Browse content similar to 04/05/2014. Check below for episodes and series from the same categories and more!
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Morning, folks. Welcome to the Sunday Politics. Walls are being | :00:37. | :00:41. | |
re-painted in Belfast as Gerry Adams begins his fourth day in police | :00:42. | :00:44. | |
custody in connection with one of the most brutal and shocking murders | :00:45. | :00:49. | |
of the Troubles. That's our top story. | :00:50. | :01:00. | |
He may have got egg on his face this week but Nigel Farage is a serious | :01:01. | :01:03. | |
electoral threat in this month's elections. I'll ask the Conservative | :01:04. | :01:06. | |
Party Chairman Grant Shapps how worried he is. | :01:07. | :01:08. | |
And we're on the trail of Nick Clegg. You were voted the best | :01:09. | :01:13. | |
Here in the East: how many young likely to be a good | :01:14. | :01:19. | |
Here in the East: how many young people will be bothered to vote in | :01:20. | :01:22. | |
the local and European elections? And the minor parties make their | :01:23. | :01:24. | |
pitch for our support. and independence. We have a table | :01:25. | :01:31. | |
full of Euro candidates here to debate what it means for London. | :01:32. | :01:38. | |
And with me, as always, the best and the brightest political panel in the | :01:39. | :01:41. | |
business - Nick Watt, Helen Lewis and Janan Ganesh. They'll be | :01:42. | :01:43. | |
throwing metaphorical rotten eggs into the twittersphere. | :01:44. | :01:49. | |
First this morning - Gerry Adams, President of Sinn Fein, has spent a | :01:50. | :01:52. | |
fourth night in police custody after he was arrested in connection with | :01:53. | :01:55. | |
the killing of Jean McConville more than 40 years ago. Sinn Fein has | :01:56. | :02:09. | |
claimed that the arrest is politically motivated coming, as it | :02:10. | :02:11. | |
does, during local and European election campaigns. Northern | :02:12. | :02:15. | |
Ireland's deputy first minister, Martin McGuinness, has indicated he | :02:16. | :02:17. | |
might review the party's support for policing in the province if Gerry | :02:18. | :02:20. | |
Adams is charged. The Jean McConville murder was one of the | :02:21. | :02:23. | |
most notorious cases of the Troubles. | :02:24. | :02:25. | |
The widowed mother of ten was kidnapped from her home in December | :02:26. | :02:32. | |
1972, never to be seen alive again. The IRA denied involvement but in | :02:33. | :02:37. | |
1999 admitted it had murdered her and several others, known as the | :02:38. | :02:44. | |
Disappeared. Before his death, the former IRA commander Brendan Hughes | :02:45. | :02:47. | |
pointed the finger at Gerry Adams, claiming: | :02:48. | :02:55. | |
In April this year, either Bell was charged with aiding and abetting the | :02:56. | :03:09. | |
murder. -- Ivor Bell. Gerry Adams has always insisted he is innocent | :03:10. | :03:14. | |
of any part in the abduction and killing all burial of Mrs | :03:15. | :03:18. | |
McConville. We were hoping to speak to the | :03:19. | :03:21. | |
Northern Ireland Secretary, Theresa Villiers, but having agreed to do an | :03:22. | :03:24. | |
interview with us this morning, she pulled out. But we are joined from | :03:25. | :03:31. | |
Belfast by Sinn Fein's Alex Maskey. Welcome to the Sunday Politics. And | :03:32. | :03:36. | |
the police just doing their job by questioning Gerry Adams? Gerry Adams | :03:37. | :03:48. | |
said publicly some time ago that he was available to speak to the | :03:49. | :03:53. | |
police, but that is not what this is about at the moment, because what we | :03:54. | :03:58. | |
have here is clearly evidence in our mind of political interference in | :03:59. | :04:02. | |
what should be due process. Gerry Adams made it clear some time ago he | :04:03. | :04:07. | |
wanted to speak to the police, it was available at any time, and yet | :04:08. | :04:13. | |
that request was not taken up until three weeks into an election and we | :04:14. | :04:17. | |
believe that was deliberately orchestrated by a small number of | :04:18. | :04:22. | |
people. What evidence can you present this morning that proves | :04:23. | :04:29. | |
that claim? The direct circumstances Gerry Adams finds himself in at the | :04:30. | :04:36. | |
moment, take that in stark contrast when they have dealt with members of | :04:37. | :04:46. | |
the British Army for instance... That is just circumstantial. The | :04:47. | :04:55. | |
PSNI know that the soldiers involved in that and a number of other | :04:56. | :04:59. | |
high-profile killings of citizens here, and not one of those people | :05:00. | :05:05. | |
has been arrested. In fact any of the people who were interviewed were | :05:06. | :05:10. | |
interviewed by request. There was a stark contrast, in terms of how they | :05:11. | :05:20. | |
have dealt with the British military involving state killings. We haven't | :05:21. | :05:25. | |
got too much time. Sinn Fein said it would review its support for the | :05:26. | :05:31. | |
PSNI if Gerry Adams is charged. That sounds like political interference | :05:32. | :05:36. | |
in the police process. It's not because we have a clear mandate from | :05:37. | :05:42. | |
the people who elect us. Policing has been an important part of the | :05:43. | :05:47. | |
peace process here for many years, Sinn Fein plays an important role in | :05:48. | :05:53. | |
local policing partnerships. We negotiate to make sure we have | :05:54. | :05:58. | |
powers transferred here to elected representatives in the north. It is | :05:59. | :06:04. | |
a long way to go before we have policing highly accountable, and | :06:05. | :06:10. | |
making sure they deliver a very impartial service. How will he react | :06:11. | :06:27. | |
if Gerry Adams is charged? I am still trying to get a clear answer. | :06:28. | :06:32. | |
If Gerry Adams is charged, will you withdraw support for the Northern | :06:33. | :06:38. | |
Ireland police service? We view this as a serious situation and a serious | :06:39. | :06:43. | |
ongoing situation and we will monitor how this pans out. We have a | :06:44. | :06:48. | |
very important role to play to support the police service here. We | :06:49. | :06:53. | |
have done consistently, worked with them on a daily basis, but we will | :06:54. | :07:00. | |
not accept political interference by a small number of people in the | :07:01. | :07:04. | |
police who are undermining the police. We will not accept political | :07:05. | :07:12. | |
policing. If there was evidence, and I emphasise the word if, because we | :07:13. | :07:17. | |
have seen none, but if there were evidence to justify Gerry Adams | :07:18. | :07:21. | |
being charged, why should he not be charged? It is my understanding from | :07:22. | :07:27. | |
the family of Gerry Adams that there has not been a single shred of | :07:28. | :07:33. | |
evidence put forward. I understand that, but if there was evidence, why | :07:34. | :07:41. | |
should he not be charged? You put that caveat yourself and then you | :07:42. | :07:45. | |
expect me to speculate, there is no way I will do that. The fact of the | :07:46. | :07:50. | |
matter is there hasn't been one single shred of evidence put to | :07:51. | :07:55. | |
Gerry Adams in the last few days, in fact what has been put to him is a | :07:56. | :07:59. | |
range of issues of newspaper cuttings, books, statements made | :08:00. | :08:05. | |
from people, including from people who didn't want their statements | :08:06. | :08:07. | |
released until they have died. who didn't want their statements | :08:08. | :08:17. | |
was charged, again I emphasise the word if, does the police process | :08:18. | :08:25. | |
fall apart? The police process is a fragile entity, it requires work and | :08:26. | :08:30. | |
we have been saying this publicly and privately with the Irish and | :08:31. | :08:31. | |
British and privately with the Irish and | :08:32. | :08:46. | |
process has to be nurtured and developed. We are not out of the | :08:47. | :08:48. | |
woods yet. From a Republican point of view we have been working flat | :08:49. | :08:54. | |
out. I just wanted a quick answer to my question, is a yes or no? What | :08:55. | :09:02. | |
question I asking me? Is the peace process in jeopardy? It is fragile | :09:03. | :09:07. | |
and I am not going to have words put into my mouth but I don't want to | :09:08. | :09:13. | |
use. It has to be worked out and nurtured. Thank you for joining us. | :09:14. | :09:20. | |
Nick Watt, you were a Northern Ireland correspondent like myself in | :09:21. | :09:25. | |
days gone by. Where is this going to go? It shows how challenging the | :09:26. | :09:29. | |
peace process is because on the one hand you have the unspeakable pain | :09:30. | :09:33. | |
of the McConville family, but you also have the danger of not having | :09:34. | :09:39. | |
mechanisms to deal with the past. South Africa is a good example, you | :09:40. | :09:43. | |
have to have some mechanism to deal with the past because if you don't, | :09:44. | :09:47. | |
you are going to have, as Sinn Fein have now, someone in a police cell | :09:48. | :09:58. | |
but you don't have the arrests of the Bloody Sunday soldiers. | :09:59. | :10:01. | |
Paramilitary prisoners were released after two years... We have seen no | :10:02. | :10:09. | |
action against somebody accused of the Hyde Park bombings, it is not a | :10:10. | :10:16. | |
one-way street. We have the decommissioning of IRA weapons by | :10:17. | :10:23. | |
the IRA, therefore destroying crucial evidence. You have these | :10:24. | :10:26. | |
inconsistencies because you don't have an mechanism for dealing with | :10:27. | :10:31. | |
