23/03/2014 Sunday Politics West Midlands

Morning, folks. Welcome to the Sunday Politics. The dust has barely

settled on George Osborne's Budget and, amazingly, for once it hasn't

all gone horribly wrong by the weekend. So, is this the election

springboard the Tories needed, and where does it leave Labour? Turns

out the big Budget surprise was a revolution in how we pay for old

age. The Pensions Minister says he's relaxed if you want to spend it all

on a Lamborghini. He'll join us later. And could the man with the

maracas be on his way to Westminster? Bez from the Happy

Mondays tells us about his unlikely plan to become

And in the Midlands, a month on from the floods, could the EU wade in on

a rescue mission? An MEP wants Britain to bid for a share of a four

hundred million pounds European stay in Axbridge. Are there ways of

making the European arrest warrant work better? -- Uxbridge. And who

better to help guide you through all of that than three journalists, who

dispense wisdom faster than Grant Shapps calls out the numbers in his

local bingo hall over a pint of beer. Yes, they're hard-working and

they're doing the things they enjoy. Cup of tea, number three. It's Nick

Watt, Polly Toynbee and Janan Ganesh.

So, George Osborne delivered his fifth Budget on Wednesday and had so

many glowing front pages the day afterwards he must be running out of

room to pin them up in on his bedroom wall. Although it's probably

a pretty big wall. For those of you who didn't have time to watch 3 5

hours of Budget coverage on the BBC, here's Giles with the whole thing in

three minutes. Budget days have a rhythm of their

own, driven partly by tradition like that photocall at 11 Downing

Street and part logistics, how to get this important statement out and

explain to those whom it affects - us? Behind-the-scenes of a Budget

Day is much the same. This ritual red boxery may be the beginning of

the end of weeks of work behind the scenes in the Treasury and sets the

clock ticking on the process of finding out the answer to one

question. You got any rabbits in the box, Chancellor? Yes, there will be

something in the Budget we don't know about. Time marches steadily

towards the statement and already commentators are hovering over what

those potential surprises are. As Big Ben chimes, all focus returns to

the Commons, where there is Prime Minister's questions and the

Chancellor gets up and does his thing. Once he's on his feet and

remembering there is still no copy of the details, the major measures

are rapidly highlighted as they come and then put up on screen. A cap on

Government welfare spending set for 2015/16 at 119 billion. Income tax

personal allowance raised to ?10,500. Bingo duty halved, which

ticked boxes for some but was unlikely to make anyone a poster

boy. And the beer tax cut of 1p or the froth on the top. And changes to

pensions allowing people to take their money out in one lump sum

rather than being forced to accept a fixed annual pay-out, or annuity.

This is a Budget for the makers the doers and the savers and I commend

it to the House. Not everyone can focus on the Budget by listening to

what the Chancellor says. We need to get a copy of the script. We do not

get that till he sits down. I'm going to go into the House of

Commons to get that right now. There will be a response on that and all

the other things from Mr Miliband. The Chancellor spoke for nearly an

hour but he did not mention one essential fact, the working people

of Britain are worse off under the Tories. It is a tricky job answering

the Budget at the best of times though some, including Labour MPs,

think it is better to mention the Budget when you do.

Here we are. I am going to go. I am not the only journalist missing Ed

Miliband's speech. Many others leave the Chamber as the Chancellor sits

down to attend a special briefing from the Chancellor's advisory team.

I am hotfoot to the studio. There is a little more detail to the Budget

than the Budget Speech. That detail can be whether words unravel and

other interpretations emerge. By now the gaggle of supporters and

detractors are taking the debate onto the airwaves. Are you the BBC?

Have the Daily Politics packed up? No, we're still standing and, days

later, still trying to assess whether the measures announced still

seem fresh and appetising or have already gone stale in the minds of

voters? How significant are these two poles

this morning putting Labour and Tory nip and tuck? Osborne gave his party

a good bounce. It was an astonishingly theatrical coup. At

first glance, it seems like a huge gift to all people. That is where

all of the money has been channelled by this government. They have been

ultra-protected, triple locked. Pensioners have done very well and

others less well. It is not surprising. Normally a budget which

is well received on the day and the day after has unravelled by the

weekend. This time, it has not, so far. The dangerous thing for the

Labour Party now, George Osborne is the assessment this thing called the

baseline. He says, in government, you must control the baseline. The

Labour party controlled in 2001 and 2005 and he needs to control it next

time. He is controlling it on fiscal policy because labour is matching

them on everything. The danger for Labour on the big, headline grabbing

issue, which was freeing up annuities on pensions, that again

Labour was pretty much saying it was going to support it though it were

saying it has to be fair and cost-effective. On a big, policy

issue, they are following on behind George Osborne. George Osborne is

controlling the crucial baseline. Are we in danger of reading too much

into the political implications of the budget? The good thing about the

pensions policy is, if it does unravel, it will not happen for ten

years and, by that time, George Osborne will have left office.

Towards the end of his speech, I thought, that is not enough. There

is not an idea in your budget which is politically very vivid a year

before an election. What I underestimated was, how many

frustrated savers that are in the country. There are a lot of people

who are frustrated by low interest rates and tax rates on pension pots.

This was an explicit gesture for them. That is what has paid off in

the polls in the past few days. You spend all of your money on your

wardrobe, is that right? The bingo poster was a kind of get out of jail

card for Labour. It gave them something to zoom in on. Everyone

beat up on Grant Shapps, the Tory chairman. We read in the daily

Telegraph that the fingerprints of the Chancellor were all over this

poster. The Chancellor signed off it -- off on it and so did Lynton

Crosby. They referred to working class people as, they are. How did

it get into the Telegraph? We can only presume but grant Shapps made

it clear that it was not him. We had a time when Labour politicians, we

saw from the response of Ed Miliband onwards, they were not quite sure

how to react to this budget. A lot of detail had to be absorbed.

