:01:23. > :01:33.out of the Blues - as county Council elections loom, we look at the
:01:33. > :01:33.
:01:33. > :39:50.Apology for the loss of subtitles for 2296 seconds
:39:50. > :39:54.parties targeting the Conservative Politics in the south-east. Coming
:39:54. > :40:02.up: Could thousands of farm workers lose out to migrant labour over
:40:02. > :40:09.Government plans to abolish their wages board? To talk about that with
:40:09. > :40:12.us is the prospective parliamentary candidate for which the ball and --
:40:12. > :40:18.Surrey and Whitstable from the Lib Dems and a professor from the
:40:18. > :40:23.University of Kent, Tim Lockhirst. The number of people in the
:40:23. > :40:29.south-east asking for assistance with red has risen by 50% in the
:40:29. > :40:36.past year, according to Shelter. At present, we play the highest red and
:40:36. > :40:40.property prices outside of London. Let me ask you, James, we have major
:40:40. > :40:47.changes to housing benefit. People refer to it as a bedroom tax. So
:40:47. > :40:51.arrears are going to get worse? That is a concern. I am not entirely
:40:51. > :40:55.convinced about the bedroom tax myself. Homelessness is a concern,
:40:56. > :40:59.particularly families that are struggling at the moment. I think it
:41:00. > :41:02.is incumbent on local authorities to support homeless charities and
:41:02. > :41:06.voluntary organisations and to keep supporting them to help counter the
:41:06. > :41:11.problem. They mention food. This is an
:41:11. > :41:17.interesting one, because, ten, we have seen stories about the increase
:41:17. > :41:21.in the number of people going to food banks.
:41:21. > :41:25.I think the biggest mystery in the economy at the moment is that
:41:25. > :41:32.unemployment is not rising, but wages are stagnant or falling.
:41:32. > :41:36.People are facing hard times. So even people who are in hard work --
:41:36. > :41:41.people live work are struggling to pay their bills.
:41:41. > :41:51.Is there a problem here of greedy landlords? In my street is
:41:51. > :41:57.reasonably, and landlord demanded a �400 increase in Redfern attended.
:41:57. > :42:01.-- in rent. That is very tough. That is part of
:42:01. > :42:09.the problem. There are a number of libraries out there who have taken
:42:09. > :42:11.on a second property. In this case, it is incumbent on the landlords to
:42:11. > :42:17.consider their tenants and consider the rest that their tenants can
:42:17. > :42:19.afford. County Council elections take place
:42:19. > :42:25.this Thursday and a final report on the challenges facing the major
:42:25. > :42:31.political parties in the south-east, we take a look at the Conservatives.
:42:31. > :42:34.They currently hold 75% of the seats in Kent, Sussex, and Surrey. But the
:42:34. > :42:44.smaller parties are hoping to capitalise on tensions between
:42:44. > :42:45.
:42:45. > :42:49.Conservative councils and the Government to gain votes.
:42:49. > :42:54.Gravesend is at hand that enjoys some of the hottest weather in the
:42:54. > :42:58.country, but its political battles are heating up this week as well.
:42:58. > :43:03.The Conservatives gained three County Council is from labour here
:43:03. > :43:06.in 2009 and now hold for out of its five seats. It was a good year for
:43:06. > :43:13.the Tories, who held onto strong majorities in East and West Sussex
:43:13. > :43:19.and Surrey. And in Kent, they made a staggering 19 games, to hold 74 out
:43:19. > :43:22.of the 84 seats on Kent County Council. It means the Conservatives
:43:22. > :43:27.are now defending three quarters of the County Council sees in the
:43:27. > :43:30.south-east, but that also makes the party with the most to lose. And
:43:30. > :43:38.after three years in Government, and a big drop in opinion polls, the
:43:38. > :43:41.situation is not as sunny as it was. The Conservatives' hold on key
:43:41. > :43:51.marginal seas could suffer the consequences.
:43:51. > :43:53.
:43:53. > :43:58.Internet terror, there is no question that -- in terms of local
:43:58. > :44:02.politics, there is no question that things are difficult. We are talking
:44:02. > :44:06.about the future of Britain in Europe, the marriage vote, things
:44:06. > :44:09.were the Conservatives are under threat from UKIP. UKIP has a strong
:44:09. > :44:16.line on these issues with its old-style conservative.
