Browse content similar to 20/06/2012. Check below for episodes and series from the same categories and more!
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Good morning and welcome to the programme live from Cardiff Bay. We | 0:00:20 | 0:00:26 | |
will be spending half an hour in Westminster on today's programme. | 0:00:26 | 0:00:29 | |
William Hague stands in for David Cameron for Prime Minister's | 0:00:29 | 0:00:36 | |
Questions today. And forget the football, can Wales | 0:00:36 | 0:00:44 | |
help host the Games in 2020? What is the future for by | 0:00:44 | 0:00:53 | |
healthcare in Wales? I will be speaking to a campaigner. | 0:00:53 | 0:00:55 | |
Joining in the art two Assembly Members, Rhodri Glyn Thomas and | 0:00:56 | 0:01:00 | |
Peter Black. Good morning. We will begin today's programme with the | 0:01:00 | 0:01:06 | |
latest unemployment figures. Unemployment broadly down, | 0:01:06 | 0:01:11 | |
reflecting a pattern across the rest of the UK. It's up 9% in Wales | 0:01:11 | 0:01:21 | |
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at the moment. -- at. Context is everything with these figures. | 0:01:23 | 0:01:27 | |
you look back to last year, the figures are still substantially up | 0:01:27 | 0:01:32 | |
and there is concern that the figures are continuing to go up and | 0:01:32 | 0:01:37 | |
they are at this level which is very worrying. What is really of | 0:01:37 | 0:01:41 | |
concern is it does not seem that the Government of Wales is doing | 0:01:41 | 0:01:44 | |
anything specifically of its own making to try and address this | 0:01:44 | 0:01:49 | |
issue. The figures tend to reflect what is happening in the rest of | 0:01:49 | 0:01:53 | |
the UK. The beauty of being a small country with your own Government | 0:01:53 | 0:01:57 | |
should be that you could put forward packages which address the | 0:01:57 | 0:02:03 | |
issues within that geographical area. Carwyn Jones did mention lots | 0:02:03 | 0:02:06 | |
of projects he says his Government has put forward to increased | 0:02:06 | 0:02:13 | |
economic prosperity in Wales. need a package which makes a | 0:02:13 | 0:02:17 | |
substantial difference. But the last election, we put the | 0:02:17 | 0:02:23 | |
substantial idea forward of a policy... We keep hearing about | 0:02:23 | 0:02:31 | |
this but you did not win! All we are getting is very small schemes | 0:02:32 | 0:02:34 | |
which do not seem to be making a difference to the underlying | 0:02:34 | 0:02:38 | |
factors in terms of the figures. They are still very worrying. | 0:02:38 | 0:02:42 | |
Black, the Government can argue there is not much they can do to | 0:02:43 | 0:02:48 | |
affect these figures. What do you think? I think they can do a lot | 0:02:48 | 0:02:53 | |
more. For example, we have waited almost a year for the business rate | 0:02:53 | 0:02:57 | |
review. The Minister has had the results of that review and she will | 0:02:57 | 0:03:01 | |
reflect on it over the summer. Why aren't we doing more in terms of | 0:03:01 | 0:03:06 | |
business rates to attract firms into the country? We have Trav our | 0:03:06 | 0:03:14 | |
heels on enterprise zones. We haven't said Dock -- set up at we | 0:03:14 | 0:03:16 | |
only have one enterprise on actually receiving the capital | 0:03:16 | 0:03:21 | |
grants. We need tour to better in terms of art. | 0:03:21 | 0:03:25 | |
It is clearly welcome that the unemployment figures are down but | 0:03:25 | 0:03:29 | |
the rate of youth unemployment is very worrying. Are we embracing the | 0:03:29 | 0:03:34 | |
UK Government's youth contract? A billion pounds trying to get | 0:03:34 | 0:03:41 | |
400,000 peak -- young people back into work or training. The Welsh | 0:03:41 | 0:03:43 | |
Government seemed to be shouting the odds from the sidelines when | 0:03:43 | 0:03:47 | |
they should be focusing more on creating a business-friendly | 0:03:47 | 0:03:50 | |
environment and working with the UK Government on the schemes they are | 0:03:50 | 0:03:57 | |
put in place. -- they have put in place. | 0:03:57 | 0:04:04 | |
Regional pay is something we have heard lot of discussion about. The | 0:04:04 | 0:04:08 | |
Government here says it would be a bad thing for Wales. Your party is | 0:04:08 | 0:04:12 | |
part of the Government in the UK level, they seem to suggest it is | 0:04:12 | 0:04:16 | |
something they are going to go after. I do not think so. Nick | 0:04:16 | 0:04:20 | |
Clegg was clear last week when he came to Wales that he is opposed to | 0:04:20 | 0:04:28 | |
regional pay. He might be. He is the deputy prime Minister after all. | 0:04:28 | 0:04:33 | |
Danny Alexander has been backtracking. | 0:04:33 | 0:04:39 | |
I think Nick Clegg is prevailing on this. The Welsh Liberal Democrats | 0:04:39 | 0:04:44 | |
Andy Welsh Conservatives to be fair have been opposed to reach will pay. | 0:04:44 | 0:04:49 | |
Most of the commentators I have read have been saying Kirsty | 0:04:49 | 0:04:54 | |
Williams's opposition to reach will pay is having a bash an impact on | 0:04:54 | 0:05:04 | |
0:05:04 | 0:05:06 | ||
UK policy. -- regional pay. Your party on not supporting | 0:05:06 | 0:05:15 | |
regional pay either. I am not sure if we should have can | 0:05:15 | 0:05:21 | |
he Alexander backtracking on things. But at least he is going in the | 0:05:21 | 0:05:31 | |
0:05:31 | 0:05:32 | ||
right direction. In Wales, we are just talking about | 0:05:32 | 0:05:36 | |
jobs now, we are so dependent on the public sector. If you had | 0:05:36 | 0:05:38 | |
regional pay and people were leaving Wales because the pay was | 0:05:38 | 0:05:45 | |
lower, that would have an immense effect on the economy. It could | 0:05:45 | 0:05:49 | |
leave us with situations where we had public services but we would | 0:05:49 | 0:05:54 | |
not have properly qualified people wanting to going to those jobs. | 0:05:54 | 0:05:58 | |
will leave it there for now. We will be speaking to you lot during | 0:05:58 | 0:06:04 | |
the morning. -- a lot during the morning and what is left of the | 0:06:04 | 0:06:10 | |
morning. Good morning. An interesting | 0:06:10 | 0:06:13 | |
programme ahead in the Senedd this afternoon. We start off with | 0:06:13 | 0:06:18 | |
questions to ministers. Today, that is the Housing Minister and the | 0:06:18 | 0:06:24 | |
Counsel General. Then there is a brief motion to | 0:06:24 | 0:06:27 | |
revise the standing orders, the rules by which the Assembly | 0:06:28 | 0:06:31 | |
operator, in relation to the bringing Ford of private Bills. | 0:06:31 | 0:06:34 | |
Then the first debate of the afternoon, affordable housing. This | 0:06:34 | 0:06:40 | |
is a major problem. There is some research by the Welsh Government, | 0:06:41 | 0:06:48 | |
rather on behalf of the world's Godman, that shows Wales's short of | 0:06:48 | 0:06:53 | |
some 14,000 houses for the next 14 years -- on behalf of the Welsh | 0:06:53 | 0:07:02 | |
There is a committee that has just issued a report into that. It will | 0:07:02 | 0:07:07 | |
form the basis for this debate this afternoon. There is a range of | 0:07:07 | 0:07:11 | |
recommendations. One is to go back and review the housing strategy. | 0:07:11 | 0:07:17 | |
Another is to set a target. An interesting debate in store | 0:07:17 | 0:07:18 | |
potentially. Then we will have the Welsh | 0:07:18 | 0:07:23 | |
Conservative nominated debate this week. It is on transport. The | 0:07:23 | 0:07:26 | |
importance of Transport connectivity to trap -- economic | 0:07:26 | 0:07:31 | |
growth. It will be be ongoing issue of when and how the main line to | 0:07:31 | 0:07:34 | |
Swansea, the Great Western main line, is known to be electrified. | 0:07:34 | 0:07:39 | |
This has become a bit of a political football. The Assembly | 0:07:39 | 0:07:42 | |
Government routinely point to what they see as the slowness of the | 0:07:42 | 0:07:45 | |
Department of Transport at Westminster in coming up with the | 0:07:45 | 0:07:49 | |
money to do this. The Conservatives will take it from another angle | 0:07:49 | 0:07:53 | |
this afternoon and argue that the summit and that is not working well | 0:07:53 | 0:08:03 | |
enough with local authorities. -- the Welsh Government. | 0:08:03 | 0:08:07 | |
And we have the Welsh Liberal Democrats debate on maternity | 0:08:07 | 0:08:16 | |
services. A recent report by the Auditor- | 0:08:16 | 0:08:23 | |
General indicates that in many areas of Wales, the services patchy. | 0:08:23 | 0:08:27 | |
The Liberal Democrats are particularly concerned about it. | 0:08:27 | 0:08:31 | |
They point to the fact there has been a 10 % drop in midwives across | 0:08:31 | 0:08:41 | |
0:08:41 | 0:08:43 | ||
Wales over recent years. Again, a very interesting debate in | 0:08:43 | 0:08:46 | |
prospect. At the end of the afternoon, as always, the short | 0:08:46 | 0:08:54 | |
debate. It is from Lynne Neagle. She will be looking at the impact | 0:08:54 | 0:08:59 | |
of welfare reform on mental health and well-being in Wales. | 0:08:59 | 0:09:07 | |
Thank you. A full run-down of what is going on today. You can find out | 0:09:07 | 0:09:13 | |
more on the Democracy Live online coverage. | 0:09:13 | 0:09:20 | |
What about Westminster? As we have already discussed on the programme | 0:09:20 | 0:09:24 | |
on the latest unemployment figures are out. Do they make welcome | 0:09:24 | 0:09:30 | |
reading? Mixed news really. The unemployment total is certainly | 0:09:30 | 0:09:35 | |
falling. And given the state of the economy and the recession, that is | 0:09:35 | 0:09:42 | |
a bonus but of course, unemployment is lagging -- is a lagging | 0:09:42 | 0:09:50 | |
indicator and could well go up again. Economic inactivity rates, | 0:09:50 | 0:09:56 | |
that is something that has been a recurring problem. That has gone up. | 0:09:56 | 0:10:00 | |
People in the UK Government are certainly happy with the direction | 0:10:00 | 0:10:07 | |
in one sense but nobody is claiming that the problem is anywhere near | 0:10:07 | 0:10:17 | |
0:10:17 | 0:10:17 | ||
solved. We touched on on the sofa. The opposition debate. What | 0:10:18 | 0:10:21 | |
argument will we hear from the Labour benches? We will hear the | 0:10:21 | 0:10:30 | |
divisive. It would see people paid less in certain parts of the | 0:10:30 | 0:10:35 | |
country for doing the same job. Labour are trying to flush out | 0:10:35 | 0:10:39 | |
Cornish intentions on this. The Liberal Democrats are noticeably | 0:10:39 | 0:10:47 | |
less keen on the idea of regional paint -- regional pay. Liberal -- | 0:10:47 | 0:10:50 | |
label will be tried to get some Liberal-Democrats on board and try | 0:10:50 | 0:11:00 | |
0:11:00 | 0:11:03 | ||
and clarify where the Government's The Chancellor has written to the | 0:11:03 | 0:11:06 | |
pay review bodies, yes he is waiting for the report, it is due | 0:11:07 | 0:11:12 | |
next month but it does look as if the Government is not going to push | 0:11:12 | 0:11:18 | |
