Browse content similar to 04/03/2012. Check below for episodes and series from the same categories and more!
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As the price of petrol reaches record highs, Shadow Chancellor cut | :01:08. | :01:14. | |
fuel duty? Be paid for head and a green campaigner a goal head to | :01:14. | :01:22. | |
head. -- a petrol head. Later in the programme: It's the | :01:22. | :01:25. | |
Kirsty and Nick show at the Welsh Liberal Democrats conference. The | :01:25. | :01:27. | |
Deputy Prime Minister tells delegates that the party needs | :01:27. | :01:37. | |
:01:37. | :01:37. | ||
Apology for the loss of subtitles for 1776 seconds | :01:37. | :31:14. | |
courage to see through difficult Hello, I'm Aled ap Dafydd and on | :31:14. | :31:18. | |
Sunday Politics Wales we speak to the Deputy Prime Minister Nick | :31:18. | :31:21. | |
Clegg about the three toxic reforming bills in Parliament. And | :31:21. | :31:27. | |
how old she do be before being eligible to vote? Presiding Officer | :31:27. | :31:31. | |
Rosemary Butler tells us that a debate about lowering the age to 16 | :31:31. | :31:35. | |
should start now. -- Deputy Presiding Officer. | :31:35. | :31:39. | |
We have Conservative MP Kay Swinburne and Liberal-Democrat AM | :31:39. | :31:44. | |
Aled Roberts. In the news this morning, a call | :31:44. | :31:48. | |
from the Mayor of London for for there to be a National Insurance | :31:48. | :31:53. | |
holiday. How likely is the Chancellor likely -- to grant such | :31:54. | :31:58. | |
a wish in the upcoming budget? People are calling for all sorts of | :31:58. | :32:02. | |
tax cuts at the moment, and everybody is saying it is to | :32:02. | :32:06. | |
stimulate the economy. One tax cut I would support would be anything | :32:06. | :32:10. | |
but lowers the cost of employing people, so we get that directly to | :32:10. | :32:16. | |
the front line of employers, but my problem is that I cannot see where | :32:16. | :32:20. | |
the money will come from, and I have to trust that the Treasury and | :32:20. | :32:23. | |
the Chancellor in particular have done their sums correctly, and if | :32:23. | :32:27. | |
they can do it, I hope that is the one they would target. | :32:27. | :32:31. | |
I suppose there is always the question of taking with one hand | :32:31. | :32:38. | |
and giving with the other. Would you be in favour of such a holiday? | :32:38. | :32:44. | |
Obviously we also want to see a lowering of the tax threshold, or | :32:44. | :32:49. | |
ignoring of income tax, and the reality is that money is tight and | :32:49. | :32:53. | |
I cannot see that everybody's aspirations will be settled for. | :32:53. | :32:56. | |
It is the Welsh Liberal Democrat spring conference this weekend in | :32:56. | :33:01. | |
Cardiff, the main speaker yesterday was a man who does not win | :33:01. | :33:06. | |
political popularity contests, Nick Clegg. With only five AMs and 8% of | :33:06. | :33:10. | |
the seats at Westminster, he can however claim that the party is | :33:10. | :33:15. | |
punching above its weight. But to what extent at the Lib Dems sold | :33:15. | :33:20. | |
out to their UK coalition partners? I spoke to him about the reforming | :33:20. | :33:23. | |
bills going through Parliament, and asked him if he was obsessed with | :33:24. | :33:29. | |
one of them - that of Lords reform. There are many more things in life | :33:29. | :33:33. | |
that I think a more important than House of Lords reform, I care much | :33:34. | :33:38. | |
more about changing the tax system so that people on low pay keep more | :33:38. | :33:45. | |
money in their pockets. I care more about pupil premium, a policy I | :33:45. | :33:49. | |
championed for years, and about our triple lock guarantee for | :33:49. | :33:52. | |
pensioners which is giving pensioners across the country the | :33:52. | :33:56. | |
largest cash increase in a generation. Of course those things | :33:56. | :34:00. | |
are more important to me. But I am not the one getting particularly | :34:00. | :34:03. | |
excited about this, the people getting excited about this are | :34:03. | :34:08. | |
people who do not want any change at all. All the time I think we | :34:08. | :34:13. | |
will see the onus is not on people like me, it is all those people who | :34:13. | :34:17. | |
seem to think that for some reason the one thing we cannot possibly | :34:17. | :34:21. | |
