The opening of the Queen’s speech debate is, traditionally, a light-hearted affair. Peter Lilley opened up with a rather witty speech. He compared the Liberal Democrats to the bastards of the Major Cabinet, it is better to have them inside the Cabinet pissing out than outside the Cabinet pissing in. He went on to warn the new Prime Minister that the appropriate response to John Major and Gordon Brown’s microphone troubles is not to turn your microphone off but to keep ‘your receiver switched on to hear legitimate concerns.’ David Cameron would be well advised to heed this tactfully-expressed advice. Lilley ended with a heart-felt plea to bring the troops home from Afghanistan as soon as possible.
After Don Foster had seconded the Loyal Address, Harriet Harman spoke on behalf of the opposition. She had a couple of rather good gags, characterising the 55 percent rule as a ‘political pre-nup’ for the coalition partners and joking that the Lib Dem attempt to hang on to the money normally given to opposition parties made them the first people to ‘try and cling to the trappings of opposition.’
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