Browse content similar to 09/07/2012. Check below for episodes and series from the same categories and more!
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Tonight, the Olympic symbol has always been five intersecting rings, | :00:14. | :00:21. | |
might a more appropriate thing be five fattening doughnuts. As the | :00:21. | :00:26. | |
athletes prepare to gather in London. An angry cardiologist asks | :00:26. | :00:31. | |
why some key sponsors are linked to obesity and unhealthy eating. | :00:31. | :00:35. | |
find is fascinating that the Olympics chooses to be associated | :00:35. | :00:40. | |
with sugary drinks, fast food, and alcohol. We speak to an olympian | :00:40. | :00:46. | |
and marketing man. Cuts in benefits and making work | :00:46. | :00:51. | |
pay, an ally of David Cameron wants to means test pensions and cut Sure | :00:51. | :00:55. | |
Start for children. What is the difference between a | :00:55. | :01:00. | |
cess pit and our banking system? Paul Mason knows. | :01:00. | :01:03. | |
A key official at the Bank of England testifies, somebody's | :01:03. | :01:06. | |
reputation is going to get flushed away. | :01:06. | :01:10. | |
And having failed with electoral reform, Nick Clegg is on the eve of | :01:10. | :01:13. | |
the first major Government defeat over House of Lords reform, at the | :01:13. | :01:23. | |
:01:23. | :01:26. | ||
hands of Tory MPs. Good evening, the Olympic Moto is | :01:26. | :01:33. | |
Citius, Altius, Fortius, faster, higher, stronger. Why are some of | :01:33. | :01:40. | |
the key sponsors of the greatest sporting events in the worlds, | :01:40. | :01:46. | |
McDonalds, Coca-Cola and Heineken, likely to be associated with the | :01:46. | :01:56. | |
:01:56. | :01:58. | ||
motto, fatter, et cetera. The logos of those associated with the | :01:58. | :02:03. | |
Olympic Games are responsible for some heart disease. | :02:03. | :02:09. | |
We turn to a cardiologist and see what he has to say. | :02:09. | :02:13. | |
Over the last 30 years, processed food has taken over the British | :02:13. | :02:17. | |
diet. And over the past 30 years, obesity | :02:17. | :02:23. | |
has more than doubled. Now, as London prepares to host a | :02:23. | :02:27. | |
global sporting celebration, processed food has taken over the | :02:27. | :02:35. | |
Olympics. It is a scandal the food and drink industry, are high- | :02:35. | :02:37. | |
profile sponsors of the Olympic Games. The Olympics are supposed to | :02:37. | :02:42. | |
be about fitness, and health, and to associate them with products, | :02:42. | :02:45. | |
which are damaging our health, particularly our children's health, | :02:45. | :02:51. | |
is quite wrong. A human heart is a thing of | :02:51. | :02:55. | |
simplicity and wonder. It is designed to pump blood around your | :02:55. | :03:00. | |
body, at 60 beats per minute, for close on 80 years. Unless, you live | :03:00. | :03:06. | |
on a diet of processed food. I work at the Heart Attack Centre | :03:06. | :03:12. | |
in London's Royal Free Hospital, where we have witnessed an | :03:12. | :03:22. | |
:03:22. | :03:22. | ||
explosion of diet-related diseases. By 2050, 90% of Britain -- | :03:23. | :03:26. | |
Britain's population will be overweight. And treating obesity | :03:26. | :03:30. | |
will cost the NHS �45 billion a year. The UK is on the verge of a | :03:30. | :03:34. | |
major public health disaster, the cost of which could dwarf that of | :03:34. | :03:40. | |
alcohol and tobacco, and even cripple the NHS. What is the most | :03:40. | :03:44. | |
important factor? Sugar and carbohydrates added to processed | :03:44. | :03:47. | |
food. I believe what we eat is killing us. | :03:47. | :03:50. | |
This is not the same old warning about junk food. I'm much more | :03:50. | :03:56. | |
concerned about all processed food. Processed foods contain few of the | :03:56. | :04:00. | |
natural nutrients we need to survive, yet are loaded with added | :04:00. | :04:04. | |
sugars and carbohydrates that the body does not need. So the body | :04:04. | :04:10. | |
converts them to fat. If you look at when the obesity | :04:10. | :04:19. | |
epidemic took off in the UK, late 1970 early 1980s, our consumption | :04:19. | :04:24. | |
of processed food has increased in parallel. It is not an add on to | :04:24. | :04:30. | |
real food, it is our entire diet. Zoe Harkumhas studied the rise of | :04:30. | :04:35. | |
processed food in our diet, she says we have it all wrong. Bodies | :04:35. | :04:40. | |
know how to process butter, meat and eggs, but it has no idea what | :04:40. | :04:45. | |
to do with all the added sugars appearing in processed foods. | :04:45. | :04:50. | |
is the only thing that humans digest that has no nutritional | :04:50. | :04:55. | |
value, no protein, vitamins or minerals, it is unique in that | :04:55. | :04:58. | |
respect. In terms of sugar, we eat it on top of what we should be | :04:58. | :05:03. | |
eating, in which case it can make us fat, or we eat it instead of | :05:03. | :05:07. | |
what we are eating, in which case it leaves us nutritionally | :05:07. | :05:11. | |
deficient, so we end up sick, so we are getting fat and sick at the | :05:11. | :05:14. | |
same time. Globally, diet-related diseases | :05:14. | :05:20. | |
kill 35 million every year. That is five-times more than tobacco. | :05:20. | :05:24. | |
Whilst big food companies continue to make huge profits, in Britain, | :05:24. | :05:29. | |
the bill is borne by the NHS and the taxpayer. | :05:29. | :05:34. | |
In the shadow of the Olympic stadium, doctors are facing an | :05:34. | :05:38. | |
epidemic of diabetes. Within the borrowing of Newham, we | :05:38. | :05:44. | |
are probably seeing -- borough of Newham, we are probably seeing | :05:44. | :05:49. | |
doubling of patients with type two diabetes in the last ten years. 40- | :05:49. | :05:55. | |
50% of the consultations in the practice are related to diabetes or | :05:55. | :06:00. | |
the complication. I have come to a GP's surgery, just two miles from | :06:00. | :06:04. | |
the Olympic Park. The doctor says the majority of his resources | :06:04. | :06:11. | |
already go towards fighting diet- related illness. | :06:11. | :06:16. | |
Diabetes is a multiorgan, multisystem disease, leading to | :06:16. | :06:19. | |
heart attacks, strokes and amputation, treating it early is | :06:19. | :06:23. | |
vital. We are seeing patients present with other conditions, like | :06:23. | :06:28. | |
high blood pressure-related to the diabetes, high levels of | :06:28. | :06:32. | |
cholesterol, some long-term complication of diabetes, which is | :06:32. | :06:39. | |
affect the eyes, the kidneys, with chronic kidney disease. Every day | :06:39. | :06:45. | |
the NHS has to battle the effects of sugary foods, and the marketing | :06:45. | :06:53. | |
campaigns used to push them. Surely the Olympics should be sorting this | :06:53. | :06:57. | |
out. I find is obscene that the Olympics | :06:57. | :07:03. | |
