Her Majesty the Queen’s Platinum Jubilee

Baroness Hayman of Ullock Excerpts

Thursday 26th May 2022 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Hayman of Ullock (Lab)]

My Lords, I am very pleased to follow the noble Baroness, Lady Neville-Rolfe, and to have the opportunity to congratulate Her Majesty the Queen on her Platinum Jubilee. Like others, I express my respect and admiration for her many years of service. However, unlike many previous speakers, I cannot remember the Coronation and I have never had the pleasure of meeting the Queen. I met her mother once, but that is a story for another day. As the longest-serving monarch that this country has ever seen, as for almost everybody in the country and beyond, she has been a constant presence throughout my life, and, coming to this debate, I was thinking about what form that has taken and what it has meant.

I had a very ordinary upbringing, but I have a very early memory, from when I was very small, of being taken with other children and my family to stand at the roadside with my flag because the Queen was coming to our town. It was so exciting. Everybody was there with their flags, and I have never forgotten that huge excitement. Later, as a child, I had school trips to the Commonwealth Institute, as I am sure many noble Lords did. I loved going there. As a country child, to go somewhere and see so much culture and difference, and to look at the world outside my own small place, was something I found very precious at the time. We all learned so much from what was there. The Queen’s commitment to the Commonwealth and the institute, which was there to help children learn, was a very important part of my childhood and has been important for many people right around the world.

My next memory is of the Silver Jubilee in 1977— I was still quite young then. Again, it felt like the whole village had climbed Beacon Hill to light the beacon. We stood there and watched all the other beacons lighting up in the distance—what an extraordinary experience. The cherry on the cake for me was that there was then a party at the “big house”. The big house was Highclere Castle, so I tell people when we watch Downton Abbey, “I’ve been to a party there”. Then there was the privilege of being elected as a Member of the other place and being able to go to a garden party in Buckingham Palace, and then coming here and being able to pledge my allegiance to Her Majesty. Doing the work we do here and being part of your Lordships’ House is the greatest privilege of my life.

I think now about how the Queen has threaded her way through my life and how she is now threading her way through my children’s and grandchildren’s lives. I had a photograph from my daughter-in-law this morning, showing my grandchildren with their faces painted with Union Jacks and all dressed up to go to the jubilee party at their nursery school. The Queen has had such a huge and positive influence on generations of this country. Everyone feels much calmer and more secure when they know that she is there—basically, with us. So I hope she enjoys her jubilee celebrations as much as the rest of us and wish her all my best.