any kind of connection what their elected officials. it is not just members of congress, it is mayors and county executives. i say this based on the communication that i had when i was a member. these were town meetings that were no larger than a thousand people. you would go to the community center and maybe 150 people would show up. we could easily sustain the to our discussion back and forth. -- a two hour discussion back and forth. >> the last question your favorite talk show host of other than andy. >> that would be rush limbaugh not because i agree with him, but he is usually on point.

he is the best broadcaster out there with the possible sex -- exception of howard stern. those two guys are kind of the zoos and poseidon of talk radio. i do not think anyone else comes close. i do not know who the heirs apparent are. again back is good. those two guys are in a class of their own. >> fred grandy we are out of time. >> time sure goes by fast when you are having fun. >> for a dvd copy of this program call 1-877-662-7726. for free transcripts or to give us your comments about this program, visit us at q&a.org. episodes are also available as podcasts. . .

>> when the decisions were taken to launch this illegal room, he was the one that signed the checks. he should insist on going to the inquiry now. people are entitled to know, but for this nation votes in a general election, what his role was in this government's most disastrous decision. what has he got to hide? >> now from london, prime minister's questions from the british house of commons. british prime minister gordon brown began this week's question time by pledging u.k. humanitarian -- humanitarian aid to haiti, following the earthquake there run tuesday. he answered questions on whether he would appear before the iraq inquiry. now, prime minister's questions. >> order. questions for the prime

minister. bill wiggin. >> number one, mr. speaker. >> before listing my engagements, i know that the whole house will wish to join me in paying tribute to captain daniel read, from 11 explosive ordnance disposal regiment, royal logistic corps. he died in afghanistan on monday, undertaking the dangerous work of protecting his fellow soldiers and civilians from explosive devices. the courage and selflessness of this work is truly breathtaking. his sacrifice will not be forgotten, and we send our sincere condolences to his family and friends. i know that the whole house will wish to join me in paying tribute also to rupert hamer, who lost his life in afghanistan while reporting from the front line, and to his colleague who was injured. our thoughts are also with their families, friends and colleagues. we are grateful to all those who put themselves in danger to ensure that the world is aware of the bravery of those serving in afghanistan and the realities of life there. because of the devastating

earthquake overnight, haiti has moved to the center of the world's thoughts and the world's compassion. the government will respond with emergency aid, including firefighters, emergency equipment and finance, and give further support to help the people of haiti to recover from that devastating event. this morning i had meetings with ministerial colleagues and others. in addition to my duties in this house, i shall have further such meetings later today. >> bill wiggin. >> i am sure that the whole house will agree with the prime minister's statement of condolence. looking back, our economy entered the recession with one of the largest budget deficits of any first world economy. on reflection, does the prime minister regret that? [laughter] [unintelligible] >> no, we had one of the lowest debts -- the second-lowest debt -- in the g-7. our debt was lower than that of

america, lower than that of france and of germany, lower than that of the euro area and lower than that of japan and of italy. it is because we had a low debt that we have been able to take the measures that are necessary to help companies to deal with the recession, to help the unemployed get work, to help young people who are leaving school and to help thousands of small businesses survive. we took the right action in the recession. the opposition advised the wrong action. >> richard burden. >> may i associate myself with the tribute that my right honorable friend has paid to those who have lost their lives in afghanistan? is he aware that today marks the sixth anniversary of the death of tom hurndall, the british photographer who was shot by an israeli sniper while trying to rescue children from danger in gaza? will he join me in paying tribute to the hurndall family for their tireless efforts in cutting through so many smokescreens put forward by the

israeli military authorities, to get to the truth about tom's death and uphold the principles of accountability? will he agree that as an international community we have no less responsibility to uphold the principle of accountability for the 352 palestinian children, whose names we will never know, who died last year -- >> order. i think that we have got the drift. prime minister. >> the situation in gaza is serious. as i said last week, the only way forward and the only solution is a peace settlement between an israel that needs security within its borders and a palestine that needs to be a viable economic state. i have repeatedly urged the israeli government to improve access for humanitarian aid and workers. in addition to what i said last week, i should say that we have already spent more than 20 million pounds on meeting urgent aid needs in gaza. the secretary of state for international development announced a total package of 53 million pounds for palestine on december 28, and that was with a particular focus on gaza. we will meet the humanitarian

needs of the gaza people where we can. access is important, but everybody knows that it is a political settlement that we need in that area. >> mr. david cameron. >> may i join the prime minister in paying tribute to captain daniel read from the royal logistic corps, who died in afghanistan serving our country? as the prime minister said, the work of bomb disposal experts is truly inspiring when we hear what they do to protect their comrades. i also join the prime minister in sending our sincere condolences to the friends and family of rupert hamer. he and photographer phil coburn remind us of the bravery and professionalism of journalists who also put their lives at risk to ensure that they report on the work of our armed services overseas. finally, of course, i associate myself totally with the prime minister's words about the terrible events in haiti, and send my support to those involved in the humanitarian effort. obviously, we look forward to a full statement in the house by the secretary of state for international development when appropriate. the whole country will wish to praise the work of the emergency

