14/10/2012 Sunday Politics North East and Cumbria

Here in the North East, the rights and wrongs of wonder. MPs react to

the new football sponsors. Is the region losing up to Scotland in the

Apology for the loss of subtitles for 2170 seconds

Hallow and a warm welcome to your local part of the show. Coming up,

online shopping giant Amazon was going to bring hundreds of jobs to

North Tyneside but they ended up in Scotland instead. We will be asking

if we can compete with our economic rivals north of the border. My

guests will chew over that. I am joined by Nick Brown. You were at

the Conservative conference when David, and launched his speech.

think it will strike a chord with voters across the country. People

who are out there trying to get on with their job and do well for

their families and build a better future for them, at think the

message I hear more than anything in the North East is I want better

for my children. That is the challenge that David Cameron wants

to crack, to make sure that the framework is there for families to

get the best out of whatever it is they want to do with their lives.

He is on your side is in't? If he means it, a has to get that

practical effect. There are people in this region who want to work but

cannot find jobs. He has to help the region rebuild the private

sector economic base so that there are jobs for people who can do them

and for people who want to do them. Thank you very much. Let us move on

to one of the biggest changes ever made to policing, the election of

new police and crime commissioners. For the first time, voters will be

able to elect the person leading the police forces. They will set

spending priorities and hire and fire at the Chief Constable. The

government is standing accused of not doing enough to tell people the

elections are taking place. On 15th November, you will have the vote.

You might have spotted this advert on television this week, it is an

attempt by the Home Office to encourage us to vote on 15th

November, but how many people know about the next date with the ballot

box. Do you know what is happening on 15th November? Have not got a

clue. I know I have not missed anyone's but they. What is

happening on 15th November? Were do not know. It is the Police and

Crime Commissioner elections. have heard about it. I did not

realise it was that day. It is the election for the Commissioner for

the police. That is right. How much do you know about it? I have not

seen any flyers or anything. Do you think there has been enough

information? No. Up knowledge is a little bit hazy, but that is not

really surprising. There are no free postal drop so we will not get

information about candidates unless they pay for it themselves. In a

large rural county like Cumbria, it is difficult if not impossible for

campaigners to visit every street, so it seems it might not just be

the weather putting people off next month. Information about the

selection is mainly based on-line, but if you live in an internet

blackspot like this area, forming an opinion is a bit tricky. This

particular election, we cannot get any access to it, we cannot get the

internet and I must admit I was unaware that there was an election

because of the lack of news. We just cannot get on the internet to

access any information about who is up for election or to put our votes

in or anything. Team voters like this man can phone at the Home

Office and asked for a candidate information to be posted to them,

but the information will not be sent out until November and there

are concerns that the lack of publicity now could have a lasting

impact on our police forces in years to come. The it is a huge

change in the dynamic of policing with the public having a stake in

someone who is holding the police to account. These areas are huge

compared to my MP's constituencies. If the turnout is low, less than

one in five people know this is taking place, and if we get an 18%

turnout, then it really will cause doubt in terms of the hold

principal of represents a -- of selecting people to represent the

community. This is your party's flagship policy on policing, but it

does not have been publicised. agree, I think we need to raise the

profile so that all our candidates will have the chance to be heard

and to show why they are standing. Was it a mistake in not to allow

free postal drops? A I have not had that discussion with the Home

Office. I think it would be a hugely difficult challenge. Our

candidate has got 2 million people to talk to so finding ways to do

that in a short space of time is difficult. The government had

agreed to fund a free postal drop, it would have been simple. It would.

There is a case for that. We need to make sure that we can sell the

whole idea which is accountability and making sure that you can have a

stake in how you -- your area is being policed. I hope the BBC will

give us all the opportunity to hear our candidate speak. Here we are.

You can see the government's., spending �30 million on a mailshot

does not sound like a good use of money. Most of the candidates are

from political parties, the parties can fund them count they? They

cannot, they do not have the money. I would have preferred to see a

mail drop if we were going to have... Even though it would cost

�30 million? You either agree with having add directly elected police

commissioner and the functions of the old police committee being done

by a single person that the public have chosen, or you do not. If you

do agree with it, you have to agree that the people will know the

election is on and understand what it is they are being asked to

decide and will get some information about it, democracy

does not come cheap, and other forms of government are more

expensive. It is even tougher for an independent to try and leaflet

people. That is more generally true and I think that is a good thing. I

think the political parties to a good service in choosing a

candidate that members of the political parties have confidence

in. A ensure you have an excellent candidate! I am going to move on.

