Her Majesty the Queen’s Platinum Jubilee

Baroness Wheeler Excerpts

Thursday 26th May 2022 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Wheeler (Lab)]

My Lords, I am very pleased to contribute to today’s debate. I have heard with great interest the range of contributions from noble Lords paying tribute to Her Majesty in celebration of the forthcoming Platinum Jubilee weekend. As usual in your Lordships’ House, as varied as the speeches have been, they have gelled together extremely well to paint a full picture of Her Majesty’s remarkable life and work.

A number of noble Lords have related their own memorable and moving experiences of meeting the Queen. Although I have not had that privilege, my own memory is of being a young working-class child living in south London in the post-war early 1950s and celebrating the Queen’s Coronation Day, with my own Coronation dress, Coronation mug and Coronation doll—but not a beer mug, as the noble Lord, Lord Newby, recollected. I was also convinced that I saw the Queen’s carriage go along the street I lived in. However, unless the carriage passed down the Old Kent Road and Camberwell Green on its way from Buckingham Palace to Westminster Abbey, that memory is obviously a mistaken one.

I remember all of us sitting around a very crackly wireless and listening to the Coronation. What was clear to me, even at that young age, was the strong and solid support that the monarchy enjoyed among working-class communities struggling to recover from the devastation of the Second World War. The young princess shortly to become Queen provided people with hope for the future and, as we have heard, has succeeded during her long reign in retaining and building respect, trust and admiration across the UK among our diverse communities and nations.

We have heard much today about the Queen’s famous work ethic. In the short time available, I would like to underline this in respect of her unique role in supporting charities. As we celebrate her long reign, recent research by the Charities Aid Foundation has shown that she is among the world’s greatest supporters of charities, helping to raise more than £1.4 billion. Clearly, she has ensured that the Royal Family maintains this as an essential part of its work. The Queen is a patron of 519 charities, including Cancer Research, the British Red Cross and Barnardo’s; her wider family supports 2,215 charities in Britain, rising to nearly 3,000 worldwide.

The Queen is a patron of one of the excellent charities I am involved in: the Stroke Association. Her role as patron is greatly valued and appreciated by the association. I have been a strong supporter of its work since joining your Lordships’ House in 2010 and as a carer of a disabled adult stroke recoverer. Stroke strikes every five minutes in the UK and 100,000 people have strokes each year. It is a leading cause of death and adult disability in the UK, with more than two-thirds of people suffering a stroke leaving hospital with a disability.

The Queen’s sister, Princess Margaret, died of a stroke after having had several previously. The Princess Margaret Fund for stroke research was established in her name. It provides a unique opportunity for people who care about stroke to invest in areas of stroke research that have the greatest potential to change our understanding of this disease and develop new life-saving treatments. Stroke research is vital to drive improvements in care and treatment but has been historically underfunded, receiving only a fraction of the research investment in other comparable life-threatening conditions. Annual research per stroke patient in the UK is £48 but it is £241 for cancer, so there is a great deal of catching up to do.

Stroke is a complex condition. A wide range of healthcare professionals are involved across the stroke care pathway, from GPs, primary care, ambulance paramedics, hospital doctors, specialists, nurses and support staff through to key rehabilitation specialists. The Stroke Association is campaigning vigorously to ensure that acute staff shortages in many areas of the stroke pathway can be addressed, in particular for the game-changing acute treatment for many strokes of thrombectomy to be available to all who would benefit from it. Thrombectomy is an extremely cost-effective treatment that reduces the chances of disabilities such as paralysis, blindness and aphasia. So watch out for the association’s July campaign on this vital issue, of which I feel certain Her Majesty would fully approve.

I too am very much looking forward to the jubilee celebrations and I pay tribute to all those who have worked so hard and played such a vital part in designing, planning and organising the exciting and imaginative events and initiatives taking place up and down the country. The one I especially commend is the inspirational Queen’s Green Canopy, inviting us to plant a tree for the jubilee. As well as inviting the planting of new trees, the QGC highlights 70 unique and irreplaceable ancient woodlands across the UK. We have seen how hundreds of families, especially children and children’s groups, have taken up the challenge to plant trees, with special environmental and horticultural projects running alongside the canopy initiative to encourage young people in particular to get involved and to think about taking up careers in this important work through such initiatives as the Junior Forester Award. The BBC’s excellent “Countryfile” programme has played a key role in building understanding of how crucial trees are for people and nature and for encouraging communities in all parts of the UK to be a part of the Green Canopy. The need both to protect our existing wood stock and to increase the percentage of the UK under tree cover could not be more important to the future of our planet. Having the Green Canopy as an inspirational and core part of the jubilee celebrations reinforces this crucial message.

Finally, I stress that I am particularly pleased and honoured to be attending the National Service of Thanksgiving to celebrate the Platinum Jubilee at St Paul’s Cathedral next weekend. I am looking forward to what will be a very memorable occasion.