Browse content similar to 14/04/2013. Check below for episodes and series from the same categories and more!
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The county council election campaign builds up, and UKIP, | :01:24. | :01:34. | |
:01:34. | :01:34. | ||
Apology for the loss of subtitles for 2186 seconds | :01:34. | :38:00. | |
protest vote for party on the verge Welcome to the local part of the | :38:00. | :38:04. | |
Sunday Politics, I'm Andrew Sinclair. Coming up, the local | :38:04. | :38:08. | |
elections: What has accounts Account will -- what has the county | :38:08. | :38:12. | |
council ever done for you? Apart from looking after the roads, | :38:12. | :38:17. | |
waste-disposal... UKIP is taking these elections very seriously. | :38:17. | :38:23. | |
Nigel Farage was back in the region. How seriously can we expect his | :38:23. | :38:28. | |
counsellor to take the day-to-day grind of local politics? Very | :38:28. | :38:31. | |
seriously indeed. One of the reasons we have risen in the polls, | :38:31. | :38:35. | |
I have got this travelling around the country, people say that we | :38:35. | :38:39. | |
speak for them. If people place their trust in us, we need to do | :38:39. | :38:47. | |
the job well. First, let's meet our guests. Bernard Jenkin has, | :38:47. | :38:52. | |
Conservative MP, and Kelvin Jenkins, Labour MP. There has been only one | :38:52. | :38:57. | |
story, the death of Baroness Thatcher. I heard you speak quite | :38:57. | :39:01. | |
movingly about Baroness Thatcher in her later years. Sometimes it was | :39:01. | :39:05. | |
hard to believe this small, frail lady once held the world in the | :39:05. | :39:15. | |
:39:15. | :39:16. | ||
palm of her hand. Yes. Everyone is testament to the fact that she was | :39:16. | :39:23. | |
a colossal political figure. She dominated not just British politics | :39:23. | :39:27. | |
but global politics. The frigid we have seen on the television screens | :39:27. | :39:36. | |
have been greeted by Soviet leaders, President Reagan... -- the | :39:36. | :39:41. | |
television footage. This country roads in the imagination and | :39:41. | :39:45. | |
respect of every country around the world as a result of her leadership. | :39:45. | :39:50. | |
You used to visit her regularly, what did she talk about? It came | :39:50. | :39:55. | |
and went in later years... You always needed to be on your mettle, | :39:55. | :40:01. | |
because occasionally you would just get a flash of the old market, -- | :40:02. | :40:05. | |
the old Margaret Thatcher, she would pick you up on something, | :40:05. | :40:12. | |
excoriate the weakness of your argument, the lack of logic, the | :40:13. | :40:19. | |
great brain under there was still powering away, even though she was | :40:19. | :40:22. | |
not as a live to current events. She was really interested in | :40:22. | :40:28. | |
talking about the past, childhood, upbringing, that was very | :40:28. | :40:37. | |
interesting. You are trade-union officer in the 1980s, why did you | :40:37. | :40:42. | |
not go? I'm a democratic socialist and it would be hypocritical to pay | :40:42. | :40:48. | |
respect to someone like did not agree with. -- someone who I did | :40:48. | :40:55. | |
not agree with. She was very popular. If you look at Luton, it | :40:55. | :41:01. | |
had to Conservative MPs. Different boundaries, democratic changes. -- | :41:01. | :41:05. | |
two Conservative MPs. Just because somebody is popular it does not | :41:05. | :41:10. | |
mean they are right. In retrospect, many people have been popular and | :41:10. | :41:13. | |
years later have been proved to be very unhelpful, wrong and damaging | :41:13. | :41:20. | |
to Sidey. Lady Thatcher's death men lots of campaigning was put on hold. | :41:20. | :41:25. | |
-- damaging to society. It is less than three weeks until polling day. | :41:26. | :41:30. | |
If you live in a unitary authority, you will not get to vote this year. | :41:30. | :41:36. | |
This will be an important set of elections, not least in Essex. It | :41:36. | :41:41. | |
is being dominated by the Conservatives. Our political | :41:41. | :41:47. | |
reporter has been looking at the issues. County councils are not | :41:47. | :41:52. | |
usually high profile. Essex has been the spotlight for the wrong | :41:52. | :41:57. | |
reasons. Former Conservative leader Lord Hanningfield was jailed for | :41:57. | :42:01. | |
