WHILE we know that Theresa May’s calling of a snap General Election proved disastrous for certain politicians, little did we appreciate the impact on lovers of bling.

Courtesy of the Prime Minister, the usual summer social calendar has been shredded, with today’s Queen’s Speech having to jostle for attention with Royal Ascot, the Trooping of the Colour, and other events. Since there is so much to do, and only one Queen to do it, cloth must be trimmed accordingly.

There has been talk of the monarch taking a car to Westminster rather than the usual golden carriage, and instead of the Robes of State and the Crown, Her Majesty will wear a day dress and a hat. It is hardly bicycling to the Commons or opening Parliament via Skype, but it is putting the pomp and circumstance on a lower peep than we are used to seeing.

At the same time, in the same village of Westminster, several demonstrations will take place. What are they against, you ask? To quote Mr Marlon Brando in The Wild One, whadda you got? There is a “May Must Go! Protest the Queen’s Speech” march, a “Day of Rage” demo organised by the Movement for Justice By Any Means Necessary, a “Not One Day More, Tories Out” rally, and various other get-togethers with placards. All of this before the trades union and Labour-organised anti-austerity demo on July 1 that hopes to attract more than one million marchers.

Taken together, the protests and the State Opening of Parliament represent two competing versions of the UK. In one, the ship of state is proceeding smoothly onwards. A government has been elected, albeit one that will rely on a minority party for survival. The Government has a (stripped-down) programme it seeks to implement. MPs have been sworn in and the civil service, as ever, stands ready to serve. It may not have been the smoothest transition, but Britain has muddled through.

Then there is the other version of Britain. In this, all is far from well on the good ship Blighty. A succession of terror attacks has left a population feeling jittery and under siege, never knowing where the next atrocity is coming from and who will be behind it. A horrifying fire, the death toll from which continues to climb, has laid bare the obscene inequality that exists in this wealthy country. This Britain is angry, demanding answers and change.

Confused? Alarmed? Unsure how this summer of discontent will play out? You are not alone. One newspaper yesterday, seeking to capture the mood of tumult, had an opinion piece headlined: “There is madness in the air – democracy is hanging by a thread.” This, according to some, is a year like no other.

Really? How does it compare with the year of 9/11? Or 1968, the year of mass street protests around the world? Or the years when the planet erupted into wars? Or any year during The Troubles? Or even summer 2011 when rioting erupted in English cities and lives were lost? Go to any year in history and there will be events that changed lives and defined eras.

If 2017 is different it is in the volume of events and the speed at which they are happening, one after the other. There is so much terrible news, so little relief. As such, it was only a matter of time before the messenger that is the media was put in the dock. Sure enough, the Today programme yesterday had an academic arguing that the rolling coverage of terror attacks was doing the job of Islamic State for them in spreading fear and giving the terrorists a status they do not merit.

With day after day of rolling coverage, other voices, increasing in number, are asking if all this 24/7 information could be causing more harm than good. It is a familiar argument yet a faulty one. The media is a business like many another, one that depends on giving people what they want. If people do not like what they see they do not buy it; they switch over or they click away. Wanting to know what has happened to your fellow man or woman is a sign of our humanity, not heartlessness.

Blaming the media, moreover, spectacularly misses the point about what is going on. If this is the age of rage then that rage stems from a feeling of powerlessness. Powerlessness against the random and changing nature of terrorism. Powerlessness against an officialdom that refuses to listen when told a tower block is a tragedy waiting to happen. Powerlessness before a government that wants a greater mandate for Brexit without telling voters how it will use it, and in the process charges them £143 million for a General Election that leaves the country weaker and less stable.

I do not believe for a second that democracy is hanging by a thread, that we are all going to hell in the same collective handcart, that plagues of frogs and locusts are about to descend like clouds of midges. Where anger has been expressed it is by people who feel they are not being listened to, now or in the past. They want more of a voice, not less. They know that one way to have more power, in the absence of having more money, is to be more informed. Who dares argue that a lot of knowledge is a dangerous thing?

The Queen will go about her business in Parliament today whatever noise rings out elsewhere in Westminster. The media will set up its tented city on College Green. Many a chin will be stroked and pronouncements made about what this lower-key State Opening says about the UK.

Those with more of a sense of perspective will recall that the last time there was such a bling-free State Opening it was March 1974. In the General Election that had just been held, Ted Heath had asked the electorate to “return a strong government with a firm mandate”. (Remind you of anyone, Mrs May?) Ted Heath lost, Harold Wilson won, and by October the country was back in the polling booths.

These are not the first fasten-your-seatbelt times. They will not be the last. As inconvenient and messy as it might be to those who have grown accustomed to being in the driving seat, it is better to know where one is headed, and have a say, than to be forever a passenger taken for a ride.