By Anna Browning BBC News in Westminster

The Queen making her way through Whitehall proved a tourist attraction

If anyone had feared controversial new proposals in the Queen's Speech to bring in ID cards and further tighten anti-terror laws would spark widespread protest on the streets of Westminster, they would have been mistaken.

While the spectacle of the Queen's Irish state coach flanked by guards undoubtedly drew the crowds on Tuesday, most of those present came to witness a picture-postcard British tradition first-hand - and little else.

In fact, Whitehall was eerily silent as thousands of tourists waited in hushed anticipation, cameras at the ready, for the arrival at Parliament of Her Majesty.

But that is not to say the tradition of exercising the right to free speech was totally absent.

Campaigner Brian Haw, who has been camped in Parliament Square, opposite the Palace of Westminster, since 2001, was there, as were a handful of other anti-war protesters, while another called for the pound to be saved.

I have never seen this before, only ever on TV so now I have had the opportunity to see it in the flesh Stephen Davis

Michael Culver said he was there to support Mr Haw on the day of the Queen's Speech, in protest at the "genocidal" government.

"Blair is trying to turn us into a police state," he complained.

"Everything is done in the name of terror, but terrorism is coming from the government."

But, for the most part, it was tourists who thronged Whitehall.

Nico Potgieter, 23, from South Africa, was on a bus when he decided to stop to see events.

"I'm just here for the spectacle," he said.

Prison governors Dennis Chirqwin and Stephen Davis, both from Belfast, were in London for work purposes, but had taken time out to see the Queen.

The spectacle attracted thousands - but few protesters

Mr Chirqwin, 50, said that after spending more than six years in the cavalry, where he had been on duty many times for the Queen's Speech, he had wanted to see "if they were still doing it as well".

He "didn't have any politics", and as for anti-terrorism legislation, he said: "We are quite used to terrorism and terrorists. We used to deal with them all the time - until they were all let out."

Mr Davis, 43, said: "I have never seen this before, only ever on TV so now I have had the opportunity to see it in the flesh."

May Johnson, 63, from Colorado, is visiting her daughter in London.

"I couldn't come all this way and not see the Queen," she said.