The Armistice and Remembrance have been on our minds in Gloucester and across our country with a sharper focus than at any time I can recall.

In recent days I’ve joined hundreds of service people and residents at our Festival of Remembrance at GL1, at the Gloucester Cenotaph and the Cathedral on Remembrance Sunday and at the National Cenotaph to mark the silence on the 11^th hour on the 11^th of November.

We’ve seen the raw emotion of a mother whose son bled to death from his wounds challenging the Prime Minister very publicly. I may not find the way the Sun newspaper behaved through this episode to be tasteful, but the pain, grief and anguish of a mother who has lost her beloved son was clear to see in her face and to hear in her voice.

Personally, I’ve always thought the best way to secure our streets from those who want to radicalise our young people is to find a lasting peace in the Middle East – to give security to Israel but to give hope and dignity to Palestinians who have been treated appallingly and denied a homeland over a generation.

But all that aside, let’s pay tribute to our troops and the work they are doing for you and for me. Let’s remember some of the things they have achieved in Afghanistan that are all too rarely aired.

Thanks to our brave soldiers the death rate of an Afghan child and its mother has fallen and basic healthcare now covers 82% of the country. When the Taliban were in charge in 2001 only a million children were in school, all boys. Today there are over 6.6 million – more than a third are girls and the figure is expected to exceed 8 million by 2012.

Our troops have made it possible for thousands of people to live in security and for reconstruction teams to enter parts of the country like Babaji.

Whatever our doubts, whatever our concerns, we must never forget the difference our armed forces have made and we must always pay tribute to their bravery - especially those who have made the ultimate sacrifice.

Parmjit Dhanda MP

Member of Parliament for Gloucester