Browse content similar to 28/02/2014. Check below for episodes and series from the same categories and more!
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know they are here. More news at the top of the hour. | :00:00. | :00:00. | |
Now it is time for The Week in Parliament. | :00:00. | :00:15. | |
Hello, welcome to the programme. In a week when there has been teary | :00:16. | :00:18. | |
over the collapse of the case against a suspected IRA bomber. Will | :00:19. | :00:23. | |
he do everything in his power to reverse the despicable decision in | :00:24. | :00:28. | |
the John Downey tests are just as can be done? As MPs debate | :00:29. | :00:32. | |
representation in Parliament, we ask what can be done to make the House | :00:33. | :00:36. | |
of Commons look more like the population. And who can forget this? | :00:37. | :00:45. | |
We indulge in a bit of this data. `` nostalgia. David Cameron told the | :00:46. | :00:49. | |
Commons on Wednesday that a dreadful mistake led to the collapse of the | :00:50. | :00:53. | |
trial of a man who may have orchestrated the bombings of Hyde | :00:54. | :01:01. | |
Park in 1982. Government officials wrongly sent him a letter in the | :01:02. | :01:04. | |
thousand and seven telling him he was no longer a wanted man. Such | :01:05. | :01:10. | |
letters have been sent to around 200 Irish republican paramilitary | :01:11. | :01:13. | |
suspects. It is part of the Northern Ireland peace process. Btu P's | :01:14. | :01:19. | |
leader at Westminster made his feelings clear. Does the Prime | :01:20. | :01:26. | |
Minister kept the depths of the hurt among the victim's families and the | :01:27. | :01:31. | |
deep sense of public outrage across the country as a result of the | :01:32. | :01:35. | |
outcome of the John Downey case? He needs to understand that for an | :01:36. | :01:41. | |
official letter of signed by an official to trumpet due process and | :01:42. | :01:46. | |
the courts of this land without any parliamentary legislative or | :01:47. | :01:50. | |
statutory underpinning is deeply offensive. Will he scrap these | :01:51. | :01:57. | |
letters immediately? Will he do everything in his power to reverse | :01:58. | :02:02. | |
the despicable decision in the John Downey case so that justice can be | :02:03. | :02:06. | |
done for the families of the believed? Let me say I completely | :02:07. | :02:10. | |
understand the depth of anger and concern that people will feel across | :02:11. | :02:15. | |
this country about the appalling events that happened in 1982 and the | :02:16. | :02:20. | |
fact that the person responsible is now not going to be appropriately | :02:21. | :02:25. | |
tried. That is absolutely shocking. Our first thought should be with the | :02:26. | :02:30. | |
11 soldiers and their families and friends. It may have happened 32 | :02:31. | :02:34. | |
years ago, but anyone who has lost someone in a situation like that | :02:35. | :02:37. | |
will more than today as if it happened yesterday. The man should | :02:38. | :02:42. | |
never have received the letter he received. It was a triple mistake | :02:43. | :02:47. | |
and their mistake that we need to have a rapid factual review to make | :02:48. | :02:52. | |
sure this cannot happen again. Whatever happens we have to stick to | :02:53. | :02:55. | |
the principle that we are a country and the government under the rule of | :02:56. | :03:02. | |
law. For Windows exchangers, it was | :03:03. | :03:04. | |
announced that there is to be an enquiry into the scheme in forming | :03:05. | :03:08. | |
terrorism suspects that there were no longer wanted by the police. On | :03:09. | :03:13. | |
Friday the Northern Ireland assembly was reconvened. This British | :03:14. | :03:21. | |
government and Sinn Fein scheme is and was wrong. Many people | :03:22. | :03:26. | |
considered the impact in the John Downey case of providing an | :03:27. | :03:33. | |
effective amnesty. We are doing what Parliament refused to do. The scheme | :03:34. | :03:43. | |
being used is not an amnesty. It is not a get out of jail free card. | :03:44. | :03:50. | |
Some people who have beaten a law and order drum now have difficulty | :03:51. | :03:56. | |
accepting the word of the British Attorney General about the legality | :03:57. | :04:01. | |
of the scheme. He said that the process to resolve some of the cases | :04:02. | :04:08. | |
was a wilful process. The peace process has been brought to the | :04:09. | :04:13. | |
point of crisis for no good reason. If there is discussed in the chamber | :04:14. | :04:23. | |
today, it must be on the behalf of that is. Its compounds much of the | :04:24. | :04:28. | |
