:01:23. > :01:27.Party are doing well in the polls and are hoping to win more votes
:01:27. > :01:37.than ever in the local elections. What do they really stand for? We
:01:37. > :01:37.
:01:37. > :38:09.Apology for the loss of subtitles for 2191 seconds
:38:09. > :38:12.the program that is just for us in the West. Coming up, the UK
:38:12. > :38:16.Independence Party are hoping to well in the May local elections.
:38:16. > :38:21.They have more candidates standing the never before, with their leader
:38:21. > :38:25.braced for big things. Can the party whose core values are about
:38:25. > :38:30.immigration and Europe really break into local politics? Joining us
:38:30. > :38:36.today is the new Conservative candidate hoping to win a
:38:36. > :38:39.constituency is David Warburton. And so Graham Watson. Welcome. Let us
:38:39. > :38:46.talk about the overall warming story of the week, the death of Lady
:38:46. > :38:51.Thatcher. What is her legacy, do you think? She was a giant in politics
:38:51. > :38:54.and the legacy is pretty much threefold. Number one, she was the
:38:54. > :39:00.person who took on the trade unions, liberalise the British economy and
:39:00. > :39:07.made us work harder. Number two, she was the Cold War Premier in a sense
:39:07. > :39:12.who took us to war against Argentina over the Falklands. And who stood up
:39:12. > :39:17.to Gorbachev. Number three, she was the person who started a big change
:39:17. > :39:21.of opinion in this country about our relationship with our European
:39:21. > :39:25.partners. You sound like a member of the fan club. I respect the fact
:39:25. > :39:31.that she came in as an outsider, took over a party, took over the
:39:31. > :39:36.country and imposed her will. That is what democratic politics has to
:39:36. > :39:40.be about. It is the capacity of an individual to achieve something. I
:39:41. > :39:45.am not a fan in the sense that I did not agree with much of what she did.
:39:45. > :39:49.I think, as Shakespeare says, in Julius Caesar, the harm that people
:39:49. > :39:55.do often lives after them, even though the good is interred with
:39:55. > :40:00.their bones. She certainly did some good but I fear, I see it in the
:40:00. > :40:04.European Union, that she did a lot of harm as well. David, how did she
:40:04. > :40:10.lose your politics? Enormously. I would not be here without her.
:40:10. > :40:14.People my age, 30 years ago, 1983, I was campaigning for her. She was the
:40:14. > :40:23.one that people talked about on the doorstep. Amazingly, they are doing
:40:23. > :40:29.so now. Her impact was immense. she have to be so divisive? I don't
:40:29. > :40:34.issue is necessarily divisive. It is a divisive word. She was divisive in
:40:34. > :40:37.that she polarised opinion because people placed her... People created
:40:38. > :40:42.a myth about her that they still believe was that people believe that
:40:42. > :40:49.Mrs Thatcher was... She destroyed the unions, she destroyed the North
:40:49. > :40:54.of England, she reaped havoc on our in Austria or industry. She has been
:40:54. > :41:03.demonised because people meet a pantomime Bill. We lost our man
:41:03. > :41:09.lecturing -- we lost our manufacturing industry. Under Tony
:41:09. > :41:13.Blair, it went from 17 to 11%, so it is not only her cross to bear.
:41:13. > :41:17.will talk more later in the program. The local elections are on the May
:41:17. > :41:21.the campaign was the little following the death of Lady Thatcher
:41:21. > :41:25.but electioneering is back in full swing with visits from the party
:41:25. > :41:28.leaders and Cabinet ministers in key seats. Let us take a look at the
:41:28. > :41:33.areas holding elections will stop they are Somerset, Dorset,
:41:33. > :41:38.Wiltshire, Gloucestershire and a third of seats in Bristol. The only
:41:38. > :41:41.parties standing candidates in all of the 273 seats are the
:41:41. > :41:45.Conservatives and in six areas in Wiltshire, nobody is standing
:41:45. > :41:50.against them, so they will automatically get in. Labour of
:41:50. > :41:53.fielding candidates in 234 areas, followed by the Lib Dems with 218.