:44:16. > :44:21.One-way David Cameron has tried to bolster popularity is by offering to
:44:21. > :44:29.freeze Council tax. Every single pound has been hard
:44:29. > :44:34.error. Early mornings, late nights, the children, long shifts. And then
:44:34. > :44:41.you come home, and there on the doormat is the Council tax bill.
:44:41. > :44:49.There is a clear moral imperative duty that tax down.
:44:49. > :44:53.But some Conservative councils have defied that and raise the tax.
:44:53. > :44:59.Community Secretary Eric Pickles, who visited Gravesend is weak, has
:45:00. > :45:05.not heard in his anger. I think Conservative Council leaders
:45:05. > :45:10.in the south-east are as likely to feel that Labour leaders in the
:45:10. > :45:16.North have been hard done by. Keeping tax down and coping with
:45:16. > :45:20.unprecedented cuts has put pressure on frontline services. Kent has made
:45:20. > :45:24.cuts of �49 million this year, with social services for the elderly and
:45:24. > :45:27.disabled and children's services the worst affected. There has been
:45:27. > :45:33.criticism of the millions of pounds spent on consultants to advise on
:45:33. > :45:37.how to make savings. A Gravesend, the Labour led Council, which also
:45:37. > :45:44.raise Council tax, says local services cannot work without
:45:44. > :45:48.fussing. We are seeing problems on our roads,
:45:48. > :45:52.our street lighting, the sorts of problems we might have an education
:45:52. > :45:57.and social services. What I'm saying is that those people are amongst the
:45:57. > :46:02.most weakest and vulnerable. They are suffering disproportionately
:46:02. > :46:06.more in terms of the crisis of the need, and I don't think Kent County
:46:06. > :46:11.Council have been particularly supportive of those people.
:46:11. > :46:17.The Conservative party itself has admitted that it expects up to lose
:46:17. > :46:21.500 Council sees this week. It is not just UKIP posing a threat, as
:46:21. > :46:27.the right-wing English Democrats are fielding 23 candidates in Kent. The
:46:27. > :46:30.hope that they can win marginal seats like Gravesend. But good
:46:30. > :46:34.enough to challenge Council leadership?
:46:34. > :46:42.From conservative point of view, the worst-case scenario is that they
:46:42. > :46:47.seas. It is very important nationally. It is like a major
:46:47. > :46:53.American state. To lose it visitor to the Conservative party's prior.
:46:53. > :46:58.It happened once in the 1990s and it can't happen on an idea for the
:46:58. > :47:00.party. As voters go to the polls this
:47:00. > :47:05.Thursday, conservative county councils will be feeling the heat.
:47:05. > :47:12.But how nervous will they be? And could the results make nervous
:47:12. > :47:16.reading for David Cameron? Joining us now from Westminster
:47:16. > :47:20.studio is the Conservative MP for Sevenoaks, Michael Fallon, who is
:47:20. > :47:25.also the Government's Business and Energy Minister. Everyone
:47:25. > :47:29.acknowledges that he will lose seats. What does acceptable failure
:47:29. > :47:36.look like in Kent? We did spectacularly well for years
:47:36. > :47:44.ago. We are defending this time, across the country, 1500 seas.
:47:44. > :47:49.Labour are only defending 250. Concentrate, if you will, on the
:47:49. > :47:52.south-east. What do you expect to happen in Kent, East Sussex, and
:47:52. > :47:58.Surrey? We have not set a specific target,
:47:58. > :48:01.but clearly, we did so well in 2009, so we will clearly not do as well as
:48:01. > :48:08.that again. We are in the mid-term of a very difficult period for the
:48:08. > :48:11.Government. Obviously, we will not repeat our success of 2009, but we
:48:11. > :48:17.will not set a specific target this time.
:48:17. > :48:22.Could you lose control, overall control, of Kent?
:48:22. > :48:26.I certainly hope not. Kent has been a good Council. It has managed cuts
:48:26. > :48:32.to its budget very efficiently. It has done well in Council tax.
