John Nicolson – 2022 Tribute to HM Queen Elizabeth II
The tribute made by John Nicolson, the SNP MP for Ochil and South Perthshire, in the House of Commons on 10 September 2022.
I keep thinking of that final photo of the Queen, taken only this week as she welcomed the Prime Minister to Balmoral. It is the most poignant of images. She is standing by an open fire with a familiar no-nonsense hairdo, and she is wearing a comfortable kilt. But a closer examination of the familiar figure reveals that she is struggling to lift her head, her right hand looks badly bruised and she is leaning heavily on a stick. I suspect that she must have been feeling tired and sore, but she is wearing make-up and smiling a warm welcome. How brave that was and how dutiful. We look at the photo with affection and respect because it is Queen Elizabeth but also because, for so many of us, her bravery so close to the moment of her passing will remind us of all those we have loved and lost—all the mothers and grandmothers we have known and admired for their quiet, anonymous courage.
Few of us knew the Queen personally, but we all felt somehow that we did, and there are recurring themes as the tributes pour in. She was a woman of great religious faith who did not fear death. She was capable of many quiet acts of sensitivity and compassion away from the public eye. She could be very funny, with a dry wit and a mischievous talent for mimicry, and she did not like folk who were pompous or overly grand—despite, I suspect, too often finding herself surrounded by them. She loved Scotland the most of any country and was at her happiest when driving around in the lashing rain at Balmoral, gently torturing urban Westminster politicians who arrived with city clothes and sometimes starched personalities.
While no one imagined that the Queen was a political radical, those who talked to her privately report that she had moved with the times, whether on climate change, gender equality, LGBT rights or a recent decision to stop wearing fur. Though she was possibly—probably—not a passionate Scottish independence supporter, she seems to have enjoyed warm relations with recent First Ministers, who appear to have been as charmed by her as the most ardent Unionist. She loved, apparently, being called Elizabeth, Queen of Scots—perhaps recognising that the advice to take the title of Elizabeth II all those decades ago was not the most inclusive given to her.
The Queen was among the last of the war-time generation. That gave her a special bond with politicians who had served: Heath and Healey, Callaghan and Jenkins. They were a generation who saw the devastation that war caused in our continent, and were committed to building a new, more united Europe. My much-loved mum, who died recently, was the Queen’s age and a passionate supporter of European integration, because she had known the horror of war and celebrated the peace that our generation perhaps appreciates too little. One of the most moving tributes to the Queen this week, as we all know, has come from the French President. We will miss her, and we will together celebrate her life over the coming days and weeks. May she rest in peace.
