:00:18. > :00:19.Hello and welcome to the Week In Parliament.
:00:20. > :00:23.After the resignation of Dame Justice Lowell Godd`rd,
:00:24. > :00:25.there are questions for the Prime Minister
:00:26. > :00:28.about the running of the child sex abuse inquiry.
:00:29. > :00:31.Can she now finally tell us when she personally learned
:00:32. > :00:36.of the serious problems devdloping in this inquiry, and why it was
:00:37. > :00:51.The Home Secretary cannot intervene on this basis of suspicion, rumour
:00:52. > :00:53.or hearsay. As a new committee is set up
:00:54. > :00:57.to keep an eye on Brexit - one veteran chairwoman tells us
:00:58. > :00:59.what its biggest challenge will be. Getting the information
:01:00. > :01:01.which will enable them to ask the tough questions on behalf
:01:02. > :01:04.of Parliament and the public, to ensure the Government
:01:05. > :01:06.is getting the best deal. And a withering verdict
:01:07. > :01:09.on Sir Philip Green, as MPs demand the former owner
:01:10. > :01:14.of BHS is stripped of his knighhood. He took the rings from BHS' fingers,
:01:15. > :01:19.he beat it black and blue, he starved it of food and w`ter
:01:20. > :01:23.he put it on life support and then he wanted credit
:01:24. > :01:27.for keeping it alive. But first, to the child
:01:28. > :01:30.sexual abuse inquiry, where the question that wouldn't go
:01:31. > :01:34.away this week was who knew what - and when - about the resign`tion
:01:35. > :01:38.of Dame Justice Lowell Godd`rd. The third appointee to head
:01:39. > :01:40.the inquiry stepped down in August But newspapers suggested thdre'd
:01:41. > :01:46.been concerns about her competence and professionalism -
:01:47. > :01:48.though she strenuously denidd The Home Secretary said her
:01:49. > :01:54.department had only been told about concerns over Dame Lowell
:01:55. > :01:57.a few days before she quit, and explained why she'd madd no
:01:58. > :02:01.mention of any complaints when she was questioned
:02:02. > :02:04.about the resignation by MPs I was asked why
:02:05. > :02:09.Dame Lowell had gone. Dame Lowell had not spoken to me
:02:10. > :02:13.about her reasons, so I relhed on the letter she had
:02:14. > :02:16.sent to the committee. In her letter, she said
:02:17. > :02:20.she was lonely and felt that she could not deliver,
:02:21. > :02:23.and that was why she stepped down. Dame Lowell has strongly refuted
:02:24. > :02:29.the allegations about her, and the only way we could understand
:02:30. > :02:34.properly why she resigned would be To echo any further allegathons
:02:35. > :02:40.which are now likely to be subject to legal dispute would have been
:02:41. > :02:51.entirely inappropriate. And she says that she was rdliant
:02:52. > :02:54.on Justice Goddard's letter. Why didn't she get a full rdsponse
:02:55. > :02:59.from her as to why she was going? The next day, MPs heard dirdctly
:03:00. > :03:01.from members of the panel. What was your relationship
:03:02. > :03:03.like and your working conditions and working relationship
:03:04. > :03:06.like with Dame Lowell in her 16 months there that coincided
:03:07. > :03:10.with your tenures? I'll start, yes, then the others can
:03:11. > :03:14.make their own contributions. It was clear from the beginning that
:03:15. > :03:18.Lowell Goddard really would have preferred to sit
:03:19. > :03:22.on her own without the That's very all-encompassing word,
:03:23. > :03:29.challenges, usually. Indeed, there were some fairly
:03:30. > :03:32.all-encompassing challenges too What I will say is that the chair
:03:33. > :03:37.wasn't always present in the United Kingdom
:03:38. > :03:43.through the entire six-month period. And so we were able to conthnue
:03:44. > :03:46.with our work for extensive periods without very much contact
:03:47. > :03:50.with the chair. There were times when things were
:03:51. > :03:54.perfectly amicable and profdssional. There were other times
:03:55. > :03:57.when it was less the case. So was she a nightmare to work with,
:03:58. > :04:00.as some papers have suggestdd? I would prefer to say
:04:01. > :04:06.that there were challenges. She appointed the chair.
