Browse content similar to 26/01/2014. Check below for episodes and series from the same categories and more!
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Morning folks. Welcome to the Sunday Politics. | :00:36. | :00:41. | |
Ed Balls has gone socialist and fiscal Conservative in one speech. | :00:42. | :00:44. | |
He promises to balance the biggest bit of the budget. And to bring back | :00:45. | :00:49. | |
the 50p top tax rate. Political masterstroke, or a return to old | :00:50. | :00:53. | |
Labour? If you go to work by public | :00:54. | :00:56. | |
transport, chances are the price of your ticket has just gone up - | :00:57. | :00:59. | |
again. We'll speak to Transport Secretary Patrick McLoughlin. He's | :01:00. | :01:03. | |
our Sunday Interview. And it's been another wet week | :01:04. | :01:06. | |
across much of the UK, but what s the outlook according to this man? | :01:07. | :01:11. | |
This morning.This morning. Held in recent years by party | :01:12. | :01:22. | |
Here the Euro MP who really showed up in | :01:23. | :01:39. | |
And with me - as always - the political panel so fresh-faced, | :01:40. | :01:43. | |
entertaining and downright popular they make Justin Bieber look like a | :01:44. | :01:46. | |
boring old has-been just desperate to get your attention. Nick Watt, | :01:47. | :01:49. | |
Helen Lewis and Janan Ganesh, and they'll be tweeting quicker than a | :01:50. | :01:52. | |
yellow Lamborghini racing down Miami Beach. Being political nerds, they | :01:53. | :02:09. | |
have no idea what I'm talking about. Ed Balls sprung a surprise on us all | :02:10. | :02:13. | |
yesterday. We kinda thought Labour would head for the election with a | :02:14. | :02:16. | |
return to the 50p top rate of tax. But we didn't think he'd do it now. | :02:17. | :02:20. | |
He did! The polls say it's popular, Labour activists now have a spring | :02:21. | :02:24. | |
in their step. The Tories say it's a return to the bad old days of the | :02:25. | :02:27. | |
'70s, and bosses now think Labour is anti-business. Here's the Shadow | :02:28. | :02:29. | |
Chancellor speaking earlier this morning. I was part of a Government | :02:30. | :02:32. | |
which did very many things to open up markets, to make the Bank of | :02:33. | :02:35. | |
England independent, to work closely with business, but the reality is we | :02:36. | :02:37. | |
are in very difficult circumstances and because if I'm honest you, | :02:38. | :02:39. | |
George Osborne's failure in the last few years, those difficult | :02:40. | :02:43. | |
circumstances will last into the next Parliament. Business people | :02:44. | :02:53. | |
have said to me they want to get the deficit down, of course they do But | :02:54. | :02:59. | |
to cut the top rate... It is foolish and feeds resentment I want to do | :03:00. | :03:02. | |
the opposite and say look, pro-business, pro investment, pro | :03:03. | :03:07. | |
market, but pro fairness. Let's get this deficit down in a fairway and | :03:08. | :03:11. | |
make the reforms to make our economy work for the long term. What are the | :03:12. | :03:17. | |
political implications of Labour now in favour of a 50%, in practise 352% | :03:18. | :03:24. | |
top rate of tax? One of the political implications I don't think | :03:25. | :03:27. | |
exist is that they'll win new voters. I'm not sure many people out | :03:28. | :03:31. | |
there would think, I would love to vote for Ed Miliband but I'm not | :03:32. | :03:36. | |
sure if he wants to tax rich people enough. It will con Dale their | :03:37. | :03:42. | |
existing vote but I don't think it is the kind of, in the 1990s we | :03:43. | :03:50. | |
talked about triangulation, moving beyond your core vote, I don't think | :03:51. | :03:53. | |
it is a policy like that. If there has been a policy like that this | :03:54. | :03:57. | |
year, this month, it has been the Tories' move on minimum wage. I | :03:58. | :04:00. | |
thought Labour would come back with their own version, a centre-right | :04:01. | :04:05. | |
policy, and instead they have done this. I think we talk about the 35% | :04:06. | :04:10. | |
strategy that Labour supposed will have, I think it is a policy in that | :04:11. | :04:16. | |
direction rather than the thing Tony Blair or Gordon Brown would have | :04:17. | :04:23. | |
done. Where he was not clear is on how much it would raise. We know the | :04:24. | :04:29. | |
sum in the grand scheme of things isn't much, the bedroom tax was | :04:30. | :04:34. | |
about sending a message. What we are going to see is George Osborne and | :04:35. | :04:41. | |
Ed Balls lock as they try to push the other one into saying things | :04:42. | :04:47. | |
that are unpopular. The Tories, ?150,000 a year, that's exactly | :04:48. | :04:55. | |
where Ed Balls want them to be. All three main parties have roughly the | :04:56. | :05:00. | |
same plan, to run a current budget surplus by the end of the next | :05:01. | :05:04. | |
Parliament. George Osborne said ?12 billion of welfare cuts, hasn't said | :05:05. | :05:09. | |
how he is going to do it. Ed Balls is giving an idea that he is going | :05:10. | :05:14. | |
to restore this 50 persons rate The contribution of that will be | :05:15. | :05:18. | |
deminimus. It is not much, but what does it say about your values. | :05:19. | :05:23. | |
Because it is that package, it is cleverer than people think. Where | :05:24. | :05:27. | |
the challenge is is the question that Peter Mandelson posed at the | :05:28. | :05:30. | |
last election, which is can the Labour Party win a general election | :05:31. | :05:36. | |
if it doesn't have business on its side? That's the big challenge and | :05:37. | :05:39. | |
that's the question looking difficult for them this morning | :05:40. | :05:43. | |
Does it matter if Labour has business on its side. I thought the | :05:44. | :05:49. | |
most fascinating thing about this announcement is it came from the guy | :05:50. | :05:53. | |
mindful of business support, Ed Balls. When in opposition and when a | :05:54. | :05:58. | |
Minister and as a shadow as a result, he's been far more conscious | :05:59. | :06:04. | |
than Ed Miliband about the need not to alienate the CB Bill. In the | :06:05. | :06:08. | |
run-up of an election. This is a measure of Ed Miliband's strength in | :06:09. | :06:13. | |
the Labour Party, that his view of things can prevail so easily over a | :06:14. | :06:18. | |
guy who for the last 15 years has taken a different view. Eight out of | :06:19. | :06:24. | |
ten businesses according to the CBI don't want us to leave business | :06:25. | :06:29. | |
Business is in a bit of a cleft stick. Ed Miliband would like to see | :06:30. | :06:34. | |
businesses squealing, and Ed Balls is clearly not so comfortable on | :06:35. | :06:37. | |
that one. There's a difference on that. Mind you, they were squealing | :06:38. | :06:42. | |
this morning from Davos. They probably had hangovers as well. The | :06:43. | :06:46. | |
other thing they would say is this is not like Ed Balls thinks that 50p | :06:47. | :06:51. | |
is the optimal rate forever, it what go eventually. Isn't that what | :06:52. | :06:55. | |
politicians said when income tax was introduced? Yeah, in '97 Labour | :06:56. | :07:00. | |
regarded 40 persons as the rate where it would stay. | :07:01. | :07:05. | |
It's been a bad week for the Lib Dems. Again. Actually, it's been one | :07:06. | :07:10. | |
of the worst weeks yet for Nick Clegg and his party in recent | :07:11. | :07:13. | |
memory, as they've gone from talking confidently about their role in | :07:14. | :07:16. | |
Government to facing a storm of criticism over claims of | :07:17. | :07:18. | |
inappropriate sexual behaviour by a Lib Dem peer, Chris Rennard, and a | :07:19. | :07:22. | |
Lib Dem MP, Mike Hancock. Here's Giles with the story of the week. A | :07:23. | :07:26. | |
challenge to Nick Clegg's authority as he face as growing row over the | :07:27. | :07:32. | |
Liberal Democrat... I want everyone to be treated with respect by the | :07:33. | :07:36. | |
Liberal Democrats. We are expecting him to show moral leadership on our | :07:37. | :07:42. | |
behalf. A good man has been publicly destroyed by the media with the | :07:43. | :07:48. | |
apparent support of Nick Clegg. I would like Nick Clegg to show | :07:49. | :07:52. | |
leadership and say, this has got to stop. When Nick Clegg woke up on | :07:53. | :07:59. | |
Monday morning he knew he was in trouble, staring down the barrel of | :08:00. | :08:05. | |