ahead with this for all sorts of political reasons. A lot of the | 0:11:19 | 0:11:22 | |
Government are away. William Hague is answering questions because the | 0:11:22 | 0:11:25 | |
Prime Minister and his deputy are in Central and South America | 0:11:25 | 0:11:31 | |
respectively. That is right. The Prime Minister is at the G20 in | 0:11:31 | 0:11:37 | |
Mexico. Nick Clegg is in Rio de Janeiro. He -- he is at the | 0:11:37 | 0:11:42 | |
environmental summit. He says he will be leading the way, looking at | 0:11:42 | 0:11:50 | |
ways of measuring prosperity. That means we have William Hague against | 0:11:50 | 0:11:55 | |
Harriet Harman. The roles reversed Perhaps from when Harriet Harman | 0:11:55 | 0:12:04 | |
used to stand in from Tony Blair and Gordon Brown. William Hague in | 0:12:04 | 0:12:09 | |
opposition as Tory leader was always rather good at asking | 0:12:09 | 0:12:13 | |
questions. He was good that the game which is parliamentary Prime | 0:12:13 | 0:12:20 | |
Minister's questions. We will see what he is like a dancing them. -- | 0:12:21 | 0:12:27 | |
at answering them. Fines cable gets a mention every week. -- Vince | 0:12:27 | 0:12:37 | |
0:12:37 | 0:12:38 | ||
His idea will be more popular with the Liberal Democrat members, | 0:12:38 | 0:12:43 | |
definitely. But there is a feeling that the issue of executive pay has | 0:12:43 | 0:12:49 | |
to be tackled. And certainly linked more closely to the performance of | 0:12:49 | 0:12:53 | |
companies. One of the ideas that Vince Cable is going to be | 0:12:53 | 0:12:59 | |
revealing in his statement at half- past 12 is this idea of companies | 0:12:59 | 0:13:04 | |
having to link or at least publish any correlation between the | 0:13:04 | 0:13:09 | |
performance of a company in terms of share price and the profits and | 0:13:09 | 0:13:13 | |
so on and the actual pay that they -- their directors are getting. If | 0:13:13 | 0:13:18 | |
you look at the stock market, over the last decade, share prices have | 0:13:18 | 0:13:28 | |
not gone up but executive pay has. Even the economists in the | 0:13:28 | 0:13:30 | |
Government would argue there is a political problem that needs | 0:13:30 | 0:13:37 | |
tackling of there. Thank you. We will catch up with you in 10 | 0:13:37 | 0:13:41 | |
minutes or so. If you would like to get in touch, | 0:13:41 | 0:13:51 | |
0:13:51 | 0:14:03 | ||
That is enough of that. I want to talk about I care, the | 0:14:03 | 0:14:10 | |
future of it in Wales. I am joined by a be acting director of the RNIB. | 0:14:10 | 0:14:15 | |
There was an important vote yesterday. Would you mind going | 0:14:15 | 0:14:19 | |
through what that achieved? We are absolutely delighted. We have been | 0:14:19 | 0:14:23 | |
campaigning for over 10 years on these issues and yesterday was | 0:14:23 | 0:14:29 | |
fantastic. We have now got real momentum, rots a priority being | 0:14:29 | 0:14:39 | |
0:14:39 | 0:14:39 | ||
placed on it by the Welsh governor. It need -- Welsh Government. We | 0:14:39 | 0:14:45 | |
have got significant issues within the system around primary and | 0:14:45 | 0:14:49 | |
secondary care and what we need to find out his who was getting access | 0:14:49 | 0:14:59 | |
0:14:59 | 0:15:09 | ||
to tests, treatment and cool macro Now we have the momentum, we want | 0:15:09 | 0:15:15 | |
to keep it going and we want to ensure that children, in some areas | 0:15:15 | 0:15:19 | |
of Wales, there is no vision screening going on, and we know | 0:15:19 | 0:15:24 | |
parents don't treat I help in the same priority they give to teeth, | 0:15:24 | 0:15:28 | |
so it is really important children have access to screening in school. | 0:15:28 | 0:15:31 | |
We have got lots of children in classrooms struggling to see the | 0:15:31 | 0:15:36 | |
blackboard, so it is going to have an impact on their education and | 0:15:36 | 0:15:40 | |
attainment, so we are really delighted. We have got significant | 0:15:40 | 0:15:44 | |
capacity issues still within the hospitalised servers, and we do | 0:15:44 | 0:15:49 | |
need to see a huge change in terms of public perception. A lot of | 0:15:49 | 0:15:53 | |
people going for sight tests do actually see that as part of | 0:15:53 | 0:16:00 | |
needing glasses. What we need them to understand is it is part of the | 0:16:00 | 0:16:03 | |
fight on eye checks. Your site can be saved if something is picked up | 0:16:03 | 0:16:07 | |
early enough. Having children go through this as a matter of course, | 0:16:07 | 0:16:11 | |
this could have a knock-on effect for awareness across the community. | 0:16:11 | 0:16:16 | |
We are made aware of things through our children have a. We want to | 0:16:16 | 0:16:21 | |
change family behaviour so if the children have the vision screening, | 0:16:21 | 0:16:25 | |
the information should go back to the parents and if they take some | 0:16:25 | 0:16:29 | |
for a sight test, it might have an impact on other members of the | 0:16:29 | 0:16:33 | |
family. What happened here yesterday it is really good news. | 0:16:33 | 0:16:39 | |
At the end of the day, 50% of sight loss is avoidable, and a lot of | 0:16:39 | 0:16:42 | |
that is in a change of public perception, getting people to look | 0:16:42 | 0:16:49 | |
after their eyes, and our optometry contract is from 1948, and we need | 0:16:49 | 0:16:55 | |
to address those issues. What we had here yesterday was the platform | 0:16:55 | 0:17:03 | |
to really take those issues forward and to start looking at how we can | 0:17:03 | 0:17:08 | |
stop people going blind in Wales. So, the next stage is hospital | 0:17:08 | 0:17:13 | |
capacity. Yes. We have been monitoring this for some time. And | 0:17:14 | 0:17:18 | |
we know there are huge issues around cancer delayed appointments. | 0:17:18 | 0:17:26 | |
For some people, go coma patients, they will lose sight permanently, | 0:17:26 | 0:17:34 | |
so if they see a consultant, 12 months down the line, they will | 0:17:34 | 0:17:39 | |
lose their side. Some permanently. It is critical week address those | 0:17:39 | 0:17:44 | |
issues. Some of those issues have come up about because of pressure | 0:17:45 | 0:17:51 | |
on referral times. The pressure to see new patients and follow-up | 0:17:51 | 0:17:57 | |
appointments, we need to address that balance. We have got work on | 0:17:57 | 0:18:02 | |
eye care pathways, which means that more people that need to see the | 0:18:02 | 0:18:07 | |
consultant will see the consultant, and those people whose risk is not | 0:18:07 | 0:18:12 | |
so high will be monitored by ophthalmic nurses. People are still | 0:18:12 | 0:18:16 | |
going blind because that capacity is not there and we knew it to | 0:18:16 | 0:18:22 | |
address it. A real step forward. You're up convinced the Assembly is | 0:18:22 | 0:18:28 | |
committed? We are convinced and we are the envy of our colleagues in | 0:18:28 | 0:18:35 | |
London so we are delighted. We want to see huge improvements moving | 0:18:35 | 0:18:41 | |
forward. Thank you for joining me. Still to come, we will go live to | 0:18:41 | 0:18:45 | |
the House of Commons for Prime Minister's Questions today with | 0:18:45 | 0:18:50 | |
William Hague standing in for David Cameron. First, the Lords. The | 0:18:50 | 0:18:54 | |
House of Lords spent the day discussing the electoral | 0:18:54 | 0:18:56 | |
arrangements for the National Assembly. The UK Government is | 0:18:56 | 0:19:02 | |
consulting on plans to reduce the number of constituency ams from 30 | 0:19:02 | 0:19:09 | |
to 40 and increasing the number of amRevolution to 30. The debate | 0:19:09 | 0:19:15 | |
continued this morning. One issue that has caused pulses to | 0:19:15 | 0:19:20 | |
raise is the future of the assembly's electoral arrangements - | 0:19:20 | 0:19:23 | |
- arrangements. The Lords debated the matter and joining the are | 0:19:23 | 0:19:27 | |
three of those whose picturing that debate. You are in favour of | 0:19:28 | 0:19:33 | |
cutting the number of Assembly constituencies from 30 to 40. Why? | 0:19:33 | 0:19:36 | |
We have to rearrange the constituencies. Doing nothing is | 0:19:36 | 0:19:44 | |
not an option. Following legislation in Westminster to the | 0:19:44 | 0:19:50 | |
UK as a whole. Moving to a 30-30 system would be fair and I am in | 0:19:50 | 0:19:54 | |
favour of that. It is crying out as common sense to have the same | 0:19:54 | 0:20:00 | |
boundaries for MPs and Assembly Members for their constituencies. | 0:20:00 | 0:20:04 | |
It is complicated for Members of Parliament and four Assembly | 0:20:04 | 0:20:09 | |
Members, for their constituents, for civic society as a whole, if | 0:20:09 | 0:20:12 | |
they are working to different boundaries. Board Wigley, you are | 0:20:12 | 0:20:16 | |
not in favour of the green paper in the sense this is a matter that | 0:20:16 | 0:20:25 | |
should be decided in Wales. Yes. I agree with the First Minister that | 0:20:25 | 0:20:29 | |
this issue should be decided by Wales alone. Having said that, | 0:20:29 | 0:20:33 | |
Plaid Cymru would like to see an STV system as is used in Northern | 0:20:33 | 0:20:38 | |
Ireland. It is a system tried within the United Kingdom and I | 0:20:38 | 0:20:44 | |
would like to see it applied in Wales. Do you think that the | 0:20:44 | 0:20:49 | |
constituencies must change to reflect those for Parliament here? | 0:20:49 | 0:20:52 | |
I do not necessarily think that has to happen, but it does make life | 0:20:52 | 0:20:56 | |
easier. I feel they should not be a lessening in the proportionality. | 0:20:56 | 0:21:01 | |
There was a settlement in 1997 on which the referendum was taken with | 0:21:01 | 0:21:05 | |
an assumption there would be a PR element, and it should be | 0:21:05 | 0:21:10 | |
maintained. The only way to do it would be to move up to 90 Assembly | 0:21:10 | 0:21:15 | |
Members and I do not think that is acceptable at this moment in time. | 0:21:15 | 0:21:23 | |
Therefore, we must find another way forward. He said the way Assembly | 0:21:23 | 0:21:29 | |
Members are elected is balmy. Why? It is. It means the party that gets | 0:21:29 | 0:21:34 | |
most votes gets no seats. West Wales, Labour got 46% of the vote, | 0:21:34 | 0:21:44 | |
0:21:44 | 0:21:44 | ||
in the Topshop, no seats. -- in the top up. This introduces no results. | 0:21:44 | 0:21:50 | |
What change should happen? should be asking questions about | 0:21:50 | 0:21:55 | |
the whole electoral system. This Green Paper is not asking enough | 0:21:55 | 0:22:00 | |
questions. If people do want to understand the system, and I do | 0:22:00 | 0:22:06 | |
take the point there are complications if you do not have | 0:22:06 | 0:22:08 | |
some coal terminal city between Westminster and Assembly seats, but | 0:22:08 | 0:22:17 | |
we need some more. One Lord said that the number of Assembly Members | 0:22:17 | 0:22:23 | |
should be increased. It is hugely unpopular now, but it should be | 0:22:23 | 0:22:33 | |
0:22:33 | 0:22:34 | ||
addressed at some stage. I think that we will have a problem as the | 0:22:34 | 0:22:38 | |
Assembly has more powers accrue ring to it, which is what we want | 0:22:38 | 0:22:43 | |
to happen, and if you have ministers, Shadow ministers, | 0:22:43 | 0:22:47 | |
chairmen's of committees, who is left to do the scrutiny? There is | 0:22:47 | 0:22:52 | |
not a great culture yet of scrutiny in Cardiff, as we know it in | 0:22:52 | 0:22:56 | |
Westminster. It will take time, but to achieve that, we will have to | 0:22:56 | 0:23:03 | |
have more members. Do you agree? Must there be more as a be members? | 0:23:03 | 0:23:09 | |
Inevitably, that is going to happen if we want more scrutiny. We have | 0:23:09 | 0:23:16 | |
to apply ourselves here to scrutiny much more. There are 650 members | 0:23:16 | 0:23:20 | |
here. If we are to have an effective legislature, there have | 0:23:20 | 0:23:27 | |
to be the numbers to do the job and what I would like to see is the | 0:23:27 | 0:23:34 | |
resources, to be given to the Assembly. That would be hugely | 0:23:34 | 0:23:38 | |
unpopular at the moment, though, would the public, to increase the | 0:23:38 | 0:23:44 | |
number of elected politician. think he has acknowledged that | 0:23:44 | 0:23:49 | |
although all of us would agree an increase is highly desirable, it is | 0:23:49 | 0:23:54 | |
not on the cards at the moment. It is important that we carry on | 0:23:54 | 0:23:58 | |
talking about it because, actually, it reform of the House of Lords | 0:23:58 | 0:24:03 | |
goes through, it would cut the number of peers from 900 to 400, | 0:24:03 | 0:24:06 | |
which will reduce the number of people who come from Wales and | 0:24:06 | 0:24:12 | |
speak in Westminster. And combined with a reduced number of MPs, that, | 0:24:12 | 0:24:18 | |
I think, will, in the end, have an impact on Welsh interests, and we | 0:24:18 | 0:24:21 | |
need to consider extending the powers and the numbers in Cardiff | 0:24:21 | 0:24:30 | |
Bay, but it is not popular at the moment. What do you say, finally, | 0:24:30 | 0:24:34 | |
that this should be a matter for the people of Wales, that | 0:24:34 | 0:24:39 | |
Westminster should but out? In an ideal world, it showed. It is | 0:24:39 | 0:24:44 | |
rightly a matter on which the Welsh Assembly expresses an opinion, but | 0:24:44 | 0:24:48 | |
the legislation was written by the last Labour government, could | 0:24:48 | 0:24:55 | |
change the electoral system and the details of it without any | 0:24:55 | 0:25:01 | |
consultation, direct input from the Welsh Assembly. We are still in | 0:25:01 | 0:25:05 | |
that system, but primary legislation would replies here | 0:25:05 | 0:25:10 | |
legally means we have to do it here. -- which applies here. | 0:25:10 | 0:25:15 | |
government thinks the Welsh Assembly is somebody else to be | 0:25:15 | 0:25:21 | |
consulted. But it is the major body to be consulted. Until these | 0:25:21 | 0:25:24 | |
matters are devolved to Wales, these issues should be decided in | 0:25:24 | 0:25:30 | |
Westminster which you cannot treat the Assembly as just another | 0:25:30 | 0:25:36 | |
consultancy. Providing we can get a consensus with -- in the Assembly | 0:25:36 | 0:25:41 | |
that is good for all parties. That was Bethan James talking to | 0:25:42 | 0:25:50 | |
the Lords. We had a mention of 90 Assembly Members, a 50% increase. | 0:25:50 | 0:25:54 | |
Jenny Anderson says that her and her fellow lords need to keep | 0:25:54 | 0:25:59 | |
talking about more Ms because the public will cave in the end, but it | 0:25:59 | 0:26:03 | |
is going to be very unpopular suggesting we have more politicians. | 0:26:03 | 0:26:09 | |
It seems to be working. We had talk about further devolution. Moving | 0:26:09 | 0:26:13 | |
forward, we need to increase the numbers. It is having an effect on | 0:26:13 | 0:26:18 | |
the House of Lords. But we did have the opportunity with the Richard | 0:26:18 | 0:26:22 | |
Commission. We should have bitten the bullet at that time. It is | 0:26:22 | 0:26:26 | |
never going to be popular to talk about more politicians but it is | 0:26:26 | 0:26:30 | |
desperately-needed. 60 members are not enough to ensure proper | 0:26:30 | 0:26:36 | |
scrutiny. The government caved in to public pressure at that time, | 0:26:36 | 0:26:39 | |
and it is going to be very difficult now to increase those | 0:26:39 | 0:26:46 | |
numbers, but we should be talking about 90-100 members. Really? 80 is | 0:26:46 | 0:26:50 | |
what Richard suggested. If we are talking about but the dock where | 0:26:50 | 0:26:57 | |
will you put them? In the car park? We will cope with them in the | 0:26:57 | 0:27:01 | |
building. A minimum of 80 if you are talking about effective | 0:27:01 | 0:27:07 | |
scrutiny of his plays. We are where we are, 60 members, and the | 0:27:07 | 0:27:10 | |
pressure on members in terms of sitting on committees and doing | 0:27:10 | 0:27:15 | |
other duties within the Assembly, because of that number, it is | 0:27:15 | 0:27:21 | |
greater than any other I can think of. When we had the referendum last | 0:27:21 | 0:27:31 | |
year. -- last year, a yes vote would be a slippery slope, more and | 0:27:31 | 0:27:36 | |
more powers coming to the Assembly. One year on, new politicians are | 0:27:36 | 0:27:40 | |
talking about getting more politicians in. Some politicians | 0:27:40 | 0:27:45 | |
are talking about that. It isn't a good idea? It is inexcusable at | 0:27:45 | 0:27:50 | |
this stage. Is it feasible the public will not like it? No. In | 0:27:50 | 0:27:54 | |
this time of economic recession, any argument for more politicians | 0:27:54 | 0:28:01 | |
will hit a rock straighter way. I am yet to be convinced. Let's see | 0:28:01 | 0:28:08 | |
when the legislation starts flowing. We have very little legislation. | 0:28:08 | 0:28:15 | |
Why? I am waiting for an answer. Let's see how we cope with the | 0:28:15 | 0:28:19 | |
legislation. It is difficult to make that case at the moment. I do | 0:28:19 | 0:28:24 | |
not see how we can make that case. We may end up with a tea. The | 0:28:24 | 0:28:34 | |
chamber is designed to take 80. -- with 80. At this stage, we have got | 0:28:34 | 0:28:38 | |
60 and we will have to make do with fat to see how we cope. If we can | 0:28:38 | 0:28:43 | |
provide the evidence to say we cannot, then we can make the case. | 0:28:43 | 0:28:47 | |
If there is evidence, the fact that legislation isn't scrutinised | 0:28:47 | 0:28:51 | |
properly and we end up with poor legislation, that isn't great. Is | 0:28:51 | 0:28:57 | |
it? We scrutinise legislation more effectively than Westminster in the | 0:28:57 | 0:29:02 | |
sense we actually discuss all the clauses. We take evidence on the | 0:29:02 | 0:29:06 | |
legislation before we go into the discussion of the detail. There is | 0:29:06 | 0:29:10 | |
an argument that when this avalanche of legislation comes in, | 0:29:10 | 0:29:15 | |
but will not happen. We will see what happens when it happens and | 0:29:15 | 0:29:19 | |
the government may have to adjust their timetable. If that happens | 0:29:19 | 0:29:21 | |
the government puts forward legislation that will take twice as | 0:29:21 | 0:29:26 | |
long to get through because of that, then we will have a problem and we | 0:29:26 | 0:29:31 | |
will have to ovale waited at that stage. You are convinced that you | 0:29:31 | 0:29:36 | |
will need more. I know politicians don't like making predictions, but | 0:29:36 | 0:29:44 | |
when will we have more than 60? the context of the situation, we | 0:29:44 | 0:29:50 | |
are in a very difficult economic situation and people will not | 0:29:50 | 0:29:56 | |
support any call for more politicians. But you haven't got | 0:29:56 | 0:30:03 | |
the time to scrutinise. At the moment, it is being scrutinised. I | 0:30:03 | 0:30:07 | |
am sceptical as to whether we could cope with a raft of legislation | 0:30:07 | 0:30:12 | |
coming through with the numbers are we have. Thank you. Let's head over | 0:30:12 | 0:30:22 | |
0:30:22 | 0:30:26 | ||
to the Commons now, to Westminster, Just finishing off Scottish Office | 0:30:26 | 0:30:33 | |
questions. You can see William Hague getting ready to answer | 0:30:34 | 0:30:36 | |
questions for the first time. He asked plenty of questions when he | 0:30:36 | 0:30:42 | |
was leader of the Conservatives in the first four years of Tony | 0:30:42 | 0:30:47 | |
Blair's Government. Today, he will be answering them. Harriet Harman | 0:30:47 | 0:30:57 | |
0:30:57 | 0:30:59 | ||
will be asking those questions. Could I commend the honourable | 0:30:59 | 0:31:09 | |
0:31:09 | 0:31:09 | ||
member for the role he has played in promoting the bicentennial a -- | 0:31:09 | 0:31:17 | |
David Livingstone bicentenary? Order. Questions to the Prime | 0:31:17 | 0:31:27 | |
0:31:27 | 0:31:32 | ||
Minister. Mr Speaker, I have been asked to | 0:31:32 | 0:31:36 | |
reply. My right honourable friend, the Prime Minister, is attending | 0:31:36 | 0:31:41 | |
the G20 summit in Mexico. The House will wish to join me in paying | 0:31:41 | 0:31:45 | |
tribute to those servicemen who have lost their lives in | 0:31:45 | 0:31:55 | |
0:31:55 | 0:31:58 | ||
Afghanistan's is the last Prime Minister's Question Time. Our | 0:31:58 | 0:32:01 | |
sincere condolences are with families and their loved ones. Last | 0:32:01 | 0:32:08 | |
week, I visited our armed forces in Helmand Province. I was reminded of | 0:32:08 | 0:32:13 | |
their exceptional work on behalf of this country. That work can be | 0:32:13 | 0:32:23 | |
0:32:23 | 0:32:28 | ||
sacrifices must never be forgotten. Belfast International Air link into | 0:32:28 | 0:32:32 | |
Heathrow is an invaluable asset to the economy of Northern Ireland. | 0:32:32 | 0:32:38 | |
There are deep concerns that this link is at risk because the landing | 0:32:38 | 0:32:42 | |
slots are allocated to carriers rather than to regional airports. | 0:32:42 | 0:32:47 | |
Will the Government urgently publish an aviation strategy that | 0:32:47 | 0:32:54 | |
in Shaw's the airport maintains its link with Pep -- Heathrow? We will | 0:32:54 | 0:32:59 | |
consult in the summer. As for evidence on options, by maintaining | 0:32:59 | 0:33:04 | |
the UK status as an international hub, he is quite right that the | 0:33:04 | 0:33:07 | |
London to Belfast link is it -- important of the economy. They are | 0:33:07 | 0:33:17 | |
0:33:17 | 0:33:22 | ||
more than 18,000 flights per year. - there are. Steps to devolve will | 0:33:22 | 0:33:32 | |
0:33:32 | 0:33:33 | ||
As my right honourable friend will know from my recent letter to the | 0:33:33 | 0:33:37 | |
Prime Minister, the situation at the oil refinery on the Thames is | 0:33:37 | 0:33:45 | |
becoming increasingly difficult. In an attempt to secure well-paid jobs | 0:33:45 | 0:33:50 | |
and secure UK fuel supplies, when he used the offices of the Prime | 0:33:50 | 0:33:54 | |
