So, the Queen's Speech was today, setting out the new government's agenda

 
More Than Mortal
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This is the way the world ends. Not with a bang but a whimper.
Here's a run-down of all the bills.

Welfare benefits bill:
- Freezes the main rates of working-age benefits.
- Reduces the benefits cap from £26,000 to £23,000.

Enterprise bill:
- Cuts £10bn of red tape.
- Creates a "Small Business Conciliation Service".
- Improves the business rates system.
- Caps exit payments to public service workers.

Tax bill:
- Bans a rise in VAT, income tax or NI contributions over the next five years.

Childcare bill:
- Will provide 30 hours of entitled childcare for 38 weeks of the year.

Housing bill:
- Extends the "right-to-buy" scheme.
- Requires councils to sell vacant houses.
- Introduces a "right-to-build", which includes the construction of 200,000 new social homes and a relaxation of the planning laws.

Energy bill:
- Gives local councils, instead of Whitehall, the final say on wind-farm applications.

Immigration bill:
- Introduces the offence of "illegal working", and allows the wages of illegal migrants to be seized.
- Consultation on funding apprenticeship schemes for British and EU workers by implementing a visa levy on companies using foreign labour.

Trade unions bill:
- Introduces a mandatory 50pc turnout for strike ballots.
- Will also require a 40pc vote in favour of that 50pc for industrial action to go ahead.
- Union members must also opt-in to political donations.

Education and adoption bill:
- Gives ministers more power to intervene in "coasting schools" and turn them into academies.
- Creates regional adoption agencies to facilitate adoption across local authority boundaries.

Cities and local government devolution bill:
- Gives the government the authority to impose mayors on certain areas.

Scotland bill:
- Implements the recommendations of the cross-party Smith Commission. This will give the Scottish parliament the power to vary the rates and bands of income tax, greater control over VAT and complete control over air passenger duty. It will also be able to change housing benefit payments.

Wales bill:
- Gives the Welsh assembly further powers, including over ports, energy developments, transport regulations, speed limits and sewerage services.

Northern Ireland bill:
- Establishes a body called the Historical Investigations Unit to look into unsolved deaths during the Troubles, as the 30 years’ of violence that beset Northern Ireland up to the early 1990s are known.

European Union referendum bill:
- Enshrines the promise of an EU referendum before the end of 2017.

Extremism bill:
- Given ministers and the police more authority to ban extremist groups.

Investigatory powers bill (AKA Snoopers' Charter):
- Makes companies retain metadata for at least 12 months.

Psychoactive substances bill:
- Outlaws certain legal highs.

Bank of England bill:
- Measures to make the BoE more transparent, requiring it to publish the minutes of MPC meetings alongside interest rate decisions.

Charities bill:
- Gives the Charity Commission more powers to disqualify both charities and trustees found guilty of wrongdoing.

Votes for life bill:
- Scrapping the system whereby British citizens living overseas lose their votes after 15 years.

The government also plans to bar Scottish MPs from voting on English laws, will introduce seven-day GP services and will raise minimum wage workers out of tax altogether. Out of fear of a backbench rebellion, wording around the scrapping of the Human Rights Act was very vague.

I can't find much to dislike here. I'm particularly a fan of the trade unions bill, the welfare bill and the enterprise bill. However, the BoE bill, psychoactive substances bill, extremism bill and housing bill don't really sit well with me.

Will try and provide more details if anybody is interested.


 
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