Browse content similar to 17/11/2013. Check below for episodes and series from the same categories and more!
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Morning, folks. Welcome to the Sunday Politics. | :00:35. | :00:38. | |
Downing Street announces an inquiry into allegations of hardball tactics | :00:39. | :00:41. | |
and intimidation by unions in industrial disputes. That's our top | :00:42. | :00:46. | |
story. Thousands dead. Hundreds of | :00:47. | :00:50. | |
thousands without homes. Millions affected. What is Britain doing to | :00:51. | :00:55. | |
help the Philippines in the wake of Typhoon Haiyan? We'll ask | :00:56. | :00:57. | |
International Development Secretary Justine Greening. | :00:58. | :01:02. | |
Winter is coming and so, it seems, is another crisis in England's | :01:03. | :01:05. | |
hospitals. I'll be asking the Shadow Health Secretary how he'd put a stop | :01:06. | :01:06. | |
to Stay with us in Yorkshire and | :01:07. | :01:21. | |
Lincolnshire. We reflect on the first | :01:22. | :01:22. | |
and renewed calls to get lorries off the roads in peak hours. | :01:23. | :01:30. | |
With me, the best and brightest political panel that money can buy. | :01:31. | :01:37. | |
Janan Ganesh, Nick Watt and this week, Zoe Williams, who'll be | :01:38. | :01:39. | |
tweeting their thoughts throughout the programme. | :01:40. | :01:45. | |
The Government has announced a review to investigate what the Prime | :01:46. | :01:47. | |
Minister has called "industrial intimidation" by trade union | :01:48. | :01:59. | |
activists. Bruce Carr QC will chair a panel to examine allegations of | :02:00. | :02:03. | |
the kind of tactics that came to light during the Grangemouth | :02:04. | :02:05. | |
dispute, when the Unite union took their protests - replete with a | :02:06. | :02:08. | |
giant rat - outside the family homes of the firms' bosses. Earlier this | :02:09. | :02:14. | |
morning the Cabinet office minister, Francis Maude spoke to the BBC and | :02:15. | :02:21. | |
this is what he had to say. To look at whether the law currently works | :02:22. | :02:24. | |
and see if it is ineffective in preventing the kind of intimidatory | :02:25. | :02:29. | |
activity that was alleged to have taken place around range mouth | :02:30. | :02:39. | |
during the previous disputes -- Grangemouth. We make no presumptions | :02:40. | :02:44. | |
at the beginning of this. I do think it is a responsible thing for the | :02:45. | :02:47. | |
government to establish what happened and really do a proper | :02:48. | :02:51. | |
review into whether the law is adequate to meet the needs. That was | :02:52. | :02:59. | |
Francis Maude. This is a purely political move, isn't it? Unite did | :03:00. | :03:03. | |
this a couple of times, it is hardly happening all over the country but | :03:04. | :03:08. | |
the government want to say, we are prepared to investigate Unite | :03:09. | :03:14. | |
properly, Labour isn't. This seemed a lot worse when I thought it was a | :03:15. | :03:18. | |
real rat. I thought it was a giant dead rat. I am not sure if you know | :03:19. | :03:24. | |
much about rats but real rats are not this big, even the ones in | :03:25. | :03:30. | |
London. The thing is, obviously it is naked politics but I think it is | :03:31. | :03:34. | |
more intelligent than it looks. They are trying to taint Miliband as a | :03:35. | :03:39. | |
week union puppet and that doesn't really wash. They hammer away with | :03:40. | :03:44. | |
it and it might wash for some people. But it really castrates | :03:45. | :03:50. | |
Miliband in the important issues he has to tackle. Zero hours, living | :03:51. | :03:54. | |
wage, all of those things in which he needs to be in concert with the | :03:55. | :03:59. | |
unions, and to use their expertise. He is making them absolutely toxic | :04:00. | :04:06. | |
to go anywhere near. It keeps the Unite story alive, have to kill -- | :04:07. | :04:17. | |
particularly since Mr Miller band is under pressure to reopen the | :04:18. | :04:25. | |
investigation into what Unite are up to -- Mr Miliband. They are | :04:26. | :04:35. | |
frustrated, not only at the BBC but the media generally at what they | :04:36. | :04:39. | |
think is a lack of coverage. I see the political rationale from that | :04:40. | :04:43. | |
respect. There is a risk. There are union members who either vote Tory | :04:44. | :04:48. | |
or are open to the idea of voting Tory. All Lib Dem. If the party | :04:49. | :04:55. | |
comes across as too zealous in as -- its antipathy, there is an electoral | :04:56. | :05:09. | |
consequence. Ed Miliband has been careful to keep a distance. Yes | :05:10. | :05:13. | |
they depend on vast amounts of money. When Len McCluskey had a real | :05:14. | :05:17. | |
go at the Blairites, Ed Miliband was straight out there with a very | :05:18. | :05:21. | |
strong statement. Essentially Len McCluskey wanted Blairites in the | :05:22. | :05:26. | |
shadow cabinet sacked and Ed Miliband was keen to distance | :05:27. | :05:29. | |
himself or for that is why it is not quite sticking. Another story in the | :05:30. | :05:35. | |
Sunday papers this morning, the Mail on Sunday got hold of some e-mails. | :05:36. | :05:41. | |
When I saw the headline I thought it was a huge cache of e-mails, it | :05:42. | :05:45. | |
turns out to be a couple. They peel away the cover on the relationship | :05:46. | :05:50. | |
between Ed Miliband and Ed Balls, with some of Ed Miliband's cohorts | :05:51. | :05:57. | |
describing what Mr balls is trying to do as a nightmare. How bad are | :05:58. | :06:05. | |
the relations? They are pretty bad and these e-mails confirm the | :06:06. | :06:08. | |
biggest open signal in Westminster, which is that relations are pretty | :06:09. | :06:13. | |
tense, -- open secret. That Ed Miliband doesn't feel that Ed Balls | :06:14. | :06:17. | |
is acknowledging the economy has grown that Labour needs to admit to | :06:18. | :06:22. | |
past mistakes. The sort of great open signal is confirmed. On a scale | :06:23. | :06:30. | |
of 1-10, assuming that Blair-Brown was ten. I think it is between six | :06:31. | :06:37. | |
and seven. They occupy this joint suite of offices that George Cameron | :06:38. | :06:43. | |
and -- David Cameron and George Osborne had. It is not just on the | :06:44. | :06:48. | |
economy that there were tensions, there were clearly tensions over | :06:49. | :06:52. | |
HS2, Ed Balls put a huge question over it at his conference. There | :06:53. | :06:58. | |
will be more tensions when it comes to the third runway because my | :06:59. | :07:00. | |
information is that Mr balls wants to do it and Ed Miliband almost | :07:01. | :07:05. | |
resigned over it when he was in government. I don't think Ed | :07:06. | :07:11. | |
Miliband is thinking very politically because he has tried | :07:12. | :07:14. | |
live without Ed Balls and that is not tenable either. -- life without. | :07:15. | :07:20. | |
He has defined a way of making it work. That is where Tony Blair had | :07:21. | :07:25. | |
the edge on any modern politician. He didn't want to make Ed Balls his | :07:26. | :07:29. | |
Shadow Chancellor, he had to. Somebody said to him, if you make Ed | :07:30. | :07:33. | |
Balls Shadow Chancellor, that will be the last decision you take as | :07:34. | :07:37. | |
leader of the Labour Party. Is it as bad? I was surprised at how tame the | :07:38. | :07:55. | |
e-mails were. At the FT it is compulsory, one French word per | :07:56. | :07:59. | |
sentence! To call him a nightmare, compared to what they are willing to | :08:00. | :08:04. | |
say in briefings, conversations bits of frustrations they express | :08:05. | :08:07. | |
verbally come what is documented in the e-mails is actually pretty | :08:08. | :08:13. | |
light. It has been a grim week for the people of the Philippines as | :08:14. | :08:16. | |
they count the cost of the devastation wrought by Typhoon | :08:17. | :08:21. | |
Haiyan. HMS Daring has just arrived near the worst hit areas - part of | :08:22. | :08:24. | |
Britain's contribution to bring aid to the country. | :08:25. | :08:30. | |
It has been one of the worst natural disasters in the history of the | :08:31. | :08:33. | |
Philippines. Typhoon Haiyan hit the country nine days ago, leaving | :08:34. | :08:36. | |
devastation in its wake. The numbers involved are shocking. The official | :08:37. | :08:42. | |
death toll is over 3600 people, with many thousands more unaccounted for. | :08:43. | :08:47. | |
More than half a million people have lost their homes and the UN | :08:48. | :08:50. | |
estimates 11 million have been affected. David Cameron announced on | :08:51. | :08:55. | |
