Browse content similar to 28/10/2015. Check below for episodes and series from the same categories and more!
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Welcome to the bank. The menus from Westminster, the Labour leader calls | :00:15. | :00:24. | |
on the pro Minister to spell out his plans for changes to tax credits. | :00:25. | :00:27. | |
People are very worried about what is going to happen to them next | :00:28. | :00:32. | |
April. And the Lords asked questions about the government review into the | :00:33. | :00:40. | |
Lords. This is a gross overreaction. At PMQs, Jeremy Corbyn repeatedly | :00:41. | :00:44. | |
asked David Cameron whether anyone would be worse off next April | :00:45. | :00:48. | |
because of cuts to tax credits. The Labour leader used all of his six | :00:49. | :00:51. | |
questions at the weekly contest to ask about the row over the reform | :00:52. | :00:55. | |
which was stalled this week by the House of Lords. Following the events | :00:56. | :01:00. | |
in the other place on Monday evening and the belated acceptance from the | :01:01. | :01:05. | |
Prime Minister of the result there, can we guarantee to the wider | :01:06. | :01:09. | |
country and the House that nobody will be worse off next year as a | :01:10. | :01:12. | |
result of cuts to working tax credits? What I can guarantee is | :01:13. | :01:19. | |
that we will remain committed to the vision of a high pay, low tax, low | :01:20. | :01:25. | |
welfare economy. It sets the pattern for the rest of the leaders | :01:26. | :01:30. | |
exchanges. Will he confirm that tax credit cuts will not make anyone | :01:31. | :01:39. | |
worse off in April next year. What we want is for people to be better | :01:40. | :01:44. | |
off because we are cutting their taxes and increasing their pay. But | :01:45. | :01:47. | |
he is going to have to be patient because although these changes | :01:48. | :01:53. | |
passed the House of Commons five times, with ever enlarging | :01:54. | :01:57. | |
majorities, we will set out our new proposals in the Autumn Statement | :01:58. | :02:02. | |
and he will be able to study them. This is the time when we ask | :02:03. | :02:05. | |
questions of the Prime Minister on the half of the people of this | :02:06. | :02:27. | |
country. Thank you. Mr Speaker, if I may continue... People are very | :02:28. | :02:35. | |
worried about what is going to happen to them next April. So what | :02:36. | :02:40. | |
exactly does the Prime Minister mean? He is considering it, there is | :02:41. | :02:45. | |
an Autumn Statement coming up, but we thought he was committed to not | :02:46. | :02:50. | |
cutting tax credits. In our election manifesto, we set out that we were | :02:51. | :02:54. | |
going to find ?12 billion of in welfare. We are talking about tax | :02:55. | :02:59. | |
credits for people in work. The Prime Minister knows that. He | :03:00. | :03:02. | |
understands that. He has lost the support of many people in this | :03:03. | :03:06. | |
country that are actually quite sympathetic to his political | :03:07. | :03:11. | |
project. Some of the newspapers that support come out against him. He did | :03:12. | :03:16. | |
commit to ?12 billion of cuts but repeatedly refuses to say whether | :03:17. | :03:19. | |
tax credits will be part of this. He said that they were not. Can he give | :03:20. | :03:23. | |
us the answer we are trying to get today? And so the question! The | :03:24. | :03:30. | |
answer will be set out in the Autumn Statement when we set out our | :03:31. | :03:33. | |
proposals but I have to say to him, it has come to quite a strange set | :03:34. | :03:39. | |
of events when you have the House of Commons voting for something five | :03:40. | :03:46. | |
times, when there is absolutely no rebellion among conservative members | :03:47. | :03:47. | |
of Parliament or indeed among Conservative peers and the Labour | :03:48. | :03:54. | |
Party is left defending and depending on unelected peers in the | :03:55. | :03:59. | |
