29/04/2012 Sunday Politics North West

And, we take a closer look at the parties, large and small, all vying

Apology for the loss of subtitles for 1705 seconds

for your votes in the local In the next 20 minutes: We take a

closer look at the parties vying for your vote in next week's local

elections. But first, as ever, let me introduce our guests for today.

Political Commentator, Professor Jon Tonge from Liverpool University,

Liberal Democrat MEP Chris Davies, Mark Hendrick, the Labour MP for

Preston, and from Blackpool North, the Conservative MP Paul Maynard.

After weeks of campaigning, voters will go to the polls on Thursday in

the local elections. Much of the interest this year is concentrated

on the region's first mayoral elections in Liverpool and Salford.

But there are still dozens of councils and hundreds of council

seats at stake. Our political editor, Arif Ansari, has been to

the Lady Lever Art Gallery at Port Sunlight on the Wirral to consider

the battleground. Labour holds the majority of

councils in the region but There are seven under no overall control.

Those are going to be fiercely contested. A last year we saw a

huge swing towards Labour but in many places, it didn't swing enough

so will they make further gains, is the big question. Some places could

fall to Labour. Last year was a bit of a contradiction for the

Conservatives. They did well nationally but here in the region

they did badly, losing control of for councils. This time, they are

left defending Trafford and West Lancashire. We are standing here at

a Conservative council that has frozen council tax yet again. Under

Labour it doubled. So if you care about the cost of living, vesting

Conservative is right. When these seats were last contested four

years ago, Labour was very unpopular. So this time there's

plenty of potential to win seats back. The party's already on

something of a roll, winning nine councils last time round and this

time they are targeting another handful. Many of them in Lancashire,

places like Burnley, Chorley and Rossendale. -- Pendle. He Labour

councils are up acting to keep community safety officers, protect

care for the elderly, to get jobs and apprenticeships for the young

people. But we cannot stop police cuts going. The recession is the

fault of the Coalition government. Now, the Liberal Democrats had a

disastrous performance last time, losing one third of their

councillors in the region. They are left with control of just one

council, that's South Lakeland. But they do remain strong on Stockport

and Burnley. We found the economy in a complete mess. As Labour said,

there is no money left as they famously said when they left office.

What we are discovering on the doorstep is that, with the passage

of time, people are seeing what we deliver in government for ordinary

people in the north-west. And as if that wasn't enough, there'll also

be mayoral elections in Liverpool and Salford - the first in the

North West. Plus a referendum in Manchester to see if voters want

one there too. That's the excitement of election night.

Everyone here might get excited but do you think the local elections

have been slightly overlooked by the May oral elections? But they

are still very important. It is a big test for Labour. They won big

in 2011, capturing nine councils - one third of councils they gained

across the country. But they have to win again and take places like

Burnley, Chorley, Ben -- Pendle and Wirral because otherwise beg Labour

that -- Ed Miliband's future as leader may be put into question. He

wants to be the undisputed leader and that's what he needs. Do you

agree? I think it is true. Ed has really improved over the last year.

I think we have moved away from are unpopular position. We are not

taking anything for granted. We did well in Blackpool last year but we

need Chawleigh, Rossendale and we are scrapping for every vote. We

will continue to do that until the polls close on May 3rd. Do you have

to prove that Bradford was just a blip? It was a blip. By-elections

are different from other elections. What happens in a by-election is

everyone focuses on one plate -- place. With elections all over the

country, you get a truer picture of what people believe and they are

voting for who runs they council. Not the general government. Moving

away from Labour, Lib Dems have to do a lot, don't they, because it

was a bloodbath last J? It was awful. No one ever said being part

of a government picking up the worst financial mess that any

government in the past financial look -- 100 years has ever had to

face... Is that what it was? People have been coming to us for our

position as a protest party. Governing is different. We took the

worst of the blow last year but let us be clear, we are still reeling.

We have still lost people who cannot cope with the idea that we

are in government and have to make unpopular decisions. It is easy to

score points like Ed Balls was doing but to govern is to decide.

It sounds like it could be another disastrous night. The not as many

seats but you only have to know by going on the doorstep that there

was a degree of anger last year. That is not there. A is it not?

Have you won back the grass roots? I'm not saying that. It is nothing

like the same as last year. People have said... They promised to scrap

tuition fees and we have seen the Prime Minister walked away from

Europe. Everything that has been promised has not been delivered.

That is not the case. We protected the poorest people putting more

money into the pockets of pensioners and the low paid. For

the low-paid pensioners, they are doing better under this government

than yours. Let us not miss the Conservatives at the end. They must

be some anger directed at your party? Are you picking up on that?

2008 was a high point for the Conservatives. Labour had abolished

the 10 pence rate of tax. We are defending quite a high point in

terms of local government representation. It will not be easy

but if we look at last year, we were gaining seats from the Liberal

Democrats in some of the more affluent parts of the north-west

because people realised that, in government, many of their fears

weren't applicable. We will not yet see one clear consistent narrative

across the region. Local elections will be local not just because of

the mayor's in Liverpool but because people are now trying to

assess what their own local councils are doing. Do you think

people in local elections... It is not just local issues, is it?

Evidence suggests that people vote on national issues at local

elections. It may be regrettable but people will not fought - might

vote on the performance of their local councils although there are

exceptions. The Conservatives have had a dreadful few weeks and it has

got worse in the last week so that will be strong in people's minds?

Any government has tricky weeks. And OK, not eight Chichi week but

the double dipped -- but the double dip recession? People expect to

seek a government that may not be perfect day-in day-out. We are the

party which is delivering a low council taxes and higher quality

services we are delivering a weekly been collections in many parts of

the region. We are putting our money where our mouth is.