Suddenly, here is something we can talk about. You can see the thinking

behind the poster was very sensible. We are not Tory toffs, we are

interested in helping people who do not come from our backgrounds. The

wording was awful and played into every cliche. It was all his fault.

It shows how unsophisticated he was. There were people from Tory HQ

who agreed the budget. A month down the line will the budget look as

good? Probably. Once people look at it, pensions are fiendishly

conjugated. Once they look and see what it will do with people having

to pay for their own care because they can now take capital at their

pension, that will come as a shock to a lot of people with small

savings. It all be gone on their care. The polling will be neck and

neck all the way. In the past, George Osborne has been accused of

using his Budgets to tinker at the margins or pull cheap tricks on his

political opponents. Perish the thought. But the big surprise in

this year's statement was a genuinely radical shake-up of the

pensions system that will affect most people who've yet to retire. At

the moment, everyone is saving money into a defined contribution pension,

that is the type most common in the private sector. They can take 2 % of

the pot is a tax-free lump sum when they retire. The rest of the money,

for most people, they are forced to buy an annuity, a form of insurance

which provide a guaranteed monthly income until they die. Annuities

have hardly been a bargain since interest rates were flat slashed

following the financial crash. Even with a ?100,000 pension pot would

only get an income of ?5,800 a year at current rates. From 2018,

pensioners will not be forced to buy an annuity. They can do what they

like with their money, even taking the entire pot as a lump some but

paying tax on 75% of it. With an average pension pot closer

to around ?30,000, pensioners would be more likely to buy a Skoda

instead of a Lamborghini. Most newly retired people who take the cash are

more likely to spend the money paying off their mortgage, helping a

family member to buy a property or investing the money elsewhere. Well,

earlier I spoke to the Pensions Minister. He's a Lib Dem called

Steve Webb. I began by asking him if he still thought the reforms might

lead to pensioners splurging all their savings on supercars. What

this reform is about is treating people as adults. For far too long,

we have said, we will make sure you save for your old age and then we

will control each year how much is spent on what you spend it on. What

we are saying is because we have formed -- reformed the state

pension, we will be much more relaxed about what people do with

their own money. The evidence is that people who have been frugal and

saved hard for retirement do not generally blows a lot. They will

spin it out. It is treating people as adults and giving them choices

they should have had all along. It is a red herring, isn't it? The

average pension pot is between 5000 and 30,000. Lamborghinis aren't an

option, correct? I gather only about 5000 people a year retiring can buy

a flashy Italian sports car. It might be about paying off a

mortgage, paying off outstanding debts. Maybe spending more money

earlier in retirement when they are fit and able and can enjoy it more.

We will give people guidance. We will make sure when they retire

there is someone to have a conversation with talking through

the implications of spending the money early and options of investing

it. This will be a real step forward. Even if you have a much

bigger pension pot, say half ?1 million, which is way bigger than

the average, even then the marginal rates of tax will be a disincentive

to take it all out at once. You will lose huge chunks of it at the 4 %

band and then the 45% band. The tax system gives you the incentive to

spread it out if the tax threshold is a bit over 10000 and the state

pension is a bit over 7000, the first 3000 you draw out in a given

year is tax-free. The next band is at 20%. Spreading your money will

mean you pay less tax. That is why, in general, people will not blow the

lot up front. They will spread it out over their retirement. You have

kept this policy quiet. Not even a hint. How did you test it? How did

you make sure it would be robust? You did not do a consultation. I

have been talking about freeing up the annuity market for a decade The

idea of giving people more choice. The government has relaxed rules

over this Parliament. It was not a completely new idea. We know in

places like Australia and America, people have these freedoms. We

already have something to judge it by. We will spend the next year

talking to people, working it through. There will be a three-month

consultation. I want people to have choices about their own money. There

is detail still to be worked out and we are in listening mode about how

we implement it. When you announce something you cannot do widespread

consultation, for the reasons I have given, you do run the risk of

unforeseen consequences? Pension companies this morning are

indicating, you, the government can write you are looking for ?25

billion of infrastructure investment from us. You hold our shell below

the water line. That may not happen. We spoke internally about the

implications for instruction -- infrastructure. It seems to me there

will still be long-term investments. Many people want to turn their whole

pot into an income. I understand the insurance companies are lobbying,

but I'm convinced there will still be plenty of money for investment

and infrastructure. If the Chancellor's pro-savings measures

work, that will generate more savings. With no requirement now to

buy an annuity, surely it is the case that pension pots are another

ordinary savings fund, so why should they continue to get favourable tax

treatment? Bear in mind that a lot of the tax treatment of pensioners

is tax deferred so most people pay tax at the standard rate. If they

put money into a pension, they don't pay tax when they earn it, but they

do at retirement. We do want, we will still have automatic enrolment

into workplace pensions, we do want people to build up, because at age

20 and 30 nobody thinks about retirement. It is still vital that

people do reach retirement to have these new choices with a decent

sized pension pot. Pensions. Tax breaks because they were supposed to

provide an income in retirement that is how it was structured, but

that is no longer a requirement surely that undermines the case that

if they get tax breaks, other forms of savings should get tax breaks.

