Browse content similar to 06/04/2014. Check below for episodes and series from the same categories and more!
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Morning folks. Welcome to the Sunday Politics. | :00:37. | :00:40. | |
Pressure on Culture Secretary Maria Miller mounts as the Tory press, | :00:41. | :00:43. | |
Tory voters and even a Tory Minister turn against her. That's our top | :00:44. | :00:48. | |
story. The economic outlook is getting | :00:49. | :00:51. | |
rosier. But Ed Miliband is having none of it. The cost of living | :00:52. | :00:55. | |
crisis is here to stay, says Labour. Shadow Minister Caroline Flint joins | :00:56. | :01:05. | |
us for the Sunday Interview. And we bring you the Sunday Politics | :01:06. | :01:08. | |
Gallery. But which former world leader is behind these paintings of | :01:09. | :01:10. | |
In the South... Fancy owning an world leaders? | :01:11. | :01:14. | |
In the South... Fancy owning an energy company? The Government's | :01:15. | :01:16. | |
keen to encourage community`owned renewable power generation and | :01:17. | :01:18. | |
Oxfordshire could have the biggest scheme in the world. | :01:19. | :01:23. | |
new London borough. A blue flint for regeneration or economic | :01:24. | :01:32. | |
And with me as always, the best and the brightest political panel in the | :01:33. | :01:37. | |
business - Janan Ganesh, Helen Lewis and Nick Watt. Their tweets will be | :01:38. | :01:40. | |
as brief as a Cabinet Minister's apology. | :01:41. | :01:46. | |
A frenzy of betting on the Grand National yesterday. But there was | :01:47. | :01:50. | |
one book on which betting was suspended, and that was on the fate | :01:51. | :01:54. | |
of Culture Secretary Maria Miller, now the 2/1 favourite to be forced | :01:55. | :01:56. | |
out the Cabinet. She galloped through her apology to the Commons | :01:57. | :02:00. | |
on Thursday in just 32 seconds. But speed did her no favours. There's | :02:01. | :02:03. | |
been mounting pressure on her to resign ever since, especially from | :02:04. | :02:07. | |
Tories. And this weekend the Chairman of the Independent | :02:08. | :02:09. | |
Parliamentary Standards Authority, Ian Kennedy, said it's time MPs gave | :02:10. | :02:12. | |
away the power to decide how colleagues who break the rules are | :02:13. | :02:27. | |
punished. An inquiry into Maria Miller's expenses claims was launch | :02:28. | :02:32. | |
in 2012, following allegations he claimed ?90,000 to fund a house she | :02:33. | :02:38. | |
lived in part time with her parents. She had designated this her second | :02:39. | :02:42. | |
home. She was referred to the Parliamentary Standards | :02:43. | :02:45. | |
Commissioner, who recommended that she repay ?45,000. But this week the | :02:46. | :02:52. | |
Commons Standards Committee, comprising of MPs from all parties, | :02:53. | :02:56. | |
dismissed the complaint against Maria Miller and ordered her to | :02:57. | :03:03. | |
repay just ?5,800 for inadvertently overclaiming her merge claimants. | :03:04. | :03:10. | |
She was forced to apologise to the Commons for the legalistic way she | :03:11. | :03:14. | |
dealt with the complaints against her. But Tony Gallagher told the | :03:15. | :03:19. | |
Daily Politics on Friday: We got a third call from Craig Oliver who | :03:20. | :03:23. | |
pointed out, she is looking at Leveson and the call is badly timed. | :03:24. | :03:28. | |
I think if you are making a series of telephone calls to a newspaper | :03:29. | :03:30. | |
organisation investigating the conduct of a Cabinet Minister, that | :03:31. | :03:31. | |
comes close After that interview Craig Oliver | :03:32. | :03:36. | |
contacted us, saying there was no threat in anyway over Leveson. I | :03:37. | :03:41. | |
mead it clear at the time. Tony Gallagher is talking rubbish about | :03:42. | :03:45. | |
me, and you can use that. The Daily Telegraph have released a tape of a | :03:46. | :03:49. | |
phone call between Maria Miller's aid, Joanna Hindley, and a reporter | :03:50. | :03:53. | |
investigating her expenses claim. Joanna Hindley said: | :03:54. | :03:58. | |
Maria's obviously been having quite a lot of editor's meetings around | :03:59. | :04:06. | |
Leveson at the moment. So I'm just going to kind of flag up that | :04:07. | :04:11. | |
connection for you to think about. The Prime Minister is sticking by | :04:12. | :04:14. | |
his Culture Secretary, but this weekend's crescendo of criticism of | :04:15. | :04:17. | |
her presents him with a problem and he could be wishing Maria Miller | :04:18. | :04:20. | |
would just fall on her sword. Even over 80% of Tory voters in a Mail on | :04:21. | :04:26. | |
Sunday poll think she should go. On the Andrew Marr Show, the Work and | :04:27. | :04:29. | |
Pensions Secretary, Iain Duncan Smith, defended his colleague. I've | :04:30. | :04:36. | |
known her always to be a reasonable and honest person. But is she doing | :04:37. | :04:40. | |
the Government or her any good by staying in office at the moment, do | :04:41. | :04:44. | |
you think? This is a matter the Prime Minister has to take | :04:45. | :04:48. | |
consideration of and she herself. My view generally is I'm supportive of | :04:49. | :04:52. | |
Maria, because if we are not careful we end one a witch-hunt of somebody. | :04:53. | :04:57. | |
And I'm joined now by the Conservative MP, Bob Stewart, and | :04:58. | :05:00. | |
the man in the white suit, former MP and anti-sleaze campaigner Martin | :05:01. | :05:03. | |
Bell. Welcome to you both. Stuart Stuart sturkts let me put this to | :05:04. | :05:06. | |
you, a Conservative MP told this programme, this is a quote, she has | :05:07. | :05:10. | |
handled this appallingly. Downing Street has acted like judge and | :05:11. | :05:15. | |
jury, for Craig Oliver to get involved is disastrous. She's been | :05:16. | :05:18. | |
protected by the whips from the start. What do you say to that? It's | :05:19. | :05:23. | |
not great, is it? The fact of the matter is the question one should | :05:24. | :05:27. | |
ask is, did she deliberately try to make money? Did she deliberately try | :05:28. | :05:34. | |
to obscure ate? The answer is she certainly didn't deliberately try to | :05:35. | :05:37. | |
make money, in the system, which was the old system, and with regard to | :05:38. | :05:42. | |
obscure ago, I wasn't there, but let's put it this way. She was going | :05:43. | :05:47. | |
through a quasi-judicial process and might have ended up in court, so she | :05:48. | :05:52. | |
has a right to defend herself. Hold on o you said she doesn't do it to | :05:53. | :05:57. | |
make money, she remortgaged the house a couple of times to earn more | :05:58. | :06:01. | |
interest to us, the taxpayer, and when interest rates went down she | :06:02. | :06:04. | |
didn't reduce the amount she was charging in expenses. Well, the | :06:05. | :06:09. | |
point is the adjudicator said there was ?45,000 she was owed. And then a | :06:10. | :06:14. | |
committee, Standards Committee, said actually it should be reduced. That | :06:15. | :06:19. | |
was mainly MPs but there are three lay members. Yes, but they don't | :06:20. | :06:23. | |
have the vote. OK, fine, that is where it is wrong and we've got to | :06:24. | :06:27. | |
get it sorted. Let me put another quote from our Conservative MP. He | :06:28. | :06:32. | |
didn't want to be named. None of you do at the moment. I'm being named. | :06:33. | :06:37. | |
But you are backing her. George young in cahoots. He's been leading | :06:38. | :06:41. | |
on the Standards Committee to find her innocent. The Standards | :06:42. | :06:45. | |
Committee is unfit for purpose. I think the Standards Committee should | :06:46. | :06:50. | |
be revisited. I think the system is still evolving. And I think actually | :06:51. | :06:55. | |
we ought to have totally independent judgment on MPs' pay and allowances. | :06:56. | :06:59. | |
