INSTANT VIEW - Reaction to Labour's legislative agenda

LONDON (Reuters) - The Labour government, trailing in opinion polls ahead of an election next year, committed to halving a burgeoning budget deficit and said it would curb bankers' pay in draft laws unveiled on Wednesday.

Following are reactions to the programme:

BRITISH BANKERS' ASSOCIATION

"Banks have always said that pay packages should reward long term success and should not encourage undue risk taking. We have already signed up to remuneration rules with the Financial Services Authority and support moves by the G20 to co-ordinate international agreements, necessary to keep talent in the UK.

"while the sector welcomes reform, our concerns remain that moves to bind how our banks operate at home and overseas could put the industry at a serious disadvantage and discourage global banks from coming to the UK.

"This would be a major problem for jobs, the taxpayer and the wider economy as well as bad for business."

TOM BALE, SENIOR LECTURER IN POLITICS, UNIVERSITY OF SUSSEX

"I think these things are a kind of shop window but to be honest I don't think many people are in the market to buy Labour anyway.

"It's probably too late. If they were going to do this kind of thing it was something they would have to do when Brown first came in, they have left it a bit late to attract voters now I think they have made up their minds about Gordon Brown in particular and the Labour government as a whole.

"I suppose there might be some mileage in suggesting that the Conservatives won't sign up to legislation ... At the level of people who are interested in politics, that might resonate but for most ordinary people, that kind of game playing won't resonate at this late stage.

"The Conservatives have to be careful not to fall into the trap of opposing everything in the House of Lords ... They don't want to go into an election with Labour arguing that they are somehow using the unelected House of Lords to obstruct government policy."

ROBERT WORCESTER, FOUNDER OF POLLSTERS MORI

"There are sensible financial proposals in the Queen's Speech which will soften criticism from the financial press.

"The yah-boo response from the Tories will turn off the British public.

"The key thing is this promise to the elderly on staying in their own homes. This will capture the opinion of a naturally Tory audience which will be meaningful to them in the same that (former Conservative prime minister) Margaret Thatcher's sale of council houses (public-owned housing) did.

"The old folks have great power: they have four times the voting power of young people because there are twice as many of them and they are twice as likely to vote."

MARK SERWOTKA, HEAD OF THE PUBLIC AND COMMERCIAL SERVICES

UNION

"The Bill on halving the public deficit should not be seen as a green light to slash and privatise vital public services.

"Investment rather than cuts, combined with a drive to tackle over 100 billion pounds in uncollected, evaded and avoided tax is the best way to tackle the public deficit.

"Ordinary people should not be made to pay for a crisis caused by the casino capitalism of the City (of London financial district) and the banks."

WYN GRANT, POLITICS PROFESSOR, UNIVERSITY OF WARWICK:

"Obviously a lot of these bills are not going to go into law so its real purpose is political, to try and set out some kind of programme and to try and set traps for the Conservatives when they try and knock back particular pieces of legislation.

"The fiscal responsibility bill has promised to halve the deficit with in a given period and the Conservative counter-attack on that will be that it's insufficient, you need to more than halve the deficit.

"I guess they (Labour) would put quite a lot of emphasis on the social care bill ... the problem is how you are going to fund that in the context of a fiscal crisis.

"I don't see anything that poses and real major problems for the Conservatives...

"I would be very surprised if it had any affect on the voters. The one possible area of controversy is the equality bill (on gender pay differences)."

MALCOLM BARR, UK ECONOMIST, J.P. MORGAN

"I am sceptical of the government's commitment to halve the deficit over four years. Passing a law saying you are going to do something without saying how you are going to do it is just tokenism.

"Unfortunately we are in an environment where such rules are not much of a constraint. The government's intention to reduce the deficit would be better demonstrated in the Budget or pre-budget report."

DAVID NORMAN, UK DIRECTOR OF CAMPAIGNS AT WWF

"Our main concern with this (Energy) Bill is that it does nothing to prevent new large coal plants being built with only a small fraction of their emissions being captured.

"Without a guarantee of a legally-binding policy which limits CO2 emissions, the Bill gives the energy companies too much carrot and no stick. It must go further and include an Emissions Performance Standard."

DAVID PAGE, UK ECONOMIST, INVESTEC

"It came in very much as we had expected, not too many surprises here. All of this is stuff that we'd been led to believe would be in here."

TONY TRAVERS -- LONDON SCHOOL OF ECONOMICS

"I think the government knows there's not much it can do at this late stage.

"As both the Liberal Democrats and the Conservatives have observed this is a draft Labour manifesto and I think there's some truth in that unkind observation.

"It does signal that the government is trying to restore its economic lustre and its reputation.

"It's an attempt to convince the electorate and indeed the markets that a returned Labour government would get the deficit down and that it would be tough on bankers and ... to suggest Labour will not go for a cuts first policy.

"It's definitely an attempt to signal fiscal rectitude on one hand, second to rein in the bankers and thirdly to position Labour as the party that's still progressive on public expenditure."

ANDREW HAWKINS, CHIEF EXECUTIVE OF POLLSTERS COMRES "What the government needed to do was to give a sense to the electorate that they have not run out of ideas and that they can deliver what the public really wants.

"I can't see what itch the public have got that the Queen's speech scratches. The financial services and all that kind of stuff is all well and good, but it goes over the heads of the public. What they are more concerned about are the bigger issues where the government's escape routes are rapidly running out.

"I am very sceptical. Most of today's events will go over the heads of anyone who wasn't actually in SW1 (parliament's postal area) and got caught in the traffic jam."

(Reporting by Peter Griffiths, Michael Holden and David Milliken)