Browse content similar to 28/09/2014. Check below for episodes and series from the same categories and more!
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Morning folks and welcome to The Sunday Politics, | :00:36. | :00:38. | |
live from the Conservative Conference in Birmingham. | :00:39. | :00:45. | |
There will be one less Conservative MP here after Mark Reckless defected | :00:46. | :00:46. | |
He joins us live from his constituency, where he has | :00:47. | :00:52. | |
It has not been the best of starts for the Prime Minister, as he | :00:53. | :00:59. | |
arrives in Birmingham for the last Tory conference before the election. | :01:00. | :01:02. | |
On top of the Reckless defection, a junior Tory minister has resigned | :01:03. | :01:05. | |
RAF jets have carried out their first mission over Iraq | :01:06. | :01:13. | |
Here in the east, with our roads, railways and rural broadband left | :01:14. | :01:20. | |
wanting, we ask what have the Conservatives done for ts? | :01:21. | :01:22. | |
And they're smiling now but can UKIP really deliver when in power? | :01:23. | :01:27. | |
In London, how the richest 1% are pulling further away, and why those | :01:28. | :01:32. | |
priced out are choosing to move away. | :01:33. | :01:37. | |
And joining me, three of the country's most loyal journalists, | :01:38. | :01:41. | |
who sadly have yet to resign or defect to our inferior rivals. | :01:42. | :01:44. | |
Nick Watt, Polly Toynbee and Janan Ganesh. | :01:45. | :01:51. | |
And, of course, they'll be tweeting throughout the programme. | :01:52. | :01:54. | |
And you too can get involved by using the hashtag #BBCSP. | :01:55. | :01:58. | |
At the current rate of Tory resignations, | :01:59. | :02:00. | |
Mr Cameron could be speaking to an empty hall when he makes his keynote | :02:01. | :02:04. | |
address to the Tory conference here in Birmingham tomorrow. | :02:05. | :02:07. | |
It's been a classic car crash of a start to the conference, with a UKIP | :02:08. | :02:11. | |
defection, a minister shamed into resignation by a sex scandal and | :02:12. | :02:15. | |
Ed Miliband's memory lapses now look like a little local difficulty. | :02:16. | :02:21. | |
Here's what the Prime Minister had to say | :02:22. | :02:28. | |
These things are frustrating and frankly counter-productive and | :02:29. | :02:40. | |
rather senseless. If you want to have a European referendum, if you | :02:41. | :02:44. | |
want to get the deficit down, if you want to build a stronger Britain | :02:45. | :02:47. | |
that we can be proud of, there is only one option, which is to have a | :02:48. | :02:51. | |
Conservative government after the next election. | :02:52. | :02:53. | |
And Mark Reckless joins me now from Rochester. | :02:54. | :03:01. | |
Welcome to the programme. Why did you lie to all your Conservative | :03:02. | :03:08. | |
colleagues and mislead those who elected you? Well, I am keeping | :03:09. | :03:12. | |
faith with my constituents and keeping my promises to them. You | :03:13. | :03:16. | |
heard the Prime Minister saying that the Conservative led government was | :03:17. | :03:20. | |
dealing with the deficit and cutting immigration. The reality is, we have | :03:21. | :03:24. | |
increased the national debt by more in five years than even Labour | :03:25. | :03:28. | |
managed in 13, and immigration is back up to the levels we saw under | :03:29. | :03:33. | |
Labour. I believe in the promises I made in 2010, and I want to keep my | :03:34. | :03:37. | |
words to my electorate, not least to deal with the deficit, cut | :03:38. | :03:40. | |
immigration, reform the political system, to localise powers back to | :03:41. | :03:45. | |
the community, particularly over house-building. The government has | :03:46. | :03:48. | |
broken its word on all those things are. I want to keep my word to my | :03:49. | :03:53. | |
voters here, and that is why I have done what I have done, by moving to | :03:54. | :03:59. | |
UKIP. You have not kept your words to your Conservative constituency | :04:00. | :04:03. | |
chairman. You assured him 48 hours ago that you would not defect, and | :04:04. | :04:07. | |
you left his voice mail on the Conservative Party chairman's office | :04:08. | :04:12. | |
telephone, missing to come to Birmingham to campaign for the | :04:13. | :04:17. | |
Tories. This is your voice mail .. I have just picked up your e-mail .. | :04:18. | :04:38. | |
So, Friday night, telling Grant Shapps you are coming to Birmingham | :04:39. | :04:43. | |
to campaign for the Tories. The next day, you are joining UKIP. Why did | :04:44. | :04:50. | |
you are a? I sounded a bit more hesitant on that call than I usually | :04:51. | :04:55. | |
do, and I am not sure if that was the full conversation. But you | :04:56. | :04:57. | |
cannot discuss these things in advance, you have to make a | :04:58. | :05:01. | |
decision. I have decided the future of this country is better served by | :05:02. | :05:05. | |
UKIP then it is by the Conservative Party under David Cameron. I made a | :05:06. | :05:11. | |
lot of promises to my constituents, and I want to keep those promises. | :05:12. | :05:20. | |
That is why I am moving to UKIP so I can deliver the change this | :05:21. | :05:26. | |
country really needs. In May of this year, you said that Nigel Farage, | :05:27. | :05:32. | |
quote, poses the most serious threat to a Tory victory at the election. | :05:33. | :05:37. | |
So, you agree, voting UKIP means a Labour government? I think voting | :05:38. | :05:43. | |
UKIP means getting UKIP. While in the past a disproportionate number | :05:44. | :05:46. | |
of UKIP people were ex-Conservatives, now, they are | :05:47. | :05:50. | |
winning a lot more people, from all parties. People are so disillusioned | :05:51. | :05:53. | |
with the political class in Westminster, that they have not | :05:54. | :05:57. | |
voted often for a generation. Those are the people Nigel Farage is | :05:58. | :06:01. | |
inspiring, and frankly, he has also inspired me. What he has done in the | :06:02. | :06:06. | |
last 20 years, building his party, getting people from all walks of | :06:07. | :06:11. | |
life, sending up for ordinary people, I think deserves support. | :06:12. | :06:14. | |
That is a key reason why I am moving. UKIP are now the agents of | :06:15. | :06:21. | |
change. You said it poses them a serious threat to a Tory victory? My | :06:22. | :06:26. | |
ambition is not a Tory victory. We made all of these promises in 2 10 | :06:27. | :06:30. | |
as Conservatives, and they have been broken. We now hear from David | :06:31. | :06:34. | |
Cameron about English votes for English laws, supported by Nick | :06:35. | :06:38. | |
Clegg as well, but that is what we said in our manifesto in 2010, and | :06:39. | :06:42. | |
we have done absolutely nothing about it. It is not credible now to | :06:43. | :06:45. | |
pretend that you are going to do those things. They have omitted to | :06:46. | :06:51. | |
give every Scot ?1600 per year in definitely. If you want to stand up | :06:52. | :06:58. | |
for the English taxpayer, and really tackle the debt, then UKIP are the | :06:59. | :07:07. | |
party who will do that. But there is nothing principled about this, this | :07:08. | :07:11. | |
is just an attempt to save your skin. You said UKIP stopped you | :07:12. | :07:17. | |
winning in 2005 - UKIP did not stand in 2010, and you won. You are | :07:18. | :07:20. | |
frightened that UKIP would beat you in the next election, this is to | :07:21. | :07:26. | |
save your skin to me you think I am doing this because I am frightened, | :07:27. | :07:30. | |
you think this is the easy option, to abandon my position in | :07:31. | :07:34. | |
Parliament, but my principles on the line? On the contrary, you look at | :07:35. | :07:44. | |
MPs who have moved party before almost none of them have given their | :07:45. | :07:48. | |
voters to chance to have a say on what they have done. I am asking | :07:49. | :07:52. | |
permission from my voters, and I am moving to UKIP because I believe | :07:53. | :07:56. | |
many of the people in my constituency have been let down by a | :07:57. | :08:00. | |
Conservative led government, and that what UKIP is saying appeals to | :08:01. | :08:03. | |
decent, hard-working people, who want to see real change in our | :08:04. | :08:11. | |
country. If they do not agree, then they can vote in a by-election and | :08:12. | :08:14. | |
have their say on who they want to be their MP. I am being open and | :08:15. | :08:22. | |
honest, giving people a say. I am trying to do the right thing by my | :08:23. | :08:26. | |
constituents, and whatever the risk is to me personally, I think it is | :08:27. | :08:31. | |
the right thing to do. It is what MPs should be in politics to try and | :08:32. | :08:35. | |
do for the people they represent. Your defection, coming after Douglas | :08:36. | :08:42. | |
Carswell's, confirms the claim that UKIP is largely a depository for | :08:43. | :08:44. | |
disaffected right-wing Tories like yourself, isn't it? On the contrary, | :08:45. | :08:51. | |
the number of people I met in Doncaster yesterday was | :08:52. | :08:54. | |
extraordinary. When I first went to Conservative conferences 20 years | :08:55. | :08:59. | |
ago, there was some enthusiasm for politics, I remember Norman Tebbit | :09:00. | :09:02. | |
speaking against Maastricht, people fought they could change things | :09:03. | :09:06. | |
there was real politics. But I do not think you will see that at | :09:07. | :09:11. | |
Birmingham this week, it is PR people, lobbyists, corporate, few | :09:12. | :09:14. | |
ordinary members of. At Ancaster, people had saved up for months just | :09:15. | :09:18. | |
to get the rail ticket to Doncaster. People who believe in UKIP, who | :09:19. | :09:23. | |
believe in Nigel Farage, who believe in the team, as agents of change, | :09:24. | :09:30. | |
who can actually deal with a political class at Westminster which | :09:31. | :09:37. | |
