Browse content similar to 01/07/2014. Check below for episodes and series from the same categories and more!
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Politics. Is it time to shake up Prime Minister's questions? An | :00:48. | :00:51. | |
internet campaign is under way to allow voters to ask questions via | :00:52. | :00:55. | |
social media and new penalties for MPs who behave badly. Another day, | :00:56. | :00:57. | |
another Labour policy launch. Ed Miliband promises to unleash the | :00:58. | :00:58. | |
potential of England's cities by devolving ?30 billion of Government | :00:59. | :01:02. | |
funding. Union baron Len McCluskey says Unite | :01:03. | :01:10. | |
will stump up more cash for Labour's election campaign. We look at Ed | :01:11. | :01:14. | |
Miliband's relations with the unions. It's tough being a party | :01:15. | :01:19. | |
leader and trying to maintain an image, with less than a year to the | :01:20. | :01:22. | |
general election can they change how voters see them? | :01:23. | :01:24. | |
All that in the next 30 minutes. With me for the duration is the | :01:25. | :01:31. | |
Times columnist Phil Collins. Welcome. Let's kick off with what | :01:32. | :01:37. | |
the leader of Britain's biggest union, Unite's Len McCluskey has | :01:38. | :01:41. | |
been saying about Labour, here he is on Newsnight last night. There's | :01:42. | :01:47. | |
interesting debates taking place within the party. There are views | :01:48. | :01:53. | |
and thoughts from thousands of Labour Party members, including, of | :01:54. | :01:57. | |
course, trade unions. I think what's beginning to emerge is the | :01:58. | :02:03. | |
likelihood of a positive cohesive programme that offers hope to the | :02:04. | :02:09. | |
British electorate. Unite backing Labour and will put their money | :02:10. | :02:12. | |
where their mouth is, so they say, what will they want in return? They | :02:13. | :02:17. | |
were always going to get to this point, Labour's problematic | :02:18. | :02:20. | |
relationship with business means they've nowhere else to go and Unite | :02:21. | :02:24. | |
is the main funder these days and Unite recognises that as a position | :02:25. | :02:28. | |
of power. What they'll want is not quite so straightforward because | :02:29. | :02:31. | |
what they often get are people in seats. The control over the | :02:32. | :02:36. | |
personnel in parliament is often more important than the policies. | :02:37. | :02:42. | |
The process of getting a manifesto is a really complicated one and | :02:43. | :02:46. | |
interestingly in its own right we don't know whether that's going to | :02:47. | :02:49. | |
end up in a bold programme or a cautious one and that argument is | :02:50. | :02:52. | |
still going on. Unite are amongst that. It would be wrong to say | :02:53. | :02:58. | |
they're simply driving it. It's not true money produces influence in the | :02:59. | :03:03. | |
most direct way. What about strike action? They voted for strike action | :03:04. | :03:08. | |
one day next week, what does Labour do, condemn it? It's always | :03:09. | :03:12. | |
difficult for a Labour leader in that circumstance. Ed Miliband will | :03:13. | :03:15. | |
face a tough stance again. There will be voices on both sides of | :03:16. | :03:19. | |
that. Again he will have to calculate what does this look like | :03:20. | :03:24. | |
to the wider public, if I refuse to condemn something I would otherwise | :03:25. | :03:27. | |
condemn in the week they promised me a lot of money? The message of that | :03:28. | :03:31. | |
is obvious to everybody. He will have to judge it on the issue. He | :03:32. | :03:34. | |
will have to have the courage to condemn February wants to. How does | :03:35. | :03:41. | |
this stack up with John Cruddas, Labour's policy co-ordinator saying | :03:42. | :03:44. | |
Ed Miliband is shying away from radical reform? Well, John, you have | :03:45. | :03:49. | |
to remember, is trying to engineer a bold outcome. He is trying to | :03:50. | :03:57. | |
balance - the difference here is this is gone from a private meeting | :03:58. | :04:01. | |
to the newspapers. It's not unusual in itself that the leader of the | :04:02. | :04:04. | |
process is trying to get the leader to sign up to everything. Not | :04:05. | :04:08. | |
unusual either that the leader might think I am not sure about that, I | :04:09. | :04:13. | |
don't know how I will sell that to the public. There is an argument | :04:14. | :04:17. | |
