:16:52. > :16:57.How would you characterise the atmosphere during the local
:16:57. > :17:02.elections? Has it been pretty nasty between the Tories and the Lib
:17:02. > :17:08.Dems? A week are in coalition at a national level but locally we are
:17:08. > :17:18.fighting to win. There is a particular focus on Somerset and
:17:18. > :17:24.Cornwall. -- we are in coalition. Leicestershire County Council, the
:17:24. > :17:28.former leader spent �200,000 on a chauffeur or �64,000 on a new
:17:28. > :17:35.office and a new private toilet while still making redundancies. We
:17:35. > :17:43.will be fighting on those issues that a national level. That will
:17:43. > :17:47.hurt, weren't it? The former leader is no longer a Conservative
:17:47. > :17:52.candidate. Somerset County Council froze its council tax for three
:17:52. > :17:58.years where we saw it doubling under the Labour government. We are
:17:58. > :18:04.in coalition nationally to sort at the economic mess we inherited. We
:18:04. > :18:09.are not in coalition at local level. The problem for the Liberal
:18:09. > :18:14.Democrats is people used to vote Liberal Democrat to stop the Tories
:18:14. > :18:19.getting into power. That is no longer an option. You will lose a
:18:19. > :18:27.considerable number of votes and seats, probably to Labour, possibly
:18:27. > :18:32.to UKIP, and also the Tories. people who were layback inclined
:18:33. > :18:38.voted Liberal Democrat, they did stop a Conservative Member of
:18:38. > :18:45.Parliament or Councillor getting elected. The 500 jobs I spoke about
:18:45. > :18:55.earlier have been created in Eastbourne. And the issue of
:18:55. > :19:00.libraries. They are totemic. Not a single Ibn -- Liberal Democrat
:19:00. > :19:04.authority has closed a library. overriding feeling that people used
:19:04. > :19:09.to vote Liberal Democrat to stop the Tories getting into power, that
:19:09. > :19:13.has gone. I do not think that is the case. I think they voted
:19:13. > :19:18.Liberal Democrat because we deal with the pot holes. Conservative
:19:18. > :19:24.county councils do not do that. Labour needs to win seats in the
:19:24. > :19:27.south. That is the big challenge for Labour. They should make gains
:19:27. > :19:34.from the Conservatives and from the Liberal Democrats. Unless the party
:19:34. > :19:39.can show it can win in counties like Kent, Hertfordshire and
:19:39. > :19:42.Bedfordshire, they will never break through again. I accept that. We're
:19:42. > :19:51.working hard to make gains across the south of England. How many
:19:51. > :19:57.games? In excess of 100 extra seats would be a very good result for us.
:19:57. > :20:03.We are talking about Somerset. All those Lib Dem MPs and Tories around
:20:03. > :20:09.the South West as well. Long-term youth unemployment has gone up 570
:20:09. > :20:14.% in Somerset alone. We are seeing trying to run away at local level
:20:14. > :20:18.from the national record. We're going to challenge them on this.
:20:18. > :20:25.couple of hundred seats would be good. Surely it would have to be
:20:25. > :20:31.more than 354 Ed Miliband to say, we are back. We need to demonstrate
:20:31. > :20:37.real progress. What is that? These local elections are critical in
:20:37. > :20:42.terms of barometer of the coalition but whether voters have decided
:20:42. > :20:47.that could put their confidence in them. You have to estimate the
:20:47. > :20:51.national percentage on that. There is a health warning on that. We
:20:51. > :20:56.will make real progress, not just in the south but the Midlands as
:20:56. > :21:03.well, in areas that we turned Conservative Members of Parliament
:21:03. > :21:06.and Lib Dem MPs. -- that returned. They are determined to take the one
:21:06. > :21:11.nation message out that and they are determined to hold the Lib Dems
:21:12. > :21:17.and Tories to account for lamentable failure on issues like
:21:17. > :21:21.failings in the south-west. Tories are genuinely worried about
:21:21. > :21:27.UKIP and also Labour on the other side because you can only go down
:21:28. > :21:33.from here because you had such good results in 2009. More than 300
:21:33. > :21:39.seats, a disaster? I am not going to put an exact qualification on it.
:21:39. > :21:48.It would depend on particular impacts at local level. The won
:21:48. > :21:53.councils and seats we have not won for 40 years. -- we won. You would
:21:53. > :21:59.expect us to use a significant number of seats. Would over 300 be
:21:59. > :22:04.a disaster? We could lose more than that. Let's see how it plays out on
:22:04. > :22:10.the day. I think they will have a good fight in lots of areas like
:22:10. > :22:15.Lancashire, cutting council tax by 4%. We have a good local record. We
:22:15. > :22:20.would expect to take some losses. I hope I am proved wrong. We are
:22:20. > :22:29.being sensible. And the position of David Cameron if it is more than
:22:29. > :22:34.300 losses? The Conservative Party is united behind David Cameron and
:22:35. > :22:37.we are fighting hard to save money for working families. Parliament
:22:37. > :22:41.may have prorogued, but many hardworking hacks are still there,
:22:41. > :22:44.keeping an eye on the place. And, luckily, we have got two of them to
:22:44. > :22:49.give us their take on the local elections - Laura Pitel from the
:22:49. > :22:54.Times and the Independent's Oliver Wright. Who do you think will be
:22:54. > :22:59.the big losers in these elections? Probably the Tories. What we in
:23:00. > :23:07.Westminster are keeping an eye aunt is the UKIP fate. The big test will
:23:07. > :23:11.not just be, how many seats they will cut but the share of the vote.
