Browse content similar to 07/10/2012. Check below for episodes and series from the same categories and more!
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In the East: The dissent in our Tory ranks pulling the party apart. | :01:24. | :01:27. | |
And the region's rural schools facing a struggle for survival, as | :01:27. | :01:37. | |
:01:37. | :01:37. | ||
Apology for the loss of subtitles for 2133 seconds | :01:37. | :37:11. | |
the Government changes the way they Welcome to Sunday Politics East. | :37:11. | :37:14. | |
Rural schools that could suffer through the change to the | :37:14. | :37:18. | |
Government's funding formula. First, let's make the guests for | :37:18. | :37:25. | |
this week. Sir Bob Russell, Liberal Democrat MP, and Jessica Asato, | :37:25. | :37:34. | |
Labour's parliamentary candidate. We will also meet Brandon Lewis for | :37:34. | :37:39. | |
Great Yarmouth, newly-appointed local government are Minister. | :37:39. | :37:44. | |
Let us begin with a brief word about the rail franchise fiasco. | :37:44. | :37:47. | |
The Government has halted the handover of the West Coast Main | :37:47. | :37:50. | |
Line and suspended the bidding process for the ThamesLink | :37:50. | :37:54. | |
franchise and a line from Fenchurch Street to Essex. Passengers at | :37:54. | :37:59. | |
Milton Keynes, Northampton, and Essex had been looking forward to | :37:59. | :38:02. | |
enhanced services, but rail user groups are now worried the changes | :38:02. | :38:07. | |
will be delayed. We put those concerns to the Prime Minister. | :38:07. | :38:11. | |
The rail service will continue as it is today, and we will continue | :38:11. | :38:15. | |
with the mass of upgrades in terms of electrification of lines, | :38:15. | :38:19. | |
improvements to stations and platforms, that all goes ahead. I | :38:19. | :38:22. | |
am disappointed by what happened with the West Coast franchise | :38:22. | :38:25. | |
arrangement. It should not have happened, I am very angry that it | :38:25. | :38:30. | |
did happen, and we will get to the bottom of the mistakes made. But it | :38:30. | :38:33. | |
is right to stop other franchising going ahead while we get to the | :38:33. | :38:39. | |
bottom of it. Are you annoyed that improvements to local services are | :38:39. | :38:44. | |
delayed? Of course. You used the word fiasco, there is no other word | :38:44. | :38:49. | |
to describe it. I believe our railway should never have been | :38:49. | :38:58. | |
privatised and fragmented. I think it is a public service and should | :38:58. | :39:04. | |
be run by professionals, not the civil servants. Some civil servants | :39:04. | :39:09. | |
have been blamed for this, is that fair? We have to wait for the | :39:09. | :39:13. | |
outcome of the Government's own review of what happened, but it | :39:13. | :39:17. | |
seems as though the government are passing the buck on civil servants. | :39:17. | :39:21. | |
David Cameron said in the past that if there is a systemic failure it | :39:21. | :39:24. | |
should be ministers that take the blame. In this case it looks as | :39:24. | :39:28. | |
though there has been one, and there are some serious concerns, | :39:28. | :39:32. | |
particularly if you see the delays that might happen to franchise | :39:32. | :39:38. | |
agreements for the down the line. Some analysts say that other things | :39:38. | :39:44. | |
could be delayed as well. What about the cost? We are told the | :39:44. | :39:48. | |
cost could be �40 million to the British taxpayer, which is usually | :39:48. | :39:54. | |
expense. I think that is an underestimate. We have a situation | :39:54. | :39:58. | |
where these companies compete with each other, only a few companies | :39:58. | :40:03. | |
actually get involved, and some faceless bureaucracy allocates them | :40:03. | :40:07. | |
to the prize winners, but on this occasion it would appear that the | :40:07. | :40:13. | |
prize winner should have been kept with Virgin trains and not handed | :40:13. | :40:18. | |
over to first group, but here in the east we have experience in the | :40:18. | :40:21. | |
