06/11/2015 The Week in Parliament

Hello, welcome to Week in Parliament. Fierce, noisy,

confrontational, Prime Minister's questions is the contest of the

week. But how is Jeremy Corbyn doing?

This is not about entertainment. The Labour leader has completed his

first half term on the job, so what parliamentary watchers think of his

new style at the dispatch box? He than their like the geography

teacher that he looks like and say this is not funny, this is serious,

and he will win products just for that.

Does the Government have to consult MPs before taking military action?

Remember this moment? It is clear to me that the British

Parliament, reflecting the views of the British people, does not want to

see British military action. I get that. It is a high profile

gladiatorial contest. MPs cheer and grown, political

pundits and the lies everywhere. Prime ministers questions comes in

the middle of the parliamentary we can make the political weather.

Since Jeremy Corbyn began as Labour leader he has adopted a new dispatch

box style and we will be analysing that approach in a moment. He is

asked about the NHS, housing and the steel industry, last week he used

every single one of those questions to quiz David Cameron on tax

credits. What would he do this we? Last week I asked the Prime Minister

the same question six times. And he could not is now one week to think

about it. I want to ask you one more time. Can he guarantee that next

April, nobody is going to be worse off as a result of cuts to working

tax credits? Let me be absolutely clear with the

honourable gentleman. What I can guarantee next April is that there

will be an 11,000 personal allowance so you can earn ?11,000 before you

pay tax. What I can guarantee is there will be a national living wage

at ?7 20 giving below was paid in our country a ?20 a week pay rise

compared with the election next year. Now, he wants to spend the

next five questions asking it all over again am sure he will find that

it is very entertaining and interesting. How it fits with the

new politics I'm not quite sure but over to you.

This is not about entertainment, I have a question from Kieron, a

veteran of the first Gulf War. His family is there to lose out and he

writes, it is a worry to the family this fear and trepidation about

whether we will be able to get by. And he asks, is this how the family

this fear and trepidation about whether we will be able to get by.

And he asks, is this abdomen treats next year and that means they will

be able to earn more money before the even start paying taxes.

Can I invite the Prime Minister to cast his mind to another area of

public service that is causing acute concern at the Pleasance time? I

notice when to dig himself out of a hole with the junior doctors offers

this morning which we await the detail. But there is a question I

want to put him and I quote Doctor Cliff man, the president of the

Royal College of emergency medicine. Who said, this winter, we are worse

than last winter and last winter was the worst winter we have ever had in

the NHS. Can the Prime Minister guarantee there will be no winter

crisis in the NHS this year? First of all, when it comes to the

Royal College of emergency medicine, they actually support what

we're saying about a seven-day NHS and the doctors contract.

Mr Speaker,... Older.

The Leader of the Opposition is entitled to ask questions about a

barrage of noise. If this party cannot match its

actions by its words then I put this to him. Will he just get rid? The

NHS is a problem. It is no problem of deficits in many hospitals, it is

in a problem of waiting lists, it is in a problem of the financial crisis

that it been faced. Can he now address that issue and insure that

everyone in this country can rely on the NHS, which is surely be jewel in

all of our crowns? The number of doctors up by ten and a half

thousand, the number of nurses up by 5800, fewer patients waiting more

than 32 weeks to start treatment, then under Labour.

A flavour of how the leader is dealing with PMQ 's. But is it

working? I think he's getting into the swing

of it now. The rhythm of PMQ 's. He's got this format, a brand-new

format which is to treat it really seriously and stare down any

heckling. I think the heckling that a lot of favours because it will

stand up, he will make a question on behalf of the British public and

then if he gets this all the jeers from the Conservatives it instantly

online from our experience gets a very negative reaction for the

Conservatives are just as a stand there like the geography teacher

that he looks like, and say, look, this isn't really funny, this is

really serious. And he will win plaudits just for

that. Now, someone who watches it from the press gallery every week.

BBC parliamentary correspondent Sean. I asked him how is Jeremy

Corbyn doing? I don't think he has had a great parliamentary triumph.

There's not been a moment of political theatre or a joke that

everyone is going to remember for days and days but he has been

confident and assured and he has got through it. And that has caused the

most important thing for the Leader of the Opposition. And you get the

these first few weeks without having a big embarrassment or a body

thinking that you're not really quite up to the job.

How is a strategy developed over this time?

