Law and order – not Brexit – feature in Queen’s Speech
TODAY in Parliament (Monday) we had the Queen’s Speech. But not just the usual Queen’s speech. This one was supposed to be a programme of work for the government for the next year or so. But we all know that there’s an election (or even a Referendum) on the way.
So, you must take Queen Elizabeth’s words with a very large shovel full of salt. It was more like a party-political election broadcast anyway and we all know how popular those usually are. (‘Can you turn the channel dear, I want to hear what Monster Raving Loony Party has to say.’ More like ‘Can you switch that thing off’.)
The content this time was finely tuned for tomorrow’s headlines, with law and order in big block capital letters.
Now every Queen’s Speech is political. After all they are written by the party in government. Queen Elizabeth only gets to read the stuff out. But still….
Only once did I follow the gaggle of MPs through to the House of Lords to hear the Gracious Address. It was towards the end of Tony Blair’s time. By then he had run out of steam and out of serious ideas (other than about wanting to stay in power). Queen Elizabeth didn’t give the game away that time either. But anyone in the Chamber could feel her embarrassment at having to spout a list of half-baked slogans cobbled together from the latest opinion polls.
I seem to remember something about getting the police to dish out £50 on the spot fines to drunken hooligans. Otherwise force said hooligans to march up to a cash machine and draw out the dosh. (How many drunken hooligans of your acquaintance carry £50 in readies or have a handy cash card with £50 in credit). That brilliant wheeze died as soon as Her Majesty left the premises. (But Blair did get the headline).
This time it’s locking up evil foreign offenders for extra-long sentences. (For criminal activity mind, not just for being foreigners). Then there’s all those extra policemen. 20,000 of them – to replace 20,000 that Mr Cameron (remember him?) and Mrs May cut in the first place.
The big elephant in the Chamber whose name no one dare speak (and I’ve kept it to the last paragraph) is ‘Brexit’. But there’s plenty more of that to come – given that we haven’t had quite enough of it already.