Georgia Gould speaking in the council chamber last night (Monday)

COUNCIL leader Georgia Gould said that the death of Queen felt like an “unmooring” in uncertain times, and called for people to now find the things that “connect us”.

She was speaking as Camden Council held a special all-member meeting last night (Monday) in which councillors, aldermen, members of the public and Town Hall staff paid tribute to the Queen.

Here is what Cllr Gould said:

“Yesterday (Sunday), we came together as a community to welcome the new king, Charles III, with I think a very ‘Camden’ proclamation and I think it was powerful to have an interfaith service and to come together in unity at this moment of change.

And today, we’re coming together again as councillors, as aldermen, as staff, and really importantly, with our residents, to send our profound condolences to the Royal family and to honour Queen Elizabeth II, our longest serving monarch.

Queen Elizabeth was, I think, a visible embodiment of a life lived in service to the public, both in her commitment to citizens to the country but I think also in small moments of grace and kindness to others that many have remembered over the past few days. As leader I stand here as part of a generation of women who’ve only ever known a female head of state, a powerful female head of state.

When she was made Queen in 1952, Winston Churchill said: ‘Famous have been the reigns of our queens, some of the greatest periods in our history have unfolded under their sceptre.’ So we can’t know I think how much it has changed our country to be led by a woman through good times and bad with such purpose and integrity.

And I remember at the height of Covid, sitting down to watch the Queen’s message to the nation. And it was a moment when many will remember, we were trying to serve our community, but also to come to terms with what the pandemic meant for us.

I think for me, seeing Queen Elizabeth, who by then, in 2020, had lived through the Blitz, the Cold War, the fall of the Berlin Wall, who’d seen 12 US presidents, 14 British Prime Ministers, seven Popes, recessions, good times and bad – and being a point of continuity, it felt deeply reassuring seeing her come on the screen.

I remember being surprised at how emotional I felt when she ended with ‘we’ll meet again’. I think she represented stability and unity, and the sense that there would always be light at the end of the tunnel.

The Queen visited Camden many times and I was lucky enough to meet her when she came to the British Museum. I also remember being very nervous standing in the queue worrying about how I was going to do my curtsy. And she came down the line and you had this kind of moment for 30 seconds where her whole attention was on you and you kind of felt like a spotlight.

She had so much warmth. She told me how much she she loved coming to Camden. She was funny and she was charming, and she was absolutely expert and moving you on without at all feeling rushed. That meeting meant a huge amount to me, but it wasn’t meant the absolute world to my grandmother.

My grandmother was the Queen’s age until my grandmother died two years ago and she absolutely adored the Queen and when I had this photo of myself meeting the Queen – she got it blown up to epic proportions and got this special frame that she had right next to her.

And no one entered her flat without being taken to see the photograph: This is the moment my granddaughter met the Queen. I think she, Queen Elizabeth, connected us not just across geography, but across generations.

She was a constant throughout the lives of many of our families. She was also part of that incredible postwar generation who lived through so much with quiet dignity, who valued duty. And I think so many of us feel like we know her through family members that we’ve loved and who have loved her.

So when I think of the Queen, I also think of some of my constituents: a 90-year-old woman who still now always cleans the entire corridor on on her estate or I think about Captain Tom Moore or Dabirul Islam Choudhury, both in their hundreds who did the walks around their gardens to raise money for the NHS during Covid.

Or my Gran, who had this ferocious cancer for a year but never realised because she just kept on going and got on with things.

And the Queen did that she was still working till the day she died, ensuring the transition of power, welcoming a new prime minister.

She gave every last breath in the service of the people she loved and for that, I think tonight, we will honour her. Speaking even to my most staunchly republican friends, I think many of them have felt deeply emotional about the loss.

I think because we face a a time of huge uncertainty with the climate crisis, the cost of living crisis, trying to figure out our place in the world, losing the Queen, with her global regard and her quiet stability, feels like a further unmooring.

I think this loss calls on all of us to respond, not just her family and the new king – and I know this chamber will all support him – but each of us to find the things that connect us, to look for the threads of unity and hope to define this new era that’s ahead of us.

For us to face head on the injustices in our past and present, and to build a better future. I hope in doing so that we can carry with us some of her duty and some of her service.

In Camden, we often say in this chamber that our motto is not self but for all and I can’t think of anybody who better embodies that motto than Queen Elizabeth, who I think lived those words every day of her life. May she rest in peace.”