Browse content similar to 07/05/2014. Check below for episodes and series from the same categories and more!
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Good morning. 365 days to go until the general election. You cannot | :00:37. | :00:47. | |
wait, but you will have to be patient! Labour and the Tories are | :00:48. | :00:50. | |
increasingly neck and neck. It is all to play for. What of the Lib | :00:51. | :00:57. | |
Dems? Then, the UKIP factor, which could put noses out of joint. | :00:58. | :01:03. | |
Ed Miliband claims he is much more intellectual is self-confident than | :01:04. | :01:07. | |
David Cameron. Downing Street says Ed Miliband is more self-satisfied. | :01:08. | :01:11. | |
Who will win the war of words at PMQs? | :01:12. | :01:15. | |
Has this man got too big for his boots? | :01:16. | :01:20. | |
In response to that question, the Prime Minister has finished, and he | :01:21. | :01:23. | |
can take it from me that he is finished! | :01:24. | :01:28. | |
And, tinkering with the syllabus, students look set to study Russell | :01:29. | :01:32. | |
Brand for English A-level, or are enough facts taught in school? | :01:33. | :01:40. | |
All of that and more coming up. With us, Nigel Evans and Sadiq Khan. | :01:41. | :01:50. | |
Welcome to both of you. First, let's talk about Nigel Evans, | :01:51. | :01:57. | |
last year he resigned as the Deputy Speaker and subsequently the | :01:58. | :01:59. | |
Conservative whip after he was charged with two indecent assaults, | :02:00. | :02:03. | |
five sexual assault and one rape. He was cleared on all counts, but last | :02:04. | :02:09. | |
week had the whip restored. The case highlights the Westminster drinking | :02:10. | :02:15. | |
culture. Nigel admitted that he had been an old fool and had behaved | :02:16. | :02:19. | |
drunkenly around young man. All had few admitted that the? No, but it | :02:20. | :02:31. | |
was easy gesture that I had, -- but it was said that I had. There is no | :02:32. | :02:37. | |
culture of being drunk, it does happen now and again, but that is | :02:38. | :02:42. | |
not the culture of Parliament. Once you were acquitted on all the | :02:43. | :02:46. | |
charges, there was still some commentary, he has been found not | :02:47. | :02:52. | |
guilty, but he has behaved stupidly. At times, no doubt I have, but when | :02:53. | :02:57. | |
you go through the torture of a public trial, the job of the | :02:58. | :03:02. | |
prosecution is to throw everything at you, including the kitchen sink, | :03:03. | :03:06. | |
so do not be surprised if some of the cutlery and dirty water sticks | :03:07. | :03:11. | |
on you. Personally, looking at everything, I wish it had never | :03:12. | :03:17. | |
happened. But the fact is I suspect I am the only politician that | :03:18. | :03:19. | |
Westminster who is happy at only getting 12 votes. Unless you are the | :03:20. | :03:30. | |
Lib Dems! The prosecution made a number of accusations on the | :03:31. | :03:35. | |
specifics of the cases against you, but you say they threw more at you | :03:36. | :03:41. | |
wider than that that was not true? It is the character assassination | :03:42. | :03:47. | |
that takes place during a trial, not just the prosecution. It is the job | :03:48. | :03:53. | |
to make it look as bleak as it possibly is. I had a treasury QC | :03:54. | :03:58. | |
against me, he was very good, I had to make sure I had equality of arms | :03:59. | :04:03. | |
and had a very good barrister as well. But when anybody dissects your | :04:04. | :04:13. | |
private life, you are standing there in a dock and people throw | :04:14. | :04:16. | |
everything that they possibly can, exaggerate and twist and light, and | :04:17. | :04:22. | |
you walk away an innocent man, but you are bruised and chastened, and | :04:23. | :04:26. | |
some of it does hurt. What has it done to you? What has changed? | :04:27. | :04:33. | |
Everything. I am far more caring than I ever was. My perception of | :04:34. | :04:39. | |
the police is not what it was, even before the Andrew Mitchell case, so | :04:40. | :04:46. | |
I am a bit more aware and weary. How were you treated on returning to the | :04:47. | :04:51. | |
Commons? They were superb. Throughout the 12 months, everybody | :04:52. | :04:57. | |
was brilliant on all sides. I told Ed Miliband that his guys had been | :04:58. | :05:03. | |
brilliant. Everybody has. I have had hugs from Glenda Jackson through to | :05:04. | :05:08. | |
George Galloway am a three to my own constituency. And David Cameron has | :05:09. | :05:15. | |
been superb. Just to face those allegations, normally a politician | :05:16. | :05:22. | |
does not want to be accused of six items in your basket when it says | :05:23. | :05:26. | |
five items only, so to get these things thrown at you, normally it is | :05:27. | :05:34. | |
career over. When the charges were pending, and during the trial, I | :05:35. | :05:38. | |
wonder whether some attitudes were more distant? No, I can say that | :05:39. | :05:44. | |
now. A lot of people were thinking come a dead man walking, or, there | :05:45. | :05:52. | |
are so many charges, one of them must stick, and even myself, winking | :05:53. | :05:56. | |
how credible it sounded and whether the jury will decide, we will acquit | :05:57. | :06:01. | |
him on most of it but he must have done something. But in the end, 12 | :06:02. | :06:07. | |
good Northerners sat there, this to everything, looked at the evidence | :06:08. | :06:11. | |
and decided, no, this man is innocent, and I can only say how | :06:12. | :06:16. | |
grateful I am. When your life is in the balance like that, I watched the | :06:17. | :06:20. | |
foreman of the jury come in, he did not have any notes, and I thought, | :06:21. | :06:26. | |
he either knows which ones are guilty and innocent, or they will | :06:27. | :06:30. | |
all be the same. My heart was beating without me touching my | :06:31. | :06:35. | |
chest. When he started to go through them, there was almost a rhythm | :06:36. | :06:40. | |
there. The amusing thing is, between charges five and six, a phone went | :06:41. | :06:45. | |
off, and the judge stopped everything and said, could everybody | :06:46. | :06:48. | |
please make sure that their telephones are off? I thought, who | :06:49. | :06:54. | |
cares about mobile phones? The election is a year away, will you | :06:55. | :06:59. | |
stand again? That is plan A, there was never a plan B. Plan B would | :07:00. | :07:04. | |
only have come into place if I had been convicted of anything, and I | :07:05. | :07:09. | |
would have walked. What is the attitude of your party? The vast | :07:10. | :07:14. | |
majority are supportive, I walked around Clitheroe on the Monday | :07:15. | :07:18. | |
following the acquittal. People were lining up to shake my hand and pack | :07:19. | :07:22. | |
my bag. Do you think you will be reselected? Yes, I do. There will | :07:23. | :07:30. | |
not be a challenge? It depends how they operate. I have always left it | :07:31. | :07:33. | |
late, I have never thought they will be a problem. There is always | :07:34. | :07:42. | |
another duty to deselect, but I have left it to 12 people to decide my | :07:43. | :07:46. | |
fate once, I will now leave it to the members of my association who | :07:47. | :07:49. | |
will decide who their candidate will be at the next election. But I am | :07:50. | :07:56. | |
there if they wish. What is your attitude to your fellow Conservative | :07:57. | :07:59. | |
backbencher who played a key role in this whole matter, beginning the | :08:00. | :08:04. | |
process of law and ending up in court? I had a cup of tea with her | :08:05. | :08:09. | |
last week, we chatted through the issues, and all I can say is that we | :08:10. | :08:15. | |
had a very constructive and convivial chat, and we now look | :08:16. | :08:20. | |
forward to working together over the next months and years to come, | :08:21. | :08:24. | |
hopefully. Have you made up? Absolutely, we both see one | :08:25. | :08:31. | |
another's reasons, why she did what she did, given the evidence she was | :08:32. | :08:35. | |
given. But when she gave her evidence, she supported my case. | :08:36. | :08:39. | |
Should there be anonymity for those accused in this kind of case? It is | :08:40. | :08:46. | |
difficult. We know the arguments in favour of not having anonymity, | :08:47. | :08:51. | |
people can come forward. We have seen that with Stuart Hall and other | :08:52. | :08:58. | |
cases. It needs to be looked at. Perhaps by the Justice committee or | :08:59. | :09:01. | |
the Home Affairs Select Committee. I have got lots of questions, I do not | :09:02. | :09:05. | |
have all the answers, because I know how delicate the balance is. You are | :09:06. | :09:10. | |
not so keen on anonymity, your party? That's right. All of the | :09:11. | :09:16. | |
reasons why Nigel was treated the way he was is because in English law | :09:17. | :09:22. | |
there is a presumption of innocence, and he was presumed innocent and | :09:23. | :09:25. | |
treated that way by those people who know him, it is an important | :09:26. | :09:31. | |
principle. The reason why Nigel could persuade the jury he was not | :09:32. | :09:34. | |
guilty was because he had equality of arms, he had the means to afford | :09:35. | :09:42. | |
a good QC to defend him. One of my concerns is that the changes that | :09:43. | :09:45. | |
have been made mean other people who are not as fortunate as my job have | :09:46. | :09:49. | |
to go for a less experienced barrister, somebody who cannot do | :09:50. | :09:53. | |
the fantastic job that his QC did. But you are right about anonymity, | :09:54. | :09:58. | |
we think it is important there should be open justice, others could | :09:59. | :10:02. | |
come forward, but Nigel 's right to say that his case demonstrates some | :10:03. | :10:07. | |
of the difficulties that there are. You are numbered -- lumbered with a | :10:08. | :10:17. | |
big... ? Yes, I have spent the savings that I had, it is six | :10:18. | :10:21. | |
figures. You had to use an expensive QC? Yes, I had what I believed was | :10:22. | :10:27. | |
the best, and he was incredibly good. You need equality of arms. If | :10:28. | :10:34. | |
you do not have that, you could end up with a miscarriage of justice, | :10:35. | :10:41. | |
and that would be appalling. We are in election period, the Green | :10:42. | :10:45. | |
party are launching their local election campaign in Solihull. Their | :10:46. | :10:48. | |
leader Natalie Bennett joins me from there now. Welcome back to the | :10:49. | :10:54. | |
