in this week's session, he spoke about britain's economy, cost of living standards and unemployment. he addressed the picture he took with a danish prime minister and president obama during the mandela memorial service. >> order, questions to the prime minister. >> thank you, mr. speaker. 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. >> thank you, mr. speaker. i am sure the prime minister is

as concerned as we are on this side of the house that there has been a 42% increase in long-term unemployment among young women in this country under his watch? kenny therefore confirm that the reason why he doesn't support the campaign is he believes it is providing jobs for the girls? >> what we have seen under this government is a quite rapid reduction in unemployment over recent months. one million more people in work than when i became prime minister. there is a lot more work to be done in terms of getting the long-term unemployed back into work. but the work program is now performing twice as successfully as some of its previous programs. she should get behind those i think programs rather than make the point she does. >> last tuesday, joshua folks in my constituency died due to a knife attack.

the government have toughened up knife laws. what more can be done to rid the streets of this country of the carnage of knife attacks? >> my honorable friend makes a very good point. as he said, what we have done is tough and the law and i think that has made a difference. i think the most important thing now is to get rid of this dreadful culture of people carrying knives and educating young people of the dangers of carrying knives. so often those who carry knives end up being stabbed with them themselves. i think that is the work that needs our priority. >> ed miliband. >> mr. speaker, does the prime minister agree that given the crisis ordinary families are facing in their living standards, mps should not be awarded a pay rise in 2015? >> i do agree with them. it would be wrong for mps to get

a big pay rise at a time of paper strength. all party leaders agree on that. we have made this point. i think we should be clear that what they have said is not a final recommendation. let me make three points. the idea of an 11% pay rise in first, one year at a time of pay restraint is i think unacceptable. second, ipsa do need to think again. unless they do so, no one will want to go back to mps voting on their own pay. we have to have a process and outcome that can build public confidence. third, i think this should all be accompanied with a cut in the cost of politics. >> ed miliband. >> i am glad he agrees. does he also agree with me that we should not let this hang around as an issue until after the general elections? can i urge him to work with me to find a way on a cross-party

basis on makingipsa think again and stop this package happening. >> my door is always open to the right honorable gentleman. i am always happy to discuss this or any other issue. i would stress the point that this is not a final recommendation and i think if the three party leaders and others in this house can unite behind a position of saying it wouldn't be right to make this pay rise, that i think that is the strongest message we can give. >> mr. ed miliband. >> mr. speaker, i agree with the prime minister but i hope he agrees with me that waiting and seeing won't work and we do have to get together to deal with this now. the reason why this is not the right time for this pay rise is because most people are going through the biggest cost-of- living crisis in a generation. i want to turn to that cost-of-

last thursday, the chancellor claimed living standards were rising. that is just not the case? >> let me just add one point. the government has shown respect for the fact of difficulties people face by the fact that when we came in, we cut ministers' pay by five percent and froze it for the whole of the parliament. that is not something that the party opposite did. he wants to get on to the economy. after last week's exchange, i can't wait to get on to the economy. we discovered a new -- i am looking forward to discussing these things. i thought the institute of fiscal studies put this for a clearly. they said, we have had a great big recession. we have had the biggest recession we have had in 100 years. it would be astonishing if household incomes hadn't fallen

and earnings hadn't fallen but the fact is that is the legacy of what they left us. his entire approach seems to be this -- we made the most almighty mess, why are you taking so long to clear it up? we are clearing it up. >> mr. speaker, in case he has forgotten, he has been the prime minister for 3.5 years. but i think we are making progress because last thursday i think we are. last thursday, the chancellor said that living standards were rising. his own office of budget responsibility says this, almost whichever way you look at it, average earnings, wages, salaries, the levels have been falling. >> order. you are yelling across the chamber. quiet. calm yourself. take up yoga. mr. ed miliband.

