Browse content similar to 03/03/2013. Check below for episodes and series from the same categories and more!
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In the South: After all the national attention, the visits from | :01:22. | :01:25. | |
big beasts and the tons of leaflets through letterboxes, just what did | :01:25. | :01:35. | |
:01:35. | :01:35. | ||
Apology for the loss of subtitles for 2199 seconds | :01:35. | :38:14. | |
the Eastleigh by election do for Welcome to Sunday Politics South, | :38:14. | :38:19. | |
my name's Peter Henley. So, the voters of Eastleigh have had their | :38:19. | :38:21. | |
say, all those politicians who trekked down have headed back to | :38:21. | :38:24. | |
the big city, and householders are clearing up the tons of leaflets | :38:24. | :38:27. | |
that were squeezed through their doors. But just where does it leave | :38:27. | :38:31. | |
the four main parties here in the south? Joining me today are the | :38:31. | :38:34. | |
Conservative MP for Bournemouth West, Conor Burns: the Labour MP | :38:34. | :38:36. | |
for Southampton Test, Alan Whitehead; and the Lib Dem leader | :38:36. | :38:46. | |
:38:46. | :38:58. | ||
of Eastleigh Borough Council, Keith An architect of the Lib Dem victory | :38:58. | :39:08. | |
:39:08. | :39:09. | ||
some might say. We had expected Nigel Farage. -- We had expected | :39:09. | :39:12. | |
Nigel Farage from UKIP, but sadly the lure of the bright lights in | :39:12. | :39:15. | |
London proved too great and he's been up there doing interviews this | :39:15. | :39:19. | |
morning. We'll be hearing from the three who are here in a minute - | :39:19. | :39:28. | |
first here's Roger Finn with the highlights of Thursday night. What | :39:28. | :39:36. | |
do you pick it down to? Everybody, this lot, all of them. I alongside | :39:36. | :39:43. | |
the Lib Dem jury this was also an extraordinary night for Plaid Cymru. | :39:43. | :39:53. | |
:39:53. | :39:54. | ||
They attracted up to half of the party's votes in some areas. -- | :39:54. | :40:04. | |
:40:04. | :40:05. | ||
UKIP. It was a well-oiled political machine. Labour took consolation in | :40:05. | :40:11. | |
increasing their share of the vote slightly. Do actually get boards we | :40:11. | :40:16. | |
have to be organised on the ground, people have to see us in their | :40:16. | :40:26. | |
:40:26. | :40:33. | ||
communities all-year-round. Dash -- votes. But the night belonged to | :40:33. | :40:43. | |
:40:43. | :40:44. | ||
the Lib Dems. They have now won at Eastleigh six times in a row. | :40:44. | :40:50. | |
seats will take real heart in this result. There are probably 30 Tory | :40:50. | :40:59. | |
MPs quaking in their bids because we can take some of their seats. | :40:59. | :41:09. | |
:41:09. | :41:10. | ||
UKIP votes rose dramatically. voted for UKIP, I want Britain back. | :41:10. | :41:20. | |
:41:20. | :41:21. | ||
I voted for UKIP. I changed my vote this time. The result will be | :41:21. | :41:27. | |
analysed for many weeks more. Can I start with a strange thought that | :41:28. | :41:34. | |
actually East Leake tells us nothing, this is a basic protest | :41:34. | :41:44. | |
vote and the Lib Dem share of the vote and conservative vote felt. | :41:44. | :41:53. | |
course, by-elections are used as a protest. There is a suggestion that | :41:53. | :41:59. | |
83% of the UKIP boat was a protest bowled. We were here having did | :41:59. | :42:04. | |
take responsible decisions, running the council. So it is not such a | :42:04. | :42:10. | |
huge victory? That is not the case because under normal circumstances | :42:10. | :42:17. | |
you would have expected UKIP to win as they are the vehicle for protest. | :42:17. | :42:23. | |
The reason they were not able to do that was shown on your clip. We | :42:23. | :42:28. | |
have am very good team in Eastleigh built up over a number of years and | :42:28. | :42:34. | |
built on a solid record of delivery. We fought on local issues. There | :42:34. | :42:37. | |
were enough people out there in Eastleigh who said they thought we | :42:37. | :42:43. | |
were doing good work and to keep going with it. The votes did not go | :42:43. | :42:49. | |
to Labour, that must have been a failure? They did go to Labour but | :42:49. | :42:54. | |
Labour did not get squeezed in terms of its votes. If we had a | :42:54. | :43:01. | |
national election based on one third of Liberal Democrat votes | :43:01. | :43:10. | |
going and one-third of conservative votes going to Labour we would have | :43:10. | :43:13. | |
