Browse content similar to 26/01/2014. Check below for episodes and series from the same categories and more!
Line | From | To | |
---|---|---|---|
Morning folks. Welcome to the Sunday Politics. | :00:37. | :00:41. | |
Ed Balls has gone socialist and fiscal Conservative in one speech. | :00:42. | :00:44. | |
He promises to balance the biggest bit of the budget. And to bring back | :00:45. | :00:49. | |
the 50p top tax rate. Political masterstroke, or a return to old | :00:50. | :00:53. | |
Labour? If you go to work by public | :00:54. | :00:57. | |
transport, chances are the price of your ticket has just gone up - | :00:58. | :01:00. | |
again. We'll speak to Transport Secretary Patrick McLoughlin. He's | :01:01. | :01:04. | |
our Sunday Interview. And it's been another wet week | :01:05. | :01:07. | |
across much of the UK, but what's the outlook according to this man? | :01:08. | :01:12. | |
And coming up here: Lib Dem AM recent years by party veterans | :01:13. | :01:20. | |
And coming up here: Lib Dem AM William Powell is warned about | :01:21. | :01:24. | |
inappropriate behaviour. And with me - as always - the | :01:25. | :01:43. | |
political panel so fresh-faced, entertaining and downright popular | :01:44. | :01:45. | |
they make Justin Bieber look like a boring old has-been just desperate | :01:46. | :01:48. | |
to get your attention. Nick Watt, Helen Lewis and Janan Ganesh, and | :01:49. | :01:51. | |
they'll be tweeting quicker than a yellow Lamborghini racing down Miami | :01:52. | :02:04. | |
Beach. Being political nerds, they have no idea what I'm talking about. | :02:05. | :02:11. | |
Ed Balls sprung a surprise on us all yesterday. We kinda thought Labour | :02:12. | :02:15. | |
would head for the election with a return to the 50p top rate of tax. | :02:16. | :02:19. | |
But we didn't think he'd do it now. He did! The polls say it's popular, | :02:20. | :02:22. | |
Labour activists now have a spring in their step. The Tories say it's a | :02:23. | :02:26. | |
return to the bad old days of the '70s, and bosses now think Labour is | :02:27. | :02:29. | |
anti-business. Here's the Shadow Chancellor speaking earlier this | :02:30. | :02:31. | |
morning. I was part of a Government which did very many things to open | :02:32. | :02:34. | |
up markets, to make the Bank of England independent, to work closely | :02:35. | :02:37. | |
with business, but the reality is we are in very difficult circumstances | :02:38. | :02:39. | |
and because if I'm honest you, George Osborne's failure in the last | :02:40. | :02:41. | |
few years, those difficult circumstances will last into the | :02:42. | :02:45. | |
next Parliament. Business people have said to me they want to get the | :02:46. | :02:55. | |
deficit down, of course they do. But to cut the top rate... It is foolish | :02:56. | :03:01. | |
and feeds resentment I want to do the opposite and say look, | :03:02. | :03:04. | |
pro-business, pro investment, pro market, but pro fairness. Let's get | :03:05. | :03:09. | |
this deficit down in a fairway and make the reforms to make our economy | :03:10. | :03:16. | |
work for the long term. What are the political implications of Labour now | :03:17. | :03:22. | |
in favour of a 50%, in practise 352% top rate of tax? One of the | :03:23. | :03:26. | |
political implications I don't think exist is that they'll win new | :03:27. | :03:30. | |
voters. I'm not sure many people out there would think, I would love to | :03:31. | :03:34. | |
vote for Ed Miliband but I'm not sure if he wants to tax rich people | :03:35. | :03:41. | |
enough. It will con Dale their existing vote but I don't think it | :03:42. | :03:47. | |
is the kind of, in the 1990s we talked about triangulation, moving | :03:48. | :03:52. | |
beyond your core vote, I don't think it is a policy like that. If there | :03:53. | :03:55. | |
has been a policy like that this year, this month, it has been the | :03:56. | :03:59. | |
Tories' move on minimum wage. I thought Labour would come back with | :04:00. | :04:03. | |
their own version, a centre-right policy, and instead they have done | :04:04. | :04:09. | |
this. I think we talk about the 35% strategy that Labour supposed will | :04:10. | :04:12. | |
have, I think it is a policy in that direction rather than the thing Tony | :04:13. | :04:18. | |
Blair or Gordon Brown would have done. Where he was not clear is on | :04:19. | :04:26. | |
how much it would raise. We know the sum in the grand scheme of things | :04:27. | :04:32. | |
isn't much, the bedroom tax was about sending a message. What we are | :04:33. | :04:40. | |
going to see is George Osborne and Ed Balls lock as they try to push | :04:41. | :04:43. | |
the other one into saying things that are unpopular. The Tories, | :04:44. | :04:52. | |
?150,000 a year, that's exactly where Ed Balls want them to be. All | :04:53. | :04:57. | |
three main parties have roughly the same plan, to run a current budget | :04:58. | :05:02. | |
surplus by the end of the next Parliament. George Osborne said ?12 | :05:03. | :05:06. | |
billion of welfare cuts, hasn't said how he is going to do it. Ed Balls | :05:07. | :05:12. | |
is giving an idea that he is going to restore this 50 persons rate. The | :05:13. | :05:16. | |
contribution of that will be deminimus. It is not much, but what | :05:17. | :05:21. | |
does it say about your values. Because it is that package, it is | :05:22. | :05:26. | |
cleverer than people think. Where the challenge is is the question | :05:27. | :05:29. | |
that Peter Mandelson posed at the last election, which is can the | :05:30. | :05:34. | |
Labour Party win a general election if it doesn't have business on its | :05:35. | :05:38. | |
side? That's the big challenge and that's the question looking | :05:39. | :05:42. | |
difficult for them this morning. Does it matter if Labour has | :05:43. | :05:48. | |
business on its side. I thought the most fascinating thing about this | :05:49. | :05:52. | |
announcement is it came from the guy mindful of business support, Ed | :05:53. | :05:56. | |
Balls. When in opposition and when a Minister and as a shadow as a | :05:57. | :06:01. | |
result, he's been far more conscious than Ed Miliband about the need not | :06:02. | :06:07. | |
to alienate the CB Bill. In the run-up of an election. This is a | :06:08. | :06:12. | |
measure of Ed Miliband's strength in the Labour Party, that his view of | :06:13. | :06:16. | |
things can prevail so easily over a guy who for the last 15 years has | :06:17. | :06:21. | |
taken a different view. Eight out of ten businesses according to the CBI | :06:22. | :06:27. | |
don't want us to leave business. Business is in a bit of a cleft | :06:28. | :06:33. | |
stick. Ed Miliband would like to see businesses squealing, and Ed Balls | :06:34. | :06:36. | |
is clearly not so comfortable on that one. There's a difference on | :06:37. | :06:40. | |
that. Mind you, they were squealing this morning from Davos. They | :06:41. | :06:44. | |
probably had hangovers as well. The other thing they would say is this | :06:45. | :06:50. | |
is not like Ed Balls thinks that 50p is the optimal rate forever, it what | :06:51. | :06:54. | |
go eventually. Isn't that what politicians said when income tax was | :06:55. | :06:59. | |
introduced? Yeah, in '97 Labour regarded 40 persons as the rate | :07:00. | :07:04. | |
where it would stay. It's been a bad week for the Lib | :07:05. | :07:09. | |
Dems. Again. Actually, it's been one of the worst weeks yet for Nick | :07:10. | :07:13. | |
Clegg and his party in recent memory, as they've gone from talking | :07:14. | :07:15. | |
confidently about their role in Government to facing a storm of | :07:16. | :07:18. | |
criticism over claims of inappropriate sexual behaviour by a | :07:19. | :07:21. | |
Lib Dem peer, Chris Rennard, and a Lib Dem MP, Mike Hancock. Here's | :07:22. | :07:25. | |
Giles with the story of the week. A challenge to Nick Clegg's authority | :07:26. | :07:30. | |
as he face as growing row over the Liberal Democrat... I want everyone | :07:31. | :07:35. | |
to be treated with respect by the Liberal Democrats. We are expecting | :07:36. | :07:38. | |
him to show moral leadership on our behalf. A good man has been publicly | :07:39. | :07:46. | |
destroyed by the media with the apparent support of Nick Clegg. I | :07:47. | :07:50. | |
would like Nick Clegg to show leadership and say, this has got to | :07:51. | :07:56. | |
stop. When Nick Clegg woke up on Monday morning he knew he was in | :07:57. | :08:02. | |
trouble, staring down the barrel of a stand justify with Lord Rennard | :08:03. | :08:09. | |
over allegations that the peer had inappropriately touched a number of | :08:10. | :08:13. | |
women. Chris Rennard thought he was cleared. Nick Clegg wanted more. I | :08:14. | :08:18. | |
said if he doesn't apologise, he should withdraw from the House of | :08:19. | :08:21. | |
Lords. If he does that today, what do you do then? I hope he doesn't. I | :08:22. | :08:30. | |
think no apology, no whip. 2014 was starting badly for the Liberal | :08:31. | :08:34. | |
Democrats. Chris Rennard refused to apologise, saying you can't say | :08:35. | :08:38. | |
sorry for something you haven't done. The and he was leaning towards | :08:39. | :08:44. | |
legal action. Butch us friends better defending Pym and publicly. | :08:45. | :08:47. | |
This is a good, decent man, who has been punished by the party, with the | :08:48. | :08:52. | |
leadership of the party that seems to be showing scant regard for due | :08:53. | :08:57. | |
process. But his accusers felt very differently. It is untenable for the | :08:58. | :09:03. | |
Lib Dems to have a credible voice on qualities and women's issues in the | :09:04. | :09:07. | |
future if Lord Rennard was allowed to be back on the Lib Dem benches in | :09:08. | :09:13. | |
