Browse content similar to 17/11/2013. Check below for episodes and series from the same categories and more!
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Morning, folks. Welcome to the Sunday Politics. | :00:36. | :00:39. | |
Downing Street announces an inquiry into allegations of hardball tactics | :00:40. | :00:42. | |
and intimidation by unions in industrial disputes. That's our top | :00:43. | :00:47. | |
story. Thousands dead. Hundreds of | :00:48. | :00:51. | |
thousands without homes. Millions affected. What is Britain doing to | :00:52. | :00:56. | |
help the Philippines in the wake of Typhoon Haiyan? We'll ask | :00:57. | :00:58. | |
International Development Secretary Justine Greening. | :00:59. | :01:03. | |
Winter is coming and so, it seems, is another crisis in England's | :01:04. | :01:06. | |
hospitals. I'll be asking the Shadow Health Secretary how he'd put a stop | :01:07. | :01:15. | |
to the NHS's annual woes. In London, an alarming series of cycle | :01:16. | :01:20. | |
fatalities on the capital's streets, and renewed calls to get lorries off | :01:21. | :01:23. | |
the roads in peak hours. With me, the best and brightest | :01:24. | :01:37. | |
political panel that money can buy. Janan Ganesh, Nick Watt and this | :01:38. | :01:39. | |
week, Zoe Williams, who'll be tweeting their thoughts throughout | :01:40. | :01:44. | |
the programme. The Government has announced a | :01:45. | :01:47. | |
review to investigate what the Prime Minister has called "industrial | :01:48. | :01:49. | |
intimidation" by trade union activists. Bruce Carr QC will chair | :01:50. | :02:02. | |
a panel to examine allegations of the kind of tactics that came to | :02:03. | :02:05. | |
light during the Grangemouth dispute, when the Unite union took | :02:06. | :02:07. | |
their protests - replete with a giant rat - outside the family homes | :02:08. | :02:14. | |
of the firms' bosses. Earlier this morning the Cabinet office minister, | :02:15. | :02:19. | |
Francis Maude spoke to the BBC and this is what he had to say. To look | :02:20. | :02:23. | |
at whether the law currently works and see if it is ineffective in | :02:24. | :02:27. | |
preventing the kind of intimidatory activity that was alleged to have | :02:28. | :02:32. | |
taken place around range mouth during the previous disputes -- | :02:33. | :02:41. | |
Grangemouth. We make no presumptions at the beginning of this. I do think | :02:42. | :02:46. | |
it is a responsible thing for the government to establish what | :02:47. | :02:51. | |
happened and really do a proper review into whether the law is | :02:52. | :02:55. | |
adequate to meet the needs. That was Francis Maude. This is a purely | :02:56. | :03:02. | |
political move, isn't it? Unite did this a couple of times, it is hardly | :03:03. | :03:06. | |
happening all over the country but the government want to say, we are | :03:07. | :03:09. | |
prepared to investigate Unite properly, Labour isn't. This seemed | :03:10. | :03:16. | |
a lot worse when I thought it was a real rat. I thought it was a giant | :03:17. | :03:23. | |
dead rat. I am not sure if you know much about rats but real rats are | :03:24. | :03:26. | |
not this big, even the ones in London. The thing is, obviously it | :03:27. | :03:33. | |
is naked politics but I think it is more intelligent than it looks. They | :03:34. | :03:38. | |
are trying to taint Miliband as a week union puppet and that doesn't | :03:39. | :03:44. | |
really wash. They hammer away with it and it might wash for some | :03:45. | :03:49. | |
people. But it really castrates Miliband in the important issues he | :03:50. | :03:53. | |
has to tackle. Zero hours, living wage, all of those things in which | :03:54. | :03:57. | |
he needs to be in concert with the unions, and to use their expertise. | :03:58. | :04:03. | |
He is making them absolutely toxic to go anywhere near. It keeps the | :04:04. | :04:16. | |
Unite story alive, have to kill -- particularly since Mr Miller band is | :04:17. | :04:18. | |
under pressure to reopen the investigation into what Unite are up | :04:19. | :04:33. | |
to -- Mr Miliband. They are frustrated, not only at the BBC but | :04:34. | :04:37. | |
the media generally at what they think is a lack of coverage. I see | :04:38. | :04:40. | |
the political rationale from that respect. There is a risk. There are | :04:41. | :04:46. | |
union members who either vote Tory or are open to the idea of voting | :04:47. | :04:52. | |
Tory. All Lib Dem. If the party comes across as too zealous in as -- | :04:53. | :05:04. | |
its antipathy, there is an electoral consequence. Ed Miliband has been | :05:05. | :05:11. | |
careful to keep a distance. Yes, they depend on vast amounts of | :05:12. | :05:16. | |
money. When Len McCluskey had a real go at the Blairites, Ed Miliband was | :05:17. | :05:19. | |
straight out there with a very strong statement. Essentially Len | :05:20. | :05:23. | |
McCluskey wanted Blairites in the shadow cabinet sacked and Ed | :05:24. | :05:28. | |
Miliband was keen to distance himself or for that is why it is not | :05:29. | :05:33. | |
quite sticking. Another story in the Sunday papers this morning, the Mail | :05:34. | :05:38. | |
on Sunday got hold of some e-mails. When I saw the headline I thought it | :05:39. | :05:43. | |
was a huge cache of e-mails, it turns out to be a couple. They peel | :05:44. | :05:49. | |
away the cover on the relationship between Ed Miliband and Ed Balls, | :05:50. | :05:56. | |
with some of Ed Miliband's cohorts describing what Mr balls is trying | :05:57. | :06:03. | |
to do as a nightmare. How bad are the relations? They are pretty bad | :06:04. | :06:08. | |
and these e-mails confirm the biggest open signal in Westminster, | :06:09. | :06:10. | |
which is that relations are pretty tense, -- open secret. That Ed | :06:11. | :06:16. | |
Miliband doesn't feel that Ed Balls is acknowledging the economy has | :06:17. | :06:21. | |
grown that Labour needs to admit to past mistakes. The sort of great | :06:22. | :06:29. | |
open signal is confirmed. On a scale of 1-10, assuming that Blair-Brown | :06:30. | :06:36. | |
was ten. I think it is between six and seven. They occupy this joint | :06:37. | :06:40. | |
suite of offices that George Cameron and -- David Cameron and George | :06:41. | :06:46. | |
Osborne had. It is not just on the economy that there were tensions, | :06:47. | :06:50. | |
there were clearly tensions over HS2, Ed Balls put a huge question | :06:51. | :06:57. | |
over it at his conference. There will be more tensions when it comes | :06:58. | :07:00. | |
to the third runway because my information is that Mr balls wants | :07:01. | :07:05. | |
to do it and Ed Miliband almost resigned over it when he was in | :07:06. | :07:11. | |
government. I don't think Ed Miliband is thinking very | :07:12. | :07:13. | |
politically because he has tried live without Ed Balls and that is | :07:14. | :07:19. | |
not tenable either. -- life without. He has defined a way of making it | :07:20. | :07:23. | |
work. That is where Tony Blair had the edge on any modern politician. | :07:24. | :07:28. | |
He didn't want to make Ed Balls his Shadow Chancellor, he had to. | :07:29. | :07:32. | |
Somebody said to him, if you make Ed Balls Shadow Chancellor, that will | :07:33. | :07:36. | |
be the last decision you take as leader of the Labour Party. Is it as | :07:37. | :07:45. | |
bad? I was surprised at how tame the e-mails were. At the FT it is | :07:46. | :07:57. | |
compulsory, one French word per sentence! To call him a nightmare, | :07:58. | :08:01. | |
compared to what they are willing to say in briefings, conversations, | :08:02. | :08:06. | |
bits of frustrations they express verbally come what is documented in | :08:07. | :08:09. | |
the e-mails is actually pretty light. It has been a grim week for | :08:10. | :08:15. | |
the people of the Philippines as they count the cost of the | :08:16. | :08:18. | |
devastation wrought by Typhoon Haiyan. HMS Daring has just arrived | :08:19. | :08:24. | |
near the worst hit areas - part of Britain's contribution to bring aid | :08:25. | :08:28. | |
to the country. It has been one of the worst natural | :08:29. | :08:32. | |
disasters in the history of the Philippines. Typhoon Haiyan hit the | :08:33. | :08:35. | |
country nine days ago, leaving devastation in its wake. The numbers | :08:36. | :08:40. | |
involved are shocking. The official death toll is over 3600 people, with | :08:41. | :08:45. | |
many thousands more unaccounted for. More than half a million people have | :08:46. | :08:50. | |
lost their homes and the UN estimates 11 million have been | :08:51. | :08:54. | |
affected. David Cameron announced on Friday that the UK government is to | :08:55. | :08:58. | |
give an extra ?30 million in aid, taking the total British figure ?250 | :08:59. | :09:05. | |
million. An RAF Sea 17 aircraft landed yesterday with equipment to | :09:06. | :09:07. | |
help aid workers get too hard to reach areas. HMS Illustrious is on | :09:08. | :09:13. | |
its way and due to arrive next weekend. The British public have | :09:14. | :09:21. | |
once again dipped into their pockets and given generously. They have | :09:22. | :09:25. | |