has let able down. We want proper reform to the political system, | :09:38. | :09:40. | |
which David Cameron promises but does not deliver. Final question - | :09:41. | :09:47. | |
after the next election, the Prime Minister is going to be either David | :09:48. | :09:50. | |
Cameron or Ed Miliband, that is the choice, one or the other - who would | :09:51. | :09:57. | |
you prefer? Well, what we would prefer is to get the most UKIP | :09:58. | :10:00. | |
policies implemented. We want a first rate we want to deal with | :10:01. | :10:07. | |
immigration. I asked about who you wanted to be Prime Minister. We will | :10:08. | :10:13. | |
look at the circumstances. We need as many UKIP MPs as possible, to | :10:14. | :10:18. | |
restore trust in politics. If people vote UKIP, they will get UKIP. How | :10:19. | :10:31. | |
serious is this? I think it is very serious. It is the old Tory disease, | :10:32. | :10:36. | |
destroyed John Major, and it has been bubbling away again. It is | :10:37. | :10:40. | |
beginning to feel like the worst days of Labour in the early nineteen | :10:41. | :10:44. | |
eighties. It matters, because people care passionately. It is nothing | :10:45. | :10:49. | |
like Labour in the early 1980s, it is bad, but it is nothing like that. | :10:50. | :10:54. | |
There are these very strong strands. People like David Davis | :10:55. | :10:58. | |
writing a large piece in the Daily Mail attacking the leader on the | :10:59. | :11:01. | |
first day of the conference. That is the kind of thing that Labour used | :11:02. | :11:05. | |
to do. That is what David Davis does all the time! But this is authentic | :11:06. | :11:11. | |
in the sense that there is a real, genuine dispute about Europe. Some | :11:12. | :11:16. | |
of us were not around in the 19 0s, but I imagine it is pretty bad. | :11:17. | :11:20. | |
There is the short-term problem of the by-election they might lose the | :11:21. | :11:23. | |
media problem of the general election which they cannot win if | :11:24. | :11:26. | |
UKIP remain anywhere near their current level of support. But in | :11:27. | :11:30. | |
many ways the longer term question is the most pressing, which is, does | :11:31. | :11:32. | |
it make is the most pressing, which is, does | :11:33. | :11:36. | |
Party to remain one party, or would it not be better for the hard-core | :11:37. | :11:41. | |
of 20-30 intransigent Eurosceptics to essentially join UKIP or form | :11:42. | :11:48. | |
their own party? At least the Conservatives would become more | :11:49. | :11:52. | |
internally manageable. And probably lose the next election. Probably, | :11:53. | :11:57. | |
yes. That is what you are advising them? If the reward is to have a | :11:58. | :12:03. | |
coherent party in 15 years' time. It is just as well you are a | :12:04. | :12:07. | |
columnist, not a party strategist. I was an anorak in the 1980s, who | :12:08. | :12:12. | |
watched the Labour conference on the TV. Were you wearing your anorak? Of | :12:13. | :12:18. | |
course I was, that is how sad I am. But once again the crisis from UKIP | :12:19. | :12:22. | |
has forced the Prime Minister to step in an even more Eurosceptic | :12:23. | :12:26. | |
direction. Said on television what he was trying not to say, which is | :12:27. | :12:32. | |
that if he does not get his way in the European negotiations, he will | :12:33. | :12:35. | |
recommend to the British people that we should go. He began by saying, as | :12:36. | :12:39. | |
I have always said, and when they say that, you know they are saying | :12:40. | :12:44. | |
something new. He basically said, Britain should not stay if it is not | :12:45. | :12:48. | |
in Britain's interests. I think this is big stakes for both the Tories | :12:49. | :12:54. | |
and four UKIP. The Tories are able to write off Clacton. Rochester is | :12:55. | :13:00. | |
number 271 on the UKIP friendly list. If the Tories win it, big | :13:01. | :13:05. | |
moment for them. If UKIP lose it, this strategy of various will be | :13:06. | :13:07. | |
facing a bit of a setback. To what extent are Mark Reckless's | :13:08. | :13:19. | |
views shared by Conservative The Sunday Politics commissioned | :13:20. | :13:21. | |
an exclusive poll of Conservative Pollsters ComRes spoke to over ,000 | :13:22. | :13:26. | |
councillors - that's almost an eighth of their | :13:27. | :13:31. | |
council base - and Eleanor Garnier There is not a single party | :13:32. | :13:46. | |
conference at the seaside this year, and Sunday Politics could not get | :13:47. | :13:48. | |
through them all without a trip to the coast. So here we are on the | :13:49. | :13:53. | |
shore in Sussex. There are plenty of Conservative councillors here, and | :13:54. | :13:58. | |
Tory MPs as well, but one challenge they all face is UKIP, who have got | :13:59. | :14:03. | |
their sights on coastal towns. Places like Worthing East and surer | :14:04. | :14:08. | |
and, with high numbers of pensioners, providing rich pickings | :14:09. | :14:13. | |
for UKIP. In West Sussex, the Tories run the county council, but UKIP are | :14:14. | :14:16. | |
the official opposition, with ten councillors. We cannot lose any more | :14:17. | :14:24. | |
ground to UKIP. If we lose any more ground, if you look at the way it | :14:25. | :14:28. | |
has swung from us to them, it is getting near to being the middle | :14:29. | :14:31. | |
point, where we might start losing seats which we have always regarded | :14:32. | :14:37. | |
as safe seats. So, it has got to be stemmed, it cannot go any further. | :14:38. | :14:45. | |
Our exclusive survey looked at the policy areas where the Conservatives | :14:46. | :14:49. | |
are vulnerable to UKIP. If an EU Referendum Bill is called tomorrow, | :14:50. | :14:53. | |
45% say they would vote to leave, 39% would stay in. Asked about | :14:54. | :14:57. | |
immigration... It was those issues, Europe and | :14:58. | :15:15. | |
immigration, that Mark Reckless said were the head of his decision. I | :15:16. | :15:19. | |
promised to cut immigration while treating people fairly and humanely. | :15:20. | :15:25. | |
I cannot keep that promise as a Conservative, I can keep it as | :15:26. | :15:30. | |
UKIP. When asked if Conservative councillors would like an electoral | :15:31. | :15:35. | |
pact with UKIP in the run-up to the general election, one third said | :15:36. | :15:40. | |
they support the idea. 63% are opposed and 7% don't know. | :15:41. | :15:44. | |
Conservative councillors who left the party to join UKIP say it wasn't | :15:45. | :15:51. | |
easy. I left because basically the Conservatives left me. I saw it as a | :15:52. | :15:57. | |
difficult decision to change, but what I was seeing with UKIP was | :15:58. | :16:03. | |
freed. Me being able to speak for my residents. Back to our survey and on | :16:04. | :16:12. | |
climate change 49% said it was happening, but that humans are not | :16:13. | :16:19. | |
to blame. Our survey showed that 60% think David Cameron was wrong to | :16:20. | :16:24. | |
pursue legalising gay marriage, with 31% saying it was the right thing to | :16:25. | :16:30. | |
do and 9% not sure. In Worthing councillors said gay marriage was | :16:31. | :16:35. | |
divisive. That has really been an issue here, it might have damaged | :16:36. | :16:42. | |
the party slightly, and I think in a way by setting a rule like that it | :16:43. | :16:48. | |
is a very religious thing and it is almost trying to play God to make | :16:49. | :16:54. | |
that decision. But some of the party's toughest decisions have been | :16:55. | :17:00. | |
over the economy. 56% in our survey thought the spending cuts the | :17:01. | :17:03. | |
Government has so far announced have not gone far enough. 6% were not | :17:04. | :17:11. | |
sure. They are prepared for difficult decisions, but local | :17:12. | :17:16. | |
activists say the party's voice must be clearer. I think the message has | :17:17. | :17:22. | |
to be more forceful, it has to be specially targeted to the | :17:23. | :17:26. | |
ex-Conservative voters who now vote UKIP, especially in this area, the | :17:27. | :17:32. | |
vast majority of UKIP people are disillusioned Conservatives. The | :17:33. | :17:36. | |
message has to be loud and strong, come back and we are the party to | :17:37. | :17:41. | |
give you what you want. With just eight months until the general | :17:42. | :17:44. | |
election, the pressure is on and local Conservatives are searching | :17:45. | :17:49. | |
for clues to help their party stem the flow of defections. Joining me | :17:50. | :17:58. | |
now is William Hague, the former Foreign Secretary and the Leader of | :17:59. | :18:02. | |
the House of Commons. Tories like Mark Reckless are | :18:03. | :18:06. | |
defecting to UKIP because they don't trust the party leadership to | :18:07. | :18:11. | |
deliver on Europe, do they? They believe people like you and David | :18:12. | :18:15. | |
Cameron will campaign to stay in and they are right. They said before | :18:16. | :18:22. | |
they defected that people should vote Conservative to get a | :18:23. | :18:25. | |
referendum on Europe, and that is right of course. The only way to get | :18:26. | :18:32. | |
a referendum is to do that and this is the point, the people should | :18:33. | :18:37. | |
decide. However a future government decides it will campaign, it should | :18:38. | :18:41. | |
be the people of the country who decide. Can you say to our viewers | :18:42. | :18:47. | |
this morning that is not enough powers are repatriated back to | :18:48. | :18:51. | |
Britain, you would want to come out, can you say that? Our objective | :18:52. | :18:57. | |
is to get those powers and stay in. The answer to the question is I | :18:58. | :19:01. | |
won't be deciding, David Cameron won't be deciding, you the voters | :19:02. | :19:07. | |
will be deciding. But you have to give us your view. If you don't get | :19:08. | :19:13. | |