House of Lords. In British politics, we have a new alliance, the | :04:00. | :04:03. | |
unelected and the unelectable. Once the Labour leader had asked his six | :04:04. | :04:07. | |
questions, the session moved onto other subjects. Last week, I asked | :04:08. | :04:11. | |
the Prime Minister about the tragic circumstances of Michael | :04:12. | :04:14. | |
Sutherland, a disabled man who took us on life after an assessment by | :04:15. | :04:18. | |
the Department of Work and Pensions. We know that 60 investigations have | :04:19. | :04:24. | |
taken place into suicides following the cancellation of benefits but the | :04:25. | :04:28. | |
findings have not been published. The Prime Minister said to me last | :04:29. | :04:32. | |
week that he would look very carefully at the specific question | :04:33. | :04:35. | |
about the publication. We'll be Prime Minister confirm when those | :04:36. | :04:40. | |
findings will be published? -- will the Prime Minister confirmed. There | :04:41. | :04:43. | |
are good reasons why we cannot publish the specific report because | :04:44. | :04:47. | |
it has personal and medical data in it which would not be appropriate | :04:48. | :04:52. | |
for publication. If I have got that wrong, I will write that to him but | :04:53. | :04:56. | |
I have a clear memory of looking into it and that being the case. We | :04:57. | :05:01. | |
know that the Prime Minister's broken promises over tax credits but | :05:02. | :05:09. | |
will the final nail in the coffin of compassionate conservatism be cast, | :05:10. | :05:22. | |
if he takes food out of the mouths of poor children at school. Will he | :05:23. | :05:28. | |
agree to not do this, so that he does not go down in history as a | :05:29. | :05:33. | |
dinner snatcher. It was a government I lead that introduced this policy. | :05:34. | :05:37. | |
13 years of a Labour government and did they ever do that? Did you | :05:38. | :05:44. | |
remember the infant free school meals bill from the Labour Party? I | :05:45. | :05:50. | |
am proud of what we have done and we will be keeping it. Yesterday I | :05:51. | :05:53. | |
visited the refugee camps in Lesbos and I met families that were | :05:54. | :05:58. | |
inspirational and desperate. Alongside British charity workers, I | :05:59. | :06:02. | |
am frankly ashamed that we will not offer a home to a single one of | :06:03. | :06:06. | |
those refugee families. Can I ask the Prime Minister, will he agree | :06:07. | :06:13. | |
with Save the Children's plea that we should take 3000 vulnerable, | :06:14. | :06:17. | |
unaccompanied children in Europe, some as young as six. David Cameron | :06:18. | :06:24. | |
told MPs that the UK was taking 20,000 refugees from the Middle | :06:25. | :06:29. | |
East. Specifically on this question, I have looked at it carefully and | :06:30. | :06:33. | |
there are other NGOs and experts who points to the very real danger of | :06:34. | :06:38. | |
separating children from the rather families and that is white, to date, | :06:39. | :06:43. | |
we have not taken that decision. It has been revealed that job advisers | :06:44. | :06:48. | |
are, for the first time, to be posted at food banks. The banks | :06:49. | :06:53. | |
provide free food to people in need who are given vouchers by Jobcentre | :06:54. | :06:57. | |
staff. Social workers or doctors. The use of the banks has risen | :06:58. | :07:01. | |
sharply in recent years. The trust all trust, a main provider of food | :07:02. | :07:07. | |
banks said that the number using the banks last year was over 1 million. | :07:08. | :07:12. | |
The subject was raised at a committee session for the Work and | :07:13. | :07:15. | |
Pensions Secretary. The trust all trust says that the number of people | :07:16. | :07:19. | |
using Scottish food banks has increased by 398%. Do you think | :07:20. | :07:28. | |
there is any correlation between the reforms that have been implemented? | :07:29. | :07:32. | |
I am unhappy to answer this right now because there are points I want | :07:33. | :07:36. | |
