The 'Queen's Speech', unlike the 'King's Speech', was an event of great theatricality but with no real purpose or result. While King George VI struggled manfully to get his own words out, Queen Elizabeth had little difficulty in mouthing the usual rubbish provided for her by successive governments over a period of 60 years.
One has to wonder what Her Majesty thinks of the drivel and endless platitudes that her Prime Ministers force her to read out and put her name to. As a rule, much of it announces measures to curb our freedoms still further, much is about 'saving us from ourselves' and the rest is about purely political issues designed to help whoever is in power today to win the next election.
This year's speech was little different but did include a novel idea - individuals in the community such as landlords and GPs will now be required to carry out the role of 'immigration police', checking the origins of everyone with whom they come into contact and reporting those they believe to be illegal immigrants to the authorities. How this will work, if it can be made to do so, hasn't been explained.
For decades, the NHS has been expected to identify those who are not eligible for free care and to charge them accordingly. Hospitals have established vast and complicated procedures that have, by and large, been a pointless waste of money. Even if chargeable individuals have been identified and billed, they usually disappear without trace after being discharged; little money is ever forthcoming. Inexplicably, this government seems to be oblivious to this and has said that they will introduce new measures to ensure that short-term migrants will pay for their NHS care; furthermore, landlords will have to check the 'immigration status' of potential tenants though, again, how they will do this hasn't been set out. Most astonishing of all, illegal immigrants will not be allowed to have driving licences; pardon me, but are they saying that such people are allowed to hold driving licences at the moment ? Surely one fundamental feature of being an 'illegal immigrant' must be that the state does not know who they are; are they not outside of the 'system' and, hence, automatically denied such things ?
In truth, none of this will work and it's clear that all the rhetoric about being tough on immigration and illegal immigrants is no more than an attempt to con people into voting Conservative at the next general election. Neither this government nor any other likely one has any intention of doing anything that will really deal with the issues that face our country. Vastly excessive immigration and the creation of largely separate 'immigrant communities' is but one, though a major one, of these issues, but there is no chance whatsoever of our leaders dealing with it; it's all far too political and difficult and they have their futures as overpaid international ambassadors and statesmen to think about.
If I believed in a God, I'd be saying 'God, help us !', but I don't and I'm afraid we're on our own.
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