Letter for publication – Have Labour Given Up, and Where Was Our MP?

Sir

The Queen's Speech is the bedrock of our Parliamentary system. It is the moment when the Government of the day lays out its plans for the coming year. The laws that will be debated and passed by the House of Commons in, order to govern the country effectively.

And my goodness, doesn't our country need effective Government now more than ever?

The government is running at a loss of £175 billion per year - the worst performance since records began. It has resorted to printing money.

Unemployment is soaring. Here in North Warwickshire it has doubled between 2008 and 2009 - real people and real families suffering.

Our soldiers are fighting and dying in Afghanistan with not enough helicopters and an unclear mission.

So the Queen's Speech should have been packed full of measures to deal with these crises. And the House of Commons should have been packed with MPs keen to debate and vote on the bills presented.

But the Speech itself was thin and pointless. The only substantial measure within it, on plans relating to personal care, have been described by Labour Peer Lord Lipsey as "...one of the most irresponsible acts to be put forward by a prime minister in the recent history of this country...".

The rest was a bizarre list of new laws to make everything bad and nasty in the world illegal. Poverty, poor schools and excessive Government debt (!) will all be illegal under a future Labour Government. If only things were that easy. Brown still thinks he can pass a law and the tide will stop coming in. Where are the measures to achieve these goals?

Shockingly, almost two thirds of Labour MPs simply didn't bother to turn up to the Queens Speech itself. And only two Labour backbenchers bothered to attend the actual debate on Thursday. TWO!

And where was our own Labour MP, Mike O'Brien? Why didn't he bother to attend the debate on the Queens Speech on Thursday? Why wasn't he there to represent his constituents, the people of North Warwickshire?

It is now clear to everyone except Gordon Brown - clear even to most Labour MPs it seems - that we need a General Election and a fresh start for the country.

Kind regards

Dan Byles

Parliamentary Candidate for

North Warwickshire & Bedworth