Other forms do get tax breaks, of course. The return with ISAs is tax

free. The point with pensions is that you are simply deferring your

earnings. There is a bit when high tax rate payers get a kick when they

are working and then retire on standard rate, so there is the issue

of the top getting too many tax breaks, but the basic principle that

you pay tax when you get the income seems right to me and isn't affected

by these changes. You have announced save friendly measures, are we right

to look at them as a consolation prize because savers have suffered

from the Government's policy of keeping interest rates abnormally

low? It is certainly the case that very low interest rates have been a

huge boon to people of working age with mortgages, and people who have

retired said they thought they could have got a better deal on their

savings. I think there is a recognition that whilst we have done

the right thing with pensioners on the state pension, we have brought

in the triple lock, and many will bent on -- benefit from these

changes. Why don't savers who are not pensioners get the same help?

They have been hit by low interest rates as well. Those of working

age, many of them say they have benefited from low interest rates

was predominantly people in retirement have not had the benefit.

Obviously people of working age will have benefited from the tax

allowance so it is a myth to say the Budget was all about pensioners And

yet even when the Office for Budget Responsibility takes into account

your new measures, it still shows that over the next five years

households will save less and less, indeed the savings ratio falls by

50%. You haven't done enough. One of the things we know is that the

economy is picking up strongly, and as we have more confidence about the

future they will be more willing to consume now, so without these

measures it may be that the saving rate would have fallen further. We

want people to save and spend, it is about getting the right balance As

the economy picks up, people will want to spend more of their money

and it is about getting the balance right. You make the point that if

people are little profligate with their private pensions, they will

have the state pension to fall back on and it will be higher than it has

been, but it is also the case that in these circumstances they will

still be entitled to housing benefit and even to perhaps some council tax

benefit as well. Do you know by how much this could put the welfare bill

up? We think the impact will be relatively modest because the sort

of people who save for a pension and make sacrifices while they are at

work are not the sort of people who get to 65 and decide to blow the lot

for the great privilege of receiving council tax benefit or housing

benefit. There will be people on the margins and

benefit. There will be people on the who retire with some capital want to

put some money away for their funeral. People like to save even

into retirement so the myth of the spendthrift pensioner I don't

believe. I think this has been rightly welcomed. Ever fancied a

Lamborghini yourself? If you turned the camera around you would see my

2-door Corsa! What's your favourite thing about an

election? Could it be the candidates ringing on your door while you're

having dinner? The leaflets piling up on your doormat? Or the endless

adverts aimed at hardworking families? Well, if you thought that

was bad enough, then you might want to consider going overseas for the

2015 election because the parties are going to be aiming their message

at you like never before. Adam's been to Worcester to find out more.

One of the most famous political figures in history lived here, she

is called Worcester woman. She was in her 30s, working class with a

couple of kids, aspirational yet worried about quality of life. But

she wasn't a real person, she was a label for the kind of voter new

Labour were trying to reach and she was later joined by Mondeo man and

several others. Doesn't that all seem a bit 90s? The technique,

called segmentation, was used by George Bush in 2004. Then refined by

Barack Obama. Rather than focusing on crude measures like cars and

hometowns, they delved into the minds of voters. It is not just

women, not just people who live in cities, but if you start to put

together these groups of people you can even in an anecdote or way

imagine who they are, what types of language and imagery might relate to

them. We have been given access to a new polling model being used here by

this firm, which is pretty close to the one we are told is being used by

the Tories. It carves the country into six personality types, and we

are trying it out on Worcester woman and wast of man. We are using an

online quiz to work out who is in which segment. Meet new monk,

Susie. She feels well represented. I know the Budget and the increases to

childcare, I think at the moment I am fairly represented. This puts her

in the category of optimistic contentment, people who feel they

are doing OK. Terry, on the other hand, isn't happy about Britain

today. Health and safety and all that! I hardly recognise the country

a living in any more? Yes. Are you ready for the result? He is Mr

comfortable nostalgia, they tend to favour the Tories and UKIP. They

dislike the cultural changes they see as altering Britain for the

worst. That sums me up. Tony is worried as well but feels much less

secure. I look forward to the future with optimism or anxiety? Anxiety.

Optimist or pessimist? Pessimist. His category is... You feel a bit

insecure, you think the Government could probably help you more? Yes.

Labour picks up a lot of these voters. This man is being asked to

do more and more at work, but he is getting less and less. I am getting

more towards the despair side. Things are getting tougher,

generally? It puts him into the segment called long-term despair,

people who feel left out. Finally, this is ever thoughtful Carol. I am

a bit of an idealist. Her idealism makes her a cosmopolitan critic I

am a liberal person. Apparently a lot of the media fit into this

category as well. There is one group of voters we have not come across,

people who show calm persistence. They hope things will get better but

don't expect them to. They are coping, rather than comfortable

Presumably they are all out of work. Which group are you win? You can

take the poll on the BBC website, and in the coming weeks we will be

doing our own polling using the six segments to see of the politicians

really have worked out how we think. And as Adam said, if you want to try

the survey for yourself, you can go to the BBC website and click on the

link. And we're joined now by the

pollster, Rick Nye. Welcome to Sunday Politics. We have had

Worcester woman, Worcester man, is this any different? It is a

recognition that or politician -- all politics these days is like

this. It enables them to cut them more finally. You think all politics

is coalition politics, you think they have to put together these

groups of people, not that the Lib Dems will always be in power? No,

and if you listen to the coverage these days you might think it is

about grumpy old men on the one hand with Guardian readers on the other.

