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        <title>Nick Robinson</title>
        <link>http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/correspondents/nickrobinson</link>
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        <description>The latest on what’s going on in and around politics</description>
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                <title>One phrase and why I'm sorry I quoted it</title>
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		           		<p>It was a barbaric attack carried out in broad daylight on the streets of London. A man hacked to death. The attackers had been shot by the police. An extraordinary and horrific story but not one, you might think, for the Political Editor of the BBC.</p>
		                      
		           		<p>However, the fact that the victim was wearing a &quot;Help for Heroes&quot; T-shirt and was walking near an army barracks raised the possibility that it was something else as well - an act of terrorism with implications for the country as a whole. That was my instinct as soon as I heard about the story, but instinct is not enough. I started to try to establish whether the government was treating it that way.</p>
		                      
		           		<p>With minutes to go before the BBC News at Six I was told by a senior Whitehall source that the incident was being treated as a suspected terrorist incident and being taken very seriously indeed. This information changed the news from a crime story to something of more significance. The police had, I was told, described the attackers as being &quot;of Muslim appearance&quot; and shouting &quot;Allahu Akbar&quot;. On air I directly quoted a senior Whitehall source saying that the police had used that description.</p>
		                      
		           		<p>That phrase &quot;of Muslim appearance&quot; clearly offended some who demanded to know what it could possibly mean. Others were concerned that it was a racist generalisation.</p>
		                      
		           		<p>My report and the quotation were picked up by many other news organisations as evidence that this was a terror attack. The reports of eye witnesses and the video of the attacker demonstrated that the attack had been carried out by those claiming to be retaliating because &quot;Muslims are dying daily by British soldiers&quot;.</p>
		                      
		           		<p>Despite this and the fact that I was directly quoting a source I'm sorry for using a phrase that, on reflection, was both liable to be misinterpreted and to cause offence. Many Muslims were quick to condemn the attack and to distance themselves and their religion from the brutal savagery seen on the streets of Woolwich.</p>
		                      
		           		<p>The overnight protests of the English Defence League and attacks on some mosques lead some to fear the consequences for community relations. This all makes people understandably sensitive about anything which could be used to justify hostility to people on the basis of their appearance or religion.</p>
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                <link>http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-22637048</link>
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                <pubDate>Thu, 23 May 2013 11:43:41 +0100</pubDate>
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                <title>A relationship on the rocks</title>
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		           		<p>He was young. He was handsome. He said what they wanted to hear.</p>
		                      
		           		<p>It was time, he told them, to show they cared, to move with the times. They needn't worry, though, because he shared their core beliefs.</p>
		                      
		           		<p>The marriage between David Cameron and the Conservative Party is on the rocks. He is exasperated with his party for being stuck in its old ways. They fear that he never really loved them at all.</p>
		                      
		           		<p>So long as being a &quot;modern, compassionate Conservative&quot; involved wearing jeans and trainers few had a problem.</p>
		                      
		           		<p>If it meant proclaiming your love for the National Health Service, concern for the environment or passion for the Big Society (whatever that was) not many could object.</p>
		                      
		           		<p>It all began to go wrong when he chose to jump into bed with another man and another party. David was seen to be &quot;agreeing with Nick&quot; more often than he agreed with them.</p>
		                      
		           		<p>David Cameron had reassured his party that he was a staunch believer in marriage but the coalition is proposing to promote marriages which many Tory activists do not regard as marriages at all - between two men or two women and not a man and a woman.</p>
		                      
		           		<p>The proposal was not in the Tory manifesto and it was not in the coalition agreement. Many Tories suspect that it was unveiled to show the prime minister in a Clause Four style challenge to his own grassroots - or, as someone may or may not have said, the &quot;swivel-eyed loons.&quot;</p>
		                      
		           		<p>The prime minister convinced his party that he was a sceptic about another relationship - Britain's membership of the EU but many do not understand why he won't now take advantage of the crisis in the Euro-zone to sue for divorce.</p>
		                      
		           		<p>And now he's being challenged by a man with a twinkle in his eye, a pint in his hand who says the things many Tories would dearly love to say - things that Nigel will say but David never would.</p>
		                      
		           		<p>The match between Mr Cameron and the Conservative Party was never based on love or passion. It was a cold blooded political calculation. It's now in real trouble.</p>
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                <link>http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-22604185</link>
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                <pubDate>Mon, 20 May 2013 21:36:15 +0100</pubDate>
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                <title>Europe - That Tory row 'made simple'</title>
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		           		<p>It is clear that some people are finding the current Tory wrangling about Europe hard to follow. So, in the spirit of those beginner's guides, let me see if I can help.</p>
		                      
		           		<p>The Conservatives are going to publish draft legislation establishing an EU referendum today. So, does that mean I am going to get a vote on the EU?</p>
		                      
		           		<p>No. The Bill is very unlikely to become law because the government won't support it</p>
		                      
