Browse content similar to 21/04/2016. Check below for episodes and series from the same categories and more!
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Afternoon folks, welcome to the Daily Politics. | :00:38. | :00:39. | |
The Conservatives have admitted failing to declare tens of thousands | :00:40. | :00:41. | |
of pounds in election spending in key marginal seats. | :00:42. | :00:46. | |
The party blames an "administrative error" for a failure to declare | :00:47. | :00:49. | |
all the expenses relating to its General Election 'Battlebus'. | :00:50. | :01:02. | |
The Government vows to press ahead with plans to force all schools | :01:03. | :01:09. | |
in England to become academies, despite fierce opposition | :01:10. | :01:11. | |
from Labour and a growing number of Tory MPs. | :01:12. | :01:13. | |
But do robots present an opportunity or a threat to our livelihoods? | :01:14. | :01:18. | |
Labour's deputy leader is a cautious fan - he joins us live. | :01:19. | :01:23. | |
And, as the Queen turns 90, we talk to the former MP who used | :01:24. | :01:26. | |
to give her a daily account of all the gossip among her loyal | :01:27. | :01:29. | |
Do you think we will be replaced by robots. I don't know what you're | :01:30. | :01:49. | |
talking about. The microchip has landed. | :01:50. | :01:51. | |
All that in the next hour and, if you're watching, Your Majesty, | :01:52. | :01:54. | |
a very happy birthday from all of us here at the Daily Politics. | :01:55. | :01:57. | |
Joining us on this auspicious occasion is Natalie Bennett, | :01:58. | :01:59. | |
Natalie, of course, is a staunch Republican and she once said | :02:00. | :02:03. | |
that the Royals should be evicted from Buckingham Palace and moved | :02:04. | :02:06. | |
But we won't be reminding her of that at all today. | :02:07. | :02:11. | |
First today the Conservatives have admitted failing to declare ?38,000 | :02:12. | :02:16. | |
The party has blamed an "administrative error" | :02:17. | :02:20. | |
for failing to register the accommodation costs | :02:21. | :02:21. | |
of activists involved in its 'Battlebus 2015' operation. | :02:22. | :02:30. | |
The admission follows an investigation by Channel 4 News | :02:31. | :02:32. | |
and their political correspondent Michael Crick joins me now. | :02:33. | :02:38. | |
Welcome to the programme. You have been on the story for some time, I | :02:39. | :02:45. | |
get the impression that every time you go back to it it gets bigger? | :02:46. | :02:52. | |
Yes we keep finding more stuff and the Electoral Commission is having | :02:53. | :02:55. | |
to widen its investigation. The key thing is, is when they conclude that | :02:56. | :03:01. | |
investigation, because there is 12 months after that the candidates | :03:02. | :03:05. | |
report their expenses, just a month after the election, so in other | :03:06. | :03:09. | |
words something has to be done by the beginning of June when the 12 | :03:10. | :03:18. | |
months is up for there to be prosecutions relating to the | :03:19. | :03:23. | |
declaration of expenses. There are two lots of declaration, locally and | :03:24. | :03:29. | |
nationally. Locally each candidate can spend about ?15,000. There are | :03:30. | :03:35. | |
national expenses which is just under ?19 million for the | :03:36. | :03:38. | |
Conservatives. What we found is that there is all sorts of campaigning | :03:39. | :03:44. | |
been going on involving these battle buses, where clearly we are taking | :03:45. | :03:48. | |
activists to constituencies, putting them up in hotels and they were | :03:49. | :03:52. | |
supporting the local individual candidates. Now the Electoral | :03:53. | :03:58. | |
Commission guidelines say if you campaign in support of individual | :03:59. | :04:02. | |
candidates, that counts as a local expense. The The cost has appeared | :04:03. | :04:10. | |
on the national returns, but the cost of the hotels has not appeared | :04:11. | :04:14. | |
anyone and that is what the Conservatives have admitted, because | :04:15. | :04:18. | |
of this error should have been on the national returns and they're now | :04:19. | :04:23. | |
going to rectify it. Where will they put it? They will put it on the | :04:24. | :04:27. | |
national returns. I would argue it should be on the local returns, | :04:28. | :04:31. | |
because they were staying in local hotels to support local candidates | :04:32. | :04:37. | |
in the South West, tonight we will report on how the battle bus went to | :04:38. | :04:43. | |
the Midlands and the north. Most of the candidates there became MPs and | :04:44. | :04:49. | |
in most cases if the costs are apded to their local returns, then they're | :04:50. | :04:53. | |
over the limit and they're in trouble in theory. The accommodation | :04:54. | :05:02. | |
was booked, let me be kind, in an elliptical way? It was booked | :05:03. | :05:07. | |
centrally, but sometimes it was booked through individuals, rather | :05:08. | :05:11. | |
than through the party. This is a pattern we uncovered a few weeks ago | :05:12. | :05:15. | |
in the three by-elections, you remember the big by-elections in | :05:16. | :05:22. | |
2015 when the Tories were determined to thwart Ukip and in the South | :05:23. | :05:27. | |
Thanet constituency where the Tories were determined to beat Nigel | :05:28. | :05:31. | |
Farage. It is all sorts of expenses that the Conservatives claim should | :05:32. | :05:36. | |
be national expenses, or they haven't been on any expense returns, | :05:37. | :05:40. | |
which should be attributed to their local candidate. It is hard not to. | :05:41. | :05:48. | |
If you turn up to a help a local candidate, it is not like helping a | :05:49. | :05:57. | |
political broadcast, but if I'm helping a local candidate that cost | :05:58. | :06:00. | |
must be for the local candidate. Yes, it is better than that in terms | :06:01. | :06:04. | |
of proof, the people that were on the battle bus were proud of what | :06:05. | :06:09. | |
they were doing and they were tweeting about it, putting it on | :06:10. | :06:14. | |
Facebook and pictures of them and their candidates and we have | :06:15. | :06:20. | |
obtained the scripts that they went around with, hello, I'm Mikel -- | :06:21. | :06:32. | |
Michael crick calling on behalf of your local candidate. And it will | :06:33. | :06:40. | |
not surprise you we contacted the Conservative Party this morning. | :06:41. | :06:41. | |
This what is they told us: Are they saying the battle bus we | :06:42. | :07:39. | |
can charge to the national campaign. That is arguable. But we admit that | :07:40. | :07:45. | |
the overnight accommodation or whatever it was, should have been a | :07:46. | :07:52. | |
local? Yes, they say that was an administrative error. They argue | :07:53. | :07:55. | |
that should be a national expense. We would say, hang on, you stayed in | :07:56. | :08:00. | |
that hotel to fight in that seat and that hotel. So they're still trying | :08:01. | :08:07. | |