a stand justify with Lord Rennard over allegations that the peer had | :08:06. | :08:10. | |
inappropriately touched a number of women. Chris Rennard thought he was | :08:11. | :08:14. | |
cleared. Nick Clegg wanted more I said if he doesn't apologise, he | :08:15. | :08:19. | |
should withdraw from the House of Lords. If he does that today, what | :08:20. | :08:24. | |
do you do then? I hope he doesn t. I think no apology, no whip. 2014 was | :08:25. | :08:31. | |
starting badly for the Liberal Democrats. Chris Rennard refused to | :08:32. | :08:36. | |
apologise, saying you can't say sorry for something you haven't | :08:37. | :08:41. | |
done. The and he was leaning towards legal action. Butch us friends | :08:42. | :08:45. | |
better defending Pym and publicly. This is a good, decent man, who has | :08:46. | :08:49. | |
been punished by the party, with the leadership of the party that seems | :08:50. | :08:54. | |
to be showing scant regard for due process. But his accusers felt very | :08:55. | :09:00. | |
differently. It is untenable for the Lib Dems to have a credible voice on | :09:01. | :09:04. | |
qualities and women's issues in the future if Lord Rennard was allowed | :09:05. | :09:09. | |
to be back on the Lib Dem benches in the House of Lords. Therein lay the | :09:10. | :09:15. | |
problem that exposed the weaknesses of the Lib Dem leaders. The party's | :09:16. | :09:19. | |
internal structures have all the simplicity of a circuit diagram for | :09:20. | :09:26. | |
a supercomputer, exposing the complexity of who runs the Liberal | :09:27. | :09:31. | |
Democrats? The simple question that arose of that was can the leader of | :09:32. | :09:35. | |
the Lib Dems remove a Lib Dem peer? The simple answer is no. The Lib Dem | :09:36. | :09:40. | |
whips in the Lords could do it but if enough Lib Dem peers disagreed, | :09:41. | :09:47. | |
they could overrule it. Some long-stand ng friends of roar | :09:48. | :09:50. | |
Rennard think he is either the innocent victim of a media | :09:51. | :09:54. | |
witch-hunt or at the least due process has been ridden over rough | :09:55. | :09:59. | |
shot by the leadership. Nobody ever did spot Lord Rennard as he didn't | :10:00. | :10:04. | |
turn up to the Lords, will citing ill health. But issued a statement | :10:05. | :10:08. | |
that ruled out an apology. He refused to do so and refused to | :10:09. | :10:12. | |
comply with the outcome of that report, so there was no alternative | :10:13. | :10:16. | |
but for the party to suspend his membership today. On Wednesday Nick | :10:17. | :10:20. | |
Clegg met Lib Dem peers, not for a crunch decision, but to discuss the | :10:21. | :10:24. | |
extraordinary prospect of legal action against the party by the man | :10:25. | :10:27. | |
long credited with building its success. The situation was making | :10:28. | :10:32. | |
the party look like a joke. One Tory MP said to one of my colleagues this | :10:33. | :10:36. | |
morning, the funny thing about the Liberal Democrats, you managed to | :10:37. | :10:39. | |
create a whole sex scandal without any sex. And we can laugh at | :10:40. | :10:43. | |
ourselves but actually it is rather serious. And it got more serious, | :10:44. | :10:48. | |
when an MP who had resigned the Lib Dem whip last year was expanded from | :10:49. | :10:53. | |
the party over a report into allegations of serious and unwelcome | :10:54. | :10:57. | |
sexual behaviour towards a constituent. All of this leaves the | :10:58. | :11:01. | |
Lib Dems desperately wishing these sagas had been dealt with long ago | :11:02. | :11:06. | |
and would now go away. Nick Clegg ended the week still party leader. | :11:07. | :11:12. | |
Lord Rennard, once one of their most powerful players, ended the week, | :11:13. | :11:19. | |
for now, no longer even in it. Giles on the Lib Dems' disastrous | :11:20. | :11:22. | |
week. Now, as you doubtless already know, on Tuesday Lib Dem MPs will | :11:23. | :11:28. | |
vote to choose a new deputy leader. You didn't know that? You do now. | :11:29. | :11:33. | |
The job of Nick Clegg's number two is to speak with a genuine Lib Dem | :11:34. | :11:36. | |
voice, untainted by the demands of coalition Government. At this point | :11:37. | :11:40. | |
in the show we had expected to speak to all three candidates for the | :11:41. | :11:43. | |
post, held in recent years by party veterans like Vince Cable and Simon | :11:44. | :11:51. | |
Hughes. We thought it being quite a significant week for the party, they | :11:52. | :11:54. | |
might have something to say. And here they are. Well that's their | :11:55. | :12:00. | |
pictures. For various reasons, all three are now unavailable. Malcolm | :12:01. | :12:04. | |
Bruce, he's reckoned to be the outsider. His office said he had a | :12:05. | :12:07. | |
"family commitment". Gordon Birtwistle, the Burnley MP, was | :12:08. | :12:10. | |
booked to appear but then told us, "I was at an event last night with | :12:11. | :12:14. | |
Lorely Burt" - she's one of the candidates - "and she told me it was | :12:15. | :12:20. | |
off". And Lorely Burt herself, seen by many as the red hot favourite, | :12:21. | :12:24. | |
told us: "Because of the Rennard thing we don't want to put ourselves | :12:25. | :12:27. | |
in a position where we have to answer difficult questions." How | :12:28. | :12:39. | |
refreshingly honest. Helen, how bad politically is all this for the Lib | :12:40. | :12:43. | |
Dems? What I think is the tragic irony of the Lib Dems is they've | :12:44. | :12:46. | |
been revealed as being too democratic. In the same way that | :12:47. | :12:51. | |
their party conference embarrassed Nick Clegg by voting sings that he | :12:52. | :12:56. | |
signed up to, and now everything has to be run past various | :12:57. | :13:02. | |
sub-committees first. Is it democratic or chaotic? It is | :13:03. | :13:14. | |
Byzantine. Mike Hancock was voluntarily suspended, and this week | :13:15. | :13:20. | |
he was properly suspended. It was new information into the public | :13:21. | :13:25. | |
domain that forced that. I'm already hearing Labour and Conservative | :13:26. | :13:31. | |
Party musing that if it is a long Parliament, we will form a minority | :13:32. | :13:35. | |
Government. It is a disaster for them. Voters like parties that | :13:36. | :13:39. | |
reflect and are interested this their concerns. Parties that are | :13:40. | :13:44. | |
self obsessed turn them off. The third party, if they carry on like | :13:45. | :13:47. | |
this, they'll be the fifth party in the European elections, so they have | :13:48. | :13:51. | |
got to draw a line under this. They do that, if they do, through | :13:52. | :13:56. | |
mediation. As I understand it, Chris Rennard,s who has go devoted his | :13:57. | :14:01. | |
entire life to the Liberal Democrats, and previously the | :14:02. | :14:04. | |
Liberal Party, is keen to draw a line under this. He is up for | :14:05. | :14:08. | |
mediation but he needs to know that the women that he has clearly | :14:09. | :14:12. | |
invaded their personal space, that there wouldn't be a possible legal a | :14:13. | :14:16. | |
action from them. The it is very difficult to see how you could | :14:17. | :14:20. | |
resolve that. Except he is threatening through his friends | :14:21. | :14:24. | |
these famous friends, to spill all the beans about all the party's sex | :14:25. | :14:29. | |
secrets. Isn't the danger for the Lib Dems, this haunts them through | :14:30. | :14:33. | |
to the European elections, where they'll get thumped in the European | :14:34. | :14:36. | |
elections? They'll get destroyed in the European elections, which keeps | :14:37. | :14:40. | |
it salient as a story over the summer. And it has implications for | :14:41. | :14:45. | |
Nick Clegg's leadership. He's done a good job until now, perhaps better | :14:46. | :14:49. | |
than David Cameron, of exercising authority over his party. He had a | :14:50. | :14:53. | |
good conference in September. Absolutely, and now the Lib Dems | :14:54. | :14:57. | |
have looked like a party without a leader or a leadership structure. | :14:58. | :15:02. | |
Part of that is down to the chaotic or Byzantine organisational | :15:03. | :15:06. | |
structure of the party. Part of it is Nick Clegg's failure to assert | :15:07. | :15:10. | |
himself and impose himself over events. Is it Byzantine or | :15:11. | :15:18. | |
Byzantine. It is labyrinthine. You don't get these words on the Today | :15:19. | :15:29. | |
programme. The cost of living has been back on the agenda this week as | :15:30. | :15:32. | |
