Freedom is hard won, but so easily lost.

The 100^th anniversary of the beginning of the Great War will lend an extra poignancy to Remembrance Sunday this year. I urge everybody in our town, young and old, to attend this very solemn and touching event, always observed so beautifully in Nantwich.

I never fail to be impressed and incredibly proud, of the young people representing our youth organisations and local schools who lay wreaths so respectfully. Whilst our thoughts are naturally with those who gave their lives in the past so that we might be free today, this aspect of the ceremony gives me cause think about our future with optimism and hope.

I am proud that it is our country, and our people that have done so much to advance the cause of Personal Freedom throughout the centuries, for ours is the land of Trial by Jury, Freedom of Speech, Democracy and Habeas Corpus, the country of Magna Carta and The Universal Franchise, that abolished slavery and fought Fascism and Communism.

Sometimes we take for granted the freedoms we enjoy today, but we must never forget the sacrifices of those in past and be vigilant to new threats to our liberty; Religious Extremism, Twisted Political Ideology or Cultural Intolerance. To question and confront those who would seek to take our freedom is the greatest tribute we can pay those who laid down their lives all those years ago.

Freedom is hard won, but so easily lost.