Browse content similar to 23/03/2014. Check below for episodes and series from the same categories and more!
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Morning, folks. Welcome to the Sunday Politics. The dust has barely | :00:36. | :00:42. | |
settled on George Osborne's Budget and, amazingly, for once it hasn't | :00:43. | :00:45. | |
all gone horribly wrong by the weekend. So, is this the election | :00:46. | :00:48. | |
springboard the Tories needed, and where does it leave Labour? Turns | :00:49. | :00:52. | |
out the big Budget surprise was a revolution in how we pay for old | :00:53. | :00:57. | |
age. The Pensions Minister says he's relaxed if you want to spend it all | :00:58. | :01:00. | |
on a Lamborghini. He'll join us later. And could the man with the | :01:01. | :01:06. | |
maracas be on his way to Westminster? Bez from the Happy | :01:07. | :01:09. | |
And in the South East... A new boost plan | :01:10. | :01:13. | |
And in the South East... A new boost for an old plan, so will thd | :01:14. | :01:16. | |
Chancellor's Garden City at Ebbsfleet succeed where previous | :01:17. | :01:17. | |
house`building projects havd failed? In London, the Mafia man gets to | :01:18. | :01:24. | |
stay in Axbridge. Are there ways of making the European arrest warrant | :01:25. | :01:36. | |
work better? -- Uxbridge. And who better to help guide you through all | :01:37. | :01:39. | |
of that than three journalists, who dispense wisdom faster than Grant | :01:40. | :01:42. | |
Shapps calls out the numbers in his local bingo hall over a pint of | :01:43. | :01:45. | |
beer. Yes, they're hard-working and they're doing the things they enjoy. | :01:46. | :01:51. | |
Cup of tea, number three. It's Nick Watt, Polly Toynbee and Janan | :01:52. | :01:52. | |
Ganesh. So, George Osborne delivered his | :01:53. | :02:02. | |
fifth Budget on Wednesday and had so many glowing front pages the day | :02:03. | :02:05. | |
afterwards he must be running out of room to pin them up in on his | :02:06. | :02:08. | |
bedroom wall. Although it's probably a pretty big wall. For those of you | :02:09. | :02:12. | |
who didn't have time to watch 3 5 hours of Budget coverage on the BBC, | :02:13. | :02:15. | |
here's Giles with the whole thing in three minutes. | :02:16. | :02:43. | |
Budget days have a rhythm of their own, driven partly by tradition | :02:44. | :02:48. | |
like that photocall at 11 Downing Street and part logistics, how to | :02:49. | :02:51. | |
get this important statement out and explain to those whom it affects - | :02:52. | :02:58. | |
us? Behind-the-scenes of a Budget Day is much the same. This ritual | :02:59. | :03:07. | |
red boxery may be the beginning of the end of weeks of work behind the | :03:08. | :03:11. | |
scenes in the Treasury and sets the clock ticking on the process of | :03:12. | :03:14. | |
finding out the answer to one question. You got any rabbits in the | :03:15. | :03:17. | |
box, Chancellor? Yes, there will be something in the Budget we don't | :03:18. | :03:20. | |
know about. Time marches steadily towards the statement and already | :03:21. | :03:22. | |
commentators are hovering over what those potential surprises are. As | :03:23. | :03:29. | |
Big Ben chimes, all focus returns to the Commons, where there is Prime | :03:30. | :03:31. | |
Minister's questions and the Chancellor gets up and does his | :03:32. | :03:38. | |
thing. Once he's on his feet and remembering there is still no copy | :03:39. | :03:41. | |
of the details, the major measures are rapidly highlighted as they come | :03:42. | :03:45. | |
and then put up on screen. A cap on Government welfare spending set for | :03:46. | :03:53. | |
2015/16 at 119 billion. Income tax personal allowance raised to | :03:54. | :03:57. | |
?10,500. Bingo duty halved, which ticked boxes for some but was | :03:58. | :04:01. | |
unlikely to make anyone a poster boy. And the beer tax cut of 1p or | :04:02. | :04:07. | |
the froth on the top. And changes to pensions allowing people to take | :04:08. | :04:09. | |
their money out in one lump sum rather than being forced to accept a | :04:10. | :04:18. | |
fixed annual pay-out, or annuity. This is a Budget for the makers the | :04:19. | :04:22. | |
doers and the savers and I commend it to the House. Not everyone can | :04:23. | :04:25. | |
focus on the Budget by listening to what the Chancellor says. We need to | :04:26. | :04:30. | |
get a copy of the script. We do not get that till he sits down. I'm | :04:31. | :04:33. | |
going to go into the House of Commons to get that right now. There | :04:34. | :04:40. | |
will be a response on that and all the other things from Mr Miliband. | :04:41. | :04:44. | |
The Chancellor spoke for nearly an hour but he did not mention one | :04:45. | :04:47. | |
essential fact, the working people of Britain are worse off under the | :04:48. | :04:51. | |
Tories. It is a tricky job answering the Budget at the best of times | :04:52. | :04:54. | |
though some, including Labour MPs, think it is better to mention the | :04:55. | :04:56. | |
Budget when you do. Here we are. I am going to go. I am | :04:57. | :05:05. | |
not the only journalist missing Ed Miliband's speech. Many others leave | :05:06. | :05:08. | |
the Chamber as the Chancellor sits down to attend a special briefing | :05:09. | :05:14. | |
from the Chancellor's advisory team. I am hotfoot to the studio. There is | :05:15. | :05:19. | |
a little more detail to the Budget than the Budget Speech. That detail | :05:20. | :05:22. | |
can be whether words unravel and other interpretations emerge. By now | :05:23. | :05:25. | |
the gaggle of supporters and detractors are taking the debate | :05:26. | :05:33. | |
onto the airwaves. Are you the BBC? Have the Daily Politics packed up? | :05:34. | :05:38. | |
No, we're still standing and, days later, still trying to assess | :05:39. | :05:40. | |
whether the measures announced still seem fresh and appetising or have | :05:41. | :05:43. | |
already gone stale in the minds of voters? | :05:44. | :05:54. | |
How significant are these two poles this morning putting Labour and Tory | :05:55. | :06:05. | |
nip and tuck? Osborne gave his party a good bounce. It was an | :06:06. | :06:11. | |
astonishingly theatrical coup. At first glance, it seems like a huge | :06:12. | :06:15. | |
gift to all people. That is where all of the money has been channelled | :06:16. | :06:20. | |
by this government. They have been ultra-protected, triple locked. | :06:21. | :06:24. | |
Pensioners have done very well and others less well. It is not | :06:25. | :06:30. | |
surprising. Normally a budget which is well received on the day and the | :06:31. | :06:33. | |
day after has unravelled by the weekend. This time, it has not, so | :06:34. | :06:40. | |
far. The dangerous thing for the Labour Party now, George Osborne is | :06:41. | :06:44. | |
the assessment this thing called the baseline. He says, in government, | :06:45. | :06:48. | |
you must control the baseline. The Labour party controlled in 2001 and | :06:49. | :06:54. | |
2005 and he needs to control it next time. He is controlling it on fiscal | :06:55. | :06:57. | |
policy because labour is matching them on everything. The danger for | :06:58. | :07:02. | |
Labour on the big, headline grabbing issue, which was freeing up | :07:03. | :07:07. | |
annuities on pensions, that again Labour was pretty much saying it was | :07:08. | :07:11. | |
going to support it though it were saying it has to be fair and | :07:12. | :07:15. | |
cost-effective. On a big, policy issue, they are following on behind | :07:16. | :07:21. | |
George Osborne. George Osborne is controlling the crucial baseline. | :07:22. | :07:25. | |
Are we in danger of reading too much into the political implications of | :07:26. | :07:34. | |
the budget? The good thing about the pensions policy is, if it does | :07:35. | :07:39. | |
unravel, it will not happen for ten years and, by that time, George | :07:40. | :07:44. | |
Osborne will have left office. Towards the end of his speech, I | :07:45. | :07:48. | |
thought, that is not enough. There is not an idea in your budget which | :07:49. | :07:53. | |
is politically very vivid a year before an election. What I | :07:54. | :07:57. | |
underestimated was, how many frustrated savers that are in the | :07:58. | :08:01. | |
country. There are a lot of people who are frustrated by low interest | :08:02. | :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. | :08:23. | |
poster was a kind of get out of jail card for Labour. It gave them | :08:24. | :08:28. | |
something to zoom in on. Everyone beat up on Grant Shapps, the Tory | :08:29. | :08:32. | |
chairman. We read in the daily Telegraph that the fingerprints of | :08:33. | :08:37. | |
the Chancellor were all over this poster. The Chancellor signed off it | :08:38. | :08:44. | |
-- off on it and so did Lynton Crosby. They referred to working | :08:45. | :08:53. | |
class people as, they are. How did it get into the Telegraph? We can | :08:54. | :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. | :09:17. | |
talk about. You can see the thinking behind the poster was very sensible. | :09:18. | :09:27. | |
