18/09/2011

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:00:33. > :00:38.And here in the East Midlands, should we get tougher with

:00:38. > :00:42.uninsured drivers? Be boundary changes for MPs, do they make

:00:42. > :00:52.sense? Where they make it even more difficult for the Lib Dems to claw

:00:52. > :00:52.

:00:52. > :36:25.Apology for the loss of subtitles for 2132 seconds

:36:25. > :36:35.It is good to be back. Coming up, is it time to get tougher with

:36:35. > :36:36.

:36:36. > :36:41.They are just scum. They do not give a second thought to the people

:36:41. > :36:46.they could hit, injure, killed. redrawing of our parliamentary

:36:46. > :36:50.constituencies. Ken Clarke has this message. My advice would be that

:36:50. > :36:53.they should take a positive and sensible role, not just going

:36:53. > :36:58.around moaning about your bad luck in the boundary changes.

:36:59. > :37:03.We will be asking former Lib Dem MP Paul Holmes if the changes are

:37:03. > :37:10.likely to make life even more difficult for his party in the East

:37:10. > :37:15.Midlands. Many of us have reason to curse and

:37:15. > :37:20.insured drivers. One of our MPs is asking us if we want tougher

:37:20. > :37:30.penalties for hour offenders. He is fed up seeing so many of them

:37:30. > :37:31.

:37:31. > :37:36.before the courts. They should have been a fun-filled

:37:36. > :37:40.family day out. Cameron Mcteir had taken his two young children to the

:37:40. > :37:50.Sea Life Centre in Birmingham when out of the blue their car was hit

:37:50. > :37:57.at speed by a band. Very frightening. -- hit by a van. My

:37:57. > :38:00.two children burst into tears because of the impact. It was just

:38:01. > :38:07.horrendous. Cameron Mcteir and his family suffered neck injuries and

:38:07. > :38:10.whiplash. Their car was badly damaged and towed away. The van

:38:10. > :38:14.driver gave a false name and address and had no insurance. How

:38:14. > :38:20.has all of this left you feeling? Very angry because the person that

:38:20. > :38:25.has done this has damaged my vehicle, injured myself, my son and

:38:25. > :38:29.got away with it pretty much the Scot free. It is estimated that

:38:29. > :38:34.well over a million drivers on the roads have no insurance. Put

:38:34. > :38:37.another way, and this is a bit worrying, it means that one in 20

:38:37. > :38:44.of the cars currently hurtling towards me have no cover.

:38:44. > :38:52.Altogether, the an insured accident black hole costs �500 million -- be

:38:52. > :38:57.an insurance. It is covered really by you and me, adding another �30

:38:57. > :39:00.to every car insurance policy. is people are taking a chance and

:39:00. > :39:05.unfortunately there are dire consequences if they are involved

:39:05. > :39:09.in an accident because people who do pay their insurance because

:39:09. > :39:12.there insurance premiums go up. It is us that takes the cost of the

:39:12. > :39:17.uninsured drivers both in our increased premiums but also because

:39:17. > :39:23.we have to pay for our cars to be fixed. Those costs are not just

:39:23. > :39:30.financial. 160 people a year die in accidents involving an insured

:39:30. > :39:36.drivers. A further 23,000 are injured. -- involving an insured

:39:36. > :39:41.drivers. Since June, the tough new laws have led to hundreds of an

:39:41. > :39:46.insured cars being seized, destined to be crushed in scrapyards like

:39:47. > :39:51.this one in Leicester. Will crushing cars do anything to stop

:39:51. > :39:56.those drivers who are hell-bent on deliberately driving without

:39:56. > :40:00.insurance? Victims like Cameron Mcteir doubt

:40:00. > :40:06.it. They are not bothered about anybody else. That is why they do

:40:06. > :40:09.not insure their vehicles. There is no deterrent there for them to do

:40:09. > :40:12.turn up -- insure them. If there was, perhaps more people would

:40:12. > :40:16.insure their vehicles. I firmly believe that the magistrate should

