Its been a bit of an odd week for me:

Sunday: Up to London late after busy Constituency week. Train delayed, taxi gets lost and lifts in my block of flats out of order, necessitating five-storey hike. Probably very good for me.

Monday: 9am Eurostar to Brussels. One of most civilised ways to travel. As a member of the NATO Parliamentary Assembly, two days of talks about defence and the West. Interesting to see perspectives of other nations, eg Germany, whose ‘military caveats’ mean, amongst other things, that they cannot fight at night... This was followed by an interminable discussion about EU relations with NATO after Brexit. Eighty per cent of NATO's funding comes from non-EU countries. The EU should, in my view, focus on trade, and leave defence to NATO. I say so, which does not endear me to the Europhile audience.

Wednesday: After a morning’s discussions, I get the train to Parliament to catch up. Black tie dinner at Trinity House, of which I am a Younger Brother, with Wiltshire explorer Sir David Hempleman-Adams as my guest. Walk to St Paul’s with him after dinner for a slightly squiffy selfie. Also Hempie’s not much good at map reading!

Thursday: Various meetings in Parliament, then train home.

Friday: Sharp-suited young men from Lidl fail to convince me that we need one of their stores on a greenfield site at the edge of Malmesbury. I promise to oppose it, which they do not like very much. They could take some lessons in PR from the wonderful travelling showmen whose annual lunch at the Swindon Hilton (just inside my constituency) is next on the agenda. What a lovely, straightforward, honest, decent, and generally cheerful bunch they really are. The Scarrott family from Royal Wootton Bassett are very old friends. They have run the local fairs for generations. A fine bit of old England, and ‘worth a guinea a minute’, unlike the Lidl PR lads.

Saturday: Surgeries in Cricklade and Malmesbury yield their usual mixed crop of cases. I was especially impressed by one gentleman, whose son was killed many years ago, and is now keen to campaign to stop the same thing happening again. I vow to help in any way I can. Dinner is near Tetbury with a quaint old literary society celebrating RS Surtees, the Victorian author of Jorrock’s Jaunts and Jollities, amongst so many other things. They are decent, honest traditional people, if mildly eccentric.

Sunday: Lunch with friends near Compton Bassett and a desperate effort to deal with paperwork.

So it has been a myriad of different experiences, from Brussels, to Parliament, Trinity House, the Showmen’s Lunch, the Surtees dinner at Chavenage and so many other experiences which sharpens judgement about people, events and issues. It helps to sort the sheep from the goats, to recognise the things which are good and old and true from those which are downright unconvincing. Lidl take note.