20/11/2011 The Politics Show West Midlands

This week on the Politics Show. How In the Midlands, we visit the homes

that in the internet slow lane and we reveal our own hot spot and

blackspots for getting online. High-speed rail, one MP the support

Apology for the loss of subtitles for 2342 seconds

sit says he would fight it himself Hello again from the Midlands. A

little later we be hearing from the former Cabinet minister and now

enjoying his new-found freedom to speak out from the backbenches.

First though, you may be surprised to discover that if you live in

Wolverhampton, you have faster internet connections than you do in

London. That is according to the communications regulator Ofcom. But

how is our countryside getting on in this turf war, battling for

space on that much wanted level playing field? We are joined by the

Cabinet minister who is hoping to grow the rural economy, Caroline

Spelman, the Environment Secretary and Conservative MP for Meriden.

And Gisela Stuart, representing Birmingham, the Labour MP for

Edgbaston. Parts of our region are in the economic slow lane because

of inadequate broadband. Our reporter has been out playing

catch-up, where a super-fast Internet connections still seems to

be anything but a racing certainty. Here at Herefordshire Raceway, the

go-karts Kingdom up to 45 mph in just five seconds. Unfortunately

for many people living in the country their internet does not

match up to the same high-speed standards. And if you are a

business who does not have broadband, in these days you may as

well not even be at the races. And nobody knows more about the

sluggish problems with the internet and this firm on the Welsh border.

Healing Herbs is an alternative medicine business employing 20

people from the surrounding Herefordshire countryside. Here

they bottle plant extracts for customers around the globe, some as

far away as China and even New Zealand. Having so broadband is

holding the business back. In it is the only think that I really need

for the business. We are at the survival point, but we know that

the increase in traffic and the increase in Download times is going

to get worse and how long can we survive, that is my question?

how does going on line in Herefordshire compared to the rest

of the west Midlands? Latest figures from Ofcom revealed the

homes with speedy Internet connections compared to those stuck

in the slow lane. In Wolverhampton, the place with the best broadband

in the Midlands, 93 per cent of homes enjoy the government's target

internet speed. In Shropshire, that falls to 82 per cent. In

Herefordshire, only three-quarters of homes at internet speed that me

to the government recommendation, 17 per cent less than the big city

counterparts. And that is the gap the Government is trying to bridge

with a 500 million pound project together rural communities a

helping hand. High its will go ahead in the Highlands and Islands,

north Yorkshire, Cumbria and Herefordshire. All this will help

encourage the growth of our creative industries as a key part

of the new economy we are seeking to build. What a year after the

pilot was announced and plans to run a broadband parts of

Herefordshire and Gloucestershire are well underway. When it is in

place, it will mean homes around here will not have any problem

watching the BBC iPlayer. It was changed everything, it was changing

environmentally, people will be able to work from home, it will

change its socially, education will be delivered over broadband and

economically that will make a huge difference to our businesses.

Worcestershire it is the village of Martley. Five years ago people here

got so fed up with their broadband they decided to take matters into

their own hands. 60 homes clubbed together to set up their own

wireless network by tapping into an exchange a few miles down the road.

Me to the Johnsons. They are one of the families who are reaping the

benefits from the scheme. It used to be so slow beforehand that we do

not even bother using it because it used to take too long. Now it is

quite quick and we are using it for everything really, the children use

it for their homework, we use it for banking, we use it for

comparison website and everything like that. The Government continues

full throttle in his race to get our broadband up to speed,

promising a future in which we are all big internet winners.

