ANOTHER month and another pile of Westminster-centric stories dominated the news, confirming my view that politicians and journalists often live in a world of their own making.

Did you see any of the good economic news over the last few days, or the first comments in five years by the Governor of the Bank of England suggesting that the British economy is improving? Or that the housing market is picking up and inflation is falling, while markets are up as the good news gets reflected in stock prices? Instead, the headlines are all about European referenda, new forms of marriage and political knockabout.

In my experience, Europe and marriage are not the items that dominate everyday conversation, but rather topics like housing, petrol costs, schools, railway connections, jobs, taxes, the environment and, at this time of year, the stress of exams for teenage children.

Most people are too busy to even think about the big “political” stories in their rush to get to work, collect children from school, pay bills or care for relatives, and I sometimes think that the collective Westminster tribe should be sent on mandatory visits out of their London bubble to hear what really matters to people.

However, editors and readers have been as one this week in condemning the tragic and disgusting murder of a serving solider in London and while our thoughts and prayers flow to his family, our collective resolve to support our armed forces, both when serving overseas and while at home, should be strengthened by this brutal and meaningless act.

Locally, it is a source of great pride for many to have so many services personnel living and working in our midst and it was a great privilege to welcome the royal princes, both serving members of the armed forces, to Tedworth House this month so that they could see the incredible local support for the new Army Recovery Centre and see how much our armed forces matter in the Devizes constituency.