:01:09. > :01:13.Later in the programme: After a referendum and election a euro zone
:01:13. > :01:18.crisis and an economy on the break, how was 2011 for you?
:01:18. > :01:28.We look back on the political year with representatives from our four
:01:28. > :01:28.
:01:28. > :31:34.Apology for the loss of subtitles for 1806 seconds
:31:35. > :31:38.Hello and welcome to the final Politics Show Wales. Stay with us
:31:38. > :31:42.for the next half-an-hour. It's our end-of-year show. We thought we'd
:31:42. > :31:45.take a look back at 2011 and also try to work out where we'll all be
:31:45. > :31:48.going in 2012, especially at a time when the winter chill is running
:31:48. > :31:53.through the economy. We have representatives from the four main
:31:53. > :31:57.parties - a party chairwoman, an AM and MP and an MEP. Sadly even
:31:57. > :32:00.though it's Christmas, there's no Lord-a-leaping.
:32:00. > :32:09.Anyway back to 2011. Here's our reporter Adrian Browne's snapshot
:32:09. > :32:15.of the past 12 months. His report does contain some flash photography.
:32:15. > :32:21.As 2011 started, Wales did its way through the big freeze. The
:32:21. > :32:25.financial freeze has stayed with us. Vat jumped to 20% and was quickly
:32:25. > :32:32.reflected in petrol prices. George Osborne twice told MPs that
:32:33. > :32:40.economic growth forecasts had been slashed. The euro-zone sclerosis
:32:40. > :32:44.escalated and Wales's MEPs hope to way through could be found. In
:32:44. > :32:51.spring along came one of those Welsh devolution referendum
:32:51. > :32:57.campaigns that tend to crop up every 15 years or so. A resounding
:32:57. > :33:06.Yes vote for more law-making powers for the National Assembly was one,
:33:06. > :33:15.albeit on a poor turnout. Later Cheryl Gillan launched a commission
:33:15. > :33:19.to consider devolving tax-raising powers. The first election saw the
:33:19. > :33:28.Labour Party secured 30 out of 60 seats in Cardiff Bay. There was no
:33:28. > :33:35.return for the Labour/Plaid Cymru Coalition. There was a long
:33:36. > :33:41.farewell to the leader of Plaid Cymru. Conservatives leapfrog them
:33:41. > :33:48.to become the assembly's second biggest party. Their leader also
:33:48. > :33:52.lost his seat. He was replaced. The Welsh Liberal Democrats lost one of
:33:52. > :33:57.their six seats to Labour. Their leader, Kirsty Williams, suffered
:33:57. > :34:04.the indignity of having two of her AMs suspended because they were not
:34:04. > :34:12.eligible to stand for election. One was reinstated and the other
:34:12. > :34:16.replaced. Carwyn Jones's programme included 500 new police community
:34:16. > :34:21.support officers and increased access to GP services. The
:34:22. > :34:25.opposition asked whether meaningful targets were? A new compulsory 5p
:34:25. > :34:29.charge for carrier bags was the most talked about was government
:34:29. > :34:34.policy of the year. The Liberal Democrats gave the Welsh government
:34:34. > :34:38.the numbers needed to get the budget through in return for an
:34:38. > :34:42.extra �20 million for the poorest school pupils. Lib Dems were
:34:42. > :34:47.accused of seeking to distance themselves from the UK government
:34:47. > :34:51.partnership with the Conservatives before local elections next year.
:34:51. > :34:59.That Coalition at Westminster spaced public sector strikes over
:34:59. > :35:05.pension changes a summer riots across English towns and cities.