to put it on the national ledger? Yes on the national ledger they were | :08:08. | :08:16. | |
bnd 3.5 million under the limit. So if it is a local expense and if it | :08:17. | :08:21. | |
was attributed to these seats locally, in most cases they would be | :08:22. | :08:25. | |
over the limit, the candidate would have spent too much. The limits are | :08:26. | :08:29. | |
important, in order to create a level playing field. Don't go away. | :08:30. | :08:35. | |
Well we're joined now from Bristol from the former | :08:36. | :08:38. | |
Liberal Democrat MP Tessa Munt, she lost her seat in Wells | :08:39. | :08:44. | |
What is your reaction? It is an extraordinary reaction, the idea it | :08:45. | :08:53. | |
is an error is tosh. The constituents in my area were | :08:54. | :08:59. | |
completely foxed by the fact that they had millions of leaflets | :09:00. | :09:04. | |
through their door. My agent said probably something like a quarter of | :09:05. | :09:08. | |
a million pounds worth of paper was delivered through doors and all the | :09:09. | :09:12. | |
leaflets referred to the fact that this was a campaign that all about | :09:13. | :09:18. | |
23 seats, of which mine was one and 23 seats does not make a national | :09:19. | :09:21. | |
campaign. We have photographs of people being briefed, there were | :09:22. | :09:29. | |
people who didn't know who my successor, what my successor's name | :09:30. | :09:36. | |
was, they couldn't pronounce his name, but they were knocking on | :09:37. | :09:41. | |
doors campaigning. So we have local campaigning that is being masked as | :09:42. | :09:46. | |
national campaigning. It is utter rubbish. Do you feel cheated? No, | :09:47. | :09:52. | |
but I think my constituents should feel cheated. Because actually what | :09:53. | :09:56. | |
we have in this country, we have been watching the American | :09:57. | :10:00. | |
elections, what we have to make sure we don't get is some sort of | :10:01. | :10:08. | |
ludicrous money-buying votes. That is what has happened. And when you | :10:09. | :10:13. | |
look at my election returns, all of the spending is accounted for, we | :10:14. | :10:17. | |
are clear and transparent about the way we have done everything. You can | :10:18. | :10:22. | |
see every leaflet and the invoice from the printer and all of the | :10:23. | :10:26. | |
information is there. It seems that this is not the way that the other | :10:27. | :10:30. | |
parties have chosen to fight the campaign. Thank you. Michael Crick, | :10:31. | :10:45. | |
is the question whether the commission allows to put it on the | :10:46. | :10:51. | |
national register or it is on the constituency and they will be over | :10:52. | :10:54. | |
the limit. I don't know entirely. They're trying to put it on the | :10:55. | :10:59. | |
national ledger, but the commission is investigating what we have | :11:00. | :11:02. | |
reported and what we said last night and it is not clear whether the | :11:03. | :11:06. | |
admission by the Tories results from that investigation, whether they | :11:07. | :11:09. | |
basically have been forced to say that, by the commission, but the | :11:10. | :11:13. | |
Electoral Commission, the impression we get is they're being hardline, | :11:14. | :11:18. | |
they have a reputation for being a feeble body. On this they realise | :11:19. | :11:23. | |
something has gone wrong. The question is whether they will | :11:24. | :11:27. | |
recommend to the police before the June deadline that there should be | :11:28. | :11:30. | |
prosecutions, or the alternative would be to allow under the law a 12 | :11:31. | :11:34. | |
month extension for further investigations. Whether they go that | :11:35. | :11:41. | |
far or whether they say, look, there was clearly misinterpretation of the | :11:42. | :11:44. | |
rules and the rules need tightening up and they may go down that avenue. | :11:45. | :11:52. | |
More on Channel 4 tonight? Indeed. We will tune in. And they say | :11:53. | :11:56. | |
investigative journalism is dead. They're wrong. | :11:57. | :11:59. | |
The question for today is: in a radio interview this week what did | :12:00. | :12:04. | |
Hillary Clinton say she always carries around with her? | :12:05. | :12:12. | |
c) A copy of Donald Trump's book | :12:13. | :12:16. | |
At the end of the show we'll see if Natalie | :12:17. | :12:19. | |
David Cameron says he will press ahead with plans to force every | :12:20. | :12:25. | |
state school to become an academy despite increasingly vocal | :12:26. | :12:27. | |
opposition, much of it from within his own party. | :12:28. | :12:30. | |
One Tory MP has labelled the plans "Draconian, | :12:31. | :12:32. | |
Academies were introduced by Labour and extended | :12:33. | :12:38. | |
Currently, under Education Secretary Nicky Morgan, | :12:39. | :12:45. | |
55% of secondary schools and 18% of primaries are academies - | :12:46. | :12:47. | |
Last month George Osborne unleashed his big Budget idea - | :12:48. | :12:56. | |
forcing all schools in England to become academies | :12:57. | :12:58. | |
Nicky Morgan fleshed out the plans, which include ending the obligation | :12:59. | :13:06. | |
to have parents as governors, scrapping qualified teacher | :13:07. | :13:11. | |
status and giving schools taken over by a new head | :13:12. | :13:13. | |
But, much like else in this Budget, opposition to the Chancellor's plans | :13:14. | :13:24. | |
came swiftly and from all corners, including his own. | :13:25. | :13:26. | |
More than a dozen Conservative MPs have so far raised | :13:27. | :13:29. | |
concerns about the plans, including Stewart Jackson, | :13:30. | :13:30. | |
who said the plans were "Draconian, heavy handed and top down". | :13:31. | :13:36. | |
Critics even included a former Education Minister, Tim Loughton, | :13:37. | :13:38. | |
who said he supported academies in principle, but was unhappy | :13:39. | :13:41. | |
with a "compulsory and arbitrary" timeline being set. | :13:42. | :13:47. | |
The Local Government Association said ministers needed to "consider | :13:48. | :13:50. | |
the wishes of parents, communities, teachers | :13:51. | :13:53. | |
and councils before imposing any new education structures". | :13:54. | :13:58. | |
And a National Union of Teachers poll of its members found just 7% | :13:59. | :14:01. | |
of schools leaders supported the forced academisation plans. | :14:02. | :14:06. | |
But yesterday David Cameron defended the proposals | :14:07. | :14:08. | |
at Prime Minister's Questions, saying it was time | :14:09. | :14:10. | |
This is something started by the Labour government, | :14:11. | :14:17. | |
given rocket boosters under this government. | :14:18. | :14:20. | |
We see massive improvements in our schools because of academies | :14:21. | :14:23. | |
and we say let's get on with it, finish the job, and give all of our | :14:24. | :14:27. | |
I'm joined now by the Education Minister Nick Gibb. | :14:28. | :14:38. | |
