Thabo Mbeki, South Africa's president, delighted the anti-growth lobby with his opening speech, but did a huge disservice to the facts.
The 'modern' stuff goes straight for the jugular with opening track Free Speech For The Dumb - a fast and furious re-working of the 1982 song from second generation punks Discharge.
After the mayor had given his opening speech, they declined to question him - expected to last at least an hour - and moved straight to a debate and vote on the budget.
In his opening speech, His Excellency Nassir Abdulaziz Al-Nasser, the new High Representative of the UNAOC, sounded the alarm on the need to strengthen the tools for cooperation, prevention and resolution of conflicts, to face the rise of intolerance, and several very serious humanitarian situations, including Syria.
He said the "glitz and glamour" of the Queen's Speech - which also involves the state opening of Parliament - would be "based on a complete fiction" because there were only 70 sitting days left and he said laws took, on average, 240 days to pass from the first to last stage.
Mr Lilley was moving the Loyal Address to the Queen on behalf of MPs following the state opening of Parliament on 25 May 2010, a speech which is traditionally non-party political and humorous.
Her speech attracted more viewers than General Electric -owned NBC's Olympic Opening Ceremonies in Beijing, the heavily-hyped finale of News Corp.
More important, Mr Castro has comprehensively thumbed his nose at outsiders who thought that, while reluctantly opening chinks of free-marketry into Cuba's economy, he might also open chinks for free thought and free speech.
ECONOMIST: No. Cuba��s president is still a Stalinist dictator
The Queen plays a central ceremonial role in the state opening of Parliament, when she travels by ornate horse-drawn coach to the House of Lords to read out a speech prepared by ministers unveiling details of their legislative plans.
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