:00:07. > :00:15.this school goes on. Time now for the Week in Parliament.
:00:16. > :00:18.Hello, and welcome to the Week in Parliament. A week the Home
:00:19. > :00:21.Secretary would like to forget. Bad headlines on passports, her personal
:00:22. > :00:27.adviser sacked and a row with a Cabinet colleague. Was it all
:00:28. > :00:30.getting a little out of control? Presumably she rushed into the
:00:31. > :00:38.department and said, Fiona, what have you done? Take it down, make
:00:39. > :00:41.nice to the Education Secretary and get the Prime Minister on the phone.
:00:42. > :00:43.Fiona Cunningham, the Home Secretary's personal adviser, is
:00:44. > :00:46.caught in the crossfire of a ministerial battle. So, why does the
:00:47. > :00:51.poor old Special Adviser always have to carry the can? It was obviously
:00:52. > :00:56.part of a trade`off and each side had to give something. There was an
:00:57. > :00:59.element of it being punishment for bad behaviour, and also to protect
:01:00. > :01:02.the boss. Meanwhile if you thought Westminster was pulling itself
:01:03. > :01:07.apart, a whole new cast list was taking part in the Scottish
:01:08. > :01:10.independence debate. And would you ask Westminster MPs the best way to
:01:11. > :01:17.be a parliamentarian? Amazingly, it's a service that they offer. But
:01:18. > :01:21.first, it had all the ingredients of a classic political tale. A split at
:01:22. > :01:25.the highest level of Government. A leaked letter. A resignation. A
:01:26. > :01:29.serious falling`out between the Home and Education Secretaries. All this
:01:30. > :01:33.over how to tackle extremism at five schools in Birmingham. On Monday,
:01:34. > :01:38.the Education Secretary announced the findings of a long`waited
:01:39. > :01:41.report. Ofsted concluded that governors are
:01:42. > :01:47.trying to impose and promote a narrow, faith `based ideology in
:01:48. > :01:49.what our non`faith schools. Specifically by narrowing the
:01:50. > :01:51.curriculum, manipulating staff appointments and using school funds
:01:52. > :01:56.inappropriately, things that should not have happened in our schools
:01:57. > :02:00.were allowed to happen. Our children were exposed the things that they
:02:01. > :02:03.should not have been exposed to. As Education Secretary, I am taking
:02:04. > :02:06.decisive action to make sure those children are protected, and we will
:02:07. > :02:14.put the promotional British values at the heart of what every school
:02:15. > :02:17.has to deliver for children. These reports have been kept under wraps,
:02:18. > :02:22.hidden from parents while they have been leaked in part on the left,
:02:23. > :02:26.right and centre. Parents who should have been the first to know have
:02:27. > :02:29.been the last to know about the contents of these reports today, and
:02:30. > :02:32.I'm sure the Secretary of State will want to apologise to the house for
:02:33. > :02:37.the contempt with which parents have been treated in this debate. There
:02:38. > :02:40.has been unacceptably poor and bad governance which has let children,
:02:41. > :02:45.parents and staff down which must be tackled. An internal letter, made
:02:46. > :02:50.public, laid bare the rift between departments. The Home Secretary told
:02:51. > :02:53.MPs her position. I did not authorise the release of my letter
:02:54. > :02:59.to the Education Secretary following the Cabinet Secretary's review. The
:03:00. > :03:02.Education Secretary apologised to the Prime Minister and to the
:03:03. > :03:04.director`general for security and counterterrorism will stop in
:03:05. > :03:07.addition, in relation to further comments to the times, my special
:03:08. > :03:15.adviser Fiona Cunningham resigned on Saturday. And at Prime Minister's
:03:16. > :03:22.Questions, school accountability was the Labour leader's main theme. The
:03:23. > :03:25.key question for parents is this, if there is a serious problem at their
:03:26. > :03:31.school, where do they go to get it sorted out? People should be being
:03:32. > :03:46.taught in our schools in a way that makes sure they can play a full part
:03:47. > :03:50.in the life of our country. In terms of where you go to if you are
:03:51. > :03:53.concerned if you are worried about your school, is to the head teacher
:03:54. > :03:56.and chair of governors. The Prime Minister said that they should go to
:03:57. > :03:59.the head teacher, but the head teacher was removed and the
:04:00. > :04:09.governing body was part of the problem. The truth is, it's a hard
:04:10. > :04:12.question to answer as to who parents can go to because we have an
:04:13. > :04:14.incredibly fragmented school system where no`one is properly
:04:15. > :04:17.responsible. If people think there is a real problem there is one
:04:18. > :04:20.organisation that has responsibility for checking standards in all of the
:04:21. > :04:24.schools, and that is Ofsted, and that is why what is is so important
:04:25. > :04:26.is what the Education Secretary said that no notice inspections.
