The famed wood of the UK Sun issued in 2016 as the Brexit referendum was approaching. At the time, the story was hotly disputed by the Palace, but Her Majesty certainly delivered today at the State Opening of Parliament.

“My Government’s priority is to deliver the United Kingdom’s departure from the European Union on 31 January,” Her Majesty intoned at the State Opening of Parliament. “My Ministers will bring forward legislation to ensure the United Kingdom’s exit on that date and to make the most of the opportunities that this brings for all the people of the United Kingdom.”

Elizabeth II vowed that her Government would “seek a future relationship with the European Union based on a free trade agreement that benefits the whole of the United Kingdom.” Then, with an eye to America and other national markets, she announced they will also “begin trade negotiations with other leading global economies.”

No doubt, Her Majesty reflected, she’s said all this before. Still, her kingdom remains tethered, inexplicably, to the EU. What’s changed? Boris Johnson is prime minister, now with a majority parliament standing foursquare behind him and Brexit.

The Queen’s Speech is a yearly overview of the government’s agenda, presenting in broad brushstrokes its objectives in office; sometimes even coinciding, wits whisper, with electoral manifestos. Such laundry lists of pending legislation can range from the transformational, like the UK seceding from EU membership, to the mundane, as when the Queen announced reviewing “hospital car parking charges.”

Like any political document, the speech has its share of boilerplate, whether it be “an ambitious program of domestic reform,” a commitment “to invest in our gallant Armed Forces,” or a promise “to promote and expand” the UK’s “influence in the world.” No constituency is left untouched, whether it be health, education, social care, crime, or the environment. Such are the demands and expectations of modern participatory democracy.

Conservative governments are not exempt from the spending spree, even when they should know better. Such as when Boris Johnson’s ministry pledges to increase the “national living wage,” regardless of whether it benefits the poor.

Theory demonstrates that minimum wage policies put people out of work — usually the marginal worker and those new to the workforce — without the experience or seniority to climb the employment ladder. Statistics bear this out, too, here in the Northeast and on the Coast where restaurant workers are particularly vulnerable to “virtue signalling.”

Likewise with climate change strategy. Pity the Queen for having to assert that Her Government will “take steps to meet the world-leading target of net zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050” — heedless of the hardships this creates. The UK petroleum industry is exposed to opprobrium, manufacturing will meet increasing energy expenditures (eventually conveyed to consumers), and Britons will brave rising heating bills. Need one add that the “consensus” on climate change, calling forth these measures, has challengers?

Greater consensus will coalesce around Mr. Johnson’s efforts to “invest in the country’s public services and infrastructure,” while simultaneously “keeping borrowing and debt under control.” Conservatives keen to the failures of Keynesian deficit spending will wince at their party’s abandonment of Margaret Thatcher’s focus on economy, despite the Prime Minister’s pledge for “the sustainability of the public finances through a responsible fiscal strategy.”

On this head, Brexit is the secret weapon for economic growth.

Thatcherites can look instead with guarded optimism on the outline of a “Constitution, Democracy and Rights Commission.” The accountability and scope of the UK Supreme Court — the same which had in September the effrontery to overrule the Queen’s prorogation of Parliament — should be first in line for examination. Such commissions, however, are a double-edged sword, cutting away indiscriminately at custom and innovation alike. Westminster traditionalists will take deserved satisfaction, though, at repealing the Fixed-term Parliaments Act.

Jeremy Corbyn’s scowl showed he didn’t much care for the Conservative agenda of “gimmicks and false promises.” With his party ravaged at the polls and his days on the Opposition front bench numbered, Mr. Corbyn has his own agenda about which to worry. As for the Scottish separatists sitting in the Commons, they lambasted leaving the EU while bemoaning remaining in the UK.

So for the moment, Boris Johnson has a free hand to work his charms on British independence. Top of the list is the reintroduction of his Withdrawal Agreement tomorrow. As the Prime Minister responded in the Commons: “This is the moment to repay the trust of those who sent us here, by delivering on the people’s priorities with the most radical Queen’s Speech for a generation.” Getting Brexit done, he reiterated, was the “resounding lesson of the election campaign.”

Thus the Queen fulfils one of her primary roles as constitutional monarch. “The integrity and prosperity of the United Kingdom is of the utmost importance to my Government,” she told her assembled Parliament, adding “I pray that the blessing of Almighty God may rest upon your counsels.” They, the Sun reckons, will need it.