Browse content similar to 14/03/2014. Check below for episodes and series from the same categories and more!
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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. | :00:00. | |
forensic evidence Police say a blast bomb has been thrown at officers in | :00:00. | :00:07. | |
Belfast. The officers were in the west of the city when the incident | :00:08. | :00:10. | |
happened. The vehicle they were travelling in was damaged and | :00:11. | :00:12. | |
paramedics treated some people on the scene for shock, but there were | :00:13. | :00:16. | |
no serious injuries. Time now for the Week in Parliament. Hello and | :00:17. | :00:20. | |
welcome to the Week In Parliament. The care bill will affect thousands | :00:21. | :00:23. | |
of us as the population ages. Why did the Commons allocate so little | :00:24. | :00:26. | |
time to debate its details? We've got a really important bill which I | :00:27. | :00:30. | |
think a lot of people will feel didn't have the sort of detailed | :00:31. | :00:33. | |
scrutiny that it merited. You have votes on what has been agreed by the | :00:34. | :00:36. | |
frontbenchers and the backbenchers are squeezed out. And I will be | :00:37. | :00:45. | |
reporting on a parliamentary first, starring the suffragettes. | :00:46. | :00:51. | |
Parliament has lost one of its finest speakers. This was Tony Benn | :00:52. | :00:56. | |
in action. They say you cannot do this because we've agreed... The | :00:57. | :00:59. | |
Belgians won't object to what the Italians have said the people of | :01:00. | :01:05. | |
Luxembourg want. The minister has got no power. They don't make them | :01:06. | :01:17. | |
like that any more. First, controversial proposals to give the | :01:18. | :01:20. | |
Health Secretary greater powers to close local hospital services were | :01:21. | :01:23. | |
approved by MPs on Tuesday. They voted 297 to 239 to back a move | :01:24. | :01:26. | |
which could allow a health secretary to overcome local opposition to the | :01:27. | :01:29. | |
downgrading of a hospital in England. The last-minute measure was | :01:30. | :01:32. | |
added to the government's care bill and it followed a court judgement | :01:33. | :01:35. | |
last year that ministers had acted unlawfully in a scaling back of | :01:36. | :01:38. | |
services at a hospital in south London. The issue produced heated | :01:39. | :01:46. | |
debate in the Commons. The Secretary of State has rammed a new clause | :01:47. | :01:49. | |
into this bill on the back of a court defeat, asking this house to | :01:50. | :01:52. | |
give him sweeping powers over the NHS in all of our constituencies, | :01:53. | :01:55. | |
without even having the courtesy to come to this house today and make | :01:56. | :02:11. | |
the argument himself. As we debate this, we ought to be able to find | :02:12. | :02:15. | |
some way of resolving this issue now and not give those powers to the | :02:16. | :02:18. | |
Secretary of State, to add random closures of general hospitals all | :02:19. | :02:21. | |
over the country. The point about clause 119 is it's an extremely | :02:22. | :02:25. | |
narrow question. In the circumstances where an administrator | :02:26. | :02:28. | |
is appointed, should that trust special administrator consider only | :02:29. | :02:30. | |
an institution which has been demonstrated by history to be | :02:31. | :02:32. | |
unsustainable or should it look outside that immediate health | :02:33. | :02:35. | |
economy and look for solutions that will serve better the needs of | :02:36. | :02:37. | |
patients of that area? Local commissioners and trusts | :02:38. | :02:53. | |
should be responsible for sorting out difficulties that could lead to | :02:54. | :02:56. | |
a failure. What needs to be clearer is what happens at the pre-failure | :02:57. | :02:59. | |
stage and ministers need to work with NHS England and monitor it to | :03:00. | :03:03. | |
set out that regime, so it's crystal clear what has to happen. If the | :03:04. | :03:13. | |
clause becomes law, the Secretary of State will be granted the power to | :03:14. | :03:16. | |
issue directions to require groups to take steps they don't want to. | :03:17. | :03:31. | |
Any member who wishes to prevent the Secretary of State's axe falling | :03:32. | :03:33. | |
arbitrarily should be seeking to remove this close on the bill. The | :03:34. | :03:37. | |
usual approach will remain to stop Trust Special Administrators. This | :03:38. | :03:42. | |
is not a power to be used to routinely reconfigure services. The | :03:43. | :03:47. | |
right honourable member is good at playing politics and good at spin. | :03:48. | :03:52. | |
I'm a doctor and I will always do what I believe is in the best | :03:53. | :03:56. | |
interests of patients. Some moments from Tuesday's debate. | :03:57. | :04:00. | |
The bulk of the care bill is concerned with long-term care of the | :04:01. | :04:03. | |
elderly and with poor hospital performance. It has generated plenty | :04:04. | :04:06. | |
of public interest. Yet, when it came to the detailed report stage of | :04:07. | :04:10. | |
the bill, just two were allocated and the first day was further | :04:11. | :04:12. | |
curtailed because of ministers statements to the Commons. Much of | :04:13. | :04:23. | |
the bill remained under-debated. -- undebated. So, should this important | :04:24. | :04:26. | |
and controversial bill have been given more time? Why were the whips | :04:27. | :04:30. | |
in such a rush to get it through, especially when Parliament doesn't | :04:31. | :04:32. | |
have much on its plate at the moment? Here is one MP complaining | :04:33. | :04:43. | |
about the situation. We are having to deal with 21 new clauses and 20 | :04:44. | :04:47. | |
amendments on an important bill in two hours which is three minutes per | :04:48. | :04:55. | |
clause or amendment. Given the honourable lady spoke perfectly | :04:56. | :04:57. | |
reasonably to the lengths of the amendments being put down but how it | :04:58. | :05:01. | |
was impossible to do justice to all of this, in two hours, I think the | :05:02. | :05:10. | |
usual channels... Some of us feel rather bad-tempered about this | :05:11. | :05:14. | |
provision. That was a clip from Monday night. | :05:15. | :05:22. | |
Joining us now in the studio is Sir Tony Baldry and alongside him, we | :05:23. | :05:25. | |
also have Nick Brown, the former Labour Chief Whip and John Hemming. | :05:26. | :05:35. | |
Welcome to Week In Parliament. Sir Terry, you were rather cross on | :05:36. | :05:36. | |
Monday night. I think there are some issues here | :05:37. | :06:02. | |
about how we deal with the last year in parliament of a five year fixed | :06:03. | :06:05. | |
term parliament. It's a surreal parliament. Earlier this week, we | :06:06. | :06:07. | |
didn't have enough time properly to discuss 21 new clauses and | :06:08. | :06:10. | |
amendments. And yet, I think we've only had whipped business on a | :06:11. | :06:13. | |
Thursday once this year. So we had this rather surreal thing where on | :06:14. | :06:16. | |
Tuesdays and Wednesdays, we seem to be frenetic but the rest of the | :06:17. | :06:19. | |
Parliamentary week, everyone is disappearing back to their | :06:20. | :06:29. | |
constituencies. It may well be because people want to fight the | :06:30. | :06:32. | |
Scottish referendum or whatever. It is not particularly good in terms of | :06:33. | :06:34. | |
scrutiny. Nick Brown, you are a former Labour | :06:35. | :06:37. | |
Chief Whip but you are a paid-up member of the Chief Whips' Union! | :06:38. | :06:41. | |
There is a strange dynamic in the Commons around why bills have to be | :06:42. | :06:45. | |
got through quickly. They have to be got through. That is the job of the | :06:46. | :06:50. | |
Chief Whip. They don't have to be got through quickly except in very | :06:51. | :06:53. | |
special and pretty rare can circumstances. - rare cicumsances. | :06:54. | :07:05. | |
In those circumstances, there is usually a fair degree of discussion | :07:06. | :07:08. | |
between the opposition and the government front bench spokesman so | :07:09. | :07:11. | |
that people at least understand the urgency of it. I think Tony's | :07:12. | :07:13. | |
complaint is entirely justified. When I was the Chief Whip, if the | :07:14. | :07:17. | |
Secretary of State said they wanted to add a closing because things have | :07:18. | :07:20. | |
changed, I used to threaten to weaken the bill, so it would have | :07:21. | :07:30. | |
committee scrutiny again. -- recommit the bill. I think that | :07:31. | :07:35. | |
