07/07/2013 Sunday Politics South East

visited Kent to open the London Sunday Politics in the South East.

Coming up later: Will councils be able to create more school places

for the South East's growing population? They have got a year

before schools hit capacity but do they have the time and the tools to

sort it out? Joining me today to discuss this and

other topics is a Labour member of the House of Lords, Baroness Maggie

Jones who lives in Hove and Mike Weatherley, the Conservative MP for

Hove and Portslade. How much do we support the arts here

in the South East? According to figures unearthed this week, the

Arts Council spends only �1.59 per head of population here, which is

less money than any other part of the country. Is the region losing

out or does it prove you do not need government funding to have a

thriving arts scene? In the art scene is thriving in

Brighton and Hove but that does seem a low amount of money. Statistics

are difficult to put forward. We do not get the least amount of money

from the rest of the country. It is just the per head is less. Also we

have a high disposable income in the south-east. Harriet Harman was

launching Labour's culture strategy this week. She was talking about a

one nation approach to culture. is a mistake to load all of the

problems onto the arts Council. Local authority budgets have been

cut enormously and an awful lot of arts activities happen at a local

level. We need to address what is happening in the local communities.

You cannot offer those local authorities more funding. In the

short-term but the fact the government has not given to the

arts. The Arts Council budget has been cut by 33%. The arts are

struggling under the current government. We have more people that

can go to these things and therefore I do not think the south-east should

be overwhelmed by more money. The south-east has a very thriving

creative industry network and we do not need to put money into the

south-east. On Thursday David Cameron came to

Thanet, scene of some of UKIP's biggest successes at the local

elections. But the Prime Minister had not come to start the fight back

against UKIP. He arrived to launch the world's largest offshore wind

farm. Something to feel proud of, unless you hate wind farms that is.

How hard will he have to work to win back voters in the South East?

Lucinda Adam reports. Not the warmest receptions for the

Prime Minister but he is probably getting used to it. It is here the

Conservatives suffered the heaviest losses in the county council

elections and UKIP blazed a trail to success. Two months on David Conrad

was here to launch London Array, the largest wind farm off the coast of

Margate. It shows Britain is a great place to invest in. It means green

energy for half a million homes. from his helicopter, does Mr Cameron

CBC of Tory blue long dominating the south-east begin to fade? The

Conservatives have lost control of councils in Brighton and Hove and

East Sussex and in Kent they only just retained a majority. As David

Cameron speaks to invited guests inside, outside an uninvited

protesters from Thanet and beyond are here to tell be Prime Minister

what they think of his party, his policies and leadership. Hands of

the education, NHS. Cut this bedroom tax out. They are affecting the poor

and Thanet is a deprived place. Leave the disabled alone. They want

to privatise everything and one of the reasons we are so active is we

are concerned the next probity sheesh and is our health service. --

privatisation. Energy Minister Greg Barker insists the Conservatives are

making the right decisions. We are taking the decisions for the

long-term. Not playing to the gallery. But even he admits there is

work to be done. We need to communicate better. We need to tell

be story of what we are doing more effectively. It is not just voters

turning away. A spate of counsel defections has revealed discontent

over issues like the EU referendum and tax breaks for married couples.

Roger was a Conservative for nearly 60 years but if you want to go his

loyalty changed. Promises are made and broken and I have no faith in

David Cameron carrying out any of the policies on which he has been

elected. A certain leading Conservative member of Thanet

district Council said, at least you have the guts to do what most of us

would like to do. That statement in itself tells a lot. People are truly

fed up. Do you expect more defections? Yes. I am aware of a

number. The debate about same-sex marriage has widened divisions

further. A third of south-east Conservative MPs voted against the

will of their leader. Grassroot party members feel David Cameron

needs to refocus. It has affected activist everywhere and political

opportunists have seized on these divisions. You have to focus on

those things that make the lives of the majority of citizens better and

sometimes you have to say in the really good times, we will fix

everyone's problems including the smallest minorities but today I have

to look after the majority. Party chairman will meet this month to one

David Cameron of the risks of growing disillusionment. The Lib Dem

tail is wagging the tail of the dog too much. Unless David Cameron

starts listing to the grassroots they've never vote Conservative

again. A visit to a controversial wind farm may have done little to

win some conservatives over but how can David Cameron convinced his

party faithful that the winds of change are a good thing.