programme, this week you said the satisfaction with the three largest | :10:55. | :10:58. | |
parties is widespread # this satisfaction. But this illusion | :10:59. | :11:01. | |
voters are not coming to more of them are going to UKIP. | :11:02. | :11:10. | |
Why? What we are seeing is, like in Solihull, where we are now looking | :11:11. | :11:15. | |
to become the official opposition to the Tories on the council, people | :11:16. | :11:20. | |
are turning to us. We are expecting to win new councillors up and down | :11:21. | :11:24. | |
the country in London, Liverpool, Bristol, Oxford and many other towns | :11:25. | :11:29. | |
and cities. We are growing councillors, we are seeing steady | :11:30. | :11:38. | |
and cities. We are growing ideas. The argument that we need | :11:39. | :11:41. | |
real change in a society that works for the common good. We have got | :11:42. | :11:46. | |
plans and policies, and people can see that. But last May, UKIP gained | :11:47. | :11:52. | |
139 councillors and received 23% of the vote, you gain five. Yes, and | :11:53. | :11:59. | |
among those, our first councillors in Cornwall, Essex, Surrey, Kent, | :12:00. | :12:03. | |
and in several places here in the West Midlands. From a solid base, we | :12:04. | :12:10. | |
are electing good people who are long-term campaigners, who are in it | :12:11. | :12:14. | |
for the long haul. I have not seen the figures for how many of those | :12:15. | :12:17. | |
UKIP councillors are no longer there, but there are quite a few. Do | :12:18. | :12:22. | |
you think people are put off because they have looked at Ryton, the UK's | :12:23. | :12:27. | |
only green council, which will not go down as an example of great | :12:28. | :12:30. | |
governance, and they have thought, if that is what you get, we will not | :12:31. | :12:36. | |
vote for them? If people look at the record of Brighton and Hove green | :12:37. | :12:40. | |
council as a minority administration, it has a long list | :12:41. | :12:43. | |
of achievements, from making it a living wage council to keeping all | :12:44. | :12:49. | |
of the branch libraries open. Too greatly improving the GCSE results. | :12:50. | :12:54. | |
We have got a proud record of achievement. If you look at the | :12:55. | :12:58. | |
issues that affect people's lives, we have proved that they are making | :12:59. | :13:02. | |
a difference there. In January, a vote of no-confidence in the | :13:03. | :13:05. | |
illustration was passed, after plans were put forward to raise the | :13:06. | :13:10. | |
council tax by 4.75%. Last May, many people remained -- remembered the | :13:11. | :13:17. | |
bin strikes, and have had to bring in mediators to calm infighting in | :13:18. | :13:22. | |
your group. Are you proud of that? We are a minority administration, a | :13:23. | :13:28. | |
vote of no-confidence is hardly surprising when you never had a | :13:29. | :13:32. | |
majority. What we have tried to do is put forward a proposal to have a | :13:33. | :13:37. | |
referendum for a 4.9% increase in council tax because we said the | :13:38. | :13:40. | |
money we are getting from central government is not enough to maintain | :13:41. | :13:44. | |
the quality of social care that we think the vulnerable and poor | :13:45. | :13:47. | |
deserve. Sadly, we could not give the people the chance to choose | :13:48. | :13:51. | |
that, but it is a sign of how we want to campaign and fight for real | :13:52. | :13:56. | |
change, in a society that looks after the most for rubble as well as | :13:57. | :14:02. | |
-- the most vulnerable in some of working for the top 1%. All of the | :14:03. | :14:06. | |
parties are talking about housing supply, how would you pay for it? | :14:07. | :14:13. | |
But we need to do is look at the nature of the housing programme, it | :14:14. | :14:16. | |
is to be affordable, council housing, on Brownfield sites. This | :14:17. | :14:22. | |
site has been sitting vacant for many years. What we need to do is, | :14:23. | :14:26. | |
if we build council housing, we could have borrowing, we cannot rely | :14:27. | :14:32. | |
on private developers any more, they are not building the homes we need. | :14:33. | :14:39. | |
One more year until the election, 365 sleepless nights! The | :14:40. | :14:48. | |
strategists will be tinkering with their campaign books over the next | :14:49. | :14:53. | |
12 months, and it is all to play for, with the pulse pretty close. | :14:54. | :14:58. | |
Although a tension is on the European and local elections that | :14:59. | :15:02. | |
are just around the corner, today, it is exactly a year until the | :15:03. | :15:07. | |
really big maypole. The general election on this month of May 2015. | :15:08. | :15:13. | |
The official campaigning period is around five weeks, but the reality | :15:14. | :15:16. | |
of a fixed term parliament means that the jostling for position has | :15:17. | :15:20. | |
already started. But there are plenty of trip ups ahead. Today, the | :15:21. | :15:25. | |
Institute of government warned that the Conservatives and Liberal | :15:26. | :15:29. | |
Democrats need to agree new rules for policy-making. Otherwise, | :15:30. | :15:31. | |
caution will prevail and insufficient work will be undertaken | :15:32. | :15:35. | |
in areas where the coalition partners disagree. It could be the | :15:36. | :15:41. | |
last time the UK dances to the same tune. Depending on the result of | :15:42. | :15:44. | |
Scotland's independence vote in September. It does not look like any | :15:45. | :15:49. | |
of the parties have found a winning rhythm. Labour only slightly ahead | :15:50. | :15:55. | |
of the Conservatives, and the Liberal Democrats well out of step | :15:56. | :15:59. | |
with the public. All three will be looking nervously over their | :16:00. | :16:02. | |
shoulder at the newest political move on the scene, UKIP. Now third | :16:03. | :16:08. | |
in the polls, with almost 60% of people voting for them in the | :16:09. | :16:11. | |
European elections planning to do the same in the general election, it | :16:12. | :16:15. | |
could be UKIP that decides who gets to dance into Downing Street. | :16:16. | :16:27. | |
Already 40% of those intending to vote for you in the European | :16:28. | :16:31. | |
election have no intention of doing so in the general election, so you | :16:32. | :16:37. | |
have already lost them. That were unnaturally happen in any election, | :16:38. | :16:44. | |
but I believe is our campaign grows, we will be able to bring more of | :16:45. | :16:49. | |
those people back. There is a key point about the polls and we are | :16:50. | :16:53. | |
seeing when we knock on the doors and are canvassing is there are a | :16:54. | :16:57. | |
lot of people who have not voted for a long time and they are drawn to | :16:58. | :17:03. | |
UKIP and our message and we will get them in the 2015 election. Critics | :17:04. | :17:09. | |
will say voters have always used the local elections and the Euro | :17:10. | :17:13. | |
elections as a chance to vote for a protest party. The argument we are a | :17:14. | :17:19. | |
protest vote has been thrown at as many times, but you have seen the | :17:20. | :17:26. | |
progression and shown it on your show on many occasions. People | :17:27. | :17:30. | |
believe they want their democracy and independence in Europe. They are | :17:31. | :17:35. | |
concerned about immigration as a whole and we have the most ethical | :17:36. | :17:41. | |
immigration policy. But there is no evidence beyond that, however well | :17:42. | :17:45. | |
you do in the European elections, to indicate they will go on and vote in | :17:46. | :17:51. | |
the general election? That is a contradiction. You have indicated | :17:52. | :17:56. | |
today that we have got 60% of those who are voting for us and the | :17:57. | :17:59. | |
European election and they will stay with us. In the last European | :18:00. | :18:05. | |
election polls suggested we would be doing very badly. But what you have | :18:06. | :18:09. | |
now is a much more significant numbers staying with us from a much | :18:10. | :18:13. | |
larger base and that is something you have to consider and the other | :18:14. | :18:18. | |
political parties know that. You have got a big event tonight. We | :18:19. | :18:25. | |
have Nigel's last speech on the tour where he has been going around the | :18:26. | :18:29. | |
country speaking to huge crowds. Tonight you will see a large | :18:30. | :18:33. | |
proportion of members from London and across the country coming to | :18:34. | :18:38. | |
stand behind Nigel along with myself and those who signed the letter that | :18:39. | :18:42. | |
was published in the Independent newspaper today to deal with the | :18:43. | :18:45. | |
question that we are a racist party. Tonight we will show you we | :18:46. | :18:50. | |
are not a racist party, we are an inclusive party from | :18:51. | :18:54. | |
are not a racist party, we are an backgrounds, religions, creeds and | :18:55. | :18:59. | |
colours. I like the Morris men. I would like to see more of that. It | :19:00. | :19:08. | |
especially for you. Welcome to Tom Brake, MP. Labour was on average in | :19:09. | :19:16. | |
the poll of polls 8% ahead of the Conservatives. You are now neck and | :19:17. | :19:25. | |
neck. What has gone wrong? I think this will be a very close general | :19:26. | :19:31. | |
election. I don't remember, I was in nappies, but the last time a | :19:32. | :19:36. | |
political party lost a general election and bounced back. Were they | :19:37. | :19:43. | |
disposable nappies? 1974 was the last time a party bounced back. | :19:44. | :19:49. | |
disposable nappies? 1974 was the if the polls tighten any more, the | :19:50. | :19:53. | |
Tories will be ahead? My prediction is they will be neck and neck. Those | :19:54. | :20:06. | |
who stay at home in 2010, we will persuade them why they should vote | :20:07. | :20:09. | |
Labour. The fact we are neck and neck is a tribute. You used to be | :20:10. | :20:19. | |
ten points ahead at one stage. We are about five or six points ahead | :20:20. | :20:26. | |
still. The most recent was you were one point ahead. Then neck and | :20:27. | :20:33. | |
neck, given the margins of error. There must be something about your | :20:34. | :20:36. | |
core message, this cost of living crisis, that is not resonating. We | :20:37. | :20:45. | |
got 29% of the vote in 2010. We have made huge progress on that. We have | :20:46. | :20:49. | |
got new members, activists, councillors, who are interesting and | :20:50. | :20:56. | |
exciting. We are making progress. If four years ago you would have said | :20:57. | :21:01. | |
