for all of us. >> these are the british political parties election broadcasts. during the official campaign, which lasts about four weeks, there is usually one broadcast each day except sunday. the national broadcasters are required by law to provide air time for free. david cameron released this election broadcast on tuesday. .

>> alan helps out sometimes. if it is important -- it is important for me to help out because this is where my children are going to grow up. what do you do? i want my children to grow up in a society where people don't have a negative opinion of children misbehaving, to go back to way -- the way it used to be, and i spared society. >> voting for a nation of volunteers. >> i am danielle and i live in britain. i am not always at work during the week. i work with people who've been previously homeless.

i help them get back into the mainstream of society. you have to have a lot of empathy and understanding, to be able to convey that to someone else. i'm helping the homeless people in this area, just being there, really. i think my personality helps. i don't see things as a problem with no solution. >> this is even voting to increase employment. >> i am ian, and i married with two children. we employ about 36 people.

of course you take responsibility. there have been times when i have not been paid to make sure the guys get their pay. it's all about providing for your family, doing the best for them, and providing the best future for them basically. >> i want to help business people like ian grow their companies and create more jobs. i want to help mothers like judith supporting the strong families that are the bedrock of a strong society. i want to help people like danielle build a nation of volunteers looking out for others. in the end, all these acts of parliament and policy initiatives, they are all just words without the involvement of

you, the people. real change comes not just from what politicians do but from what people do, what you do. together we can get the economy moving 3 together we can protect the nhs, improve our schools, mend your broken society. together we can even make politics and politicians work better. today we publish our manifesto and that is an invitation to join us, did join me, judy, daniel, ian, and the millions of people out there who want to work together. so let's forma a new climate of the government for britain. if we are elected on may the six, you will be in power on may 7. our vision is for millions to play our part in making our country better, to create the big society. a challenge for all of us is to make that happen. yes, this is optimistic, and yes

this is ambitious. but what else is life for? >> you are watching the british political parties broadcast. paid political advertisement is not a lot of on tv. broadcasters agree on an allocation of television time that is free. on wednesday, the liberal democrats released this broadcast. >> broken promises. there have been too many in the last two years, too many in the last 30 years, in fact our nation has been littered with them -- a trail of broken promises.

better schools for everyone, a promise broken. clean up politics, a promise broken. i believe it is time to do things differently. i believe it is time for fairness in britain. i believe it is time for promises to be capped. britain is a strong country, despite everything going for us, like it's been too unfair for too many. it is people like you who have made us the nation we are today. you deserve fairness more than anything. putting fairness back into our society and our children is the single biggest challenge that we face. but we can do it. if we do it together. and here is out. their taxes, under liberal democrats, no one will pay taxes on the first 1,000 pounds.

that means 700 pounds back in the pockets of everyone. tax freedom for many on low pay and pensions. everyone knows that money is tight. we have to sort out the mess and the government finances. but we can pay protect their taxes by closing the huge loopholes that benefit the wealthy and make sure that we pay for the damage that they cause. that is fairness. a fair start for all of our children -- investing in classes and our secondary schools so that no one is left behind. opportunity for every child -- that is fairness. and that means of bearing sustainable economy. let's break up the banks and make sure they pay for the damage that they have caused as well. investing billions in new energy to build an

economy beyond the city of london, with jobs that last for everyone in every part of the country. that is fairness. and finally, their politics. if your mp is corrupt, if you can track them. we will fix the system so that your vote will chance -- count no matter where you live. that is the way to put fairness back into politics. this election is different from every other collection for the trail of broken promises can come to an end, and a new road can began, a road into the future, opportunity, and fairness for everyone. we can say goodbye to broken promises and welcome back to hope. we can make britain the fair country we all needed to be. she is fairness -- choose fairness. choose real change. choose the liberal democrats.

>> you can view these three political election broadcasts again on our web site, c- span.org. just look for the 2010 british speculation on the the featured link section of the home page. the british election is may 6. and now the first ever u.s.- style tv debate among the leaders of the main british political parties. we show you the first courtesy of itv, britain's commercial television network. gordon brown, david cameron, and nick clegg -- this 90-minute broadcast took place thursday in manchester, england. >> manchester, in the heart of the northwest of england, is tonight host to a british political first.

i'm alastair stewart. for the first time on british television, live in front of a representative studio audience, we'll be hearing from three men, each hoping to be the leader of the next uk government in the first election debate. >> good evening, and welcome to the first election debate. over the past 50 years, there have been numerous attempts to get the leaders of the three big political parties to debate with each other during an election. tonight, history in the making, as we're joined by the leader of the liberal democrats, nick clegg, the conservative party leader, david cameron, and the leader of the labour party, gordon brown. this debate will mainly focus on domestic affairs, important issues that affect our everyday lives.

