat or dropping? It | :09:43. | :09:46. | |
will be interesting over the next six months to see which is giving | :09:46. | :09:50. | |
us a proper view. Gordon Brown suffered from this. He had some | :09:50. | :09:53. | |
growth statistics that looked very bad in 2009. Actually, they were | :09:53. | :09:55. | |
revised up. The economy was doing just a little bit better than | :09:56. | :10:01. | |
people at the time were saying. Does Labour have any idea how big | :10:01. | :10:06. | |
the deficit could go? Because it will have - I take your point that | :10:06. | :10:09. | |
you think things you'll do will bring back growth, and so therefore | :10:09. | :10:13. | |
in the longer term the deficit starts to come down, but in the | :10:13. | :10:16. | |
short run it seems to me it's impossible to deny that the deficit | :10:16. | :10:21. | |
goes up. Do you have any idea by how much that deficit can go up | :10:22. | :10:26. | |
before the bond markets simply say, you're not on? Interest rates rise. | :10:26. | :10:30. | |
If you look at the plan Alistair Darling set out before the last | :10:30. | :10:34. | |
election, that was to half the deficit during the course of this | :10:34. | :10:37. | |
Parliament. This Government have set out to eliminate the structural | :10:38. | :10:41. | |
deficit during the course of this Parliament. They haven't. They're | :10:41. | :10:46. | |
now putting it back by two years and going to borrow at least �250 | :10:46. | :10:49. | |
billion more. Now you have the ratings agencies saying growth is | :10:50. | :10:53. | |
as important as the deficit numbers because actually, as I have been | :10:53. | :10:58. | |
saying, without growth you can't get the deficit down. Can I remind | :10:58. | :11:03. | |
you that when Alistair Darling unveiled his plan Britain was on | :11:03. | :11:06. | |
negative watch by the ratings agencies. We are on negative watch | :11:06. | :11:11. | |
then, and could you tell me what was - what was our yield on ten- | :11:11. | :11:17. | |
year bonds? Well, the yield on ten- year bonds has barely changed since | :11:17. | :11:21. | |
the election. It's gone up. That's not true. The ten-year bonds | :11:21. | :11:26. | |
Britain was paying, the yield was similar to Italy's at that time. | :11:26. | :11:29. | |
Italy's have gone up because of... No, the timing was the same. We | :11:29. | :11:34. | |
were paying a lot more. No. We weren't. The point I am trying to | :11:34. | :11:37. | |
get - I understand it's a difficult thing to do. There comes a point | :11:37. | :11:43. | |
when you can - a tipping point on the deficit, and the difficulty for | :11:43. | :11:46. | |
Labour is if you're going to add to the deficit is to know when that | :11:46. | :11:50. | |
tipping point would be. Let me say about the eurozone countries like | :11:50. | :11:53. | |
Greece and Portugal and Spain and Italy - none of those countries | :11:53. | :11:59. | |
have the flexibility that the UK has. We've pursued under the last | :11:59. | :12:01. | |
Government and this Government quantitative easing to keep | :12:01. | :12:06. | |
interest rates low. Our currency was depreciating, which you can't | :12:06. | :12:11. | |
have in the eurozone, so Britain was never going to be like Greece, | :12:11. | :12:16. | |
Italy or Portugal because we have that flexibility in the UK to... | :12:16. | :12:22. | |
Just as well we didn't join the euro. Let me just say about | :12:22. | :12:25. | |
quantitative easing - �300 billion of Government bonds have been | :12:25. | :12:29. | |
bought by the Bank of England. That has kept our interest rates low and | :12:29. | :12:32. | |
means we're not going to default because we have a buyer of last | :12:32. | :12:36. | |
resort of our Government bonds. more thing, and I now want to talk | :12:36. | :12:41. | |
about the King of the water, also known as Boris Johnson. I found it | :12:41. | :12:47. | |
quite remark - I remember the days of the Tory wets, and they always | :12:47. | :12:50. | |
criticised Mrs Thatcher in coded language which was kind of deniable | :12:50. | :12:53. | |
- not Boris Johnson. No, I don't think we have ever seen anything | :12:53. | :12:57. | |
quite like this. Totally out there. It's a clear challenge to Mr | :12:57. | :13:01. | |
Cameron. Let's just run the tape on what he has been saying on this | :13:01. | :13:06. | |
airport capacity business. I am not criticising David, who I like and | :13:06. | :13:10. | |
admire hugely. All I am saying is they need to end the ambiguity. | :13:10. | :13:15. | |
