Browse content similar to 08/12/2013. Check below for episodes and series from the same categories and more!
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The morning, folks. Welcome to the Sunday Politics. First, some Sunday | :00:39. | :00:44. | |
morning cheer, if you are an MP, that is. You are set to get an 11% | :00:45. | :00:49. | |
pay rise. The Chancellor has gone from zero to hero for some, who | :00:50. | :00:55. | |
credit him for turning the economy around. We will be taking a fine | :00:56. | :01:00. | |
tooth comb to his Autumn Statement. Should this man get a pay rise? | :01:01. | :01:05. | |
Complete denial about the central facts... And 11% pay rise for Ed | :01:06. | :01:12. | |
Balls? He was certainly working hard to be heard last Thursday. We will | :01:13. | :01:16. | |
be reviewing his performance. What about this man? We will be joined by | :01:17. | :01:19. | |
England's had on the capital, its politics and | :01:20. | :01:30. | |
those who met him. With me, three scruffy eternal | :01:31. | :01:48. | |
students. They would celebrate if they achieved a C+. But they are all | :01:49. | :01:51. | |
we could afford and there will be no pay rise for them. They will be | :01:52. | :01:54. | |
glued to an electronic device throughout the programme and if we | :01:55. | :01:57. | |
are lucky they might stop there internet shopping and tweet | :01:58. | :02:02. | |
something intelligent. But don't hold your breath. Janan Ganesh, | :02:03. | :02:08. | |
Helen Lewis and Nick Watt. Last week, storms were battering Britain, | :02:09. | :02:12. | |
the East Coast was hit by the worst tidal surge in more than a century, | :02:13. | :02:16. | |
thousands of people had to be evacuated and Nelson Mandela died. | :02:17. | :02:19. | |
The downed the news agenda was the small matter of George Osborne's | :02:20. | :02:27. | |
Autumn Statement. His giveaways, his takeaways and his first opportunity | :02:28. | :02:28. | |
to announce some economic cheer It might be winter outside, but in | :02:29. | :02:42. | |
the studios it is awesome. Autumn Statement time. -- autumn. This is a | :02:43. | :02:50. | |
moment of TV history. Normally when the Chancellor delivers these | :02:51. | :02:53. | |
statements, he has to say the economy is actually a lot worse than | :02:54. | :02:56. | |
everyone predicted. This time, he can stand up and say the economy is | :02:57. | :03:00. | |
better than everybody predicted. A lot better. | :03:01. | :03:06. | |
Britain is currently growing faster than any other major advanced | :03:07. | :03:15. | |
economy. Faster than France, which is contracting, faster than Germany, | :03:16. | :03:20. | |
faster even than America. At this Autumn Statement last year, there | :03:21. | :03:23. | |
were repeated predictions that borrowing would go up. Instead, | :03:24. | :03:28. | |
borrowing is down, and down significantly more than forecast. | :03:29. | :03:32. | |
But George Osborne said the good numbers still mean more tough | :03:33. | :03:38. | |
decisions. We will not give up in giving in our country's debts. We | :03:39. | :03:41. | |
will not spend the money from lower borrowing. We will not squander the | :03:42. | :03:45. | |
harder and games of the British people. -- hard earned gains. In | :03:46. | :03:54. | |
other news, further cuts to government departments. The state | :03:55. | :03:59. | |
pension age will increase in the 2040s, affecting people in their 40s | :04:00. | :04:04. | |
now. There were some goodies, like discounted business rates for small | :04:05. | :04:08. | |
businesses, free school meals for infants, favoured by the Lib Dems, | :04:09. | :04:12. | |
and those marriage tax breaks below that by the Tories. But, as with all | :04:13. | :04:16. | |
big fiscal events, it takes a while for the details to sink in. | :04:17. | :04:20. | |
The marriage tax allowance is a long-standing commitment that he | :04:21. | :04:27. | |
could not abandon. It does help those families were only one goes | :04:28. | :04:32. | |
out to work. It does not go to higher rate taxpayers, I don't | :04:33. | :04:36. | |
think. Perhaps it does, I can't remember. It makes me feel guilty, I | :04:37. | :04:39. | |
am taking them very seriously, but... Shall I give you them? There | :04:40. | :04:45. | |
is the Autumn Statement. Have that, a free gift from the Sunday | :04:46. | :04:50. | |
Politics. Is there no limit to the generosity of the BBC? | :04:51. | :04:56. | |
In the meantime, Twitter was awash with unflattering pictures of a | :04:57. | :05:02. | |
red-faced Ed Balls giving his response. Some pictures were more | :05:03. | :05:09. | |
than flattering than others. Is Ed Balls OK? Should we be worrying | :05:10. | :05:13. | |
about him? He looks very stressed. There is nothing to worry about in | :05:14. | :05:17. | |
terms of Ed balls and his analysis. He and Ed Miliband have been setting | :05:18. | :05:20. | |
the pace in terms of the focus on the living standards crisis. It was | :05:21. | :05:28. | |
very telling that there was not a mention of living standards last | :05:29. | :05:32. | |
time, we got 12 mentions this time. Never mind what he was saying, by | :05:33. | :05:36. | |
now everybody has a copy of the all-important paperwork. Time to | :05:37. | :05:43. | |
hand over to number cruncher extraordinaire Paul Johnson from the | :05:44. | :05:47. | |
Institute for Fiscal Studies. Of course it means that things are | :05:48. | :05:50. | |
significantly better this year and next than we thought they would be | :05:51. | :05:53. | |
just nine months ago. That has got to be good news. But it is also | :05:54. | :05:57. | |
worth looking at the growth figures a few years out. They have been | :05:58. | :06:01. | |
revised down a little bit. The reason is, the view of the office of | :06:02. | :06:09. | |
budget response ability is that the long run has not really changed very | :06:10. | :06:12. | |
much. We are getting a bit more growth now, but their view is that | :06:13. | :06:16. | |
it is at the cost of a little bit of the growth we will expect in the | :06:17. | :06:19. | |
years after the next general election. As the day draws to a | :06:20. | :06:24. | |
close, the one place there has definitely been no growth is the | :06:25. | :06:26. | |
graphics budget of my colleague, graphics budget of my colleague | :06:27. | :06:34. | |
Robert Preston. It's as good as it gets these days, I don't think the | :06:35. | :06:39. | |
viewers will mind. It's very Sunday Politics, if I might say. That is | :06:40. | :06:47. | |
very worrying. Was this a watershed for George | :06:48. | :06:52. | |
Osborne? Was it a watershed for Ed Balls? We can all make the case that | :06:53. | :06:56. | |
it is the wrong sort of recovery, a consumer led recovery. People are | :06:57. | :07:00. | |
spending money they don't have. At the end of the day, it for George | :07:01. | :07:04. | |
Osborne, it is growth, the first time he has been able to talk about | :07:05. | :07:09. | |
growth. It allows him to control the baseline, the fiscal debate for the | :07:10. | :07:13. | |
next generation. For Ed Balls, nearly not a good performance. But | :07:14. | :07:16. | |
don't write this man off. Judging by Twitter, Iain Dale, no friend of it | :07:17. | :07:21. | |
all is, said he did a good interview this morning on a rival TV channel. | :07:22. | :07:30. | |
I feel the fact that the Tories hate Ed Balls so passionately is probably | :07:31. | :07:33. | |
a good reason that they should hang onto him, in that Labour sends his | :07:34. | :07:39. | |
effectiveness. May be the Tories hope that they hold on to him as | :07:40. | :07:46. | |
well? A lot of people shouting at someone and mocking their speech | :07:47. | :07:48. | |
impediment, that is politics that doesn't make me want to engage. The | :07:49. | :07:52. | |
takeaway will be lots of people thinking that none of these people | :07:53. | :07:57. | |
are people they like. Who is the main heckler on the Labour front | :07:58. | :08:01. | |
bench West remarked I suppose he can't cast any stones. It would be | :08:02. | :08:05. | |
easier to sympathise with him, if it were not that David Cameron went | :08:06. | :08:09. | |
through a similar situation and John Bercow did not step in to stop the | :08:10. | :08:15. | |
wall of noise. It was guaranteed a good happen to a Labour politician. | :08:16. | :08:23. | |
It's painful to remove him because he had a Parliamentary following and | :08:24. | :08:30. | |
he will kick up a fuss. I think he's much more pragmatic on issues like | :08:31. | :08:35. | |
business than Ed Miliband. I'm told he wasn't keen on the energy price | :08:36. | :08:40. | |
freeze. The problem with Ed Balls, to have the first words that you | :08:41. | :08:45. | |
say, the Chancellor is in denial, after he is presiding over growth, | :08:46. | :08:49. | |
it means nobody is listening to you. Who would replace him? Certainly not | :08:50. | :08:53. | |
Alistair Darling, the side of the referendum and even afterwards. Ed | :08:54. | :08:57. | |
Balls did get a roasting in the press and on Twitter. He seemed to | :08:58. | :09:01. | |
disappear from public view following the Autumn Statement. But a little | :09:02. | :09:05. | |
bird tells me he managed one interview this morning before he | :09:06. | :09:07. | |
went off to an all-important piano recital this afternoon. Watch out, | :09:08. | :09:12. | |