if you want to make your own comments and follow the debate online, you can do so by going to itv.com. in a moment, we'll be taking questions from our studio audience, but first, let's hear a brief opening statement from each of the leaders. we'll start with nick clegg. >> i believe the way things are is not the way things have to be. you're going to be told tonight by these two that the only choice you can make is between two old parties who've been running things for years. i'm here to persuade you that there is an alternative. i think we have a fantastic opportunity to do things differently for once. if we do things differently, we can create the fair society, the fair country we all want -- a fair tax system, better schools, an economy no longer held hostage by greedy bankers, decent, open politics. those are the changes i believe in. i really wouldn't be standing

here tonight if i didn't think they were all possible. so don't let anyone tell you that the only choice is old politics. we can do something new. we can do something different this time. that's what i'm about. that's what the liberal democrats offer. >> these are no ordinary times, and this is no ordinary election. we've just been going through the biggest global financial crisis in our lives, and we're moving from recession to recovery, and i believe we're moving on a road to prosperity for all. now, every promise you hear from each of us this evening depends on one thing -- a strong economy. and this is the defining year. get the decisions right now, and we can have secure jobs, we can have standards of living rising, and we can have everybody better off. get the decisions wrong now, and we could have a double-dip recession.

and because we believe in fairness, as we cut the deficit, over these next few years, we will protect your police, your national health service, and we will protect your schools. i know what this job involves. i look forward to putting my plan to you this evening. >> i think it's great we're having these debates, and i hope they go some way to restore some of the faith and some of the trust into our politics, because we badly need that once again in this country. the expenses saga brought great shame on parliament. i'm extremely sorry for everything that happened. your politicians, frankly all of us, let you down. now, there is a big choice at this election -- we can go on as we are, or we can say no, britain can do much better. we can deal with our debts, we can get our economy growing and avoid this jobs tax, and we can build a bigger society. but we can only do this if we recognize we need join

together, we need to come together, we need to recognize we're all in this together. now, not everything labour has done in the last 13 years has been wrong -- they've done some good things and i would keep those, but we need change, and it's that change i want to help to lead. >> gentlemen, thank you very much indeed. our first question is from gerard oliver who is a retired toxicologist from cheshire. mr. oliver. >> good evening. what key elements for a fair, workable immigration policy need to be put in place to actually make it work effectively? >> gordon brown. >> you know, i've heard the concerns around the country. i've been listening to people. i know people feel there are pressures because of immigration. that's why we want to control and manage immigration. and i when i became prime minister, i did a number of things. first, i introduced a points

system so no unskilled worker from outside the european union can come to britain now. i also said that jobs had to be advertised in jobcenters where there were skills that there were shortages of that we needed people in this country. i then said we're going to look at all the range of occupations where people come from abroad. i talked to a chef the other day who was training. i said in future, when we do it, there'll be no chefs allowed in from outside the european union. then i talked to some care assistants -- no care assistants come in from outside the european union. we are a tolerant, we are a diverse country, but the controls on migration that i'm introducing and i will see go further are the right controls, the right policy for britain. >> david cameron. >> gerard, what i would say is that immigration is simply too high at the moment. it has been these last ten years, and it does need to come down. i think the pressures that we've put on housing and health and education have been too great. if you look at the --what's happening with immigration, the difference between the amount of people going to live overseas and those coming here, it's been often as high as 200,000.

that's equivalent to two million across a decade. it's too much. i want us to bring immigration down so it is in the tens of thousands, not the hundreds of thousands. how would we do that? i think we need to have not just a points system, but also a limit on migration when people are coming from outside the european union for economic reasons. i also think when new countries join the european union, that actually we should have transitional controls so they can't all come here at once. it's been too high these last few years, and i would dearly love to get it down to the levels it was in the past so it is no longer an issue in our politics as it wasn't in the past. >> nick clegg. >> gerard, you talked about a fair, workable immigration system. that's exactly what i want. what's happened over the last several years is almost precisely the reverse. you have had lots and lots of tough talking about immigration from both conservative and labour governments, and complete chaos in the actual administration of the system.

it was a conservative government that removed the exit controls so we knew who was leaving as well as who was coming in. it's what the labour government followed up on as well. what i think we need to do is, firstly, make sure we restore those exit controls, so we have borders so we know exactly who is coming in but also when they are supposed to leave. the second thing i would do is this. at the moment under the immigration system, if you want to come and work in this country, you have to show two things -- firstly, that you've got a sponsor who is sponsoring your arrival in this country, and secondly, that there is a job for you to do. i want to add a third element -- that you also only go to a place, to a region, where you are needed. so that we only send immigrants to those places where they can be coped. >> you've heard what each has had to say on immigration. it's now your chance to contest the others' arguments. and you, gordon brown, will start. >> let's be honest with each other, net inward migration is falling. it's fallen three years ago, two years ago, and it's falling this year. it's falling as a result of the