He has done things very different thing. Taking questions from members

of the public and he is a strategy developed over this time? He has

done things very different thing. Taking questions from members of the

public and he has those real-life stories that he has chosen from the

replies he has got. Whether that is sustainable in the long term, given

the complicated things that leaders of the opposition are supposed to do

with prime ministers questions, from cheering up their own side putting

the promised on the spot, to getting a new script onto the television

bulletins, well, that remains to be seen.

You mentioned there are subjects and he is a very different strategy to

his predecessor Ed Miliband. Can you see Jeremy Corbyn moving on? Well, I

think that the problem Jeremy Corbyn has had is that clearly, when he has

decided to go on the subject, he is then that locked in.

And it has been noticeable that there haven't been very many

follow-up questions. So it is not been a traditional sort of

parliamentary cross-examination and think the thing that worry a lot of

Labour MPs is just how relaxed David Cameron has been under the scrutiny.

It is noticeable that David Cameron tends to leave the big briefing

boulder that civil servants prepare for him either on the bench on the

table. It doesn't use it doesn't use that money is being questioned by

Jeremy Corbyn. And where is the speaker in all

this? He is the one who chooses the length of prime ministers questions

and it has been running on a bit as well.

Yes, now, we know that the speaker does not like rowdy sessions prime

ministers questions and doesn't have been about. And we should saying

that when you are in the gallery, the press gallery in the House of

Commons, it is a lot harder to hear what is being said then if you're

watching it at home on TV. I've been in the House of Commons for all of

Jeremy Corbyn's PMQ 's and at times it has an very noisy. But the noise

aside, what he has done is that he has allowed Jeremy Corbyn to ask

these long questions and he has not been jumping in and telling him to

move on and that has prime ministers questions out quite a bit. As I say,

David Cameron didn't seem too bothered at the beginning and we

know that after the first couple of sessions you are saying to people

you thought was what less stressful. This week, as he was leaving the

House of Commons, we heard him in a brief chat with the speaker

complaining that the sessions were getting longer and longer. They are

beginning to get a bit closer to 40 minutes. They are spread we have an

hour and this is a speaker who likes to get everybody was got the name

down for a question in and so we does often allow a bit of extra time

or injury time, but it is beginning to stretch. The song was getting the

stage now where it is as long as the first half of a football match rugby

game and then you have to say, well, what did the all Blacks do to

Australia when they had 40 minutes. What has Jeremy Corbyn done to David

Cameron in that amount of time. Not quite as physical but still. Thank

you very much indeed. A key issue Jeremy Corbyn has to do

with his Labour's position on the UK's Trident nuclear missile system.

He has made it plain he is against a renewal of the system. Last weekend

Scottish Labour Party delegates voted not to renew Trident. It means

the Labour Party now holds different positions on the issue north and

south of the border. On Tuesday that was a special debate on Trident and

the Scottish parliament in Edinburgh.

I should be clear that my position, of course, and that of the Scottish

Government is that the possession of nuclear weapons cannot be justified

at any cost whether at ?1 or at ?167 billion. And I suppose the question

for those who still support by nuclear weapons at this cost is, at

what price to be say it is too defensive?

Healthy political parties on their positions, allow the debate, and are

prepared to deflect their position. Scottish Labour on Sunday the

arguments opposing Trident won the day because they've presented a

strong case for Trident renewal being the wrong choice at the wrong

time. But beyond that there was also a strong, fundamental argument

against nuclear weapons. These are weapons which, if used, would cause

unimaginable destruction and death. There can be no justification for

deploying them. We all want a world without nuclear

weapons. But the SNP has failed to win how you know lateral

disarmament, much less just kicking Trident down the road to England,

would achieve this. What evidence is there that if we get rid of our

nuclear weapons that others will get rid of those?

It will come as no surprise that I believe in the mud deliberate

multilateral nuclear disarmament. My ambition is nothing short of global

zero. And I believe that is an ambition that is shared by the

majority of people in this chamber. Where we disagree, is in the

mechanism that reactionary achieve that. I know that some opposed to

Trident argued that we unilaterally rearming and cite the

Non-Proliferation Treaty and I respect that. But it does not

reflect what is actually happening outside the UK.