It is far more complicated than that, there is a lot of churning

going on underneath which is driven by people's value systems. A lot of

this has been pioneered in the United States, very sophisticated on

their election techniques, and in Britain we are always the first to

grab whatever the New Year will is from America. How do you think this

will translate to this country? I think it means that if you are

target photo you will still get the same of leaflets and people calling,

but you will probably have different kinds of conversations because

people on the other side, the party campaigners, will think they know

more about you. Will I know who you are? If I am a party campaigner,

will I know, looking down the street, who fits into which

category? You will be able to approximate that with all of the

other data that you have gathered through polling, or doing local

campaigning, that is the idea to make sense of this vast quantity of

data people have about voters. We asked our panel to fill in your

survey. Nick is optimistic contentment, 99%. He was 1%

cosmopolitan critic, which is how he keeps his job at the Guardian.

Polly's job could not be more secure, 100% cosmopolitan critics,

and Janan Ganesh, optimistic contentment, which is what you would

expect from a financial Times columnist. What do you make of this

technique? Why are you only 99? It sounds really clever. 95% of the

population five years ago voted Labour or the Conservatives. We have

got away from that. It is coalition politics. You need sophisticated

methods. Presumably you must not lose touch with basic points. You

said it was used in the US presidential elections. Wasn't there

them moment emit Romney 's sweet when the initial response was, we

did not know the sort of people voted. His next response was, we did

not know these people existed. Unless you know about certain key

demographics, you are wasting your time. Is it important in modern

campaigning? I think it is useful because it is about attitude. We

have got Mosaic. We have got Acorn. It does not tell us very much. What

people think and feel may be different to their income. You can

be quite a high earner and anxious. You can be quite a low earner and

feeling aspirational and optimistic about the future. I think this does

get something else. In days gone by, particularly in America,

overwhelmingly, if you are in the better of segment, you would be

Republican and the blue-collar workers and some academics and

Liberals voted Democrat. In the last election, the richest 200 counties

in America voted Democrat. That is an attitude thing. Income does not

tell you how people will vote. There is a huge, working-class base of

support for the Republicans. It is unavoidable. Add a time when people

no longer identify with ideologies or class blocks, you have to go the

temperament and lifestyle and manageable. In America there were

128 segments according to lifestyle and Outlook. Once you get to that

stage, it becomes close to useless. We were talking about the budget

earlier. What other polls saying about the budget? The lead of labour

has been narrowed over the Conservatives. -- Labour. Osborne

and Cameron as an academic team have always had a lead over Miller band

and Balls. This week it is about economic management. -- over Mr

Miller band. Thank you for being with us today.

It's just gone 11:30am. You're watching the Sunday Politics. We say

goodbye to viewers in Scotland, who leave us now for Sunday Politics

Scotland. Coming up here in 20 minutes: We'll

Hello once again from the Mhdlands. I'm Patrick Burns. And we'rd joined

this week by two of our regtlars on this programme. And see what it s

done for them? Promotion. If you want to get on the fast`track, get

on the Sunday Politics. Harriett Baldwin, Conservative MP for West

Worcestershire, joined the Government last month as a Treasury

Whip. And Steve McCabe, Labour MP for Birmingham Selly Oak, rdcently

became a Shadow Minister for Children and the Family. And it s

with the fast`track that we begin, because exactly a month ago the

Chief Executive of HS2 Ltd, Alison Munro, said on this programle that

campaigners fighting for a high`speed station in Stoke

shouldn't give up while offhcial consultations are still in progress.

So how does that square with last week's announcement by HS2's new

boss, Sir David Higgins, th`t he wants to speed`up the construction

of the route North via Crewd instead, and to complete it

significantly ahead of the original schedule, by 2027? You can hmagine

how that's gone down with Stoke s Labour MPs. Sir David Higgins

announced proposals on how HS2 and suggested they should be a station

at Crewe, ignoring the very very good proposal put forward bx the

council that will save ?5 bhllion and bring services to Manchdster,

seven years early. And Stoke City Council have approved

plans to spend ?800,000 on their bid for an HS2 station. Labour

councillor Andy Platt says Stoke is a Premier League city, whild Crewe

is still in the Fourth Division You can see where those councillors are

coming from but looking at the general scene, they are wasting

their breath to say nothing of the money? It was a good document on HS2

showing what the positive ilpact will be in the Midlands. As a

Midlands MP, there's opporttnities for lots of businesses so it's not

just where the station stops, it is also the different suppliers.

Obviously I can see why people in Stoke are fighting for Stokd, if

everyone has a station on the line it will not be high speed. There are

difficult decisions to be m`de and not everyone will be happy. Do you

have any support for party colleagues in Stoke because it does

appear to be Crewe and not Stoke. Well, if I was eight Stoke LP I

would be doing what they ard doing but I am in the fortunate position

of being a Birmingham MP and we stand to benefit. What I am not

clear about is the strength of the argument for Crewe as opposdd to

Stoke is. That is part of the problem with HS2. I was strtck with

a survey in my constituency where over 20% of people didn't fdel they

knew enough about it to be hn favour or against and this problem about

not knowing enough is part of the problem. What about a minister for

HS2 which was suggested, wotld that be helpful?

It sounds like a gimmick. They should get on and do it.

The transport minister is responsible and is doing a great

job. Still to come: how will the Budget

play here, away from the Westminster village? The Benefits Street star

"White" Dee Kelly brews`up her verdict on George Osborne's

blueprint for economic and dlectoral recovery.

We'll have more on a most political of budgets, a little later on.

It's more than a month now since flooding left a trail of misery and

mayhem here. The Government's response: a ten million pound

business support scheme, plts up to 5,000 pounds per household for extra

defences. So you'd think thdy'd be even more excited about a share of a

four hundred million pound Duropean Solidarity Fund for flood`rdlief.