:04:07. > :04:17.Theresa May what she knew. She was the individual responsible
:04:18. > :04:21.for the inquiry's success. She was the Home Secretary hn April,
:04:22. > :04:25.and she was the only person So can she now finally tell us
:04:26. > :04:30.when she personally learned of the serious problems devdloping
:04:31. > :04:35.in this inquiry, and why it was that Can I say, I recognise
:04:36. > :04:43.that the honourable lady has taken I'm sure that she will recognise,
:04:44. > :04:48.as I hope other members of this House do, why it was that I set
:04:49. > :04:52.up the inquiry. For too long, people
:04:53. > :04:54.who had been subjected... For too long,
:04:55. > :05:00.people who had been subjectdd to child sexual abuse
:05:01. > :05:05.had their voices, their voices went unheard and they felt
:05:06. > :05:08.they weren't getting justicd. That's why it's very import`nt
:05:09. > :05:12.that the inquiry is able to continue There were stories around
:05:13. > :05:17.about the inquiry and about But the Home Secretary cannot
:05:18. > :05:23.intervene on the basis On Wednesday afternoon,
:05:24. > :05:34.John Bercow stood up and announced He was telling MPs who had been
:05:35. > :05:40.chosen to chair a handful Among the winners,
:05:41. > :05:44.Labour's Hilary Benn, who's to head a new committde,
:05:45. > :05:46.shadowing the It's a big job and it's
:05:47. > :05:51.going to be a big committee, So where do you start,
:05:52. > :05:56.and what should a good I'm delighted to say I'm johned
:05:57. > :06:01.by Dame Margaret Hodge, who frequently made the headlines
:06:02. > :06:13.when she chaired the Thank you very much for comhng in.
:06:14. > :06:18.Let's start by talking about what you think a good committee should
:06:19. > :06:24.do, what should be the point of it? The point is to hold the exdcutive
:06:25. > :06:29.to account. That's our job, on behalf of the public. So how do you
:06:30. > :06:35.do it? You do it best by buhlding consensus. These are cross-party
:06:36. > :06:39.committees, they reflect Parliament. But the strongest committees, with
:06:40. > :06:44.the best impact, are the onds where you can build consensus across the
:06:45. > :06:48.political spectrum with what you're looking at. The questions you need
:06:49. > :06:52.to ask other questions the public want you to ask.
:06:53. > :06:54.This brings us neatly to looking at this committee that Hilary Benn is
:06:55. > :06:59.going to chair. It's a tough job, going to chair. It's a tough job,
:07:00. > :07:04.looking at the Department for Exiting the EU. But it's but had 21
:07:05. > :07:08.members, is that when to make his job difficult?
:07:09. > :07:13.I think Hilary is a great choice of chair, he's very experienced, good
:07:14. > :07:20.at building consensus and h`s a long history of knowledge, and expertise
:07:21. > :07:24.in the subject. But I must say, I recoiled in a bit of horror when I
:07:25. > :07:30.saw the he'd had 21 people on his committee. Because, my experience
:07:31. > :07:35.from when I ran the committde, was that often, our most effecthve
:07:36. > :07:41.sessions were ones where we didn't have all our members turn up to
:07:42. > :07:47.Zero down to perhaps five or six members, and that meant we could
:07:48. > :07:50.really work as a team. Again, across political parties, but we could
:07:51. > :07:59.focus effectively in oche hdre and focus. 21 is pretty hard work. And
:08:00. > :08:04.on Brexit, views are so different and people are so divided on the
:08:05. > :08:09.subject, building consensus is going to be really tough ask.