reform is the House of Lords, and I think the more people look at the | :34:21. | :34:29. | |
way the house of Lords is, and discover that over 70% of the | :34:29. | :34:32. | |
people there are put there because they are the friends and colleagues | :34:32. | :34:38. | |
of party leaders. It is stuffed full of the colleagues of party | :34:38. | :34:42. | |
leaders, they are not dead because of the choices of ordinary people. | :34:42. | :34:50. | |
The more people see that, the more they want to change it. A poll | :34:50. | :34:54. | |
commissioned by BBC Wales last week said that the majority of those who | :34:54. | :35:01. | |
were surveyed favoured the approach of the Welsh Government. If Kirsty | :35:01. | :35:05. | |
Williams was to be on the side of the mainstream view, she would | :35:05. | :35:15. | |
criticise you, would not she? have to look at what is best for | :35:15. | :35:21. | |
patients. And the evidence is abundantly clear that under Labour, | :35:21. | :35:29. | |
the NHS is worse in Wales than it is in England, waiting times are | :35:29. | :35:37. | |
worse... A if you ask people, do you like a piece of legislation | :35:38. | :35:46. | |
that changes the NHS, people react with some anxiety, but I think the | :35:46. | :35:49. | |
responsibility of people in Government, whether Cardiff and | :35:49. | :35:54. | |
London, is not simply to ask a question and say, therefore we are | :35:54. | :35:58. | |
not changing anything - look at what works for patients, and the | :35:58. | :36:01. | |
basic idea at the core of village a station which we are debating at | :36:01. | :36:11. | |
:36:11. | :36:15. | ||
Westminster, is simply this - to give people, you and I, a greater | :36:15. | :36:19. | |
say about what happens when we leave the doctor's surgery. That is | :36:19. | :36:25. | |
the basic idea, I think it is a good idea, I except it is | :36:25. | :36:29. | |
controversial, but I certainly think that Labour has a lot to | :36:29. | :36:33. | |
answer for for delivering worse health outcomes in the NHS here in | :36:33. | :36:39. | |
Wales, compared to what patients - recruit received in England. | :36:39. | :36:46. | |
Appalled published last week among health organisations claimed that | :36:46. | :36:50. | |
one in four of the Welsh population will be affected by the Welfare | :36:50. | :36:56. | |
Reform Bill. It is a big change, and except that, because what we | :36:56. | :37:04. | |
are essentially doing is sweeping together these -- This great | :37:04. | :37:08. | |
complex maze of different individual benefits, simplifying | :37:08. | :37:12. | |
them into one benefit, the Universal credit, and making sure | :37:12. | :37:17. | |
that when you receive that it always pays to work. Of course that | :37:17. | :37:22. | |
is controversial, and I totally understand that organisations who | :37:22. | :37:27. | |
are familiar with the existing system do not like change. | :37:27. | :37:32. | |
knock on effect according to them is that 20% of the Welsh purchasing | :37:32. | :37:35. | |
power on the High Street will disappear, that is �2 billion out | :37:35. | :37:41. | |
of the Welsh economy, as a result of these �17 billion of savings. | :37:41. | :37:45. | |
think that statistic is only meaningful if you've think the | :37:45. | :37:49. | |
weight the Welsh economy should be run is by having a large map of | :37:49. | :37:53. | |
people depended for their income on benefits. We think that if you want | :37:53. | :37:57. | |
to improve purchasing power in Wales, and the livelihoods of many | :37:57. | :38:00. | |
Welsh people, if you want to improve the Welsh economy, you have | :38:01. | :38:08. | |
to get people into work. Our Hall benefits reforms are based on the | :38:08. | :38:11. | |
simple insight that it should always pay to work. At the moment, | :38:11. | :38:20. | |
it doesn't. Aled Roberts is here. How difficult is it for you as a | :38:20. | :38:24. | |
party decide any different to the party of the lady next to you? | :38:24. | :38:28. | |
have different ideals, but the reality is in a coalition you come | :38:28. | :38:34. | |
to agreement between two parties and you agree a platform. It is | :38:34. | :38:38. | |
easy, we can adopt the attitude of the Welsh Government to introduce | :38:38. | :38:42. | |