would have been the correct way to deal with Sir Tony's complaint. They | :07:36. | :07:37. | |
should have been more detailed scrutiny by committee and I don't | :07:38. | :07:40. | |
quite understand why that possibility wasn't explored more. | :07:41. | :07:43. | |
Overall, a Chief Whip gets the bill through, don't they? That is the job | :07:44. | :07:47. | |
of the Chief Whip. Crudely put, yes, that is right. You have a range of | :07:48. | :07:53. | |
options as to how you go to do it. The first thing you should not do in | :07:54. | :07:57. | |
my opinion is trample on the legitimate rights of the opposition. | :07:58. | :08:02. | |
Their rights are to have their alternative proposals discussed with | :08:03. | :08:06. | |
adequate time for it. And to make sure the bill's proposals are | :08:07. | :08:17. | |
scrutinised properly. Miss using the report stage of the bill is wrong. | :08:18. | :08:27. | |
-- misusing. John Hemming, you're a Lib Dem and a member of Parliament's | :08:28. | :08:30. | |
Backbench Business Committee. Do you think the Commons is an inscrutable | :08:31. | :08:33. | |
venue? There are a couple of issues. I have criticisms because knowledge | :08:34. | :08:37. | |
is power and knowledge is kept in the system. The other is control | :08:38. | :08:40. | |
which is whether or not the government wins. Obviously, the more | :08:41. | :08:43. | |
votes there are, the more often the government is likely to lose. It | :08:44. | :08:51. | |
doesn't like losing. Therefore, there is the issue of how they deal | :08:52. | :08:56. | |
with private members bills. It is the dishonesty of the whole process. | :08:57. | :09:02. | |
The government has been resisting it. The advantage to the government | :09:03. | :09:06. | |
in truncating everything is you don't have many votes. The problem | :09:07. | :09:11. | |
here is that the public doesn't understand why a very important | :09:12. | :09:14. | |
bill, that will affect all our lives, why it has to be dealt with | :09:15. | :09:21. | |
so quickly. Surely the Commons doesn't seem to be the right place | :09:22. | :09:29. | |
to do it. There are broader issues here about how we divide our time in | :09:30. | :09:33. | |
the house. There are some reforms in this Parliament, more ministerial | :09:34. | :09:35. | |
statements, urgent questions answered. There is a tendency to put | :09:36. | :09:42. | |
all the backbench business on Thursdays, like a second-class day | :09:43. | :09:45. | |
almost and yet here we have a really important bill which I think quite a | :09:46. | :09:48. | |
lot of people feel doesn't actually have the sort of detailed scrutiny | :09:49. | :09:50. | |
it probably merited. If a government whip came to the | :09:51. | :10:01. | |
backbench business committee and said let's have four days, can that | :10:02. | :10:12. | |
be take for this business? -- taken. What would happen then? There are | :10:13. | :10:20. | |
supposed to be 37 days reserved for backbench business itself. There is | :10:21. | :10:22. | |
no shortage of time. Actually, Nick's point about re-committal is | :10:23. | :10:25. | |
the keyword. When you have lots of amendments, if they need to be gone | :10:26. | :10:29. | |
into detail, it's best the bill goes to a committee. The only | :10:30. | :10:31. | |
re-committal in this Parliament has been on the health bill. I can think | :10:32. | :10:34. | |
of anything else. The cramming together is avoiding votes. You have | :10:35. | :10:37. | |
votes on what has been agreed effectively by the front benches and | :10:38. | :10:40. | |
the backbenchers, who essentially are the voice of the people, are | :10:41. | :10:47. | |
squeezed out. What one needs to understand is quite often, whips on | :10:48. | :10:50. | |
both sides will get together and decide effectively what is in the | :10:51. | :10:55. | |
convenience of the front benches. And that concerns you? It concerns | :10:56. | :11:01. | |
me as well. There was so much added into the care bill that it should | :11:02. | :11:08. | |
have had a committee re-committal. That would have been the correct way | :11:09. | :11:12. | |
to deal with it. It could have been done without. This Parliament has | :11:13. | :11:15. | |
now got the nickname of the zombie Parliament. It is short of business. | :11:16. | :11:21. | |