:35:05. > :35:11.Euro crisis summits came and went under pressure on David Cameron
:35:11. > :35:15.with his pro European Lib Dem Coalition partners on the one side
:35:15. > :35:20.and Euro-sceptics on the other increased. His decision to veto
:35:20. > :35:23.treaty changes leaves Britain's relationship with the heel
:35:23. > :35:28.uncertainty say the least. After the bitter blow of losing a
:35:28. > :35:37.referendum on changing the way MPs are elected, Nick Clegg continued
:35:37. > :35:43.to argue plans such as limiting senior executive pay it was a price
:35:43. > :35:50.worth paying. At the Labour front line at Westminster united in
:35:50. > :35:57.opposing plans to cut the number of Welsh MPs from 40 to 30. As 2011
:35:57. > :36:02.draws to a close, there are 16,000 job vacancies advertised at
:36:02. > :36:07.Jobcentre Plus in Wales. The bad news is the country has 137,000
:36:07. > :36:15.people who are unemployed with few forecasters predicting the economic
:36:15. > :36:23.gloom will lift any time soon. Who are the winners and losers in
:36:23. > :36:26.2011 and what will shape the political landscape in 2012? Plenty
:36:26. > :36:29.to discuss with the Plaid Cymru Chairwoman Helen Mary Jones, Labour
:36:29. > :36:33.AM Jenny Rathbone, Jenny Willott MP from the Liberal Democrats and Kay
:36:33. > :36:37.Swinburne the Conservative MEP. The economy has been the most
:36:37. > :36:40.talked-about subject in the political year. Who's blame is it?
:36:40. > :36:44.It is a national crisis but we had a Labour government he did not
:36:44. > :36:49.regulate the bankers properly and they ran wild. They played ducks
:36:49. > :36:53.and Drakes with our pensions and the jobs in the future. None of the
:36:53. > :36:57.political parties can hold their heads up high on this. What do we
:36:57. > :37:02.need to do? Plaid Cymru is of the view that the level of austerity
:37:02. > :37:06.and public spending cuts that we are facing, while it might keep
:37:06. > :37:11.international bankers happy, risk driving us into a double-dip
:37:11. > :37:15.recession. We must be very careful unless we that is where we end up.
:37:15. > :37:20.We want to see the Welsh government and the UK government investing in
:37:20. > :37:23.infrastructure to provide jobs and facilitate the economy for the
:37:23. > :37:28.future. We are disappointed the Liberal Democrats did not support
:37:28. > :37:32.our call for extra money in the Welsh budget. Unless we get people
:37:32. > :37:39.working public services will suffer. We face a very difficult situation.
:37:39. > :37:44.It is absolutely clear that since 2008, we have had a real challenge
:37:44. > :37:48.to regulate the banks. We have a completely skewed economy. We
:37:48. > :37:53.desperately need to revive our manufacturing sector. We will not
:37:53. > :37:58.be able to do that unless we have a better control on how our finances
:37:58. > :38:05.are spent. It is a disappointing that David Cameron has walked away
:38:05. > :38:11.from Europe which is where most of our trade is done. The situation
:38:11. > :38:15.looks absolutely dire. You have got to acknowledge that your party had
:38:15. > :38:20.15 years are when they could have regulated banks and invested in
:38:20. > :38:26.manufacturing and economy and got the banks under control and they
:38:26. > :38:32.didn't. I think Labour has agreed that we should have regulated the
:38:32. > :38:38.financial sector. None of the other parties were saying that we needed
:38:38. > :38:41.to regulate it... That is absolutely not true at all! Vince
:38:41. > :38:46.Cable was saying for years that we needed to regulate the financial
:38:46. > :38:49.sector better. Everybody knew outside of the Government. It was
:38:49. > :38:55.quite clear there was a growing problem and Vince Cable was saying
:38:55. > :38:59.for a long time before the crisis. As somebody who deals with economic
:38:59. > :39:04.monetary affairs on behalf of the Conservatives, most of this is not
:39:04. > :39:09.a UK function. It is a single market function of Europe summit is
:39:09. > :39:14.the Europeans that regulate the banks and we regulates it --
:39:14. > :39:18.implemented. It was Europe that got it wrong. It is a single market
:39:19. > :39:27.issue. The regulation comes from Brussels. I deal with the
:39:27. > :39:32.legislation day in day out. We need to be very careful about the blame.
:39:32. > :39:39.It has to be a regulation rather put -- in has been directed rather
:39:39. > :39:45.than a regulation. Let us look at some Welsh specific issues such as
:39:45. > :39:52.the rate of unemployment. How do we deal with unemployment which is
:39:52. > :39:56.rising, especially youth unemployment. In our view we have
:39:56. > :39:59.to be investing in the economy, in economic development here in Wales.
