22/04/2016 The Week in Parliament


22/04/2016

Similar Content

Browse content similar to 22/04/2016. Check below for episodes and series from the same categories and more!

Transcript


LineFromTo

Hello and welcome to The Week In Parliament.

0:00:120:00:14

As the government's housing bill takes another hammering

0:00:140:00:17

in the Lords, we ask one of its leading opponents why peers

0:00:170:00:20

are so against the plans.

0:00:200:00:23

The effect of the policy is to reduce the opportunities

0:00:230:00:27

for social rented, affordable rented housing for those

0:00:270:00:31

who are on the lowest income.

0:00:310:00:33

The Government comes under fire over plans to turn all schools

0:00:330:00:36

in England into academies.

0:00:360:00:38

Teachers don't want it, parents don't want it,

0:00:380:00:41

governors don't want it and teachers don't want it, even his

0:00:410:00:43

own MPs don't want it.

0:00:430:00:47

I would say to outstanding or good schools they have nothing to fear

0:00:470:00:50

from becoming academies but a huge amount to gain.

0:00:500:00:55

And it's congratulations to Lib Dem John Thurso who's won

0:00:560:00:59

what must be the world's most exclusive election - to regain

0:00:590:01:02

a seat in the House of Lords.

0:01:020:01:04

But first, it's been another difficult week for the government

0:01:050:01:08

in the Lords with peers defeating yet more of its legislation.

0:01:080:01:10

They turned their fire once again on the Housing and Planning Bill,

0:01:100:01:15

one of the Conservatives' flagship policies in their

0:01:150:01:17

manifesto last year.

0:01:170:01:19

On Monday, the bill took a battering over the government's so-called

0:01:190:01:22

pay-to-stay plan for social housing tenants in England.

0:01:220:01:25

The bill proposes that subsidised rents for households earning more

0:01:250:01:30

than ?31,000, or 40,000 in London, be scrapped, with council tenants

0:01:300:01:34

being asked to pay rent at or near market rates.

0:01:340:01:39

But peers backed raising the thresholds when the higher rents

0:01:390:01:42

would kick in, slowing the rate at which they would rise and making

0:01:420:01:46

it voluntary for councils to adopt the new rules.

0:01:460:01:49

It has become increasingly clear that the pay to stay proposals

0:01:500:01:55

are in reality a backdoor form of taxation.

0:01:550:01:59

Local authorities will collect the money but the Chancellor

0:01:590:02:03

gets to keep the income.

0:02:040:02:07

How else could you describe this other than a locally collected tax?

0:02:070:02:13

This is I'm afraid one of those ideas which probably looks good

0:02:130:02:18

in the confines of the Treasury or in the rarefied world of special

0:02:180:02:24

advisers in Number 10 but in the real world outside it

0:02:240:02:29

doesn't look so good.

0:02:290:02:31

I do think this is spiteful.

0:02:310:02:33

I think it is unnecessary.

0:02:330:02:35

I don't think it will bring in much income.

0:02:350:02:38

I do not see why council tenants are expected to contribute

0:02:380:02:43

to reducing the deficit in this way when we are not.

0:02:430:02:48

My Lords, the policy is about fairness and our view

0:02:480:02:51

is that social housing at lower rents should be provided to those

0:02:510:02:55

households who need it most.

0:02:550:02:57

Households who remain in social housing but can pay more should

0:02:570:03:01

be expected to do so.

0:03:010:03:04

At the same time, the government is making home ownership more

0:03:040:03:07

accessable for tenants of both local authorities and housing associations

0:03:070:03:13

through the right to buy and shared ownership.

0:03:130:03:17

But at the end of the debate peers rejected those arguments

0:03:190:03:21

and defeated the government by 64 votes.

0:03:210:03:24

That means the bill has been defeated a grand total

0:03:240:03:27

of eight times so far, making it one of the most defeated

0:03:270:03:30

pieces of legislation of David Cameron's premiership.

0:03:300:03:34

And it's still got one more day of detailed scrutiny to go.

0:03:340:03:38

So just why are their Lordships so against it?

0:03:380:03:41

Among those unhappy with the bill is the president

0:03:410:03:44

of the Local Government Association and former head of the civil

0:03:440:03:46

service Lord Kerslake, who we saw in action there.

