Browse content similar to 18/11/2012. Check below for episodes and series from the same categories and more!
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Morning, folks. Welcome to the Sunday Politics. As the standoff | :00:43. | :00:46. | |
between Israel and Hamas continues, the Foreign Secretary calls for | :00:46. | :00:54. | |
restraint on both sides. Is anyone listening? | :00:54. | :00:57. | |
After apathy swept across England and Wales last week, we'll ask Tory | :00:57. | :01:00. | |
Chairman Grant Shapps where the Police Commissioners debacle leaves | :01:00. | :01:03. | |
David Cameron's dreams of firing up society. That's the Sunday | :01:03. | :01:09. | |
Interview. And is Ed Miliband getting a bit | :01:09. | :01:13. | |
carried away after his party's victory in the Corby by-election? | :01:13. | :01:15. | |
We'll ask Shadow Home Secretary Yvette Cooper whether Labour's | :01:15. | :01:18. | |
triumph is anything more than a routine mid-term setback for the | :01:18. | :01:21. | |
Government. And is it time for prisoners to get | :01:21. | :01:29. | |
the vote? Well, it might increase turnout! Under pressure from the | :01:29. | :01:32. | |
European Court the Government will put some options before Parliament. | :01:32. | :01:39. | |
Before they vote, two MPs go head to head. In London this week, with | :01:39. | :01:44. | |
one Conservative absent without leave in the jungle, how do they | :01:44. | :01:50. | |
connect with constituents and how long do they spend with them? | :01:50. | :01:53. | |
And with me, as always, the best and the brightest political panel | :01:53. | :01:56. | |
in the business Isabelle Oakeshott, Janan Ganesh and Nick Watt offering | :01:56. | :01:59. | |
more wit, insight and tweets than there are votes in a South Wales | :01:59. | :02:07. | |
ballot box. No ground invasion by Israel of | :02:07. | :02:09. | |
Gaza, so far, but Israeli planes and warships have continued to | :02:09. | :02:12. | |
pound Gaza City, hitting two media centres in the process while Hamas | :02:12. | :02:17. | |
is still firing rockets at Israel. There are also talks in Cairo on a | :02:17. | :02:21. | |
ceasefire. Britain's Foreign Secretary has been on Sky News. | :02:21. | :02:30. | |
Here's what William Hague had to say. Efforts are going on to | :02:30. | :02:34. | |
negotiate a ceasefire, to come to an agreed ceasefire, but clearly | :02:34. | :02:41. | |
those have not been successful so far. We support those efforts. We | :02:41. | :02:47. | |
call on Hamas again to stop the rocket attacks on Israel. It is | :02:47. | :02:51. | |
Hamas that bears the principal responsibility for starting this, | :02:51. | :02:55. | |
and we would like to see an agreed ceasefire, an essential component | :02:55. | :03:00. | |
of which is an end to those rocket attacks. In the absence of a | :03:00. | :03:04. | |
ceasefire, we are calling on everyone involved to the escalate, | :03:04. | :03:11. | |
to avoid civilian casualties and abide by humanitarian law. | :03:11. | :03:16. | |
nothing new in that. I wonder if people appreciate the powerful | :03:16. | :03:22. | |
position Israel is in. Syria, the biggest enemy in civil war, Jordan, | :03:22. | :03:27. | |
on Reston the streets in Egypt, Cairo, the Egyptian army in no | :03:27. | :03:33. | |
position to do anything that would cause the Israelis damage. And now | :03:33. | :03:39. | |
increased attacks on Tel-Aviv as well. If you think back to 2006 and | :03:40. | :03:44. | |
Israel's conflict with Hezbollah in Lebanon, William Hague came under a | :03:44. | :03:48. | |
lot of criticism for taking what they thought was a hostile line | :03:48. | :03:54. | |
against Israel. He found it a very wounding experience. I think he was | :03:54. | :03:59. | |
shaped by it, and in this conflict he has been more supportive of | :03:59. | :04:04. | |
Israel, morning to pin the blame on Hamas than he was six years ago. | :04:04. | :04:11. | |
For it was Tony Blair's failure to condemn Israel in 2006 that led to | :04:11. | :04:17. | |
the final Cabinet heave-ho. The important point about this conflict | :04:17. | :04:22. | |
is that it is the first major conflict since the Arab Spring and | :04:22. | :04:26. | |
what is the big change that has happened there? You know Havant | :04:26. | :04:30. | |
Islamist government in Egypt. The President of Egypt comes from the | :04:31. | :04:34. | |
Muslim Brotherhood that has historical links with Hamas, which | :04:35. | :04:42. | |
has changed the tectonic plates. The old days when Israel could take | :04:42. | :04:47. | |
action and President Mubarak would turn a blind eye, they have gone. | :04:47. | :04:53. | |
one thing we have not mentioned is oil prices and this is the spectre | :04:53. | :04:58. | |
that haunts the government here, politically. Growing instability in | :04:58. | :05:05. | |
the Middle East, what will that do to oil prices? If they surge, will | :05:05. | :05:10. | |
that scuppered the economic recovery? We will see. We have have | :05:10. | :05:14. | |
the by-election in Corby, the election for the police | :05:14. | :05:16. | |
commissioners, where does that leave British politics this | :05:16. | :05:22. | |
weekend? The biggest important thing is where it leaves the | :05:22. | :05:32. | |
:05:32. | :05:32. | ||
Liberal Democrats. The results this week will have fuelled the anxiety, | :05:32. | :05:39. | |
further raising questions over Nick Clegg's position. You would assume | :05:39. | :05:43. | |
that polling at 8% in the opinion polls, doing as badly as they did | :05:43. | :05:49. | |
last week, there would be more sedition with indolent Dem ranks | :05:49. | :05:59. | |
than their is and even Nick Clegg this morning. -- Vince Cable this | :05:59. | :06:08. | |
morning was not unsupportive. are in a hung parliament for some | :06:08. | :06:13. | |
time. Labour's four Corby, of course they are going to, and the | :06:13. | :06:23. | |
Tories did not do that well so it is next for all of them. -- mixed. | :06:23. | :06:26. | |
In a moment, we'll ask Shadow Home Secretary Yvette Cooper just how | :06:26. | :06:29. | |
significant Corby and the other elections are. But first here's her | :06:29. | :06:31. | |
leader getting very excited. There's some flash photography. | :06:31. | :06:35. | |
This constituency is at the heart of our country and it has sent a | :06:35. | :06:40. | |
very clear message today. It has sent a message that it is putting | :06:40. | :06:44. | |
its trust in a One nation Labour Party and Middle England is turning | :06:44. | :06:50. | |
away from David Cameron and the Conservatives because Middle | :06:50. | :06:54. | |
England feels let down by David Cameron and the Conservatives. | :06:54. | :06:59. | |
joining me now is Shadow Home Secretary Yvette Cooper. Welcome | :06:59. | :07:04. | |
back to the programme. Corby was a decent result for you, nobody can | :07:04. | :07:09. | |
deny that, but there is no evidence result in mid-term by-elections | :07:09. | :07:15. | |
like this give you any real clue to the party's performance in a | :07:15. | :07:19. | |
general election. The we think it was good progress and we think it | :07:19. | :07:25. | |
is good week won this and saw an increase in our vote compared to | :07:26. | :07:29. | |
the general election as well as a drop in the Conservative and | :07:30. | :07:33. | |
Liberal Democrats vote, but of course you are right, we have a lot | :07:33. | :07:36. | |
more to do before the general election and we will keep working | :07:36. | :07:42. | |
at that. What do you say to the point from Nick Watt that we could | :07:42. | :07:46. | |
be in the hung parliament territory for the foreseeable future? I don't | :07:46. | :07:52. | |
want to see that because I think some of the damage this coalition | :07:52. | :07:56. | |
be doing to the Country is massive, whether written is the double-dip | :07:56. | :08:05. | |
recession, or to the public health service. It was a bad defeat in | :08:05. | :08:11. | |
2010, but this showed that Ed Miliband's approach is building | :08:11. | :08:13. | |
sport and support from a constituency in the heart of | :08:13. | :08:19. | |
England. Let's look at that because your leader did say middle-England | :08:19. | :08:25. | |
was turning away from the Conservatives, but the evidence | :08:25. | :08:33. | |
they are putting their trust in Labour is hard to find. The | :08:33. | :08:37. | |
Conservatives won 15 of the Police Commissioner contests, you won just | :08:37. | :08:43. | |
13. The only police commissioner contest you've won was one seat in | :08:43. | :08:48. | |
the south in Bedfordshire. Those results are interesting. If you | :08:48. | :08:55. | |
look at the overall vote, Labour won 33% of the vote, Conservatives | :08:55. | :09:00. | |
about 27%, and independents about 22%, but the real story about what | :09:00. | :09:05. | |
happened is that hardly anybody voted. It was shockingly low | :09:05. | :09:09. | |
turnout and that shows anger about having the elections and the first | :09:09. | :09:14. | |
place. I am going to speak to the Tory chairman about the turnout, | :09:14. | :09:19. | |
but what I am trying to ask for is that of those who did vote, there | :09:19. | :09:28. | |
is no sign of a mad rush to you. In Kent and Essex, these are the kind | :09:28. | :09:37. | |
of counties you need to win seats in to get the overall majority, you | :09:37. | :09:43. | |
were beaten by the Conservatives and independents. We did get a | :09:43. | :09:47. | |
larger share of the vote, more than in 2010. | :09:48. | :09:53. | |
