29/04/2013 Daily Politics


29/04/2013

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How would you characterise the atmosphere during the local

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elections? Has it been pretty nasty between the Tories and the Lib

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Dems? A week are in coalition at a national level but locally we are

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fighting to win. There is a particular focus on Somerset and

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Cornwall. -- we are in coalition. Leicestershire County Council, the

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former leader spent �200,000 on a chauffeur or �64,000 on a new

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office and a new private toilet while still making redundancies. We

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will be fighting on those issues that a national level. That will

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hurt, weren't it? The former leader is no longer a Conservative

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candidate. Somerset County Council froze its council tax for three

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years where we saw it doubling under the Labour government. We are

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in coalition nationally to sort at the economic mess we inherited. We

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are not in coalition at local level. The problem for the Liberal

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Democrats is people used to vote Liberal Democrat to stop the Tories

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getting into power. That is no longer an option. You will lose a

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considerable number of votes and seats, probably to Labour, possibly

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to UKIP, and also the Tories. people who were layback inclined

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voted Liberal Democrat, they did stop a Conservative Member of

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Parliament or Councillor getting elected. The 500 jobs I spoke about

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earlier have been created in Eastbourne. And the issue of

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libraries. They are totemic. Not a single Ibn -- Liberal Democrat

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authority has closed a library. overriding feeling that people used

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to vote Liberal Democrat to stop the Tories getting into power, that

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has gone. I do not think that is the case. I think they voted

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Liberal Democrat because we deal with the pot holes. Conservative

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county councils do not do that. Labour needs to win seats in the

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south. That is the big challenge for Labour. They should make gains

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from the Conservatives and from the Liberal Democrats. Unless the party

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can show it can win in counties like Kent, Hertfordshire and

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Bedfordshire, they will never break through again. I accept that. We're

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working hard to make gains across the south of England. How many

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games? In excess of 100 extra seats would be a very good result for us.

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We are talking about Somerset. All those Lib Dem MPs and Tories around

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the South West as well. Long-term youth unemployment has gone up 570

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% in Somerset alone. We are seeing trying to run away at local level

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from the national record. We're going to challenge them on this.

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couple of hundred seats would be good. Surely it would have to be

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more than 354 Ed Miliband to say, we are back. We need to demonstrate

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real progress. What is that? These local elections are critical in

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terms of barometer of the coalition but whether voters have decided

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that could put their confidence in them. You have to estimate the

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national percentage on that. There is a health warning on that. We

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will make real progress, not just in the south but the Midlands as

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well, in areas that we turned Conservative Members of Parliament

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and Lib Dem MPs. -- that returned. They are determined to take the one

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nation message out that and they are determined to hold the Lib Dems

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and Tories to account for lamentable failure on issues like

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failings in the south-west. Tories are genuinely worried about

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UKIP and also Labour on the other side because you can only go down

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from here because you had such good results in 2009. More than 300

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seats, a disaster? I am not going to put an exact qualification on it.

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It would depend on particular impacts at local level. The won

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councils and seats we have not won for 40 years. -- we won. You would

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expect us to use a significant number of seats. Would over 300 be

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a disaster? We could lose more than that. Let's see how it plays out on

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the day. I think they will have a good fight in lots of areas like

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Lancashire, cutting council tax by 4%. We have a good local record. We

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would expect to take some losses. I hope I am proved wrong. We are

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being sensible. And the position of David Cameron if it is more than

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300 losses? The Conservative Party is united behind David Cameron and

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we are fighting hard to save money for working families. Parliament

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may have prorogued, but many hardworking hacks are still there,

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keeping an eye on the place. And, luckily, we have got two of them to

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give us their take on the local elections - Laura Pitel from the

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Times and the Independent's Oliver Wright. Who do you think will be

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the big losers in these elections? Probably the Tories. What we in

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Westminster are keeping an eye aunt is the UKIP fate. The big test will

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not just be, how many seats they will cut but the share of the vote.

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There will be trouble in store for the Tories. What about the Liberal

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Democrats? Things could be very tough for them. It is the UKIP

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factor we do not know about. Some of the councils which the Lib Dems

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hold an Torres would like to get back, what happens to the UKIP vote

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will be crucial to that. If lots of Tories decide they will go to UKIP,

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by default, you could see the Liberal Democrats hanging on, much

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like in Eastleigh. What have the levels got to be for Labour and the

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Tories to claim a has not been a disastrous night for them? They are

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talking about Labour gaining 350 seats and the Tories, if they lose

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300, they will say that is OK. They are kind of expecting that after

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making massive gains in 2009. If it is much above that, they will be

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getting worried. Surrey to keep going on about the UKIP factor but

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that is what everyone is going on about. They need to go further on

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issues like immigration and Europe. Let's have a look at the universal

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credit. The big moment. This has been one of the bigger schemes as

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far as the coalition government is concerned. That is the 7 billion

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dollar question! They're making a big fuss about this is the launch

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of universal credit. This is one JobCentre in one town where it is

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starting, with not many claimants. They are taking it very slowly.

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Plans for a roll-out were not ambitious initially and they have

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been scaled back yet again. It was going to be at four Jobcentres and

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now it is only one. Not until after the general election were Elysee

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universal credit in any meaningful sense for -- any meaningful sense.

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People I have spoken to say, it was a mess, we are a bit more confident

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than we were. We think we have got it under control. The Government

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does not have a good record on large infrastructure projects. It

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is about whether the Tories can turn that around. It was a mess but

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it is improving slightly. Are you reassured it will work from a

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practical point of view? That is why having a trial is sensible and

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not having a roll-out throughout the country. It is a sensible

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approach. The principle of universal credit is about making

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sure, if someone and something, they will benefit from that among a

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have benefits reduced by more than make earn. That is a very sensible

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approach. It is good news. Does work always pay? It does not. One

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been the Government has done is take the way tax credits which did

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help work pay for people who are low-paid, people who cannot get

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enough hours. The must all do something about the rising Welfare

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Bill. -- we must. That is because of the failure on jobs and growth.

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Do you back the Government on the principle of benefits? We support

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the benefit cap but the system of taking money away from 2 million

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families and doing it on a monthly basis rather than a weekly basis

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and doing it with the big IT programme, what could possibly go

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wrong?! We inherited a massively complicated system which created

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injustice. We are taking people out of tax and setting up long-term

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reforms to make it better. They are taking it steadily to make sure we

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get it right. That is not just between now and election, it is 10,

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15 years in the future. It is a real live discussion, the whole

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idea of universal benefits for pensioners. It is a live issue. As

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we roll out the whole system, those issues will be highlighted. As a

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coalition, we were not bringing means testing for people. I want to

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get into a system which deals with the majority of folk - where we

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need to give them the opportunity of work to pay once more. When I

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talk to people around the country about benefit reforms, they say,

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that makes sense, it is there. If you work hard, you need to be

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better off. We have run out of time. There's just time before we go to

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find out the answer to our quiz. The question was, which

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politician's hairdo has become one of the most asked for styles in

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hair salons? A) Michael Heseltine, b) Theresa May, c) Margaret

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Thatcher or d) Michael Fabricant? It must be Margaret Thatcher.

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is a very good point. I presume it is Margaret Thatcher was dug we are

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