Queen goes to Parliament with most of her speech already leaked

A mandatory code on the drinks industry to curb 'binge drinking' inducements such as two-for-one happy hours in pubs, below-cost promotion of beer, and free drinks for ladies at the bar, is being unveiled by the embattled Home Secretary Jacqui Smith as part of the Queen's Speech.

The contents of the Queen's Speech are supposed to be a closely guarded secret until Her Majesty reads out the programme in the Lords this morning. But they have been comprehensively briefed to the papers this morning by the Government official leakers to get the Government out of the hole it has dug for itself over the arrest of Damian Green for receiving leaked documents.

Everyone down to the cleaner in Smith's office now knows that a mandatory code of practice is also being imposed on the banks by Gordon Brown to force them to lend to small businesses and avoid a wave of repossession orders on home-owners caught by the credit crunch. Benefit claimants will face lie detector tests and will lose benefits for a month if found guilty of fiddling the system - according to the line fed to the Guardian by Gordon's official leakers.

James Purnell, the Work and Pensions Secretary, is to crack down on lone parents by making them seek work for their benefits despite hints from Business Secretary Lord Mandelson that the Government was soft-pedalling on the idea because of the economic downturn. Among the more bizarre bits of the Speech to be read by the Queen include legislation to classify lap-dancing clubs as sex establishments, allowing councils greater scope to close them.

Tory leader David Cameron will argue that the list of Bills has the whiff of a fag-end government, desperately seeking to clear up the mess it has caused before Brown goes to the country. The crackdown on binge drinking would not be so badly needed, he will say, if Tony Blair hadn't relaxed the drinking laws to try to bring continental cafe culture to Britain before leaving office with Brown to sweep up after him.

Similarly, the banks would not need to be forced to lend to small businesses if Brown had not presided for ten years over the biggest spending binge that Britain has ever had, leaving the country with a monumental debt hangover.

But for once, the Queen's Speech is not going to be the centrepiece today. Everyone is waiting to hear the statement by the Speaker, Michael Martin, on his response to the police raid on Damian Green's Commons office. If he fails to take firm action, he can expect an outbreak of laddish behaviour on the backbenches. He has to tackle the question of whether he allowed the raid to go ahead because he was told the DPP had sanctioned it. Yesterday, the DPP denied being consulted by the police. The question now is: did the police lie?

THE MOLE: QUEEN'S SPEECH

FIRST POSTED DECEMBER 3, 2008