Would a new law narrow the gap between rich and poor?

Parliament may not be sitting (the 2012/13 session was prorogued last week amid traditional pomp and Norman French) but that doesn't mean politicians are off sunning themselves in faraway places.

Next week, the Queen will open the new session of Parliament with a speech setting out the UK government's programme of new laws for the coming parliamentary year.

Labour leader Ed Miliband unveiled his alternative Queen's Speech earlier this week. Today, Plaid Cymru have unveiled their version, with Carmarthen East and Dinefwr MP Jonathan Edwards going beyond the party's traditional focus on constitutional change.

Mr Edwards proposes an "economic fairness bill" that would "rebalance the economy away from a concentration of wealth in London and the South East" . As he puts it, it would "make the British state work in Welsh interests". The inspiration comes from Germany's experience after re-unification in 1990.

The new law would, he says, "introduce a legal duty on the government that macro-economic policy be geared towards a levelling up of wealth per head - which would make for a much fairer economy in terms of prosperity and opportunity. Under both Conservative and Labour UK governments, wealth has polarised incredibly both at an individual level and a regional level.

"Inner London is the richest part of the European Union whilst Welsh communities have been overtaken by former communist countries. Other parts of the state such as northern England also find themselves in a similar predicament to Wales.

"This is what happens when another country has control over your major economic policy levers."

He added: "Whilst Wales remains within the UK, the state must be made to work for our benefit, and help ensure that we are a modern and prosperous nation. The question to our opponents in the London parties is why do they all support a core economic policy which looks after a privileged few in a concentrated area surrounding the banks of the Thames?"

It's an interesting idea, but even within "the richest part of the European Union" there are great inequalities. According to the End Child Poverty campaign, six of the 20 local authority areas with the highest proportions of poor families are in, you've guessed it, London.

No Welsh local authority appears in that top 20 league table. Even in the borough of Westminster, on the banks of the Thames, 30 per cent of children are growing up in poverty.

Take an Underground train a few stops from the borough of Westminster, and life expectancy drops by 12 years. For all the oligarchs and bankers making their home in London, not all the streets are paved with gold: there are areas of the city where life expectancy is below the Welsh average.

Mr Edwards acknowledges that both individual and "regional inequalities" need to be tackled. It's a growing challenge for politicians everywhere.