At the end of the debate, MSPs the motion against the renewal of

Trident. 96 votes to 17. Back at Westminster, a round-up of some of

the other stories in the Commons and the Lords this week. Egypt's human

rights record was raised about houses ahead of a visit to London by

the president. Is the Minister aware that it has

been responsible for the murder of unarmed protesters? He's used

torture and rape on dissidents, imprison tens of thousands of

political opponents including elected MPs, he has denied medical

aid to people in prison, he has been responsible for a large number of

disappearances. In fact, Egypt is becoming an incubator for Isil

because of his own tyranny. Is this a man who should be invited to

Downing Street? We going to confronting with his tyranny?

The visit provides an opportunity for the Prime Minister to emphasise

his desire to see more political progress in Egypt including on human

rights and political freedom. Which are essential foundations for

long-term stability. The Prime Minister invited the President to

the UK cottages in Britain's best interests to help Egypt succeed as a

stable, prosperous and democratic country. And to boost our strong

commercial relationship. Is the thin blue line about to get

thinner? Police resources in England and Wales are likely to be stretched

by a new funding formula. Parliament hears from some unhappy police

chiefs. You seem to be very upset about the

proposals. I'm very upset. I am outraged.

I think the number of people covering geographic areas will be

reduced because there are simply less of us. Is this a defining

moment for policing or are we just adds another moment where cash is

tight? Is this a big moment?

We and the collective leadership at the moment have not gone through

moment were reading the scale of movement around our funding and

redesigning our server so quickly. So on that point it is different.

Just a moment in history? We have made quite clear in our response to

this review that, if the Government grant cut at 40% of the top end, it

would be unsustainable. I think that is a defining moment.

Written is to send a new ship to help rescue refugees crossing the

Mediterranean Sea. In a covert this year more than 218,000 refugees

cross the Mediterranean. More than in the whole of 2014.

