Browse content similar to 10/06/2014. Check below for episodes and series from the same categories and more!
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Afternoon, folks, welcome to the Daily Politics. | :00:36. | :00:37. | |
Promote British values in British schools. | :00:38. | :00:39. | |
So says Michael Gove after a report by Ofsted found that | :00:40. | :00:43. | |
some Muslim governors had created a "culture of fear and intimidation" | :00:44. | :00:46. | |
A backlog of half a million at the passport office. | :00:47. | :00:53. | |
The improving economy or government cuts? | :00:54. | :00:59. | |
We'll be asking if you have a few choice words to say about | :01:00. | :01:02. | |
Remind us what your stage name is? I am Alan Howling Laud Hope, official | :01:03. | :01:17. | |
leader of the Monster Raving Loony Party! | :01:18. | :01:20. | |
And they've been cheering us up at by-elections since I was | :01:21. | :01:23. | |
But is the end nigh for the Monster Raving Loonies? | :01:24. | :01:29. | |
All that in the next hour, and with us for the whole programme today is | :01:30. | :01:33. | |
Charles is a former Home Secretary and a former Education Secretary. | :01:34. | :01:38. | |
Now first today, let?s talk about Labour. | :01:39. | :01:43. | |
Well, there is clearly a long way to go. All the polls show that the | :01:44. | :01:56. | |
league is holding up, but it is small by comparison with previous | :01:57. | :01:58. | |
parliaments. For me, the main story is the economy. They have to | :01:59. | :02:04. | |
convince people in the country that we will not go back to bad economic | :02:05. | :02:07. | |
circumstances of the past and that we have an economic vision for the | :02:08. | :02:12. | |
future. Both of those are tasks were out of work needs to be done. Do you | :02:13. | :02:19. | |
admit that the Tory argument that Labour worsened the financial mess | :02:20. | :02:21. | |
that Britain found itself in is still a cogent one, that Labour has | :02:22. | :02:25. | |
not been able to combat the argument, and the economy is | :02:26. | :02:30. | |
recovering? It is very cogent. I don't think it is true. Labour has a | :02:31. | :02:35. | |
much better tale to tell about the economy than is widely believed. But | :02:36. | :02:38. | |
you are correct, the Conservatives have put this story across and it is | :02:39. | :02:43. | |
widely believed in the country. Labour have not been able to contest | :02:44. | :02:48. | |
it effectively. Is it because it is too difficult to try and go against | :02:49. | :02:54. | |
growth returning and unemployment continuing to go down, where as | :02:55. | :02:58. | |
Labour have been talking about what they call a cost of living crisis | :02:59. | :03:02. | |
instead? I think we need a stronger narrative about what we did right | :03:03. | :03:06. | |
and wrong in government. We did many things right and something is | :03:07. | :03:09. | |
wrong. We have not been prepared to admit the mistakes we made. We have | :03:10. | :03:14. | |
rested a great deal on assuming that the conservative strategy would | :03:15. | :03:21. | |
succeed and that plan A would not work. That was unwise, because the | :03:22. | :03:24. | |
Conservatives have succeeded in getting the economy onto a more | :03:25. | :03:27. | |
positive path, which leaves us little room to be now. The cost of | :03:28. | :03:32. | |
living crisis, as Labour call it, is that a powerful enough narrative? | :03:33. | :03:37. | |
Have they relied too much on that? It is a real description of the | :03:38. | :03:47. | |
situation many people feel. But we need a story that is about more than | :03:48. | :03:52. | |
just life as people experience it, but more about how Labour would | :03:53. | :03:57. | |
change those conditions. Looking at the European elections, for the | :03:58. | :03:59. | |
first time in 30 years, and opposition has failed to win the | :04:00. | :04:04. | |
European elections. YouGov said Labour should be terrified. Are you? | :04:05. | :04:09. | |
I am myself, because I think Labour is resting a lot on UKIP doing well | :04:10. | :04:13. | |
enough to remove a large number of seats from the Tories. And the | :04:14. | :04:16. | |
European elections reinforced that view that UKIP could do well, but I | :04:17. | :04:20. | |
don't believe it myself. I think they will do well to get one MP, | :04:21. | :04:27. | |
probably Nigel Farage. As Labour underestimated UKIP taking votes | :04:28. | :04:32. | |
from them? At the end of the day, as the European elections showed, it | :04:33. | :04:35. | |
was a startling election night. There was a straight switch from the | :04:36. | :04:41. | |
Lib Dems in 2090 UKIP in 2014. That is because the "fed up with all of | :04:42. | :04:45. | |
them" vote had switched from the Lib Dems before they were in government | :04:46. | :04:51. | |
to UKIP. The way to do with that is not to attack UKIP, but to make sure | :04:52. | :04:55. | |
we get our messages across so that Labour have something to offer. Do | :04:56. | :04:58. | |
you think Labour has been complacent about its core vote? I think that | :04:59. | :05:04. | |
would be an unfair charge. Taking it for granted? There is a 35% strategy | :05:05. | :05:10. | |
which says that Labour should focus on its core vote. I have never | :05:11. | :05:15. | |
thought that is the right approach. You have to appeal to the whole | :05:16. | :05:20. | |
country. I don't think it has taken the vote for granted, but it has not | :05:21. | :05:25. | |
worked out how to talk to people in an effective way. What about | :05:26. | :05:28. | |
immigration? There is a divide, because I speak to a lot of Labour | :05:29. | :05:32. | |
politicians and you get a divide between those who think it was right | :05:33. | :05:37. | |
to apologise for, in their words, allowing too many migrants to come | :05:38. | :05:42. | |
into Britain during the 2000s, and those who say we should be proud of | :05:43. | :05:46. | |
that because it led to a booming economy. Which side are you on? | :05:47. | :05:53. | |
Need. -- neither. The key thing is to convince people that we are | :05:54. | :05:57. | |
controlling immigration into this country. When I became Home | :05:58. | :06:01. | |
Secretary, we made a number of changes and the situation got | :06:02. | :06:04. | |
wetter, but people believed it was not under control -- the situation | :06:05. | :06:10. | |
got better. Were the numbers too high when you were Home Secretary? I | :06:11. | :06:13. | |
have never thought the numbers are the issue. That is why the Tories' | :06:14. | :06:17. | |
slogan of trying to reduce immigrants to 100,000 a year is | :06:18. | :06:22. | |
mad. It will not succeed. Immigration is a fact of life. It is | :06:23. | :06:28. | |
important and we have to control it properly and make sure that | :06:29. | :06:32. | |
immigrants are fully part of our society when they are here. This | :06:33. | :06:35. | |
numbers game is not the right way to look at it. So John was wrong when | :06:36. | :06:47. | |
he said he would like to see fewer EU migrants? I think he has been | :06:48. | :06:52. | |
wrong about this consists me. He has overstated the threat. He looks at | :06:53. | :07:01. | |
