30/10/2009

Available for over a year

On Politics UK this week, we ask what chance of Tony Blair becoming European president. We hear from Charles Grant, head of the Centre for European Reform think tank about the damage he says Conservative opposition has done to Mr Blair’s prospects. And we ask the Tory politician David Heathcote-Amory why his party is determined to deny the post to the former British prime minister. The House of Lords has been debating a new law to protect an estimated one thousand workers in the UK, who are held in conditions which amount to slavery. Two hundred years after the abolition of the slave trade in Britain, Paul Donohoe of the campaign group Anti-Slavery International explains why he believes the new law is necessary. The government’s hopes that the British economy was returning to growth were dashed by figures published this week. With Germany, France and Japan already bouncing back, we’ll be discussing the political implications of Britain’s long-lasting recession with the economist Ruth Lea, and Larry Elliott, economics editor of “The Guardian” newspaper. We’ll also examine why the government climbed down this week over 20 million pound cuts to training for the territorial army. Tory MP Desmond Swayne saw active service with the TA in Iraq. He explains the role of the territorials in our national life, But we’ll also be hearing that not all the military brass are pleased that the cuts have been restored. Finally, history in the making as Britain’s Youth parliament debates for the first time on the Commons green benches. With MPs often accused of behaving like teenagers, we’ll meet two of the teenagers aspiring to behave like MPs. Presented by Ben Wright.