Browse content similar to 18/12/2013. Check below for episodes and series from the same categories and more!
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Morning, folks, and welcome to the Daily Politics. | :00:35. | :00:38. | |
A three-month wait for migrants to claim benefits in Britain will be | :00:39. | :00:41. | |
introduced in January, but will the change put off Bulgarians and | :00:42. | :00:44. | |
Romanians from coming here just weeks before restrictions on their | :00:45. | :00:46. | |
right to work are lifted? Prisoners serving short sentences | :00:47. | :00:49. | |
should get the vote - that's the conclusion of a committee of MPs and | :00:50. | :00:53. | |
peers. But not all of their colleagues agree. | :00:54. | :00:58. | |
Ed Miliband and David Cameron face each other across the despatch box - | :00:59. | :01:01. | |
we'll bring you the final exchanges of 2013 live. | :01:02. | :01:04. | |
And Olympic Gold Chris Boardman tells us why we need to make | :01:05. | :01:14. | |
Britain's roads safer for cyclists. The last programme of the year - but | :01:15. | :01:23. | |
we leave the best to last. Joining us for the duration shadow welfare | :01:24. | :01:26. | |
minister Chris Bryant and treasury minister Nicky Morgan - who better | :01:27. | :01:30. | |
to bring a little yuletide cheer to proceedings? Is that a quiz? Who | :01:31. | :01:41. | |
better? Not yet! First this morning, the Prime Minister's left it late - | :01:42. | :01:45. | |
the last Daily Politics of the year and only a few politics days until | :01:46. | :01:49. | |
Christmas - but if you're Romanian or Bulgarian and hoping to travel to | :01:50. | :01:52. | |
Britain for work on first January David Cameron wants you to know that | :01:53. | :01:56. | |
you won't be able to claim benefits here for at least three months. -- | :01:57. | :01:59. | |
on January the 1st. Let's speak to our political correspondent Iain | :02:00. | :02:04. | |
Watson, who is in Brussels. How will you manage to do that in | :02:05. | :02:09. | |
what is left of this Parliament? Quite easily, simply by putting a | :02:10. | :02:16. | |
regulation in Parliament, secondary legislation to go forward on January | :02:17. | :02:21. | |
the 1st. Critics thought it would be impossible to rush this through. The | :02:22. | :02:25. | |
question is, how effective will it be? Clearly, he wants this past | :02:26. | :02:30. | |
before people can come from Romania and Bulgarians and get free access | :02:31. | :02:34. | |
to labour market is, some of his own MPs wanted to talk about putting | :02:35. | :02:40. | |
controls on for longer, he has batted that off until next month. He | :02:41. | :02:45. | |
will be able to deny British benefits to Bulgarians and Romanians | :02:46. | :02:48. | |
and anyone else coming from the EU for the first three months, there is | :02:49. | :02:53. | |
another route for them to get benefits and they could potentially | :02:54. | :02:57. | |
still come to Britain to seek work. This European Commission memo from | :02:58. | :03:01. | |
late last month made it very clear that they have the right to apply to | :03:02. | :03:07. | |
their home country to get their benefits exported, for their first | :03:08. | :03:10. | |
three months in Britain they can get benefits paid out Romanian and | :03:11. | :03:13. | |
Bulgarians level is. You might assume these are poverty stricken | :03:14. | :03:17. | |
compared to the rest of us, but the benefits system is quite generous. | :03:18. | :03:21. | |
Wages are lower in Bulgaria, for example, that benefits can be up to | :03:22. | :03:28. | |
60% of the average wage, around ?50 or ?60, not dissimilar to | :03:29. | :03:32. | |
jobseeker's allowance. They have also been speaking in Brussels about | :03:33. | :03:36. | |
whether it is a phantom problem or a real problem. The European | :03:37. | :03:41. | |
commission has been trying to get information, asking the British | :03:42. | :03:44. | |
government how many people come from elsewhere in the EU and claim | :03:45. | :03:47. | |
benefits, perhaps they are involved in abuse or fraud. The responses | :03:48. | :03:54. | |
that they got worse that there was too much should emphasis placed on | :03:55. | :04:01. | |
quantitative evidence. -- the responses that they got were that. | :04:02. | :04:05. | |
Perception is that there be unfairness, that people could come | :04:06. | :04:10. | |
to Britain and claim benefits, but perhaps we are a soft touch. The | :04:11. | :04:15. | |
perception is being addressed, rather than solid evidence, perhaps, | :04:16. | :04:21. | |
that we will be invaded by benefit tourists. Thank you. | :04:22. | :04:27. | |
Nicky Morgan, when will Parliament pass this legislation? Is no one | :04:28. | :04:32. | |
speaks against it when it is read this afternoon, it will be passed by | :04:33. | :04:38. | |
the time the house rises tomorrow. If somebody speaks against it? There | :04:39. | :04:45. | |
will have to be a debate, but I understand there is cross-party | :04:46. | :04:49. | |
support. There has to be one difficult person in the house? I | :04:50. | :04:54. | |
understand that this will go down, there have been lots of | :04:55. | :04:57. | |
behind-the-scenes discussions. There is a clear intent to tackle the | :04:58. | :05:04. | |
issue from January one. If somebody awkward decided to throw a spanner | :05:05. | :05:10. | |
in the works, you would not get it through in time for the house | :05:11. | :05:16. | |
rising? It has to be passed by the house... I think you are wrong, I | :05:17. | :05:23. | |
think it has to be both houses. The House of Lords finishes tomorrow. It | :05:24. | :05:28. | |
has to go through the same process in both houses. It has to go through | :05:29. | :05:33. | |
the House of Lords statutory instruments committee, which can't | :05:34. | :05:37. | |
meet now. I think it will go through. I have said it will be in | :05:38. | :05:45. | |
place by tomorrow night. In this Parliament already we have got | :05:46. | :05:47. | |
through legislation in one day, it is perfectly possible. The member | :05:48. | :05:52. | |
who object to it will have to explain it to their constituents. We | :05:53. | :05:59. | |
will find out, we will get our teams of gremlins panning out from the | :06:00. | :06:03. | |
building to checklists. But why'd you think it is late? As | :06:04. | :06:10. | |
Iain Duncan Smith said, he has been in discussion for two years with | :06:11. | :06:18. | |
fellow EU member states. We have taken time to get this right, to | :06:19. | :06:22. | |
listen to what people are saying, this is the way forward. We can get | :06:23. | :06:27. | |
this through, it is about tackling an issue of major concern. We are | :06:28. | :06:33. | |
down to the wire, Parliament has another day or a bit, the Lords are | :06:34. | :06:39. | |
already disappearing, having got their expenses before they go, | :06:40. | :06:43. | |
naturally. I am told that is what they do. If it is of such | :06:44. | :06:47. | |
importance, why wasn't it done at least a month ago? We have known | :06:48. | :06:53. | |
since 2004 when the last Labour government signed the accession | :06:54. | :06:58. | |
treaty and then accepted that the Romanians and Bulgarians would have | :06:59. | :07:01. | |
some time why they could not come through freely. We have known for | :07:02. | :07:05. | |
years, why have they gone to the wire? These regulations will work, | :07:06. | :07:12. | |
they will change the definition and they will stop people claiming out | :07:13. | :07:16. | |
of work benefits for three months after they get here? Do you expect | :07:17. | :07:21. | |
it to be a major deterrent? Yes, in the sense that people will be aware | :07:22. | :07:28. | |
of it. Britain is open for people who want to work, if you come here | :07:29. | :07:32. | |
with the intention of claiming from day one, that is not an option. I | :07:33. | :07:37. | |
think it will deter people. How many? Let's not get into numbers. | :07:38. | :07:45. | |
You could make it up as you go along. The last government proved | :07:46. | :07:50. | |
how clearly they underestimated the number... We know that, but you have | :07:51. | :07:54. | |
no idea how many people this will deter. It will be in place to | :07:55. | :08:02. | |
deter... Since we have learned that in the first three months they are | :08:03. | :08:05. | |
here, they can't claim British benefits, they can get benefits sent | :08:06. | :08:09. | |
from their home country, so why would they deter that? I am not sure | :08:10. | :08:16. | |
why people... Because they are looking for a job. If people have a | :08:17. | :08:21. | |
job lined up they are welcome to come here and contribute to the | :08:22. | :08:25. | |
United Kingdom and society. If they don't have a job lined up, the | :08:26. | :08:29. | |
signal goes out very clear, they are not welcome. You are basically just | :08:30. | :08:34. | |
tightening the existing rules, this is not a step change, it is | :08:35. | :08:39. | |
tinkering at the edges? Allah this is the first step, there are other | :08:40. | :08:42. | |
changes we are looking at, but it is an important step in place from the | :08:43. | :08:47. | |
1st of January. A number of colleagues have been talking about | :08:48. | :08:50. | |
child benefit and other benefits. What would you like to see? In | :08:51. | :08:54. | |
relation to further tightening the up? Child benefit is suggested to me | :08:55. | :09:02. | |
a lot, what can we do to make sure that people who move here cannot | :09:03. | :09:08. | |
claim child benefit? I want to see the clear message that we are | :09:09. | :09:13. | |
welcoming people who want to come here, and to work. There is a wider | :09:14. | :09:19. | |
issue about the renegotiation of our relationship with the EU, we will | :09:20. | :09:23. | |
hopefully get a majority Conservative Government after 2015 | :09:24. | :09:28. | |
and put the whole issue of EU membership to a referendum for the | :09:29. | :09:32. | |
British people. Mr Cameron says he wants to restrict free movement in | :09:33. | :09:36. | |
the EU, even though free movement of labour and capital were at the heart | :09:37. | :09:41. | |
of the Treaty of Rome. Many people who don't like the idea of a federal | :09:42. | :09:45. | |
Europe or even Eurosceptics quite like the idea of free movement of | :09:46. | :09:51. | |
labour and capital. Do you have any idea what it would do? What does he | :09:52. | :09:58. | |
want? It is open for negotiation. Do you have any idea? Freedom of | :09:59. | :10:03. | |
movement of labour is right, but it is people coming to work, not claim | :10:04. | :10:08. | |
