In the run-up to the important national security decision to extend air strikes to specific terrorist targets in Syria last week, taken by 397 votes, including mine, to 223 against, I thought deeply and listened to many hundreds of constituents.
Ministers' openness and approachability in sharing detail and taking suggestions were appreciated.
Care for our families and our children, and those families and children and from the Middle East and North Africa, whether in their homes or displaced, was at the forefront of my mind.
Our families and children are the future. We want them to play and grow, without fear, in this world; to see good and beauty in it; to see the point of trying to make it better. They deserve better than the barbaric death cult ideology of Daesh.
We are a species that has the power to make its own future, and we each have choices about how we are now, which lead to that future.
I believe we should not seek to impose all of our own values, but I do think people should, to the greatest extent possible, have that choice about how to build their future.
So, those who want freedom should choose to stand up to each petty or gross act of slavery. Those who want justice should choose to be conscious of right and wrong, and ensure they are fairly adjudicated. Those who want peace should choose to create a reality that, while never perhaps perfect, does not feel like it is crumbling around us.
I want life on the ground in Syria to be better for people; to be free from indiscriminate and summary injustice; to allow humanity.
Our involvement may not be simple or riskless but it really can make a positive difference. It is clear that Islamofascism will not just go away.
Militarily we can with more precision than others and in a more timely manner destroy targets we see, that threaten us or the Syrian people.
Diplomatically, our involvement will give us the best chance to shape efforts towards a lasting political settlement that has eluded the international community for far too long.
If we want to be able to negotiate and ask for things, sometimes firmly, with Russia, Iran, the Syrian establishment and our allies in the Gulf states and beyond, we have to be credible.
We can't expect to have influence, to shape our world positively, if we are unwilling to use the powers we have, when asked, including now by unanimous resolution of the United Nations, to make the transitions to political solutions less painful than they otherwise might be.
We want the civil war in Syria to end, for hope to return, and I am persuaded that there is now, in the diplomatic push that started in Vienna, a real chance we can help make that happen politically.
Tolerance and understanding are attainable if sometimes difficult. They are worth fighting for. We must use every means available to us, firmly, responsibly, creatively, and I have no doubt our brave armed forces will acquit themselves well.
I will do my best to ensure that the Government makes the right choices in pursuing these goals, and does all it can to encourage others to do the same.