Browse content similar to 26/06/2011. Check below for episodes and series from the same categories and more!
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And in the North West: "Preparing for the fight of their | :00:42. | :00:45. | |
lives." In the week that Unison threaten widespread strike action, | :00:45. | :00:47. | |
we'll be reporting from their annual conference in Manchester. | :00:48. | :00:51. | |
And justice for Jane. The family of a murdered Lancashire nurse take | :00:51. | :01:01. | |
:01:01. | :01:01. | ||
Apology for the loss of subtitles for 2512 seconds | :01:01. | :42:54. | |
Hello and welcome to The Politics Show in the North West. I'm at | :42:54. | :43:01. | |
Manchester Central - the venue of this year's Unison conference. It | :43:01. | :43:06. | |
is all over now but throughout the week, 2000 delegates have been here. | :43:06. | :43:09. | |
The message from them was very clear. | :43:09. | :43:12. | |
If this government fails to heed our warnings to negotiate in good | :43:12. | :43:21. | |
faith, I say to David Cameron, you ain't seen nothing yet. | :43:21. | :43:24. | |
Also in the programme: Justice for Jane. We'll be hearing from the | :43:24. | :43:26. | |
family of a murdered Lancashire nurse taking their campaign to | :43:26. | :43:29. | |
Westminster. And a woman on a mission. Meet the | :43:29. | :43:31. | |
historian raising money for a statue of Seaforth's most famous | :43:31. | :43:40. | |
But first, "preparing for the fight of our lives", "sustained strike | :43:40. | :43:43. | |
action" and "a wretched government". Just some of the statements to come | :43:43. | :43:48. | |
out of this week's Unison conference here in Manchester. | :43:48. | :43:50. | |
Members of the UK's largest public sector union, including nurses, | :43:50. | :43:53. | |
social workers and paramedics, have threatened the biggest outbreak of | :43:53. | :43:55. | |
industrial unrest since the 1926 General Strike over changes to | :43:55. | :44:05. | |
:44:05. | :44:07. | ||
their pension schemes. They're all the air campaign on | :44:07. | :44:12. | |
strike action without precedent. Yes, we hope for the best. Yes, we | :44:12. | :44:18. | |
will negotiate. But we plan for the worst, and our preparations are | :44:18. | :44:25. | |
well advanced. But there is much more to do. And today, this is our | :44:25. | :44:31. | |
union's call to arms. Fighting talk from Dave Prentis, | :44:31. | :44:34. | |
the general secretary of Unison, and he is with me now. Thank you | :44:34. | :44:40. | |
for joining us today. We are in Manchester, the heartland of the | :44:40. | :44:45. | |
Union Movement. What have your members been saying to you? The big | :44:45. | :44:49. | |
issues over the last week were the massive cutback in jobs, 500,000 | :44:49. | :44:56. | |
jobs to go from our public services. We had a massive debate not just on | :44:56. | :45:01. | |
public services but on the private sector. One of the big issues is | :45:01. | :45:06. | |
public sector pensions. You are in negotiations with the Government on | :45:06. | :45:13. | |
that on Monday. The straw that breaks the camel's back is what | :45:13. | :45:17. | |
this coalition is trying to dig to public service pension schemes. | :45:17. | :45:21. | |
They are not gold plated. The biggest is the local government | :45:21. | :45:28. | |
pension scheme. On average, most people are women and the average | :45:29. | :45:35. | |
they get is �54 a week. It is not a king's ransom. If she saves all her | :45:35. | :45:41. | |
life for that and if she had not paid in, she would go back on | :45:41. | :45:46. | |
benefits. Is your official line that you are negotiating? We are | :45:46. | :45:50. | |
negotiating tomorrow. It is the final meeting. The Cabinet Office | :45:50. | :45:54. | |
have made it clear so far that they do not want any further meetings. | :45:54. | :45:58. | |
We are expecting them to row back from what Danny Alexander said over | :45:58. | :46:03. | |
a week ago when he announced a 50% increase in contributions, | :46:03. | :46:08. | |
everybody would have to work longer, especially women, and we want him | :46:08. | :46:11. | |
to row back from those silly statements. If we do not get a | :46:11. | :46:16. | |
negotiated settlement, we are moving into industrial action. | :46:16. | :46:19. | |
what has been coming out of the conference is pretty strong | :46:19. | :46:22. | |
rhetoric. You have been saying things like unprecedented strike | :46:22. | :46:26. | |
action, so it sounds like you have already made your minds up. If it | :46:26. | :46:30. | |
