Browse content similar to 2016 - Live: BBC One. Check below for episodes and series from the same categories and more!
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It is 10.30am at Westminster where David Cameron's Government is about | :00:15. | :00:21. | |
to present its plans for the year ahead in the Queen's Speech | :00:22. | :00:25. | |
featuring a rich blend of pageantry and politics at the State Opening of | :00:26. | :00:28. | |
Parliament. Yes, good morning, it is the start | :00:29. | :01:01. | |
of a brand-new session of Parliament and Her Majesty, its Queen will | :01:02. | :01:04. | |
arrive here at Westminster in a short while to open that new session | :01:05. | :01:08. | |
setting out the Government's agenda. So one year after it was elected, is | :01:09. | :01:12. | |
this Conservative Government running out of steam? As some of the critics | :01:13. | :01:17. | |
insist or is it distracted as others are by the referendum campaign on | :01:18. | :01:20. | |
Britain's future in the European Union? We will know soon enough when | :01:21. | :01:24. | |
we see the list of Bills in the Queen's Speech and that, of course, | :01:25. | :01:28. | |
let me underline is the main focus of today's events. Well, earlier | :01:29. | :01:32. | |
this morning, David Cameron left Number Ten for Parliament. This will | :01:33. | :01:36. | |
be Queen's Speech number six for him as Prime Minister, just the second | :01:37. | :01:40. | |
for him as leader of a majority Conservative Government. It will | :01:41. | :01:43. | |
tell us something about his priorities today. Also this morning, | :01:44. | :01:47. | |
we saw Labour's Jeremy Corbyn making his way to the Commons. This time | :01:48. | :01:53. | |
last year, let's not forget, he was a veteran Labour backbencher, | :01:54. | :01:58. | |
playing no prominent role in the events of State Opening. | :01:59. | :02:02. | |
And that involves walking alongside David Cameron as they attend the | :02:03. | :02:06. | |
House of Lords to listen to the Queen's Speech. The ceremonial | :02:07. | :02:11. | |
events have already started. Breakfast time this morning, there | :02:12. | :02:15. | |
was some gentlemen performing an age old ritual. | :02:16. | :02:22. | |
By the centre so march. These are the Yeomen of the Guard | :02:23. | :02:26. | |
and they are preparing to perform the ceremonial search of the cellars | :02:27. | :02:34. | |
of Westminster. And they are there in Prince's Chamber which is above | :02:35. | :02:39. | |
the cellar's where Guy Fawkes was discovered in 1605. The pageantry | :02:40. | :02:43. | |
and the colour already underway here at Westminster. | :02:44. | :02:47. | |
I should say that everything is ready at the Sovereign's Entrance of | :02:48. | :02:49. | |
the Palace of Westminster. This is where the Queen will be arriving in | :02:50. | :02:55. | |
45 minutes time and the impressive ceremony of the State Opening will | :02:56. | :02:58. | |
begin. Let's look inside the House of | :02:59. | :03:02. | |
Lords. It is a magnificent sight. This is the most elaborate and | :03:03. | :03:08. | |
Ritchie decorated -- richly decorated part of the Palace of | :03:09. | :03:11. | |
Westminster. It is pretty packed, isn't it? High demand. No surprise, | :03:12. | :03:16. | |
this is after all the biggest ceremonial event in the | :03:17. | :03:19. | |
Parliamentary calendar. All the peers, wearing their appropriate | :03:20. | :03:22. | |
Parliamentary robes. They are not allowed in today without the robes | :03:23. | :03:26. | |
and this is where the Queen will deliver that speech from the throne | :03:27. | :03:30. | |
of the House of Lords, the focal point of this great chamber designed | :03:31. | :03:37. | |
in the middle of the 19th century. So that's the scene in the House of | :03:38. | :03:40. | |
Lords. We will have another look inside the chamber later on to spot | :03:41. | :03:44. | |
who is there and to see some of the new arrivals in the House of Lords. | :03:45. | :03:47. | |
Let's come back to the studio and let me introduce my guests today. | :03:48. | :03:50. | |
I'm delighted to say that Liz Truss is with us for the Conservatives, | :03:51. | :03:54. | |
the Secretary of State for The environment, Food and Rural Affairs, | :03:55. | :03:57. | |
we have Lucy Powell, the Shadow Secretary of State for Education and | :03:58. | :04:02. | |
the for the Scottish National Party, we have Joanna Cherry. Welcome to | :04:03. | :04:07. | |
you all. Thank you for coming. We're going to enjoy the day. There is | :04:08. | :04:10. | |
lots of politics, but lots of colour to enjoy as well and of course, | :04:11. | :04:13. | |
today, we wouldn't be the same without our political editor, Laura | :04:14. | :04:17. | |
Kuenssberg. What are we looking forward to, Laura? I have come back | :04:18. | :04:21. | |
through the warns of Westminster and I have just passed some of the | :04:22. | :04:26. | |
horsemen lining up to take their places, their shining breast plates, | :04:27. | :04:30. | |
they are having a last minute polish of their extraordinary uniforms and | :04:31. | :04:33. | |
it is made me think, you know, there is one thing on this kind of day | :04:34. | :04:36. | |
that just doesn't change, the spender of the occasion, the sense | :04:37. | :04:39. | |
of the importance of the monarch coming down here to Westminster, but | :04:40. | :04:45. | |
today, for me, there are two very important first and potentially a | :04:46. | :04:48. | |
last, it is the first time we're going to see Jeremy Corbyn in his | :04:49. | :04:52. | |
position walking alongside David Cameron at this kind of occasion, | :04:53. | :04:58. | |
that's going to be a big political moment, more interestingly, I think, | :04:59. | :05:01. | |
this could be David Cameron's last Queen's Speech as Prime Minister if | :05:02. | :05:05. | |
the European referendum goes the wrong way for Number Ten. Just think | :05:06. | :05:08. | |
about that for a moment. It is far from certain, of course, it is a big | :05:09. | :05:13. | |
if, but surely he would only be human to be coming here with a just | :05:14. | :05:19. | |
little bit of that thought in his mind. He wants to show today, there | :05:20. | :05:23. | |
is still gas in the tank and his Government has plenty to do. The | :05:24. | :05:26. | |
Conservative Party is having a really hard time at the moment. So | :05:27. | :05:30. | |
we have a dismounted detachment of the Household Cavalry arriving as | :05:31. | :05:34. | |
they always do, they look splendid, Laura already told us, they have | :05:35. | :05:39. | |
been previousing, they are led by Captain Deano Wednesday, he is from | :05:40. | :05:43. | |
Swansea. I was chatting to him yesterday. Telling me that lots of | :05:44. | :05:46. | |
the young men taking part today, they are still in training, the | :05:47. | :05:50. | |
youngest of them is 17 by the way. There are 16 of them currently under | :05:51. | :05:55. | |
going equine training at the Household Cavalry training wing. | :05:56. | :05:59. | |
They will be lining the staircase ready for the principle arrivals | :06:00. | :06:03. | |
later on when the Imperial State Crown arrives, The Prince of Wales | :06:04. | :06:08. | |
and the Duchess of Cornwall. Later on we will see the Queen and the | :06:09. | :06:11. | |
Duke of Edinburgh arriving too. So, there they are. The first | :06:12. | :06:16. | |
participants arriving for us in the Palace of Westminster ready for the | :06:17. | :06:20. | |
State Opening to begin a little later. Laura was setting the scene | :06:21. | :06:26. | |
for us, but I'm wondering what Liz made of this? This is a great event. | :06:27. | :06:33. | |
It is fan TAssic to be in the studio. Fantastic to be here with | :06:34. | :06:38. | |
this great vister of Parliament, I think what we will see today is the | :06:39. | :06:43. | |
quality and quantity of Bills that we're putting forward will match up | :06:44. | :06:49. | |
to the splendour of the occasion. We have got exciting reforms in terms | :06:50. | :06:54. | |
of social reforms, so making sure our prisons are doing their job and | :06:55. | :06:59. | |
rehabilitating offenders and helping children and helping get more | :07:00. | :07:02. | |
children into adoption and also, major economic reforms to make sure | :07:03. | :07:06. | |
our economy keeps on trackment we've got the lowest level of claimant | :07:07. | :07:11. | |
count since 1975 and we are making huge progress and what we will see | :07:12. | :07:14. | |
today is more exciting steps forward on that front. OK, thank you very | :07:15. | :07:18. | |
much. Lucy, your take on the day's events? Like Liz and Laura said, it | :07:19. | :07:23. | |
is a fantastic occasion. This is only my fourth Queen's Speech. So I | :07:24. | :07:26. | |
think it is a wonderful day and shows Parliament in much better | :07:27. | :07:31. | |
light than the weekly PMQs episode that we have to go through, so I'm | :07:32. | :07:36. | |
looking forward to that, picking up on what Laura said there, as a | :07:37. | :07:41. | |
Labour MP and a member of the Shadow Cabinet, I don't want this to be | :07:42. | :07:44. | |
David Cameron's last Queen's Speech. I want us to remain in Europe. I | :07:45. | :07:48. | |
wouldn't want Labour voters to think they can use this as an excuse to | :07:49. | :07:51. | |
get rid of David Cameron because that would be the wrong thing for | :07:52. | :07:54. | |
the country. A bit controversial there. Joanna, your thoughts? Well, | :07:55. | :07:57. | |
it is interesting to see the pageantry from the outside. This is | :07:58. | :08:01. | |
my second Queen's Speech and last year I was inside the Houses of | :08:02. | :08:05. | |
Parliament and didn't get an overview of what was going on, what | :08:06. | :08:08. | |
really matters, Huw is the content of the Queen's Speech and it seems | :08:09. | :08:11. | |
to me the Government are running out of steam. They are very much | :08:12. | :08:17. | |
focussed about fighting amongst themselves. What the Scottish | :08:18. | :08:20. | |
National Party would like to see is a programme for Government which | :08:21. | :08:23. | |
recognises that the austerity experiment of the Conservative Party | :08:24. | :08:26. | |
has failed. That they have failed to meet their own targets and their own | :08:27. | :08:30. | |
goals and that we need to invest in the economy and invest in public | :08:31. | :08:34. | |
services and we need to increase fairness and equality across British | :08:35. | :08:37. | |
society and we in the Scottish National Party would also like to | :08:38. | :08:41. | |
see a Queen's Speech which brought forward the long awaited promise to | :08:42. | :08:47. | |
deliver home rule and as near to federalism for Scotland which we | :08:48. | :08:50. | |
don't believe we got in the recent Scotland Act. I'm not sure that will | :08:51. | :08:55. | |
be in the Queen's Speech! Thank you very much. So before this morning's | :08:56. | :09:00. | |
blend of ceremony and tradition gets underway. Why don't we get our | :09:01. | :09:04. | |
bearings in the Palace of Westminster. We will start with the | :09:05. | :09:08. | |
great archway. That's the Sovereign's Entrance. That's why the | :09:09. | :09:11. | |
Queen's coach will arrive at the foot of the great big, Victoria | :09:12. | :09:15. | |
Tower, that's the big square tower at the southern end of the palace | :09:16. | :09:19. | |
which houses the parliamentary archives which was completed in | :09:20. | :09:22. | |
1860, the Household Cavalry will be lining that staircase as we have | :09:23. | :09:26. | |
just seen. They will be there when the Queen arrives later and she will | :09:27. | :09:30. | |
proceed to the Robing Room, the Robing Room is the room over to the | :09:31. | :09:34. | |
left here. As the camera pans over, the doors are shut. We're not | :09:35. | :09:38. | |
allowed in there. There are no cameras allowed in the Robing Room. | :09:39. | :09:41. | |
That's where the Imperial State Crown will be waiting for the | :09:42. | :09:43. | |
Queen's arrival. Her Majesty, accompanied by the Duke of | :09:44. | :09:47. | |
Edinburgh, will then begin the formal procession in State through | :09:48. | :09:51. | |
this room, this wonderful space, this is called the Royal Gallery. It | :09:52. | :09:55. | |
is a great, great part of the Palace of Westminster. One of the royal | :09:56. | :10:00. | |
sections of the palace, it is full of diplomatic and military and other | :10:01. | :10:04. | |
guests. They will make their way through here in procession, very | :10:05. | :10:09. | |
formally into Prince's Chamber. Prince's Chamber is a small room | :10:10. | :10:13. | |
that's next to the House of Lords. Very keen to show you this today. It | :10:14. | :10:16. | |
is the first time we have been allowed to bring coverage from | :10:17. | :10:20. | |
inside Prince's Chamber with its fine portraits of the Tudor dynasty. | :10:21. | :10:28. | |
The room dominated by that big, white marble statue of Queen | :10:29. | :10:32. | |
Victoria. The great, great-grandmother of the Queen | :10:33. | :10:35. | |
Elizabeth II. The Queen will then enter the House of Lords to deliver | :10:36. | :10:40. | |
the speech. The signal will be given to some members of Parliament from | :10:41. | :10:43. | |
thele from the House of Commons. Here we are at the heart of the | :10:44. | :10:47. | |
Palace of Westminster. This is the Central Lobby and this is going to | :10:48. | :10:51. | |
be playing a very prominent role in today's events and my colleague, | :10:52. | :10:53. | |
Vicki Young is there. That's right, this is a great | :10:54. | :10:57. | |
vantage point to see some of the most well-known parts of today's | :10:58. | :11:02. | |
ceremony. It starts with the Speaker's Procession and we will | :11:03. | :11:06. | |
hear the cry of "hats off strangers" and then Black Rod is sent down from | :11:07. | :11:09. | |
the House of Lords through here with an invitation to MPs to listen to | :11:10. | :11:13. | |
the Queen's Speech. But he doesn't exactly get a warm welcome. The huge | :11:14. | :11:17. | |
wooden door is slammed in his face, a symbol of the independence of the | :11:18. | :11:21. | |
House of Commons. Now, today, of course, is all about tradition and | :11:22. | :11:25. | |
no one knows that better than the Queen herself. I have been looking | :11:26. | :11:30. | |
back at some of her appearances at State Openings which span more than | :11:31. | :11:31. | |
half a century. It was in 1952 that Her Majesty | :11:32. | :11:36. | |
delivered her first Queen's Speech to Parliament and there was no less | :11:37. | :11:39. | |
pomp and ceremony then. NEWSREEL: The Queen wearing a gold | :11:40. | :11:41. | |
brocade dress and a diamond and pearl tiara is a picture | :11:42. | :11:45. | |
of grace and charm to delight Six years later, the Queen's Speech | :11:46. | :11:48. | |
was first broadcast to the British It was an era of profound change | :11:49. | :11:53. | |
for post-war Britain. My Government will neglect no | :11:54. | :12:00. | |
opportunity to promote the advance of the colonial territories | :12:01. | :12:03. | |
and the increasing association of their peoples with the management | :12:04. | :12:08. | |
of their own affairs. The decade that followed saw | :12:09. | :12:13. | |
the Queen play a crucial role as former colonies became | :12:14. | :12:16. | |
independent of Britain and part NEWSREEL: Here the Queen met | :12:17. | :12:19. | |
the people and indeed almost rubbed The 1960s also saw changes in social | :12:20. | :12:24. | |
attitudes, reflected Facilities will be provided | :12:25. | :12:34. | |
for a free decision by Parliament It was also a decade that passed | :12:35. | :12:41. | |
the Race Relations Act and saw abortion and homosexuality | :12:42. | :12:47. | |
legalised. Britain's relationship | :12:48. | :12:51. | |
with Europe was a cornerstone Within 12 months the British people | :12:52. | :12:55. | |
will be given the opportunity to decide whether in the light | :12:56. | :13:00. | |
of the outcome of the negotiations this country should | :13:01. | :13:03. | |
retain its membership. Britain chose to stay inside | :13:04. | :13:08. | |
the European Economic Community. The traditions of the State Opening | :13:09. | :13:11. | |
have changed little over the years and Her Majesty has worked with no | :13:12. | :13:18. | |
less than 12 different Each with their own distinctive | :13:19. | :13:21. | |
programme of Government. My Government will continue | :13:22. | :13:28. | |
their policies of exposing State-owned businesses | :13:29. | :13:32. | |
to competition and where appropriate, returning them | :13:33. | :13:34. | |
to the private sector. 1997 saw the first Queen's Speech | :13:35. | :13:40. | |
of the Blair era. It promised a referendum | :13:41. | :13:43. | |
on a Scottish Parliament and a commitment to continue | :13:44. | :13:46. | |
the Northern Ireland Peace Process. My Government will seek | :13:47. | :13:51. | |
reconciliation and a political settlement which has broad support, | :13:52. | :13:54. | |
working in co-operation The following year saw the signing | :13:55. | :13:58. | |
of the Good Friday Agreement. In 2010, a newly formed coalition | :13:59. | :14:06. | |
was focussed on the economy. The first priority is to reduce | :14:07. | :14:09. | |
the deficit and restore Last year, Britain's | :14:10. | :14:11. | |
relationship with its European Early legislation will be introduced | :14:12. | :14:18. | |
to provide for an in-out referendum Britain has changed immeasurably | :14:19. | :14:26. | |
in the 64 years since the Queen delivered her first to speech | :14:27. | :14:33. | |
to Parliament, but the ceremony has altered little over her reign | :14:34. | :14:36. | |
and at 90, the Queen continues to carry out her duty | :14:37. | :14:40. | |
as monarch in accordance Well, all of the ceremony and | :14:41. | :14:58. | |
pageantry is to come, the Queen will be riding in a short while, but | :14:59. | :15:02. | |
there was a reference to the European Union and the fact that | :15:03. | :15:06. | |
there is a vote taking place, and the fact is, it is impossible, | :15:07. | :15:11. | |
despite that long list of bills, there is a backdrop to this Queen's | :15:12. | :15:15. | |
Speech that we cannot avoid. Absolutely, the governing party is | :15:16. | :15:18. | |
engaged in knocking lumps out of each other during this campaign, | :15:19. | :15:22. | |
because it is a fundamental disagreement inside the Government. | :15:23. | :15:26. | |
Ministers who take their seats next to David Cameron at the Cabinet | :15:27. | :15:28. | |
table fundamentally disagree with him, and it is impossible to | :15:29. | :15:33. | |
separate that backdrop, not least because we know some controversial | :15:34. | :15:37. | |
things have been delayed or put off from the Queen's Speech, one in | :15:38. | :15:45. | |
particular has caused real concern in the Tory party, the idea of a | :15:46. | :15:48. | |
British Bill of Rights. Instead of a Bill today, there will be another | :15:49. | :15:50. | |
commitment to do it at some point. The referendum has put that off. The | :15:51. | :15:56. | |
Gentlemen at Arms, one of the royal bodyguards, the most senior, the | :15:57. | :16:00. | |
nearest guard, instituted by Henry VIII in 1509, they celebrate and | :16:01. | :16:05. | |
their 500th anniversary in 2009 and they play a prominent role in the | :16:06. | :16:12. | |
State Opening. The Gentlemen at Arms is captained by the Chief Whip of | :16:13. | :16:16. | |
the House of Lords, they will be leading through the Royal Gallery as | :16:17. | :16:20. | |
the procession gets under way. So as they take their place, we will pick | :16:21. | :16:25. | |
up on the theme that Laurette usefully gave us, the European | :16:26. | :16:31. | |
context. We are going to join Vicki with some guests. It does feel like | :16:32. | :16:35. | |
political debate has been dominated by discussion over the European | :16:36. | :16:38. | |
referendum for several months. I'm joined by the former leader of the | :16:39. | :16:42. | |
Conservative Party, Iain Duncan Smith, and Chris Bryant for Labour. | :16:43. | :16:48. | |
First of all, Iain Duncan Smith, today is about democracy, in the | :16:49. | :16:51. | |
heart of Parliament, how much of your argument about the UK leaving | :16:52. | :16:56. | |
the EU is about democracy? Well, obviously, a huge section of this is | :16:57. | :17:02. | |
about who governs you, who has the right to say that a government | :17:03. | :17:05. | |
elected to decide what legislation can pass will be struck down by a | :17:06. | :17:10. | |
super national court. There are arguments about economics which both | :17:11. | :17:16. | |
sides will argue that I believe Britain will be ultimately better | :17:17. | :17:19. | |
off, so it is not just about democracy, it is a critical part, | :17:20. | :17:23. | |
who governs you, can an elected check a government out to make new | :17:24. | :17:26. | |
rules and not be overruled by a court in Europe? That is a big, big | :17:27. | :17:32. | |
issue for people, because although they do not think about it every | :17:33. | :17:36. | |
day, it is very important, when you cast your vote that you believe you | :17:37. | :17:40. | |
are voting for a sovereign parliament that makes those rules | :17:41. | :17:43. | |
and nobody can overturn them. How much of a problem is it for your | :17:44. | :17:47. | |
site that it is difficult to paint a picture of what life will be like | :17:48. | :17:51. | |
outside of the EU? The of the unknown is a factor, isn't it? | :17:52. | :17:56. | |
Everybody fears risk, but everything you do in life is about risk, you | :17:57. | :18:01. | |
step out across the road, you take a risk. Nothing is ever as you think | :18:02. | :18:05. | |
it will be for the future. The idea that there are no risks by staying | :18:06. | :18:09. | |
in the European Union when you have a report telling us they will go | :18:10. | :18:13. | |
harder and deeper, more centralised, concentrating around the euro area, | :18:14. | :18:17. | |
problems of mass migration and the Italian banks going insolvent. We do | :18:18. | :18:21. | |
not know what the next five or ten years of the European Union looks | :18:22. | :18:24. | |
like, and that poses risks to the UK. There are risks on both sides, | :18:25. | :18:31. | |
but to be told there are no risks of remaining, when we have seen and | :18:32. | :18:35. | |
massively change over the last 25 years, that is not so. Chris Bryant, | :18:36. | :18:39. | |
the economic adamant has been a big part of the debate, but when you | :18:40. | :18:42. | |
look at the EU countries, they are not doing so well. I love the idea | :18:43. | :18:48. | |
that today is all about democracy. We are about to trade stand the | :18:49. | :18:55. | |
House of Lords that has 800 unelected people in it! -- traipse | :18:56. | :19:06. | |
down. People say there is a real financial | :19:07. | :19:13. | |
risk, and there was not a single independent report that the league | :19:14. | :19:16. | |
campaign can point to which says we will be financially better off if we | :19:17. | :19:22. | |
leave the European Union. Me, there is a democratic issue, which is I | :19:23. | :19:27. | |
want to be able to affect the decisions that affect everybody's | :19:28. | :19:30. | |
lives in this country. I want to sit around the table that draws up rules | :19:31. | :19:36. | |
on dealing with the European arrest warrant, that sits around the table | :19:37. | :19:40. | |
when we decide about rules and children's toys kettles or whatever | :19:41. | :19:44. | |
it is. We magnify our voice through the European Union. We have won 92% | :19:45. | :19:50. | |
of our rows that have been in the European Union, we have been on the | :19:51. | :19:54. | |
winning side of the demand, that is a pretty good record. So we will be | :19:55. | :19:59. | |
marginalised if we leave? The UK is the fifth largest economy, in the | :20:00. | :20:04. | |
world, the fourth most potent defence structure. We said on the | :20:05. | :20:08. | |
United Nations Security Council, we are part of Nato. The whole point I | :20:09. | :20:13. | |
make is the idea that there is an absolute one side but not on the | :20:14. | :20:18. | |
other is a nonsense. As Chris just said, all the independent reports | :20:19. | :20:21. | |
say we would be worse off. That is not true, all the independent report | :20:22. | :20:26. | |
make a simple point, that the UK, on leaving the EU, would still grow and | :20:27. | :20:36. | |
be better off. The debate about whether you'd be marginally better | :20:37. | :20:38. | |
off according to their forecast if you stayed in, but you are going to | :20:39. | :20:41. | |
be better off. I think families will be worse off. These are the people | :20:42. | :20:45. | |
who told us to go into the euro, go into the ERM! I have heard you | :20:46. | :20:52. | |
defend in the stands to be prognostic Asians what will happen | :20:53. | :20:59. | |
to the economy in the future. And we all know forecast are invariably | :21:00. | :21:03. | |
wrong! I come from a tradition which means that which you far more pie, | :21:04. | :21:06. | |
endeavour than by going it alone. We cannot return to the 1950s, to a | :21:07. | :21:14. | |
hermetically sealed unit. We are far better off remaining. A little taste | :21:15. | :21:18. | |
of the robust political argument that has been going on for several | :21:19. | :21:24. | |
months. A tased indeed, thank you very much, and do your guests. This | :21:25. | :21:29. | |
is the scene outside the Palace of Westminster, and this is a rather | :21:30. | :21:33. | |
important arrival, the Blues and Royals today providing the escort | :21:34. | :21:40. | |
for the regalia, in other words the Imperial State Crown, the Cap of | :21:41. | :21:43. | |
Maintenance and the Sword of State, the three grades of royal authority | :21:44. | :21:49. | |
which will arrive at the Palace of Westminster before the Prince of | :21:50. | :21:53. | |
Wales and the Queen later on. -- the three great symbols. The Imperial | :21:54. | :21:58. | |
State Crown, the Cap of Maintenance, which will be taken into the palace | :21:59. | :22:02. | |
and put on display in the Royal Gallery ahead of the Queen's arrival | :22:03. | :22:10. | |
in a short while. The Queen Alexandra State Coach being used | :22:11. | :22:15. | |
today, and inside the coach we have Lieutenant Colonel Sir Andrew Ford, | :22:16. | :22:18. | |
who will be appearing quite soon, because he is the man who is in | :22:19. | :22:22. | |
charge of looking after the Imperial State Crown. | :22:23. | :22:34. | |
And into the Sovereign's Entrance, at the foot of the Victoria Tower. | :22:35. | :22:46. | |
And they are now dismounting, we have the Bargemaster, Paul Ludwig, a | :22:47. | :22:54. | |
very ancient appointment in the royal household, from the days when | :22:55. | :22:57. | |
the monarch used to use the Thames to travel around. The Bargemaster is | :22:58. | :23:05. | |
in charge of the delivery of the regalia today. And the crowd in | :23:06. | :23:18. | |
July, Martin swift, has been here close to corps years. -- the Crown | :23:19. | :23:30. | |
jeweller. Andrew Ford is in charge of very important part of the | :23:31. | :23:36. | |
Queen's diary and these great ceremonial occasions, he will be | :23:37. | :23:45. | |
presented with the Crown. Followed by Lieutenant Colonel Michael Vernon | :23:46. | :23:49. | |
with the Cap of Maintenance and the Sword of State. | :23:50. | :24:02. | |
The Imperial State Crown, made in 1937 for George VI, and then | :24:03. | :24:11. | |
modified in 1952-3 for the coronation of Queen Elizabeth II. It | :24:12. | :24:15. | |
is being taken into the Regalia Room at the bottom of the Sovereign's | :24:16. | :24:26. | |
Staircase. Just there on the left. The other symbols, the sword and the | :24:27. | :24:31. | |
cap, they will be taken in, and they will be prepared for being put on | :24:32. | :24:37. | |
display in the Royal Gallery. That will just take a few minutes, for | :24:38. | :24:48. | |
that to be arranged. So the Crown has been safely delivered here at | :24:49. | :24:51. | |
the Palace of Westminster, and we will talk about that later and the | :24:52. | :24:57. | |
symbolism of the Sword of State and the Cap of Maintenance, because they | :24:58. | :25:01. | |
are very ancient symbols of the sovereign's authority and power. It | :25:02. | :25:04. | |
seems like a good moment to big up with my guests again on the European | :25:05. | :25:09. | |
theme. The backdrop, as Laura said, is all-important. Rather difficult | :25:10. | :25:15. | |
to date for us to be discussing a list of proposed legislation without | :25:16. | :25:18. | |
really paying attention to the kind of debate that we had there, which | :25:19. | :25:23. | |
is rather lively, and has exposed divisions in all parties, but | :25:24. | :25:27. | |
certainly your party. What you make of that backdrop? What I would say | :25:28. | :25:32. | |
is that we have an important programme of legislation, yes, we | :25:33. | :25:36. | |
have the European referendum next month, a very important decision for | :25:37. | :25:41. | |
the British people. However, once that referendum is over, and I'm | :25:42. | :25:44. | |
confident in the good sense of the British people that people will come | :25:45. | :25:48. | |
to the conclusion that we are better off remaining part of the European | :25:49. | :25:53. | |
Union, we have a very important programme of domestic reform, making | :25:54. | :25:56. | |
sure that people in all walks of life can get on, whether that is | :25:57. | :26:01. | |
through reforming our prisons, improving our education system, | :26:02. | :26:07. | |
whether it is improving our economy, making sure we invest in | :26:08. | :26:09. | |
infrastructure. All those things are what British people really care | :26:10. | :26:13. | |
about, and it is vital that the Government gets on with that | :26:14. | :26:16. | |
programme of work. What we will see in the Queen's Speech today is a | :26:17. | :26:19. | |
substantial programme of work. The Crown being brought up to the Royal | :26:20. | :26:26. | |
Gallery itself, being put on a rather more grand cushion for this | :26:27. | :26:29. | |
display that will happen in the Royal Gallery, carried in very | :26:30. | :26:35. | |
solemnly by Lieutenant Colonel Andrew Ford, formerly of the Welsh | :26:36. | :26:39. | |
Guards, but now in post for ten years at Buckingham Palace. | :26:40. | :26:44. | |
Presenting the Crown to the Marquess of Cholmondeley, who holds a very | :26:45. | :26:52. | |
important position in the Palace of Westminster as the man in charge of | :26:53. | :26:57. | |
all of the Royal sections of the Palace, including the Royal Gallery, | :26:58. | :27:02. | |
the Robing Room, the Sovereign's Staircase, and with joint | :27:03. | :27:05. | |
stewardship of places like Westminster Hall with the Speaker of | :27:06. | :27:10. | |
the House of Commons. So the Crown is on display, and a very soon we | :27:11. | :27:15. | |
will also have the Sword of State and the Cap of Maintenance. Just a | :27:16. | :27:18. | |
couple of words about these, the Sword of State states from the 17th | :27:19. | :27:25. | |
century, used at coronations. The cap is a symbol of the sovereign's | :27:26. | :27:31. | |
authority. In ancient times, in the Middle Ages, a gift from the Pope to | :27:32. | :27:36. | |
favoured onyx. The cap then warned by some kings on the way to their | :27:37. | :27:47. | |
coronations. -- worn. I believe George VI wore it on the way to his | :27:48. | :27:52. | |
coronation. They will stay there waiting for the Queen's arrival in a | :27:53. | :27:59. | |
short while. We just had Liz explaining the Government's | :28:00. | :28:01. | |
perspective on the legislation coming up, but in the context of the | :28:02. | :28:05. | |
European referendum, I know that you are backing Remain very firmly, but | :28:06. | :28:11. | |
there are divisions in Labour as well. Your thoughts today on that | :28:12. | :28:16. | |
backdrop. The divisions in the Labour Party are not really there, | :28:17. | :28:21. | |
we support Britain staying in the European Union, but what we will see | :28:22. | :28:24. | |
in this Queen's Speech is a government that has run out of | :28:25. | :28:28. | |
steam, and I think the backdrop of the referendum is only a small part | :28:29. | :28:31. | |
of that. David Cameron has only had a majority Conservative government | :28:32. | :28:35. | |
for one year, and the fact that they cannot come forward with an exciting | :28:36. | :28:40. | |
and coherent, not just Queen's Speech but strategy for the | :28:41. | :28:44. | |
country... More than 20 bills, probably. Up there is no coherent | :28:45. | :28:49. | |
strategy, we have a pick'n'mix of bills that they can get agreement | :28:50. | :29:00. | |
on, the key education bill had to be dropped after opposition from all | :29:01. | :29:05. | |
sides. They are acting against what the Government is doing on the | :29:06. | :29:09. | |
ground, so they talk about wanting to support families, but they are | :29:10. | :29:12. | |
cutting away all support to families on the ground, you know, tax credits | :29:13. | :29:20. | |
cuts, support for families on the ground has all but disappeared. That | :29:21. | :29:24. | |
is why we are seeing more families in crisis, there is no strategy | :29:25. | :29:25. | |
here. Joanna your thoughts, some thoughts | :29:26. | :29:34. | |
on the euro backdrop? The Government have got its eye off the ball, how | :29:35. | :29:37. | |
could it be otherwise, the Conservative Party are split down | :29:38. | :29:40. | |
the middle and too are the Government and the Cabinet. It is | :29:41. | :29:43. | |
deeply concerning because of the splits in the Conservative Party | :29:44. | :29:46. | |
those of us who wish to remain in the EU are not seeing a positive | :29:47. | :29:50. | |
case articulated, the case for being in Europe. I would like to see the | :29:51. | :29:54. | |
Government rather than spinning scare stories, I would like to see | :29:55. | :29:58. | |
them articulate the fact that we have had 60 years of relative peace | :29:59. | :30:03. | |
in Europe. Europe opens us up to a Common Market of 500 million | :30:04. | :30:07. | |
consumers and also, from the Scottish National Party's point of | :30:08. | :30:12. | |
view, the European Union gives us guarantees and protections against | :30:13. | :30:18. | |
some of the more activities in relation to Human Rights and social | :30:19. | :30:22. | |
issues. The Queen is leaving the Palace with the Duke of Edinburgh | :30:23. | :30:29. | |
and they are travelling today in the Diamond Jubilee State Coach. A | :30:30. | :30:34. | |
wonderful sight. It is the third time, I think, that the coach has | :30:35. | :30:37. | |
been used for the State Opening. It is a relatively new coach built to | :30:38. | :30:42. | |
celebrate the Diamond Jubilee in 2012. It was unveiled in 2014. It | :30:43. | :30:49. | |
was designed by Jim Frecklington who was responsible for the construction | :30:50. | :30:53. | |
of the Australia State Coach which we also see on these big occasions. | :30:54. | :31:04. | |
The Duke will be celebrating his 90th birth dan on 10th June and the | :31:05. | :31:10. | |
Diamond Jubilee State Coach leaving the main courtyard at Buckingham | :31:11. | :31:14. | |
Palace and making its way towards the Mall. | :31:15. | :31:24. | |
I should say, of course, last year we were enjoying some rather | :31:25. | :31:27. | |
glorious weather. Everything was glinting! My guests are laughing in | :31:28. | :31:31. | |
the studio because it is rather wet today. | :31:32. | :31:35. | |
The forecast is not great. And it is meant to rain for most of the day | :31:36. | :31:39. | |
here in Central London. I'm just looking out now and it seems to be, | :31:40. | :31:45. | |
well not raining heavily, but it is certainly raining and that | :31:46. | :31:48. | |
inevitably will cause a little bit of an effect on proceedings, but it | :31:49. | :31:52. | |
is a great sight, isn't it? That coach there is a grand sight on a | :31:53. | :31:56. | |
day like this on the State Opening. We rarely see a procession of this | :31:57. | :32:03. | |
kind and just behind the coach there, we have the Sovereign's | :32:04. | :32:07. | |
Escort, two divisions of the Blues and Royals, two divisions of the | :32:08. | :32:11. | |
Life Guards, the Blues and Royals in their dark blue tunics and the Life | :32:12. | :32:17. | |
Guards in their dazzling red tunics. 116 men and horses in four divisions | :32:18. | :32:24. | |
and the Field Officer commanding the Queen's escort today, Major Alex | :32:25. | :32:30. | |
Owen of the Blues and Royals. Back in the Royal Gallery, the lord | :32:31. | :32:39. | |
great chamber, the marquess of Cholmondeley. He will take the Crown | :32:40. | :32:44. | |
into the Robing Room on the left-hand side there. And don't they | :32:45. | :32:50. | |
look splendid? The two state trumpeters in their medieval uniform | :32:51. | :32:52. | |
on either side of the door. They will be sounding the fanfare for | :32:53. | :32:55. | |
when the Royal Procession starts later on. They're already in place. | :32:56. | :32:59. | |
So the Crown being taken into the Robing Room. The Robing Room by the | :33:00. | :33:08. | |
way, is also a beautiful room with some magnificent portraits of | :33:09. | :33:13. | |
legends and it is where the Queen will be preparing for that Royal | :33:14. | :33:17. | |
Procession. So we were mentioning just before we stopped there, we | :33:18. | :33:20. | |
were mentioning the fact that we have a list of Bills today. The Bill | :33:21. | :33:24. | |
of Rights issue, Laura, can I bring you on to that? This is something we | :33:25. | :33:28. | |
discussed last year and we've not seen. So what is your reading of | :33:29. | :33:33. | |
that this year? Well, this has been quite a torturous process for the | :33:34. | :33:37. | |
Conservative Party. Long ago now, it feels like, David Cameron promised | :33:38. | :33:40. | |
that there would be a British Bill of Rights. Essentially, a different, | :33:41. | :33:45. | |
some people would argue, slightly watered down version of the various | :33:46. | :33:49. | |
combination of European treaties that we're currently signed up to, | :33:50. | :33:52. | |
the treaties that caused real concern particularly in the Tory | :33:53. | :33:56. | |
Party particularly about how they restrict our ability to do certain | :33:57. | :34:01. | |
things. The fundamental point is whether UK law or EU law is supreme | :34:02. | :34:04. | |
in this country and the Conservatives have been looking for | :34:05. | :34:09. | |
a fix on this for sometime. Not so long ago, in February, March time, | :34:10. | :34:12. | |
the Government did have a proposal on sovereignty worked up. It was | :34:13. | :34:16. | |
that proposal that didn't satisfy Boris Johnson enough to campaign to | :34:17. | :34:22. | |
stay in the EU. But we don't expect that proposal to come forward today. | :34:23. | :34:27. | |
We're going to have an IOU that it will happen on some point. Any light | :34:28. | :34:31. | |
to shed on that? On the issue of the sovereignty Bill, of course, we need | :34:32. | :34:35. | |
to wait for the outcome of the referendum. That is material in that | :34:36. | :34:39. | |
issue and on the subject of the British Bill of Rights, we are | :34:40. | :34:42. | |
committed to it. We need to make sure we get it right and I think it | :34:43. | :34:46. | |
is right, that the Government brings forward legislation when it is ready | :34:47. | :34:51. | |
to do so, when we have made sure we've sorted out the legal issues. | :34:52. | :34:57. | |
It is a complex legal issue... It is more complex than you thought, is | :34:58. | :35:01. | |
that fair? We are still working on it. The point I would make is there | :35:02. | :35:07. | |
is a really priority issues which are in today's Queen's Speech, | :35:08. | :35:10. | |
whether that's on prison reform, whether that's on sorting out | :35:11. | :35:13. | |
Britain's infrastructure, whether it is on areas like digital | :35:14. | :35:17. | |
communications that are very important for getting our economy | :35:18. | :35:24. | |
moving. We get criticised if we bring something out that's not ready | :35:25. | :35:28. | |
and we get criticised if we spend time thinking about it. My view as a | :35:29. | :35:33. | |
Government minister, it is better to do the groundwork and get things | :35:34. | :35:37. | |
sorted out and put things forward when they are ready. We have a | :35:38. | :35:40. | |
substantial programme of social reform here. | :35:41. | :35:47. | |
Just outside the Palace of Westminster and The Prince of Wales | :35:48. | :36:02. | |
and the Duchess of Cornwall are arriving. | :36:03. | :36:09. | |
They are in the Irish State Coach. The carriage procession of the Life | :36:10. | :36:13. | |
Guards travelling escort of the Household Cavalry mounted regiment | :36:14. | :36:16. | |
and 16 men on horses in the escort for The Prince of Wales and under | :36:17. | :36:22. | |
the command of Major Ben Wolf squadron leader of the Life Guards. | :36:23. | :36:26. | |
The National Anthem having been played, a curtailed version of it | :36:27. | :36:29. | |
for The Prince of Wales and the Prince and the duchess will arrive | :36:30. | :36:35. | |
at the Sovereign's Entrance and I think this is the third time that | :36:36. | :36:40. | |
they've attended the State Opening together. | :36:41. | :37:18. | |
They salute the arrival of the Duchess of Corn wal and The Prince | :37:19. | :37:25. | |
of Wales who is 67 this year and the longest serving heir apparent in | :37:26. | :37:29. | |
British history having held that position since 1952. A grand total | :37:30. | :37:35. | |
of 64 years. He is the oldest heir to the throne since 1714. He won't | :37:36. | :37:39. | |
thank me for saying that! They are impressive statistics. So The Prince | :37:40. | :37:43. | |
of Wales and the duchess making their way up there to the | :37:44. | :37:47. | |
sovereign's, through the Sovereign's Entrance up to the Royal Staircase | :37:48. | :37:51. | |
there which will lead to the Royal Gallery. There we have the Duke of | :37:52. | :37:57. | |
Norfolk, the air marshal, another of these great officers of State. He is | :37:58. | :38:02. | |
t man who is responsible for organising some of the biggest | :38:03. | :38:06. | |
events that involve the Royal Family including coronations and state | :38:07. | :38:09. | |
funerals. He has been working very hard to make sure that today's | :38:10. | :38:15. | |
events are running like clockwork. So the Duke of Norfolk there, the | :38:16. | :38:21. | |
hereditary position leading The Prince of Wales and the Duchess up | :38:22. | :38:28. | |
into the Royal Gallery. Through the Norman Porch and then | :38:29. | :38:32. | |
into the Robing Room where they will have a little break before they | :38:33. | :38:34. | |
enter the Royal Gallery itself. Into the Robing Room where the doors | :38:35. | :38:48. | |
will be firmly closed because we're not allowed in there. | :38:49. | :38:55. | |
And another procession is underway. This is the Lord Speaker's | :38:56. | :39:00. | |
procession. This is baroness D'Souza approaching the end of her term as | :39:01. | :39:04. | |
Lord Speaker. In a few weeks time. So this is the last time we will see | :39:05. | :39:08. | |
her in this role at the State Opening Parliament. She presides | :39:09. | :39:13. | |
over sittings of the House of Lords and Baroness D'Souza taking her | :39:14. | :39:16. | |
place there ready to greet Her Majesty and the Duke of Edinburgh | :39:17. | :39:23. | |
when they arrive. And there we have the Lord | :39:24. | :39:29. | |
Chancellor, Michael Gove, making his way to the porch as well, ready for | :39:30. | :39:34. | |
the Queen's arrival. He, of course, has the task of presenting the | :39:35. | :39:38. | |
speech to the Queen. It is in that great big purse that | :39:39. | :39:44. | |
is being carried by the Pursebearer. I hope they've checked it is in | :39:45. | :39:48. | |
there, because that's an important check early in the morning otherwise | :39:49. | :39:51. | |
there would be an embarrassing episode in the House of Lords, but | :39:52. | :39:55. | |
normally the purse is inside, the speech is safely inside the purse | :39:56. | :39:59. | |
and Michael Gove will deliver it a little later. Outside the Palace of | :40:00. | :40:04. | |
Westminster, what a sight, that's Horse Guards Parade and just on the | :40:05. | :40:09. | |
fringes of St James' Park there. The stands already in place for the | :40:10. | :40:15. | |
Queen's Birthday Parade in June. Trooping the Colour. And the Queen's | :40:16. | :40:23. | |
procession already making its way towards the Horseguards Building and | :40:24. | :40:26. | |
it will emerge from the Horseguards Arch on to Whitehall and then | :40:27. | :40:30. | |
they'll have Parliament Square and Big Ben in sight. | :40:31. | :40:41. | |
Back in the Royal Gallery, where the Yeomen of the Guard are providing a | :40:42. | :40:54. | |
Guard of Honour. Here we have the leader of the House of Lords. It is | :40:55. | :41:09. | |
her job today to be in this Royal Procession carrying the Cap of | :41:10. | :41:14. | |
Maintenance and then we'll have the Sword of State also being carried | :41:15. | :41:19. | |
that that State Procession through the Royal Gallery. And they will | :41:20. | :41:27. | |
make their way up to this end of the Royal Gallery so they can retrieve | :41:28. | :41:30. | |
the cap and the sword ready for the Queen's arrival. | :41:31. | :41:42. | |
And we're on Whitehall by now. The bands are playing. The Guards of | :41:43. | :41:47. | |
Honour at certain points including the Queen's Gardens at Buckingham | :41:48. | :41:51. | |
Palace and down there on College Green near the Houses of Parliament, | :41:52. | :41:54. | |
passing the Ministry of Defence there on the left, the great white | :41:55. | :42:01. | |
structure and Downing Street on the right and past the Wales Office | :42:02. | :42:07. | |
which I know rather well! And down past the Treasury and the Foreign | :42:08. | :42:09. | |
Office down towards Parliament Square and the camera lens telling | :42:10. | :42:15. | |
you what the weather is like. A few drops. | :42:16. | :42:21. | |
Very pleased to have live coverage today from inside Prince's Chamber | :42:22. | :42:24. | |
because these things add to the sense of occasion and the wonderful | :42:25. | :42:28. | |
par traits on the wall in this Prince's Chamber. We can just | :42:29. | :42:36. | |
glimpse there, Louis the 12th of France. He was married to Mary Tudor | :42:37. | :42:42. | |
at one point. So you have the Tudor dynasty represented here. It is a | :42:43. | :42:47. | |
wonderful, this in Parliamentary terms is referred to the small ante | :42:48. | :42:52. | |
room. It is a rather grand room, but it is the room that's between the | :42:53. | :42:56. | |
Royal Gallery and the chamber of the House of Lords. It is where lots of | :42:57. | :43:00. | |
Lords congregate to discuss the business of the day. They use it as | :43:01. | :43:03. | |
a kind of lobby if you like, but on the day of the State Opening, we | :43:04. | :43:07. | |
have the Gentlemen at Arms in there ready for the procession. | :43:08. | :43:21. | |
And past the Cenotaph and down towards Westminster and the Life | :43:22. | :43:26. | |
Guards leading the way, the Sovereign's Escort. Followed right | :43:27. | :43:31. | |
at the back by the Blues and Royals. Two divisions of each for the | :43:32. | :43:33. | |
Sovereign's Escort today. The bells of Westminster Abbey and | :43:34. | :44:00. | |
St Margaret's ringing loudly today. And as the royal procession | :44:01. | :44:43. | |
approaches the Sovereign's Entrance, the national anthem will be played. | :44:44. | :45:05. | |
The Queen and the Duke arriving for the State Opening, a slightly | :45:06. | :46:02. | |
different arrival this year, I will explain in a couple of seconds, but | :46:03. | :46:06. | |
the carriage making its way, and the fanfare will be sounded by the state | :46:07. | :46:10. | |
trumpeters. The fanfare has been sounded, very | :46:11. | :46:57. | |
soon the Union flag will be lowered and the Royal Standard will be | :46:58. | :47:01. | |
raised because the Queen is at the Palace of Westminster. I mentioned | :47:02. | :47:05. | |
the slightly different arrangement this year. Buckingham Palace are | :47:06. | :47:09. | |
telling us that for the Queen's comfort and convenience, she will | :47:10. | :47:14. | |
not be taking the usual route up to the Robing Room. She will be | :47:15. | :47:17. | |
bypassing the Royal Staircase and using one of the lifts in the | :47:18. | :47:25. | |
Victoria Tower. So what is going to happen now is that those members of | :47:26. | :47:28. | |
the Household Division awaiting there for the arrival of the Queen, | :47:29. | :47:34. | |
she will emerge at this point, just near the Robing Room. The pages of | :47:35. | :47:39. | |
honour are waiting, and we have some of the heads of the Armed Forces | :47:40. | :47:45. | |
waiting too. Waiting for the Queen to emerge from an entrance on the | :47:46. | :47:49. | |
left, not the usual procession up the staircase today. And then it is | :47:50. | :47:55. | |
a direct route for the Queen into the Robing Room itself. The room | :47:56. | :48:02. | |
itself, we get a glimpse of it now and again, it was actually used as | :48:03. | :48:06. | |
the chamber of the House of Lords during the Second World War when the | :48:07. | :48:09. | |
Palace of Westminster was badly damaged. The House of Lords moved | :48:10. | :48:13. | |
into the Robing Room, used it as a chamber. It was even used as a venue | :48:14. | :48:18. | |
for the State Opening, and the House of Commons relocated to Church House | :48:19. | :48:22. | |
in Westminster, which is not too far away. The Robing Room has been used | :48:23. | :48:29. | |
for different things over the years. The Earl Marshal accompanying the | :48:30. | :48:41. | |
Queen. And the Duke of Edinburgh opening the doors to the Robing | :48:42. | :48:51. | |
Room. There will be a few minutes as the Queen and the Duke prepare | :48:52. | :48:54. | |
themselves for the procession in state, there we are, a slightly | :48:55. | :48:57. | |
different arrangement for the Queen's arrival. Black Rod, the | :48:58. | :49:04. | |
gentleman just walking along there, is the man who is in charge of | :49:05. | :49:09. | |
security in the House of Lords, who will be playing a prominent role | :49:10. | :49:12. | |
later in this ceremony. And here we have the heralds. In ancient time, | :49:13. | :49:18. | |
they were royal messengers, they performed a very important function | :49:19. | :49:21. | |
for monarchs as trusted messengers. These days, they are in charge of | :49:22. | :49:29. | |
the rules of heraldry, the College of Arms, and they represent | :49:30. | :49:32. | |
different levels of seniority and different parts of the United | :49:33. | :49:34. | |
Kingdom too. Led by Thomas Woodcock, the most | :49:35. | :49:52. | |
senior of the heralds presents today, followed by the great | :49:53. | :49:59. | |
Parliamentary maces. So a solemn procession there through the Royal | :50:00. | :50:03. | |
Gallery for the heralds, and there is Black Rod, Lieutenant macro | :50:04. | :50:13. | |
Lieutenant General David Leakey, who has been imposed since 2010. -- in | :50:14. | :50:20. | |
post. The heralds now taking their position, and they are ready now for | :50:21. | :50:27. | |
the Queen to emerge from the Robing Room, ready for the procession to | :50:28. | :50:31. | |
begin into the House of Lords. There we see Black Rod making his way | :50:32. | :50:41. | |
towards the Prince's Chamber. He will be making his way down to the | :50:42. | :50:45. | |
House of Lords. Later on, it will be his job to summon MPs to the House | :50:46. | :50:47. | |
of Lords. So the position now is that everyone | :50:48. | :51:11. | |
is waiting for all of the key players to be ready, if you like. | :51:12. | :51:17. | |
The Queen and the Duke will take a few minutes in the Robing Room to | :51:18. | :51:20. | |
get ready, the Crown, the Queen wears the Imperial State Crown, and | :51:21. | :51:25. | |
supported by the Duke they will get ready for that very grand | :51:26. | :51:29. | |
procession, which, by the way, has not really changed since the middle | :51:30. | :51:33. | |
ages. It is very, very special event for us to see, only seen at the | :51:34. | :51:37. | |
State Opening of Parliament, a procession of this scale, other | :51:38. | :51:42. | |
than, of course, at the Coronation, which is a different order again. We | :51:43. | :51:47. | |
were discussing some of the elements of the legislation, a Bill of | :51:48. | :51:50. | |
Rights, your thoughts on that, please. It is another example of how | :51:51. | :51:55. | |
the Government cannot agree some of its big bills that it wanted to | :51:56. | :51:58. | |
bring forward in this Queen's Speech. And we will see whether that | :51:59. | :52:03. | |
happens, we will see what they have got to say on education... Good idea | :52:04. | :52:09. | |
or not? We have got a sufficient framework of a Bill of Rights within | :52:10. | :52:15. | |
the EU... You would oppose it anyway? We would have to see what | :52:16. | :52:19. | |
they come forward with, but this is more about internal divisions within | :52:20. | :52:23. | |
the Tory party, as far as I can see, rather than necessity for the UK. | :52:24. | :52:28. | |
Your thoughts? The Government have got themselves in a wheel mess, this | :52:29. | :52:32. | |
time last year we had been promised a Bill of Rights but it was not in | :52:33. | :52:37. | |
the Queen's Speech, all that was in it was a promise of a consultation | :52:38. | :52:42. | |
which we still have not got. There was such widespread cross-party | :52:43. | :52:45. | |
concern about the idea of repealing the Human Rights Act. Not only are | :52:46. | :52:50. | |
members of the Government talking about repealing the Human Rights | :52:51. | :52:54. | |
Act, they are also talking about withdrawing from the European | :52:55. | :52:57. | |
Convention on Human Rights. The Home Secretary gave a major speech on | :52:58. | :53:00. | |
this recently, a curious position for her, because she wants to remain | :53:01. | :53:05. | |
within the EU, and by convention all member states signed up to the | :53:06. | :53:08. | |
European Convention on Human Rights. But it would be the most terrible | :53:09. | :53:11. | |
signal to send out internationally for UK to withdraw from this | :53:12. | :53:16. | |
international convention. We are in the Central Lobby. At South, | :53:17. | :53:25. | |
strangers! The familiar command before the speaker's procession. -- | :53:26. | :53:33. | |
hats off. The Serjeant at Arms there, who was appointed just last | :53:34. | :53:39. | |
year as Serjeant at Arms in charge of keeping order in the house of | :53:40. | :53:47. | |
Commons, and then John Bercow, who has been in post since 2009. This | :53:48. | :53:52. | |
corridor leads to the Members' Lobby, the speaker's arrival being | :53:53. | :53:58. | |
loudly proclaimed as he goes along. There is the Serjeant at Arms, | :53:59. | :54:06. | |
members greeting the Speaker, some of them probably more friendly than | :54:07. | :54:10. | |
others. He has a famously spiky relationship with some MPs. That is | :54:11. | :54:18. | |
his style. And he entered the chamber of the House of Commons, the | :54:19. | :54:27. | |
maze will be rested on the dispatch boxes, near the dispatch box as by | :54:28. | :54:30. | |
the Serjeant at Arms, and then they will have a breast session, so we | :54:31. | :54:35. | |
will not be allowed to film that. The next thing we will see later on | :54:36. | :54:42. | |
is Black Rod knocking on the door of the Commons, asking to gain entry. | :54:43. | :54:47. | |
John McDonnell, Labour's Shadow Chancellor. | :54:48. | :54:52. | |
So as we were saying, just discussing in the studio, Joanna was | :54:53. | :54:58. | |
finishing a point she was making about the Bill of Rights. I use | :54:59. | :55:02. | |
saying, if something were presented along those lines, what would be the | :55:03. | :55:10. | |
SNP view? -- are you saying. The SNP is wholly opposed to withdrawing | :55:11. | :55:13. | |
from the European Convention on Human Rights, and there is a | :55:14. | :55:17. | |
Scottish angle to this, because it is written into the Scotland Act, | :55:18. | :55:23. | |
they are a devolved matter, so the British and cannot repeal the Human | :55:24. | :55:25. | |
Rights Act and appeal and with a Bill of Rights or withdraw from the | :55:26. | :55:29. | |
convention without the consent of the Scottish Parliament. Nicola | :55:30. | :55:34. | |
Sturgeon has made it clear that would not be forthcoming. There is a | :55:35. | :55:37. | |
cross-party consensus in the Scottish Government, which I believe | :55:38. | :55:41. | |
include some Conservative MSPs, that they do not want Britain to withdraw | :55:42. | :55:45. | |
from the convention, so the Government are going to have a | :55:46. | :55:49. | |
massive fight on their hands across British society, and a Scottish | :55:50. | :55:52. | |
Parliament that will big its heels in and say no, you cannot repeal the | :55:53. | :55:57. | |
Human Rights Act or withdraw from the convention. If the Government | :55:58. | :56:01. | |
are intent on pressing forward, there will be a major constitutional | :56:02. | :56:06. | |
crisis. We should not forget, Huw, that human rights and up in the Good | :56:07. | :56:09. | |
Friday agreement, so it is not just a matter of what Scotland will say, | :56:10. | :56:13. | |
it is a fundamental part of the peace process in Northern Ireland, | :56:14. | :56:17. | |
and it is grossly irresponsible to tamper with such matters. Back to | :56:18. | :56:22. | |
the Royal Gallery, we were about to be in the position where the state | :56:23. | :56:27. | |
trumpeters will be sounding the fanfare. I think we should stay here | :56:28. | :56:30. | |
now, because once that signal is given by the Duke of Norfolk, the | :56:31. | :56:34. | |
Earl Marshal, on the right-hand side, he is the one who will give | :56:35. | :56:37. | |
the signal for the fanfare to be played. Just why we are on these | :56:38. | :56:44. | |
images, it is worth, Laura, a word on what we expect elsewhere in this | :56:45. | :56:48. | |
speech at this point. We have discussed quite a bit about the Bill | :56:49. | :56:52. | |
of Rights and the EU referendum, what else will stand out? The | :56:53. | :56:56. | |
standout is the fact that the Bill of Rights will not be there, we | :56:57. | :57:00. | |
expect another promise of a consultation, but we will see a | :57:01. | :57:04. | |
variety of bills, perhaps not a grand sweeping programme that really | :57:05. | :57:07. | |
stitches together, but a variety of bills that David Cameron will used | :57:08. | :57:11. | |
to try to push forward what he is ease as the second part of his | :57:12. | :57:15. | |
mission in government, if you like. -- what he sees. If you think | :57:16. | :57:19. | |
2010-15 was about sorting out the economy after the crash, he sees his | :57:20. | :57:27. | |
second term as putting forward social reform, so we will see bills | :57:28. | :57:31. | |
about speeding up adoption, tackling extremism, suggestions about how you | :57:32. | :57:35. | |
try to help communities where young people are vulnerable to | :57:36. | :57:39. | |
radicalisation. We will see bills, for example, an academy schools. We | :57:40. | :57:43. | |
have already had a U-turn on the original intention to cause all | :57:44. | :57:47. | |
schools in England to become academies, but there will be an | :57:48. | :57:51. | |
education bill that gives power to the Department for Education. What | :57:52. | :57:54. | |
we will hear from David Cameron, when he eventually gets his turn in | :57:55. | :57:58. | |
the programme of events, will be him trying to stitch together a | :57:59. | :58:05. | |
narrative that says, look, I still have things that I have to say and | :58:06. | :58:08. | |
what to do with my time in office. The procession is about to get under | :58:09. | :58:11. | |
way. FANFARE | :58:12. | :58:40. | |
The 63rd occasion that the Queen has attended this State Opening of | :58:41. | :58:46. | |
Parliament. The Queen who celebrated her 90th birthday on 21st April and | :58:47. | :58:51. | |
of course, her official birthday will be celebrated in June. | :58:52. | :59:00. | |
The Prince of Wales and the Duchess of Cornwall who first attended the | :59:01. | :59:05. | |
State Opening of Parliament together in 2013. | :59:06. | :59:13. | |
We have the Lord President, Chris Grayling and the Lord Speaker | :59:14. | :59:18. | |
Baroness D'Souza and Michael Gove, Lord Chancellor with the purse that | :59:19. | :59:24. | |
contains the speech and the Marquess of Cholmondeley and the Duke of | :59:25. | :59:35. | |
Norfolk and Baroness Stowell. The paiges doing their work | :59:36. | :59:57. | |
carefully. The Queen passing the great statue | :59:58. | :00:01. | |
of her great, great-grandmother, Queen Victoria. It dominates that | :00:02. | :00:08. | |
room and into the chamber of the House of Lords. What a splendid | :00:09. | :00:15. | |
sight and the chamber completed in 1847 and opened by Queen Victoria in | :00:16. | :00:19. | |
that year. The chairs of state there, having been put in for The | :00:20. | :00:23. | |
Prince of Wales and the Duchess of Cornwall and the pair of thrones, | :00:24. | :00:28. | |
one slightly elevated for Her Majesty the Queen. The Queen will | :00:29. | :00:31. | |
invite the peers to be seated. The signal, the subtle signal has | :00:32. | :01:07. | |
been given by Her Majesty and received by Lieutenant General David | :01:08. | :01:12. | |
Leakey and Black Rod who now makes his way from the Central Lobby of | :01:13. | :01:16. | |
the Houses of Parliament along that corridor to the members lobby of the | :01:17. | :01:22. | |
House of Commons, a rather more austere design at the other end of | :01:23. | :01:26. | |
the Palace of Westminster. Black Rod's presence being signalled and | :01:27. | :01:33. | |
announced and a wry smile because he knows what is coming up! The door | :01:34. | :01:37. | |
will be slammed. A statement of the independence of the House of | :01:38. | :01:41. | |
Commons. He is the monarch's representative. Close the doors. | :01:42. | :01:55. | |
Black Rod open the doors. Black Rod... It is Black Rod's birthday | :01:56. | :02:04. | |
today, I'm wondering what kind of greeting he will get from Denis | :02:05. | :02:08. | |
Skinner and others in the House of Commons. | :02:09. | :02:20. | |
Mr Speaker, the Queen commands this honourable House to attend Her | :02:21. | :02:31. | |
Majesty immediately in the House of Peers. Hands off the BBC! | :02:32. | :02:49. | |
So there you have Denis Skinner's contribution to the day's events. I | :02:50. | :02:54. | |
probably shouldn't say anything, should I? | :02:55. | :03:00. | |
But there you have Black Rod and the Speaker along with Jeremy Corbyn, | :03:01. | :03:07. | |
his first event, State Opening of Parliament as leader of Her | :03:08. | :03:11. | |
Majesty's loyal opposition. David Cameron, the Prime Minister, having | :03:12. | :03:17. | |
been summoned to the House of Lords to hear the Queen's Speech. Laura, | :03:18. | :03:24. | |
at this point the body long is always rather interesting? Indeed, | :03:25. | :03:27. | |
and trying to guess or lip read the discussions that are actually being | :03:28. | :03:30. | |
had. Jeremy Corbyn and David Cameron face each other week after week | :03:31. | :03:34. | |
across the dispatch box at Prime Minister's Questions, but this is | :03:35. | :03:38. | |
one of the few occasions where we see them, look, shoulder-to-shoulder | :03:39. | :03:41. | |
there, it looks like David Cameron is trying to make polite | :03:42. | :03:43. | |
conversation and Jeremy Corbyn is looking the other way! | :03:44. | :03:49. | |
LAUGHTER There is an attempt at conversation, | :03:50. | :03:53. | |
but I suppose these moments are awkward, of course, for politicians | :03:54. | :03:57. | |
who are rivals and opponents. They end up talking about the weather or | :03:58. | :04:02. | |
just how glorious the House of Lords chamber is going to look! We watch | :04:03. | :04:07. | |
them filing through to hear the speech which will, of course, be | :04:08. | :04:10. | |
delivered in the spender of the Lords. One of the things we might | :04:11. | :04:14. | |
hear are suggestions about reforming the House of Lords. Of course. The | :04:15. | :04:18. | |
Government have rather unimpressed as how the Lords have been under | :04:19. | :04:23. | |
active since the election last year, inside the House of Lords, the make | :04:24. | :04:25. | |
up the political parties is very, very different. You have Labour, if | :04:26. | :04:28. | |
they act with the Liberal Democrats, with a majority and they've been | :04:29. | :04:32. | |
able to force particularly a big U-turn on tax credits. So the | :04:33. | :04:36. | |
Government have sort of tried to retaliate by talking about scraping | :04:37. | :04:39. | |
away some of the Lords powers and that might be what we see a Bill on | :04:40. | :04:45. | |
today, but I think there is not much appetite actually for a significant | :04:46. | :04:48. | |
reforms, but it is well worth looking out for as we watch them | :04:49. | :04:52. | |
file through. Into the chamber of the House of Lords led by Black Rod | :04:53. | :04:56. | |
and the Serjeant at Arms and the Speaker and the speak err's chaplain | :04:57. | :05:04. | |
and the Prime Minister and Mr Corbyn arrive and Philip hammedon, John | :05:05. | :05:08. | |
McDonnell, the Shadow Chancellor, and Angus Robertson of the Scottish | :05:09. | :05:13. | |
National Party. They are ready for the events to get underway. Michael | :05:14. | :05:21. | |
Gove's moment in the spotlight, he will be required to deliver the | :05:22. | :05:31. | |
speech faultlessly to the Queen once the Earl Marshal is happy and she | :05:32. | :05:33. | |
seems to be now. The lord Chancellor safely delivered | :05:34. | :05:57. | |
the speech. The Queen prepares to deliver the Queen's Speech 2016. | :05:58. | :06:11. | |
My Lords and members of the House of Commons. My Government will use the | :06:12. | :06:16. | |
opportunity of a strengthening economy to deliver security for | :06:17. | :06:20. | |
working people, to increase life chances for the most disadvantaged, | :06:21. | :06:26. | |
and to strengthen national defences. My ministers will continue to bring | :06:27. | :06:31. | |
the public finances under control so that Britain lives within its means | :06:32. | :06:37. | |
and to move to a higher wage and lower welfare economy where work is | :06:38. | :06:43. | |
rewarded. To support the economic recovery and to create jobs and more | :06:44. | :06:49. | |
apprenticeships, legislation will be introduced to ensure Britain has the | :06:50. | :06:53. | |
infrastructure that businesses need to grow. Measures will be brought | :06:54. | :07:01. | |
forward to create the right for every household to access high-speed | :07:02. | :07:07. | |
broadband. Legislation will be introduced to improve Britain's | :07:08. | :07:10. | |
competitiveness and make the United Kingdom a world leader in the | :07:11. | :07:15. | |
digital economy. My ministers will ensure that the United Kingdom is at | :07:16. | :07:22. | |
the fore front of technology for new forms of transport including | :07:23. | :07:28. | |
autonomous and electric vehicles. To spread economic prosperity, my | :07:29. | :07:32. | |
Government will continue to support the development of a Northern | :07:33. | :07:37. | |
powerhouse. In England, further powers will be devolved to directly | :07:38. | :07:44. | |
elected mayors. Including powers governing local bus services. | :07:45. | :07:50. | |
Legislation will also allow local authorities to retain business | :07:51. | :07:54. | |
rates, giving them more freedom to invest in local communities. My | :07:55. | :08:01. | |
Government will support aspiration and promote home ownership through | :08:02. | :08:05. | |
its commitment to build one million new homes. Following last week's | :08:06. | :08:13. | |
anticorruption summit in London, legislation will be introduced to | :08:14. | :08:18. | |
tackle corruption, money laundering, and tax evasion. My Government will | :08:19. | :08:25. | |
continue work to deliver NHS services over seven days of the week | :08:26. | :08:30. | |
in England. Legislation will be introduced to ensure that overseas | :08:31. | :08:35. | |
visitors pay for the health treatment they receive at public | :08:36. | :08:41. | |
expense. New legislation will be introduced to tackle some of the | :08:42. | :08:45. | |
deepest social problems in society and improve life chances. A Bill | :08:46. | :08:52. | |
will be introduced to ensure that children can be adopted by new | :08:53. | :08:57. | |
families without delay. Improve the standard of social work and | :08:58. | :09:01. | |
opportunities for young people in care in England. To tackle poverty | :09:02. | :09:10. | |
and the causes of deprivation including family instability, | :09:11. | :09:14. | |
addiction, and debt, my Government will introduce new indicators for | :09:15. | :09:20. | |
measuring life chances. Legislation will be introduced to establish a | :09:21. | :09:26. | |
soft drinks industry levy to help tackle childhood obesity. Measures | :09:27. | :09:33. | |
will be introduced to help the lowest income families save through | :09:34. | :09:39. | |
a new help to save scheme and to create a lifetime ISA to help young | :09:40. | :09:46. | |
people save for the long-term. My Government will continue to reform | :09:47. | :09:51. | |
public services so they help the hardest to reach. A Bill will be | :09:52. | :09:58. | |
brought forward to lay foundations for educational excellence in all | :09:59. | :10:02. | |
schools, giving every child the best start in life. There will also be a | :10:03. | :10:08. | |
fairer balance between schools through the national funding | :10:09. | :10:14. | |
formula. To ensure that more people have the opportunity to further | :10:15. | :10:19. | |
their education, legislation will be introduced to support the | :10:20. | :10:24. | |
establishment of new universities and to promote choice and | :10:25. | :10:28. | |
competition across the higher education sector. My Government will | :10:29. | :10:36. | |
legislate to reform prisons and courts. To give individuals a second | :10:37. | :10:44. | |
chance. Prison governors will be given unprecedented freedom and they | :10:45. | :10:49. | |
will be able to ensure prisoners receive better education. Old and | :10:50. | :10:56. | |
inefficient prisons will be closed and new institutions built where | :10:57. | :10:58. | |
prisoners can be put more effectively to work. Action will | :10:59. | :11:05. | |
also be taken to ensure better mental health provision for | :11:06. | :11:08. | |
individuals in the Criminal Justice System. My Government will continue | :11:09. | :11:16. | |
to work to bring communities together and strengthen society. | :11:17. | :11:23. | |
Legislation will be introduced to prevent radicalisation, tackle | :11:24. | :11:27. | |
extremism in all its forms, and promote community integration. | :11:28. | :11:33. | |
National citizens service will be placed on a perm nat statutory | :11:34. | :11:38. | |
footing -- permanent statutory footing. My Government will continue | :11:39. | :11:44. | |
to safeguard national security. My ministers will invest in Britain's | :11:45. | :11:50. | |
armed forces, honouring the military covenant and meeting the Nato | :11:51. | :11:55. | |
commitment to spend 2% of national income on defence. They will also | :11:56. | :12:02. | |
act to secure the long-term future of Britain's nuclear deterrent. My | :12:03. | :12:07. | |
Government will continue to play a leading role in world affairs using | :12:08. | :12:14. | |
its global presence to tackle climate change and address major | :12:15. | :12:22. | |
international security, economic and humanitarian challenges. My | :12:23. | :12:26. | |
Government will continue to work to resolve the conflict in Ukraine. It | :12:27. | :12:32. | |
will play a leading role in the campaign against Daesh and to | :12:33. | :12:37. | |
support international efforts to bring peace to Syria through a | :12:38. | :12:43. | |
lasting political settlement. Britain's commitment on | :12:44. | :12:47. | |
international development spending will also be honoured, helping to | :12:48. | :12:53. | |
deliver global stability, support the sustainable development goals, | :12:54. | :12:56. | |
and prevent new threats to national security. Prince Philip and I look | :12:57. | :13:06. | |
forward to welcoming His Excellency the President of Columbia on a State | :13:07. | :13:12. | |
visit in November. My Government will continue with legislation to | :13:13. | :13:17. | |
modernise the law governing the use and oversight of investigatory | :13:18. | :13:24. | |
powers by law enforcement, security and intelligence agencies. | :13:25. | :13:29. | |
Legislation will strengthen the capability and accountability of the | :13:30. | :13:35. | |
police service in England and Wales. My Government will hold a referendum | :13:36. | :13:41. | |
on membership of the European Union. Proposals will be brought forward | :13:42. | :13:49. | |
for a British Bill of Rights. My ministers will uphold the | :13:50. | :13:52. | |
sovereignty of Parliament and the primacy of the House of Commons. My | :13:53. | :14:00. | |
Government will continue to work in co-operation with the devolved | :14:01. | :14:04. | |
administrations, to implement the extensive new powers in the Scotland | :14:05. | :14:10. | |
Act and establish a strong and lasting devolution settlement in | :14:11. | :14:16. | |
Wales. My Government will work in Northern Ireland to secure further | :14:17. | :14:21. | |
progress in implementing the Stormont House and fresh start | :14:22. | :14:22. | |
agreements. Members of the House of Commons, | :14:23. | :14:33. | |
estimates for the public services will be laid before you. My Lords | :14:34. | :14:38. | |
and Members of the House of Commons, other measures will be laid before | :14:39. | :14:42. | |
you. I pray that the blessing of Almighty God may rest upon your | :14:43. | :14:46. | |
counsels. So the speech has been delivered, | :14:47. | :15:10. | |
Michael Gove retrieves it, put it back in the purse, and the pages | :15:11. | :15:11. | |
returned to do their work. The Queen and Duke I acknowledge the | :15:12. | :15:43. | |
house of beers, the members of the judiciary, members of the Church, | :15:44. | :15:47. | |
senior Church leaders. -- the house of Peers. And members of the House | :15:48. | :15:57. | |
of Lords, some 790 of them, one of the biggest Parliamentary chambers | :15:58. | :16:00. | |
in the world now, 790 at the last count. Lord Walker, Baroness | :16:01. | :16:08. | |
Stowell. They returned through the Prince's Chamber back into the vast | :16:09. | :16:20. | |
space of the Royal Gallery. This is where so many great events have | :16:21. | :16:24. | |
taken place over the years, including addresses to both Houses | :16:25. | :16:27. | |
of Parliament. President Clinton, Nelson Mandela, president Sarkozy, | :16:28. | :16:36. | |
the list goes on. They often take place in the Royal Gallery, | :16:37. | :16:42. | |
sometimes in Westminster Hall. Baroness D'Souza there, the Lord | :16:43. | :16:48. | |
Speaker, but frame on the left. There will be an election soon to | :16:49. | :16:53. | |
choose her successor as Lord Speaker. The first, Baroness | :16:54. | :16:58. | |
Heymann, was a Labour nominee, Baroness D'Souza is a crossbencher, | :16:59. | :17:02. | |
so we expect a Conservative bigot to be elected this time. The Queen and | :17:03. | :17:06. | |
the attempt to make their way back to the Robing Room before their | :17:07. | :17:11. | |
short journey back to Buckingham Palace. -- the Queen and the Duke. | :17:12. | :17:20. | |
The Queen, who delivered the speech which contained references to, we | :17:21. | :17:27. | |
think, around 21 bills. There are some qualifications there, because | :17:28. | :17:29. | |
some of them are references to things we have heard before, and | :17:30. | :17:35. | |
some of them are draft concepts, but we think 21 solid legislative | :17:36. | :17:38. | |
proposals. And we can discuss those in a moment with my guests in the | :17:39. | :17:40. | |
studio. Back into the Robing Room, where | :17:41. | :17:50. | |
just a few months ago I was privileged to be in there to listen | :17:51. | :17:55. | |
to form a President Carter give a speech on his health initiatives | :17:56. | :18:03. | |
around the world. And here we are at the other end, the Speaker leading | :18:04. | :18:07. | |
his flock back to the House of Commons, because of course this is | :18:08. | :18:12. | |
the start of several days of debate on the content of the Queen's | :18:13. | :18:15. | |
Speech, that Parliamentary tradition. And, traditionally, when | :18:16. | :18:23. | |
the Government defends its plans for the head, and of course the | :18:24. | :18:28. | |
opposition parties can set out their alternatives too. That plans for the | :18:29. | :18:34. | |
year ahead. Boris Johnson making his way back to the Commons, the former | :18:35. | :18:40. | |
Mayor of London. Mr Corbyn, rejoining colleagues on the front | :18:41. | :18:44. | |
bench, the opposition front bench on the left. A couple of friendly | :18:45. | :18:51. | |
exchanges between Tom Watson and the Prime Minister. At least they seem | :18:52. | :18:57. | |
to be friendly! The new Welsh Secretary, Diane Abbott, Boris | :18:58. | :19:01. | |
Johnson as they come back into the lobby, Patrick McLoughlin, Transport | :19:02. | :19:06. | |
Secretary, Sajid Javid, Business Secretary, all coming back now. You | :19:07. | :19:10. | |
do wonder how much they were able to see in the Lords, it is a very | :19:11. | :19:15. | |
restricted space. I am getting lots of knots here in the studio just to | :19:16. | :19:20. | |
say that, yeah, even as a Cabinet minister, you do not see a lot. You | :19:21. | :19:27. | |
don't see very much at all, no. Much better viewing point here, Huw! That | :19:28. | :19:31. | |
is good, I hope you come again! There we have Justine Greening, the | :19:32. | :19:40. | |
international dive -- International Development Secretary. A former | :19:41. | :19:43. | |
colleague of hours, now a Scottish National Party MP there. And quite a | :19:44. | :19:50. | |
few of these members elected last year, so they will be relative | :19:51. | :19:56. | |
novices to the work of the State Opening of Parliament. We caught | :19:57. | :20:01. | |
sight of Hilary Benn earlier. Quite a crowd in the lobby of the House of | :20:02. | :20:06. | |
Lords, there cannot have been any in the chamber itself, no more than 20 | :20:07. | :20:15. | |
or 30 there. Angus Robertson of the SNP. And that this point, Laura, I | :20:16. | :20:20. | |
suppose, lots of them reflecting on what the next few weeks are going to | :20:21. | :20:26. | |
bring. Indeed, partly because they may not have heard only things that | :20:27. | :20:29. | |
the Queen listed that the Government will be trying to do, but this is a | :20:30. | :20:33. | |
moment where MPs and some journalists are bringing up the | :20:34. | :20:36. | |
rear, may be reflecting on the curious time that we are in in | :20:37. | :20:41. | |
politics at the moment. While the Queen was speaking, we saw a shot of | :20:42. | :20:44. | |
Boris Johnson peeping over the top of a rather squashed proud, and he, | :20:45. | :20:50. | |
of course, one of the most prominent voices in terms of the out campaign, | :20:51. | :20:55. | |
who is beagle believe was scathingly attacked by Lord Heseltine | :20:56. | :21:00. | |
yesterday, a very ardent supporter of the European Union. -- who some | :21:01. | :21:06. | |
people believe. But we are in very strange waters at the moment, it is | :21:07. | :21:10. | |
unusual that the Queen's Speech feels almost like a sideshow. What a | :21:11. | :21:15. | |
show it is, of course, with all the pomp and ceremony, but a sideshow to | :21:16. | :21:19. | |
the main political debate, no question about that. Two very | :21:20. | :21:25. | |
important areas of reform, there will be lots of view is | :21:26. | :21:28. | |
understandably with a great interest in education reform, what is | :21:29. | :21:31. | |
happening to the academies reform, there seems to be backtracking, and | :21:32. | :21:36. | |
the parallel reform on prisons. So to allow some prisons more freedom, | :21:37. | :21:41. | |
if you like, for governors. In a similar pattern to the academies, | :21:42. | :21:46. | |
the thinking behind that is that you are convinced by the argument for | :21:47. | :21:50. | |
that? What is it meant to achieve? Well, at the moment, we have a | :21:51. | :21:54. | |
situation where almost 50% of prisoners reoffend within one year. | :21:55. | :21:59. | |
I do not think that is acceptable in the 21st century, we need to help | :22:00. | :22:03. | |
people, educate them better in prison. Half of all prisoners do not | :22:04. | :22:07. | |
have any formal qualifications, so this is about giving people a second | :22:08. | :22:12. | |
chance, giving governors the powers over rehabilitation, over education, | :22:13. | :22:16. | |
setting them on the outcomes they achieve, giving them more control of | :22:17. | :22:22. | |
what goes on in their prisons. You mentioned education, I think it is | :22:23. | :22:26. | |
important to say that there was also a very important higher education | :22:27. | :22:30. | |
bill, it will be the biggest reform of universities we have seen for | :22:31. | :22:34. | |
many years, and enabling new universities to open. It is | :22:35. | :22:39. | |
important we get more people the opportunity to go to university, it | :22:40. | :22:42. | |
is an important part of our life chances and gender. In the last | :22:43. | :22:49. | |
session, we put through legislation on apprenticeships. -- life chances | :22:50. | :22:52. | |
and gender. This is about making sure there are more good places | :22:53. | :22:57. | |
available at university, that we see improvement in the quality of | :22:58. | :23:00. | |
teaching at university, that will be very important. Quite a contrast | :23:01. | :23:05. | |
with the arrangement in Scotland. Well, indeed, and I was just | :23:06. | :23:09. | |
thinking there, there is not much point in building and creating more | :23:10. | :23:12. | |
universities if people cannot afford to go, and of course in England | :23:13. | :23:17. | |
people are charged up to ?9,000 per annum in tuition fees. We do not | :23:18. | :23:22. | |
have tuition fees. We're just going to pause, sorry, I will come back to | :23:23. | :23:26. | |
you, but this is the moment when the Queen is banking some of those who | :23:27. | :23:30. | |
have taken part, the head of the Armed Forces. -- thanking. They | :23:31. | :23:37. | |
include today the chief RBS staff, the second Sea Lord, the Chief of | :23:38. | :23:42. | |
the General Staff. -- the Chief of the Air Staff. They are all there | :23:43. | :23:53. | |
being thanked, and thanking the Queen for today's events. Lots of | :23:54. | :23:57. | |
broad smiles, I would love to listen to that exchange between the Duke of | :23:58. | :24:02. | |
Edinburgh and Michael Gove! That seemed to yield a few smiles on each | :24:03. | :24:08. | |
side. And Baroness Stowell, the Leader of the House of Lords, just | :24:09. | :24:13. | |
adding there, then Chris Grayling, the Lord President, the Leader of | :24:14. | :24:18. | |
the House of Lords, a former Lord Chancellor. He has been in the role | :24:19. | :24:21. | |
before that and Michael Gove is in today. We can just see Baroness | :24:22. | :24:26. | |
D'Souza, to the left of Chris Grayling, in the last occasion that | :24:27. | :24:30. | |
she will take part in this State Opening as lords Speaker. Hopefully, | :24:31. | :24:36. | |
that has been Rabada Don too. So this is the scene in the Norman | :24:37. | :24:43. | |
Porch. -- hopefully that has been remarked on too. Just outside the | :24:44. | :24:47. | |
Robing Room, Michael Gove acknowledging Her Majesty's thanks, | :24:48. | :24:53. | |
then a fair bet that the Queen will leave the palace in the way that she | :24:54. | :24:56. | |
came, not using the staircase but easier means, as Buckingham Palace | :24:57. | :25:01. | |
said to us earlier, for her own comfort and convenience. Quite | :25:02. | :25:10. | |
chatty today, having a little conversation about events. The Duke | :25:11. | :25:17. | |
and the Queen joining the conversation with some of the main | :25:18. | :25:20. | |
parties, the Marquess of Cholmondeley gently trying to | :25:21. | :25:25. | |
encourage them back towards the entrance to that little lift on the | :25:26. | :25:27. | |
left-hand side. So just a moment to chat and maybe | :25:28. | :25:54. | |
reflect on the events, then, of the day now that the the Queen and the | :25:55. | :25:59. | |
Duke have left, I think the Prince of Wales and the Duchess of Cornwall | :26:00. | :26:01. | |
are still in the Robing Room. This is the scene at the base of the | :26:02. | :26:08. | |
Victoria Tower, with the heralds waiting for the Queen's departure. | :26:09. | :26:13. | |
The carriage, of course, is normally parked, it comes to a rest right | :26:14. | :26:20. | |
here, where we have the grey horses today, but it has just stopped ten | :26:21. | :26:24. | |
or 20 yards inside the palace itself. But if you look outside, I | :26:25. | :26:29. | |
am going to share a very badly kept secret, which is that it is very wet | :26:30. | :26:34. | |
here at Westminster, it is raining very heavily! And the glistening | :26:35. | :26:37. | |
streets around the Palace of Westminster will tell you that. But | :26:38. | :26:42. | |
even in the rain, the Palace of Westminster is such a magnificent | :26:43. | :26:45. | |
building, isn't it? It is a royal palace, don't forget, still very | :26:46. | :26:50. | |
much a royal palace, but it is also the meeting place of two Houses of | :26:51. | :26:54. | |
Parliament, so it combines some important functions. And there we | :26:55. | :27:01. | |
have a good perspective all the way from College Green at the bottom of | :27:02. | :27:04. | |
the frame there, past the Sovereign's Escort, the Life Guards, | :27:05. | :27:11. | |
the Blues and Royals, waiting for the Queen's departure, past St | :27:12. | :27:14. | |
Stephens, the main entrance to the Commons, all the way up Whitehall | :27:15. | :27:20. | |
and back to the palace via Horse Guards Parade. | :27:21. | :27:22. | |
FANFARE The Guard of Honour at House of | :27:23. | :28:45. | |
Lords provided by the 1st Battalion Irish Guards with the Queen's colour | :28:46. | :28:49. | |
and the band of the regiment and pipes of the battalion led by major | :28:50. | :28:56. | |
Bruce Millar, we have The Prince of Wales and the Duchess of Cornwall | :28:57. | :29:00. | |
ready to leave by the traditional route, using the Royal Staircase | :29:01. | :29:06. | |
with the dismowned detachment of the Household Cavalry. Lots of them on | :29:07. | :29:12. | |
their first big ceremonial duty. The youngest of them is 17. Still there | :29:13. | :29:21. | |
providing that Guard of Honour on the staircase. Prince of Wales in | :29:22. | :29:35. | |
full naval dress uniform as admiral of the fleet. | :29:36. | :30:03. | |
And back into the Irish State coach which the Prince of Wales and the | :30:04. | :30:11. | |
Duchess of Cornwall are using today. The coach originally built in 1851 | :30:12. | :30:18. | |
for the Lord Mayor of Dublin. Queen Victoria visited there and fancied | :30:19. | :30:24. | |
it and bought it. It was rebuilt in 1988 and 1989 and driven from the | :30:25. | :30:26. | |
box seat using two horses today. Big Ben sounding midday as The | :30:27. | :30:45. | |
Prince of Wales leaves the Palace of Westminster. And the Life Guards | :30:46. | :30:56. | |
travelling escort accompanying The Prince of Wales and the duchess back | :30:57. | :30:58. | |
to Buckingham Palace. We are back in the Royal Gallery | :30:59. | :31:34. | |
because we are completing now the formal part, the end of this State | :31:35. | :31:38. | |
Opening because the imperial state Crown is now being carefully taken | :31:39. | :31:45. | |
back from the Royal Gallery. This great symbol of the sovereign's | :31:46. | :31:50. | |
authority being taken back to the Regalia Room, ready for the journey | :31:51. | :31:54. | |
back to the Palace. Rney back to the Palace. The Crown | :31:55. | :32:24. | |
Jeweller, as always, in attendance. Black Rod is there ready to make | :32:25. | :32:31. | |
sure that everything is in order for Andrew Ford and his colleagues to | :32:32. | :32:39. | |
take the Crown away from the Palace. This Crown, which is seen at the | :32:40. | :32:44. | |
State Opening and at coronations only. To it's rarely seen. It is | :32:45. | :32:53. | |
used at the State Opening of Parliament and at coronations and | :32:54. | :33:00. | |
when it is worn after the monarch has been crowned. | :33:01. | :33:07. | |
It is always worth remembering when we see this Crown that we often get | :33:08. | :33:13. | |
