And we are still waiting to hear the results of the inquiry by the Parliamentary Standards Commissioner into her expense claims. There is much much more to come out about the expenses story.

And then there is the influence of Anne Main’s Beaconsfield Conservative Association and its apparent pecuniary influence on the St Albans party. One local Conservative was reported as saying she feels St Albans is being treated like in a “Rotten Borough” – an interesting choice of words.

And all the time St Albans continues to be confronted by major issues:-

• Fighting off the proposed freight terminal
• Challenging the Labour Government’s plans arbitrarily to extend Hemel Hempstead and Hatfield into our Green Belt
• Forcing the county council to address its lamentable failure to provide enough school places in central St Albans
• Ensuring we have local health services which deliver proper and immediate care where it is needed
• Stopping First Capital Connect from unfairly exploiting its monopoly over London commuter rail services

How can Mrs Main and the Conservatives stand up for and be trusted by local people on these crucial matters when they are more intent on lobbing mortar bombs at one another?. It may be their private grief….. but there are damaging public repercussions on us all.

I also think that the standard of food in Cornish establishments now easily matches that of France – and the beer is much better.

But there is no mobile signal here at all and to access the internet requires the good offices of a neighbour down the lane where I am quickly typing this. As a result I have felt pleasantly dissociated from all the current Conservative shenanigans in St Albans over Anne Main’s future apart from brief mentions in newspaper articles.

Perhaps all politicians should cut themselves off from electronic media from time to time. No kneejerk comments to be repented at leisure.