:01:33. > :01:39.In the Midlands, NHS money worries as the government promises no U-
:01:39. > :01:49.turn on their help proposals. Our region's NHS managers must save �2
:01:49. > :01:49.
:01:49. > :35:38.Apology for the loss of subtitles for 2028 seconds
:35:38. > :35:42.billion because we are living Hello from the Midlands. Coming up,
:35:42. > :35:46.two billion pounds. That is how much help bosses in our region are
:35:46. > :35:50.being told to save. We are living longer, so patients need more
:35:50. > :35:56.treatment. Can the government's health proposals deliver reforms
:35:56. > :36:00.while saving money? Let meet our guests, Tristram Hunt, the Labour
:36:00. > :36:07.MP for Stoke-on-Trent Central, and Margot James, the Conservative MP
:36:07. > :36:11.for Stourbridge. Tristram, a noted historian. How d'you think
:36:11. > :36:18.politicians learn the lessons of history, or do they just repeat the
:36:18. > :36:22.mistakes? We operate in an environment which
:36:22. > :36:25.is suffused in history. And yet when politicians get into the
:36:25. > :36:30.chamber, or that history floats away and we continually repeat
:36:30. > :36:34.errors of the past. If it is almost like the definition of insanity,
:36:34. > :36:39.where we repeat something without knowing the answer.
:36:39. > :36:43.My sources tell me you and your future Prime Minister are getting
:36:43. > :36:51.increasingly irritated that people mistake one for the other, and they
:36:51. > :37:00.repeat -- mistake him for you. If there is a big difference can
:37:00. > :37:08.pet -- between Zac Goldsmith Anthony! -- and me. His sister did
:37:08. > :37:13.think that I was him once. You wore another very high profile
:37:13. > :37:16.member of the intake of 2010, and as we move towards the mid-term
:37:16. > :37:20.point, there is talk about a reshuffle coming up this year. It
:37:20. > :37:26.is is the moment where you think your ministerial career finally get
:37:26. > :37:33.under way? No, I think I still have got a lot
:37:33. > :37:37.to learn in my present job. That is an honest answer. I think there
:37:37. > :37:42.will be some movement, who knows? But I do not want to be distracted
:37:42. > :37:44.by that kind of talk. Are you one of these people who
:37:44. > :37:52.says it is all about your relationship with your
:37:52. > :37:57.constituency? People say that. I would not say it is not at all
:37:57. > :38:02.about office, I am very pleased to have a job helping the minister for
:38:02. > :38:07.trade and investment. That is a lonely step on the latter, but I am
:38:07. > :38:12.really enjoying my constituency work as well. To me, you work in
:38:12. > :38:17.Westminster and your constituency, added complement each other.
:38:17. > :38:20.Let's move on to our top storey, car clamping. Five members of a
:38:20. > :38:24.Midlands clamping operation have been jailed for a total of almost
:38:24. > :38:28.eight years for using motorists as a licence to print money.
:38:28. > :38:34.Successive governments have talked tough about this, but we are still
:38:34. > :38:39.waiting for the promised new law to protect drivers.
:38:39. > :38:45.Milking the public out of five- under �1,000. So said a judge
:38:45. > :38:49.centring -- sentencing five members of Midlands Parking Contracts. --
:38:49. > :38:57.�500,000. They would wait for someone to park, clamp them and
:38:57. > :39:03.then demand �125. Plus �175 to cancel later a truck. The result,
:39:03. > :39:08.�300 to the clampers, misery to the victims.
:39:08. > :39:13.They came at the same time, and I had to go to the cash machine and
:39:13. > :39:17.get money out. They took money through menacing
:39:17. > :39:23.techniques, intimidation, bullying. The firm operated right across our
:39:24. > :39:28.region. A barrage of complaints resulted a air -- resulted in an
:39:28. > :39:32.investigation, which said they used intimidating tactics.
:39:32. > :39:37.We took statements from more than 120 people, so the investigation
:39:37. > :39:39.was significant, and it gives us some indication as to how we took
:39:40. > :39:45.so long to get to where we are today.
:39:45. > :39:50.In spite of promises to tackle the issue, a former member of Labour's
:39:50. > :39:55.home affairs team says firms like MPC are making money because of a
:39:55. > :40:01.lack of political courage to clamp down on a problem.
:40:01. > :40:05.My government hesitated for too long, and the current government is
:40:05. > :40:10.doing the same. In a statement, the Home Office
:40:10. > :40:14.says a new law should be in place later this year, to bring an end to
:40:14. > :40:18.the abuses dished out by rogue clamping firms.