fiddling his expenses. He stepped down, but will that episode cast a | :42:01. | :42:08. | |
shadow over these elections. I think people need to recognise that | :42:08. | :42:14. | |
this is about the county of Essex, on behalf of 1.4 million people in | :42:14. | :42:20. | |
Essex. People want to recognise what are competent Conservative | :42:20. | :42:24. | |
administration may have had here. It has saved, although the last | :42:24. | :42:33. | |
four years, �364 million. -- or the last four years. We have already | :42:34. | :42:39. | |
provides roads and schools. They have also branched out, launching a | :42:39. | :42:48. | |
scheme to save post offices in rural areas. High-profile schemes, | :42:48. | :42:52. | |
but they were all expensive. They have all been scrapped. The focus | :42:52. | :43:00. | |
is back on main issues like roads. In north Essex, the Liberal | :43:00. | :43:03. | |
Democrats want a high street pedestrianised. It is one of their | :43:04. | :43:07. | |
main issues, even though the county council suspended a temporary trial | :43:07. | :43:11. | |
that this week. The town is a Lib Dem fortress in a largely blue | :43:11. | :43:15. | |
county. The vehicle ban is controversial, so will it harm them | :43:15. | :43:21. | |
here? One of the major reasons is the air quality in the high street | :43:21. | :43:27. | |
was very bad, it will affect people with asthma. If we do not reduce it | :43:27. | :43:32. | |
we will be fined by the mayor -- by the European Union. Will they care | :43:32. | :43:40. | |
about it? It will be something they care about it if their council tax | :43:40. | :43:44. | |
goes up. The council tax saving affects 50,000 potholes, but Labour | :43:44. | :43:53. | |
say there are still problems. should be more priority given to | :43:54. | :43:59. | |
pot or repair. One of my constituents damaged their park to | :43:59. | :44:05. | |
the cost of �2,000. I had reported that before he did it. People get | :44:05. | :44:13. | |
angry. In the south of the county, shoppers look for bargains. People | :44:13. | :44:16. | |
in Basildon are among those who will decide the result of this | :44:16. | :44:20. | |
county council election, but will they vote on local issues or will | :44:20. | :44:26. | |
they be swayed by the factors? Council tax. Anything else? | :44:26. | :44:33. | |
Immigration. People coming into the country and sponging off the | :44:33. | :44:41. | |
government is my main concern. Keeping Basildon clean, keeping the | :44:41. | :44:48. | |
council tax down. Keeping crime down, that sort of thing. When it | :44:48. | :44:53. | |
comes to benefits, at the end of the day, it is one of those ones, | :44:53. | :44:59. | |
people are suffering. Conservatives dominate with 59 | :44:59. | :45:05. | |
seats. The Liberal Democrats have 11. This time there is no European | :45:05. | :45:10. | |
election, which may well mean a lower turnout. With UKIP and the | :45:11. | :45:12. | |
Green Party's standing more candidates in Essex than ever | :45:12. | :45:17. | |
before, they will be hoping to win seats at the expense of the bigger | :45:17. | :45:25. | |
parties. The Conservatives have saved millions of pounds, but they | :45:25. | :45:30. | |
lost lots of money on those schemes. Is this a record to be proud of? | :45:30. | :45:39. | |
Yes. Essex has always been a very tightly funded council. To strip | :45:39. | :45:42. | |
out �360 million without fundamentally affecting public | :45:42. | :45:46. | |
services, particularly with burgeoning demand on children's | :45:46. | :45:51. | |
services, social services, it has been difficult but they are running | :45:51. | :45:58. | |
a tight ship. I hope people will bear that in mind. When these seats | :45:58. | :46:02. | |
were last up for grabs, it was to those in the nine, Gordon Brown was | :46:02. | :46:12. | |
on his way out, David Cameron was coming in. -- 2009. You are correct, | :46:12. | :46:15. | |
this a high-water mark. We are bound to lose some seats across the | :46:15. | :46:19. | |
whole country. I would be absolutely shocked if we lost | :46:19. | :46:25. | |
control in Essex, but I expect to see some casualties across the | :46:25. | :46:29. | |
country because we are coming from a high water mark. Tory councils | :46:29. | :46:33. | |
are very good at saving money, millions of pounds, they are also | :46:33. | :46:38. | |
good at keeping down council tax. I do you campaign against that? | :46:38. | :46:42. | |
