06/05/2014 Daily Politics

Hello and welcome to the Daily Politics.

The Liberal Democrats launch their local election campaign,

with Nick Clegg promising to freeze council tax and protect

We'll be on the campaign trail with Lib Dem President Tim Farron,

Conservative Chairman Grant Shapps, and Labour's Hilary Benn.

One third of the population of England and Wales could be

from an ethnic minority by 2050, according to a new study.

We'll hear from the author of the report.

So help me God. Not a single vote cast in my name. Democracy is so

overrated. And what makes a great political TV

thriller? And with us for the whole programme

today is the Conservative peer Michael Dobbs, perhaps better known

as the writer of the political thriller House of Cards which has

been remade as a TV series in the States starring Kevin Spacey. If

you've got any questions you'd like to ask Michael tweet us now using

the hashtag #bbcdp. We'll put some of your questions to him

at the end of the programme. Let's start though with

the report out today from the think tank Policy Exchange, which

predicts that by 2050 one third of the population of England and

Wales will be from Rishni Sunak co-wrote the report

and joins us now. The growing ethnic minority

community in the UK will be an important part of the electorate.

And all these minority groups are very different. Research has looked

at their different life experience, attitudes and aspirations. On almost

any metric there are quite striking differences between these

communities that should be understood by politicians. In terms

of voting currently the majority of voters from ethnic minority

backgrounds vote for the Labour Party. That is true that there is

still the difference between the Indian community who are likely to

vote Conservative. So even on a general statistic, there are wide

differences. Do you think that the Conservatives have done anything to

galvanise the vote? I think they have made some moves. From the work

we are doing I think we're are seeing the benefits of that starting

to come through and individual communities need to be engaged with

on ways that are meaningful to them and will address their needs.

Hopefully our research highlights the issues of interest to each

community. If the parties lumped together people from different

grounds, what are the lines of differentiation for those

communities with Mac the Indian community overwhelmingly to own

their own homes more so than any other ethnic group in the UK. The

black and African community are less likely to do so. So policies around

mortgage rates and stamp duty, those should be topics that resonate with

the Indian community. On the other hand education, one of the findings

in our research was the improvement amongst the Bangladeshi immunity

with regard to GCSE results. That is in spite of a large number of

Bangladeshi students on free school meals. That would be seen as

evidence of the government's reform with regards to education. That is

not good news for the Conservatives, Michael Dobbs. We have ethnic

minorities now in the Cabinet and in the House of Lords. And a huge raft

of talented ethnic minority ministers. What we must not do is

get into the symbolism, just putting up tokens. Tory values are all about

education, owning your own home, entrepreneurship. The huge chunk of

the ethnic minority community does what exactly that. Why have you not

appeal to them until now. We have not been as good as we should have

been pushing across the message. What I love about the report is that

it engages us in a conversation. For a decade or more you could not

discuss immigration. If any Tory spoke about that he was immediately

accused of racism. That was a desperately destructive period and I

think we have now got beyond that. The interest of the ethnic minority

community is interesting especially towards issues like immigration. In

the research we are doing we find that they have quite subtle views

about immigration. They're not in favour of mass immigration by any

means. You have said that there will be startling changes by 2050. But

4.2% of MPs are from ethnic minorities so there is still a

massive gap. I think that will probably change over time. For

immigration, the growth in the ethnic minority population is just

coming from the demographic structure of that population, it is

a very young population. For those under ten years old, 25% of those

come from ethnic minority backgrounds. As they grow up they

will become a much more significant part of the population. But one

problem is to get young people to vote, right across the board. If I

can take this vacillating report, it does raise all kinds of issues.

Perhaps one of the key things is that we have to change the language

about this. We called it ethnic sonorities but they are not

minorities any more but substantial presences. The more that we can get

away from dividing communities and find out what brings us together, it

will be a much healthier debate and a healthier society. I hope we can

resist the temptation to say that we must be divided society. The study

also shows that many people from ethnic and naughty backgrounds feel

very British. Now it's time for our quiz, and

the question for today is - which of these books hasn't made it into

the top ten books borrowed from the C,

The Lonely Planet guide to Myanmar? Or D, Erskine May's Treatise

on the Law, Privileges, Proceedings At the end of

the show Michael will hopefully be There are just over two weeks to go

before the elections on May the 22nd and this morning the Lib Dems staged

unofficial campaign launch. Speaking at the Ministry of Sound nightclub

in London the Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg set out why he believed