:40:16. > :40:21.have the powers to deter people from driving and insured. If you

:40:21. > :40:26.cannot enjoy yourself, you should not be on the road. Karl McCartney

:40:26. > :40:33.is asking drivers to send in their views for an online survey. He is a

:40:33. > :40:37.magistrate. Both he and the AA already know that those who drive

:40:37. > :40:42.with -- without being assured do not exactly get the book thrown at

:40:42. > :40:48.them. The average fine is to London and �23 where as the average

:40:48. > :40:54.premium is four times that amount. The courts have the power to give

:40:54. > :40:57.fines of up to �5,000 but they rarely use those powers. We think

:40:57. > :41:02.the courts ought to be a bit stricter because that is a massive

:41:02. > :41:09.problem in terms of road safety and in terms of hiking up the premiums

:41:09. > :41:13.of honest motorists. This is your vehicle. From a traffic officer

:41:13. > :41:16.Keith Peat he now speaks of DriveEast Midlands, a motorist

:41:17. > :41:22.pressure group now feels that tinkering around with bigger fines

:41:22. > :41:24.is not enough. My first ice would be to not only give them a larger

:41:24. > :41:29.fine but also you could be justified in banning them

:41:29. > :41:37.permanently, for life, from driving. Some of these people are just going

:41:37. > :41:40.to ignore that too? Second-time around, at long term in prison.

:41:40. > :41:45.They have come had and repeated the offence and quite clearly they have

:41:45. > :41:49.learnt nothing. The demands for tougher penalties are suddenly

:41:49. > :41:55.growing. They are fully supported by its victims like Cameron Mcteir

:41:55. > :42:00.who is still seething about his encounter with an uninsured driver.

:42:00. > :42:03.They are just scum. It might be a bit harsh saying that but they do

:42:03. > :42:07.not give a second thought to be people that they could possibly

:42:07. > :42:17.potentially hit, injure, killed. That is why they do not insure

:42:17. > :42:19.

:42:19. > :42:24.their vehicles because they are Next, the Boundaries Commission

:42:24. > :42:29.this week redrew the political map across our region. It may mean we

:42:29. > :42:33.would lose two of our MPs. It has left many of our representatives

:42:33. > :42:37.facing an uncertain future and many of us trying to make sense of the

:42:37. > :42:47.new constituencies. This is the kind of challenge John Hess

:42:47. > :42:48.

:42:48. > :42:53.Coalville, one of the biggest towns in North West Leicestershire, a

:42:53. > :42:58.constituency that faces being robbed of the parliamentary map.

:42:58. > :43:02.Under Boundary Commission proposals, a new constituency would be created,

:43:02. > :43:06.starting at Coalville and then stretching across this part of

:43:06. > :43:09.Leicestershire like a banana shape, skirting around Loughborough, going

:43:10. > :43:14.into Nottinghamshire and incorporating the Greater

:43:14. > :43:18.Nottingham suburban communities of Ruddington and Key West. It is not

:43:18. > :43:22.the only part of the East Midlands that has found itself in a

:43:22. > :43:32.constituency carve up. Not everyone is happy about it. It is not a good

:43:32. > :43:36.idea. Rethink. Go back to your map. This is Keyworth, 30 miles away in

:43:36. > :43:42.the south Nottinghamshire heart of one of the government's big beasts.

:43:42. > :43:45.Ken Clarke, soon to be abolished. With parts of Rushcliffe facing

:43:45. > :43:52.merger with Coalville, you can guess what they think of that here.

:43:52. > :43:57.It is a load of garbage. We are poles apart. Where do their brains

:43:57. > :44:05.come from? Do you think it rains -- makes sense? None whatsoever in all

:44:05. > :44:09.honesty. I cannot see the brought in and extending it that far.

