Browse content similar to 23/03/2014. Check below for episodes and series from the same categories and more!
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The dust has barely settled on George Osborne's Budget and, | :00:42. | :00:45. | |
amazingly, for once it hasn't all gone horribly wrong by the weekend. | :00:46. | :00:49. | |
So is this the election springboard the Tories needed. And where does it | :00:50. | :00:51. | |
leave Labour? Turns out the big Budget surprise | :00:52. | :00:55. | |
was a revolution in how we pay for old age. The pensions minister says | :00:56. | :00:59. | |
he's relaxed if you want to spend it all on a Lambourghini, he'll join us | :01:00. | :01:01. | |
later. And could the man with the maracas | :01:02. | :01:05. | |
be on his way to Westminster? Bez from the Happy Mondays tells us | :01:06. | :01:08. | |
about his unlikely plan to become an MP. | :01:09. | :01:12. | |
Coming up on Sunday Politics Scotland: At the party conference in | :01:13. | :01:15. | |
Perth, Johann Lamont reasserts Labour's roots as a movement of | :01:16. | :01:19. | |
social justice, but was she short on policy detail for the future? | :01:20. | :01:43. | |
local bingo hall over a pint of beer. Yes, they're hard-working and | :01:44. | :01:47. | |
they're doing the things they enjoy. Cup of tea, number three. It's Nick | :01:48. | :01:53. | |
Watt, Polly Toynbee and Janan Ganesh. | :01:54. | :01:59. | |
So, George Osborne delivered his fifth Budget on Wednesday and had so | :02:00. | :02:03. | |
many glowing front pages the day afterwards he must be running out of | :02:04. | :02:07. | |
room to pin them up in on his bedroom wall. Although it's probably | :02:08. | :02:10. | |
a pretty big wall. For those of you who didn't have time to watch 3.5 | :02:11. | :02:14. | |
hours of Budget coverage on the BBC, here's Giles with the whole thing in | :02:15. | :02:16. | |
three minutes. Budget days have a rhythm of their | :02:17. | :02:47. | |
own, driven partly by tradition, like that photocall at 11 Downing | :02:48. | :02:50. | |
Street and part logistics, how to get this important statement out and | :02:51. | :02:53. | |
explain to those whom it affects - us? Behind-the-scenes of a Budget | :02:54. | :03:05. | |
Day is much the same. This ritual red boxery may be the beginning of | :03:06. | :03:09. | |
the end of weeks of work behind the scenes in the Treasury and sets the | :03:10. | :03:12. | |
clock ticking on the process of finding out the answer to one | :03:13. | :03:16. | |
question. You got any rabbits in the box, Chancellor? Yes, there will be | :03:17. | :03:19. | |
something in the Budget we don't know about. Time marches steadily | :03:20. | :03:21. | |
towards the statement and already commentators are hovering over what | :03:22. | :03:27. | |
those potential surprises are. As Big Ben chimes, all focus returns to | :03:28. | :03:31. | |
the Commons, where there is Prime Minister's questions and the | :03:32. | :03:33. | |
Chancellor gets up and does his thing. Once he's on his feet and | :03:34. | :03:40. | |
remembering there is still no copy of the details, the major measures | :03:41. | :03:42. | |
are rapidly highlighted as they come and then put up on screen. A cap on | :03:43. | :03:47. | |
Government welfare spending set for 2015/16 at 119 billion. Income tax | :03:48. | :03:54. | |
personal allowance raised to ?10,500. Bingo duty halved, which | :03:55. | :03:59. | |
ticked boxes for some but was unlikely to make anyone a poster | :04:00. | :04:04. | |
boy. And the beer tax cut of 1p, or the froth on the top. And changes to | :04:05. | :04:08. | |
pensions allowing people to take their money out in one lump sum, | :04:09. | :04:12. | |
rather than being forced to accept a fixed annual pay-out, or annuity. | :04:13. | :04:20. | |
This is a Budget for the makers, the doers and the savers and I commend | :04:21. | :04:24. | |
it to the House. Not everyone can focus on the Budget by listening to | :04:25. | :04:28. | |
what the Chancellor says. We need to get a copy of the script. We do not | :04:29. | :04:32. | |
get that till he sits down. I'm going to go into the House of | :04:33. | :04:39. | |
Commons to get that right now. There will be a response on that and all | :04:40. | :04:42. | |
the other things from Mr Miliband. The Chancellor spoke for nearly an | :04:43. | :04:46. | |
hour but he did not mention one essential fact, the working people | :04:47. | :04:49. | |
of Britain are worse off under the Tories. It is a tricky job answering | :04:50. | :04:53. | |
the Budget at the best of times, though some, including Labour MPs, | :04:54. | :04:56. | |
think it is better to mention the Budget when you do. | :04:57. | :05:00. | |
Here we are. I am going to go. I am not the only journalist missing Ed | :05:01. | :05:07. | |
Miliband's speech. Many others leave the Chamber as the Chancellor sits | :05:08. | :05:10. | |
down to attend a special briefing from the Chancellor's advisory team. | :05:11. | :05:18. | |
I am hotfoot to the studio. There is a little more detail to the Budget | :05:19. | :05:21. | |
than the Budget Speech. That detail can be whether words unravel and | :05:22. | :05:24. | |
other interpretations emerge. By now the gaggle of supporters and | :05:25. | :05:27. | |
detractors are taking the debate onto the airwaves. Are you the BBC? | :05:28. | :05:36. | |
Have the Daily Politics packed up? No, we're still standing and, days | :05:37. | :05:39. | |
later, still trying to assess whether the measures announced still | :05:40. | :05:42. | |
seem fresh and appetising or have already gone stale in the minds of | :05:43. | :05:43. | |
voters? How significant are these two poles | :05:44. | :05:59. | |
this morning putting Labour and Tory nip and tuck? Osborne gave his party | :06:00. | :06:09. | |
a good bounce. It was an astonishingly theatrical coup. At | :06:10. | :06:14. | |
first glance, it seems like a huge gift to all people. That is where | :06:15. | :06:17. | |
all of the money has been channelled by this government. They have been | :06:18. | :06:22. | |
ultra-protected, triple locked. Pensioners have done very well and | :06:23. | :06:27. | |
others less well. It is not surprising. Normally a budget which | :06:28. | :06:32. | |
is well received on the day and the day after has unravelled by the | :06:33. | :06:38. | |
weekend. This time, it has not, so far. The dangerous thing for the | :06:39. | :06:43. | |
Labour Party now, George Osborne is the assessment this thing called the | :06:44. | :06:47. | |
baseline. He says, in government, you must control the baseline. The | :06:48. | :06:52. | |
Labour party controlled in 2001 and 2005 and he needs to control it next | :06:53. | :06:56. | |
time. He is controlling it on fiscal policy because labour is matching | :06:57. | :07:01. | |
them on everything. The danger for Labour on the big, headline grabbing | :07:02. | :07:06. | |
issue, which was freeing up annuities on pensions, that again | :07:07. | :07:10. | |
Labour was pretty much saying it was going to support it though it were | :07:11. | :07:14. | |
saying it has to be fair and cost-effective. On a big, policy | :07:15. | :07:19. | |
issue, they are following on behind George Osborne. George Osborne is | :07:20. | :07:24. | |
controlling the crucial baseline. Are we in danger of reading too much | :07:25. | :07:32. | |
into the political implications of the budget? The good thing about the | :07:33. | :07:37. | |
pensions policy is, if it does unravel, it will not happen for ten | :07:38. | :07:42. | |
years and, by that time, George Osborne will have left office. | :07:43. | :07:46. | |
Towards the end of his speech, I thought, that is not enough. There | :07:47. | :07:51. | |
is not an idea in your budget which is politically very vivid a year | :07:52. | :07:56. | |
before an election. What I underestimated was, how many | :07:57. | :07:59. | |
frustrated savers that are in the country. There are a lot of people | :08:00. | :08:02. | |
frustrated savers that are in the who are frustrated by low interest | :08:03. | :08:07. | |
rates and tax rates on pension pots. This was an explicit gesture for | :08:08. | :08:12. | |
them. That is what has paid off in the polls in the past few days. You | :08:13. | :08:17. | |
spend all of your money on your wardrobe, is that right? The bingo | :08:18. | :08:24. | |
poster was a kind of get out of jail card for Labour. It gave them | :08:25. | :08:28. | |
something to zoom in on. Everyone beat up on Grant Shapps, the Tory | :08:29. | :08:33. | |
chairman. We read in the daily Telegraph that the fingerprints of | :08:34. | :08:38. | |
the Chancellor were all over this poster. The Chancellor signed off it | :08:39. | :08:44. | |
-- off on it and so did Lynton Crosby. They referred to working | :08:45. | :08:54. | |
class people as, they are. How did it get into the Telegraph? We can | :08:55. | :08:58. | |
only presume but grant Shapps made it clear that it was not him. We had | :08:59. | :09:04. | |
a time when Labour politicians, we saw from the response of Ed Miliband | :09:05. | :09:07. | |
onwards, they were not quite sure how to react to this budget. A lot | :09:08. | :09:12. | |
of detail had to be absorbed. Suddenly, here is something we can | :09:13. | :09:18. | |
talk about. You can see the thinking behind the poster was very sensible. | :09:19. | :09:28. | |
We are not Tory toffs, we are interested in helping people who do | :09:29. | :09:30. | |
not come from our backgrounds. The wording was awful and played into | :09:31. | :09:37. | |
every cliche. It was all his fault. It shows how unsophisticated he | :09:38. | :09:43. | |
was. There were people from Tory HQ who agreed the budget. A month down | :09:44. | :09:52. | |
the line will the budget look as good? Probably. Once people look at | :09:53. | :10:00. | |
it, pensions are fiendishly conjugated. Once they look and see | :10:01. | :10:03. | |
what it will do with people having to pay for their own care because | :10:04. | :10:07. | |
they can now take capital at their pension, that will come as a shock | :10:08. | :10:10. | |
to a lot of people with small savings. It all be gone on their | :10:11. | :10:19. | |
