Browse content similar to 08/12/2013. Check below for episodes and series from the same categories and more!
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The morning, folks. Welcome to the Sunday Politics. First, some Sunday | :00:38. | :00:44. | |
morning cheer, if you are an MP, that is. You are set to get an 11% | :00:45. | :00:49. | |
pay rise. The Chancellor has gone from zero to hero for some, who | :00:50. | :00:55. | |
credit him for turning the economy around. We will be taking a fine | :00:56. | :01:00. | |
tooth comb to his Autumn Statement. Should this man get a pay rise? | :01:01. | :01:05. | |
Complete denial about the central facts... And 11% pay rise for Ed | :01:06. | :01:11. | |
Balls? He was certainly working hard to be heard last Thursday. We will | :01:12. | :01:15. | |
be reviewing his performance. What about this man? We will be joined by | :01:16. | :01:28. | |
With me, three scruffy eternal students. They would celebrate if | :01:29. | :01:49. | |
they achieved a C+. But they are all we could afford and there will be no | :01:50. | :01:52. | |
pay rise for them. They will be glued to an electronic device | :01:53. | :01:55. | |
throughout the programme and if we are lucky they might stop there | :01:56. | :02:01. | |
internet shopping and tweet something intelligent. But don't | :02:02. | :02:06. | |
hold your breath. Janan Ganesh, Helen Lewis and Nick Watt. Last | :02:07. | :02:10. | |
week, storms were battering Britain, the East Coast was hit by the worst | :02:11. | :02:13. | |
tidal surge in more than a century, thousands of people had to be | :02:14. | :02:17. | |
evacuated and Nelson Mandela died. The downed the news agenda was the | :02:18. | :02:22. | |
small matter of George Osborne's Autumn Statement. His giveaways, his | :02:23. | :02:28. | |
takeaways and his first opportunity to announce some economic cheer. | :02:29. | :02:37. | |
It might be winter outside, but in the studios it is awesome. Autumn | :02:38. | :02:48. | |
Statement time. -- autumn. This is a moment of TV history. Normally when | :02:49. | :02:51. | |
the Chancellor delivers these statements, he has to say the | :02:52. | :02:54. | |
economy is actually a lot worse than everyone predicted. This time, he | :02:55. | :02:59. | |
can stand up and say the economy is better than everybody predicted. A | :03:00. | :03:00. | |
lot better. Britain is currently growing faster | :03:01. | :03:09. | |
than any other major advanced economy. Faster than France, which | :03:10. | :03:16. | |
is contracting, faster than Germany, faster even than America. At this | :03:17. | :03:22. | |
Autumn Statement last year, there were repeated predictions that | :03:23. | :03:26. | |
borrowing would go up. Instead, borrowing is down, and down | :03:27. | :03:30. | |
significantly more than forecast. But George Osborne said the good | :03:31. | :03:33. | |
numbers still mean more tough decisions. We will not give up in | :03:34. | :03:40. | |
giving in our country's debts. We will not spend the money from lower | :03:41. | :03:44. | |
borrowing. We will not squander the harder and games of the British | :03:45. | :03:51. | |
people. -- hard earned gains. In other news, further cuts to | :03:52. | :03:55. | |
government departments. The state pension age will increase in the | :03:56. | :04:00. | |
2040s, affecting people in their 40s now. There were some goodies, like | :04:01. | :04:06. | |
discounted business rates for small businesses, free school meals for | :04:07. | :04:09. | |
infants, favoured by the Lib Dems, and those marriage tax breaks below | :04:10. | :04:14. | |
that by the Tories. But, as with all big fiscal events, it takes a while | :04:15. | :04:16. | |
for the details to sink in. The marriage tax allowance is a | :04:17. | :04:25. | |
long-standing commitment that he could not abandon. It does help | :04:26. | :04:28. | |
those families were only one goes out to work. It does not go to | :04:29. | :04:33. | |
higher rate taxpayers, I don't think. Perhaps it does, I can't | :04:34. | :04:38. | |
remember. It makes me feel guilty, I am taking them very seriously, | :04:39. | :04:43. | |
but... Shall I give you them? There is the Autumn Statement. Have that, | :04:44. | :04:46. | |
a free gift from the Sunday Politics. Is there no limit to the | :04:47. | :04:50. | |
generosity of the BBC? In the meantime, Twitter was awash | :04:51. | :05:00. | |
with unflattering pictures of a red-faced Ed Balls giving his | :05:01. | :05:04. | |
response. Some pictures were more than flattering than others. Is Ed | :05:05. | :05:10. | |
Balls OK? Should we be worrying about him? He looks very stressed. | :05:11. | :05:14. | |
There is nothing to worry about in terms of Ed balls and his analysis. | :05:15. | :05:18. | |
He and Ed Miliband have been setting the pace in terms of the focus on | :05:19. | :05:26. | |
the living standards crisis. It was very telling that there was not a | :05:27. | :05:29. | |
mention of living standards last time, we got 12 mentions this time. | :05:30. | :05:35. | |
Never mind what he was saying, by now everybody has a copy of the | :05:36. | :05:41. | |
all-important paperwork. Time to hand over to number cruncher | :05:42. | :05:44. | |
extraordinaire Paul Johnson from the Institute for Fiscal Studies. Of | :05:45. | :05:49. | |
course it means that things are significantly better this year and | :05:50. | :05:52. | |
next than we thought they would be just nine months ago. That has got | :05:53. | :05:55. | |
to be good news. But it is also worth looking at the growth figures | :05:56. | :05:59. | |
a few years out. They have been revised down a little bit. The | :06:00. | :06:08. | |
reason is, the view of the office of budget response ability is that the | :06:09. | :06:11. | |
long run has not really changed very much. We are getting a bit more | :06:12. | :06:14. | |
growth now, but their view is that it is at the cost of a little bit of | :06:15. | :06:18. | |
the growth we will expect in the years after the next general | :06:19. | :06:22. | |
election. As the day draws to a close, the one place there has | :06:23. | :06:26. | |
definitely been no growth is the graphics budget of my colleague, | :06:27. | :06:34. | |
Robert Preston. It's as good as it gets these days, I don't think the | :06:35. | :06:39. | |
viewers will mind. It's very Sunday Politics, if I might say. That is | :06:40. | :06:46. | |
very worrying. Was this a watershed for George | :06:47. | :06:52. | |
Osborne? Was it a watershed for Ed Balls? We can all make the case that | :06:53. | :06:55. | |
it is the wrong sort of recovery, a consumer led recovery. People are | :06:56. | :07:00. | |
spending money they don't have. At the end of the day, it for George | :07:01. | :07:04. | |
Osborne, it is growth, the first time he has been able to talk about | :07:05. | :07:08. | |
growth. It allows him to control the baseline, the fiscal debate for the | :07:09. | :07:13. | |
next generation. For Ed Balls, nearly not a good performance. But | :07:14. | :07:16. | |
don't write this man off. Judging by Twitter, Iain Dale, no friend of it | :07:17. | :07:20. | |
all is, said he did a good interview this morning on a rival TV channel. | :07:21. | :07:29. | |
I feel the fact that the Tories hate Ed Balls so passionately is probably | :07:30. | :07:32. | |
a good reason that they should hang onto him, in that Labour sends his | :07:33. | :07:39. | |
effectiveness. May be the Tories hope that they hold on to him as | :07:40. | :07:46. | |
well? A lot of people shouting at someone and mocking their speech | :07:47. | :07:48. | |
impediment, that is politics that doesn't make me want to engage. The | :07:49. | :07:52. | |
takeaway will be lots of people thinking that none of these people | :07:53. | :07:57. | |
are people they like. Who is the main heckler on the Labour front | :07:58. | :08:00. | |
bench West remarked I suppose he can't cast any stones. It would be | :08:01. | :08:05. | |
easier to sympathise with him, if it were not that David Cameron went | :08:06. | :08:09. | |
through a similar situation and John Bercow did not step in to stop the | :08:10. | :08:15. | |
wall of noise. It was guaranteed a good happen to a Labour politician. | :08:16. | :08:23. | |
It's painful to remove him because he had a Parliamentary following and | :08:24. | :08:30. | |
he will kick up a fuss. I think he's much more pragmatic on issues like | :08:31. | :08:35. | |
business than Ed Miliband. I'm told he wasn't keen on the energy price | :08:36. | :08:40. | |
freeze. The problem with Ed Balls, to have the first words that you | :08:41. | :08:44. | |
say, the Chancellor is in denial, after he is presiding over growth, | :08:45. | :08:49. | |
it means nobody is listening to you. Who would replace him? Certainly not | :08:50. | :08:53. | |
Alistair Darling, the side of the referendum and even afterwards. Ed | :08:54. | :08:57. | |
Balls did get a roasting in the press and on Twitter. He seemed to | :08:58. | :09:00. | |
disappear from public view following the Autumn Statement. But a little | :09:01. | :09:05. | |
bird tells me he managed one interview this morning before he | :09:06. | :09:07. | |
went off to an all-important piano recital this afternoon. Watch out, | :09:08. | :09:12. | |
Jools Holland, he could be after your job. How bad was his | :09:13. | :09:15. | |
performance on Thursday? Here is the Shadow Chancellor in action. The | :09:16. | :09:22. | |
Chancellor is incomplete denial about the central facts that are | :09:23. | :09:28. | |
