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HARRY COLE
Keir Starmer says he’s going for growth – but will his ‘big government’ plans solve Britain’s REAL problems?
Harry Cole says there's a 'worrying lack of detail' on one key issue
BIG government is back!
Sir Keir Starmer has wasted no time on sweeping nationalisations and big interventions by the state.
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The new PM's first King's Speech touches on almost every walk of life; from transport, to energy, to school uniforms and what you can eat, drink or smoke.
It's a worrying sign that the first chance he got, the Labour leader announced he is tearing up reams of trade union reforms that stopped militants grinding the country to a halt at the drop of hat.
And while employment rights laws sound cuddly, beware of the small print that business warns could tie them up in reams of new red tape and see working from home massively expanded.
Starmer says this will unleash growth but big questions remain on how - especially as he hands huge new powers to the Office of Budget Responsibility whose track record on their restrictive forecasts have been a disaster, so far.
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More Equalities law could clog up our already backlogged courts, and we all know what "resetting our relationship with the EU" really means - closer ties to Brussels.
The King's Speech at a glance
- Millions of workers are set to receive a pay rise under major plans announced by government.
- Sir Keir mapped out a decade of national renewal after the King read out his 35-bill legislative agenda in the House of Lords.
- The government has pledged to "take the brakes off Britain" by vowing to rip up planning rules in a house-building and job-creating blitz that will get young people on the property ladder.
- Ministers have also said they will pump £7.3billion into the economy as part of a mission to deliver growth.
- The government has pledged to bring rail services back into public ownership through its Passenger Railway Service Bill.
- A bill will also be introduced to gradually increase the age at which people can buy cigarettes and impose limits on the sale of vapes.
- Legislation will be brought forward to establish a statutory Armed Forces Commissioner while plans have been mooted to set up an independent football regulator.
- The government has also pledged to remove the VAT exemption for private school fees and ban no-fault evictions, when landlords evict tenants without having to give a reason.
- Immigration cops will be given counterterror-style powers to target small boat smuggling gangs.
- Yobs will be targeted in a crime blitz with more community support cops to walk the streets.
- A new Children’s Wellbeing Bill will be put forward to “remove barriers to opportunity” for kids.
While Starmer talks a big game on immigration and smashing smuggling gangs, the King's Speech was light on details beyond and increase in powers for those already battling to keep our borders secure.
Where were the radical solutions there or any deterrents?
There was a worrying lack of detail too on the promised reforms to get the NHS off its knees.
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As the new PM moves from campaigner to guvnor, he does not have long to deliver results, especially given just one in five actually voted for him.
While there is plenty to welcome here on planning reform and getting houses built, there are plenty of sops here too - not least to the unions and the lefties.
Planning shakeup means NIMBYs WON’T be able to block new homes being built next door
Does anyone really think reform of the House of Lords is even in the top 100 issues facing Britain right now?
Yet valuable parliamentary time has now been earmarked for such battles.
Meanwhile Britain bumps around flatling growth and the NHS continues to be an almost insatiable money pit.
Will reams more red tape, fewer vapes, more strikes and more quangos really do anything to help that?
I'm not so sure...
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