:04:27. > :04:31.Meanwhile, the Shadow Home Secretary was stepping up the pressure on her
:04:32. > :04:34.opposite number, Theresa May. Presumably she woke up on Wednesday
:04:35. > :04:37.morning, as shocked by the headlines as everyone else, and presumably she
:04:38. > :04:40.was as horrified as the Prime Minister that the gracious speech
:04:41. > :04:43.that should be talked about today was overshadowed. Presumably she
:04:44. > :04:46.rushed into the department and said, Fiona, what have you done, take it
:04:47. > :04:50.down, Russia crushed and make nice to the Education Secretary and get
:04:51. > :04:52.me the Prime Minister on the phone and I will apologise for this
:04:53. > :04:58.dreadful departmental mistake on such an important date. Except, she
:04:59. > :05:12.didn't. She referred to the ministerial code of conduct. Section
:05:13. > :05:15.3.3 she has responsibility for her special adviser, which is perhaps
:05:16. > :05:19.why she won't tell us who Theresa leaked the letter?
:05:20. > :05:22.May gave no answer to any of those allegations from Yvette Cooper. So
:05:23. > :05:25.was this all a case of a special adviser doing the bidding of her
:05:26. > :05:28.Minister? In this instance, leaking an internal letter to get her
:05:29. > :05:31.Minister's case into the public domain? And is this what special
:05:32. > :05:33.advisers spend all their time doing? Paul Richards used to be special
:05:34. > :05:37.adviser to the Labour Ministers Patricia Hewitt and Hazel Blears.
:05:38. > :05:40.While Duncan Brack had the same job with the Lib Dem Minister Chris
:05:41. > :05:43.Huhne. What were they there to do? Most special advisers never deal
:05:44. > :05:46.with the media. People get a false impression of what special advisers
:05:47. > :05:49.do because they only hear about them when something goes wrong, usually
:05:50. > :05:58.through the media. Most of us never did that. I hardly ever dealt with
:05:59. > :06:00.the media. I helped the civil servants in the Department of
:06:01. > :06:03.Climate Change, understanding what Chris's priorities were and dealt
:06:04. > :06:07.with the outside world in the form of interest groups and I had liaison
:06:08. > :06:09.with the party but not much outside government. I didn't ever try to
:06:10. > :06:13.debrief against other ministers or talk to the press about anything. So
:06:14. > :06:18.you are in fact the eyes and ears of a minister? They should serve as an
:06:19. > :06:22.early warning so they should be plugged into all kinds of networks
:06:23. > :06:24.and be able to spot media trends and give an early warning of potential
:06:25. > :06:34.disasters, but also opportunities as well. Is part of the job having to
:06:35. > :06:37.do something that you think should be done because the minister would
:06:38. > :06:41.like it done, but can't actually instruct you to do it is a political
:06:42. > :06:44.protocol? One of the things about the system is, and Duncan will
:06:45. > :06:47.agree, is that you spend an awfully long time with the individual. In
:06:48. > :06:54.car journeys, on trains, in meetings, so you do hear their
:06:55. > :06:57.views. You never have to guess what they might want you to do, and you
:06:58. > :07:02.tend to have had the conversation first. So it is very rare that a
:07:03. > :07:10.special adviser acts unbidden by their loss. `` boss. We came in at
:07:11. > :07:13.the beginning of the government, and we were trying to make sure the
:07:14. > :07:16.civil servants understood the policy priorities, which had been voted on
:07:17. > :07:20.in the manifesto and put into the Coalition programme. Chris and I
:07:21. > :07:24.helped to write the Liberal Democrat manifesto so we knew what we were
:07:25. > :07:27.having to do without having to refer to him. I would like to ask you
:07:28. > :07:30.both, in the current scandal involving Michael Gove and Theresa,
:07:31. > :07:41.we saw the resignation of Fiona Cunningham. Did Fiona Cunningham
:07:42. > :07:47.have to go? That was obviously part of a trade`off. Each side had to
:07:48. > :07:51.give something. There was an element of it being punishment for bad
:07:52. > :07:53.behaviour and also to protect the boss. It's unfortunate when a
:07:54. > :07:55.professional gets embroiled in that kind of deal behind`the`scenes,
:07:56. > :07:59.because I wouldn't agree with her politically, but she was busily
:08:00. > :08:02.doing a perfectly good job as a professional but she has had to fall
:08:03. > :08:08.on her sword. That is probably true of the previous resignation of Adam
:08:09. > :08:11.Smith from culture, media and sport. It looked pretty much like those two
:08:12. > :08:14.were where somebody had to carry the blame, so it was the special
