Browse content similar to 22/01/2014. Check below for episodes and series from the same categories and more!
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Morning folks, welcome to the Daily Politics. Employment up, the pound | :00:38. | :00:43. | |
up, growth returning. Is the recovery well and truly under way? | :00:44. | :00:47. | |
With more good news on the economy ministers are straining not to sound | :00:48. | :00:50. | |
complacent. But where does it leave Labour? | :00:51. | :00:59. | |
All good material for Prime Ministers' Questions - we'll have | :01:00. | :01:02. | |
the action live at midday. What's more important, building new | :01:03. | :01:05. | |
houses, or protecting our green and pleasant land? Survival expert Ray | :01:06. | :01:09. | |
Mears will be here to tell us why the green belt is one of our great | :01:10. | :01:11. | |
national treasures. And she's made a splash with her | :01:12. | :01:15. | |
appearance on a popular TV show. But do politicians and reality | :01:16. | :01:20. | |
television really mix? All that in the next 90 minutes of | :01:21. | :01:27. | |
television gold. And with me for this marathon of public service | :01:28. | :01:30. | |
broadcasting are two giants of the political stage: Matthew Hancock, | :01:31. | :01:38. | |
Minister for Skills and Enterprise, and Maria Eagle, the Shadow | :01:39. | :01:51. | |
Environment Secretary. Hancock and Eagle, it sounds like a | :01:52. | :01:57. | |
detective series. I like it. Welcome to the show. First this morning, | :01:58. | :02:01. | |
let's get the latest on the row about Lord Rennard. | :02:02. | :02:08. | |
Yes, Liberal Democrat peers are to meet for the first time today since | :02:09. | :02:12. | |
the row over Lord Rennard's future with the party began. Lord Rennard | :02:13. | :02:14. | |
had his party membership temporarily suspended after he refused to | :02:15. | :02:17. | |
apologise over claims he sexually harassed female party members. The | :02:18. | :02:21. | |
peer, who denies the claims, has threatened to take legal action over | :02:22. | :02:25. | |
his suspension. Speaking this morning on his regular phone-in on | :02:26. | :02:29. | |
LBC radio the Lib Dem leader, Nick Clegg, admitted the party had not | :02:30. | :02:37. | |
handled it well. I actually think the way we handled at last year was | :02:38. | :02:44. | |
not great, it wasn't ideal. And, more than that, looking much further | :02:45. | :02:50. | |
back, it is quite clear that when the women were first caused these | :02:51. | :02:58. | |
distress many years ago, the party did not react, the alarm bells did | :02:59. | :03:02. | |
not go off and there were not the procedures. I've apologised in | :03:03. | :03:09. | |
person and public. But you were made aware of it into 1008 -- in 2008. | :03:10. | :03:17. | |
This has been around for the best part of six years. It's not great | :03:18. | :03:25. | |
leadership, is it? Well, as I said, the party clearly did not respond in | :03:26. | :03:30. | |
the right way. Neither did you. You keep saying, the party. I take | :03:31. | :03:39. | |
responsibility, I've apologised. Bet he's really glad he's doing a radio | :03:40. | :03:44. | |
show! We're joined now from Brussels by | :03:45. | :03:47. | |
Chris Davies who's Liberal Democrat Member of the European Parliament | :03:48. | :03:52. | |
and a supporter of Lord Rennard. Welcome to the show. I understand | :03:53. | :03:56. | |
that although URA supporter, you don't think he should be taking | :03:57. | :04:01. | |
legal action, is that correct? I think he will probably win his legal | :04:02. | :04:07. | |
action. The party has failed to carry out its own procedures | :04:08. | :04:10. | |
properly and could therefore be forced to reinstate Chris as a party | :04:11. | :04:16. | |
member. The Lords could then invited to join the group. But I don't think | :04:17. | :04:21. | |
any of this will help. The reality is, the party is deeply divided. | :04:22. | :04:26. | |
There is clearly no meeting of minds and people seem to be taking | :04:27. | :04:31. | |
entrenched positions. Whatever the rights and wrongs, it will solve | :04:32. | :04:41. | |
nothing any sense. Have you put that point to Chris Rennard? That is very | :04:42. | :04:50. | |
difficult to answer. He is in a position of enormous pressure. I | :04:51. | :04:54. | |
don't know how Batman has survived the amount of media pressure. That | :04:55. | :04:58. | |
is why I tried to put it into context. -- how that man. Even if | :04:59. | :05:06. | |
the crimes and allegations did take place, and he denies that, this is | :05:07. | :05:12. | |
not an evil man in any sense. He is not Jimmy Savile. What I want to say | :05:13. | :05:15. | |
most of all is people are talking generally about the idea of | :05:16. | :05:19. | |
mediation, but I don't think anyone has put on the table any practical | :05:20. | :05:26. | |
solutions. It seems to me there should be mediation. Obviously, be | :05:27. | :05:29. | |
involved parties have two agree to that. They need to be some | :05:30. | :05:32. | |
independent mediators, people with an objective position. For example, | :05:33. | :05:40. | |
the MP who helped negotiate the coalition agreement. Respected | :05:41. | :05:50. | |
people by all sides. And it needs to be hosted bats outside London, | :05:51. | :06:00. | |
weight from the hothouse, held in private, no lawyers and kept secret | :06:01. | :06:10. | |
until the risen agreement. -- until there is an agreement. You say he is | :06:11. | :06:19. | |
not Jimmy Savile but at the very least this is Benny Hill. One party | :06:20. | :06:28. | |
member has said the party is in danger of a bloodbath. Perhaps now | :06:29. | :06:43. | |
the party is the most -- is most dangerously and object of ridicule. | :06:44. | :06:49. | |
Yes, only the Lib Dems could have a sex scandal without any sex. We need | :06:50. | :06:58. | |
to find a meeting of minds. This is a family. We are a relatively small | :06:59. | :07:05. | |
family, lots of individuals concerned are making commentary, we | :07:06. | :07:08. | |
all know each other and like each other. We have our fallouts, but by | :07:09. | :07:13. | |
and large we like each other, and this division is very painful. Just | :07:14. | :07:20. | |
to clarify, you are not putting yourself up as the leader of the | :07:21. | :07:26. | |
Italian bottom pinching party? Yes, I'm grateful for that. That was a | :07:27. | :07:31. | |
remark I made on a live interview and of course I don't in any way | :07:32. | :07:36. | |
sanction behaviour which can be regarded as offensive. It's just | :07:37. | :07:46. | |
unacceptable, of course. I'd been talking to Chris Rennard and I know | :07:47. | :07:49. | |
the pain he's been going through. And because it is talk about sex | :07:50. | :07:54. | |
scandals, people think it is like Jimmy Savile, they think it is like | :07:55. | :07:59. | |
rape. It is nothing to do with that. We need a sense of proportion. | :08:00. | :08:05. | |
However inappropriate the comments I made, I did not mean to cause | :08:06. | :08:15. | |
offence. When you look at this, is it hard to avoid a sense of | :08:16. | :08:22. | |
enjoyment at their misfortune? Or is it more there but for the grace of | :08:23. | :08:29. | |
God? Well, I cannot comment on this particular case, of course, but it | :08:30. | :08:35. | |
does bring to light a wider issue for politics. When women make these | :08:36. | :08:40. | |
kinds of allegations in a work context, they have to be taken | :08:41. | :08:44. | |
seriously. There has to be a process established in which they can have | :08:45. | :08:47. | |
confidence to come forward and set out what has happened to them. There | :08:48. | :08:55. | |
has to be a way of resolving it. For about six or seven years, these | :08:56. | :08:58. | |
allegations were known at the top of the Lib Dem party and there was no | :08:59. | :09:03. | |
process that had the confidence of the women. And we see the | :09:04. | :09:06. | |
consequences of that failure of leadership in the Lib Dem party. | :09:07. | :09:14. | |
Let's leave it there. Nicky Morgan might not yet be a | :09:15. | :09:17. | |
household name, but in Conservative circles she is tipped as a rising | :09:18. | :09:20. | |
star. She's currently a junior minister in the Treasury, but it's | :09:21. | :09:24. | |
not for economic reasons that she has hit the headlines today. | :09:25. | :09:27. | |
Speaking at an event organised by a Conservative think tank yesterday | :09:28. | :09:30. | |
she said the party's message must contain less "hate" if it is to win | :09:31. | :09:33. | |
the next election. She said the party need a "positive long-term | :09:34. | :09:36. | |
plan" instead of talking about what they were against all the time. Is | :09:37. | :09:49. | |
she right? I absolutely think that we'd not only got but should talk as | :09:50. | :09:52. | |
much as possible about the positive plan. She doesn't think that. She | :09:53. | :10:00. | |
thinks we're anti this and anti-that, we don't like them, we | :10:01. | :10:04. | |
don't want them here. She says people are prostrated with that. She | :10:05. | :10:09. | |
is talking about immigration, the debate around benefits and the EU. | :10:10. | :10:18. | |
-- frustrated with that. I think we do have a positive vision and I | :10:19. | :10:24. | |
agree that we need to go out and talk about it. Look at the | :10:25. | :10:28. | |
unemployment figures this morning. Employment rose at the fastest rate | :10:29. | :10:33. | |
on record. It is a fantastic part of the record of this Government, and I | :10:34. | :10:37. | |
think that our forward-looking plans at the election need to be positive | :10:38. | :10:43. | |
as well. The easy way to make them positive is to talk about what we've | :10:44. | :10:46. | |
achieved in turning round the economy so far. It is not complete, | :10:47. | :10:52. | |
and it is at risk if others come in and reverse some of the decisions. | :10:53. | :10:59. | |
But there is a great chance for this country by insuring we have stronger | :11:00. | :11:03. | |
economy and education, more secure personal finances. There is a | :11:04. | :11:06. | |
fairness argument as well about making sure people who work hard and | :11:07. | :11:13. | |
do well. Nicky Morgan is a colleague of view, she is in the Treasury say | :11:14. | :11:18. | |
you would think she would be feeling the good news. But she is not. Issue | :11:19. | :11:23. | |
