The UK Queen's Speech.

Today the UK Queen has given her annual speech outlining the legislative agenda for the coming year at the State Opening of Parliament. This event traditionally takes place in the autumn (October/November) but due to the UK Parliament effectively becoming a rubber stamping body the current Conservative and Liberal Democrat (LibDem) coalition government has already driven through much of its agenda of aggressive social engineering leaving it with very little do. As a result a speech that should have been given towards the end of 2013 has been pushed back to now.

What happens next is that Parliament goes off on a long summer break before returning for an autumn session which itself is punctuated by a short holiday before it is time for Parliament's winter holiday. The spring session will then be cut short by the start of campaigning for the May 2015 General Election. As a result and unusually for a Queen's speech it is far from guaranteed that all of the proposed bills will become law. This means that the speech was very heavy on symbolism while being very light of detail.

Certain provisions such as the Small Business, Enterprise and Employment Bill, the Pensions Tax Bill  and the introduction of a tax break for married couples were intended to show support for the Conservatives older core base who have been tempted by the UK Independence Party (UKIP).  Provisions such as the Childcare Payments Bill, the Modern Slavery Bill and the provision of free school meals are intended to show support for the LibDem's core supporters. This is particularly important for the LibDem's embattled leader Nick Clegg as he tries to argue that he has been able to influence coalition policy rather then simply abandoning the parties values to simply wave through Conservative policies.

The commitment to continue the UK's economic policy of creating growth through house building accompanied by low taxation and low interest rates is intended to stick two fingers up to the European Union (EU) who have questioned the validity of this approach. The provisions in the Private Pensions Bill that would see the introduction of Dutch-style collective pensions is meant to signal to the UK's EU allies that it intends to take a more Dutch-style approach to EU politics. That's because while the Dutch Monarchy can be every bit as sociopathic as the British Monarchy they are much better at hiding it behind a veil of respectability. For example the Netherlands very low age of sexual consent tends to be widely viewed as an example of forward thinking sexual liberalisation when in reality it provides cover for Dutch men to have sex with very young girls.

The main focus of the speech though was the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) meeting that began today. As a result the Infrastructure Bill focuses very heavily reforming planning regulations in order to pave the way for the building of entire new towns. The issues of planning policy and environmental impacts in the planning process are of course huge issues within efforts to combat climate change. Although today's announcement is thin on detail that could be translated into UNFCCC negotiations plans to allow house builders to offset carbon emissions in order to meet emission targets seems to indicate that the UK places little value on the work of the UNFCCC.

The very aggressive and negative - in environmental terms - element though is plans to increase shale gas production by making it impossible for landowner to refuse permission for fracking to take place on their land. This of course signals that the UK is very aggressively in favour of fossil fuels rather renewables to the point that they're prepared to be very un-British about it by making sure that an Englishman's home is no longer his castle. There is also a hope that along with the ongoing spectacle of the search for Madeline McCann in Portugal this fracking debate will appear as some sort of earnest discussion about me and my situation.

The Queens speech did also include provisions to reduce plastic bag use by introducing a GBP 0.05 charge for them which was a clear nod to environmental protection. However it is so small that it is dwarfed by the rest of the anti-environment agenda to the point where the UK need not have bothered.


(Originally Posted) 14:49 on 4/6/14 (UK date).