02/10/2011 The Politics Show East

Here in the East: As the Conservatives gather in

Manchester for their conference, some of our backbenchers are

squaring up to their leadership. And Dale Farm wins another stay of

execution while these travellers in Milton Keynes fight for their site

Apology for the loss of subtitles for 2146 seconds

Thanks Jon, and welcome to the part of the programme just for us here

in the east. I'm Etholle George. The Conservatives are about to open

their conference in Manchester. Great Yarmouth MP Brandon Lewis was

there as the party faithful arrived. We'll hear from him in a moment.

Later, our Conservatives with some well aimed words for their

leadership. The as the Prime Minister to think it is about time

we told the deputy Prime Minister who is the boss?

And travellers fighting for a site - and no, it's not Dale Farm.

But first, the Conservatives are just about to open their conference

at a time of huge economic uncertainty, so will that dominate

the agenda this week, or will it simply revert to the Tories annual

jamboree? Earlier, I asked Brandon Lewis, the Great Yarmouth MP, who

joined us from the conference centre, whether he had been able to

assess the mood there yet? Yes, I bumped into a few colleagues and

attendees already this morning. People got here last flight and

early today to have a look ahead of the main start of the conference

this afternoon. There is a good attitude at the moment. What have

people been saying? People feel they have a good chance to make

clear what our message is on the economy and the reforms. They are

looking forward to a positive week, hearing what the Cabinet and the

Chancellor and Prime Minister have to say over the next few days.

goes without saying that economic matters are very serious. There has

already been criticism from your own ranks that there is no plan for

growth. Could we see a change of course this week to stimulate

growth? To be fair, the Chancellor has been clear from the beginning

and I fully support his position on dealing with the deficit in making

our foundation solid so we can deal from there. We have been clear from

the beginning that we do want to see growth and are continuing to

look for areas for growth. We want a positive ability to move forward

and see growth in the private sector. What else are you hopes for

this week? We will probably get a good opportunity for people like

the Chancellor to really outline and itemised some of the work that

has been done to see stimulus in the private sector, to outline some

of the ideas we will be looking at over the next few months, because

it is important that we start to see the economy grow. It is growing,

slowly, but we want to see that light at the end of the tunnel. We

want real growth that people can be excited about. Thank you.

There's a growing number of backbenchers straining to unleash

what they regard as true Toryism, frustrated at what they see as the

growing influence of the junior partner. It's likely to be one of

the underlying themes of this year's conference, as Andrew

In recent months at what the -- at Westminster, there has been a faint

whiff of rebellion. In private conversations often late at night,

frustrated backbenchers talk through gritted teeth about their

coalition partners. Sometimes, it gets all too much and may just have

to blow it out how they are feeling. Does the Prime Minister think it is

about time we told the Deputy Prime Minister who is the boss? I think

we need to rebalance. We need to understand the majority of people

voted for the Conservative government and there are policies

they want to see introduced as a result of their votes. A number of

my activists, and I get the impression from my colleagues that

this is relatively widespread, feel that that hail has gained some

muscle and is moving the body of the dog a bit more than it ought to.

In many respects, the Tories are doing well. They hold nearly every

seat in the region, and did very well in the local elections. That

is one reason for the frustration. There are a number of issues where

the sentiment of the Conservative Party and indeed the country seems

to be out of line with the coalition policy. The public and

the Conservative Party are much more spectacle -- sceptical about

the you. Barak the EU. Much more concerned about immigration and law

and order. And certainly very suspicious about the human rights

agenda we have imported into our constitution. These are things the

government will have to address because there is public demand for

it. The Conservatives accept going into coalition has meant making

compromises, but many feel the junior partner is having a bit too

much influence. The Lib Dem conference did little to help.

Sometimes we have to be a bit awkward. As a coalition partners

are finding out on a daily basis, we are not here to make things easy.

We are here to put things right. We're reminding, gently, the Prime

Minister of the position of a sizable section of the party, which

actually numbers more than the Liberals bring to him. I think that

point is worth making. That is not in a rebellious way, it is made in

a way to say, we are here, David. We support you, but we are a

separate to Conservatives and we have a position also that we stand

for. And we need you to take account of that position. So this

week, expect plenty of barbed comments about the Lib Dems and

lots of talk about what the Tory party should be standing for after

the next election. They may be in coalition for the Conservatives do

not want to lose their identity. Now, joining me are the

Conservative MP for South Norfolk, Richard Bacon, and coalition

partner the Lib Dem MP for Colchester, Bob Russell. Are you

aware of the tensions in the party and why do you think the east of

England has more than its fair share of dissenters? Well, there

are a lot of Conservative MPs in a region, that is the first dancer.