A you have a very long way to go. It would be foolish to Reading to a | :09:53. | :09:58. | |
low turnout vote. When only 15% of the country voted, and what I found | :09:58. | :10:03. | |
on the doorstep on Thursday, what a lot of people said, and I think | :10:03. | :10:08. | |
this was from all parties, they were very angry about having these | :10:08. | :10:12. | |
elections in the first place. They didn't know anything about it, it | :10:12. | :10:17. | |
was in November, and the Government spent �100 million on these | :10:17. | :10:23. | |
elections. It is a shocking waste of money. I have heard do and | :10:23. | :10:29. | |
enjoyed listening to you. Your leader has made a more of them, he | :10:29. | :10:34. | |
said it was a sign of people turning away from the Conservatives, | :10:34. | :10:39. | |
putting their trust in Labour. In Wales, you only won one of the | :10:39. | :10:45. | |
Police Commissioner seats. These are not great results for you. | :10:45. | :10:48. | |
think the Police and Crime Commissioner results were not great | :10:48. | :10:52. | |
for democracy. I think Labour did get the largest share of the vote | :10:52. | :10:59. | |
but I'm not going to say I am proud of this when 15% of the public | :10:59. | :11:04. | |
voted. We did do our best, campaigning and working across the | :11:04. | :11:12. | |
country. In Humberside, 2010 Election Humberside had a 25,000 | :11:12. | :11:15. | |
Conservative majority so in fact Humberside was always going to be | :11:15. | :11:24. | |
very difficult. You do badly in the city of Hull as well. Of course it | :11:24. | :11:28. | |
is a Conservative area, Humberside, so good luck to John that he was | :11:28. | :11:32. | |
prepared to campaign for what was a very difficult election for a post | :11:32. | :11:36. | |
that I think the public didn't want and thought was a real waste of | :11:36. | :11:39. | |
money when you could have spent the money on 3000 police officers | :11:39. | :11:49. | |
:11:49. | :11:50. | ||
instead. You can't use money which is a single sum. It is 100 million, | :11:50. | :11:57. | |
a one-off on these elections. Is John Prescott's career over? He is | :11:57. | :12:02. | |
unstoppable, you always expect to see him doing more. People didn't | :12:02. | :12:06. | |
turn out not just in these elections, but also in Manchester | :12:06. | :12:12. | |
the turnout was only 18%. Yes, and Manchester was obviously expected - | :12:12. | :12:19. | |
people treated it as a safe seat. The Labour vote held up quite well, | :12:19. | :12:24. | |
but turnout was too low. The you got 10,000 fewer votes this time | :12:24. | :12:31. | |
than in 2010. I think you have differences between areas that were | :12:31. | :12:35. | |
considered to be safe seats like Manchester and Cardiff, and Corby | :12:35. | :12:40. | |
which had a higher turnout. The interesting thing about the police | :12:40. | :12:44. | |
elections was that every part of the country, whether it was | :12:44. | :12:50. | |
marginal, where the writ was rural or urban, turnout was rock bottom. | :12:50. | :12:56. | |
How can you claim the Labour vote held up quite well when it was | :12:56. | :13:00. | |
10,000 smaller than two years ago? It was a by-election compared to a | :13:00. | :13:05. | |
general election. I am not going to argue that turnout was too low, it | :13:05. | :13:10. | |
has been a trend across the decades. I think political parties need to | :13:10. | :13:14. | |
do more and we need to make it easier for people to vote. Rather | :13:14. | :13:22. | |
than just doing it on a Thursday and certainly not in November. | :13:22. | :13:26. | |
think it is clear they won't be doing that again. Prisoner voting | :13:26. | :13:31. | |
is back on the agenda. You are going to get a choice of the status | :13:31. | :13:38. | |
quo, no votes at all, votes if you are only banged away for six months, | :13:38. | :13:42. | |
which though would you take? I have always taken the view that if | :13:42. | :13:46. | |
someone has committed a crime that is serious enough to take away | :13:46. | :13:50. | |
their liberty, for that period they should also be deprived of the | :13:50. | :13:54. | |
right to vote. That has been the view of the House of Commons and I | :13:54. | :13:59. | |
would expect that to continue. he would vote for the status quo? | :13:59. | :14:03. | |
That has been a long-standing Labour policy and we will cut the | :14:03. | :14:11. | |
proposals. And if you are saying no votes for any business, where does | :14:11. | :14:16. | |
that leave us with the European Court? You have to keep going back | :14:16. | :14:20. | |
to the European Court on this because their job is to look at | :14:20. | :14:23. | |
what disproportionate and responsible. The British Parliament | :14:23. | :14:29. | |
is being proportion it. We have not had a legal debate on this, we have | :14:29. | :14:33. | |
not passed laws on this even though we have passed motions, and the | :14:33. | :14:38. | |
European Court should look at it again. It shows Parliament is being | :14:38. | :14:41. | |
responsible about this. That is the way the British courts have | :14:41. | :14:45. | |
operated, to look at whether the parliament is being responsible and | :14:45. | :14:52. | |
proportion it. It will be an interesting week. Thank you. So the | :14:52. | :15:00. | |
Tories lost in Corby, people wearing different to us voting for | :15:00. | :15:03. | |
police commissioners - has David Cameron's idea of engaging people | :15:04. | :15:07. | |
and decisions that affect their lives at hit the buffers? An | :15:07. | :15:11. | |
invitation to join the government to Britain, that was the title of | :15:11. | :15:16. | |
the Conservative manifesto at the last general election. The Big | :15:16. | :15:20. | |
Society directly-elected mayors, US style elected police commissioners, | :15:20. | :15:24. | |
and powers devolved to the local level were promised to the voters. | :15:24. | :15:29. | |
It didn't give David Cameron a majority in 2010 and now looks like | :15:29. | :15:35. | |
an invite the voters are rejecting. The lowest ever turnout in the | :15:35. | :15:38. | |
election for police commissioners comes after voters had largely | :15:39. | :15:45. | |
rejected plans for a directly- elected mayor. In Corby the | :15:45. | :15:50. | |
decision of Louise Mensch to abandon her parliamentary seat mid- | :15:50. | :15:55. | |
term turned into a Labour win. More worrying for the Tories is that | :15:56. | :16:00. | |
UKIP came from nowhere to win a respectable third place. | :16:00. | :16:04. | |
Performance which can only put more Euro-sceptic pressure on David | :16:04. | :16:08. | |
Cameron from his backbenchers. To win an overall majority at the next | :16:08. | :16:12. | |
general election, the Conservatives have to win millions more voters | :16:12. | :16:18. | |
than they did in 2010. Will their new elections to Primo Linton | :16:18. | :16:23. | |
Crosby, the man dubbed the Wizard of us, help them come up with a | :16:23. | :16:32. | |
more attractive proposition next And Conservative Party Chairman | :16:32. | :16:38. | |
Grant Shapps joins me now for the Sunday Interview. Good morning. Can | :16:39. | :16:43. | |
we confirm Linton Crosby is the party's new campaign strategist? | :16:44. | :16:49. | |
will come and be campaign manager but not until the New Year and on a | :16:49. | :16:54. | |
part-time basis. Have you investigated the claims that | :16:54. | :16:58. | |
mysteriously appeared in the Mail on Sunday this morning about him | :16:58. | :17:03. | |
using inappropriate language towards Muslims? He has no | :17:03. | :17:11. | |
recollection of this at all. I also know from Boris Johnson, this is a | :17:11. | :17:16. | |
serious campaigner. I think he brings a focus that is required to | :17:16. | :17:21. | |
managing campaigns. We have a big job to do. We need to explain what | :17:21. | :17:27. | |
is going on. This country is in a global race. We need to get out | :17:27. | :17:32. | |
there and secured a brilliant future for Britain. We need someone | :17:32. | :17:38. | |
managing the campaign who can focus on doing that. No recollection is a | :17:38. | :17:45. | |
strange denial. You would remember the words or you would not. Boris | :17:45. | :17:52. | |
Johnson would Eiger have remembered or not. Both have said no | :17:52. | :17:57. | |
recollection. -- either have remembered. Lots of people are | :17:57. | :18:01. | |
involved in campaigns. It is an unnamed source who has said it to | :18:01. | :18:06. | |
the paper. I do know that the two people I do know have both said | :18:07. | :18:13. | |
this does not sound right. Actually, what you want to do any case, is | :18:13. | :18:17. | |
not focused on that. I imagine your viewers will be thinking, it is | :18:17. | :18:21. | |
very interesting but what matters is the cost of living and the price | :18:21. | :18:25. | |
of a pint of milk. We will have a campaign that focuses properly on | :18:25. | :18:31. | |
the things that matter. Will Mr Crosby still be advising corporate | :18:31. | :18:36. | |
clients well he runs the Tory campaign? His business is more than | :18:36. | :18:41. | |
just him. He has a lot of corporate clients. Will he still be doing | :18:41. | :18:47. | |
that? Whatever his private arrangements are is not something I | :18:47. | :18:52. | |
am aware of. A how can he advise corporate clients and run the | :18:52. | :18:59. | |
Conservative campaign? Let's be clear, I run the Conservative | :18:59. | :19:04. | |
