Good morning. Not long to go before the queen arrives here in that traditional carriage procession the start of a new procession of parliament but the new we know is 11 months so theres hardly any time to start an ambitious new program of legislation. Having said that there are some interesting and significant items in the list of bills were expecting today and we will be talking about those in due course. We also put the thing in the wider political context following the recent local and european elections which saw the rise raising new questions for other party leaders. Plenty for David Cameron about. He left number 10 about a half hour ago. It is of course the Coalitions Program of government being announced today. The other bit of the coalition as the deputy Prime Minister also left within the last 45 minutes or so on his way to the houses of parliament. No words from them yet but we have had some word from labe ours ed millband. We heard of the election the depth of discontent there is within way the countrys run and we need a queens speech which rises to that challenge. So labor queens speech will be making hard changes, freezing energy bills meeting the big challenges our country faces. Just a flavor of the debate that well get on the queens speech in a short while. So this is where the queen arrives just behind us here, 45 minutes time and when the queen arrives it will be in a brand new coach today. It is called the Diamond Jubilee state coach built in australia, completed in 2010, not delivered until march of this year. All the little plaques and names show you this is kind of a mobile showcase of british tradition and history going back nearly a thousand years. Well have more to say about that later on. But continuing in that tradition talking about the pagentry today not just the politics in the house of lords. Guests have already started to arrive for the biggest event in the parliamentary calendar. No peer allowed unless he or she is wearing the appropriate parliamentary robe. Some new faces today. Well have a little look because we have barren es lawrence within the past year danny there the wellknown column nist and journalist who took his seat in the last year. Some people reminding us maybe of a different age. There we have lord how who is chancellor and next to him barren nest how. And maybe a little more recent but still feels like quite a long time ago now we have a former chancer lord lamont who served under john major barren es party there sitting next. All waiting to the queens speech around 11 30. The speech to be delivered from this spectacular guilded throne in the house of lords. The queens throne in the left, a smaller wunt on the righthand side. Later the queen will summon members of the house of commons to this chamber to the house of lords to listen to the speech and then of course unveiling the governments legislative program for the procession. Plenty of color, ceremony, tradition. And the delivery of the monarchs speech traced back to the 16th century though this current ceremony is based from 1854 ampt the palace was rebuilt after the fire of 1834. Power, plenty of display, plenty of politics to today to talk about. Let me introduce my first guest the first lord speaker presiding officer of the house of lords created back in 2006. Thank you very much for coming in. Matthew is with us of the times. In the distant past conservative mp but talking today as commentator. And as always on these days my colleague the bbcs political editor. Just a thought here. Lots of people thought we wouldnt get to this point. They didnt think we would last until the year 2014 but here we are. I sat in this chair in this sort of studio bubble here on the date after the general election before the coalition was formed it was being talked about people said well have an election in months whatever arrangement there is, whoever does the deal it wont last. I think i said i dont want to say i told you so but i think i said i thought it would and it has and it will and youre right. A lot of what this speech is about is David Cameron and nick cleg saying we told you so. And for those who said we dont have anything to do just counting the days until the next general election we have meaty bills about reform of pensions. And not just the annuities part we heard from a few months ago budget but also this idea of dutchstyle collected pensions. Basically the message is were busy, active, keeping going. Im just wondering, when you were in the position of lord speaker getting ready for these processions, nearly 2211 in the morning a few years ago what were you doing . Getting dressed because getting dressed took some time with the amount of gear you had to wear. And what i found was that the rehearsal the night before wasnt like real life. Because you could trick over or laugh or you didnt actually wear the robes and the robes are enormously heavy. And i was always just terrified of the steps that go down there, of tripping over and the whole of the household cavelry having to pick me up. And more comment tating about it. We might could be we would have worried about you but we would have enjoyed it. Well, i hope i put the correct face on it. Because one was very conscious of being part of something that had a long history. Although i thought, i have to say that my policy was made up by the lord chamber two days before the opening because there had never been a lord speaker before and they had to deal with how this differentiated from the lord chancellor. We caught a glimpse there. Of course he play as key role today. As we look at these images its all about pagentry and tradition. Is the politics being undersold because theyre so close to an election . In a sense the politics is being oversold. There isnt much politics here except for the runup to the general election there isnt going to be anything of any political or policy interest or nothing much in the queens speech. We just have a very long runup to a general election ahead of us. And this is all about positioning and jockeying and getting one over the other side. And so youll see things put into the queens speech that are basically