given more than ?30 million to the Disasters Emergency Committee. | :09:26. | :09:28. | |
The International Development Secretary, Justine Greening, joins | :09:29. | :09:31. | |
me now for the Sunday Interview. Good morning, Secretary of State. | :09:32. | :09:35. | |
How much of the ?50 million that the government has allocated has got | :09:36. | :09:40. | |
through so far? All of it has landed on the ground now. HMS Daring has | :09:41. | :09:45. | |
turned up, that will be able to start getting help out to some of | :09:46. | :09:48. | |
those more outlying islands that have been hard to reach. We have | :09:49. | :09:54. | |
seen Save the Children and Oxfam really being able to get aid out on | :09:55. | :09:58. | |
the ground. We have a plane taking off today that will not read just | :09:59. | :10:02. | |
carrying out more equipment to help clear the roads but will also have | :10:03. | :10:09. | |
their staff on board, too. We have ?50 million of aid actually on the | :10:10. | :10:16. | |
ground? We instantly chartered flights directly from Dubai where we | :10:17. | :10:20. | |
have preprepared human Terry and supplies, and started humanity work | :10:21. | :10:24. | |
-- humanitarian supplies. A lot of it has now arrived. I think | :10:25. | :10:36. | |
we have done a huge amount so far. We have gone beyond just providing | :10:37. | :10:41. | |
humanitarian supplies, to getting the Royal Air Force involved. They | :10:42. | :10:44. | |
have helped us to get equipment out there quickly. We have HMS | :10:45. | :10:49. | |
Illustrious sailing over there now. Why has that taken so long? It was | :10:50. | :10:54. | |
based in the Gulf and is not going to get there until two weeks after | :10:55. | :10:57. | |
the storm first hit and that is the one ship we have with lots of | :10:58. | :11:02. | |
helicopters. The first decision we took was to make sure we could get | :11:03. | :11:05. | |
the fastest vessel out there that was able to help HMS Daring. HMS | :11:06. | :11:10. | |
Illustrious was just finishing an exercise and planning to start to | :11:11. | :11:14. | |
head back towards the UK. We have said to not do that, and diverted | :11:15. | :11:18. | |
it. Shouldn't it have happened more quickly? We took the decisions as | :11:19. | :11:24. | |
fast as we were able to, you can't just turn a big warship around like | :11:25. | :11:29. | |
the HMS Illustrious. We made sure we took those decisions and that is | :11:30. | :11:32. | |
while it will be taking over from HMS Daring come and that is why HMS | :11:33. | :11:38. | |
Daring is ready there. It will be able to provide key support and | :11:39. | :11:42. | |
expertise that has not been there so far. The US Navy is doing the heavy | :11:43. | :11:48. | |
lifting here. The US Navy had the USS Washington, there is an aircraft | :11:49. | :11:52. | |
carrier, 80 planes, 5000 personnel and they have the fleet, they are | :11:53. | :11:57. | |
doing the real work. We obviously helping but the Americans are taking | :11:58. | :12:02. | |
the lead. It is a big international effort. Countries like the US and | :12:03. | :12:06. | |
the UK, that have a broader ability to support that goes beyond simply | :12:07. | :12:15. | |
call humanitarian supplies -- have made sure we have brought our | :12:16. | :12:19. | |
logistics knowledge, we have sent out our naval vessels. It shows we | :12:20. | :12:23. | |
are working across government to respond to this crisis. Why does | :12:24. | :12:32. | |
only just over 4% of your aid budget go on emergency disaster and | :12:33. | :12:36. | |
response? A lot depends on what crises hit in any given year. We | :12:37. | :12:40. | |
have done a huge amount, responding to the crisis in Syria, the conflict | :12:41. | :12:44. | |
there and the fact we have 2 million refugees who have fled the country. | :12:45. | :12:48. | |
We are part of an international effort in supporting them. Shouldn't | :12:49. | :12:54. | |
we beginning more money to that rather than some of the other | :12:55. | :12:57. | |
programmes where it is harder to see the results question of if we were | :12:58. | :13:04. | |
to give more money to the refugees, it would be a visible result. We | :13:05. | :13:07. | |
could see an improvement in the lives of children, men and women. | :13:08. | :13:14. | |
What we need to do is alongside that is stop those situations from | :13:15. | :13:17. | |
happening in the first place. A lot of our development spend is helping | :13:18. | :13:21. | |
countries to stay stable. Look at some of the work we are doing in | :13:22. | :13:26. | |
Somalia, much more sensible. Not just from an immigration but there | :13:27. | :13:32. | |
is a threat perspective. There is a lot of terrorism coming from | :13:33. | :13:36. | |
Somalia. You only have to look at Kenya recently to see that. Which is | :13:37. | :13:42. | |
why you talk about what we do with the rest of the spend. It is why it | :13:43. | :13:46. | |
is responsible to work with the government of Somalia. Should we | :13:47. | :13:52. | |
give more, bigger part of the budget to disaster relief or not? I think | :13:53. | :13:57. | |
we get it about right, we have to be flexible and we are. This Philippine | :13:58. | :14:01. | |
relief is on top of the work in Syria. Where can you show me a | :14:02. | :14:08. | |
correlation between us giving aid to some failed nation, or nearly failed | :14:09. | :14:12. | |
nation, and that cutting down on terrorism? If you look at the work | :14:13. | :14:17. | |
we have done in Pakistan, a huge amount of work. Some of it | :14:18. | :14:21. | |
short-term. It is written by terrorism. That is -- ridden by | :14:22. | :14:29. | |
terrorism. That is not going to fix it self in a sense. Look at the work | :14:30. | :14:36. | |
that we do in investing in education. The things that little | :14:37. | :14:45. | |
girls like Malala talk about as being absolutely key. We are ramping | :14:46. | :14:52. | |
up our aid to Pakistan, it will be close to half ?1 billion by the time | :14:53. | :14:58. | |
of the election. Why should British taxpayers be giving half ?1 billion | :14:59. | :15:05. | |
to a country where only 0.5% of people in Pakistan pay income tax, | :15:06. | :15:09. | |
and 70% of their own MPs don't pay income tax. It is a good point and | :15:10. | :15:19. | |
that is why we have been working with their tax revenue authority to | :15:20. | :15:23. | |
help them increase that and push forward the tax reform. You are | :15:24. | :15:34. | |
right, and I have setup a team that will go out and work with many of | :15:35. | :15:40. | |
these countries so they can raise their own revenues. You really think | :15:41. | :15:44. | |
you will raise the amount of tax by sending out the British HRM see? How | :15:45. | :15:58. | |
many troops I we sending out to protect them? They don't need | :15:59. | :16:02. | |
troops. We make sure that we have a duty of care alongside our staff, | :16:03. | :16:16. | |
but we have to respond to any crisis like the Philippines, and alongside | :16:17. | :16:20. | |
other countries we have two work alongside them so that they can | :16:21. | :16:25. | |
reinvest in their own public services. If they can create their | :16:26. | :16:31. | |
own taxes, will we stop paying aid? We need to look at that but the new | :16:32. | :16:36. | |
Pakistan Government has been very clear it is a priority and we will | :16:37. | :16:43. | |
be helping them in pursuing that. Let me show you a picture. Who are | :16:44. | :16:50. | |
these young women? I don't know, I'm sure you are about to tell me. They | :16:51. | :16:57. | |
are the Ethiopian Spice Girls and I'm surprised you don't know because | :16:58. | :17:02. | |
they have only managed to become so famous because your department has | :17:03. | :17:09. | |
financed them to the tune of ?4 million. All of the work we do with | :17:10. | :17:13. | |
women on the ground, making sure they have a voice in their local | :17:14. | :17:19. | |
communities, making sure they have some control over what happens to | :17:20. | :17:25. | |
their own bodies in terms of tackling FGM, female genital | :17:26. | :17:33. | |
mutilation... Did you know your department has spent ?4 million on | :17:34. | :17:38. | |
the Ethiopian Spice Girls? Yes, I do, and we have to work with girls | :17:39. | :17:46. | |
and show them there is a life ahead of them with opportunity and | :17:47. | :17:50. | |
potential that goes beyond what many of them will experience, which | :17:51. | :17:55. | |
includes early and forced marriage. It is part of the work we do with | :17:56. | :18:06. | |
local communities to change attitudes everything you have just | :18:07. | :18:11. | |
said is immeasurable, and they broadcast on a radio station that | :18:12. | :18:14. | |
doesn't reach most of the country so it cannot have the impact. It only | :18:15. | :18:26. | |
reaches 20 million people and the project has been condemned saying | :18:27. | :18:26. | |
there were serious inefficiencies. That aid report was done a while ago | :18:27. | :18:35. | |
now, and it was talking about the project when it first got going, and | :18:36. | :18:39. | |