We can discuss why that is so but you cannot say there is not | :11:22. | :11:24. | |
Parliamentary time just to take longer to look at this bill. The | :11:25. | :11:31. | |
whipping system is not popular because it does not appears to | :11:32. | :11:35. | |
develop a rational government. We don't have that engagement. Not | :11:36. | :11:40. | |
everything is in the manifesto. I've never said that to a constituent | :11:41. | :11:46. | |
ever. What about this point you are making about more urgent questions? | :11:47. | :11:48. | |
Parliament is more topical and more urgent but that is eating away into | :11:49. | :11:54. | |
the time for legislation, isn't it? It eats into the time. My concern is | :11:55. | :11:57. | |
that basically, whenever something is really sensitive, it gets stuck | :11:58. | :12:07. | |
in the system. I don't think organisations should be allowed to | :12:08. | :12:11. | |
do that. We should be able to enforce the processes. Knowledge is | :12:12. | :12:14. | |
power and if you can't get the knowledge out of the system, we | :12:15. | :12:28. | |
cannot exercise... -- exercise that. I am not sure that it is necessarily | :12:29. | :12:31. | |
improving government. The present Speaker has been quite bold in this | :12:32. | :12:35. | |
and I think the house as a whole rather likes his willingness to | :12:36. | :12:37. | |
consider urgent questions from the backbenchers, rather than just the | :12:38. | :12:40. | |
convention used to be that of the representations came from the Shadow | :12:41. | :12:43. | |
Minister, it would be heard and unless it was something quite | :12:44. | :12:46. | |
exceptional, it would be unlikely to be heard if it was from a backbench | :12:47. | :12:50. | |
MP. Now, the speaker will judge on whether the issue is urgent and | :12:51. | :12:52. | |
fulfils the topical qualification it has to meet and granted. I think | :12:53. | :13:01. | |
that has made the house a better place. May I make a practical | :13:02. | :13:06. | |
suggestion. At the moment, when you get to a report in its third | :13:07. | :13:08. | |
reading, it is effectively divided up between the usual channels, the | :13:09. | :13:15. | |
whips. Maybe there is a role here for also, for instance, for the | :13:16. | :13:18. | |
backbench business committee to give some view of what backbenchers feel | :13:19. | :13:25. | |
would be a relevant period of time. I think also we need, as this | :13:26. | :13:28. | |
Parliament develops, to try and work out how this whole new thing of | :13:29. | :13:31. | |
backbench business relates to government time because otherwise we | :13:32. | :13:34. | |
are not going to have two types of Parliament. We will have government | :13:35. | :13:38. | |
time and almost second-class backbench business time and the two | :13:39. | :13:40. | |
need to be much better interrelated. A final quick word. You also have | :13:41. | :14:03. | |
positioned home. The idea of back wrenched time allows the issue of | :14:04. | :14:09. | |
Afghanistan. It wasn't debated during all of the labour | :14:10. | :14:15. | |
government. Final word. I am against a suggestion. The addition of | :14:16. | :14:20. | |
well-intentioned backbenchers, what would they be representing? The | :14:21. | :14:27. | |
experiment with backbench time has worked well, but there are | :14:28. | :14:31. | |
consequences. They need to be thought through. Thank you very much | :14:32. | :14:44. | |
indeed. Some thoughts on how the Commons should spend its time. | :14:45. | :14:48. | |
Parliament has gone into what some might regard as a more frivolous | :14:49. | :14:52. | |
mode are giving the go-ahead for the first ever big-screen film to be | :14:53. | :14:56. | |
shot in the Palace of Westminster. Filming for Suffragette, about those | :14:57. | :15:02. | |
for women at the start of the 20th century will take place at Easter. | :15:03. | :15:06. | |
Fees will go towards the upkeep of Parliament. 100 years ago the | :15:07. | :15:13. | |
suffragettes took their fights to winning votes for women to the heart | :15:14. | :15:18. | |
of wets meant. Now, a film is making parliamentary history. -- | :15:19. | :15:23. | |
Westminster. The film will be on location in the Palace this Easter. | :15:24. | :15:27. | |
