27/11/2011 The Politics Show Yorkshire and Lincolnshire

And coming up: 700,000 people in Yorkshire and Lincolnshire prepare

for the bigger strike in generations.

Apology for the loss of subtitles for 2016 seconds

And what Yorkshire's hard-working Welcome to the show up in Yorkshire

and Lincolnshire. Today we are counting down to the biggest strike

in decades. Up to three-quarters of a million workers here will walk

out on Wednesday. The leading teaching union defends the so-

called day of action that will shut down many schools. And they work

long hours for little reward. What Yorkshire families want to hear it

in the Chancellor's Autumn Statement on Tuesday.

The unions claimed that up to 700,000 public sector workers

across Yorkshire and Lincolnshire will take part on -- in Wednesday's

national strike. Hospitals, schools, colleges at, courts and airports

are likely to be affected by the day of action over proposed

pensions changes. The biggest teaching union has told us that it

expects the majority of schools will either be closed or partially

closed. Emma Hardy as a primary school

teacher in East Yorkshire. She is unhappy at having to pay more

towards her pension and work longer. They still want me to work until I

am 68. They still want me to pay more into my pension and at the end

of it, I am going to get a poor pension. Teachers, on average, get

�10,000 a year. I could name staff at this school that have had time

off and come back to work and are looking at a pension of around

�1,000. That is not gold plated. I am the squeeze the middle. They

talk around -- about offering help for me but they are asking me to

give more and more each month. My pension is already self-funding and

I truly believe our self- funding pension exists. I can understand

why they are asking me to, as the unions keep saying, pay more, work

longer and get less. But many parents, like Mark and Rebecca, who

have three children, say next week's strike will be inconvenient.

I have to get someone else to have the kids while we do what we need

to do. In this weather, it is not good because it is called.

disrupt the kids' education because they have got to complain about

something? I doubt it is all of them that have got a complaint.

Because the union says they are having a strike, everyone is out.

We are expecting that the vast majority of schools will be closed

or partially closed. To those who are inconvenienced and out of

pocket, no teacher wants that to happen. That is not our aim.

Teachers have realised that without any justification being given to

them, they are having to ensure privations that are a result of

someone else's making. The economic situation was not brought about by

teachers or public sector workers generally, but we are talking about

teachers and they are paying the price for it. The government claims

the disruption caused by next week's day of action will cost the

country half-a- billion pounds. But at this stage, nothing looks set to

strop the biggest strike of this generation. -- stop. Our guests are

Caroline Flint, the shadow energy and climate change secretary, and

Andrew Percy, the Conservative MP for Brigg and cool, who is a

teacher. Will you be joining York It is not the case that people will

work longer, retire later, pay more and get less. They will get a

bigger pension at the end. They will have to work longer, the same

as people in the private sector, but babel get a bigger pension at

the end. But the average pension for a teacher is �10,000 a year.

They are not asking for a lot, are they? I don't know about those

figures because plenty of people who go into teaching now will

retire with a much bigger pension than that. I would say that those

pensions are being funded by the taxpayer and they are bigger, on

average, than the pensions available in the private sector.

Caroline, do you support this strike action was matter what I

support his both sides - the unions and the government - spending every

hour in the lead-up to next week to find a way to avert the strike.

There are moves and ground that could be given on both sides. On

the union side, there could be grand given in terms of the career

average pensions and be retirement age. The -- ground. The government

have to look at the 3% increase they put on people as a tax rise.

But they also have to look at part- time workers particularly, who will

be hit by these measures. The government did also decide that

they were going to link pensions increases not to the retail price

index, but to the consumer price index, which is lower - that will

hit the value of pensions. Every minute, right up to 6am on the

morning of the 30th, should beat used to avert the strike. But if

the talks are not concluded with a satisfactory outcome on both sides,

as looks increasingly unlikely, will you accept this strike?

really don't think that sort of talk is helpful. It was not helpful

when it was indicated that David Cameron had said to someone that he

was delighted that the unions had not backed the deal. I don't think

grandstanding helps the situation. Strikes are a sign of failure and

under the Labour government, we had the lowest level of strike days

lost on record. There is room to manoeuvre on both sides, and that

is where they should get round the table. They should keep on

negotiating. Andrew, the government says this is going to cost our

economy half a billion pounds. Is that scaremongering? We know when

we had a public holiday for the Queen's birth date and for the

royal wedding, it cost about the same lap. I am not obsessed by

those figures. I am obsessed about the inconvenience it caused us to

our constituents. The negotiations are still ongoing. This action is

premature. A new offer has been put the unions, which is very generous.