a lot of improvements have happened since. I would go back to the point | :18:40. | :18:45. | |
that we are working in very difficult environments where we are | :18:46. | :18:48. | |
trying to get longer term change on the ground and that means working | :18:49. | :18:53. | |
directly with communities but also investing for the long-term, | :18:54. | :18:57. | |
investing in some of these girls start changing attitudes in them and | :18:58. | :19:04. | |
their communities. Why does the British taxpayers spend ?5 million | :19:05. | :19:14. | |
on a Bangladesh version of Question Time? We work with the BBC to make | :19:15. | :19:20. | |
sure we can get accountabilities... That is bigger then the BBC Question | :19:21. | :19:40. | |
Time Normal -- budget. That includes the cost of David Dimbleby's | :19:41. | :19:48. | |
tattoo! We are working to improve people's prospects but also we are | :19:49. | :19:52. | |
working to improve their ability to hold their governments to account so | :19:53. | :19:56. | |
that when they are not getting services on the ground, they have | :19:57. | :20:00. | |
ways they can raise those concerns with the people who are there to | :20:01. | :20:08. | |
deliver services for them. In your own personal view, should the next | :20:09. | :20:12. | |
Conservative Government, if there is one, should you continue to ring | :20:13. | :20:18. | |
fence spending on foreign aid? But it is critical that if we are going | :20:19. | :20:23. | |
to spend 7.7% of our national income, we should make sure it is in | :20:24. | :20:28. | |
our national interest and that means having a clear approach to | :20:29. | :20:33. | |
humanitarian responses, in keeping the country safe, and a clearer | :20:34. | :20:37. | |
approach on helping drive economic development and jobs so there is a | :20:38. | :20:43. | |
long-term end of the dependency. Do you believe in an shrine in the | :20:44. | :20:49. | |
percentage of our GDP that goes on foreign aid in law? Yes, and that is | :20:50. | :20:55. | |
a coalition agreement. There have been a lot of agreements that you | :20:56. | :21:05. | |
are sceptical about ring fencing. We are focused on shaking up the | :21:06. | :21:09. | |
economy and improving our public finances. Why haven't you done that? | :21:10. | :21:23. | |
At the end of the day we will be accountable but we are committed to | :21:24. | :21:28. | |
doing that. You are running out of time, will you do it? I hope we can | :21:29. | :21:34. | |
find the Parliamentary time, but even if we don't, we have acted as | :21:35. | :21:40. | |
if that law is in place and we have already met 0.7% commitment. If you | :21:41. | :21:46. | |
are British voter that doesn't believe that we should enshrine that | :21:47. | :21:53. | |
in by law, which means that with a growing economy foreign aid will | :21:54. | :21:57. | |
rise by definition, and if you think we should be spending less money on | :21:58. | :22:01. | |
the Ethiopian Spice Girls, for whom should you wrote in the next | :22:02. | :22:09. | |
election? I think we have a very sensible approach. I don't know what | :22:10. | :22:15. | |
the various party manifestoes... The only party who thinks we shouldn't | :22:16. | :22:21. | |
be doing this is UKIP. I think you have to look at the response to both | :22:22. | :22:31. | |
the Philippines crisis and Children In Need. Of all the steps we are | :22:32. | :22:38. | |
taking to get the country back on track, it shows the British people | :22:39. | :22:44. | |
will respond to need when they need it and it is one of the things that | :22:45. | :22:52. | |
makes Britain's special. Thank you. "It's always winter but | :22:53. | :22:55. | |
never Christmas" - that's how doctors describe life inside | :22:56. | :22:57. | |
accident and emergency. The College of Emergency Medicine have warned | :22:58. | :23:00. | |
that this year could bring the "worst crisis on record". If that | :23:01. | :23:04. | |
dire prediction comes, expect a spring of political recriminations, | :23:05. | :23:06. | |
but how prepared are the NHS in England? And what do they make of | :23:07. | :23:10. | |
this autumnal speculation? Giles has been to Leeds to find out. | :23:11. | :23:19. | |
This winter has already come to our hospitals. It had an official start | :23:20. | :23:25. | |
date, November the 3rd. That is when weekly updates are delivered to the | :23:26. | :23:33. | |
NHS's most senior planners, alerting them to any sudden changes in | :23:34. | :23:39. | |
patient numbers coming in. Where do they numbers register most then | :23:40. | :23:47. | |
A They are the barometer for what is going on everywhere else, and | :23:48. | :23:51. | |
they are the pressure point, so if the system is beginning to struggle | :23:52. | :23:55. | |
then it is in the A department that we see the problems. It is not | :23:56. | :24:03. | |
that the problems are the A departments, but they are the place | :24:04. | :24:09. | |
where it all comes together. Plans to tackle those problems start being | :24:10. | :24:14. | |
drawn up in May and they look at trends, even taking notice of any | :24:15. | :24:23. | |
flu epidemics in New Zealand. They also look at the amount of bets. But | :24:24. | :24:33. | |
the weather, economic realities, structural reforms, and changes to | :24:34. | :24:37. | |
the general health of the population, are all factors they | :24:38. | :24:41. | |
have to consider. We get huge amounts of information through the | :24:42. | :24:46. | |
winter in order to help the NHS be the best it can be, but we had to | :24:47. | :24:51. | |
redouble our efforts this year because we expected to be a | :24:52. | :24:56. | |
difficult winter. We know the NHS is stretched so we are working hard to | :24:57. | :25:03. | |
be as good as we can be. That means they are looking at winter staffing | :25:04. | :25:10. | |
levels, plans to ask for help from neighbouring hospitals, and | :25:11. | :25:14. | |
dovetailing help with GP surgeries, and still having the ability to move | :25:15. | :25:20. | |
up an extra gear, a rehearsed emergency plan if the NHS had to | :25:21. | :25:26. | |
face a major disease pandemic. You spend any time in any of our | :25:27. | :25:30. | |
hospitals and you realise the NHS knows that winter is coming and they | :25:31. | :25:35. | |
are making plans, but you also get a palpable feeling amongst health | :25:36. | :25:38. | |
workers across the entire system that they do get fed up of being | :25:39. | :25:46. | |
used as a political football. Doctors and all health care | :25:47. | :25:49. | |
professionals are frustrated about the politics that surrounds the NHS | :25:50. | :25:55. | |
in health care. They go to work to treat patients as best as they can, | :25:56. | :25:58. | |
and the political knock-about does not help anyone. I find it | :25:59. | :26:05. | |
frustrating when there is a commentary that suggests the NHS | :26:06. | :26:09. | |
does not planned, when it is surprised by winter, and wherever | :26:10. | :26:15. | |
that comes from it is hard to take, knowing how much we do nationally | :26:16. | :26:21. | |
and how much our hard working front line staff are doing. When the | :26:22. | :26:30. | |
Coalition have recently tried to open up the NHS to be a more | :26:31. | :26:36. | |
independent body, it is clear the NHS feel they have had an unhealthy | :26:37. | :26:43. | |
dose of political wrangling between parties on policy. The NHS is not | :26:44. | :26:47. | |
infallible or making any guarantees, but they seem confident that they | :26:48. | :26:53. | |
and their patients can survive the winter. | :26:54. | :26:56. | |
Joining me now from Salford in the Shadow Health Secretary, Andy | :26:57. | :27:04. | |
Burnham. Tell me this, if you were health secretary now, you just took | :27:05. | :27:09. | |
over in an emergency election, what would you do to avoid another winter | :27:10. | :27:19. | |
crisis? I would immediately halt the closure of NHS walk-in centres. We | :27:20. | :27:25. | |
heard this week that around one in four walk-in centres are closed so | :27:26. | :27:30. | |
it makes no sense whatsoever for the Government to allow the continued | :27:31. | :27:34. | |
closure of them. I would put nurses back on the end of phones and | :27:35. | :27:40. | |
restore an NHS direct style service. The new 111 service is not in a | :27:41. | :27:47. | |
position to provide help to people this winter. I think the time has | :27:48. | :27:54. | |
come to rethink how the NHS care is particularly for older people so I | :27:55. | :27:58. | |
propose the full integration of health and social care. It cannot | :27:59. | :28:03. | |
make any sense any more to have this approach where we cut social care | :28:04. | :28:09. | |
and let elderly people drift to hospitals in greater numbers. We | :28:10. | :28:13. | |
have two rethink it as a whole service. So you would repeal some of | :28:14. | :28:21. | |
the Tory reforms and move commissioning to local authorities | :28:22. | :28:26. | |
so the NHS should brace itself for another major top-down health | :28:27. | :28:32. | |
reorganisation? No, unlike Andrew Lansley I will work with the | :28:33. | :28:36. | |