I'll say this more clearly if you want in the press conference. They | :13:15. | :13:20. | |
need to end the ambiguity about Heathrow because at the moment a | :13:20. | :13:24. | |
lot of people think that there's going to be a U-turn and that | :13:24. | :13:28. | |
they're sort of gearing up to ditch the commitment against the third | :13:28. | :13:32. | |
runway. They're going to put another huge runway in the middle | :13:32. | :13:37. | |
of London's western suburbs when that is not what the City needs. | :13:37. | :13:42. | |
Boris Johnson wearing his helmet in case there are any in-coming | :13:42. | :13:44. | |
missiles from Number Ten Downing Street. What he's doing there - | :13:44. | :13:46. | |
he's putting the Prime Minister's feet to the fire and saying, all | :13:46. | :13:50. | |
right. I accept you're not going to come it for a third runway this | :13:50. | :13:53. | |
side of the next election. I want you to rule it out forever, which | :13:53. | :13:59. | |
is the question the Labour MP asked in the PMQs very cleverly, and it's | :13:59. | :14:04. | |
the last thing the Prime Minister wants to answer. Absolutely. John | :14:04. | :14:07. | |
McDonald quoted back - he was quoting David Cameron back at | :14:07. | :14:12. | |
himself when Cameron in, sorry 2009 at a Conservative Party event said, | :14:12. | :14:19. | |
"No third runway no, if's no, but's." Zach's constituency. | :14:19. | :14:25. | |
nearest equivalent to "read my lips", the famous quote by George | :14:25. | :14:32. | |
Bush Senior before he raised tax. Would he stick to that as | :14:32. | :14:37. | |
Conservative leader, cleverly worded, beyond the next election? | :14:37. | :14:43. | |
The Prime Minister said, "I won't break my manifesto pledge," which | :14:43. | :14:48. | |
means no runway before 2015, which in truth he has to say because of | :14:48. | :14:51. | |
political reasons, and the Lib Dems wouldn't let him do it even if he | :14:51. | :14:58. | |
wanted to change his mind. You're right. The row Boris Johnson wants | :14:58. | :15:02. | |
is to put people out of their misery. They're not going to | :15:02. | :15:05. | |
because all the parties are in a bind about runways. The trick David | :15:05. | :15:08. | |
Cameron will now try to perform, having moved Justine Greening, is | :15:08. | :15:14. | |
to have an independent commission on this. Sure, which won't report | :15:14. | :15:17. | |
in the after the next election. don't know. I think they'll report | :15:17. | :15:21. | |
before. I don't actually know the answer to that question. But you | :15:21. | :15:26. | |
see, the equivalent of what they're trying do is what happened on high- | :15:26. | :15:29. | |
speed rail where the Transport Secretary got the Tories onboard so | :15:29. | :15:33. | |
whoever was in Government after the next election, it won't happen. | :15:33. | :15:39. | |
Grant Shapps, are you in any doubt that Boris Johnson is running to be | :15:39. | :15:43. | |
his successor? Boris said he isn't, so I'll take his word for it. | :15:43. | :15:47. | |
would you do that? He's an honourable man. A man who was | :15:47. | :15:51. | |
editor of the Spectator, promised not to become the Tory MP and | :15:51. | :15:56. | |
within six months was the MP for Henley. No-one can second-guess | :15:56. | :16:00. | |
Boris Johnson's mind. You're right. When you see these clips of Boris | :16:00. | :16:03. | |
saying these things, don't forget, the Mayor of London is campaigning | :16:03. | :16:08. | |
for his own airport solution which is the Thames estuary. You really | :16:08. | :16:12. | |
don't think Boris is running to be the next leader? He says he's not. | :16:12. | :16:22. | |
:16:22. | :16:26. | ||
You'll have to run against him, I He didn't deny it. On that crash | :16:26. | :16:33. | |
revelation, of naughty, we say goodbye to Nick. Grant Shapps for | :16:33. | :16:39. | |
next leader. Unemployment seems to be rarely out of the news at the | :16:39. | :16:42. | |
moment, but is the media's, and for that, matter the Government's, | :16:42. | :16:44. | |
fixation on youth unemployment overlooking a more fundamental | :16:44. | :16:46. | |
problem? Colin Crooks is a social entrepreneur with 20 years' | :16:46. | :16:49. | |
experience in creating jobs for unemployed people and he argues | :16:49. | :16:52. | |
that by concentrating on the young we ignore a whole generation of | :16:52. | :16:54. | |
unemployed men and women who've been left behind without any | :16:54. | :17:04. | |