benefits. I have many thousands of hard pressed constituents working | :10:09. | :10:12. | |
very hard to payoff the tax system, they are not paying taxes for people | :10:13. | :10:16. | |
with no intention of working. So Europeans could come here or could | :10:17. | :10:21. | |
not play on welfare for a year, two years, five years? -- they could not | :10:22. | :10:28. | |
claim welfare? We will have to discuss that. The idea is that they | :10:29. | :10:34. | |
are coming to work and contribute. I understand that, nobody will argue | :10:35. | :10:37. | |
with that. We all want people to work and contribute, that is fine. | :10:38. | :10:42. | |
But I use saying that if people come here, never mind the three months | :10:43. | :10:46. | |
when they become eligible, but they should not be eligible for welfare | :10:47. | :10:51. | |
benefits for a lengthy period of time? That is something we will have | :10:52. | :11:04. | |
to discuss and negotiate. The government view is very much that we | :11:05. | :11:09. | |
want people to come here. We have talked about contributing... | :11:10. | :11:15. | |
I am going to hear these words in my head all night. How many benefit | :11:16. | :11:17. | |
tourists are they? I will not take lectures from you on | :11:18. | :11:40. | |
immigration. We are not taking lectures from the Labour Party, who | :11:41. | :11:45. | |
quadrupled net migration. How many are we talking about? I am here to | :11:46. | :11:50. | |
answer questions from Andrew. Chris Bryant, your party is pretty much | :11:51. | :11:57. | |
experts on mass migration from the EU, that is your default subject | :11:58. | :12:05. | |
these days. What I want to ask is the rule restricting access to | :12:06. | :12:08. | |
benefits for three months was in place in 2004/5 when the Polish and | :12:09. | :12:13. | |
the accession eight, as they were known, were allowed to come. There | :12:14. | :12:17. | |
is no evidence that it deterred migrants? Strictly speaking, these | :12:18. | :12:24. | |
are not migrants, they are EU citizens exercising their EU right, | :12:25. | :12:28. | |
just as British people going to work in Spain or Poland or wherever else, | :12:29. | :12:33. | |
it is important that we bear that in mind. The country with the largest | :12:34. | :12:36. | |
number of people living outside their own home country is the UK, | :12:37. | :12:41. | |
but any of the others. So you welcome the arrival of Romanians and | :12:42. | :12:46. | |
Bulgarians as fellow European citizens? They have every right to | :12:47. | :12:51. | |
come here and work. What they don't have... And they don't have that | :12:52. | :12:56. | |
now, incidentally, is the right to claim benefits from day one. My | :12:57. | :12:59. | |
concern about what is happening today is that, in my experience, bad | :13:00. | :13:03. | |
legislation is always brought in very swiftly at the last minute and | :13:04. | :13:07. | |
without the opportunity for proper scrutiny. We have had months and | :13:08. | :13:11. | |
months where we have been saying you should be able to tighten the rules | :13:12. | :13:15. | |
of necessary. It should be based on evidence. If there are numbers we | :13:16. | :13:20. | |
are talking about of people claiming benefits from day one, as the | :13:21. | :13:24. | |
minister seems to think, we should be dealing with it. You support the | :13:25. | :13:29. | |
three-month rule, do you think it should be longer? I think it is | :13:30. | :13:34. | |
already three months, incidentally. Let's accept that for this | :13:35. | :13:38. | |
discussion, should it be London -- longer? It should probably be six | :13:39. | :13:43. | |
months, and we suggested that eight months ago. The government could | :13:44. | :13:47. | |
have done something about that eight months ago but it is only now, | :13:48. | :13:52. | |
literally at the very last minute in terms of Parliament, I suggest even | :13:53. | :13:59. | |
passed the midnight hour... You have known since 2004 that the Romanians | :14:00. | :14:03. | |
and Bulgarians are coming, you did nothing in government to prepare? | :14:04. | :14:09. | |
That is not true. Sorry to disagree with you. You are right in saying | :14:10. | :14:13. | |
that I think we got something wrong when we initially allowed Poland, | :14:14. | :14:19. | |
Serbia and Latvia and all of those... I am not talking about | :14:20. | :14:25. | |
them. You put nothing in place... You had plenty of time to put in | :14:26. | :14:32. | |
place new rules when the Bulgarians and Romanians extension ended, you | :14:33. | :14:42. | |
did nothing. Not true. We introduce the habitual residency test. | :14:43. | :14:49. | |
Reintroduced the extension to seven years from five years. Whether | :14:50. | :14:53. | |
government has failed, they have been the government for three years. | :14:54. | :14:58. | |
We have done that point. Just to clarify, six months would be Labour | :14:59. | :15:03. | |
policy? We said that earlier this year. I would be happy with six | :15:04. | :15:11. | |
months. Then we need to move on. But I want to see statistics. We all | :15:12. | :15:18. | |
like statistics. If we are fighting with the Phantom, we might be doing | :15:19. | :15:22. | |
the economy more harm than good. I don't think I was arguing with you | :15:23. | :15:26. | |
on that. Iain Duncan Smith's department has | :15:27. | :15:30. | |
said this regulation does not need to be laid in the Lords. | :15:31. | :15:42. | |
John Major said it is not proven evidence. Let's move on. You cannot | :15:43. | :15:50. | |
get the staff these days. Should prisoners be allowed to vote in | :15:51. | :15:53. | |
elections? The Prime Minister thinks they shouldn't. The European Court | :15:54. | :15:56. | |
of Human Rights says they should. Today the committee of MPs and peers | :15:57. | :16:00. | |
set up to look at the question has published its report... And it's | :16:01. | :16:02. | |
split. Oh dear! JoCo, what's happening? | :16:03. | :16:08. | |
Yes. There's been a blanket ban on prisoners voting in the UK since | :16:09. | :16:11. | |
1969. But back in 2005 the European Court of Human Rights decided in | :16:12. | :16:14. | |
favour of convicted axe murderer John Hirst, saying the ban was in | :16:15. | :16:19. | |
breach of his rights. Britain has been locked in a court battle with | :16:20. | :16:23. | |
the ECHR ever since, despite MPs voting by an overwhelming majority | :16:24. | :16:29. | |
to keep the ban in 2011. The government has been warned if it | :16:30. | :16:31. | |
doesn't comply, prisoners could claim compensation of more than ?100 | :16:32. | :16:37. | |
million. But David Cameron insists they won't get the vote on his | :16:38. | :16:41. | |
watch, he says it would make him feel physically sick. The government | :16:42. | :16:46. | |
set up a cross-party committee of MPs and peers to look at what to do | :16:47. | :16:50. | |
next and today it's recommended giving the vote to all inmates | :16:51. | :16:53. | |
serving sentences of 12 months or less and to those within six months | :16:54. | :16:59. | |
of release. But the committee was split, with a minority group | :17:00. | :17:01. | |
insisting Parliament should be allowed to keep the blanket ban, and | :17:02. | :17:05. | |
arguing that the European court has over-reached itself. | :17:06. | :17:10. | |
Well we're joined now from central lobby by the committee chairman, | :17:11. | :17:13. | |
Nick Gibb, who wants to keep the ban. And by former Prisons Minister, | :17:14. | :17:16. | |
Crispin Blunt, who backed the majority view that some prisoners | :17:17. | :17:25. | |
should be given the vote. Crispin Blunt, why should they be | :17:26. | :17:29. | |
given the vote? We have got to see this issue within the context of the | :17:30. | :17:37. | |
European convention on human rights. If we choose to defy the courts and | :17:38. | :17:42. | |
stick by the rule of law, we need to denounce the convention and leave | :17:43. | :17:46. | |
it. We have to decide if prisoner votes is an important issue or not. | :17:47. | :17:52. | |
It isn't. There are weak arguments to give some prisoners a vote to | :17:53. | :17:56. | |
assist their rehabilitation. It will not deter crime, no one is thinking | :17:57. | :18:02. | |
about doing a crime and then does not do it because they will lose the | :18:03. | :18:08. | |
right to vote. The court is in the right place on the merits. And so | :18:09. | :18:14. | |
this is not really the right issue on which to defy the convention | :18:15. | :18:21. | |
itself. It is just not worth it, for the reasons outlined by Crispin | :18:22. | :18:26. | |
Blunt, it is not a deterrent, just a punishment in your view and you will | :18:27. | :18:30. | |
be in breach of international law. Is it worth it? Most people who are | :18:31. | :18:37. | |
sentenced to jail, lose their liberty and the right to take part | :18:38. | :18:41. | |
in society and therefore lose their right to take part in elections. The | :18:42. | :18:48. | |
European Court of Human Rights is taking another view. So the other | :18:49. | :18:54. | |
issue we have been considering is who should make these decisions. | :18:55. | :18:57. | |
Most people in Britain think those kinds of decisions are best made in | :18:58. | :19:01. | |
this building by people who are elected by the British people to | :19:02. | :19:05. | |
represent them and not by a group of judges in a foreign court. But | :19:06. | :19:09. | |
European convention was established to deal with the aftermath of the | :19:10. | :19:13. | |
horrors of the Second World War and the emergent common is blocked | :19:14. | :19:20. | |
terror. It is not meant to deal with the minutia right of domestic | :19:21. | :19:25. | |
politics. You have to stay firm and said to the European Court of Human | :19:26. | :19:30. | |
Rights, you have overstepped the mark and we need to see a reform of | :19:31. | :19:34. | |
that court, so they don't confront what is the established view of the | :19:35. | :19:40. | |
British people. What do you say to that, Crispin Blunt, it is no longer | :19:41. | :19:46. | |
fit for purpose? That is probably true, the court has overstepped the | :19:47. | :19:51. | |
mark in regards to this. This was an unwise judgement. But the court is | :19:52. | :19:57. | |
beginning to reform itself and was a meeting of the Council in 2012 which | :19:58. | :20:00. | |
began the process of reform of the court. There are signs being sent by | :20:01. | :20:06. | |
the Secretary-General of the Council of Europe who came to give evidence | :20:07. | :20:09. | |
to others, that the court is beginning to these issues. We have | :20:10. | :20:15. | |
