25/03/2012 Sunday Politics South West

An allegation of assault has made every three days him of impatience

using the mental health services. Why is it so difficult to get

Apology for the loss of subtitles for 1824 seconds

Hello and welcome to the Sunday Politics in the South West. In a

moment we'll hear from one of the region's Lib Dem councillors who

says the coalition budget is unfair and bad for growth.

Here with me - I suspect to say the Budget was just what the doctor

ordered - is Totnes MP and GP Sarah Wollaston. Also Plymouth MP Alison

Seabeck who almost certainly thinks the chancellor is a bit of a quack

who's trying to flog us his snake oil. A big announcement which I

know you'll be interested in, the government saying it is looking at

introducing a minimum price for alcohol. Why was this announcements

made on a Friday? Many MPs back in their constituencies, things

connecting with swine flu, it could it be to cover up a fuss over the

budget? We have over a million people being sent to hospital a

year, 700,000 children living with an alcohol dependent parent.

Something needed to be done and it will be done now. The alcohol

strategy is superb news. I am here in the South West talking about it

and that is great. We are very glad. Alison, the official response from

Labour is that this is broadly a good thing. Something that Yvette

Cooper support. But others have said it is a headline grabbing

gimmick and does not work. Ben has got strong views, I am more with

Sarah on this one, I think we have reached a crisis point. We did it a

little while ago. Too many young people, too many are going in with

liver problems. Additional crime, domestic violence and everything

else that goes with alcohol consumption. These are pilots and

pilots should always be given an opportunity. We used to see people

being drunk for 68p, we will see an end to that.

There may have been some gnashing of teeth at Number 11 Downing

Street over the last few days. With an eye on the likely political

fall-out, the chancellor had clearly put a great deal of thought

into the way he announced his decision to scrap the top 50p tax

rate in the Budget. But the best laid plans...As things turned out

it wasn't the top rate tax but the so-called "granny tax" - not of

course the Chancellor's description - which caused the fiercest outcry.

Here's Tamsin Melville. It's the morning after the night

before for life-long Liberal Daphne Watts. And she's not happy. I put

down on a piece of paper before the Budget I wanted to see fairness and

growth, and I put alongside that have they achieved it? They did not.

Daphne's particularly concerned about the so-called granny tax

that's going to hit tens of thousands of south west pensioners

like her in the pocket. As the allowance with us on the vine, my

balance of money will go down. Goodness knows it is bad enough now

with savings returns as well. Pensioners have enjoyed higher

levels of personal allowance since a Winston Churchill policy from the

1920's. But the amount at which they start to fork out tax on any

income - be that savings, work or pensions - is to be frozen from

2013. The idea is to bring their threshold into line with everyone

else. Figures from the Treasury estimate in 2013/14, millions of

older people WILL be worse off in real terms with an average loss of

�83 a year. It is a major simplification, it saves money and

no pensioner will lose in cash terms. Within this 360,000 65 year

olds lose an average of �285.saving the Treasury �3.3 billion over four

years. But the coalition's insisting pensioners are not being

targeted. There is no granny tax. No pensioner will have money taken

away from them that they currently have coming to them. They will all

be getting pension increases in April this year, a pension increase

of �5.30 a week on the state pensions. Campaigners disagree and

say it means prudent savers retiring in the future WILL miss

out. And this Lib Dem's warning that toying with the powerful grey

vote could prove a very costly mistake. It may come to be

remembered like the stopping of a children's milk at school. That and

poll tax. Those are pyramids, if you like. People will remember this.

Daphne Watts with that report. We are joined by another Lib Dem,

Judith jolly. You will know more about this than me, right up until

the eve of the Budget, horse- trading and haggling between the

Liberal Democrats and Conservatives about what was in and what was out.

The tickling with the top rate being axed. The Liberal-Democrat

gain could be see the increase in personal allowances, but was not

that soured by the cut to pensioners. To think that I have

any say a night before the Budget is drawn up is nice but really, the

idea was to harmonise allowances. You are absolutely right, I don't

expect the Chancellor expected the spotlight to go on that so quickly

or at all. The sort of thing they were hoping for was the reduction

of 50 per cent to 45 per cent for those two and the most. Making that

up by collecting stamp duty on big houses. The spotlight would have

been anticipated if he was clear in his speech about what he was doing.

