Browse content similar to 29/04/2013. Check below for episodes and series from the same categories and more!
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How would you characterise the atmosphere during the local | :16:52. | :16:57. | |
elections? Has it been pretty nasty between the Tories and the Lib | :16:57. | :17:02. | |
Dems? A week are in coalition at a national level but locally we are | :17:02. | :17:08. | |
fighting to win. There is a particular focus on Somerset and | :17:08. | :17:18. | |
Cornwall. -- we are in coalition. Leicestershire County Council, the | :17:18. | :17:24. | |
former leader spent �200,000 on a chauffeur or �64,000 on a new | :17:24. | :17:28. | |
office and a new private toilet while still making redundancies. We | :17:28. | :17:35. | |
will be fighting on those issues that a national level. That will | :17:35. | :17:43. | |
hurt, weren't it? The former leader is no longer a Conservative | :17:43. | :17:47. | |
candidate. Somerset County Council froze its council tax for three | :17:47. | :17:52. | |
years where we saw it doubling under the Labour government. We are | :17:52. | :17:58. | |
in coalition nationally to sort at the economic mess we inherited. We | :17:58. | :18:04. | |
are not in coalition at local level. The problem for the Liberal | :18:04. | :18:09. | |
Democrats is people used to vote Liberal Democrat to stop the Tories | :18:09. | :18:14. | |
getting into power. That is no longer an option. You will lose a | :18:14. | :18:19. | |
considerable number of votes and seats, probably to Labour, possibly | :18:19. | :18:27. | |
to UKIP, and also the Tories. people who were layback inclined | :18:27. | :18:32. | |
voted Liberal Democrat, they did stop a Conservative Member of | :18:33. | :18:38. | |
Parliament or Councillor getting elected. The 500 jobs I spoke about | :18:38. | :18:45. | |
earlier have been created in Eastbourne. And the issue of | :18:45. | :18:55. | |
libraries. They are totemic. Not a single Ibn -- Liberal Democrat | :18:55. | :19:00. | |
authority has closed a library. overriding feeling that people used | :19:00. | :19:04. | |
to vote Liberal Democrat to stop the Tories getting into power, that | :19:04. | :19:09. | |
has gone. I do not think that is the case. I think they voted | :19:09. | :19:13. | |
Liberal Democrat because we deal with the pot holes. Conservative | :19:13. | :19:18. | |
county councils do not do that. Labour needs to win seats in the | :19:18. | :19:24. | |
south. That is the big challenge for Labour. They should make gains | :19:24. | :19:27. | |
from the Conservatives and from the Liberal Democrats. Unless the party | :19:27. | :19:34. | |
can show it can win in counties like Kent, Hertfordshire and | :19:34. | :19:39. | |
Bedfordshire, they will never break through again. I accept that. We're | :19:39. | :19:42. | |
working hard to make gains across the south of England. How many | :19:42. | :19:51. | |
games? In excess of 100 extra seats would be a very good result for us. | :19:51. | :19:57. | |
We are talking about Somerset. All those Lib Dem MPs and Tories around | :19:57. | :20:03. | |
the South West as well. Long-term youth unemployment has gone up 570 | :20:03. | :20:09. | |
% in Somerset alone. We are seeing trying to run away at local level | :20:09. | :20:14. | |
from the national record. We're going to challenge them on this. | :20:14. | :20:18. | |
couple of hundred seats would be good. Surely it would have to be | :20:18. | :20:25. | |
more than 354 Ed Miliband to say, we are back. We need to demonstrate | :20:25. | :20:31. | |
real progress. What is that? These local elections are critical in | :20:31. | :20:37. | |
terms of barometer of the coalition but whether voters have decided | :20:37. | :20:42. | |
that could put their confidence in them. You have to estimate the | :20:42. | :20:47. | |
national percentage on that. There is a health warning on that. We | :20:47. | :20:51. | |