the Poles in his constituency of Southampton, and that is not | :07:02. | :07:04. | |
correct. What about Ed Miliband? Is he a man that enough people in the | :07:05. | :07:07. | |
country can imagine as prime minister? The polls tell you know. I | :07:08. | :07:14. | |
think a lot of this stuff about him being geeky is nonsense. Policy | :07:15. | :07:17. | |
since pick-up labels like that and that is the way it goes. At the | :07:18. | :07:22. | |
moment, he has to convince people he is the best person to lead the | :07:23. | :07:25. | |
country. He does have the capacity to lead the country, but he pulled | :07:26. | :07:30. | |
them believe it. Can Labour win an outright majority? It could if it | :07:31. | :07:34. | |
gets its position right. I am as a mystic. I think it is difficult for | :07:35. | :07:38. | |
us to do that, but it could be done. -- I am pessimistic. Gordon Brown | :07:39. | :07:43. | |
has been showing his face a bit more over the campaign in Scotland. And | :07:44. | :07:47. | |
he was in Westminster, hosting a journalists' lunch. Do you think his | :07:48. | :07:55. | |
reputation has recovered since 2010? What was strong about his remarks | :07:56. | :08:03. | |
yesterday was that he was passionate about Scotland being part of the | :08:04. | :08:10. | |
UK. My own view is that he was not a successful prime minister or party | :08:11. | :08:13. | |
leader, and it will take time for his reputation to change. He advised | :08:14. | :08:18. | |
that David Cameron should take part in a TV debate with Alex Salmon. I | :08:19. | :08:29. | |
don't have a view on that. I think Alistair Darling is running the | :08:30. | :08:34. | |
campaign well. What about Tony Blair? We saw him giving a speech | :08:35. | :08:38. | |
the week before last. Does he want another big job? He is in a tragic | :08:39. | :08:44. | |
position. I think he does want a big job, but there is no chance of him | :08:45. | :08:47. | |
getting it. He finished as prime minister relatively young. He has | :08:48. | :08:52. | |
commend as gifts and I remain a supporter of his. He could | :08:53. | :08:54. | |
contribute a great deal in the public sphere, and I would urge him | :08:55. | :09:00. | |
to do that. Any role you have in mind? Nothing in particular, and | :09:01. | :09:07. | |
that is the tragedy. It is ridiculous to think of him as a | :09:08. | :09:12. | |
possible president of Europe in these circumstances. He is caught | :09:13. | :09:16. | |
between wanting to contribute publicly and having a lot to | :09:17. | :09:20. | |
contribute, and when he makes speeches like the one you mentioned, | :09:21. | :09:26. | |
there is a lot of resonance for it. A few days afterwards, lots of | :09:27. | :09:28. | |
people were talking about how tremendous he was. But he has no | :09:29. | :09:32. | |
route back to make that contribution. | :09:33. | :09:35. | |
Now, it's at this point in the show that we normally serve | :09:36. | :09:38. | |
It's usually just for fun, which is another way | :09:39. | :09:42. | |
But today we're offering nothing less than a coveted Daily Politics | :09:43. | :09:47. | |
We had too many made at the printer?s, you see. | :09:48. | :09:50. | |
To be in with a chance, we want you to come up with | :09:51. | :09:55. | |
The prime minister's in Sweden at the moment, discussing who'll be | :09:56. | :09:58. | |
the next president of the European Commission, and what better way to | :09:59. | :10:02. | |
conduct your top-level meetings than enjoying a quick row on a lake? | :10:03. | :10:05. | |
Here's David Cameron with German chancellor Angela Merkel, | :10:06. | :10:09. | |
Sweden's PM Frederik Reinfeldt, and the Dutch leader Mark Rutte. | :10:10. | :10:15. | |
So we want you to tweet your suggestions using | :10:16. | :10:19. | |
the hashtag #bbcdp, or tweet us at daily-politics. | :10:20. | :10:24. | |
And at the end of the show, Charles here will choose | :10:25. | :10:27. | |
He might even come up with one of his own. | :10:28. | :10:32. | |
Now to events in the House of Commons yesterday. | :10:33. | :10:35. | |
Michael Gove and Theresa May took centre stage at the despatch box | :10:36. | :10:38. | |
after both had appeared to blame each other for not tackling Muslim | :10:39. | :10:42. | |
MPs were ready for a bit a of a showdown, the atmosphere was rowdy. | :10:43. | :10:48. | |
But the barracking soon died down, and Michael Gove was heard | :10:49. | :10:51. | |
in sombre silence as he described what has allegedly been going on | :10:52. | :10:55. | |
Yes, we need to get to the bottom of what has happened in the schools in | :10:56. | :11:13. | |
Birmingham, but it is thanks to this Education Secretary that the | :11:14. | :11:16. | |
Department for Education has, for the first time, a dedicated | :11:17. | :11:19. | |
extremism unit to try to stop this sort of thing from happening. At one | :11:20. | :11:24. | |
secular primary School, terms such as white prostitute, unsuitable for | :11:25. | :11:29. | |
primary children's ears, were used in Friday assembly is almost | :11:30. | :11:34. | |
exclusively by Muslim staff. The school organised visits to Saudi | :11:35. | :11:39. | |
Arabia, open only to Muslim pupils. And senior leaders told inspectors | :11:40. | :11:42. | |
that a madrasah had been established and been paid for from the school's | :11:43. | :11:48. | |
budget. Ofsted concluded that school was not adequately ensuring that | :11:49. | :11:50. | |
pupils had opportunity to learn about faith in a way that promotes | :11:51. | :11:54. | |
tolerance and harmony between different cultures. At one secular | :11:55. | :11:56. | |
secondary school, staff told officials that the call to prayer | :11:57. | :12:00. | |
was broadcast over the playground using loudspeakers. Officials | :12:01. | :12:04. | |
observed lessons had been narrowed to comply with conservative Islamic | :12:05. | :12:09. | |
teachings. In biology, students were told that evolution is not what we | :12:10. | :12:13. | |
believe. The school invited the preacher to speak, despite the fact | :12:14. | :12:19. | |
that he is reported to have said, give victory to Muslims in | :12:20. | :12:24. | |
Afghanistan and all the Mujahideen all over the world, who Allah | :12:25. | :12:27. | |
prepares for the jihad. Ofsted concluded that governors failed to | :12:28. | :12:34. | |
ensure that requirements and other duties were met. The Education | :12:35. | :12:37. | |
Secretary ridge speaks of requiring all schools to promote British | :12:38. | :12:42. | |
values. All well and good. Amongst the greatest of British values is an | :12:43. | :12:46. | |
education system which welcomes and integrates migrant communities and | :12:47. | :12:52. | |
build successful citizens in a multicultural society which secures | :12:53. | :12:57. | |
safety and standards for all. The Education Secretary is failing to do | :12:58. | :13:00. | |
so. Would he agree that a British value is that young girls and women | :13:01. | :13:06. | |
should be seen and heard in the classroom, not relegated to the back | :13:07. | :13:11. | |
of the room? It is vital that schools should be places where young | :13:12. | :13:14. | |
girls find their voices rather than feeling that they are being | :13:15. | :13:19. | |
silenced. Our political correspondent Chris | :13:20. | :13:22. | |