is associated itself with sugary drinks, fast food and alcohol, and | :07:03. | :07:06. | |
fast food. The sponsors can't be held accountable for Britain's | :07:06. | :07:11. | |
health, but they send a dreadful message being associated with the | :07:11. | :07:15. | |
games. I'm not the only one who thinks so? I think it is shocking | :07:15. | :07:21. | |
that companies like McDonalds's, Coca-Cola, Cadbury's and Heineken | :07:21. | :07:26. | |
are the main food sponsors. These are products which are all very | :07:26. | :07:32. | |
well as a treat. But what Olympic sponsorship allows them to do is | :07:32. | :07:38. | |
promote their brand, and insinuate their way into people's Dail yiey | :07:38. | :07:43. | |
day yet. Whether you are looking at obesity -- daily diet. Whether you | :07:43. | :07:47. | |
are looking at obesity, or people's dental problems, whether you are | :07:47. | :07:54. | |
even looking at the rising youth alcohol issue, these companies are | :07:54. | :07:58. | |
the culprits. They shouldn't be such prominent sponsors of the | :07:58. | :08:03. | |
Olympics. Diane Abbott is not only shadow | :08:03. | :08:06. | |
public Health Minister, she's also an East End MP. | :08:06. | :08:12. | |
In the 19th century, the poor faced illnesses like cholera, and typhoid, | :08:12. | :08:16. | |
today, with inner city areas, effectively fresh food deserts, and | :08:16. | :08:19. | |
childhood obesity levels rocketing, the health of Britain's poor is | :08:19. | :08:26. | |
still determined by class. Obesity is now a disease of poverty. | :08:26. | :08:31. | |
When you look at the statistics, as I have done, what you find is | :08:31. | :08:36. | |
obesity is a bigger problem for people on lower incomes. For | :08:36. | :08:41. | |
instance, just recently we found out that the largest number, and | :08:41. | :08:45. | |
the rising number, of gastric band operations, for people who are | :08:45. | :08:50. | |
heavily obese, are amongst the people with the lowest income. Once | :08:50. | :08:54. | |
upon a time, poor people couldn't get enough to eat, nowadays poor | :08:54. | :08:57. | |
people's health is threatened by obesity. | :08:57. | :09:03. | |
In Newham, the largest McDonald's in the world has been built, in the | :09:03. | :09:09. | |
Olympic Park. It is 30,000-square feet inside, and will seat over | :09:09. | :09:12. | |
1500 people. That the London Olympics allows this kind of food | :09:12. | :09:19. | |
such prominence, is, in my opinion, disastrous for public health. | :09:19. | :09:24. | |
I avoided excess sugars and sugary products, I try to keep to fairly | :09:24. | :09:29. | |
normal, mother would tell you, fresh vegtables rules that kind of | :09:29. | :09:37. | |
thing. Athletes don't base their diet on processed food. One of the | :09:37. | :09:41. | |
Olympic greats tells me even 30 years ago he was avoiding it. | :09:41. | :09:47. | |
the Olympic Games people would take a lot of sugary products and it was | :09:47. | :09:51. | |
free, and you see athletes pump on the weight in the games. I noticed | :09:51. | :09:55. | |
that and avoided it. Weaning ourselves off fast food and sugary | :09:55. | :09:58. | |
drifrpbgs, appears to be a problem for the International Olympic | :09:58. | :10:04. | |
Committee too. We know the negative health impact, obesity, of | :10:04. | :10:09. | |
processed foods and sugars, I suppose the IOC, now, have a really | :10:09. | :10:13. | |
challenging situation. Yes, they need the money from the sponsors, | :10:13. | :10:18. | |
and that money has come in, and really helped. But more than that, | :10:18. | :10:25. | |
they have benefited for many years of the reach these sponsors had | :10:25. | :10:31. | |
into new market places. To children, and others. It isth has really | :10:31. | :10:34. | |
helped. Now their challenge -- and it has really helped. Now their | :10:34. | :10:40. | |
challenge is how to deal with the health impact of that. But there | :10:40. | :10:44. | |
seems little sign that the Olympic movement will move away from its | :10:44. | :10:48. | |
current sponsors. Indeed, when challenged, the London organisers | :10:48. | :10:55. | |
talk of the financial black hole their absence would cai. -- create. | :10:55. | :10:59. | |
But obesity will open up a much bigger black hole in the NHS's | :10:59. | :11:03. | |
budget. It may not be a priority for the London Olympics, but the | :11:03. | :11:06. | |
costs of obesity are foremost in the mind of all of us who work to | :11:06. | :11:15. | |
improve public health. Obviously we asked to speak to | :11:15. | :11:19. | |
someone from the London organising committee, and the IOC, as well as | :11:19. | :11:22. | |
the sponsors mentioned in that report, but no-one was made | :11:22. | :11:24. | |
available. There is plenty of statements from all of them on our | :11:24. | :11:27. | |
website, broadly saying that all is well, and the Olympics would not | :11:27. | :11:32. | |
happen without their support. We can speak to the cardiologist you | :11:32. | :11:36. | |
saw in that report, Michael Payne, former director of marketing for | :11:36. | :11:41. | |
the international Olympic Committee, and CRACKING, the rower, who twice | :11:41. | :11:50. | |
won Olympic -- James Cracknell, who won gold twice for Britain. | :11:50. | :11:55. | |
Surely there is other manufacturers? It is a broader | :11:55. | :12:03. | |
lifestyle agenda of people getting active, to do with obesity. | :12:03. | :12:06. | |
Associating the epitomy of health with foods that make people obese, | :12:06. | :12:12. | |
there is a mixed message there? McDonald's from when they started | :12:12. | :12:17. | |
to become a sponsor of the Olympics sake how do you broaden the agenda. | :12:17. | :12:22. | |
They introduced salads, and the testing of salads and the | :12:22. | :12:27. | |
broodening of the menu started at the Olympics. Same with Coca-Cola, | :12:27. | :12:30. | |
sports drinks, and sugar-free drinks, started with the Olympics. | :12:30. | :12:34. | |
It is not just kies of the revenue and funding these companies bring, | :12:34. | :12:38. | |
not just to the games but the TV and sport. But the programmes, in | :12:38. | :12:43. | |
Germans of Go-active that they run. You wouldn't accept cigarette money, | :12:43. | :12:47. | |
would you? The IOC was the first to drop that. Or weapons manufacturers. | :12:47. | :12:51. | |
You accept beer money, but not whiskey money? Not spirits, you can | :12:51. | :12:56. | |
go after every industry. Before you know it you will say not cars | :12:56. | :12:59. | |
because they impact the environment, not airlines, and sports clothing | :12:59. | :13:04. | |
made in India. Do you think athletes care about this, the IOC | :13:04. | :13:08. | |
President said in the FT today, that there is a question mark over | :13:08. | :13:12. | |
whether to continue with McDonald's? As within athlete there | :13:12. | :13:17. | |
