Boris and the Giant Queen’s Speech

Inside Briefing with the Institute for Government

Institute for Government

News, Politics, Government

4.6 • 252 Ratings

🗓️ 13 May 2022

⏱️ 34 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

A Queen’s Speech without a Queen, but was it a Queen’s Speech without a theme? The Guardian’s Rafael Behr joins the podcast team to dissect Prince Charles’ big day – and make sense of the whopping list of 38 bills unveiled by the government. And just what could Keir Starmer and Boris Johnson have been talking about as they strolled awkwardly together through Parliament to hear the Speech? As the partygate and beergate sagas continue to unfold, which leader is in the most difficulty and what happens next? Presented by Bronwen Maddox, with Alice Lilly and Alex Thomas. Produced by Candice McKenzie Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	Hello and welcome to Inside Briefing, the podcast from the Institute for Government.
0:14.4	I'm Bronwyn Maddox.
0:15.9	Queen's speech without a queen.
0:17.9	But was it a queen's speech without a theme?
0:20.2	We're going to be cutting through all that
0:21.3	pageantry to find out what the government's long list of bills, and it really was a long list,
0:26.0	tells us about what Boris Johnson wants to achieve and whether he can succeed. Then we'll turn
0:31.4	from legislation to the law, or the rules at least. Sir Keir Starmer has now joined the Prime Minister
0:36.6	in waiting on the findings of the police.
0:38.9	How big a problem could that be for the Labour leader?
0:41.9	Well, joining me throughout today's podcast, two IFGers who've been following the whole thing,
0:46.6	know every ritual of the big day.
0:48.7	For a start, senior researcher, Alice Lilly. Hi, Alice.
0:51.8	Hi, Brumwin. Thanks for being with us.
0:58.3	And we got, as well, IFG Program Director Alex Thomas. Hi, Alice. Hi, Brunwin. Thanks for being with us. And we got as well, IFG Programme Director Alex Thomas. Hi, Alex. Hello, Bromwin.
1:32.0	Very good to have you here. And I'm delighted to say that we've got as well, the Guardian columnist and leader writer Raphael Bear. Hi, Raff. And thank you for having me on the podcast. Thank you very, very much for joining us. I very much enjoyed your column this week, which we're going to come on to. Let's begin with a Tuesday's big show. So in the tradition, doors are slammed, crowns are carried in, bills have read out, and it's one of the centrepieces of our constitution. It's a theatrical site of the kind the world expects of Britain, but it's also the moment where a government tells the nation what its priorities are going to be in legislation. That's in theory. So Alice, let's just begin with the basics.
1:39.4	Why does the monarch read out the government's views?
1:43.1	Well, it's really a reminder, I suppose, that actually
1:46.3	there are different parts of our constitution. We have Parliament and we have the House of Commons and
1:51.6	House of Lords, and then we have the sovereign, we have the monarch. And it is, of course,
1:56.0	Her Majesty's government that, you know, is responsible for making policy and drawing up legislation in this country.
2:03.4	So really the Queen's Speech acts as this big moment where all the parts of our Constitution
	...

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