:00:00. > :00:00.handled the gun used in the shooting without gloves and that the crime
:00:00. > :00:00.scene was disturbed. The case is likely to hinge on sensitive
:00:00. > :00:07.forensic evidence Police say a blast bomb has been thrown at officers in
:00:08. > :00:10.Belfast. The officers were in the west of the city when the incident
:00:11. > :00:12.happened. The vehicle they were travelling in was damaged and
:00:13. > :00:16.paramedics treated some people on the scene for shock, but there were
:00:17. > :00:20.no serious injuries. Time now for the Week in Parliament. Hello and
:00:21. > :00:23.welcome to the Week In Parliament. The care bill will affect thousands
:00:24. > :00:26.of us as the population ages. Why did the Commons allocate so little
:00:27. > :00:30.time to debate its details? We've got a really important bill which I
:00:31. > :00:33.think a lot of people will feel didn't have the sort of detailed
:00:34. > :00:36.scrutiny that it merited. You have votes on what has been agreed by the
:00:37. > :00:45.frontbenchers and the backbenchers are squeezed out. And I will be
:00:46. > :00:51.reporting on a parliamentary first, starring the suffragettes.
:00:52. > :00:56.Parliament has lost one of its finest speakers. This was Tony Benn
:00:57. > :00:59.in action. They say you cannot do this because we've agreed... The
:01:00. > :01:05.Belgians won't object to what the Italians have said the people of
:01:06. > :01:17.Luxembourg want. The minister has got no power. They don't make them
:01:18. > :01:20.like that any more. First, controversial proposals to give the
:01:21. > :01:23.Health Secretary greater powers to close local hospital services were
:01:24. > :01:26.approved by MPs on Tuesday. They voted 297 to 239 to back a move
:01:27. > :01:29.which could allow a health secretary to overcome local opposition to the
:01:30. > :01:32.downgrading of a hospital in England. The last-minute measure was
:01:33. > :01:35.added to the government's care bill and it followed a court judgement
:01:36. > :01:38.last year that ministers had acted unlawfully in a scaling back of
:01:39. > :01:46.services at a hospital in south London. The issue produced heated
:01:47. > :01:49.debate in the Commons. The Secretary of State has rammed a new clause
:01:50. > :01:52.into this bill on the back of a court defeat, asking this house to
:01:53. > :01:55.give him sweeping powers over the NHS in all of our constituencies,
:01:56. > :02:11.without even having the courtesy to come to this house today and make
:02:12. > :02:15.the argument himself. As we debate this, we ought to be able to find
:02:16. > :02:18.some way of resolving this issue now and not give those powers to the
:02:19. > :02:21.Secretary of State, to add random closures of general hospitals all
:02:22. > :02:25.over the country. The point about clause 119 is it's an extremely
:02:26. > :02:28.narrow question. In the circumstances where an administrator
:02:29. > :02:30.is appointed, should that trust special administrator consider only
:02:31. > :02:32.an institution which has been demonstrated by history to be
:02:33. > :02:35.unsustainable or should it look outside that immediate health
:02:36. > :02:37.economy and look for solutions that will serve better the needs of
:02:38. > :02:53.patients of that area? Local commissioners and trusts
:02:54. > :02:56.should be responsible for sorting out difficulties that could lead to
:02:57. > :02:59.a failure. What needs to be clearer is what happens at the pre-failure
:03:00. > :03:03.stage and ministers need to work with NHS England and monitor it to
:03:04. > :03:13.set out that regime, so it's crystal clear what has to happen. If the
:03:14. > :03:16.clause becomes law, the Secretary of State will be granted the power to
:03:17. > :03:31.issue directions to require groups to take steps they don't want to.
:03:32. > :03:33.Any member who wishes to prevent the Secretary of State's axe falling
:03:34. > :03:37.arbitrarily should be seeking to remove this close on the bill. The
:03:38. > :03:42.usual approach will remain to stop Trust Special Administrators. This
:03:43. > :03:47.is not a power to be used to routinely reconfigure services. The
:03:48. > :03:52.right honourable member is good at playing politics and good at spin.
:03:53. > :03:56.I'm a doctor and I will always do what I believe is in the best
:03:57. > :04:00.interests of patients. Some moments from Tuesday's debate.
