12 minute read
Politics
Last Thursday, I found it hard to explain to my two sons, aged one and two, what had happened. Who the lady on the television was. Why Mummy and Daddy were crying. What death is.
It occurred to me that the Queen would have dealt with this situation before. I wondered how she would have explained such an event to her children. And I refl ected how there was little that people will face in life that she hadn’t too faced, at some point past.
For me, what made her relatable was her experience as the head of a family. A family with its triumphs, its tragedies, its warts and all. Yes, the monarch and her family are shielded from many of the adversities and privations her subjects face. But the events we all experience in our lives – those moments of happiness, of sadness – she had experienced them too. Ten-fold.
Many others have and will write about her constancy, that she was a rock in a tumultuous world. That is true. We are told that she was the thread that held the nation together, something imperceptibly woven into the country’s fabric. To me that metaphor does her a disservice. To most of us, she was something that had always been there. A link to the past, yes, but also a foundation that gave us the resolve to look forward.
Around the world, her wisdom and counsel were sought by leaders who held a close relationship with Britain, or little affi nity at all. The tributes to her that have been off ered since her death are a testament to that. It’s a real tragedy that we don’t have her experience anymore. I’m sure that the new Prime Minister feels that acutely. And I do sympathise for her at this time.
After our period of mourning, and the coronation of Charles III, uncertainty will come. The ‘realms’ – former dominions of the Empire – will reconsider their relationship with the Crown. Many at home as well as overseas will fi nd this natural and inevitable. In an era when Britain is struggling to defi ne its place in the world, many others will fi nd this destabilising.
In these times, we should ask ourselves what Queen Elizabeth II would have done. We hope, we trust, that her wisdom has passed to her son and the heads of government across the Commonwealth, so that they might guide us all through this world she has now departed.
God save the King.
Greg Williams on behalf of Dorset Labour
Elizabeth the Great
A big week got immeasurably bigger. On Monday a new head of government, on Thursday a new head of state.
I was a strong Rishi Sunak supporter but always said I’d get behind whoever won the contest for leader of my party since they were all good candidates.
Liz Truss’s early announcement on energy costs, recognising the huge, looming, signifi cance of the issue for households I represent, was reassuring.
I look forward to detail on support for small- and mediumsized businesses. My patch is home to a large number of them. It would suff er enormously if bills were allowed to climb as forecast.
The only political controversy appears to be on furthering the windfall tax. I have no principled objection to such a levy but would say that it’s a secondary issue since even the most punitive tax would be dwarfed by the borrowing needed to fund the package already announced.
On Friday, I was able to pay my tribute to the late Queen on the fl oor of the House and record the condolences of the people I represent. On Saturday, I attended the Accession Council of the Privy Council at St James’ Palace where the passing of Her Majesty was formally announced and King Charles III proclaimed. What a privilege.
Like many, I’ve found the events of the past few days disorientating. Emotions have swung between great sadness for loss and celebration as we proclaim the new monarch.
I suppose that’s how transition is meant to be. Seamlessness is a strength of the institution of constitutional monarchy.
I’m pretty stiff upper lip, welling up just twice in my adult life – when my father died and on Thursday night. The fi rst is understandable but the second more diffi cult to explain. After all, I only met the Queen once, when I joined the Privy Council. She and I were hardly intimates and her passing after a very long life well lived was not unexpected. Sometimes we surprise ourselves.
In 878 Alfred the Great beat the Danes at Ethandun, now Edington, near Westbury. The battle secured the Kingdom of Wessex, a seminal event in the creation of today’s nation state. ‘Great’ isn’t a descriptor to be dispensed lightly. But, in my opinion, our late Queen is Elizabeth the Great.
A good and gracious lady has been taken from us. We are all the poorer for it. But in his fi rst days as King, a grieving son and his consort have stepped out strong and sure-footed.
Conservative MP for South West Wiltshire Dr Andrew Murrison
The Queen had many qualities but the one that struck me was modesty
The acres of newsprint and hours of television following the death of HM the Queen sometimes makes one feel there is nothing else to say or write.
I am certain everyone will remember precisely where they were when the sad news broke. Luckily, I was at home with my family. And we five all cried.
As many have said we have not lost some distant Crown but someone who was of and for us, Sovereign and Grandmother amalgamated.
I think there are countless numbers across our country who have been saying to themselves: I didn’t think it would affect me so much. None of us are so foolish to believe that any of us will live for ever. We all have a span. Perhaps it was seeing the Queen frail but alert at Balmoral in those PM-appointing photographs on the Tuesday and then the suddenness of Her passing that has exacerbated the shock.
We had shut our minds from the inevitability of it all and that has the made the body blow of Her loss even more acute. What we thought had been a perpetual national light has been extinguished. A figure with the permanence of Gibraltar or Stonehenge has disappeared from our sight.
To say She will be missed is an understatement. The Queen provided a living example of how we all could be and perhaps Her passing may inspire more to follow Her example.
Of the many qualities the Queen possessed the one which always struck me was Her modesty. A very rich and powerful woman surrounded by beautiful art, jewels and living in wonderful homes could have been very puffed up and full of Her self-importance. She never was. Talk to anyone who met Her and they felt they were talking to a fellow human being. She put people at their ease because She wore Her authority lightly.
I always felt She looked surprised if not a little embarrassed when presented with some flowers or alighted from a car to see a throng of excited subjects patiently waiting to greet Her or catch a glimpse of Her. Her expression almost said: “You’re here for me? Thank you, how kind but why?”.