going on about whether Labour should be explicitly left of centre and | :04:18. | :04:20. | |
bold or whether it should creep back a bit towards the centre. It's good | :04:21. | :04:26. | |
that argument is going on. I don't think we yet know the divided - | :04:27. | :04:33. | |
where it's going to rest. We have a few months to find out. It's time | :04:34. | :04:37. | |
for our daily quiz. David Cameron hosted a party for celebrities last | :04:38. | :04:43. | |
night in the Foreign Office. My invite must be in the post! Who | :04:44. | :04:45. | |
didn't turn up? Phil will give us the correct answer | :04:46. | :04:56. | |
at the end of the show because I am sure he knows. | :04:57. | :05:00. | |
Prime Minister's questions has been described as feeding time at the zoo | :05:01. | :05:04. | |
and now the campaigning website Mumsnet has had enough, branding the | :05:05. | :05:10. | |
weekly run-in as outdated and unprofessional, they have created a | :05:11. | :05:16. | |
we Tegs calling for the -- created a petition calling for the age-old | :05:17. | :05:21. | |
feeding frenzy to be reformed after a survey found 80% of their users | :05:22. | :05:27. | |
think it's ineffective. Half the respondents said the | :05:28. | :05:30. | |
spectacle actively damaged parliament's reputation. What's on | :05:31. | :05:34. | |
their menu for change? Out should go planted questions, scripted answers | :05:35. | :05:38. | |
and media soundbites and in should come questions and answers and | :05:39. | :05:40. | |
chances for the members of the public to throw in the odd morsel | :05:41. | :05:45. | |
through social media. These are all suggestions previously put forward | :05:46. | :05:48. | |
by the Hansard Society who have also called for a sin bin for badly | :05:49. | :05:56. | |
behaved MPs. Are the public still hungry for a rowdy PMQs or is change | :05:57. | :06:06. | |
afoot? Mumsnet CEO Justine Roberts joins us now along with Nigel Evans. | :06:07. | :06:12. | |
Welcome both to the programme. First of all, one might say PMQs as it | :06:13. | :06:16. | |
stands is a ratings winner, why would you want to change that? It's | :06:17. | :06:20. | |
not a winner according to the Hansard Society, few people are | :06:21. | :06:23. | |
watching and lots of people turned off. We know there is a lot of | :06:24. | :06:28. | |
disaffection with MPs and politics and unfortunately what it means is | :06:29. | :06:32. | |
we see a lot of people saying it's just politics, it's not for me. | :06:33. | :06:37. | |
Unfortunately, it's putting people off getting involved. That's really | :06:38. | :06:39. | |
important. That's a really important thing. It's a good show and I am not | :06:40. | :06:44. | |
saying take away the scrutiny, the scrutiny is fantastic but it's not | :06:45. | :06:48. | |
effective. It's stage-managed and putting people off the whole game so | :06:49. | :06:51. | |
it's not worth it and we ought to change it. Should it be changed and | :06:52. | :06:56. | |
how? The only thing I would change is perhaps putting it on at evening, | :06:57. | :07:03. | |
for the vast majority of people I agree politics is as interesting as | :07:04. | :07:09. | |
a sleeping stick insect but it's the most watched of all aspects of | :07:10. | :07:12. | |
parliament. For instance the Prime Minister is questioned in more | :07:13. | :07:18. | |
detail in a more mundane atmosphere with the liaison committee four | :07:19. | :07:22. | |
times a year when a chairman is able to ask five or more questions | :07:23. | :07:27. | |
indepth and in detail. Nobody watches that. Everybody watches | :07:28. | :07:31. | |
PMQs, every Wednesday, because there is the cut and thrust, there is a | :07:32. | :07:37. | |
liveliness about it. It's one of the most watched political programmes in | :07:38. | :07:39. | |
the United States of America because they find it absolutely fascinate | :07:40. | :07:43. | |
that the democracy is seen to be so vibrant. Do they actually consider | :07:44. | :07:48. | |
it important? Why is there so much focus on PMQs, is it that | :07:49. | :07:51. | |
representative of politics and parliament at large? It's not | :07:52. | :07:58. | |
representative, it is the gladiatorial spectacle, when you see | :07:59. | :08:01. | |
the leader of the opposition and the Prime Minister, this programme | :08:02. | :08:04. | |
itself judges it as it's happening and after. I believe that it's one | :08:05. | :08:11. | |