campaign. I am the chairman of the party. I attend Cabinet and the | :19:04. | :19:09. | |
buck stops with me. I want the best team in place to manage the | :19:09. | :19:12. | |
campaign. One of those people is acting as a consultant on a part- | :19:12. | :19:19. | |
time basis initially and runs a company. His business is more than | :19:19. | :19:24. | |
just him. It is a company. We're hiring the company and an expert | :19:24. | :19:29. | |
with a proven track record -- track record. He has helped Boris Johnson | :19:29. | :19:36. | |
be elected twice. I want that focus with my campaign. Back to this week, | :19:36. | :19:39. | |
the philosophy of David Cameron involved a new sort of engagement | :19:39. | :19:46. | |
in society. Let me show you what was said here. It says, will change | :19:46. | :19:51. | |
comes when the people are inspired and mobilised, went millions of us | :19:51. | :19:57. | |
are fired up to play a part in the nation's future. When you look at | :19:57. | :20:01. | |
what happened with directly elected mayors and the new police | :20:01. | :20:06. | |
commissioner elections, that has not happened. We would love to have | :20:06. | :20:11. | |
a bigger turnout. 5.5 million people did vote in those elections. | :20:11. | :20:18. | |
I agree with you. We want to see the bigger turnout. I agree. | :20:18. | :20:25. | |
vision has been a miserable failure. His 41 Police Commissioner's are | :20:25. | :20:30. | |
people who would be elected - are now elected - with a far bigger | :20:30. | :20:34. | |
mandate than the zero mandate that the chairman of the police | :20:34. | :20:39. | |
authority used to have. They used to run the austerities. You have a | :20:39. | :20:48. | |
mandate of 4%. -- the authorities. They will have a mandate of 4% on | :20:48. | :20:54. | |
average. Fired up to play a part in the nation's future... If that is | :20:54. | :20:58. | |
fired up, I would not want to see something that is extinguished. | :20:58. | :21:03. | |
the Olympics we had volunteers coming out to be games makers. | :21:03. | :21:08. | |
is nothing to do with you. That quote is about the nation being | :21:08. | :21:14. | |
fired up. 5.5 million people went out to vote. Let's not dismiss that. | :21:14. | :21:19. | |
If you take the first elected police commissioner, he had 37,000 | :21:19. | :21:25. | |
votes and he replaced someone with no votes. I think it is a good idea. | :21:25. | :21:28. | |
I think next time around we were see a big increase will start you | :21:28. | :21:33. | |
are not be silly enough to hold them on a night in November next | :21:33. | :21:39. | |
time. The manifesto also promised a Big Society day. We are waiting | :21:39. | :21:46. | |
with our diaries. Can you give us that date? I cannot. But I can tell | :21:46. | :21:51. | |
you, all these volunteers from the Olympics, we do not want to lose | :21:51. | :21:56. | |
that spirit - that energy and enthusiasm. What things will happen | :21:56. | :22:04. | |
this coming summer involving them. What is really big is the National | :22:04. | :22:08. | |
Assistance service. That has been quietly expanding so that tens of | :22:08. | :22:13. | |
thousands of young people are taking part in it. That is a huge | :22:13. | :22:18. | |
project. This summer we will see the biggest ever programme. | :22:18. | :22:25. | |
cannot give me the date. Noah macro, I cannot yet. 10 Downing Street | :22:26. | :22:34. | |
blamed the media for the electoral voting for the police commissioner | :22:34. | :22:42. | |
at elections. I would not say that. Elections for a new post will be | :22:42. | :22:49. | |
very different in 3.5 years' time. For a second, put yourself in a | :22:49. | :22:54. | |
position of somebody, maybe a pensioner, who goes down to the | :22:54. | :23:01. | |
local parade of shops - feels threatened because of the level of | :23:01. | :23:04. | |
antisocial behaviour which is unacceptable - these police | :23:04. | :23:08. | |
commissioners can do something about it. I reckon in four years' | :23:08. | :23:13. | |
time we will see a much bigger turnout. Let's see what the | :23:13. | :23:23. | |
:23:23. | :23:29. | ||
Electoral Reform Society had to Is she right? You always need to do | :23:29. | :23:33. | |
a lot to get people to come out and vote. I was knocking on doors | :23:33. | :23:37. | |
yesterday talking about the campaign, as well as during the | :23:37. | :23:41. | |
campaign. The fact there was not enough information through the door | :23:41. | :23:46. | |
is correct. Candidates need to take some responsibility. The | :23:46. | :23:50. | |
conservative side of the campaign delivered over 12 million | :23:50. | :23:54. | |
newsletters and leaflets. We got through a lot of the front doors in | :23:54. | :24:00. | |
this country. How much campaigning did Mr Cameron do? He supported | :24:00. | :24:05. | |
quite a number of the candidate's. Did he make a single speech saying, | :24:06. | :24:10. | |
vote for police commissioners? the one hand, people are saying, we | :24:10. | :24:15. | |
do not want to over politicised police commissioners. They had | :24:15. | :24:20. | |
quite a few independent ones elected. I visited about six of the | :24:20. | :24:24. | |
most marginal seats in the country and we actually won in several of | :24:24. | :24:29. | |
those locations. Let me show you this. It is a new word that has | :24:29. | :24:35. | |
entered the English Dictionary - omnishambles. A situation that has | :24:35. | :24:39. | |
been comprehensively mismanaged, characterised by a series of | :24:39. | :24:43. | |
blunders and miscalculations. I suspect it has gone into the ditch | :24:43. | :24:49. | |
a party because of the behaviour of your government. -- the dictionary. | :24:49. | :24:55. | |
We have managed to deliver the Olympics. It was done brilliantly - | :24:55. | :25:01. | |
not just by the Government - but by the London Organising Committee. | :25:01. | :25:04. | |
During the last two-and-a-half years, we have reduced the deficit | :25:04. | :25:10. | |
by a quarter. We are trying to get the country's finances back on | :25:10. | :25:14. | |
track. We have to compete with China. Every three months they are | :25:14. | :25:21. | |
building an economy the size of breathe -- Greece. Are you not | :25:21. | :25:27. | |
taking credit for the omnishambles? It is a Westminster story. What | :25:27. | :25:32. | |
people really care about is, how can I pay my council tax? We have | :25:32. | :25:37. | |
frozen egg for the third year in a row to make it easier to do. -- | :25:37. | :25:44. | |
frozen it. It is the cost of living issues which matter to people. | :25:44. | :25:48. | |
Whether there are words in the English language or not will be | :25:48. | :25:52. | |
small compared with whether we have the answers for Britain in the | :25:52. | :26:00. | |
future. Let's turn to Corby. Tory Central Office, you must regret | :26:00. | :26:10. | |
:26:10. | :26:10. | ||
parachuting Louise Mensch into the constituency, -- constituency. | :26:10. | :26:16. | |
think it is wrong to leave mid-term. Ed Miliband and Labour fell to live | :26:16. | :26:21. | |
up to the target, which would have been by a reasonable comparison | :26:21. | :26:26. | |
what happened in crude - that was the mid- point by-election last | :26:26. | :26:34. | |
time around. -- cru place macro. They managed to get to an 8000 | :26:34. | :26:37. | |
majority in a seat with very difficult circumstances with an MP | :26:37. | :26:46. | |
that has disappeared. She was a so called A Lister. She is a celebrity. | :26:46. | :26:51. | |
She barely knows Corby. A wonder if she could have found it on the map | :26:51. | :26:56. | |
for you made a Tory candidate. Why were they so keen to get her into | :26:56. | :27:02. | |
Parliament? To be fair to her, love knows no bounds and she went off to | :27:02. | :27:08. | |
the States to be with her husband. I do not think it is a good idea | :27:08. | :27:12. | |
for people to leave their seats part of the way through. I want | :27:12. | :27:17. | |
everyone to be a great candidate for the next elections. I want | :27:17. | :27:21. | |
great candidates in every location. You may want candidates who have | :27:21. | :27:27. | |
done work in the political trenches, who are not Blaikie celebrity | :27:27. | :27:33. | |
stardust, is that right? I want candidates with a political working | :27:33. | :27:38. | |
background but also have experience of the real world. We can bring | :27:38. | :27:43. | |
people into Parliament who have something with them so they can | :27:43. | :27:49. | |
represent the people better. What worries you more - the 13% swing of | :27:49. | :27:53. | |
Labour or UKIP coming from nowhere to a respectable third? Labour | :27:53. | :28:00. | |
should have got about 18% if they were to match where they were on | :28:01. | :28:07. | |
the last mid-term. UKIP took votes from Conservatives, that is true. | :28:07. | :28:11. | |
UKIP also took the votes from Labour. The reason for the result | :28:11. | :28:17. | |
is that in Corby - in the town itself - there are taking a lot of | :28:17. | :28:22. | |
Labour call votes. -- they were taking. All that stuff should worry | :28:23. | :28:27. | |
everyone. It should worry the country. Getting the relationship | :28:27. | :28:31. | |
right with Europe is critically important. Your election strategy | :28:31. | :28:36. | |
involves targeting 40 seats you need to win at the next election. | :28:36. | :28:42. | |
Is it true half of them are Lib Dem seats? Yes. Your election strategy | :28:42. | :28:47. | |
