'In normal times, and don't they seem a very long time ago?'

'In normal times, and don't they seem a very long time ago, all our would have been focussed on today's Queen Speech.. '

Mishal Husain on BBC Radio 4's Today programme just now.

Apart from Brexit, as the Government has a majority in the House of Commons of minus 40 the proposals in the Most Gracious Speech stand absolutely no chance of being enacted before an election. Her Majesty is therefore reading out the Tory election manifesto. I am a bit surprised that she is reading it herself. Queen Victoria was the first monarch to do so regularly and it was part of her reinvention of the monarchy.

When Harold Wilson came to power in 1964, Private Eye put the monarch, reading her speech, on its cover with the speech bubble: “And I hope you realise I didn’t write this crap” but this is the case every year.