- 09/04/2010
09/04/2010
LISTEN:
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Available to listen.
Last broadcast yesterday, 20:00 on BBC Radio 4.
This Programme Is On Air Now:
Listen Live on BBC Radio 4 (Started at 13:10)
SYNOPSIS
Jonathan Dimbleby is the guest of the Eden Valley Hospice in Cumbria with questions from the audience for the panel including: Andy Burnham MP, Secretary of State for Health; Eric Pickles MP, Conservative Party Chairman; Jo Swinson MP, Liberal Democrat spokesperson for Foreign Affairs and Daily Mail political columnist Peter Oborne.
THIS WEEK'S PANEL
ANDY BURNHAM MP is Secretary of State for Health. This week he defended the closure of an A&E department in Burnley and said some of the changes were "very divisive and very difficult". "In my own backyard in Greater Manchester we have had a very divisive change to children's and maternity services but many of us have argued for that change, because we believe it's right because of safety and quality. Andrew Lansley went to all those places saying the Conservatives will reverse all those changes. I don't think that is a responsible or credible position for somebody aspiring to be Secretary of State." After talk of a so-called Death Tax, he was involved in a bitter row with his Conservative Shadow earlier this year after the collapse of talks between the two of them and the Liberal Democrat health spokesman on the future of social care. He published a White Paper on social care funding last week. Since he took his seat at Westminster as MP for Leigh in 2001, he has made swift progress to the top table. In 2007 he was promoted to Chief Secretary to the Treasury, and eight months later took his second Cabinet seat as Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport before he was moved to his current position in the June reshuffle last year. In 2006 he was tipped as ‘Minister to Watch’ by The Spectator magazine. Born in Liverpool, he studied English at Cambridge and went straight to parliament as researcher to Tessa Jowell on the opposition health team.
ERIC PICKLES MP is Chairman of the Conservative Party. Launching the party’s campaign in Wales this week, he said David Cameron had "the energy, the leadership and the values to get Britain moving again". In his speech at last year’s party conference, he described his party as the home of Liberal democracy. Popular with the rank and file, one survey among the Tory grassroots ranked him as the second favourite member of the Shadow Cabinet after William Hague. Last year he ran the party’s local election campaign and the successful campaign to win the Crewe and Nantwich by-election. Before entering parliament, he led Bradford District Council for three years. Following his election as MP for Brentwood and Ongar in 1992, his experience was utilised when he became a vice-chairman of the party with responsibility for local government. In 2001 he defeated a challenge from the independent candidate Martin Bell to his parliamentary seat. He grew up above his uncle’s grocery shop in Keighley, and last month told The Times, "I am working class from the North of England" and said he was "very proud to be super-common".
JO SWINSON MP speaks for the Liberal Democrats on Foreign Affairs. She was 25 when she won the East Dunbartonshire seat from Labour at the last general election, and was the youngest MP elected to Westminster. Seen as one of her party’s rising stars, she was given a front bench role the following year. In the past three years she has been her party’s spokesperson on: Culture, Media and Sport; Scotland; and Women and Equalities. Born in Glasgow, she wanted to become a politician even as a teenager. She went on to become Vice Chair of the Liberal Democrats’ Youth and Students wing. At 21, she stood against John Prescott in Hull East in 2001, and stood also as an MSP in the Scottish elections of 2003. She was one of the first MPs to use podcasting as a form of regular communication with constituents.
PETER OBORNE is a political columnist for the Daily Mail and was formerly political editor of The Spectator, for which he still writes. He was not a fan of last month’s Budget: "I have listened to many budgets in my time as a political reporter and I cannot remember one that was half as dishonest as Darling's". He is a Conservative supporter but with some reservations: "The great question now in British politics is whether David Cameron is capable of offering an alternative to the bent politics of New Labour. The answer is that the signals are mixed." Peter read history at Cambridge University before working as a banker for three years and then moving into journalism. He has written a number of books including, in 2005, The Rise of Political Lying and, in 2007, The Triumph of the Political Class. In 1999 he wrote a biography of Alistair Campbell. In addition to his prolific work with the pen, he has made several documentary films for Channel 4, including one last week on the clashes between Christians and Muslims in Nigeria, in which he warned that what was happening now was similar to events in the 1960s before the outbreak of the Biafran war. Other programmes include, Mugabe’s Secret Famine; and Afghanistan, Here's One We Invaded Earlier. He is a keen cricketer and won the William Hill Sports Book of the year in 2004 for a biography of Basil D'Oliveira.
BROADCASTS
- Fri 9 Apr 201020:00
- Sat 10 Apr 201013:10
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