Gordon Brown, it seems, is still determined to patch it up with prudence.
The prime minister, who yearns to regain his reputation for careful stewardship of the nation’s finances, put fiscal responsibility firmly at the heart of his new, and possibly last, legislative programme.
A Fiscal Responsibility Bill will enshrine in law the government’s aspiration to halve the £175bn deficit by 2014 and to balance the books by a target date of 2018.
The message is clear and the aspiration admirable, but the Opposition might have a point when they accuse ministers of using the Queen’s Speech for political posturing.
What do we elect governments for if not to behave in a fiscally responsible manner? It’s difficult to see how such a Bill, if enacted, would change anything in a meaningful way or how those charged with delivery will be held to account.
As the Institute for Fiscal Studies said this week (see news, page 6), what sanctions will the government impose on a Treasury that doesn’t deliver? Are we likely to see red-faced chancellors being frogmarched out of No 11 Downing Street if targets are missed? It seems unlikely.
The same question arises in relation to other aspirations in the Queen’s Speech.
Pledges to enshrine shorter hospital waiting times and school standards in ‘entitlements’ sound great, but where is the money underpinning this and how will failure be tackled?
The government seems more interested in throwing down some markers ahead of the looming electoral battle than in making the most of whatever time it has left in office.
The one exception might prove to be social care, which for once enjoyed a prominent place in the legislative programme.
After more than 12 years of Labour government, social care is still very much unfinished business, so the pledge to provide free personal care for 280,000 people living at home is an encouraging, if partial, attempt to take action.
But with the clock ticking down – there are now no more than six months to the next general election – Parliamentary time is scarce and an emboldened Opposition could well pull out all the procedural stops to halt any embryonic Bills in their tracks.
Chances that the government will get any of its 15 new Bills, be they aspirational or practical, on to the statute book are slim indeed.
