The Queen's Speech
A lot of the news today will be dominated by the Queen's Speech. In the spotlight will be:
- New police powers to prevent disruptive yet peaceful protests, a move that will anger civil liberty groups. The Home Secretary says the powers will prevent the "outrageous behaviour" of "disruptive protests carried out by a "self-indulgent minority who seem to revel in causing mayhem and misery". The Liberal Dems warned the plans were "dangerous and draconian".
- New measures to get on top of inflation and help hard-hit households
- More announcements on what the Govt is doing to continue its ‘levelling up programme’ aimed at tackling regional disparities in the UK.
In short, it's quite a controversial one so if you have any views on any of the above — and the public order bill is likely to get most attention — by all means fire them across before or after the speech, which is at 11:30am and being read by Prince Charles. We will leave this News Alert open until 14:00 today.