Browse content similar to 17/02/2013. Check below for episodes and series from the same categories and more!
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Refined out of white Margaret Thatcher's home side is divided | :01:30. | :01:40. | |
:01:40. | :01:40. | ||
Apology for the loss of subtitles for 2129 seconds | :01:40. | :37:10. | |
over whether it wants a statue of Here are the headlines: We look at | :37:10. | :37:14. | |
whether the poorest households are being swept up in what one up | :37:14. | :37:19. | |
charity claims is at toxic mix all benefit caps. | :37:19. | :37:24. | |
And while Margaret Thatcher's home town is divided over whether it | :37:24. | :37:31. | |
wants a statue of the Iron Lady. Our guests are Toby Perkins and | :37:31. | :37:38. | |
Craig Whittaker. There is a whole raft of benefit | :37:38. | :37:44. | |
changes and welfare cuts in the pipeline. Will the government faced | :37:44. | :37:54. | |
:37:54. | :37:56. | ||
a revolt in the future? I'd do not think so. It is | :37:56. | :38:06. | |
:38:06. | :38:08. | ||
important that the taxpayer is getting value for money. The right | :38:08. | :38:17. | |
thing to do? The original Conservative minister responsible | :38:17. | :38:27. | |
:38:27. | :38:28. | ||
for the poll tax is talking about poll-tax Mark 2. People see that | :38:28. | :38:38. | |
the changes are not fair. The most recent government statistic says | :38:38. | :38:48. | |
200,000 more children will be put into poverty. We will talk | :38:48. | :38:51. | |
specifically about council tax benefit because Sheffield has | :38:51. | :38:55. | |
become the latest local authority to face a legal challenge over | :38:55. | :38:59. | |
plans to increase council tax bills for some of the poorest households. | :38:59. | :39:04. | |
It blames the government's demand for a 10 % reduction in the amount | :39:04. | :39:09. | |
spent on council tax benefit. We have been finding out how people | :39:09. | :39:16. | |
are affected. The finances of this former bus man | :39:16. | :39:26. | |
:39:26. | :39:26. | ||
are so precarious that an extra bill of �4 per week could break him. | :39:27. | :39:33. | |
In this economic climate with energy bills going up my outgoings | :39:33. | :39:39. | |
just match might income. That is vital. It is a permanent struggle. | :39:39. | :39:46. | |
Last pay-day by the time I had paid the bills I had �2.50 left for two | :39:46. | :39:55. | |
weeks. At �4 extra bill is for council tax bill. He has not had to | :39:55. | :40:00. | |
pay that tax for a few years because his income is so lope and | :40:00. | :40:08. | |
and he and hip injury means he cannot do manual work any more. The | :40:08. | :40:14. | |
government has told local councils they must cut tax relief by 10 %. | :40:14. | :40:20. | |
An estimated 600,000 people across the country will get council tax | :40:20. | :40:28. | |
demands from April. That concerns this social research charity. | :40:28. | :40:32. | |
we are seeing is that we're people have to pay more towards council | :40:32. | :40:36. | |
tax the average amount is �12 per month. That might not sound like a | :40:36. | :40:42. | |
lot of money to some people but when you combine that with other | :40:42. | :40:48. | |
things such as the operating of tax credits to below the rate of | :40:48. | :40:52. | |
inflation at these can begin to combine his two great at toxic mix | :40:52. | :40:59. | |
for some individual households. a report to be published next month | :40:59. | :41:03. | |
it is said that one in five councils will not pass on at the | :41:03. | :41:08. | |
cuts. But big councils have so many on low incomes they cannot afford | :41:08. | :41:12. | |
to do that. In South Yorkshire Sheffield would need an extra �5 | :41:12. | :41:22. | |
:41:22. | :41:22. | ||
million per year to absorb the cuts. Their concern it is that this cat | :41:22. | :41:32. | |
:41:32. | :41:32. | ||
is aimed at those on the lowest incomes. Pensioners are exempt. | :41:32. | :41:38. | |
They are 50 % of those who qualify. So the rest have to see a reduction | :41:38. | :41:43. | |
