LETTER: The Queen's Speech - a disappointment for Hounslow

12.00.00am GMT Wed 7th Nov 2007

Cllr Andrew Dakers, Leader of Hounslow Liberal Democrats, has described the Queen's Speech as a "timid mishmash that won't get us far at all"

Dear Editor, Hounslow Borough has suffered from significant heavy rainfall and flash floods this year, a result of global warming and climate change which is caused by carbon emissions. The government's response in the Queen's Speech is to bring in a weak Climate Change Bill that lacks targets and the real action needed to tackle the problem.

Thousands of residents of Hounslow are hit hard by council tax, the unfairest tax around. Yet despite this there was no mention of scrapping it and replacing it with a fairer system based on ability to pay.

Many people in Hounslow are unable to live in a home of their own because the government has failed completely over the past decade to ensure there is enough affordable housing. However the measures in the Queen's Speech on housing will only scratch the surface of the problem in Hounslow.

Gordon Brown has been at the heart of the Labour government since it came to power over ten years ago. He has now been Prime Minister for four months. Even so there is little in the way of a vision in the Queen's Speech of where he wants to take the country. Much of it is a collection of knee jerk reactions, rather than a picture of where Labour wants to take the country. And much of the rest is unfortunately about grabbing headlines by trying to look as if problems that Labour have failed to tackle over the past decade are now being taken seriously.

I, like many people in Hounslow, was left disappointed by this Queen's Speech. What could have been a great stride forward for both Hounslow and the country has turned out to be a timid mishmash that won't get us far at all.

Cllr Andrew Dakers

Leader of Hounslow Liberal Democrats

Parliamentary Candidate for Brentford & Isleworth