:01:25. > :01:35.women in power. Margaret Thatcher was one of the first to prove she
:01:35. > :01:35.
:01:35. > :42:21.Apology for the loss of subtitles for 2446 seconds
:42:21. > :42:25.could lead to. Now local councils them here first. To prospective
:42:25. > :42:29.Parliamentary candidate is working hard to persuade voters to send them
:42:29. > :42:33.to Westminster at the next general election. Afzal Amin who grew up in
:42:33. > :42:39.the Black Country is standing for the Conservatives in Dudley North
:42:39. > :42:44.and Kate Godfrey is standing in Stafford for Labour. Parliament has
:42:44. > :42:48.been in recess for two weeks during which time Drummer Lee Rigby and off
:42:48. > :42:52.duty soldier was attacked and killed by two men close to Woolwich
:42:53. > :42:57.barracks. His death was quickly labelled as an act of terrorism by
:42:57. > :43:04.the Prime Minister who cut short talks with European leaders in
:43:04. > :43:10.Brussels to return to London to appeal for unity. We will defeat
:43:10. > :43:14.extremism by standing together, by backing our police and by
:43:14. > :43:20.challenging the poisonous narrative of extremism on which despite and
:43:20. > :43:23.spirits. Images of the men arrested for the murder of Lee Rigby
:43:23. > :43:30.attempting to justify the killing have gone around the world. What
:43:30. > :43:37.happen next? Afzal Amin you left a career in the army. When Lee Rigby
:43:37. > :43:43.was killed and called for unity. Has that been achieved? Unity is not
:43:43. > :43:46.something we can achieve through one then. In this country we have 60
:43:46. > :43:52.million people living their lives every day without this happening
:43:52. > :43:58.every day. There are 3 million Muslims who live in Britain with
:43:58. > :44:08.near perfect harmony. This is not something we should take and say it
:44:08. > :44:09.
:44:09. > :44:17.can be projected onto everyone else. There was an EDL demo in York, they
:44:17. > :44:21.went inside a mosque and had tea and cakes. The whole idea of a community
:44:21. > :44:26.at loggerheads is false. There have been a huge incidence of violence
:44:27. > :44:31.based on the events after the attack but overall we have seen this
:44:31. > :44:41.country as one that has pulled together, Muslim leaders have said
:44:41. > :44:46.
:44:46. > :44:52.this is an Apollo and attack. -- Apollo and attack. We will see a lot
:44:52. > :44:57.more of those stories emerge into what it means to be a Muslim in
:44:57. > :45:03.Britain today. Theresa May seemed keen to resurrect the idea of a
:45:03. > :45:09.snooper's charter of greater access to e-mails and phonecalls. We should
:45:09. > :45:17.continue to do what we are doing it which is greater awareness of our
:45:17. > :45:27.diverse country, how they relate to each other. Any sort of knee-jerk to
:45:27. > :45:29.
:45:29. > :45:35.a one off event will not result in something positive. We need to
:45:35. > :45:43.address individual communities and their problems. It has two be more
:45:43. > :45:47.nuanced. I spent most of my working life in the Middle East and I came
:45:47. > :45:54.back to the UK recently and I found this very shocking because when we
:45:54. > :46:04.talk about violent extremism, we are kind of playing into what the
:46:04. > :46:05.
:46:05. > :46:11.murderers wanted. They did not know what they wanted. This was not a
:46:11. > :46:17.well thought out position. This was violent and frustrated. Was the
:46:17. > :46:22.Prime Minister wrong to call it terrorism? They were looking for an
:46:22. > :46:32.excuse and dignity which in this situation with a man who had served
:46:32. > :46:33.
:46:33. > :46:37.in the Army. The Prime Minister was call it -- was right to call it an
:46:37. > :46:43.act of terrorism. But we must be careful to keep repeating that in
:46:43. > :46:48.such a way that it elevates the act to something that it is not. The
:46:48. > :46:53.Prime Minister was careful to save this was a sickening act and
:46:53. > :47:00.challenging the ideology of hatred is the way forward. It was wrong of
:47:00. > :47:03.Theresa May to resurrect the smooth paste charter. MI5 officers said
:47:03. > :47:12.they did not feel be snooper's charter would make any difference in
:47:12. > :47:18.this case. You can understand why politicians want to do the best they
:47:18. > :47:23.can to identify where there may have been shortcomings. Coming up - I am
:47:23. > :47:28.woman here me roar. We meet the new female council leaders in the
:47:28. > :47:32.Midlands to talk Power, politics and whether gender really matters. A
:47:32. > :47:38.development which could influence West Bromwich's under construction,
:47:38. > :47:42.a shopping centre which could provide 2000 jobs. Plant and
:47:43. > :47:47.financed before the recession and the rapid decline of many retail
:47:47. > :47:54.areas. A year ago Wolverhampton became a Portas town winning
:47:54. > :47:59.�100,000 to try to halt the spread of empty shops.
