I hope you enjoyed Miranda’s interview with me in Edition 22. I wasn’t expecting to see a childhood photo on the front cover! But thank you to many of you who have been in touch with your kind comments.

The West Dorset constituency is vast. It is 400 square miles with 137 parishes. So although the Blackmore Vale is my home, as an MP, I have an extended home, all the way down to Lyme Regis!

A few weeks ago, I joined the commemorations of one of my predecessors, Sir George Somers, in the annual Somers Day celebrations at Lyme Regis. He was Mayor of Lyme Regis in Elizabethan times, and subsequently MP in 1603, and then naval leader who founded the island community known today as Bermuda.

Exotic foods and knowledge of the world are two things we take for granted today, but Somers and his crew endured considerable disease, starvation, and mutiny in the pursuit of discovery and knowledge. In Lyme Regis a few weeks ago, I was joined by the Mayor of St. George’s, one of the earliest settlements founded in Bermuda by Somers.

And for many years now, the Somers Day parade has celebrated our continued close relationship with Bermuda where elected representatives are always keen to visit us. The Mayor of St George’s speech was moving and from the heart. He told us that these celebrations underscored how important it is that we learn from our history and to be always in the pursuit of truth, rather than what we are first told. I think it is important to hear from those who are much closer to historical issues like this rather than those who like to be the voice of others without a mandate.

• We take for granted today our ability to search on our phones or computers for any information we want to know about this world in an instant. It is important though to remember that sometimes what we first read might not be accurate and we have a responsibility ourselves to validate what we read too.
• Finally, this week, the Friends of the Yeatman Hospital in Sherborne celebrated its 70th anniversary on Monday last week. The Yeatman, with its continual service to Sherborne has a special place in the hearts and minds of those of us in and around the town. Our campaign to see the Minor Injuries Unit re-open after a year of closure, was met with success several weeks ago, but has certainly shown the importance of these facilities to the wellbeing of our town.

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