the House of Lords. Therein lay the problem that exposed the weaknesses | :09:14. | :09:18. | |
of the Lib Dem leaders. The party's internal structures have all the | :09:19. | :09:25. | |
simplicity of a circuit diagram for a supercomputer, exposing the | :09:26. | :09:28. | |
complexity of who runs the Liberal Democrats? The simple question that | :09:29. | :09:33. | |
arose of that was can the leader of the Lib Dems remove a Lib Dem peer? | :09:34. | :09:38. | |
The simple answer is no. The Lib Dem whips in the Lords could do it but | :09:39. | :09:44. | |
if enough Lib Dem peers disagreed, they could overrule it. Some | :09:45. | :09:49. | |
long-stand ng friends of roar Rennard think he is either the | :09:50. | :09:53. | |
innocent victim of a media witch-hunt or at the least due | :09:54. | :09:56. | |
process has been ridden over rough shot by the leadership. Nobody ever | :09:57. | :10:02. | |
did spot Lord Rennard as he didn't turn up to the Lords, will citing | :10:03. | :10:06. | |
ill health. But issued a statement that ruled out an apology. He | :10:07. | :10:11. | |
refused to do so and refused to comply with the outcome of that | :10:12. | :10:14. | |
report, so there was no alternative but for the party to suspend his | :10:15. | :10:18. | |
membership today. On Wednesday Nick Clegg met Lib Dem peers, not for a | :10:19. | :10:23. | |
crunch decision, but to discuss the extraordinary prospect of legal | :10:24. | :10:26. | |
action against the party by the man long credited with building its | :10:27. | :10:30. | |
success. The situation was making the party look like a joke. One Tory | :10:31. | :10:34. | |
MP said to one of my colleagues this morning, the funny thing about the | :10:35. | :10:37. | |
Liberal Democrats, you managed to create a whole sex scandal without | :10:38. | :10:42. | |
any sex. And we can laugh at ourselves but actually it is rather | :10:43. | :10:46. | |
serious. And it got more serious, when an MP who had resigned the Lib | :10:47. | :10:50. | |
Dem whip last year was expanded from the party over a report into | :10:51. | :10:55. | |
allegations of serious and unwelcome sexual behaviour towards a | :10:56. | :11:00. | |
constituent. All of this leaves the Lib Dems desperately wishing these | :11:01. | :11:04. | |
sagas had been dealt with long ago and would now go away. Nick Clegg | :11:05. | :11:10. | |
ended the week still party leader. Lord Rennard, once one of their most | :11:11. | :11:16. | |
powerful players, ended the week, for now, no longer even in it. | :11:17. | :11:21. | |
Giles on the Lib Dems' disastrous week. Now, as you doubtless already | :11:22. | :11:24. | |
know, on Tuesday Lib Dem MPs will vote to choose a new deputy leader. | :11:25. | :11:32. | |
You didn't know that? You do now. The job of Nick Clegg's number two | :11:33. | :11:35. | |
is to speak with a genuine Lib Dem voice, untainted by the demands of | :11:36. | :11:39. | |
coalition Government. At this point in the show we had expected to speak | :11:40. | :11:42. | |
to all three candidates for the post, held in recent years by party | :11:43. | :11:45. | |
veterans like Vince Cable and Simon Hughes. We thought it being quite a | :11:46. | :11:53. | |
significant week for the party, they might have something to say. And | :11:54. | :11:57. | |
here they are. Well that's their pictures. For various reasons, all | :11:58. | :12:03. | |
three are now unavailable. Malcolm Bruce, he's reckoned to be the | :12:04. | :12:06. | |
outsider. His office said he had a "family commitment". Gordon | :12:07. | :12:09. | |
Birtwistle, the Burnley MP, was booked to appear but then told us, | :12:10. | :12:13. | |
"I was at an event last night with Lorely Burt" - she's one of the | :12:14. | :12:17. | |
candidates - "and she told me it was off". And Lorely Burt herself, seen | :12:18. | :12:22. | |
by many as the red hot favourite, told us: "Because of the Rennard | :12:23. | :12:26. | |
thing we don't want to put ourselves in a position where we have to | :12:27. | :12:34. | |
answer difficult questions." How refreshingly honest. Helen, how bad | :12:35. | :12:42. | |
politically is all this for the Lib Dems? What I think is the tragic | :12:43. | :12:45. | |
irony of the Lib Dems is they've been revealed as being too | :12:46. | :12:51. | |
democratic. In the same way that their party conference embarrassed | :12:52. | :12:54. | |
Nick Clegg by voting sings that he signed up to, and now everything has | :12:55. | :12:58. | |
to be run past various sub-committees first. Is it | :12:59. | :13:06. | |
democratic or chaotic? It is Byzantine. Mike Hancock was | :13:07. | :13:17. | |
voluntarily suspended, and this week he was properly suspended. It was | :13:18. | :13:22. | |
new information into the public domain that forced that. I'm already | :13:23. | :13:29. | |
hearing Labour and Conservative Party musing that if it is a long | :13:30. | :13:34. | |
Parliament, we will form a minority Government. It is a disaster for | :13:35. | :13:37. | |
them. Voters like parties that reflect and are interested this | :13:38. | :13:41. | |
their concerns. Parties that are self obsessed turn them off. The | :13:42. | :13:46. | |
third party, if they carry on like this, they'll be the fifth party in | :13:47. | :13:49. | |
the European elections, so they have got to draw a line under this. They | :13:50. | :13:54. | |
do that, if they do, through mediation. As I understand it, Chris | :13:55. | :13:59. | |
Rennard,s who has go devoted his entire life to the Liberal | :14:00. | :14:03. | |
Democrats, and previously the Liberal Party, is keen to draw a | :14:04. | :14:07. | |
line under this. He is up for mediation but he needs to know that | :14:08. | :14:11. | |
the women that he has clearly invaded their personal space, that | :14:12. | :14:15. | |
there wouldn't be a possible legal a action from them. The it is very | :14:16. | :14:18. | |
difficult to see how you could resolve that. Except he is | :14:19. | :14:23. | |
threatening through his friends, these famous friends, to spill all | :14:24. | :14:27. | |
the beans about all the party's sex secrets. Isn't the danger for the | :14:28. | :14:31. | |
Lib Dems, this haunts them through to the European elections, where | :14:32. | :14:34. | |
they'll get thumped in the European elections? They'll get destroyed in | :14:35. | :14:39. | |
the European elections, which keeps it salient as a story over the | :14:40. | :14:43. | |
summer. And it has implications for Nick Clegg's leadership. He's done a | :14:44. | :14:48. | |
good job until now, perhaps better than David Cameron, of exercising | :14:49. | :14:52. | |
authority over his party. He had a good conference in September. | :14:53. | :14:55. | |
Absolutely, and now the Lib Dems have looked like a party without a | :14:56. | :14:59. | |
leader or a leadership structure. Part of that is down to the chaotic | :15:00. | :15:04. | |
or Byzantine organisational structure of the party. Part of it | :15:05. | :15:08. | |
is Nick Clegg's failure to assert himself and impose himself over | :15:09. | :15:15. | |
events. Is it Byzantine or Byzantine. It is labyrinthine. You | :15:16. | :15:20. | |
don't get these words on the Today programme. The cost of living has | :15:21. | :15:31. | |
been back on the agenda this week as Labour and the Tories argue over | :15:32. | :15:35. | |
whether the value of money in your pocket is going up or down. Well | :15:36. | :15:38. | |
there's one cost which has been racing ahead of inflation and that's | :15:39. | :15:41. | |
the amount you have to pay to travel by train, by bus and by air. Rail | :15:42. | :15:45. | |
commuters have been hard hit over the last four years, with the cost | :15:46. | :15:47. | |
of the average season ticket going up by 18% since January 2010, while | :15:48. | :15:53. | |
wages have gone up by just 3.6% over the same period. It means some rail | :15:54. | :16:00. | |
users are paying high prices with commuters from Kent shelling out | :16:01. | :16:05. | |
more than ?5,000 per year from the beginning of this month just to get | :16:06. | :16:08. | |
to work in London. It doesn't compare well with our European | :16:09. | :16:15. | |
counterparts. In the UK the average rail user spends 14% of their | :16:16. | :16:23. | |
average income on trains. It is just 1.5% in Italy. Regulated fares like | :16:24. | :16:28. | |
season tickets went up 3.1% at the beginning of this month, and with | :16:29. | :16:31. | |
ministers keen to make passengers fought more of the bills, there are | :16:32. | :16:36. | |
more fare rises coming down the track. And Patrick McLoughlin joins | :16:37. | :16:48. | |
me now for the Sunday Interview. Welcome. You claim to be in the | :16:49. | :16:53. | |
party of hard-working people, so why is it that since you came to power | :16:54. | :16:59. | |
rail commuters have seen the cost of their average season ticket going up | :17:00. | :17:05. | |
in money terms by over 18% while their pay has gone up in money terms | :17:06. | :17:12. | |
by less than four? I would point out that this is the first year in ten | :17:13. | :17:18. | |
years that we have not had an above inflation increase on fares. The | :17:19. | :17:22. | |
Government accepts we have got to do as much as we can to help the | :17:23. | :17:31. | |
passengers. A big inflation increase since 2010. This is the first year | :17:32. | :17:37. | |
in ten years that it has not been above RPI, but we are also investing | :17:38. | :17:43. | |
huge amounts of money into the railways, building new trains for | :17:44. | :17:47. | |
the East Coast Main Line and the great Western. We are spending ?500 | :17:48. | :17:53. | |
million at Birmingham station, this is all increasing capacity, so we | :17:54. | :17:59. | |
are seeing investments. Over the next five years Network Rail will | :18:00. | :18:05. | |