assessors -- to secure and it is summer, bringing together the heads | 0:33:54 | 0:33:58 | |
of the Treasury to explore every single avenue possible to keep this | 0:33:58 | 0:34:05 | |
refinery open? I know this has been very defiant -- disappointing news. | 0:34:05 | 0:34:10 | |
The workforce on the local community have worked tirelessly to | 0:34:10 | 0:34:13 | |
help the administrators secure the long-term future of the refinery. | 0:34:13 | 0:34:16 | |
We are keeping in close contact with the administrators also they | 0:34:16 | 0:34:22 | |
are looking at further options. We are working with the council as | 0:34:22 | 0:34:27 | |
well. The Minister has met with representatives of the workforce | 0:34:27 | 0:34:37 | |
0:34:37 | 0:34:40 | ||
and the there will committee. -- local community. Can I join in | 0:34:40 | 0:34:50 | |
0:34:50 | 0:34:50 | ||
paying tribute to lance-corporal James Ashworth. These soldiers die | 0:34:50 | 0:34:56 | |
serving our country with the utmost bravery. We joined in sending our | 0:34:56 | 0:35:00 | |
at most condolences to their family and friends. | 0:35:00 | 0:35:04 | |
We know there is a long way to go until the people of Burma get the | 0:35:04 | 0:35:07 | |
democracy to which they are entitled. The fact that progress | 0:35:07 | 0:35:11 | |
has been made is due to the extraordinary commitment and | 0:35:11 | 0:35:17 | |
courage of one woman enduring more than two decades of house arrest. | 0:35:17 | 0:35:20 | |
Will the Foreign Secretary join with me in expressing our at most | 0:35:20 | 0:35:28 | |
admiration? I absolutely well. It is highly appropriate to raise this | 0:35:28 | 0:35:32 | |
in Prime Minister's Question Time. I think I was the first European | 0:35:32 | 0:35:36 | |
foreign Minister to visit her, visit Burma at the beginning of | 0:35:36 | 0:35:41 | |
this year. And I found her not only in repetition but in substance, I'm | 0:35:41 | 0:35:47 | |
absolutely inspirational figure. There is still a long way to go. | 0:35:47 | 0:35:51 | |
Not only in bringing democracy to burner but ending ethnic conflicts. | 0:35:51 | 0:36:01 | |
0:36:01 | 0:36:05 | ||
One of those continues right now. - Across all parties, we are looking | 0:36:05 | 0:36:11 | |
forward to giving her a tremendous welcome tomorrow. I found the | 0:36:11 | 0:36:15 | |
Foreign Secretary for that answer. He is right -- he was right to | 0:36:15 | 0:36:21 | |
visit Burma when he did. When he reassured us that the position of | 0:36:21 | 0:36:27 | |
the British Government will remain that sanctions will be reimposed | 0:36:27 | 0:36:31 | |
unless there is sustained progress towards democracy and the rule of | 0:36:31 | 0:36:37 | |
law? That is very much our position. I have said that with the foreign | 0:36:37 | 0:36:41 | |
Minister of Burma and indeed, we argued within the European Union | 0:36:41 | 0:36:46 | |
that sanctions should not be lifted unconditionally, but should be | 0:36:46 | 0:36:52 | |
suspended. They can be reimposed if necessary. They have been suspended | 0:36:52 | 0:36:57 | |
for 12 months. We will continue to review progress through that period. | 0:36:57 | 0:37:02 | |
I believe, having met the President of Burma on my visit, that he is | 0:37:02 | 0:37:05 | |
absolutely sincere in his intentions but there will be | 0:37:05 | 0:37:09 | |
elements within the Government of Burma who are not so enthusiastic | 0:37:09 | 0:37:15 | |
about these changes and who will be alarmed about the success in recent | 0:37:15 | 0:37:21 | |
by-elections. We will keep up the pressure as well as the welcome for | 0:37:22 | 0:37:28 | |
these changes. I thank the Foreign Minister -- Foreign Secretary for | 0:37:28 | 0:37:34 | |
his answer. Now can I turn to domestic issues are specifically | 0:37:34 | 0:37:38 | |
the National Health Service. This week, a survey showed 90 % of | 0:37:38 | 0:37:42 | |
Primary Care Trusts, because of the financial pressure they are under, | 0:37:42 | 0:37:46 | |
are restricting access to treatment. This is going to particularly hit | 0:37:46 | 0:37:53 | |
older people. How can he justify an elderly person with cataracts in | 0:37:53 | 0:38:00 | |
both eyes being told that they can only have surgery in one of them? | 0:38:01 | 0:38:05 | |
It is totally unacceptable if trusts are rationing on grounds of | 0:38:05 | 0:38:10 | |
financial considerations. The NHS medical director has written to the | 0:38:10 | 0:38:14 | |
trust to tell them the only criteria of decision must be | 0:38:14 | 0:38:17 | |
clinical and not financial. If evidence is found that they are | 0:38:17 | 0:38:22 | |
ignoring that, the Secretary of State can intervene. The Department | 0:38:22 | 0:38:25 | |
of Health will look into any cases where they are using financial | 0:38:25 | 0:38:30 | |
conditions. Allegations have been made before, including under the | 0:38:30 | 0:38:33 | |
last Government. The Department of Health are very clear about that on | 0:38:33 | 0:38:40 | |
that to be welcomed across the House. | 0:38:40 | 0:38:44 | |
There is evidence and he is not acting. It is not just cataract | 0:38:44 | 0:38:50 | |
operations. There are 125 different treatments being rationed on the | 0:38:50 | 0:38:55 | |
grounds of cost. Including hip and knee replacements. What does he say | 0:38:55 | 0:39:03 | |
to one elderly patient who needs a hip-replacement? Wait in pain or | 0:39:03 | 0:39:13 | |
0:39:13 | 0:39:13 | ||
pay and go private? I say first of all what I said earlier and | 0:39:13 | 0:39:18 | |
secondly, restricting access to operations was allowed under the | 0:39:19 | 0:39:27 | |
last Government. In 2007, patients in Suffolk have to wait 14 weeks | 0:39:27 | 0:39:37 | |
0:39:37 | 0:39:43 | ||
for routine surgery. -- had. And to any of those individuals, their GP, | 0:39:43 | 0:39:48 | |
their doctor, should be gone to work tomorrow, not on strike. -- | 0:39:48 | 0:39:52 | |
going. And we on this side of the House encourage them to go to work | 0:39:52 | 0:39:56 | |
and I hope she and all of that side of the House was a clearly today | 0:39:56 | 0:40:06 | |
that those doctors should be at We do not want patients to suffer. | 0:40:06 | 0:40:11 | |
We do not want the GPs to be going on strike. But we are proud of what | 0:40:11 | 0:40:18 | |
we did in the NHS. More doctors, more nurses, cutting the waiting | 0:40:18 | 0:40:24 | |
lists, and it is always the same. Labour builds up the NHS and the | 0:40:24 | 0:40:31 | |
Tories target down. Today, he is saying he is 100 % behind the | 0:40:31 | 0:40:34 | |
Government's health plans. It is a different story in his own | 0:40:34 | 0:40:41 | |
constituency. Last month, the Foreign Secretary took to the | 0:40:41 | 0:40:47 | |
streets, marching in protest against the NHS cuts. Let's remind | 0:40:47 | 0:40:53 | |
ourselves of what the Prime Minister said about midwives. Just | 0:40:53 | 0:40:56 | |
before the general election, the Prime Minister wrote for the Sun | 0:40:56 | 0:41:00 | |
newspaper because professionally, of course, they were all in it | 0:41:00 | 0:41:05 | |
together, he said in the Sun newspaper, we will increase the | 0:41:05 | 0:41:11 | |
number of midwives by 3,000. Can he confirm they have broken their | 0:41:11 | 0:41:18 | |
promise on midwives? That was a long question but I congratulate | 0:41:18 | 0:41:21 | |
her on not having the Shadow Chancellor here every day. It helps | 0:41:21 | 0:41:26 | |
everyone to be able to share everything. That is a reference to | 0:41:26 | 0:41:33 | |
Ed Balls. The Chancellor -- the Shadow | 0:41:33 | 0:41:37 | |
Chancellor is presumably doing another opinion poll on what people | 0:41:37 | 0:41:42 | |
think of him. On the questions that she asked, we | 0:41:42 | 0:41:49 | |
could have told him that for nothing! But on the questions that | 0:41:49 | 0:41:56 | |
she asked, I am glad she said GPs should be at work tomorrow because | 0:41:56 | 0:42:01 | |
she should tell that to her own spokesman, the lady -- on a lady | 0:42:01 | 0:42:11 | |
0:42:11 | 0:42:16 | ||
for Hackney. -- Honourable. There is a clear division across the | 0:42:16 | 0:42:21 | |
floor of the House. What is happening in my constituency is | 0:42:21 | 0:42:31 | |
0:42:31 | 0:42:32 | ||
nothing to do with hunt are funding or health reforms. -- NHS funding. | 0:42:32 | 0:42:38 | |
We are proud of what is happening in the bass of service and we look | 0:42:38 | 0:42:46 | |
at average best in the NHS, when we look at average waiting times. The | 0:42:46 | 0:42:51 | |
best performance ever has now been obtained for patients waiting after | 0:42:51 | 0:42:55 | |
18 weeks to be treated. The total number of cloak -- clinical staff | 0:42:55 | 0:43:00 | |
is higher than at the election. There are 3,900 more doctors is the | 0:43:00 | 0:43:05 | |
election and hospital infection levels are not their lowest levels | 0:43:05 | 0:43:11 | |
since surveillance of them began. - - are at. | 0:43:11 | 0:43:15 | |
And he never answered the question about midwives because before the | 0:43:15 | 0:43:20 | |
election, the Leader of the Opposition was all, yes we can, as | 0:43:20 | 0:43:30 | |
0:43:30 | 0:43:34 | ||
well as he became Prime Lister, it The Prime Minister once told us he | 0:43:34 | 0:43:44 | |
0:43:44 | 0:43:53 | ||
could sum up his priority in three It took a long time to think of | 0:43:53 | 0:43:58 | |
that one. I have set out the achievements of | 0:43:58 | 0:44:02 | |
the Government on the National Health Service, even the King's | 0:44:02 | 0:44:07 | |
Fund in its latest report which has sometimes been courted by the | 0:44:07 | 0:44:13 | |
opposition, so there is no evidence of a decline in service quality or | 0:44:13 | 0:44:20 | |
performers -- quoted. Infection rates have not noticeably gone up, | 0:44:20 | 0:44:26 | |
they have remained stable. These are important achievements in the | 0:44:26 | 0:44:33 | |
NHS. The health spokesperson of the opposition said in 20th June 10, it | 0:44:33 | 0:44:43 | |
0:44:43 | 0:44:47 | ||
is irresponsible to increase NHS spending in real terms. -- 2010. | 0:44:47 | 0:44:50 | |
During their last year in power, the number of NHS managers rose six | 0:44:50 | 0:45:00 | |
0:45:00 | 0:45:04 | ||
times as fast as nurses. In Wales, Mr Mr Speaker, given the appalling | 0:45:04 | 0:45:08 | |
behaviour of Liberal Democrat cabinet members in not supporting | 0:45:08 | 0:45:12 | |
the Secretary of State for Culture and Media and Sport, would my | 0:45:12 | 0:45:18 | |
preferred Deputy Prime Minister arrange a divorce from the Yellow | 0:45:18 | 0:45:23 | |
peril so that we can govern with Conservative policies as a minority | 0:45:23 | 0:45:33 | |
0:45:33 | 0:45:35 | ||
government? I think... Order. I am sure members having heard the | 0:45:35 | 0:45:40 | |
questions would wish to hear the answer. I am sure they will, Mr | 0:45:40 | 0:45:48 | |
