10/06/2012 Sunday Politics Wales

Sunday Politics Wales, the latest from the scene of the Midwest

Apology for the loss of subtitles for 1705 seconds

floods. We look at homes and Hello, I'm Aled ap Dafydd and

coming up on the Sunday Politics Wales... We'll get the very latest

from mid Wales as the clear-up begins following the devastating

floods on Friday night. If you're old enough, you're good enough. We

talk to some of our youngest politicians hoping to reshape local

Government. My guests, still young at heart, are the Liberal Democrat

MP for Brecon and Radnorshire, Roger Williams and the Conservative

MP for the Vale of Glamorgan, Alun Cairns. I'll speak to them in a

moment. But first, let's get the latest on the flood. People are

being warned that the danger is not over yet. Emergency services have

said that the risk is still dangerously high and a clean-up

operation is underway. People are sifting through the wreckage after

hundreds of properties were damaged by floodwater. Residents had been

asked to seek expert help for gas, electric and structural plumbing

work. People had to be made to safety. Here is our correspondent.

-- move it. -- moved. The operation is still ongoing. Officers are

pumping water out of this House. One foot of water had got inside

and it has now been reduced to two inches. Many people are helping

here and they have come across the country. They have been working

tirelessly for three days, day and night. Yesterday we saw that the

scenes were devastating across Ceredigion. Five inches of rain

water fell in 24 hours. Streets were covered in water and towns and

villages were affected. Caravan parks where people had to be

airlifted to safety were affected. People are counting the cost of the

damage this morning. They are sifting through the mess. I have

been joined by Angela Francis from the fire and West -- Andrew Francis

from the fire and rescue service. We have carried out all the rescue

phases yesterday. Now it is time to help the community to get back on

its feet. We have got a lot of pumping operations on going this

morning. We saw many of the rivers burst their banks on Friday night

and Saturday. They have reduced slightly but the danger is not over,

is it? Indeed. The flooded rivers are very fast-flowing and very

dangerous for anybody going near them and I am appealing to the

public to stay away because they can end up being casualties and

requiring rescue. We had seen caravans damaged and homes damaged

and roads. It will be a massive operation getting the community

back on its feet, well it's not? Yes, but we have got plans in place.

We are working on them as we speak and that includes utilities to help

people get back to normal as quickly as possible. The emergency

services have been praised for their valiant efforts to prevent

disruption and they are working hard today but it was not just the

fire service, but the police, and rescue helicopters and the RNLI.

have got plans and we have trained for that and we have even had help

from the RSPCA. The communities have pulled together and they are

clearing up the roads. Thank you for giving us your time today, we

know you are a very busy man. That is it for now but we will have a

Thank you very much indeed. What do my guests have to say about the

flood? Your constituency has been affected. What stories have come

back to you? We have heard from people living close by to be

studying. It is not just the depth but the rate that the water was

flowing. People have really rallied around and businesses have provided

shelter and food. Everything is being done. But we must emphasise

that the insurance companies have reacted quickly. Some people have

said, ring me back on Monday Taliban and that is not a bit of

good. We have heard -- call me back on Monday and that is not good. Is

it anything be Welsh government can do? I think so because it

demonstrates the need for co- ordination. I think the Prime

Minister has to be pressed and he has called the minister on a

proactive basis and asked what he could do. I saw the First Minister

last night. It sometimes takes the direction at somebody like the

Prime Minister, to the fire service and to the police forces in order

to make changes and happily that did happen. Has this flood come a

bit under the radar? Ceredigion has been ranked as a flood list but

ranked 16th in the top 22. Has there been a danger this might

happen? I think this area has been the victim of exceptional

circumstances. We had seen the situation in Cornwall and the

Midlands recently. All these areas need to have flood resilience

looked at again. And in particular, the Environment Agency must look at

this area and see if anything can be done to prevent another disaster.

We will leave if there for now. It is often said that young people are

turned off by party politics, that they might get behind single issue

campaigns, but not the more conventional methods of public

decision-making. But a crop of new young councillors was in amongst

the 1200 or so elected in Wales last month. The youngest councillor

in Wales and the youngest council cabinet member have been telling

Adrian Browne how they hope to blow away some of the cobwebs in local

government. Meet the new face of Welsh local government. Jessica

Crook was elected to council last month, aged 18. She is the youngest

county councillor in Wales and one of the youngest in the UK. I met

her in the surroundings of this castle. She represents Labour.

is not just one sort of person that I represent in my ward. I want to

bring a fresh look at things. I want to bring a fresh perspective.

I want to blow out cobwebs slightly. How do you get on with other

councillors that are a bit older? Completely blind. I am not the sort

of person to be intimidated. -- completely fine. We are all doing

our best. Everybody is doing their best and I certainly am to help the

people that had elected us. internship with a Welsh MP

encouraged her to go to party meetings and become increasingly

active in local politics. It is something she heads of young people

will consider it. I think it is very young people that can look at

politics and think it does not affect them. But of course it does

affect them. The councils are in charge of licensing and what would

you think about pubs closing before 11? They need to understand and

should be involved. Not necessarily involved, but be aware and have an

open mind that politics does affect them and everyone. From the

youngest councillor, to demand that politics understands is the

youngest council Cabinet member in Wales and England. Mitchell Theaker

is 21 and is promoting children and young people in the Labour

administration in Swansea. I think all of the party should really look

at issues and engage with young people and make them realise that

politics is a very good thing if you care about social justice. If

you care about making a difference in the world, it is easy to get

involved to begin with. Obviously you have to work incredibly hard to

move up, but it is just about having a passion. If it is in

politics or anything, if you work hard, you can achieve. It is a

celebration of youth, where the children's commissioner Keith

Towler spent much at last week, in this village, he is hoping more

people will build on experience at school councils and youth forums to

become more involved in their communities. I have been met with

some young people that are putting themselves forward. Some people did

not get elected but they are very animated about why parks are

important to children and they are very passionate. That will help

councils in the broader sense understand that parks are important.

