Browse content similar to 25/05/2014. Check below for episodes and series from the same categories and more!
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don't get too worried because in three or | :00:24. | :00:23. | |
don't get too worried because in rates will be higher than they are | :00:24. | :00:24. | |
now, rates will be higher than they are | :00:25. | :00:24. | |
You are watching Breakfast. The | :00:25. | :00:24. | |
You are watching Breakfast. residence before shooting three | :00:25. | :00:24. | |
people dead and injuring residence before shooting three | :00:25. | :00:24. | |
connection with shooting at the Jewish | :00:25. | :00:24. | |
the European and lush directions. -- national elections. | :00:25. | :00:25. | |
the European and lush directions. Let's talk | :00:26. | :00:44. | |
tremors from the local elections have started to subside, this is | :00:45. | :00:52. | |
Shipper Sunday. We will be talking to the main parties as they emerge | :00:53. | :00:58. | |
blinking from the rubble. Joining me, two-bedroom seismologists, the | :00:59. | :01:06. | |
LBC broadcaster Iain Dale and the actress Sheila Hancock. Nigel Farage | :01:07. | :01:09. | |
propose to say that the UKIP foxes in the Westminster Ham --henhouse, | :01:10. | :01:16. | |
grinning from one ear to the other with blood and feathers all over his | :01:17. | :01:20. | |
face. European votes are still to be counted so who knows what will | :01:21. | :01:23. | |
happen later denied when results start coming? The challenge to the | :01:24. | :01:27. | |
main parties is how to learn lessons that rampant rise of the UKIP. The | :01:28. | :01:33. | |
Conservatives have long sensed the electoral threat. Theresa May will | :01:34. | :01:36. | |
be here to assess what has happened. Quite a competition to | :01:37. | :01:40. | |
wait forever, as she took on the police Federation in a very daring | :01:41. | :01:44. | |
speech which has led to more talk for her as leader, but she has also | :01:45. | :01:50. | |
been talking about immigration, which hasn't fallen anywhere near as | :01:51. | :01:53. | |
far as the Prime Minister promised and helped drive angry voters to | :01:54. | :01:58. | |
UKIP. It has been a disastrous time in the local elections for the Lib | :01:59. | :02:04. | |
Dems, and they are bracing themselves for trouble in the | :02:05. | :02:07. | |
European elections as well. Tim Barron joins us later. They are | :02:08. | :02:14. | |
looking to each Nick Clegg. Labour want to be poised for victory at the | :02:15. | :02:17. | |
next General Election, but it doesn't seem that way. Harriet | :02:18. | :02:21. | |
Harman joins me today, one question being asked by many supporters after | :02:22. | :02:25. | |
a lacklustre campaign is does Labour have an Ed Miliband problem? And we | :02:26. | :02:30. | |
will have one of the foremost stars of his generation later on. James | :02:31. | :02:34. | |
McAvoy has been sounding off to Sophie about superheroes, politicos | :02:35. | :02:39. | |
and his misgivings about 3-D movies. It bumps the DVD price up and I | :02:40. | :02:44. | |
think it is a con, a lot of the time. All of that and more in a | :02:45. | :02:53. | |
while. First, over two the news. It has emerged overnight that the | :02:54. | :02:56. | |
student gunmen who killed six students in California began his | :02:57. | :02:59. | |
killing spree by stabbing to death three housemates at his university | :03:00. | :03:03. | |
residence. British-born Elliott Roger, the son of a Hollywood film | :03:04. | :03:08. | |
director, had posted online video and a 141 page document detailing | :03:09. | :03:12. | |
his feelings of isolation and desire to commit mass murder, before | :03:13. | :03:15. | |
embarking on his rampage yesterday morning. Security has been stepped | :03:16. | :03:22. | |
up at Jewish chides across Belgium after a gunman killed three people | :03:23. | :03:28. | |
at Jewish Museum in Brussels. And fourth victim remains in critical | :03:29. | :03:31. | |
condition. The authorities fear that the gun attack was anti-Semitic. Two | :03:32. | :03:36. | |
Israeli tourists are among the dead. A arrested yesterday has been | :03:37. | :03:40. | |
released after questioning and is being treated as a witness. | :03:41. | :03:45. | |
Nick Clegg is under increasing pressure from members of his own | :03:46. | :03:48. | |
party to stand down as the leader of the Liberal Democrats. Two members | :03:49. | :03:55. | |
of the party said the public had lost trust in Mister Clegg. The | :03:56. | :04:00. | |
Independent on Sunday say a number of unnamed MPs are poised to demand | :04:01. | :04:04. | |
his resignation. A party spokesman said the Lib Dem's message should | :04:05. | :04:08. | |
not be distorted by needless infighting. | :04:09. | :04:12. | |
The Bank of England interest rate will settle at an average 23-5% in | :04:13. | :04:17. | |
the next three years, according to the outgoing deputy governor. | :04:18. | :04:20. | |
Charlie Bean said there was a case for starting to put rates up early, | :04:21. | :04:25. | |
so the overall increase can be achieved gradually. | :04:26. | :04:28. | |
The majority of EU countries go to the polls today to select their | :04:29. | :04:32. | |
representatives in the European Parliament. People in the UK and | :04:33. | :04:35. | |
Ireland, along with five other countries, cast their votes earlier | :04:36. | :04:45. | |
this week. By this evening, a clear picture should have emerged as to | :04:46. | :04:47. | |
how Europe voted although final results are not expected until | :04:48. | :04:48. | |
tomorrow. That is all from me, I will be back | :04:49. | :04:51. | |
with the headlines just before 10am. Many thanks. As usual, the front | :04:52. | :04:56. | |
pages of the Sunday Times, an interesting story, Tories pressing | :04:57. | :05:00. | |
for an early EU poll in 2016, not 2017. The Sunday Telegraph has the | :05:01. | :05:06. | |
Prince Charles against Putin story, Putin saying it is not fit for a | :05:07. | :05:15. | |
future monarch. A story here to make everyone at the BBC feel happy, | :05:16. | :05:20. | |
Jeremy Clarkson with a new ?12 million BBC deal. We are all very | :05:21. | :05:26. | |
pleased about that. We had sex in Katie's stable, I don't know who it | :05:27. | :05:31. | |
is and I don't care. And the Observer, triumphant UKIP draws a | :05:32. | :05:34. | |
paid list of 20 key seeds to storm the Commons. --seeds. Ian Bell and | :05:35. | :05:41. | |
Sheila Hancock, so thank you for coming in early on a Sunday | :05:42. | :05:44. | |
morning. You will start with the UKIP story? We will quickly look at | :05:45. | :05:49. | |
the Mail on Sunday, about this man in California who has slaughtered so | :05:50. | :05:58. | |
many young girls and also one man. This is yet another gun story from | :05:59. | :06:02. | |
America, this time it is a British-born student. He has clearly | :06:03. | :06:07. | |
got mental health issues, I suppose anybody who does this sort of thing | :06:08. | :06:12. | |
has, and it is all to do with the fact that he's sexually frustrated. | :06:13. | :06:18. | |
It is very petulant his message, I am 22, I am still a virgin, it is | :06:19. | :06:23. | |
not fair. I suspect there are several around the world but none of | :06:24. | :06:26. | |
them would look at doing something like this. We are horrified by it | :06:27. | :06:30. | |
but I suspect that this does happen in other countries, but it does | :06:31. | :06:33. | |
happen in America quite a lot and it will no doubt get the gun | :06:34. | :06:37. | |
controversy going again. What comes out of it also is his hatred of | :06:38. | :06:43. | |
women, which is really sad, but I don't want to discuss it, because | :06:44. | :06:47. | |
those things are just so upsetting and so confusing. It is an example | :06:48. | :06:54. | |
of a horrible story which teaches us nothing new. Absolutely, because it | :06:55. | :06:58. | |