invest over ?38 billion in the network structure. We also have an | :18:06. | :18:13. | |
expensive railway and it is ordinary people paying for it. A season | :18:14. | :18:18. | |
ticket from Woking in Surrey, commuter belt land in London, let's | :18:19. | :18:23. | |
look at the figures. This is a distance of over 25 miles, it cost | :18:24. | :18:30. | |
over ?3000 per year. We have picked similar distances to international | :18:31. | :18:37. | |
cities. The British commuter is being ripped | :18:38. | :18:51. | |
off. The British commuter is seeing record levels of investment in our | :18:52. | :18:56. | |
railways. The investment has to be paid for. We are investing huge | :18:57. | :19:00. | |
amounts of money and I don't know whether the figures you have got | :19:01. | :19:07. | |
here... I'm sure they are likewise, as you have managed to do... White | :19:08. | :19:22. | |
-- ten times more than the Italian equivalent. We have seen | :19:23. | :19:30. | |
transformational changes in our railway services and we need to | :19:31. | :19:35. | |
carry on investing. We were paying these prices even before you started | :19:36. | :19:40. | |
investing. We have always paid a lot more to commute in this country than | :19:41. | :19:50. | |
our European equivalents. I'm not quite sure I want to take on Italy | :19:51. | :19:58. | |
is a great example. You would if you were a commuter. You | :19:59. | :20:04. | |
is a great example. You would if you the other rates of taxation has to | :20:05. | :20:06. | |
be paid as well. Isn't it the case they are making profits out of these | :20:07. | :20:11. | |
figures and using them to subsidise cheaper fares back in their | :20:12. | :20:17. | |
homeland? The overall profit margin train companies make is 3%, a | :20:18. | :20:23. | |
reasonable amount, and we have seen a revolution as far as the railway | :20:24. | :20:26. | |
industry is concerned. a revolution as far as the railway | :20:27. | :20:31. | |
20 years we have seen passenger journeys going from 750 million to | :20:32. | :20:40. | |
1.5 billion. That is a massive revolution in rail. Let me look | :20:41. | :20:45. | |
1.5 billion. That is a massive spokesperson for the German | :20:46. | :20:45. | |
government, the Ministry of transport. | :20:46. | :20:59. | |
They are charging huge fares in Britain to take that money back to | :21:00. | :21:05. | |
subsidise fares in Germany. What do you say to that? We are seeing | :21:06. | :21:11. | |
British companies winning contracts in Germany. The National Express are | :21:12. | :21:16. | |
winning contracts to the railways. What about the ordinary commuter? | :21:17. | :21:21. | |
They are paying through the nose so German commuters can travel more | :21:22. | :21:25. | |
cheaply. We are still subsidising the railways in this country, but | :21:26. | :21:31. | |
overall we want to reduce the subsidy we are giving. We are still | :21:32. | :21:36. | |
seeing growth in our railways and I want to see more people using them. | :21:37. | :21:43. | |
Why do you increase rail fares at the higher RPI measure than the | :21:44. | :21:49. | |
lower CPI measurement? That is what has always been done, and we have | :21:50. | :21:55. | |
stopped. This is the first time in ten years that we have not raised | :21:56. | :22:01. | |
the rail figures above RPI. You still link fares to RPI. You use the | :22:02. | :22:09. | |
lower CPI figure when it suits you, to keep pension payments down for | :22:10. | :22:15. | |
example, but the higher one when it comes to increasing rail fares. We | :22:16. | :22:20. | |
are still putting a huge subsidy into the rail industry, there is | :22:21. | :22:24. | |
still a huge amount of money going from the taxpayer to support the | :22:25. | :22:29. | |
rail industry. I am not asking you about that, I am asking you why you | :22:30. | :22:34. | |
link the figures to the higher RPI vesture Mark if we are going to pay | :22:35. | :22:44. | |
for the levels of investment, so all the new trains being built at Newton | :22:45. | :22:48. | |
Aycliffe for the East Coast Main Line and the great Western, ?3.5 | :22:49. | :22:53. | |
billion of investment, new rolling stock coming online, then yes, we | :22:54. | :22:58. | |
have to pay for it, and it is a question of the taxpayer paying for | :22:59. | :23:11. | |
it all the -- or the passenger. You have capped parking fines until | :23:12. | :23:15. | |
the next election, rail commuters we have seen the cost of their ticket | :23:16. | :23:24. | |
has gone up by nearly 20%, you are the party of the drivers, not the | :23:25. | :23:31. | |
passengers, aren't you? We are trying to help everybody who | :23:32. | :23:46. | |
has been struggling. I think we are setting out long-term plans for our | :23:47. | :23:49. | |
railways, investing heavily in them and it is getting that balance | :23:50. | :23:54. | |
right. But you have done more for the driver than you have for the | :23:55. | :23:59. | |
user of public transport. I don't accept that. They are paying the | :24:00. | :24:08. | |
same petrol prices as 2011. This is the first time in ten years that | :24:09. | :24:15. | |
there has not been an RPI plus rise. We are investing record | :24:16. | :24:22. | |
amounts. Bus fares are also rising, 4.2% in real terms in 2010, at a | :24:23. | :24:27. | |
time when real take-home pay has been falling. This hits commuters | :24:28. | :24:33. | |
particularly workers who use buses on low incomes, another cost of | :24:34. | :24:39. | |
living squeeze. I was with Stagecoach in Manchester on Friday, | :24:40. | :24:44. | |
and I saw a bus company investing in new buses. Last week First ordered | :24:45. | :24:59. | |
new buses. Part of your hard-working families you are always on about, | :25:00. | :25:03. | |
they are the ones going to work early in the morning, and yet you | :25:04. | :25:09. | |
are making them pay more for their buses in real terms than they did | :25:10. | :25:14. | |
before. They would be happier if they could travel more cheaply. It | :25:15. | :25:19. | |
is about getting investment in services, it has to be paid for. Why | :25:20. | :25:28. | |
not run the old buses for five more years? Because then there is more | :25:29. | :25:33. | |
pollution in the atmosphere, modern buses have lower emissions, and we | :25:34. | :25:38. | |
are still giving huge support overall to the bus industry and that | :25:39. | :25:41. | |
is very important because I fully accept that the number of people, | :25:42. | :25:47. | |
yes, use the train but a lot of people use buses as well. High-speed | :25:48. | :25:56. | |
two, it has been delayed because 877 pages of key evidence from your | :25:57. | :26:01. | |
department were left on a computer memory stick, part of the submission | :26:02. | :26:07. | |
to environmental consultation. Your department's economic case is now | :26:08. | :26:12. | |
widely regarded as a joke, now you do this. Is your department fit for | :26:13. | :26:18. | |
purpose? Yes, and as far as what happened with the memory stick, it | :26:19. | :26:24. | |
is an acceptable and shouldn't have happened, and therefore we have | :26:25. | :26:29. | |
extended the time. There has been an extension in the time for people to | :26:30. | :26:40. | |
make representation, the bill for this goes through Parliament in a | :26:41. | :26:44. | |
different way to a normal bill. It is vital HS2 provides what we want. | :26:45. | :26:58. | |
What I am very pleased about is when the paving bill was passed by | :26:59. | :27:02. | |
Parliament just a few months ago, there was overwhelming support, and | :27:03. | :27:07. | |
I kept reading there was going to be 70 people voting against it, in the | :27:08. | :27:12. | |
end 30 people voted against it and there was a good majority in the | :27:13. | :27:17. | |
House of Commons. So can you give a guarantee that this legislation will | :27:18. | :27:23. | |
get onto the statute books? I will do all I can. I cannot tell you the | :27:24. | :27:29. | |
exact Parliamentary time scale. The bill will have started its progress | :27:30. | :27:37. | |
through the House of Commons by 2015, and it may well have | :27:38. | :27:44. | |
concluded. The new chairman of HS2 said he can bring the cost of the | :27:45. | :27:48. | |
line substantially under the budget, do you agree with that? The figure | :27:49. | :27:58. | |
is ?42 billion with a large contingency, and David Higgins, as | :27:59. | :28:05. | |
chairman of HS2, is looking at the whole cast and seeing if there are | :28:06. | :28:08. | |
ways in which it can be built faster. At the moment across London | :28:09. | :28:14. | |
we are building Crossrail, ?14.5 billion investment. There was a | :28:15. | :28:19. | |
report last week saying what an excellent job has been done. | :28:20. | :28:27. | |
Crossrail started under Labour. Actually it was Cecil Parkinson in | :28:28. | :28:36. | |
the 1990 party conference. You may get HS2 cheaper if you didn't pay | :28:37. | :28:41. | |
people so much, why is the nonexecutive chairman of HS2 on | :28:42. | :28:47. | |
?600,000? And the new chief executive on ?750,000. These are | :28:48. | :28:54. | |
very big projects and we need to attract the best people become so we | :28:55. | :28:59. | |
are going for the best engineers in the world to engineer this project. | :29:00. | :29:04. | |
It is a large salary, there is no question about it, but I'm rather | :29:05. | :29:08. | |
pleased that engineers rather than bankers can be seen to get big | :29:09. | :29:13. | |
rewards for delivering what will be very important pieces of national | :29:14. | :29:17. | |
infrastructure. I didn't have time to ask you about your passenger duty | :29:18. | :29:24. | |
so perhaps another time. We are about to speak to Nigel Mills and | :29:25. | :29:28. | |
all of these MPs on your side who are rebelling against the | :29:29. | :29:32. | |