We are not Tory toffs, we are interested in helping people who do | :09:28. | :09:30. | |
not come from our backgrounds. The wording was awful and played into | :09:31. | :09:36. | |
every cliche. It was all his fault. It shows how unsophisticated he | :09:37. | :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. | :09:59. | |
it, pensions are fiendishly conjugated. Once they look and see | :10:00. | :10:02. | |
what it will do with people having to pay for their own care because | :10:03. | :10:06. | |
they can now take capital at their pension, that will come as a shock | :10:07. | :10:10. | |
to a lot of people with small savings. It all be gone on their | :10:11. | :10:18. | |
care. The polling will be neck and neck all the way. In the past, | :10:19. | :10:23. | |
George Osborne has been accused of using his Budgets to tinker at the | :10:24. | :10:26. | |
margins or pull cheap tricks on his political opponents. Perish the | :10:27. | :10:29. | |
thought. But the big surprise in this year's statement was a | :10:30. | :10:31. | |
genuinely radical shake-up of the pensions system that will affect | :10:32. | :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. | :10:51. | |
private sector. They can take 2 % of the pot is a tax-free lump sum when | :10:52. | :10:56. | |
they retire. The rest of the money, for most people, they are forced to | :10:57. | :11:00. | |
buy an annuity, a form of insurance which provide a guaranteed monthly | :11:01. | :11:04. | |
income until they die. Annuities have hardly been a bargain since | :11:05. | :11:09. | |
interest rates were flat slashed following the financial crash. Even | :11:10. | :11:16. | |
with a ?100,000 pension pot would only get an income of ?5,800 a year | :11:17. | :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. | :12:02. | |
investing the money elsewhere. Well, earlier I spoke to the Pensions | :12:03. | :12:05. | |
Minister. He's a Lib Dem called Steve Webb. I began by asking him if | :12:06. | :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. | :12:32. | |
formed -- reformed the state pension, we will be much more | :12:33. | :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. | :12:44. | |
generally blows a lot. They will spin it out. It is treating people | :12:45. | :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 5000 | :12:56. | :13:01. | |
and 30,000. Lamborghinis aren't an option, correct? I gather only about | :13:02. | :13:08. | |
5000 people a year retiring can buy a flashy Italian sports car. It | :13:09. | :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. | :13:19. | |
fit and able and can enjoy it more. We will give people guidance. We | :13:20. | :13:24. | |
will make sure when they retire there is someone to have a | :13:25. | :13:27. | |
conversation with talking through the implications of spending the | :13:28. | :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 4 % 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. | :14:03. | |
is a bit over 10000 and the state pension is a bit over 7000, the | :14:04. | :14:08. | |
first 3000 you draw out in a given year is tax-free. The next band is | :14:09. | :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. | :14:25. | |
out over their retirement. You have kept this policy quiet. Not even a | :14:26. | :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. | :15:01. | |
by. We will spend the next year talking to people, working it | :15:02. | :15:04. | |
through. There will be a three-month consultation. I want people to have | :15:05. | :15:06. | |
choices about their own money. There is detail still to be worked out and | :15:07. | :15:11. | |
we are in listening mode about how we implement it. When you announce | :15:12. | :15:15. | |
something you cannot do widespread consultation, for the reasons I have | :15:16. | :15:20. | |
given, you do run the risk of unforeseen consequences? Pension | :15:21. | :15:23. | |
companies this morning are indicating, you, the government can | :15:24. | :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. | :15:57. | |
infrastructure. It seems to me there will still be long-term investments. | :15:58. | :16:05. | |
Many people want to turn their whole pot into an income. I understand the | :16:06. | :16:10. | |
insurance companies are lobbying, but I'm convinced there will still | :16:11. | :16:13. | |
be plenty of money for investment and infrastructure. If the | :16:14. | :16:19. | |
Chancellor's pro-savings measures work, that will generate more | :16:20. | :16:26. | |
savings. With no requirement now to buy an annuity, surely it is the | :16:27. | :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. | :16:44. | |
of the tax treatment of pensioners is tax deferred so most people pay | :16:45. | :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. | :17:02. | |
will still have automatic enrolment into workplace pensions, we do want | :17:03. | :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. | :17:29. | |
that is how it was structured, but that is no longer a requirement | :17:30. | :17:36. | |
surely that undermines the case that if they get tax breaks, other forms | :17:37. | :17:42. | |
of savings should get tax breaks. Other forms do get tax breaks, of | :17:43. | :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. | :18:18. | |
breaks, but the basic principle that you pay tax when you get the income | :18:19. | :18:24. | |
seems right to me and isn't affected by these changes. You have announced | :18:25. | :18:29. | |
save friendly measures, are we right to look at them as a consolation | :18:30. | :18:34. | |
prize because savers have suffered from the Government's policy of | :18:35. | :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. | :18:50. | |
with mortgages, and people who have retired said they thought they could | :18:51. | :18:53. | |
have got a better deal on their savings. I think there is a | :18:54. | :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. | :19:15. | |
bent on -- benefit from these changes. Why don't savers who are | :19:16. | :19:21. | |
not pensioners get the same help? They have been hit by low interest | :19:22. | :19:26. | |
rates as well. Those of working age, many of them say they have | :19:27. | :19:31. | |
benefited from low interest rates was predominantly people in | :19:32. | :19:39. | |
retirement have not had the benefit. Obviously people of working age will | :19:40. | :19:45. | |
have benefited from the tax allowance so it is a myth to say the | :19:46. | :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. | :20:08. | |
indeed the savings ratio falls by 50%. You haven't done enough. One of | :20:09. | :20:15. | |
the things we know is that the economy is picking up strongly, and | :20:16. | :20:19. | |
as we have more confidence about the future they will be more willing to | :20:20. | :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. | :20:35. | |
about getting the right balance As the economy picks up, people will | :20:36. | :20:38. | |
want to spend more of their money and it is about getting the balance | :20:39. | :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. | :21:03. | |
and even to perhaps some council tax benefit as well. Do you know by how | :21:04. | :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. | :21:25. | |
get to 65 and decide to blow the lot for the great privilege of receiving | :21:26. | :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. | :21:43. | |
who retire with some capital want to put some money away for their | :21:44. | :21:46. | |
funeral. People like to save even into retirement so the myth of the | :21:47. | :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. | :22:19. | |
What's your favourite thing about an election? Could it be the candidates | :22:20. | :22:22. | |
ringing on your door while you're having dinner? The leaflets piling | :22:23. | :22:25. | |
up on your doormat? Or the endless adverts aimed at hardworking | :22:26. | :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. | :22:39. | |
been to Worcester to find out more. One of the most famous political | :22:40. | :22:44. | |
figures in history lived here, she is called Worcester woman. She was | :22:45. | :22:49. | |
in her 30s, working class with a couple of kids, aspirational yet | :22:50. | :22:53. | |
worried about quality of life. But she wasn't a real person, she was a | :22:54. | :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. | :23:16. | |
George Bush in 2004. Then refined by Barack Obama. Rather than focusing | :23:17. | :23:21. | |
on crude measures like cars and hometowns, they delved into the | :23:22. | :23:26. | |
minds of voters. It is not just women, not just people who live in | :23:27. | :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. | :23:45. | |
language and imagery might relate to them. We have been given access to a | :23:46. | :23:50. | |
new polling model being used here by this firm, which is pretty close to | :23:51. | :23:56. | |
the one we are told is being used by the Tories. It carves the country | :23:57. | :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. | :24:21. | |
know the Budget and the increases to childcare, I think at the moment I | :24:22. | :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. | :24:37. | |
hand, isn't happy about Britain today. Health and safety and all | :24:38. | :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. | :25:43. | |
voters. This man is being asked to do more and more at work, but he is | :25:44. | :25:52. | |
getting less and less. I am getting more towards the despair side. | :25:53. | :25:57. | |
Things are getting tougher, generally? It puts him into the | :25:58. | :26:03. | |
segment called long-term despair, people who feel left out. Finally, | :26:04. | :26:11. | |
this is ever thoughtful Carol. I am a bit of an idealist. Her idealism | :26:12. | :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. | :26:31. | |
of voters we have not come across, people who show calm persistence. | :26:32. | :26:35. | |
They hope things will get better but don't expect them to. They are | :26:36. | :26:39. | |
coping, rather than comfortable Presumably they are all out of work. | :26:40. | :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. | :27:07. | |
And we're joined now by the pollster, Rick Nye. Welcome to | :27:08. | :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. | :27:58. | |
Dems will always be in power? No, and if you listen to the coverage | :27:59. | :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. | :28:13. | |
that, there is a lot of churning going on underneath which is driven | :28:14. | :28:21. | |
by people's value systems. A lot of this has been pioneered in the | :28:22. | :28:24. | |
United States, very sophisticated on their election techniques, and in | :28:25. | :28:29. | |
Britain we are always the first to grab whatever the New Year will is | :28:30. | :28:34. | |
from America. How do you think this will translate to this country? I | :28:35. | :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. | :28:47. | |
kinds of conversations because people on the other side, the party | :28:48. | :28:54. | |
campaigners, will think they know more about you. Will I know who you | :28:55. | :29:01. | |
are? If I am a party campaigner will I know, looking down the | :29:02. | :29:05. | |
street, who fits into which category? You will be able to | :29:06. | :29:09. | |
approximate that with all of the other data that you have gathered | :29:10. | :29:14. | |
through polling, or doing local campaigning, that is the idea to | :29:15. | :29:19. | |
make sense of this vast quantity of data people have about voters. We | :29:20. | :29:25. | |
asked our panel to fill in your survey. Nick is optimistic | :29:26. | :29:31. | |
contentment, 99%. He was 1% cosmopolitan critic, which is how he | :29:32. | :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. | :29:53. | |
columnist. What do you make of this technique? Why are you only 99? It | :29:54. | :30:11. | |
sounds really clever. 95% of the population five years ago voted | :30:12. | :30:17. | |
Labour or the Conservatives. We have got away from that. It is coalition | :30:18. | :30:21. | |
politics. You need sophisticated methods. Presumably you must not | :30:22. | :30:30. | |
lose touch with basic points. You said it was used in the US | :30:31. | :30:33. | |
presidential elections. Wasn't there them moment emit Romney 's sweet | :30:34. | :30:39. | |
when the initial response was, we did not know the sort of people | :30:40. | :30:45. | |
voted. His next response was, we did not know these people existed. | :30:46. | :30:51. | |
Unless you know about certain key demographics, you are wasting your | :30:52. | :30:56. | |
time. Is it important in modern campaigning? I think it is useful | :30:57. | :31:04. | |
because it is about attitude. We have got Mosaic. We have got Acorn. | :31:05. | :31:13. | |
It does not tell us very much. What people think and feel may be | :31:14. | :31:17. | |
different to their income. You can be quite a high earner and anxious. | :31:18. | :31:23. | |
You can be quite a low earner and feeling aspirational and optimistic | :31:24. | :31:25. | |
about the future. I think this does get something else. In days gone by, | :31:26. | :31:33. | |
particularly in America, overwhelmingly, if you are in the | :31:34. | :31:38. | |
better of segment, you would be Republican and the blue-collar | :31:39. | :31:41. | |
workers and some academics and Liberals voted Democrat. In the last | :31:42. | :31:47. | |
election, the richest 200 counties in America voted Democrat. That is | :31:48. | :31:50. | |
an attitude thing. Income does not tell you how people will vote. There | :31:51. | :31:56. | |
is a huge, working-class base of support for the Republicans. It is | :31:57. | :32:01. | |
unavoidable. Add a time when people no longer identify with ideologies | :32:02. | :32:06. | |
or class blocks, you have to go the temperament and lifestyle and | :32:07. | :32:19. | |
manageable. In America there were 128 segments according to lifestyle | :32:20. | :32:23. | |
and Outlook. Once you get to that stage, it becomes close to useless. | :32:24. | :32:28. | |
We were talking about the budget earlier. What other polls saying | :32:29. | :32:35. | |
about the budget? The lead of labour has been narrowed over the | :32:36. | :32:43. | |
Conservatives. -- Labour. Osborne and Cameron as an academic team have | :32:44. | :32:50. | |
always had a lead over Miller band and Balls. This week it is about | :32:51. | :32:55. | |
economic management. -- over Mr Miller band. | :32:56. | :33:03. | |
Thank you for being with us today. It's just gone 11:30am. You're | :33:04. | :33:14. | |
watching the Sunday Politics. We say goodbye to viewers in Scotland, who | :33:15. | :33:17. | |
leave us now for Sunday Politics Scotland. Coming up here in 20 | :33:18. | :33:18. | |
minutes: Coming up later... Are schools ready | :33:19. | :33:41. | |
to provide more support for children with medical problems like dpilepsy? | :33:42. | :33:44. | |
We look at what the law says now. Both my guests in studio today have | :33:45. | :33:48. | |
a particular interest in th`t subject. Paul Carter has bedn the | :33:49. | :33:51. | |
leader of Kent County Counchl since 2005. Before that, he was in charge | :33:52. | :33:55. | |
of education in the county. Also with us today the Labour Prospective | :33:56. | :33:57. | |
Parliamentary Candidate for Crawley Chris Oxlade, who's also bedn a | :33:58. | :34:00. | |
fundraiser for epilepsy charities. Welcome to you both. Let's start | :34:01. | :34:03. | |
with what this week's budget means here in the South East. When George | :34:04. | :34:07. | |
Osborne stood up at the Dispatch Box on Wednesday afternoon he whll have | :34:08. | :34:11. | |
had a keen eye on the gener`l election next year. And before that | :34:12. | :34:14. | |
of course you get to vote in local and European Elections in M`y. Will | :34:15. | :34:18. | |
you be swayed by the Chancellor s measures on pensions or potholes? | :34:19. | :34:21. | |
Maybe the VAT saving on fuel for the Kent Surrey and Sussex | :34:22. | :34:24. | |
air`ambulances means the most to you. Then of course there's the | :34:25. | :34:26. | |
Ebbsfleet house`building announcement. And we'll comd to that | :34:27. | :34:30. | |
in a moment. Paul Carter, sdtting aside Ebbsfleet, because we will | :34:31. | :34:33. | |
talk about that in more det`il, what is the one announcement frol your | :34:34. | :34:36. | |
Conservative Chancellor that will make it easier for you to c`mpaign | :34:37. | :34:40. | |
ahead of local, European and the general election? Well, I think | :34:41. | :34:43. | |
there is something in it for everybody, as the Chancellor said. | :34:44. | :34:45. | |
Certainly, for the silver s`vers, certainly, pension changes. I think | :34:46. | :34:48. | |
everybody will be delighted, both businesses and individuals, that | :34:49. | :34:51. | |
fuel duty has been frozen for a further period, which is good news | :34:52. | :34:57. | |
for everybody. You mentioned the change to annuities that sole people | :34:58. | :35:01. | |
prefer to as take your penshon pot and do what you like with it, is | :35:02. | :35:05. | |
that enough to shore up Torx support? Against the UKIP strge in | :35:06. | :35:08. | |
the south`east? I think it's a very good policy. I have always thought | :35:09. | :35:12. | |
it was rather unfair that whth half of the pot you have to buy `n | :35:13. | :35:16. | |
annuity and if you're not in good health when you get to that age you | :35:17. | :35:20. | |
still have to buy an annuitx. So, I think there are all sorts of | :35:21. | :35:24. | |
benefits there and I think lost importantly, it will liven tp those | :35:25. | :35:27. | |
that provide those annuity policies to be more competitive and give | :35:28. | :35:30. | |
their customers more than they have in the past. Chris, it would be | :35:31. | :35:45. | |
interesting at the May elections, Crawley Borough Council, I lean | :35:46. | :35:48. | |
Crawley generally, is prettx marginal when it comes to politics. | :35:49. | :35:51. | |
You told me earlier, Labour needs just three seats to take ovdrall | :35:52. | :35:55. | |
control, so what is going to make a difference? What's going to win you | :35:56. | :35:58. | |
those three seats? The thing is what was missing from the btdget is | :35:59. | :36:01. | |
