:00:38. > :00:41.Afternoon, folks, this is the Daily Politics. David Cameron has been
:00:41. > :00:46.eating German sweets and lots of biscuits all night to help stay
:00:46. > :00:49.awake during the EU budget talks. It is a diet that appears to have
:00:49. > :00:53.worked wonders for his negotiating skills. He and his European chums
:00:53. > :01:01.have been brokering a new EU budget and for the first time in the EU's
:01:01. > :01:05.56 year history, they may actually cut, I repeat, cut the budget. Mr
:01:05. > :01:09.Cameron will like that. But will the final settlement actually save
:01:09. > :01:13.Britain any money? Taking risks with our money. Fixing
:01:13. > :01:17.interest rates. Paying for failure. Still trousering a shed load of
:01:17. > :01:20.money. We will be asking if anything can be done to improve the
:01:20. > :01:24.culture of banking. Should the British National Party
:01:24. > :01:28.and other far-right groups in Europe get EU funding? Lots of MEPs
:01:28. > :01:32.don't think so, and the issue is cooking up a bit of a political
:01:32. > :01:35.storm. And our Adam is in a bit of a spin
:01:35. > :01:45.over the rotating presidency. So we sent him on a European merry-go-
:01:45. > :01:48.
:01:48. > :01:52.round. All that in the next hour. And with
:01:52. > :01:54.us for the first half, Banking Editor of the Times, Sam Coates and
:01:54. > :02:04.by the blogger and occasional columnist Rowena Davis, who is also
:02:04. > :02:13.
:02:13. > :02:17.a Peckham Labour councillor. Welcome to you both. So, horse-
:02:17. > :02:21.trading in Brussels, and at Findus, the latest food company to have a
:02:21. > :02:24.long face. The food agency has been told to carry out urgent tests on
:02:24. > :02:30.all beef products after some Findus lasagnes were found to contain up
:02:30. > :02:37.to 100 per cent horsemeat. Findus withdrew the meals from sale after
:02:37. > :02:43.its French supplier raised concerns. The Food Standards Agency has
:02:43. > :02:46.called the situation appalling. Last month, frozen beef burgers
:02:46. > :02:51.were taken off the shelves of many supermarkets after tests revealed
:02:51. > :02:58.the presence of horse DNA. Well, this is what the shadow environment
:02:58. > :03:02.secretary Mary Creagh had to say about it all this morning.
:03:02. > :03:08.problem with the horsemeat scandal is the more tests that are carried
:03:08. > :03:12.out, the wider the scandal spreads and the more horsemeat that is
:03:12. > :03:16.found. My concern is that if these processed meats are present in
:03:16. > :03:20.schools, hospitals and prisons that these tests are not being carried
:03:20. > :03:24.out and they will not be carried out until March or April. That is
:03:25. > :03:32.not good enough. So, has the Government been too
:03:32. > :03:38.slow to react? I think it is hard to ask the government to test every
:03:38. > :03:43.little bit of food. They are meant to regulate things. They are, but
:03:43. > :03:48.over the last 20 years Britain has benefited from extraordinarily
:03:48. > :03:52.cheap food costs. What is striking is that a lot of the products taken
:03:52. > :03:57.off the shelves are at the economy and of the market. I think a lot of
:03:57. > :04:02.us have had a suspicion about what on earth is in them. When did you
:04:02. > :04:06.last have a Findus lasagne? More recently than I would like to admit.
:04:06. > :04:11.You just know that there is a lot of dodgy practice going on in the
:04:11. > :04:15.food industry. You see with bacon and other products, the bulking it
:04:15. > :04:19.up with sugar and water. If they are doing that at a higher end of
:04:19. > :04:26.the market, what on earth they doing at the low end? It is not
:04:26. > :04:32.surprising. This is not really on a par with the BSE scare and things
:04:32. > :04:35.like that, is it? No, but I think it is one of the risks of having a
:04:35. > :04:39.globalised food industry. As you were saying, we have become
:04:39. > :04:43.completely divorced from the production of our food that we eat
:04:43. > :04:48.in this country. It goes through many different continents, it goes
:04:48. > :04:54.through different stages and has different products added to it. The
:04:55. > :04:59.ownership is left -- less. This has involved the Irish and the French.
:04:59. > :05:04.What is interesting is the lower income groups are generally buying
:05:04. > :05:08.products which are the processed meat products. Those food products
:05:08. > :05:14.which had the least stages in the chain are often the organic produce
:05:14. > :05:21.and local produce and their assets which are more expensive, not less.
:05:21. > :05:26.Have you got a decent butchers in Peckham? There is one that has
:05:26. > :05:29.opened. Now to the banks because if you are
:05:29. > :05:35.a banking editor, like Sam Coates here, it has been a busy week and
:05:35. > :05:38.he has probably earned his keep at the Times. It started off on Monday
:05:38. > :05:41.when George Osborne, the Chancellor of the Exchequer, delivered a
:05:41. > :05:45.speech setting out what he will do to prevent banks from using the
:05:45. > :05:48.money of ordinary savers to subsidise risky investment banking.
:05:48. > :05:53.New rules are being implemented to put up a so-called ring fence
:05:53. > :06:01.around high street retail banks. The Chancellor insisted the
:06:01. > :06:05.mistakes of the past would not be repeated.
:06:05. > :06:08.I can tell you that your high street bank will have different
:06:08. > :06:13.bosses from the Investment Bank. Your high-street bank will manage
:06:13. > :06:16.its own risks and not the risks of the Investment Bank. And the
:06:16. > :06:23.Investment Bank will not be able to use your savings to fund their
:06:23. > :06:27.inherently risky investigations. My message is clear, if a bank flout
:06:27. > :06:34.the rules, the regulator and the Treasury will have the power to
:06:34. > :06:38.break it up altogether. Full separation. Not just a ring fence.
:06:39. > :06:44.We are not going to repeat the mistakes of the past. In America
:06:44. > :06:50.and elsewhere, banks found ways to undermine and get around the rules.
:06:50. > :06:55.Greed overcame good governance. We could see that again so we are
:06:55. > :06:59.going to arm ourselves in advance. In the jargon, we will electrify a
:06:59. > :07:02.ring fence. So, don't touch it.
:07:02. > :07:05.The Chancellor's speech was on Monday, but on Wednesday we had a
:07:05. > :07:08.reminder of another banking scandal when the state-owned RBS, the Royal
:07:08. > :07:11.Bank of Scotland, was fined �390 million by regulators in Britain
:07:11. > :07:15.and the United States over the fixing of what is known as the
:07:15. > :07:18.LIBOR rate. Traders at the bank had deliberately manipulated the
:07:18. > :07:28.interest rate, which is used to set the cost of mortgages and loans, in
:07:28. > :07:30.
:07:30. > :07:33.order to make a profit. Or to avoid losses. RBS said it had uncovered
:07:33. > :07:42.wrongdoing by 21 employees, and its chief executive, Stephen Hester,
:07:42. > :07:49.admitted their greed was part of a wider problem.
:07:49. > :07:56.What these 21 people did is wrong. There can be no place in RBS or in
:07:56. > :08:01.the banking industry for wrongdoing of this nature. I think in some
:08:01. > :08:05.ways worse than that wrongdoing is the fact that it is an extreme
:08:05. > :08:10.example of a selfish and self- serving culture, of which there are
:08:10. > :08:18.too many other milder examples across the banking industry for the
:08:18. > :08:26.Prix financial crisis period. another banking apology there from
:08:26. > :08:30.a banker in sackcloth and ashes. Yesterday, it was the turn of Mark
:08:30. > :08:33.Carney to have his say. He is the Canadian who is going to take over
:08:33. > :08:36.as the Governor of the Bank of England in July. He was in front of
:08:36. > :08:39.the Treasury Select Committee where he was setting out how he would
:08:39. > :08:42.handle the job. He suggested allowing a degree of flexibility in
:08:42. > :08:45.the bank's inflation target, but he also expressed sympathy with the
:08:46. > :08:53.view that bankers had not suffered enough for their role in the 2008
:08:54. > :08:58.financial crisis. It was not just that the financial
:08:58. > :09:05.crisis triggered a very sharp recession, here and in the United
:09:05. > :09:11.States, but that the senior most officials in those financial
:09:11. > :09:17.institutions appeared to escape unscathed, not pay the price, in
:09:17. > :09:22.fact in many of the institutions that failed, some of the C E Os
:09:22. > :09:26.received large payout prior to their demise.
:09:26. > :09:29.You will be hearing a lot more from him in the months to come.
:09:29. > :09:34.With us now is the Conservative MP for the cities of London and
:09:34. > :09:43.Westminster. So he knows a thing or two about the banking industry.
:09:43. > :09:49.Welcome, Mark Field. Will the Chancellor's electric fence work?
:09:49. > :09:53.Time will tell. I am sceptical about ring-fencing, electric or
:09:53. > :09:58.otherwise. We are looking ahead to what the next crisis may be. The
:09:58. > :10:04.vicar's Commission and the whole idea of ring-fencing is very much
:10:04. > :10:11.George Osborne's baby. I think he has been quite pragmatic in what he
:10:11. > :10:15.has done this week. If it was such a marvellous idea, why has no other
:10:15. > :10:19.organisation or big jurisdiction following this route? There are
:10:20. > :10:23.variations on ring-fencing. The big worry is we get another layer of
:10:23. > :10:28.uncertainty that surrounds this financial services business which
:10:28. > :10:32.is so crucial to the economy. think it is interesting that a
:10:32. > :10:35.Member of Parliament is not convinced these proposals will work.
:10:35. > :10:39.These firewalls may turn out to be China waltz when you think the
:10:39. > :10:43.shareholders of the Bank will remain the same, when you think the
:10:43. > :10:48.banks will not be broken up, it is just a threat. And when they have
:10:48. > :10:51.been no criminal prosecutions at all despite the revelations we have
:10:51. > :10:55.heard. Will the banks take seriously the threat that they
:10:55. > :11:00.could be broken up or will they think that his political spin, you
:11:00. > :11:06.will never dare? Talking to them this week, they did not think
:11:06. > :11:12.George Osborne's speech amounted to that much. What has happened as the
:11:12. > :11:16.government decided not to break apart the whisky arm from the High
:11:16. > :11:21.Street counterparts -- of the whisky on, the investment bank from
:11:21. > :11:26.its how it -- high street counterparts. Can these investment
:11:26. > :11:32.arms use our money? Can they access our savings and current accounts
:11:32. > :11:37.for their risky ventures or not? Under the ring-fence plan, no. You
:11:37. > :11:41.cannot use retail money to fund activities in the Investment Bank.
:11:41. > :11:46.But I think what we are missing here is the bigger problem with the
:11:46. > :11:51.UK banking sector which nobody is tackling, which is broadly that we
:11:51. > :11:56.have two -- four big banks and that is it. There a couple nibbling
:11:56. > :12:00.around the edges. If they topple over they could bring down the
:12:00. > :12:06.financial system. That is the boldness that a lot of people on
:12:06. > :12:11.the political side are now asking. It is also so difficult to move
:12:11. > :12:15.your banking camp. My bank is the Royal Bank of Scotland. I have been
:12:15. > :12:23.with it since 1973. In the past couple of weeks, dealing with it is
:12:23. > :12:26.a nightmare. Getting a simple money transfers done takes that 20 emails
:12:26. > :12:30.and three phone calls and they are never there when you call them.
:12:30. > :12:34.When you think I will just move it and then you look at all the direct
:12:34. > :12:39.debits and a new cheque book, can something be done to make it
:12:39. > :12:43.easier? In fairness, George Osborne has got this in mind, the need for
:12:43. > :12:48.more competitive banking sector. The difficulty is, the more you are
:12:48. > :12:53.regulated, the more you put more ring-fencing in place. That is a
:12:53. > :12:57.direct threat to new competitors. The barriers for entry become
:12:57. > :13:01.higher. I am simply saying that somebody wants to move their bank
:13:01. > :13:04.account, it should be incumbent on the bank you are leaving it to hand
:13:04. > :13:10.over all the direct debits and other details to the bank you have
:13:11. > :13:16.chosen to go to. I agree. To be fair, this is very much in George
:13:16. > :13:20.Osborne's eye is now. With all due respect, there is another bigger
:13:20. > :13:24.question. There are two issues going on, the first is how the
:13:24. > :13:28.banks -- how you ensure that banks do not make the same risky mistakes
:13:28. > :13:32.as they did in 2008, the second is how banks can play a role in the
:13:32. > :13:38.recovery of our economy. We heard the former Chancellor of the
:13:38. > :13:41.Exchequer, Nigel Lawson, saying he wants to nationalised RBS and turn
:13:41. > :13:45.it into an investment bank. Whether we like it or not, we need the
:13:45. > :13:49.banks more than ever. If we are going to get an economic recovery
:13:49. > :13:54.and getting small businesses being lent to. The problem I have over
:13:54. > :14:01.LIBOR is, LIBOR was clearly wrong and there was fraud going on, but
:14:01. > :14:06.will almost looking with a 2020 hindsight, any novel product is
:14:06. > :14:11.accused of being mis-sold. If we are going to have a constant diet
:14:11. > :14:17.of class actions and legal actions... Here is the thing, I'm
:14:17. > :14:21.not convinced that many of the interest rate swaps products were
:14:21. > :14:29.mis-sold. There are some people... Its some people were sold things
:14:29. > :14:35.they did not need or want. Perhaps. The FSA found last week that 90 %
:14:35. > :14:42.of the swaps they look that had been mis-sold. But now we are
:14:42. > :14:50.looking at almost any novel financial product which will be
:14:50. > :14:54.susceptible. Date can con the customer. For the high street arm
:14:54. > :14:58.to generate large profits. To a certain extent, the banks created
:14:58. > :15:03.the problem. Whether or not making them shell out of pay back money
:15:03. > :15:12.they did is hobbling them for the future, it is a very difficult
:15:12. > :15:22.policy dilemma. Pa to the problem is politicians want banks to face
:15:22. > :15:32.