Friday that the UK government is to give an extra ?30 million in aid, | :08:56. | :08:59. | |
taking the total British figure ?250 million. An RAF Sea 17 aircraft | :09:00. | :09:05. | |
landed yesterday with equipment to help aid workers get too hard to | :09:06. | :09:11. | |
reach areas. HMS Illustrious is on its way and due to arrive next | :09:12. | :09:14. | |
weekend. The British public have once again dipped into their pockets | :09:15. | :09:22. | |
and given generously. They have given more than ?30 million to the | :09:23. | :09:26. | |
Disasters Emergency Committee. The International Development | :09:27. | :09:28. | |
Secretary, Justine Greening, joins me now for the Sunday Interview | :09:29. | :09:32. | |
Good morning, Secretary of State. How much of the ?50 million that the | :09:33. | :09:36. | |
government has allocated has got through so far? All of it has landed | :09:37. | :09:42. | |
on the ground now. HMS Daring has turned up, that will be able to | :09:43. | :09:46. | |
start getting help out to some of those more outlying islands that | :09:47. | :09:50. | |
have been hard to reach. We have seen Save the Children and Oxfam | :09:51. | :09:55. | |
really being able to get aid out on the ground. We have a plane taking | :09:56. | :10:00. | |
off today that will not read just carrying out more equipment to help | :10:01. | :10:04. | |
clear the roads but will also have their staff on board, too. We have | :10:05. | :10:10. | |
?50 million of aid actually on the ground? We instantly chartered | :10:11. | :10:16. | |
flights directly from Dubai where we have preprepared human Terry and | :10:17. | :10:23. | |
supplies, and started humanity work -- humanitarian supplies. | :10:24. | :10:29. | |
A lot of it has now arrived. I think we have done a huge amount so far. | :10:30. | :10:37. | |
We have gone beyond just providing humanitarian supplies, to getting | :10:38. | :10:42. | |
the Royal Air Force involved. They have helped us to get equipment out | :10:43. | :10:46. | |
there quickly. We have HMS Illustrious sailing over there now. | :10:47. | :10:51. | |
Why has that taken so long? It was based in the Gulf and is not going | :10:52. | :10:54. | |
to get there until two weeks after the storm first hit and that is the | :10:55. | :10:58. | |
one ship we have with lots of helicopters. The first decision we | :10:59. | :11:03. | |
took was to make sure we could get the fastest vessel out there that | :11:04. | :11:08. | |
was able to help HMS Daring. HMS Illustrious was just finishing an | :11:09. | :11:11. | |
exercise and planning to start to head back towards the UK. We have | :11:12. | :11:15. | |
said to not do that, and diverted it. Shouldn't it have happened more | :11:16. | :11:21. | |
quickly? We took the decisions as fast as we were able to, you can't | :11:22. | :11:25. | |
just turn a big warship around like the HMS Illustrious. We made sure we | :11:26. | :11:30. | |
took those decisions and that is while it will be taking over from | :11:31. | :11:34. | |
HMS Daring come and that is why HMS Daring is ready there. It will be | :11:35. | :11:40. | |
able to provide key support and expertise that has not been there so | :11:41. | :11:44. | |
far. The US Navy is doing the heavy lifting here. The US Navy had the | :11:45. | :11:50. | |
USS Washington, there is an aircraft carrier, 80 planes, 5000 personnel | :11:51. | :11:55. | |
and they have the fleet, they are doing the real work. We obviously | :11:56. | :11:57. | |
helping but the Americans are taking the lead. It is a big international | :11:58. | :12:02. | |
effort. Countries like the US and the UK, that have a broader ability | :12:03. | :12:07. | |
to support that goes beyond simply call humanitarian supplies -- have | :12:08. | :12:15. | |
made sure we have brought our logistics knowledge, we have sent | :12:16. | :12:20. | |
out our naval vessels. It shows we are working across government to | :12:21. | :12:25. | |
respond to this crisis. Why does only just over 4% of your aid budget | :12:26. | :12:32. | |
go on emergency disaster and response? A lot depends on what | :12:33. | :12:37. | |
crises hit in any given year. We have done a huge amount, responding | :12:38. | :12:41. | |
to the crisis in Syria, the conflict there and the fact we have 2 million | :12:42. | :12:46. | |
refugees who have fled the country. We are part of an international | :12:47. | :12:50. | |
effort in supporting them. Shouldn't we beginning more money to that | :12:51. | :12:55. | |
rather than some of the other programmes where it is harder to see | :12:56. | :12:59. | |
the results question of if we were to give more money to the refugees, | :13:00. | :13:05. | |
it would be a visible result. We could see an improvement in the | :13:06. | :13:10. | |
lives of children, men and women. What we need to do is alongside that | :13:11. | :13:14. | |
is stop those situations from happening in the first place. A lot | :13:15. | :13:19. | |
of our development spend is helping countries to stay stable. Look at | :13:20. | :13:22. | |
some of the work we are doing in Somalia, much more sensible. Not | :13:23. | :13:28. | |
just from an immigration but there is a threat perspective. There is a | :13:29. | :13:33. | |
lot of terrorism coming from Somalia. You only have to look at | :13:34. | :13:38. | |
Kenya recently to see that. Which is why you talk about what we do with | :13:39. | :13:43. | |
the rest of the spend. It is why it is responsible to work with the | :13:44. | :13:47. | |
government of Somalia. Should we give more, bigger part of the budget | :13:48. | :13:54. | |
to disaster relief or not? I think we get it about right, we have to be | :13:55. | :13:59. | |
flexible and we are. This Philippine relief is on top of the work in | :14:00. | :14:05. | |
Syria. Where can you show me a correlation between us giving aid to | :14:06. | :14:08. | |
some failed nation, or nearly failed nation, and that cutting down on | :14:09. | :14:14. | |
terrorism? If you look at the work we have done in Pakistan, a huge | :14:15. | :14:17. | |
amount of work. Some of it short-term. It is written by | :14:18. | :14:24. | |
terrorism. That is -- ridden by terrorism. That is not going to fix | :14:25. | :14:31. | |
it self in a sense. Look at the work that we do in investing in | :14:32. | :14:40. | |
education. The things that little girls like Malala talk about as | :14:41. | :14:48. | |
being absolutely key. We are ramping up our aid to Pakistan, it will be | :14:49. | :14:53. | |
close to half ?1 billion by the time of the election. Why should British | :14:54. | :14:59. | |
taxpayers be giving half ?1 billion to a country where only 0.5% of | :15:00. | :15:07. | |
people in Pakistan pay income tax, and 70% of their own MPs don't pay | :15:08. | :15:15. | |
income tax. It is a good point and that is why we have been working | :15:16. | :15:20. | |
with their tax revenue authority to help them increase that and push | :15:21. | :15:30. | |
forward the tax reform. You are right, and I have setup a team that | :15:31. | :15:36. | |
will go out and work with many of these countries so they can raise | :15:37. | :15:40. | |
their own revenues. You really think you will raise the amount of tax by | :15:41. | :15:53. | |
sending out the British HRM see How many troops I we sending out to | :15:54. | :15:59. | |
protect them? They don't need troops. We make sure that we have a | :16:00. | :16:06. | |
duty of care alongside our staff, but we have to respond to any crisis | :16:07. | :16:17. | |
like the Philippines, and alongside other countries we have two work | :16:18. | :16:22. | |
alongside them so that they can reinvest in their own public | :16:23. | :16:27. | |
services. If they can create their own taxes, will we stop paying aid? | :16:28. | :16:33. | |
We need to look at that but the new Pakistan Government has been very | :16:34. | :16:39. | |
clear it is a priority and we will be helping them in pursuing that. | :16:40. | :16:47. | |
Let me show you a picture. Who are these young women? I don't know I'm | :16:48. | :16:54. | |
sure you are about to tell me. They are the Ethiopian Spice Girls and | :16:55. | :16:58. | |
I'm surprised you don't know because they have only managed to become so | :16:59. | :17:05. | |
famous because your department has financed them to the tune of ?4 | :17:06. | :17:11. | |
million. All of the work we do with women on the ground, making sure | :17:12. | :17:14. | |
they have a voice in their local communities, making sure they have | :17:15. | :17:21. | |
some control over what happens to their own bodies in terms of | :17:22. | :17:29. | |
tackling FGM, female genital mutilation... Did you know your | :17:30. | :17:35. | |