:47:59. > :48:03.This is the latest stage in Wolverhampton's plan to revive its
:48:03. > :48:11.city centre. Businesses are being given empty shop units rent-free for
:48:12. > :48:16.six months. I wanted to do this 20 years ago but the cost involved was
:48:16. > :48:22.too great. It's care of a lot of people off but when this competition
:48:22. > :48:28.came up I very nearly did not enter. But I am glad I did. This project is
:48:28. > :48:34.a partner ship between the Mander centre and the local authority but
:48:34. > :48:39.trying to reverse the effects of the recession, tackling the relentless
:48:39. > :48:45.march of online shopping, that is a tall order. In Stoke they are taking
:48:45. > :48:49.a bold step. The council is spending �45 million moving its headquarters
:48:49. > :48:54.to Hanley in the hope that other companies will follow and by
:48:54. > :48:59.bringing employment, help rejuvenate the city centre. Traders who will be
:49:00. > :49:07.left behind say it is a disaster. are thinking of closing the business
:49:07. > :49:13.down because it is not viable. Everything goes to Hanley. We are
:49:13. > :49:18.just hanging on. We can see what will happen. One in five shops in
:49:18. > :49:23.Stoke is empty their projects to put the hardback in the city centre are
:49:23. > :49:30.having an effect but with a recent study predicting 20% of shops could
:49:30. > :49:34.close in five years, it seems the fightback is only just beginning.
:49:34. > :49:37.Also joining us another prospective Parliamentary candidate Christine
:49:37. > :49:42.Tinker standing for the Lib Dems in Shrewsbury and Atcham where she
:49:42. > :49:49.would need to overturn a majority of 8000 to win the seat from the
:49:49. > :49:57.Tories. Do you think we need to accept that high streets will never
:49:57. > :50:02.be the same that they were? I think so because times have changed and
:50:02. > :50:12.particularly in recession, it is harder to make anything work. I
:50:12. > :50:13.
:50:13. > :50:18.think all the plans with Mary Portis and the town teams and the bid, that
:50:18. > :50:23.it is good to have these schemes to try to regenerate the town centres.
:50:23. > :50:28.We might have to accept that the town centres have to get smaller,
:50:28. > :50:35.but very active and with really good shops for everyone covering lots of
:50:35. > :50:39.different needs. These statistics are frightening, won in five shops
:50:39. > :50:45.could close in five years. Is there any point in trying to halt that or
:50:45. > :50:50.should we look at high streets differently? The macro we have to do
:50:50. > :50:55.a mixture. In Shrewsbury there are a lot of small independent shops that
:50:55. > :51:00.have formed together to make quite a strong grip. Working to make sure
:51:00. > :51:07.they stay viable. That seems to be working. In other places they do not
:51:07. > :51:12.have that option but yes you have to look to see if residential partly is
:51:12. > :51:16.a good thing because that in itself would regenerate footfall in the
:51:16. > :51:26.town centre, particularly if you put in a couple of late night opening
:51:26. > :51:27.
:51:27. > :51:33.shops. You have experience in construction. That development in
:51:33. > :51:43.West Bromwich, is that one of a dying breed? It probably will be one
:51:43. > :51:46.
:51:46. > :51:50.of the last. My understanding was it was Tesco under the planning. There
:51:50. > :51:54.are structural changes, the high street will not go back to what it
:51:54. > :52:00.was, the Internet will not disappear but against that, there are things
:52:00. > :52:04.we can do in terms of moving towards residential. The key problem is the
:52:04. > :52:10.economy, people do not want to spend money because we have won million
:52:10. > :52:13.people out of work long term, it is difficult to justify discretionary
:52:13. > :52:21.spending and what we will happen is we will see a slight return in
:52:21. > :52:26.confidence. That will not happen if we do not change the employment
:52:26. > :52:30.situation. One of the key things is the nature of who goes to high
:52:30. > :52:35.streets. If you look at the demographic changes that our country
:52:35. > :52:41.is going through, we will see more people over the age of 60 who go to
:52:41. > :52:48.the high Street because they want to socialise, access other types of
:52:48. > :52:54.services. These are the kind of changes we will see. It is about
:52:54. > :52:57.using the space differently? Evolution is natural. Change is
:52:57. > :53:05.something to be embraced, entrepreneurs are embracing that
:53:06. > :53:15.change, it is perhaps taking longer than we would like. Saving the high
:53:16. > :53:16.
