Debate on the Address

The Prime Minister will not be around to see this Queen’s Speech through. There is going to be a new power in the land. We have been lucky to have a unique insight—I think that the Home Secretary will enjoy this—from one of Britain’s leading character actors, Keith Allen, about what to expect. [Hon. Members: ““Who?””] The House should wait and find out. Keith Allen is playing the sheriff of Nottingham in the BBC’s new drama ““Robin Hood””. He describes his character as having a calculating political mind that will stop at nothing:"““The sheriff is a sociopath…he sees himself as a future dictator of England…I’ve based him on Gordon Brown””." The Chancellor should not be upset. He got booed at the music awards last night, but what is worse than that is that people were chanting, ““Bring back Tony!”” We should not expect anything different from the Chancellor. If the problem with the Government is short-term gimmicks, politically motivated laws and failed centralisation, the Chancellor is not the solution—he is the biggest part of the problem. [Interruption.] Whatever happened to British day, when we were meant to put flagpoles on our lawns? It disappeared without a trace. What happened to the Chancellor’s e-university, which was meant to link communities together? No one uses it. What happened to his national tour, which was launched with such fanfare? It never happened. Last December, the Chancellor promised us a comprehensive report on the financing of terror. I would have thought that Government Members would be interested in a report on the financing of terror. Almost a year later, nothing has happened. All those examples are typical hallmarks of the Chancellor. When it comes to centralisation, it is the Chancellor and the Treasury that have complicated the tax system, confused the benefits system and virtually bankrupted the pensions system. Today, the Government are promising action on immigration. We have now had 10 Gracious Speeches from the Government, and this is the fourth time that they have promised to tackled immigration, the fifth time that they have promised to tackle antisocial behaviour and the seventh time that they have promised to reform the House of Lords. All they are offering is more of the same, but nothing ever happens. People have heard it all before and they do not believe it anymore. All that we will get from the Chancellor is a darker shade of fail.