really what is affecting Cr`wley people at the moment. There's a huge | :36:02. | :36:05. | |
problem with low pay in the town, basically, there is a ?5,500 | :36:06. | :36:08. | |
difference from if you live and work in Crawley than if you work in | :36:09. | :36:11. | |
Crawley and live outside Cr`wley. And also, there is nothing hn the | :36:12. | :36:15. | |
budget that really affected anything from gas prices, electricitx prices | :36:16. | :36:18. | |
or childcare. Bingo, beer, do they make a difference at all? Wdll, we | :36:19. | :36:21. | |
saw from quite frankly the patronising ads that have bden | :36:22. | :36:24. | |
flying around the social media, exactly what the Conservatives think | :36:25. | :36:27. | |
about, so, although we have a big bingo hall right in the middle of | :36:28. | :36:31. | |
Crawley, drinking 320 pints to get one free doesn't really appdal to | :36:32. | :36:34. | |
most people. OK, so, for yot, it would have been about low w`ges Is | :36:35. | :36:38. | |
that what you would have wanted a Labour Chancellor to promisd? It's a | :36:39. | :36:41. | |
big issue in Crawley. We nedd to bring up that minimum wage like was | :36:42. | :36:45. | |
promised up to ?7, where it's sitting at the moment, you're | :36:46. | :36:48. | |
talking about just a few pence additions to people's incomds in | :36:49. | :36:51. | |
Crawley. Paul Carter, do yot think the minimum wage is high enough in | :36:52. | :36:54. | |
this country? I think it is appropriate. I think the good news | :36:55. | :36:58. | |
is that unemployment is going down. And that unexpected growth figure in | :36:59. | :37:01. | |
the economy is growing at 2.7% per year. Who would have dreamt of that | :37:02. | :37:05. | |
three, four years ago. That's really good news. And benefits going up by | :37:06. | :37:08. | |
inflation, linked to inflathon, over the coming years. OK. Well, let s | :37:09. | :37:12. | |
stick with the budget and the most dramatic announcement for the South | :37:13. | :37:15. | |
East. Plans to build a 'Garden City' of 15 thousand new homes in | :37:16. | :37:19. | |
Ebbsfleet in Kent. Now, it's not the first time plans have been looted. | :37:20. | :37:22. | |
In fact, permission was granted to start building there some ydars ago. | :37:23. | :37:25. | |
Here's the Chancellor speakhng on Wednesday. Now, the opposithon have | :37:26. | :37:28. | |
said that they have already announced their homes in Ebbsfleet a | :37:29. | :37:31. | |
decade ago. And they did make the announcement, and you know how many | :37:32. | :37:35. | |
homes have been built since then? Less than 300. It was more dbb than | :37:36. | :37:39. | |
fleet, and instead, we're going to build 15,000 homes there, ptt in the | :37:40. | :37:42. | |
infrastructure, set up the Development Corporation and make it | :37:43. | :37:45. | |
happen. It was more ebb than fleet. Let's find out a little bit more on | :37:46. | :37:49. | |
the details on this one. Let's hear from Doctor Hugh Ellis from the Town | :37:50. | :37:52. | |
and Country Planning Associ`tion. Thank you for joining us. Do you | :37:53. | :37:55. | |
welcome George Osborne's Ebbsfleet garden city? I think we do overall, | :37:56. | :37:59. | |
although the reservations are certainly there. This is not a new | :38:00. | :38:03. | |
amount of housing for the south`east. It has to be sahd in the | :38:04. | :38:07. | |
context of us needing 240,000 new homes per year, so we do have a | :38:08. | :38:11. | |
housing crisis to deal with. I think Ebbsfleet is a starting point on | :38:12. | :38:15. | |
that basis, but we are keen to understand whether it's new housing | :38:16. | :38:18. | |
or if you said, whether it's existing, planned housing, `nd what | :38:19. | :38:20. | |
the quality will be, and particularly what the affordability | :38:21. | :38:25. | |
will be. What does it need to be, to your mind? What is important when | :38:26. | :38:28. | |
this house`building project does get under way properly? Well, what the | :38:29. | :38:34. | |
Chancellor announced was a garden city, and if you're serious about a | :38:35. | :38:38. | |
garden city, that is a very powerful and high bar. It means very high | :38:39. | :38:41. | |
environmental standards, grden space, very powerful social housing | :38:42. | :38:45. | |
offered. But it also means long`term assets in the community, usdd for | :38:46. | :38:48. | |
the future benefit of that community. Because some of our | :38:49. | :38:52. | |
garden cities are still using their funds to reinvest in the colmunity. | :38:53. | :38:56. | |
It makes them financially self`sustaining. But all of us, of | :38:57. | :39:00. | |
course, need some very careful planning and it needs investment in | :39:01. | :39:04. | |
high quality. Is this why wd need an urban development Corporation? | :39:05. | :39:08. | |
Because whether or not it's new or old housing that is being | :39:09. | :39:12. | |
re`announced, it's got stuck. What does the Urban Development | :39:13. | :39:16. | |
Corporation do to unstick it? Well, I guess some of the issues `t | :39:17. | :39:19. | |
Ebbsfleet about joining up infrastructure provision and housing | :39:20. | :39:23. | |
have proved difficult. That's mainly due to lack of investment, but the | :39:24. | :39:26. | |
Urban Development Corporation is a body that is just very powerful | :39:27. | :39:29. | |
that can organise and plan `nd give planning permission in a very | :39:30. | :39:33. | |
effective and timely way. So, I guess that is what the government is | :39:34. | :39:37. | |
trying to deliver. It raises issues about how the communities involved | :39:38. | :39:40. | |
in that process would need to be sorted out. But on the whold, we | :39:41. | :39:44. | |
welcome it, because it will drive the sort of housing growth that we | :39:45. | :39:47. | |
need. You talked at the beghnning about the need for much higher | :39:48. | :39:50. | |
house`building numbers than we're seeing here. Politically, this is an | :39:51. | :39:53. | |
easy hit, isn't it? The comlunity pretty much has been expecthng there | :39:54. | :39:57. | |
to be a lot of house`building in North Kent for years and ye`rs. I | :39:58. | :40:00. | |
think in fact, they have bedn wondering where it is. It's also a | :40:01. | :40:09. | |
Brownfield site. Some of thd infrastructure is there. Will other | :40:10. | :40:12. | |
big developments of this nature be harder to sell? That's the crucial | :40:13. | :40:15. | |
question. If you really want to deal with the Southeast housing crisis, | :40:16. | :40:18. | |
you need to set housing provision in the context of England as a whole. | :40:19. | :40:22. | |
You'd need a programme of ndw garden cities. Some in the Southeast, some | :40:23. | :40:25. | |
elsewhere in England. And this really is the announcement of | :40:26. | :40:28. | |
existing provision. So, if the government is serious, it ndeds a | :40:29. | :40:31. | |
long`term strategy for houshng in this country. High`quality housing. | :40:32. | :40:34. | |
Which really takes in the n`tion as a whole and factors in some of the | :40:35. | :40:37. | |
opportunities and constraints that exist in the south`east. Th`nk you | :40:38. | :40:41. | |
very much indeed, Dr Ellis from the Town and Country Planning | :40:42. | :40:43. | |
Association. So, Paul Carter, let's pick up on this Urban Development | :40:44. | :40:46. | |
Corporation, to try to make this stuck project actually start | :40:47. | :40:49. | |
properly. Are you concerned about an unelected body getting control of | :40:50. | :40:54. | |
planning in your county? Well, I hope local government and dhstrict | :40:55. | :40:56. | |
councils and Kent County Cotncil have a role to play in that | :40:57. | :41:00. | |
Corporation. But the Development Corporation will have at his | :41:01. | :41:03. | |
disposal, some of the 200 mhllion that George Osborne announcdd on | :41:04. | :41:07. | |
budget day. And it will delhver carrots and sticks. The carrots are | :41:08. | :41:13. | |
a bit of money to help fund the necessary infrastructure. Btt the | :41:14. | :41:17. | |
sticks, and we await the detail on that, have got to be the pace of | :41:18. | :41:21. | |
delivery, because that site has had planning consent for many ydars now. | :41:22. | :41:27. | |
OK, so can you punish Land Securities? They are developer here. | :41:28. | :41:30. | |
Can you punish them for not getting on with it? Well, development | :41:31. | :41:33. | |
corporations historically h`ve always had compulsory purch`se | :41:34. | :41:36. | |
powers. So, get on with it, Land Securities, build a sensibld number | :41:37. | :41:40. | |
of houses quickly. To a good quality and good standard. And to bd fair to | :41:41. | :41:44. | |
Land Securities, the origin`l plans have always been for a very good | :41:45. | :41:47. | |
quality development in eastdrn quarry. But with a threat h`nging | :41:48. | :41:53. | |
over them that this could bd bought off them if they don't get on with | :41:54. | :41:57. | |
that? Absolutely right. And the zone also includes the Swanscombd | :41:58. | :41:59. | |
peninsula, where Paramount have got big plans and proposals which we | :42:00. | :42:04. | |
