2024 UK politics - now with Labour in charge
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- A Planning and Infrastructure Bill will streamline the process for approving critical infrastructure, and overhaul rules on the compulsory purchase of land
- A Renters' Rights Bill, will ban so-called no fault evictions and extend a series of building safety rules for social tenants, known as Awaab's Law, to private renters
- A draft Leasehold and Commonhold Reform Bill will curb ground rent for existing leaseholders, and ban forfeiture - where leaseholders are threatened with losing their home - over small unpaid debts
- A new state-owned energy investment and generation company, GB Energy, will be created by the Great British Energy Bill
- A National Wealth Fund Bill will set up a new fund to invest £7.3bn over five years in infrastructure and green industry
- A Water (Special Measures) Bill will make the bosses of private water companies personally liable for lawbreaking, and give the water regulator new powers to ban bonuses
- A Passenger Railway Services Bill will allow the government to renationalise nearly all passenger rail services, when existing contracts expire
- A new body to oversee track and trains, Great British Railways, will be established by a separate Railways Bill
- A Better Buses Bill will allow a wider range of local leaders to take over responsibility for running bus services
- A High Speed Rail Bill, previously tabled to build the now-scrapped northern leg of the HS2 rail link, will bring in powers to build new rail infrastructure in northern England
- A Crime and Policing Bill will give police new powers to tackle antisocial behaviour and make assaulting shopworkers a specific crime
- The Terrorism (Protection of Premises) Bill, published in draft form by the Tories, will enact Martyn's Law, requiring large venues to put in place procedures to deal with the threat of terrorism
- A new Victims, Courts and Public Protection Bill will introduce new rules requiring offenders to attend sentencing hearings and to strip parental rights from child sex offenders
- An Employment Rights Bill will ban the "exploitative" use of zero-hours contracts and introduce various new workers’ rights promised ahead of the election
- A Race Equality Bill will extend the right to make equal pay claims under the Equality Act to ethnic minority workers and disabled people, and bring in new pay reporting requirements for bigger firms
- Labour will introduce a gradual ban on smoking by bringing back the Tobacco and Vapes Bill first announced under Rishi Sunak
- A Mental Health Bill will tighten rules on sectioning people, and change the rules on care for people with learning difficulties
- A Children's Wellbeing Bill will force councils in England to maintain registers of children not educated full-time in school, and deliver a manifesto promise for breakfast clubs in all primary schools in England
- The Skills England Bill will set up a new arms-length body of the same name to boost and regionalise training
- A draft Conversion Practices Bill will introduce new restrictions on "abusive" practices intended to change people's sexual orientation or gender identity
- A Digital Information and Smart Data Bill will allow people to use digital ID to buy age-restricted products and for things like pre-employment checks
- A Cyber Security and Resilience Bill will set out new rules designed to protect critical infrastructure from attackers
- An English Devolution Bill will streamline the process to transfer more powers to elected mayors in combined council areas
- A new bill will phase out the remaining hereditary peers sitting in the House of Lords
- A separate bill will prolong measures designed to boost the number of female bishops in the House of Lords that are due to expire next year
- An as-yet unnamed bill will deliver a pledge for a ‘Hillsborough law’, in the wake of the football stadium disaster, to place a legal duty of candour on public servants
- A Budget Responsibility Bill will ensure official forecasts have to take place ahead of Budgets
- A Pension Schemes Bill will introduce new rules and requirements for private-sector pension schemes
- A bill will allow the Crown Estate to borrow from the government to invest in new infrastructure projects, an idea suggested under the previous Conservative administration
- An English Devolution Bill will streamline the process to transfer more powers to elected mayors in combined council areas
- A new bill will phase out the remaining hereditary peers sitting in the House of Lords
- A separate bill will prolong measures designed to boost the number of female bishops in the House of Lords that are due to expire next year
- An as-yet unnamed bill will deliver a pledge for a ‘Hillsborough law’, in the wake of the football stadium disaster, to place a legal duty of candour on public servants
- Another law halted because of the election, the Football Governance Bill, will set up a regulator for the top five divisions of men’s football
- There is also a bill to set up an Armed Forces Commissioner, with powers to inspect faulty kit and military accommodation
Not included
- Despite press reports, there was not a specific bill mentioned on regulating artificial intelligence - although the speech said ministers would bring in "appropriate legislation" to regulate the most powerful AI models
- Legislation to scrap the two-child benefit cap introduced in 2016, despite pressure from campaigners
- A bill to reduce the voting age to 16 - but Labour says it is still committed to bringing it in later on
- Legislation to reduce the retirement age in the House of Lords to 80 - with ministers saying the bill to remove hereditary peers would be the "first step in wider reform" of the upper chamber
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The high speed rail bill will not be about building any more high speed rail.
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VAT on private schools was buried in there somewhere. MPs have got a lot to debate.
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Will make no difference to day to day operations. This is just putting the direction of travel on a more official basis.
1985 Mercian King of Mercia - work in progress (Hah! Who am I kidding?)
Pinnacle Monzonite
Part of the anti-growth coalition0 -
Surely you jest?