the past, but doing that is really difficult because of the pain of | :10:32. | :10:36. | |
real people. Don't you get a feeling that here in London they are hoping | :10:37. | :10:41. | |
he will not be charged? Definitely because it would be nice if | :10:42. | :10:45. | |
everything went away, but the civil case of the family is taken out of | :10:46. | :10:54. | |
the hands of the police. You can see here a real failure in Westminster | :10:55. | :10:57. | |
to see this as anything other than settled. David Cameron we know sees | :10:58. | :11:06. | |
himself as a chairman. I was speaking to a friend in Northern | :11:07. | :11:09. | |
Ireland who said he has never met Gerry Adams and I think this is very | :11:10. | :11:14. | |
revealing. They consider this as a settled issue that will not trouble | :11:15. | :11:19. | |
Westminster again. It would be, but the relatives of the disappeared | :11:20. | :11:24. | |
don't want it to be settled. This points to the reality that the | :11:25. | :11:28. | |
Belfast agreement probably had to be done, but the moral price at which | :11:29. | :11:33. | |
it was purchased was far greater than we were willing to admit during | :11:34. | :11:38. | |
the euphoria. For a country that prides itself by the rule of law to | :11:39. | :11:43. | |
tolerate the early release of prisoners and former pal and | :11:44. | :11:51. | |
military -- paramilitaries, I think was a very serious matter. As for | :11:52. | :11:58. | |
the PSNI, it only exists because its predecessor failed to command the | :11:59. | :12:02. | |
confidence of the nationalist community. It is a very big deal if | :12:03. | :12:09. | |
even the PSNI ends up falling into the same trap. We have to is leave | :12:10. | :12:21. | |
it there I'm afraid. It was the Conservative's local election | :12:22. | :12:23. | |
campaign launch on Friday, and what did David Cameron focus on? Burning | :12:24. | :12:27. | |
local issues like the state of our roads, rubbish collection or care of | :12:28. | :12:30. | |
the elderly? No. It was Europe. The Prime Minister re-iterated again his | :12:31. | :12:32. | |
promise of an in-out referendum on our membership of the EU in 2017. | :12:33. | :12:36. | |
And it's being reported this morning that he will share a platform with | :12:37. | :12:39. | |
Nigel Farage in a pre-general election debate. Here's what the | :12:40. | :12:43. | |
UKIP leader had to say about the issue when he was on the Marr Show | :12:44. | :12:51. | |
this morning with Ed Miliband. David Cameron very often makes these vague | :12:52. | :12:55. | |
promises, then doesn't deliver afterwards. I don't think he has any | :12:56. | :13:02. | |
intention of allowing me into any of these debates. Perhaps Ed Miliband | :13:03. | :13:08. | |
wants to debate? We have got to have the TV debates as we did join the | :13:09. | :13:13. | |
last general election. I think David Cameron is doing everything he can | :13:14. | :13:18. | |
to wriggle out of them. It is up to the broadcasters but whether they | :13:19. | :13:23. | |
invite Nigel. My main desire is that the debates go ahead. We are joined | :13:24. | :13:35. | |
now by Grant Shapps. Will he be included? The debates were not | :13:36. | :13:41. | |
without problems, they took place during the campaign period and | :13:42. | :13:44. | |
disrupted the flow of the campaign, taking it out of the regions, people | :13:45. | :13:50. | |
getting to speak to the leaders so a longer period for that would be | :13:51. | :13:54. | |
helpful. I think they are good idea and they should go ahead, but all of | :13:55. | :13:59. | |
the negotiation about who is involved is yet to happen. So it is | :14:00. | :14:05. | |
not a done deal that Nigel Farage will be included? That needs to be | :14:06. | :14:10. | |
negotiated with the TV companies. The Conservatives believe we should | :14:11. | :14:15. | |
have debates, but exactly the format and the timing, all of the -- that | :14:16. | :14:23. | |
will be debated in the autumn, but first we have European elections, | :14:24. | :14:29. | |
the Queen 's speech and a Scottish referendum. The local election | :14:30. | :14:37. | |
campaign was launched on Friday. Why did you talk more about Europe than | :14:38. | :14:46. | |
local councils? Both are important. The local elections are critically | :14:47. | :14:50. | |
important for people, their local services. It is easy to forget, for | :14:51. | :14:57. | |
example, that the council tax has been largely frozen since this | :14:58. | :15:00. | |
Government came to power, a big contrast to Dublin under the | :15:01. | :15:05. | |
previous Labour government. So why did you go on and on about Europe? | :15:06. | :15:12. | |
Let me show you the poster used to launch your local election campaign. | :15:13. | :15:21. | |
There it is, and in-out referendum on Europe, the day of the local | :15:22. | :15:25. | |
elections, where is the word local? Is it in small print? I hear what | :15:26. | :15:30. | |
you're saying, I am happy to be here to talk about the local elections. | :15:31. | :15:34. | |
But you are right, they are on the same day, and not many people know | :15:35. | :15:39. | |
that only by voting conservative can you get an in-out referendum. -- | :15:40. | :15:43. | |
Conservative. UKIP cannot deliver, we can, it is the same date, so | :15:44. | :15:52. | |
people... This was the launch of the local election campaign. Why does | :15:53. | :15:54. | |
the Prime Minister have to keep on promising something he has already | :15:55. | :15:59. | |
promised? The actual referendum would be in 2017. He promised it | :16:00. | :16:06. | |
before, he keeps repeating it because he knows people don't really | :16:07. | :16:10. | |
trust him. I think it is a question of the fact that, actually, unless | :16:11. | :16:14. | |
you remind people that the pledges there, that the only way to get an | :16:15. | :16:19. | |
in-out referendum is to vote for it, this is a critical moment at | :16:20. | :16:23. | |
which we need people to vote for that referendum if they want it. It | :16:24. | :16:29. | |
is not the case, as I saw this morning, being said by Nigel Farage, | :16:30. | :16:33. | |
that a referendum was promised before and not delivered. There was | :16:34. | :16:37. | |
no referendum in the last manifesto. There will be in the next one. There | :16:38. | :16:45. | |
was a cast-iron guarantee, in the Sun in 2006. Let's just clear that | :16:46. | :16:54. | |
up... Once the Lisbon Treaty... In the Sun article, he said, we will | :16:55. | :16:58. | |
have a referendum on the Lisbon Treaty. Clearly, because that treaty | :16:59. | :17:02. | |
had been passed before the general election, it is difficult to have a | :17:03. | :17:08. | |
referendum on something in the past. We joined Europe in the 1970s, | :17:09. | :17:14. | |
having a referendum on that! Look, that is about the future. Our | :17:15. | :17:17. | |
relationship with Europe is absolutely critical. Most people in | :17:18. | :17:23. | |
this country feel, I was not old enough to vote in that referendum, | :17:24. | :17:28. | |
most of those who voted, they voted for a Common Market, that is not | :17:29. | :17:32. | |
what we have got. We want to continue the work we have been doing | :17:33. | :17:39. | |
in the EU Budget, what did UKIP do? They voted against it. We want more | :17:40. | :17:43. | |
of those powers brought home, and we will put it to a referendum, and | :17:44. | :17:46. | |
people will have to vote Conservative to get it. We have been | :17:47. | :17:52. | |
looking at new research, almost two thirds of Conservative members are | :17:53. | :17:56. | |
considering voting for UKIP, almost two thirds. I have a simple message | :17:57. | :18:04. | |
here, which is this. If you vote for UKIP... Can we have it up? 30% are | :18:05. | :18:13. | |
likely, 30% are possible. That is why it is important we are making | :18:14. | :18:17. | |
these arguments. If you vote for UKIP, you are voting to take us | :18:18. | :18:21. | |
further away from returning powers to this country, further from a | :18:22. | :18:27. | |
referendum. It is support for Ed Miliband becoming Prime Minister, | :18:28. | :18:31. | |
and he will do exactly what Labour have always done - hand away powers, | :18:32. | :18:35. | |
and away the rebate for nothing in return, giving Europe even more so | :18:36. | :18:40. | |
over the day-to-day affairs in Britain. Why are so many people | :18:41. | :18:44. | |
considering voting UKIP? It is to hold your feet to the fire, they do | :18:45. | :18:48. | |
not trust you on a referendum, so they will vote UKIP to force you to | :18:49. | :18:52. | |
tap in your line. We have a very tough line. If I had said four years | :18:53. | :18:57. | |
ago that this government would manage to cut the overall EU | :18:58. | :19:03. | |
budget, would take us out of the bailout fund that Labour got us | :19:04. | :19:06. | |
into, passing a law that no more powers can go to Europe without a | :19:07. | :19:10. | |
referendum, if I had said that, people would say, I do not believe | :19:11. | :19:15. | |
it will happen. Not only have we done these things, we are promising | :19:16. | :19:18. | |
and in-out referendum, and the only way to get it is to vote | :19:19. | :19:22. | |
Conservative. Nigel Farage has said, we can't change anything in | :19:23. | :19:26. | |
Europe, and it is no wonder that the president of the European Commission | :19:27. | :19:32. | |
has said, we love having these UKIP MEPs, because they don't turn up and | :19:33. | :19:37. | |
vote, apart from when they vote against the cut in the budget. It | :19:38. | :19:42. | |
goes beyond UKIP in your party, because this research also showed | :19:43. | :19:47. | |