reflecting our knees among a number of Tory MPs who feel the atmosphere | :11:24. | :11:39. | |
is negative? -- is she reflecting unease? Well, she had the argument, | :11:40. | :11:52. | |
here is the positive message that we need to sell. And I agree. Except | :11:53. | :11:56. | |
she says that we never say we're on the side of these people. We want | :11:57. | :12:00. | |
the stab in and we think this is great. She says that you never say | :12:01. | :12:05. | |
that. Well, I say it all the time. Maybe you should report it more. The | :12:06. | :12:11. | |
positive message is absolutely mission-critical. But positive | :12:12. | :12:13. | |
messages are also about fairness, making sure the system is fair to | :12:14. | :12:17. | |
those who do the right thing. That is a positive message. I think it is | :12:18. | :12:22. | |
reasonable to be against something is. I am against more borrowing and | :12:23. | :12:31. | |
removing the programme of living within our means that has helped to | :12:32. | :12:34. | |
turn the economy around and lead to the positive news. Do you think even | :12:35. | :12:43. | |
know it has been popular with the public, you are focused too much on | :12:44. | :12:47. | |
immigration, benefit cheats, as you have described them - as has the | :12:48. | :12:52. | |
Labour Party, to - and the negatives of the youth? -- the EU. I don't | :12:53. | :13:03. | |
think I ever ever described them as benefit cheats. Not you, but your | :13:04. | :13:15. | |
party. The great thing about turning the economy around is that a | :13:16. | :13:18. | |
positive message is absolutely going to be there because things are | :13:19. | :13:22. | |
starting to move in the right of action. Not that the job is done or | :13:23. | :13:25. | |
that we're there, but that things are moving in the right direction. | :13:26. | :13:29. | |
That inevitably leads to a positive message about family finances, | :13:30. | :13:34. | |
security, the number of jobs, record numbers of jobs in the economy, and | :13:35. | :13:38. | |
making sure we have a system that is fair for people who do the right | :13:39. | :13:41. | |
thing. So we will hear a different tone, and that is what your | :13:42. | :13:46. | |
colleague is saying. She is warning the Tories that they need to attract | :13:47. | :13:50. | |
the aspirational voters who voted for Tony Blair. She thinks you are | :13:51. | :13:55. | |
failing to do that. Well, we could always do more. This is what debates | :13:56. | :14:06. | |
within parties are about. It is by Chile important -- vitally important | :14:07. | :14:12. | |
to make sure we have a positive message. It has to be balanced and | :14:13. | :14:17. | |
reasonable, but I think you can still talk about making sure the | :14:18. | :14:20. | |
system is fair to people who do the right thing within that positive, | :14:21. | :14:31. | |
balanced message. That's enough positivity! | :14:32. | :14:36. | |
Now, more good news on the economy this morning - there's been another | :14:37. | :14:40. | |
sharp fall in the number of people out work. It's a bigger fall than | :14:41. | :14:45. | |
analysts were expecting. The news pushed up the value of the pound, | :14:46. | :14:48. | |
which rose about half a percentage point against the euro. Yesterday, | :14:49. | :14:52. | |
the International Monetary Fund said the UK would be the fastest growing | :14:53. | :14:57. | |
economy in Europe this year. So, should we popping open the | :14:58. | :15:00. | |
Champagne? Or are there pitfalls ahead? Jo Co has the details. | :15:01. | :15:09. | |
Another day and another round of good economic news for the | :15:10. | :15:13. | |
Government. The latest figures show unemployment has fallen again, it's | :15:14. | :15:17. | |
now down to 7.1%, which is on the brink of the 7% point at which the | :15:18. | :15:21. | |
Bank of England said they would consider raising interest rates. | :15:22. | :15:25. | |
They thought that would take until 2016, but with the economy looking | :15:26. | :15:28. | |
stronger we're almost there already. Yesterday's IMF forecast predicted | :15:29. | :15:31. | |
the UK will grow faster than any other major European economy. It now | :15:32. | :15:36. | |
expects growth of 2.4% this year, in line with the Office for Budget | :15:37. | :15:41. | |
Responsibility's own forecasts. And having once accused George Osborne | :15:42. | :15:44. | |
of playing with fire for sticking with austerity, the IMF chief | :15:45. | :15:55. | |
economist had to eat his words. Nobody thought that consumers would | :15:56. | :16:01. | |
go on a spending spree. So at the time it looked risky. Now in | :16:02. | :16:07. | |
retrospect, at the time we didn't know. It was a reasonable call. The | :16:08. | :16:14. | |
world's leading economic decision-makers and thinkers are | :16:15. | :16:16. | |
gathering in the Swiss resort of Davos for the annual World Economic | :16:17. | :16:20. | |
Forum. Jeremy Warner is among them, he's the Assistant Editor of the | :16:21. | :16:23. | |
Daily Telegraph and writes about business and economics. UK growth | :16:24. | :16:29. | |
forecast now revised significantly upwards to about 2.4% by the IMF, | :16:30. | :16:35. | |
steady stream of good economic news. Is the recovery sustainable or is it | :16:36. | :16:40. | |
just built on consumer spending and a growing housing bubble? As you can | :16:41. | :16:47. | |
see, it's a beautiful Alpine day out here in Davos. It seems to be | :16:48. | :16:53. | |
somewhat in tune with the mood of this meeting. There's a lot more | :16:54. | :16:57. | |
optimism of an business leaders and thinkers out here this year, and | :16:58. | :17:01. | |
particularly among the quite sizeable British contingent here. | :17:02. | :17:09. | |
That said, there is a certain lack of, well, here we've got a bit of | :17:10. | :17:13. | |
growth going again, the financial crisis seems to finally be behind | :17:14. | :17:19. | |
us, but where do we go from here? There's a sort of absence of a big, | :17:20. | :17:24. | |
new idea to galvanise business investment and really start to get | :17:25. | :17:31. | |
the sinews of the economy working properly again. As you were just | :17:32. | :17:38. | |
alluding to, we have a recovery but it is very much based on the old | :17:39. | :17:47. | |
precrisis sort of growth. Rising house prices, increased consumption, | :17:48. | :17:52. | |
we've got a widening current-account deficit again, we are spending far | :17:53. | :17:57. | |
more than we are earning abroad, and so on and so forth. So there is that | :17:58. | :18:02. | |
worry on the horizon that it's just not a sustainable thing. That | :18:03. | :18:05. | |
reflects very much an international concern. We've got a bit of growth | :18:06. | :18:12. | |
going back in Western economies, but is it really enough to get | :18:13. | :18:15. | |
businesses investing again? The other side of this are the interest | :18:16. | :18:21. | |
rate. The Bank of England governor may be putting himself as a hostage | :18:22. | :18:25. | |
to fortune, Mark Carney said once unemployment levels came down to 7%, | :18:26. | :18:30. | |
they would look at raising interest rates. Well, we are almost there. Is | :18:31. | :18:34. | |
there any chance that there's going to be a rate rise before the | :18:35. | :18:40. | |
election in 2015? I think it's pretty unlikely. They are going to | :18:41. | :18:45. | |
have to do in some way recalibrate this forward guidance because, as | :18:46. | :18:49. | |
you say, it looks as though the employment threshold is going to be | :18:50. | :18:52. | |
met very quickly, possibly in the next few months. But Mark Carney is | :18:53. | :18:59. | |
on record as believing that interest rates really do need to stay low for | :19:00. | :19:04. | |
a long time, to underpin this recovery. I disagree with this | :19:05. | :19:09. | |
stance. I think a small rise in interest rates now is absolutely | :19:10. | :19:14. | |
necessary to take the heat out of what is plainly another nascent | :19:15. | :19:22. | |
housing boom, housing bubble. And good people pause for thought about | :19:23. | :19:26. | |
how much they are borrowing. We've only just come off the top of very | :19:27. | :19:31. | |
high levels of household borrowing. They've only just started to come | :19:32. | :19:41. | |
down. Now here we go again. Have a look at this graph. | :19:42. | :20:01. | |
Labour used to talk about double-dip and triple dip, Ed Balls was on | :20:02. | :20:08. | |
about flat-lining. These are the official figures. You were wrong on | :20:09. | :20:11. | |
all accounts. The economy hasn't even been flat-lining since 2010. I | :20:12. | :20:17. | |
don't think we've seen the growth that we would have anticipated. | :20:18. | :20:21. | |
That's different. Be returned to growth we are seeing at the figures | :20:22. | :20:26. | |
yesterday is entirely welcome, but I think we need to focus on who is | :20:27. | :20:31. | |
benefiting from this growth. Your narrative for so long was not that | :20:32. | :20:36. | |
there was growth but not enough, or not that there was growth but it was | :20:37. | :20:41. | |
the wrong sort. Your party's narrative has been flat-lining, no | :20:42. | :20:45. | |
growth at all. That child quite clearly shows you would just wrong. | :20:46. | :20:49. | |
Look, there have been some revisions to statistics as we've gone along, | :20:50. | :20:53. | |
which is always the case, statistics are revised... How far down did the | :20:54. | :21:03. | |
economy go? There's no doubt of that fact that we have not grown to the | :21:04. | :21:07. | |
extent we would have wished, that growth was choked off when the | :21:08. | :21:12. | |
current Government came into office. Now I think it is entirely positive | :21:13. | :21:16. | |
and good that we are seeing growth back in our economy. But I think we | :21:17. | :21:20. | |
need to ask you is going to benefit from the economic... And, you know, | :21:21. | :21:27. | |
the average person is ?1600 a year worse off. Living standards have | :21:28. | :21:30. | |
been really hit during this period. I think we need to focus on the | :21:31. | :21:34. | |
future on trying to make sure that everybody benefits from the | :21:35. | :21:39. | |
growth... The return to growth in the economy that we are now starting | :21:40. | :21:43. | |
to see. I just wonder where labour's narrative goes from here. | :21:44. | :21:48. | |
