THE QUEEN'S SPEECH

I'm a little late in having my two pen'worth on this for which apologies - the pressures of work have seen me otherwise engaged.

So, in the event, Jack Straw (as putative Lord Chancellor) handed the speech to Her Majesty (see previous post here) whilst the previous incumbent, Cheeky Charlie, was mouthing off from the side-lines in a impishly - and, one assumes, unintentionally - amusing way (as reported by the BBC, something about "pyjamas"). Ho-hum - it could be interesting to try to find out how their Lordships feel about having their Chamber effectively 'invaded' by a mere Commoner? And, I wonder, does Spring-Heels Jack deem this the crowning apogee of his political career - or perhaps a foretaste of his rightful future inheritance (i.e. elevation in due course)?

As to the Speech itself and the legislative programme that it foreshadows, it is difficult to escape the conclusion that it is tired stuff. For sure, the adjective "visionary" cannot be deployed. At a guess this was never the intention. Rather the strategic plan back in July when the whole thing was pre-trailed would have been that the public mood would favour a 'steady-as-she-goes' message, a reinforcement of Gordon's (assumed) competence in office post-Bliar. Unfortunately both the 'bottled' election and the Northern Rock crisis have intervened, along with a bunch of other stuff. So the intended underlying narrative of the occasion - so important to political parties in this day and age - has failed to gel with people's perceptions of the reality of the situation (viz: the serial incompetence displayed recently over the number of immigrants in work, &c). In consequence, if anything, the State Opening could well have left the Great Bottler even more on the back foot. Time will tell.

There's one other interesting sidebar that stems from the occasion. The PM has made much of his desire to signal a material change between himself and Bliar by attempting to ensure that Parliament and its debates matter more to the eventual outcome of policy. The beacon here is of course the (wholly politically-motivated - i.e. in the hope the Conservatives implode over the issue) decision to devote massive parliamentary time to the European Constitution (whoops!) Reform Treaty. But there are also the potentially huge debates surrounding the number of days for detention and abortion. It seems to me that, in both these areas (and to a lesser extent, the EU issue as well), the Great Bottler and the Cabinet, by not articulating the outcomes they would prefer to see, are running a very real risk of reinforcing the impression of indecisiveness. Certainly Jacqui Smith's vacuous comments to date on the former fit that sort of scenario. Again time will tell.

However, reading between the lines, the legislative programme is unlikely to do anything much to break GB and New Labour out of the becalmed political waters in which they find themselves or to assist them to regain any kind of political initiative. They're not sunk yet but they do seem to be drifting.