A fortnight ago we marked this country’s Armed Forces Day and, for us in Bucks, it’s very much the Royal Air Force that is part of the core of community life.

The Walter’s Ash station of RAF High Wycombe, in the southern part of my constituency, is home not just to the United Kingdom’s Air Command but also to a number of other key defence support functions. Further North, RAF Halton provides the RAF’s basic recruit training and specialist training units.

I’ve also met a lot of RAF men and women who have so liked Buckinghamshire that they have stayed on here to live after leaving the service. My colleague Steve Baker MP is, of course, one distinguished example.

My impression over the years is that the public’s awareness of and regard for the armed forces has grown. You can see this in the millions raised for charities like Help the Heroes and in the ever larger crowds who attend Remembrance Day services. I think there are a number of reasons for this trend.

First, there is the fact that servicemen and women are more visible in the local community than before.

In the days of the IRA terrorist campaign, people were strongly discouraged from wearing uniform off base. That has now changed and it’s had an impact on awareness.

Second, Iraq and Afghanistan have brought home to a new generation the reality of warfare. There are now vast numbers of young people with friends who have been on active service.

Third, the death of the last survivors of the First World War and the shrinking ranks of those who fought in the Second, not to mention key anniversaries of both conflicts, has given all of us reason to pause and reflect on the significance of those two conflicts.

In recent weeks, my ministerial job has twice brought me into contact with the forces: I met British soldiers serving with the EU peacekeeping force in Bosnia and went on patrol with the Royal Navy in the waters off Gibraltar.

On both occasions I was impressed by the positive, can-do attitude of our servicemen and women, by their professionalism and by their pride in the history, traditions and mutual solidarity of their unit and their service. — David Lidington, MP for Aylesbury