past of first group, that we have a fragmented railway system, with | :40:21. | :40:25. | |
Network Rail and the various operating companies, and we know | :40:25. | :40:29. | |
from weekend travel what that means, it means buses rather than trains. | :40:29. | :40:33. | |
Hopefully there will be an improvement at least on that, in | :40:33. | :40:38. | |
the future. What about today's announcement from the Conservative | :40:38. | :40:41. | |
Party conference, at that rail fares increases will be capped at | :40:41. | :40:47. | |
1% above inflation. That is good news, is it not? If the | :40:47. | :40:49. | |
Conservatives and Liberal Democrats had agreed with that, they should | :40:49. | :40:53. | |
have voted with Labour has amendment when it went to | :40:53. | :40:57. | |
Parliament, but they did not do that. Why have they changed their | :40:57. | :41:02. | |
tune? Again, Labour has been making the Tories and Lib Dems follow | :41:02. | :41:07. | |
their lead. They have anything else does say? I find it odd that after | :41:07. | :41:11. | |
13 years of financial misrule that the Liberal Democrats have gone to | :41:11. | :41:15. | |
government to try to sort out labour's financial mess. | :41:15. | :41:20. | |
It is not just allegations of incompetency plaguing David Cameron, | :41:20. | :41:26. | |
but a rift in the ranks. A poll this week found 61% of people | :41:26. | :41:28. | |
believe the contest -- the Conservative Party to be divided. | :41:28. | :41:32. | |
We reckon that around half of the Tory MPs in our region, the East, | :41:32. | :41:39. | |
have spoken out or voted against their government on issues as | :41:39. | :41:43. | |
varied as Europe, wind farms and House of Lords reform. Opposition | :41:43. | :41:46. | |
to the coalition itself is the real nub of the problem, of which many | :41:46. | :41:49. | |
in the party are blaming for the Conservatives' poor showing in the | :41:49. | :41:59. | |
:41:59. | :42:00. | ||
They visited the Basildon tractor plant together in May. The blue and | :42:00. | :42:03. | |
yellow livery on your tractors are tailor-made for the politics of | :42:03. | :42:07. | |
this coalition. The message was very clear. The economy may be in | :42:07. | :42:13. | |
trouble, but the coalition is here to stay. Saying that -- since the | :42:13. | :42:16. | |
last party conference, the Tories have fallen seven points in the | :42:16. | :42:25. | |
opinion poll and have lost seats. The expect next year's county | :42:25. | :42:29. | |
council elections to be tough, and the core of the by-election is | :42:29. | :42:33. | |
looming. The grassroots are worried. There is an atmosphere of | :42:33. | :42:37. | |
despondency. They would like to see us doing much better in the polls. | :42:37. | :42:41. | |
The activists would like to see more conservative policies coming | :42:41. | :42:47. | |
through and being announced. That is what they are open for we're at | :42:47. | :42:51. | |
a tipping point as a party, and from this conference on birds, | :42:51. | :42:56. | |
things have to become better. Nadine got it -- Nadine Dorries is | :42:56. | :43:01. | |
often dismissed as a mother of maverick, but she says the local | :43:01. | :43:04. | |
organisations believe that the Liberal Democrats are smothering | :43:04. | :43:08. | |
the coalition. We have heard the Liberal Democrat saying about how | :43:08. | :43:13. | |
much dominance they have in the party policy at the moment. What we | :43:13. | :43:17. | |
need to do is be able to say, enough is enough, now it is perhaps | :43:17. | :43:22. | |
time for a Conservative policy to dominate. She is not alone. A | :43:22. | :43:27. | |
number of MPs have expressed doubts about the coalition. Stuart Jackson | :43:27. | :43:35. | |
question the whole point of it. Others have fired warning shots | :43:35. | :43:45. | |
:43:45. | :43:46. | ||
across the Lib Dem bows. Ideally I think the coalition | :43:46. | :43:50. | |
government should break-up sooner rather than later, and we should | :43:50. | :43:54. | |