of them are in areas where people are much more affluent, have less | :46:42. | :46:47. | |
difficulty than we do in Luton, for example, where there is lots of | :46:47. | :46:51. | |
pressure on local authorities. We have a very young population, | :46:51. | :46:56. | |
children's services are very expensive. I hope we see a big | :46:56. | :47:03. | |
surge in Labour support in Essex. Your party leader is back here. | :47:03. | :47:09. | |
You're hoping to do well. It is a conservative region by majority but | :47:09. | :47:14. | |
we have held up to 22 parliamentary seats. I think we will men -- we | :47:14. | :47:22. | |
will win many more. Picking up on one point in that film, how much at | :47:22. | :47:27. | |
ease about local issues? Inevitably, national issues play a part. People | :47:27. | :47:32. | |
are worried about employment, living standards are falling in | :47:32. | :47:41. | |
real terms. By common consensus, the party to watch this year will | :47:41. | :47:48. | |
be the UKIP. Their great breakthrough came in the 2004 | :47:48. | :47:55. | |
elections, taking 16% of the vote. At the next year's general election, | :47:55. | :48:00. | |
they got less than 3% of the popular vote. In 2009 they were | :48:00. | :48:05. | |
above 16% in the European election, but down to 3% in the general | :48:05. | :48:10. | |
election. But in last year's Corby by-election they got more than 14%. | :48:10. | :48:18. | |
In Eastleigh, they came second with more than 27%. A recent survey put | :48:18. | :48:25. | |
support at 21%. That is higher than anywhere else in the country. Now | :48:25. | :48:28. | |
they are fielding more candidates than ever before in local elections. | :48:29. | :48:38. | |
Critics say they are for protest votes. Nigel Farage disagrees. I | :48:38. | :48:43. | |
spoke to him earlier this week. are growing political party, we | :48:43. | :48:47. | |
have succeeded in European elections, we are beginning to do | :48:47. | :48:51. | |
well in parliamentary by-elections. We now need to establish a base in | :48:51. | :48:55. | |
local government. Goodness me, there is a need for it. There is a | :48:55. | :49:05. | |
:49:05. | :49:09. | ||
need for do you Kip -- need for the UKIP vote. We will explain what the | :49:09. | :49:14. | |
impact of the immigration board is. A you want to get out of the EU, if | :49:14. | :49:19. | |
you are talking about immigration. These are not county council issues. | :49:19. | :49:23. | |
Yes they are. It is county councils to pick up the bill. Think about | :49:23. | :49:29. | |
policing, schools, hospitals, the former police commissioner of | :49:29. | :49:35. | |
Cambridge said we do not have the infrastructure to support people | :49:35. | :49:39. | |
coming here who cannot speak English. If you to control, you | :49:39. | :49:44. | |
would not be able to change that. Local politics can have a big | :49:44. | :49:49. | |
impact on national politics. We are on the verge of opening the door to | :49:49. | :49:52. | |
the whole of Romania and Bulgaria next year and these county councils | :49:52. | :49:56. | |
are a very good means of telling the coalition government we do not | :49:56. | :50:02. | |
want that. So really, these are not about local issues. It is about | :50:02. | :50:07. | |
both. One is a big national issue. We are absolutely the only party | :50:07. | :50:11. | |
opposed to the building onshore and offshore of these ugly discussed in | :50:11. | :50:19. | |
wind turbines, and they will fight against that. Cutting to use | :50:19. | :50:23. | |
services in Norfolk, spending on youth services has gone in Norfolk. | :50:23. | :50:29. | |
Do you support that? If you look at what has happened to the pay of | :50:29. | :50:36. | |
people work for local councils, an explosion in pay and pensions. | :50:36. | :50:43. | |
Money is being wasted by county councils on climate change officers. | :50:43. | :50:47. | |
Would you find you've services? you manage the budget correctly, | :50:47. | :50:53. | |
and apply a pragmatic businesslike approach, you should be able to cut | :50:53. | :50:55. | |
money out of the administration to leave more money for frontline | :50:55. | :51:00. | |
services. We have to accept we are living in straitened times, the | :51:00. | :51:05. | |
economy is rough, there are going to be cuts. What about the proposed | :51:05. | :51:11. | |
waste incinerator for King's Lynn, argue in favour of that? No, I am | :51:11. | :51:18. | |