to decide whether we will throw over the whole convention, whilst this | :20:16. | :20:21. | |
system is in the process of reform. Or let the process go on and see if | :20:22. | :20:24. | |
we will get more sensible judgements in future. What happens now? You | :20:25. | :20:30. | |
want the national parliament to decide, but what happens in this | :20:31. | :20:36. | |
stand-off? The government will respond to our committee's report | :20:37. | :20:41. | |
and they will bring forward legislation next year. It is up to | :20:42. | :20:46. | |
members of Parliament how they vote. No one can tell an MP or a peer how | :20:47. | :20:50. | |
they will vote and I think they will reject out of hand to move the | :20:51. | :20:55. | |
franchise to prisoners. The ball is in the court of the European Court | :20:56. | :21:02. | |
of Human Rights to reform itself. And the Brighton declaration went | :21:03. | :21:04. | |
some way, but nowhere near to the extent we need reform. There was a | :21:05. | :21:10. | |
case heard by the animal rights movement to try to get paid, | :21:11. | :21:15. | |
political advertising on our televisions. That was ruled out, but | :21:16. | :21:20. | |
it could have easily been voted in, changing the way we run elections in | :21:21. | :21:25. | |
this country. That cannot be the role of the European Court of Human | :21:26. | :21:29. | |
Rights. They need to reform themselves more substantially done | :21:30. | :21:35. | |
the Brighton declaration. The Prime Minister said, over his dead body, | :21:36. | :21:39. | |
he will not change his view? If we are going to stick by the rule of | :21:40. | :21:44. | |
law, we will have to denounce the convention because we will defy the | :21:45. | :21:51. | |
courts. If we don't do that, and we simply defied a court and not | :21:52. | :21:56. | |
denounce the convention, we are breaching our international treaty | :21:57. | :21:59. | |
obligations and we will have to pay compensation to prisoners every time | :22:00. | :22:04. | |
there is an election. Thank you both very much. Just on that word on the | :22:05. | :22:11. | |
Lords and benefits, it is a negative statutory instrument. I have never | :22:12. | :22:18. | |
heard of that. It becomes law without a debate or vote but maybe | :22:19. | :22:22. | |
an old by a resolution of either House. Because it has to go to the | :22:23. | :22:35. | |
Lords? No, it doesn't. Nicky, does the idea of giving prisoners the | :22:36. | :22:40. | |
votes make you physically sick? Not physically sick, but I am opposed to | :22:41. | :22:45. | |
it. If we don't, we will end up paying fines to prisoners, and 281 | :22:46. | :22:54. | |
prisoners have already lodged compensation claims. I would rather | :22:55. | :22:58. | |
see the court reformed, but sometimes the principal is more | :22:59. | :23:06. | |
important. I did a documentary on this in 2012, the forms being made, | :23:07. | :23:15. | |
if any are very slight. I would say no to prisoners having the vote. You | :23:16. | :23:21. | |
would pick and choose what European rulings you would follow? I think | :23:22. | :23:27. | |
there comes a point, especially in this case when the UK as to say this | :23:28. | :23:31. | |
has gone too far. The Supreme Court ruled in not Tober earlier on this | :23:32. | :23:37. | |
year in the case of two prisoners that they did not have voting | :23:38. | :23:42. | |
rights. It may be called the Supreme Court, but it is not supreme. In | :23:43. | :23:46. | |
America, the Supreme Court is supreme, but are Supreme Court is | :23:47. | :23:53. | |
subject to European rules? That is another discussion. Would you be up | :23:54. | :23:58. | |
for leaving this court? As a former lawyer, you would have to think | :23:59. | :24:03. | |
carefully. But there is a principle at stake here. It is up to | :24:04. | :24:08. | |
Parliament to decide. I cannot see any justification for giving | :24:09. | :24:15. | |
prisoners the vote. We know you are against it. But the issue is do we | :24:16. | :24:20. | |
comply with the court or do we live with the consequence of paying | :24:21. | :24:23. | |
fines. Or do we leave the court altogether? I am not in favour of | :24:24. | :24:31. | |
giving prisoners the vote. But I don't want to leave the court. What | :24:32. | :24:38. | |
would you do? There is a third way in between. The courts's original | :24:39. | :24:45. | |
objection is to the blanket ban. In France, nearly every prisoner is | :24:46. | :24:49. | |
deprived of the right to vote, but the judge decides as part of the | :24:50. | :24:54. | |
sentence. Which is why I want to see the report that has been produced by | :24:55. | :24:59. | |
the committee. It is interesting because obviously, the surprise is, | :25:00. | :25:05. | |
the committee has said it is in favour of abiding by the ruling of | :25:06. | :25:10. | |
the European Court. What they have said is if you are sentence for less | :25:11. | :25:13. | |
than 12 months, you still get the vote. If you are coming to the end | :25:14. | :25:19. | |
of your sentence, in the final six months, you would get the vote. It | :25:20. | :25:26. | |
is pretty marginal, but it does meet the requirements of the European. | :25:27. | :25:33. | |
Would you go along with that? Maybe. I have not seen the report. I have | :25:34. | :25:40. | |
two instinctive reactions and they conflict with each other. The first | :25:41. | :25:48. | |
is, I am supportive of of our being subject to European rights. It was a | :25:49. | :25:54. | |
Brit who devised it in the 1940s. Maxwell Fyfe. And I think it means | :25:55. | :26:03. | |
British businesses and citizens can get... We are aware of the | :26:04. | :26:12. | |
conflicts. But let's say you are saying that you are going along with | :26:13. | :26:15. | |
it, but you would not go along with it? The Prime Minister's lying about | :26:16. | :26:22. | |
it making him physically sick is childish. People like to have a | :26:23. | :26:32. | |
clear line of reform. You would not go along with this compromise? The | :26:33. | :26:37. | |
committee was asked to look at what was possible, but they have made it | :26:38. | :26:41. | |
clear they do not support it. If this court had ruled in favour of | :26:42. | :26:46. | |
paid, political advertising, what would have you done? But it didn't. | :26:47. | :26:56. | |
It was only one vote. It is a hypothetical question. What would | :26:57. | :27:04. | |
you have done? I don't want to give prisoners the vote, I don't want | :27:05. | :27:09. | |
paid advertising on television but political campaigns. But you are | :27:10. | :27:16. | |
asking a hypothetical question. Now, Canadian politicians know how to | :27:17. | :27:18. | |
celebrate the festive season. That was the scene yesterday inside | :27:19. | :27:38. | |
Toronto City Council chamber, presided over by their controversial | :27:39. | :27:46. | |
mayor, Rob Ford. No, I'm sorry, there will be no dancing here! We'll | :27:47. | :27:56. | |
be doing that a little later on. But in the meantime we're warming up | :27:57. | :27:59. | |
with a Daily Politics mug of cheap plonk laced with sugar and spices. | :28:00. | :28:11. | |
You don't have to drink it, Chris. It does not look very nice. On the | :28:12. | :28:18. | |
licence fee! And it can be yours of course, well the mug, I am not sure | :28:19. | :28:22. | |
the mulled wine will survive the post. | :28:23. | :28:28. | |
And we'll remind you how to enter in a minute, but let's see if you can | :28:29. | :28:31. | |
remember when this happened. Oh my goodness, Martin Bell. He | :28:32. | :29:15. | |
could not be more wrong. I have decided to give the bank of England | :29:16. | :29:18. | |
operational responsibility for setting interest rates. His name is | :29:19. | :29:29. | |
Peter. To be in with a chance of winning a | :29:30. | :29:58. | |
Daily Politics mug, send your answer to our special quiz email address. | :29:59. | :30:02. | |
And you can see the full terms and conditions for Guess The Year on our | :30:03. | :30:15. | |
website. To all our friends at CNN who were watching the programme, the | :30:16. | :30:19. | |
mulled wine is in the post. It's coming up to midday here. Just | :30:20. | :30:25. | |
take a look at Big Ben. That can mean only one thing! Yes, Prime | :30:26. | :30:28. | |
Minister's Questions is on the way. And that's not all, Nick Robinson is | :30:29. | :30:33. | |
here. What is going to happen? I think | :30:34. | :30:42. | |
both leaders will want to talk about the same thing, the cost of living. | :30:43. | :30:46. | |
They will rehearse the battle they have been having for months, and the | :30:47. | :30:50. | |
battle they will be having for the next 18 months. So it will be deja | :30:51. | :31:06. | |
vu? Unemployment figures were pretty good? Both parties want to have this | :31:07. | :31:15. | |
row now. The fact, 41 months after... Let's go straight over to | :31:16. | :31:24. | |
the final PMQs of 2013. We should remember all our service | :31:25. | :31:50. | |
personnel around the world. Our country owes a huge amount to them. | :31:51. | :31:55. | |
This morning I had meetings with ministerial colleagues and others, | :31:56. | :32:00. | |
and in addition to my meetings in the house, I will have further such | :32:01. | :32:04. | |
meetings later today. Can I join him in his wishes to our | :32:05. | :32:08. | |
armed forces and all the public sector workers who will be taking | :32:09. | :32:12. | |
care of us over the Christmas period? | :32:13. | :32:18. | |
Mr Speaker, unless the Mrs Ely Omer bill is changed, 6000 victims who | :32:19. | :32:27. | |
were criminally and negligently exposed to asbestos at work will not | :32:28. | :32:35. | |
is received compensation. -- the mesothelioma bill? Would he rather | :32:36. | :32:39. | |
stand foreign assurance companies than innocent people? -- would he | :32:40. | :32:46. | |
rather stand for insurance companies? | :32:47. | :32:51. | |
The mesothelioma bill is a huge step forward. There has been no provision | :32:52. | :33:00. | |
for these people. Once the scheme is up and running, roughly 300 people a | :33:01. | :33:03. | |
year will receive approximately ?115,000 each. That is an important | :33:04. | :33:09. | |
step forward. I will look at what he has to say but I think we should be | :33:10. | :33:12. | |
proud that we are tackling this issue after a long delay. Will he | :33:13. | :33:24. | |
join me in saluting the courage of the hundreds of thousands of people | :33:25. | :33:26. | |
who have been peacefully processed and across Ukraine for the last | :33:27. | :33:43. | |
will he hold out the prospect of closer links with Europe in the | :33:44. | :33:49. | |
