14/03/2014 The Week in Parliament


14/03/2014

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handled the gun used in the shooting without gloves and that the crime

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scene was disturbed. The case is likely to hinge on sensitive

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forensic evidence Police say a blast bomb has been thrown at officers in

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Belfast. The officers were in the west of the city when the incident

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happened. The vehicle they were travelling in was damaged and

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paramedics treated some people on the scene for shock, but there were

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no serious injuries. Time now for the Week in Parliament. Hello and

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welcome to the Week In Parliament. The care bill will affect thousands

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of us as the population ages. Why did the Commons allocate so little

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time to debate its details? We've got a really important bill which I

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think a lot of people will feel didn't have the sort of detailed

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scrutiny that it merited. You have votes on what has been agreed by the

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frontbenchers and the backbenchers are squeezed out. And I will be

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reporting on a parliamentary first, starring the suffragettes.

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Parliament has lost one of its finest speakers. This was Tony Benn

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in action. They say you cannot do this because we've agreed... The

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Belgians won't object to what the Italians have said the people of

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Luxembourg want. The minister has got no power. They don't make them

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like that any more. First, controversial proposals to give the

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Health Secretary greater powers to close local hospital services were

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approved by MPs on Tuesday. They voted 297 to 239 to back a move

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which could allow a health secretary to overcome local opposition to the

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downgrading of a hospital in England. The last-minute measure was

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added to the government's care bill and it followed a court judgement

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last year that ministers had acted unlawfully in a scaling back of

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services at a hospital in south London. The issue produced heated

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debate in the Commons. The Secretary of State has rammed a new clause

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into this bill on the back of a court defeat, asking this house to

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give him sweeping powers over the NHS in all of our constituencies,

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without even having the courtesy to come to this house today and make

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the argument himself. As we debate this, we ought to be able to find

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some way of resolving this issue now and not give those powers to the

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Secretary of State, to add random closures of general hospitals all

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over the country. The point about clause 119 is it's an extremely

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narrow question. In the circumstances where an administrator

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is appointed, should that trust special administrator consider only

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an institution which has been demonstrated by history to be

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unsustainable or should it look outside that immediate health

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economy and look for solutions that will serve better the needs of

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patients of that area? Local commissioners and trusts

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should be responsible for sorting out difficulties that could lead to

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a failure. What needs to be clearer is what happens at the pre-failure

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stage and ministers need to work with NHS England and monitor it to

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set out that regime, so it's crystal clear what has to happen. If the

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clause becomes law, the Secretary of State will be granted the power to

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issue directions to require groups to take steps they don't want to.

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Any member who wishes to prevent the Secretary of State's axe falling

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arbitrarily should be seeking to remove this close on the bill. The

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usual approach will remain to stop Trust Special Administrators. This

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is not a power to be used to routinely reconfigure services. The

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right honourable member is good at playing politics and good at spin.

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I'm a doctor and I will always do what I believe is in the best

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interests of patients. Some moments from Tuesday's debate.

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The bulk of the care bill is concerned with long-term care of the

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elderly and with poor hospital performance. It has generated plenty

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of public interest. Yet, when it came to the detailed report stage of

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the bill, just two were allocated and the first day was further

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curtailed because of ministers statements to the Commons. Much of

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the bill remained under-debated. -- undebated. So, should this important

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and controversial bill have been given more time? Why were the whips

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in such a rush to get it through, especially when Parliament doesn't

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have much on its plate at the moment? Here is one MP complaining

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about the situation. We are having to deal with 21 new clauses and 20

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amendments on an important bill in two hours which is three minutes per

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clause or amendment. Given the honourable lady spoke perfectly

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reasonably to the lengths of the amendments being put down but how it

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was impossible to do justice to all of this, in two hours, I think the

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usual channels... Some of us feel rather bad-tempered about this

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provision. That was a clip from Monday night.

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Joining us now in the studio is Sir Tony Baldry and alongside him, we

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also have Nick Brown, the former Labour Chief Whip and John Hemming.

