80th Anniversary of Victory in Europe and Victory over Japan

Baroness Porter of Fulwood Excerpts

Friday 9th May 2025 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Porter of Fulwood (Con)]

My Lords, 80 years ago, my grandparents, Bert and Winnie Firmin, were at the theatre when the show was interrupted with the announcement that the war was over. Bert, stationed for the duration of the war on Malta as an RAF electrician working on Spitfires, had managed to get a few days’ leave to come home and marry Winnie. They wed on 7 May 1945. Peace was the best wedding present they could have had. Their story is a testament to the resilience and unity that defined a generation. Bert’s house in south-east London was destroyed early in the war. With no home of his own, he stayed with relatives in Bradford during his leave and met Winnie, who lived next door. She spent the war weaving nylon for parachutes.

After the war, they joined a self-build group in Essex, answering an advert in a paper. They purchased a potato field, alongside others, with a loan from the local council. Over several years, between them the group built 13 pairs of semi-detached houses. They dedicated every weekend and their precious annual leave to this endeavour. That street of houses still stands today.

Stories such as this, and all those we have heard today, are the legacy we have inherited: a legacy of perseverance, hope, courage, community and renewal. The war shaped Britain. It is a different country today from what it would have been otherwise. We are different today from how we would have been otherwise. As the noble Baroness, Lady Kingsmill, has already pointed out, peace, as we know, is not just not war; it is something in itself, something of substance that we build and shape.

I love the story about the street my grandfather helped build, because it is a story about people bringing what skills and abilities they had together and being stronger because of it. Many of the most acute challenges we currently face domestically require collective rebuilding. They require us to strengthen our communities and deepen the social bonds between people. This is as true when we talk about tackling loneliness as it is about tackling crime. It is also true as we look at the vast array of global challenges we face. As geopolitical tensions—many of which have been referred to today—mount, we must prioritise defence spending and evolve our focus to reflect growing threats from technological advances, including disinformation and cyberattacks.

It is not enough, though, to commit to raise our defence spending and to make sure that we have the right capabilities; we also need to encourage our allies to do likewise. We cannot act in isolation. We are only ever as strong as those stood alongside us. As we commemorate today, let us take the lessons from the stories we have heard on how to shape peace and forge preparedness.