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Nick Clegg Web Chat - 20.01.2010 - Transcript
Leader of the Liberal Democracts, Nick Clegg MP, joined us for a web chat on Wednesday 20th January 2010. Below is an edited transcript of the web chat.
To see the full web chat go to http://www.ukypforums.org.uk/showthread.php?t=4869
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Kingston1991: I and many other students at my University and across the country feel let down by the Liberal Democrats' policy of University Tuition fees. First your party said they were committed to abolishing them, now we have been told they will be phased out over a period of six years. Student tuition fees are a very sensitive issue and a vast number of the Lib Dem vote comes from students. Could cuts not be found in other areas, on other programmes, in order for your party to abolish tuition fees in the first term should you be part of a government?
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Nick Clegg: Let me be clear. We are the only party which will scrap tuition fees. They are wrong. It’s just plain wrong that young people who are studying hard are having to leave university with this dead weight of debt around their necks before their adult life has even started. We will scrap tuition fees. But we want to treat students like grown-ups and everyone knows that money is tight now and when money is tight you can’t do everything exactly as we could when there was much more money around. So what we are saying is that we will scrap them but it will take a little bit longer. It will take six years rather than doing it overnight as we once thought we could. We will do this immediately by scrapping tuition fees for all students in their final year of study. And then we will work down to the other years, and extend it to part time students, and so over a six year period this injustice of tuition fees will be scrapped.
Kyle15: The Liberal Democrats have often talked about changing the electoral system, is your party open to investigating voting at 16 and standing and possible election to any office at 16?
Nick Clegg: I think that people should be able to vote at the age of 16. The government can ask a 16 year old to join the army and fight in Afghanistan, and possibly lose their life in Afghanistan, but that 16 or 17 year old is not allowed to vote for the government who is asking them to lay their life on the line. That is just wrong. If you can ask someone to die for this country, they should have the right to vote for the government of the country. So I can guarantee that we will continue to campaign for votes at 16.
Mossad: How do you think political parties can be improved to appeal to young people? I was a member of your party for a year, but didn't really get anything out of it.
Nick Clegg: I’m sorry to hear that. My experience is what young people want when they get involved with politics is to feel they are being listened to and to feel they have a role in how political parties develop their ideas. The Liberal Democrats are different for so many reasons. One of the big ways we are different is that I can’t make up policy just like that. We are a democratic party as the name suggests. We are the Liberal Democrats. We believe in democracy in the country of course, but believe in internal democracy as well. Our policies are formed by members, thousands of members up and down the country, sending in their ideas and also coming to our conferences where we formally adopt and change policy. So I hope if you want to be involved with politics, joining the Liberal Democrats is the way to get really involved.
grace1996: Rural areas like Lincolnshire suffer from a lack of amenities such as swimming pools to help young people keep fit, and having to travel many miles by car undermines the ethos of trying to reduce our carbon footprint. Do you think there should be free public transport available to counter these problems?
Nick Clegg: I think the problem is that in rural parts of the country, there just isn’t a regular bus service for young people to use. I was talking to a friend of mine, who is an MP in rural part of Somerset, and he was saying for some young people it is really difficult, they feel really cut off. There just isn’t a regular bus service where they can get on to the bus and meet their friends or go to the nearest town where there might be a swimming pool or a public gym they might want to use. So I think we have to make bus services more available. It’s frankly a scandal that bus services have been privatised in the way they have. In pretty much any part of the country, outside London, bus companies can now chop and change routes, cancel routes, chop and change fares without asking any local people. I want to see the way buses are regulated in London applied in every part of the country, so that the patchwork of bus services (where in some areas they do provide affordable tickets to young people) are spread much more evenly around the country.
annie: How sucessful do you think the United Nations Climate Change Conference in Copenhagne were? If you could change the talks, What would you have done to make a more sutible, strong and effective binding deal?
Nick Clegg: It was a spectacular failure and disappointment. If we don’t make up for the failure of an ambitious agreement, Copenhagen might go down in the history books as the moment that political leaders around the world failed to face up to the biggest crisis this generation faces, which is chronic and escalating climate change. I think it was particularly worrying that the US President, Barack Obama (who in so many other respects people look to for hope in global affairs) basically cut a deal with the Chinese government and cut out and ignored Europe, which was pressing for a much more ambitious agreement. So I think Europe needs to work out how as a European bloc we can get the Chinese and Americans back to the negotiating table and say “this isn’t good enough”. We need big cuts in carbon dioxide emissions, which are legally binding, which all of us sign up to. Otherwise, we are selling the planet short. Is that really what this generation of political leaders want to be remembered for?
Liam Hannan: In Scotland, the Liberal Democrats made a promise to the Youth Parliament that Lib Dem MSPs would work with MSYPs to introduce one bill a year, if the MSYPs so wished (I don't know if this has ever been followed up on). Would the 'Dems at Westminster be willing to offer a similar deal to UKYP?
Nick Clegg: As you know the system in Westminster is quite different to Holyrood. The House of Commons is frankly a bit of a stitch up, where the government of the day can do what it likes. So it’s much more difficult for opposition parties in Westminster to get new legislation on the statute books as it is in younger parliaments like Holyrood. I wish we could have the freedom to say we will be able table a bill whenever we like but it just doesn’t work like that. This stitch up in Westminster, where everything is done according to the wishes of the government whips, rather than the wishes of the British people, is one of the many reasons I think we need to completely change the way things are run. But in a reformed parliament, where things work better, I would love to think that the Liberal Democrats could work with Members of the Youth Parliament and other groups in tabling new draft legislation.
Andy Gray: Your party supports proportional representation, do you not think that using PR could see a rise in extremist parties gaining representation? Having the extremist parties gaining any sort of representation is bad in my book.