happens again and again and you think there must be some solution, | :06:59. | :07:03. | |
but there isn't. In terms of a horrible story which we have to | :07:04. | :07:07. | |
learn from, you have chosen the Great Wall. -- the Great War. As | :07:08. | :07:14. | |
Quaker and a pacifist, I am worried about this year of celebration and | :07:15. | :07:20. | |
commemoration of war. I am not sure it is celebration. Well, | :07:21. | :07:23. | |
commemoration, and it can turn into nostalgic praise of war. This is a | :07:24. | :07:28. | |
marvellous supplement by the Sunday people, with some of the most | :07:29. | :07:31. | |
graphic trench pictures I have ever seen about the First World War. | :07:32. | :07:35. | |
There is a man having his tooth taken out in the trenches, the | :07:36. | :07:38. | |
horses scrambling up the trench walls. There is a man showing the | :07:39. | :07:47. | |
only bit they have gained, 20,000 of them died for it. It is wonderful | :07:48. | :07:52. | |
and I hope people will look at it. It is and I think you do have to | :07:53. | :07:56. | |
commemorate events like this. Somebody said, if you don't learn | :07:57. | :07:59. | |
the lessons of history, you are condemned to repeat them. I think it | :08:00. | :08:04. | |
was Churchill. I think so far, we haven't stepped into a macabre | :08:05. | :08:08. | |
celebration. A lot of people know nothing about the First World War in | :08:09. | :08:11. | |
this country and I think it is something we need to learn from. If | :08:12. | :08:16. | |
they know nothing about it, I urge them to look at this, because this | :08:17. | :08:19. | |
gives them a very graphic idea of what war is like. I mentioned the | :08:20. | :08:26. | |
Putin story in the Sunday Telegraph. Putin is hitting back. It has taken | :08:27. | :08:31. | |
the Russians quite a long time to hit back, they seemed remarkably | :08:32. | :08:34. | |
relaxed initially but the comment is, "he is an educated man, this is | :08:35. | :08:39. | |
not royal behaviour, not what Mondex do". In a sense, he has a point, | :08:40. | :08:45. | |
monarchs don't usually speak out on this. I think Prince Charles had | :08:46. | :08:49. | |
every right to, it is a private conversation, if you can ever have | :08:50. | :08:55. | |
one if you are Prince Charles. Surrounded by journalists. Yes, from | :08:56. | :08:59. | |
the Daily Mail. But he did have a point, they have annexed Crimea and | :09:00. | :09:06. | |
Hitler annexed the Sudetenland. He will have to stop doing it he picked | :09:07. | :09:12. | |
-- becomes king, he will have to meet Putin. There is a good article | :09:13. | :09:20. | |
here that talks about the monarchy and Charles and the fact that he is | :09:21. | :09:25. | |
a man of opinions. He will not be like the Queen and I think we have | :09:26. | :09:28. | |
to think about the monarchy very seriously, because it has to adapt | :09:29. | :09:34. | |
to him. The comment at the end, it says, "as a monarchist, I would | :09:35. | :09:38. | |
rather have a king in waiting who lived a little dangerously and I | :09:39. | :09:42. | |
would rather have a republic than a king who thought it was his duty to | :09:43. | :09:46. | |
be a silent dummy. " I think we have to think seriously about that, | :09:47. | :09:50. | |
whether we approve or not. We do have to be careful, because many | :09:51. | :09:53. | |
Russians died in the Second World War fighting against Hitler, let us | :09:54. | :09:59. | |
not forget that. We do forget that, 20 million of millions. You have | :10:00. | :10:07. | |
turned to the Sun. I wouldn't normally, but the headline is | :10:08. | :10:11. | |
basically the Tory message for the next election campaign. How UKIP | :10:12. | :10:20. | |
will put Ed Miliband into power. It is cunning of Lord Ashcroft to do | :10:21. | :10:24. | |
this, lulling Labour into a false sense of security. Because they are | :10:25. | :10:27. | |
ahead in many of security. Because they are ahead in many other battle | :10:28. | :10:31. | |
grounds. They are, but that same poll that Steyn had a Conservative | :10:32. | :10:35. | |
majority of 70, so if Labour are getting a bit confident after this, | :10:36. | :10:42. | |
they shouldn't. -- last time. In the rest of the country, the results | :10:43. | :10:47. | |
were patchy and there is a lot of evidence that UKIP are taking Labour | :10:48. | :10:50. | |
votes, particularly in the North of England. Nobody knows how that will | :10:51. | :10:55. | |
pan out in the election. Last week, Nick Clegg said to me the real story | :10:56. | :11:02. | |
will be UKIP taking Labour votes, which there is a certain amount of | :11:03. | :11:07. | |
truth too. There is. Everybody just thinks they take the Tory votes, but | :11:08. | :11:10. | |
Nigel Farage will save a lot of votes come from people who have not | :11:11. | :11:15. | |
voted for donkeys' years. He is right. Nobody can predict the next | :11:16. | :11:20. | |
election result, no one knows what will happen to the UKIP abode. It | :11:21. | :11:24. | |
may disintegrate over the next year, I don't think it will, but we have a | :11:25. | :11:30. | |
fair idea of what will happen to Liberal Democrat votes. In London, | :11:31. | :11:34. | |
it went to Labour. They were virtually wiped out. Nigel Farage | :11:35. | :11:39. | |
has been a hugely successful leader and front man, but he is there by | :11:40. | :11:44. | |
himself. When will we see other UKIP figures? We have seen that in this | :11:45. | :11:48. | |
local election campaign. Suzanne Evans has come out of nowhere. I | :11:49. | :11:53. | |
think she is probably a future leader for UKIP. She actually lost | :11:54. | :12:02. | |
her seat in London. Their Deputy Leader, very good economics | :12:03. | :12:05. | |
spokesman, it will take time for people to get into the media | :12:06. | :12:09. | |
spotlight, but I think the BBC now ought to actually include UKIP on | :12:10. | :12:17. | |
their panels. David Dimbleby had liberal Democrat, Labour and | :12:18. | :12:21. | |
Conservative, no UKIP spokesman. We have been here so often before, all | :12:22. | :12:26. | |
of this "the Lib Dems are going to destroy everybody because they have | :12:27. | :12:31. | |
one local election". I think like Prince Charles, we have to rethink | :12:32. | :12:37. | |
politics. I think the lesson we should learn from Nigel Farage... | :12:38. | :12:40. | |
The thing I like about him, and I don't like much, is that he admits | :12:41. | :12:46. | |
his mistakes. How often do you hear them say, " I am sorry, I was wrong | :12:47. | :12:51. | |
about that, I take that back. " I am so sick of people, you will probably | :12:52. | :12:59. | |
get it with ease to when they talk, I hope not, but this party line, | :13:00. | :13:05. | |
they have been trained to speak to the cameras properly, they have been | :13:06. | :13:10. | |
trained. Nigel Farage doesn't care. But sadly, he and Boris Johnson are | :13:11. | :13:14. | |
the people that are doing at that, and the public are taking to them | :13:15. | :13:22. | |
for that reason. I hate to advise you on interviewing technique, but | :13:23. | :13:25. | |
if Theresa May or Harriet Harman say to you, we must listen to the | :13:26. | :13:29. | |
message the voters have given to us, that is what they said a year ago. | :13:30. | :13:35. | |
Well, what is this message? They say the same thing year after year. I am | :13:36. | :13:38. | |
sure they weren't! They probably won't now they have heard you pry | :13:39. | :13:45. | |
me. Let's move on to your old wood. It is a photograph story, I don't | :13:46. | :13:57. | |
know Yarlswood, but I know other detention centres. We have talked | :13:58. | :14:02. | |
about immigration hell of a lot, but let's talk about how we have been | :14:03. | :14:06. | |
treated asylum seekers. A lot of nasty things going on barbed wire | :14:07. | :14:13. | |
fences -- how we have been treating. I don't think the public would like | :14:14. | :14:17. | |