Mason is outside the House of Commons. Chris, we heard the head of | :13:23. | :13:29. | |
a school, who said he warned ministers three years ago that | :13:30. | :13:32. | |
Muslim hardliners were trying to take control of some Birmingham | :13:33. | :13:35. | |
schools. Was Michael Gove sleep on the job? That is the accusation that | :13:36. | :13:44. | |
has been thrown in his direction. Since 2010, when he became Education | :13:45. | :13:49. | |
Secretary, what conversations went on around these allegations in | :13:50. | :13:52. | |
Birmingham? Yes, there was this conversation between one headteacher | :13:53. | :13:56. | |
and an Education Minister, Lord Hill. Did Michael Gove find out | :13:57. | :14:04. | |
about that? There are also questions being thrown in his direction around | :14:05. | :14:09. | |
the inspection regime. Sir Michael Wilshaw, the chief inspector of | :14:10. | :14:12. | |
schools in England, was on Newsnight last night. He said he was glad the | :14:13. | :14:19. | |
Education Secretary had now come round to his way of thinking about | :14:20. | :14:23. | |
these so-called no notice inspections, that the inspectors | :14:24. | :14:27. | |
would bring up a school and say, you are outside the front gates, let us | :14:28. | :14:30. | |
in. I spoke to Ofsted this morning about the chain of events. When Sir | :14:31. | :14:34. | |
Michael Wilshaw became chief inspector, he argued for no notice | :14:35. | :14:41. | |
inspections. The Education Secretary said he agreed, but then having | :14:42. | :14:47. | |
spoken to headteachers, they acknowledged that they would shorten | :14:48. | :14:51. | |
the window to ringing up the day before, but would not have no notice | :14:52. | :14:55. | |
to ensure that governors and headteachers could be informed and | :14:56. | :14:59. | |
be on the premises. The row between the two ministers, Michael Gove and | :15:00. | :15:03. | |
Theresa May, has hardly been edifying. The -- what do you think | :15:04. | :15:14. | |
of it now? Have relations between them improve? You do not need to be | :15:15. | :15:17. | |
a body language expert to look at those events in the Commons | :15:18. | :15:20. | |
yesterday and see that Theresa May was not exactly cracking a smile as | :15:21. | :15:25. | |
condiments were being paid to her by Michael Gove when he was on his | :15:26. | :15:33. | |
feet. Theresa May has clearly been wounded, perhaps for a longer period | :15:34. | :15:37. | |
than Michael Gove as a result of what has happened in the last couple | :15:38. | :15:40. | |
of days, because in Fiona Cunningham, she has lost someone so | :15:41. | :15:45. | |
important to her honour someone who was at her side for so long and is | :15:46. | :15:49. | |
no longer there. Yes, Michael Gove had to appear in front of MPs | :15:50. | :15:55. | |
yesterday. But then so did Theresa May. The longer term consequences | :15:56. | :15:58. | |
are there for Theresa May to shoulder. Both of them will hope and | :15:59. | :16:04. | |
I expect they will continue in their post after a Cabinet reshuffle, but | :16:05. | :16:08. | |
both are wounded by what has happened in the last week. Both are | :16:09. | :16:11. | |
not quite the ministers they were. With us now is Haras Rafiq | :16:12. | :16:19. | |
from the anti-extremism think tank Quilliam and Talha Ahmad | :16:20. | :16:22. | |
from the Muslim Council of Muslim Council of Britain. Welcome to you | :16:23. | :16:24. | |
both. Let us go through the examples that | :16:25. | :16:36. | |
have been cited by the findings and by Michael Gove yesterday. Is it | :16:37. | :16:40. | |
right in your mind for boys and girls to be segregated in school? | :16:41. | :16:48. | |
No. Is it right for a call to prayer to be broadcast by public speaker in | :16:49. | :16:53. | |
the playground with Mac if it becomes compulsory as a policy of | :16:54. | :16:58. | |
the school I think it is wrong. But if the school wants to accommodate | :16:59. | :17:03. | |
prayers and do not make it compulsory for students I think it | :17:04. | :17:06. | |
should be left to the judgement of the school administration. If it is | :17:07. | :17:11. | |
enforced in any way then that would be wrong. But if the school decided | :17:12. | :17:18. | |
in perhaps the school where 98% of pupils were Muslim, you think it | :17:19. | :17:21. | |
would be all right to have a call for prayer? I think it is | :17:22. | :17:27. | |
ridiculous. These are not faith schools but state funded, taxpayer | :17:28. | :17:34. | |
funded schools that we pay for. These are secular schools, not | :17:35. | :17:38. | |
Islamic schools. I saw something on television yesterday, boys were | :17:39. | :17:43. | |
being interviewed. The first was put out there obviously to give the | :17:44. | :17:47. | |
message for the school and another came along and said we are not | :17:48. | :17:52. | |
allowed to speak to girls. The other said that is not Islamic. And the | :17:53. | :17:57. | |
other said this is not an Islamic school, it is a state school. And | :17:58. | :18:02. | |
that is the mistake, whether intentional or not. And there needs | :18:03. | :18:14. | |
to be an end to denying extremism, all sorts of things. It is in your | :18:15. | :18:23. | |
interest, if you'll allow me to speak, it is in your interests to | :18:24. | :18:29. | |
blame us. We do not support extremism. We have always been | :18:30. | :18:39. | |
critical of it. A state funded school must not be an Islamic | :18:40. | :18:42. | |
school. But if the school decides to cater for the needs of the Muslim | :18:43. | :18:46. | |
children without excluding others, it should be left to individual | :18:47. | :18:53. | |
schools. How do you not exclude others, even if there was just one | :18:54. | :19:00. | |
or 2% of non-Muslim pupils. Could ever be appropriate in a state | :19:01. | :19:09. | |
funded school? Call to prayer itself is not an extremist thing to do. I'm | :19:10. | :19:16. | |
talking about imposing any kind of Islam that is not an Islamic | :19:17. | :19:25. | |
school? The charge is that these schools have been taken over by | :19:26. | :19:28. | |
extremists but we have not seen any evidence of that. There is a big | :19:29. | :19:32. | |
difference between saying that children will be prepared for jihad | :19:33. | :19:39. | |
or just more in line Islamist location of schools. Do you think | :19:40. | :19:44. | |
that Michael Gove or the inspectors had an agenda? If it was a witchhunt | :19:45. | :19:52. | |
and none of the schools would have been praised as three of them wear. | :19:53. | :19:57. | |
I do not see how anyone can deny extremism when Al-Qaeda sympathiser | :19:58. | :20:04. | |
was addressing pupils. One other was leading anti-Christian chance in the | :20:05. | :20:11. | |
morning. And another referred to fight prostitutes. We do not know if | :20:12. | :20:19. | |
the school post that as a matter of policy. If it did happen like that I | :20:20. | :20:23. | |
am surprised that no action was taken. What Ofsted said, the | :20:24. | :20:31. | |
chairman was invited for his views... He should have been | :20:32. | :20:38. | |
properly vetted. And that shows there is a failure of government in | :20:39. | :20:41. | |
