Veterans Day

Today was Veteran's Day - a day for us all to acknowledge the contribution our armed service-men and women make to our country. In London, the event was marked by a Trafalgar Square rally where London Mayor Boris Johnson and Labour Defence Secretary Des Browne announced several ideas to make the lives of our veterans better. This was the third Veteran's Day and its gradually becoming a more significant event.

But there's a long way to go before Veterans' Day becomes something other than fourth or fifth-tier news story on our evening news bulletins. And the reason I say that is that there were no local events in Putney to mark Veterans' Day.

Holocaust Memorial Day is, rightly, marked locally. So is Armistice Day. Both these events exist to remember suffering and loss. It's time we also marked the positive contribution our soldiers make. Can you imagine the US marking its Veterans' Day in the same half-hearted; uncomfortable; almost embarrassed way that we in the UK do so.

It's one reason why a few weeks ago I came out in support of making Veterans' Day a Bank Holiday. That way we can make much more of a statement of our appreciation of what it is to serve, to put on more events nationally and locally, and get more people along to these celebrations. This isn't about us having another holiday; another national party. It's about us saying thank you to those prepared to offer up what the Americans call the last full measure of devotion.