after the second worst defeat in our history we would be competitive and | :21:02. | :21:05. | |
neck and neck, I would have bitten your hand off. Mr Cameron did not | :21:06. | :21:14. | |
even win the election. The last time a party bounced back was in 1974. In | :21:15. | :21:23. | |
1979 we were out for 18 years. In 1997, the Tories were out for 13 | :21:24. | :21:26. | |
years and they only managed to get back in with the help of these guys. | :21:27. | :21:34. | |
I am trying to explain how much we have managed to achieve. Is that any | :21:35. | :21:42. | |
good news for the Lib Dems? There has been good news in relation to | :21:43. | :21:47. | |
past elections. For instance in areas where there is already strong | :21:48. | :21:53. | |
Liberal Democrat representation. The Parliamentary seats we hold in the | :21:54. | :21:58. | |
council elections we have done well. There is a certain resilience of the | :21:59. | :22:01. | |
Liberal Democrat vote which I think national polls do not pick up. But | :22:02. | :22:10. | |
do you think your own party briefing paper thinks it is possible that you | :22:11. | :22:16. | |
could lose all of your MEPs in the European elections? I do not think | :22:17. | :22:21. | |
that is going to happen. Clearly the economy is showing strong signs of | :22:22. | :22:27. | |
recovery. There is a time lag between the figures looking positive | :22:28. | :22:29. | |
and people starting to feel the difference in their pay packets, so | :22:30. | :22:37. | |
to speak, and their pockets. We will see over the next 12 months that | :22:38. | :22:41. | |
will start to change around. We are already seeing wages increasing | :22:42. | :22:47. | |
greater than the rate of inflation. The recovery has been going on for | :22:48. | :22:54. | |
more than a year, it started in April, 2013. It is now made 2014 and | :22:55. | :23:01. | |
your poll ratings continue to slide. You are down to 9%. Interestingly in | :23:02. | :23:09. | |
the Nick versus Nigel debates, the polling satisfaction for neck out of | :23:10. | :23:15. | |
those debates was 30% for one and 20% for the other. The evidence in | :23:16. | :23:21. | |
the areas where we are strong and campaign hard is those national | :23:22. | :23:26. | |
polls which looked at the country as a whole. The way things are looking | :23:27. | :23:36. | |
it is going to be a very tough day for us, but interestingly the UKIP | :23:37. | :23:42. | |
element and the fact they take vote more substantially from the | :23:43. | :23:46. | |
Conservatives in a lot of councils were Lib Dems are fighting | :23:47. | :23:50. | |
Conservatives, that makes those results much less predictable. And | :23:51. | :23:55. | |
if the Conservatives lose seats in the local elections, which they will | :23:56. | :24:01. | |
do, and they come up with third in the European elections, which the | :24:02. | :24:06. | |
polls suggest you will, how many hours is it before your party goes | :24:07. | :24:11. | |
into headless chicken mode? I do not think that will happen. It will be a | :24:12. | :24:16. | |
difficult European election. The big question is what that turnout is | :24:17. | :24:20. | |
going to be like. We have heard what UKIP have said. It is going to be | :24:21. | :24:27. | |
low. When you say those who vote UKIP will be retained, the fact is | :24:28. | :24:33. | |
when it comes to a general election it is going to be who are we going | :24:34. | :24:36. | |
to vote for who will form the next Government? You are now a | :24:37. | :24:43. | |
backbencher and the backbenchers have the discipline not to go mad | :24:44. | :24:47. | |
when you come a poor third in the European elections. We will look at | :24:48. | :24:54. | |
the European elections is mostly an opportunity for people to protest | :24:55. | :24:58. | |
and that is what it is. We are not going to see a change of Government | :24:59. | :25:04. | |
the day following the Sunday results of the European elections. People | :25:05. | :25:08. | |
will dust themselves down after the European election results and start | :25:09. | :25:11. | |
to focus on the next 12 months ahead. You may remember I fought the | :25:12. | :25:17. | |
Ribble Valley by-election and I lost and it was the 30th safest seat in | :25:18. | :25:23. | |
the country. 12 month later I1. 12 months is a long time in politics. | :25:24. | :25:31. | |
It will be difficult for all the major parties. If you go from very | :25:32. | :25:38. | |
low expectations... You are happy coming third in Europe, you are | :25:39. | :25:46. | |
happy losing in Europe... What really alarms me is that all the | :25:47. | :25:54. | |
parties here agree there is a need to reform what happens at a European | :25:55. | :25:59. | |
level, but with the prospect of a large number of UKIP MEPs getting | :26:00. | :26:04. | |
elected who do not engage at all in Europe, the ability for the UK to | :26:05. | :26:10. | |
put across an agenda reform disappears and the country cannot | :26:11. | :26:16. | |
afford it. The public do not care. They do not mind voting for people | :26:17. | :26:19. | |
who are not going to turn up and that is a big question for all of | :26:20. | :26:25. | |
us. If you think UKIP is going to be a problem, wait until you see who | :26:26. | :26:31. | |
the Dutch, the Greeks, etc are about to send. The takeover of AstraZeneca | :26:32. | :26:40. | |
is likely to come up at PMQs and when it comes to drug deals it is | :26:41. | :26:44. | |
likely some MPs will be urging the Government to just say no. Before we | :26:45. | :26:48. | |
carry on, I need to inform you that this programme has also received a | :26:49. | :26:52. | |
hostile bid for one of its most coveted products. I don't mean Jo! I | :26:53. | :26:55. | |
imagine there will also be questions in the House on this shortly and MPs | :26:56. | :26:59. | |
will be itching to call for an enquiry. Yes, the rumours are true, | :27:00. | :27:02. | |
another programme has made a bid for the treasured Daily Politics mug. Is | :27:03. | :27:06. | |
there nothing these people wouldn't do to try to improve their ratings? | :27:07. | :27:14. | |
But fear not because there is one way, and only one way, that anyone | :27:15. | :27:18. | |
can get their hands on one of these beauties and that is to enter our | :27:19. | :27:22. | |
guess the year competition. Employees of Sky News are allowed to | :27:23. | :27:27. | |
enter. Maybe they could give it to Adam as a leaving present. He is not | :27:28. | :27:35. | |
actually leaving. We will remind you how to enter in a minute. Let's see | :27:36. | :27:39. | |
if you can remember when this happened. | :27:40. | :27:46. | |
# knock three Times on the ceiling if you want me. | :27:47. | :27:55. | |
Twice on the pipe if the answer is no. | :27:56. | :28:03. | |
# Sweet Caroline, good times never seemed so good... | :28:04. | :28:16. | |
# Sweet Caroline, I believe they never will. | :28:17. | :28:28. | |
# I wish that I could be a banner man. | :28:29. | :28:45. | |
# tap turns on the water, the waters flow, come and write the river, come | :28:46. | :28:51. | |
and write the sun. Send your answer to our special quiz | :28:52. | :29:10. | |
e-mail address. You can see the full terms and conditions on our website. | :29:11. | :29:18. | |
It is coming up to midday, let's take a look at Big Ben. It can only | :29:19. | :29:25. | |
mean one thing, PMQs on its way. If you would like to comment on | :29:26. | :29:29. | |
proceedings, please be polite because we are most of the time! You | :29:30. | :29:35. | |
can e-mail us or you can tweet your thoughts using the hash tag. As | :29:36. | :29:41. | |
always, Nick Robinson joins us as well. Pretty hard for the front to | :29:42. | :29:47. | |
avoid the AstraZeneca, Pfizer business. Vince cable said his legal | :29:48. | :29:55. | |
options were very limited yesterday but he said repeatedly he was not | :29:56. | :29:59. | |
closing down the options. I sat in the gallery and nobody seemed to | :30:00. | :30:05. | |
pull at that thread and say, what do you mean? What are your options? | :30:06. | :30:11. | |
Given the Labour leader has decided to say that he would not block the | :30:12. | :30:17. | |
bid, but there should be other tests applied to it, it seems to me Ed | :30:18. | :30:22. | |
Miliband has to tease out what David Cameron is up to. But if in the end | :30:23. | :30:29. | |
you cannot block the bed, and the test would be an interesting | :30:30. | :30:34. | |
exercise, but if the test has failed and you cannot block the bid, you | :30:35. | :30:39. | |
will look stupid. The question is whether you can link Government | :30:40. | :30:44. | |
contract, in terms of the tax breaks, the patented box, or via the | :30:45. | :30:50. | |
NHS, whether you can link all that sort of business that a new company | :30:51. | :30:55. | |
combined would do via the Government with them keeping their promises. It | :30:56. | :31:01. | |
could never apply to Cadbury because the Government doesn't buy | :31:02. | :31:05. | |
chocolate. But the pharmaceutical business depends incredibly heavily | :31:06. | :31:09. | |
on Government regulation, tax policy and in this country on a Government | :31:10. | :31:13. | |
owned and run National Health Service. It will be interesting to | :31:14. | :31:16. | |
see whether Cameron is considering that. If this was to be blocked, it | :31:17. | :31:26. | |
would be largely a European matter. It would get referred to the | :31:27. | :31:30. | |
European Commission. Although this does not meet the test of plurality | :31:31. | :31:37. | |
on competition, the French managed to block a yoghurt | :31:38. | :31:47. | |
I shall have further meetings today. As the father of three daughters, I | :31:48. | :32:00. | |
am sure that the entire house will share my deep concern for the more | :32:01. | :32:05. | |
than 270 Nigerian schoolgirls held captive in that country. The only | :32:06. | :32:11. | |
so-called crime which they face is that they aspired to receive an | :32:12. | :32:17. | |
education. Would he set out for the house the step that this government | :32:18. | :32:21. | |
is taking to ensure that we help to ensure their release as soon as | :32:22. | :32:25. | |
possible? My honourable friend speaks for the whole House and | :32:26. | :32:31. | |
country, I am the father of two young daughters, and my reaction is | :32:32. | :32:36. | |
the same as his and any parent in this land or in the world, it is an | :32:37. | :32:41. | |
act of pure evil, it has united people to stand with Nigeria, to | :32:42. | :32:45. | |
help find these children and return them to their parents. We have made | :32:46. | :32:49. | |
