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The Weekly paper of the New Communist Party of Britain

The King’s Speech

by New Worker correspondent

The head of state took the royal carriage to the Palace of Westminster on Tuesday. Charles III doubtless ignored the jeers and boos from the “Not My King” crowd who now seem almost part of the royal pageant these days as he was taken to Parliament to deliver the Government’s programme for the coming year.

Not there was much on Rishi Sunak’s agenda in the run-up to the election next year.

The King’s address featured just 21 bills that include seven carried over from last year, meaning they had already been announced. Sir Keir Starmer, the Labour leader, said that this showed the Tories were “not even pretending to govern anymore”.

One of them is the proposed Pedicabs (London) Bill, which will allow Transport for London to regulate the pedal-powered rickshaws that prey on wealthy or unwary tourists in the West End in the city. It is telling that this specific business is targeted – it is run by small businesses, while other tourist rip-offs run by multinational companies, such as expensive hotel rooms, go untouched.

Another is the Tobacco and Vapes Bill that seeks to ban cigarette smoking in incremental stages, and another that seeks to ban on public bodies boycotting Israel with the Economic Activities of Public Bodies (Overseas Matters) Bill. This is a backhanded compliment to the work of the Palestine solidarity campaigns that has proved too effective for comfort, as can also be seen in the efforts to prevent marches in support of the same cause.

A new Media Bill will be revived to scrap a never-enacted rule that would have forced media companies to pay legal cost bills of people who sue them, even if they win. This will be a great relief to billionaire media moguls. They, and humbler millionaires, will also be relieved that a bill to ban the importation of hunting trophies has been shelved.

On a more positive note, tabloid journalists will be delighted that yet another Criminal Justice Bill will force criminals to appear in the dock, which will give them something to write about.

There were of course omissions. The measure promised to outlaw zero-hour contracts, mentioned in the 2019 Tory election manifesto, has been carelessly lost. And one wonders what the King, who used to talk to his plants, privately thought when he read out the bit about annual licensing for oil and gas projects in the North Sea.