0:03:460:03:50

When he came into the studio I asked him why the House of Lords

0:03:500:03:53

disliked the bill so much.

0:03:530:03:55

There are some of the proposals in the bill that the

0:03:550:03:58

Lords just don't like.

0:03:580:04:00

For example, they're really concerned about proposals that give

0:04:000:04:04

opportunities to those who are on middle and higher

0:04:040:04:07

incomes at the expense of those on lower incomes

0:04:070:04:11

who desperately need housing.

0:04:110:04:13

But there's also a concern about whether the bill was really

0:04:130:04:16

ready when it came into the Lords.

0:04:160:04:19

A lot of missing detail, a lot of details which had to be

0:04:190:04:22

clarified as the bill has progressed and because they couldn't see

0:04:220:04:26

the detail there was a tendency to try and put that detail

0:04:260:04:29

on the face of the bill.

0:04:290:04:32

Let's look at some of the things the House of Lords have inserted

0:04:320:04:35

into this bill.

0:04:350:04:36

One of them is that very local parish councils should be able

0:04:360:04:39

to appeal against developments if they think they go

0:04:390:04:42

against the local plan.

0:04:420:04:43

Shouldn't you be doing everything that you can

0:04:430:04:45

to encourage houses to be built?

0:04:450:04:48

We want to see more houses built, I'm sure that's true

0:04:480:04:50

across the House of Lords, but there's also a very strong view

0:04:500:04:53

about local power and local initiative and making sure that

0:04:530:04:58

when plans are agreed they absolutely go with the grain

0:04:580:05:02

of local sentiment.

0:05:020:05:04

You've also raised the threshold at which people in social housing

0:05:040:05:07

have to pay a higher rent or in future will have to pay it.

0:05:070:05:10

If you live in London, you can now be earning ?50,000

0:05:100:05:14

before you have to start paying a higher rent.

0:05:140:05:17

For people on very low-income jobs, that will seem like

0:05:170:05:19

an awful lot of money.

0:05:190:05:21

Let's start with what's going on here.

0:05:210:05:24

This is about household income, not about individuals' incomes,

0:05:240:05:28

so two people on really quite modest jobs, for example, a teaching

0:05:280:05:34

assistant or a caretaker, you add up the incomes

0:05:340:05:36

and they will go over the so-called threshold

0:05:360:05:39

that the government have created...

0:05:390:05:41

But with that you could be one person on a good income with no

0:05:410:05:45

dependents and not the pay the rent.

0:05:450:05:47

That's right and the problem is raising income through this route.

0:05:470:05:51

What is happening is this extra income is not going back

0:05:510:05:54

into benefiting the tenants who are part of the housing

0:05:540:05:58

association or local authority, it's going back to the Chancellor.

0:05:580:06:02

It's a form of taxation.

0:06:020:06:04

This bill has really taken a battering in the Lords.

0:06:040:06:07

There have been eight defeats so far, will there be more to come?

0:06:070:06:10

Difficult to tell.

0:06:100:06:11

Monday is the last day of report as it's called and we will see

0:06:110:06:15

what comes out of that stage of the debate so there

0:06:150:06:18

could be more defeats.

0:06:180:06:20

We then go into third reading and ping-pong.

0:06:200:06:25

How problematic is it for the government and the civil

0:06:250:06:27

service if bills are very much torn apart in this way?

0:06:270:06:31

It depends on what happens next.

0:06:310:06:33

The Lords recognise that where there's a manifesto commitment

0:06:330:06:37

from government we have to respect that and our role

0:06:370:06:40

is to review, revise, improve.

0:06:400:06:43

So as we go into the final stages of this bill there will be

0:06:430:06:46

an appetite to see - can we reach agreement?

0:06:460:06:49

A compromise?

0:06:490:06:51

I very much hope the government is in listening mode.

0:06:510:06:55

I know that peers want to find ways of agreeing and if we can do that

0:06:550:07:02

then perhaps some of these deeply difficult issues can be addressed.

0:07:020:07:07

Do you think it would be better if the government actually went back

0:07:070:07:10

to the drawing board and started again?

0:07:100:07:12

I suspect they wouldn't see it that way and there's been

0:07:120:07:15

a lot of work done here.