Our BBC Hereford and Worcester Political Reporter Matthew Bone

explains why Britain may not even apply for it.

It was some of the worst flooding that Worcestershire had seen for

years and the village of Severn Stoke was one of the worst hit. One

month on the water may have gone but the damage remains. The village

church is still recovering. The water came up to this first step

here. Just just about there. The parish hall was also badly

damaged. This was quite badly under water,

six inches and four inches here And the local pub's makeshift flood

barriers weren't enough. In the bar and pub it came hn up to

their on the bar because thd water was in for a fortnight. It has been

a struggle. We haven't had `ny money for some time. There are bills still

going out and wages we have been paying out. To be honest, it is a

struggle. Particularly over eight or nine weeks.

The government has set asidd ten million pounds to help flooded

businesses. ?1.2 million of that is coming to our region. Worcestershire

and Gloucestershire will both get around half a million pounds,

130,000 will go to Herefordshire and 80,000 to the Shropshire arda.

Councillors in Worcestershire say damaged businesses will get up to

?3,000 each. We have been working with central government and the

District Council to make sure that support is available to bushnesses

and the support gets deploydd as quickly as possible to help people

recover, and clean up their properties and be open for business.

But is ?3,000 per business dnough? And could we get some extra help

from the continent? The EU has around ?400 million in a "solidarity

fund" to help with things lhke flooding. But to qualify, the

government needs to show thdre's been damage of around ?3 billion.

And that's where the problel is The government says that ` bad `s it's

been ` there hasn't been enough damage across the UK to qualify for

the EU support. But Liberal Democrat MEPs ` who have been petitioning the

government to apply ` disagree. There have been cases where the fund

has been accessed by member states where they have been nowherd near

the threshold. People in Severn Stoke are now

campaigning for better flood defences ` they want to makd sure

this kind of damage doesn't happen again. In the meantime housdholds

and businesses are trying to recover ` and they say they'll take all the

help they can get. Matthew Bone reporting. And a

further ?140 million funding for improving and repairing flood

defences was announced by Gdorge Osborne in the Budget. Let's talk to

a tireless campaigner who's been battling for more than thirteen

years to raise our general `wareness of the political, economic `nd

social challenges posed by flooding. Mary Dhonau has herself been a flood

victim time and time again. Not for nothing is she known as "Mary Queen

of Floods". It is a nicknamd but very traumatic individually at the

time and for communities afterwards. Flooding is for longer

than when the minister or mddia are there. Most people are out of their

homes for about nine months and during that time they are w`tching

as they lose every belonging and as their home becomes a building site.

Putting it together and the package announced by the government for our

part of the country, 1.2 million, do you think that tallies with the

scale of the problem? Whilst I welcome the amount and we

could not do without it, I would like to see more money put hn to

managing flood risk upfront, strategic planning for the future of

flood defences rather than putting in a knee jerk reaction.

We have seen how effective flood defences are in places but hsn't

there a danger when they work well they relocate the problem for

someone else. The Environment Agency are not

allowed to build flood defences that make somewhere else flood worse I

welcome the work Environment Agency has done along the River Severn

The damage here isn't bad enough for the European funding but wh`t is

your view about that? There have been other cases were far ldss than

3 billion of damage has been caused and they have successfully `pplied

for the fund? It is remiss not to have applied for

the funding. If we stop and think about a lot of the money is for

infrastructure so we think `bout the railway lines, the bridges, the

electricity, the gas and evdrything and the roads right across the board

I think we need that money to help us recover.

Quite remiss and I bet your constituents would welcome ht if you

applied for the fund. It is important to put as mtch money

as possible into resilience for flood defences and we have done a

lot in my constituency, six new schemes since I became an MP in 2010

and there was good news along the River Severn. The fact we are

focusing on seven Stoke where homes were flooded, there were 100 homes

flooded in Worcestershire competitor 4700 last time. We have got to keep

on investing in flood defences and I am campaigning for seven Stoke and

Tenbury Wells. If there is loney available, let's go for it.

Someone aspiring to be in government, this is not an hssue

that will go away on your w`tch Long`term resilience is an hssue.

Yes, the evidence is that it will get worse so we all have to deal

with that. I am not sure whx we can't qualify for money this time,

we could in 2007, it hasn't been as bad in some areas but in other

parts... I would like to he`r what they are doing, it's been a number

of weeks since we have had radio silence. We need to know if they are

considering it or if the Environment Secretary is opposed to it. We need

to know. We got it in 2007, I wouldn't have thought it was

dramatically different. There's a bit of an issue about the

future membership of the EU. Maybe they are embarrassed to go for it.

That would be wrong. There hs a high threshold, there have been regions

of the UK badly affected and maybe a case for looking at it at a regional

basis. When I speak to ministers they have not brought out applying

the funding. They have until Tuesday. That is the cut`off date.

It is a large application and we are near to closing.

It will not happen. I am not sure if they have reached

the threshold. David Cameron said we have to learn

the lessons from this, are we learning the lessons?

I hope this flood has creatdd a shift change, I have seen m`ny

floods and many ministers that said this is a wake`up call and pressed

the snooze button and gone back to sleep. I hope people stay awake and

do something about it. Is that fair, are you presshng the

snooze button? We have done a lot in Worcestershire

and will carry on. The Environment Agency will sack

2000 people, it has been put on hold but it is not snoozing, it hs deep

sleep. Not on flood maintenance and flood

defences. More money was in the budget for that.

Thank you. Thank you, Mary. And the effects of the floods in Shropshire

will be examined throughout this coming week on BBC Radio

Shropshire's Breakfast Show with Eric Smith and Clare Ashford.