She had no air of selfentitlement. She knew from Her promise made at the age of 21 through to the Coronation Oath that She had a contract with Her subjects and the wider Commonwealth. It was an oath of service She wished to renew every day.
Her ‘thank you’ letter to the nation during the Jubilee celebrations concluding ‘your servant, Elizabeth R’ said it all. I think it was Her faith, of a higher being to whom we are all accountable, that shaped Her national service. For that we should all be grateful.
So, while we say God Save the King let us also give thanks and prayers for the very existence of Her Late Majesty Queen Elizabeth. For Her devoted duty, signal service and Her love. May God Bless Her; may She Rest in Peace. She had, in the words of St Paul, run the race to the finish. She has earned Her Eternal Rest.
Conservative MP for North Dorset Simon Hoare
New Government, old problems
After five very long weeks of Tory leadership campaigning we have finally got what was widely forecast from the start, a new Government with Liz Truss as Prime Minister.
For that we have to thank the tiny minority of the electorate who as members of the Conservative Party made the decision for us.
We’ll return to the subject of democracy another time, but for now let’s look at the start Truss has made. Promising, or not?
In her first speech as PM, Truss included energy supplies as one of her key priorities.
No surprise there, but disastrously her plan to address the problem is to end the ban on fracking and grant new licences to oil and gas companies to expand their climate-destroying industry.
The very things she was urged NOT to do by both the government Committee on Climate Change and the National Infrastructure Commission.
Burning more fossil fuels will simply speed up climate breakdown, giving us more extreme heat, floods, storms and food shortages, here in the UK and across the world.
The most effective and sustainable way of bringing down the cost of living is to invest in insulating houses – making them warmer and healthier – and massively ramp up renewable energy and storage.
Why has she continued the Tory approach of ignoring these solutions?
And why has she put Jacob Rees-Mogg in charge of the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy? He’s expressed climate scepticism, and is a founding partner in Somerset Capital Management which has investments in oil and gas producers, along with tobacco and mining companies.
Hard to imagine a worse choice.
A cynic might point to Truss’s previous career as an industrial economist for Shell.
The Green Party has a fair plan to tackle energy costs now, create lower bills in future and ensure we move towards a cleaner, greener and cheaper energy supply.
We propose a cap on energy prices at the October 2021 level of £1,277 while higher income households pay progressively more as they use more energy.
The plan would be funded by a heavier windfall tax on the fossil fuel industry and taxes on the wealthy. It’s the fair way.
Ken Huggins on behalf of the Green Party in North Dorset
Politics
A momentous week in Parliament
I am very sad that our Queen has died and I can assure you that being your representative in the House of Commons, especially at this time, is a responsibility I take very seriously.
I thought you might like to know a little bit of what has actually happened in Parliament this week.
On Thursday 8 September at 6.30pm, we were told, the Queen had died.
Parliamentary business was halted the next day. HM the King addressed the nation and we received that address in the House of Commons chamber via a television screen.
Tributes to Her late Majesty the Queen were made until late into the night, when I was able to make my tribute to HM the Queen at 9.30pm, which you can watch online at www.chrisloder.co.uk/ER
On behalf of West Dorset, I paid tribute to The Queen. I spoke of the fondness and aff ection with which the Queen is held by West Dorset, with much of this stemming from Her Majesty’s numerous visits to the area over the 70 years of her reign.
I wished the King to know of the profound sadness we share with him and our sympathies. Of how much we have appreciated the Queen’s incredible leadership and steadfast support, and our enormous respect for her duty and service to this country.
In 1998 she unveiled the Great West Window at Sherborne Abbey, planted a commemorative tree at Minterne Gardens and opened the new buildings at Dorset County Hospital, and on her Diamond Jubilee Tour in 2012 she arrived at Sherborne station by train.
Some of you may know I am a bellringer – in my spare time! And on Sunday 11 September, in the morning, I joined the Sherborne Abbey ringers in the fully muffl ed ringing of the eight bells – something I have never done before, nor heard – because it
Conservative MP for West Dorset Chris Loder
only happens on the passing of a monarch. I then went to Dorchester where King Charles III was proclaimed as the new Monarch at 1pm, and then back to Sherborne at 3pm for the town proclamation before going to London that night.
On Monday 12 September, with 1,200 fellow MPs and Peers, we listened to the King speak in Westminster Hall where a presentation of sympathy from both Houses was made to the King. The moving response from King Charles was one that inspired hope through the most painful grief.
Queen Elizabeth is lying in state in Westminster Hall for four days before her funeral and I am going to pay our respects to the Queen on Friday afternoon by going to Westminster Hall in person.
Get-together for ex-Grammar School students
Sherborne for many years had two Grammar Schools – Lord Digby’s and Fosters School.
Many pupils from a wide area – Sherborne, The Caundles, Yetminster, Bradford Abbas, The Comptons and so on – who passed the ‘11-plus’ exam went to these schools.
Students also came from among the Polish refugees at Haydon Park at the time and some were evacuees to the area during the war – others came from further away and were boarders at the old school in Hound Street.
The two schools closed in 1992 and all pupils then went to the Gryphon School.
Thirty years later, the two schools’ past pupil associations continue and again on October 15 the Old Fosterians’ Association is holding its annual lunchtime meal followed by the annual meeting. It is held at the Grange Hotel, Oborne.
The event is open to ex-students of Fosters and Lord Digby’s schools, including those who are not association members, but it is hoped may join at some point.
Tickets, including a three-course meal, are £32 and can be purchased in advance from Dr Ian Maun – e-mail wordsmith@eclipse. co.uk
Foster’s School, Sherborne in 1987, and the Foster’s Flyer bus