of the best-trending things on the internet following PMQs as what's | :08:12. | :08:15. | |
happened on the Daily Politics. We are not suggesting scrapping that | :08:16. | :08:18. | |
period of time when the Prime Minister is called to account by the | :08:19. | :08:21. | |
leader of the opposition. It's a fantastic thing. But the idea that | :08:22. | :08:26. | |
it has to be a bunch of people behaving like a group of... That is | :08:27. | :08:42. | |
the bit that people like. It's like watching a fight. And | :08:43. | :08:48. | |
disillusionment in our system. It's not a good outcome. Sometimes it | :08:49. | :08:57. | |
gets too much excitement in the chamber. I am against the sin bin, | :08:58. | :09:02. | |
it would be almost like a sport, we wonder who will be - wonder who will | :09:03. | :09:07. | |
be chucked out this Wednesday. I think there is a liveliness about | :09:08. | :09:10. | |
Prime Ministers questions and the fact so many people are watching it | :09:11. | :09:14. | |
is possibly something that needs to be controlled but not reformed. You | :09:15. | :09:22. | |
couldn't take your eyes off that questioning, the scrutiny and if you | :09:23. | :09:25. | |
could have questions coming from Select Committee, real experts from | :09:26. | :09:29. | |
real people as well involved, put it on later so over 55s could watch, | :09:30. | :09:34. | |
there are many reforms that could be done. Yesterday we had the statement | :09:35. | :09:44. | |
on Europe about David Cameron, but he was there for over an | :09:45. | :09:48. | |
hour-and-a-half having questions from 86 Members of Parliament. | :09:49. | :09:51. | |
That's a lot of scrutiny there. The real problem is the party control | :09:52. | :09:54. | |
over it. This is spectacle rather than politics. You make a good point | :09:55. | :10:00. | |
about the liaison committee, it's forensic and it's boring. But it's | :10:01. | :10:05. | |
important. Very much so. PMQs is rarely boring, but is rarely | :10:06. | :10:10. | |
important either. It's sometimes showcasing leadership but usually | :10:11. | :10:14. | |
doesn't, get the choreographed responses. I remember I got elected | :10:15. | :10:20. | |
in 92 and John Major had gone to Brussels, he was going to show | :10:21. | :10:25. | |
Brussels what it was all about. Then he capitulated at whatever, I can't | :10:26. | :10:29. | |
remember the issue, at Prime Ministers questions that day when | :10:30. | :10:32. | |
normally there is a lot of choreography that goes on, a lot of | :10:33. | :10:36. | |
whip management but the fact is only one person stood up on the | :10:37. | :10:39. | |
Conservative side to ask a question off the Prime Minister. The | :10:40. | :10:43. | |
pro-Europeans and the anti-Europeans were very unhappy with John Major in | :10:44. | :10:48. | |
equal meshure and I think that showed -- measure and I think that | :10:49. | :10:50. | |
showed the House telling the Prime Minister we are not happy. When was | :10:51. | :10:54. | |
that? That was a long time ago but I remember it distinctly. Of course | :10:55. | :10:59. | |
one would say you need more memorable PMQs in that respect. You | :11:00. | :11:02. | |
have agreed the evening might make it then more appealing to a broader | :11:03. | :11:06. | |
audience. Let's look at the planted questions. They really are ex-cruise | :11:07. | :11:16. | |
ating, should they be taken away? A lot of constituents watch the | :11:17. | :11:24. | |
questions and if you are too sycophantic then there would be | :11:25. | :11:28. | |
groans around the chamber and the country. Even though you expect | :11:29. | :11:31. | |
mostly the Conservatives to support their Prime Minister, doesn't happen | :11:32. | :11:34. | |
all the time, and the people on the other side to attack the Prime | :11:35. | :11:36. | |
Minister, doesn't happen all the time, you get some who actually ask | :11:37. | :11:42. | |
questions - I have asked questions about constituency cases about a | :11:43. | :11:49. | |
child dying, or extra housing and you do ask constituency-based | :11:50. | :11:54. | |
questions, you have to. If they stripped out - constituency-based | :11:55. | :11:58. | |
questions are different to planted questions, if you did strip out the | :11:59. | :12:01. | |
planted questions and more questions through social media that they had | :12:02. | :12:04. | |
to answer off the cuff would that improve it enough for you? I think | :12:05. | :12:09. | |
