The atmosphere in Parliament is unpleasant. There’s no denying it. The passions unleashed by the Chequers proposals have been making politics personal. Things are being said that, frankly, should be expressed differently or not at all. Nor is this just within the Conservative Party.

To lead is to decide.

It’s arrived! I’m delighted that the new LINAC (linear accelerator) radiotherapy machine is now up and running at Cheltenham General Hospital.

So Bournside’s head teacher wants to clamp down on mobile phone use in school. Phones will be confiscated if they are seen or heard in lessons or the school’s dining centre.

Good for him. I think it’s absolutely the right decision.

Alex Chalk MP has raised the prospect of additional investment in specialist emergency medicine doctors at Cheltenham General Hospital. He highlighted the issue directly with Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt MP during a debate in Parliament (18 June 2108).

The NHS is our most precious national institution. No one who watched the Olympics opening ceremony in London in 2012 can have been left in any doubt about the pride we take in it as a nation.

Cheltenham MP Alex Chalk has slammed the potential exclusion of the UK from the Galileo Programme by the European Commission on the grounds of being a security risk as “unreasonable, unfair and bordering on the insulting.”

Meeting a newspaper deadline often means that my column has to be written in advance. Apologies to those who were looking for a North Korea or Brexit update!

I’ve tried to see the point of the Boot’s Corner closure scheme. Really I have. I’ve held the plans up to the light to see if that makes a difference. I’ve tried squinting at them. But however hard I try, the justifications for this drastic move never get more convincing.

Alex Chalk MP has urged the Government to review the use of the UK’s international development budget so that it can support conservation of the world’s most endangered species.