enough powers back, would you vote to come out and recommended? Our | :19:14. | :19:19. | |
objective is to get those powers and be able to stay in. You just get | :19:20. | :19:23. | |
endless speculation years in advance. I will decide at the time | :19:24. | :19:28. | |
how I will vote. Surely that is the rational position for everyone to | :19:29. | :19:34. | |
take but I want a referendum to take place. I understand that. As you | :19:35. | :19:39. | |
pointed out to Mark Reckless just now, unless there is a Conservative | :19:40. | :19:44. | |
government, people won't have that choice. Under a Labour government | :19:45. | :19:52. | |
they will not get a choice at all. Our survey of Tory councillors shows | :19:53. | :19:56. | |
that almost 50% would vote to leave the EU in a referendum. I think it | :19:57. | :20:04. | |
showed, wasn't it 45, and 39%, but again, I'm pretty sure they will | :20:05. | :20:07. | |
decide at the time. They will want to see what a future government | :20:08. | :20:13. | |
achieves in a renegotiation before they decide what to vote in a | :20:14. | :20:18. | |
referendum. Unless David Cameron is Prime Minister and there is a | :20:19. | :20:22. | |
Conservative government, there will not be a renegotiation. That is a | :20:23. | :20:31. | |
point you have made four times. I think they have got it. Your Cabinet | :20:32. | :20:34. | |
colleague says we should not be scared of quitting the EU, but you | :20:35. | :20:37. | |
went native in the Foreign Office, didn't you? You used to be a | :20:38. | :20:42. | |
Eurosceptic, you are now the Foreign Office line man. No, I don't think | :20:43. | :20:49. | |
so! We brought back the first reduced European budget ever in | :20:50. | :20:54. | |
history. Even Margaret Thatcher .. Leaving the EU scares you, doesn't | :20:55. | :21:01. | |
it? Not much scares me after 26 years in politics but we want to do | :21:02. | :21:05. | |
the best thing for the country. Where we scared when we got us out | :21:06. | :21:13. | |
of liability for Eurozone bailouts? We were not scared of anybody. | :21:14. | :21:18. | |
People said we couldn't achieve things but we negotiated these | :21:19. | :21:23. | |
things. We can do that with a wider negotiation in Europe. Mr Reckless | :21:24. | :21:31. | |
says he cannot keep the Conservative promise to tackle immigration. You | :21:32. | :21:36. | |
have failed to keep your promise to keep net immigration down. You | :21:37. | :21:50. | |
promised to cut it below 100,00 , you failed. It is over 200,000 | :21:51. | :22:06. | |
people. We have cut it from 250 000 in 2005, the last figures were | :22:07. | :22:15. | |
240,000. I think we can file that under F four failed. It includes | :22:16. | :22:21. | |
students, we want them in the country. You knew that when you made | :22:22. | :22:28. | |
the promise. But has it come down? Yes, it has. Have we stopped | :22:29. | :22:33. | |
the promise. But has it come down? coming here because of our benefit | :22:34. | :22:37. | |
system? Yes. None of that happened under Labour. If Mark Reckless had | :22:38. | :22:43. | |
his way, it would be more likely we would have a Labour government. They | :22:44. | :22:47. | |
have an open door policy on immigration. You are not just losing | :22:48. | :22:53. | |
MPs to UKIP, you are losing voters. Polling by Michael Ashcroft shows | :22:54. | :22:59. | |
that 20% of people who voted Tory in 2010 have abandoned youth and three | :23:00. | :23:02. | |
quarters of them are voting UKIP now. We will see in the general | :23:03. | :23:09. | |
election. Politics is very fluid in this country and we shouldn't deny | :23:10. | :23:15. | |
that in any way but UKIP thought they were going to win the | :23:16. | :23:19. | |
by-election in Newark, we had a thumping Conservative victory, and I | :23:20. | :23:24. | |
think opinion polls are snapshots of opinion now. They are not forecast | :23:25. | :23:28. | |
of the general election and we will be doing everything we can to get | :23:29. | :23:34. | |
our message across. Today we are announcing 3 million more | :23:35. | :23:37. | |
apprenticeships in the next Parliament. I think this is what | :23:38. | :23:41. | |
people will be voting on, rather than who has defected. Your activist | :23:42. | :23:49. | |
base once parked with UKIP. Our survey shows a third of Tory | :23:50. | :23:54. | |
councillors would like a formal pact with UKIP. Why not? It shows two | :23:55. | :24:01. | |
thirds are against it. No, it shows one third want it. I read the | :24:02. | :24:09. | |
figures, it showed 67% don't want it. We are not going to make a pact | :24:10. | :24:16. | |
with other parties, and they don't work in the British electoral system | :24:17. | :24:23. | |
even if they were desirable. You are sharing the Cabinet committee on | :24:24. | :24:28. | |
English votes for English laws. Is further devolution for Scotland | :24:29. | :24:32. | |
conditional on progress towards English devolution? No, the | :24:33. | :24:36. | |
commitment to Scotland is unconditional. We will meet the | :24:37. | :24:41. | |
commitments to Scotland but we believe, we the Conservatives | :24:42. | :24:44. | |
believe, that in tandem with that we have to resolve these questions | :24:45. | :24:48. | |
about fairness to the rest of the UK as well. That will depend on other | :24:49. | :24:53. | |
parties or the general election result. Are you committed to the | :24:54. | :24:59. | |
Gordon Brown timetable? Yes, absolutely. So you are committed to | :25:00. | :25:04. | |
producing draft legislation by Burns night, that is at the end of | :25:05. | :25:08. | |
January. Will you produce proposals for English votes on English laws by | :25:09. | :25:15. | |
then? We will, but whether they are agreed across the parties will | :25:16. | :25:22. | |
depend on the other parties. There was no sign that they were agreeable | :25:23. | :25:28. | |
at the Labour conference. We will produce our ideas on the same | :25:29. | :25:33. | |
timetable as the timetable for Scottish devolution. You will | :25:34. | :25:37. | |
therefore bring forward proposals for English votes for English laws | :25:38. | :25:43. | |
by the end of January? Yes. And will you attempt to get them on the | :25:44. | :25:47. | |
statute book before the election? The commitment in Scotland is to | :25:48. | :25:51. | |
legislate after the election. You will publish a bill beforehand? We | :25:52. | :25:57. | |
will publish proposals beforehand. I don't exclude doing something before | :25:58. | :26:03. | |
the election, but the Scottish timetable is to legislate for the | :26:04. | :26:07. | |
further devolution after the general election, whoever wins the election. | :26:08. | :26:12. | |
Have you given thought as to what English votes for English laws would | :26:13. | :26:19. | |
mean? I have thought a lot of it over 15 years. I am not going to | :26:20. | :26:24. | |
prejudge what the outcome will be, but it does mean in essence that | :26:25. | :26:29. | |
when decisions are taken, decisions that only affect England or only | :26:30. | :26:34. | |
England and Wales, then only the MPs from England and Wales should be | :26:35. | :26:38. | |
making those decisions. You can achieve that in many different | :26:39. | :26:43. | |
ways. Is that it for English devolution, is that what it amounts | :26:44. | :26:49. | |
to? That is devolution to England if you like, but within England there | :26:50. | :26:53. | |
is a lot of other devolution going on and we might well want to extend | :26:54. | :26:58. | |
that further. We have given more freedom to local authorities, there | :26:59. | :27:03. | |
is a lot of scope to do more of that, but that in itself is not the | :27:04. | :27:07. | |
answer to the problem of what happens at Westminster. You haven't | :27:08. | :27:16. | |
just given Scotland more devolution or planned to do it, you have also | :27:17. | :27:21. | |
enshrined the Barnett formula and that seems to be in perpetuity. It | :27:22. | :27:26. | |
is widely regarded as being unfair to Wales and many of the poorer | :27:27. | :27:31. | |
English regions. Why do you perpetuate it? It will become less | :27:32. | :27:34. | |
relevant overtime if more tax-raising powers... It goes all | :27:35. | :27:43. | |
the way back to the 1970s, we made a commitment on that, we will keep our | :27:44. | :27:47. | |
commitments to Scotland as more -- but as more tax-raising powers | :27:48. | :27:55. | |
devolved, the Barnett formula is less significant. If you transfer ?5 | :27:56. | :28:00. | |
billion of tax-raising powers to Scotland, 5 billion comes off the | :28:01. | :28:05. | |
Barnett formula? It will be a lot more complicated than that, but yes, | :28:06. | :28:11. | |
as their own decisions about taxation are made, the grand from | :28:12. | :28:16. | |
Westminster will go down. And you can guarantee that if there is a | :28:17. | :28:19. | |
majority Conservative government, there will be English votes for | :28:20. | :28:25. | |
English laws after the election Yes, I stress again that there are | :28:26. | :28:29. | |
different ways of doing it but if there is no cross-party agreement on | :28:30. | :28:33. | |
that, the Conservatives will produce our proposals and campaign for them | :28:34. | :28:38. | |
in the general election. Don't go away because I want to move on to | :28:39. | :28:40. | |
some other matters. Now to the fight against so-called | :28:41. | :28:46. | |
Islamic State terrorists. Yesterday, RAF Tornado jets carried | :28:47. | :28:48. | |
out their first flights over Iraq since MPs gave their approval for | :28:49. | :28:51. | |
air-strikes against the militants. When you face a situation with | :28:52. | :29:00. | |
psychobabble -- psychopathic killers who have already brutally beheaded | :29:01. | :29:04. | |
one of our own citizens, who have already launched and tried to | :29:05. | :29:09. | |
execute plots in our own country to maim innocent people, we have a | :29:10. | :29:13. | |
choice - we can either stand back from this and say it is too | :29:14. | :29:17. | |
difficult, let's let someone else try to keep our country safe, or we | :29:18. | :29:23. | |
take the correct decision to have a full, comprehensive strategy but | :29:24. | :29:26. | |
let's be prepared to play our role to make sure these people cannot do | :29:27. | :29:29. | |
not trust harm. And William Hague is still with me - | :29:30. | :29:33. | |
until July he was, of course, Why have only six Tornado jets being | :29:34. | :29:47. | |
mobilised? Do not assume that is all that will be taking part in this | :29:48. | :29:51. | |
operation. That is all that has been announced and I do not think we | :29:52. | :29:55. | |
should speculate. Even the Danes are sending more fighter jets. There is | :29:56. | :30:01. | |
no restriction in the House of Commons resolution passed on Friday | :30:02. | :30:05. | |
on what we can do. So why so little? Do not underestimate what | :30:06. | :30:10. | |
our Tornados can do. They have some unique capabilities, capabilities | :30:11. | :30:14. | |
which have been specifically asked for by our allies. When you are on | :30:15. | :30:19. | |
the wrong end of six Tornados, it will not feel like a small effort. | :30:20. | :30:23. | |
But there will be other things which can add to that effort. We are | :30:24. | :30:28. | |
joining in a month after the operation started, we are late, we | :30:29. | :30:32. | |
are behind America, France, Australia, Jordan, the UAE, Bahrain, | :30:33. | :30:38. | |
Qatar, one hand tied behind our backs cause of the rule about not | :30:39. | :30:43. | |
attacking Syria - why is the British government leading from behind? | :30:44. | :30:48. | |
First of all, we are a democratic country, and you know all about | :30:49. | :30:50. | |
Parliamentary approval. You could have recalled parliament. We have | :30:51. | :30:55. | |
done that, with a political consensus. Other European countries | :30:56. | :31:00. | |
also took the decision on Friday to send their military assets. Our | :31:01. | :31:04. | |
allies are absolutely content with that, and Britain will play an | :31:05. | :31:09. | |
important role, along with many other nations, including Arab | :31:10. | :31:13. | |
nations. General Sir David Richards Sheriff, who just steps down as the | :31:14. | :31:20. | |
Nato Deputy Supreme Commander, he condemns the spineless lack of | :31:21. | :31:24. | |
leadership and the absence of any credible strategy. It is | :31:25. | :31:29. | |
embarrassing,isn't it? Of course, they turn into armchair generals. We | :31:30. | :31:36. | |
are playing an important role, we are a democratic country. Your | :31:37. | :31:41. | |
viewers will remember, we had a vote last year on military action in | :31:42. | :31:46. | |
Syria and we were defeated in the House of Commons, a bad moment for | :31:47. | :31:50. | |
our foreign policy. We have taken care to bring this forward when we | :31:51. | :31:53. | |
can win a vote in the House of Commons, and that is how we will | :31:54. | :32:01. | |
proceed. The air Chief Marshal until recently in charge of the RAF, he | :32:02. | :32:05. | |
says, it makes no sense to bomb Iraq but not Syria. He calls the decision | :32:06. | :32:12. | |
ludicrous. Of course, it DOES make sense to bomb Iraq, because the | :32:13. | :32:17. | |
Iraqi government has asked for our assistance. This came up a lot in | :32:18. | :32:24. | |
the debate on Friday, and the Prime Minister explained, similar to what | :32:25. | :32:29. | |
I have just been saying, that there is not a political consensus about | :32:30. | :32:34. | |
Syria in the House of Commons. When we did it last year, we were | :32:35. | :32:38. | |
defeated, and it was described by all commentators as a huge blow to | :32:39. | :32:41. | |
the government and to our foreign policy. So, we will bring forward | :32:42. | :32:47. | |
proposals when there is a majority in this country to do so in the | :32:48. | :32:51. | |
House of Commons. Professor Michael Clarke, one of the world top experts | :32:52. | :32:59. | |
on military strategy and history, he says there are very few important IS | :33:00. | :33:02. | |
targets in northern Iraq, that they are all in Syria, and we are | :33:03. | :33:07. | |
limiting ourselves to the periphery of the campaign. First of all, just | :33:08. | :33:11. | |
because you are not doing everything does not mean you should not do | :33:12. | :33:15. | |
something. Secondly, the United States and other countries are | :33:16. | :33:18. | |
engaged in the action against targets in Syria. This is a | :33:19. | :33:23. | |
coalition effort, with people doing different things. Thirdly, if we | :33:24. | :33:28. | |
were to put their proposal to the House of Commons tomorrow, and it | :33:29. | :33:32. | |
was defeated, we would not have achieved a great deal. You do not | :33:33. | :33:37. | |
know it would have been defeated. The Labour Party has given no | :33:38. | :33:40. | |
indication they would have supported that. So, you are hostage to the | :33:41. | :33:46. | |
Labour Party? We have to win a democratic vote in the House of | :33:47. | :33:50. | |
Commons, and the Labour Party is a very large part of the House of | :33:51. | :33:55. | |
Commons. You are asking us to pursue a policy which at the moment could | :33:56. | :34:00. | |
be defeated in Parliament. Is it not embarrassing to be on the wrong side | :34:01. | :34:03. | |
of so many of these military experts? Why should we trust the | :34:04. | :34:08. | |
judgment of here today, gone tomorrow, politicians? We have the | :34:09. | :34:16. | |
military experts with us now. We have a national security council, we | :34:17. | :34:19. | |
do not have sofa government, unlike the last government. The national | :34:20. | :34:23. | |
security council is chaired by the Prime Minister. Alongside the Chief | :34:24. | :34:29. | |
of Defence Staff and the heads of the intelligence agencies. And we | :34:30. | :34:36. | |
take decisions together with the people who have the information | :34:37. | :34:41. | |
now. So, you will know what British and American intelligence says about | :34:42. | :34:46. | |
Syria. The Prime Minister has said there is a danger that the | :34:47. | :34:49. | |
British-born jihadists will come back and attack us. But the | :34:50. | :34:53. | |
intelligence reports which you will have seen are clear - Al-Qaeda and | :34:54. | :34:58. | |
its associates are selecting, indoctrinating and training | :34:59. | :35:04. | |
jihadists in Syria, not Iraq. Does that not make the Syrian exclusion | :35:05. | :35:07. | |
even more ludicrous? I cannot comment on intelligence. Is the | :35:08. | :35:14. | |
situation in Syria I direct threat to this country? Yes, it is. Have we | :35:15. | :35:21. | |
excluded action? No, we haven't Could you come back to the House? | :35:22. | :35:25. | |
The Prime Minister said, it was in the motion put to the House of | :35:26. | :35:30. | |
Commons, that if we want to take action in Syria, we will come back | :35:31. | :35:34. | |
to the House of Commons. But we have not taken any decision about that | :35:35. | :35:39. | |
and we would not do so if we thought we were going to be defeated again. | :35:40. | :35:43. | |
The government supports US strikes on Syria, show you must relieve they | :35:44. | :35:50. | |
are legal. Either way the legal basis differs from one country to | :35:51. | :35:54. | |
another, according to their reading of international law. But you have | :35:55. | :36:00. | |
supported it. We do believe that they and Arab countries are taking | :36:01. | :36:03. | |
action legally and we support their action. But I understand your | :36:04. | :36:11. | |
legitimate questions. But it comes back to your basic question, why in | :36:12. | :36:18. | |
Iraq and not Syria. Nonetheless it is important to take action in | :36:19. | :36:22. | |
Iraq. We are also engaged in Syria in building up the political | :36:23. | :36:27. | |
strength of the more moderate opposition and in trying to bring | :36:28. | :36:32. | |
about a peace agreement, and we do not exclude action in Syria in the | :36:33. | :36:40. | |
future. If we propose doing something, then we ask for the | :36:41. | :36:43. | |
specific legal advice. Why would you not ask for the legal advice | :36:44. | :36:48. | |
anyway? Because you have to be sure of the legal advice at the time and | :36:49. | :36:53. | |
also we do not comment on the advice given to us by the Law officers Mr | :36:54. | :36:58. | |
Blair ended up publishing his. That was because there was a huge legal | :36:59. | :37:03. | |
dispute. So you have not had legal advice yet that Britain attacking | :37:04. | :37:08. | |
Syria would be legal? The legal situation is unlikely to be the | :37:09. | :37:11. | |
barrier in this case, let me put it that way. Within international law, | :37:12. | :37:16. | |
you can act in the event of extreme humanitarian distress and elective | :37:17. | :37:24. | |
self-defence, so one can imagine strong legal justification, but of | :37:25. | :37:27. | |
course, we will take the legal advice at the time. | :37:28. | :37:29. | |
watching The Sunday Politics. We say goodbye to viewers in Scotland, who | :37:30. | :37:34. | |
Scotland. Coming up here in 20 minutes, The Week Ahead. | :37:35. | :37:39. | |
Hello and welcome to Sunday Politics East, I'm Stewart White. | :37:40. | :37:43. | |
Today, at the start of the Conservatives Party | :37:44. | :37:45. | |
conference, one of our MPs has been forced to resign as a minister. | :37:46. | :37:48. | |
Brooks Newmark, the MP for Braintree, | :37:49. | :37:50. | |
is standing down as the Minhster for Civil Society after alldgations | :37:51. | :37:53. | |
From Birmingham, we'll be speaking to the MP for Great Yarmouth | :37:54. | :38:01. | |
and Local Government Ministdr Brandon Lewis about the Torx record | :38:02. | :38:04. | |
