Nicholas Clegg

Absolutely not. Of course, I accept that we shall scrutinise the Bills in the Queen's Speech and support or oppose them, as is the duty of a responsible Opposition party.

I return to the basic question of what the Queen's Speech should be doing in the very little time available to this Parliament.

— from debate entitled “Debate on the Address — [1st Day]”

The three speeches/headings immediately before

  1. 1 earlier: Keith Vaz

    The right hon. Gentleman did not mention the digital economy Bill. Surely, he will support the measures in that Bill to implement for the first time the recommendations of the Byron report on violent video games. He must accept that there is a need for legislation to deal with such issues-we cannot just talk about expenses all the time.

  2. 2 earlier: Nicholas Clegg

    With respect, I will heed the views of the Governor of the Bank of England on the issue slightly more than I do those of the hon. Gentleman. The Governor makes a simple, compelling case, starting from first principles. Retail banking-keeping people's deposits safe and lending prudently to businesses and households-should not be mixed up with the high-risk, over-leveraged business model of casino banking. Full stop. It is as simple as that.

    We have an improving schools Bill, which is highly unlikely to improve schools. If the Government wanted to improve schools, they would take bureaucracy away from teachers, not impose more. It will be the 12th education Bill in as many years, so why do the Government imagine this one will work when none of the others does.

    The policing, crime and private security Bill will yet again tweak the over-tweaked ASBO regime. Is it not time for the Government to accept that passing laws does not cut crime, but that more police officers out on the beat do?

    Worst of all, some Bills in the Queen's Speech cynically raise expectations, yet the Government know that they will deliver far less than they promise. The Bill to outlaw cluster bombs sounds great, but in fact we know that it will outlaw only some cluster bombs. There will be a Bill that-supposedly-delivers free personal care. After the Prime Minister's media interviews this morning, tens of thousands of elderly people up and down Britain will have been led to believe that they will be properly looked after from now on, yet it will not happen. He has raised the hopes of some of the most vulnerable people in this country, when he knows perfectly well that the Bill will offer free personal care only to a fraction of the people who are struggling to pay for the help that they need.

  3. 3 earlier: Rob Marris

    By far the most robust banking system in the western world is the Canadian one, where retail and investment banking are not split, so why are the right hon. Gentleman and his hon. Friend the Member for Twickenham (Dr. Cable) so fixated on splitting banks into retail and investment, when that is clearly not the problem-as demonstrated by the robustness of the Canadian system?

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