But the 3% increase on contributions was announced and

they said they were not going to negotiate on it. John Hutton was a

Labour politician who gave a report, much of which I think was very

sensible. It was said to the unions that there would be no negotiation.

That 3% increase is not about sustaining pensions. It is a

surcharge which will go back to the Treasury. Is there a problem here,

Caroline, in that Labour can't afford to upset the unions? A vast

amount of your murderer to -- your party's funding comes from the

unions. Before the last election, we were negotiating on the pensions.

We were doing that and we were hopefully on the verge of reaching

a deal at that time, and we did that without the atmosphere we have

today. The truth of the matter is that Labour will always do what is

right for the country, and what is right for the country now is to

avert the strike by all parties getting around the table. We would

expect Caroline to say that but you need to look at a Labour Party's

funding figures. People had said that if I got paid to put a man

bent down binned the parliament, but in the same way that Labour MPs

do on behalf of the unions, there would be a major investigation.

They are going to come out with these weasel words at the moment

but what they should be doing is coming down on the side of the

hard-pressed taxpayer. People like my dad, who is 66, still goes out

to work in the private sector, and in a low salary to fund and

subsidised the generous public sector pensions of people who

retired years before him. I don't think it helps to put public sector

as against the private sector workers. There are too many people

in the private sector, at the top of companies, getting bonus

packages with private pensions. We should call on those organisations

to think about their poorest workers. We could look at what

happened with pay at the very top over the 13 years of the Labour

government. All I would say is that people in the public sector should

get a better pension. It is not about putting people against each

other. It sounds like you don't value public sector workers for

stop nonsense. I used to be one. don't think David Cameron was and

he does not set the tone that you set about public sector workers. It

is like he is looking for a fight. Maybe they want to fight to

distract attention from the Autumn Statement. There is plenty more to

talk about because all eyes will be a Westminster on Tuesday, as the

Chancellor George Osborne delivers his Autumn Statement. Our political

editor has been asking what will be We used to spend �25 a week

shopping and now it is 80. We can't respond unless there is finance

there to help us to respond. As a manufacturer and exporter, I am

looking for help with investment. have not had a rise for two years

and everything is going up. Gas and electric, car tax - everything goes

up except my weight. Avril key economic road feared by so many. So

what can the Chancellor do to help them? -- a very rocky economic road.

It is a long wish-list. How about trying to speed up the traffic?

Business says the roads are making traffic jams, and their goods and

spare parts caused in those traffic jams -- held up and those traffic

jams are costing them billions. Vat has increased, and a petrol

stations are soon to put on another rise in fuel duty. That will see

the price of a gallon go up yet again. And then a trip to the town

hall. Here, cutbacks are seeing job losses, reductions in wages - but

just as important, passing on money to charities. The very same

charities that are meant to be above part of the Big Society. --

at the heart of the Big Society. It is a financial struggle for this

family in Bradford. Though both parents are in work, with a total

income of the national average of �25,000 a year. With the baby food

and nappies, the prices have just gone up. That is what we struggle

with. Day-to-day shopping is going through the roof. At his home in

Leeds, Steve Proctor, a union shop steward at Leeds City Council, is

horrified for plans at his pension. For two decades, he has walked 20

miles as one of a two man crew on a dustcart every single day. What

they are taking off me now is for me to stay until I am 67. Do they

want me to die in service? I will be 69 next year. I can't do this

job until I and 71. This week, Yorkshire's senior clergy spoke out.