Government, how would you handle them? We have got to listen to what | :29:33. | :29:36. | |
our colleagues are talking about and try to respond it. Would you take | :29:37. | :29:42. | |
them for a long walk off a short pier? I'm sure I would have many | :29:43. | :29:52. | |
conversations with them. An immigration bill to tack the | :29:53. | :30:00. | |
immigration into the UK. When limits on migration from Bulgaria and | :30:01. | :30:06. | |
Romania were lifted this year there were warnings of a large influx of | :30:07. | :30:11. | |
migrant workerses from the two new European countries. So far it's been | :30:12. | :30:16. | |
more of a dribble than a flood. Who can forget Labour MP Keith Vaz | :30:17. | :30:21. | |
greeting a handful of arrivals at Luton Airport. But it is early days | :30:22. | :30:26. | |
and it is one of the reasons the Government's introduced a new | :30:27. | :30:29. | |
Immigration Bill. The Prime Minister is facing rebellion from | :30:30. | :30:35. | |
backbenchers who want tougher action on immigration from abroad. Nigel | :30:36. | :30:40. | |
Mills would reimpose restrictions on how many Romanians and Bulgarians | :30:41. | :30:51. | |
can come here. Joining me is Nigel Mills, Conservative MP behind the | :30:52. | :30:55. | |
amendment and Labour MP Diane Abbott. Welcome. Nigel Mills, there | :30:56. | :31:03. | |
hasn't been an influx of Romanians and Bulgarians. Why do you want to | :31:04. | :31:07. | |
restore these, kick these transitional controls way forward to | :31:08. | :31:12. | |
2019? I don't think any of us were expecting a rush on January 1st, | :31:13. | :31:16. | |
Andrew. I think we were talking about a range of 250,000 to 350,000 | :31:17. | :31:21. | |
people over five years. That's obviously a large amount of people, | :31:22. | :31:27. | |
especially when you think net migration to the UK was well in | :31:28. | :31:31. | |
excess of the Government's target of tens of thousands last year. The | :31:32. | :31:36. | |
real concern is that it would be ever increasing our population, | :31:37. | :31:42. | |
attracting lots of low-skilled, low-wage people, which keeps our | :31:43. | :31:46. | |
people out of work and wages down. Did you accept that if you were to | :31:47. | :31:51. | |
accept this, it would be in breach of the Treaty of Rome, the founding | :31:52. | :31:56. | |
principle of the European Union? We were trying to keep the restrictions | :31:57. | :32:00. | |
that Bulgaria and Romania accepted for their first seven years of EU | :32:01. | :32:04. | |
membership, on the basis that when we signed the treaty we weren't | :32:05. | :32:09. | |
aware that we would have a huge and catastrophic recession we are still | :32:10. | :32:12. | |
recovering from. But you would be in breach of the law, correct? The UK | :32:13. | :32:18. | |
Parliament has a right to say we signed this deal before the terrible | :32:19. | :32:22. | |
recession, and we need a bit longer in our national interest. It is | :32:23. | :32:26. | |
worth noting that Bulgaria and Romania haven't met all their | :32:27. | :32:35. | |
accession requirements. The Bulgarian requirement passed a | :32:36. | :32:38. | |
law... So if they break the law it is alright for us to break the law? | :32:39. | :32:43. | |
Is we should be focusing on trying to get 2. 4 million of our own in | :32:44. | :32:50. | |
work, and 1 million people not in work... Let me bring in Diane | :32:51. | :32:55. | |
Abbott. Will you vote for this amendment and why? It is in breach | :32:56. | :32:59. | |
of the treaty. While I deplore MPs that try to cause trouble, these MPs | :33:00. | :33:04. | |
have been particularly mindless, because what they want to do | :33:05. | :33:08. | |
wouldn't be legal. However, it is a Tory internal brief, if I might say | :33:09. | :33:14. | |
so. Maybe you can cause trouble by voting for it. No, that would be | :33:15. | :33:21. | |
going too far. Underlying it is a real antagonism for David Cameron. | :33:22. | :33:25. | |
They have had to hold off on this bill until January. It was supposed | :33:26. | :33:29. | |
to be debating before Christmas. As we speak they've not cut a deal, so | :33:30. | :33:34. | |
it could be pretty grus om. Nigel Mills, what do you say to that I | :33:35. | :33:40. | |
think there is a recognition that there is a problem with the amount | :33:41. | :33:45. | |
of migration from EU countries that we need to tackle. We could try to | :33:46. | :33:49. | |
achieve an annual cap perhaps, longer limits on when countries get | :33:50. | :33:53. | |
free movement. I think the debate is moving in the right direction, but I | :33:54. | :33:57. | |
think those people who are trapped out of work and desperately looking | :33:58. | :34:01. | |
for work want something to be done now and not wait a few more years | :34:02. | :34:06. | |
while we have more assessments Andrews. People are worried about | :34:07. | :34:11. | |
the level of immigration. They I it is too high. That's the consensus in | :34:12. | :34:16. | |
the country. We spoke to to migration centre in Hackney and they | :34:17. | :34:21. | |
said they are struggling to cope with the number of people using | :34:22. | :34:25. | |
their services. These are people with problems with the law. In the | :34:26. | :34:29. | |
past years EU migrants put in more to the economy in taxation than they | :34:30. | :34:34. | |
take out in benefits. When it comes to free movement, which is agitating | :34:35. | :34:39. | |
Nige em, that horse has bolted. We signed a treaty. There is nothing | :34:40. | :34:43. | |
people like Nigel Mills can do, unless they want to rip their party | :34:44. | :34:48. | |
apart, God forbid. Will you go as far as to rip your party apart, | :34:49. | :34:53. | |
Nigel Mills? Are you going to take this all the way? Would you rather | :34:54. | :34:58. | |
see this bill go down than your amendment not be accepted? This is a | :34:59. | :35:04. | |
very important bill. I think we all want to see measures on the statute | :35:05. | :35:08. | |
book, so the last thing we want to see is this bill go down. We do need | :35:09. | :35:12. | |
to set out clearly that we have real concerns about the level of EU | :35:13. | :35:16. | |
migration and something needs to be done. Would you rather have the bill | :35:17. | :35:24. | |
without your amendment or no bill at all? I am hoping we can have the | :35:25. | :35:29. | |
bill with the amendment. I know that, but if you can't? Is that will | :35:30. | :35:34. | |
depend on what the Labour Party decide to do. They are talking | :35:35. | :35:41. | |
tougher on immigration but will they take action on it? Your party has | :35:42. | :35:45. | |
been talking tough on immigration but I will be surprised if an Ed | :35:46. | :35:49. | |
Miliband Labour Party would vote for egg in direct cameravention of the | :35:50. | :35:54. | |
Treaty of Rome. It would make no sense. Nigel Mills is wishing for | :35:55. | :36:01. | |
the impossible. If I was a Tory I would be wringing high hands. He | :36:02. | :36:06. | |
hasn't ruled out crashing the bill. That's incredible. Where will this | :36:07. | :36:11. | |
end, Nigel Mills? We'll end with a vote on Thursday. There's a lot of | :36:12. | :36:16. | |
amendments people can use to show their concern about migration. We | :36:17. | :36:20. | |
want limited and proportionate action, and that's what I am | :36:21. | :36:25. | |
proposing. I want to see the bill on the statute book, I want the | :36:26. | :36:29. | |
restrictions on people who shouldn't be here getting bank accounts and | :36:30. | :36:34. | |
driving licences. I don't want to crash this bill but there's more | :36:35. | :36:39. | |
measures we need in it. Nigel Mills thank you. You are going to be -- | :36:40. | :36:47. | |
popping up I think on the Sunday Politics East Midlands. Diane | :36:48. | :36:53. | |
Abbott, thank you as well. We're in for more heavy rain and | :36:54. | :36:56. | |
high winds across the UK today. You may remember that one UKIP | :36:57. | :36:59. | |
councillor - he's since been suspended - caused controversy last | :37:00. | :37:01. | |
weekend by blaming the recent flooding on the legalisation of gay | :37:02. | :37:04. | |
marriage. Why didn't I think of that? So who better than this man to | :37:05. | :37:08. | |
bring you the unofficial forecast. I'll be bringing you the late least | :37:09. | :37:10. | |
UKIP weather from your area. You're watching Sunday Politics. | :37:11. | :37:19. | |
Also coming up in just over 20 minutes, I'll be looking at the week | :37:20. | :37:21. | |
ahead with our political panel. Hello and on the Sunday Politics | :37:22. | :37:38. | |
Wales: We'll hear from the Plaid Cymru leader Leanne Wood on her | :37:39. | :37:43. | |
party's ambitions. If the UK is seeing a real economic recovery, is | :37:44. | :37:48. | |
Wales leading the way? And Labour MP Mick Antoniw tells us about his | :37:49. | :37:53. | |
recent visit to Ukraine. But first, the Welsh Liberal | :37:54. | :37:56. | |
Democrats have confirmed that their Assembly Member William Powell was | :37:57. | :38:00. | |
given a formal written warning, following a complaint of | :38:01. | :38:03. | |
inappropriate behaviour by a young female activist. The woman, now aged | :38:04. | :38:10. | |
21, alleged that in 2011 he gave her and two other women drink, touched | :38:11. | :38:14. | |
her leg and put his hands around her waist. Mr Powell has offered an | :38:15. | :38:20. | |
unreserved apology. Our political editor joins me now. What more can | :38:21. | :38:26. | |
you tell us? The party says it dealt with this matter last year and it | :38:27. | :38:30. | |
relates to an incident concerning the Assembly Member William Powell | :38:31. | :38:35. | |
