Meanwhile, legislation will be introduced to improve Britain’s competitiveness make it a “world leader in the digital economy”, the Queen said.
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(Eddie Mulholland/Pool via AP).
(AP Photo/Frank Augstein). Britain’s Queen Elizabeth II travels in a carriage from Buckingham Palace towards the Houses of Parliament in London, Wednesday, May 18, 2016.
Sharon Hodgson, MP for Washington and Sunderland West, said: “Today’s Queen Speech has proven yet again that this Tory Government lacks any vision when it comes to their legislative programme for the coming Parliamentary year and are failing to deliver on their promise of being a One Nation Government”.
The Queen’s Speech is the centerpiece of the State Opening of Parliament, a ceremony steeped in lavish pomp and tradition.
A senior Tory source said: “This Queen’s Speech has some of the most radical reforms of the prison system in decades, far-reaching plans to reform the system for children in care and dramatic changes to local government finance”.
Lawmakers were summoned to listen to the queen by a security official named Black Rod – but only complied after slamming the House of Commons door in his face to symbolize their independence.
Meanwhile, the Government is aiming to have an operational spaceport by 2018, which could be used to launch tourists into space as well as commercial satellites.
The U.K.’s Internet Service Providers Association, an industry trade body, said it was pleased that the Queen featured broadband and technology so prominently in her speech.
The new broadband universal service obligation (USO) included in the Digital Economy Bill, which will also include powers to direct Ofcom to review this over time to ensure it is “still sufficient for modern life”.
“It’s no good saying let’s just focus on the violent extremists, everyone else is just exercising their freedom of speech”, the prime minister said.
It is unclear whether the Conservatives will push to repeal the Human Rights Act, an instrument of the 47-nation Council of Europe, and tout its own British Bill of Rights, which Cameron first flagged six years ago.
But the legal process of imposing the contracts has proved so hard that no area has succesfully introduced them with local authorities in the North-East past year failing in their attempt in what was seen as a landmark case.
Mr Duncan Smith, who dramatically resigned in March over welfare reform, said: “Many Conservatives have become increasingly concerned that in the Government’s helter-skelter pursuit of the Referendum, they have been jettisoning or watering down key elements of their legislative programme”.
On the sugar tax, he said Labour would look favourably on proposals to tackle childhood obesity.
He welcomed the Government’s “U-turn” on forced academisation, adding Labour hoped the Government would “get to grips with the £800 million being spent annually on supply teachers because of the recruitment and retention crisis in schools”.
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Although the nine-minute Queen’s Speech made only fleeting reference to the European Union referendum, the Conservative Party’s in-fighting over the June 23 in-out referendum cast an undeniable pall over proceedings.