people should vote Lib Dem. We're not asking you to vote for us to

just stick up two fingers against the other parties. We are asking you

to vote for something. Because we can be relied upon to look after

your money when times are tough. To protect jobs when jobs are what give

people dignity and hope in the future. To stand up for Britain with

its head held high, not cowering in the corner from international

challenges we face. For a generous, open hearted approach, not only to

what we do in our country but how we treat other countries in our own

European neighbourhood as well. For a clean, sustainable environment for

future generations. Joining me now from

their election campaign launch is And in the studio is the

Conservative Party chairman Grant Shapps, and Labour's Hilary

Benn. Support for the Lib Dems, research

so you have lost a lot of support. How worried are you. I have been

spending a lot of time knocking on doors in Manchester and Haringey in

the past few days. And there is a strong sense of Lib Dem support

being strong in the areas that we worked hardest in. That includes

areas that have been traditionally Labour. In Manchester many people

may not be the biggest fans of the coalition government but they are

voting Liberal Democrat because locally they are opposing Labour's

savage cuts. They are making cuts they do not need to make when times

are tough already. It is in our DNA that we do community politics. That

is not just something we do as an electoral tactic that it is who we

are and we live that on a day-to-day basis. So we have pulled off big

comebacks in certain areas. That comes after a bad set of results in

2010 because people on the ground recognise that Lib Dem councillors

different kind of creature. You get people who work hard for you all

year round. Research shows just under a third of those voting Lib

Dem in 2010 and two currently state of voting intention now, say they

will vote for Labour. And you say your trademark is local elections, a

local base for support. There have been suggestions that the Lib Dems

made news 350 seats in these elections which will cut your local

governments standing by almost half. So your trademark is fast

disappearing. Well in the last three sets of local elections we have had

setbacks and we just the number of seats we have held. But each setback

has been less bad than the one year before and I predict we will be in a

similar situation. People vote on the basis of the context of the

community they live in. But of course we had a difficult few years.

This was the last set of elections in the first midterm cycle for

Liberal Democrat government for the best part of a century. We inherited

dreadful circumstances, whoever you blame, we inherited that mess and of

course you will not get universally thanked for taking the tough

decisions and holding our nerve to make sure we see us through the

recovery. We knew we would get difficult election results. What you

will see up and down the country is work Liberal Democrat work hard on

the ground, we have bucked the trend. We took a seat from the

Conservatives in Cambridge. So on the ground you still see us winning.

But none of this is reflected in actual results. However much you

sugar-coat it. The figures do not stack up. Since January the 1st the

Liberal Democrats have gained more seats in local council by-elections

than any other little party, more than any other little party. Twice

as many as you can. So that is bearing out exactly what I am

saying. Well they have actually been dire for you, the opinion polls. And

political research shows that disaffected Lib Dem voters, almost

one in ten say they would now back the Green Party add a similar

proportion would back UKIP. While the Liberal Democrats, whatever

rating you choose to believe, just remember that is the normal mid-term

results for a Liberal Democrat opinion poll rating. The last

opinion poll we had before we had a change of leader was 12%. So Liberal

Democrats are made of sterner stuff than to be frightened by opinion

polls. We do not scare easily. What we are committed to saving

communities and doing a really good job for them. Putting the

environment first. We have not forgotten about Green politics. And

every single councillor in the country for the Lib Dems have frozen

the council taxes. Because we need to keep bills down in tough times.

He sounds very gung ho. Labour has to do something pretty exciting in

these local elections and the European elections if they are to

have any chance of making an impact next year in the general election.