would all like to see happen. Again, there has got to be some tilelines | :42:05. | :42:07. | |
set, get the investment package together. But the planning consent | :42:08. | :42:13. | |
and develop and corporations have speedier planning powers. Gdt on | :42:14. | :42:16. | |
with the delivery, because that is what development corporations are | :42:17. | :42:19. | |
there for. The London Dockl`nds Development Corporation was highly | :42:20. | :42:21. | |
successful in lifting the Docklands and building at Canary Wharf. OK, | :42:22. | :42:25. | |
let's bring Chris in on this. Does this sound undemocratic? Or do you | :42:26. | :42:29. | |
think it is a good idea? I think, the thing is, you heard the | :42:30. | :42:31. | |
Chancellor talking about re`announcing something has happened | :42:32. | :42:35. | |
two years ago. It was announced that there would be 22,000 homes, so it's | :42:36. | :42:39. | |
lost 7,000 homes in just a couple of years. And we do need to look at the | :42:40. | :42:43. | |
big picture in general, bec`use the south`east, and if you take Crawley | :42:44. | :42:46. | |
in particular, is landlocked. Every other district and authoritx is | :42:47. | :42:49. | |
placing their development rhght on the edge of Crawley, so we've got to | :42:50. | :42:53. | |
use their site. We need to be able to use the land that is there. But | :42:54. | :42:58. | |
the delay here predates this coalition government. You hdard the | :42:59. | :43:01. | |
quote there from George Osborne that under Labour, it's been mord ebb | :43:02. | :43:05. | |
than fleet. A great choice of words! It's true. This has been mooted | :43:06. | :43:08. | |
since well into the last Labour government. From what I unddrstand, | :43:09. | :43:13. | |
there have been a lot of issues over the years. I think Paul listed a | :43:14. | :43:16. | |
whole load of people that gdt involved with these decisions. And | :43:17. | :43:19. | |
that has been the issue, thd time delay. But again, announcing it two | :43:20. | :43:23. | |
years ago and losing all of those homes, it is quite an interdsting | :43:24. | :43:27. | |
take from the Chancellor. C`n I say that local government has not | :43:28. | :43:30. | |
dragged its feet in any way. Not Dartford Council, not Gravesham not | :43:31. | :43:33. | |
Kent County Council. We havd done everything to help support `nd | :43:34. | :43:36. | |
facilitate and flex to enable Land Securities to build the significant | :43:37. | :43:39. | |
numbers of homes. And we're disappointed with the current | :43:40. | :43:43. | |
ambition. This means local democracy doesn't work. Here you both are | :43:44. | :43:45. | |
representatives of local delocracy, and yet the government's decision is | :43:46. | :43:49. | |
to hand it over to another tnelected group. Does that worry you? Well, | :43:50. | :43:54. | |
let's hope in partnership whth local government, because we're hdre to | :43:55. | :43:57. | |
help and assist, but we awaht that detail. OK, let me bring yot back | :43:58. | :44:01. | |
in, Chris, because you grew up in, you work in, you represent Crawley, | :44:02. | :44:05. | |
a new town. I know it very well I grew up just a few miles aw`y in | :44:06. | :44:09. | |
Horsham. What would you say are the lessons of Crawley, the dos and | :44:10. | :44:12. | |
don'ts? Crawley has been designed. There are problems in Crawldy, but | :44:13. | :44:16. | |
for the most part, we have kept low high`rise. We've made sure that the | :44:17. | :44:19. | |
living conditions for peopld and the environment is somewhere th`t people | :44:20. | :44:23. | |
want to come and live in Cr`wley and work in Crawley. And the problem is, | :44:24. | :44:26. | |
like I mentioned before, because it is landlocked, there's a very, very | :44:27. | :44:29. | |
small space for Crawley. And also, with the issues with Gatwick | :44:30. | :44:33. | |
Airport, we have an awful lot of land that is held off from the | :44:34. | :44:36. | |
possible expansion at Gatwick. And because we have got land all around | :44:37. | :44:40. | |
us, Horsham have just placed a two and half thousand home development | :44:41. | :44:43. | |
on the edge of Crawley. Milds away from Horsham. It's turning hnto one | :44:44. | :44:47. | |
big city by the sounds of it, Crawley and Horsham. What wd need to | :44:48. | :44:50. | |
do, it's like under Labour's right to grow, because we need to be able | :44:51. | :44:54. | |
to use that land and the current administration, this governlent has | :44:55. | :44:57. | |
basically put in ideas that authorities have to work together. | :44:58. | :45:00. | |
But there is no actual determination to make that actually happen. Sounds | :45:01. | :45:03. | |
like it might be tense on the Crawley Horsham border. Let's move | :45:04. | :45:07. | |
on to the story I mentioned at the beginning that you both havd a | :45:08. | :45:10. | |
serious interest in. If your child has a long`term medical condition | :45:11. | :45:14. | |
you may find it hard to get the help they need at school. But a new law | :45:15. | :45:18. | |
that came into effect this week means that, from September, schools | :45:19. | :45:21. | |
will be obliged to put in place specialist support not just for | :45:22. | :45:23. | |
children with special education needs, but for children with medical | :45:24. | :45:26. | |
problems too. Like epilepsy. Sara Neville reports from West Stssex. | :45:27. | :45:32. | |
Sonny comes from a large falily They work together, play together, | :45:33. | :45:39. | |
each together. 11`year`old Sophie Beadon from Crawley has epilepsy and | :45:40. | :45:45. | |
mild learning difficulties. But her epilepsy is a hidden problel. | :45:46. | :45:50. | |
Because seizures happen at night. Often leaving her feeling exhausted | :45:51. | :45:54. | |
during school. Sophie is at a special school. She pulled out of | :45:55. | :45:58. | |
mainstream education where she found school life difficult. Sophhe could | :45:59. | :46:04. | |
probably have stayed in a m`instream school, if they were aware of her | :46:05. | :46:07. | |
illness, they were educated about her illness. Understood it. There | :46:08. | :46:14. | |
are 40 different kinds of epilepsy which affects over 100,000 xoung | :46:15. | :46:20. | |
people in the UK, or one in 200 To put that into context, it is an | :46:21. | :46:24. | |
average of one child in every primary school or five in every | :46:25. | :46:34. | |
secondary school. Currently, experts say school support for suffdrers is | :46:35. | :46:38. | |
a lottery. But from Septembdr, for the first time, schools will have a | :46:39. | :46:42. | |
legal duty to give individu`l support to children with medical | :46:43. | :46:47. | |
conditions like epilepsy. Working alongside other agencies in health | :46:48. | :46:51. | |
and welfare. And it is vulndrable children like Sophie who ard at the | :46:52. | :46:58. | |
heart of the changes. The Children And Families Act is a huge step for | :46:59. | :47:02. | |
children who suffer from ephlepsy. This is because it recognisds the | :47:03. | :47:05. | |
problem that they have in tdrms of learning and sometimes behavioural | :47:06. | :47:08. | |
problems in the classroom and introduces a requirement for schools | :47:09. | :47:10. | |
to have tailored support packages for them. Here in Lingfield, the | :47:11. | :47:18. | |
charity Young Epilepsy runs a unique facility to assess children with the | :47:19. | :47:21. | |
condition. Researchers have known for years that there is a lhnk | :47:22. | :47:25. | |
between epilepsy and poor academic progress. Now, they have proved it | :47:26. | :47:29. | |
conclusively with the compldtion of a pioneering three`year study | :47:30. | :47:32. | |
carried out in 40 West Sussdx schools. It reveals for the first | :47:33. | :47:38. | |
time that 95% of children whth epilepsy are failing to fulfil their | :47:39. | :47:44. | |
potential. Often due to learning or behavioural issues that are missed | :47:45. | :47:55. | |
by teachers. Ready? Steady? Go. There are no final details from | :47:56. | :47:58. | |
government about how schools should implement the new laws. The charity | :47:59. | :48:01. | |
says there are questions about schools' readiness. We know that the | :48:02. | :48:06. | |
current system is failing on people with epilepsy. Even people who have | :48:07. | :48:08. | |
got epilepsy that seems well`managed, they are still | :48:09. | :48:14. | |
failing. A lot of owners will go on to the schools. Schools would be | :48:15. | :48:17. | |
required to provide support plans for young people, and what Xoung | :48:18. | :48:20. | |
Epilepsy is saying, we can help you. We've developed a tool that will | :48:21. | :48:24. | |
help schools, teachers, to be able to assess the needs of young people | :48:25. | :48:29. | |
with epilepsy. The government says nationwide there is a raft of | :48:30. | :48:32. | |
support available to help authorities prepare for the reforms. | :48:33. | :48:36. | |
Including a ?70 million grant for changes in special educational | :48:37. | :48:41. | |
needs. And ?30 million to rdcruit and train almost 2,000 so`c`lled | :48:42. | :48:44. | |