Speaker. I think, actually, my honourable friend brings up of the | 0:45:48 | 0:45:52 | |
problem of divorce which will be deeply troubling to Mrs Bone and we | 0:45:52 | 0:45:56 | |
will have to reassure her he is talking about a political one. As | 0:45:56 | 0:46:03 | |
somebody who helped to negotiate three coalition, I will not be | 0:46:03 | 0:46:08 | |
advocating a divorce in the government. Can the Foreign | 0:46:08 | 0:46:14 | |
Secretary confirm that apart from Italy, the UK is the only country | 0:46:14 | 0:46:18 | |
in the G20 in a double dip recession? Well, actually, the | 0:46:18 | 0:46:23 | |
actual fact of the matter is the IMF now forecast that in the coming | 0:46:23 | 0:46:28 | |
year the British economy... Well, they may not want to know what is | 0:46:28 | 0:46:32 | |
going to happen, the Shadow Chancellor again is not here with | 0:46:32 | 0:46:36 | |
his hand gestures, but he has always said we should take note of | 0:46:36 | 0:46:42 | |
the IMF, and they say that in the coming year, the British economy is | 0:46:42 | 0:46:47 | |
going to grow faster than the German or French economy. That next | 0:46:47 | 0:46:52 | |
it grossed will be similar to that of the United States and twice that | 0:46:52 | 0:46:57 | |
of the eurozone. And that would not be happening had we not brought the | 0:46:57 | 0:47:04 | |
excessive debt under the last government under control. In light | 0:47:04 | 0:47:08 | |
of the historic signing in China for record investments to rural | 0:47:08 | 0:47:12 | |
waters, also the granting of the turnaround cruise terminal in | 0:47:12 | 0:47:16 | |
Liverpool and the support of the automotive industries for 1,000 | 0:47:16 | 0:47:20 | |
more jobs in Jaguar and saving of Fox Hall, would you say this | 0:47:20 | 0:47:24 | |
government had done more in two years to expand private enterprise | 0:47:24 | 0:47:32 | |
on Merseyside than Labour did in its entire tenure? Well, yes, I | 0:47:32 | 0:47:40 | |
would. I would say exactly that. And I would point out that that | 0:47:40 | 0:47:50 | |
0:47:50 | 0:47:51 | ||
success which she described his British exports to China going up | 0:47:51 | 0:47:57 | |
61%, British exports to India going up 73%, and that is also because | 0:47:57 | 0:48:00 | |
the British Government is out there championing British business, which | 0:48:01 | 0:48:07 | |
the other side neglect it to do! Can the Secretary of State inform | 0:48:07 | 0:48:16 | |
the housewife he wants to see nurses in Yorkshire to be paid | 0:48:16 | 0:48:22 | |
substantially less than nurses doing exactly the same job in | 0:48:22 | 0:48:28 | |
Richmond, Surrey? This is an issue the pay review bodies are examining, | 0:48:28 | 0:48:33 | |
as the Honourable Member will know. They will report next month. The | 0:48:33 | 0:48:38 | |
case for local pay, and they will back their recommendations, it was | 0:48:38 | 0:48:43 | |
once made by a Chancellor of the Exchequer. He said, it makes sense | 0:48:43 | 0:48:48 | |
to recognise a more considered approach to local and regional | 0:48:48 | 0:48:53 | |
approach is to pay makes it better for employment in our country. That | 0:48:53 | 0:48:58 | |
Chancellor of the Exchequer was the right honourable member for | 0:48:58 | 0:49:04 | |
Kirkcaldy, Gordon Brown. I am sure Conservative backbenchers wish to | 0:49:04 | 0:49:12 | |
hear from one of the coalition colleagues. Thank you. The | 0:49:13 | 0:49:16 | |
Department of Health accepts that radiotherapy is the cheapest and | 0:49:16 | 0:49:20 | |
most effective way of treating cancer, despite this the department | 0:49:20 | 0:49:24 | |
will spend over �1.5 billion on cancer drugs this year but less | 0:49:24 | 0:49:28 | |
than a third of that on radiotherapy. In the South West, | 0:49:29 | 0:49:33 | |
several hospitals rely on charity to fund basic radiotherapy services. | 0:49:33 | 0:49:40 | |
Cancer drugs fund is underspent... Border. Order! A one-sentence | 0:49:40 | 0:49:45 | |
question and a short sentence. could the Right Honourable | 0:49:45 | 0:49:48 | |
Gentleman speak to the Prime Minister about authorising the | 0:49:48 | 0:49:51 | |
investment of that unused money into radiotherapy so hospitals in | 0:49:51 | 0:49:58 | |
my region... My Honourable Friend is right to point to the importance | 0:49:58 | 0:50:02 | |
of radiotherapy. It is also important to stress that decisions | 0:50:02 | 0:50:06 | |
on treatments should be made by clinicians based on whatever is | 0:50:06 | 0:50:12 | |
most appropriate for their patients, but we are investing over �150 | 0:50:12 | 0:50:16 | |
million more over the next four years to expand radiotherapy | 0:50:16 | 0:50:20 | |
capacity. And I know my Honourable Friend will welcome that, as well | 0:50:20 | 0:50:25 | |
as the fact that at the same time over 12 a half 1,000 extra patients | 0:50:25 | 0:50:31 | |
have benefited from the �650 million drugs fund introduced by | 0:50:31 | 0:50:36 | |
this government. -- over 12,500 more patients. The regional growth | 0:50:36 | 0:50:42 | |
fund is the Government's flagship scheme for boosting growth in jobs | 0:50:42 | 0:50:46 | |
in regions. The recent National Audit report criticised it for | 0:50:46 | 0:50:52 | |
spending too much money on projects creating too few jobs, in some | 0:50:52 | 0:50:57 | |
cases �250,000 per job. What is the government doing about it? | 0:50:57 | 0:51:02 | |
Honourable Member's own region will benefit from this fund, including | 0:51:02 | 0:51:05 | |
�235 million from the regional growth fund. It is important that | 0:51:05 | 0:51:09 | |
money is spent effectively and by ministerial colleagues will do | 0:51:09 | 0:51:13 | |
their utmost to ensure that is happening, but it is also important | 0:51:13 | 0:51:17 | |
to remember his region benefits from so many other things the | 0:51:17 | 0:51:20 | |
government is doing, including infrastructure projects to support | 0:51:20 | 0:51:25 | |
growth in the West Midlands, an enterprise zone in Birmingham city | 0:51:25 | 0:51:27 | |
centre, an enterprise zone for the Black Country, and these measures | 0:51:27 | 0:51:32 | |
are much more likely to get regional growth going than the | 0:51:32 | 0:51:38 | |
excessive tax and spending of the party opposite. My constituent has | 0:51:38 | 0:51:43 | |
now lost 300 cattle to bovine TB, a scourge exacerbated by the fact the | 0:51:43 | 0:51:47 | |
last government did precisely nothing about this issue and whilst | 0:51:47 | 0:51:51 | |
I recognise the sterling work this government has done, would my Right | 0:51:51 | 0:51:54 | |
Honourable Friend will reassure my livestock farmers but when it comes | 0:51:54 | 0:52:00 | |
to disease Control regulations, there will be proportionality and | 0:52:00 | 0:52:04 | |
nothing that will detract from their lively for it? My Honourable | 0:52:04 | 0:52:07 | |
Friend raises an important issue. Bovine TB is one of the most | 0:52:08 | 0:52:11 | |
serious challenges facing the British cattle farming industry and | 0:52:11 | 0:52:15 | |
last year around 26,000 cattle were compulsorily slaughtered in England | 0:52:15 | 0:52:21 | |
alone. Death row will be making an announcement tomorrow about how | 0:52:21 | 0:52:26 | |
they intend to proceed. -- DEFRA. Cattle measures continue to be the | 0:52:26 | 0:52:34 | |
foundation of our TB control, and I invite him to stand by for a | 0:52:34 | 0:52:39 | |
further announcement tomorrow. Foreign Secretary will be aware | 0:52:39 | 0:52:46 | |
that today it is the Dalai Lama will be visiting Parliament this | 0:52:47 | 0:52:50 | |
afternoon. On such an auspicious day, will he used that opportunity | 0:52:50 | 0:52:55 | |
to restate his Government's commitment to the human rights of | 0:52:55 | 0:53:02 | |
Tibetans within China? We believe in this country and in his house | 0:53:02 | 0:53:06 | |
and in the universality of human rights and that is a point I often | 0:53:06 | 0:53:11 | |
make to Chinese leaders, including in the strategic dialogue that I | 0:53:11 | 0:53:16 | |
conduct with China on an annual basis. We also have a formal human | 0:53:16 | 0:53:19 | |
rights dialogue, which we do not shy away from raising any of these | 0:53:19 | 0:53:24 | |
cases. Of course, we do see, as did the last government, we see Tibet | 0:53:24 | 0:53:29 | |
as part of the People's Republic of China, but we also look for | 0:53:29 | 0:53:32 | |
meaningful dialogue between representatives of the Dalai Lama | 0:53:32 | 0:53:38 | |
and the Chinese authorities and we will continue to support that. | 0:53:38 | 0:53:41 | |
government has made clear its commitment to root out tax | 0:53:41 | 0:53:46 | |
avoidance by public officials and civil servants and can the Foreign | 0:53:46 | 0:53:53 | |
Secretary make it clear... That the government might well be equally | 0:53:53 | 0:53:58 | |
robust in rooting out tax avoidance by the corporate sector, who do | 0:53:58 | 0:54:03 | |
jobs for government or are employed by the government? Absolutely and I | 0:54:03 | 0:54:09 | |
will not mention to the Deputy Prime Minister his slip. It is | 0:54:09 | 0:54:19 | |
0:54:19 | 0:54:20 | ||
entirely between ourselves. Yes, the Chancellor set out very clearly | 0:54:20 | 0:54:23 | |
in the Budget his absolute determination to deal with tax | 0:54:23 | 0:54:28 | |
avoidance and to do so without warning in future. And I know that | 0:54:28 | 0:54:32 | |
the Chancellor if he were here, he would say that would apply to the | 0:54:32 | 0:54:41 | |
corporate sector as well. Closed questions. No. 8. The government | 0:54:41 | 0:54:45 | |
believes it is not reasonable for further tussles should receive a | 0:54:45 | 0:54:48 | |
greater income from benefits than the average weekly wage for working | 0:54:48 | 0:54:52 | |
households. In some cases, it can be more than double the average | 0:54:52 | 0:54:56 | |
household income. Our changes will mean no family on benefits will | 0:54:56 | 0:55:03 | |
earn more than a working family's average salary, �26,000 a year. | 0:55:03 | 0:55:06 | |
This strikes a balance between supporting families and providing | 0:55:06 | 0:55:16 | |
0:55:16 | 0:55:17 | ||
incentives to work. When I was in London, Jobcentre Plus have written | 0:55:17 | 0:55:22 | |
to 900 families in my constituency who have between them 2000-4,000 | 0:55:22 | 0:55:28 | |
children that their benefits will be cut by �200 a month. This will | 0:55:28 | 0:55:33 | |
cause them to rack up rent arrears or have to move. The mayor, Boris | 0:55:33 | 0:55:39 | |
Johnson... Says he will not preside over the removal of the poor from | 0:55:39 | 0:55:45 | |
inner London but why doesn't the Government get it? The Honourable | 0:55:45 | 0:55:49 | |
Member has long-running concerns about this, and has frequently | 0:55:49 | 0:55:53 | |
expressed them. I think it is important to stress that for all | 0:55:53 | 0:55:57 | |
but the most expensive parts of London, at least 30% of all private | 0:55:57 | 0:56:01 | |