		           		<p>But I thought the Conservatives were pushing it and the prime minister is a Conservative, isn't he?</p>
		                      
		           		<p>He is (although not all of his party agree) but he's not in charge of the government. He has to agree everything with Nick Clegg</p>
		                      
		           		<p>So, he's publishing a Bill that won't achieve anything?</p>
		                      
		           		<p>Well, he wants to highlight what the Conservatives would do if they were in sole charge</p>
		                      
		           		<p>But there's another Commons vote tomorrow - will that mean I get a vote?</p>
		                      
		           		<p>No. That's just an amendment to the Queen's Speech regretting that it doesn't include an EU Referendum Bill</p>
		                      
		           		<p>Is David Cameron supporting that?</p>
		                      
		           		<p>No, don't be silly. He wrote the Queen's Speech so he couldn't vote against it</p>
		                      
		           		<p>Is he opposing it then?</p>
		                      
		           		<p>Well, no. The Lib Dems are opposing it, his backbenchers are backing it and he and his ministers are abstaining</p>
		                      
		           		<p>So, after all this fuss I won't be getting a vote on the EU after all?</p>
		                      
		           		<p>You certainly won't be getting one before 2015. It is possible that enough Labour MPs can be found to vote with the Tories to produce a parliamentary majority for a referendum. Even then without government giving time it is very unlikely to become law. It is also possible that those senior Labour figures who think their party should back a referendum - such as Ed Balls and Jon Cruddas - persuade their leader to change his policy. It is unlikely, though, that Ed Miliband will make a U-turn quick enough to put a smile on David Cameron's face</p>
		                      
		           		<p>So, what on earth are the Tories playing at?</p>
		                      
		           		<p>The Conservatives hope that all this fuss will make you conclude that you will only get an EU referendum if you vote for them at the next election. They are hoping that it will highlight Labour and the Liberal Democrat opposition to giving you a vote.</p>
		                      
		           		<p>The prime minister set out his policy towards the EU - renegotiation followed by a referendum by 2017 - in a major speech in January. However, his party was not satisfied with that promise alone so they have demanded a law, or at least an attempt to pass a law, to make it happen. Many Tories loathe Brussels, hate Coalition, distrust their leader and are terrified of UKIP. They have been emboldened by the success of Nigel Farage; the decision of Nigel Lawson to come out in opposition to Britain's continued EU membership; the public confirmation by Michael Gove and Phillip Hammond that they are sympathetic to calls to leave if the EU remains unreformed; and the uncertain response by the Tory leadership to the backbench call to amend the Queen's Speech.</p>
		                      
		           		<p>The publishing of a draft bill looks like an exercise in what Mrs Thatcher used to call &quot;followership&quot; not leadership. However, David Cameron is hoping that his party still take the opportunity it provides to spend the next few months united around a parliamentary campaign to give the public a say on Europe rather than to have a debate amongst themselves about whether to get out or stay in and on what terms.</p>
		                      
		           		<p>PS note for parliamentary nerds:</p>
		                      
		           		<p>The chief whip has told the prime minister that it is not impossible to get a private member's bill passed even without the Lib Dems agreeing to give it government time. A hundred Tory MPs could pass a so-called closure motion to stop the bill being &quot;talked out&quot;. Pro referendum Labour MPs such as Keith Vaz and Frank Field could give the Conservatives a majority. There might also be a pro-referendum majority in the House of Lords. However, a senior Commons official told me that the bill would need a government &quot;money resolution&quot; - which would need Lib Dem approval - as a referendum would cost taxpayers' money. The whips insist that by convention the government does not oppose money resolutions on Second Readings. So, in the end it might simply come down to whether there is enough time - there are only 13 days in this parliamentary session for private member's bills and other issues may take precedence - and, of course, the political will of all sides.</p>
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                <link>http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-22517322</link>
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                <pubDate>Tue, 14 May 2013 12:30:16 +0100</pubDate>
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                <title>Why Sir Alex is greatest leader we have</title>
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		           		<p>Judgement, perspective, balance.</p>
		                      
		           		<p>That's what the BBC expects from you when they give you the title &quot;Editor&quot;.</p>
		                      
		           		<p>So, you may wonder, what on earth was I thinking of when I was so easily wrong-footed by John Humphrys asking me a softball question yesterday?</p>
		                      
		           		<p>It was not even about politics. It was about the then rumour about the retirement of a football manager.</p>
		                      
		           		<p>Throwing caution to the winds and with a smile which I fear was not entirely audible over the airwaves I declared Sir Alex Ferguson to be the &quot;Greatest Living Briton.&quot; That's right - not Tim Berners Lee or Stephen Hawking; nor Her Majesty the Queen or JK Rowling or the numerous other worthy candidates that instantly filled my twitter stream. No, I spontaneously gave the accolade to Fergie.</p>
		                      