:41:53. > :42:00.The big increases UKIP, which is standing in more places than ever
:42:00. > :42:05.before with 183 candidates in the West. Paul Barltrop reports. The sun
:42:05. > :42:12.is shining on UKIP at the moment. An election tour by Nigel Farage,
:42:12. > :42:19.Somerset is an important stop. how are you? Lovely to welcome you
:42:19. > :42:23.to Taunton. Glad to be here. Reading him, they county chairman. She has
:42:23. > :42:26.recorded a record number of candidates. They are all worried
:42:27. > :42:32.about what being in Europe is doing to us. We're on the verge of opening
:42:32. > :42:42.up the door next year to 29 million people from really poor countries
:42:42. > :42:48.like bog area and for many. -- bog area and remain here. None of this
:42:48. > :42:53.has anything to do with local politics. Their policies there are
:42:53. > :42:58.much less distinctive. They say that capital taxes must not rise. They
:42:58. > :43:03.want to improve services, so do little Democrats was the UKIP and
:43:03. > :43:08.Labour manifestoes infuse about increasing local decision-making.
:43:08. > :43:12.All parties say they will improve road maintenance. In her taut home,
:43:12. > :43:15.Dorothy Baker is working flat out. She accepts that her party know
:43:15. > :43:21.little about running local government that believes it is a big
:43:21. > :43:25.steppingstone. Doing well in the council elections is the first step
:43:25. > :43:30.to getting into Westminster. Bear in mind, we are a young party, a small
:43:30. > :43:34.party, although we are growing phenomenally. 20 years, this last
:43:34. > :43:40.week, this party was formed. It took the Liberals 30 years to get their
:43:40. > :43:45.first MP. We are going to beat that, I am certain. Party membership has
:43:45. > :43:49.been rising. It has been a race against time to create a political
:43:49. > :43:55.fighting machine. So you do need to know where you stand with your
:43:55. > :44:05.boundaries. But what preoccupies supporters at this meeting is not
:44:05. > :44:11.council boundaries as Britain's borders. He said to Enoch Powell,
:44:11. > :44:17.how do you change these things? How can we possibly? The young well,
:44:17. > :44:20.they always do. That is what is starting now in politics. He was
:44:20. > :44:24.right about rivers of blood, so let's hope he was right about that
:44:24. > :44:31.as well. Even in Taunton, the latest wave of immigration is obvious.
:44:31. > :44:35.Somerset is home to 5000 Polish people. Nothing against the Polish
:44:35. > :44:44.people, they are hard-working and industrious and I have had Polish
:44:44. > :44:51.friends in the past who have settled in Taunton. After the war. It is the
:44:51. > :44:53.numbers, isn't it? And the fact that as a nation we cannot control our
:44:54. > :44:59.own borders. Voting UKIP would change that that it may appeal to
:44:59. > :45:03.voters frustrated with the three main parties. Joining the debate is
:45:03. > :45:09.Phil Collins, who is the former chair of UKIP in Bristol and a
:45:09. > :45:16.candidate in the local elections. Welcome. Is there a danger that UKIP
:45:16. > :45:20.could be seen as a party that attracts racist? Not at all. Five or
:45:20. > :45:22.six years ago, you would have said so. The normal people of today want
:45:22. > :45:31.to stop migration. The country cannot cope. Our services are
:45:31. > :45:35.overrun. The three old and tired parties have all promised a vote and
:45:36. > :45:39.then they have reneges on that promise. You are the party of
:45:39. > :45:43.immigration, not the body that was to be out of Europe? Not out of
:45:43. > :45:49.Europe but want to still trade with Europe. You see immigration as the
:45:49. > :45:53.key issue? Yes, because it affects nationally and locally. Because
:45:53. > :46:03.services have been cut, we have no money to do anything else. What if
:46:03. > :46:04.
:46:04. > :46:14.people are thinking of voting you -- UKIP in the local elections? What do
:46:14. > :46:15.
