… and suddenly things have changed. I was surprised (and saddened) by Rob Key’s decision to stand down as our MP.

I’ve known him for a good many years, and think it a pity he never achieved Cabinet-rank (especially when compared to one or two Secretaries of State of my acquaintance). Whoever she is (and I’ll put money on it being a she) his Tory successor in this safest of seats will have a hard act to follow.

Right now we non-aligned voters should keep January 31 clear, because that’s the day we can cross-examine shortlisted candidates.

The political rule is that the safer the seat the longer the career and the greater the chance of achieving high office. So at the end of next month we could be choosing a future Prime Minister.

Wiltshire Council has been awarded a “Green Flag” …

… by the Audit Commission “for achieving exceptional outcomes in encouraging local people to take part in local decision-making”. Some of you may have missed the innovative measures taken by Wiltshire Council (or, as we affectionately know them, the WC) to achieve these exceptional outcomes.

They include scrapping our elected District Council in favour of un-elected “Area Boards”; reducing our local representation to powerless parish council status; relocating Salisbury’s chief police officer to Melksham; breaking our college’s links with Winchester and forcing students to travel to Chippenham instead; refusing to prevent potential fatalities at a Devizes Road black spot; declining to protect our station from South-West Trains' and Network Rail’s idiotic vandalism; opposing moves to extend the city’s boundaries; and declaring three major city schools plus a nationally-important hospital to be situated in nearby villages and therefore nothing to do with us.

Anyone remember taking part in making any of those decisions?

There was a time, once, when all bikes had bells.

Why not now? Why is it, on the Town Path from Salisbury to Harnham, that so many cyclists have to shout to warn pedestrians that they’re coming through? Or does this make them see themselves as macho rather than prats?

I ask because Sustrans (the cyclists’ pressure-group) has submitted plans for a 10’-wide paved cycleway through the middle of Harnham’s riverside recreation-ground.

Why should bicycle-riders be allowed to wreck the rec? The idea should be rejected.