to make. Is the chairman OK with that? All right. We have always | :07:37. | :07:42. | |
taken the view that, and I support the banks and what they do, I think | :07:43. | :07:47. | |
it is excellent, but what we have always said is that wherever there | :07:48. | :07:51. | |
are cases, they are notified as issues where people might perceive a | :07:52. | :07:54. | |
problem in the parliament, and we problem in the parliament, and we | :07:55. | :08:00. | |
will pick those up. At the moment, something the committee will not be | :08:01. | :08:05. | |
aware of but which I am trialling, I was visited by a particular food | :08:06. | :08:09. | |
bank before the summer break to talk about some of the issues about | :08:10. | :08:15. | |
delivering food and some of the problems with individuals that turn | :08:16. | :08:18. | |
up and say they are having a problem with payments. I am trying at the | :08:19. | :08:27. | |
moment a job adviser situating themselves in the food bank during | :08:28. | :08:30. | |
the time that it is open and we are getting strong feedback about that, | :08:31. | :08:34. | |
where they will be able to check if someone is coming in and need the | :08:35. | :08:40. | |
payment, they can immediately check. And if this works and other food | :08:41. | :08:44. | |
banks are able to encompass this, we would like to roll out across the | :08:45. | :08:52. | |
UK. The banking question is the welcome Centre in Manchester, and | :08:53. | :08:56. | |
they are basically the too surprised -- provide support to people who | :08:57. | :09:02. | |
come in. What is happening now is that people are not coming in with | :09:03. | :09:05. | |
questions about benefits, but they are coming in and being interested | :09:06. | :09:10. | |
in where they could find work, where there are vacancies. So we have | :09:11. | :09:15. | |
teamed up with various clubs and they are spending more time pointing | :09:16. | :09:18. | |
people to vacancies than they are fixing them with some food. We are | :09:19. | :09:24. | |
publishing results later but no-one is yet aware of it. When you roll | :09:25. | :09:27. | |
this out, you might find are differences. Yes. Either way, I hope | :09:28. | :09:34. | |
if it works, then we will certainly want to roll it out to all the food | :09:35. | :09:41. | |
banks. Onto the work capability assessments or WCA which are some | :09:42. | :09:48. | |
benefits claimants face. There was criticism of the work capability | :09:49. | :09:51. | |
process in the report of the death of Michael Sullivan. That was not an | :09:52. | :09:56. | |
isolated case. It was 2300 people who have died, having been found fit | :09:57. | :10:01. | |
for work after an assessment. Does that tell you that we need to be | :10:02. | :10:07. | |
looking again at the accuracy of the work capability assessments? By and | :10:08. | :10:12. | |
large, we see that those people in a similar condition but not involved | :10:13. | :10:17. | |
with WCA, the mortality rates are very similar to those who go through | :10:18. | :10:21. | |
WCA. The point I'm making is that this is not an easy area and it will | :10:22. | :10:27. | |
never be. Are we able to get a sense of those figures and how they might | :10:28. | :10:33. | |
differ compared to tests in previous years? In what sense? In terms of | :10:34. | :10:38. | |
the understanding of the number of people dying after having been found | :10:39. | :10:42. | |
fit for work. We have never collated the figures specifically. It is | :10:43. | :10:47. | |
always impossible to do that because we would have to make all sorts of | :10:48. | :10:52. | |
judgments. We have introduced a series of changes that improve our | :10:53. | :10:56. | |
ability to assess the mental capacity and incapacity early on and | :10:57. | :10:59. | |
that is currently under review so that was not originally there. So | :11:00. | :11:05. | |
that will go no further? It will. This is a constant process of | :11:06. | :11:07. | |
reappraisal. You're watching Wednesday | :11:08. | :11:09. | |