		           		<p>There is a reason for this and it is not merely the deeply ingrained tribal loyalty of a boy who still remembers the thrill of his first visit to the Stretford End or the tingle of excitement when offered a job as a paperboy by a former United star (in those days retired footballers had to work for a living).</p>
		                      
		           		<p>As someone paid to observe and analyse leaders and potential leaders for a living, I have yet to see one to match Sir Alex.</p>
		                      
		           		<p>Like the impresario of a great opera company or the chief executive of a mighty corporation he succeeded so much and survived for so long because he understood people - how to motivate them, how to discipline them and how to inspire them.</p>
		                      
		           		<p>When this year Harvard Business School asked Fergie to share some of his secrets he explained how as a young manager he studied and learnt from leaders in other walks of life - watching a classical concert for the first time in his life he admired the co-ordination and the teamwork and spoke to his players about the orchestra and how they are a perfect team.</p>
		                      
		           		<p>He didn't merely manage teams, he created them.</p>
		                      
		           		<p>Many of the stars of the past twenty five years would, without him, have been regarded as too wayward - too crazy even - to make it elsewhere.</p>
		                      
		           		<p>Think of Eric Cantona's kung-fu kick on a fan who shouted abuse at him or Roy Keane's frequent red mists or Peter Schmeichel's ranting at his own defence.</p>
		                      
		           		<p>What Ferguson understood is the need to channel their anger away from self-destruction and towards their shared goal - victory on the pitch.</p>
		                      
		           		<p>For a boy from the shipyards of Govan and a convinced socialist this was no mean feat when confronted with the young, sometimes immature and spoilt stars of the modern age but this was his simple message to them: &quot;I tell players that hard work is a talent, too. They need to work harder than anyone else. And if they can no longer bring the discipline that we ask for here at United, they are out.&quot;</p>
		                      
		           		<p>Now, do I hear you cry - &quot;for goodness sake, it's only football?&quot;</p>
		                      
		           		<p>Are you one of the many who think there's been too much fuss and wonder how I could allow myself to be distracted on the day the government unveiled its new legislative programme?</p>
		                      
		           		<p>My answer is clear. Ferguson was the leader not of a mere football team. He was the mastermind of one of Britain's leading brands. Manchester United is a global language even for those who do not speak English.</p>
		                      
		           		<p>It is - love it or loathe it or simply couldn't care less about it - one of this country's institutions.</p>
		                      
		           		<p>Its leader for more than 25 years was no saint. There are many on and off the pitch who can testify to that.</p>
		                      
		           		<p>He, I suspect, would be the first to laugh at the idea he's &quot;the greatest living Briton.&quot;</p>
		                      
		           		<p>However, his achievements demand not just respect. They deserve to be studied and learnt from by those who think that leadership is a rare commodity and it matters.</p>
		                      
		           		<p>And, don't worry, in future I'll stick to the day job.</p>
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                <link>http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-22465216</link>
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                <pubDate>Thu, 09 May 2013 10:56:24 +0100</pubDate>
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                <title>How the Queen's Speech got my goat</title>
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		           		<p>Oh dear. The Queen's Speech has already got my goat. Let me explain.</p>
		                      
		           		<p>I reported this morning that the Gracious Speech is written on vellum with ink that takes three days to dry so it cannot be amended at the last minute. True... until recently but, apologies, I now learn it is not any more. I regret to have to report that the goat has fallen victim to the age of austerity. This year's speech will be written on plain - or, in truth, rather posh - paper.</p>
		                      
		           		<p>&quot;Going goat&quot; is still a phrase used in Whitehall to describe the moment when the Queen's Speech has to be finalised and sent to the Palace for Her Majesty's approval. That is several days before it is delivered.</p>
		                      
		           		<p>This year that meant it was completed before not after the local elections which, as I reported, meant that the measures announced could not be a response to UKIP's triumph at the polls.</p>
		                      
		           		<p>Analysis right. Fact wrong. Sorry.</p>
		                      
		           		<p>PS I blame Fergie trauma for my error...</p>
		                      
		           		<p>UPDATE 2pm: When is a goat not a goat? When does a mea culpa become not so culpa after all?</p>
		                      
		           		<p>Just when you thought Goatgate had been cleared up, along comes the official line: It is not on vellum anymore. It is on &quot;goatskin parchment paper&quot; but confusingly it's not actually goatskin. However it is very high quality, thick paper, which is why the ink takes several days to dry, and it then needs to be bound into a booklet, before being sent on to Her Majesty for signing. So it did have to go to the printers last week. And the paper does have the watermark of a goat....</p>
		                      
		           		<p>That's enough goats - Ed</p>
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                <link>http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-22449210</link>
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                <pubDate>Wed, 08 May 2013 14:05:32 +0100</pubDate>
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                <title>Lawson says the unsayable</title>
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		           		<p>The significance of Nigel Lawson's intervention is not just that he has broken something of a Tory taboo by calling for Britain to quit; it's also that he is a former chancellor arguing essentially on economic grounds.</p>
		                      
