Music to the ears?

What is remarkable about this year’s Queen’s Speech are the omissions and the repeated admissions of failure.

Let’s take the omissions first. Labour’s legislative agenda is woefully inadequate in terms of its remedial measures for the economic and social situation we are currently in. Labour seem intent to remain a passenger on the bash the banker’s bandwagon (as their Financial Services Bill shows) and not switch to the construction cart. This is not opinion. Excluding the Jobs Bill from the Queen’s speech means Labour are once more talking a good talk about preventing the emergence of a lost generation but not walking the walk.

In the same vein, it was only a few weeks ago that Brown stood up at Labour’s annual conference and announced a whole raft of health measures. With the sidelining of the Health Bill, once again we see a government that seems to be all talk.

The exclusion of the Housing Bill for consideration in the forthcoming Parliamentary session is further proof that this government has no real solutions to the real issues facing this country.

What do the Child Poverty Bill, Children, Schools and Families Bill, Constitutional Reform and Governance Bill, Crime and Security Bill, Energy Bill, Equality Bill, Fiscal Responsibility Bill, Personal Care at Home Bill have in common?

They all signal that the government has raised the flag of failure.

Labour came in, in 1997 seeking to take significant steps in reducing child poverty. The fact that this Bill has been reintroduced in the final Parliamentary session of a third term government is lamentable.

The fact that legislation has been introduced to ensure parents can legally ensure their children receive a decent standard of education highlights the government’s gross misunderstanding about their failures. The government are essentially turning around and saying to our schools and school staff that they were not given the tools they needed to do the job and are now being sued for a job conceived to have been done badly in some cases. If anyone is to be sued it is the government.

The Constitutional Reform and Governance Bill does nothing to address the issues of the past 12 months or the past 12 years.

We have yet another Crime and Security Bill. After 300 new offences, countless initiatives to tackle low level crime and a multitude of legislation Labour have failed to match their mantra from the 1990s, that they needed to tackle the causes of crime and not just the crimes themselves.

The Energy Bill highlights how Labour have let the most needy in British society down. It should not be the job of OFGEM to do the government’s work for it. They are the regulator not the rule maker.

Since 1997, British society has become the most unequal in any period in our history. Discrimination is reprehensible in all forms but you cannot put everyone onto a level playing field. That is what the Bill seems intent on doing by placing an obligation on the entire public sector to “narrow the gap between rich and poor”. Are we going to see Equal Opportunity forms peppered with questions like; How many bedrooms do you have in your house? What is your combined income? and so on? Does that matter a jot when it comes to doing the job? Of course not.

The introduction of a Fiscal Responsibility Bill is not just lamentable. It is laughable. If government needs a legal obligation to balance the books then they are not worthy of being our government.

No one would dispute that we need to look after the older generation in Britain. But again we need to look at the evidence of the past 12 years. Labour have badly let down our older population. The fact that so many have to sell their homes to survive is but one manifestation of this.

So by all means introduce a Personal Care at Home Bill but ensure that the care can be carried out at the person’s home and not a care home or other establishment.

Then ensure that the tax burden on our older generation is reduced.

Ensure that they get what is rightfully owed to them and do not have to go around with a begging bowl.

Restore dignity to old age.

Invest more in researching the diseases which afflict the older generation.

Ensure that the State pays for homes to be habitable for the older generation rather than force them to pay for any alterations themselves.

Allow relatives to look after their older loved ones without having to use their annual holiday entitlement to do so or sit at their desk wondering how their relative is.

It is clear from the omissions and admissions of failure in this Queen’s Speech that Labour, as a party and a government are stuck in a time warp.

Unfortunately for the electorate this is not going to last three minutes but 168 more days.

Waiting for the next song is no longer an option. We as a country need to change the record now.