defining this government in office. He used to say he would balance the | :09:29. | :09:38. | |
books in 2015. Now he wants us to congratulate him for saying he will | :09:39. | :09:43. | |
do it in 2019, Mr Speaker. With this government, it is clearly not just | :09:44. | :09:50. | |
the badgers that move the goalposts. No mention of the universal credit | :09:51. | :09:58. | |
in the statement. IDS, in deep shambles, Mr Speaker. Chris Leslie | :09:59. | :10:07. | |
is the Shadow Chief Secretary to the Treasury. He is Ed Balls's deputy, | :10:08. | :10:13. | |
in other words. Why do more and more of your Labour colleagues think that | :10:14. | :10:19. | |
your boss is below the water line? I'm not sure I accept the premise of | :10:20. | :10:23. | |
your suggestion. I don't think my colleagues believe that George | :10:24. | :10:28. | |
Osborne has a superior argument. I think Ed Balls will certainly trying | :10:29. | :10:32. | |
his best, loud and clear, to make the case there is a cost of living | :10:33. | :10:35. | |
crisis in this country and the Chancellor doesn't understand this. | :10:36. | :10:38. | |
That was essentially the heat of the debate on the Autumn Statement day. | :10:39. | :10:44. | |
One leading Labour MPs said to me that Ed Balls is always looking | :10:45. | :10:47. | |
back, fixated with the rear-view mirror, that was the exact quote. A | :10:48. | :10:52. | |
Labour MP told Sky News, Labour has a strong argument to make, | :10:53. | :10:57. | |
unfortunately it was not made well in the chamber today. Quoting the | :10:58. | :11:05. | |
Daily Mail, this is two poor performances. A quote that I can't | :11:06. | :11:10. | |
use because it uses too many four letter words. Baroness Armstrong, | :11:11. | :11:15. | |
speaking at Progress, a former Labour Cabinet minister, we are not | :11:16. | :11:20. | |
sufficiently concerned about public spending, how we would pay for what | :11:21. | :11:23. | |
we are talking about. Quite a battering? There were two sets of | :11:24. | :11:27. | |
quotes you were giving. The couple were about the strategy for tackling | :11:28. | :11:33. | |
public expenditure. I think it's fair that we talk about that. The | :11:34. | :11:39. | |
rest were pretty unattributed, nameless sources. You have never | :11:40. | :11:50. | |
given and of the record briefing? We have conversations off camera, but I | :11:51. | :11:55. | |
don't think you have a wealth of evidence to say that somehow Ed | :11:56. | :12:00. | |
Balls's arguments were wrong. He was making the point that, ultimately, | :12:01. | :12:03. | |
it is a government that does not have its finger on the pulse about | :12:04. | :12:08. | |
what most of your viewers are concerned about, that wages are | :12:09. | :12:11. | |
being squeezed and prices are getting higher and higher. You have | :12:12. | :12:16. | |
had time to study the Autumn Statement. What part of it does | :12:17. | :12:22. | |
Labour disagree with? It is a very big question. I think the overall | :12:23. | :12:28. | |
strategy the Autumn Statement is setting out does not deal with the | :12:29. | :12:31. | |
fundamental problems in the economy. What measures do you disagree with? | :12:32. | :12:36. | |
A lot of it is the absence of measures we would have put in if we | :12:37. | :12:40. | |
were doing the Autumn Statement. If you are going to deal with the cost | :12:41. | :12:43. | |
of living crisis, you have got to get productivity levels up in our | :12:44. | :12:47. | |
society. One of the best ways of doing that is on infrastructure. We | :12:48. | :12:51. | |
believe in bringing forward 's investment and housing, getting some | :12:52. | :12:56. | |
of the fundamentals right in our economy. By planting, the business | :12:57. | :13:03. | |
lending we have to do. We have seen a lamentable failing. There are big | :13:04. | :13:12. | |
structural reforms that we need. Ultimately, the public are concerned | :13:13. | :13:15. | |
about the cost of living crisis. That has got to be childcare help, a | :13:16. | :13:20. | |
10p starting rate of tax. Above all, and energy price freeze, which | :13:21. | :13:24. | |
still this government are refusing to do. On Friday, you told me you | :13:25. | :13:30. | |
supported the principle of a welfare cap. But you change bling claim the | :13:31. | :13:35. | |
Chancellor's cap included pensions. You have now seen the figures, and | :13:36. | :13:39. | |
it does not include pensions, correct? We do want a welfare cap. | :13:40. | :13:44. | |
The government have said they are going to put more detail on this in | :13:45. | :13:50. | |
the March budget. But it does not include pensions? We think they have | :13:51. | :13:55. | |
a short term approach to the welfare cap. They put in some pension | :13:56. | :14:00. | |
benefits. The state pension is not in the short-term plan because, as | :14:01. | :14:04. | |
we believe, a triple lock is a good idea. In the longer term, if you are | :14:05. | :14:09. | |
talking about structural welfare issues, you do have to think about | :14:10. | :14:12. | |
pensions because they have to be sustainable if we are living | :14:13. | :14:15. | |
longer. I think that is about the careful management. Let me show you | :14:16. | :14:20. | |
what Ed Balls said on this programme at the start of the summer. As for | :14:21. | :14:26. | |
pensioners, I think this is a real question. George Osborne is going to | :14:27. | :14:29. | |
announce his cap in two weeks time. I don't know if he will exclude | :14:30. | :14:33. | |
pension spending or including. Our plan is to include it. Pension | :14:34. | :14:38. | |
spending would be included in the welfare cap? That is our plan, | :14:39. | :14:43. | |
exactly what I just said. Over the long-term, if you have a serious | :14:44. | :14:46. | |
welfare cap structural welfare issues, over 20, 30, 40 year | :14:47. | :14:52. | |
period, you can't say that we will not work and pensions as part of | :14:53. | :14:57. | |
that. Pensions would be part of the Labour cap? In the longer term. What | :14:58. | :15:05. | |
is the longer term? If you win 2015? We want to stick with the triple | :15:06. | :15:10. | |
lock on the pension, that is the Government approach to their | :15:11. | :15:14. | |
short-term welfare cap. In the longer term, for example, on the | :15:15. | :15:18. | |
winter fuel allowance, we should not necessarily be... There are lots of | :15:19. | :15:24. | |
benefits... I understand that, I am talking about the basic state | :15:25. | :15:27. | |
pension, is that part of your welfare cap or not? In a 20, 30, 40 | :15:28. | :15:34. | |
year frame... Even you will not be around in government, then. You are | :15:35. | :15:44. | |
writing me off already. You have to focus on welfare changes, pensions | :15:45. | :15:47. | |
have to be affordable as part of that. It's dangerous to say, well, | :15:48. | :15:51. | |
if you are going to have a serious welfare cap, we should not look at | :15:52. | :15:54. | |
pensions cost. It would be irresponsible. Will pensions be part | :15:55. | :16:02. | |
of the cap from 2015 until 2020 if Labour is in power? In our long-term | :16:03. | :16:07. | |
cap we have to make sure... I'm talking about 2015-16. We haven't | :16:08. | :16:15. | |
seen the proposition the Government has put before us. | :16:16. | :16:20. | |
You claim people of ?1600 worse off under the coalition. That is true | :16:21. | :16:31. | |
when you compare to pay and prices. Can you confirm that calculation | :16:32. | :16:36. | |
does not include the ?700 tax cut from raising the income tax | :16:37. | :16:41. | |
threshold, huge savings on mortgages because of low interest or the | :16:42. | :16:46. | |
freezing of council tax? It doesn't include the tax and benefit | :16:47. | :16:49. | |
changes. If you do want to look at those, last year, the ISS said they | :16:50. | :16:55. | |
could be making people worse off. It might not include those factors. The | :16:56. | :17:03. | |
VAT increase, tax credit cuts, child benefit cuts, they all add up. My | :17:04. | :17:09. | |
understanding is that the ISS figures have said people are ?891 | :17:10. | :17:15. | |
worse off if you look at the tax and benefit changes since 2010. You have | :17:16. | :17:23. | |
to look at wages and prices. The ISS confirmed our approach was broadly | :17:24. | :17:26. | |
the right way of assessing what is happening. The Chancellor was | :17:27. | :17:32. | |
saying, real household disposable incomes are rising. He is completely | :17:33. | :17:38. | |
out of touch. Can you sum up the macro economic policy for Labour? | :17:39. | :17:43. | |
Invest in the future, make sure we have the right approach for the | :17:44. | :17:47. | |
long-term politicking. Tackle the cost of living crisis people are | :17:48. | :17:51. | |
facing. Now, let's talk to the Financial | :17:52. | :17:53. | |
Secretary to the Treasury, Sajid Javid. | :17:54. | :18:02. | |
Discovery, underpinned by rising house prices, increasing personal | :18:03. | :18:08. | |
debt, do you accept that is unsustainable? | :18:09. | :18:12. | |
I accept the OBE are also said the reason why this country is facing | :18:13. | :18:19. | |
more these challenges -- OBR. That is because we went through a | :18:20. | :18:25. | |
Labour recession, the worst we have seen in 100 years. But do you accept | :18:26. | :18:33. | |
that a recovery underpinned by these things I have just read out isn't | :18:34. | :18:39. | |
