Browse content similar to 20/05/2012. Check below for episodes and series from the same categories and more!
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In Wales will it be another thinner blue line? 1,600 officers will | :01:32. | :01:36. | |
disappear says the Police Federation. The Home Office claimed | :01:36. | :01:46. | |
:01:46. | :01:46. | ||
Apology for the loss of subtitles for 1796 seconds | :01:46. | :31:43. | |
Hello, are welcome to the Sunday Politics Wales. We will have our | :31:43. | :31:47. | |
take on policing as well. The federation is accused of | :31:47. | :31:53. | |
scaremongering same Wales is set to lose 1,600 officers. A senior | :31:53. | :31:57. | |
officer tells us we should be worried and does Team GB compromise | :31:57. | :32:03. | |
Team Wales? We discuss all things Olympics in the week that the torch | :32:03. | :32:08. | |
relay comes. Here for the sprint through those topics are Dafydd | :32:08. | :32:15. | |
Elis-Thomas and Nick Ramsay. Coming up tomorrow, the publication of a | :32:15. | :32:19. | |
paper on changing the electoral system. Is this something that | :32:19. | :32:25. | |
should be tampered with? When I was in my previous job I did have | :32:25. | :32:32. | |
assurances then from David Cameron and from the Secretary of State | :32:32. | :32:38. | |
that there would be a consideration of the electoral system of the | :32:38. | :32:44. | |
Assembly separately from that of Westminster. I would like the | :32:44. | :32:51. | |
Assembly itself to be in charge of its own arrangements. We know that | :32:51. | :32:57. | |
the number of MPs in Wales will go down. Some are saying there should | :32:57. | :33:03. | |
be a change in the Assembly to reflect that. What would you say? | :33:03. | :33:09. | |
The position has been decoupled with the legislation. We are having | :33:09. | :33:15. | |
a reduction which is the right course of action. As for the | :33:15. | :33:19. | |
Assembly system, my group in the Assembly, the Conservative group | :33:19. | :33:24. | |
has made clear they support things as they are. What we do not want is | :33:24. | :33:28. | |
the Labour Party proposing the scrapping of the proportional | :33:28. | :33:35. | |
element so that parties would not get their fair share of the boats. | :33:35. | :33:43. | |
That would be a disgraceful proposal. The UK government is | :33:43. | :33:45. | |
accusing the Police Federation of scaremongering over the number of | :33:45. | :33:52. | |
officers to be that Wales would lose the equivalent of an entire | :33:52. | :33:59. | |
force, 1,600. But the Home Office has told us that the federation's | :33:59. | :34:02. | |
playing fast and loose with the figures and fewer than half that | :34:02. | :34:08. | |
number would go. The anger of rank-and-file police | :34:08. | :34:12. | |
officers over budget cuts and reforms is clear. Tens of thousands | :34:12. | :34:17. | |
of them demonstrated in London recently. Last week the Home | :34:17. | :34:20. | |
Secretary was heckled at the Police Federation's conference in | :34:20. | :34:24. | |
Bournemouth. She told delegates to stop pretending they were being | :34:24. | :34:29. | |
picked on. Earlier its chairman used wild to illustrate an ever | :34:29. | :34:34. | |
thinner blue line. When you look at Wales, what is happening there, the | :34:35. | :34:39. | |
number of offices they are losing their is the equivalent of one | :34:39. | :34:45. | |
whole force. It is like losing the whole of the north Welsh police | :34:45. | :34:49. | |
force. That is the reality. Estimates of the number of officers | :34:50. | :34:54. | |
going as the government implements cuts and very. There are various | :34:54. | :34:57. | |
ways of calculating the because and Darryl four different force areas | :34:57. | :35:01. | |
involved, but the Police Federation's figures are stark. The | :35:01. | :35:07. | |
federation predicts that across Wales, up over three years ending | :35:07. | :35:12. | |
in 20th April 14, 1,600 officers will have gone. The home of this | :35:12. | :35:16. | |
has told Sunday Politics the Police Federation is intentionally | :35:16. | :35:26. | |
:35:26. | :35:29. | ||
misleading the public. In a The Independent inspectors has | :35:29. | :35:39. | |
As a service spending �14 billion a year, the police must play their | :35:39. | :35:45. | |
part in reducing the record de -- budget deficit. We have hit a raw | :35:45. | :35:50. | |
nerve with the Home Office and the truth hurts. They seem to be | :35:50. | :35:54. | |
celebrating the fact that 800 police officers will be lost in | :35:54. | :36:00. | |