it would improve it a great deal. I think it's a cultural as well. A lot | :12:10. | :12:17. | |
of leaders are given lip service. Actually we know there are MPs who | :12:18. | :12:26. | |
go in with the express intention of barracking. What are we going to do | :12:27. | :12:31. | |
today? It's crazy. If they had the will to change it, they could. Nick | :12:32. | :12:38. | |
Clegg does that LBC thing once a week and people can phone in and ask | :12:39. | :12:47. | |
what they like. There is one other thing it does, it tote rip dominates | :12:48. | :12:52. | |
the week -- it totally dominates the week of the Prime Minister who has | :12:53. | :12:56. | |
to spend ages preparing for it. With a busy Prime Minister preparing for | :12:57. | :12:59. | |
a pantomime every Wednesday is the best use of time? Tony Blair got rid | :13:00. | :13:03. | |
of one of the weekly sessions so it's not to say you couldn't | :13:04. | :13:07. | |
radically change it, could it be ever be got rid of it No, absolutely | :13:08. | :13:11. | |
not. Tony Blair changed it from Tuesdays and Thursdays, quarter of | :13:12. | :13:14. | |
April hour to half an -- quarter of an hour to half an hour ones win -- | :13:15. | :13:22. | |
on Wednesday. It allows the opposition six questions. The Prime | :13:23. | :13:25. | |
Minister found it easier to just dismiss the questions from the | :13:26. | :13:30. | |
leader. - the opposition. Some female MPs told the Speaker they | :13:31. | :13:34. | |
were no longer taking part because of the atmosphere, that's a | :13:35. | :13:37. | |
dangerous precedent. It certainly is. The fact that only 22% of the | :13:38. | :13:41. | |
House is female is something that I am really concerned about. I hope | :13:42. | :13:45. | |
that's something that we can address properly to get more females - to | :13:46. | :13:49. | |
get more... How would you address it in the House as it stands at the | :13:50. | :13:56. | |
moment in PMQs? I have to say no female member of parliament has come | :13:57. | :14:00. | |
up to me and questioned the fact that it's as it is, the females I | :14:01. | :14:05. | |
sit around really stick it to either the Prime Minister or the other side | :14:06. | :14:08. | |
as much as anybody else in the House. They actually do punch their | :14:09. | :14:13. | |
weight in the Commons. How far are you going to push this? The petition | :14:14. | :14:15. | |
is there for people to sign you going to push this? The petition | :14:16. | :14:18. | |
is there for people to if they want. I think it - we are not trying to | :14:19. | :14:22. | |
get rid of PMQs but it could be effective and a better use of the | :14:23. | :14:28. | |
Prime Minister's time and less offputing to other groups that look | :14:29. | :14:31. | |
and think this is nothing like me and it's not normal and not for me. | :14:32. | :14:42. | |
For journalists is it still the key event, how many Newslines do they | :14:43. | :14:47. | |
get out of it? If they move it to the evenings I can not watch it in | :14:48. | :14:51. | |
the evenings rather than not watch it in the afternoons. It's not | :14:52. | :14:55. | |
particularly important. It occasionally drama tieses a | :14:56. | :14:58. | |
leadership question, apart from that I get nothing from it. On both | :14:59. | :15:01. | |
sides. People question the quality of David Cameron and Ed Miliband, | :15:02. | :15:04. | |
Nick Clegg, it's all there. Thank you very much. | :15:05. | :15:10. | |
Ed Miliband was going "local" in Leeds this morning, for the launch | :15:11. | :15:13. | |
of another Labour policy for the next election. | :15:14. | :15:15. | |
He's promising to unleash the potential of England's | :15:16. | :15:17. | |
cities and regions, creating "economic powerhouses" to rival | :15:18. | :15:19. | |
London. Here's some of what he had to say. | :15:20. | :15:22. | |
Let's transfer ?30 billion worth of spending out of Whitehall, over a | :15:23. | :15:28. | |
Parliament. Let's transfer it out of Whitehall and let's transfer it to | :15:29. | :15:33. | |
local areas to make those local decisions about transport, about | :15:34. | :15:36. | |
skills, about support for businesses, about how to get people | :15:37. | :15:41. | |
back to work. Why? Not just because we think it is good for local people | :15:42. | :15:44. | |
to make those decisions but because they will make better decisions | :15:45. | :15:47. | |
