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The pointless exercise that was the Queen's speech - for the Inverness Courier
LAST week's Queen's speech was one of the most meaningless of recent years.
Amid all the pomp and circumstance, and the various curious procedures that take place, it was impossible to conceal that Her Majesty was being asked to read out a list of bills and proposals most of which have no chance of becoming law and most of which were more to do with the Labour's party campaign at the general election than the good government of the country.
Those with long political memories, recalled that in generations past a government which knew it was on its way out - as Mr Brown's undoubtedly is - would have used their last Queen's speech as a chance to push through a small number of necessary measures.
The Liberal Democrats took this approach, by calling for the last days of this Parliament to be devoted solely to fixing the broken political system. When you move out of a house, the last thing you do is clean it up for the new occupant. After the expenses crisis, the only useful tax that we believe should remain in this rump parliament is to clean up politics.
With political will, and real focus, it would have been possible to pass laws to give people the right to sack their MPs. This so-called "power of recall" would mean that local people had the chance to force a by-election if their MP was found guilty of serious misconduct. Legislation could have been introduced to clean up party funding, and ending the scandal of millionaire donors effectively buying influence in government. And the electoral system could have been reformed so that safe seats were ended and every vote counts.
Instead, many of the government's bills are unnecessary or beside the point. For example, they intend to put forward a bill to force ministers to cut the huge budget deficit that has been built up fighting the recession. Deficit reduction is necessary, and will entail some difficult or painful choices. Indeed, given the way the SNP government has reduced funding for Highland Council we will be one of the first areas in the country to be forced to make such choices.
But it is simply unfathomable why the chancellor needs a bill to tell him to do his job. Does he not trust himself to get it right? Or is it a more cynical ploy. Ministers have been almost completely silent so far on the cuts they think need to be made. They may well try to use this bill as an excuse to perpetuate this dishonesty through the election campaign. But I believe all parties owe it to the country to be honest about the choices they will make, not to try to disguise them.
Likewise, the financial services bill is made to sound tough on bankers. But it turns out to be nothing of the sort - because there isn't time for it actually to become law, and because the one idea ministers have will not actually cut a single one of the outrageous bonuses that disgraced bankers are still paying themselves. Rather than this pathetic posturing, the government should immediately take up Vince Cable's idea of a new banking levy to make the banks pay for the help we are all giving them. The government is - in fact - still kowtowing to the bankers in the way it always has, and seems happy to let them get off Scot free for their scandalous mistakes.
There is one bill in the Queen's speech that is welcome - the digital communications bill. This will set the framework for the improvement of broadband across Britain the roll out of superfast broadband too.
This is one of the most essential investments for the future of the Highlands. A survey last week showed that Inverness has the slowest broadband of any city in Britain. Rural areas fare much worse. The solution is to get our area to the front of the queue for next generation broadband - something I am working hard to achieve.
Posted on: 01/12/2009