:08:15. > :08:18.adviser. So they are expendable? You don't go into the job as a long`term
:08:19. > :08:23.career move. You don't expect to be there in ten years, and anything is
:08:24. > :08:26.a bonus. It's just an amazing experience and to survive that long
:08:27. > :08:31.in an intense environment is doing well. I don't know how you felt, but
:08:32. > :08:43.I was quite glad to be on the other side and get my weekends back and
:08:44. > :08:46.feel a bit more relaxed about life. Duncan, you were Chris Huhne's
:08:47. > :08:49.special adviser and he was under a cloud for a long period. Was it easy
:08:50. > :08:52.to carry on working during that period? We ignored it as much as
:08:53. > :08:56.possible. The possibility of him resigning was hanging over us for a
:08:57. > :08:59.year, but I never thought it was likely, so we just ignored it. I
:09:00. > :09:03.didn't deal with any of the issues he had with the media and he dealt
:09:04. > :09:07.with that through lawyers, so it didn't affect the day`to`day
:09:08. > :09:11.working. But it was a bit of a shock when it did happen and he resigned
:09:12. > :09:18.and my job came to an end about six hours later. So it is quite brutal.
:09:19. > :09:22.The end can come quickly. They clap when you arrive at the Department
:09:23. > :09:25.and show you to your desk, when you leave your out the back door with a
:09:26. > :09:32.box with your belongings and it's over in hours. Do they bounce back?
:09:33. > :09:35.Often, yes. If you look at the last Labour leadership contest, all but
:09:36. > :09:43.one of the candidates had been special advisers and they do provide
:09:44. > :09:46.a route into politics. From my point of view, it was a useful and
:09:47. > :09:50.interesting two years in government which helped me do my job now has a
:09:51. > :09:53.policy researcher much better. Can anything be done about the image
:09:54. > :09:56.problem of special advisers? We only hear about them when there is a
:09:57. > :10:00.scandal or something has gone wrong politically. I would normalise it by
:10:01. > :10:03.having more of them and making it more obvious and maybe having
:10:04. > :10:06.adverts in the paper for the job and making it less clandestinely and
:10:07. > :10:11.allow for ministers to have political support, because we are
:10:12. > :10:14.all politicians. They could be more transparent about job descriptions
:10:15. > :10:18.and areas of responsibility and contact with the outside world.
:10:19. > :10:25.Those are all things the Parliamentary committee recognised.
:10:26. > :10:31.The UK is unusual, because it is unlike Australia and New Zealand,
:10:32. > :10:35.and very much unlike Europe. If there were more of us, we would do
:10:36. > :10:43.the job better and it would probably be less disasters ending up in the
:10:44. > :10:46.media. It would be better for the governance and the taxpayer
:10:47. > :10:49.actually. Paul Richards and Duncan Brack spilling at least some of the
:10:50. > :10:51.beans in their time as special advisers.
:10:52. > :10:54.Last Monday marked 100 days until Scotland votes on whether to go for
:10:55. > :10:58.independence or stick with the Union. It's been a busy week on the
:10:59. > :11:07.campaign trail, and Claire Gould has this update.
:11:08. > :11:10.President Obama gave his support to the better together campaign, saying
:11:11. > :11:16.looking at it from the outside, the union seems to work well. We
:11:17. > :11:19.obviously have a deep interest in making sure that one of the closest
:11:20. > :11:31.allies that we will ever have remains strong, robust, United and
:11:32. > :11:33.effective. A poll found that 51% of voters thought that the
:11:34. > :11:36.pro`independence campaign had been far more effective than the Better
:11:37. > :11:46.Together campaign, which impressed only 23%. However, the no vote
:11:47. > :11:52.remains ahead in actual voting intentions. Former Prime Minister
:11:53. > :11:55.Gordon Brown criticised Better Together for being too negative and
:11:56. > :12:06.told David Cameron that he should debate with Alex Salmond. People who
:12:07. > :12:12.have never voted in the past are registering. We have to persuade
:12:13. > :12:14.people. Deputy First Minister Nicola Sturgeon marked the 100 day
:12:15. > :12:18.milestone by saying that Scotland had the talent and wealth to be an
:12:19. > :12:21.independent country. But she resisted demands to quantify the
:12:22. > :12:26.cost of the transition to independence. From television to
:12:27. > :12:30.penicillin in years gone by, to Dolly the sheep and grand theft or
:12:31. > :12:32.to today, the people of this small country of ours have made an
:12:33. > :12:39.outstanding and extraordinary contribution to the modern world.