To begin with, if the Government stuck to its plan that would be no | :21:49. | :21:52. | |
growth. The Government sticks to its plan, there is growth. The growth is | :21:53. | :21:56. | |
now accelerating. Then you said that there is growth but people are in a | :21:57. | :22:00. | |
cost of living crisis, certainly a squeeze. But it could be that quite | :22:01. | :22:04. | |
soon wages are going to overtake prices. So when cost of living is no | :22:05. | :22:09. | |
longer a crisis, where do you go next? I don't think it is true to | :22:10. | :22:12. | |
say, and the unemployment figures today showed that real wages are | :22:13. | :22:18. | |
still rising at only half the level of prices. So we're not at the | :22:19. | :22:26. | |
stage... I didn't say that. The productions Arteta will happen. I | :22:27. | :22:30. | |
hope that it does. But the reality that people are still ?1600 a year | :22:31. | :22:34. | |
worse off. By the end of this Parliament people are going to be | :22:35. | :22:37. | |
absolutely worse off than they were at the beginning of it. You've said | :22:38. | :22:45. | |
that figure of ?6,000 twice. Can we just agree that that's comparing | :22:46. | :22:48. | |
only prices and wages, it doesn't take into account people coming out | :22:49. | :22:52. | |
of tax altogether and other things that have mitigated it? It's a wage | :22:53. | :22:58. | |
price comparison. It's a real terms figure, though. But it's not the | :22:59. | :23:02. | |
whole story. You can never encapsulates the entire story in one | :23:03. | :23:07. | |
figure, you know that will stop people are going to be worse off at | :23:08. | :23:12. | |
the end of this Parliament than they were at the beginning. If Matthew | :23:13. | :23:18. | |
Hancock and the Government think that real wages overtaking prices | :23:19. | :23:21. | |
again towards the end of this year, which we hope they will and you | :23:22. | :23:26. | |
start seeing an easing in that cost of living crisis, if they think | :23:27. | :23:30. | |
that's going to be enough to satisfy people, I think they are out of | :23:31. | :23:34. | |
touch. Although these unemployment figures are very good, they are good | :23:35. | :23:39. | |
across all regions. It is mainly a rise in full-time appointment as | :23:40. | :23:43. | |
well, not part-time jobs, which a lot of critics have been saying. But | :23:44. | :23:48. | |
wages are rising by less than 1% and prices are rising twice as fast. | :23:49. | :23:54. | |
People's incomes are still being squeezed. As Maria says, it is great | :23:55. | :24:01. | |
news that the economy is recovering. The largest rise in | :24:02. | :24:04. | |
employment in the history of this measure, which goes back to 1970. | :24:05. | :24:11. | |
This is good. What about the living standards? On average earnings, that | :24:12. | :24:16. | |
figure is a pre-tax figure. As you've said, we've cut taxes | :24:17. | :24:20. | |
especially for the low-paid, by raising the tax threshold. And also | :24:21. | :24:24. | |
it doesn't take into account things like we've kept mortgage rates low | :24:25. | :24:28. | |
mortgage rates have been falling, which for many families has a big | :24:29. | :24:34. | |
impact on their cost of living. One of the things I entirely agree with | :24:35. | :24:40. | |
Maria on is that as this growth, we hope, in trenches, we've got to make | :24:41. | :24:45. | |
sure that everybody benefits, and we've got to make sure that it keeps | :24:46. | :24:49. | |
going and that it's sustainable. The idea that just because growth is | :24:50. | :24:53. | |
going and the business leaders at Davos are saying they've got more | :24:54. | :24:58. | |
confidence, the idea that the job is done is absurd. There is far more to | :24:59. | :25:03. | |
do. After all, why are we here? Why am I, Asllani economist, in | :25:04. | :25:10. | |
politics? It is to improve people 's living standards and prosperity. One | :25:11. | :25:14. | |
swallow doesn't make a summer. It certainly doesn't. One swallow that | :25:15. | :25:18. | |
is yet to appear is an improvement in the long-term unemployed. In | :25:19. | :25:21. | |
fact, they are getting worse. 449,000, almost half a million | :25:22. | :25:27. | |
people, have been unemployed for over two years. That rose by 14,000. | :25:28. | :25:34. | |
Making sure that... I thought you were reforming welfare and taking | :25:35. | :25:38. | |
jobs to these people you've not had jobs for a long time. Absolutely, | :25:39. | :25:42. | |
and dealing with this is crucial. One reason that -- instead of | :25:43. | :25:47. | |
putting people onto incapacity benefits and hiding them from the an | :25:48. | :25:50. | |
appointment figures, we are now putting people back into jobseeker's | :25:51. | :25:54. | |
allowance. For instance, the new Deal under Labour, which we got rid | :25:55. | :25:58. | |
of, said that as soon as you were on the programme you came off the | :25:59. | :26:02. | |
employment figures. Whereas our Work Programme is very clear that when | :26:03. | :26:05. | |
you are on the programme you stay in the employment figures. In a way, | :26:06. | :26:08. | |
we're taking off some of the massaging that has been done by | :26:09. | :26:12. | |
governments of all colours. Whatever statistical table you put them in, | :26:13. | :26:20. | |
they are unemployed. Do I want to get that number down? Of course I | :26:21. | :26:24. | |
do. One of the most satisfying part of the unemployment figures is that | :26:25. | :26:27. | |
youth unemployment is down 39,000. That has been far too high for far | :26:28. | :26:32. | |
too long. There is much more we need to do. I think we will probably come | :26:33. | :26:36. | |
back to the economy after Prime Minister's Questions. Who knows, it | :26:37. | :26:42. | |
may come up! You will win a Daily Politics mug if you are right! Do | :26:43. | :26:47. | |
you want to get your hands on one of these? It is Guess the Year. We will | :26:48. | :26:53. | |
remind you how to enter in a minute. Let's see if you can remember when | :26:54. | :26:54. | |
this happened. MUSIC: "The Real Thing" by Tony de | :26:55. | :27:25. | |
Bart. To be in with a chance of winning a | :27:26. | :28:21. | |
Daily Politics mug, send your answer to our special quiz e-mail address. | :28:22. | :28:35. | |
It's coming up to midday here, just take a look at Big Ben, and that can | :28:36. | :28:41. | |
mean only one thing. Yes, Prime Minister's Questions is on its way. | :28:42. | :28:44. | |
If you'd like to comment on proceedings you can email us at | :28:45. | :28:46. | |
[email protected] or tweet your thoughts using the #bbcdp. | :28:47. | :28:53. | |
We'll read some out after PMQs. And that's not all, Nick Robinson is | :28:54. | :28:54. | |
here. Sponge Bob Square pants was on. It | :28:55. | :29:29. | |
went viral, that story. I thought I would have some foreign ambassador | :29:30. | :29:35. | |
saying it to me! Also, he was French! A tricky one for Ed Miliband | :29:36. | :29:43. | |
today. The economy is the big issue, but how does he do it? In one sense | :29:44. | :29:49. | |
it's not tricky because if you didn't do it the Prime Minister | :29:50. | :29:52. | |
would just laugh at him. He has to do it. We will get the debate you've | :29:53. | :30:01. | |
just had. You by the coalition's view that it's beginning to go in | :30:02. | :30:05. | |
the right direction, not there yet, says Matt Hancock, or do you buy the | :30:06. | :30:09. | |
Labour Party's view that, though, for most people it's not there. It | :30:10. | :30:13. | |
could be that both things are true and the electorate has to weigh up | :30:14. | :30:15. | |
the balance between some better economic news and that they are in | :30:16. | :30:20. | |
their own purses and wallets, millions of people are not feeling | :30:21. | :30:21. | |
it at all. Of course, we are not there yet. | :30:22. | :31:15. | |
Lord Rennard, any developments there? | :31:16. | :32:22. | |
I am sure the whole House will want me to send my commiserations to the | :32:23. | :32:37. | |
soldiers who died. They had given so much time to troubled regions across | :32:38. | :32:47. | |
the world. This morning I had meetings and in addition to duties | :32:48. | :32:51. | |
in the House I will have extra meetings. I would like to associate | :32:52. | :33:03. | |
myself with" is expressed. The trust supports the fast-growing network of | :33:04. | :33:06. | |
church -based food banks which between them provided food for half | :33:07. | :33:12. | |
a million people between April and December last year. With the Prime | :33:13. | :33:17. | |
Minister be willing to meet with representatives of the trust to | :33:18. | :33:20. | |
discuss with them the big challenges. I would be happy to meet | :33:21. | :33:31. | |
with them. We have listened carefully to be Trussell Trust. One | :33:32. | :33:35. | |
thing they wanted was to allow food banks to be promoted in job centres. | :33:36. | :33:39. | |
We've allowed that to happen and it has increased the use of food banks, | :33:40. | :33:43. | |
but I think it is important to do the right thing. The Prime Minister | :33:44. | :33:54. | |
is aware of the tragic case of a two-year-old boy taken to an urgent | :33:55. | :33:59. | |
care centre at 3am for the emergency care he needed. Despite the best | :34:00. | :34:02. | |
efforts of a senior nurse and the paramedics who took him, he was | :34:03. | :34:07. | |
tragically pronounced dead at 4am. I know we cannot comment on the case | :34:08. | :34:11. | |
until a full report is published, but does he agree that the effect is | :34:12. | :34:23. | |
that we are asking people where to go for help at moments of great | :34:24. | :34:31. | |
personal stress? We must do more to explain the choice to help them | :34:32. | :34:36. | |
decide. Will he meet with me on publication of the report to see if | :34:37. | :34:39. | |
there are lessons that can be learned? I'm happy to meet with my | :34:40. | :34:44. | |
honourable friend. This is an absolutely tragic case. I offer my | :34:45. | :34:49. | |
deepest sympathies to the family. Anyone who is taking a desperately | :34:50. | :34:53. | |
ill child to hospital in the night knows what an incredibly desperate | :34:54. | :34:58. | |
time that can be. I understand the hospital is carrying out a full and | :34:59. | :35:03. | |
combines an investigation into the circumstances surrounding this poor | :35:04. | :35:10. | |
