Queen’s Speech

Baroness Fraser of Craigmaddie Excerpts

Tuesday 10th May 2022 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Fraser of Craigmaddie (Con)]

My Lords, I second my noble friend’s Motion for an humble Address.

I am very aware of the immense honour that I have been given today, and while your Lordships have been enjoying Prorogation and what was hopefully a convivial lunch, I have felt the pressure of being the after-lunch entertainment. However, I am fortunate to follow my noble friend Lord Sherbourne of Didsbury who, with his exceptional speech, has fulfilled the duty of amusing your Lordships far more ably than I possibly could.

Certainly, the silver lining of this responsibility today is that in the preparation, I have had the good fortune and opportunity to get to know my noble friend Lord Sherbourne, whose stellar reputation for being a man you want standing by your side in challenging times goes before him. He is a man who knows what he likes, particularly in the culinary sphere, and I discovered that, when on official UK government business abroad, in countries where perhaps the cuisine might be a little exotic, he always had a secret supply of Mars bars, cashew nuts and Evian water to keep him going. I hope he has enjoyed suitable refreshments over lunch today, and I thank him for his kindness and support.

I also pay tribute to my noble friend Lady Sanderson of Welton, in whose daunting footsteps I follow this afternoon. She has had the misfortune to end up sharing an office with me, but her patience, advice and directions to this newcomer have been very welcome, and I am fortunate to be able to refer to her, in its fullest sense, as my noble friend.

I am delighted to see so many of you here today. It was in the debate following the gracious Speech last year that I made my maiden speech, but it was only a hybrid proceeding and numbers in the Chamber were still restricted, so, compared with today, it was empty. I live in hope that my future contributions to debates will attract such a full audience. Having joined your Lordships’ House during the strange times of Covid, I have very little concept of what it is to be normal in this place. For me, the Bishops’ Bar was where I went to pick up lateral flow tests, so I hope your Lordships will forgive me if I take a little longer than usual to pick up your ways and traditions.

My brief from the Chief Whip for this afternoon was to keep it light and “don’t be controversial”. I am doing my best, but it might prove a little difficult for someone who describes herself as a Scottish Tory Peer and a woman. I shall leave it to your Lordships to decide which of those descriptions, if any, is the most controversial. Thinking of women whom I admire from this place, I was particularly proud to attend my first State Opening of Parliament wearing a robe that was kindly lent to me by my noble friend Lady Sater—and which had previously belonged to Baroness Trumpington. I was told not to be crude, as well.

Like my noble friend Lord Sherbourne, I was drawn to the fact that this is Her Majesty’s Platinum Jubilee year, and it was a privilege to hear the Duke of Rothesay—as we call him in Scotland—read the gracious Speech. It strikes me that after 70 years, despite the remarks of my noble friend Lord Sherbourne, our generation probably do not appreciate the relative rarity in our country’s history of a Queen’s Speech, as opposed to a King’s Speech.

My research also led me to the proposer and seconder of the Motion in November 1952. I was given the impression that it was tradition for the seconder to be a younger Member. I appreciate that the definition of “younger” is rather loose in your Lordships’ House, but, in 1952, Viscount Buckmaster fulfilled the task. He described himself as being “in the autumn” of his “political life”, and opened his remarks by noting,

“I was privileged to be present at the Diamond Jubilee and so witnessed the end of the reign of one Queen—that of Queen Victoria—and now I am privileged to witness the beginning of a reign of another Queen, Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II.”—[Official Report, 4/11/1952; col. 11.]

I am clinging for comfort to the fact that, when I fill out the Members’ survey in your Lordships’ House, I am still in the lowest of the age categories offered.

Turning to the gracious Speech, it was noted that we are in challenging times. I commend our commitment to supporting the people of Ukraine; surely none of us present in the other place to hear the address of President Zelensky will forget his bravery and fortitude. I, like many others, will continue to do all that I can from this House to ensure that we support the Government to fulfil this promise, not only through our Armed Forces and NATO but in the way we welcome Ukrainian refugees to the United Kingdom and in how we support organisations in Ukraine and neighbouring countries to help the most vulnerable victims of this war.

As a leader of a health charity, I was also pleased to note the commitment to reducing Covid backlogs in the NHS and provisions for the reform of the Mental Health Act. The opportunity to build on the Health and Care Act from the last Session and to put mental health on a par with physical health cannot be wasted.

As I like to highlight Scotland at every opportunity, I was pleased to hear my hometown of Glasgow mentioned, thanks to COP 26. The commitment to improving transport links across the UK not only will benefit the venerable members of the association of Scottish Peers but is important to supporting the very structure of our precious United Kingdom. The gracious Speech laid out a full programme of legislation for the whole of the United Kingdom, and I look forward to the expertise of this House engaging in some of the more technical aspects. I know there will be others, not just me, who are extremely excited at the prospect of many hours discussing GDPR reform.

Finally, I think I have at last understood why the Chief Whip asked me to second the Motion today, as it prevents me saying anything further in this debate over the coming days about Channel 4 and the importance of its commissioning to the independent production sector in Scotland.

Despite the challenges ahead, I look forward to this Session with optimism and hope. The Platinum Jubilee is an extraordinary historical moment, and how wonderful it is that we in this House have the opportunity to serve our United Kingdom and shape our future history. In this spirit, I beg to second the Motion.