If turnout, as some predict, is barely 20%, it will be a disastrous

combination of the whole idea. think there is a real risk, getting

people out to vote will be a challenge, there is no doubt about

that. I would have much rather have seen it in May with the local

elections across the country. I am told that there was a battle within

the coalition on that and that the November date was the one that was

fixed. How higher turnout would be acceptable? Assuming our local

councils are around 20 to 30%, that would be a starting point. I'd will

certainly be out and about all the time, talking to people and getting

people to understand what it is about but you cannot talk to 2

million people individually. There is a challenge there. To get any

sense that there is it any public interest in these elections? There

is no real understanding of what the new commissioner will be doing

and what the powers are and what they can expect. When he or she

tell police what to do? Can they give instructions to the chief

Constable? The answer to that is No. The public will say well what do

they do? You have to explain that they are carrying out the functions

of the old police committee. The Labour party consulted on a similar

idea about collecting the whole of the Police Committee and we

consulted on it and there was a lot of resistance to it. I actually

think the old way of doing it was probably better. We are stuck it

that way amid will have to see how the elections go.

If you want to know more about the elections, there is a way, you need

to go to this website. They will be a growing amount of information. On

the show next week, we will have candidates being questioned by

victims of crime. It is always a fierce battle when

it comes to attracting jobs and investment to the North East and

Cumbria and one of our biggest competitors lies just north of the

border. Scotland has its own parliament and a powerful economic

development agency, but does it have an unfair advantage? Our

correspondent reports on the jobs that a region has missed out on. At

North Tyneside Industrial Estate, plenty of empty offices, it might

not have been that way. Amazon was considering bringing 900 jobs here,

instead they went north after Scotland offered a �1.8 million

grant. A gut reaction at the time was the devastation. A lot of

people had worked very hard to bring the jobs here but it suddenly

felt as though our hands were tied and we feel that at the moment the

way that all of the funding is under way that the economic

development programmes have been run, Scotland have an unfair of

vantage which makes it very difficult for us here in the North

East when we see more happening down into the South East rather

than here, so we are being pulled in both directions and missing out

in the middle. The Conservative mayor of North Tyneside was so

incensed at the decision she took the issue to the top. We have made

this an issue to government. I have written to the Financial Times I

have spoken to the ministers myself and we need to have the access to

government which we do. independent Scotland will

inevitably get extra economic powers, where does that leave the

North East? We would have to make a our case to Government and say this

is what we would like. If that is what you are doing and you are

going to allow that, then we would like some of that money to give us

in level playing field. This is what North Tyneside could have had.

Amazon it came to Dunfermline and the fact that they are here has

given the local economy is vital boost. In the town centre, you can

see the differences made, streets are full of shoppers, all told

Scottish Enterprise funds encouraged Amazon to open centres

here and in Edinburgh. The result is 1,600 new jobs. We are in the

middle of the coalfields which have been decimated completely, so it to

see my home town flourished, albeit in a new type of work, has to be a

positive thing. But what is positive for Dunfermline and any

number it might not be for the North East. Overall enterprise and

economic development here is �184 and Scotland compared to �134 per

head in the North East. Scotland can offer regional grants worth

�306 million last year, they are not available in the North East. So

here at the Scottish Parliament, what do the SNP say? Scotland

contributes more to the Exchequer than it gets back out. What you are

talking about really is the success of Scottish development

internationally, that has been so successful in securing money in

from abroad. It is a competitive market. It is unfair! All markets

or unfair. The North East has had a hard times, so has Scotland and it

has to adapt. The differences are that we have a degree of devolution

that allows us to do certain things, a degree of economic freedom.

still some North East office blocks lie empty, increasingly we're after

the same business as Scotland but are we being given a fair chance to

compete? Let us get the view of the chair of the development agency

that was abolished earlier this year. If the North East have the

financial cloud at this time, could it have persuaded Amazon to come to

the North East? Quite possibly. Certainly we had a very successful

time at attracting businesses to this region and you can see them in

North Tyneside which is why the Amazon jobs would have been, the

Tesco bank there, you can see the developments of Nissan and the new

jobs there, so yes we did create a lot of jobs and it is disappointing

to see them going elsewhere. Presumably when this happened,

someone will come in with a bigger incentive, there is no way you

could have guaranteed this? And so that the not. This is a very

competitive market. We are missing the point a little bit. It is a

global market, international investors are looking at a series

of different locations. The issue we have here is not that Scotland

is doing what we would have done in exactly the same circumstances, it

is the fact that the UK now actually has a view that all

they're interested in is bringing jobs to the UK and anywhere in the

UK. There is no specific mandate to create jobs in the region. As long

as they hid their numbers of new jobs in the UK, they get a pat on

the head. What we need to have is some form of regional influence

into the UK system. Let us focus on Scotland, how well to think the

region is equipped to compete with Scotland? The Enterprise Agency is

very successful as was the one and the North East. What we have put in

place in the UK are a local enterprise partnerships which we

support holy. The problem is that they are just a really getting

started. They are trying to find their feet and raise funds and we

have got a difficult time here, where what is happening at the

moment it would not have happened if there had been something in its

place, it is now a two year since the election and we are now only

really getting our act together in the North East. Thank you. There is

a lot of justifiable anger here. Hundreds of jobs heading to

Scotland that would have come here if you're government had not

abolished the regional development agency potentially. A do not think

that is how you should look at it. The private sector is growing and

we are seeing new jobs. What we have seen and we had been very

effective in getting this influence is to get two really good

enterprise zones here which I hope in the next five to ten years will

see a huge influx of private investment into the North East.