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Welcome to Week In Parliament. Sir Terry, you were rather cross on

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Monday night. I think there are some issues here

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about how we deal with the last year in parliament of a five year fixed

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term parliament. It's a surreal parliament. Earlier this week, we

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didn't have enough time properly to discuss 21 new clauses and

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amendments. And yet, I think we've only had whipped business on a

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Thursday once this year. So we had this rather surreal thing where on

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Tuesdays and Wednesdays, we seem to be frenetic but the rest of the

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Parliamentary week, everyone is disappearing back to their

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constituencies. It may well be because people want to fight the

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Scottish referendum or whatever. It is not particularly good in terms of

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scrutiny. Nick Brown, you are a former Labour

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Chief Whip but you are a paid-up member of the Chief Whips' Union!

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There is a strange dynamic in the Commons around why bills have to be

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got through quickly. They have to be got through. That is the job of the

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Chief Whip. They don't have to be got through quickly except in very

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special and pretty rare can circumstances. - rare cicumsances.

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In those circumstances, there is usually a fair degree of discussion

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between the opposition and the government front bench spokesman so

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that people at least understand the urgency of it. I think Tony's

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complaint is entirely justified. When I was the Chief Whip, if the

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Secretary of State said they wanted to add a closing because things have

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changed, I used to threaten to weaken the bill, so it would have

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committee scrutiny again. -- recommit the bill. I think that

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would have been the correct way to deal with Sir Tony's complaint. They

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should have been more detailed scrutiny by committee and I don't

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quite understand why that possibility wasn't explored more.

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Overall, a Chief Whip gets the bill through, don't they? That is the job

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of the Chief Whip. Crudely put, yes, that is right. You have a range of

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options as to how you go to do it. The first thing you should not do in

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my opinion is trample on the legitimate rights of the opposition.

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Their rights are to have their alternative proposals discussed with

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adequate time for it. And to make sure the bill's proposals are

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scrutinised properly. Miss using the report stage of the bill is wrong.

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-- misusing. John Hemming, you're a Lib Dem and a member of Parliament's

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Backbench Business Committee. Do you think the Commons is an inscrutable

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venue? There are a couple of issues. I have criticisms because knowledge

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is power and knowledge is kept in the system. The other is control

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which is whether or not the government wins. Obviously, the more

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votes there are, the more often the government is likely to lose. It

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doesn't like losing. Therefore, there is the issue of how they deal

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with private members bills. It is the dishonesty of the whole process.

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The government has been resisting it. The advantage to the government

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in truncating everything is you don't have many votes. The problem

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here is that the public doesn't understand why a very important

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bill, that will affect all our lives, why it has to be dealt with

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so quickly. Surely the Commons doesn't seem to be the right place

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to do it. There are broader issues here about how we divide our time in

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the house. There are some reforms in this Parliament, more ministerial

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statements, urgent questions answered. There is a tendency to put

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all the backbench business on Thursdays, like a second-class day

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almost and yet here we have a really important bill which I think quite a

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lot of people feel doesn't actually have the sort of detailed scrutiny

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it probably merited. If a government whip came to the

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backbench business committee and said let's have four days, can that

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be take for this business? -- taken. What would happen then? There are

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supposed to be 37 days reserved for backbench business itself. There is

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no shortage of time. Actually, Nick's point about re-committal is

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the keyword. When you have lots of amendments, if they need to be gone

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into detail, it's best the bill goes to a committee. The only

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re-committal in this Parliament has been on the health bill. I can think

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of anything else. The cramming together is avoiding votes. You have

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votes on what has been agreed effectively by the front benches and

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the backbenchers, who essentially are the voice of the people, are

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squeezed out. What one needs to understand is quite often, whips on

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both sides will get together and decide effectively what is in the

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convenience of the front benches. And that concerns you? It concerns

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me as well. There was so much added into the care bill that it should

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have had a committee re-committal. That would have been the correct way

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to deal with it. It could have been done without. This Parliament has

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now got the nickname of the zombie Parliament. It is short of business.

