When there is a change of government, there is a dizzying whirlwind of job title changes.
Even though the winner of the election wasn’t a major surprise, even to those of us who spend our professional lives watching and scrutinizing these people, it can still surprise you.
Suddenly the person answering “Prime Minister” is a different guy than he was at the beginning of the month.
Opposition leader Rishi Sunak continues to oppose the Prime Minister, but is no longer Prime Minister.
This is a new government trying to use three defining moments in its first fortnight to consolidate its place in power in the minds of the electorate – and to shake off the novelty of being a team of people who have been in opposition for so long and are now running the country.
There was the Nato summit in Washington last week, there is the European Political Community meeting at Blenheim Palace in Oxfordshire on Thursday and then there is the King’s Speech today.
These are all events where ceremony and vivid images gloss over the most prosaic political promises.
Quite useful for any government at any time – the staging and choreography of power is denied to opposition parties.
In sheer numerical terms, the number of planned new laws being introduced at today’s opening session of Parliament is high – and higher, according to Labour, than Tony Blair achieved at his equivalent in 1997.
It should be clarified that government plans and government achievements are not the same thing.
Ideas for new laws can stagnate, be diverted, changed, and a government may lack the time or enthusiasm to implement them.
And things happen, things always happen that take up the agenda, the attention, the ministers’ mailboxes.
But remember, this is a government with an overwhelming majority.
The rebellions and noise would have to be very loud to cause Sir Keir Starmer any real problems and while there will undoubtedly be a clumsy bunch on his benches over time, most will probably be loyal before they become (potentially) grumpy.
For the prime minister today, the aim is to project a sense of energy and urgency, but no surprises.
He will try to convince you that he is delivering on his campaign promises, or at least that he has begun to do so.
And he wants to give the impression that the party has worked hard in opposition to be ready to govern – that the breadth of these ideas makes it clear that they were not worked out in the last fortnight.
Labour wants to make the most of any honeymoon period, which it knows is likely to be short-lived.
They managed to use the most powerful word – “change” – in the election campaign.
Now comes the next hard part: trying to implement it.