the school. It does not show that the school was condoning or | :20:42. | :20:47. | |
fermenting extremism. Is it right for a special Christmas assembly to | :20:48. | :20:53. | |
be cancelled. And for raffles to be banned in one school as not | :20:54. | :20:58. | |
Islamic? I do not think that was right. And using the school budget | :20:59. | :21:04. | |
to subsidise a school trip to Saudi Arabia that only Muslim pupils could | :21:05. | :21:11. | |
join? I think that was a poor decision and not acceptable. Think | :21:12. | :21:18. | |
those kind of things could provide a breeding ground for more extreme | :21:19. | :21:21. | |
views or at the very least isolate those pupils from integrating into | :21:22. | :21:27. | |
wider British society? I do not think the evidence is there to | :21:28. | :21:31. | |
suggest that it could become a breeding ground. But I do think what | :21:32. | :21:35. | |
does make a difference in terms of the children becoming better | :21:36. | :21:39. | |
integrated is to provide them with better life chances. And some of | :21:40. | :21:44. | |
those schools were doing exactly that. They were given the chance to | :21:45. | :21:49. | |
become more active in community life. I believe if children are | :21:50. | :21:55. | |
taught to hate and dehumanise the other, lived in isolation and try to | :21:56. | :22:01. | |
think of the other as someone not to be liked, it is a short step to | :22:02. | :22:07. | |
becoming radicalised. I think the main thing is the culture in the | :22:08. | :22:11. | |
school. There has been an Ofsted process which has identified | :22:12. | :22:16. | |
Bachrach is. And steps are being taken to sort it out. I think it is | :22:17. | :22:21. | |
unfortunate that Michael Gove has been shrinking the role of the | :22:22. | :22:27. | |
National Curriculum and in particular in this context, he wants | :22:28. | :22:30. | |
to exclude religious education altogether from the National | :22:31. | :22:37. | |
Curriculum. The framework for religious education has been created | :22:38. | :22:42. | |
to make sure that all pupils in all schools are taught about all faiths | :22:43. | :22:46. | |
in an unbiased way. I think that should be done and focused on and it | :22:47. | :22:51. | |
is that Michael Gove has abandoned that. The thing about this | :22:52. | :22:55. | |
particular process, there was bad practice in a small number of | :22:56. | :22:59. | |
schools which was rooted out and must continue to be. But Ofsted | :23:00. | :23:06. | |
actually rated one school as outstanding only in April this year. | :23:07. | :23:11. | |
Two months later it is rated as inadequate. How could you get it so | :23:12. | :23:17. | |
totally wrong, which ever way you look at it? Either they were not | :23:18. | :23:22. | |
outstanding or they are not inadequate now. You are quite | :23:23. | :23:28. | |
correct and Ofsted must have an inspection of itself to clarify how | :23:29. | :23:32. | |
that could happen. Normally when there is an inspection you make a | :23:33. | :23:37. | |
judgement in year one and it broadly continues over a period of time. I | :23:38. | :23:40. | |
think inspection without notice is a good step. But that does not explain | :23:41. | :23:49. | |
what you have just raised. I think Ofsted does have a lot of explaining | :23:50. | :23:53. | |
to do. Ofsted is an independent regulatory body and people do what a | :23:54. | :23:58. | |
lot of trust in them. What is more worrying is that some of the | :23:59. | :24:04. | |
criticism they come up with now, that policies were put in place for | :24:05. | :24:07. | |
example and not followed, these are the things that they should have | :24:08. | :24:11. | |
picked up and clearly did not. They also need to look at, if you read | :24:12. | :24:19. | |
the report, this calls are still graded as good or outstanding in at | :24:20. | :24:25. | |
least two areas. -- the schools. How then do you decide to put them in | :24:26. | :24:31. | |
special measures? In a school where there is quite a strict religious | :24:32. | :24:37. | |
ethos, that can lead to strong discipline and good results but it | :24:38. | :24:42. | |
does not cover the area of whether or not inappropriate practices are | :24:43. | :24:47. | |
being imposed on a school at a completely different cultural | :24:48. | :24:53. | |
level? Absolutely. Some of the inspectors failed -- found books in | :24:54. | :24:58. | |
the library of a primary school that actually supported stunning and | :24:59. | :25:04. | |
blogging. Use of the kind of things that Ofsted perhaps did not look for | :25:05. | :25:08. | |
in the past and are doing now and should be doing. What does it mean | :25:09. | :25:15. | |
to you as a phrase, bringing British values into the school? Liberty, | :25:16. | :25:23. | |
democracy, pluralism, respect and tolerance for everyone else and | :25:24. | :25:28. | |
being able to create children who go out and become positive members of | :25:29. | :25:33. | |
society. Of course I agree wholeheartedly but I find it | :25:34. | :25:39. | |
troubling that you identified the Muslim community as a community that | :25:40. | :25:43. | |
has to justify again and again. That is troubling. I use an unhappy about | :25:44. | :25:51. | |
the idea of British values being put into school? What you find | :25:52. | :25:56. | |
troubling? These suggestions are made as if the Muslim community are | :25:57. | :26:01. | |
not being educated or not subscribing to it. If it is about | :26:02. | :26:06. | |
fairness and justice of course they should be educated in that. But | :26:07. | :26:12. | |
Ofsted did find these schools were not providing people with an | :26:13. | :26:17. | |
education to go out into the wider society. It is a difficult question. | :26:18. | :26:23. | |
Because some of these schools were failing not long ago. Someone who | :26:24. | :26:28. | |
leaves with a reasonably good education and perhaps not the best | :26:29. | :26:33. | |
idea of the challenges we face as a society, or they succeed better than | :26:34. | :26:42. | |
someone with no education? After 1945 minutes of people came to this | :26:43. | :26:44. | |
country because the identified so-called goodish values. They | :26:45. | :26:49. | |
wanted to be here on the basis. Including the economic and political | :26:50. | :26:54. | |
freedoms and all the rest of it. We have to some extent codified that | :26:55. | :27:03. | |
with citizen tests, for example. I do not think there is anything | :27:04. | :27:07. | |
exceptional about this at all. It is only if it is taken as very narrow | :27:08. | :27:12. | |
definition of what it would be. But the fundamental values which are in | :27:13. | :27:17. | |
fact strongly opposed by the extremists, but those fundamental | :27:18. | :27:21. | |
values ought to be endemic in every school as part of the culture. That | :27:22. | :27:26. | |
is why I think religious education should be part of the National | :27:27. | :27:33. | |
Curriculum. Do people in Birmingham feel like a community under | :27:34. | :27:36. | |
suspicion as Mac I think they clearly do. | :27:37. | :27:41. | |
Now, do you ever feel like filing your problems away | :27:42. | :27:43. | |
If so, it appears you're not alone, because our guest of | :27:44. | :27:48. | |