involves wiping out the big chunk of your coalition partners? I have | :28:47. | :28:52. | |
never minced my words about this. I want Conservatives to win in every | :28:52. | :28:56. | |
seat in the country and I do not mind who the opposition is. If we | :28:56. | :29:00. | |
are going to form the next government with an outright | :29:00. | :29:04. | |
majority and do some of the things the country really needs - reshape | :29:04. | :29:12. | |
the economy and be the party of people who wants to work hard, we | :29:12. | :29:17. | |
need to win in every seat. I do not see it as a personal vendetta | :29:17. | :29:23. | |
against the Lib Dems, I just want to win. Jeremy Browne is MP for | :29:23. | :29:28. | |
Taunton Deane. He has a majority of under 4000. He is widely regarded | :29:28. | :29:34. | |
as a pillar of the coalition. He will be aid targeted seat. What are | :29:34. | :29:40. | |
you going to tell people not to vote for him for? People are voting | :29:40. | :29:46. | |
for a government. They want to cede people doing things they want, like | :29:46. | :29:50. | |
renegotiate the relationship with Europe and fundamentally get this | :29:50. | :29:55. | |
country in a position where, in the global race, we swim rather than | :29:55. | :30:01. | |
sink, then we need a Conservative government. What incentive does he | :30:01. | :30:09. | |
have to work with you? He is in the coalition and it runs till 2015. We | :30:09. | :30:13. | |
all know in coalition we are co- operating on the core issues like | :30:13. | :30:18. | |
cutting the deficit, which we have cut by a quarter, and stopping the | :30:18. | :30:23. | |
country from going bust. We do not agree on a whole bunch of other | :30:23. | :30:28. | |
things but at the next election we are going to fight them. David | :30:28. | :30:33. | |
Cameron said that the British should go to Brussels now with our | :30:33. | :30:38. | |
shopping list, to tell them what powers we want to repatriate, have | :30:38. | :30:43. | |
a referendum we can vote on, and that was strengthen our bargaining | :30:43. | :30:49. | |
position. What you say? We are in a coalition and that runs to 2015. I | :30:49. | :30:55. | |
want to see powers repatriated from Europe. Going back to the previous | :30:55. | :30:59. | |
conversation, one pitch will be two people in all kinds of seeds around | :30:59. | :31:02. | |
the country as if we want to have this reformed relationship in | :31:02. | :31:07. | |
Europe, not run by Europe, and we need a majority government. You are | :31:07. | :31:13. | |
saying you would like to do what David Davis has suggested. It will | :31:13. | :31:16. | |
not surprise anyone that the Lib Dems are the most pro-European | :31:16. | :31:26. | |
:31:26. | :31:28. | ||
The idea makes David Cameron for as a classic, the prospect of | :31:28. | :31:32. | |
prisoners getting the vote. The government will place that vote | :31:32. | :31:38. | |
before the House of Commons begin this week. Confused? He will not be, | :31:38. | :31:41. | |
because we have been finding out more. | :31:41. | :31:46. | |
When it comes at prisoners, the government has a problem. Some of | :31:46. | :31:50. | |
them want the vote in general elections. A court has ruled some | :31:50. | :31:55. | |
of them must be able to, the Prime Minister disagrees. In my view | :31:55. | :31:59. | |
prisoners should not get the vote but we will have to sort this out | :31:59. | :32:04. | |
one way or the other. Had agreed get in this position? It is down to | :32:05. | :32:10. | |
prisoners who had a lot of time to think about it, John Hirst and | :32:10. | :32:16. | |
others all fraud cases to the European Court of Human Rights in | :32:16. | :32:19. | |
Strasbourg and in 2011 the court decided the British government was | :32:19. | :32:23. | |
in breach of international law, unlike many countries in Europe it | :32:23. | :32:29. | |
had a blanket ban on prisoners having the vote on deception free | :32:29. | :32:32. | |
of the representation of the Peoples Act. That is not good | :32:32. | :32:38. | |
enough for the court. Appeals, a coalition free vote overwhelmingly | :32:38. | :32:44. | |
against, have not solved the problem. The governor, in this case | :32:44. | :32:48. | |
the UK government, is keeping a very careful eye on this because on | :32:48. | :32:53. | |
the face of it it has very limited options. Basically they have got to | :32:53. | :32:58. | |
say yes or know. If they say yes they run the risk of upsetting a | :32:58. | :33:03. | |
majority of MPs and the wider British public. If they say no, | :33:03. | :33:09. | |
some ministers will find themselves in breach of Article 46 of the | :33:09. | :33:13. | |
ministerial code and the UK government in breach of | :33:13. | :33:21. | |
international law. But there are ploys they can use. Strategically, | :33:21. | :33:25. | |
if the government wants to take on prisoners and the court in | :33:25. | :33:29. | |
Strasbourg, it could choose the no option and say to them, really, | :33:29. | :33:39. | |
:33:39. | :33:40. | ||
what can you do about it? If that happens, I think the immediate | :33:41. | :33:44. | |
result will be that prisoners will bring applications and after the | :33:44. | :33:49. | |
next election when they are denied the vote, Britain will have to pay | :33:49. | :33:54. | |
compensation to them. The other strategy is to say yes, but from | :33:54. | :34:03. | |
some senior QCs I have spoken to, saying yes, but just the barest | :34:03. | :34:07. | |
possible minimum, to say to the court we have done what you ask. | :34:07. | :34:11. | |
Those in favour say some rights will have to be offered. | :34:11. | :34:16. | |
British government can say here we have a three year cut-off point, we | :34:16. | :34:22. | |
could get away with that. I'm sure they could, maybe even two years. | :34:22. | :34:30. | |
On Thursday there will be three options offered for a vote by MPs - | :34:30. | :34:35. | |
extended to people serving on the four years, extending it to those | :34:35. | :34:41. | |
serving under six months, or no rights whatsoever. If they plump | :34:41. | :34:45. | |
for that, this fight against the European Court in Strasbourg can | :34:45. | :34:55. | |
:34:55. | :35:00. | ||
only go on. My guest now join me to go head to head. Peter, the United | :35:00. | :35:05. | |
Kingdom has a reputation around the world for supporting human rights | :35:05. | :35:09. | |
and upholding the rule of law. Surely we have to obey these | :35:09. | :35:14. | |
rulings? Absolutely not. What we are seeing on Thursday it is a | :35:14. | :35:19. | |
departure. The government is saying parliament's decision will overrule | :35:19. | :35:26. | |
the European Court and that is right. And we elect Parliament and | :35:26. | :35:30. | |
not the court. We elect a parliament to take decisions on | :35:30. | :35:34. | |
British law, we signed up to the Convention of Human Rights after | :35:34. | :35:39. | |
the Second World War, we have consistently supported that. If we | :35:39. | :35:43. | |
go away from it on this issue because it is popular and | :35:43. | :35:48. | |
convenient, supposedly, we are in no position to criticise. Let me | :35:48. | :35:55. | |
finish. You don't believe that. do, and I am trying to explain the | :35:55. | :36:01. | |
implications if you take on this. If you defy at the European Court, | :36:01. | :36:08. | |
your criticism on any other country that breaches the rules is 0. | :36:08. | :36:12. | |
is rubbish. The court was set-up because of Stalin and the Second | :36:12. | :36:17. | |
World War, not to give prisoners the vote. If you are telling me we | :36:17. | :36:21. | |
can't criticise countries because they are executing people because | :36:21. | :36:27. | |
we don't give prisoners the vote, I don't think you believe that. | :36:27. | :36:33. | |
your real agenda is to leave the European Court Convention of Human | :36:33. | :36:38. | |
Rights. The party policy is to do that, you are right. | :36:38. | :36:43. | |
Conservative Party policy is not that as I understand it. You | :36:43. | :36:49. | |
wouldn't leave the European Court? The British Bill of Rights is what | :36:49. | :36:53. | |
would determine this. The Attorney- General says he supports the | :36:53. | :36:58. | |
European Court, the Convention of Human Rights, and he praised it for | :36:58. | :37:08. | |
:37:08. | :37:09. | ||
its introduction of gay rights, protection of civil liberties, | :37:09. | :37:17. | |
protection of the popular press. Let's get back to prison of votes | :37:17. | :37:27. | |
:37:27. | :37:32. | ||
rather than a -- analysis of this. Overwhelmingly across the main | :37:32. | :37:36. | |
parties, they voted against it. What is the point of Parliament if | :37:36. | :37:41. | |
that doesn't matter? Her point of Parliament is we have to have | :37:41. | :37:44. | |
respect for previous decisions made and I voted for prisoners having | :37:44. | :37:50. | |
the right to vet because when somebody is in prison they lose | :37:50. | :37:54. | |
their liberty because they have committed a crime, they don't cease | :37:54. | :38:04. | |
:38:04. | :38:11. | ||
to be human beings without human rights. Which one would you | :38:11. | :38:18. | |
support? South Africa has given us a very important lesson. I want to | :38:18. | :38:24. | |
ask this question - you want every prisoner to get the vote? Yes, I do | :38:24. | :38:29. | |
believe that but that option will not come up. What happens if don't | :38:29. | :38:33. | |