And of course UKIP have been holding their conference in Doncastdr. | :38:05. | :38:09. | |
We now know Douglas Carswell, who defected from the Conservatives | :38:10. | :38:12. | |
a couple of weeks ago, has been joined by another. | :38:13. | :38:26. | |
But let's start at the Tory party conferencd, where | :38:27. | :38:28. | |
they were hoping that David Cameron would be able to set out his | :38:29. | :38:31. | |
But of course it's not that easy, the party is making | :38:32. | :38:35. | |
the headlines this morning for all the wrong reasons. | :38:36. | :38:37. | |
And one of our MPs is right at the heart of them. | :38:38. | :38:40. | |
A few minutes ago I spoke to Andrew Sinclair in Birmingh`m. | :38:41. | :38:50. | |
You can't have a worse start to a party conference, people I have | :38:51. | :38:56. | |
spoken to today are spitting blood over Mark Reckless has decided to | :38:57. | :39:02. | |
join Douglas Carswell and join UKIP. When you ask about Brooks Ndwmark | :39:03. | :39:05. | |
they shake their head in disbelief. Looks Newmark issued a statdment | :39:06. | :39:10. | |
saying he was standing down as minister because story in the Sunday | :39:11. | :39:14. | |
Mirror and he pledged his continued support to the government. He called | :39:15. | :39:19. | |
one of my colleagues that hd has been very foolish and he is sorry. | :39:20. | :39:22. | |
This brings to an end a verx brief career for Brooks Newmark as a | :39:23. | :39:30. | |
minister for civil society. He upset several charities this month when he | :39:31. | :39:34. | |
called them to stick to knitting and stay out of politics. Will he stay | :39:35. | :39:40. | |
on as an MP? The expectation is that he will. This is embarrassing for | :39:41. | :39:46. | |
him but he has not broken any laws. He is highly regarded at Westminster | :39:47. | :39:50. | |
as an expert in economics and Middle East affairs, he also rather | :39:51. | :39:54. | |
ironically played a very big role in encouraging more women into | :39:55. | :39:59. | |
politics. He will keep his head down for a few weeks but he will not go. | :40:00. | :40:04. | |
Our studio guests this mornhng, George Nobbs, | :40:05. | :40:06. | |
the Labour leader of Norfolk Council and Tim Aker, one of our UKHP MEPs. | :40:07. | :40:11. | |
You have had some defections, do you have any more coming? We will see. | :40:12. | :40:19. | |
We might have a few surprisds here and there. We are the party changing | :40:20. | :40:25. | |
politics. What a couple of lonths we have had. We are going into a series | :40:26. | :40:30. | |
of by`elections where we ard looking to win in Clacton and Hayward and | :40:31. | :40:32. | |
Middleton is scaring the Labour Party. We are read could have on the | :40:33. | :40:38. | |
country and it is a good tile to be in UKIP. You say you are ch`nging | :40:39. | :40:44. | |
politics but what happened hn Clacton was traditional all style | :40:45. | :40:47. | |
politics you got rid of your local candidate and stuck in someone else. | :40:48. | :40:51. | |
An MP stood on a point of principle and rather than defect and stay the | :40:52. | :40:58. | |
let the people decide. Mark Reckless is now doing the noble thing, | :40:59. | :41:02. | |
letting the people decide as that is what drives UKIP. George Nobbs it is | :41:03. | :41:07. | |
not a great start for the Tory party conference. In fairness the new `` | :41:08. | :41:12. | |
the Labour Party conference was not a great success. I thought that was | :41:13. | :41:19. | |
quite good. I must say, be fair I think the winner out of the | :41:20. | :41:22. | |
conference season without any doubt is Nigel Farage, to produce a rabbit | :41:23. | :41:27. | |
out of a hat like that was brilliant and let's not be churlish about it | :41:28. | :41:32. | |
he has done very well. That is all style politics, isn't it? It is a | :41:33. | :41:38. | |
sign that the Conservative Party is imploding. It reminds me of the last | :41:39. | :41:43. | |
days of John Major when Labour MPs were all, sorry, Conservative MPs | :41:44. | :41:47. | |
were defecting to Labour. Wd will speak more in a while. | :41:48. | :41:51. | |
The Conservatives were hoping for a clear run this week to | :41:52. | :41:53. | |
highlight what they have achieved over the last four years. | :41:54. | :41:56. | |
So with a by`election just days away, what have they done | :41:57. | :41:58. | |
On our roads, the A11 is nearly finished, but | :41:59. | :42:02. | |
There have been constant delays to the plan to improve the A14 | :42:03. | :42:06. | |
The coalition scrapped the hdea then proposed a toll road | :42:07. | :42:09. | |
It should get started after the election next year. | :42:10. | :42:14. | |
And despite lobbying from MPs there has been little | :42:15. | :42:16. | |
improvement to the A120 in Dssex and the A47 in Norfolk. | :42:17. | :42:28. | |
If the a 47 does not get improved then obviously for a wholly based in | :42:29. | :42:35. | |
King 's Lynn it's just makes it more and more difficult to make dnds | :42:36. | :42:38. | |
On the trains, the way the government handled the biddhng | :42:39. | :42:42. | |
process for the West Coast lainline meant there were delays in `warding | :42:43. | :42:45. | |
the long term franchises. And that means despite various manifdstos and | :42:46. | :42:47. | |
summits there is still no improvement to the line between | :42:48. | :42:50. | |
London and Norwich. There are promises to improve the Ely | :42:51. | :42:53. | |
junction, with the help of loney from Europe, but work won't start | :42:54. | :42:56. | |
for another couple of years. And no sign yet of a faster servicd on the | :42:57. | :42:59. | |
West Anglia line from Stansted through Essex. And when it comes to | :43:00. | :43:02. | |
airports, the question of c`pacity in the southeast still hasn't been | :43:03. | :43:05. | |
answered. Even on broadband, where there have been improvements it s | :43:06. | :43:07. | |
still not enough. Only this week a delegation went to Westminster to | :43:08. | :43:10. | |
get things moving much quicker, especially in country areas. | :43:11. | :43:29. | |
The holiday homes here take a huge number of bookings to the Internet, | :43:30. | :43:36. | |
I know that one lost their operation for two days at the hat to relocate | :43:37. | :43:41. | |
their operation to one of the colleges. This is thousands of | :43:42. | :43:46. | |
pounds worth of lost revenud. Questions for Brandon Lewis, the | :43:47. | :43:50. | |
local government and Communhties Minister responsible for hotsing and | :43:51. | :43:52. | |
planning at the MP for great Yarmouth. I spoke to him a while ago | :43:53. | :43:58. | |
and put it to him that therd has been a promise to sort out for the | :43:59. | :44:02. | |
last four years broadband and it still is not any better. Thd speed | :44:03. | :44:07. | |
of superfast broadband is moving right across the country, it is the | :44:08. | :44:12. | |
nominal. It is moving on a week by week but there are areas whdre we | :44:13. | :44:15. | |
have some real difficulties in how we get broadband out there, how to | :44:16. | :44:20. | |
get the lines out there to lake them work for everyone in rural `reas. | :44:21. | :44:26. | |
How long will this take? We always aim to have superfast broadband is | :44:27. | :44:32. | |
widely available, 80 or 90% of the population by next year. We are | :44:33. | :44:36. | |
working to deliver that. But looking to what is coming next. I mdt with | :44:37. | :44:41. | |
suppliers last week to see how we make sure that new housing | :44:42. | :44:44. | |
development have superfast broadband available on day one. Let's talk | :44:45. | :44:50. | |
about the roads, the A14 has been a mess as far as the government has | :44:51. | :44:53. | |
been concern, still nothing on the a 47? When can we expect things like | :44:54. | :45:01. | |
that? We have a phenomenal success and I am proud to work with a team | :45:02. | :45:05. | |
from members of Parliament from across Norfolk and Cambridgdshire | :45:06. | :45:09. | |
and Southwark. We have the ` 11 committed very early on and we are | :45:10. | :45:13. | |
going to benefit from that hn the formal finishing is just a few weeks | :45:14. | :45:19. | |
away. We have the a 47 to work for in the a 47 must be the next big | :45:20. | :45:26. | |
target. We want to get access for businesses. It is something that has | :45:27. | :45:31. | |
been on the table for a long time and residents will be frustrated, | :45:32. | :45:37. | |
Labour took it off the list in 005. We are working to get it back on the | :45:38. | :45:41. | |
agenda. We can both agree that we need it but you have been in office | :45:42. | :45:45. | |
for four years and it has not been back on the table and we have no | :45:46. | :45:52. | |
start date. The a 47 is back on the table, Labour took it off and | :45:53. | :45:54. | |
downgraded the road back into a thousand five, 2006, so it was not | :45:55. | :45:59. | |
on the table at all, the Department for Transport made it clear that the | :46:00. | :46:05. | |
see it as a key opportunity, part of a core strategy going forward. We | :46:06. | :46:09. | |
are in a better place. We h`ve an ordinance statement and the budget | :46:10. | :46:14. | |
coming and a general election. I am confident that a cross`partx | :46:15. | :46:16. | |
coalition across Norfolk and Cambridge are working together will | :46:17. | :46:20. | |
be able to get the right result for the a 47. In one word, will be `` | :46:21. | :46:26. | |
will this be in the Autumn statement? You will have to ask the | :46:27. | :46:32. | |
Chancellor. It is never good to try and prejudge what the Chancdllor | :46:33. | :46:35. | |
will do ahead of the Autumn statement. We will make the case for | :46:36. | :46:41. | |
him and the Department for Transport, who are clear th`t they | :46:42. | :46:46. | |
do support the endeavour. The government is making massivd | :46:47. | :46:48. | |