govern as a conservative minority government, then going to the | :43:54. | :43:58. | |
electorate. I do not see how we can continue stumbling on with a | :43:58. | :44:05. | |
difficult partner, until 2015. If a marriage is fading, perhaps you | :44:05. | :44:11. | |
should divorce earlier than later. Such opinions are still held by a | :44:11. | :44:16. | |
minority. Most of them still accept that coalition is the right thing, | :44:16. | :44:21. | |
though not ideal. I would like to see a Conservative-led government. | :44:21. | :44:31. | |
:44:31. | :44:33. | ||
I would like us to be tougher on Europe. The Government want us to | :44:33. | :44:36. | |
be grown-up and work together. it seems there is a potential | :44:36. | :44:41. | |
divided in the party. We will all be behind David Cameron. If he | :44:41. | :44:45. | |
looks like he is going to be a winner than 2015. If he looks like | :44:45. | :44:49. | |
he is going to lose the 2015 Election and the polls remain | :44:49. | :44:52. | |
stubborn as they are, I think a challenge to his leadership has a | :44:52. | :44:58. | |
very real threat. Earlier this week, Andrew Sinclair | :44:58. | :45:01. | |
met the Prime Minister and asked him if the coalition is holding him | :45:01. | :45:05. | |
back. No, we are taking the action that the country needs to get us | :45:05. | :45:08. | |
out the mess that was left by the last government. We have cut the | :45:08. | :45:15. | |
deficit by a quarter, and also we have created one million new jobs | :45:15. | :45:20. | |
in the private sector, which means unemployment has been falling | :45:20. | :45:24. | |
rather than rising. We still have a long way to go with a huge amount | :45:24. | :45:27. | |
to do. Coalition can sometimes be frustrating, but without a | :45:27. | :45:33. | |
coalition we would not have a majority or get things done. I | :45:33. | :45:36. | |
believe and my party believes in doing the right thing and the | :45:36. | :45:39. | |
National Interest, which is making the coalition work. But a number of | :45:39. | :45:46. | |
MPs from this region are worried about the direction of travel. Your | :45:46. | :45:51. | |
party is splitting over the coalition. I do not accept that. I | :45:51. | :45:56. | |
think the vast majority of Conservatives know that the it -- | :45:56. | :45:59. | |
these are tough times and they require making the coalition work. | :45:59. | :46:04. | |
If we left the coalition we would not have a marriage -- a majority, | :46:04. | :46:10. | |
and we would not be able to take the steps that are required. | :46:10. | :46:13. | |
Difficult times that require strong leadership, which is what we're | :46:13. | :46:18. | |
giving them. When MPs speak out, does that anger your worry you? | :46:18. | :46:21. | |
There has never been a time in politics when certain backbenchers | :46:21. | :46:26. | |
have not wanted to speak out. The key thing is to keep your eyes on | :46:26. | :46:33. | |
the road. Brandon Lewis joins us now. Great Yarmouth are one of the | :46:33. | :46:38. | |
councils that the Tories lost this year. You were hit by voters being | :46:39. | :46:43. | |
disillusioned by the coalition, were you knocked? I think people do | :46:43. | :46:49. | |
understand we are having to make tough decisions. I think that | :46:49. | :46:54. | |
sometimes in local elections you have other parties that will | :46:54. | :47:00. | |
benefit from certain things, and we must deliver to the country. | :47:00. | :47:04. | |
you saying there was no dissatisfaction regarding the | :47:04. | :47:10. | |
coalition at a grassroots level? do see various parties become small | :47:10. | :47:18. | |
parts of the vote. Walsall Labour - - we saw Labour taking some other | :47:18. | :47:23. | |
seats. Getting the finances right will be the right thing to do for | :47:24. | :47:28. | |
the country. I will ask you again, did people have concerns that they | :47:28. | :47:32. | |
voiced to you about the direction of the party and about the fact | :47:32. | :47:37. | |
that you are in coalition with the Liberal Democrats? I never had | :47:37. | :47:40. | |
