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Goodbye Cornwall, hello Somerset. Another flying visit to the aged Ps before returning home tomorrow.
My dad has recently celebrated his 90th birthday and proudly told us that the local MP had unexpectedly turned up on the day to personally give him his birthday card. He is a man who has done much for Cheddar and the surrounding area in the last 51 years and there should probably be a statue to the man in the town centre or a Keith Herring world at the end of Cox's Cave.
I discovered something that I did not know before. When he retired thirty years ago, the Lib Dems approached him and asked if he would stand as their candidate at the general election. I am not sure that the Lib Dems has much chance of winning back then (though the present incumbent is of that persuasion), but what a ride that would have been. And I can't help thinking that Keith Herring would have been the perfect person to be an MP. He's a decent, honest and fair man and only a slight bit of an idiot who mistakes lip balm for cheese etc. But he'd have totally been there for his constituents and not been out for himself at all. Imagine a parliament full of decent selfless and incorruptible people .
The problem with the Keith Herrings of the world is that they would turn down the opportunity, as my dad in fact did. Though I'd loved to have seen him bumble his way through parliament and provide me with (another) sitcom's worth of material.
I'm glad really, that instead of having to put himself through all that he got to enjoy his retirement. I think he was retired by my age. The lucky bastard. I have to keep on working until I die (hopefully soon).
Come and see RHLSTP live in London this autumn. First guest announced for 28th September- the divine Isy Suttie.
Tickets.
