OPINION: Unwrapping a package set to woo the voters

Sir Peter Hall, professor of planning at the Bartlett School of Planning, University College London. Email: sir.peter.hall@haynet.com, Regeneration & Renewal, 5 December 2003

The Queen's Speech last week will surely be presented as a big bold legislative package - in the last full year of his second term, the intrepid Reverend Blair confronts every vested interest on his own back benches (Regeneration & Renewal, 28 November, p1). As he did over Iraq, he's doing what he thinks is right, and damn the consequences. But viewed more closely, Blair is doing the cleverest thing that a politician can do: walking the moral high ground while quietly pleasing big sections of the electorate.

Consider just two elements of the package: the controversial issues of university top-up fees and asylum seekers. Top-up fees might seem calculated to offend almost everyone and please no-one...

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