Browse content similar to 22/09/2013. Check below for episodes and series from the same categories and more!
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Welcome to the Sunday politics. Labour are in Brighton for the party | :00:44. | :00:50. | |
conference this weekend. Ed Miliband promises policies galore. But a poll | :00:50. | :00:56. | |
finds that 13-mac of his councils do not bring his doing a good job. They | :00:56. | :01:04. | |
are partying like it is 2006 in Westminster. Memoirs to reunite the | :01:04. | :01:16. | |
Tony Blair /Gordon Brown waters. -- wars. The Conservative party | :01:16. | :01:22. | |
chairman gives his response to the rampant Tory bashing at the Lib Dem | :01:22. | :01:28. | |
conference. And a promise from the first minister to renationalise the | :01:28. | :01:30. | |
Royal mail under independence. Would it really work? | :01:30. | :01:42. | |
right? With me, the best and the brightest political panel in the | :01:42. | :01:49. | |
business. Isabel Hardman, Janan Ganesh and Steve Richards. They'll | :01:49. | :01:51. | |
be tweeting like demented Damians throughout the programme. First | :01:52. | :01:55. | |
today, scrapping the bedroom tax. Universal childcare for primary | :01:55. | :02:00. | |
school kids. More apprenticeships. Labour Conference only begins in | :02:01. | :02:03. | |
earnest today, but the policy and spending commitments are coming | :02:03. | :02:07. | |
thick and fast. Not before time, according to the Labour leader's | :02:07. | :02:11. | |
critics. He's been out and about this morning and told Andrew Marr | :02:11. | :02:14. | |
that he knew it was going to be a tough fight in the run up to 2015. | :02:15. | :02:23. | |
It is about a party that lost office three years ago. We are trying to be | :02:23. | :02:26. | |
It is about a party that lost office a one term opposition. That is | :02:26. | :02:31. | |
tough. I believe it is a fight that we can win and I am up for that | :02:31. | :02:38. | |
fight. The stakes are so high for young people who want a job, for | :02:38. | :02:42. | |
people whose living standards are being squeezed. For people who think | :02:42. | :02:48. | |
that this is not good enough for Britain. So what do key Labour Party | :02:48. | :02:54. | |
activists - its councillors - think about the direction Mr Miliband is | :02:54. | :02:58. | |
taking their party? Adam Fleming is in Brighton at the Party Conference | :02:58. | :03:02. | |
with all the details of our latest exclusive Sunday Politics survey. | :03:02. | :03:10. | |
Labour have unwrapped their conference set. Let us unwrap them. | :03:10. | :03:12. | |
Labour have unwrapped their With the help of an opinion poll we | :03:12. | :03:19. | |
surveyed 1350 Labour councillors across England and Wales. We wanted | :03:19. | :03:24. | |
to find out what they think as Labour gathers for its conference. | :03:24. | :03:29. | |
The Labour leader warmed up for the week by taking to his soap box in | :03:29. | :03:32. | |
Brighton city centre. It is great to week by taking to his soap box in | :03:32. | :03:39. | |
be here. In our survey 31% of councillors said they did not think | :03:39. | :03:42. | |
Ed Miliband was doing a good job as leader. 30% said they thought the | :03:42. | :03:48. | |
party would have a better chance if someone else was in charge at the | :03:48. | :03:55. | |
next election. You will see more of Ed Miliband as we run-up to general | :03:55. | :04:01. | |
election. He has been in the job for three years! Now it is crunch time. | :04:01. | :04:11. | |
The other Ed, Ed Balls, was disliked by roughly one third of the party as | :04:11. | :04:16. | |
well. Ed Balls is not a pop your man. He says things and he speaks | :04:16. | :04:23. | |
his mind. -- not a popular man. Sometimes he is not the most | :04:23. | :04:31. | |
diplomatic. Sadly Ed Balls did not seem to be that bothered about our | :04:31. | :04:36. | |
survey. Over at a conference centre the exhibitors were starting up. | :04:36. | :04:39. | |
When it comes to relations with trade unions, the majority of Labour | :04:39. | :04:45. | |
councillors thought things were absolutely fine. Just 9% thought | :04:45. | :04:50. | |
things with the unions were a little bit too close. Tricky because Ed | :04:50. | :04:56. | |
Miliband want to loosen the link. The shadow environment secretary | :04:57. | :05:00. | |
arrived in Brighton ride bicycle from London to raise money for | :05:00. | :05:06. | |
charity. When we as Labour councillors what they would do if | :05:06. | :05:10. | |
the next election results in a hung parliament, just over half said they | :05:10. | :05:16. | |
would tell the lid Dems to get on their bikes. We would never say no | :05:16. | :05:20. | |
to going into coalition. It gives us the chance to be in government and | :05:21. | :05:24. | |
prepare some of the damage of the last three years. So are you going | :05:24. | :05:29. | |
to start being nice about the Lib Dems? I always treat them with | :05:29. | :05:35. | |
courtesy. And the parties admitted that perhaps they had opened the | :05:35. | :05:41. | |
door to too many immigrants. It in our survey Labour councillors of | :05:41. | :05:46. | |
warming the felt that immigration had been positive for the UK. | :05:46. | :05:51. | |
We're now joined by the Shadow Chief Secretary to the Treasury, Rachel | :05:51. | :06:00. | |
Reeves. Good morning. Let us start with Ed Miliband. Is it true that | :06:00. | :06:03. | |
Reeves. Good morning. Let us start the team insisted that he be called | :06:03. | :06:05. | |
the leader? I just call him Ed and I the team insisted that he be called | :06:05. | :06:12. | |
think the rest of the Shadow Cabinet do. Do you welcome working for a | :06:12. | :06:22. | |
leader that says he is winning back socialism? We are a democratic | :06:22. | :06:28. | |
socialist party. We make no apologies for that. The most | :06:28. | :06:30. | |
important thing is that we have the apologies for that. The most | :06:30. | :06:34. | |
policies that will improve people 's lives and tackle the cost of living | :06:34. | :06:40. | |
crisis facing so many families. Policies like expanding childcare, | :06:40. | :06:46. | |
offering more apprenticeships, all policies that I think the country | :06:46. | :06:51. | |
are calling out for after three years of a flat-lining economy and | :06:51. | :06:58. | |
seeing prices rise faster than wages for 38 out of the 39 months but | :06:58. | :07:02. | |
David Cameron has been Prime Minister. I think that is the most | :07:02. | :07:08. | |
important thing. So it is OK now to risk their to the Labour Party again | :07:08. | :07:13. | |
as the Socialist party? The clue is in the name, we stand up for working | :07:13. | :07:18. | |
people. You are socialist party according to the leader. We have | :07:18. | :07:23. | |
always been the Labour Party, that is our name and we stand up for | :07:23. | :07:27. | |
working people, not the privileged few like this government with their | :07:27. | :07:31. | |
working people, not the privileged tax cuts for millionaires. Those are | :07:31. | :07:35. | |
policies that help just the privileged few. The Labour Party is | :07:35. | :07:39. | |
about helping everyone in Britain, all families. Interesting that your | :07:39. | :07:49. | |
run don't use the word socialist. In our survey one third of Labour | :07:49. | :07:52. | |
councillors said Ed Miliband was not doing a good job as leader. If he | :07:52. | :07:58. | |
cannot convince his own councillors, who can he convince? | :07:58. | :08:02. | |
Well you could say that two thirds of councillors think that he is the | :08:02. | :08:08. | |
right leader. But these are Labour councillors. The overall majority of | :08:08. | :08:13. | |
Labour councillors think that he is doing a good job. What matters is | :08:13. | :08:22. | |
the results on election day. Two thirds of councillors think that he | :08:22. | :08:28. | |
is doing a good job. That us see what they say at the end of this | :08:28. | :08:32. | |
week. Because I think the policies he is announcing will go down well | :08:32. | :08:34. | |
week. Because I think the policies with Labour Party people and will | :08:34. | :08:38. | |
also resonate with the British public. Policies like expanding | :08:38. | :08:44. | |
apprenticeships, giving a break to hard-working families who are | :08:44. | :08:48. | |
struggling. I think people will see what kind of a leader that he is. | :08:48. | :08:53. | |
Well he has a mountain to climb among all voters. Let me ask the | :08:53. | :09:02. | |
question. Just 12% see him as a Prime Minister in waiting, just 2% | :09:02. | :09:05. | |
see him as a natural leader. Why? If Prime Minister in waiting, just 2% | :09:05. | :09:10. | |