that those Conservative members most likely to vote for UKIP, they said | :19:48. | :19:51. | |
they do not feel valued or respected by their own leadership, and they | :19:52. | :19:55. | |
regard David Cameron as ideological eat more remote from them than UKIP. | :19:56. | :20:01. | |
What I would say is look at that list... Let me take that step | :20:02. | :20:10. | |
further. What people need our series solutions to serious problems. When | :20:11. | :20:18. | |
people vote for a UKIP MEP, I will say, which one of the 40% of the | :20:19. | :20:24. | |
MEPs who got in for UKIP last time are you voting for, the ones above | :20:25. | :20:28. | |
left or defected, the ones have gone to jail? 40% have ended up not | :20:29. | :20:33. | |
delivering. People have a right to know what to expect when they vote | :20:34. | :20:37. | |
in these elections. They can look at our record at home, and this goes to | :20:38. | :20:41. | |
the point you have raised about what we have done in Britain to get this | :20:42. | :20:48. | |
economy back on track, recover from Labour's recession. We are prepared | :20:49. | :20:51. | |
to take those decisions in Europe as well. Presumably, active | :20:52. | :20:58. | |
Conservative members, they know that, so why do they not feel valued | :20:59. | :21:03. | |
by the leadership? I spend time going up and down the country | :21:04. | :21:07. | |
meeting Conservative members, and they are on the doorstep, last | :21:08. | :21:14. | |
weekend 150 out in Enfield campaigning for the European and | :21:15. | :21:20. | |
local elections... Why are they keen on UKIP? When I meet somebody who | :21:21. | :21:24. | |
says that, not necessarily a member... Have you met members of | :21:25. | :21:32. | |
say they will vote UKIP? No, but a vote for UKIP is... Do not do it, | :21:33. | :21:41. | |
you will end up with Labour having more control, handing away powers to | :21:42. | :21:46. | |
Europe. 51-year-old meeting members who say they will vote UKIP, you | :21:47. | :21:52. | |
must be out of touch. -- if you are not meeting members. Some of your | :21:53. | :21:57. | |
members are thinking of voting UKIP. I spend huge amount of time | :21:58. | :22:01. | |
travelling around, I just told you about this action day in Enfield, | :22:02. | :22:07. | |
where we had an enormous turnout. Those members were on the doorsteps | :22:08. | :22:11. | |
pointing out that you can only get reform in Europe by voting | :22:12. | :22:16. | |
Conservative. Labour and the Lib Dems will not deliver, UKIP can't, | :22:17. | :22:22. | |
Conservatives will. You have not got that message across, because a | :22:23. | :22:25. | |
YouGov poll shows, on Europe, who has the best policies? Tories 18%, | :22:26. | :22:35. | |
Labour 19%, UKIP 27%. On the economy, Tories 27%, Labour 23, UKIP | :22:36. | :22:41. | |
4. Why don't you shut up about Europe and talk about the economy? | :22:42. | :22:47. | |
Look, on the 27th of May, we have European elections, as well as local | :22:48. | :22:52. | |
elections. If I don't talk about the European elections, you would say | :22:53. | :22:55. | |
what you said at the beginning about not talking about the local | :22:56. | :22:58. | |
elections! These are serious elections, and the point I am tried | :22:59. | :23:02. | |
to make is that the issues at stake are not peripheral, they are not | :23:03. | :23:06. | |
unimportant. Our MEPs have been battling to cut red tape from a | :23:07. | :23:10. | |
European level on small businesses, the same thing this government has | :23:11. | :23:13. | |
been doing for small businesses domestic league, where for example | :23:14. | :23:16. | |
every small business owner watching this show knows they have got ?2000 | :23:17. | :23:23. | |
back in employment announced on national insurance contributions. We | :23:24. | :23:25. | |
are doing it at home, we are doing it in Europe, and it is important to | :23:26. | :23:31. | |
tie that together. Ireland that Mr Cameron saying, you should stop | :23:32. | :23:45. | |
banging on about Europe... -- I remember. This is before the last | :23:46. | :23:55. | |
general election, as in days for the Lib Dems, 18%. Even then, you didn't | :23:56. | :23:59. | |
win the election, and now you are only three or four points ahead, it | :24:00. | :24:04. | |
doesn't look good for you, does it? Even then, the poll did not turn out | :24:05. | :24:11. | |
to be what it was on the day. No, that is what happens, that is the | :24:12. | :24:15. | |
voting intentions now! You are in a worse position than a year before | :24:16. | :24:17. | |
the last election, which you didn't win. We are almost proving the point | :24:18. | :24:25. | |
that you can take a clip at any moment in time, not sounding like a | :24:26. | :24:29. | |
politician, but the only poll that matters is on the day. In just over | :24:30. | :24:34. | |
a year's time, people will have a completely different picture to look | :24:35. | :24:40. | |
at than these opinion polls. We have an economy from being a basket | :24:41. | :24:45. | |
case, the great Labour recession knocking 7% of this economy, hurting | :24:46. | :24:49. | |
every family, to a point where we the fastest-growing economy in the | :24:50. | :24:54. | |
developed world. In a year's time, I hope people will see that we are the | :24:55. | :24:58. | |
people who've taken the difficult decisions, got the economy to the | :24:59. | :25:02. | |
right place, more security for you and your family. Do not give the car | :25:03. | :25:05. | |
keys back to the people who crashed it in the first place. If I had a | :25:06. | :25:10. | |
pound for every time I have heard that! It is clearly not getting | :25:11. | :25:15. | |
through. On the Pfizer attempted of AstraZeneca, Mr Miliband called this | :25:16. | :25:23. | |
morning for a tougher public interest test such big takeovers. Do | :25:24. | :25:27. | |
you agree with that or not? Let me be absolutely clear, if there is any | :25:28. | :25:34. | |
kind of joining, we are in favour of British jobs, British aren't deep, | :25:35. | :25:41. | |
expanding our pharmaceutical sector. -- R But what Mr Mallon and wants | :25:42. | :25:54. | |
to do with rent caps, he is anti-business. -- Mr Miliband. He | :25:55. | :25:59. | |
wants to take us back to the bad old those. -- bad old days. Should there | :26:00. | :26:11. | |
be a bigger public interest test? We have seen some takeovers that people | :26:12. | :26:15. | |
have criticised, but others, like Bentley, Land Rover, which have been | :26:16. | :26:20. | |
very successful. Should there be a tougher test?! We will have tests | :26:21. | :26:25. | |
that ensured this get-together becomes a great Anglo-American | :26:26. | :26:29. | |
project, or it doesn't happen, but the Miliband approach is simply to | :26:30. | :26:34. | |
be anti-business, anti-jobs and anti-job security. Grant Shapps, | :26:35. | :26:38. | |
thank you. A challenging week for the Liberal | :26:39. | :26:41. | |
Democrats with a local election campaign overshadowed by another row | :26:42. | :26:45. | |
with the Conservatives about knife crime. Adam has spent the day with | :26:46. | :26:52. | |
Nick Clegg on the campaign trail. How nice! Nick Clegg is taking me on | :26:53. | :26:56. | |
a political mini break to the Cotswolds. Yes, we are getting the | :26:57. | :26:59. | |
train. He wants to highlight what his party is doing in local | :27:00. | :27:04. | |
government, and a personal passion of his in Europe. Graham Watson, the | :27:05. | :27:09. | |
Lib Dem MEP for the south-west, has been running a campaign to have | :27:10. | :27:15. | |
prunes recognised as a laxative. Is that Lib Dems battling for Britain | :27:16. | :27:20. | |
in Europe? It is not our front page manifesto commitment! It is one of | :27:21. | :27:23. | |
many things that Graham does, he does many other things. In fact, he | :27:24. | :27:31. | |
is a good example of an MEP who took a pioneering role, for instance, in | :27:32. | :27:36. | |
making sure... There is the proven world, but also the crime-fighting | :27:37. | :27:43. | |
role. -- prune. He has done work to make sure that when British | :27:44. | :27:46. | |
criminals flee justice, we can bring them back. And he has promoted | :27:47. | :27:52. | |
prunes! First stop, a gorgeous country pub, but it turns out | :27:53. | :27:56. | |
everyone is a journalist or a very on message activist. Dark days, | :27:57. | :28:02. | |
being a Lib Dem in the last few years? Strangely not. If you find | :28:03. | :28:07. | |
you are a Lib Dem deep down, you do not get that disheartened, because | :28:08. | :28:11. | |
you know that, locally, you are doing so well for the people that | :28:12. | :28:14. | |
you live next door to that, actually, I find I am almost | :28:15. | :28:19. | |
impervious to what happens on a national level. I am mayor of | :28:20. | :28:24. | |
Cirencester. Have you taken any leadership lessons from Nick Clegg, | :28:25. | :28:28. | |
inspiring new in your leadership of Cirencester? I think what he has | :28:29. | :28:33. | |
demonstrated his patience. It has been a tough time, he has taken a | :28:34. | :28:38. | |
lot of flak, and as the mayor of a town, lots of people agree with you | :28:39. | :28:43. | |
and a fair few don't. You are a full on mayor, he is just a Deputy Prime | :28:44. | :28:47. | |
Minister, do you outrank him? I don't think so, he is in government, | :28:48. | :28:53. | |
I am not. So our there any normal people in here? We are from | :28:54. | :28:59. | |
Swindon, you cannot get more abnormal. Are you a big fan of his? | :29:00. | :29:06. | |
No! What has he done wrong? I don't believe in his views at all. Where | :29:07. | :29:11. | |