Bob Neill is a vice-chair of the Conservative party and he is in our

Westminster studio. People are fed up and thinking of defecting. How

worried are you? We are in the middle of a parliament. I think the

government is in a good place because we are doing the things that

matter. I understand people off the street it sometimes because they

agree with what we are doing but would like to go further and faster.

But we in fact are working hard at the key messages which is paying

down the deficit, sorting out the economic mess this country is in.

That is the most important issue. Greg Barker seems to be arguing you

should be doing that job better. Communicating your achievements.

What we are saying is we are doing the right things. We served as

ministers together. We need to be firm about getting that message

across. You think David Cameron has the ability to win back all those

people and are thinking hard defecting, he has the ability to win

them back? I have no doubt whatsoever. Let me demonstrate that.

I am sure people like Roger agree it is important to sort the economy

out. Secondly, people do want a proper say about our future in

Europe and on Friday, I and my other colleagues voted through the Private

members Bill which will give people an in out choice as to watch our

future is with Europe. UKIP is saying we should pull out

altogether. How helpful will be referendum be when it comes to

getting those voters tempted by UKIP to come back to you? People are

concerned about differing views. There are differing views. Should it

be based more towards free trade? The key thing people want is to have

a say and we are the only party that has any chance of winning the

general election that is committed to doing that. UKIP are not going to

be forming a government. It does remind voters how divisive that

particular issue is in your party. Funnily enough the bill was carried

by 304 votes to zero in the House of Commons on Friday. Every one of the

Conservative MPs voting in favour. Green energy is one of the issues,

wind farms is an issue UKIP have campaigned on. How helpful was it to

have the prime minister come to Thanet and bang on about wind farms?

The renewable sector is very important for the economy and the

London Array is going to make a lot of difference for jobs in a

community which needs more jobs. What we have said is we support

renewable energy in the right place, equally we have strengthened

the planning rules to make it easier for communities to save this

particular village is not the right place for renewables. We are getting

the balance right. We heard from some of the protesters there in

Margate talking about the NHS and education. You should be winning

them over. There is an issue for all parties about UKIP. I campaigned and

it was clear to me that the people who were going to vote for UKIP were

not doing it on some of the issues we identified, it was

antiestablishment politics. That is not to denigrate it at all. You have

to take it seriously but the issues people will vote on are the bread

and butter issues of the economy, living standards and that is where,

why the Conservatives will struggle to pick up any support because they

have not done all the things we have heard about. They have not got the

economy back in shape. 1 million young people unemployed, living

standards falling. And so has Ed Miliband and the challenge for him

is to speak to ordinary voters in a way that Nigel Farage is managing to

do. He is not doing it well enough. I think we are making progress.

Across the south-east we did better than the Tories did, but never the

less yes we do have a long way to go. I do think Ed Miliband is

talking in terms of what one nation politics and that chimes in with

people. We are all in it together. It is about us all having a common

interest and putting that at the forefront. Can I talk to you about

gay marriage, but beyond your constituency it is a big divisive

issue. You are right. There are some UKIP people voting for UKIP because

of the gay marriage issue. I voted for equal marriage and I stand by

that. Is that really a priority in tough times? Everything is a

priority. Politics is about doing lots of things all the time. The

economy is the most important thing. Issues like gay marriage could cost

you the next election. Those disaffected by politics are voting

for UKIP. Those voting for UKIP for a referendum, we are the party for

that. Not UKIP or labour. I think we will win back those voters. The

biggest issue for some voters was gay marriage and for them, UKIP was

the party for them. There is a growing shortage of

school places and some areas in the South East set to be severely

squeezed next year. Ed Miliband raised the issue with the Prime

Minister this week who said the government is creating more places.

