Browse content similar to 05/05/2013. Check below for episodes and series from the same categories and more!
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In the South West: The local elections dealt body blows to the | :01:12. | :01:14. | |
coalition parties, new footholds for Labour and the breakthrough UKIP had | :01:15. | :01:24. | |
:01:25. | :01:25. | ||
Apology for the loss of subtitles for 2227 seconds | :01:25. | :38:32. | |
Hello, I'm Martyn Oates, coming up on the Sunday Politics in the South | :38:32. | :38:42. | |
West...we'll hear from some of the region's brand new UKIP Councillors. | :38:42. | :38:45. | |
First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you, | :38:45. | :38:48. | |
and then you win. And for the next 20 minutes, I'm | :38:48. | :38:51. | |
joined by Conservative MP George Eustice and the Lib Dem peer John | :38:51. | :38:54. | |
Burnett. Strangely enough, we're kicking off with UKIP. In Thursday's | :38:54. | :38:57. | |
elections they took their first seats on each of the four South West | :38:57. | :39:00. | |
councils up for grabs. Across the patch that breaks down to one | :39:00. | :39:03. | |
councillor in Dorset, three in Somerset, four in Devon and six in | :39:03. | :39:13. | |
:39:13. | :39:15. | ||
Cornwall. George, three of those are in your very marginal constituency. | :39:15. | :39:21. | |
You must be worried about that. Look, my constituency has always had | :39:21. | :39:28. | |
a strong UKIP contingent, I myself was a UKIP candidate before, I have | :39:28. | :39:34. | |
never hidden that fact or the reason why I left, which is that I felt | :39:34. | :39:38. | |
UKIP are counter-productive to the cause they claim to support. In the | :39:38. | :39:42. | |
case of the euro debate ten years ago, they said you couldn't keep the | :39:42. | :39:49. | |
pound and stay in the union, they have been proven wrong on that. Now, | :39:49. | :39:51. | |
they are counter-productive to the debate we are having about | :39:51. | :39:59. | |
negotiating. I've got a majority of 66, and with that majority, you are | :39:59. | :40:06. | |
never complacent. You can either threat -- fret about your components | :40:06. | :40:10. | |
or you can roll your sleeves up and get things done and have a record to | :40:10. | :40:15. | |
stand on for the next election. That's what I've been doing. | :40:15. | :40:25. | |
:40:25. | :40:26. | ||
Nationally, I have read a campaign. John, you are a Euro-sceptic Lib | :40:26. | :40:36. | |
:40:36. | :40:36. | ||
Dem. Many people probably don't even believe that exists! I remember Nick | :40:36. | :40:42. | |
Clegg wrote a paper about eight or nine years ago and the thrust of it | :40:42. | :40:48. | |
was Europe should do less and do it better. I hope he dusts that down. I | :40:48. | :40:57. | |
always was against the euro. What was George, campaign director of the | :40:57. | :41:05. | |
anti-euro group? I'm not Euro-sceptic, I'm a euro realist. I | :41:05. | :41:11. | |
don't believe the British people want to see that. I think David | :41:11. | :41:16. | |
Cameron's speech earlier this year hit the nail on the head in many | :41:16. | :41:26. | |
:41:26. | :41:28. | ||
ways. We always have a problem in mid-term. Economy, immigration and | :41:28. | :41:34. | |
the EU are all important issues. In a moment we'll be joined by the | :41:34. | :41:37. | |
UKIP chairman Steve Crowther, to find out what we can expect from | :41:37. | :41:40. | |
UKIP councillors in office. But first, here's John Henderson with a | :41:40. | :41:49. | |
look a the rise of UKIP in the South West. | :41:49. | :41:57. | |
Making history, Cornwall's first ever UKIP councillor celebrates. | :41:57. | :42:02. | |
flabbergasted. We're very close in many seats and I think the main | :42:02. | :42:10. | |
parties are shocked. Perhaps picking up votes from its opposition to gay | :42:10. | :42:15. | |
marriage and a type of renewable energy. Wind turbines are a big | :42:15. | :42:19. | |
issue here. Not least because of the increasing recognition of the | :42:19. | :42:29. | |
concern over health effects. They won in Somerset. It sends a very | :42:29. | :42:34. | |
important message to the Government that the people are not happy with | :42:34. | :42:39. | |
issues surrounding the European Union. They won in Devon. Everyone | :42:39. | :42:44. | |
seems fed up, is the best way I can put it. With everything. And they | :42:44. | :42:52. | |