has he got to? Nigel Farage would have had a pint! At this time in the | :29:12. | :29:20. | |
morning a copy was more appropriate. I have no time for a drink of any | :29:21. | :29:24. | |
kind, because now we are off to look at a local traffic blackspot. This | :29:25. | :29:28. | |
is amazing, like a Lib Dem election leaflet brought to life, Lib Dems | :29:29. | :29:35. | |
pointing at a road. High-vis jackets! Next we had to giggle full | :29:36. | :29:39. | |
bath, but there will be no Regency sightseeing for us, oh no, Nick is | :29:40. | :29:44. | |
taking us to an abandoned wilderness. We have just had a | :29:45. | :29:54. | |
health and safety briefing, we have been told to look out for | :29:55. | :29:58. | |
dive-bombing seagulls and an angry fox. That is the sort of thing Nick | :29:59. | :30:02. | |
Clegg has to put up with. He wants to talk about the economy but he has | :30:03. | :30:07. | |
to dodge the day's beat new story, letters leaked by a Tory suggesting | :30:08. | :30:13. | |
that Lib Dems are soft on knife crime. Isn't that a new kind of | :30:14. | :30:23. | |
warfare? I just think it is silly. They may think they are clever by | :30:24. | :30:28. | |
catching some headlines but they are not helping people who worry about | :30:29. | :30:38. | |
knife crime, like I do. We work together... Just like the | :30:39. | :30:43. | |
Coalition! This is a co-working space where different businesses | :30:44. | :30:48. | |
share the same office. My time with the Deputy Prime Minister is drawing | :30:49. | :30:53. | |
to a close. We haven't talked about the most important story of the | :30:54. | :30:57. | |
week, that you were voted the best looking party leader and the most | :30:58. | :31:05. | |
likely to be a good cook. Right, this is news to me and I can | :31:06. | :31:09. | |
guarantee you that my scepticism of opinion polls has just been | :31:10. | :31:14. | |
confirmed. Just as well because the more serious polls don't look great | :31:15. | :31:20. | |
for him or his party. Goodbye, and thanks for the offer of a ride | :31:21. | :31:27. | |
home! He is still walking. Malcolm Bruce | :31:28. | :31:33. | |
joins us now. According to Lib Dem briefing documents, you are likely | :31:34. | :31:38. | |
to choose -- lose a big chunk of your MEPs. If you lose a lot, what | :31:39. | :31:43. | |
would that say about a party that boasts of its pro-Europe | :31:44. | :31:47. | |
credentials? It would be disappointing because we have the | :31:48. | :31:54. | |
most hard-working MEPs. The worry that we have is that people think | :31:55. | :32:00. | |
the European Parliament is not important but it takes decisions | :32:01. | :32:07. | |
that affect us. They would be disappointing for Britain as well as | :32:08. | :32:11. | |
the Liberal Democrats. Isn't the problem that the more you bang on | :32:12. | :32:16. | |
about your pro-European credentials, the more you slip in the polls? I do | :32:17. | :32:22. | |
think so, we have two weeks to go and we are campaigning extremely | :32:23. | :32:33. | |
hard. You are forced in the polls. I can tell you there are people out | :32:34. | :32:37. | |
there who do believe Britain should stay in the EU and they are worried | :32:38. | :32:43. | |
that other parties will take us out. The Liberal Democrats are clear, we | :32:44. | :32:48. | |
want to stay in, we will work for reform and do it effectively. If you | :32:49. | :32:53. | |
lose the Liberal Democrats, Britain's influence in Europe will | :32:54. | :32:59. | |
be weakened. Your track record in Europe shows you have been | :33:00. | :33:03. | |
spectacularly wrong again and again. In your 2009 manifesto you said the | :33:04. | :33:10. | |
European Central Bank and the euro have been tried and tested over ten | :33:11. | :33:15. | |
years providing a clear picture of the benefits of Eurozone membership | :33:16. | :33:21. | |
and that proved to be nonsense. It was nonsense everywhere. Every | :33:22. | :33:25. | |
developed bank in the world was tried and tested and failed. Europe | :33:26. | :33:31. | |
may not be perfect, but the question people have to decide is if we are | :33:32. | :33:35. | |
going to leave Europe and be isolated on RM, or use our influence | :33:36. | :33:43. | |
to reform it from inside. We have allies, you work with them, that is | :33:44. | :33:48. | |
something the Lib Dems do better than any other parties. Your 2004 | :33:49. | :33:53. | |
manifesto, you claim that being outside the euro would lead to job | :33:54. | :33:59. | |
losses and reduced prosperity. You were just plain wrong, weren't you? | :34:00. | :34:06. | |
Yes, but the reason is that to some extent the euro did not observe any | :34:07. | :34:13. | |
rules and regulations when it was set up. That is why we never | :34:14. | :34:17. | |
recommended Britain should join at the outset because the criteria had | :34:18. | :34:24. | |
not been met. In 2001 Nick Clegg was writing to the Financial Times... | :34:25. | :34:30. | |
Your track record is important. He wrote that the Tisch monetary policy | :34:31. | :34:36. | |
is not all it is cracked up to be. Britain would gain greater control | :34:37. | :34:40. | |
over its affairs by joining the euro. How wrong can he be? We have | :34:41. | :34:51. | |
always argued that the currency had to abide by strict criteria. It | :34:52. | :34:55. | |
hasn't done so and that is one of the reasons it has failed. We | :34:56. | :35:01. | |
recognise there is no future for Britain joining the euro and we are | :35:02. | :35:07. | |
not advocating it. Lets put your 2010 manifesto on the screen. I | :35:08. | :35:14. | |
didn't say it was not our long-term interest. If Europe succeeds as an | :35:15. | :35:20. | |
entity, if the euro becomes one of the world leading currencies, there | :35:21. | :35:28. | |
will come a point when it may be justified. In the circumstances we | :35:29. | :35:33. | |
are in the moment, there is no recommended timescale. Let's get | :35:34. | :35:37. | |
this right. Despite the Eurozone crisis which has cost millions of | :35:38. | :35:43. | |
jobs, countries that were teetering on the brink of bankruptcy, the | :35:44. | :35:47. | |
Eurozone now facing stagnation and some countries on the brink of | :35:48. | :35:53. | |
deflation, you still won't rule out Britain joining? We are ruling it | :35:54. | :35:58. | |
out in the foreseeable future. You can miss the point that we are | :35:59. | :36:02. | |
working as a coalition partner in government that has secured recovery | :36:03. | :36:07. | |
for the UK, and working as Liberal Democrats in the parliament that | :36:08. | :36:12. | |
have cut back the European budget in cooperation with others. What would | :36:13. | :36:17. | |
the world look like if it were right for Britain to join the euro? You | :36:18. | :36:25. | |
have 27 states at the moment, with too many countries still struggling | :36:26. | :36:29. | |
to meet the criteria so until you have a strong and cohesive enough | :36:30. | :36:33. | |
single Eurozone in which all the countries can meet that criteria, | :36:34. | :36:39. | |
Britain is better off out. So a more centralised Eurozone, that is what | :36:40. | :36:45. | |
you would like Britain to join? No, because it can only happen by | :36:46. | :36:49. | |
consent. Any circumstances in which any further powers would be | :36:50. | :36:56. | |
transferred from the UK to the EU, we would support a referendum. You | :36:57. | :37:01. | |
have just said that for the Eurozone to work, it has to be more | :37:02. | :37:05. | |
centralised and you said if that happens, that is what Britain would | :37:06. | :37:11. | |
join. I didn't say that, I said it would require the consent of all | :37:12. | :37:15. | |
member states to agree to the criteria. We certainly do not | :37:16. | :37:22. | |
envisage joining in the foreseeable future. Since you are the proud | :37:23. | :37:28. | |
party of in, why weren't you just give us a referendum on in or out? | :37:29. | :37:35. | |
Because it has to have a context. What David Cameron is doing is | :37:36. | :37:40. | |
dangerous because I think the major players like Britain and France are | :37:41. | :37:44. | |
not keen on the idea of being bullied into reforms on the | :37:45. | :37:48. | |
instigation of just one member state which is threatening possibility to | :37:49. | :37:51. | |
withdraw. They will have to agree to rules... Just have it now. Do you | :37:52. | :38:01. | |
want in or out? To have a referendum against no background is to put it | :38:02. | :38:06. | |
out of context. We are in the middle of a crisis, a year away from the | :38:07. | :38:10. | |
general election. We have made it clear... You said we are in the | :38:11. | :38:19. | |
middle of the Eurozone crisis? So we are not in the middle of it? What's | :38:20. | :38:25. | |
the middle? The reality is that the Western world has gone through a | :38:26. | :38:29. | |
deep crisis. The UK is coming out of it, the Eurozone is coming out of | :38:30. | :38:34. | |
it. Greece have been able to borrow on the markets in recent weeks which | :38:35. | :38:41. | |
is a sign of success. It is in our interest is the Eurozone succeeds | :38:42. | :38:43. | |
and recovers and we should be part of it but not necessarily on the | :38:44. | :38:48. | |
same conditions as everyone else. The Liberal Democrats work with | :38:49. | :38:52. | |
others to deliver Britain's interests and if they are not there, | :38:53. | :38:59. | |
their interests will be undermined. You are watching Sunday Politics. We | :39:00. | :39:03. | |
say goodbye to viewers in Scotland now. | :39:04. | :39:19. | |
Hello, and welcome to the part of the programme that is just for us | :39:20. | :39:24. | |
