Today's the Day

[John A Silkstone]

Armed Forces Day: an occasion we should all be proud of

Today is the day to express our gratitude for the sailors, soldiers and airmen willing to sacrifice their lives in the service of the Crown.

All 30,000 tickets have been allocated for the national event today at the historic dockyard at Chatham to mark Armed Forces Day. The day is being celebrated in all parts of the kingdom, with the Queen expected at Edinburgh. In the far north, in Kirkwall, Orkney, there has already been a "pipe-off" between rival bagpipe bands, and this afternoon in the far south there will be tea and cakes after a joint religious service at St Mary's in the isles of Scilly. The day has been planned for children, for veterans, for Servicemen and women and for the great mass of ordinary citizens who wish the Armed Services well.

The majority has never wished them ill. Yet there is a new willingness to express, without embarrassment, gratitude for the sailors, soldiers and airmen willing to sacrifice their lives, if need be, in the service of the Crown – not, that is to say, as tools of politicians of any stripe, but as protectors of the liberty of the nation. This is compatible with forthright criticism of unwise uses of the Armed Services by the Government.

 

[John A Silkstone]

Thousands turn out to honour UK's Armed Forces

Tens of thousand of Britons have turned out to help mark the country's first Armed Forces Day, with more than 200 events being held nationwide.

Around 30,000 people gathered in the sunshine for the showpiece event, staged at the Historic Dockyard in Chatham, Kent.

But Scottish Secretary Jim Murphy has hit out at "sickening" protests which caused disruption to another Armed Forces Day event, in Glasgow.

In Kent, serving personnel, young recruits and veterans greeted Prime Minster Gordon Brown, head of the Armed Forces Air Chief Marshal Sir Jock Stirrup and Defence Minister Kevan Jones.

Spectators cheered and waved flags as the personnel entered the dockyard following a parade through Chatham town led by the Royal Marines Band.

During the Prime Minister's speech at a lunch reception, he announced next year's second Armed Forces Day national event would take place in Cardiff.

Mr Brown said: "Today Chatham has spoken for the whole country. The people that have come here today have shown the high esteem and regard in which they hold the Armed Forces of our country."

Meanwhile, police have confirmed that arrests were made and one person was injured after trouble flared at the Glasgow event.

Protestors believed to be from an Irish Republican group are understood to have started chanting while a service was taking place in George Square.

Mr Murphy hailed the "brilliant men and women" of the forces.

"They are Britain at its best and Scotland at its bravest," he said.

"At the other end of the spectrum, the event was soured by a tiny minority of mindless demonstrators who can't begin to understand the meaning of bravery and what the veterans have done for our country."

He added: "I was subjected to sustained sectarian abuse from people who seemed to take great and foul-mouthed offence because I am Catholic."

Elsewhere, the Queen met members of the Royal Scots Dragoon Guards at Redford Barracks in Edinburgh.