Browse content similar to 09/12/2012. Check below for episodes and series from the same categories and more!
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In the South West, nurses hope that the threat of regional papers over, | :01:35. | :01:45. | |
:01:45. | :01:46. | ||
Apology for the loss of subtitles for 2134 seconds | :01:46. | :37:20. | |
but now teachers say they are about Hello, IM Martyn Oates. Coming up. | :37:20. | :37:24. | |
The teachers to fear the government is about to give them regional pay | :37:25. | :37:29. | |
by the back door. I have got a Plymothian panel of guests this | :37:30. | :37:34. | |
week. Alison Seabeck and Baroness Fookes who sits for the | :37:34. | :37:37. | |
Conservatives in the House of Lords but for a long time was the MP for | :37:38. | :37:44. | |
the now vanished seat of Plymouth Drake. Welcome to you both. The row | :37:44. | :37:47. | |
over the government's plans for minimum alcohol pricing continues | :37:47. | :37:53. | |
to rumble on. On Thursday Ben Bradshaw made a game at but | :37:53. | :37:56. | |
unsuccessful attempt to take the cider industry's concerns to the | :37:56. | :38:03. | |
Farming Minister. Does he accept that the government's plan to | :38:03. | :38:07. | |
regulate for a minimum alcohol prize will have a devastating | :38:07. | :38:13. | |
impact on a West Country cider farmers? Well, he is very well | :38:13. | :38:17. | |
aware that because of my constituency interests I cannot | :38:17. | :38:24. | |
answer that question in a ministerial capacity. I can say... | :38:24. | :38:28. | |
He appears not to know the procedure of the house. I cannot | :38:28. | :38:37. | |
sit down and ask my honourable friend to stand up in my place sex | :38:37. | :38:43. | |
macro --!. Could you advise him on the procedures of the House? What I | :38:43. | :38:48. | |
will say is that we take the matter seriously and my honourable friend | :38:48. | :38:54. | |
is that I'm sure taking the appropriate measures. He is a big | :38:54. | :38:58. | |
opponent of minimum alcohol pricing and you do not agree. Have you been | :38:58. | :39:04. | |
persuaded that there is a problem for cider producers? There is an | :39:04. | :39:09. | |
interesting issue around this and a micro-breweries in general. English | :39:09. | :39:14. | |
cider is very strong. If you have a minimum price, we will be | :39:14. | :39:19. | |
particularly hit. Whether or not there is another formulation that | :39:19. | :39:23. | |
would suit micro-breweries or cider makers, I do not have a quick | :39:23. | :39:29. | |
answer. I do believe we have to do something about the pricing levels. | :39:29. | :39:33. | |
It is far too easy to get poor- quality, but very high-volume | :39:33. | :39:37. | |
alcohol cheaply in supermarkets and we need to stop that and encourage | :39:37. | :39:44. | |
people to drink in pubs. Are you an advocate of this? Yes I am. I think | :39:44. | :39:48. | |
there is a very real problem with heavy drinking and I think we have | :39:48. | :39:53. | |
to use every means that we can to try and help this. Of course, it is | :39:53. | :39:57. | |
not the irrevocable. If we find it does not work and there are effects | :39:57. | :40:03. | |
that we do not like... Or an exemption? I suspect that the | :40:03. | :40:08. | |
people who are producing a decent side or or not the ones who are | :40:08. | :40:13. | |
selling it very cheaply to people who are drinking too much. It is | :40:13. | :40:20. | |
very strong, isn't it? You know a lot about parliamentary procedure, | :40:20. | :40:24. | |
Ben Bradshaw said is it not strange we have a Farming Minister who can | :40:24. | :40:29. | |
talk about every farming in the -- issue at length apart from cider? | :40:29. | :40:34. | |
If I could jump in. I would question the advice he got prior to | :40:34. | :40:38. | |
answering that question. It looks as if that was advice from a | :40:38. | :40:42. | |
parliamentary council and on that basis, I could not answer questions | :40:42. | :40:49. | |
on defence. It is a nonsense! Clegg when -- said when he | :40:49. | :40:54. | |
appointed David Heap he said it was a good thing he came from a farming | :40:54. | :41:00. | |
