The Queen takes to parliament later today to deliver her speech at the State Opening of Parliament.
The speech, which contains details of the legislative programme for the next parliamentary session is widely tipped to offer a much reduced programme of new laws, with the 'squeezed middle' looking unlikely to gain any favour after the recent news that the economy did indeed dip into a second recession in the first quarter of 2012.
The Prime Minister and his deputy were in Essex yesterday, to promote a strengthening of their coalition government, and pledge a fresh commitment to jobs and growth in the wake of the dismal financial outlook.
Many commentators, however, are stating that the crucial bills, including a new enterprise bill and a treasury bill aimed at reforming banking, will not go far enough to create any significant growth.
Gavin Kelly is chief executive of the Resolution Foundation, a think tank.
"They will be looking for ways of showing how measures in the Queen's speech will help ease the squeeze on living standards, but anything they can come up with is likely to be small beer compared with the scale of the challenge," said Mr Kelly.
One of the major problems the coalition is facing is the need to trade-off on certain legislative proposals. So whilst the Conservatives have pledged a deregulation agenda aimed at stimulating new employment, there will also be provisions for making businesses more 'family friendly' which could result in more bureaucracy for small firms.
John Cridland is the director general of the Confederation of British Industry.
"If anything, most of the bills expected will add to the regulatory burden," he said.
The compromises made within the coalition will probably mean that many proposals suggested by one of the parties will not make it into the Queen's Speech. A pledge to spend 0.7% of GDP on aid is likely to be dropped to appease right-wing Tories, whilst a shakeup of higher education is likely to be shelved to appease Liberal Democrats battered by the policy of raising tuition fees for university students.
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