Browse content similar to 08/01/2014. Check below for episodes and series from the same categories and more!
Line | From | To | |
---|---|---|---|
Morning folk, happy New Year, this is the Daily Politics. | :00:38. | :00:42. | |
The gloves are off, let battle commence, the general election is | :00:43. | :00:46. | |
only 16 months away, but blink and you might miss it. The parties are | :00:47. | :00:51. | |
flexing their political muscles over the economy. We will be asking who | :00:52. | :00:55. | |
is in better shape? It a New Year, have the party leaders resolved to | :00:56. | :00:59. | |
be nice to each other? I doubt it. Find out in the first PMQs of 2014. | :01:00. | :01:07. | |
Auntie moved to Salford but should other big institutions like the | :01:08. | :01:10. | |
Royal Opera House and the House of Lords move north in an effort to | :01:11. | :01:13. | |
rebalance the country away from London? | :01:14. | :01:17. | |
And do you know your one nation from your big society? We will be asking | :01:18. | :01:21. | |
if political slogans should be consigned to the political scrap | :01:22. | :01:27. | |
heap. All that and more in the next 90 my | :01:28. | :01:31. | |
opinion, of public service broadcasting, at its finest, this | :01:32. | :01:37. | |
2014 BAFTA's very announced this morning I think we were nominated | :01:38. | :01:41. | |
againment at least for what though? It is a daytime show. I can't go | :01:42. | :01:46. | |
there. With us for the theration two straight talking MPs guaranteed not | :01:47. | :01:51. | |
to utter the words global race, hard-working families, or the cost | :01:52. | :01:54. | |
of living crisis. At least that is what it says here. | :01:55. | :01:58. | |
I will believe it when I hear it. Welcome to the financial secretary | :01:59. | :02:03. | |
to the Treasury Sajid Javid and the Shadow Business Secretary Chuka | :02:04. | :02:07. | |
Umunna. Who are clearly share the same dress designer, suit designer, | :02:08. | :02:12. | |
tie, hair stylists did you co-ordinate before you came here? We | :02:13. | :02:17. | |
checked. We are not going to recommend an honour for our | :02:18. | :02:21. | |
hairdresser. We will keep that to the Prime Minister. I am told that | :02:22. | :02:25. | |
have signed a contract in blood to be slogan-free for 90 minutes. We | :02:26. | :02:30. | |
will have a swear box and we will, no, we are not, we are going to have | :02:31. | :02:36. | |
a slogan box. We will announce the winner at the end of the programme. | :02:37. | :02:39. | |
Something to look forward to. First this morning let us talk about how | :02:40. | :02:43. | |
we vote, because a report by the heck tration commission has | :02:44. | :02:46. | |
recommended that voters should be required to show prove of | :02:47. | :02:51. | |
identification at poling stations to stop vote-rigging, the Commission | :02:52. | :02:55. | |
wants political candidates to agree to a strengthened Code of Conduct, | :02:56. | :02:59. | |
which would prevent them from handling any postal votes. Do you | :03:00. | :03:02. | |
agree with that? Should we have ID when we vote? I am pleased the | :03:03. | :03:06. | |
Electoral Commission have looked into this, I haven't had time to | :03:07. | :03:10. | |
study the report, it has just come out. I, also some of the action we | :03:11. | :03:15. | |
have taken as a government, such as individual voter registration I | :03:16. | :03:17. | |
think will make a difference, trying to cut fraud, this particular idea | :03:18. | :03:22. | |
of using ID cards, I would like to look at the evidence, one thing that | :03:23. | :03:26. | |
does concern me is that voter participation getting more people | :03:27. | :03:30. | |
out there to vote, in every election, it is key. Do you think | :03:31. | :03:34. | |
that would put them off? I would like to look at the #e6d. So it is | :03:35. | :03:38. | |
something we will respond to in due course, it is the right thing to do, | :03:39. | :03:41. | |
to look at the evidence the Electoral Commission will put | :03:42. | :03:45. | |
forward. But you are not convinced yet What about you, do you think in | :03:46. | :03:48. | |
order to try and tackle the problem, which they say isn't massive and | :03:49. | :03:52. | |
widespread, but there are areas they are concerned about, that that, like | :03:53. | :03:56. | |
many other countries would help reduce fraud? We need sensible | :03:57. | :04:00. | |
reform to clampdown on electoral fraud but I am not sure about this | :04:01. | :04:07. | |
proposal on photo ID. I have to say. Why? It was used in Northern Ireland | :04:08. | :04:12. | |
from 2003, which is of course, you know, a certain situation, and what | :04:13. | :04:17. | |
you saw there was voter registration, massively decimated | :04:18. | :04:23. | |
the vote Errol was decimated. We have to be careful we don't use a | :04:24. | :04:27. | |
sledge hammer to crack a nut. The heck trag tral commission has said | :04:28. | :04:30. | |
they think probably only in a handful of case, a very small number | :04:31. | :04:35. | |
has there been fraud, there have only been two convictions for | :04:36. | :04:40. | |
electoral fraud between 2008 and 2011. We have to maintain the | :04:41. | :04:43. | |
integrity of the system, but I think we have to be careful. How else | :04:44. | :04:49. | |
would you tackle it? They identify 16 areas that were of greater ris, | :04:50. | :04:54. | |
including Birmingham, Blackburn, gladded for, Burnley, Calderdale and | :04:55. | :04:58. | |
numerous others, and they have also drawn attention to the fact they are | :04:59. | :05:04. | |
worried about fraud, or vote-rigging in areas where there are, or is a | :05:05. | :05:10. | |
high proportion of south Asian population, do you think in those | :05:11. | :05:16. | |
cases we need stricter rules? What is important they said they don't | :05:17. | :05:20. | |
think it is a widespread programme. It is a few areas, it is quite | :05:21. | :05:24. | |
isolated. I don't think it a problem of any particular community, it is | :05:25. | :05:28. | |
important to look at ways to cut it, that is why I think the individual | :05:29. | :05:32. | |
voter registration is an important change, that will make a difference, | :05:33. | :05:35. | |
but they are rightly independent, they are charged to look at this, so | :05:36. | :05:39. | |
we should look at that carefully, there is no party politics in this | :05:40. | :05:44. | |
at all, it is about getting, having confidence in our electoral system | :05:45. | :05:47. | |
and that is why we should look what the they have to say. This is very | :05:48. | :05:52. | |
much them, they are saying's We have to be careful. The Electoral | :05:53. | :05:58. | |
Commission said today it wasn't just an issue impacting those... They | :05:59. | :06:02. | |
said they had drawn focus to those. They were careful to say it isn't an | :06:03. | :06:07. | |
issue only for those communities. In individual voter registration, we | :06:08. | :06:10. | |
are not opposed to that in principle, but the way in which it | :06:11. | :06:14. | |
is done in a rushed man e I think is a concern. I look in my own | :06:15. | :06:19. | |
constituency for example and we have big issues in terms of the number of | :06:20. | :06:22. | |
people who are not registered to vote who could be on the roll. We | :06:23. | :06:29. | |
would need, you have to ensure you address under registration, before | :06:30. | :06:33. | |
you move towards individual registration. We have get more | :06:34. | :06:37. | |
people on the register, there is about three million who aren't on | :06:38. | :06:45. | |
the register, an area like mine, it is underregistered. Briefly on | :06:46. | :06:49. | |
postal vote, they want to tighten up the rule about who handles them. Is | :06:50. | :06:54. | |
that a good idea? Some of the rules have been tightened up, I think | :06:55. | :06:57. | |
again, we should look at this carefully, we should take what they | :06:58. | :07:01. | |
have got to say seriously but we shouldn't rush to a decision on the | :07:02. | :07:05. | |
first day of the report. Now in case you haven't notice we | :07:06. | :07:08. | |
appeared to is slipped into a new years with all the mince pie, bran | :07:09. | :07:15. | |
di, tury stuffing, you may not have been suitably alert to realise we | :07:16. | :07:19. | |
waved goodbye to 2013 and hello to 2014. It is not passed David Cameron | :07:20. | :07:23. | |
or George Osborne by, they were up and about at the begin of the week | :07:24. | :07:27. | |
doing their morning stretches and trying to make all the running on | :07:28. | :07:31. | |
the economy, with Mr Osborne announcing of the ?25 billion of | :07:32. | :07:36. | |
cuts he thinks will have to be made in public spending, a big chunk, | :07:37. | :07:42. | |
about 50% will need to come from the welfare budget. Jo has the details. | :07:43. | :07:45. | |
Yes, David Cameron and George Osborne have been hitting the gym as | :07:46. | :07:49. | |
part of their New Year's resolution to beat Labour in the debate oh the | :07:50. | :07:55. | |
economy. There have been cent good indicators, including the British | :07:56. | :08:00. | |
Chamber of Commerce, whose latest survey predicts the recovery will | :08:01. | :08:05. | |
gather momentum. Car sales at their highest level since 2007 and the UK | :08:06. | :08:09. | |
construction sector, growth remains strong. | :08:10. | :08:11. | |
The Conservatives are determined to stay the course on the economy, and | :08:12. | :08:17. | |
deficit reduction until 2015. And have outlined further cuts of ?25 | :08:18. | :08:22. | |
billion. They plan to make after the next election. Much of which will | :08:23. | :08:26. | |
fall on the welfare budget, with housing benefits stripped for under | :08:27. | :08:32. | |
25, and high earns, Labour have been puffing and panting as they try and | :08:33. | :08:37. | |
catch up on the economy, with some critics accusing them of not having | :08:38. | :08:41. | |
a proper plan, instead, Labour have decided to change the game, and have | :08:42. | :08:45. | |
been trying to deliver a knock out blow over the cost of living. | :08:46. | :08:49. | |
They have certainly been successful this making the Government back | :08:50. | :08:53. | |
pedal over things like energy prices, Labour have some way to go | :08:54. | :08:56. | |
to convince the public they are credible on the economy. In a poll | :08:57. | :09:02. | |
last month 39% of people thought David Cameron and George Osborne | :09:03. | :09:05. | |
best at handling the economy. Compared to just 23% who thought the | :09:06. | :09:12. | |
two Eds were the best bet. Thanks for that. Chuka Umunna, you | :09:13. | :09:17. | |
saw on the graph there only 23% of voters trust Labour to handle the | :09:18. | :09:22. | |
economy. You have a lot of ground to make up by May 2015. These are | :09:23. | :09:29. | |
surveys and polls and what will matter when people go to the ballot | :09:30. | :09:32. | |
box. This poll was consistent. It has been a minority have trusted you | :09:33. | :09:37. | |
since the election to run the economy. Look, we need to get the | :09:38. | :09:42. | |
support of the British people across the whole swathe of a government's | :09:43. | :09:47. | |
policy agenda and get their votes at the general election. What is clear, | :09:48. | :09:51. | |
I am not sure I accept that, what is clear is that the biggest issue | :09:52. | :09:55. | |
facing people are their living standards, I am trying to avoid | :09:56. | :10:01. | |
using the slogan. I didn't say the whole piece there, but look, I mean | :10:02. | :10:08. | |
people on average are earn earning ?1600 less than in 2010. So that | :10:09. | :10:12. | |
needs to be addressed. I wouldn't deny we need to deal with the | :10:13. | :10:19. | |
deficit and debt. I think we are at 75% now, it is forecast to go up to | :10:20. | :10:23. | |
80%. And so, you know, undoubtedly, there are going to be tough | :10:24. | :10:27. | |
decisions that we will need to be made, which, we have accepted, but | :10:28. | :10:31. | |
ultimately if you want the deal with the public finances you have to put | :10:32. | :10:36. | |
them on a long-term sustainable footing and that involves getting | :10:37. | :10:40. | |
more people into work, but ensuring their earn more in work, that means | :10:41. | :10:45. | |
we need to reconfigure the economy. We cannot go back to a growth model | :10:46. | :10:51. | |