The accident of timing that produced the latest unemployment figtres

three hours before the Budgdt, guaranteed our two biggest parties

would clash even before George Osborne stood up. For the Government

it's further proof that thehr plan is working. In the West Midlands a

fall of 19,000 to a new tot`l of 221,000 means the rate is now 8 2%.

But that's still one percent above the UK average. Our Business

Correspondent Peter Plisner considers what's in the Budget for

us here. The Chancellor of mixture HLRC

George Osborne. `` the Chancellor of the exchequer.

The Chancellor delivered his penultimate budget speech bdfore the

general election against a backdrop of better economic news.

But is that recovery being felt outside the Westminster bubble? The

economy is recovering faster than forecast.

At this Birmingham coffee m`chine business they think he's got the

blend about right. A budget for business, exactly what we w`nted. Do

not upset the apple cart. Wd don't want any major upsets to stop

business doing well. In the Midlands things are ready booming.

A boom for some but what's the verdict in James Turner Strdet `

immortalised by Channel four as Benefits Street and in the

Birmingham seat with the UK's highest unemployment. I can't see it

impacting around to a greatly. Because there doesn't seem to be

that much emphasis on trying to help people out of, you know, off

unemployment and into work. That is what this street is known for.

Meanwhile back at Westminstdr the message from the government was loud

and clear. This is a budget for the makers the

doers and the savers and I commend it to the house.

The question is has he done enough to convince voters in those Midlands

marginals? Marginals like Btrton, the home of brewing. But will a

penny off a pint really makd much difference? The crux of the issue is

the signs are the Labour Party message about the cost of lhving

crisis still has more reson`nce than your argument that the plan is

working. On Wednesday we saw there on many

more jobs in the West Midlands and we are seeing a record numbdr of

people in work. People are coming off benefits and we are recovering

from the Labour recession which we inherited. What we are also seeing

in terms of salaries is in the West Midlands last year there were

reports that incomes went up to .9%. We are seeing a recovery.

That could be the important point against you if wages start

recovering and lifting the puality of living in time for the gdneral

election. I do not think that is what people

think is happening. Unemploxment in my constituency went up between

January and fabric, it is now in a top 20% in the country. Selly Oak.

People don't have the confidence that she talks about. The rdality is

the people in work they cannot make ends meet. This idea that it is all

going to be better in the ftture, we have been hearing that sincd the

government came to power. We talked about benefits, your party

will not oppose the governmdnt on the benefits cap and yet yot are

still saying you will reintroduce this subsidy for housing benefit

claimants with a spare bedrooms How does it have a?

We will support the overall benefit cap because we want to conthnue

welfare cuts but the bedrool tax is not fair, it is not really laking

massive savings, it is caushng untold misery and it isn't worth it.

I would... The Conservative Party will come to this conclusion. It is

another poll tax programme `` problem. Euro`macro I'm surd he has

constituents in overcrowded accommodation and it's important we

use our precious resources of social housing as carefully as poptlar ``

as we can and we pay people for a roof over their head and thdre is a

safety net. George Osborne said it was the

doers, makers and savers but what about people with pensions grabbing

a lump sum and spending it? They are prudent savers who have

saved and built up this over their life.

Is it a playful Tory voters? It was a manifesto pledge and we

have brought in a simple st`te pension for everybody giving

everyone a income and what they choose to do over and above that, we

now have 3 million more people saving for a pension thanks to

automatic enrolment and people are building up sums of money. We must

treat them as grown`ups. Rachel Reeves was talking about the

pensions market needing reform but the government is doing it.

The last time we had a Tory government saying they had solved

the pensions problem, we had a mis`selling scandal.

`` . Let's catch`up with some of the

other political developments making the news here. Our round`up of the

week in Sixty Seconds is brought to us today by BBC WM's lunchthme

presenter, Caroline Martin. Sandwell Labour councillor Jayne

Wilkinson has joined the Grdens She follows Jean Hamilton, who switched

from the Lib Dems in Solihull. The Greens now have a record 20

councillors in the region. The West Midlands is to get ?14 millhon from

the government to fill in pot holes. Herefordshire appears to be the

holiest country ` they're gdtting three and a half million potnds In

Worcestershore Wyre Forest council leader John Campion is to step down

` his Conservative counterp`rt over in Bromsgrove, Roger Hollingworth,

has also decided to call it a day. # I am loving angels instead.

Take That! Councillors in Stoke`on`Trent have voted

unanimously to give superst`r singer Robbie Williams the freedom of the

city. And Children's servicds in Coventry ` under scrutiny shnce the

murder of four`year`old Danhel Pelka's ` have been branded

"inadequate" by Ofsted. We recognise what we did wrong, we recognise what

we have to learn and I have come in to move us on.

So Coventry Children's Servhces join Birmingham and Sandwell as

officially inadequate. Wals`ll, on the other hand, is no longer deemed

inadequate by Ofsted. You could be a minister for children, the dducation

Department are considering what action to take. What action would

you take? I think Coventry are doing the right

things, the question is if ht will happen fast enough and if it

doesn't, the Secretary of State has got the power to move his own people

in. Is it the agencies having p`rt of

the picture but no joint up idea? The report says the council is

criticised but so are the police. They are not working togethdr

properly and that is part of the problem.

Is it more resources? ``

Coventry have put more resotrces in but all authorities are unddr

enormous pressure but these things are not about one issue, it is

complex sets of problems. What can we do to stop history

repeating itself because Daniel Pelka was one of many?