		           		<p>The EU, he claims, is hurting one of our most important industries - financial services - and, secure &quot;within the warm embrace of the European single market&quot;, giving British businesses an excuse not to develop trade with the developing economies.</p>
		                      
		           		<p>Awkward you might think for the prime minister, but today he was putting on a brave face, claiming that Lord Lawson had in fact helped highlight his pledge of an EU referendum if he is re-elected.</p>
		                      
		           		<p>His backbenchers want him to promise a Commons vote on the issue before the next election, but there will be no such promise in the Queen's Speech tomorrow.</p>
		                      
		           		<p>Like Labour's Harold Wilson, the man in charge the last time Britain had a referendum, David Cameron has promised to renegotiate Britain's relationship with Europe.</p>
		                      
		           		<p>Lord Lawson said that would be as pointless in future as it had been then.</p>
		                      
		           		<p>What was once unsayable by any senior Conservative has now been said. Which means the issue once described by the foreign secretary as a ticking bomb is ticking rather louder.</p>
		                      
		           		<p>Mr Cameron once warned his party to stop obsessing about Europe. The call by a former Tory heavyweight for Britain to leave the EU has made that a forlorn hope.</p>
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                <link>http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-22440889</link>
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                <pubDate>Tue, 07 May 2013 19:29:45 +0100</pubDate>
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                <title>Send in the clowns ....and the loonies ....and the fruitcakes. </title>
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		           		<p>Those David Cameron once insulted - but now says he respects - have given him and the Conservatives a bloody nose. Indeed, all the leaders of the big political parties are nursing wounds after so many chose to vote for &quot;none of the above&quot;.</p>
		                      
		           		<p>This has been a very English anti-establishment revolt. After all, its leader Nigel Farage is an ex public schoolboy from Kent, the son of a stockbroker who also worked in the City of London. However, like Boris Johnson or Alex Salmond he has found a way to reach those parts of the electorate others cannot reach.</p>
		                      
		           		<p>No-one can know how durable his success will be but this election will kill the widespread assumption that UKIP is more a pressure group than a party... that it matters only in European elections... that it is merely a temporary home for disgruntled Tories.</p>
		                      
		           		<p>The immediate effect will be to add pressure on the prime minister to sound and act like the sort of Conservative his activists want him to be - tougher on immigration, Europe and crime.</p>
		                      
		           		<p>Longer term, today's results leave the next general election intriguingly open - a split vote on the right of politics might allow Ed Miliband to become prime minister with barely more than third of votes. Equally, the fact that Labour are not attracting many of those who are rejecting the Coalition means that its demise is far from guaranteed.</p>
		                      
		           		<p>The people have spoken. Now it's time for the political classes to try to work out what on earth they meant.</p>
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                <link>http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-22406689</link>
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                <pubDate>Fri, 03 May 2013 18:06:37 +0100</pubDate>
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                <title>UKIP - Send in the 'clowns'</title>
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		           		<p>This is the day when those dubbed &quot;clowns, loonies, fruitcakes and closet racists&quot; may find it hard to resist the temptation to laugh in the face of their detractors in the established political parties.</p>
		                      
		           		<p>It is the day UKIP emerged as a real political force in the land.</p>
		                      
		           		<p>The leaders of all other political parties will now be considering how to respond, what to say and what to do in the face of the party's rise.</p>
		                      
		           		<p>UKIP has evolved over the two decades since it was created from an anti-EU pressure group into a fully fledged party which has now proved that it can succeed beyond European elections.</p>
		                      
		           		<p>This is a more profound change than you might think. Before today a party created because of one issue and dominated by one man could, in theory, have simply wound up after a referendum on the UK's membership of the EU.</p>
		                      
		           		<p>Many of its early backers might have concluded at that point - &quot;job done&quot;.</p>
		                      
		           		<p>Now, however, there will be UKIP councillors all over the country (there may even be some with a slice of power once all the results are in) who will insist they exist for other purposes. UKIP is not going the way of the Referendum Party.</p>
		                      
		           		<p>For now their impact will be on other parties.</p>
		                      
		           		<p>Tories on the right will claim that if only David Cameron had listened to them none of this would have happened. They will demand political red meat to woo back their former supporters.</p>
		                      
		           		<p>To some extent it's already been offered - David Cameron has talked of a parliamentary vote on an EU referendum, he's announced a crackdown on immigration and a tougher prison regime has been heralded. So, what now?</p>
		                      
		           		<p>Blairites will reheat their warnings that Ed Miliband has not extended Labour's support enough.</p>
		                      
		           		<p>Some in his party will angst about their appeal in the South, some about their failure to convince their traditional white working class voters. He will respond, I suspect, with an attempt to forge a much clearer economic alternative.</p>
		                      
		           		<p>The Lib Dems will be relieved that the spotlight is on someone else's problems whilst having to live with the fact that their party's problems are very far from over.</p>
		                      