But in some areas the shortage is ranked as severe. Eastbourne is one

of them. It has seen a 36% increase in the birth rate over ten years and

the council has begun consulting on ways to expand their provision. But

have councils left themselves enough time to find the extra places? And

with academies and free schools being given the go-ahead by central

government, do councils have the power to turn things around? Let's

talk to Phil Clarke, the NUT representative for Lewes, Eastbourne

and Wealden. You teach in Lewes. How bad is the pressure on places there?

There is an East Sussex shortage of primary school places. The local

authority has started consulting on expanding for primary schools. The

problem really is the government's policy has tied the hands of local

authorities to take proper plan long-term decisions about school

places. Free schools getting huge amounts of money for out of

proportion to the people they take in on planned. Academies mean the

local authority cannot require them to expand. We are lucky in a sense

that the take-up of academy status by primary schools has been

relatively low so far because it is allowing the local authority to at

least do what it is doing, which is expanding schools. Having expanding

schools is not popular with parents. Parents hate the idea of more

classes and their child being squeezed. Is that the answer?

think the answer in some cases has to be bolding new schools. There is

no money to do that. The government has spent �60 million setting up or

allowing different groups to set up free schools but they are completely

unplanned. The problem is not money and I would suggest there is money

out there. I do not think 60 million will get you many new schools.

her pupil funding in free schools is out of proportion to the rest of the

school system. You ask any teacher what is the main thing they can do

to help education is shrink class sizes and as a union we spent a lot

of time campaigning for that but the problem is government policy and

labour aping that. This is the problem, local authorities become

hamstrung by Michael Gove's free schools programme. Labour cut out

200,000 primary school places and not money of the expansion budget.

We have put 7.5 billion extra into that and we expect to create 500,000

additional school places. But local education authorities have the duty

to create places and they cannot do that because you have taken the

power away from them. They can do that and the money is there for them

to do so. We have a fantastic new free school in Brighton and Hove, a

bilingual one. I would like to see more of them. There are spaces there

in the academy. There is a strategy. The �7.5 billion extra and the

500,000 school places will not come in immediately. The plan is forth

that to come in over seven years. When Labour was cutting spending,

immigration went up and the demand on places was up. We have pushed

back immigration and given more money for schools to expand. We will

find that alleviating. The first thing to say is the first thing the

Conservatives did was cancel labour's building schools for the

future programme, which had a whole host of refurbishment of school

buildings. It did include extra places. He eventually replaced it

with his own programme. None of that has happened. His new programme has

been promising new schools but they have only started building one

school so far. He announced he was cancelling one scheme and did not

put anything in its place. The fact is he has wasted enormous sums of

money is on free schools which are not necessarily in the areas where

there is a shortage of places. It is not surprising we are facing a

crisis and it is all the government's own making. You cannot

say, what are the local authorities doing? It is government policy, it

is government that needs to fund these places. In Brighton and Hove

it is the local council's authority. We have to leave it there. Time for

a round-up of the week 's other political events.

Shadow health secretary and Burnham was in Hastings. During his visit

Burnham spoke out in favour of changes to hospital services.

is safer then people have a moral imperative to support the doctors

making these decisions. Brightens green council are not green at all.

Only 26% of household waste was recycled in 2013. The Greens say

they are working to make improvements. Kent county council is

proposing to close 23 children centres. Parents are not happy but

the council believes these can be closed without adversely affecting

families. And finally, where to build a new Thames Crossing. The

that debate about the options for a new Thames Crossing on BBC Radio

Kent on Tuesday morning from 6am. It is a difficult decision. Someone

will be upset wherever you put that. We need an infrastructure programme.

I had trouble getting here today so we have to find some way of

accommodating it. I am sure you are desperate to point score against the

Greens on recycling. It comes down to people providing the facilities

to make recycling easier. I walk miles with bags of recycling because

it is not there on my doorstep. anyone lives in Hove and they know

different then let us know. I thought you would want to score a