you look at the overall opinion polls, we are consistently ahead in | :09:10. | :09:16. | |
those polls. It is hard being leader of the opposition, you cannot | :09:16. | :09:18. | |
those polls. It is hard being leader demonstrate how you would be Prime | :09:18. | :09:22. | |
Minister. By nature you are in opposition. But he has taken on | :09:22. | :09:29. | |
Rupert Murdoch and the press barons. That is strong leadership, standing | :09:29. | :09:36. | |
up to the vast majority. If you look at his reforms to our relationship | :09:36. | :09:41. | |
with the trade unions, strengthening ties with individual members. I | :09:41. | :09:48. | |
think that he is a strong leader making the right decisions. If that | :09:48. | :09:55. | |
is the case, why has the Labour lead gone from 14 points one year ago to | :09:55. | :10:00. | |
at most four points now. What went wrong? Well we are six or eight | :10:00. | :10:07. | |
points ahead in the polls today. We are six or eight points ahead in the | :10:07. | :10:09. | |
polls today. We're still consistently ahead. It looks as if | :10:09. | :10:14. | |
we would get an overall majority if there was an election tomorrow. But | :10:14. | :10:18. | |
we have more work to do to convince more people to vote for Labour. But | :10:18. | :10:25. | |
this is a historic challenge, to be a one term Labour opposition. I | :10:25. | :10:29. | |
believe that Ed Miliband will be the next Labour Prime Minister and will | :10:30. | :10:34. | |
be an excellent Prime Minister. The big policy announcement today is the | :10:34. | :10:39. | |
guaranteed childcare for all primary school children. How much will that | :10:39. | :10:44. | |
cost? When Labour were in government, they ring fenced money | :10:44. | :10:50. | |
to provide after-school -- after-school and breakfast clubs. We | :10:50. | :10:53. | |
think that money should be ring fenced again. How much will it | :10:53. | :10:59. | |
cost? We are saying that schools within their budgets should be able | :10:59. | :11:05. | |
to provide that. At the moment they can charge for children to come to | :11:05. | :11:12. | |
their first clubs. But this is a policy that does not involve | :11:12. | :11:13. | |
additional money. As it was under policy that does not involve | :11:13. | :11:17. | |
the last Labour government it will be about ring fencing money because | :11:17. | :11:22. | |
we think that this is a priority. This is something that the schools | :11:22. | :11:27. | |
should do. You cannot ring fenced money you do not have. You saying | :11:27. | :11:32. | |
you could provide wraparound childcare for every family | :11:32. | :11:37. | |
schoolchild from eight o'clock in the morning until six o'clock at | :11:37. | :11:41. | |
night and it will not cost any more money? Well we did ring fence that | :11:41. | :11:46. | |
money in the last Labour government. That money is gone! It has not gone. | :11:46. | :11:52. | |
It is about priorities and we are saying that it should be a priority | :11:52. | :12:00. | |
to provide that wraparound care. So where is the money being spent now | :12:00. | :12:05. | |
that you would take it from? If we look at some of the things that this | :12:05. | :12:09. | |
government is doing, building free schools in areas where there are | :12:09. | :12:14. | |
already enough. That is capital spending. We are ring fencing that | :12:14. | :12:20. | |
many. Again, it is different priorities. We had the ring fence | :12:20. | :12:26. | |
when we were in government. It would be reintroduced so that schools had | :12:26. | :12:31. | |
to offer that wraparound care. Of course schools can charge a small | :12:31. | :12:35. | |
to offer that wraparound care. Of fee for their breakfast clubs and | :12:35. | :12:39. | |
after-school DVDs. But the important thing is that provision is there for | :12:39. | :12:44. | |
parents going out to work. Ed Balls and Ed Miliband are at the heart of | :12:44. | :12:51. | |
the Brown project. Damien Wright was the hit man. Is it not inconceivable | :12:51. | :12:55. | |
that they did not know what he was the hit man. Is it not inconceivable | :12:55. | :13:00. | |
up to. It is inconceivable that they did not -- Damian McBride. I am | :13:00. | :13:12. | |
asking about Damian McBride. What I'm saying is that I was not there. | :13:12. | :13:18. | |
I was not there under the last Labour government. But I do know | :13:19. | :13:25. | |
that these things are not happening under the leadership of Ed Miliband. | :13:25. | :13:31. | |
He has led by example. There is not that backstabbing going on. There is | :13:31. | :13:38. | |
no plotting against Ed Balls going on? I do not see that. And anyone | :13:38. | :13:44. | |
who briefed against colleagues should be sacked, I agree with that. | :13:44. | :13:52. | |
Nick Clegg's conference speech made it clear he was repaired to work | :13:52. | :13:58. | |
with Ed Miliband in the event of a hung parliament. Are you excited by | :13:58. | :14:05. | |
that prospect or is it just boring? That is very generous of Nick Clegg | :14:05. | :14:13. | |
to say that. With his poll ratings of 9%. I think it is up to the | :14:13. | :14:17. | |
to say that. With his poll ratings general public to decide who they | :14:17. | :14:21. | |
want to form a government. We are campaigning for an overall Labour | :14:21. | :14:26. | |
government at the next election. Are you excited by the prospect, or is | :14:26. | :14:37. | |
that just boring boring? I want to serve in a Labour government is not | :14:37. | :14:41. | |
a coalition government. That is what we are campaigning for. Thank you | :14:41. | :14:47. | |
for joining us. Steve Richards, what has Ed Miliband got to do this | :14:47. | :14:55. | |
week? He has got to start to win the argument about the economy. I think | :14:55. | :15:01. | |
they will be quite clever on that in terms of saying that the recovery | :15:01. | :15:05. | |
has begun but it is not going to benefit many of the voters. Unlike | :15:05. | :15:10. | |
previous economic recoveries. That is a strong line and they need to | :15:10. | :15:23. | |
make that again and again. The recovery has barely started. The | :15:24. | :15:25. | |
make that again and again. The interesting thing, Isabel, they want | :15:25. | :15:29. | |
to make a living standards the issue now because growth has returned, | :15:29. | :15:31. | |
let's return to living standards which have been squeezed. The polls | :15:31. | :15:36. | |
show that twice as many people blame Labour for the living standards than | :15:36. | :15:43. | |
the Conservatives. It is a great scene for them to mine, and it is | :15:43. | :15:47. | |
the only one before they announce big policies, but they have not | :15:47. | :15:50. | |
gained the trust of voters on the economy, so the Conservatives can | :15:50. | :15:53. | |
say they are finishing the job of fixing the recovery now and then | :15:53. | :15:57. | |
we'll focus on living standards, whereas Labour is trying to say, you | :15:57. | :16:01. | |
cannot quite trust us with the economy but we will talk about | :16:01. | :16:05. | |
living standards. Ed Miliband's main job this week is to begin | :16:05. | :16:09. | |
elucidating policies and not just themes, and that makes | :16:09. | :16:11. | |
elucidating policies and not just incredibly vulnerable. The only | :16:11. | :16:14. | |
thing worse than not having a policy for an opposition leader is to have | :16:14. | :16:22. | |
a policy. It gives the opposition something to attack, the media | :16:22. | :16:26. | |
something to scrutinise and it makes you bold rubble and you can see that | :16:26. | :16:31. | |
coming through already before the conference has started. You have | :16:31. | :16:39. | |
sketchy ideas on child, -- childcare. Spigot can he provide | :16:39. | :16:46. | |
wraparound childcare for free? -- can he provide wraparound childcare | :16:46. | :16:49. | |
for free? I don't even know what it is. Opposition is emphatically an | :16:49. | :16:57. | |
art form, and the art form, and the artform for them at the moment is to | :16:57. | :17:00. | |
announce policies without spending any money and it is very difficult | :17:00. | :17:07. | |
to do. You gave an illustration of how difficult it is. They are under | :17:07. | :17:12. | |
huge pressure, for the last year, to announce policies and they announce | :17:12. | :17:15. | |
one on childcare and you immediately say, how do you paper it? And she | :17:16. | :17:20. | |
immediately says, we will not spend a penny on it, because they are | :17:20. | :17:24. | |
terrified of spending anything. This is where it an artform. The tax | :17:24. | :17:32. | |
suspension before and election is crazy, because they will find money | :17:32. | :17:36. | |
