Oh gosh there is a lot about the NHS and this election. Is it safe in their hands or not. Most will know that over the past few years the NHS has looked after me very well with my lymphoma cancer treatment and maintenance programme, the cataract as a result of the high steroid doses in Chemotherapy and then after years of waiting my replacement knees. Probably under the new regime I would still be able to see from one eye so that was 50% and good enough and I am sure that I would be too fat for knees. I wonder do they have a plastic template like the Post Office for measuring letters? “Sorry Mr Mackett, you failed to squeeze through the gap so we recommend that you learn to crawl again.”

Here in Somerset the NHS does us proud, watching the care my 90 year old neighbour got recently when he had a chest infection, both in hospital and in the follow up clinics and support.

This weekend has been a little traumatic as Jun was very poorly on Saturday night when I came back from the Radio Station. For nearly two hours the NHS gave us support, and reassurance when I rang 111, they checked up later that all was okay, a doctor rang to check up early in the morning to reassure and make sure we were okay, He referred us back to the local practice who saw Jun early today, lots of reassurance and precautionary tests have started. You cannot fault it, it is brilliant, outstanding. If you are worried that Jun as a foreign national has become an NHS tourist, I have to reassure you that we paid a lot of money as part of her last visa to the NHS, before the paperwork could be started. So we are upfront on this.

When it comes to the election, I do not care who you vote for. What you need to say to the candidate who becomes your MP is tinker with our NHS at your peril. Send them back to parliament, conservative, green, labour, liberal or UKIP, but make sure they are aware that they play around with the most precious thing in UK at their peril.

Yesterday, 11 May, was Somerset Day. It is our County Day and people fly flags, drink cider and fall over, but there is more to it than that. It is an opportunity to celebrate what is good in our County. Some of the radio stations, (well done 10 Radio) were very active with a day of Somerset themed programmes. The local BBC had teams out doing an A to Z of the districts that make up the county. My mousemat is an original Somerset A to Z that appeared as giant posters on the London Underground.

Anyway back to the A to Z, A is for Apple; fairly obvious the County is renown for Cider production and still is. B is for Baker; Maisey’s Bakery in Othery on the Levels, the last of the Levels Bakers; C is for Cheddar; and so on. The teams came up with innovative answers. My list would include T is for Tesco’s! Not quite what I expected, but the local branch had stalls from independent butchers, cheese and cider makers. Staff were handing out a little booklet that offered discount at Somerset visitor attractions, like the Fleet Air Arm Museum and Cheddar Gorge and money off cider and cheese.

It is quite strange how what you expect and what is reality can be quite different, of course today it is back to being the outpost of the largest retailer in UK, but for yesterday it had a local, human face that was welcome.

So will it be 50p off Thatchers or Brothers cider today?

Yesterday was a nice day, in all senses of the word. The weather was good and all I did seemed to work as it should do. It was a lot of radio though, a live one hour discussion on Tourism in Somerset and Frome with three good guests, then an interview record, then across the county to deliver a drive time show, by which time my voice was fading.

Coming back from Wiveliscombe was fun, the weather was just perfect and it made for a pleasant drive, the last part of my journey had me on a lane driving east with the bright sun getting low behind me. As i drove left on a bend, the shadow moved right and vice versa, so for the last few miles home I was dancing with the shadow of my car. Great fun.

My interview was with ‘Ki’ Longfellow Stanshall, the widow of Vivian Stanshall (Bonzo Dog Doodah Band, Tubular Bells, Sir Henry Rawlinson), she was a delight, she drawls and sounds like Lauren Bacall and was fun to talk and listen to. She swore, she cy=ussed and she dissed a few people, then stopped and told me I should edit it out in case they came after me, “dont worry about me darling, but we can’t have them coming after you”. Her early life was amongst rock and pop royalty as she worked for Bill Graham who owned the Fillmore(s) and would interject “you know Ray?”, after careful negotiation it would be Ray Davis of the Kinks.

She lived on a houseboat  owned originally by Denny Laine that was a World War One submarine chaser, she sailed a houseboat from Sunderland to Bristol, they lived life to the full and it was great to hear her story of life with a man larger than life who effectively drank himself to death.

In conclusion, I asked what was her favourite memory of Viv, she was quiet for a moment started, then checked herself, “he was marvellous at so many things and I loved him dearly.”

It was good to hear, she is still dancing with the shadow of the man she loved.

I am as most of you know passionate about Frome, I do not live there, would like to if I could afford it; but I am passionate about the town.

As I look at my own town, I feel that the reason it suffers is politics, local politics but drawn because they follow national political lines. Frome is so much better because it is Independents for Frome. No political allegiance, but passionate for the best for your town. It says a lot, without saying anything.

As the County Council elections draw near every day brings leaflets, I have done this for the town, I have done that….but nothing as to what I would do in the future. The vast green space that leads you into the town from the main A Road, will soon disappear under six hundred houses for the Duchy of Cornwall, removing the most attractive approach to the town in one move. We went recently to a ‘consultation’ I do not know if they ever take note of what people say. Nice young people fronting for the builder, who is relatively innocent in this case. We were showed a plan, local centre, it said, brilliant I said, just what we need, what size, capacity hall are you planning. Oh no it will be shops was the reply. They lost me, what this community needs is a community centre. A hall where young couple can have wedding receptions, where teenagers can have a youth group, where the band that will be tomorrows Foo Fighters can experience what it is to play in front of an audience who are more than just their mates. A Community Centre!

So for all you politicos, my vote is cast and it probably isn’t for you, because you do not aspire to my ideals for the community. I want a vibrant town with politicians who care about it enough, that they do not have to cite what they have done, most of which is for their own egos or political advantage. Let us have people like the lady who single handedly has raised the profile of our community markets. Let us have people, unlike our MP who turn up for photocalls with the Royal British Legion without a tie, when everybody is in their blazers and ties (and he is ex military). The politics of Westminster and the political parties is strangling our communities.

So don’t vote Conservative or Liberal Democrat, they have over the years completely screwed our county, vote Labour if for no other reason than you cannot believe that I said it. It is only local after all.

Little rant over.