Tag Archives: queen’s speech

Norman Lamb: “A Queen’s Speech of which Liberal Democrats can be proud”

By Norman Lamb MP | Published 25th May 2010 - 8:40 pm

It is worth spending a moment reflecting on just how remarkable today’s Queen’s Speech is from a Liberal Democrat perspective.

We have become conditioned to believe that the policies we develop will never be implemented. A good intellectual exercise but nothing more. Yet here we have a programme for government of which we can be proud. It contains an extraordinary list of Liberal Democrat commitments on which we fought the general election.

Right from the start the speech grabs attention:

My Government’s legislative programme will be based upon the principles of freedom, fairness and responsibility.

Who would have dreamt of those words introducing the Queen’s speech just a few weeks ago?

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Posted in News, Parliament | Also tagged , , , , , , , , , , | 36 Comments

Queen’s speech not much fun for local government either

By Chris White | Published 19th November 2009 - 5:32 pm

The Government has long had a knack of turning a good idea into an operational nightmare. One case in point is the Queen’s Speech proposal for personal care at home. The Prime Minister has given an undertaking to find a way of ensuring that older people with the highest needs can remain at home, regardless of means.

The bill will attempt to help 400,000 people (‘guaranteeing’ free personal care for 280,000 and providing assistance to 130,000 others). Difficult to argue with? In the small print not covered by the nationals screaming about the General Election is the fact that this will …

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Posted in Local government, Op-eds | Also tagged , , , | 1 Comment

Nick’s response to the Queen’s Speech: ” fantasy Queen’s Speech from a government that has run out of road”

By The Voice | Published 18th November 2009 - 6:15 pm

So in the end the Queen’s Speech wasn’t cancelled – as the BBC reports:

[Nick] Clegg, who had called for the speech to be cancelled and the remaining Parliamentary time before an election to be used to clean-up politics, said there was nothing in the proposed legislation to help create jobs, boost bank lending and fix the UK’s “rotten” political system.

And here in full is what Nick said today in response to the government measures announced by HM The Queen:

All the pageantry in the world cannot cover up the fact that this is a fantasy Queen’s Speech from a government that has run out of road in a Parliament that has lost the people’s trust.

This Queen’s Speech won’t give people the help and jobs they need in this recession and it won’t fix our rotten politics.

After 12 long years, in which this government has passed nearly 500 different laws, along with countless thousands of statutory instruments, it is right to stop and ask the question: what is this Queen’s Speech really for?

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Daily View 2×2: 18 November 2009

By Iain Roberts | Published 18th November 2009 - 7:26 am

2 Must-Read Blog Posts

What are other Liberal Democrat bloggers saying? Here’s are two posts that have caught the eye from the Liberal Democrat Blogs aggregator:

Spotted any other great posts in the last day from blogs that aren’t on the aggregator? Do post up a comment sharing them with us all.

2 Big Stories

HRH takes a battering

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Posted in Daily View | Also tagged , | 1 Comment

Three reasons Nick Clegg was right to call for the ‘cancellation’ of the Queen’s Speech

By Stephen Tall | Published 17th November 2009 - 6:15 pm

When I woke up yesterday morning to news reports that Nick Clegg had called for the Queen’s Speech to be cancelled – because with limited time before the general election it would be far better to use the time focusing on reforming Parliament ready for the new batch of MPs – I was impressed.

First, because it was one of the leading news items, and for a Lib Dem leader to be that high up the running order in peace-time is no mean achievement. Secondly, because he was focusing public and media attention once again on a key liberal …

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Posted in News | Also tagged , , , , , | 19 Comments

LibLink … Nick Clegg: Don’t waste our time… bring forward real reform

By The Voice | Published 16th November 2009 - 10:30 am

In today’s Independent, Nick Clegg makes a bold pitch – that Parliament should use the few months it has left before the election to try and actually achieve something to solve the big political issue of the year: restoring the public’s trust in Parliament. Here’s an excerpt:

On Wednesday, all the pomp and ceremony that Parliament can muster will be rolled out for the Queen’s Speech, setting out the Government’s list of new laws for the coming year. But the glitz and glamour will be based on a complete fiction. Parliament will find it difficult to pass any of the

…

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Posted in LibLink | Also tagged , , , | 14 Comments

PM “trying to legislate his way in to history”

By The Voice | Published 15th November 2006 - 11:49 am

Leader of the Liberal Democrats Menzies Campbell has accused the Government of ‘statutory addiction’ and commented that this Queen’s Speech was ‘remarkably similar to those which have gone before’.

Menzies Campbell said:

After nearly ten years in office the government and the Prime Minister are still chasing the same elusive goals and the same elusive headlines.

This is a rush from judgement towards legislation. The government suffers from a statutory addiction.

This is a Prime Minister trying to legislate his way into history.
Before the Prime Minister was elected he told us that his priority was education, education, education.

Since he was elected his priority has proved to be legislation, legislation, legislation.

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Posted in Opposition watch | Also tagged , , | 2 Comments