11/11/2012 Sunday Politics West Midlands

Have been good morning and welcome And in the Midlands: An independent

take on the commissioner elections. An Independent poll up almost upon

Apology for the loss of subtitles for 2146 seconds

Hello from the Midlands. Joining us this week, one of Our latest intake

of Conservative MPs now making his way up the ladder and one of our

top union leaders. The MP for Staffordshire South and the

regional secretary of Unison. During this past week the head of

the Confederation of British Industry came to Birmingham in

search of the economic equivalent of the Holy Grail, growth. The

overriding message from business leaders here is that they want more

help from the Government. Support from the very top would boost

confidence and create more jobs, they say. When you look had told

the initiatives that the Government has poured out recently, extra

efforts on apprenticeships, growth fronts and so on, what more do you

think they can do? They have only recently started to put these

things forward, they should have had a strategy when they came into

power. All they seemed to have was cuts, cuts, cuts, now they are

trying to put together a strategy that they should have done two

years ago. What you are seeing now in my constituency alone is �400

million of private sector investment, investment in the

regional growth fund announced, supporting private business to

create jobs. This is what we need and what the Government is

delivering, we are going to see benefits. Lead us remind ourselves

what the head of BCB I had to say. He was clear it was time for us to

build, drive and tunnel our way out of economic problems. We have to

balance the books. Within the cut side would like to see them doing

more on infrastructure and working with the private sector,

particularly construction companies, to do more or infrastructure

building. That helps create jobs for the long-term unemployed.

know about the extinction of the Birmingham Airport runway, the

Metro and lots going on in the transport area, is that something

you imagine we will see more of an want? We cannot go into details but

we have already seen the Government commitment to high street -- high-

speed rail. We have already seen the commitment for �16 billion

worth of additional rail spending. �170 million of spending on pinch

points, that is about getting Britain moving. There is a real

passion to spend on infrastructure. We want to deliver on that. The CBI

wants infrastructure development and the Government has the message

more than Labour had before. There should be increased spending on

infrastructure but this Government did not heed that call at all, it

is only now, two years later, why are the CBI having to call for

infrastructure spending two years after the Government got into

power? One of the proposals from Labour is that instead of having a

tax cut for people who earn over �1 million, we would like to see

bankers bonus tax which would raise �2 billion and enable the

Government to build 25,000 new homes which are desperately needed.

Coming up later, where are does all important independent minded free

spirits we were told would stand to be police and crime Commissioner?

Elections take place on Thursday but the candidates list are

dominated by recycled party politicians, we will be asking why.

It symbolises this country all over the world. It has been made in

Coventry for 64 years, but union leaders in the city fear the

production lines of the historic London taxi could disappear for

ever. Nearly 100 workers have lost their jobs. The unions carried the

fight to Westminster and now Vince Cable is involved. The irony was

lost on no one. He came to celebrate the increasing success of

the Midlands motor industry. This plant near Nuneaton plans to create

2000 jobs within eight years. The Business Secretary could not escape

the gloomy backdrop up the road in Coventry where the last significant

car maker in the city faces an uncertain future. It is obviously a

worry for individual workers but we Hope we are able to find a buyer to

make this an on going concern. people have got nothing but by,

they are waiting for their redundancy to come through. We have

been here for many years and this is the way they are treating us, it

is not very nice. The plans are to sell this as a going concern --

growing concern but there has been an urgent recall of vehicles

because of steering problems. the moment things look very bleak,

we can all my try to give as much support as we can to those

employees and their families in terms of trying to secure jobs at

the Coventry plant and in particular to try to maintain the

manufacture in the UK, in particular in Coventry. Price

Waterhouse Coopers are or in the position of having to find a buyer

to make sure Coventry does not lose another part of its famous

manufacturing heritage. Let us Hope this does not drag on for too long.