1985 Mercian King of Mercia - work in progress (Hah! Who am I kidding?)
Pinnacle Monzonite
Part of the anti-growth coalition0 -
No I thought it would get pushed up a siding and forgotten about to be honest.
The most immediate changes will be ticket price simplification and knowing you've only got one operator to blame when it all goes to shit while you are trying to get to an important meeting.
Not sure longer term but it's not irreversible if it doesn work is it?
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It'll make a nice change from the last parliament's lack of ambition/achievement. Let's hope that there's plenty of scrutiny so that laws are well drafted. I think one can see why Starmer doesn't want to get distracted/derailed by any discussions of Brexit, at least in this parliament: it reads like a 'Get the house in order first' agenda. Given Starmer's regimenting of the Labour Party, despite his charisma bypass, I'd be surprised if they haven't worked out how they are going/hoping to achieve all/most of this.
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The big thing is they are actually drafting laws rather than trying to cobble together unscrutinised secondary legislation to achieve things.
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Maybe I'm missing something but where are the bills will materially improve the economic growth rate that Labour said they will make a top priority? I can see a lot of state spending involved in the above, but where is the boost for businesses and wealth creators?
"I spent most of my money on birds, booze and fast cars: the rest of it I just squandered." [George Best]1 -
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I saw that - just one policy that is growth oriented? Now tell me how that alone will materially increase economic growth for the country - sufficient to fund all of Labour's ambitions and spending pledges.
"I spent most of my money on birds, booze and fast cars: the rest of it I just squandered." [George Best]0 -
It's halfway there already.
1985 Mercian King of Mercia - work in progress (Hah! Who am I kidding?)
Pinnacle Monzonite
Part of the anti-growth coalition0 -
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It doesn't explain how that alone will create the required growth in the UK economy.
"I spent most of my money on birds, booze and fast cars: the rest of it I just squandered." [George Best]0 -
Wrong thread
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I mean, it literally does.
Think of it this way. My job is basically about meetings and the more meetings we have, the more money we tend to make.
Breakfast meetings are easy to arrange and go in the diary sooner.
I have had to stop arranging them because I can’t rely on the train arriving on time.
That is directly affecting my productivity. If I could rely on trains running on time I could have more meetings in my day. That ultimately means I make more money. So everyone wins. The restaurant gets their cover, my meeting happens sooner / if actually happens and I’m more likely to make money.
win win.
Extrapolate that logic across the whole economy.
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That's a really interesting example RC and something I'd not heard of before.
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Literally, it doesn't. It covers how that is generally positive for growth and isn't even UK specific.
Can you show me where it states what impact this is expected to have on UK economic growth, which is what I asked about above.
"I spent most of my money on birds, booze and fast cars: the rest of it I just squandered." [George Best]0 -
And if anyone can point me to a Labour bill that might create material UK economic growth in the list of 30-odd, please feel free to do so...
"I spent most of my money on birds, booze and fast cars: the rest of it I just squandered." [George Best]0 -
- A Planning and Infrastructure Bill will streamline the process for approving critical infrastructure, and overhaul rules on the compulsory purchase of land
- A new state-owned energy investment and generation company, GB Energy, will be created by the Great British Energy Bill
- A National Wealth Fund Bill will set up a new fund to invest £7.3bn over five years in infrastructure and green industry
These three all have potential to create growth, or of course do very little, depending on how they are implemented.
- Genesis Croix de Fer
- Dolan Tuono0 -
I'd also add, not scaring investment off by running populist referendums (referenda?) on leaving the main market britain trades with, having PMs that say "fuck business" and generally avoiding being highly unstable I think will also help funnel in the investment.
Doubly so when the US and half of Western Europe is looking unstable.
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The argument that it's terrible for Clacton that Farage has abandoned Clacton to go to the US really annoys me.
Obviously those in Clacton know that Farage is mates with Trump and they won't be surprised he's gone. That's baked into the Farage proposition.
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Meh, a lot of people who live in Clacton voted for someone other than Farage, they still deserve an MP who will be a local representative, even if it's a person who doesn't align with them politically.
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mmm they don't cos they lost. Democracy innit.
I don't think the constituents of Holborn and St Pancras are really gutted that Starmer is never bothered with local issues.
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Nah, that's a really shitty interpretation of how MPs should operate.
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MPs make decisions on **national issues** and I feel quite strongly that the localism that this system forces them into has major drawbacks, and I don't think that it is a coincidence that we see NIMBYism much more strongly in MPs in marginal seats.
Look at the contortions the Green MPs are having to make to justify their local NIMBYism with their national policies.
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How do people in the regions get their voices heard and get represented at a national level if not through a constituency MP?
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So no other bills in the list above that you can point to?
"I spent most of my money on birds, booze and fast cars: the rest of it I just squandered." [George Best]0 -
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I'm not sure I agree with the premise that governments create growth. Businesses create growth. Governments can add and remove burdens from businesses, which, alongside other global factors, can make it a bit easier for those businesses to create growth. Reform of the planning system has the potential to remove a significant burden from a very broad segment of the economy - everyone uses buildings.
1985 Mercian King of Mercia - work in progress (Hah! Who am I kidding?)
Pinnacle Monzonite
Part of the anti-growth coalition0