:08:10. > :08:14.One of the reasons it has bden set up the way it has is to reflect the
:08:15. > :08:17.breadth of opinion and to rdpresent the United Kingdom geographhcally.
:08:18. > :08:21.But view think 21 is to manx, how would you have done it?
:08:22. > :08:25.I would have had fewer in ntmber. I think it can reflect the diversity
:08:26. > :08:32.of views and the different due graphical locations in a much better
:08:33. > :08:37.way. -- geographical locations. I cannot understand why you would put
:08:38. > :08:40.up 21 members. That is what Hilary has got, it was agreed by
:08:41. > :08:44.parliaments, is that is what he has to work with. So I hope he finds a
:08:45. > :08:49.way of working which will not mean you get these very stilted sessions
:08:50. > :08:53.where everybody feels they've got to have the two pennies worth. And
:08:54. > :08:57.actually, you can never follow issues through logically.
:08:58. > :09:01.Because its role is good to be scrutiny, not the remit of producing
:09:02. > :09:05.reports, it's going to be scrutinising. So if you havd a lot
:09:06. > :09:08.of members, it is going to be tickled to file an attack, work
:09:09. > :09:15.together? I hope they can collectivelx agree
:09:16. > :09:19.we are working together that makes them an effective committee. That's
:09:20. > :09:24.the most important thing, to be an effective committee. I'm thhnking of
:09:25. > :09:27.the sessions we have when wd hold the Prime Minister to accounts, or
:09:28. > :09:30.the chairs of the Select Colmittee together. If we were all in the same
:09:31. > :09:37.room together, holding the premise of Dirk Kuyt - I can remembdr, there
:09:38. > :09:42.would be 25 or 30 of us in the room? So what he had to do was lilit the
:09:43. > :09:44.amount of members for the sdssion. If your in one session, you don t
:09:45. > :09:48.necessarily come to the next. That necessarily come to the next. That
:09:49. > :09:51.might be a technique that the committee collectively decide would
:09:52. > :09:56.make them more effective. How is going to make the Government
:09:57. > :10:02.take any notice of anything it says. That is going to be the next tough
:10:03. > :10:05.Government to pay attention. Government to pay attention.
:10:06. > :10:08.I think the most important part of this committee will be getthng the
:10:09. > :10:13.information which allows thdm to ask the tough questions which are
:10:14. > :10:17.centred ask Parliament and public to make sure the Government is getting
:10:18. > :10:22.the best deal as we exit Europe I suppose my only bit of advice to
:10:23. > :10:26.Hilary - he would need much as he is more experience than I am - would be
:10:27. > :10:32.not to just rely on the traditional mechanisms for doing that. Whether
:10:33. > :10:36.it's Government departments that may be reluctant to get them
:10:37. > :10:39.information, whether it's indeed the advisers. What I found really
:10:40. > :10:44.helpful when we were doing the work of holding the Government to account
:10:45. > :10:47.for expenditure was material we got from journalists, television
:10:48. > :10:53.programme makers and whistle-blowers. So I think looking
:10:54. > :10:57.beyond our limits, beyond the civil service, beyond Government `t how
:10:58. > :11:01.you can get the information, that will be his challenge to thdn
:11:02. > :11:05.interrogate the Government `nd help them to accounts, will be one of the
:11:06. > :11:09.ways he can get a more effective committee.
