Vote. This weekend watch cspan cities tour to hatiesbering, michigan on cspan twos book tv and American History tv on cspan 3. Good morning and welcome to bbc parliaments live coverage of the state opening at parliament. In her ninetyfirst, its the 56th parliament of the united kingdom. And this morning, we welcome viewers to cspan, our sister channel in the united states. I recen its about 5 30 in the morning on the eastern seaboard. It is of course a conservative government beginning its second year in aufloffice, a government without its problems as it faces support coming European Union referendum campaign. However, were focusing on a british tradition. The next hour 1 2 well spend looking that saur moceremony an governments plans to be unveiled in the queens speech. Im joined by the conservative pire and more importantly for the thriller writer, lord daubs. The historian, Kate Williams of redding university. And the former sergeant of arms lawrence ward. You retired from your post last autumn . I wish it was retirement, i went to another job. You left it. Among those attending today, the Prime Minister. He left downy street a short time ago. The doors of number 10 open. And the Prime Minister, hes actually been leader of the conservative party for 11 years now and weve also seen the arrival westminster of the leader of the opposition, Jeremy Corbin. He arrived on the embankment. Times have changed for Jeremy Corbin. He said the state opening all its pageantry, with a hereditary house of lords and hereditary monarch and on the 91 birthday of the queen, saying as a relatively young whipper snapper, im fully in favor of the a country having leaders of a finer vintage. Were talking about a highly respected individual whos 90. I think it just proves that youre never too late to take up a new career and learn something else. So, its going to be quite an amazing day for Jeremy Corbin to find himself at the state opening. And kate, if i could turn to you. So, her 91st year of the queen. The queen is that symbol of continuity, is she not . Yes, this is true. 90 years as you say and this is 1952, apart from when she was pregnant and in 2011 when the government canceled it it. So, shes been at the state opening of parliament every year she possibly can be and providing continuity right back to the ceremony in this form was brought in 1852 and pretty much every monarch has been here ever since, apart from victoria who took time off after the death of albert. Were looking in the house of lords now. They dont wear urmen every day, lord daubs, apparently. Were all wearing our silk and our urman. But this is the only day we wear the traditional uniform, unless were introducing a new pier in which case we put on the robes. Were ordinary folks. Thats so reassuring. There are actually 807 of you nowadays. So, there are quite a lot of ordinary folks in the house of lords. Its too big. It is too big. We are briefly looking that thrones. The queens on the left and the duke of edenberros on the right. And Prince Charles and the duchess of cornwell. Master of ceremonies today and hes talking on the right there archbishop of canterberry and on the left with the beard the bishop of london. And thats lord willis, a sort of conservative thinker, you might say. Talking to lord damorlay. And you can give me a few more names as we go along. There are new, and old. Young, vibrant life. We have plenty of more women than the house of commons do. Not surprising theres 800 of you. Per capita. As far as a portion of the population is concerned. If it were left to the house of lords right now, collectively, we would cut our knife said back quite sharply. Because there are too many. It makes it very difficult for us to work properly. The facilities arent there to work properly. And yet 61 new peers last year. Although, people are starting to retire. 25 peers retired. But the numbers are still going. When does it stop . Well, it doesnt stop as long as the Prime Minister insists on putting fresh people in. It needs an element of self control on the part of Party Leaders to stop jamming the face full of their friends. This is historically huge for the house of lords in terms of numbers. It is a very great house of lords. Wee weve seen the cutback of the hereditary peers and replaced by those made of political appointments. We might see some sort of restriction on the peers and the veto. But certainly following from that statutory instrument defeat. Its 10 40 in the morning. As sergeantatarms, state opening, in fact this time last year, what would you be doing this time of day . Probably with the speaker and other officials that house of commons going through the business of the day. We would all be in our finery. When do you get dressed . 7 30 in the morning. So, its a very long day. Its the same uniform but theres additional elements to it. A lot more lace. A lot more lace and the color of ss is sewn on to the shoae s shoulders of the uniform at 7 30 so it doesnt slip. By this time you already feel as though youve done a days work. Sgli its a very important day. It has a party atmosphere. 350e7er people are going there and celebrating all these traditions. It is the only day we get dressed up and it is a bit like a fancy dress party as well as being a very serious occasion. Well come back to you all soon. So, weve seen the lords and ladies in their tiaras and well see the guard assembled ready to welcome the royal party to westminster. But what kind of modern message might this ancient ritual convey . State open of parliament demonstrates how we understand power. The people vote. The parliament is elelected. The governing party doesnt impose its will on the population and it asks as the queen as the representative of the whole nation to deliver to parliament a description of what it proposes to do that it can be made accountable for. Some people might think thats a rose tinted view of our democracy as it works in practice. Its an assprational view of our democracy but that is how it works in practice. When one party wins an election, it doesnt ride rough shot over the rest of the population. The