just sort of one up on you or one up on you, one up on you. The pagentry is all actually. We should just enjoy the pagentry. Found difficulty getting here and ended up in a whole crowd of beef eters already to do what beef eaters do. One of the more experiences of my life. Well see them. Thank you very much. Very briefly. What sometimes people look at though is this is part kind of Office Christmas party, part school pride day, part great tradition. People wait all year to bring their husband or their wife or their partner to celebrate their involvement in the houses of parliament. Ive been for the past few days, the carpet repainting the walls. Its a big occasion. Its a good moment to get our bearings. The chamber is packed there now. Lets get our bearings within the palace. We understand whats happening when the queen arrives. Shell be entering in the sovereigns entrance. The tower which contains all the parliamentary archives, thankfully the rain is holding off because it looked grim this morning but is looking a little better in terms of the weather. From there her majesty will make her way up the stair case into the robing room itself. Theres the stair case. Very soon well see members of the house of cavelry forming a guard of honor there. And then as we come up the stair caste the gentlemen is armed ready to take their place. The doors behind is where the robing room is. That is where the queen will dress in those parliamentary robes and where the imperial state crown before the procession in state. Because once theyre in the robing room there will be a few minutes to get ready. And then they will emerge in this magnificent room, the royal gallery. So accompanied by the duke of edinborough, they will go past all these guests drawn from diplomatic and military circle, and then they will head along this gallery to the chamber of the house of lords but theyll lead apast the rooms well see in the distance there. That is the Princess Chamber. That is exactly above the place where put in november of 1605. So they go through and then into the splendid chamber of the house of lords. The creation of course back in 1847. That is where the queen will take her place on the throne. She will give her signal to summon the house of comeance to signal the speech. And exactly halfway between the lords and the commons is the central lobby. Thats the heart of the building. And my colleague is there. Thats right. The queen of Course Center stage over in the house of lords. But theer through the Commons Chamber is where mps assert their authority. The first procession through here today will be the speaker of the commons announced along the way by policed officers. And then that cry of hats off strangers telling members of the public here to stop df their hats in deference. And then the ancient procession, the man known as blacklords who will go straight up to the door of the Commons Chambers. It will be slammed in his face. He then has to knock three times with the ebony stick to be allowed to go in. And then he sumance mps to go to the lords to hear the queens speech. Watch out for a couple rebellious members of the commons who always refuse to gofment thank you very much. Well be back in a short while talking about the tradition. Black rods procession isnt the only tradition rooted in history. Theres an interesting story, one member of the house of commons never gets to hear the queen deliver the speech in a ceremony that dates back to the 300 years in the civil war when one becomes the queens hostage and the mp jim fits patrick explains the history and list tons a few secrets of the time that he was detained at her majestys pleasure. Every time the sovereign comes to parliament to perform the state opening we have to send the hostage to Buckingham Palace just like today to ensure that the monarch is safely returned because if they dont go back, they have one of ours. With the tradition of the hostage comes from the execution of the monarch at the end of the civil war. And this depicts the staff of the civil war almost. This is the king arriving at parliament to arrest five mps. Hes been told theyre undermanning his authority. So the end of the civil war after the defeats of the royalists, charles was put on trial for treason. He was put on trial on this step in 1649. He was charged with treason found guilty and the next morning taken out and excuted in white hall. And as a result of that execution, the Royal Household demands a hostage every time the monarch comes to perform the state opening of parliament. And if anything happens to the monarch the same fate will befall one of our senior colleagues. We have driven by government car. We are outfitted with top hat, tails, and the striped trousers. When i was there he made it absolutely clear i could do whatever i wanted in Bucking Ham Palace, i could have a gin and tonic or join him and his was to watch on bbc, which is what i did with him. And we waited for her majestys return. They dont actually lock me up. But they made it quite clear that i wasnt going anywhere. When i expressed my arninge site to the heads of the armed forces he reassured that if anything happened to her majesty we will make it quick and just shot you. I dont think he was kidding. One feels somewhat isolated because im detached from the main body of parliament. But you also feel that youre part of the history, part of the tradition which gives a sense of pride and sense of achievement. And i was quite happy to be there and quite happy to come back of course. But it was quite a member. From that interesting bit of tradition to whats going on right now inside the palace of west mince ter because the dismounted detachment house of cavelry who is involved life guards have already taken their place. Theyre lining the stair case forming a guard of honor to the queen. And there we have the guards one of the oldest of the royal body guards raised by henry 10th at the battle of bosworth. The oldest military court in existence in britain today. Not the most senior. Well see them later on. The guard ready to go in. Theyve already performed a ceremonial search of the cell lars. And that