Browse content similar to 02/05/2013. Check below for episodes and series from the same categories and more!
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to the Daily Politics. The aid budget has been protected from the | :00:45. | :00:47. | |
cuts will stop but are the Ministry of defence and other departments on | :00:48. | :00:53. | |
a mission to raid its coffers by stealth? | :00:53. | :00:56. | |
Most newspapers are against it but if the Prime Minister set to press | :00:56. | :01:06. | |
ahead with his plan for the press? How do the politicians of every | :01:06. | :01:10. | |
colour, including the blue ones, treat the hard-working people of the | :01:10. | :01:16. | |
South? Like a piggybank, that is how. | :01:16. | :01:21. | |
Oh, yes, we will pit South versus North. | :01:21. | :01:25. | |
And as voters go to the polls in England and a bit of Wales, we will | :01:25. | :01:32. | |
tell you what the weather is going to be like. | :01:32. | :01:37. | |
All of that in the next half an hour. With us is the former editor | :01:37. | :01:40. | |
of the Sun newspaper, Kelvin MacKenzie. | :01:40. | :01:47. | |
First, could the aid budget be spent on the Armed Forces? There is talk | :01:47. | :01:51. | |
of peacekeeping missions, whose cost is usually met by the MoD, being | :01:51. | :01:56. | |
paid for by the Department for International development. Its | :01:56. | :02:02. | |
budget has been ring fenced, but like -- unlike other departments, | :02:03. | :02:06. | |
its budget has soared during the coalition. The Prime Minister is | :02:06. | :02:10. | |
looking for ways to ring fence the budget while letting others have a | :02:10. | :02:14. | |
slice of it. David Cameron has ruled out cutting the aid budget, which | :02:15. | :02:23. | |
currently stands at �7.7 million. -- �10.7 billion. The government has | :02:23. | :02:31. | |
pledged to maintain it at that level over national income. Other | :02:31. | :02:35. | |
ministers want to radiate budget to meet bills usually paid for by their | :02:35. | :02:41. | |
departments. Aid organisations are worried that money will be diverted | :02:41. | :02:48. | |
from helping the world 's port. If this was to happen, how much of the | :02:48. | :02:52. | |
almost �11 billion reaches the poor is not clear. We are joined by | :02:52. | :02:58. | |
Justin Forsyth, chief executive of Save the Children. He used to work | :02:58. | :03:01. | |
for Tony Blair and Gordon Brown at number ten. If the British Army is | :03:01. | :03:05. | |
on a peace mission and try to save lives, shouldn't it be in the aid | :03:05. | :03:15. | |
budget question -- aid budget? It can be a small bit of | :03:15. | :03:19. | |
peacekeeping, but the rest of it can't. The prime minister also said | :03:19. | :03:24. | |
yesterday that he would not break those rules. A bit of this is a | :03:24. | :03:30. | |
storm in a teacup. On the one hand, the headlines today are about | :03:30. | :03:35. | |
spending on aid and military. He has said he will not break the rules. | :03:35. | :03:42. | |
you think it is all spin coming out of Downing Street? | :03:42. | :03:51. | |
A little bit of it could. He says security is given -- important for | :03:51. | :03:56. | |
development. Somewhere I have been recently, Somalia, you can train the | :03:56. | :04:01. | |
police force. That is an important part of building security. Some of | :04:01. | :04:06. | |
that can come from the aid budget. But you can't pay for military | :04:06. | :04:09. | |
operations. I don't think the British public would support it. I | :04:09. | :04:13. | |
think they think it is for poverty reduction. | :04:13. | :04:17. | |
But we know the British public do not like the aid budget to be ring | :04:17. | :04:24. | |
fenced. I think the polls are mixed. A lot | :04:24. | :04:31. | |
of people, I think the British public is proud of the aid budget. | :04:31. | :04:36. | |
If you look at the polls, and they're right number of polls on it, | :04:36. | :04:43. | |
-- they're right number of polls on it, some of them are as high as 48%. | :04:43. | :04:49. | |
For any ring fenced budget, that is quite a large group of people. I | :04:49. | :04:55. | |
reckon 15 million people are passionate. They think it is part of | :04:55. | :04:59. | |
our DNA. The story of aid is making a difference. The British public | :04:59. | :05:08. | |
would support... In the past few years, we have had a reduction in | :05:09. | :05:15. | |
child deaths. It is down to about 6.9 million. | :05:15. | :05:19. | |