:48:33. > :48:41.certainly hope we will not lose it. Let's talk about Council tax. Three
:48:41. > :48:49.of our county councils, Kent, East Sussex, and West Sussex. Those three
:48:49. > :48:53.have frozen Council tax. But let me ask you this. Do we have a moral
:48:53. > :48:59.duty to have enough school places? Surrey Saint with the extra 2% that
:48:59. > :49:04.they added to their Council tax that they did add 2000 more school
:49:04. > :49:10.places. Kent 's needs more school places by 2015. Who will the voters
:49:10. > :49:17.think has done the right thing? Let me answer that directly. Kent
:49:17. > :49:22.are providing more school places. They are nowhere providing as many
:49:22. > :49:26.as they need. They are doing that in my own
:49:26. > :49:30.constituency in Sevenoaks. It is perfectly possible to provide new
:49:30. > :49:35.school places and live within your means. I am very proud of Kent for
:49:35. > :49:38.keeping the Council tax down. The thing that would benefit their
:49:38. > :49:43.constituents who are struggling most is not to get the poorest people to
:49:43. > :49:47.pay more Council tax. As a direct result of your Government changing
:49:47. > :49:51.Council tax benefit and 1310% less into the pot, there are people who
:49:51. > :49:54.are genuinely struggling on tiny salaries will have to pay Council
:49:54. > :50:00.tax for the first time or pay more Council tax.
:50:00. > :50:04.I think people should pay more Council tax. -- I think people
:50:04. > :50:10.should pay Council tax. I do not think it is very people do not. I
:50:10. > :50:15.think most people who get up in the morning and go out to work one to
:50:15. > :50:18.see a benefit system that properly rewards work and does not,
:50:18. > :50:24.necessarily, favouring those who are not prepared to do what they are
:50:24. > :50:33.doing. Let's pick up on another issue.
:50:33. > :50:40.Commentators say he will be punished for -- commentators see you will be
:50:40. > :50:45.punished for, because your Government wants to legalise gay
:50:45. > :50:54.marriage. You could have offered them an alternative.
:50:54. > :50:57.Of course, the marriage has been controversial. But there are young
:50:57. > :51:01.people who do not see what the fuss is about. I would hope that when
:51:01. > :51:06.people come to look at how people vote on Thursday, they would not
:51:06. > :51:10.simply treat the vote as a protest that they would look overall at what
:51:10. > :51:14.this Government is doing on the big things, getting the deficit under
:51:14. > :51:18.control, rebalancing the budget, and making the welfare system much
:51:18. > :51:22.fairer. Those are the big things that happen to most of my
:51:22. > :51:28.constituents. Do you recognise the description in
:51:28. > :51:33.the report their of UK as old-style conservatives? Because if he is
:51:33. > :51:37.right, they are going to be the people you're voters will turn to.
:51:37. > :51:39.They are certainly getting protest votes and I don't think they're just
:51:39. > :51:46.getting from former conservatives. They are getting them across the
:51:46. > :51:48.spectrum. They have become the party of protest, because if you want to
:51:48. > :51:53.protest you can't vote Liberal Democrat and more because they're
:51:53. > :51:59.part of the Coalition. At the mid-term Government, when tags have
:51:59. > :52:01.been tough, people look for a protest vote and you can buy the
:52:01. > :52:11.obvious recipients of that at the moment.
:52:11. > :52:12.
:52:13. > :52:18.I called file, thank you for joining us. -- Michael Fallon, thank you.
:52:18. > :52:20.Let's turn to the panellists. Could we see the resurgence of
:52:20. > :52:24.labour-intensive and UKIP is something people are overexcited
:52:24. > :52:31.about? That's what makes the south-east
:52:31. > :52:37.interesting. If you don't think the Conservative party is conservative
:52:37. > :52:40.enough, you can vote for UKIP. Michael Fallon says they do not have
:52:40. > :52:47.a specific target in this part of the world. I can tell you that they
:52:47. > :52:51.have one target. The Conservative party wants to know whether Labour
:52:51. > :52:57.or UKIP will take most votes from them. You can not entirely a red
:52:57. > :53:00.herring. They can take votes from the Conservatives. They don't really
:53:01. > :53:06.need to take seats to do a lot of damage.
:53:06. > :53:10.What your party, James? Liberal Democrats at a local Council level
:53:10. > :53:13.have helped ask because the brand is seen as toxic because of the Liberal
:53:13. > :53:16.Democrats being part of this Government.