Labour and the Tories argue over whether the value of money in your | :15:33. | :15:36. | |
pocket is going up or down. Well there's one cost which has been | :15:37. | :15:39. | |
racing ahead of inflation and that's the amount you have to pay to travel | :15:40. | :15:43. | |
by train, by bus and by air. Rail commuters have been hard hit over | :15:44. | :15:45. | |
the last four years, with the cost of the average season ticket going | :15:46. | :15:49. | |
up by 18% since January 2010, while wages have gone up by just 3.6% over | :15:50. | :15:55. | |
the same period. It means some rail users are paying high prices with | :15:56. | :16:01. | |
commuters from Kent shelling out more than ?5,000 per year from the | :16:02. | :16:06. | |
beginning of this month just to get to work in London. It doesn't | :16:07. | :16:11. | |
compare well with our European counterparts. In the UK the average | :16:12. | :16:16. | |
rail user spends 14% of their average income on trains. It is just | :16:17. | :16:25. | |
1.5% in Italy. Regulated fares like season tickets went up 3.1% at the | :16:26. | :16:30. | |
beginning of this month, and with ministers keen to make passengers | :16:31. | :16:34. | |
fought more of the bills, there are more fare rises coming down the | :16:35. | :16:37. | |
track. And Patrick McLoughlin joins me now for the Sunday Interview | :16:38. | :16:51. | |
Welcome. You claim to be in the party of hard-working people, so why | :16:52. | :16:55. | |
is it that since you came to power rail commuters have seen the cost of | :16:56. | :16:59. | |
their average season ticket going up in money terms by over 18% while | :17:00. | :17:08. | |
their pay has gone up in money terms by less than four? I would point out | :17:09. | :17:14. | |
that this is the first year in ten years that we have not had an above | :17:15. | :17:20. | |
inflation increase on fares. The Government accepts we have got to do | :17:21. | :17:25. | |
as much as we can to help the passengers. A big inflation increase | :17:26. | :17:33. | |
since 2010. This is the first year in ten years that it has not been | :17:34. | :17:40. | |
above RPI, but we are also investing huge amounts of money into the | :17:41. | :17:45. | |
railways, building new trains for the East Coast Main Line and the | :17:46. | :17:50. | |
great Western. We are spending 500 million at Birmingham station, this | :17:51. | :17:57. | |
is all increasing capacity, so we are seeing investments. Over the | :17:58. | :18:00. | |
next five years Network Rail will invest over ?38 billion in the | :18:01. | :18:10. | |
network structure. We also have an expensive railway and it is ordinary | :18:11. | :18:15. | |
people paying for it. A season ticket from Woking in Surrey, | :18:16. | :18:21. | |
commuter belt land in London, let's look at the figures. This is a | :18:22. | :18:27. | |
distance of over 25 miles, it cost over ?3000 per year. We have picked | :18:28. | :18:36. | |
similar distances to international cities. | :18:37. | :18:45. | |
The British commuter is being ripped off. The British commuter is seeing | :18:46. | :18:53. | |
record levels of investment in our railways. The investment has to be | :18:54. | :18:58. | |
paid for. We are investing huge amounts of money and I don't know | :18:59. | :19:02. | |
whether the figures you have got here... I'm sure they are likewise, | :19:03. | :19:19. | |
as you have managed to do... White -- ten times more than the Italian | :19:20. | :19:28. | |
equivalent. We have seen transformational changes in our | :19:29. | :19:32. | |
railway services and we need to carry on investing. We were paying | :19:33. | :19:37. | |
these prices even before you started investing. We have always paid a lot | :19:38. | :19:42. | |
more to commute in this country than our European equivalents. I'm not | :19:43. | :19:51. | |
quite sure I want to take on Italy is a great example. You would if you | :19:52. | :19:57. | |
were a commuter. You is a great example. You would if you | :19:58. | :20:03. | |
the other rates of taxation has to be paid as well. Isn't it the case | :20:04. | :20:09. | |
they are making profits out of these figures and using them to subsidise | :20:10. | :20:13. | |
cheaper fares back in their homeland? The overall profit margin | :20:14. | :20:22. | |
train companies make is 3%, a reasonable amount, and we have seen | :20:23. | :20:25. | |
a revolution as far as the railway industry is concerned. | :20:26. | :20:30. | |
a revolution as far as the railway 20 years we have seen passenger | :20:31. | :20:35. | |
journeys going from 750 million to 1.5 billion. That is a massive | :20:36. | :20:39. | |
revolution in rail. Let me look 1.5 billion. That is a massive | :20:40. | :20:44. | |
spokesperson for the German government, the Ministry of | :20:45. | :20:45. | |
transport. They are charging huge fares in | :20:46. | :21:02. | |
Britain to take that money back to subsidise fares in Germany. What do | :21:03. | :21:08. | |
you say to that? We are seeing British companies winning contracts | :21:09. | :21:12. | |
in Germany. The National Express are winning contracts to the railways. | :21:13. | :21:17. | |
What about the ordinary commuter? They are paying through the nose so | :21:18. | :21:22. | |
German commuters can travel more cheaply. We are still subsidising | :21:23. | :21:28. | |
the railways in this country, but overall we want to reduce the | :21:29. | :21:32. | |
subsidy we are giving. We are still seeing growth in our railways and I | :21:33. | :21:39. | |
want to see more people using them. Why do you increase rail fares at | :21:40. | :21:47. | |
the higher RPI measure than the lower CPI measurement? That is what | :21:48. | :21:52. | |
has always been done, and we have stopped. This is the first time in | :21:53. | :21:56. | |
ten years that we have not raised the rail figures above RPI. You | :21:57. | :22:07. | |
still link fares to RPI. You use the lower CPI figure when it suits you, | :22:08. | :22:12. | |
to keep pension payments down for example, but the higher one when it | :22:13. | :22:17. | |
comes to increasing rail fares. We are still putting a huge subsidy | :22:18. | :22:21. | |
into the rail industry, there is still a huge amount of money going | :22:22. | :22:26. | |
from the taxpayer to support the rail industry. I am not asking you | :22:27. | :22:32. | |
about that, I am asking you why you link the figures to the higher RPI | :22:33. | :22:40. | |
vesture Mark if we are going to pay for the levels of investment, so all | :22:41. | :22:46. | |
the new trains being built at Newton Aycliffe for the East Coast Main | :22:47. | :22:51. | |
Line and the great Western, ?3. billion of investment, new rolling | :22:52. | :22:55. | |
stock coming online, then yes, we have to pay for it, and it is a | :22:56. | :22:59. | |
question of the taxpayer paying for it all the -- or the passenger. | :23:00. | :23:13. | |
You have capped parking fines until the next election, rail commuters we | :23:14. | :23:16. | |
have seen the cost of their ticket has gone up by nearly 20%, you are | :23:17. | :23:26. | |
the party of the drivers, not the passengers, aren't you? | :23:27. | :23:33. | |
We are trying to help everybody who has been struggling. I think we are | :23:34. | :23:47. | |
setting out long-term plans for our railways, investing heavily in them | :23:48. | :23:51. | |
and it is getting that balance right. But you have done more for | :23:52. | :23:57. | |
the driver than you have for the user of public transport. I don t | :23:58. | :24:04. | |
accept that. They are paying the same petrol prices as 2011. This is | :24:05. | :24:10. | |
the first time in ten years that there has not been an RPI plus | :24:11. | :24:17. | |
rise. We are investing record amounts. Bus fares are also rising, | :24:18. | :24:24. | |
4.2% in real terms in 2010, at a time when real take-home pay has | :24:25. | :24:30. | |
been falling. This hits commuters particularly workers who use buses | :24:31. | :24:36. | |
on low incomes, another cost of living squeeze. I was with | :24:37. | :24:40. | |
Stagecoach in Manchester on Friday, and I saw a bus company investing in | :24:41. | :24:54. | |
new buses. Last week First ordered new buses. Part of your hard-working | :24:55. | :25:00. | |
families you are always on about, they are the ones going to work | :25:01. | :25:07. | |
early in the morning, and yet you are making them pay more for their | :25:08. | :25:10. | |
