Browse content similar to 16/03/2014. Check below for episodes and series from the same categories and more!
Line | From | To | |
---|---|---|---|
Morning folks. Welcome to the Sunday Politics. George Osborne's fifth | :00:36. | :00:43. | |
Budget will offer more tax relief for the lower paid but not for | :00:44. | :00:46. | |
middle income earners being thrust into the 40p tax bracket. That's our | :00:47. | :00:48. | |
top story. Ed Balls says millions of people | :00:49. | :00:53. | |
aren't feeling any benefit from the recovery. We'll discuss the economy | :00:54. | :00:55. | |
with big political beasts from Labour, the Conservatives, and the | :00:56. | :01:03. | |
Lib Dems. Now that Ed Miliband has effectively ruled out an in/out EU | :01:04. | :01:06. | |
referendum, how does UKIP deal with Tory claims that a vote for UKIP | :01:07. | :01:08. | |
means no chance The Education Secretary says our | :01:09. | :01:16. | |
schools are letting children down and fancy a seat in the House of | :01:17. | :01:18. | |
Lords? We will be hearing from the of cycling. The three areas of | :01:19. | :01:24. | |
London getting a cash boost to try something different. | :01:25. | :01:32. | |
And with me as always our top political panel - Nick Watt, Helen | :01:33. | :01:37. | |
Lewis and Janan Ganesh. They'll be tweeting their thoughts using the | :01:38. | :01:39. | |
hashtag #bbcsp throughout the programme. So, just three months | :01:40. | :01:44. | |
after his last major financial statement, George Osborne will be at | :01:45. | :01:47. | |
the despatch box again on Wednesday, delivering his 2014 Budget. The | :01:48. | :01:52. | |
Chancellor has already previewed his own speech, pledging to build what | :01:53. | :02:01. | |
he calls a "resilient economy". The message I will give in the Budget is | :02:02. | :02:06. | |
the economic plan is working but the job is far from done. We need to | :02:07. | :02:11. | |
build resilient economy which means addressing the long-term weaknesses | :02:12. | :02:13. | |
in Britain that we don't export enough, invest enough, build enough, | :02:14. | :02:17. | |
make enough. Those are the things I will address because we want Britain | :02:18. | :02:22. | |
to earn its way in the world. George Osborne's opposite number, Ed Balls, | :02:23. | :02:25. | |
has also been talking ahead of the Budget. He says not everyone is | :02:26. | :02:28. | |
feeling the benefit of the economic recovery, and again attacked the | :02:29. | :02:30. | |
Government's decision to reduce the top rate of tax from 50 to 45%. | :02:31. | :02:37. | |
George Osborne is only ever tough when he's having a go at the week | :02:38. | :02:41. | |
and the voiceless. Labour is willing to face up to people on the highest | :02:42. | :02:44. | |
incomes and say, I'm sorry, justifying a big tax cut at this | :02:45. | :02:51. | |
time is not fair. We will take away the winter allowance from the richer | :02:52. | :02:55. | |
pensioners, and I think that's the right thing to do. George Osborne | :02:56. | :02:58. | |
might agree, but he's not allowed to say so. That was the Chancellor and | :02:59. | :03:03. | |
the shadow chancellor. Janan, it seems like we are in a race against | :03:04. | :03:08. | |
time. No one argues that the recovery is not under way, in fact | :03:09. | :03:11. | |
it looks quite strong after a long wait, but will it feed through to | :03:12. | :03:15. | |
the living standards of ordinary people in time for the May election? | :03:16. | :03:22. | |
They only have 14 months to do it. The big economic variable is | :03:23. | :03:25. | |
business investment. Even during the downturn, businesses hoarded a lot | :03:26. | :03:29. | |
of cash. The question is, are they confident enough to release that | :03:30. | :03:34. | |
into investment and wages? Taking on new people, giving them higher pay | :03:35. | :03:37. | |
settlements. That could make the difference and the country will feel | :03:38. | :03:40. | |
more prosperous and this time next year. But come to think of it, it | :03:41. | :03:48. | |
strikes me, that how anticipated it is, it's the least talked about | :03:49. | :03:51. | |
Budget for many years. I think that is because the economy has settled | :03:52. | :03:56. | |
down a bit, but also because people have got used to the idea that there | :03:57. | :03:59. | |
is no such thing as a giveaway. Anything that is a tax cut will be | :04:00. | :04:03. | |
taken away as a tax rise or spending cut. That's true during the good | :04:04. | :04:07. | |
times but during fiscal consolidation, it's avoidable. -- | :04:08. | :04:14. | |
unavoidable. There is a plus and minus for the Conservatives here. | :04:15. | :04:17. | |
49% of people think the government is on roughly the right course, but | :04:18. | :04:22. | |
only 16% think that their financial circumstances will improve this | :04:23. | :04:26. | |
year. It will be a tough one for the Labour Party to respond to. I agree | :04:27. | :04:32. | |
with Janan. Everyone seems bored with the run-up to the Budget. The | :04:33. | :04:36. | |
front page of the Sunday Times was about fox hunting, the front page of | :04:37. | :04:41. | |
the Sunday Telegraph was about EU renegotiation. Maybe we are saying | :04:42. | :04:45. | |
this because there have not been many leaks. We have got used to | :04:46. | :04:51. | |
them, and most of the George Osborne chat on Twitter was about how long | :04:52. | :04:56. | |
his tie was. Freakishly long. I wouldn't dare to speculate why. | :04:57. | :05:04. | |
Anything we should read into that? I don't know. For a long while there | :05:05. | :05:10. | |
was no recovery, then it was it is a weak recovery, and now, all right, | :05:11. | :05:14. | |
it's strong but not reaching everyone in the country. That is | :05:15. | :05:18. | |
where we are in the debate. That's right, and the Conservative MPs are | :05:19. | :05:25. | |
so anxious and they are making George Osborne announcing the rays | :05:26. | :05:28. | |
in the personal allowance will go up, saying it might go up to 10,750 | :05:29. | :05:34. | |
from next year, and Conservative MPs say that that's OK but we need to | :05:35. | :05:41. | |
think about the middle voters. People are saying the economy is | :05:42. | :05:44. | |
recovering but no one is feeling it in their pocket. These are people | :05:45. | :05:49. | |
snagged in at a 40p tax rate. The Tories are saying these are our | :05:50. | :05:54. | |
people and we have to get to them. He has given the Lib Dems more than | :05:55. | :05:57. | |
they could have hoped for on raising the threshold. Why is he not saying | :05:58. | :06:03. | |
we have done a bit for you, now we have to look after our people and | :06:04. | :06:07. | |
get some of these people out of that 40% bracket? Partly because the Lib | :06:08. | :06:14. | |
Dems have asked for it so insistently behind-the-scenes. | :06:15. | :06:17. | |
Somebody from the Treasury this week told me that these debates behind | :06:18. | :06:20. | |
the scenes between the Lib Dems and Tories are incredibly tenacious and | :06:21. | :06:24. | |
get more so every year. The Lib Dems have been insistent about going | :06:25. | :06:27. | |
further on the threshold. The second reason is that the Tories think the | :06:28. | :06:33. | |
issue can work for them in the next election. They can take the credit. | :06:34. | :06:39. | |
If they enthusiastically going to ?12,000 and make it a manifesto | :06:40. | :06:41. | |
pledge, they can claim ownership of the policy. The Liberal Democrats | :06:42. | :06:48. | |
want to take it to 12,500, which means you are getting into minimum | :06:49. | :06:51. | |
wage territory. It's incredibly expensive and the Tories are saying | :06:52. | :06:56. | |
that maybe you would be looking at the 40p rate. The Tories have played | :06:57. | :07:01. | |
as well. There have been authorised briefings about the 40p rate, and | :07:02. | :07:05. | |
Cameron and Osborne have said that their priority was helping the | :07:06. | :07:08. | |
lowest paid which is a useful statement to make and it appeals to | :07:09. | :07:11. | |
the UKIP voters who are the blue-collar workers. And we are | :07:12. | :07:17. | |
right, the economy will determine the next election? You assume so. It | :07:18. | :07:24. | |
was ever that is. It didn't in 1992 or 1987. It did in 1992. | :07:25. | :07:30. | |
Ed Miliband's announcement last week that a Labour government would not | :07:31. | :07:34. | |
hold a referendum on Europe unless there's another transfer of powers | :07:35. | :07:37. | |
from Britain to Brussels has certainly clarified matters. UKIP | :07:38. | :07:39. | |
say it just shows the mainstream parties can't be trusted. The | :07:40. | :07:45. | |
Conservatives think it means UKIP voters might now flock back to them | :07:46. | :07:48. | |
as the only realistic chance of securing a referendum. Giles Dilnot | :07:49. | :07:49. | |
reports. When it comes to Europe and | :07:50. | :07:56. | |
Britain's relation to it, the question is whether the answer is | :07:57. | :08:00. | |
answered by a question. To be in or not to be in, that is the question, | :08:01. | :08:03. | |
and our politicians have seemed less interested in question itself but | :08:04. | :08:06. | |
whether they want to let us answer it. Labour clarified their position | :08:07. | :08:15. | |
last week. There will be no transfer of powers without an in out | :08:16. | :08:22. | |
referendum, without a clear choice as to whether Britain will stay in | :08:23. | :08:25. | |
the EU. That seems yes to a referendum, but hold on. I believe | :08:26. | :08:31. | |
it is unlikely that this lock will be used in the next Parliament. So | :08:32. | :08:35. | |
that's a no. The Conservatives say yes to asking, in 2017, if | :08:36. | :08:44. | |
re-elected, but haven't always. In 2011, 81 Tory MPs defied the PM by | :08:45. | :08:48. | |
voting for a referendum on EU membership: the largest rebellion | :08:49. | :08:50. | |
against a Tory prime minister over Europe. Prompted by a petition from | :08:51. | :09:01. | |
over 100,000 members of the public. The wrong question at the wrong time | :09:02. | :09:04. | |
said the Foreign Secretary of a coalition Government including | :09:05. | :09:06. | |