:53:16. > :53:21.What we're are finally on the doorstep at the moment is that
:53:21. > :53:28.Liberal Democrat support is still there, particularly in my area. Due
:53:28. > :53:34.in Kent, we are the opposition to this to -- we are the opposition to
:53:34. > :53:38.the Conservatives. We have a county councils year were Council tax was
:53:38. > :53:41.mentioned, where the County Council was not spending that and
:53:41. > :53:47.prioritising that properly on local services such as education, which
:53:47. > :53:51.matter most to people. Let's think about Council tax. Let's
:53:51. > :53:55.remember that we're not just broadcasting to Kent, but also
:53:55. > :53:59.Surrey, where the Council tax went up. They said it will create wealth
:53:59. > :54:04.as a new school places. Will people punish them at the County Council
:54:04. > :54:08.elections next week for putting up Council tax, or only reward them for
:54:08. > :54:12.these priorities? I suspect the answer is neither. I
:54:12. > :54:16.suspect that people will vote on national issues, and in that sense,
:54:16. > :54:20.the Conservatives in Surrey have been very clever. They think that
:54:20. > :54:23.the Government will take a kicking at this election and they are not
:54:23. > :54:28.necessarily going to take a greater kicking for doing something that
:54:28. > :54:38.they think serves the interests of the local population. I admire him
:54:38. > :54:39.
:54:39. > :54:43.for trying it. A... I think it might work.
:54:43. > :54:49.At a Commons debate this week, the Shadow Environment Secretary, Mary
:54:49. > :54:54.Creagh, said that getting rid of the Agricultural Wages Board which has
:54:54. > :54:58.existed since 1948 will mean a race to the bottom in terms of wages for
:54:58. > :55:05.managers and labourers in the industry. The Government however
:55:05. > :55:11.argued that the AWB is simply out of date. Will this pave the way for
:55:11. > :55:18.jobs when the EU migrants who are willing to work for less? We can
:55:18. > :55:25.sleep at a representative from the TUC. -- we can speak narrowed to a
:55:25. > :55:28.representative from the TUC. Yes, this will see a race to the
:55:28. > :55:33.bottom. Even the governments own figures suggest that farm pay will
:55:33. > :55:39.fall by �141 million. Why do farming workers need appeal
:55:39. > :55:41.board when we have a national minimum wage? There is only 80p
:55:41. > :55:47.difference between the farmers wait at the national minimum wage, so
:55:47. > :55:52.what is the problem? That minimum rate from the
:55:52. > :56:00.Agricultural Wages Board is for trainees, and they are mostly
:56:00. > :56:05.nationally by more that -- mostly nationally on more than that. When
:56:05. > :56:10.the economy starts to recover as people have a choice, reducing
:56:10. > :56:14.go-karting cabbages, bending over and doing hard work, or would you
:56:14. > :56:16.stack shelves unless the market? There is a worry, and there should
:56:16. > :56:19.There is a worry, and there should be a worry for farmers, attracting
:56:19. > :56:25.be a worry for farmers, attracting the right kind of leader.
:56:26. > :56:29.Why does this particular industry, or why to the workers in this
:56:29. > :56:39.industry, need this kind of protection? 1848 seats for itself.
:56:39. > :56:42.It is out of date. -- 1948 speaks for itself.
:56:42. > :56:46.I don't think going back in town would be good for anyone, because it
:56:47. > :56:53.would have a gone through those communities. But it might not be
:56:53. > :56:55.good for employers either. There are a whole number of problems, and one
:56:55. > :57:00.is that small employers and medium-sized employers, for the
:57:00. > :57:03.first time, all have to think about setting pay rates for the workers
:57:03. > :57:09.and now that Unite, the trade union, is gearing up to negotiate with
:57:09. > :57:13.them, so that'll be a painful process and time-consuming process.
:57:13. > :57:19.If it is painful and time-consuming, why is the National Farmers Union
:57:19. > :57:24.favour? ( RSA. James, the Liberal Democrats do not have a clear policy
:57:24. > :57:29.on this. What you as an individual thing should happen to wages in
:57:29. > :57:33.agriculture? I agree with Paul in that I think we
:57:33. > :57:38.should be keeping the ad also wages fall. My concern is that if it is
:57:38. > :57:42.abolished, wages could come down. The board is more than just wages,
:57:42. > :57:46.excess conditions and sick pay. There is a whole raft of issues
:57:47. > :57:54.involved in that. If we abolish the board, those could threat.
