The speaker of the House of Commons turned on Big Ben's symbolic light as part of the VE Day anniversary celebrations. Sir Lindsay Hoyle replicated former speaker Douglas Clifton Brown who switched on the light at the top of Big Ben in 1945, which symbolised the end of the blackouts in London during the Second World War. Report by Kennedyl. Like us on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/itn and follow us on Twitter at http://twitter.com/itn
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00:00In peacetime, the lantern light above Big Ben always shone out after sunset, in order to show that the House of Commons was at work.
00:10For five years, seven months, twenty-three days, this light has now been extinguished.
00:17When I press the switch, the lantern light will shine once more.
00:21In doing so, I pray that with God's blessing, the light will shine henceforth, not only as an outward and visible sign, but that Parliament of free people is assembled in free debate, but also that it may shine as a beacon of sure hope.
00:40In a sadly torn, distracting world, I now turn on our lantern light.
00:45Does he? Because he paints, doesn't he?
00:50He's a good artist.
00:51Is it coming on now?
00:52Yeah.
00:53Oh, there we are.
00:53What have we?
00:54What have we got here?
00:56We've got the light.
00:57I thought we'd have cleaned the glass.