where you are seeing house prices, private consumption, and, you know, | :10:52. | :10:57. | |
contrary -- contributing the to growth. You mean like under the last | :10:58. | :11:01. | |
Labour Government We should have better regulated the banks and we | :11:02. | :11:06. | |
have seen the economy grow where it hasn't been as balanced as what we | :11:07. | :11:10. | |
would like. If you talk to people on my constituency here in Streatham, | :11:11. | :11:14. | |
sure, things are ticking up, if you talk to people in other parts of | :11:15. | :11:18. | |
London, other parts of the country, they are not feeling that, so we | :11:19. | :11:23. | |
have to get a much more balanced form of growth, and a form of growth | :11:24. | :11:28. | |
which sees more money going into people's wage packets. | :11:29. | :11:32. | |
If Labour does win the next election, we hear you will be a more | :11:33. | :11:37. | |
important figure in the Cabinet thannel balls. I don't know about | :11:38. | :11:42. | |
that, I very much doubt that. In the economist it has got us all | :11:43. | :11:48. | |
aTwitter. These days it says Labour's economic strategy will be | :11:49. | :11:51. | |
to boost the business department at the expense of the Treasury. Ed | :11:52. | :11:55. | |
balls is the Treasury you are the business department I have seen this | :11:56. | :11:58. | |
piece which has caused some interest, in some senses, it misses | :11:59. | :12:02. | |
the point because I think one of the big things we need to do is push | :12:03. | :12:07. | |
power down and out. If we are going to address the need to rebalance the | :12:08. | :12:15. | |
economy geographically, we need to see less obsession about what is | :12:16. | :12:19. | |
going on at the centre, and we need to push power down. Like the | :12:20. | :12:23. | |
business department would. You have offices all over the country. That | :12:24. | :12:34. | |
is is a good example. If you look at the Biz, it has got eight regional | :12:35. | :12:39. | |
office, two in Bristol and Cambridge there are no staff, so I think there | :12:40. | :12:44. | |
is a London-centric... Do you know who wrote this blog bigging you up | :12:45. | :12:51. | |
It is Jeremy Cliff. Who used to work for you. Is he the one who changed | :12:52. | :12:59. | |
your Wikipedia entry to make you Britain's Obama. Oh, you did that | :13:00. | :13:06. | |
yourself! He will not be the first journalist who. Researchers office | :13:07. | :13:13. | |
of Chuka Umunna, campaign intern Streatham Labour Party. I think you | :13:14. | :13:18. | |
know, it mentions it you had, you went round for a coffee to Margaret | :13:19. | :13:23. | |
Thatcher's house. Then she banned me for six years. From Downing Street. | :13:24. | :13:29. | |
That was a good expensive coffee. Lots of journalists have worked | :13:30. | :13:34. | |
for... I did won't -- didn't work for her. It doesn't mean Tim | :13:35. | :13:42. | |
Montgomorie edits Conservative Home. He bigged you up. You remember what | :13:43. | :13:49. | |
Diane Abbott said, Ed ball, don't mess with him. Sajid Javid. Let me, | :13:50. | :13:56. | |
these... You can try and rumble me. Can I begin, can we take it as given | :13:57. | :14:00. | |
all the central office talking points, you have had them out. I | :14:01. | :14:05. | |
have been watching every interview. You did it with Jeremy Paxman on | :14:06. | :14:11. | |
Newsnight. Can we get, can you give us a clear indication, of what areas | :14:12. | :14:18. | |
of welfare the 12 billion of cuts will come from? Well, first we have | :14:19. | :14:22. | |
why are we talking about this is because Britain has to make a | :14:23. | :14:26. | |
decision, if we are going to keep the growth going, this is important. | :14:27. | :14:29. | |
That is the central office talking point. We had them all. The context | :14:30. | :14:34. | |
is important. We have had that. Our viewers watch Newsnight. That is | :14:35. | :14:39. | |
probably why they are so small! They have, I heard you on the radio in | :14:40. | :14:43. | |
Sweden and France, I follow you everywhere, what is the answer to my | :14:44. | :14:47. | |
question? Can you give its an indication of where the 12 billion | :14:48. | :14:51. | |
cuts will come from? I can tell you there will be 25 billion in total | :14:52. | :14:54. | |
after the election. That is what is necessary to sustain the recovery. | :14:55. | :14:58. | |
Of that as you said 12 billion will come from the welfare budget. Give | :14:59. | :15:03. | |
us a broad brush. It is not because we think the welfare budget, there | :15:04. | :15:07. | |
is something hugely wrong with it and that is the only place to go. It | :15:08. | :15:11. | |
is, we want a welfare system that work, that continues to be reformed. | :15:12. | :15:16. | |
I understand that, for the sake of this discussion let us assume you | :15:17. | :15:20. | |
love welfare, you cuddle it before you go to bed. Where will the cuts | :15:21. | :15:36. | |
come The housing benefit for Under 25s is just under ?2 billion, right? | :15:37. | :15:44. | |
This is a party proposal. I can't give you exact numbers. Some | :15:45. | :15:51. | |
reputable think-tanks have said it is about ?2 billion. You will not | :15:52. | :15:54. | |
taking housing benefits away from under 25-year-olds who have their | :15:55. | :15:58. | |
own children? You probably won't take it away because you cuddle | :15:59. | :16:03. | |
welfare every night. You won't take it away from disabled folk who are | :16:04. | :16:10. | |
under 25? We will be only able to set that out when we get closer to | :16:11. | :16:14. | |
the election. You are looking like a couple of hundred million, not ?2 | :16:15. | :16:18. | |
billion there? The important thing is, we are setting out the tough | :16:19. | :16:23. | |
decisions that need to be made. We are prepared to make those | :16:24. | :16:27. | |
decisions. You are not prepared to give... If they think it is not | :16:28. | :16:31. | |
welfare, they can tell us they will cut the NHS, like they cut it in | :16:32. | :16:34. | |
Wales, they can tell us it is going to be schools, or it will be more | :16:35. | :16:39. | |
borrowing that will put the recovery at risk. We are prepared to make the | :16:40. | :16:43. | |
decisions. Is Labour? You said if the Government stayed with its | :16:44. | :16:47. | |
current spending and tax plans, that there wouldn't be a recovery. Did Ed | :16:48. | :16:52. | |
Balls predict a triple recession? We didn't. I'm not too sure where - if | :16:53. | :16:59. | |
you let me finish. I'm not sure he did. I don't think that is what has | :17:00. | :17:03. | |
been said. We said that if he went for an overly austere fiscal | :17:04. | :17:08. | |
consolidation programme, you risk there being months of no growth. | :17:09. | :17:13. | |
Didn't he say there would be a double dip? That is what happened. | :17:14. | :17:18. | |
Didn't he say there would be a double dip? I don't recall saying | :17:19. | :17:23. | |
that. I do. I was at the Labour Party Conference. He said - at the | :17:24. | :17:28. | |
Labour Party Conference, he did say - I will look in the quotes here. He | :17:29. | :17:33. | |
is commenting on Osborne's strategy to the Labour faithful. He said, | :17:34. | :17:36. | |
"There is nothing credible about this plan that leads to a double-dip | :17:37. | :17:44. | |
recession." I think the point that that was was said - which conference | :17:45. | :17:48. | |
is this taken from? I don't know. Can I pick up on one thing? Sure. | :17:49. | :17:55. | |
Forever you hear - we heard some of the Central Office talking points, | :17:56. | :17:58. | |
this allegation that Labour wants to borrow and spend more. No, we don't. | :17:59. | :18:04. | |
Actually, we have said - we have set out a range - in the same way the | :18:05. | :18:08. | |
Government hasn't said anything, the Conservative Party hasn't said at | :18:09. | :18:11. | |
this moment everything that will be in the manifesto. You can say that | :18:12. | :18:16. | |
again! We have said a range of things - public sector pay | :18:17. | :18:19. | |
increases, we wouldn't give the Winter Fuel Allowance to the 5% | :18:20. | :18:24. | |
richest pensioners. Again, that is a couple of million, too? We would | :18:25. | :18:31. | |
like - and I see no reason why this shouldn't happen, the Office for | :18:32. | :18:33. | |
Budget Responsibility to audit our plans and then they can determine | :18:34. | :18:37. | |
that. If they won't do it, I'll do it! I'm not sure... I'll do you | :18:38. | :18:48. | |
both! Can I ask you... I might give my forecasts. Can I ask this? Are we | :18:49. | :18:55. | |
heading for a decent chunky increase in the minimum wage? What has been | :18:56. | :19:02. | |
in the news - rightly so - the Department of Business has asked the | :19:03. | :19:05. | |
Low Pay Commission to look into this. They will report back shortly. | :19:06. | :19:09. | |
Would you be in favour of one? What would be the argument against it? If | :19:10. | :19:12. | |
you increase the minimum wage, people would pay more tax and you | :19:13. | :19:16. | |
would have to pay them a bit less welfare. What would be the argument | :19:17. | :19:21. | |
against a chunky rise in the minimum wage, given that the current minimum | :19:22. | :19:25. | |
wage is back at the value it was in 2004? It is 10% lower than where it | :19:26. | :19:30. | |
was in 2008. That is a strong case to look at it. What would be the | :19:31. | :19:34. | |
case against it? There are plenty of people who say there could be an | :19:35. | :19:38. | |
impact on the job market. Who says that? Many economists. Who says | :19:39. | :19:43. | |
that? I could find you a number of economists. One would do. You could | :19:44. | :19:48. | |
look at Alastair Heath, one of your best friends. He would tell you that | :19:49. | :19:52. | |
an increase in the minimum wage could have an impact on jobs. Right. | :19:53. | :19:57. | |
It could. You have to look at these things. The important thing is that | :19:58. | :20:03. | |
the right place to look at this decision is the Low Pay Commission. | :20:04. | :20:07. | |
Would you like to see one? It should be looked at. Alright. We are proud | :20:08. | :20:13. | |
to have introduced the National Minimum Wage. It is good to see the | :20:14. | :20:16. | |
Conservative Party has come round to the need for a National Minimum | :20:17. | :20:20. | |
Wage. We want to strengthen it. We have the former Deputy Chair... You | :20:21. | :20:25. | |
would back that rise? Let me say two things. It is important we can | :20:26. | :20:29. | |
continue with the social partnership approach where the Government, | :20:30. | :20:33. | |
employee organisations and employer organisations sit down together and | :20:34. | :20:36. | |
set the rate with reference to what the likely impact is going to be on | :20:37. | :20:39. | |
jobs. Within that, we are looking at how we can strengthen it. It is not | :20:40. | :20:44. | |
just an issue of the National Minimum Wage, we need to do | :20:45. | :20:48. | |
everything we can to incentivise more employers to pay the living | :20:49. | :20:51. | |
wage. From a fiscal point of view, you are doing less after people have | :20:52. | :20:55. | |
been paid through tax credits than you would otherwise be doing. We | :20:56. | :21:01. | |
need to leave it there. You can have too much fun(!) | :21:02. | :21:08. | |
So, it's a new year. But 2014 already has something of a retro | :21:09. | :21:11. | |
feel to it. Britain's manufacturing lots of cars again. Ministers are | :21:12. | :21:14. | |
telling us to buy British. Politicians are making speeches | :21:15. | :21:17. | |
about immigration. And the English cricket team are rubbish again. Why | :21:18. | :21:25. | |
don't we let in as many Bulgarians and Romanians that want to come if | :21:26. | :21:32. | |
they can play cricket? Yes, they've managed the dubious achievement of | :21:33. | :21:34. | |
only the third Ashes whitewash in history. So there'll be no | :21:35. | :21:38. | |
tickertape parade or trip to Downing Street when they come back from | :21:39. | :21:41. | |
Australia, and they won't have a chance to compete for the famous urn | :21:42. | :21:44. | |
again until 2015. But if you're watching, Alastair Cook - and why | :21:45. | :21:48. | |
wouldn't you be tuning in from your hotel room in the middle of the | :21:49. | :21:51. | |
night? Then don't worry, there's still one prize you can win. Yes, | :21:52. | :21:55. | |