anybody on the ground comment to me about being in the coalition, | :47:40. | :47:45. | |
people understood why we were. Her members understood why we went into | :47:45. | :47:49. | |
coalition. What people want to see is moving the country in the right | :47:49. | :47:52. | |
direction, delivering for the people, and that is a long process, | :47:52. | :47:57. | |
something we have to stay prole -- focused on. We gave a long list of | :47:57. | :48:05. | |
MPs and in this region voicing dissent because they say the split | :48:05. | :48:08. | |
is drowning out the Government's achievements, damaging the party. | :48:08. | :48:14. | |
Do you have read? No, what you see across all political parties, | :48:14. | :48:17. | |
particularly the Conservative party, everyone has various opinions on | :48:17. | :48:21. | |
different issues, but what really matters at the end of the day is | :48:21. | :48:25. | |
government policy, and what they are delivering. We're delivering | :48:25. | :48:33. | |
good reforms and moving the country forward. We hope we can show people | :48:33. | :48:39. | |
who need an outright majority -- that we need an outright majority | :48:39. | :48:43. | |
in 2050. I am told Great Yarmouth has come second from bottom in the | :48:43. | :48:47. | |
country for lack of educational and employment of a Trinity's. We have | :48:47. | :48:51. | |
seen unemployment falling in Great Yarmouth and employment rights, | :48:51. | :48:59. | |
which is really good news. The energy industry has great | :48:59. | :49:04. | |
opportunities. The Enterprise Zone has given a real opportunities. | :49:04. | :49:09. | |
What we need to make sure is that we have got the skills to match the | :49:09. | :49:13. | |
jobs that are available. That is something the industry is keen on, | :49:13. | :49:17. | |
and we are working together to deliver for Great Yarmouth and East | :49:17. | :49:21. | |
Anglia. News from Birmingham and the confidence of a council tax | :49:22. | :49:29. | |
freeze and the threat of a veto on EU budget. Will that silence the | :49:29. | :49:33. | |
critics are? The council tax freezes are really important | :49:33. | :49:37. | |
message. We understand just how much council tax and by its people | :49:37. | :49:47. | |
:49:47. | :49:47. | ||
and we wanted to do her best to make sure people who worked hard | :49:48. | :49:52. | |
are helped. After years of council tax rises, we are now showing that | :49:52. | :49:55. | |
we have an opportunity for a council tax freeze, and I hope | :49:55. | :49:57. | |
councils across the country will take up the opportunity for the | :49:57. | :50:03. | |
residents are. Thank you. Bob Russell, you were not happy with | :50:03. | :50:09. | |
the coalition at first. I am a One nation Liberal Democrat, and | :50:09. | :50:13. | |
Brandon is a very sensible person, completely different to the roll- | :50:13. | :50:19. | |
call of the right wing MPs you had early on. I went along with the | :50:19. | :50:23. | |
coalition because I think it was in the national interest. I remain a | :50:23. | :50:29. | |
Liberal Democrat, and do not accept the criticism from the right-wing | :50:29. | :50:37. | |
Tories. They do not like the coalition, but I tell you this, | :50:37. | :50:41. | |
David Cameron would much prefer to work with sensible ministers like | :50:41. | :50:44. | |
Brandon and Liberal Democrats than he would with some of those right- | :50:44. | :50:49. | |
wing MPs earlier. Thank very much. Now to concern | :50:49. | :50:53. | |
over the future of rural schools. Staff may have to be cut because a | :50:53. | :50:56. | |
new government funding system means they could lose out on thousands of | :50:56. | :51:00. | |
pounds. There will be winners and losers under the new rules but | :51:00. | :51:05. | |
everyone agrees councils will have their hands tied in the future in | :51:06. | :51:09. | |
smaller isolated schools, which are much more likely to miss the out. | :51:09. | :51:19. | |
It is the end of a school day for For these youngsters, a firm grasp | :51:19. | :51:23. | |
