Martin Bright, New Statesman Political Editor
Most of the criticism of Gordon Brown’s first legislative programme has been wholly unjustified. The drive to build more affordable homes, the raising of the educational leaving age and the extension of flexible working to include the parents of older children all add up to the beginnings of a progressive vision.
But on security, the government’s policy has been consistently illiberal and Brown has signalled his intention to continue where Tony Blair left off.
There is some evidence of a shift of tone under Brown – but the softer language of the new Home Secretary and the excision of the phrase “war on terror” from the ministerial lexicon means little when the government is so determined to revise the internment legislation. In the chopped logic of this government, there is no security debate.
The last election was won on the present security agenda and the belief is strong that the government has an authoritarian mandate.
What Labour said
John McDonnell, MP for Hayes & Harlington
For long periods during Tony Blair’s reign most progressives in and outside the Labour Party queried whether there was any light at the end of the tunnel.
Many saw the arrival of Gordon Brown as that light. After today’s first of Brown’s Queen’s Speeches all I can suggest is that you let your eyes get used to the dark.
This Queen’s Speech fails to provide any clear direction at a time when people are increasingly losing confidence in Labour’s ability to deliver the policies and public services they require. It will do nothing to lift the morale of Labour supporters and painfully we seem to be allowing ourselves to be out manoeuvred by second rate Tories.
Today’s legislative programme comes across as an uninspiring, rehashed mix of neo liberal economic policies at home and neo con policies abroad which in no way addresses the underlying demand for change in our country.
At the next election Labour will largely be judged on our record of delivering public services that meet the real needs of our community. Continuing to dress up privatisation as public sector reform won’t deliver the quality of public services we need and will continue to demoralise the public servants whose dedication we rely upon to achieve success.
Unless the Labour leadership gets a grip people will increasingly lose hope in us both as a Government that understands the real world issues they face and also lose confidence in even our managerial ability to deliver.
Hazel Blears, Secretary of State for Communities
Sitting in the Chamber of the House of Commons, listening to David Cameron and then Gordon Brown, the big dividing lines in British politics have never seemed clearer.
David Cameron’s speech was pure light entertainment – addressed to his own backbenchers, but ignoring the needs of the nation. It was heavy on jokes, but light on policies. And instead of vision, Cameron offered only vapidity. The Tories lapped it up. The voters have more sense.
Gordon Brown’s speech was strong on policy. On housing, planning, education, energy, health, transport, pensions, security and climate change, Labour has a long-term programme. The next election will be won by the party which best meets the rising aspirations of the British people.
People want and expect a greater say over the things that affect their lives; people want control over their lives; they want a government on their side, helping them realise their potential. That’s what this Labour Government is all about.
Take housing. The Queen’s Speech announced that Labour will build 3 million more houses by 2020, including social housing so that first-time buyers and families can get onto the housing ladder.
These new homes will be of quality design, in places where people want to live, including ten eco-towns which will help us meet our obligations to tackle climate change.
This is what meeting the long-term needs of the country means. And what do the Tories say? Not in my backyard. Their housing policy is a pure product of their own backbenchers’fears of new housing in their own constituencies.
Famously, you campaign in poetry and govern in prose. I doubt people will wake tomorrow excited by the prospect of the Channel Tunnel Rail Link Bill, or the European Communities Finance Bill. But the Labour Government is getting on with the job we were elected to do. We are delivering the promises we made in 2005.
We are putting our values of social justice for all into action. We are helping people to get on in life, to get a job, buy a home, live in a safe neighbourhood, and have access to decent services like schools and hospitals.
That’s what people vote Labour for, and that’s what wins elections.
Jeremy Corbyn, MP for Islington North
The Queen’s speech is always a weird occasion, with the streets of London full of horses, carrying men (usually) with strange titles, in carriages with even stranger purposes in mind.
It all costs a phenomenal amount of money and apart from the TV audience, hardly anyone seems to watch it. Maybe this luxury should be rationed to once every 5 years, and have fixed parliaments to go with it.
The most worrying aspects of the Queen’s speech are the implicit intentions that the anti terrorist legislation will further curtail liberties in this country, further isolate the Muslim community, and give even more power to the unaccountable security services.