department has spent ?4 million on the Ethiopian Spice Girls? Yes, I | :17:36. | :17:43. | |
do, and we have to work with girls and show them there is a life ahead | :17:44. | :17:48. | |
of them with opportunity and potential that goes beyond what many | :17:49. | :17:51. | |
of them will experience, which includes early and forced marriage. | :17:52. | :17:57. | |
It is part of the work we do with local communities to change | :17:58. | :18:08. | |
attitudes everything you have just said is immeasurable, and they | :18:09. | :18:12. | |
broadcast on a radio station that doesn't reach most of the country so | :18:13. | :18:17. | |
it cannot have the impact. It only reaches 20 million people and the | :18:18. | :18:25. | |
project has been condemned saying there were serious inefficiencies. | :18:26. | :18:32. | |
That aid report was done a while ago now, and it was talking about the | :18:33. | :18:36. | |
project when it first got going and a lot of improvements have happened | :18:37. | :18:41. | |
since. I would go back to the point that we are working in very | :18:42. | :18:45. | |
difficult environments where we are trying to get longer term change on | :18:46. | :18:49. | |
the ground and that means working directly with communities but also | :18:50. | :18:53. | |
investing for the long-term, investing in some of these girls | :18:54. | :18:59. | |
start changing attitudes in them and their communities. Why does the | :19:00. | :19:05. | |
British taxpayers spend ?5 million on a Bangladesh version of Question | :19:06. | :19:17. | |
Time? We work with the BBC to make sure we can get accountabilities... | :19:18. | :19:23. | |
That is bigger then the BBC Question Time Normal -- budget. That includes | :19:24. | :19:44. | |
the cost of David Dimbleby's tattoo! We are working to improve | :19:45. | :19:50. | |
people's prospects but also we are working to improve their ability to | :19:51. | :19:54. | |
hold their governments to account so that when they are not getting | :19:55. | :19:57. | |
services on the ground, they have ways they can raise those concerns | :19:58. | :20:01. | |
with the people who are there to deliver services for them. In your | :20:02. | :20:07. | |
own personal view, should the next Conservative Government, if there is | :20:08. | :20:15. | |
one, should you continue to ring fence spending on foreign aid? But | :20:16. | :20:19. | |
it is critical that if we are going to spend 7.7% of our national | :20:20. | :20:25. | |
income, we should make sure it is in our national interest and that means | :20:26. | :20:30. | |
having a clear approach to humanitarian responses, in keeping | :20:31. | :20:34. | |
the country safe, and a clearer approach on helping drive economic | :20:35. | :20:39. | |
development and jobs so there is a long-term end of the dependency Do | :20:40. | :20:46. | |
you believe in an shrine in the percentage of our GDP that goes on | :20:47. | :20:53. | |
foreign aid in law? Yes, and that is a coalition agreement. There have | :20:54. | :21:00. | |
been a lot of agreements that you are sceptical about ring fencing. We | :21:01. | :21:05. | |
are focused on shaking up the economy and improving our public | :21:06. | :21:15. | |
finances. Why haven't you done that? At the end of the day we will be | :21:16. | :21:24. | |
accountable but we are committed to doing that. You are running out of | :21:25. | :21:31. | |
time, will you do it? I hope we can find the Parliamentary time, but | :21:32. | :21:35. | |
even if we don't, we have acted as if that law is in place and we have | :21:36. | :21:44. | |
already met 0.7% commitment. If you are British voter that doesn't | :21:45. | :21:47. | |
believe that we should enshrine that in by law, which means that with a | :21:48. | :21:54. | |
growing economy foreign aid will rise by definition, and if you think | :21:55. | :21:59. | |
we should be spending less money on the Ethiopian Spice Girls, for whom | :22:00. | :22:03. | |
should you wrote in the next election? I think we have a very | :22:04. | :22:10. | |
sensible approach. I don't know what the various party manifestoes.. The | :22:11. | :22:17. | |
only party who thinks we shouldn't be doing this is UKIP. I think you | :22:18. | :22:22. | |
have to look at the response to both the Philippines crisis and Children | :22:23. | :22:36. | |
In Need. Of all the steps we are taking to get the country back on | :22:37. | :22:40. | |
track, it shows the British people will respond to need when they need | :22:41. | :22:46. | |
it and it is one of the things that makes Britain's special. | :22:47. | :22:53. | |
Thank you. "It's always winter but never Christmas" - that's how | :22:54. | :22:55. | |
doctors describe life inside accident and emergency. The College | :22:56. | :22:57. | |
of Emergency Medicine have warned that this year could bring the | :22:58. | :23:02. | |
"worst crisis on record". If that dire prediction comes, expect a | :23:03. | :23:04. | |
spring of political recriminations, but how prepared are the NHS in | :23:05. | :23:08. | |
England? And what do they make of this autumnal speculation? Giles has | :23:09. | :23:16. | |
been to Leeds to find out. This winter has already come to our | :23:17. | :23:20. | |
hospitals. It had an official start date, November the 3rd. That is when | :23:21. | :23:30. | |
weekly updates are delivered to the NHS's most senior planners, alerting | :23:31. | :23:34. | |
them to any sudden changes in patient numbers coming in. Where do | :23:35. | :23:42. | |
they numbers register most then A They are the barometer for what | :23:43. | :23:48. | |
is going on everywhere else, and they are the pressure point, so if | :23:49. | :23:53. | |
the system is beginning to struggle then it is in the A department | :23:54. | :23:58. | |
that we see the problems. It is not that the problems are the A | :23:59. | :24:05. | |
departments, but they are the place where it all comes together. Plans | :24:06. | :24:11. | |
to tackle those problems start being drawn up in May and they look at | :24:12. | :24:16. | |
trends, even taking notice of any flu epidemics in New Zealand. They | :24:17. | :24:29. | |
also look at the amount of bets But the weather, economic realities | :24:30. | :24:33. | |
structural reforms, and changes to the general health of the | :24:34. | :24:38. | |
population, are all factors they have to consider. We get huge | :24:39. | :24:43. | |
amounts of information through the winter in order to help the NHS be | :24:44. | :24:48. | |
the best it can be, but we had to redouble our efforts this year | :24:49. | :24:52. | |
because we expected to be a difficult winter. We know the NHS is | :24:53. | :24:58. | |
stretched so we are working hard to be as good as we can be. That means | :24:59. | :25:04. | |
they are looking at winter staffing levels, plans to ask for help from | :25:05. | :25:11. | |
neighbouring hospitals, and dovetailing help with GP surgeries, | :25:12. | :25:15. | |
and still having the ability to move up an extra gear, a rehearsed | :25:16. | :25:22. | |
emergency plan if the NHS had to face a major disease pandemic. You | :25:23. | :25:28. | |
spend any time in any of our hospitals and you realise the NHS | :25:29. | :25:32. | |
knows that winter is coming and they are making plans, but you also get a | :25:33. | :25:36. | |
palpable feeling amongst health workers across the entire system | :25:37. | :25:41. | |
that they do get fed up of being used as a political football. | :25:42. | :25:47. | |
Doctors and all health care professionals are frustrated about | :25:48. | :25:51. | |
the politics that surrounds the NHS in health care. They go to work to | :25:52. | :25:56. | |
treat patients as best as they can, and the political knock-about does | :25:57. | :26:02. | |
not help anyone. I find it frustrating when there is a | :26:03. | :26:06. | |
commentary that suggests the NHS does not planned, when it is | :26:07. | :26:12. | |
surprised by winter, and wherever that comes from it is hard to take, | :26:13. | :26:16. | |
knowing how much we do nationally and how much our hard working front | :26:17. | :26:27. | |
line staff are doing. When the Coalition have recently tried to | :26:28. | :26:34. | |
open up the NHS to be a more independent body, it is clear the | :26:35. | :26:40. | |
NHS feel they have had an unhealthy dose of political wrangling between | :26:41. | :26:46. | |
parties on policy. The NHS is not infallible or making any guarantees, | :26:47. | :26:51. | |
but they seem confident that they and their patients can survive the | :26:52. | :26:53. | |
winter. Joining me now from Salford in the | :26:54. | :26:56. | |
Shadow Health Secretary, Andy Burnham. Tell me this, if you were | :26:57. | :27:07. | |