trauma. We must sympathise with the victims and survivors of the Hyde | :04:29. | :04:33. | |
Park bombing. Family and friends of those killed and all the victims and | :04:34. | :04:41. | |
survivors deserve our sympathy. Beckwith has been provoked by the | :04:42. | :04:46. | |
situation that has arisen. What can be done to make Parliament | :04:47. | :04:51. | |
look more like the population? Just 20% of them are female and less from | :04:52. | :05:01. | |
an ethnic minority background. It was the subject of a debate held by | :05:02. | :05:06. | |
backbenchers. We should have a representative parliament. That is | :05:07. | :05:12. | |
representative. It seems obvious. People should be able to look at | :05:13. | :05:15. | |
this place and see somebody who looks or sounds like them. Who has | :05:16. | :05:19. | |
an understanding of the life they lead. In 1987 we had for black and | :05:20. | :05:30. | |
Asian MPs. It is now up to 27. That is well below the percentage of | :05:31. | :05:34. | |
ethnic minorities in the population. For somebody who came to | :05:35. | :05:40. | |
this with no personal wealth and family wealth, three point 5`4 years | :05:41. | :05:49. | |
as a candidate fighting emotional seat and not knowing whether you | :05:50. | :05:52. | |
would achieve your aim of getting elected to Parliament is a really | :05:53. | :05:59. | |
big risk. It would put many people off if they had small children. The | :06:00. | :06:05. | |
financial commitment is huge. I was proud to be in Cabinet for eight | :06:06. | :06:09. | |
years. I am proud of all sorts of things I have done. But probably the | :06:10. | :06:16. | |
most important thing I have ever done and the thing I am most proud | :06:17. | :06:20. | |
of is to demonstrate to young people, families, employers, | :06:21. | :06:28. | |
society, that somebody who has a definable disability can actually | :06:29. | :06:33. | |
work on equal terms in a tough environment. | :06:34. | :06:36. | |
Just ahead of that debate, I gathered three MPs well placed to | :06:37. | :06:40. | |
talk about making Parliament representative. One of the party's | :06:41. | :06:48. | |
seven when MPs and recently and sexily went for the party's deputy | :06:49. | :06:53. | |
leadership. The Conservatives first black MP. | :06:54. | :06:58. | |
And in early and data campaign for labour's adoption of all women | :06:59. | :07:04. | |
shortlists. I began by asking why Parliament does not look like the | :07:05. | :07:08. | |
public. If you look back 20 or 30 years, it does look more like the | :07:09. | :07:12. | |
rest of the population. There is still further to go. Parties have to | :07:13. | :07:21. | |
do their own work. But we need to be careful about saying that we should | :07:22. | :07:25. | |
have quotas or proportional representation. We need a diverse | :07:26. | :07:34. | |
range of people. Is that going to be good enough? I doubt it, if I am | :07:35. | :07:44. | |
honest. We have a leadership programme that is specifically | :07:45. | :07:47. | |
targeted towards people who would not normally have the opportunity to | :07:48. | :07:54. | |
go for Parliament. We have got eight MPs standing down. We have selected | :07:55. | :08:01. | |
for six of those. Of those six, five of them are women and two are ethnic | :08:02. | :08:08. | |
minorities. One of them is an ethnic minority woman. We are trying hard | :08:09. | :08:12. | |
to redress the imbalance that we have got in the Liberal Democrats. I | :08:13. | :08:19. | |
think personally for me, I would quite like to see some kind of | :08:20. | :08:24. | |
preferred representation. It is not the will of my party. Your party | :08:25. | :08:31. | |
have done historically very badly at this. It seems to continue to shoot | :08:32. | :08:36. | |
itself in the foot. He stood for the deputy leadership. They chose | :08:37. | :08:45. | |
Malcolm Bruce. I think that people have got to recognise the fact that | :08:46. | :08:49. | |
women have got an extra day mention to bring in. If you have got an all | :08:50. | :08:58. | |
male group, you are not to get the different. When the electric look at | :08:59. | :09:03. | |
us, they are looking to find people who look like them. `` electorate. | :09:04. | :09:10. | |
Were you cross with the result? Was I happy to lose, no. But it will not | :09:11. | :09:25. | |
stop me putting my hand in again. Your party has taken a different | :09:26. | :09:32. | |
approach. You are up to 31% of MPs. Over a third. If you took away the | :09:33. | :09:42. | |
short list, with the change stick? There has been a culture change, but | :09:43. | :09:46. | |