services and how they have dealt with the unexpected long spell of cold weather. we have all seen and heard incredible stories about neighbor helping neighbor. can the prime minister reassure the house that everything that can be done is being done to ensure that we have sufficient supplies of salt and that it is being properly distributed so that we can keep our country moving at this time? >> i am grateful to him for giving me a chance to tell the country the most updated situation on the transport network and the protection of our roads by salt. virtually all main transport networks have remained operational throughout the period. for the work of our highway and other maintenance workers, and to those who are running the emergency services and the thousands of people who are volunteering -- i pay tribute to organizations in areas around the country -- the country remains deeply grateful. it shows that when there are difficulties, the country comes together as one to meet them. five airports in the south and

midlands have been and will remain closed for a period this morning, but i believe that they will open later today. we are working with the highways agency, the devolved administrations, and representative local government to manage salt supplies. it is important that every road remains safe. it is also important that we have sustainable supplies of salt for what is the longest and worst period of bad weather for 30 years in this country. as for salt, one of the salt producers has announced this morning that it will produce additional salt. we expect imports of salt in the next few days as a result of arrangements entered into weeks ago, and we are confident that, with the measures announced yesterday by the transport secretary, we will be able to maintain the road network. we are working closely with local authorities, and i hope that people will continue to be able to work together for the common good. it does prove that britain works best when britain works together. >> i am grateful to the prime

minister for that answer. the pressure on supplies and the steps taken to ration salt in the last week clearly show that lessons can be learned for the future. can he tell us what steps he will take to hold a review and to involve those in local government, to ensure that we learn those lessons? >> he is right to say that each time we have a winter weather problem we should learn lessons from it. last winter, we set up the uk roads liaison group, and it made three recommendations that we implemented -- for local authorities to hold a six-day salt supply, for the highways agency to have a bigger reserve, and for transport workers to be allowed to work longer hours to deliver the salt. it also recommended the creation of a salt cell to ensure a fair distribution of salt throughout the country. we will review all those arrangements after this winter

period, but at the beginning of this difficult spell, the highways agency had 13 weeks -- 13 days of supplies, and we are now building on that with orders from abroad and additional production from uk mines. we are doing everything that we can, and the department for transport has made every effort to consult all local authorities. >> dari taylor. >> my right honorable friend will know that today in great britain 80,000 children are living in care, 80% of whom will live in care until they are 16, not in a loving, stable family home. is it time that this house considered the lives of looked- after children again and considered that if a child is not living in a stable, loving home in the first 18 months of their life, adoption and long-

term fostering must be their right in order to enter a loving, stable home? >> this is a real challenge not only for all local authorities, but for all people. we must not only pay attention to the number of children in care, but make sure that those children have the chances that every other child has for educational attainment, for jobs, and for stability in their lives as they leave care. in 2007, we published the white paper "care matters" and we set out to transform the prospects of children and young people in care. we have made some progress with placement stability, there has been an increase in educational attainment and we have better outcomes for care leavers, but at the same time we must move faster to close the gap. that is why it is important to recognize that public expenditure has been necessary in this and it has doubled since 2000 on the needs of children in care.

that is what we have tried to do to help those children. >> mr. nick clegg. >> i want to add my own expressions of sympathy and condolence to the family and friends of captain daniel read from the royal logistic corps, who tragically lost his life serving in afghanistan on monday. i also want to add my expressions of sympathy and condolence to the family and friends of rupert hamer, the distinguished defense editor of the "sunday mirror" who died in an explosion on saturday, and of course to the family and friends of his injured colleague, philip coburn. as the prime minister said, as news is coming in of the terrible earthquake in haiti, all our hearts go out to the many, many people who will be so terribly affected by that natural disaster. i am grateful for what he said about the government's humanitarian response. given everything that has come to light in the chilcot inquiry into the iraq war, will the prime minister now do the decent thing and volunteer to give evidence to the inquiry before people decide how to vote on his record in government?