:17:04. | :17:16. | ||
prospect of work. Here's his Soapbox. Unemployment is a much | :17:17. | :17:20. | |
more profound issue that politicians like to admit. It's | :17:20. | :17:23. | |
especially concentrated in areas like this, which frankly they try | :17:23. | :17:28. | |
to ignore and where the people have no voice. I believe that just | :17:28. | :17:34. | |
concentrating on youth unemployment is a profound mistake. A generation | :17:34. | :17:39. | |
of our people were brought up to work in the local factory. They | :17:39. | :17:44. | |
weren't educated for anything else. As these jobs dried up, they were | :17:44. | :17:51. | |
left completely stranded. In some parts of the country unemployment | :17:51. | :17:57. | |
reaches 50% and even 60% and multiple Government initiatives | :17:57. | :18:02. | |
have made very little difference to them. For me, these people | :18:02. | :18:06. | |
represent a let-down generation and they are the victims of a terrible | :18:06. | :18:10. | |
double whammy. There are up to 10 million people without a GCSE to | :18:10. | :18:14. | |
their name. That means they can't even apply for most of the jobs | :18:14. | :18:24. | |
:18:24. | :18:25. | ||
that are on offer. The secret to employibility and education is | :18:25. | :18:29. | |
attitude. A child's attitude is largely determined by their parents. | :18:29. | :18:33. | |
Home life, not school, is largely responsible for up to 90% of a | :18:33. | :18:39. | |
child's educational outcome. Any investment in jobs and skills for | :18:39. | :18:48. | |
parents will have a massive impact on their children. You Rennes | :18:48. | :18:53. | |
social enterprises and create jobs in over 20 years. I know places | :18:53. | :18:57. | |
like Eco Computers is one of social enterprises that kep hem people get | :18:57. | :19:02. | |
back into work. They don't want charities or grants, but they just | :19:02. | :19:05. | |
want contracts with real clients and they can create real work and | :19:05. | :19:13. | |
real training. Why are those jobs? Typical government schemes | :19:13. | :19:17. | |
concentrate on K Vs and interview skills, but they miss the point. | :19:17. | :19:23. | |
They are honed at work, not in a classroom. The Government, local | :19:24. | :19:27. | |
authorities and big business need to actively contract with | :19:27. | :19:31. | |
organisations such as these that really understand the issues that | :19:31. | :19:34. | |
people face and actively want to create jobs for the unemployment. | :19:35. | :19:42. | |
If we do this we will breathe life back into our communities and | :19:42. | :19:47. | |
create positive adult role models and prospects for our young people. | :19:47. | :19:52. | |
Colin joins us now. Taking up the points in that film, the jobs are | :19:52. | :19:55. | |
needed, so do you think in the economic situation that the country | :19:55. | :19:59. | |
is in that there is the capacity for the sort of jobs to take on the | :19:59. | :20:03. | |
people you've described? Absolutely. I've spent 20 years employing these | :20:03. | :20:08. | |
people and creating jobs out of nothing and it's contracts and | :20:08. | :20:12. | |
about getting local authorities and Government deciding to buy from | :20:12. | :20:15. | |
social enterprises that work with these people. We don't want grants. | :20:15. | :20:20. | |
What I want is a contract. I want Government departments to say, "I | :20:20. | :20:23. | |
will buy a service from you, whether or not it's supplying | :20:24. | :20:29. | |
toilet rolls or cleaners or whether it's recycling, I will buy from you | :20:29. | :20:33. | |
in your area where you create people who have been oppressed and | :20:33. | :20:38. | |
depressed for 20 years." Why isn't it happening? The bureaucracy in | :20:38. | :20:42. | |
this system is phenomenal and the Government hasn't focused. The | :20:42. | :20:45. | |
Government thinks about new deals and work programmes. Do they work? | :20:45. | :20:48. | |
Barely, to be honest. It doesn't touch these people. It touches the | :20:48. | :20:51. | |
people at the top who would probably get a job in any case. It | :20:51. | :20:59. | |
does not touch the people at the bottom who are struggling. None of | :20:59. | :21:02. | |
these work. We need for them to spend the money they are going to | :21:02. | :21:05. | |
spend. I don't need any extra borrowing or loans. I want the | :21:05. | :21:09. | |
Government to say, "We are already buying services for this building, | :21:09. | :21:12. | |