You are claiming all the credit. There are other factors at work, | :05:19. | :05:24. | |
including rising living standards. It is not all down to aid. One of | :05:24. | :05:31. | |
the ageist reasons there is a reduction is vaccinations. That is a | :05:31. | :05:37. | |
lot to do with aid. Isn't there a case for a wealthy | :05:37. | :05:41. | |
country like Britain, even in tough times, to say, look, there is a | :05:41. | :05:46. | |
chunk of money that we are going to do ring fence for the poorest in the | :05:46. | :05:51. | |
world? It just depends. We have plenty of | :05:51. | :05:57. | |
poor people in our own country. What I object to with Cameron is that he | :05:57. | :06:01. | |
has not stuck to his guns. I admire people who go through rough times | :06:01. | :06:06. | |
and say, you know what, this is what I believe. What he is doing is | :06:06. | :06:10. | |
nodding, unfortunately, towards the UK Independence party on this. It is | :06:10. | :06:18. | |
a political ploy. I don't want him to play politics over something... I | :06:18. | :06:28. | |
:06:28. | :06:30. | ||
don't believe in area, schools or NHS, or the chess budget, being ring | :06:30. | :06:39. | |
fenced. -- the NHS budget. I would prefer him to say, I am | :06:39. | :06:43. | |
sticking to this. I dislike Cameron on that particular issue. | :06:43. | :06:46. | |
Personally, I would not ring fence anything. He has made a point of the | :06:46. | :06:51. | |
fact that we should be proud of it. If he believes it, I would like him | :06:51. | :06:58. | |
to stay there, no matter the political waters. | :06:58. | :07:05. | |
I think that NGOs often do not give the government credit. David Cameron | :07:05. | :07:11. | |
deserves a lot of credit on this issue. They have stuck by their | :07:11. | :07:18. | |
guns. We have got to 0.7%. It is 1p in every pound. | :07:18. | :07:23. | |
It is nice to see him believing in something, to be honest! | :07:23. | :07:28. | |
There are reports that big chunks of money are wasted and it could be | :07:28. | :07:33. | |
better used. You could cut that �11 billion substantially and the | :07:33. | :07:40. | |
world's poor could still be helped. I don't think so. 99% of the money | :07:40. | :07:47. | |
goes on the poor. What about the consultants earning 6-figure | :07:47. | :07:54. | |
salaries? And the �36 million we gave to Sierra Leone that was spent | :07:54. | :08:01. | |
on houses and cars? They have made progress in getting | :08:01. | :08:06. | |
children into school and reducing child deaths. That is because the | :08:06. | :08:13. | |
war ended! The British Army deserve credit. There are a lot of armchair | :08:13. | :08:20. | |
critics of aid. The real story is it has worked. We have a chance, for | :08:20. | :08:26. | |
the first time in history, other generation -- no other generation | :08:26. | :08:33. | |
has been able to say we can eradicate child deaths. Of the �11 | :08:33. | :08:43. | |
:08:43. | :08:43. | ||
billion, �700 million is on vaccinations. So it is a small part. | :08:43. | :08:49. | |
That could be ring fenced. We also do education. We fight malnutrition. | :08:49. | :08:57. | |
In the coming weeks, Greg Britain holds the G8. -- Great Britain. We | :08:57. | :09:01. | |
did have a report today saying that 250,000 people died from famine in | :09:01. | :09:07. | |
Somalia. If you are doing that, why do you have two raise money for | :09:07. | :09:17. | |
:09:17. | :09:20. | ||
British kids? This was a political way to politicise Save the Children, | :09:20. | :09:28. | |
to embarrass the coalition. founder, 90 years ago, introduced | :09:28. | :09:38. | |
:09:38. | :09:41. | ||
nurseries. Andrew, I think it is unfair. Save the children is | :09:41. | :09:46. | |
nonpartisan. I have just praised David Cameron and George Osborne. We | :09:46. | :09:50. | |
also have an obligation to fight poverty at home. We have big | :09:50. | :09:54. | |
programmes doing it. In September last year, we raised money for it. | :09:54. | :09:57. | |
The British public want to support it. We would never be party | :09:57. | :10:02. | |
political. Our focus is children themselves. | :10:02. | :10:11. | |
Our guest of the day may look content. Yet, he does, actually. But | :10:11. | :10:15. | |
there is injustice nagging at him. He is deprived of anybody | :10:15. | :10:19. | |
representing him. He believes many others in the South East are in the | :10:19. | :10:23. | |
same position. Here is a party political broadcast on behalf of the | :10:23. | :10:33. | |
