What is the Queen's speech?

The highlight of the State Opening of Parliament, in which the monarch summarises the laws the government plans to pass during the next parliament in an address written by ministers. Her majesty has given 61 speeches in person before, totalling 67,015 words—she has been in power for 63 speeches, but missed two occasions, in 1959 and 1963, due to pregnancy. On those occasions, the Lord Chancellor read it instead. Recently, there have been gripes that the speech is becoming too politicised: last year the Labour party complained because it included the phrase “long term plan” (no prizes for guessing which over-familiar Tory buzzphrase that echoes). It also included the Lib Dem slogan “a stronger economy and a fairer society,” though Labour didn't complain about that. Labour has form too, however—in 1997 Tony Blair's first Queen's Speech began: “the education of young people will be my government's first priority.” At least she didn't say it three times.

What will happen this year?

It wasn't meant to be like this. This year's address was to be a moment of high drama; had no party won a majority, as was expected, the Queen's speech would have been the acid test for a new government. Whoever had managed to cobble together an alliance would have hoped against hope that they could get the speech passed through parliament. Instead, we have the first (admittedly slim) Conservative majority in over two decades. David Cameron's priorities for the speech are twofold: he wants to reward the country for delivering a Tory majority by showing he can get key manifesto pledges underway as soon as possible, while ensuring he keeps the support of his backbenchers, who will wield a significant amount of power during this parliament—Cameron will need every vote he can get to pass legislation.

What will be in the speech?

We know a fair amount about which key pledges are going to be in today's address—the Conservatives have spent the weeks since the election staging set piece speeches designed to highlight the parts of their manifesto they want to rush through. Foremost among these is a European referendum by 2017 at the latest—the legislation paving the way for this is expected today. A commitment to scrapping the Human Rights Act and replacing it with a British Bill of Rights has also received plenty of coverage, but the Times reports that, following a backlash from Human Rights Activists and senior Tories such as the former Attorney General Dominic Grieve, legislation on this may not be included in the speech. The government might decide to launch a consultation on its plans instead, the BBC reports. Other major commitments that are expected in the speech include devolution plans for Scotland and for the cities of England, a crackdown on illegal immigration, laws which make it harder to strike, an expansion of “right to buy,” increases in free childcare, and new measures to tackle the spread of extremist ideology.

So there won't be any drama?

That's not quite true. Cameron has managed to keep his often-divided party relatively happy so far. But he is already facing a struggle with his backbenchers over changes to constituency boundaries which he promised in his manifesto, and which would reduce the House of Commons from 650 MPs to 600—19 Tories, 20 Labour MPs and 4 Lib Dems would lose their seats, according to a widely-reported analysis by Lewis Baston. Apparently not keen on belt-tightening and austerity within parliament, backbenchers have raised objections to the idea, with 1922 committee leader Graham Brady saying it “would be easier and simpler to maintain the House at its current size at the moment.” This pledge might therefore be conspicuous by its absence today—let's wait and see. Exiled former Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg will also return from the grave to lead his party's opposition, launching a stinging attack on the government's “dispiriting” plans on human rights and Britain's place in the world. Labour, though, is unlikely to provide much in the way of excitement, with Harriet Harman only acting as temporary leader and the party's opposition to an EU referendum now dropped.