NEW PRIME MINISTER STARMER TAKES THE BRAKES OFF BROKEN BRITAIN AS THE SCENE IS SET TO BOOST GROWTH
By SHAMLAL PURI in London
Associate Publisher & Senior Editor – UK
shamlalpuri4@gmail.com
The 22-day-old British Government of the new Prime Minister, Sir Keir Starmer, is not wasting any time on plans to beef up the economy and reach parts of development that the Conservatives had either failed to achieve in 14 years of power or did not wish to achieve.
Britons have placed high hopes on the Starmer Government’s five years in power, many passionately believing that this Government will be better than the previous ex-Prime Minister Rishi Sunak.
Prime Minister Keir Starmer said: “Now is the time to take the brakes off Britain. For too long people have been held back, their paths determined by where they come from – not their talents and hard work.
“I am determined to create wealth for people up and down the country. It is the only way our country can progress, and my Government is focused on supporting that aspiration.
Today’s new laws will take back control and lay the foundations of real change that this country is crying out for, creating wealth in every community and making people better off – supporting their ambitions, hopes and dreams.
The State Opening of Parliament marks the formal start of the parliamentary year, and the Monarch’s Speech sets out the Government’s agenda for the coming session, outlining proposed policies and legislation.
The State Opening of Parliament took place on Wednesday, 17 July, marking the formal start of the parliamentary year and setting out the Government’s agenda for the 2024-25 session.
The King’s Speech offered a lot of optimism for Britons who have borne the brunt of high inflation, cost-of-living crisis, unemployment, hunger and poverty, all of which the Conservative Party failed to address fully, causing grief and electoral anger.
In full Royal regalia, King Charles addressed the House of Lords chamber flanked by Queen Camilla. The Government usually writes the Speech, which contains an outline of its policies and proposed legislation for the new parliamentary session, outlining the new Labour Government’s agenda under Sir Keir Starmer’s stewardship.
King Charles read the King’s Speech in the House of Lords Chamber during the State Opening of Parliament in the House of Lords at the Palace of Westminster. The King’s Speech is part of the State Opening of Parliament, which unveiled a raft of bills to unlock growth and improve living standards for working people.
The new Government has promised to get broken down Britain working again and deliver “real change” that would transform the lives of Britons.
Improving living standards for working people through economic growth is the central focus of new laws.
King’s Speech set the scene for the Starmer government to get to work in earnest.
The King, seated on the Throne, said
“My Lords and Members of the House of Commons, my Government will govern in service to the country.
My Government’s legislative programme will be mission led and based upon the principles of security, fairness and opportunity for all.
Stability will be the cornerstone of my Government’s economic policy, and every decision will be consistent with its fiscal rules. It will legislate to ensure that all significant tax and spending changes are subject to an independent assessment by the Office for Budget Responsibility. Bills will be brought forward to strengthen audit and corporate governance, alongside pension investment.”
“Securing economic growth will be a fundamental mission,” said the King, speaking for Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer, adding, “My Government will seek a new partnership with both business and working people and help the country move on from the recent cost of living challenges by prioritising wealth creation for all communities. My Ministers will establish an Industrial Strategy Council. It is my Government’s objective to see rising living standards in all nations and regions in the United Kingdom.
My Ministers will get Britain building, including through planning reform, as they seek to accelerate the delivery of high-quality infrastructure and housing. They will also pursue sustainable growth by encouraging investment in industry, skills and new technologies.
My Government is committed to making work pay and will legislate to introduce a new deal for working people to ban exploitative practices and enhance employment rights. It will seek to establish the appropriate legislation to place requirements on those working to develop the most powerful artificial intelligence models.
My Government believes that greater devolution of decision-making is at the heart of a modern dynamic economy and is a key driver of economic growth and my Ministers will introduce an English Devolution Bill. Legislation will be introduced to give new powers to metro mayors and combined authorities. This will support local growth plans that bring economic benefits to communities.
A Bill will be introduced to allow local leaders to take control of their local bus services. My Ministers will bring legislation to improve the railways by reforming rail franchising, establishing Great British Railways and bringing train operators into public ownership.
An ambitious legislative agenda will drive the delivery of the Government’s first steps and missions to rebuild Britain.
New laws deliver manifesto commitments to provide better transport, more jobs, and turbocharge the building of houses and infrastructure.