		           		<p>Nigel Farage has already proved that he is one of those politicians like Ken and Boris and Alex Salmond who can make his country smile. Now the clowns are bringing tears to their opponents' eyes. He's sure to see the joke in that.</p>
		                      
		           		<p>PS: Having said all of this this let's not forget that UKIP did not win the elections. They look set to end the night with tens of councillors not many hundreds, unlike their opponents. It is extremely unlikely to run any council alone.</p>
		                      
		           		<p>They have no MPs and, under our first-past-the-post system, it would be a major achievement to elect just one. Labour still won last night's by-election and the Conservatives look set to have the most councillors and run the most councils.</p>
		                      
		           		<p>UKIP are putting down political roots. They are not about to challenge for power.</p>
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                <link>http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-22394617</link>
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                <pubDate>Fri, 03 May 2013 07:32:49 +0100</pubDate>
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                <title>Party leaders await the verdict of voters</title>
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		           		<p>These are nervous times for Messrs Cameron, Clegg and Miliband as they await the verdict of the voters - or, rather, some of them.</p>
		                      
		           		<p>Even though almost all the votes will be cast in England and not other parts of the UK; even though it'll largely be the residents of the shires and not the cities; even though many people will choose not to vote, the results do matter - for national politics as well as local.</p>
		                      
		           		<p>The Conservatives look certain to win the most council seats on the day - after all this is their natural territory. They also look certain to lose the most as they're defending gains made during Gordon Brown's nadir. If those losses are high - many hundreds that is - they'll trigger a bout of Tory introspection.</p>
		                      
		           		<p>If one cause is a surge by the party the prime minister couldn't bring himself to name today - UKIP, led by the relentlessly confident Nigel Farage - he may face an open revolt.</p>
		                      
		           		<p>Labour look sure to make significant gains but after Ed Miliband's week of wobbles his critics will ask whether they're enough and in the right places for him to be on course for Number 10. Nick Clegg will be examining the runes to see if the worst is finally over for his party.</p>
		                      
		           		<p>Someone once said that all politics is local. Tomorrow will prove how true that is.</p>
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                <link>http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-22374125</link>
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                <pubDate>Wed, 01 May 2013 18:15:37 +0100</pubDate>
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                <title>How has immigration changed Britain? </title>
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		           		<p>The Italian boss of the &quot;city the Poles took over&quot; tells me that the new arrivals will integrate, just as his community once had to.</p>
		                      
		           		<p>He is answering the criticisms made not just by the white British residents but a significant number of the city's large Asian community, who complain that eastern Europeans simply don't integrate.</p>
		                      
		           		<p>Sounds like America but, in fact, this is the UK - Peterborough, to be precise. I've been filming in the city to examine the political impact of immigration for The Editors on BBC One.</p>
		                      
		           		<p>Britain has changed and nowhere more so than in Peterborough. In the past decade 24,000 immigrants moved into this city. That is more than one in eight of the population.</p>
		                      
		           		<p>Many of them were Poles (hence the tabloid headlines) but eastern Europeans are far from the only group who've been coming in large numbers. In the last decade nearly 5,000 people born in Pakistan made their home in the city, compared with more than 6,500 from Poland.</p>
		                      
		           		<p>More than a fifth of all people who live here were born outside the UK, according to the latest census.</p>
		                      
		           		<p>With over a million eastern Europeans making their home in the UK over the last decade immigration has become, once again, a mainstream political issue. The leaders of the three main political parties have all given major speeches on the issue in recent weeks.</p>
		                      
		           		<p>One reason for that may be that the polls show that over half the population think immigration should be cut - by a lot - and that voters now trust the new political kid on the block, UKIP, most on the issue. It was the key driver of votes to UKIP in the recent Eastleigh by-election where the party shocked the Westminster village by coming second.</p>
		                      
		           		<p>Voters have been asking politicians to fix what they see as a problem for years. What has changed recently, though, is the number who say that the impact of immigration has been &quot;very bad&quot; - it's almost doubled from 11 to 21% over the last decade.</p>
		                      
		           		<p>According to the British Social Attitudes survey, it's the poorest, least well educated and most insecure who feel that most including, interestingly, many first or second-generation migrants.</p>
		                      
		           		<p>In Peterborough market Ian, who runs the shoe-repair stall, tells me that his house is for sale as he no longer believes his son will get a good education in the city. One school recently revealed that none of its pupils spoke English as a first language. In Peterborough 10% of households have no-one at home who speaks English.</p>
		                      
		           		<p>Once the issue of immigration and race were inextricably linked, making the issue hard for mainstream politicians to talk about without being accused of racism. The arrival of so many white Christian Europeans has changed all that.</p>
		                      
		           		<p>Interestingly, Param Singh, who runs the One World food stall supplying ingredients from all over the world to the city's Afro-Caribbean and Asian residents, agrees. He tells me that when his father moved from the Punjab to Peterborough he integrated - not so, he claims, those who have made the journey from Europe.</p>
		                      