:40:18. > :40:26.It is worth remembering that many firms are legitimate businesses on
:40:26. > :40:30.the right side of the law. Margot James, in 2010, the then
:40:31. > :40:35.transport secretary Philip Hammond got some populist headlines by
:40:35. > :40:39.promising tough action against the Cowboys. Since then, absolutely
:40:39. > :40:44.nothing has happened. You politicians get a bad reputation
:40:44. > :40:48.for promising the earth and doing little.
:40:48. > :40:54.The Rose Law doing -- coming in. Hopefully it will be in by the end
:40:54. > :40:58.of the year, and it will ban clamping on private land. That is
:40:58. > :41:02.my honest appreciation of the position, that there will be a ban
:41:02. > :41:06.on clamping on private land, but it has not been a simple matter. You
:41:06. > :41:10.want to outlaw the abuse we have just seen.
:41:10. > :41:14.My point is that the bold promise should not be made up front if it
:41:14. > :41:18.is not a simple matter. You have got to consider people's
:41:18. > :41:23.rights over their own property to deter illegal parking. There was a
:41:23. > :41:27.consultation, which was necessary. Philip Hammond was right, we would
:41:27. > :41:33.take action, and we will. They should be a law by the end of the
:41:33. > :41:40.year. So you're Party hesitated, and
:41:40. > :41:46.lacked the political will. It is a bill which achieved Weller
:41:47. > :41:56.cent in 20th April tenor, running right up to the general election. -
:41:56. > :41:59.- Royal Assent. There were lots of Linnet in it, but it is not easy to
:41:59. > :42:03.bring in, and I think it was both governments would have acted
:42:03. > :42:10.swiftly. There are private property issues, but I understand the bill
:42:10. > :42:13.is going through on the timetable spoken of earlier.
:42:13. > :42:18.Is very way of hitting the Cowboys while protecting those businesses
:42:18. > :42:24.that are being run properly? Clearly, these characters were
:42:24. > :42:27.criminals, and the law has got them, so before you make new laws, and
:42:27. > :42:31.politicians are being criticised about always making new laws, if
:42:31. > :42:38.the current laws are able to get cowboys, all well and good. But I
:42:38. > :42:45.agree it needs to be tightened up. Nobody can a -- nobody can accuse
:42:45. > :42:50.you of hesitating in haste. -- legislating in haste.
:42:50. > :42:54.It is really needed. I had a case of an elderly couple clamped
:42:54. > :43:00.outside the local hospital when they had a disabled sticker. They
:43:00. > :43:06.have to pay �400 in cash to get their car back.
:43:06. > :43:10.It is intimidation and thuggery. I think it is absolutely clear that
:43:10. > :43:15.they prey on vulnerable people. They are not going to pull over a
:43:15. > :43:21.rugby club for their car, they are going to get a woman going shopping
:43:21. > :43:26.with her kids, and that is much -- that is what must be stop.
:43:26. > :43:30.Let's move on. We are living longer. It is costing more to treat us,
:43:30. > :43:33.that is the problem. That is the great conundrum for our health
:43:33. > :43:38.service. The Sunday Politics can reveal that in our part of the
:43:38. > :43:42.world, health managers must save �2 billion over three years just to
:43:42. > :43:45.stand still. Politically, the storm continues to intensify over
:43:45. > :43:53.government proposals for more competition in the NHS and a bigger
:43:53. > :43:57.say for doctors over how the money is spent.
:43:57. > :44:03.Every day, 100,000 people across the West Midlands are treated by
:44:03. > :44:08.the NHS. 60-year-old David Brookes is in for a hernia operation, and
:44:08. > :44:12.it is not the first opera -- first time he has been under the knife.
:44:12. > :44:21.I have been in quite a long time over the last eight years. I had it
:44:21. > :44:26.for at work, and I had cancer. -- a fall at work. Now I am in to have
:44:26. > :44:30.my stomach hernia repaired. The NHS, free at the point of need.
:44:30. > :44:37.The problem is, because we are living longer, it is racking up the
:44:37. > :44:41.huge bill. About a dozen staff work in this laboratory at the New Cross
:44:41. > :44:45.Hospital in Wolverhampton. They are making up medication for cancer
:44:45. > :44:49.patients, but like all public services, the money is running dry.
:44:49. > :44:53.The rising price of drugs like these coupled with new technologies
:44:53. > :44:57.means here in the West Midlands, we need to save almost �2 billion by
:44:57. > :45:03.2015, at that is just to a standstill.
:45:03. > :45:07.I have noticed in the last four or five years have technology and
:45:07. > :45:12.advancement is increasing, and the cost is increasing. We have got to
:45:12. > :45:15.be able to find ways of saving money to be able to keep meeting
:45:15. > :45:21.that demand. Reform under successive governments
:45:21. > :45:26.is nothing new, and neither is protest. Remember this?