selfie-conciously-pro European Lib Dems, who had a referendum pledge in | :09:07. | :09:09. | |
their 2010 manifesto, but only in certain circumstances. So we have | :09:10. | :09:11. | |
the newspapers, and the public meeting leaflets. UKIP have always | :09:12. | :09:15. | |
wanted the question put regardless. But Labour's new position may change | :09:16. | :09:18. | |
things and The Conservatives think so. I think it does, because, you | :09:19. | :09:27. | |
know, we are saying very clearly, like UKIP, we want a referendum, but | :09:28. | :09:32. | |
only a Conservative government can deliver it because most suffer | :09:33. | :09:39. | |
largest would say it is possible in the first past the post system to | :09:40. | :09:46. | |
have a UKIP government -- sophologists. And then it's easy for | :09:47. | :09:54. | |
as to say that if a UKIP vote lets in a Conservative government, then | :09:55. | :10:01. | |
they won't hold a referendum. UKIP seem undaunted by the clarifications | :10:02. | :10:04. | |
of the other parties, campaigning like the rest but with a "tell it | :10:05. | :10:08. | |
how it is, just saying what you're thinking, we aren't like them" | :10:09. | :10:13. | |
attitude. They seem more worried about us and what we want, and I | :10:14. | :10:18. | |
don't see that in the other parties. In parts of the UK, like South | :10:19. | :10:22. | |
Essex, it's a message they think is working. They are taking the voters | :10:23. | :10:29. | |
for granted again and people have had enough. People are angry, they | :10:30. | :10:36. | |
see people saying they will get a vote on the European Union, but then | :10:37. | :10:40. | |
it just comes down the road. They were quick to capitalise on the | :10:41. | :10:46. | |
announcements, saying only the Conservatives will give you say, so | :10:47. | :10:52. | |
does it change things? Not really. We have been talking about a | :10:53. | :10:55. | |
referendum and having a debate on the European Union for years, and | :10:56. | :10:58. | |
the other parties are playing catch up. They have a trust issue. Nobody | :10:59. | :11:03. | |
trusts them on the European Union and that is why people come to us. | :11:04. | :11:07. | |
Who the average UKIP voter is, or how they voted before is | :11:08. | :11:10. | |
complicated, and what dent they might make on Conservative and | :11:11. | :11:12. | |
Labour votes in 2015 is trickier still, but someone's been crunching | :11:13. | :11:19. | |
the numbers anyway. We reckon it is between 25 and 30% of the electorate | :11:20. | :11:23. | |
broadly share the UKIP motivation, so to top out at that level would be | :11:24. | :11:28. | |
difficult. That's an awful lot of voters, but it's not the majority, | :11:29. | :11:32. | |
and this is the reason why the main parties can't afford to just openly | :11:33. | :11:36. | |
appealed to the UKIP electorate too hard because the elections are won | :11:37. | :11:40. | |
and lost amongst the other 70%, the middle-class, the graduate, the | :11:41. | :11:46. | |
younger, ethnic minorities. An appeal to the values of UKIP voters | :11:47. | :11:49. | |
will alienate some of the other groups, and they are arguably more | :11:50. | :11:54. | |
significant in winning the election. Whatever, the numbers UKIPers seem | :11:55. | :11:57. | |
doggedly determined to dig away at any support the other parties have | :11:58. | :11:58. | |
previously enjoyed. Giles Dilnot reporting. UKIP's | :11:59. | :12:04. | |
leader, Nigel Farage, joins me now for the Sunday Interview. | :12:05. | :12:15. | |
Nigel Farage, welcome back. Good morning. So the Labour Party has | :12:16. | :12:22. | |
shot a fox. If Ed Miliband is the next by Minister, there will not be | :12:23. | :12:27. | |
a referendum customer there's a long way between now and the next | :12:28. | :12:31. | |
election, and Conservative party jobs and changes. We had a cast-iron | :12:32. | :12:34. | |
guarantee of a referendum from camera, then he three line whip | :12:35. | :12:37. | |
people to vote against it, and now they are for it. What the Labour | :12:38. | :12:42. | |
Party has done is open up a huge blank to us, and that is what we | :12:43. | :12:45. | |
will go for in the European elections this coming year in May. I | :12:46. | :12:49. | |
think there is a very strong chance that Labour will match the | :12:50. | :12:52. | |
Conservative pledge by the next general election. There may be, but | :12:53. | :12:56. | |
at the moment he has ruled it out, and if he does not change his mind | :12:57. | :13:00. | |
and goes into the election with the policy as it is, the only chance of | :13:01. | :13:07. | |
a referendum is a Tory government. If you think the Tories will form a | :13:08. | :13:11. | |
majority, which I think is unlikely. Remember, two thirds of our voters | :13:12. | :13:14. | |
would never vote Conservative anyway. There is still this line of | :13:15. | :13:20. | |
questioning that assumes UKIP voters are middle-class Tories. We have | :13:21. | :13:23. | |
some voters like that, but most of them are coming to us from Labour, | :13:24. | :13:27. | |
some from the Lib Dems and a lot of nonvoters. But it come the election | :13:28. | :13:33. | |
you failed to change Mr Miliband's line, I repeat, the only chance of a | :13:34. | :13:38. | |
referendum, if you want a referendum, if that is what matters, | :13:39. | :13:41. | |
and the polls suggest it doesn't matter to that many people, but if | :13:42. | :13:45. | |
that is what matters, the only way you can get one is to vote | :13:46. | :13:50. | |
Conservative. No, because you have a situation in key marginals, | :13:51. | :13:53. | |
especially where all three parties are getting a good share, where we | :13:54. | :13:58. | |
will see, and this depends a lot on the local elections and the European | :13:59. | :14:04. | |
elections, there are target constituencies where UKIP has a | :14:05. | :14:07. | |
reasonably good chance of winning a seat, and that will change the | :14:08. | :14:12. | |
agenda. Every vote for UKIP makes a Tory government less likely. Arab | :14:13. | :14:18. | |
voters are not Tory. Only a third of the UKIP boat comes from the | :14:19. | :14:21. | |
Conservative party -- our voters are not Tory. -- the UKIP vote. It was | :14:22. | :14:27. | |
mentioned earlier, about blue-collar voters. We pick up far more Labour | :14:28. | :14:31. | |
Party and nonvoters than conservatives. On the balance of | :14:32. | :14:35. | |
what the effect of the UKIP boat is, the Tories should worry about | :14:36. | :14:39. | |
us, they should worry about the fact they have lost faith with their own | :14:40. | :14:44. | |
electorate. Even if there is a minority Ed Miliband government, it | :14:45. | :14:47. | |
means no referendum. Labour and the Liberal Democrats are now at one on | :14:48. | :14:52. | |
the matter. The next election is in a few weeks time, the European | :14:53. | :14:56. | |
elections. What happens in those elections will likely change the | :14:57. | :14:59. | |
party stands and position on a referendum. The fact that Ed | :15:00. | :15:03. | |
Miliband has said this means, for us, our big target on the 22nd of | :15:04. | :15:08. | |
May will be the Labour voters in the Midlands and northern cities, and if | :15:09. | :15:11. | |
we do hammer into that boat and we are able to beat Labour on the day, | :15:12. | :15:15. | |
there's a good chance of their policy changing. One poll this | :15:16. | :15:28. | |
morning suggests Labour is close to you at 28, the Conservatives down at | :15:29. | :15:34. | |
21, the Lib Dems down at eight. You are taking votes from the | :15:35. | :15:38. | |
Conservatives and the Liberal Democrats. We are certainly taking | :15:39. | :15:46. | |
votes from the Lib Dems but that is comparing the poll with one year ago | :15:47. | :15:51. | |
when I don't think most people knew what the question really was. You | :15:52. | :15:56. | |
seem to be in an impossible position because the better you do in a | :15:57. | :15:59. | |
general election, the less chance there will be a referendum by 2020. | :16:00. | :16:07. | |
No, look at the numbers. Only a third of our voters are | :16:08. | :16:14. | |
Conservatives. When we have polled voters that have come to us, we | :16:15. | :16:18. | |
asked them if there was no UKIP candidate who would you vote for, | :16:19. | :16:22. | |
less than one in five said Conservative. Less than one in five | :16:23. | :16:27. | |
UKIP voters would be tempted to vote Conservative under any circumstances | :16:28. | :16:31. | |
so the arithmetic does not suggest we are the Conservative problem, it | :16:32. | :16:36. | |
suggests we are hurting all of the parties and the reason the Tories | :16:37. | :16:41. | |
are in trouble is because they have lost their traditional base. Why do | :16:42. | :16:47. | |
you think Nick Clegg is debating Europe? I think they are in | :16:48. | :16:52. | |
trouble, at 8% they could be wiped out, they could go from 12 to | :16:53. | :17:00. | |
nothing and I think it is a chance for Nick Clegg to raise their | :17:01. | :17:08. | |
profile. They are fringe party with respect to this contest so I see why | :17:09. | :17:13. | |
he wants to do it. One of our big criticisms is that we have not been | :17:14. | :17:16. | |
able to have a full debate on national television on the | :17:17. | :17:20. | |
alternatives of the European Union so I am looking forward to it. How | :17:21. | :17:30. | |
are you preparing? I think you can be over scripted with these things. | :17:31. | :17:41. | |
Are you not doing mock debates? No, I am checking my facts and figures | :17:42. | :17:45. | |
and making sure that I can show the British people that in terms of | :17:46. | :17:51. | |
jobs, we would be far better off not being within the European Union, not | :17:52. | :17:55. | |
being within its rule book, not suffering from some of the green | :17:56. | :17:59. | |
taxes they are putting on the manufacturing industry. The idea | :18:00. | :18:06. | |
that 3 million jobs are at risk, I want to show why that is nonsense. | :18:07. | :18:13. | |
Who do you think is playing you in their mock debates? They probably | :18:14. | :18:18. | |
went to the pub and found someone! We will see. You have promised to do | :18:19. | :18:24. | |