Nick Clegg: Power should belong to the people of Britain – all of them. Not just those who live in marginal seats. We don’t tackle the BNP by denying people that power. We tackle the BNP by addressing the concerns which get people to vote for them.
That means creating an immigration system which works – bringing back exit controls, for instance – so that people can have confidence in it. And we need to sort out the country’s housing crisis – making cheap loans and grants available so that people can bring houses back into use, for instance, and letting councils borrow money to buy up unused homes.
The first past the post system can’t be relied on too stop the growth of extremism. As BNP councilors in Burnley, Barking and Dagenham, Stoke and others all show, it won’t. Far right parties prey on people’s frustration. Any voting system that’s as disempowering as the current one is part of the problem, not the solution.
Generation Zero: By when would you plan to extricate British troops from the dangerous and wasteful war in Afghanistan?
Nick Clegg: What we are doing in Afghanistan is extremely important. We simply cannot allow Afghanistan to revert to a haven for terrorism, with its people oppressed and impoverished.
But of course we want our troops to come home as soon as possible with their heads held high, having been successful in the job we asked them to do. For that to happen we don’t only need a clear military strategy; we need a clear political strategy too.
Stability will only be possible in Afghanistan if its people have faith in their new political institutions. So the corruption that has been rife in Karzai’s government must be stamped out. And that government must be willing to work with its opponents, and power should be dispersed to tribal leaders, in order to bridge ethnic and tribal divisions. I also believe the role of Afghanistan’s neighbours is crucial in ensuring stability, including China and Iran.
RedAlert: Nick, would you continue your support of both the armed forces and the police in this country by ensuring they get the best eqiupment?
Nick Clegg: I absolutely agree our troops should be properly equipped – and I think they should be paid more; it’s outrageous that starting salaries are lower than for constables or nurses. I’ve been campaigning on this and we’re committed to spending MoD money better so we can afford it.
We also need to rethink our defence spending. With the public finances in such a mess we have to be sensible about using the money that is available to make Britain as secure as possible. That means working more with our allies, especially in Europe, for example on buying equipment more efficiently. And it also means taking decisions on the projects we really need. The Trident nuclear missile system is a good example. It’s a cold war relic that doesn’t provide us with the best protection against modern threats. We shouldn’t be spending billions of pounds replacing it on a like-for-like basis.
LordAnubis: With Business as a whole being shook up within the past few years for a number of different reasons, where do you see young people playing a role in this and how would you maximise them playing a role, if any?
Nick Clegg: It’s simply not fair that young people – who had nothing to do with this recession – have been hit so hard by it. Out of every five people who are out of work, two are under 24. Struggling to find work at that stage in a person’s career can do real damage to their self confidence. So under a Lib Dem government no young person would spend more than 90 days on Jobseekers Allowance before we gave them more training or an internship. That’s not just right for them, it’s right for the economy. Young people have a huge amount to contribute – talent we can’t afford to waste.
kyle15: Mr Clegg, you talk about a fairer society, what is fair about hard working people who have been hard working, prudent and successful to be punished for this by massive taxes? Whats fair about making pensioners, who have bought houses years ago, pay massive taxes because their house increased in price from when they bought it?
Nick Clegg: Britain suffers from a tax system that is grossly unfair. The poorest people in society lose a bigger chunk of their income to the tax man that the richest. My party believes we need to correct that imbalance. Especially as millions of families struggle through this recession. It’s only right that those with the broadest shoulders bear more of the burden.
That’s why the Lib Dems are proposing a ‘mansion tax’ - a small additional levy on the value of homes above £2m, which would affect less than a quarter of a percent of properties. Of course any change to the tax system raises some legitimate concerns, but we’ve planned for those, particularly for pensioners. So over-65s could roll over their tax bill each year, for instance, and have the bill eventually paid out of their estate.
The mansion tax is one part of a radical package of reforms to make the tax system fairer. We also want to make sure no one pays tax on the first £10,000 they earn, putting £700 back in the average earners pockets.
Jamest: What do you think about the term - "The LibLabCon", basically suggesting that there are no big differences between the main parties, and they are all infact are very similar. Do you agree?
Nick Clegg: You should vote Lib Dem if you believe in fairness. Fair taxes – making the wealthy pay their fair share so that everyone else can pay less; a fair start for children – cutting class sizes and targeting help for disadvantaged children; a fair jobs package - putting money into green employment; and a fair politics – handing power back to people.
Labour has had 13 years to deliver on fairness, but inequality’s got worse, not better. And the Tories main priority is cutting inheritance tax for the best off. If you want a fairer Britain, you have to vote Lib Dem.
awki: In the much anticipated TV debate this year, how will you show young people that they are not just voting for a skillfull and charismatic leader, but also for a party whose central tenets are uniquely appealing to anyone who values a stronger and fairer society?
Nick Clegg: This election is a real opportunity for the Liberal Democrats. People are fed up of the same old empty promises they get from the other parties. I travel around the country a lot, speaking to people from all over, and you can really feel the appetite for something different. As for the debates, they’re a real opportunity for parties to get across their vision for Britain. Personality does play a part in politics, but at the end of the day what people really care about is values.
Austin Sheridan: Do you think the Scottish Lib-Dems should support a referendum on independence to give the people of Scotland the democratic right to choose whether they want to remain in the Union or not?
Nick Clegg: I’m happy to have the debate on independence – it’s an important one. But I do think that at a time when Scots are worrying about their jobs and their homes, a referendum on independence – which it’s pretty clear would be lost – isn’t a priority. What I am keen to see are rapid moves to give the Scottish Parliament more powers within the UK, especially over raising its own money. The Calman Commission gave us a plan; we should run with it fast.
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