organisations ie inherit. He could work with primary care trusts but he | :28:37. | :28:47. | |
turned it upside down when it needed stability. I will not do that but I | :28:48. | :28:53. | |
will repeal the health and social care act because last week we heard | :28:54. | :29:06. | |
that hospitals and health services cannot get on and make sensible | :29:07. | :29:09. | |
merger collaborations because of this nonsense now that the NHS is | :29:10. | :29:16. | |
bound by competition law. Let me get your views on a number of ideas that | :29:17. | :29:21. | |
have been floated either by the press or the Coalition. We haven't | :29:22. | :29:25. | |
got much time. Do you welcome the plan to bring back named GPs for | :29:26. | :29:37. | |
over 75s? Yes, but it has got harder to get the GP appointment under this | :29:38. | :29:42. | |
Government because David Cameron scrapped the 48-hour guarantee that | :29:43. | :29:46. | |
Tony Blair brought in. He was challenged in the 2005 election | :29:47. | :29:51. | |
about the difficulty of getting a GP appointment, and Tony Blair brought | :29:52. | :29:55. | |
in the commitment that people should be able to get that within 48 | :29:56. | :30:02. | |
hours. That has now been scrapped. Do you welcome the idea of allowing | :30:03. | :30:06. | |
everyone to choose their own GP surgery even if it is not in our | :30:07. | :30:14. | |
traditional catchment area? I proposed that just before the last | :30:15. | :30:19. | |
election, so yes. Do you welcome the idea of how a practice is being | :30:20. | :30:23. | |
rated being a matter of public record, and of us knowing how much, | :30:24. | :30:30. | |
at least from the NHS, our GP earns? Of course, every political party | :30:31. | :30:34. | |
supports transparency in the NHS. More information for the public of | :30:35. | :30:38. | |
that kind is a good thing. Do you welcome this plan to make it will | :30:39. | :30:44. | |
form the collect in an NHS hospital -- make wilful neglect a criminal | :30:45. | :30:52. | |
offence. It is important to say you can't pick and mix these | :30:53. | :30:54. | |
recommendations, you can't say we will have that one and not the | :30:55. | :30:58. | |
others. It was a balanced package that Sir Robert Francis put forward. | :30:59. | :31:03. | |
My message is that it must be permitted in full. If we are to | :31:04. | :31:06. | |
learn the lessons, the whole package must be addressed, and that includes | :31:07. | :31:12. | |
safe staffing levels across the NHS. Staff have a responsible to two | :31:13. | :31:17. | |
patients at the government also has responsible at T2 NHS staff and it | :31:18. | :31:20. | |
should not let them work in understaffed, unsafe conditions -- a | :31:21. | :31:33. | |
responsibility to NHS staff. Is there a part of the 2004 agreements | :31:34. | :31:43. | |
that you regret and should be undone? A lot of myths have been | :31:44. | :31:48. | |
built up about the contract. When it came in, there was a huge shortage | :31:49. | :31:53. | |
of GPs across the country. Some communities struggle to recruit. | :31:54. | :31:58. | |
This myth that the government have built, that the 2004 GP contract is | :31:59. | :32:04. | |
responsible for the AM decries is, it is spin of the worst possible | :32:05. | :32:12. | |
kind -- the A crisis. You would redo that contract? It was redone | :32:13. | :32:17. | |
under our time in government and change to make it better value for | :32:18. | :32:22. | |
money. GPs should be focused on improving the health of their | :32:23. | :32:25. | |
patients and that is a very good principle. Not so great if you can't | :32:26. | :32:32. | |
get 24-hour access. I agree with that. We brought in evening and | :32:33. | :32:37. | |
weekend opening for GPs. That is another thing that has gone in | :32:38. | :32:41. | |
reverse under Mr Cameron. It is much harder to get a GP appointment under | :32:42. | :32:44. | |
him and that is one of the reasons why A is an oppressor. -- under | :32:45. | :32:55. | |
pressure. What do you make of the review into intimidatory tactics by | :32:56. | :33:00. | |
unions? If there has been intimidation, it is unacceptable, | :33:01. | :33:04. | |
and that should apply to unions as well as employers. Was Unite wrong | :33:05. | :33:12. | |
to turn up and demonstrate? I don't know the details, this review will | :33:13. | :33:16. | |
look into that presumably. I need reassurance that this is not a | :33:17. | :33:20. | |
pretty cool call by Mr Cameron on the designed to appear near the | :33:21. | :33:23. | |
election -- that this is not a political call. Are you sponsored by | :33:24. | :33:35. | |
unite? No. Do you get any money from Unite? No. What have you done wrong? | :33:36. | :33:44. | |
It seems others are getting money from Unite. Can I tell you what I | :33:45. | :33:51. | |
think is the scandal of British party political funding, two health | :33:52. | :33:54. | |
care companies have given ?1.5 million in donations to the Tory | :33:55. | :34:02. | |
party, they have ?1.5 billion in NHS contracts. I wonder why you don't | :34:03. | :34:07. | |
spend much time talking about that and obsess over trade union funding. | :34:08. | :34:11. | |
We are happy to talk about that. We see from e-mails that Mr Miliband's | :34:12. | :34:18. | |
closest advisers regard Mr Ed Balls as a bit of a nightmare, do you see | :34:19. | :34:24. | |
a bit of a nightmare about him as well? I don't at all, he is a very | :34:25. | :34:29. | |
good friend. I can't believe that you are talking about those e-mails | :34:30. | :34:33. | |
on a national political programme. My goodness, you obviously scraping | :34:34. | :34:38. | |
the barrel today. I have been in front-line labour politics for 20 | :34:39. | :34:42. | |
years. I can't remember the front bench and the wider party being as | :34:43. | :34:46. | |
united as it is today and it is a great credit to Ed Miliband and Ed | :34:47. | :34:50. | |
Balls. We are going into a general election and we are going to get rid | :34:51. | :34:53. | |
of a pretty disastrous coalition government. It was worth spending a | :34:54. | :34:58. | |
few seconds to establish your not having nightmares. Thank you for | :34:59. | :35:02. | |
joining me. It's just gone 11:30am. You're | :35:03. | :35:04. | |
watching the Sunday Politics. Coming up in just over 20 minutes, I'll be | :35:05. | :35:08. | |
talking to the MP accused of using his political contacts for financial | :35:09. | :35:10. | |
gain. Until then, the Sunday Politics across the UK. | :35:11. | :35:20. | |
Hello and welcome. We will be kicking off in a -- with a focus on | :35:21. | :35:29. | |
the safety of cycling in the capital after recent fatalities. And later, | :35:30. | :35:33. | |
we'll be asking whether a winter crisis in London hospitals | :35:34. | :35:37. | |
casualties departments can be averted. With me, Mike Freer, | :35:38. | :35:44. | |
Conservative MP for Golders green and Nick Hillier. With a sudden | :35:45. | :35:50. | |
spike in fatal incidents, there have been calls for urgent safety reviews | :35:51. | :35:57. | |
amidst claims that London's Mayor, Boris Johnson, has rushed to | :35:58. | :36:01. | |
encourage cycling in the capital without making it safe enough. He | :36:02. | :36:04. | |
has promised to analyse and learn from the latest deaths will stop | :36:05. | :36:09. | |
improvements to his so-called superhighways are promised but as he | :36:10. | :36:11. | |
told me earlier in the week, they would not be scrapped. It is very | :36:12. | :36:16. | |
important to continue with the cycle superhighway programme, to continue | :36:17. | :36:23. | |
to make cycling ever safer. We will see what happened at the bow | :36:24. | :36:26. | |
roundabout, we will analyse it. There is no traffic engineer in the | :36:27. | :36:33. | |
world who can accommodate every eventuality. What should happen? Do | :36:34. | :36:39. | |
we need a review? Do we need to stop any further construction of | :36:40. | :36:43. | |
superhighways? I would not stop because most of them seem to be | :36:44. | :36:48. | |
working OK. We have to have a look at the back spots, there are | :36:49. | :36:51. | |
problems with the Bow roundabout. Where there are problems, we need to | :36:52. | :36:55. | |
find out what we can do to make it safer for cyclists. I cycle, I use a | :36:56. | :37:01. | |
bus lane, I don't have a superhighway and it works well. | :37:02. | :37:05. | |
Where it is working well we should leave it alone, where it is not | :37:06. | :37:08. | |
working we should look at making it better for cyclists, but also make | :37:09. | :37:12. | |
drivers aware they are in a heavy cyclist area. Would you say that you | :37:13. | :37:18. | |
feel just as happy cycling in a road where there is no defined | :37:19. | :37:24. | |
superhighway? Is there an issue about the cycle superhighway that | :37:25. | :37:26. | |
gives you a false sense of safety and security? Every cyclist is | :37:27. | :37:33. | |
different. I don't feel particularly safer or less safe when I'm on the | :37:34. | :37:37. | |
roads. Just cycling down a piece of blue paint doesn't make me feel any | :37:38. | :37:41. | |