whatever it takes to fund your European election campaign, how much | :18:25. | :18:30. | |
has been given so far? Just give it a few weeks and you will see what | :18:31. | :18:35. | |
Paul is planning to do. He has made a substantial investment in the | :18:36. | :18:45. | |
campaign already. How much? I'm not answering that for now. We are well | :18:46. | :18:50. | |
on our way to a properly funded campaign and our big target will be | :18:51. | :18:54. | |
the big cities and the working vote in those communities. Your deputy | :18:55. | :19:00. | |
chairman Neil Hamilton is another former Tory, he says so far we | :19:01. | :19:06. | |
haven't seen the colour of his money. Exactly two weeks ago, and | :19:07. | :19:13. | |
things have changed since then. Mr Sykes has written a cheque since | :19:14. | :19:20. | |
then? Yes. This morning's papers saying you will be asking MEPs to | :19:21. | :19:27. | |
contribute ?50,000 each, is that true? Over the next five years, yes. | :19:28. | :19:34. | |
Not for the European campaign. So lack of money will not be an excuse. | :19:35. | :19:41. | |
We will have a properly funded campaign. How we raise the kind of | :19:42. | :19:46. | |
money needed to fund the general election afterwards is another | :19:47. | :19:56. | |
question. What is UKIP's policy on paying family members? We don't | :19:57. | :20:00. | |
encourage it and I didn't employ any family member for years. My wife | :20:01. | :20:05. | |
ended up doing the job and paid for the first seven years of my job. She | :20:06. | :20:12. | |
is paid now? Until May, then she comes off the payroll am which | :20:13. | :20:21. | |
leaves me with a huge problem. In 2004 you said, UKIP MEPs will not | :20:22. | :20:28. | |
employ wives and there will be no exceptions. An exception was made | :20:29. | :20:32. | |
because I became leader of the National party as well as a leader | :20:33. | :20:36. | |
of the group in European Parliament. Things do change in | :20:37. | :20:41. | |
life, and you can criticise me for whatever you like, but I cannot be | :20:42. | :20:45. | |
criticised for not having a big enough workload. No, but you didn't | :20:46. | :20:50. | |
employ your wife when you had told others not to do it your party. | :20:51. | :20:59. | |
Nobody else in my party has a big job in Europe and the UK. We made | :21:00. | :21:04. | |
the exception for this because of very unusual circumstances. It also | :21:05. | :21:08. | |
looks like there was a monetary calculation. Listen to this clip | :21:09. | :21:16. | |
from a BBC documentary in 2000. It is a good job. I worked it out | :21:17. | :21:21. | |
because so much of what you get is after tax that if you used the | :21:22. | :21:25. | |
secretarial allowances to pay your wife on top of the other games you | :21:26. | :21:30. | |
can play, I reckon this job in Stirling term is over a quarter of | :21:31. | :21:36. | |
?1 million a year. That is what you would need to earn working for | :21:37. | :21:41. | |
Goldman Sachs or someone like that. I agree with that. More importantly | :21:42. | :21:46. | |
the way you really make money in the European Parliament is being their | :21:47. | :21:49. | |
five days a week, because you sign in every day, you get 300 euros | :21:50. | :21:56. | |
every day, and that is how people maxed out. The criticism of me is | :21:57. | :22:00. | |
that I am not there enough so whatever good or bad I have done in | :22:01. | :22:04. | |
the European Parliament, financial gain has not been one of the | :22:05. | :22:08. | |
benefits. There have been allegations of you also employing a | :22:09. | :22:14. | |
former mistress on the same European Parliamentary allowance, you deny | :22:15. | :22:21. | |
that? I am very upset with the BBC coverage of this. The ten o'clock | :22:22. | :22:25. | |
news run this as a story without explaining that that allegation was | :22:26. | :22:29. | |
made using Parliamentary privilege by somebody on bail facing serious | :22:30. | :22:37. | |
fraud charges. I thought that was pretty poor. You have a chance to do | :22:38. | :22:45. | |
that and you deny you have employed a former mistress? Yes, but if you | :22:46. | :22:50. | |
look at many of the things said over the last week, I think it is | :22:51. | :22:55. | |
becoming pretty clear to voters that the establishment are becoming | :22:56. | :22:59. | |
terrified of UKIP and they will use anything they can find to do us down | :23:00. | :23:06. | |
in public. Is an MEP employs his wife and his former mistress, that | :23:07. | :23:12. | |
would be resigning matter, wouldn't it? Yes, particularly if the | :23:13. | :23:16. | |
assumption was that money was being taped for work but was not being | :23:17. | :23:22. | |
done. Who do you think is behind these stories? It is all about | :23:23. | :23:30. | |
negative, it is all about attacks, but I don't think it is actually | :23:31. | :23:34. | |
going to work because so much of what has been said in the last week | :23:35. | :23:39. | |
is nonsense. A reputable daily newspaper said I shouldn't be | :23:40. | :23:44. | |
trusted because I had stored six times for the Conservative party, I | :23:45. | :23:48. | |
have never even stored in a local council election. I think if you | :23:49. | :23:54. | |
keep kicking an underdog, it will make the British people rally around | :23:55. | :24:03. | |
us. Is it the Conservatives? Yes, and the idea that all of our voters | :24:04. | :24:10. | |
are retired colonels is simply not true. We get some voters from the | :24:11. | :24:19. | |
Labour side as well. Would you consider standing in a Labour seat | :24:20. | :24:24. | |
if you are so sure you are getting Labour votes? Yes, but the key for | :24:25. | :24:32. | |
UKIP is that it has to be marginal. Just for your own future, if you | :24:33. | :24:38. | |
fail to win a single soul -- single seat in the general election, if Ed | :24:39. | :24:44. | |
Miliband fails to win an outright majority, will you stand down as | :24:45. | :24:50. | |
UKIP leader? I would think within about 12 hours, yes. I will have | :24:51. | :24:56. | |
failed, I got into politics not because I wanted a career in | :24:57. | :25:01. | |
politics, far from it. I did it because I don't think this European | :25:02. | :25:04. | |
entanglement is right for our country. I think a lot of people | :25:05. | :25:08. | |
have woken up to the idea we have lost control of our borders and now | :25:09. | :25:13. | |
is the moment for UKIP to achieve what it set out to do. Will UKIP | :25:14. | :25:20. | |
continue without you if you stand down? Of course it will. I know that | :25:21. | :25:25. | |
everyone says it is a one-man band but it is far from that. We have had | :25:26. | :25:34. | |
some painful moments, getting rid of old UKIP, new UKIP is more | :25:35. | :25:37. | |
professional, less angry and it is going places. Nigel Farage, thank | :25:38. | :25:44. | |
you for being with us. So, what else should we be looking | :25:45. | :25:47. | |
out for in Wednesday's Budget statement? We've compiled a Sunday | :25:48. | :25:49. | |
Politics guide to the Chancellor's likely announcements. | :25:50. | :25:51. | |
Eyes down everyone, it's time for a bit of budget bingo. Let's see what | :25:52. | :25:55. | |
we will get from the man who lives at legs 11. Despite some good news | :25:56. | :25:58. | |
on the economy, George Osborne says that this will be a Budget of hard | :25:59. | :26:02. | |
truths with more pain ahead in order to get the public finances back | :26:03. | :26:05. | |
under control. But many in the Conservative party, including the | :26:06. | :26:07. | |
former chancellor Norman Lamont, want Mr Osborne to help the middle | :26:08. | :26:11. | |
classes by doing something about the 4.4 million people who fall into the | :26:12. | :26:17. | |
40% bracket. Around one million more people pay tax at that rate compared | :26:18. | :26:21. | |
to 2010 because the higher tax threshold hasn't increased in line | :26:22. | :26:26. | |
with inflation. Mr Osborne has indicated he might tackle the issue | :26:27. | :26:29. | |
in the next Conservative manifesto, but for now he is focused on helping | :26:30. | :26:35. | |
the low paid. It's likely we will see another increase in the amount | :26:36. | :26:38. | |
you can earn before being taxed, perhaps up another ?500 to ?10,500. | :26:39. | :26:44. | |
The Chancellor is going to flesh out the details of a tax break for | :26:45. | :26:47. | |
childcare payments, and there could be cries of 'house' with the promise | :26:48. | :26:50. | |
of more help for the building industry. The Help To Buy scheme | :26:51. | :27:07. | |
will be extended to 2020 and there could be the go-ahead for the first | :27:08. | :27:11. | |
Garden City in 40 years. Finally, bingo regulars could be celebrating | :27:12. | :27:14. | |
a full house with a possible cut in bingo tax. | :27:15. | :27:16. | |
And I've been joined in the studio by the former Conservative | :27:17. | :27:18. | |
chancellor Norman Lamont, in Salford by the former Labour Cabinet | :27:19. | :27:21. | |
minister Hazel Blears, and in Aberdeen by the Lib Dem deputy | :27:22. | :27:24. | |
leader, Malcolm Bruce. Let me come to Norman Lamont first, you and | :27:25. | :27:29. | |
another former Tory Chancellor, Nigel Lawson, have called in the | :27:30. | :27:34. | |
fall in the threshold for the rate at which the 40p clicks in. I would | :27:35. | :27:45. | |
have preferred an adjustment in the Budget but I agree with what you are | :27:46. | :27:48. | |
saying, it sounds like the Chancellor will not do that. My main | :27:49. | :27:55. | |
point is that you cannot go on forever and forever increasing the | :27:56. | :27:59. | |
personal allowance and not increasing the 40% tax threshold | :28:00. | :28:03. | |
because you are driving more and more people into that band. It is an | :28:04. | :28:07. | |
expensive policy because in order to keep the number of people not paying | :28:08. | :28:11. | |
tax constant, you have to keep adjusting it each year. When this | :28:12. | :28:18. | |
was introduced by Nigel Lawson, it applied to one in 20 people, the 40% | :28:19. | :28:25. | |
