The Queen’s Speech today

Pomp and

Her Majesty will be reading out the Government’s programme for the next 12 months with no real expectation on the part of her ministers that any of the proferred legislation will be enacted.

When the Queen says today that “my Government will” introduce this statute or amend that law, everyone will know the chances of it doing so are vanishingly small.

Amid all the defections and suspensions of Conservative MPs, Boris Johnson is at least 40 votes short of a majority and could well lose the main division on the Queen’s Speech, the first prime minister to do so in almost 100 years.

But the reality behind today’s announcements is that, until there is a general election, a new Parliament and a conclusion to Brexit, the current political paralysis will continue!