background. Anyone who has a vested interest is usually the person hint | :41:00. | :41:06. | |
knows a great deal about it. He is not making cider as far as we know! | :41:06. | :41:10. | |
Equally, if he had any sort of financial interest he would have | :41:10. | :41:13. | |
declared it and he would not be answering the question in the first | :41:13. | :41:19. | |
place. The government has abandoned the idea of introducing local pay | :41:19. | :41:23. | |
across the public sector, that was announced by the Chancellor of the | :41:23. | :41:26. | |
Exchequer in the Autumn Statement. Here, we still have a grip of | :41:26. | :41:30. | |
health trusts to say they might do it anyway. Meanwhile, a major | :41:30. | :41:33. | |
teaching union says teachers could now be saddled with something even | :41:33. | :41:40. | |
worse. Throughout this year, NHS unions in the South West have kept | :41:40. | :41:45. | |
up a protest campaign against plans to introduce regional pay. There is | :41:46. | :41:50. | |
a roundabout 68,000 people who will be affected by these proposals and | :41:50. | :41:55. | |
the need to think about the impact of reducing salaries of those | :41:55. | :41:59. | |
people and their spending power in the region. We will see a local | :41:59. | :42:03. | |
businesses are being affected because of this. The Autumn | :42:03. | :42:08. | |
Statement seemed to suggest things are going up their way. This means | :42:08. | :42:12. | |
continuing with national pay arrangements in the NHS and prison | :42:12. | :42:16. | |
service and we will not make changes to the civil service | :42:16. | :42:20. | |
arrangements either. The comments have delighted the region's MPs, | :42:20. | :42:24. | |
but while the pressure to abandon plans for regional pay is mounting, | :42:24. | :42:29. | |
but Chancellor has not removed the pressure on NHS budgets and if | :42:29. | :42:32. | |
Health bosses are about to abandon these plans they might be wondering | :42:32. | :42:38. | |
how they will find the money. the next few years we will have to | :42:38. | :42:44. | |
make approximately around 40-�45 million worth of efficiency | :42:44. | :42:48. | |
improvements and our staff costs alone, if we did nothing else, to | :42:48. | :42:51. | |
have the same staff working in the same way with the same issues that | :42:51. | :42:58. | |
we have got that will cost another �7 million more next year. I spoke | :42:58. | :43:01. | |
to the press officer after the statement and he told me that the | :43:01. | :43:05. | |
government's announcement on regional pay changes nothing for | :43:05. | :43:09. | |
them. He pointed me to their response and it says that they are | :43:09. | :43:12. | |
legally entitled to set local pay and conditions and they are still | :43:12. | :43:16. | |
exploring this as a way of meeting the unprecedented challenges that | :43:16. | :43:20. | |
they face. When the Deputy Prime Minister was asked to clear this | :43:20. | :43:24. | |
that he said the Government was sending a clear message to the | :43:24. | :43:28. | |
South West Health Trust, but he acknowledged that they are doing | :43:28. | :43:32. | |
something separate from the announcement. They are entitled to | :43:32. | :43:36. | |
explore options under the existing legislation as provided for by the | :43:36. | :43:40. | |
last Labour government. We have announced that we are not going to | :43:40. | :43:45. | |
go ahead with local regional pay in the public sector across the | :43:45. | :43:50. | |
country as a whole. Whether or not nurses can breathe a sigh of relief, | :43:50. | :43:53. | |
what the Chancellor said next is worrying for the South West | :43:53. | :43:58. | |
teachers. But the School Teachers' Review Body does recommend much | :43:58. | :44:01. | |
greater freedom to individual schools to set pay in line with | :44:01. | :44:06. | |
performance. In a region with some of them was poorly funded education | :44:06. | :44:10. | |
authorities and the country, teaching unions say this could mean | :44:10. | :44:15. | |
regional pay by the back to work. Of a group of Head Teachers get | :44:15. | :44:19. | |