0:07:150:07:16

I do genuinely think that there are some difficult issues

0:07:160:07:19

but if we really work hard over the next two weeks we can actually

0:07:190:07:23

address quite a lot of the genuine concerns there are about the bill

0:07:230:07:27

as currently drafted.

0:07:270:07:29

This is no way to make legislation.

0:07:290:07:30

A last-minute dash to get anything done before the end of the session.

0:07:300:07:34

I would share that view.

0:07:340:07:36

I'm a new peer and it's been an instruction from me.

0:07:360:07:40

Perhaps the lesson learnt here is that more time at the front

0:07:400:07:45

of the process would ease the passage of the bill

0:07:450:07:49

and actually get the work done to the same timetable.

0:07:490:07:53

Thank you very much.

0:07:530:07:56

Lord Kerslake.

0:07:580:07:59

Now to Prime Minister's Questions where David Cameron defended his

0:07:590:08:02

plans to force all schools in England to become academies free

0:08:020:08:05

from local authority control.

0:08:050:08:08

The Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn attacked the idea, describing it

0:08:080:08:11

as a top-down reorganisation that even senior Conservatives opposed.

0:08:110:08:16

Could the Prime Minister explain why he is intent on forcing good

0:08:170:08:21

and outstanding schools to become academies against the wishes

0:08:210:08:26

of teachers, parents, school governors and local councils?

0:08:260:08:32

The short answer is because we want schools to be run by head teachers

0:08:320:08:37

and teachers are not by bureaucrats.

0:08:370:08:40

That is why we support the policy.

0:08:400:08:43

We also support it because of the clear evidence of academies.

0:08:430:08:47

If you look at converter academies, 88% of them are either

0:08:470:08:51

good or outstanding, and, if you look at schools

0:08:510:08:54

started by academies, they see a 10% improvement

0:08:540:08:56

on average over the first two years.

0:08:560:08:59

The results are better education is improving,

0:08:590:09:02

I say let's complete the work.

0:09:020:09:05

Can the Prime Minister explain why good school leaders should

0:09:050:09:08

focus their time and resources not on educating children

0:09:080:09:12

but on arbitrary changes imposed from above?

0:09:120:09:17

Let me make two points on the specific issue

0:09:170:09:20

he raises on spending.

0:09:200:09:21

I would say to outstanding or to good schools, they have

0:09:210:09:24

nothing to fear from becoming academies but a huge amount to gain.

0:09:240:09:30

Mr Speaker, we appear to be heading into some kind of fantasy land here.

0:09:300:09:35

The Institute for Fiscal Studies states that school spending

0:09:350:09:40

is expected it to fall by at least 7% in real terms in

0:09:400:09:48

the next four years.

0:09:480:09:50

The biggest cuts since the 1970s.

0:09:500:09:53

Why on earth is the Prime Minister proposing to spend ?1.3 billion

0:09:530:10:00

in a top-down reorganisation that wasn't in his manifesto?

0:10:000:10:05

Teachers don't want it, parents don't want it,

0:10:050:10:07

governors don't want it, headteachers don't want it,

0:10:070:10:10

even his own MPs and councillors don't want it.

0:10:100:10:14

Can't he just think again and support schools and education,

0:10:140:10:18

not force this on them?

0:10:180:10:25

Let me answer his question very directly.

0:10:250:10:26

We have of course protected spending per pupil all the way

0:10:260:10:29

through the last Parliament and all the way through this

0:10:290:10:32

Parliament.

0:10:320:10:33

We are spending ?7 billion on more school places to make up

0:10:330:10:37

for the woeful lack of action under the last Labour government.

0:10:370:10:41

David Cameron, with, as ever, the last word

0:10:420:10:44

at Prime Minister's Questions.

0:10:440:10:46

The so-called Islamic State group is guilty of genocide

0:10:460:10:50

against Christian, Yazidi and other ethnic groups in Syria and Iraq.

0:10:500:10:55

That was the view of MPs who unanimously backed a motion

0:10:550:10:58

calling on the Government to ensure the United Nations

0:10:580:11:01

and the International Criminal Court takes action.

0:11:010:11:05

In the debate, every speaker condemned the group also known

0:11:050:11:08

as Daesh for its brutality.

0:11:080:11:11

Several quoted the testimony of a young Yazidi girl

0:11:110:11:14

to a meeting of MPs.

