After the ructions with the Lords over the European Elections Bill the government's plans to strip away the powers of the hereditary peers will take much of the attention but, as ever, this will be as much a story about what is left out as about the contents of the speech.

The prime minister will spend Tuesday night and Wednesday in Belfast, trying to sort out the latest snags in the peace process before moving on to Dublin to make a speech to the Dail there on Thursday. The Taioseach Bertie Ahern says he expects a united Ireland in his lifetime.

Tony Blair, a younger man, does not.

The Queen's speech

The anticipated battle with the Lords over the Bill to remove the voting rights of hereditary peers has been used as an excuse for the excision of a number of Bills from the programme. The peers have shown what they can do over the European Elections Bill in which they five times rejected the "closed list" PR system sent up to them from the Commons.

The Tories, who do not oppose Lords reform in principle, are planning to oppose the Bill on the grounds that it should not be done in two stages for fear of turning the Upper House into Tony Blair's poodles while the country waits to see what is to be put in place of the hereditary peers.

A battle royal seems likely, lasting most of the Parliamentary year. The European Elections Bill fracas may turn out to have been no more than a dress rehearsal.

Controversy is likely over the Bill to enhance trades union recognition. Trade and Industry Secretary Peter Mandelson is in danger of falling between two stools. The business and industry community which Labour is so keen to woo does not like the Bill. Labour MPs and the trades unions who see it as the key to increasing membership numbers after many years of decline, are suspicious that it has been watered down excessively to mollify the CBI. They will be watching anxiously to see that the key points of the Fairness at Work White Paper are included.

There is also disquiet in Labour's ranks over the Welfare Reform Bill from Alistair Darling which is designed to reduce the burgeoning costs of disability benefits. Tougher medical tests for new claimants, the means-testing of incapacity benefit for the better-off and a stipulation that benefit claimants must seek work will all have their critics.

The Asylum and Immigration Bill may meet some criticism from civil rights groups over its provisions to remove cash benefits from those claiming refugee status and to dictate where they may live. But with figures showing that 60,000 asylum seekers who have entered Britain over the past decade have vanished without trace there is likely to be general support for tougher controls.

If the government goes ahead as promised with an Age of Consent Bill cutting the age for legal homosexual sex from 18 to 16 that will be fought hard in the Lords, where it was defeated before as part of a wider Bill, and there is likely to be opposition from some lawyers to the Lord Chancellor's plans in an Access to Justice Bill to give solicitors access to the higher courts along with barristers.

Measures expected to be listed in the Queen's speech include a Criminal Justice Bill giving greater protection to witnesses such as rape victims against cross-examination by defendants and an Electronic Exchange Bill liberalising the regulation on electronic information. There will be a local government Bill providing for elected mayors and local referendums and making provision for Government hit squads to be sent into failing authorities. An NHS Modernisation Bill will abolish the Tory Government's GP-fundholding scheme. This Bill is also expected to include the controversial plan for motorists insurance companies to have to pay the NHS up to _3,000 for the treatment of road accident victims.

The notable omissions from the programme of around 14 major Bills include John Prescott's two mooted bills for greater integration of our transport systems with congestion taxes and other "green" measures. Also missing is any bill to abolish fox-hunting. Hunt opponents had hoped for a Government Bill to replace the private member's bill from Michael Foster lost in the last session but ministers do not want to take the risk of a measure which could become bogged down in the Lords. They will wait for Lords reform to go through first.

A major casualty is the Freedom of Information Bill, a Labour manifesto commitment at every election since 1974 . The former Cabinet minister David Clark said that it was 90% ready before he was dropped from the government in July but the Bill has notable opponents in government, including Peter Mandelson and Alastair Campbell. There will be some embarrassment for the Prime Minister. He declared in March 1996 "It is not some isolated constitutional reform that we are proposing with a Freedom of Information Act. It is a change that is absolutely fundamental to how we see politics developing in this country over the next few years." The Government will produce a draft Bill to spare its blushes, but even that has now been delayed until January. In the summer more than 200 MPs signed a motion pressing for an FOI Bill.