{"id":243,"date":"2009-11-18T17:07:37","date_gmt":"2009-11-18T15:07:37","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.malcolmblair-robinson.co.uk\/wordpress\/?p=243"},"modified":"2009-11-18T18:02:35","modified_gmt":"2009-11-18T16:02:35","slug":"243","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.malcolmblair-robinson.co.uk\/wordpress\/?p=243","title":{"rendered":""},"content":{"rendered":"

The Queen’s Speech<\/strong><\/p>\n

This was one of the worst for years. I am strictly non partisan, I have not yet decided how to vote, but I am beginning to despair of New Labour. Their achievements are more limited than they would proclaim, but they are enduring. Peace in Northern Ireland, devolution for Scotland and Wales, restoring local government in London headed by the Mayor, broadening educational practice with Academies, Faith and Foundation schools, all this\u00a0is \u00a0imaginative and worthwhile.<\/p>\n

The failure list is too long even to start. There is however\u00a0a\u00a0 thread which is constricting the very breath out of the whole New Labour project.\u00a0 It is\u00a0the assumption that every single facet of life can be dealt with by a new law and that these new laws can intrude into every nook and cranny of the nation’s business.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The latest batch are more of the same, the most ludicrous of which is the half baked notion that you can enshrine\u00a0that every school will be required by law <\/strong><\/em>to give a decent standard of education. Is it not already the case\u00a0 that this is the aim of every school and a matter of certainty that some will be better than others? What on earth is putting the obvious on the statute book going to achieve other than more cash for lawyers ( paid by taxpayers in legal aid) and frightened teachers practicing defensive teaching in case some smart Alec decides to sue?<\/p>\n

Then there is to be another law\u00a0requiring the government<\/em> to halve the preposterous public deficit in four years.\u00a0 Why does it not just get on and do it? It is utterly ludicrous to bring in laws binding the government which can cancel them at will. These people think we are all fools.<\/p>\n

It is a wonder they did not\u00a0announce a Bill making it\u00a0 law that night must follow day. Maybe next time.<\/p>\n

Then maybe not.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Queen’s Speech This was one of the worst for years. I am strictly non partisan, I have not yet decided how to vote, but I am beginning to despair of New Labour. Their achievements are more limited than they would proclaim, but they are enduring. Peace in Northern Ireland, devolution for Scotland and Wales, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-243","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-malcolm-blair-robinson"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.malcolmblair-robinson.co.uk\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/243","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.malcolmblair-robinson.co.uk\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.malcolmblair-robinson.co.uk\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.malcolmblair-robinson.co.uk\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.malcolmblair-robinson.co.uk\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=243"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.malcolmblair-robinson.co.uk\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/243\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":246,"href":"https:\/\/www.malcolmblair-robinson.co.uk\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/243\/revisions\/246"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.malcolmblair-robinson.co.uk\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=243"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.malcolmblair-robinson.co.uk\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=243"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.malcolmblair-robinson.co.uk\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=243"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}