sustainable? We set out a long-term plan for recovery, and again this | :18:40. | :18:44. | |
week. We have shown with the tough decisions we have made already, the | :18:45. | :18:48. | |
country can enjoy a recovery. There are still a lot of difficult | :18:49. | :18:53. | |
decisions. The biggest risk are Labour's plans. The March | :18:54. | :19:04. | |
projections work at for those -- for both business investment and | :19:05. | :19:09. | |
exports. Suddenly it is expected to rise 5% next year, a 10% turnaround | :19:10. | :19:15. | |
in investment. How is it credible? I have been in business before | :19:16. | :19:19. | |
politics. Any business person listening will know, when you have | :19:20. | :19:24. | |
gone through a recession, the deepest in 100 years, it will hit | :19:25. | :19:29. | |
investment, profits, you can't make plans again until you have | :19:30. | :19:33. | |
confidence in the economy. That is what this country is seeing now | :19:34. | :19:42. | |
under this government. This is an assumption made independently. The | :19:43. | :19:48. | |
fall in business investment is because of the recession. The | :19:49. | :19:54. | |
forecast increases, 5% next year, and so on, it is based on the | :19:55. | :20:01. | |
independent forecast. Based on fact. If you look at the investment plans | :20:02. | :20:06. | |
of companies, this week, the Chancellor went to JCB, Jaguar Land | :20:07. | :20:14. | |
Rover has plans to create more jobs, these investment plans are | :20:15. | :20:18. | |
coming through now because of the confidence generated by this | :20:19. | :20:22. | |
government, such as the cut in corporation tax which Labour would | :20:23. | :20:27. | |
increase. Are the export forecasts more credible? The 15 years, our | :20:28. | :20:33. | |
share of world trade decline. Suddenly starting next year, it | :20:34. | :20:41. | |
stops falling. That's not credible. I worked in finance the 20 years. I | :20:42. | :20:45. | |
have yet to find any forecast which is fully right. Under Labour, we | :20:46. | :20:53. | |
would have forecasts made by Gordon Brown who would announce he would | :20:54. | :20:59. | |
hit all his targets. Now we have an independent system. | :21:00. | :21:04. | |
Do you accept, if exports or business investment do not pick up, | :21:05. | :21:10. | |
then a purely consumer led recovery is not sustainable? We need more | :21:11. | :21:15. | |
than a consumer led recovery. We need consumer investment to go up. | :21:16. | :21:22. | |
On Xbox, it is noticeable that experts are primarily down because | :21:23. | :21:25. | |
the markets we trade with, the eurozone markets, are depressed. | :21:26. | :21:30. | |
Many have just come out of recession. Or they are still in | :21:31. | :21:36. | |
recession. If you look at exports to non-EU countries, they are up 30%. | :21:37. | :21:46. | |
120% to China. 100% to Russia. Will you keep the triple lock for | :21:47. | :21:52. | |
the state pension beyond 2015? Yes, long term. That's why it is not part | :21:53. | :21:58. | |
of our welfare cap. Chris Leslie cannot answer that question. It is | :21:59. | :22:02. | |
straightforward. House prices are now rising ten | :22:03. | :22:10. | |
times faster than average earnings. That's not good. House prices are | :22:11. | :22:18. | |
rising, partly reflecting recovery. Ten times faster than average | :22:19. | :22:22. | |
earnings, how can people afford to buy homes if it carries on? What you | :22:23. | :22:28. | |
would hope, this is the evidence, if you look at the plans of the month | :22:29. | :22:32. | |
companies, they are planning new homes which will mean that, as this | :22:33. | :22:39. | |
demand spurs that investment, more homes will come about. We need to | :22:40. | :22:43. | |
give people the means to buy those homes. We have introduced the help | :22:44. | :23:26. | |
to buy scheme. I accept the OBR says it will start rising again but as | :23:27. | :23:37. | |
household debt rises again Petr Cech reduces, -- as household debt | :23:38. | :23:51. | |
reduces, we need to make sure there are checks in place. Wages have not | :23:52. | :23:56. | |
been rising in real terms for quite some time. Over the next five years, | :23:57. | :24:04. | |
even as the economy grows, by about 15% according the OBR to the OBR -- | :24:05. | :24:16. | |
but people will not benefit. These hard-working families will not share | :24:17. | :24:22. | |
in the recovery. What is the best way to help those families? The | :24:23. | :24:28. | |
government doesn't set wages. What we can do is influence the overall | :24:29. | :24:32. | |
economy. We don't have a magic lever. Wages have been stagnating | :24:33. | :24:42. | |
for five years. When will people get a proper salary? The best way for | :24:43. | :24:48. | |
wage growth is a growing economy, more jobs. We have more people | :24:49. | :24:52. | |
employed in Britain today than at any time in our history. The biggest | :24:53. | :24:59. | |
risk to recovery is if we let Labour into the Treasury with more spending | :25:00. | :25:04. | |
and more debt. Which got us into this trouble. By whatever measure | :25:05. | :25:09. | |
you care to choose, would people be better off come the 20 15th election | :25:10. | :25:15. | |
than they were in 2010? Yes, they will be. Look at jobs. Already more | :25:16. | :25:22. | |
people employed than at any other time in history. Will they be better | :25:23. | :25:27. | |
off? The best way for anyone to raise their living standards is | :25:28. | :25:31. | |
access to a growing job market. But will they be better off? I believe | :25:32. | :25:39. | |
people will be. Compared to 2010. Yes. In terms of take-home pay. This | :25:40. | :25:44. | |
is a credible measure. Now, what do you think the Education | :25:45. | :25:50. | |
Secretary, Michael Gove, was like at school? Hard-working? Hand always | :25:51. | :25:54. | |
up? Top of the class? Well, if he wasn't passionate about education | :25:55. | :25:57. | |
then, he is now. In fact, since he took office, it seems he hasn't | :25:58. | :26:04. | |
stopped working very hard indeed. When the coalition came to power, | :26:05. | :26:08. | |
Michael Gove evoked Mao, saying they were on a long march to reform | :26:09. | :26:11. | |
education. Just like Mao, they faced a baby boom, so pledged ?5 billion | :26:12. | :26:17. | |
for new school places. They extended Labour's academy programme. There's | :26:18. | :26:22. | |
now about 3,000 in England. But then, they marched even further, | :26:23. | :26:24. | |
creating free schools run by parents, funded by taxpayers. 174 | :26:25. | :26:31. | |
have opened so far. The schools admission code was changed, to give | :26:32. | :26:34. | |
parents more choice. And a pupil premium was introduced, | :26:35. | :26:37. | |
currently, an extra ?900 funding for each disadvantaged child. | :26:38. | :26:41. | |
An overhaul of the national curriculum provoked criticism. | :26:42. | :26:45. | |
Chairman Gove mocked detractors as "bad academia". But exam reforms | :26:46. | :26:52. | |
didn't quite go to plan. Although GCSEs got harder, plans to replace | :26:53. | :26:56. | |
A-levels had to be abandoned. Ultimately, the true test of these | :26:57. | :26:59. | |
reforms will be what happens in the classroom. The person in charge of | :27:00. | :27:05. | |
making sure those classrooms are up to scratch in England is the Chief | :27:06. | :27:08. | |
Inspector Of Schools, head of Ofsted, Michael Wilshaw, who joins | :27:09. | :27:12. | |
me now. Over the past 15 years, we have | :27:13. | :27:18. | |
doubled spending on schools even allowing for inflation. By | :27:19. | :27:22. | |
international standards, we are stagnating, why? I said last year | :27:23. | :27:27. | |
that mediocrity had settled into the system. Too many children were | :27:28. | :27:37. | |
coasting in schools, which is why we changed the grading structure, we | :27:38. | :27:43. | |
removed that awful word, satisfactory. Saying that good is | :27:44. | :27:48. | |
now the only acceptable standard and schools had a limited time in which | :27:49. | :27:52. | |
to get to that. We are seeing gradually, it is difficult to say | :27:53. | :27:57. | |
this in the week we have had the OECD report. Things have gradually | :27:58. | :28:03. | |
improved. I will come onto that in a minute. Explain this. International | :28:04. | :28:07. | |
comparisons show us flat-lining or even falling in some subjects, | :28:08. | :28:13. | |
including science. For 20 years, our domestic exam results just got | :28:14. | :28:17. | |
better and better. Was this a piece of fiction fed to us by the | :28:18. | :28:22. | |
educational establishment, was there a cover-up? There is no question | :28:23. | :28:28. | |
there has grade inflation. I speak as an ex-headteacher who saw that in | :28:29. | :28:34. | |
examinations. Perceptual state is actually doing something about that. | :28:35. | :28:38. | |
Most good heads will say that is about time. We have to be credible. | :28:39. | :28:48. | |
Do politicians and educationalists conspire in this grade inflation? It | :28:49. | :28:52. | |
might suit politicians to say things are going up every year. As a head, | :28:53. | :28:57. | |
I knew a lot of the exams youngsters were sitting were not up to scratch. | :28:58. | :29:05. | |
The latest OECD study places us 36th for maths, 23rd reading, slipping | :29:06. | :29:11. | |
down to 21st in science. Yet, Ofsted, your organisation, | :29:12. | :29:16. | |
designates 80% of schools as good or outstanding. That's another fiction. | :29:17. | :29:22. | |