0:11:140:11:16

My father and my two brothers killed in front of me.

0:11:160:11:20

They took me way from my mother.

0:11:200:11:24

He grabbed my arm and my leg and then he raped me.

0:11:240:11:30

He was 32 years old.

0:11:300:11:32

I was 15.

0:11:320:11:34

We know that those who are perpetrating these

0:11:340:11:36

crimes are doing so to exterminate and extinguish a people.

0:11:360:11:41

We know that they mean what they are doing

0:11:410:11:44

to be genocide and to have all of the bloody

0:11:440:11:47

and awful consequences of genocide.

0:11:470:11:49

Here is the chance for the United Kingdom to show leadership

0:11:490:11:52

and to take action.

0:11:520:11:54

To stand up and respond to the plea for help from

0:11:540:11:58

all of those who have suffered.

0:11:580:11:59

This is our chance.

0:11:590:12:01

So, like in 1942, will we do the right thing in 2016

0:12:010:12:05

or are we just going to stand back, wring our hands

0:12:050:12:09

and watch as Daesh break their bitter harvest?

0:12:090:12:13

That

0:12:270:12:30

Wouldn't it be a contempt of Parliament for the

0:12:320:12:35

government to say this is non-binding?

0:12:350:12:36

In taking this matter to the Security Council for those

0:12:360:12:42

responsible for the crimes to be accountable.

0:12:420:12:52

As the Prime Minister has said, and I am aware he has

0:12:520:12:55

written to the noble Lord about this, he says genocide is about

0:12:550:12:58

legal, rather than physical opinion.

0:12:580:13:06

legal, rather than political opinion.

0:13:060:13:07

We are not the judge of the jury.

0:13:070:13:09

We may not be all of those things but I

0:13:090:13:11

say to Daesh and the perpetrators, we have a long memory, we have

0:13:110:13:14

allies, we will not forget.

0:13:140:13:19

And they will play the price.

0:13:190:13:22

Now let's take a look at some other news from around

0:13:250:13:28

Westminster in brief.

0:13:280:13:29

In the Lords, the government announced a concession over

0:13:290:13:31

trade union funding.

0:13:310:13:33

Ministers were planning to end the collection of union subs

0:13:330:13:36

directly from employees' pay - a system known as check-off.

0:13:360:13:38

But unions argued this would be more complicated for members

0:13:380:13:42

and lead to a loss of funds.

0:13:420:13:46

In a major concession the practice will now continue if the employer

0:13:460:13:49

and the union agree.

0:13:490:13:52

A peer has been suspended from the House of Lords for eight

0:13:520:13:57

months over the double-claiming of hundreds of pounds in expenses.

0:13:570:14:01

Lord Bhatia was found to have claimed mileage from the Lords

0:14:010:14:04

on 63 occasions while also claiming from another organisation.

0:14:040:14:06

It's the second time he has been suspended from the House,

0:14:060:14:10

having been barred for eight months in October 2010 for wrongly claiming

0:14:100:14:14

over ?27,000 in overnight allowances and mileage expenses.

0:14:140:14:20

The Home Secretary was called to the Commons to reveal the budget

0:14:200:14:23

for the UK Border Force.

0:14:230:14:24

The force is part of the Home Office, responsible

0:14:240:14:27

for frontline border control operations at air, sea and rail

0:14:270:14:29

ports in the United Kingdom.

0:14:290:14:32

It's also responsible for checking the immigration status of people

0:14:320:14:35

arriving in the UK, searching bags, vehicles and cargo

0:14:350:14:38

and patrolling the UK coastline.

0:14:380:14:40

Theresa May insisted Border Force spending was being protected,

0:14:400:14:42

despite Labour claims of a revenue cut.

0:14:420:14:50

She has announced a budget of 558 million.

0:14:500:14:52

In 2012/13, the budget was 617 million so

0:14:520:14:57

the budget is down by over ?50 million on her watch.

0:14:570:15:02

That is the Home Secretary's record on border funding.

0:15:020:15:05

Border Force spending is protected.

0:15:050:15:09

Compared to 2015.

0:15:090:15:11

Over the next four years, we will invest ?130 million in state

0:15:110:15:15

of the art technology at the border.