rate, it now applies to one in six people. By next year, there will be | :28:26. | :28:31. | |
6 million people paying base. Why do you think your Tory colleagues seem | :28:32. | :28:35. | |
happy to go along with the Lib Dems and target whatever money there is | :28:36. | :28:50. | |
for tax cuts rather -- on the lower paid rather than the middle incomes? | :28:51. | :28:56. | |
They are not helping the lowest paid. If you wanted to really help | :28:57. | :29:01. | |
the lowest paid people you would raise the threshold for national | :29:02. | :29:06. | |
insurance contributions, which is around ?6,000. Is it the Lib Dems | :29:07. | :29:11. | |
stopping any rise in the 40p threshold? We are concentrating on | :29:12. | :29:21. | |
raising the lower threshold because we believe that is the way to help | :29:22. | :29:29. | |
those on lower incomes. Whilst they haven't benefited as much as the | :29:30. | :29:32. | |
lower paid they have participated and I think people understand right | :29:33. | :29:37. | |
now, if you were going to prioritise the high earners, when we are still | :29:38. | :29:41. | |
trying to help those on lower and middle incomes who haven't enjoyed | :29:42. | :29:45. | |
great pay increases but have got the benefit of these tax increases, that | :29:46. | :29:50. | |
is why we would like to do it for the minimum wage level. But the | :29:51. | :29:56. | |
poorest will not benefit at all. The poorest 16% already don't pay tax. | :29:57. | :30:02. | |
Why don't you increase the threshold at which National Insurance starts? | :30:03. | :30:07. | |
You only have two earned ?5,500 before you start to pay it. You've | :30:08. | :30:15. | |
got to remember that the raising of the threshold to ?10,000 or more was | :30:16. | :30:18. | |
something the Tories said we could not afford. Why are you continuing | :30:19. | :30:27. | |
to do it? If you want to help the working poor, the way would be to | :30:28. | :30:31. | |
take the lowest out of national insurance. The view we take is they | :30:32. | :30:37. | |
are benefiting, and have benefited from, the raising of the tax | :30:38. | :30:41. | |
threshold. You now have to earn ?10,000, we hope eventually 12,500, | :30:42. | :30:46. | |
and that means only people on very low wages. If you opt out of | :30:47. | :30:50. | |
national insurance, you're saying to people that you make no contribution | :30:51. | :30:55. | |
to the welfare system, so there is a general principle that people should | :30:56. | :30:59. | |
participate and paying, and also claim when they need something out. | :31:00. | :31:05. | |
We thought raising the threshold was simple and effective at a time of | :31:06. | :31:08. | |
economic austerity and the right way to deliver a helpful support to | :31:09. | :31:15. | |
welcoming people. -- working people. With the Labour Party continue to | :31:16. | :31:18. | |
raise the threshold, or do they think there is a case that there are | :31:19. | :31:22. | |
too many people being dragged into the 40p tax bracket? If Norman | :31:23. | :31:28. | |
Lamont thinks this is the right time to benefit people who are reasonably | :31:29. | :31:31. | |
well off rather than those who are struggling to make ends meet, then | :31:32. | :31:35. | |
genuinely, I say it respectfully, I don't think he's living in the world | :31:36. | :31:39. | |
the rest of us are. Most working people have seen their wages | :31:40. | :31:44. | |
effectively reduced by about ?1600 because they have been frozen, so | :31:45. | :31:49. | |
the right thing is to help people on modest incomes. I also understand | :31:50. | :31:54. | |
that if the 40% threshold went up, the people who would benefit the | :31:55. | :31:57. | |
most, as ever, are the people who are really well off, not the people | :31:58. | :32:02. | |
in the middle. The Conservatives have already reduced the 50p tax on | :32:03. | :32:08. | |
people over ?150,000 a year, and we have to concentrate on the people | :32:09. | :32:12. | |
going out to work, doing their best to bring their children up and have | :32:13. | :32:15. | |
a decent life and need a bit of help. I think raising the threshold | :32:16. | :32:19. | |
is a good thing. We would bring back the 10p tax, which we should never | :32:20. | :32:24. | |
have abolished, and do things with regard to childcare. At the moment, | :32:25. | :32:28. | |
childcare costs the average family as much as their mortgage, for | :32:29. | :32:33. | |
goodness sake. We would give 25 hours free childcare for youngsters | :32:34. | :32:36. | |
over three and four years old. That would be a massive boost the working | :32:37. | :32:43. | |
families. We are talking about nurses, tube drivers, warrant | :32:44. | :32:47. | |
officers in the army. There are many people who are not well off but have | :32:48. | :32:51. | |
been squeezed in the way everybody has been squeezed and they are | :32:52. | :32:56. | |
finding it continuing. I am stunned by Malcolm's argument where | :32:57. | :32:59. | |
everybody should pay something so you should not take people out of | :33:00. | :33:03. | |
national insurance, but the principle doesn't apply to income | :33:04. | :33:07. | |
tax. You can stand that argument on its head and apply it to income tax. | :33:08. | :33:13. | |
Most people don't see a difference between income tax and national | :33:14. | :33:15. | |
insurance, it's the same thing to most people. It is true that it | :33:16. | :33:20. | |
isn't really an insurance fund and there is an argument from merging | :33:21. | :33:23. | |
both of them. But we have concentrated on a simple tax | :33:24. | :33:29. | |
proposition. Norman is ignoring the fact the people on the 40% rate have | :33:30. | :33:35. | |
benefited by the raising of the personal allowance. To say they have | :33:36. | :33:39. | |
been squeezed is unfair. The calculation is that an ordinary | :33:40. | :33:43. | |
taxpayer will be ?700 better off at the current threshold, and about | :33:44. | :33:48. | |
?500 better off at the higher rate. It is misleading to say the better | :33:49. | :33:52. | |
off we'll be paying more. I agree with Hazel, if you go to the 40% | :33:53. | :33:57. | |
rate, it's the higher earners who benefit the most, and we won't do | :33:58. | :34:00. | |
that when the economy is not where it was before the crash. How much | :34:01. | :34:06. | |
will the lower paid be better off if you reintroduce the 10p rate? | :34:07. | :34:13. | |
Significantly better off. I don't have the figure myself, but they'd | :34:14. | :34:19. | |
be significantly better off and the Budget should be a mixture of | :34:20. | :34:22. | |
measures to help people who work hard. That is why I think the | :34:23. | :34:26. | |
childcare issue has to be addressed. ?100 a week of the people | :34:27. | :34:30. | |
with childcare payments. It is a massive issue. We want the job is | :34:31. | :34:36. | |
guaranteed to get young people back into work. There's been hardly any | :34:37. | :34:40. | |
discussion about that, and we have nearly 1 million people who have | :34:41. | :34:43. | |
been out of work for six months or more, and as a country we need to do | :34:44. | :34:49. | |
something to help that. 350,000 full-time students, so it is a | :34:50. | :34:54. | |
misleading figure. It is not a million including full-time | :34:55. | :34:57. | |
students. All parties do this. It sounds to me, Malcolm Bruce, you | :34:58. | :35:03. | |
have more in common with the Labour Party than you do with the | :35:04. | :35:06. | |
Conservatives. You want an annual levy on houses over ?2 million, so | :35:07. | :35:11. | |
does Labour. A lot of your members want to scrap the so-called bedroom | :35:12. | :35:14. | |
tax and so does labour. You think every teacher should have a teaching | :35:15. | :35:19. | |
qualification, and so does Labour. Your policy on the EU referendum is | :35:20. | :35:24. | |
the same. Let me go on. And you want to scrap the winter fuel allowance | :35:25. | :35:29. | |
for wealthy pensioners. We want to make sure we get the public finances | :35:30. | :35:32. | |
in order and we have grave reservations about the Labour Party | :35:33. | :35:38. | |
promises. But they followed your spending plans in the first year. | :35:39. | :35:45. | |
The point we are making is we can make a fairer society and stronger | :35:46. | :35:49. | |
economy if you keep the public finances moving towards balance. We | :35:50. | :35:51. | |
don't think the Labour Party will take a stand that track. It is | :35:52. | :35:55. | |
interesting that the Labour Party want to introduce the 10p rate that | :35:56. | :35:59. | |
Gordon Brown abolished. We consider that before we can -- committed to | :36:00. | :36:05. | |
the 0% rate -- we considered that. It makes a complicated system | :36:06. | :36:11. | |
difficult and we think it's better doing it that way. As a fiscal | :36:12. | :36:17. | |
conservative, why are you talking about any tax cuts when the deficit | :36:18. | :36:21. | |
is over ?100 billion, and effectively, anything you propose | :36:22. | :36:25. | |
today can only be financed by more borrowing. I totally agree with you. | :36:26. | :36:29. | |
I said that this week. I thought the best thing would have no Budget. The | :36:30. | :36:35. | |
main thing is to get the deficit down. My argument is is that you | :36:36. | :36:38. | |
have an adjustment in tax rates it should be shared between the | :36:39. | :36:40. | |
allowances and the higher rate, but I don't think that the progress on | :36:41. | :36:47. | |
the deficit is something we can give up on. This is still a very long way | :36:48. | :36:53. | |
to go. We're only halfway through. Hazel, does it make sense to borrow | :36:54. | :36:59. | |
for tax cuts? I am reluctant to do this, but I agree with both Norman | :37:00. | :37:05. | |
and Malcolm. Malcolm Bruce wants to borrow for tax cuts. We absolutely | :37:06. | :37:10. | |
need to get the deficit down and get finances on a strong footing. But we | :37:11. | :37:14. | |
also have to think about having some spending in the system that in the | :37:15. | :37:17. | |
longer run saves us money. We all know we need to build new homes. I | :37:18. | :37:21. | |
don't think it's necessarily the right priority to give people in | :37:22. | :37:27. | |
