One of the things I like best about North Wiltshire is its very diversity. Cricklade and Malmesbury, Luckington and Yatesbury; Royal Wootton Bassett and Marston Meysey; Box and Lydiard Millicent. Diversity and geographic spread, yet so much in common as well. We all want to live in more-or-less preserved Wiltshire market towns, surrounded by countryside and villages; with a distinct military flavour; a bit West country (NOT South West); dairy farming and woodland. You get the general picture, I am sure.

I have by chance had a particular focus on Calne in recent weeks, and what a wonderful little community it is. It went through some tough times after the closure of the Harris Bacon factory in 1983, and had suffered from the closure (soon to be reversed) of RAF Lyneham. But it is without doubt coming through the bad times and re-emerging from its chrysalis as a thriving Wiltshire community.

I have held my regular surgeries in the Town Hall; I gave a lecture at St Mary’s School, which was attended by a great many local people. I toured the lovely new buildings at the outstandingly good Springfields Academy and offered the acting head and governors my wholehearted support for the vital work they do for pupils from across Wiltshire with special educational needs and behavioural difficulties. I was especially impressed by the school council and other students who showed me around. What a bright and well-motivated bunch they are.

The Repair Academy on the Porte Marsh Industrial estate is a brilliant new initiative – recycling perfectly good stuff from landfill sites, training youngsters to refurbish it, and selling it, or passing it to people who may be in special need of furniture or other equipment such as cookers. It kills three birds – environmental, social and educational – with one stone.

My Calne educational quartet was rounded off by a meeting with Year 6 at St Dunstan’s Primary School. They bombarded me with some of the sharpest and best informed questions about Parliament and politics I have ever come across. Bright and able, they have a great future.

So to those who bleat about the younger generation, who claim that they are ill-motivated and lacking in interest in the world around them or in politics, I would just say: take a look at these four hugely diverse educational and training establishments in Calne.

My four visits gave me enormous confidence in the future of the town as a whole.