Address to Her Majesty: Platinum Jubilee

Flick Drummond Excerpts

Thursday 26th May 2022 Commons Chamber

[Mrs Flick Drummond (Meon Valley) (Con)]

It is an honour to speak in support of this Humble Address to Her Majesty the Queen on behalf of my constituents in Meon Valley. I was delighted yesterday to discuss Her Majesty’s long service with some children from Denmead Junior School in my constituency, who were here on a visit with the wonderful Parliament Education Centre. They were in the Monarch room. I met a group of school councillors, and we discussed how their work as representatives of their classes mirrors the work we do here in Parliament representing our constituents. I mentioned that I would be speaking today in this debate, and I asked them what messages they thought they might like to send to Her Majesty. The first response was that they would like to say thank you to her for being a “really nice monarch”. Another response was that Her Majesty

“has been amazing and helped our country”.

One remark, which I thought showed a precocious understanding of our constitution, said that Her Majesty “uses her powers wisely”. Sir Walter Bagehot would approve.

With Her Majesty’s expertise in our nation’s affairs stretching from Sir Winston Churchill to the present day, covering 14 Prime Ministers, I am sure she has always given wise counsel to those who carry on the business of Government in her name. I was also asked to pass on the children’s thanks for all Her Majesty’s patience and hard work. Everyone recognises how hard she has worked throughout her life, but I was struck by the word “patience”. She has remained patient and dignified, despite some vicious commentary at times in the media about her and her family, with which I think all hon. Members can empathise. I was pleased that the children recognised that there are bound to be times when being our sovereign is not easy or without complications, yet she has remained dignified and resolute.

Lastly, the council thanked Her Majesty for helping lots of different countries. She began her life as the daughter of a King Emperor and, during her reign, has seen the lives of millions of people transformed by the creation of democratic self-governing societies. Most of them have retained their links to us and to each other through the Commonwealth, and in many cases those links have been strengthened through migration. As head of the Commonwealth, she has been the most respected figure in world affairs throughout her reign, and I know that the jubilee will be marked around the world as an expression of love for our sovereign.

My life began in Aden, which was a British protectorate, and I spent most of my childhood in Commonwealth countries in the middle east while my father served Her Majesty for 46 years. In every country, she is recognised as a symbol of stability and continuity. Many millions of people have served in her name, as my father did, and she is a veteran herself, as she served in the Auxiliary Territorial Service during world war two. In the armed forces, she and other women of her generation were trailblazers in roles that were previously not open to them. Over the years, her successors have been able to break into more and more careers that were previously reserved for men. In the armed forces in particular, I am pleased that we are finally doing away with the last anachronisms of ranks that reflect an assumption that they are held by men.

I end by reflecting again on how pleased I was by the response of the children I met at Denmead Junior School yesterday. It gives me confidence that Her Majesty is an example of the values that we should all aspire to and hope that our children adopt, and that continue to resonate with people whose lives will stretch well beyond ours. Long may she reign.