buses in real terms than they did before. They would be happier if | :25:11. | :25:17. | |
they could travel more cheaply. It is about getting investment in | :25:18. | :25:22. | |
services, it has to be paid for Why not run the old buses for five more | :25:23. | :25:31. | |
years? Because then there is more pollution in the atmosphere, modern | :25:32. | :25:35. | |
buses have lower emissions, and we are still giving huge support | :25:36. | :25:39. | |
overall to the bus industry and that is very important because I fully | :25:40. | :25:42. | |
accept that the number of people, yes, use the train but a lot of | :25:43. | :25:52. | |
people use buses as well. High-speed two, it has been delayed because 877 | :25:53. | :25:58. | |
pages of key evidence from your department were left on a computer | :25:59. | :26:05. | |
memory stick, part of the submission to environmental consultation. Your | :26:06. | :26:08. | |
department's economic case is now widely regarded as a joke, now you | :26:09. | :26:16. | |
do this. Is your department fit for purpose? Yes, and as far as what | :26:17. | :26:22. | |
happened with the memory stick, it is an acceptable and shouldn't have | :26:23. | :26:25. | |
happened, and therefore we have extended the time. There has been an | :26:26. | :26:31. | |
extension in the time for people to make representation, the bill for | :26:32. | :26:41. | |
this goes through Parliament in a different way to a normal bill. It | :26:42. | :26:54. | |
is vital HS2 provides what we want. What I am very pleased about is when | :26:55. | :26:59. | |
the paving bill was passed by Parliament just a few months ago, | :27:00. | :27:04. | |
there was overwhelming support, and I kept reading there was going to be | :27:05. | :27:10. | |
70 people voting against it, in the end 30 people voted against it and | :27:11. | :27:14. | |
there was a good majority in the House of Commons. So can you give a | :27:15. | :27:19. | |
guarantee that this legislation will get onto the statute books? I will | :27:20. | :27:27. | |
do all I can. I cannot tell you the exact Parliamentary time scale. The | :27:28. | :27:31. | |
bill will have started its progress through the House of Commons by | :27:32. | :27:39. | |
2015, and it may well have concluded. The new chairman of HS2 | :27:40. | :27:45. | |
said he can bring the cost of the line substantially under the budget, | :27:46. | :27:56. | |
do you agree with that? The figure is ?42 billion with a large | :27:57. | :28:02. | |
contingency, and David Higgins, as chairman of HS2, is looking at the | :28:03. | :28:06. | |
whole cast and seeing if there are ways in which it can be built | :28:07. | :28:11. | |
faster. At the moment across London we are building Crossrail, ?14. | :28:12. | :28:16. | |
billion investment. There was a report last week saying what an | :28:17. | :28:23. | |
excellent job has been done. Crossrail started under Labour. | :28:24. | :28:29. | |
Actually it was Cecil Parkinson in the 1990 party conference. You may | :28:30. | :28:37. | |
get HS2 cheaper if you didn't pay people so much, why is the | :28:38. | :28:43. | |
nonexecutive chairman of HS2 on ?600,000? And the new chief | :28:44. | :28:52. | |
executive on ?750,000. These are very big projects and we need to | :28:53. | :28:55. | |
attract the best people become so we are going for the best engineers in | :28:56. | :29:01. | |
the world to engineer this project. It is a large salary, there is no | :29:02. | :29:06. | |
question about it, but I'm rather pleased that engineers rather than | :29:07. | :29:10. | |
bankers can be seen to get big rewards for delivering what will be | :29:11. | :29:15. | |
very important pieces of national infrastructure. I didn't have time | :29:16. | :29:19. | |
to ask you about your passenger duty so perhaps another time. We are | :29:20. | :29:25. | |
about to speak to Nigel Mills and all of these MPs on your side who | :29:26. | :29:29. | |
are rebelling against the Government, how would you handle | :29:30. | :29:34. | |
them? We have got to listen to what our colleagues are talking about and | :29:35. | :29:39. | |
try to respond it. Would you take them for a long walk off a short | :29:40. | :29:44. | |
pier? I'm sure I would have many conversations with them. An | :29:45. | :29:57. | |
immigration bill to tack the immigration into the UK. When limits | :29:58. | :30:03. | |
on migration from Bulgaria and Romania were lifted this year there | :30:04. | :30:09. | |
were warnings of a large influx of migrant workerses from the two new | :30:10. | :30:12. | |
European countries. So far it's been more of a dribble than a flood. Who | :30:13. | :30:18. | |
can forget Labour MP Keith Vaz greeting a handful of arrivals at | :30:19. | :30:22. | |
Luton Airport. But it is early days and it is one of the reasons the | :30:23. | :30:27. | |
Government's introduced a new Immigration Bill. The Prime Minister | :30:28. | :30:31. | |
is facing rebellion from backbenchers who want tougher action | :30:32. | :30:37. | |
on immigration from abroad. Nigel Mills would reimpose restrictions on | :30:38. | :30:46. | |
how many Romanians and Bulgarians can come here. Joining me is Nigel | :30:47. | :30:53. | |
Mills, Conservative MP behind the amendment and Labour MP Diane | :30:54. | :30:57. | |
Abbott. Welcome. Nigel Mills, there hasn't been an influx of Romanians | :30:58. | :31:05. | |
and Bulgarians. Why do you want to restore these, kick these | :31:06. | :31:09. | |
transitional controls way forward to 2019? I don't think any of us were | :31:10. | :31:14. | |
expecting a rush on January 1st Andrew. I think we were talking | :31:15. | :31:19. | |
about a range of 250,000 to 350 000 people over five years. That's | :31:20. | :31:24. | |
obviously a large amount of people, especially when you think net | :31:25. | :31:29. | |
migration to the UK was well in excess of the Government's target of | :31:30. | :31:32. | |
tens of thousands last year. The real concern is that it would be | :31:33. | :31:38. | |
ever increasing our population, attracting lots of low-skilled, | :31:39. | :31:44. | |
low-wage people, which keeps our people out of work and wages down. | :31:45. | :31:48. | |
Did you accept that if you were to accept this, it would be in breach | :31:49. | :31:53. | |
of the Treaty of Rome, the founding principle of the European Union We | :31:54. | :31:58. | |
were trying to keep the restrictions that Bulgaria and Romania accepted | :31:59. | :32:02. | |
for their first seven years of EU membership, on the basis that when | :32:03. | :32:05. | |
we signed the treaty we weren't aware that we would have a huge and | :32:06. | :32:10. | |
catastrophic recession we are still recovering from. But you would be in | :32:11. | :32:15. | |
breach of the law, correct? The UK Parliament has a right to say we | :32:16. | :32:19. | |
signed this deal before the terrible recession, and we need a bit longer | :32:20. | :32:24. | |
in our national interest. It is worth noting that Bulgaria and | :32:25. | :32:31. | |
Romania haven't met all their accession requirements. The | :32:32. | :32:35. | |
Bulgarian requirement passed a law... So if they break the law it | :32:36. | :32:40. | |
is alright for us to break the law? Is we should be focusing on trying | :32:41. | :32:46. | |
to get 2. 4 million of our own in work, and 1 million people not in | :32:47. | :32:51. | |
work... Let me bring in Diane Abbott. Will you vote for this | :32:52. | :32:57. | |
amendment and why? It is in breach of the treaty. While I deplore MPs | :32:58. | :33:02. | |
that try to cause trouble, these MPs have been particularly mindless | :33:03. | :33:05. | |
because what they want to do wouldn't be legal. However, it is a | :33:06. | :33:11. | |
Tory internal brief, if I might say so. Maybe you can cause trouble by | :33:12. | :33:16. | |
voting for it. No, that would be going too far. Underlying it is a | :33:17. | :33:22. | |
real antagonism for David Cameron. They have had to hold off on this | :33:23. | :33:26. | |
bill until January. It was supposed to be debating before Christmas As | :33:27. | :33:30. | |
we speak they've not cut a deal so it could be pretty grus om. Nigel | :33:31. | :33:38. | |
Mills, what do you say to that I think there is a recognition that | :33:39. | :33:43. | |
there is a problem with the amount of migration from EU countries that | :33:44. | :33:47. | |
we need to tackle. We could try to achieve an annual cap perhaps, | :33:48. | :33:51. | |
longer limits on when countries get free movement. I think the debate is | :33:52. | :33:54. | |