of 22 %. Sheffield is passing that on in full. There are those that | :41:43. | :41:50. | |
say that is not fear. It is very difficult. It is not an | :41:50. | :41:56. | |
easy decision to make. We are taking �50 million out already this | :41:56. | :42:02. | |
year. A further �5.5 million forced upon us by the government will mean | :42:02. | :42:07. | |
more cuts to services across the city. The government says it has a | :42:07. | :42:12. | |
two councils to work out how to impose the reductions. It adds that | :42:12. | :42:15. | |
the government has provided transitional funding to help all | :42:16. | :42:19. | |
councils develop schemes and maintain positive incentives to | :42:19. | :42:27. | |
work. Back in Leeds this man hopes he might be one of those eligible | :42:27. | :42:32. | |
for her transitional financial safety-net. Write me he fears the | :42:32. | :42:38. | |
worst. I wrote to my MP. With the figures being given I would not | :42:38. | :42:45. | |
have the money to pay them. That puts me at risk of losing my house. | :42:45. | :42:49. | |
Is it right that everyone shares the pain of austerity? I think it | :42:49. | :42:55. | |
is right that everyone makes a contribution. When you have very | :42:55. | :43:01. | |
little in the first place you are less able to make that contribution. | :43:02. | :43:05. | |
What we are seeing is people on benefits receiving reduction after | :43:05. | :43:15. | |
reduction. 60 % of the people affected are people in work on the | :43:15. | :43:23. | |
low income, not the idle scroungers that some would have us believe. | :43:23. | :43:30. | |
The us is a gift to Labour. The poorest people are being asked to | :43:30. | :43:38. | |
pay more. But us not forget this is a Labour-run council. They are | :43:38. | :43:46. | |
imposing this all the people. Councils like my council had | :43:46. | :43:50. | |
decided able use the transition fanned and look at different ways | :43:50. | :43:56. | |
of putting the money back. We have private landlords to have empty | :43:56. | :44:01. | |
properties that get a holiday on paying council tax. That will no | :44:01. | :44:09. | |
longer exist. It is not just the poor as that are being hit. | :44:09. | :44:17. | |
labour councils playing politics? Not at all. In a general terms | :44:17. | :44:21. | |
there are more likely to have a lot of people receiving benefits. We | :44:21. | :44:25. | |
have to be clear about this. It is the government's responsibility to | :44:25. | :44:30. | |
decide what the welfare policy is. They are saying they will not give | :44:30. | :44:35. | |
enough to pay for the welfare but it is up to the council to decide | :44:35. | :44:45. | |
:44:45. | :44:47. | ||
whether up to dig into reserves to bail the government out. Local | :44:47. | :44:52. | |
government councils are facing massive cuts already. In | :44:52. | :44:55. | |
Chesterfield they are attempting to use the discretionary fund to | :44:55. | :45:03. | |
alleviate some of that. But it is just impossible. So why is my | :45:03. | :45:09. | |
council doing it differently to Sheffield? Each council has | :45:09. | :45:14. | |
different numbers of people who are receiving benefits. That is why it | :45:14. | :45:19. | |
is important that local councils are the ones that the side. This is | :45:19. | :45:25. | |
at benefits issue. RUC in that local councils are not able to make | :45:25. | :45:35. | |
:45:35. | :45:40. | ||
these decisions? -- are you saying that local councils. Eric Pickles | :45:40. | :45:44. | |
is saying to other council leaders that he will leave them with the | :45:44. | :45:53. | |
problem. Sadly Sheffield is attacking the poor. Many people are | :45:53. | :46:03. | |
:46:03. | :46:05. | ||
being -- are talking about being hit by a double whammy. �150 | :46:05. | :46:12. | |
million has been put into a fund to help those that need it most. There | :46:12. | :46:15. | |
are 2 million families in this country on waiting lists for | :46:15. | :46:21. | |
housing. There is a real problem. In 1987 there were one million | :46:21. | :46:28. | |
people on housing lists. There are now 2 million people. We also saw a | :46:28. | :46:33. | |