We are looking to gain seats, as we've done over the last two sets of

elections. My constituents would say to Tim Farron, those affected by the

bedroom tax, I have 2800 families in my constituency, they are on low

incomes and are having to pay money that they are finding it very hard

to put their hands on because the Lib Dems and the Tories have decided

they should be penalised because they are on low incomes. People

desperately waiting for a house, they will see that in

Labour-controlled local authorities there are twice as many social homes

being built now than in Conservative controlled ones, and five times as

many as in Lib Dem controlled authorities. This is about what

people see locally. Whose side of the parties on, what are your

values? Many people are finding the cost of living pretty tough and look

at what Ed Miliband is saying about energy prices and rents, which grant

had something to say about last week. There are 9 million people in

the private rented sector now, giving them some certainty into what

will happen to rent increases. If your cost of living narrative, which

Labour goes on and on about, actually cutting through to the

electorate, why have the polls not moved? They are booming in the wrong

direction for you against these other parties, the gap is narrowing

with the Conservatives and you are making no more gains. I wouldn't

regard 38% as flat-lining. It hasn't moved. You are in opposition and you

say your cost of living narrative is having a huge success, why don't you

feel it in your poll ratings? Certainly in contrast to wear grant

and the Conservatives find themselves, yes, we are doing better

than them. The next general election is always going to be a closely

fought election. What really matters, I will agree with Tim on

one thing, it's how people cast their votes when they come to put

that ballot paper in the box. You are out of touch with local people,

that's what Hilary Benn is saying. They are talking about the things at

the bedroom tax, rates spiralling out of control. The good news is

just not affecting people locally. How do you answer that on the

doorstep? I think councils have done a very good job of handling some

difficult cuts in their grants from central government, I acknowledge

that is the case. They have suffered more than any other part of

government. They've taken a bigger hit than almost any part. One of the

largest. Satisfaction in the services provided by local councils

has gone up, not down. That demonstrate it is possible to do

more for less. Actually, it's probably the big message of this

election. Conservative councils cost you an band EE, ?89 a year less than

they do when they are Labour-controlled. And ?106 less

year than if they are Lib Dem controlled. They give you better

value for money and better services. If you talk about individual

circumstances like the bedroom tax, the subsidy, it's not a tax, it's

important to understand the most vulnerable people in this entire

scenario are the people who don't have a roof over their heads at all.

The waiting lists have doubled under the previous government. We are

acting to get those lists down. You've done nothing about it. All

the parties are jumping on the housing bandwagon. Let me put it to

you, how many houses have you built since 2010? 100 and 70,000 new. It's

untrue to say we haven't been tackling it. The waiting lists have

been going down, as a result of us taking difficult decisions about not

funding rooms which are empty, but funding rooms which we can get

people off the waiting list and into. That's the side of this debate

that people forget to mention. That's why we run these services

making the difficult decisions, as we've done by the bigger question of

reducing the deficit over role. What about the intervention on the

housing market and a potential cap on rents, hasn't something got to be

done about spiralling rent? Let's get the facts and figures straight.

It varies on where you are in the country. The Office for National

Statistics show that rents went up by 1%. In other words, lower than

inflation. The interesting second fact is, what did rent controls do

when they were introduced in 1939? The size of the private rented

sector was 55%. It's wrong to 8% and it was terrible quality. Fewer

properties available, words -- worse quality properties. Greene in

London, rents have gone up around 10% in the last year. This is not

rent control because the initial rent would be set by market forces,

as happens at the moment. What this is about is saying in offering table

if they want a three-year tenancy, that they have some certainty as to

what's going to happen to rents in the second and third year. People

don't have the right to get a three-year tenancy. They will be

forced to offer the three years? Landlords would be required...

Landlords might not want to do that. There are 1.3 million families

currently in the private rented sector. The children are starting

school, you don't know whether you are going to be in the property next

year. The landlord might renew the tenancy but they might put the rent

by 5% or 10%. Family finances can't cope with that. It's about getting a

bit more security to people in what is a housing tenure. Let's become to

Tim Farron. One of the problems I put to you and the housing issue is

UR associated with a government that introduced things like the so called

bedroom tax, which is what Labour called the spare room subsidy, which

ever way you want to look at it, that you are associated with welfare

cuts. That perhaps some of your traditional left of centre voters

now blame you for that. In a coalition government, if people are

going to look simply sticky at it, the fact that because the electoral

arithmetic lead only to one conclusion, which was a conservative

Liberal Democrat coalition government, then some people you

want to get their head around that. Some people think even if you share

the same space as a Conservative, that somehow renders you ineligible

for election to anything. On the housing issue, I want to be fair to

Ed Miliband, I want to say that I think he's identified, like many of

us, a problem. I can't be much fairer than that because I think he

has been guilty of just picking out another gimmick. The reality is,

Grant points it out, this Government has built 170,000 new, affordable

rented homes. That is not nearly enough, but it is infinitely more

than the Labour Party. Labour lost over 400,000 council houses when

they were in power. And the problem that Ed Miliband is trying to solve,

and we are all trying to solve, is the fact there isn't enough supply.