Jools Holland, he could be after your job. How bad was his | :09:13. | :09:16. | |
performance on Thursday? Here is the Shadow Chancellor in action. The | :09:17. | :09:22. | |
Chancellor is incomplete denial about the central facts that are | :09:23. | :09:28. | |
defining this government in office. He used to say he would balance the | :09:29. | :09:38. | |
books in 2015. Now he wants us to congratulate him for saying he will | :09:39. | :09:44. | |
do it in 2019, Mr Speaker. With this government, it is clearly not just | :09:45. | :09:50. | |
the badgers that move the goalposts. No mention of the universal credit | :09:51. | :09:58. | |
in the statement. IDS, in deep shambles, Mr Speaker. Chris Leslie | :09:59. | :10:07. | |
is the Shadow Chief Secretary to the Treasury. He is Ed Balls's deputy, | :10:08. | :10:14. | |
in other words. Why do more and more of your Labour colleagues think that | :10:15. | :10:19. | |
your boss is below the water line? I'm not sure I accept the premise of | :10:20. | :10:23. | |
your suggestion. I don't think my colleagues believe that George | :10:24. | :10:26. | |
Osborne has a superior argument. I Osborne has a superior argument I | :10:27. | :10:30. | |
think Ed Balls will certainly trying his best, loud and clear, to make | :10:31. | :10:34. | |
the case there is a cost of living crisis in this country and the | :10:35. | :10:37. | |
Chancellor doesn't understand this. That was essentially the heat of the | :10:38. | :10:42. | |
debate on the Autumn Statement day. One leading Labour MPs said to me | :10:43. | :10:46. | |
that Ed Balls is always looking back, fixated with the rear-view | :10:47. | :10:50. | |
mirror, that was the exact quote. A Labour MP told Sky News, Labour has | :10:51. | :10:55. | |
a strong argument to make, unfortunately it was not made well | :10:56. | :11:00. | |
in the chamber today. Quoting the Daily Mail, this is two poor | :11:01. | :11:09. | |
performances. A quote that I can't use because it uses too many four | :11:10. | :11:15. | |
letter words. Baroness Armstrong, speaking at Progress, a former | :11:16. | :11:19. | |
Labour Cabinet minister, we are not sufficiently concerned about public | :11:20. | :11:22. | |
spending, how we would pay for what we are talking about. Quite a | :11:23. | :11:26. | |
battering? There were two sets of quotes you were giving. The couple | :11:27. | :11:32. | |
were about the strategy for tackling public expenditure. I think it's | :11:33. | :11:36. | |
fair that we talk about that. The rest were pretty unattributed, | :11:37. | :11:41. | |
nameless sources. You have never given and of the record briefing? We | :11:42. | :11:54. | |
have conversations off camera, but I don't think you have a wealth of | :11:55. | :11:56. | |
evidence to say that somehow Ed Balls's arguments were wrong. He was | :11:57. | :12:02. | |
making the point that, ultimately, it is a government that does not | :12:03. | :12:06. | |
have its finger on the pulse about what most of your viewers are | :12:07. | :12:10. | |
concerned about, that wages are being squeezed and prices are | :12:11. | :12:15. | |
getting higher and higher. You have had time to study the Autumn | :12:16. | :12:17. | |
Statement. What part of it does Labour disagree with? It is a very | :12:18. | :12:27. | |
big question. I think the overall strategy the Autumn Statement is | :12:28. | :12:30. | |
setting out does not deal with the fundamental problems in the economy. | :12:31. | :12:35. | |
What measures do you disagree with? A lot of it is the absence of | :12:36. | :12:38. | |
measures we would have put in if we were doing the Autumn Statement. | :12:39. | :12:40. | |
measures we would have put in if we were doing the Autumn Statement If | :12:41. | :12:41. | |
you are going to deal with the cost of living crisis, you have got to | :12:42. | :12:45. | |
get productivity levels up in our society. One of the best ways of | :12:46. | :12:47. | |
doing that is on infrastructure We doing that is on infrastructure. We | :12:48. | :12:51. | |
believe in bringing forward 's investment and housing, getting some | :12:52. | :12:56. | |
of the fundamentals right in our economy. By planting, the business | :12:57. | :13:03. | |
lending we have to do. We have seen a lamentable failing. There are big | :13:04. | :13:12. | |
structural reforms that we need. Ultimately, the public are concerned | :13:13. | :13:14. | |
about the cost of living crisis. about the cost of living crisis | :13:15. | :13:19. | |
That has got to be childcare help, a 10p starting rate of tax. Above | :13:20. | :13:23. | |
all, and energy price freeze, which still this government are refusing | :13:24. | :13:29. | |
to do. On Friday, you told me you supported the principle of a welfare | :13:30. | :13:35. | |
cap. But you change bling claim the Chancellor's cap included pensions. | :13:36. | :13:37. | |
You have now seen the figures, and it does not include pensions, | :13:38. | :13:43. | |
correct? We do want a welfare cap. The government have said they are | :13:44. | :13:48. | |
going to put more detail on this in the March budget. But it does not | :13:49. | :13:52. | |
include pensions? We think they have a short term approach to the welfare | :13:53. | :13:58. | |
cap. They put in some pension benefits. The state pension is not | :13:59. | :14:02. | |
in the short-term plan because, as we believe, a triple lock is a good | :14:03. | :14:08. | |
idea. In the longer term, if you are talking about structural welfare | :14:09. | :14:11. | |
issues, you do have to think about pensions because they have to be | :14:12. | :14:14. | |
sustainable if we are living longer. I think that is about the | :14:15. | :14:19. | |
careful management. Let me show you what Ed Balls said on this programme | :14:20. | :14:24. | |
at the start of the summer. As for pensioners, I think this is a real | :14:25. | :14:28. | |
question. George Osborne is going to announce his cap in two weeks time. | :14:29. | :14:32. | |
I don't know if he will exclude pension spending or including. Our | :14:33. | :14:37. | |
plan is to include it. Pension spending would be included in the | :14:38. | :14:41. | |
welfare cap? That is our plan, exactly what I just said. Over the | :14:42. | :14:45. | |
long-term, if you have a serious welfare cap structural welfare | :14:46. | :14:51. | |
issues, over 20, 30, 40 year period, you can't say that we will | :14:52. | :14:54. | |
not work and pensions as part of that. Pensions would be part of the | :14:55. | :15:01. | |
Labour cap? In the longer term. What is the longer term? If you win 015? | :15:02. | :15:05. | |
is the longer term? If you win 2015? We want to stick with the triple | :15:06. | :15:11. | |
lock on the pension, that is the Government approach to their | :15:12. | :15:14. | |
short-term welfare cap. In the longer term, for example, on the | :15:15. | :15:18. | |
winter fuel allowance, we should not necessarily be... There are lots of | :15:19. | :15:24. | |
benefits... I understand that, I am talking about the basic state | :15:25. | :15:27. | |
pension, is that part of your welfare cap or not? In a 20, 30, | :15:28. | :15:31. | |
pension, is that part of your welfare cap or not? In a 20, 30 40 | :15:32. | :15:34. | |
year frame... Even you will not be around in government, then. You are | :15:35. | :15:45. | |
writing me off already. You have to focus on welfare changes, pensions | :15:46. | :15:48. | |
have to be affordable as part of that. It's dangerous to say, well, | :15:49. | :15:52. | |
if you are going to have a serious welfare cap, we should not look at | :15:53. | :15:55. | |
pensions cost. It would be irresponsible. Will pensions be part | :15:56. | :16:02. | |
of the cap from 2015 until 2020 if Labour is in power? In our long term | :16:03. | :16:05. | |
Labour is in power? In our long-term cap we have to make sure... I'm | :16:06. | :16:07. | |
talking about 2015-16. We haven t talking about 2015-16. We haven't | :16:08. | :16:15. | |
seen the proposition the Government has put before us. | :16:16. | :16:21. | |
You claim people of ?1600 worse off under the coalition. That is true | :16:22. | :16:31. | |
when you compare to pay and prices. Can you confirm that calculation | :16:32. | :16:36. | |
does not include the ?700 tax cut from raising the income tax | :16:37. | :16:41. | |
threshold, huge savings on mortgages because of low interest or the | :16:42. | :16:46. | |
freezing of council tax? It doesn't include the tax and benefit | :16:47. | :16:49. | |
changes. If you do want to look at those, last year, the ISS said they | :16:50. | :16:55. | |
could be making people worse off. It might not include those factors. | :16:56. | :16:59. | |
could be making people worse off. It might not include those factors The | :17:00. | :17:04. | |
VAT increase, tax credit cuts, child benefit cuts, they all add up. My | :17:05. | :17:09. | |
understanding is that the ISS figures have said people are ?891 | :17:10. | :17:12. | |
figures have said people are ?8 1 worse off if you look at the tax and | :17:13. | :17:18. | |
benefit changes since 2010. You have to look at wages and prices. The ISS | :17:19. | :17:24. | |
confirmed our approach was broadly the right way of assessing what is | :17:25. | :17:28. | |
happening. The Chancellor was saying, real household disposable | :17:29. | :17:35. | |
incomes are rising. He is completely out of touch. Can you sum up the | :17:36. | :17:41. | |