longer term, which is what the people of Ukraine want? | :33:50. | :33:54. | |
I agree that we should pay tribute to those in Ukraine who want a | :33:55. | :33:59. | |
future link to Europe, and once the peace, prosperity and stability that | :34:00. | :34:04. | |
relationship would bring. -- and want the peace. The world is | :34:05. | :34:10. | |
watching what the Ukrainian author says -- authorities have done and | :34:11. | :34:23. | |
are contemplating doing. Mr Speaker, I joined the Prime | :34:24. | :34:27. | |
Minister in paying tribute to all of our troops serving around the world, | :34:28. | :34:31. | |
particularly in Afghanistan. Once again, they have turned our country | :34:32. | :34:37. | |
proud, shown the utmost courage and bravery. Our thoughts are with them | :34:38. | :34:42. | |
and their families this Christmas. Today's economic figures show a | :34:43. | :34:48. | |
welcome fall in unemployment, and for every person that gets back into | :34:49. | :34:56. | |
work at benefits not just them but their family as well. -- it benefits | :34:57. | :35:03. | |
just not them. But at the end of this year there more people than | :35:04. | :35:07. | |
ever before working part-time because they can't get the hours | :35:08. | :35:14. | |
they need. I think it is worth looking at an employment figures in | :35:15. | :35:17. | |
some detail, because I think they paint and encouraging picture. | :35:18. | :35:24. | |
Unemployment is down by 99,000, the number of people claiming | :35:25. | :35:26. | |
unemployment benefit has fallen by 36,000 this month alone, there are | :35:27. | :35:33. | |
250,000 more people in work, youth unemployment is down, long-term | :35:34. | :35:37. | |
unemployment is down, unemployment amongst women is down. We have | :35:38. | :35:41. | |
talked about a million more people in work under this government, it is | :35:42. | :35:49. | |
now 1.2 million more people in work. There shouldn't be one ounce of | :35:50. | :35:52. | |
complacency, because we still have work to do to get the country back | :35:53. | :35:57. | |
to work, and everyone back in work means greater stability for them, | :35:58. | :36:01. | |
later ability to plan for the future, great help for their | :36:02. | :36:05. | |
families. But the plan is working, let's stick at it and get an | :36:06. | :36:10. | |
employment down even further. He didn't really and some pacific | :36:11. | :36:16. | |
question. It is good our economy is creating more jobs, but too many | :36:17. | :36:25. | |
part-time, low paid or insecure -- he did not really answer my specific | :36:26. | :36:31. | |
question. Today's figures show what is happening to wages. Does he agree | :36:32. | :36:36. | |
that it is of concern that average wages are ?364 lower than one year | :36:37. | :36:41. | |
ago and ?1500 lower than at the general election? Let me talk about | :36:42. | :36:48. | |
full-time and part-time employment. Full-time employment has grown much | :36:49. | :36:53. | |
faster in recent months, and since the election, 70% of the new jobs, | :36:54. | :36:58. | |
and there have been millions of them, 70% of full-time jobs. -- are | :36:59. | :37:06. | |
full-time jobs. I agree we have to do more to put in place our | :37:07. | :37:09. | |
long-term economic van to keep the economy growing, but it is all very | :37:10. | :37:15. | |
well standing at the despatch box. He has said that there will be a | :37:16. | :37:25. | |
million fewer jobs. And we are still waiting for him to correct the | :37:26. | :37:31. | |
record about that. Of course, I want to see more money in people's | :37:32. | :37:35. | |
pockets. The only way we can do that is keep on with the economic plan, | :37:36. | :37:40. | |
keep cutting unemployment, keep taxes down, cut the deficit to keep | :37:41. | :37:45. | |
interest rates down. That is our economic plan. What is his? Let's | :37:46. | :37:53. | |
talk about his predictions. He said he would balance the books in five | :37:54. | :37:58. | |
years. He has failed. He said he would secure Britain's credit | :37:59. | :38:03. | |
rating, he has failed. And the worst prediction, he said he would be good | :38:04. | :38:07. | |
at Prime Minister. He has certainly failed at that. -- he said he would | :38:08. | :38:15. | |
be good at being Prime Minister. Order, order. Members on both sides | :38:16. | :38:20. | |
of the House need to calm down. It will take as long as it takes, as | :38:21. | :38:28. | |
always. Very straightforward. Isn't it interesting that they want to | :38:29. | :38:31. | |
talk about the cost of living crisis facing families up and down the | :38:32. | :38:36. | |
country least of all? That is because they know families are worse | :38:37. | :38:40. | |
off. How much higher is the average gas and electricity bill this | :38:41. | :38:47. | |
Christmas compared to last? Let us deal with the predictions. Order, | :38:48. | :38:54. | |
the question was asked, and the answer must be heard. Prime | :38:55. | :38:59. | |
Minister. They have a programme which will clearly lead to the | :39:00. | :39:04. | |
disappearance of a million jobs. Now we have 1.6 million more | :39:05. | :39:07. | |
private-sector jobs, 1.2 million more people in work, it is time he | :39:08. | :39:13. | |
apologised for his prediction of talking the economy down. He asks | :39:14. | :39:20. | |
about the cost of living, let us compare records on the cost of | :39:21. | :39:24. | |
living. They doubled council tax, we froze it, they put petrol tax 12 | :39:25. | :39:32. | |
times, we froze it. They put up the basic state pension by 75p, we put | :39:33. | :39:39. | |
it up I ?15. Oh, we have a new hand gesture from the Shadow Chancellor! | :39:40. | :39:45. | |
I would have thought up to today's briefing in the papers the hand | :39:46. | :39:55. | |
gesture for the Shadow Chancellor should bye-bye! You don't need it to | :39:56. | :39:59. | |
be Christmas to know when you are sitting next to a turkey! | :40:00. | :40:16. | |
We will wait until colleagues can't down. I don't mind how long it | :40:17. | :40:22. | |
takes, I have all day if necessary. I thought that, just for once, he | :40:23. | :40:28. | |
might answer the question he was asked. Let's give him the answer, | :40:29. | :40:33. | |
energy bills are ?70 higher than one year ago. Despite all his bluster, | :40:34. | :40:39. | |
that is the reality. ?300 higher than when he came to office. The | :40:40. | :40:46. | |
cost of childcare is crucial for parents going out to work. Can he | :40:47. | :40:51. | |
tell is how much childcare has gone up this year? We are providing 15 | :40:52. | :40:57. | |
hours of childcare, nursery education, for two, three and four | :40:58. | :41:04. | |
year old. He was never able to do that in government. It is all very | :41:05. | :41:08. | |
well making these promises, the only reason we can keep our promises is | :41:09. | :41:12. | |
we took tough decisions about the economy. We took tough and difficult | :41:13. | :41:17. | |
decisions to get the deficit down. We took difficult decisions to get | :41:18. | :41:23. | |
our economic van in place. The fact is, this Christmas the economy is | :41:24. | :41:28. | |
growing, 1.2 million more people are in work, exports are increasing, | :41:29. | :41:32. | |
manufacturing is up, construction is doing better, the economy is getting | :41:33. | :41:36. | |
stronger and Labour is getting weaker. | :41:37. | :41:45. | |
I tell you what, Mr Speaker, that was a turkey of an answer. Why | :41:46. | :41:50. | |
doesn't he just for once answer the question? Childcare costs have gone | :41:51. | :41:56. | |
up ?300, ?300 in the last year, nearly three times the rate of | :41:57. | :42:00. | |
inflation. He is doing nothing about it. There is one group he has helped | :42:01. | :42:05. | |
out with the cost of living this year. His Christmas card list. Can | :42:06. | :42:13. | |
he tell us... I know he does not like me asking, but can he tell us | :42:14. | :42:20. | |
someone earning over ?1 million a year, how much lower our taxes this | :42:21. | :42:27. | |
year compared to last year? The top tax rate and this government is | :42:28. | :42:29. | |
higher than it ever was under his government. The highest 1% of | :42:30. | :42:34. | |
earners are paying a greater percentage of income tax than they | :42:35. | :42:38. | |
did when he was sitting in the cabinet. Those are the facts. If he | :42:39. | :42:43. | |
wants to talk about what he has done on the cost of living, we have cut | :42:44. | :42:48. | |
income tax for 25 million people, they voted against it. We have taken | :42:49. | :42:53. | |
2.4 million people out of tax, they voted against it. We froze council | :42:54. | :42:58. | |
tax, they voted against it, we froze fuel duty, they voted against it. We | :42:59. | :43:05. | |
have a long-term economic plan. He ends the year with no plan, no | :43:06. | :43:10. | |
credibility, no idea how to help the economy. We all know his long-term | :43:11. | :43:17. | |
plan, to cut taxes for his Christmas card list and make everyone else | :43:18. | :43:21. | |
think all swim. That is his long-term plan. And I have got to | :43:22. | :43:30. | |
say... The usual low graders can make as much noise as they like. For | :43:31. | :43:35. | |
their own benefit, and I will say it again, however long it takes, right | :43:36. | :43:40. | |
honourable and honourable members will be heard. It is so simple it is | :43:41. | :43:49. | |
probably now clear. The more he reads out lists and statistics, the | :43:50. | :43:52. | |
more out of touch he seems to the country. This was the year that the | :43:53. | :43:58. | |
cost of living crisis hit families hardest. This was the year the | :43:59. | :44:02. | |
introduced the bedroom tax while cutting taxes for millionaires. This | :44:03. | :44:07. | |
was the year he proved beyond doubt he is the Prime Minister for the | :44:08. | :44:13. | |
few, not the many. He may not like the facts, but you can't hide from | :44:14. | :44:20. | |
them. The typical taxpayer is paying ?600 less, because we cut taxes. The | :44:21. | :44:25. | |
deficit is falling by a third because we took difficult decisions. | :44:26. | :44:28. | |
Today, for the first time in history, there are 30 million people | :44:29. | :44:36. | |
in our country in work. The fact is that, at the end of this year, we | :44:37. | :44:40. | |
have a recovery they can't explain, growth they said would never come, | :44:41. | :44:44. | |
jobs they said would never happen and, meanwhile, they are stuck with | :44:45. | :44:48. | |
an economic policy that does not add up under Shadow Chancellor they | :44:49. | :44:52. | |
