18/11/2012 Sunday Politics West Midlands


18/11/2012

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And in the Midlands: It's Independents' Day. Three of our

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five newly-elected Police Commissioners aren't affiliated to

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Apology for the loss of subtitles for 2389 seconds

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the main parties. We joined one of Hello once again from the Midlands.

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I'm Patrick Burns. With me to digest the results of the Police

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and Crime Commissioner elections, I'm joined by two MPs from

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Staffordshire. Rob Flello the Labour MP for Stoke-on-Trent South

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and Aidan Burley, the Conservative for Cannock Chase. And yes, Rob is

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taking part in Movember - where chaps grow moustaches for charity

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to raise awareness of men's cancers. More on that at the end of the

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programme, by which time it will have grown bushier still! Our main

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political event of the week made slightly more of an impression than

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Rob's moustache, the election of our five Police And Crime

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Commissioners, with, as predicted, some seriously low turnout figures.

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Staffordshire's were the lowest anywhere in England and Wales.

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Within that force area, for every ten voters in Stoke-on-Trent, nine

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stayed away. Only one of the candidates gave me any information

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and I thought it was appalling. I do not deep with it, it should have

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gone to at vote on whether we actually needed at Commissioner.

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do not think there was enough information about candidates on

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about the campaign. I did not really understand what it was all

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about so I did not vote. I did not know what it was all about. I think

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I had some information through the post but I did not read it. On the

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evidence of the stalk and indeed, throughout the Midlands and

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throughout the country, overwhelmingly the voters have

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rejected it. We will need to learn lessons for the next time. Not

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holding elections in the winter months would be a good start.

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Herbert was the cheerleader and he was sacked, we have not heard much

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from Damian Green. In the West Midlands Bob Jones got 117,000

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votes on a turnout of 12%. The proof of this policy I do not think

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will be in the turnout but in what these individuals do in the next

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four years. Do the drive down crime and anti-social behaviour? And your

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party did not exactly cover itself in glory. It seemed to just recycle

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old politicians. Forgive me but I would really disagree on this, the

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Government knew what it was doing holding the election in November.

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Everyone said if you had it then the turnout would be law. I think

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the Prime Minister has embarrassed himself even more over this by

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having it in November and with such an appallingly low turnout, much

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worse than Labour predicted. This has wasted �100 million that could

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have been so much better spent in other areas. I am waiting for the

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finance minister to apologise to the country for having these

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elections. Do you agree that it was a huge waste of money? The existing

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police the authorities already cost 100 million each year to run and

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best individual will be holding them to account. Trade unions have

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a small number of hard call -- hardcore militants lefties, they

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should not hold the country to ransom. The Prime Minister was

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saying that the results of the union ballots were not legitimate

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because of the low turnout, what does this say? In a moment, we'll

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be joined by the new Police Commissioner for Gloucestershire.

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But before that, let's see what happened when Warwickshire's

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Commissioner hit his new beat, with BBC Coventry and Warwickshire's

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Political Reporter Sian Grzeszczyk. What impact will the low turnout

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have on our five new PCCs? It was the same story right across the

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region. Just a handful of papers in some ballot boxes in Staffordshire.

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Not exactly enough to keep the counters occupied. In Coventry, it

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was proving hard to stay awake. While in Shrewsbury, the intentions

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of some voters who did bother to turn up were far from certain. The

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size of the operation in Birmingham disguised the 12% turnout in the

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biggest force area outside of London. In the run-up to these

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elections the main talking point was fear of low turnout. Now they

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are imposed, what can we expect from our new Police And Crime

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Commissioners? In Warwickshire this airline pilot quit his job spending

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part of his children's inheritance to stand as an independent. Used to

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landing in challenging conditions the gamble paid off. What is your

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top priority? What are you going to do? I am a great fan of local

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policing, to get that working correctly we need to make sure

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people know their local officer and that the officer knows his or her

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patch well and knows the local offenders. Let's talk to the local

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people. The you have got a tricky job of balancing funding, the

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demands of the police and the demands of victims of crime.

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sounds as though you have got it as one, that is exactly what it will

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be about. What do you want him to do, what should he focus on?

