 Congratulations to this year's graduates and to their faculty, friends and family who have supported them along the way. The fact we are unable to celebrate in person with ceremony pomp and gowns does not in any way diminish the magnitude of your achievements, nor does it lessen my heartfelt gratitude for this extraordinary honour. Distinguished faculty, dear graduates, I'm deeply humbled and grateful to be awarded an honorary fellowship by this extraordinary school, renowned throughout the world for its scholarship, unique expertise and activist student body. I'm just sorry that we can't be together in person. SOAS graduations are so special, showcasing as they do SOAS's global niche. For the students to be fortunate and honoured to be in this school, they have to realise they are in a place where they can learn a global, a wider, a more wiser view of the world through cultures, through languages and through the history of language in people that they are offered at SOAS. The COVID pandemic has had serious implications for education and for all of you as students, and I can only imagine that your experience of the last 18 months wasn't what you would have ideally wished to have happened or what you had expected your experience of university might be like. But what I can also say to you is that we have seen some remarkable things. We have been able to witness incredible resilience despite the trauma that so many people have faced. We have seen people being so kind to each other, remembering about neighbours, about the importance of community and helping each other. SOAS is not for box-tickers. At its heart, SOAS is about beautiful, complex people, their past, politics, poverty and power, where and how they live. The music, art and literature that brings us all joy speaks of pain and helps to build movements. SOAS celebrates the curious and embraces the activist many other institutions do not. Let it be at SOAS where the world knows brilliant minds are coming together and dedicating themselves to redefine the injustices of inequality and providing the innovative tools and know how to rebuild our world into a more just and equitable one. The fine SOAS faculty has done its work. Your instructors and professors should be very proud. Indeed, we all are. Keep the friendships you've created with your fellow students. Never lose that energy or self-confidence that brought you here and carried you through this remarkable school. Take confidence too in the voice that I hope SOAS has helped you develop. The world's far from a perfect place and I can only hope that you'll go out there and do all you can to make a difference and make that world a better place. Now, more than ever, we need to make heard devices of the ignored and reverse the unhealthy power imbalances we have lived with for far too long. SOAS is the task to bring to bear a powerful spirit of global solidarity. I wish you all the very, very best for your future and remember what you do and how you do it will make a difference. My congratulations to you all on graduating. Graduation is a very special event which marks a transition point in life and I wish you the very best of luck in your careers and your future more generally. So, fabulous class of 2021. Congratulations once again. Thank you for this great honour and now get out there, celebrate and cheerfully introduce yourself. Dispense with fear. You're about to graduate from SOAS. You can do anything. Let's rejoice. Be proud of where you are and what you are learning there and get out of there and become better politicians, better businessmen, better human beings for our world to be a better place for all of us, our children and the next generation coming. Thank you so much.