>> they went on. it is inconceivable to suggest otherwise but that is exactly what the chancellor did last thursday. why won't he come out and admit it? there is a cost-of-living crisis in this country. >> you're being heckled from your own site. i don't know how you're going to give us all in order, mr. speaker. i will tell him what has been happening over the three years. we have got the deficit down by a third. we have a million more people in work. we have 400,000 more businesses operating in britain and one of the fastest rates of growth of any major western economy. the truth about living standards is this, if you don't have a long-term economic plan to get our economy moving, you don't have a plan to deal with living standards. we have a plan. our plan is to keep interest rates low, get the country back

to work, cut people's taxes, vista business. it is working. he doesn't have a plan as we discovered last week apart from more borrowing, more spending, more taxes, all the things that got us into the mess in the first place. >> utterly complacent and out of touch with the country. that is this prime minister all over. let's be fair to him. he does understand that some people are struggling because today we learn that his plan to cut top rate of tax further from 45 pence to 40 pence. can he explain why is even contemplating a further tax cut for millionaires who have received hundreds of thousands of pounds of tax cuts when ordinary families are so squeezed? >> the top rate of tax under this government is higher than any of the times he was in the cabinet or he was working in the treasury trying to wreck the economy in the first place.

if he wants to talk cost-of- living, let us compare our records. they doubled cancel tax. we have frozen it. they put up natural tax 12 times. we have frozen it. we have increased the pension by 15 pounds a week. i am happy to compare our records any time of day. if you want to sort out the cost-of-living, help families, you need more jobs, you need more growth, more long-term economic plans. we have got one. he hasn't. >> i will tell him what happened. i will tell him what happened - >> order. members can calm down. i have said it before, some people are slow learners. as long as it takes, we will just keep going.

ed miliband. >> i will tell him what happened. real earnings went up 3600 pounds. living standards up. under him, they are down 1600 pounds. living standards down under this government. we have always known how out of touch he is. he has taken it to whole new levels. they are in denial about the cost-of-living crisis and they are not that is fine with one million our tax cut. i think it is time for another. he stands up for the wrong people. >> oh dear me. at the end of six questions, we are back to denial and the record of the last labor government. i know i have long flight, but i couldn't have written the script better if i had done it myself. the last government give us the biggest budget deficit anywhere in the world. they gave us the biggest banking bust anywhere in the world. they created a giant mess that this government is clearing up. that is the truth. even since the autumn statement, why can't he mention the fact

that business optimism is up? manufacturing is up. the number of job makers is up. >> thank you, mr. speaker. unemployment in my constituency is 21% lower than it was -- we have had a 90% increase in apprenticeship startups, manufacturing output is up and business activity is at a 32- month high in the west midlands. would the prime minister agree with me that due to the hard work of my constituents and people across the country, the government's long-term economic plan is working and delivering benefits to every region of the united kingdom? >> my honorable friend is right. the west midlands, which during the boom years, the number of people employed in the private

sector employed went down, but now we are seeing better news. employment is up 25,000 since the election. private sector employment is up 14,000 this year. the youth claimant count is falling in the west midlands. i know how much time and effort he puts into things like the apprenticeship fair that he held earlier this year. that shows that the long-term plan we have is the right plan and it is beginning to work. >> mr. speaker, what the prime minister have to say to women working full-time across this country who have seen their disposable incomes fall on average by almost 2500 pounds since his government came to office? >> welcome that there are more women in work than at any time in our history. the second thing to say is that because we are lifting the first 10,000 pounds that people earn out of income tax, they will be better off by 705 pounds next year. that is progress. if he is saying, does it take time to recover from the mess

left by his party? yes it does. we are going to do it. >> mr. speaker, dementia is a disease most feared by the over 50's in this country. the government is doubling investment in dementia research during this parliament and the prime minister hosting the g8 summit on dementia this week, will he now lift the country's and government's sites by committing to doubling this country's investment in dementia research? >> i am grateful to what he said. he is right that this is the real challenge facing not just this country where there are 670,000 people suffering from dementia, but a challenge facing the whole world. that is why we are having this g8 conference in london so we can share intelligence and expertise. we can share scientific research and learn lessons from each other.