investments in infrastructure across the country and we want the a 4 on | :46:49. | :46:54. | |
this list and get it going. Can I ask you about the messy start to | :46:55. | :46:58. | |
your conference season? You have had this defection and you have the | :46:59. | :47:05. | |
Brooks Newmark study,... Yot must bear in mind we have the | :47:06. | :47:09. | |
announcement of the rent to buy programme, and fantastic news that | :47:10. | :47:16. | |
we are lodging 100,000 new homes, come on! Sorry to interrupt You | :47:17. | :47:22. | |
know I am asking about the other things, do not give me all of that. | :47:23. | :47:28. | |
Far more people in great Yarmouth and Norfolk will benefit from | :47:29. | :47:32. | |
100,000 start homes, we must be very clear that the situation dods not | :47:33. | :47:38. | |
make sense. Even in the last few days, to get an EU referendtm to let | :47:39. | :47:41. | |
people have their chance, h`ve their say on whether they want to be in or | :47:42. | :47:44. | |
out we need a Conservative government. There is only one way | :47:45. | :47:50. | |
for a referendum and that is to vote Conservative. And the Brooks Newmark | :47:51. | :47:55. | |
situation? I think he has bden very clear, he has apologised and | :47:56. | :47:59. | |
resigned and he and his famhly needs the time to move on and movd | :48:00. | :48:06. | |
forward. Thank you very much. Can I ask you just a little bit | :48:07. | :48:10. | |
about what you think the Tories have achieved as far as he roads have | :48:11. | :48:14. | |
concerned? The a 11 was a L`bour plan but the Tories have done it. | :48:15. | :48:18. | |
They have done the final bit and that is very good but the a 47 is | :48:19. | :48:25. | |
essential to the economy of not just Norfolk but the whole of East | :48:26. | :48:29. | |
Anglia. We get promise after promise. That is not just a Tory | :48:30. | :48:36. | |
thing, promise after promisd happened in the Labour | :48:37. | :48:39. | |
administration. All central government failed to recognhse the | :48:40. | :48:42. | |
importance of East Anglia and this is another reason why we nedd some | :48:43. | :48:47. | |
more devolution. We know better in East Anglia how to spend money on | :48:48. | :48:50. | |
infrastructure than MPs in Westminster and government | :48:51. | :48:54. | |
departments. He wants to ch`nge politics? You want politics to be | :48:55. | :49:01. | |
different, like UKIP say? Both are dissatisfied with the way that the | :49:02. | :49:03. | |
Conservative government runs this country and it is London centric, | :49:04. | :49:09. | |
and the problems `` and the provinces of England are ignored. | :49:10. | :49:13. | |
The idea that the decision should be made by all the MPs sitting on it is | :49:14. | :49:19. | |
the afternoon is nonsense. The problem is that decisions are made | :49:20. | :49:22. | |
centrally and they should bd taken when the influence real people. | :49:23. | :49:28. | |
Temme, you would cut taxes but how did you pay roads? If you look at EU | :49:29. | :49:34. | |
contributions, ?55 million per day in foreign aid going to 11 billion. | :49:35. | :49:39. | |
He would cut foreign aid? Wd would cut it a substantial amount. There | :49:40. | :49:46. | |
is a small fraction of that foreign aid budget that is actually spent on | :49:47. | :49:49. | |
inoculations and clean water. We would keep that, the good ehght but | :49:50. | :49:53. | |
the aid that goes missing, why are we doing it? We would take the tax | :49:54. | :49:59. | |
burden off the coolest people and make sure we get our priorities | :50:00. | :50:05. | |
right. This is long`term pl`nning. This is crucial with the ro`ds. The | :50:06. | :50:09. | |
Tories said they would get immigration down to the tens of | :50:10. | :50:12. | |
thousands but it is in the puarters of a million. How can anyond plan | :50:13. | :50:16. | |
with infrastructure when thdy do not know how many people will come to | :50:17. | :50:21. | |
use the roads? Until you control your borders you cannot plan | :50:22. | :50:26. | |
infrastructure. I want rows for prosperity, not as a means of | :50:27. | :50:31. | |
cutting immigration. I was saying `` I was not saying that. As a matter | :50:32. | :50:35. | |
of planning you must make stre you know who will use the roads and | :50:36. | :50:38. | |
ready population centres will be so you can make a long`term pl`nning | :50:39. | :50:41. | |
and investment decisions. Thank you very much. Let's talk now about the | :50:42. | :50:48. | |
UKIP conference in Doncaster, with another UKIP MP joining the party. | :50:49. | :50:56. | |
The party wants to show it can be responsible. It has more th`n 1 0 | :50:57. | :51:03. | |
council in many parts of thd region the UK Independence party is very | :51:04. | :51:08. | |
much part of local politics. Nightly battle in a couple of UKIP | :51:09. | :51:11. | |
councillors are meeting with a member of the local residents | :51:12. | :51:16. | |
Association. We feel that wd are open to any opportunity, anx | :51:17. | :51:24. | |
opportunist developer who pops up on the green belt and that is ` concern | :51:25. | :51:28. | |
to us. Basildon Council havd not got their strategy in place. With 1 | :51:29. | :51:34. | |
councillors in Basildon UKIP is the second`largest party here at the | :51:35. | :51:39. | |
wicket has been a steep curve. We are effectively 12 disparatd people | :51:40. | :51:43. | |
who need to start blending together to work out what we are going to do | :51:44. | :51:47. | |
and how we are going to do ht. We have good ideas and we are there to | :51:48. | :51:50. | |
represent the views and concerns and wishes and interests of the people. | :51:51. | :51:56. | |
At times it has been confushng. The party does not tell its councils how | :51:57. | :52:01. | |
to vote but that meant therd was embarrassment and anger in some UKIP | :52:02. | :52:03. | |
councillors in Basildon orddred against a UKIP policy to abolish the | :52:04. | :52:10. | |
Cabinet system. We do not h`ve a whip system. That is a double edged | :52:11. | :52:17. | |
sword. If you have a policy which is a UKIP policy and you have | :52:18. | :52:20. | |
campaigned on this then unldss you actually have your constitudnts | :52:21. | :52:25. | |
saying we do not like that policy then you should go along with it. I | :52:26. | :52:29. | |
do not think some of the people actually realise that at thd time. | :52:30. | :52:35. | |
The party has a notable presence on several authorities, they are part | :52:36. | :52:39. | |
of the rainbow coalition running Norfolk County Council and xet every | :52:40. | :52:43. | |
few months there seems to bd some sort of controversy involving a UKIP | :52:44. | :52:46. | |
counsellor. Most appear to be hard`working but the other parties | :52:47. | :52:50. | |
often complain that they ard about lightweight. They are nice people. | :52:51. | :52:54. | |
They are nice people. Jack Whitehall. You have simplistic | :52:55. | :52:57. | |
solutions to companies with questions. Then cancelled you must | :52:58. | :53:02. | |
understand the belief, you have to put meat on the bones and you have | :53:03. | :53:07. | |
to follow these things throtgh. You have to understand the procdss and | :53:08. | :53:10. | |
come up with solutions. Thex do not. They are always looking for a simple | :53:11. | :53:16. | |
answer. Nigel Farage does not seem worried. He said UKIP counchllors | :53:17. | :53:21. | |
are making local politics rdlevant. Most of these councillors h`ve only | :53:22. | :53:25. | |
been on councils for a year. My advice to every UKIP counsellor was | :53:26. | :53:31. | |
do not run before you can w`lk. Find your feet. That actually applies to | :53:32. | :53:38. | |
politicians from all parties. One of the problems is that your | :53:39. | :53:41. | |
councillors are not whipped so in Basildon you see them voting against | :53:42. | :53:44. | |
each other. That is confusing for the public. If we are going to | :53:45. | :53:49. | |
introduce the idea that elected people should have the own lind on | :53:50. | :53:55. | |
hanging or abortion or bypasses or whatever else it is that is a darn | :53:56. | :53:58. | |
sight healthier than the whhp system we have seen in politics coling from | :53:59. | :54:03. | |
this place which is frankly with her members of Parliament and m`ny | :54:04. | :54:05. | |
councillors nothing more th`n ciphers. Nigel Farage received a | :54:06. | :54:11. | |
standing ovation as he arrived at a public meeting in Clacton. Xou can | :54:12. | :54:15. | |
see the large turnout is proof that people are prepared to take them | :54:16. | :54:18. | |
seriously. The other parties hope this is all short lived. It is a | :54:19. | :54:24. | |
protest vote, I am not complacent, it is a strong movement, but the | :54:25. | :54:29. | |
general election will be about the economy and about who is thd best | :54:30. | :54:32. | |
reader and I think David Caleron wins on both of those scores. UKIP | :54:33. | :54:37. | |
believe the public are lookhng for something different. They mhght | :54:38. | :54:40. | |
still be finding their feet but they believe they are here to st`y. | :54:41. | :54:47. | |
Tim, you really do have to have a policy and stick to it if you are a | :54:48. | :54:51. | |
party, don't you? You can't have only one voting is they want. Isn't | :54:52. | :54:55. | |
it incredible that we actually have people who discuss and debate things | :54:56. | :55:00. | |
in their groups? And do what residents want. People are sick of | :55:01. | :55:06. | |
the old politics of party m`nagers are whipping their representatives | :55:07. | :55:08. | |
to do what they say and thex all look and sound the same. With UKIP | :55:09. | :55:12. | |
it is different which is whx we are getting excellent results in | :55:13. | :55:16. | |
Basildon, Southend, Castle point, the Rock, elsewhere. You will know | :55:17. | :55:21. | |