reduction in social housing under Labour. It is a real problem. We | :46:33. | :46:37. | |
have got one million spare bedrooms in the system. It seems a good way | :46:37. | :46:42. | |
of freeing that up for people that need it. You are refusing to | :46:42. | :46:45. | |
support the cap and welfare payments. Some people may ask whose | :46:45. | :46:52. | |
side you're on. Many of the welfare reforms we have supported. We have | :46:52. | :46:59. | |
not supported all them. We have supported some of them. It will not | :46:59. | :47:05. | |
be available to foster carers for example. It will not be available | :47:05. | :47:14. | |
for couples. That is not true. is not available for foster carers. | :47:14. | :47:20. | |
It is also not available to couples who for health reasons cannot sleep | :47:20. | :47:30. | |
:47:30. | :47:32. | ||
in the same beds. All the way down the system where people say they | :47:32. | :47:36. | |
want to downsize, of the council cannot move them, they still lose | :47:36. | :47:39. | |
the money. Chesterfield Borough Council are saying that one-third | :47:39. | :47:47. | |
of people affected will fall into arrears. This is a Labour trick of | :47:47. | :47:55. | |
scaremongering. The government have given �155 million for those | :47:55. | :48:02. | |
special cases. I have spoken again this week to my local council. | :48:02. | :48:06. | |
There is no reason why people with special circumstances cannot stay | :48:06. | :48:12. | |
in the homes they are in. We are going to move on now. We have the | :48:12. | :48:22. | |
:48:22. | :48:23. | ||
round-up. The former boss of Lincolnshire | :48:23. | :48:29. | |
hospital trust broker contractual gagging order. Last July the Sunday | :48:29. | :48:33. | |
politics revealed how he had been stopped by blowing the whistle on | :48:33. | :48:38. | |
high patient better rates. A you have emergency care or you have | :48:38. | :48:45. | |
care that can wait. We chose as a board that emergency care should | :48:45. | :48:49. | |
take priority. Now the Health Secretary says he should not have | :48:49. | :48:55. | |
been silenced. He is making serious allegations. We need to understand | :48:55. | :48:59. | |
whether he is right and if so what needs to change. The horsemeat | :49:00. | :49:04. | |
scandal will not go away. This week as that took contaminated beef | :49:04. | :49:11. | |
product of the shelves. At Question Time Wakefield MP said the | :49:11. | :49:16. | |
government is not doing enough. Ministers have been asleep on the | :49:16. | :49:24. | |
job. This week, Craig Whittaker, your | :49:24. | :49:28. | |
constituency became centre stage in the horsemeat scandal when asked | :49:28. | :49:34. | |
what a house was raided. What do you make of that claim that you | :49:34. | :49:39. | |
ministers have been asleep on the job? It is ridiculous. It is | :49:39. | :49:43. | |
typical of what Labour is very good at doing - complaining about | :49:43. | :49:52. | |
nothing. We are talking about ministers, not horsemeat. We have | :49:52. | :50:01. | |
seen the results of 2,500 tests which actually says that one % was | :50:01. | :50:06. | |
infected by horsemeat. This is scaremongering over health issues. | :50:06. | :50:09. | |
We should not be scaremongering. We should be getting to the bottom of | :50:09. | :50:14. | |
what is going on and sorting out the mess and put right what is | :50:14. | :50:19. | |
clearly a fraudulent act by a large number of people. How do we restore | :50:19. | :50:22. | |
confidence in the meat industry? You need to have a competent | :50:22. | :50:29. | |
ministry. We have not got that at the moment. We have now discovered, | :50:29. | :50:35. | |
three weeks after this first broke, but we are still exporting horse | :50:35. | :50:40. | |
meat for human consumption. We have got no sense that the ministerial | :50:40. | :50:46. | |
team has a grasp on this. The performance in Parliament this week | :50:46. | :50:51. | |
was amongst the worst I have seen. There is no sense that the | :50:51. | :50:58. | |
government has got a grip on this. I want to briefly mention the NHS | :50:59. | :51:04. | |
