TAKE ONE HUNDRED AND TWENTY SECONDS...

Sadly, on Thursday there will be some people out there who will probably feel inconvenienced or put out by the two minutes or one hundred and twenty seconds silence that will be held at 11am. And no doubt come next Sunday there may even be some people who will actually worry about the disruption caused to the traffic by remembrance parades, that prevents them from going about their businesses.

I think that they would do well to remember on Thursday and on Sunday that their petty inconvenience comes at pretty high price. They would do well to remember that as well as remembering the actions of the veterans and survivors who served in Two World Wars, Korea, The Falklands and the Gulf Wars, and other conflicts, on Remembrance Sunday, we are also remembering those who never came back.

Those people, who as Lincoln said, most eloquently gave their last full measure of devotion, to comrades and country, for some of whom there is literally only some corner of a foreign field, a name on a war memorial, fading photographs and fading memories and sometimes no grave at all. Ponder on that on Thursday at 11 o'clock and on Sunday morning.

Two minutes silence and any disruption of traffic for a few hours on a Sunday morning once a year for a remembrance parade or the wearing of poppies in remembrance is the very least we the living can do to honour our veterans and the fallen.

REMEMBERANCE

There are some sad people out there, some of whom actually worry about the disruption caused to the traffic by remembrance parades. I think that they would do well to remember that as well as remembering the actions of the veterans and survivors who served in Two World Wars, Korea, The Falklands and the Gulf Wars, and other conflicts, on Remembrance Sunday, we are also remembering those who never came back.

Those people, who as Lincoln said gave their last full measure of devotion, to comrades and country, for whom there is literally only some corner of a foreign field, a name on a war memorial, fading photographs and fading memories and sometimes no grave at all. The disruption of traffic for a few hours on a Sunday morning once a year for a remembrance parade or the wearing of poppies in remembrance is the least we the living can do to honour our veterans and the fallen.