20/05/2012 Sunday Politics North West

And on the Sunday Politics North West:

Celebrations in Ellesmere Port as the Vauxhall Plant secures its

Apology for the loss of subtitles for 1803 seconds

future. Is the region's car Hello, I am Annabel Tiffin. In the

next 20 minutes: celebrations in Ellesmere Port as the Vauxhall

plant secures its future. It is the region's car industry on

the way up? And we held Rolf Harris, too! Would

you believe it? Let me introduce our MPs for this week's programme.

Stephen O'Brien for the Conservatives and Labour's Paul

Goggins. For several months, a shadow has

hung over the Vauxhall car plant at Ellesmere Port. General Motors said

it had to shut the plant in Europe, and many feared that ours would be

the one to go. This week, Vauxhall announced they would build the new

Astra there, a multi-million pound investments securing thousands of

jobs and creating 700 new ones. How did they manage it? And what does

it say about the industry in general?

Quietly and without fanfare they arrived. The business Secretary and

the head of Vauxhall. He started his career at Ellesmere Port, and

now he was back to sell it -- to save the plant. It is great for a

young man like me, with a young family. I need a good job.

Fantastic news and a well deserved for the whole workforce. Things

have been uncertain here for months, with the European arm of the

company making big losses for months. Some people feared it would

be something as drastic as closing an entire plant that would be the

solution. The plan asked for the new Astra and they got it.

Ellesmere Port celebrates its 50th anniversary this year, a proud

history in the region. What we have done with the allocation of the

next generation of Astra to Ellesmere Port us to secure the

manufacturing base well into the next decade. As well as

safeguarding the jobs of everyone here, the deal to build the new

Astra also means 700 new jobs are potentially thousands more in the

supply chain. But to secure the car, they have had to make concessions.

Staff have been under no illusions, the company said that there were a

set of conditions that if you wanted the next after, he had to

agree. It was up to the workforce, they were balloted and agreed.

of workers voted Yes for the new conditions. It included a more

flexible working, which means the plant can be open 24 hours a day 51

weeks pair you. A Ford year pay deal, including a two-year pay

freeze. Also a new pension deal for new stars. Everyone was the best

deal and conditions, we still have decent conditions and decent be,

but it is all worth it to keep yourself in a job. They will start

constructing the new Astra here in 2015.

The business Secretary Vince Cable was in Ellesmere Port for the

announcement and he was asked about the choices the workers had to make.

There will beat the shift working, it will be hard work. Given the

choice between losing the plant and losing at a future and having more

flexible working but very good job prospects, they made the right

decision. And for the first time in a generation Cobby have a trade

surplus in cars. Is there something we may see more of? The changes in

terms of pay and conditions to secure jobs? I think that the trend

is for maximum flexibility in the labour force. There is a positive

side for workers as well, what the Government is proposing to do it in

the Queen's Speech is to bring in legislation to help flexible

working and family life, so flexibility is not just a negative.

That may mean shift working, but it may also mean fitting in a more

closely with the way families operate, so it is positive. So it

is a trade-off, changing terms and conditions in order to secure her.

But there has been a trade-off, but the labour force where over

whelming. They were not divided, it was well over 90% support for this

package. This is not just saving jobs, but there is now a real

future for the next decade. Young people will come into the industry

as apprentices and they can see a future in manufacturing and car

production now. Joining me in the studio is Carol

Williams from the University of Manchester, who is an expert in the

car industry. Be heard Vince Cable say that futures are secure for the

next decade, perhaps at Ellesmere Port, but what does it mean on a

wider scale for the car industry in the north-west. We have the power,

locally for Ellesmere Port it is a really good news story, because it

saves 2,000 jobs. If you look at it regionally, nationally, the

benefits are limited. The plant has, until recently, been assembling

kits of imported components, and we do not have much of a supply chain

around the plant. The company is promising to increase content from

a very low level, but they must be held to those promises, and the

region really needs to begin thinking about how, be on the

assembly plants, be have supply chains which are in the long run

clear to keep those plants going. So it is manufacturing that must be

secured year to begin with? Stephen O'Brien, of Paisley as a Government,

how will you build up that manufacturing? It is excellent news,

and it is actually a good reflection, not just one all of the

workers at Ellesmere Port who have demonstrated that broad flexibility

that is so important for being able to sustain and be competitive,

their great products and great skills that they bring to her

apprentices also maps her future at, not just for Ellesmere Port but for

the supply chain. There is a serious point to be made about how

that is deepened in their national manufacturing base. We see as a

Government to help create conditions to re-balance our

economy back to worsen manufacturing and industrialisation.

What can the Government to and to build on this good news?

