07/10/2012 Sunday Politics North West


07/10/2012

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In the North West: Feeling blue? Can small businesses

:01:24.:01:27.

here trust the tories to help? And the Prime Minister gives me his

:01:27.:01:37.
:01:37.:01:37.

Apology for the loss of subtitles for 2126 seconds

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reaction as the West Coast mainline In the north-west, feeling blue? To

:37:03.:37:08.

small businesses here trust the Tories for help? And the Prime

:37:08.:37:12.

Minister says sorry as the West Coast Main Line contract the rails.

:37:12.:37:16.

I am extremely angry about what has happened. I am very apologetic and

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we must get to the bottom of exactly what happened.

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The full interview with the Prime Minister coming up, but first let

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me introduce this week on -- this week's guest. Estimate the is the

:37:34.:37:38.

Conservative MP for Wirral West, and will many MPs lost their jobs

:37:38.:37:42.

in the reshuffle, she was promoted to work and pensions minister.

:37:42.:37:47.

No move for David Denver, still professor of politics at the

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University of Lancaster.. Esther, in a previous job you were

:37:54.:37:58.

involved in television. Where you impressed by the way Ed Miliband

:37:58.:38:01.

came across at the Labour conference? That is going back, I

:38:01.:38:08.

left television 15 years ago. To be fair, you see it. He did her speech

:38:08.:38:12.

copying in David Cameron Colin Oates, speaking to the audience and

:38:12.:38:17.

talking about his life. One thing that made me smile is that Red Egg

:38:17.:38:22.

has taken on Disraeli, and Blair see is despising one nation, we

:38:22.:38:28.

just worried democracy, make me smile. He did not use which could

:38:28.:38:32.

have been an in-joke between him and his friends, talking about

:38:32.:38:38.

Conservatives and the notion about one nation. He did not spend it on

:38:38.:38:42.

his head about not being able to deliver. He cannot deliver that,

:38:42.:38:46.

that is our philosophy and now he is backing up with that trade

:38:46.:38:51.

unions. Weaselly words possible in the future. David, what is the

:38:51.:38:54.

challenge for the Conservatives going into this conference? They

:38:54.:38:59.

must shore up their core support. They seem to have spent up their

:38:59.:39:02.

time thinking of ways really need their natural supporters as that

:39:02.:39:07.

explains why they are in trouble in the opinion polls. They must get

:39:07.:39:10.

those natural supporters back on side.

:39:10.:39:14.

We will pack up on that in a moment. Let's look at the Conservatives

:39:14.:39:17.

recent record in the north-west going into conference.

:39:17.:39:20.

Two years ago at the General Election, the party more than

:39:20.:39:25.

doubled its number of MPs, winning 21 of 72 seats. The Conservatives

:39:25.:39:31.

share of the vote increased to 32%. Since then the party suffered heavy

:39:31.:39:35.

losses in local elections losing around 140 councillors and control

:39:35.:39:39.

of four councils. It was in Blackpool seven years ago that

:39:39.:39:43.

David Cameron's speech won him the party leadership. Since then,

:39:43.:39:47.

Conservative fortunes in the town have fluctuated, winning the

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parliamentary seat but losing the council. Our correspondent has been

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asking the town's businesses if the Government understands what

:39:54.:40:04.

Blackpool need to flourish. We can change this party and change

:40:04.:40:09.

this country. We are not frightened of debate, or

:40:09.:40:17.

we do not mind having an argument. This is where David Cameron's

:40:17.:40:22.

journey to Number Ten started, with that speech seven years ago. Since

:40:22.:40:27.

then we have at rebranding and detoxification. But have the

:40:27.:40:30.

Conservatives managed to shake off the nagging suspicion that actually,

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they do not really get places like this and do not understand regions

:40:34.:40:37.

like ours? This vitamins and supplement

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manufacturer is the sort of business that Tories generally like

:40:41.:40:45.

and understand. It is in good health, employs solidify people and

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makes a profit. Using a flat at Government invention they want to

:40:49.:40:53.

expand to bigger premises. We have been in touch with the Regional

:40:53.:40:57.

Growth Fund, we appear to take all the right boxes for them. It has

:40:57.:41:01.

not been as quick as he wanted, we want the money in the account

:41:01.:41:05.

tomorrow. There seems to be a lot of form-filling to do, lots of

:41:05.:41:11.

boxes to tick. But potential is to double our size in the next two or

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three years. We could keep another 20 or 30 people in employment.