macro economic policy for Labour? Invest in the future, make sure we | :17:42. | :17:46. | |
have the right approach for the long-term politicking. Tackle the | :17:47. | :17:49. | |
cost of living crisis people are facing. | :17:50. | :17:52. | |
Now, let's talk to the Financial Secretary to the Treasury, Sajid | :17:53. | :17:59. | |
Javid. Discovery, underpinned by rising | :18:00. | :18:05. | |
house prices, increasing personal debt, do you accept that is | :18:06. | :18:10. | |
unsustainable? I accept the OBE are also said the | :18:11. | :18:15. | |
reason why this country is facing more these challenges -- OBR. | :18:16. | :18:24. | |
That is because we went through a Labour recession, the worst we have | :18:25. | :18:30. | |
seen in 100 years. But do you accept that a recovery underpinned by these | :18:31. | :18:36. | |
things I have just read out isn't sustainable? We set out a long-term | :18:37. | :18:41. | |
plan for recovery, and again this week. We have shown with the tough | :18:42. | :18:47. | |
decisions we have made already, the country can enjoy a recovery. There | :18:48. | :18:51. | |
are still a lot of difficult decisions. The biggest risk are | :18:52. | :18:58. | |
Labour's plans. The March projections work at for those -- | :18:59. | :19:05. | |
Labour's plans. The March projections work at for those - for | :19:06. | :19:07. | |
both business investment and exports. Suddenly it is expected to | :19:08. | :19:12. | |
rise 5% next year, a 10% turnaround in investment. How is it credible? I | :19:13. | :19:17. | |
have been in business before politics. Any business person | :19:18. | :19:22. | |
listening will know, when you have gone through a recession, the | :19:23. | :19:27. | |
deepest in 100 years, it will hit investment, profits, you can't make | :19:28. | :19:32. | |
plans again until you have confidence in the economy. That is | :19:33. | :19:35. | |
what this country is seeing now under this government. This is an | :19:36. | :19:45. | |
assumption made independently. The fall in business investment is | :19:46. | :19:50. | |
because of the recession. The forecast increases, 5% next year, | :19:51. | :19:57. | |
and so on, it is based on the independent forecast. Based on fact. | :19:58. | :20:03. | |
If you look at the investment plans of companies, this week, the | :20:04. | :20:11. | |
Chancellor went to JCB, Jaguar Land Rover has plans to create more | :20:12. | :20:16. | |
jobs, these investment plans are coming through now because of the | :20:17. | :20:20. | |
confidence generated by this government, such as the cut in | :20:21. | :20:23. | |
corporation tax which Labour would increase. Are the export forecasts | :20:24. | :20:31. | |
more credible? The 15 years, our share of world trade decline. | :20:32. | :20:37. | |
Suddenly starting next year, it stops falling. That's not credible. | :20:38. | :20:44. | |
I worked in finance the 20 years. I have yet to find any forecast which | :20:45. | :20:51. | |
is fully right. Under Labour, we would have forecasts made by Gordon | :20:52. | :20:56. | |
Brown who would announce he would hit all his targets. Now we have an | :20:57. | :21:00. | |
independent system. Do you accept, if exports or | :21:01. | :21:08. | |
business investment do not pick up, then a purely consumer led recovery | :21:09. | :21:13. | |
is not sustainable? We need more than a consumer led recovery. We | :21:14. | :21:17. | |
need consumer investment to go up. On Xbox, it is noticeable that | :21:18. | :21:24. | |
experts are primarily down because the markets we trade with, the | :21:25. | :21:26. | |
eurozone markets, are depressed. eurozone markets, are depressed | :21:27. | :21:31. | |
Many have just come out of recession. Or they are still in | :21:32. | :21:37. | |
recession. If you look at exports to non-EU countries, they are up 30%. | :21:38. | :21:41. | |
non-EU countries, they are up 3 %. 120% to China. 100% to Russia. | :21:42. | :21:48. | |
Will you keep the triple lock for the state pension beyond 2015? Yes, | :21:49. | :21:56. | |
long term. That's why it is not part of our welfare cap. Chris Leslie | :21:57. | :22:00. | |
cannot answer that question. It is straightforward. | :22:01. | :22:09. | |
House prices are now rising ten times faster than average earnings. | :22:10. | :22:15. | |
That's not good. House prices are rising, partly reflecting recovery. | :22:16. | :22:21. | |
Ten times faster than average earnings, how can people afford to | :22:22. | :22:25. | |
buy homes if it carries on? What you would hope, this is the evidence, if | :22:26. | :22:30. | |
you look at the plans of the month companies, they are planning new | :22:31. | :22:37. | |
homes which will mean that, as this demand spurs that investment, more | :22:38. | :22:41. | |
homes will come about. We need to give people the means to buy those | :22:42. | :22:45. | |
homes. We have introduced the help to buy scheme. I accept the OBR says | :22:46. | :23:34. | |
it will start rising again but as household debt rises again Petr Cech | :23:35. | :23:49. | |
reduces, -- as household debt reduces, we need to make sure there | :23:50. | :23:55. | |
are checks in place. Wages have not been rising in real terms for quite | :23:56. | :23:59. | |
some time. Over the next five years, even as the economy grows, by about | :24:00. | :24:14. | |
15% according the OBR to the OBR -- but people will not benefit. These | :24:15. | :24:21. | |
hard-working families will not share in the recovery. What is the best | :24:22. | :24:26. | |
way to help those families? The government doesn't set wages. What | :24:27. | :24:31. | |
we can do is influence the overall economy. We don't have a magic | :24:32. | :24:40. | |
lever. Wages have been stagnating for five years. When will people get | :24:41. | :24:44. | |
a proper salary? The best way for wage growth is a growing economy, | :24:45. | :24:51. | |
more jobs. We have more people employed in Britain today than at | :24:52. | :24:56. | |
any time in our history. The biggest risk to recovery is if we let Labour | :24:57. | :25:02. | |
into the Treasury with more spending and more debt. Which got us into | :25:03. | :25:06. | |
this trouble. By whatever measure you care to choose, would people be | :25:07. | :25:13. | |
better off come the 20 15th election than they were in 2010? Yes, they | :25:14. | :25:20. | |
will be. Look at jobs. Already more people employed than at any other | :25:21. | :25:25. | |
time in history. Will they be better off? The best way for anyone to | :25:26. | :25:29. | |
raise their living standards is access to a growing job market. But | :25:30. | :25:36. | |
will they be better off? I believe people will be. Compared to 2010. | :25:37. | :25:39. | |
people will be. Compared to 201 . Yes. In terms of take-home pay. This | :25:40. | :25:44. | |
is a credible measure. Now, what do you think the Education | :25:45. | :25:51. | |
Secretary, Michael Gove, was like at school? Hard-working? Hand always | :25:52. | :25:54. | |
up? Top of the class? Well, if he wasn't passionate about education | :25:55. | :25:57. | |
then, he is now. In fact, since he took office, it seems he hasn't | :25:58. | :26:05. | |
stopped working very hard indeed. When the coalition came to power, | :26:06. | :26:08. | |
Michael Gove evoked Mao, saying they were on a long march to reform | :26:09. | :26:11. | |
education. Just like Mao, they faced a baby boom, so pledged ?5 billion | :26:12. | :26:17. | |
for new school places. They extended Labour's academy programme. There's | :26:18. | :26:22. | |
now about 3,000 in England. But then, they marched even further | :26:23. | :26:24. | |
creating free schools run by parents, funded by taxpayers. 174 | :26:25. | :26:27. | |
parents, funded by taxpayers. 1 4 have opened so far. The schools | :26:28. | :26:33. | |
admission code was changed, to give parents more choice. | :26:34. | :26:36. | |
And a pupil premium was introduced, currently, an extra ?900 funding for | :26:37. | :26:40. | |
each disadvantaged child. An overhaul of the national | :26:41. | :26:44. | |
curriculum provoked criticism. Chairman Gove mocked detractors as | :26:45. | :26:48. | |
"bad academia". But exam reforms didn't quite go to plan. Although | :26:49. | :26:54. | |
GCSEs got harder, plans to replace A-levels had to be abandoned. | :26:55. | :26:58. | |
Ultimately, the true test of these reforms will be what happens in the | :26:59. | :27:04. | |
classroom. The person in charge of making sure those classrooms are up | :27:05. | :27:07. | |
to scratch in England is the Chief Inspector Of Schools, head of | :27:08. | :27:09. | |
Ofsted, Michael Wilshaw, who joins me now. | :27:10. | :27:15. | |
Over the past 15 years, we have doubled spending on schools even | :27:16. | :27:20. | |
allowing for inflation. By international standards, we are | :27:21. | :27:25. | |
stagnating, why? I said last year that mediocrity had settled into the | :27:26. | :27:30. | |
system. Too many children were coasting in schools, which is why we | :27:31. | :27:41. | |
changed the grading structure, we removed that awful word, | :27:42. | :27:47. | |
satisfactory. Saying that good is now the only acceptable standard and | :27:48. | :27:50. | |
schools had a limited time in which to get to that. We are seeing | :27:51. | :27:54. | |
gradually, it is difficult to say this in the week we have had the | :27:55. | :27:58. | |