it's the Daily Politics mug. And the good news is this is one hallowed | :21:56. | :21:58. | |
trophy the Aussies can't take off you - because you have to live in | :21:59. | :22:04. | |
the UK to enter. Got you! What a consolation prize! We'll remind you | :22:05. | :22:08. | |
how to enter in a minute, but let's see if you can remember when THIS | :22:09. | :22:10. | |
happened. # Just love to dance | :22:11. | :22:21. | |
# He wants to dance # He's got to dance. # | :22:22. | :22:31. | |
# Don't go breaking my heart # I couldn't if I try | :22:32. | :22:43. | |
# Oh, honey, if I get restless # Baby, you're not that kind. # | :22:44. | :22:52. | |
For our most beloved great teacher... | :22:53. | :22:57. | |
# If you leave me now # You take away the biggest part of | :22:58. | :23:04. | |
me # O-hoo... # | :23:05. | :23:11. | |
# And just when it hit me # Somebody turned around | :23:12. | :23:16. | |
# And somebody shouted # Play that funky music right. # | :23:17. | :23:33. | |
To be in with a chance of winning a Daily Politics mug, send your answer | :23:34. | :23:41. | |
to [email protected]. You can see the full terms and conditions for Guess | :23:42. | :23:49. | |
The Year on bbc.co.uk/dailypolitics. Now, it is coming up to midday. | :23:50. | :23:53. | |
Let's look at Big Ben for the first time this year. Prime Minister's | :23:54. | :23:57. | |
Questions on the way. If you would like to comment on proceedings, you | :23:58. | :24:03. | |
can e-mail us at [email protected] or tweet | :24:04. | :24:06. | |
your thoughts using #bbcdp. We will read some out after Prime Minister's | :24:07. | :24:14. | |
Questions. Nick Robinson, fresh from his documentary last night, and his | :24:15. | :24:17. | |
ratings battle against Nigella Lawson, is here. If you missed it, | :24:18. | :24:22. | |
go to the back of the class and watch this. Ladies and gentlemen, | :24:23. | :24:33. | |
can I gather you around? If I were to ask you how many immigrants are | :24:34. | :24:39. | |
there in Britain as a proportion as a whole, is it a half, is it more | :24:40. | :24:44. | |
than a half, say three-quarters? Sir, you think... The eighth. It is | :24:45. | :24:52. | |
not as much as people think? That is about an eighth. You think about a | :24:53. | :25:00. | |
quarter of the British population were born abroad? A quarter. Ladies | :25:01. | :25:04. | |
and gentlemen, I can now announce the result. Who got closest to the | :25:05. | :25:12. | |
immigrant population of Britain on our pie chart? Peter Snow, eat your | :25:13. | :25:21. | |
heart out! The answer is - well done, Sir - an eighth! APPLAUSE | :25:22. | :25:30. | |
There were no depths you were prepared not to go to to compete | :25:31. | :25:36. | |
with Nigella in the ratings, even to using a pie chart, a REAL pie chart! | :25:37. | :25:42. | |
I was doing a rehearsal before the pie filling started to fall out. The | :25:43. | :25:48. | |
point of that - it was based on a piece of national opinion poll - is | :25:49. | :25:54. | |
that on average - this is just an average - people think the immigrant | :25:55. | :25:57. | |
population in Britain is a third and it is only an eighth. It is one | :25:58. | :26:01. | |
example of where there are some misconceptions about immigration | :26:02. | :26:09. | |
that - I was about to use a word to colour the debate. Those who live | :26:10. | :26:15. | |
here but who are not born here, is that right, that is the definition? | :26:16. | :26:22. | |
Correct. Part of the reason - in a sense, people no longer know what | :26:23. | :26:27. | |
they mean by immigrants. Do you mean someone who might regard themselves | :26:28. | :26:32. | |
as a British Pakistani, or a British Indian, although in fact they are | :26:33. | :26:35. | |
the third generation. Are you talking about them? Or are you | :26:36. | :26:40. | |
talking about people who have moved? In America, they used to say by the | :26:41. | :26:45. | |
third generation you were the fully-fledged American? Yes. We | :26:46. | :26:51. | |
still kind of think that if you come from immigrant parents or | :26:52. | :26:55. | |
grandparents, there's still a sense in some parts of the country, "You | :26:56. | :27:07. | |
are some kind of an immigrant." The fact - this is for people who didn't | :27:08. | :27:11. | |
see the film - the fact that the debate about the right response to | :27:12. | :27:15. | |
immigration now covers particularly for Labour, the issue about the | :27:16. | :27:18. | |
economics, what can you do about implementing the minimum wage? What | :27:19. | :27:23. | |
can you do about agency workers and so on? Conservatives have echoed | :27:24. | :27:27. | |
some of those things. Immigration is treated more like a normal policy | :27:28. | :27:30. | |
debate and it is becoming disassociated from race. Of course, | :27:31. | :27:33. | |
there is always going to be a factor about race and religion and so on. | :27:34. | :27:37. | |
And concerns about that. It seems to me, for the obvious reason that the | :27:38. | :27:43. | |
big wave of immigration ten years ago now was white European and | :27:44. | :27:46. | |
Christian, you could have strong views about immigration without | :27:47. | :27:50. | |
people then necessarily saying, "I know where you are coming from." Did | :27:51. | :27:55. | |
you see the programme last night? I didn't. I will watch it on iPlayer. | :27:56. | :27:58. | |
The interesting thing about what Nick says is I found at the 2010 | :27:59. | :28:03. | |
general election, the people, those of my constituents who raised the | :28:04. | :28:06. | |
issue of immigration with me more than any other groups, were my black | :28:07. | :28:11. | |
and Asian constituents. Was that because of perceived unfairness that | :28:12. | :28:16. | |
East Europeans, they thought, had a "better or easier deal"? The Asian | :28:17. | :28:21. | |
community, they often say, there are tougher rules on marriage, about | :28:22. | :28:24. | |
bringing brides from abroad, that apply to us, but they don't apply to | :28:25. | :28:28. | |
a poll. I would say two things. First of all, the sense of being | :28:29. | :28:33. | |
undercut in terms of wages and also the jobs going to somebody else. | :28:34. | :28:37. | |
Secondly, in terms of the pressure on resources. Essentially, it is - I | :28:38. | :28:43. | |
find - and I will no doubt find this out when I watch it on iPlayer - the | :28:44. | :28:47. | |
immigration debate is a proxy for an economic debate. A lot of it has to | :28:48. | :28:52. | |
do with if you look at the shape of our labour market, we rank fifth in | :28:53. | :28:58. | |
terms of the size of percentage of our workforce. Actually, I really | :28:59. | :29:02. | |
think that is what ultimately what it goes to. We will have to go over | :29:03. | :29:06. | |
to the House in a minute. Did you watch the programme? I didn't see | :29:07. | :29:08. | |
the programme. I will be watching it. Why? Why do I bother? You go to | :29:09. | :29:17. | |
all this effort. You make a pie, you make a programme and they can't | :29:18. | :29:23. | |
bother to watch? You have two proud British-born sons of British | :29:24. | :29:26. | |
immigrants here. We understand this debate quite a lot. We have lived | :29:27. | :29:32. | |
here all our life. It is not about race. It should never be about race. | :29:33. | :29:37. | |
There are legitimate, sensible reasons where it is economics and it | :29:38. | :29:41. | |
should never be a no go area for politicians. Just before we go over, | :29:42. | :29:48. | |
a sad event in Westminster today. Paul Goggins, much-liked MP on both | :29:49. | :29:54. | |
sides of the House, has died. There is always a danger with that phrase. | :29:55. | :29:59. | |
It is true. I do think - I have walked through the House of Commons | :30:00. | :30:02. | |
to come here and somebody broke the news to an MP I was talking to. | :30:03. | :30:07. | |
People were very sad. A lovely guy. I only met him three years ago when | :30:08. | :30:11. | |
I came into Parliament. In that time, I immediately identified him | :30:12. | :30:14. | |
as one of the nicest MPs around across the House. Manchester MP, | :30:15. | :30:20. | |
Paul Goggins. He had been a social worker. He was involved in social | :30:21. | :30:26. | |
care, ran a children's home. Then went on to become a Home Office | :30:27. | :30:30. | |
Minister. He spoke with real passion for his area. He was a passionate | :30:31. | :30:33. | |
Catholic as well. This was a guy, whether you agreed with him or not, | :30:34. | :30:39. | |
that people thought he was rooted in his community and in a set of values | :30:40. | :30:43. | |
he was passionate about. Not an old man? No. Barely 60. People may | :30:44. | :30:50. | |
remember that he was taken ill, he had a stroke after being out running | :30:51. | :30:54. | |
just before Christmas. There were worries then. He had been unwell | :30:55. | :30:59. | |
since. It will form part of PMQs. Let's go over to the House. | :31:00. | :31:08. | |
Captain Richard Holloway of the royal engineers was tragically | :31:09. | :31:14. | |
killed after being engaged in enemy fire in Afghanistan on 23rd | :31:15. | :31:18. | |
December. He was a highly respected soldier and our deepest sympathies | :31:19. | :31:23. | |
should be with his parent, his brother and girlfriend who he left | :31:24. | :31:26. | |
behind. Mr Speaker our thoughts should also go to the victims of the | :31:27. | :31:31. | |
US helicopter crash in Norfolk about which details are still merges and | :31:32. | :31:35. | |
Mr Speaker, today, I know that the sudden death this morning of Paul | :31:36. | :31:41. | |
Goggins, MP for Wythenshawe and sell will have shocked even in the house. | :31:42. | :31:45. | |
He was a kind and brilliant man who believed in public service, he cared | :31:46. | :31:51. | |
about the welfare of children and the importance of social work and he | :31:52. | :31:54. | |
brought his own clear experience to bear as an MP, and as a minister. He | :31:55. | :32:00. | |
did vital work as a Northern Ireland minister playing an essential role | :32:01. | :32:04. | |
in delivering the essential devolution of policing and justice | :32:05. | :32:09. | |
powers in Northern Ireland. He was liked and admired across the House | :32:10. | :32:15. | |
and treated everyone in whatever circumstances with respect. He will | :32:16. | :32:19. | |
be greatly missed and we send our condolences to his wife, his | :32:20. | :32:23. | |
children and to his family. Mr Speaker, this morning I had meetings | :32:24. | :32:29. | |
with colleagues an other, I shall have further such meetings today. I | :32:30. | :32:34. | |
a sure that the House will want to be associated with the comments my | :32:35. | :32:37. | |
right honourable friend. Paul Goggins in particular was a good, | :32:38. | :32:42. | |
and decent man, and I know he will be sorely missed on all sides of the | :32:43. | :32:48. | |
House. Yesterday, Mr Speaker, the British Chamber of Commerce found | :32:49. | :32:50. | |
that manufacturing exports and services were growing strongly. Does | :32:51. | :32:56. | |
my right honourable friend agree with me that this shows despite more | :32:57. | :33:01. | |
work that needs to be done, it is crucial that the Government sticks | :33:02. | :33:08. | |
to its long-term economic plan? I thank my right honourable friend for | :33:09. | :33:12. | |
what he said and what he said about Paul Goggins as well. It's a report | :33:13. | :33:16. | |
from the British Chamber of Commerce, there is still a lot more | :33:17. | :33:19. | |
work to do, we have to continue to get the deficit down, we have to | :33:20. | :33:21. | |
continue economic growth, keep getting more people into work, there | :33:22. | :33:25. | |
shouldn't be one ounce of complacency, but the report did find | :33:26. | :33:29. | |
that manufacturing balances are at a high, ex fors are up and services | :33:30. | :33:33. | |
are growing strongly, if we stick to the plan we can see this country | :33:34. | :33:37. | |
rise, and our people rise with it too. | :33:38. | :33:42. | |
Mr Speaker, I join the Prime Minister in paying tribute to | :33:43. | :33:45. | |
Captain Richard Holloway of the Royal Engineers who was killed in | :33:46. | :33:48. | |
action in Afghanistan. His death just two days before Christmas is a | :33:49. | :33:53. | |
reminder of the risks being taken on our behalf every day by the members | :33:54. | :33:58. | |