>> the chilcot inquiry has drawn up a list of those people that it wishes to interview and has invited the people on the dates that it has done. i will follow the recommendations of the chilcot committee. i have nothing to hide on this matter and i am happy to give evidence. equally, at this time, i thought that the debate in the house was that the chilcot inquiry should decide when people were heard. >> the point is that this is not just a question for sir john chilcot. it is a question for the prime minister's own conscience. when the decisions were taken to launch this illegal war, he was not only in the room -- he was the one who signed the checks. he should insist on going to the inquiry now. people are entitled to know before they decide how to vote at the general election what his role was in this government's most disastrous decision. what has he got to hide? >> nothing, and he was the one

who wanted chilcot to make the decisions about whom he called. he cannot on one day say that chilcot should decide and then say that he or someone else should decide what happens. on the iraq war, we have given every single document to the iraq inquiry. we have given it the opportunity to look at every document and to ask for which documents it wants to be declassified. the only documents that will be withheld from publication are those that directly affect national security and international relations. this is a full inquiry being run by sir john chilcot. people are being interviewed, rightly so, and asked for their evidence, but it is for the chilcot committee to decide how it proceeds. that is what he proposed. >> graham allen. >> question number two, mr. speaker. >> i have visited his constituency to look at early intervention program, and i am very happy that cross-party discussions on these matters take place. everybody knows the importance of early intervention to help

young children. >> there are also tremendous economic consequences of early intervention, and early intervention bonds, social impact equities and many other financial instruments raise money from the capital markets rather than from the taxpayer. will the prime minister please encourage the treasury to look at these imaginative and creative ways of raising money, so that we not only help individuals but find a long- term way of writing down the national debt, thereby reducing the burden on uk taxpayers? >> i am grateful to him for raising the issue of social impact bonds. they are being looked at by the justice secretary at the moment. if the first 48 months of a child's life are more important than the next years because of what is learned or not learned, we have to do more to help children under five. that is why we introduced sure start and the child tax credit,

and doubled the credit for children in their earliest years. it is also why we have given maternity and paternity leave. all these are important ways in which we can help young children in their earliest years, and i believe that there should be a cross-party consensus on keeping them. i hope that there will be. >> gary streeter. >> given that the home affairs select committee heard powerful evidence yesterday that one of the primary causes of crime is poor parenting and dysfunctional families, what more can this government do to bring forward effective policies on early intervention to ensure that fewer children stumble on to the conveyor belt of crime? >> if i may do so, i refer to the proposal that we are putting forward and the family intervention programs that i saw in his constituency. there are about 50,000 families in this country that lead such chaotic lives that we need to intervene and turn them round. we need to make a contract with them that a no-nonsense

approach will be adopted by them and by us. that is what lies behind the family intervention program. we are investing heavily in that, and in the parenting tuition that is necessary as part of it. i hope that he will agree that that is a way forward. that is a better expenditure of money to help the children he wants to help than a return to the married couples allowance. >> question number three. gordon marsden. >> in the past 12 months, people in blackpool have turned out in unprecedented numbers for remembrance day and armed forces day ceremonies and to give a civic welcome to troops returning from afghanistan. blackpool has done that because people recognize the sacrifice being made by those who risk their lives daily. will the prime minister confirm that the government will continue their resolute action against any extremist group, wherever it comes from, that seeks to disrupt and dishonor that support?

>> i praise blackpool for hosting the first armed forces veterans day. i know that blackpool has lost soldiers in both iraq and afghanistan, and he is right that we must commemorate all those who have served and made sacrifices for our country. i share his views on extremists who use freedom of speech in our country to foster division and incite hatred and, in some cases, to incite people to kill. we have already strengthened our powers to allow us to prosecute them, and an organization was proscribed yesterday as a result of our determination to do what is absolutely necessary through the legal process. this is also about standing up for our shared values and showing young people in muslim communities in particular that we stand for values of justice, dignity, and fairness. i believe that our prevent strategy, which involves talking to people in their schools, churches, faith groups, and mosques, is an important way of building inter-religious

consensus and a belief that we can solve all our problems together. >> david cameron. >> after the events of last week, the prime minister told his colleagues that he would change the way he governs. can he tell us how he will be different? >> [unintelligible] >> i think that i should start by saying that he looks very different from the poster that we see out there. >> [unintelligible] >> if you cannot get your photograph right, it is pretty difficult to get your policies right as well. last week, we announced plans for digital britain, plans to improve education in our community, and plans for 70,000 jobs in offshore power. we also announced our new growth strategy. this is the government who are moving forward with policy. he can have his posters, and we

will have the policies. >> [unintelligible] >> the prime minister asks about pictures. why don't we do a bit of market research? when it comes to their election addresses, hands up who is going to put the prime minister's picture on the front. come on, hands up. >> [unintelligible] >> four -- four. there are six of them who do not want him in the cabinet, and just four who are going to put his picture on. he has been airbrushed out of the whole campaign. let us see if the prime minister has changed. let us see if he is prepared to do something that he has never done before -- listen to people, and admit his mistakes. my honorable friend the member for leominster asked a very straight question.

