In an article first published in the current edition of the Parliamentary Monitor magazine, Conservative chairman Dr Liam Fox argues that plans for the public services were missing from the Queen's Speech.

Even by Labour’s pitiful standards, this Queen’s Speech was woeful.

Governments should address the concerns of the voters. Their legislative programme should be constructed accordingly.

In this year’s Queen’s Speech, Labour couldn’t even be bothered to make it seem that they cared about the issues which really matter to voters – crime, high taxes, dirty hospitals, school ill-discipline, asylum and immigration. Instead, the government set out its stall for the forthcoming general election – and it wasn’t a pretty sight.

Voters thought they’d seen it all from Tony Blair, endless talk, broken promise, and the wrong priorities – and that’s why they are so disillusioned with him. But this time, with his promise to make Britain more secure, he has condemned them to yet more disappointment and disillusionment. His government has been making empty promises on law and order for the past seven years. Yet, despite a deluge of so-called initiatives, crime is spiralling out of control.

How can the people of Britain feel secure when they know that their local policemen are more likely to be filling out forms behind a desk than patrolling their streets? How worrying must it be to them that, should they or their loved ones have the misfortune of being admitted to hospital, they could be one of the 5,000 people to die every year of a hospital-acquired infection? How can Tony Blair talk about security when Britain has an immigration and asylum system that is a shambolic mess?

The truth is that Tony Blair can talk until he is blue in the face about tackling the everyday threats to ordinary people’s security – his failure to take effective action means that he's letting down Britain's hardworking families. A Conservative government, on the other hand, will tackle the issues that really matter to them.

After seven years of Tony Blair’s government, Britain is heading in completely the wrong direction. Crime is out of control, our hospitals are dirty and our immigration system is a shambles. Taxes have gone up 66 times, but people see no improvement in services for the extra money they have paid.
The British people deserve and expect more – that is why our alternative Queen’s Speech offers real action on the problems people in Britain face today:  more police, cleaner hospitals, school discipline, controlled immigration and lower taxes. And, in stark contrast to Tony Blair, when we say we will do something, we will do it.
We intend to give taxpayers value for their money. We will do that by cutting back waste and bureaucracy in government. This will help us put Britain back on a path to lower taxes.  Conservative action on schools and school standards would be an immediate priority, and would include measures to ensure that teachers, not bureaucrats, run schools, backed by curbs on educational red tape. Head teachers would be given complete control over exclusions from schools, helping to restore discipline in classrooms. We would introduce a bill to give every parent the right to choose the best school for their child, and establish a school expansion fund to pay for 600,000 additional school places over the next five years.

Under the Conservatives, high priority would go to making NHS hospitals cleaner and safer; waste and unnecessary bureaucracy would be cut, and foundation trusts would be given genuine independence and made more accountable to patients and doctors.

Our alternative Queen’s Speech would lead to firmer controls over entry into the UK, with the creation of a points system for immigration to ensure priority for those committed to working hard and making a positive contribution to the country.  On law and order, the Conservative Party will pass legislation to cut police paperwork and pave the way for the recruitment of an extra 5000 officers a year. Turning to defence, we have pledged to support our armed forces and to create a homeland security minister, with undivided responsibility for anti-terrorist measures and emergency planning.

Tony Blair has let Britain down with his “all talk” approach. He promised he would be “tough on crime, tough on the causes of crime”. But Britain still has a million violent crimes being committed every year. He promised he would “save the NHS”, and yet we still have a million people on waiting lists. He promised “education, education, education”, but there are still one million children truanting each year. 

The British people deserve better than this. The Conservatives offer real alternative and proper workable solutions to seven years of Tony Blair – we will turn talk into action.

Dr Liam Fox is Conservative MP for Woodspring and co-chairman of the party