As far as your club is concerned, I'm sure there will be some barbed

comments about the Liberal Democrats - there were some

extremely barbed comments about the Conservatives at the Lib Dem

conference last week. That is what you get when it is party conference

season! Adding normal service will be resumed in a few weeks. So I

would not take too much notice of that. The colleagues that you just

filmed are very frank Parliamentary colleagues, I get on with them well

and I have some sympathy with some of the things they were saying. The

message I have for them is if you want more, the answer is to get a

majority Conservative government. And the way to do that is to have a

strong coalition government that delivers economic recovery and then

we can go into the next election in a stronger position. Bob Russell,

your party president said the coalition is a marriage of

convenience and he is preparing for divorce. Are you? I don't know

about the last bit. Where I come from, the Conservatives are my main

opponents. But each political party is a coalition in itself. The last

election did not produce a winner, and, yes, we do have these right-

wing head bangers and the Conservative Party, but my

understanding is that the concerted element of the cabinet and David

Cameron are more at home with having the Lib Dems within the

wider coalition then some of their own Conservative Party MPs in the

Conservative Party coalition. you have been more rebellious in

the coalition. Do you find it frustrating to the way you are?

These are issues. I voted against VAT going up because I think it is

a lousy tax anyway. And they voted against higher tuition fees because

I signed a pledge. But if you look at the record, you find some of the

right wing Tory head bangers have made life more difficult for David

Cameron, and I am sure he and William Hague will be reading

today's Sunday papers and not wanting to have a Conservative

right wing government. They are more content with the coalition

government we have at the moment. I want to stress again, every

political party is a coalition in itself, as we saw last week in the

Labour conference. The economy, is likely to dominate the Conference

surely, with the key issue being deficit reduction versus a plan for

growth. The chairman of the Treasury Select Committee, Andrew

Tyrie, wants radical improvements to what he calls a piecemeal policy,

so you agree? I would not have chosen that phrase. But I don't

think there is an opposition between a plan for growth and

reducing the at -- the deficit. They are part of the same thing.

You cannot borrow your way out of debt, it is as simple as that. The

last government got us into a huge pile of debt by spending too much

money too quickly and also because it lightly regulated the banks. The

result of that is we have to have tight measures to reduce the

deficit. Only when we have made sure that we retain the confidence

of the people overseas we have borrowed the money from all we get

the kind of economic growth we would like to see. There are a lot

of well-placed observers though such as the British Chambers of

Commerce to have said that growth is not sufficient. Everybody would

like to see stronger economic growth. We have had had half a

million jobs created in the private sector. If we can get better rail

links, better road links, better of broadband, and we have money going

into those schemes, we have a new rail franchise, at those are the

things that will enable the government to grow. Bob Russell,

what do you think? The last Labour government to go to the brink of

bankruptcy. I do not relish after all my years of public life having

to vote for spending cuts, that is not what they came into politics

for. But the reality is, if we do not take tough decisions now, it

will get worse. So we have to make this decision. But the root cause

here has to be the last Labour government who spent, spent, spent.

We will come back U-boat shortly. - - to you both.

