A Queen's Speech to ease the squeeze: With less than a year to the election, the coalition promises bigger pensions, tax-free childcare and help for the low paid to build a 'brighter future'

• Tories and Lib Dems promise 'long-term plan to build a stronger economy and a fairer society' in their last Queen’s Speech
• Unveiled a slimmed-down slate of 12 new Bills for their last year in power, focussed on business, pensions and crime
• Parents promised tax-free childcare worth £2,000 for all under-12s from next year to encourage more to go back to work
• Crackdown on people trafficking, organised criminals, cruel parents and Britons who go to fight in Syria
• Pensions overhaul will allow workers to invest in Dutch-style collective schemes and withdraw cash as a lump sum
• Labour today accused ministers of running a 'zombie government' without Bills on schools, NHS or immigration
• But the Prime Minister David Cameron and his deputy Nick Clegg insist that after four years they still have ‘bold steps’
• Veteran left-wing MP Dennis Skinner makes traditional joke to Black Rod, hailing the ‘Coalition’s last stand’
• Drama amid the pomp and ceremony as a page boy collapses while the Queen is addressing peers and MPs
  Plans to make Britain the best place in the world to start a business, get a job and raise a family were put at the centre of today’s Queen’s Speech.
  Announcing the Coalition’s last year of law-making, the Queen said a key priority would be to ‘build an economy that rewards those who work hard’.
  David Cameron and Nick Clegg admitted there is still a ‘long way to go’ to rebuild Britain, but insisted they have not run out of ideas after four years in power.
  A slimmed-down slate of just 12 new bills include major pension reforms, tax-free childcare, help for small business and legal crackdowns on trafficking, criminal gangs and parents who starve their children of love.
  But to the surprise of some, there is no new legislation on schools or the NHS and no mention of tackling immigration.
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  Her Majesty delivers the Queen's Speech from the Throne in the House of Lords next to Prince Philip, the Duke of Edinburgh, Camilla, the Duchess of Cornwall and her heir Prince Charles.
   
  

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  Annual speech: Announcing the Coalition's last year of law-making, the Queen said a key priority would be to 'build an economy that rewards those who work hard'
  

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  Stalwart: The Queen, pictured with her husband the Duke of Edinburgh, has opened Parliament on all but two occasions throughout her reign - these were 1959 and 1963, when she was pregnant with Prince Andrew and Prince Edward
  

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  Drama: A young page boy can bee seen lying on the floor after fainting as the Queen gave her speech. Prince Charles and his wife the Duchess of Cornwall were startled by the noise and checked on him
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  Leaders: Prime Minister David Cameron stands alongside his deputy Nick Clegg and Labour leader Ed Miliband as they listen to Her Majesty's speech
  

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  Pageantry: Her Majesty set off from Buckingham Palace for Parliament in her glorious new Diamond Jubilee state coach, which contains pieces of artefacts from throughout Britain's history
  In a moment of drama, a page boy appeared to collapse while the Queen was addressing MPs and peers.
  Witnesses described hearing a 'loud thud' as a young member of the procession fell to the floor to the right of the throne.
  Prince Charles and Camilla looked on with concern as footmen rushed to the boy's aid, before apparently carrying him out of the Lords chamber.
  Amid the pomp and ceremony of the State Opening of Parliament, the government hopes to show that with another year until the general election it has not lost its reforming zeal.