During the State Opening of Parliament on Wednesday, the rituals and theatrics of the constitutional monarchy were on full display, designed to project stability and bestow legitimacy during transitions of power.

The scarlet robes and royal trumpeters may have seemed especially over the top when power passed from one Conservative Party government to another under a succession of five Conservative prime ministers. But Wednesday really did mark a dramatic moment here.

As a result of the landslide election on July 4, the key players have swapped roles. Household names have been written out of the script. New plotlines are emerging.

Processing into Westminster on Wednesday, new Prime Minister Keir Starmer and defeated prime minister Rishi Sunak chatted in a friendly, animated fashion, like sportsmen after a hard-fought match. Sunak remains head of the Conservative Party — now relegated to the opposition benches — until his replacement is chosen.

Starmer and his cabinet picks officially started on July 5. Already, Starmer has represented Britain at NATO, shaken hands with President Biden in the Oval Office and ditched some of Sunak’s plans, such as deporting asylum seekers to Rwanda. But Wednesday was when the new government laid out its priorities, defining the “change” slogan at the heart of Labour’s winning election campaign.

In a speech read, in accordance with tradition, by the monarch, the government detailed ambitious legislative goals, with a raft of 40 bills on the way.

“Even just the crude number of bills” speaks to the “level of ambition” of this new government, said Anand Menon, a politics professor at King’s College London. Sunak’s government mentioned 21 bills last time.

Some of Labour’s bills reflect big ideas about wealth creation, green power, and the importance of government intervention. There are also smaller (but popular) ideas about getting the buses to run on time out in the countryside.

The new government repeatedly stressed its social democratic visions, vowing that “securing economic growth will be a fundamental mission.” Britain is the sixth largest economy in the world, but people here have felt the pinch of wages falling behind the costs of daily life. And growing the economy will be essential to fund all that Labour wants to do without broadly raising taxes.

The new administration will also “reset the relationship with European partners,” a turning of the page from the Brexit years that so dominated the Conservative era.

Because Labour won such an overwhelming majority of seats in Parliament, there is little to stop the party — except the country’s coffers. As incoming Finance Minister Rachel Reeves put it, this government inherited “the worst set of circumstances since the Second World War.”

The first lines of the King’s Speech began: “My government will govern in service to the country. My government’s legislative program will be mission led and based upon the principles of security, fairness and opportunity for all.”

That may resonate with this king, who has framed his own job as being in service to the people.

Charles read the speech in a dispassionate voice. He is expected to remain nonpartisan. But he is also known as a lifelong climate advocate — which created some awkwardness during the last King’s Speech, when he had to read out the Sunak government’s plans for a new system for awarding oil and gas licenses.

This time, Charles read, “My government recognizes the urgency of the global climate challenge.”

Center-left Labour argues that economic growth and a green energy transition don’t need to be in tension. As part of its “Green Prosperity Plan,” it has pledged to help create 650,000 jobs by 2030, as well as to work with the private sector to double onshore wind, triple solar power, and quadruple offshore wind.

Labour wants to create a public-owned green energy utility. It wants to boost the economy by encouraging the construction of homes and infrastructure. It wants to stop local governments from blocking new building.

“Now is the time to take the brakes off Britain,” Starmer said in a statement released before the speech. “For too long people have been held back, their paths determined by where they came from — not their talents and hard work.”

Starmer is the most working-class leader of Britain in a generation. As everyone who listened to his stump speeches knows, his mother was a nurse and his father was a toolmaker. Starmer was the first in the family to attend a university. He went on to become a human rights lawyer, and was knighted for his service as the Britain’s chief prosecutor, before entering politics at age 52.

Labour’s agenda promised new powers to metropolitan mayors, while giving local leaders control over bus routes, a source of much grumbling about dismal service and hours-long waits in the rural districts.

Starmer already scrapped his predecessor’s plans to deport asylum seekers to Rwanda, but Wednesday’s speech added that the new government would establish a new “border security command” to tackle “immigration crime” and “smash the gangs” behind the small boats crossing the English Channel.

Wednesday was of the most high-visibility days for Charles since he revealed in February that he was beginning treatment for cancer. (What kind of cancer and what kind of treatment have not been disclosed.)

The rituals of the State Opening of Parliament involve many oddities. Before the king’s arrival, royal bodyguards searched the cellars for explosives. This is a nod to Guy Fawkes’s 1605 “gunpowder plot,” a botched attempt by English Catholics to blow up Protestant King James I and Parliament.

Also by tradition, Black Rod, a senior official in the House of Lords, had the door to the House of Commons slammed in her face — representing the House of Commons’ independence from the monarch.

Another lawmaker was held “hostage” at Buckingham Palace during the ceremony, which is meant to guarantee the monarch’s safe return.