:15:32. > :15:39.You want them to lend a lot more. By stocking up their balance sheets,
:15:39. > :15:47.they are not able to lend more. You cannot do both. There is a tension.
:15:47. > :15:52.Politicians are not honest about Ted. We should have that discussion
:15:52. > :16:00.openly. -- about it. A lot of businesses have very sound business
:16:00. > :16:04.plans, are ready to go, but they cannot get the lending. This relies
:16:05. > :16:10.on every business proposal being too risky to take a chance on. We
:16:10. > :16:17.know there are very good and sound business plans up and down the
:16:17. > :16:21.country that are not getting the money. They have a funding for
:16:21. > :16:27.lending scheme. Most of the money has gone into mortgages. Most of
:16:27. > :16:34.them say, confidence is at such a low level Cammack unique two sides
:16:34. > :16:40.for any transaction. -- at a low level, you need. If you are a hard-
:16:40. > :16:46.working person commits you get up early, go to a job that is not that
:16:46. > :16:55.interesting, get paid the average earnings - �26,000 or so on. These
:16:55. > :17:00.traders making tons of money. It is amazing how these traders can make
:17:00. > :17:05.that money. People are right to be furious at this sort of nonsense.
:17:05. > :17:15.Not one of these traders has been charged. Not red. Quite a lot has
:17:15. > :17:25.been fired and they Rupp ongoing disciplinary actions. -- not yet.
:17:25. > :17:28.
:17:28. > :17:32.The LIBOR activity was not on. has been completely destroyed.
:17:33. > :17:38.was very bad. We need the banks more than ever to get the economy
:17:38. > :17:42.moving again. It just depends which bank. Now, believe it or not, it
:17:42. > :17:44.has only been a month and a day since David Cameron and Nick Clegg
:17:44. > :17:48.announced their midterm review, with both leaders saying they were
:17:48. > :17:52.in it for the long haul. But no sooner had they set out on the
:17:52. > :17:54.journey for the next two and a half years than it was first stop Europe,
:17:54. > :17:57.when Cameron promised an in/out EU referendum which Nick Clegg
:17:57. > :18:00.described as not in the national interest. Next, it was the Liberal
:18:00. > :18:02.Democrats turn to reach for the stop button when they voted to
:18:02. > :18:06.delay changes to constituency boundaries and, in the process,
:18:06. > :18:09.give themselves a fighting chance at the next election. Earlier this
:18:09. > :18:12.week former Energy Minister and Lib Dem MP Chris Huhne felt decidedly
:18:12. > :18:16.travel sick after admitting it was him speeding on the M11 in March
:18:16. > :18:19.2003 after all - forcing him to resign his seat and trigger a by-
:18:19. > :18:29.election that will pit both sides of the coalition against each other
:18:29. > :18:31.
:18:31. > :18:33.for the first time. And then, on Thursday, English Baccalaureate
:18:33. > :18:36.Certificates failed to get into first gear after Michael Gove
:18:36. > :18:39.decided he actually really rather liked GCSEs - a hand-brake turn
:18:39. > :18:49.thought to be popular with Nick Clegg and his chums who were
:18:49. > :18:51.
:18:51. > :18:53.worried about a two-tier system. So, all in all, it has been a pretty
:18:53. > :18:57.damaging month for the coalition government but, with more than two
:18:57. > :19:04.years to go, are they going to get to the finishing line or could
:19:04. > :19:07.there be an obstacle in the road that proves too big to overcome?
:19:07. > :19:15.And we are joined now by Tim Montgomerie from Conservative Home
:19:15. > :19:21.and from Liberal Democrat Voice, Mark Pack. How to categorise the
:19:21. > :19:26.state of the coalition? It is a business arrangement. -- how do you
:19:26. > :19:32.categorise? We had the two leaders in the rose garden in Downing
:19:32. > :19:38.Street and it was put across as a loving relationship. It is not that.
:19:38. > :19:46.Everyone knows that. It is still a great that it is incredibly
:19:46. > :19:50.important principle projects. -- it is still agreed. I think it will
:19:50. > :19:56.last. The Lib Dems have very little enthusiasm for welfare and
:19:56. > :20:03.education forms -- reforms. The deficit has stopped going down.
:20:03. > :20:08.lot of Liberal Democrats have a lot of support for the reforms.
:20:08. > :20:11.would you categorise the state of your coalition? It is a functioning
:20:11. > :20:15.business relationship. David Cameron and Nick Clegg add a
:20:15. > :20:20.personal level can get on with each other. They disagree but they get
:20:20. > :20:24.on with each other. They understand that a huge part of how the public
:20:24. > :20:28.use them is the state of the economy. The longer time they have,
:20:28. > :20:35.the better for both parties. That is why we will see a lot of
:20:35. > :20:41.rumbustious stuff but the Eastleigh by-election. Both parties will be
:20:41. > :20:47.in coalition until the next election. Can they knock the spots
:20:47. > :20:51.off each other and still have a pint down the road? The Liberal
:20:51. > :20:56.Democrats are we talking about had just under 4000 people in Eastleigh
:20:56. > :21:03.had been taken out of paying tax altogether. The Tories will take
:21:03. > :21:09.credit for that as well. Who should get the credit for it? The Liberal
:21:09. > :21:16.Democrats? Are the Tories going to win the by-election? Is Mr Cameron
:21:16. > :21:20.going to win? That is the trouble. There is only one winner. It is one
:21:20. > :21:27.of the most interesting by- elections for us political anoraks.
:21:27. > :21:31.The media and the political anoraks and the pollsters. If he wins, he
:21:31. > :21:36.will enormous to strengthen his position in the Conservative Party.
:21:36. > :21:39.The strategy is based on the fact we can win seats like Beasley. It
:21:39. > :21:47.is hard because the Liberal Democrats control all of the
:21:47. > :21:53.councils. That is not fertile territory. -- like Eastleigh.