This year, we have. If we see this level of progress, it has been a | :29:23. | :29:25. | |
remarkable progress over the last years since we changed our grading | :29:26. | :29:31. | |
structure, then... In a year, absolutely. We have better teachers | :29:32. | :29:36. | |
coming into our school system. Better leaders. Better schools. The | :29:37. | :29:40. | |
big challenge for our country is making sure that progress is | :29:41. | :29:43. | |
maintained which will eventually translate into better outcomes. | :29:44. | :29:50. | |
These figures are pretty much up-to-date. Are you saying within a | :29:51. | :29:56. | |
year 80% of the schools are good enough? All of the schools we | :29:57. | :30:02. | |
upgraded have had better grades in GCSE and grade 2. We have to make | :30:03. | :30:07. | |
sure that is maintained. The Government has based its reforms on | :30:08. | :30:10. | |
similar reforms in Sweden. In opposition they were endlessly going | :30:11. | :30:14. | |
to Stockholm to find out how it was done. Swedish schools are doing even | :30:15. | :30:19. | |
worse than ours in the tables. Why are we copying failure? The | :30:20. | :30:25. | |
secretary of state believes, and I actually believe, as somebody who | :30:26. | :30:30. | |
has come from an academy model, that if you hand power and resources, you | :30:31. | :30:34. | |
hand autonomy to the people on the ground, to the people in the | :30:35. | :30:37. | |
classroom, in the corridors, in the playgrounds, things work. If you | :30:38. | :30:45. | |
allow the great monoliths that used to have responsibility for education | :30:46. | :30:49. | |
in the past to take control again, you will see a reverse in standards. | :30:50. | :30:52. | |
You have got to actually empower those people that make the | :30:53. | :30:55. | |
difference. That is why autonomy and freedom is important. We spent a lot | :30:56. | :31:01. | |
of money moving what were local authority schools to become | :31:02. | :31:04. | |
academies and new free school czar being set up as well. When the | :31:05. | :31:08. | |
academies are pretty much the same level of autonomy, the free school | :31:09. | :31:12. | |
is maybe a little bit more, the evidence we have had so far is that | :31:13. | :31:17. | |
they don't really perform any better than local authority schools? | :31:18. | :31:20. | |
Indeed, Encore GCSE subjects, they might even be doing worse? These are | :31:21. | :31:25. | |
early days. We will say more about this on weapons they when we produce | :31:26. | :31:29. | |
the annual report. The sponsored academies that took over the worst | :31:30. | :31:33. | |
schools in the country, in the most difficult circumstances, in the most | :31:34. | :31:36. | |
disadvantaged communities, are doing much better now. What about GCSE? | :31:37. | :31:44. | |
They are doing GCSE equivalents, the lass academic subjects question my | :31:45. | :31:50. | |
cull OK, but they are doing better than previous schools. If you look | :31:51. | :31:54. | |
at the top performing nations in the world, they focus on the quality of | :31:55. | :32:07. | |
teaching. The best graduates coming to education. They professionally | :32:08. | :32:10. | |
develop them. They make sure they spot the brightest talents and get | :32:11. | :32:14. | |
them into positions as soon as possible. We have got to do the same | :32:15. | :32:17. | |
if we are going to catch up with those jurisdictions. This isn't just | :32:18. | :32:24. | |
a British problem. It seems to be a European problem. The East Asian | :32:25. | :32:28. | |
countries now dominate the top of the tables. What's the most | :32:29. | :32:30. | |
important lesson we should learn from East Asia? Attitudes to work. | :32:31. | :32:36. | |
We need to make sure that we invest in good teachers, good leaders. We | :32:37. | :32:42. | |
have to make sure that students have the right attitudes to work. It's no | :32:43. | :32:46. | |
good getting good people into the classroom and then seeing them part | :32:47. | :32:51. | |
of teaching by bad behaviour, disaffected youngsters and poor | :32:52. | :32:57. | |
leadership. We see young teachers doing well for a time and then being | :32:58. | :33:01. | |
put off teaching and leaving from that sort of culture in our schools. | :33:02. | :33:07. | |
Are you a cheerleader for government education policy rather than | :33:08. | :33:11. | |
independent inspectors? I am independent, Ofsted is independent. | :33:12. | :33:14. | |
I believe we are saying the right things on standards. The Association | :33:15. | :33:19. | |
of teachers and lecturers say you are an arm of government. The NUT | :33:20. | :33:23. | |
has called for your resignation. Another wants to abolish or | :33:24. | :33:28. | |
Inspectorate. Have you become a pariah amongst teaching unions? If | :33:29. | :33:33. | |
we are challenging schools to become better, that is our job, we will | :33:34. | :33:39. | |
carry on doing that. I am not going to preside over the status quo. We | :33:40. | :33:42. | |
will challenge the system to do better, we will challenge schools | :33:43. | :33:47. | |
and colleges to do better. We will also challenge government when we | :33:48. | :33:51. | |
think they are going wrong. Many people in the education | :33:52. | :33:53. | |
establishment think your primary purpose is to do the Government's | :33:54. | :33:56. | |
bidding by shepherding schools into becoming academies. Not true at all. | :33:57. | :34:03. | |
You are a big supporter of academies? Yes, I believe the people | :34:04. | :34:08. | |
that do the business in schools are the people that are free to do what | :34:09. | :34:12. | |
is necessary to raise standards. I am a big supporter of autonomy in | :34:13. | :34:16. | |
the school system. But where we see academies Vale, where we see free | :34:17. | :34:26. | |
schools fail, we will say so. The study does not find much evidence | :34:27. | :34:30. | |
that competition and choice raise standards, but it does go with you | :34:31. | :34:35. | |
and say that strong school leadership, coupled with autonomy, | :34:36. | :34:39. | |
can make a difference. Can somebody with no experience in education be | :34:40. | :34:44. | |
in charge of a school? A lot of hot air has been expounded on the issue | :34:45. | :34:48. | |
of whether teachers should be qualified or not. If qualified | :34:49. | :34:50. | |
teacher status was the gold standard, why is it that one in | :34:51. | :34:59. | |
three teachers, one in three lessons that will observe are not good | :35:00. | :35:03. | |
enough. Taught by qualified teachers. I've not yet met a | :35:04. | :35:07. | |
headteacher that has not appointed by qualified staff when they cannot | :35:08. | :35:10. | |
get qualified teachers. Their job is to make sure they get accredited as | :35:11. | :35:14. | |
soon as possible and come up to scratch in the classroom. Do you | :35:15. | :35:17. | |
support the use of unqualified teachers? I do. I have done it. If I | :35:18. | :35:24. | |
could not get a maths, physics or modern languages teacher and I | :35:25. | :35:27. | |
thought somebody straight from university, without qualified | :35:28. | :35:30. | |
teachers start this, that they could communicate well with youngsters, I | :35:31. | :35:34. | |
would get that person into the classroom and get them accredited if | :35:35. | :35:38. | |
they delivered the goods. If we are going to allow schools to have more | :35:39. | :35:42. | |
autonomy and not be accountable to local authorities, free schools | :35:43. | :35:47. | |
academies, don't you have to do... New entrants will be coming into the | :35:48. | :35:52. | |
market, the educational marketplace. Do you not have to act more quickly | :35:53. | :35:59. | |
when it is clear, and there has been examined recently, where it is | :36:00. | :36:02. | |
clearly going badly wrong and children's education at risk? | :36:03. | :36:07. | |
Absolutely. I made a point to the secretary of state and it is | :36:08. | :36:10. | |
something I will talk more about over the coming year. We need to be | :36:11. | :36:13. | |
in school is much more often. If a school fails at the moment, or | :36:14. | :36:17. | |
underperforms, goes into this new category, Her Majesty 's inspectors | :36:18. | :36:24. | |
stay with that institution until it improves. Sometimes we don't see a | :36:25. | :36:27. | |
school for five or seven years. That is wrong. My argument is that Ofsted | :36:28. | :36:32. | |
should pay a much greater part in monitoring the performance of | :36:33. | :36:35. | |
schools between those inspections. Are you enjoying it? It is a tough | :36:36. | :36:42. | |
job. Are you enjoying it? This is a tough job, but I enjoy it. | :36:43. | :36:49. | |
Sometimes. You are watching Sunday Politics. | :36:50. | :36:52. | |
Coming up in just over 20 minutes, Diane Abbott will be joining us. And | :36:53. | :36:54. | |
we will Hello and welcome to the part of | :36:55. | :37:09. | |
Sunday Politics that's just for us. Here in the East. I'm Etholle | :37:10. | :37:12. | |
George. Coming up: The government investigation into the running of a | :37:13. | :37:15. | |
chain of academy schools. And want to choose the candidate to | :37:16. | :37:19. | |
stand as your MP? If so, open primaries are the way to go. And | :37:20. | :37:26. | |
we've had two this weekend. It is important that we all have a | :37:27. | :37:31. | |