OECD report. Things have gradually improved. I will come onto that in a | :27:59. | :28:06. | |
minute. Explain this. International comparisons show us flat-lining or | :28:07. | :28:10. | |
even falling in some subjects, including science. For 20 years our | :28:11. | :28:16. | |
domestic exam results just got better and better. Was this a piece | :28:17. | :28:20. | |
of fiction fed to us by the educational establishment, was there | :28:21. | :28:24. | |
a cover-up? There is no question there has grade inflation. I speak | :28:25. | :28:30. | |
as an ex-headteacher who saw that in examinations. Perceptual state is | :28:31. | :28:36. | |
actually doing something about that. Most good heads will say that is | :28:37. | :28:46. | |
about time. We have to be credible. Do politicians and educationalists | :28:47. | :28:51. | |
conspire in this grade inflation? It might suit politicians to say things | :28:52. | :28:55. | |
are going up every year. As a head, I knew a lot of the exams youngsters | :28:56. | :28:59. | |
were sitting were not up to scratch. The latest OECD study places us 36th | :29:00. | :29:08. | |
for maths, 23rd reading, slipping down to 21st in science. Yet, | :29:09. | :29:14. | |
Ofsted, your organisation, designates 80% of schools as good or | :29:15. | :29:19. | |
outstanding. That's another fiction. This year, we have. If we see this | :29:20. | :29:24. | |
level of progress, it has been a remarkable progress over the last | :29:25. | :29:27. | |
years since we changed our grading structure, then... In a year, | :29:28. | :29:34. | |
absolutely. We have better teachers coming into our school system. | :29:35. | :29:39. | |
Better leaders. Better schools. The big challenge for our country is | :29:40. | :29:42. | |
making sure that progress is maintained which will eventually | :29:43. | :29:44. | |
translate into better outcomes. These figures are pretty much | :29:45. | :29:54. | |
up-to-date. Are you saying within a year 80% of the schools are good | :29:55. | :29:59. | |
enough? All of the schools we upgraded have had better grades in | :30:00. | :30:04. | |
GCSE and grade 2. We have to make sure that is maintained. The | :30:05. | :30:08. | |
Government has based its reforms on similar reforms in Sweden. In | :30:09. | :30:12. | |
opposition they were endlessly going to Stockholm to find out how it was | :30:13. | :30:16. | |
done. Swedish schools are doing even worse than ours in the tables. Why | :30:17. | :30:23. | |
are we copying failure? The secretary of state believes, and I | :30:24. | :30:28. | |
actually believe, as somebody who has come from an academy model, that | :30:29. | :30:33. | |
if you hand power and resources, you hand autonomy to the people on the | :30:34. | :30:36. | |
ground, to the people in the classroom, in the corridors, in the | :30:37. | :30:41. | |
playgrounds, things work. If you allow the great monoliths that used | :30:42. | :30:46. | |
to have responsibility for education in the past to take control again, | :30:47. | :30:51. | |
you will see a reverse in standards. You have got to actually empower | :30:52. | :30:54. | |
those people that make the difference. That is why autonomy and | :30:55. | :31:00. | |
freedom is important. We spent a lot of money moving what were local | :31:01. | :31:02. | |
authority schools to become academies and new free school czar | :31:03. | :31:07. | |
being set up as well. When the academies are pretty much the same | :31:08. | :31:10. | |
level of autonomy, the free school is maybe a little bit more, the | :31:11. | :31:14. | |
evidence we have had so far is that they don't really perform any better | :31:15. | :31:19. | |
than local authority schools? Indeed, Encore GCSE subjects, they | :31:20. | :31:24. | |
might even be doing worse? These are early days. We will say more about | :31:25. | :31:27. | |
this on weapons they when we produce the annual report. The sponsored | :31:28. | :31:32. | |
academies that took over the worst schools in the country, in the most | :31:33. | :31:36. | |
difficult circumstances, in the most disadvantaged communities, are doing | :31:37. | :31:41. | |
much better now. What about GCSE? They are doing GCSE equivalents, the | :31:42. | :31:44. | |
They are doing GCSE equivalents the lass academic subjects question my | :31:45. | :31:50. | |
cull OK, but they are doing better than previous schools. If you look | :31:51. | :31:54. | |
at the top performing nations in the world, they focus on the quality of | :31:55. | :32:07. | |
teaching. The best graduates coming to education. They professionally | :32:08. | :32:10. | |
develop them. They make sure they spot the brightest talents and get | :32:11. | :32:14. | |
them into positions as soon as possible. We have got to do the same | :32:15. | :32:18. | |
if we are going to catch up with those jurisdictions. This isn't just | :32:19. | :32:24. | |
a British problem. It seems to be a European problem. The East Asian | :32:25. | :32:28. | |
countries now dominate the top of the tables. What's the most | :32:29. | :32:30. | |
important lesson we should learn from East Asia? Attitudes to work. | :32:31. | :32:36. | |
We need to make sure that we invest in good teachers, good leaders. We | :32:37. | :32:43. | |
have to make sure that students have the right attitudes to work. It s | :32:44. | :32:44. | |
have to make sure that students have the right attitudes to work. It's no | :32:45. | :32:44. | |
the right attitudes to work. It s no good getting good people into the | :32:45. | :32:49. | |
classroom and then seeing them part of teaching by bad behaviour, | :32:50. | :32:52. | |
disaffected youngsters and poor leadership. We see young teachers | :32:53. | :33:00. | |
doing well for a time and then being put off teaching and leaving from | :33:01. | :33:05. | |
that sort of culture in our schools. Are you a cheerleader for government | :33:06. | :33:08. | |
education policy rather than independent inspectors? I am | :33:09. | :33:12. | |
independent, Ofsted is independent. I believe we are saying the right | :33:13. | :33:19. | |
things on standards. The Association of teachers and lecturers say you | :33:20. | :33:22. | |
are an arm of government. The NUT has called for your resignation. | :33:23. | :33:26. | |
Another wants to abolish or Inspectorate. Have you become a | :33:27. | :33:30. | |
pariah amongst teaching unions? If we are challenging schools to become | :33:31. | :33:36. | |
better, that is our job, we will carry on doing that. I am not going | :33:37. | :33:41. | |
to preside over the status quo. We will challenge the system to do | :33:42. | :33:44. | |
better, we will challenge schools and colleges to do better. We will | :33:45. | :33:48. | |
also challenge government when we think they are going wrong. Many | :33:49. | :33:52. | |
people in the education establishment think your primary | :33:53. | :33:55. | |
purpose is to do the Government's bidding by shepherding schools into | :33:56. | :34:02. | |
becoming academies. Not true at all. You are a big supporter of | :34:03. | :34:07. | |
academies? Yes, I believe the people that do the business in schools are | :34:08. | :34:10. | |
the people that are free to do what is necessary to raise standards. I | :34:11. | :34:15. | |
am a big supporter of autonomy in the school system. But where we see | :34:16. | :34:23. | |
academies Vale, where we see free schools fail, we will say so. The | :34:24. | :34:28. | |
study does not find much evidence that competition and choice raise | :34:29. | :34:34. | |
standards, but it does go with you and say that strong school | :34:35. | :34:37. | |
leadership, coupled with autonomy, can make a difference. Can somebody | :34:38. | :34:41. | |
with no experience in education be in charge of a school? A lot of hot | :34:42. | :34:46. | |
air has been expounded on the issue of whether teachers should be | :34:47. | :34:49. | |
qualified or not. If qualified teacher status was the gold | :34:50. | :34:52. | |
standard, why is it that one in three teachers, one in three lessons | :34:53. | :35:01. | |
that will observe are not good enough. Taught by qualified | :35:02. | :35:05. | |
teachers. I've not yet met a headteacher that has not appointed | :35:06. | :35:09. | |
by qualified staff when they cannot get qualified teachers. Their job is | :35:10. | :35:13. | |
to make sure they get accredited as soon as possible and come up to | :35:14. | :35:17. | |
scratch in the classroom. Do you support the use of unqualified | :35:18. | :35:22. | |
teachers? I do. I have done it. If I could not get a maths, physics or | :35:23. | :35:26. | |
modern languages teacher and I thought somebody straight from | :35:27. | :35:28. | |
university, without qualified teachers start this, that they could | :35:29. | :35:31. | |
communicate well with youngsters, I would get that person into the | :35:32. | :35:36. | |
classroom and get them accredited if they delivered the goods. If we are | :35:37. | :35:40. | |
going to allow schools to have more autonomy and not be accountable to | :35:41. | :35:43. | |
local authorities, free schools academies, don't you have to do... | :35:44. | :35:50. | |
New entrants will be coming into the market, the educational marketplace. | :35:51. | :35:54. | |
Do you not have to act more quickly when it is clear, and there has been | :35:55. | :36:01. | |
examined recently, where it is clearly going badly wrong and | :36:02. | :36:05. | |
