18/09/2011 The Politics Show East Midlands


18/09/2011

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And here in the East Midlands, should we get tougher with

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uninsured drivers? Be boundary changes for MPs, do they make

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sense? Where they make it even more difficult for the Lib Dems to claw

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Apology for the loss of subtitles for 2132 seconds

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It is good to be back. Coming up, is it time to get tougher with

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They are just scum. They do not give a second thought to the people

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they could hit, injure, killed. redrawing of our parliamentary

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constituencies. Ken Clarke has this message. My advice would be that

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they should take a positive and sensible role, not just going

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around moaning about your bad luck in the boundary changes.

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We will be asking former Lib Dem MP Paul Holmes if the changes are

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likely to make life even more difficult for his party in the East

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Midlands. Many of us have reason to curse and

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insured drivers. One of our MPs is asking us if we want tougher

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penalties for hour offenders. He is fed up seeing so many of them

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before the courts. They should have been a fun-filled

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family day out. Cameron Mcteir had taken his two young children to the

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Sea Life Centre in Birmingham when out of the blue their car was hit

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at speed by a band. Very frightening. -- hit by a van. My

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two children burst into tears because of the impact. It was just

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horrendous. Cameron Mcteir and his family suffered neck injuries and

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whiplash. Their car was badly damaged and towed away. The van

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driver gave a false name and address and had no insurance. How

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has all of this left you feeling? Very angry because the person that

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has done this has damaged my vehicle, injured myself, my son and

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got away with it pretty much the Scot free. It is estimated that

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well over a million drivers on the roads have no insurance. Put

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another way, and this is a bit worrying, it means that one in 20

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of the cars currently hurtling towards me have no cover.

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Altogether, the an insured accident black hole costs �500 million -- be

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an insurance. It is covered really by you and me, adding another �30

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to every car insurance policy. is people are taking a chance and

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unfortunately there are dire consequences if they are involved

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in an accident because people who do pay their insurance because

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there insurance premiums go up. It is us that takes the cost of the

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uninsured drivers both in our increased premiums but also because

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we have to pay for our cars to be fixed. Those costs are not just

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financial. 160 people a year die in accidents involving an insured

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drivers. A further 23,000 are injured. -- involving an insured

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drivers. Since June, the tough new laws have led to hundreds of an

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insured cars being seized, destined to be crushed in scrapyards like

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this one in Leicester. Will crushing cars do anything to stop

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those drivers who are hell-bent on deliberately driving without

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insurance? Victims like Cameron Mcteir doubt

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it. They are not bothered about anybody else. That is why they do

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not insure their vehicles. There is no deterrent there for them to do

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turn up -- insure them. If there was, perhaps more people would

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insure their vehicles. I firmly believe that the magistrate should

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have the powers to deter people from driving and insured. If you

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cannot enjoy yourself, you should not be on the road. Karl McCartney

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is asking drivers to send in their views for an online survey. He is a

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magistrate. Both he and the AA already know that those who drive

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with -- without being assured do not exactly get the book thrown at

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them. The average fine is to London and �23 where as the average

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premium is four times that amount. The courts have the power to give

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fines of up to �5,000 but they rarely use those powers. We think

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the courts ought to be a bit stricter because that is a massive

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problem in terms of road safety and in terms of hiking up the premiums

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of honest motorists. This is your vehicle. From a traffic officer

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Keith Peat he now speaks of DriveEast Midlands, a motorist

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pressure group now feels that tinkering around with bigger fines

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is not enough. My first ice would be to not only give them a larger

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fine but also you could be justified in banning them

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permanently, for life, from driving. Some of these people are just going

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to ignore that too? Second-time around, at long term in prison.

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They have come had and repeated the offence and quite clearly they have

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learnt nothing. The demands for tougher penalties are suddenly

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growing. They are fully supported by its victims like Cameron Mcteir

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who is still seething about his encounter with an uninsured driver.

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They are just scum. It might be a bit harsh saying that but they do

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not give a second thought to be people that they could possibly

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potentially hit, injure, killed. That is why they do not insure

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their vehicles because they are Next, the Boundaries Commission

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this week redrew the political map across our region. It may mean we

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would lose two of our MPs. It has left many of our representatives

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facing an uncertain future and many of us trying to make sense of the

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new constituencies. This is the kind of challenge John Hess

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Coalville, one of the biggest towns in North West Leicestershire, a

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constituency that faces being robbed of the parliamentary map.