Particularly regarding what has been said about manufacturing?

you saw there was everyone pulling together, not just the workers and

union representatives, but also management and indeed the Secretary

of State and the business minister, and I happen to have the Prime

Minister had made phone calls. is talking about Vauxhall and

Ellesmere Port and the workers there have had to make sacrifices,

but on the wider point, how does this become good news for the

region? I think it is an important aspect to try and secure his best

we can the supply chain. It all must be competitive, it is very

difficult if one was to seek to subsidise it, because that tends to

be unsustainable. But it is at the bottom, it relies on good training,

good and vocational and further education colleges, apprenticeship

options, as you know they have been a nearly have a million of those

that have been offered in the past 18 months, which has been a real

turn around to help the sport is coming into our manufacturing.

Goggins, DG agree with what Stephen O'Brien is saying? That this is

what must be done to build manufacturing back-up, supplying

the parts as well as putting them together? Of course that is what

should happen. This is very good news for Ellesmere Port and their

families and the wider community, because it gives them hope for the

future. But there had young people in every constituency across the

north-west there are asking today, what about us? What is our future?

In the absence of any kind of proper strategy for growth from

this Government, D are asking this question gain fame in many cases.

There are 1,200 and people under 25 in my constituency who are

surviving on benefits because there is no growth plan and no prospects

for them. The mindset there must change. If would Labour have done

anything differently than Vince Cable has done? One thing we would

have done in relation to John people is that we would have a tax

on banker's bonuses and put 100,000 young people into jobs. Let's stick

to the issue with the motoring industry in the north-west, what

would Labour have done to secure more jobs? Labour initiated some of

the supply side reforms which a colleague was referring to the fore.

This can feet 3 and provide more jobs on top of the jobs at the

factory. This is important and we were actually doing that. We look

back 30 years ago at what happened when we had a Government who had a

hands-off approach to the economy and it is families and communities

that suffer. My fear is that if we do not address this, not just in

Ellesmere Port but across the region and nation, we will have

another generation of young people disconnected from the jobs market

with no hope for the future and none of us, whether we are in

Government or opposition, should tolerate that. We have got to

politicians you, what d'you think they should be doing to help the

car industry? The politics very easily turns into Punch and Judy,

and let's be clear, nobody wants to go back to the 1970s. P L subsidies

and all of the rest. That is the 30 years ago. There is considerable --

considerable scope for an active industrial policy. Outside of the

parties, I would like to see both parties pressing for this kind of

thing, for example, I would like to see the content level of the Astra

published and I would like the company's promises on content at

least publicly held to account. Now, the Olympics are just around

the corner at a temporary change to the law first proposed by the Fylde

MP Mark Menzies brings that supermarkets will be able to stay

open for longer on Sundays during the Games. Smaller corner shops in

the big supermarkets will run rings around them if they are able to

stay open any longer, but some retailers are calling for a

permanent change to the law. Bradley Wiggins is a gold medal

winner. These are some of Great Britain's

finest sporting achievements, but could dreams of an Olympic gold

rush generate much-needed brass for the economy? The Government has

changed the lot during the Games to me that supermarkets can stay open

for longer on Sundays. It gives retailers the opportunity to open

if they choose for those eight weeks of the Olympics and

Paralympics, at one think that is certain is that the sort of people

who would benefit from the additional hours will be people who

work in shops. The little bit of additional overtime in the current

climate, these people will welcome it. Cast your minds back to 1994,

the year of the National Lottery, the Channel Tunnel and Britpop.

That year saw a change in the lot that sop large shops to open for

six hours on a Sunday, and for small corner shops to open all day.

Customers do tend to back a lot more basket shopping.

supermarkets able to extend their hours, smaller shops say they will

lose out. If all supermarkets are allowed to open for this periods

during the Olympics, people will tend to do what they do when they

do their bit shocked, they will go straight out of their house, into

the car and going to the supermarket, do their bit shop and

go straight home. I think it is supermarket greed. They want to

take everything they can from the market. It is nothing to do with

the Olympics or anything like that. Meanwhile in Chester, this

gardening centre wants to -- once a pamphlet extension of trading hours,

they are fed up of turning customers away at 4:30pm on a

Sunday. There is huge frustration when you turn up one minute after

we have closed doors or on a Sunday, in the middle of the afternoon.

People looking for some relaxation. We would like to open with

consistency with the powers-that-be trade on during the week. It could

add another 10% to their overall tunnel for and what the industry

makes for the UK economy. Government says the change to

Sunday Hours will only be for the period of the Olympics, but the

union representing shop workers say that this could set a precedent

that their members are not happy with. We have to all that was the

politicians have said, that it is a temporary arrangement, but we are

against it. Over 20,000 members that we surveyed were concerned

that this will leave not a temporary arrangement for the

Olympics, but a permanent one. The reasons they give for not wanting

to do it is that they already feel they have flexible hours now and

say they need some time on a Sunday to do things with the family.