say. It's very helpful, I hope. But first, let's meet this week's | :37:32. | :37:34. | |
guests. Therese Coffey is the Conservative MP for Suffolk Coastal. | :37:35. | :37:37. | |
And Stuart Agnew, from the UK Independence Party, is one of the | :37:38. | :37:40. | |
Members of the European Parliament for the East of England. Welcome to | :37:41. | :37:46. | |
you both. Let's talk first about one of our biggest political stories | :37:47. | :37:52. | |
this week. The government's decision to scrap | :37:53. | :37:55. | |
tolling on the new A14 scheme in Cambridgeshire. It was widely | :37:56. | :37:59. | |
attacked as a tax on the county of Suffolk, because drivers would have | :38:00. | :38:02. | |
had no choice but to use the toll road to get in and out of the | :38:03. | :38:09. | |
county. Therese Coffey, you led the campaign | :38:10. | :38:15. | |
to stop the holes. You must feel vindicated? `` de tolls. | :38:16. | :38:27. | |
I am really pleased. I think, together, we did a very good job. We | :38:28. | :38:33. | |
put across the argument that this would be bad for our county. | :38:34. | :38:38. | |
Why did it take so long for the government to realise there would be | :38:39. | :38:43. | |
no alternative to the toll? I have been working on this for some | :38:44. | :38:49. | |
time, trying to put across a case. But the consultation helped us to | :38:50. | :38:54. | |
get the voice of many groups about why this would be the wrong thing to | :38:55. | :38:56. | |
do. Stuart Agnew, it sounds a bit | :38:57. | :39:05. | |
European, this idea of tolls. Would this have been right? | :39:06. | :39:10. | |
Our group in our counsel put forward a motion that this was the wrong | :39:11. | :39:16. | |
thing to do, but we were last at. I am pleased that we have been shown | :39:17. | :39:22. | |
to be right. Many people would have just gone on an alternative route to | :39:23. | :39:31. | |
avoid the tolls, which would lead to queues in other areas. But there are | :39:32. | :39:39. | |
other interests than the A14. We are planning to ills a town of 20,000 | :39:40. | :39:44. | |
people somewhere near Cambridge `` built a town. They have said that it | :39:45. | :39:53. | |
is not currently the right infrastructure to build a town. And | :39:54. | :40:01. | |
it forms part of nine high`speed routes in Europe. We saw HS2 facing | :40:02. | :40:12. | |
some barriers. There will be perhaps be NHS three and a number four, as | :40:13. | :40:21. | |
well. Have we not had three wasted years? | :40:22. | :40:26. | |
I did not think there was much money left when the last Labour government | :40:27. | :40:32. | |
said that. What is different is the extra widening of the roads to | :40:33. | :40:37. | |
support the new town. But I think it is critical to say that we need to | :40:38. | :40:42. | |
press on with it and make sure that everything is done as quickly as | :40:43. | :40:46. | |
possible so that the diggers can start in 20 16. | :40:47. | :40:56. | |
If you follow politics in America, you'll have heard of primaries, the | :40:57. | :40:59. | |
local elections where the parties choose their presidential | :41:00. | :41:02. | |
candidates. The day many of them are held is known as Super Tuesday. And | :41:03. | :41:06. | |
you could say that here we've just had Super Saturday. The | :41:07. | :41:08. | |
Conservatives held so`called open primaries yesterday in both South | :41:09. | :41:10. | |
East Cambridgeshire and Northampton South. | :41:11. | :41:12. | |
They're open because anyone from the constituency can turn up and vote, | :41:13. | :41:16. | |
whether or not they're Tories. The party was once very keen on the idea | :41:17. | :41:19. | |
but very few open primaries have actually taken place. | :41:20. | :41:30. | |
You know how it is. You wait ages for an open primaries to occur, and | :41:31. | :41:37. | |
then to happen at once. This was Northampton South, where memory `` | :41:38. | :41:44. | |
many of the people who are voting were not party members. | :41:45. | :41:48. | |
I think it is good that we all take part. | :41:49. | :41:52. | |
I think it is democratic. The process was not entirely open, | :41:53. | :41:56. | |
there was a short list. But it was up to the four candidates to win | :41:57. | :42:02. | |
over the rumour. Open primaries was the big idea | :42:03. | :42:11. | |
after the expenses scandal. The Conservatives say that this is | :42:12. | :42:14. | |
democracy in action, a chance to connect with the public. | :42:15. | :42:19. | |
Deciding who should be your next MP should be up to the ordinary public | :42:20. | :42:25. | |
instead of just Parliament. If we let ordinary people decide to what | :42:26. | :42:31. | |
the next candidates, we will have a proper new mass party organisation | :42:32. | :42:37. | |
and real ideas of who should be the MPs on safe seats. | :42:38. | :42:41. | |
It also gives the chance to elect a local candidates. | :42:42. | :42:46. | |
People like to have a local candidates. How do you do that if | :42:47. | :42:50. | |
there are hardly any party members to do that? The temptation is for | :42:51. | :42:56. | |
the national parties to bring someone in from the outside, who do | :42:57. | :43:01. | |
not have local routes. When the first one of the open | :43:02. | :43:06. | |
primaries was held in this region for the mayoral election, more than | :43:07. | :43:14. | |
20,000 people attended. The party chairman was delighted. | :43:15. | :43:17. | |
I think that the days where the party choose the candidates behind | :43:18. | :43:22. | |
closed doors are long gone. The electorate should decide. | :43:23. | :43:25. | |
However, despite his enthusiasm, the idea has not really taken off. The | :43:26. | :43:32. | |
party are wary of candidates who are chosen by the public. | :43:33. | :43:38. | |
Boris Johnson was the first one to be chosen by the public. Both of | :43:39. | :43:45. | |
these people are outspoken and tend to be their own brand. That is what | :43:46. | :43:49. | |
the party hierarchy does not like. And the region's other primary, | :43:50. | :43:54. | |
Cambridgeshire, they picked one of the youngest barristers in the | :43:55. | :43:59. | |
country as the local Conservative candidates. | :44:00. | :44:01. | |
She comes from the local area. I have been selected in a local | :44:02. | :44:08. | |
primary, where people are from different parties. I will be putting | :44:09. | :44:12. | |
forward my constituents when I hopefully represent the area. | :44:13. | :44:19. | |
Back in Southampton, David McIntosh celebrated his primary win. Neither | :44:20. | :44:23. | |
candidate had a very large turnout, but they were chosen by more than | :44:24. | :44:28. | |
just the Conservative Party. Will that make a difference? | :44:29. | :44:34. | |
After that, let's hear from the winner, David McIntosh. Thank you | :44:35. | :44:42. | |
for joining us. What was it like to be chosen in an | :44:43. | :44:48. | |
open primary? I think it was very brave of the | :44:49. | :44:52. | |
local party to take this decision, and we need to allow them to take | :44:53. | :44:56. | |
their party democracy, because, when you do have candidates being chosen | :44:57. | :45:03. | |
behind closed doors, people feel left out of the process. When we see | :45:04. | :45:08. | |
people wanting to see the decisions taken by people who understand local | :45:09. | :45:11. | |
communities, it is right that the local people have a decision in who | :45:12. | :45:14. | |
the people are. Does it matter that only 165 people | :45:15. | :45:23. | |
voted? It is not exactly mass participation? | :45:24. | :45:28. | |
I think it would have been a smaller number if it was only open to party | :45:29. | :45:33. | |
members. It is stimulated debate. People really got involved in it. | :45:34. | :45:38. | |
People turned up, and the majority of people voted for me. | :45:39. | :45:43. | |
Half of those who did turn up will not party members. Does that concern | :45:44. | :45:46. | |
you? No, I think it is great. People look | :45:47. | :45:51. | |
to local politicians to make decisions. They want to see local | :45:52. | :45:56. | |
politicians who reflect them. I was born and grew up in Northampton. I | :45:57. | :46:01. | |
am very proud to serve that leader of the council. I hope that people | :46:02. | :46:07. | |
will elect me to Westminster in two years time. | :46:08. | :46:10. | |
This is a marginal seat. You have won the battle, but not the war? The | :46:11. | :46:15. | |
Labour Party have selected someone from London, who cannot understand | :46:16. | :46:18. | |
the issues of Northampton in the same way as someone who has lived | :46:19. | :46:22. | |
here. The former councillor and I have | :46:23. | :46:28. | |
worked very closely. I am looking forward to working with Ryan to | :46:29. | :46:34. | |
convince the people that they need a local man. | :46:35. | :46:42. | |
Therese Coffey, you have had experience in one of these open | :46:43. | :46:46. | |
primaries in Surrey three years ago. Do you think it makes a difference | :46:47. | :46:52. | |
to the kind of candidate you get? How was the experience for you? | :46:53. | :46:58. | |
I think it is a way that you can welcome the candidates. Many places | :46:59. | :47:07. | |
have now been selected by open primary is in our party. It is good | :47:08. | :47:13. | |
to open up that selection. I was speaking to a Labour candidate, and | :47:14. | :47:17. | |
they were intrigued about the idea of allowing people who were not | :47:18. | :47:21. | |
