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Brown spells out new national plan
30.06.09
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Prime Minister Gordon Brown has set out his legislative programme for the last few months before the general election.
It included new "entitlements" for users of public services, a boost to house-building, extra training opportunities for young people, plus the removal of the final hereditary peers from the House of Lords.
In a statement to the House of Commons, Mr Brown unveiled the draft legislative programme which will form the bulk of this autumn's Queen's Speech.
The Premier said: "There is a real choice for our country - driving growth forward or letting the recession take its course; creating jobs for the future or doing nothing.
"We will not walk away from the British people in difficult times. Our policy is to build the growth, the jobs and the public services we need for Britain's future."
Mr Brown said that from next January, all under-25s who have been out of work for a year will receive a guaranteed job, work experience or training place which they will be obliged to take up.
Tory leader David Cameron said there had been "no recognition" by Mr Brown of the "catastrophic state of the public finances".
Mr Cameron said: "The Prime Minister is living in a dream world, in which investment is going up, spending is going up - when is someone going to tell him he has run out of money? People are entitled to ask, simply, what world is he living in?"
He said: "It is just a combination of rehashed initiatives, ideas taken from the Opposition and some timid and bureaucratic top-down tinkering."
He acknowledged there were "some good things" in the statement but added "that's because we thought of them".
Reader views (2)
will someone wake up Gordon from his dream?
- Michael, Cheshunt
Gormless Brown is most definitely "living in a dream world".
More abject spin and waffle from Downing Street. Brown has had 12 years to put things right in the UK. WHAT has Gormless Brown done in 12 years? Yes, he has made the UK bankrupt. He has made the UK the laughing stock around the world. He is making peeps in the UK live in constant fear.
There is more credibility at the bottom of my African grey parrot's cage than exists in the entire Labour government.
- Reuben Camara, Republic of Morecambe, UK