repeated offers of help to the Nigerian government, I will speak to | :32:50. | :32:54. | |
the Nigerian president this afternoon, and will again say that | :32:55. | :32:59. | |
we stand ready to provide any assistance, working very closely | :33:00. | :33:03. | |
with the US. We already have a military training team in Nigeria, | :33:04. | :33:08. | |
we have counterterrorism experts, and we should be proud of the role | :33:09. | :33:14. | |
we play, where British aid is helping to educate 800,000 Nigerian | :33:15. | :33:20. | |
children, including 600,000 girls. It is a global issue, there are | :33:21. | :33:25. | |
extreme Islamists around who are against education, against progress, | :33:26. | :33:29. | |
against equality, and we must fight them and take them on. Let me begin | :33:30. | :33:41. | |
by associating myself with the Prime Minister's remarks on the situation | :33:42. | :33:46. | |
in Nigeria. On our proposal for three-year tenancies in the private | :33:47. | :33:50. | |
sector, can he tell us when he expects to make the inevitable | :33:51. | :33:53. | |
journey from saying they represent dangerous Venezuelan style thinking | :33:54. | :33:57. | |
to saying they are quite a good idea? I have not had the time to | :33:58. | :34:06. | |
study the rent-controlled proposals, but I am sure he can lay them out | :34:07. | :34:11. | |
for us. Let me be clear. If there is an opportunity to find longer term | :34:12. | :34:16. | |
tenancy agreements to give greater stability, a proposal made at last | :34:17. | :34:25. | |
year's Conservative conference, then I am sure we can work together. But | :34:26. | :34:31. | |
if the proposal is for rent controls that have been tried all over the | :34:32. | :34:36. | |
world, including in Britain, and have shown to fail, that is a very | :34:37. | :34:41. | |
bad idea. Even by his standards, this is a quick U-turn. Last week, | :34:42. | :34:56. | |
the chairman of the Conservative party was saying this was all back | :34:57. | :35:02. | |
to Venezuela, completely wrong, but the community secretary has | :35:03. | :35:05. | |
supported these proposals. How will we make it happen? I have got some | :35:06. | :35:11. | |
good briefing on these proposals from Labour MPs. Here they are! | :35:12. | :35:18. | |
Let's begin with the housing minister, you think she would | :35:19. | :35:22. | |
support the policy, she says, I do not think it will work in practice. | :35:23. | :35:32. | |
Then, moving over to the Department for local government, where the | :35:33. | :35:35. | |
shadow Secretary of State says this, we do not want to return to rent | :35:36. | :35:38. | |
controls, because the rental sector is meeting a demand for housing. The | :35:39. | :35:46. | |
authentic voice of Venezuela! Then, the head of the select committee, a | :35:47. | :35:50. | |
Labour MP, the member for Sheffield, he said, rent-controlled is not | :35:51. | :35:57. | |
feasible. There we have a Labour policy completely unclear about what | :35:58. | :36:01. | |
it is, but the one thing that is clear, Labour MPs do not back it. | :36:02. | :36:09. | |
All he shows is that he has nothing... Order. It has to be said | :36:10. | :36:16. | |
every week. However long it takes, a simple exercise in democracy, the | :36:17. | :36:23. | |
question will be heard, and the answer will be heard. It is | :36:24. | :36:28. | |
incredibly simple. All he shows is he has no idea about this incredibly | :36:29. | :36:33. | |
able that issue facing the country. There are 9 million people renting | :36:34. | :36:39. | |
in this country. Our proposal is to say there should be fixed three-year | :36:40. | :36:44. | |
tenancies, is the norm, for those people with predictable rent | :36:45. | :36:50. | |
changes. That is the proposal. Many people across the country think this | :36:51. | :36:54. | |
is for the first time a party addressing the issue they face. Can | :36:55. | :37:03. | |
he explain what is wrong with going from one year tenancies with | :37:04. | :37:07. | |
unpredictable rent rises, to three-year tenancies with | :37:08. | :37:09. | |
predictable rent a? Why has the Conservative Party even up on | :37:10. | :37:13. | |
millions of people who are generation rent? We want to build | :37:14. | :37:16. | |
more houses so we have a better rental sector with more affordable | :37:17. | :37:21. | |
rent. As I said to him in my first answer, if there -- if this is about | :37:22. | :37:28. | |
new tenancies that give longer-term security, yes, if it is about | :37:29. | :37:33. | |
mandating from the centre and destroying the housing market, no. | :37:34. | :37:37. | |
The problem I have with his policies is they all come from the same | :37:38. | :37:42. | |
place. They come from the Unite union. They said the nationalised | :37:43. | :37:51. | |
railways, he wants to. They said, let's have old-style rent controls, | :37:52. | :37:57. | |
he wants them. The problem with rent controls is | :37:58. | :37:59. | |
he wants them. The problem with rent for rent, their candidates are, and | :38:00. | :38:01. | |
their leader is. Thank you. The Prime Minister will | :38:02. | :38:17. | |
be as encouraged as I am that unemployment in my constituency is | :38:18. | :38:19. | |
down by almost a third since the last election. However, the future | :38:20. | :38:31. | |
for almost 1000 workers related to the power station in my constituency | :38:32. | :38:34. | |
is less certain. Will he meet with me to make sure we have a future for | :38:35. | :38:41. | |
this asset in my constituency? I am happy to meet with him and discuss | :38:42. | :38:45. | |
this, it is welcomed what he says about the fall in unemployment, | :38:46. | :38:48. | |
which we can see right across the country. Employment is growing | :38:49. | :38:52. | |
fastest not in the south-east, but in Wales, it shows the recovery is | :38:53. | :38:58. | |
increasingly more broadly based. I know about the problems at the power | :38:59. | :39:01. | |
station and the demand for further action, as has been agreed at Drax. | :39:02. | :39:11. | |
I have two world-class hospitals in my constituency. The Secretary of | :39:12. | :39:15. | |
State for health has decided that Hammersmith will lose its accident | :39:16. | :39:21. | |
and emergency, charring Cross will be demolished, losing all consultant | :39:22. | :39:25. | |
emergency services, including accident and emergency and the | :39:26. | :39:30. | |
country's best stroke unit. Will he stopped his Health Secretary putting | :39:31. | :39:34. | |
my constituents' lives at risk? What we are doing is making sure the NHS | :39:35. | :39:39. | |
is getting more money, it will get 2.4 billion this year, 74 million | :39:40. | :39:45. | |
than a year before. If you remember, his own party was Mike policy was to | :39:46. | :39:51. | |
cut the NHS, like they are doing in Wales. The changes being made there | :39:52. | :39:55. | |
are backed by clinicians and local people, and we want to see the NHS | :39:56. | :39:59. | |
improved, as it does under this government. Does he agree that you | :40:00. | :40:06. | |
keep's policies are based on fear, fear of the world, feel of | :40:07. | :40:14. | |
foreigners, and is a great trading nation, we should embrace the | :40:15. | :40:18. | |
world, and if anybody comes to my constituency and goes to hospital or | :40:19. | :40:23. | |
to the nursing homes or to the farms or to the building sites, they will | :40:24. | :40:27. | |
see the great contribution being made to our communities and to the | :40:28. | :40:32. | |
growth of our economy by fellow EU citizens. He is absolutely right, | :40:33. | :40:40. | |
Britain has benefited from being an economy that is open to investment | :40:41. | :40:44. | |
and open to people coming who want to contribute and work hard here. I | :40:45. | :40:48. | |
agree with what he says about UKIP, so much of their view is we do not | :40:49. | :40:53. | |
have a bright future, I believe that we do if we get our deficit down, | :40:54. | :40:57. | |
our economy growing, invest in apprenticeships, we can be one of | :40:58. | :41:01. | |
the success stories of the 21st-century. We are making | :41:02. | :41:05. | |
progress, that is how we challenge their worldview. There is deep | :41:06. | :41:13. | |
concern in the British business and scientific community about the | :41:14. | :41:18. | |
proposed takeover of AstraZeneca by two, it would have an impact on | :41:19. | :41:24. | |
British jobs, investment, export and science. The Business Secretary said | :41:25. | :41:32. | |
he is not ruling out intervention. What type of intervention is under | :41:33. | :41:37. | |
consideration by government? I agree with what he said yesterday, but let | :41:38. | :41:42. | |
me be clear, the most important intervention we can make is to back | :41:43. | :41:48. | |
British jobs, science, research and development, medicines and | :41:49. | :41:51. | |
technology, and that is why I asked the Cabinet Secretary and my | :41:52. | :41:55. | |
ministers to engage with both companies, right from the start of | :41:56. | :41:59. | |
this process, and I make no apology for that, because we know what | :42:00. | :42:02. | |
happens when you do not engage, when you stand back, say you are opposed | :42:03. | :42:08. | |
to everything, what you get is abject surrender and no guarantees | :42:09. | :42:12. | |
for Britain. We are fighting for British science, it is a pity he is | :42:13. | :42:21. | |
trying to play politics. Let me say first of all, it is good to hear he | :42:22. | :42:25. | |
agrees with the Business Secretary. He said this, one of the government | :42:26. | :42:29. | |
was Mike options will be to consider using our public interest test | :42:30. | :42:40. | |
powers. There needs to be a proper assessment of this bid. The Business | :42:41. | :42:44. | |
Secretary said he was open to doing this. This could be done through | :42:45. | :42:48. | |
this House, and we would support making that happen. Will he agreed | :42:49. | :42:53. | |
to do it? The assessment that I want is from the business Department on | :42:54. | :42:58. | |
this deal or, as there is not an offer on the table, any subsequent | :42:59. | :43:02. | |
offer. I will judge all of these things about whether it expands | :43:03. | :43:07. | |
British jobs, investment and science. I worry the point may be | :43:08. | :43:13. | |
lost in the debate. He thinks he is clever, we all know that, but he may | :43:14. | :43:19. | |
have missed this point. Britain benefits massively from being open | :43:20. | :43:24. | |