gets to a point when you think that the negotiations have been running | :46:30. | :46:35. | |
publicly through the media, the talks we have had over the last | :46:35. | :46:39. | |
four months have come to nothing, obviously we only take industrial | :46:39. | :46:42. | |
action as a final resort. Our members provide a caring services. | :46:42. | :46:46. | |
We know that our members want that industrial action ballot now. | :46:46. | :46:50. | |
you get into a long and protracted fight with the government, have | :46:50. | :46:55. | |
your members got the stomach for the fight? We have over 1 million | :46:55. | :46:58. | |
women members and they are really up for this flight. They have seen | :46:58. | :47:02. | |
their jobs going, they have seen the pay freeze, they have seen all | :47:02. | :47:06. | |
the excesses of the bankers, and to have their pensions taken away is a | :47:07. | :47:11. | |
final straw. When we talk about it being bigger than the general | :47:11. | :47:15. | |
strike, just factual. 700,000 public sector workers will be | :47:15. | :47:20. | |
taking action on 30th June. We will be balloting 1.2 million workers. | :47:20. | :47:26. | |
We will get a yes vote for action. It will be absolutely enormous. | :47:26. | :47:30. | |
you support the teachers on Thursday, but what about health | :47:30. | :47:34. | |
workers, paramedics and nurses? Would you support them going out on | :47:34. | :47:41. | |
strike? They are our members. Our members will not walk away from | :47:41. | :47:46. | |
patients. We will make sure that patients are safeguarded. But we | :47:46. | :47:51. | |
will be taking effective action to out our health care services and | :47:51. | :47:55. | |
our local community services. We are also looking for public support. | :47:55. | :47:59. | |
That has changed over the last week. You may say that the rhetoric has | :47:59. | :48:04. | |
been hard. We did a survey 10 days ago. 65% of the public or against | :48:04. | :48:09. | |
unions taking action over pensions. By the end of our conference, the | :48:09. | :48:15. | |
latest ballot has shown it is split 48% in favour, 48% against. We are | :48:15. | :48:18. | |
winning the argument and that is really important. This coalition | :48:18. | :48:22. | |
has got to realise that there are so many people involved, there will | :48:22. | :48:25. | |
be sapped much support for them that it will hit them in the ballot | :48:25. | :48:29. | |
box as well. We shall see. Thank you very much for joining us. | :48:29. | :48:32. | |
Jane Clough was brutally murdered by her ex-partner almost a year ago. | :48:32. | :48:36. | |
At the time, he was on bail charged with raping her. Jane's parents say | :48:36. | :48:39. | |
she was badly let down by the legal system and should still be alive | :48:39. | :48:43. | |
today. They're now being backed by their local MP who is highlighting | :48:43. | :48:45. | |
their campaign in Parliament. Here's our political editor Arif | :48:45. | :48:55. | |
:48:55. | :48:57. | ||
Ansari. Jane was so considerate, so nothing, | :48:57. | :49:06. | |
so generous with her love, her friends, everybody thought so much | :49:07. | :49:09. | |
of her and she always had time for everybody. | :49:09. | :49:13. | |
26-year-old nurse Jane Clough was stabbed to death in the car park of | :49:13. | :49:15. | |
Blackpool Victoria Hospital in July last year. Her killer was Jonathan | :49:16. | :49:20. | |
Vass - her ex-partner and the father of her baby. He was on bail, | :49:20. | :49:30. | |
charged with rape. Jane's death was completely preventable. It is | :49:30. | :49:34. | |
completely inconceivable to asked an to anybody we have spoken to, | :49:34. | :49:41. | |
really, why bail was granted a with the number of charges levelled at | :49:41. | :49:46. | |
him. Nine counts of rape and four counts of assault. Vass was granted | :49:46. | :49:49. | |
bail in December 2009 on the condition he stayed away from Jane | :49:49. | :49:57. | |
Clough. But her diary shows she was living in fear. I have been | :49:57. | :50:02. | |
worrying today about Johnny coming to get me, even killing me. If he | :50:02. | :50:06. | |
is found guilty when he is released waiting sentence, what will stop | :50:06. | :50:10. | |
him? He is probably going to blame me. Most people are raped by people | :50:10. | :50:15. | |
they know, so a fat person is given bail, they are going to know where | :50:15. | :50:18. | |
they live. Maybe that is something they would be taking him to | :50:18. | :50:23. | |
consider -- consideration. The Bail Act presumes people shall be | :50:23. | :50:25. | |
granted bail, except in specific circumstances. The office | :50:25. | :50:35. | |
:50:35. | :50:42. | ||
But Jane's family say she was let down by the legal system and the | :50:42. | :50:52. | |
:50:52. | :50:52. | ||
law needs changing. When a bill decision is made by the judge, it | :50:52. | :50:57. | |
seems that only the person in front of him matters. The victim has no | :50:57. | :51:01. | |
part in this bail decision. problem is that at that stage of | :51:01. | :51:06. | |
the proceedings, very often we don't know who the victim is. So I | :51:06. | :51:12. | |
think there is far too much almost hysteria surrounding this concept | :51:12. | :51:19. | |
of victim's rights, victims should and do have rights, but very often | :51:19. | :51:23. | |
until the trial is completed, we don't know who the victim is. | :51:23. | :51:29. | |
the Clough family have vowed to keep on campaigning. People who | :51:29. | :51:33. | |
write the laws, from our point of view, tend to be too professional | :51:33. | :51:37. | |
and dispatched and look at things in black and white. We need some | :51:37. | :51:43. | |
human touch in these decisions. And until that comes, the world is not | :51:43. | :51:47. | |
going to get any better. Let's discuss this further. I am | :51:47. | :51:52. | |
joined by Andrew Stephenson, the Conservative MP for Pendle. You | :51:52. | :51:56. | |
actually want the law changed. I think this case highlights a need | :51:56. | :52:01. | |
to change the law, to ensure the prosecution has the right of appeal | :52:01. | :52:05. | |
in a Bell case. I think if the law had been that way, when Jonathan | :52:05. | :52:10. | |
Vass was granted bail, he simply would not have been granted bail. | :52:10. | :52:14. | |
Just explain precisely how the law would be different. Basically, what | :52:15. | :52:19. | |
my Bill proposes is that the prosecution, in this case the CPS, | :52:19. | :52:25. | |
who were working on the family's behalf, when they found Jonathan | :52:25. | :52:28. | |
Vass had been granted bail, they would have been able to appeal the | :52:28. | :52:32. | |
decision and hopefully get it overturned. We know from the | :52:32. | :52:35. | |
transcripts that it would have been overturned and Jonathan Bass would | :52:35. | :52:39. | |
have been kept inside. I think this highlights a problem in the legal | :52:39. | :52:44. | |
system. If you are detained by the police, you can appeal time and | :52:44. | :52:49. | |
time again to be granted bail. Yet if you are the victim, you have no | :52:49. | :52:54. | |
right of appeal. If the person who has done very stings against is | :52:54. | :52:58. | |
granted bail, you have no right to appeal. So any case like this, we | :52:59. | :53:02. | |
really do believe the prosecution should have the right to appeal and | :53:02. | :53:05. | |
be up to say that people like Jonathan Vass should be kept behind | :53:05. | :53:11. | |
bars awaiting their court cases. But there is a real danger of | :53:11. | :53:16. | |
changing the law on the basis of a very tragic case but quite an | :53:16. | :53:19. | |
exceptional one. That is right. When you look at this case, there | :53:19. | :53:23. | |
is a whole range of issues coming out of it. Whether we should look | :53:23. | :53:27. | |
at the way that judges behave, whether we should look at a bail | :53:27. | :53:32. | |
proceedings in this country. I have spent a long time working with the | :53:32. | :53:35. | |
family thinking about what is the most appropriate way to take this | :53:35. | :53:40. | |
forward. I have been speaking to MPs and others and I have 40 or 50 | :53:40. | :53:44. | |
who are backing me to say that in a case like this the prosecution | :53:44. | :53:48. | |
should have the right to say, hang on a minute, we think the judge has | :53:48. | :53:55. | |
got this wrong. At the moment that right does not exist. Thank-you. Mr | :53:55. | :54:00. | |
Stearman son's Ten Minute Rule Bill will be introduced into the House | :54:00. | :54:04. | |
of Commons on Tuesday. Now for the latest in our series | :54:04. | :54:06. | |
looking at moments in medical history. The NHS was formally | :54:07. | :54:10. | |
launched in the North West in a Trafford hospital 63 years ago. As | :54:10. | :54:12. | |
Gill Dummigan reports, it's a hospital which today finds itself | :54:13. | :54:22. | |
:54:23. | :54:29. | ||
In 1948, a radical new idea arrived in Britain. | :54:29. | :54:32. | |
On July 5th, the new National Health Service starts, providing | :54:33. | :54:38. | |
hospital and specialist services, medicines, drugs and appliances... | :54:38. | :54:41. | |
It was the brainchild of Health Secretary Nye Bevan and he chose | :54:41. | :54:44. | |
Park Hospital in Trafford to launch it. Britain's first NHS patient was | :54:44. | :54:47. | |
13-year-old Sylvia Diggory. She'd already spent months in what was | :54:47. | :54:50. | |
then a local authority hospital, being treated for a kidney | :54:50. | :55:00. | |
:55:00. | :55:00. | ||
condition. A very exciting day. It lightened the life in the hospital. | :55:00. | :55:04. | |
There was a very sudden appearance of the man. So everybody had to | :55:04. | :55:08. | |
rush round. It was very interesting. This leaflet is coming through your | :55:08. | :55:13. | |
letterbox one day soon. The NHS was part of a package of social reform | :55:13. | :55:16. | |
gifted to a war-weary Britain. Before then, people often had to | :55:16. | :55:18. | |
plead their case to get free hospital care and, crucially, many | :55:19. | :55:26. | |
had to pay to see a GP. People could consult their doctor in the | :55:26. | :55:29. | |
first place because they could not afford the doctor and therefore | :55:29. | :55:35. | |
never had access to secondary care. So it was there that the great | :55:35. | :55:39. | |
social injustice was being perpetrated. The scheme is | :55:39. | :55:42. | |
comprehensive. It is not only to help you when you are real but to | :55:42. | :55:45. | |
help keep you well. Unsurprisingly, the new NHS became massively | :55:45. | :55:48. | |
popular. The hope was that it would improve the nation's health so | :55:48. | :55:52. | |
radically, demand to treat the sick might actually drop. But fast | :55:52. | :55:58. | |
forward to 2011 and demand for the NHS is as high as ever. And Park | :55:58. | :56:00. | |
Hospital? It's now Trafford General, run by Trafford Healthcare Trust, | :56:01. | :56:10. | |
:56:11. | :56:12. | ||
which can no longer afford to go it alone. It is a small district | :56:12. | :56:16. | |
hospital and over the last three years, hospitals have become | :56:16. | :56:20. | |
specialised or become more closer to home. More services are being | :56:20. | :56:24. | |
delivered elsewhere and so our size has reduced. We are no longer | :56:24. | :56:34. | |
:56:34. | :56:37. | ||
viable independent labels stop -- Independent. The trust has invited | :56:37. | :56:44. | |
neighbouring, larger trusts to take it over. We are confident that we | :56:44. | :56:48. | |
will get bids. The deadline was Friday. If for any reason no other | :56:48. | :56:55. | |
trust can take Trafford on, it will be offered to a private bidder. | :56:55. | :56:59. | |
What would you say to people who are campaigning now, saying this is | :56:59. | :57:03. | |
the birthplace of the NHS, it is fundamentally wrong to be taken | :57:03. | :57:08. | |
over potentially by a private company? We have always said that | :57:08. | :57:12. | |
our preferred option is to be taken over by a foundation Trust. We are | :57:12. | :57:15. | |
hopeful that will happen. Sylvia Diggory became a lifelong champion | :57:15. | :57:19. | |
of the NHS and was delighted when her son became a GP. Under the new | :57:19. | :57:27. | |
NHS, he's now having to make tough decisions about what he can fund. | :57:27. | :57:34. | |
What do you think your mother would say about what is going on now? | :57:34. | :57:38. | |
was a wartime generation and so the concept of rationing was more clear | :57:38. | :57:43. | |
to them than to me, so I think she would be pragmatic about the | :57:43. | :57:46. | |
financial constraints and supportive of people making this | :57:46. | :57:50. | |
difficult decisions. Joining me now is Professor Colin | :57:50. | :57:56. | |
Talbot from the Manchester Business School. The funding of the NHS and | :57:56. | :58:00. | |
hospitals is not nearly as simple as it was 63 years ago and it could | :58:00. | :58:05. | |
get more complicated. Absolutely. Up until about 20 years ago, we had | :58:05. | :58:09. | |
a very simple system where money cascaded from the Department of | :58:09. | :58:11. | |
Health through regions and districts down to individual | :58:12. | :58:15. | |
hospitals and family health services. Starting about 20 years | :58:15. | :58:20. | |
ago, it got more complicated. It is going to get even more complicated | :58:20. | :58:23. | |
under the new system the Government is introducing because of the | :58:23. | :58:26. | |
changes they have made to legislation. It is not clear how it | :58:26. | :58:30. | |
is going to operate. If you don't understand it, I'm not sure what | :58:30. | :58:33. | |
hope there is for the rest of us, but are some hospitals at threat of | :58:33. | :58:39. | |