:10:33. | :10:33. | ||
holy fictitious British other party. -- completely dishes. | :10:33. | :10:39. | |
Statistics show that we in the South work longer hours than anywhere else | :10:39. | :10:42. | |
in the country, and now commute further and further from our place | :10:42. | :10:49. | |
of work as we attempt not to pay �10 million for our house. And most | :10:49. | :10:52. | |
importantly, London and the South East are virtually propped up the | :10:52. | :10:59. | |
entire British economy. -- London and the South East the Queen propped | :10:59. | :11:07. | |
How do the politicians of every colour, including the blue ones, | :11:07. | :11:16. | |
treat these massively hard-working people? Like a PD bank, that is how. | :11:16. | :11:26. | |
:11:26. | :11:26. | ||
They tax the hell out of us. It is time for a southern party. | :11:26. | :11:36. | |
:11:36. | :11:38. | ||
According to Professor Nicholas at Warwick University, London is not | :11:38. | :11:48. | |
:11:48. | :11:48. | ||
far from producing half of the country's comic output. The average | :11:48. | :11:52. | |
Londoner produces 60% more than a work in the north-east. Sexy 6% more | :11:52. | :12:00. | |
than somebody in Wales, too. -- 66%. Stamp duty is a pernicious, | :12:00. | :12:07. | |
virtually southern only tax. Five London boroughs pay more Stamp duty | :12:07. | :12:13. | |
than the rest of the nation together. There is a basic | :12:13. | :12:17. | |
unfairness in the way Southerners are being treated. We need political | :12:17. | :12:23. | |
pressure. I really southern party can supply it. -- only the southern | :12:24. | :12:31. | |
party. So, is London and the South East | :12:31. | :12:39. | |
having to bail of the UK? In the know -- northern korma -- in the | :12:39. | :12:44. | |
northern corner, Mike Smith, leader of Mike's Carpets. And in the | :12:44. | :12:51. | |
southern corner, Kelvin MacKenzie. He says the average Londoner | :12:51. | :13:01. | |
produces more than the rest of the country. Rubbish and prejudice.You | :13:01. | :13:06. | |
should be on the show more often! have never heard such prejudice | :13:07. | :13:14. | |
against the North of England. We say that the people in London work | :13:14. | :13:20. | |
harder. They don't work harder than the North of England. There is great | :13:20. | :13:26. | |
entrepreneurship in the North of England. Great business is going on | :13:26. | :13:33. | |
in the North. The rum or start up companies per head of the | :13:33. | :13:39. | |
propagation than the south. -- there are more start-up companies. | :13:39. | :13:44. | |
The North of England is home to entrepreneurs like him. I see there | :13:44. | :13:49. | |
are more in the North starting up than in the south. You are all | :13:49. | :13:54. | |
living on your property profits. have nothing against entrepreneurs. | :13:54. | :13:59. | |
I am making a different point. With the effect of house prices down | :13:59. | :14:05. | |
here, the Stamp duty is a southern tax, one of the fracture is the work | :14:05. | :14:11. | |
now have to commute even further. Therefore, the effect of train | :14:11. | :14:18. | |
fares... If you live outside London, it is going to cost you | :14:18. | :14:21. | |
�6,000 simply commuting over the year. Add it to the fact that the | :14:21. | :14:27. | |
average house price for instance... I looked up a company, and the | :14:27. | :14:34. | |
average price in Leeds is �178,000. The average price down here is about | :14:34. | :14:40. | |
�300,000. We get caught in stamp duty, and the North doesn't. I'm not | :14:40. | :14:45. | |
against this as long as we don't have to pay taxes to go and | :14:45. | :14:53. | |
subsidise the great entrepreneurial drive of the North. The South of | :14:53. | :14:57. | |
England contributes �30 billion to the public finances and the North | :14:57. | :15:07. | |
takes �30 billion out. That is not true. In the South, there is more | :15:07. | :15:15. | |
well. I am in favour of Stamp duty. The amount should vary a bit. The | :15:15. | :15:22. | |
property prices are far less than in the North. We have got a multitude | :15:22. | :15:25. | |
of properties that come into Stamp duty. They are paying more in the | :15:25. | :15:30. | |
South because the price is more. The standard of living is different. | :15:30. | :15:33. | |
People can afford to live in Yorkshire on a third of what they | :15:33. | :15:40. | |
can live on down here. Why should teachers, then, get the same amount | :15:40. | :15:47. | |