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Everybody is seeing the same thing, crime on the street. I cannot think

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of anything more important. That has come up a lot throughout the

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campaign. For the first time I did not actually cast my vote. I was

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leaning towards you because you are independent and I believe very

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strongly that this should be a political job. Will rank-and-file

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officers support the commissioners? It is a mandate, however you look

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at it, however low the turnout, it is a mandate to start. It is a

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democratic process of publicly elected people, whether it works or

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not we will still get on with the job, it is not that important to is

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in charge along as we carry on protecting the public. The very

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same public you in overwhelming numbers decided not to vote. It is

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now up to the commissioners to prove their worth. And as promised,

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the Police And Crime Commissioner- elect of Gloucestershire, Martin

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Surl, also joins us this morning. A former superintendent, he commanded

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operations in Cheltenham and Tewkesbury. And he has been elected

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on a promise not to allow policing to become politicised.

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Congratulations. Let me break it to you gently, you are now a

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politician! You were elected, it you have campaigned. You have to

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exercise the soft powers of politics. We have been doing that

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in policing for along time. It was a political environment. The big

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differences, it was not party political. We always work with them

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no matter what colour they were. Isn't there a danger that as a

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former senior officer at yourself you are going to be meddlesome. You

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will find it very difficult to keep out of the operational area that

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should be a matter for the police force themselves? I think people

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like myself will know what and what is not strategical and operational.

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I think as a former commander I will know where the operational

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line is and where the strategic line is. I do not think that is

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actually a problem. Among your earliest charges you had an acting

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chief constable and you need a new one. Before were and current chief

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I wish all the good fortune for the future but we need some stability

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for the future. If you have also got 25% of budget cuts to contend

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with, haven't you? Yes, that is not great. In credit to the outgoing a

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authority, the handle that very well. It is a big issue for any

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commissioner. We cannot take any more cuts. You have spawned a new

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generation of predominantly independent politicians here who

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are going to have to fight in many circumstances. People see the

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police as independent. So this is a trial for the Tories to see this

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wave of independence? They get an idea of how they would guide the

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force, what the independents have to do is drive down crime in their

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area and stand on their record in four year's time. That is what the

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Tory chairman said in the programme today, people will cotton on to

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this now that high profile figures are in place. I think what we are

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seeing that the Government are positioning people like Martin, who

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has my congratulations and support, but positioning people like him so

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that when further cuts come down the line it will be 15,004 2015.

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That will be frontline officers losing their jobs. They will say it

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is not the Government, it is your local police and Crown Commissioner.

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That is the story from Government, time and again it is always

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somebody else's fault. It is about the allocation of scarce resources

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and how you choose to allocate those finite resources. He has to

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stand on his record in four years' time. The community policing side

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of his job, what if you have, especially with independent people

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in charge, different emphasis from one forced to the other. How then

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can you have a cohesive sense, crime does not respect police force

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area is, does it? They now have an accountable individual that they

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can contact and hold responsible. Look at what happened in London

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when Boris Johnson was elected. The number of letters went up from 30

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per week to 300. I think you can quote anecdotes about writing

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letters. I get plenty into my postbag about policing. The �100

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million wasted on this election could have paid for so many more

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police officers. People like Martin will have to carry D can for this.

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Policing is not political on the streets or in the forces. That is

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important. But you are wrong to say they do not know what they will get

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from me. I have written a comprehensive manifesto, far more

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comprehensive than any of the opposition. I will be delivering

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that manifesto. It is completely wrong to say I am an unknown

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quantity. The county know me well. I have lived there for 55 years.

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They know what they are going to get from me. It was not just a low

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turnout because it was cold and wet, they did not want this to be at

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political fight. Next election they should ask whether politicians

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should be standing or not. Isn't that a positive thing? He has

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written a manifesto, people can read it, they can contact him.

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we had was a situation where the police the authority did a good job

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until it was handed over. The issue is that actually this is an

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election that was Centre for the Government's and the Government

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have overwhelmingly said they did not want any of it. Will you carry

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on with the job? The yes, I am looking forward to it. It is a big

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job, it is not just about on the streets, it is about budgets, it is

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a big job. Thank you. Just imagine this. You run a business, and after

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years of training, your workforce start to retire. But there aren't

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enough younger people around who know how to do the job, or even

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want to. So your business struggles. It's what's known as the skills-gap.