child's death. We must ensure that everything is done to avoid these | :35:11. | :35:13. | |
terrible incidents happening in future. Mr Speaker, I want to start | :35:14. | :35:21. | |
by paying tribute to the two British nationals killed in a suicide bomb | :35:22. | :35:27. | |
attack in Afghanistan. Simon Chase had served Britain in the army and | :35:28. | :35:30. | |
my condolences go to all his family and friends. Del Singh was one of | :35:31. | :35:40. | |
the most decent people you could ever hope to meet. He was on | :35:41. | :35:43. | |
international development worker who dedicated his life to helping people | :35:44. | :35:46. | |
across the world. We'll grieve with his family. These recent events are | :35:47. | :35:56. | |
a reminder of the horror unfolding there. We all hope for significant | :35:57. | :36:02. | |
progress from today's talks. Last month, a joint statement was made | :36:03. | :36:06. | |
about the plight of Syrian refugees which welcomed the Government's | :36:07. | :36:10. | |
leadership in terms of the aid programme. The UN high commission of | :36:11. | :36:14. | |
refugees has also called on Britain to be part of a programme to help | :36:15. | :36:18. | |
resettle a small number of the most vulnerable refugees. 18 countries | :36:19. | :36:23. | |
are part of that programme. Britain is not so far among them. Doesn't | :36:24. | :36:26. | |
the Prime Minister agree that we should be? Firstly, may I completely | :36:27. | :36:37. | |
agree about how terrible the allegations of torture are in that | :36:38. | :36:41. | |
country? I think we are fulfilling our moral obligations to the people | :36:42. | :36:45. | |
of Syria. We are the second largest bilateral aid donor. The money that | :36:46. | :36:50. | |
British taxpayers are providing is providing food, shelter, water and | :36:51. | :36:54. | |
medicine for literally hundreds of thousands of people. We are also | :36:55. | :36:59. | |
fulfilling all our obligations in terms of asylum seekers. We've taken | :37:00. | :37:03. | |
over 1000 asylum seekers from Syria in recent months. We are making sure | :37:04. | :37:08. | |
that where we can help very vulnerable children who are ill, | :37:09. | :37:12. | |
including a child in a British hospital today, we take action now | :37:13. | :37:17. | |
as well. I don't believe you can solve a refugee crisis of this scale | :37:18. | :37:23. | |
when you've got almost half of the 9 million population of Syria either | :37:24. | :37:28. | |
displaced or at risk of displacement with a quota system where countries | :37:29. | :37:32. | |
are taking a few hundred refugees. But where I do agree with him is | :37:33. | :37:36. | |
that, if there are very difficult cases of people who don't belong in | :37:37. | :37:40. | |
refugee camps, who then either disabled by these dreadful attacks | :37:41. | :37:45. | |
or in very different circumstances, I'm happy to look at that argument. | :37:46. | :37:50. | |
Britain always plays the right role in these desperate Unitarian crisis. | :37:51. | :37:58. | |
I thank the Prime Minister for that answer. Let me make a few points in | :37:59. | :38:02. | |
reply because it is an important issue. Firstly, we are all agreed on | :38:03. | :38:07. | |
the leadership that this Government has shown in relation to Syrian aid. | :38:08. | :38:11. | |
I pay tribute to the International Development Secretary and others. On | :38:12. | :38:14. | |
the point of asylum seekers, those are the people who have been able to | :38:15. | :38:18. | |
get here. We're talking about people who are in refugee camps at the | :38:19. | :38:23. | |
moment. On his point of whether this consult the problem, of course it | :38:24. | :38:27. | |
can't. But the UN is talking about a small number of the most vulnerable | :38:28. | :38:30. | |
people here, including children who've lost their parents and | :38:31. | :38:36. | |
victims of torture. I was somewhat encouraged by the end of the | :38:37. | :38:42. | |
promised a's answer on this. We are proud of our tradition of taking | :38:43. | :38:46. | |
refugees. Why did you not really get theirs and say we will take a few | :38:47. | :38:51. | |
hundred refugees and set an example's I don't actually think | :38:52. | :38:58. | |
there is a disagreement between us. Let me explain. Some countries are | :38:59. | :39:02. | |
using this quota system of a way of saying, therefore I have fulfilled | :39:03. | :39:07. | |
my obligations. When you've got, as I say, almost half of a 9 million | :39:08. | :39:11. | |
population at risk of displacement, the fact that the French or the | :39:12. | :39:14. | |
Swedes are going to take a 200 people, that is not fulfilling your | :39:15. | :39:21. | |
obligations. Where is the massive amount of aid that Britain is | :39:22. | :39:23. | |
putting forward, the second-largest in the world, is paying the | :39:24. | :39:30. | |
important role. I think there are individual cases where we should be | :39:31. | :39:33. | |
looking and I'm happy to look at those arguments and those issues. | :39:34. | :39:38. | |
But let's not pretend that a small quota system can solve the problem | :39:39. | :39:47. | |
of Syrian refugees. I do feel we are gradually inching forward on this | :39:48. | :39:53. | |
issue. Let me be clear about this. It must not be an excuse for failing | :39:54. | :39:59. | |
to provide aid, of course not. But we're not talking about either | :40:00. | :40:02. | |
providing aid or taking vulnerable refugees. Were talking about doing | :40:03. | :40:07. | |
both. Given the reasonable tone of the Prime Minister, will you now | :40:08. | :40:10. | |
open discussions with the United Nations about Britain making its | :40:11. | :40:14. | |
contribution to this programme? I think colleagues on all sides of | :40:15. | :40:17. | |
this has want this to happen. Will you now say he will do so? I've made | :40:18. | :40:22. | |
very clear where prepared to listen to the arguments about how we can | :40:23. | :40:26. | |
help the most vulnerable people in those refugee camps. But some of the | :40:27. | :40:31. | |
countries that are participating include in their quotas both asylum | :40:32. | :40:35. | |
numbers and refugee numbers, which I think is not the argument we should | :40:36. | :40:39. | |
be making. Let me be absolutely clear. Britain is leading the world | :40:40. | :40:44. | |
in terms of the manor tarring aid in Syria. We should be proud of that. | :40:45. | :40:55. | |
-- the humanitarian aid. Where there are extreme hardship cases, I think | :40:56. | :40:58. | |
we should look at them again. That is the approach we should take. I | :40:59. | :41:02. | |
think there should be all-party support for it and Britain can be | :41:03. | :41:07. | |
proud of the role it is playing. I hope he will take this away and will | :41:08. | :41:11. | |
open discussions with the United Nations. I don't think honourable | :41:12. | :41:16. | |
members should grown on this issue, I really do not. -- should groan. I | :41:17. | :41:28. | |
want to move on, Mr Speaker, to another subject. Today's welcome | :41:29. | :41:35. | |
fall in unemployment... CHEERING. | :41:36. | :41:53. | |
We welcome the fall in unemployment because whenever an individual gets | :41:54. | :41:56. | |
back into work, it is good for them and whether their families. I do | :41:57. | :42:02. | |
have to say to honourable members, braying like that doesn't do anybody | :42:03. | :42:08. | |
any good. Can he confirmed that today's figures also show that | :42:09. | :42:14. | |
average wages are down by ?1600 since the election, meaning that | :42:15. | :42:19. | |
ordinary families are experiencing life getting harder. It is worth | :42:20. | :42:26. | |
pausing for a moment over what these statistics show. They show long-term | :42:27. | :42:30. | |
unemployment and youth unemployment going down. The claimant count is | :42:31. | :42:34. | |
going down. And employment overall is going down. And the biggest ever | :42:35. | :42:40. | |
quarterly increase in the number of people in work in our country. Now, | :42:41. | :42:46. | |
there should not be one ounce of complacency, there is still a big | :42:47. | :42:50. | |
amount of work to do to get Britain back on track, but there are 280,000 | :42:51. | :42:56. | |
more people in work. 280,000 more people with the security of a | :42:57. | :43:01. | |
regular pay packets coming in for themselves and their family. Of | :43:02. | :43:04. | |
course, we are seeing a slow growth in wages. Why? Because we are | :43:05. | :43:08. | |
recovering from the longest and deepest recession in living memory. | :43:09. | :43:15. | |
But I have to say because the leader of the opposition keeps quoting the | :43:16. | :43:18. | |
bigger without the tax cuts we've put in place, user not recognising | :43:19. | :43:22. | |
that actually this year people are better off, because we've controlled | :43:23. | :43:29. | |
spending and cut taxes. Mr Speaker, all he has done is show he is | :43:30. | :43:32. | |
absolutely complacent about the situation. He is trying to tell | :43:33. | :43:40. | |
millions of families around this country that they are better off | :43:41. | :43:43. | |
when they know they are worse up. It does not help the Prime Minister to | :43:44. | :43:48. | |
tell the opposite. Let me take this figure. In Britain today, there are | :43:49. | :43:56. | |
13 million people living in poverty. That is a shocking figure. And what | :43:57. | :44:00. | |
is scandalous is that, for the first time ever, the majority of those | :44:01. | :44:04. | |
people are living not in jobless families but in working families. | :44:05. | :44:12. | |
What is his explanation for that? The explanation for this is what the | :44:13. | :44:14. | |
Institute for Fiscal Studies has said. It said, wages have increased | :44:15. | :44:19. | |
much less quickly for inflation. As I say, that is not surprise in. We | :44:20. | :44:26. | |
had the bigger success in -- recession we've had in 100 years. It | :44:27. | :44:30. | |
would be astonishing if that was not the case. The fact is, we are | :44:31. | :44:34. | |
recovering from the mess that they left us. Every week, you come see -- | :44:35. | :44:43. | |
he comes here and raises a new problem that he created. Weird the | :44:44. | :44:47. | |
betting problem, the banking problem, the deficit problem and now | :44:48. | :44:52. | |
we add the cost of living problem. He is like an arsonist to those | :44:53. | :44:55. | |