Both Conservative and Labour governments have seen a lot of

social rent housing. -- a loss of social rent housing. I don't support

the spare room subsidy, but I understand why the Government did

it. Because of Labour and Tory inaction on meeting supply needs,

it's pushed rents and therefore housing benefits out of control.

Obviously the government is talking about the improving economy, and you

can point to broader economic indicators to back that up. What is

striking is that it hasn't led through into the polls. Does that

worry you? The polls will move around. Unemployment is down, growth

is back, you would have thought that might lead to a bounce at least. The

gap is on average about 3%. We have made some of the hardest, most

difficult decisions about stopping this country from going bust.

Remember, we have the same percentage deficit as the Greek

economy, and we saw what happened there. We've turned from that, being

told we needed a Plan B, that we were going in the wrong direction,

we've managed to... The growth didn't come back for three years, we

will never know. What we do know is that we now have the fastest growing

economy in advanced economies anywhere in the world. So why aren't

people backing you? I think it takes time for people to feel this through

their pay packets. When you have the greatest recession in 100 years,

7.2% knocked off the size of the economy, to think you can suddenly

turn around and eradicate that, it's not true. It was George Osborne who

felt he could turn it around in a quicker time. That entire recession

took place under the previous government. There was no recession

once we had come in. The size of that recession was much deeper. The

cost of living narrative has been interesting in terms of its

response. It may not also have led to a massive jump in the polls for

you, do you think the problem for Labour is, while they might have

identified the issues that the person of the electorate has, they

just don't like the messenger, Ed Miliband is not seen as a future

Prime Minister? I don't agree with that at all. Average council tax in

Labour-controlled authorities is lower than conservative ones. I

think it's about values. Because David Cameron says take energy

prices, a big problem. We've opposed to reform to the energy market and

have the energy price freeze, David Cameron says we should back the

energy companies. David Cameron says a bit more security for people in

the private rented sector is going back to the past. It's not. It's

about looking that the real problem is that people face. Take local

councils, why is it that the people who are leading on giving the living

wage to council employees Labour-controlled local authorities?

Tory councils aren't doing that. It's about giving people help in

difficult times. There's a slight of hand when you talk about the average

council tax. Everyone knows you have constituencies in burrows with

different demographics, with sometimes more of the smaller

properties. So when you talk about the average it is incorrect and

misleading. The band geek test is the test, because it's the average

size home and in that regard we are ?89 a cheaper. -- Band ghee. How

important are these local elections? How big an indicator DQ

think they will be a year before the big day? Wii they also coincide with

the European elections, and they are the ones getting the headlines. They

are frankly being watched around Europe and the world for what will

go on there. They are very important. It wasn't so long ago

that we were hearing cataclysmic forecasts that local government was

going to come to an end, because it was going to be cut to pieces and

destroyed. Somehow it seems to have gone on, continued. Satisfaction

does seem to be not having collapsed. I think there will be a

lot of things thrown into local election results. But the one thing

I do hope that they will be able to focus on still is the fact that

these are about the people you elect locally. I think the last four years

have shown that it does make a difference you have representing you

locally. If you want to cast a vote in the

European or local elections on May 22nd you need to be on the electoral

register, and the deadline for Our reporter Eleanor

Garnier has more on this. If you are not registered you will

not be voting. If you are one of the estimated 6.5 million people not yet

signed up, time is running out. But don't panic, help is on hand here

today. I've got Becky Jarvis, the campaigns manager at 38 degrees. And

councillor Peter Fleming, from the Local Government Association. Whose

fault is it that millions of people aren't registered? I think the local

council could be doing more than they do about registering the vote.

They make it quite difficult for people. You have do register to vote

weeks in advance. But also I think there's a problem with broken

politics. Our members often tell me they don't trust politicians, they

don't feel they have any agency, they don't feel like they're

politicians are accountable to them. That's another reason why people

can't be bothered. It sounds like local authorities have got a lot

more to do to get people signed up. I think the signing a lot more to do

to get people signed up. I think the signing of big is because we have to

go through and check that people are who they really say they are. That

is set by this place, not by local authorities. We are enacting the

rules that are set down for us. Now we have individual voter

registration, that has gone a whole heap more complicated. That change

won't come in until the summer, when it will also change from being

registering not just in person but online as well. So we will move from

being household registration to individual, but also the online

thing. How much will that change it and help? Hopefully it will mean a

massive change and a real help. It will mean that these forced points

in the year where people have too register to vote by will go, you can

vote any time of the year. That will really help, particularly when

people move into a new area. Do you think councils are the right

organisations to be managing voter registration? One of the exciting

things about joining the vote is its everyday people knocking on people's

door, asking people to register to vote. Your neighbours, people

talking about politics. But not about party politics or

personalities, but about the issues they care about. That is really

exciting. We've seen that there has been a huge host of positive

feedback about people, our members, who have been volunteering to

register people to vote. Hopefully we've got a good few more thousand

registered. Your campaign was to get many more people signed up. If

people are watching now who have not registered, what should they do. By

midnight tonight, if you go online and find the website, all about my

vote, but will tell you where the local voter registration base is.