:12:40. > :12:45.Harry Potter has come out for keeping the Union, well, at least
:12:46. > :12:48.his creator has. Edinburgh resident JK Rowling has donated ?1 million to
:12:49. > :12:58.the together campaign, the largest single donation to the group.
:12:59. > :13:05.That poll is of course on September 18th. Looking back this week, you've
:13:06. > :13:08.never been far away from a Theresa May story. On Thursday, the Home
:13:09. > :13:12.Secretary announced measures to deal with delays in the processing of
:13:13. > :13:19.thousands of passport applications. But she said there was no magic
:13:20. > :13:22.answer to dealing with the backlog. There is no big banks, single
:13:23. > :13:32.solution, so we will take a series of measures. So we will take a
:13:33. > :13:37.series of measures to address the Lynch points. It is beyond belief
:13:38. > :13:45.and not credible that ministers were not aware of this problem before it
:13:46. > :13:48.was raised in the house. Is the Home Secretary aware that it's nothing
:13:49. > :13:50.short of idiotic to take on responsibility for processing
:13:51. > :13:54.overseas passports when we are taking on a surge in her department,
:13:55. > :13:59.which happens every year. The fine parish churches of England. Should
:14:00. > :14:03.we admire their architecture and their history? Or should we try to
:14:04. > :14:09.bring them into the 21st century? We should have Wi`Fi in churches,
:14:10. > :14:13.shouldn't we? If we have that, we can have an app, and that app can
:14:14. > :14:17.say, look, this is what this building is about and this is what
:14:18. > :14:20.the place is about. Also, any wise judge will know about having an app
:14:21. > :14:23.there, they have a captive audience because somebody has used the app.
:14:24. > :14:27.Just possibly the wrong sort of customer on a long`distance train.
:14:28. > :14:30.The angry passenger turns out to be a Conservative MP, who describes his
:14:31. > :14:36.experience to the boss of Network Rail. I've got a picture here of my
:14:37. > :14:40.young children sitting outside the toilet, when they came down to visit
:14:41. > :14:43.London last year, and they had to sit on the floor with their young
:14:44. > :14:46.friends for three hours on a delayed train outside the toilet, and my
:14:47. > :14:49.daughter was seven there, she is eight years old, against the train
:14:50. > :14:58.door, the toilet because of the cancelled train due to engineering
:14:59. > :15:02.work. It might well be that we have made a payment to the train operator
:15:03. > :15:05.if the fault lay at our door. Obviously I can't comment on this
:15:06. > :15:14.particular case, but the conversation from the train operator
:15:15. > :15:18.comes there. Where there's muck, there's brass, or perhaps not. A
:15:19. > :15:28.Yorkshire MP questions the results of decisions on where to spend money
:15:29. > :15:32.on the arts. Over the last five years, brass bands have amassed from
:15:33. > :15:39.the arts Council a total of ?1.8 million. In the same five years,
:15:40. > :15:48.Opera has received 347 million pounds. I am very pleased that we
:15:49. > :15:51.fund both of them, Opera is an extremely expensive and brilliant
:15:52. > :15:56.art. It is expensive because it involves every other art form. If we
:15:57. > :15:59.fund opera at all, we should do it properly. That is going to cost
:16:00. > :16:02.money. Digging for victory. The son of the
:16:03. > :16:08.founder of JCB, who's now the company chairman, makes his maiden
:16:09. > :16:13.speech in the House of Lords. We need more inventors, more makers, we
:16:14. > :16:17.need their brains and their hands. The knowledge and their creativity.
:16:18. > :16:22.The design and their technical skills. Most importantly, we need
:16:23. > :16:36.them to know that there are valued by society as a whole `` though.