of the armed force, he showed courage and bravery and our | :33:59. | :34:01. | |
sympathies are with his family and friends. I join the Prime Minister | :34:02. | :34:04. | |
in sending condolences to the families of the victims of the US | :34:05. | :34:09. | |
helicopter crash in Norfolk. I want to pay tribute to our friend and | :34:10. | :34:13. | |
colleague Paul Goggins. He was one of the kindest, most decent people | :34:14. | :34:17. | |
in this House. He was is one of the deepest | :34:18. | :34:22. | |
principle. It shone throughout his career, social worker, councillor, | :34:23. | :34:27. | |
MP, and minister. And it is a measure of the man and | :34:28. | :34:32. | |
his ability, that he earned the respect, trust, and affection of all | :34:33. | :34:37. | |
sides in Northern Ireland. The Labour Party has lost one of its | :34:38. | :34:42. | |
own, and one of its best. Our deepest condolences to go to his | :34:43. | :34:48. | |
wife, his children, and indeed to his whole family. | :34:49. | :34:54. | |
Mr Speaker, the whole county will be concerned about the price paid by | :34:55. | :34:58. | |
those affected by the floods and storm, I pay tribute to of work the | :34:59. | :35:02. | |
emergency service, can the Prime Minister update the House on the | :35:03. | :35:04. | |
number of people affected and what action is being taken to ensure | :35:05. | :35:07. | |
areas that could be affected by further flooding have all the | :35:08. | :35:13. | |
necessary support? First of all can I thank the Leader of the Opposition | :35:14. | :35:17. | |
for his very moving words about Paul Goggins and for what he said. In | :35:18. | :35:23. | |
terms of flooding it is an extremely difficult situation for those | :35:24. | :35:25. | |
affected. Seven people have lost their lives since this began, I | :35:26. | :35:29. | |
think he is right to pay tribute to the emergency services, to the | :35:30. | :35:33. | |
Environment Agency worker, to the flood wardens and to the many | :35:34. | :35:36. | |
neighbours and individuals who have shown bravery and courage and spirit | :35:37. | :35:40. | |
over the Christmas period at helping neighbours and friends. As it is an | :35:41. | :35:45. | |
ongoing situation let me bring the House up-to-date. There are | :35:46. | :35:48. | |
currently 104 flood warnings in place in England and Wales, that | :35:49. | :35:52. | |
means that more flooding is sadly expected and immediate action is | :35:53. | :35:55. | |
required. There are 186 flood alerts, meaning | :35:56. | :36:01. | |
that even further flooding is possible beyond what we expect more | :36:02. | :36:06. | |
rapidly. Although the weather is improving the river levels remain so | :36:07. | :36:11. | |
high the flooding could come at short notice, there are a number of | :36:12. | :36:14. | |
concerns including Dorset, Wiltshire, Hampshire, Somerset and | :36:15. | :36:18. | |
Oxford shire. Giving the threats which could last for receive days to | :36:19. | :36:23. | |
come, I urge the members of the public to follow the advice of the | :36:24. | :36:28. | |
emergency services in those areas at risk. At a national level we have | :36:29. | :36:33. | |
been co-ordinating this under COBRA and it will continue to meet until | :36:34. | :36:38. | |
the threat has passed. Mr Speaker, I thank the Prime | :36:39. | :36:43. | |
Minister for that answer. I know he and the Environment Secretary will | :36:44. | :36:48. | |
keep the House up-to-date. Can he tell the House whether it is clear | :36:49. | :36:52. | |
why it took so long for some of the energy distribution companies to | :36:53. | :36:55. | |
restore power to homes over the Christmas period, and what steps | :36:56. | :36:59. | |
does he believe can be taken to ensure that doesn't happen again? I | :37:00. | :37:03. | |
think he is right, in all these circumstances, no matter how good | :37:04. | :37:07. | |
the preparation, there are lessons to learn, I think there are lessons | :37:08. | :37:11. | |
to learn on this occasion on the positive side the Environment Agency | :37:12. | :37:14. | |
warning service worked beer than in the past. The flood defences did | :37:15. | :37:18. | |
protect, up to one million homes over the December and Christmas | :37:19. | :37:21. | |
period. There are some negatives there and we need to learn lesson, | :37:22. | :37:25. | |
some of the energy companies didn't have enough people over the holiday | :37:26. | :37:29. | |
period for emergency response, and I saw that for myself in Kent. So we | :37:30. | :37:34. | |
need to learn these lesson, my right honourable friend will be leading | :37:35. | :37:37. | |
this exercise, the Energy Secretary is already looking at the levels of | :37:38. | :37:40. | |
compensation and the preparedness and the speed of response from | :37:41. | :37:43. | |
energy companies, but I would welcome from all members, all | :37:44. | :37:47. | |
constituencies affected by flooding what they see on the ground about | :37:48. | :37:52. | |
lessons that can be learned so we can make sure preparedness is better | :37:53. | :37:57. | |
in future. Given the scale of risk exposed by these floods and the | :37:58. | :38:00. | |
expected impacts of climate change, can the Prime Minister commit to | :38:01. | :38:03. | |
DEFRA providing a report to this House by the end of this month, | :38:04. | :38:06. | |
giving a full assessment of the future capability of our flood | :38:07. | :38:10. | |
defences and flood response agency, and whether the investment plans in | :38:11. | :38:14. | |
place are equal to the need for events of this kind? I am happy to | :38:15. | :38:19. | |
make that commitment. As he knows, in this current four year period we | :38:20. | :38:25. | |
are spending ?2.3 billion compared with 2.1 billion in the previous | :38:26. | :38:29. | |
period. The money is going into flood defences, as we saw, with the | :38:30. | :38:35. | |
early December flooding action about 800,000 homes protected by previous | :38:36. | :38:41. | |
flood defence, and a further 200,000 houses affected over Christmas, it | :38:42. | :38:44. | |
makes sense to look again at the proposals that are in the programme | :38:45. | :38:48. | |
for flood defence work, and to see what more can be done. As well as | :38:49. | :38:52. | |
the Government money, we are keen to lever in more private sector and | :38:53. | :38:59. | |
Local Authority money, I am happy to commit for the Environment Secretary | :39:00. | :39:02. | |
to come back and report to the House about the level of expenditure in | :39:03. | :39:06. | |
the years going ahead. Thank you Mr Speaker, further to the | :39:07. | :39:10. | |
Prime Minister's remarks on the recent flooding would he join me in | :39:11. | :39:15. | |
paying tribute to Bournemouth Borough Council, the Dorset | :39:16. | :39:18. | |
emergency services as well as local residents in dealing with two | :39:19. | :39:21. | |
evacuations in my constituency, one of which is still on going due to | :39:22. | :39:29. | |
the river bursting its bank, given the changing weather pattern, could | :39:30. | :39:34. | |
I ask what more could be done to improved river and sea defences? | :39:35. | :39:39. | |
Well, as my honourable friend knows, in Bournemouth and the Dorset area | :39:40. | :39:43. | |
we have had 290 homes flooded so far, I agree with him that the work | :39:44. | :39:47. | |
of the emergency services, the work of the Environment Agency has been | :39:48. | :39:51. | |
excellent, I think many Local Authorities, including my own have | :39:52. | :39:56. | |
had good plan, put them into place competently but not every Local | :39:57. | :40:01. | |
Authority does as well. In terms of the Bournemouth and Poole area, the | :40:02. | :40:04. | |
Bournemouth beach management scheme of round ?14 million is going to be | :40:05. | :40:08. | |
invested over the next five years bs and that should protect round 2500 | :40:09. | :40:15. | |
properties by 201819. I would be interested to hear about what more | :40:16. | :40:19. | |
he thinks could be done. The Prime Minister will be aware | :40:20. | :40:24. | |
that the majority of new housing benefit claimants are in work. He | :40:25. | :40:29. | |
will be aware that private sector landlords are refusing to take | :40:30. | :40:33. | |
tenants on benefit, or evicting them. What does he say to | :40:34. | :40:37. | |
hard-working families, faced with losing their homes because of his | :40:38. | :40:45. | |
housing benefit cuts? We say we are cutting your tax, in April this year | :40:46. | :40:49. | |
we will lift to 10,000 poub the amount of money that someone can | :40:50. | :40:53. | |
earn before they start paying income tax, that makes a big difference, | :40:54. | :40:59. | |
for someone on the minimum wage, they will see their tax bill come | :41:00. | :41:02. | |
down by two thirds, we do have to take action on the housing benefit | :41:03. | :41:07. | |
bill, housing benefit accounts for ?23 billion of Government spending, | :41:08. | :41:11. | |
when we came into office, there were some families in London, who were | :41:12. | :41:16. | |
getting housing benefit payment of 660, 70, ?80,000. They shout how | :41:17. | :41:22. | |
many, one was too many, that is why we have capped housing benefit. | :41:23. | :41:27. | |
If the Government decided to mitigate the scale of the cuts it | :41:28. | :41:31. | |
plan, can my right honourable friend tell me how I explain to students | :41:32. | :41:39. | |
doing PSHE wild they should avoid taking on debt but it is all right | :41:40. | :41:43. | |
for the Government to ignore the same debt. Think he makes an | :41:44. | :41:47. | |
important point. We have taken difficult decision to get the | :41:48. | :41:50. | |
deficit down, to get the country back on track, and that has meant | :41:51. | :41:54. | |
difficult decisions in terms of departmental spending and also | :41:55. | :41:59. | |
welfare, now the party opposite is now Ngola Baka to where it started. | :42:00. | :42:02. | |
They are saying they want to mitigate the level of cuts and | :42:03. | :42:05. | |
therefore they want to spend more, they want to borrow more, they want | :42:06. | :42:09. | |
to tax more, we may be at the start of a New Year but they have gone | :42:10. | :42:14. | |
back to where they were three years ago. | :42:15. | :42:19. | |
Mr Speak, does the Prime Minister recognise the concerns of families | :42:20. | :42:23. | |
and communities about the impact of fixed odds betting terminal, gaming | :42:24. | :42:27. | |
machines where people can gamble up to ?300 a minute on the high | :42:28. | :42:34. | |
streets? No, I share concerns about this issue and I think it is welcome | :42:35. | :42:38. | |
we have having this debate in the House of Commons today. I think | :42:39. | :42:41. | |
there are problems in the betting and gaming industry, and we need the | :42:42. | :42:44. | |
look at them. I think it is worth listening to the advice of his own | :42:45. | :42:48. | |
shadow minister, who said that we should look, I accept the argument | :42:49. | :42:53. | |
that empirical evidence is needed before making changes because it | :42:54. | :42:56. | |
might create another problem somewhere else. This is a problem. | :42:57. | :43:00. | |
It needs looking at. We have a review under way, we are clearing up | :43:01. | :43:03. | |
a situation that was put in place under the last Government, but I | :43:04. | :43:07. | |
think if we work together we can sort it out. | :43:08. | :43:12. | |
Mr Speaker, let me say the 2005 gamble act limited the number of | :43:13. | :43:16. | |
machines to four per betting shop, but it didn't go nearly far enough, | :43:17. | :43:22. | |
in the action that should have been taken. And let me just say, Mr | :43:23. | :43:27. | |
Speaker, he asked about evidence. Local communities from Fareham to | :43:28. | :43:31. | |
Liverpool are saying that these machines are causing problems for | :43:32. | :43:35. | |
families and community, now local communities believe they already | :43:36. | :43:38. | |
have the evidence, shouldn't they be given the power to decide whether | :43:39. | :43:43. | |
they want these machines, or whether they don't want them? I think he is | :43:44. | :43:48. | |
making it a reasonable point. Let me deal with the fact, fixed odds | :43:49. | :43:52. | |
betting terminals were introduced in 2001, after the Labour Government | :43:53. | :43:57. | |
relaxed gambling regulations, the second fact is there are now fewer | :43:58. | :44:01. | |
