With the headline 'Which Queen? Which speech? Who Cares?'
Times columnist Daniel Finkelstein has, Smarta suspects, hit
the nail on the head.
And this one felt as though it was particularly inconsequential:
with a general election due to take place no later than June 3, few
of the Bills mentioned in the speech will ever make it before the
statute books.
"Their political foes will point out that laws as gestures or
aspirations - promising to halve the deficit, to halve child
poverty and to give every child a legal right to good schooling -
are worth little more than the paper they're written on," pointed out BBC
political editor Nick Robinson: the government's collective
imagination is geared more towards making sure The People hear what
they want to hear than bringing forward important and/or
controversial bills.
So what did she say? Not an awful lot which will have much
effect on small businesses - but then again, why mention business
when you can promise to halve the deficit or tackle gang crime?
Much more appealing to tabloid readers.
In her opening line, she said the government's 'overriding
priority is to ensure sustained growth to deliver a fair and
prosperous economy for families and businesses, as the British
economy recovers from the global economic downturn'.
"By the active creation of jobs, restructuring the financial
sector, strengthening the national infrastructure and providing
responsible investment, my government will foster growth and
employment."
About six months ago, 'small business' enjoyed a brief stint as
politics' most hotly-debated issue. In the House of Commons, David
Cameron and Gordon Brown battled it out over business rates, while
newspapers championed the causes of various entrepreneurs who were
struggling to get access to bank funding.
In the run-up to the general election, small businesses must not
be forgotten.
Today, though, Finkelstein's predictions were fairly accurate:
"This a day when everyone will get dressed up, the Queen will
speak, Gordon Brown will speak and David Cameron will speak.
Everyone will go home again and nothing of any political
significance will have happened."