QUEEN'S SPEECH TO PARLIAMENT TO BE MOVED TO SPRING

THE ANNUAL STATE OPENING OF PARLIAMENT BY THE QUEEN IS TO BE MOVED FROM ITS TRADITIONAL AUTUMN DATE TO THE SPRING, AS PART OF THE GOVERNMENT'S SHIFT TO FIVE-YEAR FIXED-TERM PARLIAMENTS, IT HAS BEEN ANNOUNCED. UNDER THE PROPOSALS, BEING DEBATED IN THE COMMONS RECENTLY, EACH FIVE-YEAR PARLIAMENT WILL BE MADE UP OF FIVE 12-MONTH SESSIONS STRETCHING FROM SPRING TO SPRING, WITH A STATE OPENING TO MARK THE NEW SESSION AROUND EASTER. ANNOUNCING THE PROPOSED CHANGES, LEADER OF THE COMMONS SIR GEORGE YOUNG REVEALED THAT THE NEXT QUEEN'S SPEECH WILL TAKE PLACE AROUND EASTER 2012, ALMOST TWO YEARS AFTER THE CEREMONY WHICH OPENED THE CURRENT PARLIAMENT ON 25.MAY. OFFICIALS SAID IT HAD BEEN DECIDED, WITH THE AGREEMENT OF BUCKINGHAM PALACE, TO DELAY THE NEXT QUEEN'S SPEECH FROM ITS EXPECTED DATE IN AUTUMN 2011, TO 'ENSURE A SMOOTH TRANSITION' TO THE NEW SYSTEM. THE SPEECH, DRAWN UP BY MINISTERS BUT DELIVERED BY THE QUEEN, SETS OUT THE GOVERNMENT'S LEGISLATIVE AGENDA FOR THE COMING PERIOD. BUT INSIDERS SAID SUCH A LARGE PROGRAM OF WORK WAS SET OUT IN MAY THAT THERE WAS NO DANGER OF PARLIAMENT RUNNING OUT OF THINGS TO DO IN THE TWO-YEAR GAP BEFORE THE NEXT ONE. TRADITIONALLY, THE 12-MONTH PARLIAMENTARY SESSIONS RAN FROM NOVEMBER OR DECEMBER, WITH STATE OPENING HELD IN THOSE MONTH, EXCEPT IN GENERAL ELECTION YEARS, WHEN THE CEREMONY WAS HELD SHORTLY AFTER THE POLL. THE LAVISH CEREMONY, A HIGHPOINT OF THE PARLIAMENTARY YEAR, DATES FROM THE OPENINGS OF THE REBUILT PALACE OF WESTMINSTER IN 1852. IN 1974 THERE WERE TWO STATE OPENINGS BECAUSE OF THE TWO GENERAL ELECTIONS THAT YEAR. THE CHANGE TO FIVE-SESSION PARLIAMENTS IS NOT EXPECTED TO RESULT IN ANY REDUCTION IN THE NUMBER OF DAYS ON WHICH THE HOUSE OF COMMONS SITS.