it. There is a wonderful picture. Photographs can tell a story, this | :14:18. | :14:23. | |
is a story of asylum seekers going onto a boat that very obviously is | :14:24. | :14:26. | |
going to sink. It is a ramshackle thing. And I think we should just | :14:27. | :14:31. | |
occasionally think of the human stories behind the mass immigration | :14:32. | :14:37. | |
figures are what these people are getting away from and how proud we | :14:38. | :14:40. | |
should be, in a way, that they think we are better than that. Good point. | :14:41. | :14:48. | |
Chuka Umunna I think is your next story. The reason I picked this, it | :14:49. | :14:57. | |
is of voters' crushing verdict, Labour can win if they dump Ed | :14:58. | :15:01. | |
Miliband. If they replace him with "city slicker foes could Chuka | :15:02. | :15:06. | |
Umunna. They have some evidence that he has emerged as a surprise new | :15:07. | :15:12. | |
favourite Ed Miliband. On my radio show in the last hour, somebody rang | :15:13. | :15:16. | |
in extolling his virtues, saying he is the man to win the election | :15:17. | :15:21. | |
Labour. It was entirely spontaneous, and then entirely spontaneously, | :15:22. | :15:24. | |
five or six others rang in and say the same thing. It wasn't organised, | :15:25. | :15:29. | |
it was spontaneous and it did make me think, is he reaching parts of | :15:30. | :15:33. | |
the electorate that Ed Miliband is failing to? He has talked about as | :15:34. | :15:39. | |
the British Barack Obama, and he is someone to be reckoned with. I don't | :15:40. | :15:45. | |
think Labour will dump Ed Miliband. It is like the next story with Nick | :15:46. | :15:50. | |
Clegg in the Independent on Sunday. If the Liberal Democrats get rid of | :15:51. | :15:55. | |
Nick Clegg, they have gone mad. He has brought them into Government for | :15:56. | :16:00. | |
the first time. John Pugh is quoted as saying, "it doesn't follow that | :16:01. | :16:04. | |
because the captain should go down with the ship, the ship is to go | :16:05. | :16:19. | |
down with the captain. " Any Lib Dems that do this are stark raving | :16:20. | :16:25. | |
mad. Sheila, you have got a big story. This is about Putin having a | :16:26. | :16:31. | |
go at this opera singer because she was plump, and appallingly insulting | :16:32. | :16:39. | |
reviews about the way she looks. This marvellous article in the | :16:40. | :16:45. | |
Observer talking about that, saying this rather unattractive critic | :16:46. | :16:48. | |
sitting there saying this girl who has the most beautiful voice is | :16:49. | :16:52. | |
giving a bad performance because she is on the plump side and they cannot | :16:53. | :16:57. | |
imagine her being sexually attractive. Sad little men. Then she | :16:58. | :17:03. | |
goes into a more detailed critique of the critics, saying there they | :17:04. | :17:11. | |
are, 70% male so it is not surprising they are sitting in front | :17:12. | :17:16. | |
saying, she is not pretty enough for that part. I thought in the old days | :17:17. | :17:20. | |
opera singers who were not large one not supposed to have as good voices. | :17:21. | :17:34. | |
The men, I go and see opera occasionally and they are huge, and | :17:35. | :17:38. | |
I don't care because they sound wonderful and it is a fantasy | :17:39. | :17:44. | |
anyway. This particular opera is so complicated, she is meant to be a | :17:45. | :17:48. | |
boy but she is a girl and she falls in love with a girl who falls in | :17:49. | :17:56. | |
love with her, who thinks she is a boy. I love the fact there is an art | :17:57. | :18:06. | |
critic called Clap! We move onto? Amazon, it is their tax affairs, it | :18:07. | :18:14. | |
is incredible. They are incredible, anyone who orders from Amazon, rape | :18:15. | :18:21. | |
customer service. Do you buy your books from Amazon? I do, I feel | :18:22. | :18:34. | |
dirty doing it... But Amazon are paying ?4.2 million, they have a | :18:35. | :18:41. | |
turnover of ?11 billion, they are hugely profitable company and they | :18:42. | :18:45. | |
can do this because they funnel it through Luxembourg. Your local book | :18:46. | :18:50. | |
shop cannot do that, and they sell lots of things obviously other than | :18:51. | :18:56. | |
books but the VAT in Luxembourg is 5%. I will be doing the festival | :18:57. | :19:04. | |
round in autumn and I enjoy it. This is a marvellous article about the | :19:05. | :19:08. | |
Hay Festival, and there is a quote from Kennedy saying it is about the | :19:09. | :19:13. | |
audiences, they are lovely, completely unrepresented in the | :19:14. | :19:17. | |
British cultural debate. He said it is all toxic stuff about what people | :19:18. | :19:25. | |
can and cannot say. Buy a book in the local book shop, and then go to | :19:26. | :19:31. | |
your local festival whatever you do. It will restore your faith in | :19:32. | :19:36. | |
humanity. The weather in a moment, but first of the Lib Dems. A | :19:37. | :19:39. | |
hammering in the local elections was on the cards and that is what | :19:40. | :19:44. | |
happened, they lost nearly 300 seats. Tonight we will find out how | :19:45. | :19:48. | |
they fared in terms of European Parliament seats but how does this | :19:49. | :19:59. | |
boat for the John the -- how does this bode for the general election | :20:00. | :20:07. | |
in one year? I am joined by Tim Farron. We will be looking at the | :20:08. | :20:14. | |
results, we will see what happens tonight and we will look ahead to | :20:15. | :20:23. | |
2015 and Nick Clegg's leadership, to do what we have been doing all along | :20:24. | :20:29. | |
and concentrate on our assets. There were a lot of people who didn't | :20:30. | :20:35. | |
deserve to lose, who worked their socks off. All the same, in places | :20:36. | :20:41. | |
like Hull, Sheffield, Sultan, Watford, we have seen the Liberal | :20:42. | :20:47. | |
Democrats doing well and we have to build those fortresses. We have a | :20:48. | :20:51. | |
first past the post system for the general election next year and we | :20:52. | :20:56. | |
had to operate on that basis. Under the leadership of Nick Clegg, we | :20:57. | :21:03. | |
will go forward and be proud behind our leader. You keep saying our | :21:04. | :21:09. | |
leader, and the message is very clear, but this headline says there | :21:10. | :21:14. | |
is a petition running on your supporters and party members for a | :21:15. | :21:18. | |
change of leadership. What is your message to those people? I | :21:19. | :21:24. | |
understand that there will be lots of people who are bruised by the | :21:25. | :21:31. | |
results. I have lost elections before and it is miserable, and I | :21:32. | :21:41. | |
also understand why many people will feel the message is a really | :21:42. | :21:44. | |
difficult one. We will have lost people who voted for us four years | :21:45. | :21:51. | |
ago, but I just think that this time it will be foolish for us as a party | :21:52. | :21:58. | |
to turn on ourselves. What separates the Liberal Democrats from the | :21:59. | :22:02. | |
Conservatives is that whilst the Conservative have been fighting with | :22:03. | :22:08. | |
each other, we have is. United. -- we have stood united. It hasn't done | :22:09. | :22:20. | |
very well for you, hasn't it? Being in government has clearly damaged | :22:21. | :22:23. | |
our electoral standing and I think we could have predicted that at the | :22:24. | :22:28. | |
beginning. It was the right thing to do for the country though. Is the | :22:29. | :22:41. | |
answer not to ditch Nick Clegg, when what is the solution to your | :22:42. | :22:44. | |
problem? A lot of Liberal Democrats feel they are facing oblivion at the | :22:45. | :22:50. | |
moment. I don't downplay it in the slightest because one of the things | :22:51. | :22:54. | |
I hate about this point in the cycle is that you end up in a position | :22:55. | :22:58. | |