0:15:160:15:18

Since I became Home Secretary six years ago, we've pursued

0:15:180:15:21

an ambitious programme of reform at the border

0:15:210:15:23

to keep this country safe.

0:15:230:15:29

Only 10% of dogs bought in the UK are from registered breeders.

0:15:290:15:31

The Environment Food and Rural Affairs committee

0:15:310:15:33

heard that the vast majority come from abroad

0:15:330:15:35

or from unlicensed operators.

0:15:350:15:39

The trend for fashionable breeds was driving a demand that could not

0:15:390:15:42

be easily met and that meant many animals were suffering ill health.

0:15:420:15:44

There are clearly some of puppies that are

0:15:440:15:46

desirable in the UK.

0:15:460:15:49

Those breeds are being bred in Eastern European

0:15:490:15:51

countries.

0:15:510:15:52

For example Hungary, Lithuania, Romania.

0:15:520:16:01

For example Hungary, Lithuania, Romania.

0:16:150:16:16

The conditions are shocking.

0:16:160:16:17

The provenance of the parents is not good.

0:16:170:16:19

I saw some examples where the parties had been

0:16:190:16:21

the product of siblings meeting.

0:16:210:16:22

They are being transported by road into the UK -

0:16:230:16:25

a trip of some 40 hours,

0:16:250:16:26

and brought into the country under

0:16:260:16:28

the Pet Travel Scheme which is

0:16:280:16:29

non-commercial movement, rather than commercial movement.

0:16:290:16:31

The passports are being falsified.

0:16:310:16:32

Last year, we received 3,500 calls about puppy farm

0:16:320:16:34

issues.

0:16:340:16:38

The sad fact is that 80% of these puppies were sold through

0:16:380:16:41

internet adverts.

0:16:410:16:42

The dreadful fact that comes out of it is that over

0:16:420:16:44

20% of those puppies actually die.

0:16:440:16:46

Their mortality is incredibly high.

0:16:460:16:55

The increasingly bitter EU referendum battle has

0:16:550:16:56

produced lively scenes at a Commons committee session.

0:16:560:16:58

The director of the Vote Leave campaign group, Dominic Cummings,

0:16:580:17:01

faced claims that Vote Leave had used misleading literature

0:17:010:17:03

when he was questioned about leaflets distributed

0:17:030:17:04

at hospitals in London.

0:17:040:17:14

You are saying in hospitals in your literature, aren't you,

0:17:140:17:17

that we can give a lot more money to hospitals.

0:17:170:17:25

You are distributing literature to that affect.

0:17:250:17:26

You are doing that, aren't you?

0:17:260:17:28

No, we are not.

0:17:280:17:30

I have a piece of literature here with your logo, it

0:17:300:17:35

says vote leave, take control.

0:17:350:17:42

It says help protect your local hospital.

0:17:420:17:47

And it has got here at the

0:17:470:17:51

bottom, vote leave.

0:17:510:17:52

I'm asking you a straightforward, simple question.

0:17:520:17:55

Is this a leaflet of your organisation?

0:17:550:17:59

Do you mean that individual leaflet?

0:17:590:18:03

I'm asking you if this leaflet is one of your

0:18:030:18:08

organisation's leaflets?

0:18:080:18:09

Yes, it is.

0:18:090:18:11

We have arrived.

0:18:110:18:14

Let's try question two.

0:18:140:18:17

Do you think that it is reasonable that somebody might

0:18:170:18:25

misconstrue this leaflet at first glance as leaflet produced by the

0:18:250:18:29

NHS, since this has NHS logo in the top right-hand corner?

0:18:290:18:38

No,

0:18:420:18:42

No, it

0:18:420:18:42

No, it says

0:18:420:18:43

No, it says vote

0:18:430:18:43

No, it says vote leave,

0:18:430:18:43

No, it says vote leave, take

0:18:430:18:43

No, it says vote leave, take control.

0:18:430:18:46

What do you make of that NHS logo?

0:18:460:18:48

Do you think it looks like the logo of the NHS?

0:18:480:18:51

It looks like it from here.

0:18:520:18:54

Well, it looks roughly like it from almost

0:18:540:18:56

any distance.

0:18:560:18:59

Here is an NHS document.

0:18:590:19:03

You will see the logo is strikingly similar.

0:19:030:19:06

They are almost identical.