:11:10. > :11:11.Will be looking closely to see how he does. Thank you very much coming
:11:12. > :11:12.into the programme. Now let's take a look at sole
:11:13. > :11:15.of the other news from around The Defence Secretary has told MPs
:11:16. > :11:19.the so-called Islamic State group is "failing" in Iraq,
:11:20. > :11:21.but warned the fight to regain the country's
:11:22. > :11:23.second largest city, Mosul, "will not be
:11:24. > :11:24.a quick operation". The city in Northern Iraq
:11:25. > :11:29.was overrun by IS militants in 014. The Daesh extremists now hold only
:11:30. > :11:34.10% of Iraqi territory. Ridding Iraq of Daesh was ndver
:11:35. > :11:38.going to be quick or easy. As we enter the third year
:11:39. > :11:41.of the campaign, real progress is being made,
:11:42. > :11:46.and defeating Daesh in the long term will help make the streets
:11:47. > :11:52.of Britain and Europe safer. On Wednesday, Prime Minister's
:11:53. > :11:54.Questions began with both Theresa May and Jeremy Corbxn
:11:55. > :11:57.remembering the tragedy at @berfan. On October 21st 1966,
:11:58. > :12:01.an avalanche of coal waste crashed into a school and 18 houses
:12:02. > :12:05.in the south Wales village , The disaster made headlines
:12:06. > :12:13.around the world. Jeremy Corbyn reckoned it
:12:14. > :12:16.would never be forgotten. Many in that community are still
:12:17. > :12:19.living with that tragedy and they will live with that tragedy
:12:20. > :12:21.for the rest of their days. I remember it very well,
:12:22. > :12:24.as a young person growing up at that time, and watching
:12:25. > :12:27.collections for the disaster fund. I think the BBC
:12:28. > :12:30.documentary presented by Huw Edwards last night
:12:31. > :12:32.was absolutely brilliant and poignant and serves to remind us
:12:33. > :12:35.all what the I'm off an age where I can
:12:36. > :12:38.remember those terrible scenes on television
:12:39. > :12:41.of what happened in Aberfan. I didn't see the whole
:12:42. > :12:44.of Huw Edwards' documentary but the bits th`t I did
:12:45. > :12:48.see last night I thought were very poignant, as the right
:12:49. > :12:50.honourable gentleman said. And, interestingly, actuallx,
:12:51. > :12:54.what it showed, a game, is that issue of those in power not
:12:55. > :13:00.being willing to step up to the plate, initially, and accept
:13:01. > :13:03.what had actually happened. Jeremy Corbyn moved on to hhs main
:13:04. > :13:06.topic, mental health One in four of us will
:13:07. > :13:12.suffer mental problem. An analysis by the Kings Fund
:13:13. > :13:14.suggest that 40% of our mental health trusts
:13:15. > :13:18.have their budget cut last xear Six trusts have seen
:13:19. > :13:21.their budgets cut three years Is the Prime Minister reallx
:13:22. > :13:26.confident that we are delivering parity of esteem
:13:27. > :13:29.in the mental health? The right honourable gentlelan
:13:30. > :13:32.is right that we are introdtcing mental health in our
:13:33. > :13:36.National Health Service. We have been waiting too
:13:37. > :13:38.long for this. It is important that
:13:39. > :13:41.it is being done. But we are actually investing more
:13:42. > :13:43.in mental health services. An estimated record 11.7 billion,
:13:44. > :13:45.and in particularly, we are increasing the number
:13:46. > :13:49.of children's beds to the hhghest number of children's beds rdlated
:13:50. > :13:54.to mental health problems. Downing Street said that
:13:55. > :13:56.Theresa May had full confidence in her Chancellor,
:13:57. > :13:59.Philip Hammond, after reports he was trying to slow progrdss
:14:00. > :14:01.towards the UK leaving the DU. Some newspapers said colleagues
:14:02. > :14:05.believed that Mr Hammond was attempting to "undermind"
:14:06. > :14:07.the process by delaying The man himself was asked
:14:08. > :14:14.about the newspaper stories and the Government's line that it
:14:15. > :14:17.wouldn't give a running comlentary The Government can't keep
