05/02/2012 Sunday Politics Yorkshire and Lincolnshire

And coming up and 30 minutes... Calls for the Government to move

thousands of civil servants from London to Yorkshire in a bid to

Apology for the loss of subtitles for 1754 seconds

Good morning. You are watching the Sunday politics for Yorkshire and

Lincolnshire. We're going to have a round-up of

the top political stories in our part of the world.

And we build a cut calls for the Government to move thousands of

civil servants from London to Yorkshire in a bid to boost the

northern economy. MSP guests today are Craig Whitaker,

the Conservative MP, and Pahl Turner, a Labour MP for Hull East.

Craig, let's get this out of the way. There was an allegation in the

national newspapers this week that you were arrested on suspicion of

assault on Boxing Day following an alleged incident involving a member

of your family. What more can you tell us about that? I don't know if

I can tell you any more about it, but the police did make me aware of

the allegations in the new year. I give a full statement and they are

now carrying out a full investigation. It would probably be

inappropriate for me to say anything else at this stage.

she will fight those allegations? Yes.

At a busy week for you. You have written an article for the morning

Star, the socialist newspaper. I should call you, at Coral? Is the

revolution in the air? Appointed made in the article is

correct. The Government is imposing really severe cuts in my

constituency, while at the same time trying to sign off a bonus to

and RBS chief Executive of more than �1 million. It just seemed

absolutely ludicrous and I needed to say something.

We can talk about bankers all day, but we will save that for another

time. We are asking, should subjects such

as horse care and Neil technology be just as important as academic

qualifications when it comes to school league tables. It debate is

raging in schools across the area about the value of vocational

courses. These students in Grimsby are

working towards their diploma in performing arts. The qualification

is currently worth the equivalent of four GCSEs. But what use is a B

Tech in later life? It has given us a hands-on

experience to put on our own show, sort out the lighting, tickets,

front-of-house people. If you look at the highest professions and the

country, quite often there vocationally based. Vocational

qualifications can engage young people and make them engage with a

wider learning and they will achieve higher skills across the

full curriculum. This week, it was confirmed that

many courses such as fish husbandry, nails technology and horse care

will no longer carry the same weight as many academic subjects.

At the moment, some vocational qualifications can be worth up to

six GCSEs. But a Government report recommends that more than 3,100

vocational subjects should be reduced to just 125 if they are to

count in school league tables. think that children have been lied

to. They have been told that things are worth five GCSEs and they were

not. It is truly important that you should tell the truth to children.

There has been much controversy over the decision to downgrade the

Engineering Diploma, which is studied by many young people in

Grimsby. This comes at a time when potentially thousands of new jobs

could be created in the green energy sector on and the Humber.

That diploma was written alongside leading industrial professionals.

We have a dearth of highly- qualified engineers in this country

and we should be promoting that qualifications. We need to be

looking at what local industry has to offer, a local employment Opera

sureties for a young students, especially when you consider that

Grimsby youngsters are amongst the highest in the country that are not

in education employment or training once they leave school at 16.

So, there appears to be a vocal lobby urging the Government to look

again at the baddie of many vocational qualifications. -- the

value. We have been joined by Janice Hague

there from the Federation of Small Businesses. Craig, many young

people who live on vocational qualifications if they are not very

academically gifted. Is there is a short-sighted decision? It is an

incredibly right decision. We're not talking about whether these

qualifications add value, but whether they have an equivalent to

those young people getting a job. We know from having one million

people that are not in employment, education or training that actually,

it is not working. We need to add better value. Prior to Christmas,

the education team met with Microsoft, who said at we have

100,000 job vacancies in this country for computer science. I

said it is ridiculous, because 17% of our graduates are unemployed.

They said we teach the wrong type of IT. Basically, we teacher kids

to drive, but not the mechanics below. So this is about to putting

some equivalent back into those vocational subjects and making sure

it is worth employment. Professor Alison Wolf said that young people

have been lied to about the value of these vocational qualifications.

