:37:33. > :37:36.visited Kent to open the London Sunday Politics in the South East.
:37:36. > :37:41.Coming up later: Will councils be able to create more school places
:37:41. > :37:44.for the South East's growing population? They have got a year
:37:44. > :37:48.before schools hit capacity but do they have the time and the tools to
:37:48. > :37:51.sort it out? Joining me today to discuss this and
:37:51. > :37:54.other topics is a Labour member of the House of Lords, Baroness Maggie
:37:54. > :38:00.Jones who lives in Hove and Mike Weatherley, the Conservative MP for
:38:01. > :38:03.Hove and Portslade. How much do we support the arts here
:38:03. > :38:06.in the South East? According to figures unearthed this week, the
:38:06. > :38:11.Arts Council spends only �1.59 per head of population here, which is
:38:11. > :38:14.less money than any other part of the country. Is the region losing
:38:14. > :38:23.out or does it prove you do not need government funding to have a
:38:23. > :38:30.thriving arts scene? In the art scene is thriving in
:38:30. > :38:34.Brighton and Hove but that does seem a low amount of money. Statistics
:38:34. > :38:41.are difficult to put forward. We do not get the least amount of money
:38:41. > :38:48.from the rest of the country. It is just the per head is less. Also we
:38:49. > :38:54.have a high disposable income in the south-east. Harriet Harman was
:38:54. > :39:00.launching Labour's culture strategy this week. She was talking about a
:39:00. > :39:05.one nation approach to culture. is a mistake to load all of the
:39:05. > :39:12.problems onto the arts Council. Local authority budgets have been
:39:12. > :39:21.cut enormously and an awful lot of arts activities happen at a local
:39:21. > :39:30.level. We need to address what is happening in the local communities.
:39:30. > :39:37.You cannot offer those local authorities more funding. In the
:39:37. > :39:43.short-term but the fact the government has not given to the
:39:43. > :39:51.arts. The Arts Council budget has been cut by 33%. The arts are
:39:51. > :39:56.struggling under the current government. We have more people that
:39:56. > :40:01.can go to these things and therefore I do not think the south-east should
:40:01. > :40:06.be overwhelmed by more money. The south-east has a very thriving
:40:06. > :40:11.creative industry network and we do not need to put money into the
:40:12. > :40:14.south-east. On Thursday David Cameron came to
:40:14. > :40:17.Thanet, scene of some of UKIP's biggest successes at the local
:40:18. > :40:20.elections. But the Prime Minister had not come to start the fight back
:40:20. > :40:25.against UKIP. He arrived to launch the world's largest offshore wind
:40:25. > :40:29.farm. Something to feel proud of, unless you hate wind farms that is.
:40:29. > :40:39.How hard will he have to work to win back voters in the South East?
:40:39. > :40:42.
:40:43. > :40:48.Lucinda Adam reports. Not the warmest receptions for the
:40:48. > :40:51.Prime Minister but he is probably getting used to it. It is here the
:40:51. > :40:57.Conservatives suffered the heaviest losses in the county council
:40:57. > :41:01.elections and UKIP blazed a trail to success. Two months on David Conrad
:41:02. > :41:08.was here to launch London Array, the largest wind farm off the coast of
:41:08. > :41:15.Margate. It shows Britain is a great place to invest in. It means green
:41:15. > :41:22.energy for half a million homes. from his helicopter, does Mr Cameron
:41:22. > :41:26.CBC of Tory blue long dominating the south-east begin to fade? The
:41:26. > :41:31.Conservatives have lost control of councils in Brighton and Hove and
:41:31. > :41:36.East Sussex and in Kent they only just retained a majority. As David
:41:37. > :41:40.Cameron speaks to invited guests inside, outside an uninvited
:41:40. > :41:47.protesters from Thanet and beyond are here to tell be Prime Minister
:41:47. > :41:56.what they think of his party, his policies and leadership. Hands of
:41:56. > :42:04.the education, NHS. Cut this bedroom tax out. They are affecting the poor
:42:04. > :42:07.and Thanet is a deprived place. Leave the disabled alone. They want
:42:07. > :42:14.to privatise everything and one of the reasons we are so active is we
:42:14. > :42:23.are concerned the next probity sheesh and is our health service. --
:42:23. > :42:27.privatisation. Energy Minister Greg Barker insists the Conservatives are
:42:27. > :42:35.making the right decisions. We are taking the decisions for the
:42:35. > :42:41.long-term. Not playing to the gallery. But even he admits there is
:42:41. > :42:46.work to be done. We need to communicate better. We need to tell
:42:46. > :42:52.be story of what we are doing more effectively. It is not just voters
:42:52. > :42:57.turning away. A spate of counsel defections has revealed discontent
:42:57. > :43:02.over issues like the EU referendum and tax breaks for married couples.
