During this past week we have all been embroiled in the firestorm regarding meat products and contaminated products on our supermarket shelves.  Horse in beef, pork in chicken, horse in....well horse!  The food industry has some very big questions to answer on all this, and it may well have set a lot of people thinking about what they are eating, and whether we can look more locally and sustainably. 

I was with a group of our Bedfordshire farmers recently, and Peter Kendall – head of the NFU but also local - and was very pleased to hear that farming overall grew by 11,000 new jobs last year.  Locally that’s good news, and in an area that is already good for employment, our farms doing well are an asset.   Jordans, one of our biggest food producers in Bedfordshire have been helping British farmers develop sustainable businesses and support local communities, as well as the British economy. Jordans are also part of The Prince’s Countryside Fund that gives grants to projects that support the people who care for the countryside, and funding issues such as low rural pay and rural isolation.  All boosting our local industry.

We have the excellence of Shuttleworth College – working hard to give young people and returning learners excellent land based education and high quality skills to work in the rural based economy. Our future, learning right here in Bedfordshire.

And the food...well it’s all around us. Shop local, shop fresh, support our local businesses.  Yes I know there is often an economic argument – but actually good fresh local food need not push your bills up, (our local Bedfordshire weekly family veg box – just £10 delivered to the door www.gardenfriendsvegetablebox.com) but maybe we need to do a little more on learning how we use food, how we cook simple healthy meals, and how to use a small budget. Many of our family support charities do excellent work on this, but perhaps we can all do more to help ourselves and others stay healthy and eat well.

I hope it is not yet too late to wish a very happy New Year to all constituents and readers. I am sure like many I find it hard to believe that 2012 has now slipped away, with all its incredible national memories, and that once again a year has just disappeared.

Tempting though it might be to give politics a miss for another month, as we get over Christmas and New Year, there is not much point. Britain is back moving again, and we are all getting on with life once again. MPs are already back in action too, both locally with visits and surgeries, and at Westminster.

As you may have seen the Coalition Government is reminding the public that we are roughly half way through our term, and setting out where we believe the country should be heading. I am rather in favour of this approach. If the Government does not talk about what it has achieved, I can guarantee no-one else will. It does not mean we have no problems – there are plenty who will talk about those -but in trying to give confidence to people that we are on the right track, it is not unfair to offer a few reminders which might otherwise have gone unsaid.

I believe we are in global competition, which is why getting the economy back on track, clearing a quarter of the historic deficit left by Labour, is so important. We’re on the right track in welfare, education, the NHS, immigration and crime because of difficult choices faced up to, tough decisions taken, and bold reforming legislation enacted.

David Cameron’s Government has new proposals too.  We will support working families with their childcare costs. We will build more houses and make home ownership a reality for more people. We will set out plans for long-term investment in Britain’s transport infrastructure. And we will set out two big reforms to provide dignity in old age – an improved state pension that rewards saving, and more help with the costs of long term care.

A people who can achieve the Olympics can achieve anything - I hope 2013 will demonstrate a Government to match.

My father is a doctor. As a child, I remember visiting his surgery which he ran with just one partner and a secretary. He was a wonderful doctor but would be the first to admit that modern family doctor facilities are a world away from his day.

Making progress in health for improved patient care is fraught with political traps. That GPs do more in their surgeries now is because things which had previously been solely done by hospitals could be done elsewhere, but taking any facility away from a hospital can always be portrayed negatively.      

I am reminded of this by current discussion about possible changes to our regional hospitals. Medicine is constantly changing. The ability to perform more procedures is growing, and the determination of all health professionals to ensure the best chance of success is growing too.  These factors have been driving the growth of specialist units and indeed specialist hospitals for some time. Ensuring the best outcome for our family from a hospital visit is vital to all of us.

Having kept in close touch with John Rooke who is heading up Bedfordshire's Clinical Commissioning Group, I believe firstly doctors and other clinical staff will lead the discussion on options for change, based on patient safety.  Secondly there will be full engagement with the public on any change and third no decisions have been made about Bedford Hospital or anywhere else. I think a community's support for a hospital should be based of course on the existing service it gives but also on some evidence as to what is planned for it.  Saving Our Hospital, if it comes to it, will have more force if we find out what it has to be saved from.

No change, keeping all services just as they have always been, would have left my father’s surgery as it was fifty years ago, and if recommendations from doctors help keep my constituents safe, then I'm listening.

I expect we will hear more in the early New Year and look forward to talking through any recommendations with you.

Perhaps the only bad thing about this wonderful summer of 2012 has been the bump down to earth after its all over. Whether its back to work, school, or in my case finding out that the miseries of the world have not miraculously disappeared, the real world has always been waiting in the background to meet us.