The UK will as of Thursday be deploying a new ship to help provide

search and rescue facilities in the Mediterranean. We have now had that

request accepted ship will be part of that effort which I think is good

news. Pornographic material has been

around a long time but how The danger is that in tacitly or

openly accepting the pervasive presence of adult pornography in

people's lives, we are choosing to make the attitudes which lie behind

and in pornography seem normal - objectification, exploitation and,

very often, abuse. The showing of sexually explicit images via

the Internet and mobile phones is another dimension of the potential

harm, especially when they are shared with other people,

and in adults, of course, this can produce so-called revenge porn,

which I'm glad to say has now been And the government unveils proposals

to help the police and security services tackle

criminals and terrorists online. Mr Speaker, the legislation we are

proposing today is unprecedented. It will provide unparalleled

openness and transparency about our investigatory powers, it will

provide the strongest safeguards and world-leading oversight

arrangements, and it will give the men and women of our security

and intelligence agencies and our law enforcement agencies,

who do so much to keep us safe and secure, the powers they need to

protect our country. The issues with which this proposed

legislation seeks to tackle go way We will examine carefully

the detail of the draft Bill and seek to improve the safeguards

to build trust but having listened carefully to what the Home Secretary

had to say today, I believe she has responded to legitimate concerns

and broadly got that difficult Does the government have to consult

Parliament Downing Street this week denied

reports that David Cameron had abandoned plans for a Commons vote

on British air strikes against The move came as MPs on the

Foreign Affairs Committee urged him to focus instead on efforts to end

the civil war in Syria. Chris Davies has been looking

at the history of this issue. August 2013 and the government loses

a vote is asking Parliament for permission to bomb Bashar

al-Assad's forces in Syria. The ayes to the right, 272,

the noes to the left, 285. It is clear to me that the British

Parliament, reflecting the views of the British people, does not want

to see British military action. I get that and the government

will act accordingly. The vote was a serious blow to

Prime Minister David Cameron. The strange thing is, he didn't need

to hold it to commit the British As Prime Minister, Mr Cameron had

the right to take the country to Royal prerogative powers are powers

originally belonging to the monarch but are now virtually

all exercised by ministers. They allow ministers to do things

without the consent of Parliament. So, although the Prime Minister has

the power to take the country to war, it's slowly becoming convention

to ask Parliament for its views This convention can be traced back

to 2002 when the Labour government, led by Tony Blair,

recalled Parliament to discuss It concludes that Iraq has chemical

and biological weapons, that Saddam has continued to produce them, that

he has existing and active military plans for the use of chemical and

biological weapons, which could be activated within 45 minutes,

including against his own Shia Although the government did suggest

formalising the convention back in 2011, so far, no proposals have

been brought forward. This means it's still possible for a

Prime Minister to take the country to war without a vote in Parliament,

using the royal prerogative. You'd imagine this would happen in

the case of an immediate emergency. If there is a planned offensive,

we are more likely to see a vote. That's why, when circumstances

changed, David Cameron went back to the Commons for another vote,

this time on bombing Isis. Now, one of the short end-of-day

debates this week in the Commons The Conservative MP Will Quince

talked about the subject of bereavement care in maternity units

- the services available to parents who lose their baby either in

childbirth or very early in life. In May 2014, my wife had her 20-week

pregnancy scan where Further tests led to a diagnosis

of Edwards syndrome and he survived full-term to 41 weeks but sadly, in

October last year, was stillborn. Mr Speaker, as hard as it is to tell

you my story, it sets the scene for this debate and hopefully gives

the House a small insight into the experience of the parents

of the 5000 babies that are either stillborn or die within seven days

of birth every year in England. It's difficult at the best of times

to talk about death, particularly We all hope it will never happen to

us but there must be provision, facilities and trained staff ready,

willing and able to assist. Certainly, I would not be able to

speak in this debate without The night my son died,

I woke to find him not breathing. Arriving at hospital, looking

at a flat line in the ambulance for over 20 minutes, a crash team was

waiting for me but it was too late. The consultant neonatologist was

calm and a reassuring presence I readily agreed to a postmortem

as I wanted to know exactly what Staff at the hospital were wonderful

but I found myself in a plain room I was told that I had to wait

for the police. I had left in such a panic that I'd

left my telephone behind and I couldn't remember any telephone

numbers and was there on my own. I would like to thank

the honourable lady for giving way in what is a very, very powerful

and emotional contribution. Would she agree with me that

this government is making great strides in order to help and

support parents who are at a very And I look forward to

the honourable lady, through our time in this House, helping to

really move that debate forward. And I had to explain to

my six-year-old what had happened. It was then that the advice in the

leaflet came into its own because it was made clear to me that I

shouldn't say that my son had gone to sleep and I immediately realised

that at that point, I would need additional help

because I didn't know how to cope I called the number

for the charity and they organised Minister, I would urge you to ensure

that the guidelines are followed and that psychological support is

available for parents who have suffered a perinatal stillbirth or

sudden infant death. I would like to thank my honourable

friends, the member for Colchester and also for Eddisbury, for coming

to the House and raising this very important matter in front of what is

an abnormally attended adjournment debate, and also for doing something

which is very brave, to have shared Now, to the House of Lords,

where a by-election is pending. The recent death of Lord Montagu

of Beaulieu created a vacancy among the 92 hereditary peers who

still sit in the Chamber. He was a Conservative and the Tory

hereditaries will be putting Candidates have been invited

to submit written statements One wrote in verse

and we thought we'd read it to you. It was composed by the Earl

of Limerick. The Upper House knows none so queer

as a creature as the Sea Palace Pier, flamingo like he stands all

day with no support to hold his sway, and waits with covert

eagerness for 92 to be one less. Then onto hustings he must pace once

more to plead his special case. Noble lordships, spare a thought for

one so vertically distraught, and from your seat so well entrenched,

please vote that mine made the invention. There are 14 candidates

and the poll closes on the 23rd of November. And four new peers to

their seats in this week. That brings the total number of members

to let's take a look at what else has been happening in the ward

politics this week. Halloween is over. Time for

Christmas. MPs are calling for a 25p festive stamp to encourage us to

postcards. A cross-party group says the cost of stamps is causing people

to opt for electronic artist S. The Northern Ireland Assembly recorded

vote legalising same-sex marriage but it fell because of a blocking

mechanism. Dennis Skinner has been told to shut up more often than any

MP in 200 years. Glasgow University researchers analysed Parliamentary

speeches. He has been told to keep quiet 40 times. A date has been set

for the Parliamentary by-election. Voting will take place in December.

It follows the death of a Labour MP. Fancy some power dressing? Clothes

and accessories from Lady Thatcher's wardrobe are to be sold

at auction next week. Tory MPs say the outfit should be saved for the

nation. And that's it for this programme. Parliament is having a

short recess in the next week with the common sitting the two days and

the Lords for three. We will be here at 11pm for our round-up of the day

in Parliament. For now, from me, Georgina Pattinson,