action we are taking and will continue to take. to stop illegal migration, which is what nick has referred to, border controls have been brought in and we're counting people out and in from the end of this year. it was a policy the conservatives scrapped before 1997. we've got id cards now for foreign nationals so an employer can see whether they're legal or illegal. so we're taking precise and specific action. what i wouldn't do is have an arbitrary cap. an arbitrary cap means an employer -- and i've been visiting a lot of employers in this region, who wants to bring someone in from abroad, needs that skilled worker, the skill is not here, cannot do that. net inward migration will continue to fall under our policies. 40,000 less students, i suspect, this year, because of our tightening of visa controls. now, these are the things practically we can do. we're a tolerant country but we want proper control over migration. >> david cameron. >> i think a cap is necessary because we're not going to control immigration unless we actually take some quite positive and concrete steps. i think we let down everyone if we don't do this properly.

i was in plymouth recently, and a 40-year-old black man made the point to me. he said, "i came here when i was six, i've served in the royal navy for 30 years. i'm incredibly proud of my country. but i'm so ashamed that we've had this out-of-control system with people abusing it so badly." if we don't address immigration properly, we're letting down immigrant communities, as well as everybody else. so we do need a cap. as well as border controls that gordon talks about, and i support strong border controls, i think we need to go one step further and have a proper border police force so we combine at our borders, customs, immigration, security, and police, so we make the most of the fact that we do have policeable borders, and we can stop more illegal immigration that way as well. >> the truth is that there is good immigration and there is bad immigration. i was in a hospital, a pediatric hospital in cardiff a few months ago, treating very sick premature young babies.

i was being shown around and there were a large number of babies needing to be treated. there was a ward standing completely empty, though it had the latest equipment. i said to the ward sister "what's going on? why are there no babies being treated?" she said "new rules mean we can't employ any doctors from outside the european union with the skills needed". that's an example of where the rules are stopping good immigration which actually helps our public services to work properly. that's where i want to see, not an arbitrary cap. we can't just say a cap, what is it? 10, 10,000? a million? what if you reach the cap in the middle of summer and someone wants to come and play football for manchester united or manchester city? do you say they can't come? no, let's have a regional approach where you only make sure the immigrants who come go to those regions where they can be supported. >> on nick's point, of course we've benefited from immigration for decades in our country. people have come here to work hard, to make a contribution, to bring their special skills. we see that in our health service and schools all the

time. but i do think it's got out of control, and it does need to be brought back under control. >> i don't like these words, because we're bringing it under control. net inward migration is falling and will continue to fall as a result of the measures we've taken. we've brought together the police and the immigration officials and the customs officials in one agency. we're doing that already. illegal immigrants are deterred because we've got id cards for foreign nationals now, so an employer cannot say to someone "you can come and have this job". they've got to ask for the identity card first. there are big fines if employers break the law. now, we've got to do more. that means we've got to tighten the number of skills we need in this country. that's why we're moving from care assistants to chefs right through other occupations where we train up british people to do the skills. >> a lot of people would ask, though, we've had 13 years of a government that's now only started to talk about addressing this issue. if you look at the numbers, net migration levels before 1997

were never greater than 77,000 a year. under your government, they've never been less than 140,000 a year. that's a very big number. >> but you accept the figures are now falling. >> you're only starting before an election to take the steps that need to be taken. >> i'm going to bring nick clegg in now. >> i think this is partly what's been going wrong for so long. we have had both major parties running governments over the last 20 years talking tough about immigration and delivering complete chaos in the way in which it's run. i'm like anybody else. i just want a fair, workable immigration system that counts people in, counts people out, only makes sure immigrants come here if there's jobs for them to do in parts of the country where they don't place unreasonable strain on housing, public services and so on. i think the regional approach that we're putting forward, which would be a major innovation, they do it in canada, they do it in australia, it would be a major innovation here, which i think would restore public confidence in an immigration where people feel it's complete chaos. >> you see, i agree with nick,

an arbitrary national cap will not work. i think the conservatives are not even giving the number for that cap. they can't tell us what they will do. take the controls we're putting in, add to the points system, restrict more occupations in future where we can train up people to have the skills. my britain of vision moving forward is we train the young people up to get the skills for the future and we will need less people to come in to meet the skills shortages of the past. that's now what we're now doing. >> it's absolutely true that the other side of the coin is proper welfare reform. we have got too many people who could work, who are offered work but who don't work. that has actually drawn a lot of people into our country. we do need to reform welfare. but again, 13 years have gone by when welfare hasn't been properly reformed. can i just ask nick one? >> there are 2.5 million more jobs in this country. >> can i just ask nick one question about this regional approach? i don't quite understand how you can ask people to come to one part of the country and rely on them staying in that one country -- >> oh, very easily. >> you have a vision of the m62