care. The polling will be neck and neck all the way. In the past, | :10:20. | :10:23. | |
George Osborne has been accused of using his Budgets to tinker at the | :10:24. | :10:27. | |
margins or pull cheap tricks on his political opponents. Perish the | :10:28. | :10:29. | |
thought. But the big surprise in this year's statement was a | :10:30. | :10:32. | |
genuinely radical shake-up of the pensions system that will affect | :10:33. | :10:42. | |
most people who've yet to retire. At the moment, everyone is saving money | :10:43. | :10:46. | |
into a defined contribution pension, that is the type most common in the | :10:47. | :10:52. | |
private sector. They can take 25% of the pot is a tax-free lump sum when | :10:53. | :10:56. | |
they retire. The rest of the money, for most people, they are forced to | :10:57. | :11:01. | |
buy an annuity, a form of insurance which provide a guaranteed monthly | :11:02. | :11:04. | |
income until they die. Annuities have hardly been a bargain since | :11:05. | :11:10. | |
interest rates were flat slashed following the financial crash. Even | :11:11. | :11:17. | |
with a ?100,000 pension pot would only get an income of ?5,800 a year | :11:18. | :11:22. | |
at current rates. From 2018, pensioners will not be forced to buy | :11:23. | :11:26. | |
an annuity. They can do what they like with their money, even taking | :11:27. | :11:33. | |
the entire pot as a lump some but paying tax on 75% of it. | :11:34. | :11:40. | |
With an average pension pot closer to around ?30,000, pensioners would | :11:41. | :11:48. | |
be more likely to buy a Skoda instead of a Lamborghini. Most newly | :11:49. | :11:54. | |
retired people who take the cash are more likely to spend the money | :11:55. | :11:59. | |
paying off their mortgage, helping a family member to buy a property or | :12:00. | :12:03. | |
investing the money elsewhere. Well, earlier I spoke to the Pensions | :12:04. | :12:06. | |
Minister. He's a Lib Dem called Steve Webb. I began by asking him if | :12:07. | :12:09. | |
he still thought the reforms might lead to pensioners splurging all | :12:10. | :12:16. | |
their savings on supercars. What this reform is about is treating | :12:17. | :12:20. | |
people as adults. For far too long, we have said, we will make sure you | :12:21. | :12:24. | |
save for your old age and then we will control each year how much is | :12:25. | :12:27. | |
spent on what you spend it on. What we are saying is because we have | :12:28. | :12:33. | |
formed -- reformed the state pension, we will be much more | :12:34. | :12:36. | |
relaxed about what people do with their own money. The evidence is | :12:37. | :12:40. | |
that people who have been frugal and saved hard for retirement do not | :12:41. | :12:45. | |
generally blows a lot. They will spin it out. It is treating people | :12:46. | :12:49. | |
as adults and giving them choices they should have had all along. It | :12:50. | :12:55. | |
is a red herring, isn't it? The average pension pot is between 25000 | :12:56. | :13:01. | |
and 30,000. Lamborghinis aren't an option, correct? I gather only about | :13:02. | :13:09. | |
5000 people a year retiring can buy a flashy Italian sports car. It | :13:10. | :13:12. | |
might be about paying off a mortgage, paying off outstanding | :13:13. | :13:16. | |
debts. Maybe spending more money earlier in retirement when they are | :13:17. | :13:20. | |
fit and able and can enjoy it more. We will give people guidance. We | :13:21. | :13:25. | |
will make sure when they retire, there is someone to have a | :13:26. | :13:28. | |
conversation with talking through the implications of spending the | :13:29. | :13:31. | |
money early and options of investing it. This will be a real step | :13:32. | :13:40. | |
forward. Even if you have a much bigger pension pot, say half ?1 | :13:41. | :13:42. | |
million, which is way bigger than the average, even then the marginal | :13:43. | :13:46. | |
rates of tax will be a disincentive to take it all out at once. You will | :13:47. | :13:53. | |
lose huge chunks of it at the 40% band and then the 45% band. The tax | :13:54. | :13:59. | |
system gives you the incentive to spread it out if the tax threshold | :14:00. | :14:04. | |
is a bit over 10000 and the state pension is a bit over 7000, the | :14:05. | :14:09. | |
first 3000 you draw out in a given year is tax-free. The next band is | :14:10. | :14:18. | |
at 20%. Spreading your money will mean you pay less tax. That is why, | :14:19. | :14:21. | |
in general, people will not blow the lot up front. They will spread it | :14:22. | :14:26. | |
out over their retirement. You have kept this policy quiet. Not even a | :14:27. | :14:31. | |
hint. How did you test it? How did you make sure it would be robust? | :14:32. | :14:37. | |
You did not do a consultation. I have been talking about freeing up | :14:38. | :14:42. | |
the annuity market for a decade. The idea of giving people more choice. | :14:43. | :14:46. | |
The government has relaxed rules over this Parliament. It was not a | :14:47. | :14:49. | |
completely new idea. We know in places like Australia and America, | :14:50. | :14:53. | |
people have these freedoms. We already have something to judge it | :14:54. | :15:02. | |
by. We will spend the next year talking to people, working it | :15:03. | :15:04. | |
through. There will be a three-month consultation. I want people to have | :15:05. | :15:07. | |
choices about their own money. There is detail still to be worked out and | :15:08. | :15:11. | |
we are in listening mode about how we implement it. When you announce | :15:12. | :15:16. | |
something you cannot do widespread consultation, for the reasons I have | :15:17. | :15:21. | |
given, you do run the risk of unforeseen consequences? Pension | :15:22. | :15:24. | |
companies this morning are indicating, you, the government can | :15:25. | :15:27. | |
write you are looking for ?25 billion of infrastructure investment | :15:28. | :15:34. | |
from us. You hold our shell below the water line. That may not happen. | :15:35. | :15:42. | |
We spoke internally about the implications for instruction -- | :15:43. | :15:58. | |
infrastructure. It seems to me there will still be long-term investments. | :15:59. | :16:06. | |
Many people want to turn their whole pot into an income. I understand the | :16:07. | :16:11. | |
insurance companies are lobbying, but I'm convinced there will still | :16:12. | :16:14. | |
be plenty of money for investment and infrastructure. If the | :16:15. | :16:19. | |
Chancellor's pro-savings measures work, that will generate more | :16:20. | :16:27. | |
savings. With no requirement now to buy an annuity, surely it is the | :16:28. | :16:31. | |
case that pension pots are another ordinary savings fund, so why should | :16:32. | :16:39. | |
they continue to get favourable tax treatment? Bear in mind that a lot | :16:40. | :16:45. | |
of the tax treatment of pensioners is tax deferred so most people pay | :16:46. | :16:48. | |
tax at the standard rate. If they put money into a pension, they don't | :16:49. | :16:55. | |
pay tax when they earn it, but they do at retirement. We do want, we | :16:56. | :17:03. | |
will still have automatic enrolment into workplace pensions, we do want | :17:04. | :17:09. | |
people to build up, because at age 20 and 30 nobody thinks about | :17:10. | :17:15. | |
retirement. It is still vital that people do reach retirement to have | :17:16. | :17:19. | |
these new choices with a decent sized pension pot. Pensions. Tax | :17:20. | :17:26. | |
breaks because they were supposed to provide an income in retirement, | :17:27. | :17:30. | |
that is how it was structured, but that is no longer a requirement, | :17:31. | :17:36. | |
surely that undermines the case that if they get tax breaks, other forms | :17:37. | :17:43. | |
of savings should get tax breaks. Other forms do get tax breaks, of | :17:44. | :17:54. | |
course. The return with ISAs is tax free. The point with pensions is | :17:55. | :18:00. | |
that you are simply deferring your earnings. There is a bit when high | :18:01. | :18:09. | |
tax rate payers get a kick when they are working and then retire on | :18:10. | :18:13. | |
standard rate, so there is the issue of the top getting too many tax | :18:14. | :18:19. | |
breaks, but the basic principle that you pay tax when you get the income | :18:20. | :18:25. | |
seems right to me and isn't affected by these changes. You have announced | :18:26. | :18:30. | |
save friendly measures, are we right to look at them as a consolation | :18:31. | :18:35. | |
prize because savers have suffered from the Government's policy of | :18:36. | :18:39. | |
keeping interest rates abnormally low? It is certainly the case that | :18:40. | :18:44. | |
very low interest rates have been a huge boon to people of working age | :18:45. | :18:51. | |
with mortgages, and people who have retired said they thought they could | :18:52. | :18:54. | |
have got a better deal on their savings. I think there is a | :18:55. | :18:59. | |
recognition that whilst we have done the right thing with pensioners on | :19:00. | :19:04. | |
the state pension, we have brought in the triple lock, and many will | :19:05. | :19:16. | |
bent on -- benefit from these changes. Why don't savers who are | :19:17. | :19:21. | |
not pensioners get the same help? They have been hit by low interest | :19:22. | :19:27. | |
rates as well. Those of working age, many of them say they have | :19:28. | :19:32. | |
benefited from low interest rates was predominantly people in | :19:33. | :19:39. | |
retirement have not had the benefit. Obviously people of working age will | :19:40. | :19:46. | |
have benefited from the tax allowance so it is a myth to say the | :19:47. | :19:55. | |
Budget was all about pensioners. And yet even when the Office for Budget | :19:56. | :19:58. | |
Responsibility takes into account your new measures, it still shows | :19:59. | :20:02. | |
that over the next five years households will save less and less, | :20:03. | :20:09. | |
indeed the savings ratio falls by 50%. You haven't done enough. One of | :20:10. | :20:15. | |
the things we know is that the economy is picking up strongly, and | :20:16. | :20:20. | |