and someone who is a member of the party, who is 21 now. It related to | :38:36. | :38:43. | |
an incident in June 2011 in which she says she and two other women | :38:44. | :38:47. | |
were given the strong alcoholic drink absinthe by William Powell, | :38:48. | :38:54. | |
who then touched her leg, and, she says, inappropriately grabbed her | :38:55. | :39:01. | |
waist. In response to that, the party is saying that she did not | :39:02. | :39:06. | |
want to issue a formal grievance procedure and wanted to remain | :39:07. | :39:10. | |
anonymous, but she wanted to let the party know about what has happened | :39:11. | :39:14. | |
and as a result of that, she told the local chair of her party. Did | :39:15. | :39:18. | |
the party have anything further to add? It says that even though it | :39:19. | :39:24. | |
wasn't a formal grievance procedure, it treated it in that way and the | :39:25. | :39:29. | |
Chief Whip in Cardiff Bay for the Welsh Liberal Democrats, Aled | :39:30. | :39:33. | |
Roberts, met with William Powell and he had a formal warning and was told | :39:34. | :39:37. | |
his behaviour was unacceptable, and that if any such behaviour on a more | :39:38. | :39:41. | |
serious level happened, there would be more serious consequences. We've | :39:42. | :39:45. | |
also had a statement from William Powell, in which he offered an | :39:46. | :39:49. | |
unreserved apology and has offered to meet anyone who was offended by | :39:50. | :39:52. | |
this incident in person or in writing as a result of that. It is | :39:53. | :39:58. | |
further embarrassment for the Liberal Democrats, isn't it? It | :39:59. | :40:02. | |
comes at a pretty awful time for them in terms of these stories, | :40:03. | :40:07. | |
which have dominated the headlines in relation to the Liberal | :40:08. | :40:09. | |
Democrats, primarily about allegations of sexual harassment | :40:10. | :40:14. | |
either Lib Dem peer and former chief executive of the party Lord Rennard. | :40:15. | :40:18. | |
He's been suspended by the party because he has refused to apologise | :40:19. | :40:23. | |
for any of the claims, which he denies, made against him. There is | :40:24. | :40:28. | |
also an incident involving Mike Hancock, a former MP for the party, | :40:29. | :40:34. | |
with allegations of misconduct with a constituent, which he denies. And | :40:35. | :40:39. | |
Kirsty Williams, the leader of the Welsh Liberal Democrats, did say in | :40:40. | :40:42. | |
a briefing last week about the party had introduced a new code of conduct | :40:43. | :40:47. | |
for party members in Wales but that was in response to the Lord Rennard | :40:48. | :40:50. | |
inquiry, rather than anything to do with William Powell. Thanks very | :40:51. | :40:55. | |
much. This week saw a welcome fall in | :40:56. | :40:59. | |
unemployment in Wales, with the rate here much lower than other parts of | :41:00. | :41:03. | |
the UK. Downing Street also claims we are starting to feel better off, | :41:04. | :41:09. | |
so are we seeing a real economic recovery? And if Wales is | :41:10. | :41:11. | |
outperforming other parts of Britain, who should get the credit? | :41:12. | :41:18. | |
After several years in neutral, it looks like the Welsh economy is on | :41:19. | :41:23. | |
the move. Steel is being unloaded from as far-away as India, Turkey | :41:24. | :41:27. | |
and Russia, here at Cardiff docks. The figures bear it out - | :41:28. | :41:33. | |
unemployment in Wales is down sharply and stands at 7.2%. What's | :41:34. | :41:39. | |
going on? Ultimately, I think it's the tax regime that he coalition | :41:40. | :41:45. | |
government have put in place that rewards businesses that invest and | :41:46. | :41:54. | |
expand. Things have been challenging but the government has kept interest | :41:55. | :41:56. | |
rates low, incentivised investment in businesses and repaired the | :41:57. | :42:00. | |
economy for the uplift we are seeing now. Nothing can be taken for | :42:01. | :42:04. | |
granted. This is the beginning but it is a welcome beginning, with a | :42:05. | :42:10. | |
dramatic decline in unemployment, steady interest rates for those who | :42:11. | :42:14. | |
invest, and a spring in the step of businesses going into 2014. It seems | :42:15. | :42:19. | |
there really is an uplift and Wales is performing particularly well. | :42:20. | :42:24. | |
Unemployment is lower in Wales than many regions of England. That's a | :42:25. | :42:27. | |
very different pattern from previous recoveries. Nobody is arguing with | :42:28. | :42:33. | |
the figures but there is a political row about who should take the | :42:34. | :42:37. | |
credit. The UK government, run by the Conservatives and the Lib Dems, | :42:38. | :42:40. | |
or the Welsh Government, where labour is in charge? Only some | :42:41. | :42:45. | |
elements of economic policy are devolved but the Welsh Government | :42:46. | :42:49. | |
says its approach, helping to keep employees on shorter hours rather | :42:50. | :42:52. | |
than putting them out of work, for instance, are part of the mix, too. | :42:53. | :42:58. | |
The economy minister, visiting a successful bakery this week, says | :42:59. | :43:04. | |
devolution helped sweeten the pill when the downturn began. We've | :43:05. | :43:06. | |
although it from previous recessions and recoveries and when everything | :43:07. | :43:12. | |
started to hit, we look to where our policies were at that stage at what | :43:13. | :43:16. | |
we could do to help companies keep people, even if they didn't have the | :43:17. | :43:22. | |
work. We started initiatives and followed on and that has made a | :43:23. | :43:25. | |
difference, since the Assembly has been in place. It's a row that is | :43:26. | :43:30. | |
likely to dominate politics as the general election approaches. Welsh | :43:31. | :43:34. | |
MPs had their say this week, even if things did get a bit heated. Can we | :43:35. | :43:40. | |
be careful about language. I've heard words like misleading and so | :43:41. | :43:46. | |
on, so can we be careful about the language we use in terms of | :43:47. | :43:48. | |
disagreeing with other people's arguments. Experts say the devolved | :43:49. | :43:53. | |
approach has helped keep people in work, even if it means the labour | :43:54. | :43:59. | |
market looks a little different. I think the Welsh Government has been | :44:00. | :44:02. | |
crippled by things in the past, perhaps unfairly. Some of the | :44:03. | :44:08. | |
policies and procedures and their impact has helped the Welsh economy | :44:09. | :44:15. | |
and has helped the citizens of Wales to reap some of the benefits of this | :44:16. | :44:20. | |
recovery. But again, within Wales, when you look at the statistics | :44:21. | :44:24. | |
there are an awful lot of part-time jobs - far more than they were at | :44:25. | :44:32. | |
the beginning, in 2006-7. The other parties think things may be looking | :44:33. | :44:36. | |
better on the surface but serious problems are still not being | :44:37. | :44:40. | |
addressed. What we say in Plaid Cymru is that there is much more | :44:41. | :44:45. | |
that needs to be done, especially in getting the young unemployed into | :44:46. | :44:47. | |
work because that figure of youth unemployment in Wales is still | :44:48. | :44:52. | |
stubbornly high, higher than the rest of the UK. Four times more | :44:53. | :44:57. | |
long-term unemployed now than when the Welsh Government came into power | :44:58. | :45:01. | |
and clearly, that's an area we need to focus on. It is still a fragile | :45:02. | :45:06. | |
recovery but it does seem that Wales is climbing out of an economic | :45:07. | :45:09. | |
trough. The question now is whether there will be a wider improvement in | :45:10. | :45:13. | |
living standards and overall Welsh GDP, and whether that'll have any | :45:14. | :45:17. | |
bearing on who we decide to vote for. | :45:18. | :45:21. | |
My next guest says she's focused on the economy. Light can really do | :45:22. | :45:26. | |
Leanne Wood also says 2014 should be the year Wales says yes to ambition. | :45:27. | :45:33. | |
-- Plaid Cymru leader. She started the year with a slimmed down cabinet | :45:34. | :45:38. | |
she says, to reflect Ostia times. Let's start with the economy. If we | :45:39. | :45:47. | |
are going to see a real economy recovery now, given that you have | :45:48. | :45:51. | |
been so scathing of austerity, doesn't this mean you were wrong to | :45:52. | :45:55. | |
say that George Osborne had cut too far, too fast? The first point to | :45:56. | :46:01. | |
make is that there appears to be a global upturn and the second point | :46:02. | :46:05. | |
is that any recovery that is happening at a UK level doesn't | :46:06. | :46:10. | |
necessarily trickle down to Wales. We know there are still great | :46:11. | :46:15. | |
problems within the Welsh economy. Youth unemployment is a particular | :46:16. | :46:19. | |
problem. Long-term youth unemployment has risen by about | :46:20. | :46:25. | |
400%. So our economy has deep and grave problems. We know, as well, | :46:26. | :46:30. | |
that there are greater numbers of people on zero hours contracts, | :46:31. | :46:35. | |
large numbers of people underemployed - so you've got | :46:36. | :46:37. | |
graduate is working in bars and restaurants. So although there may | :46:38. | :46:43. | |
be, superficially, some signs of recovery, I would question the | :46:44. | :46:47. | |
amount that that recovery is actually affecting Wales. So the | :46:48. | :46:53. | |
debate about who gets the credit about the recovery, you say nobody | :46:54. | :47:01. | |
does? Yes, in effect. And for us to shape our economy in Wales, it's in | :47:02. | :47:06. | |
our hands to do so. Only people in Wales can do that and for us to | :47:07. | :47:11. | |
expect others from elsewhere to be able to rejuvenate our economy for | :47:12. | :47:18. | |