brands setting fire after fire and then complains when the fire brigade | :44:56. | :44:58. | |
are not putting out the fire is fast enough. Why does he not start with | :44:59. | :45:03. | |
an apology for the mess that he left us? He comes here every week and | :45:04. | :45:11. | |
does is Bullingdon Club routine and all he shows, all these shows, is | :45:12. | :45:20. | |
years absolutely -- is he has absolutely no understanding of the | :45:21. | :45:23. | |
reality for millions of ordinary working people. They are working | :45:24. | :45:28. | |
harder, for longer and for less. He is cutting taxes for millionaires. | :45:29. | :45:34. | |
He cannot be the solution to the cost of living crisis because he | :45:35. | :45:36. | |
just does not understand the problem. | :45:37. | :51:08. | |
As the support for the Department for Transport, can the Prime | :51:09. | :51:12. | |
Minister assured me he will support the College and make sure that the | :51:13. | :51:16. | |
decision is taken quickly on debate, so that employers and young people | :51:17. | :51:25. | |
can require the skills they need? I'm a great supporter of university | :51:26. | :51:30. | |
technical colleges. They focus on vocational training and education. | :51:31. | :51:32. | |
The new college announced last week is welcome news. It will open its | :51:33. | :51:36. | |
doors in 2017. I look forward to working with him on this issue. | :51:37. | :51:49. | |
Hundreds of new jobs have been brought to my constituency, an area | :51:50. | :51:53. | |
where long-term unemployment has fallen by 35% and youth unemployment | :51:54. | :51:59. | |
by 40%. Will my right honourable friend commended the good sense of | :52:00. | :52:02. | |
these companies for coming to town with, we hear anchor doom or the | :52:03. | :52:07. | |
same, and will he consider visiting top of himself to see how our | :52:08. | :52:11. | |
long-term economic plan is delivering results? Always happy to | :52:12. | :52:15. | |
visit Tamworth and spent time under the shadow of Sir Robert Peel. I've | :52:16. | :52:19. | |
enjoyed visiting his constituency in the past. I think we are seeing a | :52:20. | :52:24. | |
recovery, particularly in terms of jobs and getting people off the | :52:25. | :52:29. | |
unemployed and register. It's worth noting that the figures also show | :52:30. | :52:34. | |
full-time employment up 220,000, compared with just 60,000 increase | :52:35. | :52:38. | |
in part-time employment. That shows people getting the full-time jobs | :52:39. | :52:43. | |
they want. I'm happy to commend the businesses he is welcoming to | :52:44. | :52:49. | |
Tamworth. Prime Minister, the green shoots of economic recovery are not | :52:50. | :52:53. | |
being recognised across the entire UK. Does he intend speaking to the | :52:54. | :52:57. | |
Governor of the Bank of England to make him aware of the fact that in a | :52:58. | :53:02. | |
low-wage economy area, any signs or increase in inflation will | :53:03. | :53:08. | |
undoubtedly be a devastating thing for many households. The point I | :53:09. | :53:15. | |
make to the honourable gentleman is we want to secure a recovery in | :53:16. | :53:20. | |
every region of our country and every nation of our United Kingdom. | :53:21. | :53:25. | |
If we look at Scotland, that last quarter, the employment level went | :53:26. | :53:29. | |
up by 10,000. There are 90,000 more people in work than a year ago. I | :53:30. | :53:34. | |
think progress is being made and the Scottish economy is performing, but | :53:35. | :53:37. | |
we should do everything we can to help make that happen. If we want to | :53:38. | :53:41. | |
keep interest rates down, that is a matter for the Bank of England. But | :53:42. | :53:45. | |
our role must be to continue the work on getting the deficit down. In | :53:46. | :53:54. | |
doing that we have to make difficult decisions on spending. And it's not | :53:55. | :53:56. | |
helped by the fact that all the difficult decisions we've made, not | :53:57. | :53:58. | |
one single decision has been supported by the party opposite. | :53:59. | :54:01. | |
Tiller the leader of the opposition has suggested we learn lessons from | :54:02. | :54:04. | |
the Welsh assembly Labour government and how to run public services. With | :54:05. | :54:09. | |
cuts to the NHS budget and the worst education system in the UK, does he | :54:10. | :54:13. | |
agree that the only lesson we can learn from this is that those who | :54:14. | :54:17. | |
care about public services should vote Conservative? I think it is now | :54:18. | :54:26. | |
possible to look very closely at the decisions that the Labour government | :54:27. | :54:29. | |
have made in Wales. The decisions they've taken and the effect of | :54:30. | :54:34. | |
those decisions. If you take for instant the NHS, they haven't | :54:35. | :54:37. | |
followed our approach of protecting the spending on the NHS, there's | :54:38. | :54:41. | |
been an 8% cut to the budget in Wales. As a result, they haven't met | :54:42. | :54:46. | |
and A targets since 2009. I also worry about some of the changes that | :54:47. | :54:50. | |
have been made in education in Wales, because we want all children | :54:51. | :54:53. | |
in our country to get the benefits of good basics in education, proper | :54:54. | :54:59. | |
tests and league tables. This weekend Nigel Wilson, the chief | :55:00. | :55:03. | |
executive of legal and General, one of our biggest financial puppies, | :55:04. | :55:07. | |
urged the government to abandon its Help to Buy scheme in London to | :55:08. | :55:10. | |
prevent house prices spiralling out of control. Does he agree with Mr | :55:11. | :55:14. | |
Wilson that we should use the money instead to build new homes across | :55:15. | :55:21. | |
the United Kingdom? We are building homes across the United Kingdom. One | :55:22. | :55:26. | |
better than what she suggests is what we've done, which is give the | :55:27. | :55:29. | |
power to the Bank of England to specifically advise on any potential | :55:30. | :55:33. | |
problems in the housing market or in any other market. We've actually | :55:34. | :55:36. | |
cleared up the mess of the regular to resist that we were left by the | :55:37. | :55:39. | |
party opposite, so that proper warnings can be given in proper | :55:40. | :55:46. | |
time. Under the party opposite, manufacturing was neglected on the | :55:47. | :55:50. | |
sector halved in size. With this government investing in | :55:51. | :55:58. | |
manufacturing excellence and -- the Manufacturing technology Centre in | :55:59. | :56:01. | |
my constituency, and the success of companies like Jaguar Land Rover and | :56:02. | :56:05. | |
Rolls-Royce to import and export markets, does the Prime Minister | :56:06. | :56:09. | |
agree that they be surging manufacturing sector is part of this | :56:10. | :56:13. | |
Government's long-term plan for the economy? Rebalancing our economy is | :56:14. | :56:19. | |
absolutely part of our long-term economic plan. We want to see a | :56:20. | :56:23. | |
balanced recovery, balanced between manufacturing and service, properly | :56:24. | :56:27. | |
balanced between north and south, and making sure we win back these | :56:28. | :56:31. | |
jobs and orders from overseas. The companies he quotes, like Jaguar | :56:32. | :56:34. | |
Land Rover and Rolls-Royce, they have the full backing of the | :56:35. | :56:37. | |
government. They have got the investment going into the | :56:38. | :56:40. | |
apprenticeship schemes that are helping them. We've reformed UKTI so | :56:41. | :56:44. | |
we can help them sell around the world. We are encouraging them to | :56:45. | :56:51. | |
bring back jobs into the UK. Manufacturing jobs and exports are | :56:52. | :56:54. | |
responding well. As the deputy Prime Minister knows, sorry is still the | :56:55. | :56:59. | |
hardest word to say. Does the Prime Minister agree that Alex Salmond... | :57:00. | :57:10. | |
Owes the people of Scotland and the apology... I say to members on both | :57:11. | :57:14. | |
sides of the house, this is supposed to be questions to the Prime | :57:15. | :57:18. | |
Minister, not a Punch and Judy show. Mr Michael McCann. Does the | :57:19. | :57:24. | |
Prime Minister agree that Alex Salmond owes the people of Scotland | :57:25. | :57:27. | |
and apology for a White Paper that dodges the tough questions, and does | :57:28. | :57:33. | |
it explain that by adopting the pound that interest rates will go up | :57:34. | :57:37. | |
because Scotland's lender of last resort will be a foreign bank? I | :57:38. | :57:43. | |
agree. I think the White Paper, which would -- which we were told | :57:44. | :57:48. | |
was going to answer all of the questions, actually left the most | :57:49. | :57:52. | |
important questions about the future of the currency, Scotland's plays in | :57:53. | :57:56. | |
the Europe union union, the future of defence jobs, the future | :57:57. | :57:59. | |
financial services, it left those questions unanswered. That is why Mr | :58:00. | :58:04. | |
Salmond is struggling to get his across. Whilst we can currently | :58:05. | :58:10. | |
celebrate record levels of investment in North Sea oil and gas | :58:11. | :58:13. | |
production and all the jobs that it supports, we do have to recognise | :58:14. | :58:18. | |
there is growing concern at the lack of exploration. Will the Prime | :58:19. | :58:21. | |
Minister therefore recommit the government to its tax stability | :58:22. | :58:26. | |
policy and encourage as much exploration as possible to ensure | :58:27. | :58:30. | |
future investment? I can certainly get my honourable friend that | :58:31. | :58:33. | |
assurance. It is very important we make the most out of the asset that | :58:34. | :58:39. | |
is the North Sea. That is what the Would Report is all about, and we're | :58:40. | :58:44. | |
putting those proposals in place. The Chancellor has listened | :58:45. | :58:47. | |
carefully to what he says about making sure that the tax system for | :58:48. | :58:50. | |
the long-term encourages the maximum recovery. Del Synge was an | :58:51. | :59:01. | |
extraordinary person, a passionate campaigner for justice. He dedicated | :59:02. | :59:05. | |
his life for helping those in conflict. Can the Prime Minister | :59:06. | :59:09. | |
assure the house that after the drawdown of troops this year, that | :59:10. | :59:12. | |
the work of people like him will continue to be supported by this | :59:13. | :59:19. | |