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And it's a big problem here. This week, our business correspondent

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Peter Plisner has been looking for some answers to it. There's no

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doubt that the workforce is getting older and this Birmingham firm

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provides the evidence. Although here there are apprentices, it's

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Managing Director says training them up is a slow process. In 15 or

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20 years' time I will have no work force. The opening of the last week

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of Skills Show, designed to get more young people interested in

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aquiring skills. In attendance at Birmingham's NEC, the Business

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Secretary who's a big fan. It is like the Olympics but it is in

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skills. We do very well as do places like Courier. The country

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needs to have skilled employees and young people need jobs. And this is

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what it's all about. Young people from schools all over, having a go,

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getting enthused. But will it really help reduce the skills-gap?

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Some of the teachers accompanying the kids thought so. It is not all

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about celebrity, many young people will end up in couriers like this

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when they are older. -- careers. And according to those behind this

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event, it's also helping to get a clearer picture of exactly what's

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needed in the future. There has been significant discussion with

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employers to make sure we have the skills that they need. The problem

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is, unless we're able to attract the workers of tomorrow then youth

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unemployment and the so called skills-gap can only get worse.

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Peter Plisner at the Skills Show which ended yesterday. If you think

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of Stoke, a lot of those issues are relevant. A lot of this has

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happened on your watch. A lot of investment to take work forces who

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are losing their jobs and we still them and retrain them into other

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employment. People who used to work in mines and the ceramic industry

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have been retrained and least guilt under Labour. Now hardly a week

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goes by without Vince Cable highlighting more apprenticeships

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which have risen since this Government went in. It was a

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defunct system when he came in in 1987, we invested in it, helped it,

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supported it and got it working again. They have taken a situation

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that was improving and improved and they have continued it. I am happy

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to knock the Government when what they do is not working but when

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they have taken something and run with it, it has improved. So in

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terms of the race we are falling behind in that race, aren't we?

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mentioned do unemployment, during the boom years with the last

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Government the number of people in jobs actually went down. Young

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people over the age of 14 can learn Engineering and business in

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academies. Thinking of long-term younger unemployed people, what can

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they do to help themselves? I have held three Job fears. I tell young

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people to go and ask to do work experience which often leads to

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getting a foot in the door and paid employment. -- fairs. We have seen

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2.5 years of stagnation and flat line. We could go on, but we cannot.

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Now our regular round-up of the political week in the Midlands in

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60 seconds. Here's Elizabeth Glinka. Just days after after appearing on

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this programme, former Independent MP Richard Taylor was back at

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Westminster. The retired doctor launched a new party, National

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Health Action, with candidates in up to 50 seats. Two serious

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incidents in a week at Birmingham prison. Four officers were injured

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by a remand prisoner. Then an inmate got on the roof. Concern

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about the private firm running the jail. What we have got to do is

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have people who understand the structure who can run it, it's not

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just people who are plonked in because they are a better price or

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whatever. West Midlands Fire and Ambulance Services will share a

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number of fire stations. They say it'll make them cheaper, and faster.

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Drivers in Coventry have been left confused by double BLACK lines. The

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double yellows have been painted over as part of a new parking

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scheme. If you park on them you'll still get a ticket. And Birmingham

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council's revealed its bill for equal pay compensation will top

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�750 million. Women were paid less than men for doing the same job.

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That equalled the issue. The leader says it threatens the city council

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with becoming bankrupt. You wear a former Birmingham City Council it

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yourself. This has gone back through successive parties, hasn't

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it? It is a problem that has been going for a long time. It is brewed

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right in terms of its still employed workforce. -- put right.

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It is people who were formerly employed getting recompense. What

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we had with the previous Government was when the previous equalisation

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payments were required we had support from the Government, I am

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not sure this time you will get the same. What can be done? I feel

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sorry for the dinner ladies who did not get the bonuses while the dust

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men dead. We must not use this as a fig leaf. -- dustmen. They must not

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forget that this is a story that must be told. Now let's talk about

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Movember. It is about raising money for men's cancers and raising

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awareness. There are the guys sitting here, never talked about

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for generations. To stay clean- shaven? It would take me about

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