The Queen's Speech:key points

The Queen has delivered her speech to open a new session of Parliament, and of course, it was really Labour’s election manifesto.

Lib Dem leader Nick Clegg accused labour of using the speech for its own political ends, and called for the speech to be cancelled and emergency reforms to be put in its place, the implication being that little of the Speech would reach the statute books before next year’s election.

Thirteen bills were announced – some carried over the last session – and the much-discussed Fiscal Responsibility Bill will inevitably take centre stage in the coming weeks, and what will it do? Commit a future government to reducing the huge budget deficit in future. Surely obvious without the need for a Bill?

The Financial Services Bill aims to strengthen the control of pay for those in the financial services industry. Although this has been much discussed too, it is still rather incredible that Gordon Brown will oversee this Bill, yet here is the same man who, as Chancellor, reaped the rich dividends from a burgeoning financial service industry throughout most of the early years of the twenty-first century.

The Child Poverty Bill commits Government to abolish poverty among children by 2020. A noble cause, of course, but this government has already missed other poverty targets, and 2020 is over 10 years away! Is this a commitment, or a trap for a future (probably Conservative) government?

The Equality Bill aims to narrow the gap between rich and poor in the public sector; it bans age discrimination outside the workplace; and it will require businesses with more than 250 people to report on differences in pay between the genders. It will be interesting to see what comes of it.

It will also be interesting to see how many Bills make it through before next May.

Bonuses should only be paid for success

As the Government promises to introduce legislation to combat the excesses of bank bonuses, there is a counter-argument that suggests that if top people are not paid top bonuses, they will "go elsewhere".

If bankers paying themselves large bonuses were indeed to go elsewhere, would the country lose out? Surely the country has already lost out to these gamblers who have brought the country to its knees with a debt-ridden future. If they went elsewhere, one would be tempted to say "good riddance"! I'm all for payment by results, but surely bonuses should only be paid for successful outcomes. The ruination of the banking system hardly qualifies as success.

Yesterday, Prime Minister Gordon Brown, voiced concerns that bankers were determined to return to "the bad old days".

Alistair Darling will take the opportunity at the Labour Party Conference in Brighton to lambast the bonus culture in banking. He will warn the banks that "there will be no return to business as usual for them." There will be "an end to automatic bonuses year after year".

Perhaps the bankers will flee the industry. Maybe they'll think about becoming an MP - with all those lovely expenses!