An election manifesto dressed in ermine?

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With a general election only months away it was probably no surprise that the Queen's speech was thin.

Equally, it was no surprise that the dozen or so bills were branded "political", that the opposition claimed most of them would never become law and the government stood accused of blatant "electioneering".

But enough of John Major's 1991 Queen's speech. Other than to say there's nothing new in politics.

So David Cameron's claims that Gordon Brown's last parliamentary programme before the poll - and quite possibly his last ever - was "political" was the equivalent of telling us the archbishop of Canterbury occasionally sports a big pointy hat.

The charge of electioneering was also a curious one. Surely governments seeking re-election promise things they hope voters actually want. And that doesn't sound like a bad plan for policy really.

But, of course, what politicians really mean when they accuse each other of electioneering is - and let's not beat about the bush here - telling fibs, promising things they can't or won't deliver, and making grandiose pledges with precious little detail.

If they then lose the election, no harm is done. If they win, well they will worry about that when the time comes.

If they fail to deliver, however, real harm is done to their already bashed and buckled reputations. And it is that approach to electioneering and running governments that has previously done so much to bash and buckle politicians' reputations, long before the expenses row engulfed them.

So Cameron's sharpest point during the debate on the Queen's speech was to wonder why there was no pledge to have the Kelly clean-up of MPs' expenses in place before the general election. He used the good old standby stunt of offering to give way to the prime minister if he would get up and make such a promise.

He didn't get it. What he did get was the much-trailed attempt by the prime minister to draw those big dividing lines for the election campaign and setting a few traps for the Tories.

Pledging to give free care to the most vulnerable elderly is clearly a trap, challenging the Tories to back it or look heartless.

The move to make it illegal not to halve the budget deficit within four years, on the other hand, is just weird. What happens if the government fails, who gets fined, electronically tagged or sent to prison?

As Liberal Democrat leader Nick Clegg declared, it was like passing a law to make you get up early. It was pointless, you should just do it.

Similarly, the idea there can be a guarantee of a good education seems somewhat over-ambitious. Plenty of parents do their utmost, even spending large sums of money, on attempting to guarantee a good education for their children - and it can still fail.

So a good, old-fashioned, political Queen's speech or an election manifesto dressed in ermine?

Most likely it will all be forgotten in a couple of week's time. And, after all, we will get a pre-Budget report and, most likely, a full Budget before the general election - and if you thought the Queen's speech was electioneering you ain't seen nothing yet.

Nick Assinder has been reporting on British politics for the best part of 25 years. After starting in the Commons with the Western Daily Press, where the Westland crisis was his big story, he moved to the Daily Mail as political reporter then the Daily Express as deputy political editor. He then worked as diplomatic editor for the Express for five years before joining MSN News. He moved to the BBC after the 1997 election to become its dedicated online political correspondent. He spent the last year helping launch the PoliticsHome website.