of these machines now, than there were when Labour were in office, and | :44:02. | :44:05. | |
of course, to his point he has just made, councils already have powers | :44:06. | :44:09. | |
to tackle the issue and I believe that councils should make full use | :44:10. | :44:12. | |
of that power. I am not arguing that is job done, there may well be more | :44:13. | :44:17. | |
to do, but we have a review under way, this is an issue for the | :44:18. | :44:21. | |
Department of Culture, Media and Sport, if he has ideas I would ask | :44:22. | :44:24. | |
him to put them into this review, but as I say, he might want to | :44:25. | :44:29. | |
listen to his own shadow minister, who has recently as November said | :44:30. | :44:33. | |
there is no evidence to support a change to stakes and prizes for | :44:34. | :44:40. | |
fixed odds betting terminal, there seem seems to be something of a | :44:41. | :44:43. | |
change but I think ewe can sort it out. Our ideas are in our motion | :44:44. | :44:48. | |
today, and if he wants to vote for it we would be happy for him to do | :44:49. | :44:53. | |
so. Mr Speaker, he says there are already powers, he says there are | :44:54. | :44:58. | |
powers in place, but the Mayor of London, and the Conservative head of | :44:59. | :45:02. | |
the Local Government Association have said local authorities do not | :45:03. | :45:06. | |
have the power to limit the number of machine, in one in three calls to | :45:07. | :45:09. | |
the gambling helpline are about these machines and they are | :45:10. | :45:14. | |
clustered in deprived areas, for example, there are 348 in one of the | :45:15. | :45:19. | |
most deprived boroughs, Newham. Can he at least give us a timetable for | :45:20. | :45:22. | |
when the Government will decide whether to act. We will be reporting | :45:23. | :45:27. | |
in the spring as a result of the review that is under way. It is | :45:28. | :45:30. | |
important we get to grips with this. There is something of a pattern. We | :45:31. | :45:35. | |
had the problem of 24-hour drinking and that needed to be changed and | :45:36. | :45:39. | |
mitigated - we have done that. We had the problems created by the | :45:40. | :45:44. | |
deregulation of betting and gaming. We need to sort that out. We have | :45:45. | :45:48. | |
also had problems in the banking industry and elsewhere, that we have | :45:49. | :45:55. | |
sorted out. If he wants to... As I said, if he wants to input ideas | :45:56. | :46:01. | |
into that review, that is the right way forward. May I pay tribute to | :46:02. | :46:06. | |
Paul Goggins and say how much he will be missed in this House? My | :46:07. | :46:11. | |
right honourable friend is on the record as saying that he would like | :46:12. | :46:16. | |
to say the A64 on the future roads list. Can he ensure that the present | :46:17. | :46:21. | |
economy, which is very buoyant in North Yorkshire, is not held back by | :46:22. | :46:25. | |
the congestion on that road and the poor safety? Will he join with me | :46:26. | :46:35. | |
and that he can travel with much greater safety on the A64? The | :46:36. | :46:40. | |
honourable lady is right to raise this issue. The quality and the | :46:41. | :46:44. | |
capacity of the road system in Yorkshire has been and is a major | :46:45. | :46:47. | |
issue. The Government has taken some important steps to help. There is | :46:48. | :46:51. | |
more work to be done. I know the Chancellor was listening carefully | :46:52. | :46:55. | |
and I am sure we can look at this for the future roads programme. What | :46:56. | :47:00. | |
plans does the Government have to close the loophole which allows | :47:01. | :47:04. | |
businesses to pay agency workers less than their fellow employees | :47:05. | :47:11. | |
doing the same job? I looked into this loophole carefully over the | :47:12. | :47:15. | |
Christmas period when the party opposite raised it. I discovered two | :47:16. | :47:19. | |
things about this loophole. The first is, it was introduced and | :47:20. | :47:24. | |
agreed by the last Labour Government and the TUC. That is loophole fact | :47:25. | :47:29. | |
number one. Loophole fact number two - he shouts CBI - this is what they | :47:30. | :47:34. | |
said about it. They said, "Further gold plating of EU rules can only | :47:35. | :47:40. | |
cost jobs." Then we have the Recruitment and Employment | :47:41. | :47:44. | |
Federation. "These arrangements were agreed after consultation with the | :47:45. | :47:48. | |
last Government and business unions. Is the Labour Party saying they want | :47:49. | :47:53. | |
to deny British temps the option of permanent employment?" The IOD say | :47:54. | :48:01. | |
this, "It's a bad idea all round. The initial response to this for | :48:02. | :48:05. | |
employers will be to employ fewer people on higher wages. What a great | :48:06. | :48:11. | |
start to the New Year!" Only Labour could come up with an idea like | :48:12. | :48:17. | |
that! Thank you, Mr Speaker. There is considerable interest from | :48:18. | :48:26. | |
businesses in the Marr time and -- maritime and marine sector to | :48:27. | :48:30. | |
relocate. What can the Government do to send a clear message to | :48:31. | :48:34. | |
entrepreneurs that Portsmouth is open for business? I think my | :48:35. | :48:38. | |
honourable friend is right to raise this issue. There are two things | :48:39. | :48:41. | |
specifically that we can do to help Portsmouth at this time. The first | :48:42. | :48:46. | |
is the Portsmouth and Southampton City Deal, that will bring jobs and | :48:47. | :48:50. | |
investment. Secondly, as to emphasise the fact that this massive | :48:51. | :48:55. | |
programme of modernising the Royal Navy with the aircraft carriers, the | :48:56. | :48:59. | |
Type-45s, these are by and large going to be based in Portsmouth, | :49:00. | :49:03. | |
creating jobs, making sure that it remains one of the most important | :49:04. | :49:07. | |
homes for the Royal Navy, but she is right. Added to that, there is a | :49:08. | :49:13. | |
future in Portsmouth in other marine industries and we should do | :49:14. | :49:16. | |
everything we can to encourage business to locate there. I would | :49:17. | :49:23. | |
also like to pay my sympathies to Paul Goggins' family, he was a | :49:24. | :49:27. | |
lovely, lovely man. Mr Speaker, the Government has cut ?1.8 billion from | :49:28. | :49:32. | |
the social care budget, which means nearly 500,000 fewer people are | :49:33. | :49:45. | |
eligible for social care. With home care charges up, and the | :49:46. | :49:49. | |
Government's care cap nothing more than a care con, why isn't the Prime | :49:50. | :49:52. | |
Minister being honest with older people about the real care costs | :49:53. | :49:54. | |
they will face under this Government? Well, what I would say | :49:55. | :50:00. | |
to the honourable lady is this. Difficult decisions have had to be | :50:01. | :50:03. | |
taken across Government spending. If you look at health and social care, | :50:04. | :50:07. | |
we protected the health budget so it is going up in real terms and we | :50:08. | :50:11. | |
have put some of that health budget up to ?3 billion into social care to | :50:12. | :50:16. | |
help local authorities. We now want to get local authorities and local | :50:17. | :50:20. | |
Health Services working even more closely together to deal with the | :50:21. | :50:23. | |
problems of blocked beds and making sure there are care packages when | :50:24. | :50:27. | |
they leave hospital. In areas of the country where this is working, you | :50:28. | :50:30. | |
can see the benefits. We want to make that happen across the country. | :50:31. | :50:38. | |
Mr Speaker, our excellent Local Enterprise Partnership estimates | :50:39. | :50:41. | |
that Buckinghamshire has a ?12 billion economy with 30,000 | :50:42. | :50:45. | |
registered businesses and European head offices of over 700 foreign | :50:46. | :50:52. | |
companies. They need the security of long-term economic policies. Will | :50:53. | :50:56. | |
the Prime Minister assure me that as our economic growth is so clearly | :50:57. | :51:00. | |
returning, unlike the party opposite, he will not gamble with | :51:01. | :51:05. | |
their future and he will stick steadfastly to his long tried and | :51:06. | :51:11. | |
tested economic policies? I'm very grateful to my right honourable | :51:12. | :51:15. | |
friend. There is a vibrant economy right across the Thames Valley, | :51:16. | :51:18. | |
including in Buckinghamshire. That is going to be based on sticking to | :51:19. | :51:22. | |
our long-term economic plan, particularly important for the | :51:23. | :51:26. | |
companies she mentions is keeping our rates of corporate tax low so we | :51:27. | :51:30. | |
attract businesses and make sure companies want their headquarters | :51:31. | :51:34. | |
here. That is the right answer. Not the answer of the party opposite, | :51:35. | :51:37. | |
which is to put a close sign over the British economy. Thank you, Mr | :51:38. | :51:43. | |
Speaker. A year ago, the Prime Minister said he would make damned | :51:44. | :51:46. | |
sure that foreign companies pay higher taxes. But in The Financial | :51:47. | :51:50. | |
Times at the weekend, it was shown that technology companies, like | :51:51. | :51:54. | |
Apple and eBay, are paying even less. Why isn't the Prime Minister's | :51:55. | :52:00. | |
tough talk adding up to very much? I think we are - he is being a little | :52:01. | :52:04. | |
unfair. We are making progress on this very difficult issue. We raised | :52:05. | :52:09. | |
at the G8 the importance of having international rules on tax reporting | :52:10. | :52:12. | |
and having more countries working together on tax reporting and huge | :52:13. | :52:17. | |
progress has been made, not least in the European Union where, for the | :52:18. | :52:20. | |
first time, countries like Luxembourg and Austria, that have | :52:21. | :52:24. | |
always held out against this information exchange, are now taking | :52:25. | :52:29. | |
part. The OECD work is going ahead apace. That is partly because | :52:30. | :52:32. | |
Britain has put its full efforts behind this vital work. Mr Speaker, | :52:33. | :52:38. | |
Paul Goggins was a very decent and humble man, and one of the most | :52:39. | :52:41. | |
effective and fair Ministers this House has seen. He will be sadly | :52:42. | :52:45. | |
missed. The Prime Minister will know that the science is clear that the | :52:46. | :52:49. | |
extreme weather conditions affecting our communities, including the Kent | :52:50. | :52:54. | |
estuary, are a destructive and inevitable consequence, in part, of | :52:55. | :52:58. | |
climate change. Given that he has said that this should be the | :52:59. | :53:01. | |
greenest Government ever, will he now agree to support carbon | :53:02. | :53:07. | |
reduction targets so we can take real action to protect people and | :53:08. | :53:11. | |
property? I agree with my honourable friend that we are seeings more | :53:12. | :53:16. | |
abnormal weather events. Colleagues across the House can argue about | :53:17. | :53:19. | |
whether that is linked to climate change or not. I suspect that it is, | :53:20. | :53:22. | |
but the point is whatever one's view, it makes sense to invest in | :53:23. | :53:26. | |
flood defences, it makes sense to invest in mitigation, it makes sense | :53:27. | :53:30. | |
to get information out better. We should do all of those things. As | :53:31. | :53:34. | |
for carbon reduction targets, this Government is committed to carbon | :53:35. | :53:38. | |
reduction targets. We worked with the last Government to put the | :53:39. | :53:42. | |
Carbon Act into place. It wouldn't have happened without our support. | :53:43. | :53:47. | |
We also have the Green Investment Bank up and running in Edinburgh. | :53:48. | :53:55. | |
Thank you, Mr Speaker. Government cuts having closed the police cells | :53:56. | :54:02. | |
in Bassetlaw, I now discover the police are having to patrol villages | :54:03. | :54:08. | |
using public transport. That begs the question I would like to ask the | :54:09. | :54:13. | |
Prime Minister. If the police are waiting at a bus stop having | :54:14. | :54:20. | |
arrested someone, should they go upstairs, should they go downstairs, | :54:21. | :54:25. | |
or should they not arrest at all? The first thing to say to the | :54:26. | :54:28. | |
honourable gentleman is he didn't mention that recorded crime in the | :54:29. | :54:32. | |
