November 9th 2023.
The State Opening of Parliament marks a slightly surreal day in Westminster. Filled with golden carriages and crown jewels, it feels a million miles away from the reality faced by most people, struggling to make their pay packet stretch to the end of the week.
But amidst the pomp and pageantry, it has a serious point too – for the government of the day to set out the bills it wants to pass for the rest of that Parliamentary session. People were crying out for action to reduce the cost of living, tackle the climate emergency, guarantee warm and secure homes, and transform the economy so it works for everyone.
Unfortunately, what we got was Government by gimmick.
The cynical approach started even before King Charles took his seat, when news broke on Monday of the Government’s plan to allow licences for producing oil and gas in the North Sea to be decided on an annual, rather than ad-hoc, basis, which could result in production ramping up.
It's clear that the Prime Minister doesn't see the climate emergency as a crisis that needs to be solved, but rather a wedge issue between his party and the opposition that needs to be exploited. This political game-playing won’t work.
These licences won’t improve energy security as Rishi Sunak claims, because oil and gas prices are determined by international markets. In the past 13 years, we’ve had hundreds of North Sea oil and gas licences issued, resulting in the discovery of just five new fields. And to date, just 16 days’ worth of gas has been produced from them since 2010, of which half has been exported to the Netherlands. Energy security? What a joke.
And expanding oil and gas production in the North Sea won’t necessarily cut energy bills either, as that oil and gas would only get sold back to the UK at international prices. Don’t just take my word for it – the Energy and Net Zero Secretary Claire Coutinho admitted as much on BBC Breakfast earlier this week.
The King’s Speech was the longest address by a monarch to Parliament since 2005, coming in at over 1,200 words; yet it also contained the smallest number of bills since 2014, also the year before an election.
This King’s Speech was the longest address by a monarch to Parliament since 2005, coming in at over 1,200 words; yet it also contained the smallest number of bills since 2014, also the year before an election.
The grim legislation kept coming during the speech. The climate wrecking policies were swiftly followed by yet more anti-democratic, anti-strike measures, including the extension of so-called ‘minimum service levels’, where striking unions have to ensure that they have adequate cover to ensure that services can continue to operate. In the case of rail workers, for example, this will mean 40% of normal services have to run.
NHS workers, who will also be impacted, already ensure our health service keeps running throughout strike periods – but forcing paramedics to work when they’ve lawfully voted to strike, and sacking them if they don’t comply, won’t help to mend our broken and underfunded public services.
The Renters Reform Bill included in the speech isn’t worthy of the name if it doesn’t even include an immediate ban on no-fault evictions, meaning landlords would no longer have the right to evict tenants for no reason with just two months’ notice. That has been indefinitely delayed until vague reforms to the court system come into force.
It’s deeply disappointing that the Government’s flagship promise to the LGBTQ+ community to ban so-called ‘conversion therapy’ was ditched at the very last moment, and just when we’re seeing hate crime against transgender people rise to a record high in England and Wales. This abuse shouldn’t be tolerated – so why is Sunak’s Government sending a message that it can be?
There was no Clean Air Bill, a proposal that I have championed in the House of Commons, and Ministers continue to stonewall. This Bill, known as Ella’s Law after Ella Roberta Adoo-Kissi-Debrah, who tragically died from air pollution in 2013, would set tough targets to clean up our air and make it a human right for all.
Instead, Sunak is playing to the tune of his Tory backbenchers and bemoaning the entirely fabricated ‘war on motorists’. Reducing air pollution to protect the health of children and some of the most disadvantaged people in the country is a no-brainer – what’s stopping the Prime Minister from adopting it?
And in my view the King would have been devastated by the total absence of nature from this speech – which we know is so close to his heart, but clearly couldn’t be further from his Government’s.
It couldn’t be clearer that Rishi Sunak’s Government is full of hot air – running out of ideas and leaving the public running out of hope. His zombie Government deserves to be buried – only a general election now will end this damage once and for all.
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