us is a forlorn hope. Where do you stand on this increase in the top | :47:19. | :47:21. | |
rate of income tax to 50p that Ed balls outlined yesterday? Plaid | :47:22. | :47:26. | |
Cymru has said all along that all those who can afford to pay should | :47:27. | :47:31. | |
pay for the mess that was caused by the bankers so I would support | :47:32. | :47:35. | |
higher taxes for those who can afford to pay them on a UK level. | :47:36. | :47:42. | |
Higher than 50p? We can debate the ins and outs of that. Ultimately, | :47:43. | :47:47. | |
what you need to do is introduce policies that maximise the tax take | :47:48. | :47:51. | |
and it does get to a point where the higher you tax, below are rate you | :47:52. | :47:57. | |
have coming in so you need to be able to tax at a rate where you can | :47:58. | :48:01. | |
maximise the income coming in. But I think it's also fair to point out | :48:02. | :48:04. | |
that there are major problems with tax evasion and avoidance, as well, | :48:05. | :48:09. | |
and with cuts to HMRC the numbers of tax collectors have gone down so the | :48:10. | :48:15. | |
amount of tax able to be collected has reduced, so that's another area | :48:16. | :48:23. | |
that needs discussing. Income tax devolution could be on the cards - | :48:24. | :48:27. | |
are you in favour of that? Will you insist on it if there are coalition | :48:28. | :48:31. | |
talks after the next Assembly elections? We've been clear that we | :48:32. | :48:37. | |
need the tools here in Wales to do the job of turning around our | :48:38. | :48:41. | |
economy and sharing income tax powers, as proposed by the | :48:42. | :48:46. | |
commission, is one way where we could take control of our economy in | :48:47. | :48:51. | |
a far more robust way than we are now. But will you insist on a | :48:52. | :48:56. | |
referendum if there are coalition talks after the next Assembly | :48:57. | :49:01. | |
election? I'm not prepared to talk about red line issues at this point | :49:02. | :49:05. | |
in time. What I said about a referendum is that it has to be | :49:06. | :49:09. | |
something we can actually put to the people and have a chance of winning. | :49:10. | :49:14. | |
The problem with the offer that's there at the moment is that it's got | :49:15. | :49:18. | |
a lock in it, which means those tax powers, if they are devolved, would | :49:19. | :49:23. | |
be pretty useless. There would be few parties that would actually use | :49:24. | :49:27. | |
them. We want tax powers that can be used in our MPs will be working very | :49:28. | :49:33. | |
hard to try to remove that lock so that we can have powers that we can | :49:34. | :49:40. | |
actually use. The Wales Bill will also get rid of a ban on dual | :49:41. | :49:45. | |
candidacy in elections, allowing candidates to stand in a | :49:46. | :49:48. | |
constituency and the region. You want to stand in the Rhondda but | :49:49. | :49:51. | |
will you hedge your bets and stand in a region, as well, if you get in | :49:52. | :50:00. | |
the -- get the opportunity? Yes, I would like that but I think | :50:01. | :50:05. | |
politicians talking about electoral arrangements and focusing on that is | :50:06. | :50:07. | |
deeply unattractive to the electorate. Euros this some time ago | :50:08. | :50:12. | |
when you said you wanted to stand in a constituency. Does it undermine | :50:13. | :50:19. | |
your position a bit if you say, "I'm going to have the security of a list | :50:20. | :50:26. | |
seat, as well" ? When I made that announcement, the situation was | :50:27. | :50:30. | |
different to what it is now. There was a ban on standing on the | :50:31. | :50:34. | |
regional list and in a constituency. There are moves now to remove that | :50:35. | :50:38. | |
ban but we still don't know what the situation would be by 2016 and, | :50:39. | :50:43. | |
either way, I will be standing in the Rhondda and I'll be standing to | :50:44. | :50:48. | |
win that constituency seat. Turning back to the economy, you've tried to | :50:49. | :50:52. | |
offer your own solutions to what the Labour Party is called a cost of | :50:53. | :50:55. | |
living crisis - I'm thinking of energy bills, where you think you | :50:56. | :50:59. | |
can find a way to bring them down with a new player in the energy | :51:00. | :51:05. | |
market in Wales. Would a new source of energy, from shale gas, do more | :51:06. | :51:11. | |
to bring down energy bills? Well, the evidence so far suggests that | :51:12. | :51:15. | |
the introduction of shale gas would not significantly reduce hills. We | :51:16. | :51:22. | |
should do all we can to reduce people's bills because the increase | :51:23. | :51:25. | |
in bills has been phenomenal over the last few years and the prophets | :51:26. | :51:30. | |
by the energy companies as gone up by 73% in just three years, so | :51:31. | :51:34. | |
that's something that needs to be addressed. Plaid Cymru's position is | :51:35. | :51:39. | |
that public services should be run in the interests of people, not | :51:40. | :51:44. | |
profit, so we would like to, and a Plaid Cymru government, set up a | :51:45. | :51:47. | |
Welsh energy company which can bulk buy energy and then sell on back to | :51:48. | :51:52. | |
consumers in the form of householders and businesses, at a | :51:53. | :51:58. | |
much cheaper cost. But I'm asking you about fracking - do you support | :51:59. | :52:04. | |
fracking? We would say that any developments for energy have to be | :52:05. | :52:09. | |
considered in the light of what safe and there are many questions about | :52:10. | :52:14. | |
fracking which are yet to be answered. The other question, as far | :52:15. | :52:18. | |
as Wales is concerned, is who gets to decide and who gets to receive | :52:19. | :52:23. | |
the benefits from any energy generation. Sounds like you are yet | :52:24. | :52:28. | |
to make up your mind. Plaid Cymru wants to see far more effort in the | :52:29. | :52:34. | |
development of renewable energy. If you're investing in fossil fuel | :52:35. | :52:37. | |
based energy, you're not investing in renewable energy. Wouldn't farms | :52:38. | :52:42. | |
are one aspect of renewable energy but there are a range of other | :52:43. | :52:45. | |
technologies which are not utilised yet in Wales - marine technology, | :52:46. | :52:51. | |
hydropower, solar power - which we could expand upon. And community | :52:52. | :52:56. | |
generation, too. Then east to be more incentives for able to generate | :52:57. | :53:01. | |
their own energy. -- there needs to be. Wales is a net exporter of | :53:02. | :53:07. | |
energy and we pay more for our electricity than people do in other | :53:08. | :53:11. | |
parts of the UK. So this is an iniquitous situation. You mentioned | :53:12. | :53:16. | |
public services. A big change, possibly, is the merger of councils. | :53:17. | :53:21. | |
The First Minister wants consensus but I gather your party wants | :53:22. | :53:24. | |
proportional representation or change in the voting system. Are you | :53:25. | :53:32. | |
going to insist on that? We have yet to discuss the proposals. We are | :53:33. | :53:36. | |
going to extensively consult with our councillors and members before | :53:37. | :53:39. | |
issuing a position. But the commission offers us a great | :53:40. | :53:44. | |
opportunity to change the way we run public services in Wales. The report | :53:45. | :53:49. | |
shone a light on public services and showed there was patchy provision, | :53:50. | :53:53. | |
postcode lotteries, inaccessible services in some places. This is a | :53:54. | :53:59. | |
great opportunity to address that but public services are much wider | :54:00. | :54:02. | |
than local authorities and this is a great opportunity to look at public | :54:03. | :54:07. | |
service position -- provision right across the board. We need to start | :54:08. | :54:11. | |
from the place of considering what the best way is to provide public | :54:12. | :54:16. | |
services in Wales. You've talked about recruiting more doctors. | :54:17. | :54:18. | |
Initially you said you'd find that with your levy on sugary drinks but | :54:19. | :54:24. | |
now you say that's just one option. Are you rowing back on the pop tax? | :54:25. | :54:30. | |
No, it has been proposed that we could take innovative tax decisions | :54:31. | :54:34. | |
and Plaid Cymru has put forward one use of such innovative taxes. If we | :54:35. | :54:40. | |
did introduce a tax on sugary drinks, what we would want to | :54:41. | :54:43. | |
achieve is a reduction in consumption. So if it was a | :54:44. | :54:46. | |
successful policy, the amount of money it would bring in would be | :54:47. | :54:50. | |
reduced but there are other aspects of the budget that could be looked | :54:51. | :54:54. | |
at to pay for these doctors. Where we are at the moment in Wales is way | :54:55. | :55:00. | |
behind the UK average and the Scottish average for doctors per | :55:01. | :55:02. | |
head of the population. That's an unacceptable situation. Our health | :55:03. | :55:07. | |
reconfiguration is going ahead on the basis that we don't have enough | :55:08. | :55:11. | |
doctors so we have to address that and the innovative tax is one way to | :55:12. | :55:15. | |
do it. We're out of time. Thank you for joining me. | :55:16. | :55:20. | |
Now a quick look back at some of the political stories of the week in 60 | :55:21. | :55:29. | |
seconds. Talks on merging local councils | :55:30. | :55:31. | |
should start before Easter, according to this man. Paul Williams | :55:32. | :55:36. | |
led the commission on Public services for the Welsh Government, | :55:37. | :55:40. | |
which called for a big shake-up, saying the number of councils should | :55:41. | :55:45. | |
be cut from 22 to ten. The Welsh Conservatives want a more clever | :55:46. | :55:48. | |