health secretary now, you just took over in an emergency election, what | :27:08. | :27:14. | |
would you do to avoid another winter crisis? I would immediately halt the | :27:15. | :27:21. | |
closure of NHS walk-in centres. We heard this week that around one in | :27:22. | :27:27. | |
four walk-in centres are closed so it makes no sense whatsoever for the | :27:28. | :27:31. | |
Government to allow the continued closure of them. I would put nurses | :27:32. | :27:37. | |
back on the end of phones and restore an NHS direct style service. | :27:38. | :27:42. | |
The new 111 service is not in a position to provide help to people | :27:43. | :27:50. | |
this winter. I think the time has come to rethink how the NHS care is | :27:51. | :27:55. | |
particularly for older people so I propose the full integration of | :27:56. | :27:59. | |
health and social care. It cannot make any sense any more to have this | :28:00. | :28:05. | |
approach where we cut social care and let elderly people drift to | :28:06. | :28:09. | |
hospitals in greater numbers. We have two rethink it as a whole | :28:10. | :28:18. | |
service. So you would repeal some of the Tory reforms and move | :28:19. | :28:22. | |
commissioning to local authorities so the NHS should brace itself for | :28:23. | :28:28. | |
another major top-down health reorganisation? No, unlike Andrew | :28:29. | :28:33. | |
Lansley I will work with the organisations ie inherit. He could | :28:34. | :28:44. | |
work with primary care trusts but he turned it upside down when it needed | :28:45. | :28:49. | |
stability. I will not do that but I will repeal the health and social | :28:50. | :29:03. | |
care act because last week we heard that hospitals and health services | :29:04. | :29:07. | |
cannot get on and make sensible merger collaborations because of | :29:08. | :29:11. | |
this nonsense now that the NHS is bound by competition law. Let me get | :29:12. | :29:17. | |
your views on a number of ideas that have been floated either by the | :29:18. | :29:21. | |
press or the Coalition. We haven't got much time. Do you welcome the | :29:22. | :29:31. | |
plan to bring back named GPs for over 75s? Yes, but it has got harder | :29:32. | :29:39. | |
to get the GP appointment under this Government because David Cameron | :29:40. | :29:42. | |
scrapped the 48-hour guarantee that Tony Blair brought in. He was | :29:43. | :29:48. | |
challenged in the 2005 election about the difficulty of getting a GP | :29:49. | :29:53. | |
appointment, and Tony Blair brought in the commitment that people should | :29:54. | :29:57. | |
be able to get that within 48 hours. That has now been scrapped. | :29:58. | :30:04. | |
Do you welcome the idea of allowing everyone to choose their own GP | :30:05. | :30:08. | |
surgery even if it is not in our traditional catchment area? I | :30:09. | :30:14. | |
proposed that just before the last election, so yes. Do you welcome the | :30:15. | :30:20. | |
idea of how a practice is being rated being a matter of public | :30:21. | :30:25. | |
record, and of us knowing how much, at least from the NHS, our GP earns? | :30:26. | :30:31. | |
Of course, every political party supports transparency in the NHS. | :30:32. | :30:35. | |
More information for the public of that kind is a good thing. Do you | :30:36. | :30:40. | |
welcome this plan to make it will form the collect in an NHS hospital | :30:41. | :30:47. | |
-- make wilful neglect a criminal offence. It is important to say you | :30:48. | :30:52. | |
can't pick and mix these recommendations, you can't say we | :30:53. | :30:56. | |
will have that one and not the others. It was a balanced package | :30:57. | :31:00. | |
that Sir Robert Francis put forward. My message is that it must be | :31:01. | :31:04. | |
permitted in full. If we are to learn the lessons, the whole package | :31:05. | :31:09. | |
must be addressed, and that includes safe staffing levels across the NHS. | :31:10. | :31:13. | |
Staff have a responsible to two patients at the government also has | :31:14. | :31:18. | |
responsible at T2 NHS staff and it should not let them work in | :31:19. | :31:25. | |
understaffed, unsafe conditions -- a responsibility to NHS staff. Is | :31:26. | :31:41. | |
there a part of the 2004 agreements that you regret and should be | :31:42. | :31:46. | |
undone? A lot of myths have been built up about the contract. When it | :31:47. | :31:50. | |
came in, there was a huge shortage of GPs across the country. Some | :31:51. | :31:56. | |
communities struggle to recruit. This myth that the government have | :31:57. | :32:01. | |
built, that the 2004 GP contract is responsible for the AM decries is, | :32:02. | :32:07. | |
it is spin of the worst possible kind -- the A crisis. You would | :32:08. | :32:15. | |
redo that contract? It was redone under our time in government and | :32:16. | :32:19. | |
change to make it better value for money. GPs should be focused on | :32:20. | :32:22. | |
improving the health of their patients and that is a very good | :32:23. | :32:27. | |
principle. Not so great if you can't get 24-hour access. I agree with | :32:28. | :32:33. | |
that. We brought in evening and weekend opening for GPs. That is | :32:34. | :32:38. | |
another thing that has gone in reverse under Mr Cameron. It is much | :32:39. | :32:42. | |
harder to get a GP appointment under him and that is one of the reasons | :32:43. | :32:48. | |
why A is an oppressor. -- under pressure. What do you make of the | :32:49. | :32:55. | |
review into intimidatory tactics by unions? If there has been | :32:56. | :33:01. | |
intimidation, it is unacceptable, and that should apply to unions as | :33:02. | :33:08. | |
well as employers. Was Unite wrong to turn up and demonstrate? I don't | :33:09. | :33:13. | |
know the details, this review will look into that presumably. I need | :33:14. | :33:17. | |
reassurance that this is not a pretty cool call by Mr Cameron on | :33:18. | :33:21. | |
the designed to appear near the election -- that this is not a | :33:22. | :33:27. | |
political call. Are you sponsored by unite? No. Do you get any money from | :33:28. | :33:40. | |
Unite? No. What have you done wrong? It seems others are getting money | :33:41. | :33:48. | |
from Unite. Can I tell you what I think is the scandal of British | :33:49. | :33:52. | |
party political funding, two health care companies have given ?1.5 | :33:53. | :33:56. | |
million in donations to the Tory party, they have ?1.5 billion in NHS | :33:57. | :34:03. | |
contracts. I wonder why you don't spend much time talking about that | :34:04. | :34:09. | |
and obsess over trade union funding. We are happy to talk about that. We | :34:10. | :34:16. | |
see from e-mails that Mr Miliband's closest advisers regard Mr Ed Balls | :34:17. | :34:21. | |
as a bit of a nightmare, do you see a bit of a nightmare about him as | :34:22. | :34:26. | |
well? I don't at all, he is a very good friend. I can't believe that | :34:27. | :34:30. | |
you are talking about those e-mails on a national political programme. | :34:31. | :34:34. | |
My goodness, you obviously scraping the barrel today. I have been in | :34:35. | :34:39. | |
front-line labour politics for 20 years. I can't remember the front | :34:40. | :34:43. | |
bench and the wider party being as united as it is today and it is a | :34:44. | :34:47. | |
great credit to Ed Miliband and Ed Balls. We are going into a general | :34:48. | :34:51. | |
election and we are going to get rid of a pretty disastrous coalition | :34:52. | :34:56. | |
government. It was worth spending a few seconds to establish your not | :34:57. | :34:59. | |
having nightmares. Thank you for joining me. | :35:00. | :35:02. | |
It's just gone 11:30am. You're watching the Sunday Politics. Coming | :35:03. | :35:05. | |
up in just over 20 minutes, I'll be talking to the MP accused | :35:06. | :35:28. | |
Hello, you are watching the Sunday Politics for Yorkshire and | :35:29. | :35:35. | |
Lincolnshire. Coming up today: We reflect on the first year of Police | :35:36. | :35:42. | |
And Crime Commissioners. Should we be bothered that so few people know | :35:43. | :35:51. | |
or care who they are? And we'll look at claims that deprived parts of the | :35:52. | :36:00. | |
North are set to lose NHS funding which is being diverted to the leafy | :36:01. | :36:09. | |
South. Let's say hello to our guests today. Kevin Barron is the Labour MP | :36:10. | :36:18. | |
and Andrew Percy is in our whole studio. Hello to you both. It has | :36:19. | :36:27. | |
one year since Police And Crime Commissioners where first elected. I | :36:28. | :36:36. | |
want to get your first thoughts. On issues like social behaviour and | :36:37. | :36:44. | |
