:01:27. > :01:32.In the Midlands: What will you be doing on 15th November? Ed Miliband
:01:33. > :01:42.said in Birmingham he would rather you were not electing police
:01:43. > :01:43.
:01:43. > :34:59.Apology for the loss of subtitles for 1996 seconds
:34:59. > :35:02.Hello from the Midlands. I'm Patrick Burns.
:35:02. > :35:05.Now, our guests today have both helped to swell the ranks of
:35:05. > :35:08.lawyers in Parliament. One's a conveyancer-turned-council-leader-
:35:08. > :35:17.turned-MP. The other's a barrister who is now our region's first woman
:35:17. > :35:19.muslim MP. Marcus Jones is the Conservative MP for Nuneaton in
:35:19. > :35:29.Warwickshire. And Shabana Mahmood is the Labour MP for Birmingham
:35:29. > :35:32.
:35:32. > :35:38.Ladywood, and a shadow business minister. Now, hands up, who wants
:35:38. > :35:43.to pay more in police taxation? Your Prime Minister wants to turn
:35:43. > :35:48.it tax-evasion into a moral issue. The is obviously an issue that tax
:35:48. > :35:51.avoidance is legal but certain schemes are immoral and I think the
:35:51. > :35:55.Prime Minister is quite right on that in terms of the way in which
:35:55. > :36:01.people try to avoid their tax. It is therefore important a government
:36:01. > :36:08.looks to close off these loopholes. Ardour immoral? Your party leader
:36:08. > :36:15.says politicians shouldn't moralise. But when you think about phone
:36:15. > :36:19.hacking, there was a great deal of moralising. The key issue is that
:36:19. > :36:22.if there are legal ways people can avoid tax, it is the job of the
:36:22. > :36:26.legislators that them to do something about that. It is quite
:36:26. > :36:29.right there we debate about this in Parliament, but the responsibility
:36:29. > :36:35.rests on as as legislators and his right they Ed Miliband to raise
:36:35. > :36:38.that. A you comfortable with the way David Cameron has personalise
:36:38. > :36:43.this with a direct attack on Jimmy Carr, one of the most popular
:36:43. > :36:47.entertainers in Britain? Was we need to do now is move on from the
:36:47. > :36:53.debate around morality or immorality and basically look to
:36:53. > :36:56.close tax loopholes through legislation. We also as a
:36:56. > :37:03.conservative group Bonita it look at how the taxation regime is one
:37:03. > :37:07.that makes sure people are more things and devised to pay.
:37:07. > :37:10.Obviously, the government think they on to a populist issue here,
:37:10. > :37:15.do you think people are almost resentful in austere times that
:37:15. > :37:19.people have made a success of their lives? In terms of the government
:37:19. > :37:22.approach, instead of going after one person, let's focus on the law
:37:22. > :37:26.and what we can do to clamp down on that. We need to send a clear
:37:26. > :37:29.message to the public what our expectations are when it comes to
:37:29. > :37:36.tax and make sure that everybody abides by the law. I don't think
:37:36. > :37:38.it's helpful to focus on one person. Coming up a little later, who
:37:38. > :37:41.should run our police forces? Stand-by to elect your new police
:37:42. > :37:44.and crime commissioner. A foretaste of this November's
:37:44. > :37:51.electoral menu, as two would-be police bosses get their knives out,
:37:51. > :37:55.and prepare to do battle with each other...and our reporter.
:37:55. > :37:58.Our top story this week. Unemployment in the West Midlands
:37:58. > :38:01.is continuing to fall steadily. We've just witnessed the fourth
:38:01. > :38:05.month running in which the number of people out of work here has gone
:38:05. > :38:08.down. And private companies in our part of the country are now
:38:08. > :38:18.creating 20 times more jobs than the number being lost in the public
:38:18. > :38:18.
