truth is that having five liberal democrats seated around the cabinet table has made no difference whatsoever. listen to what the business secretaries said on economic policy this government has no compelling vision. these days, no one aagrees with nick, but does nick agree with vince? >> speaker, i think it's worth just dwelling on some of the -- some of the details that have been published this morning to unemployment statistics. because behind the headline figures, long-term unemployment actually came down in these quarterly figures and very, very importantly the number of new jobs created in the private sector out stripped the number of jobs left in the public sector. and under her government, under her government, the labor party sucked up to the city of london and over relied on jobs in the public sector. we are now having to remedy

those mistakes and we are creating new jobs in the private sector. >> mr. speaker, he is come placent of unemployment under his power. they are making no difference in unemployment in the nhs, when it comes to the nhs, the deputy prime minister must think he is doing a stunning job. so can he explain why he failed to persuade the doctors, the nurses, the mid wives, the therapists and the patients? >> mr. speaker, the labor party used to believe in reform. now they believe in starving the nhs of cash. her own agenda in 2010 said -- >> order, order, we muftd hear the response from the deputy prime minister.

>> indeed, her own manifesto said to safeguard the nhs, we need sustained reform. they were right then and wrong now. what happened? >> we are proud of what labor did when we worked. more doctors, more nurses, lower waiting times and greater patient satisfaction and mr. speaker, no one believes him, no wonder he cannot convince those that work in the health sector, he cannot even convince those in his own conference. doesn't he realize that people are still against this bill because it has not changed one bit. it's still a top down reorganization. >> order, order, i said a moment ago that the deputy prime minister's response must be heard and the question of the deputy leader of the labor party will be heard. that is the be all and end all

of it. >> this is still a top down reorganization, and will cost the nhs a fortune and it will lead to frag mentation and privatization, and it's clear that the deputy prime minister will not stand up for the nh s the only he stands up for is when the prime minister walks in the room. >> mr. speaker, mr. speaker? mr. speaker? some of her colleagues -- some of her colleagues must think that the liberal democrats make a difference because they were handing out leaflets outside while her leader was going to watch football instead. she said that she is proud of their record is she proud of the fact that her government spent 250 million pounds of taxpayer's money on sweet heart deals with the private sector that did not

help a single nhs patient, is she proud of the fact that under the 2006 act, it was a privatizer's charter which her government offered a 11% premium to under cut the nhs, is she proud of that? >> we will compare what our government did -- >> order, order, order. some people are yelling answer, i remind the house in these matters the prime minister or deputy prime minister does the answering. that is the situation, harriet harmon. >> we will compare what our government did on the nhs with what his government is doing any day. and he said that the problem with this bill is that doctors and nurses just don't understand it. but the problem is that they do. however, even at this late stage it's within his power to stop this bill. >> yep. >> next monday, the bill reaches

its finality stage in the house of lords. there are 90 lib/dems. they will decide whether it's becomes law. will he instruct shirley williams and his peers to stop the bill? >> the lady has invited me to make a comparison. let me make three comparisons -- >> order, order, i say it again, the response must be heard and that is all there is to it. the deputy prime minister. >> let me make three comparisons, the health secretary said it's irresponsible to increase nhs spending. so they do not believe in more money for the nhs, we do. comparison one, secondly they indulge the private sector with sweet heart deals that we are making illegal in this bill. they want sweet heart bills in the private sector, they do not.

they presided over -- we are making a proposal to make a more equal dealing. which they have failed to do. >> absolute rubbish. and -- and in under mining the nhs and making shirey vote for it. he could stop the bill but he won't. he said that the lib/dems make a difference but they don't. what has happened to that fine liberal tradition. they must be turning in their graves. the party of david lloyd george, now the party of nick cleg.

>> i know she has her preprepared script that she sticks to religiously. but it's worth having a question and answer session, what we are doing on this side of the house, the two parties that came together in the coalition is sort out the banking system which she left in a mess. to sort out the public finances that she left in a mess. to sort out the economy which she left in a mess. to stop the privatization of the nhs that they left a mess. in government, the labor party ran out of ideas and in opposition they are running out of ideas. >> laurelly, birch. >> my friend may be aware of figures released this week that show there a their has been some progress toward the target of 15% of women on boards by 2015,

what can our coalition government do to ensure that we -- that they meet this target and enrich our force with a diversity of talent to achieve the growth that we as a country need? >> i think it's excelleneen for progress to get more women on to our boards. i think everyone agrees that having more women on boards is good for all of the companies involved. there was a woefully misrepresentation of those on our board and i hope we will put the pressure on to see it increase in the future. >> mary? >> thank you. i sincerely hope that the deputy prime minister enjoyed our north eastern hospitality at his spring conference in gates head. can he now tell the house when