is people in society, and they will always fall down the gap. I don't | :13:17. | :13:21. | |
think people who watch the Olympics will assume that as a fast food | :13:21. | :13:29. | |
chain and a drinks chain sponsoring them, that those are the products | :13:29. | :13:32. | |
the athletes live on. When you are training, you wouldn't have much of | :13:32. | :13:41. | |
that in your diet? Athletes need to have self-discipline, but also, in | :13:41. | :13:46. | |
the 20 years I was an athlete, I consumed a lifetime of food. I had | :13:46. | :13:52. | |
6,000 calories a, as opposed to 2,000. I had 60 years of food in 20 | :13:52. | :13:56. | |
years. Not processed food? No, but you also have to live. Everything | :13:56. | :13:59. | |
in moderation is good. The most important thing an athlete can do | :13:59. | :14:06. | |
is when they stop competing, is that they don't change shape, they | :14:06. | :14:12. | |
don't balloon in weight. So they don't eat this stuff? They keep | :14:12. | :14:16. | |
moving, you know, as long as you burn off more calories than you put | :14:16. | :14:20. | |
in, and you do eat the sensible things. You don't want to show you | :14:20. | :14:24. | |
are just healthy and fit because that's what you needed to do in | :14:24. | :14:28. | |
order to win. You need to have that as a guiding principle in life to | :14:28. | :14:34. | |
make the most of it. Would you accept that if you don't companies | :14:34. | :14:38. | |
to sponsor the Olympics, there might not be an Olympics, and it | :14:38. | :14:41. | |
helps people and encourages people to take part in sport, which is | :14:41. | :14:46. | |
part of a healthy lifestyle, it is good, in other words? Firstly, I | :14:46. | :14:51. | |
would like to say that I don't believe we need to rely purely on | :14:51. | :14:54. | |
food companies that promote unhealthy foods for the Olympics. | :14:54. | :14:58. | |
Secondly, I want to pick up this point about physical activity, it | :14:58. | :15:01. | |
is an interesting one. From my perspective, I think it is | :15:01. | :15:07. | |
something that is used quite well by the food industry, almost to | :15:07. | :15:10. | |
deflect from their own culpability and marketing to children, if you | :15:10. | :15:14. | |
look at the data and evidence, over the last 30 years the physical | :15:14. | :15:17. | |
activity levels have increased slightly. That may sound odd, but | :15:17. | :15:21. | |
all the data, when we have looked at this, suggests that our | :15:21. | :15:26. | |
overconsumption of cheap sugary and cheap junk foods is the main thing | :15:26. | :15:31. | |
to contribute to obesity. To put it in context for you vooers, if I was | :15:31. | :15:36. | |
to have a barf chocolate, a pact of crisps and a burger and chips | :15:36. | :15:39. | |
washed down with a fizzy drink, I would have to run for five hours to | :15:39. | :15:46. | |
run off the calories. To talk about physical activity isn't there. | :15:46. | :15:50. | |
Clearly there is a benefit to these companies in associating themselves | :15:50. | :15:54. | |
with the healthy living of athletes, that is why they do it. But it is | :15:54. | :15:58. | |
phoney, isn't it? In a way the Olympics is saying this is OK, you | :15:58. | :16:02. | |
are endorsing it? It is not phoney at all. I think the whole issue is | :16:02. | :16:07. | |
whether you take any of these products in some moderation. The | :16:07. | :16:10. | |
programmes that these sponsors are running, without it, in terms of | :16:10. | :16:13. | |
not just from the funding of the game, but the programmes around the | :16:13. | :16:18. | |
world, in getting kids active. The Government's are cutting back, they | :16:18. | :16:22. | |
are not putting the funding in. just heard the doctor saying, the | :16:22. | :16:25. | |
question of exercise, you would have to exercise and run for five | :16:25. | :16:31. | |
hours to burn off those calories? Would we be better off saying let's | :16:31. | :16:36. | |
not have the Olympics. That is not what we are saying, it is we would | :16:36. | :16:43. | |
be better off if the sponsors were other people? Where is the queue of | :16:43. | :16:47. | |
people to sponsor the games, they don't exist. Each company, every | :16:47. | :16:50. | |
time the Olympics come along, you get a call saying you can't have | :16:50. | :16:54. | |
this company and that company. If the IOC took that position and | :16:54. | :16:58. | |
walked away from all the companies, game over, no Olympics, no support | :16:58. | :17:04. | |
for support. The challenge -- sport. The challenge is to make sure these | :17:04. | :17:07. | |
companies understand their responsibility and the way the IOC | :17:07. | :17:12. | |
has told them. Are you literally a spoil sport, if you had your way | :17:12. | :17:21. | |
there might be no Olympics? I don't agree with that. Let's look at the | :17:21. | :17:25. | |
statistics, in 204, the World Health Organisation announced that | :17:25. | :17:29. | |
obesity was a global epidemic, yet eight years later we have the | :17:29. | :17:33. | |
Olympics, on our own turf, and the statistics tell us that we have now | :17:33. | :17:36. | |
one in three children, by the age of nine, who are overweight or | :17:36. | :17:40. | |
obese. So, these called intervention about physical | :17:40. | :17:44. | |
activity, as far as I'm concerned, the most effective intervention | :17:44. | :17:46. | |
needs to be a public health strategy that targets the | :17:46. | :17:50. | |
population as a whole. You have to remember, the Olympic Games is the | :17:50. | :17:53. | |
most effective international marketing platform in the world. | :17:53. | :17:57. | |
This will go out to over 200 countries, reaching billions of | :17:57. | :18:02. | |
people. We have the main sponsors associated with unhealthy foods. In | :18:02. | :18:07. | |
particular, I'm most concerned about the children. | :18:07. | :18:12. | |
James, there is comments from the head of the IOC, suggesting there | :18:12. | :18:15. | |
may be some reconsidering here. Most people have not heard of him, | :18:15. | :18:19. | |
they have heard of you and other athletes, don't you think you have | :18:19. | :18:22. | |
a responsibility, not just not to get fat in your old age because you | :18:22. | :18:25. | |
are not training so much, but to set some example while you are | :18:25. | :18:28. | |
training, because you are a role model? There is a responsibility. | :18:28. | :18:34. | |
And there is also a responsibility that we have as a society. Because | :18:34. | :18:40. | |
the hugely complex issues here, just to say it is the sporting | :18:40. | :18:44. | |
event every four years and the sponsors cause the obesity children. | :18:44. | :18:50. | |
If the children under nine are obese, they will have had maximum | :18:50. | :18:53. | |
two Olympic Games in that period. It is something as a society we | :18:53. | :18:57. | |