one way or another, but in another way, they cannot say we will spend | :17:37. | :17:41. | |
money on this. It is a real problem. How do you measure the state of the | :17:41. | :17:44. | |
coalition after the Liberal Democrat conference? The Liberal Democrats | :17:44. | :17:50. | |
were in a very strong position after their conference, Nick Clegg had | :17:50. | :17:54. | |
faced and activists on some issues, including fracking, which they | :17:54. | :17:58. | |
supported, which seem to be the most important part of the conference. In | :17:58. | :18:02. | |
terms of the coalition, the Tories have had to sit and watch as Vince | :18:02. | :18:06. | |
Cable, Nick Clegg and Coe have basically criticised them and said | :18:06. | :18:07. | |
Cable, Nick Clegg and Coe have they are evil and only the Lib Dems | :18:07. | :18:12. | |
can make sure the Government is fair and works properly. So in terms of | :18:12. | :18:15. | |
how the coalition works, you can expect to see some revenge at the | :18:15. | :18:20. | |
Tory conference. The Lib Dems, Nick Clegg's followers, they had their | :18:20. | :18:31. | |
revenge. Mister Clegg may have convinced his own activists to stay | :18:31. | :18:34. | |
behind him, but he has a bigger challenge, which is called | :18:34. | :18:38. | |
convincing the British people. There is some interesting polling they | :18:38. | :18:41. | |
have done privately that suggests there is a market of about 25% of | :18:41. | :18:46. | |
the electorate which is plausibly open to them, and all they have to | :18:46. | :18:50. | |
do is target policies remorselessly at that group, rather than the | :18:50. | :18:54. | |
broader public, in order to do well enough at the next election to hold | :18:54. | :18:57. | |
the balance of power. That is why policies that seem weird to us, like | :18:57. | :19:00. | |
free school meals regardless of policies that seem weird to us, like | :19:00. | :19:14. | |
income, may perversely make sense to them. Because it appeals to their | :19:14. | :19:16. | |
demographic. It is a strange political world we are in, the | :19:16. | :19:17. | |
Labour strategists think they can political world we are in, the | :19:17. | :19:20. | |
win with 35%, the Lib Dems are going to concentrate on 25. The Tories | :19:20. | :19:22. | |
have seized to be a national party any more. We haven't been used to it | :19:22. | :19:28. | |
for a long time. In the 80s, one party dominated, the Tories. In the | :19:28. | :19:32. | |
90s into the 21st century, the policy matter delayed the Labour | :19:32. | :19:39. | |
Party dominated. -- the Labour party dominated. We are now here but we | :19:39. | :19:44. | |
have other parties hoping that 36% will give them a small overall | :19:44. | :19:48. | |
majority and it is the best they can get. It is a very odd situation | :19:48. | :19:53. | |
where the main two parties feel they can lose and the Lib Dems are openly | :19:53. | :20:00. | |
targeting only 25%. They have gotten rid of 75% already and it is a long | :20:00. | :20:05. | |
way from the policies of last couple of decades Nick Clegg talked about | :20:05. | :20:12. | |
all of the policies he had locked. There is a real opportunity for the | :20:12. | :20:15. | |
Conservatives to say that he is blocking all of the things that | :20:15. | :20:19. | |
voters outside of our bays are interested in, top immigration | :20:19. | :20:23. | |
policy, human rights reform, that sort of thing. David Cameron can say | :20:23. | :20:27. | |
that in Manchester next week. One thing was quite clear, it came out | :20:27. | :20:42. | |
of this awayday, and and this is this, that when you look at Mister | :20:42. | :20:48. | |
Miller band's polls, the Tories are going to make this a presidential | :20:48. | :20:53. | |
election -- Ed Miliband's polls. Which is why I am curious why they | :20:53. | :20:59. | |
are not more keen on TV debates. When the strength of your party is | :20:59. | :21:03. | |
the visibility of your leader against his opponents, why not have | :21:03. | :21:07. | |
him or her juxtaposed against them in 90 minutes three times a week. | :21:07. | :21:13. | |
Let's turn now to the coalition. The past week has given us inklings of | :21:13. | :21:16. | |
how the yellow half of the Government is planning on fighting | :21:16. | :21:17. | |
how the yellow half of the the General Election. | :21:17. | :21:22. | |
When the Lib Dems gathered for their annual shindig in Glasgow, some | :21:22. | :21:25. | |
ministers were non-too complimentary about their blue blood fellows. -- | :21:25. | :21:30. | |
bedfellows. Vince Cable led the way about their blue blood fellows. -- | :21:30. | :21:33. | |
in stick in the boot in, saying the Tories had reverted to type as a | :21:33. | :21:38. | |
nasty party and describe their politics as ugly, cynical, callous | :21:38. | :21:44. | |
and prejudice. Nick Clegg did not restrict himself to policies that | :21:44. | :21:46. | |
and prejudice. Nick Clegg did not the Lib Dems had champion, such as | :21:46. | :21:48. | |
and prejudice. Nick Clegg did not increasing the amount you can earn | :21:48. | :21:54. | |
before paying tax. The Deputy Prime Minister proudly listed all of the | :21:54. | :21:59. | |
things he had stopped the Tories from doing. Speak of scrapping | :21:59. | :22:02. | |
housing benefit the young people, no. No to ditching the human rights | :22:03. | :22:08. | |
act. No to weakening the protections in the equalities act. So how much | :22:09. | :22:15. | |
of a break have the yellow brigade being on Conservative ambitions | :22:15. | :22:18. | |
question mark in the two leaders shake hands again after the 20 15th | :22:18. | :22:22. | |
election, what policies were David Cameron insist on. -- 2015? No | :22:22. | :22:29. | |
matter how many times Nick Clegg says no? | :22:29. | :22:29. | |
matter how many times Nick Clegg And Grant Shapps joins me the Sunday | :22:29. | :22:32. | |
Interview. Grant Shapps, good morning. Nick | :22:32. | :22:43. | |
Clegg, Doctor Know himself, self-styled. He boasted to his | :22:43. | :22:48. | |
conference that he had stopped the Tories from going ahead with 16 | :22:48. | :22:52. | |
policies in government. Is this accurate? I don't know but what I | :22:52. | :22:56. | |
can tell you, as your commentator Isabel said, some of the policies | :22:56. | :23:02. | |
that we wanted them if we were a majority government sent out to be | :23:02. | :23:05. | |
very popular things, like reforming the human rights act and some of the | :23:05. | :23:10. | |
problems that provides when it comes to sending people who have no right | :23:10. | :23:13. | |
to be in this country back. So there may be some things we could have | :23:13. | :23:17. | |
made progress on. You are in government, did he stop the | :23:17. | :23:21. | |
inheritance tax cut? I don't know the details, but I think it is | :23:21. | :23:26. | |
absolutely true to say that coalitions are a process of | :23:26. | :23:30. | |
negotiation and sometimes you can't get everything you want, and we had | :23:30. | :23:35. | |
done the best, given where the electoral maths left us. That is why | :23:35. | :23:38. | |
70 people in this country say they would rather see a single party | :23:38. | :23:42. | |
running the country -- why so many people. I have to say I agree. They | :23:42. | :23:47. | |
are not sure which single party. Give me a couple of major policies | :23:47. | :23:52. | |
that you would introduce if you had had a majority in 2010 and were not | :23:52. | :23:56. | |
held back by the Lib Dems. Speaking the one I just mentioned would be | :23:56. | :24:04. | |
the Human Rights Act. In This Country, we have had 1,000 years of | :24:04. | :24:07. | |
developing the law and we are more than capable of putting in place | :24:07. | :24:11. | |
sensible laws. you would have left the European Court of human rights. | :24:11. | :24:16. | |
We have already started the process of negotiation. There was some | :24:16. | :24:20. | |
progress, but limited, and we would like to move further. Let me give | :24:20. | :24:25. | |
you one other. I think this country has a great future but we can only | :24:25. | :24:28. | |
grasp that country if we make ourselves the best place in the | :24:28. | :24:30. | |
world to come and set up a business. ourselves the best place in the | :24:30. | :24:34. | |
If we make ourselves the best place in Europe to develop jobs and | :24:34. | :24:37. | |
entrepreneurship and I think there are a host of things we could do to | :24:37. | :24:42. | |
go further on cutting back red tape. And the Lib Dems have stopped you? I | :24:42. | :24:48. | |
think that is the case. In what ways, if any, have the Lib Dems | :24:48. | :24:53. | |
improved the coalition process? It has been a stable government. No one | :24:53. | :24:58. | |