:46:15. > :46:18.you know that local councils? have experience, and money is not
:46:18. > :46:24.getting through from central government to local people. We talk
:46:24. > :46:29.being about eight aquatic country. But we do not have a vote on the
:46:29. > :46:36.European Union. What's different is that the European Union make to a
:46:36. > :46:46.local council here in the West quest Mark people from abroad becoming the
:46:46. > :46:48.are using our services. Hospitals, everything. Any idea yet how many
:46:49. > :46:55.Bulgarians and Romanians will be coming in next year when our borders
:46:55. > :46:57.are opened to them? It will depend on the labour market in this country
:46:57. > :47:04.and the labour market in those countries. I expect that, in the
:47:04. > :47:10.end, very few of them would will come. Most of them will go to the
:47:10. > :47:13.country's closest to them, Germany and Austria. So you have no idea?If
:47:13. > :47:17.a country is a member of the European Union, its people have the
:47:17. > :47:22.right to go and move and work and settle elsewhere. Just as millions
:47:22. > :47:28.of Britons take the advantage of going and spending part of the year
:47:28. > :47:31.in the south of Spain, so the Polish and the Bulgarians will go for work
:47:31. > :47:35.elsewhere if they wish to do so. That is a benefit to this country,
:47:35. > :47:45.because if we didn't have them, frankly, because we don't have
:47:45. > :47:46.
:47:46. > :47:50.enough young people, we wouldn't be able to staff our care homes, etc.
:47:50. > :47:53.Should they be entitled to a council house, if they have children?
:47:53. > :47:58.have to be entitled to what anyone in this country would be entitled to
:47:58. > :48:00.and what they would be entitled to in their countries. That is
:48:00. > :48:04.something that applies to all European citizens, right across the
:48:04. > :48:08.European Union. It has been hugely beneficial to this country because
:48:08. > :48:13.we have a very large number of people working abroad in other
:48:13. > :48:23.countries in the European Union, enjoying the same benefits as those
:48:23. > :48:27.countries' people enjoy. concerned that the UKIP messages and
:48:27. > :48:30.entirely true, that they are putting up scare stories of 29 million
:48:30. > :48:36.people coming from Romania and Bulgaria. Something like the
:48:36. > :48:40.combined population of Romania and Bulgaria. So the chances of both
:48:40. > :48:46.countries emptying and finding ways here are low. You haven't come up
:48:46. > :48:52.with an alternative figure, have you? Nobody knows.It is anybody's
:48:52. > :48:56.guess. 29 million is a number picked out of the air. The entire
:48:56. > :49:00.population, which is the least likely thing to happen. We need to
:49:00. > :49:05.police our borders properly and the government over the last three years
:49:05. > :49:12.has reduced net migration by a third. So work has been done in this
:49:12. > :49:15.area. We are going in the right direction. I'm not sure that pulling
:49:15. > :49:20.is out of Europe and halting the whole thing is a good thing at all.
:49:20. > :49:25.Whatever you do, you cannot control people from other parts of Europe.
:49:25. > :49:31.You can't reduce numbers from parts of the EE? We can't, as long as we
:49:31. > :49:35.are part of the EU. That remains the rule within the EU. You can't
:49:35. > :49:39.control immigration from the EU? we can't. So need to be careful
:49:40. > :49:46.about immigration from outside the EU, because that is something we can
:49:46. > :49:49.manage. What do you think? This is absolutely right. We now know that,
:49:49. > :49:52.thanks to the coalition government, family people are coming into this
:49:52. > :49:59.government, where they are coming from and how you people are leaving
:49:59. > :50:08.the country. That is something the Labour government never did. We can
:50:08. > :50:11.design policy to ensure that we are making the best use of the resources
:50:11. > :50:17.we have, to make sure that our citizens are enjoying the same
:50:17. > :50:19.benefits as in other countries. Clegg said he was wrong to promise
:50:20. > :50:23.an amnesty to illegal in this country if they have gone under the
:50:23. > :50:29.radar for ten years, we should make them citizens. He said. Was he
:50:29. > :50:35.wrong? There are big difficulties with amnesty is because, if you say
:50:35. > :50:37.you are going to give him amnesty when people are here illegally,
:50:37. > :50:45.theoretically you attract more people to come to the country
:50:45. > :50:48.illegally. Let us work on very successfully on closing the back
:50:48. > :50:52.door to illegal migration into this country. Let's keep open a front
:50:52. > :51:01.door to a certain amount. satisfied with the changes that all
:51:01. > :51:04.of the main parties have now -- are now shaping up to on immigration?