things like that, I have said that on Friday I heard the Deputy Prime | :36:45. | :36:54. | |
Minister being asked on radio Sheffield for the name of the Police | :36:55. | :37:03. | |
And Crime Commissioners in South Yorkshire and he did not know. If | :37:04. | :37:13. | |
the Deputy Prime Minister does not note the name of his? The night | :37:14. | :37:25. | |
before I saw Shaun Wright and Ingliston in Sheffield. They are | :37:26. | :37:35. | |
trying to put themselves about a bit but it is something politically we | :37:36. | :37:43. | |
do not want. Is it the success from your point of view? They replaced | :37:44. | :37:48. | |
police authorities and I think you get the much lower number of people | :37:49. | :37:55. | |
who knew who their police authority was. Matthew called in my | :37:56. | :38:01. | |
constituency has been good at getting himself out and about. A | :38:02. | :38:08. | |
poll by the PCC suggests one third of people but not that do not know | :38:09. | :38:18. | |
they have someone in their area. `` The poll commissioned by the BBC | :38:19. | :38:26. | |
suggests that more than one third of people don't know they have the PCC | :38:27. | :38:29. | |
in their area. With questions asked about this man's area, how does he | :38:30. | :38:33. | |
deal with the accusation that Police And Crime Commissioners are largely | :38:34. | :38:36. | |
anonymous? If I walked down the average high street in South | :38:37. | :38:39. | |
Yorkshire I would be lucky to find a handful of people who did know who I | :38:40. | :38:44. | |
was but we are on a journey. By the time the next elections come around | :38:45. | :38:48. | |
I would expect they will more people to know not just who I am but what I | :38:49. | :38:52. | |
do. A report highlighted the inconsistent way that the Yorkshire | :38:53. | :38:54. | |
police force had dealt with child grooming. Do what they press release | :38:55. | :38:57. | |
from the crime commission that said we had to do more about burglary and | :38:58. | :39:01. | |
car crime. We have been clear to our staff we have to get more criminal | :39:02. | :39:08. | |
prosecutions on Child crime. I accept we need to do further work. | :39:09. | :39:18. | |
They have the power to hire and fire police constables. This man wasted | :39:19. | :39:23. | |
little time flexing his muscles when he suspended his Chief Constable in | :39:24. | :39:28. | |
February only for that to be overturned by a judge. He insists he | :39:29. | :39:35. | |
is still the right man for the job. It is easier for me to communicate | :39:36. | :39:39. | |
in a meaningful way and get something done. While these | :39:40. | :39:46. | |
constables are still responsible for operation police matters it is the | :39:47. | :39:53. | |
PCC who will be judged on whether crime has fallen in the air force | :39:54. | :39:58. | |
areas. Crime has fallen in the past year but whether that can be because | :39:59. | :40:07. | |
of the Police And Crime Commissioners is debatable. However, | :40:08. | :40:13. | |
I think the introduction of police commissioners was not primarily | :40:14. | :40:18. | |
about reducing crime but about increasing lease accountability. `` | :40:19. | :40:26. | |
police accountability. An independent body ranks Humberside's | :40:27. | :40:36. | |
Matthew Gove as a second most responsible PCC when it comes to | :40:37. | :40:46. | |
being transparent with the public. It is down to whether they are | :40:47. | :40:53. | |
making use of staff outside the office of the PCC, the staff of the | :40:54. | :40:57. | |
police constable or the local authority. Information on equal | :40:58. | :41:01. | |
opportunity and a whole variety of things. If the PCC was a football | :41:02. | :41:10. | |
club they would be competing for the European place and would have a shot | :41:11. | :41:15. | |
at the title. Police And Crime Commissioners have 2.5 years left to | :41:16. | :41:22. | |
prove they have made an impact in the fight against crime. Crime has | :41:23. | :41:30. | |
gone up in your force area, that is hardly a ringing endorsement. On | :41:31. | :41:38. | |
crimes have gone up, some have gone down. We have got local councillors | :41:39. | :41:46. | |
like in Lincolnshire where we are putting extra money into supporting | :41:47. | :41:52. | |
the CSO 's. They is a lot of partnership working. We have seen a | :41:53. | :41:59. | |
taste of the tensions to come between PCCs and the Chief | :42:00. | :42:07. | |
Constable. If the Commissioner says we should target burglary and car | :42:08. | :42:11. | |
crime the Chief Constable has to follow suit, hasn't he? That is what | :42:12. | :42:18. | |
is being highlighted here. I am not sure that is a good thing. The | :42:19. | :42:22. | |
police should be taking decisions about where they should be | :42:23. | :42:27. | |
concentrating their efforts. The Labour Party was against Greece and | :42:28. | :42:32. | |
Crown Commissioners. It remains to see their worth. `` Cleese and | :42:33. | :42:41. | |
crying commissioners. I am not sure that politically driven | :42:42. | :42:44. | |
commissioners are the right thing. Do you think Labour should scrap | :42:45. | :42:52. | |
them? That would be something for people on a higher scale than me. My | :42:53. | :43:00. | |
personal view is that we will have to make an assessment 18 months on | :43:01. | :43:07. | |
now anyway. We may be able to get a better picture and the public will | :43:08. | :43:11. | |
have a better picture of what they are doing and what they are | :43:12. | :43:15. | |
influencing. We do not want conflict. Andrew Percy, do you think | :43:16. | :43:24. | |
PCCs are value for money? Yours has a deputy, others do not, they manage | :43:25. | :43:33. | |
themselves. It be these from authority to authority. The Police | :43:34. | :43:37. | |
And Crime Commissioners came from authorities where there were extra | :43:38. | :43:40. | |
police commissioners drawing salaries. In terms of value for | :43:41. | :43:47. | |
money you will find that there is because it costs less. Also, the | :43:48. | :43:56. | |
public know who is responsible for policing in their area. What do you | :43:57. | :44:05. | |
say to that? It is quite right that they were local elected councillors | :44:06. | :44:10. | |
on the from the four different regions in South Yorkshire. I know | :44:11. | :44:17. | |
who to talk to anyway. This is not about saving money. It is about | :44:18. | :44:21. | |
improving the service and what the public think about this. The jury is | :44:22. | :44:36. | |
out at the moment. Now, we constantly hear about the financial | :44:37. | :44:39. | |
pressure facing the health service. But moves by NHS bosses to | :44:40. | :44:42. | |
reallocate funding to areas where there is a growing elderly | :44:43. | :44:44. | |
population are raising some concerns. Labour claimed that | :44:45. | :44:47. | |
deprived areas of the North are set to lose NHS money, which would | :44:48. | :44:50. | |
benefit leafier parts of the country. Here is Len Tingle. | :44:51. | :44:57. | |
Barnsley in South Yorkshire. Live here on `` all your life and | :44:58. | :45:04. | |
according to official statistics you have every chance of dying for years | :45:05. | :45:10. | |
sooner than someone in our welfare part of the country. With that | :45:11. | :45:25. | |
background, you might expect that Barnsley is a priority for health | :45:26. | :45:31. | |
spending but it is quite the opposite. In 2014 much of the money | :45:32. | :45:42. | |
that Barnsley spends will be allocated elsewhere. It is not | :45:43. | :45:46. | |
fear, it should be allocated equally. I cannot see how taking | :45:47. | :45:57. | |
money we will do any good. The hospital is understaffed, they are | :45:58. | :46:02. | |
doing their best for everybody. How can they take all that money out of | :46:03. | :46:09. | |
Barnsley? Barnsley is not alone. Every health area in Yorkshire is | :46:10. | :46:15. | |
likely to lose out with the reallocation of funding by 2015. | :46:16. | :46:27. | |
Annual budgets reduced by ?41 million in Barnsley, in Wheatfield | :46:28. | :46:33. | |
it will be ?43 million. The money is expected to head to the south of | :46:34. | :46:40. | |
England and the Midlands where health officials say it is needed by | :46:41. | :46:51. | |
a growing and ageing population. Officials in Yorkshire are far from | :46:52. | :46:56. | |
convinced. Local communities you will lose out because the formula | :46:57. | :47:02. | |
does not place as great an emphasis on deprivation but more emphasis on | :47:03. | :47:12. | |
age. Even the older populations in Yorkshire are expected to move `` | :47:13. | :47:20. | |
