One of the essential characteristics of the “Queen’s Speech” is that it is held by the Queen. With the Regent’s speech, the new parliamentary season is opened in London, and as theatrically as such appointments happen in this tradition-loving country. There is shouting and knocking, then people walk down the hall of Parliament, and at some point the Queen sits on her throne in the chamber of the House of Lords and reads her government’s program.
That’s how it is every year, and that’s how it would be this Tuesday, if it weren’t for the problem that even the Queen is getting older. She is now 96, in two weeks the country will celebrate her 70th anniversary of the throne. And so Buckingham Palace announced on the eve of the ceremony that this time, in consultation with her doctors, her son and successor, Crown Prince Charles, would represent the Queen. It will be only the third time Elizabeth II has missed this important date, after 1959 and 1963. Boris Johnson wasn’t even born then.
It was only decided at the last moment, but even the theoretical possibility of the Queen’s Speech taking place without a Queen would normally be breaking news in the kingdom. But what’s normal in a country where the media has developed an obsession with scandals that is second to none. “Beergate Day 12” ran the front page of Monday’s Daily Mailtriumph and madness have always been close together.
“Beergate” follows Keir Starmer, the Labor leader and leader of the opposition, and a dinner in Durham on April 30, 2021. With a by-election coming up in the region, Starmer and his team met local Labor MPs. The day was well organized, 80 minutes were planned for dinner in the late evening, there was curry from the order service. Photos show Starmer holding a beer on the occasion, the meal finished around ten o’clock in the evening. According to Covid rules, exceptions were made for “work meetings” at the time, which is why the Durham police announced a few months ago that they would not take any further steps.
“Beergate” around Labor leader Starmer suits Johnson
But now, after months of “Partygate” and the penalties imposed by London police on Boris Johnson and more than 50 team members at Downing Street, Richard Holden, Tory MP for North West Durham, wrote a letter. In it, he asked the police to investigate Starmer again. After all, quite a lot had been eaten, and contrary to what Starmer had suggested, there had been no further work after the meal, was it?
Holden presided over the letter Daily Mail next, the paper that has often and happily helped out in Tory campaigns. After daily headlines and more and more questions to the local police, the pressure became so great that the authorities announced that they would investigate the matter again. Since then, various Tory ministers have called for Starmer’s immediate resignation.
A disadvantage for Starmer is how he approached the whole matter communicatively for a long time. He could have shown the curry bill (£200) and his diary for the day, proactive transparency kills stories. But Starmer said nothing, and when he did answer, it was contradictory. Late Monday afternoon, at a specially called press conference, Starmer said he would resign if the police actually punished him. “Not all politicians are the same,” Starmer said, trying to distance himself from Johnson as much as possible.
The proportionality between Partygate and Beergate has slipped a bit in the past few days. On the one hand, there’s Johnson’s repeated lockdown parties at Downing Street, including a sentence that has already been imposed, on the other hand, there’s Starmer’s late order service dinner and beer during a long campaign meeting. For Keir Starmer, the former prosecutor, who insists on honesty and decency, that doesn’t make things any better. The British don’t want any gates more, they want to know how to pay their soaring energy bills.
In last week’s local elections, Johnson’s party lost nearly 500 local council seats — a number that usually results in a vote of no confidence. As it is, while Labor voters are being questioned by pollsters about whether Starmer should resign if the police fine him (the tendency is yes), Johnson is allowed to do what he does best: throw catchphrases.
In the Queen’s Speech, which is now being presented by Prince Charles for the first time, he wants seven legislative proposals to be announced. They are intended to show that leaving the EU will give Great Britain a bright future. Exactly what the proposals look like is unclear, but there is a term for it: Johnson calls it the “super seven.”