in Parliament with me, Now, the reverberations | :11:10. | :11:10. | |
of the government defeat in the Lord's on Monday over plans to | :11:11. | :11:16. | |
cut tax credits are still echoing. Labour used an urgent question to | :11:17. | :11:20. | |
find out more about the proposed review of the House | :11:21. | :11:25. | |
of Lords, which will be headed by The relationship between the Commons | :11:26. | :11:28. | |
and the Lords is extremely important and when conventions that govern | :11:29. | :11:34. | |
that relationship are put in doubt, it is right that we review that. | :11:35. | :11:39. | |
It's clear that the government intends to give the House of Lords | :11:40. | :11:42. | |
a kicking but it should remember, I think, as it fashions this pretend | :11:43. | :11:45. | |
constitutional crisis, that the vast majority of people in this country | :11:46. | :11:49. | |
applauded the Lords on Monday because this was not in the | :11:50. | :11:53. | |
government's manifesto. Does the leaders see no irony | :11:54. | :12:01. | |
at all in getting a member of the House of Lords to review | :12:02. | :12:04. | |
the financial privilege of the House of Commons and, for that matter, | :12:05. | :12:07. | |
a hereditary peer at that? And is this | :12:08. | :12:10. | |
the right person to be doing it? After all, in 1999, | :12:11. | :12:12. | |
Lord Strathclyde himself said of the convention that the Lords did not | :12:13. | :12:15. | |
strike down statutory instruments. That same day, he and the Lords | :12:16. | :12:19. | |
voted down two Labour government So now, he thinks it's | :12:20. | :12:24. | |
an utter disgrace to do so. Is there one rule for Tory | :12:25. | :12:29. | |
regulations and another one Is he now a convert or, frankly, | :12:30. | :12:34. | |
just a hypocrite? The Shadow Leader should | :12:35. | :12:38. | |
withdraw that term. I withdraw that term unreservedly, | :12:39. | :12:45. | |
Mr Speaker. I'm sure the British public are just | :12:46. | :12:47. | |
amazed and bewildered at this handbags at dawn spat between | :12:48. | :12:52. | |
the Tories and the unelected Lords in this great battle of the nobles. | :12:53. | :13:11. | |
Is the case that the weight but UK is if you don't like what one part | :13:12. | :13:17. | |
of the legislative dance, you just simply emasculate it? Is this the | :13:18. | :13:23. | |
democracy we are looking at? The emergence of the donors is a | :13:24. | :13:32. | |
ridiculous idea. Time really has come for proper reform of the House | :13:33. | :13:37. | |
of Lords. When we talk about proper reform, that means the reformed | :13:38. | :13:44. | |
chamber that is fully elected. Talking to colleagues around this | :13:45. | :13:49. | |
building, the issue of the House of Lords reform has returned to centre | :13:50. | :13:53. | |
stage. But we have faced big challenges in this country. We have | :13:54. | :13:57. | |
really important legislation to get through and I want to deal first | :13:58. | :14:01. | |
with challenges and health, education, the economy and the | :14:02. | :14:07. | |
environment. But these issues will be discussed more widely in this | :14:08. | :14:08. | |
House. And so, down the corridor to | :14:09. | :14:09. | |
the House of Lords, where peers had Less than six months into a new | :14:10. | :14:24. | |
Parliament, the government is trying to change the rules to ensure it | :14:25. | :14:30. | |
won't lose a vote again. Some in government have very short memories. | :14:31. | :14:34. | |
But if you look back at the number and content of the defeats, it's | :14:35. | :14:40. | |
clear how very little justification there is for this move. This is a | :14:41. | :14:51. | |
gross overreaction. The events of Monday are what justifies the | :14:52. | :14:55. | |
review. It is a prevalent view and is about how elected governments can | :14:56. | :15:02. | |
secure their business when an established convention has been put | :15:03. | :15:07. | |
in doubt. During the five years of the Cameron premiership, there have | :15:08. | :15:11. | |
