IF you drive around our part of the world, you will see that there are poppy tributes colouring almost every community. Villages in particular seem to be keen to paint themselves red, especially if their residents include a good number of people handy with knitting needles.

While some people find the growing fascination with the American Hallowe’en celebration of late October to be rather irritating, no one can complain at the way November’s remembrance season seems to be finding greater and greater resonance.

This is particularly appropriate as this year is the 100th anniversary of the adoption poppy as our symbol of remembrance.

It comes from the fields of Flanders, and many people’s reflections will have a nostalgic twinge to them as they consider the fallen of the First World War – the wholesale slaughter of a generation of young men from our families and our streets. Even the Second World War is now a living memory for only those nearing the eventide of their lives.

However, remembrance is not just about nostalgia. Perhaps this year we should also consider the 457 UK servicemen who gave their lives in Afghanistan to make our world safer but also to leave that country a better place.

But Afghanistan has collapsed since the withdrawal of the US and its allies, and now 22.3m – half the Afghani population – are facing acute food shortages which will, over the winter, become a catastrophic famine. Our politicians, who are somewhat distracted at the moment, should be reflecting on what the UK can do to help those people we were fighting for only a few short months ago.