Queen’s State Opening of Parliament Speech

May 17, 2012 - PRLog -- This sets out the Government's agenda for the coming session and for over 500 years the State Opening has served as a symbolic reminder of the three parts that make up parliament - the Sovereign, the House of Lords and the House of Commons.  The last State Opening took place on Tuesday 25 May 2010, shortly after the last general election and was the longest session of parliament for 100 years.

The Queen’s Speech is written by the current Government and includes the list of bills and goals for the year.  This year’s speech contained 19 actual bills and another 10 aspirations.

The Prime Minister, David Cameron told MPs "Let me say exactly what this Queen's Speech is about. It is about a government taking the tough, long-term decisions to restore our country to strength and dealing with the deficit, rebalancing the economy and building a society that rewards people who work hard and do the right thing."

Commenting on the Queen's State Opening of Parliament Speech and the government’s plans for banking regulation reform, Visiting Professor of Banking (http://www.cass.city.ac.uk/courses/masters/courses/bankin...) at Cass Business School, Giorgio Questa (http://bunhill.city.ac.uk/research/cassexperts.nsf/All/34...) said:

“Clearly a move towards a Vickers-like regulation.  Like in all regulatory activity the devil is in the details.”

“In principle this approach is the most intelligent one. It embeds the universally accepted principle that risk-taking must factor in the risk appetite of the investors. One cannot use moneys deposited in a checking account to engage in risk taking. This principle has been enshrined in asset management regulation for several decades.”

“Knee-jerk reactions by some bankers are often destitute of careful analysis.”

The Fixed Term Parliament Act, which sets out new rules on the timing of general elections, received Royal Assent and therefore became law on 15 September 2011.  This means that the next general election will be on 7 May 2015 and the next state opening will be soon after this date.

Professor Giorgio Questa started his career as an assistant professor of financial economics at the University of Rome. He then joined IMI (now SanPaoloIMI) where he held several senior positions.   After leaving banking in 1995, Professor Questa returned to teaching (postgraduate level), research, and consulting.  He is currently working on a new book on Derivatives, Financial Risk Management (http://www.cass.city.ac.uk/courses/masters/courses/insura...), and Financial Engineering.