why don't we buy them from this company here that's employing | :21:12. | :21:17. | |
people who are hard to employ?" Grant Shapps, why isn't it | :21:17. | :21:21. | |
happening? It's frustrating to hear when it doesn't happen. I know | :21:21. | :21:24. | |
there is a nursery in my constituency that a contract with | :21:24. | :21:28. | |
the local authority and they are employing people who otherwise | :21:28. | :21:31. | |
would find it difficult to be in the market. I've seen it work. In | :21:31. | :21:35. | |
my last role, partly as a local Government minister, I spent some | :21:35. | :21:40. | |
time on this finding out why it was that councils feel they have to | :21:40. | :21:44. | |
impose such incredible prequalification question airs to | :21:44. | :21:47. | |
sell anything to that -- questionnaires to sell anything to | :21:47. | :21:51. | |
that local Government and when a business can come in and be more | :21:51. | :21:54. | |
flexible. It means the local authority buys uncome petively and | :21:54. | :21:58. | |
it doesn't go to a social enterprise. Because they've never | :21:58. | :22:01. | |
been good as procurement. They've been talking about for years. Why | :22:01. | :22:07. | |
is not changing? It's like biting through, I don't know, what, to get | :22:07. | :22:10. | |
to the people to make the changes. I was involved in trying to cut | :22:10. | :22:14. | |
down the size of the application. We are saying to local authorities | :22:14. | :22:18. | |
and you maybe come across this, they should not introduce these | :22:18. | :22:21. | |
questionnaires if what they are buying isn't more than a certain | :22:21. | :22:26. | |
figure which could be several hundred,000 pounds, but they will | :22:26. | :22:31. | |
be directly involved in it and you don't want to contract wider still. | :22:31. | :22:35. | |
We recognise the problem which isn't being dealt with. What about | :22:35. | :22:38. | |
Colin's point that actually the programmes that the Government has | :22:38. | :22:43. | |
put on track to try to employ people they barely work? I think | :22:43. | :22:49. | |
you have to do a combination of things. You can do a programme - | :22:49. | :22:53. | |
you made a great point, governments have tried over many years and | :22:53. | :22:56. | |
guess what, it doesn't really help. You have to do it all together. One | :22:56. | :23:01. | |
of the things I think will help is the lasting legacy is the universal | :23:01. | :23:04. | |
credit and it's to Iain Duncan Smith's credit it's been brought in, | :23:04. | :23:07. | |
because it means when you go to work you are better off through | :23:07. | :23:11. | |
work and you have to do that as well as put in targeted support and | :23:11. | :23:15. | |
I think again that offers the best opportunities to start to make the | :23:15. | :23:19. | |
schemes actually work and be efficient to produce and create, | :23:19. | :23:23. | |
because people get paid and it's worth doing. Unemployment is coming | :23:23. | :23:27. | |
down from the figures, down by 46,000. Do you think that is a fair | :23:27. | :23:31. | |
reflection of what is going on out there, particularly with - no? | :23:31. | :23:35. | |
in the slightest. What is actually happening is it's coming down | :23:35. | :23:40. | |
because people are paut into part- time jobs. If you look under -- | :23:40. | :23:45. | |
being put into part-time jobs, if you look under that, 30% of our | :23:45. | :23:49. | |
working population, 10 million, don't work, so it's a bigger number. | :23:49. | :23:52. | |
A lot would like to, but they're not counted? I meet them every day. | :23:52. | :23:57. | |
They want a job. Is it the wrong emphasis focusing so much attention | :23:57. | :24:00. | |
on the youth which is the point made by Colin in terms of looking | :24:00. | :24:04. | |
for role models? You should be looking at the lost generation? | :24:04. | :24:07. | |
thought that was an interesting point, because obviously | :24:07. | :24:10. | |
unemployment at any age is a serious problem. The reason that | :24:10. | :24:16. | |
politicians tend to focus on youth is because if you allow early on in | :24:16. | :24:20. | |
someone's life worklessness to become a way of life that that | :24:20. | :24:24. | |
becomes a problem throughout and the point is wider, which is if you | :24:24. | :24:28. | |
look at the inactive economic population, who are inactive, it | :24:28. | :24:33. | |
may well go much wider and things like making sure that it quite | :24:33. | :24:36. | |
