05/02/2012 Sunday Politics South

In the south, or Chris Huhne has left the Cabinet. We will have

reactions from his constituency and a squat it means for Liberal

Apology for the loss of subtitles for 1755 seconds

Welcome to Sunday Politics self. On Today show: Good government plans

to modernise the Post Office mean we will be hearing about post

offices opening rather than closing? More on that later.

Along with the fall-out from Chris Huhne's fall-out resignation.

Thank you for a struggling through the cold weather to join us.

Richard Williams's the it leader of the Labour group on the council.

Richard, this week we had about Liverpool stepping up its plans to

complete with Southampton for cruise trade and they are saying

they will not pay back European money. Your colleagues are pulling

a fast one, aren't they? I went up to see Joe before Christmas on this

and made it very clear that I felt it was the wrong thing for

Liverpool to be doing. And he is ignoring it? He certainly is. We

will see how what it goes. I will be trying to lobby on behalf of

Southampton and. We are not giving this fighter up. Louise, in the

papers, the suggestion that one of your councillors should be paying

back the money as well. Jennifer Miller Smith who received more than

�1,000 for attending one meeting. Should she pay the money back?

is a Crawley Borough Council, I am sure Jenifer will do the right

thing and pay the money back. is going to? I do not know. Do you

think she should? If it was me, I would. So, after nine months of

uncertainty, Chris Huhne was told on Friday that he and his wife are

to be prosecuted for perverting the course of justice. The allegation

is that he asked his ex-wife to say that she was driving when he was

caught on a speed camera. He resigned his Cabinet post and said

he was determined to clear his name. This was the reaction on Friday.

I suppose it is a bit premature to step down. I think they should wait

until he is prevent innocent or guilty. I think that is probably

the right thing under no circumstances. What do people think

of him around here? I don't think he has a high profile since he had

his cabinet position. If he is going to resign because he is under

investigation, does that mean all of us would have to resign if we

are accused of something? If you are charged, I think you

must resign. Eastleah still a Liberal Democrat

stronghold, but the parties only remaining seat in the so-called

Golden Triangle. What might be the political impact of this personal

crisis for Chris Huhne? Now he has given up the ministerial

car while he fights criminal charges, but no one doubts his

ability to bounce back. We need to remind people that they should not

be voting for a copy, they need to vote for the real thing.

* outing as an outsider in the race to succeed Charles Kennedy, he then

returned to push Nick Clegg to within 500 boats and a second

leadership contest. Then with his wife at his side, he played a major

part in negotiating the coalition agreement. Then an affair with his

PR adviser was picked up by tabloid newspapers and his time as energy

secretary became dogged by bad publicity.

Joining us from Oxford studio is Catherine. Liberal Democrat MEP for

the South of England. Thanks for joining us. Chris Huhne made big

environmental commitments a missing as a big player on behalf of the

Liberal Democrats, but reducing carbon emissions by half was one

thing he got there and today we see Conservative MP saying let's cut

its wind farms. D C this as a push back against what Chris Huhne was

doing? I think it is a continuation of climate change deniers who do

not like anything that is the alternative. The Aynho that Ed is a

committed environmentalist and I'm sure that he will maintain Chris's

good work. We have to cut carbon emissions and this is the fastest

and best way to do that. But they must be a feeling in Liberal

Democrat grass roots that they have lost a big hitter? Well, he has

gone for the minute, but Chris is still there in his local

constituency doing a grand job. In government, Ed will be carrying on

and doing the good work that we know he can do. It must be

demoralising. Another personal scandal after David Laws. He is

there are feeling that you are now targets for tabloid newspapers?

Every politician has a target. It happens with all parties. Once you

stand up in public life, you are at risk of being targeted and followed

around. That goes with the territory. We have very sound, very

professional politicians working for the Liberal Democrats and I

know that Ed will be working there, two young women have moved up as

well and I am pleased to see that. I know we have a terrific team in

government. Chris Huhne is no longer in government and he was

supposedly banning the Cabinet to get Conservatives. Could he be a

rallying member causing trouble for David Cameron personally -- Nick

Clegg personally. I don't think so. We all have to do that and put our

faith in members and occasionally go head to head, but they remain

good friends and work well together. Chris is not there at the moment,

but the others will carry on his good work. Do you expect to see an

impact on the polls? Polls come and go. We had won here last week where

we won against a ferocious campaign and Lib Dems won council seats up

and down the land. We are winning local by-elections and I see that

carrying on. Let's turn to our guests. Louise Goldsmith, Liberal

Democrats, your opposition. Do they seem to be in fine shape? I think

they are finding it challenging overall. Locally as well? Locally.

Why do you think that is? I think it must be quite difficult. That

said, we work with them on the county council, but I think they

must find it difficult. Chris Huhne is a national politician, but at a

local level, do you still fight with them in the same way? Well, we

always have healthy debates and they put their point of view and

that is what they have been elected for at the local level, to put

forward policy and challenge us. That is the level of debate and we

have good debate about issues in the county council. How are Lib

Dems in Southampton doing? It is not for me to say in absolute terms,

but we have been speaking to people on the doorsteps. We spoke to 4400

people and the Lib Dem votes of those 4400 people was 7%. Four

years ago they ran the council, now they have three councillors. They

are in a very difficult place and I feel very sorry that these things

become issues in the public domain, but they have to be. On the

doorstep, it has been things like tuition fees that have had a

significant impact. In Southampton, their voters collapsing before the

general election. Catherine, will then need to be a big initiative

before the elections to re- establish Lib Dems? Our line on

environmental policy has run through the Lib Dems for years and

years. Policies are coming through weather at local level, national

level or in Europe, it is the Lib Dems delivering on environmental

policies and that is caught everything we do. Thank you for

joining us. After nine months of uncertainty,

this weekend it is four years since the Post Office announced it would

close to brunches in Oxfordshire. That story has been repeated all

over the country, but now some areas are hoping the Post Office

will be reopened. What has changed? The Government says the future of

the Post Office's finally secured. Come post of his release of five in

the modern age? Welcome to Summertown high street.