We haven't have not got there yet and that is where it is wrong. | :07:00. | :07:05. | |
Martin Bell, have MPs interfered in the Maria Miller process and with | :07:06. | :07:08. | |
the current Standards Commissioner in the same way that they saw off a | :07:09. | :07:12. | |
previous Commissioner they thought was too independent? Andrew it is | :07:13. | :07:17. | |
exactly the same. Yesterday I looked at a diary entry I made for May | :07:18. | :07:25. | |
2000, I said, dreadful meeting standards and privileges, they are | :07:26. | :07:31. | |
playing party politics. One of them told Elizabeth fill kin to her face | :07:32. | :07:37. | |
the gossip in the tea room was she had gone crazy. Nothing's changed. | :07:38. | :07:42. | |
What this shows is most of all, what's the committee for? If it is | :07:43. | :07:47. | |
just going to rubber stamp what the party wants and its mates, I don't | :07:48. | :07:52. | |
see any point. But it hasn't rubber stamped. It's changed it. Well, it | :07:53. | :07:57. | |
has watered down. That's why we should make it totally independent | :07:58. | :08:01. | |
and it shouldn't be involved in the House of Commons. It is plus plus ca | :08:02. | :08:09. | |
change isn't it? MPs', scandal, and MPs closing ranks for one of their | :08:10. | :08:13. | |
own. Has the Commons learned nothing? And this is after the | :08:14. | :08:18. | |
expenses scandal, where everything was out for everybody to see, you | :08:19. | :08:22. | |
would think MPs would be careful. This is before the expenses scandal. | :08:23. | :08:27. | |
We are looking at an historical event, during your time, Martin, not | :08:28. | :08:31. | |
mine. I'm clean on this. You campaigned for him as an | :08:32. | :08:35. | |
independent. I did, he was a good friend of mine. And now you've | :08:36. | :08:40. | |
joined the club. And now you are defending Maria Miller? I'm | :08:41. | :08:44. | |
defending someone who hasn't been proved guilty of anything beyond the | :08:45. | :08:48. | |
fact she was rather slow to come forward with evidence. My point on | :08:49. | :08:52. | |
that, is I understand that. MPs are being lambasted the whole time these | :08:53. | :08:57. | |
days. There were a heck of a lot of them, Martin, who are utterly | :08:58. | :09:01. | |
decent. She didn't try to make money. We've just been through that. | :09:02. | :09:06. | |
I don't think that's right. The jury is out on that. What should have | :09:07. | :09:10. | |
happened in the Miller case, Martin Bell? I don't think there should be | :09:11. | :09:14. | |
a committee on standards. I think the Commissioner should make a | :09:15. | :09:18. | |
report. There has been to be justice for the MP complained against. Then | :09:19. | :09:22. | |
the committee of the whole House can consider it. But we are, the House | :09:23. | :09:28. | |
of Commons, then as now is incapable of regulating itself. That's been | :09:29. | :09:35. | |
proving yet again. She made a perfunctory apology. She threatened | :09:36. | :09:39. | |
and instructed the Standards Commissioner investigating her, and | :09:40. | :09:43. | |
her special adviser linked expenses to Leveson, when trying to stop the | :09:44. | :09:48. | |
Daily Telegraph from publishing. I mean, is that the behaviour of a | :09:49. | :09:52. | |
Cabinet Minister? Well, it's probably not the behaviour of | :09:53. | :09:55. | |
someone that's got time on their hands. She's a very busy Cabinet | :09:56. | :10:01. | |
Minister. Well, she had enough time to write lots of letters to the | :10:02. | :10:06. | |
Standards Commission ser. She felt under such threat. She had the time. | :10:07. | :10:13. | |
She had to make the time. Die know the lady is not trying desperately | :10:14. | :10:17. | |
to make money. I disagree but on that. The fact of the matter is, | :10:18. | :10:21. | |
this was an old, old system, that we've tried to put right, or the | :10:22. | :10:26. | |
Commons has tried to put right. I agree that MPs shouldn't get | :10:27. | :10:31. | |
involved in this. Should we get rid of this committee? It serves no | :10:32. | :10:37. | |
purpose except to cause trouble. The adjudicator has said that and it | :10:38. | :10:40. | |
should be the end of it. It shouldn't come back to the Commons. | :10:41. | :10:45. | |
Although her special adviser threatened them over Leveson she was | :10:46. | :10:48. | |
and is the Minister responsible for trying to introduce something like | :10:49. | :10:54. | |
Leveson and that is something a big chunk that the press doesn't want. | :10:55. | :11:01. | |
She is a target. It has a good record on this issue. It played wit | :11:02. | :11:07. | |
a straight bat. The facts aren't in dispute are they? Will she make it | :11:08. | :11:12. | |
to the next cabinet reshuffle and then go? Iain Duncan Smith said it | :11:13. | :11:15. | |
is a matter for the Prime Minister. In my view, as things stand, I | :11:16. | :11:22. | |
question did she deliberately want to make money? I don't think she | :11:23. | :11:28. | |
did. Should she go? No. Should she be reshuffled? I don't know. | :11:29. | :11:31. | |
Goodness me, you are asking someone who will never be reshuffled, | :11:32. | :11:37. | |
because he will never make it. I was only asking for your opinion, not | :11:38. | :11:41. | |
your ability to do it. This is a problem for Cameron isn't it? It is | :11:42. | :11:46. | |
a problem for Cameron. There is nothing wrong with returning to be | :11:47. | :11:53. | |
badge benches, as you know. Hear, hear. To that. Stick with me. Helen, | :11:54. | :11:58. | |
can she survive? Is I'm going out of the prediction game when I said | :11:59. | :12:05. | |
Clegg is going to win the date, so I owe Janan a tenner on that one. | :12:06. | :12:10. | |
Grant Shapps has supported her. She was ringed by Sir George young and | :12:11. | :12:18. | |
Jeremy Hunt... This is pretty devastating. On past form David | :12:19. | :12:22. | |
Cameron hates having to bounce people out of the cabinet. He will | :12:23. | :12:28. | |
want to keep Maria Miller until the summer reshuffle. This is a question | :12:29. | :12:32. | |
mark on whether she survive this is. This isn't damaging to the | :12:33. | :12:34. | |
Conservative or the Labour Party, it is damaging to everyone. This is | :12:35. | :12:39. | |
catastrophic damage to the entire political establishment. Every | :12:40. | :12:42. | |
single speech that David Cameron and Ed Miliband have given since 2009, | :12:43. | :12:47. | |
talking about restoring trust, they can wipe them from their computers, | :12:48. | :12:50. | |
because voters are going to look that there and say, this lot haven't | :12:51. | :12:55. | |
learnt anything. They are giving perfunctory apologies and then you | :12:56. | :13:00. | |
have MPs sitting in judgment on MPs and rather than paying back ?45,000, | :13:01. | :13:06. | |
she pays back ?5,800 after MPs have been into it. Damage is huge. Just | :13:07. | :13:12. | |
getting rid of one Cabinet Minister, you will need to do more than that. | :13:13. | :13:16. | |
You will notice that Labour haven't made huge weather of this. No, | :13:17. | :13:19. | |
goodness me, they have their own skeletons. Exactly. The person who | :13:20. | :13:24. | |
has made hay out of this is Nigel Farage, who has not been backwards | :13:25. | :13:30. | |
in coming forward. He doesn't seem to care about skeletons. The Prime | :13:31. | :13:35. | |
Minister has be-Gunby backing her, but that's not popular even with | :13:36. | :13:39. | |
Tory voters. How does he get out of this? This is the problem for him. | :13:40. | :13:43. | |
Five years ago his reaction to the expenses scandal was seen by many | :13:44. | :13:49. | |
Tory backbenchers as excessive. They felt hung out to dry by a man who is | :13:50. | :13:54. | |
independently wealthy. To go from that to making a special exemption | :13:55. | :13:59. | |