yes, this government is planning to double research into dementia up to 2015 and we plan to double it again thereafter. >> given that the implementation of the universal credit has become a shambles, how can the public have confidence in those who are responsible for it? >> first of all, i think it is absolutely right that we introduce this benefit system in a very slow and deliberate way. frankly, i remember as a constituent sitting in my surgery when the tax credit system came in in one big bang, having case after case with people's household finances completely wrecked at the last labor government. i won't let that happen again. as we introduce this vital benefit, let us remember the fact that there are 480,000 fewer people on out of work benefits and it is this government that is making work pay. >> does my right honorable friend agree with me that the best way to raise living standards of my constituents is for the government to stick to its long-term plan to rebuild this economy and not abandon it in favor of more borrowing them

a taxes as proposed by the party opposite? >> my honorable friend is entirely right. the biggest hit would be if we let spending and borrowing get out of control and interest rates went up. that is what we want to avoid. we have got the deficit down. we must continue with our difficult lending decisions. that has enabled us to cut taxes on people working and living in belton. by next year, people on minimum wage working full-time will see their income tax bill come down by two thirds. that is real action on the side of people who work hard. >> is the prime minister aware that ftse 100 directors now get 86,000 pounds a week on average

while at the other end of the scale, 5 million workers get less than the living wage and three quarters of a million people who can't get a job get nothing at all and are left to starve? is there no end to the brutality and nastiness of tory britain? >> i would say to the honorable gentleman, who served in labor government after labor government with a 40 pence tax rate when it is now 45 pence, with a bonus financer in the city 85 times higher in the city than it is now? he has got a brass neck. >> thank you, mr. speaker. new figures show that the second largest pub committee in this country, in their pubs overcharged the british consumer on beer alone by 4.3 billion pounds over the next 10 years. there is clear market manipulation. will he commit to dealing with this crony capitalism and listen to the federation of small businesses?

>> i know of his long-standing interest not just in beer, but in pubs and how pub landlords are treated particularly in the pub companies. let me look very carefully at what he said. i am a great believer in a healthy pub industry. they're often the heart of our communities. wax mr. speaker, during his autumn statement, the chancellor said that people should expect to spend one third of their of the life and retirement. considering that life expectancy in some communities is only 75, what does he think would be a fair retirement age in a welsh context? wax the point the chancellor was making is that this should be set independently, but it is right to set a guide to set and expectations rather than have

ministers announce what retirement age should be. the point the honorable gentleman is making that we need to tackle health inequality is better in our country. i would agree with him. >> thank you, mr. speaker. mr. speaker, stan franks recently passed away. he flew for 31 missions, a staggering achievement for such a young man. will my honorable friend congratulate the efforts of the association for raising funds to ensure that his passing is marked appropriately? >> i certainly praise all those who raised money in this way.

the story of stan franks is a truly remarkable one. he is believed to be the youngest air man to complete over 30 missions in 1944 to 45 before he was 20 years old. it is a real reminder just how much previous generations put in to make sure that we could live in freedom. it has been one of the greatest privileges i have had to welcome veterans to number 10 downing street and make that announcement about making sure they have that clasp on their medal. the fighters are our salvation but the bombers alone provide the means of victory. we should never forget those brave crews in bomber command. so many are coming to the end of their lives but did so much for our country. >> bomber harris. [laughter] >> a great start. can i thank the prime minister for saving my marriage? [laughter]

carolyn was just about to sign the divorce papers when she heard the report that if we stayed together we would be in line for a sweet 150 pound a year tax break. marriage must be underpinned by the tax system. why is it that since the married persons tax allowance was abolished in 2000, the divorce rate has gone down? [laughter] >> i am delighted that happiness is maintained in the harris household. i could put it another way. it was only when i started talking about the married couples allowance that the leader of the opposition tied the knot. the tax system moves in mysterious ways. [laughter] >> in light of the call by the leader of the opposition for