It makes some very interesting points. Some of her points are

correct. English, maths and science are very important. But vocational

qualifications are just as important. It is hypocritical of

the Government. They're saying that free schools can teach what they

like and some are teaching etiquette and find dining. It seems

bonkers to me. When I speak to employers, such as Siemens, who

were about to hopefully move to my area of the country with offshore

wind technology, they do not say to me that they're looking for people

who are good at last on. They want engineers. -- Latton. It is

important that some qualifications are accepted and recognised. It is

very important and it is the crux of everything. We have far too many

young people coming out of education who cannot read or write

properly and have poor social skills. That is why the Government

are saying that we have to get her standards back up in those areas.

It is important to acknowledge this. A in the last 12 months, people who

are not in education or training, their employment has increased

massively under this Government. Can I bring in Janice Hague from

the Federation of Small Businesses? How seriously are some of these

vocational qualifications taken by employers? If a young person turns

up in it with a qualification in horse care or fish husbandry, will

it stand them in good stead? If I was running a stable if fish farm,

it would stand them in good stead. But if I am running my business, it

is not going to be suitable. The main point we have to bear in mind

is that the range of qualifications is not narrowed to far come up

because then, small businesses - and it must be remembered that over

99% of businesses employ less than 50 people, so the employees that

they want need to have the basic literacy and numeracy of a good

standard, but they also need to have a wide range of skills that

can be brought into that business. The smaller the business, the wider

the range of skills that is needed. Simple things like knowing how to

file. And not having to look for a telephone bill under F four phone.

That kind of thing is something that needs to be borne in mind. The

education of authority needs to include basic entrepreneur schools,

business skills and they need to be talking to organisations such as

ours and small employers to say, or what is it you're looking for?

over one year ago, George Osborne got to his feet and talked about

the march of the makers. It seems to me slightly contradictory when

its Education Secretary is now saying that these vocational

qualifications are worth very little. I think that is

hypocritical. They're not saying that. They are saying that they are

not equivalent to the standard of education that we need. Under the

last Government, or we saw a huge decline in Britain's standing in

the national comparative league tables in maths, English and

science. If we want to engineers, we're going to have to have those

qualifications to supply them. for the large employers, and they

will want to a fairly narrow level of Engineering, very specialist.

That is fine. But it must be remembered that less than 0.1% of

businesses employ more than 250 people. If you are talking about

employability skills for smaller businesses, then and they want

vocational training, yes, but along with other things. I think what

needs to be looked at is the quality of that vocational training

and how narrow it is and how fit nobody is saying we do away with

these vocational things at all. We are saying they are part of

though it wider curriculum but they do not carry the same weight as

GCSEs. There seems to be an obsession with the English

Baccalaureate. It seems they're going back to the 1950s. They need

to look very carefully at areas like mine and speak to companies

like Siemens offshore wind and find out what employers really are

looking for a. Engineering is extremely important in my area.

Colleges, the city council, these people are working together to try

and encourage these skills. What Michael Gove is suggesting is quite

wrong. He is not saying that. needs to be looking at the area.

The skills that are required in a particular area. It may be

Engineering. But we do need to be looking at not narrowing the

curriculum too far. We will have to leave that there.

Thank you for coming in today. First ruler for scare, buy yourself

a big shovel. Let's reflect now on the week's

political news in our part of the world in 60 Seconds.

Given the fact that we give many times more aid to India than France

ever did... Tory big beasts David Davis abroad his disapproval at the

Indian Government's decision to buy fighter planes from the French. It

is at a time when BAE Systems is shedding hundreds of jobs in his

East Yorkshire constituency. In a week of Liberal Democrat

departures, Rebecca Taylor began her career as the party's new Euro

MP for the Yorkshire and Humber region, replacing Diana volleys.

The English Democrats descended on Sheffield to launch their campaign

for a Yes vote in a's referendum on whether four Yorkshire cities

should have directly elected mares. And York saw protests over comments

made by the Archbishop, where he outlined his operation --

opposition to gay marriage. Any change in the law is supported by

David Cameron. Gay marriage. David Cameron is

committed to a change in the law, but he is going to be met by

opposition from both Conservatives with a small sea and a pixie.

Absolutely. Although David has said and we will be debating at some

point in this year about gay marriage, I think there has to be a

lot of convincing to be had. There BA East system decision...

