A few weeks ago, I spoke in this column of the wonderful event at Sherborne School to mark Alan Turing’s 109th Birthday with a memorial. I am delighted to tell you that the Government has named its new international exchange programme after Alan Turing as the successor to the Erasmus programme. When the government first said that it would not be participating in the Erasmus scheme as part of our leaving the EU, many people spoke ill of it. But whereas Erasmus gave exchange opportunities across Europe, the new Turing scheme will offer exchange opportunities to 150 countries across the world for 40,000 students. It is a wonderful scheme and I am so pleased that we are able to name it after Alan. And whatsmore, 48% of the places on this scheme will be awarded to youngsters from disadvantaged backgrounds.

Two weeks ago, I urged the Secretary of State for Communities, Robert Jenrick, that we require an amount of non-ringfenced funding for Dorset Council to respond to domestic abuse as quickly and effectively as possible so we can deliver faster and better help to those who need it most.

I met the Managing Director of South Western Railway last week. She is new and a former colleague of mine and she also has close links to West Dorset. So I have taken the opportunity to lobby hard to return our two trains per hour between Dorchester and Weymouth as well as or summer service to Weymouth from Gillingham and Sherborne.

The A35 has, in my opinion descended into a fairly bad condition. So much so, that I called out Highways England in the House of Commons a few months ago after months of challenging, I’m delighted that my A-Road taskforce is starting to take affect with getting the monkey’s jump roundabout at Dorchester sorted out.

CHRIS LODER

WEST DORSET MP