here in the East. I'm Amelia Reynolds. Coming up, it elections | :39:25. | :39:27. | |
count down. With less than three weeks to the local and European | :39:28. | :39:30. | |
polls, we look at the key battle grounds in the East and ask how many | :39:31. | :39:33. | |
young people will be bothered to vote. My vote isn't going to make | :39:34. | :39:37. | |
any sort of difference. All the local electorate is all peak orders | :39:38. | :39:40. | |
from their MPs in Parliament. ?? WHITE Plus what the minor parties | :39:41. | :39:44. | |
have to say to tempt us on May 22. We actually need to stand up for | :39:45. | :39:47. | |
ourselves and for the English nation and that's the purpose of the | :39:48. | :40:05. | |
English Democrats. So, let's meet our guest. Andrew Lansley is the | :40:06. | :40:08. | |
Conservative MP for South Cambridgeshire and the Leader of the | :40:09. | :40:10. | |
House of Commons. Andy Sawford became Labour MP for Corby and East | :40:11. | :40:14. | |
Northamptonshire in 2012 and he's already a shadow minister for | :40:15. | :40:16. | |
communities and local government. And Rupert Read is fighting to | :40:17. | :40:19. | |
become the Greens' first MEP for the Eastern region. He is the party's | :40:20. | :40:22. | |
national spokesperson on transport and he also teaches philosophy at | :40:23. | :40:24. | |
the University of East Anglia. Welcome to all of you. Let's start | :40:25. | :40:28. | |
with that date, May 22, just 18 days to go until the European and local | :40:29. | :40:38. | |
council elections. And you know when elections are coming up and all the | :40:39. | :40:41. | |
party leaders head your way. We've had Nick Clegg, Ed Miliband, Nigel | :40:42. | :40:44. | |
Farage and, of course, the Prime Minister, who was in Colchester this | :40:45. | :40:47. | |
week. David Cameron was there to launch changes to benefits for the | :40:48. | :40:49. | |
long`term unemployed. Basically the choice is this. Either go to the job | :40:50. | :40:53. | |
centre every day, do community work for nothing, or you could lose your | :40:54. | :40:56. | |
benefits. Andrew Lansley, isn't this stigmatising people who, for | :40:57. | :41:02. | |
whatever reason, cannot find a job. No, it's helping people who are | :41:03. | :41:04. | |
long`term unemployed and, of course, it's in a situation where we've been | :41:05. | :41:08. | |
able to have a substantial reduction in the number of people who are | :41:09. | :41:11. | |
unemployed. In my own constituency it's gone down by a third since the | :41:12. | :41:15. | |
elections. We've got 1.7 million more private`sector jobs. In | :41:16. | :41:17. | |
Cambridge at the moment there are four vacancies for every person out | :41:18. | :41:21. | |
of work. So what people who are long`term unemployed clearly need is | :41:22. | :41:24. | |
they need the training, the work placements and intensive support | :41:25. | :41:26. | |
that this helped to work programme is going to give them. Do you agree | :41:27. | :41:40. | |
that that is what the help to work programme will give them? Isn't it | :41:41. | :41:43. | |
right, Andy Sawford, to get a bit tougher? Well, of course it's right | :41:44. | :41:47. | |
to try to help people into work, but actually this is a pretty | :41:48. | :41:50. | |
astonishing admission of failure by the government, because it only | :41:51. | :41:53. | |
applies after you've been out of work for three years. Now, clearly, | :41:54. | :41:58. | |
we need to be making intervention much earlier, so Labour's compulsory | :41:59. | :42:01. | |
jobs guarantee would kick in after two years, but for under | :42:02. | :42:03. | |
25`year`olds the problem is stubbornly high on unemployment for | :42:04. | :42:06. | |
under 25s still ` in my constituency and right across the region it would | :42:07. | :42:10. | |
come in after a year. But we want to do much more and that is why voting | :42:11. | :42:13. | |
for Labour councils across the region this May means that you will | :42:14. | :42:17. | |
get a council that is really backing local job creation. Rupert Read, we | :42:18. | :42:20. | |
have lower than average unemployment in the East, there are, as we've | :42:21. | :42:23. | |
heard, loads of jobs available. So, it's good news, isn't it? Is this | :42:24. | :42:26. | |
the way forward? No, we think that this scheme is really quite | :42:27. | :42:29. | |
hopeless, and we're not alone in that. Oxfam and Salvation Army have | :42:30. | :42:32. | |
already said that they won't participate. Forced volunteering is | :42:33. | :42:34. | |
a completely absurd idea, it's an oxymoron. So we need to look at a | :42:35. | :42:38. | |
solution which would actually work. In the Greens, we think we should | :42:39. | :42:41. | |
reduce the length of the standard working week. Why don't we share out | :42:42. | :42:44. | |
the jobs more? So that people who are overworked and people who are | :42:45. | :42:47. | |
unemployed can find some sort of happy medium. They've tried it in | :42:48. | :42:50. | |
some other countries to some success and that's the direction we should | :42:51. | :42:54. | |
go in. OK, well, no agreement there. I wouldn't expect it, because all | :42:55. | :42:56. | |
the parties are of course actively setting out their differing visions | :42:57. | :42:59. | |
in the run`up to the local elections. Hundreds of seats are up | :43:00. | :43:03. | |
for grabs in the East for some key council battle grounds. With the | :43:04. | :43:05. | |
details, here's our political correspondent Andrew Sinclair. | :43:06. | :43:08. | |
Elections taking place on just 20 councils across the East on May than | :43:09. | :43:16. | |
22nd. Here they are. Anywhere that is coloured red or blue means that | :43:17. | :43:19. | |
it's run by Labour or the Tories, grey means no overall control. Quite | :43:20. | :43:23. | |
a few authorities like South Cambridgeshire and Huntingdonshire | :43:24. | :43:24. | |
have thumping Conservative majorities and they are very | :43:25. | :43:27. | |
unlikely to change hands, but in others it is much closer. Let's have | :43:28. | :43:32. | |
a look at Great Yarmouth, Brandon Lewis's constituency seat. Labour | :43:33. | :43:37. | |
took control of the council last time round but have a majority of | :43:38. | :43:40. | |
just one. Can they strengthen that, or can the Tories show they are | :43:41. | :43:43. | |
capable of bouncing back? We're also watching the UKIP vote there very | :43:44. | :43:47. | |
closely. They did very well in Yarmouth in last year's county | :43:48. | :43:50. | |
council elections. What will happen this time round? Another interesting | :43:51. | :43:57. | |
seat, Norwich, always interesting to watch. This was also a Labour gain | :43:58. | :44:02. | |
last time round, but the Greens have been the main challengers there for | :44:03. | :44:06. | |
some time. Lib Dems on just three and the Tories are nonexistent. | :44:07. | :44:08. | |
Colchester, where both the Prime Minister and Nick Clegg have visited | :44:09. | :44:12. | |
in the last week. Why? As you can see, the Lib Dems run it, but only | :44:13. | :44:15. | |
with the help of Labour. This will be a good place to see if the core | :44:16. | :44:20. | |
Lib Dem vote can hold up and if there is any sign of Conservative | :44:21. | :44:22. | |
revival. Cambridge is being visited by dozens of big names. It's also in | :44:23. | :44:27. | |
no overall control and there is a big battle going on between the Lib | :44:28. | :44:30. | |
Dems who run it and Labour who'd like to run it. And then there's | :44:31. | :44:34. | |
Milton Keynes. It used to be run by the Lib Dems. At the moment the | :44:35. | :44:37. | |
Tories run it as a minority administration with Labour are | :44:38. | :44:42. | |
pushing away. And because of boundary changes every seat is up | :44:43. | :44:44. | |
for grabs this year, so anything could happen. Essex, Basildon and | :44:45. | :44:50. | |
Southend are well worth watching. Both have Conservative run councils, | :44:51. | :44:56. | |
but only just. But perhaps more interesting than which councils | :44:57. | :44:59. | |
change hands will be how many seats change hands. More than 300 are up | :45:00. | :45:02. | |
for grabs this year. The Tories, as you can see, have by far the largest | :45:03. | :45:06. | |
number. Labour and the Lib Dems have about the same. UKIP and the Greens | :45:07. | :45:11. | |
very few. The big question ` how much will this change on May 22nd? | :45:12. | :45:17. | |
OK, that's where we stand with the numbers. Andy Sawford, if I could | :45:18. | :45:20. | |
come to you first. Andrew was standing next to a big map there, | :45:21. | :45:24. | |
not much red on it. You've got a huge mountain to climb, haven't you? | :45:25. | :45:29. | |
The Eastern region, I think, you know, your viewers won't be | :45:30. | :45:32. | |
surprised to hear me say it's not been a Labour stronghold compared to | :45:33. | :45:35. | |
some other parts of the country. But actually we've made a lot of | :45:36. | :45:38. | |
progress in recent years. We're looking to make very significant | :45:39. | :45:41. | |
gains in terms of the council seats, take control of some councils like | :45:42. | :45:44. | |
Milton Keynes in these elections, and obviously targeting these four | :45:45. | :45:46. | |
Westminster gains. But we've made big progress in recent years in this | :45:47. | :45:51. | |
area. Let's talk about South Cambridgeshire, Andrew Lansley. UKIP | :45:52. | :45:54. | |
may gain some seats there. Are you worried? On what evidence? In the | :45:55. | :46:00. | |
county council elections last year, there was one UKIP county councillor | :46:01. | :46:02. | |