queen presided overher first state opening of parliament in 1952 and shes attended all but two ceremonies since and that includes a scaled down event in march 1974, after the election of the minority labor government. No carriages then but what mattered was the meeting of monarch, lords and commons. Today for the first time this ceremony is being watched, not only by those who are present in this chamber but by many millions of my subjects. Peoples in other lands will also be able to witness this renewal of the life of parliament. I do think that the british constitution, informally, because there isnt a written one, has got something pretty special. Straight forward democracy. A democracy in which the majority rule under certain constraints and theres protection for minorities and we preserve the notion that there is a person. That our loyalty isnt to an idea, its to a person. Weve seen where loyalty to an idea can go badly wrong and i have no doubt in my mind whatsoever that the promises she made at her cornation echo in her life. Shes almost laid down her life for the country in order to play a role that we desperately need and seldom thank her for. Kate williams, one of the things that salmon wells told me, said the queen exercise her authority, not by opposing her will, by representing and articulating the voice of the people. Sounds in some ways, well, quite a convoluted description of the monarchy. Do you believe that at all . Youre sort of saying she enable as democracy to happen by being this figure at the top. And its been vital to the queen that she is politically neutral. It was part of her lessons that she had to remain out of politics and unlike lots of monarchs before, she has stayed out of politics and thereby enables government to do what it wished without her medaling. Weve had interesting words about the chinese recently. And coming down is the rugalia procession of the crown and the sword of state. And behind that is the state car with the two masters brought by the sergeant in arms in bucki Buckingham Palace. We saw five this morning, but you are the sergeantatarms, werent you . And i would like to think the most important, but thats not true. The only one known full time as a sergeantatarms. Thats right. But what really struck me on state opening day was my eye site distance isnt very good and i really should wear glasses. Too vaein. But i remember the glistening in the diamonds in the crown. When it catches the light, it really does catch it. Its already there. Its been delivered in the armed guard for the tower. It left the tower of london but its in the carriage now. And that is queen alexandras state coach on its way with the horses, now, i said to your sergeant of arm said, ls, lawret is the day job . Being responsible for security and access to the house of commons. And its working directly with the speaker of the house of commons to inhad susure that th public can get in and that members can get around and about and that the function of parliament can continue. So, its a very difficult balancing act allowing access to the public but also keeping them safe so the business of the house can continue. This is probably not the kind of thing i should mention today but it is well known that one of your thrillers is about the state opening. Oh, yes. And it doesnt go according to plan. No, it doesnt. T they usually go exceedingly well to plan. But one did faint, which hadnt happened before. You could see the tremor of fear going through everybody. Do we ignore the poor thing . The dutchess of cambridge suggested somebody do something about the poor boy. Lawrence was responsible for security. Security is an exceedingly difficult problem for the pallase of westminster and 10 15 years ago when i wrote the book, the security was something of a joke, in my view and needed real review and it hadnt been reviewed. But i said with the old Security System where the state opening was held hostage. Everybody in that room youll see, we have the monarchy, the government, the opposition, the lords, the ambassadors, the judges, everybody who matters is the whole british establishment in one room. And sitting ducks. And we needed to take rather more care of that security than sending around the guards to have a look to see if there was gun powder underneath. Which is pretty much there they are. Thats where the action takes place . Its not a bad office to work in. You said you cant find offices for you all. Yes, but the chamber is our main office. Thats where we do the day job part of it. Theres the diplomatic court. Theyre sitting behind the bishops. And go on, michael. Youre interested in power and the exercise of power. And in britain and Frank Underwood in the u. S. Theyre interested in power. Theyre not at all interested in the content of the queens speech. Not remotely interested in one bit of it. Were not talking about a documentary here, were talking about a drama series. There is a difference. The Prime Minister in italy was mr. Renzsey was photographed going to the buy a copy of the house of cards. This is a work of entertainment, not instruction. When youve been to a chamber in the british parliament, do you feel it was more accurate than you expected or perhaps less accurate . I do occasionally get the idea there are plenty of people in parliament and elsewhere who are dishing furiously for parts in the next series. But what drama does is remind you that were looking that functions of power and the policies and everything else. But at the end of the day, it comes down to people and personalities. And we will be looking at queens speech which will set out the governments program, but we know it will be interfered with and affected, perhaps even undermined the way that after the queens speech, different personalities will disagree and try to move the agenda in a different direction. You mentioned briefly earlier, that after all this queen has attended all but two openings of parliament and only one which was a nonstate opening of parliament in march 1974. But Queen Victoria, slightly shorter reign, she rather did get out of state opening. 