moving in the right direction, but I think those people who are trapped | :33:55. | :33:58. | |
out of work and desperately looking for work want something to be done | :33:59. | :34:03. | |
now and not wait a few more years while we have more assessments | :34:04. | :34:08. | |
Andrews. People are worried about the level of immigration. They I it | :34:09. | :34:13. | |
is too high. That's the consensus in the country. We spoke to to | :34:14. | :34:19. | |
migration centre in Hackney and they said they are struggling to cope | :34:20. | :34:22. | |
with the number of people using their services. These are people | :34:23. | :34:26. | |
with problems with the law. In the past years EU migrants put in more | :34:27. | :34:31. | |
to the economy in taxation than they take out in benefits. When it comes | :34:32. | :34:36. | |
to free movement, which is agitating Nige em, that horse has bolted. We | :34:37. | :34:41. | |
signed a treaty. There is nothing people like Nigel Mills can do, | :34:42. | :34:46. | |
unless they want to rip their party apart, God forbid. Will you go as | :34:47. | :34:50. | |
far as to rip your party apart, Nigel Mills? Are you going to take | :34:51. | :34:55. | |
this all the way? Would you rather see this bill go down than your | :34:56. | :35:00. | |
amendment not be accepted? This is a very important bill. I think we all | :35:01. | :35:06. | |
want to see measures on the statute book, so the last thing we want to | :35:07. | :35:10. | |
see is this bill go down. We do need to set out clearly that we have real | :35:11. | :35:15. | |
concerns about the level of EU migration and something needs to be | :35:16. | :35:22. | |
done. Would you rather have the bill without your amendment or no bill at | :35:23. | :35:27. | |
all? I am hoping we can have the bill with the amendment. I know | :35:28. | :35:32. | |
that, but if you can't? Is that will depend on what the Labour Party | :35:33. | :35:38. | |
decide to do. They are talking tougher on immigration but will they | :35:39. | :35:43. | |
take action on it? Your party has been talking tough on immigration | :35:44. | :35:47. | |
but I will be surprised if an Ed Miliband Labour Party would vote for | :35:48. | :35:51. | |
egg in direct cameravention of the Treaty of Rome. It would make no | :35:52. | :35:56. | |
sense. Nigel Mills is wishing for the impossible. If I was a Tory I | :35:57. | :36:03. | |
would be wringing high hands. He hasn't ruled out crashing the bill. | :36:04. | :36:08. | |
That's incredible. Where will this end, Nigel Mills? We'll end with a | :36:09. | :36:14. | |
vote on Thursday. There's a lot of amendments people can use to show | :36:15. | :36:19. | |
their concern about migration. We want limited and proportionate | :36:20. | :36:22. | |
action, and that's what I am proposing. I want to see the bill on | :36:23. | :36:27. | |
the statute book, I want the restrictions on people who shouldn't | :36:28. | :36:32. | |
be here getting bank accounts and driving licences. I don't want to | :36:33. | :36:36. | |
crash this bill but there's more measures we need in it. Nigel Mills | :36:37. | :36:42. | |
thank you. You are going to be - popping up I think on the Sunday | :36:43. | :36:47. | |
Politics East Midlands. Diane Abbott, thank you as well. | :36:48. | :36:54. | |
We're in for more heavy rain and high winds across the UK today. You | :36:55. | :36:57. | |
may remember that one UKIP councillor - he's since been | :36:58. | :36:59. | |
suspended - caused controversy last weekend by blaming the recent | :37:00. | :37:02. | |
flooding on the legalisation of gay marriage. Why didn't I think of | :37:03. | :37:06. | |
that? So who better than this man to bring you the unofficial forecast. | :37:07. | :37:09. | |
I'll be bringing you the late least UKIP weather from your area. | :37:10. | :37:14. | |
You're watching Sunday Politics Also coming up in just over 20 | :37:15. | :37:21. | |
minutes, I'll be looking at the week ahead with our political panel. | :37:22. | :37:36. | |
Good morning. The local Euro MP with one of the lowest voting records. He | :37:37. | :37:54. | |
is hardly ever seen in Brussels and he claims ?200,000 a year in | :37:55. | :38:04. | |
allowances to find an anti`EU website. I joined by a member of | :38:05. | :38:22. | |
UKIP and a green party activist Do you put the funding down to global | :38:23. | :38:31. | |
warming or funding change? We cannot say that anyone prevent is the | :38:32. | :38:45. | |
result of climate change. We cannot say how it will effect as at any one | :38:46. | :38:49. | |
time but flooding and rising sea levels are a factor. Climate change | :38:50. | :38:56. | |
is definitely a real thing but the question is what we shall do about | :38:57. | :39:01. | |
it and politicians are unfortunately not taking enough action. | :39:02. | :39:14. | |
I would agree that climate change is real. In terms of flooding, it was | :39:15. | :39:22. | |
shocking coming up through Somerset at the weekend and finding that much | :39:23. | :39:27. | |
of it is underwater. You accept a man`made climate | :39:28. | :39:31. | |
change? I accept climate change but how much | :39:32. | :39:38. | |
of it is man made is up for debate. Most of the people who disagree that | :39:39. | :39:44. | |
climate change is caused by our activities are normally involved in | :39:45. | :39:51. | |
those activities. The question is what do we do about | :39:52. | :39:55. | |
it? And now our main story. The UKIP MEP | :39:56. | :40:04. | |
who is laid`back when it comes to his activities. In the last year, | :40:05. | :40:08. | |
Trevor Colman has not made on speech are asked one question. Yet he is | :40:09. | :40:15. | |
paid ?80,000 per year and admits that one of his reasons for turning | :40:16. | :40:18. | |
up is the claim allowances, which he spends on a website. This website | :40:19. | :40:26. | |
campaigns to Britain to come out of the European Union. | :40:27. | :40:34. | |
The Euro elections always give UKIP something to smile about. Last | :40:35. | :40:38. | |
election they won two seats in the South West, 13 in all. | :40:39. | :40:48. | |
Two former MEP have ended up in jail. Some have left to join the | :40:49. | :40:55. | |
Tories and others have departed acrimoniously. That is frustration | :40:56. | :41:02. | |
and even anger amongst senior party figures at the performance of Trevor | :41:03. | :41:05. | |
Colman. You will not find on the UKIP | :41:06. | :41:13. | |
benches. He sits apart since a disagreement in 2010. He has taken | :41:14. | :41:19. | |
part in just over half of the boats and has made speeches are asked | :41:20. | :41:27. | |
questions 19 times. The total for a UKIP colleague is 673. | :41:28. | :41:38. | |
Trevor Coleman makes no apology The European Parliament has no | :41:39. | :41:41. | |
power. It cannot change or make legislation. We are a pantomime | :41:42. | :41:50. | |
giving the illusion of democracy were none exists. Why make a speech | :41:51. | :41:54. | |
when you know it is totally ineffective? You're talking to a | :41:55. | :41:59. | |
gallery of about six people and I do not see the point of me doing that. | :42:00. | :42:05. | |
Why did you get elected if you want to do anything? | :42:06. | :42:10. | |
I am trying to get us out of this mess and that can only be achieved | :42:11. | :42:15. | |
over here. One of the reasons he flies back and | :42:16. | :42:19. | |
forth to Europe is to clock in to get money. | :42:20. | :42:25. | |
Is one of the main motivations to enable you to get allowances? | :42:26. | :42:31. | |
I would not see it as a main motivation will stop it is a factor? | :42:32. | :42:38. | |
Of course it is. Most of it is spent on a website. | :42:39. | :42:47. | |
Five staff work on it and around ?200,000 of European Union money | :42:48. | :42:56. | |
funds and anti`European Union website he refuses to detail his | :42:57. | :43:02. | |
expenses on the official UKIP party website. | :43:03. | :43:09. | |
We do not have to publish any of this. If people are interested in | :43:10. | :43:15. | |
how I spend our do not spend money they can come to this office and | :43:16. | :43:19. | |
examine the accounts. He says he has broken all rules but | :43:20. | :43:26. | |
other side members of the European Parliament are not convinced. | :43:27. | :43:35. | |
There is a massive amount goes on in the European Parliament and that is | :43:36. | :43:40. | |