because they have much more of a sense of what the local needs are. | :15:48. | :15:51. | |
And if you can involve local businesses in those decisions, you | :15:52. | :15:53. | |
are much more likely to succeed. With us now is the Shadow Business | :15:54. | :15:58. | |
Minister, Toby Perkins. Welcome to the programme. Ed | :15:59. | :16:07. | |
Miliband says a if you tour Labour Government would need to act because | :16:08. | :16:10. | |
80% of recently created employment has been in London at the expense of | :16:11. | :16:15. | |
the rest of the council try. -- future Labour Government. What is | :16:16. | :16:18. | |
the evidence? It came from the Cities report based on the business | :16:19. | :16:22. | |
register and employment survey, showing where you look at where the | :16:23. | :16:27. | |
net jobs have been created. That more new job than those lost, 80% | :16:28. | :16:34. | |
were based in London. How much of this is new? I have lived through | :16:35. | :16:38. | |
Enterprise Partnership, Regional Development Agencies. They are all | :16:39. | :16:42. | |
put up as an attempt to try to spread the wealth and focus of | :16:43. | :16:46. | |
Government spending. It never seems to work? I think the difference with | :16:47. | :16:50. | |
this is that it is about where the responsibility lies and where the | :16:51. | :16:55. | |
budget goes. If you devolve this budget to combined authorities at | :16:56. | :16:58. | |
city and county regions working together, combined with local | :16:59. | :17:02. | |
enterprise partnerships, you actually send the money there, | :17:03. | :17:06. | |
rather than accepting some Whitehall civil servants that will now have a | :17:07. | :17:09. | |
Leeds postcode, you actually send the money and give local areas the | :17:10. | :17:16. | |
opportunity to actually influence business support, infrastructure | :17:17. | :17:18. | |
skills. All these things. What is the motivation for the local | :17:19. | :17:21. | |
authorities to spend the money in the way you would like it to be | :17:22. | :17:25. | |
spent, on businesses and not, for example in other areas, that they | :17:26. | :17:30. | |
may feel is a priority? The specific budget is being devolved to them. It | :17:31. | :17:33. | |
would be about combined authorities working together, remember than the | :17:34. | :17:36. | |
vowed local authorities and working together on things like | :17:37. | :17:39. | |
infrastructure, transport, skills, business support, all things that | :17:40. | :17:43. | |
are vital to their local economy. So I think that what we are doing here | :17:44. | :17:47. | |
is devolving specific frunds Whitehall, down to - or up to the | :17:48. | :17:52. | |
regions, and this can only be a good thing. If you have phrases like a | :17:53. | :17:57. | |
long-stem national framework for an innovation policy - whatever that | :17:58. | :18:01. | |
means t sounds like a state-run industrial policy T harks back to a | :18:02. | :18:04. | |
time of picking winners, if you like. -- it harks back. I think it | :18:05. | :18:09. | |
is Duchess of Cambridge approach. It is about a revolution in devolution. | :18:10. | :18:11. | |
It is about sending the responsibility to those great | :18:12. | :18:12. | |
It is about sending the responsibility to those cities that | :18:13. | :18:15. | |
should be the economic powerhouses but actually have been held back too | :18:16. | :18:20. | |
often. Right, I mean they should be the powerhouses, why have they never | :18:21. | :18:25. | |
been? Toby makes a great point. In the past there has never been money | :18:26. | :18:29. | |
flowing, it has been a bureaucratic devolution. If you get the money, | :18:30. | :18:33. | |
that changes it. But your question is a very important one - will the | :18:34. | :18:36. | |
money come with strings attached? Will there be a central requirement | :18:37. | :18:40. | |
of the locality? If there is not, if it is a straight-forward taking of | :18:41. | :18:44. | |
the money from the centre to the locality that really is quite a | :18:45. | :18:47. | |
change. Still reasonably small at the moment but it has the potential | :18:48. | :18:51. | |
to grow bigger. The crucial question is whether you get strings attached. | :18:52. | :18:55. | |
The tendency of central Government is to think - you are not doing what | :18:56. | :18:59. | |
we expected or wanted you to do, let's pull the control back, buts of | :19:00. | :19:04. | |