David Davis is unhappy. Is there anything more the Government could

have done to try and secure that deal?

I am not sure that there is. David Davis raised this and Prime

Minister's Questions last week. It seems worrying to people like me

that BAE Systems is shedding 900 jobs in our area when this contract

is going to the French. It is a real concern and deer did was right

to raise it. Is it right that we pay �1 billion

in aid to be to the Indians? This is a country but the huge defence

budget and a space programme. A partially agrees. I think it is

only morally right that we help the poorest children in the world be

vaccinated. That is most important. But on the same token, I think we

are the only country in the world that gives aid in the way we do

with no strings attached. We need to look at that.

There are too many bowler-hatted civil servants in London and many

of them should come and work up North, bringing their well paid

jobs with them. That's the view of Labour MP John Mann, who is

proposing that two entire ministries shift to Leeds and

Sheffield and another six move to other cities. But as Len Tingle has

been discovering, this has been tried before with mixed success.

Security cameras, heavily-guarded, it is more like a bunker than an

office block. And that is not surprising, considering the history

of this building in Sheffield. 30 years ago, the jobless were on the

march - over 2 million were on the dole. But then Thatcher Government

worried about civil unrest and imported a controversial American

idea of compulsory training schemes. That is why this building was

needed. The thousands of civil servants running those schemes were

hoist here. The massed ranks of protesters never turned up here,

but the massed ranks of civil servants brought much-needed high

paid salaries. We had the Manpower Services Commission and land here

in 1979, which brought many jobs into the city. The bulk of those

are still here. Yes, some jobs to come and go, but it has given us a

platform to build a growth. envious eyes are still being cast

here. Most of these London commuters are heading for the desks

in big Government departments, despite umpteen reports and

inquiries advising successive governments that they could do the

same job elsewhere. At least one northern MP has had enough.

With modern communications, a move of work and pensions to Leeds, a

mood of the business Department to Sheffield, could be done in a

matter of months. This is not a big move in terms of the logistics.

Psychologically, it is enormous, because it is cutting down the

power of Whitehall and London. That is why the Civil Service has always

resisted at. But there have been attempts to shift existing

departments before with mixed results. This was the most

ambitious scheme of the Mall, shifting bureaucratic power and

thousands of jobs from London to Leeds to run the entire National

Health Service from here. It was expensive and controversial.

Probably the most controversial part of it was this building. It

cost �55 million. It is known locally as the Kremlin and to tempt

Whitehall workers North, it was equipped with plush carpets, a

swimming pool and expense of artworks. Within a few years,

policies changed, budgets were cut and hundreds made redundant. But it

could all change again, with the promise of becoming the

headquarters for the new NHS commissioning Board. Are a long-

term solution or a temporary fix? Coral, your predecessor, John

Prescott, said he wanted to get more or Government departments out

of London. But it never really happened. There were some examples.

Some a move to Sheffield and Leeds and it was successful. Recently,

the BBC had decided to move to Salford. Some are complaining there

are not enough local jobs created as a result. There is a problem at

the moment. The North-South divide is increasing under this Government.

Be scrapped the regional development agencies. The points

John makes are correct. I would welcome the new Secretary of State

for Energy and climate change to haul East. He would be very

welcomed by businesses in the city. The consul could find in the some

nice accommodation. You would need to watch out for the speed cameras!

Why can't we get more jobs out of Whitehall and Yorkshire? I think it

is short-sighted. Take Calder Vale. We have the third most vulnerable

local economy in the whole of the UK. That is because of our heavy

reliance on Lloyds TSB. We need more diversity. When one sector

does feel or has a glitch, the whole town and local economy will

not die with that. Leave it where it is, let's get on and create

local business locally and let's have that adversity. A lot of

people will say there are too many people on the public pay roll and

that is part of the problem. That is part of the argument. There is

pros and cons to this. I have read the speech. I think it makes some

very interesting points. It is about rebalancing the economy and

the North is suffering. If we can get civil servants into the North,

I would welcome them. I think it is a great idea. It will work for the

BBC in Salford, so why not try it with Government departments?

We must leave it there. Thank you both were braving the big freeze

today. That's about it from us. You can