Her Majesty the Queen’s Platinum Jubilee

Baroness Chapman of Darlington Excerpts

Thursday 26th May 2022 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Chapman of Darlington (Lab)]

My Lords, rather like my noble friend Lady Donaghy, I find myself surprisingly pleased to be taking part in this afternoon’s proceedings marking the Queen’s Jubilee. I was not raised a monarchist but it is nevertheless a huge honour and pleasure to take part. Reflecting on the decades of her reign before arriving here today, I was struck that many of us have always been Elizabethans. It is too soon to tell how this period will come to be characterised in the future, but I was struck by our Lord Speaker’s words before we began our discussions this afternoon when he said that this period would come to be known as a time of extraordinary change. I am sure that he is right about that. Some of the most tumultuous events in modern history are still, today, very fresh in our minds.

Pandemic disease threatening the lives and livelihoods of just about everyone on the planet is something few of us expected to see. There have been moments during the last two years where the Queen’s words and presence have led the nation in a subtle yet powerful way. During the first lockdown, when fear about the virus was at its height and when there was no mass testing and no vaccination, just the harshest of restrictions, the Queen addressed the nation with a message of reassurance and hope. As others have said, the continuity that she embodies came into its own at that moment. She told us we would all meet again; she told us that what we were experiencing was tough but that it would pass. She knew what the nation needed to hear and articulated it with empathy and simplicity.

Therefore, the loss of the Duke of Edinburgh in the spring of 2021, when restrictions were still in place, saddened many of us who may not have expected to be moved so much by his passing. I think that we all know someone who died during Covid and can relate completely to the pain of loss made sharper by our inability to mourn in the way that we normally would hope to—no large gatherings or hugs with cherished relatives who we had not seen for far too long.

The moving photograph of the Queen sitting alone at her husband’s funeral spoke to the nation of sacrifice and solidarity: that no matter who you are, the rules are the rules. Her quiet dignity at that moment resonated in a way that no State Opening or Trooping the Colour ever can. It showed a connection between the monarch and the people that ceremony and convention often obscures.

We do not yet know how the second Elizabethan era will be remembered, but we do know that Queen Elizabeth herself will always be admired, respected and loved by the people of this country for, let us hope, many years to come.