I am a firm believer in the shortlists. I fought to get them put | :09:47. | :09:53. | |
into the rules. They have been vindicated with the use of them. At | :09:54. | :10:05. | |
what point do they stop? My preference and it is a personal one, | :10:06. | :10:14. | |
once we get to parity with then need to go to 40% of men, 40% women and | :10:15. | :10:22. | |
leave the other 10% to be decided. There are other issues as well. We | :10:23. | :10:26. | |
need to make our parliaments more welcoming to people from all walks | :10:27. | :10:32. | |
of life. 16 of our MPs are from black and ethnic minority | :10:33. | :10:38. | |
communities. That is not enough. Would you like shortlists for that? | :10:39. | :10:44. | |
It is a slightly different issue. Women are 51% of the population. | :10:45. | :10:52. | |
Even in communities weather are a large number of people from ethnic | :10:53. | :10:57. | |
minority groups? It is easier to argue for better representation | :10:58. | :11:03. | |
there. 40% of our candidates in London are from black and ethnic | :11:04. | :11:09. | |
minorities in forthcoming elections. 50% of our candidate in | :11:10. | :11:16. | |
European elections are women. We continued to look at how we can | :11:17. | :11:20. | |
properly represent all people in our country. Your party is taking steps | :11:21. | :11:25. | |
forward, but they are tiny. When it comes to whet, something like 26% | :11:26. | :11:36. | |
were women, only 16% are MPs. That is the wrong complexion. We have | :11:37. | :11:42. | |
come from 30 years ago. We have made enormous progress. I was the first | :11:43. | :11:48. | |
black Conservative MP. There were no shortlists. It still seems to be a | :11:49. | :11:58. | |
tiny number. My friend came on as the first Asian MP. We now have 11 | :11:59. | :12:06. | |
people of nonwhite MPs. Out of more than 300 Conservatives. We are | :12:07. | :12:12. | |
making progress. We go with the Queen of human nature. We like it | :12:13. | :12:19. | |
meritocracy. We are always turn to be a bit behind the social make`up | :12:20. | :12:26. | |
of the day. And you are happy to like behind the rest of the country? | :12:27. | :12:30. | |
We are always going to be behind. But the results are conclusive. We | :12:31. | :12:38. | |
have the first female prime minister. Who knows what the future | :12:39. | :12:42. | |
will bring. The evidence is absolutely clear. Labour only have | :12:43. | :12:51. | |
male protestant leaders. They have absolutely no people who are | :12:52. | :12:57. | |
nonwhite. The Conservatives are a huge success story. God help us if | :12:58. | :13:05. | |
we ever have failure. The important thing is that women do not want to | :13:06. | :13:11. | |
whet another 200 years. So that they can get reasonable expectations. The | :13:12. | :13:19. | |
plain fact is, it is no good waiting to be handed a quality, you have got | :13:20. | :13:23. | |
to go out and fight for it. We have done that in the Labour Party. In | :13:24. | :13:29. | |
the Conservative party, in my 25 years, I have had battles to but the | :13:30. | :13:33. | |
point is, the Conservative party is based on meritocracy. You have to | :13:34. | :13:38. | |
make your own way. We all want the same make`up of Parliament. What do | :13:39. | :13:53. | |
you mean by meritocracy? If we look at the Blair babes... If you don't | :13:54. | :13:57. | |
mind me saying so, that is a bit down, it is patronising of woman, | :13:58. | :14:00. | |
and I am astonished to hear you use that phrase. I was one of the Tony | :14:01. | :14:04. | |
Blair babes, and I joined the party before Tony Blair did. If I could | :14:05. | :14:16. | |
get a word in edgeways, what I was saying was that that label of the | :14:17. | :14:19. | |
Tony Blair babes is unhelpful, and if you could people into groups and | :14:20. | :14:23. | |
say that you can only be on this list if you're in this group, the | :14:24. | :14:26. | |
are perfectly able that would've made it on their own, a generation | :14:27. | :14:29. | |
later, would have made it on their own, people think, hang on, are they | :14:30. | :14:35. | |
there because of that short list? The final point, this is important, | :14:36. | :14:38. | |
if there is some establishment elite that said this group needs | :14:39. | :14:40. | |
favouritism, that belies an underlying sense that somehow people | :14:41. | :14:43. | |
are not equal, somehow been the establishment to make it happen. I | :14:44. | :14:54. | |
can't let him get away with that. The party's all women short lists | :14:55. | :14:58. | |