0:19:060:19:08

It takes an expert eye to tell that one is not the other.

0:19:080:19:13

One of them is italicised slightly, one

0:19:130:19:15

is not.

0:19:150:19:20

Do you, now that you have had a chance to consider it, and you

0:19:200:19:24

have agreed it looks like an NHS logo from any reasonable distance,

0:19:240:19:28

to think it might be good idea to think twice

0:19:280:19:32

about putting Outlook to

0:19:320:19:34

like this?

0:19:340:19:37

I certainly don't and I think you are confused about what my

0:19:370:19:40

answer was before.

0:19:400:19:42

You were asking me if the leaflet in my hand could

0:19:420:19:45

be put into hospital, has that come from us?

0:19:450:19:47

And I was saying, no, it

0:19:470:19:49

hasn't come from us, as in we did not

0:19:490:19:51

distribute leaflets to the

0:19:510:19:53

hospital, we're as baffled as almost everyone else is out the story that

0:19:530:19:56

appeared on the website.

0:19:560:19:57

Dominic Cummings.

0:19:570:19:58

How would you feel if you won an election with 100%

0:19:580:20:00

of the electorate voting for you?

0:20:000:20:02

That's what happened in the week, when former MP John Thurso returned

0:20:020:20:05

to the House of Lords to sit as a hereditary peer

0:20:050:20:07

following a by-election triggered by the death of Lord Avebury.

0:20:070:20:12

It was a contest in which only the three existing Lib Dem

0:20:120:20:16

hereditary members of the House of Lords were able to vote.

0:20:160:20:19

Viscount Thurso sat in the Lords between 1995 and 1999,

0:20:190:20:23

leaving when Labour's reforms axed most hereditary members.

0:20:230:20:27

He was then MP for Caithness, Sutherland and Easter Ross from 2001

0:20:270:20:30

until losing his seat in 2015.

0:20:300:20:35

He becomes the first person to go into the Lords,

0:20:350:20:38

then the Commons and back to Lords and keep his hereditary title.

0:20:380:20:44

Let's take a look at some of the other political

0:20:440:20:47

stories of the week.

0:20:470:20:48

Here's Chris Davies.

0:20:480:20:49

Fancy being an MP for a week?

0:20:540:20:56

Now you can, by playing Parliament's online game

0:20:560:20:59

game, way you put yourself in the shoes of an MP.

0:20:590:21:02

The game, designed for 11 to 16-year-olds,

0:21:020:21:05

did admittedly prove

0:21:050:21:07

a bit too difficult for the team at BBC Parliament.

0:21:070:21:11

Online retailer Amazon isn't participating in a

0:21:110:21:13

scheme to help people operate drones responsibly,

0:21:130:21:16

the Transport Minister told a Lords committee.

0:21:160:21:19

Constanza about the unlicensed use of the unmanned

0:21:190:21:22

aircraft were heightened last week after reports

0:21:220:21:24

of the drone strike

0:21:240:21:26

on a passenger plane approaching Heathrow.

0:21:260:21:28

Mr Goodwill said a lot of drones were bought online which is

0:21:280:21:31

why the government were keen to engage with the company.

0:21:310:21:34

How good is your maths?

0:21:340:21:36

Take a look at this equation.

0:21:360:21:38

This is the Treasury's basic equation which measures the

0:21:380:21:41

level of trade between lots of different pairs of countries for

0:21:410:21:44

which data is available.

0:21:440:21:45

Easy.

0:21:450:21:47

Burger chain McDonald's says it is disappointed

0:21:470:21:49

by Labour's decision to

0:21:490:21:51

ban the company from its party conference in Liverpool this year.

0:21:510:21:54

David Cameron couldn't resist a jibe at the decision, using the company's

0:21:540:21:57

slogan as a punch line.

0:21:570:21:58

Frankly, I'm loving it.

0:21:580:22:01

And Her Majesty The Queen celebrated her 90th birthday this

0:22:010:22:03

week and although the main party took place in Windsor, Parliament

0:22:030:22:07

marked the occasion by lighting up the building in red, white and blue.

0:22:070:22:12

And staying with that regal theme, we end with tributes to the Queen.

0:22:210:22:24

MPs and peers sent Her Majesty their best wishes as she

0:22:240:22:27

celebrated her 90th birthday.

