Watching the state opening of parliament earlier, I was struck by the pomp and ceremony of it all. We bits, as a nation, seem to relish such occasions: we seem to love dressing up and putting on a show, and pretending that it all somehow means something. So we had the queen arriving in horse-drawn coach, escorted by men on horseback, to participate in something essentially pantomimic: the way ‘black rod’ knocks on the door, the way people have to nod at certain points – yes you can say it ties us to the past, but at the same time it is a performance intended to endow the government with an authority and dignity it does not deserve.

Of course, I was struck by the contrast between the pageantry of this morning’s arrival and how the queen arrived at last years olympic opening ceremony. That sketch at least shows a bit of self-knowing humility on the part of the palace, and I’ve written before about how it can be read as an implicit admission of her position as a construct, a fiction. I find such self-knowledge praiseworthy and commendable, which is why I think that sketch quite an important work of art.

Contrast that novel, brave entrance with the entrance the queen made today, so full of ceremony and pretence. It is quite an interesting, amusing juxtaposition. Of course, on one level what we saw his morning up at Westminster is no less a fiction than having the queen parachute out of a helicopter with double-O-seven, but it is treated so much more seriously, as if it was somehow more real. That strikes me as rather odd, as if after it was finally admitted that the emperor was indeed naked, we are once again expected to believe he is wearing an ornate gown.

My reverie ended, however, soon after her majesty started talking. As soon as she uttered the word ‘fairness’ I knew that the content of her speech was going to be anything but fair. The tories should be banned from using that word: they try to fool people into thinking it means rewarding people who work hard, but cutting benefits and lowering taxes rewards the already-advantaged while leaving the poorest in society to starve. That fosters injustice and inequality rather than fairness. I felt sick every time her majesty was forced to utter that word – no doubt CaMoron put it in to make people believe he is doing the right thing, but a tory uttering the word fair is like nick griffin or Nigel Farage talking about tolerance – they utterly distort it’s true meaning. Also, speaking of farage, the way camoron is now pandering to that fascist boils my blood: the more people speak of Europe as somehow problematic, the more people continue to think in terms of simplistic nation states rather than internationally, the more xenophobic we become and the more idiots like Farage will think they have a valid point.

The speech ended with me angry, despairing at how we have to put up with such a government and fearful for the future. No doubt the tories love this pageantry, thinking that they somehow deserve it, and pretending that the pain they are inflicting is somehow fair.