talks about when the next election will come, we know it is in May 2015 | :24:58. | :25:04. | |
but that is in part being in a coalition. The Tories wouldn't have | :25:04. | :25:10. | |
done that? It wasn't the plan of any party to go from... In the old days, | :25:10. | :25:16. | |
there would have been speculation. You turned it into a national | :25:16. | :25:19. | |
debate, you changed the British constitution in a fundamental way | :25:19. | :25:23. | |
and nobody got a say. It was debated on the floor of the Has, as all | :25:23. | :25:28. | |
constitutional changes are and there was a lot of agreement -- of the | :25:28. | :25:34. | |
House. Nobody has ever said to me that it is a problem that we now | :25:34. | :25:39. | |
have a fixed term parliament. Here it is, every five years. This is | :25:39. | :25:46. | |
what it has done, it has provided stability in an incredibly uncertain | :25:46. | :25:51. | |
economic time and that has been good for the economy. we will chalk that | :25:51. | :26:01. | |
up to delete -- Lib Dem. What about taking people out of tax, the Lib | :26:01. | :26:08. | |
Dems did that question mark it is a great policy. It is a conservative | :26:08. | :26:15. | |
led government, it is a Conservative government massively Chancellor. | :26:15. | :26:21. | |
This is a screen grab from your party's website, income tax cut to | :26:21. | :26:25. | |
25 million people. You are taking the credit for it, it wouldn't have | :26:25. | :26:29. | |
happened without the Lib Dems. It certainly came about because of the | :26:29. | :26:33. | |
coalition and we put it in the coalition agreement. It could not | :26:33. | :26:36. | |
have happened without a Conservative Chancellor making it happen. It is | :26:36. | :26:41. | |
right, 25 million people taken out of tax. Another 17 by this April | :26:41. | :26:48. | |
will not be paying tax at all. you didn't want to do it. Look at what | :26:48. | :26:52. | |
David Cameron told Nick Clegg during the leaders debate in 2010. | :26:52. | :27:03. | |
What Nick Clegg is promising is a £17 billion tax cut. We are saying, | :27:03. | :27:10. | |
stop the waste of 6 billion to stop the national insurance rise. I would | :27:10. | :27:12. | |
stop the waste of 6 billion to stop love to take everyone out of their | :27:12. | :27:14. | |
first £10,000 of income tax, it is a love to take everyone out of their | :27:14. | :27:17. | |
beautiful idea but we cannot afford it. It wasn't in your manifesto. | :27:17. | :27:23. | |
Mister Cameron said it was unaffordable and now you are taking | :27:23. | :27:28. | |
the credit for it. I feel like it is having a three year afterwards | :27:28. | :27:32. | |
argument, and we got into coalition because the British people put us | :27:32. | :27:35. | |
there and we agreed to make the best of it. And as it happens, if you | :27:35. | :27:39. | |
want to hear a confession, I absolutely think it is the right | :27:39. | :27:42. | |
thing to take as many people out of tax entirely as possible. Two points | :27:43. | :27:47. | |
7 million people pay no tax at all because of this rise in the | :27:47. | :27:54. | |
threshold. -- 2.7 million. I'm pleased it worked out. What are the | :27:54. | :27:59. | |
most important thing is a majority Tory government would do after 2015, | :27:59. | :28:05. | |
unencumbered by the Lib Dems? I think produce even more jobs when | :28:05. | :28:07. | |
unemployment goes down, because we think produce even more jobs when | :28:07. | :28:11. | |
are the most entrepreneurial place to set up a business. Are more | :28:11. | :28:16. | |
free-market economy? We make our money because we are out global | :28:16. | :28:23. | |
trading economy. That is why it is so important that we have to make | :28:23. | :28:28. | |
sure it is easy to trade around the world. One simple example, it is | :28:28. | :28:32. | |
crazy in my view that we have global tariffs that prevent some of the | :28:32. | :28:35. | |
hardest other countries in the world, in developing parts of the | :28:35. | :28:39. | |
world, from exporting to us and vice versa. I'm giving you a platform of | :28:39. | :28:46. | |
things that I think we would be more interested in progressing in. It | :28:46. | :28:50. | |
sounds like you are talking about even more Thatcherite, market led | :28:50. | :28:57. | |
agendas. I think that you did a huge amount to show this country that if | :28:57. | :29:01. | |
you want to help the least well off people in society, and the least | :29:01. | :29:03. | |
well off people in the world, around people in society, and the least | :29:03. | :29:07. | |
the globe, the way to do it is to trade, and I think we should have an | :29:07. | :29:11. | |
economy which is much more open to free trade. If there is another hung | :29:11. | :29:15. | |
parliament, and the poll suggest there might be, at the moment it is | :29:15. | :29:21. | |
all to play for on both sides, what would your non-negotiable Red Line | :29:21. | :29:26. | |
speak? We are still two years away from that, it is a long way away, | :29:26. | :29:34. | |
but there is a lot we want to lay out. What we are going to be saying | :29:34. | :29:38. | |
to this country is most people want a single party running the country, | :29:38. | :29:42. | |
they think it is clean and clear and you don't end up with negotiation | :29:42. | :29:45. | |
after an election. We will be setting out a very clear platform | :29:45. | :29:49. | |
which will be for hard-working people in this country who want to | :29:49. | :29:52. | |
work hard and get on in life. We would, I think, want to see the | :29:52. | :29:57. | |
welfare state that we have got into, where it is no longer about helping | :29:57. | :30:01. | |
those most in need but became a situation where you are better off | :30:01. | :30:05. | |
not working than in worker, I think we plan to ensure that this is an | :30:05. | :30:09. | |
incredibly fair place to go out and do a day's work and get the money at | :30:09. | :30:14. | |
the end of the day rather than thinking there is an alternative. | :30:14. | :30:17. | |
you have promised a referendum on UK membership of the EU in 2017, that | :30:17. | :30:22. | |
must be your first Red Line? We are clear, we want to see a referendum, | :30:22. | :30:30. | |
a reform European Union. So no poll... ? I should remind viewers | :30:30. | :30:36. | |
that there is an act of Parliament, a bill going through Parliament | :30:36. | :30:43. | |
right now, for a referendum on the EU, which comes back to the House. | :30:43. | :30:48. | |
It is past the report stage and comes back in November and we will | :30:48. | :30:53. | |
be discussing it. The Lib Dems, Labour, will have an opportunity to | :30:53. | :30:57. | |
support what the British people want. Lots may have changed. But it | :30:57. | :31:03. | |
would be a Red Line for any future coalition government question mark | :31:03. | :31:06. | |
we are clear that it is time to have a say. You will know from our | :31:06. | :31:14. | |
manifesto. What is wrong with yes or no? I cannot write the manifesto for | :31:14. | :31:20. | |
2015. You are asking me to project beyond that and see in advance the | :31:20. | :31:23. | |
election result and carry out the negotiations that are yet to come. | :31:23. | :31:28. | |
I'm just trying to work out how much... I know you are committed but | :31:28. | :31:39. | |
she won't tell me. Let's move on. Your party has been described as | :31:39. | :31:44. | |
nasty and blinkered. What do you feel when he says that? We are | :31:44. | :31:50. | |
interested in helping the most vulnerable people in society. I | :31:50. | :31:57. | |
think we're doing all that and more. And it is a shame that that language | :31:57. | :32:02. | |
was used because we have made so much progress together. Are you | :32:02. | :32:07. | |
getting to the end of your tether with Mr King? I do not think it is | :32:07. | :32:22. | |
terribly helpful for any Cabinet minister to make comments like that. | :32:22. | :32:24. | |
What I would say is that Nick Clegg minister to make comments like that. | :32:24. | :32:35. | |
is the leader of the Lib Dems and entitled to have a view on it | :32:35. | :32:40. | |
himself. Look at these figures on party membership. Why has your party | :32:40. | :32:47. | |
lost half of its members since Mr Cameron became leader? I would like | :32:47. | :32:53. | |
it to be more. But I think the world has changed. People do not rush out | :32:53. | :32:58. | |
and join political parties as they used to. Instead they support you in | :32:58. | :33:07. | |
different ways. If I released the number of people who give to the | :33:07. | :33:11. | |
party in different ways, through donations for example, through | :33:11. | :33:18. | |