:04:01. > :04:03.The bulk of the care bill is concerned with long-term care of the
:04:04. > :04:06.elderly and with poor hospital performance. It has generated plenty
:04:07. > :04:10.of public interest. Yet, when it came to the detailed report stage of
:04:11. > :04:12.the bill, just two were allocated and the first day was further
:04:13. > :04:23.curtailed because of ministers statements to the Commons. Much of
:04:24. > :04:26.the bill remained under-debated. -- undebated. So, should this important
:04:27. > :04:30.and controversial bill have been given more time? Why were the whips
:04:31. > :04:32.in such a rush to get it through, especially when Parliament doesn't
:04:33. > :04:43.have much on its plate at the moment? Here is one MP complaining
:04:44. > :04:47.about the situation. We are having to deal with 21 new clauses and 20
:04:48. > :04:55.amendments on an important bill in two hours which is three minutes per
:04:56. > :04:57.clause or amendment. Given the honourable lady spoke perfectly
:04:58. > :05:01.reasonably to the lengths of the amendments being put down but how it
:05:02. > :05:10.was impossible to do justice to all of this, in two hours, I think the
:05:11. > :05:14.usual channels... Some of us feel rather bad-tempered about this
:05:15. > :05:22.provision. That was a clip from Monday night.
:05:23. > :05:25.Joining us now in the studio is Sir Tony Baldry and alongside him, we
:05:26. > :05:35.also have Nick Brown, the former Labour Chief Whip and John Hemming.
:05:36. > :05:36.Welcome to Week In Parliament. Sir Terry, you were rather cross on
:05:37. > :06:02.Monday night. I think there are some issues here
:06:03. > :06:05.about how we deal with the last year in parliament of a five year fixed
:06:06. > :06:07.term parliament. It's a surreal parliament. Earlier this week, we
:06:08. > :06:10.didn't have enough time properly to discuss 21 new clauses and
:06:11. > :06:13.amendments. And yet, I think we've only had whipped business on a
:06:14. > :06:16.Thursday once this year. So we had this rather surreal thing where on
:06:17. > :06:19.Tuesdays and Wednesdays, we seem to be frenetic but the rest of the
:06:20. > :06:29.Parliamentary week, everyone is disappearing back to their
:06:30. > :06:32.constituencies. It may well be because people want to fight the
:06:33. > :06:34.Scottish referendum or whatever. It is not particularly good in terms of
:06:35. > :06:37.scrutiny. Nick Brown, you are a former Labour
:06:38. > :06:41.Chief Whip but you are a paid-up member of the Chief Whips' Union!
:06:42. > :06:45.There is a strange dynamic in the Commons around why bills have to be
:06:46. > :06:50.got through quickly. They have to be got through. That is the job of the
:06:51. > :06:53.Chief Whip. They don't have to be got through quickly except in very
:06:54. > :07:05.special and pretty rare can circumstances. - rare cicumsances.
:07:06. > :07:08.In those circumstances, there is usually a fair degree of discussion
:07:09. > :07:11.between the opposition and the government front bench spokesman so
:07:12. > :07:13.that people at least understand the urgency of it. I think Tony's
:07:14. > :07:17.complaint is entirely justified. When I was the Chief Whip, if the
:07:18. > :07:20.Secretary of State said they wanted to add a closing because things have
:07:21. > :07:30.changed, I used to threaten to weaken the bill, so it would have
:07:31. > :07:35.committee scrutiny again. -- recommit the bill. I think that
:07:36. > :07:37.would have been the correct way to deal with Sir Tony's complaint. They
:07:38. > :07:40.should have been more detailed scrutiny by committee and I don't
:07:41. > :07:43.quite understand why that possibility wasn't explored more.
:07:44. > :07:47.Overall, a Chief Whip gets the bill through, don't they? That is the job
:07:48. > :07:53.of the Chief Whip. Crudely put, yes, that is right. You have a range of
:07:54. > :07:57.options as to how you go to do it. The first thing you should not do in
:07:58. > :08:02.my opinion is trample on the legitimate rights of the opposition.
:08:03. > :08:06.Their rights are to have their alternative proposals discussed with
:08:07. > :08:17.adequate time for it. And to make sure the bill's proposals are
:08:18. > :08:27.scrutinised properly. Miss using the report stage of the bill is wrong.
:08:28. > :08:30.-- misusing. John Hemming, you're a Lib Dem and a member of Parliament's
:08:31. > :08:33.Backbench Business Committee. Do you think the Commons is an inscrutable
:08:34. > :08:37.venue? There are a couple of issues. I have criticisms because knowledge
:08:38. > :08:40.is power and knowledge is kept in the system. The other is control
:08:41. > :08:43.which is whether or not the government wins. Obviously, the more
:08:44. > :08:51.votes there are, the more often the government is likely to lose. It
:08:52. > :08:56.doesn't like losing. Therefore, there is the issue of how they deal
:08:57. > :09:02.with private members bills. It is the dishonesty of the whole process.