Are you going to rethink these plans? No the vision I set out is | :14:39. | :14:46. | |
for all schools to become academies and that is the vision we will | :14:47. | :14:50. | |
proceed with. It is about ensuring we have good schools in every part | :14:51. | :14:54. | |
of the country and in every local authority area, because good schools | :14:55. | :14:59. | |
that become academies can spread best practice to underperforming | :15:00. | :15:05. | |
schools and underperforming schools get strong sponsors to improve edge | :15:06. | :15:10. | |
kalgs. It is improving schools so when a parent drops off their child | :15:11. | :15:14. | |
they can be confident the school is of high quality. | :15:15. | :15:22. | |
You are not going to listen to the strength of feeling within your own | :15:23. | :15:28. | |
party from elevated levels saying that Conservatives should be schools | :15:29. | :15:34. | |
choice rather than imposing an arbitrary line, ideally any in | :15:35. | :15:39. | |
principle but not the compulsion? We are listening and talking to | :15:40. | :15:44. | |
colleagues in the House of Commons and local authorities and the | :15:45. | :15:46. | |
teaching profession and we want schools to have flexibility and | :15:47. | :15:51. | |
choice in how they might become academies, standing alone or not. We | :15:52. | :15:57. | |
are talking about a period of six years and as a government we have to | :15:58. | :16:02. | |
know where we are going to be in six years when increasing numbers of | :16:03. | :16:09. | |
local authorities have 80% or 90% of academies. This is about giving | :16:10. | :16:14. | |
professionals control of their school so they can raise standards | :16:15. | :16:19. | |
of reading, maths, academic standards, and improve behaviour, | :16:20. | :16:27. | |
and it is working. 350 pupils in schools that are sponsored academies | :16:28. | :16:34. | |
that were underperforming and are not. Does the government have a | :16:35. | :16:40. | |
mandate to do this? Six years is a fairly long timeline. Obviously not. | :16:41. | :16:46. | |
There was no mention of this during the election. This is further | :16:47. | :16:53. | |
privatisation, taking a public asset and putting it into private hands | :16:54. | :16:57. | |
away from the control of communities. We believe all schools | :16:58. | :17:02. | |
should be under local democratic control. We want to get rid of these | :17:03. | :17:08. | |
schools and academies. There is simply not the evidence to say that | :17:09. | :17:11. | |
academies Asian in itself improve standards. Schools around the | :17:12. | :17:17. | |
country over recent years have fought off academies Asian and local | :17:18. | :17:23. | |
communities have said they might do not want to be academies and it is | :17:24. | :17:32. | |
being imposed. Many Tory MPs echoing those sentiments. One says, | :17:33. | :17:37. | |
academies have little accountability or parental environment. -- | :17:38. | :17:45. | |
involvement. There is greater accountability. He is wrong? Yes. We | :17:46. | :17:57. | |
take swift action when schools that are academies underperform. There | :17:58. | :18:02. | |
are many examples of underperforming schools that stay underperforming | :18:03. | :18:05. | |
every year. That cannot happen with the academies programme because we | :18:06. | :18:11. | |
intervene swiftly to move academies and transfer them to better | :18:12. | :18:16. | |
performing schools. 30 Tory MPs against this compulsion element of | :18:17. | :18:30. | |
academies. We also have leading Tory councillors who have expressed anger | :18:31. | :18:36. | |
and are calling on you to rethink the policy. Someone saying if it is | :18:37. | :18:44. | |
not broke do not fix it. The Tory leader of Hampshire County Council | :18:45. | :18:48. | |
urging the government to focus on dealing with schools where there are | :18:49. | :18:53. | |
problems not win they are performing well. Schools that are performing | :18:54. | :19:00. | |
well have a duty not just to sit as islands, we have to take the | :19:01. | :19:03. | |
expertise of those strong head teachers and spread it to the | :19:04. | :19:09. | |
underperforming schools. Even in Hampshire a quarter of secondary | :19:10. | :19:15. | |
schools are not good or outstanding. It is not the fault of the people | :19:16. | :19:20. | |
who are outstanding. We want them to collaborate to make sure that every | :19:21. | :19:25. | |
school is high performing. You have failed to sell this policy. There is | :19:26. | :19:32. | |
a lot of Tory strength of feeling against that. That is my fault. We | :19:33. | :19:40. | |
need to do more to make the case. It is about ensuring there are no | :19:41. | :19:44. | |
underperforming schools in our system and that is what parents | :19:45. | :19:51. | |
want. Not a school that has been in special measures. We are talking | :19:52. | :19:59. | |
about schools that are outstanding. Tristram Hunt the Shadow Education | :20:00. | :20:05. | |
Secretary says you are in danger of not providing choice to parents. The | :20:06. | :20:10. | |
whole point of the academy programme under Labour was to give parents a | :20:11. | :20:14. | |
choice of schools and you want to take them all back under local | :20:15. | :20:19. | |
authority control. Choice involves schools competing against each other | :20:20. | :20:22. | |
seeking pupils that will give them the best results. The problem is | :20:23. | :20:26. | |
Jerry picking of pupils and pushing out of pupils who they think will | :20:27. | :20:34. | |
not perform. Our academies allowed to cherry pick? The local secondary | :20:35. | :20:42. | |
school in my area takes from the same catchment area it did under | :20:43. | :20:49. | |
local authority control. We have a whole philosophy education based on | :20:50. | :20:52. | |
schools competing against each other line to get the best for themselves | :20:53. | :21:02. | |
not for every pupil. What we saw in Brighton and Halls was getting | :21:03. | :21:04. | |
schools to coordinate together to get the best possible result for | :21:05. | :21:09. | |
every pupil in the area and that is what should be the foundation of | :21:10. | :21:14. | |
education. Is this going to be in the Queen's Speech? We are hearing | :21:15. | :21:19. | |
this is not going to be a piece of legislation. We never say what is in | :21:20. | :21:24. | |
the Queen's Speech until the Queen's Speech. We are pressing ahead. That | :21:25. | :21:35. | |
implies you are. We do not announce in advance what is in the Queen's | :21:36. | :21:42. | |
Speech. An underperforming school, fewer than half getting five GCSEs, | :21:43. | :21:48. | |
an academy took it over and nearly three quarters of children are | :21:49. | :21:53. | |
getting five GCSEs or more. Could you look at an exception for rural | :21:54. | :21:57. | |
schools who are doing brilliantly who do not want to be landed with | :21:58. | :22:03. | |