as we have more confidence about the future they will be more willing to | :20:21. | :20:23. | |
consume now, so without these measures it may be that the saving | :20:24. | :20:27. | |
rate would have fallen further. We want people to save and spend, it is | :20:28. | :20:36. | |
about getting the right balance. As the economy picks up, people will | :20:37. | :20:39. | |
want to spend more of their money and it is about getting the balance | :20:40. | :20:45. | |
right. You make the point that if people are little profligate with | :20:46. | :20:49. | |
their private pensions, they will have the state pension to fall back | :20:50. | :20:53. | |
on and it will be higher than it has been, but it is also the case that | :20:54. | :20:58. | |
in these circumstances they will still be entitled to housing benefit | :20:59. | :21:04. | |
and even to perhaps some council tax benefit as well. Do you know by how | :21:05. | :21:09. | |
much this could put the welfare bill up? We think the impact will be | :21:10. | :21:15. | |
relatively modest because the sort of people who save for a pension and | :21:16. | :21:19. | |
make sacrifices while they are at work are not the sort of people who | :21:20. | :21:26. | |
get to 65 and decide to blow the lot for the great privilege of receiving | :21:27. | :21:30. | |
council tax benefit or housing benefit. There will be people on the | :21:31. | :21:32. | |
margins and benefit. There will be people on the | :21:33. | :21:44. | |
who retire with some capital want to put some money away for their | :21:45. | :21:47. | |
funeral. People like to save even into retirement so the myth of the | :21:48. | :21:52. | |
spendthrift pensioner I don't believe. I think this has been | :21:53. | :22:00. | |
rightly welcomed. Ever fancied a Lamborghini yourself? If you turned | :22:01. | :22:07. | |
the camera around you would see my 2-door Corsa! | :22:08. | :22:20. | |
What's your favourite thing about an election? Could it be the candidates | :22:21. | :22:23. | |
ringing on your door while you're having dinner? The leaflets piling | :22:24. | :22:26. | |
up on your doormat? Or the endless adverts aimed at hardworking | :22:27. | :22:28. | |
families? Well, if you thought that was bad enough, then you might want | :22:29. | :22:31. | |
to consider going overseas for the 2015 election because the parties | :22:32. | :22:34. | |
are going to be aiming their message at you like never before. Adam's | :22:35. | :22:40. | |
been to Worcester to find out more. One of the most famous political | :22:41. | :22:45. | |
figures in history lived here, she is called Worcester woman. She was | :22:46. | :22:49. | |
in her 30s, working class with a couple of kids, aspirational yet | :22:50. | :22:54. | |
worried about quality of life. But she wasn't a real person, she was a | :22:55. | :22:58. | |
label for the kind of voter new Labour were trying to reach and she | :22:59. | :23:03. | |
was later joined by Mondeo man and several others. Doesn't that all | :23:04. | :23:10. | |
seem a bit 90s? The technique, called segmentation, was used by | :23:11. | :23:17. | |
George Bush in 2004. Then refined by Barack Obama. Rather than focusing | :23:18. | :23:21. | |
on crude measures like cars and hometowns, they delved into the | :23:22. | :23:27. | |
minds of voters. It is not just women, not just people who live in | :23:28. | :23:31. | |
cities, but if you start to put together these groups of people you | :23:32. | :23:36. | |
can even in an anecdote or way imagine who they are, what types of | :23:37. | :23:46. | |
language and imagery might relate to them. We have been given access to a | :23:47. | :23:50. | |
new polling model being used here by this firm, which is pretty close to | :23:51. | :23:57. | |
the one we are told is being used by the Tories. It carves the country | :23:58. | :24:00. | |
into six personality types, and we are trying it out on Worcester woman | :24:01. | :24:06. | |
and wast of man. We are using an online quiz to work out who is in | :24:07. | :24:12. | |
which segment. Meet new monk, Susie. She feels well represented. I | :24:13. | :24:22. | |
know the Budget and the increases to childcare, I think at the moment I | :24:23. | :24:28. | |
am fairly represented. This puts her in the category of optimistic | :24:29. | :24:32. | |
contentment, people who feel they are doing OK. Terry, on the other | :24:33. | :24:38. | |
hand, isn't happy about Britain today. Health and safety and all | :24:39. | :24:46. | |
that! I hardly recognise the country a living in any more? Yes. Are you | :24:47. | :24:56. | |
ready for the result? He is Mr comfortable nostalgia, they tend to | :24:57. | :25:01. | |
favour the Tories and UKIP. They dislike the cultural changes they | :25:02. | :25:05. | |
see as altering Britain for the worst. That sums me up. Tony is | :25:06. | :25:11. | |
worried as well but feels much less secure. I look forward to the future | :25:12. | :25:23. | |
with optimism or anxiety? Anxiety. Optimist or pessimist? Pessimist. | :25:24. | :25:33. | |
His category is... You feel a bit insecure, you think the Government | :25:34. | :25:39. | |
could probably help you more? Yes. Labour picks up a lot of these | :25:40. | :25:44. | |
voters. This man is being asked to do more and more at work, but he is | :25:45. | :25:52. | |
getting less and less. I am getting more towards the despair side. | :25:53. | :25:58. | |
Things are getting tougher, generally? It puts him into the | :25:59. | :26:03. | |
segment called long-term despair, people who feel left out. Finally, | :26:04. | :26:12. | |
this is ever thoughtful Carol. I am a bit of an idealist. Her idealism | :26:13. | :26:21. | |
makes her a cosmopolitan critic. I am a liberal person. Apparently a | :26:22. | :26:25. | |
lot of the media fit into this category as well. There is one group | :26:26. | :26:32. | |
of voters we have not come across, people who show calm persistence. | :26:33. | :26:35. | |
They hope things will get better but don't expect them to. They are | :26:36. | :26:40. | |
coping, rather than comfortable. Presumably they are all out of work. | :26:41. | :26:45. | |
Which group are you win? You can take the poll on the BBC website, | :26:46. | :26:50. | |
and in the coming weeks we will be doing our own polling using the six | :26:51. | :26:55. | |
segments to see of the politicians really have worked out how we think. | :26:56. | :27:02. | |
And as Adam said, if you want to try the survey for yourself, you can go | :27:03. | :27:06. | |
to the BBC website and click on the link. | :27:07. | :27:08. | |
And we're joined now by the pollster, Rick Nye. Welcome to | :27:09. | :27:18. | |
Sunday Politics. We have had Worcester woman, Worcester man, is | :27:19. | :27:24. | |
this any different? It is a recognition that or politician -- | :27:25. | :27:40. | |
all politics these days is like this. It enables them to cut them | :27:41. | :27:48. | |
more finally. You think all politics is coalition politics, you think | :27:49. | :27:52. | |
they have to put together these groups of people, not that the Lib | :27:53. | :27:59. | |
Dems will always be in power? No, and if you listen to the coverage | :28:00. | :28:04. | |
these days you might think it is about grumpy old men on the one hand | :28:05. | :28:10. | |
with Guardian readers on the other. It is far more complicated than | :28:11. | :28:14. | |
that, there is a lot of churning going on underneath which is driven | :28:15. | :28:21. | |
by people's value systems. A lot of this has been pioneered in the | :28:22. | :28:25. | |
United States, very sophisticated on their election techniques, and in | :28:26. | :28:29. | |
Britain we are always the first to grab whatever the New Year will is | :28:30. | :28:35. | |
from America. How do you think this will translate to this country? I | :28:36. | :28:39. | |
think it means that if you are target photo you will still get the | :28:40. | :28:44. | |
same of leaflets and people calling, but you will probably have different | :28:45. | :28:48. | |
kinds of conversations because people on the other side, the party | :28:49. | :28:55. | |
campaigners, will think they know more about you. Will I know who you | :28:56. | :29:01. | |
are? If I am a party campaigner, will I know, looking down the | :29:02. | :29:06. | |
street, who fits into which category? You will be able to | :29:07. | :29:10. | |
approximate that with all of the other data that you have gathered | :29:11. | :29:15. | |
through polling, or doing local campaigning, that is the idea to | :29:16. | :29:19. | |
make sense of this vast quantity of data people have about voters. We | :29:20. | :29:26. | |
asked our panel to fill in your survey. Nick is optimistic | :29:27. | :29:32. | |
contentment, 99%. He was 1% cosmopolitan critic, which is how he | :29:33. | :29:37. | |
keeps his job at the Guardian. Polly's job could not be more | :29:38. | :29:41. | |
secure, 100% cosmopolitan critics, and Janan Ganesh, optimistic | :29:42. | :29:48. | |
contentment, which is what you would expect from a financial Times | :29:49. | :29:54. | |
columnist. What do you make of this technique? Why are you only 99? It | :29:55. | :30:11. | |
sounds really clever. 95% of the population five years ago voted | :30:12. | :30:18. | |
Labour or the Conservatives. We have got away from that. It is coalition | :30:19. | :30:22. | |
politics. You need sophisticated methods. Presumably | :30:23. | :30:37. | |
Their initial response was that we did not know that these sort of | :30:38. | :30:43. | |
people voted. The next response was, we did not know these people | :30:44. | :30:48. | |
existed. You have all of these very clever method, but unless you know | :30:49. | :30:51. | |
about certain key demographics you are wasting your time. Is it | :30:52. | :30:56. | |
helpful, or imported in modern campaigning, or is it a gimmick? It | :30:57. | :31:02. | |
is useful, it is about attitudes. We have a core, mosaic, we have ways to | :31:03. | :31:08. | |
do its street by street depending on their income or occupation. This | :31:09. | :31:11. | |
increasingly does not tell us very much. It may be different to their | :31:12. | :31:18. | |
income, you can be quite a high error and anxious, quite a low | :31:19. | :31:22. | |