How could charities and volunteers fill the gap in public services if

their funding is cut back? believe the government needs to

ensure that that money continues to come up so that voluntary

organisations can continue their excellent work which, indeed, comes

under the Big Society tag. business? This factory, making and

exporting surgical equipment for the health industry, has already

been awarded public money from the regional growth fund. But is it

enough? We are based in Leeds and a very proud of being a Leeds company.

We need a more facilities and we are looking at the Enterprise Zone.

It is important that we have good of road, rail and airport links.

The message in the north is clear - slowdown the cuts and spend a bit

more. No clear signs of government austerity policy working and plenty

that it is hurting. Andrew, we hear the government is going to pump

money into new infrastructure projects. What can we expect on

Tuesday? Locally we are expecting an announcement about the Humber

Bridge tolls situation, which you know well. We are expecting to see

some write-down of the debt and new arrangements there. Some road

projects could be brought forward. We have the A160 on the south bank

of the Humber, which is important. Yorkshire and Humber has had a

pretty raw deal on transport. hear the government will invest in

new power stations, Green Investment, coastal defences. As

Shadow Energy and climate change secretary, surely you think that is

a good thing. I hope what they will do in the Autumn Statement is admit

that they have not got it right. David Cameron said this week that

has just gone that the plan to reduce the deficit is failing, and

we have been saying they have made cuts too far and too fast. In

Yorkshire and the Humber and the north-east, we have the highest

unemployment in our country, so we need a package. Give us an action

package to get growth and employment going in the right

direction. Too many young people in our region are unemployed and to

many businesses are not being supported. Andrew, when you look at

the family we featured there, they are struggling to pay the bills and

put fuel in their car. How can you say to people like them that there

is a bright new economic future, or when there appears to be little

good news on we could rehearse all the arguments about why we are here.

We know about the debt the previous government left us with all stop

here we go. You may not like it. They manage to shrink the economy

during the recession by about 6%. They said it was world affairs but

now it is the new Government's fault, apparently. We know that on

fuel bills and petrol prices, a lot of that is beyond government

control. The government has got to try to make sure it is providing

support to people struggling the most, and those who are the poorest.

That is why we have seen big changes that are due to take a

million people at the bottom of the income scale out of tax. We are

seeing one million young people out of work. Youth and Employment has

gone up by 846 % in my constituency. The truth is that the government

blamed the last Labour government. They blamed the snow last year,

they blamed the royal wedding at one point and they blamed the

eurozone. They have a strategy called it blame anyone but Cameron.

We all agree about the deficit but the extreme action they took to cut

the deficit so far and so fast has basically left to people on the

dole, made businesses lack confidence - and let's look at the

regional growth fund. That was meant to be the alternative to the

regional development agencies that did us pretty well in the Yorkshire

and Humber region. Only two businesses have got anything out of

it. We have 10 million for lobbying Lincolnshire. -- North Lincolnshire.

The trend of UK unemployment has been going up since 2004. Under the

previous government, a youth unemployment was rising at a time

when unemployment generally was going down. That did not just

happen overnight. Let's pick up on what the Bishop of Ripon and Leeds

are said. He talked about how the voluntary sector charities are

struggling to fill the gap left by public sector cuts. He mentioned

that phrase - the Big Society. What has happened to that? We don't hear

that any more. The Big Society is still there and to charities are

continuing to fulfil the important role they have awful. The Big

Society is very hard to define but crises samples of it all the time.

-- they have always fulfilled. Even when government has had many, it

has failed and lots of areas. government are realising that their

choices about the way they went about cutting the deficit and the

cuts they have made in public services are not delivering the

goods. Growth has flat lined, unemployment is up. We have heard

that they are planning to find money to fund jobs for young people.

We had a future jobs fun. It is going to be interesting if we see

some of the things Labour was to ring being recycled back as a

government initiative. Let's pay homage to Jimmy Savile. Instead of

Jim'll Fix It, let's have George will fix it. What would you like to

see him say? If we get moving on the Humber Bridge - and I should

thank Caroline because I quoted Herring might LX and speech - she

said we would never do anything on the Humber Bridge. Reduce VAT, get

another bankers' bonus to fund houses and jobs, reduce VAT on home

improvements to get construction work in, get infrastructure prods

it's going and make sure we have a budget statement that will do