I don't write his speech and had no idea about what he was going to say

until I was watching the Commons on the day, I have no responsibility

for that and clarity is useful. I think, by the time I got back to my

office, the first e-mail I had was from a pensioners' lobby group. I

would say, to Daphne, Steve Webb is putting together a package, a

citizens' pension, which will be delivered by the end of this

Parliament. That is good he is. Judith says clarity is always

useful, you make a big point about wanting to be associated with new

politics. When the Chancellor said he was simpler find the rates for

pensioners, they might have thought it was good news. Should he have

been more up front. We end you use the term simplified that will cause

difficulties, I don't think that is necessarily the right word. Nobody

wants to make life difficult for pensioners. As was stated, no

pensionable pay more in cash terms and there is good news. The that is

a little bit weaselly, isn't it? What we are talking about here,

raising the personal threshold, towards �10,000. Seeing some into

generation of panacea. Pointing out that pensioners are seen the

biggest effort increase in real terms in their pensions. A actually,

the overall package for pensioners is brilliant. A I am sure most of

us have received e-mails from pensioners say this is not the case.

VAT increases, field duty has seen no change so travelling is

difficult. A very well-known campaigner in the South West is out

there saying this is a con. Not only are we losing out here but we

lost out with the shift from R P I to see PRI in pensions, a lot of

very unhappy pensioners, and we may see some RECs in the ballot box in

May. A on this point in clarity, it is true that very often the spin

which is put on these measures that the ordinary person has to say to a

Chancellor what they are saying. You don't believe in the old mode

of politics. What is really important is to stress there will

be the biggest-ever increase in pensions. What comes across to make

his they pick pensions grab, the tax grab, which rarely caused a

massive drop in pensions. It destroyed our pension system. That

has been the biggest impact for most pensioners.

Now - what is a "fair day's pay for a fair day's work"? Too often,

according to George Osborne, that depends on whether you work in the

public or private sector. And, according to the Institute for

Fiscal Studies, the South West has the biggest gap between public and

private sector pay in England - with public sector salaries being

substantially more generous. The Chancellor says this holds back

private sector growth, so he's looking at making public sector pay

more "responsive to local pay rates". The unions say that just

means "lower" and some business leaders have reservations too. Matt

Pengelly reports. In November last year, many public sector workers in

the South West went on strike over pensions. Now the Chancellor has

set himself on a collision course with the unions again over local

pay. The Treasury says the public sector workers enjoy a premium wage,

attracting people away from the world of private business. So, we

should see what we can do to make our public services more responsive

and help our private sector to grow and create jobs in all parts of the

country. Thick as from the Office of National Statistics show they

are more than half a million public sector workers in the South West,

and �60 a week more than their private sector counterparts. Sharon

Robinson runs a recruitment agency in Cornwall and the Joan Allen is a

union official. A surprisingly they have got very different views on

the local pay proposal. I think it would mean that they would bring

the pay rates down, there is low- pay within core more anyway. In the

private sector. That would mean that we would lose skilled staff,

they would look to go elsewhere because they will go where the

money is. He years ago the majority of the people went into the private

sector because the public sector was not that well paid. That has

changed over a couple of decades and the public sector is now more

longingly looked at. The issue we find is that we tend to lose a lot

of people to the public sector, rather than being able to supply

them to our public sector clients. This may become another piece of

grit in be coalition oyster. Some have made no secret of their

scepticism. There is a big gap between the public sector and

private sector in the South West but we do not want a race to the

bottom. We want to create opportunities for businesses to

grow say they can better pay their employees. We don't want to be

institutionalised in that difference and making it harder for

families and the South West to do things. On the daily politics show

last week it was clear that this proposal has some higher support.

If you have one major surprise -- employer, being able to pay a

higher than the local average, it crowds out smaller businesses.

and review boards will look at the paperwork and report back later

this year, some government departments have the option of

moving to a national pay structure when the pay freeze is lifted.