where you are having to talk about people losing their seats as | :22:59. | :23:02. | |
collateral damage and these are real human beings who have worked their | :23:03. | :23:07. | |
socks off for their party and community, often for donkeys years | :23:08. | :23:12. | |
and have lost through no fault of their own. The idea we can dismiss | :23:13. | :23:19. | |
this... It is not their fault? I have deep sympathy with the fact | :23:20. | :23:23. | |
people feel the way they do but I don't agree with any conclusion. | :23:24. | :23:28. | |
About 200 people signed the petition, some of whom are not party | :23:29. | :23:32. | |
members, and the overwhelming majority of the party believes we | :23:33. | :23:37. | |
took a tough decision four years ago and just at the point that decision | :23:38. | :23:41. | |
is paying off with the economic recovery and we are being vindicated | :23:42. | :23:45. | |
for the decisions we took in 2010, it would be weird for the party to | :23:46. | :23:50. | |
change direction and somehow decided that all the things we got right we | :23:51. | :23:56. | |
didn't mean to do. You are sinking and your messages to carry on | :23:57. | :24:01. | |
straight towards the rocks? No, it isn't at all. It would be | :24:02. | :24:06. | |
dishonest to say otherwise but we have done badly in many areas of the | :24:07. | :24:11. | |
country over Thursday and Friday, but it is also important to remember | :24:12. | :24:17. | |
how well we have done in places like Hull, Newcastle and Redcar. Some of | :24:18. | :24:26. | |
them are not Liberal Democrats seats now but we have done well in others | :24:27. | :24:33. | |
as well. In 2015 we will go forward with Nick Clegg and defend our | :24:34. | :24:37. | |
record, and we have to apply our track record of community politics | :24:38. | :24:45. | |
to our communities. If it is not just going to be under Nick Clegg | :24:46. | :24:49. | |
but also underwater, you have to make some big changes, don't you? At | :24:50. | :24:55. | |
what point are you going to start distancing yourselves more clearly | :24:56. | :24:59. | |
from the Conservatives? My view is that we should have been perhaps | :25:00. | :25:02. | |
more distinctive from the beginning on many issues but you cannot be so | :25:03. | :25:09. | |
distinctive that you are disruptive. What is on trial here is plural | :25:10. | :25:13. | |
politics, coalition government. If people come to the next election and | :25:14. | :25:18. | |
think that coalition government is a mess and a non-stable thing, which | :25:19. | :25:22. | |
it has not been, but if that was the case people would be pushed to the | :25:23. | :25:28. | |
extremes again. They wouldn't want to vote for parties who could form | :25:29. | :25:37. | |
part of the Coalition, all lead one. Now in 2014, when the tough | :25:38. | :25:40. | |
decisions are paying off and their risk and economic recovery, it would | :25:41. | :25:46. | |
be foolish to turn our back on that. If I was the Liberal Democrat MP | :25:47. | :25:53. | |
calling today for the Nick Clegg to go, what would your message speak to | :25:54. | :26:00. | |
me directly? I don't think John Pugh has called for Nick Clegg to go. He | :26:01. | :26:05. | |
has expressed concern about the direction of the party, there are | :26:06. | :26:10. | |
some fair points, and I am not dismissing the concerns people have | :26:11. | :26:14. | |
about the state of the party and about our continuing poll ratings, | :26:15. | :26:18. | |
but it is important to remember that we can make things a lot worse by | :26:19. | :26:23. | |
turning in on ourselves. We can also make things worse by looking like we | :26:24. | :26:28. | |
don't agree with the difficult things we did four years ago. If | :26:29. | :26:32. | |
George Osborne had been in power on his own there would have been many | :26:33. | :26:38. | |
more cuts and we would have seen demand sucked out of the recovery | :26:39. | :26:43. | |
far more. I am sure it is down to the Liberal Democrats there is a | :26:44. | :26:49. | |
recovery. Tim Farron, thank you for joining us. Now to the weather | :26:50. | :26:54. | |
forecast. Thunder and lightning across the country yesterday, a sign | :26:55. | :26:58. | |
of The Times? If you are wondering whether it is safe to get the | :26:59. | :27:03. | |
barbecue out for the weekend, let's see what Phil has to say. It might | :27:04. | :27:12. | |
be pushing it a bit far, talking about barbecue weather. There will | :27:13. | :27:18. | |
be heavy, thundery showers in the mix. We have had rain this morning | :27:19. | :27:24. | |
from the Midlands and on towards Lincolnshire, and in Scotland. I'm | :27:25. | :27:30. | |
hoping this southern belt of weather will turn more showery through the | :27:31. | :27:38. | |
afternoon. Brighter skies further south and east, 18 or 19 in the | :27:39. | :27:44. | |
sunshine, but where you keep the cloud across the north of Scotland, | :27:45. | :27:48. | |
11 only. Through the course of the night, more heavy showers and there | :27:49. | :27:55. | |
will be another area of shower activity up through France into the | :27:56. | :28:01. | |
south and the Midlands. Monday will be a mixture of sunny spells and | :28:02. | :28:05. | |
some pretty heavy and frequent showers. Mention of the storm | :28:06. | :28:12. | |
clouds, they will certainly be gathering in the forthcoming week. A | :28:13. | :28:15. | |
fair amount of cloud bringing rain at times, it will also be breezy and | :28:16. | :28:25. | |
feeling rather cool. Meteorological storms and political storms too. If | :28:26. | :28:29. | |
the local election results are reliable, Ed Miliband's hopes of | :28:30. | :28:32. | |
winning the next general election have been undermined by the surge of | :28:33. | :28:38. | |
UKIP. Traditional Labour strongholds fell to Nigel Farage's candidates | :28:39. | :28:44. | |
giving Ed Miliband a big problem. Many say the problem starts with the | :28:45. | :28:49. | |
leader himself, his deputy Harriet Harman joins me now. Do you have a | :28:50. | :28:54. | |
problem with Ed Miliband in your party? I disagree with the way you | :28:55. | :29:00. | |
framed it. Many people feel really disaffected from politics and | :29:01. | :29:04. | |
alienate it from politics, and in a way I think you could have benefited | :29:05. | :29:10. | |
from that but it is not true to say we are all in the same boat and that | :29:11. | :29:14. | |
Labour is facing difficulties. Next week I have to sit down and write | :29:15. | :29:19. | |
300 letters to candidates who are now councillors who have won their | :29:20. | :29:25. | |
seats. We have won more votes than the other parties and more | :29:26. | :29:28. | |
councillors so I cannot answer a question about how bad things are | :29:29. | :29:33. | |
for Ed Miliband. Compared to the other parties, we are moving | :29:34. | :29:38. | |
forward. I agree with the point there is major disaffection and I | :29:39. | :29:42. | |
think UKIP have benefited from that but they are not the answer to that. | :29:43. | :29:49. | |
I have got to be congratulating our candidates when the Tories and the | :29:50. | :29:53. | |
Lib Dems will be writing condolence letters. There was an argument | :29:54. | :30:00. | |
running for a long time that it was a family split on the right, nothing | :30:01. | :30:04. | |
to do with the Labour Party, and this shows that was not true. We | :30:05. | :30:12. | |
never said that, we never said the rise of UKIP was a good thing | :30:13. | :30:16. | |
because it splits the vote on the right politics. That is not what we | :30:17. | :30:22. | |
said. We said we had to address the underlying causes of concern that | :30:23. | :30:26. | |
people have that lead them to say... And I face people on their doorstep | :30:27. | :30:29. | |
in the election and they would looked me straight in the eye, | :30:30. | :30:32. | |
saying normally I am a Labour supporter but I am not going to vote | :30:33. | :30:36. | |
