My least onerous civic commitment is to be President of the local community’s civic hall.
Today, in common with communities the length and breadth of Britain, local people gathered to toast the Queen’s remarkable 70 years. I was asked to cut the cake – beautifully made and decorated.
As a six-year-old I had my first glimpse of the Queen when she came to our town to open the new Council offices.
After being tidied up by our teacher, the wonderful Sister Vincent – blazers buttoned, hair combed, tie straightened – we were shepherded onto the pavement outside the school – ready to wave our flags.
We were rewarded with a regal smile and the now oh so familiar wave of a royal hand. One of the girls presented a posy of flowers.
Years later, as a city councillor representing an inner-city neighbourhood in Liverpool, I decided to organise street parties to celebrate the Queen’s 1977 Silver Jubilee.
It helped that my mentor and friend, Trevor Jones, owned a company which made flags. There was an endless supply of bunting for the terraced streets in my Ward. And, as the Queen was passing through Edge Hill, we organised chairs with roadside views for the elderly and housebound.
In our community Focus newsletter, I asked for details of anyone who had been alive for Queen Victoria’s Diamond Jubilee in 1897. They were promised a commemorative plate.
I expected a handful of replies – and ended up visiting over 100 people and presenting them with plates and certificates!
I even met one lady born during the visit of Queen Victoria to St.George’s Hall in Liverpool in 1886, and who recalled Gladstone’s last speech in Liverpool in 1896, and the Relief of Mafeking in 1900.
As Member of Parliament for Liverpool Edge Hill and Mossley Hill I was privileged to meet the Queen- and members of her family- during her visits to the city.
In 2010, I organised and hosted a Roscoe Lecture given by Prince Charles at St.George’s Hall on the theme of citizenship. https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=mZZJETRY8yc
On a very wet day the Prince insisted on overruling a security officer and accepted my request that he make an unscheduled walk along Lime Street to meet some of the citizens who had braved the rain, to welcome him to their city. He asked for an umbrella and off we went. I was pleasantly surprised but, of course, he is his mother’s son.
In 2012, his mother would meet another Roscoe Lecturer – and Head of State -Mary McAleese , – who became President of Ireland in 1997.
The Queen’s visit to Ireland laid to rest some of the ancient hatred, characterised by appalling acts of violence, and which has so disfigured British-Irish relationships.
Although my father and brothers all served in the British armed forces as war time soldiers my mother was a native Irish speaker from a strong nationalist Irish Republican home.
During my time in the Commons I served as Northern Ireland and Irish Affairs Spokesman and knew that only through the healing of history was there any prospect of reconciliation. The Queen clearly understood that and led by example.
You don’t have to be a rabid Royalist to understand that in an age of broken institutions and division the Queen has been part of the glue which holds the nation together.
No doubt, if Charles, William, and George all emulate Queen Elizabeth’s devotion to service and public duty – and eschew celebrity preoccupations and chattering class obsessions- in another 70 years people will again gather in community centres and village halls and recall with loyal affection the day they celebrated the Head of State’s Platinum Jubilee.