It is great young people can have an active part to play in the

community and it is fantastic that they can help strip policies for

the future. Children are the future. -- shape policies. Efforts have

long been made to encourage more diversity in the Welsh councils, to

make them a reflection of light outside. It is hoped 2012 is the

year when a local public life in Wales began edging closer to the

edge of the people -- age of the people that it seeks to represent.

It is a great way to impact on individuals. If you are therefore

the right reasons and you have got passion, I did not think anything

What do my guests make of that? Can I say that I did not want teenagers

making decisions and played devil's advocate? These are people barely

old enough to drink, drive and have not got a mortgage. What life

experience do they have? That is exactly the point. They are old

enough to pay tax. Barely. But they probably have! What we really need

to do is to get more people in council and encourage people to get

involved. We want them to show that they can make a difference. I was

interested to see that somebody doing work experience and

internships have now gone on the into council. You can really get a

feel of the thing and that you can make a difference and you can

spread that net wider. We have had a decline in political party

membership. Possibly that is a symptom of falling turnout in local

elections. Is that a reflection on politicians and political parties,

rather than the enthusiasm of young people? I think it is probably

about how politicians have engaged. I think we have had a cultural

shift. A couple of weeks ago I had 11 year olds in a meeting in

Parliament and it was an effort for them. But when I went back

afterwards, they had questions and they were well-informed and it is

about catching the imagination at that age from secondary school and

then by the time they get away team, they know what they want and they

can express themselves. -- get to the age of 18. I am happy to have

the debate about lowering the voting age but I do not think that

will resolve the problems at the moment. But if you one of the

opinion that people at the age of 18 are old enough to make an adult

decision, cannot people did that at 16? I am happy to have that debate.

I am not absolutely opposed. Many people think it might be the silver

bullet that makes the difference. But we have got to have a cultural

difference from the 10 and 11 year olds that came to Parliament and

the Assembly. That makes it easier for young people to engage. I think

politicians should take that approach as well in terms of

attracting schoolchildren. It is about the general debate and using

language and advocacy skills. we not got a problem about

diversity? It is not about eight lost young generation? It is about

a lack of people engaged in politics, especially elected

politics. You represent the stereotype, dare I say?! You are

quite right. I think all the parties are striving to get more

people right across the spectrum into positions, elected positions.

Kirsty Williams really did provide a role model for young women to

aspire to. Is it not true also that some younger people would behave

far better than some MPs, dare I say? John Bercow has said that

people that heckle the Prime Minister should be compared to

juvenile delinquents and has described them negatively. Are we

talking about not having the right temperament? That has always been

shown on television. But if you look at a parliamentary debate,

they can be quite well-informed. But what about turn out? I think if

at any time anybody wants to come to Parliament, it is often during

Prime Minister's Questions. I think people enjoy that but we have got

to have a balance. They need to see engagement and a well-informed

debate with some of the world experts that have really taken the

debate to another level on all sides. That is almost a non-party

political debate. A question for a Liberal Democrats, if you change

the voting system, if it was not first past the post and it was more

representational, would you possibly see a bigger proportion of

people participating? I think he would and I think it is important

that young people do have the opportunity to participate. We have

got evidence that if you were born on the wrong side of the level and

you do not vote immediately, you can get out of the habit of voting.

Getting people to take part at an early age will encourage

participation not just in voting but involvement with political

parties. We must move on. Time now for a quick look back at some of

the political stories of the week The First Minister and his

presiding officer were at St Paul's Cathedral for the Queen's Diamond

Jubilee service. Ed Miliband defended England and the rest of

the UK and said that people can have more than one identity and

that there was no problem with being British and Welsh. His Welsh

counterpart said he did not answer any questions on the UK's future

constitutional position of. This MP said that he was left bruised and

battered after a wrestling match. He lost his seat in 2010 and lasted

two minutes against a professional fighter. This Welsh member said he

was disappointed with the plans for this football club but he said that

he felt plea was substituted for red. Ready steady Cook will be that

Minister, this programme in I suppose the thing that was

running through that was identity. After the jubilee celebrations and

Ed Miliband saying that we can feel British and English, or Welsh, do

you feel any different now after the celebrations than you did

before? Not really because I think people living in devolved nations

tend to be quite relaxed about these things and can see themselves

as being Welsh and British. And some of my friends in Europe feel

like that as well. It is not a real problem. We have seen on Twitter

when we had the celebrations on gearing, a lot of people said that

they did not feel British. -- on going. That might be with some

individuals. But certainly be feel that we had that we can cause to

celebrate all the nations of the UK and the identity of being British.

I was delighted when I saw so many Welsh dragons and flags on the Mall

and the concert. I think it is an important point. People were happy

to see the Welsh dragon alongside the Union flag. But if the state

George Cross had been shown, I think some of the Welsh might have

taken exception to that. We are comfortable sharing our own and the

Union flag but when the English like his weight, we get a bit

twitchy. Some people do not think identity is all that important.

That the change of colour from blue to red is not important. But will

that be important in your constituency? It is commercial,

obviously. We have to take that into account. Much of that will

depend on what the fans do. The loyal ones will probably refuse to

buy the red shirts and that will persist. It is a commercial

interest that has wanted a change as well as people being

superstitious about red being a lucky colour. But as soon as big

money is involved in football, this is what you get, where plants and

priorities sometimes change. Thank you very much indeed for your