Draft Queen’s Speech: Programme for the Rich and their Interests

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Draft Queen’s Speech: Programme for the Rich and their Interests

If Tony Blair’s "Third Way" represented the road to fascism and war under the guise of renewing social democracy, Gordon Brown’s "moral compass" is the dedication of this road to the most repugnant chauvinism, under the guise of high ideals and so-called shared values. The draft Queen’s Speech, set out by the Prime Minister on May 14, exemplifies how far down the road of retrogression New Labour is intent on taking the country. It represents, in the face of an all-round intensifying crisis, economic, political and of credibility, a programme to safeguard the rich and their interests and to make the workers pay for this anti-social offensive. The working class and people have the obligation to respond by getting further organised to defeat this reactionary programme of New Labour. This obligation is inseparably linked with the task of rallying the whole of society around the political programme of the working class to stop paying the rich and increase investments in social programmes for the public good, and to organise to elect an anti-war government that puts a stop to the use of force and coercion internationally, which is presently being used to enforce globally the will of the international monopoly capital. At the top of this agenda of the working class for society is the defence of the rights of all, especially minorities who are scapegoated for the ills of society, and to affirm that all members of society have rights by virtue of being human, and to organise that these rights are guaranteed in law.

That this independent programme of the working class is very necessary for society to be free of its crisis and the intensified attacks on the rights of all is demonstrated by what Gordon Brown is proposing for the government’s next legislative programme. Under the guise of a "more prosperous Britain and a fairer Britain", the Prime Minister introduced proposals for 18 draft Bills on the economy, education and health, citizenship and law and order, and so-called "constitutional renewal" amongst others. The policy objective of a more prosperous and fairer country is at odds with the depths of the crisis, of the whole record of New Labour carried out under this signboard, and even more fundamentally with the content of the proposed legislation.

On the economy, Gordon Brown refers to "the global downturn, the credit crunch and international oil and food price rises". The measures do not address these issues in any serious way, particularly in terms of any analysis of why these crises are occurring and hence what should be done to resolve the situation in favour of the economy and for working people. Nor do they call a halt to monopoly dictate. Instead, the Prime Minister is concerned first and foremost to shore up "failing institutions", the banks and financial services sector. It is the rich which Gordon Brown sees as the lynchpin of the economy, not the workers and the wealth that they alone can create, and it is the rich and their future that the Prime Minister is at pains to safeguard.

His proposals on education, which fly in the face of the right of all to education, follow on with the same logic. "Reform" and "change" are the watchwords, but what this means for the Prime Minister is that "reform" in education has to create a high-skill economy that competes for Britain plc in this sphere globally, and that "reform" in the welfare system has to ensure not that a livelihood is guaranteed as a right but that the victims of the system have to grasp the "opportunities" for so-called "lifelong learning" or risk being forced into devastating destitution. This is the reality, and the whole emphasis on so-called "choice" is a fraud to deny the necessity for social programmes to serve the socialised economy. It is all couched in terms of benefiting those out of work, but such rationalisations have now been exposed for far too long to have the slightest credibility. It is reform to favour monopoly right and to entrench wage slavery.

Some of the most sinister of Brown’s proposals relate to "earned British citizenship" and the necessity to securing Britain’s "borders". It is framed in such a manner and tone that no one can be in doubt of the chauvinism of the British government, which deems that immigrants are a threat to the so-called British way of life, that immigrants are a drain on the economy, and so on. In other words, the basic human premise that no human being can be considered illegal or illegitimate is trampled on, in a crude attempt to divide the working class and people, to create a hierarchy of rights and to promote the values and morality of monopoly capital.

The government’s draft legislative proposals are a further development of its 2007/08 legislative programme. In addition, it is a quite desperate attempt to keep the people hoodwinked that this programme of paying the rich and privatising social programmes is in their interests. But people’s experience is telling them the precise opposite. This opposition of the working class and people must not be diverted into something like renewing the programme of New Labour that had supposedly won support in 1997. Rather it is the necessity for working people to take matters into their own hands, to defeat the New Labour programme, to work for democratic renewal and to transform society on the basis of the fight to defend the rights of all.

Full list of bills:

Banking reform bill

Saving Gateway bill

Business rates supplement bill

Marine and coastal access bill

Heritage protection bill

Education and skills bill

Equality bill

Welfare reform bill

Policing and crime reduction bill

Transport security bill

Communications data bill

Law reform, victims and witnesses bill

Citizenship, immigration and borders bill

Coroners and death certification bill

National Health Service reform bill

Constitutional renewal bill

Community empowerment, housing and economic regeneration bill

Geneva Conventions and United Nations personnel bill

(source: e-Politix)