earner and be fuelling aspirational and optimistic about the future. I | :31:23. | :31:26. | |
think this does get at something closer to the issue. Kilmer Polly is | :31:27. | :31:31. | |
right on attitudes, in days gone by, particularly in America, | :31:32. | :31:35. | |
overwhelmingly if you were in the better off segment you voted | :31:36. | :31:37. | |
Republican in the blue-collar worker voted Democrat. In the last | :31:38. | :31:44. | |
election, the richest 200 counties in America voted Democrat, and that | :31:45. | :31:49. | |
is an attitude thing. Income does not tell you how people will vote. | :31:50. | :31:56. | |
There is a huge working-class support for the Republicans. It is | :31:57. | :31:59. | |
unavoidable. At a time when people no longer identify with ideologies | :32:00. | :32:04. | |
or parties or class blocks you have to go with temperament and a | :32:05. | :32:08. | |
lifestyle in Outlook. The danger is that you over segment. I think it | :32:09. | :32:15. | |
was Karl rove who said that the end up with something like 128 segments, | :32:16. | :32:20. | |
according to lifestyle and Outlook. Once you get to that feed it becomes | :32:21. | :32:23. | |
close to useless for the strategist. We have the budget, how | :32:24. | :32:28. | |
do you read the polls? What are they telling us? Wait Mac you to be have | :32:29. | :32:33. | |
seen today have narrowed the beat of labour over the Conservatives. I | :32:34. | :32:38. | |
think you have two week and see if the trend set in over the next few | :32:39. | :32:43. | |
weeks. Osborne and Cameron as an economic team have always had a lead | :32:44. | :32:48. | |
over Miliband and Ed Balls, and this week has always been about economic | :32:49. | :32:52. | |
management. Next week it is about my own personal circumstances, we will | :32:53. | :32:59. | |
see if that is sustained as a trend. We will see how we get on in these | :33:00. | :33:03. | |
segments. Thank you for being with us. | :33:04. | :33:08. | |
It has just gone 11:30am, we say goodbye to viewers in Scotland who | :33:09. | :33:10. | |
leave us now for something Politics Scotland. | :33:11. | :33:18. | |
Good morning and welcome to Sunday Politics Scotland. Coming up, Labour | :33:19. | :33:25. | |
moves to reclaim the ground on social justice from the SNP but is | :33:26. | :33:28. | |
accused of being short on policy detail. Look beyond the sole tyre, | :33:29. | :33:37. | |
look beyond the plague, look beyond the Scotland the Nationalists are | :33:38. | :33:40. | |
building and what they plan to build. Scotland's manufacturers | :33:41. | :33:44. | |
welcomed the budget announcement on reducing the costs of energy. The | :33:45. | :33:49. | |
Scottish government say this increases uncertainty to the | :33:50. | :33:53. | |
renewables industry. In one of's addressed to her party faithful in | :33:54. | :33:56. | |
Perth yesterday was full of criticism of her opponents. Joanne | :33:57. | :34:01. | |
Lamb at's addressed. She said the SNP where is honest and she was | :34:02. | :34:08. | |
criticised for a lack of detail. I will speak to draw had one shortly. | :34:09. | :34:19. | |
-- Speaker Jalan laminate. What reasons do Labour people have | :34:20. | :34:26. | |
to be cheerful? What is there to smile about? Leading a party that is | :34:27. | :34:33. | |
out of power at Westminster and Holyrood is not the happiest lot, | :34:34. | :34:38. | |
but at this conference, Labour 's leaders have sought to present an | :34:39. | :34:41. | |
alternative to the SNP 's independence offer. Nationalists | :34:42. | :34:47. | |
tell us to have the confidence to leave the United Kingdom. I say to | :34:48. | :34:51. | |
Scotland, have the confidence to lead the United Kingdom. Johann | :34:52. | :34:59. | |
Lamont believes that can be done by devolving more power to the Scottish | :35:00. | :35:04. | |
Parliament. All those in favour... The plans of the devolution | :35:05. | :35:07. | |
commission she set up regular analyst endorsed by conference. And | :35:08. | :35:12. | |
when the UK party leader was asked if he would deliver the package he | :35:13. | :35:17. | |
replied... Yes, because it is the right thing to do and it is the | :35:18. | :35:22. | |
right way to combine fairness and redistribution across the United | :35:23. | :35:24. | |
Kingdom with bringing power closer to people in Scotland. What is the | :35:25. | :35:30. | |
big picture Labour has painted here in Paris? If there is a no vote in | :35:31. | :35:36. | |
the independent referendum and Labour wins the next UK general | :35:37. | :35:41. | |
election in 2015 Ed Miliband is promising a package of extra powers | :35:42. | :35:45. | |
for Holyrood including control of housing benefit, responsibility for | :35:46. | :35:53. | |
the first 15p of income tax, the power to raise the top rate of | :35:54. | :35:57. | |
income tax. That is Labour 's alternative to the independence | :35:58. | :36:02. | |
offer. The commission watered down its original proposal to fully | :36:03. | :36:08. | |
devolved income tax. And to avoid what the leadership of Europe would | :36:09. | :36:12. | |
become a race to the bottom in corporation tax competition between | :36:13. | :36:17. | |
Scotland and the rest of the UK, they have rejected transferring that | :36:18. | :36:20. | |
power. Some in the party would have liked them to be bolder. For me it | :36:21. | :36:25. | |
is slightly disappointing in the sense that we could have gone | :36:26. | :36:30. | |
further and initial ideas were thrown around as I thought it would | :36:31. | :36:33. | |
be a more radical package but the main thing is they now have a | :36:34. | :36:37. | |
package, the Lib Dems have a package and be unwitting or the | :36:38. | :36:40. | |
Conservatives. The key thing for the Unionist parties is to make sure we | :36:41. | :36:47. | |
explain what a no vote means. And agreed plan between Labour and the | :36:48. | :36:50. | |
other prounion parties is unlikely. The shadow Foreign Secretary | :36:51. | :36:56. | |
believes Labour has the right offer. New powers on taxation and welfare | :36:57. | :37:00. | |
and democratic powers we are again the party of Scottish home rule. | :37:01. | :37:03. | |
That is not the comfortable lesson for the Nationalists and I believe | :37:04. | :37:07. | |
it is a winning formula for Scottish liver. That will be tested in the | :37:08. | :37:12. | |
referendum campaign. In which those in favour of independence will argue | :37:13. | :37:16. | |
the additional powers a yes vote would deliver are needed to make | :37:17. | :37:19. | |
Scotland a wealthier and fairer country. Labour said that can be | :37:20. | :37:25. | |
achieved by returning their party to government and Holyrood and | :37:26. | :37:30. | |
Westminster. The Nationalists say my country, right or wrong. We see, my | :37:31. | :37:39. | |
country, we will rate the wrongs. Wedding back power tends to make | :37:40. | :37:43. | |
politicians cheerful, for the time being Johann Lamont will have to | :37:44. | :37:47. | |
settle for winning a party round to a more powers plan and running an | :37:48. | :37:55. | |
ovation from conference. The Scottish Labour leader joins me | :37:56. | :37:59. | |
from the party conference. Good afternoon. You said yesterday that | :38:00. | :38:05. | |
the Nationalists had failed to distribute wealth from rich to poor, | :38:06. | :38:10. | |
what are your plans to do that? We have said over the next period we | :38:11. | :38:14. | |
are going to look at how we invest in education, health and protection | :38:15. | :38:19. | |
of our older people. Keep people secure and work and throughout the | :38:20. | :38:22. | |
process we will make sure that we do address need but be very clear, we | :38:23. | :38:27. | |
are on the road to 2016 in our manifesto, we made very clear our | :38:28. | :38:33. | |
spending proposals. You said the hundred million you would generally | :38:34. | :38:37. | |
only 50p rate of income tax would go to the NHS. That benefits everyone | :38:38. | :38:41. | |
so there is nothing redistributive about that. What other measures are | :38:42. | :38:46. | |
you likely to bring forward? With respect there is always a balance. | :38:47. | :38:50. | |
What we said was that with the hundred million pounds Regal said | :38:51. | :38:53. | |
that was not much money but we made the point that you could have 3000 | :38:54. | :38:59. | |
nurses. But ahead of 2016 we will make very clear what our spending | :39:00. | :39:03. | |
proposals are. We will invest in the health service or everyone | :39:04. | :39:05. | |
benefits... That does not specifically help people. I agree | :39:06. | :39:12. | |
with you, I am seeing that in any spending decisions there are things | :39:13. | :39:15. | |
that you will spend, clearly the health service is a good example of | :39:16. | :39:20. | |
how you meet need where it arises. We also have said that the | :39:21. | :39:24. | |
medication policy we must look at second chance education. We have | :39:25. | :39:29. | |
140,000 places out of our college sector in the last period. If you | :39:30. | :39:33. | |
invest in that not only do you support people who have perhaps feel | :39:34. | :39:36. | |
that schools a number of reasons but you skilled people are in a way that | :39:37. | :39:39. | |
business is telling us they require. That is the balance. We will make | :39:40. | :39:43. | |
sure everyone knows our spending proposals ahead of 2016. Those who | :39:44. | :39:49. | |
fall into the 50p tax rate make up half of 1% of the population. When | :39:50. | :39:55. | |
it comes to the rich in this context is it's just that group you are | :39:56. | :40:00. | |
talking about? What we said is that we made a specific commitment on the | :40:01. | :40:05. | |
50p tax rate. I am surprised that the First Minister is able to commit | :40:06. | :40:08. | |
to big business that he will cut corporation tax by 3p on the pound. | :40:09. | :40:13. | |
I am asking you who you deem to be rich. He does not feel he can make | :40:14. | :40:19. | |
that commitment. He can't make that commitment on income tax. That is | :40:20. | :40:23. | |
