As one might expect, Labour’s MP for Brentford & Isleworth was less than impressed with the Queen’s Speech. Speaking in Parliament in response to the Queen’s speech Ruth Cadbury laid in to Government policy or lack of policy on a range of issues: Brexit, Heathrow expansion, the impact of austerity on education, the NHS, social care, public sector workers, housing, welfare and policing. Along with many of her Labour colleagues, she pointed out that the programme outlined in the speech was more notable for what wasn’t mentioned in it, rather than for what it did contain.

Brentford & Isleworth voted against a hard Brexit

“During the election campaign, the voters of Chiswick, Brentford, Isleworth, Osterley and Hounslow made it clear to me that they were voting for hope and for change. Many people voted Labour for the first time, and my majority increased from 465 two years ago to 12,148” she said. “They voted against a hard Brexit and against the ongoing austerity policies of the Government.

“Many people in my constituency work in London’s enormous finance and services sector. Many of my constituents are EU citizens, or are married to EU citizens, or work alongside EU citizens, or live near EU citizens, so they know directly and personally what leaving the single market will mean. They know that the single market is important to retain their jobs; to be assured that their employers can remain in London; to protect and build the UK economy; and to ensure that their EU spouses, neighbours and work colleagues have some security and the promise of a future. There is nothing in the Queen’s Speech that gives comfort on those issues”.

We need to end austerity

She went on to criticise continuing austerity, particularly its effects on young people and quoted my story of two weeks ago, also reported in the Economist, that young people in Brentford & Isleworth were ‘not part of the data set’ considered important by Conservative Party Central Office as potential supporters during the election campaign. She was also scathing about the Government’s commitment to mental health: “Now we know that ‘parity of esteem’ for mental and physical health actually means equality of austerity for all”.

“Many of my constituents told me that they wanted an end to austerity, because the NHS is going backwards, and there are still plans to cut major services at Charing Cross hospital. They can see how local services provided by Hounslow Council and the local voluntary sector have been devastated in the past seven years of cuts, so that Hounslow council has lost 40% of its income in that period.

“They see how cuts to community policing have decimated the neighbourhood police teams that make them feel safe in these challenging times.

“They have been denied adequate care services for themselves or for a loved one because of these cuts.

“People still working in the public sector want an end to austerity because after endless rounds of job cuts they are failing to do properly the work of the three or four posts that they are trying to cover.

“We need an end to austerity, which is a discredited ideology in all equivalent countries that not only decimates the public sector but exacerbates inequality and, incidentally, weakens the economy.

Nothing for young people

“During the election, young people told me that they wanted an end to tuition fees that are saddling them with massive debts at the start of their working lives. They also said they wanted an end to exploitative zero-hours contracts, which are usually the only jobs they can get for years, whether they are graduates or not. It is not surprising that there is nothing in the Queen’s Speech for young people, given that we know from an article in The Economist that Conservative party central office apparently told local campaigners in my constituency, and presumably most others, not to worry about seeking young people’s votes because ‘They are not on the data set’.

“Parents and sixth formers told me that they wanted their good and excellent schools to continue to thrive, so mention of fair funding in the Queen’s Speech gives them no comfort that the planned future cuts, entitled “fairer funding”, are not going to go ahead.

Nothing for people who need truly affordable housing

“Those on average and low incomes told me about their problems in trying to find a home that they could afford to rent, let alone buy. There is nothing in the Queen’s Speech for people who need truly affordable housing. Those living or walking near our busy roads told me that they want robust legislation that addresses our appalling air quality that is so damaging to their health and that of their children—nothing about that in the Queen’s Speech either.

Silence on Heathrow

“People who will live under the inevitable approach path to Heathrow’s runway 3 and those living under the approach paths to existing runways, where respite periods will be cut, are all hoping that runway 3 will not go ahead, but the Queen’s Speech was surprisingly silent on Heathrow.

Reliance on food banks increasing

“There is nothing for the escalating number of people forced to rely on food banks caused by the cuts to the housing allowance and by housing benefit cuts and sanctions. In the last year, the number of users at Hounslow Community Food Box has tripled as a result of the roll-out of universal credit by the Department for Work and Pensions across the borough of Hounslow. In my view, that is a legalised form of enforced destitution.

