Many congratulations and heartfelt thanks should be directed towards the Big Local and their helpers for coming up with hot meals for deserving Radstock and Westfield residents.

It is this kind of gesture which makes us a proud and confident community.

We learn that the recovered Boris, if he actually ever stopped, starts work again today . The pithy quotation from Cicero, 'Salus populi suprema est lex' (the good of the people is the chief law), reminded me that there is little that is new to humanity and most of our experiences have been described or commented on by previous generations using words which turn out to be apposite for our own times.

It is very useful to be able to refer to the 'quotable quotes' of the great people of history. For one thing it adds spice and colour to the banal; for another it tells the listener that you have thought a bit about what you are saying.

Often at formal meetings, people resort to clichés so that the actual meaning of what they are trying to put across is only implied rather than overt. Sometimes it is as if they were inhabiting a parallel universe in which various courses of action are compared, using the word 'like' but distancing the speaker from reality.

Without getting into the problems posed by the March Hare in Alice in Wonderland, where you mean what you say and say what you mean, plain speaking is an art we could all acquire.

Let us hope that Boris will show clear direction as we start taking down the shutters.