for you, I will vote for UKIP because I think you need a shake-up. | :30:37. | :30:43. | |
What do you think... It is like anti-politics, you have to get your | :30:44. | :30:46. | |
act together and we are listening to that and dealing with the issues | :30:47. | :30:50. | |
they are raising, the standard of living, hopes for the future, | :30:51. | :30:55. | |
they are raising, the standard of You don't think it is to do with | :30:56. | :30:59. | |
immigration? I think immigration is part and parcel of people's concern. | :31:00. | :31:05. | |
They feel they are working hard, but pay is stagnating, it is difficult | :31:06. | :31:09. | |
for them to get a home, they are concerned about those things. That | :31:10. | :31:13. | |
is why issues like we have put forward, preventing agencies, | :31:14. | :31:16. | |
exclusively bringing in employees from Poland rather than people here, | :31:17. | :31:24. | |
they are important issues. You save you are listening to these people | :31:25. | :31:28. | |
and you accept that immigration is one those things -- you say, but | :31:29. | :31:33. | |
that use site policies you have already announced. So what are you | :31:34. | :31:40. | |
going to do that is going to be different as a result? It is not | :31:41. | :31:44. | |
only listening to people and making it clear to them that we make those | :31:45. | :31:48. | |
concerns, I think that was one of the very important things people | :31:49. | :31:52. | |
wanted to say, you have to listen to us, but more than that, we actually | :31:53. | :31:58. | |
have to give them the confidence that in the Labour Party, we have | :31:59. | :32:01. | |
the solution to those problems. It is not just enough to listen. We | :32:02. | :32:05. | |
have to rebuild the confidence which has been eroded. In time, not in the | :32:06. | :32:11. | |
most immediate past, but for some time. In the Labour Party? In the | :32:12. | :32:17. | |
whole political process, since MPs' expensive, the financial crisis. | :32:18. | :32:22. | |
People are thinking can any of this blog help with our problems which -- | :32:23. | :32:29. | |
expenses. Ed Miliband is one of the only party leaders who actually | :32:30. | :32:32. | |
understands that people are having trouble making ends meet is and we | :32:33. | :32:37. | |
no need to build their confidence. So having listened and listened and | :32:38. | :32:40. | |
listened, is there a single policy you are going to change as a result | :32:41. | :32:48. | |
or is it going on as before? It is not abstract listening, it is | :32:49. | :32:52. | |
showing we have listened and developing those policies. We have | :32:53. | :32:55. | |
developed policies to ensure people's rents do not go through the | :32:56. | :33:02. | |
roof, fuel bills are frozen... Have we finished policy? Definitely not. | :33:03. | :33:07. | |
These are past policies which resulted in these election results. | :33:08. | :33:11. | |
They are good policies and there will be good policies in the future. | :33:12. | :33:17. | |
Freezing the fuel bills and tackling rent? They are good policies. We | :33:18. | :33:23. | |
need more. Anything on immigration or Europe? I think the question of | :33:24. | :33:27. | |
ensuring that people's pay is not undercut by people coming in from | :33:28. | :33:31. | |
Europe and elsewhere and making people feel as if they are working | :33:32. | :33:37. | |
hard, their cost of living is slipping back. People are concerned | :33:38. | :33:40. | |
because they feel their prospects for the future threat in an standard | :33:41. | :33:45. | |
of living is stagnating. We have to address that was keeping England and | :33:46. | :33:48. | |
the UK as a global, outward facing economy. We have read this morning | :33:49. | :33:54. | |
that the Conservatives want tougher policies to penalised employers that | :33:55. | :33:59. | |
are not paying minimum wage. That is something the Labour Party has | :34:00. | :34:03. | |
talked about and is it something you welcome? Excuse me but just | :34:04. | :34:07. | |
remembering that the Tories were against the minimum wage in the | :34:08. | :34:10. | |
first place and secondly, have not been in favour of enforcing it. If | :34:11. | :34:15. | |
they are repenting, yes, it is a good thing and it is important to | :34:16. | :34:19. | |
have a floor under wages and have them effectively enforced, and more | :34:20. | :34:23. | |
than that, Ed Miliband has been arguing for a living wage, which is | :34:24. | :34:28. | |
making sure that we use the power of public policy to ensure that pay | :34:29. | :34:33. | |
moves forward. Your own candidates have been saying over the last 12 | :34:34. | :34:37. | |
hours that Ed Miliband has been an issue on the doorstep. You are | :34:38. | :34:40. | |
saying they are wrong and have picked up something that isn't | :34:41. | :34:44. | |
there, or is there something there that can be sorted? With 300 new | :34:45. | :34:48. | |
councillors, they will be baffled by the idea that we would be turning | :34:49. | :34:54. | |
inward and criticising ourselves. And as far as the public are | :34:55. | :34:58. | |
concerned, I was turning inwards and having self-criticism is not a good | :34:59. | :35:03. | |
idea. -- us turning. We have to listen to their criticisms and act | :35:04. | :35:08. | |
on them. I have designed those letters congratulating the | :35:09. | :35:10. | |
councillors, whilst Grant Shapps will have to write and say, I am | :35:11. | :35:17. | |
sorry you have lost your seat. All of the polling shows that Ed | :35:18. | :35:21. | |
Miliband is less popular in the party by quite a margin and a third | :35:22. | :35:24. | |
of Labour supporters prefer to have David Cameron try minister rather | :35:25. | :35:32. | |
than Ed Miliband. There is something there, even if you don't want to | :35:33. | :35:36. | |
acknowledge it. I am in favour of acknowledging everything but you | :35:37. | :35:40. | |
can't look at every nuance of an opinion poll. Even in opposition, Ed | :35:41. | :35:45. | |
Miliband has changed the political agenda, because the Tories and the | :35:46. | :35:48. | |
Lib Dems did not even want to discuss the fact that there was a | :35:49. | :35:52. | |
problem with the cost of living. They are busy saying there is a | :35:53. | :35:55. | |
recovery and not recognising that many people feel the recovery has | :35:56. | :36:00. | |
not come to their front door. Nothing to do with the | :36:01. | :36:06. | |
presentational issue of the leader? Since 2010, when Ed Miliband became | :36:07. | :36:11. | |
leader, we have had the momentum of moving forward when people are | :36:12. | :36:14. | |
actually voting. So even before these election results, we had 1950 | :36:15. | :36:23. | |
more Labour councillors. On the basis of the results we have seen | :36:24. | :36:26. | |
over the last few hours, you are not on course to win an overall majority | :36:27. | :36:31. | |
at the next election, which you have two win to govern properly. I think | :36:32. | :36:36. | |
the predictions about what these elections mean for 2015 are hard to | :36:37. | :36:40. | |
make, because it is an unprecedented situation, with the Tories and the | :36:41. | :36:45. | |
Lib Dems on coalition and you keep moving forward. I think easy | :36:46. | :36:50. | |
predictions are for the birds. We know the facts, we are moving | :36:51. | :36:53. | |
forward and Ed Miliband is in touch with people's concerns and we are | :36:54. | :36:58. | |
putting forward those policies. I am sorry I cannot tear my hair out and | :36:59. | :37:02. | |
agree with you that we are emerging blinking from the rubble. It might | :37:03. | :37:06. | |
be the case for the other parties but not for us. There are concerned | :37:07. | :37:10. | |
that we are determined to address them. Harriet Harman, I will let you | :37:11. | :37:13. | |
write those letters. Thank you be joining us. And now to film. When | :37:14. | :37:21. | |