London mortgage relief in terms of ?600,000. We have to get the balance | :37:28. | :37:32. | |
right. Sometimes it is right to spend to save. I'm afraid we have | :37:33. | :37:38. | |
run out of time. There will be plenty more discussion in the lead | :37:39. | :37:40. | |
up to the Budget on Wednesday. It's just gone 11:35am. You're | :37:41. | :37:45. | |
watching the Sunday Politics. We say goodbye to viewers in Scotland who | :37:46. | :37:48. | |
leave us now for Sunday Politics Scotland. Coming up here in 20 | :37:49. | :37:51. | |
minutes, Frances O'Grady, the General Secretary of the TUC, joins | :37:52. | :37:53. | |
us discuss In the East Midlands ` the Education | :37:54. | :38:15. | |
Secretary says many of our schools are letting children down. We need | :38:16. | :38:19. | |
to raise the level of ambition. But as a new academy school prepares | :38:20. | :38:23. | |
to open, there's a row over how it's finding new pupils. If children are | :38:24. | :38:25. | |
being poached from other secondary schools, that has enormous | :38:26. | :38:28. | |
implications for the schools' budget and for their forward planning and | :38:29. | :38:31. | |
resourcing and for all the children that don't go. | :38:32. | :38:35. | |
And fancy a seat in the House of Lords? We meet the Baroness who's | :38:36. | :38:41. | |
talent spotting for East Midlanders to take their place on those famous | :38:42. | :38:44. | |
red benches. Hello, I'm Marie Ashby. My guests | :38:45. | :38:47. | |
this week ` the Conservative MP for Sherwood, Mark Spencer, and Labour's | :38:48. | :38:50. | |
Derby North MP, Chris Williamson. First, it's been a big story | :38:51. | :38:54. | |
everywhere ` the death of a political figure who played an | :38:55. | :38:57. | |
important role here in the East Midlands. Tony Benn was the MP for | :38:58. | :39:02. | |
Chesterfield for 17 years. His death was announced on Friday. Chris, a | :39:03. | :39:07. | |
big loss to your party, particularly those of you to the left? Well, yes, | :39:08. | :39:16. | |
in my view, Tony Benn was the best Leader of the Labour Party they | :39:17. | :39:18. | |
never had. Had he had the opportunity to become the Prime | :39:19. | :39:21. | |
Minister, I think our country would be a very different place to what we | :39:22. | :39:25. | |
are living through today. I remember campaigning for him in the 1984 | :39:26. | :39:30. | |
by`election after he lost his seat in Bristol, I threw a sicky for a | :39:31. | :39:39. | |
week so I could go up and campaign. You bunked off college to help him | :39:40. | :39:45. | |
out? I did. What was he really like? He was a true gentleman in the | :39:46. | :39:55. | |
truest sense of the word. He always made you feel included and special. | :39:56. | :39:59. | |
He was a great inspiration to me and a great inspiration to millions of | :40:00. | :40:03. | |
people. Mark, what do you make of his legacy? He was a great orator | :40:04. | :40:12. | |
and the one thing ` today you see a lot of people like weather vanes ` | :40:13. | :40:23. | |
Tony Benn never moved. He stuck fast to his principles. Did you meet him? | :40:24. | :40:29. | |
No. He shaped my political thinking. I didn't agree with him on most of | :40:30. | :40:33. | |
the topics. He had the ability to change the way that you thinked. | :40:34. | :40:41. | |
What sort of mark has he left on the Labour scene in Derbyshire? A huge | :40:42. | :40:51. | |
mark. We will probably never see his like again. The way he chronicled | :40:52. | :40:55. | |
the political process in this country will be invaluable to | :40:56. | :41:00. | |
historians looking back on the post`war political period and he is | :41:01. | :41:05. | |
a great loss and somebody who will be remembered very fondly by both | :41:06. | :41:08. | |
sides of the political spectrum. Thank you. | :41:09. | :41:12. | |
Well, from a political giant of the past to one very much of the | :41:13. | :41:15. | |
present. The Education Secretary Michael Gove has been visiting | :41:16. | :41:18. | |
schools in the region. Education's a hugely controversial issue with the | :41:19. | :41:21. | |
problems at the Al Madinah School in Derby and a blitz by Ofsted on | :41:22. | :41:29. | |
Nottingham Schools. Our Political Editor John Hess asked Mr Gove | :41:30. | :41:32. | |
what's going wrong. We need to change leadership. We needed to make | :41:33. | :41:40. | |
sure we've got the right leadership teams, the right head teachers in | :41:41. | :41:43. | |
place and we need to raise the level of ambition for children in the | :41:44. | :41:47. | |
city. What are you doing to turn around those failing schools? You | :41:48. | :41:50. | |
need the right head teachers and the right support leading individual | :41:51. | :41:53. | |
departments, maths and English in particular. You also need to have a | :41:54. | :41:56. | |
higher level of ambition. One of the problems that we've had in the past | :41:57. | :42:00. | |
is that there's been an assumption that children in Nottingham can't | :42:01. | :42:04. | |
succeed on the same basis or at the same level as children in leafier | :42:05. | :42:07. | |
suburbs or in wealthier parts of the country. That's wrong. There are | :42:08. | :42:10. | |
children in some schools that are achieving brilliantly and we needed | :42:11. | :42:13. | |
to make sure that we get more children from Nottingham, ambitious | :42:14. | :42:16. | |
to go on to university or integrate apprenticeships. Half of those | :42:17. | :42:19. | |
secondary schools in special measures are academies. Academies | :42:20. | :42:23. | |
are supposed to be the saviour of underperforming inner city schools? | :42:24. | :42:27. | |
Yes, academies only work if you have the right leddership. `` Leadership. | :42:28. | :42:37. | |
We are determined to ensure whether schools are local authority schools | :42:38. | :42:40. | |
or academies, they are held to account. We know there are some | :42:41. | :42:43. | |
academies that have been underperforming and lots of local | :42:44. | :42:45. | |
authority schools that have been underperforming across the country. | :42:46. | :42:49. | |
The real test is how quickly can we turn schools round that are failing? | :42:50. | :42:52. | |
And if, for any reason, the leadership of an academy is not | :42:53. | :42:55. | |
being challenged effectively, then we will step in. You mention | :42:56. | :42:58. | |
accountability, but isn't it time for our Local Education Authorities | :42:59. | :43:01. | |
to have that role as scrutiny again? There's a role that local | :43:02. | :43:04. | |
authorities do have to play and they need to be more ambitious. One of | :43:05. | :43:08. | |
the things I have been impressed by is that there are some local | :43:09. | :43:11. | |
authorities like Northumberland that are introducing additional measures | :43:12. | :43:14. | |
to ensure that schools don't just meet national targets, but exceed | :43:15. | :43:17. | |
them. I think part of the problem in Nottingham is that people haven't | :43:18. | :43:20. | |
been ambitious enough and I think the question for Nottingham Local | :43:21. | :43:23. | |
Authority is not to try to second guess what happens on the ground in | :43:24. | :43:27. | |
schools when it comes to the management and allocation of | :43:28. | :43:30. | |
resources, the thing to do is to set an ambitious target for how many | :43:31. | :43:33. | |
children should be getting good GCSEs and going on to to college. Or | :43:34. | :43:41. | |
on to apprenticeships. Michael Gove laying it on the line. A lack of | :43:42. | :43:46. | |
ambition in communities and in schools, is he right? We need to | :43:47. | :43:52. | |
support those pupils and we need to get them from education into careers | :43:53. | :43:57. | |
so they've got that aspiration to thrive and to strive forward and why | :43:58. | :44:01. | |
can't you come from Nottinghamshire and go on to be a doctor, or an | :44:02. | :44:07. | |
astronaut? Is that what it is about, Chris, lack of ambition? I'm all for | :44:08. | :44:13. | |
giving people opportunities. We are living through this very difficult | :44:14. | :44:17. | |
austere time with the economy flatlining and that is down to | :44:18. | :44:22. | |
Mark's party in large measure. In terms of these academies, what we | :44:23. | :44:25. | |
are seeing with the present Government is pursuing an | :44:26. | :44:28. | |
ideological agenda, in spite of the evidence to the contrary. As a | :44:29. | :44:33. | |
consequence of going down the Academy route, we have seen a | :44:34. | :44:39. | |
massive increase in unqualified teachers in our schools ` we need to | :44:40. | :44:46. | |
tackle that. I don't like this new agenda that is being pursued. You | :44:47. | :44:52. | |
can see that determination to push this through, to get the job done? | :44:53. | :45:00. | |
He is passionate. Against all odds? As a Government, that is our | :45:01. | :45:03. | |
responsibility, to make sure those kids get those opportunities and get | :45:04. | :45:07. | |
the education that we ought to be providing. You can almost hear the | :45:08. | :45:16. | |
teachers shouting at the telly? We have looked at some of the things | :45:17. | :45:22. | |
that can be achieved. If you get great headmasters and a teaching | :45:23. | :45:26. | |
team which is working together, you can really achieve great things. | :45:27. | :45:31. | |
There have been problems, Chris, in Derby schools and also this week, | :45:32. | :45:35. | |
two more Derby schools have been threatened with being forced into | :45:36. | :45:41. | |
becoming academies. It is worrying? There is this ideological agenda | :45:42. | :45:46. | |
that is being pursued by Michael Gove. We are seeing Michael Gove is | :45:47. | :45:55. | |
determined to force academies on communities when they are not | :45:56. | :46:00. | |
wanted. The truth is, we need to invest in our education system. We | :46:01. | :46:04. | |
need to give oversight to Local Education Authorities and we have to | :46:05. | :46:10. | |
sort out the economy. It is all very well Mark saying he is giving kids | :46:11. | :46:13. | |
opportunities ` opportunities for what? We need to create hundreds of | :46:14. | :46:19. | |