to investment. Nissan is producing more cars than the whole of Italy. | :43:25. | :43:31. | |
Jaguar Land Rover under Indian ownership has created 9000 jobs in | :43:32. | :43:33. | |
the West Midlands since I became Prime Minister. Vodafone and | :43:34. | :43:39. | |
AstraZeneca have benefited from the backing of an open country to go out | :43:40. | :43:43. | |
and build and purchase businesses around the world. There is more | :43:44. | :43:46. | |
inward investment into Britain today than the rest of the EU combined. | :43:47. | :43:53. | |
Don't let's put that at risk. He does not understand, this is simply | :43:54. | :43:58. | |
about something very straightforward, having an | :43:59. | :44:02. | |
independent assessment of this bid and whether it is in the national | :44:03. | :44:06. | |
interest. I want to ask him the question again, because it matters | :44:07. | :44:11. | |
to people across the country, is he ruling out all ruling in using the | :44:12. | :44:15. | |
public interest test on this takeover's we could make it happen. | :44:16. | :44:20. | |
His Business Secretary could make it happen, and we would support it. If | :44:21. | :44:24. | |
he does not take action now, and the bid goes through without a proper | :44:25. | :44:27. | |
assessment, everybody will know that he was cheerleading for this bid, | :44:28. | :44:32. | |
not championing British science and industry. I think it is deeply sad | :44:33. | :44:41. | |
that the leader of the opposition makes accusations about cheerleading | :44:42. | :44:43. | |
when what the government was doing was getting stuck in to help British | :44:44. | :44:49. | |
science, investment and jobs. Doesn't it tell you everything | :44:50. | :44:53. | |
that, given the choice of doing the right thing for the national | :44:54. | :44:57. | |
interest, working with the government, or making short-term | :44:58. | :45:00. | |
political points, that is what he chooses to do? We might ask why the | :45:01. | :45:05. | |
public interest test was changed in the first place. It was when they | :45:06. | :45:09. | |
were sitting in the Treasury. They wrote the rules, they sold the gold, | :45:10. | :45:13. | |
they saw manufacturing client by a half, and we will never take | :45:14. | :45:17. | |
lectures from the people who wrecked our economy. Will the Prime Minister | :45:18. | :45:33. | |
confirmed that under his leadership this country will never spend less | :45:34. | :45:42. | |
than the NATO recommended minimum of 2% of GDP on defence? We are | :45:43. | :45:45. | |
spending in excess of 2%, 2% of GDP on defence? We are | :45:46. | :45:52. | |
only countries in Europe to do that. The Greeks are spending ahead of 2% | :45:53. | :45:59. | |
not on the things that are useful for NATO. We should continue to make | :46:00. | :46:04. | |
sure we fulfil all our commitment in terms of defence spending. Will the | :46:05. | :46:10. | |
Prime Minister urgently meet again with me and fellow MPs to find a way | :46:11. | :46:14. | |
forward on consultant led, maternity services to be run by the University | :46:15. | :46:23. | |
Hospital in Stoke on Trent? The Right Honourable Lady has asked me | :46:24. | :46:27. | |
about this in the past. Despite all the difficulties I wanted to make | :46:28. | :46:32. | |
sure there was an opportunity to have a way for having consultant | :46:33. | :46:39. | |
led, maternity services. People who live in our major towns want to be | :46:40. | :46:44. | |
able to have their babies locally and it is important we do that. I am | :46:45. | :46:48. | |
regularly updated and I would be happy to meet with a delegation of | :46:49. | :46:55. | |
Staffordshire MPs if it is necessary to drop further at this point. Last | :46:56. | :47:02. | |
week, Boston consulting group published research that found in | :47:03. | :47:07. | |
Britain to the number one competitive manufacturing country -- | :47:08. | :47:13. | |
whole of Western Europe. It is number four globally behind China, | :47:14. | :47:18. | |
the United States and South Korea. Does my right honourable friend | :47:19. | :47:23. | |
agree this is the sort of company we should be keeping an further | :47:24. | :47:28. | |
evidence that our strategy to rebalance the UK economy towards | :47:29. | :47:32. | |
manufacturing and the West Midlands and other regions is working? I am | :47:33. | :47:38. | |
grateful for what might honourable friend says because for the first | :47:39. | :47:41. | |
time in a decade all three main sectors of the economy, | :47:42. | :47:46. | |
manufacturing, services and construction, have grown by 3% in | :47:47. | :47:51. | |
the last year. Manufacturing is important in itself, but also | :47:52. | :47:56. | |
because so much of it can be traded and we want to see Britain invest | :47:57. | :48:03. | |
more. The moves made by my right honourable friend in the budget are | :48:04. | :48:07. | |
very much dedicated towards that angle. We must remain the open | :48:08. | :48:12. | |
economy that will encourage people to invest in our manufacturing base. | :48:13. | :48:20. | |
Later this meet -- week the opening stages of the Giro d'Italia will | :48:21. | :48:23. | |
take place in Northern Ireland and along with the Tour de France coming | :48:24. | :48:29. | |
to Yorkshire, these sporting events allow us to showcase our region and | :48:30. | :48:34. | |
wrote the local economy. But as we seek to build a more prosperous and | :48:35. | :48:40. | |
better future for all of our people in Northern Ireland, it is important | :48:41. | :48:45. | |
that the suffering and hurt of victims is never forgotten? Whether | :48:46. | :48:50. | |
it is one years ago or ten years ago or 42 years ago, justice must be | :48:51. | :48:54. | |
pursued and the police must be allowed to follow the evidence | :48:55. | :48:59. | |
wherever it leads. First of all, can I agree with the right honourable | :49:00. | :49:04. | |
gentleman about the importance of these sporting events. The one in | :49:05. | :49:08. | |
Northern Ireland and the Tour de France in Leeds which will be great | :49:09. | :49:12. | |
for Yorkshire and the United Kingdom. We should do as much as we | :49:13. | :49:21. | |
can to promote these. He raises an important issue about terrorist | :49:22. | :49:26. | |
victims. We discussed over trying to secure greater assistance from Libya | :49:27. | :49:32. | |
over Semtex. We should be proud of the fact that a free country has an | :49:33. | :49:38. | |
independent judiciary and legal system and police service. They | :49:39. | :49:42. | |
decide who to arrest, who took Western and two to charge and that | :49:43. | :49:49. | |
is how it must remain. Dementia is one of the biggest challenges facing | :49:50. | :49:55. | |
our country. Will he join with me in congratulation the Alzheimer's | :49:56. | :50:00. | |
Society to raise awareness and challenge the stigma? Will he ensure | :50:01. | :50:06. | |
that there is a new dementia strategy at the end of the year | :50:07. | :50:09. | |
because the current one ends this year, so we can ensure people with | :50:10. | :50:17. | |
dementia get the support they need? We have turned the zero on Number | :50:18. | :50:21. | |
Ten into the dementia flower today to help boost the importance of | :50:22. | :50:26. | |
raising awareness about this issue and to encourage more people to | :50:27. | :50:32. | |
train as dementia and friends. It is about investing in research and | :50:33. | :50:36. | |
science, dementia friendly communities, and also making sure | :50:37. | :50:41. | |
our hostels and care homes better treat people with dementia. I will | :50:42. | :50:45. | |
perhaps write to him about the update to the strategy. 100,000 | :50:46. | :50:53. | |
people are already dead in Syria. Others are dying as we are here | :50:54. | :51:00. | |
today. They need help desperately. We have talked about humanitarian | :51:01. | :51:04. | |
help. What on earth are we doing about it? The right honourable lady | :51:05. | :51:13. | |
is right. Britain is the second largest, bilateral aid donor in | :51:14. | :51:17. | |
terms of humanitarian aid going into Syria. We are helping to feed, | :51:18. | :51:24. | |
clothe and house people in Turkey, Lebanon and elsewhere. She raises | :51:25. | :51:29. | |
the important point about getting aid into Syria. More is being done | :51:30. | :51:33. | |
on that, but it is extremely difficult because of the security | :51:34. | :51:39. | |
situation. We will continue to do what we can. As we mug the Centenary | :51:40. | :51:44. | |
of the First World War it is a national disgrace that the graves of | :51:45. | :51:52. | |
Victoria Cross winners are derelict. As the patron of the Victoria Cross | :51:53. | :51:59. | |
trust, we pledge ?100,000 to help restore the graves and the Sun | :52:00. | :52:02. | |
newspaper have highlighted this campaign. As the Government have | :52:03. | :52:08. | |
managed to match fund every penny raised, will the PM join me in | :52:09. | :52:14. | |
urging people to go online and donate and ensure we have fitting | :52:15. | :52:18. | |
memorials for the bravest of the brave. I think the Sun newspaper did | :52:19. | :52:27. | |
a good job of highlighting the importance of this issue. The | :52:28. | :52:33. | |
Communities Secretary has announced ?100,000 funding for the Victoria | :52:34. | :52:38. | |
Cross which will go to restoring the grave of Victoria Cross recipients. | :52:39. | :52:44. | |
Local authorities will put up paving stones for people who have won the | :52:45. | :52:49. | |
Victoria crosses in their area. The most important thing we are doing is | :52:50. | :52:54. | |
the huge, multi-million pound investment going into the Imperial | :52:55. | :52:59. | |
War Museum which will open this summer and it brings the First World | :53:00. | :53:03. | |
War to live in an extraordinary way and that is at the heart of our | :53:04. | :53:11. | |
commemorations. My constituent's disability means he needs a | :53:12. | :53:14. | |
specially adapted bed, so it cannot share a room with his wife, but they | :53:15. | :53:20. | |
are hit by the bedroom tax. Can the Prime Minister explain why the | :53:21. | :53:25. | |
Government is punishing him for his disability? We have the | :53:26. | :53:29. | |
discretionary housing payments for exactly this sort of case and the | :53:30. | :53:34. | |
money has been topped up, so there is no reason for people to be | :53:35. | :53:42. | |
disadvantage. AstraZeneca is Macclesfield's greatest employer, so | :53:43. | :53:46. | |
I shared constituents' concerned about the Pfizer bid. I welcome | :53:47. | :53:53. | |