rental properties will be affordable and under the system | 0:56:01 | 0:56:07 | |
that we inherited, 150 families were receiving housing benefit of | 0:56:07 | 0:56:11 | |
over �50,000 a year. And that is not acceptable to the taxpayers of | 0:56:11 | 0:56:16 | |
this country in general. Our reforms are fair. Housing benefit | 0:56:16 | 0:56:23 | |
will still be paid to meet rents of �21,000 a year. There is also �190 | 0:56:23 | 0:56:26 | |
million fund for discretionary payments to couple local | 0:56:26 | 0:56:29 | |
authorities with changes and including assistance to renegotiate | 0:56:29 | 0:56:34 | |
a low rents with landlords, but the principle is that it is not fair | 0:56:34 | 0:56:37 | |
that people on housing benefit can afford to live in streets and homes | 0:56:37 | 0:56:45 | |
that people out working hard are not able to we live in themselves. | 0:56:46 | 0:56:50 | |
Wales is the only nation in the UK without a single yard of | 0:56:50 | 0:56:54 | |
electrified rail track thanks in part to the party opposite. As a | 0:56:54 | 0:56:57 | |
former Secretary of State for Wales, could he persuade the government | 0:56:58 | 0:57:02 | |
that extending third track as far as Swansea would be great for jobs, | 0:57:02 | 0:57:05 | |
grade for wealth and cheaper than the refurbishment at Tottenham | 0:57:05 | 0:57:12 | |
Court Road station? We are committed to elect a find more than | 0:57:12 | 0:57:16 | |
300 miles of railway routes which compares, actually, with just nine | 0:57:16 | 0:57:20 | |
miles are electrified under the last government. That is an | 0:57:20 | 0:57:24 | |
interesting contrast in infrastructure investment. The | 0:57:24 | 0:57:28 | |
Department for Transport is conjure considering a business case for | 0:57:28 | 0:57:32 | |
electrification between Cardiff and Swansea. Prepared in Wales. I | 0:57:32 | 0:57:37 | |
understand the decision will be made by the summer and it will | 0:57:37 | 0:57:41 | |
depend on whether it is affordable and on the assessment of competing | 0:57:41 | 0:57:47 | |
priorities as well. Unemployment has reduced in Scotland for the | 0:57:47 | 0:57:51 | |
third month and for the second year in a row, Scotland is the best | 0:57:52 | 0:57:55 | |
performing a location for international investment and will | 0:57:55 | 0:57:58 | |
the Foreign Secretary take the opportunity to congratulate the | 0:57:58 | 0:58:03 | |
Scottish Government, and the lead agency securing foreign direct | 0:58:03 | 0:58:09 | |
investments? The Honourable Member is quite right to draw attention to | 0:58:09 | 0:58:13 | |
the employment figures, which we must never be complacent about, and | 0:58:13 | 0:58:21 | |
there is always so much work to do. They show a quarterly fall in | 0:58:21 | 0:58:25 | |
unemployment of 51,000. They do show the rate of unemployment | 0:58:25 | 0:58:31 | |
coming down. Youth unemployment is also coming down by 29,000. Long- | 0:58:31 | 0:58:36 | |
term unemployment is still rising, which remains a challenge. Of | 0:58:36 | 0:58:43 | |
course, Scotland, as part of the UK, is an attractive place to invest in. | 0:58:43 | 0:58:47 | |
And I congratulate many Scottish people and businesses on their work. | 0:58:47 | 0:58:51 | |
They have much harder work to do if Scotland were not part of the | 0:58:51 | 0:58:56 | |
United Kingdom. While welcoming overseas students to come to this | 0:58:56 | 0:59:00 | |
country to get a world-class education, then return home to | 0:59:00 | 0:59:04 | |
benefit their countries, will my right honourable friend to look at | 0:59:04 | 0:59:07 | |
vice-chancellors who believe they cannot compete unless students are | 0:59:07 | 0:59:12 | |
given an additional incentive to stay on in this country legally or | 0:59:12 | 0:59:17 | |
illegally, especially as 120,000 students last year sought and were | 0:59:17 | 0:59:24 | |
granted the right to extend their stay here? Yes, Mr Speaker. The | 0:59:24 | 0:59:27 | |
government has introduced radical reforms to stamp out abuse and | 0:59:27 | 0:59:33 | |
restore order to what was then out of control student visa system. It | 0:59:33 | 0:59:37 | |
made the immigration system easier for students, universities and the | 0:59:37 | 0:59:41 | |
UK Border Agency to operate, so we are closing bogeys colleges and | 0:59:41 | 0:59:45 | |
regulating the remainder. We are restricting the right to work here | 0:59:45 | 0:59:48 | |
and bring dependence and we are making sure that all but the very | 0:59:49 | 0:59:52 | |
best go home at the end of their studies, and on that basis, of | 0:59:52 | 0:59:56 | |
course, talented students from around the world are welcome here | 0:59:56 | 1:00:06 | |
1:00:06 | 1:00:09 | ||
As MP for Rotherham, can I welcome the fact the right honourable | 1:00:09 | 1:00:17 | |
Gentleman has realised the ambition thwarted in 2001 briefly, but will | 1:00:17 | 1:00:27 | |
1:00:27 | 1:00:36 | ||
he take this opportunity to invite a third Asian Nobel Prize winner, | 1:00:36 | 1:00:46 | |
1:00:46 | 1:00:47 | ||
mention his name, inviting here to London next year -- invite him. | 1:00:47 | 1:00:51 | |
It is nice to issue a nice words about Rotherham during Prime | 1:00:51 | 1:00:56 | |
Minister's Question Time. We do raise individual cases, of course, | 1:00:56 | 1:01:01 | |
that I will assess which wants to raise and when to do so, of course, | 1:01:01 | 1:01:04 | |
but the human rights dialogue we have with China is very important | 1:01:04 | 1:01:09 | |
and it is important in China there is an understanding of our deep | 1:01:09 | 1:01:19 | |
1:01:19 | 1:01:26 | ||
concerns about many of these cases. The Government is reducing funding | 1:01:26 | 1:01:32 | |
to the police by 20 % in real terms over four years. Can my right | 1:01:32 | 1:01:36 | |
honourable friend assure me that also in the cause of deficit | 1:01:36 | 1:01:42 | |
reduction, he will be insisting on a reduction to our contribution to | 1:01:42 | 1:01:47 | |
the European Union budget? highly desirable as that would be, | 1:01:47 | 1:01:51 | |
my honourable friend is aware that contribution is not decided by a | 1:01:51 | 1:01:55 | |
single decision of Government. It is the balance between two large | 1:01:55 | 1:02:00 | |
figures determined in other ways. He can rest assured, however, that | 1:02:00 | 1:02:05 | |
we will be far better at negotiation it than the honourable | 1:02:05 | 1:02:09 | |
member opposite, the Shadow Foreign Secretary, and when he was Minister | 1:02:09 | 1:02:14 | |
for Europe, the party opposite gave away �7 billion of the British | 1:02:14 | 1:02:21 | |
rebate. And it was nothing in return. It was an abject failure of | 1:02:21 | 1:02:27 | |
negotiation and leadership that we will not repeat. Does the Foreign | 1:02:27 | 1:02:32 | |
Secretary agree with the words of the honourable member for Wrexham? | 1:02:32 | 1:02:42 | |
I see no argument for real pay. They are on a variety of few was on | 1:02:42 | 1:02:52 | |
1:02:52 | 1:02:54 | ||
regional pay. -- views. It is worth pointing out that the last | 1:02:54 | 1:02:57 | |
Government introduced local pay into Her Majesty's courts and | 1:02:57 | 1:03:07 | |
tribunals Ursel stop -- Tribunal Service. What a wonderful | 1:03:07 | 1:03:15 | |
announcement it was for the role Investment of Rolls-Royce in Derby. | 1:03:15 | 1:03:19 | |
Unemployment in South Derbyshire has gone down in recent months. | 1:03:19 | 1:03:23 | |
This indeed is good news. It is good news for investment in this | 1:03:23 | 1:03:29 | |
country, good news for Derby and the surrounding area and it is good | 1:03:29 | 1:03:33 | |
news for the long-term security of this country that we are prepared | 1:03:33 | 1:03:36 | |
to invest confident the in submarine technologies for the long | 1:03:36 | 1:03:46 | |
1:03:46 | 1:03:47 | ||
term. Come the Foreign Secretary tell the House how it differs from | 1:03:47 | 1:03:53 | |
the proposals in 2009? Both parties oppose that. It differs | 1:03:53 | 1:03:58 | |
substantially, enormously from that. The proposal of the last Government | 1:03:58 | 1:04:05 | |
was to hold all data in a central database. | 1:04:05 | 1:04:10 | |
Although he uses the catchphrase of the snoopers charter, this is | 1:04:10 | 1:04:17 | |
designed to be a criminal's nightmare. Unless we update it our | 1:04:17 | 1:04:22 | |
-- Update our ability to detect criminality in this country, that | 1:04:22 | 1:04:26 | |
will have a very serious effect. Why encourage him to look at this | 1:04:26 | 1:04:34 | |
in detail. -- I encourage him. The highlight of the Olympic torch | 1:04:34 | 1:04:42 | |
relay will take place on 6th July, when it arrives in Southend, to be | 1:04:42 | 1:04:47 | |
met... Would my right honourable friend agree with me the Olympic | 1:04:47 | 1:04:52 | |
Games is an opportunity for our country to come together and | 1:04:52 | 1:04:56 | |
celebrate this Government put in the Great back into Britain? | 1:04:56 | 1:05:01 | |
arrival of the torch in Southend is one of the highlights. The other | 1:05:01 | 1:05:05 | |
highlight being the fact that today, it is passing through Richmond in | 1:05:05 | 1:05:11 | |
Yorkshire. I would have dearly love to have been there to see it but | 1:05:11 | 1:05:17 | |
that is one of the highlights. He is quite right, this is an opera -- | 1:05:17 | 1:05:23 | |
enormous ability for his country. - - to this country. We are looking | 1:05:23 | 1:05:29 | |
to attract an additional 4 million extra visitors, including to sell | 1:05:29 | 1:05:35 | |
them, to inspire more young people to take up sport -- Southend. It is | 1:05:35 | 1:05:45 | |
1:05:45 | 1:05:45 | ||
a great moment for Britain. We know the Prime Minister... We | 1:05:45 | 1:05:49 | |
all know the Prime Minister likes to relax down the pub but when it | 1:05:49 | 1:05:53 | |
comes to Anglo-French relations, shouldn't he adopt a more sober | 1:05:53 | 1:05:59 | |
approach? I must say, the Prime Minister | 1:05:59 | 1:06:02 | |
always has excellent relations with any prime Minister of France, | 1:06:02 | 1:06:07 | |
including the New prioress of France, and we should welcome and | 1:06:07 | 1:06:10 | |
applaud be fact that the city we are sitting in today is the | 1:06:10 | 1:06:14 | |
seventh-largest city for French people in the world -- a prime | 1:06:14 | 1:06:24 | |
I understand why the right honourable Gentleman would have | 1:06:24 | 1:06:34 | |
1:06:34 | 1:06:39 | ||
liked to have been in Richmond... Thank you, David. William Hague, | 1:06:39 | 1:06:46 | |
there was a hint of Foreign Secretary customers! Harriet Harman | 1:06:46 | 1:06:53 | |
started with a Foreign Secretary question. It gave a wider scope to | 1:06:53 | 1:07:00 | |
the whole affair. I thought William Hague did well. He was masterful, | 1:07:00 | 1:07:05 | |
to be on us. He has always been a good performer in the House. -- To | 1:07:05 | 1:07:15 | |