together and say we are only going to pay the laws demand, which is a | :44:19. | :44:29. | |
possibility, he will have teachers being paid the lowest amount at the | :44:29. | :44:34. | |
lowest common denominator, so it is regional pay by the back door, only | :44:34. | :44:38. | |
worse. The government says the schools will give schools greater | :44:38. | :44:43. | |
flexibility to respond to specific conditions and reward their best | :44:43. | :44:46. | |
teachers. A consultation will have to be carried out but the changes | :44:46. | :44:53. | |
could come in in time for the start of the next school year. We're | :44:53. | :44:57. | |
joined by Adrian Saunders, the Liberal Democrat MP for Torbay. A | :44:57. | :45:02. | |
lot of MPs last week were rushing to declare the death of regional | :45:02. | :45:06. | |
pay in the NHS before it had even been born, but that seems a bit | :45:06. | :45:10. | |
premature when you listen to the consortium, still coming out of a | :45:10. | :45:16. | |
lot of fighting top? They would be unwise not to listen to what many | :45:16. | :45:21. | |
Conservative MPs as well as Liberal-Democrat MPs are saying. | :45:21. | :45:26. | |
this face-saving? I hope that is what it is. The reality is there | :45:26. | :45:30. | |
may be some good reasons for different trusts to come together | :45:30. | :45:34. | |
looking at procurement and ways they might be able to save money. | :45:34. | :45:39. | |
We're not saying it disband the consortium, we are saying it do not | :45:39. | :45:44. | |
touch pay and conditions, leave that to be a national negotiations. | :45:44. | :45:49. | |
I think you have reservations like most of the Conservative MPs in the | :45:49. | :45:54. | |
South West about the idea of regional pay. Was it a bit of a | :45:54. | :45:58. | |
waste of time at setting civil servants to look into this for a | :45:58. | :46:02. | |
year for it to come to nothing? All of the voices were saying it would | :46:02. | :46:07. | |
not work in a recession. I do not think so. If you start shutting the | :46:07. | :46:13. | |
door or on a particular approach, you are cutting of possibilities, | :46:13. | :46:16. | |
if at the end you decide it is not a good idea, that does not mean it | :46:16. | :46:21. | |
was a waste to look at it. We have had the Chancellor say he wants | :46:21. | :46:25. | |
civil servants to be more efficient and they might say if you are | :46:25. | :46:31. | |
sending us on an errand like this, it is not using her time efficiency. | :46:31. | :46:37. | |
That is over-egging the pudding. is Christmas! I do have | :46:37. | :46:41. | |
reservations. It is a very good idea in theory, but when you | :46:41. | :46:45. | |
actually come up to work it out in practice, you get so many | :46:45. | :46:51. | |
difficulties, it is probably not what that. Had you think a hospital | :46:51. | :46:55. | |
like Derriford Hospital will save the money it needs to save? There | :46:55. | :46:59. | |
are many other ways in which they can operate more efficiently. I can | :46:59. | :47:05. | |
give you an example of someone who turned up at a hospital in the | :47:05. | :47:10. | |
South West thinking that she was going to have some examination of | :47:10. | :47:16. | |
her spine, but the letter said it was at the shoulders. Instead of | :47:17. | :47:20. | |
checking with whoever had sent her the letter as to which one it was, | :47:20. | :47:25. | |
the insisted on doing the shoulders and she has to go back for a second | :47:25. | :47:32. | |
appointment to do the spine. That is a waste of money. It seems that | :47:32. | :47:35. | |
nurses are heaving a sigh of relief, teachers not though, what is your | :47:36. | :47:41. | |
take on this? I was at school this morning Torquay into their head | :47:41. | :47:46. | |
teacher about how she felt that this might work or not work. She is | :47:46. | :47:51. | |
in a desperate place because at the moment there is a system for | :47:51. | :47:54. | |
assessing staff and their performance within the school and | :47:54. | :47:58. | |
whether or not they get increments through the process. That works | :47:58. | :48:04. | |
reasonably well, it is well evidenced, she can make a judgment. | :48:04. | :48:11. | |