not. There are plenty of landfill sites, but what has happened, what | :51:18. | :51:23. | |
has Europe got to do with it? Because of the European union's | :51:23. | :51:27. | |
landfill director of, councils they use land will have to pay a fine | :51:27. | :51:33. | |
for doing it, and that is why they are moving towards incinerators. -- | :51:33. | :51:36. | |
directive. Once you have set up an incinerator you need to keep | :51:36. | :51:42. | |
feeding it. What about the out sourcing of services? Is that a | :51:42. | :51:50. | |
good idea? All I want is for us to get bank fraud but, for us to have | :51:50. | :51:55. | |
public services that give us the best possible results. | :51:55. | :52:01. | |
confident are you feeling? Sensibly optimistic, by which I mean, first | :52:01. | :52:04. | |
past the post politics is difficult for a party that draws its support | :52:04. | :52:10. | |
from across the board, without specific geographic locations, but | :52:10. | :52:14. | |
the trend that has emerged across the last couple of years is the | :52:14. | :52:19. | |
East of England is our strongest area. Why is this? Is it the spirit | :52:19. | :52:26. | |
of Cromwell? I do not know. Is it the effect of the migration? Is it | :52:26. | :52:33. | |
the fishing industry? It could be a combination. We have already | :52:33. | :52:37. | |
managed to win seats at county council level. I would be | :52:37. | :52:44. | |
disappointed if we get results we did not expect, a smattering of | :52:44. | :52:51. | |
county council seats. Thank you very much. | :52:51. | :53:01. | |
:53:01. | :53:04. | ||
Stewart Agnew is the UK add peat m e p for the region. -- UKIP MP. I | :53:04. | :53:10. | |
understand you slept on the way to a by-election and broke a leg. | :53:10. | :53:13. | |
was the first casualty of a campaign that we felt we did very | :53:13. | :53:18. | |
well indeed in. There are always casualties in every campaign and I | :53:18. | :53:28. | |
:53:28. | :53:31. | ||
am up for it. It has pretty well healed up. Is it a metaphor? What? | :53:31. | :53:38. | |
Will you see a party not do well? Quite the reverse, we have never | :53:38. | :53:46. | |
feel that so many candidates. We get to recognition -- we are | :53:46. | :53:51. | |
getting recognition and people are realising the impact of the | :53:51. | :53:56. | |
European Union on their lives. They are clearly conscious, they were | :53:56. | :54:01. | |
quite willing to risk votes for us and European elections, they are | :54:01. | :54:05. | |
beginning to do so at by-elections, and this is a big build up to what | :54:05. | :54:11. | |
we really need, a significant number of seats in Westminster. It | :54:11. | :54:16. | |
is a long road to travel but we are encouraged. These are local | :54:16. | :54:20. | |
elections about local issues. Nigel Farage kept coming back to | :54:20. | :54:24. | |
immigration. That is all he would talk about. This illustrates that | :54:25. | :54:29. | |
you are policy light. No, it indicates that you have a supply of | :54:29. | :54:34. | |
local services and demand for them. Immigration is creating a massive | :54:34. | :54:39. | |
extra demand for our services and we have no control over it, and no | :54:39. | :54:43. | |
idea how many immigrants will come here, how many languages they will | :54:43. | :54:48. | |
speak, and yet the local authorities have to cope with that. | :54:48. | :54:55. | |
It makes it difficult for them. In the past we have had three parties | :54:55. | :54:58. | |
that sweep it under the carpet. We are pulling the carpet back and | :54:58. | :55:07. | |
showing them where the problems lie. Let's talk to one of those parties | :55:07. | :55:14. | |
argue losing sleep over it the UK I p -- losing sleep over the UK | :55:14. | :55:19. | |
Independence Party? We should all be concerned that the extremes are | :55:19. | :55:28. | |
getting more tempting. You said you will lose seats, are you going to | :55:28. | :55:32. | |
lose it to them? They are picking up support from all political | :55:32. | :55:38. | |
parties, Liberal Democrats lost a great many votes in the Eastleigh | :55:38. | :55:43. | |
by-election, so this problem is facing all political parties. The | :55:43. | :55:50. | |
problem is, they are a one-trick pony. They were talking about | :55:50. | :55:53. | |
immigration as though there was a click of the finger and you can | :55:53. | :56:00. | |
solve all this by voting UKIP. Ironically, if it costs | :56:00. | :56:06. | |
