The King’s (Non) Speech

While Halloween is over for another year, our 'Zombie Government' staggers on, devoid of ideas and hanging on just in case ‘something’ happens to save it. Sunak’s King’s Speech was therefore more interesting for the things he left out than the things he included.

Sewage - Not a single mention of sewage or water pollution. A national environmental scandal is taking place every day in our precious lakes and rivers, but the Conservative Government simply doesn't care. And the climate emergency won’t be helped by the announcement of new oil and gas licensing!

Housing - Nothing on how providing affordable homes.  A Leasehold and Freehold Bill offers to end our iniquitous leasehold system – but only for new houses, not new flats. Meanwhile the Renters Reform Bill faces delays to its implementation due to a backlog in the courts system.

Equality - After five years of posturing over Conversion Therapy, the Government has once again refused to ban this. And there’snothing to overhaul the treatment of people with learning disabilities and autism, despite it being mentioned in last year's Queen's Speech.

Instead, Sunak tinkers with crime and justice issues, while doing nothing to address the fundamental problem of prison overcrowding. The rest of the speech is a seemingly random assembly of health issues or anything else that happened to cross his mind.

As a former Conservative Cabinet Member puts it, "It stinks of 'We are managing, but we have lost the will to lead'.”