The way this will operate now, she really was genuinely worried about | :48:11. | :48:16. | |
how she would be able to properly assess performance and set that | :48:16. | :48:20. | |
against perhaps a teacher who has come to the area on a much higher | :48:20. | :48:27. | |
level, from another school or another region, and when you have | :48:27. | :48:32. | |
got that person been paid more work, how does that fit into the existing | :48:32. | :48:38. | |
structure? She may have been slightly more careful about the | :48:38. | :48:43. | |
level she was putting people on. It is going to be a bit of a dog's | :48:43. | :48:48. | |
breakfast, quite frankly, but the South West will see people leaving. | :48:48. | :48:54. | |
We have heard the union say this is regional pay by the back door or | :48:54. | :48:59. | |
something worse. I think there is a case for schools are being allowed | :48:59. | :49:05. | |
to offer extra money for where there are a teacher shortages in | :49:05. | :49:08. | |
importance objects. We have seen money made available for science, | :49:08. | :49:12. | |
for mathematics and perhaps there are other subjects at there were | :49:12. | :49:15. | |
schools ought to have that freedom. In terms of the practical | :49:15. | :49:23. | |
difficulties, the fact that staff move around, the fact that in this | :49:23. | :49:29. | |
area it is a high living area, high living cost area, high house cost | :49:29. | :49:34. | |
area, if you want the best quality of staff, does that mean you pay | :49:34. | :49:39. | |
more? Who pays for that at the end of the day? The bottom line is you | :49:39. | :49:42. | |
do the same thing as with the health service, stick to national | :49:43. | :49:47. | |
pay rates but to allow some flexibility for where there are | :49:47. | :49:52. | |
shortages. Do you agree with the Chancellor? I am not sure where he | :49:52. | :49:57. | |
is coming from on this one and I am not sure that he has made it clear | :49:57. | :50:03. | |
as to what will happen within the education system. We must move on. | :50:03. | :50:06. | |
Public sector pay was one thing in the mass of information announced | :50:06. | :50:10. | |
by the Chancellor on Wednesday. We will be digging into some of the | :50:10. | :50:15. | |
rest of that later. First here is one South West take on the | :50:15. | :50:19. | |
statement from Scott Bingham. Given that the gloom and doom predicted | :50:19. | :50:23. | |
ahead of the statement, many in the South West might be forgiven for | :50:23. | :50:27. | |
thinking Christmas had come early. The Chancellor announced a �30 | :50:27. | :50:30. | |
million to remove one of the biggest bottlenecks on the main | :50:30. | :50:35. | |
route into Cornwall, a single-lane stretch of the a 30 will become a | :50:35. | :50:40. | |
dual carriageway. We are delighted to get this. It will help the | :50:40. | :50:46. | |
tourist industry, it will have the manufacturing in, and we cannot | :50:46. | :50:51. | |
wait to see that change. No next came the announcement that a rise | :50:51. | :50:56. | |
in fuel duty was not just postponed, but scrapped altogether. Good news | :50:56. | :51:02. | |
for motorists and a cautious welcome from this man. It will cut | :51:02. | :51:09. | |
the company's costs. It is not an increased, but it is not a | :51:09. | :51:13. | |
reduction. It is not a reduction, we're not having an increase that | :51:13. | :51:18. | |
we would have to pass on. There could be more good news on the way. | :51:18. | :51:25. | |
The government has also pledged to look at whether fuel duty rebate | :51:25. | :51:31. | |
scheme might be extended to some rural areas although winning EU | :51:31. | :51:35. | |
approval will be far from easy. What about kick-starting the | :51:35. | :51:39. | |
economy and creating jobs? The Chancellor referred directly to the | :51:40. | :51:43. | |
need for support for local enterprise partnerships set up to | :51:44. | :51:49. | |
fill the gap left by a regional development agencies. We will | :51:49. | :51:54. | |
provide new money to support the local enterprise partnerships and | :51:54. | :51:57. | |