lose out. Proposed budget productions here are not expected to | :47:21. | :47:26. | |
be so much but the doctor is spearheading we spending is in North | :47:27. | :47:31. | |
Yorks told me that any reduction is a cause for concern. We have lobbied | :47:32. | :47:38. | |
MPs nationally about this issue. I am not sure the current funding | :47:39. | :47:42. | |
formula addresses all of our concerns. In the north perhaps we | :47:43. | :47:48. | |
have not done so badly as other places. We are here to defend | :47:49. | :47:59. | |
Yorkshire's National Health Service. The was the rally in Leeds against | :48:00. | :48:03. | |
this proposed reallocation of funding last week. The final | :48:04. | :48:10. | |
decision will be made next month. Protesters said they want their | :48:11. | :48:16. | |
views to be made clear now before the health budget head south. Andrew | :48:17. | :48:24. | |
Percy, do you think it is right that NHS money is being taken away from | :48:25. | :48:30. | |
deprived areas? This formula has not been determined yet. The funding | :48:31. | :48:40. | |
formula will be dependent `` decided by NHS England. Resources will be | :48:41. | :48:46. | |
allocated to where there is the greatest need. Deprivation remains | :48:47. | :48:53. | |
an important part of that but an ageing population is a massive | :48:54. | :49:03. | |
burden on the NHS. 80% is spent on long`term conditions which is | :49:04. | :49:06. | |
particularly prevail and in elderly populations. The idea that we get | :49:07. | :49:12. | |
some perky little political argument with the North versus the south, | :49:13. | :49:17. | |
this should be about our resources and putting them where they can have | :49:18. | :49:22. | |
the best and most effective clinical impact. That is a decision to be | :49:23. | :49:27. | |
made by NHS England, not the government. Let me get Kevin Barron | :49:28. | :49:33. | |
to respond. Do you think this is being done for the right reasons? I | :49:34. | :49:42. | |
do not. People living longer in the South would seem to have a better | :49:43. | :49:48. | |
quality of life. Let's get away from it, this is government Devlin `` | :49:49. | :49:56. | |
driven. The government are trying to wipe their hands of the National | :49:57. | :49:59. | |
Health Service and it is totally wrong. This is not unique. It was | :50:00. | :50:06. | |
stopped by Margaret Thatcher in the 1980s because more money was coming | :50:07. | :50:10. | |
into Yorkshire because we needed it because of our deprivation index. | :50:11. | :50:15. | |
The last government where at least trying to balance this out. We used | :50:16. | :50:21. | |
to get an annual increase because of our needs on deprivation. You will | :50:22. | :50:26. | |
be taking millions away from us. It is wholly wrong. Is this politically | :50:27. | :50:36. | |
motivated? This is the NHS. NHS England are independent of ministers | :50:37. | :50:42. | |
and politicians. What we had in my area under your government was | :50:43. | :50:45. | |
cancer patients in the East Riding of Yorkshire receiving far less on | :50:46. | :50:49. | |
their gear than cancer patients in Hull. We had this uneven allocation | :50:50. | :50:56. | |
across the country precisely because politicians had been involved. | :50:57. | :51:01. | |
Politicians should not be involved in deciding how NHS resources are | :51:02. | :51:07. | |
spent, it should be left to people who know how to get the best out of | :51:08. | :51:13. | |
NHS allocations. This policy is by no means set yet. NHS England have | :51:14. | :51:20. | |
not decided yet. The government have said they would factor in issues. In | :51:21. | :51:28. | |
our bean areas bear is a much greater per head figure than in | :51:29. | :51:33. | |
rural areas. We need to take the politicians out of the NHS | :51:34. | :51:37. | |
altogether and let clinicians decide. That is so we get the best | :51:38. | :51:45. | |
outcome for patients. We looked at it in the deficit enquiry that we | :51:46. | :51:49. | |
did when I cheered our select committee in the last parliament. | :51:50. | :51:53. | |
This idea that our bean areas where getting more than rural areas is a | :51:54. | :52:00. | |
mess. What this government is trying to do is absolve its responsibility. | :52:01. | :52:07. | |
It is under the watch of the government that keeps telling us | :52:08. | :52:11. | |
every day that they are increasing expenditure in health care and not | :52:12. | :52:16. | |
decreasing. You will have to square this. You cannot keep saying it is | :52:17. | :52:22. | |
the new structure you brought in under the 2010 at. You cannot keep | :52:23. | :52:30. | |
saying it is nothing to do with government. This is the greatest | :52:31. | :52:36. | |
irony. Other people who introduced the Nicholson challenge which took | :52:37. | :52:42. | |
money out of our hospitals, they are committed to cutting the NHS budget | :52:43. | :52:48. | |
but it is increasing. It was 100 billion when Labour left office. It | :52:49. | :52:55. | |
is 108 billion now. We see a massive activity in the NHS as people live | :52:56. | :53:00. | |
longer. They are living longer with long`term conditions which are | :53:01. | :53:03. | |
expensive to treat. `` long`term conditions. It is not political. | :53:04. | :53:12. | |
Silly arguments about North and South... Every other day in the | :53:13. | :53:25. | |
media, do not tell me it is not political! Take those day`to`day | :53:26. | :53:32. | |
running decisions in the NHS out of the hands of ministers and put them | :53:33. | :53:36. | |
in the hands of clinicians who understand patient need and how the | :53:37. | :53:40. | |
NHS should work, that is what we are trying to do. Let's get some more of | :53:41. | :53:45. | |
the week's political news now. Louise Martin has our round`up in 60 | :53:46. | :53:56. | |
seconds. Former Home Secretary and Sheffield MP David Blunkett sparked | :53:57. | :54:00. | |
controversy after warning rioting could result from the bad behaviour | :54:01. | :54:04. | |
of some Roma immigrants in his constituency. If we do not get a | :54:05. | :54:11. | |
grip, get the right messages out so that people change their culture, | :54:12. | :54:16. | |
the community do not back those taking positive measures. The Labour | :54:17. | :54:26. | |
front bench Leeds MP Rachel reads claimed changes to the bedroom tax | :54:27. | :54:34. | |
herself defeating. The Independent Police Complaints Commission has | :54:35. | :54:40. | |
apologised for the role of officers during the 1984 miners strike. They | :54:41. | :54:48. | |
referred themselves to the IPC see after police officers statements | :54:49. | :54:52. | |
about this event had been seen to be manipulated. A reminder of the | :54:53. | :54:58. | |
miners strike but former miners have had some good news this week. | :54:59. | :55:04. | |
Concessionary call is back for those people who used to get it from UK | :55:05. | :55:08. | |
called when it went into liquidation. The government have | :55:09. | :55:13. | |
decided to give it back and that is good news, nothing more than I | :55:14. | :55:19. | |
expected. I remember in 1993I got the paper out of my archives with | :55:20. | :55:22. | |
the promise that with any privatisation they would protect the | :55:23. | :55:27. | |
miners and their concessionary fuel, I am pleased they have. And what do | :55:28. | :55:36. | |
you make about Roma migrants? In my constituency we have seen a big | :55:37. | :55:40. | |
influx in migrants from eastern Europe which has put pressure on | :55:41. | :55:46. | |
services in the town. We must have a way of controlling EU immigration | :55:47. | :55:50. | |
which we cannot at the moment. Part of that is driven by the fact it is | :55:51. | :55:55. | |
completely uncontrolled elsewhere in the EU because of our terms of | :55:56. | :56:02. | |
membership. That is not acceptable. Opening the floodgates was a huge | :56:03. | :56:06. | |
mistake it was said this week, do you agree with that? In the end we | :56:07. | :56:15. | |
are a member of the club. I was walking with my brothers in France | :56:16. | :56:19. | |
and the guy who was taking us out wads from Leeds, he had lived there | :56:20. | :56:24. | |
for 11 years. We have the right to do this. A lot of our people live in | :56:25. | :56:31. | |
different parts of the EU as well. A lot of these issues are difficult, | :56:32. | :56:36. | |
these communities perhaps need managing better than they are now, | :56:37. | :56:42. | |
but it is rem and icing `` reminiscent of Enoch Powell's river | :56:43. | :56:47. | |
of blood speech. We must do it better than we do on occasions. | :56:48. | :56:55. | |
