The King’s Speech on 7 November will set out the legislative programme for the (hopefully) last throes of this government.. It comes at a time when world peace is in peril, as is the balance in British Society. government Ministers banging on about anti-semitism is only likely to increase it. Discrimination and hatred must be confronted whether it is based on religion, sexuality, race or gender. End of. this is probably out of order, but it is my blog and no one reads it anyhow. Integration! Immigrants need to be integrated into society. that does not mean converting them to Christianity or the greedy capitalism of this government, nor the bigotry of the right. But it does mean welcoming them into our society, and developing a sharing of values and ideas and cultures. it seems that this element, so vital to the functioning of a tolerant society has been missing. English language classes have closed. Faith schools have sprung up – personally I would like to see the closure of all faith schools of all religions and strict rules on what can be taught. Groups can arrange their own lessons if they deem it necessary. The wearing of the kippah and hijab abd jib discouraged. (but not banned).
Reference by politicans and others to anti-semitism and islamaphobia should be minimised with these refered to as hate crimes along with homophobic, sexist, misogynistic and racist comments and actions. All these should be treated in the same way as paedophibia is – zero tolerance.
The second element of the King’s Speech is likely to be the appeasemnt to the oil companies. The war we should be raging is against climate change. Every change in environmental, housing, transport, social policy should be taking into consideration the future of our planet. With flooding likely in the south over the next few days it is time Sunak got real on the environment. Too many of the new homes required are built on flood plains with little regard to geographical understanding! Labour is back-tracking on a right to roam legislation as is being introduced in Scotland. If this was introduced it could be possible to compensate for lack of gardens with free and widespread access to the countryside.
massive investment in up grading the national grid is urgently required to enable clean energy to be produced and accessed. Smaller scale projects should also be encouraged with local investment supported by national funding. With nearly 20% of the population living in ruarl areas and the same again in small towns the opportunity for locally produced and used energy is immense and cost efficient (over 50% of energy produced is lost before consumption!
A joined up transport policy is urgently needed.
Education needs a complete overhaul.
The new government will face tasks not seen since 1945 – let us hope they are up for/to it!