Leading article: An unwanted legacy, and a promise unfulfilled
16th Nov 2006, 10:21 GMT
This year's Queen's Speech had a strangely perfunctory quality, which seemed to match the fractious mood of MPs. Part of the difficulty was that whenever the Queen spoke the words "my government" - as she frequently must in a speech introducing the legislative programme - this reminded everyone that today's Prime Minister will no longer be Prime Minister when the parliamentary session is out. And this left a question: was this untidy set of Bills, with its emphasis on national security and criminal justice, really something that Tony Blair saw as adding distinction to his political legacy? If so, it was a big disappointment.