:51:04. > :51:07.is proven that they won't give as a referendum because they know that
:51:07. > :51:11.British people don't want to be in it. We should be like Australia. We
:51:11. > :51:17.should determine how he people come in. At the moment, it is an open
:51:17. > :51:22.door. No because Australia racist when they only want people who have
:51:22. > :51:27.certain skills. Kids that want to go off to Europe? They should be
:51:27. > :51:37.subject to controls for other European new union countries, saying
:51:37. > :51:40.they don't want us? If we want to go talking about Spain and Portugal.
:51:40. > :51:46.But we don't want to be in Europe was the British people, not just
:51:46. > :51:49.UKIP, we don't want to be in Europe. We want the board back up and what a
:51:49. > :51:53.certain number of people in that we can provide for whilst still
:51:53. > :51:57.providing for the British public and putting the British public first.
:51:58. > :52:02.And you think that West Country care homes and restaurants and hotels
:52:02. > :52:06.could cope without any immigrants? Yes, because the people that are
:52:06. > :52:11.unemployed will then be employed. There are not enough jobs around at
:52:11. > :52:20.the moment. I can't understand, even though David Cameron said, he would
:52:20. > :52:30.give a referendum in 2015, if he is re-elected, which identity will, he
:52:30. > :52:32.
:52:32. > :52:36.won't get it, because you want to let him. We have to end it there.
:52:36. > :52:39.It is Somerset where the Fiesta 's battle is being fought. The
:52:39. > :52:48.Conservatives have run things for the past four years but cuts to
:52:48. > :52:54.local government funding meant they had to mix of difficult decisions
:52:54. > :52:58.about funding. Springtime in Somerset. As the
:52:58. > :53:00.weather warms up, so are the political activists. For the
:53:00. > :53:05.Conservatives and the Lib Dems who are working together nationally,
:53:05. > :53:12.this is one county they refused to share. Here, they fight it out for
:53:12. > :53:18.every vote in key marginal wards. This was the most closely fought
:53:18. > :53:22.battle in the last election in the entire county. Here at Castle Cary,
:53:22. > :53:28.just six votes separated the Conservative win Andy Lib Dem loser.
:53:28. > :53:31.In seas like this in Somerset, it is where the battle to control the
:53:31. > :53:36.county will be won or lost. The council budget has been squeezed by
:53:36. > :53:40.central dogma settlements, leaving the Conservatives little choice but
:53:40. > :53:45.to cut budgets. They argue most frontline services have been saved
:53:45. > :53:53.which they hope will save them big losses on May the 2nd. There will be
:53:53. > :54:03.people who will be really concerned that the services that they really
:54:03. > :54:07.believe in will be effective. Hobhouse knows what it is like to
:54:07. > :54:12.lose, having just lost last time. They have to win here. It is no
:54:12. > :54:16.surprise that the Tory cuts are top of their election campaigns. People
:54:16. > :54:24.in this area have had their hours of care cut, they have raised the bar
:54:24. > :54:29.on whether they can have showers or barbs. They have increased cost of
:54:29. > :54:33.cleaners for the disabled. They have made the cuts in the wrong places.
:54:33. > :54:40.So what of the other parties here in Somerset? Labour have just two
:54:40. > :54:45.councillors. They hope to win a view more. The county council budget has
:54:45. > :54:49.been slashed by the Conservatives. How do you sort out the local issues
:54:49. > :54:56.from the national issues? Realistically, they have little
:54:56. > :55:06.chance of making big games was up the -- UKIP and the Greens have
:55:06. > :55:11.
:55:11. > :55:14.little chance here. They're very beautiful part of the world.
:55:14. > :55:21.Representing is from the Conservatives and the Lib Dems are
:55:21. > :55:27.here to slug it out. You are both all in it together. You
:55:27. > :55:37.are in a coalition nationally, and pretending you are separate on
:55:37. > :55:44.policy is absurd. There are clear policy differences between the two
:55:44. > :55:48.parties. Locally, we have different priorities. For example, Liberal
:55:48. > :55:53.Democrats do believe that we shouldn't be closing waste tips,
:55:53. > :56:02.which is leading to a growth in fly tipping on farmers' land. Liberal
:56:02. > :56:05.Democrats were outraged that the Conservatives spent �4 million on
:56:05. > :56:08.new furniture and spending thousands of pounds a day on consultants from
:56:08. > :56:16.your cutting social care. That is your list, let's come back with your
:56:16. > :56:21.list. There is no formally and pounce on chairs. �4 million on
:56:21. > :56:28.moving the council offices from having 35 offices, which the Lib
:56:28. > :56:33.Dems but it ought to have, to 30 offices. A month that was some
:56:33. > :56:43.chairs was that it is pushing the boundaries a bit to describe it as
:56:43. > :56:47.