closure? The general view is that there are probably around 20 | :58:39. | :58:42. | |
General Hospitals at least within England that are financially | :58:42. | :58:49. | |
performing badly and are probably not needed because of the changing | :58:49. | :58:54. | |
pattern of health care provision and a lot more can be provided in | :58:54. | :58:57. | |
GP surgeries. It is difficult to say how many will close but some | :58:57. | :59:03. | |
will. Our PFI hospitals more at risk? They have to find the money | :59:04. | :59:09. | |
to pay their private partners. Bearing a strange position. Some of | :59:09. | :59:12. | |
them are suffering financially because they're having to pay | :59:12. | :59:15. | |
awards that are rented because they don't need them any longer. But at | :59:15. | :59:19. | |
the same time, they have 30 year contracts so it is buried difficult | :59:19. | :59:24. | |
to such bash to shut them down. It says some of those 20 hospitals in | :59:24. | :59:27. | |
financial difficulty a PFI hospitals but they will probably be | :59:27. | :59:31. | |
protected because they have PFI contracts. Are more hospitals going | :59:31. | :59:35. | |
to find themselves in the position where perhaps Trafford does were | :59:35. | :59:38. | |
they looking for other partners to take them over? I think a lot of | :59:39. | :59:41. | |
hospitals are going to have to look carefully at where they get their | :59:41. | :59:46. | |
funding streams and how they maintain themselves in the future. | :59:46. | :59:49. | |
What ever the system the Government introduces, it will be more | :59:49. | :59:52. | |
competitive than we have had up to now and it will be more difficult | :59:52. | :59:56. | |
for hospitals to get hold of the resources to keep them going. | :59:56. | :59:59. | |
you for joining us. Born in Liverpool in 1809, William | :00:00. | :00:02. | |
Gladstone has the record for being Britain's oldest serving prime | :00:02. | :00:06. | |
minister. He held the post four times, more than any other person. | :00:06. | :00:09. | |
And now a historian from his home town is raising money for a | :00:09. | :00:12. | |
permanent statue of Seaforth's most famous resident. Leanne Harper | :00:12. | :00:22. | |
:00:22. | :00:31. | ||
This is Rodney Street in Liverpool city centre and is here where | :00:31. | :00:34. | |
William Gladstone was born. But what many people don't realise is | :00:34. | :00:41. | |
that he spent most of his chartered down the road in C four. -- most of | :00:41. | :00:47. | |
his childhood down the road in Seaforth. A lot of the you just | :00:47. | :00:50. | |
don't know Ruhi years. But the older generation, yes. Who is | :00:50. | :00:58. | |
William Gladstone? This woman wants that to change. Because Gladstone | :00:58. | :01:04. | |
lived in C four for 17 years, I decided to get a memorial to him. | :01:04. | :01:11. | |
The motivation I had in the first place was to make everybody think | :01:11. | :01:16. | |
well of Seaforth. I love Seaforth and I want everyone else to love it. | :01:16. | :01:21. | |
The bronze bust of a stone which will sit on a stone column has been | :01:21. | :01:26. | |
made by Liverpool sculpture. -- Dr. It has been on display in a nearby | :01:26. | :01:30. | |
jewellers. It has already attracted a lot of attention. It took a lot | :01:30. | :01:33. | |
longer to dress the Winder than we had hoped because people kept | :01:33. | :01:37. | |
stopping to look in and we had to stop every time they did. But the | :01:38. | :01:42. | |
memorial does not come cheap. So far �10,000 of the �18,000 needed | :01:42. | :01:46. | |
has been raised, including a special donation. The first | :01:46. | :01:52. | |
donation I had was from Sir William Gladstone of pardon Castle. He is | :01:52. | :01:57. | |
the great-grandson. When I wrote to tell him what I was doing, he said | :01:57. | :02:04. | |
he was delighted, and so he sent me �1,000. The memorial will | :02:04. | :02:08. | |
eventually overlook where Gladstone went to school. He will then be | :02:08. | :02:15. | |
facing exactly the site of St Thomas's Church, which his father | :02:15. | :02:19. | |
built. He wrote in his diary when he was nine, I hope that my father | :02:19. | :02:26. | |
will bequeath this church to me because I love it so much. Brenda | :02:26. | :02:30. | |
Marriott hopes it will not be too long before Gladstone returns to | :02:30. | :02:34. | |
his childhood home and is revived in people's memories for all stop | :02:34. | :02:38. | |
That's all we have time for. There's no programme next week | :02:38. | :02:41. |