:39:59. > :40:03.We must spend more on the infrastructure but in fairness the
:40:03. > :40:07.Welsh government has had its capital budget stuck -- cut so it
:40:07. > :40:11.is hard for them to do it. Winnie the economy to be made a priority
:40:11. > :40:16.but the government has barely done anything. You had this idea that
:40:16. > :40:21.would create 50,000 new jobs and your manifesto is based on the
:40:21. > :40:25.principle and idea. The Welsh come to -- the world public did not vote.
:40:25. > :40:28.There are all sorts of reasons why we did not do well in the election.
:40:28. > :40:32.It is interesting that the SNP government in Scotland is
:40:33. > :40:37.implementing something very similar to our programme so it will be
:40:37. > :40:41.interesting to see if that enables them to have a good influence on
:40:41. > :40:45.the economy. We know there are international and UK wide issues
:40:45. > :40:50.but there are things that devolved administrations can do and it is
:40:50. > :41:00.disappointing to see the Welsh Labour government beat so moribund
:41:00. > :41:05.on the economy. The assembly are hoping to get 42,000 people into --
:41:05. > :41:10.more people into jobs but we must do more. We must do all manner of
:41:11. > :41:15.things. We put �50,000 into creating the Welsh jobs fund and
:41:15. > :41:20.his apprenticeship schemes. At the end of the day we only have the
:41:20. > :41:24.resources we get from Westminster. Our tools are limited. We have to
:41:24. > :41:30.protect and preserve as far as we can be Welsh economy from the storm
:41:30. > :41:35.that is coming, both from the UK government and from Europe. One of
:41:35. > :41:39.the most promising things that we are doing is the learning and
:41:39. > :41:44.skills measure that will improve the training that people are
:41:44. > :41:49.getting which is much more focused on the jobs that are available and
:41:49. > :41:55.the needs of manufacturing industry. You pointed out in your piece
:41:55. > :42:01.earlier that there were 6,000 jobs and 130,000 people on the dole. We
:42:02. > :42:07.need to fill those 6,000 jobs but the key has to be to attract more
:42:07. > :42:13.investment into Wales, to rebuild our manufacturing industry so that
:42:13. > :42:18.we can actually sell to Europe and further afield... The Liberal
:42:18. > :42:23.Democrats supported the Budget because you got �20 million for the
:42:23. > :42:30.most disadvantaged children in our schools but that was not the people
:42:30. > :42:35.premium that you're asking for which was in your manifesto. It is
:42:35. > :42:39.a version of it. There was also investment in apprenticeships.
:42:39. > :42:43.concentrate so closely on the money for school children when the
:42:43. > :42:47.obvious crisis is the economy and a lack of growth and a lack of jobs.
:42:48. > :42:54.One of the biggest problems in the Welsh system is a lack of skills
:42:54. > :42:57.among slung people and a lack of proper education... What about the
:42:57. > :43:00.people you do not have jobs? That is where I said that some of
:43:00. > :43:05.Baroness more went into increasing apprenticeships. In England there
:43:05. > :43:09.have been significant investment in apprenticeships and it is starting
:43:09. > :43:13.to see a big difference in some areas, particularly where there are
:43:13. > :43:16.deprived communities where there has been heavy investment. It is
:43:16. > :43:20.really important that we do not just look at the current situation
:43:20. > :43:23.but we look to the future as well to ensure that the current group of
:43:24. > :43:28.children who are going through our schools do not come out and face
:43:28. > :43:32.the same problems that the current pupils do. We are tackling youth
:43:32. > :43:36.unemployment for those who are 18 to 24 now but we are also tackling
:43:36. > :43:39.the problem with the skills gap and making an -- making sure your own
:43:39. > :43:43.people from disadvantaged communities have a better chance to
:43:43. > :43:47.get work and build successful careers. One way of creating jobs
:43:47. > :43:53.is through capital spending but we know the money coming from
:43:53. > :43:59.Westminster has been slashed. Why is there enough money to cut the
:43:59. > :44:05.tolls on the Humber Bridge for a �500 million tunnel through the
:44:05. > :44:13.Chiltern Hills when there seems to be no money to extend roads to