the 3,000 extra police that he promised in general election will be in post? >> mr. speaker? mr. speaker? as her own party acknowledges, the police need to make savings, and the key thing is that not exactly what the total number is, but where are the police -- >> order, order. i don't know what members are having for breakfast but i'm not going have any part of it. the deputy prime minister's answers must be heard. the deputy prime minister. >> where are the police officers properly deployed. far too many were tied up in knots in the office instead of in the streets where they belong. >> mr. peter lilly. >> does my right honorable friend share the priorities of my constituents that believes the parliament should focus on promoting growth, cutting the deficit and getting people off

welfare into work and will be bemused to learn that we spend our time on discussing the reform of the house of the lords, how do i explain that priority to them? >> i -- i suspect in the same way he will no doubt explain to his constituents that there's priorities of changes the boundaries of constituents which is close to his heart. i think that governments and parliaments can do more than one thing at once and it's a simple democratic principal that people that make the laws of the land should be elected by people who have to obey the laws of the land. >> mr. paulson. >> mr. speaker -- mr. deputy speaker -- my apologizes, it's elsewhere that the depositiuty there today. it shows that closely working

with social care is important. my primary care trust has been doing that along side the social services in the same set of as minister is scrapping a bill that -- and puts the older people at risk? >> speaker, i'm backing a bill which for the first time includes new statutory obligations to integrate social and health care, because he is quite right, he is quite right, it's one of the abiding failings of health services, these two services, social and health care. they have not been integrated and they have not been integrated over the last ten years and we are trying do it now. and the health and well being boards will bring representatives of both boards together. >> mr. andrew griffiths.

>> can i congratulate you on the efforts of the pricing of alcohol in markets. does the deputy prime minister agree with me that the safest place too drink is in in community pub. the beer is a lower strength drink and it will create 5,000 jobs. will he take his treasury colleagues out for a beer and tell them not to put a higher price on the pint. >> i'm sure that everyone across the house agrees with his feeling that we should support community pubs that are an important part of our fabric up and down the countries. >> to dennis skinner. >> is the deputy prime

minister -- now that the gang of four are galavanting around america, he has a chance to shine, what does he really think of this murdoch sleeze and the latest development. the prime minister riding borrowed police horses, man-to-man, what does he really think? and give him a chance to separate him from the ranks of -- come on, be a man! >> mr. speaker, mr. speaker he -- [ crowd booing ] >> order, order. let's hear the answer. >> mr. speaker, we had to wait a while for him to get going.

it was great. i think we are soon going to -- we are soon going to celebrate, if that's the right verb, 42 years of the honorable member's presence in this house and i'm delighted to see that in all that time he has not mellowed one bit. >> mr. john wittingdale. >> will the deputy prime minister join me and my friend the member, in congratulating the citizens on their newly acquired status announced that it's to be a city? does he agree that this is entirely appropriate in olympic year that they are looking to host the mountain biking competition during the olympics? >> i'm not sure -- we are all aware of the rivalry.

i can confirm the announcement today the results of the civic honors competition namely that perth and asauf have been awarded the right to call themselves a city and amor will have a lord mayor and while there's disappointment in other communities who entered into this contest, i think it is, indeed, another announcement which lifts the spirit of the nation in this, the year of the queen's diamond jubile. >> before the general election, the deputy prime minister said he was pro foundly hostile to the closure of factories, now 1700 disabled people are losing their jobs because of the closure of 36, what difference has he made? >> mr. speaker, as the honor or

able lady will know,s in a study that was conducted of the head of the uk forum. her conclusions are supported by organizations mike mind and mencap and others, this is what they think we should be doing. they believe that segregated employment that was started in the after math of the second world war is not the best way to promote the interests of disabled people in this country. >> thank you mr. speaker, last weekend the deputy prime minister talked about the need for tycoon tax. does he say that it's okay for people that only pay 15% of their income such as ken

livingston. >> i quote from an interview that mr. living ton said this weekend. i get loads of money from different sources and i give it to an accountant and they manage it. that is modern socialism for you. >> rosie cooper. >> thank you, mr. speaker. in september 2010, i raised with the prime minister the case of a part bill college in my constituentsy that lost four million pounds following the closing of the regional development agency, i ask for a hand up not a hand out for the young people in my constituentsy. last week the college was opened but -- >> we will leave the prime minister's questions today. and they will be holding a joint news conference with the president, you can see it this afternoon on the c-span

networks. right now to the atlantic, they are hosting annual economic summit looking at the economic recovery in the u.s. and globally, among those taking part, former fdic head sheila bear and gene spur ling. >> explore possible -- focusing on how the u.s. can maintain a competitive economy. we have a great set of minds to take on the issues, you'll hear from a few of our members today, as well as two terrific panel discussions. first diagnosising a sick economy, what happened and where is the fix and second, no nonsense prescriptions for jump starting economic growth. this summit owes the inspiration to steve clemens, he joined from the new america foundation where

he was a cofounder and i'm happy to have had the chance to work with him across this year. he will be the official mc for much of the day and what he encouraged me to do is be short and quick. so i'll continue to talk fast and get through if remarks and he will keep us on schedule. bring go, on a few house keeping notes, we invite you to share your thoughts on today's program on twitter, #econsummit. and follow us on twitter. there's an opportunity for audience q&a. stand up if you do not mind because we are filming today and we would love to have your feedback on today's program, there are comment cards, drop them with us before you go and we appreciate that. finally we invite you to attend our up coming events. this friday we have gender wars, and we will gather on the 27th