why most members of the full`time in doing their jobs. I'm sorry F Trevor | :43:41. | :43:51. | |
Colman finds it so boring you want to input into legislation and make | :43:52. | :43:54. | |
sure that things are right for people in the south`west. | :43:55. | :43:58. | |
You need to have people working and they are not working and making a | :43:59. | :44:06. | |
badge of honour of not working, we have one hand tied behind our back | :44:07. | :44:10. | |
before we start. Trevor Coleman stands down in May | :44:11. | :44:16. | |
and UKIP hopes his successor will cause less trouble. | :44:17. | :44:26. | |
Steve Crowther, you are chair of UKIP. What do you make of this? | :44:27. | :44:39. | |
We have a high average and I am delighted. | :44:40. | :44:48. | |
Trevor Colman does not work as a team. | :44:49. | :44:57. | |
The point about how UKIP approaches the European Parliament is that we | :44:58. | :45:02. | |
have a job to do and we do it. We campaign for Britain to come out of | :45:03. | :45:06. | |
the European Parliament. That is different to what any of the other | :45:07. | :45:10. | |
parties do. Is there a moral case for turning up | :45:11. | :45:20. | |
at meetings just a claim allowances? Every MEP from everywhere in Europe | :45:21. | :45:28. | |
receives exactly the same allowance on EU law basis. The do not have to | :45:29. | :45:34. | |
do anything with it apart from receive it. The more you go all the | :45:35. | :45:44. | |
more daily allowances you get. There was a comment that if you take it | :45:45. | :45:49. | |
seriously you go a lot. You also get paid to go a lot. | :45:50. | :45:57. | |
His salary is ?80,000 and yet he hardly represents the views of | :45:58. | :46:01. | |
people in the South West. He spends most of his time on this anti`EU | :46:02. | :46:09. | |
website. If you bought for UKIP, `` vote you | :46:10. | :46:27. | |
must know what our attitude is. We spread our work and divide our | :46:28. | :46:32. | |
labour but we have a lot of what to do here as well as a lot of work | :46:33. | :46:41. | |
there. You could argue that Trevor Colman | :46:42. | :46:52. | |
is being honest. I wanted to challenge the last point | :46:53. | :47:02. | |
that Steve made. UKIP have the worst members of the European Parliament | :47:03. | :47:10. | |
and Green members have the best It is a privilege to be paid as a | :47:11. | :47:14. | |
politician and this is very disappointing to be treated in this | :47:15. | :47:20. | |
way. UKIP have a policy that expenses and | :47:21. | :47:25. | |
details are published. He will not do that. Why will you not | :47:26. | :47:32. | |
discipline? Trevor is a man of independent mind. | :47:33. | :47:39. | |
He is a Cornishman and has being doing this for ten years. When | :47:40. | :47:50. | |
someone is elected as an MEP, they have freedom to design the way that | :47:51. | :47:54. | |
they work under the rules of the European Parliament. Trevor has | :47:55. | :48:00. | |
decided to create this particular information source and I have to say | :48:01. | :48:05. | |
that he has attended hundreds of meetings with groups around the | :48:06. | :48:10. | |
south`west in his time in Parliament taking that information we have | :48:11. | :48:12. | |
found out from the European Parliament and telling people about | :48:13. | :48:17. | |
it. Let us talk about immigration. The | :48:18. | :48:25. | |
remaining in an bold gradient influx has not materialised. | :48:26. | :48:46. | |
We waited and we waited but the crowds never came. On the first | :48:47. | :48:53. | |
flight, just one man mauled by the media. So far the lifting of | :48:54. | :49:08. | |
restrictions on Romanian and Bulgarian workers have not resulted | :49:09. | :49:20. | |
in an increase of immigrants. They are hard`working people and | :49:21. | :49:28. | |
they are valued by their employers. They do not understand why this | :49:29. | :49:34. | |
negative campaign has been made against them. | :49:35. | :49:44. | |
Some of the community in Bristol meet in this church. One family said | :49:45. | :49:54. | |
they had the door kicked in and a teenage girl had to change schools | :49:55. | :50:01. | |
after being repeatedly labelled an invader. | :50:02. | :50:24. | |
We are just Steve `` Romanian. That is wrong information about us. | :50:25. | :50:32. | |
The Conservatives claim that UKIP may be to blame for this wrong | :50:33. | :50:44. | |
information. They must know that the figures were | :50:45. | :50:49. | |
an exaggeration and realised that does not help the debate. We want | :50:50. | :50:57. | |
facts and not scaremongering. There is a rapidly changing | :50:58. | :51:04. | |
population in the West. It is unsurprising that immigration | :51:05. | :51:10. | |
remains a live motion for the public. I have always been a liberal | :51:11. | :51:21. | |
but I will not put liberal any more. It is important the country is not | :51:22. | :51:25. | |
overrun with immigrants and we need to look after the English public and | :51:26. | :51:28. | |
make sure they can get work and jobs. There is an awful lot of hate | :51:29. | :51:36. | |
and scaremongering. People need to remember where this country came | :51:37. | :51:40. | |
from and the fact that immigration made it what it is. | :51:41. | :51:48. | |
The political mood music grew louder this week as the Prime Minister | :51:49. | :51:53. | |
sought to limit freedom of movement across the European Union. The | :51:54. | :51:59. | |
official figures come out and may just in time for the European | :52:00. | :52:20. | |
elections. What is the case with human borders? | :52:21. | :52:29. | |
We have enjoyed a lot of value from migration. Many engineers and the | :52:30. | :52:36. | |
like will have to be recruited from around the world. | :52:37. | :52:42. | |
Pressure on wages and housing will stop mass immigration will have an | :52:43. | :52:47. | |
impact on your members? It is our job to make sure people | :52:48. | :52:55. | |
are protected at work that our graduates have a right to go to | :52:56. | :52:59. | |
Germany to work and we have to be careful to get the balance right | :53:00. | :53:05. | |
about the value of cooperation. Have you find that immigrants are | :53:06. | :53:15. | |
abused here? I was talking to a worker the other | :53:16. | :53:19. | |
day who came to Britain ten years ago from Romania but said that in | :53:20. | :53:25. | |
the last few weeks it has turned hostile. | :53:26. | :53:31. | |
Do you think the government is right to stop new arrivals claiming | :53:32. | :53:38. | |
benefits? If we have a single market and we | :53:39. | :53:41. | |
must have the same rights in the same rules for everyone. We have to | :53:42. | :53:47. | |
look at the quality of work across the European Union and one of the | :53:48. | :53:56. | |
problems that happened in 2004 was that things were driven by business | :53:57. | :54:00. | |
interests and socialist governments did not insist on minimum wages | :54:01. | :54:07. | |
Do you accept that we are a small island and need some space? | :54:08. | :54:15. | |
I accept that population is an important issue. We must also deal | :54:16. | :54:21. | |
with climate change because that is making more parts of the world is | :54:22. | :54:26. | |
impossible to inhabit. Steve, was UKIP wrong with its | :54:27. | :54:34. | |
figures? We did not say the 29 million | :54:35. | :54:42. | |
Romanian and Bulgarian people would arrive. We said that they would have | :54:43. | :54:49. | |
the rights to come here if they chose. | :54:50. | :54:54. | |
You mentioned a figure of 29 million. We think there are about 30 | :54:55. | :55:04. | |
people that have arrived. We have never said that these people | :55:05. | :55:10. | |
would all come. We said that from the 1st of January, the European | :55:11. | :55:14. | |
Union would grant them the right to. We have seen in the past with | :55:15. | :55:19. | |
transition countries that estimates of how many will come have been very | :55:20. | :55:25. | |
much out of the actual figure. Nobody knows what the figures will | :55:26. | :55:29. | |
be in the future. We have not made any estimates. 29 million people is | :55:30. | :55:36. | |
the total population of Romanian and Bulgarian in Europe. Do you except | :55:37. | :55:46. | |
that created a climate where people are scared? | :55:47. | :55:51. | |
It created a climate where we are talking about this in the government | :55:52. | :56:03. | |
are talking about this. This is a very irresponsible way of | :56:04. | :56:12. | |