thousands of jobs for young people. Not these half`baked apprenticeships | :46:20. | :46:25. | |
which aren't worth the paper they are written on. Youth unemployment | :46:26. | :46:30. | |
is one of our biggest problems? We have managed to get hold of that. | :46:31. | :46:36. | |
The figures are coming down. Only half the schools... You scrapped the | :46:37. | :46:44. | |
Future Jobs... The Labour Party want to oppose... No, you have massive | :46:45. | :46:52. | |
cuts, mass youth unemployment. The Government scrapped the Future Jobs | :46:53. | :46:57. | |
Fund. Let's talk about academies again. Let's find out our next | :46:58. | :47:01. | |
report. Well, the growth of academy schools, | :47:02. | :47:04. | |
state`funded but independent of local authority control, is one big | :47:05. | :47:07. | |
area of contention. In Nottingham a planned new academy has angered | :47:08. | :47:10. | |
parents and teachers who accuse them of poaching children away from their | :47:11. | :47:14. | |
schools ` and it's being set up by two organisations which already | :47:15. | :47:16. | |
preside over failing schools in the city. Here's Jane Dodge. | :47:17. | :47:21. | |
The current uniform is high`vis jackets. In six months it will be | :47:22. | :47:28. | |
blazers and ties. The site of the old Dunkirk fire station is to | :47:29. | :47:31. | |
become Nottingham's latest purpose built academy. 100 students have | :47:32. | :47:42. | |
signed up so far. By 2017, Nottingham University Academy of | :47:43. | :47:44. | |
Science and Technology hopes to have 800. They'll start at the age of 14, | :47:45. | :47:53. | |
study from 8.30am to 5.00pm and take technical qualifications as well as | :47:54. | :48:00. | |
GCSEs. There is a real collaboration between education and employers and | :48:01. | :48:03. | |
a real enthusiasm and indeed the Academy is part of the Nottingham | :48:04. | :48:06. | |
City Council's growth plan because we want to make Nottingham the city | :48:07. | :48:15. | |
of science. The University of Nottingham and the Djanogly Learning | :48:16. | :48:18. | |
Trust are sponsoring the Academy. It is not their first. There is | :48:19. | :48:22. | |
Nottingham University Samworth Academy and Djanogly City Academy, | :48:23. | :48:25. | |
both were rated inadequate by Ofsted recently. It is hardly a ringing | :48:26. | :48:31. | |
endorsement for this one? It is about collaboration. You will find | :48:32. | :48:38. | |
that the city, despite the challenging Ofsted assessment, they | :48:39. | :48:40. | |
will take it forward, collaboratively between the local | :48:41. | :48:43. | |
authority schools and the academies and they will share good practice | :48:44. | :48:47. | |
and standards will rise. For this academy to succeed, it needs to | :48:48. | :48:50. | |
persuade parents it can offer a better education than other | :48:51. | :48:55. | |
secondary schools in the area. To get that message across, more than | :48:56. | :48:58. | |
2,500 letters have been sent to selected homes. Tactics deemed by | :48:59. | :49:06. | |
some to be unethical. As far as I understand it, that's contravening | :49:07. | :49:12. | |
the Data Protection Act. This is very intrusive and in terms of the | :49:13. | :49:16. | |
other secondary schools in our city, if I was the head of a secondary | :49:17. | :49:20. | |
school, I would be hopping mad and I would be very worried because if | :49:21. | :49:23. | |
children are being poached from other secondary schools, that has | :49:24. | :49:26. | |
enormous implications for the schools' budget and for their | :49:27. | :49:28. | |
forward planning and their resourcing and for all the children | :49:29. | :49:33. | |
that don't go. It is the role of local authorities that's incensed | :49:34. | :49:36. | |
the head teachers we have spoken to. It was Nottingham Futures which is | :49:37. | :49:40. | |
owned by the city and County Councils that sent the letters to | :49:41. | :49:47. | |
parents. We were giving information out of a new institution that is | :49:48. | :49:52. | |
opening in our city. We wouldn't give it any endorsement. What we | :49:53. | :49:56. | |
need to get on to is what opportunities there are going to be | :49:57. | :49:59. | |
here for encouraging young people to be prepared for the workplace. NUAST | :50:00. | :50:07. | |
wants to produce the next generation of world innovators. The clock is | :50:08. | :50:13. | |
ticking. Ofsted has warned improving performance in schools is one of the | :50:14. | :50:18. | |
region's greatest and most urgent challenges. Mark, you talked earlier | :50:19. | :50:22. | |
about the importance of young people finding careers. It sounds like this | :50:23. | :50:27. | |
school is exactly all about that? It is about vocational skills? What an | :50:28. | :50:32. | |
inspiration. One of the leading universities in the world, linking | :50:33. | :50:35. | |
up with a school to develop those young minds and find them careers in | :50:36. | :50:39. | |
the future. It is a real inspiration. Is that a change of | :50:40. | :50:43. | |
emphasis for you as a party, not university, get a vocational career | :50:44. | :50:48. | |
instead? We need to look at that. In my personal opinion, more people | :50:49. | :50:52. | |
have been going to university and not everybody warms to that academic | :50:53. | :50:56. | |
environment and I think some young people can go straight into a career | :50:57. | :51:00. | |
with vocational education and we need to recognise as employers that | :51:01. | :51:04. | |
those skills and qualifications are just as valuable. It was a big | :51:05. | :51:09. | |
Labour push to get more people go to university, now we are talking about | :51:10. | :51:12. | |
vocational skills? University education is vitally important. We | :51:13. | :51:16. | |
have also got to make sure that young people can have access to good | :51:17. | :51:21. | |
quality vocational skills, proper apprenticeships. We need to create | :51:22. | :51:25. | |
the jobs for young people to be able to use those skills when they leave | :51:26. | :51:29. | |
school and there is a real challenge to make sure we sort the economy | :51:30. | :51:35. | |
out, to generate those jobs. We need a Renaissance in our manufacturing | :51:36. | :51:40. | |
industry. We need a push in the construction industry, too. There is | :51:41. | :51:44. | |
a huge housing crisis. We have a major problem with fuel poverty. | :51:45. | :51:48. | |
Let's get back to schools and to education. Should Local Education | :51:49. | :51:51. | |
Authorities have more of a say? They have been pushed back a little bit | :51:52. | :51:56. | |
with the advent of academies? It comes down to the leadership in the | :51:57. | :52:01. | |
school. If you can make that funding direct to those head teachers, give | :52:02. | :52:04. | |
them the power and give them the ability to make decisions about | :52:05. | :52:08. | |
their school, they are in a better place to make those decisions. Why | :52:09. | :52:12. | |
are you shaking your head? It is unco`ordinated. It is fine when you | :52:13. | :52:20. | |
have a good head, but the very isolated become islands. I think you | :52:21. | :52:29. | |
need that that tee JIC `` strategic oversight. We have to get to grips | :52:30. | :52:35. | |
with this? We have. We have an ideological agenda being pursued by | :52:36. | :52:40. | |
Michael Gove. Ofsted are saying... They are pushing down the road | :52:41. | :52:46. | |
essentially of part privatisation of our secondary education. One of the | :52:47. | :52:53. | |
leading universities in the world combined with employers who are | :52:54. | :52:56. | |
working with those kids to give them the right qualifications and the | :52:57. | :52:59. | |
right training to give them a career in the future. Ofsted say this is a | :53:00. | :53:03. | |
priority. What are you doing to make sure it is? It is about making sure | :53:04. | :53:07. | |
the funding goes direct to those leaders in those communities, in | :53:08. | :53:11. | |
those schools and parents will vote with their feet. That is what | :53:12. | :53:18. | |
terrifies some of these people. Will we lose schools? This is crazy. This | :53:19. | :53:25. | |
is fantasy land. I'm sorry, Mark. We have a responsibility, surely, to | :53:26. | :53:30. | |
all our children, we have this unco`ordinated arrangement which is | :53:31. | :53:33. | |
being pushed by Mark and his party which will leave some kids behind | :53:34. | :53:41. | |
and enable others to excel. Now, how does a seat in the House of | :53:42. | :53:45. | |
Lords sound? A little far`fetched for most of us perhaps, but one of | :53:46. | :53:49. | |
our peers is planning to do some talent`spotting in the East | :53:50. | :53:52. | |
Midlands. Our region has the lowest representation of any in the House | :53:53. | :53:56. | |
of Lords. John Hess, or Lord Hess of Bridgford as he's known round here, | :53:57. | :54:01. | |
reports. The House of Lords has never claimed to truly represent the | :54:02. | :54:05. | |
people, that after all is a job of the directly`elected House of | :54:06. | :54:09. | |
Commons. But should our second law`making chamber be more | :54:10. | :54:12. | |
representative of the Nations and Regions of the UK and with only 2% | :54:13. | :54:16. | |
of working peers from the East Midlands, are we losing out and what | :54:17. | :54:22. | |
should be done about it? I'm about to meet this lady. She's one of the | :54:23. | :54:28. | |
handful of peers from the East Midlands. How are you? Lovely to | :54:29. | :54:35. | |
meet you. I do think we must not let the discussion go down the road of | :54:36. | :54:40. | |
we need to have a certain percentage of peers coming from particular | :54:41. | :54:48. | |
regions. What we do in the House is scrutinise legislation. Brought up | :54:49. | :54:54. | |
and ucated in Leicester, she was raised to the peerage eight years | :54:55. | :54:58. | |
ago. She is now a junior minister in the Department for Energy and | :54:59. | :55:00. | |
climate change. She's a Conservative. What we have in the | :55:01. | :55:05. | |
Midlands is that we ourselves are not very good at showcasing those | :55:06. | :55:13. | |