to Maria Miller because it is politically suitable is more | :14:00. | :14:02. | |
incendiary and provocative. It is not just upsetting the voters and | :14:03. | :14:05. | |
the Daily Telegraph but a good number of people behind him. I think | :14:06. | :14:09. | |
they will get rid of her. I think the Government, to paraphrase | :14:10. | :14:15. | |
Churchill, will zoo the decent thing after exhausting all options, of the | :14:16. | :14:22. | |
European elections a reshuffle. The culture department has gone from a | :14:23. | :14:27. | |
baulk water in haul to one of the most politically sensational jobs | :14:28. | :14:30. | |
because of its proximity to the Leveson issue. She has to be | :14:31. | :14:34. | |
replaced by someone Lily skillful and substantial. Mr Cameron is not | :14:35. | :14:49. | |
short of smart women? Nikki Morgan, the education department, these are | :14:50. | :14:56. | |
absolutely outstanding women and the problem that the generation elected | :14:57. | :15:02. | |
in 2005, Maria Miller generation, there are some really good people | :15:03. | :15:09. | |
elected in 2010. You are not responsible for hacking into the | :15:10. | :15:14. | |
culture Department's Twitter account last night? I was out at the time! | :15:15. | :15:24. | |
They all say that! One so, Maria Miller is like a modern-day Robin | :15:25. | :15:28. | |
Hood... She robs the poor to help the rich. Which one of us has not | :15:29. | :15:36. | |
embezzled the taxpayer? I reckon it is the lady. You have the perfect | :15:37. | :15:45. | |
cover. We would not know how to, would we? You cannot tweet from a | :15:46. | :15:54. | |
mobile device, can you? Play it safe. No, do something dramatic. | :15:55. | :15:58. | |
Have lots of pledges. Have just a few pledges. Ah, there must be a | :15:59. | :16:01. | |
Labour policy review reaching its conclusion because everyone has some | :16:02. | :16:04. | |
free advice for the party about its message and the man delivering it. | :16:05. | :16:13. | |
Here's Adam. He is well liked by the public don't quite buy him as a | :16:14. | :16:18. | |
leader. The papers say he is in hock to the unions and the party has a | :16:19. | :16:21. | |
lead in the polls but it is not solid. Bartenders Neil Kinnock. That | :16:22. | :16:26. | |
is what they said Winnie who lost the 1982 election. The whole country | :16:27. | :16:35. | |
deserves better and we will work to ensure that the day will come when | :16:36. | :16:42. | |
with the Labour government, the country will get better. Someone who | :16:43. | :16:47. | |
was there can see some spooky parallels. The important lesson from | :16:48. | :16:53. | |
1992 is it cannot rest on your laurels and hope for the best, you | :16:54. | :16:56. | |
cannot sit on a lead of seven points because the election narrows that | :16:57. | :17:01. | |
and you cannot rely on the government not getting its act | :17:02. | :17:04. | |
together because the Conservative Party was well funded and organised, | :17:05. | :17:09. | |
the double whammy posters, the tax bombshell, but incredibly effective | :17:10. | :17:14. | |
and the message was unified and they beat us on the campaign. The lesson | :17:15. | :17:21. | |
for Labour today is this lead will evaporate quite possibly over the | :17:22. | :17:24. | |
next few months and we might go into the election behind in the polls. | :17:25. | :17:30. | |
But Ed Miliband is getting conflicting advice about how to | :17:31. | :17:34. | |
avoid 1992 happening. Be bold, be cautious and then, the idea that | :17:35. | :17:40. | |
Labour can squeak into office with just 35% of the vote, which worries | :17:41. | :17:46. | |
some people. Each month, the Labour Party meets around the country and | :17:47. | :17:52. | |
last week, everybody spoke about the dangers of this 35% strategy. They | :17:53. | :17:57. | |
were increasingly unhappy and it is very important that those people | :17:58. | :18:02. | |
around the leader naturally have a duty to protect him and they make | :18:03. | :18:08. | |
sure he gets this message that while there is total support for him, they | :18:09. | :18:13. | |
do want this key year in the run-up to the General Election to be | :18:14. | :18:16. | |
putting out an alternative which we can defend on the doorstep. The | :18:17. | :18:23. | |
doorstep where Neil Kinnock made his concession speech is crammed with | :18:24. | :18:28. | |
Spanish back hackers. The old Labour offices are no a budget hostel. | :18:29. | :18:35. | |
Labour headquarters is down the road and they are putting the finishing | :18:36. | :18:39. | |
touches to a speech Ed Miliband will give this week about the cost of | :18:40. | :18:43. | |
living and I am told he will drop hints about new policies in juicy | :18:44. | :18:47. | |
areas like housing, low pay, growth and devolving power. As for the | :18:48. | :18:52. | |
charge that they are not radical enough, his people say they want to | :18:53. | :18:56. | |
be bold but they have to be credible as well. They say that Labour is | :18:57. | :19:01. | |
more united than it has ever been but there has been some grumbling | :19:02. | :19:05. | |
that the cost of living campaign is not the same as a vision for the | :19:06. | :19:09. | |
country. And that Ed Miliband was not statesman-like enough at Prime | :19:10. | :19:13. | |
Minister's Questions and one figure who sat at the same table in the | :19:14. | :19:17. | |
Neil Kinnock years summed it up like this. Things are OK but it feels | :19:18. | :19:22. | |
like we're playing for the draw. Shadow Energy Secretary Caroline | :19:23. | :19:25. | |
Flint joins me now for the Sunday Interview. This 35% victory | :19:26. | :19:40. | |
strategy, it does not sound very ambitious? I am campaigning to win | :19:41. | :19:46. | |
this election with a majority government and everybody else around | :19:47. | :19:51. | |
the table is also. But we want to go to every corner of the country and | :19:52. | :19:56. | |
win votes for Labour and win seats, that is what we are working towards. | :19:57. | :20:01. | |
To avoid last time, the coalition bartering. But that 35% is a victory | :20:02. | :20:09. | |
strategy so are you saying there is no 35% strategy and that no one at | :20:10. | :20:13. | |
the heart of Labour is not arguing for this? We are working to win | :20:14. | :20:19. | |
around the country and to win all of those battle ground seats and we | :20:20. | :20:24. | |
must have a strategy that appeals to a cross-section of the public but | :20:25. | :20:28. | |
within that, that broad group Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park and. You | :20:29. | :20:38. | |
could do that with 35% of the vote? There is lots of polling and | :20:39. | :20:41. | |
everyone looks at this about what we need to do to get seats and we want | :20:42. | :20:46. | |
to have a comprehensive majority at the next election to win to govern | :20:47. | :20:54. | |
this country. Last week, we have been reading reports of splits in | :20:55. | :20:58. | |
the party over policy and on tactics, even strategy. A struggle | :20:59. | :21:04. | |
for control of the General Election manifesto, we are told. What are you | :21:05. | :21:11. | |
arguing over? I said on the committee and just listening to the | :21:12. | :21:14. | |
film before, it is about being radical but also credible and we are | :21:15. | :21:19. | |
talking about evolution and that is an important subject but we are also | :21:20. | :21:26. | |
united and to be honest, in 2010 people were writing us off saying we | :21:27. | :21:29. | |
would turn on ourselves and that has not been the case. We are not | :21:30. | :21:35. | |
arguing about the fundamentals, we are discussing the policies that are | :21:36. | :21:39. | |
coming up with different colleagues and talking about how we can make | :21:40. | :21:42. | |
sure they are presented to the public and that is part of a | :21:43. | :21:45. | |