1852 was the first one because you have the house of parliament there. And albert died in 1862, 10 years later, so she declined to attend between 1862 and 1865 and then she came seven times in 35 odd years. That was fast. Nervous tension. And it was open there by basically a constitution had to open it. Royal commission. And the lord chancellor read the speech. Yes. Did that damage the image of the monarchy . Certainly it did from 1862 to 1865, certainly the idea that she was staying away because albert had died. She was locking herself up in mourning. It was a balance between playing the role of the mourning wife and playing the constitutional role which demands that the monarch is there at state openings. So, when she wasnt seen in general. And every time she did come, they begged her to come again. It was vital for her to attend but she simply didnt do so. In the end of her life, she wasnt in the same fantastic health as our own monarch but it wasnt her greatest decision not to attend. Another look at the regallia procession in the queen alexandria state coach. There is a ragalia expert and its commanded by tom horton who rides a 17 hand gelding and 21 years of age. So, quite a veteran of these parades. And this rugaagalia pruzegz is coming along the side of Parliament Square. You can see the union jacks on the right. Theres a new crossing now. So, makes it quite easy to cross from the pavement on to Parliament Square itself. Which previously was rather difficult and the pavement has been considerably widened in front of what is actually new palace yard on the left. Youre seeing a bit of green. Thats as your end of the build, lawrence. And youll see those that are usually on the road have been removed to allow the carriages to go through. And the preparations start weeks ago. So there would have been rehearsals at 4 00 in the morning over the weekend so Everybody Knows exactly what theyre doing. And it looks like a well oiled machine but Little Things happen on the edges that arent quite planned for. But it usually works to the second, to the minute at least. Lined up, the god of honor, the First Battalion of the irish guards and the irish guards band in the two lines of the guard and they will present arms as the crown goes by and any second now they will turn left towards victoria tower. Our first view of the imperial state crown, the sword of state and the cap of maintenance. And when it arrives at the sovereign stair case, theres a kind of juggling act to get the crown out of the carriage. An attempt that no one drops it and the right person ends up with the crown at the end of the procedure that started with. But the amazing thing is the person who first hands the crown out is the person who ends up with the crown at the end of the process. Talking of crowns, queen victor you didnt wear the crown much. Our imperial state crown in 1937. So, Queen Victoria had a different version. It was a dinky crown and it was rather small and much but this one i mean, this is a full kilogram of stuff. But victoria found it uncomfortable and she didnt like the wearing of the robes. She refused to do it during her jubilees much to the please of her ministers because otherwise she wouldnt look as royal they thought. She was more low key. So, it was tricky for her to wear it but this monarch does indeed. Theyre awaiting to receive the crown. The crown jeweller has taken the crown from the controller of the Lord Chamberlains Office whos now actually getting out of the carriage and the barge master not quite in his super finery because he appears to be wearing his barge masters mack. Its a nice mack and the crown at this stage is on a rather small cushion and finally from sir andrew ford to the crown jeweller to the barge master and back to sir andrew thort. Theyve done this highly delicate past to parcel. I was lucky enough to go to the tower of london last year. Nothing beats seeing it in real life in the tower of london because it is so astonishingly sparkally. And looking at its most sparkly for this moment but we have great stones in there. The stone from edward, the confessors ring. And the crown itself is guided by two of the honorable core of gentleman at arms and bringing up the rear, the two sargeants at arms from Buckingham Palace. Stanley and wheaten. Sorry, kate. It has the stone from edward the confessors ring and what it really symbolizes is it reminds us this is the crown the queen wears after shes crown. The only time she wears it is at the state opening and after shes crowned. When she comes out of the cornation ceremony, this is what she wears. There are monarchies left in the world but they are slightly reluctant crown wearers. I think we are the most enthusiastic crown wearers. In holland, in norway and in sweden. But our crown, particularly because we have so many great stones that date back to the 13th century, they are themselves great historic symbols of monarchy. One thing i never quite understood and perhaps kate can tell me. Oh, good. What is the cap of maintenance . Nobody seems to tell me what its for, where it comes from . Well come back while kate reassesses her thoughts on the cap of maintenance. Well watch the controller of the Lord Chamberlains Office carrying it on its bigger cushion, much more glitsy cushion and up to the royal gallery and the norman stair case lined by the brilliantly named stair case party of the house hold cavalry, so called because theyre on the stair case and here it is, the imperial state crown and he will deliver that crown to the lord great chamberlain. And at that point, the guard of honor changes to two men of the guard. A different outfit. And the lord great chamberlain has successfully taken delivery of the crown and youll see that in the royal gallery, everyone has stood for the arrival of the crown. And behind the crown will indeed be the cap of maintenance and the sword of state and they go into their little positions waiting to be carried in a processi procession. Carried by kerncolonel vernon. And secretary of state, kelvin donohue. Time for a cap of maintenance explanati explanation. It has always bee