steps from the Government. But what further steps are being taken to | :53:54. | :53:58. | |
strengthen those commitments and to safeguard highly skilled | :53:59. | :54:02. | |
manufacturing jobs in Macclesfield? I am grateful for my honourable | :54:03. | :54:08. | |
friend's remarks. There are 2000 people employed in his constituency. | :54:09. | :54:14. | |
Our approach is based upon trying to secure the best possible deal in | :54:15. | :54:18. | |
terms of jobs, investment and science. That is why it was right to | :54:19. | :54:23. | |
ask the cabinet secretary to engage with Pfizer. I find it extraordinary | :54:24. | :54:31. | |
we are being criticised for this. There is no offer on the table, but | :54:32. | :54:37. | |
the commitments made so far are encouraging in terms of completing | :54:38. | :54:42. | |
the Cambridge campus, making sure 20% of the combined companies' total | :54:43. | :54:49. | |
is in the UK's workforce going forward and it mentions substantial | :54:50. | :54:53. | |
manufacturing facilities in Macclesfield. Because of the | :54:54. | :54:58. | |
patented box we have introduced, the company would look at manufacturing | :54:59. | :55:03. | |
more in the UK. But I am not satisfied, I want more. But the way | :55:04. | :55:09. | |
to get more is to engage and not to stand up and play politics. I know | :55:10. | :55:15. | |
the Prime Minister has raised the important issue around the awareness | :55:16. | :55:21. | |
of mental health. Can he explain why since 2011 there is a 30% drop in | :55:22. | :55:29. | |
mental health beds in the NHS? Is it right mental health patients are | :55:30. | :55:36. | |
having to travel up to 200 miles? What matters is the quality of | :55:37. | :55:40. | |
provision and parity of esteem between physical health and mental | :55:41. | :55:45. | |
health. We have not solved every problem, but we have put into the | :55:46. | :55:51. | |
NHS mandate proper parity of esteem and proper targets for some of the | :55:52. | :55:57. | |
talking therapies that are vital in terms of mental health. Measuring | :55:58. | :56:01. | |
the output of our NHS purely by the number of beds is not a sensible | :56:02. | :56:08. | |
approach. The Government is making a substantial investment in renewing | :56:09. | :56:12. | |
and expanding the nation's infrastructure. There is a real need | :56:13. | :56:17. | |
to get more people into engineering so they will have long-term skills. | :56:18. | :56:22. | |
Will my right honourable friend assure me this Government will do | :56:23. | :56:26. | |
all it can to inspire the next generation of engineers? I know he | :56:27. | :56:32. | |
has been campaigning very hard to get the HS2 Academy to go to Milton | :56:33. | :56:38. | |
Keynes because there is a vital bit of skilled work that needs to be | :56:39. | :56:42. | |
done. The key thing about these investments, whether it is | :56:43. | :56:47. | |
Crossrail, the Olympics, HS2, is to plan in advance about the skills we | :56:48. | :56:54. | |
need so we can help people wanting to take on those skills. Today the | :56:55. | :56:59. | |
Chancellor and the Minister for schools have launched a campaign | :57:00. | :57:03. | |
which is all about encouraging young people to get into Stem subjects and | :57:04. | :57:07. | |
to stay in them because there is a falloff from GCSE up to a level, | :57:08. | :57:15. | |
particularly in physics. I am delighted to see the Prime Minister | :57:16. | :57:19. | |
is wearing his dementia friends badged today and I congratulate the | :57:20. | :57:25. | |
Alzheimer's Society on their commitment to get ?1 million over | :57:26. | :57:31. | |
the next year. Will he commit today to commit personally to put a | :57:32. | :57:36. | |
scandal to low wages and zero hours contracts for dedicated home carers | :57:37. | :57:41. | |
who look after people with dementia in our country? Let me praise the | :57:42. | :57:45. | |
right honourable lady for her work on dementia and the work she has | :57:46. | :57:50. | |
done to spread awareness about this. On the issue of 15 minute working | :57:51. | :57:55. | |
times, this is an issue for local councils. My own local council has | :57:56. | :58:00. | |
decided to stop these 15 minute visits because they believed you | :58:01. | :58:04. | |
cannot get any meaningful work done. On zero hours contracts we are | :58:05. | :58:10. | |
the first Government to have a proper review into this and we are | :58:11. | :58:14. | |
very unhappy about exclusivity clauses that do not allow you to | :58:15. | :58:19. | |
work elsewhere. But it is important to make sure our care system has got | :58:20. | :58:25. | |
people inside it who are caring and understanding about the problems of | :58:26. | :58:29. | |
dementia. We have both been through the very short dementia training | :58:30. | :58:39. | |
course. I need a refresher. With 1.3% growth in manufacturing in the | :58:40. | :58:43. | |
last quarter and strong performances from local firms in my constituency, | :58:44. | :58:49. | |
does the Prime Minister agree that one key element of the long-term, | :58:50. | :58:55. | |
economic plan is the need to improve... The need to further | :58:56. | :59:00. | |
strengthen our skills base so these firms can continue to grow and work | :59:01. | :59:06. | |
hard for Britain and generate exports? The key part of the | :59:07. | :59:13. | |
long-term plan is to rebalance our economy away from purely the South | :59:14. | :59:19. | |
East and toward manufacturing, exports and investment. He has | :59:20. | :59:25. | |
played his part by organising a festival for manufacturing and | :59:26. | :59:29. | |
engineering in Stroud. We have to inspire a new generation to think of | :59:30. | :59:33. | |
these careers and the subjects they should be studying in school and | :59:34. | :59:41. | |
university. Last Thursday the EU ban on the import of Indian mangoes took | :59:42. | :59:46. | |
effect. As a result hundreds of businesses in the UK will suffer | :59:47. | :59:51. | |
millions of pounds of losses. There was no consultation with this house | :59:52. | :59:55. | |
and no vote by British ministers. Next week he will be having his | :59:56. | :00:00. | |
first conversation with the new Indian Prime Minister. Will he do | :00:01. | :00:04. | |
his best to reverse this ban so we can keep the special relationship | :00:05. | :00:10. | |
with India and so we can have our delicious mangoes once again? I know | :00:11. | :00:16. | |
how much the honourable gentleman cares about this, so much that he | :00:17. | :00:23. | |
delivered a tray of mangoes to ten Downing St missing the deadline so | :00:24. | :00:27. | |
they could safely be consumed by people inside. This is a serious | :00:28. | :00:31. | |
issue. The European Commission has to look on the basis of the science | :00:32. | :00:38. | |
and the evidence. There are concerns about cross contamination in terms | :00:39. | :00:43. | |
of British crops and British interests. I understand how strongly | :00:44. | :00:48. | |
he feels and how strongly the Indian community feels and I look forward | :00:49. | :00:52. | |
to discussing it with the new Indian Prime Minister. With the Prime | :00:53. | :00:57. | |
Minister join me in congratulating the world-class furniture | :00:58. | :01:09. | |
manufacture to locate in Leamington. It was based on our rich industrial | :01:10. | :01:14. | |
heritage. Well he also paid tribute to local businesses that have | :01:15. | :01:20. | |
created jobs and reduced the number of DSE claimants in Warrington by a | :01:21. | :01:28. | |
remarkable 54% since May, 2010. I congratulate my honourable friend | :01:29. | :01:32. | |
for the decline in unemployment in his constituency. It is notable what | :01:33. | :01:37. | |
he says about furniture factories because these are the sort of | :01:38. | :01:43. | |
businesses that were going offshore. We are seeing a slow trend of | :01:44. | :01:47. | |
getting businesses coming back to Britain, investing and expanding in | :01:48. | :01:52. | |
Britain. We must do everything we can to encourage this, whether it is | :01:53. | :01:58. | |
keeping taxes down, cutting national insurance, training more apprentices | :01:59. | :02:09. | |
and investing in infrastructure. My constituent's son has recently | :02:10. | :02:12. | |
returned from serving in Afghanistan. Does the Prime Minister | :02:13. | :02:17. | |
think it is right she has to pay the bedroom tax to keep a room available | :02:18. | :02:33. | |
for him to stay in at home? If the spare room subsidy extension does | :02:34. | :02:34. | |
not apply, there spare room subsidy extension does | :02:35. | :02:39. | |
discretionary housing payment which is another way of dealing with this | :02:40. | :02:42. | |
and I would hope that Scunthorpe Borough Council would take up the | :02:43. | :03:15. | |
offer the service sector grew at its fastest level. Does this demonstrate | :03:16. | :03:20. | |
we must stick with the long-term economic plan? It is right, we have | :03:21. | :03:41. | |
to stick to the long-term economic plan and for him to be called on | :03:42. | :03:44. | |
Wednesday shows that plan and for him to be called on | :03:45. | :04:01. | |
that anything you can wear. The Prime Minister will know that over | :04:02. | :04:08. | |
365 people in Northern Ireland were given the royal prerogative of mercy | :04:09. | :04:12. | |
despite ten years of violence. Could he give a commitment that these | :04:13. | :04:19. | |
names will be made public? If the Queen takes the time to sign 365 | :04:20. | :04:24. | |
names, surely the public and the victims have the right to know? What | :04:25. | :04:31. | |
I would say to the honourable lady is there were difficult decisions | :04:32. | :04:36. | |
that were taken principally by the last Government at the time of the | :04:37. | :04:41. | |
various agreements that involved very difficult choices, hard choices | :04:42. | :04:46. | |
that had to be made in order to try and build a platform for peace and | :04:47. | :04:50. | |
reconciliation. I am happy to look at the specific point she says and | :04:51. | :04:56. | |
to reassure her in a letter. I do not want to unpick decisions taken | :04:57. | :05:02. | |
at a difficult time to give us the peace we enjoy today. The Chief | :05:03. | :05:08. | |
Medical Officer warned we are misusing antibiotics that we risk to | :05:09. | :05:12. | |
turning to the 19th century environment where routine operations | :05:13. | :05:17. | |
carry a grave risk of death. The World Health Organisation issued a | :05:18. | :05:22. | |
similar warning. On that basis, it surely is madness we continue to | :05:23. | :05:27. | |
