07/02/2014 The Week in Parliament

prison. It is time for the week in

Parliament. Hello and welcome to the programme.

It's too much water and too few women - at Prime Minister's

Questions, David Cameron is accused of not grappling with the floods and

not having enough female MPs and ministers. He runs his government

like the old boys network. That is why he is failing women across his

party and across the country. Of the Conservatives, around 20% of women,

that is below what I want to achieve, we are making progress and

will make more progress. Also on this programme we talk to a former

top Whitehall mandarin on why he's all in favour of fixed term

parliaments. And we speak to a man on a mission about how he's

persuading youngsters to vote. Most of them do not know. The worst thing

is that there will be passionate about issues, but will not let those

issues to politics. We begin with Prime Minister 's questions. MPs

gathered on the first day of a 48 hour cheap strike. It was this, the

widespread flooding has caused real misery that came up fast. Weeks of

wet and windy weather have left land, homes and businesses

underwater causing untold damage. Roads have been submerged and

railway lines washed away. The Labour leader asked if more could

have been done. Many people do feel the response as being too slow and

they are being left alone and isolated. Does he agree with me that

the events we have seen demand a comprehensive look at the

Government's investment in flood protection and the speed of its

response? The Prime Minister promised the Government would report

on these issues by the end of January. Can you tell us when the

report will be available? This Government has spent ?2.4 billion

over this period which is more than the ?1 billion spent under the

devious Government. Let me announce today that a further ?100 million

will be made available to cover maintenance of the next year. This

will cover ?75 million for repairs, ?10 million for urgent work in

Somerset to deliver the action plans delivered by local agencies and ?15

million for extra maintenance. But I can confirm that is new money that

will protect more houses and help our country more with floods and we

will continue to do what is right. Ed Miliband switched subjects, to

the Prime Minister's pledge to lead the way on women's equality. Look at

the all-male front bench before us. He says he wants to represent the

whole country. I guess they didn't let women into the Bullingdon club

either. He said a third of his ministers would be women, he is

nowhere near meeting the target. Half of the women he appointed as

ministers after the election have resigned or been sacked. In his

cabinet there are as many men who went to Eton or Westminster as there

are women. Does he think it is his fault that the Conservative Party

has a problem with women? He is interested in the figures, let me

give him the figures. Of the full members of the cabinet who are

conservatives, a quarter of them are women. Not enough, I want to see

that grow. Of the front bench ministers of the Conservatives,

around 20% are women. That is below what I want to achieve in 33%. We

are making progress, and we will make more progress. This party is

proud of the fact that we had a woman Prime Minister... Yes, yes, to

be fair to the Labour Party. Order. Mr Gove... Order. You really...

Order! You really are a very over excitable individual. You need to

write out 1000 times, I will behave myself at Prime Minister's

Questions. To be fair to the Labour Party, they have had some interim

leaders who are women, but they have this habit of replacing them with

totally ineffective men. Of course, Mr Speaker, he mentions Lady

Thatcher. Unlike him, she was a Tory leader who won a general election.

He runs his government by the old boys' network. That is why he is

failing women across his party and across the country. Isn't it

interesting that with six questions and an invitation to condemn the

strike today, not a word? Isn't that the truth. He raises constituency

selections in a week when he has completely rolled over to the trade

unions. Let's be clear about what is happening, they keep their block

vote, they get more power over discretionary funding and they get

90% of the votes for their leader. He told us he would get rid of the

red flag, all he has done is run-up the white flag. David Cameron, with

the last word at Prime Minister's Questions, taunting Ed Miliband over

the Tube strike and the Labour leaders' plans for internal party

reform. Now to Thursday and the latest

session of an inquiry into fixed term parliaments. It's an idea

familiar to Americans, but over here it's traditionally been down to the

PM to choose the date for the general election. When the Coalition

came to power, it agreed a five-year fixed term - so how's it going? A

former top civil servant faced questions from MPs. You think that

Mr Blair made a mistake in calling a general election after four years in

2001 and 2005? Surely the reason he called another election was the

Government had run out of steam and he wanted a fresh mandate.

