Thursday, 4 December 2008

Has the Queen's speech altered the election timetable?

This morning's Times believes that yesterday's Queen's speech has set the timetable for the next election.

No more talk of a cut and run next spring and according to Philip Webster

Only 14 Bills, compared with the 18 promised in a draft Queen’s Speech in May, featured, and ministers said that their overriding aim was to concentrate on tackling the economic downturn. With the session starting several weeks later than usual, the programme was the smallest since Labour returned to power. The measures should cause Mr Brown little trouble with his backbenchers and the aim is also to allow MPs to spend longer in their constituences, preparing for a poll that must come within 18 months


Although a different view in the Telegraph from Andrew Porter who says

The paucity of the bills in the Queen's Speech led some to suspect that Mr Brown may still be weighing up the whether he should go to the country in June.

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