approach to attracting foreign investors. They unveiled plans for a | :55:49. | :55:54. | |
privately run investment Counsel to reverse the decline in inward | :55:55. | :55:57. | |
investments as the 1980s. The Welsh Government said an upturn last year | :55:58. | :56:02. | |
showed they were on the right track. Nearly 400 more civil servants were | :56:03. | :56:04. | |
hired by the Welsh Government in the last two years but the number of | :56:05. | :56:10. | |
mandarins across the UK fell. The Welsh Government said its headcount | :56:11. | :56:12. | |
had fallen by more than a thousand in the last two years. And from too | :56:13. | :56:19. | |
many councillors to to view AMs - the Assembly needs more members, | :56:20. | :56:21. | |
according to the Presiding Officer. Dame Rosemary Butler said the number | :56:22. | :56:27. | |
should rise up or the strain would begin to tell. | :56:28. | :56:37. | |
Opposition figures in Ukraine say their anti-government demonstrations | :56:38. | :56:40. | |
will continue, despite efforts by the country's president to end the | :56:41. | :56:43. | |
violence by offering them key government posts. Last night, | :56:44. | :56:48. | |
hundreds of protesters firebombed a conference hall being used by | :56:49. | :56:52. | |
security forces in the capital, Kiev. The AM for Pontypridd, Mick | :56:53. | :56:58. | |
Antoniw, has just returned from Kiev, where he was part of the | :56:59. | :57:08. | |
delegation from the EU's committee. Thanks for joining us. What is the | :57:09. | :57:12. | |
situation like in Kiev? Very grim and very tense at the moment. But | :57:13. | :57:17. | |
what's very clear is that the people in Kiev and the surrounding areas | :57:18. | :57:22. | |
have got an enormous confidence that perhaps the tide is changing and | :57:23. | :57:26. | |
they are beginning to win. They have one very clear demand - they want a | :57:27. | :57:31. | |
democratic, accountable government. For them, that means that the | :57:32. | :57:36. | |
president has to go. Whilst I was there, people were being shot on the | :57:37. | :57:43. | |
streets. People had limbs blown off. It's a frightening situation. | :57:44. | :57:46. | |
Absolutely and it was happening while we were there. That's why we | :57:47. | :57:50. | |
refused to meet the government while we were there. But there is a voice | :57:51. | :57:54. | |
of people saying, "we want the world to know" . Whatever happens in | :57:55. | :57:59. | |
Ukraine will have an impact throughout the whole of Europe. It's | :58:00. | :58:05. | |
interesting to see the protest movement has now expanded across the | :58:06. | :58:10. | |
whole of Ukraine. Who is this protest movement? Who is fighting | :58:11. | :58:15. | |
here? What's clear is that the political parties obviously have a | :58:16. | :58:17. | |
role to play but they are not the leaders. I can only describe this as | :58:18. | :58:23. | |
a common uprising of people. People I met were lawyers, teachers, | :58:24. | :58:27. | |
doctors, across the whole range of society, and they're not led by | :58:28. | :58:33. | |
political parties. They say, "we have to win because if we don't, we | :58:34. | :58:40. | |
may be arrested and killed" . It is about creating a modern democratic | :58:41. | :58:45. | |
government and being part of Europe. You were representing an EU | :58:46. | :58:49. | |
institution so you presumably have a view on what Ukraine's policy should | :58:50. | :58:53. | |
be. At what point in all of this did the government of Ukraine lose its | :58:54. | :59:00. | |
legitimacy? In a number of ways. Firstly when it changed the | :59:01. | :59:03. | |
constitution to effectively transfer all powers to the president. | :59:04. | :59:08. | |
Secondly, when the president took control of the constitutional court, | :59:09. | :59:10. | |
so there are no independent courts in Ukraine. And thirdly, when it | :59:11. | :59:16. | |
authorised the police to use lethal force against demonstrators. But the | :59:17. | :59:20. | |
president has offered concessions and they've been refused. What do | :59:21. | :59:28. | |
they want out of this? What is the endgame? Constitutional change and | :59:29. | :59:32. | |
fresh elections, and an independent Electoral Commission. It's fair to | :59:33. | :59:37. | |
say there has been no really fair election in Ukraine since the state | :59:38. | :59:42. | |
was established and it's very clear that if the president remains in | :59:43. | :59:47. | |
position, with his powers, he will win the next election, irrespective | :59:48. | :59:51. | |
of the number of votes cast. One wonders when it will end because you | :59:52. | :59:54. | |
hear reports of government buildings outside Kiev Ian seized. It looks | :59:55. | :59:59. | |
like it's spreading. Will have more confidence, particularly in the east | :00:00. | :00:03. | |
of Ukraine, where you see far more demonstrators and protest staking | :00:04. | :00:08. | |
place. They have been very politically controlled over the last | :00:09. | :00:12. | |
few decades and the fact is that people have more confidence now but | :00:13. | :00:14. | |
there is one common theme running through here - time and time again, | :00:15. | :00:20. | |
people say they want to be democratic, they want fair | :00:21. | :00:25. | |
elections, and an end to what they describe as gangster capitalism. We | :00:26. | :00:29. | |
have to leave it there, Mick. Thank you for coming | :00:30. | :00:29. | |
have to leave it there, Mick. Thank you for coming | :00:30. | :00:41. | |
back to you. UKIP leader Nigel Farage is never | :00:42. | :00:44. | |
far away from controversy, but this week he's been outdoing himself. He | :00:45. | :00:47. | |
was hit over the head with a placard by a protester in Kent, provoked | :00:48. | :00:50. | |
outrage by saying women with children are worth less to city | :00:51. | :00:53. | |
firms, and said the ban on owning handguns was 'crackers'. He also | :00:54. | :01:00. | |
seemed less than sure of his party's own policies when I interviewed him | :01:01. | :01:04. | |
on the Daily Politics. And the story that got everyone talking was the | :01:05. | :01:07. | |
suggestion by a UKIP councillor that flooding is linked to gay marriage. | :01:08. | :01:12. | |
We'll talk about all of that in a moment, but first, over to Nigel | :01:13. | :01:20. | |
with the weather. Weather for all areas of the British Isles but | :01:21. | :01:24. | |
definitely not "Bongo Bongo Land." You may have heard about a storm in | :01:25. | :01:29. | |
a tea cup developed when you kip councillor in Oxfordshire blamed the | :01:30. | :01:36. | |
floods on the gay marriage Bill. The old party is focusing on the view of | :01:37. | :01:40. | |
UKIP members like him, even though he had said a sell yuj of things | :01:41. | :01:48. | |
before when a Tory councillor. How quickly things change depending on | :01:49. | :01:55. | |
when the blouse. There are occasional barmy views by people of | :01:56. | :02:02. | |
all persuasions. In Whitby a Labour councillor claimed of fathered a | :02:03. | :02:06. | |
child with an extra terrorist ral, and said his real mother was a 9 | :02:07. | :02:17. | |
foot green alien. And in Wales a councillor | :02:18. | :02:24. | |
thinking about heading off for the slopes, there were flurries of | :02:25. | :02:31. | |
embarrassment for the Tories after Aidan Burly organised a Nazi skiing | :02:32. | :02:37. | |
party in a resort. Anyone heading to Brussels, perhaps | :02:38. | :02:43. | |
on the gravy train, watch out for hot air. | :02:44. | :02:47. | |
In Britain temperatures are rising ahead of the European elections in | :02:48. | :02:55. | |
May. It could get stormy, so advise light aircraft. Watch out for | :02:56. | :03:00. | |
outbreaks of common sense, and no chance of cyclonic fruit cakes. Back | :03:01. | :03:05. | |
to you, Andrew, with the rest of the Sunday Politics. | :03:06. | :03:10. | |
Nick, if it was any other party that had bon through the past week it | :03:11. | :03:14. | |
would be in meltdown. And maybe it is harming UKIP and maybe it isn't. | :03:15. | :03:19. | |
What do you think? That just shows, that great weather forecast, Prince | :03:20. | :03:25. | |
Charles now has a rival to be an excellent weather forecaster, as | :03:26. | :03:30. | |
does the Duchess of Cornwall. It shows why Nigel Farage is the fefr | :03:31. | :03:36. | |
candidate to the European elections. Our invitation to the British people | :03:37. | :03:39. | |
to kick the establishment. The establishment have spent five years | :03:40. | :03:43. | |
that the European Parliament is a waste of time, so who are you going | :03:44. | :03:48. | |
to vote for? A Nigel Farage type of person. What was important about | :03:49. | :03:54. | |
your eadviceration of Nigel Farage on Daily Politics is that when it | :03:55. | :03:58. | |
came to the substance, they flounder. But the point about that | :03:59. | :04:02. | |
party is they may have the thinnest set of policies, but people know | :04:03. | :04:07. | |
what they stand for more than any other parties - get out of Europe, a | :04:08. | :04:14. | |
grammar school in every town. If any other leading politician called for | :04:15. | :04:20. | |
an end to the ban on handguns, at a time when we've seen these appalling | :04:21. | :04:23. | |
gun deaths in the United States, now almost one every week in some | :04:24. | :04:27. | |
terrible siege in a school. It would be a crisis. It seems to wash off | :04:28. | :04:38. | |
him. He's got congenital foot-and-mouthitis. Straight into | :04:39. | :04:42. | |
another wild nothing to do with why people might vote UKIP. I don't | :04:43. | :04:48. | |
think people are desperate to have handgun licences back in this | :04:49. | :04:53. | |
