It was a Queen's Speech that largely stopped at the Border, and not just because of the announcement on the HS2 high-speed rail link, which halts in the Midlands.

Scotland and England have been drawing apart in terms of political culture for the last decade, and this 2013 legislative programme confirms how much the United Kingdom has already changed, whatever happens in the 2014 independence referendum.

It was a speech heavily dependent on right-wing themes such as immigration provided by the UK Independence Party and by special interest lobby groups focused on Westminster.

In an exercise described by the Tories' Australian election guru, Lynton Crosby, as "clearing the barnacles" a number of measures were dropped from the speech so as not to frighten English voters in the General Election in two years' time. But if he thinks minimum pricing for alcohol and controls on cigarette packaging – two of the measures that were reportedly excised from the Queen's address – are election losers then the Coalition is in even worse shape than we thought.

What happened of course was that the tobacco companies and the drinks industry sent their lobbyists into Government departments and shut the policies down. It was revealed this week that Mr Crosby's PR firm, Crosby Textor, has long-standing links with alcohol and tobacco companies, which I am sure had no bearing whatever on the Government's rethink on these policies.

And I'm sure it had no bearing on another of the barnacles cleared from the bottom of the Coalition's boat: action to control political lobbying. As Ed Miliband pointed out in his reply to the speech in the Commons yesterday, David Cameron said in 2010 that "lobbying is the next big scandal waiting to happen". Well, maybe it has, because there was no lobbying bill in the Queen's Speech and no communications bill either to deal with monopoly ownership in the media. Lobbying is alive and well and doing good business in Westminster.

In times of financial austerity, money speaks louder in Government, not just because of campaign donors having dinners in Downing Street but also because the resources of non-commercial lobby groups and charities are reduced and their voices silenced in the corridors of power. We can perhaps see the impact of the diminished impact of aid charities in the way the commitment to spend 0.7% of GDP on international aid was also conspicuous for its absence in the UK legislative programme despite assurances to the contrary.

Opposition parties and freedom of information groups have been calling for a register of lobbyists and for disclosure of fees and emoluments.

But the problem is that political parties, and governments increasingly look to private interests to help them frame legislation and develop policy. That is why the banks were so successful in co-opting Westminster Government under Labour. Tony Blair walked out of No 10 and straight into a £2 million post as a part-time adviser to the American investment bank JP Morgan bank. You can't stop that kind of influence with registration.

Commercial lobbying is a problem for the Scottish Parliament as well of course – it is the curse of modern democracy. Though the Scottish Parliament has been somewhat less prone to commercial interests, thanks to the scandals over "lobbygate" in the early noughties. And the good news is that despite intense lobbying, minimum pricing for alcohol and controls on cigarette packaging have already been implemented by the Scottish Parliament, which suggests it is sometimes possible to resist the siren song of the influence pedlers.

The Scotch Whisky Association (SWA) mounted expensive legal action to frustrate the Scottish Government by challenging its legitimacy in court. It was rebuffed by a Court of Session ruling last week which threw out the drinks industry's case against unit pricing. But it will not be giving up, and the SWA has made clear that it will carry the fight to the Supreme Court if necessary, the highest court in the UK on civil matters.

The tobacco companies also tried to block the Scottish Government's action on cigarette packaging in the Supreme Court and lost. These are important rulings and confirm that the Scottish Parliament is now becoming entrenched in constitutional law. The courts are now recognising the Scottish Parliament does have sovereignty on domestic issues, despite the fact that in constitutional theory ultimate sovereignty under the Scotland Act resides in Westminster.

However, no-one should be complacent. No Parliament is immune from lobbying, and even Alex Salmond was so moved by the arguments of Rupert Murdoch, during tea and Tunnock's biscuits in Bute House, that he offered to lobby the UK Government on behalf of News International on the takeover of BSkyB. Fortunately, he never got the chance.

But perhaps the biggest influence on the UK Government right now is not commercial lobbyists but the UK Independence Party. It gave the Conservatives a scare by winning 25% of the votes in the English local elections last week. The Queen's Speech is only partly about the programme for Government. It is also about sending a message to the voters about what the UK Government's priorities are in the penultimate parliamentary year before the 2015 General Election. And the message is Ukip. The bill to legalise gay marriage was not mentioned, out of deference to Ukip voters, and nor was the commitment on international aid.

What was up in lights in the Queen's Speech was a crackdown on immigration – limiting access of EU migrants to Jobseeker's Allowance and getting landlords to sniff out illegals. These are small-time measures, which won't block the tsunami of Bulgarians and Romanians which Ukip says is coming to swamp Britain, because they have right of access under EU law. But the message is clear: immigration is high on David Cameron's priority list, even though the Liberal Democrats have vetoed measures such as denying migrants access to the NHS.

The message is also clear that the fight against the SNP goes on. The Queen said her Government would "continue to make the case for Scotland to remain part of the UK", which is hardly earth-shattering news. But the SNP MP Pete Wishart said the Government had "politicised the monarchy'" by making her say she wanted Scotland to remain British.

Her Majesty clearly hasn't been reading Mr Salmond's promises about her continued role as head of state after independence. The First Minister insists the Union of the Crowns will stay after independence. But somehow I can't quite imagine Her Majesty ever reading out a speech drafted by Mr Salmond.