Skip to main content

The Queens Speech would still have lacked radical content even if Labour had won.

http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2015/may/26/queens-speech-miliband


Look at the alternative Queen’s speech and wonder what might have been.

 



Image result for polly toynbee
Polly Toynbee. What might have been?
Image result for Lord Falconer
Lord Falconer. Prepared a Labour Queens speech





 The over riding problem with these "What might have been" articles is that history has shown us, time after time, that the proposals of governments as outlined in the Queens Speech are subsequently modified, abandoned or otherwise amended to suit the changing fortunes of the incumbent government. Where proposals are implemented, they are frequently the less controversial aspects of what is often a package designed more to appeal to popular perception than to the real needs of society. Radical? No. Aspirational? No.
Perhaps Polly Toynbee and Lord Falconer could respond to a few enquiries in respect of a Queens Speech. Where is the policy to end austerity and to restore the cuts already made by the Conservative dominated Coalition? Where is the commitment to build not 200 but 300,000 new homes of which 60% will be "social housing" provided by either local councils or housing societies? Where is the commitment to repeal the anti trade union legislation in place since the days of Thatcher? What about those measures to be introduced to control bank and privatised companies in the utilities markets and energy supplies or to take back into public ownership the Railways and the Post Office? At the end of the day, the only consideration is whether the current Labour Party has the "political will" to do what is right rather than what is popular to produce a real radical programme and then implement it. From the available evidence, the answer is "No they do not".




Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Northern Ireland and Brexit. The return of "The Troubles"

Northern Ireland: police attacked in another night of disturbances | Northern Ireland | The Guardian When the "Brexit" debate was still filling our newspapers and our television screens, readers may remember why I had changed my mind since voting to leave at the referendum vote. Apart from the economic arguments, which had become crystal clear after peeling away all the lies and misrepresentations trotted out by Bozo Boris and his "Get Brexit Done" conspirators, there was always the problem of the border between Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland. Would it be possible to have a border between the European Union and the United Kingdom where people, goods and services could pass freely between the two nations without customs restrictions, tariffs, duties and all the other formalities? Would it be possible to have one part of the United Kingdom treated differently from other parts of the United Kingdom, particularly when Scotland for example had voted overwhe...

Workers face ban on striking .

http://www.theguardian.com/politics/2015/jul/15/trade-unions-conservative-offensive-decades-strikes-labour?CMP=share_btn_fb     Tories launch biggest crackdown on trade unions for 30 years         The Labour party must oppose the continuing assault on ordinary people in this country. Organisation and protests against the excesses of this Conservative government is essential. Should Harriet Harman suggest even partial support for Conservative policies, she is clearly in the wrong party.

Leave the clocks alone!

  https://www.kentonline.co.uk/kent/news/did-you-remember-to-put-clocks-forward-224737/ Sanity returns!!! The clocks have gone forward by one hour and perhaps now I can get some proper sleep, and return to normal in numerous other areas which have been disrupted since 25th October 2020. That pesky little person who steals an hour from my sleep and disrupts my time/body clock for the next 6 months, should be confined to a secure location for ever. Never again should I and thousands like me be disrupted every year and for no apparent reason by an outdated and tenuous notion of "daylight saving". In fact we should probably put another hour at the start of the Summer and then stay on Double British Summer Time (DBST). for the duration. Message for pesky little person "LEAVE THE BLOODY CLOCKS ALONE!"