		           		<p>The florist, Steve - white, working-class and British - welcomes the new immigrants. He lives in nearby Boston, in which many of those who work on the land - and work hard for low pay - are eastern Europeans. Their labour allows businesses like his to keep going, he argues.</p>
		                      
		           		<p>Peterborough's political leader is an Italian. Marco Cereste's family came in the 1950s with thousands of fellow countrymen recruited to work in the local brick works which, you guessed it, couldn't find locals to do the dirty jobs.</p>
		                      
		           		<p>Marco remembers being called a &quot;wop&quot;, being beaten up at school and being refused a place at the local grammar on the grounds that an Italian couldn't make good use of the opportunity.</p>
		                      
		           		<p>A Conservative, in a city where the local Tory MP has led calls for tougher immigration control, he insists that he is an optimist. The Poles will fit in just as the Italians did. Immigration has posed real problems for the council but it has also brought economic growth.</p>
		                      
		           		<p>In my film I examined public attitudes, not policies.</p>
		                      
		           		<p>While politicians are catching up with the public by debating how to limit immigration, people are increasingly asking questions not just about who should now be allowed to come here, but how to achieve integration in a society which has changed dramatically in recent years.</p>
		                      
		           		<p>The Editors is broadcast on BBC One on Monday 29 April at 23:25 BST. It is also on BBC World News.</p>
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                <link>http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-22339080</link>
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                <pubDate>Tue, 30 Apr 2013 04:09:09 +0100</pubDate>
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                <title>Clegg prepares for spending 'bunfight'</title>
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		           		<p>Listen hard in Whitehall and you will hear the sound of what Nick Clegg told me today was a &quot;bunfight&quot;.</p>
		                      
		           		<p>Ministers are squaring up for a battle over whose budget is to be cut next. A further £11bn in cuts have to be found and announced in June even though they won't be implemented for another two years.</p>
		                      
		           		<p>Today the deputy prime minister insisted that the schools budget would continue to be spent on schools and not raided to limit the cuts at the Ministry of Defence, as some reports had suggested.</p>
		                      
		           		<p>&quot;Secretaries of State will take a lot of time over the next few weeks coming up with ever more exotic reasons why their budgets shouldn't be cut and other people's should be,&quot; he said.</p>
		                      
		           		<p>&quot;That's just the nature of the Whitehall bunfight that precedes a Whitehall spending round and I can't second guess the precise details, we'll announce that in June.</p>
		                      
		           		<p>&quot;But what I can tell you, that the protections for the NHS, the protections for schools, the guarantee that we'll spend 0.7% of our national wealth on the poorest people in the world through development assistance, they will remain there.</p>
		                      
		           		<p>&quot;And of course the schools budget is for schools, it is not there to run the day-to-day operations of the ministry of defence in military terms. It is there for schools, and it will always remain there, for schools.&quot;</p>
		                      
		           		<p>Nick Clegg has always maintained that he only formed a coalition with the Conservatives because that was what the public voted for. Today I asked him whether he was ready to serve as Deputy Prime Minister under Ed Miliband. A hypothetical question he says ...a decision for the country.</p>
		                      
		           		<p>But when he was pushed, he replied: &quot;Absolutely. If the public say the only way in which this country can be governed in a sensible centre-ground stable way would be as a coalition, of different combinations as now, but still involving Lib Dems, I would, just as last time - the Lib Dems would just as last time - do our duty to the country, because what we care about is doing our duty to the country, to get this country through these difficult times to create a stronger economy, but to do so as fairly as possible.&quot;</p>
		                      
		           		<p>It is clear that what many may see as unthinkable is - to the Lib Dem leader - simply the logical possibility of another close general election.</p>
		                      
		           		<p>In the meantime, though, he appeared to fear that UKIP could push the Lib Dems into fourth place in this week's local elections.</p>
		                      
		           		<p>I asked him why the new kids on the political block were beating his party in the opinion polls.</p>
		                      
		           		<p>&quot;I don't think it's surprising,&quot; he replied. &quot;You see it in lots of European countries, where there's a lot of economical turmoil, of course it is attractive for political parties to pop up and say we don't have to take any difficult decisions. I think the more UKIP policies - rather than the lack of them - are scrutinised, the less appealing they will become.&quot;</p>
		                      
		           		<p>Asked whether there was a danger the Liberal Democrats could be relegated to the fourth party of British politics behind UKIP, he added: &quot;I don't think that will happen in the general election.&quot;</p>
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                <link>http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-22341514</link>
                <guid isPermaLink="true">http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-22341514</guid>
                <pubDate>Mon, 29 Apr 2013 19:42:02 +0100</pubDate>
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                <title>Cameron turns brickie for the day</title>
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		           		<p>In hard hat, hi-vis vest and wielding a trowel, the prime minister turned brickie today on a building site in Chorley - the same Lancashire town Ed Miliband visited on Monday.</p>
		                      
