MT
My Lord Mayor, Mr President, my Lords, Ladies and gentlemen. I have been asked to say a few words in support of the Lord Mayor proposing the toast of the silver jubilee of the Civic Trust. I must say, my Lord Mayor, you don't need any support on this occasion: you said it all. I'd like just to add my two penn'th and to say what a great pleasure it is to be here with you this evening on this great occasion.
The Civic Trust was set up because of the belief that the quality of life doesn't consist only of your tax bracket, or your percentage increase in average earnings, but of the surroundings and the society in which you live, of the history which you inherit, and of the future which you create. And of course it was Duncan Sandys who realized this back in 1957. He and I served—not then but a little bit later—in the same government. In those days he was Minister of Housing and Local Government. We hadn't quite taken on board such big words as “Environment” in those days. [laughter] They were housing and local government, and they did a … town planning, and sometimes they did a good job and sometimes they didn't do quite such a good job, but nevertheless—let's leave that just on one side—it was Duncan who always had a sense of the future, who in 1957 that this mood would come over our people—that your surroundings mattered. Not only your material standard of living, but the surroundings which you created as a society. Like most very successful politicians, he was just a little bit ahead of his time but he realized and captured the spirit that would prevail in the years that were to come and a quarter of a century ago set up this splendid Civic Trust, and we do congratulate you on your foresight and thank you for the splendid work you've done. [applause]
He was, of course, so right. That was just the time when we were going into a highly specialised society. I remember that someone had just written a book called “The Age of Automation” , and our people—and our young people—were beginning to ask the question: “Do I matter?” Because everything seemed to be automated—even more so now—and so they were asking the fundamental question “Do I matter?” and that led them to search for their roots, that led them to look at their history, at where they belonged to, and of course you know you can always read a nation's history in its architecture so much better than you can read it from its politicians' speeches. [laughter]
And so they found their roots and began to look at the architecture and said “look, we want to conserve this, it is part of us” . And that of course was so much in keeping with the spirit of the Civic Trust.
But roots are never enough. Interesting, that people who look at the past do so really because they are interested in the future. They look at the past because they want to take the best out of it, to conserve it, to hand it on to the future. So these young people were not only interested in finding their roots but in doing the very best they possibly could in making a contribution to contemporary society. I remember I was at the Ministry of Education at the time and I used to read lots of reports and lots of jargon, and I came across one report which my own department had produced. And they [end p1] brought it to me before they published it, thank goodness, and I found all over you know this sort of phrase “young people today want to find their sense of identity” . Well, I was not accustomed to jargon, I've never got accustomed to jargon, and I thought they were very clever at the Ministry of Education—then [laughter] —and I said … [laughter and applause] And I said “what does it mean—they want to find a sense of identity—what does it mean?” “Oh” , they said, “it's a well-known phrase understood in educational circles” . I said “well, you know, if you're really bright you can express your views in very simple language and say what does it mean” . And they said: “No, it's a sense of identity” . Anyway I happened to go along to a great occasion at which a vicar was giving the address the next day, and of course he took his texts from language of a different kind, a much more fundamental kind, and I got what it really meant from him, he didn't use language like “a sense of identity” . To said “our young people want to belong to our society, want to belong to the spirit of the age, want to belong to their town, want to belong to the many many voluntary organizations. And they did, they wanted to belong. But they wanted to belong because they also wanted to contribute.
Now they—unlike our beginnings—live in an age where we have to grapple with … reinforced concrete and steel and metal windows, and I'm always a bit fearful what fenestration and metal windows have done for buildings, [laughter] you know they were … And, of course, in the City of London we are always so conscious—me of my generation—of the skylines we have lost, and so very grateful for the elegance of the squares that we have, and the parks that we have, because there are some people who actually witheld their land from development in days gone by. All of these things have a lesson for us in contemporary society and they have a lesson for our young people who are so anxious to make their contribution to our present and also to our future.
And what a wonderful lot of young people we have. You all know I have just a little bit concerned with one or two things the other side of the world where we are trying to, um … to um uphold the ideals of our society. And people fight for an ideal. [applause] I was just so very interested, and so deeply thrilled, when we had to requisition a ship called the Uganda to send it across the other side of the world as a hospital ship, and you know the … the television interviewers went and interviewed the children because you know their holiday had to be cut short, “oh dear, don't you think it is really rather awful, you've had to give up your holiday?” And these—these young children—said “No. It's our pride and it's our duty, and it is more important that the ship goes off to do that than to take us on holiday” . Wasn't that marvellous. Those are the young people for whom we are building. [applause] Those are the young people for whom Duncan started up a Civic Trust to conserve our past for the future. And so, Mr … My Lord Mayor, and Mr. President, yes, we do conserve our history. Yes, we must build well today. Yes, we must bequeath to tomorrow something better than the legacy of yesterday. You started in this Civic Trust a great new conscience … consciousness, and you rose to the responsibilities of our particular times. We thank everyone who has supported you here so splendidly—industry and commerce, their practical support, their enthusiasm, their financial help. We praise you all and applaud your past achievements and we salute your future. And I hope that at the next quarter of a century and it'll actually be in the next century, I know that my successor—who I believe will take over in the next century [laughter and applause] will be here with you to salute your task during that time.