is of course linked to the dye forks incident so they formed a search of the palace a little earlier today and got a glass of port as a reward for doing that. So the ceremonial search has happened. Theyre now making their way into the royal gallery. Theyll process through and line the gallery ready for the great procession in state which will come a little later on. This for you now gives you a sense of the queens route, if you would like, when turns up with the duke of edinborough they will be following these footsteps because theyll be leading from that stair case a little pause in the robing room and then along the royal gallery into the Princess Chamber i told you about a short while ago. Barren es still with me watching these images and so far going to plan. And this is the nice thing about this event. It is routed in tradition and yet lots of these people have very real modern stories to tell. Absolutely. And as i say, what is wonderful about it partly is the timing and the precision, and the way you feel that youre fitting into a very welloiled machine. But also, actually, its flexible and it does change. And when i was made lord speaker and the lord chancellor had done that job before, the lord chancellor still had to be incorporated into the ceremony they had to find out something to do with me and the day was saved that the fact that it was a spare mace bauds each of us needed to have our own mace. But because there was a spare kept in the room next to my office it was ok. So they created a brit of ceremony bit of ceremony. And when you were commenting on it, because i saw it the next day on television, it looks like it has been going on for 100 years. And thats some of the real skill. The real skill of it. Im going to stop you there for a second if i may. This is the last queens speech before the next election. There is a very important electoral event happening before then of course. In september there will be the referendum on Scottish Independence and thats something too that is dominating minds here at westminster in the months to come. Vicky young again in the central lobby there for us. The ve had the evolution heart of the u. K. Parliament from that vote coming in september could big changes be on the horizon. m joined by the fmp angus robinson. You can turn your back on all this. Are you . I look forward to Scotlands Parliament being able to make all the Big Decisions rather than westminster when we look at all the mps tripping through all the way from the house of commons to the house of lords. It reminds us that only 4 of the parliamentarians between these are actually elected in scotland it looks out of the 19th century rather than the 21 century. And i think the yes vote will give us the government and parliament weve wanted but something more befitting the century were in rather than 100 or 200 years ago. You think its outdate snd remember, this is Constitutional Monarchy. And the queen she hasnt abdicated herself but from a lot of the powers that previously the sovereign possessed. But the queen still has the power to appoint governments. And thats why shes come today at the request of the government to read out the Governments Program. And it seems to me still that these perhaps symbols are of enormous significance in underpinning the fact that we live in constitutional democracy in which powers are very clearly separated. And from my point of view much better that we should remain together because the stability which has been provided by this parliament for so many years is something which affect it is whole of the United Kingdom. I dont want to give that up. And you clearly have the role which you have a role. Of course she does. And she plays a role in the opening of the scottish parliament. But what were looking at this year is a significant improvement to governance in scotland. Basic democratic point. Today we are witnessing the opening of a parliament that governs over scotland governed by the third and fourth placed parties in scotland. Thats not a normal democracy. The normal democracy the most Popular Party with the most votes makes the decisions. But westminster doesnt work like that. Thats why we need to change it. Its out of date and todays a really good example. But see that ignores the reality because in scottland we have our own government. Which is responsibility for the whole raft of affairs. Our domestic affairs. Which this parliament has devolved to scotland. So its wrong to say the percentage of directly elected people having influence over scottish politics is only 4 . And of course the present government and indeed the labe your party, the conservative party and liberal democrats have also in the event of a no vote in september which i will argue as fervently as i possibly can then further deevelution of powers will be given. Be will we hear those in the queens speech . Youll hear about it. Then we cannot hold question of independence. Thank you very much. So despite this day of ceremony, there are of course still arguments. Thank you. Outside the palace of westminster we have the Queen Alexanders state coach arrive because this is one of the first big moments of the ceremony today. It is bringing the imperial state crown. That we have it on display inside the carriage. Closely guarded. As very senior figures will talk about in a short while. And we have the sword of state and the cap of maintenance, all of these powerful emblems of Royal Authority. And they will be carefully taken out. And a few maces as well. Carefully taken out from the coach and taken in to the royal gallery and put on display until the queen arrives because theyre symbols of Royal Authority and power. So the coach. Brought into the victoria tower. This is the sovereigns entrance one of the royal parts f the palace of westminster. And this is an interesting cast list as well. Because we have people here representing those who used to rule the royal barges up and down the tames when they used the thames as the main mode of transport. The royal watermen, 24 of them still under the command of the queens barge master who is standing there waiting to help bring out the im