:45:27. > :45:31.You don't do anything to help anybody!
:45:31. > :45:36.Tony Blair visiting Birmingham ahead of a second landslide. And
:45:36. > :45:39.some things never change. I have had enough of your!
:45:39. > :45:43.Andrew Lansley on his way to Number 10 last week for his summit with
:45:43. > :45:48.the Prime Minister. He wants GPs to decide where the money are spent,
:45:48. > :45:56.at the private sector to play a bigger part. But it is not going
:45:56. > :46:00.smoothly. The Bill is designed to save money,
:46:00. > :46:04.to the bottom up as opposed to top- down, to decrease bureaucracy. I
:46:04. > :46:10.think it will do the opposite. It will increase bureaucracy, and
:46:10. > :46:14.virtually the whole of the NHS will become strangled by red tape.
:46:14. > :46:20.Amid huge savings and plenty of criticism, the government is still
:46:20. > :46:26.battling to get it built through the House of Lords. -- its bill.
:46:26. > :46:30.Downing Street insists it is the only prescription that poor work.
:46:30. > :46:36.Also with us here today, Dr David Nicholl. He got in touch having
:46:36. > :46:40.read my blog. He is a consultant neurologist at the Queen Elizabeth
:46:40. > :46:43.and City Hospitals in Birmingham. He has triggered an extraordinary
:46:43. > :46:46.general meeting of the Royal College of Physicians tomorrow.
:46:46. > :46:50.They will consider whether to ballot their members over the
:46:51. > :46:56.government's proposals. What do you hope to achieve?
:46:56. > :47:03.I became very concerned with what was happening in my college. It is
:47:03. > :47:07.not a union, we represent 15,000 fellows across the world. We look
:47:07. > :47:12.at education and training, but also patient care. What troubled me was
:47:12. > :47:15.a month ago, the Academy of royal colleges was about to issue a press
:47:15. > :47:19.release which was going to be highly critical of the reforms, and
:47:19. > :47:28.after some phone calls from Andrew Lansley and other ministers, they
:47:28. > :47:32.changed it. I thought that was not Is there in Africa a risk that you
:47:32. > :47:35.will be seen as a vested interest averse to change? Tony Blair talked
:47:35. > :47:41.about the scars on his back when he talked about reforming public
:47:41. > :47:45.services. I you being resistant and Conservative?
:47:45. > :47:50.I absolutely disagree. When you look at the NHS, something that is
:47:50. > :47:57.working well, something which has got a lot of quantity measures, you
:47:57. > :48:02.do not Territt up. -- tear it up. That is what is happening with
:48:02. > :48:08.these proposals. Yori signatory in a letter to the
:48:08. > :48:13.Daily Telegraph which criticised the government. Is attending
:48:13. > :48:21.summits are the best way to make government aware of your concerns?
:48:21. > :48:25.No, it was simply a PR exercise. Only on Thursday, the President of
:48:25. > :48:29.the Royal College of paediatricians have withdrawn support. I think it
:48:30. > :48:34.is very interesting because he also sits on the body the government set
:48:35. > :48:37.up to decide these things. Would he be allowed to attend meetings?
:48:37. > :48:42.How can so many health professionals lining up against
:48:42. > :48:46.your government's proposals, they cannot all be wrong?
:48:46. > :48:51.A lot of the doctors who are already applying these reforms as
:48:51. > :48:55.far as they are able to under the current laws are finding them
:48:55. > :48:59.extremely beneficial. It is right that we start to make decisions
:48:59. > :49:02.about people's care closer to the patient and their families, and
:49:02. > :49:07.that is what these reforms are designed to do, to give more power
:49:08. > :49:13.to local primary care groups, GPs and nurses, to work with patients
:49:13. > :49:17.to make more of the decisions. That is really what it is all about.
:49:17. > :49:23.What is Labour's problem with this? You are calling for the Bill to be
:49:23. > :49:27.dropped altogether? Labour tried GP commissioning in certain areas, but
:49:27. > :49:33.when the vested interests rattled their Sabres, you backtracked and
:49:33. > :49:37.gave it away. We are in favour of reform. We have
:49:37. > :49:41.just seen the ageing population and the growing cost of pharmaceuticals.
:49:41. > :49:46.The NHS cannot stand still, and it is wrong to suggest it did under
:49:46. > :49:53.Labour. Massive levels of investment, a new hospital in
:49:53. > :49:58.Stokes, the first in 140 years. But also a fascinating paper in the
:49:58. > :50:03.Lancet journal showing that productivity increased by up to 15%
:50:03. > :50:07.under Labour in the NHS as a result of investment and reform. What we
:50:07. > :50:12.think... Why do not support the coalition
:50:12. > :50:17.taking it further? We regard this as an unnecessary
:50:17. > :50:25.act of bureaucratic intervention, which will cost �1.4 billion when
:50:25. > :50:30.the NHS has to save money. Yes, it will cost that, but it will
:50:30. > :50:33.save �4.5 billion according to the independent projections. Most of
:50:33. > :50:39.the proposal that we are bringing in were also in the Labour
:50:39. > :50:43.manifesto. I find it incredible they are opposing them now.
