King’s Speech

Lord Young of Old Windsor Excerpts

Wednesday 15th November 2023 Lords Chamber

[Lord Young of Old Windsor (CB) (Maiden Speech)]

My Lords, it is with some trepidation I rise to address your Lordships for the first time, especially as the stopwatch is on. I am told that a noble Lord was once reputed to have said, “I used to have recurring nightmares about addressing the House of Lords, and then one day I woke up and found that I was”. I know how he felt. I open by expressing my heartfelt thanks for the warmth of all those who have welcomed me to this place, especially the parliamentary staff and the door- keepers with their courteous good cheer, and my supporters, my noble friends Lord Janvrin and Lord Kakkar, for their comradeship and wise counsel.

I was introduced into your Lordships’ House this June, having spent some 20 years in the Royal Household, chiefly as the Private Secretary to the Queen until her sad death last year, and then as Joint Principal Private Secretary to our King. I come to this House as “Lord Young of Old Windsor”. The village of Old Windsor has happy family connections for me. As children, we had Sunday excursions there, led by my late parents—my mother was an NHS nurse and my father was a consultant anaesthetist at the Royal Berkshire Hospital. The title would also have appealed to my late boss’s crossword-solving mind: old can also mean “former”, and so Old Windsor can mean—well, your Lordships get the gist.

I learned so much from Her late Majesty about the nature of public service, decency and duty, and indeed about the stabilising sanctity of our constitutional settlement, and the part played by your Lordships’ House in ensuring the tripartite balance of Commons, Lords and Crown in Parliament. I came to understand the great faith that Her Majesty, and indeed Prince Philip, had in the abilities of their son, now our King. A faith well justified, as illustrated by his first 14 months as our sovereign, including of course his most recent visit to your Lordships’ House, where Commons and Lords were assembled together to receive the gracious Speech.

One of the things closest to the heart of our late Queen, and indeed of our King, is, of course, the Commonwealth. I will make three short points of my own on this topic. First, when we talk about the benefits of the Commonwealth, this need not always be simply about the UK improving itself. The brilliance of the Commonwealth goes far beyond the so-called CANZUK countries, and I increasingly detect an appetite for building fresh and equitable relationships in areas such as trade, climate, the environment, inter- cultural links, and peace and security in a troubled world, which in the long run improves us all.

My second point is that we could do more in this country to help people understand the Commonwealth. As the noble Lord, Lord Howell of Guildford, has eloquently pointed out, there is widespread public confusion between the number of realms, which has been naturally reducing for decades, and the number of Commonwealth member states, which is naturally increasing.

Finally, I would like to express my concern, which I know is shared by many in your Lordships’ House, about the current status of the Commonwealth Games. Compared with other international contests, these are more friendly and less commercial, give non-Olympic sports such as netball a chance to shine, and allow smaller countries the space to get their athletes on the scene. For the short term, I hope all is being done with the Commonwealth Games Federation and others to find a workable solution to allow the Games to go ahead in 2026. For the longer term, could it be time to explore fresh options for the staging of the Games, perhaps including different countries hosting different sporting events over the course of a year?

To conclude, I realise what a great privilege it is to be here, addressing your Lordships for the first time. It is my sincere hope that the experience I have gained in serving our late Queen and our King will be of some benefit to my contributions to the life and work of your Lordships’ House in the months and years to come.