that if you have a policy and do not stick to it you have broken your | :55:22. | :55:25. | |
promise to the people who vote for you. With reference to the Basildon | :55:26. | :55:30. | |
thing... In any council! Thd majority of Basildon Council has | :55:31. | :55:33. | |
voted for this and I am surd it will go back. We are the only party who | :55:34. | :55:39. | |
wanted a proper recall mech`nism so the people if they see their | :55:40. | :55:43. | |
representative has gotten b`ck on their promises can initiate a | :55:44. | :55:47. | |
by`election. But what we got from the Tories was what had down. They | :55:48. | :55:51. | |
say that MPs should be the one to judge whether MPs have brokdn | :55:52. | :55:55. | |
promises. That is a stitch tp which is why people are coming to UKIP. | :55:56. | :56:01. | |
You have worked with UKIP on Norfolk County Council. Yes we have. We | :56:02. | :56:05. | |
profoundly disagree on national policy, UKIP and I, but we | :56:06. | :56:09. | |
profoundly disagree with other parties, greens and liberals, and | :56:10. | :56:13. | |
they with each other. On Norfolk County Council we believe wd should | :56:14. | :56:16. | |
work together for the benefht of the people of Norfolk. Do you think they | :56:17. | :56:23. | |
have been whipped to agree with you or not? Now, I know they have not. | :56:24. | :56:30. | |
They concede the logic of a sensible argument. We have so many problems | :56:31. | :56:33. | |
left as a specialist childrdn's services and we have to work | :56:34. | :56:38. | |
together and leave ideology aside and look for what is best for the | :56:39. | :56:42. | |
people of Norfolk. We will continue doing this. You have been in | :56:43. | :56:46. | |
politics a few years. It must be very difficult for you to work out | :56:47. | :56:50. | |
how you deal with the party that does not have a party mechanism | :56:51. | :56:54. | |
working as far as whipping hs concerned. It is very difficult but | :56:55. | :57:00. | |
then, the Green Grid do not have that system either. And the Liberals | :57:01. | :57:05. | |
do not have that system, thd Labour Party is the only one of thd four | :57:06. | :57:09. | |
that actually has a whipping system. Fortunately if the issue was a | :57:10. | :57:13. | |
simple one, what is the best policy for the people of Norfolk, we can | :57:14. | :57:18. | |
just come to that agreement and do it. The great thing about what we | :57:19. | :57:23. | |
have done this that all four parties and two independents work together. | :57:24. | :57:27. | |
One party that was once in power does not want to work with `nybody | :57:28. | :57:32. | |
else. That is how it works. The Labour Party said that you `re OK on | :57:33. | :57:36. | |
simple issues. You see if it is something simple you can work | :57:37. | :57:40. | |
together. Common`sense ideas that can benefit the people. You have | :57:41. | :57:44. | |
seen in Norfolk how it can work We will speak more later. Let's hope it | :57:45. | :57:50. | |
stays fine for the people in Southend. This is our round`up of | :57:51. | :57:51. | |
the week in 60 seconds. Another deluge disaster, part of | :57:52. | :58:06. | |
Essex flooded again this wedk. Traders in Southend are adalant the | :58:07. | :58:10. | |
new look seafront is to blale. Masses of concrete, nor what | :58:11. | :58:15. | |
attracts or diversions for water. It all games are away. Plans for a | :58:16. | :58:19. | |
giant aquarium in Bedfordshhre became an expensive watch it when | :58:20. | :58:22. | |
planning permission ran out this week. But will developers ever pay | :58:23. | :58:27. | |
back the ?4 million alone bx the taxpayer? We worked hard for our | :58:28. | :58:32. | |
money, we have given it to these people. Where is it? Enthushasm for | :58:33. | :58:37. | |
a 900 acre solar farm at Peterborough seems to have dried up. | :58:38. | :58:41. | |
The City Council put its pl`ns on hold. It is high time that the City | :58:42. | :58:46. | |
Council faced the reality and pulled the plug on even more public | :58:47. | :58:52. | |
expenditure. There was a flood of support for a delegate at the Labour | :58:53. | :58:57. | |
conference his brother died in a diabetic, after his benefits were | :58:58. | :59:01. | |
stopped. Noel lessons have been learned. People are still dxing | :59:02. | :59:09. | |
Very quickly both of you on the question of solar farms werd you | :59:10. | :59:18. | |
stand? I am in favour. And would people who live nearby have the | :59:19. | :59:22. | |
opportunity of seeing, I do not wanted here? There has been a public | :59:23. | :59:26. | |
meeting at the local people seem to be in favour. If they were ` case | :59:27. | :59:31. | |
that we would not go ahead. There should be the mechanism for local | :59:32. | :59:36. | |
people to have their say, it is ridiculous that we are caushng power | :59:37. | :59:38. | |
stations are putting these windmills and solar farms anywhere. It is | :59:39. | :59:45. | |
crackers. So you disagree? Xou would not have solar panels as part of | :59:46. | :59:51. | |
your policy? Now. What do you see to that? I think you should be | :59:52. | :59:57. | |
open`minded. I think solar farms only good thing and obviously you | :59:58. | :00:01. | |
and I do not agree on global warming either but solar farms are | :00:02. | :00:05. | |
providing, provided they ard not offensive to the local people are a | :00:06. | :00:10. | |
good idea. You are not objecting to them on people 's riffs and things? | :00:11. | :00:14. | |
Now, but when you look at the fact that we are causing power stations | :00:15. | :00:18. | |
that provide us with a third of our energy over the next 18 months now | :00:19. | :00:22. | |
out of windmills or solar f`rms will be able to compensate for the energy | :00:23. | :00:24. | |
shortages. Both of you thank you. But you can keep in touch vha | :00:25. | :00:29. | |
our website where you'll also find We're back at the same time next | :00:30. | :00:33. | |
week, when the Lib Dems wind up our Conference Season but | :00:34. | :00:37. | |
for now it's back to Andrew. My thanks to you both. Andrew, back | :00:38. | :00:39. | |
to you. Here we are back in Birmingham with | :00:40. | :01:00. | |
the Conservatives. The Tories thought all they had to do was come | :01:01. | :01:05. | |
here, have a rally, a jamboree, and off they go to the races, or in | :01:06. | :01:11. | |
their case the general election Two races later it hasn't quite worked | :01:12. | :01:17. | |
out like that. Let's look at the state of this conference as it gets | :01:18. | :01:23. | |
under way. On our panel we are joined by David Davis. You wrote an | :01:24. | :01:28. | |
article in the Mail on Sunday this morning which was an Exocet at the | :01:29. | :01:33. | |
heart of David Cameron's modernising strategy. It was designed to act as | :01:34. | :01:41. | |
a lever. It was designed to cause trouble. No, we are in the running | :01:42. | :01:46. | |
for the next general election. One of the characteristics of having a | :01:47. | :01:50. | |
five year fixed term Parliaments is that the last year is about | :01:51. | :01:55. | |
campaigning. It is important we beat Miliband, he would be a disastrous | :01:56. | :02:01. | |
Prime Minister. You think the whole modernising strategy was a wrong | :02:02. | :02:08. | |
turn, that is what the article said. Yes. Has that opened the door to | :02:09. | :02:24. | |
UKIP? It has left a lot of people disillusioned with politics. What do | :02:25. | :02:34. | |
you do to get it right? Who was listening to you? | :02:35. | :02:52. | |
Frankly we need to take a more robust series of policies. How many | :02:53. | :03:11. | |
more UKIP defections will there be? I do not think there will be any | :03:12. | :03:20. | |
more. I would be very surprised I know Nigel Farage has a brilliant | :03:21. | :03:23. | |
sense of timing, but I do not think he has got the resources to do that, | :03:24. | :03:29. | |
namely, another Tory MP. So it could be another Labour one, maybe? I | :03:30. | :03:33. | |
think an awful lot will hinge on what happens in Rochester. Because | :03:34. | :03:41. | |
that is not a slam dunk. Clack and unfortunately looks like it will be | :03:42. | :03:45. | |
a walkover for them. But Rochester is a different scene. And so, there | :03:46. | :03:58. | |
could be a kind of Newark situation. When I campaigned in Newark, two | :03:59. | :04:03. | |
labour families I spoke to said they would vote Tory to keep UKIP out. | :04:04. | :04:07. | |
How bad was the Labour conference last week? One politician said after | :04:08. | :04:15. | |
he had a really bad performance that his television performance was | :04:16. | :04:18. | |
suboptimal. I think that would be a good way of describing Ed | :04:19. | :04:23. | |
Miliband's speech. The problem for Ed Miliband in memorising speeches | :04:24. | :04:27. | |
is that we are not auditioning for a new lines Olivier, we're rehearsing | :04:28. | :04:30. | |
for Prime Minister. He failed the Laurence Olivier test, and therefore | :04:31. | :04:35. | |
failed the Prime Minister test. I think the real problem for him was | :04:36. | :04:38. | |
forgetting to mention the deficit. He spoke from the heart about issues | :04:39. | :04:42. | |
which she really cares about, the NHS, the rupture between wages and | :04:43. | :04:48. | |
inflation, and forgot the deficit. Those issues are important, but if | :04:49. | :04:52. | |
you are not addressing things like the deficit, then people are really | :04:53. | :04:55. | |
not going to be listening to your messages on the areas that matter. | :04:56. | :05:01. | |
Was it bad? Yes, suboptimal, I am afraid. I hope that this ends the | :05:02. | :05:07. | |
nonsense of leaders wasting their time learning speeches off by | :05:08. | :05:10. | |
heart. You could learn a Shakespeare play in the time it takes to learn | :05:11. | :05:16. | |
70 minutes of a leader's speech I think we should just go back to | :05:17. | :05:19. | |