Improving living standards for working people through economic growth was the central focus of new laws unveiled by the King..
In the first State Opening of Parliament under this Government, The King’s Speech unveiled a raft of 40 bills and draft bills that will support the delivery of the Government’s first steps and missions to rebuild Britain.
The package of bills focuses on growing the economy through better transport, more jobs and turbocharging building of houses and infrastructure– helping to make every part of the country better off.
Among the measures announced by the Government, Transport will receive priority.
The new legislation will simplify rail systems by bringing rail services into public ownership once their contracts expire or if operators fail to deliver on their commitments.
This approach will avoid the burden of taxpayers coughing up compensation to operators for taking services into public ownership.
Transferring operations to the public sector will save taxpayers millions of pounds paid out in fees to private operators each year. It will end the fragmentation of national railways, establishing a more efficient and reliable rail service for passengers – helping to get people to work on time and boosting productivity.
The Government will also introduce legislation to establish a new public body, Great British Railways (GBR), focusing on improving service and creating better value for passengers’ money.
With Great British Railways, the fares and ticketing system will see simplified fares, discounts, and ticket types.
Once established, the new body will also ensure that ticketing innovations like automatic compensation, digital pay-as-you-go and digital season ticketing are rolled out across the whole network.
In the coming years, the Government will also replace the ageing rolling stock and improve track maintenance.
Also in the pipeline is a Better Buses Bill to deliver the Government’s manifesto commitment to reform the bus system by providing new powers for local leaders to franchise local bus services and to lift the restriction on new publicly owned bus operators.
This will help end the postcode lottery of bus services and give local communities throughout England the power to regain control of their bus services.
This means that local leaders can decide to introduce better bus networks at their own pace, which reflects the needs of the local communities that rely on them.
Getting Britain to build more housing and infrastructure, including through planning reform, will also be central to the Government’s plans to strengthen economic growth.
The Bill will speed up and streamline the planning process to build more homes of all tenures and accelerate the delivery of major infrastructure projects.
By enabling democratic engagement with how, not if, homes and infrastructure are built – the major brakes on the planning system will be addressed to support sustainable growth.
It must be noted here that planning and building rules in Britain can sometimes hinder best-laid community projects and housing schemes, unwittingly adding to homelessness in the country.
Local councils in Britain are known to have ordered the demolition of buildings constructed without planning permission.
As a news reporter many years ago, I sat in planning meetings in London where councillors turned in pre-planning drawings, which could have benefited the community by citing the rule book. In some instances, property owners seek post-planning permission after building extensions to their houses, spending a lot of money only to be ordered to demolish what councillors called illegal structures.
Empowering local communities is also an important part of Starmer’s plans,
which is to empower local leaders to deliver change for their communities. The English Devolution Bill will provide the Government’s manifesto commitment to transfer power into local communities and recognise local leaders’ vital role in supporting growth by establishing local growth plans that bring economic benefit to communities and households across the country.
The Government’s mission of national renewal includes more: From the launch of a National Wealth Fund to strengthen UK investment to a new Mission Control tasked with turbocharging the UK to clean power by 2030, to opening the recruitment of a new Border Security Command, and the pledge to kickstart a new devolution revolution to transfer more powers out of Westminster and into the hands of local people –the Government is hitting the ground running and wasting no time in its work to change the country.
The Government still must address many other plans, particularly those related to cybercrime, phishing, and hacking. We must pay a lot of attention to making the Internet safe for the business community and send cyber criminals to jail for lengthy periods.
The phone system reeks of cold callers with evil intent, cybercriminals who have hacked and stolen millions of Pounds.
The irony is that British phone providers happily allocate lines and numbers to these fraudsters as long as they pay. The Government should impose tough penalties against providers, even shutting down their businesses if they fail to take action on consumers reporting fraud or scams using lines provided by them,
These days, scammers operate their murky trade without fear.
There should be a hotline to report these scams and frauds and the Police to arrest perpetrators. Stealing people’s money from secure bank accounts is not a legitimate business.
Labour will win the respect of the Britons if it can eradicate online fraudsters and make the Internet safer to use.
Many senior citizens fear answering phones, fearing they would be defrauded or scammed by people calling themselves government, tax or banking officials. They are the cancer of modern society.
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