:43:02. > :43:07.Roger was a Conservative for nearly 60 years but if you want to go his
:43:07. > :43:11.loyalty changed. Promises are made and broken and I have no faith in
:43:11. > :43:18.David Cameron carrying out any of the policies on which he has been
:43:19. > :43:24.elected. A certain leading Conservative member of Thanet
:43:24. > :43:33.district Council said, at least you have the guts to do what most of us
:43:33. > :43:39.would like to do. That statement in itself tells a lot. People are truly
:43:40. > :43:46.fed up. Do you expect more defections? Yes. I am aware of a
:43:46. > :43:51.number. The debate about same-sex marriage has widened divisions
:43:51. > :43:56.further. A third of south-east Conservative MPs voted against the
:43:56. > :44:05.will of their leader. Grassroot party members feel David Cameron
:44:05. > :44:13.needs to refocus. It has affected activist everywhere and political
:44:13. > :44:17.opportunists have seized on these divisions. You have to focus on
:44:17. > :44:23.those things that make the lives of the majority of citizens better and
:44:23. > :44:27.sometimes you have to say in the really good times, we will fix
:44:27. > :44:33.everyone's problems including the smallest minorities but today I have
:44:33. > :44:39.to look after the majority. Party chairman will meet this month to one
:44:39. > :44:48.David Cameron of the risks of growing disillusionment. The Lib Dem
:44:48. > :44:52.tail is wagging the tail of the dog too much. Unless David Cameron
:44:52. > :44:57.starts listing to the grassroots they've never vote Conservative
:44:57. > :45:02.again. A visit to a controversial wind farm may have done little to
:45:02. > :45:07.win some conservatives over but how can David Cameron convinced his
:45:08. > :45:11.party faithful that the winds of change are a good thing.
:45:11. > :45:15.Bob Neill is a vice-chair of the Conservative party and he is in our
:45:16. > :45:22.Westminster studio. People are fed up and thinking of defecting. How
:45:22. > :45:26.worried are you? We are in the middle of a parliament. I think the
:45:26. > :45:30.government is in a good place because we are doing the things that
:45:30. > :45:36.matter. I understand people off the street it sometimes because they
:45:36. > :45:41.agree with what we are doing but would like to go further and faster.
:45:41. > :45:46.But we in fact are working hard at the key messages which is paying
:45:46. > :45:52.down the deficit, sorting out the economic mess this country is in.
:45:52. > :45:59.That is the most important issue. Greg Barker seems to be arguing you
:45:59. > :46:05.should be doing that job better. Communicating your achievements.
:46:05. > :46:08.What we are saying is we are doing the right things. We served as
:46:08. > :46:18.ministers together. We need to be firm about getting that message
:46:18. > :46:19.
:46:19. > :46:25.across. You think David Cameron has the ability to win back all those
:46:25. > :46:33.people and are thinking hard defecting, he has the ability to win
:46:33. > :46:36.them back? I have no doubt whatsoever. Let me demonstrate that.
:46:36. > :46:43.I am sure people like Roger agree it is important to sort the economy
:46:43. > :46:48.out. Secondly, people do want a proper say about our future in
:46:48. > :46:53.Europe and on Friday, I and my other colleagues voted through the Private
:46:53. > :47:01.members Bill which will give people an in out choice as to watch our
:47:01. > :47:05.future is with Europe. UKIP is saying we should pull out
:47:05. > :47:11.altogether. How helpful will be referendum be when it comes to
:47:11. > :47:20.getting those voters tempted by UKIP to come back to you? People are
:47:20. > :47:24.concerned about differing views. There are differing views. Should it
:47:24. > :47:29.be based more towards free trade? The key thing people want is to have
:47:29. > :47:34.a say and we are the only party that has any chance of winning the
:47:34. > :47:40.general election that is committed to doing that. UKIP are not going to
:47:40. > :47:47.be forming a government. It does remind voters how divisive that
:47:47. > :47:54.particular issue is in your party. Funnily enough the bill was carried
:47:54. > :48:00.by 304 votes to zero in the House of Commons on Friday. Every one of the
:48:00. > :48:06.Conservative MPs voting in favour. Green energy is one of the issues,
:48:07. > :48:13.wind farms is an issue UKIP have campaigned on. How helpful was it to
:48:13. > :48:16.have the prime minister come to Thanet and bang on about wind farms?