children's education at risk? Absolutely. I made a point to the | :36:06. | :36:09. | |
secretary of state and it is something I will talk more about | :36:10. | :36:12. | |
over the coming year. We need to be in school is much more often. If a | :36:13. | :36:15. | |
school fails at the moment, or underperforms, goes into this new | :36:16. | :36:20. | |
category, Her Majesty 's inspectors stay with that institution until it | :36:21. | :36:25. | |
improves. Sometimes we don't see a school for five or seven years. That | :36:26. | :36:30. | |
is wrong. My argument is that Ofsted should pay a much greater part in | :36:31. | :36:33. | |
monitoring the performance of schools between those inspections. | :36:34. | :36:39. | |
Are you enjoying it? It is a tough job. Are you enjoying it? This is a | :36:40. | :36:44. | |
tough job, but I enjoy it. Sometimes. | :36:45. | :36:50. | |
You are watching Sunday Politics. Coming up in just over 20 minutes, | :36:51. | :36:54. | |
Diane Abbott will be joining us. And we will have | :36:55. | :37:05. | |
Hello once again from the Midlands. I'm Patrick Burns. We're joined | :37:06. | :37:12. | |
today by an MP who's belonged to the same party for over 60 years, and an | :37:13. | :37:16. | |
MEP who's setting`up a brand new one. David Winnick, Labour MP for | :37:17. | :37:19. | |
Walsall North, is a member of the increasingly high`profile Commons | :37:20. | :37:28. | |
Home Affairs Select Committee. Mike Nattrass was elected as a UKIP MEP | :37:29. | :37:32. | |
at the last two European elections, but next time he plans to stand for | :37:33. | :37:36. | |
An Independence Party, the AIP for short. | :37:37. | :37:50. | |
Let's begin with yet more good news for Solihull, Castle Bromwich, i`54 | :37:51. | :37:52. | |
and everywhere else connected with Jaguar Land Rover. No sooner had | :37:53. | :38:03. | |
they announced pre`tax profits of over ?1 billion for the past six | :38:04. | :38:06. | |
months, than David Cameron, on his trade mission to China, was on hand | :38:07. | :38:10. | |
to see them seal a ?4.5 billion sales agreement for over 100,000 | :38:11. | :38:13. | |
cars over the coming year. Accompanied by 120 business leaders, | :38:14. | :38:16. | |
including JLR's chief executive, the Prime Minister was at the opening of | :38:17. | :38:19. | |
the firm's new academy in Beijing, where technical, sales and service | :38:20. | :38:32. | |
staff will undergo their training. Part of our long`term economic plan | :38:33. | :38:36. | |
is to make sure Britain is a success in global markets. Jaguar Land Rover | :38:37. | :38:41. | |
employed 38 thousand people back at home. It is doing brilliantly in | :38:42. | :38:47. | |
China and Taiwan to themselves more cars, achieve more investment, and | :38:48. | :38:51. | |
export the British model of apprenticeships. | :38:52. | :38:55. | |
And during another leg of Mr Cameron's tour, this time in | :38:56. | :38:58. | |
Shanghai, the Chinese owners of the London Taxi Company unveiled an ?80 | :38:59. | :39:00. | |
million investment programme, creating 200 more jobs in research | :39:01. | :39:03. | |
and production at their Coventry plant, including the development of | :39:04. | :39:06. | |
a new hybrid model. Geely say it will lead ultimately to a four`fold | :39:07. | :39:22. | |
expansion of the workforce there. The evidence is that we are | :39:23. | :39:25. | |
certainly competing in a global race. Our job, I would be the last | :39:26. | :39:37. | |
to criticise David Cameron in this aspect. It could be said that he | :39:38. | :39:40. | |
should have mentioned other matters in China, but anything that rings | :39:41. | :39:44. | |
investment and jobs to the West Midlands meets with the approval of | :39:45. | :39:50. | |
everybody. It does appear to be feeding into the supply chain | :39:51. | :39:57. | |
companies. Indeed. We have said time and time again that such investment | :39:58. | :40:01. | |
and development does indeed work. So many firms in the Black Country | :40:02. | :40:06. | |
provide the main supplier with various items which they couldn't do | :40:07. | :40:19. | |
without. Is there a danger that we do turn a blind eye to this | :40:20. | :40:23. | |
marketplace in the EU which is on our doorstep? We need to trade with | :40:24. | :40:30. | |
the world and the EU. The EU are taking over our bilateral | :40:31. | :40:33. | |
agreements, so we cannot have one with China. It is through the EU. | :40:34. | :40:39. | |
They are stealing our Commonwealth. In the past, it would have been the | :40:40. | :40:44. | |
UK or Britain and is a long, and it is now the EU and Sri Lanka, and I | :40:45. | :40:55. | |
resent that happily. Presumably you were talking about human rights but | :40:56. | :41:02. | |
he should have raids. I did not expecting to go giver Lech Shah on | :41:03. | :41:06. | |
human rights but it would have been right to express some concern. `` to | :41:07. | :41:16. | |
go give a lecture. I think some comment would have been useful. I | :41:17. | :41:26. | |
can see you agree. Broadly, I do. Coming up a little later: It was | :41:27. | :41:29. | |
billed as the Autumn Statement where George Osborne 'secures the | :41:30. | :41:31. | |
recovery'. So has the Chancellor got the right | :41:32. | :41:34. | |
ingredients for growth in our part of the country, or will he have to | :41:35. | :41:38. | |
change his recipe because of the cost of living crisis? That's our | :41:39. | :41:41. | |
other big talking point, in a moment or two. | :41:42. | :41:47. | |
Record numbers of Midlanders will turn to food banks to feed | :41:48. | :41:50. | |
themselves and their families this Christmas. New figures show those | :41:51. | :41:53. | |
using them are already up by nearly 10,000 on last year. The Trussell | :41:54. | :41:57. | |
Trust, which runs 40 food banks in our part of the country, blames the | :41:58. | :42:00. | |
rise partly on government changes to the benefits system. Our Coventry | :42:01. | :42:08. | |
and Warwickshire political reporter Sian Grzeszczyk spoke to one mother | :42:09. | :42:11. | |
who said she would have considered stealing to feed her family, but for | :42:12. | :42:18. | |
the free hand`outs. Last week, these cupboards were bare and I had to go | :42:19. | :42:21. | |
to a food bank, which was a great help. | :42:22. | :42:23. | |
Thankfully, her cupboards are full today. But for the last few weeks, | :42:24. | :42:26. | |
Susan's been struggling to feed herself and her children. She says a | :42:27. | :42:30. | |
cut to her husband's benefits left her with no choice but to get help | :42:31. | :42:41. | |
from a foodbank. We ended up having benefits cut to ?69 for a week. Gas | :42:42. | :42:47. | |
and Electric to give the house going. I ended up turning to a food | :42:48. | :42:51. | |
bank. It was absolutely brilliant to supporters through that time. What | :42:52. | :42:57. | |
would you have done without it? I don't really know. I don't know | :42:58. | :43:15. | |
where I would have gone. Possibly it would have lead to crime. I would | :43:16. | :43:20. | |
steal, I would have too. To provide for my children. So you would have | :43:21. | :43:29. | |
stolen? Food, to provide for my children, yes. In order to get food, | :43:30. | :43:33. | |
you need to be referred by groups like doctors, the police, schools or | :43:34. | :43:36. | |
health visitors. This old church stores tonnes of supplies for | :43:37. | :43:39. | |
Coventry's foodbanks. The man who runs it tells me demand is soaring. | :43:40. | :43:50. | |
The sorts of things we are seeing are around welfare and certainly | :43:51. | :43:54. | |
things like sanctions, benefit change, benefit delayed. Only half | :43:55. | :43:57. | |
the people coming through have suffered with that. The food bank is | :43:58. | :44:03. | |
a point of last resort. In fact, the latest figures show that for the | :44:04. | :44:07. | |
whole of last year more than 41,000 people received help from foodbanks | :44:08. | :44:10. | |
in the West Midlands. But that number's already been surpassed in | :44:11. | :44:13. | |
the first eight months of this year, with more than 50,000 people coming | :44:14. | :44:17. | |
through the doors. Susan and her husband are trying to get back on | :44:18. | :44:21. | |
track. But they feel very strongly that changes to the benefits system | :44:22. | :44:29. | |
led to their situation. It's a mess. And that is in nice light words. The | :44:30. | :44:35. | |
gentleman who deals with the benefits, the welfare secretary, is | :44:36. | :44:40. | |
it? He should be looking at people that are on benefits and why are | :44:41. | :44:46. | |
they needing food banks as much as they are? The Trussell Trust says | :44:47. | :44:52. | |
more and more people like Susan and her family are turning to foodbanks, | :44:53. | :44:56. | |
but the government says that's not surprising because of the amount of | :44:57. | :45:07. | |
new ones being set up. Sian Grzeszczyk. In a moment I'll be | :45:08. | :45:11. | |
talking to Anne Danks from the Christian anti`poverty charity the | :45:12. | :45:14. | |
Trussell Trust. They report a huge surge in demand at their 40 food | :45:15. | :45:17. | |
banks here. And we also invited the Work and Pensions Department to take | :45:18. | :45:21. | |
part in this programme, but they declined. In a written statement | :45:22. | :45:31. | |
