THE most-discussed aspect of the Queen’s Speech in Parliament yesterday was the fainting of an over-dressed 12-year-old viscount. Treat that as indicative. Of all the moth-eaten bits of pseudo-constitutional nonsense that pass for landmarks of the parliamentary calendar, the monarch’s address at the start of a new legislative session is the biggest waste of time. The pointlessly traditional artifice, the gaudy distractions, the lack of substance—why do Britons put up with it all? Why, for that matter, should they be surprised if foreigners see the country as a quaintly Downton Abbey-fied backwater rather than the dynamic, modern society that it would prefer to be treated as? Not only is the Queens Speech an international embarrassment, it is not even useful to the government of the day: it forces ministers to come up with things to announce regardless of whether they want or need to do so (a much-heralded new regulation on plastic bags in yesterdays speech indicates the depths that must be plumbed). It is a total waste of time and resources, grumbles one senior adviser. Matthew Thomas, Kenyatta Powell, Shane McCarthy
Posted on: Thu, 05 Jun 2014 19:35:54 +0000
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