Those ever poignant words were said this year with extra feeling as news of casualties in Iraq and Afganistan continue. I attended the Field of Remembrance ceremony at Westminster Abbey, and the rededication of the war memorial in Chippenham. Then on Remembrance Sunday I was glad to attend the wreath laying at the Memorial Gates in Malmesbury, the civic procession, service and wreath laying at the Act of Remembrance in Chippenham, lunch with IX Regiment, Royal Logistic Corps at Buckley Barracks, Hullavington, some of whose soldiers are currently on dangerous missions overseas, and then finally the service and parade in Wootton Bassett . So many people in this area are either serving, or are retired from the services, and Remembrance Sunday has a particular importance for us all.

Yet there were three worrying thoughts at the back of our minds through the day. First, we cannot ask our brave servicemen to do what they are doing unless we do something about their pay and conditions, about the sheer numbers of people available, and about the equipment with which we send them off on Operation. If politicians are to ask them to do their bidding, it is vital that they also provide the necessary wherewithal to do it. Second – and George W Bush’s humiliation at the polls in the mid-term elections reinforced this thought – if we are asking servicemen and their families to make these sacrifices, we politicians at very least must be absolutely certain that what we are asking them to do is for the peace and security of the globe. And many of us have very real doubts about whether or not that really applies in Iraq. My guess is that the resurgent Democrats in America will demand a fairly swift US pull-out from Iraq if not Afganistan. We must be quite certain that we are not left holding the baby. And third, the redoubtable Eliza Manningham-Buller, the head of MI5, in a rare public speech told us of the 30 major terrorist plots they are currently working against, and the 1600 known Islamicist terrorists they are monitoring. How many more may there be that MI5 knows nothing about, one wonders? Are our overseas military adventures really making Britain a safer place, Mr Blair? Dame Eliza doesn’t seem to think so.

Against that rather chilling background, normal life continues, and it is right that it should do. For me it was attendance at the charming old ceremony of the Prorogation of Parliament – the clerks intoning “La Reine le Veult” – “The Queen wishes it” in Mediaeval French for some reason or another as they doffed their tricorn hats. It was a Supper Club at Bushton, an after dinner speech at the Grittleton Cricket Club, surgeries at Chippenham and Corsham, an AGM at Lyneham, and the annual dinner of the Chippenham Sailing Club. Of such things are our everyday lives composed.

Great British phlegm is vital at a time like this. The World may be in turmoil. But the Cricket Club and the Sailing Club (based in one of the most inland towns in England) the wearing of the poppy and even “La Reine Le Veult”; these are the things which remind us why we are British. And in a funny way why it is that we need a strong defence of our way of life. They gave their Todays for our Tomorrows…..

I was honoured this week to have David Cameron and the Chief Whip’s nomination to join the Conservative delegation to the Council of Europe, and the Western European Union. It will involve some European visits, but never at the expense of constituency or parliamentary duties. I add that to a myriad other local and national appointments:- As the MP on the Conservative Defence and Foreign Policy Group, previously Shadow Secretary of State for Scotland, Shadow Minister for the Countryside, before that for Defence and previous to that a Party Whip; Chairman of the Conservative Rural Action Group, President of the Association of British Riding Schools, Member of Court of Assistants of the Honourable Artillery Company, President of Chippenham Constitutional Club, and of Chippenham MS Society, Chairman of All Party Groups for MS and for the Army, Vice Chairman of that for Deafness and Historic Churches, Honorary Member of the Rotary Club of the Wiltshire Vale, Patron of the Woodshaw Residents Association, Wootton Bassett, Visiting Parliamentary Fellow of St John’s College Oxford, Graduate of the Royal College of Defence Studies etc etc etc Phew!  But what does it all amount to?

My hard working office tells me that I have sent out about 90,000 letters, and have held 480 constituency surgeries, that I have made 371 speeches in Parliament (the 48^th most frequent Conservative), asked 362 oral questions and 1406 written ones. That makes me, casting modesty to one side, one of the busiest of all MPs. I try to say something in Parliament or the media every day, and have broadly achieved that in my close to ten years as your MP, virtually every single one of those interventions being on behalf of, or linked to the constituency.

I have campaigned against cuts in our health service and closure of the local hospitals, in favour of specialist MS nurses, and for wider availability of NHS dentistry; against the amalgamation of local police forces and ambulance and the relocation of the Fire Brigade Control Room; against the closure of RAF Lyneham, and seeking the fitting of fire suppressant foam to the wing tanks of the Hercules aircraft, to improve local rail services and for a new station in Corsham, against threatened rent rises from the National Trust in Lacock, against unnecessary speed cameras on the M4, in support of our badly underfunded schools, against the illegal gypsy encampment at Minety, against any further westward expansion of Swindon, against the hunting ban, saving village halls and post offices from extinction and a myriad of other more or less important such issues. And I like to think that increasing my majority on each of the three general elections I have so far fought may be a part of that.

Of course it is virtually impossible to point to any particular thing and say “I did that.” Most of these campaigns involve local people and interest groups, councillors and others. But what I can be certain of is that if I add my voice to a thousand others, the authorities may – just may - listen from time to time. So in answer to my constituent’s question “ So what do you actually DO, then?” I would say “ Hard to answer that. I know I do lots, and can only hope that some of the thousands of arrows I fire in the air will strike their mark.” At least no one can claim that I’m not firing them!

But if Mr Stern and others like him are to be believed, the unseasonally warm weather which we are currently enjoying is not just an Indian Summer ( I thought that they were meant to be rare events- we seem to be having one every year these days!) but a symptom of Global Warming, which if left unchecked will have catastrophic consequences as soon as 20 or 30 years from now. Most sensible people have now accepted that Climate Change is a reality, and that we must take urgent action now to correct it, or future generations will curse us.  But the question is: what should we do about it?

Friends of the Earth locally are pressing hard for an Emissions Targets Bill to be included in the Queens Speech in a couple of weeks time. I hope it will be, although they know that I have some reservations about whether or not you can really use an Act of Parliament to enforce Government targets. Much of the talk recently has been about “green taxation,” and it certainly has an important role to play. Tax can be used to discourage people from doing things which are bad for society and to encourage them to do the good things. The tax reduction on unleaded petrol as opposed to Four Star is a good example. We are all now doing the right thing not only for altruistic reasons, but also because it saves us money.

However, I have some hesitation about one or two of the things which are currently being suggested. Taxing Chelsea Tractors where they are pure status symbols in our towns is reasonable, although said rich folk may take a perverse pride in the fact that they are paying more for the privilege! But in an area like this, farmers and others who are often least able to pay extra, actually need their 4 X 4 s for their work. And what would happen if we put VAT on flights? Fares would go up to pay for it- but only by a small amount . Airlines would fly to Moscow, or the nearest tax-free place to refuel, thereby increasing CO2 emissions rather than reducing them. Anyhow, surely people have a right to cheap holidays, and it should not be the job of the government to tax them out of the sky. 

Above all, these so-called green taxes must not be just yet another revenue raising system. I suspect that both speed camera fines, and London’s Congestion Charge are very largely that. I have yet to see any evidence that either of them achieve the laudable aims for which they were first established! There must be no suspicion that the Chancellor is simply using fears about Global Warming to fill his own coffers at the expense of the unfortunate taxpayer.

So I am a passionate environmentalist, and living in a lovely area such as this, it is vital that we all do everything we can to preserve the local and national and global environment. But at the same time we must not allow those concerns to become a smoke screen for otherwise unacceptable tax rises. Lets be green, but not too mean.