I have spent the last week or so pondering on "winning". Is it important, and what does it really mean?

The Badminton Horse Trials bring a huge income to North Wiltshire – every B and B for miles around booked up, for example.  Up to quarter of a million people variously shopping and catching fleeting glimpses of top-level horses leaping over gigantic obstacles.  Jock Paget won for New Zealand, but the key battle everyone was watching was between Wilkinson and Fox-Pitt competing for the Grand Slam, which neither achieved in the end.  There's a fair bit of money in winning, but nothing by comparison with how much it costs to get horse and rider up to the level required to compete in the first place. And it costs the non-winners just about as much. So it's not really about winning; it is truly about taking part.

Another day I went to the lovely 'Music in Country Churches' concert in Malmesbury Abbey. A great event in the presence of the Prince of Wales; top-flight musicians so ably led by Sir Neville Mariner. A 'winning 'performance indeed. Yet the players are all no doubt only modestly paid. It was a sheer celebration of superb music beautifully played in a magnificent old church. And you could see the fun the orchestra were having just being part of it.

An Altzheimer's Society Reception another night was hosted by the immensely courageous Jamie and Vicky Graham from Daunstey. They have done a huge amount to help research into this most sad of diseases. Jamie is not 'winning' physically and mentally; but the pair of them are truly 'winners' in the battle against Alzheimer's.

The local government elections have left Wiltshire more or less unscathed, although I was disappointed to see some good friends unseated. Politics in Wiltshire tends to be a civilised affair. Yet I find myself irritated by the Lib Dem posters which do not declaim such worthy things as  "Helping Local people", nor even "Working Hard for the Area". All their posters and leaflets say is "Winning here."  Well that claim is boastful; it is also untrue. (The Lib Dem vote across Wiltshire collapsed by about 15/20%, most of it going to UKIP, the Tory vote holding more or less steady.) But even if it were true, would it really have any true worth? Is the mere fact that someone is "winning" of itself of any real value? Jane Scott and the Tory administration 'won' here in Wiltshire. But they don't crow about it. They just get on with doing their important job.

Something of the same spirit should guide our deliberations in Parliament as we face a new Session. We should not simply seek electoral popularity (although doing so is of course an essential part of democracy.) I hope that the legislative programme outlined in yesterday's Queen's Speech will not be about "winning." It should be about "doing what's best for the people of Britain" whether or not that is a "winning" strategy.

"Banging on about Lyneham."

"How can we stop James banging on about Lyneham?," was the Prime Minister's first remark when Wootton Basset Mayor, Mary Champion, Town Clerk, Johnathan Bourne and I were ushered into his No 10 study last year. (He wanted to thank the people of Bassett for all they had done and to float the idea of making the town 'Royal') "Thank you, Prime Minister," I said. "You may call it 'banging on' but it proves that I am getting the message over to the highest in the Land." And I was delighted when shortly after that the Prime Minister announced that the vacated site was to be used to house the Defence Technical Training College.

It was good to welcome Ministers Mark Francois and Oliver Letwin to Lyneham on Thursday last to have a look at the 700 or so currently vacant married quarters, to start to think what upgrading may be needed before they are once again full of defence families; and then to go onto the base for a full briefing on what is planned there. A team of planners and enablers have established a new HQ at the heart of the site, and are busy setting about making it all happen. Investment of up to £400 million is planned to create a state of the art training establishment for 2500 troops initially, and a further 1500 or so civilian and military trainers.

The principles of a diesel engine are the same whether it is for a tank, a submarine or an aircraft. So is everything to do with computers and IT, vehicle repair and maintenance, radar and electronics, and presumably many other trades as well. Once the College is established, it will be a magnet for military technical training from all over the UK (currently in a myriad of different bases). It will be very good news for the Forces, whose training will without doubt benefit. But it is also very good news for the local area – both with regard to the rebuilding of the site itself, for which the MOD are committed to using as many local businesses as they can – but also with regard to life thereafter.

Lyneham village and the nearby towns may well be going through a quiet time right now thanks to the unwelcome withdrawal of the RAF. But people locally can look forward to a brighter future with effect from next year. There may also be a price to pay environmentally – a great deal of work will have to be done on the site, which may cause some local disturbance. But it is without doubt a price well worth paying for the economic prosperity which will follow in its wake.