safer. I only feel safe when I'm in a bus lane because on the old, the | :37:42. | :37:46. | |
buses seem to be very conscious of cycle safety. Once you on a normal | :37:47. | :37:50. | |
road, which most of my patch is, you have to have your wits about you. It | :37:51. | :37:54. | |
is quite frightening, what you see drivers doing and especially truck | :37:55. | :37:58. | |
drivers. There needs to be a bit of an awareness of drivers. I would | :37:59. | :38:03. | |
like see a few prosecutions. You see some terrible things of people | :38:04. | :38:05. | |
driving and text link Mawhinney dove a bit of a crackdown -- people | :38:06. | :38:16. | |
driving and text messaging, we need to have a bit of a crackdown. We | :38:17. | :38:21. | |
looked at whether people doing the driving test should also have to | :38:22. | :38:27. | |
cycle. We thought there should be more cycle awareness. In terms of | :38:28. | :38:35. | |
segregation, in Hackney, we have done an awful lot without | :38:36. | :38:39. | |
segregating because you cannot segregate everywhere. Simple, cheap | :38:40. | :38:41. | |
measures have made it a lot better for cyclists. For things like the | :38:42. | :38:47. | |
superhighway, there is an order in for closer segregation and there are | :38:48. | :38:54. | |
blackspots like the Bow roundabout. The plan is for further segregation, | :38:55. | :38:58. | |
you would not go along with what Lord Adonis think should happen a | :38:59. | :39:06. | |
review. There must be reviews that transport for London are doing on | :39:07. | :39:09. | |
the superhighways. When you look at some of the footage we have seen | :39:10. | :39:14. | |
recently, there are lorries going across and they are clearly not well | :39:15. | :39:18. | |
signposted. Just putting some blue paint across a junction will not | :39:19. | :39:23. | |
stop drivers, or cyclists being reassured falsely. There are | :39:24. | :39:28. | |
blackspots, I am not sure you stop it altogether. They could be seen as | :39:29. | :39:33. | |
a gimmick because good training and transport design throughout makes | :39:34. | :39:36. | |
cycling safer and the highways themselves are not the solution. You | :39:37. | :39:41. | |
think most of these routes seem to be going OK in certain parts, but it | :39:42. | :39:45. | |
is a distinction you can't really make. A cycle superhighway is either | :39:46. | :39:52. | |
safe or not. If it has got flaws anywhere along the route, it is not | :39:53. | :39:57. | |
safe. I don't think it is fair to say that all of the superhighways | :39:58. | :40:01. | |
are flawed. I think you have to look at where there have been accidents. | :40:02. | :40:07. | |
We are looking now. We are getting the distinct impression, not least | :40:08. | :40:10. | |
from evidence that has been put to inquests, that people before, | :40:11. | :40:15. | |
Metropolitan Police officers, were saying these were accidents waiting | :40:16. | :40:18. | |
to happen or it was confusing. Don't those things get done before you | :40:19. | :40:26. | |
pursue a policy? The danger is of reacting to accidents rating Tappan, | :40:27. | :40:31. | |
it is pretty much every road in the borough -- accidents waiting to | :40:32. | :40:39. | |
happen. You have to look at where you have lots of HDV is -- HGVs and | :40:40. | :40:46. | |
cyclists and vehicles all converging. If there was a plan for | :40:47. | :40:52. | |
one in Finchley Road, would you accept that and be happy for it to | :40:53. | :40:57. | |
go ahead? It is not in my constituency but I get the point. | :40:58. | :41:01. | |
Before it was introduced, all the stakeholders should be consulted and | :41:02. | :41:06. | |
I would say, as a cyclist who uses Finchley Road, here are the pinch | :41:07. | :41:10. | |
points. That is what happened in Hackney, the cycling group has been | :41:11. | :41:13. | |
instrumental in shaping what the council has done, they have worked | :41:14. | :41:19. | |
together. That is what we can take from this, more involvement of the | :41:20. | :41:23. | |
people involved. Well over half of cyclist fatalities | :41:24. | :41:27. | |
on the road have happened as a result of collisions with HGVs. | :41:28. | :41:32. | |
There are fresh calls to get lorries off of London streets during peak | :41:33. | :41:36. | |
hours, and not just for cyclist safety but to cut congestion and | :41:37. | :41:41. | |
improve traffic flow. In just over two hours, the controversial GLC | :41:42. | :41:46. | |
lorry ban will come into force. Trucks over 16 and a half tonnes | :41:47. | :41:49. | |
will be prohibitive from entering the capital at night and during the | :41:50. | :41:54. | |
weekend. Restrictions on night-time deliveries in London have been in | :41:55. | :41:57. | |
place for almost 30 years. Heavy trucks need a permit and are told to | :41:58. | :42:01. | |
keep away from residential streets. The scheme, now operated by London | :42:02. | :42:07. | |
councils, is coming under pressure to reform. New technologies mean the | :42:08. | :42:10. | |
trucks are much quieter than they would have been when the | :42:11. | :42:13. | |
restrictions were introduced. Modern technologies coming out very soon, | :42:14. | :42:18. | |
and they are amazing, some of the systems they have got. With quieter | :42:19. | :42:24. | |
trucks, the disturbance caused at night should be mitigated. In Paris | :42:25. | :42:28. | |
and Dublin, they do the opposite of what we do in London and they | :42:29. | :42:31. | |
restrict what lorries can do in the day rather than at night. Is it time | :42:32. | :42:40. | |
we looked again? There is increasing pressure to get lorries off the | :42:41. | :42:43. | |
streets in London and stop them clogging the streets for everyone | :42:44. | :42:48. | |
else. If you can get more and more lorries delivering out of hours, it | :42:49. | :42:52. | |
will free up the roads for every other road user including buses, | :42:53. | :42:57. | |
cyclists and pedestrians. Around about this week, a cyclist was | :42:58. | :43:03. | |
killed at this interchange after a collision with an HGV. This happened | :43:04. | :43:09. | |
at 8:45am, peak time for lorries as the restrictions are lifted and they | :43:10. | :43:12. | |
rushed onto the roads to make deliveries. The questions is -- | :43:13. | :43:18. | |
question is if weather those restrictions were different, | :43:19. | :43:21. | |
accidents would be fewer. During the Olympics lorries were encouraged to | :43:22. | :43:24. | |
make out of hours deliveries. Transport for London said it was a | :43:25. | :43:27. | |
success and are hoping to introduce more trials will stop the Olympic | :43:28. | :43:29. | |
showed us the Olympics showed us it was | :43:30. | :43:36. | |
possible to create everything never can change. We worked closely with | :43:37. | :43:42. | |
the boroughs of London councils, the freight industries and big | :43:43. | :43:45. | |
supermarkets to help that happen. You can make a big change, the | :43:46. | :43:50. | |
question is how do you make it part of everyday life rather than a | :43:51. | :43:54. | |
one-off thing for the Olympics. Olympic transport policy may not | :43:55. | :43:59. | |
prove so popular outside of the Games. Customers were advised to | :44:00. | :44:04. | |
avoid the underground at the busiest times. During the Olympics, | :44:05. | :44:08. | |
transport for London spend a lot of time telling people about where the | :44:09. | :44:12. | |
busiest places on the network would be and how and when to avoid them. | :44:13. | :44:15. | |
They thought it was a great success and this is an attempt to bring that | :44:16. | :44:19. | |
logic into normal travelling circumstances. Not all passengers | :44:20. | :44:25. | |
are warming to the advice that they consider not using the tube at the | :44:26. | :44:28. | |
time is that they want to. Could it be that out of hours deliveries | :44:29. | :44:32. | |
prove less popular if the reality becomes a big truck clattering down | :44:33. | :44:38. | |
your street when you're trying to sleep. | :44:39. | :44:42. | |
The former leader of Islington Council joins us. What do you think? | :44:43. | :44:47. | |
Transport for London look as if they would be interested in allowing a | :44:48. | :44:50. | |
lot more journeys at night, what is the problem with that? We have to | :44:51. | :44:55. | |
balance the needs of London is to have a decent nights sleep, and lots | :44:56. | :45:01. | |
of people live on busy roads, above shops and so on. We have to be | :45:02. | :45:05. | |
mindful that the lorry delivery at 3am or 4am May not be so grateful | :45:06. | :45:11. | |
residents. London councils are on the side of residents rather than | :45:12. | :45:14. | |
supermarkets and we have to get that balance right. A lot of the major | :45:15. | :45:23. | |
roads you are talking about, transport in London would been in | :45:24. | :45:33. | |
charge of them, and aunt Laurie is just much quieter now? Those new | :45:34. | :45:38. | |
measures have not made as much difference as we thought, and don't | :45:39. | :45:44. | |
forget, when there are refrigerators and big dump masters being placed | :45:45. | :45:47. | |