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Ardley on your side? It is difficult -- difficult to tell. I

:41:21.:41:25.

think they are on their own side. They are not the only people

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looking for investment. conducted a survey, at over 70% of

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those who took part said that they were struggling to get the finance

:41:33.:41:36.

they need. Do you get the sense that people think that the

:41:36.:41:41.

Government is applying a policy which perhaps she is Berkshire or

:41:41.:41:45.

Kent but there is not tuned to the needs of Lancashire? Definitely. It

:41:45.:41:51.

is a series of things that Latisha is most definitely crying out for.

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-- that Lancashire is crying out for.

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There were true blue rinses, if not necessarily true to -- True Blue

:41:59.:42:03.

voters. The company which runs this attraction benefited from millions

:42:03.:42:07.

in the now abolished north-west Treasury agency. If there was no

:42:07.:42:10.

funding available, we would still have one attraction rather than

:42:10.:42:15.

eight in the town. That is really critical. It would be very sad for

:42:15.:42:19.

the town come not to have that choice. Where would Blackpool's

:42:19.:42:23.

featured the? If you take a walk along Blackpool's promenade, it is

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not difficult to see where a lot of that funding has been spent.

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Although it looks very smart and glamourous, the Conservatives would

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argue that the cash should be spent elsewhere. You have a nice new

:42:37.:42:40.

promenade, but local people cannot use it any more because the traffic

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is backed up. We have replaced the old local funding agency with local

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enterprise partnerships across the country. The total size of the pot

:42:50.:42:55.

of money is substantially reduced by more than 90%, so the ability of

:42:55.:42:59.

the lead to step into the shoes of the me to develop a disease, BR or

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hampered from birth. But they focus on their people and their voters. -

:43:06.:43:12.

- Development Agency. I think that it would be wrong of

:43:12.:43:17.

them and rather short sighted. We should try to work together. We

:43:17.:43:20.

would see the fruits of economic growth.

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Whether that economic tide turns in places like Blackpool will call a

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long way to deciding the fate of many a politician, including

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perhaps David Cameron himself. We are also joined from the

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conference in Birmingham by the MP for Lancaster and Fleetwood, Ellie

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Colin shock. Let me start with estimate they, the main thrust

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seems to be that the Government is not doing enough to support Private

:43:50.:43:56.

businesses. It is doing a lot and I think it will not happen overnight.

:43:56.:44:03.

It has been two years now. Yes, but 13 years of decline. Competitive --

:44:03.:44:09.

we are back up to 8% in competitive and is globally. If you look at it

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low ratings, they slumped right down in things like regulation, we

:44:13.:44:17.

went from fourth to detect police and we're coming back up to 17th

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place. We must put in place a plethora of things to get right.

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This has already begun, in competitiveness we fell to 12, we

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are back up to eight. We have done that in two years. We're putting in

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a lot of the infrastructure. I come from the construction industry,

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that has been hardest hit, that is a tough time for many businesses.

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It is a mixed picture. If you look at the motoring industry and

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manufacturing and some finances, if you look at other things they are

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successful. Other things are not in this tough time. Let me bring in

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every. We are also doing well in things like Unilever and

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Engineering. They are doing well in places like Wirral. Eric, are you

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happy with the progress the Government has made on this, or

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would you like them to be seen to be doing more Yeovil than everybody

:45:11.:45:16.

would like more things to happen. That it thing for us is that we're

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getting the Infrastructure Investment that we have been

:45:17.:45:21.

waiting on for years. Blackpool in particular will get the letter

:45:21.:45:25.

vocation of the what rail line to Preston, and that will be a large

:45:25.:45:30.

bin for business. -- electrification for the rail line.

:45:30.:45:34.

These kinds of infrastructure improvements, I think, long-term,

:45:34.:45:39.

will help businesses start moving. One example that you have raised

:45:39.:45:43.

yourself is that you have asked about energy policy, and what is

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the overarching strategy from the Government on that for example. It

:45:46.:45:52.

sounds like you feel things should be different. What I was trying to

:45:52.:45:55.

say there is that Lancashire, at the moment, we have massive

:45:55.:46:00.

potential in terms of energy. Whether it is gas or storage all

:46:00.:46:10.
:46:10.:46:13.

went far as it can see, -- or storage or wind farms out at sea.

:46:13.:46:17.

David, get up on this? Regional policy for a long time has been

:46:17.:46:21.

highly controversial. Do you keep the development agency? Some people

:46:21.:46:25.

say it is a colossal waste of money, some people say it does good stuff.

:46:25.:46:31.