members of the party to select. We hope that they will vote for us in | :47:22. | :47:23. | |
the general election. Anyone could turn up. People could | :47:24. | :47:30. | |
fill the room with those who are trying to ruin the Conservatives | :47:31. | :47:35. | |
chances? That is always the downside. People | :47:36. | :47:41. | |
worry that they will fill the room with people voting against them. | :47:42. | :47:47. | |
However, you are selecting from a series of pretty good people. One | :47:48. | :47:54. | |
has to remember that. There can be a cynical element, where the Tory high | :47:55. | :48:01. | |
command says that here is a short list of six people that they have | :48:02. | :48:06. | |
decided, aren't you so lucky to have a choice? | :48:07. | :48:10. | |
But that is not what happens. Any of the four people in Northampton would | :48:11. | :48:14. | |
make a good MP. Has this been dropped as a promising | :48:15. | :48:24. | |
smack `` a policy? I do think that the idea of having | :48:25. | :48:32. | |
all postal open primaries has been possibly dropped, because they are | :48:33. | :48:36. | |
expensive. Perhaps they decided it is not the best use of money at the | :48:37. | :48:40. | |
moment. What is the point of joining a party | :48:41. | :48:44. | |
if one of the best things about membership is getting a vote in | :48:45. | :48:49. | |
these events? You are more likely to become a | :48:50. | :48:59. | |
person in Westminster if you join a large party, which gives you a | :49:00. | :49:03. | |
privileged position. I think it is only right that you should put | :49:04. | :49:07. | |
yourself open to everyone in your constituency, not just the small | :49:08. | :49:12. | |
committee of that party. Does this threaten a party | :49:13. | :49:17. | |
politics? Does this threaten the membership that funds the party? | :49:18. | :49:22. | |
No, I don't think it does. I was selected by a members only meeting, | :49:23. | :49:29. | |
because we had a membership of 800 people. But the reason that people | :49:30. | :49:32. | |
join parties is because they want to support that party to get into | :49:33. | :49:37. | |
government. By contributing through a membership fee, they do their bit, | :49:38. | :49:45. | |
rather than state funding. A group which runs several academy | :49:46. | :49:48. | |
schools and colleges in Bedfordshire is under investigation by both the | :49:49. | :49:51. | |
Department for Education and the Skills Funding Agency. Allegations | :49:52. | :49:53. | |
against the Barnfield Federation include grade manipulation and | :49:54. | :49:56. | |
bullying, all of which they strongly refute. Labour says it highlights | :49:57. | :49:59. | |
the lack of accountability in the academy and free school system. The | :50:00. | :50:03. | |
findings of the investigation should be published before the end of the | :50:04. | :50:10. | |
year. It's a set of schools that's been | :50:11. | :50:14. | |
held up as a shining example by the Education Secretary. But the | :50:15. | :50:16. | |
Barnfield Federation, which comprises more than half a dozen | :50:17. | :50:19. | |
schools and academies, is now the subject of an official inquiry. | :50:20. | :50:23. | |
Barnfield staff are made to sign confidentiality agreements. These | :50:24. | :50:27. | |
former teachers want to remain anonymous. | :50:28. | :50:36. | |
It was demanded of them to spoon`feed students to get the | :50:37. | :50:38. | |
grades. They would be continually be rewriting pieces of coursework. | :50:39. | :50:41. | |
They'd take the students off timetable, for core subjects in | :50:42. | :50:44. | |
particular, and then spend a week making sure they rewrote it, rewrote | :50:45. | :50:49. | |
it until they achieved those grades. The young people with special needs | :50:50. | :50:52. | |
felt extremely stressed by Barnfield. It caused a lot of | :50:53. | :50:55. | |
emotional trauma for them. Some students in particular would cry. We | :50:56. | :50:59. | |
had autistic boys who would rock a lot in the classroom because their | :51:00. | :51:02. | |
targets were unrealistic. A lot of their mentoring was cut. | :51:03. | :51:09. | |
There are five campuses already in Luton where 20% of the town's | :51:10. | :51:12. | |
children are taught. Three other academies in Bedfordshire are on | :51:13. | :51:15. | |
hold and it wants to expand even further. There are plans for free | :51:16. | :51:18. | |
schools in Cambridgeshire and Oxfordshire. | :51:19. | :51:24. | |
By these gates is St George's Lower School in Leighton Buzzard. It's | :51:25. | :51:28. | |
next on the list to be converted into the family of Barnfield | :51:29. | :51:30. | |
academies. However, that's was supposed to be December first, but | :51:31. | :51:34. | |
it has now been put on hold until the results of the investigation are | :51:35. | :51:38. | |
known and the same goes for two more in Bedfordshire. | :51:39. | :51:40. | |
A separate application for another free school in Mid Beds, which | :51:41. | :51:43. | |
failed at the eleventh hour, prompted the local MP to raise the | :51:44. | :51:46. | |
matter at Prime Minister's Questions. | :51:47. | :51:54. | |
Would the Prime Minister please use his good office to ensure that the | :51:55. | :51:59. | |
application in mid`Bedfordshire is incorporated into this inquiry? | :52:00. | :52:06. | |
Gavin Shuker, the Labour MP for Luton has written to the Department | :52:07. | :52:09. | |
for Education, raising his concerns with the Barnfield Federation. | :52:10. | :52:12. | |
I'm aware that for many people they've tried to raise the the | :52:13. | :52:15. | |
concerns with the Department for Education directly and were | :52:16. | :52:18. | |
misdirected into a route where they couldn't do so. That is a really | :52:19. | :52:20. | |
serious concern. Have you tried to take your concerns | :52:21. | :52:26. | |
to the Department for Education? I did try to ring and it was very | :52:27. | :52:31. | |
difficult. The person at the end of the phone said they didn't know who | :52:32. | :52:35. | |
I needed to speak to I felt I was going round and round in circles, so | :52:36. | :52:38. | |
I gave up. Ed Miliband, on a recent visit to | :52:39. | :52:41. | |
Luton, said the investigation highlights the lack of | :52:42. | :52:43. | |
accountability of the academy model. I think is an illustration of the | :52:44. | :52:47. | |
wider problem that there is, which is that Michael Gove thinks that you | :52:48. | :52:50. | |
can run all of Britain's schools, academy schools and free schools | :52:51. | :52:53. | |
from central government. That's thousands of schools. Actually, what | :52:54. | :52:56. | |
you need is local accountability as well, because that is really, really | :52:57. | :52:59. | |
important for holding schools to account. | :53:00. | :53:02. | |
In a statement, the Department for Education told us: We have received | :53:03. | :53:05. | |
allegations relating to Barnfield College and the Barnfield | :53:06. | :53:06. | |
Federation. We are taking these seriously and | :53:07. | :53:09. | |
are investigating. The investigation is due to be | :53:10. | :53:12. | |
published in the next month. The women we've spoken to don't feel | :53:13. | :53:17. | |
this report will go far enough. I know colleagues that, you know, | :53:18. | :53:21. | |
sort of raised concerns or raised questions and they'd be demanded to | :53:22. | :53:24. | |
attend a meeting and would be told off. Basically they had no voice. | :53:25. | :53:32. | |
The Barnfield Federation said they didn't want to talk to us until | :53:33. | :53:36. | |
after the investigation, but sent us this statement: We do not recognise | :53:37. | :53:39. | |
the picture being painted by these accusations and strongly refute | :53:40. | :53:43. | |
these claims. Our students are our lifeblood and | :53:44. | :53:46. | |
follow a personalised learning programme suited to their individual | :53:47. | :53:48. | |
needs and aimed at developing rounded young people who will reach | :53:49. | :53:51. | |
their potential, prepared for the world of work. The current | :53:52. | :53:55. | |
investigation is not about education standards. It's about operational | :53:56. | :54:01. | |
issues. And any lessons about how things were done in the past will be | :54:02. | :54:11. | |
learned, implemented and adhered to. Last week, the Education Secretary | :54:12. | :54:14. | |
Michael Gove visited this region and we asked him about the Barnfield | :54:15. | :54:17. | |
investigation. Was the system of reporting problems to his department | :54:18. | :54:22. | |
really working? I think our system is working. At | :54:23. | :54:25. | |
the moment, we are investigating some allegations that have been made | :54:26. | :54:29. | |
about a variety of things that happened at Barnfield. Until that | :54:30. | :54:31. | |
investigation concludes, I don't think I can comment on it. It | :54:32. | :54:35. | |
wouldn't be fair to any of the people involved. One of the things | :54:36. | :54:39. | |
that we have found, though, is that when other complaints have been made | :54:40. | :54:42. | |
about things that have been going wrong in other schools, that the | :54:43. | :54:45. | |
department and its agencies have been as quick to investigate them, | :54:46. | :54:48. | |
if not quicker, than other the local authorities. But obviously, if there | :54:49. | :54:51. | |
are people who feel that their attempts to blow the whistle or | :54:52. | :54:54. | |
