The shockwaves from the results of last week’s elections are still reverberating around the political parties. Here in the South West, I’m sad to have lost Sir Graham Watson, who for 20 years had been an enthusiastic and dedicated parliamentarian. He narrowly missed out on re-election by less than half a percent of the vote.

Frustratingly, although more than a million people voted Liberal Democrat in the Euro elections last week, we only elected one Euro MP. By comparison, UKIP won a seat for every 180,000 votes they received, and Labour and the Conservatives each got one for every 200,000 votes.

UKIP are understandably celebrating having polled four million votes, the highest tally of any party, but that is dwarfed by the 31 million registered voters in the UK who chose not to vote for anyone. That should leave no room for complacency for any politician.

Last week at Dymag in Chippenham, a world-leading manufacturer of lightweight racing wheels, I met some of our next generation of engineers. They were learning about the use of carbon fibre in manufacturing as part of the Future Brunels programme.

It was great to see a local entrepreneur encouraging such enthusiasm for science and technology among these secondary school pupils, before they make the subject choices that will start to shape their future careers.

These young people are being inspired by the legacy of Isambard Kingdom Brunel in our part of the country, as were the founders of my next stop in Holt.

At the Box Steam Brewery, whose beers pay tribute to Brunel’s feats of engineering, I saw a great example of how the decisions by the Coalition Government, which I have supported, are helping to build a stronger economy in our part of Wiltshire.

We have scrapped the ‘beer duty escalator’ and cut beer duty by 1p in each of the last two Budgets, so a pint of beer is now 8p cheaper than under the previous government’s plans. I saw the brewery’s new machinery, an investment they told me they could make because of these changes.

Box Steam Brewery has also hired new apprentices – something I am encouraging all the local employers I meet to do – and I was glad to meet one of their newest young recruits from Trowbridge.

My next constituency surgeries will be at The Pound Arts Centre in Corsham on June 6 from 12.30-2pm and at Melksham Town Hall on June 7 from 9.30-11am.