Surely one of you is an arch Europhile and another is athletic? | :56:56. | :57:03. | |
We are mad to give away control of our policy. `` the sceptic. It is | :57:04. | :57:15. | |
crazy that people can just get up from anywhere in the EU and start | :57:16. | :57:19. | |
looking for work in this country and living here. We need to control our | :57:20. | :57:25. | |
immigration system. A lot of people from their work in countries around | :57:26. | :57:29. | |
the world but we have to have a way of controlling that. We cannot do | :57:30. | :57:37. | |
that within Europe and my wee round would be to get out of it. They are | :57:38. | :57:43. | |
macro we would have the major crisis in terms of looking after the | :57:44. | :57:48. | |
elderly if they all returned from Spain and Portugal. There are issues | :57:49. | :57:54. | |
you we should talk more about. Politicians tend to dodge these | :57:55. | :57:59. | |
issues but we have to get it in perspective. In parts of problem we | :58:00. | :58:03. | |
have the Roma community. It is difficult to police but not | :58:04. | :58:06. | |
impossible. People have to live with one another and we have done that | :58:07. | :58:10. | |
for years. That's about it from us. Thanks to | :58:11. | :58:11. | |
Who'd be an MP? It's a good question. Certainly something Mark | :58:12. | :58:29. | |
Pritchard must have asked himself when his picture graced the front | :58:30. | :58:32. | |
page of the Daily Telegraph, with allegations that he had offered to | :58:33. | :58:35. | |
set up business deals overseas in return for hundreds of thousands of | :58:36. | :58:38. | |
pounds. Mr Pritchard dismissed the claims as hurtful and wrong. He | :58:39. | :58:40. | |
referred himself to the Parliamentary Standards Commissioner | :58:41. | :58:43. | |
who has now said there is insufficient evidence to | :58:44. | :58:45. | |
investigate. In a moment we'll talk to Mr Pritchard, but first let's | :58:46. | :58:48. | |
take a look back at how the story unfurled. A Conservative MP has | :58:49. | :58:51. | |
denied allegations that he used his Parliamentary contacts for financial | :58:52. | :58:56. | |
gain... The daily Telegraph says Mark Pritchard offered to broker | :58:57. | :59:01. | |
investments overseas. In a statement he said the allegations made by the | :59:02. | :59:10. | |
Telegraph are false. Mr Pritchard was secretly filmed... What do you | :59:11. | :59:16. | |
make of these allegations? He has referred himself to the | :59:17. | :59:18. | |
Parliamentary Commissioner for standards to clear his name and I | :59:19. | :59:22. | |
suspect this story will reopen the debate about what MPs should be | :59:23. | :59:32. | |
allowed, having business interests elsewhere. Is it not clear that you | :59:33. | :59:39. | |
did ask for money in consultancy services? First of all I would like | :59:40. | :59:50. | |
to apologise for the sunglasses I have had a lot of comments about | :59:51. | :59:55. | |
that. On a serious point, these claims by the Telegraph of false. | :59:56. | :00:04. | |
You didn't ask for ?3000? They are false, hurtful and malicious. It is | :00:05. | :00:10. | |
known widely that I have sued the Telegraph previously. I have also | :00:11. | :00:13. | |
been critical of their coverage of the plebgate affair, their reporting | :00:14. | :00:19. | |
of that. I have been supportive of the cross-party Royal Charter and I | :00:20. | :00:22. | |
know that some people in the media don't like my position on that. That | :00:23. | :00:27. | |
is why it is malicious. I believe in a free press. That free press also | :00:28. | :00:33. | |
has a responsibility to be fair accurate and lawful. In discussions | :00:34. | :00:39. | |
with this business who turned out to be a Telegraph reporter, it is true | :00:40. | :00:44. | |
that you ask for ?3000 a month consultancy fee. The point is.. | :00:45. | :00:53. | |
That is the point. No. That video has been cut and pasted to serve the | :00:54. | :00:58. | |
Telegraph's story. The story was that we want to get Mark Bridger, | :00:59. | :01:04. | |
for whatever reason, at any cost. -- Mark Bridger hard. I would not go | :01:05. | :01:08. | |
down the line they were hoping I would go down. Everything I own | :01:09. | :01:11. | |
outside of Parliament is openly declared. We are allowed to have | :01:12. | :01:18. | |
outside witness interests. The Telegraph need to say clearly | :01:19. | :01:20. | |
whether they accept that or they don't. I think you need to say | :01:21. | :01:26. | |
clearly whether you asked for the money or not. You then went on to | :01:27. | :01:31. | |
ask for ?300,000 if it was a 10 million deal, you asked for 3% | :01:32. | :01:35. | |
commission. Let me be clear, if I was asking for income in return for | :01:36. | :01:42. | |
lobbying, or raising issues in Parliament, or setting up | :01:43. | :01:47. | |
Parliamentary groups, or going to ministers, writing to ministers | :01:48. | :01:51. | |
that would be completely inappropriate. I was approached by | :01:52. | :01:55. | |
somebody to advise them on business. It is entirely proper and entirely | :01:56. | :02:02. | |
within the rules for members of Parliament to have outside | :02:03. | :02:05. | |
consultancies and interests. Did you or didn't you? I am answering the | :02:06. | :02:11. | |
question in the way that I want to answer it, not in the way that fits | :02:12. | :02:15. | |
a particular narrative. The narrative, unfortunately, of some | :02:16. | :02:19. | |
parts of the Telegraph and to be fair, there are some very good | :02:20. | :02:22. | |
journalists, I know there is a dispute about the direction of that | :02:23. | :02:27. | |
paper at senior parts. Do they want to return to being a Catholic, | :02:28. | :02:31. | |
objective newspaper or do they want to slip into the slippery slope of | :02:32. | :02:36. | |
being an agnostic rag, looking for sensationalist headlines? Part of | :02:37. | :02:40. | |
this has come from your membership of these all-party Parliamentary | :02:41. | :02:49. | |
groups. You were in Malta when you are first approached, I think you | :02:50. | :02:52. | |
were on a trip there, Hungary is another one, there is an | :02:53. | :02:56. | |
uncomfortable overlap between your political and business interests. I | :02:57. | :03:01. | |
have no business interests in any of those countries. Some of the country | :03:02. | :03:04. | |
is the Telegraph mentioned, let me be clear, I have not even visited. | :03:05. | :03:12. | |
You were boasting that you knew the Albanian Prime Minister and the | :03:13. | :03:15. | |
Mayor of Teheran and the previous prime minister. I make no apology | :03:16. | :03:21. | |
for making foreign trips. I think it is unfortunate we have a narrative | :03:22. | :03:25. | |
developing in some parts of the press that if a politician goes | :03:26. | :03:30. | |
abroad at the taxpayers expense it is wrong. If they go abroad at a | :03:31. | :03:34. | |
host government's expense it is wrong. If they go abroad with a | :03:35. | :03:38. | |
charity, NGO and private company, even if it is declared, it is wrong. | :03:39. | :03:42. | |
We want people with an international perspective in Parliament. Look at | :03:43. | :03:47. | |
this map. You are a member of 5 country groups. I don't know what | :03:48. | :03:53. | |
Canada has done not to deserve you, or Australia. 54 groups, you are a | :03:54. | :04:00. | |
part of. You're like... This is the Mark Pritchard British Empire. That | :04:01. | :04:04. | |
is very kind. If I had global interests that white I would not be | :04:05. | :04:09. | |
in Parliament. No, no, no. That is the point... It is the suspicion, | :04:10. | :04:15. | |
that you used these groups to drum up business for your consultants. | :04:16. | :04:21. | |
Prove it, that is the trouble. These sorts of headlines, create | :04:22. | :04:25. | |
suspicion. I am suing the Telegraph... Have you issued a writ? | :04:26. | :04:34. | |
I expect an apology. Have you issued a writ? I have just answered your | :04:35. | :04:41. | |
question. It is yes or no, have you issued a writ? I am in final legal | :04:42. | :04:47. | |
discussions tomorrow about issuing a writ. You have raised something for | :04:48. | :04:51. | |
top the fact is that is inaccurate. I am a member of 40-something | :04:52. | :04:54. | |
Parliamentary groups, of which I make no apology. We have got 54 Let | :04:55. | :05:02. | |
me answer the question if I may It would be very useful. There are 196 | :05:03. | :05:10. | |
countries around the world, it is less than a quarter of the country | :05:11. | :05:14. | |
groups on my figures. I make no apology. One of my regrets is not | :05:15. | :05:21. | |