were put in the rules by democratic decision of the party conference, | :14:59. | :15:00. | |
not by an establishment elite, in fact, Tony Blair did not want to | :15:01. | :15:09. | |
happen. These parties are doing something, the Lib Dem record is | :15:10. | :15:16. | |
rubbish. We have this view in all abroad Democrats. We have had blood | :15:17. | :15:22. | |
in the floor over this one. The women in the Parliament. We do have | :15:23. | :15:27. | |
women in the Parliament. It is absolutely not fast enough, I | :15:28. | :15:29. | |
totally agree, and Adam, for goodness sake, I like to tell your | :15:30. | :15:38. | |
story, if I may. We don't have time. If you are a woman or from a black | :15:39. | :15:42. | |
eye in order to background and put on the TV, chances are, look at your | :15:43. | :15:46. | |
party and the other parties, they're going to see a white, middle`class | :15:47. | :16:00. | |
man. That is not good enough. It is not good enough. 40% winnable seat | :16:01. | :16:05. | |
at the last election were fought by women, unfortunately we didn't wind | :16:06. | :16:08. | |
them, so you have got to wind the seat in order to be able to do that. | :16:09. | :16:12. | |
But I want to see parity in my lifetime, I don't think that it's | :16:13. | :16:16. | |
good enough to say, we will try to let everyone fight away on their own | :16:17. | :16:19. | |
merits. Some people have got to have that extra little bit of help, and I | :16:20. | :16:23. | |
don't see any problem at all in enabling that to happen. There are | :16:24. | :16:29. | |
different ways of giving help. You can do it officially to party | :16:30. | :16:32. | |
leaders and governments saying there are quarters, or you can do it | :16:33. | :16:35. | |
unofficially. Our wonderful organisations like Operation Like | :16:36. | :16:37. | |
Vote who do he wonderful job. We have opened doors in the | :16:38. | :16:40. | |
Conservative party to all sorts of people and we are desperate to get | :16:41. | :16:44. | |
them through, and it is beginning to happen. I can say to you guys, it | :16:45. | :16:47. | |
will take longer in the Conservative party. But the quality of people who | :16:48. | :16:53. | |
come through is so much better. That's insulting to women who have | :16:54. | :16:56. | |
come through in the Labour Party, many of whom are of outstanding | :16:57. | :17:07. | |
quality. One question. You had open primaries in the last election. Is | :17:08. | :17:11. | |
that change that you need to make? Grabs open primaries would give you | :17:12. | :17:14. | |
more women, more ethnic minorities than relying on your constituents. | :17:15. | :17:19. | |
There is an underlying assumption that constituents associations are | :17:20. | :17:22. | |
doing the right thing, they are, but they take a litfbaby steps tle more | :17:23. | :17:26. | |
time to do it. This is a deeply conservative, natural way of doing | :17:27. | :17:29. | |
things, let the public have a big input into the candidate are. I | :17:30. | :17:37. | |
think it is a good way forward. It 400 years at the rate you are going | :17:38. | :17:41. | |
before you have parity in your party, and if you think that's good | :17:42. | :17:49. | |
enough... Miles behind, your party is miles behind. I made us be alive | :17:50. | :17:55. | |
to see it. And we may still be talking about it. For now, Lorely | :17:56. | :17:59. | |
Burt, Adam Afryie, and Angela Eagle, thank you for coming in to see us. | :18:00. | :18:04. | |
It's 30 years since the satirical puppet show Spitting Image burst | :18:05. | :18:07. | |
onto our TV screens and had the politicians running for cover. It | :18:08. | :18:13. | |
ran for 131 episodes from 1984 to 1996. To mark this anniversary, the | :18:14. | :18:18. | |
Cartoon Museum in London is hosting a special exhibition. But the | :18:19. | :18:23. | |
question is, three decades on, is TV political satire dead, as one of the | :18:24. | :18:28. | |
show's creators recently suggested? Our reporter Sam Francis went along | :18:29. | :18:30. | |
to the opening night to find out. At 10pm on Sunday the 26th of | :18:31. | :18:43. | |
February 1984, British television witnessed the birth of a new | :18:44. | :18:49. | |
phenomenon. Spitting Image, a satirical puppet show which would | :18:50. | :18:51. | |
push the boundaries of taste and decency. Public figures were | :18:52. | :18:57. | |
ridiculed any cruise, cruel but very funny way. A lot of politicians may | :18:58. | :19:03. | |
have hidden behind the sofa and cringed at seeing themselves | :19:04. | :19:06. | |
caricatured, but if he did not feature, it probably meant they were | :19:07. | :19:12. | |