need to make sure that there aren't people falling through the gaps, | :18:57. | :19:01. | |
the same we support them in every other way. But it is absolutely | :19:01. | :19:10. | |
crucial to change the way that we lead sedintary lives. There are | :19:10. | :19:14. | |
other sponsors. The Olympics plays a part in that by encouraging you | :19:14. | :19:17. | |
to get involved in sport? There are other sponsors other than the food | :19:17. | :19:23. | |
and drink products. Whether it is the technology, whether it is the | :19:23. | :19:26. | |
television company. There is so many other sponsors, but they are | :19:26. | :19:31. | |
the ones with the money to fund it. Our Olympic warm-up continues | :19:31. | :19:35. | |
tomorrow night with the first black power olympian, Tommy Smith, and to | :19:35. | :19:38. | |
great fanfare, we will unveil our plans on how Newsnight will cover | :19:38. | :19:42. | |
the games this summer. Throughout the year Newsnight is | :19:42. | :19:46. | |
looking at the increasing cost of living in hard times, tonight we | :19:46. | :19:49. | |
have a radical piece of thinking about what might be done. It comes | :19:49. | :19:52. | |
from the Conservative thinker, Nick Boles, a close ally of David | :19:52. | :19:55. | |
Cameron. He's suggesting something that many of his Conservative | :19:55. | :19:58. | |
colleagues will regard as politically pose sonous, the | :19:58. | :20:03. | |
scrapping of universal benefits, to better off pensioners, a deeper | :20:03. | :20:06. | |
overhaul of housing benefits, and possible cuts to the Sure Start | :20:06. | :20:10. | |
programme for young children. All with the aim, he says, of making | :20:10. | :20:13. | |
Britain more productive and competitive, and in the end, | :20:13. | :20:23. | |
:20:23. | :20:25. | ||
increasing wages. We will debate it in a moment, first Allegra Stratton. | :20:25. | :20:29. | |
It has been called the great stagnation, but you could call it | :20:29. | :20:35. | |
the incredibly shrinking family budget. We just keep getting poorer. | :20:35. | :20:40. | |
Disposable income for low-to-middle income homes will fall 8% by 2015 | :20:40. | :20:45. | |
then where do we go from there. For optimists it will take to the end | :20:45. | :20:51. | |
of this decade to get back to where we were before the 2008 crash. For | :20:51. | :20:55. | |
the gloomy among us, we go into 2020 earning what we earned in 2001. | :20:55. | :20:59. | |
It is a mark of the size of the problem, that the Resolution | :20:59. | :21:02. | |
Foundation, an independent think- tank, is kept busy by its scale, | :21:02. | :21:07. | |
and what can be done about it. are saying a deterioration in some | :21:07. | :21:10. | |
countries, a breakdown, in the relationship between overall | :21:11. | :21:14. | |
economic growth, even in the good years, and the benefits flowing | :21:14. | :21:18. | |
through to ordinary workers on middle or below middle pay. That is | :21:18. | :21:21. | |
happening not just here in the UK, that is happening in a number of | :21:21. | :21:24. | |
countries, particularly Anglo-Saxon countries, not just them, where in | :21:24. | :21:28. | |
the past you would have seen quite a tight relationship where GDP went | :21:28. | :21:33. | |
up, ordinary wages tended to go up with it, that has dissipated | :21:33. | :21:36. | |
significantly, wherein some countries you see almost no | :21:36. | :21:39. | |
relationship over the last 10-20 years, between economic growth on | :21:39. | :21:45. | |
the one hand, and the benefits felt by someone on an ordinary pay pact. | :21:45. | :21:47. | |
That is a massive change in an ordinary economy. | :21:47. | :21:51. | |
The way to deal with it in the past is you would try to get a pay rise | :21:51. | :21:54. | |
or work longer hours. A pay rise is difficult to imagine when you have | :21:54. | :22:00. | |
real wage increases not due on the horizon until 2013, 14, working | :22:00. | :22:04. | |
long hours is a diminished possibility. The people who want to | :22:04. | :22:08. | |
work longer hours is running at its highest level since 1992. Then | :22:08. | :22:11. | |
there are historical trends. The reason we have rising living | :22:11. | :22:14. | |
standards over the last 40 years in large part due to women entering | :22:14. | :22:18. | |
the work force. In the last ten years rising living standards have | :22:18. | :22:22. | |
also been affected by tax credits. Neither of those things are due to | :22:22. | :22:26. | |
be replicated. Now, a close ally of the Prime Minister, Nick Boles, | :22:26. | :22:30. | |
also a parliamentary aide, has been doing some work on this, and in a | :22:30. | :22:34. | |
speech tomorrow, but given to Newsnight, he issues this morning. | :22:34. | :22:44. | |
:22:44. | :22:52. | ||
Of the historic roots to increased earning, either a partner entering | :22:52. | :22:56. | |
work, or one or other of a couple working more hours, Nick Boles says | :22:56. | :22:59. | |
neither of the trends are sustainable, and if they were, we | :22:59. | :23:02. | |
shouldn't want them to be. What will it do for our health and | :23:02. | :23:04. | |
happiness if the only way to achieve a growing income is to work | :23:04. | :23:09. | |
longer hours. His prescription could be described | :23:09. | :23:14. | |
as an intense workout. Nick Boles wants to improve people's chances | :23:14. | :23:18. | |
of earning a better wage through improving their skills. He wants to | :23:18. | :23:20. | |
make us more competitive and productive. | :23:20. | :23:24. | |
What does it mean? Nick Boles is saying that any policies that don't | :23:24. | :23:29. | |
have a discernable impact on our productivity or competitiveness, | :23:29. | :23:32. | |
they should go. For him it means that pensioner benefits for the | :23:32. | :23:36. | |
very well off should go they next election, and Sure Start, and | :23:36. | :23:39. | |
policies he doesn't think have a proven ability to keep us in work | :23:39. | :23:45. | |
or better us at work, they should go through. You may just be | :23:45. | :23:49. | |
digesting the last round of cuts, this is the taste of the next round | :23:49. | :23:52. | |
to come. Nick Boles believes there should be | :23:52. | :23:55. | |
growth in public spending, only where the productivity and | :23:55. | :23:58. | |
competitiveness of the British people is improved. He believes | :23:58. | :24:03. | |
there should be further cuts elsewhere, to ensure as a total, | :24:04. | :24:10. | |
spending falls. He suggests the Chancellor should come up with | :24:10. | :24:14. | |
policies that augment this thinking, and bin those that don't. It leads | :24:15. | :24:24. | |
:24:25. | :24:36. | ||
He also proposes re-examining Sure Start children's centres. He says | :24:36. | :24:41. | |
they have no measurable impact. Improving competitiveness is | :24:41. | :24:44. | |
clearly desirable, but analysts point out, that wages may not have | :24:44. | :24:48. | |
