It was a great moment in 1997 when I heard the Queen read out Labour’s pledge card. It wasn’t quite as John Prescott would have done it but the priorities we’d been talking about on doorsteps across the country were now being outlined in the first Queen’s speech of a Labour government.

The Progress alternative Queen’s speech launched today is a poignant, but important opportunity.  These are the bills which we believe could make a real difference, but they are not the ones the Queen will read out on 9 May.  The process can spur us on to think about what our programme and our manifesto should look like – and remind us that campaigning to win is the only way we will be able to deliver them.

I strongly support the bills proposed in the ‘Purple’ Queen’s speech launched on the site today.  They develop the ideas that were published in the Purple Book and have since been debated in a series of open meetings across the country.  A legislative programme like this would represent a profound shift of power and a new approach to the delivery of major public services.  So I see my five bills as being in addition to those suggested already.

A ‘fiscal responsibility bill’ which legislates for the further strengthening and independence of the OBR and provides it with the power to monitor and report on new fiscal rules and targets including the requirement to achieve a budget surplus over the period of the first Parliament. (Inspiration courtesy of ‘In the Black Labour’)

A ‘personal primary care bill’ which ensures that patients are able to access and ‘hold’ their own primary care records through the use of technology and take them for an appointment at the GP surgery most convenient for them.

An ‘access to higher education bill’ which requires any university receiving public money to publish how it engages with young people from the age of 11 and then to report the specific impact of that work on widening both the applications and the successful entrants to higher education.

A ‘voluntary sector support bill’ which places a new duty that in any publicly funded building e.g. school, hospital, council offices etc above a minimum size, provision should be made for the use of at least one voluntary sector organisation.  This could be office space, meeting rooms or the use of specific facilities.

I can’t resist a ‘convenient passport bill’ which allows the passport authorities to issue a card alongside a passport which contains the biometric and personal data contained in the passport database.  Yes – it’s a way to secure your identity details and to prove them to others without risking losing your full passport or giving people more info than you need to with a series of utility bills – an ID card!

Finally I propose the ‘older childrens’ duty to phone home once a week’ bill.  Sorry – now I’m just getting carried away with the power of legislation.

We all know that legislating can’t achieve all the change we want to make, but it’s much better to be in government drafting the Queen’s speech and implementing the results than in opposition looking on.

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Alternative Queen’s Speeches on Progress

Progress editorial: The first Queen’s speech in two years is imminent. Labour should seize on the event to set out its own stall

We asked Labour people to devise what would be in Labour’s Alternative Queen’s Speech to show how Britain would be better under Labour

It should be fiscal responsibility first in Labour’s Alternative Queen’s Speech argues Jacqui Smith

The UK needs a radical tax overhaul. Fabian general secretary Andrew Harrop sets out what this would involve

Strengthening sure start comes first writes David Talbot

Richard Darlington, Tony Dolphin and Graeme Cooke from IPPR present their Alternative Queen’s Speech for jobs and growth

We need an Alternative Queen’s Speech for community empowerment argues Florence Nosegbe

Patrick Diamond wants Labour to create an efficient, muscular state through a ‘too big to fail’ bill and a ‘mutual home-ownership bill’

Jeremy Miles would introduce a ‘transparency in equal pay bill’ and introduce compulsory so that all politicians have to listen to all sections of society

In Steve Van Riel‘s Alternative Queen’s Speech business should be required to publish the salary of its lowest-paid worker, and the OBR should be mandated to work with the opposition on costings

LabourList editor Mark Ferguson would put an end to Crown dependency tax havens, and finally introduce a National Care Service

Former Labour party general secretary Peter Watt would introduce a safety in care bill for all adults in care, and a rule to remove a set number of pieces of legislation from the statute book every year

We must overhaul our taxation system and introduce regional transport authorities argues Gus Baker

Anthony Parker presents his poetic contribution to the series

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Jacqui Smith is former home secretary and writes the Monday Politics column for Progress

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Photo: William Warby