the day here has helped write a book about politicians doing just that. | :27:49. | :27:51. | |
What do you do when a problem is too difficult to solve? Put it in the | :27:52. | :28:00. | |
two difficult box, of course. That is where you'll find all kinds of | :28:01. | :28:05. | |
issues that governments struggle with from immigration and banking | :28:06. | :28:09. | |
reform to climate change. And now using a cast of heavy hitters, | :28:10. | :28:15. | |
Charles Clarke has put all those too difficult political problems in one | :28:16. | :28:20. | |
place. His new book. I will delve inside the box to discover some of | :28:21. | :28:26. | |
the unsolvable subjects. First of all social care. Why is Europe | :28:27. | :28:33. | |
policy area are difficult? -- your policy area. I have been wrestling | :28:34. | :28:40. | |
with this for 15 years and no one agrees. These are very difficult | :28:41. | :28:46. | |
economic issues involved and it is very expensive. And there are | :28:47. | :28:50. | |
difficult social issues. We are speaking about people's lives. Is | :28:51. | :29:00. | |
there a solution on the horizon? There is but it has taken some | :29:01. | :29:05. | |
getting too. Next, House of Lords reform. Will House of Lords reform | :29:06. | :29:14. | |
always be in the difficult box? It will be as long as the people who | :29:15. | :29:18. | |
what to see the House of Lords elected refused to hear the other | :29:19. | :29:22. | |
part of the problem which is what happens the House of Commons primacy | :29:23. | :29:26. | |
and how do you have two elected houses? The people that elected the | :29:27. | :29:31. | |
House of Lords would expect them to have some representative function | :29:32. | :29:35. | |
for them. That is the nature of our democracy. And finally drugs. Why is | :29:36. | :29:46. | |
drugs policy such a difficult area for politicians to solve? The | :29:47. | :29:53. | |
politics of drugs policy before have been a nightmare. Society has not | :29:54. | :29:58. | |
encouraged and open and honest debate. Minister -- ministers have | :29:59. | :30:05. | |
fallen over each other to be seen to be tough on drugs. The political | :30:06. | :30:10. | |
parties do not think there are our votes in it. I'm still stuck after | :30:11. | :30:18. | |
looking in this box. I will let these ideas go and hopefully someone | :30:19. | :30:30. | |
will come up with a solution! And we are joined by the Conservative peer | :30:31. | :30:34. | |
and former cabinet minister Gillian Shephard, who questions in the book | :30:35. | :30:41. | |
whether power is really an illusion? We got 29 together. And people had | :30:42. | :30:48. | |
other subjects to discuss. Do you think that with those issues, it is | :30:49. | :30:50. | |
not even worth the government trying to deal with them, if in the end, | :30:51. | :30:55. | |
you could argue that with something like drugs, there has been so little | :30:56. | :31:01. | |
progress? The question is legitimate, but it is the wrong | :31:02. | :31:04. | |
hands. The reason why people tolerate politicians is that they | :31:05. | :31:09. | |
believe Olive ticks will solve the problems they experience in society. | :31:10. | :31:12. | |
-- politics will solve problems in society. If politicians actually | :31:13. | :31:17. | |
believe there is nothing they can do about this, it is not a natural for | :31:18. | :31:22. | |
people to think, why do I believe in politics in the first place? So it | :31:23. | :31:27. | |
is important to try and solve these problems in a democracy. On the | :31:28. | :31:34. | |
issue of democracy, is it just very difficult in a democratic system and | :31:35. | :31:38. | |
now as a coalition to solve the big problems of our time? It is | :31:39. | :31:43. | |
difficult, but it does not mean they cannot be solved. After all, a | :31:44. | :31:48. | |
number of the issues Charles identified were pensions reform, | :31:49. | :31:53. | |
where there have even movements, welfare reform, which is underway, | :31:54. | :32:05. | |
immigration and EU, where we are not getting far with at the moment, but | :32:06. | :32:10. | |
there has been much more attention paid, for example to the issues | :32:11. | :32:14. | |
raised by the large numbers of elderly we have to cope with in our | :32:15. | :32:17. | |
society. And on child poverty, we now have a commission which is | :32:18. | :32:24. | |
making policy suggestions. But it is terrific to difficult in our | :32:25. | :32:29. | |
democratic system, firstly because every government, when elected, | :32:30. | :32:32. | |
knows that it will only have a few years to solve the problem is. And | :32:33. | :32:40. | |
we are not good at passing on solutions from one government of a | :32:41. | :32:46. | |
political party to another. And more overtly, there is a fair amount of | :32:47. | :32:51. | |
pretending. When I wrote my chapter, I was obsessed with wondering if | :32:52. | :32:58. | |
democracy was just too difficult in a world where there are global | :32:59. | :33:03. | |
problems which threaten us all. Are you advocating dictatorship? | :33:04. | :33:08. | |
Certainly not. I did come to an optimistic conclusion. Where there | :33:09. | :33:11. | |
are overwhelming technological changes, as in the fear mentioned by | :33:12. | :33:17. | |
Robert Harris, and where there is 24 is open -- where there is 24/7 media | :33:18. | :33:24. | |
scrutiny, which I did not have to deal with in my day. What do you | :33:25. | :33:29. | |
think the effect of the recession has been? When you talk about the | :33:30. | :33:34. | |
government not having enough time to deal with big issues, is it about | :33:35. | :33:47. | |
focus and priority? Is it when governments really put their minds | :33:48. | :33:51. | |
to solving one or two things, they can do it? Yes, they can, providing | :33:52. | :33:52. | |
they use language to the electorate that is clear enough for the | :33:53. | :33:56. | |
electorate to identify with. If you use a lot of abstract noun about | :33:57. | :34:00. | |
economic problems that people might be experiencing, sometimes they just | :34:01. | :34:06. | |
lose interest. If you clearly identify the problems they are | :34:07. | :34:25. | |
having, people will often espouse a solution. We saw this in Ireland. | :34:26. | :34:25. | |
Ireland had a democratic solution to solution. We saw this in Ireland. | :34:26. | :34:26. | |
its Eurozone crisis, where as in Greece and Italy, they imposed a | :34:27. | :34:28. | |
technocratic solution and made their heads of government technocrats. | :34:29. | :34:32. | |
Ireland chose the democratic route. And for the record, twice, public | :34:33. | :34:38. | |
servants had to absorb a 10% pay decrease. This was done | :34:39. | :34:45. | |
democratically, and hats off to Ireland for finding a democratic | :34:46. | :34:54. | |
solution which people espoused, in distinction with what was going on | :34:55. | :35:03. | |
in Italy and Greece. The other side of that coin is, was it too | :35:04. | :35:14. | |
difficult in the Blair -Brown years, when arguably, there was a lot of | :35:15. | :35:15. | |
money around, to make the difficult decisions? Tony Blair has said in | :35:16. | :35:16. | |