of money in the North East as if you work in the South? They shouldn't, | :15:47. | :15:52. | |
actually. There should be a differential. There used to be a | :15:52. | :15:59. | |
Londoner living allowance. Not only for teachers but for the police. | :15:59. | :16:04. | |
North drives our manufacturing now. The North East has the highest level | :16:04. | :16:13. | |
in the country. I am seeking political pressure so that the | :16:13. | :16:20. | |
Tories or Labour or whoever decided we can stick these taxes on and they | :16:20. | :16:27. | |
are applying exclusively to the south. What I am saying is, I am | :16:27. | :16:37. | |
:16:37. | :16:39. | ||
Then why pick on the north? I am not picking on the north. Shouldn't | :16:39. | :16:43. | |
London give more to the rest of the country? If it was not for the | :16:43. | :16:48. | |
manufacturers of the north -- it was not the manufacturers of the north | :16:48. | :16:52. | |
that brought us to our knees with the economic crisis, that was | :16:52. | :16:57. | |
London. If you look over the last 60 years, London has supplied the | :16:57. | :17:03. | |
earnings so that other people... If you take place like Wales, Wales | :17:03. | :17:09. | |
spends 44% more on what it does in Wales, ie a subsidy, compared to | :17:09. | :17:13. | |
London, which is a net producer of wealth, and we have to stop this. | :17:13. | :17:17. | |
Why should London and the south-east subsidise entire chunks of the | :17:17. | :17:24. | |
country? Wales is a different area. In Wales, the mining industry was | :17:24. | :17:27. | |
prolific and subsidised the education system. Yorkshire had the | :17:27. | :17:34. | |
same problem, because the mining industry has gone now. But now it is | :17:34. | :17:41. | |
coming back. The pits are open. There are places which may be | :17:41. | :17:47. | |
potentially opening. It will not be what it was before, but it is coming | :17:47. | :17:51. | |
back. It brings a cross to bear on the education system, not just in | :17:51. | :17:59. | |
Yorkshire and Wales, but all over the country. If you are 150 grand a | :17:59. | :18:02. | |
year in the south, you don't pay any more tax than in the north. The | :18:02. | :18:09. | |
taxman does the same for everybody. You are not subsidising us. | :18:09. | :18:18. | |
Actually, the majority of people earning that money are down here. | :18:18. | :18:25. | |
And they provide a standard of living in the north... I said | :18:25. | :18:32. | |
�150,000 a year earners, not �150,000 people. | :18:32. | :18:36. | |
Now, it is six weeks since a deal was done in Ed Miliband's office on | :18:36. | :18:41. | |
newspaper regulation, without the newspapers being present. All three | :18:41. | :18:44. | |
party leaders signed up to it, but their plans for a new regulator | :18:44. | :18:47. | |
backed by Royal Charter has gone down like a lead balloon with | :18:47. | :18:50. | |
national and local newspapers. Let's get the latest from our | :18:50. | :18:54. | |
correspondent. The government came up with this royal charter and | :18:54. | :18:58. | |
parliament agreed with it, but no newspaper has yet agreed to sign | :18:59. | :19:05. | |
on. So what will the government do? People keep saying this is complex. | :19:05. | :19:10. | |
In fact, it is simple. On 15th May, there will be a meeting of the privy | :19:10. | :19:15. | |
Council, the Queen and four of her ministers, standing up. That is how | :19:15. | :19:19. | |
she likes this business done. They will approve a Royal Charter. At the | :19:19. | :19:24. | |
moment, it looks like that will be the cross-party Charter agreed in | :19:24. | :19:28. | |
that office meeting. Many of the papers don't like that one bit. So | :19:28. | :19:34. | |
the question is, will David Cameron decide to concede to the papers' | :19:34. | :19:39. | |
demands and either put up the newspapers' version or some | :19:39. | :19:43. | |
concessional combination? And intriguing bit of spin reaches me | :19:43. | :19:47. | |
from a well-placed Tory source today. I am told the Conservatives | :19:47. | :19:54. | |
are amenable to the newspapers' position, but this has to have | :19:54. | :19:57. | |
cross-party support. So the papers need to be targeting Labour and the | :19:57. | :20:01. | |
Liberal Democrats for concessions. Hard to know what to make of that, | :20:01. | :20:06. | |
but lots of Conservatives will tell you it is Labour and the Lib Dems | :20:06. | :20:09. | |
who are the ones the papers should go after when it comes to a general | :20:09. | :20:18. | |
