Has the Queen’s Speech delivered?
With so much focus on the EU referendum, this year’s Queen’s Speech was an opportunity to return the spotlight, if briefly in the short term, onto the domestic agenda and delivering the plan set out in the manifesto.
It’s clear that the reforming zeal will focus in the next year on the rehabilitation revolution, with proposed legislation on prison reform to give people a second chance in life including better mental health services in prisons. In addition, there are continuing priorities for education (with the national funding formula and a push to complete the "academisation" of schools) and a "seven day" NHS with linked improvements to social care but also foreign visitors paying for their healthcare.
Putting the spotlight on poverty and social mobility, legislation aims to help those on low incomes save for the inevitable rainy days in life. But there is much more to be done to deal with the poverty premium and end the economic discrimination of the poor.
But beyond public service (and constitutional) reform, will this legislative programme deliver on growth and productivity? This is key to living standards and, ultimately, the re-election of the government in 2020.
Commitments on job creation, skills and apprenticeships were mentioned early on as well as the need to deal with the deficit – an enduring feature of such set piece speeches this decade. And there is to be a boost to competition and choice across higher education with proposed legislation for new universities. These policies will have a direct bearing on the enduring productivity challenge facing the UK economy.
Infrastructure, including broadband, is also key to growth. Digital is set at the heart of strengthening the economy with legislation proposed to give a right for every household to access broadband and an aspiration to be a world leader in digital, which will be as important to the delivery of public services as to the business community. But for many, building one million new homes will be of most importance to their future living standards and being able to afford a home of their own.
Finally, devolution is the glue that joins together the economy and the reform agendas, with further devolution through the Scottish, Wales and Northern Ireland Bills as well as more power in England’s combining authorities with more control over buses and retention of business rates.
So this is a Queen’s Speech which really will need to deliver in the "heavy lifting" phase of this parliament, whatever happens on 23 June vote.