The first time filming has been allowed in Parliament. Carey | :15:28. | :15:32. | |
Mulligan stars as a young suffragette, while Meryl Streep | :15:33. | :15:35. | |
takes the role of the leader of the movement. It felt very important and | :15:36. | :15:45. | |
it is an iconic building. It is a very masculine building in many | :15:46. | :15:48. | |
ways, which was tremendously exciting for me when I was writing, | :15:49. | :15:54. | |
to realise that to cut against the poverty of a laundry, which is where | :15:55. | :15:59. | |
it is set in the east End, I felt the majesty of the East End and the | :16:00. | :16:02. | |
house of Parliament had a really important character to the film. And | :16:03. | :16:08. | |
the Morgan also wrote the iron Lady, about Margaret Thatcher. It is | :16:09. | :16:17. | |
hugely supportive of the film as well, so that frees us up to make | :16:18. | :16:20. | |
the film as authentically as possible. We can relocate what | :16:21. | :16:26. | |
otherwise would be an expensive exercise. It is telling a story that | :16:27. | :16:33. | |
is important. There are anniversaries coming up in relation | :16:34. | :16:38. | |
to the events of those times, with the battle for the women's right to | :16:39. | :16:44. | |
vote. We think that is a legitimate reason for allowing a certain amount | :16:45. | :16:51. | |
of filming within the building. We think it shows off Parliament, and | :16:52. | :16:55. | |
we up proud of this building and the public admire it. Many thousands of | :16:56. | :17:01. | |
people won't have a first-hand impression but it will be good. It | :17:02. | :17:08. | |
earns us a penny or two, to help defray the cost of maintaining this | :17:09. | :17:14. | |
building. That is all to the good. Filming will take place in various | :17:15. | :17:19. | |
locations. 100 years ago, getting into the building was a challenge | :17:20. | :17:26. | |
for women. There is a key scene with Carey Mulligan, where she comes to | :17:27. | :17:31. | |
deliver her testimony and I am hoping we will use one of the | :17:32. | :17:35. | |
internal rooms. I don't know if we will use the actual room but the | :17:36. | :17:41. | |
room where her testimony was given. What strikes me, when you walk | :17:42. | :17:44. | |
around the building, and you talk about how masculine it is, and about | :17:45. | :17:50. | |
class and power. Working specifically on this film, which is | :17:51. | :17:56. | |
looking at a group of national green laundry workers, reminds me of how | :17:57. | :18:00. | |
significant it must have been with the women were invited to deliver | :18:01. | :18:07. | |
their testimony. -- Bethnal Green. A century after they took on the | :18:08. | :18:10. | |
political stuff it went, the suffragettes are still making | :18:11. | :18:16. | |
history. -- establishment. Now a look at some of the cover stories in | :18:17. | :18:20. | |
the last week. The Budget is only days away, the Governor of the Bank | :18:21. | :18:24. | |
of England has said interest rates could increase to 3% by 2017. Mark | :18:25. | :18:30. | |
Carney told MPs on the Treasury Committee that the expansion of the | :18:31. | :18:33. | |
UK economy should start later this year. When the time comes to raise | :18:34. | :18:39. | |
interest rates we would expect the process to be gradual and the degree | :18:40. | :18:46. | |
of increase to be limited. The second part of that, the limited | :18:47. | :18:50. | |
level of increase, is occasioned by the fact we are and will still be, | :18:51. | :18:58. | |
in our collective judgement, living in extraordinary times. After | :18:59. | :19:02. | |
another we -- week of tension in Ukraine, the people vote on whether | :19:03. | :19:05. | |
they want a Russian takeover. Is it a fair referendum? No, says the PM. | :19:06. | :19:14. | |
What's wrong with it? Is it acceptable for the Scottish | :19:15. | :19:20. | |
Nationalists in Scotland to be granted a referendum on | :19:21. | :19:23. | |
constitutional arrangements dating back to 1707, but, unacceptable for | :19:24. | :19:31. | |
Russian nationalists in the Crimea to have a referendum about | :19:32. | :19:38. | |
constitutional arrangements only dating back to 1954. The Scottish | :19:39. | :19:45. | |
referendum is legal and was discussed and debated in this house | :19:46. | :19:48. | |