process. That is a discussion, not disagreement. The Financial Times, | :21:46. | :21:53. | |
which is usually pretty fair, reports a battle between Ed | :21:54. | :21:59. | |
Miliband's radical instincts and the more business fiscal conservatism of | :22:00. | :22:04. | |
Ed Balls. What side are you on? I am for radical change, I am for energy | :22:05. | :22:08. | |
and I believe strongly we must be formed the market and people might | :22:09. | :22:13. | |
portray that as anti-business but this is about more competition and | :22:14. | :22:18. | |
transparency and others coming into this market so our policy on this is | :22:19. | :22:22. | |
radical, not excepting the status quo. It is also for business. | :22:23. | :22:30. | |
Opinion polls show that few people regard Ed Miliband as by Minister | :22:31. | :22:39. | |
material -- Prime Minister material. That has been true since he became | :22:40. | :22:44. | |
leader. And in some cases, they have been getting worse. Why is that? | :22:45. | :22:51. | |
Opinion polls say certain things about the personalities of leaders, | :22:52. | :22:55. | |
David Cameron is not great either. And they were not great when he was | :22:56. | :23:01. | |
in opposition. At this stage, he was getting 49% as Prime Minister real | :23:02. | :23:09. | |
material and Ed Miliband, 19. -- Prime Minister material. When you | :23:10. | :23:15. | |
look at certain questions that the public is asked about who you think | :23:16. | :23:20. | |
you would trust about being fair in terms of policy towards Britain, who | :23:21. | :23:23. | |
understands the cost of living crisis, they very much identify with | :23:24. | :23:29. | |
Ed Miliband. We are ahead in the polls. Ed Miliband has made that | :23:30. | :23:35. | |
happen. We have one more councillors, we have been running in | :23:36. | :23:41. | |
by-elections and we have held this government over the barrel over six | :23:42. | :23:45. | |
months on energy prices. That is to do with his leadership. The more | :23:46. | :23:49. | |
that voters save him, the less they seem convinced. In 2011, he had been | :23:50. | :23:57. | |
leader for one year, and only 11% regarded him as weird, by 2014, that | :23:58. | :24:06. | |
was 41%. Look at that! Look at that weirdness! What people need is to | :24:07. | :24:12. | |
know where the Labour Party stands on fundamental issues. And in those | :24:13. | :24:16. | |
areas, particularly the cost of living and fairness and people being | :24:17. | :24:21. | |
concerned that we are entering into a period where people will be worse | :24:22. | :24:25. | |
for the first time ever at the end of the Parliament, these things are | :24:26. | :24:30. | |
important and Ed Miliband is part of our success. Definitely. I think | :24:31. | :24:38. | |
this is ridiculous, to be fair, he is not a politician that says, I am | :24:39. | :24:42. | |
dying with the Arctic monkeys, I know who is the number one. He did | :24:43. | :24:50. | |
not play that game. -- down. He is not either there to portray himself | :24:51. | :24:56. | |
as someone who was with the children, I know everything about | :24:57. | :25:00. | |
popular culture. His authenticity is the most important thing. People do | :25:01. | :25:04. | |
not think he is authentic, unless they think we were at is authentic. | :25:05. | :25:10. | |
Is it true that his staff applaud him when he comes back after giving | :25:11. | :25:16. | |
even a mediocre speech? I have never heard that. I have never heard about | :25:17. | :25:25. | |
him being applauded. And I am pleased to applaud him with he makes | :25:26. | :25:28. | |
speeches, I have given him a standing ovation. You have to do | :25:29. | :25:32. | |
that because the cameras are rolling! No, he made a good speech. | :25:33. | :25:39. | |
Five minutes without notes. It took a long time to memorise I don't | :25:40. | :25:43. | |
blame him! The cost of living. Focusing on that, it has paid | :25:44. | :25:48. | |
dividends. But inflation is falling and perhaps collapsing, unemployment | :25:49. | :25:52. | |
is falling faster than anybody thought, as we can see. Wages are | :25:53. | :26:00. | |
rising, soon faster than prices. Retail sales are booming, people | :26:01. | :26:04. | |
have got money in their pockets. Isn't the cost of living crisis | :26:05. | :26:09. | |
narrative running out of steam? I do not think so and I should say that I | :26:10. | :26:16. | |
welcome any sign of positive changes in the economy, if anybody gets a | :26:17. | :26:20. | |
job in Doncaster, I am pleased by the end of this Parliament families | :26:21. | :26:26. | |
will be over ?900 worse off because of tax and benefit changes and the | :26:27. | :26:33. | |
working person is ?1600 worse off and it is the first government since | :26:34. | :26:36. | |
the 1870s where people will be at the end of the Parliament. We | :26:37. | :26:40. | |
believe the government made wrong choices that lead the rich off at | :26:41. | :26:44. | |
the expense of those on middle and lower incomes. -- let the rich. The | :26:45. | :26:52. | |
average family ?794 worse off from tax and benefit changes. That has | :26:53. | :26:57. | |
been backed up. They are those figures. But he has skewed these | :26:58. | :27:02. | |
figures by including the richest, where the fall in tax and the | :27:03. | :27:08. | |
penalty they pay is highest. If you take away the richest, it is nowhere | :27:09. | :27:13. | |
near that figure. Everybody agrees and even the government and | :27:14. | :27:17. | |
knowledges that at the end of their tenure in Parliament, people will be | :27:18. | :27:23. | |
worse off. 350,000 extra people who would desperately like full-time | :27:24. | :27:27. | |
work who are working part-time and 1 million young people unemployed and | :27:28. | :27:31. | |
the reason the cost of living has a residence is people feel that. I was | :27:32. | :27:37. | |
in a supermarket and at Doncaster and someone summed this up, he said | :27:38. | :27:41. | |
I work hard and at the end of the week, beyond paying bills, I have | :27:42. | :27:46. | |
got nothing else. If you take away the top 10% who are losing over | :27:47. | :27:54. | |
?600,000, the average loss comes down to around ?400, less than half | :27:55. | :28:01. | |
of what you claim. That figure is totally misleading. These are the | :28:02. | :28:07. | |
figures from the IFS. It still shows... Whatever way you shape | :28:08. | :28:13. | |
this, people will still be worse off, families worse off because of | :28:14. | :28:16. | |
these changes to tax and benefits and working people because wages | :28:17. | :28:23. | |
have not kept up with prices. Your energy portfolio, you back the | :28:24. | :28:28. | |
enquiry into the big six companies and you intend to go ahead with the | :28:29. | :28:32. | |
price freeze and reconfigure the market even before it reports. If | :28:33. | :28:37. | |
you win, this is a waste of time? Whilst we have had this process | :28:38. | :28:41. | |
before the announcement, we always feel if it goes that way, there | :28:42. | :28:46. | |
might be areas we have not thought of that the enquiry will also draw | :28:47. | :28:49. | |
attention to that we might want to add on. You are right, our basic | :28:50. | :28:53. | |
reforms for the new regulator, to separate generation supply, we will | :28:54. | :28:59. | |
pursue that. What happens if this report concludes that your plans are | :29:00. | :29:03. | |
not correct? You will still go ahead? I don't think so. Actually, | :29:04. | :29:08. | |
if you look at the report that Ofgem produced, some of the issues Labour | :29:09. | :29:13. | |
has been drawing attention to like vertical integration, they cover | :29:14. | :29:17. | |
that. I was asking about the Competition Commission? The report | :29:18. | :29:23. | |
last week is a result of working together and I think it is clearly | :29:24. | :29:30. | |