will make real progress, not just in the south but the Midlands as | :20:51. | :20:56. | |
well, in areas that we turned Conservative Members of Parliament | :20:56. | :21:03. | |
and Lib Dem MPs. -- that returned. They are determined to take the one | :21:03. | :21:06. | |
nation message out that and they are determined to hold the Lib Dems | :21:06. | :21:11. | |
and Tories to account for lamentable failure on issues like | :21:12. | :21:17. | |
failings in the south-west. Tories are genuinely worried about | :21:17. | :21:21. | |
UKIP and also Labour on the other side because you can only go down | :21:21. | :21:27. | |
from here because you had such good results in 2009. More than 300 | :21:28. | :21:33. | |
seats, a disaster? I am not going to put an exact qualification on it. | :21:33. | :21:39. | |
It would depend on particular impacts at local level. The won | :21:39. | :21:48. | |
councils and seats we have not won for 40 years. -- we won. You would | :21:48. | :21:53. | |
expect us to use a significant number of seats. Would over 300 be | :21:53. | :21:59. | |
a disaster? We could lose more than that. Let's see how it plays out on | :21:59. | :22:04. | |
the day. I think they will have a good fight in lots of areas like | :22:04. | :22:10. | |
Lancashire, cutting council tax by 4%. We have a good local record. We | :22:10. | :22:15. | |
would expect to take some losses. I hope I am proved wrong. We are | :22:15. | :22:20. | |
being sensible. And the position of David Cameron if it is more than | :22:20. | :22:29. | |
300 losses? The Conservative Party is united behind David Cameron and | :22:29. | :22:34. | |
we are fighting hard to save money for working families. Parliament | :22:35. | :22:37. | |
may have prorogued, but many hardworking hacks are still there, | :22:37. | :22:41. | |
keeping an eye on the place. And, luckily, we have got two of them to | :22:41. | :22:44. | |
give us their take on the local elections - Laura Pitel from the | :22:44. | :22:49. | |
Times and the Independent's Oliver Wright. Who do you think will be | :22:49. | :22:54. | |
the big losers in these elections? Probably the Tories. What we in | :22:54. | :22:59. | |
Westminster are keeping an eye aunt is the UKIP fate. The big test will | :23:00. | :23:07. | |
not just be, how many seats they will cut but the share of the vote. | :23:07. | :23:11. | |
There will be trouble in store for the Tories. What about the Liberal | :23:11. | :23:17. | |
Democrats? Things could be very tough for them. It is the UKIP | :23:17. | :23:21. | |
factor we do not know about. Some of the councils which the Lib Dems | :23:21. | :23:25. | |
hold an Torres would like to get back, what happens to the UKIP vote | :23:25. | :23:30. | |
will be crucial to that. If lots of Tories decide they will go to UKIP, | :23:30. | :23:38. | |
by default, you could see the Liberal Democrats hanging on, much | :23:38. | :23:43. | |
like in Eastleigh. What have the levels got to be for Labour and the | :23:43. | :23:50. | |
Tories to claim a has not been a disastrous night for them? They are | :23:50. | :23:56. | |
talking about Labour gaining 350 seats and the Tories, if they lose | :23:56. | :24:02. | |
300, they will say that is OK. They are kind of expecting that after | :24:02. | :24:06. | |
making massive gains in 2009. If it is much above that, they will be | :24:07. | :24:11. | |
getting worried. Surrey to keep going on about the UKIP factor but | :24:11. | :24:17. | |
that is what everyone is going on about. They need to go further on | :24:17. | :24:22. | |
issues like immigration and Europe. Let's have a look at the universal | :24:22. | :24:27. | |
credit. The big moment. This has been one of the bigger schemes as | :24:27. | :24:37. | |
:24:37. | :24:38. | ||
far as the coalition government is concerned. That is the 7 billion | :24:38. | :24:42. | |
dollar question! They're making a big fuss about this is the launch | :24:42. | :24:46. | |