You can download that form and fill it in and handed over. I'll go to

the website, 38 degrees. I just want to bust a couple of myths about

voter registration. You can register to vote in more than one place. If

you're a student in Leeds but your home address is London, you can vote

in the local elections both cities but you must only vote once in the

European elections. You have to choose which a city for those

elections. And if you're signed up to pay council tax it does mean a

lot automatically registered to vote. And perhaps an incentive, if

you're not registered, it could affect your credit rating.

It's back to earth with a bump after the bank holiday weekend.

Well, at least it is for the Business,

Members will be debating whether to hold an inquiry into Pfizer's ?63

million takeover bid for British pharmaceutical company, Astrazeneca.

This follows Ed Miliband's calls for an investigation over the weekend.

On Wednesday that mid-week anchor, PMQs, returns as usual.

There's nothing like getting out of the office and into the sunshine.

And the party leaders will be making the most of the spring weather to

Messrs' Cameron, Clegg and Miliband will all be mingling with the voters

in the hopes of bolstering their chances on May 22nd.

And just when you thought all the fun was over, Friday brings the

launch of the Trade Unionist and Socialist Coalition media campaign

You'll be glad it's the weekend after all that!

I'm joined now by Beth Rigby from the Financial Times and Tamara Cohen

Ed Miliband and AstraZeneca, this proposed takeover, with Ed Miliband

saying they should be a big public interest test. It is a massive

proposed merger and it is important to Britain and politically

important, is that life sciences is a key sector that the government

need to protect and invest in if we want to move away from financial

services and diversify the economy. In terms of the politics of the

deal, it is beginning to fall between Labour being anti the

takeover and the conservative side of the coalition being for it. Have

they actually stated that they are for it. They have not but the CEO of

Pfizer plug-in last week, he met a number of ministers and put the case

to government about why they should back the deal. It is usually

imported to Britain because Pfizer and AstraZeneca, if Pfizer coming

and cut jobs and cut research spending, it could damage the

science base and the economy. So there's a big political fight

underway as to whether or not the deal should go through and can the

government safeguard jobs. If David Cameron in a difficult position, he

reportedly has been told to remain neutral on this proposed takeover

and he is a free-market Conservative. Ed Miliband at the

weekend wedding and accused the Prime Minister cheerleading for this

deal. After having said it was a matter for the board of AstraZeneca

to decide. The Prime Minister then sent Jeremy Heywood two seemingly

negotiate with Pfizer and it looked like they were on the side of the

takeover, which of course will be the biggest ever takeover of a

British firm, if it goes ahead. If you look at the history of Pfizer in

the past few years, it has taken over a number of companies and has

not invested in research. I think the government have been surprised,

having expected this to be seen as a cool, how many concerns have been

raised about whether Pfizer are acting in the interests of Britain.

Do you think that David Cameron should keep out of the whole thing.

