It is only after Black Rod has struck the door of the House of Commons three times that he is granted entry. The Serjeant at Arms then takes the ceremonial mace and encourages the Speaker to join him in leading the Members as they walk, in pairs, towards the House of Lords for the State Opening. By custom, Members are meant to avoid a formal procession but instead to saunter, chatting and joking as they go.

The Prime Minister is not a man given to sauntering and there may not be much chatting and joking between him and David Cameron as they make their way across the ornate Central Lobby between the Commons and the Lords. One of Gordon Brown’s worst features as Prime Minister has been his tendency to put political intrigue before good policy. The legislative programme contained in the Queen’s Speech will be revealed tomorrow and, as the general election hoves into view, candidates for inclusion appear, once again, to have been assessed more for their capacity to discomfit the Opposition than for their contribution to the health of the nation.

The mooted education Bill is said to include new powers for ministers to intervene in underperforming schools. This will be used as the departure point for a wholly political, and unenlightening, accusation that the Labour Party offers stability and the Conservative Party promises chaos. In fact, both parties are committed to turning over the management of poor schools. The difference, on the chosen issue, is negligible.

The proposed legislation to establish free home care for the 350,000 most needy people is a frivolous suggestion, with the public finances in their present state of disrepair. The average cost of care is about £30,000. A Bill to curb bonuses is being sold on the basis that the powers it would confer on the Financial Services Authority would cause trouble for the Conservatives, who are pledged to abolish that body. A crime Bill will set out the categories of people whose details will be held on the DNA database because the Opposition is opposed to innocent people having their details held.

It is probable that this sort of political game-playing will pass the electorate by completely. Very few people make political judgments on the basis of imaginary dividing lines devised by political strategists who ought to be running the country. Insofar as this matters at all, it looks as if the Prime Minister has cunningly placed himself on the wrong side of his own dividing lines.

In the midst of this political calculation, the nation has a vast public deficit that needs reducing and a bloated public sector that needs reforming. The serious attention these issues demand also makes Nick Clegg’s suggestion that the Queen’s Speech should be cancelled and replaced with a series of measures to clean up politics opportunistic and shallow.

As the Queen makes her way through the corridors of power, en route to the State Opening of Parliament, she is preceded by the Leader of the House of Lords who carries a crimson velvet cap perched on a white wand. The origin of the cap is obscure but it is designed to be a symbol of dignity. It is known as the Cap of Maintenance. The Prime Minister would be well advised to bear in mind that the Queen’s Speech is there for the maintenance of good government of the nation, not the maintenance of his premiership.