Her Majesty the Queen’s Platinum Jubilee

Lord Cormack Excerpts

Thursday 26th May 2022 Lords Chamber

[Lord Cormack (Con)]

My Lords, it is a great pleasure to follow that delightful speech by my noble friend Lord Bellingham, with its many interesting anecdotes. I am a contemporary of the noble Lord, Lord Hacking, and one of my earliest memories is being shushed by my parents to listen to the King on the radio. I think, because the Queen has reigned for so long, her beloved father—and she still regards him as such—has tended to be forgotten by many people. Most people in this country have lived only in the reign of our Queen, but he was an extraordinary unifying force during the last war. My parents almost venerated the King and there was tremendous sadness when he died, at a young age, as the noble Lord, Lord Hacking, said, with most people not being aware that he was very ill. I remember that, at my school, we were all issued with black armbands, which we wore until after the King’s funeral—itself an extraordinary solemn occasion.

All your Lordships will have seen the photographs—as far as I am concerned, a year before television—of the three Queens together: our Queen, the Queen Mother and Queen Mary. It was an extraordinary sight. We also all remember the photographs to which the noble Lord, Lord Hacking, referred of the Queen’s plane landing and her being greeted by her Prime Minister Winston Churchill, whom she regarded as a very great man indeed—and of course he was.

This morning, I went to the Ascension Day service at the abbey. As I sat there, inevitably I thought of this debate and the events of the Coronation—an extraordinary day, which I watched, as did the noble Lord, Lord Hacking, on a very grainy television. This was in the drawing room of our choirmaster Mr Bradley, and every time the national anthem was played we stood up. The rain and Queen Sālote were perhaps two of the imperishable memories of the Coronation.

As a schoolboy then, I never thought that I would have the enormous privilege and honour of being present at the three jubilees we have celebrated in Parliament. The Silver Jubilee was in 1977. Ten years ago, we had the Diamond Jubilee, but the one that was most personal to me was the Golden Jubilee. I happened to be treasurer of the CPA at the time and, with the chairman, had the enormous privilege of escorting the Queen and Prince Philip around Lancaster House and presenting the various groups of Commonwealth parliamentarians who had gathered for that special conference.

It was remarkable that they had been to all those countries. I presented the delegation from Malta, which was where the Queen and Prince Philip had perhaps the happiest days of their life before she succeeded, because he was there as a naval officer and she was there as his wife. They knew so much more about Malta than the Maltese MPs who were there, and the same was true of many of the other countries. Some of the little remarks they made as we moved around, about the countries and the people, I would not dream of repeating on the Floor of the House, but they showed two things—a wonderful knowledge and a real affection. The affection of the Commonwealth parliamentarians was palpable, as they greeted their sovereign and Prince Philip. It was quite extraordinary.

She has been a thread of continuity and a rock of stability throughout our lives. I count our country extremely fortunate in having a monarchy. She is the 40th from William the Conqueror but, since the Roman legions left in the fifth century, we have always had a monarch, even before the creation of England and, much later, the United Kingdom. There can be no monarch who has ever given a more devoted and wonderful service to their people than our Queen. She has been the epitome of all that is best in our national life.

I think of the divisiveness of political heads of state: Trump in America, for instance, or the recent, rather bitter election in France, which resulted in the return of President Macron—I was pleased about that, by the way. We have someone who can unite the people by not being allied with any political party or faction and who can also give this extraordinary continuity, through many decades in the case of the Queen. There is no word that is more abused in the English language than “unique”—but we are living through a unique period at the moment. Clearly none of us will ever see this again, but probably nobody ever in the history of this country, certainly not for many decades or even centuries, will have the opportunity to honour someone who for seven decades—the biblical term of life—has been at the forefront of all that is best in the United Kingdom.

We have heard some marvellous anecdotes today. We had a wonderful account from the Master of the Horse, and we had a very moving speech from the noble and learned Lord, Lord Judge. The noble Lord, Lord Coaker, a few minutes ago, and the noble Lord, Lord Khan of Burnley, were the only ones I disagreed with—I hope she is never invited to open a House of Lords in Burnley, and we shall all do our best to make sure that that never comes about. But how wonderful that we in this House today, which is so special and in which we have a constant reminder of the Queen, are united. There is nothing that divides us today in our affection, loyalty and admiration. Long live the Queen!