they told us: I'm pleased to say the Conservative MP for Nuneaton Marcus | :45:32. | :45:34. | |
Jones has been rather more forthcoming about this. I think | :45:35. | :45:41. | |
there are a number of issues at play year. The squeeze on the cost of | :45:42. | :45:45. | |
living in the last seven years has been enormous. The number of food | :45:46. | :45:51. | |
banks has increased tenfold in the last Labour government and is still | :45:52. | :45:54. | |
increasing. The current government has allowed organisations like job | :45:55. | :45:59. | |
centre to signpost to food banks. That is all leading to a substantial | :46:00. | :46:03. | |
increase to be but accessing and using food banks. I am aware people | :46:04. | :46:08. | |
are squeezed with the cost of living and I'm glad I have supported the | :46:09. | :46:17. | |
allowance, so people are better off. I think council tax freezes | :46:18. | :46:25. | |
have been really helpful as well. Let's be clear, exactly what do you | :46:26. | :46:33. | |
attribute this surge in demand to? Many reasons. Benefit delay and | :46:34. | :46:42. | |
benefit issues of all kinds, including sanctions, are | :46:43. | :46:44. | |
increasingly the reasons we are seeing referrals. The government | :46:45. | :46:50. | |
Saver delivery of benefits of delivery on time has gone up and | :46:51. | :46:57. | |
they say there is no robust evidence it is anything to do with their | :46:58. | :47:03. | |
welfare changes. People can talk statistics but one thing which is | :47:04. | :47:09. | |
clear is the reason that job centre plus was allowed to reflect clients | :47:10. | :47:14. | |
to be banks and difficulties was on the basis that our figures showed | :47:15. | :47:20. | |
how many people were struggling with benefit delays and changes. So it is | :47:21. | :47:26. | |
a chicken and egg situation. The reason they refer clients to us is | :47:27. | :47:29. | |
because we were able to demonstrate from our data that there was a need | :47:30. | :47:36. | |
that. This issue is not just confined to areas which we would | :47:37. | :47:39. | |
normally associate as chronic deprivation. That's right. Banks in | :47:40. | :47:47. | |
Stratford`upon`Avon, for example. Somewhere I would go for a holiday | :47:48. | :47:50. | |
break is an area with immense need. They now have a very busy food bank | :47:51. | :47:57. | |
because, largely, these problems are hidden in our country. There is a | :47:58. | :48:02. | |
huge factor of embarrassment people have to get over before they admit | :48:03. | :48:07. | |
they are in difficulties. Then they neat as the help and access support. | :48:08. | :48:10. | |
There are several hurdles to overcome. We use a prized geniuses | :48:11. | :48:17. | |
in saying that she would consider stealing? `` were you surprised to | :48:18. | :48:27. | |
hear Susan say. I'm not surprised. Whether she would have done it, we | :48:28. | :48:31. | |
don't know. She didn't have two in this case. But she didn't. There was | :48:32. | :48:42. | |
a tan fold increase in food bank was while Labour was in office so there | :48:43. | :48:46. | |
is no easy side of the political fence to sit on. Far more people are | :48:47. | :48:52. | |
using them. Because of the squeeze in incomes and benefits, many of my | :48:53. | :48:55. | |
constituents are having a tremendously rough time. Either | :48:56. | :49:01. | |
government would had to get on top of the welfare bill will stop yes, | :49:02. | :49:05. | |
but anymore just waving at the moment. `` yes, but anymore just | :49:06. | :49:19. | |
waving at the moment. If David Cameron went and spoke to people, | :49:20. | :49:25. | |
they go because they have no alternative. Here we ever charity | :49:26. | :49:32. | |
trying to address a problem that should be a government issue. We are | :49:33. | :49:38. | |
talking about a sick people trying to survive. The EU this week have | :49:39. | :49:46. | |
said that benefit system is too high and that is why we retract link | :49:47. | :49:51. | |
immigrants from the European Union. `` why we are attracting will stop | :49:52. | :49:57. | |
so people say it is your fault you have immigrants coming in, your | :49:58. | :50:01. | |
benefits system is to high. Are they right, are they wrong? I don't think | :50:02. | :50:06. | |
it is their business. We should address the problem by stopping | :50:07. | :50:09. | |
people coming in and looking after our own. We shouldn't have people in | :50:10. | :50:16. | |
the centre is struggling for food. I should be given decent jobs, and to | :50:17. | :50:21. | |
do that, we need a jobs pool which is not always taken by immigrants. | :50:22. | :50:26. | |
You need a decent job and a decent income as well. The fact of the | :50:27. | :50:36. | |
matter is, benefits have been slashed and undermined in so many | :50:37. | :50:41. | |
ways. Which other government comes in after the next election, for a | :50:42. | :50:47. | |
time they will have a 2% cap on welfare spending. The majority of | :50:48. | :50:52. | |
clients that come to us are actually working people. They are in | :50:53. | :50:57. | |
employment and basically employment does not ring them enough income. | :50:58. | :51:09. | |
The Chancellor George Osborne rounded`off a week of generally good | :51:10. | :51:12. | |
news on the Midlands economy with a visit to the Staffordshire digger | :51:13. | :51:15. | |
manufacturer JCB. They're creating 2,500 new jobs under a ?150 million | :51:16. | :51:18. | |
expansion programme, including a new factory in Uttoxeter and an | :51:19. | :51:21. | |
excavator plant at Cheadle. All this, just a day after his economic | :51:22. | :51:25. | |
update to the Commons. It coincided this year not just with the festive | :51:26. | :51:29. | |
season, but also with that epic "Winter Storm". And yet he will | :51:30. | :51:32. | |
persist in calling it the "Autumn Statement". Susana Mendonca has more | :51:33. | :51:48. | |
on this for us. Britain's economic plan is working. | :51:49. | :51:58. | |
But the job is not done. At this Birmingham bakery they were | :51:59. | :52:01. | |
delighted there was no sign of a pasty tax and pleased that business | :52:02. | :52:07. | |
rates are being capped. That will make sure we can sustain jobs that | :52:08. | :52:12. | |
we currently employ local people in. It can increase profit margins a | :52:13. | :52:20. | |
bit better. The Chancellor 's message is all about cooking up | :52:21. | :52:23. | |
economic growth, and companies like this one have an improving. At the | :52:24. | :52:27. | |
question is whether this will translate into votes for, Lycian | :52:28. | :52:33. | |
parties in those key marginal seats at the next election. So what do MPs | :52:34. | :52:37. | |
in those marginals make of the Autumn statement? Message is that | :52:38. | :52:42. | |
the economic land is working. Clearly, there is more work to do. | :52:43. | :52:46. | |
The economy is growing, but we need to stick to the plan and make the | :52:47. | :52:50. | |
tough decisions necessary to turn our fortunes around. But attempts to | :52:51. | :52:56. | |
neutralise Labour's message about a "cost of living crisis" by limiting | :52:57. | :52:59. | |
rises in household energy bills got a decidedly cool reception though. | :53:00. | :53:06. | |
We've got a house full of children and they leave the light on, I don't | :53:07. | :53:10. | |
know how much difference that makes. We need a reduction in our household | :53:11. | :53:13. | |
bills. So will the Chancellor's Autumn Statement prove to be | :53:14. | :53:16. | |
palatable for the voters, or will it prove to be more difficult to | :53:17. | :53:23. | |
digest? It has been quite a week on the | :53:24. | :53:27. | |
economy. Is Labour in danger of getting itself on the wrong side of | :53:28. | :53:31. | |
the economic argument by concentrating heavily on living | :53:32. | :53:35. | |
standards when we have job creation in our part of the country way ahead | :53:36. | :53:39. | |
of the rest of the country, small and medium emphasises `` Enterprises | :53:40. | :53:49. | |
growing 5.5%. The electorate will decide in due course, but the | :53:50. | :53:56. | |
squeeze on incomes continue. Take energy prices ` when it was all | :53:57. | :54:02. | |
privatised, and I voted against that, we were told competition would | :54:03. | :54:06. | |
make it easier, people can pick and choose. Now of course the market is | :54:07. | :54:13. | |
dominated by six Giants. I'm very much in favour of a freeze which Ed | :54:14. | :54:16. | |
Miliband put forward, a freeze when we are elected. I would argue this | :54:17. | :54:24. | |
point, I would make this point ` those who oppose such a freeze are | :54:25. | :54:27. | |
rather like those who said, if you have been at a minimum wage, it will | :54:28. | :54:34. | |
simply undermined implement. Where do you stand? However you look at | :54:35. | :54:38. | |
it, public spending in this country is being clawed back to levels I saw | :54:39. | :54:45. | |
Robert pest and say during the week, around 1948. That was a safe | :54:46. | :54:52. | |
hands statement. There are other aspects we are not saving money on. | :54:53. | :55:00. | |
One is HS2. Privatise that as well? Come on, stop by the dicing | :55:01. | :55:05. | |
everything. ?100 million that will be. `` stop privatising everything. | :55:06. | :55:17. | |
