02/10/2011 The Politics Show North East and Cumbria


02/10/2011

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Here in the north: It's 75 years since this - the original Jarrow

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march. This weekend a new generation have set out to recreate

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that 300 mile walk to London. What can they hope to achieve? We'll be

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asking a teenager whose great grandfather was on the original

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Apology for the loss of subtitles for 2150 seconds

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A very warm a welcome to you. This weekend, 75 years on from the

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historic Jarrow crusade, aim other marches on its way to London.

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Unemployed people laughed at Southtown side -- left the South

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Tyneside to protest regeneration of unemployed people. Will be catching

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up with the marchers, but first we will speak to some of those people

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taking part, including one at a teenager whose great grandfather

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was on the original March. It is an unremarkable part of

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Jarrow. Right he will find a bit of history. This is a modern chemical

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works, back in 1936 it was a shipyard. Jarrow was already

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suffering from huge unemployment, that shipyard being cut seemed a

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blow could not recover from. It inspired a determination to send a

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message to central government. October 1936, 200 people from

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Jarrow started a march to London in a protest against unemployment. 75

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years on, people from that this area are following in their

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footsteps. It is very personal Paul one of this year's marches. Lizi

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Gray is a student, but her great grandfather was one of the which 0

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Jarrow march us. It is amazing that he took the initiative to March.

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There was that much of poverty and disease. How could you stand by and

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take it? You are not unemployed? am not in any kind of work. I would

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like to have self-sufficiency. It is not looking that like -- it was

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not looking like that is possible. This girl is also backing for the

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march. She has been unemployed for two years. I apply for jobs every

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week, I do not even get a response. Even for jobs that I have

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experience for. I have been told are not in been shortlisted. You

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can tell yourself it is the economic climate, but you feel

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worthless. Daniel is travelling to the march from his home in Carlisle,

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a graduate, he still cannot find a job. I have been looking for jobs.

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It is not just any, there are fortify graduates chasing every

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vacancy. People like me could become a lost generation without

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prospects. Is there any comparison between the world of the original

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marchers, and modern day Jarrow forced -- modern-day Jarrow? Some

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local politicians have dismissed this new March. This is a political

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stunt. It is not as bad now than it was then. There are problems at the

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moment. These problems were caused by the previous a Labour government,

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they just spent all the money. of people unemployed in the

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original March. Nobody had anything. We live in a society where you

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could be living next to your neighbour who has all the material

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benefits. Unemployment is a little bit more difficult now.

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75 years on, a new generation are heading to London. Paul Lizi Gray,

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a question, what would her great grandfather had made a bit?

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would have wanted to do something - - I think he would have wanted to

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do something. It would have been horrible for him to know that

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people are still having to make this kind of statement. He would

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have thought that would change. The modern-day marches. They wish

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to badly last night, they should be at Durham but by the end of the day

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in. Our reporter joins us from Chester-le-Street.

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We are expecting them to come past at this point in one hour. They

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will be reaching Northallerton, Darlington, before going on to

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cities like Nottingham and Birmingham. They are expected to

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eventually reached Downing Street in five weeks' time. They will hand

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over a petition calling for more jobs and training for young people.

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If they are getting a lot of public support. There was a brass band

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sent off, they have been getting a lot of free accommodation. With me

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now is one of the organisers of the march. What has been the local

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reaction? The local reaction has been incredibly good. We have had

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500 people marching the bus yesterday in Jarrow. People were

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lining the streets. The fact that trade union branches, church halls,

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community centres, it shows the depth of support. We heard

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criticism in our report. They are saying it is a stunt. We understand

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that living standards are a lot better than in the 1930s, but there

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are people unemployed, taxes on education, taxes on the public

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sector, what this government are attending to do is turn the clock

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back. But they are penalising working-class people. What we are

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saying is that we do not want to return to the levels of

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unemployment and poverty that the original marchers faced. Shouldn't

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these young people be looking for work? They have been looking at the

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work, the work is simply not up there at the moment. For every six

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unemployed people there is just one vacancy. These are people who have

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been trying to get work. They have been applying for God knows how

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many jobs per week. We have the government rewarding bankers for

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their mistakes, they caused the crisis, they are brewing at bail-

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out to them. -- throwing. A march organiser, possibly many blisters

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their head. In the week that Labour called for

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bankers bonuses, is the governor doing enough to help today's young

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people? Joining the is Julie Elliott MP, and Councillor Wayne

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Daley. Labour is not involved in this March, should they have been?

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They would have helped if we had been asked. We were not asked.

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There are many problems in the North East, youth unemployment has

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gone up 15 %. Something has to be done. You think this is a

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worthwhile protest? I have no problem with young people trying to

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draw attention to problems that they are facing. They run a lot of

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other things going on. They rise -- them is a lot of lobbying going on.

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The impact that these policies are having on young people. You can see

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why young people are angry, you have graduates are struggling to

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get jobs in Tesco, other people trying to apply in getting nowhere.

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I understand that. It is important to highlight issues. The government

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made a commitment to great 360 by the Prince's -- create 365,000

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apprenticeships. We want to talk about what we are doing to help

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people find jobs. There has been a recession, the important thing to

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remember is that even unemployment is a lot lower than in other

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European countries. He in Spain 44 % of young people are now out of

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work. That is not to say we should sit back and say we are better at

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other places. I do not accept that. The government's strategy is not

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working? Jobs are not been created fast enough. We are in a recession.