:48:16. > :48:23.The renewable sector is very important for the economy and the
:48:23. > :48:28.London Array is going to make a lot of difference for jobs in a
:48:28. > :48:32.community which needs more jobs. What we have said is we support
:48:32. > :48:36.renewable energy in the right place, equally we have strengthened
:48:36. > :48:40.the planning rules to make it easier for communities to save this
:48:41. > :48:50.particular village is not the right place for renewables. We are getting
:48:51. > :48:51.
:48:51. > :48:56.the balance right. We heard from some of the protesters there in
:48:56. > :49:04.Margate talking about the NHS and education. You should be winning
:49:04. > :49:09.them over. There is an issue for all parties about UKIP. I campaigned and
:49:09. > :49:14.it was clear to me that the people who were going to vote for UKIP were
:49:14. > :49:20.not doing it on some of the issues we identified, it was
:49:20. > :49:24.antiestablishment politics. That is not to denigrate it at all. You have
:49:24. > :49:31.to take it seriously but the issues people will vote on are the bread
:49:31. > :49:35.and butter issues of the economy, living standards and that is where,
:49:35. > :49:40.why the Conservatives will struggle to pick up any support because they
:49:40. > :49:44.have not done all the things we have heard about. They have not got the
:49:44. > :49:54.economy back in shape. 1 million young people unemployed, living
:49:54. > :49:55.
:49:55. > :50:00.standards falling. And so has Ed Miliband and the challenge for him
:50:00. > :50:10.is to speak to ordinary voters in a way that Nigel Farage is managing to
:50:10. > :50:10.
:50:10. > :50:15.do. He is not doing it well enough. I think we are making progress.
:50:15. > :50:21.Across the south-east we did better than the Tories did, but never the
:50:21. > :50:26.less yes we do have a long way to go. I do think Ed Miliband is
:50:26. > :50:32.talking in terms of what one nation politics and that chimes in with
:50:32. > :50:38.people. We are all in it together. It is about us all having a common
:50:38. > :50:43.interest and putting that at the forefront. Can I talk to you about
:50:43. > :50:51.gay marriage, but beyond your constituency it is a big divisive
:50:51. > :50:55.issue. You are right. There are some UKIP people voting for UKIP because
:50:55. > :51:05.of the gay marriage issue. I voted for equal marriage and I stand by
:51:05. > :51:07.
:51:07. > :51:13.that. Is that really a priority in tough times? Everything is a
:51:13. > :51:20.priority. Politics is about doing lots of things all the time. The
:51:20. > :51:29.economy is the most important thing. Issues like gay marriage could cost
:51:29. > :51:35.you the next election. Those disaffected by politics are voting
:51:35. > :51:44.for UKIP. Those voting for UKIP for a referendum, we are the party for
:51:44. > :51:52.that. Not UKIP or labour. I think we will win back those voters. The
:51:52. > :52:01.biggest issue for some voters was gay marriage and for them, UKIP was
:52:01. > :52:04.the party for them. There is a growing shortage of
:52:04. > :52:07.school places and some areas in the South East set to be severely
:52:07. > :52:10.squeezed next year. Ed Miliband raised the issue with the Prime
:52:10. > :52:13.Minister this week who said the government is creating more places.
:52:13. > :52:17.But in some areas the shortage is ranked as severe. Eastbourne is one
:52:17. > :52:20.of them. It has seen a 36% increase in the birth rate over ten years and
:52:20. > :52:23.the council has begun consulting on ways to expand their provision. But
:52:23. > :52:26.have councils left themselves enough time to find the extra places? And
:52:26. > :52:33.with academies and free schools being given the go-ahead by central
:52:33. > :52:35.government, do councils have the power to turn things around? Let's
:52:35. > :52:45.talk to Phil Clarke, the NUT representative for Lewes, Eastbourne
:52:45. > :52:45.
:52:45. > :52:54.and Wealden. You teach in Lewes. How bad is the pressure on places there?
:52:54. > :52:58.There is an East Sussex shortage of primary school places. The local
:52:58. > :53:05.authority has started consulting on expanding for primary schools. The
:53:05. > :53:09.problem really is the government's policy has tied the hands of local
:53:09. > :53:13.authorities to take proper plan long-term decisions about school
:53:13. > :53:22.places. Free schools getting huge amounts of money for out of
:53:22. > :53:28.proportion to the people they take in on planned. Academies mean the
:53:28. > :53:33.local authority cannot require them to expand. We are lucky in a sense
:53:33. > :53:37.that the take-up of academy status by primary schools has been
:53:37. > :53:43.relatively low so far because it is allowing the local authority to at
:53:43. > :53:51.least do what it is doing, which is expanding schools. Having expanding
:53:51. > :53:57.schools is not popular with parents. Parents hate the idea of more
:53:57. > :54:02.classes and their child being squeezed. Is that the answer?
