Wednesday 18 November 2009

Looking to the future

Today we saw the Queens speech at the opening of the final session of parliament before the next general election.

The government outlined their plans for the coming period http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/8364858.stm the question to ask is how if these plans are to be implemented how will this effect local people?

Clearly the first priority must be getting the economy moving, this will safeguard the incomes of working people http://www.newstatesman.com/2009/11/queen-speech-election-economic

People are genuinely angry with the banks, continuing action needed to control bank excesses, both in terms of bank bonuses and unfair borrowing charges.

Action is required on the pricing of the public utilities, people feel that they are being being ripped off by these private companies.

The other eye catching policy is the expansion of costs for elderly care, these must be welcomed as care costs for caring people with dementia whittle away peoples saving.

The Conservative opposition will undoubtedly use the unelected house of lords to delay these bills ever becoming Acts of Parliaments.

The Conservatives have very different priorities, for example they have a commitment to give cuts in inheritance tax, this will benefit the top 4% of people in this country, or put another way 96% will not and people with estates of £5million will benefit by £520,000.

Personally, if I had been my speech, I would have included;

  1. Electoral reform and constitutional reform
  2. A windfall tax on excessive bank profits
  3. A massive national expansion in Council housing to replace one million lost properties over the previous 25 years
  4. The new banks created out of the banking crises should be mutual or cooperative companies

Just a thought.

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