It was fantastic to see Gloucestershire Police officers mixing with the community at Cheltenham Together’s World Fun Day in Winston Churchill Gardens at the weekend.

More than two decades on, I can remember getting my A-Level results as if it were yesterday. It’s a grim, nail-biting time. Congratulations to all those who have done well, and a big thank you to the wonderful teaching staff who, year on year, help Cheltenham’s young people achieve so much.

When it comes to inevitable change, society is faced with a stark choice: shape it, or be shaped by it.

If Cheltenham is going to thrive in the future, it’s essential that it is as welcoming and attractive as possible. Obvious perhaps, but at a time of growing threats from internet shopping, it can rarely have been more important.

Does this hot weather remind you of the summer of 1976? Although forty-plus years ago, people still talk about that earlier heatwave.

But there’s an important difference.

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).