Today I stood with many others from Reading at Brock Barracks for the civic Remembrance Day service. It was as always with Remembrance Day a very moving occasion and of course first in all our minds I’m sure were those who have died in the armed forces and those they have left behind.
However during the march past (which included the band at one point playing March of the Valkeries!) my mind went back to the images from last night’s news of Aung San Suu Kyi’s walk to the entrance of her compound. It made me realise how fortunate we are to live in a country where the armed forces serve us, the community, and not the other way round. Since, I guess, around the end of the civil wars in the 17th Century we have been so lucky to experience the rule of law and – increasingly – democracy in this country.
A reason to remember and be grateful.