in South Cambridgeshire elections, there were none afterwards. So in | :46:03. | :46:10. | |
any case, looking at all of these contests, there is one common theme. | :46:11. | :46:15. | |
It is that we as Conservatives and the coalition government, we took7 | :46:16. | :46:18. | |
the mess that Labour left us, we are turning it around, we're cutting the | :46:19. | :46:32. | |
deficit, creating jobs, one. `` 1.7million jobs. Inflation is at a | :46:33. | :46:35. | |
five`year low, business confidence is at a ten year high. That is a | :46:36. | :46:39. | |
basis... I'm interested in how you just batted off the UKIP question. | :46:40. | :46:42. | |
Do you not take their challenge seriously then? Because there is a | :46:43. | :46:48. | |
lot of support in this region. I've seen it, and I've seen the places | :46:49. | :46:51. | |
where they have taken votes and they've taken votes from people who | :46:52. | :46:55. | |
want some specific things. They want a referendum on Europe, and we in | :46:56. | :46:58. | |
the Conservative Party argue on the way that they can get that because | :46:59. | :47:01. | |
we will deliver it in the next Parliament. They want controlled | :47:02. | :47:03. | |
migration, not uncontrolled migration like we had under Labour. | :47:04. | :47:08. | |
We are doing that and putting that in place. And they want a strong | :47:09. | :47:12. | |
economy, because a strong economy is the only way in which actually you | :47:13. | :47:16. | |
have a strong country. Let me bring Rupert Read in here. Why is that | :47:17. | :47:20. | |
kind of UKIP message appealing to voters in a way that the Green | :47:21. | :47:23. | |
message does not seem to be getting through? UKIP have some super`rich | :47:24. | :47:28. | |
backers and that might explain why their policies are hard`right, | :47:29. | :47:32. | |
extremely unpleasant policies. We think when people find out more | :47:33. | :47:35. | |
about UKIP policies, for example about the fact that they want to | :47:36. | :47:41. | |
privatise the NHS. Let us talk about the Greens. You asked me about UKIP, | :47:42. | :47:45. | |
the point is UKIP's policies, when people understand them, they may not | :47:46. | :47:49. | |
like them any more. In the next few weeks of the campaign people are | :47:50. | :47:52. | |
going to start switching on that basis to Green as a more positive | :47:53. | :47:55. | |
alternative, are hopeful alternative to the existing parties. Let's talk | :47:56. | :47:59. | |
about the Greens. The second biggest party on Norwich City Council, 15 | :48:00. | :48:07. | |
seats. But you haven't actually increased your total there since | :48:08. | :48:10. | |
2010. We are fighting hard in Norwich against a Labour council | :48:11. | :48:13. | |
which is quite well funded, again, by the National party apparatus. So | :48:14. | :48:20. | |
we are the main challengers in Norwich, but we're also looking | :48:21. | :48:23. | |
elsewhere in the region at this election to make breakthroughs. We | :48:24. | :48:25. | |
are hoping to break through onto South Cambridgeshire Council and | :48:26. | :48:33. | |
also onto South Suffolk. We think that the Green message in these | :48:34. | :48:35. | |
local elections... Of course, our main focus now is the European | :48:36. | :48:39. | |
elections, hoping to get me elected as our first Green parliamentarian. | :48:40. | :48:41. | |
But we think we've got some real gains to make from the local | :48:42. | :48:44. | |
elections as well. Andy Sawford, Labour were at an all`time low the | :48:45. | :48:48. | |
last time they see to being fought. One would have expected you to be | :48:49. | :48:51. | |
doing better at this stage. I think we will have to judge the results | :48:52. | :48:54. | |
after these elections. We're working very hard to make the case that if | :48:55. | :48:58. | |
you vote for a Labour council, and a Labour government next year you will | :48:59. | :49:02. | |
get a government that is going to help to tackle the cost of living | :49:03. | :49:04. | |
crisis, average families are ?1600 per year worse off. Many people are | :49:05. | :49:08. | |
trapped in unemployment, many people live in rented accommodation in | :49:09. | :49:10. | |
insecurity. Vote Labour and you will get double the number of social | :49:11. | :49:14. | |
homes in your area, which is a great record. You will get the living wage | :49:15. | :49:17. | |
from your Labour council. Lots of reasons to vote Labour. Well, it's | :49:18. | :49:25. | |
obvious we are interested in what is going to happen on May 22, and if | :49:26. | :49:28. | |
you're watching we presume you are as well. But it does seem that there | :49:29. | :49:32. | |
is a large swathe of the population, to put it bluntly, who | :49:33. | :49:35. | |
couldn't really care less. Only 32% of 18 to 24`year`olds voted in the | :49:36. | :49:38. | |
last election, so why is that? And can politicians change it? Our | :49:39. | :49:41. | |
reporter has been to Ipswich to find out. | :49:42. | :49:50. | |
Two young people ` passionate about where they live, but have never | :49:51. | :49:51. | |
voted. # I come from a small place where | :49:52. | :49:58. | |
only a failure get broadcast... #. Pablo McSheen 23 and a keen | :49:59. | :50:06. | |
musician. He recently recorded an album. He says that the estate where | :50:07. | :50:15. | |
he grew up does not have enough facilities. They have a little youth | :50:16. | :50:19. | |
club here but it does not cater for the 15`18 `year`olds. Sometimes they | :50:20. | :50:26. | |
are standing around the road not doing anything with themselves. But | :50:27. | :50:35. | |
Ipswich has seen changes. Millions have been spent on the waterfront | :50:36. | :50:38. | |
and there is a new university drunk people to the town, like 21`year`old | :50:39. | :50:44. | |
Esther. She moved from London three years ago today about your science | :50:45. | :50:50. | |
degree. As a student you feel separated from the community and the | :50:51. | :50:55. | |
University is the community. In the last local elections around one in | :50:56. | :51:00. | |
three of under 24`year`olds voted, compared to over three quarters of | :51:01. | :51:06. | |
over 65`year`olds. If you decide to leave the decision to others you | :51:07. | :51:09. | |
cannot complain afterwards when their choice impacts on you | :51:10. | :51:14. | |
directly. The mac schools and colleges could do more to engage us, | :51:15. | :51:18. | |
to get us to come in and talk to young people about what local | :51:19. | :51:26. | |
councils do. Today we have brought some young people together to meet | :51:27. | :51:32. | |
the person who runs the council. We want to know why they are unlikely | :51:33. | :51:37. | |
to vote. There are a lot of broken... I do not want to call it | :51:38. | :51:40. | |
promises, but there are a few broken promises. In my mind I think that it | :51:41. | :51:46. | |
is just me voting, so there may not be any change. Re/Max I feel as | :51:47. | :51:50. | |
though my vote is not going to make any sort of difference. All of the | :51:51. | :51:57. | |
local electorates take orders from the MPs in Parliament. If | :51:58. | :52:06. | |
politicians are looking at making unpopular decisions they will | :52:07. | :52:08. | |
targeted at the people who do not vote because that will not affect | :52:09. | :52:12. | |
their jobs. If you do not want be targeted by politicians, we know | :52:13. | :52:19. | |
more cuts will be coming, so you need to vote. We talked for an hour, | :52:20. | :52:24. | |
but did it change anything? Only to look into it, something affects me | :52:25. | :52:30. | |
and then I do not vote about it, that is silly. This campus will be | :52:31. | :52:34. | |
used as a polling station, giving thousands of students are very local | :52:35. | :52:38. | |
police to cast their votes. Students, like everyone else, have | :52:39. | :52:42. | |
until Tuesday to register for the May elections. The question is, how | :52:43. | :52:48. | |
many will bother? Broken promises, my vote does not | :52:49. | :52:53. | |
count, I cannot make a difference. I will ask each of you to make your | :52:54. | :52:57. | |
pitch to young people, potential voters. Keep it snappy. I totally | :52:58. | :53:04. | |
relate to what those young people were saying. We are trying to say, | :53:05. | :53:09. | |
do not give up on politics completely because the bad guys will | :53:10. | :53:14. | |
win. In the recent budget, David Cameron and George Osborne were | :53:15. | :53:18. | |
deliberately clearly appealing to older people. They are relying on | :53:19. | :53:21. | |
young people not voting. Prove them wrong. Thank you. Lets not talk | :53:22. | :53:33. | |
about goodies and baddies. But look at policies like zero our | :53:34. | :53:39. | |
contracts, and employment for young people, that is really worrying. The | :53:40. | :53:47. | |
cost of living traces particularly affects young people. They will be | :53:48. | :53:51. | |
better off with Labour `` cost of living traces. We bring the youth | :53:52. | :53:59. | |
Parliament to Westminster and I have seen a lot of people who take an | :54:00. | :54:02. | |
interest in politics and see it through. I have seen the same be | :54:03. | :54:06. | |
true in villages in South Cambridgeshire Fred the created a | :54:07. | :54:12. | |
youth Council `` Grady created. Give young people a chance, in my opinion | :54:13. | :54:17. | |
they take it up. It can appear a bit stuffy? Of course. No offence meant. | :54:18. | :54:25. | |
As leader of the House of Commons, could you be doing work? You are | :54:26. | :54:31. | |
absolutely right. The Hansard demonstrated this week that we have | :54:32. | :54:37. | |