country. It is such an unusual phenomenon, UKIP, that if this was a | :04:54. | :04:59. | |
Tory or a Labour or a Lib Dem saying it, we've seen the damage done to | :05:00. | :05:04. | |
the Lib Dems on a much more serious manner, we would say this is | :05:05. | :05:08. | |
terminal. But maybe it adds to this image that we are not like the other | :05:09. | :05:13. | |
parties. I think that is it. We keep waiting for these scandals and | :05:14. | :05:19. | |
embarrassments to do damage to UKIP's poll ratings, but it's not | :05:20. | :05:25. | |
working. It is ultimately because if you are an antiestablishment party, | :05:26. | :05:29. | |
if you are an anti-system party, the rules of the game which apply to the | :05:30. | :05:34. | |
establishment parties don't apply to you. And the more ramshackle and | :05:35. | :05:40. | |
embarrassing you are, the more authentic you seem. It what be take | :05:41. | :05:46. | |
something for them not to finish second in May. Do they spend the | :05:47. | :05:52. | |
following 12 months sinking in the poll snoos And George Osborne's | :05:53. | :05:55. | |
strategy is fame everything as Labour versus the Conservatives. The | :05:56. | :05:59. | |
electorate will have their fun in May. Maybe the Tories will be beat | :06:00. | :06:05. | |
into third place but in thejection is that -- but in the general | :06:06. | :06:10. | |
election it is Labour versus the Tories. The Conservative Party will | :06:11. | :06:18. | |
run around, 46 letters to Graham Brady, a leadership contest. That | :06:19. | :06:23. | |
sort of scenario. UKIP, if it rules well in the European elections, | :06:24. | :06:26. | |
could cause big trouble for Mr Cameron and Mr Clegg couldn't it? | :06:27. | :06:33. | |
The big point about this, David Cameron said this is not a political | :06:34. | :06:38. | |
party but a pressure group. This is the way to look at UKIP, and the way | :06:39. | :06:43. | |
it is used by people in the right of the party, who say we have to do | :06:44. | :06:50. | |
this. I like the policy of painting the trains in their old liveries. It | :06:51. | :06:57. | |
would be like my old train set. I like the bigger passports. | :06:58. | :07:07. | |
Pre-GNER... And London and Midland. I used to be a train spotter. | :07:08. | :07:15. | |
Gordon Birtwhistle has been on the phone. Good to know you are watching | :07:16. | :07:21. | |
but pity you are not here. He wanted to clarify he had constituency | :07:22. | :07:26. | |
commitments to prevent him coming on the show to talk about becoming | :07:27. | :07:30. | |
leader of the party, but he didn't dispute anything we said on the | :07:31. | :07:34. | |
show. Yesterday, Ed Balls said that | :07:35. | :07:36. | |
housing investment will be a central priority for the next Labour | :07:37. | :07:39. | |
Government. It's a big issue, as the lack of new homes pushes up the the | :07:40. | :07:43. | |
price of owning or renting. Well, tomorrow the Tories will announce | :07:44. | :07:46. | |
what they say is the most ambitious programme of affordable | :07:47. | :07:52. | |
housebuilding for 20 years. The Government sees housing as a really | :07:53. | :07:56. | |
important part of the economy. That's why we are announcing a ?23 | :07:57. | :08:04. | |
billion package for 165,000 new affordable homes. So individual | :08:05. | :08:08. | |
builders, councils, housing associations can bid for that money. | :08:09. | :08:12. | |
Phase one, which we are halfway through at the moment, we've built | :08:13. | :08:17. | |
170,000 houses. 99,000 already coming out of the ground, so we've | :08:18. | :08:24. | |
made real progress on that. So, 165,000 new, affordable homes. It is | :08:25. | :08:29. | |
a lot. Let me add three more words. Over three years. It is not such a | :08:30. | :08:33. | |
lot. It is not, and Labour's commitment is 200,000 homes a year | :08:34. | :08:37. | |
and even that isn't enough. The problem here is that the vest | :08:38. | :08:43. | |
interest is with people who already have homes. They have a vote in the | :08:44. | :08:46. | |
system through the planning regulations. In London there is a | :08:47. | :08:52. | |
gap in the hedge through Richmond Park through which you should be | :08:53. | :08:56. | |
able to see St Paul's Cathedral. That's why you cannot build homes | :08:57. | :09:00. | |
where you want them. I don't think we want to build homes over Richmond | :09:01. | :09:07. | |
Park. He wasn't saying that. That's dies an Tyne -- that's Byzantine. | :09:08. | :09:13. | |
You've got to deal with supply, which is why Labour is talking about | :09:14. | :09:17. | |
200,000 a year, and what George Osborne has done with supply is | :09:18. | :09:24. | |
helping with demand. We know the Help to Buy Scheme is pretty | :09:25. | :09:27. | |
dangerous, and Mark Carney is keen to put the break on that. If you are | :09:28. | :09:34. | |
to deal with supply, you have to do radical things. Chris Huhne talked | :09:35. | :09:38. | |
about on brownfield sites you can tax people who are holding the land | :09:39. | :09:42. | |
as if the development has taken place. Then if you are really going | :09:43. | :09:47. | |
to deal with it you have to talk about the greenfield sites, and you | :09:48. | :09:51. | |
have to deal with the garden cities argument, which is too much for the | :09:52. | :09:55. | |
Tories. All the parties seem to agree building new houses is a | :09:56. | :09:58. | |
political winner. I hope that they are right. I'm not sure they are. | :09:59. | :10:04. | |
The housing market is the example of what economists call the insider | :10:05. | :10:08. | |
in-outsider problem. People who are already homeowners have no rational | :10:09. | :10:13. | |
incentive to vote for more housing stock. Even if you leave aside the | :10:14. | :10:18. | |
Conservative arable objections, if you are a homeowner there is an | :10:19. | :10:22. | |
interest to stick with the planning promise that we have. So then we are | :10:23. | :10:26. | |
stuck between a rock and a hard place. Not only are we growing at | :10:27. | :10:31. | |
the moment but our population is growing. I've seen projects that in | :10:32. | :10:36. | |
quite quickly we will overtake Germany and become the largest | :10:37. | :10:40. | |
populated country in Europe. If that's the case we've got to build | :10:41. | :10:45. | |
homes. We have. If you look at Tower Hamlets in London, the population is | :10:46. | :10:49. | |
r ging higher than the number of dwelling. Classically the theory's | :10:50. | :10:54. | |
been young people are most affected by this and they don't vote much. | :10:55. | :11:01. | |
But when their parents have young Johnny stuck at home at 37, that's | :11:02. | :11:07. | |
an electoral issue. That's why the garden cities project is | :11:08. | :11:10. | |
interesting, because they finance themselves. You zone it for | :11:11. | :11:15. | |
development, it is worth ?2 million an acre and then you can build on | :11:16. | :11:21. | |
it. But who is going to want the greenfield sites gone. And how | :11:22. | :11:26. | |
quickly can we build garden cities today? Some were started before the | :11:27. | :11:31. | |
Town and Country Planning Act. I've read stats about the way Chinese and | :11:32. | :11:36. | |
Japanese are building houses and they were slower than that. Here's a | :11:37. | :11:40. | |
thought, sticking on the housing theme. Ed Miliband came up with the | :11:41. | :11:45. | |
energy freeze, a populist interventionist move. Then the use | :11:46. | :11:50. | |
it or lose it to land developers. Then breaking up the banks. Now the | :11:51. | :11:55. | |
50p tax rate. How much would you put on Labour coming up for rent | :11:56. | :12:00. | |
controls? That's already a big split. They are split already on it. | :12:01. | :12:05. | |
They have. In London it is a popular policy. It might not play well in | :12:06. | :12:09. | |
the rest of the country. I would say 50-50 on that. I think Labour | :12:10. | :12:13. | |
supporting rent controls like the Tories having a go at welfare. The | :12:14. | :12:17. | |
policy may be individually popular but it sends an impression about the | :12:18. | :12:21. | |
party which might be less attract active. It confirms underlying | :12:22. | :12:26. | |
suspicions that vote these guys into power and suddenly they are | :12:27. | :12:30. | |
tampering with the private economy. The memories of the '70s when | :12:31. | :12:34. | |
Governments tried and failed to do that. It is riskier than a | :12:35. | :12:38. | |
superficial reading of the polls would suggest. One to watch? I think | :12:39. | :12:42. | |
they are looking at it. That was the key message of the Ed Balls speech | :12:43. | :12:48. | |
on housing, is looking at supply and how you get to that 200,000 figure a | :12:49. | :12:53. | |
year, which is substantially more than what Kris Hopkins is talking | :12:54. | :12:57. | |
about. What we didn't get to talk about, remember we had Michael | :12:58. | :13:02. | |
Wilshaw on, the Chief Inspector of Schools. We all consumed was Mr | :13:03. | :13:06. | |
Gove's man, the Education Secretary's man. Now according to | :13:07. | :13:09. | |
the Sunday Times he is spitting blood about the way Mr Gove and his | :13:10. | :13:13. | |
office are speaking about him behind the scenes. We've checked the quotes | :13:14. | :13:17. | |
and he stands by them, so I think we'll have to have the head of | :13:18. | :13:22. | |
Ofsted back on the programme. If you are watching, we're here. All that | :13:23. | :13:26. | |
to the Lib Dems who didn't come on today. | :13:27. | :13:29. | |
That's all for today. Thanks to all my guests. The Daily Politics is | :13:30. | :13:33. | |
back on Monday at midday on BBC Two, and I'll be here again next week. | :13:34. | :13:36. | |
Remember, if it's Sunday, it's the Sunday Politics. | :13:37. | :13:40. |