:53:16. > :53:22.Street, that English character of it, . Throwing �10,000 at a limited
:53:22. > :53:26.number of small town centres was not going to make a difference. The chap
:53:26. > :53:31.who said 20 years ago he would have done this, people like that have a
:53:31. > :53:41.dream of having a business and to give them six months rent-free space
:53:41. > :53:48.
:53:48. > :53:55.to build their business, to build it up, that is a very positive idea. It
:53:55. > :54:00.is a brilliant start. The business secretary said to be considering
:54:00. > :54:05.whether to take legal action to ensure that FTSE 100 firms meet a
:54:05. > :54:10.target of having a quarter of their board jobs held by women in 2015,
:54:10. > :54:14.but while business may struggle to promote business -- women to the
:54:14. > :54:21.top, two local councils are experiencing for the first time what
:54:21. > :54:26.it is like to have a woman at the top.
:54:27. > :54:33.One woman in a sea of men. It is easy to forget that not too long ago
:54:33. > :54:39.this was the norm but now things are changing. Here in Coventry the
:54:39. > :54:43.number of female councillors was just nine in the 80s and has risen
:54:43. > :54:51.to 15 today. Those numbers might still seem small but for the first
:54:51. > :54:59.time, a woman is now in charge. fought those battles back in the
:54:59. > :55:05.60s. We thought about than is but there are still battles that are
:55:05. > :55:11.more nuanced but they still have to be fought. I can only talk for the
:55:11. > :55:21.Labour Party and any meeting I went to there were always lots of women.
:55:21. > :55:22.
:55:22. > :55:28.But women were, I cannot believe this, women were happy to do the
:55:28. > :55:38.fates and the brewing and buys and make the tea. Over in Warwickshire
:55:38. > :55:39.
:55:39. > :55:43.and unexpected rise to power for council at Izzi Seccombe. I like to
:55:43. > :55:48.include people and this is cross-party. I think your
:55:48. > :55:52.personality should be able to overcome situations and the
:55:52. > :56:00.confidence that you can bring forward. What are these new leader
:56:00. > :56:10.is going to do? It is important that we introduced the living wage and as
:56:10. > :56:12.
:56:12. > :56:17.a woman, it is women who tend to be paid the less. How can I as a leader
:56:17. > :56:23.of one biggest businesses in the city go out there and tell people
:56:23. > :56:28.they should pay their workers better rates and give them better
:56:28. > :56:36.conditions if I do not do it? can say we have delivered against
:56:36. > :56:39.our spending review, if we have a sense of achievement within the
:56:39. > :56:45.people Warwickshire, if they feel services are good still and they are
:56:45. > :56:51.happy about that, that will be powerful for me. Out on the streets
:56:51. > :56:58.of Coventry, how many care who represents them? I do not think
:56:58. > :57:06.women will do any different than men do. I did not know we had a lady to
:57:06. > :57:12.be frank. I do not think gender has anything to do with politics.
:57:12. > :57:16.things are changing in local politics, nationally only 22% of MPs
:57:16. > :57:23.in Westminster are women and only four have cabinet positions.
:57:23. > :57:31.Here in the Midlands we have 11 women MPs out of 59. Kate, does that
:57:31. > :57:39.bother you? It does. But we recently went up to 14 councillors in the
:57:39. > :57:49.Labour Party. There is a real issue with this. Won in three Labour MPs
:57:49. > :57:51.
:57:51. > :57:58.are female, won in five Tory MPs are. In Birmingham, more than won in
:57:58. > :58:02.five was female. You have 15% of the people in parliament being MPs who
:58:02. > :58:08.are female, you are not getting the best because that is not
:58:08. > :58:12.representative. The cuts we have had have hit women hard. One of the
:58:12. > :58:20.reasons that has been possible is because of lack of female
:58:20. > :58:29.representation. Why do we not have more women in politics? This is
:58:29. > :58:33.something which needs to be handled carefully. I salute the promotion of
:58:33. > :58:40.these two leaders leading their councils. It is great that this kind
:58:40. > :58:44.of success is promoted. I do agree that being of a particular gender is
:58:44. > :58:48.not a qualification. The qualification is how good you are as
:58:48. > :58:58.a leader and sometimes the competition has been on affair.
:58:58. > :59:00.