seen a doubling of the number of young people who are using social | :54:38. | :54:41. | |
media to engage in politics. Yes, we can do that. In Parliament, one of | :54:42. | :54:48. | |
the things we will be doing this week is creating a petitioning | :54:49. | :54:52. | |
system to Parliament. We do not want Parliament just to be sending people | :54:53. | :54:55. | |
there for five years and then five years later you decide whether to be | :54:56. | :54:59. | |
let them. During that period people should be able to go to their | :55:00. | :55:04. | |
Parliament, here are their issues debated and be listened to. I know | :55:05. | :55:08. | |
that you use Twitter. How'd you combat the fact that government, | :55:09. | :55:13. | |
local or national, feels out of touch with young people? I have a | :55:14. | :55:21. | |
lot of engagement with young people, not just on Twitter. Face also gives | :55:22. | :55:29. | |
me more local contact `` Facebook. To some extent, up one politician at | :55:30. | :55:35. | |
a time, we have to rebuild trust of people. That has been broken. Over | :55:36. | :55:44. | |
Iraq, for example. The Greens should be harnessing single issues. | :55:45. | :55:51. | |
Absolutely. Polling is showing that the support for Greens is higher | :55:52. | :55:53. | |
with young people and students is that young people realise that the | :55:54. | :55:58. | |
future depends on putting into practice the kind of policies that | :55:59. | :56:02. | |
we are putting forward is, like our green transport revolution, green | :56:03. | :56:07. | |
energy revolution. Perhaps more people will be looking for more | :56:08. | :56:11. | |
choice. This year the European elections to offer a lot of choice. | :56:12. | :56:16. | |
Last time the vote share in the East was 31% for the Conservatives, 20% | :56:17. | :56:25. | |
for UKIP, 14% by the Lib Dems, 10.5% for Labour and 9% for the Greens, | :56:26. | :56:28. | |
but they are not the only ones citing the Europeans. But let's take | :56:29. | :56:34. | |
a look at some of the other parties that are standing. The English | :56:35. | :56:42. | |
Democrats have launched the the campaign. It is the UK state | :56:43. | :56:46. | |
structure which we think is operating against England's | :56:47. | :56:49. | |
interests. You only have to think about the fact that in Scotland and | :56:50. | :56:51. | |
Wales there are free prescriptions for every body. In England you have | :56:52. | :56:58. | |
to pay if you are elderly for residential care, in Scotland it is | :56:59. | :57:03. | |
free. These are all examples of why we actually need to stand up for | :57:04. | :57:06. | |
ourselves and the English nation. That is the purpose of the English | :57:07. | :57:13. | |
Democrats. We believe that a Socialist union would be preferable | :57:14. | :57:17. | |
because we believe it is based on what people need rather than what | :57:18. | :57:23. | |
big business need. All of the European companies at the moment are | :57:24. | :57:28. | |
cutting living standards, lowering the minimum wage. This is not | :57:29. | :57:34. | |
anything to do with UKIP. This is me. I have been campaigning against | :57:35. | :57:41. | |
our membership of the European Union since 1994 when I stood at the | :57:42. | :57:45. | |
Dudley by`election. Nothing to do with UKIP. Our vote is a different | :57:46. | :57:51. | |
road. We do not like it, we are opposed to it, because free movement | :57:52. | :57:54. | |
seems to mean that they all come this way. We do not move the other | :57:55. | :57:59. | |
way. Everyone is coming here and it is because the European Union have | :58:00. | :58:06. | |
control of our borders. We'd like to withdraw from the EU and play the | :58:07. | :58:10. | |
money back into our communities, because there are so many | :58:11. | :58:15. | |
communities that need help at the moment that have been filled by the | :58:16. | :58:18. | |
government. We have to stand for traditional marriage, the redefined | :58:19. | :58:22. | |
marriage bill has been pushed through and we really want to see | :58:23. | :58:29. | |
the abolition of that. And also for sanctity of human life. Of course, | :58:30. | :58:34. | |
it is not all about elections and political life does go on. But news | :58:35. | :58:39. | |
of help for deprived areas, police manager and a care homes can do, `` | :58:40. | :58:45. | |
your home scandal, here is our 62nd round up. | :58:46. | :58:52. | |
The government has rendered new assisted areas, mostly times along | :58:53. | :58:56. | |
the east coast along with parts of Northamptonshire. No cash upfront, | :58:57. | :59:00. | |
businesses go to the top of the pecking order for financial help. | :59:01. | :59:05. | |
Plans to merge police control routes in Suffolk and Norfolk were | :59:06. | :59:10. | |
scrapped. It was scuppered against the wishes of both chief constables. | :59:11. | :59:17. | |
The trust and confidence of the people in Suffolk is absolutely | :59:18. | :59:20. | |
imperative than this and I did not think it could be delivered. | :59:21. | :59:26. | |
Shocking images of abuse were uncovered by BBC's Panorama. Norman | :59:27. | :59:31. | |
Lamb promised a clamp`down. There are dreadful things that happen and | :59:32. | :59:34. | |
we are they happen we have to take very effective action. Big protest | :59:35. | :59:40. | |
in saffron Walden against hundreds of new homes. It is the old dilemma, | :59:41. | :59:45. | |
towns need to expand but many do not want the development. And the road | :59:46. | :59:55. | |
map 11 `` and the A11 has been opened. | :59:56. | :00:02. | |
You happy with the bypass? We need to look at what is coming, not what | :00:03. | :00:09. | |
happened. What about the A14? The old parties basically want to build | :00:10. | :00:13. | |
more and. We say that enough is enough. Let us resist the kind of | :00:14. | :00:20. | |
overdevelopment that we are facing in a large part of our region. We | :00:21. | :00:24. | |
are talking about nine miles of road and it has been decades coming. What | :00:25. | :00:28. | |
hope is there for the rest of the region and the infrastructure? That | :00:29. | :00:33. | |
is illustrative of the fact that when the sun was shining Labour did | :00:34. | :00:38. | |
not appear at the wrists. There are things that were not done by Labour | :00:39. | :00:45. | |
and we are doing them. Yes it is the A11, yes it will be the A14, but | :00:46. | :00:51. | |
just this week we have committed to rebuild Papworth Hospital. When I | :00:52. | :00:56. | |
first came a member of Parliament went to see the Health Minister to | :00:57. | :01:00. | |
try to get him to commit to the rebuilding of it and that was 17 | :01:01. | :01:03. | |
years ago. Under this coalition government, it is going to happen. | :01:04. | :01:08. | |
So that was your highlight of the week! What about yours? I am | :01:09. | :01:13. | |
guessing the assisted status for Corby? We have had for wasted years | :01:14. | :01:20. | |
under this government. Just as they get the election we are being told | :01:21. | :01:24. | |
that things that should have happened for years are now going to | :01:25. | :01:27. | |
happen. We have been losing out for four years because the previous Tory | :01:28. | :01:33. | |
county council and MP would not back assisted status for Corby. I have | :01:34. | :01:38. | |
lobbied and no business in my area will have a fighting chance. That is | :01:39. | :01:45. | |
all we have got time for. Thank you to all of our guests. That is all | :01:46. | :01:55. | |
for now. We will be backing in Vienna to live in the next week when | :01:56. | :01:58. | |
we will be looking at some of the target seats in the local election | :01:59. | :02:04. | |
`` we will be back again at 11am next week. | :02:05. | :02:04. | |
on our website. That is all we have got time for this week. Next week, | :02:05. | :02:09. | |
London's local elections. Welcome back. Now, the Government is | :02:10. | :02:17. | |
not very good at predicting the future. That's according to a report | :02:18. | :02:20. | |
from a committee of MPs this morning who say that its Horizon Scanning | :02:21. | :02:23. | |
programme that's supposed to identify potential threats, risks, | :02:24. | :02:25. | |
emerging issues and opportunities isn't much good at reading the tea | :02:26. | :02:31. | |
leaves. But can it really be any worse than our panel? Here they are | :02:32. | :02:35. | |
predicting the future of then culture secretary Maria Miller | :02:36. | :02:45. | |
before Easter. Can she survive? I'm getting out of | :02:46. | :02:49. | |
the prediction game after I said Nick Clegg would win the debates. | :02:50. | :02:55. | |
But I almost think she might. If there is a big event that moves this | :02:56. | :03:00. | |
off the front pages. David Cameron will want to keep Maria Miller until | :03:01. | :03:07. | |
at least his summary shuffle. I think they will get rid of her. I | :03:08. | :03:13. | |
think they will do the decent thing after exhausting all other options. | :03:14. | :03:19. | |
Maria Miller resigned a few days later of course! The best and the | :03:20. | :03:27. | |
brightest, when did that slip in? This week it will be exactly a year | :03:28. | :03:31. | |
until the General Election, so what better time to get our panel to gaze | :03:32. | :03:38. | |
into their crystal balls again. What's the outcome of the election | :03:39. | :03:44. | |
in 2015? I'm going to go with the polls and say Ed Miliband as the | :03:45. | :03:52. | |
Prime Minister. But the polls are only a snapshot of opinion now, you | :03:53. | :03:57. | |
think they will be the same in a year? No, I think they will narrow. | :03:58. | :04:05. | |