of figures will be handy in years to come, but for their head | :51:23. | :51:26. | |
teachers there is plenty of number- crunching behind the scenes, as the | :51:26. | :51:33. | |
government looks for a new funding formula. One wonders which schools | :51:33. | :51:40. | |
will be hardest hit, and I am now head of two large primary schools. | :51:40. | :51:44. | |
I am head of -- I have been head of a small village primary school and | :51:44. | :51:50. | |
I know how important every penny is in such a school, where they are | :51:50. | :51:53. | |
the heart of the community. A closure of a school could have a | :51:53. | :51:57. | |
huge effect. Jane is the headteacher of the school and | :51:57. | :52:06. | |
another more than -- and another, more than 300 pupils in total. | :52:06. | :52:10. | |
Every school will get the same amount of money, topped up by | :52:10. | :52:14. | |
funding per pupil. Council hands will be tied and it will not be | :52:14. | :52:18. | |
easy for them to give extra money to schools that need it. One of the | :52:18. | :52:22. | |
things that is inevitable and has already been started in some areas | :52:22. | :52:26. | |
is greater federations of schools. That is sensible, but what we do | :52:26. | :52:33. | |
not want to lose art-school suddenly leaving villagers. A | :52:33. | :52:37. | |
school is often a key part of the community. | :52:37. | :52:39. | |
The Education Secretary Michael Gove has been asking schools, | :52:39. | :52:43. | |
parents and governors and councils what they think of his plans to | :52:43. | :52:48. | |
change the funding formula as part of a move to a new education system | :52:48. | :52:52. | |
in 2015. He says he wants things to be fairer, simpler and more | :52:52. | :52:58. | |
consistent. He wants his department is said 10 key funding criteria to | :52:58. | :53:05. | |
replace the 37 that councils can use currently. Officials hope to | :53:05. | :53:09. | |
cushion any transition and say that no school will see more than a 1.5% | :53:09. | :53:14. | |
annual reduction in its budget in the next two years. | :53:14. | :53:18. | |
What schools really desperately need is the ability to be able to | :53:18. | :53:23. | |
plan strategically. To have a funding stream and a funding | :53:23. | :53:27. | |
mechanism which runs in parallel and supports that process. That has | :53:27. | :53:32. | |
to be the main thing we would like to see. The Department for | :53:32. | :53:42. | |
:53:42. | :53:56. | ||
We have a huge variety of schools and a huge variety of pupils, and | :53:56. | :54:03. | |
anything that does this realigns the formula and a big way. | :54:03. | :54:07. | |
School similar in size to this have a budget of �850,000, and next year | :54:08. | :54:17. | |
:54:18. | :54:23. | ||
they could lose the equivalent of a Brandon Lewis, we are told councils | :54:23. | :54:26. | |
will not be able to give geographically isolated schools as | :54:26. | :54:30. | |
much money as they could in the past. Are you concerned at schools | :54:30. | :54:37. | |
in your constituency will miss out? We heard that what is important is | :54:37. | :54:40. | |
the Government is asking schools to feed in what they need, to make | :54:40. | :54:47. | |
sure that we get a good system across all areas, as everyone has | :54:47. | :54:52. | |
to deal with cuts. But we need to make sure we still have a | :54:52. | :54:57. | |
maintainable system with schools that are an important part of the | :54:57. | :55:00. | |
community continue in. But it does not seem fair that some schools | :55:00. | :55:05. | |
will miss out on a teaching assistant next year. That is where | :55:05. | :55:10. | |
it is important to make sure we look at what feedback comes in. The | :55:10. | :55:14. | |
government can they respond to it to make sure it gets a strong, | :55:14. | :55:19. | |
sustainable and robust system in place. Jessica Asato, there will be | :55:19. | :55:23. | |
winners here, too, will you support under this criteria more money | :55:23. | :55:28. | |