:59:00. > :59:03.do you change that? I am not a fan of shortlists. We need to have good
:59:03. > :59:08.and fair competition to get these important posts because we want the
:59:08. > :59:16.best person in the job and by promoting where women have
:59:16. > :59:24.succeeded, what we are doing is highlighting that to others. Won of
:59:24. > :59:31.the greatest prime ministers we have had was Margaret Thatcher. She was
:59:31. > :59:36.often referred to as having very male like qualities. Christine,
:59:36. > :59:44.there was an interesting line from and Lucas, she said there are still
:59:44. > :59:49.battles to be won. I was in the Army and I knew that I had to be better
:59:49. > :59:57.than all the men there doing the same job because for some reason
:59:57. > :00:05.people are much harder when you are the minority. As the only woman in
:00:05. > :00:11.the regiment, if I made a mistake... It is less in politics in
:00:11. > :00:16.my own party which is the only ones I can talk about. We are running a
:00:16. > :00:22.leadership programme which is for women and minorities and the idea is
:00:22. > :00:26.to work very hard giving them extra support and training to ensure that
:00:26. > :00:32.first of all they get selected in winnable seats, and that is already
:00:32. > :00:42.happening, and also to make sure that we get more women elected
:00:42. > :00:44.
:00:44. > :00:51.because Nick Clegg has said... based on meritocracy. It is not
:00:51. > :01:00.based on gender but the party is firmly based on quality. Although
:01:00. > :01:06.only one in five of your members is female, you are not confident in
:01:06. > :01:09.their capabilities? As someone else who was identified as a minority I
:01:09. > :01:19.recognise what you are saying but in the air and the cream does get to
:01:19. > :01:22.
:01:22. > :01:28.the top. After 11 years service in the military... I agreed there are
:01:28. > :01:38.structural issues. I train a lot of female staff who are talented and I
:01:38. > :01:42.
:01:42. > :01:48.know that when it is in the case of the guys and girls it is different.
:01:48. > :01:51.Having these quotas is the wrong approach. The right approach is
:01:51. > :02:00.based on meritocracy. These two ladies are running the councils
:02:00. > :02:09.because they were the best leaders. That should be celebrated. We need
:02:10. > :02:15.the best people in our country running the best jobs. But you have
:02:15. > :02:25.to allow people the chance. We must leave it there. Here is our round-up
:02:25. > :02:26.
:02:26. > :02:30.of the political week in the Midlands in 60 seconds.
:02:30. > :02:37.Preparing for the Badger call here by looking to Ireland where farmers
:02:37. > :02:41.have cold since 2004 and the number of bovine TB cases has fallen. The
:02:41. > :02:46.after-shocks from the closure of Daw Mill Colliery continue. Steam
:02:46. > :02:51.railways are struggling to buy coal and miners fear losing redundancy
:02:51. > :02:55.payments. While managers at Birmingham airport say a new report
:02:55. > :03:00.about the UK's future aviation needs concentrates too much on the
:03:00. > :03:05.south-east. A couple are campaigning to get fertility treatment on the
:03:05. > :03:09.NHS. Corrie Walker became infertile after being given an experimental
:03:09. > :03:15.treatment for cancer but he is not being classed as an exceptional
:03:15. > :03:23.case. It is not a fair situation so I will not be giving up in the long
:03:23. > :03:29.term. And it is one year since the torch relay came to the Midlands.
:03:29. > :03:36.Here in Lynch, more reasons to look back fondly than most as baby Alfie
:03:36. > :03:41.arrived 12 days later. Some businesses have benefited as a
:03:41. > :03:48.result of the Olympics. The Coventry business that made the torches has
:03:48. > :03:55.been booming. Has the legacy happened? In the feeling of what it
:03:55. > :04:04.meant to be British... In Afghanistan where I was during the
:04:04. > :04:10.Olympics, we felt it. That spirit really is a great legacy. There was
:04:10. > :04:14.a concern that outside London it would not mean a lot. We are still
:04:14. > :04:23.talking about it. It was a huge cultural moment, the opening
:04:23. > :04:30.ceremony, and there is another great cultural moment which is the support
:04:30. > :04:37.staff at hospital. We have to protect the A&E in Stafford. We have
:04:37. > :04:45.to stop the NHS being affected as it has been. Thank you. Next week on
:04:45. > :04:51.the Sunday Politics, Patrick will be back in his chair. He will be joined
:04:51. > :04:56.by MPs Christopher Pincher and Emma Reynolds to discuss changes to the
:04:56. > :04:59.gun licensing system. BBC W M are starting a month long tour of the