05/02/2012 Sunday Politics West

Nick Clegg has lost another Cabinet minister on Friday. His latest poll

Our pile on to a blot on the landscape? Or the most cost

effective way to carry electricity? We will ask whether it is worth

Apology for the loss of subtitles for 1753 seconds

paying pounds to protect become -- Time now for all our local

political news, so turn the heating up and stick with us but what about

the electricity bill? Would you pay more so the cables running through

Somerset could be put under ground or reduce the ugly pylons marching

across the countryside instead? We will have a debate. To help us we

have two of the region's brightest political sparks. Meet John Penrose

whose job as tourism minister is to convince us a week in Weston beats

Florida. And all the way from the Forest of Dean Jan Royall who is

the Labour leader in the House of Lords and unlike Fred the Shred

there is their chance of her losing her title because she is a baroness.

Is it fair that nights like Sir Fred can be stripped but it cannot?

We have to look carefully at Piers. We have a bill coming from David

Steel which would enable us to strip peers of their peerages if

they have been to prison for more than a year. What if the sentence

is more than a year but they have served less? It would not be

retrospective in any case it would look at the future. But I am in

favour of us doing something. While I am in favour of restorative

justice and people we integrating into society, if you are a bit as

they tear it is different. Did this decision to do this to Mr Goodwin

show a vindictive side to the Prime Minister? It was an independent

decision. He certainly backed it. I think an awful lot of people felt

strongly about this not just in Westminster, but right the way

across the country. I would agree that we have measures to introduce

recall of MPs for the Commons. The way that we deal with people who

have done something wrong and to have any kind of an honour needs to

be tidied up and consistent. We are talking about women and

Labour have decided that they should be an all-female list when

they select the candidate for Bristol West. The bloke who fought

for them has been told he is no longer required.

Remember this? They were dubbed the Blair babes. Labour's record total

of 101 women MPs elected in 1997 but this was not manage without

special measures. Some were chosen as candidates from all women's

short list. This device was controversial and ruled illegal. So

as prime minister, Blair changed the law. That was why no men

competed with Kerry McCarthy to become Labour's MP for Bristol East.

On the coalition benches there were far fewer women despite other

measures to boost their numbers. In both parties there is strong

opposition to banning men from standing. Every woman in Parliament

should be able to look every man in Parliament in the eye and to know

that she got there on exactly the same basis as he got there. If she

cannot do that, she is a second- class citizen. A now lay back in

Bristol West have told their candidate do not reapply. Goldsmith

did nothing wrong. He has been praised for his years of

campaigning but it is women early next time. A party policy he says

he supports. With us is Dr Peter Jepson who

successfully took the Labour Party to an employment tribunal back in

1996 for using all-women short lists. The Labour government then

change the law to exempt elections from the sex discrimination Act.

Welcome. Is it legal in your opinion even though the law has

been changed? My opinion is it is perfectly legal, the question is is

it going to be legal when tested in the European Court of Justice. I

have had discussions with a friend of mine who is a barrister and we

have contemplated the prospect of bringing a challenge. What is the

problem with all-women short lists? If I was to tell you that I am

advocating all-male shortlist, your telephone would be jammed with

people protesting and saying how horrid. It is no more acceptable

than women short list. Half the population is under-represented in

the house of parliament. There are. I went to the Labour Party with a

proposal to merge constituents is for the purpose of selecting

candidates. I am a strong supporter of the process that has been used

for ensuring we do have 50-50 representation. I think we should

have 50-50 representation in Parliament what I am opposed to is

excluding people simply because of their gender. All-women short lists

work? You do that across the country you would have more women

MPs. If it did work we would have more women MPs. The fact is there

has not been use of them and the question is, is could they be used

if there was a legal challenge? I believe the equal treatment

director of would say it does not positive -- support positive

discrimination. The point that Ann Widdecombe made says it is a hollow

victory. I think that any of my women colleagues who are elected on

the basis of an all-women short list can look the Prime Minister in

the eye and say I am just a good at MP as you are. They were selected

by their constituency, they were elected by the people of their

constituency and that is fine. In 1997, 101 women Labour MPs were

elected. In 2001 when Peter had taken his case, we had one women

elected and 13 New men. This is a progressive measure and it is

absolutely necessary because people in this country want to have trust

in their politicians and they want to see their politicians

represented. Are women MPs not as good as men? Women MPs I have seen

are excellent and they certainly can look the Prime Este in the eye

with pride. I do believe that women have proven that they make

brilliant MPs. There is no argument about that but the process to

choose where you exclude people simply because of their gender. It

is unacceptable. All-male shortlists would be totally

unacceptable. You and I would be opposed to it. We should be equally

feist -- fight against all-female short best. There is a shortage of

male primary school teachers, we do support male only shortlists for

those vacancies? No, but I would want to encourage more men by doing

anything I could. The numbers in parliament are very different.

Between 1929 and the present day they have only been 33 women in the

Cabinet. The women who have been to the Cabinet have to go up through

the ranks, you have to start by having more women MPs. Let's bring

in John Penrose. Have you had any Top Totty recently? I am talking

about beer. It has been barred from the House of Commons bar. It is a

pretty Blaikie place? It has been. If you talk to some of the female

MPs who have been there for a while, they say that the culture when they

arrived was very male and they say it has changed. Some feel the tears

still a bit too man like. From the Tory point of view we have started

to fix it. We have taken a different route. We have not used

all-female short list partly because some of the concerns that

Dr Jackson is describing but we are fixing it now. We have more women

entering the Commons on the conservative side and it takes time

for them to work through the ranks. Briefly, to be an MP you need to

have a skin like a rhinoceros, fairly bullish, full of self-

confidence and that tends to attract a certain sort of man. It

will also attract a certain sort of woman. Is there that much

difference? When it comes to selection conferences they do seems

to be a difference. I do not know why people select men but they do

and that is demonstrated by the fact we have 32 % of women benchers

in the House of Commons. Thank you for coming in. Very important for

Cabinet. 50 % men, 50 % women. Thank you.

A blot on the landscape or the best cost-effective way of carrying

electricity? That is the argument between campaigners and the

National Grid over plans to build larger pylons from Hinckley Point

nuclear power station to Avon now. Families living in the shadow of

the pilot's won the cables to be laid on the ground but that would

These pylons have towered over Webbington farm on the Mendips for

decades. At more than 20 metres high, they won for miles through

the Somerset countryside close to many family homes. The farmers and

Mark Amesbury. His family has been long there -- been here longer than

the pilot's. All my life living here, they were put up in about the

early 1940s I think. That was before this was designated an Area

of Outstanding Natural Beauty. He is worried bigger pylons would

affect business. The new ones would be doubled this hide. It is not

just the farmland. Mark has also got holiday cottages and things

tourists will be put off by higher pylons which could be moved closer

to the buildings. National Grid say �850 million to run the whole lot

Underground, that is a lot of money. It is coming back to how you split

the cost, to the people who live along the line have to carry the

cost in terms of learning -- losing money on businesses or does the

nation as a whole pay a small contribution on their electricity

bill? A few miles down the road, people are living even closer to

pylons and they are set to get a lot bigger. Debra's family home is

just metres from the current pylons. She is scared about the effects

higher voltage lines would have won her children's health. When we

moved to this property, yes the pun ons and lines were there. The

current line is only 132 kilovolts and we did our research before we

bought the house and we felt comfortable that the

electromagnetic fields that were coming off those lines, because it

was low, we were comfortable it did not impose health risks. It is a

question of health and the health risks to my children. There have

been many studies over many years and lots of research going on

throughout the world into the link between electromagnetic fields and

diseases such as childhood leukaemia. Debra's part of a group

that has been fighting National Grid's plans for years. But she

does not lay the blame entirely with the National Grid.

government said the policies, those are the guidelines that companies

like National Grid operate under so the government should be doing more

to protect us. National Grid will draw up its final plans by the end

of summer. Campaigners are hoping their dream of undergrounding the

cables may still see the light of day.