friend memberships. If you include that that figure goes back up. But | :33:18. | :33:25. | |
your membership has fallen by 50% at a time when UKIP has doubled. I do | :33:25. | :33:35. | |
not want to to misinterpret what I want to say. It is important to gain | :33:35. | :33:44. | |
members. I think we will have done that by the time of the next | :33:44. | :33:47. | |
election. But one statistic of interest, in the last election I had | :33:47. | :33:54. | |
a 17,000 majority in my own constituency. The difference was I | :33:54. | :33:59. | |
had 1000 people helping me to deliver leaflets and knock on the | :33:59. | :34:04. | |
doors. The Conservative party has changed. We now have an army of | :34:04. | :34:14. | |
people, volunteers who are not necessarily traditional members. The | :34:14. | :34:20. | |
days when you expect people to give you £25, before you accept their | :34:20. | :34:25. | |
support, those days have passed. You spoke about your most vulnerable | :34:25. | :34:28. | |
marginal seats. This is a poll from spoke about your most vulnerable | :34:28. | :34:38. | |
Michael Ashcroft. The 40 most marginal seats that you will be | :34:38. | :34:45. | |
defending. Labour is way up, you are way down and UKIP is also up. What | :34:45. | :34:54. | |
is happening, the Lib Dem Mo -- both are moving to Labour. And | :34:54. | :34:59. | |
disillusioned Conservatives are moving to UKIP. If these figures | :34:59. | :35:06. | |
came at an election he would lose 32 of these 40 seats. The point about | :35:06. | :35:11. | |
any opinion poll is that it is perhaps accurate at the moment it is | :35:11. | :35:13. | |
taken. We are now in The people being ask about these | :35:13. | :35:34. | |
things will be interested in their own standard of living. The mortgage | :35:34. | :35:40. | |
payments they are making. Why are you doing worse in marginal seats | :35:40. | :35:47. | |
than nationally? You are the net and top with Labour nationally, you are | :35:47. | :35:53. | |
way behind on the marginals. That is not the picture people will see in | :35:53. | :35:57. | |
25 nine. They will see a government that stuck to its guns. -- 2015. We | :35:57. | :36:03. | |
have a record that dam and straights that the last thing you want to do | :36:03. | :36:07. | |
is get the car keys of the economy back to the people who crashed at | :36:07. | :36:18. | |
the calendar first place. The chap that Vince cable calls a Rottweiler, | :36:18. | :36:22. | |
has one message was to go all out and attack Ed Miliband. It will be a | :36:22. | :36:31. | |
nastier lection, won't it? We will focus on the policies of Ed Miliband | :36:31. | :36:37. | |
when he finally announces some. But it will mean more borrowing, taxing, | :36:37. | :36:44. | |
spending. Ed Balls said that they will be absolutely ruthless with | :36:44. | :36:50. | |
spending commitments. Just if you months later, £27.9 billion extra | :36:50. | :36:58. | |
spending committed by Labour. Those are your figures. They are Treasury | :36:58. | :37:06. | |
tested. You have done some jiggery-pokery. We are out of time. | :37:06. | :37:11. | |
You are watching the Sunday politics. | :37:11. | :37:19. | |
Welcome to Sunday politics Scotland. Coming up: The Royal Mail sale | :37:19. | :37:28. | |
dominates the debate. A promise to renationalise after an ultimatum | :37:28. | :37:36. | |
made on the programme last Sunday. Rather than pre-empt a decision by | :37:36. | :37:40. | |
the Scottish people in one year's time, the pre-Minister should have a | :37:40. | :37:45. | |
moratorium to load the Scottish people -- to allow the Scottish | :37:45. | :37:49. | |
people to decide what to do with our share of that great national asset. | :37:49. | :37:56. | |
Harriet Harman joins the Scottish Labour Party at the national | :37:56. | :38:00. | |
conference. Ed Miliband hoping that the tide will turn in his favour. A | :38:00. | :38:08. | |
new twist in the Royal Mail story was delivered by the first Minister | :38:08. | :38:15. | |
this week. A promise to renationalise after independence, | :38:15. | :38:24. | |
quickly seized on by opponents. It is set to be the biggest | :38:24. | :38:27. | |
privatisation for more than 20 years. The UK government planning to | :38:27. | :38:35. | |
sell off part of its stake in the Royal Mail. It says it is about | :38:35. | :38:39. | |
giving the Royal Mail freedom to raise the money to invest in the | :38:39. | :38:44. | |
future. Critics say that the government is simply selling off and | :38:44. | :38:47. | |
asset to make money for the Treasury. The Royal Mail is now a | :38:47. | :38:54. | |
separate organisation from the post office with a duty to provide a | :38:54. | :38:58. | |
universal service to even the most remote corner of the country. The | :38:58. | :39:05. | |
cost of hosting a letter -- posting has to be the same, whether it is | :39:05. | :39:11. | |
being sent to the centre of London or an isolated island. What happens | :39:11. | :39:17. | |
if this goes ahead then Scotland votes for independence next year? | :39:17. | :39:21. | |
Alex Salmond made a clear declaration. An independent Scottish | :39:21. | :39:30. | |
government that I lead, but it will be the decision of the Scottish | :39:30. | :39:34. | |
people, with brown Royal Mail back into public ownership. -- would | :39:34. | :39:40. | |
bring. But would really nationalising the company be | :39:40. | :39:50. | |
feasible -- renationalising? How could it be cleanly split from the | :39:50. | :39:55. | |
rest of the business? Some analysts are sceptical. It will be such a | :39:55. | :40:03. | |
long and expensive process that even at we imagine from the one that it | :40:03. | :40:10. | |
is what they wanted to do, it would take five or six years at least to | :40:10. | :40:14. | |
do it. The complications, the procedure is, in tombs of | :40:14. | :40:22. | |
governmental procedures, that they would have to go through to get to | :40:22. | :40:27. | |
that stage. The valuation of assets, the negotiations. The future of a | :40:27. | :40:36. | |
privatised Royal Mail in an independent Scotland would not be | :40:36. | :40:39. | |
decided in negotiations between Edinburgh and London which would | :40:39. | :40:43. | |
follow the Yes vote. Any move to renationalise it with be a political | :40:43. | :40:49. | |
decision for an independent Scottish government, which, of course, may | :40:49. | :40:59. | |
not be an SNP government. It is a populist policy. Political mood | :40:59. | :41:09. | |
music. It is giving out a signal. The cost, the money, this will be | :41:09. | :41:19. | |
popular with voters. The privatisation of utilities in the | :41:19. | :41:27. | |
1980s were controversial at the time. Few in the mainstream and | :41:27. | :41:33. | |
would now argue they should be brought back into the hands of the | :41:33. | :41:38. | |
state. Well the argument over the Royal Mail go the same way? | :41:38. | :41:47. | |
We need to discuss the issue the Liberal Democrat MP for Orkney and | :41:47. | :41:55. | |
Shetland, Alistair Carmichael, and GSM the business spokesperson, Mike | :41:55. | :42:08. | |
Weir. -- the SNP. A massive, uncosted promise. Possibly a blank | :42:08. | :42:16. | |
cheque. Was this up and pledge on and remark? A planned. I have made | :42:16. | :42:27. | |
no secret of the fact that I believe we should renationalise it if it is | :42:27. | :42:33. | |
privatised. But this should not go ahead at this stage. As an | :42:33. | :42:41. | |
independent Scotland we should be able to get our hands on our share | :42:41. | :42:48. | |
of the Royal Mail. The government have not said they are selling the | :42:48. | :42:52. | |
hole share of Royal Mail at the moment. They are starting the | :42:52. | :43:00. | |
process. But it could take quite a long time. In an independent | :43:00. | :43:07. | |
Scotland would it be fully renationalise? And how much would | :43:07. | :43:15. | |
that cost. We have made clear that we would renationalise Royal Mail, | :43:15. | :43:19. | |
an important economic asset of Scotland. Part of the economic | :43:19. | :43:24. | |
infrastructure and not to be treated as just another business. We have | :43:24. | :43:31. | |
made that clear. Until we see the structure we cannot be certain of | :43:31. | :43:36. | |
the cost. We have made no bones about that and being open and | :43:36. | :43:42. | |
truthful on that point. Alistair Carmichael, you must be pleased that | :43:43. | :44:01. | |
the SNP government promised to protect the postal service of your | :44:01. | :44:03. | |
constituents whilst you put it in jeopardy. We are doing no such | :44:03. | :44:06. | |
thing. We have put in place protections that will guarantee a | :44:06. | :44:08. | |