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Under Boundary Commission proposals, a new constituency would be created,

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starting at Coalville and then stretching across this part of

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Leicestershire like a banana shape, skirting around Loughborough, going

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into Nottinghamshire and incorporating the Greater

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Nottingham suburban communities of Ruddington and Key West. It is not

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the only part of the East Midlands that has found itself in a

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constituency carve up. Not everyone is happy about it. It is not a good

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idea. Rethink. Go back to your map. This is Keyworth, 30 miles away in

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the south Nottinghamshire heart of one of the government's big beasts.

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Ken Clarke, soon to be abolished. With parts of Rushcliffe facing

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merger with Coalville, you can guess what they think of that here.

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It is a load of garbage. We are poles apart. Where do their brains

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come from? Do you think it rains -- makes sense? None whatsoever in all

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honesty. I cannot see the brought in and extending it that far.

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will not influence the independent Boundary Commission one jot, the

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fact that Ken Clarke has a high government post. The name of

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Rushcliffe will be no more if they have their way. I do not think that

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is as important as the fairness of the democracies -- the democratic

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system. Even a I have to concede that. The East Midlands will have

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44 MPs, down two, in a future more streamlined cost effective House of

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Commons. Most of our constituency boundaries will be redrawn. At the

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next general election, we met -- remain not have familiar

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constituency names like these. The East Midlands is the same as every

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other part of England. It will see some seats not changing and other

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seats which will undergo a radical change. A radical change comes in

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the shape of a rabbit. Remember our toy rabbit to

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illustrate the new Mid Derbyshire seat at the last election? A

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constituency like the rabbit is heading for the pot and its MP is

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not a happy bunny. It is quite difficult for some people to

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understand that they have been moved here and everywhere when

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their house has stayed exactly where it was. They do not feel part

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of Mid Derbyshire because people are still confused about who they

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Member of Parliament is. There will be a prospect of neighbouring Tory

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MPs chasing the same seats. They have now got to impress Select

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Committee is again for stump my advice would be taking a positive

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and sensible role in politics not just going around moaning to

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everybody about your bad luck in the boundary changes. Vernon

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Coaker's Gedling is another casualty. It has merged into one of

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four new Nottingham City seats. There is an interesting set of

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proposals that we need to look at and reflect upon for stump it is

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not only a matter for politicians to look at them and see what we

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think but also for local people to look at it as well. For some, the

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changes signpost the way to political uncertainties and new

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opportunities. Labour claimed that it is loaded in favour of the

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Tories. Trent Bridge has historically been the dividing line

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between the City of Nottingham and the county. Labour Nottingham,

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Conservative controlled Rushcliffe. Under the boundary commission's

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recommendations, West Bridgford and big chunks of leafy Rushcliffe's

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suburbia would be incorporated into a revamped Nottingham South

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constituency which currently is Labour controlled. It will fetch up

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the electoral process, it will bring out a lot of interested

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parties and it will make people more interested in politics in

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But are there any political winners from these plans? Mapping out the

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repercussions for a city like Derby is far from clear. Derby North,

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Derby South, that is about to change in a big way for stump they

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have turned it all around so it is more like that. We have got Derby

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West, then the East. North and south, west and east. It is about

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as much as a turnaround as you could get. It was always going to

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be a game where the Tories would not do too badly out of it, Labour

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would not do too badly, but because it was cutting up cities, it is the

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Liberal Democrats which are ultimately lose. There is now a

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three-month consultation and Parliament might yet get the final

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World. -- final word. Parliament has to approve or a director at

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100%. I do not think -- approve or reject it 100%.

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From constituency carve up to a political fix, or what will the

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voters make of that? With me now, two of our politicians

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who have been wrestling with the Boundary Commission's proposals.

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Anna Soubry and former Lib Dem MP Paul Holmes. Well and peoples --

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will MPs be the turkeys that a vote for Christmas? Both of the

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coalition parties have in their manifestos this sort of change.

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They are both committed to it. Some individual MPs will suffer because

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their constituencies have been restraint but the boundary

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commissioners not there to make life easy for MPs, it is there to

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implement Democratic constituencies. Will they go for it and take Ken

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Clarke's advice? Ken Clarke as ever is right. You can see he has got a

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very relaxed attitude to it all. The real losers are in many ways

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borough councils. For a lot of our local authorities, if Rushcliffe as

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a parliamentary seat is being abolished, if the proposals go

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through, and there are still two years of proposals... If you look

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at Rushcliffe, it will no longer have a parliamentary seat that

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mirrors it. That is quite difficult for some of our local authorities.