won in Dorset. Gandhi once said first they ignore you, then they | :42:52. | :42:57. | |
laugh at you, then they fight you, and then you win. You get started | :42:57. | :43:05. | |
life in the early 1990s. They got their first MEP in 1999. In 2004, | :43:05. | :43:12. | |
they got any other, and the party still got to South West MEPs. At | :43:12. | :43:18. | |
times, they made a lot of noise. This was William Dartmouth getting | :43:18. | :43:26. | |
high rate a few years ago. The Tories branded them a party of | :43:26. | :43:31. | |
clowns, but they cranked up their push in the South West. Nigel Farage | :43:31. | :43:39. | |
brought the party bus into battle. The party put up over 200 candidates | :43:39. | :43:42. | |
across the four Southwest counties, a record number with its leader keen | :43:42. | :43:51. | |
for even more. If anyone is here who is not yet a UKIP candidate, please | :43:51. | :44:00. | |
come forward. One such candidate was Susan Bowen. She bowed out as the | :44:00. | :44:05. | |
UKIP candidate after being disowned for speaking at a BMP perform a | :44:05. | :44:10. | |
rally in 2010. Some in the north Cornish town were nonplussed. | :44:10. | :44:18. | |
don't like the BNP as an organisation. There was no sign of | :44:18. | :44:24. | |
her on the campaign trail, but her name remained on the ballot paper. | :44:24. | :44:30. | |
She came second, beating the Conservatives. Immigration is what | :44:30. | :44:37. | |
we're all talking about but nobody listens to it. UKIP is a way of | :44:37. | :44:42. | |
protesting. Until Friday, UKIP councillors were thin on the ground | :44:42. | :44:46. | |
in the south-west. Julian Parrott has been the sole UKIP voice in | :44:46. | :44:51. | |
Torbay. For the past few years, he has been brushing shoulders with the | :44:51. | :44:55. | |
established political classes, the mainstream, which he says has run | :44:55. | :45:00. | |
out of ideas. We're seeing the breakdown of tribal boating on the | :45:00. | :45:07. | |
basis of one out ideology. Where is the bedrock Labour and Conservative | :45:07. | :45:12. | |
support? That now is a thing of the past. We're now talking about a | :45:12. | :45:17. | |
society which is very differently structured. UKIP remains a long way | :45:17. | :45:21. | |
from council control, but it has made a lot of people in the region | :45:21. | :45:30. | |
wonder, what might be next? George, is it not likely that UKIP | :45:30. | :45:34. | |
is making this breakthrough because, frankly, it is offering policies | :45:34. | :45:40. | |
which appealed to Tory voters when you are not, and in fact you often | :45:40. | :45:45. | |
dismiss and deride these policies? think what is absolutely true if | :45:45. | :45:50. | |
this is a big protest vote. There is a lot of disillusionment, and we | :45:50. | :45:55. | |
need to listen to that protest and respond to it. But when I've been | :45:55. | :46:01. | |
going around and talking to people, I find when I explain to them what | :46:01. | :46:05. | |
we've already done, promising an EU referendum and cutting immigration | :46:05. | :46:09. | |
by a third, sorting out the welfare system, they actually don't realise | :46:09. | :46:13. | |
the things we've achieved. So it is about helping people to understand | :46:13. | :46:20. | |
what this Government has achieved. Well, UKIP are opposed to gay | :46:20. | :46:25. | |
marriage, wind farms, they will protect the countryside. Aren't | :46:25. | :46:34. | |
these key things which are pressing buttons on the countryside? Yes. I | :46:34. | :46:39. | |
would say probably the majority of UKIP voters are former Tory voters. | :46:39. | :46:44. | |
A lot of people in your party agree with these policies. Well, we have | :46:44. | :46:49. | |
been trying to get the planning policy changed so that we can reject | :46:49. | :46:53. | |
more wind farms. We are doing a lot to sort out the school system. You | :46:53. | :46:57. | |
don't have to go back to grammar schools to improve the education | :46:57. | :47:06. | |
system. Steve, is this a protest boat? It isn't just a protest vote. | :47:06. | :47:10. | |
There is this language in politics which party is used to explain away | :47:10. | :47:15. | |
bad results at half term. That is not what is happening. We've spent | :47:15. | :47:20. | |
20 years building up to where we are. What's interesting is you | :47:20. | :47:25. | |
mentioned a number of things to George. They are not conservative | :47:25. | :47:29. | |
policies, they are the policies of all the other parties. There is | :47:29. | :47:35. | |
nothing to choose between them. This is why UKIP has gained a seats | :47:35. | :47:41. | |
nationally. It is not any EU vote, it is about disillusionment. | :47:41. | :47:44. | |
Essentially, there is no differentiation between the other | :47:44. | :47:50. | |
parties in Government. A lot of those things they are supporting, | :47:50. | :47:57. | |
people do not like. There is no question that a lot of your policies | :47:57. | :48:03. | |
appealed to Tory voters. We've got to get away from this idea that UKIP | :48:03. | :48:08. | |
takes away Tory voters. It has taken away large numbers of labour and Lib | :48:08. | :48:12. | |
Dem voters. It has also done one other thing, which I'm very proud | :48:12. | :48:17. | |
of, which is bringing new people back into the democratic process. In | :48:17. | :48:21. | |
the Eastleigh by-election, 15% of people were those who hadn't voted | :48:21. | :48:31. | |
:48:31. | :48:48. | ||
in years. We believe in renewable energy, of course we do. That is | :48:48. | :48:54. | |
what the planning system is all about. We are fully supportive of | :48:54. | :49:04. | |
:49:04. | :49:06. | ||
the academy programme. If you ask the Labour Party now, they would be | :49:06. | :49:10. | |
against that programme. So let's just look at it in the context of | :49:10. | :49:17. | |
history. I don't dismiss lightly what UKIP have done, but only a | :49:17. | :49:23. | |
third of people went to vote last time, and in addition to that... | :49:23. | :49:32. | |
Sorry, I just want to come back to the policy on and -- on wind farms. | :49:32. | :49:38. | |
Is their concern over the health associated with wind turbines? | :49:38. | :49:43. | |
something we are looking very closely at. But I would like to | :49:43. | :49:50. | |
point out this is not about wind farms. It is about energy. Well, | :49:50. | :49:54. | |
your objection to wind farms is people argue they are ugly. That | :49:54. | :50:04. | |
:50:04. | :50:04. | ||
isn't our objection. Our objection, the problem is - and it is the great | :50:04. | :50:11. | |
illustration of where we have come from dashed the other governing | :50:11. | :50:17. | |
parties have left us in a pickle. They have entirely failed to equip | :50:17. | :50:26. | |
this country with the resources that we will have need of. There will be | :50:26. | :50:30. | |
soaring prices and massive energy poverty. All the governing parties | :50:30. | :50:35. | |
have contributed to that. That is why we find ourselves rising in | :50:35. | :50:40. | |
popularity. We have been utterly let down by our governing parties. Even | :50:40. | :50:47. | |
the chairman of gem is coming on to the BBC, saying we're facing a | :50:47. | :50:50. | |
catastrophe. Are you at all concerned that any of your | :50:50. | :50:53. | |
councillors might embarrass you in office in the way some of your | :50:53. | :50:58. | |
candidates in Paris due during this campaign? I'm very campaigned -- I'm | :50:58. | :51:02. | |
very proud of our candidates. happens very embarrassing incidents | :51:02. | :51:11. | |
during the campaign. I'd like to point out less than 0.5% of the | :51:11. | :51:14. | |
candidates were in any way embarrassing. But you don't | :51:14. | :51:22. | |
routinely get this with other parties, do you? The media would be | :51:22. | :51:27. | |
on it like a shock if one of the governing parties had an | :51:27. | :51:34. | |
embarrassing candidate who spoke at a BNP rally, for example. The point | :51:34. | :51:38. | |
is, there was a concerted effort by the other parties to actually trawl | :51:38. | :51:43. | |
through every word that any of our candidates had any -- had ever put | :51:43. | :51:51. | |
on the Internet and tried to find embarrassing things. If we had done, | :51:51. | :51:56. | |
it would've been a more fair playing field, to be honest. I'm very proud | :51:56. | :52:03. | |
of our candidates. They are ordinary folk who have worked for years. You | :52:03. | :52:10. | |
will see now what it means to elect UKIP could representatives. They | :52:10. | :52:14. | |
will work at the grassroots and represent the views of their | :52:14. | :52:17. | |
electorate. Steve Crowther, thank you. Now, with | :52:17. | :52:20. | |