gone up as GDP has, because companies have chosen to make | :24:48. | :24:53. | |
larger profits. There are a number of different factors behind it, one | :24:53. | :24:59. | |
of these is we have seen a large scale increase for wage | :24:59. | :25:02. | |
inequalities. The top half of earners, are seeing an ever-larger | :25:02. | :25:06. | |
slice of the cake going to them. That is part of T we have also seen, | :25:06. | :25:09. | |
particularly over recent years, a growth in the share of GDP going to | :25:09. | :25:15. | |
business, in the form of profits. That happened in the UK in the 200 | :25:15. | :25:21. | |
0s, there is another squeeze on the pay pact bit of GDP. What of Boles' | :25:21. | :25:25. | |
view that tax credits haven't work to get us into work. When it comes | :25:25. | :25:28. | |
to social security, the tax credit system, I think two things are | :25:29. | :25:33. | |
rather important here, first of all, the tax credit system for people in | :25:33. | :25:37. | |
work, of course it is redistribute today poor families, but it is also | :25:38. | :25:42. | |
helping to move them into work. It is good for productivity, it is | :25:42. | :25:45. | |
worth being clear that whilst this Government has taken some money out | :25:45. | :25:48. | |
of those budgets, they are still more generous than they were back | :25:48. | :25:52. | |
in 1997, before the last Labour Government really started putting | :25:52. | :25:56. | |
significant amounts of extra money into the tax credit system. | :25:56. | :26:00. | |
Families running up the down escalator to build living standards | :26:01. | :26:05. | |
back up. Leading politicians are now lending a hand, it sounds a | :26:05. | :26:09. | |
simple task, but it is actually as ideolgical as it gets. | :26:09. | :26:15. | |
Nick Boles is with us, as is the former Labour minister, Lord Adonis, | :26:15. | :26:25. | |
:26:25. | :26:27. | ||
and the editor of a sister organisation for mums net. | :26:27. | :26:32. | |
How much of this will feature in the next Conservative manifesto? | :26:32. | :26:38. | |
don't know, I'm thinking out loud. We live in an age where we face | :26:38. | :26:40. | |
uncomfortable choices. Politicians have to be straight with people. | :26:40. | :26:44. | |
None of us want to do any of the stuff I talked about, we would all | :26:44. | :26:48. | |
love the ship to go rolling on as it has, people get better off and | :26:48. | :26:51. | |
the state providing lots of stuff. It is not possible, it is not | :26:51. | :26:55. | |
honest, and I'm hoping others will pitch in with their ideas. David | :26:55. | :27:00. | |
Cameron, and Iain Duncan Smith and George Osborne and others are not | :27:00. | :27:04. | |
being honest with us? We have done a lot, nobody has accused the | :27:04. | :27:10. | |
coalition of not having taken radical and difficult steps with | :27:10. | :27:14. | |
educational maintenance allowance. Are they listening when you are | :27:14. | :27:17. | |
transmitting? I don't know, I haven't given the speech yet. | :27:17. | :27:20. | |
you see some merit in this, the stagnation of living standards, or | :27:20. | :27:25. | |
wages not keeping up with prices, is causing real problems to just | :27:25. | :27:28. | |
about everybody. This may be, in the long-term, a way of tackling | :27:28. | :27:33. | |
it? I'm not exactly sure what Nick is proposing. But the general theme | :27:33. | :27:36. | |
of improving the productivity of the economy is vital. The root | :27:36. | :27:39. | |
problem is high levels of unemployment. The I can't remember | :27:39. | :27:43. | |
I have been paying close attention to recently youth unemployment, | :27:43. | :27:48. | |
youth unemployment of a million, 24% of under-24-year-olds | :27:48. | :27:58. | |
unemployed. We have to give a kick start to the youth market. So not | :27:58. | :28:02. | |
giving benefits to very well off pensioners, Mick Jagger doesn't | :28:02. | :28:07. | |
need it, does he? We should be providing subsidised jobs for the | :28:07. | :28:11. | |
long-term youth unemployment. It is quality of spending, education | :28:11. | :28:16. | |
standards aren't high enough and not a proper apprenticeship route. | :28:16. | :28:19. | |
He's pointing out that politicians are great at spending money, but | :28:19. | :28:23. | |
finding money, he has found some money, and it is a hard choice? | :28:23. | :28:26. | |
is the old politics that Nick is talking about, the hard bit is | :28:26. | :28:29. | |
simply about finding money. The hard bit is producing programmes | :28:29. | :28:35. | |
that work. Where are the apprenticeship programmes for those | :28:35. | :28:38. | |
not going to university. Where are the subsidises jobs, which the | :28:38. | :28:42. | |
Government says it is providing, it won't provide figures forks the | :28:42. | :28:45. | |
long-term youth unemployment. You have to have a Government machine | :28:45. | :28:52. | |
that works and it doesn't work well enough. What do you think people | :28:52. | :29:01. | |
joining Mumsnet and Gransnet, what will they think, that the better | :29:01. | :29:07. | |
off pensioners et cetera? I think it is hard to argue that Mick | :29:07. | :29:11. | |
Jagger needs pensions, people on the websites would accept that | :29:11. | :29:16. | |
those on pensions of �60,000 plus shouldn't get universal benefits. | :29:16. | :29:20. | |
The problem then comes where the cut-off comes. Only 10% of | :29:20. | :29:24. | |
pensioners have an become of over �30,000. So you are talking about | :29:24. | :29:30. | |
people probably with incomes of between �11,000-�30,000, you have | :29:30. | :29:33. | |
to decide where you you are going to make that cut. We know that | :29:33. | :29:36. | |
whenever you have means testing, you get a cliff edge, and very | :29:36. | :29:40. | |
often the wrong people fall off the cliff. Do you think there is some | :29:40. | :29:44. | |
merit in universal benefits because they are for everybody, there is no | :29:44. | :29:48. | |
stigma and that is the traditional argument? We know the take-up is | :29:48. | :29:54. | |
better, they are cheaper to run and they are efficient. The politics | :29:54. | :29:59. | |
are pretty poisonous. The Tory plans here are to axe pensioners | :29:59. | :30:03. | |
benefits on the front page, it is the granny tax all over again. | :30:03. | :30:07. | |
Whenever you argue this you are the nasty party? This is what has got | :30:07. | :30:11. | |
us into this mess, where we have the biggest budget deficit of any | :30:11. | :30:14. | |
OECD country, and yet we have all the social problems that Andrew has | :30:14. | :30:18. | |
been referring to and everything else. The fact is, it is because we | :30:18. | :30:21. | |
have had a series of Governments, and I am afraid the last Labour | :30:21. | :30:25. | |
Government was good at making choices about spending money and | :30:25. | :30:29. | |