:38:19. > :38:21.sector. Our business correspondent Baking up a booming business - at
:38:22. > :38:28.this Walsall cake maker, order books are rising fast and much of
:38:28. > :38:32.what they make is now being exported. A we are now exporting
:38:32. > :38:36.right across Europe to 10 different markets. We're build a brand-new
:38:36. > :38:41.factory we're in right now which is dedicated to exports, which is
:38:41. > :38:43.going to create over 70 new jobs. And more jobs at small firms like
:38:43. > :38:46.this are helping bring down region's unemployment rate. The
:38:46. > :38:53.latest figures show that it's come down to 223,000. 8.4% of the
:38:53. > :38:57.population are out of work. government is not getting people
:38:57. > :39:00.back to work fast enough, the long- term unemployment shows the Work
:39:00. > :39:05.Programme which was billed as the greatest back-to-work programme in
:39:05. > :39:08.human history is now failing badly. Last week's better than expected
:39:08. > :39:12.unemployment figures were no doubt boosted by the fact that in the
:39:12. > :39:16.last 12 months, 4,000 public sector jobs had been lost, while at the
:39:16. > :39:22.same time more than 80,000 private sector jobs have been created. A
:39:22. > :39:24.big chunk of them here at Jaguar and Rover. Not surprising, then,
:39:24. > :39:27.that government ministers are eager to be associated with such a
:39:27. > :39:32.successful company. The Business Secretary Vince Cable was at the
:39:32. > :39:37.JLR's Warwickshire headquarters launching a new training scheme.
:39:37. > :39:42.The West Midlands is a big hope for the rest of the country because you
:39:42. > :39:45.have private sector growth, very successful manufacturing. With
:39:45. > :39:52.unemployment heading in the right direction, the icing of the cake
:39:52. > :39:56.will come if future econonic data proves be just as encouraging.
:39:56. > :40:01.Shabana Mahmood, Odia. It's good news! Bad news for Labour, of
:40:02. > :40:05.course. Anything that is a better picture for unemployment figures in
:40:05. > :40:11.our region is a good thing and I welcome that. Any improvement in
:40:11. > :40:15.those figures is not bad news far as, it is good news. But I am
:40:15. > :40:19.worried that we have underlying problems and issues that are masked
:40:19. > :40:25.by those figures, in particular the fact that long-term unemployment is
:40:25. > :40:29.the highest it has been since 1995, and the fact that you couldn't
:40:29. > :40:33.unemployment -- youth unemployment is more than one million. I would
:40:33. > :40:38.like to see the government tackle at as if it is an emergency.
:40:38. > :40:42.those two points, youth unemployment and the fact that one
:40:42. > :40:46.in three of everyone out of work has been out of work for at least a
:40:46. > :40:51.year, what you say? They are certainly important points, and of
:40:51. > :40:56.course there is a problem with youth unemployment. Youth
:40:56. > :40:59.unemployment has been on the rise since 2004, and the government are
:40:59. > :41:02.now starting to catch -- to tackle up with a number of apprenticeships
:41:03. > :41:06.coming through, with the youth contract and the Work Programme
:41:06. > :41:13.coming through, and we are actually getting many of those people who
:41:13. > :41:17.have been long-term unemployed back to work and the figures are
:41:17. > :41:23.starting to reduce. And there is a remarkable turnaround on the part
:41:23. > :41:30.of private employers creating jobs at a tremendous rate. This holy
:41:30. > :41:33.grail of the private sector closing the gap. Absolutely, and any
:41:33. > :41:37.improvements are obviously to be welcomed, especially while we have
:41:37. > :41:41.public sector job losses. But my worry is that a lot of the
:41:41. > :41:45.government's policies are not going far enough. The contract is not
:41:45. > :41:51.going far enough, we are still seeing far too many young
:41:51. > :41:56.unemployed in our city and in our region. And Marcus Jones, still a
:41:56. > :42:02.very long wait to go with 200,000 out of work in our patch alone.
