Nov 11th

I don't attend war memorials but every year on this day I do try to have a think about it all. When I was young the First and Second World wars were in the past, Korea and Vietnam were other people's wars.

Now Tony Blair's forays into military adventure have made it all a bit more real. The Afghan war has gone on longer than WW1 and WW2 together.

I yield to no one in my admiration for Britain's armed forces but sometimes, on this day, I wonder if it wouldn't have been preferable to have been good at something else.