Hypocritical on mental health

Commenting on the Prime Minister’s commitment outlined in the speech to end the “burning injustice’ of the treatment of people with mental health conditions, Ms Cadbury lauded this as a worthy aim, but she went on to say that it is completely worthless if no additional funding is available in the NHS.

“It is hypocritical to promise specialist staff support in schools when this year, heads have had to cut welfare support, counselling services and teaching assistants—the very people who were providing essential support to troubled children in our schools but whose posts are currently being whittled away under the current funding cuts.

“Concern for mental health in the Queen’s Speech, and from the Prime Minister, is worse than useless given that we read that the Department for Work and Pensions has been forced to reveal today that 200,000 people with chronic mental health conditions are set to lose their employment support allowance.

“Now we know that “parity of esteem” for mental and physical health actually means equality of austerity for all.

“Although my constituents will be pleased that there is no further mention of means-testing winter fuel payments, of boosting fracking, of reviving foxhunting, of the ending of infants’ free school meals or of the roll-out of grammar schools, there is much that they would like to have seen. The Prime Minister said today that she has put fairness at the heart of the Government’s programme, but the Queen’s Speech has done nothing of the sort. Today, the pageantry was scaled down, and so was the Queen’s Speech. I now hope, for the sake of my constituents, that the five-year term of this Government is also scaled right back.”

Ruqa Huq, MP for Ealing Central and Acton, says ‘not in her wildest dreams’ did she expect to win with such a large majority (13,807 – up from 274 in the last election).

Talking to Bridget Osborne at the opening of this year’s Bedford Park Festival, she says ‘Theresa May’s power grab spectacularly backfired’ and she says the Prime Minister is now so desperate that she’s reliant on the DUP.

Also at Green Days was Ruth Cadbury, MP for Brentford & Isleworth, who attributes her majority of 12,182 to a variety of causes , including Labour’s manifesto for social justice and their ability to get out the youth vote as well as the Conservatives’ focus on Theresa May to the exclusion of local issues and the introduction of the ‘dementia tax’ in their manifesto.

Joe Bourke, Liberal Democrat candidate for Brentford & Isleworth maintains that the only solution is to vote Lib Dem on Thursday: “Perhaps your choice might be add one more MP to the government’s majority. An MP that has never voted against a Conservative party intent on forcing through the most economically damaging exit from the European Union conceivable; and a third runway at Heathrow that may well face legal challenges for years to come.”

“You may choose instead a labour MP at odds with the leadership of a Labour party that has proved to be an ineffective opposition for two years now? An MP that has failed to challenge a Labour dominated local council that simply ignores the views of residents clearly expressed in consultations; and rides roughshod over its own local area plan to ram though planning consents for wholly inappropriate developments.”

“Alternatively, you may wish to make your vote count for something by returning a Liberal Democrat that will stand up to both an arrogant Labour council and an increasingly dangerous and extreme Conservative government.”

Was ever a play more timely? Montagu, which runs until 17 June at the Tabard, is a play about political leadership performed during an election campaign almost entirely focused on the nature of political leadership. If you have any interest in politics and like satire, go and see it. It’s a treatise on the subject, as seen through the eyes of a herd of donkeys and is extremely apposite and very witty.

Playwright Greg Freeman had no idea there would be an election so soon when he wrote it. He told me it was his response to the Brexit vote and the election of Donald Trump. He’s fascinated with the way leadership appears to bestow such importance while at the same time entailing so little power.

Montague, the chief character, is played by Christien Anholt, seen most recently at the Tabard in Dog Ends. He starts the play as an unassuming donkey, merely interested in eating thistles and walking in circles. He’s almost allergic to the idea of taking any kind of public role or responsibility, but leadership is thrust upon him.

He takes to it with alarming speed and follows a trajectory from initial panic to ruthlessness and ultimately statesmanship, sidestepping the manipulative overtures of Cupcake and her ‘stalking donkey’ Shadow, seeking to use him to persuade the herd of her ‘vision’. This entails jumping off a cliff to the promised land she can see below – a Brexit allegory if ever there was one. If I weren’t already cynical about the political process, I think this play might do the trick.

‘Theatre that from concept to execution is utterly bonkers but quite brilliant’ – Timeout. ‘The theatre company excels itself with the premiere of its latest show, Montagu’ – Stage Review. It’s great to see the Tabard putting on such good theatre in our very own thistle patch. Watch our interview with Christien and a couple of clips from the play.