Immigration is being portrayed as a big problem whereas the reality is, there are a tiny number of asylum seekers in this country when compared to the overall population, and without the young migrant workers, and the fantastic skills of Asian, African and Caribbean migrants in the past, our public services would not function and the current levels of economic growth would be impossible.
I am very suspicious that the government is being pushed by xenophobic forces and it is the duty of Labour to stand up against these backward ideas.
The most hopeful parts of the Queen’s speech relate to the continued commitment to eliminate child poverty, and from the point of view of an MP representing a hard pressed inner city constituency, the commitment to more housing for fixed rent for people in desperate need is very welcome indeed.
I will be watching very closely for the housing legislation to bring about real improvement in the lives of the people I represent.
Gordon knows why Blair lost office: Iraq. This speech should have been at least the statement that from now on we are going to pursue an independent foreign policy and not allow ourselves to be dictated to by the Washington Neo Cons.
What the Tories said
Anne Milton, Shadow Minister for Health
Well, that’s it! The Gracious Speech, as it is formally known, was all over in about 10 minutes.
Having said that, we’d had significant warning of what it contained thanks to the Prime Minister’s so called “Draft Queen’s Speech” in the summer, and the leaks from No. 10’s spin machine. Oh how we thought things were going to be different under Gordon.
Following Black Rod’s improvisation due to the lack of door knocker on the House of Commons front door, I followed my colleagues out of the House of Commons chamber as we trooped along the ‘line of power’ to hear what Her Majesty (albeit reading a scrip written by No. 10) had to say.
So, what did we get? Well, there was a string of Bill announcements – a shopping list if you like. However, in all honesty, I was having a strong sense of ‘déjà vu’. I am quite open in my opposition to this Government’s heavy reliance on legislation.
I would much rather they concentrated on the Bills we do need, like a Climate Change Bill, and stopped introducing unnecessary legislation that restricts ordinary law abiding citizens going about their daily business but has absolutely no effect on the very problems which the legislation was designed to tackle.
Once again, we had strong words about law and order but after countless pieces of legislation, I’m not sure I or any of my constituents feel any safer. My postbag and inbox is full of constituents who feel that nothing is being done to tackle the problems of antisocial behaviour on their street or estate.
We also heard about the Health and Social Care Bill. I hope this will provide a welcome opportunity to really make a difference to the NHS and Healthcare Acquired Infections.
With my Shadow Minister for Health hat on, probably not. I suspect that it will contain a raft of reassurances that sound good and deliver nothing and only further demoralise NHS staff. Party politics aside, I have to say it was uninspiring, dull and lacked a sense of vision.
Theresa May, Shadow Commons Leader
Gordon Brown cannot be the change that the country needs and this Queen’s Speech proves it.
The Prime Minister talks about change, but when it comes to real, substantive change he is incapable of offering anything new.
The Queen’s Speech was a great opportunity to take the big decisions that would help hard working people live their lives. But where are the proposals to give people more opportunity and power over their lives? We need education reform; Stamp Duty relief to help people onto the housing ladder; and more power for local government.
And where are the proposals to make families stronger and society more responsible? We need to end the couple penalty in the benefits system; back marriage in the tax system; and reform welfare to get people off benefits and into work. Where are the proposals to make Britain safer and greener? We need proper prison reform; real police reform; and a green energy revolution.
This Queen’s Speech is yet more proof that Gordon Brown is the past, not the future. His politics are the old politics. The British people want change, and only the Conservatives can offer it.
What the Lib Dems said
Norman Baker, MP for Lewes
If the Queen’s Speech this year was an attempt by the Prime Minister to ‘regain the political initiative’ and re-launch his premiership then it sadly fell flat on its face.
While we were promised a ‘vision for Britain’, what we actually got was a reflection of the ‘rut’ that even Gordon Brown’s own MPs describe the Government as being, since he flunked the opportunity of a General Election.
Far from shaking the Labour party out of despondency, Gordon’s backbenchers must have been experiencing an eerie sense of déjà vu. Hardly surprising given that everyone had heard it all before back in the pre-Queen’s speech in July.
