‘LAST weekend was an important opportunity for us all to ensure that those who served and sacrificed their lives to protect the freedoms we enjoy today are never forgotten.

Each year the Remembrance Sunday services provide an opportunity to remember not just those who have served and fallen in service of their country over the past century, but also those who currently serve in our armed forces.

As West Fife’s Member of Parliament I had the honour of laying wreaths at Pattiesmuir, Dunfermline and Townhill, three incredibly moving ceremonies where communities came together to remember the fallen. I found the services particularly poignant this year as the UK involvement in Afghanistan draws to a close and my thoughts were especially with the loved ones of those 453 members of our armed forces who died in Afghanistan.

Since I was elected, campaigning to end discrimination against members of the armed forces, veterans and their families has been one of my key priorities.

The scale of discrimination suffered by members of the armed forces was highlighted in a 2012 report by Lord Ashcroft. The survey reported that almost one in five members of the armed forces have been refused service in shops, pubs and clubs for being members of the armed forces and about 5% of members of our armed forces reported that they or their family had suffered physical or attempted physical assault during the previous five years, while 18% or 19% of them reported that they had been the victim of verbal abuse in that period.

There is also discrimination in the provision of services - one fifth of service personnel found themselves at “the back of the queue” for public services when they moved to a new area.

That’s why I introduced a Bill in the House of Commons that comprehensively tackles the types of discrimination that they face.

My Bill - which was backed by Labour and Conservative MPs - does four things; it makes physical and verbal assaults on members of the armed forces and their families a hate crime, it prohibits pubs, clubs, restaurants and shops refusing to serve them just because they are in uniform, it blocks companies from refusing to hire reservists (employers are too often unnecessarily worried that they will be called up again) and finally it gives reservists an additional two weeks of unpaid leave to undertake military training.

Our society owes those who have served our country in uniform a debt of immense gratitude. Discrimination against serving and former personnel takes many different forms and in 2015 I hope that all the political parties will do what they can to honour the debt that we owe.’