election period. We are joined by Steven Barnett of the campaign group | :20:18. | :20:23. | |
Hacked Off. Kelvin Mackenzie, is it your view that if Mr Cameron | :20:23. | :20:31. | |
proceeds with this royal charter, the newspapers will not sign up? | :20:31. | :20:35. | |
is an interesting question. My sense is that they will not, because there | :20:35. | :20:42. | |
is virtually nothing in it for them. There is the threat of | :20:42. | :20:47. | |
increased fines if they don't, and that may end up in various strands | :20:47. | :20:53. | |
bog courts to be fought through -- Strasberg courts. If I were a | :20:54. | :21:01. | |
newspaper proprietor, forget what the editors think, I would take my | :21:01. | :21:06. | |
chances. So there is a danger that after all this debate and the | :21:06. | :21:10. | |
regulation that has come forward, we will have a regular tree system to | :21:10. | :21:14. | |
which not even the Guardian or Independent will sign up? Of course | :21:14. | :21:18. | |
there is a danger, because the whole point is that it is a voluntary | :21:18. | :21:23. | |
system. The situation is more nuanced than that. I am sure Kelvin | :21:23. | :21:27. | |
is right and some papers will say they don't want to play this game. | :21:27. | :21:33. | |
Others will look at the detail after May 15. The Guardian, the | :21:33. | :21:37. | |
Independent, the FT, none of them have come out in support of the | :21:37. | :21:43. | |
press charter. More importantly, I would advise everyone to look at | :21:43. | :21:52. | |
their local and regional press. If you look at what could be in it, | :21:52. | :21:56. | |
picking up Kelvin's point, for the local and regional press, if I was | :21:56. | :22:00. | |
the editor of a local newspaper and I was thinking, wait a minute, there | :22:00. | :22:04. | |
is this leader of the council and this local entrepreneur, I have got | :22:04. | :22:07. | |
stuff on them in the public interest that I want to publish, but they | :22:07. | :22:14. | |
have been threatening me and I am scared of lawsuits, and I am worried | :22:14. | :22:19. | |
about being bullied, the point of this system is that it protects you | :22:19. | :22:23. | |
from those sorts of people. If I was a regional local editor, I would | :22:23. | :22:27. | |
think this could work for me. far, none of them have said that | :22:27. | :22:32. | |
publicly. They seem to be more against it than the national papers. | :22:32. | :22:37. | |
What is your response to that? Leveson, which has turned out to be | :22:37. | :22:44. | |
a disaster, as you will see from various stories beginning to trickle | :22:44. | :22:48. | |
out already with the shadow of Leveson over people, I think local | :22:48. | :22:53. | |
papers will run a mile from doing anything under any system right now. | :22:53. | :22:58. | |
Because of the fear of penalties? The fear of penalties, the fear of | :22:58. | :23:06. | |
threats of this, that and the other. So you end up this morning where a | :23:06. | :23:10. | |
police authority will not name an ex-police officer who is charged | :23:10. | :23:15. | |
with �117,000 worth of stealing because they say we are "following | :23:15. | :23:22. | |
Leveson" . You are getting all kinds of people in authority now saying, | :23:22. | :23:26. | |
we will not reveal this or that. It is hard enough to find out what is | :23:26. | :23:31. | |
going on without people than threatening you about disclosure. | :23:31. | :23:36. | |
are in danger of confusing two different things. One is the system | :23:36. | :23:40. | |
of voluntary self-regulation which is on the table now, which I and | :23:40. | :23:45. | |
others believe that a local press will look at and say, that will help | :23:45. | :23:48. | |
us do decent investigative journalism. There is a different | :23:48. | :23:52. | |
point, which is, are there things being said by certain people like | :23:53. | :23:57. | |
police forces, who are perhaps using Leveson as an umbrella? Maybe, but | :23:57. | :24:00. | |
that is a different issue from whether this particular system, | :24:00. | :24:10. | |
which I think will be signed off on 15th May, will work or not. I hope | :24:10. | :24:14. | |
it isn't. I think Cameron made a shocking error by announcing Leveson | :24:14. | :24:22. | |
in advance of the trials taking place. I think it would have been a | :24:23. | :24:31. | |
stronger suit... But we are where we are. OK, on that basis, I hope the | :24:31. | :24:35. | |
newspapers stick together will stop but they haven't got much of a | :24:35. | :24:40. | |