urgent action in response to ipsa's proposal, will my right honorable friend read table the report which would pay for an increase and increase the workload of mps? it would surely be hipper critical for the leader of the opposition or the leader of the liberal democrats to oppose that measure. >> my right honorable friend is tempting me. the point i was trying to make is i think that cutting the cost of politics has a role to play alongside this argument. >> order. numbers must not shout at that prime minister. it is discourteous to keep gesticulating at the man. >> it is no good. they have the opportunity to reform the law and they were the ones that stop it. >> thank you, mr. speaker. the prime minister says that the g8 and his attendants at the investment conference advertised

his commitment to northern ireland and the economy. whitehall is busy removing jobs from northern ireland. how does the removal of jobs at whitehall's hand contribute to balancing the economy in northern ireland and balancing that region? >> i quite understand why the gentleman makes the point he does. the secretary will be meeting with him to talk about the issues. as he noted, the department of transport are still considering the results of this consultation. employment in northern ireland has actually risen 32,000 since the election. i think he knows as i know that the long-term answer for northern ireland is a private sector revival. the public sector is very large in northern ireland and we need more small and medium-sized

enterprises. we need those jobs to come which is what the g8 and investment conference were all about. >> my constituent who has recently completed the national citizen service program visited my surgery on saturday with lisa farrell to let me know just how much the program had given him

transformative program? >> i am grateful for what my honorable friend says. it is a transformative program. 66,000 young people have already been through it since 2010. it now forms part of what prince charles wants to see in terms of a decade where we encourage volunteering and try to get 50% of all those young people who take part in volunteering. i have members on all sides of the house having a similar experience of people stopping them and talking about ncs and what it is done for young people and their confidence. it is a good program and i am delighted it has got all party support. >> while the prime minister is trying to come over all family- friendly, can he confirm if maternity and paternity pay will be included in the benefits cap announced in the autumn statement? >> as the chancellor announced, what is out of the benefit cap is the basic state pension. on all other welfare spending, what we have to do is ensure we are distributing properly between the different sorts of welfare. >> 330 new jobs were created in

my constituency in the last three months alone. i expect many more new jobs to be created over the next few months. particularly as housing and construction projects accelerate. would my honorable friend agree that it is important that young people don't get left behind and abolishing the jobs tax on young people aged under 21 shows the government is serious about tackling youth unemployment? >> i am grateful for what my right honorable friend says. as the economy recovers, it is absolutely vital that it is a recovery for all. north and south, young and old. there is always a danger with an economy that young people who

aren't in the workforce are locked out of it and that is why i think the change that the chancellor announced about abolishing the jobs tax on those young people to make it cheaper for employers to take them on, can have a real impact in making sure young people can participate in our growing economy. >> given the fact that work and pensions secretary was left alone on his bench as when he made the statement on universal credit, has the prime minister still got confidence in the universal benefit changes? >> i think the pension secretary has probably done more than anyone else in british to transform the debate about welfare. that is what is happening because of the dedication he has put into the issue. we see fewer people out of work. we see the number of workless household at its lowest. the system includes the benefit cap that labor voted against. that is making work pay and we should be proud of that work. >> does the prime minister agree with me that in the long term, the best plan to improve the living standards of my hard- working constituents is to continue to cut their income tax, which can only be achieved

by a growing economy, the government cutting spending so our country lives within its means, and doesn't have to borrow every month to pay its bills? >> my honorable friend makes a very important point. you can talk all you like about how you want to help people with your living standards, keep their tax -- isn't it extraordinary, the shadow chancellor after last week is at it again, heckling again? we learned something last week. he can dish it out, but he can't take it. oh! i tell you what is going down, his career is going down. the simple point of this, if you want to get people's taxes down, you have got to make difficult decisions about spending. that is what we have done. that is why we are able to cut taxes. >> in towns across the united kingdom, there are parents in deep despair because they cannot afford a decent christmas for their children. why is that? >> what is happening in our country is we are recovering from the longest and most of the recession that we have had in

