In June I wrote to Alistair Darling, the Chancellor of the Exchequer, asking for financial support for a museum dedicated to The Few at RAF Bentley Priory but found the Government stonewalling on the issue.

I find it grossly hypocritical that the same Government which pays tribute to the Battle of Britain pilots stonewalls over helping to support the memory of those same servicemen who stopped the Nazis invading Britain.

We appear to live in a country where much official hand wringing is given to the release on compassionate grounds of a Libyan terrorist who blew 270 innocent people out of the sky.

But a blank silence descends when we ask for help to protect the memories of those people who fought to protect our skies from the terror of Nazism.

I hope that, as the country paused on Sunday to remember those young men who died to protect the country, Mr Darling might have found time to give us the courtesy of a reply.

Councillor Marilyn Ashton is responsible for planning at Harrow Council.