BBC London picked up on the story about cutbacks in services ending the traditional marking of the 2 minute silence and put it as their main headline on Saturday evening. By the time ITV called the police whilst researching the story, they were told that the firing of two maroons at 11am and 11.02am would go ahead. Rumours that since they couldn’t fire Sir Ian Blair, someone wanted to fire something were wide of the mark. Anyway, job done, sanity restored.

I went to the ceremony at the war memorial on Carshalton ponds this morning and joined around 250 people in paying tribute to those who enable us to have the freedoms that we enjoy today. This blog is one such freedom. I’ll finish with a passage that was read by Father John Thewlis of All Saints Church, Carshalton who lead the ceremony. It is the Kohima Epitaph on the World War II memorial for the Allied fallen at the battle of Kohima, a crucial battle in the Burma campaign.

“When You Go Home, Tell Them Of Us And Say,
For Their Tomorrow, We Gave Our Today.”