living memory. it takes time. what we see is a million more people in work. that is a positive development. we see 400,000 more businesses in our country operating. we see a growth rate in our country which is now the second highest of any major western economy. the job isn't done yet. it isn't halfway done yet. we need a long-term economic plan which is absolutely what we are dedicated to delivering. we would get nowhere if the first thing we did was increase spending, increase borrowing, increase taxes, all the things that got this country into it a mess in the first place. >> british aerospace have 1000 apprentices at any one time, 221 in the ribble valley and

neighboring lancashire. what can he do to encourage other firms to follow the excellent example of british aerospace and take on more apprentices, particularly in engineering and sciences? that would encourage more youngsters to study those subjects in schools and universities. >> i have seen with my own eyes what they do in terms of apprenticeships including higher-level apprenticeships and it is extremely impressive. we have to take action at every level, make sure young people are studying science and math subjects. we have to make sure setting up apprenticeships is simpler, less expensive. we need a culture where companies want to get involved in this program. we also need to attract more investment to our shores. that is why it is good news that gsk is announcing 200 million invested in our country. alongside engineering, life sciences is an area where britain can win in the global race.

>> when the house debated syria in late august, the estimate of dead in the conflict was around 100,000. just over three months later, the estimate is over 120,000. we cannot allow this to become a conflict in a faraway land that we don't know anything about. is it not time for the government to urge greater action by the international community and show that we do care about the suffering of the syrian people. >> i agree with the honorable lady. i believe that britain should be fully engaged to try to bring those involved in this dreadful war to the negotiating table in terms of the geneva process. at the same time, we must continue with the work we are doing on humanitarian aid to help those who are suffering because of this conflict. we should also continue to work with all those in syria want a

free and democratic future. we mustn't allow this argument to develop that the only opposition in syria is an extremist opposition. that will only become the case if we stop working with those who care about democracy in the future. >> employment is up. small business numbers are up largely due to the impact of the expanding airport. i know the prime minister is probably a bit sick of airports having just come back from one, but would he consider coming to south bend airport to celebrate the success? i promise to buy them all ice cream on the sea front. >> who could resist the idea of an essex style celebration in the new year? let me find out more about what it involves before i commit. we should not underestimate the importance of airports and driving regional growth.

>> despite this government are savage cuts, next year liverpool will host the international festival of business. why won't the prime minister commit to attending the event? will he ensure the same level of support that boris would enjoy is afforded to the mayor of liverpool? will he tell his green-eyed bete noir that despite a short sleep over in london, the beatles are and always will be made in liverpool? >> having happily visited the beatles museum, i can actually confirm what he says. in terms of the mayor of liverpool, i have never had any problem working with them and enjoyed appearing on a platform with him to advertise the brilliance of that city and i will continue to cooperate with him with all the work that he is doing to attract investment into the city. >> abolishing roaming charges is one of the big wins for british

consumers we might get for remaining within the european union. has the prime minister discussed international phone usage with any other european heads of government and the last day or so? >> you could say in a roundabout way. perhaps in my defense you should remember that television cameras are always on. in my defense, i would say that nelson mandela played an extra ordinary role in his life and in his death in bringing people together. when a member of the family asked me for a photograph, i thought it was only polite to say yes. [laughter] >> order. prime been watching ministers questions. you can also watch any time

online at c-span.org. >> tomorrow morning the u.s. energy information administration will release its energy outlook for 2014. we will be live at the johns hopkins school of international studies for the report's at 9:30 a.m. eastern. you can watch it on a companion network c-span3. motorsoday, general chairman and ceo daniel ackerson will be speaking at the national press club in washington dc. he'll be talking about the state-of-the-art industry in gm's own progress. he will be live at 1 p.m. eastern. >> i wish you both a very happy christmas and a bright and prosperous new year. >> is pleasant to greet you mr. santa claus and to help you open

the sale of seals which begins on thanksgiving day this year. -- some of the christmas seals is a special favor for santa claus? >> i'd be delighted. >> yes indeed. >> my father santa claus gave it to me. >> oh, it has some of the dogs. . >> this week, edith roosevelt to grace coolidge. sundays "meet the press" paul ryan and patty murray is custom bud