He is in a difficult position but politics are all about taking a

difficult decisions. What I think he should be doing first and foremost

is make sure that the guarantees offered by Pfizer to shareholders

and everyone else, will be kept. Far too often in the past we have had

foreign companies taking over things, like Cadbury, and they have

not always kept the bond, the word that they gave when they were taking

things over. That must be avoided. Actually it is a great compliment

and shows what good is going on. But not if it leads to the break-up of

AstraZeneca and the loss of jobs, or as does Johnson has said, a lack of

investment in research and development. Picking over the

takeover of Cadbury, politicians really what to get on the front foot

now. You have Adrian Bailey on the business select committee calling in

the CEO of both companies, and the science and technology committee

calling in officials companies. I spoke earlier to Adrian Bailey and

he said what they want to do this time is make sure that they get

assurances on public record in front of MPs for any deal does go ahead

because they want to bind the company in a way they feel they did

not in craft and Cadbury. Well they will no doubt be questioning by the

committees involved. Let us turn to Michael Wheatley, given life

sentences for a series of brutal raids on banks and building

societies and who owns the Nick named skull cracker. But he was in

an open prison and has absconded. This was the justice secretary

earlier. I want to be certain what happened in this case and I want a

system that is much more robust and only lets people out of open prisons

when there is a clear reason for doing so. All I want a system where

people go out with a tag on the ankle so we know where they are. Why

was this man in an open prison, do you think. I have no idea. It is

very bad for us sitting here to pontificate because we do not have

the details. But there have to be standards. Why was he let out

without a tag. A man with a record like that. There are issues to be

raised here and I think that Chris Grayling has said he will get the

details of that and find out who made those decisions and why. It is

a difficult for us to say it must have been a bad decision. What we

cannot have are people lie back out on the streets and we do not know

where they are. Most of us reckon they should still be in prison. But

is there anything that Chris Grayling can actually do about this.

He clearly needs to work out whether this is a one-off or a wider

problem. You can look at what has been happening in the probation

services where they are trying to cut costs and are outsourcing

contracts. Things are going slightly awry. I think it's important for the

government to reassure people that this is a one-off and not more

systemic problem within the system. This rather throws out the line

about being tough. It is embarrassing, his nickname was skull

cracker and he was in an open prison. Also the timing of it. Last

week we have leaked e-mails about a coalition row, the Conservatives

wanted to jail repeat knife offenders. The Lib Dems were not so

keen on it. This is embarrassing timing for them and there will be

more questions raised about this all week. Well we may miss the machinery

behind the scenes of the general and local elections. All parties have

workers and structures that delivered the organisation that

keeps things ticking over. But has the machine become too slick and

controlling? Our guest of the day was close enough to see those cogs

whirring. But first he has been looking into the engines of

politics. Whether big posters for small parties breaking into the

scene or more well-known names, small parties breaking into the

having a rock star entrance organised for a low rent election

campaign launch, or getting out to do your bit for your party with a

bit of voluntary help. Or communications teams that organised

and facilitate parties talking to the media. Every party needs and

almost always creates a machine. Politicians need the machine behind

them because there are so many tasks that have to be done and they have

to be done so well in the modern world. When there are good are very

good and when they are bad there are awful. The essential point is that

one thing really counts. You cannot do anything in politics apart from

criticise and influence unless you have power and power means being

elect did. You cannot get elected without a machine. And as the years

have gone on on the conservative side, campaign headquarters has

become more and more of a short term election sheen. Sometimes it does it

well, sometimes badly. The machine also accepts an element of control.

It depends on how much control. For the party to be effective, both in

campaigning and also in delivering on the things it campaigns on, there

has to be a degree of discipline and thinking through and getting people

to agree on what they agree on and not get diverted. The problem has

been building over time. So as the machine becomes huge in some cases,

just explaining it rather hints at what is wrong with it. But do not be

fooled into thinking that other party machines are less simpler. In

1983 Labour's NEC met every day of the election campaign. It was later

widely seen as more of a spanner in the works. Today control or to be

more like -- more light touch. Great political campaigns are

extraordinarily tight on message and on the issues you campaign on, image

you have and loose about how you deliver on the ground. So you can

allow a local candidate to tailor the material and the themes to the

local context. Yet today there is concern that the well oiled

Conservative machine is too focused on elections. You permanently wading

the long term work you're doing to build up vote over many years for

the short term needs of here and now. A by-election, a crisis in a

marginal seat. That is all fine but you need long-term research and

candidate development. One supposes that the perfect answer is Deus Ex

machina. But that seems yet to have revealed itself. We have been joined

in the studio by Olly Grender who works for the campaign for Paddy

Ashdown and the editor of the Labour Uncut blog, well. You could arguably

say that all three parties are in trouble in terms of their party

machinery. UKIP do not have that behind them and they are the ones

making headway. It is interesting. All three parties have

organisational difficulties and also financial difficulties. We have

often sacrificed the long-term for the short-term, as was mentioned.

There is a good balance between fighting a campaign and having that

long-term policy element. That has become much more focused now on the

media. I think that for all three parties is a weakness. Of course

UKIP, may end up being a flash in the pan, they are a media creation.