can't defend. That is why the British people will never trust | :44:53. | :45:09. | |
Labour with the economy again. Order, order. We will just have to | :45:10. | :45:22. | |
keep going a bit longer. The right honourable gentleman will be heard. | :45:23. | :45:29. | |
Sir Malcolm Bruce. I can give the House something to cheer about. Will | :45:30. | :45:33. | |
the Prime Minister welcome the fact that investment in our oil and gas | :45:34. | :45:41. | |
industry this year will reach billions of pounds. Is he aware | :45:42. | :45:48. | |
there is a report that says we need collaboration between government and | :45:49. | :45:51. | |
industry to unlock three to 4 billion barrels of oil worth ?2 | :45:52. | :45:58. | |
million which would otherwise be left under the sea? He makes an | :45:59. | :46:04. | |
important point because this is an excellent report. We want to | :46:05. | :46:07. | |
maximise the returns in employment and investment in the North Sea. In | :46:08. | :46:11. | |
recent months we have seen encouraging sign of greater | :46:12. | :46:15. | |
investment in the North the, not least because of the decisions taken | :46:16. | :46:19. | |
by the Chancellor to bring into play some of these marginal fields. Does | :46:20. | :46:29. | |
the Prime Minister understand that even if Dr Richard Haass dozens, | :46:30. | :46:33. | |
that agreement and consensus are desirable, but will be impossible to | :46:34. | :46:41. | |
achieve and viewed in the unionist community as dilating art essence of | :46:42. | :46:45. | |
Britishness as Northern Ireland seeks to strengthen its position in | :46:46. | :46:50. | |
the United Kingdom are not weaken it? What I will say is, we all agree | :46:51. | :46:57. | |
Richard Hass is carrying out an important and difficult task, | :46:58. | :47:01. | |
looking into the issues of parades, flags and the past. I have met with | :47:02. | :47:07. | |
Richard Hass, he is an impressive individual, we should let him do is | :47:08. | :47:11. | |
work and judge him on the results he produces. Everyone will look at this | :47:12. | :47:18. | |
process with give and take to bring the communities together. | :47:19. | :47:25. | |
Unemployment in my Peter borough constituency stands at 5.5%, the | :47:26. | :47:27. | |
lowest since the financial crisis and there are 1800 fewer JS say | :47:28. | :47:33. | |
claimants. But there are too many young people who are jobless and | :47:34. | :47:40. | |
lacking any skills. Will the Prime Minister give an early Christmas | :47:41. | :47:48. | |
present to Peterborough people by deciding on our technical college? I | :47:49. | :47:55. | |
know the education secretary will look closely at the technical | :47:56. | :48:00. | |
college. But the news on youth unemployment is better, 19,000 down | :48:01. | :48:06. | |
this quarter. The claimant count is falling, but there is a lot more | :48:07. | :48:12. | |
work to do and we should look at the work experience programmes which | :48:13. | :48:14. | |
seem to have one of the best records and reducing youth unemployment and | :48:15. | :48:18. | |
encourage businesses to get involved in this work experience programme. | :48:19. | :48:25. | |
With the Archbishop of Canterbury reminding us of society's | :48:26. | :48:29. | |
responsibility towards the support of the poor and the vulnerable and | :48:30. | :48:34. | |
the Archbishop of Westminster criticising the inhumanity aspects | :48:35. | :48:38. | |
of government policy, does the Prime Minister regret as we approach | :48:39. | :48:42. | |
Christmas, his government's retreat from the compassionate conservatism | :48:43. | :48:48. | |
he used to adopt? I don't accept what he says. There is nothing more | :48:49. | :48:53. | |
compassionate than getting more people into work. The best route out | :48:54. | :49:01. | |
of poverty is work. What we can see is 30 million people in work. I | :49:02. | :49:05. | |
enjoy debating and listening carefully to the archbishops. I | :49:06. | :49:10. | |
don't agree with what the Archbishop of Westminster said about | :49:11. | :49:21. | |
immigration. Merry Christmas to you and your family, Mr Speaker. The | :49:22. | :49:32. | |
people of Suffolk have enjoyed a cracker of a Christmas present with | :49:33. | :49:39. | |
the excellent news of the A14. Does he agree that calls to abandon the | :49:40. | :49:44. | |
government's long-term economic plan for the other side to borrow more | :49:45. | :49:51. | |
will raise taxes and mortgages for the hard-working people of this | :49:52. | :49:55. | |
country? Can I congratulate my honourable friend on her ingenious | :49:56. | :50:00. | |
way in ensuring she is called regularly in debates in the House. | :50:01. | :50:06. | |
On that note, a happy Christmas to you as well, Mr Speaker. She has | :50:07. | :50:11. | |
been very clear in her campaign against the toll on the A14, and I | :50:12. | :50:17. | |
am glad we have settled that issue. But she is right to say the biggest | :50:18. | :50:21. | |
threat to our economy would be to abandon our plans. We are getting | :50:22. | :50:26. | |
the deficit down, interest rates are still down and people are getting | :50:27. | :50:31. | |
back to work. The biggest risk is more spending, the biggest risk that | :50:32. | :50:39. | |
got us into this mess. In November I visited a wrought college in my | :50:40. | :50:42. | |
constituency. They are collecting food to help needy families over | :50:43. | :50:48. | |
Christmas and will have a foodbank on the school site in the New Year. | :50:49. | :50:53. | |
What shocked me is a young girl aged 15 who arrived just before my visit | :50:54. | :50:58. | |
who had not eaten all weekend because there was no food in her | :50:59. | :51:01. | |
house. How does the Prime Minister expect that young girl to fulfil her | :51:02. | :51:08. | |
educational potential? We have to do all we can to help families into | :51:09. | :51:11. | |
work and that is what we are doing under this government. We have to | :51:12. | :51:16. | |
make sure we protect the income levels of the poorest. That is why | :51:17. | :51:21. | |
the child tax credit is up ?390 under this government, protecting | :51:22. | :51:26. | |
the money that goes to the poorest people of this country. Experts say | :51:27. | :51:34. | |
that Labour's energy price freeze an announcement would raise prices in | :51:35. | :51:39. | |
the short term... Order, order. Opposition members should not yell | :51:40. | :51:43. | |
at the honourable gentleman when he is asking his question. Experts said | :51:44. | :51:50. | |
Labour's energy price freeze announcement would raise prices in | :51:51. | :51:55. | |
the short term and protect the big six by freezing new investment. | :51:56. | :51:59. | |
Since then prices have gone up and the National Grid says half of new | :52:00. | :52:06. | |
investment. I am struggling to find anything that relates to the Prime | :52:07. | :52:13. | |
Minister in his question. So we will proceed with Mr Gordon Marsden. | :52:14. | :52:23. | |
Thank you, Mr Speaker. Has the Prime Minister to relax with his family | :52:24. | :52:29. | |
and friends, will he spare a thought to my constituents in black girl | :52:30. | :52:32. | |
whose Christmas is mired in the incompetence and random cruelty of | :52:33. | :52:38. | |
the benefit sanctions. My casework on this includes the woman denied | :52:39. | :52:42. | |
job-seeker's allowance for doing voluntary work at one local branch | :52:43. | :52:45. | |
of a national charity rather than another. Will his New Year | :52:46. | :52:50. | |
resolution be resolving this chaos on sanctions and non-universal | :52:51. | :52:57. | |
credit? The best thing we can do all constituents is keep on with the | :52:58. | :53:01. | |
economic plan that is generating more jobs in our country. If we look | :53:02. | :53:05. | |
at the north-west, the number of people employed is up by 37,000 | :53:06. | :53:11. | |
since the election. Unemployment has fallen by 29,000 since the election. | :53:12. | :53:16. | |
We need to keep on with that while making sure the benefit system works | :53:17. | :53:22. | |
for those who need it. But he does not do his constituents any favour | :53:23. | :53:26. | |
by talking down the economy. Will the Prime Minister paid tribute to | :53:27. | :53:32. | |
Norfolk's emergency services who have done such a great job in | :53:33. | :53:35. | |
tackling the recent floods and repairing the damage. Floods that | :53:36. | :53:41. | |
were potentially worse than six years ago that killed 300 people. | :53:42. | :53:46. | |
Does he agree special mention should be made of the two local newspapers | :53:47. | :53:54. | |
who campaign tirelessly and raised money for the appeal. Can he tell | :53:55. | :54:05. | |
the House what government can do? He is right to raise this issue. I was | :54:06. | :54:11. | |
impressed when I went to Norfolk to see not only the amazing | :54:12. | :54:14. | |
contribution the emergency services had made, but local newspapers in | :54:15. | :54:18. | |
highlighting this issue to help people prepare for what was to come | :54:19. | :54:24. | |
and also the flood coordinators and people who work voluntarily. I was | :54:25. | :54:29. | |
impressed I what I saw in terms of what the lifeboats had done. The | :54:30. | :54:34. | |
enormous wave that swept through their station but they were able to | :54:35. | :54:37. | |
get out and get their and help people. What because we put money | :54:38. | :54:43. | |
into flood defences we were able to protect more homes that otherwise | :54:44. | :54:48. | |
would have been affected. Ministers have admitted to be that completing | :54:49. | :54:55. | |
personal independence claims. My constituents, Cathy is still waiting | :54:56. | :55:01. | |
to have a decision made on her claim. She had an appointment | :55:02. | :55:04. | |
yesterday with an assessor who did not turn up. Why is the Prime | :55:05. | :55:09. | |
Minister and allowing cancer patients to suffer because of | :55:10. | :55:15. | |
incompetence of his government. I am willing to look at the KC mentions. | :55:16. | :55:23. | |
I am happy to look at the individual case to see what could be done. The | :55:24. | :55:31. | |
number of unemployed claimants in my constituency has fallen to 439, the | :55:32. | :55:36. | |
third best performing constituency in the country. Will he join with me | :55:37. | :55:41. | |
in congratulating local businesses for the role they have played in | :55:42. | :55:47. | |
this? I am happy to congratulate local businesses, but what we are | :55:48. | :55:53. | |
seeing and what Labour predicted would not happen is a private sector | :55:54. | :55:58. | |