Absolutely not, I am afraid I am cynical, I think he called an

election because he thought he could win it. And he did. That is the

whole point about the difference between giving the power to call an

election to the incumbent, versus Parliament deciding that it is going

to be on a fixed date. Personally I am in the Parliament camp and

saying, let's have this as a fixed term, not to give this very strong,

I think, biased towards incumbents to be able to choose the date. Lord

O'Donnell joins me now in the studio. Don't civil servants like

fixed term Parliaments because they make everything lovely and easy and

you can plan stuff? I wouldn't say Government is ever easy but a fixed

term Parliament means one uncertainty has gone. You know that

with certainty, the date of the next election. That is good. Other than

that, you get a bit more time to plan. You probably get in another

budget than you would in a four year Parliament. Which we have had mostly

in the Second World War, post-2nd World War period. On balance I think

civil servants will think this is better and it is a fairer system. If

the incumbent government gets to choose when the election is, it

gives them a slight advantage over the opposition. Isn't there a

problem when you get to this .5 years in, that there is not much

going on? There is very little legislation. Normally the

government, if they were ahead, would choose to go for an election,

or if they are not ahead and you would get a year which is horrible.

Under the old regime, the government is hanging around, hoping something

would happen to give them a chance. This final year, it is the first

time we have had this. The honest answer is, it is unprecedented so we

are not sure. But it gives an opportunity for Parliament to be

thinking in a more, hopefully, standing back, not quite passing so

much legislation but concentrating on implementation of what they have

already put through in terms of legislation already. You were

saying. You were saying you would hope Parliament would tackle issues

like obesity, how realistic is it? It doesn't have to be business as

usual, is what I am saying. They could think about debating some of

the big issues that we face, how a society going to deal with some of

these long-term issues like the ageing population, climate change

and those things. I think they could. Will they? It is in their

hands. I would really like to see them doing it because I think...

People are a bit fed up with politics. They are not engaging,

they are not bothering to vote, they are not joining political parties

and I would like to see that trend reversed. I would like to see people

getting excited by politics, so much so that when it comes to the next

election they are fired up and they want to vote. But MPs are a tribal

bunch, they fight elections and they pass laws. We have an adversarial

system, yes. But some of the great things we have done, if you look at

foreign policy initiatives, if you look at when we take troops out in

harm's way, we try to get cross-party consensus. I think there

is nothing wrong to be thinking about some issues, can we not get

cross-party agreement? When the Coalition was set up and the idea of

a five year fixed term was first thought of, was there much planning

and thought about where and what would be happening by years four and

five? You have to separate the two things. It would be difficult to say

what were the effects of the first fixed term Parliament and the first

coalition since the Second World War, because they are both happening

together. On day we had a Coalition and we did not know whether there

would be a fixed term Parliament. They had lots of constitutional

reforms in hand, like House of Lords, voting system, boundary

changes, most of those have not happened, a fixed term Parliament

has. I think the Coalition was always going to be on a path where

on day one, they are at their closest together. As they approach

the election date, they will think about differentiating their product.

Both of them, I guess, will say, look at the good things that happen

in government, it is mostly down to us, and the bad things, it is

because the other party didn't let us do them.

I think you will hear that from both Conservatives and Lib Dems. Do you

think the idea of fixed term Parliaments will stick? I think so.

It would require a new administration to actually reverse

the legislation. I think the fact... I think the fairness, why should the

incumbent get to choose when an election is? Why can't we have as

many countries have fixed term, it is five years, let's use it as an

opportunity to plan for five years. This morning I was saying, what

about a spending review which lasted five years rather than just three,

or as we used have, one. Do you think we will see another coalition?

Do the public like it? Whether the public like it or not, it is very

hard to vote for a coalition, you have to vote for an individual

party. The pollster experts tell me that the combined share of the two

main parties has been on a trend of decline so you would have to say,

the basis of that evidence, coalitions have become more likely.

Between now and May 2015, anything could happen so I think it would be

a foolish person that predicted one way or another. One thing I would

say, we shouldn't rule out minority government as well. It is not just

single party or coalition, you could have a minority government. We will

get you back to see what happens. Thank you for coming in.

Let's turn our attention to a not unrelated topic - just how do you

get youngsters to register to vote - and to turn up at the polling

station? It's no secret that younger people are less likely to take part

in elections, but why and what can be done? A campaign group called

Bite the Ballot is leading the charge - and in the week held a

national voter registration day - an idea which won praise in the House

of Lords. I pay tribute to Bite the Ballot for organising hundreds of

events with the aim of registering young people to vote. My Lord, warm

words but no parsnips and I strongly urge the Government to ensure, not

encourage, but ensure that an inspiring curriculum is taught in

each and every school including academies and free schools. And that

every school should facilitate everyone of or near voting age to

register to vote. I would also ask the Government to enclose, or to

consider enclosing electoral registration forms with the official

communications they have with young people, for examples national

insurance numbers and driving licence applications. On the last

point, that is where I will take back. We're considering how best to

encourage all this. The new citizenship programme for study

which has been agreed to be taught from September 2014 stipulates

pupils should be taught about Parliamentary democracy and actions

citizens should take in Democratic and electoral processes to implement

decisions locally, nationally and beyond.