:09:03. > :09:06.The government has been resisting it. The advantage to the government
:09:07. > :09:11.in truncating everything is you don't have many votes. The problem
:09:12. > :09:14.here is that the public doesn't understand why a very important
:09:15. > :09:21.bill, that will affect all our lives, why it has to be dealt with
:09:22. > :09:29.so quickly. Surely the Commons doesn't seem to be the right place
:09:30. > :09:33.to do it. There are broader issues here about how we divide our time in
:09:34. > :09:35.the house. There are some reforms in this Parliament, more ministerial
:09:36. > :09:42.statements, urgent questions answered. There is a tendency to put
:09:43. > :09:45.all the backbench business on Thursdays, like a second-class day
:09:46. > :09:48.almost and yet here we have a really important bill which I think quite a
:09:49. > :09:50.lot of people feel doesn't actually have the sort of detailed scrutiny
:09:51. > :10:01.it probably merited. If a government whip came to the
:10:02. > :10:12.backbench business committee and said let's have four days, can that
:10:13. > :10:20.be take for this business? -- taken. What would happen then? There are
:10:21. > :10:22.supposed to be 37 days reserved for backbench business itself. There is
:10:23. > :10:25.no shortage of time. Actually, Nick's point about re-committal is
:10:26. > :10:29.the keyword. When you have lots of amendments, if they need to be gone
:10:30. > :10:31.into detail, it's best the bill goes to a committee. The only
:10:32. > :10:34.re-committal in this Parliament has been on the health bill. I can think
:10:35. > :10:37.of anything else. The cramming together is avoiding votes. You have
:10:38. > :10:40.votes on what has been agreed effectively by the front benches and
:10:41. > :10:47.the backbenchers, who essentially are the voice of the people, are
:10:48. > :10:50.squeezed out. What one needs to understand is quite often, whips on
:10:51. > :10:55.both sides will get together and decide effectively what is in the
:10:56. > :11:01.convenience of the front benches. And that concerns you? It concerns
:11:02. > :11:08.me as well. There was so much added into the care bill that it should
:11:09. > :11:12.have had a committee re-committal. That would have been the correct way
:11:13. > :11:15.to deal with it. It could have been done without. This Parliament has
:11:16. > :11:21.now got the nickname of the zombie Parliament. It is short of business.
:11:22. > :11:24.We can discuss why that is so but you cannot say there is not
:11:25. > :11:31.Parliamentary time just to take longer to look at this bill. The
:11:32. > :11:35.whipping system is not popular because it does not appears to
:11:36. > :11:40.develop a rational government. We don't have that engagement. Not
:11:41. > :11:46.everything is in the manifesto. I've never said that to a constituent
:11:47. > :11:48.ever. What about this point you are making about more urgent questions?
:11:49. > :11:54.Parliament is more topical and more urgent but that is eating away into
:11:55. > :11:57.the time for legislation, isn't it? It eats into the time. My concern is
:11:58. > :12:07.that basically, whenever something is really sensitive, it gets stuck
:12:08. > :12:11.in the system. I don't think organisations should be allowed to
:12:12. > :12:14.do that. We should be able to enforce the processes. Knowledge is
:12:15. > :12:28.power and if you can't get the knowledge out of the system, we
:12:29. > :12:31.cannot exercise... -- exercise that. I am not sure that it is necessarily
:12:32. > :12:35.improving government. The present Speaker has been quite bold in this
:12:36. > :12:37.and I think the house as a whole rather likes his willingness to
:12:38. > :12:40.consider urgent questions from the backbenchers, rather than just the
:12:41. > :12:43.convention used to be that of the representations came from the Shadow
:12:44. > :12:46.Minister, it would be heard and unless it was something quite
:12:47. > :12:50.exceptional, it would be unlikely to be heard if it was from a backbench
:12:51. > :12:52.MP. Now, the speaker will judge on whether the issue is urgent and
:12:53. > :13:01.fulfils the topical qualification it has to meet and granted. I think
:13:02. > :13:06.that has made the house a better place. May I make a practical
:13:07. > :13:08.suggestion. At the moment, when you get to a report in its third
:13:09. > :13:15.reading, it is effectively divided up between the usual channels, the
:13:16. > :13:18.whips. Maybe there is a role here for also, for instance, for the
:13:19. > :13:25.backbench business committee to give some view of what backbenchers feel
:13:26. > :13:28.would be a relevant period of time. I think also we need, as this
:13:29. > :13:31.Parliament develops, to try and work out how this whole new thing of
:13:32. > :13:34.backbench business relates to government time because otherwise we
:13:35. > :13:38.are not going to have two types of Parliament. We will have government
:13:39. > :13:40.time and almost second-class backbench business time and the two
:13:41. > :14:03.need to be much better interrelated. A final quick word. You also have
:14:04. > :14:09.positioned home. The idea of back wrenched time allows the issue of
:14:10. > :14:15.Afghanistan. It wasn't debated during all of the labour
:14:16. > :14:20.government. Final word. I am against a suggestion. The addition of
:14:21. > :14:27.well-intentioned backbenchers, what would they be representing? The
:14:28. > :14:31.experiment with backbench time has worked well, but there are
:14:32. > :14:44.consequences. They need to be thought through. Thank you very much
:14:45. > :14:48.indeed. Some thoughts on how the Commons should spend its time.