very little in legislation and changed very little, all we can | :38:42. | :38:45. | |
tackle some of the issues that have probably needed to be tackled for | :38:45. | :38:50. | |
many years. Would you say that the commission | :38:50. | :38:55. | |
is sitting knew perfectly - there was some initial outrage from the | :38:55. | :38:59. | |
Lib Dems when it came to tuition fees and welfare reform, but | :38:59. | :39:03. | |
ultimately David Cameron is having his way on these? A any | :39:03. | :39:07. | |
Conservative Party member would berate me for agreeing that that is | :39:07. | :39:12. | |
the case. They would prefer to have no commission and to have an app | :39:12. | :39:17. | |
might majority Government in Westminster... But is he a | :39:17. | :39:22. | |
pushover? There are many backbenchers that believe they have | :39:22. | :39:29. | |
a disproportionate influence. I think there is a middle way here. A | :39:29. | :39:33. | |
coalition is just that - we have the two North Hagley Park parties | :39:33. | :39:36. | |
coming to an agreement on what the platform will be, and I think | :39:36. | :39:41. | |
attributing blame on credit to one side or the other is inappropriate. | :39:41. | :39:45. | |
We are in a bad place in terms of economics, and the need to see | :39:45. | :39:50. | |
through the plans put in place, at the outset of that coalition. | :39:50. | :39:54. | |
Clegg is calling on your party to show courage. Is that an admission | :39:54. | :40:00. | |
that you are making very unpopular decisions at Westminster level? | :40:00. | :40:04. | |
Economic situation this country finds itself is very difficult. | :40:04. | :40:08. | |
That means that difficult decisions have to be taken - we need to get | :40:08. | :40:13. | |
the cost of borrowing down, more importantly we have to deal with | :40:13. | :40:18. | |
issues probably for decades will we have large elements in our | :40:19. | :40:22. | |
population becoming reliant on benefits. You were at that report | :40:22. | :40:28. | |
launched - I got the feeling it was uncomfortable for you having to | :40:28. | :40:31. | |
justify a �17 billion of savings, a lot of money going out of the Welsh | :40:31. | :40:36. | |
economy. It is important at a politician that I do not go along | :40:36. | :40:40. | |
to meetings think -- thinking I will hear what I want to hear. I | :40:40. | :40:44. | |
think a lot of the devil is in the detail, but the reality is the | :40:44. | :40:49. | |
welfare bill to a large degree is out of control. Expenditure on | :40:49. | :40:53. | |
housing benefit has increased from �11 billion to �21 billion in the | :40:53. | :41:00. | |
last ten years. Something has to be done. And we also have to accept | :41:00. | :41:03. | |
that there are large estates throughout Wales where generations | :41:03. | :41:08. | |
are growing up with no expectation of work, and we need to tackle that | :41:08. | :41:13. | |
issue, while still ensuring that does who are most disadvantaged do | :41:13. | :41:16. | |
not suffer disproportionately from the actions that the Government is | :41:16. | :41:21. | |
having to take out at Westminster. Can I have a critique from the Lib | :41:21. | :41:26. | |
Dems from another political party. The leader of Cardiff council has | :41:26. | :41:31. | |
said the worst is over in terms of the backlash from Robert -- Lib | :41:31. | :41:35. | |
Dems. Do you think that is right in the context of May's local | :41:35. | :41:39. | |
elections? We need to focus on what makes a difference structurally for | :41:39. | :41:43. | |
the Welsh electorate, and concentrate on the big issues of | :41:43. | :41:48. | |
welfare and NHS structures, to see us through to the future. Getting | :41:48. | :41:50. | |
diverted on House of Lords reform is something we cannot afford to do | :41:50. | :41:57. | |
right now. The House of Lords is functioning, and it has been an | :41:57. | :42:01. | |
unexpected surprise to me on the positive, because they engage with | :42:01. | :42:05. | |
legislation from Europe at a level that Westminster do not do. So for | :42:05. | :42:09. | |
me the house of Lords is not a priority - let us focus on the big | :42:09. | :42:13. | |
issues that we need to focus on to put his country back on the growth | :42:13. | :42:17. | |
path. I think the condition is functioning, we need to keep | :42:17. | :42:22. | |