simply always pays you when you go out and do an extra hour's work you | :24:36. | :24:40. | |
will always be better off than the welfare equivalent. Those things | :24:40. | :24:45. | |
are as important. You would agree with this, Rachel, in terms of work | :24:45. | :24:49. | |
paying? Of course. That's why tax credits were always important to | :24:49. | :24:53. | |
get people to go back to work, but we have the real problem and Colin | :24:53. | :24:59. | |
highlights it, underemployment and the difference between the GDP | :24:59. | :25:04. | |
numbers that show us in recession and then the others that are | :25:04. | :25:07. | |
decreasing, that some people only work part-time, because the work | :25:07. | :25:14. | |
isn't really there and there is the creation of jobs, but not real -- | :25:14. | :25:18. | |
really giving people an income, but talking also about contracts for | :25:18. | :25:22. | |
social enterprises. It's also an issue for small businesses in and | :25:22. | :25:26. | |
around the country. Small businesses as well can't get | :25:26. | :25:30. | |
contracts either from local Government or central Government | :25:30. | :25:32. | |
because of the bureaucracy and they need to have the track records of | :25:32. | :25:39. | |
success and the big contracts. It's a catch 22 situation. Colin, thank | :25:39. | :25:45. | |
you very much. While political attention here in the UK is on | :25:45. | :25:48. | |
David Cameron's reshuffle and the return of MPs to Westminter, over | :25:48. | :25:55. | |
in the United States the race for the White House is unde rway. Last | :25:55. | :25:57. | |
week, the Republicans held their convention, with a starring role | :25:57. | :26:00. | |
for Ann Romney, the wife of the Republican candidate, Mitt Romney. | :26:00. | :26:03. | |
This week, it's the turn of the Democrats, and last night Barack | :26:03. | :26:13. | |
:26:13. | :26:20. | ||
Obama's wife, Michelle made a keynote speech. This is the man | :26:20. | :26:29. | |
America needs. This is the man who will wake up every day with the | :26:29. | :26:33. | |
determination to solve the problems that others say can't be solve, to | :26:33. | :26:37. | |
fix what others say is beyond repair. This is the man who will | :26:37. | :26:41. | |
work harder than anyone so we can work a little bit hard. I can't | :26:41. | :26:45. | |
tell you what will happen over the next four years, but I can only | :26:45. | :26:50. | |
stand here tonight as a wife, mother and grandmother, and an | :26:50. | :27:00. | |
:27:00. | :27:11. | ||
American and make you some solemn commitment - this man will not fail. | :27:11. | :27:19. | |
We must work like never before. And we must once again come together | :27:19. | :27:26. | |
and stand together with a man we can trust. That's to keep moving | :27:27. | :27:32. | |
this great country forward. My husband, our President, Barack | :27:32. | :27:42. | |
:27:42. | :27:42. | ||
Obama. Thank you. God bless you. God bless America. That's the two | :27:42. | :27:46. | |
First Ladies for the election campaign. It's very American. The | :27:46. | :27:50. | |
speeches are pretty much devoid of substance. It's all emotion and | :27:50. | :27:54. | |
bigging up your husband. Could you see that happening in this country, | :27:54. | :27:57. | |
Mrs Miliband going in front of a Labour conference and saying these | :27:57. | :28:03. | |
things about Ed? I just think it would be nice to see more women in | :28:03. | :28:08. | |
front-line politics. That's not the issue. I'm talking about spouses | :28:08. | :28:11. | |
here. If it's Hillary Clinton running it will be Bill that will | :28:11. | :28:16. | |
have to do it. Should spouses play this role? I would like to come | :28:16. | :28:20. | |
back to my point, because what we don't see in America or the UK or | :28:20. | :28:25. | |
any countries are enough women. are only seeing them as women | :28:25. | :28:29. | |
because they're married to men. are seeing them as the appendage of | :28:30. | :28:35. | |
their husbands and we did see it a bit in the UK election in 2010. | :28:35. | :28:41. | |
Will Mrs Mill -- Mrs Miliband do something like that? I very much | :28:41. | :28:45. | |
doubt it. I with like to see the women making their decisions rather | :28:45. | :28:48. | |
than supporting. One day I'll get them to answer the question I'm | :28:48. | :28:52. | |
asking. Before we go, just time - we can't do the competition, so we | :28:52. | :28:56. |