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The Politics Show

King's speech reveals Starmer's uncommon ambition

The Politics Show

The New Statesman

Society & Culture, News, Politics

4.21.5K Ratings

🗓️ 17 July 2024

⏱️ 30 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

"It's been a long time since we've had a government with this level of ambition" - George Eaton


Black Rod has been summoned and the weighty wooden doors swung open on a new parliamentary year. At the State Opening of Parliament, Keir Starmer's government unveiled their ambitious legislative agenda through the King's speech, which introduced a bumper 39 bills.


George Eaton and Rachel Cunliffe join Hannah Barnes on the New Statesman podcast to unpick the policy announcements and explore the opportunities and potential pitfalls Labour may face over the coming months.


Read more: The King’s Speech is our first chance to inspect the moral code behind “Starmerism”

https://www.newstatesman.com/politics/uk-politics/2024/07/does-the-labour-government-believe-in-anything

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Transcript

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0:00.0

The New Statesman.

0:02.0

Statesman.

0:03.0

Hello, I'm Hannah Barnes and you're listening to the New Statesman podcast.

0:11.0

Blackrod has been summoned, the golden carriage has arrived and the

0:14.9

heavy wooden door has swung open on a new parliament. Yes, it's King's Speech Day.

0:19.8

You know the drill. State opening of Parliament is an archaic affair full of ancient

0:24.0

ritual, fancy robes and the marking of a new parliamentary year and in this case the

0:29.6

first Labour government in 14 years. For us it's the first opportunity to get a

0:34.6

flavor of exactly what Kiastama plans to deliver and that's what we're going to

0:39.1

be unpicking today. I'm joined by our senior editor, George Eaton and political correspondent Rachel Kunleth,

0:46.1

who've both been watching the speech avidly and will be writing about it for the new statesman.

0:50.8

Hello both.

0:51.7

Hello. Hello.

0:53.0

George Bump a list of 39 bills.

0:55.0

Gonna start with an easy question.

0:57.0

Any big surprises in this King's speech?

1:00.0

No, there weren't to echo Radiohead there were no surprises which is just as

1:05.2

Kiasama would want it his his message has been stability is change and labor have had quite well developed plans.

1:15.3

So what we have got is a sense of the tone and

1:20.2

long-term strategy of key Islam as government

1:22.3

and then a lot more detail on some of the key policies in the manifesto

1:26.8

Workers' Rights, public ownership, GB Energy, Raya re-nationalization planning reform house building.

...

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