The Queen’s Speech is no saving grace – but it kicks off a winnable debate

By Mathew Hulbert / @mathewhulbert

The 2010 General Election campaign began, in essence if not literally, with a bang today. Everyone, it seems, has an opinion about the Queen’s Speech, most of them negative. But regardless of the content of the Royal Address itself, the Commons debate that followed it between the main party leaders shows us what we can expect much, much more of over the next six months or so.

If I were David Cameron tonight I’d be quite a bit more worried than I was at the start of the day. Why? Because Gordon Brown seemed to have found a renewed sense of fight.

In my former job as a Broadcast Journalist with a group of radio stations in the Midlands I had the honour of interviewing the Prime Minister when he came to Tamworth ahead of the local and European elections in June. And, truth be told, though it was exciting to do so, Mr Brown on that day looked really, really tired and almost as if the fight was a chore for him. But today’s was his best parliamentary performance in a long time, possibly since he became Prime Minister and Labour Party Leader.

People wrongly say that the main political parties are too similar these days, that the only question really debated is who will manage things better. But, though there’s certainly an element of that, there are fundamental differences between Labour and the Conservatives. The Tories, for example, talk a good game on poverty, but all too often don’t back that up with concrete ideas about how they’d end it or vote against measures which would reduce it. Or their answer is to rely solely on the voluntary sector.

Now, the voluntary sector certainly has its place, but that is not to take over from what the State should be doing. The best line of Brown’s today, which Cameron and George Osbourne tried to laugh along with but which you could tell had struck home, was one attacking a Tory tax plan which he said would only help a few people, all of whom live in swanky Kensington and Chelsea. The question remains: do the Conservatives really care about people in poverty or is it just lip service?

Nick Clegg had more justification in asking about poverty and is probably right to say that instead of this fairly sparse Queen’s Speech we should have had an emergency programme with radical proposals to transform Parliament and help restore faith in our politicians.

So, is this Queen’s Speech a saving grace for this Government? Not by a long chalk. But the debate it kicks off is an essential one and a general election victory remains up for the taking.

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