Good to see Tory Euro pin up boy Daniel Hannan spending his summer hols preaching the ‘benefits’ of the free market US health system, and the evils of the NHS to a bemused American public (see a video of him here). Hannan has form bashing the NHS, as I’ve pointed out before.

How does David Cameron’s professed support for the principles of the NHS fit with his acolytes trashing that same NHS in America, helping to undermine Barack Obama’s modest and long overdue reform of their disastrous system?

ps - this has started a massive trending topic on Twitter #WeLoveTheNHS. I’ve twittered what I love about the NHS - why don’t you?

Why is it that some TV and radio presenters seem to think it unacceptable for Government ministers to criticise Tory policies, or lack of them?

Day in, day out, Tory politicians are given an easy ride by the media and are allowed instead to only lay into the Government.

Yet, this morning, when Peter Mandelson had the temerity to point out that the Tories would take £5bn out of the economy now, and how disastrous that would be, there were repeated attempts to silence him.

The media need to wake up to the fact that this is a contest between a Labour Government and a Tory opposition who have already assumed they will be in charge next year.

Labour politicians are perfectly entitled to question and criticise what the Conservatives are saying, particularly as the media themselves are completely failing to do so.

Remember all those dire predictions about what would happen when television switched from analogue to digital? Blank screens, pensioners not able to retune their TV sets, insurrection?

Well the Plymouth area today became the last part of the Westcountry to switch over.

Thousands of householders down here are now receiving more channels, including digital radio channels, better vision and sound quality and not a single blank screen. Financial help has been available for elderly and vulnerable people who need it and for anyone who needs help or advice retuning their TV.

Contrast this with the chaos in America when they switched over to digital!

Encouraging news on the economy as the Financial Times reports markets soaring, the world recession almost over and Britain leading the way as the first G8 country to see manfucturing recover.

No-one should be suprised at the news that the Conservative MP for the Isle of Wight, where the Vestas wind turbine plant faces closure, has been an ardent opponent of wind farms.

Cameron has tried to rebrand the Tories by talking about climate change, while Tory MPs and councils have done everything they possibly can to stymie the development of wind energy at local level.

And it’s not just the Tories. Liberal Democrat councils all over the Westcountry, supported by Lib Dem MPs, have rejected wind farm applications time after time.

Thankfully, many of the schemes have been given approval on appeal, but only after these head-in-the sand councillors have incurred whacking legal bills for their council tax payers and piled unnecessary costs and delays on our fledgling green energy industry.

But help is at hand. The Government has passed new planning rules - opposed by the tories and Lib Dems - to make it harder for local authorities to block these vital energy schemes.

Now they are coming under some scrutiny, the Conservatives’ mask is slipping further.

Firstly, Teresa May refuses five times to confirm that a Tory Government would increase the state pension and other entitlements in line with inflation.

Secondly, today’s Times reports the Tories would cut spending on hospital operations – leading to the closure of local units and a return to long waiting lists.

Over the weekend, one of their culture spokesmen, Ed Vaizey, said the Tories would privatise Radio 1 – only to be slapped down by Conservative central office. Either they are confused or Vaizey spilt the beans on the Tories’ true intentions against the BBC.

Whenever the Tories are put on the spot on what they would actually do in office, they either fall apart or say things that are either incredible or would be wholly unpalatable to most of the public.

Osborne’s plan to abolish the Financial Services Authority has been widely ridiculed, their far-right alliance in the EU is falling apart and they still can’t answer the question as to whether Lord Ashcroft pays any taxes in Britain.

As the media finally gets its act together and begins to ask some proper questions of those who want to govern this country less than a year from now, things should get even more interesting.

As it’s recess, I’m able to spend more time during the week in Exeter, and have been having a great time out and about, both delivering leaflets and knocking on doors, and visiting different organisations.

Last Thursday I joined the amazing Betty Radford and her volunteers at the Wonford Luncheon Club. Betty has been running the luncheon club for over 27 years now, and the group raise lots of money for different charitable organisations.

I had a great time chatting to the ‘lunchers’, and I can’t tell you how impressed I was with Betty and her helpers - it’s people like Betty who are the social glue in our communities and they do a brilliant job!

I’ve also been organising coffee evenings for people who replied on my last Parliamentary Report that they’d like to come along to one - so far they’ve been going really well, so thanks to everyone who has come along so far, and thanks also to the Labour Volunteers who are making the hundreds of cups of tea!