universal service across the whole of United Kingdom. You are seeing | :44:08. | :44:13. | |
the latest example of what is, from a political league point of view -- | :44:13. | :44:21. | |
political point of view, tactically stupid from the SNP. They are seeing | :44:21. | :44:26. | |
what they think people want to see other in order to be better disposed | :44:26. | :44:34. | |
to independence. What makes Weir is proposing here, and this is an | :44:34. | :44:38. | |
important point, the Royal Mail offers the opportunity to send an | :44:38. | :44:41. | |
acre and the length of the United Kingdom. He is talking about | :44:41. | :44:46. | |
separating the Scottish postal service. Presumably we will end up | :44:46. | :44:51. | |
having separate stamps, different costs. At the end of the day he does | :44:51. | :45:02. | |
not know how much it will cost. I am interested to know how big your | :45:02. | :45:06. | |
postbag is in Lerwick about complaints about the possible | :45:06. | :45:13. | |
privatisation. Many people contact me with perfectly legitimate | :45:13. | :45:19. | |
concerns. I unable to tell them that when this goes through the regulator | :45:19. | :45:29. | |
will have the power to impose a levy on private operators currently in | :45:29. | :45:30. | |
will have the power to impose a levy competition with Royal Mail, who can | :45:30. | :45:37. | |
cherry pick the easy bets. If they are as a threat to universal service | :45:37. | :45:39. | |
cherry pick the easy bets. If they they can be made to hear the subsidy | :45:39. | :45:42. | |
which will guarantee we continue in daily service to every door in the | :45:42. | :45:47. | |
country. That is a meaningful protection. I want to go to make | :45:47. | :46:01. | |
Weir. You do not look happy. The independent review a few years ago | :46:01. | :46:04. | |
advocated the privatisation of the Royal Mail. Alistair is wrong. I | :46:04. | :46:12. | |
will not take a lecture from a liberal on this. They have abandoned | :46:12. | :46:21. | |
their pledges from before being in government. Universal service is not | :46:21. | :46:26. | |
safe. Ofcom will decide that. Anybody paying gas and electric els | :46:26. | :46:34. | |
will not be greatly reassured by the fact that is just a regulator. -- | :46:34. | :46:44. | |
else. -- bills. Ofcom would look at changes in the universal service, | :46:44. | :46:49. | |
reduction, a compensation fund. That is not just the company, but the | :46:49. | :46:54. | |
users of the service. That means higher prices. If that was not | :46:55. | :47:01. | |
suitable they would put it out to tender. Does anybody really believe | :47:01. | :47:07. | |
that... This is blatant scaremongering. We see this all the | :47:07. | :47:15. | |
time. The reason you are feeling at today is because Alex Salmond has | :47:15. | :47:20. | |
shot from the hat. He has come up with something that will destroy a | :47:20. | :47:24. | |
universal service across the United Kingdom. That is what Scottish | :47:24. | :47:30. | |
people want. It just shows the weakness of the case for | :47:30. | :47:36. | |
independence. This Scottish people want the privatisation of the Royal | :47:36. | :47:41. | |
Mail? Let me finish. The first minister pointed out that only 90 | :47:42. | :47:46. | |
plus -- 90% of Scottish MPs do not want privatisation. MSPs will bang | :47:46. | :47:55. | |
their desks behind Alex Salmond and the chamber. That is no surprise. | :47:55. | :48:01. | |
The people of Scotland want guarantees they can have a service, | :48:01. | :48:05. | |
six days a week, to the door, a uniform price. One of the threats to | :48:05. | :48:12. | |
that universal service is doing nothing. If you do nothing you leave | :48:12. | :48:18. | |
the Royal Mail exposed to competition from Li Na private | :48:18. | :48:27. | |
sector competitors. -- leaner. The Labour Party and now this. They | :48:27. | :48:31. | |
tried to do it in the last parliament. Taking steps that will | :48:31. | :48:34. | |
protect the service rather than obsessing about who owns the | :48:34. | :48:41. | |
provider. What does this possible threat to a private company to | :48:41. | :48:46. | |
renationalise, in a hypothetical situation, what does it mean to the | :48:46. | :48:53. | |
business friendly SNP? Would you renationalise other companies? | :48:53. | :49:00. | |
Alistair Carmichael has not read the legislation, or does not understand | :49:00. | :49:05. | |
it. The threat to universal service from this privatisation will not be | :49:06. | :49:12. | |
bound to keep this up in the long-term. As for the specific | :49:12. | :49:20. | |
question, Royal Mail has not been privatised yet, we could still stop | :49:20. | :49:29. | |
it. But hypothetically, if it is, it is a threat to renationalise private | :49:29. | :49:35. | |
companies. It is a commitment to keep a company that is currently in | :49:35. | :49:39. | |
public ownership in public ownership in an independent Scotland. The | :49:39. | :49:46. | |
point is, it has not been privatised yet. It is unlikely to be fully | :49:46. | :49:50. | |
privatised at the point of independence. We have a real chance | :49:50. | :49:57. | |
of stopping it. I want to move onto another issue. These Scottish | :49:57. | :50:07. | |
Government saying today that the Scottish pension age could be one | :50:07. | :50:12. | |
year award. Is this another extravagant claim? More details will | :50:13. | :50:18. | |
be available tomorrow but we have made clear that we are uncomfortable | :50:18. | :50:26. | |
with the rush to continually raise the retirement age. What we are | :50:26. | :50:31. | |
seeing as there should be a commission to look at this in more | :50:31. | :50:36. | |
detail. The different demographics and Scotland and we have a different | :50:36. | :50:45. | |
life expectancy. We need to look at this in more detail. We are not | :50:45. | :50:51. | |
going the same way as Westminster. It is up to 66 and perhaps 67 or | :50:51. | :51:04. | |
father. What is your reaction? It is perhaps a kind of vision people want | :51:04. | :51:11. | |
to see the different Scotland? If you are going to have that vision, | :51:11. | :51:15. | |
you have to tell people how much that will cost. Just as with any | :51:15. | :51:25. | |
other number of examples, this is another populist idea with no price | :51:25. | :51:29. | |
tag attached. It is all very well coming up with the wish list that | :51:29. | :51:34. | |
presents an independent Scotland as Candy Mountain, but at the end of | :51:34. | :51:40. | |
the day it will cost. They cannot tell you how much it'll cost than | :51:40. | :51:45. | |
that tells you all you to know. Thank you very much. | :51:45. | :51:50. | |
Last week it was the Lib Dems here in Glasgow, this week Labour have | :51:50. | :51:54. | |
their conference turn by the seaside in Brighton. Eyes are firmly fixed | :51:54. | :51:57. | |
on the main prize, victory at the 2015 general election, but Scottish | :51:57. | :52:00. | |
Labour are also buoying up their troops ahead of the referendum. The | :52:00. | :52:05. | |
whole thing kicked off with an important policy announcement. | :52:05. | :52:17. | |
Labour's deputy leader Harriet Harman is swept off her feet dancing | :52:17. | :52:25. | |
to a Scottish tune. Delegates from across the UK joined Scottish | :52:25. | :52:28. | |
comrade in Brighton hoping for an upbeat conference designed to cement | :52:28. | :52:36. | |
Ed Miliband's authority. Accused this week of being any policy | :52:36. | :52:40. | |
vacuum, he has given a clear commitment to housing benefit | :52:40. | :52:47. | |
reforms. We are abolishing an unfair tax which is hurting tens of | :52:47. | :52:51. | |
thousands of people across Scotland and causing misery to disabled | :52:51. | :52:56. | |
people. We will pay for it by scrapping hedge fund tax breaks for | :52:56. | :53:00. | |
companies that George Osborne introduced. An announcement foretold | :53:00. | :53:06. | |
by the Scottish welfare spokeswoman last week. This will help the party | :53:06. | :53:14. | |
to steal the SNP's thunder. When it comes to the referendum, Ed Miliband | :53:14. | :53:21. | |
backs the suggestion of Douglas Alexander about a national | :53:21. | :53:24. | |
convention be held in the event of a no vote. F as I hope Scotland | :53:24. | :53:33. | |
remains part of the United Kingdom, it is good if people can get | :53:33. | :53:37. | |
together after the referendum to consider Scotland's future within | :53:37. | :53:46. | |
the United Kingdom. I think it is right to think about that again, | :53:46. | :53:51. | |
what future Scotland has and it is a good idea of Douglas Alexander has | :53:51. | :53:56. | |
suggested. Ed Miliband says things have moved on since Falkirk but the | :53:56. | :54:04. | |