The answer is no doubt somewhere in the middle. It is the same year,

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you gave us many statistics which I am afraid we just -- which do not

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cut very much ice with people. Torquay, let's put it like this. We

:46:41.:46:46.

were declining from a 97 right the way through from 13 years. We fell

:46:46.:46:51.

in many of those tables, and what we must do his claim it back up. We

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have started to climb back up. I will not see for one minute that it

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is easy for businesses. As someone who runs a business, it is tough

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times. I would also say that it is asked fixed -- a mixed picture. If

:47:04.:47:10.

you are in export or Engineering, that has improved recently. It is a

:47:10.:47:14.

fractured picture. What to the Conservatives need to do, David, to

:47:14.:47:19.

pick this up? To tell the truth, and regional

:47:19.:47:23.

policy is at kind of small area, in people's perceptions of what is

:47:23.:47:30.

going on. I mean more generally. Not for me, I and tampering --

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championing it. What they must do is get the economy as a whole going.

:47:34.:47:39.

To get the deficit cut at to get things moving. And if they do that

:47:39.:47:43.

things will come good? Things will improve, but I still think they

:47:43.:47:47.

have serious problems with core supporters. Look at the support for

:47:47.:47:52.

the United Kingdom Independence Party. This is very unusual so far

:47:52.:47:56.

from i European election. That is where a lot of would be natural

:47:56.:48:01.

Conservatives are going. If you look at the economy, it is

:48:01.:48:06.

improving. I want to bring Eric back in. Are you worried that your

:48:06.:48:12.

core support could be drifting to the right? Not really, I know that

:48:12.:48:16.

there is some unease in the ranks, but at this stage with this kind of

:48:16.:48:20.

world recession, what would you expect? The professor may remember,

:48:20.:48:26.

years back, it was not new cap, it was the SDP. There is always

:48:26.:48:31.

someone with protest to worry about. The main Love Me Do talk -- my

:48:31.:48:36.

supporters are worrying about is getting the economy fixed.

:48:36.:48:41.

How does the Prime Minister c'est? I spoke to David Cameron in Downing

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Street. -- see this? Mr Cameron, there is a feeling

:48:47.:48:51.

amongst many people, including some on the right, that the Conservative

:48:51.:48:54.

Party is becoming out of touch with the north-west of England. Is there

:48:54.:48:58.

room for improvement always. We are in Government at a very difficult

:48:58.:49:02.

time for our country. We have had to take a series of tough and

:49:02.:49:07.

unpopular decisions to get the deficit down. We got it down by a

:49:07.:49:11.

quarter in two years, that is good progress. We have one million new

:49:11.:49:14.

Private sector jobs in the economy but there is always room for

:49:14.:49:19.

improvement. How many of you ministers do you think are north-

:49:19.:49:25.

west MPs? I do not have an exact count, but the second most

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powerful... It is just three. second most powerful person in the

:49:30.:49:34.

Government sets for an north-west seat. The Treasury is involved in

:49:34.:49:38.

every single session the Government takes. He sits at the heart of

:49:38.:49:43.

Cabinet. If you look at the funding decisions that have been taken in

:49:43.:49:47.

infrastructure, railways, road improvements, enterprise zones, he

:49:47.:49:51.

can see his influence and you can see the stamp of the north-west.

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Whether it is messy crossing or science parks, support for science,

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you can see the stamp of his influence all four this Government.

:50:01.:50:05.

There has certainly been in destruction Investment, but you can

:50:05.:50:08.

also look at the huge cuts to local Government: you can look at the

:50:08.:50:14.

Dick cuts to public sector employment, the fact that there has

:50:14.:50:17.

been a lack of support for the Private sector that was supposed to

:50:17.:50:23.

be filling the gap. -- you can look at the BT cuts. My Asian wide we

:50:23.:50:29.

have seen a million new Private sector jobs, there has been more

:50:29.:50:34.

jobs in the Private sector. -- nationwide we have seen a million

:50:34.:50:39.

new Private sector jobs. Everything that does this

:50:39.:50:41.

organisations and small business organisations are asking for, we

:50:41.:50:46.

are doing. They said please cut corporation tax, we are doing that.

:50:46.:50:50.

They said build the infrastructure, we're doing that. This is kick-

:50:50.:50:54.

start the housing market, we are doing that. They said reform the

:50:54.:50:58.

planning system, he had taken the planning guidelines from 1,000

:50:58.:51:05.

pages to 52. This is all to create jobs in the Private sector. Cuts

:51:05.:51:09.

are one thing, incompetence is something else. There are serious

:51:09.:51:13.

questions, as you know, over what happened with the West Coast main

:51:13.:51:17.

line. Have you spoken to the former Transport Secretary about this?