people that should really be nominated for the House. How would | :55:14. | :55:17. | |
you reform the House of Lords? If we do have people that we believe | :55:18. | :55:21. | |
rightly should come and sit in the House, from the Midlands, then I | :55:22. | :55:25. | |
think that we need to be able to talent spot ourselves. Do you think | :55:26. | :55:30. | |
that regional representation in this place matters? We have elected | :55:31. | :55:35. | |
members who if they are doing their jobs right, will be the voices for | :55:36. | :55:39. | |
those constituencies in those regions and I think our job in this | :55:40. | :55:43. | |
House is then to look at the legislation in the round to | :55:44. | :55:47. | |
scrutinise it in the round and to ensure that the concerns raised by | :55:48. | :55:52. | |
elected members are reflected in how that legislation is formulated. This | :55:53. | :55:57. | |
Baroness wants more voices from the East Midlands to be heard in the | :55:58. | :56:00. | |
Lords, but how to achieve that, she says, is the dilemma. It certainly | :56:01. | :56:07. | |
is. Those figures are quite stark. Of the 430 working peers, 2% are | :56:08. | :56:13. | |
from the East Midlands, does it matter, Mark? We need to be | :56:14. | :56:20. | |
represented in both chambers and I wasn't aware that we were so poorly | :56:21. | :56:27. | |
represented. We have some good Lords and Baronesses, but we need more. | :56:28. | :56:31. | |
Both political parties need to address that. Does it matter, Chris? | :56:32. | :56:35. | |
I think it does. There has been an accusation levelled at policymakers | :56:36. | :56:40. | |
that it is London`centric. Nearly half of the peers come from Greater | :56:41. | :56:44. | |
London and the South East, it is little wonder that that is a | :56:45. | :56:51. | |
problem. I do think... 26% for London? 20`odd per cent for the | :56:52. | :56:58. | |
South East. So I do think it would help. I do think it is important | :56:59. | :57:02. | |
that they do have proper representation. Labour did make some | :57:03. | :57:07. | |
fundamental changes to the House of Lords and we had a commitment in the | :57:08. | :57:12. | |
last manifesto to have a referendum on having an elected Second Chamber. | :57:13. | :57:18. | |
Short of that happening, I think there does need to be something | :57:19. | :57:24. | |
done. One of the problems ` David Cameron has elevated 160 new peers | :57:25. | :57:30. | |
into the House of Lords. There is a real challenge there. OK. Tony Benn | :57:31. | :57:36. | |
said the House of Lords was the British Outer Mongolia for retired | :57:37. | :57:43. | |
politicians! Did he have a point? I think it's a useful chamber where | :57:44. | :57:47. | |
experience people can pass judgment and can contribute to legislation as | :57:48. | :57:52. | |
it passes through the House. I think we do need more representation from | :57:53. | :57:56. | |
the East Midlands so they understand East Midlands`type issues. How do we | :57:57. | :58:02. | |
get more people from the East Midlands? It is a matter for the | :58:03. | :58:05. | |
parties, if we are going to continue with this system of appointing | :58:06. | :58:11. | |
peers, but there is a challenge. The House of Lords has already got | :58:12. | :58:16. | |
several hundred more than there are seats in the House of Lords for them | :58:17. | :58:23. | |
to sit on. So, you know ` and it is very costly. Do we need it? I think | :58:24. | :58:30. | |
they can be enormously frustrating if you are a member of the House of | :58:31. | :58:33. | |
Commons. They do a really important role in scrutinising legislation as | :58:34. | :58:41. | |
it goes forward and without ` you can be a signpost without being a | :58:42. | :58:46. | |
weather vane. Maybe I should nominate Chris! How would you feel | :58:47. | :58:51. | |
about that, Chris? Going into the House of Lords? Yes. I don't think | :58:52. | :58:55. | |
it is likely. It is unlikely. Would you turn it down? I'm not a fan of | :58:56. | :59:04. | |
the Patronage that is afforded to party leaders at the moment... | :59:05. | :59:09. | |
Really? What about Lord Mark of Sherwood? I don't know. Friar Tuck, | :59:10. | :59:20. | |
maybe! Alan Fisher, the leader of NUPE, he said he would never take a | :59:21. | :59:27. | |
seat in the House of Lords, but he thought about taking the name of | :59:28. | :59:30. | |
Lord "Winter of Discontent"! Very good. | :59:31. | :59:33. | |
Now a round`up of other stories in the East Midlands in Sixty Seconds. | :59:34. | :59:38. | |
Two of our Labour MPs want a firmer commitment from their party on an EU | :59:39. | :59:45. | |
referendum. They believe Britain is better off in and want to allow | :59:46. | :59:49. | |
voters the chance to decide. A report on how much would be saved by | :59:50. | :59:55. | |
abolishing district councils cost almost ?50,000. The council leader | :59:56. | :00:00. | |
said the move would save ?30 million a year. It seems bus pass Elvis have | :00:01. | :00:06. | |
the Lib Dems all shook up. Does the Deputy Prime Minister think it was | :00:07. | :00:09. | |
his party support for the bedroom tax, the trebling of tuition fees, | :00:10. | :00:14. | |
unfair cuts to the poorest families, or the betrayal of the NHS which led | :00:15. | :00:21. | |
them to put bus pass Elvis ahead of the Liberal Democrats? Putting pus | :00:22. | :00:32. | |
bass `` bus pass Elvis aside... He told us he might stand as an MP. | :00:33. | :00:38. | |
That's the Sunday Politics in the East Midlands, thanks to Mark | :00:39. | :00:43. | |
Spencer and Chris Williamson. Next week, we'll be finding out what our | :00:44. | :00:47. | |
MEPs do for us in the East Midlands. We'll be in Brussels, home of the | :00:48. | :00:50. | |
European Parliament for a special programme. Find us on Facebook or | :00:51. | :00:54. | |
Twitter if you have a question for them. Now back to | :00:55. | :00:55. | |
industrial action is a sign of failure marked success. -- not | :00:56. | :00:59. | |
success. Andrew, back to you. Has George Osborne got a rabbit in | :01:00. | :01:12. | |
his Budget hat? Will the Chancellor find a way to help the squeezed | :01:13. | :01:16. | |
middle? And how do Labour respond? All questions for The Week Ahead. | :01:17. | :01:24. | |
And joining Helen, Janan and Nick to discuss the budget is the general | :01:25. | :01:28. | |
secretary of the Trades Union Congress Frances O'Grady. Welcome | :01:29. | :01:33. | |
back to the programme. I know the TUC has a submission, but if you | :01:34. | :01:36. | |
could pick one thing that you wanted the Chancellor to do above all, what | :01:37. | :01:42. | |
would it be? We want a budget for working people, which means we have | :01:43. | :01:46. | |
to crack the long-term problem of investment in the British economy. | :01:47. | :01:52. | |
Certainly I would like the Chancellor to merit that title they | :01:53. | :01:58. | |
want of the new workers party, and take action on living standards, but | :01:59. | :02:01. | |
if they're going to do that it's got to be about unlocking investment. In | :02:02. | :02:11. | |
the period where the economy has been flat-lining there has been | :02:12. | :02:14. | |
little business investment, but there are signs towards the end of | :02:15. | :02:18. | |
last year that it is beginning to pick up. But a long way to go. The | :02:19. | :02:24. | |
problem is we have key industries like construction and manufacturing | :02:25. | :02:27. | |
that are still smaller than they were before the recession. The | :02:28. | :02:33. | |
government itself, of course, has slashed its own capital investment | :02:34. | :02:38. | |
budget by half. There is plenty of good and important work that needs | :02:39. | :02:42. | |
to be done from building houses to improving the transport system, to | :02:43. | :02:48. | |
improving our schools. And the government really needs to pick up | :02:49. | :02:52. | |
that shovel and start investing in our economy to get the decent jobs | :02:53. | :02:57. | |
we need, the pay increases we need, and that in itself will help | :02:58. | :03:02. | |
stimulate demand. It was Alistair Darling who cut in 2011, and it's | :03:03. | :03:08. | |
interesting that Ed Balls in his plans for the next parliament would | :03:09. | :03:13. | |
run a current budget surplus by the end of the parliament as opposed to | :03:14. | :03:16. | |
George Osborne who would have an overall budget surplus. That gives | :03:17. | :03:21. | |
Ed Balls or -- more wriggle room to do what you talk about, but he is | :03:22. | :03:24. | |
reticent to talk about it. He does not want to say that he has an | :03:25. | :03:27. | |
opportunity to spend on investment because he fears if he says it he | :03:28. | :03:30. | |
will be attacked by the Conservatives for being | :03:31. | :03:34. | |
irresponsible. Why is business doing this? The recession was deeper than | :03:35. | :03:41. | |
any since the war and the recovery was slower than almost any since the | :03:42. | :03:47. | |
war. The lag, the time it takes to get over that is longer than anyone | :03:48. | :03:52. | |
expected. I read the same evidence as you towards the end of last year | :03:53. | :03:56. | |
pointing to money being released, and it depends what it is released | :03:57. | :04:01. | |
on, whether it is capital investment or bringing in people on higher | :04:02. | :04:05. | |
wages. The one surprise in the downturn is how well the employment | :04:06. | :04:10. | |
figures have done, but they have not invested in new capacity and they | :04:11. | :04:13. | |
are sitting on a lot of dosh. I looked at one set of figures that | :04:14. | :04:17. | |
said if you took the biggest company in Britain, they have about 715 | :04:18. | :04:23. | |
billion pounds in corporate treasury -- the biggest companies. I think | :04:24. | :04:27. | |
it's reduced a little but they are sitting on a mountain in dash of | :04:28. | :04:34. | |
skills. Yes, but they're not investing in skills, wages, or | :04:35. | :04:38. | |
sustainable jobs. The new jobs we have seen created since 2010, the | :04:39. | :04:43. | |
vast majority of them have been in low paid industries, and they are | :04:44. | :04:48. | |