the burden of helping other schools? Rural schools have a better chance | :22:04. | :22:07. | |
of survival under a trust model that under the local authority because | :22:08. | :22:13. | |
they can share back offices, cut costs. No exception from them being | :22:14. | :22:21. | |
forced to academies? No. We want all schools to academies. We set out in | :22:22. | :22:27. | |
their manifesto that we wanted academisation to continue. We have | :22:28. | :22:36. | |
had to look six years ahead. We have authorities like Bournemouth won 87% | :22:37. | :22:42. | |
of schools today are academy. Where are we going to be in five or six | :22:43. | :22:47. | |
years? You must have known that when you were drying up the manifesto. We | :22:48. | :22:52. | |
said we were going to continue with the academisation process and that | :22:53. | :22:54. | |
is what we are doing. Now it's fast approaching 12:30pm, | :22:55. | :22:58. | |
which is usually the time that the Queen likes to take her gin | :22:59. | :23:00. | |
and Dubonnet while watching We know this from Buckingham Palace | :23:01. | :23:03. | |
sources. And perhaps today she might make it | :23:04. | :23:13. | |
a double because, in case you hadn't In the last hour or so the Prime | :23:14. | :23:16. | |
Minister and the Leader of the Opposition have been leading | :23:17. | :23:21. | |
the tributes in the Commons. As the sands of culture shift | :23:22. | :23:24. | |
and the tides of politics ebb and flow, Her Majesty | :23:25. | :23:28. | |
has been steadfast. A rock of strength for our nation, | :23:29. | :23:36. | |
for our Commonwealth, and on many As her grandson Prince | :23:37. | :23:39. | |
William has said, time and again, quietly and | :23:40. | :23:42. | |
modestly, the Queen has shown us all that we can confidently | :23:43. | :23:45. | |
embrace the future without compromising | :23:46. | :23:47. | |
the things that are important. Whatever different views | :23:48. | :23:48. | |
people across this country have about the institution, | :23:49. | :23:53. | |
the vast majority share an opinion that Her Majesty has served | :23:54. | :23:56. | |
this country and has overwhelming support, | :23:57. | :23:59. | |
with a clear sense of public service and public duty, as the Prime | :24:00. | :24:03. | |
Minister just indicated. She has carried out that duty | :24:04. | :24:06. | |
with enormous warmth. We know that the Queen is popular | :24:07. | :24:21. | |
but is the monarchy's popularity guaranteed? | :24:22. | :24:24. | |
Joining me now is Tom Mludzinski from the polling company ComRes. | :24:25. | :24:28. | |
Nothing has danger, has it? Politicians cannot get near the | :24:29. | :24:36. | |
favourability and approval ratings for the Queen. This gets close to | :24:37. | :24:44. | |
some of the Royal Family members, Prince Charles. The popularity of | :24:45. | :24:49. | |
the marquee is fairly steadfast. There have been blips along the way | :24:50. | :24:54. | |
around the time of Diana's death and the management of that but it has | :24:55. | :25:00. | |
been fairly rock solid in terms of whether people want to keep the | :25:01. | :25:06. | |
moderately or move to a republic. 75% have said they might want to | :25:07. | :25:11. | |
keep the monarchy. There is not a difference between the Queen's | :25:12. | :25:16. | |
personal popularity and the monarchy in general? The Queen is probably | :25:17. | :25:20. | |
slightly more popular but so are the young royals, Prince Harry, Prince | :25:21. | :25:26. | |
William and Kate Middleton are extremely popular, almost as popular | :25:27. | :25:31. | |
as the Queen in many respects. It is the intervening period. Prince | :25:32. | :25:35. | |
Charles is below his mother and his children. People are less keen on | :25:36. | :25:39. | |
Prince Charles than Prince William so that will affect people's views | :25:40. | :25:45. | |
towards succession. That is right but most people think it is right | :25:46. | :25:48. | |
that Prince Charles should take over from the Queen and become king. Much | :25:49. | :25:55. | |
depends on housekeeper forms on the roll and what sort of duties he | :25:56. | :26:01. | |
takes on. The public profile he takes on when he is king. | :26:02. | :26:06. | |
We're joined now from central lobby by the Conservative MP Adam Afriyie, | :26:07. | :26:09. | |
So I guess the Queen is one of his constituents. | :26:10. | :26:16. | |
As I mentioned earlier she is a republican. | :26:17. | :26:23. | |
Are you going to be celebrating the Queen's birthday? I certainly will | :26:24. | :26:34. | |
be. Can I correct you? She is not my constituent, I yam her subject and | :26:35. | :26:40. | |
she is a resident and she is a very welcome resident. What is the | :26:41. | :26:46. | |
difference? A resident does not have the right to vote. I yam her subject | :26:47. | :26:51. | |
rather than her MP. Are you happy being her subject? I always find it | :26:52. | :26:58. | |
quite churlish even better of those with the academic view that we | :26:59. | :27:04. | |
should move from having a monarchy because in practice the Queen is a | :27:05. | :27:09. | |
figurehead, head of state, she generates world peace and creates | :27:10. | :27:16. | |
social cohesion so she is doing pretty much what we want to do | :27:17. | :27:20. | |
though it seems churlish and bitter to say she should be removed as the | :27:21. | :27:27. | |
monarch. That was not my question. I wondered whether on the 21st-century | :27:28. | :27:31. | |
we should be regarding ourselves as subjects rather than citizens. It is | :27:32. | :27:36. | |
a technicality in the wording. It means quite a lot. We are a | :27:37. | :27:43. | |
democratic nation and it is the elected people like myself who form | :27:44. | :27:48. | |
governments. The thing I have noticed about the Queen is she is | :27:49. | :27:53. | |
always positive, optimistic, pulling people together and holding them | :27:54. | :27:58. | |
together. Weight often we create laws about social be -- and trying | :27:59. | :28:05. | |
to pull things together and she has played a greater role than many of | :28:06. | :28:13. | |
us politicians. Today I am not celebrating the Queen's birthday, I | :28:14. | :28:15. | |
am focusing on the election campaigns coming up. Why? I would | :28:16. | :28:23. | |
congratulate the Queen as an individual for her many decades of | :28:24. | :28:29. | |
service. She has done a huge amount of work, a huge job. In politics we | :28:30. | :28:34. | |
are focusing on the upcoming elections. You could not have a | :28:35. | :28:40. | |
toast? It would only take a few moments. I would have joined you in | :28:41. | :28:50. | |
a drink of course! It is really important we think about the | :28:51. | :28:53. | |
problems with our Constitution which were brought up in the elections | :28:54. | :29:00. | |
pending story. In our first past the post system we have a problem in | :29:01. | :29:05. | |
that the huge amount of focus is on swing voters in swing seats so... We | :29:06. | :29:13. | |
