It takes an extraordinary person to go back to a country where he knows he will be imprisoned, tortured and then murdered. All our thoughts are with Alexei Navalny’s wife, and our best wishes go to her.
I have a once-proud former postmaster in my constituency, who ran the post office in Swanage. He fell foul of this scandal and was sacked, not prosecuted. His life was utterly ruined and he repaid the money that was owed.
It was the morning after the night before. Two by-election defeats saw Wellingborough and Kingswood going to Labour. The only crumb of comfort was that the turnout was very low. I felt sorry for our Chairman, who was sent out to do the media rounds this morning. Not easy for him.
Out to Wool this morning to meet up with our excellent councillor, Laura Beddow. A most informative and useful morning, listening to constituents' concerns and following up on two inquiries. Drafting my weekly column and dealing with many constituency matters took up the latter part of the day.
A 90-minute virtual catch-up with my parliamentary team sorted out the inbox! And then it was off to Crossways to join our Dorset Council candidate Andrew Ross-Skinner, who was out meeting residents. We had an interesting afternoon, with some useful feedback.
What a lovely day. A lot of constituency correspondence to catch up on. Grandchildren staying, too, so hands full. Labour was in a mess as it suspended a second parliamentary candidate after allegations he made unacceptable comments about Israel.
Our last day and a most interesting one. We checked out of our hotel at 0745 and then had a police escort to NATO Joint Force Command (JFC). This is one of three JFCs in NATO, the other two located in Norfolk, Virginia, and Brunssum in the Netherlands.