:14:49. > :14:52.Parliament has gone into what some might regard as a more frivolous
:14:53. > :14:56.mode are giving the go-ahead for the first ever big-screen film to be
:14:57. > :15:02.shot in the Palace of Westminster. Filming for Suffragette, about those
:15:03. > :15:06.for women at the start of the 20th century will take place at Easter.
:15:07. > :15:13.Fees will go towards the upkeep of Parliament. 100 years ago the
:15:14. > :15:18.suffragettes took their fights to winning votes for women to the heart
:15:19. > :15:23.of wets meant. Now, a film is making parliamentary history. --
:15:24. > :15:27.Westminster. The film will be on location in the Palace this Easter.
:15:28. > :15:32.The first time filming has been allowed in Parliament. Carey
:15:33. > :15:35.Mulligan stars as a young suffragette, while Meryl Streep
:15:36. > :15:45.takes the role of the leader of the movement. It felt very important and
:15:46. > :15:48.it is an iconic building. It is a very masculine building in many
:15:49. > :15:54.ways, which was tremendously exciting for me when I was writing,
:15:55. > :15:59.to realise that to cut against the poverty of a laundry, which is where
:16:00. > :16:02.it is set in the east End, I felt the majesty of the East End and the
:16:03. > :16:08.house of Parliament had a really important character to the film. And
:16:09. > :16:17.the Morgan also wrote the iron Lady, about Margaret Thatcher. It is
:16:18. > :16:20.hugely supportive of the film as well, so that frees us up to make
:16:21. > :16:26.the film as authentically as possible. We can relocate what
:16:27. > :16:33.otherwise would be an expensive exercise. It is telling a story that
:16:34. > :16:38.is important. There are anniversaries coming up in relation
:16:39. > :16:44.to the events of those times, with the battle for the women's right to
:16:45. > :16:51.vote. We think that is a legitimate reason for allowing a certain amount
:16:52. > :16:55.of filming within the building. We think it shows off Parliament, and
:16:56. > :17:01.we up proud of this building and the public admire it. Many thousands of
:17:02. > :17:08.people won't have a first-hand impression but it will be good. It
:17:09. > :17:14.earns us a penny or two, to help defray the cost of maintaining this
:17:15. > :17:19.building. That is all to the good. Filming will take place in various
:17:20. > :17:26.locations. 100 years ago, getting into the building was a challenge
:17:27. > :17:31.for women. There is a key scene with Carey Mulligan, where she comes to
:17:32. > :17:35.deliver her testimony and I am hoping we will use one of the
:17:36. > :17:41.internal rooms. I don't know if we will use the actual room but the
:17:42. > :17:44.room where her testimony was given. What strikes me, when you walk
:17:45. > :17:50.around the building, and you talk about how masculine it is, and about
:17:51. > :17:56.class and power. Working specifically on this film, which is
:17:57. > :18:00.looking at a group of national green laundry workers, reminds me of how
:18:01. > :18:07.significant it must have been with the women were invited to deliver
:18:08. > :18:10.their testimony. -- Bethnal Green. A century after they took on the
:18:11. > :18:16.political stuff it went, the suffragettes are still making
:18:17. > :18:20.history. -- establishment. Now a look at some of the cover stories in
:18:21. > :18:24.the last week. The Budget is only days away, the Governor of the Bank
:18:25. > :18:30.of England has said interest rates could increase to 3% by 2017. Mark
:18:31. > :18:33.Carney told MPs on the Treasury Committee that the expansion of the
:18:34. > :18:39.UK economy should start later this year. When the time comes to raise
:18:40. > :18:46.interest rates we would expect the process to be gradual and the degree
:18:47. > :18:50.of increase to be limited. The second part of that, the limited
:18:51. > :18:58.level of increase, is occasioned by the fact we are and will still be,
:18:59. > :19:02.in our collective judgement, living in extraordinary times. After
:19:03. > :19:05.another we -- week of tension in Ukraine, the people vote on whether
:19:06. > :19:14.they want a Russian takeover. Is it a fair referendum? No, says the PM.