Judith Jolly is still with us. He is not the only Liberal-Democrat MP

opposed to this. Adrian Sanders is one. Does this risk joining the

list of things like tuition fees, health reform, Major government

policies which many Lib Dems say is not liberal democracy. It is

something which is not yet absolutely fixed. The Chancellor is

pretty keen on it. Clearly a dialogue needs to happen within the

coalition. Talking about the South West, the South West has high

housing. I am with Steve, we need to encourage more industry and to

raise the income generally. Alison, there is a certain amount of logic,

really, that if there is the kind of gap we are seeing in the South

West it will punish the private sector. Very interesting, the

academic who appeared on the round- up of the South West last week said

that if you look it in the good times, the public sector Germany is

much closer to the private sector in terms of income. The private

sector often leaps above the public sector. In times of recession the

gap is wider and the public sector is the beneficiary. We are in bad

times at the moment. The danger in a rigidly applying a regional pay

policy, particularly in somewhere like the South West, is that we

already have extremely low levels of disposable income compared to

the rest of England. It will further depress that and it will

have an impact. Towns and cities will find even less money to spend.

The Prime Minister, are what he said to the colleagues of yours on

Wednesday, that you are in favour of a regional benefit cap. Liam

Byrne is looking at a regional benefit cap. I think debts are

issues on both counts. Issues which need to be looked at. I am glad he

has not gone hell-for-leather on this and he will look at some of

the evidence. I think there will be a lot of evidence coming from

regions like ours which say this will not work. It is a London

centric policy. Sarah, it is difficult to see this not being a

race to the bottom, not resulting in pay overall coming down. Just to

pick Alison up on one detail, it is local pay not regional pay. For the

local conditions, they should include house prices. We have one

of the highest house price index is. That needs to be taken into account.

A bureaucratic nightmare. Couldn't it make a difference though?

would be a bureaucratic nightmare, very costly. The region is so

varied. The affluent areas in the east, places like Bournemouth,

Bristol, Exeter or even, even Totnes. Further west, down into

Cornwall and parts of Plymouth it is a different picture. The you get

disparities would in cities as well. -- you get disparities within

cities as well. P plus saying it should be so difficult to implement,

can we do it? All of these decisions need to be made, but some

parts of it may be in a really tough inner cities where they can

get people in and have the flexibility to pay more. It needs

to be truly flexible at both ends. I think it is clear following on

from what was said in the financial statement, he is pretty keen on it.

The argument that it probably won't happen is looking less likely all

the time. We need to look at the issues about whether it will work,

we should not rule it out, we should look at it.

Now our regular round-up of the political week in sixty seconds. In

November last year, many public Calls for the introduction of a

driving test for mobility scooters. They should have training for their

own security. In Falmouth they hope that science will prove they can

grace without destroying the rare marine flora. We are seeing the

future of the port in a wider sense as our key mission. She should air

ambulances get duty-free fuel, 100,000 people signed a petition

saying yes. Staying airborne or not, as the case may be, Richard

continued his target campaign to save Portland's search-and-rescue

helicopter. The helicopter, must continue into their consenting,

otherwise it will threaten the lives of my constituents on the

This suggestion that doctors who object to the health reforms might

stand against MPs, that would be an irony in your case. A GP. We are

confident people will stasis -- still see their GPs. Free of charge.

Receiving an excellent service. What will they campaign for? A lack

of accountability? It is not going to materialise. The have made them

much more democratic. For far more opportunities for people to have a

real say, through health and well- being boards. We will see doctors

in charge of commissioning, this is not about privatisation of the NHS.

We now need to move forward and I think we will see all of the

scaremongering will be over by the time of the next election. How has

Sarah condense to Alison? I would like these GPs to joined the Labour

Party, they should come home to Labour. Talking to you briefly, I

know you are interested in the issue of driving test with people

with mobility scooters. evidence that I have pulled up in

the last few weeks, with the debate I had in the House of Commons,

there is very little training at all. Not necessarily a test but

adequate training. Most people don't know that if you use it on

the pavement you should know the Highway Code. There are too many

accidents and we really do need to have some sort of guidance coming

from government. To be fair to the minister, he did give ground and is

working towards looking at what can be done. Not something to Palma

costs on the disabled and elderly? The that was a key issue, it was

mentioned in the debate. The police and voluntary organisations will