going into deprived areas? Absolutely Labour will support any | :55:28. | :55:32. | |
changes that ensure that those areas with the most vulnerable | :55:32. | :55:37. | |
pupils get the money that they need. But the real story here is that | :55:37. | :55:41. | |
schools funding has decreased by the largest amount since the 19 50s. | :55:41. | :55:45. | |
Capital funding has decreased by 57%, the biggest of any other | :55:45. | :55:50. | |
department. Schools are already suffering because they do not have | :55:50. | :55:54. | |
enough money for their budgets, and the Pupil Premium is simply going | :55:54. | :55:57. | |
into a black hole to make up for what the government is not spending | :55:57. | :56:01. | |
on it. Rural schools look like they're going to be losing out, and | :56:01. | :56:07. | |
that is a concern. Bob Russell, you raise your eyebrows. The Pupil | :56:07. | :56:12. | |
Premium has been a great boost for so many schools, but we're talking | :56:12. | :56:18. | |
about rural schools, which closed under the last Labour government. | :56:18. | :56:22. | |
There are mixed messages coming out a white hole, and one thing is for | :56:22. | :56:26. | |
certain that Liberal Democrat campaigners across the eastern | :56:26. | :56:29. | |
counties will be fighting against any closures. The Government have | :56:29. | :56:35. | |
to make up their mind, are the centrally or locally controlled? | :56:35. | :56:39. | |
How closely will you be watching you schools in your particular | :56:39. | :56:44. | |
constituency to make sure they get their fair deal? I have poorer | :56:44. | :56:53. | |
rural areas where we want to see schools of -- flourish. I see both | :56:53. | :56:56. | |
sides of this. What is really important is we get a good policy | :56:56. | :57:01. | |
to make sure everybody gets the support they need, and we get | :57:01. | :57:05. | |
improved and better education to allow a far better aspiration in | :57:05. | :57:08. | |
areas like Great Yarmouth, to match the skills with the job now | :57:08. | :57:12. | |
available and growing. Thank you then much indeed. | :57:13. | :57:16. | |
Now, Deborah McGurran's political round-up for the week, where Police | :57:17. | :57:26. | |
:57:27. | :57:38. | ||
Crime Commissioner has seen all He is hoping to persuade electors | :57:38. | :57:42. | |
in Norfolk to vote in the new police commissioner Paul. While the | :57:42. | :57:46. | |
future of research a were different paper of poll was causing concern | :57:46. | :57:49. | |
for a environmentalists last week after news that the British | :57:49. | :57:54. | |
Antarctic Survey could be moved from Cambridge. This is a step | :57:54. | :58:01. | |
towards taking away the priority of polar science the stop high praise | :58:01. | :58:10. | |
from Vince Cable. Education is exciting, a fusion | :58:11. | :58:20. | |
:58:21. | :58:22. | ||
It has not about left and right any more, the country is in a dire | :58:22. | :58:32. | |
:58:32. | :58:35. | ||
Collective courage to keep the What about the possible loss of the | :58:35. | :58:37. | |
British Antarctic Survey to the region? I hope it does not happen, | :58:37. | :58:41. | |
and I will be supporting my colleagues in Cambridge who want to | :58:41. | :58:47. | |
keep it there. Even Al Gore as against it, so you never know. | :58:47. | :58:53. | |
Jessica Asato, we have world renowned centres of excellence, | :58:53. | :58:57. | |
like the John Innes plans centre, how important are the to the | :58:57. | :59:05. | |
economy? They are very important, and the Antarctic Survey is world | :59:05. | :59:10. | |
renowned. They discovered the wall and the ozone layer, giving us | :59:10. | :59:16. | |
understanding about global warning. It centres like that disappear it | :59:16. | :59:26. | |
:59:26. | :59:27. | ||
The you agree, Sir Bob Russell? course I endorse that. The last | :59:27. | :59:31. | |
centre of excellence was moved to Oxford under the Labour government | :59:31. | :59:36. | |
and got moved to Oxford. It then disappeared within a cup love you | :59:36. | :59:41. |