The State Opening of Parliament


Today, I found myself standing by the exit into the aye lobby for the state opening of Parliament. The text of the Queen’s Speech, for which I was lucky to be able to enter the House of Lords, may be found here:

The Queen, seated on the Throne and attended by Her Officers of State, commanded that the Yeoman Usher should let the Commons know that it was Her Majesty’s pleasure that they attend Her immediately in this House.

When they had come with their Speaker, Her Majesty was pleased to speak as follows:

“My Lords and Members of the House of Commons, my Government’s legislative programme will be based upon the principles of freedom, fairness and responsibility.

The first priority is to reduce the deficit and restore economic growth.

Read more.

Afterwards, I was delighted to discover my office allocation: windowless, but not shared, for which I am grateful. Now looking forward to the debate on the Speech and beginning the real business of fixing the nation’s finances, getting the economy going, reforming public services, encouraging individual and social responsibility, reforming Parliament, restoring trust to politics and, finally for the moment, restoring freedoms and civil liberties.

We can say this for Labour: they have not made our task boring.

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