led recovery. For every job lost in the public sector we have seen three | :55:59. | :56:01. | |
or four created in the private sector. We must keep up this | :56:02. | :56:09. | |
economic environment. At the last election many of my constituents | :56:10. | :56:13. | |
believe the Prime Minister when he said there would be no third runway | :56:14. | :56:19. | |
at Heathrow. They are now faced with the threat of not only a third | :56:20. | :56:24. | |
runway, but a fourth runway. People losing the homes, schools being | :56:25. | :56:27. | |
demolished and people having to dig up their dead in the local cemetery. | :56:28. | :56:33. | |
What does he say to those who have lost their faith in him? I don't | :56:34. | :56:40. | |
accept what he says. We said there would not be a third runway and we | :56:41. | :56:44. | |
have stuck with that promise. We have a report being done by Howard | :56:45. | :56:50. | |
Davies. It is a very good interim report. I think people should read | :56:51. | :56:54. | |
that report before they start shouting across the House of Commons | :56:55. | :57:00. | |
in an inappropriate way. Order, order. I know what I am doing, I | :57:01. | :57:08. | |
don't need any help. A reference was made to treatment of constituents | :57:09. | :57:13. | |
not to observations made in respect of members of the House. I am clear | :57:14. | :57:18. | |
on that and the procedure is clear as well. In the north-east, all 29 | :57:19. | :57:27. | |
constituencies have heard -- seen an increase in apprenticeships since | :57:28. | :57:30. | |
2010. I opened an engineering Academy in Hexham. Does he agree | :57:31. | :57:35. | |
with me that it is only by the provision of better skills and | :57:36. | :57:39. | |
apprenticeships we will improve the living standards of young people | :57:40. | :57:44. | |
today? He is absolutely right, I saw for myself what a difference the | :57:45. | :57:48. | |
apprenticeships and extra funding has made. We want to share this | :57:49. | :57:56. | |
across the country. In the North East, unemployment has fallen this | :57:57. | :58:01. | |
quarter. 28 thousand more in work since the election, but we have | :58:02. | :58:04. | |
further to go and stick with the economic land. Is the Prime Minister | :58:05. | :58:11. | |
concerned in the detail of the small print of the Autumn Statement that | :58:12. | :58:20. | |
by the end of this Parliament, levels will be lower. If he looks at | :58:21. | :58:27. | |
disposable income, it is higher than it was between 1997 and 2010. In | :58:28. | :58:32. | |
spite of slow wage growth we have cut taxes. You can only cut taxes if | :58:33. | :58:37. | |
you take difficult decisions about the deficit, difficult decisions | :58:38. | :58:42. | |
about spending and we have not had support from the party opposite for | :58:43. | :58:44. | |
one single of those difficult decisions. Cut the Prime Minister | :58:45. | :58:54. | |
help get justice for my constituents who want to know why an | :58:55. | :58:58. | |
investigation into the meetings had by the former transport secretary | :58:59. | :59:02. | |
have not been reported on this bike for months of waiting and assurances | :59:03. | :59:10. | |
that I would have the answer. The honourable lady was referring to the | :59:11. | :59:14. | |
member for Chipping Barnet. She has taken up this issue and I am sure | :59:15. | :59:21. | |
she will get an Ansa shortly. Mr Speaker, on a slightly more seasonal | :59:22. | :59:30. | |
notes, may I probed the Prime Minister on the revelation contained | :59:31. | :59:35. | |
within the Autumn Statement that over this Parliament, borrowing is | :59:36. | :59:41. | |
forecast to be 198 billion pounds more than originally planned. Will | :59:42. | :59:50. | |
he accept his pledge to balance the books by 2015 has all the | :59:51. | :59:53. | |
credibility of some proposal to build an airport on a nonexistent | :59:54. | :59:57. | |
islands in the middle of a bird sanctuary in the Thames estuary? He | :59:58. | :00:05. | |
always brings a flavour of pantomime to proceedings. If he is worried | :00:06. | :00:14. | |
about the deficit, if he is worried about borrowing, he should look in | :00:15. | :00:17. | |
front of him, rather than look behind him. We haven't had one bit | :00:18. | :00:23. | |
of support on anything we have done to cut the deficit. If he is worried | :00:24. | :00:29. | |
about the deficit, why does his party propose to put it up? It is | :00:30. | :00:35. | |
good news a record number of people are in work. But there was another | :00:36. | :00:42. | |
milestone this week where we reached 2 million new pension savers, thanks | :00:43. | :00:47. | |
to auto enrolment. Is that another example of how this government is | :00:48. | :00:53. | |
taking long-term decisions? She is right to raise auto enrolment. It | :00:54. | :00:58. | |
means more people are saving for their retirement which means more | :00:59. | :01:02. | |
stability and ability to plan for their future. There are so many more | :01:03. | :01:08. | |
people in work this Christmas last and they can plan better for the | :01:09. | :01:18. | |
future. Now that the Prime Minister has declared mission accomplished in | :01:19. | :01:21. | |
Afghanistan, will he guarantee non-Avar brave servicemen and women | :01:22. | :01:28. | |
who have served their will face redundancy when they come home? I | :01:29. | :01:34. | |
was praising the role of the Armed Forces. They have carried out the | :01:35. | :01:40. | |
tasks we asked them to and they have done it with professionalism and | :01:41. | :01:44. | |
skill. They will be able to leave that country with their heads held | :01:45. | :01:48. | |
high, secure in the knowledge we have put in place what is necessary | :01:49. | :01:52. | |
to stop terrorism and terrorism training camps to return to that | :01:53. | :02:06. | |
country. Today there are fewer people out of work in Worcester than | :02:07. | :02:12. | |
when unemployment peaked under Labour. 700 businesses likely to | :02:13. | :02:17. | |
benefit from the extension of small business rate relief. Can I urge the | :02:18. | :02:20. | |
Prime Minister to do everything he can to help the high Street and | :02:21. | :02:23. | |
remove burdens on businesses creating jobs? It is great news what | :02:24. | :02:30. | |
is happening in Worcester and not only is unemployment down but | :02:31. | :02:33. | |
vacancies are up, which is good news for the future. In terms of the high | :02:34. | :02:38. | |
street we have taken important steps forward in terms of the rent rebate | :02:39. | :02:46. | |
-- rate rebate. And the ?2000 employment allowance which means | :02:47. | :02:48. | |
they don't have to pay their first ?2000 of national insurance | :02:49. | :02:54. | |
contributions and that means businesses all over the country can | :02:55. | :02:59. | |
take on more people. Further to the questions from the honourable member | :03:00. | :03:02. | |
from Saint Albans, for months were passed in serious allegations were | :03:03. | :03:06. | |
made that the Northern Ireland secretary broke the rules during her | :03:07. | :03:11. | |
time as transport Secretary. Will the Cabinet respond before the House | :03:12. | :03:18. | |
rises for Christmas recess? I have seen a copy of the response and it | :03:19. | :03:27. | |
will be sent in the next few days. I welcome the Prime Minister's | :03:28. | :03:29. | |
acceptance something needs to be done to stop the EU migrants | :03:30. | :03:36. | |
accessing British benefits. But would he agree with me that what he | :03:37. | :03:40. | |
is proposing, which will probably be found illegal by the European Court, | :03:41. | :03:44. | |
is spitting in the winds when it comes to the problem we face, that | :03:45. | :03:49. | |
the only way to get control of our borders and control of benefits | :03:50. | :03:53. | |
system is to leave the European Union? I don't share his pessimism. | :03:54. | :04:00. | |
The steps we are taking, including this announcement that people coming | :04:01. | :04:05. | |
to the UK cannot claim benefits within the first three months, we | :04:06. | :04:12. | |
are taking these steps by looking at what other countries in the EU do. I | :04:13. | :04:15. | |
want to make sure the right of free movement is not abused. There is a | :04:16. | :04:21. | |
right to work in different countries but they should not be a right to | :04:22. | :04:26. | |
claim in different countries of the EU. But we need to do more in future | :04:27. | :04:29. | |
and the lesson we learn is the mistake Labour made to give | :04:30. | :04:34. | |
unfettered access to our labour market when Poland and others joined | :04:35. | :04:38. | |
the EU which led to 1.5 million people coming to our country, was a | :04:39. | :04:44. | |
profound mistake. Average household incomes will be lower in 2015 than | :04:45. | :04:50. | |
in 2009. Is the Prime Minister concerned and what will he say to my | :04:51. | :04:54. | |
constituents who are struggling with the cost of living crisis caused by | :04:55. | :04:59. | |
his government's policies? The first thing I would say is we are raising | :05:00. | :05:04. | |
to ?10,000, the amount people can earn before they pay income tax. | :05:05. | :05:12. | |
That is worth ?705. The cause of the progress we have made, disposable | :05:13. | :05:17. | |
income made this year is higher than any year between 1997 and 2010. The | :05:18. | :05:20. | |
members opposite might not like these facts but it is worth | :05:21. | :05:27. | |
remembering why we are in this situation in the first place. He | :05:28. | :05:30. | |
should not have to shout to make himself heard. Prime Minister. The | :05:31. | :05:37. | |
point I was making is the reason we are in this situation is this | :05:38. | :05:42. | |
achieved for fiscal studies said we have happen biggest... They should | :05:43. | :05:52. | |
be apologising for that before moving onto the next question. | :05:53. | :05:58. | |
Christmas in Syria will be defined by stopping grief and horror in sub | :05:59. | :06:06. | |
zero temperatures. I encourage the Prime Minister to keep focus on | :06:07. | :06:10. | |
humanitarian relief in Syria and encourage the rest of the | :06:11. | :06:15. | |
international community to reach the demand for ?4 billion of assistance | :06:16. | :06:19. | |
and make sure it is more imaginative and generous? I am grateful for him | :06:20. | :06:27. | |
raising this issue before Christmas. That is where our thought should be. | :06:28. | :06:33. | |
It is a huge humanitarian crisis. The first thing I would say, Britain | :06:34. | :06:38. | |
can be proud of the fact that at 500 million, we are the second bilateral | :06:39. | :06:45. | |
