Speech full of 'glib promises'

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Yesterday's Queen's Speech was the last nail in Labour's coffin.

The hurried list of false hopes bodged together by Brown and co. were nothing but a cheap last-ditch attempt to buy back the millions of voters that feel let down by this government.

This is not to say that there weren't important inclusions in the legislative programme.

In fact, many of the issues addressed are close to the hearts and minds of millions of Brits: the speech touched on health, education, crime, immigration, the environment and other areas of importance. There were also areas that one would have expected to be included but were not.

The implementation of Sir Christopher Kelly's proposals for example – Sir Christopher has since said that he is 'disappointed' that there was not even a mention of the expenses scandal in the Queen's Speech.

Some of the inclusions were also laughable - The Fiscal Responsibility Bill to name one example - which, at face value, seems one of the most implausible policy suggestions in recent times. When quizzed later about how the government would go about meeting the ultra-ambitious target of halving the budget deficit over four years, Brown couldn't earmark a single area for cutting public spending.

The central, overriding feature of this year's Queen's Speech is that there is no way that the great majority of its proposals will be passed into law. Before the speech had even been made, the Tory leader in the Lords had spoken publicly of his party's discussions about stalling the path of legislation over the expected 33 sitting days remaining before the general election.

Paired with around 70 sitting days left in the Commons it is fair to say that few – if any - of the measures in yesterday's Queen's Speech will find themselves on the statute book.

The agenda of this year's Queen's Speech would have been welcome twelve years ago when Labour came to power, two years ago when Gordon Brown became prime minister, or even last year when the bills would have much more time to become law.

However the government have put forward these proposals at the last minute of Labour's political reign, at the point when they are least likely to come into force. There are proposals – such as a commitment to free personal care for the 280,000 people with the 'highest needs' - which will raise aspirations for many of the country's most vulnerable, but ultimately will not succeed in getting through Parliament.

Labour has set out an early election manifesto rather than a list of genuine government bills. It is true to say that we will now, almost definitely, go into the next general election without real political reform.

We will still have the same undemocratic voting system Labour promised to change in 1997, mass abuse of taxpayers' money will still be 'within the rules' and we will still have a Labour Party that specialise in 'umm-ing and arr-ing' over House of Lords reform.

As Nick Clegg said earlier this week, the Queen's Speech was a 'sorry footnote to a shameful year at Westminster'.

The focus should have been on changing the political system to rejuvenate the faith and interest of the nation. That was Labour's reason for holding back when the other parties and the country at large were calling for an early general election.

The electorate should not – and will not - be taken as fools, and it will take a miracle for Britain to buy the glib promises made in yesterday's speech.

John Brooks, parliamentary researcher