Boris Johnson’s Queen’s speech wish list of legislation has some big omissions and dubious inclusions
First came Charles and Camilla, followed a short while later in a black Range Rover by the Queen and her lady-in-waiting. This may have been a pared-back state opening of parliament for these Covid times – no posh frocks from the dressing-up box and tiaras from Claire’s accessories for the women in the Lords and just a handful of MPs in the Commons – but there were standards to maintain. For the crown if nothing else. That had arrived on its own in a chauffeur-driven limo. Part of its own levelling-up agenda no doubt.
This was the Queen’s first ceremonial public engagement since the death of Prince Philip, and she remains a class, deadpan act. It’s not everyone who could read out a list of Boris Johnson’s promises and give nothing away on the likelihood of at least half of them being broken. It took quite some doing not to even raise an eyebrow at some of the proposed legislation. Or at what was missing.
