09/12/2012 Sunday Politics South West


09/12/2012

Similar Content

Browse content similar to 09/12/2012. Check below for episodes and series from the same categories and more!

Transcript


LineFromTo

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.

Download Subtitles

SRT

ASS