Tag: Vicky Ford

European Parliament with a crisis on its hands

08:09 Tuesday 1st September 2015
BBC Radio Cambridgeshire

DOTTY MCLEOD: You can call them refugees. You can call them migrants. According to figures from the United Nations, 300,000 people have risked their lives trying to cross the Mediterranean to reach Europe so far this year. Thousands more are attempting to get to the Continent by road, often hidden in lorries. There was a story at the tail end of last week of more than 70 people who died in the back of a lorry trying to get across the Hungarian border. Many of these people are fleeing conflicts in Syria and Afghanistan. So should we be doing more to help? It’s a question that will certainly be top of the agenda as Members of the European Parliament return to work this week after the summer break. Vicky Ford is the Conservative MEP for the East of England and is based here in Cambridgeshire. Vicky good morning.
VICKY FORD: Yes good morning, and indeed I’m going straight from here off to catch the Eurostar to go there this week. I know this will be top of the agenda when the MEPs get back together, and there also is going to be more meetings of the Home Secretary and her equivalents across Europe next week, and then Prime Ministers. The situation is completely unprecedented in my lifetime. The Syrian crisis means there’s eleven million displaced people in Syria. Three million of them living outside Syria. Many of them desperate to get away from the horror that’s happening in their own countries. So I think we need to have a mixed approach. We need to have compassion for true refugees, true asylum seekers, and help support them with the horror that they’re fleeing. But also we need to have a very firm approach with the economic migrants that we cannot support both. So we need to make sure that where people are not asylum seekers, when they’re not refugees from these desperate situations, that they can be returned quickly and safely. And also a very firm …
DOTTY MCLEOD: But here’s the thing Vicky. Here’s the thing. How do you choose between? How do you tell between? Because in places like Calais at the moment all process has broken down. So what do you do?
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David Cameron calls for pre-election private sector pay boost

09:23 Tuesday 10th February 2015
BBC Radio Cambridgeshire

PAUL STAINTON: When was the last time you had a payrise? Well never fear, because DC David Cameron is urging business leaders today to give their staff payrises. He will say that economic conditions have not been this good for such a long time. Well with us this morning to discuss what David Cameron has had to say about this is Darren Fower, LibDem Parliamentary candidate for Peterborough. Morning sir.
DARREN FOWER: Good morning Paul.
PAUL STAINTON: We’ve got Daniel Zeichner with us as well. He’s the Labour Parliamentary candidate for Cambridge. Morning Daniel.
DANIEL ZEICHNER: Morning Paul.
PAUL STAINTON: And Vicky Ford, who’s the Conservative MEP for the East of England. Morning Vicky.
VICKY FORD: Morning.
PAUL STAINTON: He’s set the cat among the pigeons hasn’t he, DC this morning? We’re all going to get a payrise. I’m looking forward to it Vicky.
VICKY FORD: Oh well, it is the case that we are now the fastest growing economy in the Western world, and that’s all due to the Long Term Economic Plan working. And I think people would like to see pay rise, and this is the Prime Minister encouraging businesses to realise that the situation is looking better than it’s done for a while. And if they can afford to, let’s put some of that money back in people’s pockets.
PAUL STAINTON: Is he going to lead by example and put pensions up for pensioners,. give them a payrise?
VICKY FORD: This is looking at the private sector, not the public sector.
PAUL STAINTON: Oh right.
VICKY FORD: Because of course the public sector, you know, we still need to keep working on this debt and deficit, and correcting that mess that we were left behind by the last Government. So this is saying to the private sector, to businesses, growth is coming. They’ve done a good job. We’ve got two million more new jobs created by businesses. We’ve obviously given people a tax cut. 27 million people have benefited for that tax cut. That’s at the lowest end of pay.
PAUL STAINTON: But if things are so good Vicky, why doesn’t he practice what he preaches?
VICKY FORD: Well he is saying now it’s time for the private sector to also deliver on giving benefits. He has practiced what he’s preaching in that he has put the money through his low taxes into 27 million pockets. So your pay slip is looking better at the bottom line. But he’d like the businesses to start making it look better at the top line.
PAUL STAINTON: Good news Daniel, isn’t it, that the economy is doing so well? Good news that we can all afford as a small business, medium business, to give our employees a payrise apparently.
DANIEL ZEICHNER: Well the hypocrisy is just breathtaking, isn’t it? Cameron is the boss of millions of workers in this country, National Health Service workers for instance. And has he even followed the advice of his own independent pay review body? Not at all. So what he’s doing is he’s ambling out of his champagne reception from last night, wandering along to the Chambers of Commerce, and just basically saying to Britain’s hard working business leaders, you should do it. I’m not prepared to do it. And don’t forget that people are now something like £1600 a year worse off. This is going to be the first time that people have gone into a General Election worse off than at the last election. We’ve got 1.4 million people on zero-hours contracts. Frankly Cameron is not going to deliver on any of this. It’s just a pre-election speech, and I hope people will see through it.
PAUL STAINTON: We’ve spoken to the Chairman of Cambridgeshire’s Chamber of Commerce, John Bridge. He can’t come on this morning because he’s actually at the conference and just taking his seat. But he says he’d “prefer the Government to keep their opinions to themselves and focus on bringing in investment and developing growth. many businesses can’t afford pay rises at this time, so to recommend them isn’t very wise.” Darren Fower, where’s the LibDems? Stop him. I thought that was what you were doing. You were reining him in. Continue reading “David Cameron calls for pre-election private sector pay boost”

Initial reaction from East of England MEPs to the Syriza victory in Greece

17:10 Monday 26th January 2015
BBC Radio Cambridgeshire

CHRIS MANN: The Leader of the left-wing Syriza party Alex Tsipras will be sworn in as the new Greek Prime Minister later. He’s agreed to form a coalition with the right-wing Independent Greece. Both are against austerity measures imposed in return for an international bail-out. David Cameron says what’s happening in Greece shows how important it is for Britain to stick to its economic plan.
(TAPE)
DAVID CAMERON: Instability in the Eurozone, less rapid growth from the developing economies, these things, these warning signs I believe point even more to the importance of sticking to our long-term economic plan that is delivering, rather than taking a risk with the people who got us into this mess with their plans for more borrowing, more spending, more tax.
(LIVE)
CHRIS MANN: So, keep on course. But is that really the best idea? Let’s find out now. Let’s get two reactions. Vicky Ford is Conservative MEP for the eastern region. Hello Vicky.
VICKY FORD: Hi. Good evening.
CHRIS MANN: And she’s in our Brussels studio, along with Richard Howitt, who’s the Labour MEP for this region as well. Hello Richard.
RICHARD HOWITT: Good evening to you Chris.
CHRIS MANN: So you Richard, first of all.Your reaction to that vote in Greece.
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