often zero hours, or insecure, or part-time. So it's not delivering a | :04:49. | :04:51. | |
recovery for ordinary working people. Government ministers, as you | :04:52. | :04:57. | |
know when you lobby them, they are anxious to make out that they know | :04:58. | :05:00. | |
the job is not done and the recovery has just begun, but the one bit they | :05:01. | :05:06. | |
are privately proud of, although they can't explain it, is how many | :05:07. | :05:11. | |
private-sector jobs have been created. A lot of unions have done | :05:12. | :05:15. | |
sensible deals with employers to protect jobs through this period, | :05:16. | :05:18. | |
but it's not sustainable. The average worker in Britain today is | :05:19. | :05:24. | |
now ?2000 a year worse off in real terms than they were. On a pay | :05:25. | :05:30. | |
against price comparison? It doesn't take into account tax cuts. The | :05:31. | :05:38. | |
raising of the personal allowance is far outweighed by the raising VAT. | :05:39. | :05:46. | |
Does the raising of the threshold which the Lib Dems are proud of and | :05:47. | :05:49. | |
the Tories are trying to trade credit for, does it matter to your | :05:50. | :05:54. | |
members? -- take credit for. It matters that it is eclipsed by the | :05:55. | :05:59. | |
cuts in benefits and know what is conned any more. We're going to hear | :06:00. | :06:02. | |
a lot about the raising of the allowance, but as long as the real | :06:03. | :06:08. | |
value of work, tax credits, things like that, people won't feel it in | :06:09. | :06:12. | |
their pocket, and they will find it harder and harder to look after | :06:13. | :06:16. | |
their family. When you look at the other things that could take over | :06:17. | :06:19. | |
from consumer spending which has driven the recovery, held by house | :06:20. | :06:24. | |
price rising in the south, it is exports and business investment, and | :06:25. | :06:27. | |
you look at the state of the Eurozone and the emerging markets | :06:28. | :06:31. | |
which are now in trouble, and the winter seems to have derailed the US | :06:32. | :06:35. | |
recovery. It won't be exports. Indeed, the Obie Eich does not think | :06:36. | :06:42. | |
that will contribute to growth until 2015 -- OBI. So the figures we | :06:43. | :06:47. | |
should be looking at our business investment. And also the deficit. | :06:48. | :06:54. | |
The deficit is 111 billion, and that is a problem, because we are not at | :06:55. | :06:57. | |
the end of the cutting process, there are huge cuts to be made. I | :06:58. | :07:02. | |
understand we are only a third of the way through. That will | :07:03. | :07:05. | |
definitely affect business confidence. It is clear that the | :07:06. | :07:09. | |
strategy has failed. Borrowing has gone up and it's not delivered | :07:10. | :07:13. | |
improved living standards and better quality jobs, so cutting out of the | :07:14. | :07:20. | |
recession is not going to work. The structural budget deficit was going | :07:21. | :07:23. | |
to be eliminated three weeks today under the original plan. They missed | :07:24. | :07:29. | |
target after target. Every economist has their own definition of that. I | :07:30. | :07:35. | |
think Mark Carney is right when he says that fundamentally the economy | :07:36. | :07:40. | |
is unbalanced and it is not sustainable, growth is not | :07:41. | :07:44. | |
sustainable. But if it clicked on, it would be more balanced. It is not | :07:45. | :07:50. | |
just north and south and manufacturing a way out with | :07:51. | :07:53. | |
services, but it is also between the rich and everybody else. What do you | :07:54. | :07:59. | |
make of the fact that there will effectively be another freezing | :08:00. | :08:02. | |
public sector pay, or at least no more than 1%? Not even that for | :08:03. | :08:10. | |
nurses and health workers. But they will get 3% progression pay. 70% of | :08:11. | :08:15. | |
nurses will not get any pay rise at all. They get no progression pay at | :08:16. | :08:19. | |
all. I think this is smack in the mouth. Smack in the mouth to | :08:20. | :08:25. | |
dedicated health care workers who will feel very, very discontented | :08:26. | :08:30. | |
about the decision. Danny Alexander, I saw him appealing to | :08:31. | :08:35. | |
health workers do not move to strike ballots and said they should talk to | :08:36. | :08:41. | |
their department. But about what? Is that real pay cut has been imposed, | :08:42. | :08:47. | |
what are workers left with? So do you expect as a result of yet more | :08:48. | :08:52. | |
tough controls on public sector pay that unrest is inevitable? I know | :08:53. | :08:58. | |
some unions will be consulting with their members, but ultimately it's | :08:59. | :09:02. | |
always members who decide what to do. It does seem to me insulting not | :09:03. | :09:07. | |
to at least be honest and say that we are cutting real pay of nurses, | :09:08. | :09:16. | |
health care workers, on the back of a ?3 billion reorganisation of the | :09:17. | :09:19. | |
NHS that nobody wanted and nobody voted for. Their long-term changes | :09:20. | :09:27. | |
taking place here that almost talks about -- there are long-term | :09:28. | :09:31. | |
changes. It is how lower percentage wages have become of GDP on how big | :09:32. | :09:38. | |
the percentage of profits is. It seems to me there is a strong case | :09:39. | :09:43. | |
for some kind of realignment there. The biggest event of my life, in | :09:44. | :09:47. | |
this world, is the entry of a couple of billion more people into the | :09:48. | :09:51. | |
labour supply. At the end of the Cold War, India and China plugged | :09:52. | :09:55. | |
into the global economy. If there is a greater supply of that factor of | :09:56. | :09:59. | |
production, logically you conclude that wages will fall or stagnate and | :10:00. | :10:04. | |
that has been the story in this country and America and large parts | :10:05. | :10:06. | |
of Western Europe in the last generation. What is not possible is | :10:07. | :10:11. | |
for governments to do much about it. They can ameliorate it at the | :10:12. | :10:15. | |
margins, but the idea that the government controls living | :10:16. | :10:18. | |
standards, which has become popular over the last six months, and the | :10:19. | :10:21. | |
Labour Party have in establishing that, and I don't think it's true. | :10:22. | :10:27. | |
George Osborne's options are astonishingly limited compared to | :10:28. | :10:31. | |
public expectations. If wages have reached a modern record low as | :10:32. | :10:36. | |
percentage of GDP, who is going to champion the wage earner? We have | :10:37. | :10:42. | |
lost Bob Crow, Tony Benn passed away, so who is the champion? The | :10:43. | :10:47. | |
trade union movement is the champion of ordinary workers. We need those | :10:48. | :10:52. | |
larger-than-life figures that we will mess. Have you got them yet? We | :10:53. | :10:59. | |
have a generation of workers coming through. One thing about the loss of | :11:00. | :11:03. | |
Bob Crow is that the whole union movement has responded strongly to | :11:04. | :11:07. | |
that, and we want to say that we are strong and united and here to stand | :11:08. | :11:10. | |
up for working people and we will fight as hard as Bob Crow did. | :11:11. | :11:15. | |
Whoever replaces Bob Crow or Tony Benn, we can be sure they will not | :11:16. | :11:19. | |
come from Eton because they all have jobs in the government. I want to | :11:20. | :11:23. | |
put up on the screen what even Michael Gove was saying about this | :11:24. | :11:25. | |
coterie of Old Etonian 's. He's right, is he not? He's | :11:26. | :11:39. | |
absolutely right. We have the idea of the manifesto being written by | :11:40. | :11:45. | |
five people from Eton and one from Saint Pauls. A remarkable example of | :11:46. | :11:51. | |
social mobility that George Osborne, who had the disadvantage of going to | :11:52. | :11:54. | |
Saint Pauls has made it into that inner circle. Here is the question, | :11:55. | :12:02. | |
what is Michael Gove up to? If you saw the response from George | :12:03. | :12:05. | |
Osborne, there was no slap down, and they know this is an area they are | :12:06. | :12:09. | |
weak on an David Cameron will not comment on it. If this had been a | :12:10. | :12:13. | |
Labour shadow minister making a similarly disloyal statement, they | :12:14. | :12:18. | |
might have been shot at dawn. But there is a real tolerance from | :12:19. | :12:21. | |
Michael Gove to go freelance which comes from George Osborne. It's | :12:22. | :12:25. | |
about highlighting educational reforms that he wants to turn every | :12:26. | :12:29. | |
school in to eat and so it won't happen in the future. But it's also | :12:30. | :12:32. | |
pointing out who did not go to Eton school and who would be the best | :12:33. | :12:36. | |
candidate to replace David Cameron as leader, George Osborne, and who | :12:37. | :12:40. | |
did go to Eton school, Boris Johnson. Michael Gove is on | :12:41. | :12:44. | |
manoeuvres to destroy Boris Johnson's chances of being leader. | :12:45. | :12:51. | |
It's a good job they don't have an election to worry about. Hold on. I | :12:52. | :12:57. | |
think they are out of touch with businesses as well as working | :12:58. | :13:00. | |
people. You ask about who is talking about wage earners. Businesses are. | :13:01. | :13:04. | |
They are worried that unless living standards rise again there will be | :13:05. | :13:09. | |
nobody there to buy anything. We are running out of time, but the TUC, | :13:10. | :13:15. | |
are enthusiastic about HS2? We supported. We think it's the kind of | :13:16. | :13:20. | |
infrastructure project that we need to invest in long-term. He could, if | :13:21. | :13:24. | |
we get it right, rebalance north and south and create good jobs along the | :13:25. | :13:29. | |
way -- it could. Thank you very much tool. I have to say that every week | :13:30. | :13:35. | |
-- thank you very much to you all. That's all for today. I'll be back | :13:36. | :13:38. | |
next Sunday at 11am, and Jo Coburn will be on BBC Two tomorrow at | :13:39. | :13:43. | |
midday with the Daily Politics. Remember if it's Sunday, it's the | :13:44. | :13:45. | |
Sunday Politics. | :13:46. | :13:48. |