:42:02. > :42:08.it is fantastic work but there is more to climb. We have the eurozone
:42:08. > :42:10.crisis, so there is still a lot to Our main talking point this week
:42:10. > :42:13.brought the Labour leader Ed Miliband to Birmingham yet again,
:42:13. > :42:16.this time beginning his run-up to November's elections for police and
:42:16. > :42:19.crime commissioners. They will be the people who will control the
:42:19. > :42:25.purse strings of our police forces, and hold the chief constables to
:42:25. > :42:28.account. The opposition leader was here to unveil his party's
:42:28. > :42:31.candidates, although he'd rather the elections weren't being held at
:42:31. > :42:38.all. And certainly not in November. But he told us they did at least
:42:38. > :42:41.give us an opportunity to discuss the future of policing. It's an
:42:41. > :42:45.opportunity for people to register their views on the cuts on policing,
:42:45. > :42:48.but also Labour brings a slightly different approach to crime. We
:42:48. > :42:54.recognise the importance of everybody working together right
:42:54. > :42:56.across the board. So who wants to be a police commissioner? BBC
:42:56. > :42:59.Coventry and Warwickshire's political reporter Sian Grzeszczyk
:42:59. > :43:06.invited two "interested parties" to debate the issue in one of
:43:06. > :43:14.Coventry's most historic buildings. His starter of dispensing justice
:43:14. > :43:18.to then criminals, but nowadays when people are called to the bar,
:43:18. > :43:26.it is more likely to be about a pint. It has been reopened as a
:43:26. > :43:29.restaurant and bar, retaining many of its original features. The crest
:43:29. > :43:34.still rests above where the judge sat. The last public execution was
:43:34. > :43:39.just outside the door in 1849. Take a look at this - these are the
:43:39. > :43:42.original steps that the guilty were sent down. So in the week Labour
:43:42. > :43:49.launched its campaign for policing crime commission has, where better
:43:49. > :43:52.to come and discuss the issues with a couple of candidates? Joe
:43:52. > :43:55.Tildesley, a former bobby with 30 years' experience, wants to be the
:43:55. > :43:58.conservative candidate to run the West Midland's force. And here's a
:43:58. > :44:01.familiar face - James Plaskitt, was the Labour MP for Warwick and
:44:01. > :44:06.Leamington for 13 years, he's already his party's candidate to be
:44:06. > :44:13.commissioner for Warwickshire. And, as I was about to find out, there
:44:13. > :44:17.was plenty on the menu to discuss. There has been a lot of talk about
:44:17. > :44:21.working with other forces, with Surrey, what are your thoughts on
:44:21. > :44:25.that? Collaboration can achieve a lot but I would like to know what
:44:25. > :44:33.you plan to do about forced privatisation, because the West
:44:33. > :44:36.Midlands and sorry, that you have mentioned... James, James. It will
:44:36. > :44:41.be the police and crime commission in the West Midlands will make the
:44:41. > :44:45.final decision. I am already on record in saying that is not to we
:44:45. > :44:49.should form relationships with. you don't want to privatise? I want
:44:50. > :44:54.to form relationships with West Messier, Warwickshire and
:44:54. > :44:58.Staffordshire. Lots of talk of red tape for the police, how would you
:44:58. > :45:01.reduce bureaucracy? Would I would like to do is bring police
:45:01. > :45:05.commissioners together once we are all in post and ourselves put a
:45:05. > :45:11.submission to the Home Office, because they are responsible for a
:45:11. > :45:17.lot of it, to say, look, he is a way of having less red tape.
:45:17. > :45:21.have a mandate. The at is what I'm saying. Let us say to government,
:45:21. > :45:29.we have been elected... It's a you agree with me? Were you going to
:45:29. > :45:33.make the decision, we are not going to do this paperwork. We need to
:45:33. > :45:36.make change happen. My point is, if a whole group of commissioners are
:45:36. > :45:40.making the same argument and it will have the mandate, that is more
:45:40. > :45:44.effective than one commission on their own. You have the power to
:45:44. > :45:51.hire and fire the Chief Constable, but what happens if that
:45:51. > :45:54.relationship breaks down? Are in the chief constable and city
:45:54. > :45:58.commissioner coming in inviting resources the manpower, we would
:45:58. > :46:04.welcome mat. Fundamentally, this is the most important change to
:46:04. > :46:09.policing there has been since 1829, since it all started. So, much to
:46:09. > :46:14.discuss, and with elections being served up in November, how many
:46:14. > :46:18.voters will candidates be able to bring with them to the table?
:46:18. > :46:21.Will have to wait and see. And we're also joined here today by Dr
:46:21. > :46:24.Bill Dixon. He's the Head of Criminology at Keele University. In
:46:24. > :46:34.one of his earlier incarnations he completed a PhD in police
:46:34. > :46:39.