register complaints haven't been handled properly, then I am | :54:55. | :54:57. | |
concerned about it and I want to make sure that they get a proper | :54:58. | :55:00. | |
answer. We are making sure that we put new | :55:01. | :55:04. | |
systems in place in order to ensure that academies and free schools are | :55:05. | :55:07. | |
more accountable than ever before. But they're already more accountable | :55:08. | :55:11. | |
than local authority schools. It's not just me they're accountable to, | :55:12. | :55:14. | |
there's an organisation called the Education Funding Agency that | :55:15. | :55:16. | |
scrutinises their accounts line by line. There's also the case that | :55:17. | :55:20. | |
because all academies are charities ,that the Charities Commission is | :55:21. | :55:23. | |
there to make sure that if there is any jiggery`pokery that people face | :55:24. | :55:31. | |
the music. Therese Coffey, since we spoke to | :55:32. | :55:36. | |
Michael Gove, people are saying that they tried to contact the Department | :55:37. | :55:40. | |
for Education, using the relevant e`mail address, but they have not | :55:41. | :55:45. | |
had a reply. That does sound frustrating and | :55:46. | :55:51. | |
concerning. I would be happy to try and direct any e`mails that come to | :55:52. | :55:55. | |
me directly to the appropriate people who are in charge of the | :55:56. | :55:58. | |
area. If this system is not working, that | :55:59. | :56:05. | |
is a serious issue, isn't it? I understand that. I am trying to | :56:06. | :56:10. | |
offer another route, that will be able to identify why the system is | :56:11. | :56:15. | |
not working as well. We will get the issues recorded and work out the | :56:16. | :56:20. | |
process of why it has gone wrong. I understand why people want to report | :56:21. | :56:24. | |
certain schools. That is the right thing to do. I have been working | :56:25. | :56:29. | |
with other MPs from across the region about another chain of | :56:30. | :56:34. | |
academies. We have taken our ideas to Lord Nash, and we have been | :56:35. | :56:41. | |
getting some response from that. Do you feel that the local authority | :56:42. | :56:46. | |
has a role to play? We background in schools. This is | :56:47. | :56:52. | |
what we want for social mobility. `` grammar schools. I am disappointed | :56:53. | :56:59. | |
that there has been trouble in Luton. It originally looked so good | :57:00. | :57:05. | |
with the original Barnfield college. But there is an ongoing | :57:06. | :57:11. | |
investigation. I haven't had any representational | :57:12. | :57:15. | |
letters at all about this. At the start of this academy | :57:16. | :57:19. | |
programme, we have exonerated it. But how come Michael Gove has so | :57:20. | :57:26. | |
much information on his desk, thousands of schools. He cannot know | :57:27. | :57:29. | |
what is going on? The main way that schools are | :57:30. | :57:36. | |
accountable is to their parents. I think that the Department for | :57:37. | :57:38. | |
Education is building up extra teams. I think it is disingenuous | :57:39. | :57:45. | |
for the Labour Party to be asking for accountability when they removed | :57:46. | :57:48. | |
that accountability. Are you opening up the schools to | :57:49. | :57:52. | |
more... There has to be a good set of | :57:53. | :58:00. | |
inspectors. In one year, a school can change dramatically. You can | :58:01. | :58:04. | |
never rest, because there is a high turnover of pupils and staff. You | :58:05. | :58:16. | |
must have reporting and inspections. Time for some of the other political | :58:17. | :58:20. | |
stories in the news this week. From immigration to dancing, it's our 60 | :58:21. | :58:29. | |
second round`up. In less than a month, migrants from | :58:30. | :58:33. | |
Bulgaria and Romania can come to work here without restrictions. In | :58:34. | :58:37. | |
Luton, there's already a Roma community of 500. But Peterborough, | :58:38. | :58:43. | |
says its MP Stuart Jackson, is already bursting at the seams. | :58:44. | :58:52. | |
Frankly, Peter Brett is full, and we cannot take any more immigration. | :58:53. | :58:59. | |
That is the message that I have been giving ministers. `` Peter borough. | :59:00. | :59:02. | |
In the Commons, a plea from MP Philip Hollobone for a new Kettering | :59:03. | :59:06. | |
junction on the A14 to help congestion and business. But did he | :59:07. | :59:11. | |
expect these responses? I do not want to see the town going | :59:12. | :59:18. | |
to a halt. We want to be able to get to the places of work. | :59:19. | :59:22. | |
The continuing presence of the gentleman on a daily basis is | :59:23. | :59:25. | |
important. And we know Therese Coffey's | :59:26. | :59:28. | |
delighted the new A14 in Cambridgeshire will not be tolled. | :59:29. | :59:31. | |
She tweeted ` I'm so happy I could do a conga down the A14 to | :59:32. | :59:35. | |
celebrate! And if you do do the conga down the | :59:36. | :59:39. | |
A14, Therese, please could you let us know. So we can film it! Thank | :59:40. | :59:48. | |
you for joining us. Thanks very much to both of you. | :59:49. | :59:51. | |
Therese Coffey and Stuart Agnew. And that's our final Sunday Politics of | :59:52. | :59:55. | |
2013. We'll be back in the New Year, on January | :59:56. | :59:55. | |
work... That's all we've got time for. It's back now to Andrew. | :59:56. | :00:08. | |
Tomorrow, the House of Commons will pay its tributes to Nelson Mandela. | :00:09. | :00:21. | |
Our nation has lost its greatest son. Our people have lost a father. | :00:22. | :00:41. | |
The first thing I ever did that involved an issue or policy, or | :00:42. | :00:48. | |
politics, was protest against apartheid. | :00:49. | :00:55. | |
I think his greatest legacy, to South Africa and to the world, is | :00:56. | :01:05. | |
the emphasis which he has always put on the need for a conciliation, on | :01:06. | :01:16. | |
the importance of human rights. He also made us understand that we can | :01:17. | :01:21. | |
change the world. We can change the world by changing attitudes, by | :01:22. | :01:25. | |
changing perceptions. For this reason, I would like to pay him | :01:26. | :01:30. | |
tribute as a great human being, who raised the standard of humanity. | :01:31. | :01:43. | |
Thank you for the gift of Madiba. Thank you for what he has enabled us | :01:44. | :01:47. | |
to know we can become. We are joined now by the Labour MP | :01:48. | :02:04. | |
Diane Abbott. You met Mr Mandela not one after he was released from | :02:05. | :02:09. | |
prison in 1990. He went as an election observer for the first one | :02:10. | :02:14. | |
person, one-vote in South Africa. I would guess, of all the people you | :02:15. | :02:18. | |
met in your life, you must have been the most impressive and biggest | :02:19. | :02:22. | |
influence? He was extraordinary. He had just come out of prison, 28 | :02:23. | :02:28. | |
years in reason. He had seen a lot of his colleagues tortured, blown up | :02:29. | :02:34. | |
and killed. He was entirely without bitterness. That is what came | :02:35. | :02:36. | |
across. That was key to his achievement, to achieve a peaceful | :02:37. | :02:42. | |
transition. Everybody thought that if you have black majority rule, you | :02:43. | :02:46. | |
might have a bloodbath. It's down to Nelson Mandela but didn't happen. I | :02:47. | :02:51. | |
remember FW de Klerk saying that Mandela was the key to getting a | :02:52. | :02:57. | |
peaceful transition. Absolutely the key, an amazing man. London was one | :02:58. | :03:04. | |
of the centres, people talked about it as being the other centre of the | :03:05. | :03:08. | |
anti-apartheid struggle. That anti-apartheid struggle in London, | :03:09. | :03:13. | |
it had an effect on black politics in Britain? Oh, yes. If you were | :03:14. | :03:17. | |
black and politically active at the time, the apartheid struggle, the | :03:18. | :03:23. | |
struggle against white supremacy in South Africa, was very important. | :03:24. | :03:27. | |
Whatever your colour, the anti-apartheid struggle, for our | :03:28. | :03:30. | |
generation, was the political campaign. We have the 50th | :03:31. | :03:36. | |
anniversary of Kennedy's assassination. Mr Mandela's death. | :03:37. | :03:40. | |
We are kind of running out of people that inspired us? I will never | :03:41. | :03:44. | |
forget where I was when I saw him come out of prison, hand-in-hand | :03:45. | :03:49. | |
with the women, I might add. If you have spent your whole teenage years | :03:50. | :03:53. | |
and 20 is boycotting, marching, picketing, to see him actually come | :03:54. | :03:58. | |
out was amazing. Do you think it was more exciting to meet you or the | :03:59. | :04:05. | |
Spice Girls? I think the Spice Girls. What did the Labour | :04:06. | :04:13. | |
backbenchers think about Ed Balls's performance after the Autumn | :04:14. | :04:17. | |
Statement? Luck, Ed Balls is a brilliant man, but I think even he | :04:18. | :04:21. | |
would say that it was not his best performance. But if you look at the | :04:22. | :04:24. | |
polls, the public liked the points he made. The backbenchers were | :04:25. | :04:29. | |
quiet, there was something wrong? I noticed that. It was like a wall of | :04:30. | :04:36. | |
sound, deliberately. They know that under pressure his stamina might | :04:37. | :04:39. | |
come back and it is difficult for him. That is what they were trying | :04:40. | :04:44. | |