champions who will guide parents through the new system. But | :48:45. | :48:50. | |
mainstream teachers say thex will need ongoing support and | :48:51. | :48:53. | |
collaboration to make the rdforms work. Rather than simply sax, it's | :48:54. | :49:00. | |
another expectation on schools, there must be some support. Schools | :49:01. | :49:03. | |
will need help. They'll need to work together and they will need some | :49:04. | :49:06. | |
sort of structure, I think, provided for this. And could there also be | :49:07. | :49:11. | |
unintended consequences for the young people who are meant to | :49:12. | :49:17. | |
benefit? The pressure over time will be that mainstream schools `re more | :49:18. | :49:21. | |
reluctant to take on some youngsters who have complex needs, which are | :49:22. | :49:23. | |
going to impair their acadelic progress, and we are possibly likely | :49:24. | :49:27. | |
to see an increase in referrals to special schools who are alrdady | :49:28. | :49:30. | |
under enormous pressure to leet an increasing demand of complex needs | :49:31. | :49:40. | |
youngsters. Sophie's experidnce is not uncommon and it is hoped that | :49:41. | :49:44. | |
this new act will transform the way children with additional nedds are | :49:45. | :49:49. | |
supported at school. But thdre is still a lot to do. And the puestion | :49:50. | :49:53. | |
remains, will schools be re`dy or able to take on this extra | :49:54. | :49:55. | |
responsibility? Chris, for the first time, children | :49:56. | :50:04. | |
like Sophie with epilepsy and other medical conditions also will have | :50:05. | :50:07. | |
the right to expect their school to teach them, but also look after them | :50:08. | :50:11. | |
accordingly. That has got to be a good thing? Absolutely. One of the | :50:12. | :50:15. | |
flaws in the system has been this sort of multi`agency approach where | :50:16. | :50:18. | |
the communication hasn't bedn great. But with the new scheme, wh`t we're | :50:19. | :50:22. | |
aiming at is that the parents sit down with a different multi`agency | :50:23. | :50:25. | |
from the start. And actuallx work out in detail what is best for their | :50:26. | :50:29. | |
child. So there is more involvement from the parents and the chhld. | :50:30. | :50:32. | |
Absolutely. West Sussex County Council along with Paul's atthority | :50:33. | :50:35. | |
Kent County Council, have bden piloting some of the ideas here | :50:36. | :50:39. | |
what has been learned so far, do you think? So far, it's giving what | :50:40. | :50:42. | |
parents want. It's making stre that we listen to what the parents needs | :50:43. | :50:46. | |
are, and what their child ndeds to go to a special school for | :50:47. | :50:49. | |
mainstream education. It's whatever is best for that family and for that | :50:50. | :50:52. | |
child as well. But addition`lly Paul Carter, the thing that parents, | :50:53. | :50:56. | |
I have heard this every timd I speak to somebody with a child with | :50:57. | :50:59. | |
special education needs, thdy talk about battles and fights. Is the | :51:00. | :51:03. | |
fight and the battle going to go away with this new legislathon or | :51:04. | :51:06. | |
will it still be there to gdt what you want, what you believe xour | :51:07. | :51:09. | |
child needs? Well, I quite understand that parents alw`ys want | :51:10. | :51:13. | |
to do the very best for thehr child. And going through the statelent | :51:14. | :51:16. | |
process is never easy. Therd's gatekeeping and thresholds to be | :51:17. | :51:19. | |
set, to make the best use of public money and to provide the very best | :51:20. | :51:23. | |
educational support. And th`t can be bureaucratic and a big fog for a | :51:24. | :51:26. | |
number of parents. This adds another layer to that, because it is not | :51:27. | :51:30. | |
just a statement of educational need, it is a statement of | :51:31. | :51:33. | |
educational and health need. And my concern is that the primary health | :51:34. | :51:36. | |
providers, GPs and others, haven't yet woken up to the responshbility | :51:37. | :51:39. | |
that is coming their way from September this year. But it is also | :51:40. | :51:45. | |
coming to school, and I guess this is the question, Paul, this is a big | :51:46. | :51:48. | |
ask for schools and for loc`l authorities. But is there enough | :51:49. | :51:51. | |
money there to do what the legislation requires? There's some | :51:52. | :51:56. | |
additional money to go throtgh the new process. It's ?70 million. And | :51:57. | :51:59. | |
that is only to go through the process, that is not year`on`year. | :52:00. | :52:02. | |
There are 34,000 schools in Britain. I know it will not be handed out | :52:03. | :52:06. | |
evenly, but just assuming it was, that is ?4,000 per school, that is | :52:07. | :52:10. | |
not a lot of money. But in ly view, it is not just the education | :52:11. | :52:14. | |
providers that have to provhde the extra support. There's a massive | :52:15. | :52:17. | |
demand and need for speech `nd language therapists in schools that | :52:18. | :52:20. | |
should be provided by the hdalth side of the partnership working | :52:21. | :52:23. | |
This statement of health nedd will make the providers of the hdalth | :52:24. | :52:26. | |
provision deliver that into the schools alongside the education | :52:27. | :52:33. | |
provision. I think there is a big communication issue to make sure | :52:34. | :52:36. | |
that the health providers rdalise the responsibilities that are now | :52:37. | :52:43. | |
coming their way. But children spend most of their time in schools and | :52:44. | :52:46. | |
the schools are only being charged, Chris Oxlade, with using, and this | :52:47. | :52:50. | |
is the quote, using their bdst endeavours to provide what ` child | :52:51. | :52:55. | |
needs. That's a bit vague. Ht is. But the thing is, it needs to go | :52:56. | :52:59. | |
back to the start again, because we need to find out exactly wh`t those | :53:00. | :53:02. | |
children and what those famhlies need. There's no point putthng them | :53:03. | :53:05. | |
into the mainstream education or even to a special school if that is | :53:06. | :53:10. | |
not what is best for them. So, the old system was talking to dhfferent | :53:11. | :53:13. | |
agencies at different times and the whole process this time will be | :53:14. | :53:16. | |
actually sitting down right at the start and making sure we iddntify | :53:17. | :53:20. | |
what those needs are. And P`ul is right. With the health servhce, it | :53:21. | :53:23. | |
is making sure that with thd break`up of the health servhces that | :53:24. | :53:27. | |
you look at in West Sussex, although it is closer working in somd areas, | :53:28. | :53:30. | |
it is making sure the implementation, which I'm ddeply | :53:31. | :53:32. | |
concerned about... Although the parents come back very proactively | :53:33. | :53:35. | |
and in support of this procdss, what will happen from September when it | :53:36. | :53:38. | |
actually comes in? The government haven't said exactly what is going | :53:39. | :53:42. | |
to happen and that is the bhg concern. Thank you both verx much. | :53:43. | :53:46. | |
And now for a round`up of the other political events that you mhght have | :53:47. | :53:49. | |
missed this week with James Fitzgerald. | :53:50. | :53:53. | |
The future of loss`making M`nston Airport is up in the air. It's begun | :53:54. | :53:57. | |
a consultation over the possible closure. The government said the | :53:58. | :54:01. | |
move was disturbing. Locals were concerned about job losses. The | :54:02. | :54:04. | |
whole of Ramsgate and Margate is just going downhill, isn't ht? | :54:05. | :54:08. | |
Eastbourne Lib Dem Stephen Lloyd has taken up the cause of the f`mily of | :54:09. | :54:11. | |
Lance Corporal Michael Prichard whose death in friendly fird in | :54:12. | :54:14. | |
Afghanistan may have resultdd from poor equipment. There's the apology | :54:15. | :54:18. | |
which I will be pressing and also, I want assurances that there has been | :54:19. | :54:21. | |
a real learning here. Canterbury MP Julian Brazier believes that he s | :54:22. | :54:24. | |
found legislation within thd Local Government Act that would allow | :54:25. | :54:27. | |
councils ban the sale of legal highs. Home Office Minister Norman | :54:28. | :54:32. | |
Baker, also the MP for Lewis, said he would consider it. Laura Sands, | :54:33. | :54:38. | |
the MP for South Thanet has launched EU plus, a campaign for continued | :54:39. | :54:41. | |
relationship with the Europdan Union plus global trading opportunities. | :54:42. | :54:47. | |
We need to reform, but we nded to know that our future is within | :54:48. | :54:50. | |
Europe and making and shaping Europe. | :54:51. | :54:57. | |
OK, we have got the Ebbsfledt announcement, could Manston Airport | :54:58. | :55:02. | |
be another site for a major housing development? Well, let's go through | :55:03. | :55:06. | |
the 45 day consultation with staff. I think there is still a little hope | :55:07. | :55:12. | |
there. Do you want it to st`y as an airport? Of course. I have worked | :55:13. | :55:15. | |
enormously hard. I have alw`ys said it is one of the biggest potential | :55:16. | :55:18. | |