ourselves on that track. This time last year Wales "came of | :42:22. | :42:27. | |
age" according to the First Minister Carwyn Jones, as the | :42:27. | :42:29. | |
Senedd acquired new responsibilities after the Yes | :42:29. | :42:35. | |
fault. The Labour am Rosemary Butler became the new Presiding | :42:35. | :42:38. | |
Officer. She has been telling our reporter had the Assembly has been | :42:38. | :42:43. | |
raising its game, and why she feels it is time to consider lowering the | :42:43. | :42:49. | |
voting age to 16. Rosemary Butler at a St David's day | :42:49. | :42:54. | |
event in this -- Senedd. It is part of her role as an ambassador for | :42:54. | :43:02. | |
all things Wales. When I met her, I suggested that the expectations | :43:02. | :43:07. | |
built up in the powers referendum a year ago had not yet been lived up | :43:07. | :43:12. | |
to. My job is to make sure that the systems in place here at the | :43:12. | :43:15. | |
Assembly deal with legislation as it comes through, because it is | :43:15. | :43:20. | |
important we have these new primary law-making powers. It is important | :43:20. | :43:24. | |
that the laws actually made are the best ones for the people in Wales. | :43:24. | :43:29. | |
But I have been busy this last year introducing new systems, and | :43:29. | :43:33. | |
encouraging backbenchers to introduce their own legislation. We | :43:33. | :43:37. | |
have had two pieces of legislation accepted - one of raising the age | :43:37. | :43:42. | |
of young people leaving care from 16 to 18, and another one on mobile | :43:42. | :43:48. | |
homes in static caravan parks. Yesterday I announced another piece | :43:48. | :43:51. | |
of backbench legislation. I am also encouraging backbenchers to get | :43:51. | :43:57. | |
involved in their own debates. We have now a system where members | :43:58. | :44:01. | |
from three parties get together, and they can introduce their own | :44:01. | :44:04. | |
debate. All year round Rosemary Butler | :44:04. | :44:08. | |
seems to promote awareness of what goes on in Cardiff Bay, | :44:08. | :44:11. | |
particularly amongst young people. She believes it is time to consider | :44:11. | :44:20. | |
allowing them to be able to vote sooner. Our at which people have | :44:20. | :44:25. | |
been to more than 300 schools, and when I see people at the shows, I | :44:25. | :44:29. | |
ask them what they talk about one youth councils. Nobody ever | :44:29. | :44:33. | |
mentions the voting system, and I am trying to encourage them to look | :44:33. | :44:38. | |
at it, whether we should vote best 16 or 18. They have introduced it | :44:38. | :44:43. | |
in the Isle of Man and in Jersey, and some people are afraid of it | :44:43. | :44:48. | |
and other people think, and 16 I have my job, so it is an | :44:48. | :44:54. | |
interesting debate. You see a lot of young people, do | :44:54. | :44:58. | |
you think they are up to it? They are certainly up to it, whether | :44:58. | :45:02. | |
they have the confidence to do it is a different matter. But that | :45:02. | :45:10. | |
goes for the whole of the population. Howley finding the job? | :45:10. | :45:15. | |
It is very exciting and is a great privilege to do the job, but no two | :45:15. | :45:19. | |
days are the same. This week I have had women from Jordan and Libya, | :45:19. | :45:27. | |
this morning the Mr Speaker -- the Speaker, and then there is a | :45:27. | :45:32. | |
meeting with my counterpart in Northern Ireland, so it really is | :45:32. | :45:37. | |
fascinating, and some days it is really enjoyable, other days it is | :45:37. | :45:42. | |
really busy, and I think, I am I going to survive the day? | :45:42. | :45:49. | |
This idea of widening our democracy so that 16-year-olds can vote, is | :45:49. | :45:56. | |
that a good idea? The actual voting record of those between 18 and 24 | :45:56. | :46:01. | |
is that -- is at the poorer end of the spectrum, so we need to find | :46:01. | :46:05. | |
ways of incoming -- encouraging everybody to use that democratic | :46:05. | :46:10. | |
right. If we can do that, I think it will be the time to explore the | :46:10. | :46:15. | |
16 to 18 Group, but at the moment we are getting it very wrong. | :46:15. | :46:22. | |
Across Europe, less than 30% are registering votes. At the moment | :46:22. | :46:27. | |
the other in -- only country in the EU that has got a voting age of 16 | :46:27. | :46:32. | |