are talking about the monarchy. We are talking about constitutional | :29:14. | :29:18. | |
reform. What the Green Party's focus would be is on the House of Commons. | :29:19. | :29:23. | |
You do not want to get rid of the monarchy? I am happy to retain the | :29:24. | :29:32. | |
ceremonial monarchy like Sweden. What role does the Queen in this | :29:33. | :29:38. | |
country have that the king of Sweden not have? She has the power to form | :29:39. | :29:45. | |
the government. That is what the King does. There it is ceremonial. | :29:46. | :29:57. | |
We have seen it in Belgium as well. The King brings various parties | :29:58. | :30:01. | |
together. The Queen cannot give us a government we do not want. That is | :30:02. | :30:04. | |
clear. FORCEDWHITE We have a constituency | :30:05. | :30:18. | |
that relies on the her redry system. So does Denmark and Belgium. I want | :30:19. | :30:23. | |
to start with House of Commons of the House of Lords. It is clear from | :30:24. | :30:27. | |
all the polls and public sentiment that as long as the Queen is alive | :30:28. | :30:35. | |
the monarchy is safe. No one, even Natalie Bennett has an appetite to | :30:36. | :30:38. | |
do anything as long as the Queen is arrive. Does it come under more | :30:39. | :30:47. | |
danger when she dies and Prince Charles comes to the throne. It is | :30:48. | :30:52. | |
not a day to talk about death on her birthday. There is a danger of | :30:53. | :30:56. | |
having a monarch that may not be in tune with the people. But what the | :30:57. | :31:01. | |
Queen and Prince William have demonstrated that they recognise it | :31:02. | :31:04. | |
is about being in tune with the nation. But Parliament is supreme | :31:05. | :31:08. | |
here and at the end of the day if there were a situation which needed | :31:09. | :31:14. | |
addressing it would be addressed. I get upset with the comments that | :31:15. | :31:19. | |
smack of being sour when there is no practical matter that needs to be | :31:20. | :31:22. | |
dealt with. The Queen is doing wonderful work for the country and | :31:23. | :31:26. | |
the Government and the people and the common wealth and holding the | :31:27. | :31:37. | |
nation together. Don't get sad. What do you say to a historian who said | :31:38. | :31:47. | |
the Queen has done nothing that people will remember, unlike queen | :31:48. | :31:51. | |
Victoria and she sees the role as just a job and she won't give her | :31:52. | :31:59. | |
name to an era. I say thank you Mr Starkey, that is the point, that is | :32:00. | :32:04. | |
why we have had a harmonious nation and government for at least 90 | :32:05. | :32:10. | |
years. If you had a referendum now, because it is the only way you could | :32:11. | :32:15. | |
get rid of her, you would have to have a referendum, you would lose at | :32:16. | :32:23. | |
the moment wouldn't you? We are not calling for that. We are calling for | :32:24. | :32:30. | |
a referendum on proportional representation. We had one to change | :32:31. | :32:36. | |
the voting system. You know that alternative vote is not proportional | :32:37. | :32:40. | |
representation. We had that vote and you lost. That is a non-row | :32:41. | :32:46. | |
portional system. Since this is the queen's birthday, we are not going | :32:47. | :32:50. | |
to discuss proportional representation. Have you passed a | :32:51. | :32:55. | |
law. Has she agreed to it. We will be together later in the evening, we | :32:56. | :33:00. | |
will have to see about that one. Natalie Bennett twice in one day! | :33:01. | :33:02. | |
Thank you for joining us. With Scottish, Welsh, | :33:03. | :33:06. | |
local and mayoral elections coming up in just two weeks, | :33:07. | :33:08. | |
the Green Party are hoping to turn what they term the green surge | :33:09. | :33:11. | |
into votes at the ballot box. But despite achieving a record | :33:12. | :33:15. | |
3.8% of the vote in last year's general election, | :33:16. | :33:18. | |
the Greens failed to win any extra parliamentary seats, | :33:19. | :33:20. | |
so will it be different this time? Our guest of the day | :33:21. | :33:25. | |
Natalie Bennett thinks so. Here she is speaking at the party's | :33:26. | :33:27. | |
local election campaign These are really exciting elections | :33:28. | :33:29. | |
for the Green Party. We have more than 1,500 candidates | :33:30. | :33:33. | |
up and down the country. Many of them will be out today | :33:34. | :33:38. | |
knocking on doors, out delivering People are doing the hard | :33:39. | :33:41. | |
work to turn that If you look back a bit | :33:42. | :33:45. | |
to 2015, we outpolled You contrast that to 2010 | :33:46. | :33:53. | |
and we outpolled them in one. Natalie Bennett is here. Your | :33:54. | :34:12. | |
counter parts in Scotland are set for a bumper election, some suggest | :34:13. | :34:17. | |
they could win eight seats. Why is the party flat lining in England and | :34:18. | :34:21. | |
Wales? I don't think that is true. What we have in England and Wales | :34:22. | :34:26. | |
where we have proportional representation, the London Assembly | :34:27. | :34:30. | |
and the Wales Assembly, our leader in Wales did a brilliant job in the | :34:31. | :34:38. | |
first leader debate. But the Welsh party has dropped to 3% of the | :34:39. | :34:44. | |
regional vote and that is down from 3.4% at the last Assembly election. | :34:45. | :34:48. | |
Party membership in England and Wales has dropped from 66,000 to | :34:49. | :34:54. | |
63,000 last year. You're going the wrong way? What we are seeing is | :34:55. | :35:01. | |
63,000, contrast that with 12,000 when I became leader. But it is | :35:02. | :35:06. | |
going down. I find there is two groups in the council elections, | :35:07. | :35:11. | |
there is places like Sheffield, Liverpool, Oxford and of course | :35:12. | :35:14. | |
Bristol, where in Bristol west we got close to winning our second | :35:15. | :35:19. | |
Parliamentary seat. Places where we have been strong we are looking to | :35:20. | :35:24. | |
become stronger. That is the thing, you're going to try and extend your | :35:25. | :35:30. | |
presence and your vote in those areas, but you won't improve your | :35:31. | :35:34. | |
standing in places where you're not. Where we are growing is the other | :35:35. | :35:39. | |
group of councils where we are making an impact where we have a | :35:40. | :35:44. | |
chance to win our first seats and I have been travelling around the | :35:45. | :35:49. | |
country where even a couple of years ago there may not have been a Green | :35:50. | :35:53. | |
Party. Now we have a chance to win our first councillor. People like | :35:54. | :35:58. | |
the message that says we are tired, we are not happy with the council | :35:59. | :36:04. | |
performance and we want a new Green broom asking questions and | :36:05. | :36:08. | |
challenging. That is a message striking home in many communities. | :36:09. | :36:13. | |