:44:13. > :44:16.Swansea and/tolls on Welsh bridges. It seems that Wales is at a
:44:16. > :44:20.disadvantage. I would disagree that that is the case. It is all based
:44:20. > :44:25.on a business case that has been put forward. The Welsh Office are
:44:25. > :44:30.putting forward a case for Wales, in terms of extra investment
:44:30. > :44:34.priorities, particularly electrification of the line and
:44:34. > :44:38.potentially the Swansea link as well. Outside of that we have
:44:38. > :44:43.something we can do immediately in Wales. We have not spent half of
:44:43. > :44:48.the structural funds available to us. That is over �1 billion that we
:44:48. > :44:52.still have to spend. Why not read a wreck that money now into economic
:44:52. > :44:57.initiatives? Put the money into short-term jobs prospects like
:44:57. > :45:02.apprenticeships and let the public sector use that money now to
:45:02. > :45:05.generate growth for our cop economy. We need to use all the tools at our
:45:05. > :45:09.disposal. Long-term projects are all well and good but it will not
:45:09. > :45:15.deliver in the next decade. We need to be direct that money right now
:45:15. > :45:20.into the economy. It is therefore competitiveness reasons and that is
:45:20. > :45:25.why the get the money and let us make ourselves more competitive by
:45:25. > :45:28.redirecting that money and it is massive amounts compared took
:45:28. > :45:34.anything. One of the big problems that business it faces is
:45:34. > :45:42.infrastructure... You cannot use structural funds for that and you
:45:42. > :45:45.know that perfectly well. We are very bad at using the structural
:45:45. > :45:49.funds. I am not saying it is six strategic as it could be but when
:45:49. > :45:53.your government is taking great lumps out of the Welsh Assembly
:45:53. > :45:56.budget for capital projects, you cannot create jobs out of nowhere.
:45:56. > :46:02.You cannot create jobs if you do not have a road or railway to get
:46:02. > :46:06.people to work and goods to market. It is not there to focus solely on
:46:06. > :46:16.structural funds. There are issues there but without the capital spend,
:46:16. > :46:19.
:46:19. > :46:24.how is Wales supposed to make best It is disappointing that the UK
:46:24. > :46:27.Government slashed at the rate by 50%. That meant that thousands of
:46:27. > :46:31.families who are about to get panels on their roofs which would
:46:31. > :46:41.bring down energy bills and contribute to tackling global
:46:41. > :46:45.climate change, was a polished. Slashed overnight. -- abolished.
:46:45. > :46:50.That has meant that people have been told that they will not have
:46:50. > :46:55.these schemes. These were effective ways of getting people to use their
:46:55. > :46:58.equity to invest in jobs in the here and now. Plumbers had to train
:46:58. > :47:04.up for these schemes and now they are saying that the market has
:47:04. > :47:14.disappeared. Another issue which will affect
:47:14. > :47:14.
:47:14. > :47:17.workers in Wales as a public sector pay and pensions. Coalition -- the
:47:17. > :47:22.coalition in Westminster wants to renegotiate the terms. We know that
:47:22. > :47:27.there are plenty of people in Wales and the public sector. Do you see
:47:27. > :47:33.them being at a disadvantage in the future?
:47:33. > :47:40.The position right now is unsustainable. There is consensus.
:47:40. > :47:44.The previous Labour Secretary of State agreed. It is very important
:47:44. > :47:50.that people on the public sector have a pension to retire on and
:47:50. > :47:55.that is safe and they can rely on that. But at the moment, the system
:47:55. > :48:00.is that you can retire significantly earlier in the public
:48:00. > :48:06.sector than in the private sector. That is not possible -- it is not
:48:06. > :48:11.possible for that to carry on. But will we see pensions going
:48:11. > :48:19.down? And because of the review of regional pay, here in Wales, a wage
:48:19. > :48:27.cut also? We are not seen pensions go down.
:48:27. > :48:30.People are having to pay more in there. That is a form of production.
:48:30. > :48:35.But they will see a better pension at the end of it.
:48:35. > :48:44.That is not what is happening. The money is going straight back to
:48:44. > :48:49.George Osborne. That is a complete misunderstanding.
:48:49. > :48:57.It is not. Low-paid workers are having to pay even more of their
:48:57. > :49:01.salary. And that has already been frozen. The way that the UK
:49:01. > :49:09.government is approaching this is likely to mean more people opting
:49:09. > :49:13.out of their pension scheme which means it will store up problems.
:49:13. > :49:16.Not everybody accepts that these public sector schemes are
:49:16. > :49:23.unsustainable. Changes have already been carried through in the last
:49:23. > :49:29.few years. But the Government is not playing.
:49:29. > :49:36.Some people would say, even more cause to build up the public --
:49:36. > :49:40.build up the private sector. But we have a baroness recently stating
:49:40. > :49:45.that there were people in the Labour Party at suspicious of the
:49:45. > :49:55.private sector. That does not feed and to the feeling that Labour are
:49:55. > :49:57.
:49:57. > :50:04.on the side of the private sector. On the contrary.
:50:04. > :50:09.But the comment, she regrets the capitalist system.
:50:09. > :50:15.That is her personal historic view. But she has created economic
:50:15. > :50:21.zones... By what measure are we are judging
:50:21. > :50:29.her effectiveness? If the business community feel they have got the
:50:29. > :50:32.Government behind them, well, that is not the message I am hearing.
:50:32. > :50:40.The businesses I talked to are finding that the Welsh government
:50:40. > :50:47.is a very focused on the economy. But it is extremely fearful of the
:50:47. > :50:51.macro-economic policies coming from London which are simply not working.
:50:51. > :50:56.Effort some body is unemployed they are clearly not making any
:50:57. > :51:02.contribution by way of tax. George Osborne's plan is completely
:51:02. > :51:08.hopeless and that has been borne out by the increasing deficit. We
:51:08. > :51:15.need a plan B. An indication that the UK Government is serious about
:51:15. > :51:19.investing in infrastructure. Leads wind the clock back. Starting
:51:19. > :51:24.with the referendum. If you landed from Mars you could argue that
:51:24. > :51:28.nothing has changed. Well, the institution now has the
:51:28. > :51:33.power to do things. Another thing is the Government actually getting
:51:33. > :51:38.on with doing it. After six months the first to measure was only
:51:38. > :51:44.recently. It may be good or bad but I have not even looked at it yet.
:51:44. > :51:48.But you cannot blame the powers for the fact that the Government is not
:51:48. > :51:52.using them. The whole of Wales has said that they wanted these
:51:52. > :51:58.decisions are made in Wales, that we could look after ourselves and
:51:58. > :52:01.each other better. That was a great day.
:52:01. > :52:07.Did you take your eye off the ball at the election after concentrating
:52:07. > :52:12.and that? I do not know, is the honest answer.
:52:12. > :52:16.But I know that we worked extremely hard on the ground. People in Plaid
:52:16. > :52:22.Cymru and other parties. We have an internal review which will look at
:52:22. > :52:26.it. But in the end, Plaid Cymru is about the good of Wales, not the
:52:26. > :52:34.good of Plaid Cymru. So you could argue it was the right decision to
:52:34. > :52:40.make. New ministers get on top of their
:52:40. > :52:45.portfolio. It is important to get their measures right. Properly
:52:45. > :52:50.scrutinised. It is no good are rushing it.
:52:50. > :52:55.You cannot scrutinise it until it is implemented.
:52:55. > :53:00.Of course you cant. But you need to have a draft so there is not so
:53:00. > :53:05.much work to do it when it needs to be scrutinised. So the Government
:53:05. > :53:12.is entirely focused on improving the delivery up of public services.
:53:12. > :53:15.And of trying to protect the jobs and skills. It is an extremely
:53:15. > :53:21.difficult environment we are working in. But the government is
:53:21. > :53:28.getting on with it and his United. Are the Liberal Democrats ending
:53:28. > :53:33.the year on a better note than the where have we through it, I just
:53:33. > :53:37.wonder, who are the Liberal Democrat? The Friends of the
:53:37. > :53:42.Conservatives? Befriends a Labour? Sometimes when you try to be
:53:42. > :53:45.friends with everybody you become friends with no one.