government? I share what she has said. It reminds us of the risks | :59:20. | :59:23. | |
that aid workers take on our behalf to deliver this vital assistance | :59:24. | :59:28. | |
around the world. I can give her the assurance she seeks. It's important | :59:29. | :59:32. | |
for everyone to recognise that while our troops are coming home at the | :59:33. | :59:37. | |
end of 2014, our commitment to Afghanistan will continue. Our | :59:38. | :59:41. | |
commitment to its armed forces and our commitment to over $100 million | :59:42. | :59:45. | |
a year in terms of our commitment to its aid and future development. We | :59:46. | :59:48. | |
will need many more brave people to go on working with the Afghan | :59:49. | :59:51. | |
government to deliver for the Afghan people. Formula One team McLaren is | :59:52. | :00:00. | |
the largest employer in my constituency of Woking. The Prime | :00:01. | :00:03. | |
Minister like to join me in congratulating them on the hundreds | :00:04. | :00:07. | |
of new jobs that they are creating locally, on the global sell-out of | :00:08. | :00:11. | |
their P1 sports car and the ?50 million worth of exports they will | :00:12. | :00:16. | |
achieve this year in China? Yet more examples of the success of British | :00:17. | :00:19. | |
business and of our long-term economic plan. I share my honourable | :00:20. | :00:28. | |
friend's enthusiasm for McLaren and for the work of Ron Dennis, who | :00:29. | :00:32. | |
helpfully brought one of his cars to our meeting in China where we were | :00:33. | :00:37. | |
encouraging investment into the UK. This is the very highest end of | :00:38. | :00:42. | |
British motor manufacturing, but it is worth recognising that we've got | :00:43. | :00:45. | |
a vehicle rolling off a British production line every 20 seconds. | :00:46. | :00:49. | |
The British motor industry is doing well, this Government is backing it | :00:50. | :00:54. | |
and long may that continue. Can I also thank the Prime Minister and | :00:55. | :00:58. | |
the leader of the opposition for their kind words about my friend, | :00:59. | :01:03. | |
Delsing, a man who devoted his two short-lived working for peace and | :01:04. | :01:08. | |
justice, not least in Palestine and Afghanistan. But, I ask the members | :01:09. | :01:15. | |
this, new stock in affordable homes has fallen by a third since 2010. | :01:16. | :01:22. | |
Why is that? Is it in part because Tory councillors like Hammersmith | :01:23. | :01:26. | |
and Fulham are demolishing council houses, the most affordable type of | :01:27. | :01:31. | |
housing, and selling the land for exclusively private development? I'm | :01:32. | :01:38. | |
afraid he has got his figures wrong. Housing starts are 89% higher than | :01:39. | :01:44. | |
the trough they left us in 2009. When it comes to affordable homes, | :01:45. | :01:49. | |
we've already delivered over 100,000 affordable homes, we will deliver | :01:50. | :01:54. | |
170,000 in total by 2015. The rate of affordable house building will | :01:55. | :01:58. | |
soon be the highest it has been for two decades. That is a massive | :01:59. | :02:02. | |
contrast with the Labour, where housing waiting lists almost | :02:03. | :02:05. | |
doubled. If he doesn't believe me, he might want this quotation, and | :02:06. | :02:15. | |
guess who it's from? We refused to prioritise building up new social | :02:16. | :02:17. | |
housing. Who said that? The leader of the opposition. Can I commend the | :02:18. | :02:25. | |
Prime Minister for his firm action against unscrupulous payday lenders | :02:26. | :02:31. | |
and for driving the credit union expansion project? Would he now urge | :02:32. | :02:35. | |
more employers to look at parting with their local credit union, so | :02:36. | :02:38. | |
that many more people can access affordable credit through the | :02:39. | :02:53. | |
payroll? The positive side of this is we need to expand credit unions | :02:54. | :02:56. | |
faster. We should be looking at all the ways in which that can be done, | :02:57. | :03:00. | |
including other organisations partnering with credit union links. | :03:01. | :03:17. | |
What is the Prime Minister afraid of, and why doesn't he now publish | :03:18. | :03:27. | |
and be dammed? We've got hundreds of thousands more people getting into | :03:28. | :03:30. | |
work, able to provide for their families and get the peace of mind | :03:31. | :03:34. | |
and security that people want in this country. That is what we are | :03:35. | :03:38. | |
publishing today and that is real progress for our nation. 45% of | :03:39. | :03:46. | |
people don't pay their utility bills by direct debit. 1 million of them | :03:47. | :03:51. | |
don't have bank accounts. Get energy companies are charging an average | :03:52. | :03:56. | |
?115 extra for people who don't pay by direct debit, hitting pensioners | :03:57. | :04:01. | |
and the poorest of the most. Will my honourable friend look into this, | :04:02. | :04:04. | |
given that the Government is doing everything possible by cutting | :04:05. | :04:08. | |
energy bills? I'm happy to look into this issue. That is why we have | :04:09. | :04:21. | |
taken the steps to compel the energy companies to put people on to the | :04:22. | :04:24. | |
lowest tariffs. We want to make sure that everyone can take advantage of | :04:25. | :04:27. | |
that. We've also cut energy bills by ?50, by rolling back the costs of | :04:28. | :04:29. | |
some of the green measures. We should continue to make this market | :04:30. | :04:32. | |
more competitive to give more choice to consumers, and to encourage the | :04:33. | :04:34. | |
switching that happened a huge amount towards the end of last year, | :04:35. | :04:37. | |
that has saved many people many hundreds of pounds. | :04:38. | :04:46. | |
That began in a subdued mood, with Ed Miliband trying to take prime | :04:47. | :04:55. | |
ministers questions seriously as part of his New Year 's resolution. | :04:56. | :04:59. | |
His first question was what they should do about the massive Syrian | :05:00. | :05:12. | |
refugee crisis. A bit of a disagreement. Then we went back to | :05:13. | :05:16. | |
Punch and Judy because we turned to the economy and we heard all the old | :05:17. | :05:21. | |
phrases as usual. Cost of living crisis... Clearing up the mess... | :05:22. | :05:27. | |
You've heard it up before. Then it went a bit shout eat in the second | :05:28. | :05:36. | |
half. -- shouty. We heard from one viewer that Ed Miliband might not be | :05:37. | :05:42. | |
winning in the chamber but his words are resonating outside Westminster. | :05:43. | :05:47. | |
Another said, Cameron boasted about employment figures and then said in | :05:48. | :05:52. | |
the next sentence, let's not be complacent. But in another viewer | :05:53. | :05:57. | |
said, is Ed Miliband trying to be the deliberate softy, trying to | :05:58. | :06:00. | |
engage in discussion rather than confrontation? A final viewer had a | :06:01. | :06:15. | |
Prime Minister 's questions game which is what question Ed Miliband | :06:16. | :06:19. | |
will ask first. I won today by saying Syria. In what way people | :06:20. | :06:27. | |
better off? The figures show you take into account the tax cuts and | :06:28. | :06:42. | |
the employment rise, the total amount has risen. Getting people | :06:43. | :06:47. | |
into work is one of the best ways to increase household income. If you | :06:48. | :06:52. | |
take the fact that people are getting back into jobs and that we | :06:53. | :06:56. | |
cut taxes, then, yes. That doesn't mean there isn't more to do. It does | :06:57. | :07:02. | |
show that the long-term economic plan is working. If you are | :07:03. | :07:07. | |
unemployed and you get into a reasonably well-paid job, you will | :07:08. | :07:11. | |
obviously be better off. But I'm asking you, on average, if you take | :07:12. | :07:20. | |
everything into account ash tax benefits, tax changes, pay rises and | :07:21. | :07:25. | |
so on - are people better off or not? If you take everyone in the | :07:26. | :07:32. | |
country, on average when people get back into jobs the amount of | :07:33. | :07:36. | |
take-home pay goes up. So this is good news and it has an income | :07:37. | :07:43. | |
impact. But what about the answer to my question? The answer is yes. I'm | :07:44. | :07:53. | |
afraid it's not. People are on average ?25 a week worse off after | :07:54. | :07:57. | |
you take into account pay rises, the impact of tax and benefit reforms. | :07:58. | :08:03. | |
Everything you've done since 2010, they are ?25 a week on average were | :08:04. | :08:12. | |
soft. What I was talking about was over the last year. Also, you need | :08:13. | :08:16. | |
to take into account that mortgages have not gone up, they have gone | :08:17. | :08:22. | |
down. And the bigger picture is the question why things been different? | :08:23. | :08:26. | |
The national income in the recession fell by over 7%. So of course that | :08:27. | :08:33. | |
has an on incomes. But the Prime Minister said people were better off | :08:34. | :08:36. | |
and I'm asking you to give me figures to show that. The IAF as | :08:37. | :08:41. | |
figures show that people are not as worse off as Labour is claiming, but | :08:42. | :08:47. | |
they were soft. -- they are worse off. People coming into jobs | :08:48. | :08:55. | |
increase their earnings of the nation. Over the last year, nobody | :08:56. | :08:59. | |
denies this has been a difficult time. Our point is you have to ask | :09:00. | :09:04. | |
why. We are the biggest recession in recent history, I think that point | :09:05. | :09:09. | |
was made as well. If there is a cost of living crisis, as Labour calls | :09:10. | :09:17. | |
it, a crisis, why retail sales rising by 5%? Well, I didn't you can | :09:18. | :09:25. | |
assume that everyone in the country is increasing their spending. People | :09:26. | :09:32. | |
who got spare money... But retail spending is going up. If it was a | :09:33. | :09:37. | |
crisis, where would you get the money? I'm sure not everybody is | :09:38. | :09:41. | |
increasing their spending. You're like him. He picked one example to | :09:42. | :09:45. | |
make his case. I'm asking about the average. And talking on average, | :09:46. | :09:55. | |
retail spending across the board is up 5%. I don't deny for a moment | :09:56. | :09:59. | |
that living standards are being squeezed, but I'm asking you if it | :10:00. | :10:03. | |