Joining me now is David Mercer from National Grid. Thank you for coming

in. Surprise, surprise, you went for the cheapest option. We have a

very important job to connect up new low carbon generators and the

way we connect them up is a difficult balance. It is a balance

between protecting the environment and local committees and the cost

which pass through to all of us. It is not an easy balance which is why

we have to follow a policy and the government will decide whether this

is right. That is right because the government is representing all of

us. The gas company would not put its pipelines on the surface, why

are you different? Electricity is far cheaper to transport by

overhead lines and the costs do pass through to all of us in our

bills and that is why traditionally, worldwide overhead lines have been

the way to move. People living near the pylons pay a disproportionate

cost. That is not fair that they live near the route to.

understand that argument and all of us have things which affect us in

our life and things which are important for us all in society, so

sometimes we have roads imposed in our areas, sometimes we have new

buildings. Let's bring in John Penrose. A Somerset MP, what do you

think? When you showed the fields in the background there, they are

in my constituency. I am very concerned and a lot of people are

very, very concerned particularly we include a large chunk of the

Mendip Hills. I wanted on the ground and many people are

concerned about other areas. -- on What I have said is we will look

along the entire length of this line at where the high cost of

undergrounding is appropriate. One of the areas we will look at is the

Mendip hills. Area of outstanding beauty. Is it worth people paying

more on their electricity bills? People are struggling at the moment.

It is. It is such a difficult question. Electricity bills are

higher than they ever have been before and for elderly people it is

a ghastly dilemma. Four areas such as area of natural beauty, they

rely on tourism. It is very difficult because I live in an area

that does not have an area of natural beauty status and I would

not want pylons coming through my Forest of Dean. If you spread the

cost out over decades, is it really that much? The key point is it

would cost in the order of �900 million more to put this line

underground. That is about �1 won every domestic consumer's bill for

the next 40 years. This is just one project, there are others around,

that is why a government that has to decide where this balance lies.

Thank you. Time now for our weekly round-up in just 60 seconds.

This Conservative-run council in Taunton is defying the Government

with plans to raise the council tax by 3.5 %. All councils were told

they had a moral duty to keep down the cost of living. The Occupy

Bristol can came to an end this week as the final tents were

removed from College Green. Councillors say the bill for

cleaning up the park will cost many thousands.

Wessex Water warned customers that metal thefts could lead to water

supplies being cut off. They said they have had more than a million

pounds of lead stolen since 2010. Victory for campaigners who are

against plans for new wind turbines at it on the plant in Swindon. The

company decided not to appeal against the council's decision to

refuse the development. And this Gloucestershire parish

councillor says he is still convinced there is a big puma like

cat living near Stroud. He thought it had killed a deer, but this week

scientists found the only DNA on the carcass was that of a fox.

Our - through the week. One of those stories, a decision by

Taunton council to increase its council tax by 3.5 %. It is a

Conservative controlled authority, what do you say to them? It is a

local decision. They have to make up their minds based on what local

people want. Most other councils are choosing not to raise council

tax but if that is right for their electors... Is it not immoral to

put up council tax? But we also respect localism. At the end of the

day, they are the people that have to face the voters in Taunton Dean.

The government has imposed a 32 % induction going to the counter this

year. The council is trying to protect local services and it is a

difficult decision because they know people are having a difficult

time. By defying the government they lose the grant, of �100,000.

It is a difficult calculation to make. What is your advice? I am

rather hoping the Conservative controlled authority has calculated

and represented local people proper -- properly. On that big cat story,

have you seen a prisoner I have not. That is it from the West. Hour