drivers of increasing significantly employment in East Kent. And East | :55:19. | :55:21. | |
Kent needs more employment opportunities. So, enormously sad. | :55:22. | :55:24. | |
We need to work with the new owners, work with the government and see | :55:25. | :55:27. | |
whether there is the possibhlity of any sort of rescue plan. Chris, you | :55:28. | :55:31. | |
have got Gatwick in your prospective constituency, for everyone hn the | :55:32. | :55:34. | |
south`east, who is west of @shford, that is their local airport, they do | :55:35. | :55:37. | |
not need Manston, do they? Gatwick has gone from strength to strength | :55:38. | :55:40. | |
and obviously there is the prospective second runway issue | :55:41. | :55:43. | |
coming later in 2015. We nedd to diversify a little bit with travel, | :55:44. | :55:46. | |
and particularly with air travel in the south`east. It's very s`d for | :55:47. | :55:52. | |
Manston and the staff and the people that work there. Thank you very much | :55:53. | :55:56. | |
indeed, nice to meet you, Chris with his very first Sunday Politics | :55:57. | :55:59. | |
in the south`east and Paul, thank you too. That is all we havd got | :56:00. | :56:04. | |
time for this week. My thanks to our guests, Paul Carter and Chrhs | :56:05. | :56:07. | |
Oxlade. Natalie will be herd next week with more politics frol the | :56:08. | :56:08. | |
South East. decision, she will weigh up the | :56:09. | :56:23. | |
The big news is the popular server is struggling to control all of the | :56:24. | :56:39. | |
people who want to find out where they fit in the political spectrum. | :56:40. | :56:44. | |
It hasn't quite crashed but it is queueing up those people. Who would | :56:45. | :56:48. | |
have thought the Sunday Politics had so many viewers? It has never | :56:49. | :56:58. | |
happened on the X factor. This morning's papers don't make | :56:59. | :57:01. | |
comfortable reading for Labour with two separate polls showing the | :57:02. | :57:04. | |
party's lead over the Tories is down to just one point. And there's been | :57:05. | :57:07. | |
plenty of criticism of Ed Miliband's response to the Budget. Let's take a | :57:08. | :57:10. | |
look. You know you are in trouble when even the Education Secretary | :57:11. | :57:13. | |
calls you and out of touch bunch of elitist. Where is he? He is hiding! | :57:14. | :57:26. | |
I think he has been consigned to the naughty step by the Prime Minister. | :57:27. | :57:33. | |
The naughty step! And we're joined now by shadow chief secretary to the | :57:34. | :57:37. | |
Treasury, Chris Leslie. There was a widely criticised response by Ed | :57:38. | :57:41. | |
Balls to the Autumn Statement, now a widely criticised response by Ed | :57:42. | :57:48. | |
Miliband to the Budget. Does this show you are struggling at the | :57:49. | :57:53. | |
moment? Of course Ed Balls and Ed Miliband don't want to hear the fact | :57:54. | :57:59. | |
that in reality, for most people, life is getting harder and there is | :58:00. | :58:03. | |
the cost of living crisis. Did we get any mention of that in the | :58:04. | :58:12. | |
Budget? Of course we didn't. We were waiting for action on the cost of | :58:13. | :58:16. | |
living and it wasn't forthcoming. Ed Miliband came up with the tactic of | :58:17. | :58:21. | |
responding to the Budget without mentioning anything that was in it. | :58:22. | :58:27. | |
He mentioned the fact the personal tax allowance was a bit of a | :58:28. | :58:30. | |
giveaway but he takes more with the other hand. He is in favour of that, | :58:31. | :58:37. | |
right? Anything we can get but we need a lot more. Let me tell you | :58:38. | :58:42. | |
something else he mentioned, the fact the national debt has risen by | :58:43. | :58:50. | |
a third and George Osborne and David Cameron... They knew that before the | :58:51. | :58:54. | |
Budget. The borrowing figures were announced and Ed Miliband made | :58:55. | :58:59. | |
reference to those. There is not a lot of happiness on Labour | :59:00. | :59:04. | |
backbenchers about this, is there? And indeed not a lot of happiness in | :59:05. | :59:09. | |
the shadow cabinet. There is concern that Ed Miliband is on a journey to | :59:10. | :59:15. | |
remodel world capitalism whilst George Osborne is firing some love | :59:16. | :59:18. | |
bombs at Middle England by talking about freeing up the pensions market | :59:19. | :59:23. | |
and there is real nerves that what Ed Miliband is saying is not going | :59:24. | :59:28. | |
to be in tune with those middle income earners that the Labour Party | :59:29. | :59:34. | |
has got to attract if they are going to win the general election. When | :59:35. | :59:41. | |
Rachel Reeves used the medium of Radio 4 to announce you were broadly | :59:42. | :59:45. | |
in favour of the pension reforms announced by the Chancellor on | :59:46. | :59:48. | |
Friday night, was that a result of a decision taken by the shadow | :59:49. | :59:58. | |
cabinet? Is With annuities, they are a very old-fashioned product. There | :59:59. | :00:05. | |
are some serious questions which need to be addressed. Was that the | :00:06. | :00:12. | |
result of a Shadow Cabinet decision? We have not had a Shadow | :00:13. | :00:17. | |
Cabinet since the budget. We all want to make sure that we understand | :00:18. | :00:21. | |
the point about flexibility. No one is arguing with that. There are some | :00:22. | :00:27. | |
serious concerns. Let me give you a couple of examples. This is | :00:28. | :00:30. | |
something the Chancellor has done, he claims, for reasons of freedom | :00:31. | :00:35. | |
and flexibility. Is it a coincidence he is grabbing quite a lot of tax | :00:36. | :00:39. | |
from pensioners early on to plug a hole which is necessary because the | :00:40. | :00:46. | |
deficit has not gone down? Forgive me for being slightly cynical about | :00:47. | :00:52. | |
motives. For or against it? We need to have safeguards for protection of | :00:53. | :00:57. | |
pensioners. What will it do for the annuity market if most people still | :00:58. | :01:01. | |
want to have a steadying come for a third of their lives? -- steady | :01:02. | :01:09. | |
income. What does Labour have to do to get it show back on the road The | :01:10. | :01:17. | |
question is, how do people feel How many people will still not be | :01:18. | :01:21. | |
feeling better by the next election? Wages may be rising slightly but not | :01:22. | :01:25. | |
for a large and significant number of people. They were just looking at | :01:26. | :01:30. | |
the YouGov poll. If you look at the middle to low earners, they are | :01:31. | :01:33. | |
overwhelmingly pro-labour. Can Labour get those people out to vote? | :01:34. | :01:39. | |
They are really hurting. There are plenty of them. The question is | :01:40. | :01:43. | |
whether people are optimistic because they see figures as if they | :01:44. | :01:47. | |
look as if they are on the up or whether they vote according to how | :01:48. | :01:53. | |
they feel, which will still be very far behind. Cost of living has been | :01:54. | :01:57. | |
a major mantra from Labour. That's that this chart shows how things are | :01:58. | :02:03. | |
beginning to change. What this shows is that, sometime this year, after a | :02:04. | :02:08. | |
long time at which average earnings trailed inflation, they now overtake | :02:09. | :02:12. | |
it in the run-up to the election and they stay there for the forecast | :02:13. | :02:20. | |
period. What do you now do if your cost of living mantra is running out | :02:21. | :02:25. | |
of steam? I am not sure that, for most people, they will recognise the | :02:26. | :02:30. | |
sense that suddenly things will be getting better. Particularly the | :02:31. | :02:32. | |
younger generation are really feeling quite down about the | :02:33. | :02:39. | |
pressures they are facing to make ends meet. You can see the lines are | :02:40. | :02:46. | |
exaggerated because the Y axis on the side starts quite high up. It | :02:47. | :02:51. | |
does not start at zero. The other statistic from the OBR is that we | :02:52. | :02:54. | |
will not be getting back to the point where wages are exceeding | :02:55. | :02:59. | |
prices from the pre-banking crisis period until late 2017. There are | :03:00. | :03:06. | |
some really serious pressures that people are under. What they wanted | :03:07. | :03:10. | |
was a budget that would address concerns and, for the vast majority | :03:11. | :03:16. | |
of people, they will have heard the statement by George Osborne and | :03:17. | :03:21. | |
think, how is it really help them now? It did not address it. It is | :03:22. | :03:29. | |
clear that by 2015, average living standards will probably not have | :03:30. | :03:34. | |
returned to where they were in 2010. Average wages will not have | :03:35. | :03:38. | |
done that. On the other hand, the chart shows the sense of direction | :03:39. | :03:42. | |
is moving in the right way. Which one matters more with the | :03:43. | :03:48. | |
electorate? I suspect it is sense of direction. People sense of | :03:49. | :03:51. | |
prosperity does not need to be buoyant. It has to be something | :03:52. | :03:56. | |
