Out came Emily's outburst - sounding a bit like rowlocks! At least someone was showing a bit of fight on a low-key state opening, says QUENTIN LETTS

For once, Shadow Defence Secretary Emily Thornberry spoke for the nation. ‘B*@$%£#s!’ she yelled. She uttered this sturdy Middle English word from the Labour front bench just after David Cameron accused her of not believing in defence. Out came the noun – it rhymes with rowlocks – and the Tory benches recoiled. The Foreign Secretary looked startled as only a timid goose like him can.

Miss Thornberry, delighting in the Tories’ neck-clutching, yack-yacked on her chewing gum before gaily repeating the word, this time more clearly. Attagirl. Termagant Emily was at least showing some fight.

The State Opening of Parliament, once a great day in our democracy, felt diluted, denuded, barely worth all that effort with the Queen’s coach and horses. Her Majesty might as well have submitted her contribution via Skype from Windsor Castle. The prison reforms and anti-extremism stuff may be significant but Westminster is really interested only in the European referendum, and that went almost unmentioned.

For once, Shadow Defence Secretary Emily Thornberry (left, in red) spoke for the nation. ‘B*@$%£#s!’ she yelled, as Cameron spoke in the MPs Queen's Speech debate

There were empty seats in the Lords. The Commons galleries later were sparsely populated. Some say Jeremy Corbyn ‘snubbed’ David Cameron by refusing to do small-talk as the two of them approached the Lords. I’m not sure he did.

The Monarch played her part like the old pro’ she is, not betraying any boredom she may have felt as she was forced to trundle through sloganistic remarks about the ‘Northern Powerhouse’, ‘sustainable development goals’ and ‘autonomous vehicles’. This, ahem, in a Parliament which is itself far from autonomous, being under the heel of Brussels. Despite the occasion’s historic nature, HM took advantage of modernity and used a lift to get to the Lords. It did not become stuck this year, happily.

The speech, written by 10 Downing Street, mentioned measures against corruption. To say that in the House of Frauds, home to so many expenses cheats, was quite amusing, I suppose. Below us, in the pit of the Upper House, sat hundreds of ermine-clad has-beens, greasers, grassers, Whips’ narks, Establishment plodders – and lawyers. If you had called a show of hands on the EU question, I doubt there would have been more than three or four for Brexit. Vote Remain for the suffocating status quo. Once the House of Lords was for the nobility. Now it is for the milking classes.

The Duke of Edinburgh assumed his tortoise grimace. The ladies-in-waiting, one a Hussey, stood by the Throne, willowy in champagne-silk. Prince Charles, with Camilla radiant to his right, may have pondered glumly the prospect of one day having to venture before this mass of Establishment invertebrates.

Some say Jeremy Corbyn (pictured, right) ‘snubbed’ David Cameron by refusing to do small-talk as the two of them approached the Lords

The Commons reassembled after lunch. Bob Stewart (Con, Beckenham) was not at his most alert, let us say.

Phillip Lee (Con, Bracknell) did well giving one of the traditional backbench speeches. Our lives were fleeting, he argued. We should respect our riches and heed the example of the wartime generation. Code for the serious yet droll Dr Lee supporting Leave? He would not say.

Mr Corbyn took the floor and at first did well, gently ribbing Dr Lee in the expected fashion. Once Mr Corbyn started speaking about the Queen’s speech, alas, he nosedived. What a dreadful effort: it was The Rime of the Ancient Mariner minus the poetry.

He spoke for 41 minutes and refused to take a single intervention. This was poor form and bad tactics, for interventions keep things lively and can often illustrate dimness and aggression in the intervener.

The longer Mr Corbyn spoke, the more the House fidgeted. Laughter and chatter soon obscured Mr Corbyn’s drone. Alec Shelbrooke (Con, Elmet & Rothwell) pretended to hang himself with his tie. Then he started making ‘pint’ gestures (as in ‘shall-we-go-for-a-beer?’). Had Bob Stewart not, by now, been away with the fairies, he might have leapt at the suggestion.

When old Corbyn finally shut up, Mr Cameron sprung into action, busily proclaiming his ‘liberal’ credentials. He had a swipe at the SNP’s love-triangle scandal – ‘I know the SNP have their mind on other things at the moment – I think, actually, it is the same thing’. Of Stewart Hosie (SNP, Dundee Horizontal) there was nae sign. One hesitates to ask where he was.