been 20 government defeats on average per year. In the five years | :15:12. | :15:21. | |
from 2002 until 2007, onto the Blair-Brown governments, there were | :15:22. | :15:26. | |
an average of 59 defeats a year. The prime ministers of the time did not | :15:27. | :15:31. | |
work themselves up into a lather about government defeats. So if the | :15:32. | :15:36. | |
Prime Minister is anxious to find evidence of government being | :15:37. | :15:40. | |
defeated on a regular basis, I am at the end of the phone to give him | :15:41. | :15:41. | |
that information. Lady Stowell said the government was | :15:42. | :15:43. | |
not talking about defeats in general Now, the chairman of the | :15:44. | :15:46. | |
Football Association has said he isn't surprised by comments from | :15:47. | :15:50. | |
the suspended head of football's world governing body, Fifa, | :15:51. | :15:52. | |
that a deal was made in advance to Sepp Blatter, who is under | :15:53. | :15:55. | |
investigation for a payment he made to the Uefa President, | :15:56. | :16:01. | |
Michel Platini, told the Russian news agency that Fifa's executive | :16:02. | :16:04. | |
made the decision in 2010. Greg Dyke told the culture committee | :16:05. | :16:10. | |
the claim would be looked into. I would like to read again. But it | :16:11. | :16:36. | |
did look like it was all fixed anyway. | :16:37. | :16:39. | |
Greg Dyke told the MPs that Fifa had been a corrupted organisation | :16:40. | :16:42. | |
for 40 years and he said the FA had now suspended its backing for | :16:43. | :16:45. | |
the Uefa President as its candidate to be the next head of Fifa. | :16:46. | :16:48. | |
We have been impressed by Michel Platini in his time | :16:49. | :16:51. | |
We were of the view that he had done a good job. | :16:52. | :16:55. | |
We also have a good working relationship with Uefa | :16:56. | :16:57. | |
and we thought supporting the Uefa candidate would lead to a better | :16:58. | :17:01. | |
We have said, on many occasions, that the reform | :17:02. | :17:07. | |
of Fifa is more important to us than who is the new President. | :17:08. | :17:11. | |
You will be supporting the reform candidate, | :17:12. | :17:13. | |
Well, the board of the FA will discuss who we should support. | :17:14. | :17:20. | |
We don't have to make a decision at this stage. | :17:21. | :17:24. | |
We didn't nominate anybody and we will make a decision closer | :17:25. | :17:27. | |
to the vote when, in some ways, we see who is left standing, really. | :17:28. | :17:41. | |
To ask them for your money back would be unreasonable. | :17:42. | :17:45. | |
I mean, my view of Fifa is it's a corrupted organisation and has | :17:46. | :17:49. | |
Therefore, not a lot of it surprises us, I don't think. | :17:50. | :17:54. | |
It's been suggested that the FA maybe start | :17:55. | :17:57. | |
a new process informing a new governing body, whether it's for the | :17:58. | :18:01. | |
Can you just clarify, for this committee, what discussions | :18:02. | :18:07. | |
have you had, maybe in private or public, about setting up the new | :18:08. | :18:12. | |
We haven't had any discussions, to my knowledge. | :18:13. | :18:20. | |
We obviously have chatted to one or two people. | :18:21. | :18:23. | |
It's like an everyday story of football folk. | :18:24. | :18:36. | |
Every week, something new comes out that you've never heard | :18:37. | :18:40. | |
I mean, who would have thought that the Germans would suddenly | :18:41. | :18:44. | |
find themselves in the problem that they found themselves in? | :18:45. | :18:47. | |
So these conversations, have you had conversations with | :18:48. | :18:50. | |
Well, I think you've had chats without saying, | :18:51. | :18:58. | |
And if you wanted my honest opinion, my honest opinion will be yeah, | :18:59. | :19:04. | |
if you could form something totally new and start again, | :19:05. | :19:08. | |
that would be a good idea, but that's not where we are. | :19:09. | :19:13. | |
Now, do we still need bobbies on the beat? | :19:14. | :19:15. | |