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If you take the new seat of Nottingham West, I believe it is,

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there are three or four local authorities or represented by one

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member of Parliament so although it is not a problem for the Member of

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Parliament, you can get your head around that, it is a problem for

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the local authorities if they do not feel that they have got the one

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and Pete champion -- championing that Barrett. I do not -- I do not

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think that is a problem at all. Derbyshire County Council has 8, 9,

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10 constituencies representing the council. If the council staff

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cannot get their head around that, they will... Perhaps I did not

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explain myself. Derbyshire obviously has MPs for Derbyshire.

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Rushcliffe now no longer has one MP as a borough who can champion

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Rushcliffe. If you are... Does that mean people will lose out? I do not

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think so but from a local government point of view I can

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understand that some of the boroughs might think, Gedling is

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another good example, who is Mike MP who will champion meet? Purely

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that. Rushcliffe represented by one party on the Council and another as

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an MP, how will they told to one another? Now they will have more...

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The whole idea is that the Tories feel that everyone else is cutting

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back and the Commons should to and that should mean fewer MPs there

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are two issues, one is equalising the boundaries which is fair.

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Labour Party is whingeing about it being unfair to them but it is

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democratic and fair and it was a basic cry of the charter 160 years

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ago that the constituencies should be equal. The number of MPs will be

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cut down it be it will save about �12 million and democracy is

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expensive for stump I think it is a mistake although it was a Lib Dem

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policy before the election. Is this going to mean that MPs will have

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bigger constituencies, bigger workload and less time to

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scrutinise legislation? Will it be bad for democracy? This is a win-

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win. We need fewer MPs. We have got to reduce the cost of politics.

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This is a good savings. We had to equalise and this is a good idea.

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You would say that because a lot of Tories are going to win when, as

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you say, from this? You have already identified that the big

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beast has got to go out and find a new seat, Ken Clarke. The Tories

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are about Ken Clarke, what they thought it! An appalling idea. We

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see the loss in Derbyshire of potentially two MPs. Everybody

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suffers if you like, that is no bad thing. The good thing is that we

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are equalising our constituencies and we are reducing the cost of

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politics was a up you do not see any effect on politics? They will

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not be so big that the MP will not be able to cope. I do think there's

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a problem that people will see that we have more MPs than other Western

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countries but if you compare as to avert European countries, they do

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not have the centralisation of power that we do in London. They

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have very strong at the tiers of democratic government. If you

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compare us to America, in America, if you are elected to Congress, you

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cannot be in government because the President takes his ministers from

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universities, trade unions, business, not from Congress. Here

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we have a limited pool Tippett ministers from and we going to

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shoot -- we are going to shrink back pool. If there will be some

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strange anomalies. It has not decided that Broxtowe, you will be

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sunny across the river? According to some people, I have doubled

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might majority to one hand -- to 760! A that is why you are smiling.

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I must say, we would be honoured to represent the area over the river.

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It is a peculiar twist because it has been plucked out. What matters

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most of all because -- what matters is how the people of the village

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failed. I do not think it is too much... I would not find it a

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problem at all. I thought you might say that. To be truthful, I think

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Coalville, that is a strange one... Let us get back to the Lib Dems and

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the party conference. We all know here in the East Midlands that we

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are the only region without a single Lib Dem MP. Will these

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boundary changes mean that it is even less likely in the future that

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we will get one back? Swings and roundabouts. Of our three best

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seats, two of them have been left untouched. We are close to... There

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will be some Lib Dem areas brought in and if it had not been taken out

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last year, I would still be the MPs. And there is shaking her head. You

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sound positive. We will have to see how the dust settles. There will be

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other parts of the East Midlands that have improved that were not

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winnable. And you were practically wiped out in our region. 43% were

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lost. There was a national swing from asked to Labour in the north

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and the Midlands. That is changing. In Gedling, only on Thursday, there

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was a by-election where our councillor lost -- one by over 100

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votes because the national stuff is settling down and people are going

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back to normal politics. How are people getting on at grassroots?

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a Member of Parliament for an area where we have a council that is a

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Labour and Lib Dem coalition, not a great idea in my opinion, even

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though the Tories are the largest group... Briefly. For I do not have

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a problem because I will work with whatever party. I find a lot in

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common with the Lib Dems and I enjoy working with them, as I do

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with the Tories. I think we are getting on our right? You are in

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the studio! We will leave it there. Thank you very much. If you have

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