(Telegraph paywall ) A dressed-down Queen for a threadbare Queen’s Speech
Normally, the State Opening of Parliament is a dazzling festival of finery.
Not this one.
There were no horse-drawn carriages.
Empty spaces yawned on the peers’ back benches.
The Order of Procession was full of holes:
no Maltravers Herald Extraordinary, no Rouge Croix Pursuivant, no Gold Stick in Waiting.
.....
Traditionally at the State Opening, the Queen is a vision to which the TV cameras never do justice:
the Imperial State Crown, the 18ft Robe of the State, and a glittering galaxy of diamonds.
This time, she’d come in a blue overcoat. And instead of the crown, a blue floral hat. < EU hat ! >
......
The official explanation is that, as the election had been called so abruptly, the Palace decided it would be impossible to rehearse and perform the full ceremony so soon after Trooping the Colour.
In the circumstances, though, the air of perfunctoriness seemed somehow apt.
For the minority Government, a minimal State Opening.
A ceremonial going-through-the-motions, an ermine-clad shrug 
An anticlimax before it had even begun.
......
And if this State Opening was a damp squib, not to worry.
There’ll probably be another one soon enough
While the House of Lords waited in musty silence, Black Rod strode off to fetch the MPs.
Republican Labour veteran Dennis Skinner coughed out his traditional heckle.
“Get your skates on,” he rasped. “First race is half past two!”
Well, at least some things never change.
The Queen’s Speech itself – written on Her Majesty’s behalf, as always, by her Government – was a masterpiece of padding.
Almost every new policy in the Tory manifesto seemed to have been binned.
The Prime Minister had been reduced to filling time with some hot air about “strengthening the social, economic and cultural bonds” between the four nations of the UK.
If she ends up giving Northern Ireland as much cash as the DUP is supposedly holding out for, it’ll be interesting to see how that goes.