donor in terms of aid going to Syria and neighbouring countries and | :06:46. | :06:50. | |
helping people in those camps. We should be encouraging other | :06:51. | :06:52. | |
countries to step up and make sure we fulfil our moral obligations to | :06:53. | :06:55. | |
these people who will be suffering at Christmas time. | :06:56. | :07:04. | |
They spoke mostly about the economy, as Nick Robinson predicted. A lot of | :07:05. | :07:11. | |
youth unemployment and part-time jobs for people who want to work | :07:12. | :07:16. | |
full-time, and then they have moved on to Labour 's theme for the second | :07:17. | :07:21. | |
half of this year, the cost of living. We have heard it all before. | :07:22. | :07:26. | |
I am not sure we heard anything new, that it was a reprise of what we | :07:27. | :07:29. | |
have been hearing for quite some time. What did the viewers make of | :07:30. | :07:36. | |
it? One said that if Cameron's government has achieved so much, why | :07:37. | :07:40. | |
are the British people feeling so poor and worse off now than in 2010? | :07:41. | :07:47. | |
But on Twitter one viewer USA's, as usual Ed Miliband is flailing about | :07:48. | :07:51. | |
like a plucked and cooked Christmas turkey. | :07:52. | :07:56. | |
-- one viewer says. Jim in the neat and says that Miliband and the | :07:57. | :08:01. | |
Labour Party have nowhere to hide. Most of their predictions have been | :08:02. | :08:05. | |
proven wrong. David from black than things that after today's very rowdy | :08:06. | :08:10. | |
performance, the MPs must have come to the house straight from the bar. | :08:11. | :08:18. | |
Peter says, watching PMQs confirms my opinion that Parliament should be | :08:19. | :08:22. | |
culled to two had and 50 members on ?100,000 each. -- culled to 250 | :08:23. | :08:32. | |
members. I think the House of Lords should be culled to 250 members. 800 | :08:33. | :08:42. | |
and rising. The political debate has started to | :08:43. | :08:46. | |
change with the change on the economy. Most news is pretty good | :08:47. | :08:51. | |
now, that is likely to continue into the first part of 2014. I suspect | :08:52. | :08:56. | |
the Chancellor, in the March Budget, will up the growth rate further as | :08:57. | :09:00. | |
he did in the Autumn Statement. Labour's fallback position is to | :09:01. | :09:05. | |
talk about who is benefiting from it. Can that be sustained through | :09:06. | :09:13. | |
2014? If it fits in with people's experiences. The Labour Party is | :09:14. | :09:17. | |
counting on the fact that lots of people watching this programme and | :09:18. | :09:21. | |
politics in general are feeling squeezed. There is a debate about | :09:22. | :09:24. | |
the figures, the Labour Party has a figure of ?1500, a drop in average | :09:25. | :09:33. | |
earnings since the last election. It does not take on tax cuts or factor | :09:34. | :09:38. | |
everything in, there would still be a cut but it would be slightly | :09:39. | :09:42. | |
lower. The Prime Minister uses a figure which no one I know users, | :09:43. | :09:46. | |
the Institute for Fiscal Studies says it is misleading, but it is | :09:47. | :09:51. | |
official data. He talks about real household disposable income. He is | :09:52. | :09:55. | |
taking, effectively, the aggregate, all of the income is of all of the | :09:56. | :09:59. | |
people of the country, and they are going up. Frankly, it is very | :10:00. | :10:05. | |
interesting but it tells you nothing about how households are feeling. | :10:06. | :10:11. | |
Overall, real household income has gone up because they're more | :10:12. | :10:15. | |
households, but the population is rising and the only way to measure | :10:16. | :10:19. | |
the living standards is made per capita basis. We have talked about | :10:20. | :10:24. | |
this before, I spoke to some backroom Tories, they are investing | :10:25. | :10:30. | |
in next year. Their view is that the per capita real disposable household | :10:31. | :10:34. | |
income will go up, so by using the figure now they are trying to give | :10:35. | :10:37. | |
its currency and flavours so that when the figure goes up so well they | :10:38. | :10:41. | |
can say, hey presto, it is actually going up. Part of the squeeze on | :10:42. | :10:48. | |
living standards that Labour quite rightly points two has been caused | :10:49. | :10:53. | |
because the Bank of England keeps missing its inflation target. | :10:54. | :10:56. | |
Inflation has been consistently higher than the 2% targets at a time | :10:57. | :11:00. | |
when wages have been static or barely rising. The significance this | :11:01. | :11:07. | |
week of the 2.1% inflation was that they were pretty close to the | :11:08. | :11:13. | |
target. There is the accidental squeeze through price increases and | :11:14. | :11:16. | |
there is also a completely deliberate party policy. The whole | :11:17. | :11:21. | |
point of 's territory, how do you control the size of the public | :11:22. | :11:24. | |
sector, one way of doing it is cutting public sector wages. If | :11:25. | :11:29. | |
public sector wages go up less than the rate of inflation, which the | :11:30. | :11:33. | |
government is in favour of and, interestingly, the Labour Party said | :11:34. | :11:37. | |
they would match, their household incomes go down because wages are | :11:38. | :11:42. | |
not keeping up with inflation. When will living standards rise? | :11:43. | :11:48. | |
Increases have been forecast from next year, but we recognise that | :11:49. | :11:51. | |
times have been tough and it would be wrong to give the impression that | :11:52. | :11:54. | |
people in Westminster are completely unaware of the fact that people have | :11:55. | :11:59. | |
suffered a squeeze in living standards. The Prime Minister said | :12:00. | :12:03. | |
the point about the fact that we have suffered the largest recession | :12:04. | :12:12. | |
in 100 years, our economy contracted by over 7%, it is taking to which | :12:13. | :12:18. | |
feeds to household budgets. The income figure he also includes the | :12:19. | :12:25. | |
benefits and tax cuts. The wages figure alone does not recognise | :12:26. | :12:29. | |
that. It is important to know that households receive wages, of course, | :12:30. | :12:33. | |
but there are other sources of income, particularly benefits. But | :12:34. | :12:40. | |
the national statistics on the real household incomes take everything | :12:41. | :12:46. | |
into account, but also incomes to universities and charities. Why? I | :12:47. | :12:52. | |
think you are right, it is a broader... It makes it unreliable. | :12:53. | :12:59. | |
Here is a political question. Will living standards by May 2015 be | :13:00. | :13:08. | |
higher than in May 2010? I think it is hard to make that addiction. I | :13:09. | :13:14. | |
would love to be able to say yes -- I think it is hard to make that | :13:15. | :13:19. | |
prediction. I am well aware that you would like to say yes! Will they or | :13:20. | :13:26. | |
won't they? The OBR is forecasting that living standards will go up. | :13:27. | :13:34. | |
URA Treasury Minister, the OBR does not forecast. It forecasts that | :13:35. | :13:41. | |
sometime in the second half of 2014, wages will start to pull ahead of | :13:42. | :13:45. | |
prices, that is not saying that overall living standards will rise. | :13:46. | :13:52. | |
I was going to say that the OBR is forecasting an increase in wages, I | :13:53. | :13:56. | |
was about to say that before I was interrupt did. -- interrupted. Why | :13:57. | :14:06. | |
did you get it so wrong over jobs? Your leader predicted a loss of a | :14:07. | :14:11. | |
million jobs since the Tory led coalition, you got it completely | :14:12. | :14:16. | |
wrong. Just as when we introduced the national minimum wage, David | :14:17. | :14:19. | |
Cameron predicted a loss of a million jobs and we put 2 million | :14:20. | :14:23. | |
into the economy. So shouldn't you have learned from that? So having | :14:24. | :14:30. | |
made a ridiculous prediction which was totally wrong, your answer is | :14:31. | :14:34. | |
that David Cameron made 115 years ago? Predictions are not normally a | :14:35. | :14:42. | |
wise territory for politicians. You got it completely wrong. David | :14:43. | :14:46. | |
Cameron's prediction for this Parliament was that they would have | :14:47. | :14:50. | |
got rid of the deficit by the end of the Parliament, but now we know that | :14:51. | :14:56. | |
there will be... So politicians are useless? Sometimes I watch... Please | :14:57. | :15:03. | |
let me finish one sentence, Andrew. Just one. I am almost always in the | :15:04. | :15:10. | |
chamber for PMQs, I found it quite depressing watching it from outside. | :15:11. | :15:14. | |
When you are in now you get caught up with the shouting and the noise, | :15:15. | :15:18. | |
but watching it from out side, I think it is really depressing. We | :15:19. | :15:23. | |
love it. The volume is louder than it ever has been. I would love to | :15:24. | :15:28. | |
ban questions which say, with the Prime Minister agree with me? Would | :15:29. | :15:32. | |
the Prime Minister congratulated the following people? You were saying, | :15:33. | :15:39. | |
of course, he is going to. How many jobs have been created since 2010? I | :15:40. | :15:46. | |
don't know, I know that in my own constituency... 1.6 million. 400,000 | :15:47. | :15:52. | |
lost in the public sector, so the net is 1.2 million. Your leader said | :15:53. | :15:57. | |
we were going to lose a million, you were out by two point 8 million. | :15:58. | :16:04. | |
Almost as bad as your Polish immigration figures. In my | :16:05. | :16:08. | |
constituency there is about to be another run of cuts, my local | :16:09. | :16:11. | |
authority has to find millions of pounds worth of cuts. | :16:12. | :16:22. | |
ALL TALK AT ONCE We can take as long as we liked... | :16:23. | :16:28. | |
We can't, unfortunately. We should clarify at this point before we move | :16:29. | :16:31. | |
on that the former prisoner John Hirst who we were talking about, who | :16:32. | :16:36. | |
challenge the ban on prisoners voting in the European Court, was | :16:37. | :16:40. | |
jailed for manslaughter, rather than murder, as I said earlier. Now, | :16:41. | :16:43. | |
something slightly different. One city, 13 days, six deaths. Last | :16:44. | :16:47. | |
month's grim figures for cycling fatalities in London may be | :16:48. | :16:49. | |
relatively unusual, but cycling groups say they highlight an all-too | :16:50. | :16:52. | |
common problem. British roads are not safe enough for cyclists - and | :16:53. | :16:55. | |