Bassetlaw community safety partnership is down by 27%. What is | :54:33. | :54:48. | |
so noticeable... 27%. 27%. What is very noticeable is every honourable | :54:49. | :54:53. | |
member opposite is getting up and complaining about the need to make | :54:54. | :54:57. | |
reductions in departmental spending. Frankly, this is like back to the | :54:58. | :55:02. | |
future. We are back now to where we were three years ago, when we said | :55:03. | :55:05. | |
you've got to make difficult decisions, you've got to make some | :55:06. | :55:09. | |
cuts and get the deficit down. They lived in total denial. They are back | :55:10. | :55:13. | |
to where they were three years ago. It may be the New Year. It is the | :55:14. | :55:31. | |
same old Labour Party. May I thank the Prime Minister and everyone over | :55:32. | :55:35. | |
the years who has paved the way to bring this about. May I invite my | :55:36. | :55:41. | |
right honourable friend to visit Bletchley Park and see for himself | :55:42. | :55:50. | |
Alan Turin's remarkable achievements? This is excellent news | :55:51. | :55:55. | |
that this Royal Prerogative Mercy has been granted in this very | :55:56. | :55:59. | |
special case. I would be delighted to go to Bletchley Park, one of my | :56:00. | :56:05. | |
wife's family worked there during the war and speaks incredibly highly | :56:06. | :56:12. | |
about what he was like to work with. The work that was done in his | :56:13. | :56:16. | |
constituency was vital in winning the war. #6 Thank you, Mr Speaker. | :56:17. | :56:22. | |
Before Christmas, I was contacted by a seriously ill constituent of mine | :56:23. | :56:27. | |
who is waiting for a kidney transplant. He needs five-hour | :56:28. | :56:30. | |
dialysis sessions three times a week. But in the Prime Minister's | :56:31. | :56:34. | |
Britain, he's been told by the Jobcentre that he is fit for work. | :56:35. | :56:39. | |
On Monday, the Chancellor promised to take ?12 billion more from the | :56:40. | :56:44. | |
Welfare Budget. Will the Prime Minister guarantee there will be no | :56:45. | :56:47. | |
further cuts to benefits for the sick and disabled? Well, first of | :56:48. | :56:51. | |
all, what I would say on the specific issue of his constituent, | :56:52. | :56:55. | |
if he wants to write to me with the individual case, I'm happy to look | :56:56. | :57:00. | |
at that individual case. In terms of making sure dialysis machines are | :57:01. | :57:04. | |
available and the expertise is available, we are putting more money | :57:05. | :57:09. | |
into the NHS, even though the advice from the Labour Party was to cut. | :57:10. | :57:13. | |
The reason we have been able to put more money into the Health Service | :57:14. | :57:17. | |
is we have taken tough and difficult decisions about welfare. Because we | :57:18. | :57:21. | |
have put a cap on the amount of money a family can get, we have been | :57:22. | :57:25. | |
able to invest in our Health Service. Because we have put a cap | :57:26. | :57:31. | |
on housing benefit, not giving ?70,000 to some families, we have | :57:32. | :57:34. | |
invested in our Health Service. We want to see more dignity, security | :57:35. | :57:38. | |
and stability in the lives of Britain's families and we are making | :57:39. | :57:46. | |
choices consistent with that. Thank you, Mr Speaker. Soaring car sales | :57:47. | :57:54. | |
have helped supply chain companies create manufacturing jobs. 200 in | :57:55. | :57:59. | |
the last year. Another 400 planned. Does the Prime Minister agree that | :58:00. | :58:02. | |
this shows we are successfully rebalancing the economy and that we | :58:03. | :58:04. | |
need to stay the course with policies that are clearly working? | :58:05. | :58:09. | |
Very grateful for my honourable friend and what he says. I went with | :58:10. | :58:16. | |
him to the opening of the new warehouse in his constituency, which | :58:17. | :58:19. | |
has generated hundreds of jobs and it is going to be vital for the | :58:20. | :58:22. | |
supply chain in his constituency. What these businesses want to see is | :58:23. | :58:26. | |
a consistent economic policy, keeping interest rates down, getting | :58:27. | :58:30. | |
the deficit down, cutting taxes for hard-working people, helping | :58:31. | :58:33. | |
businesses to take more people on, investing in education, in skills | :58:34. | :58:37. | |
and in controlling welfare. Those are the elements of our long-term | :58:38. | :58:41. | |
plan. That is what we will stick to. Two months ago, I asked the Prime | :58:42. | :58:48. | |
Minister whether a councillor who was suspended by the Labour Party | :58:49. | :58:51. | |
should return to Pakistan given the arrest warrant for him. He attended | :58:52. | :58:56. | |
the Prime Minister's party in October as an invited guest. Why is | :58:57. | :59:02. | |
the Prime Minister still hiding on whether he should return to face | :59:03. | :59:09. | |
justice? The first is this. I think it will be interesting hear. -- | :59:10. | :59:14. | |
interesting to hear. The allegations he mentions are disputed and are | :59:15. | :59:18. | |
currently subject to legal action. I'm limited in what I can say. What | :59:19. | :59:22. | |
he failed to mention to the House last time he raised this is that the | :59:23. | :59:27. | |
allegations date from the time when he was a Labour councillor. And I'm | :59:28. | :59:36. | |
informed, Mr Speaker, that during his time as a Labour councillor, the | :59:37. | :59:40. | |
Labour Party did absolutely nothing about these allegations. So, perhaps | :59:41. | :59:46. | |
next time, when he stands up and asks a questions in the House of | :59:47. | :59:49. | |
Commons, he will give us the full facts. Thank you, Mr Speaker. Can I | :59:50. | :59:56. | |
associate myself with the tributes to Paul Goggins? His work on the | :59:57. | :00:06. | |
reform of the law will go on. My constituent Christopher Scott died | :00:07. | :00:10. | |
as a result of taking a legal high called AMT. Will my right honourable | :00:11. | :00:15. | |
friend support my cause, calls from the Coroner and calls from | :00:16. | :00:18. | |
Christopher's family to make sure that this dangerous drug and others | :00:19. | :00:23. | |
like it are outlawed? My honourable friend is right. To raise this | :00:24. | :00:29. | |
issue. Can I offer my condolences to the family of my honourable friend's | :00:30. | :00:33. | |
constituent? As he knows with the rules that we have, hundreds of | :00:34. | :00:36. | |
"legal highs" have already been banned and our temporary drug orders | :00:37. | :00:40. | |
allow us to outlaw substances within days of them coming on to the | :00:41. | :00:44. | |
market. We are not complacent. We have asked the advisory Council for | :00:45. | :00:59. | |
the misuse of drugs to assist. May I join the Prime Minister and the | :01:00. | :01:02. | |
Leader of the Opposition in paying warm tribute to Paul Goggins? He was | :01:03. | :01:09. | |
a fine, decent and honourable man who was a great friend to Northern | :01:10. | :01:13. | |
Ireland and a great friend to all of its people and he will be sadly | :01:14. | :01:18. | |
missed, not only in this House, but throughout Northern Ireland. We | :01:19. | :01:21. | |
offer sincere condolences to his wife and family at this difficult | :01:22. | :01:26. | |
time. May I also commend the Prime Minister, and welcome the fact that | :01:27. | :01:30. | |
he has committed to the triple lock guarantee for pensioners, if he's | :01:31. | :01:33. | |
returned as Prime Minister in the next Parliament? Can I ask him to | :01:34. | :01:38. | |
clarify whether if he is elected as Prime Minister again in 2015, and in | :01:39. | :01:42. | |
the next Parliament, he will commit to retaining the Winter Fuel | :01:43. | :01:51. | |
Allowance? Well, first of all, can I thank him for what he said about | :01:52. | :01:59. | |
Paul Goggins? On the issue of pensions, it is important to | :02:00. | :02:03. | |
recognise, we are only able to make this commitment to the triple lock, | :02:04. | :02:06. | |
which has been important in this Parliament because we have made a | :02:07. | :02:10. | |
commitment to raise the pension age to 66 and then progressively 67 and | :02:11. | :02:15. | |
so on. That means that this pension increase is affordable. We made a | :02:16. | :02:18. | |
very clear pledge for this Parliament about the pensioner | :02:19. | :02:22. | |
benefits. I'm proud of the fact we are fulfilling it. We will set out | :02:23. | :02:26. | |
our plans in the next manifesto. What I would caution people about is | :02:27. | :02:32. | |
the belief that somehow if you don't pay for instance Winter Fuel | :02:33. | :02:35. | |
Allowance, or the other benefits, if you don't pay them to those paying | :02:36. | :02:40. | |
tax at 40p, you save a small amount of money. We will set out our plans | :02:41. | :02:44. | |
in the manifesto. But absolutely vital is saying to Britain's | :02:45. | :02:48. | |
pensioners, you have worked hard, we want to give you dignity and | :02:49. | :02:51. | |
security in old age and the triple lock makes that possible. Is my | :02:52. | :03:00. | |
right honourable friend that in my constituency there has been a large | :03:01. | :03:05. | |
fire of waste carpets burning since September 3rd last year and the | :03:06. | :03:08. | |
residents have been suffering from the fumes and smoke and that the | :03:09. | :03:14. | |
Fire Brigade can't put out the fire for fear of polluting the water | :03:15. | :03:19. | |
supply? Can I have my right honourable friend's support in | :03:20. | :03:21. | |
urging the Environment Agency and the local authority to get this | :03:22. | :03:24. | |
material off the site and give residents their lives back? I will | :03:25. | :03:30. | |
certainly look in more detail into the issue that he raises. I | :03:31. | :03:35. | |
understand the concern it's causing. My understanding is that | :03:36. | :03:39. | |
environmental concerns, in particular that waste might run off | :03:40. | :03:42. | |
and pollute local water supplies, these have hampered the efforts to | :03:43. | :03:46. | |
extinguish the fire. I understand the local recovery group is meeting | :03:47. | :03:49. | |
this week to see what more can be done to remove this waste. I'm happy | :03:50. | :03:53. | |
to intervene with him on his behalf to make sure this makes progress. | :03:54. | :04:00. | |
The Prime Minister's anti-independence campaign launched | :04:01. | :04:02. | |
an initiative this week encouraging people outside Scotland to take part | :04:03. | :04:06. | |
in the debate. Given that initiative, why will the Prime | :04:07. | :04:10. | |
Minister not meet the First Minister on television? The calls for this | :04:11. | :04:17. | |
debate show a mounting frustration amongst those calling for Scotland's | :04:18. | :04:21. | |
separation from the rest of the United Kingdom, because they know | :04:22. | :04:25. | |
they are losing the argument. They are losing the argument about jobs, | :04:26. | :04:29. | |
they are losing the argument about investment. They have completely | :04:30. | :04:32. | |
lost the argument about the future of the pound sterling. They are | :04:33. | :04:35. | |
losing the argument about Europe. And yes, there should be a debate, | :04:36. | :04:39. | |
but it is a debate between people in Scotland. The leader of the | :04:40. | :04:44. | |
in-campaign should debate with the leader of the out-campaign. He, as | :04:45. | :04:50. | |
the lackey of Alex Salmond, wants to change the terms of the debate. I'm | :04:51. | :04:59. | |
not falling for that one. In the 13 years before 2010, there was net | :05:00. | :05:03. | |
migration of nearly four million people into the UK. Mostly into | :05:04. | :05:07. | |
England and in many cases, as a result of work permits issued by the | :05:08. | :05:12. | |
then Government. Will my right honourable friend give me an | :05:13. | :05:14. | |
assurance that this Government will keep in place its cap on the number | :05:15. | :05:20. | |
of workers from outside the European Union? I can give my honourable | :05:21. | :05:26. | |
friend the assurance he seeks. We should keep the cap on economic | :05:27. | :05:29. | |
migrants from outside the European Union. We should continue with all | :05:30. | :05:32. | |
the action we are taking to make sure that people who come here are | :05:33. | :05:35. | |
coming to work and not to claim. I think what we need to do next is to | :05:36. | :05:40. | |