0:22:270:22:30

Mr Speaker, in her 90 years, Her Majesty has lived through some

0:22:300:22:33

extraordinary times in our world.

0:22:330:22:36

From the Second World War, when her parents,

0:22:360:22:38

the king and queen, were

0:22:380:22:40

nearly killed as bombs dropped on Buckingham Palace to the Russians

0:22:400:22:43

with which she bought the material for her wedding dress.

0:22:430:22:45

From presenting the World Cup to England

0:22:450:22:47

at Wembley in 1966 to a man landing on the moon and number of years

0:22:470:22:51

later.

0:22:510:22:53

From the end of the Cold War to peace in Northern Ireland.

0:22:530:22:56

Throughout it all, as the sounds of culture sift and the tides of

0:22:560:23:00

politics at and flow, Her Majesty has been stood fast.

0:23:000:23:04

In her reign, Mr Speaker, she has seen off 12

0:23:040:23:07

prime ministers.

0:23:070:23:10

Whilst recently I attended my first state

0:23:150:23:18

dinner, she has received over 100 state visits and visited,

0:23:180:23:22

as the Prime Minister indicated, well over 100 countries

0:23:220:23:25

on our behalf.

0:23:250:23:28

I admire her energy, wish her well in her continuing and

0:23:280:23:31

outstanding commitment to public life.

0:23:310:23:35

Throughout the decades of her

0:23:350:23:37

reign, she has been a regular visitor to Scotland.

0:23:370:23:40

For me, the most remarkable events have been in

0:23:400:23:43

recent years.

0:23:430:23:44

Including the 1999 reopening of the Scottish

0:23:440:23:46

Parliament, after recess of nearly 300 years.

0:23:460:23:53

Who can forget the entire chamber, all MSPs of all parties and

0:23:530:23:56

the public gallery, Her Majesty and the Duke of Edinburgh,

0:23:560:24:05

all singing and Man is a Man for all that by Robert Burns.

0:24:090:24:12

She has seen technological advances race ahead

0:24:120:24:14

from one telegram or a radio programme was a thing of great

0:24:140:24:17

excitement to the prevalence of satellite television, the iPhone and

0:24:170:24:19

letters being supplanted by e-mail, playground conversations by tweets,

0:24:190:24:21

and Facebook status updates.

0:24:210:24:24

But through all those years of changes,

0:24:240:24:27

one thing has been a constant, and that has been Her Majesty's selfless

0:24:270:24:36

service to Britain.

0:24:360:24:38

Admired at home and around the world for her

0:24:380:24:40

constant and consistent advocacy of Britain at its best.

0:24:400:24:42

One peer recalled a reception he'd attended.

0:24:420:24:44

My colleague had the misfortune of being in the

0:24:440:24:46

process of eating a large biscuit.

0:24:460:24:48

LAUGHTER.

0:24:480:24:49

Something was bound to go wrong.

0:24:490:24:51

And indeed it did.

0:24:510:24:53

When he turned around, he was so astonished

0:24:530:24:55

to see her standing on the side of him, that he dropped this biscuit

0:24:550:24:59

onto the floor right in front of Her Majesty, at her feet.

0:24:590:25:01

Now, Her Majesty, who has a great sense of

0:25:010:25:04

humour, she was most amused.

0:25:040:25:06

There are very few people to whom an archbishop can

0:25:060:25:10

open his heart, knowing that his confidences will go

0:25:100:25:13

no further.

0:25:130:25:15

And suddenly, at the end, of the conversation, she would

0:25:150:25:18

go away affirmed and encouraged.

0:25:180:25:21

Let this be a day of thanksgiving and

0:25:210:25:24

much rejoicing for Her Majesty's birthday.

0:25:240:25:27

Long live the Queen!

0:25:270:25:30

ALL: Hear! Hear!

0:25:300:25:32

Those birthday wishes brings us to the end of this

0:25:320:25:35

edition of the programme, but do join Kristiina Cooper

0:25:350:25:37

on Monday night at 11 for another round-up of the best of the day

0:25:370:25:40

here at Westminster, including more debate on that

0:25:400:25:42

controversial housing bill.

0:25:420:25:44

But until then, from me, goodbye.

0:25:440:25:46

Download Subtitles

SRT

ASS