Wales whereas the truth is we will lose 1,600. Trent % of the officers | :36:00. | :36:07. | |
in Wales equals 1,600 cop said. Officers will be going from the | :36:07. | :36:17. | |
:36:17. | :36:22. | ||
We support the Inspectorate of policing. The cards are at the | :36:22. | :36:28. | |
right level and we support that, beyond that to get beyond the flesh | :36:28. | :36:32. | |
of the organisation, we will do his officers and the public see through | :36:32. | :36:38. | |
that. Ian Johnston is a former chief superintendent. He is also | :36:38. | :36:42. | |
ex-president of the Police Superintendents Association. He | :36:42. | :36:46. | |
maintains contacts with senior officers and endorses the | :36:46. | :36:50. | |
federation's figures. The public should be worried. We will see more | :36:50. | :36:53. | |
crime because criminals will realise that officers are not there | :36:53. | :36:59. | |
to deal with them and death in the public will find that police | :36:59. | :37:04. | |
respond to incident will get slow and police will have to look hard | :37:04. | :37:08. | |
at what they respond to and what they do not respond to. | :37:08. | :37:11. | |
coalition has given assurances that savings will concentrate on back | :37:11. | :37:17. | |
office functions, that frontline policing will be protected.? They | :37:17. | :37:23. | |
are talking about police constables in uniform, patrolling on third and | :37:23. | :37:28. | |
back office they tend to think about Taipei'ss and secretarial | :37:28. | :37:31. | |
support but back of this is detectives who deal with murders, | :37:31. | :37:35. | |
rapes and frauds and traffic officers who deal with a road | :37:35. | :37:39. | |
safety and accidents. It is not really telling the public the truth | :37:39. | :37:44. | |
when they talk about front line and back office. The previous | :37:44. | :37:47. | |
government budgeted for a top % cut in police funding over the same | :37:47. | :37:54. | |
three-year period. It argues the Government's a jump from 12 to 20 % | :37:54. | :38:01. | |
is too extreme. David Hanson was previously the labour minister in | :38:01. | :38:06. | |
charge of policing. Crime is rising all ready for the first time in 13- | :38:06. | :38:15. | |
14 years. We have seen crime rise by 11 % over the past year, | :38:15. | :38:20. | |
burglary, robbery and theft. This will have a real impact. The police | :38:20. | :38:27. | |
are saying that this week at their conference, chief officers are | :38:27. | :38:32. | |
saying, this will have a major impact. Theresa May has denied that | :38:32. | :38:36. | |
her relationship with the federation is beyond repair. Yet | :38:36. | :38:41. | |
the war of words over how many officers are going in Wales is a | :38:41. | :38:45. | |
symptom of increasingly acrimonious exchanges between a Conservative | :38:45. | :38:51. | |
Home Secretary and police as unprecedented cuts are implemented. | :38:51. | :38:56. | |
Dafydd Elis-Thomas, there is a lot of emotive language surrounding | :38:56. | :39:00. | |
this issue. Quite hard to get to the facts. Are these cuts | :39:00. | :39:08. | |
acceptable? It is not for me to decide. This is a matter for | :39:08. | :39:12. | |
Members of Parliament. I am worried about the destruction we are facing | :39:12. | :39:17. | |
now which is the election of police commissioners because that will we | :39:17. | :39:23. | |
politicise the argument. I have seen Detection, modes of operation | :39:23. | :39:30. | |
of the police chains radically over the years -- change. The | :39:30. | :39:35. | |
efficiencies in delivery which I have seen in the last few months in | :39:35. | :39:40. | |
the reorganisation is something that I welcome because it has not | :39:40. | :39:48. | |
resulted in responses -- changes to response times. It has retained the | :39:48. | :39:53. | |
community policing facility which everyone welcomes. We have seen | :39:53. | :39:58. | |
officers a march on the streets of London, the reception the -- | :39:58. | :40:03. | |
Theresa May had in Bournemouth. How can she pushed through these | :40:03. | :40:09. | |
reforms when she has officers so against her? These cuts were going | :40:09. | :40:16. | |
to happen anyway. I understand the police's concerns and we have | :40:16. | :40:21. | |
always been strong supporters of the police. They are essential to | :40:21. | :40:25. | |
the way our society operates. But cars have to be made and there is | :40:25. | :40:29. | |
no way that one organisation such as the police can be outside of | :40:29. | :40:34. | |
that process. I appreciate it is typical. I have spoken to and | :40:34. | :40:40. | |