accepted in this sector, look at SSE last week, they will separate the | :29:31. | :29:34. | |
business. We are pushing at the open door. It has already pulled out of | :29:35. | :29:55. | |
gas. So it follows if you freeze energy prices across the market, it | :29:56. | :29:58. | |
might be the right thing to do but there will be a cost in terms of | :29:59. | :30:02. | |
jobs and investment, correct? Well, I met with SSE last weekand the | :30:03. | :30:06. | |
chief executive and talked about these issues. The jobs changes are | :30:07. | :30:11. | |
partly about them looking at how they could be more efficient as a | :30:12. | :30:14. | |
company. On offshore wind that wasn't really to do with the price | :30:15. | :30:17. | |
freeze. That was more to do with issues around confidence in that | :30:18. | :30:20. | |
area and therefore willing to put the money into it, as well as | :30:21. | :30:26. | |
technical issues as well But there'll be job losses. Is that a | :30:27. | :30:31. | |
price worth paying? We believe the reason we are having a price freeze | :30:32. | :30:35. | |
is these companies have been overcharging customers and haven't | :30:36. | :30:38. | |
been investing in their organisations and making them more | :30:39. | :30:43. | |
efficient. I do not believe a price freeze is linked to job losses. | :30:44. | :30:47. | |
These companies do need to be more efficient. Goal for all of us is | :30:48. | :30:50. | |
realising the fantastic opportunity for more jobs and growth from an | :30:51. | :30:54. | |
energy sector that has certainty going forward. That's what Labour | :30:55. | :30:58. | |
will deliver. Caroline Flint, thank you. | :30:59. | :31:00. | |
It's 1130 and you're watching The you. | :31:01. | :31:02. | |
Sunday Politics. We say goodbye to viewers in Scotland, who leave us | :31:03. | :31:05. | |
now for Sunday Politics Scotland. Coming up here | :31:06. | :31:13. | |
Welcome to Sunday Politics South. My name's Peter Henley. On today's show | :31:14. | :31:18. | |
` could community`owned renewable energy schemes help break the grip | :31:19. | :31:24. | |
of the big six power companies? If so, then Oxfordshire is in the | :31:25. | :31:27. | |
vanguard with what's believed to be the biggest community`owned solar | :31:28. | :31:31. | |
farm in the world. More on that shortly. First let's | :31:32. | :31:34. | |
meet the two politicians who'll be with me for the next 20 minutes. | :31:35. | :31:36. | |
Caroline Dinenage is the Conservative MP for Gosport. | :31:37. | :31:39. | |
Welcome, Caroline. And Ray Finch is leader of the UKIP group on | :31:40. | :31:42. | |
Hampshire County Council. Big news this week is Maria Miller's | :31:43. | :31:45. | |
72`word apology over the inquiry into her expense claims. | :31:46. | :31:50. | |
The report resulted from an allegation made by the member for | :31:51. | :31:56. | |
Bassetlaw. The committee has dismissed his allegation. The | :31:57. | :31:59. | |
committee has recommended that I apologise to the House for my | :32:00. | :32:01. | |
attitude to the commissioner's enquiries and I, of course, | :32:02. | :32:10. | |
unreservedly apologise. I fully accept the recommendations of the | :32:11. | :32:12. | |
committee and thank them for bringing this matter to an end. | :32:13. | :32:19. | |
Thank you. Unreserved? Not really fulsome. | :32:20. | :32:24. | |
Should she have resigned, Ray Finch? Obviously. If you had a real job and | :32:25. | :32:29. | |
you had been caught doing that, you'd have been gone. And they would | :32:30. | :32:33. | |
probably have got the scuffers into you as well. Caroline, this was a | :32:34. | :32:38. | |
committee of MPs that looked at the Commissioner's report that said, | :32:39. | :32:40. | |
"Pay back ?45,000," which would have been a resignation thing, and said, | :32:41. | :32:44. | |
"No, we will just just accept the 5,800 she is offering." I mean, this | :32:45. | :32:50. | |
is back to the bad old days, isn't it? This is a committee of MPs who | :32:51. | :32:53. | |
have found other people guilty and made them pay back a lot of money | :32:54. | :32:59. | |
before. I haven't been into the ins and outs of this but the fact is, | :33:00. | :33:03. | |
she has apologised, paid back the money they deemed she was owing. | :33:04. | :33:06. | |
And, actually, as MPs who came in after 2010, I think the most | :33:07. | :33:09. | |
important thing about this is that this would not be possible any more. | :33:10. | :33:12. | |
Actually, this whole subject is very toxic and what people would much | :33:13. | :33:15. | |
rather know is that people cannot claim for mortgages any more, that | :33:16. | :33:19. | |
the expenses thing is far more rigid and checkable these days and that | :33:20. | :33:22. | |
MPs are moving on and doing their job properly. You know because you | :33:23. | :33:29. | |
saw that whole expenses thing from the outside that, from Westminster | :33:30. | :33:33. | |
now, there are some of those old MPs who may see it differently. They may | :33:34. | :33:36. | |
not quite understand the impact it has? There is also a new tranche of | :33:37. | :33:42. | |
MPs who came in after 2010 and as you say, saw it exactly from the | :33:43. | :33:45. | |
outside, and would complete the rail against claiming anything | :33:46. | :33:47. | |
inappropriate because we have been there, we have lived it and been the | :33:48. | :33:51. | |
taxpayers that have to pick up the cost. So what she did, surely, is | :33:52. | :33:56. | |
not enough? That apology and the support that David Cameron is giving | :33:57. | :33:59. | |
her, should he be be giving someone more support when they have been | :34:00. | :34:06. | |
criticised? As I say, I have not read the report, I don't know the | :34:07. | :34:09. | |
the ins and outs, but she has paid back ?6,000, she has done this | :34:10. | :34:12. | |
apology. I don't think people generally want to see MPs falling on | :34:13. | :34:15. | |
their swords and making "poor me" statements in the House of Commons. | :34:16. | :34:20. | |
She made a straightforward apology and she has paid back some money. | :34:21. | :34:24. | |
And I think, actually, people would rather see her now just get on with | :34:25. | :34:28. | |
the job. I think people of Basingstoke would like to see the | :34:29. | :34:31. | |
same sort of treatment as an average person would get if they claimed a | :34:32. | :34:35. | |
lot of money and then it turned out that they should not have had that | :34:36. | :34:40. | |
money. She says it was a mistake that she claimed an extra ?6,000 | :34:41. | :34:43. | |
because she didn't realise interest rates had gone down. We all knew | :34:44. | :34:48. | |
interest rates had gone down! You should have Maria sat here rather | :34:49. | :34:52. | |
than me but all I can say is that I have not read the report but she has | :34:53. | :34:56. | |
paid the money back and she has apologised and I think the main key | :34:57. | :35:05. | |
point is this cannot happen now. MPs as of 2010 couldn't make such | :35:06. | :35:09. | |
claims. That is true, isn't it? One of the main things is that when the | :35:10. | :35:12. | |
Telegraph investigated this, they were called by David Cameron's | :35:13. | :35:15. | |
office to say, "You do know she is in charge of the Leveson report, | :35:16. | :35:21. | |
don't you?" Frankly, the Government threatened... You don't think it | :35:22. | :35:25. | |
smells right? No. Frankly, if the media is not fit to govern itself, | :35:26. | :35:29. | |
why are politicians fit to govern themselves? One could equally say | :35:30. | :35:36. | |
that the reason the newspapers are going crazy over this is because she | :35:37. | :35:39. | |
is the Secretary of State that governed Leveson. And she is the one | :35:40. | :35:43. | |
who stopped the phone hacking of missing people. | :35:44. | :35:47. | |
When your electricity bill drops on the doormat, it can often seem as if | :35:48. | :35:51. | |
