Good morning. Wow, the Queen’s speech is weird, isn’t it? Black Rod! An MP who gets taken hostage at Buckingham Palace (sort of)! Boris Johnson and Keir Starmer making polite small talk and pretending they aren’t trying to destroy each other’s careers!
The actual content of the speech – which sets out the government’s legislative programme for the next parliamentary session – was also pretty surreal: Prince Charles, standing in for his mother, began by saying that the government’s priority was “to grow and strengthen the economy and help ease the cost of living for families”. He then gave an 874-word speech that had almost nothing to say about either of those things, but plenty on “street votes” to stop your neighbour’s extension and disrupting environmental protests.