I think UKIP's vote share will fall. I think they are currently coasting | :04:06. | :04:09. | |
on a high and that will tailor way so they won't take as many votes off | :04:10. | :04:17. | |
the Tories. Labour with a majority or is the largest party. Another | :04:18. | :04:24. | |
liberal Conservative coalition, and I say that because he is already in | :04:25. | :04:30. | |
touching distance of Labour. I don't think UKIP will get 15, maybe half | :04:31. | :04:36. | |
of that, and most of the votes they lose will either not vote at all go | :04:37. | :04:40. | |
to the Tories and that should be enough to be the biggest party in a | :04:41. | :04:45. | |
hung parliament I don't envisage a Tory majority. I am also going to go | :04:46. | :04:51. | |
with the polls. For Ed Miliband to be hoping to win at this stage, he | :04:52. | :04:55. | |
has got to be way ahead in the polls. Labour needs to be much | :04:56. | :05:03. | |
further ahead if he is going to win so David Cameron, probably the | :05:04. | :05:07. | |
leader of the largest party. Last time after the election David | :05:08. | :05:11. | |
Cameron went to the 1922 committee and announced he was Prime Minister | :05:12. | :05:15. | |
as head of the Coalition. He has agreed this time he will consult | :05:16. | :05:19. | |
them and it will be much more difficult for him to get a | :05:20. | :05:24. | |
coalition. People at home have now concluded there will be a Liberal | :05:25. | :05:31. | |
Democrat landslide! Are we going to have debates? Yes, probably further | :05:32. | :05:35. | |
away from polling day then last time. That is the Liberal Democrat | :05:36. | :05:43. | |
point, isn't it? Yes, it sucks all the life out of the campaign, so the | :05:44. | :05:48. | |
last six weeks will be left to traditional campaigning. What did | :05:49. | :05:51. | |
you make of this in the Sunday Times this morning, this two, three, five | :05:52. | :06:01. | |
formula. There should be a Cameron, Ed Miliband, Nick Clegg debate, then | :06:02. | :06:09. | |
there should be another one with them and UKIP and the Greens. It | :06:10. | :06:19. | |
might be testing the patience of the nation to tune into all of those. If | :06:20. | :06:24. | |
you're going to say Nigel Farage should be there, the Green party | :06:25. | :06:29. | |
should be too. They know that as soon as you put them on a podium | :06:30. | :06:35. | |
next to them, he looks like he has equal stature and that is a problem. | :06:36. | :06:40. | |
David Cameron does not want the debates to happen on the way they | :06:41. | :06:45. | |
happened last time. It is generally regarded, Lynton Crosby believes | :06:46. | :06:50. | |
they were a disaster for David Cameron because they allowed Nick | :06:51. | :06:55. | |
Clegg to be the fresh person. He knows he cannot say no to them so | :06:56. | :07:01. | |
the moment you see David Cameron suggesting that Caroline Lucas | :07:02. | :07:05. | |
should be in the debate, you know he is not serious. What he will try to | :07:06. | :07:09. | |
do is have more debates, have them outside the main part of the general | :07:10. | :07:13. | |
election so that it doesn't dominate. The problem the David | :07:14. | :07:17. | |
Cameron is that the campaign will be much longer. It is a five-week | :07:18. | :07:23. | |
campaign so it is quite difficult for him to say we will only have one | :07:24. | :07:29. | |
debate in that campaign. I think smother it with love, hopefully it | :07:30. | :07:32. | |
will go to the courts for him and hopefully they will never happen and | :07:33. | :07:38. | |
he will be delighted. The European election and the local elections are | :07:39. | :07:42. | |
coming up. The three mainstream parties are saying it is a flash in | :07:43. | :07:47. | |
the pan, they don't really matter and so on, but if UKIP comes a | :07:48. | :07:53. | |
strong first, if Labour comes a poor second and the Tories come a poor | :07:54. | :07:58. | |
third, it will have consequences for all three, and the Lib Dems come | :07:59. | :08:04. | |
forth or even fish. It will have consequences and not just in the | :08:05. | :08:08. | |
media but on the ground. One of the big stories is what will happen to | :08:09. | :08:11. | |
the Lib Dems, they face losing all of their MEPs. A good result for | :08:12. | :08:20. | |
them is lit -- in the local elections is losing 250 councillors. | :08:21. | :08:24. | |
These are the most interesting elections we have had for some | :08:25. | :08:31. | |
time. Are we heading for a Nick Clegg summer leadership crisis? I | :08:32. | :08:34. | |
think we are heading towards reversing the clock back to where we | :08:35. | :08:38. | |
were before the Eastleigh by-election. That quiet and things | :08:39. | :08:44. | |
down for Nick Clegg. If they lose all their MEPs, and there is a real | :08:45. | :08:49. | |
chance they will, Vince Cable will be out on manoeuvres because age is | :08:50. | :08:54. | |
not on his side. If he can say Nick Clegg is a loser and a failure, he | :08:55. | :09:01. | |
will be back. Will the Tories go into headless chicken mode if they | :09:02. | :09:16. | |
come third? Yes, if UKIP come first there will not be as much panic as | :09:17. | :09:23. | |
if Labour come first. Is Labour comes a poor second, will there be | :09:24. | :09:28. | |
some pressure on Ed Miliband to reopen his attitude to the | :09:29. | :09:32. | |
referendum? I don't think so and my colleague was talking to Labour | :09:33. | :09:37. | |
sources who said he is absolutely not going to. That is something you | :09:38. | :09:41. | |
can say definitely about him, he decides on a course and he sticks to | :09:42. | :09:46. | |
it. There is one potential upside for David Cameron in a really bad | :09:47. | :09:51. | |
Conservative results, it could strengthen his hand in the | :09:52. | :09:55. | |
renegotiations of Britain's EU membership because he doesn't even | :09:56. | :09:59. | |
need to say to Angela Merkel and Francois Hollande it is there. David | :10:00. | :10:07. | |
Cameron hasn't just been fighting for his party into the local | :10:08. | :10:12. | |
elections. He also got his knuckles wrapped by the Speaker, John Bercow, | :10:13. | :10:14. | |
at Prime Minister's Question Time, for talking for too long. Take a | :10:15. | :10:22. | |
look at this. There is a better future ahead of us but we must not | :10:23. | :10:27. | |
go backward to the policies that put us in this mess in the first place. | :10:28. | :10:32. | |
I don't know what they are paying him, Mr Speaker. Order, order. I | :10:33. | :10:50. | |
haven't finished! In response to that question, the Prime Minister | :10:51. | :10:53. | |
has finished and he can take it from me that he has finished. I can't | :10:54. | :11:01. | |
remember a speaker ever speaking to a Prime Minister like that. Clearly | :11:02. | :11:07. | |
in that case, John Bercow crossed a line. It is Prime Minister 's | :11:08. | :11:12. | |
questions, he is entitled to answer the questions. There is really bad | :11:13. | :11:17. | |
blood between those two, going back a long way. They hate each other and | :11:18. | :11:23. | |
the worrying thing about that was the look of triumphalism on the | :11:24. | :11:29. | |
speaker's face afterwards. He is a remarkable, revolutionary speaker | :11:30. | :11:32. | |
who has made the House of Commons more relevant, he is holding the | :11:33. | :11:37. | |
executive to account, but that look on his face showed he had crossed | :11:38. | :11:43. | |
the line. Does he survive after the next election? He has improved the | :11:44. | :11:46. | |
importance of the Commons, is that enough to keep him in the Speaker 's | :11:47. | :11:53. | |
chair? The most public bit of the Commons is still the Prime Minister | :11:54. | :11:59. | |
's questions, and we can conclude that John Bercow's interventions | :12:00. | :12:03. | |
take more time than any delays he complains about so I wouldn't be | :12:04. | :12:10. | |
surprised if, in a few years' time, someone else replaces him. He is | :12:11. | :12:18. | |
quite popular with Labour, is he not? Yes, he is married to a Labour | :12:19. | :12:24. | |
activist and is notably sympathetic to Labour but I think this is a | :12:25. | :12:29. | |
difficult situation. David Cameron also overstepped the line. As soon | :12:30. | :12:34. | |
as the speaker says order, the idea is that the House was to order and | :12:35. | :12:40. | |
David Cameron pushed him. They are both trying to score points off each | :12:41. | :12:46. | |
other. We cover Prime Minister 's questions every week on the daily | :12:47. | :12:53. | |
politics, and there is a danger that he sees it as an opportunity to do | :12:54. | :12:58. | |
some grandstanding. You slightly sends his vanity gets the better of | :12:59. | :13:02. | |
him. It is supposed to be Prime Minister 's questions. At the end of | :13:03. | :13:07. | |
that session, the Speaker read out a statement from the Chief clerk, and | :13:08. | :13:12. | |
immensely respected figure, saying he is taking early retirement. It is | :13:13. | :13:17. | |
pretty clear that the reason he has decided to go early is because he is | :13:18. | :13:21. | |
finding it tricky to maintain a cordial relationship with the | :13:22. | :13:24. | |
speaker, and the speaker might want to think about his man management | :13:25. | :13:29. | |
skills. That's all for today. The Daily Politics will be back on BBC | :13:30. | :13:32. | |
Two at lunchtime from Tuesday onwards. Remember, it is a bank | :13:33. | :13:36. | |
holiday tomorrow. I'll be back here at 11am next week. Remember - if | :13:37. | :13:39. | |
it's Sunday, it's the Sunday Politics. | :13:40. | :13:44. |