Queen's speech: all the bills and what they mean
The government unveiled a legislative programme ranging from Lords reform to libel and family justiceLords reformA bill to reform the House of Lords has been included in the Queen's speech as one of...
View ArticleQueen opens parliament with a festival of bling – and a couple of fluffs
The Queen's speech was the usual clanging, clanking collection of boilerplate ambitions cloaked in the language of clicheThe last session of parliament was the longest for 100 years. At the previous...
View ArticleGovernment confirms plans for electricity market overhaul
Wide package of reforms to electricity market and water industry promised in Queen's speechThe government has confirmed plans for "revenue support" to benefit nuclear power, through a complex new...
View ArticleThe Queen's speech: in place of strategy | Editorial
It is a measure of the coalition's current dysfunctionality that it proved unable to seize the opportunity to get on the front footAmid the pomp and the irrepressible catcalls from Dennis Skinner,...
View ArticleQueen's speech: a story of coalition uncertainty | Martin Kettle
David Cameron is now struggling to send a clear message to the nation about what the coalition is forWhatever its content and however deadpan Her Majesty's inimitable delivery of it, every Queen's...
View ArticleSteve Bell on the Queen's speech - cartoon
Lords reform takes centre stage in legislative agenda, alongside measures to support families, change employment law and reform pensionsSteve Bell
View ArticleDaily Mail misses a Tic Tac trick | Media Monkey
The BBC's former head of corporate communications, Tina Stowell, looked very impressive in her ermine yesterday during the Queen's speech. But not so impressive is the Daily Mail for not spotting the...
View ArticleTo be a Tory, or not a Tory - that is the question | Michael White
Conservative MP for Stratford-upon-Avon Nadhim Zahawi posited during the Queen's Speech debate that William Shakespeare was a natural Tory. Maybe, maybe not …The Tory MP Nadhim Zahawi made a witty...
View ArticleWe must not miss the chance to reform social care
The NHS will buckle under the pressure of increasing demand if the current, broken system is allowed to carry onThere is some hope in the Queen's speech for our ageing population and the care services...
View ArticleWe cannot afford to delay social care funding reforms
The government's draft bill does not look like it will tackle the growing crisis, or the cynicism and dispair that many feelThe Queen's speech has confirmed what many of us feared: there is to be a...
View ArticleSocial workers should play a role in remodelling care
Policy makers should look to frontline professionals when drawing up social care reformsNo one can be unaware that the funding of adult social care is one of the major challenges this country faces....
View ArticleAfter the Queen's speech: who will speak for liberty now? | Editorial
A blanket licence for electronic monitoring could slowly strangle private lifeA dismal 32% turnout in the local elections flowed from a sense that all politicians are the same. That belief is often...
View ArticleBehind the Queen's speech
Chris Riddell on the looming presence of recessionChris Riddell
View ArticleAn alternative Queen's speech: supporting social enterprise and co-ops
Labour's shadow civil society minister offers an alternative Queen's speech with bills to back social enterprise and co-opsIt seems no-one has had a good word to say for this year's Queen's speech, yet...
View ArticleGive special educational needs changes more time, say campaigners
Pilot schemes are not being allowed enough time to test SEN proposals, say charities, teachers' unions and pressure groupsThe government's radical shakeup of England's system for children with special...
View ArticleQueen's speech: social care reforms are doomed from the start
The real solution for the failings of the current system would be to reunite the founding principles of the welfare stateIt seems highly unlikely that the government's proposed social care reforms,...
View ArticleEU referendum: Tory MPs to force vote next week
Commons expected to vote on Tuesday on amendment expressing regret over lack of referendum bill in Queen's speechConservative MPs are seeking to engineer a vote on an EU referendum by tabling an...
View ArticlePolitics Weekly podcast: immigration, probation and the election in Pakistan
Reforms of the immigration system and prison probation rose to the top of the government's agenda as the coalition laid out its legislative programme in the Queen's speech at the state opening of...
View ArticleLetters: Immigration, bigotry and the bad old days
The last Labour government had in train plans to introduce national registration, which this government aborted (New curbs on EU migrants in Queen's speech, 8 May). There are many practical advantages...
View ArticleNationalism gone mad is threatening democracy in Britain | Darcus Howe
We need immigrants and we should not be asking people to stamp on the head of those who serve our economy so wellFifty-one years ago I arrived in Britain after a long journey on the SS Antilles. My...
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