not important enough. The show ran on ITV for 12 years, and at its | :19:13. | :19:15. | |
height attracted more than 15 million viewers. John Lloyd, one of | :19:16. | :19:22. | |
the creators said that in the UK we don't meet any satirical TV any | :19:23. | :19:31. | |
more. Can that be right? I wish I hadn't said that. Yet has not | :19:32. | :19:37. | |
rightly corrected me, of course there is satire on television. The | :19:38. | :19:41. | |
Thick Of It, Have I Got News For You Matt. TV isn't the most important | :19:42. | :19:46. | |
thing, but there are terrific people working there, if you look at David | :19:47. | :19:49. | |
Mitchell, Charlie Brooker, Christmas, endless names. `` Chris | :19:50. | :20:03. | |
Morris. He's just a grumpy old man, he doesn't want anyone to surpass | :20:04. | :20:06. | |
his career. That's what it's about. It's not like it was in my day! As | :20:07. | :20:10. | |
politicians have become or polished, professional and media savvy, does | :20:11. | :20:17. | |
that make them harder to satirise? I don't quite understand when you have | :20:18. | :20:20. | |
a government is money mentally preposterous as this one, it has | :20:21. | :20:22. | |
everything going for it, it has stepped down some, this mismatch of | :20:23. | :20:30. | |
the Lib Dems and the Conservatives. `` Steptoe and son. By his David | :20:31. | :20:35. | |
Cameron the first premise in my lifetime who's not regularly | :20:36. | :20:37. | |
impersonated on television? He has one of the most' walks in the world. | :20:38. | :20:42. | |
1980s we had spitting image, and it was suited to the time because we | :20:43. | :20:52. | |
both believe what we were seeing. If you stick a pin in modern | :20:53. | :20:55. | |
politicians, they are also smooth and so likeable and so reasonable, | :20:56. | :20:58. | |
and you can't really tell who's on which side, and in the 1980s, the | :20:59. | :21:11. | |
politicians were rotten. Norman Tebbit went out and said sound bites | :21:12. | :21:14. | |
that were a gift to satirists because he said what he meant, the | :21:15. | :21:18. | |
pill was not sugared. Mrs Thatcher was the same, she said what she | :21:19. | :21:23. | |
meant. They are so controlled by their spin doctors, the one thing we | :21:24. | :21:29. | |
cannot control is laughter. These to be complicit in the laughter but now | :21:30. | :21:32. | |
they're too frightened. If you start laughing at any government, that is | :21:33. | :21:35. | |
the first chip in chipped away that eventually leads to their collapse. | :21:36. | :21:39. | |
What is the future hold for TV satire? Let's have a government that | :21:40. | :21:44. | |
starts kicking, and we will see whether they deserve something back. | :21:45. | :21:52. | |
In the dying days of the coalition, with a general election next year, | :21:53. | :21:55. | |
will we see more no holds barred satire on the box? TV bosses, over | :21:56. | :22:04. | |
to you. Time now for our regular snippet of | :22:05. | :22:07. | |
Euro news. The European Parliament has been holding its regular meeting | :22:08. | :22:10. | |
in Strasbourg, while back home MPs and Peers welcomed a distinguished | :22:11. | :22:15. | |
German guest. Here's our reporter, Alasdair | :22:16. | :22:21. | |
Rendell. After months of arguments and negotiations, MEPs finally back | :22:22. | :22:23. | |
in package of laws to toughen rules on tobacco products. There will be | :22:24. | :22:27. | |
larger warnings and menthol and other flavoured cigarettes will be | :22:28. | :22:31. | |
banned. It also paves the way for title break regulation `` tighter | :22:32. | :22:36. | |
regulation of E cigarettes. Improved growth figures were reported. That | :22:37. | :22:46. | |
is upgrading his earlier estimate. He warned the deployment would | :22:47. | :22:49. | |
remain at historically high levels well into 2015. The German | :22:50. | :22:54. | |
Chancellor Angela Merkel paid a visit to London where she addressed | :22:55. | :22:59. | |
MPs and Peers in the Royal Gallery. She praised the partnership between | :23:00. | :23:02. | |
the UK and Germany, but told the assembled crowd that those hoping | :23:03. | :23:05. | |
for her to back EU Treaty reform would be in for a disappointment. | :23:06. | :23:14. | |
Alisdair Rendell with a quick look at all things European ` at the end | :23:15. | :23:18. | |
of a week dominated by fury over the collapse of a case of a suspected | :23:19. | :23:19. | |
IRA bomber. Whether that not take any notice of | :23:20. | :23:43. | |
meteorologist and that is why spring is starting on a cold night. | :23:44. | :23:45. |