There are three supermarkets, coffee shops, banks, bars, but no

post office. Summertown closed down three years ago, but people here

say they have a good case for getting one back. There were two

when I first arrived to Summertown, but now they have disappeared.

is crazy that a place of this size does not have a post office.

now a new ten-year deal has been agreed between Royal Mail on the

Post Office. Oxfordshire has been chosen to become one of the first

areas to adopt a new modernise network. Those that have been

campaigning say this is an encouraging step. The recent

announcement that Oxfordshire will be one of the 25 local authorities

taking forward new plans means that Summertown has a great chance.

There will be reviewing the network across Oxfordshire and I hope

Summertown comes up. She is optimistic because the hope is it

will be more attractive to businesses in future. Everyone

would like a post office near by, but we have a huge number of people

that live and work here. He it is something that we miss.

It all depends on making struggling Post Office its competitive. Since

things like car tax began to be offered online, Post Office were

hit. The government says modern post offices will have longer

opening hours, self-service machines and often a new range of

services. I want to make sure we have a

viable network so I am not going to over a promise. What am going to

say is no closure programmes but back modernisation programme to

make sure the Post Office is relevant in a digital world.

But what is in store for rural communities? The government wants

to give them a facelift and hope that the set-up will get more

customers through the door. Something that has been in --

proving difficult in small villages. We do see less people because life

is changing. It has quieten things down. Things like eBay has

absolutely increased our parcel traffic though. Christine has been

running this bridge for nearly 14 years. In future must offices like

hers will be a better offer longer opening hours and are being told to

do away with the fortunes style counters a move these to the main

cell at the front of the shop. Great if you want to post a parcel

at 6:30am, turf if you are the guy behind the one with a parcel and

just want to buy a newspaper. What we desperately need his work. We

just have to hope that the pilots they are running at the moment

there are things like signing on and that sort of thing, if that

rolls out to the whole network, that is more of a future for us.

know a lot of sub-post masters of finding it tough. We are trying to

turn the tide. It is taking time because we have a vision for where

the Post Office needs to be. I believe those post offices will be

able to have the future and there are programme. Big promises for the

humble post office after years of closures, but will there be enough

confidence in their viability? Ed Davey there before he got

reshuffled showing his prowess as the Post Office minister. That is a

feather in the Lib Dem Cup, isn't it? Do you think it will actually

work? I think everybody wants to see as many post offices on my

street or in rural communities as we can have. They provide a real

service amp vocal point for people in the community. I visited one of

these trials in a pub. I don't miss it would work for everyone, but it

certainly worked for me. I was not driving I hasten To Add. A I think

what we have to look at in modern ages is how we can make services

fit in communities. Needs will be different across the country. In a

city like Southampton, we need to make sure there are sub-post

offices providing services that mean they can compete with larger

retail units than the internet. Louise, Post Office has a wonderful

tradition, doesn't it? In so many local communities is it really

viable? We love our press office and West Sussex. When we had our

last round of cuts, I managed to save my Post Office and the whole

community pulled together. It was a terrific thing because they really

be appreciated what the post of is represented on what it did for them

as a community. I think we are opening it up and in rural areas it

is vital to have those sorts of services there. Did they make

money? I think if they can look at a whole package of things, it might

be a raw shop and we have a lot of community shops, if we can link it

in with libraries, anything like that, we should be helping and

doing as much as we can to do that. Law regular round-up of the

political weight in the south in 60 Education Secretary Michael Gove

revealed an interesting sideline in Bonn villainy this week. Which one

would GB? I think I would be Hugo Drax because of my an enormous

admiration for the Member of Parliament in south Dorset that has

the same surname. This surroundings could be where school pupils in

Brighton and Hove get their lessons. Anything from a police station to a

football stadium. The rise in school age means they are running

out of classrooms. Fire and rescue plans to merge

services were banned this week due to uncertainty it about how much

funding rate get. We thought that everyone who ultimately owns his

museum should come for free. council a Royston Smith was

offering free tickets to the cities Titanic themed museum. Will anyone

Apparently Ian Fleming actually did name Hugo Drax after Sir Reginald

tracks. So there is a real connection there, apart from just

the name. Louise, out we mention the merger between East and West

fire services, can you explain more about that? They still want to

carry on with it and have a joint control room, but think the money

is not right. The joint control room shows what great partnership

working already exists and it will be much better for the resilience

and mobilisation, so that is good. We will work together to drive up

more savings. What it was is that coming together as one buyer or

fighting A1 Fire Service and sorting out the finance so we had

an equalisation. Is this a negotiating tactic? No because we

unfortunately got caught up in the financial resource review. Rightly

so, they are looking at the overall finances. We will get clarity. We

are not going to get the clarity we need in the timescale. So you are

ahead of the game? We are, but both have said we still need to find

money. We want other very good service looking after our community,

so how are we going to make this happen? Richard, we also saw about

free tickets in Southampton for this exciting Titanic museum given

away by your conservative opponents just before the election. That is

going to harm you. You may say that, I could not comment. You will, and

if it takes notes from year. think that in tough times it would

not have been our priority. We would have been protecting services

for the vulnerable and Alban -- elderly. Southampton are still

paying for this. There is still a long way to go on this one.

Hopefully it will be a good museum. We want it to be a success, but I

don't think this is the way forward, personally. Both of you, thank you

very much for joining us this Sunday. That is Sunday Politics in

the south. You can keep up on the internet. More fall-out on Chris