with a border post? >> no, no, no. very, very easily. they do it in other countries. basically it means if you're an employer and you're employing someone who's got a work permit, then you will need to make sure that in that work permit, they're only able to work in the region where you are offering them work. and if you offer them work when they don't have a work permit which says they're entitled to be in that region, then you're acting illegally. they do it in other countries, we should do it here. because the truth is that our country has lots of different needs in different parts of the country. that's not being reflected in the immigration system in which the public has lost any confidence. >> gentlemen, i'm going to leave it there because we have a lot of questions to get through. you yourselves have said we want to get some questions. let's go to the audience and take another. our next question is on law and order. i need to point out that it is an area where powers are devolved to the parliament in scotland and from this week, also the assembly in northern ireland. this question comes from optician and mother of two, jacqueline salmon. jacqueline, your question. >> good evening. i was born and still work in burnley, lancashire.

the town has the highest burglary rate per head of population in the entire country. what confidence can you give me that towns such as this all over the uk can be made safer places to live and work? >> jacqueline, the system isn't working properly now, there's no doubt about it. we're not seeing enough police on the streets, we're not catching enough burglars, we're not convicting enough. then we do, when we do convict them, they're not getting long enough sentences. i went to crosby the other day and i was talking to a woman there who had been burgled by someone who had just left prison. he stole everything in her house. as he left, he set fire to the sofa and her son died from the fumes. that burglar, that murderer, could be out of prison in just four-and-a-half years. the system doesn't work, but that sort of sentence is, i think, just completely unacceptable in terms of what the public expect for proper punishment. what have we got to do? we've got to get rid of the

paperwork and the bureaucracy and we've got to get the police out on the streets. we need very clear signals from our criminal justice system -- if you cross someone's threshold and rob their home, you go to prison, and you go to prison for a long time. >> nick clegg. >> jacqueline, you asked, what can we do to stop burglary happening over and over and over and over again. two things -- firstly, quite simply, more police on our streets. this government wants to waste billions of your money on an id card system so you have to pay for the privilege of having lots of your own details on a piece of plastic card that you carry around. for pretty well exactly the amount of money, your money, that the government is pouring into that, we could put 3,000 more police officers on the streets. that is the absolute priority for me. the second thing is this -- there are too many young offenders who start first getting into trouble with low- level nuisance anti-social behavior who become the hardened

criminals of tomorrow. what we've got to do is stop the young offenders of today becoming the hardened criminals tomorrow. in my city of sheffield, where i'm an mp, we've done some great things to do exactly that. that's the way to get burglary and crime down. >> jacqueline, as long as anybody feels unsafe, and as long as anybody feels insecure, even although crime is falling -- official crime figures show it's falling, and violent crime is falling -- i feel that we have got to do far more. and that's why there's three things i want to suggest this evening that will make people safer. one is we've got to have effective policing on the streets. police have got to spend 80% of their time now on the streets. we've got record police numbers in this country, and we want to maintain that level of police force over the next few years. the second thing is, parents have got to accept responsibility for their children. if an order is passed against a

teenager, then the parent has also got to accept responsibility, and we're bringing that in now. the third thing i would say is this -- if you are dissatisfied with the way the police are treating or the police are dealing with your case, and you are persistently denied the rights you have, then we'll give you the right to take an injunction against the police so you can be sure that your rights against anti-social behavior and crime are upheld. >> i think one additional point that i would make is if you look at where so much of the burglary, so much of the car crime is coming from, it is actually coming from people who are addicted to drugs. i think we've got to be much faster at getting drug addicts off the streets and into treatment. and all too often, that doesn't happen. and even when it does today, they get put on a substitute drug. we're not really dealing with the problem, which is to get these people to confront their problems and lead drug-free lives. i even went to a drug rehab recently in my own constituency, and met a young man who told me that he committed a certain amount of crimes so he could get in front of a judge who could then get him a place in a residential rehab centre. we must be mad as a country not to get people into that

residential rehab to get them to clean up their lives, so we cut the crime on our own streets. >> i think, as i say, it's how do we make sure the youngsters of today don't become the hardened criminals of tomorrow? it's that conveyor-belt from nuisance at the beginning, anti-social behavior in our communities, yobs on the street corner who then become the hardened criminals of tomorrow. i think what makes me so angry is that again, it's like the immigration debate -- so much tough talk from different governments of different parties for so long has turned our prisons into overcrowded colleges of crime. do you know that young men going into prison now on short-term prison sentences now come out, and nine out of ten of them reoffend, so we are reproducing more crime than actually cutting it. what i've seen in my city of sheffield is that you get these youngsters not when they've done serious crimes, but when they're first starting to get into trouble, to face their victims, explain why they've done what they've done to their victims, apologies for what they've done, make up for what they've done in the community, cleaning u