:44:09. > :44:14.will not influence the independent Boundary Commission one jot, the

:44:14. > :44:18.fact that Ken Clarke has a high government post. The name of

:44:18. > :44:23.Rushcliffe will be no more if they have their way. I do not think that

:44:23. > :44:27.is as important as the fairness of the democracies -- the democratic

:44:28. > :44:32.system. Even a I have to concede that. The East Midlands will have

:44:32. > :44:37.44 MPs, down two, in a future more streamlined cost effective House of

:44:37. > :44:41.Commons. Most of our constituency boundaries will be redrawn. At the

:44:41. > :44:45.next general election, we met -- remain not have familiar

:44:45. > :44:50.constituency names like these. The East Midlands is the same as every

:44:50. > :44:53.other part of England. It will see some seats not changing and other

:44:53. > :44:58.seats which will undergo a radical change. A radical change comes in

:44:58. > :45:01.the shape of a rabbit. Remember our toy rabbit to

:45:02. > :45:05.illustrate the new Mid Derbyshire seat at the last election? A

:45:05. > :45:09.constituency like the rabbit is heading for the pot and its MP is

:45:09. > :45:12.not a happy bunny. It is quite difficult for some people to

:45:12. > :45:16.understand that they have been moved here and everywhere when

:45:16. > :45:19.their house has stayed exactly where it was. They do not feel part

:45:19. > :45:25.of Mid Derbyshire because people are still confused about who they

:45:25. > :45:31.Member of Parliament is. There will be a prospect of neighbouring Tory

:45:31. > :45:37.MPs chasing the same seats. They have now got to impress Select

:45:37. > :45:41.Committee is again for stump my advice would be taking a positive

:45:41. > :45:45.and sensible role in politics not just going around moaning to

:45:46. > :45:51.everybody about your bad luck in the boundary changes. Vernon

:45:51. > :45:54.Coaker's Gedling is another casualty. It has merged into one of

:45:54. > :45:58.four new Nottingham City seats. There is an interesting set of

:45:58. > :46:02.proposals that we need to look at and reflect upon for stump it is

:46:02. > :46:09.not only a matter for politicians to look at them and see what we

:46:09. > :46:13.think but also for local people to look at it as well. For some, the

:46:13. > :46:17.changes signpost the way to political uncertainties and new

:46:17. > :46:20.opportunities. Labour claimed that it is loaded in favour of the

:46:20. > :46:25.Tories. Trent Bridge has historically been the dividing line

:46:26. > :46:29.between the City of Nottingham and the county. Labour Nottingham,

:46:29. > :46:35.Conservative controlled Rushcliffe. Under the boundary commission's

:46:35. > :46:39.recommendations, West Bridgford and big chunks of leafy Rushcliffe's

:46:39. > :46:43.suburbia would be incorporated into a revamped Nottingham South

:46:43. > :46:48.constituency which currently is Labour controlled. It will fetch up

:46:48. > :46:51.the electoral process, it will bring out a lot of interested

:46:51. > :47:01.parties and it will make people more interested in politics in

:47:01. > :47:03.

:47:03. > :47:07.But are there any political winners from these plans? Mapping out the

:47:07. > :47:11.repercussions for a city like Derby is far from clear. Derby North,

:47:11. > :47:16.Derby South, that is about to change in a big way for stump they

:47:16. > :47:21.have turned it all around so it is more like that. We have got Derby

:47:21. > :47:25.West, then the East. North and south, west and east. It is about

:47:25. > :47:29.as much as a turnaround as you could get. It was always going to

:47:29. > :47:35.be a game where the Tories would not do too badly out of it, Labour

:47:35. > :47:38.would not do too badly, but because it was cutting up cities, it is the

:47:38. > :47:41.Liberal Democrats which are ultimately lose. There is now a

:47:41. > :47:48.three-month consultation and Parliament might yet get the final

:47:48. > :47:58.World. -- final word. Parliament has to approve or a director at

:47:58. > :47:59.

:47:59. > :48:03.100%. I do not think -- approve or reject it 100%.

