13/05/2012 Sunday Politics Yorkshire and Lincolnshire

We glowed on the political heat We go out on the political beat

with some of the candidates for the new post of elected Police and

Crime Commissioner. Our guest today are Philip Davies,

the Conservative MP for Shipley, and Diana Johnson, the Labour MP

for Hull North. For Yorkshire cities have rejected the idea of

directly elected mayors. Is there much enthusiasm for elected Police

and Crime Commissioners? A am not sure, will have to wait until the

election and see what the turnout is. I abstain on the vote. There

are not a lot of people complaining about our system of policing.

Johnson, Labour were ritually against the idea. Now you're

selecting candidates. You seem to have embraced the idea. Have you

changed your chin. We always thought this was an idea that we

did not support. Hundred million pounds for police commissioners, we

do not think this is the best use of money. A no legislation has been

passed but we are were we are, we will be putting up candidates. I

think the turnout will be low. Elections are in November. Not a

great time of year. Interesting. For many people, the

idea of an elected head of the police force evokes memories of the

Batman's Commissioner Gordon. We went to Sheffield, not to be

confused with Gotham City. Even Batman has a boss, and the

list of people competing to be South Yorkshire's commissioner is

being drawn up. Commissioner Gordon will not be running it, but

somebody has to and the fight for that job starts now.

What for some his comic-book fantasy will soon become reality.

Police commissioners are on the way. I am passionate about South

Yorkshire and public safety. I have put myself forward on the basis of

my history and career in terms of the police service. I would hope to

approach this with an appeal that goes beyond politics. Listen to the

public, represent them and reduce crime. South Yorkshire is one of

seven police forces in our region. By the end of the year, we will

have elected police commissioners. At the moment, they are run by

police authorities, groups of councillors making decisions

collectively. The commissioner will make the decisions himself. Labour

think they will have their candidate sorted by the middle of

June and there is not long for the other parties to get their acts

together. The election is the start of November. The police

commissioner will be in place by the 22nd of that month. Come

November 22nd, you are going to have one person who will be

responsible not just for the activities of the Police Authority,

but also the other areas. Whoever does the job, you're not the chief

constable. The skills you need and are quite different. There are

strategic skills, setting priorities. The police authority in

south Yorkshire has told us that their new commissioner will have to

have a new chief executive. He will earn around �100,000 per year. So

there will be extra people employed, done quite big salaries? There is a

requirement that the chief executive that at -- and the

treasure a separate posts. Currently, their combined in one

person. Whether it increases the cost overall remains to be seen.

This is a big change, but to many people know anything about it?

not convinced it is well known. I have talked to people who I would

have expected to know, and it is a complete revelation. They were

adamant that they wanted to bring in police commissioners in 2012. By

bringing an end in November, there is a risk that the turnout well

below. I do not think there is anything like enough knowledge

about this. The Conservatives and the Liberal Democrats in South

Yorkshire say they're in the process of picking their candidates.

Wholly indifferent electorate, Batman? We will see in November.

James Vincent on the Labour battle in South Yorkshire.

I am interesting mix there. In your patch, N Humberside, you have got

Lord Prescott and a former police chief, Keith Hunter, hoping to

become police commissioner. You go with someone who has political

experience or practical, Police Experience? Were you looking, we

have a good choice there. It will be down to Labour Party members to

decide which one of those candidates they want to support. I

look forward to campaigning with either of them in the election.

Who's your money on? They both have great backgrounds, a lot of

experience. It is not just Hull, it is about the whole of the

Humberside area. It will be interesting to see how they do

across the area. I don't know at the moment. Philip Davies, we heard

that they are talking in her bringing in a chief executive on

�100,000 per year as well as the police commissioner. Is there a

danger we could beat creating a whole new layer of bureaucracy and?

