YESTERDAY’S Queen’s Speech was a wizard wheeze by the Prime Minister to get a free party political broadcast on behalf of the Conservative Party. His Government might fall before the week is out and he does not have enough support to get many of his measures through, so yesterday was just an expensive charade.
It was a way of getting positive publicity for some of the main planks of the next Conservative manifesto and, to be fair, there were several ideas that are worthy of consideration.
We are encouraged by the environmental emphasis that Boris Johnson has brought to his party, and we definitely support the fair distribution of tips to restaurant staff. We agree with more devolution which, in remarkably ebullient language for Her Majesty, will be for “unleashing regional potential”, although we await with interest plans for non-metropolitan areas like Durham and Yorkshire.
Labour’s plan to renationalise the railways has proven popular with voters and it has reopened up the debate on how we run our network. The Conservatives are now going to join that debate with a discussion document, and that is welcome.
The Queen’s Speech also spoke of reforming the adult social care system, which is in desperate need of attention, but we remember that Theresa May promised to do the same three-and-a-half years ago. Her ideas were embarrassingly half-baked, as the 2017 election campaign showed, and then she got stuck in the Brexit quagmire and achieved nothing.
Which is why yesterday was such a charade. We have to get a deal so we can either leave without jeopardising everything or move to a second referendum. We have to move forward. Yesterday was just a distraction.
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