genuinely letting go, I agree it has to be a good then. How is it | :19:05. | :19:08. | |
different from what George Osborne was talking about, he talked about | :19:09. | :19:12. | |
supercities in the north and a new high-speed rail link joining up | :19:13. | :19:15. | |
cities. Is it any different? The point he went to Leeds | :19:16. | :19:17. | |
cities. Is it any different? The point he went to and said - we can | :19:18. | :19:18. | |
build you a train line, it point he went to and said - we can | :19:19. | :19:20. | |
build you a train line, is not devolution, it is about investing | :19:21. | :19:23. | |
money. That was a plan dreamt up in response to opinion polls. I think | :19:24. | :19:27. | |
what this is actually about, the difrns is it is not about talk, it | :19:28. | :19:32. | |
is do devolving money and responsibilities. Philip is right to | :19:33. | :19:36. | |
say - if you devolve that, you have to accept you don't control | :19:37. | :19:40. | |
everything it gets spent on but it is about saying to the local | :19:41. | :19:45. | |
authorities, work with within your areas with the local business | :19:46. | :19:50. | |
community and partnerships. Work on the infrastructure, collectively on | :19:51. | :19:52. | |
your transport. That's something that politicians have not done in | :19:53. | :19:57. | |
generations. Was that a spoiler, do you think by George Osborne last | :19:58. | :20:01. | |
week? Was he trying to pre-empt what Labour has said this week? It is | :20:02. | :20:05. | |
much more about the skefbs thinking they are not win in the north of | :20:06. | :20:09. | |
England and they have to do something to breakthrough. -- | :20:10. | :20:10. | |
Conservatives. Now we are not against trainlines in the north of | :20:11. | :20:14. | |
England. It is probably that a local consortium would decide they did | :20:15. | :20:19. | |
need good train infrastructure between the cities. The question is, | :20:20. | :20:24. | |
who is in charge? You have this alphabet soup of people involved. I | :20:25. | :20:29. | |
wonder after the announcement and Andrew Dennison's work, who | :20:30. | :20:31. | |
ultimately will make the decision T can be difficult to get this work | :20:32. | :20:37. | |
done. As you know infrastructure problems are blighted by taking | :20:38. | :20:40. | |
years. I wonder in the end, who is in charge? The other problem for | :20:41. | :20:45. | |
Labour at the moment is the figures on economic competency are not | :20:46. | :20:48. | |
improving. Do you think this is the sort of announcement will that help | :20:49. | :20:52. | |
do that? That people will trust Ed Miliband and Ed Balls more with the | :20:53. | :20:55. | |
economy when you bring out announcements like this or will this | :20:56. | :20:59. | |
pass them by? I think it'll make a difference, people will look at the | :21:00. | :21:03. | |
warm welcome it has had from the C bi. And the Engineering Employers | :21:04. | :21:07. | |
Union but it is about a broader programme, the kind of economy we | :21:08. | :21:10. | |
want to be, about getting more manufacturing into the economy, | :21:11. | :21:13. | |
about spreading the growth. The devolution of business rate growth | :21:14. | :21:16. | |
we have spoken B I think as people investigate this -- spoken about. I | :21:17. | :21:20. | |
think as people investigate this, they will see this as real change. | :21:21. | :21:24. | |
Another day another announcement. It is only aier ago people were saying | :21:25. | :21:28. | |
Labour have no policies. -- it was only a year ago. Now we have decent | :21:29. | :21:33. | |
policies. I think it is important we sell them to the public. Isn't it | :21:34. | :21:36. | |
because they are being worried about being antibusiness, that they are | :21:37. | :21:39. | |
worried about the economic competency. Do you think that's part | :21:40. | :21:44. | |
of it? ? In 2010, Labour went into the election with no business | :21:45. | :21:48. | |
support at all and they are clearly worried about doing the same in | :21:49. | :21:53. | |
2014. 24 week is about trying to address that. -- this week. We also | :21:54. | :21:56. | |
have an an opportunity Labour with Europe. The Conservative Party is | :21:57. | :22:01. | |
vulnerable with business on Europe. A sensible pragmatic pro-European | :22:02. | :22:04. | |
policy I think is exactly the right one and could help. But, underneath | :22:05. | :22:08. | |
