STEPHEN HEPBURN: Queen's Speech had nothing for this area

So another year, another Queen's Speech made up of the worst kind of propaganda clichés scripted by this dreadful Tory Government.
Queen's Speech was full of Government clichesQueen's Speech was full of Government cliches
Queen's Speech was full of Government cliches

And it went ahead despite everybody knowing that it should’ve been postponed until the 23 June referendum on Britain in Europe, with jobs and livelihoods here on Tyneside depending on a vote to remain in the European Union.

Even leaving that aside, Cameron’s claim to lead a One Nation Government is nothing short of ludicrous.

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In reality the shameful Tory record is one of cutting support for working families while giving the richest in our society huge tax cuts.

The National Health Service is starved of money, surviving on historically low rises which fail to keep up with demand while Tory cuts to social care pile pressure on hospitals.

Productivity is stalling in the economy from a chronic lack of investment in skills and infrastructure, failure to support key industries like construction and manufacturing and the regional inequalities which hold back areas such as here in the North East.

Then there’s the crisis in housing with the Tories overseeing a bleak picture of soaring rents and house building at its lowest peacetime rate since the 1920s.

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The Tories have a huge black hole in their spending plans. After being forced to drop heartless unfair plans to cut support for disabled people, the Tories created a multi-billion question mark in their Budget with no answer.

And the Tories are clueless on education when their dunce’s plan to force every school to become an academy, no matter what parents and governors wanted or how excellent a school’s performance, was marked a failure in another humiliating U-turn.

The disarray in a Tory Party falling apart before our very eyes is breaking a Government unlikely to be put back together after the referendum when civil war will let rip among Conservative MPs.

Here on Tyneside we needed a Queen’s Speech to ally social justice with economic prosperity, rooted in fairness and decency and giving everybody a good crack at succeeding in life.

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Only Labour can deliver what people need in the Jarrow parliamentary constituency and beyond so individual success is rewarded while we collectively care for the unfortunate and vulnerable, creating first class public services such as in health and education while helping put money into people’s pockets.

A Labour Queen’s Speech would be one hundred times better than the pathetic effort produced by Cameron and the Tories. And I want to hear it sooner rather than later.