Huge respect to the social workers, we have put money into troubled

families but also social work so we really want to make sure we have

something like social work which attracts really strong calibre

people into social work. As a former social worker, ht looks

as if there is something profoundly and long`term wrong?

I don't know it is profoundly wrong, it is true we need to raise

the calibre of people coming into social work and we need to hmprove

the quality of front`line m`nagers so they are able to provide

supervision and support. Th`t is coming through in report after

report. We need to tackle that. There's been a huge increasd in the

number of people adopting and we need to see more of that.

My thanks to Harriett Baldwhn and Steve McCabe. Finally, are county

district councils becoming ` thing of the past? They already are in

Shropshire and Herefordshird, where the old two`tier structure has been

replaced by unitary authorities There's talk of Gloucestershire

going the same way. And next Sunday we'll be reporting from

Warwickshire, where they too are actively considering going tnitary.

That will be at the slightlx later time of 11.15 here on BBC One.

Plenty to talk about. This though is where

decision, she will weigh up the factors. Andrew, back

The big news is the popular server is struggling to control all of the

people who want to find out where they fit in the political spectrum.

It hasn't quite crashed but it is queueing up those people. Who would

have thought the Sunday Politics had so many viewers? It has never

happened on the X factor. This morning's papers don't make

comfortable reading for Labour with two separate polls showing the

party's lead over the Tories is down to just one point. And there's been

plenty of criticism of Ed Miliband's response to the Budget. Let's take a

look. You know you are in trouble when even the Education Secretary

calls you and out of touch bunch of elitist. Where is he? He is hiding!

I think he has been consigned to the naughty step by the Prime Minister.

The naughty step! And we're joined now by shadow chief secretary to the

Treasury, Chris Leslie. There was a widely criticised response by Ed

Balls to the Autumn Statement, now a widely criticised response by Ed

Miliband to the Budget. Does this show you are struggling at the

moment? Of course Ed Balls and Ed Miliband don't want to hear the fact

that in reality, for most people, life is getting harder and there is

the cost of living crisis. Did we get any mention of that in the

Budget? Of course we didn't. We were waiting for action on the cost of

living and it wasn't forthcoming. Ed Miliband came up with the tactic of

responding to the Budget without mentioning anything that was in it.

He mentioned the fact the personal tax allowance was a bit of a

giveaway but he takes more with the other hand. He is in favour of that,

right? Anything we can get but we need a lot more. Let me tell you

something else he mentioned, the fact the national debt has risen by

a third and George Osborne and David Cameron... They knew that before the

Budget. The borrowing figures were announced and Ed Miliband made

reference to those. There is not a lot of happiness on Labour

backbenchers about this, is there? And indeed not a lot of happiness in

the shadow cabinet. There is concern that Ed Miliband is on a journey to

remodel world capitalism whilst George Osborne is firing some love

bombs at Middle England by talking about freeing up the pensions market

and there is real nerves that what Ed Miliband is saying is not going

to be in tune with those middle income earners that the Labour Party

has got to attract if they are going to win the general election. When

Rachel Reeves used the medium of Radio 4 to announce you were broadly

in favour of the pension reforms announced by the Chancellor on

Friday night, was that a result of a decision taken by the shadow

cabinet? Is With annuities, they are a very old-fashioned product. There

are some serious questions which need to be addressed. Was that the

result of a Shadow Cabinet decision? We have not had a Shadow

Cabinet since the budget. We all want to make sure that we understand

the point about flexibility. No one is arguing with that. There are some

serious concerns. Let me give you a couple of examples. This is

something the Chancellor has done, he claims, for reasons of freedom

and flexibility. Is it a coincidence he is grabbing quite a lot of tax

from pensioners early on to plug a hole which is necessary because the

deficit has not gone down? Forgive me for being slightly cynical about

motives. For or against it? We need to have safeguards for protection of

pensioners. What will it do for the annuity market if most people still

want to have a steadying come for a third of their lives? -- steady

income. What does Labour have to do to get it show back on the road The

question is, how do people feel How many people will still not be

feeling better by the next election? Wages may be rising slightly but not

for a large and significant number of people. They were just looking at

the YouGov poll. If you look at the middle to low earners, they are

overwhelmingly pro-labour. Can Labour get those people out to vote?