:51:17.:51:21.

an extremely angry about what has happened in very apologetic that it

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has happened. We must get to the bottom of exactly what has happened.

:51:25.:51:30.

I asked the Cabinet Secretary before this happen to look again,

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but we did not pick up on this technical fault in the way that the

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franchise operation was run and we now need a proper inquiry which

:51:37.:51:42.

will be held, and people will be held to account. Well that include

:51:42.:51:45.

the political role of ministers? Yes, it will include everything.

:51:45.:51:50.

From what I have seen so far, there were technical errors made in the

:51:50.:51:53.

department about how the figures were compiled. This review will

:51:53.:51:57.

look at exactly who was responsible and they must be held accountable.

:51:57.:52:01.

Have you spoken to Justine Greening? I have not spoken to her

:52:01.:52:05.

since she left the department, but like this is, I was, as you would

:52:05.:52:09.

expect, contacted by all of the people involved in this, including

:52:09.:52:12.

Richard Branson, and they think it was then important to make sure

:52:12.:52:16.

that decisions were properly made. I asked the Cabinet Secretary, a

:52:16.:52:22.

senior civil servant, to take on the decisions that were made. I

:52:22.:52:25.

think that we did everything we could to check that the decision

:52:25.:52:28.

was properly made, but we did not become a clear technical faults and

:52:28.:52:31.

we must get to the bottom of how that happened.

:52:31.:52:35.

Thank you very much. In case you were wondering, Mr

:52:35.:52:40.

Cannon went to Birmingham by car. That Super Saver advanced tickets

:52:40.:52:46.

straight in the end. David, how much to issues like

:52:46.:52:48.

competence and what happened with Virgin Rail, how much does that

:52:48.:52:55.

matter? Competence is definitely a very important matter. Whereas

:52:56.:52:59.

floaters used to rely on tradition and their family and all that, they

:52:59.:53:03.

now want to be jetting parties and judging governments and judging

:53:03.:53:10.

opposition. And in particular, leaders. It is that evaluation of

:53:10.:53:16.

competence which will, in the end, decide the next election. The

:53:16.:53:22.

Tories so far have not really shone. What is going wrong? I think you

:53:22.:53:27.

are right, competent these key. We must prove that. We also have been

:53:27.:53:30.

totally different times and never before had you seen so many people

:53:30.:53:33.

taking judicial reviews, so many people seeking changes in

:53:34.:53:40.

Government policy, looking at variations. This would not have

:53:40.:53:44.

been needed if it had not been a flawed process. He must say, what

:53:44.:53:48.

do we need to do? Trust me, get 10 wires in a room that you will get

:53:48.:53:54.

10 different answers. So you are not embarrassed? Hang on, what I'm

:53:54.:53:58.

saying, I know now that I must look at things and say, how many of us

:53:58.:54:01.

are certain that this will stand the test of time? How many people

:54:01.:54:07.

could question that? Is it just THAT someone with a lawyer who can

:54:07.:54:11.

pay more money could change its decision? We must look at this,

:54:11.:54:19.

never before has this been the case. Are you embarrassed about what has

:54:19.:54:24.

happened? This is something that David Cameron has answered very

:54:24.:54:29.

clearly. We must take this on the chin.

:54:29.:54:32.

Berwick, do you think that the party is a tune at the moment with

:54:32.:54:38.

what voters want? I think the new MPs have been

:54:38.:54:43.

elected, the lot of us, no one third of us in the north-west or

:54:43.:54:48.

Conservative MPs and we are speaking to the electorate. We

:54:48.:54:52.

speak to them every weekend and talk to them as surgeries. We have

:54:52.:54:54.

that land line now and that strengthen the north-west that we

:54:54.:54:59.

did not have before in 1997 when there were hardly any North and MPs

:54:59.:55:03.

in the party. A as a pitch to David Cameron, there are only three

:55:03.:55:08.

north-west MPs or ministers. From someone like you be a minister?

:55:08.:55:13.

That is not up to me, it is not up to me at all. There are people who

:55:13.:55:17.

lived and grew up in the north-west to are in the cupboard. Justine

:55:17.:55:24.

cleaning comes from Sheffield. There are many people there. Many

:55:24.:55:26.

people have graduated from Lancaster University, perhaps not

:55:26.:55:30.

with what I have but they know about the north-west as well.

:55:30.:55:34.