:48:03. > :48:07.From constituency carve up to a political fix, or what will the

:48:07. > :48:11.voters make of that? With me now, two of our politicians

:48:11. > :48:18.who have been wrestling with the Boundary Commission's proposals.

:48:18. > :48:22.Anna Soubry and former Lib Dem MP Paul Holmes. Well and peoples --

:48:22. > :48:26.will MPs be the turkeys that a vote for Christmas? Both of the

:48:26. > :48:31.coalition parties have in their manifestos this sort of change.

:48:31. > :48:34.They are both committed to it. Some individual MPs will suffer because

:48:35. > :48:40.their constituencies have been restraint but the boundary

:48:40. > :48:45.commissioners not there to make life easy for MPs, it is there to

:48:45. > :48:50.implement Democratic constituencies. Will they go for it and take Ken

:48:50. > :48:56.Clarke's advice? Ken Clarke as ever is right. You can see he has got a

:48:56. > :49:00.very relaxed attitude to it all. The real losers are in many ways

:49:00. > :49:03.borough councils. For a lot of our local authorities, if Rushcliffe as

:49:03. > :49:09.a parliamentary seat is being abolished, if the proposals go

:49:09. > :49:13.through, and there are still two years of proposals... If you look

:49:13. > :49:17.at Rushcliffe, it will no longer have a parliamentary seat that

:49:17. > :49:21.mirrors it. That is quite difficult for some of our local authorities.

:49:21. > :49:25.If you take the new seat of Nottingham West, I believe it is,

:49:25. > :49:29.there are three or four local authorities or represented by one

:49:29. > :49:32.member of Parliament so although it is not a problem for the Member of

:49:32. > :49:36.Parliament, you can get your head around that, it is a problem for

:49:36. > :49:43.the local authorities if they do not feel that they have got the one

:49:43. > :49:51.and Pete champion -- championing that Barrett. I do not -- I do not

:49:51. > :49:55.think that is a problem at all. Derbyshire County Council has 8, 9,

:49:55. > :50:00.10 constituencies representing the council. If the council staff

:50:00. > :50:04.cannot get their head around that, they will... Perhaps I did not

:50:05. > :50:10.explain myself. Derbyshire obviously has MPs for Derbyshire.

:50:10. > :50:16.Rushcliffe now no longer has one MP as a borough who can champion

:50:16. > :50:19.Rushcliffe. If you are... Does that mean people will lose out? I do not

:50:19. > :50:23.think so but from a local government point of view I can

:50:23. > :50:27.understand that some of the boroughs might think, Gedling is

:50:27. > :50:33.another good example, who is Mike MP who will champion meet? Purely

:50:33. > :50:38.that. Rushcliffe represented by one party on the Council and another as

:50:38. > :50:42.an MP, how will they told to one another? Now they will have more...

:50:42. > :50:46.The whole idea is that the Tories feel that everyone else is cutting

:50:46. > :50:51.back and the Commons should to and that should mean fewer MPs there

:50:51. > :50:55.are two issues, one is equalising the boundaries which is fair.

:50:55. > :51:01.Labour Party is whingeing about it being unfair to them but it is

:51:01. > :51:06.democratic and fair and it was a basic cry of the charter 160 years

:51:06. > :51:11.ago that the constituencies should be equal. The number of MPs will be

:51:11. > :51:14.cut down it be it will save about �12 million and democracy is

:51:14. > :51:19.expensive for stump I think it is a mistake although it was a Lib Dem

:51:19. > :51:22.policy before the election. Is this going to mean that MPs will have

:51:22. > :51:29.bigger constituencies, bigger workload and less time to

:51:29. > :51:34.scrutinise legislation? Will it be bad for democracy? This is a win-

:51:34. > :51:40.win. We need fewer MPs. We have got to reduce the cost of politics.

:51:40. > :51:44.This is a good savings. We had to equalise and this is a good idea.

:51:44. > :51:49.You would say that because a lot of Tories are going to win when, as

:51:49. > :51:54.you say, from this? You have already identified that the big

:51:54. > :51:59.beast has got to go out and find a new seat, Ken Clarke. The Tories

:51:59. > :52:05.are about Ken Clarke, what they thought it! An appalling idea. We

:52:05. > :52:09.see the loss in Derbyshire of potentially two MPs. Everybody

:52:09. > :52:13.suffers if you like, that is no bad thing. The good thing is that we

:52:13. > :52:18.are equalising our constituencies and we are reducing the cost of

:52:18. > :52:22.politics was a up you do not see any effect on politics? They will

:52:22. > :52:28.not be so big that the MP will not be able to cope. I do think there's

:52:28. > :52:32.a problem that people will see that we have more MPs than other Western

:52:32. > :52:35.countries but if you compare as to avert European countries, they do

:52:35. > :52:41.not have the centralisation of power that we do in London. They

:52:41. > :52:45.have very strong at the tiers of democratic government. If you

:52:45. > :52:49.compare us to America, in America, if you are elected to Congress, you

:52:49. > :52:52.cannot be in government because the President takes his ministers from

:52:52. > :52:57.universities, trade unions, business, not from Congress. Here

:52:57. > :53:01.we have a limited pool Tippett ministers from and we going to

:53:01. > :53:08.shoot -- we are going to shrink back pool. If there will be some

:53:08. > :53:13.strange anomalies. It has not decided that Broxtowe, you will be

:53:13. > :53:20.sunny across the river? According to some people, I have doubled

:53:20. > :53:27.might majority to one hand -- to 760! A that is why you are smiling.

:53:27. > :53:31.I must say, we would be honoured to represent the area over the river.

:53:31. > :53:40.It is a peculiar twist because it has been plucked out. What matters

:53:40. > :53:45.most of all because -- what matters is how the people of the village

:53:45. > :53:50.failed. I do not think it is too much... I would not find it a

:53:50. > :53:59.problem at all. I thought you might say that. To be truthful, I think

:53:59. > :54:02.Coalville, that is a strange one... Let us get back to the Lib Dems and

:54:02. > :54:07.the party conference. We all know here in the East Midlands that we

:54:07. > :54:10.are the only region without a single Lib Dem MP. Will these

:54:10. > :54:15.boundary changes mean that it is even less likely in the future that

:54:15. > :54:25.we will get one back? Swings and roundabouts. Of our three best

:54:25. > :54:28.

:54:28. > :54:33.seats, two of them have been left untouched. We are close to... There

:54:33. > :54:41.will be some Lib Dem areas brought in and if it had not been taken out

:54:41. > :54:48.last year, I would still be the MPs. And there is shaking her head. You

:54:48. > :54:52.sound positive. We will have to see how the dust settles. There will be

:54:52. > :54:59.other parts of the East Midlands that have improved that were not

:54:59. > :55:05.winnable. And you were practically wiped out in our region. 43% were

:55:05. > :55:09.lost. There was a national swing from asked to Labour in the north

:55:10. > :55:15.and the Midlands. That is changing. In Gedling, only on Thursday, there

:55:15. > :55:22.was a by-election where our councillor lost -- one by over 100

:55:22. > :55:28.votes because the national stuff is settling down and people are going

:55:28. > :55:31.back to normal politics. How are people getting on at grassroots?

:55:31. > :55:34.a Member of Parliament for an area where we have a council that is a

:55:34. > :55:39.Labour and Lib Dem coalition, not a great idea in my opinion, even

:55:39. > :55:44.though the Tories are the largest group... Briefly. For I do not have

:55:44. > :55:47.a problem because I will work with whatever party. I find a lot in

:55:47. > :55:53.common with the Lib Dems and I enjoy working with them, as I do

:55:53. > :55:59.with the Tories. I think we are getting on our right? You are in

:55:59. > :56:04.the studio! We will leave it there. Thank you very much. If you have