There is already ?3000 per household going into a project which is not | :55:18. | :55:20. | |
necessary. And the EU have said this week that we need to pay another ?10 | :55:21. | :55:26. | |
billion over the next five years. Where do you stand on HS2? I'm in | :55:27. | :55:32. | |
favour, I think it is in the overall interest of the West Midlands. | :55:33. | :55:38. | |
Motorways and the rest have been opposed on previous occasions. When | :55:39. | :55:41. | |
they have been built, everyone is used. Or nearly everyone who uses | :55:42. | :55:49. | |
the car. Now, for the last time this year, | :55:50. | :55:52. | |
our regular round`up of the political week in the Midlands in 60 | :55:53. | :55:56. | |
seconds, brought to us today by our Shropshire political reporter, Liz | :55:57. | :55:59. | |
Roberts. Bob Jones, Labour's Police and Crime | :56:00. | :56:02. | |
Commissioner in the West Midlands, has re`appointed the sitting Chief | :56:03. | :56:05. | |
Constable Chris Sims to the top job for three more years. | :56:06. | :56:11. | |
The police officer at the centre of the Plebgate row is to sue the | :56:12. | :56:14. | |
Sutton Coldfield MP Andrew Mitchell for libel. Mr Mitchell accused PC | :56:15. | :56:18. | |
Toby Rowland of not telling the truth about events in Downing Street | :56:19. | :56:22. | |
in September last year. Blind pedestrians say new shared | :56:23. | :56:25. | |
spaced road layouts in places like Coventry are putting lives at risk. | :56:26. | :56:29. | |
They've taken their campaign to the House of Lords. Through this design, | :56:30. | :56:42. | |
blind people are being excluded. They are staying at home. | :56:43. | :56:45. | |
The Gloucestershire badger cull has been called off. Marksmen have | :56:46. | :56:48. | |
failed to reach their kill targets, despite an extension. | :56:49. | :56:51. | |
And an opinion poll in Dudley North suggests Labour's Ian Austin will | :56:52. | :56:54. | |
hold on to the marginal seat at the next General Election, helped in | :56:55. | :57:04. | |
part by a surge in the UKIP vote. We should point out that survey of | :57:05. | :57:07. | |
voting intentions in Dudley North was a telephone poll of just over | :57:08. | :57:10. | |
500 people, so it definitely requires a health warning. | :57:11. | :57:19. | |
Nevertheless, your former party is very much in the spotlight. The | :57:20. | :57:26. | |
anti`European end of the market is looking rather congested with | :57:27. | :57:30. | |
splinter parties. Are you out to sabotage Nigel Farage? Not entirely, | :57:31. | :57:35. | |
but I think people 's attention should be drawn to the fact that | :57:36. | :57:42. | |
Nigel has his problems. Will you plan to field candidates in this | :57:43. | :57:48. | |
region? Every region. You are going to split the vote. No, we're going | :57:49. | :57:54. | |
to get votes from across the spectrum. I am well to the left of | :57:55. | :57:59. | |
UKIP and I suspect we will get a lot of Labour votes. If there a Faustian | :58:00. | :58:10. | |
pact between the UN UKIP? There is no such pact. We don't know how many | :58:11. | :58:14. | |
votes we may lose to UKIP. I think there is far greater concern that | :58:15. | :58:21. | |
the Tories are more anxious about UKIP. We are not complacent anymore | :58:22. | :58:26. | |
than we are about the poll but you just mentioned. We just hope the | :58:27. | :58:32. | |
outcome will be that we can get rid of this wretched government. One | :58:33. | :58:40. | |
final thought. The passing of Nelson Mandela. I'm among those who | :58:41. | :58:47. | |
campaigned over a period of so many years that he should be released, | :58:48. | :58:52. | |
that the tyranny in South Africa should come to an end. Sad, terribly | :58:53. | :58:59. | |
sad that he has died, but what he has achieved will last as a memorial | :59:00. | :59:03. | |
to a man who dedicated his life with colleagues to the liberation of his | :59:04. | :59:07. | |
country. After 27 years he should have been binned it did when he came | :59:08. | :59:11. | |
out of jail, but he turned the other cheek in a very Christ`like manner | :59:12. | :59:15. | |
and made friends with his enemies. The man is one of the greatest in my | :59:16. | :59:22. | |
memory. I think that has to be seen as the most momentous event of a | :59:23. | :59:25. | |
very busy week. My thanks to David and Mike. Coming | :59:26. | :59:30. | |
up this coming week: a further round of budget cuts are to be outlined | :59:31. | :59:33. | |
tomorrow by our biggest local authority, Birmingham City Council. | :59:34. | :59:36. | |
BBC WM and Midlands Today will have more on that. This is our final | :59:37. | :59:41. | |
programme before Christmas. So have a good one. This, for the last time | :59:42. | :59:47. | |
in 2013, is where we rejoin Andrew Neil. | :59:48. | :59:56. | |
Tomorrow, the House of Commons will pay its tributes to Nelson Mandela. | :59:57. | :00:22. | |
Our nation has lost its greatest son. Our people have lost a father. | :00:23. | :00:42. | |
The first thing I ever did that involved an issue or policy, or | :00:43. | :00:49. | |
politics, was protest against apartheid. | :00:50. | :00:55. | |
I think his greatest legacy, to South Africa and to the world, is | :00:56. | :01:05. | |
the emphasis which he has always put on the need for a conciliation, on | :01:06. | :01:16. | |
the importance of human rights. He also made us understand that we can | :01:17. | :01:22. | |
change the world. We can change the world by changing attitudes, by | :01:23. | :01:25. | |
changing perceptions. For this reason, I would like to pay him | :01:26. | :01:31. | |
tribute as a great human being, who raised the standard of humanity. | :01:32. | :01:43. | |
Thank you for the gift of Madiba. Thank you for what he has enabled us | :01:44. | :01:47. | |
to know we can become. We are joined now by the Labour MP | :01:48. | :02:05. | |
Diane Abbott. You met Mr Mandela not one after he was released from | :02:06. | :02:09. | |
prison in 1990. He went as an election observer for the first one | :02:10. | :02:14. | |
person, one-vote in South Africa. I would guess, of all the people you | :02:15. | :02:19. | |
met in your life, you must have been the most impressive and biggest | :02:20. | :02:20. | |
influence? He was extraordinary. the most impressive and biggest | :02:21. | :02:23. | |
influence? He was extraordinary He had just come out of prison, 28 | :02:24. | :02:28. | |
years in reason. He had seen a lot of his colleagues tortured, blown up | :02:29. | :02:34. | |
and killed. He was entirely without bitterness. That is what came | :02:35. | :02:37. | |
across. That was key to his achievement, to achieve a peaceful | :02:38. | :02:42. | |
transition. Everybody thought that if you have black majority rule, you | :02:43. | :02:45. | |
if you have black majority rule you might have a bloodbath. It's down to | :02:46. | :02:48. | |
Nelson Mandela but didn't happen. I remember FW de Klerk saying that | :02:49. | :02:53. | |
Mandela was the key to getting a peaceful transition. Absolutely the | :02:54. | :03:02. | |
key, an amazing man. London was one of the centres, people talked about | :03:03. | :03:08. | |
it as being the other centre of the anti-apartheid struggle. That | :03:09. | :03:11. | |
anti-apartheid struggle in London, it had an effect on black politics | :03:12. | :03:16. | |
in Britain? Oh, yes. If you were black and politically active at the | :03:17. | :03:22. | |
time, the apartheid struggle, the struggle against white supremacy in | :03:23. | :03:25. | |
South Africa, was very important. Whatever your colour, the | :03:26. | :03:29. | |
anti-apartheid struggle, for our generation, was the political | :03:30. | :03:35. | |
campaign. We have the 50th anniversary of Kennedy's | :03:36. | :03:38. | |
assassination. Mr Mandela's death. We are kind of running out of people | :03:39. | :03:43. | |
that inspired us? I will never forget where I was when I saw him | :03:44. | :03:47. | |
come out of prison, hand-in-hand with the women, I might add. If you | :03:48. | :03:52. | |
have spent your whole teenage years and 20 is boycotting, marching, | :03:53. | :03:56. | |
picketing, to see him actually come out was amazing. Do you think it was | :03:57. | :04:04. | |
more exciting to meet you or the Spice Girls? I think the Spice | :04:05. | :04:11. | |
Girls. What did the Labour backbenchers think about Ed Balls's | :04:12. | :04:15. | |
performance after the Autumn Statement? Luck, Ed Balls is a | :04:16. | :04:19. | |
brilliant man, but I think even he would say that it was not his best | :04:20. | :04:23. | |
performance. But if you look at the polls, the public liked the points | :04:24. | :04:27. | |
he made. The backbenchers were quiet, there was something wrong? I | :04:28. | :04:32. | |
noticed that. It was like a wall of sound, deliberately. They know that | :04:33. | :04:38. | |
under pressure his stamina might come back and it is difficult for | :04:39. | :04:41. | |
him. That is what they were trying to incite. I have had experience | :04:42. | :04:47. | |
first hand, a look at all of these anonymous and sometimes not | :04:48. | :04:50. | |
anonymous quotes in the media. The spinning has begun against him? This | :04:51. | :05:02. | |
is the party of brotherly love, no matter what the Tories say, we can | :05:03. | :05:06. | |
say worse about each other. How could it be that two former aides to | :05:07. | :05:12. | |