This was nothing short of a huge anti-climax. Gordon has waited 10 years to be Prime Minister yet seems to have run out of policy ideas already? His seems to have been a three stage process. 1 – I want to be leader. 2 – Yippee, I’m leader. 3 – Ok, what do we do now?
Worse, a noticeable proportion of the legislation introduced in the speech seemed to be devoted to Mr Brown tidying up after his own wrong-turns. Replacing the CSA, for example, should have been done in the Labour government’s first year, not the eleventh. And whose fault is the shortage of affordable homes?
There was also a significant smattering of illiberal, Blairite thinking. The 8th Counter Terrorism Bill was introduced in yet another attempt to increase the possible length of pre-charge detention without any evidence that this is justified.
Mark Oaten, MP for Winchester
It is perhaps appropriate that we should be presented with such a lacklustre Queen’s Speech, given the indecision and anticlimax over the election that never was and the incessant poll gazing that has taken place since.
This speech was Brown’s opportunity to capture the initiative by outlining some bold policies, yet he has continued in the rather non-descript style to which we have become accustomed.
That is not to say that the speech did not contain any positive steps, rather it has failed to present the public with a coherent agenda for the Brown premiership. It is all the more disappointing considering that the fulfilment of this agenda was the reason given for declining to hold an election.
There are some incredibly pressing issues that failed to get a mention: most notably the crisis in the prison system caused by massive overcrowding.
Measures to tackle re-offending are a welcome addition to this debate and particular attention should be drawn to the reactivation of dormant bank accounts, which could be instrumental in reducing re-offending rates by diverting money to education and social projects.
However for the most part the speech has failed: the climate change bill is too weak and the constitutional reform bill falls far short of the changes needed. We need to encourage higher levels of education, but the criminalisation of teenagers is not the answer.
In the final analysis, Brown has taken no steps to better define his agenda, and has failed to comprehensively tackle even one major problem facing the country.
What Plaid Cymru said
Leanne Wood, Assembly Member for South Wales Central
Last month Gordon Brown decided not to call an election so that he could “…show the country that we have a vision for the future of this country.”
There are some good policies in this Queen’s Speech but one thing that is missing is any real vision.
I welcome the government’s proposal to allow MPs a vote on whether or not the UK goes to war. Although this would not have stopped us going to war in Iraq, as the vast majority of both Labour and Tory MPs supported the war, it may make future Prime Ministers think twice before committing troops.
The most worrying area of the Speech was the Counter-terrorism proposals. Of course, terrorism is a major challenge and I have an utmost respect for all those public servants trying to deal with this threat, but I have yet to hear any compelling argument for extending pre-charge detention.
In our party’s Alternative Queen’s Speech, Plaid made some interesting proposals that I am very sorry (but not surprised) to see did not make it into New Labour’s speech for Mrs Windsor. The proposal for an “Elected Representatives (Prohibition of Deception) Bill” would have been truly revolutionary.
In all it was an uninspiring Queen’s speech. If Gordon Brown is going to be more than a caretaker for the last few years of the Labour government, he is going to need to come up with a far more radical agenda than this.
What the charities said
Paul Cann, Director of Policy at Help The Aged
This year’s Queen’s Speech is unique in that for the first time the Government pre-empted its contents in the summer with the draft programme, as a result, there are few surprises in store.
Help the Aged warmly welcomes the commitment to enact a Pensions Bill which will create the savings scheme for employers. This legislation will provide a mechanism for workers to ensure they make provision for their older age.
Perhaps the most important Bill for older people in the upcoming Parliamentary session will be the Health and Social Care Bill.
As so much of our social care system seems to be failing, and with the Government now promising a Green Paper to sketch out a new deal, a strong and active regulator is of crucial importance.
The failure to include a Single Equality Bill will rankle with many older people who were hoping the Government would lay down proposals to secure equality in the provision of goods and services.
Ageist policies and practice must be combated with the same vigour with which racism, sexism and homophobia have been confronted – so it is a great shame Parliamentary time could not be found for a Bill this year.
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