:21:53. > :21:57.there be a local candidate? It is very likely. What does it mean for
:21:57. > :22:02.Nick Clegg? Certainly come up almost the reverse of the point
:22:03. > :22:09.about David Cameron and their conservative strategy. It is just
:22:09. > :22:17.the sort of seat the party can hold. It is easy to up the stakes in
:22:17. > :22:21.terms of a knife hold edge. The poll we saw published by Lord
:22:21. > :22:27.Ashcroft this morning shows the Labour Party in a distant third. Ed
:22:27. > :22:33.Miliband is not getting any traction in places like that.
:22:33. > :22:40.Neither for UKIP. Nigel Farage has not gone for this. He is supposed
:22:40. > :22:43.to be super-confident and yet he has not. Labour are a distant third
:22:43. > :22:49.was that they were a distant third at the election. What will happen
:22:49. > :22:57.to the Labour vote in your view? Willett vote tactically? Willett
:22:57. > :23:02.vote for the Lib Dems? -- will it boat? The timetable was finalised
:23:02. > :23:06.last night to choose a candidate for Labour. There is a lot of
:23:06. > :23:11.energy than the neighbouring constituencies to go and flex
:23:11. > :23:17.muscles. You have Alan Whitehead's constituencies. Also the seat of
:23:17. > :23:26.Lord Denham. They need to go out there and chase the vote. If you
:23:26. > :23:31.take votes from the Lib Dems can make you will secure a Conservative
:23:31. > :23:41.victory. It could be pushed to a point where they live Dems win but
:23:41. > :23:48.after seven recounts! You want to keep us up all night. -- where the
:23:48. > :23:52.Lib Dems win. I think, time together all the things that have
:23:52. > :23:56.happened this week of what a lot of people will be looking at is the
:23:56. > :23:59.sheer dysfunction that the entire political system looks like. It is
:23:59. > :24:05.dysfunction with the GCSE announcements and with Chris Huhne
:24:05. > :24:10.and Vicky Pryce. I think the public bar just irritated with the whole
:24:10. > :24:16.machinery of politics. They could end up being a reverse disinterest
:24:16. > :24:18.among so people of Eastleigh in that by-election. Is the
:24:18. > :24:25.Conservative Party moving more than a direction you have been calling
:24:25. > :24:29.for? It looks like he has done the decent enough deal in Brussels. I
:24:29. > :24:36.do not know all the details but it looks like it is going his way a
:24:36. > :24:41.bit. Now he has a by-election test which, if he wins, it almost
:24:41. > :24:47.certainly make his position unassailable. I do nothing be can
:24:47. > :24:51.make any long-term predictions on any one result. He has certainly
:24:51. > :24:58.made in the direction a lot of Conservatives wanted. That is not
:24:58. > :25:04.just about Conservatives. Some proposals have been proposed by
:25:04. > :25:08.backbenchers - a rate of 10p for the low-paid. Not just issues about
:25:08. > :25:13.immigration and crime. It is about gay marriage and tax for the low-
:25:14. > :25:19.paid to ensure we have are barn as suffering for every voter. If the
:25:19. > :25:27.Prime Minister is watching, he did not think the position is
:25:27. > :25:33.necessarily unsustainable. implied, would there be a debate?
:25:33. > :25:40.did not imply that at all? Let me be absolutely clear... Of when
:25:40. > :25:46.people said that to me, I know a fog is coming in. That means it is
:25:46. > :25:53.just about to get very muddy. Will this coalition go down to the wire?
:25:53. > :25:58.Will it go down to the start of the election campaign in 2015? Will the
:25:58. > :26:03.Lib Dems crisis think we should pull out not in acrimony, but we
:26:03. > :26:10.should get out to distance ourself - refined our bearings sometimes
:26:10. > :26:15.after the summer of 20 14th - will they win the day? It is very
:26:15. > :26:20.unlikely. -- 2014. The public does not always pay huge amounts of
:26:20. > :26:23.attention to politics. The public does have a memory. You cannot pull
:26:23. > :26:28.out of the coalition a few months before polling day. Both parties
:26:28. > :26:34.will be judged predominantly a have they have done in coalition. It
:26:34. > :26:38.makes sense to make the most out of that right up until polling day.
:26:38. > :26:40.Now they are meant to work smarter, do more for less and, of course,
:26:40. > :26:43.think creatively about tapping in to their revenue-generating
:26:43. > :26:49.potential. No, I am not talking about contestants in Alan Sugar's
:26:50. > :26:59.Apprentice but local councils. And, do you know what? Some are. Liz
:27:00. > :27:02.
:27:02. > :27:05.The medieval market town of Shrewsbury. Famous for its historic
:27:05. > :27:10.buildings career its flower show and for being the birthplace of
:27:10. > :27:14.Charles Darwin. His book On the Origin of species fast established
:27:14. > :27:20.the theory of evolution. Nasha is Prix is witnessing the emergence of
:27:20. > :27:25.a new breed of local council. the first time in a generation,
:27:25. > :27:32.striving councils now have licence to go full steam ahead. Grab a
:27:32. > :27:37.share of wealth for their local areas. To stand tall, and seize the
:27:37. > :27:42.opportunity of enterprise, growth and prosperity. That was not
:27:42. > :27:45.Charles Darwin but a modern-day exponent of the evolutionary theory.
:27:45. > :27:52.The Secretary of State for local government, Eric Pickles. His
:27:52. > :27:55.message to local councils, adapt to survive. It is lunchtime at this
:27:55. > :27:59.high school in Shrewsbury. There are hundreds of hungry mouths to
:27:59. > :28:03.feed. They are so good at cooking school dinners in Shropshire, they
:28:03. > :28:09.are already selling them to other council areas. We had to come up
:28:09. > :28:12.with a plan on how to deal with future cuts. Our plan is to trade
:28:13. > :28:18.in the marketplace across the public sector. We note a lot of
:28:18. > :28:23.councils will have huge Kurds again and they will be looking to make
:28:23. > :28:29.savings. -- cuts. They are asking how we can help. Shropshire council
:28:29. > :28:33.hopes to move the majority of its 6000 staff into the new company.
:28:33. > :28:37.The Local Government Association says the scale of the plans is
:28:37. > :28:41.unprecedented. The idea of making a profit from a council service is
:28:41. > :28:47.not necessarily new. In Stoke on Trent, the city council joined
:28:48. > :28:51.forces with the construction and engineering firm backing 2008. The
:28:51. > :28:54.core business instead was the maintenance of 19,000 council
:28:54. > :28:59.houses. Its plan to grow the business and makes the money has
:28:59. > :29:04.not been easy. It was almost to the point of dissolving the partnership.
:29:04. > :29:08.But, we reduced waste and the response time went down. Tenants
:29:08. > :29:13.are much happier with the way things were working. It has settled
:29:13. > :29:17.into quite a nice working relationship. It is a cautionary
:29:17. > :29:21.tale. Do not gamble public money without a large slice of commercial
:29:21. > :29:31.know-how. If you are going to do it could enter into it knowing you
:29:31. > :29:31.
