A SMALL TOWN IN WILTSHIRE..

There`s something very military about the county of Wiltshire. Salisbury Plain, wide open spaces, tank training, gunnery ranges, Devizes, Tidworth Garrison and.....Wootton Bassett. It lies close by to RAF Lyneham where the fallen from Iraq and Afghanistan have arrived all too frequently, to be taken by cortege to the John Radcliffe Hospital in Oxford and to await the Coroner.

If there had been enough funds to build a by-pass for the town, then the cortege bearing the coffins of our war dead might not have to pass through Wootton Bassett`s charming, ancient High Street. As it is, each time another plane lands at Lyneham with its sad and wasted complement, a ceremony of thanksgiving, pride and regret unfolds.

The ceremony that has grown up in Wootton Bassett is as simple and moving as the coffins themselves, wrapped only in the Union flag. As the hearses approach, the tenor bell of St Bartholomew's Church begins to toll. Business stops while shoppers and shopkeepers join the crowds lining the pavement. When the cortege reaches the war memorial, the president of the British Legion says a single word – "Up" – to mark the moment when ex- and serving members of the forces should begin their salute. "Down," he says 60 seconds later, as the hearses move on. And once more, slowly and quietly, Wootton Bassett goes back to its business, having paid its respects and given its time quite spontaneously and genuinely to those who have been lost and to the friends and families who grieve.

Now, the loss of our servicemen is acknowledged in Parliament by the Prime Minister and other leading poloticians at the start of Prime Minister`s Questions each Wednesday. But after those fleeting sombre moments , the hurly-burly yahboo Westminster vaudeville takes over and with it the dignity and poignancy are gone. With Parliament about to shut down for three months or so, even that opportunity will be denied.

And so the value of the small town of Wootton Bassett becomes even more important as its townspeople continue to observe their own ceremony. It`s a long way from Westminster in so many ways. In continuing its own heartfelt and heart rending twice weekly homage to our fallen heroes, Wootton Bassett has become the true conscience of the nation.

I`m reminded of Neil Finn`s lyrics for the Crowded House song `Don`t Dream it`s Over`:-

"In the paper today, tales of war and of waste

But you turn right over to the TV page."

I can`t see the good folk of that small town in Wiltshire ever being so easily distracted.