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We can discuss why that is so but you cannot say there is not

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Parliamentary time just to take longer to look at this bill. The

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whipping system is not popular because it does not appears to

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develop a rational government. We don't have that engagement. Not

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everything is in the manifesto. I've never said that to a constituent

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ever. What about this point you are making about more urgent questions?

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Parliament is more topical and more urgent but that is eating away into

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the time for legislation, isn't it? It eats into the time. My concern is

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that basically, whenever something is really sensitive, it gets stuck

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in the system. I don't think organisations should be allowed to

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do that. We should be able to enforce the processes. Knowledge is

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power and if you can't get the knowledge out of the system, we

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cannot exercise... -- exercise that. I am not sure that it is necessarily

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improving government. The present Speaker has been quite bold in this

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and I think the house as a whole rather likes his willingness to

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consider urgent questions from the backbenchers, rather than just the

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convention used to be that of the representations came from the Shadow

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Minister, it would be heard and unless it was something quite

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exceptional, it would be unlikely to be heard if it was from a backbench

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MP. Now, the speaker will judge on whether the issue is urgent and

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fulfils the topical qualification it has to meet and granted. I think

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that has made the house a better place. May I make a practical

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suggestion. At the moment, when you get to a report in its third

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reading, it is effectively divided up between the usual channels, the

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whips. Maybe there is a role here for also, for instance, for the

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backbench business committee to give some view of what backbenchers feel

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would be a relevant period of time. I think also we need, as this

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Parliament develops, to try and work out how this whole new thing of

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backbench business relates to government time because otherwise we

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are not going to have two types of Parliament. We will have government

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time and almost second-class backbench business time and the two

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need to be much better interrelated. A final quick word. You also have

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positioned home. The idea of back wrenched time allows the issue of

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Afghanistan. It wasn't debated during all of the labour

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government. Final word. I am against a suggestion. The addition of

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well-intentioned backbenchers, what would they be representing? The

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experiment with backbench time has worked well, but there are

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consequences. They need to be thought through. Thank you very much

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indeed. Some thoughts on how the Commons should spend its time.

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Parliament has gone into what some might regard as a more frivolous

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mode are giving the go-ahead for the first ever big-screen film to be

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shot in the Palace of Westminster. Filming for Suffragette, about those

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for women at the start of the 20th century will take place at Easter.

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Fees will go towards the upkeep of Parliament. 100 years ago the

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suffragettes took their fights to winning votes for women to the heart

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of wets meant. Now, a film is making parliamentary history. --

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Westminster. The film will be on location in the Palace this Easter.

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The first time filming has been allowed in Parliament. Carey

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Mulligan stars as a young suffragette, while Meryl Streep

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takes the role of the leader of the movement. It felt very important and

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it is an iconic building. It is a very masculine building in many

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ways, which was tremendously exciting for me when I was writing,

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to realise that to cut against the poverty of a laundry, which is where

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it is set in the east End, I felt the majesty of the East End and the

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house of Parliament had a really important character to the film. And

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the Morgan also wrote the iron Lady, about Margaret Thatcher. It is

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hugely supportive of the film as well, so that frees us up to make

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the film as authentically as possible. We can relocate what

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otherwise would be an expensive exercise. It is telling a story that

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is important. There are anniversaries coming up in relation

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to the events of those times, with the battle for the women's right to

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vote. We think that is a legitimate reason for allowing a certain amount

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of filming within the building. We think it shows off Parliament, and

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we up proud of this building and the public admire it. Many thousands of

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people won't have a first-hand impression but it will be good. It

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earns us a penny or two, to help defray the cost of maintaining this

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building. That is all to the good. Filming will take place in various

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locations. 100 years ago, getting into the building was a challenge

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for women. There is a key scene with Carey Mulligan, where she comes to

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deliver her testimony and I am hoping we will use one of the

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internal rooms. I don't know if we will use the actual room but the