badly about getting the money. Maybe it is true of your Government, | :30:29. | :30:32. | |
it is not practical politics? Government has been more radical | :30:32. | :30:35. | |
and been willing to court unpopularity, through a series of | :30:35. | :30:39. | |
decisions to begin to get the deficit under control. | :30:39. | :30:42. | |
reversing, not implementing the 3p extra on fuel. This is not a | :30:42. | :30:47. | |
Government that immediately you say this is going to take courageous | :30:47. | :30:51. | |
decisions of the type you said? completely overhauled tuition fees | :30:52. | :30:58. | |
so students now have to pay �9,000 a year, and scrapped educational | :30:58. | :31:02. | |
maintenance allowances. These were all things people valued and mostly | :31:02. | :31:06. | |
young people who were paid those. It is not fair to say we weren't | :31:06. | :31:11. | |
brave. And more bravery is needed. Hopefully people will come up with | :31:11. | :31:15. | |
an idea more palatable. More bravery is needed, and perhaps the | :31:15. | :31:18. | |
headlines fail to understand the sophistication of the argument? | :31:18. | :31:23. | |
is the absence of growth causing the pressure on the welfare date, | :31:23. | :31:27. | |
the absence of growth since the 2008 crisis. I agree we have to | :31:27. | :31:30. | |
make the economy more productive, we have to get more people into | :31:30. | :31:35. | |
jobs, and get them sustainably into jobs, earning higher wages. So, of | :31:35. | :31:39. | |
course, the economy is in a much healthier state. Could you defend | :31:39. | :31:42. | |
all the universal benefits for some that don't need them, could you | :31:43. | :31:48. | |
defend them, all of them? Obviously there needs to be continuing debate. | :31:48. | :31:53. | |
This shouldn't be cast in aspic. These aren't easy decisions to be | :31:53. | :31:57. | |
made, nor are they simplistic. of the things people like to see | :31:57. | :32:01. | |
the occasions where politicians might agree and form consensus on | :32:01. | :32:06. | |
things, is that at all possible? there is going to be a consensus, | :32:06. | :32:09. | |
it requires a Government that is prepared to seek to promote | :32:09. | :32:13. | |
consensus. We have been debating long-term care over the last two | :32:13. | :32:19. | |
years now there still hasn't been a consensus generated by that. A lot | :32:19. | :32:24. | |
further to go. People are now more resistant to any cuts in living | :32:24. | :32:28. | |
standards, if you are told in a few years time younger people will have | :32:28. | :32:31. | |
higher wages, and you have to pay the electricity bill this week, it | :32:32. | :32:34. | |
is difficult? One of the things worrying about this, and worries a | :32:34. | :32:39. | |
lot of our members. Is there seems to be an underlying resentment of | :32:39. | :32:42. | |
older people. And a sense that older people are some how selfish | :32:42. | :32:46. | |
or greedy and not productive. One in three working families relies on | :32:46. | :32:52. | |
grandparents for childcare. We know that grandparents and older people, | :32:52. | :32:55. | |
contribute, net, more than �4 billion a year to the economy. It | :32:55. | :33:03. | |
is ridiculous to say that older people are not a productive part of | :33:03. | :33:11. | |
the economy. I agree we need big thinking. A huge issue about older | :33:11. | :33:14. | |
people's contribution to society, we know social care is a big issue, | :33:14. | :33:18. | |
and the Government is not addressing the problem. The debate | :33:18. | :33:23. | |
is what does it mean to age well in the 21st century, there is no | :33:23. | :33:27. | |
answer to that. There is a debate about where older people among us | :33:27. | :33:32. | |
fit in and what it means to be old in 291st century? Agree with that, | :33:32. | :33:38. | |
-- I agree with that, there are no debates about a lot of important | :33:38. | :33:41. | |
questions in this country. Most people at work have been stagnant | :33:41. | :33:45. | |
for over ten years, through the period of growth. And unless we | :33:45. | :33:49. | |
make Government spending focus on those things that actually supports | :33:49. | :33:52. | |
people to gain skills, supports people to make investments in | :33:52. | :33:56. | |
infrastructure and in research. Unless we do that, we are going to | :33:56. | :34:00. | |
fail the next 100 years, not just the next two or three. The trouble | :34:00. | :34:03. | |
with that it is jam tomorrow? their kids and grand kids, they | :34:03. | :34:08. | |
want their lives to be better than the lives they had. It is jam | :34:08. | :34:13. | |
tomorrow and cuts today. That is the world we are in. | :34:13. | :34:16. | |
The deputy Governor of the Bank of England, Paul Tucker, effectively | :34:16. | :34:19. | |
exonerated the Shadow Chancellor, Ed Balls, and other former Labour | :34:19. | :34:23. | |
ministers, from charges that they had asked him to lean on Barclays | :34:23. | :34:28. | |
Bank in the rate-fixing skam scandal. He shot holes in the | :34:28. | :34:31. | |
allegations made by George Osborne last week in a heated Commons | :34:31. | :34:35. | |
debate. We have been dipping a toe into what Mr Tucker described as a | :34:35. | :34:39. | |
cesspit. This is Barclays. | :34:39. | :34:45. | |
This is a cesspit. Today the second in command at the Bank of England | :34:45. | :34:51. | |
poured a bit dollop of approbium on to Barclays and the entire LIBOR | :34:51. | :34:54. | |
market. You can't be confident of anything about learning about this | :34:54. | :34:58. | |
cesspit. For those not used to Central Bank terminology, the word | :34:58. | :35:03. | |
"cesspit", is not normally used to describe a major bank, or financial | :35:03. | :35:07. | |
market. This was Mr Tucker fighting back furiously against a PR | :35:07. | :35:12. | |
offensive, by Barclays, that it sought to put him, and senior | :35:12. | :35:17. | |
Labour politicians, in the frame. When Barclays boss, Bob Diamond, | :35:18. | :35:21. | |
resigned last week, the bank released a note of his conversation | :35:21. | :35:26. | |
with Paul Tucker. At issue, why did this man, Jerry Del Missier, end up | :35:26. | :35:30. | |
thinking, he had been instructed to manipulate LIBOR by Paul Tucker. | :35:30. | :35:38. | |
Does that file note of 29th of October, 2008, accurately reflect | :35:38. | :35:48. | |
:35:48. | :35:48. | ||
the conversation with him that you had? Not completely. It would help | :35:49. | :35:54. | |
to explain...Why Don't we do it in stages. Is there anything in that, | :35:54. | :36:00. | |
that is wrong? The last sentence gives the wrong impression, yes. | :36:00. | :36:05. | |
He has impuned my insteingity. there was more, last week the | :36:05. | :36:08. | |
Chancellor, George Osborne, provoked fury in the Commons, with | :36:08. | :36:14. | |
an interview in the Spectator, in which he said Ed Balls was clearly | :36:14. | :36:20. | |