You know what it takes to turn around at struggling business, you

did that in the past, what lessons have you learned that could apply

to this company? You can manufacture products here in

Britain successfully. It is about design, fashion, making sure we

market them properly. For far too long we believed we could outsource

everything. We can be a great manufacturing nation. We have seen

that in what has been achieved with Aston Martin, Bentley, Jaguar, the

eight British brands which have invested in the design and

development. I Hope there will be Adjabiya bent on British

manufacture and design for this company. I Hope it will be a

success in the future. -- up by here. -- a buyer. No one can blame

the Government for what has happened here. There are 80 buyers

in the frame according to the local MP. It is great to hear that

outsourcing is not the answer all the time. I wish that the

Government would understand that in the public centre as well as the

private centre. It's the worst does happen what we should be looking to

do is what the Labour Party debt when n g closed in Longbridge. A

lot of people worked to make sure those from that industry got the

right training to get them back into work as quickly as possible. -

- did when MG closed. Bet is out of the power of the Government to

instruct them what to do but we Hope there is a sense of moral

obligation on the a administrator to find I do it by ear to take this

organisation forward. -- a buyer. We will support them and helped

deliver. We Hope a solution is found. Thank you very much. Who can

decide crimes fighting strategies for the police where you live? Any

idea? Well you better think about it. There are just four more years

before at the crime commissioners elections. 14 candidates in our

local regions belonged to the major parties. Our correspondent

considers why. Crime is officially falling but tensions on the streets

can seem higher than before. How did this arrive and what their

priorities should be has never been more important. This man has the

thin blue line of the police written into his very DNA. This

country is the envy of the world. Here we are changing it so that

people with few qualifications and little knowledge of the police are

now being put in the position where they can go as far as sacking deep

Chief Constable. He was born in a police station. Starting as a ball

be key hold the record for the longest serving officer, 44 years.

He thinks police -- people should boycott the elections for police

and crime commissioners. Many people who are against this should

not vote at all. If we get it down to 20% or even 10% or as low as

single figures, it will make it clear to this Government and

governments of the future that the public do not take this with the

same view as them. 19 candidates are standing to over see our own

police forces. Six our independence, everyone has had to put up �5,000

as a deposit. The Independent chair of the Staffordshire police are

authority which is being replaced by the commissioners has said the

election is just too expensive. you have got to get yourself out

there and get known to people, as far as Staffordshire is concerned,

throughout the call of the region you have got to be able to inform

people with a mechanism that will cost money. It has been said that

it will give the public a real opportunity to choose who they want

to represent their views on crime. The Home Office says everyone will

be able to get the information they need about a candidate's standing.

The politics have not stopped. Candidates have been debating,

cajoling and pressing flesh. Despite all the criticism over

these elections, many people are turning out in numbers to actually

meet the candidates at community events held all over our region.

For them, this is proving to be one of the most exciting races ever

held. During that report week her from the chair of the outgoing

Staffordshire police as oddity who believes that costs of campaigning

favours the big parties with their deep pockets. We know something

about independent politics in our part of the country, remember a

hospital doctor who was so incensed about plans to downgrade

Kidderminster General Hospital that he headed off to the stump with

leaders in -- leaflets in hand. He was duly elected as an independent

MP giving him a place in Midlands political history. The good doctor

is here with us now. Cast your mind back to the beginning of that idea

that you would become an independent politician and take on

the big parties. What was it like for you as that moment of the

realisation dawned? The moment I realised it was possible, it really

became absolutely fascinating. I am so sorry for these Police

Commissioner candidates. The deposit is a near �5,000 -- �500. I

kid find that. For the West Mercia Police Commissioner they are

allowed to spend �160,000 during the election period. What

independent can find that? The major parties probably can. In the

run-up to a General Election all candidates are allowed one free

mail delivery of their best leaflet to every household. That helps the

bigger parties as well, you might say. The Government said at the

start the expected local independent candidates to come

forward. In a relatively small parliamentary constituency an

ordinary person can be fairly well known, particularly if he is at

doctor or another professional. How can anybody be known throughout the

whole of the West Midlands? To be faced with the vast amount of money

needed to spread your message right across the I think is impossible.

