Remembrance Day

Published on Sun 9th Nov 2008

As Remembrance Day approaches and we prepare to honour our war heroes, I believe it's a sad reflection on Gordon Brown's government that over one third of ex-service pensioners struggle with an income below the minimum required for healthy living. The British Legion and Age Concern are being forced to campaign for an increase in the incomes of older people who are living in poverty. (5 million ex-service men and women are over 65 and make up half of the UK population over retirement age.)

It makes my blood boil that this generation who made great sacrifices for our country are now forced, through poverty, to ration everyday essentials, just as they did during and after World War II. One of my granddads was too young to be in the 2nd World War, but my other grandfather, Tom, was a prisoner of war in Germany and died shortly afterwards as a result of forced labour, illness and starvation from the German mines. The British Legion fought successfully for my grandma, left with two very young children, to receive a war widow's pension. It's to our national shame that many of his comrades in arms and our other brave service people are still imprisoned as he was, but this time imprisoned by poverty, while this government stands idly by.

The Liberal Democrats back the British Legion and Age Concern's campaign, and I urge colleagues of all political colours to do the same.

Its also an appropriate time to remember that this is why, 50 years ago, the Liberals became the first major party in Britain to consistently proclaim the European cause and help make lasting peace and a united Europe a reality for our children! Europe isn't easy. It permeates day to day life. The EU needs reform, which is why the Lib Dems are leading on reform and calling for Britain to be leading on Europe. Imagine if we could step back in time and appear in front of prisoners from Auschwitz or Belsen, or my granddad and his fellow prisoners, and tell them of a Europe at peace, democratic from Talinn to Galway, from Berlin to Stockport, with an elected parliament and a guarantee that a Pole in Germany, or a Brit in Spain, or a Maltese in Sweden, can stand up and say, "I am a European citizen, and I will be treated as equal." A Europe in which French, German and British troops share weapons, and their ministers sit in joint cabinet sessions, elected in free elections. They would call it fantasy. Yet everyday, thanks to the sacrifice of our brave war heroes, 490 million of us call it home!

I am so proud of them.