allow so many antibiotics to be used in our factory farms. We know it is | :05:28. | :05:35. | |
contributing to resistance. My honourable friend raises an | :05:36. | :05:39. | |
extremely serious problem that is global in its nature and could have | :05:40. | :05:43. | |
unbelievably bad consequences in terms of antimicrobial resistance | :05:44. | :05:49. | |
leading to a minor ailment is not being properly treated. One of the | :05:50. | :05:54. | |
problems is the current way research is done by pharmaceutical companies | :05:55. | :05:58. | |
is not necessarily bringing forward you antibiotics in the way we need. | :05:59. | :06:03. | |
I have met with the Chief Medical Officer to discuss this. There are a | :06:04. | :06:08. | |
number of steps we can take here in the UK and I hope to say something | :06:09. | :06:16. | |
about it soon. Yesterday the Secretary of State for business, | :06:17. | :06:20. | |
innovation and skills said he was working with civil servants to | :06:21. | :06:26. | |
ensure that any securities during the proposed takeover of AstraZeneca | :06:27. | :06:31. | |
could be made legally binding. Does the Prime Minister back this? The | :06:32. | :06:36. | |
more we can do to strengthen the assurances we are given, the better. | :06:37. | :06:42. | |
But the only way you will get assurances is by engaging and | :06:43. | :06:45. | |
getting stuck in with those companies and I find it | :06:46. | :06:49. | |
extraordinary the Labour Party chooses to criticise us for that. | :06:50. | :06:58. | |
The Pfizer bid for AstraZeneca is driven by tax advantages. Has the | :06:59. | :06:59. | |
Prime Minister spoken driven by tax advantages. Has the | :07:00. | :07:03. | |
Government over changes to their tax law? Pfizer mentioned in a letter to | :07:04. | :07:14. | |
me that the patent box is a positive reason for wanting to invest in | :07:15. | :07:18. | |
Britain and to examine whether they could increase manufacturing. The | :07:19. | :07:23. | |
way it works is you only get the low tax benefit if you make your | :07:24. | :07:27. | |
investment and research in the UK and then exploit that research by | :07:28. | :07:33. | |
manufacturing in the UK. We should be incredibly hard-headed about | :07:34. | :07:38. | |
this. It is an advantage that Britain is a low tax country. We | :07:39. | :07:42. | |
used to bemoan the fact companies were leaving because of our high | :07:43. | :07:54. | |
taxes. Now they want to come here. But that is not enough, we want the | :07:55. | :07:56. | |
investment, the jobs and the research that comes | :07:57. | :08:04. | |
Ed Miliband split his questions into two, the first were on Labour's | :08:05. | :08:15. | |
plans for rent, not rent controls, they say, but plans to extend the | :08:16. | :08:20. | |
leases and make the increase in rent more predictable. That was the first | :08:21. | :08:25. | |
part. When he came back, it was about what the government position | :08:26. | :08:31. | |
is, and what the Labour Party's position is, on Pfizer's bid to take | :08:32. | :08:39. | |
over AstraZeneca. The Prime Minister made a remarkable claim, edge did | :08:40. | :08:46. | |
not seem right, that Nissan in Sunderland alone produces more cars | :08:47. | :08:53. | |
now than the whole of Italy. We got into checking that, and amazingly, | :08:54. | :09:02. | |
the Prime Minister is right. Italy produced 388,000 cars in 2013, | :09:03. | :09:05. | |
Nissan in Sunderland reduced half a million. Who would have thought? It | :09:06. | :09:21. | |
is a great fiat! Oh, dear! You try to act in the best traditions of | :09:22. | :09:25. | |
public service broadcasting, trying to see if it was true, and admitting | :09:26. | :09:30. | |
that he was right, and this is what you have to say! Lots of reaction to | :09:31. | :09:37. | |
those subjects, one person said, the rent in this country is diabolical, | :09:38. | :09:42. | |
even in Housing Association properties. The building quality | :09:43. | :09:45. | |
does not warrant such a large sum of money. One person says, Ed | :09:46. | :09:51. | |
Miliband's Internet seems to have failed him, rent control is a bad | :09:52. | :09:55. | |
idea, not supported by most of the public. One person says, Ed Miliband | :09:56. | :10:01. | |
is going on the right issues but using the wrong words and tone. He | :10:02. | :10:06. | |
must start being human. One person says, there should be emergency | :10:07. | :10:12. | |
legislation to introduce full public interest powers in the case of major | :10:13. | :10:16. | |
mergers. One person said, with regard to AstraZeneca, it is a | :10:17. | :10:23. | |
British company but it is not owned by Britain, shareholders must be | :10:24. | :10:28. | |
given the ultimate decision will stop --. One person said, I am in | :10:29. | :10:32. | |
despair of David Cameron's ducking and diving, not answering questions | :10:33. | :10:39. | |
apart from those from his backbench flunkies. That is a good word! I can | :10:40. | :10:47. | |
see the light in your eyes shine! Over to queue, Nigel Evans! I would | :10:48. | :10:53. | |
have been won last week, but the speaker just missed me. It is quite | :10:54. | :11:02. | |
interesting, the sound and fury from both front benches that AstraZeneca. | :11:03. | :11:14. | |
I am not clear what other side things should be done. Labour Party | :11:15. | :11:19. | |
think they can use the public interest test. All of the law around | :11:20. | :11:24. | |
takeovers was changed by the last Labour government to more narrowly | :11:25. | :11:32. | |
defined when you can intervene about banking, media takeovers and | :11:33. | :11:37. | |
national security. The Labour Party believe there is still some | :11:38. | :11:41. | |
possibility that you could intervene using the public interest test. I | :11:42. | :11:47. | |
was just reading up on this, Vince Cable, many years ago, said, when | :11:48. | :11:56. | |
the law was passed in 2002, it will now become almost a matter of course | :11:57. | :12:00. | |
for large mergers to be referred for examination. Very different from | :12:01. | :12:06. | |
what he is saying now. He said yesterday in the House of Commons, | :12:07. | :12:10. | |
the law is narrow, but we would need clearance by the European | :12:11. | :12:15. | |
commission. So it looks as though both government does not rule out | :12:16. | :12:18. | |
the possibility of intervening, David Cameron ignored the | :12:19. | :12:25. | |
questions, I suspect because they still discussing behind the scenes | :12:26. | :12:29. | |
what they can and can't do, and the Labour Party say it will possible | :12:30. | :12:31. | |
without spelling out how and why their legal view is that this is | :12:32. | :12:40. | |
possible. There would be a danger as a result of the narrower public | :12:41. | :12:47. | |
interest test that resulted from the changes the last Labour government | :12:48. | :12:50. | |
made, that if any British government tried to enforce it, by and large, | :12:51. | :12:56. | |
if it is not a competition basis, there is little ground, unless it is | :12:57. | :13:01. | |
a national security issue, but if the British government tried to use | :13:02. | :13:06. | |
that test, such as it is, it would almost certainly be litigated by | :13:07. | :13:13. | |
Brussels. As regards the 2002 at, it is sufficient to deal with the | :13:14. | :13:19. | |
concerns that Ed Miliband talks about. Vince Cable talked about | :13:20. | :13:25. | |
changing legislation, there is a vehicle going through to do that. | :13:26. | :13:30. | |
AstraZeneca are important to our country, it is an important science | :13:31. | :13:38. | |
base, it is not an -- not a normal company. Is it in our interest for | :13:39. | :13:42. | |
this company to be taken over and for jobs to be lost, or for research | :13:43. | :13:46. | |
and develop and to close down? Pfizer have form, not just in Kent, | :13:47. | :13:53. | |
but in Sweden as well. Vince Cable seemed to accept this. The point Ed | :13:54. | :13:59. | |
Miliband was asking, do you agree with your Business Secretary, and if | :14:00. | :14:03. | |
so, what are you going to do about it? We are willing to work with you. | :14:04. | :14:08. | |
If you have the public interest power, you would stop the takeover? | :14:09. | :14:15. | |
It is a test. You say to Pfizer, these are our concerns and | :14:16. | :14:19. | |
indicators, can you assure us you are satisfied? This is the | :14:20. | :14:25. | |
difference between a gentleman's agreement and getting reassurance | :14:26. | :14:28. | |
that is binding and will hold firm about jobs being kept and research | :14:29. | :14:31. | |
and develop and taking place. Is this a good thing or a bad thing in | :14:32. | :14:41. | |
general? I suspect this is all quite sensitive, it is not just working | :14:42. | :14:45. | |
out what you can and can't do. We are talking about share prices. It | :14:46. | :14:54. | |
is perfectly open, there may be sensitivity for the shareholders, | :14:55. | :14:59. | |
but we can say what we like. Absolutely, but I can understand why | :15:00. | :15:03. | |
do you have to be sensitive about the share price. It goes back to the | :15:04. | :15:09. | |
car industry, I remember when I is rolled when Jaguar Land Rover were | :15:10. | :15:15. | |
taken over, if they're going to be any British owned, never to be any | :15:16. | :15:18. | |
British owned, new factory at the end of the day? The fact is, we are | :15:19. | :15:22. | |
producing and selling more cars than before. It is not a worry as to who | :15:23. | :15:29. | |
owns it, it is a worry as to whether the jobs will be preserved and the | :15:30. | :15:40. | |
research and of element maintained. AstraZeneca, Macclesfield, | :15:41. | :15:47. | |
producers, I am told, 2% of the UK's exported goods. For people who | :15:48. | :15:52. | |
do not know why pharmaceutical matters, that is why. What should | :15:53. | :15:57. | |
children be taught in school and how? Hardly a new question, but one | :15:58. | :16:00. | |
that continues to preoccupy politicians, teachers and parents. | :16:01. | :16:03. | |
For our soapbox this week, we hear from one ex-London teacher, Daisy | :16:04. | :16:06. | |
Christodoulou, who believes that the education system is failing children | :16:07. | :16:08. | |
by prioritising experience over learning hard facts. | :16:09. | :16:38. | |
Silence! The lesson has started. Sit up. Pay attention. Repeat after me. | :16:39. | :16:50. | |
Education has come along way since the days of classrooms like these. | :16:51. | :16:55. | |