it all is the problem you suggested. Which is the stubborn numbers of | :22:09. | :22:13. | |
economic competence. Can you win an election with figures like that on | :22:14. | :22:19. | |
economic competency? It has never been done before a party with | :22:20. | :22:22. | |
figures like that, plus its leader trailing the Prime Minister so far, | :22:23. | :22:26. | |
has won. That would have to be done for the big time. Any big businesses | :22:27. | :22:30. | |
supporting Labour so far, putting their money behind your campaign? | :22:31. | :22:34. | |
Time will tell on that. One of the important things is that Ed Miliband | :22:35. | :22:37. | |
set out in the start of the leadership is to make Labour Party | :22:38. | :22:41. | |
the party of small business. Small businesses have been ignored for too | :22:42. | :22:47. | |
long. And bringing forward proposals has revolutionised our relationship | :22:48. | :22:51. | |
with small businesses and they are just as important as big businesses. | :22:52. | :22:56. | |
Do you have trouble eating a bacon sandwich? | :22:57. | :22:58. | |
Or do you find that students boo you in the street? | :22:59. | :23:02. | |
If so, welcome to the world of the party leader, | :23:03. | :23:04. | |
who - despite the best efforts of a coterie of advisors - | :23:05. | :23:07. | |
face a daily battle to control the public's perception of them. | :23:08. | :23:10. | |
So what to do if you find you have an image problem? | :23:11. | :23:13. | |
Politicians trying to project a positive image can be... Gold medal. | :23:14. | :23:23. | |
A, a bill prone to wondering off script. About, caught out by events | :23:24. | :23:28. | |
out of their control like being egged and C, simply standing in the | :23:29. | :23:32. | |
wrong place at the wrong time. And there is no shortage of advice for | :23:33. | :23:37. | |
political leaders. Like many before them, these three all have their own | :23:38. | :23:42. | |
individual image problems. The you will vulnerabilities they have is | :23:43. | :23:46. | |
for David Cameron he is arrogant and out of touch. | :23:47. | :23:49. | |
will vulnerabilities they have is for David Cameron he is For Ed | :23:50. | :23:51. | |
Miliband, quite the same that they are weak and out of depth and Ed | :23:52. | :23:55. | |
Miliband has an associated problem with that, which is that some people | :23:56. | :23:59. | |
find him a bit weird. Oh dear, weird, out of touch, weak, that | :24:00. | :24:04. | |
doesn't sound good. In the world of communications and PR, there are | :24:05. | :24:09. | |
some key buzz words and phrases politicians need to be associated | :24:10. | :24:14. | |
with if they want to be a success. Think strong, and perhaps gravitas. | :24:15. | :24:18. | |
I Think strong, and perhaps gravitas. | :24:19. | :24:20. | |
think if spin doctors could design a politician, they wouldn't design me. | :24:21. | :24:25. | |
That perhaps is why Labour recently advertised a vacancy, as head of | :24:26. | :24:31. | |
leader's broadcasting, tasked with advicing Mr Miliband and improving | :24:32. | :24:35. | |
his TV appearances. Expertise which could have been useful in May at | :24:36. | :24:40. | |
this early-morning media convenient. There is undoubtedly bullying going | :24:41. | :24:43. | |
on in the media. People take photographs of Ed and try to make | :24:44. | :24:47. | |
him look weird or not norm A he has to ignore all that -- not norm A he | :24:48. | :24:52. | |
has to ignore that. He has to play to his strengths. Which are out on | :24:53. | :24:57. | |
the ground, on a doorstep on soapbox he convinces and connects with | :24:58. | :25:03. | |
people. The question is who will look prime ministerial and do the | :25:04. | :25:09. | |
best for the country. It is on the doorstep that Nick Clegg is said to | :25:10. | :25:12. | |
be toxic, bruised from being in coalition and advice - brutal | :25:13. | :25:18. | |
honesty. Nick Clegg is a politician, he comes from the political class. | :25:19. | :25:21. | |
He has been involved in politics in one thing or another for decades | :25:22. | :25:25. | |
now. He very much understands the political system. That's a weakness | :25:26. | :25:29. | |
if you tray to pretend you are somebody else but it can be a real | :25:30. | :25:34. | |
strength. If you say - I have been there, I understand what the system, | :25:35. | :25:38. | |
how it works I want it change and I can do that. And for David Cameron, | :25:39. | :25:43. | |