the past that something he regrets is not reforming public services | :35:17. | :35:24. | |
when he could. Is that because until the crisis point, you don't need to? | :35:25. | :35:45. | |
That is partly true. You were right about focus. I argue in this book | :35:46. | :35:54. | |
that you need to have focus, with all the democratic leaders agreeing | :35:55. | :36:01. | |
to sort out a problem together. On immigration, it is striking that | :36:02. | :36:06. | |
countries like Canada and Spain, where they have agreement across the | :36:07. | :36:12. | |
democratic parties, these things are more solved than they are otherwise. | :36:13. | :36:23. | |
At the university of East Anglia, we have a wide range of views being | :36:24. | :36:27. | |
given. Your point about the recession is important because if | :36:28. | :36:31. | |
you don't have recession, there is some money you can use to solve the | :36:32. | :36:33. | |
problems. I think Tony Blair and Gordon Brown's governments missed an | :36:34. | :36:35. | |
opportunity to solve some of these issues. Do you think we will ever | :36:36. | :36:40. | |
have an acceptable drugs policy that actually solves the problem? Is it | :36:41. | :36:42. | |
impossible? Not impossible. It is very difficult, for the reasons set | :36:43. | :36:44. | |
in your interview, but it is impossible -- it is not impossible. | :36:45. | :36:47. | |
Alcohol and tobacco create at least as much damage as cannabis. It is | :36:48. | :36:48. | |
difficult, but feasible. International agreement is needed | :36:49. | :36:53. | |
for some of the big challenges like climate change. Without that, isn't | :36:54. | :36:55. | |
it impossible for one country unilaterally to sort itself out if | :36:56. | :36:58. | |
you have not got a global agreement? Of course it is. But people have | :36:59. | :37:04. | |
said over the centuries that we have had a democratic system in this | :37:05. | :37:08. | |
country, this is too difficult, and in the end, a solution is found. You | :37:09. | :37:10. | |
have to use the machinery you have to hand. There are international | :37:11. | :37:12. | |
bodies that can deal with those things, and you have to be | :37:13. | :37:14. | |
well-organised and focused, and communicate in language that people | :37:15. | :37:16. | |
can grasp. Now, how efficient is the civil | :37:17. | :37:18. | |
service and the government 's not very, according to Francis Maude, | :37:19. | :37:21. | |
the minister in charge of making savings across Whitehall and | :37:22. | :37:24. | |
beyond. So what has he done to sort it out? It may not be glamorous | :37:25. | :37:26. | |
work, but behind the scenes, Francis has been busy cutting back on | :37:27. | :37:29. | |
government costs. Some government apartments were spending seven times | :37:30. | :37:38. | |
more than others on printer cartridges. Not these days. Those | :37:39. | :37:52. | |
savings have gone towards the ?5.4 billion cut to the government's Bill | :37:53. | :38:03. | |
for its goods and services. Paper is being shredded to save money. In the | :38:04. | :38:12. | |
last 12 months, ?200 million was clawed back by improving and | :38:13. | :38:19. | |
increasing the government's digital services. And empty government | :38:20. | :38:26. | |
buildings are being sold off as well. Over the last year, the | :38:27. | :38:33. | |
government said 0.6 billion pounds through selling properties and | :38:34. | :38:39. | |
leaving expensive rental contracts. More controversially, there is the | :38:40. | :38:46. | |
ongoing reduction in civil service and. Another ?4.7 billion was saved | :38:47. | :38:51. | |
last year as more jobs were cut. In total, that is ?14.3 billion saved | :38:52. | :38:53. | |
in 2013/14 through efficiency reforms. Mission complete, or will | :38:54. | :39:03. | |
"No, Sir Humphrey" continue to be Francis Maude's mantra? Well, we can | :39:04. | :39:08. | |
ask him. Cabinet office minister Francis Maude joins us now. How far | :39:09. | :39:17. | |
through are you with your mission? It will never end. It is always | :39:18. | :39:23. | |
going to be a work in progress. All great organisations expect to make | :39:24. | :39:27. | |
efficiency savings every year, because there will always be new | :39:28. | :39:30. | |
technology and new technique. We have conclusively proved that the | :39:31. | :39:33. | |
old fallacy that said you can't do more for less, a fixed amount of | :39:34. | :39:37. | |
money means a fixed quantum of service, that has gone. We can | :39:38. | :39:41. | |
deliver more for less. Except that there have been some high-profile | :39:42. | :39:43. | |
examples where ministers have blamed civil servants, who say their | :39:44. | :39:45. | |
numbers are being cut. The civil servants help the politicians | :39:46. | :39:47. | |
through complicated policy decisions, like in Duncan Smith and | :39:48. | :39:51. | |
universal credit. -- Iain Duncan Smith. Do you admit that that is in | :39:52. | :39:55. | |
part a result of job cuts? Absolutely not. It is a tribute to | :39:56. | :39:59. | |
the resilience of the civil service that despite the cuts in the | :40:00. | :40:02. | |
numbers, and it is the smallest of service now since the Second World | :40:03. | :40:06. | |
War, the numbers are down 16% now, with more cuts to come, the civil | :40:07. | :40:11. | |
service is delivering more. In the case of West Coast Main Line, it was | :40:12. | :40:16. | |
the cabinet secretary who said this was incompetence which would not be | :40:17. | :40:21. | |
tolerated. But my point is, some departments have seen very sick ever | :40:22. | :40:24. | |
could cuts in their numbers, and ministers say things are working | :40:25. | :40:29. | |
better -- significant cuts. Do the Ministry of Defence said that? They | :40:30. | :40:32. | |
have not seen the same scale of reductions. But actually, in too | :40:33. | :40:40. | |
much of the public sector, there are too many people into many layers who | :40:41. | :40:43. | |
have made things work less effectively. So why have there been | :40:44. | :40:49. | |
so many problems with universal credit? Well, they have been well | :40:50. | :40:54. | |
documented. The Public Accounts Committee was all over that. But | :40:55. | :40:58. | |
that runs counter to your argument that if you strip away the layers, | :40:59. | :41:02. | |
these things will work. No, it doesn't. Where are we with universal | :41:03. | :41:09. | |
credit 's it is making progress and Iain Duncan Smith will report on it | :41:10. | :41:13. | |
in due course. And you are confident that those robins have been ironed | :41:14. | :41:18. | |
out and it will work? -- those problems have been ironed out. There | :41:19. | :41:25. | |
is no doubt that it will work. The behavioural changes that it is | :41:26. | :41:30. | |
designed to deliver our proven. It is not the policy I am questioning, | :41:31. | :41:34. | |
but the roll-out. Are you confident when the report comes out that it | :41:35. | :41:39. | |
will be fine? You will need to wait until the report comes out. What we | :41:40. | :41:47. | |
are doing which has never been done before is that we are reporting | :41:48. | :41:50. | |
transparently on project is. Two weeks ago, the major projects | :41:51. | :41:55. | |
