It’s very difficult not to comment, even in an unofficial capacity, on what was a pretty underwhelming Queen’s speech.

There’s certainly a great deal to be done, and the UK needs comprehensive investment to build a green economy and give proper backing to our schools, police, and public services.

If it were a Lib Dem government putting forward today’s Queen’s speech, we’d be:

– Supporting the NHS with an additional £35 billion in funding and working to reform and improve services.

– Saving the high street with the Commercial Land Levy – cutting tax bills for small business across the country.

– Giving every child the best start in life by recruiting 20,000 more teachers, tripling the Pupil Premium, and putting £11 billion more into schools.

– Putting an end to wasted votes by introducing proportional representation

– Reforming the welfare system to put an end to cruel sanctions, and reduce waiting times from five weeks to five days.

– Tackling the climate emergency and ending fuel poverty – empowering the green economy to create jobs and cut bills, with 80% of energy from renewable sources by 2030.

– Putting an extra £1 billion into community policing – supporting an extra two officers per ward, and more than reversing the cuts we have seen locally.

The issues won’t be going away on their own and I wish my colleagues in parliament well in fighting for them.

Regardless of party, I hope to see these challenges addressed, but what we’ve heard today was not quite the ambitious and comprehensive programme needed to fix previous Conservative mismanagement.