Lord Wallace on the Government's efforts to get people to register to

vote. With me now is Mike Sahni from Bite the Ballot. Why aren't people

registering to vote? Ultimately, in my opinion and as a teacher for five

years and having toured the country trying to engage people with a team

of youngsters by my side, most of them just don't know. They do not

feel as if they know enough. The worst thing is they will be

passionate about issues but will not related issues to politics. Whose

fault is that? Why don't they know? The top people responsible should be

parliament, elected representatives. Surely they have a job and the

mission statement is to engage people in democracy. I do not know

how well the can do it that if we cannot inspire the youngest to

participate. We have to look beyond that as well. Society and democracy

is for all of us. Parents, grandparents... Grandparents must

have lived through so many clear-cut reasons as to why they believe it is

your duty to vote. Conversations in the family home, in school. If it is

going to change, parliament should be the trailblazers to say we need

to start inspiring. Isn't it the case that it is becoming bit cool

and trendy to think that voting is pointless? Russell Brand made a big

point about going to vote making no difference. I know. That seems a

sort of poor message, really, if ultimately Russell did say that we

have tried voting and it does not work. But we have not tried voting.

If you look at the last election, young people had the lowest turnout.

Decisions are not made towards them because they are not seen as making

a difference in the balance box. You cannot make sweeping statements like

that if the country do not actively come out, even if it is to abstain.

It seems clear youngsters are engaged in single issues. How can

politicians get onto that and engage them at all? Ultimately, the thing I

enjoy about this campaign at the minute is we're driving demand. When

that demand reaches a certain level, the political parties will have to

supply to it. Otherwise they risk being left on the shelf. We need

more effort from all the parties to can imitate ideologies to younger

age. It almost feels as if they feel it. --fear. Why are people not

ending the citizens report? Things like this are simple but not being

done. But aren't so many more options open to younger people? If

they feel passionately, they can have a Twitter or Facebook campaign

and there are plenty of ways for them to them without getting

involved in politics. There are. But at the minute traditional politics

lies with where the decisions are made. Political parties make

decisions and laws that we live by, so of course we can drum up interest

on Twitter, but will that really make a difference and change

people's lives? It goes hand-in-hand. It is great young

people can use social media to drive up interest in things they care

about but ultimately we need to use the channels of communication

available to them at local, national or global level. Have things like

independence for Scotland made a big difference to the numbers of

youngsters who have registered to vote, given that they have lowered

the vote to 16? They have. I can only speak on one example. We

visited Scotland to test out the resources we've use in schools. We

had 132 students across the day and only two of them were registered.

Most of them did not know you have to register to vote in the

referendum. Again, we hear political parties saying that we should lower

the voting age to 16, but no-one knows where they stand. We need to

make sure people can make an informed decision. Time will tell if

young people come out in Scotland. Thank you for coming in to see us.

A Bill which allows same-sex weddings to take place in Scotland

has been passed by MSPs at Holyrood. The Marriage and Civil Partnership

Bill Scotland Bill is passed. They voted to back the idea by 105 votes

to 18. The first gay and lesbian weddings could take place this

autumn. The announcement of the result was applauded by MSPs and

those in the public gallery. The Scottish Government said the move

was the right thing to do. But Scotland's two main churches oppose

the idea. And now to Europe. MEPs gathered in

Strasbourg in the week and as ever there was a cornucopia of subjects

up for discussion. Here's our Europe reporter, Alasdair Rendell, with his

top five of the week's EU moments. The violence in Ukraine took centre

stage in transport this week. The debate took part as Baroness Ashton

was in Kiev to talk with Government and opposition leaders. MEPs were

critical of the absence from Parliament. It is possible that she

comes here and discusses with us the strategy and then she goes to Kiev.

A new law to strengthen the rights of the passengers got the green

light from MEPs. They backed the directive that would give travellers

better rights to information, care and rescuing when stuck at an

airport. --re-routing. The President of Italy addressed MEPs. The DAT

general said the EU needed to end the policy at any cost. But there

were protests on bringing an end to the single currency. MEPs call for

more investment in the European canal network, saying it would be an

environmentally friendly way of taking freight across Europe. And

from the Commission, the home affairs Commissioner and announced

findings into corruption across the EU. Corruption costs in the European

Union is no less than 120 billion euros. Alistair Rendall, in a week

at Westminster, dominated by water and women!

A very powerful jetstream and one that has been stuck in the same

place for weeks on end has been responsible for the spells of wet

and windy weather we continue to see. The winter across southern

England could be one of the wettest in nearly 250 years. In Scotland,

the December just gone was the wettest in a