to incite. I have had experience first hand, a look at all of these | :04:45. | :04:47. | |
anonymous and sometimes not anonymous quotes in the media. The | :04:48. | :04:54. | |
spinning has begun against him? This is the party of brotherly love, no | :04:55. | :05:03. | |
matter what the Tories say, we can say worse about each other. How | :05:04. | :05:09. | |
could it be that two former aides to Gordon Brown do not like each other? | :05:10. | :05:15. | |
Far be it from me to say. If he wanted to do it, and I'm not saying | :05:16. | :05:20. | |
he does, is Mr Miliband ruthless enough to get rid of Ed Balls? I | :05:21. | :05:25. | |
mean, he got rid of you, he got rid of his brother? One thing you should | :05:26. | :05:30. | |
not do is under estimate Ed Miliband's capacity for | :05:31. | :05:32. | |
ruthlessness. If he feels it is the right thing to do, he will do it. | :05:33. | :05:38. | |
It's not just a matter of... Ed Balls is a big, powerful | :05:39. | :05:42. | |
personality. He's great to interview because he is across his subject, | :05:43. | :05:45. | |
you can have a really good argument with him, a man that knows his | :05:46. | :05:49. | |
brief, his facts. But it's not just about the personality. There is a | :05:50. | :05:56. | |
kind of sense that Labour needs to look forwards more on economic | :05:57. | :06:01. | |
policy. Of course, the standard of living has been hugely successful | :06:02. | :06:04. | |
for Labour. But it needs more than that on economic policy? I think he | :06:05. | :06:09. | |
has been one of the most effective member 's Shadow Cabinet, and he's | :06:10. | :06:15. | |
always associated with the Brown years, where there is always an | :06:16. | :06:18. | |
element about, you were the guys that got it wrong. I think Ed | :06:19. | :06:23. | |
Miliband will be very tempted to replace him with Alistair Darling. | :06:24. | :06:26. | |
The scenario goes like this, Alistair Darling saves the union and | :06:27. | :06:30. | |
then in September he saves the Labour Party. Ultimately, I don't | :06:31. | :06:34. | |
think he would do it. Talk about shifting tectonic plates, it would, | :06:35. | :06:37. | |
wouldn't it? But it is a step too far. Ed Balls would not be too | :06:38. | :06:44. | |
happy. It is not something you would want to do lightly. That sounds a | :06:45. | :06:55. | |
bit of a threat. Not from you. I can't see Ed Balls magnanimously | :06:56. | :06:59. | |
retreating and say, go on, Alistair Darling, take the job I have been | :07:00. | :07:04. | |
after all career. Where do you put him? Do you make him a middle | :07:05. | :07:07. | |
ranking business or welfare secretary? He wouldn't do that. If | :07:08. | :07:12. | |
you sack him, he would retreat to the backbenchers. He might take up | :07:13. | :07:18. | |
knitting and practices piano scales, or he might have a blood feud with | :07:19. | :07:21. | |
Ed Miliband. I don't know which could be. You look back to when he | :07:22. | :07:27. | |
was schools Secretary, you could feel he was constantly fuming. I | :07:28. | :07:30. | |
think he is better inside the tent, looking out, than the other way | :07:31. | :07:35. | |
around. The thing one Labour strategist said to me was that he is | :07:36. | :07:38. | |
too much looking into the rear-view mirror, when it comes to economic | :07:39. | :07:42. | |
policy. He needs to look ahead through the windscreen. That had | :07:43. | :07:49. | |
some resonance? He was at the centre of Labour's economic policy-making | :07:50. | :07:52. | |
from the mid-90s. So it's hard for him but he has to look forward. | :07:53. | :07:58. | |
There is an interesting comparison with 2009. Gordon Brown got in | :07:59. | :08:01. | |
trouble when he said the choice is between Labour investment and Tory | :08:02. | :08:05. | |
cuts. Everybody knew it was between Labour cuts and Tory cuts. In other | :08:06. | :08:09. | |
words, he was not acknowledging reality. With Ed Balls, OK, we can | :08:10. | :08:12. | |
say it is the wrong sort of recovery, but there is a recovery. | :08:13. | :08:17. | |
Does he not need to absorb that punch and say there is a recovery, | :08:18. | :08:19. | |
then people will listen to him? Possibly. We know that the | :08:20. | :08:26. | |
macroeconomics are looking better. We also know people are not | :08:27. | :08:30. | |
experiencing it as a recovery in living standards. No one, not even | :08:31. | :08:36. | |
Tories, really believe that David Cameron knows what it is like for | :08:37. | :08:40. | |
middle-income people to live normal lives. Living standards is | :08:41. | :08:44. | |
particularly powerful because of the composition of the government? Don't | :08:45. | :08:47. | |
go away. This time last year we ambushed our political panel with a | :08:48. | :08:52. | |
quiz. They didn't come out of it smelling of roses, but they did come | :08:53. | :08:55. | |
out rather smelly. Will the coalition still be in place | :08:56. | :09:01. | |
a year from now? Yes. Definitely. I say definitely as well. From now, | :09:02. | :09:09. | |
one year, will we know the date of the European referendum? Yes. No. I | :09:10. | :09:16. | |
say no as well. How much growth will there be? Less than 1%. Father | :09:17. | :09:22. | |
Christmas is less qualified than me, but I will go for one. I will go for | :09:23. | :09:30. | |
a quarter of that. 0.4%. Sorry, a third of that. I am with you, and | :09:31. | :09:37. | |
1%. We didn't do too badly. What will growth be next year? I will | :09:38. | :09:41. | |
remind you, the OBR has upgraded to 2.4%. Better stick with the OBR, got | :09:42. | :09:50. | |
it wrong last year. Well, they went down in March and then went back in | :09:51. | :09:55. | |
December. I'm going to go under and claim credit where it's higher. I'm | :09:56. | :09:57. | |
going to say 1%. Deliberately get it wrong. Given our record, if we say | :09:58. | :10:04. | |
there is going to be spectacular growth, does it mean we're going to | :10:05. | :10:08. | |
go into recession? There is incentive to be cautious. 2%. 2.4%, | :10:09. | :10:14. | |
because the housing market in London is rocketing. It would be closer to | :10:15. | :10:22. | |
3% and 2.4, mark my words. We'll Ed Balls be Shadow Chancellor by this | :10:23. | :10:29. | |
time next year? Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes, I value my life. Will UKIP mean the | :10:30. | :10:37. | |
European elections, by which I mean have the highest percentage of the | :10:38. | :10:44. | |
vote? Yes. Second behind Labour. Second behind Labour. Will Alex | :10:45. | :10:50. | |
Salmond win the independence referendum? No, but it will be | :10:51. | :10:56. | |
closer than we think. No, unless they do something catastrophic like | :10:57. | :11:00. | |
let Cameron debate him. Too close to call. Controversial. How many | :11:01. | :11:08. | |
Romanians and Bulgarians will come to Britain in 2014? Far fewer than | :11:09. | :11:17. | |
anyone thinks. The entire population of Romania and Bulgaria, like Nigel | :11:18. | :11:20. | |
Farage thanks. I'll go with that, I'm confident. A change of tone for | :11:21. | :11:26. | |
your magazine. Not many will come, but a lot here already will | :11:27. | :11:31. | |
normalise and be counted into figures. Too many for most | :11:32. | :11:37. | |
right-wing commentators. I think quite a few will come, but not the | :11:38. | :11:40. | |
kind of numbers that made such a huge difference. This time, | :11:41. | :11:50. | |
everybody is open. They do like to speak English, that is the reason | :11:51. | :11:54. | |
they want to come. We'll all three of you still be here by this time | :11:55. | :12:01. | |
next year? Yes. Would you recommend that? Yes, keep them. And he has | :12:02. | :12:08. | |
lovely boots. Shiny red boots. If you can keep affording me, I will be | :12:09. | :12:15. | |
here. I hope so, it sounds like you have a firing squad outside. I hope | :12:16. | :12:20. | |
so, maybe you will find some true talent. Very pragmatic, aren't they? | :12:21. | :12:29. | |
Let me put this to you, I think you will agree. The coalition will not | :12:30. | :12:32. | |
break now, this side of the election next year? There will not be... They | :12:33. | :12:39. | |
will not go their own ways by this time next year? Of next year, maybe | :12:40. | :12:45. | |
just after. Early 2015. This side of the election? What is the UKIP view? | :12:46. | :12:52. | |
I don't think there is an advantage to either of them. If the Lib Dems | :12:53. | :12:57. | |
pulled out, they would look like there were a lodger in the Tory | :12:58. | :13:00. | |
house of government. I think it would suit the Lib Dems to break | :13:01. | :13:04. | |
just before the election. I think that is what Vince Cable wants to | :13:05. | :13:09. | |
do. I don't think it is what Nick Clegg would like to do. The Tories | :13:10. | :13:16. | |
would love it. They would have all of the toys to themselves. Yellow | :13:17. | :13:19. | |
marker they would look like the grown-ups. The problem for Vince | :13:20. | :13:22. | |
Cable is that he's not the force that used to be after his temper | :13:23. | :13:24. | |
tantrum at the Conference. I will be back with the Daily | :13:25. | :13:33. | |
Politics next week. If Santer gives you a diary in your stocking, pencil | :13:34. | :13:39. | |
in Sunday the 20th of January, the first Sunday Politics of 2014. | :13:40. | :13:46. | |
Remember, if it is Sunday, it is the Sunday Politics. Unless it is | :13:47. | :13:48. | |
Christmas. And New Year. | :13:49. | :13:50. |