Thank you Madam Deputy Speaker,
I am here today to convey the gratitude of my constituents to her Late Majesty Queen Elizabeth II for her life of service.
She was not simply our Queen, and the Defender of the Faith: she was the mother of our nation. For many of us, our grief is comparable to that we would feel at the passing of a member of our own family. We loved her, and now we have lost her. And we shall not see her like again.
The Queen is part of the fabric of our identity. She has been a ubiquitous presence in the cultural life of the United Kingdom, and the Commonwealth for over 70 years. Throughout our lives she has smiled back at us: from our TV screens, from stamps, and from coins, and during her many public engagements. She partook in our nation’s triumphs but also also in its suffering: she was with us in good times, and in bad.
To borrow a phrase from Shakespeare, she was “constant as the Northern Star”. Because she has reigned over us for so long it was easy to fool ourselves that she would be with us forever – that she was somehow exempt from the rules of nature by virtue of her longevity and her personal qualities. Now she is gone, we are reminded of just how unique she was, and how irreplaceable. My grandfather, who incidentally used to regale me with stories of gathering around the only television in the street to watch the coronation, used to say to me “you don’t miss the water ‘til the well runs dry”, and how right he was. We are richer as a country for having been blessed with a monarch like Elizabeth II, and poorer now at her passing.
She is, quite simply, the greatest sovereign in over a thousand years of the monarchy in this country. Her death leaves a hole in the lives of people across my constituency – and in the lives of those across the United Kingdom, the Commonwealth and the world. Her Majesty was the embodiment of our nation’s shared values. Her life of humble service, her stoicism, her diligent and personable commitment to her engagements, her sense of duty and self-sacrifice, her unfailing dependability: these are the pillars of her enduring legacy. This is the benchmark she has set to all the kings and queens that come after her – not a tough act to follow, but an impossible one.
The Queen was still working into her 97th year – some thirty years after most people have retired. Her energy and her willingness to shoulder the weighty responsibility bestowed upon her with dignity, courage and good humour should serve as an example to us all.
Cumbria was one of the Queen’s favourite places, and I know her family will take heart from the fact that her affection for this county was very much reciprocated by its people.
Queen Elizabeth visited our towns and cities across the years many times over her long and glorious reign – and was always given a right royal Cumbrian welcome by adoring crowds. During her many visits to the region, she spent time in Carlisle, Barrow, Ulverston, Kendal Windermere and also in West Cumbria where she looked very confused by the sight of an Egremont gurner. And earlier this year, she was pictured with two of her Cumbrian Fell ponies to mark Her Majesty’s 96th birthday.
It was only three months ago that we gathered across Cumbria, alongside people around the world, to celebrate her Platinum Jubilee.
And now we are united again, this time in grief but also in gratitude. Thank you Ma’am, for everything.
GOD SAVE THE KING!