Whether the MIDI -- whether the media allows them to continue,

history will tell us. It's always been a problem. Yes, it's the mass

membership party. been a problem. Yes, it's the mass

that is run incredibly smoothly actually not a political party,

because it's all about individuals, new ideas and changing things, and

you always expect some troubled waters. Do you think the Liberal

Democrats are two Democratic in their internal structures, and that

makes it difficult for the party leadership to impose that central

message? I think it's difficult for the party leadership, but the upside

in having an incredibly democratic machine is, for instance,

in having an incredibly democratic coalition. 80% of our members are

still in favour of as having gone into coalition in the Thursdays.

Why? Because they got a vote on it. That is incredibly important. There

is a great wealth and That is incredibly important. There

been good democracy within a party. I appreciate that everyone laughs at

the rather complex structure that was shown on the video tape just

now, but I think in many ways it works. Except how well equipped was

the party machine to deal with, for example, allegations about Lord

Rennard? That makes it incredibly difficult because there is a natural

justice process and there are certain rules one has to go

through. What it has helped with is a full enquiry, all sorts of things

have been instigated. A special hotline. I think there are great

improvements within the party machine on that, and they've been

done partly because there are committees and structures to do it.

How is Labour HQ faring at the moment? I have spoken to a range of

candidates over the weekend. I'm wondering how the feeling is at the

moment. One of the problem is always in a campaign is that there's always

that tension you alluded to between head office and the candidates in

the field. The candidates think head office doesn't understand what they

are doing and head office thinks the candidates are doing this, that and

the other and aren't sticking to the message. The problem we've got at

the moment, at head office for labour there were some clear

factions and divisions there. When a head office and party machine

becomes riven with that, it turns in on itself and the priority becomes

binding agreement internally rather than driving up the message and

instilling some of that discipline out in the field. What's the key

divide? There are three divide is happening in labour at the moment.

The general secretary wasn't Ed Miliband's choice. All of the

leader's office is now for the first time formally part of party HQ, so

that's one split. All of those executive directors report to

Spencer Livermore and Douglas Alexander now. That is a fundamental

divide because they had a tremendous falling out with Ed Balls and some

of Gordon Brown's people over the election that never was. Spencer

Livermore had to leave at that time. That's a fundamental divide. So is

John Turner right, he worked for Tony Blair, if you don't have a

tight machine where the message is so completely locked down, then your

party machine for the message is so completely locked down, then your

party machine. Part? Know, messages can't be imposed because we all, to

a certain extent, our mass parties. What you need to transmit and

communicate our values, basic things that people will accept. Not simply

be imposed upon them. Wasn't that what the a list was? That's a

slightly different idea. The central problem for all parties is the fact

we don't have the money. The Tory party, this is why the Tory party

was constantly in trouble because we spent everything on an election, had

less for the long-term processes. Now the Tory party has got its

finances in a much better shape. The problem with Labour is not just the

personal problems, but you've packed set out to the yet again in a more

disastrous fashion than 20 years ago. I'm not sure that's the case.

The way you communicate values is the message and discipline. Yes, you

tailor it locally for local situations, but you have to have

everyone lined up and aligned. In an election that is an incredibly

difficult thing. If head offices and United, that leaves us vulnerable.

We don't know whether it is Ed Miliband or the trade unions who are

calling the shots in terms of policy. Aren't the Lib Dems the best

are facing both ways? They still managed to win even though they

could hold really quite different positions. There is an assumption we

are an annexe to either of the other parties. We are not. We have our own

long-term philosophy and art are very different political party from

either Labour or the Conservatives. One thing is really important to

people out there who are campaigning the day in day out message. An

understanding of what the core message is and trust and confidence

in the centre that it is confident. In the Eastleigh by-election, what

the party nationally can talk about is how our involvement in government

has ensured that there is delivery of more and more jobs. Likewise

Eastleigh council, which was delivering more jobs. You can

combine the message, as long as the activists have faith in that. That's

a very important point. The candidates have got to trust the

centre, and only when the centre is United do we get that trust. Is that

why Lib Dems have you election candidates this time around? We were

on a high going into the 2010 election, we are still fighting

hard. With freezing council taxes and incompetence...

It was a campaign to eradicate absolute poverty across

the world and was centred around the G8 Summit in Gleneagles in 2005.

There is a new campaign tackling global poverty. Participants spend

less than ?1 a day on food for five days. Do these campaigns make a

Here's Nelson Mandela, who spoke at a rally in Trafalgar Square.

The G8 leaders when they meet in Scotland in July have already

promised to focus on the issue of poverty, especially in Africa. I say

to all those leaders, do not look the other way, do not hesitate.

