Straight Faced Support - First Posted 9 May 2024

 Since I confirmed my candidacy for the coming General Election, every word of encouragement and every testimony to my character has helped me to bear up to the challenge ahead. I am grateful for, and humbled by each of them, and those which have come from my serving brothers and sisters carry a special weight. In the Armed Forces, support generally comes dressed as varying degrees of banter, so when the message comes 'straight-faced', you know it's sincere.

The expeditionary lifestyle of the Armed Forces isn't for everybody, but it throws up a great many fleeting friendships, some lifelong friendships, and many of those people you're grateful to cross paths with down the years.

I met 'M' while living in Cyprus around 2006 or 2007. On a Venn diagram of our social groups, we just about overlapped.

I left Cyprus in 2008 and the next time we met, M and I were deployed together in the Falkland Islands for a few months in 2011. As an Acting Sergeant, he was senior to me, and I came to know him as supremely professional, up-front, humble but resolute. We worked and socialised in small groups for those few months and though we weren't exactly 'close', I liked and respected him.

After I left the Falkland Islands, we lost contact until a chance meeting in 2023, when M attended a Focus Group I led with the RAF Climate Assessment Support Team. He offered me back to his office later to catch up, so I went to find him, and we did. Amongst other chatter, I told him about my plan to stand at the General Election.

M got back in touch yesterday. He told me that I'd started him thinking about politics. Like me, he recognised that the country needs change. He'd done some research and had then voted for the Liberal Democrats in the recent local elections... and will do so again at the General Election. He signed off telling me I'll "do great" for my community "and hopefully, the country", and that he was proud to have served with me. Honestly, I've always thought him to be the better of us.

If you're reading this M: it means a great deal to me, and it was an honour to have served with you too.

To a better future.

Cam.