number of officers and the police authority in Grant has done very | :40:40. | :40:43. | |
well to make the cuts that are necessary without affecting the | :40:43. | :40:49. | |
front line. One way of making it different in Wales would be to have | :40:49. | :40:55. | |
the devolution and having police within the control of the Welsh | :40:55. | :40:59. | |
Government. That could mean the jobs of many police officers in | :40:59. | :41:06. | |
Wales could be safeguarded. I do not think that follows. Privately | :41:06. | :41:11. | |
the police have seen how the fire service has benefited from | :41:11. | :41:15. | |
devolution but we only had a referendum last year and I think we | :41:15. | :41:19. | |
should allow the situation to stabilise and see what needs to be | :41:19. | :41:25. | |
done. To say that devolving policing, and no, we are dependent | :41:25. | :41:29. | |
on the finance from Westminster to keep Wales running and the police | :41:29. | :41:32. | |
would still require that finance whether it was coming from | :41:32. | :41:38. | |
Westminster or the Assembly. Resort the former chief superintendent of | :41:38. | :41:43. | |
the Brent saying we could see more crime as a result of frontline | :41:43. | :41:46. | |
officers under response times slaver. Do you share those | :41:47. | :41:50. | |
concerns? That is a total generalisation that I would not | :41:50. | :41:58. | |
take seriously. I am interested in what kind of crime, how we maintain | :41:58. | :42:02. | |
and increase and respect for law and order in communities and that | :42:02. | :42:06. | |
is best tackled by an improvement in the way that we educate | :42:06. | :42:11. | |
citizenship, where we have a sense of responsibility and along with | :42:11. | :42:15. | |
that there is the local police presence of the community policing | :42:15. | :42:23. | |
and that has been the key. You talk about generalisations, what about | :42:23. | :42:26. | |
this generalisation that back office staff are not police | :42:26. | :42:33. | |
officers who are there detecting crime. I do not think the | :42:33. | :42:37. | |
expression and pressure has been used. There is a lot of confusion | :42:37. | :42:42. | |
and I do not want to get into the argument about figures. What people | :42:42. | :42:46. | |
have to we -- realise is that sadly because of where we are | :42:46. | :42:51. | |
economically, a cut has to be made. The UK government has been working | :42:51. | :42:56. | |
closely with the police to make sure that the cars are sympathetic. | :42:56. | :43:06. | |
:43:06. | :43:09. | ||
Proper cent but they are not up for 20 %? A cut had to be made. What | :43:09. | :43:13. | |
matters is whether it is 12 or a higher figure, it is where those | :43:13. | :43:17. | |
cuts are made and I am confident that the current government has not | :43:17. | :43:23. | |
said, he is your lot. They have said they will work with the police | :43:23. | :43:28. | |
to make sure the cars are sympathetic. There is a lot of | :43:28. | :43:31. | |
scaremongering and people engaging in that should be aware of the | :43:31. | :43:36. | |
worried they are causing. Thank you. If you have not been hit by Olympic | :43:36. | :43:41. | |
fever, there is hope the arrival of the torch relay in Wales will | :43:41. | :43:44. | |
ignite the fire. One particular sport and one team has been a topic | :43:44. | :43:49. | |
of debate. Does the formation of a Great Britain football team | :43:49. | :43:54. | |
compromise Wales's standing of an independent association? Like to | :43:54. | :44:01. | |
midfield terriers the Conservative Andrew Davis and Plaid Cymru's and | :44:01. | :44:07. | |
then Fred Jones went head to head. The Olympics are being hosted here | :44:07. | :44:16. | |
in the United Kingdom and it poses no risk. If you have one team why | :44:16. | :44:20. | |
can you Anna Ford associations? This is typical Plaid Cymru | :44:20. | :44:30. | |
nationalism scaremongering. We have given that assurance to the people | :44:30. | :44:34. | |
that in this case that this is the Olympics hosted by the UK in this | :44:34. | :44:41. | |
instance and there is one team, Team GB to play at the London | :44:41. | :44:47. | |
Olympics. Let celebrate that fact, embrace it and promote Wales in a | :44:47. | :44:56. | |
positive light. I am a bit older and have been celebrating Wales or | :44:56. | :45:03. | |
longer. The fact is there is potentially the undermining of the | :45:03. | :45:13. | |
existence of the associations within the UK. A diplomatic scored | :45:13. | :45:23. | |
:45:23. | :45:23. | ||
