I was touched by a letter in last week's Gazette telling how the writer was asked by a young shop assistant why she was wearing her poppy.

I remember studying the first world war in history at school and having little understanding of it other than the bare facts. It was only when I came later to read AJP Taylor's book on that war and some of the WW1 poets that the full magnitude of the human cost hit me.

When men and women are still dying on active service, it is more important than ever that we remember those who died in our name. As I stood in Ruislip on Remembrance Sunday watching the parade I was disturbed to discover that the local Police did not even have the right to close the road to allow the parade free access and allow those who wanted to "Remember" to do so in peace. Apparently a government minister would need to approve it! What an appalling and unnecessary example of the centralisation that is destroying our nation's reputation for good government

As I write this article the Queen has delivered another speech setting out the government's intention to introduce more new laws to control us from Whitehall. But no matter how ill advised some of these laws are, we should always remember that millions of good men and women paid with their lives that we remain free. That freedom should at least extend to holding a march in their honour, on a High Street in our borough, free of traffic.