Gawd Bless Yer Ma'am
LIVE! Queen's Speech, 6/11/07
Well done Her Majesty! Didn't she read the list of legislation beautifully?
Amongst everything else there will be legislation on the EU Reform Treaty, a Bill to keep da yoof in education, various stuff on climate change, reforms of the criminal justice system, a new Homes and Communities Agency is going to be established ... and new anti-terror measures are to be introduced.
If you want to know what The People think of the performance and the sentiments behind it, may we respectfully request you take your blood pressure pills and head over here.
11.15AM: Her Majesty has just arrived at Sovereign's Entrance and - with a large number of men wearing stockings and carrying big gold sticks bringing up the rear - disappears into the Robing Room. Heh, it's a bit like a slightly posh fetish party. Were Harriet's Elbows in the entourage?
11.17AM: Maggie alert! Blimey, Westmonster doesn't care what anybody says: that woman has a gaze that can cut through bank vaults. The Lords' Chamber's absolutely packed with celebrities (politically speaking) and judging from the Vistors' Gallery, the Sloane Square hat shops have done very well this week.
11:22AM: Big Tent spotting whilst we wait for the Queen to slip into something more comfortable, anyone? So far: Lord Malloch-Brown.
11:23AM: Here comes the Speaker and lots of blokes with more big shiny sticks, heading towards the House of Commons. The House, ladies and gentlemen, is now sitting.
11:26AM: Her Maj enters from the Robing Room and heads through the portrait gallery in the direction of the Lords. Oooh, Westmonster does like her hat - wonder where she got it?
11.29AM: As the Queen parks her backside on the throne (God bless yer, ma'am), Black Rod gets the signal to go and bang on the door. Blimey, he did that with some ferocity, didn't he?
11:30AM: Dennis Skinner mutters, "who shot the harriers?" in the direction of Black Rod who grins slightly.
11:31AM: The Gord is making small talk with Cameron! Well done son. David Cameron can't seem to get a word in edgeways and neither of them can make eye contact with each other. Still, it's all progress. Meanwhile, Miliband the Younger and wee Willie Hague seem to be chatting quite aimiably.
11:33AM: Heh. The Boy George Osborne, Davy, and Miliband the Younger are all standing next to each other at the far end of the Lords' giving a sense of the school outing to the proceedings
11:34AM: Jack Straw, looking HOT in his big dress does his kneeling thing and Her Maj is finally off. Whew!
11:35AM: She starts off with a quick nod to new provisions to increase national security (ruh roh!) and we're onto housing and then education.
11:37AM: A new Bill on housing which will make planning new developments easier and more transparent, and there's something on "personalisation of the NHS," as the euphemism goes.
11.39AM: A smile from the Gord as the Queen starts shaking down her green credentials on his behalf. We're going to get a legally binding framework for reducing carbon emissions and better pension rights for employees.
11:40AM: A commitment to protecting citizens' rights and liberties (trans: introduce some piece of legislation that's really going to work up Shami Chakrabarti), introduce a party funding Bill, and also be nice and open and fluffy about the way we do it. Oh yes, EU Treaty. We're doing that as well.
11:42AM: The words "Iran" and "nuclear" have been uttered with a commitment to working with our American cousins, the G8, and the UN on various matters. Good stuff.
11:44AM: Blink and you'll miss it; that's it folks. The Beeb's got a more comprehensive summary here.
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2 Comments
Getting an error message at the People's comment page in Beebland. Did someone say something non-pinko?
Hmmm, that link really doesn't work, does it?
Thems evil pinko commies at the Beeb have probably received word from the Gord that the brave views of the commentators are not winning approval in the Brown bunker.
Yes. That'll be it.