boss in Lincolnshire who broke his gagging order. At he spoke out | :51:04. | :51:09. | |
against the target culture when he was in charge. Now the NHS, we are | :51:09. | :51:13. | |
told, is tried to get the money back. Should he be forced to pay | :51:13. | :51:21. | |
the money back? Why are people gagging him? He should never have | :51:21. | :51:25. | |
been gagged in the first place. People should have known about it. | :51:25. | :51:30. | |
And what are we doing paying a public servant �500,000? It is a | :51:30. | :51:35. | |
scandal. Could there be more scrabbles out there? We need to get | :51:35. | :51:44. | |
to the bottom of this. The issue is understandable. It is to do with | :51:44. | :51:48. | |
circumstances in which he left the hospital in Lincolnshire. The issue | :51:48. | :51:58. | |
was around whether he was willing to meet the targets. Labour targets. | :51:58. | :52:05. | |
NHS targets introduced by up a Labour government. Targets were put | :52:05. | :52:10. | |
in. By and large they were a good thing. They brought down the | :52:10. | :52:13. | |
waiting list. They made sure that patients were treated more quickly. | :52:13. | :52:17. | |
Some hospital managers got round those targets in the wrong way. In | :52:17. | :52:22. | |
those cases disciplinary action should follow. We are asking how we | :52:22. | :52:29. | |
should honour our former prime ministers. Two of Our Most recent | :52:29. | :52:34. | |
leaders were born in this region. Some would like to see a statue of | :52:34. | :52:38. | |
Harold Wilson at Westminster. But plans to bid up a statue of | :52:39. | :52:41. | |
Margaret Thatcher in her home town of Grantham have not been met with | :52:41. | :52:46. | |
universal approval. Visitors to Grantham and attracted | :52:46. | :52:54. | |
to the statue of Sir Isaac Newton. But there is no statute of Margaret | :52:54. | :52:59. | |
Thatcher. That is something many local Tories believe should be | :52:59. | :53:05. | |
addressed. We had people from America, France, Germany and Japan. | :53:05. | :53:11. | |
I would like them to follow a to this trail through the town, | :53:11. | :53:17. | |
perhaps going pasture old school, ending up in the town centre, and | :53:17. | :53:21. | |
hopefully they would be a statue to recognise her achievements. The us | :53:21. | :53:28. | |
is the statue that is up for grabs. This statue was decapitated by a | :53:28. | :53:33. | |
protester while on display. It is currently in storage. There were | :53:33. | :53:37. | |
widespread reports the statue had been offered to grab the museum. | :53:37. | :53:42. | |
Those reports were later quashed. The museum manager was suspended | :53:42. | :53:48. | |
for making what was described as erroneous claims. One Labour | :53:48. | :53:52. | |
councillor and believes the statue could be a target for vandals. | :53:52. | :53:56. | |
is bound to cause strong feelings amongst those who were affected by | :53:56. | :54:00. | |
her policies and who still harbour very strong resentments. We could | :54:00. | :54:06. | |
not guarantee that the statue would not become a focal point for | :54:06. | :54:12. | |
attacks. What do you make a people who say the statue could be | :54:12. | :54:17. | |
vandalised? The you have got take that risk. If the statue was | :54:17. | :54:22. | |
situated in a prominent place we have enough CCTV to look after it. | :54:22. | :54:29. | |
It would be safe. The big problem is transporting the statue from | :54:29. | :54:32. | |
London to grab them. That would not be cheap. Then there is the | :54:32. | :54:36. | |
question of whether taxpayers actually want a statue of the | :54:36. | :54:41. | |
former prime minister. You have to admire the lady for being the first | :54:41. | :54:45. | |
female prime minister. But she is not my favourite person. I don't | :54:46. | :54:50. | |
think we should make too much of a fuss of her now. She was a strong | :54:51. | :54:57. | |
woman prime minister. I would like to see a statue of her. It will | :54:57. | :55:02. | |
attract a lot of unsavoury attention. A lot of people will | :55:02. | :55:05. | |