They are really hurting. There are plenty of them. The question is

whether people are optimistic because they see figures as if they

look as if they are on the up or whether they vote according to how

they feel, which will still be very far behind. Cost of living has been

a major mantra from Labour. That's that this chart shows how things are

beginning to change. What this shows is that, sometime this year, after a

long time at which average earnings trailed inflation, they now overtake

it in the run-up to the election and they stay there for the forecast

period. What do you now do if your cost of living mantra is running out

of steam? I am not sure that, for most people, they will recognise the

sense that suddenly things will be getting better. Particularly the

younger generation are really feeling quite down about the

pressures they are facing to make ends meet. You can see the lines are

exaggerated because the Y axis on the side starts quite high up. It

does not start at zero. The other statistic from the OBR is that we

will not be getting back to the point where wages are exceeding

prices from the pre-banking crisis period until late 2017. There are

some really serious pressures that people are under. What they wanted

was a budget that would address concerns and, for the vast majority

of people, they will have heard the statement by George Osborne and

think, how is it really help them now? It did not address it. It is

clear that by 2015, average living standards will probably not have

returned to where they were in 2010. Average wages will not have

done that. On the other hand, the chart shows the sense of direction

is moving in the right way. Which one matters more with the

electorate? I suspect it is sense of direction. People sense of

prosperity does not need to be buoyant. It has to be something

worth preserving. We have to fear the all turn. That is what intrigued

me this week. People make too much of a fuss about the Parliamentary

response by Ed Miliband. People will forgive a bad day at the dispatch

box. What they will not forgive is the absence of a macro economic

mess. Labour have a very powerful message on living standards and lots

of popular, targeted interventions like the energy price freeze. You

can imagine they will be sufficiently nervous about that next

year. If living standards are not back to where they were, Labour can

say, are you better off now than when you were four years ago? The

reason why break and -- wallowed waken one that is because Jimmy

Carter mucked it up -- Ronald Reagan. Labour have to say, vote for

us and you will get 2 million homes. At the moment, the offer is very

modest. You need to find the money to do that. People need to

understand that housing is at the very heart of the economy, as well

as young people and their aspirations. At the moment, Labour

's offer is not spectacular in. If the focus group shows the cost of

living crisis have no longer has the attraction it did, what line do you

move onto? Yellow McCoy must remind people of the wasted years and the

cost of living pressures they have been under. -- we must remind

people. We want a recovery which has low growth, low wage. A race to the

bottom. They want a recovery that is felt by everyone, shared and felt by

all. Now, here's an idea to twist your melon. Mark Berry, better known

as Bez, it says here he's a member of something called The Happy

Mondays, wants to stand for parliament. He's best known for

being in a band, and not doing very much, so he might fit in. Here he is

in action. And Bez joins us from our Salford

studio. Good to see you. Is this a genuine candidacy or are you

twisting my melon? Amazing how time flies when you're having fun! You

having fun doing this candidacy I am doing the job of the politicians

and standing up for the people and bringing attention to the horror of

fracking, which is a totally unsafe technology. There is no one in

mainstream politics who is discussing or saying anything about

it. It is an unsafe technology and it has been proven in America. You

see the process in America and the people out on the streets. The whole

atmosphere has been made toxic. These people are allowing it to

happen in the name of profit. This has been a Labour seat you are

fighting in Salford since 1945. It is a tough mountain. Supposing you

were to win, could you ever see yourself entering a coalition? With

a bit of luck I may be able to shame Labour politicians to do the job

properly and stand up for the rights of people. They are not and I am

having to do that job. All I am doing is causing debate and bringing

to attention the horror that is hanging on our doorsteps. It is not

only fracking but GM modified foods that they want to bring into this

country as well. Owen Paterson is one of the main lobbyists. Lobbying

is legalised bribery, by the way. It is run by the bankers. Basically, we

have to stop these monsters from getting into our country and turning

our land into a toxic waste. That is what I am trying to say. You are

raising the debate, as you are doing with us here. We do not really need

fracking. You have done that and you have talked about other things as

well. In terms of a new integrity, if you were to become an MP, would

you claim expenses? If I ever do get in charge, I would completely enter

the banking system and there would be expensive, but they would be like

bus passes and train passes. You behave like the people and you are

in touch with the people, you move with the people and do understand

what the people want. You do not live in acre Kuhn of your own making

of luxury, wealth and total disregard of everyone else. -- a

cocoon. If you did get into the Palace of Westminster and had to

mingle with all these people, who would you rather have in night out

with - Mr Cameron, Mr Miller band or Mr Clegg? I would be willing to

discuss politics with anybody. I would make them realise what they

are doing. I am glad too have a debate and with anyone. The people

of Salford, quite a lot people people behind me. I have been

speaking to Salford councillors They are going to lend me their

support. The people of Salford, and not to forget the people of Eccles,

sending you much. We must stop this horror. There is a monster on our

doorstep and we must stop it, people. Do not forget to take your

maracas on campaign trail. Would you like a pair to shake yourself? You

shake your maracas against fracking! Thanks, Bez, goodbye. Thank you for

giving me a little platform to express my views. Now if there's one

thing that gets us hot under the collar here at the Sunday Politics

it's European elections. The only thing we like more than the

elections themselves is a TV debate about them. And we're in luck! Take

a look at this. Ladies and gentlemen, please welcome leader of

the Liberal Democrats and Deputy Prime Minister, Nick Clegg. Gives

the most fantastic welcome to Nigel Farage. I would challenge Nigel

Farage to a public, open debate about whether she we should be out

all in of the European Union. I will do it for Nick Clegg. Since 200 , I

have taken part in 45% of votes in the European Parliament. Nigel

Farage has not tabled a single amendment since July 2009. Mr Clegg

has only taken part in 22% of votes in the House of commons. You can

watch the debate at 7pm on the nd of April over on BBC Two. And for a

chance to be part of the studio audience on the night and put your

question to the two party leaders, e-mail the question you'd like to

ask to [email protected] or tweet it using the hashtag

#europedebate. And Nick Clegg and Nigel Farage will be limbering up

this week with their first debate on LBC radio on Wednesday. Who is going

to come out the best? I suspect Nigel Farage. It is easy to portray

Nick Clegg as morally compromised, who has not asserted himself in

government. I do wonder about Nigel Farage, whether he is much better at

delivering a popular line and responding to the second question of

third question. Nick Clegg will win it hands over fist because he knows

this stuff. He is right. The evidence that he can produce about

what will happen if we pulled out of Europe will, I think, overwhelm

Nigel Farage 's one-liners. They will both be winners because you

will have the rare sight of the pro-European saying he likes the

European Union. That is unlike Eurosceptics who tie themselves up

in knots. 14 Nigel, one for Nick and one for both. There you go. Here is

a mess, it is Janen Ganesh. That's all for today. The Daily Politics is

on BBC Two at Lunchtime every day this week, I'll be back here next

week with Energy Secretary Ed Davey. Remember if it's Sunday, it's the

Sunday Politics.