I am concerned about that. I would not want to see and necessary dose

created that would be better spent on wider police resources, or CCTV

cameras. I would not want to see a whole new bureaucracy been prepared

in the name of democracy. Labour seem to have stolen a march on the

other parties, whether they're in favour or not. Is there a dearth of

Conservative talent? Why are there no Tory candidates? Not at all. We

are taking our time a bit more. There are some people who

desperately want to be the police commissioner in South Yorkshire and

have had a look at the political map and said that the best route to

that is being the Labour Party candidate, rather than the

Conservative Party candidate! He would not need to be a leading

electoral expert to realise that the Labour Party's candidate will

start as favourite in South Yorkshire. He would not be

expecting a shock when for the Tories then? It will be up to the

electorate to decide. He talked about the turnout in last week's

local elections, it was below 20% in some areas, how will you

encourage people to vote for you candidates? We will have to do our

best. I do not think there is an enormous appetite out there for

more elected politicians. November is a month in the middle of winter

where it is cold and dark curly, it will be hard to persuade people to

go out. I am hoping for a very warm November, that we can get people

out and will come down to postal votes as well. Would you like to

throw your hat into the ring? You fancy the job? No, I will stick

representing the people of Shipley. I am very happy in Hull North.

would have a tougher approach than some of the candidates, that is for

sure! Let's catch up with some of the

week's political news. MPs want closer checks on school

spending. The Public Accounts Committee referred to a report on

this programme which highlighted concerns about academies in

Lincolnshire. The Priory Federation may have been a rogue head behaving

badly, but it demonstrated a lack of people being able to identify

that abuse of public money in the system.

That was the scene in York as many public sector workers took part in

a national strike over pensions. While in Bradford the new Labour

leader David Green will hold talks with the Green Party about forming

an alliance, where there are one seat short of an overall majority.

Holder City could -- Hull City Council has given the green light

to Siemens for a huge turbine factory. It could create a hundreds

of new jobs in the offshore wind power industry.

We heard about the development there in Hull. Evidence of green

shoots in green energy? I am delighted that that planning

permission has gone through. It has been a long time in getting to this

point. It means that hopefully, Siemens will be coming to the city.

This is against the backdrop of other job losses, the caravan Tax

which could result in 6000 jobs going in East Yorkshire. We want

this to be about additional jobs, not replacing jobs that have been

lost in private sector companies. That is still the worrying bit, for

me. Philip Davies, you are one of more than 100 Tory MPs who wrote to

the Prime Minister demanding a cut in the subsidies given to wind

energy. If green energy creates jobs, that is a good thing, isn't

it? Yes, but it is incredibly expensive and inefficient and at a

considerable amount to people's energy bills. The people are

struggling to pay their bills do not want to pay extra to go on some

politically correct, green bandwagon. I'd much prefer these

wretched carbines being in that as part of the world and been a blot

on the landscape in my constituency. I would be all for them if they

were in Hull. They will not be in Hull, they will be in the North Sea.

You're supposed to be the greenest government ever, and commitment to

renewable energy and wind turbines. I am interested in my constituents.

They are struggling to pay their energy bills, and people talk about

being green as if it is some kind of wonderful thing, what they do

not say is, renewable energy target is adding 25% on to people's energy

bills. When people realise that, they might be less keen. So the

Government is moving away from being the greenest government ever?

I do not represent the Government - - I would not speak to represent

the government. Obviously not! I thought you a Conservative Member

of Parliament? We want the Government to get the economy right.

We need to get a dead town and have a sustainable economy for the

future. The Queen's Speech did not have a lot of bills in it. -- we

want to get hour national debt down. Is it the economy? Yes, and I think

the worrying thing about the Queen's Speech was that there was

nothing in there to bring growth into the economy. It seems to be

the only bill that the Government says will help the economy is about

making it easier to sack people. I'm not sure that is the best

policy to put forward if you're concerned about growing the economy.

The Queen's Speech was about what new laws the Government is going to

introduce. So the House of Lords reform is the biggest issue...

do not legislate your way into sorting out the economy. That is

how we got into the mess in the first place. Let's not get bogged

down in her support reform. The voters of the future have been

putting politicians from all sides through their paces. Pupils from a

school in Leeds won a competition to host a version of the BBC's

Question Time. BBC research shows that less than a third of young

people plan to board at the next election. We watched the debate.