is as bad as you make out then how come people are spending so much in | :10:04. | :10:08. | |
the shops? We are seeing all kinds of indications that it is a crisis. | :10:09. | :10:12. | |
Over half a million people are going to food banks every week to make | :10:13. | :10:19. | |
ends meet. That is up from 41,000. But you talk about the squeezed | :10:20. | :10:22. | |
middle. You're not just talking about people at the bottom end of | :10:23. | :10:27. | |
the income scale. Of course they are being squeezed. You talk about the | :10:28. | :10:33. | |
squeezed middle. Mr Miliband made himself a champion of the middle | :10:34. | :10:38. | |
class. My question is, if they are being squeezed so much - and that is | :10:39. | :10:42. | |
where most of the retail sales rise comes from, it reflects middle-class | :10:43. | :10:46. | |
spending - so if they are being squeezed, why are they spending so | :10:47. | :10:56. | |
much? You cannot take an individual and say at one end of the other they | :10:57. | :11:01. | |
are representative. We've got a very wide range of people and income. | :11:02. | :11:06. | |
This election campaign is going to be fun. What is really interesting | :11:07. | :11:13. | |
is how people want to talk about apples and pears and not admit that | :11:14. | :11:16. | |
is what they're doing. I'm puzzled that the Prime Minister has gone | :11:17. | :11:23. | |
back to an auld script that I put the Chancellor had abandoned. The | :11:24. | :11:26. | |
Chancellor used a figure in his Autumn statement which was basically | :11:27. | :11:30. | |
saying, we're all better off. You can only do that by not asking | :11:31. | :11:35. | |
whether you, me, people around the country are themselves better off, | :11:36. | :11:38. | |
but by including people who get jobs for the first time. Then you can | :11:39. | :11:42. | |
make those figures work and you can argue that's a good thing because | :11:43. | :11:49. | |
employment is a good thing. But it doesn't match the reality when | :11:50. | :11:53. | |
people say, I'm in a job and I'm worse off. When I interviewed the | :11:54. | :11:57. | |
Chancellor a few days ago I put it to and he abandoned the claim. He | :11:58. | :12:01. | |
said, I accept that we are all poorer but we're poorer for a | :12:02. | :12:05. | |
reason. The Prime Minister has gone back to using this of data. | :12:06. | :12:09. | |
Forgiving, but I think it was struggling to make sense for most | :12:10. | :12:17. | |
people. And the Labour to say, where are these new jobs coming from? | :12:18. | :12:22. | |
Where is that extra consumption coming from? The answer is perhaps | :12:23. | :12:26. | |
private sector borrowing. If you believe this is a recovery which may | :12:27. | :12:30. | |
be dangerously based on more borrowing and another House price | :12:31. | :12:34. | |
bubble, it is interesting one of the main reasons borrowing is coming | :12:35. | :12:37. | |
down at the moment is because of the massive increase in stamp duty. You | :12:38. | :12:43. | |
may actually think the fact people are spending more in the shops is a | :12:44. | :12:48. | |
bad thing, not a good thing. Were going to have to move on, but I can | :12:49. | :12:52. | |
assure you we will be coming back to both these issues. Maybe next time, | :12:53. | :13:00. | |
they will have done their homework. Nick, go and play some music. Any | :13:01. | :13:10. | |
particular selection? Something a bit more current. How do you stop | :13:11. | :13:17. | |
towns and cities just spreading and spreading until there is no green | :13:18. | :13:20. | |
and pleasant land left? Well, politicians and town planners | :13:21. | :13:23. | |
devised one solution in the 1930s and 1940s: it was called the green | :13:24. | :13:27. | |
belt. In our soapbox this week, the survivalist Ray Mears argues that | :13:28. | :13:30. | |
this concept is under threat and that politicians need to take brave | :13:31. | :13:31. | |
decisions. Welcome to Croydon. Home to more | :13:32. | :13:53. | |
than 360,000 people, the most populous borough in London according | :13:54. | :13:59. | |
to the last census. It is also home to this, the green belt. I was | :14:00. | :14:05. | |
brought up to believe in Britain as a green and pleasant land. That is | :14:06. | :14:10. | |
very important to me. We have incredible open spaces, deals, | :14:11. | :14:13. | |
meadows, common land, woods and forests. They are not just for | :14:14. | :14:20. | |
naturalists like myself, they are for everybody. I take great | :14:21. | :14:23. | |
satisfaction from watching people enjoy them - runners, cyclists, | :14:24. | :14:28. | |
businessmen walking home after a hard day in the office, stopping to | :14:29. | :14:33. | |
listen to the sound of a blackbird. It is magical. They are important. | :14:34. | :14:38. | |
They are good for us. If we are going to hang onto this green and | :14:39. | :14:42. | |
pleasant land, we need to start by learning to cherish and value of | :14:43. | :14:54. | |
green belts. This idea was conceived to prevent urban sprawl. It has | :14:55. | :14:58. | |
proved to be one of the most successful acts in the history of | :14:59. | :15:05. | |
conservation. Green belts are not just part of what makes is British, | :15:06. | :15:10. | |
they are our greatest unofficial national park. These buffers are | :15:11. | :15:13. | |
maturing into internationally important habitats, often richly | :15:14. | :15:18. | |
diverse in species. They also create healthier air and make our towns, | :15:19. | :15:23. | |
cities and villages happier, more relaxing places to live. It is | :15:24. | :15:27. | |
really important that we preserve the green belt. It is very important | :15:28. | :15:33. | |
to who we are. Can you imagine living in a world with no green | :15:34. | :15:38. | |
spaces? Without that wonderful song? We've been asked to sign up to the | :15:39. | :15:43. | |
concept of a big society. Well, here is an opportunity for politicians to | :15:44. | :15:46. | |
put their money where their mouth is and do something good for the | :15:47. | :15:51. | |
benefit of people for generations to come. | :15:52. | :16:05. | |
Do you think the green agenda and the big society is still a priority | :16:06. | :16:14. | |
for David Cameron? I doubt it. It is understandable. We have an economic | :16:15. | :16:17. | |
war on. I think those are the moments you see Rick -- real | :16:18. | :16:22. | |
greatness in politicians, where they can look at the bigger picture, what | :16:23. | :16:26. | |
comes afterwards, the legacy they leave. Not just putting things back | :16:27. | :16:31. | |
on track. Are any of these politicians doing that for you at | :16:32. | :16:37. | |
the moment? No, I don't see that sort of greatness. If you look at | :16:38. | :16:41. | |
Abraham Lincoln, you can see that greatness. At the height of the | :16:42. | :16:44. | |
Civil War, he put things in place for national parks. We have to think | :16:45. | :16:50. | |
beyond the simple things we are doing. And you think the politicians | :16:51. | :16:56. | |
are failing to look beyond? I think we've got some pretty good | :16:57. | :16:59. | |
politicians at the moment. They've really got their sleeves rolled up | :17:00. | :17:03. | |
and both sides of the house are working to improve things. But there | :17:04. | :17:06. | |
are bigger and long-term issues. Things that may not be at the top of | :17:07. | :17:10. | |
the agenda now that in the future will be. What do you say about the | :17:11. | :17:15. | |
shortage of housing? That's where the two sides of the argument rub up | :17:16. | :17:19. | |
against each other. You are wanting to keep something that you say | :17:20. | :17:23. | |
really goes to the heart of everybody's well-being, and there is | :17:24. | :17:27. | |
this enormous pressure on housing, affordable housing, and councils | :17:28. | :17:32. | |
want to look at the green belt. I agree, there is a need for housing. | :17:33. | :17:36. | |
There are brown field sites we could build on. We could also look at the | :17:37. | :17:41. | |
work opportunities and housing opportunities in the country more | :17:42. | :17:43. | |
widely, rather than just concentrating them in the | :17:44. | :17:47. | |
south-east. We need to spread the benefit of British society across | :17:48. | :17:50. | |
the whole country. There a massive difference between some of the | :17:51. | :17:53. | |
regions of Britain and the south-east. I'm lucky I get to | :17:54. | :17:56. | |
travel the whole country. I'm shocked at some of the things icy. | :17:57. | :18:02. | |
Do you think the green belt should be totally protected? The green belt | :18:03. | :18:14. | |
should be sacrosanct. The you start to chip in to it, you start to pick | :18:15. | :18:17. | |
a hole in it. You can't put that back. I think it was a really bright | :18:18. | :18:20. | |
idea that was put forward. It was one of those great acts of politics. | :18:21. | :18:23. | |
We need to hang onto it. If anything, we should be trying to | :18:24. | :18:25. | |
extend the green belt and maybe encourage planners to create more | :18:26. | :18:29. | |
green spaces within our cities, within the modern construction. It | :18:30. | :18:33. | |
is good for our psyche as people. The green belt should be sacrosanct | :18:34. | :18:38. | |
and the big society, the green agenda, it's no longer true, is it? | :18:39. | :18:47. | |
I don't agree at all. I haven't heard him talk about it for very | :18:48. | :18:51. | |
long time. Bigger picture here is we've put in protections on the | :18:52. | :18:56. | |
green belt, but we've got to solve the housing problem. It's about | :18:57. | :19:01. | |
getting houses in the right place. But what you've done is have said, | :19:02. | :19:06. | |
it's very important the Government is pro-the green belt. You height of | :19:07. | :19:09. | |
the problem putting the hatchet into it to local councils. To talk about | :19:10. | :19:18. | |
the Big Society, part of that is giving local powers to local people. | :19:19. | :19:22. | |
Making sure that housing is in the right place, rather than having a | :19:23. | :19:27. | |
top-down direction, I think it's a big step forward. If I take my own | :19:28. | :19:31. | |
constituency in West Suffolk, I have towns, like Hagar Hill, where there | :19:32. | :19:35. | |
is support for expansion and improvement of the housing stock. | :19:36. | :19:38. | |