quite a different scene. They should have come swarming back to | :43:13. | :43:19. | |
you. Certainly the expectation that might have been there that a large | :43:19. | :43:27. | |
number of votes might have come to Labour went realised and that is | :43:27. | :43:34. | |
partly a function of organisation on the ground. Labour has not been | :43:34. | :43:38. | |
well organised in Eastleigh and trying to make that up over a few | :43:38. | :43:43. | |
weeks was a hard task. The Labour vote that there was stayed fairly | :43:43. | :43:51. | |
solid without an enormous advance. As bad as the UKIP boats, they came | :43:51. | :43:57. | |
from Conservatives and a few from the Lib Dems. It came from people | :43:57. | :44:03. | |
from all political parties. It came pretty evenly from Conservatives | :44:03. | :44:08. | |
and Liberal Democrats. Clearly there is a debate to be had because | :44:08. | :44:15. | |
we do not have an issue of immigration but clearly there is a | :44:15. | :44:20. | |
fear their in Eastleigh. The Labour campaign was built on the false | :44:20. | :44:28. | |
premise that there were 29 million Bulgarians about to fetch up on the | :44:28. | :44:33. | |
doorsteps of Eastleigh. Does it show that Lib Dems might be out of | :44:33. | :44:40. | |
touch with people's feelings on immigration? No, I think by- | :44:40. | :44:45. | |
elections are used as a protest opportunity. They want to go big | :44:45. | :44:49. | |
parties the taking. Normally we would see the benefit of that but | :44:49. | :44:58. | |
not this time. Generally speaking the protest party picks up the seat. | :44:58. | :45:02. | |
Generally speaking, where did the Conservative campaign go wrong? | :45:02. | :45:08. | |
the context of Chris Huhne I would make the points, the Liberal | :45:08. | :45:13. | |
Democrats have a very effective grassroots organisation. Focus | :45:13. | :45:17. | |
leaflets come through the door every three months regularly. The | :45:17. | :45:23. | |
other parties or may appear at election time. Their record on the | :45:23. | :45:28. | |
council is a strong one. The deliver services and keep a grip on | :45:28. | :45:38. | |
:45:38. | :45:40. | ||
council tax. The Liberal Democrats have also been working with the | :45:40. | :45:45. | |
local cricket ground. I think lastly we have no organisation to | :45:45. | :45:51. | |
speak of on the ground in Eastleigh, that is a huge failure in our part. | :45:51. | :45:57. | |
Part of it ties to local Government leadership. The leader of the | :45:57. | :46:01. | |
council will celebrate 50 each year's service this year. His focus | :46:01. | :46:07. | |
has not been on rebuilding our organisation. Those things coming | :46:07. | :46:13. | |
together delivered the result. In the context of the weakness of our | :46:13. | :46:16. | |
organisation in the constituency it was a very good campaign but it | :46:16. | :46:21. | |
relied on bussing people in from outside to did not have the local | :46:21. | :46:24. | |
knowledge and connections that the grass roots embedded organisation | :46:24. | :46:31. | |
within a constituency would have had. The one lesson we need to take | :46:31. | :46:35. | |
away from this is that we cannot win elections purely on the | :46:35. | :46:40. | |
airwaves from Westminster, we have to win them on the ground in the | :46:40. | :46:46. | |
constituency. Particularly in the context of what is happening with | :46:46. | :46:50. | |
UKIP, the do identify with local concerns. This was a cost of living | :46:50. | :46:55. | |
election to some degree, food prices are going up, petrol and | :46:55. | :47:00. | |
utility prices are going up but incomes are at fixed or falling. | :47:00. | :47:05. | |
People are feeling the pinch. They want to know that the politicians | :47:05. | :47:10. | |
charged with the responsibility of Government get that. We have a huge | :47:10. | :47:13. | |
opportunity in the forthcoming Budget to show the people of | :47:13. | :47:19. | |
Eastleigh that we do get that and have a cost-of-living budget. | :47:19. | :47:23. | |
Ed Miliband if he wants a One nation party that fights in the | :47:23. | :47:26. | |
south he has to find a way of changing the way Labour is | :47:26. | :47:31. | |
organised? Yes. The question of organisation on the ground anywhere | :47:32. | :47:36. | |
in the country is becoming increasingly important in elections. | :47:36. | :47:39. | |
It is clear in the south of England that Labour, with the exception of | :47:39. | :47:44. | |