:19:15. > :19:20.What's wrong with it? Is it acceptable for the Scottish
:19:21. > :19:23.Nationalists in Scotland to be granted a referendum on
:19:24. > :19:31.constitutional arrangements dating back to 1707, but, unacceptable for
:19:32. > :19:38.Russian nationalists in the Crimea to have a referendum about
:19:39. > :19:45.constitutional arrangements only dating back to 1954. The Scottish
:19:46. > :19:48.referendum is legal and was discussed and debated in this house
:19:49. > :19:52.in the Scottish Parliament and we went a long way to put in place
:19:53. > :19:58.arrangements which I described would not only be decisive and fair, also
:19:59. > :20:04.legal. What is the code for success? Latch the park, where codebreakers
:20:05. > :20:07.cracked the Enigma code, changing the course of the Second World War,
:20:08. > :20:13.must not be dumbed down for the sake of tourist. Here is a 91-year-old
:20:14. > :20:20.who once worked their. I hope those who are involved will avoid creating
:20:21. > :20:25.a Disney theme park experience for the visitor. Currently, the
:20:26. > :20:36.Hollywood films that have been made to date, there little resemblance to
:20:37. > :20:41.the Bletchley I recall. -- there. I believe Bletchley could be used more
:20:42. > :20:45.widely as examples of Rikishi creativity and possibility. I'm not
:20:46. > :20:53.convinced many people are aware of the history of each -- either. Plans
:20:54. > :20:57.to take trains off Trans Pennine routes in the north and run them on
:20:58. > :21:02.southern commuter lines into London causes anger among MPs. The
:21:03. > :21:08.consequence is the loss of nine of the trans- Pennine express, plus 170
:21:09. > :21:14.Turbo start training units, which will be transferred to different
:21:15. > :21:16.railways. We will have a brand-new tunnel and rail link from Burley to
:21:17. > :21:24.Manchester but we will have no trains. The interests of the leasing
:21:25. > :21:29.company appear to be in moving these much-needed carriages from the north
:21:30. > :21:34.to the south it was they can get a better financial deal. Some have
:21:35. > :21:39.contended in their remarks that the government favours the south over
:21:40. > :21:47.the North. The reality is a completely different picture. --
:21:48. > :21:50.north. The department is investing heavily in services across the
:21:51. > :21:56.country. The job hunt goes on for those out of work at, our vacancies
:21:57. > :22:01.genuine or are they ghost jobs? A government website comes in for
:22:02. > :22:05.scrutiny. How does he explain the fact that the media are reporting
:22:06. > :22:10.that a third of a million of the jobs on the website are ghost jobs?
:22:11. > :22:14.They were warned the site has been vulnerable to hackers. It won the
:22:15. > :22:19.wooden spoon for being a mumble recruitment website that commits
:22:20. > :22:24.almost every crime online, and then some. We don't hesitate to take
:22:25. > :22:32.action against those who don't follow the rules. Weed menace to --
:22:33. > :22:38.monitor to insure there is compliance. -- ensure. If there is
:22:39. > :22:43.any doubt we remove the vacancies. Westminster has lost one of its
:22:44. > :22:49.finest parliamentarians, Tony Benn, who has died at 88. He was a member
:22:50. > :22:55.of the Commons for 47 years. He was a hero of the left, especially in
:22:56. > :22:58.the years after he left office. His oratory in Parliament was much
:22:59. > :23:06.respected across the political divide. Here is making a forthright
:23:07. > :23:12.point in his final speech in 2001. You talk a lot about apathy, but
:23:13. > :23:16.it's a two sided thing. Governments can be apathetic about the people as
:23:17. > :23:21.well as people being apathetic about government. The effective democratic
:23:22. > :23:25.parliament is about responding to what people feel in a way that makes
:23:26. > :23:30.us true representatives. The danger to democracy is not that someone
:23:31. > :23:36.will burn Buckingham Palace, but people won't vote. If people don't
:23:37. > :23:40.vote, they destroy, by neglect, the legitimacy of the government. You
:23:41. > :23:45.can catch up with more of his speeches in a special tribute
:23:46. > :23:51.programme on BBC Parliament, which you can find on BBC iPlayer. You are
:23:52. > :24:01.watching the week in Parliament. After a week that backbenchers
:24:02. > :24:02.complained bills were being rushed through the House of Commons. --