What is it about Labour that they can't get their act together once a year in Lambeth for Remembrance Sunday? There are honourable exceptions, of course, and notably the MP for Vauxhall who not only takes part, but looks the part, in a smart perfectly tailored black coat and matching hat.

However, whatever your views about the current war in Afghanistan and the continuing U.K. presence in Iraq, remembrance is about sacrifice, about men and women responding to their government's instructions, and about the lost generations that preceded them in the conflicts of the 20th century.

At City Hall on the Friday before Remembrance Sunday, a dozen soldiers - men and women - from the Mercian Regiment just back from Afghanistan were applauded by the assembled VIPs and members of the British Legion. From that single regiment nine were killed and 17 seriously wounded - a sobering revelation - but when you looked into their faces they were just ordinary soldiers responding to their nation's call to arms.

Which is why I can't forgive Labour for the disrespect and lack of care they display when they run the show in Lambeth. No body had bothered to check the war memorials in the town hall for spatters of cream paint left behind by careless decorators. No doubt whoever is supposed to monitor the project is paid mega bucks but they were still spattered with streaks of paint this morning.

And then it's Labour councillors themselves sent by their political bosses to attend every memorial service going in the borough regardless of their community ties. One arrived at 11.45 a.m. for a service that had started at 10 a.m. - perhaps he overslept. In another case a Labour member wore a pair of sneakers to lay a wreath. He wouldn't have been admitted to the Fridge night club in that kind of footwear. As for the ceremony at Albert Embankment at the headquarters of the London Fire Brigade - not a single Labour member showed his or her face.

I heard a moving story on Sunday morning from one of our local Muslim leaders of how his father fought and suffered for the British Army in Burma during World War II. He spent four years a POW of the Japanese, and then became part of the new Pakistan army after the war. Our iman remembers what distress this brought his mother in the Punjab especially as her husband's letters took months to arrive.

It gave us something in common - my father was also part of the "forgotten" 14th army in Burma. Yesterday I was proud to wear his Burma Star on my right breast - as prescribed by the Bristish Legion - in recognition of both my father's and our iman's father's service and sacrifice to ensure all our freedoms.

Labels: Remembrance Sunday