when britain went into recession with one of the largest deficits in the industrialized world, that was because this prime minister thought he had abolished boom and bust. that claim was wrong, wasn't it? >> as i keep telling him, we went into the recession with one of the lowest debts in the g-7, and the reason we had one of the lowest debts in the g-7 is that we had taken action over the previous years to run down the debt that had been run up by the conservative government. i think the country would prefer our policies to a person who has three policies on one day. he needs three television election debates because he has three versions of the same policy to put forward in the debates. >> the prime minister talks about his policies. we now know what his own election coordinator thinks of his policies -- yes, the development secretary. i do not know whether he is the chairman of the campaign or the coordinator of the campaign.

he has three people coordinating his campaign. this is what the development secretary said. he said that labour "don't have any policies. for god's sake, harriet's helping to write the manifesto." i must say that i think that is completely unfair. after all, the deputy leader of the labour party took only five hours and 32 minutes to come out and support the prime minister, whereas the secretary of state for international development took six hours. >> question! >> all right, here comes a question. >> [cheers and applause] >> let us try something else to see if this prime minister has changed. will he now admit the truth about spending cuts? he has stood there week after week and denied what everyone knows to be true -- that there will be spending cuts. the chancellor now says that those cuts will be the deepest for 20 years. will the prime minister repeat those words?

>> he is becoming even much redder than he is in his photograph on the poster. i have to say that what you see is clearly not what you get. i have to say this to him as well. i wish that he could talk about policy. we are coming out of the most difficult recession that countries have faced. every country around the world is facing the difficult public spending decisions that the chancellor talked about last week. i agree exactly with what he said -- that every country has got to face up to it. but there is one way of facing it up to it, and that is publishing our deficit reduction plan, and another way -- his not knowing what he wants to do on the married couples allowance, not knowing what he wants to do on national insurance, and not knowing what he wants to do on the top rate of tax. he is asking people for a "don't know" at the election rather than a yes or a no, and the only policy he has that is not going to change is his policy on inheritance tax, which

helps the richest persons in our society. >> if you want to know how people are going to vote, why not find some courage for once and call the election? the prime minister talks about policy. the country is fed up with his policies, but his colleagues were not complaining about the policies. they were complaining about the weakness, the dithering, and the backbiting. that is what they were complaining about. everyone can see that he will not change the way in which he governs. everyone can see that he will not answer the question, and that he will not be straight with people. is not the conclusion of the last week that the cabinet and the labour party are too disloyal to support him, but too incompetent to remove him? should he not ask for the verdict of the british people, so that we can get rid of the lot of them? >> i must say that his airbrushed poster had better lines on it than the lines that he is delivering today. he should get better lines from the shadow foreign -- >> order. the prime minister must be

heard. the prime minister must be heard. >> this is what the leader of the opposition said only a few days ago. "i messed up and there is no other way of putting it, you know. i was thinking about all sorts of different things and i misdescribed our policy." he has misdescribed what he is doing, because we know that on the health service there is no guarantee for cancer patients. we know on police that there is no guarantee about neighborhood policing. we know on education that there is no guarantee of education to 18. and we know on the recession that the conservatives would have done nothing to take us out of the recession and that they would have gone back to the policies of the 1980's. when he finally wakes up to the fact that policies matter more than posters, he will know that his policies are actually those of the 1980's, not those for 2010. >> gordon prentice. >> will the government back my amendment to the constitutional reform bill next week that will rid parliament of parasitic non-doms?

>> we will look at his amendment, and we will bring our view to the house at the right time. >> david heath. >> we have heard why, however implausibly, the prime minister will not give evidence to the chilcot inquiry before the general election, but can i ask him a question that he can answer right now, because i am simply asking his opinion? alastair campbell made it clear yesterday that this prime minister was intrinsically involved in all the decision making in the run-up to iraq, so does he personally regret any of the decisions taken in the preparations for, and conduct of, the war in iraq? is he personally sorry? >> i have already said that the reconstruction that was done after the war effort in iraq was insufficient. the general view held by many people who have looked into this is that insufficient preparations were made for that. but i was part of the cabinet that made the decisions on iraq, and i stand by the

decisions we made. >> lynne jones. >> this week has seen the resignation of a member of this house, with mental illness being a factor. i make no comment about individual cases, but as the law stands any member of this house who suffers a bout of serious mental illness can be automatically disqualified from office, no matter what the prospects of recovery. that is wrong, and it would never be tolerated for a physical illness, no matter how debilitating. will the prime minister take the opportunity presented by the constitutional reform bill to implement the speaker's conference recommendation that this wrong should be righted? >> my honorable friend has raised a very important issue. the justice secretary and the health secretary are giving careful consideration to the appropriate way forward, and i understand that we will also respond in due course to the recommendation to the