Recognise that the world is hungry for action.

We're joined now by Lord McConnell, who is living on ?1 a day

for 5 days, to raise awareness about global poverty.

Looking back, it captured the imagination. What did it achieve?

It's achieved a lot but not enough, which is why we are still

campaigning. The changes in debt arrangements, aid that was promised

and to some extent has been delivered has made a difference, but

it has not been enough full stop a lot of the promises made then have

not been kept. Countries using the excuse of a global financial

crisis, but it's really just an excuse. Is it just an excuse? Has it

sapped sympathy for those sorts of courses, bearing in mind the depth

of the recession and how many countries it affected? I don't think

so, not in this country. This country is by far and away the most

generous in the world on these sorts of causes. I was in the Philippines

in February, and everywhere there was an -- there were handwritten

signs up banking the UK and donors from this country, because we had

contributed more from the public purse and private pockets than any

other country in the world. In the UK we have a strong tradition in

this. But there are plenty of people who think that David Cameron was

wrong to commit to spending 0.7% of the UK budget on international aid.

Was he right to do it? Absolutely he was right. It's one of those

decisions, where the priorities should be. In our own country

there's been a lot of progress in terms of people beginning to realise

how much food we waste. Part of Jack's approach, let's live on 30p a

day or whatever, that is being mirrored this week. You are here,

you have this last week and are still in one piece. The Tory peer is

Anne Jenkin is doing it this week. Part of that is to show people that

the waste is almost criminal. And there's a lot of progress being made

with supermarkets to reduce all of that waste. But you know that there

are people who feel that money is going to certain countries, like

India and China, who don't necessarily need it, when you think

of where they are in terms of developing to their economies. The

Guardian reports that millions of pounds of British aid money has been

invested in buildings of gated communities, shopping centres and

luxury property in poor countries. Most people would say, why has it

gone there? The main problem here is people think that the British aid

budget is now about ten or 20% of our national expenditure. It's not,

it 0.7% of our national income. It's a tiny proportion of what we make in

this country and what we spend. When people are confronted with that

particular fact, they actually think it's not enough. Should be going to

countries like India and China? Should it be going to those sorts of

projects, rather than providing food or water? British aid is not going

to China. It has either stopped or is in the process of being stopped

in India. The key thing here is there are still 100 million kids

every day in the world living in hunger and starvation in the

21st-century. I was ten years old when we started landing people on

the moon. It's an absolute scandal and disgrace that this is still

going on in the 21st-century, when we have the means and resources to

do something about it. If the world was organised in different ways with

trade, aid for investment for the long-term, so these countries can be

independent, not dependent, and people going to school and learning

the skills and knowledge that will help them stand on their own two

feet, then around the world we can transform this. We can do it in a

generation, and that's why we have to keep going.

Now, it's time to find out the answer to our quiz.

The question was, which of these books hasn't made it into

the top ten books borrowed from the Parliamentary library last year?

It had better be house of cards, they've all got their own signed

copies. You are right. Now if you thought Westminster was

a seething pit of backstabbing and That I will well and faithfully

discharge the duties of the office which I am about to enter. So help

me God. So help me God. One heartbeat away from presidency and

not a single vote cast in my name. Democracy is so overrated! Let's

start this new chapter with a clean slate. I know you will do whatever

you think is best. I think Congressional leadership took part.

I can't have this conspiracy stuff going mainstream. The connections

are troubling, especially Underwood. We need to delete all of our phone

history. Sinister! Are you amazed this book you wrote such a long time

ago, then was made into a British series and American series, in its

second series and being commissioned into a third, and it keeps on

going? It's been brilliant. It's been so much fun. The quality of

what they are doing this with Kevin Spacey, it's superb. It's been great

fun. Why now, though, political drama, most of the political drama

we are seeing comes from abroad? It's part of the commissioning

process. There are some issues about the commissioning process in this

country. Political drama requires a proper backdrop. What we've had in

the States recently, we had George Bush in the States and everybody

wanted to watch something like the West Wing, where everybody was warm

and cuddly, not like George Bush. Now we've got Obama and everything

seems to be stuck. So along comes Kevin Spacey and says, I will do

it, no matter what it takes, I will do it. There's a bouncing off of the

realities. Yes or no, do is British politics really as dark and

manipulative as the original series made up? I hope so! That's all for

today. Thanks to all of our guests. Sorry, what?

I gotta get off the show.