Sunday was once a sacred day of rest, but to shop opening times

these to move with the demand to be 247 society? The shops open quite

enough, and I think it puts quite a lot of pressure on workers. They

will probably not get any extra, there are under pressure to work

longer. I do not think it is acceptable for. I think it should

stay open longer on a Sunday, because when I go out shopping with

my friends there is nowhere to go because the river close early.

you do it for the Olympics you will have to do it full-time. People

will get used to it. You could do it as a pilot test. Do it for a few

weeks to see if it works and if not then call it a day. It is 318 years

since a change in the law allowed shops to open on a Sunday. Times

have changed but the controversy has not gone away. -- it has been

eating ears. As this a good idea, Stephen

O'Brien? It is essentially a good idea for the Olympics, I think it

is a perfectly satisfactory and sensible thing to do. It means we

will have some activity here in Manchester for the north-west, and

many people will attend the big screens. I think where we are is

the right place to be. A what do you think, Paul? Are a very similar

point of view. This is for a limited period, as long as people

are not being forced to work on a Sunday, then it is fair enough. We

will be in a very flexible summer. We'll have a great time this summer

and the Olympic Games will make it very different. It cannot be used

as a platform to then produce these as long-term changes and reforms.

We must do something to keep Sunday special. It is interesting that you

mention some things here in the north-west, that it limited. What

benefit bill these longer opening hours on a Sunday during the

Olympics have to the north-west? They us was considered by the House

of Lords in the eyes of Commons, because inevitably most of the

activity is down in London for the Olympics. But because people are

watching at all on television, who are not able to get tickets, it

will inevitably make everyone's weekend more different and whilst I

think at the same time it does not actually break, because it is

temporary, this idea of keeping Sunday somewhat special. But no

workers are forced to do this. There will be no prejudice to their

continued jobs. There is a risk that once something is in place and

seems to work that it can just go in. There will be people who use

this experience of the eight weeks to argue for the liberalisation of

further change. I would be dead set against that. Partly because of the

nature of Sunday, but also because the smaller stores, they have an

opportunity perhaps by opening at different our sunny Sunday, that

may be the difference between them going under and maintaining the

business. You could say that times have moved on and we all work very

different winner, and we want longer opening hours. They do

indeed, but the law caters for that with the six-hour opening on

smaller show that -- on a larger stores and the smaller stores can

stay open if they want. People must be sure that this is no Trojan

horse. The Government has made it clear that this is a quick bill, it

has been properly scrutinised at it is for the purpose that it was

declared. It is not a platform for those who would want to stop Sunday

from being special. Let's get a look at the rest of the

week's East. -- the rest of the week's news.

The Prime Minister has said that he will much consider a -- that he

will consider a serious case review following a conviction that from

nine men in Rochdale for trimming young girls. The men were jailed

for various sex offences against children. I understand that the

local board has concluded a review that will be published. The Chief

Constable of Merseyside has called on the Government to be tougher on

gun crime after eight shootings in nine days last month. Jon Murphy is

lobbying the Government for tighter border controls to cut down on the

supply of weapons. He says he wants Tupper -- tougher punishments for

offenders. Wider share County Council has this

this concerns about the way it has managed its finances. The district

auditor published a report earlier this year, it complains that there

have been unexpected borrowing and a lack of oversight. The County

Council said those issues are minor and will be sorted out.

We promise you will harass earlier, and I would not like to disappoint.

The Artist and all-round general superstar Rolf Harris has opened a

major exhibition of his work at the Walker Art Gallery in Liverpool.

One of his favourite subject at the Palace of Westminster, which he has

painted many times. Our political editor Arif Ansari has been getting

a break from politics this week and has gone along to meet Rolf Harris.

You have painted Parliament many times, what has drawn me to end?

Why have you done that? It is such an icon, isn't it? It is such a

stately, gorges building. At such a tricky one to paint. It looks very

straightforward, the side are parallel up to there and suddenly

it goes slightly wider and if you make it to wipe it is wrong and if

you make it not white enough it is wrong,. What draws you back to keep

doing it? It is marvellous from any angle, from whatever -- from

wherever you are. Particularly in different lighting conditions, if

you get it like this in the dusk when the sky is the latest thing in

the place as the building is a select, and you get this bird

flapping across there, going across and the suspended lights on those

wires. Every time it is a different image. It is a different picture.

When you are painting it, is it purely about the Architecture, or

RG trying to capture some of the meaning of the building and the

draw politics that is going on in their? Time everything about the

meaning of the building, I am just looking at the visual impact it has

on me. What you paid it again? definitely will. I look forward to

seeing it. It has been a great pleasure to meet you.

What lovely paintings, it sent ridiculous but you forget what a

fabulous artist he is. Absolutely. I would take any excuse just to go

and meet him and see the paintings. I and not to politics for a that!

It is a good break from serious politics. He will have to get your

politics head back on, I am doing a break from this for a while to do