:16:37. > :16:39.``they are valued. And success at last for the Liberal Democrats at
:16:40. > :16:42.the ballot box. The annual draw for backbench MPs to put forward their
:16:43. > :16:45.own parliamentary Bill produces a win for a Cornish Lib Dem. Andrew
:16:46. > :16:48.George, the winner of today's draw, with a gold medal. The luck of the
:16:49. > :16:50.draw. You might think after cash`for`questions, the expenses
:16:51. > :16:52.scandal, and embarrassing ministerial resignations that
:16:53. > :16:55.Westminster is not the ideal place when you're looking for mentors for
:16:56. > :17:09.other politicians from around the world. But despite all the scandal,
:17:10. > :17:10.this is the service provided by the Commonwealth Parliamentary
:17:11. > :17:13.Association. Well, there was a bit of a fall`off in demand after all
:17:14. > :17:17.those little local difficulties. But, this week women MPs from Kenya
:17:18. > :17:20.were in town. The Kenyan Parliament, which operates on both a list system
:17:21. > :17:24.and first past the post, recently decided that at least one`third of
:17:25. > :17:28.all its Members should be women. At the moment there are just 59 out of
:17:29. > :17:31.349. And we're joined in the studio now by an Member of the Kenyan
:17:32. > :17:34.Parliament, Cecily Bareeri, who's an MP in the governing party, the
:17:35. > :17:36.National Alliance... And by the British MP Meg Munn, who's a
:17:37. > :17:47.parliamentary volunteer with VSO and a former Labour Foreign Office
:17:48. > :17:55.Minister. Welcome to the programme. What were your impressions of the
:17:56. > :17:59.British Parliament at Westminster? It looks quite traditional, in the
:18:00. > :18:09.sense that they have kept everything as it used to be. There was that old
:18:10. > :18:13.tradition, the British tradition. I like how the speaker carry business
:18:14. > :18:19.on the floor. He was very firm at times. And with particular comments
:18:20. > :18:26.in Parliament, I think the one thing I would like to carry home is that
:18:27. > :18:30.open debate. But also the fact that talking to individual members of
:18:31. > :18:34.Parliament from the House of Commons, there is that support but
:18:35. > :18:38.the members of Parliament get from the staff that they employ, there is
:18:39. > :18:43.a lot of technical support around what they do in terms of research,
:18:44. > :18:47.technical support in legislation. I think that is something that they
:18:48. > :18:52.have to take more seriously in Kenya. We do not have that kind of
:18:53. > :18:56.technical support. It is interesting. You have been to see
:18:57. > :19:02.the Kenyan parliament? Yes, I went to work for a week with the Kenyan
:19:03. > :19:08.swimming Parliamentary Association. `` women. I was talking to women MPs
:19:09. > :19:11.rather than going to Parliament. Whatever your impressions of the
:19:12. > :19:16.political system in Kenya? They struggle with some of the same
:19:17. > :19:19.issues as ours, because they are elected in constituencies, they have
:19:20. > :19:27.a small number of women who are elected sexily. `` elected
:19:28. > :19:31.successfully. They had to have at least one third of their MPs women.
:19:32. > :19:37.I was helping them to think about how they can put that mechanism in
:19:38. > :19:41.place. I had to mention that you are stepping down from Westminster. And
:19:42. > :19:47.a lot of women from other parties, is it that bit harder for female MPs
:19:48. > :19:55.to keep going for long periods and stints as a serving MP? It is the
:19:56. > :19:58.case that women tend to stay less time than men, I don't think that is
:19:59. > :20:08.a bad thing. Hopefully I will be replaced by a woman, we want to get
:20:09. > :20:10.more people coming in. I did 20 years in social work, I am going to
:20:11. > :20:15.take my political career outside again, and hopefully do something
:20:16. > :20:19.else. I think having people coming in, I have been there three times,
:20:20. > :20:25.spending 14 years in Parliament, then going on to do something else.
:20:26. > :20:33.It is not a bad model. It is not necessarily negative that women are
:20:34. > :20:45.prepared to do with moving on `` prepared to move on. Some of the men
:20:46. > :20:50.need to as ! `` need to as well. The issue is how we get women into
:20:51. > :20:54.Parliament, we are now at 23%. Hopefully, by the next election, we
:20:55. > :21:01.should be able to hit 30%. I think we are doing better than the House
:21:02. > :21:09.of Commons now! Let me say that it is good to watch women with vast
:21:10. > :21:15.experience like Meg, really retire but not go home, but to mental other
:21:16. > :21:24.women to get into politics, and the vast experience should be something
:21:25. > :21:29.to draw on. I love what she is doing, I have done three times now,
:21:30. > :21:32.now I am thinking, I don't want to be there too long. Thank you very
:21:33. > :21:40.much for joining on the week in Parliament. This week is probably
:21:41. > :21:47.not a week that the Home Secretary will want to remember.
:21:48. > :21:48.Let's get you up`to`date with the weather for the