Lancashire is losing 550 police. We already lost 6000 police and

another number... The Labour Party is not promising to change any of

this. You can criticise but you are offering no practical alternative.

You are playing with words. The fact is you are not putting into

place policies which will reverse the decisions of that government.

We have said we would cut VAT which has risen. Doesn't that involve

more spending though? We can bring down spending in some areas and in

others they have to increase. With VAT, we would not be in this

position if our budget from day one after the general election had been

implemented. The government has given the economy into the ground.

David Cameron and George Osborne said over and over again, we are

out of the danger zone. We are not. It is the first double-dip

recession since 1975. The 80 reductions is our policy number-one

and reversing the "granny tax". That is another policy. It is all

well and good to come up with these ideas, but where would the money

come from to pay for all of this? Our problem has been caused by

government borrowing and when you borrowed too much, the answer is

not to go out and borrow more. not going on the doorstep but I

would imagine that, particularly this week with the double-dip

recession, that people will want to know what the Conservatives and it

Dems are going to do in Coalition. What will you do to get as out of

recession? I have come from meeting with local businesses in my

constituency who want to hear what we are going to do about growth.

They want to hear about plans for growth and not bickering. Transport

and infrastructure is crucial to economic development and we are at

the any party putting money into that. I will move on now. I suppose

we are here with the three main parties Voters becoming

disillusioned with mainstream politics, is one of the political

trends of the age. But with local elections on the way, the question

is whether that popularity for more targeted groups will translate into

votes and seats. We've been hearing from some of the smaller parties

about the issues they want to tackle.

These council election are not policies of to polls. They need to

bring back derelict properties into use. The role of our anti-social

behaviour unit needs to be expanded so it is possible for private

landlords to get information about tenants. People should vote for the

British National Party because we have the best solutions for the

housing crisis to get British jobs for British people. It is a scandal

we have 5 million people on housing lists. We would put our own first

every time. But for the Green Party for New Hope End local economies.

We are not going to be putting money into high-speed rail two or

into renewing Trident missiles. We want the money to be reinvested in

local communities to protect services and make sure local people

get a better deal. We like an English parliament for

English people because England was ignored during devolution. We have

had tuition fees and prescription charges forced on us. We have

plenty of green policies where we don't want building on green belt

land. Our environmental policies are excellent.

What you kick is offering is that localism. We want to give local

recommend comes on contentious issues so local people have a seat

- might say and we want to give business rates back to councils. We

want to do away with the racket that is fat cat jobs in councils,

particularly the chief executive's pay. Some get twice as much as the

Prime Minister. Some even close to Barack Obama. We say no to be cut

and austerity. We stayed with those who are marching against cuts. We

do not see why ordinary people should pay the price while the

bankers pay their bonuses and the corporation's avoid paying taxes.

So what impact do you think, if any, can these smaller parties make?

They can make an impact when you have no overall control in councils.

They can hold the balance of power. The electorate is searching for an

alternative. With the Lib Dems in all sorts of trouble the search is

on for an alternative. The problem is that they tend to be here today

and gone tomorrow parties, prone to splits and maverick figures. None

the less, the Greens and you kept are fielding more councils than the

Lib Dems so if they are going to make an impact it is that this set

of lower let it -- local elections because people are searching for

credible alternatives. Do the Lib Dems worry about them in certain

seats like Burnley? I wouldn't say Burnley because it is clear what

the arguments are. Because we have a first-past-the-post system, it it

comes down to be took top parties in the area battling it out. It is

hard for other parties, sometimes the Liberals or sometimes the

Conservatives and Labour in other areas, it is hard. If they can

sneak a seat it can make a difference? Yes it is the reason

why liberals have moved forwards in the past year is because we have

made a breakthrough at local level. Of course it is important for us to

try and fight for every seat and every boat. Do you take them

seriously? Yes because they are votes, in some cases, and we would

like them to vote for us. Paul, what do you think about the smaller

parties because you cannot ignore what they are saying, can you, when

they talk about cutting bankers bonuses because they are issues

that resonate? I think councillors are learning what MPs have to learn

the hard way, which is that people don't just vote on party lines but

they vote on the individual. They want to see whether he is a good

local representative or... It not is the rosette a good colour? As

John said, we have seen the BNP come to know where and I don't

think anyone would claim that UKIP had any success in Europe but they

symbolise that the people going into politics aren't people that

the public wants representing them. That is the challenge. Things are

changing. Support for the mainstream parties is coming down

but the nature of the media is changing. People have got far more

sources of information in order to make a choice and the public are

far more sophisticated. They know what their local MP or counsellor

is doing because there are so many different ways of finding out. They

will make their choices based on a lot of things not just the party

colour. And you very much Well, let's stop there because it's time

for a 60-second round-up of the week's other news with Gill

Dummigan. A North West MP has urged mobile

phone companies to do more to advise young people about the

dangers of taking and sending explicit pictures. It's known as

"sexting" and research has shown nearly two in five schoolchildren

have received an offensive or distressing image via text or email.

The Labour MP for Stockport says children are unaware how quickly

things can get out of control. problem is the sender loses control

of the images and they could end up anywhere, school or being viewed or

passed on by if paedophiles. This week brought the grim news

that the country's slipped back into recesson. These boarded-up

shops in Crewe tell their own story. We're now in what's known as a

double dip recession for the first time since the 1970s. When people

say recession, they tend to panic. Chester city's received plaudits

from a MP 200 miles away. Labour's John McDonnell has tabled a Commons

motion, congratulating the club on winning a second successive

championship since being formed two years ago. Although his