:14:18. > :14:21.this stuff secret for Once it gets into the hands
:14:22. > :14:25.of our counterparts, 27 countries plus the EU,
:14:26. > :14:28.it might as well be I think it would be far mord helpful
:14:29. > :14:34.to this debate if we were able to conduct these internal
:14:35. > :14:37.discussions privately We need space to explore different
:14:38. > :14:46.options, to discuss among otrselves. It's no secret that there
:14:47. > :14:49.are different views about how And we are exploring togethdr how
:14:50. > :14:54.to give the Prime Minister I think your first sentence gives
:14:55. > :15:00.a clear view of your Staying with Brexit,
:15:01. > :15:11.the Romanian Ambassador to the UK has told peers why freedom
:15:12. > :15:14.of movement is so important He said Romanians treasured the idea
:15:15. > :15:18.because of the years Romani` spent When I was a child I couldn't
:15:19. > :15:25.travel in the West The only permission
:15:26. > :15:34.I and my parents had I could travel to Poland,
:15:35. > :15:41.for instance, So we feel much more,
:15:42. > :15:49.this freedom of movement. But the sense of
:15:50. > :15:57.moving freely around the world, working,
:15:58. > :16:02.changing your workplace, evdrywhere. Now to Friday in the Commons,
:16:03. > :16:04.where ministers were accused of trying to hijack plans
:16:05. > :16:06.to introduce a so-called Turing's Law to pardon gay
:16:07. > :16:09.men convicted of now On Thursday, the Government
:16:10. > :16:14.announced plans for thousands of gay and bisexual men convicted of crimes
:16:15. > :16:18.which are no longer on the statute But the next day, the SNP's
:16:19. > :16:24.John Nicolson pressed ahead with his own Private Member's Bill,
:16:25. > :16:26.proposing an automatic pardon How odd would it look
:16:27. > :16:36.for the elderly to be told that they must wait until they die
:16:37. > :16:39.for the automatic pardon which the government now
:16:40. > :16:41.seems to be proposing. Let us finish, Mr Deputy Spdaker,
:16:42. > :16:46.the law reform that we have started, by recognising that the victims
:16:47. > :16:51.of society's prejudices are still They deserve the piece that this
:16:52. > :17:00.bill would bring. Staying with Friday private members
:17:01. > :17:10.bills, a Conservative Meanwhile down the corridor
:17:11. > :17:12.in the House of Lords, peers too were bringing
:17:13. > :17:14.in their own bills. First up the Conservative Lord Elton
:17:15. > :17:17.with his proposals for cutthng He proposed reducing the ovdrall
:17:18. > :17:21.number, but with each group keeping The bill will now go forward to be
:17:22. > :17:25.considered in detail. Staying with Friday's
:17:26. > :17:27.business back in the Commons a Conservative Philip Davies asked
:17:28. > :17:29.an urgent question. He wanted to know what checks
:17:30. > :17:32.were being carried out to m`ke sure child refugees coming
:17:33. > :17:39.from Calais were children. People only have to see the pictures
:17:40. > :17:42.of the so-called child refugees to see that
:17:43. > :17:44.many of them are not childrdn. A large number of my constituents,
:17:45. > :17:46.Mr Speaker, have contacted me to say how angry
:17:47. > :17:50.they are that we are being taken for fools, taken for a ride,
:17:51. > :17:53.and our generosity is being abused. Does the minister not understand
:17:54. > :17:54.that unless action is taken over this,
:17:55. > :17:57.it will do irreparable damage to public confidence
:17:58. > :17:58.in the asylum system? But the minister
:17:59. > :18:00.dismissed the idea of The British Dental Associathon
:18:01. > :18:04.has described it as inaccurate, inappropriate
:18:05. > :18:06.and unethical. The Royal College of
:18:07. > :18:10.Paediatricians said the margin of error can sometimes be as mtch
:18:11. > :18:13.as five years either side of medical And Doctors of the World UK have
:18:14. > :18:17.called the idea unethical and On Thursday, MPs backed
:18:18. > :18:30.a call for the former to be stripped of the knighthood he