:46:39. > :46:43.accountability. Yes, they see it as a key relationship between the
:46:43. > :46:49.police and crime commission and the chief constable. A you convinced?
:46:49. > :46:54.No entirely, I think it is a big request for a single individual to
:46:54. > :46:58.play that role holding a police force to account. I think some of
:46:58. > :47:04.the things we saw in the package pick up some of the problems that
:47:04. > :47:10.may arise. What about a local policing agenda conflicting the
:47:10. > :47:16.party policy? Bigger as we are inevitably sing a politicisation of
:47:16. > :47:21.the police service as a result, on we? I have always believed that
:47:21. > :47:28.policing is inherently political, you cannot escape from politics.
:47:28. > :47:33.The root of the word is very similar. Whether it should be party
:47:33. > :47:38.political is another matter entirely. Who will police the
:47:39. > :47:43.commissioner? Well, there are two ways in which commission has will
:47:43. > :47:49.be held to account. One, obviously by the ballot box and the electric
:47:49. > :47:58.every four years. And secondly by the police and panels. Which is a
:47:59. > :48:02.bit like a police authority, isn't it? Yes, if you like. So, there we
:48:02. > :48:07.are. There is inevitably a politicisation which some police
:48:07. > :48:11.officers feel strongly against. Had you respond to that? I don't think
:48:11. > :48:15.it will work like that. There will be a clear demarcation between the
:48:15. > :48:19.strategic priorities of the police and crime commission has and the
:48:19. > :48:23.operational side, which the chief constable will still have the last
:48:23. > :48:29.say over. In relation to that, I'm aware that the protocol that has
:48:29. > :48:31.been put in place by the Home Secretary in association with the
:48:31. > :48:35.Association of Chief Police Officers makes sure the lines
:48:35. > :48:38.between the two are not blurred. because of course your parties will
:48:38. > :48:43.be fighting for these jobs, so it is bound to become a political,
:48:43. > :48:49.isn't it, Shabana Mahmood? That is one of my biggest worry, that is
:48:49. > :48:52.why I voted against the bill. it as inevitable? Well, I think
:48:52. > :48:58.there was the important point of party politicisation, and that is
:48:58. > :49:01.what I worry about when I talk about politicisation of the police.
:49:01. > :49:05.That is something that is quite dangerous and ought to be avoided,
:49:05. > :49:10.but we have to make the best of a bad job and I would like to see
:49:10. > :49:14.Labour police and crime commission has been campaigned against police
:49:14. > :49:18.cuts the we're seeing across the country. One to about privatisation,
:49:18. > :49:22.Marcus? That is one of the things they came up in the film there in
:49:22. > :49:29.the context of Collabra Nations which is generally some in the
:49:29. > :49:32.government approves of? -- collaborations. We need to look at
:49:32. > :49:36.how policing is delivered, but particularly backroom functions of
:49:36. > :49:40.things that are being looked at in terms of privatisation and
:49:40. > :49:43.collaboration between different forces. Of course, it will be the
:49:43. > :49:46.police and crime commission a who have the final say on this type of
:49:46. > :49:50.things. In relation to that, the police and crime commission will be
:49:50. > :49:53.directly accountable, and on that basis will have a close link with
:49:53. > :49:59.the communities they serve, so I am sure they will listen to that
:49:59. > :50:02.community. I should just mention that the names of more potential
:50:02. > :50:07.commissioners and candidates, you will find some of them who have so
:50:07. > :50:11.far declared interest on my latest post online. Let's just consider a
:50:11. > :50:15.couple of comments. Allen says "these commissioners are yet
:50:15. > :50:22.another example of expensive bureaucracy which is of no interest
:50:22. > :50:29.to the public or anyone else except those who apply". Another writer
:50:29. > :50:34.says "more jobs for the boys, there is no prospect of these jobs lesson
:50:34. > :50:40.in crime". What do we think? It is all about making that service more
:50:40. > :50:44.accountable. Labour tried this twice and back down in the face of
:50:44. > :50:51.vested interests so on not sure it is a thing that Labour should and
:50:51. > :50:55.support. It's quite right to the get accountability of the police.