What about in London, the mayoral candidate polled as low as 2% in an | :36:14. | :36:19. | |
opinion poll. That is down from 4.5% in 2012. What we seeing as the | :36:20. | :36:26. | |
mayoral election heightens up and people are hearing what our | :36:27. | :36:30. | |
candidate is saying, her slogan is the power of good ideas. She has | :36:31. | :36:36. | |
good ideas that will translate into votes in the mayoral and the London | :36:37. | :36:42. | |
Assembly, where we have already had two representatives and we have a | :36:43. | :36:45. | |
chance to grow that representation here. What impact will the results | :36:46. | :36:50. | |
have on your future leadership, will you stand for re-election as leader? | :36:51. | :36:55. | |
Well as I have said, at the moment there is only one election I'm | :36:56. | :37:00. | |
focussed on, which is the elections in May and the referendum. These are | :37:01. | :37:03. | |
the elections the democratic elections for the whole people of | :37:04. | :37:08. | |
England and Wales. Because you haven't made a decision? No the | :37:09. | :37:14. | |
Green Party, it comes up every two years. At the moment I'm not | :37:15. | :37:18. | |
thinking about that. People say if you're planning to stand again, you | :37:19. | :37:23. | |
wob able to say so now, are you waiting for the results of election | :37:24. | :37:28. | |
first? No I think it would be a distraction if I were to say | :37:29. | :37:32. | |
anything. If you said you were standing again, why would that be a | :37:33. | :37:38. | |
distraction? We want to focus on electing our first green councillor | :37:39. | :37:43. | |
in Exeter and Newcastle. I'm not talking and anything else. You're | :37:44. | :37:47. | |
taughting about -- talking about it. But it is coming up and people may | :37:48. | :37:51. | |
want to know why you couldn't say yes. We have elections. Let's focus | :37:52. | :38:00. | |
on the local elections where people debate local elections. We have been | :38:01. | :38:06. | |
heading to an a presidential style of election and that is not right we | :38:07. | :38:13. | |
should focus on the local elections. The Scottish green leader said | :38:14. | :38:17. | |
greens believe in bringing power closer to the power, wouldn't a vote | :38:18. | :38:22. | |
to the leave the EU bring power closer. Well we are campaigning to | :38:23. | :38:32. | |
stay in. Jenny Jones isn't. Last year about 95% backed a remain | :38:33. | :38:36. | |
campaign. The Green Party has people with different views. But we have no | :38:37. | :38:39. | |
problems with that, because the Green Party doesn't whip. So we are | :38:40. | :38:43. | |
comfortable with people having different views and as Jenny did, | :38:44. | :38:48. | |
state her position and stating the Green position that we believe we | :38:49. | :38:51. | |
need to work together on the joint problems that we face. We need to | :38:52. | :38:55. | |
make decisions at the right kind of level. If we are thinking and | :38:56. | :39:01. | |
pollution and workers' rights, we need to work at a European level. | :39:02. | :39:03. | |
Thank you. Now, they're pre-programmed, | :39:04. | :39:06. | |
are told what to say, and aren't No, I'm not talking | :39:07. | :39:08. | |
about politicians. And they're getting | :39:09. | :39:11. | |
smarter all the time, With technology advancing at speed, | :39:12. | :39:14. | |
what will the rise of the robots mean for us mere humans | :39:15. | :39:22. | |
and the jobs we do? Here's Tom Watson, the deputy leader | :39:23. | :39:24. | |
of the Labour Party, Robots used to be the stuff | :39:25. | :39:26. | |
of science fiction, but they're In his budget last month, | :39:27. | :39:43. | |
George Osborne announced that driverless cars will be trialled | :39:44. | :39:54. | |
on our roads as early as next year. A development that will have huge | :39:55. | :39:58. | |
ramifications for the haulage industry, cab drivers and possibly | :39:59. | :40:02. | |
the rail industry too. Management consultants Deloitte say | :40:03. | :40:09. | |
that 11 million jobs will go when robots do the work that | :40:10. | :40:12. | |
humans do today. The age of automation will unleash | :40:13. | :40:21. | |
forces as profound and destructive as the Industrial Revolution did | :40:22. | :40:23. | |
300 years ago. Our question has to be - | :40:24. | :40:31. | |
do we make technology our friend I think we have to embrace it | :40:32. | :40:34. | |
and I want the Labour The last machine age led | :40:35. | :40:41. | |
to the Industrial Revolution From the factories and the railways | :40:42. | :40:51. | |
to the town halls and public squares But it also left a terrible | :40:52. | :40:59. | |
legacy of inequality, disease, slums, poverty, | :41:00. | :41:05. | |
child labour and it took a combination of capitalist | :41:06. | :41:10. | |
philanthropy, municipal leadership and the power of organised | :41:11. | :41:14. | |
labour to change that. Despite their rhetoric, | :41:15. | :41:25. | |
the Tories don't have a proper Because their ideology dictates | :41:26. | :41:27. | |
that the market alone must We believe in harnessing the power | :41:28. | :41:32. | |
of the enabling state to everyone gains from the benefits | :41:33. | :41:43. | |
automation brings us. We are entering the second machine | :41:44. | :41:57. | |
age, a new era of automation. It sound like science fiction, | :41:58. | :42:03. | |
but this isn't the stuff of HG Wells, it is happening | :42:04. | :42:08. | |
in Tonbridge Wells right now. We did ask to speak to a robot, but | :42:09. | :42:30. | |
none was available. A bit like Conservative ministers. You | :42:31. | :42:35. | |
mentioned this statistic that robots will claim 11 million jobs, isn't it | :42:36. | :42:40. | |
in the nature of the reports that they're always wrong? Generally. But | :42:41. | :42:44. | |
it points in the right direction. Deloitte said there a is high | :42:45. | :42:50. | |
probability of 11 million jobs and a possibility it could be 19 million. | :42:51. | :42:53. | |
If you look at analysts, there was a report from the Bank of America that | :42:54. | :42:58. | |
say they think half of global manufacturing jobs will be | :42:59. | :43:03. | |
automated, the jobs that are done by humans that would liberate $9 | :43:04. | :43:12. | |
trillion of labour costs. So there are big changes, technological | :43:13. | :43:15. | |
advance is getting quick and that state of flux is greater and you can | :43:16. | :43:21. | |
only deal with that change if you are prepared to put the empowering | :43:22. | :43:27. | |
state at the heart, working with employers and workers to deal with | :43:28. | :43:33. | |
the disruption. I can see the role of state skilling people for the | :43:34. | :43:38. | |
changes, but governments, and it is also clear that you can see what | :43:39. | :43:42. | |
jobs existing jobs could be in danger. The one thing governments | :43:43. | :43:47. | |
can never do is see what new jobs will come. You can equip people to | :43:48. | :43:56. | |
be ready to move. If youI were sitting here in 1994, we would never | :43:57. | :44:01. | |
have seen all the jobs that the internet was going to create. That's | :44:02. | :44:06. | |
right. But if you just say let's leave to it fate, let's leave it to | :44:07. | :44:12. | |
the goods of the market, as as state you will miss opportunities. My | :44:13. | :44:17. | |
argument is we need to institutions that bring the state together in | :44:18. | :44:21. | |
partnering up workers and employers to make sure we are investing tax | :44:22. | :44:28. | |
dollars in the right way. What else would it do? It doesn't predict the | :44:29. | :44:33. | |
future. As I said, I see the point of making sure the people of the | :44:34. | :44:37. | |
country have the best skills to be able to move which ever way the jobs | :44:38. | :44:44. | |
are. But you risk huge investments in areas that don't turn out. The | :44:45. | :44:50. | |
French Government did this in the pre-internet age and invented its | :44:51. | :44:56. | |
own pre-internet technology. It doesn't exist now. You're to let | :44:57. | :45:01. | |
entrepreneurs develop technology, but how you skill the workforce. If | :45:02. | :45:10. | |
you look at the NHS, people are now wearing wearable medical devices, | :45:11. | :45:13. | |
measuring their own health. We scowled have a revolution in health | :45:14. | :45:20. | |
diagnostics creating a new generalers are of clinicians. We | :45:21. | :45:25. | |
can't even digitise health records yet. We spent 12 billion failing to | :45:26. | :45:33. | |
do that. We are good at fail, because on the left you have a sense | :45:34. | :45:36. | |
of people go to protectionist measures and on the right there is | :45:37. | :45:40. | |
the sense you can't plan ahead, because the state does haven't a | :45:41. | :45:46. | |
role. You need sensible pragmat tichl. | :45:47. | :45:54. | |
There is the Luddite tradition. Has that gone? In the British Retail | :45:55. | :46:04. | |
Consortium a third of retail jobs would go in the next generation | :46:05. | :46:10. | |
because of warehouse technology. They work very closely with | :46:11. | :46:14. | |
employers to make sure that new jobs are created and the workforce are | :46:15. | :46:21. | |
supported. You think particularly the union wing of the Labour Party | :46:22. | :46:24. | |
which often oppose new technology in the 60s and 70s, these days are | :46:25. | :46:31. | |
gone? They have an interest in protecting the interests of their | :46:32. | :46:36. | |
workers. You cannot stop technological advance and you have | :46:37. | :46:42. | |
to make it your friend or enemy but you can provide a safety net for | :46:43. | :46:48. | |
workers in industries in transition. All of those poor journalists | :46:49. | :46:52. | |
affected by the destructive power of technology, you have to find new | :46:53. | :46:56. | |
ways to support information in the hands of citizens. There have been a | :46:57. | :47:00. | |
lot of other journals jobs created in different ways, which often do | :47:01. | :47:06. | |
not pay as much. How would you judge the performance of the Labour Party | :47:07. | :47:12. | |
in the various elections in May? Certainly not doing interviews with | :47:13. | :47:23. | |
you won I talk about 200 wins or whatever. Expectation management. I | :47:24. | :47:28. | |
have no idea what the outcome of the elections in May will be because | :47:29. | :47:33. | |
they are easy ways of separate elections and the local campaigns | :47:34. | :47:36. | |
and local government elections are going to be unique. You are not | :47:37. | :47:41. | |
going to give us a yardstick? I do not have one. How are relations with | :47:42. | :47:49. | |
your leader? You support Trident. You want to curb the influence of | :47:50. | :47:56. | |
some of Jeremy Corbyn's supporters. If that was the price it would be | :47:57. | :48:02. | |
disastrous. We get on very well. I just wondered how you were getting | :48:03. | :48:07. | |
on giving your various positions. Very positive. We have struck up a | :48:08. | :48:12. | |
close personal friendship which allows you to have different views | :48:13. | :48:17. | |
of the world than manage that. If Labour was to lose the London | :48:18. | :48:21. | |
mayoral election I would suggest your performance in Scotland, Wales | :48:22. | :48:31. | |
has been hemmed in, but would there be another leadership crisis? That | :48:32. | :48:36. | |
is another way of getting me into expectations management. I spoke to | :48:37. | :48:42. | |
Labour Party members. They hoops Jeremy and me as leader and deputy | :48:43. | :48:48. | |
leader and it is up to them if they want to express their dissent. A big | :48:49. | :48:55. | |
issue you have been associated with, then it will be 2012 you said there | :48:56. | :49:00. | |
was a clear intelligence suggesting a power powerful paedophile network | :49:01. | :49:08. | |
linked to parliament and Number 10. No one has been arrested much less | :49:09. | :49:13. | |
charged. Operation Midland has been closed down. You were wrong? A | :49:14. | :49:18. | |
number of people have been arrested and some of them convicted. Not to | :49:19. | :49:23. | |
do with a paedophile ring connected to Parliament and Number 10. There | :49:24. | :49:29. | |
is a public inquiry looking at that and various criminal inquiries that | :49:30. | :49:33. | |
are not complete. There have been no arrests of a powerful paedophile | :49:34. | :49:39. | |
ring involving fee is a Number 10. It was the information exchange. We | :49:40. | :49:49. | |
know that. I did not know that. Used and by that statement? There have | :49:50. | :49:56. | |
been no major political public figures charged as a result of this | :49:57. | :50:03. | |
investigation. When you are a parliamentarian you have to see | :50:04. | :50:08. | |
where you can make a difference. We have criminal inquiries and | :50:09. | :50:11. | |
investigative journalism and a public inquiry and we have to let | :50:12. | :50:15. | |
them do their work can see where the outcome comes. Come back and talk to | :50:16. | :50:19. | |
us about this. I would be delighted. How does the Queen know | :50:20. | :50:26. | |
what her loyal MPs are up to? But she also has other | :50:27. | :50:29. | |
ways of finding out. One of the government whips, | :50:30. | :50:33. | |
the Vice Chamberlain of the Household, writes Her Majesty | :50:34. | :50:35. | |
a dispatch every evening to tell In the first year of the Blair | :50:36. | :50:41. | |
government, this task fell to Janet Anderson, | :50:42. | :50:46. | |
who has just published her missives BBC Radio 4 has dramatised a small | :50:47. | :50:49. | |
selection of Janet's Wednesday 8th of April, | :50:50. | :50:52. | |
your Majesty, last day before the Easter hols, | :50:53. | :50:56. | |
so suffice it to say that honourable At 3pm Madam Speaker announced | :50:57. | :50:59. | |