they meet the media, movie stars often referred to cautious mode, | :37:22. | :37:25. | |
steering clear of politics and avoiding controversy. That is not | :37:26. | :37:28. | |
the style of James McAvoy, as soapy ray worth found at -- Sophie ray | :37:29. | :37:35. | |
worth. The lead in the new X-Men movie cut his teeth in Shameless, | :37:36. | :37:42. | |
going on to star in Atonement and the last King of Scotland. He was | :37:43. | :37:47. | |
not afraid to speak his mind on a range of issues, from 3-D cinema, | :37:48. | :37:52. | |
the cost of cinema tickets and the referendum, but first, he began by | :37:53. | :37:57. | |
talking about the new X-Men film and why the characters fascinated him. | :37:58. | :38:04. | |
The thing that makes them interesting is that they all have a | :38:05. | :38:09. | |
really human crisis. They've got an existentialist human crisis going on | :38:10. | :38:12. | |
which is that they are all persecuted. They are all closeted, | :38:13. | :38:15. | |
all ghettoised, all feared for being different and if they aren't feared | :38:16. | :38:18. | |
for being different it's because they are scared of revealing their | :38:19. | :38:21. | |
true nature because they are worried about being persecuted. You can look | :38:22. | :38:25. | |
around the world and see that that happens everywhere, and that makes | :38:26. | :38:30. | |
it quite a human thing I think. And your character in particular I've | :38:31. | :38:34. | |
got to say is one of the most interesting. All kinds of facets, | :38:35. | :38:37. | |
all kinds of sides. Tell us about Professor X. Professor X is the most | :38:38. | :38:43. | |
unmutant-like of all the mutants in that he is not ghettoised, and he's | :38:44. | :38:47. | |
not conflicted and not afraid. Almost a selfless, wise, caring | :38:48. | :38:50. | |
leader, almost kind of a priest-like person. In First Class, the original | :38:51. | :38:59. | |
film I did, I got the opportunity to mix that up a little bit and warp | :39:00. | :39:04. | |
that a little bit. In this movie I get to smash that persona to pieces. | :39:05. | :39:10. | |
Dry your eyes, Eric, it doesn't justify what you've done. You've no | :39:11. | :39:17. | |
idea what I've done. I know you took the things that mean the most to me. | :39:18. | :39:21. | |
Maybe you should have fought harder for them. If you want to fight, | :39:22. | :39:25. | |
Eric, I will give you a fight. You abandoned me, you took her away and | :39:26. | :39:29. | |
you abandoned me. Mutant brothers and sisters, you abandoned us all. | :39:30. | :39:35. | |
We were supposed to protect them. Eric! | :39:36. | :39:44. | |
I get to show him on his knees like a wounded dog, abusing drugs, | :39:45. | :39:49. | |
abusing alcohol, and rejecting his position as one of the benevolent | :39:50. | :39:59. | |
leaders of a burgeoning new species. So yes, I get to mess with this | :40:00. | :40:03. | |
audience of fans, his perception of him, these people who hold so dear | :40:04. | :40:07. | |
and are really precious about his persona. I get to kick the front | :40:08. | :40:17. | |
doors in of that the building and set it on fire. Tell me when you are | :40:18. | :40:21. | |
filming what it is like, because it is a huge budget film, isn't it? | :40:22. | :40:25. | |
$225 million. Something like that, yes. A lot of it is done with | :40:26. | :40:30. | |
special effects. Were you filming in green screen studios? That's a | :40:31. | :40:35. | |
little bit of it. Is it quite difficult to do that stuff? I always | :40:36. | :40:41. | |
say I would rather be working in a green screen studio with a good | :40:42. | :40:44. | |
script rather than working in a beautifully realised physical | :40:45. | :40:49. | |
location that has a bad script. The thing that makes it difficult is | :40:50. | :40:52. | |
when you are doing rubbish and it may just be the case that quite a | :40:53. | :40:57. | |
lot of movies that utilise a lot of green screen have had rubbish | :40:58. | :41:00. | |
scripts as well. This film is in 3D, I seem to remember with X-Men First | :41:01. | :41:04. | |
Class you weren't very convinced by 3D and you were quite pleased it | :41:05. | :41:07. | |
wasn't 3D. I was, because it makes it cheaper for people to go and see | :41:08. | :41:12. | |
for a start. Am I convinced about 3D? Probably not, but I've watched a | :41:13. | :41:18. | |
couple of movies that I thought, I was glad that was 3D, and I | :41:19. | :41:21. | |
definitely feel that way about Days Of Future Past. Quite often I find | :41:22. | :41:27. | |
that after the first five minutes you stop noticing it is 3D for a | :41:28. | :41:31. | |
start. Why are they doing it? Just for money? Because it bumps the | :41:32. | :41:36. | |
money up and bumps the DVD price up. I think it is a con a lot of the | :41:37. | :41:41. | |
time, but not Days Of Future Past. I must ask you about the forthcoming | :41:42. | :41:46. | |
referendum. Do you get dragged into this? I refuse point-blank, but I | :41:47. | :41:56. | |
have got an issue with politicians. They seem to be very good at arguing | :41:57. | :42:00. | |
and lying and I'm also part of a profession that are trained to lie, | :42:01. | :42:04. | |
and to tell a story, win an audience over, win in 90 minutes so I always | :42:05. | :42:08. | |
worry when politicians side with actors. -- win an argument. Even | :42:09. | :42:14. | |
when they are not lying, they are the most untrustworthy people. I | :42:15. | :42:22. | |
feel like the political argument is redundant. I'm not anti-political | :42:23. | :42:28. | |
but I do feel in this case the political argument is redundant. The | :42:29. | :42:35. | |
people we are listening to who are winning us over or not winning us | :42:36. | :42:40. | |
over may not be there in five years, may not be there in ten years. The | :42:41. | :42:49. | |
policies will change so we are basically listening to a political | :42:50. | :42:52. | |
argument based on your lives will be better, the same as any political | :42:53. | :42:55. | |
argument for any redact election. It is redundant. The people who | :42:56. | :43:00. | |
takeover could change anything. If you want to be independent, then go | :43:01. | :43:05. | |
for it and no matter how hard it is you will still get what you want, | :43:06. | :43:09. | |
but if you are going into it because you think things will be better or | :43:10. | :43:13. | |
worse, if you are voting for or against because you think it will | :43:14. | :43:16. | |
they be better or worse, I think that is a vote that may or may not | :43:17. | :43:21. | |
be backed up with the outcome and at the end of the day you have only | :43:22. | :43:25. | |
done it because you want to improve the situation. Do you feel | :43:26. | :43:29. | |
passionately about it yourself? Do you know how you will vote? I do, | :43:30. | :43:34. | |
yes, but I won't be releasing it. I feel comfortable saying what I just | :43:35. | :43:38. | |
said because I don't feel I am backing a party. Whatever way my | :43:39. | :43:42. | |
country votes I will be so happy to support but, even if it goes against | :43:43. | :43:46. | |
what I want, I hope my country votes because it is what they truly want, | :43:47. | :43:49. | |
not because a politician is telling them things will be better. Because | :43:50. | :43:54. | |
how many times have we heard that and how many times has that | :43:55. | :43:57. | |
happened? Why will it be better simply because we are going to be | :43:58. | :44:01. | |
independent? Why is it going to be right this time? If you want | :44:02. | :44:06. | |
independence, go for it but go for it because you look yourself in the | :44:07. | :44:09. | |
mirror and it is really important for you to be separate from the | :44:10. | :44:13. | |
person down the road. If you want to be together, go for it but go for it | :44:14. | :44:17. | |
because you believe in being together and the world being bigger | :44:18. | :44:20. | |
