The Prime Minister has long accused the Conservatives of lacking policies, but of the flagship measures in his speech he announced a constitution for the NHS - an idea we set out last June; the extension of the right to request flexible working, which we announced in September 2006; an independent exam regulator, which we proposed in 2005; a simple saving scheme, outlined in our 2005 manifesto; and shared equity schemes, currently being pioneered by Conservative councils across the country.
There is a lot Tories support in Gordon Brown's speech - because most of it was stolen from our locker. What we don't support and will continue to fight is this Government's real agenda: closing Post Offices and tearing the heart out of rural communities; releasing prisoners early and making our streets more dangerous; closing GP surgeries; and taxing businesses to the extent they moving abroad. Neither do we support a Prime Minister who regularly talks of full employment as his biggest success when there are 4.6 million households in the UK where no-one works full-time.
This Queens speech was brought forward by a Prime Minister still struggling to implement last year's programme. Sadly, it was more about his political survival than the long-term needs of the country.