		           		<p>He insisted that this was not the first time he'd laid bricks before, joking to the professionals that he was a bit worried he was &quot;the weak link in the chain&quot;.</p>
		                      
		           		<p>The choices of destinations and photo opportunities tell you a good deal about the men fighting to hold the keys to Number 10 after the next election. The North West is one of the key battlegrounds in that contest. Lancashire is a key Labour target in next week's county council elections.</p>
		                      
		           		<p>Where Ed Miliband's soap box speech in Chorley market was clearly designed to counter the oft-repeated charge that he's unable to connect with ordinary people (the so-called &quot;weird&quot; factor) David Cameron was, no doubt, trying to prove that he too is not out of touch (the so-called &quot;toff&quot; factor).</p>
		                      
		           		<p>The prime minister was also promoting the government's new Help to Buy scheme, which subsidises mortgages for those with small deposits. He argues that the government is stepping in to fill a gap left by the banks - who are demanding historically high deposits from people who would normally have no difficulty buying a home.</p>
		                      
		           		<p>This scheme is loved by the housebuilders, who helped design it. Half the 120 or so homes which Barratts expect to sell this year on their new estate in Chorley are likely to receive a government subsidy.</p>
		                      
		           		<p>Help to Buy is not, though, without its critics. The all-party Treasury Select Committee has demanded to know why the government is, in effect, propping up house prices.</p>
		                      
		           		<p>They have also asked the government to explain how it will ever be able to stop supporting homeowners once they've started and how they'll avoid subsidising second home owners. Others focus on questions of fairness. Why should someone able to buy a home worth up to £600,000 get a taxpayer subsidy when those renting and dependent on housing benefit are facing cuts?</p>
		                      
		           		<p>Whatever the rights and wrongs economically David Cameron knows that home building is one of the most potent images in British politics. Tory Prime Minister Harold Macmillan promised to build 300,000 homes; Margaret Thatcher sold people their council houses and, as David Cameron told his fellow brickies on a roof in Chorley on Friday, Winston Churchill used to lay bricks as a form of relaxation.</p>
		                      
		           		<p>PS I'll be putting some of these concerns to David Cameron in an interview later.</p>
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                <link>http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-22307228</link>
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                <pubDate>Fri, 26 Apr 2013 14:10:04 +0100</pubDate>
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                <title>GDP figures: Relief at the Treasury</title>
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		           		<p>There will have been less of a sigh and more a giant heave of relief in the Treasury when they saw the latest growth figures.</p>
		                      
		           		<p>Ministers feared that any number with a minus sign attached would have produced headlines about a triple dip which, combined with the recent warnings from the IMF and increases in unemployment, would have fuelled a debate about whether the government's economic strategy was failing - a debate which would have been a gift not just for Labour but the doubters in both the coalition parties.</p>
		                      
		           		<p>As it is, the public rhetoric from ministers will remain all about staying the course and a long hard road ahead.</p>
		                      
		           		<p>In private they continue to angst not just about how to get the banks lending to small and medium sized businesses, how to get the the housing and construction sectors moving and how to boost manufacturing and exports, but also about how to learn to live an a semi-permanent state of low growth.</p>
		                      
		           		<p>Economists will tell you that not much changed today. When you're in government no news is the very best news of all.</p>
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                <link>http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-22302115</link>
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                <pubDate>Thu, 25 Apr 2013 18:01:26 +0100</pubDate>
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                <title>Ministers look at Abu Qatada options</title>
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		           		<p>The idea of Britain temporarily leaving the European Convention on Human Rights in order to deport Abu Qatada was not discussed at a meeting chaired by the Prime Minister on Tuesday - contrary to some reports.</p>
		                      
		           		<p>David Cameron called the meeting to insist that senior ministers - including the home and justice secretaries and the attorney general - &quot;consider all the options&quot; if the latest strategy for deporting Qatada does not succeed.</p>
		                      
		           		<p>Theresa May told MPs that she believed a new treaty with Jordan would finally allow Abu Qatada to be returned for trail there - albeit after another lengthy legal process. Jordan has agreed to change its law to ensure that no evidence obtained by torture could be used in his case.</p>
		                      
		           		<p>The home secretary went on to say: &quot;We should have all options, including leaving the convention altogether on the table.&quot;</p>
		                      
		           		<p>However, it is clear that this is under consideration not as a short-term solution to the Abu Qatada problem but for possible inclusion in the next Conservative manifesto.</p>
		                      
		           		<p>The Liberal Democrats have made clear that they would not stay in the coalition if the prime minister proposed pulling out of the convention. No country has left since the Greek military junta withdrew in the early 1970s.</p>
		                      
		           		<p>Furthermore, Whitehall sources say that the Home Office legal advice is that, even if Britain did leave the convention, Abu Qatada's case would not be affected by the new legal situation.</p>
		                      