give prisoners the vote, even some of them, and we end up having to | :38:33. | :38:38. | |
pay millions of pounds in compensation to them? Firstly we | :38:38. | :38:46. | |
would not have to do that. UK law, there is already cases before | :38:46. | :38:50. | |
British courts of those denied the right to vote and there will be | :38:50. | :38:59. | |
more. If Parliament votes zero... That should be the end of it. You | :38:59. | :39:04. | |
believe in Parliament, Jeremy. you ignore the European Court, as | :39:04. | :39:09. | |
you seem to want to do, you are also ignoring UK law because under | :39:09. | :39:14. | |
the Human Rights Act, the decision of the European Court are | :39:14. | :39:19. | |
incorporated into UK law. That was the importance of the 1988 Human | :39:19. | :39:24. | |
Rights Act which you probably voted against. Prisoner of votes, you're | :39:24. | :39:29. | |
quite right. We are saying the European Court is subservient to | :39:29. | :39:32. | |
the British Parliament and that is what the British people want us to | :39:32. | :39:38. | |
say. We isn't the whole port of the European Court that it is above the | :39:38. | :39:42. | |
parliament? Its subject your decisions to judicial review | :39:42. | :39:47. | |
against principles you have signed up to? We support, and I think even | :39:47. | :39:54. | |
we would agree on this... And I doubt it. I doubt it. I haven't | :39:54. | :39:58. | |
said it yet. He is an intelligent person. He would accept the | :39:58. | :40:02. | |
independence of the judicial system from politicians making the | :40:02. | :40:07. | |
decisions. The judicial system, the Supreme Court of this country, that | :40:07. | :40:13. | |
is where it finishes. It is British law, there for the British courts | :40:13. | :40:20. | |
will make a decision. He wants to float the island away somewhere | :40:20. | :40:24. | |
else. Would you allow prisoners to vote on the Police and Crime | :40:25. | :40:29. | |
Commissioner elections? We would have a vote in everything. That is | :40:29. | :40:34. | |
an interesting idea. You vote for people who make laws, you vote for | :40:34. | :40:41. | |
European MPs... And the moment you can vote if you are on remand | :40:41. | :40:50. | |
prisoner. But then you are not guilty. I would allow that! This | :40:50. | :40:54. | |
would increase the turnout of these elections you have forced on the | :40:54. | :40:58. | |
country. The one thing I learnt from the Police and Crime | :40:58. | :41:04. | |
Commissioner elections is that you don't have elections in November. | :41:04. | :41:09. | |
On that shock agreement here... The wasn't an agreement. No, it wasn't. | :41:09. | :41:16. | |
It is the closest we have got in the last six minutes. It is | :41:16. | :41:20. | |
approaching 20-12 and you are watching Sunday Politics. Coming up | :41:20. | :41:24. | |
in 20 minutes, I will be looking at the week ahead with our political | :41:24. | :41:34. | |
:41:34. | :41:37. | ||
panel. Until then, the Sunday Hello and welcome. Coming up later, | :41:37. | :41:41. | |
with one Tory MP absent without leave in the Australian jungle, we | :41:41. | :41:47. | |
look at how often the capital's MPs meet their constituents. With me | :41:47. | :41:54. | |
today Jane Ellison and Kate Hoey, welcome to you both and we start | :41:54. | :42:04. | |
today with Lord Coe's unhappiness over the failure to translate the | :42:04. | :42:08. | |
legacy of the Games in to a lasting legacy. I find it frustrating that | :42:08. | :42:13. | |
off the back of the kind of sport we have witnessed, the role models | :42:13. | :42:17. | |
that have emerged through this process and the red carpet that has | :42:17. | :42:23. | |
clearly been rolled out that we are still discussing the role of school | :42:23. | :42:27. | |
sport in the state sector. The sick are concerned to you that the | :42:27. | :42:32. | |
inspiration, no one denies that, but it hasn't translated to grass | :42:32. | :42:40. | |
roots? I think it is a bit early to say and I think Seb Coe is talking | :42:40. | :42:50. | |
:42:50. | :42:50. | ||
about the whole of the country. In London, and certainly in my own | :42:50. | :42:54. | |
constituency, we have kept our school sport partnership going | :42:54. | :42:59. | |
using a lot more of the community organisations, bringing in some | :42:59. | :43:04. | |
private sector money, and actually some of my schools are getting a | :43:04. | :43:11. | |
better sporting experience now than they did even three years ago. | :43:11. | :43:16. | |
you know a lot of Labour colleagues are very concerned we got rid of | :43:16. | :43:20. | |
the School Sport Partnership? one of the people who helped to set | :43:20. | :43:25. | |
them up, and the aim of it was always to raise the importance of | :43:25. | :43:29. | |
sport in schools so that schools themselves then began to realise | :43:29. | :43:33. | |
that actually they could be doing so much more. It was not just about | :43:33. | :43:38. | |
putting money in, and that always necessarily working the same way, | :43:38. | :43:41. | |
and the partnerships between secondary schools and primary | :43:41. | :43:46. | |
schools are improving. Obviously with money being short in all sorts | :43:46. | :43:52. | |
of areas, what the Olympics and the Paralympics has done is made the | :43:52. | :43:55. | |
public more aware that this is something they should be looking at | :43:55. | :44:00. | |
in their own schools. I wonder if you would agree that at least it | :44:00. | :44:04. | |
will be a disappointment if there is no legacy of sporting | :44:04. | :44:07. | |
improvement in schools in the community after the success of | :44:07. | :44:12. | |
these Olympic Games? I am sure everyone would agree that, but I do | :44:12. | :44:16. | |
think it is too early to draw conclusions. Schools have a lot | :44:16. | :44:22. | |
more freedom now, and it is important parents and young people | :44:22. | :44:28. | |
put pressure on schools, they have a lot of freedom on how they spend | :44:28. | :44:35. | |
the money. The budgets have been well protected. Do the teachers do | :44:35. | :44:39. | |
enough? Lord Coe was talking about whether we should be looking at | :44:39. | :44:49. | |
:44:49. | :44:53. | ||
what goes on after the 3 o'clock This is happening. When you go to | :44:53. | :45:00. | |
most schools now, there are many after-school clubs. They are not | :45:00. | :45:04. | |
necessarily being ran her by the school staff - the teaching staff - | :45:04. | :45:09. | |
they are being linked with clubs in the area. I honestly think the | :45:09. | :45:14. | |
wrong thing would be to impose a one-size-fits-all solution. We want | :45:14. | :45:18. | |
to see the enthusiasm during the Olympics bubbling up in to pressure | :45:18. | :45:24. | |
from schools and pupils and parents saying, we want to do more. We all | :45:24. | :45:30. | |
want to see that legacy. This is an area with the Olympics. There will | :45:30. | :45:37. | |
be a huge amount of cross-party support. I think he will do that. | :45:37. | :45:42. | |
Let's move on to something completely different. According to | :45:42. | :45:46. | |
a recent report, the City's financial sector has lost 100,000 | :45:46. | :45:51. | |
jobs in the last five years. It forecasts that Hong Kong will have | :45:51. | :45:59. | |
overtaken London by 2015 and New York is also heading -- edging | :45:59. | :46:03. | |
ahead again. The crash of 2008 brought an end the glory days of | :46:03. | :46:13. | |
the City. Many are pessimistic that with the masses exodus, London can | :46:13. | :46:18. | |
reset -- retain its status. Fewer people will be employed in high- | :46:18. | :46:24. | |
paid jobs. There will be less of other things going on because there | :46:24. | :46:29. | |
will be less money circulating. With finances here contending that | :46:30. | :46:33. | |
the city is over-regulated and that a culture of banker bashing has | :46:34. | :46:38. | |
brightened many away. People from all over the world come here to try | :46:38. | :46:43. | |
to do business. I think we will go from strength to strength. New York | :46:44. | :46:49. | |
will always be, it sort of the Wall Street giants, but I think London | :46:50. | :46:56. | |
was still be the heart of Europe. - - giant. In 2007, there were | :46:56. | :47:01. | |
350,000 workers in the city. By 2012, the figure had dropped to | :47:01. | :47:07. | |
under a quarter of a million. Some say all is not yet lost. There are | :47:07. | :47:12. | |
things like educating people to be more cautious about fashion -- | :47:12. | :47:16. | |
banker bashing. There is no point in killing the goose that lays the | :47:16. | :47:22. | |
golden egg. The concern remains that but lingering uncertainty over | :47:22. | :47:27. | |
the global markets, London is not in charge of its own destiny. | :47:27. | :47:32. | |
Fraser Nelson joins us. He wrote this week that government policies | :47:32. | :47:38. | |
and the constant - the rich mood music is accelerating to decline. | :47:38. | :47:43. | |
Could we exaggerate the worry and concerns about the city using its | :47:43. | :47:49. | |
pre-eminence? The theory is that these bankers may moan, they may | :47:49. | :47:53. | |
say, I'm going to go off and live in Switzerland but they will not | :47:53. | :47:58. | |
because London is a fundamentally better place to live. We're not | :47:58. | :48:02. | |
talking about people upping sticks and moving to some Swiss valley. | :48:02. | :48:06. | |