:29:31. > :29:37.have an escape route. The second key issue is, where are the
:29:37. > :29:42.opportunities to trade services? Local thirties are being encouraged
:29:42. > :29:48.to use their own methods of survival. -- local authorities.
:29:48. > :29:58.Will the fittest be able to embrace radical change and the rest pays
:29:58. > :30:04.
:30:04. > :30:11.How bad is the situation? It is pretty bad. The welfare budget is
:30:11. > :30:17.growing sharply. That is driven by demand. If you put that to one side,
:30:17. > :30:23.you have to cut everything else more. It is reducing spending in
:30:23. > :30:28.cash as well as in real terms. kind of approach as we saw on our
:30:28. > :30:32.film to raise revenues and make a profit, should we take that
:30:32. > :30:37.seriously in the sense that it makes a serious contribution to the
:30:37. > :30:40.finances or is it just marginal? think it is marginal in the great
:30:40. > :30:46.scheme of things. If you look at a whole cost of providing services
:30:46. > :30:52.for the elderly and children and so on, these things can help. In the
:30:52. > :30:56.year where government spending is falling by two of 3%, clearly a
:30:57. > :31:02.council can squeeze its spending a bit. If you asked cannot reduce
:31:02. > :31:06.spending by 20 of 30 %, no, it can't. It can squeeze it a bit but
:31:06. > :31:13.it cannot rescue councils from the scale of the cuts. And looking at
:31:13. > :31:16.the cuts, I'm told here that there will be a 33 % cut in real terms to
:31:16. > :31:23.the money councils receive from central government across the
:31:23. > :31:29.current spending review period which has 2011 to 2014 / 15. That
:31:29. > :31:34.kind of thing. This is expanding -- extending it. This is because the
:31:34. > :31:38.government has chosen to concentrate the cuts on some parts
:31:39. > :31:42.of public expenditure. Capital expenditure has been cut sharply.
:31:42. > :31:48.Some central departments like the Home Office and justice is being
:31:48. > :31:51.cut very sharply. Local government is being cut most sharply. Partly
:31:51. > :31:56.because politically that spreads the blame. It forces people other
:31:56. > :32:05.than the government to defend cuts at the local level. What is your
:32:05. > :32:10.area, Peckham or so that? Peckham is in Southwark. Southwark Council,
:32:10. > :32:15.to pick up on the sharing services. We are looking at talking to
:32:15. > :32:19.Lambeth to say can we manage your library services for you and that
:32:19. > :32:23.would help us bring in some money but it is an absolute drop in the
:32:23. > :32:29.ocean compared to the fact that at the end of the next financial year,
:32:29. > :32:34.we would have taken at �249 for every man, woman and child in our
:32:34. > :32:38.borough. When you have cuts of that kind of scale, any kind of
:32:38. > :32:44.outsourcing we can do is very limited. Sam, it is made worse
:32:44. > :32:49.getting less funding because there is effectively a council tax freeze
:32:49. > :32:55.on. They cannot raise their own taxes? Exactly. What worries me is
:32:55. > :33:03.they involve degrees of risk. One thing councils cannot dig is a fail.
:33:03. > :33:07.That is not an option. Or put money in Icelandic banking accounts?
:33:07. > :33:11.could be some councils trying really risky schemes to make up the
:33:11. > :33:16.shortfall which then and up costing their residents more. The final
:33:16. > :33:20.point, Tony, we always told there's a lot of waste in town halls, will
:33:20. > :33:24.this force them to get lean and mean? I think they are always
:33:24. > :33:29.pretty lean and mean. Local government, despite a reputation to
:33:29. > :33:34.the contrary, is well managed. It does not run deficits. It is
:33:34. > :33:38.efficient. Interestingly, it is the most important part of the public
:33:38. > :33:41.sector being driven to make even greater efficiency is. I would much
:33:41. > :33:46.ask the question whether some parts of the public sector that are not
:33:46. > :33:50.being cut could perhaps be put under little pressure in the future.
:33:50. > :33:58.I think cabinet ministers are beginning to ask that as well.
:33:58. > :34:01.Travers, thanks for being with us. And thank you to Sam and Arena.
:34:01. > :34:04.So, nearly 2000 years after the event, the European Union has
:34:05. > :34:08.decided to give Pompeii and facelift. And not just any old
:34:08. > :34:11.facelift, a 105 million euros facelift. Scientists have been
:34:12. > :34:14.looking for dark matter in a big mountain in Italy. A ban on women
:34:15. > :34:20.wearing trousers in Paris dating back to 1799 has finally been axed
:34:20. > :34:23.and a wolf hunt in Sweden came to an abrupt end. It has been a busy
:34:23. > :34:33.of week in Europe. But what have members of the European Parliament
:34:33. > :34:36.
:34:36. > :34:39.been up to? Here is our guide in French President Francois Hollande
:34:39. > :34:44.addressed the European Parliament where he warned the EU could be
:34:45. > :34:51.heading for a split and took a swipe at David Cameron's our carte
:34:51. > :34:54.approach to Europe. MEPs have been sounding off about noisy traffic.
:34:54. > :34:58.They have backed a draft law that would make vehicle noise reduced
:34:58. > :35:04.but they want electric cars to make more noise so pedestrians can hear
:35:04. > :35:08.them coming. Europol, that is the EU Law Enforcement Agency says it
:35:08. > :35:13.has uncovered match-fixing on an unprecedented scale and it could
:35:13. > :35:18.include a European and World Cup qualifiers. And MEPs have backed
:35:18. > :35:22.big reforms to the EU's Fisheries Policy. It is the first time they
:35:22. > :35:28.have shared power over fishing with member states. It will end the
:35:28. > :35:37.practice of throwing unwanted dead fish back into the sea. We want to
:35:37. > :35:40.see an end to the discarding of fish which is indefensible.
:35:40. > :35:43.And with us for the next 30 minutes, I have been joined by the
:35:43. > :35:51.Conservative MEP, Sajjad Karim, and by the Liberal Democrat MEP, Sarah
:35:51. > :35:55.Ludford. Welcome to you both. We used to have wine lakes in the
:35:55. > :35:59.old days, we used to have beef mountains, we still have fish being
:35:59. > :36:04.thrown back into the sea, these reforms, do you think they will
:36:04. > :36:08.really make a difference? They certainly will. I'm delighted that
:36:08. > :36:12.it is the first time the European Parliament has had leverage on a
:36:12. > :36:17.policy and this is the first time we have real reform. In the bad old
:36:17. > :36:22.days, the institutions had a short- term approach with vested interests
:36:22. > :36:28.which meant keeping the quotas above what scientific advice said.
:36:28. > :36:30.I am delighted that my colleague Chris Davies MEP, working with a
:36:30. > :36:37.big campaign like Hugh Fearnley- Whittingstall, has achieved real
:36:37. > :36:41.reform, banning discards, throwing dead fish back in, with long term
:36:41. > :36:46.management and regional decision- making. Not micro managing from
:36:46. > :36:52.Brussels. It shows you can get reform. A dig Britain get its way
:36:52. > :36:58.on this? I think a strong yes. A strong British input. Is it all
:36:58. > :37:03.over? I see there will be more negotiations with the 27 fisheries
:37:03. > :37:07.ministers before it becomes EU law. That is right. It has got to go
:37:07. > :37:11.through the Council of Ministers. Keep the champagne on ice? I really
:37:12. > :37:14.think we will get there. Political will has been demonstrated by the
:37:14. > :37:19.parliament. We will push this through.
:37:19. > :37:25.Let's move on to the big story today which is the budget. Soon
:37:25. > :37:30.after 6am this morning, the shape of the EU's budget began to emerge
:37:30. > :37:35.from Brussels. The European leaders have been up for most of the night
:37:35. > :37:41.negotiating, occasionally snubbing each other. Francois Harland said
:37:41. > :37:45.Mr Cameron captains of their with coffee, biscuits and sweets.
:37:45. > :37:52.Leaders calling for a straight seemed to have got it. We do not
:37:52. > :37:57.know yet. It is not over. The fat lady has not sung. He looks like a
:37:57. > :38:01.cut of 34 billion euros on the Budget which is coming to an end.
:38:01. > :38:05.UKIP's Nigel Farage is in Brussels where it is all happening. Would
:38:05. > :38:10.you like to be the first to congratulate the Prime Minister in
:38:10. > :38:15.getting the first cut in the EU budget for 56 years? Well, I think
:38:15. > :38:19.the British and Germans and other northern Europeans have said we
:38:19. > :38:26.cannot have Anne budget that expanse in size, we cannot sell
:38:26. > :38:30.that people. -- Anne budget. We have the best deal we could
:38:30. > :38:33.possibly have got under the circumstances. When we buy products
:38:33. > :38:38.from the European Union, we have to be careful what the label on the
:38:38. > :38:41.tin says because the contents can be disappointing. The weakness of
:38:41. > :38:46.sterling against the euro at the moment means there is no prospect
:38:46. > :38:50.of British contributions falling below �50 million a day. That is
:38:50. > :38:54.the bigger issue. Five years ago a Prime Minister that came back with
:38:54. > :38:59.a tiny cut in the Budget could have said a success and people believed
:38:59. > :39:03.it but I think the whole debate has moved on from that. Isn't he in
:39:03. > :39:08.danger of stealing your thunder now? He is offering voters a new
:39:08. > :39:13.relationship with Europe and a referendum. He shows he has got
:39:13. > :39:17.friends in Europe. He can negotiate with them and make an impact on EU
:39:17. > :39:22.spending, he has thwarted the demands of France. Francois
:39:22. > :39:28.Hollande would not even speak to him. In that circumstance, what is
:39:28. > :39:32.the point of UKIP? Quite. Cameron can say to the public we were
:39:33. > :39:37.paying �56 million a day to Brussels, we are now paying �52
:39:37. > :39:42.million. May be some voters will be impressed by that. From my part,
:39:42. > :39:47.our argument is we should not be paying any money at all. We want a
:39:47. > :39:50.relationship based on trade and co- operation, not being part of this
:39:50. > :39:54.political union. Really, in terms of the big European debate in
:39:54. > :39:59.Britain this does not change anything. The one person who says
:39:59. > :40:05.that better than anybody, he says it succinctly and with authority is
:40:05. > :40:10.your good self. So it why have you missed the opportunity to tell the
:40:10. > :40:17.British people all this by bottling out of fighting Eastleigh?
:40:17. > :40:21.please! I am here in Brussels at the summit today. I am one of seven
:40:21. > :40:26.group leaders at the European Parliament. We have a big vote
:40:26. > :40:30.coming up on this budget. I have plenty to do over here. I lead a
:40:30. > :40:34.party which is growing rapidly in size and is aiming to put 2000
:40:34. > :40:38.candidates into the field, into the local county council elections this
:40:38. > :40:42.year. I have promised I will tour around the country and support
:40:42. > :40:46.those people. I cannot do everything. We are not a one-man
:40:46. > :40:51.band. There are plenty of capable people who can fight the Eastleigh
:40:51. > :40:57.by-election. The suspicion is you prefer the good life in Brussels,
:40:57. > :41:02.rather than fighting in Eastleigh. Is it is a good life! Listen,
:41:02. > :41:08.Andrew, in the 1980s, I was a trader in the city. That was the
:41:08. > :41:12.high life. This is not, believe me. You did not manipulate LIBOR when
:41:12. > :41:18.you were there, did you? Know, I did not. I will not hold my hands
:41:18. > :41:22.up to that or anything else but I did live a good life. What is your
:41:22. > :41:27.overall attitude to, just as a working assumption, seeing that
:41:27. > :41:31.what we know is broadly what will be determined. What is your overall
:41:31. > :41:36.view? The Liberal Democrats have consistently voted for a straight
:41:36. > :41:39.on the budget. If you cannot have austerity at home and big increases
:41:39. > :41:44.as summer in the European Parliament wanted. We are
:41:44. > :41:48.overwrought OK with the outcome on the size of the budget. What we are
:41:48. > :41:53.very disappointed about is the shape and distribution of the money.
:41:53. > :41:59.Agricultural spending is going up. It is a bit rich for President
:41:59. > :42:07.Hollande to talk about how we need nemesis on growth but what is being
:42:07. > :42:16.cut his development on transport and so on. It is not as much as it
:42:16. > :42:21.should be for a 21st century budget. Foreign spending will come down
:42:21. > :42:28.overall. Not as much as it should. It is coming down a bit. We will
:42:28. > :42:31.look at the fine print. You are broadly in favour? We are in favour
:42:32. > :42:39.of the size but we need more flexibility and future Oriented
:42:39. > :42:43.spending. I assume you are broadly in favour so I will ask you about
:42:43. > :42:47.that. This will go through the European Parliament? Can I just
:42:47. > :42:55.start by saying what we have heard Nigel Farage say it is utter
:42:55. > :42:59.nonsense. He talks about working hard in Brussels. He is in Brussels
:42:59. > :43:03.today. The European Parliament is not meeting in Brussels today. We
:43:03. > :43:09.have repeated debates in Parliament. We had a vital debate about
:43:09. > :43:14.securing EU funds for small and media -- medium-sized enterprises.