from 20th April 15 we will place more of the funding are currently | :51:57. | :52:00. | |
goes to local transport has in skills and getting people back to | :52:00. | :52:05. | |
work into a single pot that they can bid for. It is a boost for the | :52:05. | :52:09. | |
confidence of them, smaller organise since with much smaller | :52:09. | :52:14. | |
budgets and big boots to fill. We're happy to bid into the process | :52:14. | :52:17. | |
and we are confident we would get an appropriate allocation of money | :52:17. | :52:22. | |
for the projects we need. One way of boosting the economy is to get | :52:22. | :52:26. | |
on with building that thousands of homes we are said to need here. | :52:26. | :52:31. | |
This week and Major's scheme up for an Eco town stalled due to a lack | :52:31. | :52:36. | |
of confidence in the system and concern of the economy. The | :52:36. | :52:41. | |
Chancellor announced �146 million to build 9,000 homes across the | :52:41. | :52:45. | |
region, the Chartered Institute of Housing said it was a small | :52:45. | :52:50. | |
contribution but there is still hope it might help. My job as the | :52:50. | :52:54. | |
local MP is to work with the government to see which parts of | :52:54. | :52:59. | |
the scheme we can still deliver using some of the money which has | :52:59. | :53:02. | |
been announced in the Autumn Statement. There were some | :53:02. | :53:09. | |
disappointments, no super-fast prop banned for Plymouth and an expected | :53:09. | :53:14. | |
confirmation for the share of flood defences in Exeter that never came. | :53:14. | :53:18. | |
Cornwall council will need to find �30 million to match the government | :53:18. | :53:23. | |
funding for the road scheme. In a region which is so often missing | :53:23. | :53:32. | |
out in investment, there was and out of Christmas cheer. Unlike some | :53:32. | :53:35. | |
budgets and Autumn Statement, I get the sense that Labour have not | :53:35. | :53:40. | |
scented blood after this one. Is it fair to say he has made the best of | :53:40. | :53:50. | |
:53:50. | :53:53. | ||
a bad job? I would say no, with and I? -- with and I's he is carrying | :53:53. | :53:59. | |
on on the path he has set himself. He is not prepared to budge. We | :53:59. | :54:04. | |
heard about apparent money for housing, but it is not dealing | :54:04. | :54:10. | |
with... Builders will build houses, there is not the market, there is | :54:10. | :54:13. | |
not finance available, people cannot get mortgages. There is far | :54:13. | :54:19. | |
more to this than making sweeping statements about money. He has to | :54:19. | :54:24. | |
change direction. There are some Labour grumbling about the welfare | :54:24. | :54:30. | |
cuts, but you are not saying they're definitely right or wrong. | :54:30. | :54:36. | |
We need to move away from welfare. These are cuts that were hitting | :54:36. | :54:41. | |
working people, people in low-wage jobs, they are being affected and | :54:41. | :54:45. | |
particularly women. 80% of the changes to tax credits, they are | :54:45. | :54:52. | |
hitting women. Were you still happy to wait and see what will happen? | :54:52. | :54:56. | |
We will bring Adrian end. A number of Liberal Democrats have said | :54:57. | :55:01. | |
because of the welfare cuts and because the budget is falling | :55:01. | :55:07. | |
heavily on vulnerable people, this is toxic. The point she makes is a | :55:07. | :55:11. | |
good one. The way that this was dressed up, of hurting people who | :55:11. | :55:17. | |
are on welfare is wrong. Anyone on working tax credits, at a time when | :55:17. | :55:22. | |
we are trying to encourage people into work, that is going to unravel | :55:22. | :55:27. | |
and that is going to have to be looked at again. I do not think | :55:27. | :55:30. | |
that will have any beneficial impact whatsoever. The fundamental | :55:30. | :55:35. | |
problem that faces the Chancellor and would face the Labour Party is | :55:35. | :55:39. | |
that the 18 pence in every pound of the government is spending is going | :55:39. | :55:45. | |
on interest. So long as the markets accept the premise that we have a | :55:45. | :55:49. | |