a whistlestop tour of how all the other parties did on Thursday, | :52:20. | :52:28. | |
here's Ben Woolvin. The Tories kept control of Devon and | :52:28. | :52:33. | |
Somerset county councils, their relief almost palpable. The people | :52:33. | :52:37. | |
of Somerset have spoken, they said they clearly understand some of the | :52:37. | :52:40. | |
tough decisions we've had to make, but they'd seen the plan we have for | :52:40. | :52:45. | |
the future, the plan for jobs, for investment, for looking after | :52:45. | :52:49. | |
vulnerable children. They've said yes to that plan, and I'm really | :52:49. | :52:53. | |
happy. But voters had a different message for the Conservatives of | :52:53. | :52:59. | |
Cornwall, who now face the prospect of opposition, having lost 18 | :52:59. | :53:05. | |
councillors, including their former leader, Alec Robertson. It's really | :53:05. | :53:11. | |
sad. I was a council leader myself mid-term, and it is really awful | :53:11. | :53:13. | |
when hard-working councillors who have served their communities well | :53:13. | :53:18. | |
lose their seats because people want to send a message to Westminster. | :53:18. | :53:23. | |
It's really sad. The Lib Dems only lost two seats here, making them the | :53:23. | :53:27. | |
biggest party on Cornwall Council. In Dorset, the Lib Dems lost four, | :53:27. | :53:32. | |
in Devon, where they once enjoyed control, the party has been reduced | :53:33. | :53:38. | |
to nine. The man who leads them is preparing for the bunker. I love an | :53:38. | :53:41. | |
old saying by our party president which is that after the nuclear | :53:41. | :53:46. | |
war, the two things that would be left would be cockroaches and | :53:46. | :53:50. | |
Liberal Democrats with leaflets knocking on doors. Around here, we | :53:50. | :53:55. | |
claim to be indestructible because we aim to serve the public well. | :53:55. | :53:58. | |
Labour made 17 gains across the region. They now have eight | :53:58. | :54:04. | |
councillors in Cornwall, including a former MP. They lost the only seat | :54:04. | :54:09. | |
they were defending here. Jude Robertson was beaten by 40 votes. | :54:09. | :54:13. | |
The Greens got their first councillor in Cornwall and held on | :54:13. | :54:19. | |
in Totnes. The Cornish nationalists gained one. But the people of | :54:19. | :54:23. | |
Cornwall once again find themselves with no overall control. The Lib | :54:23. | :54:26. | |
Dems have started power-sharing talks, but with very little love | :54:26. | :54:31. | |
lost between them and some of the more influential independents, those | :54:31. | :54:38. | |
negotiations are likely to be seated. We're joined now by two more | :54:38. | :54:44. | |
guests, Michael, the new Labour councillor in Cornwall, and | :54:44. | :54:50. | |
political analyst Adrian Lee. I want to begin with you, Michael, because | :54:50. | :54:54. | |
your result is very interesting indeed. There are few places in the | :54:54. | :55:00. | |
south-west which are traditional pockets of support. There is really | :55:00. | :55:06. | |
no recent tradition where you are from. Yes, Labour went from fifth to | :55:06. | :55:13. | |
first and I'm aware that is a very strong personal boat. Across | :55:13. | :55:18. | |
Cornwall, I think Labour went from one councillor to eight. There are | :55:18. | :55:22. | |
no no-go areas for the Labour Party. When you say it was a personal | :55:22. | :55:29. | |
boat, are you suggesting it is a one-off? I'm proud to be Cornish and | :55:29. | :55:33. | |
Labour and that was an important part of me standing. I'm very proud | :55:33. | :55:38. | |
of my principles, which I've had that over 20 years. People knew I | :55:38. | :55:41. | |
was a strong Labour candidate, someone who would stand up for our | :55:41. | :55:46. | |
local area, so I think it is a combination of trust for me as a | :55:46. | :55:52. | |
politician and a representative to speak up for the people, but also a | :55:52. | :55:56. | |
recognition that I have strong principles, a progressive programme, | :55:56. | :56:00. | |
a positive approach to working together, and standing up for our | :56:00. | :56:07. | |
communities. Adrian, has significant do you think this is? We pore over | :56:07. | :56:13. | |
the traditional Labour areas after every car -- after every election, | :56:13. | :56:18. | |