you're being invited to buy a large stake in the energy company. But | :35:52. | :35:55. | |
suppose you actually did own a share of the electricity generating plant? | :35:56. | :35:58. | |
The Government's quite keen we should all get involved in community | :35:59. | :36:01. | |
renewables as they're called ` and as our Oxfordshire political | :36:02. | :36:03. | |
reporter, Helen Catt, has been finding out, Oxfordshire is a bit of | :36:04. | :36:07. | |
a leading light in that. If you'll pardon the pun. | :36:08. | :36:20. | |
This is Zeus, one of five community owned wind turbines steadily making | :36:21. | :36:23. | |
energy in a field in south`west Hertfordshire. In his mighty Shadow | :36:24. | :36:27. | |
is what is thought to be the largest solar farm in the world to be built, | :36:28. | :36:34. | |
owned and run by ordinary people. What sort of people invest in a farm | :36:35. | :36:40. | |
like this? All sorts. We have 650 members or so come from the local | :36:41. | :36:46. | |
area, from Oxfordshire and a very high proportion from the villages | :36:47. | :36:54. | |
roundabout. Everyone sees energy as being delivered by foreign`owned | :36:55. | :36:58. | |
multinationals and people are excited to have the opportunity to | :36:59. | :37:01. | |
install their own project and to be able to generate electors give | :37:02. | :37:05. | |
themselves rather than being dependent on others. In January, the | :37:06. | :37:12. | |
Government published its first ever Trinity energy strategy. There is a | :37:13. | :37:20. | |
support unit making it easier for committees to access funding. Over | :37:21. | :37:22. | |
there is one of the reasons so much effort is being put into generating | :37:23. | :37:31. | |
electricity in new ways. That is Didcot A power station. It closed | :37:32. | :37:34. | |
recently and the firm that ran it did not want to convert it to new | :37:35. | :37:44. | |
European standards. The total output of renewables is excited to be | :37:45. | :37:50. | |
enough to run a million homes by 2020. That is half of what Didcot A | :37:51. | :37:57. | |
could produce. Everybody needs to take action to make this happen. It | :37:58. | :38:05. | |
is a necessary feature of the transition to a new energy system to | :38:06. | :38:10. | |
have communities and to have real people involved. The Low Carbon Hub | :38:11. | :38:19. | |
has been involved in the most recent project, the first hydro`screw in | :38:20. | :38:29. | |
the region. We looked at solar panels and purchasing them | :38:30. | :38:39. | |
ourselves. We could not make a case for buying them ourselves rather | :38:40. | :38:41. | |
than a new bus, which is what we want. We contacted Low Carbon Hub, | :38:42. | :38:48. | |
who suggested we went the panels was the only risk to us was able during | :38:49. | :38:54. | |
thousands of holes in our roof. It seemed too good to turn down. The | :38:55. | :38:58. | |
beauty is that anything we generate we use on`site straightaway, so we | :38:59. | :39:02. | |
draw less power from the grid. Over the weekend, we're not drawing any | :39:03. | :39:06. | |
power and we are selling back to the grid, which is good. While fake | :39:07. | :39:13. | |
falcons and monkey noises are designed to scare off the birds, it | :39:14. | :39:16. | |
is the prospect of panels like these in green fields that this | :39:17. | :39:20. | |
frightening countryside campaigners. What we would be concerned about is | :39:21. | :39:24. | |
that where ever people go in the countryside, their view is spoiled | :39:25. | :39:28. | |
by one of these effectively large`scale industrial units. They | :39:29. | :39:33. | |
are ruining the view but also taking up the agricultural land. We would | :39:34. | :39:38. | |
look more sympathetically ornate community owned scheme because we do | :39:39. | :39:41. | |
feel that people would be very genuine rather than trying to do it | :39:42. | :39:45. | |
for profit. Nonetheless, the visual impact remains and we'll prefer to | :39:46. | :39:51. | |
work with communities to find appropriate size that we would all | :39:52. | :39:56. | |
be happy with. It does take a lot of panels to produce a significant | :39:57. | :39:58. | |
amount of energies. I'm told the better auditions for these panels to | :39:59. | :40:02. | |
work in our bright sunlight on a cold day and at its peak this field | :40:03. | :40:07. | |
can produce five megawatts, enough to power 2000 kettles or 50,000 | :40:08. | :40:12. | |
desktop computers. None of those kettles or computers are powered | :40:13. | :40:21. | |
directive on their panels. Our six and 50 members would like to buy the | :40:22. | :40:24. | |
power this produces but at the moment the regulatory system for the | :40:25. | :40:28. | |
energy market has been designed around the big supply companies and | :40:29. | :40:32. | |
it does not suit small independent riders like us. That is something | :40:33. | :40:37. | |
the Government will look at along with Ofgem. | :40:38. | :40:45. | |
Where are we with energy policy and the targets? 10% of German domestic | :40:46. | :40:58. | |
heating is renewable. In Britain, it is 1%. Is it possible to reach the | :40:59. | :41:02. | |
target in six years? We are in a difficult position that we inherited | :41:03. | :41:09. | |
from the previous government. Only Luxembourg and Malta are the lowest | :41:10. | :41:11. | |
in terms of renewables. Our output has gone up by 60% under this | :41:12. | :41:17. | |
government. Our energy production is to be as diverse as possible, so we | :41:18. | :41:21. | |
are building the first nuclear power station in 30 years as well as | :41:22. | :41:25. | |
investing in renewables and in these community schemes as well. Does a | :41:26. | :41:29. | |
community owned scheme make a difference? If the community are | :41:30. | :41:35. | |
paying for it, fabulous, if the taxpayer across the country is | :41:36. | :41:40. | |
paying for it, then no. Actually, your policy is more to do with the | :41:41. | :41:44. | |
subsidy than it is to do with climate change? Climate change, the | :41:45. | :41:49. | |
climate is away changing comic toys has the whistle blew. So you don't | :41:50. | :41:52. | |
really think that we need to be fighting climate change in the UK? | :41:53. | :41:57. | |
We need to adapt to the climate as it changes, we always do, we all is | :41:58. | :42:02. | |
have done. 400 years ago, there was frost fairs on the Thames. 1600 | :42:03. | :42:07. | |
years before that, the Romans were growing grapes on Hadrian 's Wall. | :42:08. | :42:13. | |
That sort of attitude, to people who are worried about climate change, | :42:14. | :42:20. | |
who while concerned about... I am more concerned about jobs. If China | :42:21. | :42:29. | |
and India are producing new coal powered power plants... Should we | :42:30. | :42:42. | |
showed does macro should we be showing the lead by losing jobs? If | :42:43. | :42:51. | |
you are surrounded by water, you need to be mindful of the effect of | :42:52. | :42:59. | |
any kind of global changes. These kinds of community projects, where | :43:00. | :43:02. | |
people are seeing the benefit in reduced energy bills and when the | :43:03. | :43:06. | |
solar powers are rooms and so on, when they are not in green fields, | :43:07. | :43:10. | |
anything like that that will reduce energy bills but also help the | :43:11. | :43:14. | |
environment is only going to be a good thing. | :43:15. | :43:16. | |
If you've been watching the show in recent weeks you'll know that, as | :43:17. | :43:20. | |
part of our coverage of the European elections, we've been talking to | :43:21. | :43:22. | |
MEPs from the five parties with representatives from our region. | :43:23. | :43:26. | |
We've already heard from the Liberal Democrats, Conservatives and UKIP. | :43:27. | :43:33. | |