Labour's Leader in the Lords, Lady Smith, asked the government whether | :19:16. | :19:18. | |
cuts to police numbers would have an impact on national security. | :19:19. | :19:21. | |
It comes after warnings from police chiefs that forces might | :19:22. | :19:23. | |
Crime today is very different to crime 40 or 50 years ago. | :19:24. | :19:37. | |
We have serious threats from terrorism and also, as we have | :19:38. | :19:40. | |
Now, I am sure he appreciates that security in counterterrorism is | :19:41. | :19:44. | |
I think the noble lady is right when she talks about crime changing. | :19:45. | :19:56. | |
Crime is changing therefore policing must change in response to it. | :19:57. | :20:00. | |
I rise more in sadness than in anger. | :20:01. | :20:03. | |
I have asked the noble lord, the Minister, on a number | :20:04. | :20:06. | |
of occasions in this House, what is the national strategy for policing? | :20:07. | :20:11. | |
And the Minister, courteous as he is, has always | :20:12. | :20:13. | |
Unfortunately, this week, we now know that crime, | :20:14. | :20:21. | |
as we all suspected, has not reduced, it's just moved. | :20:22. | :20:24. | |
So what is now the strategy for policing? | :20:25. | :20:30. | |
What is now the strategy for the policing that supports | :20:31. | :20:32. | |
If you are faced with a 40% cut but you've still got | :20:33. | :20:37. | |
the same amount of crime to deal with, what is the strategy? | :20:38. | :20:41. | |
In terms of what we believe, we share the view of Her Majesty's | :20:42. | :20:44. | |
Inspectorate of Constabulary who actually found that there were | :20:45. | :20:46. | |
significant further savings still to be made through reorganising the way | :20:47. | :20:51. | |
in which services are actually delivered | :20:52. | :20:53. | |
by getting more cooperation between the blue line services | :20:54. | :20:56. | |
There are ways of actually protecting the front | :20:57. | :21:00. | |
line whilst making significant savings in the administration. | :21:01. | :21:05. | |
My Lords, last night on BBC Newsnight, the | :21:06. | :21:07. | |
head of the National Police Chiefs Council predicted that, because | :21:08. | :21:12. | |
of the cuts that the government were about to make, it would be | :21:13. | :21:16. | |
The Deputy Commissioner of the Metropolitan Police said that | :21:17. | :21:22. | |
he was anticipating losing 8000 police officer posts in London, | :21:23. | :21:24. | |
Can the Minister please explain, how can the police maintain | :21:25. | :21:29. | |
relationships with communities from whom counterintelligence comes | :21:30. | :21:30. | |
It seems to me that what Sarah Thornton was saying was that | :21:31. | :21:35. | |
the nature of policing is changing and that you could no longer | :21:36. | :21:38. | |
perhaps guarantee in the same way as in the past the level | :21:39. | :21:41. | |
I do think that there is a big philosophical question facing | :21:42. | :21:46. | |
It is the question of, do you want to be able to see, in low-crime | :21:47. | :21:52. | |
areas, the ability to see a police officer walking down the end | :21:53. | :21:55. | |
of the street and to be able to get that comfort, or do you want to see | :21:56. | :21:59. | |
8%, year on year, and 30%, down to its lowest level since 1981. | :22:00. | :22:06. | |
We believe that the target of policing is to cut crime | :22:07. | :22:09. | |
Steelworkers have been lobbying MPs following the announcement | :22:10. | :22:14. | |
of thousands of job cuts in recent weeks by Tata Steel and SSI. | :22:15. | :22:19. | |
Meanwhile, the Business Secretary has been lobbying EU officials | :22:20. | :22:23. | |
for Europe-wide action to tackle the crisis in the steel industry. | :22:24. | :22:30. | |
At PMQs, David Cameron said that steel and | :22:31. | :22:32. | |
other energy-intensive industries would get refunds for energy policy | :22:33. | :22:34. | |
costs once the European Union had made a decision on state aid. | :22:35. | :22:40. | |
Alongside the tragedy of each individual job loss | :22:41. | :22:42. | |