Then I have towns like Newmarket where there is not an appetite. It | :19:39. | :19:41. | |
would be far better to make sure that the planning system reflect | :19:42. | :19:48. | |
those local feelings and support growth where Rick is supported, and | :19:49. | :19:51. | |
that the benefits and the infrastructure go with it, rather | :19:52. | :19:55. | |
than this being top-down. But we have strengthened the green belt | :19:56. | :20:01. | |
because the green belt is a specific policy about specific areas. Should | :20:02. | :20:07. | |
there be no building of affordable housing on green belt land? It | :20:08. | :20:10. | |
should be absolutely the last idea to use green belt in that way. We | :20:11. | :20:16. | |
should reinstate the presumption that you'd use brownfield, which has | :20:17. | :20:19. | |
been removed by the current Government in the arrangements. I | :20:20. | :20:22. | |
think we should do that. We've talked on the Labour side about | :20:23. | :20:26. | |
trying to increase competition in house-building, bringing in smaller | :20:27. | :20:29. | |
house builders who are happier with smaller brown field sites. You can | :20:30. | :20:34. | |
do a lot by doing that. I agree with Matthew that there ought to be... In | :20:35. | :20:40. | |
many places it is local people who value the green belt more than a | :20:41. | :20:43. | |
planner sat in Whitehall would. Actually, with appropriate | :20:44. | :20:48. | |
protections, giving the power to the local authorities and local people | :20:49. | :20:52. | |
to decide where housing or to be, with appropriate protections, is the | :20:53. | :20:58. | |
right way forward. The thing that is interesting as a lot of people who | :20:59. | :21:01. | |
benefit from the green belt don't actually appreciate they are | :21:02. | :21:04. | |
indulging, exercising themselves and taking in the air of green belt | :21:05. | :21:09. | |
land. It's one of the great successes of the green belt. People | :21:10. | :21:12. | |
don't even notice it is green belt. Do you agree it's good for local | :21:13. | :21:17. | |
people to make that decision? Definitely. But we need to make sure | :21:18. | :21:20. | |
that local people know what we're talking about here. We need to make | :21:21. | :21:24. | |
sure that people know what is green belt. I'd like to see a survey done | :21:25. | :21:28. | |
about green belt. Let's find out what species are there to start | :21:29. | :21:32. | |
with. Let's use the green belt to educate our youth to the important | :21:33. | :21:36. | |
things of the natural world, because we are constantly calling on them to | :21:37. | :21:40. | |
take responsibility for the natural environment, which is critical to | :21:41. | :21:45. | |
our welfare. Tiller there have been plenty of critics, that whilst the | :21:46. | :21:48. | |
Government always boasts about people making their own decisions, | :21:49. | :21:52. | |
there is always the ability to go over their heads and Rivera to a | :21:53. | :21:56. | |
Whitehall quango or bureaucracy and local people are squeezed out. When | :21:57. | :22:02. | |
local plans are in place, they are taken into account in that decision. | :22:03. | :22:06. | |
Yes, there's an appeals process, but having a local plan that is signed | :22:07. | :22:11. | |
off locally is now a material fact, whereas before that didn't exist. It | :22:12. | :22:16. | |
has been structured so that local people 's voices are heard. Are | :22:17. | :22:22. | |
heard and then ultimately can be ignored. No, because it's something | :22:23. | :22:25. | |
is consistent with the local plan, that's what happens. Critics are | :22:26. | :22:31. | |
saying that developers can go over their heads and then it will be a | :22:32. | :22:35. | |
central planner... It's the big developers who want green belt, and | :22:36. | :22:41. | |
nice, big, easy field to build on. Would you be prepared to stop them? | :22:42. | :22:46. | |
Smaller builders want smaller sites. By increasing the competition | :22:47. | :22:50. | |
that there is between builders, there's been a big trend towards | :22:51. | :22:54. | |
much bigger building firms over the last few years, by doing that, by | :22:55. | :22:58. | |
making local authorities provide land in their five-year forward look | :22:59. | :23:02. | |
that is smaller bits of Brownfield land, by reinstituting the focus and | :23:03. | :23:07. | |
priority given to brownfield of element, you can save a lot of our | :23:08. | :23:11. | |
green belt. I think that is the way forward. More Lib Dem woes while | :23:12. | :23:19. | |
we've been discussing the green belt. The QC who was appointed by | :23:20. | :23:23. | |
Portsmouth City Council to investigate the local Lib Dem MP | :23:24. | :23:29. | |
Mike Hancock, his investigation has concluded that claims of sexual | :23:30. | :23:33. | |
misconduct by Mr Hancock towards a female constituency, he found her | :23:34. | :23:34. | |
evidence credible. We've had George Galloway in a | :23:35. | :23:44. | |
catsuit, in Nadine Dorries eating all sorts of unmentionables, but is | :23:45. | :23:48. | |
it really right for our politicians to star in reality TV shows? It was | :23:49. | :23:54. | |
the turn of Penny Mordaunt. She made some waves in the Saturday night ITV | :23:55. | :23:59. | |
show Splash. Let's take a look at her in action. | :24:00. | :24:29. | |
She joins us now. You had to show my worst one, it's not fair! That looks | :24:30. | :24:43. | |
like it hurt. It did a bit. You were very brave to be up there. And to do | :24:44. | :24:48. | |
a backflip as well. I think people that know we knew it was not my | :24:49. | :24:51. | |
style to do a flop of the low board. I thought, good or bad, the | :24:52. | :24:56. | |
outcome is going to be entertaining. It certainly was hard to watch. What | :24:57. | :25:04. | |
did you hope to achieve or what have you achieved by being on the show? | :25:05. | :25:11. | |
You mentioned the Big Society earlier, and I have a live though in | :25:12. | :25:15. | |
my constituency that is dilapidated, we managed to get the pool open last | :25:16. | :25:20. | |
summer but the project was running out of cash. My objectives were to | :25:21. | :25:23. | |
raise some money, which we've done. We've also managed to get Tom Daley | :25:24. | :25:27. | |
to be personally involved in the project. He is coming down with the | :25:28. | :25:31. | |
elite divers, the synchronised teams, we have a gala this summer. | :25:32. | :25:35. | |
We've raised enough money to provide swimming across the whole summer. | :25:36. | :25:39. | |
For me, the lighter with right by the motorway as it comes into the | :25:40. | :25:44. | |
city. In the summer you can see kids jumping off the side of the motorway | :25:45. | :25:47. | |
into the creek and it's very dangerous. So we provided them with | :25:48. | :25:53. | |
this. Why do you think, because George Galloway got a pretty bad | :25:54. | :25:57. | |
time when he was on Big Brother, Nadine Dorries certainly got a bad | :25:58. | :26:00. | |
time when she was on the celebrity jungle programme. Why did you get | :26:01. | :26:06. | |
rather good press for doing this? I think because of two things. First | :26:07. | :26:11. | |
of all, I had a reason for doing it. All of the money I was getting | :26:12. | :26:16. | |
was going towards this organisation who were doing lots of fundraising | :26:17. | :26:20. | |
for other charities as well. And also it's the nature of the | :26:21. | :26:24. | |
programme and the challenge. It's about a personal, physical | :26:25. | :26:28. | |
challenge. It's not about sitting round bitching about other people or | :26:29. | :26:32. | |
doing something that is not true to yourself, something that you are | :26:33. | :26:36. | |
interested in doing. I think people got that. I've been overwhelmed with | :26:37. | :26:39. | |
the support. I didn't expect to have to be in the splash off, it was | :26:40. | :26:47. | |
quite a shock! What did the whips say when you told them? They were | :26:48. | :26:51. | |
fine. It was clear to them why it was different than from what perhaps | :26:52. | :26:55. | |
some other colleagues have done. As MPs, we have to do a lot of | :26:56. | :26:59. | |
different things. We have to deal with very serious issues, look at | :27:00. | :27:03. | |
policy, come up with ideas, but at the same time we are about making | :27:04. | :27:07. | |
life better for people in our patch. Sometimes that involves us doing | :27:08. | :27:10. | |
daft things for all sorts of organisations. Most of the coverage | :27:11. | :27:15. | |
was very positive about you. But something is happening in your party | :27:16. | :27:20. | |
with the women MPs. We've learnt that Jessica Lee is standing down, | :27:21. | :27:24. | |
and she was highly regarded. You've lost the Mensch, the weasel Brack -- | :27:25. | :27:33. | |
Louise Fulbrook, why? This is something that affects both sexes. | :27:34. | :27:37. | |
Those individuals will have a personal reasons why. But you are | :27:38. | :27:41. | |
short of women, you can't afford to lose women of that quality. No, I | :27:42. | :27:46. | |
think there are things we can do in Parliament. We've had some debate | :27:47. | :27:50. | |
about how we can support people better. There are financial | :27:51. | :27:52. | |
pressures that people have, there are all sorts of family reasons why | :27:53. | :27:56. | |
people find this quite a tough life. I think there is more across | :27:57. | :28:00. | |
Parliament we could be doing to support people, but I think those | :28:01. | :28:07. | |
are individual cases. Are you off for a lunchtime swim? Not until the | :28:08. | :28:14. | |
bruising goes down! Do you fancy it, you two? I've got nothing but | :28:15. | :28:19. | |
admiration for her. But first, it's time to put you out of your misery | :28:20. | :28:23. | |
and give you the answer to Guess The Year. The year was 1994. | :28:24. | :28:29. | |
Chris Morris from Essex has one. OK, that's all for today. Thanks to our | :28:30. | :28:38. | |
guests. We will be back tomorrow at noon with all the big political | :28:39. | :28:42. | |
stories of the day. We'll be joined by UKIP leader Nigel Farage, who we | :28:43. | :28:47. | |
showed being hit on the head by a placard. And the man has been | :28:48. | :28:52. | |
arrested for it! It means we can't talk about it. Goodbye! | :28:53. | :29:14. | |
The average person moves home eight times during their life. | :29:15. | :29:19. |