:50:43. > :50:53.This is a tricky argument, because I have got a lot of sympathy for
:50:53. > :50:54.
:50:54. > :50:57.you. If this Bill goes through, I think it is electorally lethal.
:50:57. > :51:01.I think the public will judge us not on this bill, but what we have
:51:01. > :51:05.delivered. The early signs are promising. We are delivering
:51:05. > :51:09.improvements, and that is what will count.
:51:09. > :51:14.There is a real danger that we will end up with a more expensive health
:51:14. > :51:19.care system was -- with worse outcomes. If you look in the US, it
:51:20. > :51:24.costs twice as much and you do not live as long.
:51:24. > :51:32.The reforms have nothing to do with the US. They could not be left
:51:32. > :51:36.different. -- less different. That is beefier. The kind of
:51:36. > :51:43.approach is we are seeing from America could get involved in the
:51:43. > :51:51.NHS. -- that is beefier. We want brilliant doctors, and I think that
:51:51. > :51:56.could be at risk. -- that is the fear or.
:51:56. > :51:59.We are firm on the NHS remaining free at the point of need. That is
:51:59. > :52:06.essential, and we are not introducing private health care at
:52:06. > :52:11.random. Earlier this week, we had a Tory MP
:52:11. > :52:16.who had to apologise to the house because he failed to declare that
:52:16. > :52:20.he was being paid �50,000 by a private healthcare company. It is
:52:21. > :52:26.obscene. That has got nothing to do with
:52:26. > :52:32.this subject. We could go on afternoon. I think
:52:32. > :52:35.the winner is the clock! Let's take the pulse of this
:52:35. > :52:41.political week in the Midlands in our regular round-up in just 60
:52:41. > :52:51.seconds. It is brought to us with a hint of espionage by BBC Stoke's
:52:51. > :52:53.
:52:53. > :52:57.Shaken but never stirred. A so- called dirty that has been given
:52:57. > :53:00.the go-ahead by the government to hack lawfully into computers. It
:53:00. > :53:04.will find that how better to protect the public.
:53:04. > :53:08.This field in Stafford has been earmarked for thousands of research
:53:08. > :53:11.and technology jobs. Work on the �8 million development could start in
:53:11. > :53:15.the autumn. There is a growing population and
:53:15. > :53:19.they need places to work. We are interested in long-term,
:53:19. > :53:24.sustainable jobs. There was that it is with the death
:53:24. > :53:28.of Robin Corbett at the age of 78. He was Labour MP for Birmingham
:53:28. > :53:32.Erdington for 18 years. Any p Nikki Sinclaire has been
:53:32. > :53:38.arrested on suspicion of conspiracy to defraud the European Parliament.
:53:38. > :53:43.She denies the allegations. -- MEP. GPs want Stafford Hospital to be
:53:43. > :53:52.massively downgraded. A leaked letter revealed they wanted to deal
:53:52. > :53:57.with little more than births and broken barons. -- broken bones.
:53:57. > :54:02.Nikki Sinclaire will be a guest on this programme in three weeks' time.
:54:02. > :54:07.Margot James, Stafford Hospital. Talk about managing expectations!
:54:07. > :54:13.You have invested so much in this, it worked for you, looking at it
:54:13. > :54:18.politically, but it could be lethal. The look at previous experiences
:54:18. > :54:24.with hospitals. It is a shocking situation. An
:54:24. > :54:30.Enquirer or report next month, and I believe it will expose a huge
:54:30. > :54:35.level of wrong doing. -- an inquiry will report. It is the GPs that
:54:35. > :54:40.they are now in the driving seat, trying to improve the situation for
:54:40. > :54:44.the patients, which they were not in a situation it to do so before.
:54:44. > :54:48.In Stoke-on-Trent, it is a real worry. What we are seeing with the
:54:48. > :54:53.closure of accident and emergency facilities is a huge increase in
:54:53. > :54:56.body and took another hospital. We really need to sort out the
:54:56. > :55:00.relationship between hospitals in Stoke and what is going on in
:55:00. > :55:05.Stafford. There are great doctors there, and there have been failures
:55:05. > :55:11.of management. Can you reassure the public, who
:55:11. > :55:16.have been very concerned, briefly? Yes, I think we can. In Stoke-on-
:55:16. > :55:22.Trent, our concern is that we are building a new, excellent hospital,