Now to the fate of the travellers at Dale Farm. A judge at the High

Court has said a decision on the eviction is unlikely before the

middle of next week. The injunctions still stand, so the

council cannot remove people, vans or hard standing from the site near

Basildon...yet. The travellers are hoping for rulings that would make

it unlawful for the eviction to go ahead. But this could be their last

weekend on Dale Farm after a decade long battle with the council. The

case has brought into sharp focus the whole question of the provision

of travellers sites or lack of them. In 1994, John Major's government

abolished the obligation on local authorities to provide sites. By

2000, there was a shortage of legal pitches and an increasing number of

illegal sites. In 2008, Labour reinstated the obligation on

councils to provide pitches. And by 2009, 1,237 new pitches were

proposed on 42 sites around this region. But last year, the

coalition revoked the planning framework overseeing traveller

sites, resulting in the removal of pitch targets. One site in Milton

Keynes had been given the go ahead, only to find that the plans are now

on hold, although �600,000 has already been spent. Here's Maria

Veronese. Being a traveller, it is so hard it

is unbelievable. You have to fight for your rights. We are human until

proven otherwise. If I cut my veins, I will lead! Travellers from Milton

Keynes are angry. �600,000 has been spent on this five acre site. Trees

have been cleared and won �28 million had been set aside to

finish it. But all is a quiet year. 10 permanent pictures were to be

developed here by this time next year. But then Milton Keynes Lib

Dem council was going to stump up the cash while local travellers

paid for rent and council tax. But as you can see, the whole project

has been put on hold. I feel quite angry about it. There is a

demonstrated need in Milton Keynes for a site and we know only too

well from other areas - Basildon, for example - where there been

illegal camps and the problems that can bring. Here, we have the site

which has been agreed as being for the use of travellers and planning

position -- permission has been gained, money has been obtained. It

is just mad to stop building it. am in a house and I am happy to let

somebody else move into it because I am not happy. Within four walls,

I'm cracking up. In a caravan, I am free. Conservatives have not

stopped -- have now started a review. One way is on insulating

houses. We have large disparities in lifespan in some areas and one

reason I am informed by the health services is because housing is in a

poor state of repair. There is no lack of places to spend money if

money was available. Nearby residents are pleased the project

has stalled. If they did move, obviously it would be a job to sell

their property if people knew there was a travellers' site there.

don't want to say the wrong thing, but... They have been known to bend

the rules, shall we say, in helping themselves to other people's

property? This money was one externally in a bid. I think it

should be spent on that. It is difficult for the lay person to see

anything other than discrimination at the heart of why that money

would not be spent on what it was given to us to spend on. Avoiding

seems like they said Dale Farm was the thrust behind the last

government's plans to allow some more sites. Of the existing

permanent pitches, a further 1,200 were in the pipeline. That is an

increase on 70s cent -- an increase of 70%. But the government has

changed its mind although there is still a recognised need for legal

pictures. You need to allow travellers into authorised site so

they are not turning up on parts of the green belt and causing

devastating problems in local communities. So nobody really knows

what is going to happen here. One thing is for certain - 600,000 tax

payer pounds have been spent and there is nothing really tangible to

show for it apart from a few felled trees. In the meantime, the blame

game continues between political opponents. Please, God, our site

will be built for all of our children. That is all I have to say.

Christine Donovan ending that report. A decision following the

review into the future of Fenny Lock is expected in the New Year.

Doesn't this just show how much politics and planning policy

matters? Your coalition scrapped the Regional Spatial Strategy or

RSS which has resulted in plans for travellers sites getting chucked in

the bin. I am very sorry about certain aspects of this. Work

started just a few weeks ago in Colchester on a site. I think it is

the wrong side but work is proceeding. When I was leader of

the council, I'm pleased to say we introduced a travellers' site into

Colchester. Unfortunately, the county council subsequently

withdrew permission and the whole thing went downhill rapidly. But it

is the coalition that has brought this. I recognise that. But we are

a coalition of two parties that come together. The unintended

consequences of what is happening at Milton Keynes is that if they

don't provide the site for which money has been provided - and you

can repeat this for all around the country - is that activities will

go on which will then be a burden on private landowners and on the

police and other agencies. The cost of the public purse will probably

end up being greater than providing proper sites. Richard Bacon, let us

talk about this with regard to the localism bill. There is a great

difficulty in getting these pictures built under the Bill. Many

sections of the public are not in favour of them and it is not a

vote-winner. Councils are under huge financial strain, so things

will not be done. It is interesting you say it is not a vote winner. I

thought the lady who said, a fireman a house, I crack-up, in a

caravan, I feel free. From the travellers' point of view, it is

very important which is not understood by many people,

including vast majority of the settled community. I think

programmes like My Big Fat Gypsy Wedding, which did something to

illustrate the traveller lifestyle, are useful but there is a long way

to go to persuade the settled community to welcome them. Part of

that is the travelling community obeying the law. This is not about

human rights, the you, the United Nations. -- the EU. It appears that

there is one group of people - the travellers and gypsies or some

travellers and gypsies - to think the law is everybody else and not

for them. The law applies to everyone, we should all be judged

before the same courts under the same law. Sort that out and you

have a chance of sorting the other thing out. Bob Russell, is the only

way to go back to statutory obligation? Without that it will

not happen. I think it is a fair point in question. I think yes. We

have seen the example in Milton Keynes. On Dale Farm, I must

mention this predates the current Conservative administration. The