‘My ministers’ focus is on increasing economic growth and safeguarding the health and security of the British people for generations to come.’ The King read these opening words, written for him, which set out the government’s final legislative agenda before a general election. Of course, that agenda is being interpreted as a ‘starting gun’ for the election campaign. And the centre of that campaign on the basis of today is going to be security: both economic and for criminal justice.

Presumably the next Conservative manifesto is going to be rather meatier than the content of that speech. It wasn’t a particularly heavy agenda: around 16 bills were in the list along with references to the non-legislative work the government is doing to tackle inflation, including supporting the Bank of England. The new licensing regime for oil and gas extraction in the North Sea to ‘reduce reliance on volatile international energy markets and hostile foreign regimes’ is also intended to wind Labour up – and was as far as possible in the speech from the lines about the government continuing ‘to lead action on tackling climate change and biodiversity loss’.

There are five law and order bills in today’s speech. Tougher sentences for those guilty of the most serious crimes – and the, er, overseas prison spaces to accommodate that new regime. Some passages merely reminded those listening of legislation already passed, including the promise that ‘my government will deliver on the Illegal Migration Act passed earlier this year and on international agreements, to stop dangerous and illegal Channel crossings and ensure it is the government, not criminal gangs, who decides who comes to this country’. Of course, the biggest moment in this policy area won’t come from Parliament, but from the Supreme Court when it rules on the legality of the Rwanda deportation programme.

Rwanda will get more political attention than many of the other bills, but another eye-catching one is the promise to ‘introduce legislation to create a smoke-free generation by restricting the sale of tobacco so that children currently aged 14 or younger can never be sold cigarettes, and restricting the sale and marketing of e-cigarettes to children.’ That second line is probably of more interest: it is vaping, not smoking, that is on the rise among young people but ministers haven’t yet decided the extent to which they want to crack down on this market.

So much of this Speech was about what was possible, rather than necessary and important. No planning reform, no social care reform, no wider measures on energy infrastructure, levelling up or the other structural problems facing this country. Maybe that will be in the manifesto instead. Then Rishi Sunak will have to explain to voters why they should trust him to do what he didn’t think was feasible to set out in the King’s Speech today.