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room where her testimony was given. What strikes me, when you walk

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around the building, and you talk about how masculine it is, and about

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class and power. Working specifically on this film, which is

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looking at a group of national green laundry workers, reminds me of how

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significant it must have been with the women were invited to deliver

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their testimony. -- Bethnal Green. A century after they took on the

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political stuff it went, the suffragettes are still making

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history. -- establishment. Now a look at some of the cover stories in

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the last week. The Budget is only days away, the Governor of the Bank

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of England has said interest rates could increase to 3% by 2017. Mark

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Carney told MPs on the Treasury Committee that the expansion of the

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UK economy should start later this year. When the time comes to raise

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interest rates we would expect the process to be gradual and the degree

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of increase to be limited. The second part of that, the limited

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level of increase, is occasioned by the fact we are and will still be,

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in our collective judgement, living in extraordinary times. After

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another we -- week of tension in Ukraine, the people vote on whether

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they want a Russian takeover. Is it a fair referendum? No, says the PM.

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What's wrong with it? Is it acceptable for the Scottish

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Nationalists in Scotland to be granted a referendum on

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constitutional arrangements dating back to 1707, but, unacceptable for

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Russian nationalists in the Crimea to have a referendum about

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constitutional arrangements only dating back to 1954. The Scottish

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referendum is legal and was discussed and debated in this house

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in the Scottish Parliament and we went a long way to put in place

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arrangements which I described would not only be decisive and fair, also

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legal. What is the code for success? Latch the park, where codebreakers

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cracked the Enigma code, changing the course of the Second World War,

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must not be dumbed down for the sake of tourist. Here is a 91-year-old

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who once worked their. I hope those who are involved will avoid creating

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a Disney theme park experience for the visitor. Currently, the

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Hollywood films that have been made to date, there little resemblance to

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the Bletchley I recall. -- there. I believe Bletchley could be used more

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widely as examples of Rikishi creativity and possibility. I'm not

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convinced many people are aware of the history of each -- either. Plans

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to take trains off Trans Pennine routes in the north and run them on

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southern commuter lines into London causes anger among MPs. The

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consequence is the loss of nine of the trans- Pennine express, plus 170

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Turbo start training units, which will be transferred to different

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railways. We will have a brand-new tunnel and rail link from Burley to

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Manchester but we will have no trains. The interests of the leasing

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company appear to be in moving these much-needed carriages from the north

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to the south it was they can get a better financial deal. Some have

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contended in their remarks that the government favours the south over

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the North. The reality is a completely different picture. --

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north. The department is investing heavily in services across the

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country. The job hunt goes on for those out of work at, our vacancies

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genuine or are they ghost jobs? A government website comes in for

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scrutiny. How does he explain the fact that the media are reporting

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that a third of a million of the jobs on the website are ghost jobs?

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They were warned the site has been vulnerable to hackers. It won the

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wooden spoon for being a mumble recruitment website that commits

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almost every crime online, and then some. We don't hesitate to take

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action against those who don't follow the rules. Weed menace to --

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monitor to insure there is compliance. -- ensure. If there is

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any doubt we remove the vacancies. Westminster has lost one of its

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finest parliamentarians, Tony Benn, who has died at 88. He was a member

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of the Commons for 47 years. He was a hero of the left, especially in

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the years after he left office. His oratory in Parliament was much

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respected across the political divide. Here is making a forthright

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point in his final speech in 2001. You talk a lot about apathy, but

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it's a two sided thing. Governments can be apathetic about the people as

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well as people being apathetic about government. The effective democratic

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parliament is about responding to what people feel in a way that makes

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us true representatives. The danger to democracy is not that someone

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will burn Buckingham Palace, but people won't vote. If people don't

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vote, they destroy, by neglect, the legitimacy of the government. You

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can catch up with more of his speeches in a special tribute

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programme on BBC Parliament, which you can find on BBC iPlayer. You are

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watching the week in Parliament. After a week that backbenchers

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complained bills were being rushed through the House of Commons. --

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