:53:45. > :53:49.We are an independent party with a clear vision of what we want to
:53:49. > :53:53.achieve and will work with whoever we think and help us achieve as
:53:53. > :53:56.much as possible. There was an opportunity with the Welsh a budget
:53:56. > :54:05.to insecure that there was real Investment elderly on and
:54:05. > :54:10.disadvantage. So we took the opportunity to do that.
:54:10. > :54:15.Somewhat cheaply, according to the opposition.
:54:15. > :54:20.Of course, the opposition would say that. In Westminster we have a
:54:20. > :54:24.clear prog -- programme we are working on with the coalition. We
:54:24. > :54:28.have achieved a number of things that were in our manifesto. It just
:54:28. > :54:33.goes to show that we will work with different political parties in
:54:33. > :54:39.different situations to achieve as much of what we want to see done.
:54:39. > :54:42.On a personal note, do you regret the coalition and Westminster?
:54:42. > :54:47.Absolutely not. There is a huge amount being done there would not
:54:47. > :54:53.be done without the Liberal Democrats in government. The income
:54:53. > :54:59.tax threshold being raised. There has been huge investment in
:54:59. > :55:03.environmental measures. We have seen the pupil premium in the Wales
:55:03. > :55:09.as well as England doing a huge amount of good in schools in
:55:09. > :55:12.deprived areas. And there is a whole load of things around
:55:12. > :55:17.identity cards which the Labour Government was going to bring in,
:55:17. > :55:21.we have scrapped, all sorts of civil liberty measures the we have
:55:21. > :55:25.changed as Egg direct result of Liberal Democrat been in government.
:55:25. > :55:31.Yes, coalition government is difficult, but we have seen a real
:55:31. > :55:37.market for the Liberal Democrats can do in government.
:55:37. > :55:43.How big a blow was it for the Conservatives to lose their leader.
:55:43. > :55:49.-- their leader in Wales? It is always a blow but we have
:55:49. > :55:54.increased our election in -- increased our vote in every
:55:54. > :55:59.election. We lost a talented leader but he will go on to other things
:55:59. > :56:02.and we may not have seen the last of him as a politician. We have a
:56:02. > :56:06.strong new leader. But the issue is local government elections and
:56:06. > :56:10.making sure that that trend we have seen over the last five years
:56:10. > :56:15.continues. That is the reason we have grown over the last five years
:56:15. > :56:19.- we have taken our message to the people and made them understand it
:56:19. > :56:26.directly. When they come on board with us, then hopefully they will
:56:26. > :56:32.stay on board over the long term. Another challenge for the New Year
:56:32. > :56:35.is the new leader of your party. Who should that be?
:56:35. > :56:41.As the party chair I am politically responsible for making sure the
:56:41. > :56:45.election run smoothly so I am unable to select or state a
:56:45. > :56:50.preference. But the party will decide which way it want to go then
:56:50. > :56:54.will choose the leader that can take us there.
:56:54. > :56:59.Now that the Liberal Democrat support you on the Budget, do the
:56:59. > :57:05.Labour group now feel slightly more comfortable? Knowing that when you
:57:05. > :57:10.need support it is there? We need to get our budget through
:57:10. > :57:15.in the context of economic crisis we're all trying to manage.
:57:15. > :57:20.Uncertainty is one of the worst things for business. But, are you
:57:20. > :57:25.know, we do not know what the future relationship will be with
:57:25. > :57:30.the Liberal Democrats in the assembly. But we certainly have to
:57:30. > :57:38.be mindful of what is going on in the rest of the world. Events on
:57:38. > :57:46.Friday with David Cameron completely losing it in Europe...
:57:47. > :57:53.This is going off track. We only have 90 seconds left.
:57:53. > :57:58.20 seconds for each of you. A wish for the New Year.
:57:58. > :58:04.Economic growth, reduce unemployment.
:58:04. > :58:07.All politicians are working for Wales.
:58:07. > :58:12.Investment in infrastructure to reduce unemployment, especially
:58:12. > :58:17.youth unemployment which is terrifying.
:58:17. > :58:23.Tackling climate change, keeping people's bills down.
:58:23. > :58:33.I thought you about to predict a general election!
:58:33. > :58:33.