Queen's Speech 2014: Some things might be neither in nor out

The Queen's Speech will have several very well-trailed elements to it - the pensions reform for example, which will allow savers to pool their funds in a Dutch-style collective megafund.

And the help for pub landlords, which allowed Nick Clegg and Vince Cable to sit chummily in a pub on Tuesday morning, almost as if there hadn't been a coup staged against one by the other's best mate this time last week.

There will be an end to revolving door payoffs, to stop top public officials taking massive redundancy payments before walking into even bigger jobs, and a crackdown on modern day slavery.

But then there are the things that are rather more controversial. And this is where things get murky.

Recall of MPs

There has been much discussion today of whether the power to recall MPs will be announced on Wednesday or not.

This would mean an MP found guilty of serious wrongdoing could be forced to stand down by their constituents and face a by-election.

This is a bill that has gone through all sorts of contortions.

In the wake of the expenses scandal, the UK's main political parties all promised to introduce a recall mechanism.

But the draft bill produced by the government was considered a sham by many who favoured recall.

In its latest proposal, a parliamentary committee, not voters, would decide if an MP qualified for recall - and the proposed criteria is so narrow that an MP could break all pre-election promises.

I have been told that the recall bill was in the original draft - before the government asked for it to be withdrawn.

They feared that a recall bill could unleash "many more Newarks" - that is, a series of by-elections they don't have the time or the energy to fight.

Senior Lib Dems have told me it is now back in, but in a very vague form of words that will commit them to very little.

Then there is the EU referendum bill. Many Tory backbenchers have been keen to see the government include this in the Queen's Speech to pass the proposed referendum of 2017 into law.

But of course, this is highly controversial to their coalition partners.

Cigarette packets

So my understanding is - once again - it revolves around an agreed and rather tepid form of words, something along the lines, I'm told, of "a committing to leading a reform agenda across Europe".

Again, it is pretty hard for anyone to fault, but may please few - leading to a repeat private member's bill, nicknamed "Son of Wharton" after the one brought by James Wharton this time last year, and defeated in the Lords.

Another contentious area is the plain packaging of cigarettes.

The government has been tooing and frooing on this one and once again it could be happily fudged.

The government has said it is "minded" to introduce regulations for standardised packaging.

But don't hold your breath for anything concrete on this. It will probably get pushed to a final consultation, and then to a - wait for it - European technical standards directive three to six months down the line.

These are the sort of "barnacle" issues Tory strategist Lynton Crosby said the party would do better to avoid. So don't be surprised if this one gets flagged up then quietly pushed aside.

One thing is for sure: the speech will be pretty thin and may put few commitments in writing - a hokey cokey speech, when many things won't really be in or out, they'll be sweetly fudged.

For the libertarians who think the government does way too much legislating, that will at least be a blessed relief.