Official Report 673KB pdf
Before we move to First Minister’s question time, party leaders will make some remarks before remembrance Sunday.
This Sunday, we will once again pause to remember the brave men and women who selflessly laid down their lives to protect our country and to provide us with the freedoms and security that we enjoy today. In our shared moment of silence, in the poppies that we wear, in parades and in solemn ceremonies, we honour their courage and their sacrifice. We will always remember who they were and what they did for us: countless men and women who fought to protect and preserve our democratic way of life. Alongside our acts of remembrance over the coming week, let us commit ourselves once again to the same fundamental values that define who we are as a nation. We do that so that their great sacrifice may never be in vain.
On remembrance Sunday, our nation will stand in collective silence to remember the men and women who made the ultimate sacrifice to defend our country and our freedom. The powerful symbol of our remembrance is the poppy that grew on the battlefields of the first world war. Recently, I had the privilege of visiting the Lady Haig Poppy Factory in Edinburgh. The veterans who work there have seen service in every British military campaign since the early 1970s. It was an honour to talk with them about conflict, loss and remembrance. They want us to remember not just on one day but every day, and to remember not only those who served in the past but those who are serving now. Our remembrance is about history and about respecting those who keep us safe today.
In the coming days, we will mark remembrance day, a time when we reflect on the heroic sacrifices by armed forces across world war one and world war two, and since those wars, in defence of our freedoms and democracy and to highlight the struggle against fascism in the second world war and against the forces that seek to divide us today. We should also remember those who continue to serve in our armed forces, and we should make a commitment to them that we will protect them and their families while they serve and after they retire from service. Remembrance day is also an opportunity for us to redouble our commitment to peace and freedom for all across the globe. Let us remember all those who have made the ultimate sacrifice. Let us redouble our commitment to all those who continue to serve. Let us remember them and say that their service will never be forgotten.
Sunday is a time to remember and to mourn every victim of war—we should always remember that civilians bear a particularly heavy price—but it is also a time for us to honour those who fought and died for us, particularly in the fight against fascism. It is a day to remember and to give thanks, but also to recommit to preventing a repeat of the darkest periods of our history. As has just been mentioned, the politics of hate and division are on the rise again today. We honour the sacrifice of those who were forced to defeat that by force of arms in our past, but we also need to work to ensure that no generation is ever forced to do so again.
This moment must never be routine. As the years pass, it is natural that the sense of sheer enormity of the horror of the first and second world wars diminishes. However, the more years that pass, the more important it is that we all stand together to make the simple but powerful point that we will never forget their sacrifice, because it was horrific. Every family was affected right across the land. The more years that pass, the more we must stand together and never forget those sacrifices or our commitment never to repeat that again.
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General Question Time