instead of smaller. James McAvoy, thank you very much. | :44:21. | :44:23. | |
If there is one issue which seems to have powered UKIP's success over the | :44:24. | :44:27. | |
last few years, it is concerned about immigration and with | :44:28. | :44:31. | |
immaculate timing on polling day itself, we got the latest | :44:32. | :44:34. | |
immigration figures, which showed a big increase during last year, | :44:35. | :44:38. | |
especially from eastern and southern Europe. The target of reducing net | :44:39. | :44:42. | |
migration to tens of thousands looks an impossible dream now for the | :44:43. | :44:46. | |
Conservatives, so what is the plan? The spotlight is on the Home | :44:47. | :44:50. | |
Secretary, Theresa May, who joins me now. Before we turn to immigration, | :44:51. | :44:55. | |
the UKIP effect? Would you acknowledge it has been damaging for | :44:56. | :44:58. | |
the Conservatives and are you worried about what will be revealed | :44:59. | :45:06. | |
over the next 12 hours? I try never to predict results so I will not | :45:07. | :45:11. | |
comment on the European elections. Obviously on Thursday we saw UKIP | :45:12. | :45:16. | |
taking seats, evidence showed they took votes from across the political | :45:17. | :45:21. | |
parties, from Labour as well as the Conservatives, but if you look at | :45:22. | :45:26. | |
what happened on Thursday I think the results are more complicated. | :45:27. | :45:33. | |
We, as Conservatives, lost councils and councillors and there were many | :45:34. | :45:37. | |
dedicated hard-working councillors who lost seats through no fault of | :45:38. | :45:42. | |
their own. Also we held councils in key areas like Swindon and we took a | :45:43. | :45:50. | |
council from the Liberal Democrats in Kingston. We lost some councils | :45:51. | :45:55. | |
and councillors but we took one council and made gains in key | :45:56. | :46:01. | |
areas. Some of your Conservative colleagues on the backbenches in | :46:02. | :46:05. | |
particular feel they will lose their seats to UKIP, because we have lost | :46:06. | :46:09. | |
activists and party members to UKIP and feel there should be leeway for | :46:10. | :46:21. | |
local pacts with UKIP, would you allow that to happen? No, there will | :46:22. | :46:30. | |
be no pacts with any other political party and the Conservatives. I | :46:31. | :46:34. | |
believe in going out there and talking to people about what the | :46:35. | :46:38. | |
Conservatives believe in and it is important we share what we will do | :46:39. | :46:41. | |
in responding to the genuine concerns people have about a number | :46:42. | :46:47. | |
of issues. On the issue of results, what is perhaps most interesting is | :46:48. | :46:53. | |
that no party has actually won a general election without being the | :46:54. | :46:59. | |
largest party in local government. Labour are not the largest party in | :47:00. | :47:02. | |
local government now, the Conservatives are. Will you | :47:03. | :47:06. | |
discipline and Conservative members who try to organise local pacts with | :47:07. | :47:16. | |
UKIP? I expect Conservatives to be going out there and talking about | :47:17. | :47:20. | |
what we believe in, what we have been doing. There will be no pacts | :47:21. | :47:31. | |
between the Conservative party and UKIP or any other party because we | :47:32. | :47:34. | |
recognise the concerns out there and we have a job to do. We have to | :47:35. | :47:39. | |
persuade people who have moved away from us to come back and vote for us | :47:40. | :47:46. | |
again. I recognise the genuine concerns people have, and we see | :47:47. | :47:51. | |
that our economic plan is working, the economy is turning round but | :47:52. | :47:57. | |
that has not perhaps fed through to everybody. They are concerned about | :47:58. | :48:01. | |
issues like immigration and welfare. Which I would like to come onto | :48:02. | :48:07. | |
right now. Do you accept the figures of 212,000 net immigration? The | :48:08. | :48:15. | |
Office for National Statistics is an independent body and they produce | :48:16. | :48:19. | |
these figures, and I accept the figures they produce. We have seen | :48:20. | :48:24. | |
an upturn in immigration from the European Union but crucially, | :48:25. | :48:29. | |
overall, since we came to power there are over 70,000 fewer people | :48:30. | :48:35. | |
immigrated into the UK last year then did four years ago when we came | :48:36. | :48:40. | |
into government. You are still 1 million miles away from the promise | :48:41. | :48:43. | |
of tens of thousands that David Cameron said. He said that, and now | :48:44. | :48:57. | |
it is over 200,000. I put it to you that you get rid of that promise, I | :48:58. | :49:02. | |
don't see how you still could possibly do so? You are right, it | :49:03. | :49:07. | |
has become more difficult and net migration is too high, that's why we | :49:08. | :49:11. | |
want to continue working to bring it down. What we see is that in those | :49:12. | :49:16. | |
areas that we can control, immigration from outside the | :49:17. | :49:20. | |
European Union, everything we have done in government has been having | :49:21. | :49:24. | |
an impact. We can see that net migration from outside the European | :49:25. | :49:29. | |
Union is down to its lowest levels since the 1990s. Apart from that, it | :49:30. | :49:35. | |
is very different. Is that promise down to tens of thousands now | :49:36. | :49:42. | |
redundant? No, as I say, I have still got that target. It is a | :49:43. | :49:47. | |
target, not a pledge? It has always been a target to drive towards that. | :49:48. | :49:54. | |
Not a pledge, not a promise? It is a target that we have, to reduce net | :49:55. | :49:59. | |
migration to the tens of thousands. We are seeing an impact in what we | :50:00. | :50:10. | |
are doing, where we can control immigration from outside the | :50:11. | :50:12. | |
European Union. As I say, net migration from outside the EU is | :50:13. | :50:15. | |
down to its lowest levels since the 1990s. From inside the EU, we are | :50:16. | :50:21. | |
doing what we can to affect that as well. It has been reported this | :50:22. | :50:25. | |
morning there are range of things you are now looking at, including | :50:26. | :50:29. | |
deporting people who have been in the country for six months and | :50:30. | :50:33. | |
cannot get a job back to their own country, are you looking at that? We | :50:34. | :50:38. | |
have been looking at various measures and we will continue to do | :50:39. | :50:43. | |
so. We are looking at what happens... Yes, what happens to | :50:44. | :50:48. | |
people when they have no longer exercising their treaty rights in | :50:49. | :50:52. | |
the UK. We have already made a change in this area. Would you have | :50:53. | :50:57. | |
to change the law in order to deport people who have come here and cannot | :50:58. | :51:04. | |
all have not got a job? We are looking at a range of measures and | :51:05. | :51:11. | |
in some areas there are ways you can do it without changing the rules, | :51:12. | :51:15. | |
some may require a change in legislation, but we now have new | :51:16. | :51:21. | |
legislation to toughen up our ability to deal with people who are | :51:22. | :51:26. | |
here illegally. We can make it harder for people who are here | :51:27. | :51:29. | |
illegally to access the things they need like a driving licence and bank | :51:30. | :51:35. | |
accounts. We are tightening up the appeals process so there are fewer | :51:36. | :51:39. | |
routes for people to play the system. What about the amount of | :51:40. | :51:41. | |
time people can claim benefits for? system. What about the amount of | :51:42. | :51:48. | |
One of the crucial changes we made this year for | :51:49. | :51:50. | |
One of the crucial changes we made the European Union into | :51:51. | :51:52. | |
