Today's papers react to the government's Queen's Speech.

Times

Legislative proposals are not abstractions. They are inevitably a response to the complexity, diversity and developments of modern life. That politics is "reactive" is illustrated by the fact that it always seems to be the home secretary, regardless of personality or party, who claims the lion's share of the parliamentary timetable. His department's mission statement could be boiled down to the sentiment: "To react to whatever disaster has happened, is happening or might happen in the future".

Telegraph

Of all the constitutional constraints on Labour's leviathan state, there are only two left: the House of Lords and the judiciary. That is why the Queen's Speech included bills that will damage both. The expulsion of the remaining hereditary peers will remove one of the last elements of the Lords that owes nothing to prime ministerial patronage. The creation of a "supreme court", which would banish the law lords from sitting in the upper house, will remove the other.

FT

The Queen's Speech opened a stormy parliamentary session. There were the usual pledges to modernise this and reform that and place the other on a sound financial footing. In the end some of the promised legislation will to make it onto the statute book. The maximum [top-up] fee is too low but this piece of legislation is, on balance welcome. The removal of the 92 hereditary peers left in the Lords can expect stormy opposition. Michael Howard showed the extent to which the opposition has been reinvigorated by the arrival of a new leader.

Guardian

In the long run, two things will do more than anything else to determine the fate of Tony Blair's government in the next general election. The first is the situation in Iraq over the next 18 months. The second is whether public service delivery improves over the same period. Yet neither of these issues features particularly prominently in the legislative programme that will dominate the time of MPs and peers for the forthcoming year.

Independent

A term and a half into its life, it is striking how quickly the Blair government has lost its momentum. It represented an excellent opportunity to reinvigorate the government. There should have been much more about public services and reducing social inequality. That there was not speaks volumes.

Sun

We've campaigned for many years for new laws which will make vital changes to the lives of millions of families. We are delighted that the government has finally listened. The misery of women and children who suffer beatings will be eased by the new yellow-card plan... Children at risk, like poor little Victoria Climbie, will be protected by having their details on electronic files which social workers, hospitals and the police can access speedily. Bogus asylum seekers will be kicked out more quickly, the government says (though how many times have we heard that before?)... No reasonable person will object to any of these measures and the Tories - while meeting their duty to oppose - should not do so in such a way that delays any laws.

Mirror

Is this really the best Tony Blair and his ministers can do? They have achieved much in their six-plus years in power, but there is still a lot left for the run up to the next general election. Yet there is little inspiration in the plans presented in the Queen's Speech.

Mail

Yesterday he [Blair] tried to blame the Tories for Britain's ills - this when he has been in power since 1997. It is difficult to avoid the conclusion that this is a government adrift, irrelevant and going nowhere.

Express

Expecting people to pay thousands of pounds of additional university tuition fees shows the government has lost touch with the needs and aspirations of the very people who brought it to power. Backbenchers must refuse to vote through this despised policy.