We're talking about banks who decide to expand in Hong Kong or | :48:06. | :48:12. | |
Singapore, rather than expand in London. It is easier in Asia and | :48:12. | :48:17. | |
taxes are cheaper. They can get better staff. London is in a global | :48:17. | :48:24. | |
rest right now, not -- a global race by now - not just with Wall | :48:24. | :48:34. | |
:48:34. | :48:35. | ||
Street but Hong Kong and Singapore. When we ran the race before, when - | :48:35. | :48:43. | |
- Buchan see where the last race lead us to - I wonder if not so | :48:44. | :48:49. | |
much dependence on it would be a good thing? It contributes 12p in | :48:49. | :48:54. | |
the pound for corporation tax. The City of London is one of the | :48:54. | :48:57. | |
greatest fundraisers in this country. We would take a carving | :48:57. | :49:02. | |
knife to the golden goose at our peril. The contribution to social | :49:02. | :49:08. | |
capital, what that the impact on house prices and good schools? -- | :49:08. | :49:16. | |
what about? Erasing the salaries at the top end. Does that need | :49:16. | :49:23. | |
rebalancing? You can blame low mortgage rates and artificial cheap | :49:23. | :49:27. | |
debt from quantitative easing. So many things are laid at the feet of | :49:27. | :49:32. | |
bankers. We're talking a very small number of people doing bad things | :49:32. | :49:36. | |
in the City of London. No bill reflected on the insurance people, | :49:36. | :49:41. | |
equity researchers, people who make this city the greatest in the world, | :49:41. | :49:45. | |
as I believe this is the stock everyone will appreciate that and | :49:45. | :49:52. | |
London will always have that power. -- this is. It has the assurances | :49:52. | :49:56. | |
and accountants that will make it attractive for people to come. | :49:56. | :50:02. | |
Right now London still wears the crown. That is being wrestled by | :50:02. | :50:08. | |
Wall Street and the Asians. We are not defending it. We are saying, | :50:08. | :50:16. | |
you deserve everything you get! his everyone being too negative? -- | :50:16. | :50:22. | |
is everyone? The public were very angry at what happened. I think | :50:22. | :50:26. | |
that probably a number of Members of Parliament and a lot of the | :50:26. | :50:31. | |
public - and this is not accusing anyone of being naive - they do not | :50:31. | :50:35. | |
really understand the way the City of London works. They do not | :50:35. | :50:40. | |
understand the huge competition that we are now under, particularly | :50:40. | :50:46. | |
from the eastern part of the world. I want to see the bankers who took | :50:46. | :50:54. | |
the decisions that caused a huge amount of this -- the dreadful | :50:54. | :50:59. | |
things that happened. They are the ones we attack. There was a time | :50:59. | :51:06. | |
when anyone in a bank but really... That they were being got at. | :51:06. | :51:13. | |
industry could do with the current regulation would some more | :51:13. | :51:21. | |
regulation and bringing down to size. -- with some more regulation. | :51:21. | :51:25. | |
Bringing down to size, it is slightly symptomatic of the place | :51:25. | :51:30. | |
we have got to. They are not going to make Britain and London better | :51:30. | :51:34. | |
off by attacking industries and areas that were pre-eminent. There | :51:34. | :51:40. | |
is so much more to the City than the banks. There is other industry, | :51:40. | :51:45. | |
manufacturing and so on. It is established there was some a | :51:45. | :51:52. | |
balancing. We have to move on. We are halfway through the parliament. | :51:52. | :51:58. | |
This is issued topic of debate. We need to move from anger and | :51:58. | :52:00. | |
recrimination to addressing constructively and sensibly the | :52:00. | :52:04. | |
things that really went wrong, particularly in investment banking, | :52:04. | :52:08. | |
are not throwing the baby out with the bath water regarding what the | :52:08. | :52:16. | |
City does. A final word from you. What would you like to see? We do | :52:16. | :52:22. | |
like to see some active measures? would like to see the Government | :52:22. | :52:27. | |
realising they are there for the people. The banks want to expand | :52:27. | :52:35. | |
and create jobs here. The need a whole tone changed from the | :52:35. | :52:40. | |
Government. -- we need a whole tone changed. That really needs to stop. | :52:40. | :52:47. | |
We need these jobs, we need the prosperity. We want to maintain | :52:47. | :52:50. | |
being be greater city in the world for financial services. Every week | :52:50. | :52:55. | |
we hear from London MPs on the issues of the day. A significant | :52:55. | :53:00. | |
part of their work is in Parliament but not all of it. As the row over | :53:00. | :53:06. | |
Nadine Dorries has reminded us, MPs also have considerable constituency | :53:06. | :53:11. | |
caseloads and many hold surgeries for face-to-face meetings. We have | :53:11. | :53:21. | |
:53:21. | :53:23. | ||
been finding out more. The decision of Nadine Dorries to head to the | :53:23. | :53:27. | |
jungle has not been to everyone's taste, it even got her suspended | :53:27. | :53:37. | |
:53:37. | :53:37. | ||
from the parliamentary Tory Party. You could sell it, could you? | :53:37. | :53:42. | |
Instead, some say, she should be doing things like this - putting in | :53:42. | :53:46. | |
hours with local constituents at the surgery. For many, this ritual | :53:46. | :53:52. | |
is the cornerstone of a Member of Parliament's work. In London in the | :53:52. | :54:01. | |
21st century, how you use what is it? Good afternoon. The Thamesmead | :54:01. | :54:10. | |
Labour Party, according to her, surgeries are from a different age. | :54:10. | :54:15. | |
She spends more time stealing with -- more time dealing with problems | :54:15. | :54:20. | |
than the political work. People want to e-mail and called. We have | :54:20. | :54:25. | |
a system where, if anybody on a website sends me an inquiry, it | :54:26. | :54:29. | |
comes straight through to my backroom so why can sit in the | :54:29. | :54:36. | |
House of Commons deal with -- dealing with queries. Another | :54:36. | :54:40. | |
reason is security. Stephen Timms was the victim of an attempted | :54:40. | :54:45. | |
murder while holding one. That does not seem to have put people off. | :54:45. | :54:51. | |
Sunday Politics spoke to every MP in London about surgeries. 64 after | :54:51. | :54:57. | |
73 got back to us. The average MP held 48 surgeries last year. Over | :54:57. | :55:03. | |
the year, seeing in all 720 constituents. Interestingly, it was | :55:03. | :55:09. | |
Stephen Timms he told us he had seen the most people in 2011. There | :55:09. | :55:14. | |
is one MP in the capital who does up hold surgeries at all - Mark | :55:14. | :55:19. | |
Field - the MP for the cities of London and Westminster. He is in a | :55:19. | :55:24. | |
unique position. He is the MP for Westminster. Rather than go out | :55:24. | :55:28. | |
into the community and hold the surgery, he says people should come | :55:28. | :55:35. | |
and meet him in his parliamentary office. This way he sees three of | :55:35. | :55:41. | |
four constituents a month. In my first year I did undertake call | :55:41. | :55:46. | |
conventional surgeries and I was getting about one, maybe two people | :55:46. | :55:51. | |
a month wanting to come and see me. By only seeing people in Parliament, | :55:51. | :55:55. | |
is there a danger he is more vulnerable constituents are falling | :55:55. | :56:02. | |
through the gaps? -- his more vulnerable. I did give a thought to | :56:02. | :56:09. | |
that. It is fair to say that with the formalised surgeries, because | :56:09. | :56:16. | |
people can come here, I am receptive. People can come on a | :56:16. | :56:21. | |
daily basis rather than according to a surgery timetable. We have | :56:21. | :56:28. | |
very active residents' associations. It is wrong to suggest I am here in | :56:28. | :56:33. | |
a bunker in portcullis House. Nothing is further from the truth. | :56:33. | :56:37. | |
MPs may disagree about the best way to engage with constituents but | :56:37. | :56:41. | |
many will say the traditional surgery is only one part of how it | :56:41. | :56:51. | |
is done. Stephen Timms is here. Is it 2300 constituents...? I believe | :56:51. | :56:57. | |
so. Have you had to put any long- term changes in terms of security | :56:57. | :57:02. | |
at your office? We have reorganised the way we do the surgeries. I have | :57:02. | :57:10. | |
people with me when I had surgeries. As an MP, you have to be accessible | :57:10. | :57:16. | |
to constituents. That is part of the job. Do you do one surgery a | :57:16. | :57:21. | |
week? Five a month. You will have a list of how many on an average | :57:21. | :57:30. | |
Friday? For 40, 50. There a two people with me as well. There will | :57:30. | :57:34. | |
be three conversations at a time. Mark Field does not think there is | :57:34. | :57:42. | |
a need for this. There are different ways of doing the job, no | :57:42. | :57:47. | |
doubt about that. The way it I operated was a surgery one or two | :57:47. | :57:54. | |
weekends. I opened up the list of appointments on Monday afternoon | :57:54. | :57:58. | |
but by the AFT -- on Monday morning but by the afternoon or the | :57:59. | :58:05. | |
appointments are taken. I actually enjoy doing them. It is hard work | :58:05. | :58:09. | |
but it is a very good way to get to know people. People really | :58:09. | :58:14. | |
appreciate the help they get. often can you sum of someone's | :58:14. | :58:21. | |