stable government, that interest rate will stay low. If it goes up, | :55:49. | :55:55. | |
it will be 20p, 25p, over 50 pence in every pound they spend going in | :55:55. | :55:59. | |
interest. That means you have to cut public spending even more than | :55:59. | :56:06. | |
we are having to do so. That is the problem. He is right. On the | :56:06. | :56:12. | |
housing issue, a lot of this has been announced already. A I am not | :56:12. | :56:18. | |
sure that it has. There is an element of new money. A small one. | :56:18. | :56:23. | |
Can I love that something else and that is the encouragement to small | :56:23. | :56:26. | |
firms and let us remember that in the west Country there are many | :56:26. | :56:32. | |
more at small and very small firms and there is definitely an | :56:32. | :56:36. | |
indication that they want the banks to lend more and money to be set | :56:36. | :56:44. | |
aside for that and in addition, writing off the cost of machinery | :56:44. | :56:48. | |
for small firms can be pretty important and they are be much more | :56:48. | :56:52. | |
generous about that. And is keen to talk about business, because his | :56:52. | :56:55. | |
and this announcement that the local enterprise partnerships are | :56:55. | :56:59. | |
to get more money, an admission that it was wrong to set them up to | :56:59. | :57:05. | |
begin with's I am not sure I follow what you mean. They were set up | :57:05. | :57:11. | |
with no budgets. Michael Heseltine has said that is nonsense, they | :57:11. | :57:18. | |
need about it. They give him that job and he has done about job jolly | :57:18. | :57:26. | |
well! They listened to Michael Heseltine on this. They are working | :57:26. | :57:31. | |
very hard with the MPs. We were at Downing Street, a cross-party group, | :57:31. | :57:36. | |
to get the Prime Minister to think about transition status, you from | :57:36. | :57:40. | |
doing so that they can carry out some of the plans that they had no | :57:40. | :57:48. | |
associated. They are variable. Ours is very proactive. We will be | :57:48. | :57:54. | |
talking about funding in future. Thank you to Adrian. Time now for a | :57:54. | :58:04. | |
:58:04. | :58:06. | ||
round-up of the political week in 60 seconds. This gets its life | :58:06. | :58:11. | |
extended yet again as we are kept waiting for news of its replacement. | :58:11. | :58:15. | |
We are certain that it is safe to operate for a further seven years, | :58:15. | :58:20. | |
if we were not certain, we would not go along with that. This energy | :58:20. | :58:25. | |
may be green, but could it mean in Dorset's coast losing its World | :58:25. | :58:31. | |
Heritage status. It is so much more than simply the rocks, it is about | :58:31. | :58:37. | |
people coming to see it and the views from the site. The fight to | :58:37. | :58:44. | |
save Portland search and rescue us but -- helicopter goes on. I am | :58:44. | :58:49. | |
sure once they have heard the evidence hopefully they will change | :58:49. | :58:55. | |
their mind. How are you feeling? In the week we year that there is | :58:55. | :58:59. | |
another heir to the throne on the way, Prince Charles reminds us he | :58:59. | :59:01. | |
is still pocketing the money of Cornish people who die without | :59:01. | :59:11. | |
:59:11. | :59:13. | ||
errors. - and an extension of the nuclear reactor, and the Spencer | :59:13. | :59:17. | |
much time falling out with the Liberal Democrats you have taking | :59:17. | :59:24. | |
your eye of the ball's I hope I haven't! We have had a worrying | :59:24. | :59:30. | |
lack of policy, including during the Labour administration when we | :59:30. | :59:35. | |
really should have been making some pretty firm decisions about future | :59:35. | :59:39. | |
energy policy and unless we pull our fingers out, we are going to | :59:39. | :59:44. | |
have power cuts. It is true, you tried your feet on nuclear power | :59:44. | :59:49. | |
when you were in government? I sat on an energy bill that became an | :59:49. | :59:51. | |
active towards the end of our government which was starting to | :59:52. | :59:56. | |
put in place some of the processes that needed to happen in order to | :59:57. | :00:01. |