a number of important places, have not been well thought of in the | :47:44. | :47:48. | |
past. It is not just a question of the message you are putting a cross, | :47:48. | :47:53. | |
Jean Jean the message for this week or next week, it is a question of | :47:53. | :47:57. | |
being there over a period of time and making sure that message is | :47:57. | :48:04. | |
discussed, disseminated and people are brought along with it. Tough on | :48:04. | :48:11. | |
the side of immigration maybe? is one which featured to some | :48:11. | :48:16. | |
extent within the campaign. I have to say my experience of talking to | :48:16. | :48:21. | |
a lot of people on the doorstep in Eastleigh was actually that does | :48:21. | :48:27. | |
the you might have thought would have voted for UKIP on immigration | :48:27. | :48:32. | |
were actually doing so for a whole variety of reasons. It was not | :48:32. | :48:38. | |
quite the issue I thought it might be. Certainly the wider issue of | :48:38. | :48:44. | |
how you make sure that you have secured boundaries, that you are | :48:44. | :48:48. | |
actually making sure there are proper opportunities for those | :48:48. | :48:55. | |
people who are UK jobseeker's and workers along with other people, | :48:55. | :49:01. | |
things such as minimum wage agencies, making sure they recruit | :49:01. | :49:06. | |
everybody and not just people from certain parts of the world, those I | :49:06. | :49:11. | |
think our real issues that have to be discussed in a more robust way. | :49:11. | :49:16. | |
Both parties are moving on this and you are not? The underlying issue | :49:16. | :49:21. | |
that was spoken about was that party organisations need to be more | :49:21. | :49:25. | |
resilient and more embedded in the communities and talk to people | :49:25. | :49:35. | |
:49:35. | :49:35. | ||
routinely. We had a great machine in Eastleigh. The question for UKIP | :49:35. | :49:41. | |
was the issues of Europe where you party want to just keep going. | :49:41. | :49:46. | |
was an opportunity for protest and UKIP were able to capitalise on | :49:46. | :49:53. | |
that. Our campaign was on housing and local issues, we will keep on | :49:53. | :49:57. | |
to those campaign issues because they are what matter to people on a | :49:57. | :50:02. | |
day to day and month to month basis. Hopefully our machines across the | :50:02. | :50:07. | |
other parts of the area will have been enlivened by the success we | :50:07. | :50:13. | |
have had in Eastleigh. That is that election dealt with! Now let's look | :50:13. | :50:16. | |
at another one. The Police And Crime Commissioners passed their | :50:17. | :50:19. | |
hundredth day in office this week. It's a completely arbitrary | :50:19. | :50:22. | |
benchmark of course - they've still got another three years in the job | :50:22. | :50:26. | |
- but it's also the week in which a survey showed that nine out of ten | :50:26. | :50:29. | |
people can't name their local PCC. So we sent our Home Affairs | :50:29. | :50:32. | |
Correspondent Alex Forsyth out to see what they've really achieved in | :50:32. | :50:41. | |
100 days. It was meant to be a big job for a big local personality to | :50:41. | :50:45. | |
be in charge of a police force and make local decisions and whom local | :50:45. | :50:50. | |
people could go to with their concerns about policing. After 100 | :50:51. | :50:55. | |
days in the job how many people here in Hampshire know who their | :50:55. | :51:03. | |
Police And Crime Commissioner is. Do you recognise this guy? Um? | :51:03. | :51:08. | |
not sure who. I do but I cannot think too. I imagine someone like | :51:08. | :51:15. | |
the police commissioner. Excellent, spot on. He has been on the | :51:15. | :51:22. | |
television recently. Have not a clue who fears. Sorry. He is | :51:22. | :51:27. | |
Hampshire's Police And Crime Commissioner. Oh, right, OK, Hello! | :51:27. | :51:34. | |
He asked him whether he thinks the role has had any impact so far? | :51:34. | :51:40. | |
has only been 100 days. There is still a lot more to do. I hope the | :51:40. | :51:44. | |
people are beginning slowly to know what I can do and how I can work | :51:44. | :51:49. | |
with them in their communities and certainly where I have been, where | :51:49. | :51:53. | |
I have spoken, people have seen the benefit of it and are prepared to | :51:53. | :52:00. | |
be engaged with me and in my office. I am encouraged by that. | :52:00. | :52:05. | |