:43:14. > :43:19.Not a single UKIP member was in the chamber. If there is ever a case of
:43:19. > :43:24.fraud for the British people then UKIP is it. Now you have done that
:43:24. > :43:30.attack, in fairness I have to hand back to Mr Farid. The ball is in
:43:30. > :43:33.your court, how do you respond? are having an in out debate. The
:43:34. > :43:37.Conservative and Labour position is they will try and battle for better
:43:37. > :43:41.legislation in Brussels and the UKIP position is we will divorce
:43:41. > :43:46.ourselves from Brussels and Take That burden of regulation of
:43:46. > :43:50.bristles -- of business. He said you are not there are enough.
:43:50. > :43:56.is nonsense. We have members from UKIP who are extremely active over
:43:56. > :44:02.here. I want to come back to this, the question I asked year was, I
:44:02. > :44:06.saw the head of the European Parliament, the chairman up in arms
:44:06. > :44:11.about the President. Is there a chance but the European Parliament
:44:11. > :44:17.could vote is down? One of the things Martin Schultz is stranded
:44:17. > :44:24.here is to give a secret vote to MEPs. Are I think it is outrageous.
:44:24. > :44:29.There is a huge lack of democracy at an EU level as far as our
:44:29. > :44:32.citizens are concerned. Wendover Cameron in his speech said only
:44:32. > :44:40.national parties are democratic, I would like to thank the European
:44:40. > :44:44.Parliament for the reform. To say that MEPs should have a secret vote
:44:44. > :44:47.is disgraceful. I would just go back to Nigel Farage, I assume you
:44:47. > :44:53.will have nothing to do with a secret vote in the European
:44:53. > :44:58.Parliament? No, this will come before the Conference of Presidents.
:44:58. > :45:03.Seven of us will vote on this. I will vote for them not to be a
:45:03. > :45:07.secret ballot. I suspect that what people Britain do not understand is
:45:07. > :45:10.those driving the European project over here are fanatics. They will
:45:10. > :45:20.stop at nothing and I suspect Mr Schultz will get his way and there
:45:20. > :45:30.
:45:30. > :45:34.We are making Nigel Farage work for his non money that he gets. How do
:45:34. > :45:37.you feel about your taxes going to fund the BNP or the French National
:45:37. > :45:46.Front? Well, it is happening and the Socialist, Liberal and Green
:45:46. > :45:49.MEPs are trying to stop it. But is it democratic to treat some
:45:49. > :45:51.political parties differently, just because you find their politics
:45:51. > :45:56.unpleasant? It is a live debate among our representatives in
:45:56. > :46:02.Strasbourg, as Jo Coburn found out this week. The face of political
:46:02. > :46:09.extremism in Europe. They may be on the fringes but last year, in
:46:09. > :46:13.France and Hungary, parties qualified for 300,000 euros because
:46:13. > :46:19.of their representation in the European Parliament. This decision
:46:19. > :46:23.has caused uproar amongst MEPs from mainstream parties and is being
:46:23. > :46:29.challenged. We are on the fringe of society. The problem is what they
:46:29. > :46:33.can develop. In former times, fascists and neo-Nazis and the Nazi
:46:33. > :46:37.Party have been at the Fringe. Especially with high unemployment
:46:38. > :46:46.and many social problems were they can gain a lot of influence and do
:46:46. > :46:49.a lot of damage to society. MEPs have signed a petition. They are
:46:49. > :46:55.using a parliamentary rule at state's money should only be given
:46:55. > :46:58.to groups who uphold the values of European Union. Just months after
:46:58. > :47:03.being awarded European Union cash, the alliance of extremist parties
:47:03. > :47:07.could see it taken away. If the initial decision to fund them is
:47:07. > :47:10.bound to break parliamentary rules prevent MEPs will be given a vote
:47:10. > :47:17.on the issue. The prospect of losing the money has put the issue
:47:17. > :47:21.into sharp focus for members of the alliance of European national
:47:21. > :47:24.movements. Parties like the BNP are claiming they are being unfairly
:47:24. > :47:31.discriminated against. We do not think any pan-European political
:47:31. > :47:35.party should get any taxpayers' money at will. While it is being
:47:35. > :47:38.handed out, it is monstrous that they should not get views
:47:38. > :47:42.represented and funded while the socialist groups do for stoppages
:47:42. > :47:49.fundamentally a question of all animals are equal but some animals
:47:49. > :47:52.are more equal than others. -- groups do. There is a dilemma for
:47:52. > :47:56.some Members of the European Parliament. They feel it is
:47:56. > :48:01.undemocratic to use be ceded to make life difficult for them.
:48:01. > :48:07.problem with state funding is that either you end up funding extreme
:48:07. > :48:10.and peasant parties, or, which is worse, you give the opponents of
:48:10. > :48:16.those parties the right to sit in judgment over who does and does not
:48:16. > :48:21.get the money. That is a really dangerous precedent. Once some
:48:21. > :48:26.parties get to disqualify opponents, where does it end? This is how
:48:26. > :48:30.every dictatorship operates. parliament will vote to remove EU
:48:30. > :48:35.funding, it is predicted. The amount of money is relatively small
:48:35. > :48:43.and unlikely to silence them. We asked the BNP to come on and
:48:43. > :48:47.discuss this but they refused. We still have three MEPs with us.
:48:47. > :48:54.Nigel Farage is in Brussels. To get this money, the parties have to
:48:54. > :48:59.read here to the rule 2010. In your opinion, do think the BNP, at the
:48:59. > :49:03.National Front, that Hungarian party, the parties in Greece and so
:49:03. > :49:08.on, do they have full respect for human rights and fundamental
:49:08. > :49:17.respect of freedoms and liberty and the rule of law? The Greek example
:49:17. > :49:20.is the one. This is why it is on increased - they really are a
:49:20. > :49:24.genuine neo-Nazi party. They are at 12% of the polls and rising. People
:49:24. > :49:34.are worried that people from a party will come here in 2014. If
:49:34. > :49:37.you allow freely Parliament, when there -- whether they have the
:49:37. > :49:43.right or left-wing views, to start to withdraw money from them because
:49:43. > :49:48.you do nothing they conform to valleys is a huge mistake. -- do
:49:48. > :49:53.not think they conform to your values. It is likely to make those
:49:53. > :50:02.parties even more popular with the electorate. If we start with race,
:50:02. > :50:06.where do we go next? One man intervened in Parliament and said
:50:06. > :50:12.that my speech, whilst I have nothing against the people of
:50:12. > :50:18.Romania and Bulgaria, I do not want to have an open door. He said I was
:50:18. > :50:25.in contention -- contravention of human values. You cannot dole out
:50:25. > :50:32.money to elected representatives as to whether you find their views
:50:32. > :50:37.acceptable. I want someone to look at the rules - and independent. It
:50:37. > :50:45.is not about the opponents deciding. What home calling for his, or we
:50:45. > :50:49.have a rule. They should not be a dead letter. -- and calling for is,
:50:49. > :50:54.we have a rule. One MP asked for singling out, putting on the list,
:50:54. > :50:57.Jewish MPs has been a threat to national security. There is a
:50:57. > :51:03.difference about campaigning for votes but should they be getting
:51:03. > :51:11.taxpayers' money? I can perfectly understand it is your job as a
:51:11. > :51:21.Liberal MEP, I think Ms people would be appalled at that proposal
:51:21. > :51:21.