This week, it's the turn of Labour. We have been the ones campaigning on | :43:34. | :43:38. | |
climate change. Some of the Conservatives don't actually believe | :43:39. | :43:41. | |
that climate change exists. We have been the one who had dealt with | :43:42. | :43:45. | |
things like horse meat and food labelling, we have been instrumental | :43:46. | :43:49. | |
in that. We absolutely have been the ones who pushed banking reform. | :43:50. | :43:54. | |
These major things that have come out of the EU have actually been led | :43:55. | :43:58. | |
by Labour representatives and socialist representatives. Mary | :43:59. | :44:03. | |
Honeyball is one of the longest serving Labour MEPs will stop in | :44:04. | :44:06. | |
many areas of life, the European Union has achieved a great year. We | :44:07. | :44:12. | |
have had a long history in the Labour Party here of looking at | :44:13. | :44:15. | |
tobacco products that has been a long`running issue in the European | :44:16. | :44:19. | |
Parliament. One of the things that we have done recently is to take | :44:20. | :44:23. | |
measures against tobacco advertising for children and young people, so we | :44:24. | :44:30. | |
work to end menthol cigarettes and to end slimline cigarettes and do do | :44:31. | :44:35. | |
something about e`cigarette as well. That has been one of the major | :44:36. | :44:40. | |
things we have achieved. There are more e`cigarettes around. Is the | :44:41. | :44:45. | |
European Union the best place to be taking action on that? It is | :44:46. | :44:51. | |
definitely for the European Parliament, because it is a | :44:52. | :44:55. | |
cross`border issue. You by cigarettes across EU you and across | :44:56. | :44:58. | |
the world, so it does need to be taken at a European level it is we | :44:59. | :45:03. | |
do have an internal single market. It makes that kind of legislation | :45:04. | :45:08. | |
even more important. Isn't the public opinion at the moment more | :45:09. | :45:10. | |
about getting powers back, keeping our sovereignty, rather than ceding | :45:11. | :45:19. | |
sovereignty. It is a difficult talking about ceding sovereignty. | :45:20. | :45:23. | |
We're talking about competencies we have at a European level. On | :45:24. | :45:28. | |
immigration, people want tighter control of their borders. They are | :45:29. | :45:34. | |
calling for tighter border controls from non`EU countries. And from EU | :45:35. | :45:41. | |
countries as well stop all across Europe, and this was as well, people | :45:42. | :45:46. | |
are saying let us do what is best for our country. The original free | :45:47. | :45:50. | |
movement of labour which was set up when the common market was only six | :45:51. | :45:56. | |
memo states, it is rather different now `` six member states. We need to | :45:57. | :46:01. | |
start looking at it. It should still remain a principal because if you | :46:02. | :46:09. | |
need to have a single market, you need to make sure that operates | :46:10. | :46:12. | |
properly and free movement of labour is part of that to create a level | :46:13. | :46:17. | |
playing field and make sure people will go where the skills are needed. | :46:18. | :46:20. | |
There is a good argument for maintaining free movement of labour. | :46:21. | :46:26. | |
What do you think the members who will be elected will be doing? There | :46:27. | :46:31. | |
is still the financial crisis, that is the big crisis, the cost of | :46:32. | :46:36. | |
living crisis was that is what we will be dealing with. We need | :46:37. | :46:39. | |
financial prudence we need to deal with it in a reasonable fashion but | :46:40. | :46:43. | |
we also need to create jobs and we need growth to get out of the | :46:44. | :46:44. | |
financial problems. And next week we'll be hearing from | :46:45. | :46:54. | |
the Green Party. Now, as campaigning for that | :46:55. | :46:57. | |
election and for the local elections gets underway, we'd like to set you | :46:58. | :47:00. | |
a bit of a challenge. Selfies seem to be all the rage in politics at | :47:01. | :47:04. | |
the moment, but you don't have to be the President of the United States | :47:05. | :47:08. | |
or the Danish Prime Minister to get in on the act. So we want you to | :47:09. | :47:13. | |
take a snap of yourself with a politician who's come to canvass for | :47:14. | :47:16. | |
your vote. Or if you're a politician out canvassing, you can send us a | :47:17. | :47:20. | |
shot with a constituent ` but it does have to be with a real voter, | :47:21. | :47:24. | |
mind, not one of your staff! Just to get you going, I snapped myself with | :47:25. | :47:27. | |
our two guests before we started the programme. | :47:28. | :47:36. | |
That is in make up. That is a make up, not no make up selfie. So over | :47:37. | :47:42. | |
to you ` when you've got one, tweet it with the hashtag snapapolitician. | :47:43. | :47:46. | |
Now our regular round`up of the political week in the South in 60 | :47:47. | :47:47. | |
seconds. Changes are being made at tourist | :47:48. | :47:57. | |
attractions in the region to encourage more Chinese visitors. | :47:58. | :48:01. | |
Blenheim Palace among those who have signed up to the Great China Welcome | :48:02. | :48:06. | |
Charter. Imports from the Far East have helped Southampton Port expand. | :48:07. | :48:09. | |
To take the largest container ships, they have had to dredge a 25`mile | :48:10. | :48:15. | |
channel. We are used to berths like this in China. We are lucky now to | :48:16. | :48:21. | |
have one like that in Southampton. In Nepal, Britain still think it is | :48:22. | :48:24. | |
an imperial power according to Gurkhas from Aldershot in Parliament | :48:25. | :48:30. | |
demanding better pensions. The British officers and their wives are | :48:31. | :48:33. | |
still referred to as Saabs and Memsaabs. No Mrs whatever, you know? | :48:34. | :48:36. | |
Closer to home, a backlog in maintaining the South's roads is now | :48:37. | :48:41. | |
double the national average. Privatising probation services is a | :48:42. | :48:43. | |
dangerous social experiment, according to staff who walked out in | :48:44. | :48:47. | |
Oxford. And there are fears about the use of | :48:48. | :48:50. | |
volunteer lock keepers on the Thames but the Environment Agency says it | :48:51. | :48:52. | |
is not about saving money. Saving money he, all of the money is | :48:53. | :49:06. | |
in China! They have some huge boats. You had some victory in a | :49:07. | :49:10. | |
campaign against the MoD, is that right, because they would only pay | :49:11. | :49:13. | |
for car travel but not for the ferry in Gosport? That is for the little | :49:14. | :49:18. | |
staff travelling between naval bases, they would not pay for the | :49:19. | :49:27. | |
very. After couple of years of battling, I got them to change their | :49:28. | :49:30. | |
mind so they can take the ferry instead. Much more environmentally | :49:31. | :49:35. | |
friendly. You would approve of Nick versus Nigel, that he has done well. | :49:36. | :49:43. | |
It was Nick's only chance, to paint himself as Europe man. He is now | :49:44. | :49:53. | |
floating facedown. Everyone wants a bit of the Lib Dems. We will see at | :49:54. | :49:59. | |
the election. Should David Cameron have been part of this? I didn't see | :50:00. | :50:05. | |
it, I was coming back from Westminster on the train. They are | :50:06. | :50:08. | |
very extreme parties and most voters want something slightly more down | :50:09. | :50:11. | |
the middle. Are the Liberal Democrats extreme? They are since | :50:12. | :50:16. | |
they have been in the Coalition. And yourselves? No, we are the voice of | :50:17. | :50:27. | |
reason. We have seen a lot of more from UKIP. If more MEPs do get in, | :50:28. | :50:33. | |
they are better than the ones that are at the moment, Nick Wright is | :50:34. | :50:39. | |
only got 44% attendance. That is better than David Cameron in our | :50:40. | :50:46. | |