doing politics. People vote for politicians because they know the | :56:13. | :56:20. | |
platform they stand on. Do you accept that UKIP are right on | :56:21. | :56:27. | |
the money with public opinion? But they are deliberately shifting | :56:28. | :56:35. | |
public opinion with myths of fear. If you ask people concerned in these | :56:36. | :56:41. | |
areas of whether they worry about migration in their own lives, they | :56:42. | :56:47. | |
are not. There are disgraceful lies in my opinion such as those coming | :56:48. | :56:54. | |
from the Daily Mail. We have to leave it there. Another | :56:55. | :57:01. | |
political week has gone by. Here is a quick recapture. | :57:02. | :57:11. | |
As an employment fell across the country, there was a big jobs boost | :57:12. | :57:24. | |
for Wiltshire. The badger cull drew more criticism. . If I from Stroud | :57:25. | :57:39. | |
and a form from Bristol said recognise had switched to services | :57:40. | :57:45. | |
they provided at the bad press for other energy providers. | :57:46. | :57:54. | |
We are still accelerating. And Bristol City Football Club | :57:55. | :57:59. | |
finally abandoned plans for a new stadium. | :58:00. | :58:15. | |
We are talking about wind turbines. They were going out of fashion but | :58:16. | :58:22. | |
now they are back? I am very pleased with all these | :58:23. | :58:27. | |
jobs. If you see a large company come in and setup wind turbines you | :58:28. | :58:38. | |
will oppose them obscuring your view. We are supporting energy | :58:39. | :58:47. | |
renewables. We are not in favour of unreliable | :58:48. | :58:53. | |
renewables through wind and solar power. We must fill the hall in | :58:54. | :59:03. | |
energy that is looming. It is predicted we will have blackouts | :59:04. | :59:09. | |
from 2015 on words and this is because of the failure of government | :59:10. | :59:16. | |
energy policy. We started with climate change and | :59:17. | :59:22. | |
we do have good resources for solar power and wind power and it is an | :59:23. | :59:29. | |
important growth opportunity for the South West and we should not allow | :59:30. | :59:33. | |
backward looking politicians to be against that. We are completely | :59:34. | :59:40. | |
opposed to nuclear and we are the only political party that now | :59:41. | :59:56. | |
totally opposes it. They are the only political party | :59:57. | :59:59. | |
left that believes that nuclear power is wrong. We are kidding | :00:00. | :00:08. | |
ourselves if we think we can survive without it. | :00:09. | :00:15. | |
And that is it for this week. Thank you to our guests. You can sign up | :00:16. | :00:23. | |
for our new Twitter account. back to you. | :00:24. | :00:42. | |
UKIP leader Nigel Farage is never far away from controversy, but this | :00:43. | :00:45. | |
week he's been outdoing himself He was hit over the head with a placard | :00:46. | :00:48. | |
by a protester in Kent, provoked outrage by saying women with | :00:49. | :00:51. | |
children are worth less to city firms, and said the ban on owning | :00:52. | :00:58. | |
handguns was 'crackers'. He also seemed less than sure of his party's | :00:59. | :01:01. | |
own policies when I interviewed him on the Daily Politics. And the story | :01:02. | :01:05. | |
that got everyone talking was the suggestion by a UKIP councillor that | :01:06. | :01:10. | |
flooding is linked to gay marriage. We'll talk about all of that in a | :01:11. | :01:13. | |
moment, but first, over to Nigel with the weather. Weather for all | :01:14. | :01:22. | |
areas of the British Isles but definitely not "Bongo Bongo Land." | :01:23. | :01:25. | |
You may have heard about a storm in a tea cup developed when you kip | :01:26. | :01:32. | |
councillor in Oxfordshire blamed the floods on the gay marriage Bill The | :01:33. | :01:38. | |
old party is focusing on the view of UKIP members like him, even though | :01:39. | :01:43. | |
he had said a sell yuj of things before when a Tory councillor. How | :01:44. | :01:50. | |
quickly things change depending on when the blouse. There are | :01:51. | :01:58. | |
occasional barmy views by people of all persuasions. In Whitby a Labour | :01:59. | :02:03. | |
councillor claimed of fathered a child with an extra terrorist ral, | :02:04. | :02:09. | |
and said his real mother was a foot green alien. And in Wales a | :02:10. | :02:17. | |
councillor thinking about heading off for the | :02:18. | :02:25. | |
slopes, there were flurries of embarrassment for the Tories after | :02:26. | :02:34. | |
Aidan Burly organised a Nazi skiing party in a resort. | :02:35. | :02:39. | |
Anyone heading to Brussels, perhaps on the gravy train, watch out for | :02:40. | :02:45. | |
hot air. In Britain temperatures are rising | :02:46. | :02:50. | |
ahead of the European elections in May. It could get stormy, so advise | :02:51. | :02:57. | |
light aircraft. Watch out for outbreaks of common sense, and no | :02:58. | :03:01. | |
chance of cyclonic fruit cakes. Back to you, Andrew, with the rest of the | :03:02. | :03:06. | |
Sunday Politics. Nick, if it was any other party that | :03:07. | :03:11. | |
had bon through the past week it would be in meltdown. And maybe it | :03:12. | :03:16. | |
is harming UKIP and maybe it isn't. What do you think? That just shows, | :03:17. | :03:21. | |
that great weather forecast, Prince Charles now has a rival to be an | :03:22. | :03:27. | |
excellent weather forecaster, as does the Duchess of Cornwall. It | :03:28. | :03:32. | |
shows why Nigel Farage is the fefr candidate to the European elections. | :03:33. | :03:37. | |
Our invitation to the British people to kick the establishment. The | :03:38. | :03:41. | |
establishment have spent five years that the European Parliament is a | :03:42. | :03:45. | |
waste of time, so who are you going to vote for? A Nigel Farage type of | :03:46. | :03:52. | |
person. What was important about your eadviceration of Nigel Farage | :03:53. | :03:56. | |
on Daily Politics is that when it came to the substance, they | :03:57. | :04:00. | |
flounder. But the point about that party is they may have the thinnest | :04:01. | :04:03. | |
set of policies, but people know what they stand for more than any | :04:04. | :04:10. | |
other parties - get out of Europe, a grammar school in every town. If any | :04:11. | :04:16. | |
other leading politician called for an end to the ban on handguns, at a | :04:17. | :04:21. | |
time when we've seen these appalling gun deaths in the United States now | :04:22. | :04:24. | |
almost one every week in some terrible siege in a school. It would | :04:25. | :04:30. | |
be a crisis. It seems to wash off him. He's got congenital | :04:31. | :04:39. | |
foot-and-mouthitis. Straight into another wild nothing to do with why | :04:40. | :04:44. | |
people might vote UKIP. I don't think people are desperate to have | :04:45. | :04:48. | |
handgun licences back in this country. It is such an unusual | :04:49. | :04:54. | |
phenomenon, UKIP, that if this was a Tory or a Labour or a Lib Dem saying | :04:55. | :05:01. | |
it, we've seen the damage done to the Lib Dems on a much more serious | :05:02. | :05:06. | |
manner, we would say this is terminal. But maybe it adds to this | :05:07. | :05:10. | |
image that we are not like the other parties. I think that is it. We keep | :05:11. | :05:16. | |
waiting for these scandals and embarrassments to do damage to | :05:17. | :05:21. | |
UKIP's poll ratings, but it's not working. It is ultimately because if | :05:22. | :05:27. | |
you are an antiestablishment party, if you are an anti-system party the | :05:28. | :05:33. | |
rules of the game which apply to the establishment parties don't apply to | :05:34. | :05:38. | |
you. And the more ramshackle and embarrassing you are, the more | :05:39. | :05:42. | |
authentic you seem. It what be take something for them not to finish | :05:43. | :05:49. | |
second in May. Do they spend the following 12 months sinking in the | :05:50. | :05:53. | |
poll snoos And George Osborne's strategy is fame everything as | :05:54. | :05:57. | |
Labour versus the Conservatives The electorate will have their fun in | :05:58. | :06:01. | |
May. Maybe the Tories will be beat into third place but in thejection | :06:02. | :06:07. | |
is that -- but in the general election it is Labour versus the | :06:08. | :06:15. | |
Tories. The Conservative Party will run around, 46 letters to Graham | :06:16. | :06:19. | |
Brady, a leadership contest. That sort of scenario. UKIP, if it rules | :06:20. | :06:24. | |
