As we emerge from the pleasant cocoon of Christmas and the New Year back into the world of action, we hear various voices telling us that we face tough choices ahead.

Brexit -- about the substance of which I have never written, and have no intention of ever writing anything in this column -- has already had many effects on various aspects of our national life; but the main effect for Parliamentarians has been the innumerable hours during which we have debated

The advent of social media is of course one of the defining characteristics of our times. It has removed much of the formality and laboriousness that used to be associated with point to multi-point communication.

The past week was Budget week.

In the House of Commons, as in the country as a whole, the Budget counts as a significant event.

For many months now, we have been waiting for news about whether our County Council would be‎ allowed to merge with West Dorset District Council and the other district councils in Dorset to create a single council for rural Dorset.

This merger makes sense from every point of view.

If you had to name one item of which the south west of England seems in general to have plenty, I guess that many of us would say: water.

One of the features of the post-Brexit world - good or bad according to taste - will be that we will need to start making a range of decisions in London about environmental issues which have been, during the past few decades, increasingly made in Brussels.

I gather that this past year has witnessed more hurricanes than in any other year in recent times.

I was delighted to hear the other day, that Sport England had recently provided a substantial sum of money to help those of us who have sadly passed beyond the stage where we can comfortably call ourselves "middle aged" to remain fit and healthy.

As I mentioned in this column last week, I recently spent a little time at the Conservative Conference in Manchester, partly signing copies of a book I have recently published and partly doing some broadcasting.