:56:47. > :56:55.furniture! Spending 4 million to save money. We were left with a
:56:55. > :56:59.massive amount of debt. More than a third of �1 million in debt. So
:56:59. > :57:03.stuff has to be done. We also lost �94 million from the government. So
:57:03. > :57:07.savings have to be made. Comeback on the debt issue. All councils have
:57:07. > :57:17.debt, just as the mud debt. That is the debt that Somerset County
:57:17. > :57:17.
:57:17. > :57:23.Council has as a percentage of its budget was one of the lowest in the
:57:23. > :57:26.country. The Tory administrator and get on and if the liberal Democrats
:57:26. > :57:30.win again, as I hope we will, we will take on the debt that they have
:57:30. > :57:33.had to manage and some of which they have created. The rally is there is
:57:33. > :57:40.a clear choice between the kind of services you get from Liberal
:57:40. > :57:45.Democrats and the Conservatives. It's a managerial issue, not
:57:45. > :57:49.philosophical. There are philosophical differences as well.
:57:49. > :57:55.It is a separate subject. We can be here all day. We were going to
:57:56. > :57:59.philosophy! This is one -- there is one story that has dominated the
:57:59. > :58:03.headlines this week. That is the death of Margaret Thatcher. Here are
:58:03. > :58:08.some thoughts in a sickly second round up.
:58:08. > :58:11.She was nicknamed the iron Lady and according to former Lib Dem leader
:58:11. > :58:15.and Yeovil MP Paddy Ashdown, Margaret Thatcher really did live up
:58:15. > :58:22.to her name. In all my life, I have never been so frightened as I was
:58:22. > :58:29.when I had to take her on and be literally handbag once a week in
:58:29. > :58:36.front of the microphones of the nation. One of the function she
:58:36. > :58:40.attended was Liam Fox's birthday. She worked the room and was the
:58:40. > :58:44.centre of attention and was hoping that she was giving good value to
:58:45. > :58:49.everyone who was there. To some she was, and is, a figure of eight and
:58:49. > :58:53.tensions grew in restored on the night of her death. One police
:58:53. > :58:58.officer had to be taken to hospital and six others were injured as 200
:58:58. > :59:07.people gathered to have a party. On Friday, the Conservative club was
:59:07. > :59:11.attacked. The owners believe it was by anti-Thatcher writes.
:59:11. > :59:15.The week of Lady Thatcher's death. Let us about the arrangements for
:59:15. > :59:25.this week and the protests and so on. Have you thought of the guests?
:59:25. > :59:26.
:59:26. > :59:31.Are people to entitled to express their views? Of course they are.
:59:31. > :59:34.People will behave like that here and there. The less attention we pay
:59:34. > :59:37.to it the better. I think we should move on food aid is quite shocking
:59:37. > :59:41.if they start mashing up shops and thinks food it is bizarre. I don't
:59:41. > :59:48.think those people are in any way representative of the entire mass of
:59:48. > :59:53.people. We are expecting this kind of celebration for certain sections
:59:53. > :59:58.of the community? It is not surprising. Nobody can condone
:59:58. > :00:04.violence of that nature but it is not entirely surprising in the vast
:00:04. > :00:08.majority of the country that they want to see an important funeral for
:00:08. > :00:14.an important person. Mrs Thatcher is then 30 years in Parliament. Worth
:00:14. > :00:17.�10 million of the cost? These things will always cost money for is
:00:17. > :00:22.that it doesn't matter which prime and Mr is being buried. The costs
:00:22. > :00:28.these days are huge because the cost of security are huge. That is it
:00:28. > :00:31.from the West this week. Thank you to our guests. Don't go away because
:00:31. > :00:36.the Sunday Politics continues with Andrew in London. If you want to
:00:36. > :00:42.find out more about the candidates standing in your local area, you can
:00:42. > :00:45.find a full list on your local council website. For example, if you
:00:45. > :00:51.live in Gloucestershire, go to the Gloucestershire Canada Council