However, that is not to say everything about modern education is | :16:56. | :17:01. | |
perfect. Pupils leave school still facing serious difficulties with | :17:02. | :17:04. | |
literacy and numeracy. When I started working as a teacher, I saw | :17:05. | :17:10. | |
the impact of this. One of the main reasons it is happening is because | :17:11. | :17:14. | |
modern methods assume you can teach skills and you do not have to bother | :17:15. | :17:19. | |
about facts. But there are some facts you simply have to learn | :17:20. | :17:24. | |
before you can progress. Here we have a map of the British | :17:25. | :17:33. | |
Isles. And right here is London. Over the last 50 years we have | :17:34. | :17:38. | |
discovered evermore about how our minds work. Everybody has a limited | :17:39. | :17:43. | |
working memory, a maximum of seven new items. Any more and we get | :17:44. | :17:48. | |
overwhelmed. That is why we cannot just rely on the Internet and that | :17:49. | :17:53. | |
is why it is important to memorise things. You commit it to long-term | :17:54. | :17:59. | |
memory, leaving valuable space in working memory, and that is why it | :18:00. | :18:03. | |
is easier to solve a maths problem when you know your times tables. But | :18:04. | :18:11. | |
many prominent educationalists and Government agencies were giving | :18:12. | :18:15. | |
advice that ran counter to this evidence. They dismissed that | :18:16. | :18:18. | |
learning as being outdated, but that is not true. Learning facts does not | :18:19. | :18:25. | |
have to look like this. There are plenty of modern and engaging ways. | :18:26. | :18:33. | |
Memory is vital for learning. It is time for modern education to learn | :18:34. | :18:39. | |
that lesson. And Daisy Christodoulou who is currently Director of | :18:40. | :18:42. | |
Research and Development at the ARK Academy chain of schools joins us | :18:43. | :18:46. | |
now. You say you saw the human impact, | :18:47. | :18:54. | |
what was that human impact? There is an assumption you can achieve | :18:55. | :18:59. | |
expertise and get top grade, but you do not have to worry about mastering | :19:00. | :19:05. | |
facts and learning them very well. That is not the case. Modern | :19:06. | :19:12. | |
education is not fact free. My kids have to learn spelling is by road | :19:13. | :19:18. | |
and there are times tables. They do have to learn them. There are lots | :19:19. | :19:23. | |
of teachers doing great things and teaching facts. The problem for me | :19:24. | :19:30. | |
is, unfortunately there is an awful lot of advice and in some cases man | :19:31. | :19:35. | |
patient of practices which are not about learning the facts and getting | :19:36. | :19:40. | |
the fluency. I think that is what I am worried about. Unfortunately, the | :19:41. | :19:47. | |
advice teachers get does not back it up. Where is that voice coming | :19:48. | :19:53. | |
from? Where is that direction coming from because of technology we can | :19:54. | :20:00. | |
Google everything we need to know? That is widespread and not just in | :20:01. | :20:05. | |
education, almost across the board in society. With smartphones we do | :20:06. | :20:11. | |
not have to learn anything. There is a general tendency across society, | :20:12. | :20:16. | |
but there are some education departments and some Government | :20:17. | :20:24. | |
agencies, think and make some teachers more frightened to teach | :20:25. | :20:28. | |
facts because they are worried about what Ofsted inspectors say. Do you | :20:29. | :20:33. | |
think Michael Gove is trying to rectify that problem? It is more | :20:34. | :20:39. | |
than a party political issue. There is a clear scientific consensus | :20:40. | :20:43. | |
about facts. It would be good for that concerns us to be better | :20:44. | :20:49. | |
known. What is the best way to learn facts? A lot of research shows | :20:50. | :20:54. | |
having teacher led lessons helps. There was a big study done in | :20:55. | :21:00. | |
America in the 60s and 70s which showed a method of direct | :21:01. | :21:04. | |
instruction was successful. As well as recognising we need to learn | :21:05. | :21:11. | |
facts, we have to accept teacher led ways of doing it is not bad. They | :21:12. | :21:16. | |
can be inspiring. Do you think it was helpful for Michael Gove to | :21:17. | :21:22. | |
describe the educational establishment as a blog? All of us | :21:23. | :21:27. | |
as MPs value greatly what they do in our own schools. Independent grammar | :21:28. | :21:35. | |
schools, academies and other schools all do a brilliant job from what I | :21:36. | :21:42. | |
can see in my patch. So you did not really agree with him. It is an | :21:43. | :21:53. | |
amorphous blob. I am not as good. It is rare for us to have a guess of | :21:54. | :22:02. | |
the rare calibre as baby, take a look at her in action in University | :22:03. | :22:05. | |
Challenge. Which two European stains I had the | :22:06. | :22:11. | |
smallest landmass in the world divided by two nations? France and | :22:12. | :22:18. | |
the Netherlands. What is the surname of the cricketing family...? Hadley. | :22:19. | :22:29. | |
What two firms followed reduce in the environmentalist area? Which | :22:30. | :22:39. | |
newly formed party led by Edward Olmert...? Academia. It you enjoy | :22:40. | :22:50. | |
that? I hope you are feeling nervous. We have only got a few | :22:51. | :22:58. | |
seconds. We have got some questions and you can all join in. Do not | :22:59. | :23:04. | |
delay. What year was William Shakespeare born? 1564? Sorry, am I | :23:05. | :23:18. | |
allowed to join in? What is the capital of Azerbaijan? Backward? | :23:19. | :23:32. | |
What is 12 times 13. Wii 166. Know, 56. What is the most abundant | :23:33. | :23:40. | |
element in the human body? Water? No, what are. Who is the longest | :23:41. | :23:49. | |
serving British Prime Minister? Robert Walpole. How long did he | :23:50. | :23:58. | |
serve? 14 years? You are not getting points for imaginative answers? Did | :23:59. | :24:06. | |
you know that, Daisy? Note. You have got to learn and memorise these | :24:07. | :24:14. | |
facts. For how many years? 20 years and 314 days. Did and answer these | :24:15. | :24:25. | |
questions? Daisy, thank you very much. Now, since we have a former | :24:26. | :24:30. | |
Deputy Speaker on the programme we thought we'd ask if the current | :24:31. | :24:33. | |
speaker, John Bercow, was getting rather too big for his boots. Last | :24:34. | :24:36. | |
week he made the headlines after cutting short the Prime Minister at | :24:37. | :24:40. | |
PMQs. In fact, Mr Bercow makes the headlines rather a lot. Here he is | :24:41. | :24:50. | |
in action. Order! Order! You really are a very over excitable | :24:51. | :24:54. | |
individual. You need to write out 1000 times, I will behave myself at | :24:55. | :25:02. | |
PMQs. His role is to nod his head in the appropriate places and to fetch | :25:03. | :25:10. | |
and carry notes, no noise required. The Government Chief Whip has | :25:11. | :25:14. | |
absolutely no business whatsoever shouting from a sedentary position. | :25:15. | :25:20. | |
Try to calm down and behave like an adult and if you cannot, if it is | :25:21. | :25:25. | |
beyond you, leave the chamber and get out, we will manage without you. | :25:26. | :25:31. | |
He tends to behave as though every exchange is a conversation with her. | :25:32. | :25:39. | |
With the honourable lady answer, it could have done, it didn't. Order! I | :25:40. | :25:50. | |
have not finished. Order! In response to that question, the Prime | :25:51. | :25:53. | |
Minister has finished and he can take it from me he has finished. It | :25:54. | :26:03. | |
is interesting when you bring it all together. We are treading on | :26:04. | :26:10. | |
eggshells because we would all try to catch the eye of the speaker. But | :26:11. | :26:16. | |
it is a difficult job. The house gets a bit noisy at times and I know | :26:17. | :26:23. | |
the only time I sort of lost it a bit was against Ian Austin when I | :26:24. | :26:28. | |
shouted order, order and Glenda Jackson came up to me and said even | :26:29. | :26:34. | |
I stopped talking and I was in my office! It is a huge problem. I | :26:35. | :26:39. | |
cannot think of any speaker in modern times who has behaved like | :26:40. | :26:45. | |
that. No, and he is getting a lot of publicity. The barbed bit at the end | :26:46. | :26:52. | |
of Simon Burns' question where he said, I hope he will get an | :26:53. | :26:56. | |
opportunity to answer it in full, was directly in relation to John | :26:57. | :27:01. | |
Bercow stopping David Cameron last week in giving a full response. No | :27:02. | :27:08. | |
love lost. Is there not a sense that because this is broadcast on network | :27:09. | :27:12. | |
television and other channels, that there is a bit of grandstanding | :27:13. | :27:18. | |
going on? A bit of theatre and almost everybody in the house can be | :27:19. | :27:23. | |
accused of some form of grandstanding at some time. John | :27:24. | :27:26. | |
gets the focus of attention because he is in the referee's chair. Does | :27:27. | :27:33. | |
he not get the focus of attention because it is serial behaviour? It | :27:34. | :27:38. | |
is a rowdy house and you have to keep it in control. John does it in | :27:39. | :27:44. | |
his style. We have gone through the entire order paper. Under Michael | :27:45. | :27:48. | |
Martin if you were below question seven, the chances of you getting | :27:49. | :27:53. | |
selected were very thin. John makes sure more backbenchers get to ask | :27:54. | :27:57. | |
questions. Why is he not more popular? I'm not sure how unpopular | :27:58. | :28:06. | |
he is. What he has done as a speaker is give the legislature more powers | :28:07. | :28:11. | |
to give and hold the executive to account. He is a tough task master. | :28:12. | :28:17. | |
He is always looking to his right, the Conservatives. Look at Fiona | :28:18. | :28:23. | |
McTaggart last week, you can edit in all sorts of ways. We all feel | :28:24. | :28:29. | |
slighted when we are not chosen. We are going to put you out of your | :28:30. | :28:34. | |
misery and give you the answer to guess the year. It is 1971. Press | :28:35. | :28:40. | |
the red button, Nigel. This is the winner. That is it for today. Jo | :28:41. | :28:48. | |
will be on her own tomorrow. I am out filming. BBC One news is | :28:49. | :28:52. | |
starting now. Goodbye. Sorry, what? | :28:53. | :29:04. | |
I gotta get off the show. ..galling things you have done in the | :29:05. | :29:14. | |
short time that we have known you...! | :29:15. | :29:18. |