issue of unions is still stormy. There has been a blast from the past | :54:04. | :54:09. | |
with the recent Expose of Labour's internal warfare during the Blair | :54:09. | :54:18. | |
Brown years. The party is now hoping for the revival in fortunes, | :54:18. | :54:22. | |
starting with the wind in next year's referendum. | :54:22. | :54:24. | |
Joining me now, live from the conference hall in Brighton - leader | :54:24. | :54:27. | |
of the Scottish Labour party, Johann Lamont. Thank you. The bedroom tax | :54:28. | :54:39. | |
announcement from Ed Miliband, is this a turning point? I am hoping it | :54:39. | :54:46. | |
is a turning point for the people of this country because we now see that | :54:46. | :54:51. | |
if we get a Labour government in 2015, they will scrap the bedroom | :54:51. | :54:58. | |
tax and it is a cost that proposal. That is not an issue of independent | :54:58. | :55:02. | |
spot of justice and the Scottish government could act now to mitigate | :55:02. | :55:07. | |
the bedroom tax. They have chosen not to do so because John Swinney | :55:07. | :55:12. | |
does not want to let Westminster off the hook. Vulnerable people in | :55:12. | :55:19. | |
Scotland have to suffer in case they cannot make the case for | :55:19. | :55:23. | |
independence. We have to deal with the real issues and in Scotland, | :55:23. | :55:31. | |
they are not concerned about that. Everything is concerned with the | :55:31. | :55:38. | |
referendum. Ed Miliband took a while to come to this decision. People | :55:38. | :55:44. | |
called it a malaise at the top of the leadership. They are hampered by | :55:44. | :55:49. | |
who are hampered by who are poor ratings and all the Damian McBride | :55:49. | :55:57. | |
revelations. Is he a good leader? Here's a good leader and a great | :55:57. | :56:01. | |
asset to Scotland and the United Kingdom because he is a man who | :56:01. | :56:05. | |
wants to talk about what has happened to families and | :56:05. | :56:12. | |
communities. He wants to talk about what is happening to our elderly | :56:12. | :56:17. | |
population and that is in stark contrast to an SNP Government who | :56:17. | :56:23. | |
want to talk about separating Scotland from the United Kingdom. My | :56:23. | :56:30. | |
policy is about addressing the real challenges families face and those | :56:30. | :56:35. | |
are Ed Miliband's politics as well. I want to pick up on another Ed | :56:35. | :56:40. | |
Miliband issue. He said when it comes to Falkirk, nobody can be | :56:40. | :56:44. | |
proud of what happened. The union have been cleared but do they do | :56:44. | :56:53. | |
something wrong or that they not? If we get the message to the people of | :56:53. | :56:58. | |
Scotland that we presume there are support and end up having a fight, | :56:58. | :57:03. | |
we do everyone a disservice. We have investigated Falkirk thoroughly and | :57:04. | :57:09. | |
will move to elect a candidate who will build up support and trust. We | :57:09. | :57:14. | |
have no place for entitlement and presumption. We have just been | :57:14. | :57:23. | |
having a discussion on Royal Mail privatisation and a lower pension | :57:23. | :57:28. | |
age. These are real promises that appeal to young people. A real | :57:28. | :57:32. | |
version, some people have been saying. Alex Salmond has written to | :57:32. | :57:39. | |
Ed Miliband asking him to match the pledge. Ed Miliband could call the | :57:39. | :57:45. | |
whole thing off by saying he would renationalise Royal Mail will stop | :57:45. | :57:55. | |
it is self-evident nonsense. We are appealing to Liberal Democrats to | :57:56. | :58:01. | |
act now to stop the privatisation and campaign to make sure it does | :58:01. | :58:06. | |
not happen. My uncle was a postman for 50 years and they know how | :58:06. | :58:11. | |
precious the universal obligation is to rule communities. For Alex | :58:11. | :58:20. | |
Salmond to say nobody can make the commitment on renationalisation, it | :58:20. | :58:25. | |
is a ploy to get him through the next year. He is pretending that | :58:25. | :58:34. | |
Lara not hard choices to be made and he does not have any credible that | :58:34. | :58:45. | |
lack any credibility. That is not treating people in Scotland with | :58:45. | :58:50. | |
respect but contempt. On Wednesday we are having the debate in the | :58:50. | :58:55. | |
Scottish Parliament and he made a very passionate speech in defence of | :58:55. | :58:59. | |
the union. Even some critics applauded you for that. What is | :58:59. | :59:10. | |
Labour's vision for Scotland? What can Labour offered to people? We | :59:10. | :59:17. | |
need to offer people a consideration of the real world. What I was seeing | :59:17. | :59:24. | |
on Wednesday is that Scotland stands strong and we share more than | :59:24. | :59:31. | |
divides. There are radical and progressive voices across the whole | :59:31. | :59:33. | |
of the United Kingdom that want to address these issues. I am keen to | :59:33. | :59:39. | |
strengthen devolution within the United Kingdom. The government is | :59:39. | :59:45. | |
using the Scottish Parliament to break up United Kingdom rather than | :59:45. | :59:54. | |
using devolution to protect people. The test that Alex Salmond applies | :59:54. | :00:00. | |
as what do I do to get myself past September 2014 and what we are | :00:00. | :00:03. | |
increasingly seeing is a man who will put his own obsession with | :00:03. | :00:07. | |
independence at head of the people of Scotland. When we talk about | :00:07. | :00:16. | |
powers it is for the purpose. You talk about these powers but as we | :00:16. | :00:21. | |
both know, they are growing calls for those powers to be made known to | :00:21. | :00:26. | |
the people of Scotland before the referendum. Are you clear that he | :00:26. | :00:36. | |
will set that out? Will you set them out before the referendum? We have a | :00:36. | :00:44. | |
prospectus for independence that cannot even tell us what currency we | :00:44. | :00:49. | |
will have. Some rational deep bait is required. The devolution | :00:49. | :00:54. | |
commission as an interim report and we are looking at the consequences | :00:54. | :01:02. | |
of the proposals. We will make clear to people in Scotland ahead of the | :01:02. | :01:08. | |
referendum what the proposals are. In implementing them, we have to | :01:08. | :01:13. | |
talk to one another. For too long it has been about dividing Scotland | :01:13. | :01:18. | |
from the United Kingdom. I want the organisation of powers to be about | :01:18. | :01:21. | |
how it affects or the organisation of powers to be about how it affects | :01:21. | :01:27. | |
ordinary families. How we make sure we have shared prosperity across the | :01:27. | :01:32. | |
United Kingdom and that vulnerable people are not the scapegoat. My | :01:32. | :01:36. | |
work is to bring politics and the real world together. The report | :01:36. | :01:43. | |
today is that you expect to win the referendum. The SNP are calling this | :01:43. | :01:50. | |
a blunder. Where does the confidence come from? From listening to people | :01:50. | :01:57. | |
across Scotland telling me they want to stay as part of the United | :01:57. | :02:03. | |
Kingdom. We are not complacent and we will redouble our efforts to talk | :02:03. | :02:06. | |
to people about their concerns. The real blunder is an SNP Government | :02:06. | :02:14. | |
who apply the brains of the civil service to an imagined world after | :02:14. | :02:18. | |
2014 rather than addressing problems now. They are doing nothing now | :02:18. | :02:28. | |
because they are complacent about what will happen next year. I am | :02:28. | :02:33. | |
confident the people of Scotland will embrace United Kingdom in | :02:33. | :02:37. | |
September 2014. Coming up after the news, we'll take | :02:37. | :02:41. | |
a look at the Week Ahead with our three pundits. You're watching | :02:41. | :02:44. | |
Sunday Politics Scotland from the BBC. With the time coming up to | :02:44. | :02:51. | |
midday, let's cross to Sally McNair for Reporting Scotland. | :02:51. | :02:54. | |
Good afternoon. The Labour leader Ed Miliband has said he believes the | :02:54. | :02:58. | |
pro-union parties are "winning" the referendum campaign and that Alex | :02:58. | :03:02. | |
Salmond has been "found wanting." Mr Miliband was addressing Scottish | :03:02. | :03:05. | |
delegates on the eve of the party's UK conference in Brighton. The | :03:05. | :03:11. | |
Scottish Labour leader Johann Lamont said she believed nationalism would | :03:11. | :03:16. | |
be defeated over the next 12 months. A woman's died after a collision | :03:16. | :03:20. | |