to talk about jobs and the future in a town hall setting and we will have the health care forum. if you are interested in any of those, leave your card with our team. thank you to our sponsors today. it's my pleasure now to introduce the founder and ceo of the governor's woods foundation, richard vague. he knows a lot about the economy. he is a businessman, who founded a electric gas company, first usa which grew to be the largest visa credit card issuer in the industry and was sold to bank one in 1997. juniper credit cards and was

sold in two no 2004. he currently serves on many corporate boards and the state department's advisory committee on economic policy and the u.s. department of energy electricity advise have i committee. i'm delighted to have him with us and we will turn things over to him now. [ applause ] >> thank you, very much, on behalf of steve clemens in the atlantic, i want to thank all of you for your participation in the extraordinary conference, it's a privilege, frankly, to be here. in this conference, we have specifically tried to include voices from across the spectrum. in some respects you may say that is the purpose of this conference, we have ask today straight forward question, what should we do now? through the day, we are hoping

to hear different ideas, and hopefully some provacative proposals, for my part, i would ask a few questions to keep in mind. has the u.s. private sector started to relever, taking impotuse away the need for more stimulus, shouldn't we be making more separation any between fiscal stimulus that is productive and that which is not productive. have we properly framed the population question? the most important topic has been the unprecedented population growth. the world has billed a high expectation of benefits growth. our social security programs and the like. yet population is decellerating, making changes in thousands of

things. and lastly in any discussion of job creation. shouldn't we be focusing more on innovation than monetary, fiscal and trade policy? won't nano technology, genetics, robotics and the cures for major diseases have more to do with job creation in the future than these types of policies? in any event, here is hoping for a great exchange of ideas. now, it's my distinct privilege to introduce james bennett. since 2006 james has been the editor and chief of the atlantic, prior to that he was the bureau chief of the new y"n york times", before jerusalem, he was the house white house correspondent and he was preparing to go to the beijing

bureau when he was snatched away by the atlantic to be its editor. join me in welcoming to the podium a true leader and visionary, james bennett. [ applause ] thank you, very much, richard. i would like to tell you all a quick story about the atlantic, to explain why the conversation we will all have together today means so much to us. the atlantic, as you may know was founded a very long time ago to advance big ideas in the culture and society, and particularly to try to promote the abolition of slavery. the country was preoccupied with a different issue when it was started, which was the economic crash of that year. so the big public policy offering in the first issue of the atlantic that november, was not about slavery it was about

the state of the economy. and our writer, surveyed the landscape and he identified four different diagnosis of went wrong, if you stay with me, i think the critic sounds familiar. he identified four different viewpoints and personfied them, one critic cries that the americans are greedy and never satisfied with our gains and in the frantic eagerness of accumulation, discarding justice, and moderation. the second qualify this is view and shouts that our vice is not so much greed, which is the vice of the misor, as extravagence,

when we get one we go into debt for ten. when the time comes, as come it will for paying for all this, we collapse, we wither, we fleet and sink into the sand. a third voice complains that the absence of a protectionist trade policy and the existence of a credit system which is by its nation inflationary, our writer went on to say that all views have some merit but the real problem was the ease with which our currency was inflated by the american banking system which he said varies from state to state, outside of new york where it's not perfect is a bungeling

inflictment as was ever thought of. it would be years before the federal reserve was created to deal with some of the problems he identified in that first story. which actually brings us to did issue of the new issue of the atlantic that appears today and our cover piece is on ben bernanke's effort to use the federal reserve to address the economic crisis we find ourselves in. it's a wonderful piece by roger lowenstein, on the outside he is the hero and on the inside he is is villian, because as is argued, he is issued fairly effective efforts to get things moving again and has been a hero to some and then a villian to some. this issue is out today, there's other wonderful stuff in it. if i may say, including a nice

piece on how to spending habits have changed over the last few years. a terrific piece by the political fi politic political philosopher. -- at the same time, our special money report on our website goes live later this afternoon. now, falls to me to bring steve clemens up here. i generally feel silly introducing steve clemens because it turns out that everyone already knows him. steve is, if you do know him, is a man that believed deeply in surfacing the next idea, hearing from as many points of view as possible which is what makes him a perfect fit for the atlantic, he is the editor and chief of

guy that brought us all together today. so, steve. >> thank you, james. thank you james. thanks elizabeth baker, and all of the under writers. i want to say that we are being covered by cnbc, and bloomberg, we are livec-span, and we have blogs streaming this live. so those of you tweet, if you like something, tweet it if you hate something, you can tweet it. w we had a dinner preseeding this and david corn, a friend of mine, an msnbc commentator and a good left progressive radical writer and i am sure david would like that, texted me and said, steve fantastic discussion, really varied