problem there and then? Presumably -- Ute Salford someone's problem | :58:21. | :58:28. | |
there and then? I am surprised that sending their letter on behalf of | :58:28. | :58:34. | |
someone actually does do some good. -- a letter. What people appreciate | :58:34. | :58:38. | |
is having someone who is willing to make an effort on their behalf. | :58:38. | :58:44. | |
They have tried other things. They only come to an MP as a last resort. | :58:44. | :58:49. | |
They're glad there is some help available. You are a relative | :58:49. | :58:55. | |
newcomer. How valuable our surgeries? I took on average won a | :58:55. | :59:04. | |
week. I supplement them with Street surgeries. -- won a week. When do | :59:04. | :59:11. | |
you do it? Often it will be late on a Saturday morning. Later in the | :59:11. | :59:15. | |
morning I put my sandwich board up on a busy shopping street and | :59:15. | :59:23. | |
anyone can stop and have a chat. that a recognition that perhaps we | :59:23. | :59:30. | |
are moving away from that? Not at all. I think I agree with | :59:30. | :59:33. | |
everything that Stephen has said that up by doing something on a | :59:33. | :59:36. | |
street corner, people were not generally making a point to give | :59:37. | :59:43. | |
their views about government policy or something but while being stood | :59:43. | :59:50. | |
there, they might say, can I make you feel -- can I let you know how | :59:50. | :59:56. | |
I feel about this and that? I do not do appointments. I discovered | :59:56. | :00:03. | |
that people did not turn up on time. What we do is see anybody who turns | :00:03. | :00:11. | |
up in a two-hour package. I have all my staff there. I do mind on a | :00:11. | :00:19. | |
Monday because I am so near. -- mind. Despite the extra e-mails and | :00:19. | :00:24. | |
the modern technology that my colleague took to that earlier, | :00:24. | :00:32. | |
numbers have not gone down at all. -- talked about earlier. I have 30, | :00:33. | :00:37. | |
40 people every surgery. The kind of people who want to talk about a | :00:37. | :00:42. | |
campaign or issue, I would try not to get them to come to surgery. I | :00:42. | :00:46. | |
would want them to come to the House of Commons. You are there | :00:46. | :00:51. | |
last resort. They had been through everything. They sometimes just | :00:51. | :00:55. | |
want to tell you how miserable and unhappy they are. The last word | :00:55. | :01:05. | |
:01:05. | :01:07. | ||
from you. More frustrating than Actually I do find it quite a | :01:07. | :01:12. | |
rewarding thing to do, mainly just because people appreciate the fact | :01:12. | :01:16. | |
they have been listened to and somebody has tried on their behalf. | :01:16. | :01:22. | |
Often it is possible to sore toe the problem. Thanks for your time. | :01:22. | :01:27. | |
I have been amazed you have been able to provide it. Now it is time | :01:27. | :01:37. | |
:01:37. | :01:39. | ||
for a round-up of the rest of the A lack of capacity at Heathrow is | :01:39. | :01:44. | |
costing the UK economy �14 billion in year in lost trade according to | :01:44. | :01:52. | |
a report commissioned by the airport. The bosses at Heathrow are | :01:52. | :01:56. | |
keen to see a third runway built but the UK government has ruled it | :01:56. | :02:00. | |
out for the time being. Westminster Council is investing | :02:00. | :02:04. | |
more than double its spending to tackle domestic abuse in the | :02:04. | :02:10. | |
borough. Margaret Moran falsely claimed more | :02:10. | :02:14. | |
than �53,000 in expenses during her time as an MP, a jury ruled this | :02:14. | :02:19. | |
week. She will be sentenced at a later date. | :02:19. | :02:24. | |
And as the Regent Street Christmas lights are turned on, London is | :02:24. | :02:28. | |
more likely to turn to pay-day loans than anywhere else in the | :02:28. | :02:33. | |
country over the festive season. According to a poll, 23% said they | :02:33. | :02:40. | |
are likely to take one out in the next month. | :02:40. | :02:45. | |
Both of your patches by the Thames can leave feel the effect of | :02:45. | :02:53. | |
aircraft, but Heathrow still see an opportunity now, don't they? They | :02:53. | :02:57. | |
have long been putting the case they need more capacity at Heathrow | :02:57. | :03:02. | |
and the fact we need more air capacity in London is established. | :03:03. | :03:07. | |
I think it is misleading to say London is full because if you speak | :03:07. | :03:15. | |
to people at Gatwick they will say actually we have quite a lot of | :03:15. | :03:18. | |
capacity and they find it frustrating. But it has got to be | :03:18. | :03:23. | |
in one place, and that is Heathrow, isn't it? There is a strong case | :03:23. | :03:33. | |
for looking at the airport hub in the estuary. Will we be able to put | :03:33. | :03:38. | |
it in one place at Heathrow, I am not convinced about that. Are you | :03:38. | :03:44. | |
affected by this? And a lot of my constituents are very angry by | :03:44. | :03:49. | |
aircraft noise, and depending on the weather they always want it not | :03:49. | :03:54. | |
coming over them but it does get very bad over parts of inner London. | :03:54. | :04:04. | |
:04:04. | :04:07. | ||
It just seems to me, how many years does it take to find out the | :04:07. | :04:13. | |
information? I think he should be coming out before the election. | :04:13. | :04:17. | |
should be, and all other parties were opposed to it so I can't see | :04:17. | :04:23. | |
it happening. I am going to have to stop you there. With that, it is | :04:23. | :04:33. | |
:04:33. | :04:35. | ||
In a moment we will look ahead to the big stories that will dominate | :04:35. | :04:42. | |
politics next week with our political panel, but first the news. | :04:42. | :04:46. | |
The Israeli military attacks on Gaza have now claimed more than 50 | :04:46. | :04:51. | |
lives according to health officials. Overnight an airstrike on the home | :04:51. | :04:56. | |
of the senior Hamas commander is reported to have killed two young | :04:56. | :05:00. | |
children living nearby. Hamas renewed its missile attacks into | :05:00. | :05:07. | |
Israel this morning. Attacks on Israel have so far claimed three | :05:07. | :05:13. | |
lives. This report comes from Gaza. There have been brief moments of | :05:13. | :05:23. | |
:05:23. | :05:23. | ||
calm here. They never last long. This morning and overnight, Israel | :05:23. | :05:30. | |
once again pounded Gaza with the tax. Among the buildings targeted, | :05:30. | :05:34. | |
this one and another, where local and foreign journalists are based. | :05:34. | :05:40. | |
Several were wounded, one lost a leg. Israel says they were aiming | :05:40. | :05:46. | |
at Hamas communication equipment. The number of injured and dead | :05:46. | :05:52. | |
across Gaza is mounting. Emergency services are at full stretch. | :05:52. | :05:57. | |
Hospitals are struggling to cope. Israel, again, ramped up its | :05:57. | :06:02. | |
operation last night, not only with the tax coming in from the air, but | :06:02. | :06:07. | |
also from the sea. Israeli warships pounding northern Gaza with | :06:07. | :06:14. | |
Attenborough rounds. And in Israeli cities, people work again | :06:14. | :06:18. | |
scrambling to reach bomb shelters. After a two-hour break, which had | :06:18. | :06:25. | |
led some to hope of ceasefire, rocket attacks resumed. On both | :06:25. | :06:33. | |
sides, civilians are suffering. Back in Gaza, Israel is showing its | :06:33. | :06:42. | |
military strength and there is no end side. | :06:42. | :06:46. | |
Vince Cable has said more must be done to tackle companies legally | :06:46. | :06:52. | |
able to avoid their corporation tax liabilities here in the UK. | :06:52. | :06:56. | |
Speaking on the Andrew Marr Show this morning, the Business | :06:56. | :06:59. | |
Secretary said their practices were unfair to British businesses. | :06:59. | :07:05. | |
they are here, if they make profits, they should pay tax. There is | :07:05. | :07:08. | |
nothing more galling to small and medium-sized companies that they | :07:08. | :07:12. | |
have found these people dodging it when they are paying. Our own tax | :07:12. | :07:16. | |
authorities have got to be tough on things like royalty payments, where | :07:16. | :07:21. | |
a lot of the subterfuge takes place, but the big question is whether you | :07:21. | :07:25. | |
can get wider global agreement. The operator at a level crossing in | :07:25. | :07:29. | |
Egypt, where 50 children were killed when their bus was hit by a | :07:29. | :07:33. | |
train, has been arrested following reports the man had left the | :07:33. | :07:37. | |
barriers open and was asleep. Distraught families and angry | :07:37. | :07:41. | |
demonstrators have prevented members from the Egyptian | :07:41. | :07:45. | |
government from visiting the site. The British car maker Jaguar Land | :07:45. | :07:50. | |
Rover has had the go-ahead for its first manufacturing site in China. | :07:50. | :07:55. | |
Sales are up 80% in China so far this year. The project which is | :07:55. | :08:00. | |
based north of Shanghai will be in partnership with the Chinese | :08:00. | :08:03. | |
carmaker cherry automobile. They were assembled models tailored | :08:03. | :08:09. | |
specifically for the Chinese market. There will be more news on BBC One | :08:09. | :08:15. | |
at 5:50pm. Thank you. So a new man in charge | :08:15. | :08:18. | |
of the Tories' election plans, more coalition jockeying on a wealth tax | :08:18. | :08:22. | |