onto the highway in the middle of the night, they can be really noisy. | :45:48. | :45:53. | |
More and more people are living in London now and we have to protect | :45:54. | :45:59. | |
the environment for local people. Peter John, fellow Labour | :46:00. | :46:06. | |
councillor, he feels that we should look at this. On the cycle | :46:07. | :46:11. | |
accidents, I think the scheme we run, we could be using that because | :46:12. | :46:17. | |
40,000 lorries are registered with us to make sure that each Laurie has | :46:18. | :46:23. | |
this pass, to make sure it is the safest possible vehicle, and we | :46:24. | :46:30. | |
could also make sure drivers are being held to account for their | :46:31. | :46:34. | |
reckless behaviour. You are not prepared to consider loosening this | :46:35. | :46:40. | |
night-time band, how do you know people wouldn't mind it now? It is | :46:41. | :46:47. | |
not a complete ban. You give permits to a limited number per year, a lot | :46:48. | :46:54. | |
more lorry journeys and surely we could direct a lot more of them to | :46:55. | :47:05. | |
the evening. Hardly any lorries do deliveries at that time so maybe | :47:06. | :47:16. | |
more drivers could look at their start and finish times a lot of the | :47:17. | :47:24. | |
deliveries could be delivered at 4pm. Do you think we should change | :47:25. | :47:33. | |
this, there is more latitude now? I think there is a case to say we | :47:34. | :47:38. | |
could revisit the rules. There is a difference between allowing | :47:39. | :47:42. | |
deliveries into central London where there are relatively few people | :47:43. | :47:47. | |
living, and I would be happy to look at relaxing those deliveries | :47:48. | :47:50. | |
throughout the night. It is different to having deliveries into | :47:51. | :47:54. | |
the high streets of most town centres around London, whether it is | :47:55. | :47:59. | |
Islington or high Barnet. We need to look at the difference between the | :48:00. | :48:05. | |
high centres and maximise deliveries. Wouldn't the people of | :48:06. | :48:15. | |
Hackney say that, given these cycle accidents, we will take more | :48:16. | :48:18. | |
disruption and noise at night if we can get some of these lorries off | :48:19. | :48:24. | |
the roads during the day? There is an argument for that, but Catherine | :48:25. | :48:34. | |
is right. It is about getting the balance with noise pollution. I | :48:35. | :48:38. | |
think the Olympic experiment was interesting and showed there can be | :48:39. | :48:42. | |
more deliveries at night but there are some streets in my constituency | :48:43. | :48:47. | |
where it wouldn't be a problem to have night-time deliveries, and | :48:48. | :48:50. | |
others where it would still be a nightmare for residents because it | :48:51. | :48:54. | |
would still be noisy, and we also have to look at the training of | :48:55. | :48:58. | |
drivers because often the noise comes from loud radios and the | :48:59. | :49:05. | |
slamming of doors. When do you make another decision on this? We are | :49:06. | :49:11. | |
doing some pilots in Camden and Richmond in the New Year and I will | :49:12. | :49:16. | |
be happy to come back and tell you how they are going. Next, what to do | :49:17. | :49:22. | |
to ease the pressure on A departments in London. On a wider | :49:23. | :49:30. | |
scale, new plans to reorganise and take the strain of the system, and | :49:31. | :49:34. | |
the latest data from the London assembly shows the recommended | :49:35. | :49:39. | |
waiting time is being missed all too often. During the summer Health | :49:40. | :49:43. | |
Secretary Jeremy Hunt admitted he was concerned about the potential | :49:44. | :49:49. | |
for a crisis with A this winter. Despite the extra ?110 million he | :49:50. | :49:55. | |
found to help them get through this and next winter, he said it will be | :49:56. | :50:00. | |
difficult to make sure staff can cope with demand and keep waiting | :50:01. | :50:05. | |
times under control. A report from the London assembly showed London | :50:06. | :50:14. | |
A are already struggling. With the cold on its way, senior doctors | :50:15. | :50:19. | |
are warning this winter could be the worst on record for A treatment. | :50:20. | :50:24. | |
The London assembly says somebody needs to be charged with getting a | :50:25. | :50:28. | |
grip on the problem. When this coalition Government came into | :50:29. | :50:37. | |
being, they changed the hierarchy and now there is a vacuum of | :50:38. | :50:41. | |
leadership. This needs to be given to a new body, whether it is the | :50:42. | :50:45. | |
Mayor of London or another authority, that is open to debate, | :50:46. | :50:50. | |
but I think it should be given to the Mayor of London. Doctors | :50:51. | :50:59. | |
continue to expect a crisis this winter. | :51:00. | :51:03. | |
The Government this week saying we will create a new role for the | :51:04. | :51:07. | |
family doctor, making sure older people don't go to A as much, | :51:08. | :51:16. | |
possibly bringing in a two tier A, that seems like sensible | :51:17. | :51:23. | |
rationalisation, doesn't it? Most good GPs would be keeping an eye on | :51:24. | :51:29. | |
their elderly patients anyway so we have got to not over blow what the | :51:30. | :51:34. | |
Government is promising here. In terms of the make up of the A, my | :51:35. | :51:41. | |
own A doesn't do anything anyway but it is still fully functioning, | :51:42. | :51:46. | |
people with heart problems go elsewhere to get better treatment | :51:47. | :51:49. | |
and I don't have a problem with that. There has not been proper | :51:50. | :51:54. | |
planning about how people access emergency care overall, and on the | :51:55. | :51:57. | |
Public Accounts Committee we have seen a lot of this, people competing | :51:58. | :52:03. | |
to shunt the problem elsewhere and often people end up going to A | :52:04. | :52:11. | |
Notably, people are warning there will be a crisis but it hasn't | :52:12. | :52:16. | |
happened, it has not necessarily happened. Things like flu jabs | :52:17. | :52:31. | |
matter, because elderly and vulnerable people are affected by | :52:32. | :52:39. | |
that. Are you concerned about preparations not being in place? To | :52:40. | :52:44. | |
be fair, every Government has faced a crisis as winter approaches, it is | :52:45. | :52:53. | |
how you plan for it and I have visited one A recently. It is | :52:54. | :53:00. | |
about ensuring that we get it right this winter whilst we also deal with | :53:01. | :53:06. | |
the underlying problem of increased demand and people using A more and | :53:07. | :53:12. | |
more when they should be using the primary care system. So many people | :53:13. | :53:16. | |
who are used to social care divided by local authorities, we know the | :53:17. | :53:23. | |
cuts to that kind of provision, that is contributing, isn't it? I went | :53:24. | :53:30. | |
into my local A and asked them why they are coping so well. We do have | :53:31. | :53:38. | |
a part of the population that is new to the country where going to the GP | :53:39. | :53:47. | |
is not part of their culture. 65% of A admissions are elderly, and in | :53:48. | :53:52. | |
Barnet we are looking at which care homes have a regular referral and | :53:53. | :53:59. | |
which don't and what is going wrong. This is about communication, isn't | :54:00. | :54:04. | |
it? We need to be concerned about shortage of A nurses because it is | :54:05. | :54:10. | |
partly a financial issue. If you look at the hospital in Hackney, a | :54:11. | :54:19. | |
hospital is run next to A so people are in the right place for | :54:20. | :54:23. | |
the right treatment, and I think it is about that sense as well. We are | :54:24. | :54:30. | |
seeing walk-in centres being closed so the Government cannot dodge | :54:31. | :54:34. | |
responsibility. It is regular changes and lack of planning leading | :54:35. | :54:39. | |
to this. What do you want your Government to do? What are you doing | :54:40. | :54:47. | |
to get a change of behaviour? In the short-term, half ?1 billion has gone | :54:48. | :54:52. | |
in to make sure they can deal with increase in demand as the winter | :54:53. | :54:56. | |
approaches. In the long term I want a grown-up conversation about how we | :54:57. | :55:01. | |
get the change of care working properly, and I would like some | :55:02. | :55:09. | |
A to be tougher interning people around and telling them they are in | :55:10. | :55:14. | |
the wrong place. A big subject but let's move on. It is time for the | :55:15. | :55:18. | |
rest of the political news in 60 seconds. Education Secretary Michael | :55:19. | :55:28. | |
Gove this week praised Hackney Council for letting go up to a third | :55:29. | :55:32. | |
of their social workers. He claimed it showed the council to be holding | :55:33. | :55:37. | |
social workers and managers to the highest professional standards. | :55:38. | :55:41. | |
Labour should apologise for its poor record of building social housing, | :55:42. | :55:44. | |
the party 's own spokesperson has said. London assembly member pointed | :55:45. | :55:49. | |