Conservative seats in the selection, that this election, they will get | :56:06. | :56:15. | |
precisely what they don't want, if they form a coalition instead of us. | :56:15. | :56:18. | |
I was in Suffolk the other day and several Labour activists were | :56:18. | :56:25. | |
saying they are worried about UKIP. We have to accept they are a party | :56:25. | :56:33. | |
of the right-wing. There is a big They have made a mistake if they | :56:33. | :56:38. | |
want support across the board by pursuing a right-wing corner | :56:38. | :56:44. | |
monarch -- economic policies. If they won support across the board, | :56:44. | :56:48. | |
they should have actually not portray themselves as a party of | :56:48. | :56:52. | |
the economic right, which is where they are. Is that how you portray | :56:52. | :56:56. | |
yourself? We are pleasantly surprised at the level of support | :56:56. | :57:00. | |
we are getting from what you might call Labour, people work hard for a | :57:00. | :57:05. | |
living and find their lives are being given no future at all by the | :57:05. | :57:08. | |
fact that their jobs are being taken, their children cannot get | :57:08. | :57:13. | |
houses because of emigration. I keep coming back to it but it is a | :57:13. | :57:18. | |
major problem. We are getting a really good, solid ground support | :57:18. | :57:22. | |
from old Labour because New Labour have led Old Labour down. You look | :57:22. | :57:29. | |
at the leaders of New Labour, can you really say they let present -- | :57:29. | :57:35. | |
represent a horny-handed sons of toil? They do not look like | :57:35. | :57:38. | |
representatives of the working man. They are losing the support of | :57:38. | :57:44. | |
their bedrock. There is an article in the Spectator that says they are | :57:44. | :57:50. | |
moving into territory used used to have -- you used to have. I am a | :57:50. | :57:53. | |
Euro-sceptic of the left, but I am a socialist and I look at the | :57:53. | :57:58. | |
struggles and I can see why many people a Euro-sceptic. We are | :57:58. | :58:02. | |
opposed to the kind of free market capitalistic economic policies | :58:02. | :58:08. | |
pursued by UKIP and the Conservative Party. There is a | :58:08. | :58:11. | |
message from Margaret Thatcher, but if you want to attack Labour votes, | :58:11. | :58:16. | |
it is not by attacking to the letter, it is by standing for | :58:16. | :58:24. | |
people to work hard, save hard, want to do the right thing. | :58:24. | :58:34. | |
:58:34. | :58:38. | ||
election campaign features heavily Maria Miller breezed into Basildon | :58:38. | :58:43. | |
this week. She watched an Olympic Legacy project designed to hook | :58:43. | :58:48. | |
young people into sport. What we are seeing from schools and | :58:48. | :58:51. | |
community sports activities is there is issued a passion for sport | :58:51. | :58:57. | |
in this country. Martin Bell is hoping to make dispatch -- to make | :58:57. | :59:06. | |
a splash. They won more independent candidates. Politicians are all | :59:06. | :59:14. | |
grey. We need people were fearless. The Labour leader chose Ipswich: | :59:14. | :59:23. | |
She -- Jaws Ipswich to launch a campaign. We have come to Suffolk | :59:23. | :59:28. | |
to launch our campaign. It was suspended on Monday following the | :59:28. | :59:32. | |
announcement of Lady Thatcher's death. Tributes poured in for the | :59:32. | :59:37. | |
former Suffolk MP. Margaret Thatcher was a very beautiful woman. | :59:37. | :59:46. | |
She had beautiful plants and she had lovely ankles, and she knew | :59:46. | :59:51. | |
precisely how to use both. She was more than just a politician. Will | :59:51. | :59:58. | |
you be at her funeral? I will. It will be quite an event. 2000 people, | :59:58. | :00:04. | |
leaders from around the world, and her political friends and many of | :00:04. | :00:09. | |
her political enemies will be gathered at the invitation of her | :00:09. | :00:17. | |
own family. Kelvin Hopkins, what will you be doing? Political work | :00:17. | :00:23. | |
in the constituency, and chairing a meeting of the Parliamentary | :00:23. | :00:27. | |
Science Policy, which is my main issue. Then I will be at a select | :00:27. | :00:32. | |
committee meeting. You will not be going to any of these parties? | :00:32. | :00:35. | |
not like personalised politics, I'll be dealing with issues rather | :00:35. | :00:43. |