Before we bring in our other guests it would be interesting to know

what you made of the recommendation that people should boycott these

elections? If everybody boycotted ate and there was no election at

all that would be absolutely brilliant, but we will never get to

that local -- low level I am afraid. There are some very spirited

campaign is being waged out there. The basic point is that what you

have presided over here is a very lacklustre campaign. You do not

need an organised boycott quite frankly, people will stay away in

their droves. We have a fantastic candidate. I am sure Labour will

say the same! We are debating policing as a key issue. Labour and

the Conservatives are battling it out and the independence in many

area as R. It is challenging, it is challenging in any region or for

any political party but over the next few years we will see that

people appreciate how important these roles are. In the US you have

independence at a congressional level. Like that, here we will see

the rise of people are realising how important these roles are.

There is at direct line of accountability, isn't there? There

is but the Government made a mess. Turnout was likely to be less than

20% even among those people who do want to come out. I would encourage

people to turn out. I think we have to send the Government a strong

message about austerity. You mean, not to bought about the issue?

I think there is a reality. -- vote. They said it was going to make

things more democratically accountable but turnout is going to

be abysmal. They are spending �100 million on these elections when

that money to employ 3,000 police officers. They are ready to take a

real battering in these elections. That is why people get so anguished

about the politicising of policing. We are concerned about getting

officers on the beat and crime levels down. Batter -- is what the

arguments will be around. Accountability for people who run

our police can only be a good thing, it matters to people and we have to

deliver it. We think now that the police and crime Commissioner

elections are there people should vote. How many people on your

street do you think know who the chairman of the police of oddity

is? Not many people know who their MP is! If you want more officers on

the beat, if you're Government had not spent �100 million on these

elections, we should have 3,000 officers on the beat. Let us bring

the doctor back in, isn't it inevitable that policing has always

been political to some extent and if you call yourself an independent

that does not stop you being political. It does not, but the

thing it does do is make you independent of the main political

parties so therefore you have no allegiance to the main political

party, your allegiance is to your constituents and in this case the

people you Police Force Survey. It is easier to be elected as an

independent MP than as a police commissioner. This is marvellous

news to my new political party. That will be next week's story! We

will leave that for another day! People will catch on in terms of

engaging with more vigour and determination than the next time

these elections come up, in 3.5 years' time. It is better to crack

on with this now. I will encourage people to come out and vote. A lot

of my independent colleagues will go for the Independent chap in West

Mercia because we would love to have it run by somebody who is not

in the pocket of a major party. Quickly, from each of you,

predictions on the turn out? think in Staffordshire probably

higher than the West Midlands, well over 20%. A across the whole of the

West Midlands we will be lucky to get 20%. Less than 20%. Thank you

all. Now for our regular round-up of the political week in the

Midlands. A ballot of 250 Birmingham the airport staff could

lead to an enforced this the occasion for some jet-setters this

Christmas. Members of the Unite union are unhappy about pay and

conditions. -- staycation. Royal Mail Sorting Office to closed end

shrews bury. A Shropshire Wildlife Group say badgers are being shot

and then disguised as a road kill. A cull of badgers to prevent the

spread of TB in cattle has been postponed. A new television station

in Birmingham could be on the air by the end of next year. London

Midland has reassured MPs that the rate of trains being cancelled due

to a driver shortage, it should begin to halt. And not before time

when you think of the thousands upon thousands of people who are

having their transport plans disrupted. How long could this

situation go on before Patrick McLaughlin has to step in? We have

already had West Midlands MPs making representations and raising

concerns about the performance of London Midland. Raising the issue

of raising performance, that is what we want to see, the best

quality train services. What do you have end dip way of -- in the way

of frighteners to force them into providing the service? We have a

few things we can look at. I think the Government should look at

taking the franchise off them. Maybe he should look at that and

refunding money to the taxpayer. It could go back into public ownership.

It could work with the East Coast mainline. We have to leave it there.

A reminder that with those elections for police and crime