surprising. What we have also said is that in relation to this the | :40:24. | :40:27. | |
people in Scotland get, who matter how much the, that it is about | :40:28. | :40:31. | |
fairness and we make sure that we can contribute and share that. Above | :40:32. | :40:36. | |
what level of earnings and people expect to pay more tax under Labour? | :40:37. | :40:42. | |
With respect I have said the commitment is on 50p. Half of 1% of | :40:43. | :40:46. | |
the working population. What about the rest? It is significant but what | :40:47. | :40:52. | |
we have said about our general tax proposals is that we will bring them | :40:53. | :40:56. | |
forward ahead of 2016. What we are talking about at this conference and | :40:57. | :40:59. | |
it has been a fantastic conference for us, with great excitement in the | :41:00. | :41:04. | |
hall and on the fringe, what we have said is that it is really important | :41:05. | :41:07. | |
that we address these questions more brightly. Why can't you tell us who | :41:08. | :41:13. | |
you regard as being rich in Scotland at this stage? Who has the broadest | :41:14. | :41:19. | |
shoulders? I made a specific commitment on 50p. We believe that | :41:20. | :41:25. | |
is a fair decision. Don't those out with that half of 1% have a right to | :41:26. | :41:29. | |
know whether you are considering taxing them more? And they will, but | :41:30. | :41:34. | |
across Scotland people tell me regardless of the individual income | :41:35. | :41:38. | |
they are concerned about education, secure work for their sons and | :41:39. | :41:42. | |
daughters, and they are anxious about what is happening to their | :41:43. | :41:46. | |
parents. That is not an issue about income, it is about how you for the | :41:47. | :41:51. | |
services. What people need. That is something that across Scotland | :41:52. | :41:55. | |
people understand. Have made a specific commitment on the 50p and | :41:56. | :41:58. | |
will bring forward attacks were Poles head of 2016. I think they | :41:59. | :42:02. | |
stand in very good comparison with the Scottish government who talks | :42:03. | :42:07. | |
about dealing with poverty, takes ?1 billion out of poverty programmes, | :42:08. | :42:12. | |
will permit the tax cut for big business but has nothing to say | :42:13. | :42:16. | |
about what they would do about the tax cut form billionaires that | :42:17. | :42:22. | |
George Osborne delivered. We have a reasonable idea about the priorities | :42:23. | :42:27. | |
of the SNP, but not from you. You talk about Scotland is not being a | :42:28. | :42:30. | |
something for nothing society so do you anticipate the axe falling on | :42:31. | :42:35. | |
benefits that people receive? I don't accept that we have a clear | :42:36. | :42:38. | |
view of the Scottish government priorities, they say one thing and | :42:39. | :42:42. | |
do another. The biggest challenge I would put to them is that they say | :42:43. | :42:46. | |
they believe in equal CDs of things that are entirely unconcerned about | :42:47. | :42:50. | |
the consequences at local level of people not being able to access | :42:51. | :42:56. | |
services. But having a care package. In terms of your | :42:57. | :43:01. | |
priorities... I have been very clear that our priorities will always be | :43:02. | :43:04. | |
to meet need and be honest with people. In that spirit of honesty, | :43:05. | :43:13. | |
which NES -- which areas do you feel the axe should follow? Do you | :43:14. | :43:17. | |
believe that free prescriptions in a step too far? Free bus travel? | :43:18. | :43:24. | |
Jewish and he's been paid? With respect, people don't recognise the | :43:25. | :43:27. | |
way that you are describing this conversation. I am not talking about | :43:28. | :43:32. | |
an axe falling, I am talking about tough times, how do we make sure | :43:33. | :43:35. | |
those most in need get the support they can? We have a bus pass but no | :43:36. | :43:41. | |
bus. The prescriptions by people travel to England for cancer drugs. | :43:42. | :43:45. | |
As one understands that in tough times we must look at what our | :43:46. | :43:49. | |
priorities are. We are looking at all of these things but we start | :43:50. | :43:53. | |
from a basic principle of understanding what people really | :43:54. | :43:57. | |
need and what their concerns are and that is how we are looking at this. | :43:58. | :44:04. | |
Are looking at these things... We are talking about the Scottish | :44:05. | :44:06. | |
government that says everything is perfect except the things over which | :44:07. | :44:09. | |
we have no control and somehow everything will be sorted in the | :44:10. | :44:13. | |
future. People understand these are tough times and we must treat them | :44:14. | :44:17. | |
with respect. Avenue commitment to the crew that we talked about | :44:18. | :44:21. | |
yesterday, do you support the benefits cap proposed at | :44:22. | :44:24. | |
Westminster? You said we want the welfare system that is there, | :44:25. | :45:03. | |
want a limit, the managing limit on welfare. The individual needs and | :45:04. | :45:12. | |
should be met. This is not about an individual cap. There will be an | :45:13. | :45:17. | |
important benefit coming to Scotland. One of the opportunities | :45:18. | :45:22. | |
is to look at the way in which the Housing benefit is abused by rogue | :45:23. | :45:26. | |
private landlords. They not only provide good tenancies for those | :45:27. | :45:30. | |
living in their properties, do not manage those tendencies and there | :45:31. | :45:33. | |
are some things consequences for our order communities, that is a huge | :45:34. | :45:37. | |
opportunity for us and about making sure our wealth is spent will | :45:38. | :45:41. | |
meeting need. We don't accept the division that the Tories want to | :45:42. | :45:44. | |
create that somehow there is a world where there are people who work in | :45:45. | :45:48. | |
people who shirk. The Scottish government know that, to be fair to | :45:49. | :45:52. | |
them. On your plans that you announce that this week, you wrote | :45:53. | :45:58. | |
back on your plans of one year ago for full devolution of income tax. | :45:59. | :46:01. | |
Was that vetoed by Ed Balls? Absolutely not. Video concerns? What | :46:02. | :46:10. | |
we have said to you that in the devolution commission be said that | :46:11. | :46:14. | |
we were minded to devolve all income tax and then we said this would not | :46:15. | :46:18. | |
be to the detriment of the people of Scotland. We have spent the past | :46:19. | :46:22. | |
year looking at that in one of the things that emerges very strongly is | :46:23. | :46:25. | |
that there is a balance to be struck. At what point do you take | :46:26. | :46:32. | |
too much risk? What are the benefits of being part of the United Kingdom, | :46:33. | :46:37. | |
we share a benefits and risk and resources. I think people understand | :46:38. | :46:41. | |
that. Equally, there is uneven growth in the economy, for example | :46:42. | :46:46. | |
in London, this can be redistributed along the United Kingdom and we want | :46:47. | :46:52. | |
the benefit for that we want to find out what is the balance and ensure | :46:53. | :46:55. | |
fiscal accountability that matches the degree of political devolution | :46:56. | :46:59. | |
but at the same time does not turn our face away from that | :47:00. | :47:02. | |
redistribution of the United Kingdom which protectors in tough times. We | :47:03. | :47:06. | |
have the balance absolutely right. I am absolutely confident going | :47:07. | :47:09. | |
forward that these strengthening of the Scottish Parliament, being | :47:10. | :47:15. | |
strong inside the United Kingdom, is the balance the people of Scotland | :47:16. | :47:19. | |
need. If there is a Labour government after the next general | :47:20. | :47:22. | |
election, would you work with the Tories and Lib Dems on their plans | :47:23. | :47:28. | |
for further devolution? This is an interesting discussion, indeed | :47:29. | :47:31. | |
currently we work with our colleagues in Better Together. We | :47:32. | :47:34. | |
have decided that we will put aside party division and separation on the | :47:35. | :47:40. | |
one thing that we agree on, which is about Scotland standing strong in | :47:41. | :47:43. | |
the United Kingdom. People will combat. I made two points. -- people | :47:44. | :47:51. | |
welcome that. I said I would never turn my face away from co-operation | :47:52. | :47:55. | |
if we can achieve it, and I believe it is important for the country. So | :47:56. | :47:59. | |
does that mean that your announcement may not be the final | :48:00. | :48:03. | |
version of what we get? I would never create a false agreement in | :48:04. | :48:07. | |
order to get us past September because we must be honest and act in | :48:08. | :48:10. | |
good faith with the people of Scotland. When we can agree we | :48:11. | :48:14. | |
shall, where we can't we can people not pretend. There are some things | :48:15. | :48:18. | |
in this adamant we medically on, whether it is representation of the | :48:19. | :48:22. | |
Barnett formula, whatever. But what we did this weekend is identifying | :48:23. | :48:27. | |
the Labour proposals to the power of a Scottish Parliament and don't | :48:28. | :48:31. | |
forget some of the key elements that may be of less interest to the | :48:32. | :48:35. | |
commentators, the key elements of this is for example simple issues. | :48:36. | :48:41. | |
The fact that in Scotland we have a disproportionate number of working | :48:42. | :48:44. | |
people who go to work and support their families and end up injured. | :48:45. | :48:48. | |
We will enforce health and safety. And make sure we address that gap. | :48:49. | :48:59. | |
Devolution is a U make a difference to the lives of ordinary people. | :49:00. | :49:03. | |
Some people interpreted what you said about the First Minister as an | :49:04. | :49:06. | |
attack on him for not having children but bringing in child | :49:07. | :49:10. | |
care, new childcare policies. Why did you make your speech so | :49:11. | :49:16. | |
personal? Absolutely not. I need a simple point. I have never heard the | :49:17. | :49:20. | |