:50:55. > :51:02.We obviously David N approach much more along the police authority
:51:02. > :51:06.lines rather than one individual. - - we obviously gave it an approach.
:51:06. > :51:09.But having elections in November, when there is nothing else going on,
:51:10. > :51:13.is probably not the best way to go out with a bang and try to get
:51:13. > :51:17.people excited and enthused about this topic. They should have made
:51:17. > :51:21.it more of a priority. I have been we have to be careful about putting
:51:21. > :51:25.too much of a burden on the police. All the research evidence suggests
:51:25. > :51:30.that the impact that the police alone can have on crime is actually
:51:30. > :51:35.fairly minimal. There are much wider forces at play here in
:51:35. > :51:41.determining rates of crime. Policing is only ever going to have
:51:41. > :51:44.a fairly marginal effect. Final quick word you markers. Having an
:51:44. > :51:47.election like this in November is bound to produce low turnout.
:51:47. > :51:52.think as we get close to the elections, people will become
:51:52. > :52:02.enthused about the elections. This week, I believe Mencap, who were
:52:02. > :52:07.very enthused about this process, they believe they could influence a
:52:07. > :52:10.who the commissioner will be. you.
:52:10. > :52:14.Now, our regular round-up of the political week in the Midlands in
:52:14. > :52:16.60 seconds, with BBC WM's breakfast presenter Pete Morgan.
:52:16. > :52:19.In spite of industrial action over pension changes, most Midlands
:52:19. > :52:21.doctors went to work as normal on Thursday. Many hospital
:52:21. > :52:26.appointments were cancelled. But only a quarter of GPs surgeries
:52:26. > :52:31.were affected. Welcome to Brierley Hill. As
:52:31. > :52:38.landmarks go, its unmissable. A court's now told the waste firm
:52:38. > :52:43.responsible to cut the size of its dump. We want to see it go down to
:52:43. > :52:46.two metres, but we're taking it one step of the time.
:52:46. > :52:49.Coventry City council's introduced a 20 miles per hour speed limit
:52:49. > :52:52.within the city centre. It's the region's first zone of its kind.
:52:52. > :52:54.A prominent British National Party member has appeared in court on a
:52:54. > :52:59.racism charge. Michael Coleman, former group leader on Stoke-on-
:52:59. > :53:02.Trent City Council, will go on trial in the autumn.
:53:02. > :53:06.And "full steam ahead," said the boss of the high speed rail project
:53:06. > :53:09.to MPs this week. There have been reports the London to Birmingham
:53:09. > :53:19.line may be driven into the sidings. But the Prime Minister is said to
:53:19. > :53:27.
:53:27. > :53:33.So, surprise surprise, it transpires. But Marcus this will do
:53:33. > :53:38.nothing to quell the idea that the HST project could be quietly
:53:38. > :53:46.shelved. My that is pure speculation. That's what they all
:53:46. > :53:52.say! This project is going ahead and the Transport Secretary has
:53:52. > :53:54.come up in the past few days and confirm that. As the MP in whose
:53:54. > :53:59.constituency the Birmingham terminus would be, are you anxious
:53:59. > :54:03.that your side of this argument could be being lost? Are I am. It
:54:03. > :54:06.is the speculation that is doing the damage. If the Prime Minister
:54:06. > :54:09.and the Transport Secretary really believed in this project, they
:54:09. > :54:14.should bring forward legislation that should legislate for the whole
:54:14. > :54:17.of the line, not just Birmingham to London. They should show real
:54:17. > :54:21.commitment so we can have confidence it will go ahead. That
:54:21. > :54:25.is what people are crying out for. There is a commitment, we have just
:54:25. > :54:28.been through the consultation. There is an environmental aspect to
:54:28. > :54:34.this and the project is being done on that at the moment. Legislation
:54:34. > :54:37.will be coming forward next year. All right, we are watching. That is
:54:37. > :54:41.where we have to leave things today. Thanks to Marcus Jones and Shabana
:54:41. > :54:43.Mahmood. Next week, we'll be joined by the Conservative MP for Redditch,