South's six commissioners have all approach the job differently. This | :52:05. | :52:13. | |
man has appointed paid deputies. This man has met around 3,000 | :52:13. | :52:17. | |
people at public meetings and is setting up forums for the public. | :52:17. | :52:24. | |
This woman from Sussex has been to neighbourhood panels, hosted a live | :52:24. | :52:31. | |
Facebook chat and is an avid tweeter. But former police are | :52:31. | :52:36. | |
authority cheer, Jackie Raymond, who lost out in the Commissioner | :52:36. | :52:40. | |
elections wonders whether any amount of effort will engage the | :52:40. | :52:45. | |
public. I am trying to make a difference but I think the public | :52:45. | :52:50. | |
want to know that the police are doing what they need to do and they | :52:50. | :52:54. | |
are not really interested in the Government's am less it all goes | :52:54. | :52:58. | |
wrong. These 100 days have been a chance for commissioners to get to | :52:58. | :53:03. | |
grips with the job. They are now drawing up their police and crime | :53:03. | :53:08. | |
plans, setting out their priorities for the next five years, then they | :53:08. | :53:13. | |
will be expected to deliver. In Wiltshire the focus is on frontline | :53:13. | :53:20. | |
staff and giving victims are boys. The same, too, in Surrey. In the | :53:20. | :53:27. | |
Thames Valley rural crime and burglary are key. In Dorset and | :53:27. | :53:31. | |
Sussex they want to recruit more volunteer officers and tackle | :53:31. | :53:37. | |
domestic violence. That is a priority for this man, too, who | :53:37. | :53:41. | |
also wants to reduce reoffending and increase frontline police. | :53:41. | :53:45. | |
gave myself this financial year to get all that sorted out so that we | :53:45. | :53:52. | |
have a budget down to plan. And our working relationship with statutory | :53:52. | :53:57. | |
bodies and a complaint process in place. I want to have the ability | :53:57. | :54:01. | |
within my job is to respond to what is already a considerable public | :54:01. | :54:08. | |
interest. It is early days but that is the plan and it is on track. | :54:08. | :54:15. | |
were just talking around the table here and none of you have met you | :54:15. | :54:18. | |
police and crime commissioner within the first 100 days. There | :54:18. | :54:22. | |
were no Liberal Democrat elected, none from UKIP either but there | :54:22. | :54:28. | |
were quite a few independents. I guess that was a protest? We were | :54:28. | :54:32. | |
not a fan of this process because we're in the coalition and you have | :54:32. | :54:36. | |
to go along with something should do not like, that is what coalition | :54:36. | :54:44. | |
is about. I did vote for it, I was technically and member of the | :54:44. | :54:49. | |
Government at the time. But you regret it? I do not like the | :54:49. | :54:53. | |
concept of people elected on party political platforms having control | :54:53. | :54:58. | |
of policing. I felt that was an opportunity for some people to play | :54:58. | :55:03. | |
to the gallery. In Bournemouth the number one policing priority | :55:03. | :55:07. | |
according to many local people is cycling on the promenade. Other | :55:07. | :55:13. | |
people in the constituency would say drug problems and gangs. The | :55:13. | :55:18. | |
idea that the middle classes could dictate the priority of the | :55:18. | :55:22. | |
policing operational decisions I was very nervous about. A neighbour | :55:22. | :55:29. | |
not happy with the idea of power in one pair of hands. The same as the | :55:29. | :55:37. | |
idea of elected mayors all over the country. Police in authorities | :55:37. | :55:41. | |
where a collection of people taking decisions together. You clerk as | :55:41. | :55:45. | |
shown people do not know who the police commissioners are so there | :55:45. | :55:49. | |
is no more transparency in this system but at least in the old one | :55:49. | :55:52. | |
there were a collection of people and communities involved in | :55:52. | :55:58. | |
decision-making. My preference would be to return policing to the | :55:58. | :56:03. | |
control of local authorities from whence they came. People across the | :56:03. | :56:09. | |
place could represent the views of the whole community. Would you like | :56:09. | :56:15. | |
to see, if Labour got in, this to continue or to get rid of them? | :56:15. | :56:20. | |
that point it is a question of whether you disentangle as system | :56:20. | :56:27. | |
