I tend to the view, as did my clergyman father, that religion and politics do not and should not mix.

He was a proper Tory, but always argued that half the congregation was Labour, others of no political views, and that it was not his job to offend them.

Similarly, I would count myself as a (not particularly good) Christian, but recognise that a great many of the people I represent in North Wiltshire may not be.

The Winter Solstice at Stonehenge just before Christmas looks forward to the end of cold and death, and to spring and new life.

Easter somehow symbolises that rebirth. It’s new and fresh and looks forward to nature in full bloom. Our geese produced three lovely little yellow goslings on Easter Day – they look just as if they had popped out of a chocolate egg.

We are close to the end of the old Parliamentary Session. The Bills promised in last May’s Queen’s Speech have been debated, amended, dropped, improved, and most of them now signed off by Her Majesty. There’s a little bit of tidying up to do when we get back after Easter, and then we can look forward to the next Queen’s Speech and a raft of new legislation to take us through to the general election.

Before then we have the European Parliamentary elections on May 22 and the Scottish Referendum in September.

Around those events, most of the year is likely to become more and more political with the various parties doing their best to set out their stalls. That is an important and central apart of democracy, and I will certainly miss no opportunity to argue the case for a Conservative majority government in 2015.

My good Labour friends and I would disagree on at least 75 per cent of current affairs, but we do so in a friendly and intelligent way.

That debate about the ideas and policies which will be best for Britain in the world should be the central core of our general election discussions. It should not be an opportunity for party political bickering, far less for personalised attacks.

So I hope that our honest, healthy political discussions and campaigning over the next 12 months will be robust and active, but that it will also be constructive and forward-looking and devoid of personal attacks. It should be about finding new solutions to people’s problems.

Perhaps politicians could take could take a lesson from the fresh, new feeling of renaissance which typifies Easter.