:57:54. > :57:57.Is there a problem here that British workers don't want farmers? If we
:57:57. > :58:02.are talking about if it is an option of going out and working in a field
:58:02. > :58:04.or staying at how my benefits, there is a sense that Eastern Europeans
:58:04. > :58:09.don't mind. There is an element of truth in
:58:09. > :58:12.that. There are experienced agricultural workers who come in
:58:12. > :58:15.from Eastern Europe because they have skills which are useful to
:58:15. > :58:19.farmers and people running agricultural business. I do not
:58:19. > :58:23.think that is a bad thing and I am not opposed to immigration. I think
:58:23. > :58:27.we also have to think about job creation. If we want to create more
:58:27. > :58:30.jobs in this sector of the economy, it seems to me to be fair that the
:58:30. > :58:37.market should set the level of wages as it does in every other sector of
:58:37. > :58:40.the economy. People be protected is a good thing. I don't think we need
:58:41. > :58:46.additional controls in this industry.
:58:46. > :58:51.Let's go back to poll for a second. James there be saying this is about
:58:51. > :58:57.more than just pay. This is quite old-fashioned language, isn't it? It
:58:57. > :59:00.says you are entitled to a bed and freshwater. It covers sick pay as
:59:00. > :59:04.well. I'd eat the things you care about, or is it just the pain that
:59:04. > :59:08.matters? The accommodation or is there
:59:08. > :59:12.because there are awful stories of people being offered rotted caravans
:59:12. > :59:19.with no water and no sewage disposal, so that it is therefore a
:59:19. > :59:22.purpose. The abolition of sick pay worries me. Falling back on
:59:22. > :59:27.statutory sick pay meaning that people come back to work where they
:59:27. > :59:32.are not quite ready to do so. Why should we worry about that? Well,
:59:32. > :59:38.because a quarter of death at work are in farming.
:59:38. > :59:48.Then he very much for joining us. It is time for a round-up of the week
:59:48. > :59:48.
:59:48. > :59:52.'s other political events in 60 seconds.
:59:52. > :59:56.Geraniums lead to Championship will be marked with a victory parade. The
:59:56. > :59:59.chairman turned down the councils for our open top bus tour through
:59:59. > :00:03.the time. We are very grateful to the Council
:00:03. > :00:09.for the offer, but it just will not happen because it doesn't work with
:00:09. > :00:13.the schedule, but we will see the bus for next year.
:00:13. > :00:19.Dover MP has criticised Google boss Eric Schmidt after was revealed that
:00:19. > :00:24.Google only paying 0.2% corporation tax on profits in 2011. He said that
:00:24. > :00:29.tax avoidance is an ethical and Google must pay a fair share.
:00:29. > :00:33.Brighton and Sussex NHS Trust has been named the worst in England for
:00:33. > :00:35.the number of patients waiting more than 12 hours to be admitted for
:00:35. > :00:44.Accident and Emergency, with 52 waves of 12 hours of recorded since
:00:44. > :00:51.January. And Orlando Bloom has backed a local
:00:51. > :00:59.towns -- ten 's bid to become a centre of culture. He set the town
:00:59. > :01:02.versus fighting to become an actor. Let's pick up, what is going on in
:01:02. > :01:07.Accident and Emergency departments? We had a Secretary of State this
:01:07. > :01:12.week saying it was all about out of hours GPs. They either of you have a
:01:12. > :01:18.sense of the story? I think one of the biggest mistake
:01:18. > :01:22.is the last Government made was to change the GP contract and has
:01:22. > :01:26.created a national crisis whether or not GPs on call for people who need
:01:26. > :01:33.them out of hours. James, what do you think the problem
:01:33. > :01:37.I agree with him honest. In years gone past, we should have been
:01:37. > :01:41.focusing on frontline services such as a key. That did not happen under
:01:41. > :01:48.the last Government and now we are paying.
:01:48. > :01:51.Category. He worked there. Your life is centred. We heard Orlando Bloom
:01:51. > :02:01.being wheeled out there to back it as an uppercut city of culture or
:02:01. > :02:05.
:02:06. > :02:15.cat. -- and there to market as an uppercut city of culture.
:02:16. > :02:16.
:02:16. > :02:19.Category is fantastic! Category is my hometown. I represent