:18:31. > :18:35.was awarded for services to retail. The firm collapsed with 11,000
:18:36. > :18:37.jobs lost and a more A damning MPs' report on thd high
:18:38. > :18:42.street chain's failure, published in July, concluded
:18:43. > :18:46.Sir Philip had extracted large sums and left the business
:18:47. > :18:49.on life support. When Sir Philip acquired BHS,
:18:50. > :18:52.it was a relatively prosperous business and it had
:18:53. > :18:56.a pension scheme in surplus. He risk his workers' pensions
:18:57. > :18:59.while he made You can amass a great
:19:00. > :19:06.fortune but in such turbulent market times,
:19:07. > :19:09.you can lose it in a day. And all you are left
:19:10. > :19:13.with is your honour. He took the rings from BHS'
:19:14. > :19:18.fingers, he beat it black and blue, he's starved it
:19:19. > :19:22.of food and water, he put it on my support, and then he wanted credit
:19:23. > :19:33.for keeping it alive. Now, let's take a look
:19:34. > :19:35.at some of the other news from around Westminster,
:19:36. > :19:37.here's Duncan Smith You know you're getting
:19:38. > :19:41.old when peers of the realm Or are they actually
:19:42. > :19:44.getting younger? The youngest -
:19:45. > :19:46.Baroness Bertin - took her seat taking the total number of peers
:19:47. > :19:52.to 814 on our ermine-o-meter. And now it turns out the issue
:19:53. > :20:00.hasn't escaped the interest of the creators of the hit computer
:20:01. > :20:04.game - Football Manager. Players of the 2017 edition
:20:05. > :20:08.will have to grapple with dhfferent Brexit scenarios as part
:20:09. > :20:10.of the game. There could be another
:20:11. > :20:13.referendunm on the horizon as the Scottish Government
:20:14. > :20:16.published its draft bill on a second The potential new runway at
:20:17. > :20:22.Heathrow Airport is a conundrum that could hardly be called
:20:23. > :20:25.a piece of cake. But that's exactly what Amsterdam
:20:26. > :20:30.Airport Schiphol send in every time a decision
:20:31. > :20:33.on Heathrow is delayed. And that wasn't the only
:20:34. > :20:38.cake on offer this week, as no doubt Conservative backbencher
:20:39. > :20:41.Peter Bone found time for a slice with some candlds
:20:42. > :20:44.on for his special day, which even the Prime
:20:45. > :20:47.Minister couldn't ignore I'm very happy to wish him ` very
:20:48. > :20:53.happy birthday today. I hope that Mrs Bone
:20:54. > :20:58.is going to treat the occasion in the appropriate
:20:59. > :21:00.manner and... The number of MPs in Westminster
:21:01. > :21:15.is set to drop from 650 to 600 ahead of the 2020 general election -
:21:16. > :21:17.if the results of Boundary Commission
:21:18. > :21:19.recommendations are accepted. Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn
:21:20. > :21:21.and ex-Chancellor George Osborne are among those whose seats
:21:22. > :21:24.would be abolished. Labour - which is expected
:21:25. > :21:27.to be hardest hit - called the proposals undemocratic,
:21:28. > :21:30.but the Government says thex Plans to slash the number
:21:31. > :21:35.of seats in England, Wales and Northern Ireland have
:21:36. > :21:39.already been outlined - and recommendations for Scotland
:21:40. > :21:43.were published on Thursday, cutting Scottish seats
:21:44. > :21:47.at Westminster from 59 to 53. Political analyst David Cowling
:21:48. > :21:50.gave evidence on Tuesday I asked him how significant
:21:51. > :21:59.the changes were for Scotland. Scotland loses six out of the 5 ,
:22:00. > :22:02.which is reasonably significant of But the big change for them
:22:03. > :22:06.was in the 2005 general election when they went down from about 2
:22:07. > :22:10.MPs to 59 because of the introduction of the
:22:11. > :22:13.Scottish Parliament. So, this is significant but not
:22:14. > :22:15.quite as traumatic as the Now, if we would have
:22:16. > :22:22.had these seats in the 2015 general collection,
:22:23. > :22:26.how different would this parliament Well, again, this has to be based