you St that those partnerships will be able to compete with his big

Scottish Development Agency and stop something like Amazon

happening again? I have that issue with Manchester and the Midlands

and we will always be the relatively small region fighting

for business. I believe our transport infrastructure is really

poor compared to some of the other regions and we have to fight hard

to make sure that the Department of Transport understands that and

starts to see that we need better investment in this region. This is

the kind of competition for jobs that happens all the time.

Sometimes you win, sometimes you lose. That is true of course, but

we are not all at the same starting point. The enterprise zones and the

new partnership arrangements that the coalition government have

brought in just do not have the resources behind them to make a

sufficiently persuasive countervailing offer to the sort of

things... You spend all the money! If the current financial crisis

started as a debt crisis in the United States and went around the

world... And there is still a shortage of money. A you could not

fund it as she did in the past. You could fund a countervailing force

to the natural market forces that shot economies to the centre and in

the case of our country, that is London and the South East. It is

wrong to highlight Scotland as the competition when we had our own

well-funded Development Agency and a Minister, me, that could punch

our weight right at the heart of government. We were able to get our

case put forward with the same effectiveness as the Scots and

Welsh and Northern Ireland. interviewed Ed Miliband and he

would not commit to recreating a development agency saw it is not

necessarily that Labour would have that solution. I am happy for you

to get Ed Miliband on your programme and ask him to set out

his policy. I tried to! I think the development agency worked well for

the region and there is a strong case for this region having a

regional Minister and his own development agency with its own

dedicated funds and that would enable us to make their offers to

Scotland. It is true that be the private sector companies make their

own choices, but they do want to see that there is a regional offer

if they come in and create jobs and make this their home. I asked the

Prime Minister about this and he backed up what my guess just said.

As the Prime Minister, that is very much his position. The should also

take a look that the economy here. We must make sure we develop a

clear voice. I am pleased that Lord Adonis set up his commission to

bring together that important strategic Messaging from the North

East which the Prime Minister is keen to hear about. We want to see

what we consider as a region is the most important thing. He does not

want a list of begging letters, he wants to know what the North East

needs to be at the top of its game. I think he believes that he has

supported and his department had supported quite a lot of

development into the private sector and he is open to hearing what we

want for the North East so we can be as good as Manchester or better

a week ago the more financially secure of us have probably never

heard of Wonga, now people seem to talk of little else.

He was a look at the rest of the news. Ministers say it is giving

parents more choice, but the National Union of Teachers and the

North East say setting up a free schools is creating too many

surplus places and an MP has pledged to will not set foot inside

Newcastle United's ground after it signed a sponsorship deal with

payday loans company Wonga. He says it is a disgrace. It is a Wonga, it

is based on the millions made from people in our region who are

desperate and have not got the money to get into St James' Park

let alone anything else. Shutting this company with the loss of 500

jobs has done little to help the environment, that Tory MPs said

similar plans are being set up in Canada were emissions will be just

as high. It is a long way, but is not a... Let us talk about Wonga,

would you go and what Newcastle United after they are sponsored by

then? I do not go often, but it would not stop me from going. I do

share the reservations about the arrangement, ultimately it is two

private sector organisations and sponsorship is very important to

football. We understand that, but Wonga's interest rates, over 40,000

%, if you annualised a, it is double the rates of other companies.

The fact that they can afford to sponsor a Newcastle United show the

returns they are making. Ahead huge reservations about the way they are

doing it, charging very large sums of money to people who are pretty

desperate. And I am sure they would defend themselves if they were here.

Is he right to be concerned? Should football clubs be thinking about

the community? I share the reservations with any organisation

that is using sponsorship through a business like that, but we do not

use smoking companies any more to advertise racing, but alcohol

companies are still sponsoring things, I do not think there is a

moral question. I am pleased that investment will go into the

football academy. Newcastle United and the North East will benefit

from that, so there is an upside. My mother-in-law is a football

fanatic and she is not impressed. I will just share that. For me, we

should be seeing the support for credit unions and those sorts of

things were people who have financial problems can be supported.

Thank you very much. This week's programme was recorded before the

announcement that Stuart Bell had died aged 74 from pancreatic cancer.

He had been Middlesbrough's MP for 29 years, paying tribute to the