don't we? Well, Labour had a disastrous result in 2009. This | :56:18. | :56:23. | |
time, they have made considerable headway. We now back to where they | :56:23. | :56:30. | |
were in the 1990s. The fact there is no Liberal Democrat representation | :56:30. | :56:37. | |
in Exeter any more, it is entirely Labour apart from a couple of | :56:37. | :56:45. | |
conservative areas. Elsewhere they did fairly well, particularly well. | :56:45. | :56:53. | |
And of course getting seats like gun is late, which was almost a | :56:53. | :56:56. | |
hereditary Labour supporting position. Elsewhere, in Somerset, | :56:56. | :57:03. | |
they held onto Wellington. They've got a base upon which they can | :57:03. | :57:08. | |
expand, but they were starting from a very low base indeed. George, the | :57:08. | :57:12. | |
Conservatives had a really grim day, didn't they, in Cornwall? | :57:12. | :57:19. | |
was disappointing, and we lost a lot of good councillors because a lot of | :57:19. | :57:26. | |
our support voted UKIP. In some cases, that allowed UKIP candidates | :57:26. | :57:30. | |
to win outright, but in other places it allowed the Lib Dems to take | :57:30. | :57:39. | |
seats from is. That is disappointing but we have to listen to that. It is | :57:39. | :57:43. | |
always sad when hard-working people lose their seats as a result of a | :57:43. | :57:50. | |
protest vote. A drink, how bad was it for the Lib Dems? Pretty bad. | :57:50. | :57:54. | |
They held on better in Cornwall than elsewhere, especially south | :57:55. | :58:00. | |
Cornwall. But in Devon, Dorset and Somerset, therefore in the share of | :58:00. | :58:06. | |
the vote was fairly uniform. The only bright spot for the is of | :58:06. | :58:13. | |
course their position in Cornwall. John, you must be worried, not least | :58:13. | :58:17. | |
if Labour is spreading into fresh areas, because you two have had | :58:17. | :58:27. | |
Billy -- had the region basically sewn up. We did well in Cornwall, we | :58:27. | :58:32. | |
didn't gain any seats, we didn't lose any seats. Devon wasn't good | :58:32. | :58:37. | |
for us, I admit that. What is interesting for others is to see the | :58:37. | :58:44. | |
protest vote not just being with Labour, but Labour and UKIP. I think | :58:44. | :58:48. | |
history does teach us lessons. Labour is on the march in the | :58:48. | :58:53. | |
south-west, you will suffer, when you? We will. But let's see. The | :58:53. | :59:01. | |
economy is not in a good position, if it has improved by the election, | :59:01. | :59:06. | |
I think the governing parties will get the recognition that. The | :59:06. | :59:11. | |
deficit has gone down by a third. We will have a good story to tell and | :59:11. | :59:15. | |
we will concentrate on the policies of the other two parties. We've got | :59:15. | :59:24. | |
to draw the line there I'm afraid in. It's time for our political | :59:24. | :59:33. | |
round-up of the week in 60 seconds. Demand for food banks continues to | :59:33. | :59:37. | |
increase, bringing the total in the region to 18, according to one of | :59:37. | :59:42. | |
the biggest providers. This is an ongoing thing, not just a recent | :59:43. | :59:48. | |
thing. Concern from doctors as a private | :59:48. | :59:51. | |
company takes on the running of nonemergency ambulances across most | :59:51. | :00:01. | |
:00:01. | :00:01. | ||
of the south-west. This has to be a concern. | :00:01. | :00:08. | |
Solicitors claim legal aid cuts will damage justice. They are going to be | :00:08. | :00:12. | |
pressurised to plead guilty. Somerset farmers asked the | :00:12. | :00:19. | |
Government health -- help after a year of disastrous flooding. People | :00:19. | :00:24. | |
are still adamant that they want the job done. | :00:24. | :00:33. | |
And Plymouth submits its bid for UK city of culture 2017. | :00:33. | :00:41. | |
John, you are a lawyer. Do you share these concerns? All I would say is | :00:41. | :00:44. | |
legal aid for all criminal matters has been retained, anything to do | :00:45. | :00:48. | |
with children has been retained, and at the end of the cutbacks, we will | :00:48. | :00:52. | |
still have the most generous legal system probably in the whole of | :00:52. | :01:02. | |
:01:02. | :01:05. | ||
Europe. George, do you sympathise with the lawyers? We've got a lot, | :01:05. | :01:09. | |
the biggest legal aid bill and we need to reduce it. I think we should | :01:09. | :01:13. |