The West Country Debate November: Ambulances, immigration and the World Cup
Watch November's edition of the West Country Debate
Cornwall's Senior Coroner has warned the South West's ambulance waits are killing people, so will new NHS money from the Chancellor fix the problem?
This week the Labour leader called for an end to 'immigration dependency', but the region's farmers say crops are rotting in the fields because there aren't enough foreign workers.
Away from Westminster, the World Cup should be providing light relief. But with Qatar's questionable human rights record, that too has got political.
On the panel this month:
Sir Robert Buckland - Conservative MP for South Swindon and former Cabinet minister
Richard Foord - Liberal Democrat MP for Tiverton and Honiton
Karin Smyth - Labour MP for Bristol South
Ambulance Waiting Times
Reports of long waits for ambulances across the West Country seem never-ending, but according to Cornwall's Senior Coroner, the problem is now costing lives. He has blamed ambulance delays for four recent deaths in the county.
They include Tony Reedman, who was holidaying in Cornwall when he had a stroke. He waited two and a half hours for an ambulance to arrive. The Coroner found that had he been treated more quickly, he might have survived.
The South West as a whole has the worst ambulance delays in the country. The South Western Ambulance Service NHS Foundation Trust says the problem is the time it takes to unload patients when hospitals are full. The hospitals say they are full because there isn't enough social care and they can't discharge fit patients.
Karin Smyth MP said that ambulance waiting times were a symptom of a failing health system, and that more social care funding was key:
Immigration
Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer made headlines this week when he told business leaders that the UK economy needed to end its 'dependency' on cheap foreign labour and start investing more in training British workers.
His comments come as many business leaders are calling for more immigrant labour to boost growth, and the National Farmers' Union says is sector urgently needs more workers.
Richard Foord MP criticised the government for not investing enough in further education:
The World Cup
World Cups are supposed to be about football, but Qatar's tournament has become as much about human rights as the sport. Monday's match between England and Iran showed two very different approaches to making your point.
Iran's team refused to sing their own national anthem, in protest at their country's regime - a gesture which could put them in danger when (or if) they go back home.
By contrast, England Captain Harry Kane did not wear his pro-gay rights armband, because FIFA had threatened him with a yellow card. So, was that spineless, or pragmatic?
Sir Robert Buckland reserved his anger for FIFA: