A plotline has emerged and it's not the one I - or anyone else I suspect - could have predicted.
Forget the pomp and ceremony... forget the list of Bills to come... forget the curtain call for Tony Blair. The PM had a different script in mind - tearing David Cameron apart. And you know what? He made a pretty good fist of it - an appropriate metaphor for a speech that ended with Tony Blair predicting that the next election would be a contest between a flyweight and a heavyweight. David Cameron could, he went on, dance around the ring all he liked but sometime he'd come within reach of a big clinking fist and then would find himself out on his feet carried from the ring.
Before that, he'd derided his indecision on whether to replace nuclear power stations, mocked the idea that hope was built on talking about sunshine and jibed that Cameron had never taken a tough decision in his life.
In cold print it may read like a trivial or an unduly personal attack but, believe you me, you wouldn't have said that if you'd been ringside. Parliamentary knock-about makes and breaks reputations. David Cameron's took a knocking today and the words of Tony Blair will be echoing in his head - "I may be going out but, on that performance, he's not coming in". Resuming his seat he was virtually hugged by a grinning Gordon Brown.
Downing Street aides were delighted. One told me it reminded him of Margaret Thatcher's swansong when she declared "I'm enjoying this". Hold on a second, though. I thought Tony Blair was planning to stay till next Summer. Wasn't he?!
, I can reveal what David Cameron said to Tony Blair on their way from the Commons to the Lords.
The arch anti-Monarchist Dennis Skinner had just heckled Black Rod and suggested that Helen Mirren should read the speech. The Tory leader asked the PM if he'd seen "" - in which he's portrayed rather sympathetically.
The answer, by the way, was "No".
Arriving at the state opening of Parliament this morning I felt like I was walking onto the set of a movie. As I rushed through Black Rod's entrance (yes, he does have his own) I bumped into a group of beefeaters waiting for their walk on role. In a corridor I almost impaled myself on the sword of one of the horseguards. Ladies in evening wear jostled with judges in wigs and their lordships in ermine.
It was colourful, it was enjoyable, but I'm still struggling to work out the plot.
The plotline dreamt up by the the Downing Street spindoctors is "security in a changing world" - not just security from bad people whether noisy neighbours or troublesome terrorists but from climate change and pensioner poverty too. It's a neat enough formulation but like all Queen's Speeches I suspect it won't last terribly long. You see the wordsmiths at Number Ten don't actually control what goes into the Queen's Speech. The content, as always, actually stems from a curious mix of:
• Mere chance - "Department A has finally got its plans ready for a new bill"
• Buggins turn - "We turned down Minister B last year and we can't do it again"
• Inter-departmental rivalry - "No-one will take us seriously if we don't have something in the Queen's Speech"
• Party Politics - "Let's make Cameron and Campbell look soft by by forcing another vote on ID cards"
Oh yes, and then there's what the Cabinet decides is in the country's interests. Oddly, after all the build up, this does not include - for now, at least, a terrorism bill. Not mentioned too are the two major issues that will shape the politics of the next year. You may have tired of hearing it but these are - who comes next as prime minister, and when and how we get out of Iraq.
Pause before writing to complain that I am ignoring things of real significance. I am not. The Pensions Bill - linking the state pension to earnings and setting up a form of compulsorily saving - will affect millions of us. The Climate Change Bill - the details of which still have to be hammered out within government let alone in Parliament - will matter hugely too. Significant too will be a bill that will only appear in draft but which may allow the widespread introduction of road pricing.
The next year in politics will - like today's pomp - be colourful and dramatic. Its storyline though has still to be written.