One of the crucial changes we made that we said they cannot just come | :51:53. | :51:55. | |
here and claim benefits straightaway, they have to wait | :51:56. | :52:01. | |
three months to do that. Do you want to extend that now? We will look at | :52:02. | :52:06. | |
that timing and see if it is right to make it six months overall. We | :52:07. | :52:11. | |
haven't yet got agreement over the Coalition to do that but these are | :52:12. | :52:15. | |
the sort of measures we are looking at. What about cracking down on | :52:16. | :52:19. | |
employers who are not paying the minimum wage and therefore bringing | :52:20. | :52:25. | |
on people who are undercutting British workers' pay? We are going | :52:26. | :52:30. | |
to raise the fine and that is an important signal we are giving, that | :52:31. | :52:34. | |
we are determined to take the measures that will make a | :52:35. | :52:38. | |
difference. We are going to see a new package of measures that will | :52:39. | :52:43. | |
include that, will include possible deportation and will include | :52:44. | :52:51. | |
cracking down on so-called welfare benefits? We have a number of | :52:52. | :52:58. | |
measures we are looking at, it is no surprise to anybody that there have | :52:59. | :53:05. | |
been some long-standing, possibly heated discussions + among the | :53:06. | :53:11. | |
Coalition on some issues of immigration. What matters to people | :53:12. | :53:15. | |
is that where we have been able to control immigration, we are seeing | :53:16. | :53:19. | |
an impact in the figures. What also matters is that we recognise we need | :53:20. | :53:23. | |
to do something about European migration. Just look at the issue of | :53:24. | :53:29. | |
free movement. Four years ago in Europe's people were not talking | :53:30. | :53:33. | |
about the abuse of free movement. From the beginning I have been | :53:34. | :53:36. | |
saying we need to deal with this, now we have a whole list of | :53:37. | :53:40. | |
countries saying that this is an issue. But you need treaty changes | :53:41. | :53:46. | |
to get that, don't you? There are measures that can be taken outside | :53:47. | :53:50. | |
of treaty changes, but we need to look at what happens when countries | :53:51. | :53:55. | |
come into the European Union and possibly not allow full free | :53:56. | :53:58. | |
movement right until their economy has reached a certain level, but we | :53:59. | :54:02. | |
are the only party that has the policy that ensures we can do the | :54:03. | :54:07. | |
renegotiation that can put that into practice. You pressed very hard to | :54:08. | :54:12. | |
get Abu Hamza extradited to the US, but why is it that it was possible | :54:13. | :54:17. | |
to convict him of terrorist offences in New York based on British | :54:18. | :54:21. | |
evidence, but it wasn't possible for our authorities to do that? Is there | :54:22. | :54:27. | |
something wrong with our system? Abu Hamza is in the right place, behind | :54:28. | :54:33. | |
bars, he is a dangerous man and it is right he is brought to justice. | :54:34. | :54:42. | |
He did face charges in the UK, the decision to bring terrorism charges | :54:43. | :54:46. | |
was a decision for the independent Crown Prosecution Service. That is | :54:47. | :54:52. | |
where the decisions are taken in the UK, but I was clear that I needed to | :54:53. | :54:57. | |
work hard to ensure that he could be extradited, that's what I did, we | :54:58. | :55:02. | |
saw him on the plane, now we have seen him brought to justice and we | :55:03. | :55:05. | |
wait for the sentencing but I suspect he will find himself behind | :55:06. | :55:10. | |
bars for some time. There is no vacancy, but one day there will be, | :55:11. | :55:14. | |
and you are now the number one favourite to take over on David | :55:15. | :55:20. | |
Cameron in due course. How does that make you feel? There is no question | :55:21. | :55:24. | |
about leadership in the Conservative party. The only question there is, | :55:25. | :55:34. | |
is who is going to lead the country after the next general election. No | :55:35. | :55:39. | |
arm wrestling with George Osborne, or heaven forbid Boris Johnson? No, | :55:40. | :55:46. | |
we are all getting on with the job of getting across the message that | :55:47. | :55:52. | |
it is our long-term plan as Conservatives that is turning the | :55:53. | :55:56. | |
economy around and people should not be throwing that away. Thank you. | :55:57. | :56:00. | |
The news headlines. The Home Secretary has told this pogrom the | :56:01. | :56:05. | |
Conservatives still have the aim of reducing net migration to the tens | :56:06. | :56:08. | |
of thousands, despite official figures showing net migration last | :56:09. | :56:13. | |
year was more than 200,000. Theresa May said the Government was | :56:14. | :56:16. | |
succeeding in the areas it could control and was looking to new | :56:17. | :56:22. | |
measures to reduce immigration from within the EU. | :56:23. | :56:26. | |
The president of the Liberal Democrats has called on colleagues | :56:27. | :56:30. | |
to stand proudly behind Nick Clegg's leadership. Tim Farron was | :56:31. | :56:35. | |
responding to calls from two MPs for a thorough review of the Lib Dem | :56:36. | :56:40. | |
strategy. He said he understood why many party members felt bruised, but | :56:41. | :56:46. | |
he said it would be foolish to turn in on ourselves. Labour's Harriet | :56:47. | :56:51. | |
Harman has also defended her party leaders saying Ed Miliband was in | :56:52. | :56:55. | |
touch with people 's concerns and Labour would develop more policies | :56:56. | :57:00. | |
to address them. We will get back to Andrew the moment but first here is | :57:01. | :57:05. | |
a little look at what is, not after this programme. | :57:06. | :57:10. | |
Join us live at ten o'clock when we will be debated in the right to be | :57:11. | :57:17. | |
forgotten, where -- whether there is a clash between being Christian and | :57:18. | :57:28. | |
a member of UKIP. Is there still a problem of macho | :57:29. | :57:32. | |
culture in the House of Commons generally because neither of your | :57:33. | :57:36. | |
parties have as many women in the top seats as you would presumably | :57:37. | :57:41. | |
hope for? There are still more to be done in terms of getting women into | :57:42. | :57:45. | |
politics and the House of Commons and it is certainly the case this is | :57:46. | :57:48. | |
not something that you just make one step. As the Conservative party, we | :57:49. | :57:54. | |
have made a key increase in the number of women in parliament but | :57:55. | :58:00. | |
you have to keep your foot on the accelerator. You cannot say at any | :58:01. | :58:06. | |
stage that is it and we can go away. This is not actually what British | :58:07. | :58:12. | |
politics looks like. We are highly unrepresentative, the two of us | :58:13. | :58:18. | |
sitting here. We have made massive strides but men still outnumber | :58:19. | :58:21. | |
women in British politics, although we have come a long way. Can I just | :58:22. | :58:27. | |
say that I think it matters because we have been talking about the | :58:28. | :58:30. | |
disconnection between people and politics, and a lot of women who are | :58:31. | :58:35. | |
trying to go to work, bring up the kids, look after elderly relatives, | :58:36. | :58:40. | |
if they see that politics is overwhelmingly dominated by men, | :58:41. | :58:45. | |
they say, it has got nothing to do with my life. It is crucial we see a | :58:46. | :58:50. | |
diversity of people in the House of Commons and that it is showing the | :58:51. | :58:56. | |
people they see day in, day out. Thank you, that is all we have time | :58:57. | :59:02. | |
for today. Next week I will be talking to a senior UKIP figure and | :59:03. | :59:07. | |
there will be alive- in the studio, Terry Gilliam. -- a live python. | :59:08. | :59:45. | |
Death hath ten thousand several doors | :59:46. | :59:48. |