out that Margaret ThatcherGovernment build more houses | :55:50. | :55:55. | |
in a single year than Tony Blair managed in 13 years of power. | :55:56. | :55:59. | |
Hundreds of children in London's most deprived areas are about to be | :56:00. | :56:06. | |
taught Latin. They will use a grant of ?250,000 from the Mayor's | :56:07. | :56:17. | |
education fund. A new report has prompted calls for | :56:18. | :56:21. | |
transport bosses to publish details of the worst performing bus | :56:22. | :56:28. | |
companies and routes. Meg Hillier, that is the kind of | :56:29. | :56:33. | |
praise you must welcome from a conservative education minister, | :56:34. | :56:37. | |
praising Labour Hackney Council for getting rid of a third of social | :56:38. | :56:43. | |
workers who were not up to scratch. That is the way Michael Gove would | :56:44. | :56:52. | |
like to spin it, but we have a very good leader in Hackney who tailors | :56:53. | :57:00. | |
the services. It is still painful, let's be clear. A lot of suffering | :57:01. | :57:07. | |
is still going on in Hackney. Is it true there are a lot of social | :57:08. | :57:10. | |
workers out there who should not be in their jobs? Every area has good | :57:11. | :57:17. | |
and bad people. One of the keys is that good local authorities can | :57:18. | :57:20. | |
continue to attract good local people, and we have seen that in | :57:21. | :57:25. | |
Birmingham where they have not been able to recruit. What about the | :57:26. | :57:31. | |
suggestion of more private organisations dealing with child | :57:32. | :57:36. | |
protection? I think it depends on individual circumstances. I wanted | :57:37. | :57:42. | |
my social workers reporting to my offices as leader of the council | :57:43. | :57:48. | |
because you need to have the direct levers to pull. I don't think I | :57:49. | :57:55. | |
would go down that route. It is heartening to hear that because | :57:56. | :58:00. | |
neither would I. You can see how much these private companies cream | :58:01. | :58:06. | |
of from people who should be receiving it. We will return to this | :58:07. | :58:11. | |
if we hear more. Thank you. Andrew, it is back to you. | :58:12. | :58:25. | |
Who'd be an MP? It's a good question. Certainly something Mark | :58:26. | :58:30. | |
Pritchard must have asked himself when his picture graced the front | :58:31. | :58:33. | |
page of the Daily Telegraph, with allegations that he had offered to | :58:34. | :58:36. | |
set up business deals overseas in return for hundreds of thousands of | :58:37. | :58:38. | |
pounds. Mr Pritchard dismissed the claims as hurtful and wrong. He | :58:39. | :58:41. | |
referred himself to the Parliamentary Standards Commissioner | :58:42. | :58:43. | |
who has now said there is insufficient evidence to | :58:44. | :58:46. | |
investigate. In a moment we'll talk to Mr Pritchard, but first let's | :58:47. | :58:49. | |
take a look back at how the story unfurled. A Conservative MP has | :58:50. | :58:52. | |
denied allegations that he used his Parliamentary contacts for financial | :58:53. | :58:57. | |
gain... The daily Telegraph says Mark Pritchard offered to broker | :58:58. | :59:01. | |
investments overseas. In a statement he said the allegations made by the | :59:02. | :59:11. | |
Telegraph are false. Mr Pritchard was secretly filmed... What do you | :59:12. | :59:16. | |
make of these allegations? He has referred himself to the | :59:17. | :59:19. | |
Parliamentary Commissioner for standards to clear his name and I | :59:20. | :59:22. | |
suspect this story will reopen the debate about what MPs should be | :59:23. | :59:32. | |
allowed, having business interests elsewhere. Is it not clear that you | :59:33. | :59:40. | |
did ask for money in consultancy services? First of all I would like | :59:41. | :59:50. | |
to apologise for the sunglasses, I have had a lot of comments about | :59:51. | :59:56. | |
that. On a serious point, these claims by the Telegraph of false. | :59:57. | :00:05. | |
You didn't ask for ?3000? They are false, hurtful and malicious. It is | :00:06. | :00:11. | |
known widely that I have sued the Telegraph previously. I have also | :00:12. | :00:14. | |
been critical of their coverage of the plebgate affair, their reporting | :00:15. | :00:20. | |
of that. I have been supportive of the cross-party Royal Charter and I | :00:21. | :00:23. | |
know that some people in the media don't like my position on that. That | :00:24. | :00:28. | |
is why it is malicious. I believe in a free press. That free press also | :00:29. | :00:34. | |
has a responsibility to be fair, accurate and lawful. In discussions | :00:35. | :00:40. | |
with this business who turned out to be a Telegraph reporter, it is true | :00:41. | :00:45. | |
that you ask for ?3000 a month consultancy fee. The point is... | :00:46. | :00:54. | |
That is the point. No. That video has been cut and pasted to serve the | :00:55. | :00:59. | |
Telegraph's story. The story was that we want to get Mark Bridger, | :01:00. | :01:05. | |
for whatever reason, at any cost. -- Mark Bridger hard. I would not go | :01:06. | :01:09. | |
down the line they were hoping I would go down. Everything I own | :01:10. | :01:12. | |
outside of Parliament is openly declared. We are allowed to have | :01:13. | :01:18. | |
outside witness interests. The Telegraph need to say clearly | :01:19. | :01:21. | |
whether they accept that or they don't. I think you need to say | :01:22. | :01:27. | |
clearly whether you asked for the money or not. You then went on to | :01:28. | :01:32. | |
ask for ?300,000 if it was a 10 million deal, you asked for 3% | :01:33. | :01:36. | |
commission. Let me be clear, if I was asking for income in return for | :01:37. | :01:43. | |
lobbying, or raising issues in Parliament, or setting up | :01:44. | :01:48. | |
Parliamentary groups, or going to ministers, writing to ministers, | :01:49. | :01:52. | |
that would be completely inappropriate. I was approached by | :01:53. | :01:56. | |
somebody to advise them on business. It is entirely proper and entirely | :01:57. | :02:03. | |
within the rules for members of Parliament to have outside | :02:04. | :02:06. | |
consultancies and interests. Did you or didn't you? I am answering the | :02:07. | :02:12. | |
question in the way that I want to answer it, not in the way that fits | :02:13. | :02:16. | |
a particular narrative. The narrative, unfortunately, of some | :02:17. | :02:20. | |
parts of the Telegraph and to be fair, there are some very good | :02:21. | :02:23. | |
journalists, I know there is a dispute about the direction of that | :02:24. | :02:27. | |
paper at senior parts. Do they want to return to being a Catholic, | :02:28. | :02:32. | |
objective newspaper or do they want to slip into the slippery slope of | :02:33. | :02:37. | |
being an agnostic rag, looking for sensationalist headlines? Part of | :02:38. | :02:41. | |
this has come from your membership of these all-party Parliamentary | :02:42. | :02:49. | |
groups. You were in Malta when you are first approached, I think you | :02:50. | :02:52. | |
were on a trip there, Hungary is another one, there is an | :02:53. | :02:56. | |
uncomfortable overlap between your political and business interests. I | :02:57. | :03:01. | |
have no business interests in any of those countries. Some of the country | :03:02. | :03:05. | |
is the Telegraph mentioned, let me be clear, I have not even visited. | :03:06. | :03:13. | |
You were boasting that you knew the Albanian Prime Minister and the | :03:14. | :03:16. | |
Mayor of Teheran and the previous prime minister. I make no apology | :03:17. | :03:22. | |
for making foreign trips. I think it is unfortunate we have a narrative | :03:23. | :03:26. | |
developing in some parts of the press that if a politician goes | :03:27. | :03:30. | |
abroad at the taxpayers expense, it is wrong. If they go abroad at a | :03:31. | :03:35. | |
host government's expense it is wrong. If they go abroad with a | :03:36. | :03:39. | |
charity, NGO and private company, even if it is declared, it is wrong. | :03:40. | :03:43. | |
We want people with an international perspective in Parliament. Look at | :03:44. | :03:48. | |
this map. You are a member of 54 country groups. I don't know what | :03:49. | :03:54. | |
Canada has done not to deserve you, or Australia. 54 groups, you are a | :03:55. | :04:00. | |
part of. You're like... This is the Mark Pritchard British Empire. That | :04:01. | :04:05. | |
is very kind. If I had global interests that white I would not be | :04:06. | :04:10. | |
in Parliament. No, no, no. That is the point... It is the suspicion, | :04:11. | :04:16. | |
that you used these groups to drum up business for your consultants. | :04:17. | :04:22. | |
Prove it, that is the trouble. These sorts of headlines, create | :04:23. | :04:26. | |
suspicion. I am suing the Telegraph... Have you issued a writ? | :04:27. | :04:35. | |
I expect an apology. Have you issued a writ? I have just answered your | :04:36. | :04:42. | |
question. It is yes or no, have you issued a writ? I am in final legal | :04:43. | :04:47. | |
discussions tomorrow about issuing a writ. You have raised something for | :04:48. | :04:52. | |
