POLITICAL HYBRIDS

This pretty much says it all for me.....

BY PETER BROOKES IN THE TIMES

And, now that it's been leaked, here is a brief summary of the hybrid government's draft of the Queen's speech....

 

* An Academies Bill that will allow more schools to become free of local     authority control and a second Education Bill that will pave the way for Michael Gove's Swedish-schools reforms.    

 

* A Great Repeals Bill will terminate plans for identity cards and restore other civil liberties. 

 

* A free vote on repealing the ban on hunting with dogs is unlikely, however.    

 

* There will also be legislation for fixed-term parliaments, a right for voters to “recall” ethically questionable MPs, a referendum on changing the voting system and other political reforms promised by Nick Clegg.  

 

* There will be two Bills from Iain Duncan Smith’s Work and Pensions Department including one that will overhaul the benefits system.    

 

* Andrew Lansley will have a Health Bill focused on the reduction of  inequalities.    

 

* A Bill to ensure that future transfers of power to the EU are subject to referenda will be published in the autumn. I'm reliably informed it's not called the "Bolting The Stable Door After The Horse Has Bolted Bill".   

 

* Eric Pickles will present a simple Bill that will scrap Labour's plan to reorganise local government in Exeter and Norwich.    

 

* There will also be Bills dedicated to Energy Security and the Green Economy, Social responsibility and one, for Nick Herbert, on Police Reform.

 

CLEGG MAKES HIS MOVE

   

CLEGG MAKES HIS BID FOR A PLACE IN HISTORY

 

A "power revolution" in Britain will be promised by Nick Clegg today as he tries to put his personal stamp on the Government in his first major statement as Deputy Prime Minister. 

He will hail his programme of political reform as the most ambitious and radical since the Great Reform Act of 1832. He has told aides that the coalition government has given him the opportunity to implement the changes that he came into politics to pursue.

In a speech in London Mr Clegg will promise a "wholesale, big bang" rather than piecemeal approach, including: 

* scrapping the identity card scheme and second generation biometric passports

* removing limits on the rights to peaceful protest

* a bonfire of unnecessary laws

* a block on pointless new criminal offences

* internet and email records not to be held without reason

* closed-circuit television to be properly regulated

* new controls over the DNA database, such as on the storage of innocent people's DNA

* axeing the ContactPoint children's database

* schools will not take children's fingerprints without asking for parental consent

* reviewing the libel laws to protect freedom of speech

What Clegg will say:

"I'm not talking about a few new rules for MPs; not the odd gesture or gimmick to make you feel a bit more involved. I'm talking about the most significant programme of empowerment... since the great enfranchisement of the 19th century. The biggest shake-up of our democracy since 1832, when the Great Reform Act redrew the boundaries of British democracy." 

"This will be a government that is proud when British citizens stand up against illegitimate advances of the state. That values debate, that is unafraid of dissent." 

He will infuriate Labour by stealing words from Tony Blair's rewritten Clause IV of the Labour Party's constitution, saying the coalition government will stand up "for the freedom of the many, not the privilege of the few". He will say the coalition will draw on the spirit of the great 19th-century reformers to deliver "a power revolution – a fundamental resettlement of the relationship between state and citizen".

He will announce plans to consult the public on which laws should be scrapped. Promising to "tear through the statute book", he will attack Labour for creating thousands of criminal offences which took away people's freedom without making the streets safe.

"Obsessive lawmaking simply makes criminals out of ordinary people. So we'll get rid of the unnecessary laws and once they're gone, they won't come back. We will introduce a mechanism to block pointless new criminal offences," he will say.

Raising the coalition's sights, the Deputy Prime Minister will say: "I have spent my whole political life fighting to open up politics. So let me make one thing very clear: this government is going to be unlike any other". 

"This government is going to transform our politics so the state has far less control over you, and you have far more control over the state. This government is going to break up concentrations of power and hand power back to people, because that is how we build a society that is fair. This government is going to persuade you to put your faith in politics once again."

STORY FROM THE INDEPENDENT 

Having just endured thirteen miserable years of Labour lies and  their authoritarian communist control freakery, poking their arrogant, noses troughing snouts into every aspect of our lives, I eagerly await the actual outcome of all this in a heightened state of anticipation apathy!

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