recognise that the best immigration policy is not only to have strong, | :05:41. | :05:45. | |
border controls, but also to have an education approach which is | :05:46. | :05:48. | |
educating our young people for jobs in our country and a welfare system | :05:49. | :05:52. | |
that encourages them to take those jobs. It is three sides to this | :05:53. | :05:56. | |
argument - immigration, education and welfare. This Government has a | :05:57. | :06:02. | |
plan for all three. Could I agree with the Prime Minister? No! The | :06:03. | :06:15. | |
leader of the "no" campaign in Scotland cannot get a debate with | :06:16. | :06:18. | |
the leader of the "yes" campaign in Scotland - that is absurd. The | :06:19. | :06:22. | |
leader of the "yes" campaign in Scotland demands a debate with | :06:23. | :06:28. | |
somebody that doesn't have a vote. In these circumstances, does the | :06:29. | :06:32. | |
Prime Minister agree with me that in politics, as in shipbuilding, empty | :06:33. | :06:35. | |
vessels make the most noise? I'm not finished. There is more. | :06:36. | :06:57. | |
Without seeking to give offence to the Prime Minister, could I tell him | :06:58. | :07:08. | |
that the last person Scotts want to have their -- Scots want to have as | :07:09. | :07:15. | |
that representative is a Tory toff from the Home Counties, even one | :07:16. | :07:26. | |
with a fine haircut? I accept every part of the honourable gentleman's | :07:27. | :07:28. | |
question. I well remember when he came to Question Time, not with an | :07:29. | :07:33. | |
empty vessel, but with a model of the vessel that he wanted built so | :07:34. | :07:37. | |
near to his constituency, and I'm proud that this Government is | :07:38. | :07:39. | |
building that vessel and indeed another one like it. I also accept | :07:40. | :07:46. | |
that while I'm sure there are many people in Scotland who would like to | :07:47. | :07:50. | |
hear me talk about this issue, my appeal doesn't stretch to every | :07:51. | :07:56. | |
single part. The key point he is making is right. The reason the | :07:57. | :07:59. | |
"yes" campaign head and the "no" campaign head can't get a debate is | :08:00. | :08:03. | |
because those who want to break up the United Kingdom, they know they | :08:04. | :08:06. | |
are losing the argument so they want to change the question. It's the | :08:07. | :08:10. | |
oldest trick in the book and we can all see it coming. | :08:11. | :08:19. | |
The Speaker deciding to let it overrun by, almost ten minutes. | :08:20. | :08:26. | |
That watch I sent him for Christmas has not managed to wind up yet. An | :08:27. | :08:33. | |
interesting Prime Minister's Questions because it was very | :08:34. | :08:37. | |
low-key, it started with the Leader of the Opposition asking about the | :08:38. | :08:41. | |
recent floods that have hit so much of the country, and then he did | :08:42. | :08:45. | |
these three question, then he sat down, normally he does all six at | :08:46. | :08:51. | |
once but he moved on to another three about the fix odds betting | :08:52. | :08:55. | |
terminal, an important, interesting issue but not a kind of one of huge | :08:56. | :09:00. | |
national significance, that was low-key as well. Normally we get | :09:01. | :09:04. | |
what you thought of that, but before we do, I want to can Nick, is this a | :09:05. | :09:10. | |
slow start to the New Year or are we seeing an attempt by the Leader of | :09:11. | :09:16. | |
the Opposition, to change the tone of PMQ is There is one other thing | :09:17. | :09:21. | |
that many MPs heard about the death of Paul Goggins who you heard | :09:22. | :09:25. | |
tributes from all sides, and obviously very sincere tributes too, | :09:26. | :09:29. | |
only just before, so that would have had a stilling effect any way, a | :09:30. | :09:33. | |
subduing effect on the House of Commons. Ed Miliband looked | :09:34. | :09:36. | |
emotional about it. He is a colleague, a friend, so I think that | :09:37. | :09:41. | |
would have had an effect. But I think there is something more going | :09:42. | :09:44. | |
on. I know that Ed Miliband was beginning to believe that Prime | :09:45. | :09:48. | |
Minister's Questions had got out of control, it was a shouting match, on | :09:49. | :09:52. | |
the rare occasion I am not here and in the gallery of the Mc, you can | :09:53. | :09:57. | |
scarcely hear a single word. Occasionally you will see MPs lean | :09:58. | :10:01. | |
backwards, it is not because they are falling asleep. There is a | :10:02. | :10:05. | |
speaker, for us it in the front of us, we have to lean forward, simply | :10:06. | :10:10. | |
to hear what is being said through the microphones, and I think Ed | :10:11. | :10:13. | |
Miliband took the view something needed to change, he could, think of | :10:14. | :10:17. | |
all the things he could have done, he could have make jokes about the | :10:18. | :10:24. | |
MP's hairdresser getting an MBE, he could have talked about cuts, he | :10:25. | :10:28. | |
chose the serious issues and asked about them in a low-key way. One | :10:29. | :10:33. | |
fascinating possibility, it is only a possibility, is has he talked to | :10:34. | :10:36. | |
the Prime Minister about changing it. I am told that in the past, Neil | :10:37. | :10:42. | |
Kinnock once talked to John Major about changing the tone of Question | :10:43. | :10:45. | |
Time, that both sides would change it. They sort of agreed to disarm | :10:46. | :10:50. | |
for a period. I am told it lasted for a matter of weeks rather than a | :10:51. | :10:54. | |
great long stretch of months but they both fell felt it had got out | :10:55. | :10:58. | |
of control. I have no evidence it has happened in this case but I know | :10:59. | :11:03. | |
it was being discussed by some people in the office. The viewers | :11:04. | :11:09. | |
noticed the more low-key subdued, and most of the reaccuse swhuns in | :11:10. | :11:14. | |
favour of it, so David said a quiet House today. Wouldn't it be nice if | :11:15. | :11:17. | |
they behaved in such a manner all the time. And that was backed up by | :11:18. | :11:22. | |
Ken Norman in Hertfordshire, how refreshing to hear a sober debate | :11:23. | :11:26. | |
without the shouting, and mud-slinging, more please. But, as | :11:27. | :11:30. | |
always, there is somebody on the other side. Peter said how tedious | :11:31. | :11:35. | |
it is when there is no punch up in the chamber between the leader, do | :11:36. | :11:41. | |
try harder. Then this on Twitter. "I see Ed Miliband hasn't eaten his | :11:42. | :11:45. | |
Christmas turkey as it is sitting next to him." Jean said David | :11:46. | :11:50. | |
Cameron can't seem to accept he has been in power for nearly four years | :11:51. | :11:54. | |
and takes no soant for anything, and even though Ed Miliband didn't raids | :11:55. | :11:58. | |
it, one of our viewers on the subject of David Cameron's | :11:59. | :12:02. | |
hairdresser who received that offer, his haircut wasn't worth ?90. | :12:03. | :12:09. | |
Boom-boom! There maybe a danger for Labour in this, let me put this to | :12:10. | :12:14. | |
you and get your reaction, Mr Ed Miliband asked questions on the | :12:15. | :12:18. | |
floods, and on these betting terminals, in a very serious | :12:19. | :12:23. | |
responsible way, and he got replies in a suitable vain from the Prime | :12:24. | :12:28. | |
Minister. And that is Mr Miliband finished. Other Labour backbenchers | :12:29. | :12:32. | |
stand up and ask more party political question, which allows the | :12:33. | :12:37. | |
preponderance then to come back, party politics, take this, Labour | :12:38. | :12:43. | |
are useless replies, and Mr Miliband has not had a shot at saying the | :12:44. | :12:49. | |
Tories are useless. I maybe this low-key approach could skew PMQs in | :12:50. | :12:53. | |
favour of the Prime Minister. I couldn't disagree more. It tend to | :12:54. | :12:56. | |
suggest most of the country are watching and they are not. Of course | :12:57. | :13:00. | |
they are it is the Daily Politics. No disrespect to this programme, we | :13:01. | :13:03. | |
have a major problem in our country, with the way that party politics is | :13:04. | :13:08. | |
regarded. I wrote a piece over the weekend. It is too tribal. It is | :13:09. | :13:14. | |
adversarial and we need to address that, and that is one of the reasons | :13:15. | :13:18. | |
why we are reforming the way our party work, this is a broader thing | :13:19. | :13:22. | |
than you say the relationship between Labour and the trade union, | :13:23. | :13:27. | |
this is how we recorrect people with politics, we have an issue in the | :13:28. | :13:31. | |
media. I remember when I was Ed's Parliamentary private secretary. | :13:32. | :13:37. | |
Which Ed? Ed Miliband. When we were coming back from about a bout of | :13:38. | :13:42. | |
PMQs and Ed had done six questions on a Foreign Affairs issue, and we | :13:43. | :13:46. | |
were stopped by a member of the lobby who said why did do you that? | :13:47. | :13:51. | |
And you know, couldn't you have done three on that and three a bit more | :13:52. | :13:56. | |
kind of knock about? And I lost it and said to the member of the lobby, | :13:57. | :14:01. | |
for God's sake we have got, I have got constituents who are fighting, | :14:02. | :14:04. | |
who have been sent over into theatre, in this situation, I am, I | :14:05. | :14:07. | |
can't remember if it was Libya or Syria, one of the other, it may have | :14:08. | :14:13. | |
been Afghanistan, and I said and this is what you think we should | :14:14. | :14:17. | |
reduce PMQs too? You are complaining there is not enough knock about. You | :14:18. | :14:22. | |
are complaining that it was too serious today? This is as much a an | :14:23. | :14:27. | |
issue for us as the media as well. Because very often people will not | :14:28. | :14:31. | |
for example put us on television programmes unless we are about to | :14:32. | :14:34. | |
have a massive knock about on a particular issue. How do we know? | :14:35. | :14:39. | |
You were not approached to appear on this programme on the basis you will | :14:40. | :14:44. | |
bash him. I am not suggesting that is the case. Andrew, I am not | :14:45. | :14:48. | |
suggesting that is always the case, you will have a discussion with the | :14:49. | :14:53. | |
producers about what the point of view is. Maybe, maybe it isn't as | :14:54. | :14:58. | |
good television as some of those texts and e-mails would suggest. I | :14:59. | :15:02. | |
question what is the function of PMQs? I think if you were a Martian | :15:03. | :15:07. | |
from outer space landing in the middle of it and saying, human, what | :15:08. | :15:11. | |
is this about and they say this is how they scrutinise the leader of | :15:12. | :15:17. | |
their country, they would be "What? " Think the sombreness had to do | :15:18. | :15:24. | |
with the sad news of Paul Goggins. Also turn to Nick's.About the topics | :15:25. | :15:29. | |
Ed raised. We know one of the most important ones is the economy, it | :15:30. | :15:33. | |
will dominate politics right up until the election, we heard from Jo | :15:34. | :15:37. | |
earlier, lots of good news continues to come in, I am not surprised Ed | :15:38. | :15:40. | |
didn't want to raise the issue of the economy. He could have gone on | :15:41. | :15:47. | |
12 billion welfare cuts. Because these are questions that the | :15:48. | :15:50. | |
Conservatives still... What about the point of maybe having a, you | :15:51. | :15:54. | |
know, it doesn't always have to be a massive knock about. Come on, the | :15:55. | :15:58. | |
economy, people talk about the economy lots. We are running out of | :15:59. | :16:05. | |
time. I have no doubt it is just about Paul Goggins. Ed Miliband had | :16:06. | :16:10. | |
lots of successes, it wasn't like he didn't know how to make this system | :16:11. | :16:14. | |
work, I I know he had got to a stage of thinking "I've had enough of | :16:15. | :16:22. | |
this. Even shouts at each other." We have to move on. Maybe they could do | :16:23. | :16:31. | |
more on Foreign Affairs. So many international issues round, not one | :16:32. | :16:34. | |
was raised today. Nick, thank you, you are off to make | :16:35. | :16:40. | |
another documentary? I am having a rest! I will be a pie salesman. | :16:41. | :16:52. | |
Simple Simon met a pie man. Any way what do Oasis and Nora Batty have in | :16:53. | :16:56. | |