top the fact is that is inaccurate. I am a member of 40-something | :04:53. | :04:55. | |
Parliamentary groups, of which I make no apology. We have got 54. Let | :04:56. | :05:03. | |
me answer the question if I may. It would be very useful. There are 196 | :05:04. | :05:11. | |
countries around the world, it is less than a quarter of the country | :05:12. | :05:15. | |
groups on my figures. I make no apology. One of my regrets is not | :05:16. | :05:22. | |
having visited Syria, I don't know if I am a member of the Syria group, | :05:23. | :05:25. | |
part I should become a member, I make no apology. -- perhaps I should | :05:26. | :05:30. | |
become. When it came to the Syria vote, I was blind sided foot of yes, | :05:31. | :05:38. | |
we have excellent briefings. I had to make a judgement based on part | :05:39. | :05:41. | |
knowledge with nothing beats being on the ground, as even BBC | :05:42. | :05:46. | |
journalists recognised this week. Nothing beats being on the ground. | :05:47. | :05:51. | |
You posted about your connections in Albania to getting a business | :05:52. | :05:55. | |
contract. You meet these people through these all Parliamentary | :05:56. | :05:58. | |
groups. That is where there is an unhealthy overlap. That is what the | :05:59. | :06:06. | |
Telegraph said, let's wait and see. Look... You are a newspaperman, you | :06:07. | :06:10. | |
know lots of people in the newspaper industry, as well as being a | :06:11. | :06:15. | |
respected broadcaster. I am not going to prejudice my legal | :06:16. | :06:19. | |
proceedings against the Telegraph. I make no apology. A good politician | :06:20. | :06:23. | |
has to be local am a national and international. Hang on hang on -- | :06:24. | :06:30. | |
has to be local, national and international. We need politicians | :06:31. | :06:34. | |
who get out of the Westminster bubble, who have a business | :06:35. | :06:37. | |
hinterland, who keep their foot in the real world and have an | :06:38. | :06:41. | |
international perspective. And ask for 3% commission? I have answered | :06:42. | :06:47. | |
the question. It was a cut and pasted video, photo shopped to suit | :06:48. | :06:51. | |
the agenda of the Telegraph. They need to get back to serious news | :06:52. | :06:54. | |
reporting and I wish those well at the senior part of the Telegraph who | :06:55. | :06:59. | |
want to get to those days. We look forward to the writ. Thank you. | :07:00. | :07:02. | |
Now - there's been more good news on the economy for George Osborne this | :07:03. | :07:05. | |
week - inflation's down, growth forecasts have been revised up and | :07:06. | :07:07. | |
unemployment has fallen again. On Friday the former Bullingdon boy | :07:08. | :07:11. | |
donned a head torch and went down't pit for just one of many photo | :07:12. | :07:13. | |
opportunities ahead of the Autumn Statement, which he'll deliver in | :07:14. | :07:16. | |
the Commons on fifth December. And, who knows, he might even take his | :07:17. | :07:23. | |
hard hat off for that. # Going underground. | :07:24. | :07:32. | |
# Let the boys all saying and let the boys all shout for tomorrow. | :07:33. | :07:39. | |
# Lah, lah, love, love. # I talk and talk until my head | :07:40. | :07:42. | |
explodes. # Make this boy shout, make this boy | :07:43. | :07:50. | |
scream. # Going underground. | :07:51. | :08:03. | |
# I'm going underground. # I'm going underground. | :08:04. | :08:10. | |
George Osborne in his heart out, he probably sleeps with it on. This | :08:11. | :08:17. | |
Autumn Statement is becoming a more important part of the political | :08:18. | :08:22. | |
calendar for the coalition. It looks like this is where they are finally | :08:23. | :08:25. | |
going to come up with some kind of response to Ed Miliband's game | :08:26. | :08:31. | |
changing electricity price freeze. The idea which is mooted is they | :08:32. | :08:35. | |
will move people's green tax on two general bills which is not an answer | :08:36. | :08:40. | |
but cosmetically it could have apolitical impact. George Osborne is | :08:41. | :08:44. | |
receiving a lot of representations from lobby groups, business, MPs on | :08:45. | :08:50. | |
his own side, for tax cuts and extra bits spending and he has to spend | :08:51. | :08:54. | |
the next two weeks reminding people of something that has been skewered | :08:55. | :08:57. | |
by the economic recovery. This country has a fiscal deficit which | :08:58. | :09:06. | |
is twice that of France, supposedly the crisis economy in western Europe | :09:07. | :09:09. | |
or if you accept it will take another parliament again to | :09:10. | :09:12. | |
eliminate this deficit, we are not even halfway through the age of | :09:13. | :09:15. | |
austerity. He is in no position to give anything away. He has to hold | :09:16. | :09:20. | |
the line. Danny Alexander has been useful but this is his real | :09:21. | :09:24. | |
challenge. He is going to give stuff away. When the Autumn Statement | :09:25. | :09:29. | |
comes away, 15 months from an election, Nick Clegg has been | :09:30. | :09:33. | |
talking about raising the tax allowance threshold even further, | :09:34. | :09:38. | |
talk of moving green levies of the electricity bills, he is going to | :09:39. | :09:42. | |
give stuff away. We will get funding for free school meals that Nick | :09:43. | :09:44. | |
Clegg mentioned in his party conference. The significance of the | :09:45. | :09:49. | |
Autumn Statement is twice a year, a Chancellor stands up and we all look | :09:50. | :09:54. | |
at the state of the economy. If you talk to members of the Chancellor's | :09:55. | :09:57. | |
circle, it is interesting how nervous they are. They say, don't | :09:58. | :10:01. | |
assume we are going to have this wonderful growth for ever, don't | :10:02. | :10:04. | |
assume everything is fine in the eurozone. I think what would help | :10:05. | :10:09. | |
the Chancellor is if somebody was able to see some of that humility in | :10:10. | :10:14. | |
public. It is recognised that he was far too triumphalist | :10:15. | :10:15. | |
speech he made on the 9th of September, when he said to Ed Balls, | :10:16. | :10:22. | |
we have one and you cannot make an economic policy on the cost of | :10:23. | :10:23. | |
living -- we have... Won. economic policy on the cost of | :10:24. | :10:36. | |
people don't seem to learn from Norman Lamont's green shoots. Labour | :10:37. | :10:40. | |
has moved from complaining there is no growth, now there is, to say | :10:41. | :10:46. | |
has moved from complaining there is is gross but living standards are | :10:47. | :10:46. | |
not rising. If the economy grows by nearly 3% next year, even the bank | :10:47. | :10:51. | |
is saying it will grow by 2.8%, living standards could start to | :10:52. | :10:56. | |
rise. It does but everybody in a difficult position politically if | :10:57. | :10:59. | |
the economy starts growing, ironically. We need to remind | :11:00. | :11:02. | |
ourselves that economy, the natural direction of an economy is to grow. | :11:03. | :11:08. | |
Unless the politicians screw up. Unless you have some idiot in | :11:09. | :11:13. | |
charge! It is not a cause for the Morris dance that they seem to be | :11:14. | :11:17. | |
doing, certainly on the Tory side. Osborne is put in a difficult | :11:18. | :11:20. | |
position goes he will have to stop giving stuff away, he cannot push | :11:21. | :11:27. | |
the austerity line at the same time as jangling his magical growth -- he | :11:28. | :11:33. | |
will have to start giving stuff away. It puts Labour in a difficult | :11:34. | :11:39. | |
position, it is very unlikely that living standards will match GDP. Not | :11:40. | :11:46. | |
since 2003, GDP has been a great indicator. Wages have stagnated for | :11:47. | :11:52. | |
ten years, food has gone up 17%, energy has gone up 24%. That is a | :11:53. | :11:56. | |
decade in which everybody has got poorer. The real sweet spot comes | :11:57. | :12:01. | |
when wages start to outstrip inflation. It is a sweet spot and | :12:02. | :12:06. | |
will be a huge challenge for Ed Miliband. As ever on the economy | :12:07. | :12:11. | |
with a sweet spot, you have a danger moment because that is when the | :12:12. | :12:15. | |
governor of the Bank of England will have to look at interest rates. | :12:16. | :12:18. | |
Everything he was saying last week was when we move toward 7% | :12:19. | :12:22. | |
unemployment come that is not the trigger for raising interest rates, | :12:23. | :12:25. | |
it is the moment when we look at it. Everything was saying he did not | :12:26. | :12:31. | |
want to do that. When do you anticipate wages outstripping | :12:32. | :12:33. | |
inflation? It hasn't happened for so long. The second half of next year. | :12:34. | :12:40. | |
Wages and prices are not the sole measure of living standards, there | :12:41. | :12:42. | |
are broader measures which no one seems willing to use. | :12:43. | :12:46. | |
That's all for today. The Daily Politics will be back at tomorrow at | :12:47. | :12:49. | |
midday on BBC Two and I will back here on BBC One at 11:00am next | :12:50. | :12:53. | |
week. Remember if it's Sunday, it's the Sunday Politics. | :12:54. | :12:58. |