I was brought up in a military family (my Dad served 27 years in the RAF) and then spent the first 10 years of my adult life in the RAF. When I joined the RAF in 1988 Remembrance Sunday brought tributes to those who had perished in the Falklands War just 6 years earlier.

Today the current campaign in Afghanistan was in my mind as I paid my respects in my home village of Honley. After a church service at St Mary’s we marched down to the war memorial where a father laid a wreath in memory of his son who died in Kandahar province only last year. The serviceman was only 23. Along with those who died in the Great War, the Second World war and in all the conflicts since – we will remember him.

I’m very grateful to my many helpers and supporters who are out and about in the constituency delivering the latest copy of my newspaper. We have a wonderful team spirit.

I’m very proud to be offering a positive message of change talking about what we want to do rather than bleating on about my opponents. Don’t just take my word for it. I was at one of many house meetings on Sunday afternoon. A supporter in Lockwood invited his neighbours and friends round to meet me over cups of tea and chocolate digestives. There was genuine appreciation and full-some support for our positive campaign.

I’ve been wearing my poppy with pride all week. As a former RAF Officer and as a member of the Royal British Legion (New Mill branch) I was honoured to sign up to the Legion’s manifesto for the Armed Forces recently. I’ve pledged to do my bit for Service Personnel and their families, the bereaved, veterans and dependants.

Last night I met the brave men and women of 15 Brigade Territorial Army at their Huddersfield base. I chatted to the reservists who have just returned from 5 and 6 month tours in Helmand province to resume their civvie careers as HSBC Bank IT managers, truck drivers and trainee solicitors. They believe in their mission in Afghanistan and we should believe in them. I do. It’s just a shame that the government have cut the training budget for our Reserve Forces. I also met student members of the Officer Training Corps from local universities, they too have had their funding cut.

I’m back home in Yorkshire after a busy week at the Conservative party Conference in sunny Manchester – okay, it did rain Tuesday, and a bit on Wednesday. Here are my conference Top Ten moments:

1. David Cameron’s closing speech. We will need to confront Britain’s culture of irresponsibility, and that will be hard to take for many people. We will have to tear down Labour’s big government bureaucracy.

2. Pledges to keep pensioner bus passes, pensioner TV licences and the winter fuel allowance whilst linking pensions to earnings.
3. Pledges to keep Sure Start centres and child benefit payments.
4. Bono thanking the Conservatives for promising to fight world poverty.
5. Signing up to the Royal British Legion campaign to support our Armes Forces, their families and veterans.
6. Meeting Yorkshire Water bigwigs to discuss flooding, water meters and local reservoirs.
7. Speaking in the transport debate about local bus service cuts, vandalism at Slaithwaite railway station and free pensioner bus passes.
8. George Osborne safeguarding 100,000 front-line jobs.
9. Meeting up with local Scouts to campaign against the “Rain Tax” – they allow girls to join now but boys can’t be in the Guides!
10. More policy announcements than you can shake a copy of The Sun at.

The sun was out and so were the crowds on the first of two days of the incredibly successful Holmfirth Food and Drink Festival. Local produce was the name of the game and I was delighted to join Norah and the gang from Incredible Edible Huddersfield to pick onions that had been grown in grass verges in the centre of Holmfirth. Incredible Edible promotes locally produced food through community action. This involves growing food on every spare bit of land so there’s onions in verges, herbs in window boxes…you get the idea. There’s so much more to the campaign with more information at: http://incredibleediblehuddersfield.org/

Earlier on this site you’ll see me at the Lindley Green Fair where I was campaigning for Honest Food labelling so consumers can choose local produce. There’s more information on that here: http://conservativeruralaction.co.uk/

Huddersfield University campus was buzzing today for the Freshers’ Fayre. Thousands of new students queued round the block for more than an hour to sign up for likes of the surfing club, the medieval reenactment society or the “stitch and bitch” club (I kid you not) whilst sampling free pizza, vodka shots and homemade lasagne made by the mother’s union. We had plenty of interest at our Huddersfield Conservative Future stall which was located just a few feet away from the Socialist Party stand – good to see someone has a good sense of humour.