TORIES SLAM "TALK BUT NO ACTION"

Labour's promises in the Queen's Speech offer only more talk and no action,
Tory leader Michael Howard has said.

Law and order is the top priority of the government's agenda for the run-up
to the next general election. But all of Labour's initiatives had left
crime "out of control", Mr Howard said as MPs began debating the speech. He
said Labour were "all spin and no substance". He singled out Home Secretary
David Blunkett for "over-hyping plans" for new terror laws.

Action call In the debate on the Queen's Speech Mr Howard said his party
would have used the event to focus on the people's priorities. The public
wanted cleaner hospitals, good school discipline and controlled
immigration, he said. "Today after seven years of this government and five
months before the election, all we have got is more rhetoric, more promises
and more talk," Mr Howard told MPs. "But this government will never turn
talk into action and it is time for a government that will." Mr Howard
claimed people were paying much more tax but were not getting value for
money. " "Hard working families are paying the equivalent of UKP5,000 a
year more in tax," he said. "But what have they got to show for it - a
million patients still on NHS waiting lists, a million children playing
truant from school and a million violent crimes. "It's no wonder that hard
working families feel hard pressed and hard done by under this government.
"People are fed up with talk, they want action."

Just a repeat? Mr Howard said he welcomed some of the measures listed in
the Queen's Speech but predicted the general response would be: "Haven't we
heard it all before?" He criticised the government for downgrading cannabis
to a class C drug, something the Tories say jars with the promised new drug
testing laws. He went on: "What does it say about this prime minister's
priorities when he talks about protecting children from sweets and crisps
but he won't keep them safe from cannabis?" The Folkestone and Hythe MP
said the speech should have been used to set a date for the referendum on
the new European Union constitution. He chided the prime minister: "Why are
you waiting for the rest of Europe? Why are you content to follow?" Mr
Blair countered by accusing the Tories of playing "fantasy" politics in
planning to renegotiate EU treaties, process asylum seekers offshore and
"options" for tax cuts. "Fantasy policies are amusing for a fantasy
government but suppose it became a reality," he said. "Then the fantasy
becomes a fraud on the British people and is no longer amusing but is
dangerous."

'Police state' Earlier, Tory policy coordinator David Cameron said the raft
of law and order measures in the speech risked saddling police with more
paperwork instead of helping them fight crime. "What we are in danger of
having is a police state without the police," he told BBC News. The
Conservatives say people needs answers to key questions before knowing
whether the planned national ID card scheme will work and protect people's
liberties. It also asks why ministers are prepared to wait years for the
scheme to be operational if the cards really can help tackle terrorism and
illegal working. The Conservatives do support the creation of a Serious
Organised Crime Agency, a British version of the FBI.