of universal credit. This is one JobCentre in one town where it is | :24:46. | :24:52. | |
starting, with not many claimants. They are taking it very slowly. | :24:52. | :24:56. | |
Plans for a roll-out were not ambitious initially and they have | :24:56. | :25:04. | |
been scaled back yet again. It was going to be at four Jobcentres and | :25:04. | :25:10. | |
now it is only one. Not until after the general election were Elysee | :25:10. | :25:20. | |
:25:20. | :25:22. | ||
universal credit in any meaningful sense for -- any meaningful sense. | :25:22. | :25:27. | |
People I have spoken to say, it was a mess, we are a bit more confident | :25:27. | :25:32. | |
than we were. We think we have got it under control. The Government | :25:32. | :25:37. | |
does not have a good record on large infrastructure projects. It | :25:37. | :25:43. | |
is about whether the Tories can turn that around. It was a mess but | :25:43. | :25:49. | |
it is improving slightly. Are you reassured it will work from a | :25:49. | :25:55. | |
practical point of view? That is why having a trial is sensible and | :25:55. | :26:01. | |
not having a roll-out throughout the country. It is a sensible | :26:01. | :26:04. | |
approach. The principle of universal credit is about making | :26:04. | :26:09. | |
sure, if someone and something, they will benefit from that among a | :26:09. | :26:15. | |
have benefits reduced by more than make earn. That is a very sensible | :26:15. | :26:21. | |
approach. It is good news. Does work always pay? It does not. One | :26:21. | :26:26. | |
been the Government has done is take the way tax credits which did | :26:26. | :26:30. | |
help work pay for people who are low-paid, people who cannot get | :26:30. | :26:34. | |
enough hours. The must all do something about the rising Welfare | :26:34. | :26:42. | |
Bill. -- we must. That is because of the failure on jobs and growth. | :26:42. | :26:47. | |
Do you back the Government on the principle of benefits? We support | :26:47. | :26:54. | |
the benefit cap but the system of taking money away from 2 million | :26:54. | :26:59. | |
families and doing it on a monthly basis rather than a weekly basis | :26:59. | :27:04. | |
and doing it with the big IT programme, what could possibly go | :27:05. | :27:14. | |
wrong?! We inherited a massively complicated system which created | :27:14. | :27:19. | |
injustice. We are taking people out of tax and setting up long-term | :27:19. | :27:23. | |
reforms to make it better. They are taking it steadily to make sure we | :27:23. | :27:29. | |
get it right. That is not just between now and election, it is 10, | :27:29. | :27:37. | |
15 years in the future. It is a real live discussion, the whole | :27:37. | :27:42. | |
idea of universal benefits for pensioners. It is a live issue. As | :27:42. | :27:48. | |
we roll out the whole system, those issues will be highlighted. As a | :27:48. | :27:53. | |
coalition, we were not bringing means testing for people. I want to | :27:53. | :27:57. | |
get into a system which deals with the majority of folk - where we | :27:57. | :28:01. | |
need to give them the opportunity of work to pay once more. When I | :28:02. | :28:06. | |
talk to people around the country about benefit reforms, they say, | :28:06. | :28:11. | |
that makes sense, it is there. If you work hard, you need to be | :28:11. | :28:17. | |
better off. We have run out of time. There's just time before we go to | :28:17. | :28:20. | |
find out the answer to our quiz. The question was, which | :28:20. | :28:23. | |
politician's hairdo has become one of the most asked for styles in | :28:23. | :28:27. | |
hair salons? A) Michael Heseltine, b) Theresa May, c) Margaret | :28:27. | :28:37. | |
:28:37. | :28:40. | ||
Thatcher or d) Michael Fabricant? It must be Margaret Thatcher. | :28:40. | :28:45. | |
is a very good point. I presume it is Margaret Thatcher was dug we are | :28:45. | :28:51. |