The tribute made by Iain Stewart, the Conservative MP for Milton Keynes South, in the House of Commons on 10 September 2022.
Thank you, Madam Deputy Speaker, for this opportunity to pay tribute to Her late Majesty.
In an interview yesterday, the mayor of Milton Keynes, Amanda Marlow, was asked what Her late Majesty meant to the people of Milton Keynes, and she replied simply that she was “everything”. That is partly due to the fact that Milton Keynes as we know it today was founded, was built and flourished as a new city during her reign. From a collection of north Buckinghamshire towns and villages to the thriving city we know today, Milton Keynes developed under her.
Her late Majesty visited many times to celebrate our history, whether that was to go to the railway works at Wolverton, which has been home to the royal train for many years, or Bletchley Park in my constituency, which she visited about 10 years ago to unveil a memorial to the codebreakers there. Members who have had a royal visit will know that these are often planned to the last minute, if not second, but such was her interest and that of the late Duke of Edinburgh that the timetable went completely out of the window, because she was so engrossed in celebrating the achievements of the codebreakers.
As well as our history, the Queen was there to celebrate our development. Whether it was the opening of the Open University, our new city centre or the football stadium, she has been there for every part of Milton Keynes’s development.
But the greatest honour came just a few months ago, at the platinum jubilee, when she had the grace to bestow city status upon us. At the heart of our bid was the fact that Milton Keynes is made up of many different communities, from the vast majority, if not all, of the countries in the Commonwealth. That, of course, is something that she enormously cherished.
Finally, I noticed that yesterday, in his fine speech, the Leader of the Opposition quoted some lines from Philip Larkin, one of the Queen’s poet laureates. I would like to conclude by quoting a short poem by another of her poet laureates, Sir John Betjeman, called “The Last Laugh”. It reads:
“I made hay while the sun shone.
My work sold.
Now, if the harvest is over
And the world cold,
Give me the bonus of laughter
As I lose hold.”
I very much hope that Her late Majesty did keep her well-known sense of humour to the end, and that once the period of grief and mourning at her loss has passed, we may all, as individuals and as a nation, smile and remember with joy what she meant to us and did for us. Thank you, Ma’am. God save the King.