in the Scottish Parliament and we went a long way to put in place | :19:49. | :19:52. | |
arrangements which I described would not only be decisive and fair, also | :19:53. | :19:58. | |
legal. What is the code for success? Latch the park, where codebreakers | :19:59. | :20:04. | |
cracked the Enigma code, changing the course of the Second World War, | :20:05. | :20:07. | |
must not be dumbed down for the sake of tourist. Here is a 91-year-old | :20:08. | :20:13. | |
who once worked their. I hope those who are involved will avoid creating | :20:14. | :20:20. | |
a Disney theme park experience for the visitor. Currently, the | :20:21. | :20:25. | |
Hollywood films that have been made to date, there little resemblance to | :20:26. | :20:36. | |
the Bletchley I recall. -- there. I believe Bletchley could be used more | :20:37. | :20:41. | |
widely as examples of Rikishi creativity and possibility. I'm not | :20:42. | :20:45. | |
convinced many people are aware of the history of each -- either. Plans | :20:46. | :20:53. | |
to take trains off Trans Pennine routes in the north and run them on | :20:54. | :20:57. | |
southern commuter lines into London causes anger among MPs. The | :20:58. | :21:02. | |
consequence is the loss of nine of the trans- Pennine express, plus 170 | :21:03. | :21:08. | |
Turbo start training units, which will be transferred to different | :21:09. | :21:14. | |
railways. We will have a brand-new tunnel and rail link from Burley to | :21:15. | :21:16. | |
Manchester but we will have no trains. The interests of the leasing | :21:17. | :21:24. | |
company appear to be in moving these much-needed carriages from the north | :21:25. | :21:29. | |
to the south it was they can get a better financial deal. Some have | :21:30. | :21:34. | |
contended in their remarks that the government favours the south over | :21:35. | :21:39. | |
the North. The reality is a completely different picture. -- | :21:40. | :21:47. | |
north. The department is investing heavily in services across the | :21:48. | :21:50. | |
country. The job hunt goes on for those out of work at, our vacancies | :21:51. | :21:56. | |
genuine or are they ghost jobs? A government website comes in for | :21:57. | :22:01. | |
scrutiny. How does he explain the fact that the media are reporting | :22:02. | :22:05. | |
that a third of a million of the jobs on the website are ghost jobs? | :22:06. | :22:10. | |
They were warned the site has been vulnerable to hackers. It won the | :22:11. | :22:14. | |
wooden spoon for being a mumble recruitment website that commits | :22:15. | :22:19. | |
almost every crime online, and then some. We don't hesitate to take | :22:20. | :22:24. | |
action against those who don't follow the rules. Weed menace to -- | :22:25. | :22:32. | |
monitor to insure there is compliance. -- ensure. If there is | :22:33. | :22:38. | |
any doubt we remove the vacancies. Westminster has lost one of its | :22:39. | :22:43. | |
finest parliamentarians, Tony Benn, who has died at 88. He was a member | :22:44. | :22:49. | |
of the Commons for 47 years. He was a hero of the left, especially in | :22:50. | :22:55. | |
the years after he left office. His oratory in Parliament was much | :22:56. | :22:58. | |
respected across the political divide. Here is making a forthright | :22:59. | :23:06. | |
point in his final speech in 2001. You talk a lot about apathy, but | :23:07. | :23:12. | |
it's a two sided thing. Governments can be apathetic about the people as | :23:13. | :23:16. | |
well as people being apathetic about government. The effective democratic | :23:17. | :23:21. | |
parliament is about responding to what people feel in a way that makes | :23:22. | :23:25. | |
us true representatives. The danger to democracy is not that someone | :23:26. | :23:30. | |
will burn Buckingham Palace, but people won't vote. If people don't | :23:31. | :23:36. | |
vote, they destroy, by neglect, the legitimacy of the government. You | :23:37. | :23:40. | |
can catch up with more of his speeches in a special tribute | :23:41. | :23:45. | |
programme on BBC Parliament, which you can find on BBC iPlayer. You are | :23:46. | :23:51. | |
watching the week in Parliament. After a week that backbenchers | :23:52. | :24:01. | |
complained bills were being rushed through the House of Commons. -- | :24:02. | :24:02. |