Johnny Mercer: On this Armed Forces Day, let’s honour the men and women who protect our country

If if you see a serviceman or woman today, or indeed a veteran young or old, and don’t know what to say – just a simple ‘thank you’ will do.

“For mighty dread had seized their troubled mind”

Unlike the angel, we’re unable to announce tidings of great joy. But it’s worth mulling why the Christmas season can pause even Brexit hostilities.

Alan O’Kelly and Hugh Byrne: It’s time for a Conservative Friends of Ireland group

The Party has not yet cultivated a formal relationship with the Irish community in Britain and this is an opportunity to reach out to what can be a powerful network.

WATCH “They shall grow not old…” – Lord Ashcroft on how Binyon came to write his famous verse

‘The Fallen’ has become synonymous with the act of remembrance, but the origins of the poem are less well-known.

The unknown names that live for evermore

These acts of remembrance may in some slight measure salve grief, and enable those who have not had to endure such things to give thanks for those who do.

WATCH: “We will remember them.” The inspiration for Laurence Binyon’s “For the Fallen”.

Lord Ashcroft on the origins of the famous war poem, part of which is read aloud, up and down the land, each Remembrance Sunday.

Daniel Hannan: If Momentum wants more war memorials, why won’t its members crowd-fund them?

Imagine if they raised money to help honour the soldiers who answered Britain’s call during two world wars – thus showing more than anger and resentment.

Greg Knight: It’s time to stop putting the clock back each year – and plunging us into afternoon darkness

Churchill said more daylight hours would “enlarge the opportunities for the pursuit of health and happiness among the millions of people who live in this country”.

Alistair Lexden: How the 1918 election paved the way to inter-war Conservative hegemony

Just as they had with Joe Chamberlain before him, the Tory leadership wooed Lloyd George to fatally fracture the Liberal Party.

Terry Barnes: From the Anglosphere, we watch with horror as Britain bungles its Brexit chance to go global

British politicians are negotiating as if it were 410 AD, and still the Roman province of Britannia, asking permission to leave instead of flourishing a mandate to do so.

Bill Cash: The EU Withdrawal Bill. No Conservative colleague should defy the will of the people next week.

The referendum transferred from MPs themselves the decision as to whether to remain in or leave the EU and – with it, to regain our freedom to make our own laws.

Peter Marshall: A hard truth after the Commonwealth summit. There’s no institutional awareness of its importance.

I have lost count of the number of times I have heard its demise confidently predicted or stridently recommended. Houdini-like, it has so far escaped this awaited fate.

Lewis Baston: Election gambles that worked. And those that failed – like May’s this year.

And those that never were, such as 1978, 1991 and 2007. Prime Ministers tend to make the opposite error to that of their predecessors.

WATCH: Fallon commemorates the Passchendaele centenary

“Although the sacrifice was enormous, it was fought in a good cause…to defend the freedom that we enjoy today.”

George Maggs: Brexit, our Commonwealth friends – and a chance to discover the deepest sense of our national interest

Our real interests derive from forging understandings and ties with countries which have traditionally considered themselves British in all but name.