is Austria, who introduced it in 2007. Around the world I think | :46:32. | :46:37. | |
there are five countries who operate at 16 - there must have | :46:37. | :46:41. | |
come to a collective consensus of 18. So we need to that broadly at | :46:41. | :46:45. | |
who votes and why, and then find mechanisms to improve that, and | :46:45. | :46:49. | |
once we have got that sorted and get at least half the population | :46:49. | :46:53. | |
voting, I think we can look at what measures might get the voting age | :46:53. | :46:59. | |
down. Turnout is low, so shouldn't we be engaging with those who | :46:59. | :47:03. | |
currently have the right to box rather than looking at getting more | :47:03. | :47:09. | |
people into boasts the numbers? party has always voted for lowering | :47:09. | :47:12. | |
the voting age, but I think the biggest issue is convincing people | :47:12. | :47:16. | |
that voting in the Assembly actually makes a difference. What | :47:16. | :47:21. | |
surprised me up to now is that the presiding officer talked about two | :47:21. | :47:26. | |
private member's bill -- bills being introduced. If you look at | :47:26. | :47:30. | |
education, health, a whole raft of issues the SNB has control of an | :47:30. | :47:35. | |
hour, what we have to ask ourselves now is what difference Abbott makes | :47:35. | :47:39. | |
an what the Government is doing to change the situation? The Presiding | :47:39. | :47:43. | |
Officer is coming up to a year in the job - seen as a very different | :47:43. | :47:49. | |
presiding officer to Daffyd Ellis Thomas. Do you favour her approach | :47:49. | :47:56. | |
of his? I have not experienced Lord Thomas as presiding officer, I have | :47:56. | :47:58. | |
always find the current presiding officer to be very fair and I think | :47:58. | :48:05. | |
she is doing a good job. It's very diplomatic answer. | :48:05. | :48:12. | |
Time now for a look back out a week in 60 seconds. This is a warning | :48:12. | :48:22. | |
:48:22. | :48:26. | ||
As in David's Bay opinion poll suggested support for independence | :48:26. | :48:31. | |
was week, with just 7% backing it. The First Minister hosted by St | :48:32. | :48:36. | |
David's big event in Brussels, saying he wanted Wales to be a | :48:36. | :48:43. | |
strong partner in Europe, but his - - but part of a strong United | :48:43. | :48:46. | |
Kingdom to for. The Prime Minister laid on a | :48:46. | :48:51. | |
reception at ten Downing Street, and in Cardiff Bay around 500 | :48:51. | :48:56. | |
people gathered outside the Senedd to protest against possible changes | :48:56. | :49:00. | |
at a hospital in Aberystwyth. The Health Minister stressed there were | :49:00. | :49:04. | |
no plans to close on downgrade the hospital. | :49:04. | :49:08. | |
Open -- opening debate in the Commons, Labour's Paul Murphy | :49:08. | :49:12. | |
criticised the UK Government's plans to cut the number of Welsh | :49:13. | :49:17. | |
MPs from 40-30. Cheryl Gillan presented Neil | :49:17. | :49:27. | |
:49:27. | :49:30. | ||
Griffiths with a bouquet of Time for a few quick closing | :49:30. | :49:35. | |
remarks. The First Minister Carwyn Jones was in Brussels last week. | :49:35. | :49:40. | |
How badly his Wales's voice being heard in Europe? I think its | :49:40. | :49:44. | |
profile has massively increased over the years, but I think our | :49:44. | :49:49. | |
rugby team has succeeded in raising our profile higher than any of our | :49:49. | :49:56. | |
politicians have done. Having been able to talk about this in | :49:57. | :50:00. | |
Strasbourg, there was a round of applause from MPs across the | :50:00. | :50:10. | |
chamber. In one sentence, 7% in the St David's Paul were in favour of | :50:10. | :50:14. | |
independence. Should we be surprised? I think what is | :50:14. | :50:18. | |
surprising is how quickly the whole devolution debate's moving on. It | :50:18. | :50:24. | |
would appear that a clear majority fear an extension of powers would | :50:24. | :50:30. | |
have to use those wisely. I think it is a continuous process, and I | :50:30. | :50:34. | |
think if anything now, public opinion is moving as fast as the | :50:34. | :50:39. | |
politicians, and we have to convince people that actually | :50:39. | :50:42. | |
having our own Government in Cardiff will bring about the real | :50:42. | :50:47. |