So the Rouge Dragon Pursuivant has hung up his playing card outfit, the Cap of Maintenance is packed away in its moth-free box; the Guards are back on guard, their ladyships’ tiaras secure in the bank vault, and the ermine duly returned to Moss Bros. The State Opening of Parliament is over for another year, and legislators in Lords and Commons can get about their more mundane legislative duties. I personally love the flummery, the history, the pageantry. It’s what makes us British, and we are extremely good at it. Everyone knows about Black Rod having the door slammed in his face to symbolise the supremacy and independence of the elected House of Commons. It may sound silly; but it has important symbolism in the balance of our ancient constitution.

The Gracious Speech itself, of course, is written not by Her Majesty, but by some pretty dry civil servants. And it sounds like it. Why can’t they at least try to draft it in slightly more Monarchical language? It did seem to me pretty thin this year – fifteen worthy but unexciting Bills for us to mull over for 12 months. I personally will be taking a keen interest in the Defence Bill, which amongst other things will try to make the Reserves fit to be deployed in Theatre of War. But otherwise, three years into the Parliament, we have carried out the biggest and most radical of our plans, and suppose we are moving towards a bit of tidying up before the next General Election.

The real story has been about what was NOT in the Speech- namely a Bill to legislate for an In/Out Referendum on our membership of the EU. I was one of the first Tory rebels to sign up to an amendment decrying that omission, the outcome of the vote on which you will know by the time you read this.

David Cameron has promised an In/Out Referendum in 2017. But who knows what events or changes may intervene in the meantime. He plans a fundamental renegotiation of our membership of the EU, but what if he fails to achieve it? He will hardly want to go to the country with some kind of a limp rag of a failed renegotiation, and most of us recognise that it’s pretty unlikely that he will genuinely be able to achieve a fundamental change to the architecture of the European behemoth. So let’s have an Act of Parliament which will guarantee such a referendum. It will shoot UKIP’s fox; it will give the voters some real red meat for the 2015 General Election; and it will flush out Labour and the Lib Dems, who will, we imagine, vote against any such proposal.

These are very big issues – potentially affecting the way we are governed for generations to come. Thanks only to a rock-solid Constitution such as ours, symbolised by the Imperial State Crown and the like, can we contemplate such a fundamental re-alignment. In other countries round the world it would take a revolution. Here we do it by slamming a door in a retired general’s face.

I have spent the last week or so pondering on "winning". Is it important, and what does it really mean?

The Badminton Horse Trials bring a huge income to North Wiltshire – every B and B for miles around booked up, for example.  Up to quarter of a million people variously shopping and catching fleeting glimpses of top-level horses leaping over gigantic obstacles.  Jock Paget won for New Zealand, but the key battle everyone was watching was between Wilkinson and Fox-Pitt competing for the Grand Slam, which neither achieved in the end.  There's a fair bit of money in winning, but nothing by comparison with how much it costs to get horse and rider up to the level required to compete in the first place. And it costs the non-winners just about as much. So it's not really about winning; it is truly about taking part.

Another day I went to the lovely 'Music in Country Churches' concert in Malmesbury Abbey. A great event in the presence of the Prince of Wales; top-flight musicians so ably led by Sir Neville Mariner. A 'winning 'performance indeed. Yet the players are all no doubt only modestly paid. It was a sheer celebration of superb music beautifully played in a magnificent old church. And you could see the fun the orchestra were having just being part of it.

An Altzheimer's Society Reception another night was hosted by the immensely courageous Jamie and Vicky Graham from Daunstey. They have done a huge amount to help research into this most sad of diseases. Jamie is not 'winning' physically and mentally; but the pair of them are truly 'winners' in the battle against Alzheimer's.

The local government elections have left Wiltshire more or less unscathed, although I was disappointed to see some good friends unseated. Politics in Wiltshire tends to be a civilised affair. Yet I find myself irritated by the Lib Dem posters which do not declaim such worthy things as  "Helping Local people", nor even "Working Hard for the Area". All their posters and leaflets say is "Winning here."  Well that claim is boastful; it is also untrue. (The Lib Dem vote across Wiltshire collapsed by about 15/20%, most of it going to UKIP, the Tory vote holding more or less steady.) But even if it were true, would it really have any true worth? Is the mere fact that someone is "winning" of itself of any real value? Jane Scott and the Tory administration 'won' here in Wiltshire. But they don't crow about it. They just get on with doing their important job.

Something of the same spirit should guide our deliberations in Parliament as we face a new Session. We should not simply seek electoral popularity (although doing so is of course an essential part of democracy.) I hope that the legislative programme outlined in yesterday's Queen's Speech will not be about "winning." It should be about "doing what's best for the people of Britain" whether or not that is a "winning" strategy.