So I was glad to reassure Ministers that local people are wholly supportive of the military in Lyneham and are much looking forward to the new Technical College (it needs a good name – ideas gratefully received) opening. And I'm very glad that I kept 'Banging on about Lyneham."

Can you imagine being taken away from home and family for up to 12 months, being made to live in harsh surroundings, risking your life and limb and carrying out duties which we civilians can barely imagine? It sounds a bit like a 12 month stretch of hard labour! But it is of course the norm for our soldiers, sailors and airmen and women deployed to Afghanistan.

It is a great privilege for me, as Chairman of the Parliamentary Group for the Armed Forces, twice a year to welcome the Brigade returning from operational duties to Parliament. On Monday it was 120 soldiers from 4 Mechanized Brigade who marched through Parliament's Carriage Gates, led by the Band of the Scots Guards. They were met by hundreds of clapping and cheering Parliamentarians and staff, and then I was proud to lead them through the Great North Door of Westminster Hall, through which the Duke of Wellington passed on his return from Waterloo and on down to the Terrace of the House of Commons where thanks to Young's Brewery I was able to offer them a free beer or two!

These young men and women had returned from Afghanistan within the last week and had gone through experiences that few of we softies, left at home, can imagine. Nine of their number were killed and a great many wounded and injured, yet all they had to talk about was how nice it was to be home and what a great day they were having in Parliament. Their courage, cheerfulness and positive approach to life is a lesson to us all.

Farmers – a group of whom I met with the NFU at Bushton last week – similarly lead lives which we house-bound civilians can barely imagine. They are at the mercy of the elements – and the last year have suffered from unceasing rain making it difficult to reap last year's harvest and almost as hard to sow this year's crop; then in recent weeks from unseasonable cold and a month's delay in the growing season. Cows which would usually by now be enjoying green pastures are still huddled in muddy barns, although in the last few days I think we are beginning to see the first green shoots.

As well as the vagaries of the weather, farmers are subject to unhelpful market conditions often dictated by the supermarkets. Yet despite all of that, and the farmers' reputations as gloomsters, they too were cheerful and positive about the future.

Soldiers and farmers and so many public service workers of all kinds, do things which all of us civilians need, but which few would be prepared to do ourselves. It is good to have opportunities to thank them for it.

“A Good Funeral?”

Can there be such a thing as a ‘good funeral?’ I think so. Of course we are sad at the passing of our loved one, our friend. Of course there are regrets, angers, disappointments. But that should not take away from the dignified marking of a person’s sad passing.

My friend George Scarrott of Royal Wootton Bassett’s funeral last Friday was overwhelmingly sad – of course it was. Here was a man in the prime of his life, a great local character, a wonderful Father and husband. Taken away from us. And for what possible reason? Yet the outstanding priest in St Bartholomew’s, The Revd Canon Thomas Woodhouse excelled his own very high standards in a most moving service, remembering and celebrating George’s wonderful life. 700 or so of his friends were at the service – many of them fellow travelling showmen from all over the area. Royal Wootton Bassett is a sadder place without George; yet his funeral was an important moment of passage through this transitory life.

Then I was privileged yesterday to be invited to Lady Thatcher’s very grand funeral in St Paul’s Cathedral. It was right that we should have commemorated the life of this great lady with all due national honour; with the pomp and ceremony which she deserved. Her service to the Nation was second to none. It was not really a sad occasion. She was a very old lady, and had been suffering terribly in recent years. She missed the great love of her life and staunch ally, Denis, greatly, and in some ways her death was a blessed release.  We were mourning her, of course. But not in a sad way. It was much more about commemorating the great contribution she had made in her long life to Britain; and in some ways it was about recognising the kind of Britain she tried to leave behind her, and to accept the baton which she was passing to the next generation.

Canon Thomas read one of my favourite Bible readings at George’s funeral. It’s from Ecclesiastes:-

“To every thing there is a season, and a time to every purpose under heaven.

A time to be born, and a time to die, a time to plant and a time to pluck up...

A time to weep and a time to laugh....A time to keep silence, and a time to speak;

A time to love and a time to hate; a time of war and a time of peace.”

There can indeed be such a thing as a ‘good funeral,’ and I am glad to have been able to attend two truly great ones this week.

Margaret Thatcher, the only three term Prime Minister of the 20th Century, the first ever female to lead a Western democracy, was a giant of the political world.