common, they are great northern icon, it is it time for icons to | :16:57. | :17:04. | |
call Pickfords and up sticks to a northern city? Patrick Diamond who | :17:05. | :17:07. | |
is a Labour councillor thinks so, and here is his soapbox. | :17:08. | :17:18. | |
What happens when you move national treasures north? Well, this. | :17:19. | :17:37. | |
The BBC's decision to shift iconic programmes to Salford has helped | :17:38. | :17:44. | |
transform the Manchester docks into a 200 acre MediaCity. It is | :17:45. | :17:49. | |
providing facilities and space to over 100 small and medium size | :17:50. | :17:54. | |
businesses as well as ITV and the BBC. Help stimulating a burgeon | :17:55. | :18:00. | |
north-west economy. -- burgeoning. | :18:01. | :18:04. | |
Evidence suggests that UK MediaCity is having a positive effect on the | :18:05. | :18:08. | |
creative economy of the north-west of England. It is exactly the this | :18:09. | :18:13. | |
approach, public investment stimulating private sector | :18:14. | :18:15. | |
entrepreneurship that we need more of in Britain. We should be looking | :18:16. | :18:19. | |
for ways of repeating this project in different parts of the country. | :18:20. | :18:23. | |
If Britain is going to move beyond the economic crisis to sustainable | :18:24. | :18:27. | |
economic recovery we need to take bold and brave decisions. | :18:28. | :18:33. | |
Since the 2008 economic crisis, growth has been even more heavily | :18:34. | :18:37. | |
skewed towards London and the south-east of England. But if the | :18:38. | :18:42. | |
BBC can look north, why shouldn't other cultural institutions do the | :18:43. | :18:45. | |
same? Like the Royal Opera House. Or what about the British Museum, which | :18:46. | :18:50. | |
could develop a presence outside the capital city? What about the House | :18:51. | :18:53. | |
of Lords? Which makes the laws for the whole of the UK, why shouldn't | :18:54. | :18:59. | |
it develop a much stronger regional presence? | :19:00. | :19:05. | |
If we are going to ensure a brighter future for the north of England and | :19:06. | :19:12. | |
a sustain sbl economic recovery it is time to rebalance Britain. There | :19:13. | :19:16. | |
is lots of people and businesses in the north are doing for themselves, | :19:17. | :19:19. | |
but we need more investments and we need more leadership. It is time to | :19:20. | :19:22. | |
get away from the London-centric approach, it is time to look north. | :19:23. | :19:29. | |
Well Patrick Diamond has come South Today. What is the primary | :19:30. | :19:33. | |
motivation here? Is it for cultural reasons? Is it sending a signal to | :19:34. | :19:40. | |
region lice big institution? There is two issue, one is about economic, | :19:41. | :19:44. | |
we know since the economic crisis and the recovery which is under way, | :19:45. | :19:51. | |
actually our economy is becoming more regionally inbalanced and we | :19:52. | :19:54. | |
need to address that urgently, but there is a genuine issue about the | :19:55. | :20:01. | |
balance of cultural funding, we spend ?69 per resident compared to | :20:02. | :20:06. | |
4.60 on residents in the rest of the country, that is a deeply inbalanced | :20:07. | :20:10. | |
skewing away from the rest of the country. Tourists Weiss, when you | :20:11. | :20:15. | |
think about a global capital like London, don't that just make sense | :20:16. | :20:20. | |
in way? Of course, in relation to cultural institution like the Opera | :20:21. | :20:23. | |
House there will be some orientation to London, I accept that, but the | :20:24. | :20:26. | |
question is about balance. I think that in the UK our economy and | :20:27. | :20:31. | |
issues like the funding of cultural institutions have become too | :20:32. | :20:35. | |
inbalanced and the question I want to explore is how can we address | :20:36. | :20:39. | |
that to make it fair tore the rest of the UK. In you were running the | :20:40. | :20:42. | |
Royal Opera House and you had to walk in and say guys, we have | :20:43. | :20:46. | |
decided we are going to move up to Manchester, Leeds, Liverpool, where | :20:47. | :20:50. | |
ever it is, you would be prepared do that and feel it would happen | :20:51. | :20:55. | |
easily, because these thins are not taken lightly. There are issues | :20:56. | :20:59. | |
about the transition. I wouldn't want the Royal Opera House the leave | :21:00. | :21:02. | |
London all together but there was a proposal to establish an Opera House | :21:03. | :21:06. | |
in Manchester, it didn't come to fruition but it was a very good idea | :21:07. | :21:09. | |
and it is something we should be looking to do in the future. If you | :21:10. | :21:13. | |
look at the example of MediaCity in Salford, look at what it is doing, | :21:14. | :21:19. | |
there are more than 100 small and medium size businesses, there is a | :21:20. | :21:23. | |
burgeoning sector in the north-west. This is something we should be | :21:24. | :21:26. | |
looking to encourage. Briefly, most people moved or a lot of people | :21:27. | :21:29. | |
moved up there, how many jobs were created for people who lived in the | :21:30. | :21:36. | |
local yaefr? There are issues about how the move was done. But it | :21:37. | :21:39. | |
doesn't take away from the basic issue how can we use public | :21:40. | :21:44. | |
investment to stimulate private sector end en-- entrepreneurship. Is | :21:45. | :21:51. | |
London the be-all-and-end-all? Isn't even everything policically geared | :21:52. | :21:54. | |
to making London that is the cash cow that is supposed to feed the | :21:55. | :21:59. | |
rest of the country. It is significant and it will remain that | :22:00. | :22:02. | |
way. Doesn't policy make it that way. But the pies racing an | :22:03. | :22:08. | |
important issue. I was born in Rochdale, and I care very deeply | :22:09. | :22:13. | |
about the whole north, and the issues, and they exist, so | :22:14. | :22:17. | |
questions, how do we deal with it? One point important is Patrick said | :22:18. | :22:20. | |
the situation got worse after the recession, the truth of it is this | :22:21. | :22:25. | |
is something that Labour didn't address during their time in office. | :22:26. | :22:31. | |
The situation got worse, including during the boom years. If you look | :22:32. | :22:36. | |
at job, according to the ONS during Labour's period in office, for every | :22:37. | :22:40. | |
ten jobs generated in the south there was only one job generated in | :22:41. | :22:45. | |
the north. That may be -- made the inbalance much worse. Since then | :22:46. | :22:49. | |
employment in the north is up by more than 200 thousand, it is up in | :22:50. | :22:53. | |
every region, unemployment is down and we are using public money | :22:54. | :22:59. | |
sensibly where we can to help generate jobs. Let me say two | :23:00. | :23:04. | |
things, we should be careful. It is not just imbalances, it is within | :23:05. | :23:09. | |
regions as well. Look at the disparity between areas in London. | :23:10. | :23:13. | |
Secondly wro, can do the knock about, it is ridiculous to say we | :23:14. | :23:18. | |
didn't do anything to push power down and out. Just a moment, we set | :23:19. | :23:24. | |
up the Rio de Janeiro, on the whole well regarded, Lord Heseltine said | :23:25. | :23:27. | |
it was a mistake for the Government to establish it. I think the move of | :23:28. | :23:31. | |
the BBC is good. I am surprised you didn't mention what Vince Cable has | :23:32. | :23:36. | |
done the investment bank in Edinburgh, those are good things but | :23:37. | :23:41. | |
the local enterprise partnerships which are the main vehicle that the | :23:42. | :23:44. | |
Government has put in place have been totesly insufficient, because | :23:45. | :23:47. | |
they haven't been given appropriate budget or the power to help us deal | :23:48. | :23:58. | |
with its. What would you move up to a northern city from London? It is | :23:59. | :24:01. | |
not a question of moving jobs from one part of the sector to another. | :24:02. | :24:05. | |
We need to be more ambitious and creative and the private sector is a | :24:06. | :24:09. | |
key part. The issue is about how we use public investment. | :24:10. | :24:14. | |
We are going to talk about political slogans. Before we do, have a look | :24:15. | :24:17. | |
at this. # Everybody's talking at me. # | :24:18. | :24:28. | |
Out in the "big society" is an enormous opportunity. What I have | :24:29. | :24:31. | |
tried to set out with "one nation" a clear sense of where Britain will | :24:32. | :24:36. | |
go. The Chancellor is going too far and too fast. Jobs are up. | :24:37. | :24:40. | |
Construction is up. Manufacturing is up. Cutting too far and too fast. We | :24:41. | :24:46. | |
are in a global race today. No-one owes us a living. Cost of living | :24:47. | :24:53. | |
crisis. It is Labour that wrecks our economy. It is we Conservatives who | :24:54. | :24:57. | |
clear it up! We are Britain. We are better than this. | :24:58. | :25:05. | |
We are joined by Simon Danczuk, Labour MP. He said he's had enough | :25:06. | :25:14. | |
of these phrases. What brought you to this? I was talking about all | :25:15. | :25:22. | |
political parties. There is too many soundbites in politics. I am trying | :25:23. | :25:26. | |
to do good public service. I am trying to save the public from | :25:27. | :25:28. | |
having to listen to all this stuff. It is what people tell me on the | :25:29. | :25:34. | |
street. Sajid is from Rochdale, if he knocked on doors saying, "We are | :25:35. | :25:43. | |
all in this together," he would get short shrift. It reached a low point | :25:44. | :25:57. | |
on the One Nation one. One Nation is a great concept. It is a concept - | :25:58. | :26:01. | |
they should use it as a concept rather than a slogan. What do you | :26:02. | :26:09. | |
say to him? There are times, particularly around 2001, when the | :26:10. | :26:12. | |
height of so-called control freakery, where people became | :26:13. | :26:22. | |
automotons. I don't think there's anything... Are you going to let me | :26:23. | :26:30. | |
get a word in? You are speaking far too fast! Very good. I don't think | :26:31. | :26:34. | |
there is anything wrong with slogans per se. If you crowbar it into | :26:35. | :26:37. | |
everything and don't back it up with policy, that is a problem. We have | :26:38. | :26:41. | |
backed it up with policy. It is not that kind of... See how much of | :26:42. | :26:45. | |
these phrases - fill in the missing word. Labour isn't? Working. New | :26:46. | :26:52. | |
Labour New? New Britain. No, New Labour, New Danger. Britain | :26:53. | :26:58. | |
deserves? Better. Are you what we are thinking? Thinking what we are | :26:59. | :27:07. | |
thinking? I agree with? Nick! Maggie, Maggie, Maggie... ? Out, | :27:08. | :27:16. | |
out, out. Never had it... ? So good. Who was that? McMillan. What year? | :27:17. | :27:25. | |
'64? No, '57. Alarm clock Britain from Nick Clegg. That did not... | :27:26. | :27:33. | |
Only because it was so bad. I have a fear, I don't think you will win. | :27:34. | :27:37. | |
Right. They love these phrases. You think so? Yes. A few of them were | :27:38. | :27:43. | |
used in PMQs today. Sajid, someone has written in to say you used | :27:44. | :27:48. | |
"tough decisions" at least twice. I do like that. In the north South | :27:49. | :27:56. | |
piece, Chuka Umunna could have said "One Nation" and he didn't. You guys | :27:57. | :28:01. | |
are keeping a tally. Here is the tally. LAUGHTER You will thank me | :28:02. | :28:07. | |
for interrupting you now. Sajid had three slogans repeated in the course | :28:08. | :28:11. | |
of the show. You, Chuka Umunna, had none! You get the Daily Politics | :28:12. | :28:21. | |
mug. Another one! Two more and you have the full set! Good luck in your | :28:22. | :28:25. | |
campaign. You can have a mug, too! Because you raised a good point. | :28:26. | :28:28. | |
Time to put you out of your misery and give you the answer to Guess The | :28:29. | :28:37. | |
Year. 1976 was the answer. Callaghan took over as Prime Minister from | :28:38. | :28:43. | |
Wilson. The winner is? John Whitby in Cornwall. Hope you haven't been | :28:44. | :28:46. | |
flooded out down there. That is it. We thank all our guests. The One | :28:47. | :28:50. | |
O'Clock News is starting on BBC One. We will be back tomorrow at noon | :28:51. | :28:54. | |
with the Daily Politics. From all of us here, bye-bye. | :28:55. | :28:56. |