There's been so much happening that I haven't had time to worry about blogging. For the first time in many years I sat and watched the State Opening of Parliament yesterday when visiting my mother. In recent years the Queen's speech has been a list of largely unnecessary laws, proposed for reasons best known to a government which was running out of steam. It was refreshing this year to hear some genuine Lib Dem proposals in there and to know that they'll become law in due course. There were some proposals which I'd rather hadn't made it to that stage of course, but that's the price of coalition - no one group gets things all their own way.
It was worth the pain to hear that children will no longer be locked up like criminals just because their parents' asylum claims haven't been accepted. How any Labour MP can hold his or her head up in public knowing that their government was locking up young children and they didn't try to do something about it, I'll never understand.
The commitment on the Aid budget was a sweet sound too. Our economy might be in trouble but it's nowhere near as bad as that in the poorest countries and we need to keep sharing our riches with those in need.
There was some sanctimonious whingeing about "leaks" of the speech in advance. It showed a lack of understanding of how the coalition was set up. All the bills had been notified in advance in the coalition document. Everyone who read that knew what the legislative programme is and the thinking behind it. But of course we're used to one party government which can only keep people interested (they thought) by having secrets which could be revealed at the right moment. From now on we can look forward to a more grown up way of governance. Long may it last.