Britain's Queen Elizabeth II delivers her speech in the House of Lords, 18 Nov 2009In time-honored tradition; pageantry, pomp and ceremony were on displayas Britain's Queen Elizabeth delivered a speech opening the finalsession of parliament before the next general election. The speech -written by the Brown government - outlines the upcoming legislativeagenda, but with an election on the horizon few of the bills will everbecome law.
 
The official opening of a new parliamentarysession in Britain is a time honored tradition. And the center ofattention is the head of state, the queen who reads out the legislativeagenda of the government of the day. Importantly, it is written by thegovernment and in this case, Prime Minister Gordon Brown placed hiseconomic recovery efforts at the heart of the speech.

"Throughactive employment and training programs, restructuring the financialsector, strengthening the national infrastructure and providingresponsible investment, my government will foster growth andemployment," she said.

The queen also read that the governmentwill try to rein in bonuses in the banking world, which has beenpropped up by British taxpayers' money. Ironically, that sector sawregulations loosened when the current prime minister was treasurysecretary.

"Legislation will be brought forward to enhance thegovernance of the financial sector and to control the system ofawards. As the economic recovery is established, my government willreduce the budget deficit and ensure that national debt is on asustainable path. Legislation will be brought forward to halve thedeficit," she said.

But for opposition party politicians, the words ring hollow with an election that must be held within the next six months.

OppositionLiberal-Democrat Party treasury spokesman Vince Cable says solving thecountry's economic woes does not require new legislation.

"Ofcourse there has to be fiscal responsibility dealing with the budgetdeficit, but that is very much up to the government and indeed theopposition parties to suggest how economies are going to be made andfor parliament to be involved in scrutiny. We do not need newlegislation for that," he said.

The leader of the mainopposition Conservative Party, David Cameron, says the list oflegislative initiatives is an attempt to try to save the governingLabor Party.

"This Queen's Speech is not about the good of thecountry ... It is a whole lot of bills just legislating some intent,but not actually doing anything and I think that is what is such awaste of time today," he said.

Many of the items will never bepassed by the time the election is called, and if the polls do notchange dramatically in the coming months it appears that Britain isprepared for some sweeping political change.