First Minister take about -- talk about childcare. I have campaigned | :49:21. | :49:25. | |
for childcare all of my political life and my poor is that what | :49:26. | :49:28. | |
happened with the burst Minister is that he has been told he does not go | :49:29. | :49:32. | |
down well with women and he therefore creates a policy about | :49:33. | :49:35. | |
childcare. That felt cynical to me and I don't think it is appropriate. | :49:36. | :49:40. | |
Now we discover his childcare proposal is only a work in progress, | :49:41. | :49:45. | |
it is not a commitment to people in Scotland. People do not like that | :49:46. | :49:51. | |
kind of cynicism. Thank you for joining us from Perth. | :49:52. | :49:56. | |
This week's budget was hailed by the Chancellor as containing measures to | :49:57. | :49:58. | |
enable the country's "makers and doers." He said he wanted UK | :49:59. | :50:02. | |
industry to be more competitive and to that end George Osborne announced | :50:03. | :50:05. | |
a freeze on one green levy on our energy bills. It could save each | :50:06. | :50:09. | |
household up to ?50 a year by 2020 and has been welcomed by business | :50:10. | :50:13. | |
leaders. It was part of a wider package to help cut energy costs for | :50:14. | :50:16. | |
manufacturers but what do those measures tell us about the country's | :50:17. | :50:19. | |
commitment to renewable energy? Megan Paterson reports. | :50:20. | :50:21. | |
Green levies are the government's way of making companies pay out for | :50:22. | :50:25. | |
what they put into the atmosphere. So if you are a business run lion | :50:26. | :50:29. | |
phone call or gas burning, you will pay the price for pollution. -- | :50:30. | :50:34. | |
e-business reliant on coal or gas burning. Our steelmakers, chemical | :50:35. | :50:39. | |
plants, paper mills, and other heavy energy users a cup 35% of our | :50:40. | :50:44. | |
manufacturing exports and employ half a million people. This scheme | :50:45. | :50:48. | |
helps the companies most at risk of leaving to remain in the UK. That | :50:49. | :50:53. | |
support has been well received by Scotland's heavy industries. It has | :50:54. | :50:57. | |
been a positive budget that has demonstrated for the first time in a | :50:58. | :51:00. | |
long time that the Government is willing to actually do something to | :51:01. | :51:05. | |
stimulate manufacturing growth. And it addresses an issue of lack of | :51:06. | :51:08. | |
competitiveness with other European countries. Especially lack of | :51:09. | :51:13. | |
competitiveness with the USA, where the energy element of course is | :51:14. | :51:19. | |
significantly advantageous for companies exporting into Europe from | :51:20. | :51:23. | |
the US. The main measures include the phasing of the carbon support | :51:24. | :51:27. | |
rate, the tax on businesses emitting CO2 was introduced last April. This | :51:28. | :51:32. | |
year, Mr Osborne confirmed it will be frozen from 2016 but at the end | :51:33. | :51:37. | |
of the decade. Government compensation to offset the carbon | :51:38. | :51:40. | |
rate for businesses were due to come to an end next year. It has now been | :51:41. | :51:45. | |
extended until 2020, and George Osborne says there will be more | :51:46. | :51:48. | |
financial help available for energy intensive industries. There was no | :51:49. | :51:52. | |
reduction in investment in renewable energy in the budget, but there is | :51:53. | :51:57. | |
some concern the measures signal a change in the government's green | :51:58. | :52:01. | |
agenda. This Government came in with a very clear promise that it would | :52:02. | :52:05. | |
be the greenest Government ever. There is very little evidence of | :52:06. | :52:08. | |
that in actual practical terms because every time we see the | :52:09. | :52:12. | |
Government and I'm something, it rolled back on the fuel price | :52:13. | :52:17. | |
escalator, it reduces the target for carbon reduction. And now it has | :52:18. | :52:23. | |
reduced its carbon price escalator for using carbon in generating | :52:24. | :52:27. | |
electricity. All of these price increases are trying to send a | :52:28. | :52:30. | |
message to industry and citizens that we need to be more efficient in | :52:31. | :52:35. | |
using carbon. We must find weight of -- we must find ways of capturing | :52:36. | :52:43. | |
carbon. I think there is no environmental benefit to having a | :52:44. | :52:46. | |
steelworks or a chemical plant in the UK closed down just to reopen in | :52:47. | :52:52. | |
Belgium or Germany or France, and emit exactly the same amount of | :52:53. | :52:55. | |
pollution in those countries. The most important thing we can do is to | :52:56. | :53:00. | |
make sure that more of the power that those factories are consuming | :53:01. | :53:07. | |
is generated from renewable sources. The Scottish Government disagrees, | :53:08. | :53:10. | |
claiming that the policy changes add uncertainty to the energy industry, | :53:11. | :53:17. | |
and industry experts say that uncertainty could affect investment. | :53:18. | :53:22. | |
There are 34,000 people employed in the industry, that could double by | :53:23. | :53:25. | |
2020 but only if we get the policy right. That is why the Government | :53:26. | :53:29. | |
are sending this long-term signal. If the Government change their mind, | :53:30. | :53:33. | |
investors have to go back to the drawing board and rethink what is | :53:34. | :53:37. | |
best for them. There has been no sign of investors changing plans | :53:38. | :53:40. | |
yet, but with the Scottish Government reasserting its | :53:41. | :53:43. | |
commitment to renewables, and the referendum on the horizon, it would | :53:44. | :53:48. | |
seem future energy plans like prices are far from fixed. | :53:49. | :53:54. | |
I'm joined now in the studio by MSP Patrick Harvie from the Scottish | :53:55. | :53:57. | |
Green Party, and from Aberdeen by Conservative MSP Alex Johnstone. | :53:58. | :54:01. | |
Good afternoon. Patrick Harvie, do you welcome the moves from the | :54:02. | :54:05. | |
Chancellor on green levies? Can you guess just how much I welcome them? | :54:06. | :54:11. | |
No. The Chancellor is very clearly enacting the slogan that David | :54:12. | :54:14. | |
Cameron was rumoured to have used in Downing Street, which is to cut the | :54:15. | :54:23. | |
green expletive deleted. The removal of the enterprise investment scheme | :54:24. | :54:26. | |
from renewable energy industries, the additional subsidies to heavily | :54:27. | :54:29. | |
polluting industries, whether domestic industries or indeed long | :54:30. | :54:33. | |
haul aviation gets an additional subsidy. The tinkering about the | :54:34. | :54:39. | |
edges with the signals, the price signals that are supported to | :54:40. | :54:43. | |
support investment in renewables, at the same time as saying he wants | :54:44. | :54:48. | |
certainty for investors we can extract every last drop of oil, this | :54:49. | :54:53. | |
is clearly a Government which has decided that the greenest Government | :54:54. | :54:57. | |
ever was just a bad joke. On the carbon price floor, it will reduce | :54:58. | :55:01. | |
our energy bills, we are told it could reduce them by ?50 per year | :55:02. | :55:06. | |
for people by 2020. Why should consumers bear the burden? There is | :55:07. | :55:11. | |
no guarantee that that will be passed onto individual household | :55:12. | :55:14. | |
electricity consumers. Energy companies will be under pressure to | :55:15. | :55:18. | |
do that. They have been for a long time and they don't always do that. | :55:19. | :55:22. | |
It will save heavily polluting industries some money. The carbon | :55:23. | :55:26. | |
price floor is not the only way to send a signal. There is a reasonable | :55:27. | :55:30. | |
case for getting rid of it and using that money in a different way. If it | :55:31. | :55:35. | |
is going to be there, it is clear that it only can deliver carbon | :55:36. | :55:38. | |
savings if it is a long-term consistent approach. But it is | :55:39. | :55:43. | |
regressive, isn't it? They are adding this levy to people's bills, | :55:44. | :55:47. | |
those who are on the lowest incomes hardest hit. The best way to support | :55:48. | :55:51. | |
people on lowest incomes to make sure they are living in really | :55:52. | :55:55. | |
high-quality, well insulated homes that don't require them to use up | :55:56. | :55:58. | |
lots of energy and money to heat their home. There is a case against | :55:59. | :56:06. | |
the carbon price floor as a mechanism. There could be better | :56:07. | :56:09. | |
ways of spending the money. If that policy is going to continue instead | :56:10. | :56:13. | |
of being scrapped, it is only going to deliver benefits if it is | :56:14. | :56:15. | |
gradually increased over the long-term instead of frozen. Alex | :56:16. | :56:19. | |
Johnstone, those who work in the renewable industry say that they | :56:20. | :56:22. | |
operate these changes by the Chancellor might have a bad effect | :56:23. | :56:26. | |
on cleaner ways of generating energy. Is that a price worth paying | :56:27. | :56:31. | |
so that we can all save ?50 in the next five years? They should not | :56:32. | :56:41. | |
worry. There has no -- be no cut in the support. But we have to | :56:42. | :56:45. | |
recognise here is that the effect of the carbon floor price on some of | :56:46. | :56:51. | |
our large enemy consumers -- energy consumers would have been twofold. | :56:52. | :56:55. | |
We had continued upward trajectory of the carbon price floor it would | :56:56. | :56:58. | |
have made business in Britain more expensive then it would be in other | :56:59. | :57:06. | |
European countries. Simply exporting those carbon emissions to other | :57:07. | :57:09. | |
European countries and at the same time export jobs, that is at a time | :57:10. | :57:12. | |
when the British economy is showing genuine signs of recovery. We need | :57:13. | :57:16. | |
to actually foster that recovery to entrench our position in terms of | :57:17. | :57:21. | |
carbon emissions and by giving this level of confidence, this level of | :57:22. | :57:26. | |