Gordon Brown do not like each other? Far be it from me to say. If he | :05:13. | :05:17. | |
wanted to do it, and I'm not saying he does, is Mr Miliband ruthless | :05:18. | :05:22. | |
enough to get rid of Ed Balls? I mean, he got rid of you, he got rid | :05:23. | :05:26. | |
of his brother? One thing you should not do is under estimate Ed | :05:27. | :05:31. | |
Miliband's capacity for ruthlessness. If he feels it is the | :05:32. | :05:36. | |
right thing to do, he will do it. It's not just a matter of... Ed | :05:37. | :05:40. | |
Balls is a big, powerful personality. He's great to interview | :05:41. | :05:44. | |
because he is across his subject, you can have a really good argument | :05:45. | :05:48. | |
with him, a man that knows his brief, his facts. But it's not just | :05:49. | :05:53. | |
about the personality. There is a kind of sense that Labour needs to | :05:54. | :05:59. | |
look forwards more on economic policy. Of course, the standard of | :06:00. | :06:03. | |
living has been hugely successful for Labour. But it needs more than | :06:04. | :06:08. | |
that on economic policy? I think he has been one of the most effective | :06:09. | :06:12. | |
member 's Shadow Cabinet, and he's always associated with the Brown | :06:13. | :06:17. | |
years, where there is always an element about, you were the guys | :06:18. | :06:20. | |
that got it wrong. I think Ed Miliband will be very tempted to | :06:21. | :06:25. | |
replace him with Alistair Darling. The scenario goes like this, | :06:26. | :06:28. | |
Alistair Darling saves the union and then in September he saves the | :06:29. | :06:30. | |
Labour Party. Ultimately, I don t Labour Party. Ultimately, I don't | :06:31. | :06:34. | |
think he would do it. Talk about shifting tectonic plates, it would, | :06:35. | :06:38. | |
wouldn't it? But it is a step too far. Ed Balls would not be too | :06:39. | :06:44. | |
happy. It is not something you would want to do lightly. That sounds a | :06:45. | :06:55. | |
bit of a threat. Not from you. I can't see Ed Balls magnanimously | :06:56. | :06:59. | |
retreating and say, go on, Alistair Darling, take the job I have been | :07:00. | :07:04. | |
after all career. Where do you put him? Do you make him a middle | :07:05. | :07:07. | |
ranking business or welfare secretary? He wouldn't do that. If | :07:08. | :07:13. | |
you sack him, he would retreat to the backbenchers. He might take up | :07:14. | :07:18. | |
knitting and practices piano scales, or he might have a blood feud with | :07:19. | :07:21. | |
Ed Miliband. I don't know which could be. You look back to when he | :07:22. | :07:28. | |
was schools Secretary, you could feel he was constantly fuming. I | :07:29. | :07:31. | |
think he is better inside the tent, looking out, than the other way | :07:32. | :07:35. | |
around. The thing one Labour strategist said to me was that he is | :07:36. | :07:38. | |
too much looking into the rear-view mirror, when it comes to economic | :07:39. | :07:43. | |
policy. He needs to look ahead through the windscreen. That had | :07:44. | :07:49. | |
some resonance? He was at the centre of Labour's economic policy-making | :07:50. | :07:53. | |
from the mid-90s. So it's hard for him but he has to look forward. | :07:54. | :07:58. | |
There is an interesting comparison with 2009. Gordon Brown got in | :07:59. | :08:01. | |
trouble when he said the choice is between Labour investment and Tory | :08:02. | :08:05. | |
cuts. Everybody knew it was between Labour cuts and Tory cuts. In other | :08:06. | :08:09. | |
words, he was not acknowledging reality. With Ed Balls, OK, we can | :08:10. | :08:13. | |
say it is the wrong sort of recovery, but there is a recovery. | :08:14. | :08:17. | |
Does he not need to absorb that punch and say there is a recovery, | :08:18. | :08:20. | |
then people will listen to him? Possibly. We know that the | :08:21. | :08:27. | |
macroeconomics are looking better. We also know people are not | :08:28. | :08:31. | |
experiencing it as a recovery in living standards. No one, not even | :08:32. | :08:36. | |
Tories, really believe that David Cameron knows what it is like for | :08:37. | :08:40. | |
middle-income people to live normal lives. Living standards is | :08:41. | :08:44. | |
particularly powerful because of the composition of the government? Don't | :08:45. | :08:47. | |
go away. This time last year we ambushed our political panel with a | :08:48. | :08:52. | |
quiz. They didn't come out of it smelling of roses, but they did come | :08:53. | :08:56. | |
out rather smelly. Will the coalition still be in place | :08:57. | :09:02. | |
a year from now? Yes. Definitely. I say definitely as well. From now, | :09:03. | :09:09. | |
one year, will we know the date of the European referendum? Yes. No. I | :09:10. | :09:17. | |
say no as well. How much growth will there be? Less than 1%. Father | :09:18. | :09:23. | |
Christmas is less qualified than me, but I will go for one. I will go for | :09:24. | :09:30. | |
a quarter of that. 0.4%. Sorry, a third of that. I am with you, and | :09:31. | :09:37. | |
1%. We didn't do too badly. What will growth be next year? I will | :09:38. | :09:42. | |
remind you, the OBR has upgraded to 2.4%. Better stick with the OBR, | :09:43. | :09:46. | |
remind you, the OBR has upgraded to 2.4%. Better stick with the OBR got | :09:47. | :09:46. | |
2.4%. Better stick with the OBR, got it wrong last year. Well, they went | :09:47. | :09:52. | |
down in March and then went back in December. I'm going to go under and | :09:53. | :09:56. | |
claim credit where it's higher. I'm going to say 1%. Deliberately get it | :09:57. | :10:03. | |
wrong. Given our record, if we say there is going to be spectacular | :10:04. | :10:06. | |
growth, does it mean we're going to go into recession? There is | :10:07. | :10:08. | |
incentive to be cautious. 2%. 2.4%, incentive to be cautious. 2%. 2 4%, | :10:09. | :10:15. | |
because the housing market in London is rocketing. It would be closer to | :10:16. | :10:22. | |
3% and 2.4, mark my words. We'll Ed Balls be Shadow Chancellor by this | :10:23. | :10:30. | |
time next year? Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes, I value my life. Will UKIP mean the | :10:31. | :10:37. | |
European elections, by which I mean have the highest percentage of the | :10:38. | :10:44. | |
vote? Yes. Second behind Labour Second behind Labour. Will Alex | :10:45. | :10:50. | |
Salmond win the independence referendum? No, but it will be | :10:51. | :10:57. | |
closer than we think. No, unless they do something catastrophic like | :10:58. | :11:00. | |
let Cameron debate him. Too close to call. Controversial. How many | :11:01. | :11:08. | |
Romanians and Bulgarians will come to Britain in 2014? Far fewer than | :11:09. | :11:17. | |
anyone thinks. The entire population of Romania and Bulgaria, like Nigel | :11:18. | :11:21. | |
Farage thanks. I'll go with that, I'm confident. A change of tone for | :11:22. | :11:27. | |
your magazine. Not many will come, but a lot here already will | :11:28. | :11:31. | |
normalise and be counted into figures. Too many for most | :11:32. | :11:37. | |
right-wing commentators. I think quite a few will come, but not the | :11:38. | :11:41. | |
kind of numbers that made such a huge difference. This time, | :11:42. | :11:51. | |
everybody is open. They do like to speak English, that is the reason | :11:52. | :11:55. | |
they want to come. We'll all three of you still be here by this time | :11:56. | :12:01. | |
next year? Yes. Would you recommend that? Yes, keep them. And he has | :12:02. | :12:08. | |
lovely boots. Shiny red boots. If you can keep affording me, I will be | :12:09. | :12:15. | |
here. I hope so, it sounds like you have a firing squad outside. I hope | :12:16. | :12:21. | |
so, maybe you will find some true talent. Very pragmatic, aren't they? | :12:22. | :12:29. | |
Let me put this to you, I think you will agree. The coalition will not | :12:30. | :12:33. | |
break now, this side of the election next year? There will not be... They | :12:34. | :12:39. | |
will not go their own ways by this time next year? Of next year, maybe | :12:40. | :12:46. | |
just after. Early 2015. This side of the election? What is the UKIP view? | :12:47. | :12:52. | |
I don't think there is an advantage to either of them. If the Lib Dems | :12:53. | :12:58. | |
pulled out, they would look like there were a lodger in the Tory | :12:59. | :13:01. | |
house of government. I think it would suit the Lib Dems to break | :13:02. | :13:05. | |
just before the election. I think that is what Vince Cable wants to | :13:06. | :13:09. | |
do. I don't think it is what Nick Clegg would like to do. The Tories | :13:10. | :13:16. | |
would love it. They would have all of the toys to themselves. Yellow | :13:17. | :13:19. | |
marker they would look like the grown-ups. The problem for Vince | :13:20. | :13:22. | |
Cable is that he's not the force that used to be after his temper | :13:23. | :13:25. | |
tantrum at the Conference. I will be back with the Daily | :13:26. | :13:34. | |
Politics next week. If Santer gives you a diary in your stocking, pencil | :13:35. | :13:39. | |
in Sunday the 20th of January, the first Sunday Politics of 2014. | :13:40. | :13:46. | |
Remember, if it is Sunday, it is the Sunday Politics. Unless it is | :13:47. | :13:48. | |
Christmas. And New Year. | :13:49. | :13:51. |