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08 MAY 2013

If I wrote the Queen's Speech ....

.... these are some of the changes I believe Britain desperately needs.  

1. Real bank reform: Five years after the banks went bust, costing taxpayers billions, nothing has really changed. We need a clear legal distinction between money paid ino banks as a deposit, and money paid in as a loan.

As well as safeguarding customers' money, this Bill would prevent banks issuing unlimited credit in the good times - leading to bust and bad times.

2. A Great Repeal Bill: Despite the talk of deregulation, little has happened. Too many wealth creators need to seek permission from officialdom to produce wealth.

Crowd sourcing a Bill would allow a massive, game-changing repeal of intrusive laws, and winding down of agencies that generate the redtape.

3. Political reform: The reform agenda seemed to die with AV. So how about a simple Bill allowing local parties to involve every local resident when selecting their parliamentary candidate?

Local party associations would have to provide the returning officer with half a dozen names from the shortlist and a few hundred quid to cover the cost. The returning officer would then include an extra ballot paper on the day of the local poll. Simple, straight forward, zero extra cost to taxpayer.

4. Energy rethink:  What if energy companies were free to produce energy at a price that customers were willing to pay?  Instead we have a corporatist racket posturing as an energy market.  Producers produce in compliance with targets designed to control the amount of CO2 in the atmosphere.

It is a disgrace that poorer families in my constituency are priced out of heating their homes so that rich people in London can feel good about themselves because they believe they are saving the planet.  They aren't.  

5.  Tax transparency:  How about a law requiring the state to send each of us a breakdown of how it spends our money?  

6.  Legal rights for parents:  Every mum and dad should have a legal right to request and receive control of their child's share of local authority education funding.  If state officials are unable to provide parents with a school place that they are happy to accept, why not let folk take their money and give it to a school that can?

7.  An In / Out referendum Bill:  For too long, mandarins in Whitehall have defined our relationship with Europe.  Look at the mess they have made of it.  It is time for the people to decide.

Bring forward a Bill - and if MPs vote the Bill down, at least the electorate will get to see where sitting MPs stand on one of the defining issues of our time.

We need a Queen's Speech that demonstrates that ministers, not mandarins, are in charge.  For too long, this administration has given the impression that it has been captured by the civil service.  "The Lib Dems won't agree" has become a catch all excuse not to do things.  

It is the Sir Humphreys and the Sir Jeremys that are the real roadblock to reform.  We need a Queen's Speech that puts them in their place.  I fear instead that they might have written most of it. 

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