predictability to the carbon floor price over the next decade, the | :57:27. | :57:29. | |
Chancellor has sent out the right signals. This particular policy was | :57:30. | :57:34. | |
only introduced in the last couple of years, it should not have, it | :57:35. | :57:37. | |
should not have come as a surprise that by introducing it, prices would | :57:38. | :57:42. | |
go up year on year. It does not show much faith in the policy, doesn't | :57:43. | :57:46. | |
it? The policy is found, the Government has decided to pursue it | :57:47. | :57:53. | |
in a different way. What we must remember is that we must remain | :57:54. | :57:58. | |
positive. To remain competitive we have to ensure we are doing roughly | :57:59. | :58:02. | |
the same thing to our industries at roughly the same time. We need to | :58:03. | :58:07. | |
reduce carbon emissions at an international game, that should be | :58:08. | :58:10. | |
obvious to everyone. There is nothing to be gained by Britain | :58:11. | :58:13. | |
sibling making an example of itself and destroying its own industry and | :58:14. | :58:18. | |
destroying jobs simply to prove a point when all we are doing is | :58:19. | :58:21. | |
exporting the emissions and the jobs as well. Is taxation the best way of | :58:22. | :58:27. | |
encouraging more development in the renewables and other sectors? I | :58:28. | :58:32. | |
would love to see a Government, either in Scotland or the UK, put | :58:33. | :58:39. | |
its weight behind a drive to produce a publicly owned or community owned | :58:40. | :58:42. | |
large-scale renewable energy industry, so that we can start | :58:43. | :58:47. | |
investing with public money and generate profits that come back to | :58:48. | :58:50. | |
the public. That does not need to be a monolithic approach. It could be | :58:51. | :58:55. | |
part of a mixed market with public, community owned and private sector | :58:56. | :58:58. | |
investors as well but that is not going to happen from the UK | :58:59. | :59:01. | |
Government. I don't expect that to happen. There are approaches to have | :59:02. | :59:07. | |
a market and this kind of corporate welfare is review the likely little | :59:08. | :59:10. | |
bit of money here are there to give companies incentives. If what they | :59:11. | :59:14. | |
were doing is writing a cheque for 20 million quid or whatever the | :59:15. | :59:17. | |
equivalent is of the carbon price floor, and seeing two businesses, | :59:18. | :59:22. | |
you will get this money if you stay, invest in this country, support jobs | :59:23. | :59:25. | |
in this country and at the same time reduce your emissions, I am not | :59:26. | :59:31. | |
cover the bowl with corporate welfare is but that wouldn't sure we | :59:32. | :59:35. | |
get the investment. The budget him in the same day the Scottish | :59:36. | :59:37. | |
Government give consent to very large wind farm operations in the | :59:38. | :59:41. | |
Moray Firth. Is there not an argument that says this industry has | :59:42. | :59:45. | |
now reached critical mass and it is time for it to stand on its own two | :59:46. | :59:49. | |
feet? On shore, we are close to that. The prices getting very close | :59:50. | :59:55. | |
to what they call grid parity, were effectively it does not need | :59:56. | :59:57. | |
additional support. This is how an industry develops. It gets to that | :59:58. | :00:01. | |
point and then it can fly on its own. Offshore wind is going to take | :00:02. | :00:05. | |
a while to get to that point, it will take more investment and | :00:06. | :00:09. | |
certainty and clarity from the Government around issues like the | :00:10. | :00:12. | |
carbon price. Issues like regulation. This is the same | :00:13. | :00:16. | |
argument we hear from the Tories, the Liberals, the Labour and SNP in | :00:17. | :00:21. | |
relation to the oil industry. They show great commitment to extracting | :00:22. | :00:24. | |
every last drop of the substance that is causing this problem in the | :00:25. | :00:27. | |
first place. They are not showing the same commitment and clarity for | :00:28. | :00:32. | |
renewable energy. Woodlock told that the Government at Westminster was | :00:33. | :00:36. | |
going to be the greenest ever. -- we were told that the Government. But | :00:37. | :00:40. | |
now they are backing off on one of the main planks of its green policy. | :00:41. | :00:45. | |
Does this tell us that they are more concerned with the fortunes of their | :00:46. | :00:47. | |
election than they are with the environment? Learn that the | :00:48. | :00:52. | |
electoral cycle will always play a part. But this is not evidence that | :00:53. | :00:58. | |
the UK Government is backing off from its green priorities. It | :00:59. | :01:02. | |
continues to support renewable energy. There has been no reduction | :01:03. | :01:06. | |
in that. What we are talking about in terms of the carbon price floor | :01:07. | :01:10. | |
is limiting the rise rather than suggesting it should be reduced. | :01:11. | :01:13. | |
That is not the only thing that has been changed. Some companies are | :01:14. | :01:19. | |
exempt from renewable obligations, which was designed to support the | :01:20. | :01:25. | |
renewables sector. This is about making the economy greener. This is | :01:26. | :01:31. | |
not an economic suicide mission. It is not our duty to destroy industry | :01:32. | :01:34. | |
in this country and simply export jobs along with emissions in order | :01:35. | :01:39. | |
to try to achieve some personal satisfaction here. The Government | :01:40. | :01:44. | |
has a duty to ensure that industry is coerced gently toward achieving | :01:45. | :01:50. | |
all it can, but also at the same time allowed to expand and create | :01:51. | :01:53. | |
the jobs it can and remember, these changes have a disproportionate | :01:54. | :01:57. | |
effect in areas like Scotland, Wales and the North of England where these | :01:58. | :02:03. | |
taxis have had the most significant impact. We are saving jobs and | :02:04. | :02:06. | |
communities where they are essential. Thank you both. We're not | :02:07. | :02:13. | |
going to meet these targets if we see this approach continue. Thank | :02:14. | :02:19. | |
you both very much indeed. Coming up after the news, our look | :02:20. | :02:22. | |
at the week ahead. You're watching Sunday Politics Scotland. Now it's | :02:23. | :02:26. | |
time to cross to the news from Reporting Scotland with Andrew Kerr. | :02:27. | :02:28. | |
Good afternoon. Police are investigating what's being described | :02:29. | :02:32. | |
as a serious incident at a house in Thornton in Fife. An ambulance crew | :02:33. | :02:35. | |
alerted officers yesterday evening at 7.50pm when they were called to a | :02:36. | :02:42. | |
house. More details are expected to be released shortly. | :02:43. | :02:48. | |
A new report says the Treasury's reasons for rejecting a | :02:49. | :02:50. | |
post-independence currency union are "unsubstantiated". The Scottish | :02:51. | :02:55. | |
Government has welcomed the analysis by Professor Leslie Young. The | :02:56. | :02:58. | |
businessman, Sir Tom Hunter, commissioned the report. Better | :02:59. | :03:02. | |
Together says the analysis is flawed - and the First Minister must tell | :03:03. | :03:08. | |
voters his Plan B. In the next hour, thousands of | :03:09. | :03:12. | |
Aberdeen fans will pack the city's Union Street to welcome the Scottish | :03:13. | :03:16. | |
League Cup trophy parade. The Dons beat Inverness 4-2 last weekend in a | :03:17. | :03:22. | |
penalty shoot out. Fans will find out this afternoon if the "Don't You | :03:23. | :03:26. | |
Want Me" song has topped the charts - made popular by the "Peter Pawlett | :03:27. | :03:31. | |
Baby" lyrics. Now let's take a look at the weather | :03:32. | :03:33. | |
with Judith. Now let's take a look | :03:34. | :03:38. | |
Good afternoon. It is not often I can come on and say it is a gorgeous | :03:39. | :03:41. | |
afternoon on the cards across much of the country, Spring chancing. | :03:42. | :03:44. | |
Someone took showers across more northerly parts but they will become | :03:45. | :03:48. | |
more confined to the Northern Isles, eventually clearing. -- spring | :03:49. | :03:54. | |
sunshine. The wind will ease down and size of around seven or eight | :03:55. | :03:58. | |
Celsius. As we head into the evening, we lose any showers in the | :03:59. | :04:00. | |
north so it will be dry across-the-board. A cold night under | :04:01. | :04:04. | |
those clear skies, widespread frost and the winds will be light. | :04:05. | :04:06. | |
and the That is all for the moment. I will | :04:07. | :04:10. | |
hand you back to Gary. Thanks, Andrew. Now in a moment, | :04:11. | :04:15. | |
we'll be discussing the big events coming up this week at Holyrood. But | :04:16. | :04:19. | |
first, let's take a look back at the Week in Sixty seconds. | :04:20. | :04:26. | |
With six months until the independence referendum, the former | :04:27. | :04:29. | |
Liberal Democrat leader Charles Kennedy called for no campaigners to | :04:30. | :04:33. | |
be more positive. And for a more coherent blueprint for further | :04:34. | :04:36. | |
devolution to be agreed before the vote. Scottish ministers agreed that | :04:37. | :04:40. | |
opponents needed to be clearer about their plans. In the budget, the | :04:41. | :04:43. | |
Chancellor announced measures to help pensioners, Sabres to support | :04:44. | :04:48. | |
investment in North Sea oil and the. There was good news for another | :04:49. | :04:52. | |
industry as well. Scottish whiskey is a huge British success story. To | :04:53. | :04:58. | |
support that industry instead of raising duties on Scotch whiskey and | :04:59. | :05:02. | |
other spirits, I am today going to freeze them. It was revealed | :05:03. | :05:07. | |
Scottish police and the UK security agencies have held discussions about | :05:08. | :05:10. | |
plans for sharing intelligence if there is a Yes vote. Security and | :05:11. | :05:14. | |
intelligence is currently reserved for Westminster. Falkirk MP Eric | :05:15. | :05:18. | |
Joyce admitted a breach of the peace at Edinburgh Airport last year. He | :05:19. | :05:22. | |