which at that point would have started to run. I was not a fan of | :56:27. | :56:34. | |
the process in the first place. I would have thought the priority of | :56:34. | :56:38. | |
getting rid of it would not be high after the next election but we | :56:38. | :56:42. | |
could point to a whole range of mistakes that were made in bringing | :56:42. | :56:47. | |
this system about. For example, during the election nobody knew who | :56:47. | :56:51. | |
the candidates were because there was no communication saying who | :56:51. | :56:58. | |
they were for the election. That was a money-saving exercise. Yes, | :56:58. | :57:02. | |
we had a 15% turnout and candidates who were universally not known to | :57:02. | :57:06. | |
anybody. That is translated into what we now know about police | :57:06. | :57:11. | |
commissioners. I knew and Hampshire knew that the previous chair of the | :57:11. | :57:15. | |
police authority was not much better than is likely to be the | :57:15. | :57:20. | |
case for a long time for the new police commissioner. I thought it | :57:20. | :57:23. | |
was a very strange idea to have an election in the middle of November, | :57:23. | :57:28. | |
to not give the candidates the opportunity to put out a mailshot | :57:28. | :57:31. | |
to explain what they wear, what they wanted to do and what the role | :57:31. | :57:35. | |
was. The Brocket in but did not back him with the resources that | :57:35. | :57:41. | |
might have given it a more flying start and it has had. Another | :57:41. | :57:46. | |
criticism of David Cameron? It is a criticism of David Cameron but if | :57:46. | :57:51. | |
you want a big change in the way policing is done and is held to | :57:51. | :57:55. | |
democratic accountability, you have the responsibility to pick the | :57:55. | :58:00. | |
resource behind that to make it a good start. That has not happened. | :58:00. | :58:05. | |
The bottom line is it is about operational services. The idea this | :58:05. | :58:08. | |
arrangement will make any difference to that whatsoever is | :58:08. | :58:13. | |
questionable. Thank you. Now our regular round-up of the political | :58:13. | :58:23. | |
:58:23. | :58:24. | ||
week in the South in 60 seconds. More council tax decisions this | :58:24. | :58:32. | |
week. In pool the council came a cropper when people join de Lib | :58:32. | :58:36. | |
Dems to force a three's. Now the council says it has to find another | :58:36. | :58:46. | |
:58:46. | :59:00. | ||
4 million end cash. And the farmers' markets are doing well | :59:00. | :59:05. | |
after the horse made crisis. It is all local. Born here, raised deer | :59:05. | :59:12. | |
and sold here. You could be getting your copy from criminals. And this | :59:12. | :59:19. | |
landfill site. Good news for Arctic -- for war veterans to to be | :59:19. | :59:29. | |
:59:29. | :59:30. | ||
getting their medals this month. So the council tax there. Pool | :59:30. | :59:40. | |
:59:40. | :59:40. | ||
People's Party, UKIP and keeping the council tax down. Some are | :59:40. | :59:45. | |
arguing that pool should take Eric Pickles No money. For the third | :59:45. | :59:50. | |
year in a row we're going for the council tax freeze. The leader in | :59:50. | :59:53. | |
Bournemouth is cutting spending so we will have a total freeze across | :59:53. | :59:58. | |
the whole thing. Do you think the three's you have had for some time | :59:58. | :00:03. | |
in Eastleigh help you? In Eastleigh we have taken the view that council | :00:03. | :00:07. | |
tax is inherently unfair which is why we have in real terms been | :00:07. | :00:12. | |
cutting it for the last 10 years. You support these and thing | :00:12. | :00:16. | |
services should not be cut? Defending services is very | :00:16. | :00:19. | |
important but local authorities as a whole and a very difficult | :00:19. | :00:29. | |
:00:29. | :00:35. | ||
position. Taking the "pickles money" is very difficult indeed. We | :00:35. | :00:41. | |
are going to have no revenue bees because Government cuts of 28% over | :00:41. | :00:44. | |
four years for local Government services, money to local | :00:44. | :00:48. | |
authorities to back up their services, is a key factor. We | :00:48. | :00:53. | |
cannot make that up with council tax increases, local authorities | :00:53. | :00:56. | |
Adana impossible position. That's the Sunday Politics in the South, | :00:56. | :01:00. | |
thanks to my guests Alan Whitehead, Conor Burns and Keith House. Normal | :01:00. | :01:02. |