1:07:15 | 1:07:16 | ||
He came back strongly on every point. The thing which computers | 1:07:16 | 1:07:20 | |
confuses me, because can -- Conservatives and Labour are proud | 1:07:20 | 1:07:25 | |
of their achievements in the NHS, why is it such a mess? The it's | 1:07:25 | 1:07:30 | |
investigate further. The NHS did come up. -- let's investigate | 1:07:30 | 1:07:40 | |
1:07:40 | 1:07:40 | ||
further. It is the message that keeps recurring from the UK | 1:07:40 | 1:07:45 | |
Government. It is. I think it is something that has obviously come | 1:07:45 | 1:07:51 | |
from the Conservative Party. They gave a commitment to ring-fence the | 1:07:51 | 1:07:54 | |
National Health Service budget at the last election. That meant cuts | 1:07:55 | 1:08:00 | |
of up to 20 % in other budgets, including education and social | 1:08:00 | 1:08:05 | |
services. None of the other parties were prepared to support that. | 1:08:05 | 1:08:09 | |
Obviously, it would create a situation where other budgets were | 1:08:09 | 1:08:12 | |
suffering and people would suffer as a result of that. It has given | 1:08:12 | 1:08:18 | |
ammunition to the Conservatives. They are saying the Government is | 1:08:18 | 1:08:23 | |
cutting health spending. With health spending in Wales, the | 1:08:24 | 1:08:33 | |
Assembly budget is about 15.4 �5 billion. Bullfight by seven plants | 1:08:33 | 1:08:40 | |
-- �5 and billion -- about 7.5 billion tackles on health. There | 1:08:41 | 1:08:50 | |
1:08:51 | 1:08:52 | ||
Measures. But no wonder coalition tensions. - | 1:08:52 | 1:09:02 | |
1:09:02 | 1:09:05 | ||
He is very much a lone voice in the Commons. I know there is | 1:09:05 | 1:09:10 | |
dissatisfaction. Frankly, the Conservatives did not win a | 1:09:10 | 1:09:14 | |
majority. The country was facing a minority Government. An unstable | 1:09:14 | 1:09:19 | |
Government. The double democrats wanted coalition with the object of | 1:09:19 | 1:09:25 | |
having a stable Government. -- the double pink -- he'd Liberal- | 1:09:25 | 1:09:35 | |
1:09:35 | 1:09:41 | ||
Regional pay was raised. We were talking about art earlier. -- about | 1:09:41 | 1:09:51 | |
1:09:51 | 1:09:55 | ||
Of course, Labour introduced regional pay. That was in the Court | 1:09:55 | 1:10:00 | |
Service. Labour's record on this is pretty poor. The parties are united | 1:10:00 | 1:10:06 | |
in saying it would be bad for the Welsh economy. It is not something | 1:10:06 | 1:10:13 | |
they want to see extended. An MP was reading a question and got told | 1:10:13 | 1:10:20 | |
off by the Speaker. We see a lot of Assembly Members reading questions. | 1:10:21 | 1:10:24 | |
You do not see any reading questions. Yes, I do not think | 1:10:24 | 1:10:29 | |
there is a method. People should do whatever they are comfortable with. | 1:10:29 | 1:10:34 | |
I prefer not to use paper but other people do. Is that an environmental | 1:10:34 | 1:10:40 | |
concern? I distanced -- I prefer to ask the question or make a | 1:10:40 | 1:10:45 | |
contribution without using notes. I think what the speaker was doing | 1:10:45 | 1:10:50 | |
was that she was taking a long time to go to the point. The important | 1:10:50 | 1:10:55 | |
thing is you have got to last the question and to that in a sharp way. | 1:10:55 | 1:11:03 | |
Otherwise, p process gets weary. People ask very wrong questions, | 1:11:03 | 1:11:07 | |
three questions at the same time, it leaves people in a very | 1:11:07 | 1:11:15 | |
uncomfortable position -- long questions. Rosemary Butler tends to | 1:11:16 | 1:11:23 | |
clear her throat to move people on. Is that a success? It is causing | 1:11:23 | 1:11:32 | |
some resentment. But she is right. They need to focus on the question. | 1:11:32 | 1:11:42 | |
1:11:42 | 1:11:43 | ||
A quick question is often more successful. | 1:11:43 | 1:11:47 | |
We will be back with you before the end of the programme. Coming up, | 1:11:47 | 1:11:50 | |
the Welsh affairs Select Committee is holding an inquiry into the | 1:11:50 | 1:11:54 | |
future of the Welsh Cavalry. We'll be hearing from a member of the | 1:11:54 | 1:12:01 | |
Defence Select Committee later. We will talk about transport now. | 1:12:01 | 1:12:04 | |
Transport infrastructure and how important artist of economic growth. | 1:12:04 | 1:12:10 | |
It is the subject of a concerted debate this afternoon. -- | 1:12:10 | 1:12:16 | |
conservative. What do you hope to achieve this afternoon? It is to | 1:12:16 | 1:12:19 | |
raise the profile of the issue of bringing electrification down to | 1:12:19 | 1:12:28 | |
Swansea. And the Connectivity be on that. We hope to get the Government | 1:12:28 | 1:12:38 | |
1:12:38 | 1:12:43 | ||
You are calling on the was committed to more to bring it about. | 1:12:43 | 1:12:52 | |
The UK Government at Westminster, this is the first time | 1:12:52 | 1:12:55 | |
electrification has been brought to Wales and been suggested as part of | 1:12:55 | 1:13:01 | |
the control number five, as they call it, the Westminster Government | 1:13:01 | 1:13:07 | |
looking at how they can improve infrastructure. But when you look | 1:13:07 | 1:13:13 | |
at it in context, the previous Westminster Government, the Labour | 1:13:13 | 1:13:19 | |
Government, did nothing. It is quite an exciting time. Leafy in | 1:13:19 | 1:13:24 | |
that case that the last Government is being adversarial -- do you feel | 1:13:24 | 1:13:34 | |
1:13:34 | 1:13:39 | ||
in that case? The commitment is going to come one way or the other. | 1:13:39 | 1:13:45 | |
There has been a good cross-party Richard working almost. There are | 1:13:45 | 1:13:55 | |
1:13:55 | 1:13:59 | ||
some members of parliament but have gone down that track. -- cross- | 1:13:59 | 1:14:08 | |
party support working on that. I cannot give you an answer today. It | 1:14:08 | 1:14:11 | |
is a matter for the Government. It is for the Treasury to process it | 1:14:11 | 1:14:16 | |
out. I am determined to see it come to Swansea and they have been doing | 1:14:16 | 1:14:21 | |
my very best together with my other colleagues to do that. How much of | 1:14:21 | 1:14:26 | |
a difference will it make? It is very significant. It is not so much | 1:14:26 | 1:14:30 | |
the journey time, it is about connectivity and beyond Swansea as | 1:14:30 | 1:14:34 | |
well. It is what people in west Wales. Young people having an | 1:14:34 | 1:14:38 | |
opportunity to travel to Cardiff on a daily basis and become involved | 1:14:38 | 1:14:42 | |
with the insurance industry, perhaps, it is about being able to | 1:14:42 | 1:14:51 | |
do that on a daily basis. We do not have much longer to wait. | 1:14:51 | 1:15:00 | |
Thank you for joining us. Back to MPs on the Welsh Select Committee | 1:15:00 | 1:15:03 | |
are to hold an inquiry into the future of the Queen's Dragoon | 1:15:03 | 1:15:07 | |
Guards, the Welsh cavalry. There has been cross-party concern about | 1:15:07 | 1:15:10 | |
reports the Ministry of Defence cutbacks will be abolished or | 1:15:11 | 1:15:16 | |
Tamsin Hezzell merged with another regiment. Our reporter has been -- | 1:15:16 | 1:15:25 | |
have has been talking to MPs. MPs don't agree on much but they | 1:15:25 | 1:15:29 | |
are united on one issue, the campaign to save a threatened Welsh | 1:15:29 | 1:15:33 | |
Regiment, and one MP that has been fighting the cause is Madeleine | 1:15:33 | 1:15:41 | |
Moon. So, why? This is a cause that hasn't just united MPs but that has | 1:15:41 | 1:15:45 | |
united people across Wales and you can tell that from every MP's | 1:15:45 | 1:15:50 | |
embarks. I am getting 35 postcards and about 40 miles a day on this | 1:15:50 | 1:15:54 | |
issue. What is happening we are reducing the size of the army and | 1:15:55 | 1:15:59 | |
the government wants to reduce the army to 82,000 with an additional | 1:16:00 | 1:16:04 | |
30,000 reservists. That means they want to reduce the regiments. Now, | 1:16:04 | 1:16:09 | |
England has got 30 regiments. Scotland has got eight. We have got | 1:16:09 | 1:16:19 | |
1:16:19 | 1:16:19 | ||
three. Our concern is that we have heard there is a message telling | 1:16:19 | 1:16:22 | |
theme Ministry of Defence not to touch the Scottish regiments | 1:16:22 | 1:16:25 | |
because they don't want to influence the vote taking place on | 1:16:25 | 1:16:30 | |
the issue of independence, so they are concerned that could affect the | 1:16:30 | 1:16:34 | |
vote. So, we are more vulnerable. We only have three regiments and | 1:16:35 | 1:16:38 | |
all of our regiments are fully recruited and one of them is the | 1:16:38 | 1:16:43 | |
Welsh cavalry, the first Queen's Dragoon Guards, they are seen to be | 1:16:43 | 1:16:47 | |
the most vulnerable. Scotland has got eight regiments, two of which | 1:16:47 | 1:16:53 | |
are heavy tank, the equivalent of the cavalry regiments. Seven of the | 1:16:53 | 1:16:58 | |
Scottish regiments are not fully recruited and, in fact, they rely | 1:16:58 | 1:17:04 | |
on out of area recruitment to keep them fully recruited. We are | 1:17:04 | 1:17:10 | |
concerned Wales is going to bear the brunt whereas it could be an | 1:17:10 | 1:17:17 | |
English regimental Tamas Fellegi is Scottish -- English regiment or a | 1:17:17 | 1:17:26 | |
Scottish regiment. We want to say we will not sit down and accept a | 1:17:26 | 1:17:32 | |
decision that is not a fair one. Our regiments are fully recruited, | 1:17:32 | 1:17:36 | |
they are important recruitment and jobs that young people want to take. | 1:17:36 | 1:17:40 | |
They want to serve in Welsh regiments and most of the three | 1:17:40 | 1:17:45 | |
Welsh regiments, they are 80% solidly recruited from Wales but | 1:17:45 | 1:17:50 | |
the Department of Defence must have done some analysis on these | 1:17:50 | 1:17:55 | |
regiments? Our concern is that we want, and I have a letter from the | 1:17:55 | 1:17:57 | |
Ministry of Defence, where they talk about the importance of | 1:17:57 | 1:18:02 | |
demographics. They talk about the importance of making sure there is | 1:18:02 | 1:18:07 | |
an opportunity for people across the UK to access their regiments. | 1:18:07 | 1:18:12 | |
Now, I am quite happy with that. What I am not happy about is their | 1:18:12 | 1:18:16 | |
political implications been taken into consideration in relation to | 1:18:16 | 1:18:21 | |
which regiment will go. And that is very clear and we heard about the | 1:18:21 | 1:18:26 | |
advice coming from Number Ten about don't touch the Scottish regiments. | 1:18:26 | 1:18:30 | |
How shall argue about that? It is quite a plane. We are very clear | 1:18:30 | 1:18:36 | |
about the message that came out of Number Ten. That is out in the | 1:18:36 | 1:18:41 | |
public domain. I rested yesterday in an armed forces debate in | 1:18:41 | 1:18:45 | |
Westminster, and I was given an assurance by the minister that they | 1:18:45 | 1:18:48 | |
had not made the decision, that he didn't know what the decision would | 1:18:48 | 1:18:53 | |