between a coach and a car towing a caravan near Inverness. The accident | :03:20. | :03:23. | |
happened yesterday afternoon on the A82 Inverness to Fort William road, | :03:23. | :03:29. | |
near Dunain. A 78-year-old passenger in the car died - the driver is in a | :03:29. | :03:33. | |
stable condition in Raigmore Hospital in Inverness. Police are | :03:33. | :03:36. | |
appealing for witnesses. Independence could mean people in | :03:36. | :03:38. | |
Scotland picking up their state pension earlier than those in the | :03:39. | :03:42. | |
rest of the UK. A Scottish Government paper to be published in | :03:42. | :03:46. | |
the coming week will set out that if there is a Yes vote in next year's | :03:46. | :03:49. | |
referendum, the Scottish Parliament will determine the state pension | :03:49. | :03:54. | |
age. Ministers say Scotland needs a distinctive system, taking account | :03:54. | :03:57. | |
of the fact that Scottish life expectancy is lower. | :03:57. | :04:01. | |
Now let's get the forecast with Judith. | :04:01. | :04:08. | |
The weather is actually looking very summary considering we are reaching | :04:08. | :04:16. | |
the end of September. Good spells of sunshine affecting eastern Scotland | :04:16. | :04:21. | |
and that will spread westwards through the course of the day. | :04:21. | :04:25. | |
Holding onto thick cloud in the North West and the rain clearing | :04:25. | :04:34. | |
from Orkney. Temperature is widely reaching 20 Celsius, possibly 23 | :04:34. | :04:37. | |
across eastern Scotland. That's all for now, I'll be back with this | :04:37. | :04:39. | |
evening's bulletin. Thanks, Sally. Now in a moment, we'll be discussing | :04:39. | :04:46. | |
the big events coming up this week at Holyrood, but first, let's take a | :04:46. | :04:50. | |
look back at the Week in 60 seconds.Now | :04:50. | :05:00. | |
Billy Connelly is being treated for prostate cancer and symptoms of | :05:00. | :05:05. | |
Parkinson's. He says he will keep on working. One | :05:05. | :05:12. | |
year ahead of the referendum, MSPs debate the Scottish future holiday | :05:12. | :05:17. | |
route. The people of Scotland will claim that opportunity. Bill Walker | :05:17. | :05:23. | |
has been sentenced to one year in jail for domestic abuse. | :05:23. | :05:33. | |
What a racist comment! UKIP MEP Godfrey Bloom has had the party whip | :05:33. | :05:44. | |
removed. Yes campaigners headed to | :05:44. | :05:51. | |
Edinburgh. Supporters marched through the city. The capital | :05:51. | :05:55. | |
city's kazoo is celebrating the birth of a baby koala. | :05:55. | :06:06. | |
Turning attention to the week ahead now. I am with the historian Michael | :06:06. | :06:20. | |
Fry, broadcaster, Katie Grant, and from the Labour conference, David | :06:20. | :06:29. | |
Torrance. Katie, the Royal Mail story. A lively discussion from our | :06:29. | :06:40. | |
guests this morning. Most people are just interested in how the mail will | :06:40. | :06:48. | |
be deliberate. -- delivered. We just want it to work. How it best works | :06:48. | :06:59. | |
as a bit of a mystery. What does this mean for business and an | :06:59. | :07:06. | |
independent Scotland? Businesses are more and more use private means of | :07:06. | :07:17. | |
conveying mail. Commercial junk and bills from various branches of | :07:18. | :07:21. | |
government, I am not very anxious for the Royal Mail to survive. I | :07:21. | :07:32. | |
much preferred my local supermarket delivering things to my door. The | :07:32. | :07:39. | |
Royal Mail has rather slipped out of my life and I would regret it if it | :07:39. | :07:46. | |
goes. For young people it sounds like something out of history. They | :07:46. | :07:54. | |
do not rely on it at all. Outdated? Off-the-cuff of preplanned? It is | :07:54. | :08:04. | |
certainly off-the-cuff. You could see that from the responses he did | :08:04. | :08:11. | |
to questions. But this could be a hostage to fortune. It is a very | :08:11. | :08:15. | |
different creature in Scotland than the rest of the UK. Predominantly | :08:15. | :08:21. | |
rural in terms of geography. The cost of delivering is much more | :08:21. | :08:27. | |
expensive. I would be interesting to see if the Scottish but is | :08:27. | :08:34. | |
profitable. Retire early with independence. That is on the front | :08:34. | :08:39. | |
page of the Scotland on Sunday. An interesting pledge. What is | :08:39. | :08:46. | |
interesting is that the SNP has resorted to bribes. This is a silly | :08:46. | :08:55. | |
bribe. We know that people are living longer and will have to work | :08:55. | :09:01. | |
longer. We cannot afford to keep the pensions age exactly where it is. I | :09:02. | :09:07. | |
do not see the point. This is unrealistic. An own goal. We have | :09:07. | :09:14. | |
talked about division on the programme today. Is this not what | :09:14. | :09:18. | |
people are looking for in a different type of Scotland? If the | :09:18. | :09:26. | |
SNP offers rights to the electorate, that makes it unique amongst | :09:26. | :09:29. | |
political parties in the world! Unheard-of! But it might just work | :09:29. | :09:38. | |
and help them win an election. What is the point that it cannot be | :09:38. | :09:44. | |
sustained? It was not a pledge. Just a review. At independence rests on | :09:44. | :09:56. | |
practical bribes it will not work. A different story from what we usually | :09:56. | :10:03. | |
your own pensions. -- what we usually see your. It is clear from | :10:03. | :10:13. | |
opinion polls and surveys that Scots as much as those in the list of the | :10:13. | :10:16. | |
UK are acutely aware that the economy is in difficulty. The | :10:16. | :10:21. | |
demographic picture on pensions, wealthier, so on, it will get worse, | :10:21. | :10:30. | |
not better. It is an attempt at a fightback by the SNP. They had a | :10:30. | :10:37. | |
rough ride over the last few months. They hope to regain some lost | :10:37. | :10:44. | |
ground. Talking about that, Labour trying to turn things around for Ed | :10:44. | :10:51. | |
Miliband. But surrounded by the Damian McBride revelations. He has | :10:51. | :10:58. | |
had a far more difficult ride than any other British politician over | :10:58. | :11:03. | |
the summer. We were talking once about labour being ahead and David | :11:03. | :11:09. | |
Cameron facing a severe problem. It has turned out exactly the opposite. | :11:09. | :11:16. | |
This week as a chance for Ed Miliband to seize the initiative | :11:16. | :11:19. | |
back again. It may determine his future. If he takes it back we can | :11:19. | :11:26. | |
look forward to a closely fought general election. If not, I think he | :11:26. | :11:36. | |
is finished. Make or break for him? I don't like that idea. It never is | :11:36. | :11:43. | |
make or break. But he just does not look like a credible leader. The | :11:43. | :11:54. | |
McBride stuff, it makes the party look like squabbles, it just does | :11:54. | :11:59. | |
not look good. And he is not a big enough personality to rise above | :11:59. | :12:04. | |
it. Also, the vision, we'll is he going? I can never understand what | :12:04. | :12:13. | |
he is for. What do people make the revelations. Do they believe Ed | :12:13. | :12:22. | |
Miliband get past them? It is the usual new Labour tittle tattle. Very | :12:22. | :12:29. | |
entertaining. But no killer blow. Nothing with a direct link to Ed | :12:29. | :12:32. | |
Miliband that could pose him real problems. People see it as an | :12:32. | :12:38. | |
irritation and distraction but nothing debilitating. Yesterday he | :12:38. | :12:45. | |
made a range of pledges in relation to the minimum wage, bedroom tax, | :12:45. | :12:50. | |
and so on. They thanked this week will go well. And it has to. He made | :12:50. | :12:56. | |
a good speech in Manchester last year introducing the one nation | :12:56. | :13:01. | |
theme, but no follow-through. No great plan of action. He needs that | :13:01. | :13:06. | |
this time of the next election is certainly lost. Can Johann Lamont | :13:06. | :13:14. | |
keep Labour in connection with the Scottish people? They have fallen | :13:14. | :13:20. | |
out of love with them at Holyrood. I struggle to see what Scottish Labour | :13:20. | :13:25. | |
are about. Other than negativity. We don't know what they will offer if | :13:25. | :13:30. | |
there is a note in the referendum. Just that they will offer something. | :13:30. | :13:41. | |
-- No. Can they reconnect? I think the party has completely lost its | :13:41. | :13:47. | |
way. It does not offer much. She's not charismatic enough to carry | :13:47. | :13:53. | |
things along without a real message. That is all from us this week. I | :13:53. | :13:57. | |
will return next week, until then, good afternoon. | :13:57. | :13:59. |