Yesterday was the occasion of the 'Queen's Speech' - the formal opening of Parliament, at which the Queen reads a speech (prepared by her government) outlining some of the legislative programme for the next parliamentary year. As one might expect, given the recent headlines from the head of MI5 and the Home Secretary, several of the proposed Bills originate in the Home Office and have to do with law and order and border control.
This was the present monarch's 54th state opening of parliament, but was mostly referred to as being 'Tony Blair's tenth and last' - he will have stepped down as Prime Minister before the next one.
According to the political commentators I've heard, Mr Blair put on a good performance - something which seemed to surprise some of them, given the substantial areas in which he could be open to criticism. One can draw several parallels with President Bush, in that Blair too is still struggling to put an acceptable political face on the intractable wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, is faced by an ever-narrowing police investigation into 'cash for honours' allegations, and is beset by speculation over the (in Blair's case) self-inflicted 'succession' question.
What that last point in mind, perhaps one of the strangest passages yesterday came in response to the conventional criticism of his speech by David Cameron, leader of the conservative opposition. That can't be an easy job, by the way: although some of the themes of the Queen's Speech are trailed in advance, the PM has a Cabinet Committee and a whole staff to work on the speech, and as much time as he cares to devote to doing so. The leader of the opposition can only rough out some general observations in advance, and then has to react 'on the fly' as the legislative programme is laid out.
At the end of his remarks on the Queen's Speech, Mr Blair likened Mr Cameron to a fly-weight boxer, and said that:
"The next election will be a flyweight versus a heavyweight. However much the right hon. Gentleman may dance around the ring beforehand, at some point, he will come within the reach of a big clunking fist, and ... he will be out on his feet, carried out of the ring..."
I'm sure there's something in his anti-social behaviour legislation which would make such incitement to violence an offence.
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