well in the European elections, could cause big trouble for Mr | :06:25. | :06:28. | |
Cameron and Mr Clegg couldn't it? The big point about this, David | :06:29. | :06:35. | |
Cameron said this is not a political party but a pressure group. This is | :06:36. | :06:40. | |
the way to look at UKIP, and the way it is used by people in the right of | :06:41. | :06:46. | |
the party, who say we have to do this. I like the policy of painting | :06:47. | :06:53. | |
the trains in their old liveries. It would be like my old train set. I | :06:54. | :07:04. | |
like the bigger passports. Pre-GNER... And London and Midland. | :07:05. | :07:14. | |
I used to be a train spotter. Gordon Birtwhistle has been on the | :07:15. | :07:17. | |
phone. Good to know you are watching but pity you are not here. He wanted | :07:18. | :07:23. | |
to clarify he had constituency commitments to prevent him coming on | :07:24. | :07:28. | |
the show to talk about becoming leader of the party, but he didn't | :07:29. | :07:31. | |
dispute anything we said on the show. | :07:32. | :07:34. | |
Yesterday, Ed Balls said that housing investment will be a central | :07:35. | :07:37. | |
priority for the next Labour Government. It's a big issue, as the | :07:38. | :07:41. | |
lack of new homes pushes up the the price of owning or renting. Well, | :07:42. | :07:43. | |
tomorrow the Tories will announce what they say is the most ambitious | :07:44. | :07:46. | |
programme of affordable housebuilding for 20 years. The | :07:47. | :07:54. | |
Government sees housing as a really important part of the economy. | :07:55. | :08:00. | |
That's why we are announcing a 23 billion package for 165,000 new | :08:01. | :08:05. | |
affordable homes. So individual builders, councils, housing | :08:06. | :08:09. | |
associations can bid for that money. Phase one, which we are halfway | :08:10. | :08:14. | |
through at the moment, we've built 170,000 houses. 99,000 already | :08:15. | :08:18. | |
coming out of the ground, so we ve made real progress on that. So, | :08:19. | :08:26. | |
165,000 new, affordable homes. It is a lot. Let me add three more words. | :08:27. | :08:31. | |
Over three years. It is not such a lot. It is not, and Labour's | :08:32. | :08:35. | |
commitment is 200,000 homes a year and even that isn't enough. The | :08:36. | :08:40. | |
problem here is that the vest interest is with people who already | :08:41. | :08:45. | |
have homes. They have a vote in the system through the planning | :08:46. | :08:48. | |
regulations. In London there is a gap in the hedge through Richmond | :08:49. | :08:52. | |
Park through which you should be able to see St Paul's Cathedral | :08:53. | :08:58. | |
That's why you cannot build homes where you want them. I don't think | :08:59. | :09:02. | |
we want to build homes over Richmond Park. He wasn't saying that. That's | :09:03. | :09:10. | |
dies an Tyne -- that's Byzantine. You've got to deal with supply, | :09:11. | :09:14. | |
which is why Labour is talking about 200,000 a year, and what George | :09:15. | :09:20. | |
Osborne has done with supply is helping with demand. We know the | :09:21. | :09:24. | |
Help to Buy Scheme is pretty dangerous, and Mark Carney is keen | :09:25. | :09:31. | |
to put the break on that. If you are to deal with supply, you have to do | :09:32. | :09:36. | |
radical things. Chris Huhne talked about on brownfield sites you can | :09:37. | :09:40. | |
tax people who are holding the land as if the development has taken | :09:41. | :09:44. | |
place. Then if you are really going to deal with it you have to talk | :09:45. | :09:48. | |
about the greenfield sites, and you have to deal with the garden cities | :09:49. | :09:52. | |
argument, which is too much for the Tories. All the parties seem to | :09:53. | :09:56. | |
agree building new houses is a political winner. I hope that they | :09:57. | :10:00. | |
are right. I'm not sure they are. The housing market is the example of | :10:01. | :10:06. | |
what economists call the insider in-outsider problem. People who are | :10:07. | :10:11. | |
already homeowners have no rational incentive to vote for more housing | :10:12. | :10:17. | |
stock. Even if you leave aside the Conservative arable objections, if | :10:18. | :10:20. | |
you are a homeowner there is an interest to stick with the planning | :10:21. | :10:24. | |
promise that we have. So then we are stuck between a rock and a hard | :10:25. | :10:28. | |
place. Not only are we growing at the moment but our population is | :10:29. | :10:34. | |
growing. I've seen projects that in quite quickly we will overtake | :10:35. | :10:38. | |
Germany and become the largest populated country in Europe. If | :10:39. | :10:41. | |
that's the case we've got to build homes. We have. If you look at Tower | :10:42. | :10:47. | |
Hamlets in London, the population is r ging higher than the number of | :10:48. | :10:52. | |
dwelling. Classically the theory's been young people are most affected | :10:53. | :10:57. | |
by this and they don't vote much. But when their parents have young | :10:58. | :11:03. | |
Johnny stuck at home at 37, that's an electoral issue. That's why the | :11:04. | :11:08. | |
garden cities project is interesting, because they finance | :11:09. | :11:12. | |
themselves. You zone it for development, it is worth ?2 million | :11:13. | :11:17. | |
an acre and then you can build on it. But who is going to want the | :11:18. | :11:23. | |
greenfield sites gone. And how quickly can we build garden cities | :11:24. | :11:29. | |
today? Some were started before the Town and Country Planning Act. I've | :11:30. | :11:34. | |
read stats about the way Chinese and Japanese are building houses and | :11:35. | :11:38. | |
they were slower than that. Here's a thought, sticking on the housing | :11:39. | :11:42. | |
theme. Ed Miliband came up with the energy freeze, a populist | :11:43. | :11:46. | |
interventionist move. Then the use it or lose it to land developers. | :11:47. | :11:52. | |
Then breaking up the banks. Now the 50p tax rate. How much would you put | :11:53. | :11:57. | |
on Labour coming up for rent controls? That's already a big | :11:58. | :12:02. | |
split. They are split already on it. They have. In London it is a popular | :12:03. | :12:06. | |
policy. It might not play well in the rest of the country. I would say | :12:07. | :12:11. | |
50-50 on that. I think Labour supporting rent controls like the | :12:12. | :12:14. | |
Tories having a go at welfare. The policy may be individually popular | :12:15. | :12:19. | |
but it sends an impression about the party which might be less attract | :12:20. | :12:23. | |
active. It confirms underlying suspicions that vote these guys into | :12:24. | :12:27. | |
power and suddenly they are tampering with the private economy. | :12:28. | :12:32. | |
The memories of the '70s when Governments tried and failed to do | :12:33. | :12:35. | |
that. It is riskier than a superficial reading of the polls | :12:36. | :12:40. | |
would suggest. One to watch? I think they are looking at it. That was the | :12:41. | :12:45. | |
key message of the Ed Balls speech on housing, is looking at supply and | :12:46. | :12:50. | |
how you get to that 200,000 figure a year, which is substantially more | :12:51. | :12:54. | |
than what Kris Hopkins is talking about. What we didn't get to talk | :12:55. | :12:59. | |
about, remember we had Michael Wilshaw on, the Chief Inspector of | :13:00. | :13:03. | |
Schools. We all consumed was Mr Gove's man, the Education | :13:04. | :13:07. | |
Secretary's man. Now according to the Sunday Times he is spitting | :13:08. | :13:11. | |
blood about the way Mr Gove and his office are speaking about him behind | :13:12. | :13:15. | |
the scenes. We've checked the quotes and he stands by them, so I think | :13:16. | :13:19. | |
we'll have to have the head of Ofsted back on the programme. If you | :13:20. | :13:23. | |
are watching, we're here. All that to the Lib Dems who didn't come on | :13:24. | :13:27. | |
today. That's all for today. Thanks to all | :13:28. | :13:30. | |
my guests. The Daily Politics is back on Monday at midday on BBC Two, | :13:31. | :13:34. | |
and I'll be here again next week. Remember, if it's Sunday, it's the | :13:35. | :13:35. | |
Sunday Politics. Britain, with 120,000 soldiers | :13:36. | :14:13. | |
is now at war with Germany This would be the first | :14:14. | :14:22. | |
truly modern war. and resolve of entire populations | :14:23. | :14:32. | |
against each other. | :14:33. | :14:36. |