involved in pressuring the bank to manipulate LIBOR, with other | :36:20. | :36:27. | |
accusations at aides of Gordon Brown. These assertions seemed to | :36:27. | :36:35. | |
be swept away. Did anyone urge you to. Absolutely not. Did Shriti | :36:35. | :36:43. | |
Vadera ever ask you to lean on Barclays or any bank to lure the | :36:43. | :36:47. | |
LIBOR submissions? No. What's more, I don't think I spoke to Shriti | :36:47. | :36:51. | |
Vadera throughout this whole period at all. Did Ed Balls ever ask you | :36:51. | :36:55. | |
to lean on Barclays or any other bank? No. Or any other Government | :36:55. | :36:59. | |
minister? No. Labour tonight demanded an apology and restrax | :36:59. | :37:04. | |
from George Osborne. It is just a shame that -- Retraction from | :37:04. | :37:09. | |
George Osborne. It is a shame the Chancellor doesn't have the biggest | :37:09. | :37:13. | |
of character to come forward and admit he was misleading in those | :37:13. | :37:16. | |
allegations. Sources close to the Chancellor said they were | :37:16. | :37:18. | |
dismissing Labour's call, there would be no apology, and those | :37:18. | :37:21. | |
close to Gordon Brown still had questions to answer. And Paul | :37:21. | :37:25. | |
Tucker too came in for a hard time, confronted with minutes, that | :37:25. | :37:28. | |
showed a committee he had chaired had seemed to recognise that | :37:28. | :37:31. | |
somebody was doing something wrong with LIBOR, he said it didn't | :37:31. | :37:36. | |
really mean that? This doesn't look good, Mr Tucker. I have to tell you. | :37:36. | :37:41. | |
It doesn't look good. We have in the minutes, and in the | :37:41. | :37:47. | |
15th of November 2007, what appears, to any reasonable person, to be a | :37:47. | :37:52. | |
clear indication of low-balling, about what nothing was done. | :37:52. | :37:57. | |
thought was a malfunking market, not a dishonest market. Today was | :37:57. | :38:01. | |
just another step on the road to finding out the truth about LIBOR. | :38:01. | :38:04. | |
At the end of it, we still don't know whose representation is going | :38:04. | :38:07. | |
down the pan. When you wake up in the morning and | :38:07. | :38:14. | |
contemplate the day ahead, in the middle of a horrible wet come here, | :38:14. | :38:17. | |
an economic crisis and the defeat of Andy Murray, it is unlikely the | :38:18. | :38:23. | |
future of the House of Lords will come to mind, except if you are a | :38:23. | :38:29. | |
parliamentarian. The other place debated the issue among stress in | :38:29. | :38:32. | |
the coalition. 70 Tories threatening to vote against t and | :38:32. | :38:35. | |
tomorrow, this plan so dear to the Liberal Democrats, could turn into | :38:35. | :38:39. | |
the first major defeat for the coalition. Is it doomed? I don't | :38:39. | :38:43. | |
think the Government expect to win the vote. I don't think that the | :38:43. | :38:46. | |
Liberal Democrats even expect to win it now, it is the scale of the | :38:46. | :38:53. | |
extent to which they lose it. Political journalism, hyperbole, I | :38:53. | :38:59. | |
think we would be in a new phase for the coalition. So far you had | :38:59. | :39:03. | |
have things -- have had things in the coalition put through, they | :39:03. | :39:06. | |
have gone through with it and tried to enact it. This is now, many | :39:06. | :39:10. | |
Liberal Democrats are saying, the first instance of things not going | :39:10. | :39:14. | |
into action. That means game on for them, in terms of, in future, they | :39:14. | :39:18. | |
don't know quite over what, but in future they will say, you didn't | :39:18. | :39:23. | |
support us on this, we won't support you on. That we haven't had | :39:23. | :39:31. | |
it that clearly so far. With us is the Conservative MP, Nadine Dorries, | :39:31. | :39:37. | |
and the Lib Dem minister, Jeremy brown, who supports it. This is a | :39:37. | :39:46. | |
Conservative bill, piloted by a Conservative minister. Why are you | :39:46. | :39:50. | |
not supporting it? It was not in the manifesto, a commitment to look | :39:50. | :39:54. | |
not go ahead of the bill was in there. It wasn't in the bol | :39:54. | :39:58. | |
coalition agreement to come forward with a bill to reform the House of | :39:58. | :40:02. | |
Lords. Ultimately it is damaging to the constitution, and damaging | :40:02. | :40:05. | |
long-term to the Conservative Party. Which is why many Conservatives are | :40:05. | :40:08. | |
opposed to this. It is almost inconceivable we would have a House | :40:08. | :40:14. | |
of Lords that would become a Senate, elected by PR, with a greater | :40:14. | :40:17. | |
political mandate than any MP in the House of Commons, and the | :40:17. | :40:21. | |
Commons would remain "first past the post". It is a way of getting | :40:21. | :40:24. | |
PR in through the back door. What would be the sanctions or | :40:24. | :40:28. | |
consequences for the coalition, and for the Government, if this fails | :40:28. | :40:33. | |
tomorrow, because of a major rebellion, which David Cameron | :40:33. | :40:37. | |
can't control? There are consequences. The worst types of | :40:37. | :40:40. | |
coalitions nobody agreeing on anything, so you agree to do | :40:40. | :40:44. | |
nothing. The best type of coalitions, and this one has | :40:44. | :40:48. | |
achieved this, is when you are more than the sum of your parts, and you | :40:48. | :40:53. | |
have a mutual trust and faith in each other. There is a reciprocol | :40:53. | :41:00. | |
nature to that relationship. There is a contract, if you like. The | :41:00. | :41:03. | |
coalition agreement is be a agreement between the parties -- is | :41:03. | :41:06. | |
an agreement between the two parties. What will be the | :41:07. | :41:11. | |
consequences? You have to act in good faith to your partner. We know | :41:11. | :41:16. | |
the consequences. Let's see what happens tomorrow. Because, what has | :41:16. | :41:19. | |
been striking, I think, in the two years of the coalition so far, is | :41:19. | :41:23. | |
the Liberal Democrats have behaved with, if you like, let me, a | :41:23. | :41:27. | |
maturity. What would you actually do? I think parties in Government | :41:27. | :41:31. | |
have to have maturity and discipline, and act with good faith | :41:31. | :41:35. | |
to their coalition parties. Richard Reeves has said what they would do. | :41:35. | :41:39. | |
Richard Reeves has said. Richard Reeves, head of strategy for the | :41:39. | :41:42. | |
Liberal Democrats, until days a has said, quite clearly, that if this | :41:42. | :41:46. | |
does not go through, the Liberal Democrats will not support the | :41:46. | :41:49. | |
boundary changes. That is almost blackmail. The Liberal Democrats | :41:49. | :41:52. | |
were given, it is political blackmail, Jeremy, they were told | :41:52. | :41:54. | |
there was a deal, there was a coalition agreement. And the | :41:55. | :41:59. | |