:54:02. > :54:11.think the answer in some cases has to be bolding new schools. There is
:54:11. > :54:15.no money to do that. The government has spent �60 million setting up or
:54:15. > :54:19.allowing different groups to set up free schools but they are completely
:54:19. > :54:28.unplanned. The problem is not money and I would suggest there is money
:54:28. > :54:34.out there. I do not think 60 million will get you many new schools.
:54:35. > :54:44.her pupil funding in free schools is out of proportion to the rest of the
:54:45. > :54:51.
:54:51. > :54:57.school system. You ask any teacher what is the main thing they can do
:54:57. > :55:02.to help education is shrink class sizes and as a union we spent a lot
:55:02. > :55:08.of time campaigning for that but the problem is government policy and
:55:08. > :55:16.labour aping that. This is the problem, local authorities become
:55:16. > :55:22.hamstrung by Michael Gove's free schools programme. Labour cut out
:55:22. > :55:29.200,000 primary school places and not money of the expansion budget.
:55:29. > :55:35.We have put 7.5 billion extra into that and we expect to create 500,000
:55:36. > :55:40.additional school places. But local education authorities have the duty
:55:40. > :55:46.to create places and they cannot do that because you have taken the
:55:46. > :55:52.power away from them. They can do that and the money is there for them
:55:52. > :56:00.to do so. We have a fantastic new free school in Brighton and Hove, a
:56:00. > :56:10.bilingual one. I would like to see more of them. There are spaces there
:56:10. > :56:13.
:56:13. > :56:19.in the academy. There is a strategy. The �7.5 billion extra and the
:56:19. > :56:25.500,000 school places will not come in immediately. The plan is forth
:56:25. > :56:30.that to come in over seven years. When Labour was cutting spending,
:56:30. > :56:35.immigration went up and the demand on places was up. We have pushed
:56:35. > :56:45.back immigration and given more money for schools to expand. We will
:56:45. > :56:46.
:56:46. > :56:49.find that alleviating. The first thing to say is the first thing the
:56:49. > :56:55.Conservatives did was cancel labour's building schools for the
:56:55. > :57:02.future programme, which had a whole host of refurbishment of school
:57:03. > :57:08.buildings. It did include extra places. He eventually replaced it
:57:08. > :57:13.with his own programme. None of that has happened. His new programme has
:57:13. > :57:17.been promising new schools but they have only started building one
:57:17. > :57:24.school so far. He announced he was cancelling one scheme and did not
:57:24. > :57:29.put anything in its place. The fact is he has wasted enormous sums of
:57:29. > :57:33.money is on free schools which are not necessarily in the areas where
:57:33. > :57:39.there is a shortage of places. It is not surprising we are facing a
:57:39. > :57:45.crisis and it is all the government's own making. You cannot
:57:45. > :57:52.say, what are the local authorities doing? It is government policy, it
:57:52. > :58:02.is government that needs to fund these places. In Brighton and Hove
:58:02. > :58:02.
:58:02. > :58:12.it is the local council's authority. We have to leave it there. Time for
:58:12. > :58:18.a round-up of the week 's other political events.
:58:18. > :58:24.Shadow health secretary and Burnham was in Hastings. During his visit
:58:24. > :58:28.Burnham spoke out in favour of changes to hospital services.
:58:28. > :58:36.is safer then people have a moral imperative to support the doctors
:58:36. > :58:42.making these decisions. Brightens green council are not green at all.
:58:42. > :58:47.Only 26% of household waste was recycled in 2013. The Greens say
:58:47. > :58:51.they are working to make improvements. Kent county council is
:58:51. > :58:54.proposing to close 23 children centres. Parents are not happy but
:58:54. > :59:03.the council believes these can be closed without adversely affecting
:59:03. > :59:13.families. And finally, where to build a new Thames Crossing. The
:59:13. > :59:22.
:59:22. > :59:28.that debate about the options for a new Thames Crossing on BBC Radio
:59:28. > :59:35.Kent on Tuesday morning from 6am. It is a difficult decision. Someone
:59:35. > :59:40.will be upset wherever you put that. We need an infrastructure programme.
:59:40. > :59:46.I had trouble getting here today so we have to find some way of
:59:46. > :59:54.accommodating it. I am sure you are desperate to point score against the
:59:54. > :59:59.Greens on recycling. It comes down to people providing the facilities
:59:59. > :00:05.to make recycling easier. I walk miles with bags of recycling because
:00:05. > :00:12.it is not there on my doorstep. anyone lives in Hove and they know
:00:12. > :00:16.different then let us know. I thought you would want to score a