David Davies is Conservative MP for Monnouth and a member of the Home Affairs Select Committee.
One of the “best” funerals I have attended was for Peter Law, the Independent MP for neighbouring Blaenau Gwent, a principled Socialist and a good friend from our years in the Welsh Assembly.
There was no need to ask for directions to the church because across Blaenau passers-by had gathered along the route being taken by the hearse to pay their last respects to a true son of the valleys. It was impossible to get into the church, but as we stood outside and sang Welsh hymns the gloom lifted. It was the celebration of a great life.
Another moment I will cherish occurred at the end of a funeral for a grand old lady of Monmouthshire who died in her eighties after a full life during which, amongst much else, she had been master of the local hunt. The service took place in a tiny church with a graveyard high up in the Usk valley. Few roads or houses were visible, the scene before our eyes had changed little in hundreds of years. The coffin was brought out of the church for burial and the local Hunt appeared in full dress with the hounds. As the coffin was lowered into the grave the master began blowing “gone away” on the horn, the hounds struck up a tremendous din. Sounds of horn and hound echoed down the empty valley. It was easy to imagine the spirit of a hunter, released from an ageing body, taking one last joyous ghostly gallop across the Monmouthshire countryside.
But there has been little to lift the grief of mourners at the funerals of the three young men from Monmouthshire who have lost their lives in Afghanistan. All in the early twenties; determined, dedicated and courageous, they were the embodiment of all that is good about their generation. They leave behind parents and girlfriends who will never get over their loss.
After one funeral which had taken place with traditional hymns, the coffin was led out of the church with the Black Eyed Peas singing I Gotta Feeling - a song for young people to listen to while out in the pub having drinks with friends: a poignant reminder of what this young man had lost. Nothing could lighten the mood of these occasions, the mourners walk away in a terrible silence.
The experience of sitting a few feet away from the mother, father, brothers, sisters and wife or girlfriend of a young man who has lost his life because of decisions taken by Parliament is sobering. I walk away asking myself a lot of questions about the rightness of those decisions and whether things could be done differently. Now more than ever we need to be asking those questions. For that reason alone, if the families are happy for us to do so, MPs have a duty to try to attend these funerals.