and the ramifications for the supply chains and the local economies, | :22:43. | :22:46. | |
there is now a real worry that UK steel-making capacity is being | :22:47. | :22:50. | |
sacrificed on the altar of laissez faire economics | :22:51. | :22:54. | |
by a government which simply will not act to preserve | :22:55. | :22:57. | |
We cannot influence the price of steel, we cannot fix foreign | :22:58. | :23:03. | |
The rules governing state aid to the steel sector are very strict | :23:04. | :23:12. | |
and the UK steel industry signed up to those rules, those state aid | :23:13. | :23:15. | |
That is, the rules help secure a level playing field | :23:16. | :23:19. | |
Within these strictures, Madam Deputy Speaker, | :23:20. | :23:21. | |
we have done and we are doing all we can to help the steel industry | :23:22. | :23:25. | |
The government believes it can introduce compensation. | :23:26. | :23:29. | |
The Prime Minister said that at the dispatch box today. | :23:30. | :23:32. | |
If we believe it's within state rules, let's just get on and do it, | :23:33. | :23:36. | |
We will worry about that consequence afterwards. | :23:37. | :23:41. | |
Stephen Crabb replied that ministers were pushing for a quick decision. | :23:42. | :23:46. | |
And finally, Labour MPs have called for a statue | :23:47. | :23:49. | |
of the former party leader and Prime Minister Harold Wilson to be erected | :23:50. | :23:53. | |
Next year marks the centenary of his birth. | :23:54. | :23:59. | |
In a short debate, MPs said too often, his many achievements had | :24:00. | :24:02. | |
Building new towns like Milton Keynes, building more housing | :24:03. | :24:07. | |
than I think anyone has ever built in this country before. | :24:08. | :24:11. | |
That's something that I think we should remember Harold for but if | :24:12. | :24:14. | |
you want to actually look at some of the other things he did that people | :24:15. | :24:19. | |
should remember - the transformation of the way this culture of this | :24:20. | :24:23. | |
country changed in terms of our attitude to homosexuality and | :24:24. | :24:28. | |
changing the laws on homosexuality, changing our attitude to divorce | :24:29. | :24:31. | |
and the rights of women in property out of respect for Mary, his widow. | :24:32. | :24:38. | |
He called for a proper monument in Parliament. | :24:39. | :24:45. | |
I think it's quite wrong that in the members' lobby, | :24:46. | :24:48. | |
there is just a small head and shoulders of Harold Wilson. | :24:49. | :24:50. | |
It is about time we honoured him with a full statue. | :24:51. | :24:53. | |
His government has brought in great social changes, of course, | :24:54. | :24:56. | |
The Open University truly changed society. | :24:57. | :24:58. | |
So shouldn't Harold Wilson be a figure that we really do honour | :24:59. | :25:01. | |
and also, perhaps, his renegotiating approach to the | :25:02. | :25:03. | |
European Union might be familiar to a modern-day Prime Minister, too? | :25:04. | :25:06. | |
Now is the time for major revaluation of not so much Harold's | :25:07. | :25:09. | |
reputation, his own personal achievements are fairly well known, | :25:10. | :25:13. | |
It really was a very fine administration and I think that what | :25:14. | :25:18. | |
my honourable friend is leading up to is the need for a revaluation, | :25:19. | :25:21. | |
The Minister could not promise a statue that paid tribute to | :25:22. | :25:29. | |
Harold Wilson as Labour leader won four of the five general | :25:30. | :25:36. | |
All current parliamentarians will appreciate what a genuine, | :25:37. | :25:39. | |
truly magnificent achievement that was for any party leader. | :25:40. | :25:41. | |
He was a social reformer, which has already been referred to, | :25:42. | :25:44. | |
And he think we will largely be remembered for abolishing capital | :25:45. | :25:49. | |
That's it from Wednesday in Parliament. | :25:50. | :25:53. | |
I'll be here tomorrow so, until then, from me, | :25:54. | :25:57. |