sensible reading what you have written. You can then alter it just | :05:20. | :05:24. | |
beforehand. A lot of things were changing, which is not surprising, | :05:25. | :05:28. | |
but he did not have time to learn it. It is a silly gimmick, it worked | :05:29. | :05:32. | |
once or twice, but that is enough for that. Despite some of the | :05:33. | :05:36. | |
derision of Mr Miliband, the Tories are flat-lining in the sun decks, | :05:37. | :05:39. | |
they have been there almost since the disastrous budget, the | :05:40. | :05:46. | |
omnishambles, of 2012, Labour is still several points ahead, nothing | :05:47. | :05:51. | |
seems to change? And David Cameron is now the leader in trouble. It is | :05:52. | :05:55. | |
almost as if a week is a long time in politics. I thought the Labour | :05:56. | :06:03. | |
and friends was Saab -- sub-suboptimal. It was so parochial. | :06:04. | :06:09. | |
You could've watched the top speeches without knowing that the | :06:10. | :06:12. | |
borders of Ukraine, and Iraq and Syria were in question. I hope, | :06:13. | :06:17. | |
because of Friday's discussion in Parliament, that this conference | :06:18. | :06:21. | |
will raise its sights a bit, and we will have something in Cameron's | :06:22. | :06:25. | |
speech, possibly that of George Osborne as well, which is a bit more | :06:26. | :06:29. | |
global. People hoped UKIP had gone away during the summer, people at | :06:30. | :06:34. | |
this conference, I mean, but it is back with a bang. They are still up | :06:35. | :06:42. | |
at 15% in the polls, the Tories languishing on 32 - what is going to | :06:43. | :06:47. | |
change? UKIP won 3% of the last election, I always thought they | :06:48. | :06:55. | |
would get about 6%. If, by the turn of the year, they are still in | :06:56. | :06:59. | |
double digits, I think at that point you can begin to wake of his | :07:00. | :07:03. | |
party's chances of winning. I have had three people say to me so far, | :07:04. | :07:08. | |
come election day, it will be fine, people will sober up and so on. It | :07:09. | :07:12. | |
will be all right on the night is not a very good strategy, frankly. | :07:13. | :07:18. | |
When they get past 5%, I start to bite into our 3-way marginal seats, | :07:19. | :07:24. | |
with liberals, Labour and Tories, and we have got about 60 of those in | :07:25. | :07:27. | |
the Midlands and the north, so it really is quite serious. And if I | :07:28. | :07:32. | |
may steal one of David's lines, when you were interviewing Mark Reckless | :07:33. | :07:38. | |
this morning, and was not talking about the EU referendum, he was | :07:39. | :07:41. | |
talking about how he felt he had broken his pledges to the electorate | :07:42. | :07:45. | |
because the Conservatives he said had failed on immigration and on the | :07:46. | :07:48. | |
deficit, and those sort of bread-and-butter issues could be | :07:49. | :07:52. | |
really potent on the doorstep, which means the Tories have got to run the | :07:53. | :07:56. | |
kind of campaign they ran in Newark, which is a real centre ground, | :07:57. | :08:00. | |
Reddan but a campaign, in which they would hope to get Liberal Democrat | :08:01. | :08:04. | |
and Labour voters out to vote tactically against UKIP. I think | :08:05. | :08:08. | |
today we have seen Cameron been pushed to the right. He has had to | :08:09. | :08:14. | |
say, yes, I would leave Europe, which he has never said before. It | :08:15. | :08:17. | |
is a huge stepping stone, a big difference. It takes the Tory party | :08:18. | :08:23. | |
somewhere else. May be get them a lot of votes. But it has not so far. | :08:24. | :08:29. | |
But I think it loses a lot of people. The industry organisations, | :08:30. | :08:34. | |
for example. The prospect of going out of Europe, but is quite a fight | :08:35. | :08:40. | |
for them. Is it not the lesson that you can out UKIP UKIP? Well, you do | :08:41. | :08:47. | |
not need to, really. I agree, last week was sub-sub-suboptimal. Hold | :08:48. | :08:59. | |
on, that is enough subs! I would not be crowing too much! But what I was | :09:00. | :09:06. | |
going to say, he left out something incredibly important, the deficit. | :09:07. | :09:10. | |
But how many people outside the M25 are thinking about the deficit? One | :09:11. | :09:16. | |
problem we face with Miliband is, he is good at politics and bad at | :09:17. | :09:20. | |
economics, in a way. He comes up with bonkers policies which people | :09:21. | :09:23. | |
love, price-fixing, things like that. Our problem will be about | :09:24. | :09:29. | |
relevance on the doorstep. I do not think at the end of the day it will | :09:30. | :09:33. | |
be about Europe. But was there not a moment of danger for you at the | :09:34. | :09:37. | |
conference, that one area where Miliband is potentially vulnerable | :09:38. | :09:40. | |
is not having credible team with business. Who turned up at the | :09:41. | :09:45. | |
Labour conference, the head of Airbus, saying, we have got to stay | :09:46. | :09:50. | |
in the European Union? The danger is that Europe allows the Labour Party | :09:51. | :09:55. | |
to gain credibility with business. There is some truth in that. But we | :09:56. | :10:01. | |
are in effectively the home straight, the last six months, and | :10:02. | :10:04. | |
people will be fussing about prices and jobs. Very parochial. They will | :10:05. | :10:09. | |
not be saying, what does the CBI think about this? It is, what is | :10:10. | :10:14. | |
happening to me, in my town, in my factory, in my office. That is where | :10:15. | :10:22. | |
the fight will be. Is it not the truth that if UKIP stays anywhere | :10:23. | :10:28. | |
near around this level of support, it is impossible for the Tories to | :10:29. | :10:32. | |
win an overall majority? I would say, if it is this level of support, | :10:33. | :10:37. | |
it is impossible for the Tories to finish as the biggest party, even in | :10:38. | :10:41. | |
a hung Parliament. The Tories keep trying to win back UKIP voters with | :10:42. | :10:46. | |
cold logic - witches it makes Ed Miliband becoming prime minister | :10:47. | :10:50. | |
more likely. UKIP is basically a vessel phenomenon, coming from the | :10:51. | :10:55. | |
gut, and David Cameron has never found the emotional pitch in his | :10:56. | :10:58. | |
rhetoric to meet that. I wonder whether we will see that moron | :10:59. | :11:02. | |
Wednesday. It is just not him. I hope we do. -- more on Wednesday. I | :11:03. | :11:15. | |
hope you're right that we do actually engage on emotion. So far | :11:16. | :11:19. | |
with UKIP, our policy has been to insult them. It does not work. I | :11:20. | :11:23. | |
know that from my constituency. We have to say to them, there is a | :11:24. | :11:28. | |
wider Tory family, we understand you are patria, we understand you are | :11:29. | :11:31. | |
worried about your family, and we do the same. What does it tell us about | :11:32. | :11:36. | |
the state of the Tories, seven months from the election, the | :11:37. | :11:39. | |
economy is going well, they are not that far behind Labour, and yet | :11:40. | :11:43. | |
there is all sorts of leadership speculation? It is extraordinary. | :11:44. | :11:47. | |
They are doing well, they are in with a shout. It depends. UKIP has | :11:48. | :11:56. | |
to be kept below 9% of. -- below 9%. I think David Cameron is one of | :11:57. | :12:04. | |
the few who speaks human, actually talks quite well to people and does | :12:05. | :12:08. | |
not look like a swivel-eyed loons. Whereas a lot of people behind him | :12:09. | :12:13. | |
do. You look at Duncan Smith and Eric Pickles, they are all kind of | :12:14. | :12:17. | |
driven, ideological men, with very right-wing policies. And nice | :12:18. | :12:26. | |
people! Don't hold back! He is not the Addams family, he is basically | :12:27. | :12:29. | |
quite human. I think a lot of people do not realise how ideological he is | :12:30. | :12:35. | |
himself and how well he has led his party in the direction they all want | :12:36. | :12:39. | |
to go. You go on about him being this metropolitan moderniser, I do | :12:40. | :12:42. | |
not think that is what he is, really. It may not be visible from | :12:43. | :12:47. | |
the guardian offices in the metropolis! Everybody where you are, | :12:48. | :12:52. | |
Polly, is a metropolitan moderniser. And where you are, too. That is the | :12:53. | :12:57. | |
nature of living in London. The trouble is, when these people get | :12:58. | :13:01. | |
into Westminster, they are part of Westminster, too. If you could only | :13:02. | :13:05. | |
win by being an outsider, the moment you get in, you are done for. All | :13:06. | :13:10. | |
teeing up nicely for Boris Johnson to be the next leader? I do not | :13:11. | :13:19. | |
think so! The point of my Exocet, or lever, this morning, is that I think | :13:20. | :13:24. | |
this is winnable. If we are good Tories for the next six months, we | :13:25. | :13:28. | |
can do this. It is by denying ground to UKIP, not giving in to them, not | :13:29. | :13:35. | |
buckling. Denying ground. Thank you to our panel. They did all right | :13:36. | :13:39. | |
today, but the normal. That is your lot for today. I am back tomorrow. | :13:40. | :13:43. | |
We will have live coverage of George Osborne's speech to the conference. | :13:44. | :13:48. | |
I am back next week in Glasgow for The Sunday Politics at the Labour | :13:49. | :13:51. | |
conference. How could you miss that? Remember, if it is Sunday it | :13:52. | :13:55. | |
is The Sunday Politics. Bye-bye of statutory press regulation in | :13:56. | :14:24. | |
sponge cake may be a bridge too far. I think I've overdone it | :14:25. | :14:39. | |
with the pistachios and somehow, the custard's split, | :14:40. | :14:42. | |
but it's too late! of statutory press regulation in | :14:43. | :14:45. | |
sponge cake may be a bridge too far. | :14:46. | :14:57. |