		           		<p>Downing Street is keen to stress the prime minister's impatience with the 10-year legal fight and his determination to do whatever is necessary to see him deported before the next election.</p>
		                      
		           		<p>They suggest that Nick Clegg and the Liberal democrats would have questions to answer if they stood in the way of anything that prevented Abu Qatada's deportation.</p>
		                      
		           		<p>One idea being considered by Conservative ministers is to invite MPs of all parties to support a motion demonstrating their opposition to court rulings - as was used on the issue of prisoner voting rights.</p>
		                      
		           		<p>This would also allow the Tories to put the Lib Dems on the spot on the issue.</p>
		                      
		           		<p>Ministers have rejected the idea of simply putting the suspected terrorist on a plane, as to do so they would have order police and immigration officers to break the law.</p>
		                      
		           		<p>There are plans in a forthcoming immigration bill to change the law to allow people to be deported and appeal against the decision from abroad instead of, as now, in the UK.</p>
		                      
		           		<p>Ministers are also examining ways to streamline and speed up the appeals process in such cases.</p>
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		        </description>
                <link>http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-22283130</link>
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                <pubDate>Wed, 24 Apr 2013 21:42:18 +0100</pubDate>
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                <title>Will Ed's soapbox show wash with voters?</title>
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		           		<p>It's back. The politician's soap box.</p>
		                      
		           		<p>But look who's following in John Major's footsteps. It's Ed Miliband.</p>
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		        </description>
                <link>http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-22255521</link>
                <guid isPermaLink="true">http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-22255521</guid>
                <pubDate>Mon, 22 Apr 2013 17:55:10 +0100</pubDate>
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                <title>Are we all Thatcherites now?</title>
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		           		<p>David Cameron's claim on BBC Radio 4 that &quot;in a sense we are all Thatcherites now&quot; is being seen by some as evidence that Margaret Thatcher's funeral is being used to make a party political point.</p>
		                      
		           		<p>However, I think the prime minister was making a rather different point to the one some think he is making. Yes, he was asserting that Lady Thatcher had, like Labour's Clement Attlee before her, forged a new political consensus.</p>
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		        </description>
                <link>http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-22180611</link>
                <guid isPermaLink="true">http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-22180611</guid>
                <pubDate>Wed, 17 Apr 2013 10:27:49 +0100</pubDate>
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                <title>Party leaders are all Thatcher's children</title>
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		           		<p>A wake is, you might think, no time to stage a political debate. And so it proved today at Westminster. Many of those who loathed Margaret Thatcher's politics chose to stay away or stay silent or to mute their views.</p>
		                      
		           		<p>It would, though, be a mistake to imagine that this was a day shorn of political significance.</p>
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		        </description>
                <link>http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-22100850</link>
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                <pubDate>Wed, 10 Apr 2013 17:43:47 +0100</pubDate>
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                <title>Current generation show Thatcher influence</title>
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		        		        	<![CDATA[
		                      
		           		<p>When Margaret Thatcher stood on the steps of 10 Downing Street on her first day as Prime Minister David Cameron was 12 years old, Ed Miliband was 9 and George Osborne was 7.</p>
		                      
		           		<p>Just under half of current MPs (319) would have either not been born yet or were 18 years old or younger*</p>
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		        </description>
                <link>http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-22091809</link>
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                <pubDate>Wed, 10 Apr 2013 13:41:59 +0100</pubDate>
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                <title>Margaret Thatcher's legacy</title>
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		           		<p>In an era in which politicians are all too often greeted with indifference, it is easy to forget that Britain was once led by a woman who inspired passion - both love and loathing.</p>
		                      
		           		<p>Margaret Thatcher's conviction, her resolve, her iron self-belief led many to see her as Britain's post-war saviour - the woman who cured the so-called &quot;British disease&quot;, tamed trade unions and vanquished the Argentine Junta in the South Atlantic.</p>
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		        </description>
                <link>http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-22067985</link>
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                <pubDate>Mon, 08 Apr 2013 14:30:50 +0100</pubDate>
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                <title>Is that it for David Miliband?</title>
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		        		        	<![CDATA[
		                      
		           		<p>The best way I could help Labour was to leave the country. Thus, the man who so nearly became his party's leader explains his decision to head stateside - a decision David Miliband only revealed to close allies in the past two days and didn't dare tell his young children about in case the news leaked out.</p>
		                      
		           		<p>I interviewed him in the same room at his north London home we spoke in two and a half years ago after his shock defeat by his brother, Ed. Today I sensed a man who was a prisoner of events beyond his control - who felt unable to take a top frontbench job and yet equally unable to turn one down and stay on the backbenches for fear he would be scripting the next episode of Westminster's favourite soap opera: &quot;The Brothers.&quot;</p>
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		        </description>
                <link>http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-21953645</link>
                <guid isPermaLink="true">http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-21953645</guid>
                <pubDate>Wed, 27 Mar 2013 12:42:13 +0000</pubDate>
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