having visited Syria, I don't know if I am a member of the Syria group, | :05:22. | :05:24. | |
part I should become a member, I make no apology. -- perhaps I should | :05:25. | :05:30. | |
become. When it came to the Syria vote, I was blind sided foot of yes, | :05:31. | :05:37. | |
we have excellent briefings. I had to make a judgement based on part | :05:38. | :05:40. | |
knowledge with nothing beats being on the ground, as even BBC | :05:41. | :05:45. | |
journalists recognised this week. Nothing beats being on the ground. | :05:46. | :05:50. | |
You posted about your connections in Albania to getting a business | :05:51. | :05:54. | |
contract. You meet these people through these all Parliamentary | :05:55. | :05:58. | |
groups. That is where there is an unhealthy overlap. That is what the | :05:59. | :06:05. | |
Telegraph said, let's wait and see. Look... You are a newspaperman, you | :06:06. | :06:10. | |
know lots of people in the newspaper industry, as well as being a | :06:11. | :06:14. | |
respected broadcaster. I am not going to prejudice my legal | :06:15. | :06:18. | |
proceedings against the Telegraph. I make no apology. A good politician | :06:19. | :06:22. | |
has to be local am a national and international. Hang on hang on - | :06:23. | :06:30. | |
has to be local, national and international. We need politicians | :06:31. | :06:33. | |
who get out of the Westminster bubble, who have a business | :06:34. | :06:36. | |
hinterland, who keep their foot in the real world and have an | :06:37. | :06:40. | |
international perspective. And ask for 3% commission? I have answered | :06:41. | :06:46. | |
the question. It was a cut and pasted video, photo shopped to suit | :06:47. | :06:50. | |
the agenda of the Telegraph. They need to get back to serious news | :06:51. | :06:54. | |
reporting and I wish those well at the senior part of the Telegraph who | :06:55. | :06:58. | |
want to get to those days. We look forward to the writ. Thank you. | :06:59. | :07:01. | |
Now - there's been more good news on the economy for George Osborne this | :07:02. | :07:04. | |
week - inflation's down, growth forecasts have been revised up and | :07:05. | :07:07. | |
unemployment has fallen again. On Friday the former Bullingdon boy | :07:08. | :07:10. | |
donned a head torch and went down't pit for just one of many photo | :07:11. | :07:13. | |
opportunities ahead of the Autumn Statement, which he'll deliver in | :07:14. | :07:16. | |
the Commons on fifth December. And, who knows, he might even take his | :07:17. | :07:22. | |
hard hat off for that. # Going underground. | :07:23. | :07:31. | |
# Let the boys all saying and let the boys all shout for tomorrow | :07:32. | :07:38. | |
# Lah, lah, love, love. # I talk and talk until my head | :07:39. | :07:41. | |
explodes. # Make this boy shout, make this boy | :07:42. | :07:49. | |
scream. # Going underground. | :07:50. | :08:02. | |
# I'm going underground. # I'm going underground. | :08:03. | :08:09. | |
George Osborne in his heart out he probably sleeps with it on. This | :08:10. | :08:16. | |
Autumn Statement is becoming a more important part of the political | :08:17. | :08:21. | |
calendar for the coalition. It looks like this is where they are finally | :08:22. | :08:24. | |
going to come up with some kind of response to Ed Miliband's game | :08:25. | :08:31. | |
changing electricity price freeze. The idea which is mooted is they | :08:32. | :08:35. | |
will move people's green tax on two general bills which is not an answer | :08:36. | :08:39. | |
but cosmetically it could have apolitical impact. George Osborne is | :08:40. | :08:43. | |
receiving a lot of representations from lobby groups, business, MPs on | :08:44. | :08:49. | |
his own side, for tax cuts and extra bits spending and he has to spend | :08:50. | :08:53. | |
the next two weeks reminding people of something that has been skewered | :08:54. | :08:56. | |
by the economic recovery. This country has a fiscal deficit which | :08:57. | :09:05. | |
is twice that of France, supposedly the crisis economy in western Europe | :09:06. | :09:09. | |
or if you accept it will take another parliament again to | :09:10. | :09:11. | |
eliminate this deficit, we are not even halfway through the age of | :09:12. | :09:15. | |
austerity. He is in no position to give anything away. He has to hold | :09:16. | :09:19. | |
the line. Danny Alexander has been useful but this is his real | :09:20. | :09:23. | |
challenge. He is going to give stuff away. When the Autumn Statement | :09:24. | :09:28. | |
comes away, 15 months from an election, Nick Clegg has been | :09:29. | :09:32. | |
talking about raising the tax allowance threshold even further, | :09:33. | :09:37. | |
talk of moving green levies of the electricity bills, he is going to | :09:38. | :09:42. | |
give stuff away. We will get funding for free school meals that Nick | :09:43. | :09:44. | |
Clegg mentioned in his party conference. The significance of the | :09:45. | :09:49. | |
Autumn Statement is twice a year, a Chancellor stands up and we all look | :09:50. | :09:53. | |
at the state of the economy. If you talk to members of the Chancellor's | :09:54. | :09:56. | |
circle, it is interesting how nervous they are. They say, don t | :09:57. | :10:00. | |
assume we are going to have this wonderful growth for ever, don't | :10:01. | :10:03. | |
assume everything is fine in the eurozone. I think what would help | :10:04. | :10:08. | |
the Chancellor is if somebody was able to see some of that humility in | :10:09. | :10:14. | |
public. It is recognised that he was far too triumphalist | :10:15. | :10:14. | |
speech he made on the 9th of September, when he said to Ed Balls, | :10:15. | :10:21. | |
we have one and you cannot make an economic policy on the cost of | :10:22. | :10:22. | |
living -- we have... Won. economic policy on the cost of | :10:23. | :10:35. | |
people don't seem to learn from Norman Lamont's green shoots. Labour | :10:36. | :10:40. | |
has moved from complaining there is no growth, now there is, to say | :10:41. | :10:45. | |
has moved from complaining there is is gross but living standards are | :10:46. | :10:45. | |
not rising. If the economy grows by nearly 3% next year, even the bank | :10:46. | :10:50. | |
is saying it will grow by 2.8%, living standards could start to | :10:51. | :10:55. | |
rise. It does but everybody in a difficult position politically if | :10:56. | :10:58. | |
the economy starts growing, ironically. We need to remind | :10:59. | :11:01. | |
ourselves that economy, the natural direction of an economy is to grow. | :11:02. | :11:07. | |
Unless the politicians screw up Unless you have some idiot in | :11:08. | :11:12. | |
charge! It is not a cause for the Morris dance that they seem to be | :11:13. | :11:16. | |
doing, certainly on the Tory side. Osborne is put in a difficult | :11:17. | :11:19. | |
position goes he will have to stop giving stuff away, he cannot push | :11:20. | :11:26. | |
the austerity line at the same time as jangling his magical growth - he | :11:27. | :11:32. | |
will have to start giving stuff away. It puts Labour in a difficult | :11:33. | :11:38. | |
position, it is very unlikely that living standards will match GDP Not | :11:39. | :11:45. | |
since 2003, GDP has been a great indicator. Wages have stagnated for | :11:46. | :11:51. | |
ten years, food has gone up 17% energy has gone up 24%. That is a | :11:52. | :11:55. | |
decade in which everybody has got poorer. The real sweet spot comes | :11:56. | :12:01. | |
when wages start to outstrip inflation. It is a sweet spot and | :12:02. | :12:06. | |
will be a huge challenge for Ed Miliband. As ever on the economy | :12:07. | :12:10. | |
with a sweet spot, you have a danger moment because that is when the | :12:11. | :12:14. | |
governor of the Bank of England will have to look at interest rates. | :12:15. | :12:17. | |
Everything he was saying last week was when we move toward 7% | :12:18. | :12:21. | |
unemployment come that is not the trigger for raising interest rates, | :12:22. | :12:25. | |
it is the moment when we look at it. Everything was saying he did not | :12:26. | :12:30. | |
want to do that. When do you anticipate wages outstripping | :12:31. | :12:32. | |
inflation? It hasn't happened for so long. The second half of next year. | :12:33. | :12:39. | |
Wages and prices are not the sole measure of living standards, there | :12:40. | :12:42. | |
are broader measures which no one seems willing to use. | :12:43. | :12:45. | |
That's all for today. The Daily Politics will be back at tomorrow at | :12:46. | :12:49. | |
midday on BBC Two and I will back here on BBC One at 11:00am next | :12:50. | :12:52. | |
week. Remember if it's Sunday, it's the Sunday Politics. | :12:53. | :12:57. |