There are some occasions when I feel proud to be British. Today was one as I attended Westminster Abbey for the Thanksgiving Service for the life of Bernard Weatherill, the 154th Speaker of the House of Commons.

The address was given by David Hunt, Lord Hunt of Wirral, who spoke movingly of Jack Weatherill as his mentor and friend. David said with conviction that Speaker Weatherill was "one of the great parliamentarians of our time", a One Nation Tory with a liberal heart who spoke fluent Urdu having served with the Bengal Lancers in the War. Weatherill's elder son Bernard spoke of his father's innate sense of fairness and of fun. Oh how Britain cries out now for politicians with a sense of duty and responsibility yet who understand how to have simple fun.

The most moving moment was, perhaps, Speaker Weatherill's younger son Bruce's reading of a letter that the family had received from the Dalai Lama stating how the people of Tibet had lost a great advocate. You could hear Westminster Abbey almost gasp at the timeliness of that perspective for the whole of south east Asia.

I had the great privilege of meeting Jack Weatherill on a number of occasions. Showing his sense of fun at our old school golf society dinner which he hosted in the House of Lords some years ago, Weatherill directed those of us needing the bathroom to "turn right our of this door and when you reach a door on the left marked "pee-ers" that where peer's guests can go.

The most memorable occasion was in 1985 when Speaker and Mrs Weatherill received our school 6th form politics class for sherry in Speaker's House. We were all a little overwhelmed to be in the Houses of Parliament at all. But joining us on that occasion with the Speaker was former Prime Minister Jim Callaghan and former US president Gerald Ford. The warmth of welcome extended to all of us, and the encouragement that all of these global statesmen extended to us, a group of ten seventeen year olds, was extraordinary and wonderful.

We closed the service with a lusty singing of "I Vow to Thee My Country", and what appropriate words they were. Throughout his life Speaker Weatherill served this country well, and stood for values that endure here always. British values of firmness, conviction, honesty and fairness. Today Britain was proud of one her finest sons. A good man. The Speaker.