playing the part of PM, it is about turning weaknesses into strength. If | :25:44. | :25:46. | |
he is arrogant and out of touch, is David Cameron also quite | :25:47. | :25:50. | |
firm-minded? Does he have a plan he is prepared it stick to? Leaving up | :25:51. | :25:58. | |
to strategist's buzz words like "credible" isn't easy being human, | :25:59. | :26:05. | |
hopefully not too difficult. And plumping for a relaunch now, is | :26:06. | :26:09. | |
like admitting you have already failed. | :26:10. | :26:11. | |
So, Phil, we talk about these things in the lead-ups to all elections but | :26:12. | :26:16. | |
however much party leaders and their advisors like to talk about policy | :26:17. | :26:19. | |
and the message, it is still important in the age of television | :26:20. | :26:22. | |
and democratic politics, it is about instinct and your ability to | :26:23. | :26:25. | |
connect, isn't it? It is, but there is a lot of information contained in | :26:26. | :26:30. | |
those images. Theismcations when we say someone has an image problem is | :26:31. | :26:34. | |
somehow the imaction is false and beneath the image there is a truth | :26:35. | :26:38. | |
which the public has somehow not understood. That's rarely true. | :26:39. | :26:41. | |
Usually when someone has an image problem, they have a problem, and | :26:42. | :26:44. | |
the image is telling you something which is true, not false. I think | :26:45. | :26:48. | |
you can see that in all three party leaders at the moment. Their images | :26:49. | :26:50. | |
are exaggerated versions of themselves. They are in a sense a | :26:51. | :26:55. | |
caricature. But a caricature is defined by the thing which is true | :26:56. | :26:58. | |
about it, not the thing which is false. So when Ed Miliband has an | :26:59. | :27:04. | |
image of being geeky and sometimes a bit indecisive and sometimes a bit | :27:05. | :27:08. | |
left-wing and the swirling parts don't add up to a picture, it is | :27:09. | :27:12. | |
quite a good component part of what he is. David Cameron's image so much | :27:13. | :27:17. | |
the same. He has an image of being arrogant, out of touch, as was said | :27:18. | :27:21. | |
in the film but at the same time that staples translates into being | :27:22. | :27:24. | |
quite authoritative and again there is a lot of truth in that. Neglect's | :27:25. | :27:28. | |
image, when they say students boo him in the street. That's not | :27:29. | :27:32. | |
because of an image problem, it was a substantive policy problem on | :27:33. | :27:36. | |
tuition fees. These snippets we get through images tell us something | :27:37. | :27:39. | |
important about the leaders. You have talked about all three of them. | :27:40. | :27:44. | |
You have talked. It seems that Ed Miliband has more of a problem trab | :27:45. | :27:50. | |
transcending his image, if you like. Is that true? It is for but for real | :27:51. | :27:56. | |
recent. I I don't think there is a magnificent under the radar and they | :27:57. | :27:59. | |
send out this character from a cartoon to go on to the TV. I think | :28:00. | :28:03. | |
what you get through his visual representations is a snippet of what | :28:04. | :28:06. | |
you are getting in policy terms. So my own view is that the Labour Party | :28:07. | :28:10. | |
are camped in the wrong position and that that sense, not particularly | :28:11. | :28:13. | |
well-defined, is coming out through the image that Ed Miliband portrays | :28:14. | :28:18. | |
on TV. So it is not that he has an image problem, in my view, it is | :28:19. | :28:22. | |
that he has a problem. All right. Let's leave it there. There is time, | :28:23. | :28:26. | |
before we go, to find out the answer to our quiz. The question was: | :28:27. | :28:32. | |
David Cameron hosted a party for celebrities last night | :28:33. | :28:36. | |
in the Foreign Office but who didn't turn up? | :28:37. | :28:38. | |
Was it a) Cilla Black, b) Claudia Winkleman | :28:39. | :28:40. | |
c) Noel Gallagher or d) Bruce Forsyth? | :28:41. | :28:41. | |
Kew I think it is a trick question. I think you are expecting me to say | :28:42. | :28:47. | |
Noel Gallacher. I think you are expecting to me to say all of them. | :28:48. | :28:53. | |
No, the trick was it wasn't a trick question, it was Noel Gallacher. | :28:54. | :29:00. | |
Thanks to Maurice Saatchi and all my guests today. | :29:01. | :29:03. | |
Andrew and I will be here at 11.30 tomorrow with | :29:04. | :29:05. |