says he is considering whether to continue as an independent MP. | :05:23. | :05:28. | |
It's time to have a look at the stories that are making the news | :05:29. | :05:37. | |
today and in the week ahead. I am joined this week from Perth by | :05:38. | :05:42. | |
two journalists, David Clegg from the Daily Record and Tom Gordon from | :05:43. | :05:46. | |
the Sunday Herald. Good afternoon. As you are in Perth, let's start | :05:47. | :05:49. | |
with your analysis of what Johann Lamont had to say yesterday. What | :05:50. | :05:54. | |
did you make of the speech? I thought it was a pretty strong | :05:55. | :05:58. | |
speech. One of the problems with the referendum campaign for Labour so | :05:59. | :06:01. | |
far has been it has not spoken to their base and we have seen that in | :06:02. | :06:05. | |
the fact that almost one quarter of Labour supporters in 2011 were | :06:06. | :06:07. | |
planning to vote for independence. They need to give them positive | :06:08. | :06:11. | |
reasons to vote no in the referendum. To think a Labour | :06:12. | :06:15. | |
Government in Hollywood will be something they want to see. They | :06:16. | :06:18. | |
have started to move towards doing that. Did we get that positivity? We | :06:19. | :06:24. | |
heard criticism of the SNP, but very little in the way of specifics on | :06:25. | :06:28. | |
policy from Labour for the period ahead. That's right. It was a | :06:29. | :06:34. | |
positioning speech for the referendum. I agree, it has been | :06:35. | :06:43. | |
driven by Labour voters. It was a speech given by anxiety rather than | :06:44. | :06:48. | |
self-confidence. I think a sign that also was a pretty relentless attack | :06:49. | :06:52. | |
she made on SMP and nationalists and Alex Salmond personally. It did not | :06:53. | :06:57. | |
seem a positive speech. Does that work for the wider electorate, that | :06:58. | :07:01. | |
attack on the SNP? Opinion polls tell us the First Minister's | :07:02. | :07:03. | |
approval ratings are still pretty high. It is part of a wider Better | :07:04. | :07:10. | |
Together campaign strategy to undermine the honesty and integrity | :07:11. | :07:14. | |
of the First Minister. A lot of what is being asked of voters in the | :07:15. | :07:18. | |
referendum is to take a bit of a leap in the dark, and if they can | :07:19. | :07:20. | |
undermine Alex Hammond as someone who you would not trust, that is the | :07:21. | :07:27. | |
tragedy they are pursuing. How it works with voters outside the wider | :07:28. | :07:32. | |
public, I am not sure. -- that is the strategy they are pursuing. | :07:33. | :07:35. | |
There is a great deal of dispute on these issues on currency and unit | :07:36. | :07:39. | |
and people are having to go with who they feel is telling the truth. -- | :07:40. | :07:46. | |
currency and Europe. The world's biggest investment fund manager has | :07:47. | :07:53. | |
set out that analysis of Scottish independence. They said it would | :07:54. | :07:56. | |
bring uncertainty, cost and risk. If this significant for another | :07:57. | :08:00. | |
interjection that will reinforce positions? This will have a | :08:01. | :08:06. | |
cumulative effect, it is yet another intervention. This is the world 's | :08:07. | :08:12. | |
largest fund manager, $.5 trillion worth of assets. What it says will | :08:13. | :08:18. | |
be listened to. It has the phrase kilted securities, the idea that | :08:19. | :08:21. | |
Scotland would have to pay more for raising debt in the international | :08:22. | :08:25. | |
market. It is significant because of the skill of the organisation and it | :08:26. | :08:29. | |
makes the point that Scotland may be better off with its own currency | :08:30. | :08:32. | |
rather than pursuing this ambition of a currency union with the UK that | :08:33. | :08:38. | |
the UK is hostile to. On that issue we have an economics professor | :08:39. | :08:42. | |
disputing the UK Treasury, David Clegg, the reason for refusing a | :08:43. | :08:47. | |
currency union. This is Lesley Young from the University of Beijing | :08:48. | :08:50. | |
saying that the totally position does not stand up to scrutiny. It | :08:51. | :08:53. | |
sounds as though the positions of the main parties are pretty | :08:54. | :08:59. | |
entrenched. Absolutely entrenched that I believe the totally have | :09:00. | :09:01. | |
already said that no matter what this sub report says that there will | :09:02. | :09:07. | |
not be a currency union in the event of the yes for. It is part of the | :09:08. | :09:12. | |
problem that both sides are willing out experts that find their position | :09:13. | :09:15. | |
in this once was financed by Sir Tom Hunter who has attempted to get | :09:16. | :09:18. | |
useful information to the public domain, but you look at this is an | :09:19. | :09:25. | |
eminent academic and a well respected economist but at the same | :09:26. | :09:27. | |
time he is saying something that is exactly different to what the | :09:28. | :09:33. | |
Blackrock report as saying. Who do you believe? Indeed had on that | :09:34. | :09:36. | |
subject people are beginning to make up their minds as we get closer and | :09:37. | :09:41. | |
closer to the referendum. Tom Gordon, a poll said a narrowing of | :09:42. | :09:44. | |
the gap between yes and no is happening, it said that if you take | :09:45. | :09:49. | |
out the don't knows you have 45% supporting yes and 55 supporting | :09:50. | :09:55. | |
now. It is a very interesting Paul, another poll that shows the | :09:56. | :09:59. | |
direction of travel for the Yes campaign, the polls are narrowing. | :10:00. | :10:02. | |
There seems to be no doubt about that. We talk about wavy lines in | :10:03. | :10:09. | |
the polls, that there is an ebb and flow of polling. But I don't think | :10:10. | :10:12. | |
they can stick by this position any more. It is very clear that support | :10:13. | :10:16. | |
for the union is eroding support for independence is gathering. Very | :10:17. | :10:23. | |
interesting as well, this poll shows that people are becoming less | :10:24. | :10:26. | |
sceptical about the impact of independence on the economy. Only 5% | :10:27. | :10:32. | |
of people think it will be bad for the economy rather than good for the | :10:33. | :10:37. | |
economy. That gap of pessimistic eggs of the mist was 17 points just | :10:38. | :10:43. | |
six months ago. Now it is almost neck and neck. Very significant. We | :10:44. | :10:47. | |
had Henry McLeish and seeing that the no campaign is too negative, | :10:48. | :10:51. | |
good these poll results be a reflection that the public agrees? I | :10:52. | :10:57. | |
think there should be deep concern in the Better Together campaign that | :10:58. | :11:00. | |
this is the case, their strategy is to undermine the economic arguments | :11:01. | :11:04. | |
and they have unloaded a lot of weapons to that cause the last | :11:05. | :11:08. | |
couple of months. All of the businesses that have expressed | :11:09. | :11:11. | |
uncertainties, the Chancellor 's announcement that we have already | :11:12. | :11:14. | |
discussed at what they don't seem to have worked because the polls are | :11:15. | :11:19. | |
moving in the opposite direction. Tom is absolutely right, there can | :11:20. | :11:21. | |
be no doubt that things have tightened. It is not only does poll | :11:22. | :11:25. | |
this morning that has shown that the raft of polls that have shown things | :11:26. | :11:30. | |
closing down. Everyone is the view that the economy will be the | :11:31. | :11:33. | |
decisive factor here and people becoming more confident about the | :11:34. | :11:37. | |
economics of an independent Scotland then those in the no camp should be | :11:38. | :11:42. | |
very concerned. A couple of items in the week ahead, tomorrow Tom Gordon | :11:43. | :11:46. | |
B have Bob Crow's funeral, Tony Benn 's funeral later in the week, the | :11:47. | :11:55. | |
left have lost two big figures. It has indeed, we will not see their | :11:56. | :12:00. | |
like again. There will be a lot more cross-party respect shown for Tony | :12:01. | :12:05. | |
Benn 's funeral on Thursday, Bob Crow was a very much more divisive | :12:06. | :12:09. | |
figure but Ben was regarded as an outstanding parliamentarian by all | :12:10. | :12:15. | |
parties and he has been given the honour of an overnight stay at the | :12:16. | :12:19. | |
except at Westminster, just before the funeral and that was last | :12:20. | :12:22. | |
accorded to Margaret Thatcher as a sign of respect across all parties. | :12:23. | :12:27. | |
On Wednesday we have the first of two debates between Nick Clegg and | :12:28. | :12:32. | |
Nigel Farage. This is a radio debate ahead of their television clash. Is | :12:33. | :12:35. | |
this Nick Clegg fighting for his political life? Yes, I think the | :12:36. | :12:41. | |
Liberal Democrats are in deep trouble, and Nick Clegg is aware of | :12:42. | :12:48. | |
that. It is a desperate, a great sign of desperation that he agreed | :12:49. | :12:52. | |
to this debate with Nigel Farage. The Deputy Prime Minister debating | :12:53. | :12:57. | |
with a man who has no representation in Westminster, the volumes about | :12:58. | :13:02. | |
where he think the political climate is at the minute. It will also be | :13:03. | :13:06. | |
interesting to see how that plays. Sorry to adopt. I wanted to ask Tom | :13:07. | :13:12. | |
Gordon what would a loss of the only Scottish Lib Dem MEP at the European | :13:13. | :13:15. | |
election mean to the Lib Dems in Scotland? We now find out. The | :13:16. | :13:22. | |
general opinion is that your client is toast. It is all about who gets | :13:23. | :13:29. | |
his seat, the SNP UKIP or an extraordinary day but draw the line | :13:30. | :13:36. | |
is probably gone. Thank you both for joining is as tomorrow night Isabel | :13:37. | :13:40. | |
Fraser, one better and myself will be grilling Jim Sellers and George | :13:41. | :13:43. | |
Galloway about their views on independence. That is a new Skype on | :13:44. | :13:49. | |
special at 10:30pm tomorrow. That is all from Sunday politics. Back at | :13:50. | :13:52. | |
the same thing next week. Goodbye. | :13:53. | :13:56. |