authority published its report on the 200 biggest projects, with a | :41:56. | :41:57. | |
lifetime authority published its report on | :41:58. | :42:00. | |
the 200 biggest projects, with cost of ?400 billion, very openly, saying | :42:01. | :42:05. | |
these ones are red, these ones are green. No government has done that | :42:06. | :42:15. | |
before. That drives improvement. You mentioned those departments that | :42:16. | :42:19. | |
have already had a certain amount of cuts made to their public spending. | :42:20. | :42:24. | |
Some of those departments are not happy about the prospect of further | :42:25. | :42:28. | |
cuts full up they genuinely don't think they can take any more cuts. | :42:29. | :42:34. | |
Do you think it is still justifiable to ring fence certain departments | :42:35. | :42:38. | |
while cutting more drastically from others? We expect efficiency savings | :42:39. | :42:40. | |
whether the budget is ringfenced or not. If you have to combine | :42:41. | :42:44. | |
efficiency savings with other public spending cuts, with health, | :42:45. | :42:49. | |
education and international development ringfenced, it is easier | :42:50. | :42:54. | |
for them than for those departments that are not. It is necessary in all | :42:55. | :42:59. | |
places for us to deliver efficiency savings. The size of the education | :43:00. | :43:04. | |
department will be about half what it was, and it is doing more than it | :43:05. | :43:13. | |
did before. You can deliver more for less, and that is what a long-term | :43:14. | :43:17. | |
economy needs. You need a civil service where taxpayers' money | :43:18. | :43:23. | |
delivers the most that it can. There is more that needs to be done. We | :43:24. | :43:28. | |
mentioned printer cartridges, empty buildings and going digital. To some | :43:29. | :43:32. | |
extent, that is the easy stuff. It is going to get much tougher if you | :43:33. | :43:36. | |
say it has to go on, because it will be about people. It has been about | :43:37. | :43:40. | |
people already, and there is more to be done. You will never get to the | :43:41. | :43:48. | |
end of this. Do you applaud Francis Maude for his mission, savings that | :43:49. | :43:57. | |
Labour failed to make 's eye don't accept the point that this is the | :43:58. | :44:01. | |
first time we have had a check list for red lights and green lights. We | :44:02. | :44:06. | |
had that under Labour. You didn't. We did. But I applaud what Sir | :44:07. | :44:11. | |
Francis Maude has been doing. The other element which he mentioned and | :44:12. | :44:14. | |
acknowledged is the role of the Public Accounts Committee. Margaret | :44:15. | :44:18. | |
Hodge gave an excellent lecture and has put an excellent chapter in this | :44:19. | :44:24. | |
book on precisely the issues you identified. That means they have had | :44:25. | :44:28. | |
a more activist role which has supported public opinion to | :44:29. | :44:30. | |
reinforce the demand for extra efficiency. The suggestion that | :44:31. | :44:37. | |
efficiency is a conservative ambition rather than a Labour | :44:38. | :44:40. | |
ambition is nonsense. I agree about the role of the Public Accounts | :44:41. | :44:45. | |
Committee. The National Audit Office shine and important light on what is | :44:46. | :44:49. | |
going on. Sometimes it is a bit sensationalist, and I could wish | :44:50. | :44:53. | |
that they would occasionally praised the things that were tried that did | :44:54. | :44:57. | |
not work, because that is part of noting innovation. -- promoting | :44:58. | :45:04. | |
innovation. Do you both think that Michael Gove and Theresa May's | :45:05. | :45:09. | |
public row was an advert for good government? Well, governments have | :45:10. | :45:14. | |
arguments. There were plenty in the last government and the one before. | :45:15. | :45:18. | |
It is better if they are not conducted in public. | :45:19. | :45:24. | |
Now it appears the Government's "long term economic plan" is having | :45:25. | :45:27. | |
an adverse effect on the passport office, which has | :45:28. | :45:29. | |
blamed a backlog of applications on the improving economy. | :45:30. | :45:32. | |
The head of the passport office is to be questioned by MPs over long | :45:33. | :45:36. | |
Unions leaders say staff are struggling to cope with | :45:37. | :45:40. | |
a backlong of half a million applications and some people's | :45:41. | :45:42. | |
Well we're joined now from College Green by the Chair of the Home | :45:43. | :45:48. | |
How bad is the problem? It is pretty bad. Individual cases, a man stuck | :45:49. | :46:07. | |
in another country waiting for his children's passports because they | :46:08. | :46:11. | |
have an operation. Another man stranded in Singapore. Over 500 | :46:12. | :46:17. | |
complaints made by Members of Parliament. And we are very | :46:18. | :46:21. | |
concerned about what appears to be this huge backlog, given that the | :46:22. | :46:28. | |
passport office last year made a surplus of ?73 million. But they're | :46:29. | :46:32. | |
having to borrow people from the passport fraud section. And this is | :46:33. | :46:39. | |
told to us as if it is some kind of revelation, in order to deal with | :46:40. | :46:47. | |
this problem. Who do you blame, then? Well during the seven months, | :46:48. | :46:57. | |
people do tend to want to go on holiday and therefore find out that | :46:58. | :47:03. | |
their passport needs to be renewed. Is it about bad planning? Of course | :47:04. | :47:13. | |
it is. They talk about service standards in the Home Office and say | :47:14. | :47:18. | |
it is not a backlog because it is within service standards. I think | :47:19. | :47:22. | |
the public expect much better. I do not want to blame anyone today. And | :47:23. | :47:29. | |
we have called in the head of the passport office to hear from him | :47:30. | :47:33. | |
what the situation is like. We should not really have this problem | :47:34. | :47:38. | |
in the UK. It should be something that is done very efficiently. It | :47:39. | :47:41. | |
used to be a good service until recently and we need to make sure | :47:42. | :47:46. | |
that we solve the problems. The closing of offices has of course had | :47:47. | :47:50. | |
an impact and the cutting of staff as well. But we need to try to find | :47:51. | :47:55. | |
out how this backlog has been created and how we bring it to a | :47:56. | :48:06. | |
conclusion. Are you confident that passports will be processed in | :48:07. | :48:15. | |
time? I hope it will be done by Tuesday or the head of the passport | :48:16. | :48:20. | |
office will have some very serious questions to answer. He has got | :48:21. | :48:31. | |
about a week to sort this out! The last time we had a problem was in | :48:32. | :48:38. | |
the late 1980s. Then we went through a lot of reforms and it became very | :48:39. | :48:42. | |
efficient. I'm shocked to hear of these delays. It can only be down to | :48:43. | :48:50. | |
bad planning. I doubt that it is down to staff numbers. It must be | :48:51. | :48:58. | |
bad planning. Do you think it is as simple as that, but they have not | :48:59. | :49:04. | |
prepared for the summer months? I do not have any insight information on | :49:05. | :49:10. | |