blame her for the loss of manufacturing jobs and all that | :55:06. | :55:10. | |
sort of thing. Meanwhile there are calls for a memorial dedicated to | :55:10. | :55:14. | |
another former prime minister. This week marked 50 years since Harold | :55:14. | :55:21. | |
Wilson became leader of the Labour Party. From now on the pound abroad | :55:21. | :55:27. | |
is worth 14 % less in terms of other currencies. In 1999 Tony | :55:27. | :55:33. | |
Blair revealed this statue of his predecessor. Now Huddersfield's MP | :55:33. | :55:39. | |
is calling for a statue to be erected at Westminster. He was a | :55:39. | :55:46. | |
successful Labour leader. He won a lot of elections. He was prime | :55:46. | :55:50. | |
minister for eight years, during which she introduced a great deal | :55:50. | :55:56. | |
of social change. -- he introduced. It has not clear whether Margaret | :55:56. | :56:01. | |
Thatcher wants to see a statue of herself in Grantham. Her public | :56:01. | :56:04. | |
appearances have become increasingly rare. But once again | :56:05. | :56:10. | |
there is discussion over their legacy of the Iron Lady. | :56:10. | :56:17. | |
Would you like to see a statue of Margaret Thatcher? They will have | :56:17. | :56:23. | |
an easier task of getting a statue in Grantham and I would have of | :56:23. | :56:31. | |
getting a statue of Bernard Ingham. There is a statue of Harold Wilson. | :56:31. | :56:36. | |
That is magnificent. It is a fine example. Being next door to | :56:36. | :56:40. | |
Huddersfield I feel quite proud that we have a statue of Harold | :56:40. | :56:49. | |
Wilson. We are talking about Harold Wilson in a minute. We have had a | :56:49. | :56:54. | |
financial crisis and a Labour government. A recession under a | :56:54. | :56:59. | |
Coalition. Why does Margaret Thatcher still arouse strong views? | :56:59. | :57:06. | |
She was such a strong figure. People in this region sought the | :57:06. | :57:15. | |
mining industry disappear. All the destruction that occurred in our | :57:15. | :57:20. | |
community to stop she is a divisive figure. Many right-wing Tories | :57:20. | :57:24. | |
still do not particularly like going on about Margaret Thatcher | :57:24. | :57:29. | |
yet she was the most successful leader you have had for many years. | :57:29. | :57:35. | |
And she was Britain's first female prime minister. It is important. | :57:35. | :57:40. | |
Are you a Thatcherite? I am not. How will history judge Harold | :57:40. | :57:47. | |
Wilson? It will judge him as someone who was successful. It will | :57:47. | :57:51. | |
judge him as a social reformer who made tremendous progress in terms | :57:51. | :58:01. | |
of some of the social issues. Many people will also reflect that he | :58:01. | :58:09. | |
kept us out of the Vietnam war. Harold Wilson once four elections | :58:09. | :58:14. | |
for Labour. Is he still well regarded in the party? I think he | :58:14. | :58:23. | |
is. There is some pride about him. At the same time the Labour Party | :58:23. | :58:28. | |
have always taken a critical view of the Tories leaders and has been | :58:28. | :58:35. | |
more generous to those who lost elections. You booed Tony Blair at | :58:35. | :58:42. | |
conference. We did not. It is time to move on. Tony Blair was a winner. | :58:42. | :58:48. | |
Harold Wilson was a winner. Interesting parallels. The Pope has | :58:48. | :58:54. | |
resigned. That is what Harold Wilson did in 1976. He feared the | :58:54. | :59:04. | |
:59:04. | :59:05. | ||
onset of mental health problems. is always a lesson for a leader. | :59:06. | :59:09. | |
Maybe some other leaders might reflect that they should take a | :59:09. | :59:13. | |
step to go while people are still demanding more. We are not very | :59:13. | :59:21. | |
good at this in this country. In America the name that places after | :59:21. | :59:30. | |
leaders. We do not have that same respect. It is just politicians in | :59:30. | :59:40. | |
:59:40. | :59:42. | ||
general. We have at different outlook in this country. I am not | :59:42. | :59:47. | |
sure either leader would do as well nowadays. Harold Wilson said one | :59:47. | :59:51. |