and crunch time in Europe for David Cameron. All questions for The Week | :08:22. | :08:32. | |
:08:32. | :08:36. | ||
Ahead. So, a new man to run the Tory campaign, just looking in the | :08:36. | :08:41. | |
Sunday Times this morning, he is taking Boris's election guru, | :08:42. | :08:51. | |
:08:52. | :08:58. | ||
Minton -- Linton Crosby. A good thing or a bad thing for the | :08:58. | :09:02. | |
Tories? A good thing, and as for this smear campaign he is known to | :09:02. | :09:12. | |
:09:12. | :09:14. | ||
be a straight-talking Australia. I have said I don't care if he makes | :09:14. | :09:18. | |
comments that are not politically correct and a lot of people replied | :09:18. | :09:24. | |
on Twitter they don't care either. The most interesting thing about | :09:25. | :09:29. | |
this is that David Cameron wants to have a disciplined campaign. One of | :09:29. | :09:36. | |
his great strengths of Crosby is that he drives his message through. | :09:36. | :09:43. | |
Last time it was a complete mess with George Osborne feuding, so | :09:44. | :09:48. | |
clearly they want discipline. The danger it is that Crosby does not | :09:48. | :09:52. | |
have a track record of fighting election campaigns on the centre | :09:52. | :09:56. | |
ground and in this country you only win a majority if you are firmly in | :09:56. | :10:02. | |
the centre ground. He was never part of the Tories'' modernising | :10:02. | :10:09. | |
agenda, was he? No, I think Nick is right that they are not hiring him | :10:09. | :10:14. | |
for his views on issues, but for his executive command, the fact | :10:14. | :10:18. | |
that he can run a campaign. It is his technical skill, not his | :10:18. | :10:23. | |
ideological views. Talk to anyone from the 2005 campaign, and they | :10:23. | :10:28. | |
will say they found it a pleasure to work for him and he can take | :10:28. | :10:33. | |
decisions in high-pressure situations. Three votes for him? | :10:33. | :10:38. | |
Two-and-a-half votes for him. Ago him half the vote, great on | :10:38. | :10:46. | |
discipline but I'm not sure he is in the right territory. Who else | :10:46. | :10:51. | |
could the Tories turn to? Varies not many people in great supply | :10:51. | :11:01. | |
:11:01. | :11:02. | ||
with the skills. There is still this matter to be resolved, the | :11:02. | :11:06. | |
government needs more cuts in welfare to hit their spending in | :11:06. | :11:11. | |
2015, the Lib Dems are saying we want some way of taxing the well- | :11:11. | :11:15. | |
off better. This is what Vince Cable had to say about that this | :11:15. | :11:21. | |
morning. It is right that we do tax and wealth is the obvious place to | :11:21. | :11:26. | |
go, one of the reasons for that is because property can't run away to | :11:26. | :11:34. | |
Monaco and Liechtenstein. If you are a -- trying to deal with abuse | :11:34. | :11:38. | |
of the tax system, this is the best way. So they have not resolved this | :11:38. | :11:44. | |
yet? No, some Conservatives do agree with shifting tax to wealth | :11:44. | :11:49. | |
rather than income and George Osborne has some sympathy with this, | :11:49. | :11:59. | |
:11:59. | :12:06. | ||
perhaps looking at an extra council tax band on properties over a | :12:06. | :12:09. | |
million. David Cameron vetoed mansion tax and that is when you | :12:09. | :12:18. | |
ended up with the four to 5p top rate of tax. Let asked the man who | :12:18. | :12:21. | |
should know about George Osborne because you have written a book? | :12:21. | :12:29. | |
The fine book, available in all good bookshops. Or or online. | :12:29. | :12:34. | |
George Osborne go along with higher council tax banding for big houses | :12:34. | :12:43. | |
and is David Cameron against the out the idea a few weeks ago. Even | :12:43. | :12:46. | |
after that interview I still thought it would happen in some | :12:46. | :12:51. | |
form during this parliament partly because it is the only way that the | :12:51. | :12:55. | |
Tories get welfare cuts from the Lib Dems, but also because it is | :12:55. | :12:59. | |
the only way the Tories can chip away at this impression that voters | :12:59. | :13:09. | |
have that they stand for entrenched wealth. What David Cameron will be | :13:09. | :13:15. | |
frightened of is that this does not hit people with entrenched wealth. | :13:15. | :13:21. | |
If you bought a house for about �30,000 in London in 1991, it is | :13:21. | :13:28. | |
now over a million pounds. This will hit... The mansion tax would | :13:28. | :13:33. | |
have got the really rich, this will hit a lot of people in the middle. | :13:33. | :13:38. | |
I think the Prime Minister is really aware of that. One of the | :13:38. | :13:43. | |
repercussions of last week's election result was that the Lib | :13:43. | :13:47. | |
Dems feel they really need a symbolic win in this autumn | :13:47. | :13:50. | |
statement and they will be fighting exceptionally hard to get something | :13:50. | :13:59. | |
like this through. We are not talking about the original idea, | :13:59. | :14:03. | |
people will feel the council tax banding but we are not talking | :14:03. | :14:08. | |
about the punitive amounts they were talking about before. The two | :14:08. | :14:14. | |
is different. The CBI tomorrow. In days gone by, it would be one of | :14:14. | :14:18. | |
the key lobby groups gearing up for the Autumn Statement, putting out | :14:18. | :14:26. | |
its views and the rest of it, but the main lobbying - you have Vince | :14:26. | :14:29. | |
Cable this morning lobbying for something in the Autumn Statement. | :14:29. | :14:33. | |
Last time I looked he is in the government. It is completely | :14:33. | :14:38. | |
different, and the CBI have all sorts of things on their mind right | :14:38. | :14:43. | |
now. They want low at regulation from the government, and the | :14:43. | :14:48. | |
government will move towards that in the Autumn Statement. There is | :14:48. | :14:51. | |
an increasingly real prospect of a recession on the Continent next | :14:51. | :14:58. | |
year with an economy as big as France being in serious trouble. | :14:58. | :15:03. | |
think there will be. But not just in the periphery, and that, which | :15:03. | :15:13. | |
:15:13. | :15:14. | ||
is something the -- which is antagonising the CBI at the moment. | :15:14. | :15:18. | |
This is the new norm, this is how we will be under a coalition | :15:18. | :15:21. | |
government and for the journalist it is quite nice because we have | :15:21. | :15:27. | |
more of an idea of what is coming up. The danger for the Liberal | :15:27. | :15:29. | |
Democrats is that they look like an opposition in government not | :15:29. | :15:35. | |
getting what they want. Does the CBI still matter? I think so, and | :15:35. | :15:40. | |
they will be doing their submission before the Autumn Statement. In the | :15:40. | :15:46. | |
days when he had as many Labour correspondent, when the TUC and the | :15:46. | :15:56. | |
CBI really matters, of course those Let's come to Europe. David Davis | :15:56. | :16:02. | |
said, we should draw up our list of powers we want repatriated from | :16:02. | :16:06. | |
Europe, go to the country and get a referendum to vote for that and | :16:06. | :16:11. | |
that strengthens our position. I spoke to Grant Shapps and put that | :16:11. | :16:16. | |
to him. He did not argue with that. He said we cannot trip because we | :16:17. | :16:24. | |
are in coalition with the Lib Dems. -- do that. The real worry for the | :16:24. | :16:27. | |
Prime Minister and the Tories on this was that they may not be able | :16:27. | :16:34. | |
to set the pace. There is talk of a new European treaty being tabled | :16:34. | :16:38. | |
this December, ratified in 2014. That will not sought Mr Cameron | :16:38. | :16:46. | |
very well. One of two interventions on Europe are being made today. Ed | :16:46. | :16:50. | |
Miliband has given an interview to the Sunday Telegraph. It is being | :16:50. | :16:57. | |
played at this quite a big shift in the Euro-sceptic direction. David | :16:57. | :17:07. | |
:17:07. | :17:07. | ||
Cameron says only by leaving Europe can you make it more British. | :17:07. | :17:12. | |
thing about David Davis is it is a mixture of a lack of confidence and | :17:12. | :17:14. | |
over-confidence - a lack of confidence there is a Brussels plot | :17:15. | :17:20. | |
against Britain - when what he is complaining about are issues that | :17:20. | :17:24. | |
have been signed up to buy a sovereign UK governments. The one | :17:24. | :17:30. | |
thing there is a consensus against this country about the euro that we | :17:30. | :17:35. | |
did not join and the over- confidence of marching into | :17:35. | :17:40. | |
Brussels saying, we want this and that, and we wanted on our own | :17:40. | :17:46. | |
timetable. That is not going to happen. Mr Miliband wants us to | :17:46. | :17:49. | |
think he is more Euro-sceptic than he is and Mr Cameron wants us to | :17:49. | :17:55. | |
think he has a plan but we have no idea what it is. The have not had | :17:55. | :18:02. | |
this much-trailed speech about the plan. -- we have not had. Will a | :18:02. | :18:09. | |
budget deal be done this week or not? Probably not. Not just because | :18:09. | :18:15. | |
the UK has problems, the Danes have problems and everyone has problems. | :18:15. | :18:25. | |
We could be right - all four of us. We will look stupid if we do a deal | :18:25. | :18:30. | |
next week. I would even hold myself to account. That is it for next | :18:30. | :18:36. |