The motherhood-and-apple pie Queen’s Speech

There are three main aims for today’s Queen’s Speech in the mind’s eyes of the two Coalition parties. The first is not to rock the boat at all, introducing pro-nice and anti-bad policies on motherhood, apple pie, childcare, ‘heroism’ and growth. In their joint statement on the Speech, which you can read below, David Cameron and Nick Clegg describe it as ‘unashamedly pro-work, pro-business and pro-aspiration’. Cabinet ministers with bills that are ready to go, quite important but likely to cause a fuss have been told to keep them in their drawers for the next year at least, while strategists cast around for other non-controversial ideas from MPs and aides.

The second is to counter claims that this is a ‘zombie parliament’ with enough servings of apple pie to distract Labour from arguing that the Coalition has run out of road.