“David Cameron vowed on Wednesday to reset relations with the EU, recast the United Kingdom and invigorate the economy, as he pledged not to waste ‘a single moment’ as premier. Seizing on the momentum delivered by this month’s surprise outright election victory, Mr Cameron is rushing to deliver an agenda that he hopes will conquer the centre ground of politics. The Queen officially opened parliament by setting out the first purely Conservative legislative programme for almost 20 years, a packed package that the prime minister said would ‘renew’ the country” – Financial Times
>Yesterday:
MPs etc: A full list of bills in the Queen’s Speech, and what they contain
“David Cameron will damage his EU renegotiation if he takes Britain out of the European Court of Human Rights, a leading critic warns today. Dominic Grieve, the former attorney-general, said that lawyers blocked from taking cases to the Strasbourg court would instead use the European Court of Justice (ECJ), posing an even more direct challenge to British courts at a delicate time. Mr Grieve welcomed a decision yesterday to delay the scrapping of the Human Rights Act, which incorporates into UK law the European Convention on Human Rights” – The Times (£)
>Today:
Tory Diary: Should the EU referendum be held early? Have your say in our latest survey
>Yesterday:
Columnists: Daniel Hannan MEP: Why Cameron should introduce a Sovereignty Act to reassert the supremacy of Parliament
“Labour’s main source of funding has been put under threat by a surprise Queen’s Speech measure to slash big donations from the unions. Under reforms proposed by Sajid Javid, the business secretary, union members would have to opt in to their union’s political fund. At present they have to opt out. The move could cost Labour millions. The central party received £46.8 million from 13 affiliated unions between 2010 and the end of 2014” – The Times (£)
Editorials on the Queen’s Speech:
Comment on the Queen’s Speech:
Sketches of the Queen’s Speech:
>Yesterday:
“A casual observer of the state opening of parliament might have imagined that it was the Scottish National party rather than the Conservatives who had won the election. SNP MPs filed into the chamber early, wearing white roses in their lapels — a homage, they said, to Hugh MacDiarmid’s poem ‘The Little White Rose’…Bolstering their revolutionary credentials, SNP MPs applauded their leader Angus Robertson as he congratulated the prime minister for ‘his electoral victory . . . in England’. Applause is banned in the Commons” – Financial Times
“UKIP MP Douglas Carswell had to be escorted to safety after he was targeted by anti-austerity protesters as he waited for a bus. Mr Carswell, who defected from the Conservatives last year, was surrounded by more than 100 demonstrators as he stood outside St James’ Underground station, near the Houses of Parliament. Dozens of activists mobbed the politician, chanting ‘racist scum’ and ‘UKIP racist’ before he was driven to safety. He later described the crowd as a ‘lynch mob’ with ‘murderous intent’” – Daily Mail
“Scotland’s parliament resoundingly rejected a bill to allow assisted suicide at its first stage of debate. The vote was a setback for campaigners who argued that the legislation would help people gain control over the timing and terms of their deaths. The assisted suicide bill was defeated by 82 votes to 36 after an often quietly passionate debate about the issues surrounding assisted dying and the failings of palliative care for the terminally ill and profoundly incapacitated. The Scottish debate came amid renewed discussion of assisted dying in England” – Financial Times
“The paralysis that has gripped the Northern Ireland executive (government) and assembly (parliament) this week is more serious than most, because the stakes are much higher. After the assembly’s failure on Tuesday to agree a package of welfare reforms, the region now faces the prospect of severe spending cuts imposed from Westminster. All the Northern Ireland parties agree that this prospect is terrible. But they are unable to form a united front to offer an alternative” – Financial Times
>Yesterday:
“David Miliband has warned that Labour has been ‘sent back to the classroom’ for the second election in a row after his brother failed to win over voters. In comments that will fuel speculation that he could make a dramatic return to British politics, the former foreign secretary said that he had been involved with Labour at a time when it learnt how to win elections…’I was in the back room in the early 1990s when Labour in the UK figured out how to win elections rather than lose them,’ he said” – The Times (£)
“Tony Blair was left without a formal role in the Middle East peace process yesterday as he stood down as an envoy after eight years of controversy and criticism. The former prime minister’s resignation as a special representative to the Quartet group of Israeli-Palestinian mediators had been expected for months but he had hoped that the United States would come forward to hand him a new position. In a blow to his efforts to cast himself as a global statesman, sources close to Mr Blair admitted yesterday that he was left without any formal role in the Middle East but insisted that he would ‘remain active on the issues and in the region’” – The Times (£)
>Today: