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Good morning and welcome to BBC Parliament's live coverage | :00:23. | :00:24. | |
In her 91st year, the Queen will open the second session | :00:25. | :00:33. | |
and this is the 56th Parliament of the United Kingdom. | :00:34. | :00:40. | |
And this morning, we welcome viewers to C-Span in the United States. | :00:41. | :00:44. | |
I reckon it's about 5.30 in the morning in the eastern states, | :00:45. | :00:49. | |
It is, of course, a Conservative government beginning its second | :00:50. | :00:53. | |
though with a very small majority in the Commons, | :00:54. | :01:01. | |
a government not without its problems as it faces the forthcoming | :01:02. | :01:03. | |
We are focusing on a British tradition. | :01:04. | :01:11. | |
The next hour and a half, we'll spend enjoying | :01:12. | :01:13. | |
at the Government's new plans to be unveiled in the Queen's Speech. | :01:14. | :01:17. | |
With me to help that journey along, I'm joined | :01:18. | :01:19. | |
by the Conservative peer - and more importantly | :01:20. | :01:21. | |
for this morning - thriller writer, Michael Dobbs. | :01:22. | :01:28. | |
the historian, Professor Kate Williams of Reading University, | :01:29. | :01:35. | |
to welcome the former Serjeant at Arms of the House of Commons, | :01:36. | :01:38. | |
Lawrence Ward, who retired last Autumn from his august post. | :01:39. | :01:41. | |
You retired from your post last autumn? I wish it was retirement but | :01:42. | :01:48. | |
I went to another job. You left it. Among those attending today, the | :01:49. | :01:51. | |
Prime Minister. He left Downing Street the short time ago. Here he | :01:52. | :01:57. | |
comes. The doors of Number Ten open. And the Prime Minister has actually | :01:58. | :02:04. | |
been the leader of the Conservative Party for 11 years now. | :02:05. | :02:07. | |
And we've also seen the arrival at Westminster of the Leader | :02:08. | :02:09. | |
He arrived at portcullis house on the embankment, times have changed | :02:10. | :02:20. | |
for Jeremy Corbyn. In 1998 he said the State Opening with all of its | :02:21. | :02:28. | |
pageantry underlines the hereditary monarchy and the hereditary House of | :02:29. | :02:30. | |
Lords but in the debate last month on the 90th birthday of the Queen he | :02:31. | :02:37. | |
made a very charming speech. Saying, about himself, as a relatively young | :02:38. | :02:40. | |
whippersnapper I'm fully in favour of a country having leaders of a | :02:41. | :02:47. | |
fine vintage. He said, talking today about a highly respected individual | :02:48. | :02:53. | |
who is 90. Comparing his own age, he said it proves you are never too | :02:54. | :02:57. | |
late to take up a new career and learn something else. It's going to | :02:58. | :03:02. | |
be quite an amazing day for Jeremy Corbyn to find himself at the State | :03:03. | :03:04. | |
Opening. Kate, if I could turn to you, the | :03:05. | :03:15. | |
91st year of the Queen, if monarchy was a symbol of continuity, the | :03:16. | :03:20. | |
Queen is that symbol? 90 years as you say, that is true. She has | :03:21. | :03:25. | |
engaged in this ceremony since 1952 apart from when she was pregnant and | :03:26. | :03:30. | |
in 2011 when the Government cancelled it. She has been here at | :03:31. | :03:35. | |
the State Opening every year that she possibly could, and provided | :03:36. | :03:39. | |
continuity right back to when the ceremony in this form was brought in | :03:40. | :03:45. | |
in 1852, and pretty much everyone has been here since except Victoria | :03:46. | :03:49. | |
who took time off after the death of Albert. Looking inside the Chamber | :03:50. | :03:53. | |
of the House of Lords now. They are dressed in their ermine. They don't | :03:54. | :04:00. | |
wear ermine read a apparently! One of the myths is that we are always | :04:01. | :04:07. | |
wearing a silken ermine is the of course this is the only day that we | :04:08. | :04:11. | |
wear the traditional uniform. Unless we are introducing a new peer in | :04:12. | :04:17. | |
which case we put on the robes but normally we are ordinary folks. That | :04:18. | :04:24. | |
is reassuring. There are 807 of you nowadays. Quite a lot of ordinary | :04:25. | :04:27. | |
folks in the House of Lords. It's too big? It is too big. We are | :04:28. | :04:33. | |
briefly looking at the Queens thrown on the left and the Duke of | :04:34. | :04:37. | |
Edinburgh's on the right. It is an inch shorter than the Queen's. And | :04:38. | :04:43. | |
the chairs designed for Prince Charles and the Duchess of Cornwall. | :04:44. | :04:48. | |
That is the Earl Marshal. The master of ceremonies today. He is talking | :04:49. | :04:53. | |
to, on the right, the Archbishop of Canterbury, Justin Welby. And on the | :04:54. | :04:59. | |
left with the beard the Bishop of London. That is Lord Willits, a | :05:00. | :05:10. | |
conservative thinker, you might say. You can give me a few more names as | :05:11. | :05:17. | |
we go along. They're an new and old. You can see that we have got plenty | :05:18. | :05:22. | |
of young and vibrant life. We have plenty more women than the House of | :05:23. | :05:29. | |
Commons. Not surprising, there is 800 of you! Per capita, as a | :05:30. | :05:35. | |
proportion of the population. Going back to your earlier point, if it | :05:36. | :05:39. | |
were left to the House of Lords collectively now we would count our | :05:40. | :05:44. | |
numbers back quite sharply. Because there are too many and it makes it | :05:45. | :05:48. | |
very difficult to work properly, the facilities are not there to enable | :05:49. | :05:53. | |
us to work properly. And yet the numbers are piling up, 61 new peers | :05:54. | :05:58. | |
last year. People asked darting to retire. 25 peers retired. -- people | :05:59. | :06:07. | |
are starting to retire. When does it stop? It doesn't stop as long as the | :06:08. | :06:10. | |
Prime Minister insists on putting fresh people in. If we are to reduce | :06:11. | :06:14. | |
numbers it needs an element of self control on the part of party leaders | :06:15. | :06:20. | |
to stop backing the place with their friends. This is historically huge | :06:21. | :06:25. | |
for the House of Lords in terms of numbers? Used to be much smaller? | :06:26. | :06:32. | |
Yes, we have seen the cutback on hereditary peers to be replaced by | :06:33. | :06:35. | |
peers being made by political appointment. What we might see | :06:36. | :06:39. | |
today, I'm expecting to see some sort of restriction, a veto. | :06:40. | :06:45. | |
Following on from the statutory instrument. Lawrence, it is 10:30am | :06:46. | :06:55. | |
in the morning, if you were Serjeant of arms, what would you be doing? I | :06:56. | :07:00. | |
would probably be with the Speaker and other officials from the House | :07:01. | :07:02. | |
of Commons going through the business of the day. It is the State | :07:03. | :07:08. | |
Opening! We would be in our finery. When are you getting dressed? | :07:09. | :07:14. | |
7:30am. It's a long day. It's a different uniform forced eight | :07:15. | :07:17. | |
opening day? It is the same uniform with additional element. -- State | :07:18. | :07:24. | |
Opening day. The collar that he wears is sewn onto the shoulders at | :07:25. | :07:30. | |
7:30am. So that it does not slip off. It is a very long day, by this | :07:31. | :07:35. | |
time you already feel as though you've done a work. As Lawrence was | :07:36. | :07:41. | |
saying it has a party atmosphere, people are going there and | :07:42. | :07:45. | |
celebrating our traditions and all of these peers dressing up, it's the | :07:46. | :07:49. | |
only day we get dressed up and it is a bit like a fancy dress party, if I | :07:50. | :07:54. | |
can put it like that. As well as being a serious occasion. Thank you | :07:55. | :07:58. | |
very much. We will come back to you soon. | :07:59. | :08:02. | |
So we've seen the Lords and Ladies in their ermine and tiaras. | :08:03. | :08:05. | |
we'll see the Household Cavalry and Yeomen of the Guard assembled, | :08:06. | :08:09. | |
ready to welcome the royal party to Westminster, | :08:10. | :08:10. | |
But what kind of modern message might all this | :08:11. | :08:14. | |
vicar of St-Martin-in-the-Fields Church in London's Trafalgar Square. | :08:15. | :08:34. | |
The State Opening of Parliament demonstrates | :08:35. | :08:36. | |
The people vote, the parliament is elected. | :08:37. | :08:44. | |
Parliament proposes to make laws that the governing party doesn't | :08:45. | :08:49. | |
impose its will on the population, it does it in discussion and it asks | :08:50. | :08:53. | |
the Queen as the representative of the whole nation to deliver | :08:54. | :08:58. | |
to parliament a description of what it proposes to do, | :08:59. | :09:00. | |
Some people might think that's rather, well, I won't say naive, | :09:01. | :09:05. | |
but a rose-tinted view of our democracy as it | :09:06. | :09:07. | |
It is an aspirational view of our democracy, but actually, | :09:08. | :09:14. | |
When one party wins an election, it doesn't ride roughshod | :09:15. | :09:19. | |
The Queen presided over her first State Opening of Parliament in 1952 | :09:20. | :09:28. | |
and she has attended all but two ceremonies since. | :09:29. | :09:33. | |
And that includes a scaled-down event in March 1974, | :09:34. | :09:37. | |
after the election of a minority Labour Government. | :09:38. | :09:45. | |
No carriages then, but what mattered was the meeting of the monarch, | :09:46. | :09:48. | |
Today, for the first time, this ceremony is being watched | :09:49. | :09:53. | |
not only by those who are present in this Chamber, | :09:54. | :09:56. | |
but by many millions of my subjects. | :09:57. | :09:58. | |
Peoples in other lands will also be able to witness this renewal | :09:59. | :10:01. | |
I do think that the British constitution, informally, | :10:02. | :10:15. | |
because there isn't a written one, has got something pretty special, | :10:16. | :10:21. | |
one is straightforward democracy, you know, a democracy | :10:22. | :10:23. | |
in which the majority rule, under certain constraints, | :10:24. | :10:26. | |
and there is protection for minorities, but also we preserve | :10:27. | :10:29. | |
that notion that there is a person, that our loyalty is not to an idea, | :10:30. | :10:34. | |
it's to a person, because we have seen in so many contexts | :10:35. | :10:37. | |
where loyalty to an idea can go badly wrong. | :10:38. | :10:42. | |
And I have no doubt in my mind whatsoever that the promises | :10:43. | :10:45. | |
she made at her coronation echo through her life. | :10:46. | :10:47. | |
These responsibilities mean everything to her, | :10:48. | :10:49. | |
She's almost laid down her life for the country in order to play | :10:50. | :10:57. | |
a role that we desperately need and seldom thank her for. | :10:58. | :11:11. | |
Kate Williams, one of the things that Sam Wells told me was, I was | :11:12. | :11:18. | |
talking to him before the interview, the Queen exercises her a thorough | :11:19. | :11:23. | |
tea not by opposing her well, by representing and articulating the | :11:24. | :11:28. | |
voice of the people. -- imposing her will. It sounds like a combo looted | :11:29. | :11:32. | |
description, do you believe that? ... She enables a democracy to | :11:33. | :11:39. | |
happen by being this figure at the top? And it has been vital to the | :11:40. | :11:43. | |
Queen that she is politically neutral, key part of her | :11:44. | :11:46. | |
constitutional lessons even to her as a young girl that she had to | :11:47. | :11:53. | |
remain outside of politics. Lots of monarchs have been meddling | :11:54. | :11:56. | |
excessively, but she has stayed out of politics and enabled the | :11:57. | :11:58. | |
Government to do what it wish without meddling. We have had | :11:59. | :12:02. | |
interesting words about the Chinese recently. Coming down the mall is | :12:03. | :12:11. | |
the regalia possession of the Crown and the cab of maintenance and Sword | :12:12. | :12:19. | |
of State. -- Cap of Maintenance. Behind that is the state car. With | :12:20. | :12:25. | |
the two maces brought by the Serjeant at Arms in Buckingham | :12:26. | :12:31. | |
Palace. We actually end up seeing, Lawrence, five maces this morning | :12:32. | :12:38. | |
but you are the Serjeant of arms, weren't you? I am indeed and I would | :12:39. | :12:42. | |
like to think the most important but of course that is not true. You are | :12:43. | :12:47. | |
known full-time as the Serjeant at Arms? That's right. One of the | :12:48. | :12:52. | |
things that struck me on State Opening day was my eyesight at | :12:53. | :12:55. | |
distance is not very good and I should really wear glasses but I was | :12:56. | :13:00. | |
too vain to do that. I remember the Crown, the glistening diamonds in | :13:01. | :13:04. | |
the crown from all that way back in the House of Commons. When it | :13:05. | :13:07. | |
catches the light it really does shine. It has already... It has | :13:08. | :13:15. | |
already been delivered by armed guard from the Tower of London. It's | :13:16. | :13:20. | |
in the carriage now and all being well, that is the Queen Alexandra | :13:21. | :13:26. | |
State coach on its way with the horses, Firework, Perth, Ensign and | :13:27. | :13:36. | |
Louis. What is the day job of the Serjeant at Arms? The day job is to | :13:37. | :13:40. | |
be responsible for security and access to the House of Commons and | :13:41. | :13:44. | |
it is working directly with the Speaker of the House of Commons to | :13:45. | :13:47. | |
ensure that the public can get in and there is over 1 million visitors | :13:48. | :13:52. | |
a year. And that Members can get around and the function can | :13:53. | :13:56. | |
continue. It's very difficult as a balancing act, allowing access to | :13:57. | :14:00. | |
the public but also keeping Members save so that business of the House | :14:01. | :14:06. | |
can continue. This is probably not something I should mention today but | :14:07. | :14:10. | |
it is that one of your thrillers is about the State Opening. Oh, yes. | :14:11. | :14:19. | |
And it doesn't go according to plan? It doesn't, state openings normally | :14:20. | :14:23. | |
go exceedingly well. Two or three years ago one page boy fainted. That | :14:24. | :14:29. | |
hadn't really happened before and you could see the tremor of fear | :14:30. | :14:33. | |
that was going through everybody, what do we do with him? Do we ignore | :14:34. | :14:37. | |
the poor thing? The Duchess of Cambridge came to the rescue and | :14:38. | :14:41. | |
indicated somebody should do something about the poor boy. He | :14:42. | :14:45. | |
will be living out on that for a while. And your blog, the Lord's | :14:46. | :14:52. | |
day? Yes, Lawrence was responsible for security. -- | :14:53. | :14:54. | |
Look. Security is an exceedingly difficult problem for the Palace of | :14:55. | :15:01. | |
Westminster. Ten or 15 years ago when I wrote the book the security | :15:02. | :15:06. | |
was in my view something of a joke and needed real review and it has | :15:07. | :15:13. | |
been reviewed. I set my book with the old security system where the | :15:14. | :15:17. | |
State Opening was held hostage. Everybody in that room, you will | :15:18. | :15:23. | |
see, we have the monarchy, the Government, the opposition, the | :15:24. | :15:26. | |
Lords, the ambassadors and judges, everybody who matters is there. The | :15:27. | :15:31. | |
whole British establishment in one room. In those days we really needed | :15:32. | :15:37. | |
to take rather more care of security on that day than sending around a | :15:38. | :15:42. | |
few Yeomen of the Guard with their pikes to check for gunpowder. | :15:43. | :15:53. | |
The action of your book takes place in the House of Lords. You said they | :15:54. | :16:03. | |
can't find offices for you all? Yes, but the chamber is our main office. | :16:04. | :16:09. | |
Now, there is the diplomatic corps. They are sitting behind the bishops. | :16:10. | :16:27. | |
Go on, Michael. You are interested in the exercise of power. Others are | :16:28. | :16:42. | |
not interested in the content of the Queen's Speech. Not at all,. We are | :16:43. | :16:55. | |
talking about a drama series here, not a documentary. I had to write to | :16:56. | :17:10. | |
assure people that the house of cards is a work of entertainment. | :17:11. | :17:17. | |
Did you feel it was more or less accurate than you expected? I get | :17:18. | :17:21. | |
the idea occasionally that there are plenty of people in Parliament and a | :17:22. | :17:24. | |
swear who are auditioning furiously for parts in the next series. But | :17:25. | :17:30. | |
drama does remind you that we are looking here at the functions of | :17:31. | :17:35. | |
power, but at the end of the day, it comes down to people and | :17:36. | :17:39. | |
personalities. And we will be looking at a Queen's Speech today | :17:40. | :17:42. | |
which will set out the government's programme, but we know that | :17:43. | :17:47. | |
programme will be interfered with and affected, perhaps even | :17:48. | :17:51. | |
undermined by the way that after the Queen's Speech, different | :17:52. | :17:54. | |
personalities will lock horns, disagree and try to move the agenda | :17:55. | :17:59. | |
in a different direction. Kate Williams, you mentioned briefly | :18:00. | :18:03. | |
earlier that after all, this Queen has attended all but two openings of | :18:04. | :18:09. | |
Parliament, and only one non-State Opening of Parliament of the 63 she | :18:10. | :18:17. | |
has been to. But Queen Victoria had a long reign as well and she got out | :18:18. | :18:23. | |
of State Opening. She did. 1852 was the first one, because we had the | :18:24. | :18:29. | |
first ceremony of the Houses of Parliament in. Then Albert died ten | :18:30. | :18:35. | |
years later, so she declined to attend between 1862 and 1865, and | :18:36. | :18:41. | |
between them and her death she came seven times. Seven times in 35 | :18:42. | :18:49. | |
years. That was fast maths! Yes, so she was a very infrequent attender, | :18:50. | :18:56. | |
unlike our own monarch. So someone else had to open it. The Lord | :18:57. | :19:00. | |
Chancellor read the speech. Did that damage the image of the monarchy? It | :19:01. | :19:07. | |
certainly did from 1862 until 1865, the idea that she was staying away | :19:08. | :19:11. | |
because Albert had died and she was locking herself up in mourning. It | :19:12. | :19:15. | |
was a balance for her between playing the role of a morning wife | :19:16. | :19:19. | |
and also playing a constitutional role which demands that a monarch is | :19:20. | :19:23. | |
there at the State Opening and other events. It did create a search for | :19:24. | :19:33. | |
republicanism when Victoria was not seen not just at State Opening, but | :19:34. | :19:36. | |
in general. And when she did come, they expected that she would come | :19:37. | :19:38. | |
again. At the of her life, it was ill health. She was not in fantastic | :19:39. | :19:44. | |
health like our own monarch. It was not her greatest decision not to | :19:45. | :19:51. | |
attend. Another look at the regalia procession in The Queen Alexandra | :19:52. | :19:57. | |
State coach. There is a regalia escort of the Household Cavalry, | :19:58. | :20:03. | |
which is commanded by Tom Horton, who rides a 17 hand gelding which is | :20:04. | :20:13. | |
a veteran of these parades. This regalia procession, I think, is | :20:14. | :20:19. | |
pretty close now to the Palace of Westminster. It is just coming along | :20:20. | :20:23. | |
the side of Parliament Square. You can see the union Jacks on the | :20:24. | :20:29. | |
right. There is now a new crossing, so it makes it quite easy to cross | :20:30. | :20:33. | |
from the pavement onto Parliament Square itself, which previously was | :20:34. | :20:37. | |
rather difficult. The pavement has also been considerably widened in | :20:38. | :20:45. | |
front of new palace yard on the left. That is your end of the | :20:46. | :20:51. | |
building, Lawrence. It is indeed, and you will see some of the | :20:52. | :20:55. | |
ordinary bollards which are normally on the end of the road have been | :20:56. | :20:59. | |
removed to allow the carriages to go through. The preparations for this | :21:00. | :21:03. | |
started weeks ago. There would have been rehearsals at four in the | :21:04. | :21:07. | |
morning over the weekend, so that everybody knows exactly what they | :21:08. | :21:12. | |
are doing. It looks like a well oiled machine, but little things | :21:13. | :21:15. | |
happen around the edges which are not planned for. But it usually | :21:16. | :21:19. | |
works to the minute. Westminster Abbey on the right. And lined up, | :21:20. | :21:26. | |
the guard of honour, the 1st Battalion of the Irish Guards and | :21:27. | :21:32. | |
the Irish Guards Band to the right of the picture. They will present | :21:33. | :21:40. | |
arms as the crown goes by. Any second now, they will turn left | :21:41. | :21:47. | |
towards Victoria Tower and through the Sovereign's Entrance, our first | :21:48. | :21:52. | |
view of the Imperial State Crown Mati Sword of State and the Cap of | :21:53. | :21:57. | |
Maintenance. And when it arrives at the sovereign staircase, there is a | :21:58. | :22:02. | |
kind of juggling act to get the crown out of the carriage in an | :22:03. | :22:08. | |
attempt that no one drops it at the right person ends up with the crown | :22:09. | :22:13. | |
at the end of the procedure is spotted with it. The first person | :22:14. | :22:18. | |
who hands the crown out is the first person who ends up with the Crown at | :22:19. | :22:22. | |
the end of the process. Talking of crowns, Queen Victoria did not wear | :22:23. | :22:30. | |
it much, did she? No. This one dates from 1937 so Queen Victoria had a | :22:31. | :22:35. | |
different one. They were quite in chief. That is the right word. It | :22:36. | :22:42. | |
was a dinky Crown. This one is a full kilogram of stuff. But Victoria | :22:43. | :22:48. | |
found it uncomfortable and did not wear it. She also didn't like the | :22:49. | :22:52. | |
wearing of the ropes and the whole pomp. She refused to do it during | :22:53. | :22:56. | |
her jubilee is, much against the pleas of her ministers, who begged | :22:57. | :22:59. | |
her to put on the Crown and the ropes. But she was rather more | :23:00. | :23:06. | |
low-key in her desire for less pomp. But this monarch does. The barge | :23:07. | :23:14. | |
master is waiting to receive the Crown. The crown jewel, Martin | :23:15. | :23:21. | |
Swift, has taken the crown from the controller of the Lord Chamberlain | :23:22. | :23:26. | |
's office, who is now getting out of the carriage, Lieutenant Colonel Sir | :23:27. | :23:31. | |
Andrew Ford. The barge master appears to be wearing his barge | :23:32. | :23:39. | |
master's Mac! And the Crown at this stage is on a rather small cushion. | :23:40. | :23:44. | |
And then finally, from Sir Andrew Ford to the crown jewel to the barge | :23:45. | :23:52. | |
master, and back to Sir Andrew Ford. They have done this highly delicate | :23:53. | :23:56. | |
pass the parcel. I was lucky enough to go to the Tower of London earlier | :23:57. | :24:00. | |
this year. And although it looks splendid on the television picture, | :24:01. | :24:05. | |
nothing beats seeing it in real life in the Tower of London, because it | :24:06. | :24:13. | |
is so astonishingly sparkly. And it looks its most sparkly for this | :24:14. | :24:16. | |
moment, because it has been sparkled up. The crown itself is guided by | :24:17. | :24:26. | |
two of the Honourable Corps of Gentlemen at Arms Gentlemen at Arms. | :24:27. | :24:32. | |
And bringing up the rear, the two Serjeant at Arms from Buckingham | :24:33. | :24:42. | |
Palace. Sorry, Kate? The Crown has a stone from Edward the confessor's | :24:43. | :24:46. | |
ring, and it reminds us that this is the crown The Queen wears after she | :24:47. | :24:50. | |
is crowned. She only wears it at the State Opening and after she is | :24:51. | :24:56. | |
crowned. When she comes out of the coronation ceremony, this is what | :24:57. | :25:01. | |
she wears, so it embodies the constitutional monarchy. There are | :25:02. | :25:05. | |
monarchy is left in the world, but they are slightly reluctant crown | :25:06. | :25:11. | |
wearers, aren't they? We are the most enthusiastic Crown wearers of | :25:12. | :25:14. | |
all. The other monarchies are much more low-key in much of continental | :25:15. | :25:18. | |
Europe, in Holland and Norway and Sweden. We wear our crowns, | :25:19. | :25:25. | |
particularly because we have so many great stones that date back to the | :25:26. | :25:29. | |
13th century. They are great historic symbols. Let me ask a | :25:30. | :25:37. | |
question if I may. I have never understood, what is the Cap of | :25:38. | :25:42. | |
Maintenance? No one can tell me what it is for, where it comes from. We | :25:43. | :25:53. | |
will come back to that. We will watch Sir Andrew Ford, the | :25:54. | :26:00. | |
Comptroller of the Lord Chamberlain's Office, carrying the | :26:01. | :26:04. | |
Crown on its condition up to the Royal Gallery and the Norman | :26:05. | :26:13. | |
staircase, lined by the brilliantly named staircase party of the | :26:14. | :26:18. | |
Household Cavalry, so-called because they are on the staircase. He will | :26:19. | :26:23. | |
deliver the Imperial State Crown to the Lord Great Chamberlain, the | :26:24. | :26:29. | |
Marquess of Cholmondeley. At that point, the guard of honour changes | :26:30. | :26:36. | |
to two Yeomen of the Guard, not beefeaters of the tower. | :26:37. | :26:50. | |
And the Lord Great Chamberlain has successfully taken delivery of the | :26:51. | :26:55. | |
Crown. You will see that in the Royal Gallery, everyone has stood | :26:56. | :27:05. | |
for the arrival of the Crown. And behind the Crown will be the Cap of | :27:06. | :27:11. | |
Maintenance and the Sword of State. They go into their positions, | :27:12. | :27:16. | |
waiting to be carried into the procession, carried by Lieutenant | :27:17. | :27:25. | |
Colonel Michael Vernon. The Sword of State was carried by Sir Kevin | :27:26. | :27:30. | |
Donoghue. Kate, time for a Cap of Maintenance explanation. As you say, | :27:31. | :27:37. | |
it is a key part of the regalia we see only in the State Opening of | :27:38. | :27:41. | |
Parliament. It does not get out many other times. No. It is essentially a | :27:42. | :27:47. | |
traditional part of it. Once we start questioning the regalia of | :27:48. | :27:51. | |
monarchy, they all might seem a bit questionable. There is a suggestion | :27:52. | :27:58. | |
that if the Crown was ever not available, we would use the Cap of | :27:59. | :28:01. | |
Maintenance. I thought it was a present from the Pope, and the one | :28:02. | :28:07. | |
we display is in memory of a Cap of Maintenance displayed by Henry VIII | :28:08. | :28:12. | |
because he received it from the Pope for good work. It rather fell out | :28:13. | :28:18. | |
between them later. The Pope does where a Cap of Maintenance of some | :28:19. | :28:23. | |
kind at the papal coronation, before they get the three tiered Crown. You | :28:24. | :28:28. | |
never know when you will need one. It is good to have one on hand. | :28:29. | :28:34. | |
Lawrence, at your end of the building, the rabble end, a lot of | :28:35. | :28:40. | |
people will think what Michael and Kate have been saying is a load of | :28:41. | :28:46. | |
mumbo jumbo. Maybe you do? I think everyone gets caught up in the | :28:47. | :28:50. | |
occasion. It is the day when the spotlight is on Parliament. It is a | :28:51. | :28:54. | |
day when everyone wears that finally, and as Michael was saying, | :28:55. | :28:57. | |
there was a bit of a party feel about the place. Actually, the | :28:58. | :29:02. | |
Commons does like a ceremony. It does. There is nothing members like | :29:03. | :29:09. | |
more than walking up to the House of Lords and being a bit noisy and a | :29:10. | :29:17. | |
bit disruptive, because the Lords are very well behaved and it is very | :29:18. | :29:21. | |
quiet when they arrive. They like to flex their muscles a bit and say, we | :29:22. | :29:26. | |
have arrived, here we are, and they like to be noticed. There is quite a | :29:27. | :29:34. | |
rush to get in. You lead the procession, together with the | :29:35. | :29:38. | |
Speaker, and a lot of people are hovering around, trying to get good | :29:39. | :29:42. | |
places in the House of Lords to hear the speech. It is one of the most | :29:43. | :29:49. | |
contentious elements. Lots of members attend for prayers. But some | :29:50. | :30:01. | |
members decided not to attend prayers because they want a good | :30:02. | :30:06. | |
spot. And then they try to leap into the convoy as it is on its way to | :30:07. | :30:08. | |
the House of Lords. You should be more bossy. There were | :30:09. | :30:18. | |
several conversations over the years about how to corral people going up | :30:19. | :30:22. | |
and one of the ideas was to have a rope so that Members could jump in. | :30:23. | :30:29. | |
They need roping off! Buckingham Palace and Her Majesty The Queen, | :30:30. | :30:32. | |
accompanied by the Duke of Edinburgh in the uniform of the Lord high | :30:33. | :30:39. | |
Admiral of Great Britain. There is only one Lord Admiral and you're | :30:40. | :30:49. | |
looking at him. The Queen there, I think he is the only man to wear | :30:50. | :30:55. | |
this little coronet. They set off from Buckingham Palace in the | :30:56. | :30:59. | |
Diamond Jubilee carriage, in fact. Stunning piece of work. It took | :31:00. | :31:06. | |
eight years to build and I suppose we are in the world short of | :31:07. | :31:09. | |
carriage builders these days but it was built by a real enthusiasts. An | :31:10. | :31:16. | |
Australian originally but he worked a long time in Britain. This really | :31:17. | :31:23. | |
was very much his life 's work and although it did take a very long | :31:24. | :31:29. | |
time to build and was extremely expensive, by the end he had to | :31:30. | :31:34. | |
mortgage his house to pay for it. There, the carriage is drawn by what | :31:35. | :31:43. | |
everyone tells me called sixth-grades but I think they are | :31:44. | :31:47. | |
white horses. They have lovely names, Milford Haven, Storm, | :31:48. | :31:56. | |
Claudia, Meg, Tyrone. Isa speced the rain is really now quite heavy | :31:57. | :32:01. | |
outside. Kate, you arrived late. -- I suspect. It is pretty much British | :32:02. | :32:06. | |
weather outside, foggy and raining. I think we are going to have some | :32:07. | :32:12. | |
heavy showers today. Edward VIII only had one State Opening. That is | :32:13. | :32:17. | |
correct because we did not have him very long. It was the year of three | :32:18. | :32:23. | |
Kings, George V died and Edward VIII became Monaco in 1936 and not much | :32:24. | :32:29. | |
later he abdicated to marry Mrs Simpson. It was raining so much they | :32:30. | :32:39. | |
had to use cars. The Marquess of Cholmondley will take that into the | :32:40. | :32:46. | |
Robing Room. Lord Chamberlain's office can be dated to the 12th | :32:47. | :32:56. | |
century. Strictly speaking Lord Cholmondley is acting in the reign | :32:57. | :33:00. | |
of Elizabeth II because the family does it every other reign. They did | :33:01. | :33:04. | |
rather badly in the Edward VIII reign. They thought, oh dear, that's | :33:05. | :33:12. | |
it. It goes to another family after that. They have done better ever | :33:13. | :33:17. | |
since, they have had a very long reign. Since 1952. The next family | :33:18. | :33:25. | |
to inherit will be the Carrington family, Peter Carrington, Lord | :33:26. | :33:29. | |
Carrington, the Conservative peer, aged 97 now. Whether he does the | :33:30. | :33:33. | |
duty himself, I don't think so but maybe. Could be his son. He might | :33:34. | :33:39. | |
have to wait a while because this Queen is outliving everyone! Of | :33:40. | :33:46. | |
course it is, dare one say, nonsenses of the Constitution that | :33:47. | :33:51. | |
this is hereditary, but it works and if it works why bother looking for | :33:52. | :33:58. | |
other alternatives? Until 1965 the Lord Great Chamberlain was an actual | :33:59. | :34:03. | |
executive in the Palace of Westminster and took day-to-day part | :34:04. | :34:07. | |
in the management, and that is when the law was changed to give power to | :34:08. | :34:10. | |
the Serjeant at Arms and Black Rod in the House of Commons. You are | :34:11. | :34:16. | |
quite right. It did change. That's what makes the Serjeant at Arms role | :34:17. | :34:21. | |
and the role of Black Rod quite powerful. It is a huge amount of | :34:22. | :34:25. | |
responsibility because the buck stops with those roles. The Lord | :34:26. | :34:30. | |
Great Chamberlain now looks after the royal parts of the Palace, tell | :34:31. | :34:33. | |
us about the remaining royal bits of the Palace. There are many royal | :34:34. | :34:41. | |
parts and indeed his key role is to care for these Royal parts of the | :34:42. | :34:44. | |
Palace and it is a vital role which he does actually report to Her | :34:45. | :34:51. | |
Majesty on. She is his direct manager in that sense. Most of what | :34:52. | :34:55. | |
we see in the glittering bits of the day are the royal bits of the | :34:56. | :34:59. | |
Palace. The Normans their case, Royal Gallery. The Robing Room | :35:00. | :35:05. | |
itself. -- Norman Staircase. Job share with Westminster Hall? That's | :35:06. | :35:09. | |
right. You have to be very diplomatic with each other. Many | :35:10. | :35:18. | |
stakeholders. Stakeholders! Imagine the Lord Great Chamberlain of 1863 | :35:19. | :35:22. | |
saying that he must consult with the other stakeholders! The great thing | :35:23. | :35:26. | |
about those parts of the Palace is that the Queen only comes in with | :35:27. | :35:29. | |
invitation and much of the ceremony is to show that things have changed | :35:30. | :35:35. | |
much since the civil war and the Queen is only now allowed in by | :35:36. | :35:39. | |
invitation and only when Parliament wishes to allow her, so that | :35:40. | :35:42. | |
underlines how it is a constitutional monarchy, as does the | :35:43. | :35:47. | |
tradition of the hostage MP. That hostage is Chris Hopkins. He is | :35:48. | :35:54. | |
watching telly at Buckingham Palace. This is the procession of the Prince | :35:55. | :35:59. | |
of Wales and Duchess of Cornwall. They are in the Irish State coach. | :36:00. | :36:05. | |
It is pouring with rain. He is wearing the uniform of an and roll | :36:06. | :36:12. | |
book -- Admiral of the Fleet. They are in the Irish state coach which | :36:13. | :36:16. | |
is being pulled by their horses. And their horses, Cinderella and | :36:17. | :36:25. | |
Bermuda. Are they black or brown? They look very gorgeous. Only two | :36:26. | :36:38. | |
horses, actually. They are bay forces which apparently is the right | :36:39. | :36:42. | |
word for Brown. The outriders getting off the back of the coach, | :36:43. | :36:52. | |
they are tricky things to brake, and that is why the sand is there. They | :36:53. | :36:56. | |
have this sharp turn and then they have two brake right in the right | :36:57. | :36:57. | |
place. Her Royal Highness, the Duchess of | :36:58. | :37:13. | |
Cornwall emerges from the Irish State coach and the sash she is | :37:14. | :37:19. | |
wearing is of a Dame Commander of the Victorian order. An order of | :37:20. | :37:25. | |
chivalry that is in the personal gift of the Queen. She is met by the | :37:26. | :37:33. | |
Earl Marshal carrying his baton. The Duke of Cornwall, Earl of Chester, | :37:34. | :37:37. | |
Earl of Carrick, Baron of Renfrew, Lord of the Isles and great Steward | :37:38. | :37:44. | |
of Scotland. His sash is a green sash of the order of the Thistle. | :37:45. | :37:52. | |
The Earl Marshal, the Duke of Norfolk will conduct the royal party | :37:53. | :37:58. | |
up the Norman Staircase, lines not only by the Household Cavalry but | :37:59. | :38:07. | |
the heralds and pursuivants, with their white staves of office. The | :38:08. | :38:23. | |
Earl Marshal is not wearing the duke's robes. He is fully intending | :38:24. | :38:27. | |
to get back to the House of Lords and will be taking the oath of | :38:28. | :38:30. | |
allegiance before long. In the next state of -- State Opening he will be | :38:31. | :38:38. | |
maybe wearing his duke's robes, but that is still a magnificent uniform, | :38:39. | :38:43. | |
lovely to see it. Together with the Lord Great Chamberlain he sits as of | :38:44. | :38:47. | |
right in the House of Lords regardless of the reforms. I was | :38:48. | :38:51. | |
just going to say that not traditional to traditional to CDF to | :38:52. | :38:53. | |
the throne coming to the State Opening and he first came in 2013. | :38:54. | :39:00. | |
-- to see the heir to the throne. Baroness D'Souza on her final State | :39:01. | :39:04. | |
Opening, she announced she would only do one term. And in fact | :39:05. | :39:11. | |
nominations will close tomorrow for those who want to be Lord Speaker, | :39:12. | :39:15. | |
are you putting yourself forward, Lord Dodds? I haven't yet decided to | :39:16. | :39:22. | |
throw my hat into the ring. You are not neutral enough! That's your | :39:23. | :39:28. | |
trouble. The Lord high Chancellor of Great Britain, Michael Gove. We are | :39:29. | :39:33. | |
likely to get quite a lot of bills concerning his department. He is the | :39:34. | :39:39. | |
220th Lord Chancellor, in the procession this morning. Richard | :39:40. | :39:48. | |
Heaton. The deputy Serjeant at Arms and Amy Regan, the Lord Chancellor's | :39:49. | :39:51. | |
private secretary, and most importantly because she is carrying | :39:52. | :39:58. | |
the speech, the Lord Chancellor's purse bearer. It is an enormous | :39:59. | :40:02. | |
purse and it's fair to say that she is not enormous, really quite tiny! | :40:03. | :40:10. | |
This is the scene at Horse Guards. You can see the seating laid out for | :40:11. | :40:14. | |
Trooping the Colour next month. It should be quite something, | :40:15. | :40:16. | |
celebrating the Queen's90th birthday. This is the procession of | :40:17. | :40:23. | |
the Queen and Duke that umbrella as they make their way to Westminster. | :40:24. | :40:26. | |
-- Juba you can see a tiny bit of fanfare in | :40:27. | :40:36. | |
the distance there. In the Royal Gallery, another part of the royal | :40:37. | :40:40. | |
part of the House of Lords, you can see it being lined by the Yeoman of | :40:41. | :40:46. | |
the guard. This is the bits of the Lord Chancellor's procession that | :40:47. | :40:49. | |
have no more to do at the moment, so they are walking back through the | :40:50. | :40:52. | |
Royal Gallery from where they came. A few moments ago. At this moment, | :40:53. | :40:58. | |
would you be watching it on the telly? Catching glimpses because | :40:59. | :41:04. | |
there are screens around the place. Coming to collect the Cap of | :41:05. | :41:08. | |
Maintenance and the sort of state is Field Marshal Lord Walker on the | :41:09. | :41:12. | |
left, and the Leader of the House of Lords and the privy Seal Baroness | :41:13. | :41:19. | |
Stowell of Beeston. They had underlings bringing the cap and | :41:20. | :41:25. | |
soared from Buckingham Palace but from now on they will be responsible | :41:26. | :41:32. | |
for them. They are stood by to receive them later on. On this | :41:33. | :41:43. | |
rather grey day, the Queen'sprocession makes its way to | :41:44. | :41:47. | |
Westminster. The funny thing is, the one thing everyone thought when the | :41:48. | :41:51. | |
State Opening move to May is that it would be a lovely sunny day and | :41:52. | :41:54. | |
people would get hot in their uniforms, well, 2014 was raining and | :41:55. | :41:59. | |
here we go again. I bet those uniforms don't stand up to much | :42:00. | :42:04. | |
rain? They don't and they are incredibly hot, particularly with | :42:05. | :42:08. | |
stiff collars. The House of Lords, because so many people are crammed | :42:09. | :42:12. | |
in there it gets very hot indeed. The November state openings were a | :42:13. | :42:16. | |
relief. This is Prince's Chamber which has never been seen in live | :42:17. | :42:19. | |
coverage before. This is the first time there has been a camera in the | :42:20. | :42:25. | |
Prince 's Chamber. These are the Gentlemen at Arms, standing there | :42:26. | :42:28. | |
because they are right behind the throne, the House of Lords is beyond | :42:29. | :42:32. | |
that wall on the right. They are stood there because they are the | :42:33. | :42:38. | |
closest guard to the sovereign. The Yeomen of the Guard are the oldest. | :42:39. | :42:42. | |
There is a bit of jealousy there. The captain of the Gentlemen at Arms | :42:43. | :42:48. | |
is the Government Chief Whip in the House of Lords and he gets to wear a | :42:49. | :42:52. | |
fantastic uniform today. And it is Lord Taylor of Holbeach. That | :42:53. | :42:57. | |
standard, as you can see in the middle of your screen, will be | :42:58. | :43:00. | |
lowered with an almighty sort of Walter Raleigh style flourish as the | :43:01. | :43:10. | |
procession comes through. And the Queen'sprocession has made it to the | :43:11. | :43:13. | |
Cenotaph. In the Diamond Jubilee coach. As coaches go, it's pretty | :43:14. | :43:26. | |
modern? Electric windows. Going back further into history, there is a | :43:27. | :43:30. | |
Sovereign 's Escort of the Household Cavalry. | :43:31. | :43:37. | |
And the coachman are Mr Hargreaves, Kemp and McGregor. It is still | :43:38. | :43:48. | |
magnificent even though it is damp. Truly magnificent, we will never see | :43:49. | :43:52. | |
any kind of ceremony like this unless it is a coronation. This is | :43:53. | :43:57. | |
the most ceremonial moment we will see a harmonic engaging in apart | :43:58. | :44:01. | |
from the coronation. It is something very special and it obviously dates | :44:02. | :44:06. | |
back to 1852, but the ceremony itself goes back to the 17th-century | :44:07. | :44:10. | |
and beyond to the Middle Ages. The ball will be wondering what these | :44:11. | :44:15. | |
uniforms are, why is this setup like this simply to go and read a speech? | :44:16. | :44:20. | |
But it symbolises the constitutional monarchy. They have rather lost grip | :44:21. | :44:24. | |
of the ceremony because Queen Victoria didn't turn up and got a | :44:25. | :44:28. | |
bit lazy and hopeless and badly organised, didn't it? There was a | :44:29. | :44:34. | |
Royal commission to look at it, and get it properly set up by Edward | :44:35. | :44:39. | |
VII? Certainly Edward VII was a stickler for ceremony and he noticed | :44:40. | :44:43. | |
that because his mother hadn't shown up and also she wasn't very | :44:44. | :44:47. | |
interested in royal regalia, she was much more interested in the details | :44:48. | :44:50. | |
of what monarchy did, he was concerned that the monarchy was | :44:51. | :44:55. | |
losing respect and had to be reinvigorated at the start of the | :44:56. | :44:58. | |
20th-century and it was crucial to re-examine this and it's thanks to | :44:59. | :45:01. | |
him that we have the ceremony we have today. | :45:02. | :45:52. | |
I think we should maybe stick with those pictures as the carriage head | :45:53. | :46:01. | |
through into the Sovereign's Entrance. | :46:02. | :46:06. | |
We are going to see a bit of a change this year. There are six | :46:07. | :46:28. | |
horses drawing the carriage. Although the Earl Marshal | :46:29. | :46:32. | |
acknowledges The Queen, she goes by the sovereign staircase. And this is | :46:33. | :46:42. | |
where the great lift of state will come into play this year. As The | :46:43. | :46:53. | |
Queen arrives at the Palace of Westminster, when she steps out, the | :46:54. | :47:01. | |
Union Jack will be replaced by the sovereign standard. This year, the | :47:02. | :47:08. | |
Norman staircase, as many will sympathise, way too much for The | :47:09. | :47:17. | |
Queen and Prince Philip. Prince Philip is 95 in June. So there is a | :47:18. | :47:26. | |
little lift, and it comes out just to the left of your screen. | :47:27. | :47:33. | |
Actually, I discovered that it is one of the royal parts of the Palace | :47:34. | :47:40. | |
of Westminster, this lift. Many of us are surprised that The Queen has | :47:41. | :47:44. | |
not had to use a lift before and we are impressed that she has been | :47:45. | :47:49. | |
using the stairs for so long. It is absolutely amazing. And it is a | :47:50. | :47:53. | |
jolly long staircase. And very steep, especially when you are | :47:54. | :47:57. | |
wearing such heavy regalia. I tried this lift a couple of days ago. It | :47:58. | :48:03. | |
takes 15 seconds from the moment you press the right button. You did your | :48:04. | :48:10. | |
research! Very exacting research. 15 seconds from pressing the button to | :48:11. | :48:15. | |
the doors opening at this level here. But the time in the lift is | :48:16. | :48:21. | |
only six to seven seconds. The thing I should not be mentioning here is, | :48:22. | :48:25. | |
it is not noted for its reliability, this lift. The Lord Great | :48:26. | :48:29. | |
Chamberlain has successfully emerged from the lift, followed by The Queen | :48:30. | :48:36. | |
and Prince Philip. And I think there are all smiling because it went | :48:37. | :48:41. | |
well. Lawrence? There are some notoriety about the lift. A couple | :48:42. | :48:46. | |
of years ago, The Queen and Prince Philip and Black Rod got into the | :48:47. | :48:50. | |
lift to go down, and unfortunately, somebody in one of the floors above | :48:51. | :48:54. | |
pressed the call on the lift, so the lift went up instead and when it | :48:55. | :48:58. | |
opened, there were two cleaners waiting to get in. You can imagine | :48:59. | :49:01. | |
the shock on their faces when the door opened and there was The Queen | :49:02. | :49:05. | |
and Duke of Edinburgh and Black Rod! But they found it very amusing. It | :49:06. | :49:09. | |
worked this morning, and that the main thing. Actually, The Queen does | :49:10. | :49:14. | |
come to the Palace of Westminster at other times. Yes, for State Opening, | :49:15. | :49:19. | |
we have all the ritual, but she comes at other times. Probably a | :49:20. | :49:25. | |
couple of times a year. For what sort of thing? I last met her when | :49:26. | :49:29. | |
she wanted to look at her new window in Westminster Hall. There are the | :49:30. | :49:34. | |
two Serjeant at arms from Buckingham Palace. We have seen four of them so | :49:35. | :49:41. | |
far. But we have not seen the Serjeant at Arms. So she came to | :49:42. | :49:44. | |
look at the new window in Westminster Hall? Yes. And she has | :49:45. | :49:50. | |
held receptions in the Royal Gallery. And met staff. So she comes | :49:51. | :50:00. | |
a couple of times a year. And those are different occasions, informal. | :50:01. | :50:04. | |
There is Black Rod. The window we were talking about was paid for | :50:05. | :50:11. | |
privately, so it was a personal gift from us to Her Majesty. The | :50:12. | :50:21. | |
procession has arrived in the House of Lords. There are now in the world | :50:22. | :50:26. | |
gallery. The heralds are facing the Robing Room. The Queen is in the | :50:27. | :50:31. | |
Robing Room. It takes about nine minutes to put on the parliamentary | :50:32. | :50:35. | |
robe and the Imperial State Crown. This is an ancient ceremony, one | :50:36. | :50:38. | |
which Henry VIII himself might recognise at least parts of. | :50:39. | :50:44. | |
The man charged with organising things | :50:45. | :50:45. | |
inside the Palace of Westminster is the Duke of Norfolk, | :50:46. | :50:48. | |
who is Earl Marshal of England and in fact | :50:49. | :50:50. | |
England's premier Duke. I caught up with him a few days ago. | :50:51. | :51:13. | |
We've had the job of Earl Marshal since 1483. | :51:14. | :51:15. | |
We were given it along with the Dukedom of Norfolk | :51:16. | :51:17. | |
We lost it again at the bottle of Bosworth in 1485. | :51:18. | :51:21. | |
And throughout the whole of the 16th century, | :51:22. | :51:23. | |
It's actually been hereditary in my family since 1672, | :51:24. | :51:27. | |
It's all for love of Queen and country. | :51:28. | :51:33. | |
There is absolutely no pay, no re-claiming expenses or anything. | :51:34. | :51:35. | |
And indeed, things like the uniform cost quite a lot of money. | :51:36. | :51:38. | |
The Earl Marshall organises great state occasions | :51:39. | :51:41. | |
at the State Opening, overseeing 100 or so yeomen, | :51:42. | :51:43. | |
Until the early years of this century, one of its duties involved | :51:44. | :51:48. | |
walking backwards in front of the Queen. | :51:49. | :51:50. | |
There was actually a period in the early noughties | :51:51. | :51:56. | |
when we dumbed down somewhat and we stopped walking backwards | :51:57. | :51:58. | |
It was somewhat frustrating that I'd just mastered the art of walking | :51:59. | :52:04. | |
backwards by remembering the carpet pattern. | :52:05. | :52:05. | |
That's how you do it, to avoid walking into the pillar | :52:06. | :52:08. | |
I'd just mastered it when we decided to do away with it. | :52:09. | :52:14. | |
But now I don't think that will come back. | :52:15. | :52:17. | |
As ever, rehearsal and timing are key. | :52:18. | :52:20. | |
In 2015, the Queen arrived at Parliament | :52:21. | :52:23. | |
rather earlier than expected, and that meant Black Rod | :52:24. | :52:27. | |
being kept waiting while the Commons finished prayers. | :52:28. | :52:33. | |
I thought as I was processing down the Royal Gallery, oh my God, | :52:34. | :52:36. | |
But I think he had to wait for about a minute and a quarter. | :52:37. | :52:42. | |
But we try to make sure that we improvise and keep the show going. | :52:43. | :52:59. | |
Just imagine the moment, the trumpets, the fanfare. | :53:00. | :53:03. | |
The Queen is ready to come out of the Robing Room. | :53:04. | :53:07. | |
What do you do at that point and what are you thinking at that point? | :53:08. | :53:12. | |
I'm thinking about all the things that are going to happen | :53:13. | :53:19. | |
I'm hoping that prayers will have finished in the Commons and Black | :53:20. | :53:24. | |
I'm hoping that everybody is going to end up | :53:25. | :53:29. | |
in the right place on the throne, in the House of Lords. | :53:30. | :53:32. | |
I'm hoping that the Lord Chancellor will deliver the speech OK. | :53:33. | :53:36. | |
And I'm hoping that when, after the speech is over, | :53:37. | :53:39. | |
when we exit, that everyone will go through the right door. | :53:40. | :53:41. | |
I'm terribly keen, as everybody is, that it goes well, that it | :53:42. | :53:50. | |
Ceremonial and pageantry is something that we do very | :53:51. | :53:54. | |
We are known in the world over for this. | :53:55. | :53:59. | |
I think tourism is our second or third biggest industry. | :54:00. | :54:03. | |
So I certainly get nervous and I'm quite relieved when it's over. | :54:04. | :54:17. | |
We have got all that to come. Lawrence, Black Rod was actually | :54:18. | :54:25. | |
kept out of the Commons a couple of times in your tenure. What have you | :54:26. | :54:31. | |
got against him? He is known for being a bit erratic with his timing. | :54:32. | :54:41. | |
There is your successor, Kamal el Hajji. He lays the mace. He did that | :54:42. | :54:47. | |
very well. I bumped into him coming out of Westminster Underground | :54:48. | :54:50. | |
station. He is rarely looking forward to today. He loves -- he's | :54:51. | :54:54. | |
really looking forward to today. He loves the uniform. Black Rod set off | :54:55. | :55:05. | |
early, but The Queen dispatches him. I know you are being diplomatic | :55:06. | :55:11. | |
here. It is ironic, because a few weeks before, Black Rod was late for | :55:12. | :55:15. | |
a march in of the troops. The principal doorkeeper asked where he | :55:16. | :55:22. | |
was. We saw him from a distance, and they said, hurry up, Black Rod! And | :55:23. | :55:30. | |
just a few weeks later, he was early for banging on the door of the | :55:31. | :55:35. | |
Commons. On that occasion, the principal doorkeeper said to me, he | :55:36. | :55:39. | |
is on his way already. So I said, get him to wait! But I think he was | :55:40. | :55:45. | |
signalled early. Someone in the House of Lords, I will not say who, | :55:46. | :55:48. | |
was getting a bit impatient. So the Lord Great Chamberlain signalled for | :55:49. | :55:53. | |
Black Rod to go to the Commons, and we were still in the middle of | :55:54. | :55:56. | |
prayers, so we had to ask him to slow down. It is said that The Queen | :55:57. | :56:01. | |
doesn't like sitting on the throne fall that time, waiting for the | :56:02. | :56:05. | |
Commons to turn up. Anything she can do to speed up the process, she | :56:06. | :56:10. | |
will. It wasn't The Queen. And it ended up being far longer because of | :56:11. | :56:16. | |
the waiting. Kate, the Duke of Norfolk, the Earl Marshal said | :56:17. | :56:20. | |
tourism is important and it is lovely for tourists, but there must | :56:21. | :56:23. | |
be more to the monarchy if it is to really fast, than that tourists like | :56:24. | :56:30. | |
it? Yes. A lot of tourists don't know much about the opening of | :56:31. | :56:34. | |
Parliament. I would not say tourists come just to watch this. They would | :56:35. | :56:38. | |
have to be hard-core ceremonial fans. We have our viewers today in | :56:39. | :56:43. | |
the United States. There are viewers, but this is not about | :56:44. | :56:47. | |
tourism, it is about underlining the fact that the monarch is the guest | :56:48. | :56:52. | |
of the house is of Parliament, the fact that the monarch is not there | :56:53. | :56:56. | |
to interfere. She has to read out the speech. She is the guest. She is | :56:57. | :57:05. | |
there at their discretion. It is not about the pomp, but to underline | :57:06. | :57:08. | |
that this is the most important thing that the monarch does, to | :57:09. | :57:12. | |
preside over the cost additional system. That is why she gets her | :57:13. | :57:17. | |
crown out. -- the constitutional system. It is the job of the Head of | :57:18. | :57:22. | |
State. It is much more important than the royal wedding. It might not | :57:23. | :57:28. | |
be seen as the most exciting, but this is the key moment which | :57:29. | :57:33. | |
underlines the relationship between state and monarch. Michael, at this | :57:34. | :57:37. | |
point, you will have been sitting in the House of Lords. You have to take | :57:38. | :57:40. | |
your seats quite early. You will have been there and our buy now. You | :57:41. | :57:46. | |
don't get dedicated seats. So there is a bit of a bunfight. The earlier | :57:47. | :57:52. | |
you get there, the better your seat. Can you save them for each other? | :57:53. | :57:57. | |
No, you can't. I remember arriving late a couple of years ago because I | :57:58. | :58:01. | |
was watching other parts of the ceremony. I found it exceedingly | :58:02. | :58:06. | |
difficult and had to sit on the floor for a while. | :58:07. | :58:29. | |
It is 11.28 am so we hope the Commons will have said their | :58:30. | :58:40. | |
prayers. Here is this magnificent procession, passing through the | :58:41. | :58:48. | |
world gallery. -- the Royal Gallery. It does look very mid-evil. -- | :58:49. | :58:59. | |
medieval. It is a moment in which The Queen herself, when she was | :59:00. | :59:03. | |
preparing to be crowned, spent a lot of time ActiveSync for the fact that | :59:04. | :59:09. | |
she -- she would spent a lot of time practising. This reveals how far | :59:10. | :59:23. | |
back our monarchy goes. Let's enjoy it as it passes by. | :59:24. | :59:35. | |
The Sword of State reaches the Princess chamber. We have never seen | :59:36. | :59:54. | |
this before. -- the Prince's Chamber. We have only got three | :59:55. | :00:03. | |
pages. One seems to have dropped out already. They don't faint on parade, | :00:04. | :00:12. | |
but something happened. And in the House of Lords, everyone rises. | :00:13. | :00:23. | |
Kate, she may not be using the stairs, but this Queen is wearing | :00:24. | :00:27. | |
the crown. Victoria couldn't even get up the | :00:28. | :00:37. | |
stairs of St Paul's during her Diamond Jubilee. She stayed in her | :00:38. | :00:48. | |
carriage? Yes. Lords, be seated. She has surpassed Victoria as the | :00:49. | :00:52. | |
longest monarchy and she is doing her job brilliantly. I think she has | :00:53. | :01:01. | |
given the Lord Great Chamberlain did not -- the nod. He raises his wand. | :01:02. | :01:10. | |
Is he on time, Black Rod? Back Rod is a good friend of mine and he | :01:11. | :01:13. | |
works hard to get everything right here. Even with his eyesight, which | :01:14. | :01:19. | |
is very acute, he couldn't see the wand from that distance so there are | :01:20. | :01:24. | |
lights that go on that indicate it's time to set off. A bit of new | :01:25. | :01:28. | |
technology? Absolutely, cutting edge. Right, this is him going | :01:29. | :01:34. | |
through the Members lobby and you can see Keith Vaz, what is a prize, | :01:35. | :01:38. | |
lined up to get a good place in the House of Lords. And he approaches | :01:39. | :01:43. | |
the door of the House of Commons. Perfect. Open the doors! Who says | :01:44. | :01:59. | |
that? That will be the Sergeant. You did that last year? Yes. That is | :02:00. | :02:03. | |
your successor. Mr Speaker, the Queen commands that | :02:04. | :02:25. | |
this honourable House to attend Her Majesty immediately in the house of | :02:26. | :02:37. | |
Peers. Hands off the BBC! We will pass absolutely no comment on that | :02:38. | :02:42. | |
in the studio! Lord Skinner, not Lord Skinner but one day, Dennis | :02:43. | :02:47. | |
Skinner. Affectionately known as the beast of Bolsover. 84 years old, | :02:48. | :02:52. | |
with his contributory role to the State Opening. He now ceremoniously | :02:53. | :02:59. | |
since it out. John Bercow, the Speaker, the clerk of the House of | :03:00. | :03:02. | |
Commons, and the Prime Minister alongside Jeremy Corbyn. In his | :03:03. | :03:19. | |
first State Opening, Kamal El-Hajji. What were you hoping for in your | :03:20. | :03:23. | |
first State Opening? Just that I did not trip over. The hind him his | :03:24. | :03:28. | |
secretary and the chaplain of the House of Commons. -- behind him. | :03:29. | :03:35. | |
When you get to the Lords the mace is taken from you. They walk | :03:36. | :03:39. | |
backwards to collect it from your shoulder because it can't be in the | :03:40. | :03:42. | |
House of Lords at the same time as the Queen. We all wonder what the | :03:43. | :03:46. | |
Prime Minister and Jeremy Corbyn will say but they are not saying | :03:47. | :03:49. | |
much. The Prime Minister has broken the ice. He's doing the talking. I | :03:50. | :03:58. | |
wouldn't be surprised if Jeremy Corbyn found it a bit surprisingly | :03:59. | :04:01. | |
find himself at the State Opening of Parliament in this whole, | :04:02. | :04:07. | |
extraordinary royal engagement. Here they come. Being quite rabble like. | :04:08. | :04:16. | |
Yes. Do people still dress up, MPs, for the day? Some do, some wear | :04:17. | :04:22. | |
hats. That is normally where you see the good jewellery. It is a party | :04:23. | :04:31. | |
occasion for both Houses. The House of Lords has been reconfigured for | :04:32. | :04:35. | |
the day, the set out is not as it would be, and indeed in a few hours | :04:36. | :04:39. | |
afterwards, some of the benches will be moved and taken out, so we can | :04:40. | :04:44. | |
pack in as many people as we can. I thought actually that the bar was | :04:45. | :04:48. | |
moved back, there is actually less rooms for the Commons and more for | :04:49. | :04:52. | |
the peers. That is one of the difficult things you have just seen, | :04:53. | :04:56. | |
all four of the key officials should arrive in line. There is not room to | :04:57. | :05:01. | |
do that through the doorway, so there is jockeying. Black Rod on the | :05:02. | :05:06. | |
left, the Speaker John Bercow, Serjeant at Arms Kamal El-Hajji, and | :05:07. | :05:11. | |
they take their positions at the front and the party leaders and the | :05:12. | :05:16. | |
Shadow Cabinet Members and other MPs are behind them. Earl Marshal now | :05:17. | :05:24. | |
looking not at the Queen but towards what is called the bar of the house | :05:25. | :05:29. | |
to see if he can get as many MPs in as possible. He signals the Lord | :05:30. | :05:33. | |
Chancellor to deliver the speech. You can see the galleries packed on | :05:34. | :05:55. | |
either side, the place is packed. My Lords and Members | :05:56. | :06:06. | |
of the House of Commons, My Government will use the | :06:07. | :06:13. | |
opportunity of a strengthening economy to deliver security for | :06:14. | :06:18. | |
working people, to increase life chances for the most disadvantaged, | :06:19. | :06:23. | |
and to strengthen national defences. My ministers will continue to bring | :06:24. | :06:28. | |
the public finances under control, so that Britain lives within its | :06:29. | :06:34. | |
means, and a move to a higher wage and lower welfare economy where work | :06:35. | :06:40. | |
is rewarded. To support the economic recovery and create jobs and more | :06:41. | :06:46. | |
apprenticeships, legislation will be introduced to ensure Britain has the | :06:47. | :06:49. | |
infrastructure that businesses need to grow. Measures will be brought | :06:50. | :06:57. | |
forward to create the right for every household to access high-speed | :06:58. | :07:04. | |
broadband. Legislation will be introduced to improve Britain's | :07:05. | :07:07. | |
competitiveness and make the United Kingdom a world leader in the | :07:08. | :07:13. | |
digital economy. My ministers will ensure the United Kingdom is at the | :07:14. | :07:16. | |
forefront of technology. For new forms of transport, including | :07:17. | :07:23. | |
autonomous and electric vehicles. To spread economic prosperity my | :07:24. | :07:28. | |
Government will continue to support the development of a northern | :07:29. | :07:34. | |
powerhouse. In England, further powers will be devolved to directly | :07:35. | :07:40. | |
elected mayors, including powers governing local bus services. | :07:41. | :07:46. | |
Legislation will also allow local authorities to retain business | :07:47. | :07:51. | |
rates, having them more freedom to invest in local communities. My | :07:52. | :07:57. | |
Government will support aspiration and promote homeownership through | :07:58. | :08:02. | |
its commitment to build 1 million new homes. Following last week 's | :08:03. | :08:10. | |
anti-corruption summit in London, legislation will be introduced to | :08:11. | :08:14. | |
tackle corruption, money-laundering, and tax evasion. My Government will | :08:15. | :08:22. | |
continue work to deliver NHS services over seven days of the week | :08:23. | :08:27. | |
in England. Legislation will be introduced to ensure that overseas | :08:28. | :08:31. | |
visitors pay for the health treatment that they receive at | :08:32. | :08:36. | |
public expense. New legislation will be introduced to tackle some of the | :08:37. | :08:42. | |
deepest social problems in society. And improve life chances. A bill | :08:43. | :08:49. | |
will be introduced to ensure that children can be adopted by new | :08:50. | :08:53. | |
families without delay. Improve the standard of social work, and | :08:54. | :08:58. | |
opportunities for young people in care in England. To tackle poverty | :08:59. | :09:05. | |
and the causes of deprivation, including family instability, | :09:06. | :09:11. | |
addiction and debt my Government will introduce new indicators for | :09:12. | :09:16. | |
measuring life chances. Legislation will be introduced to establish a | :09:17. | :09:23. | |
soft drinks industry levy to help tackle childhood obesity. Measures | :09:24. | :09:29. | |
will be introduced to help the lowest income families to save | :09:30. | :09:39. | |
through a new Help to Save scheme and to create a lifetime ISA to help | :09:40. | :09:47. | |
young people to save in the long-term. My Government will | :09:48. | :09:50. | |
continue to reform public services so they help the hardest to reach. A | :09:51. | :09:55. | |
bill will be brought forward to lay the foundations for educational | :09:56. | :09:58. | |
excellence in all schools, giving every child the best start in life. | :09:59. | :10:04. | |
There will also be a fairer balance between schools through the national | :10:05. | :10:12. | |
funding formula. To ensure that more people have the opportunity to | :10:13. | :10:15. | |
further their education, legislation will be introduced to support the | :10:16. | :10:22. | |
establishment of new universities and to promote choice and | :10:23. | :10:24. | |
competition across the higher education sector. My Government will | :10:25. | :10:33. | |
legislate to reform prisons and courts, to give individuals a second | :10:34. | :10:39. | |
chance. Prison governors will be given unprecedented freedom, and | :10:40. | :10:44. | |
they will be able to ensure prisoners receive better education. | :10:45. | :10:53. | |
Old and inefficient prisons will be closed and new institutions built, | :10:54. | :10:56. | |
where prisoners can be put to more effective work. Action will also be | :10:57. | :11:04. | |
taken to ensure a better mental health provision for individuals in | :11:05. | :11:10. | |
the criminal justice system. My Government will continue to work to | :11:11. | :11:12. | |
bring communities together and strengthen society. Legislation will | :11:13. | :11:20. | |
be introduced to prevent radicalisation, tackle extremism in | :11:21. | :11:24. | |
all its forms, and promote community integration. National citizens | :11:25. | :11:33. | |
service will be placed on a permanent statutory footing. My | :11:34. | :11:41. | |
Government will continue to safeguard national security, my | :11:42. | :11:43. | |
ministers will invest in Britain's Armed Forces, honouring the military | :11:44. | :11:50. | |
covenant, and meeting the Nato commitment to spend 2% of national | :11:51. | :11:56. | |
income on defence. They will also act to secure the long-term future | :11:57. | :12:03. | |
of Britain's nuclear deterrent. My Government will continue to play a | :12:04. | :12:09. | |
leading role in world affairs, using its global presence to tackle | :12:10. | :12:12. | |
climate change and address major international security, economic and | :12:13. | :12:21. | |
humanitarian challenges. My Government will continue to work to | :12:22. | :12:27. | |
resolve the conflict in Ukraine. It will play a leading role in the | :12:28. | :12:34. | |
campaign against Daesh and to support international efforts to | :12:35. | :12:36. | |
bring peace to Syria through a lasting political settlement. | :12:37. | :12:43. | |
Britain's commitment on international development spending | :12:44. | :12:45. | |
will also be honoured. Helping to deliver global stability, support | :12:46. | :12:52. | |
the sustainable development goals, and prevent new threats to national | :12:53. | :13:00. | |
security. Prince Philip and I look forward to welcoming his Excellency | :13:01. | :13:03. | |
the President of Colombia on a state visit in November. My Government | :13:04. | :13:11. | |
will continue with legislation to modernise the law governing the use | :13:12. | :13:19. | |
of oversight of investigatory Powers by law enforcement, security, and | :13:20. | :13:25. | |
intelligence agencies. Legislation will strengthen the capability and | :13:26. | :13:28. | |
accountability of the police service in England and Wales. My Government | :13:29. | :13:35. | |
will hold a referendum on membership of the European Union. Proposals | :13:36. | :13:41. | |
will be brought forward for a British Bill of Rights. My ministers | :13:42. | :13:52. | |
will uphold this sovereignty of Parliament and the primacy of the | :13:53. | :13:55. | |
House of Commons. My Government will continue to work in cooperation with | :13:56. | :14:00. | |
the devolved administrations, to implement the extensive new powers | :14:01. | :14:08. | |
in the Scotland Act and establish a strong and lasting devolution | :14:09. | :14:13. | |
settlement in Wales. My Government will work in Northern Ireland to | :14:14. | :14:16. | |
secure further progress in implementing the storm onto house | :14:17. | :14:20. | |
and Fresh Start Agreements. -- storm Estimates for the public services | :14:21. | :14:34. | |
will be laid before you. My Lords and Members of the House of Commons, | :14:35. | :14:39. | |
other measures will be laid before you. I pray that the blessing of | :14:40. | :14:43. | |
Almighty God may rest upon your counsels. | :14:44. | :15:04. | |
The speech successfully delivered by the Queen, the Lord Chancellor has | :15:05. | :15:12. | |
retrieved it. And three page boys come forward to collect the | :15:13. | :15:19. | |
Queen'strain and it's a heavy job for one of them because he is taking | :15:20. | :15:21. | |
the job for one that is missing. So, emerging through the Prince's | :15:22. | :16:03. | |
chamber, the royal procession makes its way back. A lovely site here of | :16:04. | :16:12. | |
the Prince's chamber, which we have not seen before. It is said that | :16:13. | :16:19. | |
they will hand in their access before they leave, which is wise | :16:20. | :16:26. | |
advice. Field Marshal Montgomery. He was a general till 2014. They had | :16:27. | :16:39. | |
given up making field marshals because the pension was too high | :16:40. | :16:43. | |
when they retired, but now they have changed it back again and they are | :16:44. | :16:46. | |
honorary Field Marshall. So I don't think they get the pay, but they do | :16:47. | :16:51. | |
get the bank. He was a former chief of defence staff. We talked about | :16:52. | :16:55. | |
tourism earlier, and of course, tourism is a huge part of what makes | :16:56. | :17:00. | |
this country but is. But it is possible on normal days for normal | :17:01. | :17:05. | |
members of the public to walk exactly the route that The Queen is | :17:06. | :17:08. | |
walking now, through the Royal Gallery, into the chamber itself. It | :17:09. | :17:14. | |
is a wonderful opportunity to see that extraordinary building from the | :17:15. | :17:18. | |
outside and at close quarters. The Royal Gallery is beautiful. Pictures | :17:19. | :17:24. | |
of the battle of Waterloo and Trafalgar line the two sites, and | :17:25. | :17:29. | |
when presidents of France come to address both houses, they are not | :17:30. | :17:33. | |
very easy to keep discreet, because there are enormous pictures. There | :17:34. | :17:37. | |
are wonderful. They were painted by an Irishman who fell out with the | :17:38. | :17:41. | |
palace authorities because they refused to pay him openly. | :17:42. | :17:44. | |
Apparently, in one of the murals, there is, in the rafters of the | :17:45. | :17:49. | |
destroyed farmhouse at Waterloo, supposedly a copy of his unpaid bill | :17:50. | :17:58. | |
that he put in. I can confirm that that uniform does cost thousands of | :17:59. | :18:03. | |
pounds. Here is your replacement, 4+1. At this point, would you be | :18:04. | :18:12. | |
thinking, this went to Kate? I think Kamal el Hajji will be thinking, | :18:13. | :18:15. | |
thank goodness that is out of the way. It is a huge relief when Her | :18:16. | :18:21. | |
Majesty is in the carriage and on her way back. She is not in the | :18:22. | :18:25. | |
carriage yet, she is in the Robing Room. It has been very good timing. | :18:26. | :18:34. | |
That is the fifth Mace we have seen today, carried by the primary | :18:35. | :18:38. | |
Serjeant at Arms of the Palace of Westminster. And the 41st. Now, you | :18:39. | :18:43. | |
laid the Mace on the table, that people don't stay, do they? So what | :18:44. | :18:51. | |
does it mean? It is one of those things that only happens on State | :18:52. | :18:56. | |
Opening day. The House is now suspended, and doorkeepers will keep | :18:57. | :19:00. | |
guard of the Mace. But the House will not come back until later today | :19:01. | :19:05. | |
to discuss the Queen's Speech. And before you discuss the Queen's | :19:06. | :19:09. | |
Speech, there is the first and only reading of that outlaw Bill, which | :19:10. | :19:16. | |
is essentially guarantees rights to persons arrested. It dates back to | :19:17. | :19:23. | |
the 12th or 13th century, but it has a purpose? It does have a purpose. | :19:24. | :19:32. | |
The Speaker will use the opportunity to address members and talk about | :19:33. | :19:37. | |
the importance of security and rights of access and all those kinds | :19:38. | :19:43. | |
of things. It is the one statement of the year where he will reinforce | :19:44. | :19:48. | |
those messages. And the Commons will return to their business first | :19:49. | :19:52. | |
before that of the sovereign. But it doesn't ever get beyond the first | :19:53. | :19:56. | |
reading, so we made there for this cover what happens at the end. The | :19:57. | :20:00. | |
Lords do it as well. They maintain their own independence. They have a | :20:01. | :20:04. | |
bill on select vestry is. I only discovered what those were in March, | :20:05. | :20:08. | |
and the parish church of Berwick-upon-Tweed. A select vestry | :20:09. | :20:15. | |
is not a very posh vestry. A select vestry was a kind of parish council. | :20:16. | :20:24. | |
It is not beautiful or nicely carpeted. Michael, if you rush back | :20:25. | :20:32. | |
into the Lords, you would get a first reading of the select vestry. | :20:33. | :20:36. | |
We are getting a lot of nice pictures in the Commons. You can see | :20:37. | :20:40. | |
the Sergeant standing up, using the opportunity to talk to members. I | :20:41. | :20:45. | |
didn't. I was out of their pretty sharpish! Having a quick Lucozade | :20:46. | :20:49. | |
somewhere. It is a party date, really. The members may be going off | :20:50. | :20:55. | |
to drink parties or get together with their friends, bringing guests | :20:56. | :20:58. | |
in for lunch. It is a wonderful party atmosphere, the State Opening. | :20:59. | :21:04. | |
But for MPs, is it important, Lawrence? It provides a framework. | :21:05. | :21:10. | |
It is the one date in the calendar that every thing hinges off. It is | :21:11. | :21:15. | |
also a good social occasion. Many members will bring their partners or | :21:16. | :21:22. | |
family to Parliament for the day. The Serjeant at Arms used to be | :21:23. | :21:27. | |
military people. What was your root? It was not military. I used to be | :21:28. | :21:32. | |
the postmaster at Parliament. I was in charge of the postal service, and | :21:33. | :21:36. | |
I kind of hung around and did lots of jobs. But it was after the | :21:37. | :21:40. | |
anthrax attacks in the US through the mail that I got more into the | :21:41. | :21:44. | |
security side of things. I was sent to Washington to find out how to | :21:45. | :21:49. | |
find anthrax in the post. After developing a male security solution | :21:50. | :21:52. | |
for Parliament, I was asked to manage the police contract. Then I | :21:53. | :21:56. | |
became the assistant Serjeant at Arms and then in 2012, I became | :21:57. | :22:00. | |
Serjeant at Arms. I worked my way up over 18 years. | :22:01. | :22:02. | |
Well, we've been joined in the studio by our parliamentary | :22:03. | :22:05. | |
Susan, what did you make of today's announcements? | :22:06. | :22:12. | |
Isn't it extraordinary for a start that you have all the gold and | :22:13. | :22:16. | |
glitter and the royalty, and as Lawrence was saying, the political | :22:17. | :22:22. | |
year usually hinges off the Queen's Speech as well. But less so this | :22:23. | :22:27. | |
year. If you can talk about that being a sideshow, in a way it is, | :22:28. | :22:31. | |
because the political focus is so much on the referendum next month. | :22:32. | :22:36. | |
If it is a vote to leave, a great deal of this will go by the board | :22:37. | :22:41. | |
because a great deal of the government's attention will be taken | :22:42. | :22:48. | |
up with making that happen. Some of us were surprised to have a Queen's | :22:49. | :22:51. | |
Speech right now. We thought it might have come after the | :22:52. | :22:59. | |
referendum. I think what David Cameron has wanted to do is | :23:00. | :23:02. | |
something that will not fight on the horses, that can bring people | :23:03. | :23:05. | |
together and is not too controversial. Nothing to see here? | :23:06. | :23:14. | |
Exactly, business as usual. Do you think any of the bills are fairly | :23:15. | :23:17. | |
uncontroversial. My heart always leaps when I see a bus services | :23:18. | :23:24. | |
Bill(!). I will come back to you, Susan, because The Queen has taken | :23:25. | :23:28. | |
off the Imperial State Crown and the Parliamentary rope, and she's | :23:29. | :23:34. | |
quitting the two captains of the bodyguard, Lord Taylor of Holbeach | :23:35. | :23:39. | |
and Lord Gardiner of Kimble. And they are political figures. The | :23:40. | :23:46. | |
Chief Whip of the House of Lords is on the right and the deputy Chief | :23:47. | :23:50. | |
Whip on the left in the foreground in military uniform. They are like | :23:51. | :23:56. | |
you Lawrence, they were not at all military. Chris Grayling is making a | :23:57. | :24:00. | |
joke about the speech. He is president of the Council. And she is | :24:01. | :24:06. | |
now turning to Lady stole on the left. Chris Grayling looks a bit | :24:07. | :24:18. | |
underdressed. And next to him, the Lord Chancellor. This is a quite | :24:19. | :24:27. | |
different gathering to what we normally see, because The Queen | :24:28. | :24:30. | |
normally comes out of the Robing Room and chats to a line of people | :24:31. | :24:34. | |
and then goes down the staircase. Here, we have a milling around on | :24:35. | :24:45. | |
this landing. There are busts on this landing of every Prime Minister | :24:46. | :24:47. | |
who was a member of the House of Lords. The last one is Lord Hume, | :24:48. | :25:08. | |
Alec Douglas Hume. I can't help noticing that the Lord Chancellor | :25:09. | :25:12. | |
and the Lord President are both Brexiteers in the great debate that | :25:13. | :25:15. | |
is going on. Luckily, we don't know the views of the Earl Marshal or the | :25:16. | :25:24. | |
Lord Great Chamberlain. And she's going to disappear. She is waiting | :25:25. | :25:29. | |
for the Duke of Edinburgh, who is chatting with the chiefs of defence | :25:30. | :25:33. | |
staff, and they disappear into what we shall call the gold lift of | :25:34. | :25:38. | |
state. It is actually quite heavily lined with brass, but mainly would, | :25:39. | :25:44. | |
and the really reassuring thing is that it has a little Speaker and | :25:45. | :25:48. | |
when you get stuck in the lift and Black Rod has run out of jokes to | :25:49. | :25:51. | |
tell you on the way down, you can call for help. Susan, the actual | :25:52. | :25:58. | |
bills. Why don't you pick out one or two? First David Cameron has written | :25:59. | :26:05. | |
recently that he wants the next four years to be a period of social | :26:06. | :26:08. | |
transformation in Britain, maybe getting back to his roots before he | :26:09. | :26:14. | |
became Prime Minister, the hug a would-be thing, as it was | :26:15. | :26:17. | |
characterised in the press. There are a number of social bills. There | :26:18. | :26:23. | |
is the children and social worker Bill. That will make it easier for | :26:24. | :26:26. | |
children to become formally adopted and taken on by a family. There is | :26:27. | :26:31. | |
more regulation for social workers as well. There will be an education | :26:32. | :26:36. | |
bill. That has run into trouble already. It was something David | :26:37. | :26:40. | |
Cameron had mentioned at Prime Minister's Questions a few weeks | :26:41. | :26:42. | |
ago. He said, I can give you one preview of the Queen's Speech, and | :26:43. | :26:47. | |
it will be this bill to make all schools in England academies. That | :26:48. | :26:53. | |
then run into trouble. It was one of the faster U-turns. It was. We may | :26:54. | :26:58. | |
come to why that has happened and why they might want to avoid that. | :26:59. | :27:07. | |
What about this Bill of Rights? So far, what we have her disability. | :27:08. | :27:11. | |
There will be a great deal of consultation about it. It is | :27:12. | :27:15. | |
something that many Conservatives want very much, for the British | :27:16. | :27:21. | |
courts to be supreme in comparison with the European Court of Justice. | :27:22. | :27:26. | |
Is something happening? Her Majesty The Queen, accompanied by the world | :27:27. | :27:32. | |
you can Edinburgh, has got back into the diamond jubilee carriage. And it | :27:33. | :27:39. | |
emerges into the rain, I'm afraid to say, of old palace yard. She is | :27:40. | :27:51. | |
quite dry in that carriage and it is a condition, but I hope they turned | :27:52. | :27:57. | |
up the heating inside. It is May, so of course, it is freezing cold and | :27:58. | :27:59. | |
reining. Susan, you were talking about the | :28:00. | :28:44. | |
Bill of Rights. Let's come on to what is perhaps the centrepiece of | :28:45. | :28:47. | |
this. We may have to wait, because emerging straightaway is Prince | :28:48. | :28:53. | |
Charles and the Duchess of Cornwall. He has been attending State Opening | :28:54. | :28:58. | |
for the last three years, but there was a long period when he didn't? | :28:59. | :29:05. | |
Yes, he began in 2013. In 2012 during the diamond jubilee, The | :29:06. | :29:08. | |
Queen announced that she was going to hand more of the foreign travel | :29:09. | :29:12. | |
over to Charles and more of the general duties as well. This is what | :29:13. | :29:17. | |
we are seeing. The Queen is never going to abdicate, but we are going | :29:18. | :29:24. | |
to see Charles take on more of the duties. In five or six years' time, | :29:25. | :29:29. | |
he may be the one giving the speech. This is quite an arduous | :29:30. | :29:34. | |
performance. It may be that Charles takes over in the future while The | :29:35. | :29:40. | |
Queen is still our monarch. It is a fundamental role to the | :29:41. | :29:43. | |
constitutional Head of State. It is a key role, and one of the last ones | :29:44. | :29:47. | |
she will give up, because it undermines the most important thing | :29:48. | :29:52. | |
to her -- it underlines the most important thing to her. She has set | :29:53. | :29:56. | |
the bar for future monarch is very high. | :29:57. | :30:01. | |
Tell us more about the politics, on the Bill of Rights, will it be | :30:02. | :30:08. | |
tricky? It can't be tricky at the moment because there is so little | :30:09. | :30:13. | |
detail. In the speech, in the background to the speech we have | :30:14. | :30:16. | |
heard from the Government they have said that it will be up for | :30:17. | :30:20. | |
discussion and there will be plenty of discussions. The idea clearly is | :30:21. | :30:23. | |
to bring in as many people to heal some of those wounds that the | :30:24. | :30:29. | |
referendum campaign may have created. What I think is the | :30:30. | :30:33. | |
centrepiece is prison reform, Michael Gove is very committed, the | :30:34. | :30:38. | |
Justice Secretary and Lord Chancellor, to prison reform, a very | :30:39. | :30:44. | |
different Justice Secretary and Lord Chancellor to Chris Grayling. What | :30:45. | :30:48. | |
does he want to do? At the stroke of 12, tell us at the stroke of 12. I | :30:49. | :31:01. | |
will do it in time with the bongs. He will be giving prisons more | :31:02. | :31:05. | |
autonomy like with academy schools. It's all very well giving autonomy | :31:06. | :31:09. | |
but jails are very overcrowded and you have to look at sentencing and | :31:10. | :31:10. | |
funding as well. We will pause there for a Royal | :31:11. | :31:33. | |
Salute, for Prince Charles, he only gets half of the national anthem. As | :31:34. | :31:39. | |
the Crown departs. You are a Conservative peer, Michael, you are | :31:40. | :31:42. | |
at civil war in the Conservative Party at the moment. You have a long | :31:43. | :31:46. | |
political memory and mine is reasonable, wasn't like this in the | :31:47. | :31:52. | |
1975 referendum, there are two Conservative parties and if you | :31:53. | :31:55. | |
don't come together on what David Cameron wants to do presently than | :31:56. | :31:58. | |
it is hard to see you coming together after the referendum? I | :31:59. | :32:03. | |
would call it a debate rather than a civil war but I understand why you | :32:04. | :32:06. | |
are turning it like that. One Members going back to 1975, the | :32:07. | :32:13. | |
Labour Party itself was torn apart so there is nothing new in politics. | :32:14. | :32:20. | |
There will undoubtedly be a very important period after the | :32:21. | :32:22. | |
referendum where everybody reassesses where we are. How long... | :32:23. | :32:30. | |
Another month, five or six weeks, it is not pleasant within the | :32:31. | :32:33. | |
Conservative Party? The opposition is from within their own side. | :32:34. | :32:38. | |
Wouldn't you say, the role of the actual legal opposition was almost | :32:39. | :32:43. | |
left out while the Conservatives battle on. Indeed. I think we have | :32:44. | :32:47. | |
seen that in the whole of this last Parliamentary year. It has looked a | :32:48. | :32:53. | |
lot like the opposition came from the Lords, 60 defeats in the House | :32:54. | :32:58. | |
of Lords, but in fact the Government doesn't have to pay much attention | :32:59. | :33:00. | |
to those House of Lords defeats because even with the small majority | :33:01. | :33:06. | |
you should be able to overturn them. Some Lords amendments go through in | :33:07. | :33:09. | |
the end and they get a few victories. They do. There is | :33:10. | :33:14. | |
compromise. Where there is a sticking point and the Government | :33:15. | :33:18. | |
didn't want to compromise our ones where Conservative MPs have also | :33:19. | :33:21. | |
have their doubts and wanted to go along with what the Lords have said. | :33:22. | :33:30. | |
61 defeats. Around 60. 61 defeats in the House of Lords. I could not | :33:31. | :33:35. | |
possibly completely view on detail this morning! Two defeats in the | :33:36. | :33:38. | |
House of Commons which was a turn-up for the books three actually. We are | :33:39. | :33:47. | |
even now! That is unusual for a majority Government. It is and other | :33:48. | :33:51. | |
defeats were staved off for example on the academies issue, the child | :33:52. | :33:56. | |
migrants issue. That's because with a tiny majority you are limited in | :33:57. | :34:03. | |
what you can do. Now the Crown, just back into the carriage. Placed there | :34:04. | :34:05. | |
by the crown jeweller. The final act. The Cap of | :34:06. | :34:23. | |
Maintenance and the Sword of State make their way back to Buckingham | :34:24. | :34:27. | |
Palace. In the Queen Alexandra State coach. The coach men are on board. A | :34:28. | :34:44. | |
tap of the reins and they will be on their way. The important memory that | :34:45. | :34:49. | |
carriages do not pay the congestion charge in central London. Because | :34:50. | :34:56. | |
they are, in that sense, very fuel-efficient. Nonpolluting. I will | :34:57. | :35:04. | |
put it to you because it is not my opinion, Lord Dodds, but you are | :35:05. | :35:11. | |
skating over this internal battle in the Conservative Party. You wouldn't | :35:12. | :35:14. | |
expect me to make it worse than it is. Go on! This is an historic vote | :35:15. | :35:19. | |
and we have never had a vote which is as meaningful as this referendum | :35:20. | :35:25. | |
vote. It's not surprising that people take it very seriously with | :35:26. | :35:29. | |
great passion and you would expect a bit of argy-bargy. I would not say | :35:30. | :35:33. | |
it has gone too far but it is doing damage to the Conservative Party and | :35:34. | :35:40. | |
there will be a difficult and hugely important job of reconciliation | :35:41. | :35:43. | |
afterwards to put the party back together again. One of the advantage | :35:44. | :35:47. | |
of it being in June is that it gives us time before the next election and | :35:48. | :35:52. | |
in party political terms that is important. Lovely passing shot of | :35:53. | :35:58. | |
the Commons. Lawrence, you are above party, but you have seen some of | :35:59. | :36:03. | |
these battles in the first year of the Conservative Government? You | :36:04. | :36:05. | |
could see which way the wind was blowing. What was it like in the | :36:06. | :36:10. | |
Commons at times? Very difficult. Passions run high. You know, people | :36:11. | :36:18. | |
have very deep-seated opinions about certain things and believe they are | :36:19. | :36:22. | |
right. But I think it's important for officials and particularly | :36:23. | :36:25. | |
people like the Serjeant at Arms and the Speaker, to try to rise above | :36:26. | :36:30. | |
that and be impartial and have friends and colleagues on all sides | :36:31. | :36:36. | |
of the Chamber, and most importantly to be seen to be impartial and that | :36:37. | :36:40. | |
is what I tried to do and it can be a tight rope because people always | :36:41. | :36:44. | |
point the finger and say, you are giving privileges to one side or | :36:45. | :36:48. | |
another. You are judged at the end of the day on your actions rather | :36:49. | :36:52. | |
than on what you say, and it's really important that you tried to | :36:53. | :36:58. | |
keep within the framework of the rules, but you know, also allow the | :36:59. | :37:04. | |
House to express itself. A lovely note of unity. Another State | :37:05. | :37:08. | |
Opening, will we still see them in a hundred years best mark I think we | :37:09. | :37:12. | |
will and we will continue to see them and some of the pomp and | :37:13. | :37:16. | |
circumstance may be reduced in 50 or a hundred years. But they have | :37:17. | :37:25. | |
brought bits back. We have blinged it up as the Duke of Norfolk was | :37:26. | :37:28. | |
saying. We are waiting for the Michael Dobbs lecture on that. | :37:29. | :37:32. | |
Ladies and gentlemen, thank you very much. | :37:33. | :37:33. | |
I think we have successfully covered and enjoyed the pomp | :37:34. | :37:37. | |
and the politics, so my grateful thanks to historian Kate Williams, | :37:38. | :37:40. | |
the former Serjeant at Arms of the House of Commons, | :37:41. | :37:42. | |
Lawrence Ward, and the thriller writer Lord Dobbs. | :37:43. | :37:50. | |
Thank you too to our parliamentary correspondent Susan Hulme and thank | :37:51. | :37:54. | |
The Queen and other members of the royal family are heading back | :37:55. | :38:03. | |
to the Palace, the Commons have returned to their Place and as far | :38:04. | :38:07. | |
as I can see from the pictures on the screen, the peers are trying | :38:08. | :38:12. | |
as fast as they can to get out of the House of Lords, where they've | :38:13. | :38:16. | |
Probably going towards their refreshments. | :38:17. | :38:21. | |
Join us at 2.30 this afternoon live on BBC Parliament for our coverage | :38:22. | :38:25. | |
of the Queen's Speech debate in the House of Commons, | :38:26. | :38:28. | |
where the Prime Minister will commend the propositions put | :38:29. | :38:32. | |
forward in the Speech this morning and we'll hear what the Leader | :38:33. | :38:35. | |
of the Opposition, Jeremy Corbyn, has to say in his first speech | :38:36. | :38:38. | |
It will be Jeremy Corbyn's first outing as his role as Leader of the | :38:39. | :38:51. | |
Opposition. Join us on BBC Parliament for that live debate at | :38:52. | :38:54. | |
2:30pm. Thank you for watching this morning. I hope you have all enjoyed | :38:55. | :39:00. | |
it. Every good afternoon to you. -- a very good afternoon. | :39:01. | :39:03. |