Original version

BBC Radio 4 FM

BBC Radio 4 is a radio channel that started transmitting on the 30th September 1967. It replaced BBC Home Service.

BBC Radio 4

Radio 4

Radio 4 (FM)

Any Answers?

Phone-ins

Factual: Politics

Listeners respond to the issues raised in the preceding edition of Any Questions?

BBC Radio 4 LW

Any Answers?: What is the future for Labour, Lib Dems and Scotland post-election?

09/05/2015

What is the future for Labour, Lib Dems and Scotland post-election?

BBC Radio 4 - Any Answers?, What is the future for Labour, Lib Dems and Scotland post-election?Close menu

SNP, future of Labour and Liberal Democrats, PR, EU referendum, welfare reform.

Has the SNP been muzzled by the Tory win? And what of the future for Labour and the Lib Dems, for welfare reforms and an EU referendum? Should we have proportional representation?

Alex Salmond said the Scottish lion had "roared "after the SNP recorded its historic landslide General Election victory in Scotland. Until this week, the SNP held six of Scotland's 59 seats; now, it holds 56. That victory demonstrates, and in some measure explains, the constitutional rift in the United Kingdom.

Ed Miliband and Nick Clegg resigned this week after their party's disappointing General Election. How will the Labour Party and the Liberal Democrats rebuild for the future?

In the run up to the Election the Conservatives proposed cutting £12bn in welfare after the election, without specifying how. The Department for Work & Pensions proposals were canvassed the year before and those plans may include abolishing statutory maternity pay and barring under-25s from claiming incapacity benefit or housing benefit. Money could also be raised, civil servants suggested, by increasing the bedroom tax in certain cases

David Cameron reiterated on Friday that he would implement his party's manifesto in full, including an in/out referendum on Britain's EU membership in 2017. (Maybe even in 2016)

"The time has come for real, genuine, radical political reform," Nigel Farage said after losing his bid to take Thanet South from the Conservatives. The UKIP leader had increased his party's share of the vote in the seat by 27%, and nationally UKIP's vote share was up by 10 percentage points to a total of 3.9 million. Still, the party won just one constituency under the UK's first-past-the-post voting system.
The Greens' ambitions were similarly thwarted: they won more than a million votes but just one seat. Should Proportional Representation be introduced?


Presenter is Anita Anand.
Producers are Maire Devine & Alex Lewis.
Editor is Karen Dalziel.

Intelligent speech, the most insightful journalism, the wittiest comedy, the most fascinating features and the most compelling drama and readings anywhere in UK radio.

Accessibility links

Programme Index

Any Answers?

What is the future for Labour, Lib Dems and Scotland post-election?

Genres

Formats

Brand

BBC Radio 4 FM

About BBC Radio 4