four. Dafydd Elis-Thomas, Alan Fred Jones comments typical. This is a | :45:23. | :45:28. | |
total red herring. The history is that the Football Association of | :45:28. | :45:32. | |
Wales is the third oldest in the world because England needed | :45:32. | :45:38. | |
somebody to play with and that is how this developed. This is totally | :45:38. | :45:45. | |
unrelated. I have the privilege of welcomed athletes back from Beijing | :45:45. | :45:52. | |
and they wear their UK kit and they have the red dragon on their backs. | :45:52. | :45:57. | |
We are talking about the prominence of the Welsh Football Association | :45:57. | :46:01. | |
within Uefa and Fifa or. There has always been a UK team that competes | :46:01. | :46:11. | |
:46:11. | :46:13. | ||
in athletics but what some are saying is that the Welsh football | :46:13. | :46:20. | |
Association's place could be under threat. This is not an issue that | :46:20. | :46:24. | |
we should face in relation to the Olympics. Let's take the British | :46:24. | :46:34. | |
:46:34. | :46:38. | ||
Irish? There are some who say they will not want to see Welsh athletes | :46:38. | :46:48. | |
:46:48. | :46:48. | ||
wearing Team GB. Named them. probably have the one member of the | :46:48. | :46:54. | |
party for that argument. We are talking about the football coming | :46:54. | :47:02. | |
home for the Olympics but Alan Fred and Andrew... I am not here to make | :47:02. | :47:07. | |
the comments of other people. We need to focus on the Olympic torch | :47:07. | :47:13. | |
coming to Wales next Friday. It is a great opportunity for Wales as | :47:13. | :47:21. | |
part of the country that includes the host city London. Whether you | :47:21. | :47:26. | |
are a proud Welshman or a proud supporter of the UK, let's all get | :47:26. | :47:31. | |
together to make sure this Olympics works for the whole country. | :47:31. | :47:38. | |
what other ways will Wales benefit economically because there -- it | :47:39. | :47:42. | |
was always said there would be games in other parts of the | :47:42. | :47:52. | |
:47:52. | :48:04. | ||
country? What ways will Wales reap the rewards? I think it is | :48:04. | :48:08. | |
straightforward. The fact that we have the women's football here, we | :48:08. | :48:15. | |
have got the Uruguay match, the fact that Cardiff is playing a part | :48:15. | :48:19. | |
and the training part of it as well, so we will have athletes here, all | :48:19. | :48:24. | |
of that means Wales will see economic benefit. You can have | :48:24. | :48:30. | |
arguments about the overall cost, actually I think this is a great | :48:30. | :48:35. | |
moment for Wales and Britain to have this sort of contest. I look | :48:35. | :48:40. | |
forward to welcoming the torch. I thought it was beautifully welcomed | :48:40. | :48:49. | |
and I hope the same thing will happen in Wales. This petty | :48:49. | :48:55. | |
nationalism, we do not need it. have to move on. Time for a look | :48:55. | :49:05. | |
:49:05. | :49:05. | ||
back at some of the political events of the week. | :49:05. | :49:11. | |
Peter Kane resigned a shadow Welsh secretary in order to campaign for | :49:11. | :49:21. | |
:49:21. | :49:23. | ||
a power generating a sudden barrage. His seat went to Owen Smith. The | :49:23. | :49:33. | |
:49:33. | :49:34. | ||
Assembly unanimously cent said an MP after his behaviour in after a | :49:34. | :49:39. | |
drunken night out. A pledge to raise literacy | :49:39. | :49:49. | |
standards to improve their reading and writing skills of pupils. | :49:49. | :49:54. | |
An election count a mix-up resulted in a Conservative candidate winning | :49:54. | :49:58. | |
a seat earlier this month. The council apologised for the mistake | :49:58. | :50:08. | |
:50:08. | :50:12. | ||
which led to the throat of Labour -- vote. One man in the news last | :50:12. | :50:20. | |
week, Peter Kane. Let's have a quick word on his legacy. 0 win | :50:20. | :50:24. | |
Smith his successor I remember working in this unbilled -- | :50:24. | :50:29. | |
building. He will make a fine replacement. I do not want to | :50:29. | :50:39. | |
:50:39. | :50:40. | ||
comment on Peter Haynes. I think that clearly my politics and | :50:40. | :50:44. | |
Peter's are different. He was part of the last government which left | :50:44. | :50:48. | |
the current government having to sort out the things it did. But he | :50:48. | :50:55. | |
has been one of the big piece in politics and he will be missed. | :50:55. | :51:00. | |
Whatever your views of Peter, he has made a clear statement he wants | :51:00. | :51:09. | |
to go and fight and campaign for the 7th garage. -- barrage. Whether | :51:09. | :51:18. |