:23:11. > :23:17.There will be trouble in store for the Tories. What about the Liberal
:23:17. > :23:21.Democrats? Things could be very tough for them. It is the UKIP
:23:21. > :23:25.factor we do not know about. Some of the councils which the Lib Dems
:23:25. > :23:30.hold an Torres would like to get back, what happens to the UKIP vote
:23:30. > :23:38.will be crucial to that. If lots of Tories decide they will go to UKIP,
:23:38. > :23:43.by default, you could see the Liberal Democrats hanging on, much
:23:43. > :23:50.like in Eastleigh. What have the levels got to be for Labour and the
:23:50. > :23:56.Tories to claim a has not been a disastrous night for them? They are
:23:56. > :24:02.talking about Labour gaining 350 seats and the Tories, if they lose
:24:02. > :24:06.300, they will say that is OK. They are kind of expecting that after
:24:07. > :24:11.making massive gains in 2009. If it is much above that, they will be
:24:11. > :24:17.getting worried. Surrey to keep going on about the UKIP factor but
:24:17. > :24:22.that is what everyone is going on about. They need to go further on
:24:22. > :24:27.issues like immigration and Europe. Let's have a look at the universal
:24:27. > :24:37.credit. The big moment. This has been one of the bigger schemes as
:24:37. > :24:38.
:24:38. > :24:42.far as the coalition government is concerned. That is the 7 billion
:24:42. > :24:46.dollar question! They're making a big fuss about this is the launch
:24:46. > :24:52.of universal credit. This is one JobCentre in one town where it is
:24:52. > :24:56.starting, with not many claimants. They are taking it very slowly.
:24:56. > :25:04.Plans for a roll-out were not ambitious initially and they have
:25:04. > :25:10.been scaled back yet again. It was going to be at four Jobcentres and
:25:10. > :25:20.now it is only one. Not until after the general election were Elysee
:25:20. > :25:22.
:25:22. > :25:27.universal credit in any meaningful sense for -- any meaningful sense.
:25:27. > :25:32.People I have spoken to say, it was a mess, we are a bit more confident
:25:32. > :25:37.than we were. We think we have got it under control. The Government
:25:37. > :25:43.does not have a good record on large infrastructure projects. It
:25:43. > :25:49.is about whether the Tories can turn that around. It was a mess but
:25:49. > :25:55.it is improving slightly. Are you reassured it will work from a
:25:55. > :26:01.practical point of view? That is why having a trial is sensible and
:26:01. > :26:04.not having a roll-out throughout the country. It is a sensible
:26:04. > :26:09.approach. The principle of universal credit is about making
:26:09. > :26:15.sure, if someone and something, they will benefit from that among a
:26:15. > :26:21.have benefits reduced by more than make earn. That is a very sensible
:26:21. > :26:26.approach. It is good news. Does work always pay? It does not. One
:26:26. > :26:30.been the Government has done is take the way tax credits which did
:26:30. > :26:34.help work pay for people who are low-paid, people who cannot get
:26:34. > :26:42.enough hours. The must all do something about the rising Welfare
:26:42. > :26:47.Bill. -- we must. That is because of the failure on jobs and growth.
:26:47. > :26:54.Do you back the Government on the principle of benefits? We support
:26:54. > :26:59.the benefit cap but the system of taking money away from 2 million
:26:59. > :27:04.families and doing it on a monthly basis rather than a weekly basis
:27:05. > :27:14.and doing it with the big IT programme, what could possibly go
:27:14. > :27:19.wrong?! We inherited a massively complicated system which created
:27:19. > :27:23.injustice. We are taking people out of tax and setting up long-term
:27:23. > :27:29.reforms to make it better. They are taking it steadily to make sure we
:27:29. > :27:37.get it right. That is not just between now and election, it is 10,
:27:37. > :27:42.15 years in the future. It is a real live discussion, the whole
:27:42. > :27:48.idea of universal benefits for pensioners. It is a live issue. As
:27:48. > :27:53.we roll out the whole system, those issues will be highlighted. As a
:27:53. > :27:57.coalition, we were not bringing means testing for people. I want to
:27:57. > :28:01.get into a system which deals with the majority of folk - where we
:28:02. > :28:06.need to give them the opportunity of work to pay once more. When I
:28:06. > :28:11.talk to people around the country about benefit reforms, they say,
:28:11. > :28:17.that makes sense, it is there. If you work hard, you need to be
:28:17. > :28:20.better off. We have run out of time. There's just time before we go to
:28:20. > :28:23.find out the answer to our quiz. The question was, which
:28:23. > :28:27.politician's hairdo has become one of the most asked for styles in
:28:27. > :28:37.hair salons? A) Michael Heseltine, b) Theresa May, c) Margaret
:28:37. > :28:40.
:28:40. > :28:45.Thatcher or d) Michael Fabricant? It must be Margaret Thatcher.
:28:45. > :28:51.is a very good point. I presume it is Margaret Thatcher was dug we are