The new bus service has been running for about a week now between Goole and Howden stations via Junction 36 and Airmyn. I’ve not so far encountered anybody who has brought the bus up in conversation or said they have used it. However, it does seem to be potentially useful. More than four years into the Town Deal programme, there isn’t very much to show for the promised £25 million. Let’s hope the service proves of value to Goole residents.

Your writer was at an event in Lincolnshire recently at which the positive side of traditional conservatism was on display (though that was not the purpose of the event). Hard working people who are good at managing resources to achieve worthwhile ends and contribute something of wider benefit to the community. Reading a book about farming 60+ years ago in Rawcliffe is also showing the positive side of traditional conservatism - hard work, ingenuity, thriftiness - and local produce is good for food security.

Conversations with local people show ever growing frustration with the consequences of the current UK version of conservatism. Very wealthy people with fortunes in the hundreds of millions and billions telling ordinary people they are lazy, feckless, they need to work harder, and complaining about the tax burden while keeping their assets off shore to avoid tax. The public sees statements about billions being poured in to this or that, and wonder where the money is going - because we seem to pay through the nose for nothing to work. People can’t get appointments to see doctors and consultants, yet see a steady stream of adverts on social media advertising private health care for those who can afford to pay. It seems the NHS has been sabotaged so as many people as possible will go private.

Our lives depend on people who are not paid very much to do vital work. They keep shop and supermarket shelves full, work in warehouses and distribution centres, drive vans that deliver our goods, care for the elderly and mentally ill, clean the shops, streets, empty dustbins. They are the people who live in the neglected, even abandoned, parts of town that don’t figure in cheesy press releases. Their hard work keeps life running. They feel very badly let down.

There seems to be a considerable gap between what those in power value, and people in Goole doing valuable, if unglamorous, work.

Thanks to everyone who has signed so far. Keep talking, keep sharing, keep moaning, keep signing!