be. But that they were aware of the strong feeling in Wales. And we | 1:18:53 | 1:18:57 | |
have to keep that strong feeling in Wales very high. The Scots have | 1:18:57 | 1:19:02 | |
been doing it very well and we have been very slow off the mark and now | 1:19:02 | 1:19:06 | |
we are making absolutely clear that we are solidly behind our three | 1:19:06 | 1:19:11 | |
regiments and we intend to keep them. We used to have 32 regiments. | 1:19:11 | 1:19:15 | |
We have now got three and we don't intend to lose another one. Thank | 1:19:15 | 1:19:22 | |
you very much. Peter, what do you make of what | 1:19:22 | 1:19:26 | |
Madeleine Moon said? The message coming from under 10 to the | 1:19:26 | 1:19:29 | |
Ministry of Defence to leave the Scottish regiments untouched ahead | 1:19:29 | 1:19:34 | |
of any referendum debate? I have to say that it is a shame the way that | 1:19:34 | 1:19:38 | |
Scotland and the interests of Scotland is dominating UK politics | 1:19:38 | 1:19:45 | |
on finance, and now on the regiment and the defence review. If that is | 1:19:45 | 1:19:49 | |
the case, that is an unacceptable way to carry out a defence review. | 1:19:49 | 1:19:53 | |
There is a clear criteria in terms of how defence reviews should be | 1:19:53 | 1:19:58 | |
carried out in terms of the age of the regiment and it is not the | 1:19:58 | 1:20:02 | |
Welsh Guards turn to be amalgamated but the Scottish regiments turn to | 1:20:02 | 1:20:07 | |
be amalgamated and that criteria should not be departed from. In | 1:20:07 | 1:20:12 | |
terms of the Welsh Guards, there are establish since the 17th | 1:20:12 | 1:20:15 | |
century, they are a good recruiter and largely of people in Wales, | 1:20:16 | 1:20:19 | |
whereas the Scottish regiments have a large quantity of Fijians in | 1:20:19 | 1:20:27 | |
there, a very poor recruiter as well. They are the ones that should | 1:20:27 | 1:20:31 | |
give. Your party has had an issue with the recruiting of soldiers in | 1:20:31 | 1:20:36 | |
Wales, hasn't it? Only in terms of recruitment in schools, which is | 1:20:36 | 1:20:39 | |
unfair. There are plenty of opportunities to recruit, but we | 1:20:39 | 1:20:43 | |
are not in favour of the armed forces going into schools to try to | 1:20:43 | 1:20:48 | |
recruit there. Staying on defence, you have got an emergency question | 1:20:48 | 1:20:53 | |
this afternoon on Trident and as a former of CND Cymru, that gives us | 1:20:53 | 1:20:58 | |
a hint as to which direction you will be coming from. What will you | 1:20:58 | 1:21:02 | |
ask a? I will not be welcoming the First Minister's statement, which | 1:21:02 | 1:21:07 | |
she made in the chamber yesterday, for some unknown reason, that he | 1:21:07 | 1:21:12 | |
wants to welcome Trident 2 South West Wales. The port is not suited | 1:21:12 | 1:21:18 | |
to it. I am not aware of any work that is the and done. This would be | 1:21:18 | 1:21:22 | |
ahead of any Scottish independence. Apparently, but it would be nice to | 1:21:22 | 1:21:27 | |
know what negotiations have gone on or whether this is an idea which | 1:21:27 | 1:21:31 | |
the First Minister has pulled out of the sky. There are implications. | 1:21:31 | 1:21:36 | |
When I was chair of CND Cumbria, we had a nuclear free Wales signed up | 1:21:36 | 1:21:42 | |
to buy local authorities in Wales, many supporters of cm deep in | 1:21:43 | 1:21:46 | |
Labour, and not many people in Labour will be welcome it. There | 1:21:46 | 1:21:53 | |
has been no mention of 6,000 jobs, but there is nowhere near that in | 1:21:53 | 1:21:58 | |
Scotland, it is just under 2000. It is an idea that has come out of the | 1:21:58 | 1:22:01 | |
blue and the First Minister has to justified because it has major | 1:22:01 | 1:22:07 | |
implications. Oil, gas and nuclear weapons do not go together. Forget | 1:22:07 | 1:22:10 | |
the euro 2012 Football Championships in Poland and the | 1:22:10 | 1:22:15 | |
Ukraine, can Wales has the 2020 championships? There is talk of a | 1:22:15 | 1:22:21 | |
drink bed with Scotland and the Republic of Ireland. This issue was | 1:22:21 | 1:22:24 | |
raised in First Minister's Questions yesterday. | 1:22:24 | 1:22:30 | |
Thank you for that response. Of course, we do have three stadiums | 1:22:30 | 1:22:35 | |
in Wales which could be developed for such a bid. The Millennium | 1:22:35 | 1:22:38 | |
Stadium, the City of Cardiff stadium and the Liberty Stadium in | 1:22:38 | 1:22:47 | |
my region. Do you know which criteria on the size of stadium was | 1:22:47 | 1:22:50 | |
that your way for use in considering bids of this sort? And | 1:22:50 | 1:22:54 | |
what kind of input would you have as a government jointly with the | 1:22:54 | 1:23:01 | |
FAW if there were to be such a bid submitted? TRANSLATION: I believe | 1:23:01 | 1:23:07 | |
the figure is 30,000. That is the minimum a bed. There would not be | 1:23:07 | 1:23:11 | |
too much of the difficulty to insure the City of Cardiff and the | 1:23:11 | 1:23:15 | |
Liberty Stadium came up to that standard for. Very few venues could | 1:23:15 | 1:23:20 | |
do that. Looking at the other nations, and Ireland, there is only | 1:23:20 | 1:23:28 | |
one stadium which can go up to that apps -- standard. There are a | 1:23:28 | 1:23:36 | |
number of other stadiums that Dollard in the Republic -- that | 1:23:36 | 1:23:39 | |
I'll large in the republic but there is work to be done to ensure | 1:23:39 | 1:23:44 | |
that facilities are available in Wales so that Wales can assist to | 1:23:44 | 1:23:52 | |
build a future bid. There is a 30,000 capacity minimum. How does | 1:23:52 | 1:23:55 | |
the First Minister expect the ground improvements including the | 1:23:55 | 1:23:59 | |
increase in capacity for at least one of the grounds for a European | 1:23:59 | 1:24:03 | |
tournament to be funded by? Well, this is the question which has to | 1:24:03 | 1:24:11 | |
be looked at carefully. Swansea City have 16,000 ticket-holders, so | 1:24:11 | 1:24:18 | |
they would like to have that expanded. Same about Cardiff. A | 1:24:18 | 1:24:21 | |
case for expanding the stadium there, but how this might be | 1:24:21 | 1:24:26 | |
financed would have to be explored with the FAW. | 1:24:26 | 1:24:31 | |
Well, let's explore it with our guests. Peter, as are those Wales | 1:24:31 | 1:24:34 | |
would qualify for the European Championships of 2020 and that is a | 1:24:34 | 1:24:39 | |
good enough reason? Yes, the best reason. I am going to support this | 1:24:39 | 1:24:42 | |
bit and I think we need to think about how we prepared for it. We | 1:24:42 | 1:24:46 | |
think the issue of the size of the stadiums is the one we need to | 1:24:46 | 1:24:53 | |
overcome. 30,000 is the size much as the minimum but the Millennium | 1:24:53 | 1:24:59 | |
Stadium is the only one which is above that. Liberty is about 20,000. | 1:24:59 | 1:25:03 | |
With an option of extending the. And the Swans are looking to extend | 1:25:03 | 1:25:08 | |
their own stadium, so hopefully we will have the stadiums in place, | 1:25:08 | 1:25:12 | |
and it would be a massive boost to whale. You have had discussions | 1:25:12 | 1:25:15 | |
with the FAW, and you seemed to suggest but doing anything like | 1:25:15 | 1:25:22 | |
this will be very difficult. When I had those discussions in 2007, it | 1:25:22 | 1:25:27 | |
was very complicated but there is no reason not to go for it. As | 1:25:27 | 1:25:30 | |
Peter said, it would be a huge boost for Wales, not only in terms | 1:25:30 | 1:25:34 | |
of sport, but in terms of the economy and tourism, and we should | 1:25:34 | 1:25:38 | |
do everything we can to try to see whether this is possible and, | 1:25:38 | 1:25:42 | |
certainly, I am sure it would get cross-party support in the chamber. | 1:25:42 | 1:25:47 | |
And one thing in Wales' favour, even though there would be three | 1:25:47 | 1:25:55 | |
host nations by 2020, we might yet see Wales qualifying. Yes, it might | 1:25:55 | 1:26:02 | |
be nice to see Wales qualify! If that can't be, then qualifying by | 1:26:02 | 1:26:06 | |
games, were disqualified by being a host country. | 1:26:06 | 1:26:09 | |
Let's talk about something your party are raising this afternoon. | 1:26:09 | 1:26:14 | |
Your party's debate on maternity services. One thing that marks | 1:26:14 | 1:26:18 | |
suggested was a reduction in midwives. What do you want to | 1:26:18 | 1:26:23 | |
raise? Harriet Harman raised this in Prime Minister's questions about | 1:26:23 | 1:26:26 | |
the shortage of midwives that the situation is the same in Wales and | 1:26:27 | 1:26:31 | |
that shortage of midwives is leading to patchy services around | 1:26:31 | 1:26:35 | |
Wales in terms of maternity and there is a report which highlights | 1:26:35 | 1:26:41 | |
that and shows that women who were going to give birth cannot expect a | 1:26:41 | 1:26:44 | |
consistent service depending on which hospital they go to, and I | 1:26:44 | 1:26:47 | |
have got a case word from my own hospital in Swansea of some | 1:26:47 | 1:26:51 | |
horrendous stories of women going in there. It is not down to the | 1:26:51 | 1:26:55 | |
staff, who are excellent, but there is a shortage of staff, they rushed | 1:26:55 | 1:26:59 | |
off their feet, they do not have time to do the basics, and, as a | 1:26:59 | 1:27:03 | |
result, there have been spates of infections, there is issues were | 1:27:03 | 1:27:07 | |
women are being left for long Torrens, not getting the stuff they | 1:27:07 | 1:27:13 | |
need in terms of their maternity plan. -- being left for long times. | 1:27:13 | 1:27:19 | |
These are the issues we want to raise today. Lots of nods of | 1:27:19 | 1:27:22 | |
agreement from you. One thing we see from opposition debates is | 1:27:22 | 1:27:26 | |
there is hardly anybody in the chamber. Will there be anybody in | 1:27:26 | 1:27:31 | |
this one? That is not fair. Maybe it is the ones I watch! I think | 1:27:31 | 1:27:35 | |
there is a firm number of people but people have no other things to | 1:27:35 | 1:27:42 | |
do as well. It is not always possible to be in the chamber. By | 1:27:42 | 1:27:50 | |
and large, people do stay in for most of the debates. One of the Lib | 1:27:50 | 1:27:57 | |
Dems, You Are What -- the Lib Dems, you are nodding. There have been | 1:27:57 | 1:28:03 | |
problems. We need to insure the maternity service is consistent and | 1:28:03 | 1:28:07 | |
of the highest standard. I was out in the Committee of regions in | 1:28:07 | 1:28:11 | |
Finland last week, and their health service is totally different. All | 1:28:11 | 1:28:15 | |
GPs family doctors are employed by the state and you have medical | 1:28:15 | 1:28:19 | |
centres in all parts of Finland, but they have to travel a long way | 1:28:19 | 1:28:23 | |
to the hospital, so maybe we need to rethink the services and good | 1:28:23 | 1:28:27 | |
services which meet the needs of the present situation. OK, thank | 1:28:27 | 1:28:31 |