She inherited a Nation on its knees – truly the sick man of Europe. The Prime Minister had been to the IMF to beg for funds to prop up our economy, strikes were the norm, the Trades Unions ruled industry, a large part of which was still owned by the State. All car parking was run by civil servants; British Airways, steel, coal and shipping were all owned by the Government, as was gas, electricity and telecommunications. Mrs Thatcher changed all of that, bequeathing a vibrant economy eleven years later, from many parts of which we still benefit today.

Internationally, she saved the Falklands, of course; less well remembered may be her determination to maintain the nuclear deterrent against the Soviet Union. Much of what is now in the EU- including of course Berlin and half of Germany – was controlled with an iron fist from Moscow. The collapse of the USSR and the effective end of Marxism was due to a significant degree to her great determination.

But more important than all of that, Margaret Thatcher gave millions of ordinary people the ability- and the right – to better themselves and their families. Two million families were able to buy their council houses because of her; a large swathe of the population who had been dependent on the State were freed from it; we became a proud share-owning liberal democracy. People were no longer given a 'hand-out', Margaret preferring to give them a 'hand-up.' The grocer's daughter from Grantham, she was a passionate believer in helping those who aspired to improve their way of life through hard work and thrift, those who were proud of their independence from the State.

Mrs Thatcher believed that government should be as small as possible, taxes as low as they could be. She truly set people free from the shackles of the State. And she did it by a clear thinking determination and with a lack of concern for tomorrow's headlines if what she was doing would be in the end to the benefit of all.

An Iron Lady, a lady who 'was not for turning'.  All of that is for sure; although recent archival releases also show how very human was the concern which lay behind some of her toughest decisions. She was a truly great woman; a magnificent Prime Minister, an inspiration to so many people across the land. We owe her so much, and I for one am proud to salute her memory.

Were you as 'underwhelmed' as I was by David Miliband's announcement that he is to step down from British politics in favour of the Big Apple? His constituents, to whom he had promised to serve a full term in Parliament, must be pretty annoyed about an imminent by-election. And was there not an element of self-righteous grandiosity about it. Do we really care? After all, leaving aside his defeat by his younger brother for the leadership of the Labour Party, how many of us can actually remember who David Miliband was, or what he did?

Enoch Powell once famously opined that 'All political careers end in failure." Think of Powell's own career; think of our greatest ever Prime Minister, Winston Churchill humiliated at the polls in 1946; think of Thatcher, Blair, Brown. Yet even worse than failing, (which is perhaps reserved for the very great who sooner or later must fall from power), is it not worse that most political careers end in obscurity and instant forget-ability. Who can tell me who Robert Carr was; Thorneycroft; Nicholas Ridley? Even more recently Michael Howard is blurring into the past; Ann Widdecombe is better known for 'Strictly Come Dancing' than her career in the Home Office; Roy Jenkins, Quentin Hogg, Michael Spicer. Who but political anoraks could even tell me what their governmental jobs were?

Now what all of that means is that those of us who were never destined for greatness (or whose potential has never been spotted by an ungrateful Nation, or at least by an ungrateful Whips Office) need first of all not worry about falling from a great height. Confucius said that the best position to be in is at the bottom of a ladder looking up. In modern parlance that is certainly better than being at the top of a snake looking down. So we humble backbenchers need not worry about being toppled. Nor do we get bitter and twisted about our lack of preferment. We would prefer to do and say what we believe to be right; and to do our best to serve our constituencies and constituents. And we can try to do so 'without fear or favour.'

It does also mean that we have time for some fun- and for some relaxation. I've done a fair bit of campaigning over the Easter Recess, and some constituency engagements. But I have also found a few moments to relax and recover from a busy term, to watch the first signs of Spring in the garden and to do all those things which most normal people get the time to do all year round!

Is it not a mark of something pretty special that for 2000 years half the population of the world has stood still twice a year to remember the birth and the death of Christ – a man who never achieved greatness; who had 12 humble followers; whose ministry lasted for three years before his premature death at the age of 33? Not for him fame, nor power, nor public recognition; not for him honours and awards, no autobiography nor self-adulating documentary on Channel 4. None of that. Yet his fame is greater and longer-lasting than any other human being.

Maybe Mr Miliband, and most of we - the 'great and the good' of society - could learn a thing or two from Easter.