AT 11 o’clock on Armistice Day we stood in silence in memory of those who died fighting for our freedoms.

It is a tradition that I am proud to follow, having also taken part in a Remembrance Day service on the Sunday.

Paying tribute to those who made the ultimate sacrifice is the very least we can do.

These are sentiments millions of people, young and old, have always shared in this country.

But now there are are other thoughts that I am not alone in having: just what would those who gave their lives, particularly in the two world wars, think about this country now?

What has happened to those freedoms they died for?

Successive governments have given them away to Brussels by the bucket-load and Labour is hell-bent in parting with even more.

It was forcibly brought home to me last week when, in conversation with a genteel, elderly retired Tory councillor, she suggested that people should be protesting in the streets about our subservience to the EU.

What has this country come to and, more worryingly, what lies ahead unless we actually start to fight to regain those rights that our brave boys died for?

Philip Griffiths, Chairman of UKIP in the North-west