The Queen’s Speech is the Head of State’s introduction to legislation which will be brought forward by the government in the current term of parliament. For this current term the queen delivered the speech on Wednesday 18^th of November 2009.

The speech, written for the queen by the government, laid greatest emphasis on ensuring sustained growth to safeguard jobs. It promised also to strengthen public services and to sustain economic recovery whilst combating climate change.

There are measures in the queen’s speech which will be of particular interest to Barnsley. Active employment schemes and training programmes will help to reduce the blight of unemployment and worklessness in Barnsley. Without the money from the European Union, Barnsley would have been much less able to deal with the after-effects of Mines closures: therefore closer co-operation to sustain economic recovery will be welcome.

Free personal care for those in highest need will benefit many residents in Barnsley with its high level of disability. Guarantees on raising educational standards is aimed at ensuring that all pupils (including those in Barnsley) will get a good education if they work hard.

Support for carbon capture and storage will help the most vulnerable households with their energy bills. This is likely to also benefit Yorkshire in particular as much of the carbon is generated by coal. It is possible that coal mining might be given a boost by this measure and that the captured carbon will be stored below the sea off Yorkshire’s coast. That will create jobs in this area.

The rights of agency workers to be treated equally is a very promising development and one which trades unions have worked towards for some years. When migrant workers are treated equally they are less able to be taken advantage of by unscrupulous employers who would otherwise employ them to work on lower wages and worse conditions than local workers. Moreover there is a growing trend for big employers to employ workers through agencies and thereby subject local workers to worse conditions than unions have fought to gain over centuries. This legislation to curb the worst excesses of bad employers exploiting workers is to be welcomed.