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That is thanks to the previous government. We are having to turn

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things around. It is not going to be easy. I am not going to sit here

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pretended will happen overnight. What we are committed to doing is

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that �180 million is going to spend on 365,000 apprenticeships. If we

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want to get people back to work. has a point doesn't he,

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unemployment rose under Labour as well. It was not working?

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future job scheme was working. People want that jobs been back.

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The figures were rising? It was a long-term programme, it was getting

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people back into work. We have lost the working neighbour its fund --

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working in neighbourhoods fund. spend all the money? People in work

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pay taxes. It was not unsustainable. It should have been cut slowly,

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people in work paying taxes. After that, you can cut the deficit. The

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problem is, what we are missing, these rates have risen massively

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from August last year to August of this year. This is not a problem of

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the Labour government, this is a problem of the coalition government.

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With respect, these funds were cut under the previous government. A

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cut is a cut. When Labour came to power there were 600,000 people and

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-- 600,000 young people under work, that had risen to 900,000 under --

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when Labour left power. The future jobs fund was creating jobs, they

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by artificial jobs. What we are going to do with the

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apprenticeships scheme is create more jobs. With the North East

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having the highest unemployment rate, the lowest employment rates,

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should be governed be doing something specific bodies area?

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Absolutely. Do not forget what is being announced today, two big

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schemes, one is freeing up brownfield land. We want to weird

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and like -- re- energise this area. Or every house, we are going to

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build another house. This is a revenue neutral, you sell, you

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build. I want to ask Julie a quick question, the government is doing

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things with the resources they have, do you accept that? They are trying

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to panic -- they are starting to panic. There are some gimmicky

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schemes. There is a gimmick for selling houses. There is no real

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plan, there is a housing crisis in this area. There changes to

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planning regulations are going to stop houses being built. A I do not

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a think they policy adds up. By thank you very much.

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Ed Miliband are like this talk about the squeeze Middle -- likes

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to talk about be squeezed middle. The rising cost the middle -- the

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rising cost of living. MPs in this area think he should be talking

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about people that he should be The Labour conference in 2011,

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plenty of colour, plenty of campaigners. A good bit of red.

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There are a Labour members to believe their party has not been

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read enough in the last the years. One last -- won at North East MP is

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trying to put that right. This is a meeting of the Labour left. A small

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gathering, but they have big ambitions. They want to bury have

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some new Labour policies. Their chairman is from the North East.

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-- 66 % of the population live in households where the income is less

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than �25,000 here, I am rather sceptical about electoral

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arithmetic of chasing the squeeze the middle. There is an opportunity

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to capture the boats are people who did not vote in the last election.

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What does that mean? We do not know for certain until they publish

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their Red Book, but there is a talk of taxing the rich, increasing the

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middle age -- minimum wage, and opening coalmines. There were many

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industries privatise under successive governments, we want to

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renationalise them. There are worries about a new Labour been

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reborn, we feel completely disenfranchised from that. We want

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to see the Labour Party representing people. The North East

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will be wed -- well represented in the Red Book. As well as Grahame

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Morris and Ian Lavery, they're all the other MPs on the region. If you

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stick to fuel and power, these are industries which people would like

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to see nationalised. I we have to move to the founding principles of

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the Labour Party. We have to move on to ground the that we are

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familiar with. Things need to change, by the looks of it, they

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are listening. This is a party in search of a new direction. Even

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those not on the left to save these ideas are welcome, with some

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qualifications. There is an idea that some commentators have, not in

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the party, that Labour lost in 2010 if because they were not a left-

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wing enough. That is why people voted for David Cameron. I think

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that is nonsense. People want the same as they have always wanted,

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economic competence, along with investment in services that matter

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to them. Labour delegates got to bask in an unlikely heatwave. This

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is a party out in the cold. The question is, would making it a

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small red get them back in power? - - more red.

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Do you think Labour has spent too much time talking about the squeeze

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the middle? I do not think there is a disenfranchised with the voters.

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The Labour Party wants to appeal to every type of voter. We are a party

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of aspirations, giving people a fair crack of the whip. There are a

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lot of voters who drifted away? but they were not necessary for the

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low-paid sector of the electorate. People started voting, people did

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not disengage and the political process. That is not entirely true.

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House of abetted you think that Ed Miliband will be to the idea set

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out by the left. We are in a time when there are a lot of ideas.

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There are a lot of ideas, that is exactly where we should be in

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opposition. Looking at the range of ideas and policies.

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renationalisation an idea we should -- you should be looking at?

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might be an idea that some people are attached to romantically, it is

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not realistic. Given the current state of the economy, voters may be

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in a mood for some renationalisation, they might one

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some control over the power companies? Far be it from me to

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stop the Labour party contemplating electoral suicide! I think voters

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might look at that, and look at their power rates going up, but

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looking at renationalisation, Pollock -- politicians deciding

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when you get power, it does not work. It is not part of the real

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world. Labour needs to take some lessons from us when we lost power,

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and stop trying to appeal from the low -- appealed to the lowest

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common denominator. The reason that you lost it is because he neglected

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the majority of people in this country. He say that, but your

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party did not win the last election! A market economy with

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bankers has failed us, there is no sign that that economic system is

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doing us particularly well? It is exactly the same across the world.

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I do not a pink nationalisation, S doing a Michael Foot suicide notes,

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that is not the answer. If we need to get the banks back into profit.

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Julie Elliott, is an air of danger you are going to come up with

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policies that appeal to party members, but not to be public?

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would not support policies that appeal to a small group of people,

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or idea -- I think you need to appeal to a broad majority. We want

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to appeal to everybody. Thank you very much. That is all

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