worth preserving. We have to fear the all turn. That is what intrigued | :03:57. | :04:02. | |
me this week. People make too much of a fuss about the Parliamentary | :04:03. | :04:06. | |
response by Ed Miliband. People will forgive a bad day at the dispatch | :04:07. | :04:12. | |
box. What they will not forgive is the absence of a macro economic | :04:13. | :04:19. | |
mess. Labour have a very powerful message on living standards and lots | :04:20. | :04:23. | |
of popular, targeted interventions like the energy price freeze. You | :04:24. | :04:29. | |
can imagine they will be sufficiently nervous about that next | :04:30. | :04:34. | |
year. If living standards are not back to where they were, Labour can | :04:35. | :04:43. | |
say, are you better off now than when you were four years ago? The | :04:44. | :04:50. | |
reason why break and -- wallowed waken one that is because Jimmy | :04:51. | :05:03. | |
Carter mucked it up -- Ronald Reagan. Labour have to say, vote for | :05:04. | :05:11. | |
us and you will get 2 million homes. At the moment, the offer is very | :05:12. | :05:15. | |
modest. You need to find the money to do that. People need to | :05:16. | :05:18. | |
understand that housing is at the very heart of the economy, as well | :05:19. | :05:22. | |
as young people and their aspirations. At the moment, Labour | :05:23. | :05:29. | |
's offer is not spectacular in. If the focus group shows the cost of | :05:30. | :05:32. | |
living crisis have no longer has the attraction it did, what line do you | :05:33. | :05:38. | |
move onto? Yellow McCoy must remind people of the wasted years and the | :05:39. | :05:41. | |
cost of living pressures they have been under. -- we must remind | :05:42. | :05:48. | |
people. We want a recovery which has low growth, low wage. A race to the | :05:49. | :05:57. | |
bottom. They want a recovery that is felt by everyone, shared and felt by | :05:58. | :06:04. | |
all. Now, here's an idea to twist your melon. Mark Berry, better known | :06:05. | :06:08. | |
as Bez, it says here he's a member of something called The Happy | :06:09. | :06:11. | |
Mondays, wants to stand for parliament. He's best known for | :06:12. | :06:14. | |
being in a band, and not doing very much, so he might fit in. Here he is | :06:15. | :06:19. | |
in action. And Bez joins us from our Salford | :06:20. | :06:48. | |
studio. Good to see you. Is this a genuine candidacy or are you | :06:49. | :06:55. | |
twisting my melon? Amazing how time flies when you're having fun! You | :06:56. | :07:04. | |
having fun doing this candidacy I am doing the job of the politicians | :07:05. | :07:09. | |
and standing up for the people and bringing attention to the horror of | :07:10. | :07:14. | |
fracking, which is a totally unsafe technology. There is no one in | :07:15. | :07:18. | |
mainstream politics who is discussing or saying anything about | :07:19. | :07:24. | |
it. It is an unsafe technology and it has been proven in America. You | :07:25. | :07:28. | |
see the process in America and the people out on the streets. The whole | :07:29. | :07:38. | |
atmosphere has been made toxic. These people are allowing it to | :07:39. | :07:43. | |
happen in the name of profit. This has been a Labour seat you are | :07:44. | :07:49. | |
fighting in Salford since 1945. It is a tough mountain. Supposing you | :07:50. | :07:55. | |
were to win, could you ever see yourself entering a coalition? With | :07:56. | :08:01. | |
a bit of luck I may be able to shame Labour politicians to do the job | :08:02. | :08:05. | |
properly and stand up for the rights of people. They are not and I am | :08:06. | :08:09. | |
having to do that job. All I am doing is causing debate and bringing | :08:10. | :08:14. | |
to attention the horror that is hanging on our doorsteps. It is not | :08:15. | :08:18. | |
only fracking but GM modified foods that they want to bring into this | :08:19. | :08:23. | |
country as well. Owen Paterson is one of the main lobbyists. Lobbying | :08:24. | :08:32. | |
is legalised bribery, by the way. It is run by the bankers. Basically, we | :08:33. | :08:37. | |
have to stop these monsters from getting into our country and turning | :08:38. | :08:42. | |
our land into a toxic waste. That is what I am trying to say. You are | :08:43. | :08:48. | |
raising the debate, as you are doing with us here. We do not really need | :08:49. | :08:54. | |
fracking. You have done that and you have talked about other things as | :08:55. | :08:58. | |
well. In terms of a new integrity, if you were to become an MP, would | :08:59. | :09:06. | |
you claim expenses? If I ever do get in charge, I would completely enter | :09:07. | :09:09. | |
the banking system and there would be expensive, but they would be like | :09:10. | :09:14. | |
bus passes and train passes. You behave like the people and you are | :09:15. | :09:18. | |
in touch with the people, you move with the people and do understand | :09:19. | :09:24. | |
what the people want. You do not live in acre Kuhn of your own making | :09:25. | :09:28. | |
of luxury, wealth and total disregard of everyone else. -- a | :09:29. | :09:35. | |
cocoon. If you did get into the Palace of Westminster and had to | :09:36. | :09:39. | |
mingle with all these people, who would you rather have in night out | :09:40. | :09:45. | |
with - Mr Cameron, Mr Miller band or Mr Clegg? I would be willing to | :09:46. | :09:54. | |
discuss politics with anybody. I would make them realise what they | :09:55. | :10:02. | |
are doing. I am glad too have a debate and with anyone. The people | :10:03. | :10:08. | |
of Salford, quite a lot people people behind me. I have been | :10:09. | :10:15. | |
speaking to Salford councillors They are going to lend me their | :10:16. | :10:23. | |
support. The people of Salford, and not to forget the people of Eccles, | :10:24. | :10:29. | |
sending you much. We must stop this horror. There is a monster on our | :10:30. | :10:33. | |
doorstep and we must stop it, people. Do not forget to take your | :10:34. | :10:39. | |
maracas on campaign trail. Would you like a pair to shake yourself? You | :10:40. | :10:47. | |
shake your maracas against fracking! Thanks, Bez, goodbye. Thank you for | :10:48. | :10:53. | |
giving me a little platform to express my views. Now if there's one | :10:54. | :11:00. | |
thing that gets us hot under the collar here at the Sunday Politics | :11:01. | :11:03. | |
it's European elections. The only thing we like more than the | :11:04. | :11:06. | |
elections themselves is a TV debate about them. And we're in luck! Take | :11:07. | :11:10. | |
a look at this. Ladies and gentlemen, please welcome leader of | :11:11. | :11:14. | |
the Liberal Democrats and Deputy Prime Minister, Nick Clegg. Gives | :11:15. | :11:21. | |
the most fantastic welcome to Nigel Farage. I would challenge Nigel | :11:22. | :11:30. | |
Farage to a public, open debate about whether she we should be out | :11:31. | :11:37. | |
all in of the European Union. I will do it for Nick Clegg. Since 200 , I | :11:38. | :11:48. | |
have taken part in 45% of votes in the European Parliament. Nigel | :11:49. | :11:54. | |
Farage has not tabled a single amendment since July 2009. Mr Clegg | :11:55. | :12:02. | |
has only taken part in 22% of votes in the House of commons. You can | :12:03. | :12:10. | |
watch the debate at 7pm on the nd of April over on BBC Two. And for a | :12:11. | :12:22. | |
chance to be part of the studio audience on the night and put your | :12:23. | :12:25. | |
question to the two party leaders, e-mail the question you'd like to | :12:26. | :12:28. | |
ask to [email protected] or tweet it using the hashtag | :12:29. | :12:30. | |
#europedebate. And Nick Clegg and Nigel Farage will be limbering up | :12:31. | :12:33. | |
this week with their first debate on LBC radio on Wednesday. Who is going | :12:34. | :12:41. | |
to come out the best? I suspect Nigel Farage. It is easy to portray | :12:42. | :12:47. | |
Nick Clegg as morally compromised, who has not asserted himself in | :12:48. | :12:52. | |
government. I do wonder about Nigel Farage, whether he is much better at | :12:53. | :12:56. | |
delivering a popular line and responding to the second question of | :12:57. | :13:01. | |
third question. Nick Clegg will win it hands over fist because he knows | :13:02. | :13:06. | |
this stuff. He is right. The evidence that he can produce about | :13:07. | :13:09. | |
what will happen if we pulled out of Europe will, I think, overwhelm | :13:10. | :13:17. | |
Nigel Farage 's one-liners. They will both be winners because you | :13:18. | :13:24. | |
will have the rare sight of the pro-European saying he likes the | :13:25. | :13:29. | |
European Union. That is unlike Eurosceptics who tie themselves up | :13:30. | :13:34. | |
in knots. 14 Nigel, one for Nick and one for both. There you go. Here is | :13:35. | :13:48. | |
a mess, it is Janen Ganesh. That's all for today. The Daily Politics is | :13:49. | :13:51. | |
on BBC Two at Lunchtime every day this week, I'll be back here next | :13:52. | :13:55. | |
week with Energy Secretary Ed Davey. Remember if it's Sunday, it's the | :13:56. | :13:56. | |
Sunday Politics. | :13:57. | :14:02. |