Well, dear members, I for one deeply regret that they did away with all the pomp, circumstance, jewels, throne and display of regalia. All this democritization is boring and inane. They should go back to the good old days and juice everything up. Otherwise you have nothing more than a bunch of the ususal elected hacks playing their ususal political games. As for the virtues of democracy, apart from being able to get rid of one batch of scoundrels and replacing them with another without having to shoot the first batch, there aren't any.
Would someone who can read SWedish be so kind as to translate the king's speech, I would appreciate it. Beatrix speech at the opening of the Dutch parliment was lovely and so much better, so vastly better than the bilge we get here in that bastion (or joke) of democracy, the US of A. I would be interested in reading what the good king had to say. At least now they are allowing him to say something. Cheers.