Professor Denver, is there a difference between her and he

:55:34.:55:39.

appealed to voters in the north- west to the south-east? No, not at

:55:39.:55:45.

all. It is the same everywhere. People have the same concerns were

:55:45.:55:49.

that they love, people are much the same everywhere. We have this image

:55:50.:55:55.

of the South, everyone all toffs, and everyone in the North are rough

:55:55.:56:00.

cut. It is not like that. People are the same. It is the quality of

:56:00.:56:04.

the leaders and the competence of the Government. I do think it does

:56:04.:56:07.

help if you live within your community, if you know the values,

:56:07.:56:11.

if you have ran a this is their like I have done. It is my home

:56:11.:56:15.

town, I deliberately went back to fight a seat on Merseyside, I could

:56:15.:56:19.

have gone for a safer Sutton seat but I did not. At once to represent

:56:19.:56:23.

what I would class as my family, friends and my area, and I feel

:56:23.:56:29.

completely in tune with it. -- Maxi for southern seat.

:56:29.:56:34.

One of Labour's key attacks has been that the Conservatives are

:56:34.:56:38.

sudden and they bet too posh and not in touch. One of your

:56:38.:56:42.

colleagues, Nadine Dorries, has gone even further with that attack.

:56:42.:56:47.

Any truth to it? As we know, many of the Conservative MPs are based

:56:47.:56:50.

in the south. The totally represent those people. What we must make

:56:50.:56:55.

sure we do is get more Conservative MPs in the north-west, from the

:56:55.:56:59.

north-west, we did that in the 2010 election and we must fight harder

:56:59.:57:02.

and two more. We must make sure that we stand for the people that

:57:02.:57:08.

we represent, we do have to be appealing to the concerns of

:57:08.:57:13.

everyone, which are the same across the country. There is a greater

:57:13.:57:15.

public sector pay seen the north- westerly must get in touch with

:57:15.:57:18.

those people. Eric, thank you very much indeed

:57:18.:57:22.

for your time. Here is the rest of the week's

:57:22.:57:29.

political news. The head of children services and

:57:29.:57:32.

Rochdale council resigned one week after a damning report into the

:57:32.:57:36.

care of victims of the towns of child sex grooming scandal. The

:57:36.:57:39.

authority said Steve Garber is leaving of his own accord.

:57:39.:57:44.

Sir Norman Bettison is to retire from the police. He worked in the

:57:44.:57:47.

Yorkshire force at the time of Hillsborough.

:57:47.:57:50.

Blackburn MP Jack Straw apologised to the families of the victims for

:57:50.:57:54.

not doing more when he was Home Secretary. It is a matter of great

:57:54.:58:00.

regret to me at, of course I'm sorry.

:58:00.:58:04.

Ricky Tomlinson renewed calls to overturn a conviction for his role

:58:04.:58:07.

in the building workers' strike of the 1970s.

:58:07.:58:12.

The party conference machine may have left Manchester, but one woman

:58:12.:58:18.

was not going quietly. A few played a brilliant speech.

:58:18.:58:22.

Blackpool Tower is set to be one of the first venues in the country to

:58:22.:58:26.

take part in new Home Office rules on weddings, so you can tie the

:58:26.:58:35.

knot any time, day or night. So, David, we have had the first

:58:35.:58:39.

two conferences, we are coming into the search now, already started.

:58:39.:58:43.

Where are we left in terms of British policy?

:58:43.:58:48.

Pretty much the same as before. Despite the Ed Miliband thing, the

:58:48.:58:52.

publicity about his so-called wonderful speech, that will prove

:58:52.:58:54.

taken temporary blip and will go away and this week the

:58:54.:59:01.

Conservatives will get another blip and able medical up a little bit.

:59:01.:59:04.

They are too choreographed, it is all onwards and forwards and

:59:04.:59:07.

upwards to a better tomorrow. you will be off to Birmingham

:59:07.:59:11.

looking for that better tomorrow? Yes, and obviously I think what he

:59:11.:59:16.

must say quite clearly, what have we done? We have helped take 25

:59:16.:59:20.

million people at a tax, taking 1.1 million completely it attacks, we

:59:20.:59:24.

have put in place and the structure, but look at what we're doing with

:59:24.:59:27.

welfare and education, and that has for us to make their case and say,

:59:27.:59:34.

we are ser. Is a anyone listening? We are must make sure they do, it

:59:34.:59:37.

is not the listener's fault, we must make sure it has lost the ball.

:59:37.:59:41.

We must do our part. We must get it right and make sure we are

:59:41.:59:45.

listening to the public. It is that to be process.

:59:45.:59:49.

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