:22:27. > :22:30.on guesswork but it is generally thought that
:22:31. > :22:32.Labour would be down about 36, for example,
:22:33. > :22:33.as a consequence of these
:22:34. > :22:35.changes, politically. On the basis of the tentative
:22:36. > :22:37.boundaries that we had So, it would have been a case
:22:38. > :22:48.of consolidating the Conservative victory,
:22:49. > :22:49.and the Conservative victorx would have been more signifhcant
:22:50. > :22:51.on these boundaries, compared
:22:52. > :22:53.with what it was in 2015. Labour is unhappy about
:22:54. > :22:55.the proposed changes. Is the Labour Party
:22:56. > :22:59.just being grumpy? I suppose most parties most
:23:00. > :23:04.times have grievances, but I think the issue
:23:05. > :23:06.that is not just limited perennially difficult
:23:07. > :23:10.one is that of course freeze a moment in time when they
:23:11. > :23:14.take the electorate, and thdy say this is the electorate,
:23:15. > :23:17.and this is on what we will base our calculations for sizes
:23:18. > :23:19.of constituency quotas. But of course, they have millions
:23:20. > :23:21.of people who have been added on the register
:23:22. > :23:23.in 2015, and of course more people came on for
:23:24. > :23:34.the European referendum. And the complaint of
:23:35. > :23:36.Labour and some of the other parties is that these people
:23:37. > :23:39.will be missed off those registers and therefore, if they had been
:23:40. > :23:42.on the register, maybe the landscape Now, the Boundary Commission
:23:43. > :23:44.in the past has always tried to stick
:23:45. > :23:46.to traditional boundaries. Is that going to be less
:23:47. > :23:49.the case this time around? Are they going to have
:23:50. > :23:51.to cross more borders? In the past, they were allowed
:23:52. > :23:54.to vary the electorate That gave them a chance to take
:23:55. > :23:59.in rivers and mountains and But now, maths rules everything
:24:00. > :24:04.in this round, and they And, so, there, you've got some
:24:05. > :24:09.real squeals of pain. For example, in Cornwall,
:24:10. > :24:11.of course you have a oppose all to cross a Cornish
:24:12. > :24:14.constituency with a Devon one. The biggest noise since
:24:15. > :24:15.the Monmouth Rebellion The maths is what is
:24:16. > :24:27.motoring most of this, and that is what is c`using
:24:28. > :24:30.a lot of the difficulty bec`use it doesn't allow the
:24:31. > :24:32.commissioners to do much. the point of this was David
:24:33. > :24:36.Cameron's promise to reduce the cost of politics, we are going to lose 50
:24:37. > :24:40.MPs but it was always going to be a slightly hard one to get
:24:41. > :24:42.through whilst we've got a House of Lords which is at
:24:43. > :24:45.800 members and growing. We've got this controlled sxstem,
:24:46. > :24:49.so to speak, in one chamber and no And that has obviously
:24:50. > :24:52.given rise to problems. But also, I think, there
:24:53. > :24:55.was a lot of support given to the reduction of the number of MPs
:24:56. > :24:58.from 615 to 600, generally because But anybody who knows MPs
:24:59. > :25:03.these days, with the complexity of what is happening
:25:04. > :25:05.in their constituencies and the rest of it, they are certainly not
:25:06. > :25:09.the laziest of individuals, in terms It will be interesting
:25:10. > :25:13.to see, as we go forward, the people who rejoiced
:25:14. > :25:16.in the reduction in the number of MPs, whether they are thd same
:25:17. > :25:19.people who start knocking on the doors saying,
:25:20. > :25:22."Why isn't my MP giving me time " Because they've got so much more
:25:23. > :25:25.else to do these days, and now there David Cowling, thank you very much
:25:26. > :25:31.for coming on to the progralme. But do join Joanna Shinn on Monday
:25:32. > :25:38.night at 11pm for a full rotndup of the best of the day
:25:39. > :25:40.here at Westminster. But for now, from me,
:25:41. > :25:45.Alicia McCarthy, goodbye.