It took 12 hours to transform the school hall into Leeds -- in Leeds.

A panel of politicians and an audience. What you got was a poet -

- a very familiar BBC programme. The junior version.

Welcome to the first of three special programmes in which pupils

and politicians debate the stories that are making the headlines.

Cardinal Heenan School in Leeds is one of their annual winners of the

BBC's Question Time competition. The questions to prominent MPs are

said and asked by the teenagers themselves. A question pleas by

Sophie. Is it not an invasion of privacy for the police to monitor

my Internet use. He beggars belief, you know. If the secret service

expect -- suspect that I am planning a terrorist attack...

They're going to do it again, using other schools in different parts of

the country. The Hansard Society, set up in 1944 to promote

parliamentary democracy, says that his recent research shows that only

27% of under 24 as well bought at the next election. The Government's

own electoral commission warned just before the government

elections the 56% of under 20 force Auntie been registered to vote.

I am not surprised. Politicians do some things to interest the youth,

but they are more focused on the older generations. We can feel a

bit lost and that they're not being catered for. Before this, I didn't

think I had as much of an interest as I do now. I thought it was

something I could get involved in, but I didn't have any opportunities.

It is important, and it is important that it is a wet cast as

well. He should be using all sorts of technology to reach all schools.

-- aware a cast. Politicians have a long way to go to energise the -- a

webcast. You don't get this after Newsnight!

Say it with flowers, Kirsty! We have been joined by Emma Chadwick

and Henry Theakston. You were there and Friday, what was the best

question the panel were asked by? De we asked a question about Barack

Obama coming out in support about the marriage. This provoked a big

response from the panel on the audience. Or was the general

consensus? The general Quins -- the general consensus were in support

of it. There were few that came out against it and put forward some

compelling points. We hear all the time that young people are not

interested in politics. Is that through? It is a myth. You only

have to ask a young person what they think about public transpire

or university -- public transport or university fees. The research

suggests that only 27% of young people intend to vote at the next

opportunity. Headier address that? That is our fault, not their fault.

The onus is on us to inspire them to go out and vote. When I was

growing up and getting interested in politics in the 1980s, it was a

battle of ideas because that parties were so far apart. You knew

which side of the political fence you're on. As parties have

concerned -- concentrated more on focus groups, people who are

younger and had an interest in politics, when he had Tony Blair on

the right of the Labour Party and David Cameron on the left of the

Conservative Party, it is difficult to know what party to vote for, we

should get back to the battle of ideas. We should have the

confidence to argue in what we believe in. That might inspire

younger people to say, I want to be a part of that. Which side of the

fence have to buy your own back in the Eighties? Very much the

Margaret Thatcher side! How would you get more people into the

polling booths, Diana Johnson? is important that we engage with

them on issues they are concerned about. Often, young people have

very strong views about green energy and environment. I would

bring in voting at 16. If you're going to teach citizenship in

schools up to 16, then give young people the opportunity to cast

their vote. That's what I would do. There are many other issues were

young people have passionate views and it is about capturing that and

engaging with them and making political parties more interesting

to young people, because we're not very good as political parties at

making young people welcome. Philip Davies is not convinced the young

people should voted 16. New campaign for that, Emma. Why is it

a good idea? We're given was have a responsibility as an adult. Begin

engage in sexual relationships, get married, or sign up to the armed

forces. Unfortunately, we don't have the societies that rewards

them with the right of being an adult. I do nothing that is fair in

anyone's book. He were not convinced? We have just heard that

hardly anyone votes at 18. We can start off getting end -- we can

start off by getting 18 euros to vote. We have to have an age

somewhere. -- 18 years old. smoking is harmful behaviour,

boating at 16 is a positive. At 16 years old, most people who are in

education will be in some sort of formal structure where people can

be introduced into elliptical -- a political journey. We can start

having lessons about political education. People can think, yes,

this is important and I want to get involved. How would you get some of

your friends at school interested in politics? It has to be done