questions from viewers. It is set with 3,000 precious stones. It is | :33:14. | :33:19. | |
quite literally priceless. And as I said, it was made in 1937, this one | :33:20. | :33:25. | |
for George VI. It is a replica of the Crown made for Queen Victoria in | :33:26. | :33:30. | |
1838. The stones were transferred to the Crown made for George VI. And it | :33:31. | :33:40. | |
was remodelled for Queen Elizabeth II for her coronation. Andrew Ford | :33:41. | :33:52. | |
takes his place in the Queen Alexandra State Coach which is the | :33:53. | :33:58. | |
coach used for the regalia and its escort. The Crown Jeweller now hands | :33:59. | :34:08. | |
the Imperial State Crown to Andrew Ford and his colleagues inside the | :34:09. | :34:12. | |
coach. This is a much more modest coach. We were talking about the | :34:13. | :34:17. | |
Irish State Coach earlier. This is a coach built in 1865 for the Princess | :34:18. | :34:23. | |
of Wales, later Queen Alexandra. It is much more modest in appearance | :34:24. | :34:28. | |
than some of the others we have seen, including the Diamond Jubilee | :34:29. | :34:31. | |
State Coach that we saw the Queen and the Duke using earlier. So | :34:32. | :34:40. | |
Andrew Ford, Lieutenant Colonel Michael Vernon looking after the Cap | :34:41. | :34:46. | |
of Maintenance. All safely tucked inside and ready to leave the | :34:47. | :34:51. | |
Sovereign's Escort at the end of this State Opening. | :34:52. | :35:11. | |
And out on to the wet streets of Westminster. The weather, I think, | :35:12. | :35:21. | |
accounting for the fact that there are far fewer people crowding around | :35:22. | :35:25. | |
the palace to look at the sights, but there are quite a few people on | :35:26. | :35:29. | |
Parliament Square and Whitehall who have turned out to see what is all a | :35:30. | :35:35. | |
great spectacle on State Opening Day. And the Queen's coachmen and | :35:36. | :35:42. | |
the staff at the Royal Mews, having done their work very well, as they | :35:43. | :35:48. | |
always do, because these carriages and coaches aren't gLeusing, they | :35:49. | :35:51. | |
are in superb condition. We have a very good view of the Crown and the | :35:52. | :35:55. | |
Cap of Maintenance and the Sword of State on their way back. Let's come | :35:56. | :36:05. | |
back into the studio. We have got a rather good view of the things that | :36:06. | :36:08. | |
are going on, but we've, I think, the rain is just about holding off | :36:09. | :36:11. | |
for the moment. A quick thought from each of you at this point because | :36:12. | :36:15. | |
we're battling against the clock and I want to join Vicki again in the | :36:16. | :36:19. | |
Central Lobby. A quick thought on what you think will be dominating | :36:20. | :36:23. | |
people's timetables now? What David Cameron wants this appear, as his | :36:24. | :36:28. | |
big moment where he is pushing forward the life chances agenda. He | :36:29. | :36:32. | |
made a series of speeches in the last year or so and these are the | :36:33. | :36:35. | |
promised laws coming forward to as he sees it, to try to help people | :36:36. | :36:40. | |
who politics have forgotten for a long time. What he doesn't want | :36:41. | :36:42. | |
people to talk about is the fact there is a promise of a British Bill | :36:43. | :36:46. | |
of Rights, hardly any mention of the Sovereignty Bill that was promised. | :36:47. | :36:49. | |
Something very, very weak in terms of that speech. Most people are | :36:50. | :36:53. | |
still after today going to be focussing on the referendum. Well, | :36:54. | :36:58. | |
the referendum is clearly an extremely important issue. We are in | :36:59. | :37:00. | |
the final months of the campaign, but after that, you know, we have a | :37:01. | :37:05. | |
massive agenda to deliver. There are some very important Bills here | :37:06. | :37:08. | |
today. I think the Higher Education Bill is extremely important. It is | :37:09. | :37:12. | |
the first one of that magnitude for 20 years. It will have a major | :37:13. | :37:16. | |
impact getting more young people to university, improving the quality of | :37:17. | :37:19. | |
teaching in university and the prison Reform Bill is very | :37:20. | :37:23. | |
important. You know, we don't have a good enough record in terms of when | :37:24. | :37:28. | |
prisoners leave prison, getting them back into society and getting them | :37:29. | :37:32. | |
back on track. The life chances agenda is incredibly important | :37:33. | :37:35. | |
because we want to help people get on at every stage in their lives? | :37:36. | :37:40. | |
Lucy? Well, most people in my part of the world in Manchester would | :37:41. | :37:42. | |
laugh in the Prime Minister's face at the thought he had a life chances | :37:43. | :37:46. | |
strategy when everything that he has done over the last six years has | :37:47. | :37:49. | |
made their lives harder and harder. We have seen the most deprived | :37:50. | :37:53. | |
communities facing the biggest brunt when it comes to austerity. We have | :37:54. | :37:58. | |
seen education now in chaos. Families being pushed into crisis by | :37:59. | :38:03. | |
the taking away of the support from which they rely upon and you know, | :38:04. | :38:07. | |
so I really think that you know they can talk about life chances as he | :38:08. | :38:11. | |
does very often and he gives these big speeches, but the reality of | :38:12. | :38:15. | |
what is happening on the ground to social work, to education, to | :38:16. | :38:19. | |
health, to tax credits, to all these things that families we lie on are | :38:20. | :38:23. | |
disappearing at a fast rate and the Government haven't got an answer to | :38:24. | :38:26. | |
that. Thank you very much Joanna. A quick comment. Very under whelmed by | :38:27. | :38:32. | |
this, Huw, it is a rag bag of proposal that Michael Gove brought | :38:33. | :38:35. | |
out of the purse to give to Her Majesty. Much is recycled from last | :38:36. | :38:38. | |
year. They are talking about strengthening the economy and | :38:39. | :38:40. | |
bringing public finances uncontrol, but the fact remains they have | :38:41. | :38:44. | |
missed many of their own targets and they are failing on key economic | :38:45. | :38:48. | |
indicators. Among the opulence and splendour, there are many people | :38:49. | :38:53. | |
across British society who are struggling to make ends meet. I | :38:54. | :38:56. | |
don't hear anything in the Queen's Speech. Help for low income | :38:57. | :38:59. | |
families. Many low income families have no hope of saving. They | :39:00. | :39:03. | |
struggle to get by on a day-to-day basis. The sort of thing we in the | :39:04. | :39:07. | |
SNP would like to see is real help for low income families, restoring | :39:08. | :39:11. | |
work allowances and giving them proper support, the sort of things | :39:12. | :39:14. | |
that should be in a Queen's Speech like this, but are just missing | :39:15. | :39:17. | |
because the Government's eye is completely off the ball. Thank you | :39:18. | :39:21. | |
very much. I would like to get more reaction, let's rejoin Vicki in the | :39:22. | :39:24. | |
Central Lobby. Yes, the ceremonial side of things is over. The | :39:25. | :39:28. | |
politicians take centre stage again. Let's hear what they made of | :39:29. | :39:31. | |
everything that we've heard today. I'm joined by Alistair Carmichael | :39:32. | :39:36. | |
from the Liberal Democrats and Jeffrey Donaldson from the unionist | :39:37. | :39:45. | |
party? The tre markable thing about the Queen's Speech is just how | :39:46. | :39:52. | |
little is new here. We reckon 28 of the 30 measures announced today have | :39:53. | :39:56. | |
been announced before. They are only two new announcements today. A year | :39:57. | :39:59. | |
ago, the Government were elected telling us they would focus on the | :40:00. | :40:03. | |
economy, now it is pretty clear they have turned inwards the focus of | :40:04. | :40:06. | |
everything is on managing the Conservative Party as they risk | :40:07. | :40:10. | |
tearing themselves apart ahead of the EU referendum. That's the real | :40:11. | :40:13. | |
message from the Queen's Speech today. They have taken their eye off | :40:14. | :40:17. | |
the ball. Jeffrey Donaldson, do you think the EU referendum is | :40:18. | :40:20. | |
dominating, but do you think that the Government has run out of steam, | :40:21. | :40:24. | |
or do you see some measures that you like Well, there are some measures | :40:25. | :40:28. | |
that we welcome and we will examine them closely and we will be looking | :40:29. | :40:34. | |
towards the implement aches of the Stormont House agreement, they are | :40:35. | :40:37. | |
vital in moving the peace process forward in Northern Ireland. In that | :40:38. | :40:41. | |
sense, it is an important Queen's Speech for Northern Ireland and it | :40:42. | :40:44. | |
will see some important legislation for the Province. The Prime Minister | :40:45. | :40:49. | |
talked about measures to help the disadvantaged in society, is that | :40:50. | :40:52. | |
something that appeals to Plaid Cymru? There is plenty of work to be | :40:53. | :40:58. | |
done and there is something about measuring poverty or life chances | :40:59. | :41:02. | |
whatever way you want to term it. That will be interesting to see how | :41:03. | :41:05. | |
that works out. We are looking forward to a new Wales Bill. Yet | :41:06. | :41:10. | |
another shot at getting the devolution settlement in Wales right | :41:11. | :41:13. | |
and hopefully that can come forward fairly soon. Gentlemen, thank you | :41:14. | :41:17. | |
very much indeed for your reaction. There will be a debate in the House | :41:18. | :41:20. | |
of Commons starting in the next couple of hours. | :41:21. | :41:23. | |
Vicki, thank you very much. Thanks to the guests in Central Lobby. | :41:24. | :41:28. | |
Laura, when we see headlines on the Queen's Speech, we have discussed | :41:29. | :41:32. | |
the context, what will people be honing in on? Prison reform | :41:33. | :41:35. | |
particularly is something that people will look at closely, but | :41:36. | :41:39. | |
that as this Government found continually in the last Parliament | :41:40. | :41:42. | |
as in this one, it is one thing coming forward with the ideas of | :41:43. | :41:45. | |
reform and ideas of grand rhetoric, but the reality is for many people, | :41:46. | :41:48. | |
the Government departments and people around the country are having | :41:49. | :41:53. | |
of having to manage in a time of budget cults. That was the theme of | :41:54. | :41:56. | |
the first Parliament, but it is the case now. In terms of today, | :41:57. | :42:00. | |
clearly, I think, the headlines will probably still be about what was not | :42:01. | :42:04. | |
in it, no Sovereignty Bill, a vague sort of promise about a Bill of | :42:05. | :42:08. | |
Rights and that's are the product of the wider backdrop which is the | :42:09. | :42:12. | |
debate over the European Union. Just on that final point, just to tie | :42:13. | :42:17. | |
this up today, we have been concentrating today really on a long | :42:18. | :42:20. | |
list of Bills while trying to acknowledge the fact there is a big | :42:21. | :42:23. | |
story out there, which is not part of the speech, you know, how will | :42:24. | :42:27. | |
they balance those things, how do you juggle those things in terms of | :42:28. | :42:30. | |
the coverage? Well, I think it is very difficult for the Government. | :42:31. | :42:36. | |
They are trying to multitask when right at top of the Government | :42:37. | :42:41. | |
people are preoccupied by the European referendum because their | :42:42. | :42:43. | |
jobs depend on T the Government depends on it. There is a real risk, | :42:44. | :42:47. | |
as we started at the beginning, if the referendum is lost by Downing | :42:48. | :42:51. | |
Street, if they don't win, there is a chance that David Cameron might | :42:52. | :42:56. | |
not be the Prime Minister in six or seven weeks time. The expectation is | :42:57. | :43:00. | |
not that will happen, but that's where their focus is, because the | :43:01. | :43:04. | |
risks are very big for them and they know it. Laura thank you and thanks | :43:05. | :43:10. | |
to my guests. That's it for today. Coverage will continue on the BBC | :43:11. | :43:13. | |
News Channel and on BBC Parliament and in this year of the Queen's's | :43:14. | :43:19. | |
90th birthday, we will leave you with memorable images of the State | :43:20. | :43:21. | |
Opening Parliament over the years of her reign. From all of the team here | :43:22. | :43:24. | |
at Westminster, thank you for watching and goodbye. | :43:25. | :44:14. | |
The referendum on whether we should remain within the European Union | :44:15. | :44:22. | |
of what has happened to British national sovereignty. | :44:23. | :44:26. |