:51:21. > :51:25.for the Hungarian. -- most people. It is not about breaking the rules,
:51:26. > :51:30.saying you were not go and get the money you are entitled to. I would
:51:30. > :51:37.certainly compete with them and show them up for have nasty they
:51:37. > :51:42.are. What we are calling for, as liberals, not on the same page as
:51:42. > :51:52.socialists, is to say let's do what this will calls for - a review for
:51:52. > :51:53.
:51:53. > :51:55.an independent panel to look. this rule. If you do not give out
:51:55. > :52:03.the money... Bearers a query as to whether you should be getting his
:52:03. > :52:08.money at all. -- there is a query. I am told that everything is 5p.
:52:08. > :52:12.When you add it up, it comes to 5 billion. For everybody who wants to
:52:12. > :52:18.spend 5p, if you do not dole out the money simply on the basis of
:52:18. > :52:22.how many MEPs they have, which is a mechanistic approach, you become
:52:22. > :52:27.subjected. I do not understand how that will work. In the first
:52:27. > :52:31.instance, I do not support state funding of political parties on
:52:31. > :52:37.groups or movement of any sort. We have not signed that particular
:52:37. > :52:41.document that was referred to. The fact of the matter remains, we at
:52:41. > :52:45.all times, just this week and I had to sit in the European Parliament
:52:45. > :52:50.and listen to Nick Griffin speaking his language of hate and division.
:52:50. > :52:57.It really was a hate speech. As much as I may disagree with what he
:52:57. > :53:01.says, the fact of the matter is, he is democratically-elected from my
:53:01. > :53:08.constituency. I will defend his right to come and say what he says
:53:08. > :53:11.in a parliament. There are limits. Whether we should be funding
:53:11. > :53:17.political activities being carried up by his party, as long as it is
:53:17. > :53:21.within the rules and they applied equally to everybody, then yes we
:53:22. > :53:28.should. A final question to you, Nigel Farage. Does this money make
:53:28. > :53:33.much difference to you anyway? the money make any difference? Well,
:53:33. > :53:38.not particularly. I have to say, the money going into European
:53:38. > :53:42.political parties is relatively small. The money they European
:53:42. > :53:49.parliamentary groups can access - particularly the announces MEPs can
:53:49. > :53:53.access - is very considerable indeed. -- the allowances. The
:53:53. > :53:59.principle must be all elected members must be treated the same.
:53:59. > :54:03.Please do not demonise these people. The stock Nick Griffin is easy. The
:54:03. > :54:11.timber, Question Time and there will be the end there. -- to stop
:54:11. > :54:19.Nick Griffin is easy. Put him back on Question Time and that will be
:54:19. > :54:23.the end of it. Now does the rotating presidency of the European
:54:23. > :54:31.Council get you all in a spin? Well, worry not. Our Adam has been to
:54:31. > :54:35.Brussels to find out more about it. Here's his handy A to Z guide. It
:54:35. > :54:39.is the part of the EU that really does go round in circles. Every six
:54:39. > :54:49.months, a different and she gets to take on the rotating presidency of
:54:49. > :54:50.
:54:50. > :54:55.the EU. -- a different country. Here is the Irish ambassador doing
:54:55. > :55:01.the main job. Generally working as an honest broker between the member
:55:01. > :55:05.states. You have a huge infusion - a fresh energy and drive.
:55:06. > :55:10.Enthusiasm at the start of every six months. It is very important.
:55:10. > :55:16.The pace to work at, you could not keep it up. It keeps a lid on the
:55:16. > :55:20.favourite pastime of Brussels - haggling. Politically, to reach
:55:20. > :55:27.agreement, who should share this group or that group? We have seen
:55:27. > :55:30.that recently stopped imagine the horse trading and bargaining and
:55:30. > :55:37.complaining. Top of the Irish agenda is the promotion of jobs and
:55:37. > :55:47.growth across Europe. Sometimes it means leaving the national
:55:47. > :55:50.
:55:50. > :55:55.Then there is the softer side, there will be hundreds of Irish
:55:55. > :56:00.cultural events, like this reading by an award-winning author. Each
:56:01. > :56:07.country installs its own piece of art in the atrium of the council
:56:07. > :56:14.building. It is about promoting Europe to Ireland. The EU is a
:56:14. > :56:20.crash course into how the organisation works. Bearers a crash
:56:20. > :56:26.course for citizens. They hear a lot more about it. -- there is a
:56:26. > :56:32.crash course. Some of it has lost its lustre. Some wonder, what is
:56:32. > :56:36.the point? You can have some presidencies not as strong as
:56:37. > :56:41.others. Or individual chairs that will not be as good as others. You
:56:41. > :56:47.can always be certain that they will be gone in six months.
:56:48. > :56:53.Presidencies to come in threes. To give some continuity, trios of
:56:53. > :56:58.countries work together. Ireland are co-operating with Lithuania and
:56:58. > :57:04.Greece. Because the EU is about to have 28 members, Ireland were not
:57:04. > :57:14.get another shot at presidency for another 14 years. -- will not get.
:57:14. > :57:19.
:57:19. > :57:25.He loved it. He is still on it, going round in circles. Should we
:57:25. > :57:28.move to something better than the six month presidency? It can be
:57:28. > :57:36.relieved to wanting, particularly for some of smaller countries like
:57:36. > :57:42.Ireland and Cyprus. -- really daunting. You can imagine the panic
:57:42. > :57:45.that sets in. What should be done? We now have Herman van Rompuy
:57:45. > :57:50.performing a slightly different function to what the presidency
:57:50. > :57:53.does. The fact and the matter is, the need to keep a mechanism
:57:53. > :57:58.whereby the nation states are actually involved in this
:57:58. > :58:02.presidential system. Whether we work on the basis of threes -
:58:02. > :58:06.countries coming together - one country coming along... Ones that
:58:06. > :58:12.are coming along of following up and having a closer relationship
:58:12. > :58:18.and those that are on the way out as well. We are living in
:58:18. > :58:25.historical times. Today is a historical day. For the first time,
:58:25. > :58:32.we have seen a reduction. Nobody likes the rotating presidency.
:58:32. > :58:42.perfectly content with it. I will take away the word, nobody! What I
:58:42. > :58:46.
:58:46. > :58:50.think it does is... It illustrates the EU is not trying to create a