questions to your Prime Minister, only today it was your | :51:00. | :51:06. | |
Deputy Prime Minister and Secretary of State for the Environment, | :51:07. | :51:09. | |
Transport and the Regions. Two million jobs being lost from our | :51:10. | :51:13. | |
manufacturing sector... When John Bercow, a rather odious | :51:14. | :51:19. | |
little Tory MP from Buckingham, tried to provoke your | :51:20. | :51:24. | |
Deputy Prime Minister, This was the man, he boomed, | :51:25. | :51:27. | |
who had been chairman of the National Federation | :51:28. | :51:36. | |
of Conservative Students when Norman Tebbit closed it | :51:37. | :51:38. | |
down because it was... Michael Fabricant is, | :51:39. | :51:40. | |
the Conservative MP for Mid Staffs, who looks for all the world | :51:41. | :51:51. | |
as though he wears a wig but won't admit it, | :51:52. | :51:53. | |
could be described as... Your Majesty, your Secretary | :51:54. | :51:55. | |
of State for Social Security, Harriet Harman, was first up | :51:56. | :52:01. | |
for questions today. It is almost impossible | :52:02. | :52:03. | |
to see her in action without recalling the hatchet job | :52:04. | :52:17. | |
done on her by the Observer One really does wonder | :52:18. | :52:19. | |
whether she is going to recover. Janet Anderson MP with humble duty | :52:20. | :52:23. | |
reports Tuesday 9th of June 1998. Your Secretary of State | :52:24. | :52:25. | |
for Social Security Harriet Harman was even spotted in the smoking room | :52:26. | :52:28. | |
buying rounds of drinks, I can assure your Majesty this | :52:29. | :52:30. | |
is not a regular occurrence. Mr John Bercow introduced a ten | :52:31. | :52:36. | |
minute rule bill to prevent anyone who does not pay income tax | :52:37. | :52:48. | |
or is resident outside the country Seems rather sensible, | :52:49. | :52:51. | |
but what a shame it had to be introduced by such | :52:52. | :52:57. | |
a tiresome little man. Bercow constantly bores us | :52:58. | :53:01. | |
with his attempts to be more 11% of average earnings | :53:02. | :53:04. | |
in the United Kingdom by contrast So irritating had this become | :53:05. | :53:09. | |
in a recent debate on sport that Labour's Stephen Pound from Ealing | :53:10. | :53:19. | |
was moved to comment, personally I would rather | :53:20. | :53:26. | |
have a sex life. Janet Anderson is with us now, | :53:27. | :53:35. | |
and we're also joined by the current occupant of that role, | :53:36. | :53:39. | |
the Conservative MP Kris Hopkins. It is racy. What will you writing | :53:40. | :53:52. | |
those things to the Queen for? I thought she could read Hansard if | :53:53. | :53:56. | |
she wanted a parliamentary report. I got the sense she had a good sense | :53:57. | :54:01. | |
of humour when I met her. I thought she might appreciate some of the | :54:02. | :54:05. | |
gossip, what went on in the bars and the tearoom and what everyone was | :54:06. | :54:09. | |
saying about each other. I think she did. Did she give you feedback? Not | :54:10. | :54:16. | |
directly, but the Prime Minister did. Also her private secretary | :54:17. | :54:25. | |
Robert Fellowes said to me how much she had enjoyed it. She used to read | :54:26. | :54:34. | |
it every evening before dinner. As an aperitif before the main course. | :54:35. | :54:40. | |
You going to write these daily digests to fill in the Queen what | :54:41. | :54:46. | |
has been happening in Parliament? Janet perhaps adopted a radical | :54:47. | :54:50. | |
approach. Are you going to do the same? I have been doing it for a | :54:51. | :54:56. | |
year. The content remains private. It is a great privilege to write to | :54:57. | :55:01. | |
our Majesty. I understood it was against the official secrets act to | :55:02. | :55:06. | |
publish these so there may be space in the tower for you. You get taken | :55:07. | :55:15. | |
hostage by the Queen. It is dramatic. I am picked up by a and | :55:16. | :55:20. | |
said a biscuit and a cup of coffee. Is that as torturous as it becomes? | :55:21. | :55:29. | |
There was a problem a few centuries ago when one member of the Royal | :55:30. | :55:33. | |
Family came to the palace and did not return, so I am a hostage and | :55:34. | :55:39. | |
win the Queen comes back I return. You are safely returned. I remember | :55:40. | :55:50. | |
as they were leaving for Westminster Prince Philip said to me, if we do | :55:51. | :55:54. | |
not come back safely, you get shot or something, don't you? He said, we | :55:55. | :56:01. | |
will not be able to do that because you are going to ban handguns. They | :56:02. | :56:07. | |
Bulls have a very good sense of humour. They were great company. The | :56:08. | :56:12. | |
Queen is very adept at making you feel at ease. I remember my first | :56:13. | :56:17. | |
morning in Buckingham Palace thinking, if my mother could see me, | :56:18. | :56:22. | |
but she is so good and so skilled, and if we think of the hundreds of | :56:23. | :56:26. | |
thousands of people she has to make small talk with almost daily, she | :56:27. | :56:31. | |
makes you feel she is interested in you, she wants to hear what you have | :56:32. | :56:38. | |
to say. Are you enjoying her birthday? Absolutely. Do you get a | :56:39. | :56:48. | |
uniform? Morning suit, top hat. A wand of offers. You can perform | :56:49. | :56:57. | |
magic tricks? It feels like that. When I was asked if I would consider | :56:58. | :56:59. | |
taking the job my only rule was no ties. Do you get paid more? The | :57:00. | :57:20. | |
role? The role comes as part of the government Whip roll. What is wrong | :57:21. | :57:31. | |
with John Bercow? John would be the first to say he could be quite | :57:32. | :57:37. | |
difficult when he first came in, but he is much more popular and I think | :57:38. | :57:43. | |
he is a very good Speaker. You might want to re-edits some of those. | :57:44. | :57:48. | |
There's just time before we go to find out the answer to our quiz. | :57:49. | :57:51. | |
The question was: In a radio interview this week what did | :57:52. | :57:54. | |
Hillary Clinton say she always carries around with her? | :57:55. | :57:56. | |
Was it a) An American flag b) Hot sauce c) A copy of Donald Trump's | :57:57. | :58:00. | |
So, Natalie, what's the correct answer? | :58:01. | :58:04. | |
I do not know the answer. I was going to guess Donald Trump's route | :58:05. | :58:13. | |
because it might be cathartic to have the punching session. The most | :58:14. | :58:18. | |
logical answer would be coffee. It is hot sauce. I think she likes to | :58:19. | :58:26. | |
add it to whatever she is eating. The Department for Education say | :58:27. | :58:32. | |
that it is 66%, not 55%, of secondary schools that are | :58:33. | :58:33. | |
academies. 5655 schools in total. You look like you've | :58:34. | :58:53. | |
just seen the Grim Reaper. Well, it was a lot to take in, | :58:54. | :59:07. | |
wasn't it? | :59:08. | :59:10. |