it's time that central government and local councils did more. Chris | :16:56. | :16:58. | |
Boardman is policy adviser for British Cycling, the national | :16:59. | :17:01. | |
governing body for the sport. He also just happens to be an Olympic | :17:02. | :17:05. | |
gold medallist and has more than one Tour de France yellow jersey to his | :17:06. | :17:10. | |
name. We'll talk to him in a moment but, first, here's his soapbox. | :17:11. | :17:30. | |
Take a look around you, you can see that our streets are not designed | :17:31. | :17:37. | |
for people who want to work -- walk or get around by bike. For the last | :17:38. | :17:40. | |
50 years we have been prioritising cars, buses and lorries above all | :17:41. | :17:46. | |
else on the roads. Now we have massive congestion problems, over | :17:47. | :17:51. | |
35,000 deaths a year from obesity related illnesses and emissions | :17:52. | :17:54. | |
targets we are failing to meet. What most people don't know is that in | :17:55. | :17:59. | |
the 70s, Copenhagen was heading in exactly the same direction, but they | :18:00. | :18:03. | |
took a bold decision to prioritise walking and cycling and make that | :18:04. | :18:08. | |
their preferred modes of transport. Now 36% commute by bike. | :18:09. | :18:22. | |
HGV vehicles are involved in more than 20% of the accidents involving | :18:23. | :18:30. | |
bikes in this country. That rises to 55% in the capital despite being | :18:31. | :18:36. | |
just 5% of the traffic on our roads. Most of those accidents occur at | :18:37. | :18:41. | |
junctions. We need to see national government bring in legislation that | :18:42. | :18:45. | |
sees HGV 's fitted with safety equipment that eliminate line spots. | :18:46. | :18:52. | |
Local authorities should follow example set by Dublin or Paris where | :18:53. | :18:56. | |
the largest HGV vehicles are restricted from moving in the city | :18:57. | :19:03. | |
in peak hours. It does not have to be complicated or expensive to make | :19:04. | :19:06. | |
life safer and more attractive to cyclists. Less than a mile from the | :19:07. | :19:11. | |
busy junction we have just seen, they have used planters to segregate | :19:12. | :19:18. | |
cyclists from the traffic. It is a technique that has been used in New | :19:19. | :19:26. | |
York. The humble bicycle could prove an incredible powerful tool in | :19:27. | :19:31. | |
making our country and is a place to live. If we did choose to prioritise | :19:32. | :19:36. | |
walking and cycling as the preferred mode of transport, it could have a | :19:37. | :19:41. | |
massive impact on health. It just needs the political will to do so. | :19:42. | :19:46. | |
The Prime Minister committed to cycle prove all roads and junctions. | :19:47. | :19:50. | |
There is no time like the present to turn those words into actions. And | :19:51. | :19:57. | |
Chris Boardman made it safely back home after his London cycle ride. He | :19:58. | :20:08. | |
joins us from Liverpool. One of the things I noticed, you | :20:09. | :20:14. | |
were not wearing a helmet? Can I sidestep this question because | :20:15. | :20:18. | |
otherwise we will spend the interview talking about it. Viewers | :20:19. | :20:25. | |
will want to know. To make cycling safe in this country we need more | :20:26. | :20:32. | |
people riding bicycles. Cycling is something we do with normal people | :20:33. | :20:35. | |
in normal clothes, the same thing they do 400 miles from here. | :20:36. | :20:41. | |
Statistically, ten times around the planet per cycling death. The fact | :20:42. | :20:46. | |
we were talking about the news, cycling deaths, however tragic, is | :20:47. | :20:54. | |
still a very safe way to get around. Culturally, the problem is not | :20:55. | :20:58. | |
enough people cycle so there is not much appreciation the cyclists on | :20:59. | :21:04. | |
the roads. But cyclists here are quite aggressive when they are | :21:05. | :21:09. | |
cycling to work. It does not make it genteel like it is in Copenhagen and | :21:10. | :21:16. | |
Amsterdam. Does there need to be a change in the way we approach this | :21:17. | :21:21. | |
subject? It is the wrong thing to be talking about. This was debated in | :21:22. | :21:30. | |
1994. -- 1997. The National cycling body was set up, that did not work | :21:31. | :21:36. | |
very well. We have a Commons commission looking into cycling | :21:37. | :21:39. | |
safety. All the information is there, all that is missing is the | :21:40. | :21:45. | |
political will to do something. All the proof is there to show there is | :21:46. | :21:48. | |
no logical reason not to promote this mode of transport. In New | :21:49. | :21:53. | |
York, a 250% increase in cycling because the political will was there | :21:54. | :22:00. | |
to make it happen. You push more people to cycle, despite the | :22:01. | :22:05. | |
headlines recently. But in terms of practical things you can do, what | :22:06. | :22:10. | |
about banning heavy goods vehicles at peak periods? Because of those | :22:11. | :22:19. | |
deaths, there are some positives that have come out of those | :22:20. | :22:24. | |
tragedies, because a lot of measures are taking place and London is at | :22:25. | :22:27. | |
the forefront of pushing those measures through. Chris Boardman, | :22:28. | :22:33. | |
thanks very much. Do you think people should wear helmets when they | :22:34. | :22:39. | |
are cycling? Personally, yes I do. If I were cycling I would feel more | :22:40. | :22:44. | |
confident. But HGV vehicles are in the mood -- news at the moment and | :22:45. | :22:52. | |
the government is doing more to make sure they can see in blindspots. | :22:53. | :22:58. | |
With emission targets, some are banned at peak times already. There | :22:59. | :23:03. | |
have been debates, and you could not have a more pro-cycling Mayor of | :23:04. | :23:09. | |
London van Boris Johnson? But compared to other cities, not that | :23:10. | :23:12. | |
many people cycle compared to Copenhagen and Amsterdam? I don't | :23:13. | :23:18. | |
like cycling around London. I cycle a bit around the Rhondda Valley and | :23:19. | :23:24. | |
the valleys of South Wales. We have opened new track so people can see | :23:25. | :23:28. | |
that as a viable alternative for getting to work. You let him get | :23:29. | :23:34. | |
away without answering the question on the helmet. If he was a | :23:35. | :23:39. | |
politician you would have said, " typical politician". Whether helmets | :23:40. | :23:46. | |
make it safe or not, he would have gone on about that. There is | :23:47. | :23:57. | |
political will. It is not a party political issue, we have published a | :23:58. | :24:03. | |
manifesto for cycling which lays out things, a clear timetable for heavy | :24:04. | :24:10. | |
goods vehicles, so there are no blindspots and they are safer. And I | :24:11. | :24:18. | |
think there is the will to do that. We have got to move on. We were | :24:19. | :24:25. | |
bombed a lot during the Second World War and we build a lot of things and | :24:26. | :24:30. | |
a lot of London is still difficult and impenetrable for cyclists. 2013 | :24:31. | :24:52. | |
has been a bitty political year. What five stories got the most | :24:53. | :25:00. | |
attention of BBC online this year? In a one off special return, he we | :25:01. | :25:08. | |
have top of the political Pops. After his 2012 budget went down like | :25:09. | :25:16. | |
an off pasty, the Chancellor hoped this year it would see his political | :25:17. | :25:22. | |
ambitions born again. Cuts, tax health for the poor and growth | :25:23. | :25:30. | |
anybody would be disappointed with. A slap in the face, big bounding | :25:31. | :25:37. | |
box, Nigel Farage celebrates local election success for his party or | :25:38. | :25:44. | |
the swivel eyed loons as some people have put it. | :25:45. | :25:51. | |
The Prime Minister kicks Internet search engines in the Google and | :25:52. | :25:56. | |
tell them to get tough on children's access to online porn. He | :25:57. | :26:01. | |
said technical issues were not a decent excuse for inaction and they | :26:02. | :26:07. | |
should all their fingers out. Syria, and a sad day for the Prime | :26:08. | :26:12. | |
Minister. He was hoping to march his troops to the top of the hill and | :26:13. | :26:16. | |
offer military action if the optometrist turned tyrant did not | :26:17. | :26:20. | |
stop using chemical weapons. But he was defeated in the Commons when to | :26:21. | :26:24. | |
many of his own men had a conversion on the way to Damascus and jumped on | :26:25. | :26:28. | |
the military bandwagon. And this year's number one. Baroness | :26:29. | :26:35. | |
Thatcher, the most iconic post-war Prime Minister, often respected by | :26:36. | :26:40. | |
many and deeply disliked by some, dies and sees her legacy widely | :26:41. | :26:45. | |
discussed in coverage of her state funeral. Some wanted to make a | :26:46. | :26:49. | |
ding-dong, but more wanted the iron Lady to rest, not rust in peace. | :26:50. | :27:01. | |
We were talking about predictions the 2014, but are running out of | :27:02. | :27:07. | |
time. I have some presents to give. Nicky, this is for you. Very kind. | :27:08. | :27:18. | |
Don't mention it. Is this on BBC expenses, paid for by the licence | :27:19. | :27:25. | |
fee payer. What have you got? Housing bubbles. This is for you. | :27:26. | :27:37. | |
The does not fit. That includes pensions. How could you. Manchester | :27:38. | :27:51. | |
City. I will have the red and white of Manchester United around my neck. | :27:52. | :27:57. | |
What is the difference, it is Manchester? I think the difference | :27:58. | :28:02. | |
is we have won the championship 20 times. The great joys about being | :28:03. | :28:11. | |
homosexual is you do not pretend to have two be interested in football. | :28:12. | :28:18. | |
It is about football, I thought it was about the city itself. Guess the | :28:19. | :28:26. | |
year was 1997. Chris, press the button. Well done. Do you think he | :28:27. | :28:37. | |
will want the scarf as well? Ok that's all for 2013. Thanks to | :28:38. | :28:41. | |
all our guests especially Nicky and Chris. The One o'clock News is | :28:42. | :28:44. | |
starting over on BBC One now. The Daily Politics will be back on sixth | :28:45. | :28:48. | |
January for the start of a bumper year of politics. But I am on BBC | :28:49. | :28:52. | |
One tomorrow night for the last This Week of the year when I will be | :28:53. | :28:56. | |
joined by Nigel Farage, Diane Abbott, Michael Portillo, Miranda | :28:57. | :28:58. | |
Green, Quentin Letts, Kevin Maguire and Nick Watt. | :28:59. | :28:59. | |
Merry Christmas! | :29:00. | :29:03. |