Today's entry reflects on the Queen's Speech.
Yesterday, the Queen gave her first speech of the 2017 to er, of
the current Parliament. This is the first 'session' (ie
period between Queen's Speeches) of the 57th
'Parliament' (ie period between general elections) since
1801. You will see from any printed bills that it says
'57/1′ in the bottom right hand corner in recognition of
this.
Unusually, there is to be no Queen's Speech next year and
this session is to last two years, officially because legislating
for Brexit will take that long. Thus the listed bills could appear
at any time during that period.
Speculation on whether the Queen's hat was deliberately similar
to the EU flag or not may have masked some of the proposals
contained in her speech so read on for a summary. 22 bills and
three draft bills were alluded to. The text of the speech, preceded
by a foreword from the prime minister, plus a full list of bills
and a briefing can be found here. If you want