Incidentally, the deputy leader of dust... He thinks broadband access

is important for rural communities, as important as what a. Caroline

Spelman, we get the message, but is that an overstatement. You are

distinctly disadvantaged if you do not have internet access. Farmers

are expected to fire their forms online and children are expected to

find homework on line these days and you lose access to important

information for your business, if you try to run at the end be in the

countryside, and you do not have internet access, you will miss out

on custom. It is a game changed and that is why we have allocated over

�500 million to try and provide that super-fast prop banned. Also,

the example of that community shows they can also help themselves and

we hope to announce a fund so that that kind of project can be more

widespread. Let me remind you what you say to your party conference in

Manchester. He said that Labour's legacy to rural England and Britain

was years of opportunity squandered in the absence of modern-day basics

like broadband. When you look at Gisela Stuart in the eye and say

this is your view of Labour's record? We are behind other

European countries. We are behind some of the emerging economies in

terms of the speed of roll-up. Jeremy Hunt said that by 2015 we

will have a super-fast prop banned three at the countryside and that

is our aim. Bury are, Labour neglected the countryside and his

government is giving it �500 million. And the greatest of

respect, you may be picking an argument here. I think successive

governments have realised that in terms of economic competitiveness,

modern technologies are vital. Creative Industries play a vital

part and allow people to work in the countryside and be able to stay

there. Access to information is vital. If week say the we could

have done it quicker and most of the time we could have done things

quicker. In terms of countrywide coverage of broadband, we are doing

pretty well. A you willing to congratulate the Government on this

pilot that we have seen in Herefordshire? It be it is a step

in the right direction. That it is a game changes. People would like

to live and work in the countryside. You cannot if you do not access to

the internet. This is an important choice. It is a commitment so that

people have so but as broadband access and can work from home in

the countryside. By does it have to beat Bath prop banned?

Wolverhampton apparently gets better service than London yet no

one can say it is actually holding the capital back against the Black

Country? Is it. Have to at the Bath prop banned. You will not move back

if you are used to better service. The the government realise that

these were absolutely essential. It is a continuous improvement. The

only danger now that we need to look that is the question of

security, cyber security, to insure that does not work that we rely on

remain reliable. Are you surprised that there are such marked

variations, not just across parts of the Midlands, by losses of

figures that suggested that Evesham had a terrible drop off during peak

times. Rural areas have got neglected because it is more

difficult to lay cables and access more remote properties. With those

kind of community broadband projects, you take a hub like a

school that has a fast broadband access and many can bolt they say

60 homes to it and that is how you improve the Connectivity. I think

we will see a lot of growth in rural areas, because people would

like to live and work in the countryside, but to do that they

need the tools of modern business. You have commend and the Government

on one thing and the other seems to be that the big society is working

there in Martley. I'm sure David Cameron would be delighted to see

how that has worked in marked Leith. The big society was all was a

concept at that I could not understand why it was not as much

and Labour as Conservatives. It is also a question of isolation of

elderly people in rural areas. I do not think it is a party political

issue. Come on, I have tried to make it one! I thing it does break

the isolation. Some of our order yours do have the confidence to use

the internet. Teenagers can talk to the grandparents and it does make a

difference. In all sorts of ways, socially, economically and indeed

environmentally, because you would not need to commute, and you could

work from home. Of that not threatened at a traditional view of

the rustic ideal. If you have a rural businesses with their high-

tech connections. The countryside has to be a living working place.

The shop floor of an industry, Herefordshire certainly, but in

terms of the future, internet access will transform the

opportunities for young people as well as the elderly. Thank you.

You have to make the compromise in the former Cabinet minister, now

enjoying what we Westminster watchers call the freedom of the

backbenches. You can resign, stay at a government and say what you

like but you have no power to do anything about it. The reflections

of the now backbench Labour MP for Coventry North East and former

Defence Secretary Bob Ainsworth. If you were watching last week you

will have seen his into the about the challenges are getting much-

needed kit at any troops on the frontline in Afghanistan. In a

wide-ranging interview recorded in our Westminster studio he also

spoke frankly as he never could in government about drugs policy,

elected Mayer's and high speed rail. We need a massive new capacity on

the railways. You cannot squeeze any more out of the existing

network. We have done it already. You could invest millions again and

disrupt been at work and get very little. It there are suggestions

you can upgrade the existing system. You could but it is a nonsense. We

need new capacity. We need aAnd if you are going to build a new line,

why build a slow line? I believe the people of Coventry are really

opposed him. It is a vociferous campaign and I understand why they

are coming from. They are personally affected and most of

them offer living in villages affected. If I was living in one of

those villages I would be opposed to it. In the national interest,

this must also be heard. Moving on to directly elected mayors.

Coventry is on the list of places that will be invited to make the

decision of whether to have a referendum. Do you see yourself as

comedy's first directly elected mayor? I was a councillor for eight

years. I believe in local government and I believe we ought

to delegate more power to local government, but no party, the

Conservative Party or the Labour Party has delegated any of the

powers that are necessary to local government in order to do the job

that they have under the existing system. They is Bob Ainsworth he

did man to do that job for Coventry? The if they were to vote

for in Mayor, my party would need a candidate and in those

circumstances I would be interested. Equally, I would be interested in

backing another person for the job. I believe in the system itself.

party colleague has said that it is arrested before a power freak. You

are not a genuine and accountability without visibility.

Ask them who the leader of the councillors and they would not know.

Do you held a variety of ministerial positions, including

responsibility for drugs in the Home office. Since moving to the

backbenches you have had some tough things to say about drugs policy in

this country. You have said it was a disaster and you have suggested

that possession of certain drugs that are banned at the moment

should be decriminalised. You know what happens when politicians say

things like that, they are accused of going soft. How much times have

we looked at our local newspapers and see a big seizure of cocaine or

heroin. Did it make any difference? The police are like small boys on

the beach, damming up the streams that inevitably get to the sea. No

matter how much work they put into it, you can break up the big crime

syndicates and you have to do that and that is what the police are

doing, but they do not stop the flow of drugs, it still gets to the

people who demand them at the end of the day. It provides massive

fortunes for criminal empires and undermines government itself in

some countries. See this as a health problem, get them into

treatment and get the doctors' prescribing these drugs instead of

the pictures prescribing and in the back alleys and the schools.

Ainsworth there. You can find my reflections on that conversation on

my block. Gisela Stuart, you chair the all-party group that supports,

high-speed rail, Bob Ainsworth said appeared there he would oppose it.

Look at what was said about high- speed one, and a lot of the fears

were... Did not materialise. This is a big infrastructure project and

I remember getting the money and at that stage we thought we would

never get high-speed two. Then I very much a but towards the end of

December, they will support a project, because it is not just for

us in London, it is also betrayed we do with the rest of the regions.

It is part of the backbone of this country. If you're constituency

gain the size of North Warwickshire which you have to support a high-

speed rail. It the all through my existing constituency and it is

difficult for people who live in settlements were the rail route

goes around them. West I will do everything I can to help them with

their compensation claims, I have to point out that there is very

little spare capacity on the West Coast Mainline. Demand for rail is

increasing, because people find the cost of filling up their cars is a

problem and they are using the trains are more. Freight had come

off the West Coast Mainline. Do we have a capacity problem and we need

to bring the North of England closer to the south of England to

bring the jobs closer to the people. Be no No the Transport Select

Committee warned that the impact on the rural economy. It has to be

bounced in there. My constituency is close to the first station. The

businesses in the rural community will benefit from very fast real

access as well as the internet access that we are providing. We

have to think about the future, it is about the next generation, that

needs to be able to travel and we need to provide a good quality

public service transport system that is that the the 21st secretary.

A what is your position regarding Meyers in Birmingham? A I have said

I am interested! Were due mind if other people through their hats in

the ring? I would put my name forward. So for the Labour Party

has managed to produce three credible candidates and it is a

shame that none of the other parties have really put their money

where their mouth is. Thinking of your own party, what to think of a

colleague in who said it was a power freak? I think he should go

back and see what the powers of the mayoral role is. What you have got

his new still have a Cabinet and the rights -- and the Government

are right to consult on extra powers for the mayor. Caroline you

are halfway between Coventry and Birmingham are yourself. Would you

throw your hat in the room? I think both cities would benefit. If I

think they would flourish under the leadership of an individual