News from Labour Matters

Prime Minister responds to YouTube questioners

Gordon Brown has responded to videos posted via the YouTube Internet video site asking questions of the Prime Minister. In a series of video replies, Mr Brown answered questions on the reduction of the voting age; climate change; fuel taxes; 42 days detention without trial; knife crime; freedom of speech; prison policy; and, of course the now obligatory question about his leadership.

The video answers are in response to the Ask the PM initiative on the Number 10 YouTube channel which were promised “by the end of June” but posted ten days late.

Posed a question about the reduction of the voting age from 14-year-old Adam Kaye, the Prime Minister responded that the issue was currently being consulted upon via the Youth Citizenship Commission, recently established by the Government, but added that there are also two other areas which are being investigated – “what citizen education is like in schools” and “secondly, how do you become a citizen in the first place,” suggesting that there may be citizen ceremonies when people reach the age of sixteen.

Emma Gordon, a young ambassador with the World Wildlife Fund, highlighted a dramatic decrease in Arctic sea ice cover, and asked “why are you taking us back 20 years by considering new, unabated coal-fired power stations? Instead why don’t you tackle the real issues facing us today by developing a rapid and comprehensive energy efficiency drive, combined with a massive increase in clean and renewable energy?”

In reply Gordon Brown said that “Emma’s absolutely right, we want to do far more on renewable energy” and went on to explain that the Government was building up offshore wind power, so much so that the UK was “about to surpass Denmark as the world’s leading provider of offshore wind power”.

“As far as coal-fired power stations are concerned, they’re quite different to what they were twenty years ago,” he explained. “We have to come within the total emissions targets of the European Union, whatever we do” and that “renewables are going to be the fastest expanding area of energy provision in the economy.”

On both knife crime and petrol taxes the Prime Minister reiterated recently publicised policy, but indicated that the proposed changes to Vehicle Excise Duty (VED) would not be abandoned despite news that a third of motorists will be charged more than currently.

Three video questions deal with freedom – one concerning 42 days detention without charge; one about freedom of speech and political correctness, and one concerning the early release of prisoners.

Asked “when are you going to stop eroding civil liberties and start protecting them?” Gordon Brown explains the safeguards built in to the proposed 42 day legislation and assures the questioner that “the safeguards we have for the civil liberties of people in the country I take extremely seriously indeed”.

In this video reply and the next on freedom of speech the Prime Minister details some of the improvements to our liberties, saying that “if you take freedom to protest outside Parliament, we’ve increased that freedom in the last few months. If you take freedom of expression, we’re going to audit every piece of legislation so that we are sure that we are doing everything in our power to increase freedom of expression. Freedom for non-governmental organisations to express their views free of constraint, we’re increasing these freedoms”. Freedom for investigative journalism: we’ve removed some of the barriers that were about to exist to the freedom of the expression of the press of our country.”

Asked about prison policy and specifically the early release scheme, the Prime Minster responds that “we’re doing everything in our power to you and other people safe by the measures we take,” listing a series of measures including “more police on the streets,” and “a tougher regime in sentencing for people who are guilty of violent crime”.

The most animated response was reserved for the question asking “why are you the best man for the job?” Smiling, the Prime Minister responds that “why I get up in the morning is everyone should have the chance to make the most of their talents. That’s what I’m determined to do.”

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