backbone. They talk about free speech, and as soon as a puff of | :24:40. | :24:43. | |
wind comes their way, there seems to be a lot of ways of accommodating | :24:43. | :24:49. | |
people. If they don't sign up, the government is in danger of calling a | :24:49. | :24:52. | |
party to which no one will come. it turns out you are wrong about | :24:52. | :24:58. | |
regional papers, the jury is out on that matter, if they decide that | :24:58. | :25:04. | |
exemplary damage will go all the way to Strasberg as it could be an | :25:04. | :25:11. | |
offence to human rights... That is not going to happen. Forget the | :25:11. | :25:17. | |
scaremongering. I have seen the legal advice on both sides, and the | :25:17. | :25:22. | |
legal advice for the press comes from those providing advice at | :25:22. | :25:28. | |
Leveson. Put that to one side. Yes, you are right. It may be that no one | :25:28. | :25:33. | |
comes to this party. If that happens in a years time, the recognition | :25:33. | :25:36. | |
panel will bring forward a report saying that nothing has happened. | :25:36. | :25:43. | |
That is the point of a voluntary system. But you will have failed. It | :25:43. | :25:48. | |
is not us. This has become your life's work. The people who will | :25:48. | :25:52. | |
have failed will be the people who have suffered from press abuse, | :25:52. | :25:58. | |
because there will not be a system to stop it happening again. | :25:58. | :26:05. | |
As you may have heard, there are a few elections taking play today. 35 | :26:05. | :26:08. | |
local authorities are holding them -27 in the county can, seven unitary | :26:08. | :26:13. | |
authorities as well as Anglesey in Wales. 2300 seats are up for grabs. | :26:13. | :26:19. | |
There are also mayoral elections in Doncaster and north Tyneside. And | :26:19. | :26:21. | |
there is a by-election in South Shields after the former Foreign | :26:21. | :26:26. | |
Secretary, David Miliband, resigned. Before you venture out to the | :26:26. | :26:30. | |
polling station, it is important that we give you a weather forecast. | :26:30. | :26:38. | |
You will need your sun hat, if you can find it, as you have had a long | :26:38. | :26:43. | |
time without using it. We are joined now by the BBC's Huw Edwards, who | :26:43. | :26:49. | |
will soon be taking possession of this enormous desk. When do we start | :26:49. | :26:56. | |
getting the first results? Normally, you know better than | :26:56. | :27:01. | |
anyone, on election night, we are waiting hours for results. But when | :27:01. | :27:06. | |
we come on air tomorrow morning at 8.30 on the BBC News Channel, we | :27:06. | :27:09. | |
will be able to talk about the South Shields Parliament drew by-election, | :27:09. | :27:15. | |
which will have been done overnight. And one of the mayoral elections and | :27:15. | :27:20. | |
six local authorities. We should have some strong signals. And for | :27:20. | :27:26. | |
the rest of the day, you carry on. A lot of accounts are being done | :27:26. | :27:29. | |
during day two, so you will get the results in the morning and | :27:29. | :27:37. | |
afternoon? Six have done there's overnight. Then there will be more | :27:38. | :27:42. | |
during the day. Some of those will be very interesting. We will be on | :27:42. | :27:46. | |
BBC Two from midday and then back on at two o'clock and then five. Most | :27:46. | :27:50. | |
of the day will be on the BBC News Channel, but three hours on BBC Two | :27:50. | :27:56. | |
during the afternoon. So a long day, but an important day. Parties are | :27:56. | :28:01. | |
very nervous about this election. There are a lot of unknowns. | :28:01. | :28:05. | |
Politicians like to dismiss local elections as local affairs, and in | :28:05. | :28:15. | |
:28:15. | :28:19. | ||
many areas, they are. But there are bigger things here and there are | :28:19. | :28:21. | |
high stakes for the parties and their leaders. | :28:21. | :28:25. | |
Don't miss Hugh Edwards on the BBC News Channel at 8:30am and then on | :28:25. | :28:29. | |
BBC Two from 12, two and five. But is it for today. I am back tonight | :28:29. | :28:33. | |
with a special This Week on BBC One from as special secret location, | :28:34. | :28:38. | |
with an audience. We have never had an audience. We will have Michael | :28:38. | :28:43. | |
Portillo, Alan Johnson and Nigel Farage and Miranda Green. I will be | :28:43. | :28:46. | |
back on Sunday with the Sunday Politics, when we will be chewing | :28:47. | :28:50. |