agreement was this, that in replacement, in exchange for AV | :42:00. | :42:02. | |
referendum, for the Liberal Democrats, they would support | :42:02. | :42:08. | |
boundary changes. The public said no the AV referendum. Is that | :42:08. | :42:13. | |
blackmail? Of course it is not. And I have read this in newspaper, I | :42:13. | :42:18. | |
think it is ridiculous. Richard Reeves said it, he was Nick Clegg's | :42:18. | :42:24. | |
righthandman. If I had a contract with you, and I discharge my | :42:24. | :42:30. | |
contractural obligations to me and I to you, I can't be accused of | :42:30. | :42:35. | |
blackmailing, the person who has acted in bad faith is you not me in | :42:35. | :42:39. | |
that situation. We did not have an agreement that in exchange for | :42:39. | :42:44. | |
Lords reform there would be boundary reforms. It is a package | :42:44. | :42:49. | |
as a whole. You lost AV, now you want Lords reform. I will give you | :42:49. | :42:53. | |
an example. Will you support them on bound radio changes? Will you, | :42:53. | :42:56. | |
will you support bound wry changes if you lose Lords reform in the | :42:56. | :42:59. | |
Commons tomorrow? I'm answering the question, there is a package of | :42:59. | :43:04. | |
measures, on the NHS, on health, on police, that constitutes the | :43:04. | :43:09. | |
coalition agreement. You can't go along, and an a la carte menu | :43:09. | :43:16. | |
taking the ones you like. Is this an answer? Just stick to boundary | :43:16. | :43:20. | |
issues? This is crucial. You don't know what I'm going to say. Will | :43:20. | :43:23. | |
you or will you not support them on boundary changes? I support the | :43:23. | :43:29. | |
Government proposals as a whole. that a no then? Is that a yes or a | :43:29. | :43:33. | |
no? Let me finish the sentence, I support, I'm a Government minister, | :43:33. | :43:38. | |
I support the package, which is the coalition agreement. If one of the | :43:38. | :43:42. | |
parties, within that agreement, reneges on their commitment to the | :43:42. | :43:48. | |
package, that, of course. Lords reform is not in the package. | :43:48. | :43:53. | |
have to look afresh. I'm committed to the coalition, I think it is | :43:53. | :43:56. | |
essential to tackle the sorts of issues you have been discussing | :43:56. | :43:59. | |
with Nick Boles, and the deficit this country faces. All the parties | :43:59. | :44:06. | |
and people in the coalition have to act in good faith. This is not | :44:06. | :44:09. | |
happy Government relationship, is it? That was an answer constructed | :44:09. | :44:13. | |
out of nonsense. Lords reform is not in the coalition agreement. | :44:13. | :44:16. | |
Everything you said was based on the substance of nothing. You were | :44:16. | :44:20. | |
asked a very simple question, if tomorrow, the Lords reform bill is | :44:20. | :44:23. | |
voted down, in the House of Commons, will you still support the | :44:23. | :44:30. | |
Conservative Party on boundary changes. That is a yes or no. It is | :44:30. | :44:33. | |
a ficticious? I have answered that. You support the package, one bit of | :44:33. | :44:37. | |
it goes, you can't support the other? Give me a chance to explain. | :44:37. | :44:41. | |
I will give you an example, directly elected police | :44:41. | :44:46. | |
commissioners, constitutional change, not in the Lib Dem | :44:46. | :44:49. | |
manifesto, but in the Conservative manifesto, it went into the | :44:49. | :44:51. | |
coalition agreement, the Liberal Democrats supported it because we | :44:51. | :44:54. | |
were honourable and disciplined about the coalition agreement and | :44:54. | :44:57. | |
the Government as a whole. We hope that the Conservatives will be | :44:57. | :45:01. | |
honourable and disciplined tomorrow as well. We will have to see. I'm | :45:01. | :45:04. | |
not responsible for discipline in the Conservative Party. I want the | :45:04. | :45:08. | |
coalition to be a success. Do you vote for some things that you | :45:08. | :45:15. | |
weren't entirely for. There is something simple here, the police | :45:15. | :45:19. | |
commissioners agreement was in the agreement for Lords reform. I don't | :45:19. | :45:21. | |
know how long you can continue to say Lords reform is in the | :45:21. | :45:24. | |
coalition agreement, it was not. I will be rebelling tomorrow, as will | :45:24. | :45:27. | |
many of my colleagues, because we think it is bad for the | :45:27. | :45:30. | |
Conservative Party, bad for the country. And David Cameron doesn't | :45:30. | :45:38. | |
get that? It is bad for the parties interested. I have no idea, but I | :45:38. | :45:44. | |
don't know why we are spending time discussing this when we have so | :45:44. | :45:48. | |
many other problems. Would you like the coalition Government to end? | :45:48. | :45:52. | |
won't end t will stay until 2015 there is nowhere to go. It will put | :45:52. | :45:54. | |
it under extreme stress over the next few months. | :45:54. | :46:04. | |
:46:04. | :46:20. | ||
That's all tonight. We wanted to leave but news that NASA has | :46:20. | :46:24. | |
released pictures of the Martian landscape taken by their Mars | :46:25. | :46:27. | |
exploration Rover, which they described as the next best thing to | :46:27. | :46:37. | |
:46:37. | :46:49. | ||
being there, or, by the look of it, # The chances of anything coming | :46:49. | :46:54. | |
from Mars # Are a million to one | :46:54. | :47:04. | |
:47:04. | :47:10. | ||
Simply put, there is more rain to come this week overnight, outbreaks | :47:10. | :47:14. | |
of rain across many parts of the UK, heavy rain developing and targeting | :47:14. | :47:17. | |
parts of the Midlands going into the morning. The north and East | :47:17. | :47:21. | |
Midlands in particular becoming heavy and thundery downsupport r | :47:21. | :47:27. | |
pours into the afternoon. -- downpours The afternoon. An amber | :47:27. | :47:32. | |
warning for the Midlands. Further south, scattered heavy | :47:32. | :47:35. | |
showers, maybe with rumbles of thunder. To end the afternoon | :47:35. | :47:38. | |
across much of south-west England and Wales, although there is a lot | :47:38. | :47:42. | |
of cloud around. Maybe with hints of brightness, it is mainly dry. | :47:42. | :47:47. | |
There will be outbreaks of mainly light rain affecting North West | :47:47. | :47:51. | |
England and for Northern Ireland showers here. Not a complete | :47:51. | :47:54. | |
washout, there will be dry spells inbetween the showers. Dry weather | :47:54. | :47:59. | |
for western fringes of Scotland. A lot of rain to come down the | :47:59. | :48:02. | |
eastern side, persistent rain here that continues into Wednesday. The | :48:02. | :48:06. | |
rain falling in Edinburgh, disappointingly cool for the time | :48:06. | :48:11. | |
of year. The persistence of the rain may cause problems. Rainfall | :48:11. | :48:15. | |
totals adding up. South on Wednesday in England and Wales, | :48:15. | :48:21. |