Parliament! That's the Sunday Politics in the | :50:47. | :50:49. | |
South. Thanks to my guests, Caroline Dinenage and Ray Finch. Don't forget | :50:50. | :50:55. | |
to get shooting those selfies with politicians and tweet them with the | :50:56. | :51:03. | |
hashtag snapapolitician. For now, though, it's back to Andrew. | :51:04. | :51:07. | |
Dobson. Tim Donovan is back in the chair next week. And with that, back | :51:08. | :51:17. | |
to Andrew. Welcome back and time now to get more from our panel. So they | :51:18. | :51:26. | |
can justify their meagre patents. This cost of living mantra will last | :51:27. | :51:31. | |
all the way until the election. Cannot? Ed Miliband leaves he is | :51:32. | :51:36. | |
onto something and for most of this Parliament, inflation has | :51:37. | :51:42. | |
outstripped wages. That is going to go the other way and wages will | :51:43. | :51:46. | |
rise, to which you say Ed Miliband has nothing to say. He says if you | :51:47. | :51:51. | |
think people are going to feel better in the blink of an eye, you | :51:52. | :51:55. | |
are a Conservative and do not understand the depth of this and he | :51:56. | :51:59. | |
is taking the message from a presidential election in America in | :52:00. | :52:03. | |
2012 and make Romney was ahead on some of the economic indicators but | :52:04. | :52:08. | |
Barack Obama was ahead on the key one, do you believe this candidate | :52:09. | :52:13. | |
will make your family's life better? The message that Ed Miliband | :52:14. | :52:16. | |
will try to say is the next election is about whose side are you on? And | :52:17. | :52:23. | |
he believes Labour will be on the side of more voters than | :52:24. | :52:27. | |
conservatives. It would be crazy for Labour not to talk about the cost of | :52:28. | :52:32. | |
living because even if wages exceed inflation next year, it is not as if | :52:33. | :52:35. | |
voters will walk around feeling like Imelda Marcos, they will still feel | :52:36. | :52:40. | |
as if they were struggling and not just compared... Retail sales are | :52:41. | :52:46. | |
slowing? That is not the sign of palpable disparity. Circumstances | :52:47. | :52:52. | |
are better than three years ago but not better than five years ago. The | :52:53. | :52:58. | |
Reagan question will still be employed, are you better off than at | :52:59. | :53:05. | |
the last election? But things in America were actually getting worse | :53:06. | :53:08. | |
when he asked that. I covered that election, that is why it resonated | :53:09. | :53:15. | |
and they did get worse. The Ayatollah had quadrupled the price | :53:16. | :53:21. | |
of oil. This is based on things getting relatively better, after a | :53:22. | :53:24. | |
very long wait, so the cost of living critique will have to adapt? | :53:25. | :53:30. | |
It will but it gets out of a very sticky spot and the IFS says wages | :53:31. | :53:36. | |
will not outstrip inflation and by that time they can start talking | :53:37. | :53:40. | |
about other things, plans for the railways and tuition fees and at the | :53:41. | :53:45. | |
moment, everything is up for grabs. Labour know that every time they | :53:46. | :53:47. | |
talk about something they want to do, the question is, how do you pay | :53:48. | :53:53. | |
for it? They can talk about the economy and they don't have | :53:54. | :53:56. | |
substantial things to say. Is it true that Mr Iain Duncan Smith was | :53:57. | :54:02. | |
going to make a major announcement on benefit cheats? Or something to | :54:03. | :54:06. | |
do with that this morning? But he decided against it because of the | :54:07. | :54:11. | |
tobacco over Maria Miller? It would be very odd to go on to The Andrew | :54:12. | :54:15. | |
Marr Show to have a chat and see what he is having for lunch. Patrick | :54:16. | :54:19. | |
went from the Guardian said he was going to set out higher financial | :54:20. | :54:24. | |
penalty phase for providing inaccurate information in claims. | :54:25. | :54:27. | |
This is a bad day to do that, given that MP expenses are treated far | :54:28. | :54:34. | |
more lenient the than any one from Joe public. That would be | :54:35. | :54:40. | |
fascinating, if true. And he is making a very big speech on well for | :54:41. | :54:44. | |
tomorrow and this tweet from Patrick went at the Guardian, he has proper | :54:45. | :54:50. | |
sized on welfare matters and he tends to know what is going on. But | :54:51. | :54:54. | |
it would be deeply unfortunate if that was the message today. How can | :54:55. | :54:59. | |
he make a speech that has anything about cracking down on benefit | :55:00. | :55:02. | |
claimants? Not today but I am not sure tomorrow. Do you get the | :55:03. | :55:11. | |
impression that nobody in both main parties is very confident of winning | :55:12. | :55:15. | |
in 2015? I column last week said the result, the most likely result from | :55:16. | :55:20. | |
one year on is another hung parliament and which government | :55:21. | :55:25. | |
results from that depends on the mathematical specifics of whether | :55:26. | :55:29. | |
the Tories can do a deal as well as Labour, leaving everything in the | :55:30. | :55:33. | |
hands of Nick Clegg or whether one party can do a straightforward deal | :55:34. | :55:36. | |
but I do not detect any sense of exuberance or confidence in either | :55:37. | :55:43. | |
camp. And the Tories are still shooting themselves over losing the | :55:44. | :55:46. | |
boundary commission reforms because that was going to net them 20 seats | :55:47. | :55:50. | |
and they lost that because they messed up the House of Lords reform | :55:51. | :55:53. | |
and there are still furious with themselves. The former US President, | :55:54. | :55:57. | |
George W Bush, has been a busy boy and here at the Sunday Politics we | :55:58. | :56:00. | |
thought you'd like to see the results of his artistic endeavours. | :56:01. | :56:03. | |
Time for the gallery. I was a prize to find myself saying, | :56:04. | :56:51. | |
some of these are not bad! -- surprised. Vladimir Putin? I like | :56:52. | :56:58. | |
the one of Tony Blair but his early ones of dogs, to be in the presence | :56:59. | :57:04. | |
of the master is to see his portrait of a Joanne Love. He is not of the | :57:05. | :57:11. | |
Turner prize but I was surprised. He gets the mask of Vladimir Putin, | :57:12. | :57:16. | |
also Tony Blair. I was impressed that he did not allow personal or | :57:17. | :57:19. | |
political grudges to influence his artwork. Jacques Chirac, he comes | :57:20. | :57:27. | |
out of this incredibly well! And Angela Merkel comes out | :57:28. | :57:29. | |
astonishingly well. Quite generous as well. Tony Blair is the best one | :57:30. | :57:36. | |
and the reason is he had the closest relationship with them and he has | :57:37. | :57:40. | |
talked about this portrait, saying he was quite fond of him and you can | :57:41. | :57:45. | |
see that. These are awful, they would not get you an A-level but you | :57:46. | :57:49. | |
must admire him to have the guts to do this, and display them publicly! | :57:50. | :57:58. | |
An A-level? Just doing joined up numbers gets you that these days! | :57:59. | :58:04. | |
What do you do when you retire? This is less embarrassing than some of | :58:05. | :58:07. | |
the other things people have done. As good as Churchill? I don't | :58:08. | :58:15. | |
know... No! Churchill was brilliant! And on that! That's all for today. | :58:16. | :58:20. | |
Tune into BBC Two every day at lunchtime this week for the Daily | :58:21. | :58:23. | |
Politics. And we'll be back at the later time of 2:30pm next Sunday | :58:24. | :58:26. | |
after the London Marathon. Remember, if it's Sunday, it's the Sunday | :58:27. | :58:28. | |
Politics. International teams searching for | :58:29. | :59:58. | |
the missing Malaysian airliner are investigating | :59:59. | :59:59. |