this but I do not see how it can be anything else. | :49:11. | :49:16. | |
Regular viewers of the Daily Politics will have clocked | :49:17. | :49:18. | |
that a few of Britain's Political Parties have been experiencing | :49:19. | :49:21. | |
But the trials and tribulations of the Monster Raving Loony Party | :49:22. | :49:26. | |
haven't exactly made national headlines. | :49:27. | :49:27. | |
If you think going into politics is just loony then such is life. | :49:28. | :49:45. | |
Screaming Lord Sutch good belt out a children and developed a brilliant | :49:46. | :49:49. | |
if moderately expensive PR vehicle that actually had a point to it. And | :49:50. | :49:55. | |
it made its mark on the political landscape. The mad Hatter look | :49:56. | :50:00. | |
served him well throughout the history of the official Monster | :50:01. | :50:05. | |
Raving Loony Party disguised some fairly cogent policy is that we now | :50:06. | :50:13. | |
take for granted. We are the only honest loonies. That and butter | :50:14. | :50:23. | |
mountains and ski slopes are daft! But pest -- that passports were | :50:24. | :50:30. | |
actually policies of the Monster Raving Loony Party before they | :50:31. | :50:39. | |
actually came into the legislature. Even when being satirised, the | :50:40. | :50:45. | |
official Monster Raving Loony Party is a registered party, it has | :50:46. | :50:51. | |
conferences and policies. It outlived Screaming Lord Sutch. And | :50:52. | :50:54. | |
like all parties it has a problem with money. It used to be backed by | :50:55. | :51:00. | |
William Hill but they backed out and now they are passing round the hat | :51:01. | :51:04. | |
seeking someone else. If leopard-print lunacy is your bag you | :51:05. | :51:11. | |
should be mad for it. And we're joined now by | :51:12. | :51:17. | |
Alan Howling Laud Hope. And on the Green by Graham Sharpe | :51:18. | :51:19. | |
from William Hill, Welcome to the programme. You have | :51:20. | :51:30. | |
lost your sponsorship, how much trouble is the party in? It is not | :51:31. | :51:40. | |
in dire trouble. It is not the end at all. How much longer can you | :51:41. | :51:50. | |
continue without sponsorship? A long time. William Hill used to provide | :51:51. | :51:57. | |
sponsorship, the whole of the 2010 general election. And we had 28 | :51:58. | :52:05. | |
candidates. Have you had any sort of like getting a replacement sponsor? | :52:06. | :52:13. | |
There are a couple of items in the fire. Graham Sharpe has not ruled | :52:14. | :52:26. | |
himself out! Why have you withdrawn sponsorship? Well we supported them | :52:27. | :52:33. | |
for a long time to stop things move on so we are looking elsewhere to | :52:34. | :52:38. | |
sponsor. But I suspect Alan may have been elsewhere this morning because | :52:39. | :52:42. | |
a mystery punter came into one of our branches and had ?400,000 on a | :52:43. | :52:50. | |
no vote in the Scottish referendum. Perhaps that was Alan looking to | :52:51. | :53:00. | |
raise the money! Who are you looking to sponsor? I think given that Alan | :53:01. | :53:08. | |
at the moment tends to enjoy the odd pint of beer, as do many of these | :53:09. | :53:13. | |
members, a brewery with BB odds-on favourite. -- would be. Maybe a few | :53:14. | :53:27. | |
high-profile politicians that shall we say our free at the moment. -- | :53:28. | :53:41. | |
are free. Alan and his team-mates are not what we might call spring | :53:42. | :53:51. | |
chickens. Do you think you have failed to move with the times? There | :53:52. | :54:00. | |
is a reason that William Hill have made a decision. It was satirical in | :54:01. | :54:04. | |
the 1980s but your something associated with the past? We do need | :54:05. | :54:13. | |
younger people coming in. And as for the brewery, well this is a winning | :54:14. | :54:25. | |
coalition and it will be on sale at the bar in the Houses of Parliament. | :54:26. | :54:29. | |
So you could be right, it could be a brewery with Mac what about the | :54:30. | :54:39. | |
party, is it all satire? You have had policies that have been adopted. | :54:40. | :54:46. | |
Well when I lived in Devon I was mayor of a town. But my favourite | :54:47. | :54:59. | |
candidate name was Tarquin Finnan Tim biscuit barrel. Will you miss | :55:00. | :55:08. | |
the party if it is not able to put up candidates in the future if money | :55:09. | :55:14. | |
does not come in from somewhere? I am torn. My political answer is yes | :55:15. | :55:20. | |
I would but honestly, no, I wouldn't. I suppose I am rather | :55:21. | :55:28. | |
boring. I have been dismissed by you! But I do think politics is a | :55:29. | :55:37. | |
serious business. We are the party that everyone loves. I think William | :55:38. | :55:44. | |
Hill should go and sponsor UKIP, they are at the other drug party. -- | :55:45. | :55:55. | |
joke party. Have you completely ruled out sponsoring the Monster | :55:56. | :56:03. | |
Raving Loony Party? I'm beginning to recapture my affection for the | :56:04. | :56:08. | |
party. Alan is coming under pressure and all things considered it is a | :56:09. | :56:13. | |
good thing that they should be someone who does not take the | :56:14. | :56:16. | |
process entirely seriously stop I think attract people who would not | :56:17. | :56:22. | |
otherwise vote. There are no threat to the big parties and is good to | :56:23. | :56:26. | |
see that democracy is alive and well. Are you going to put your | :56:27. | :56:36. | |
money where your mouth is? We will have to see! All this stuff about | :56:37. | :56:45. | |
UKIP and how badly the Conservative and Labour Party did, the leader of | :56:46. | :56:51. | |
the official Monster Raving Loony Party retained his seat in Hampshire | :56:52. | :56:59. | |
where he lives. Thank you very much for that, both of you. | :57:00. | :57:04. | |
There's just time before we go to find out the winner | :57:05. | :57:07. | |
Remember it was all about the Prime Minister's trip to Sweden to | :57:08. | :57:11. | |
discuss, among other things, who should be the next president | :57:12. | :57:14. | |
And to limber up for his meeting, David Cameron went rowing with some | :57:15. | :57:19. | |
So, Charles, the team have been beavering away to | :57:20. | :57:23. | |
How about you get out and push, David? I like this one. When I said | :57:24. | :57:44. | |
we needed to row back on EU benefits tourism... Which one of us has to go | :57:45. | :57:58. | |
down with the ship? I will leave it there. Another one, gravy train | :57:59. | :58:07. | |
traded in for gravy boat. And rearranging the deck chairs on the | :58:08. | :58:16. | |
EU Titanic. The Swedish minister does look relaxed. The others looked | :58:17. | :58:21. | |
slightly uncomfortable! As if one of them could flip overboard. It is the | :58:22. | :58:31. | |
ultimate photocall. My favourite is, do you know which way you are | :58:32. | :58:41. | |
going? No, neither do I. You will have to tell us your favourite after | :58:42. | :58:43. | |
the show has finished. The one o'clock news is | :58:44. | :58:48. | |
starting over on BBC One now. tomorrow with Prime Ministers | :58:49. | :58:53. | |
Questions and all the big | :58:54. | :58:59. |