Much as I’d love to, I don’t have the funds to visit every restaurant and cafe in the region to nosh on fabulous local produce, beautifully prepared. Believe you me, if I had the cash, I’d be out there enjoying all the menus in the constituency (but probably *not* posting relentless pics on social media to prove my patronage and what some might say is dubious, old-fashioned vote buying). Instead, and partly because post-Covid x 3, I have some seriously annoying food intolerances including to cow’s milk, I eat at home. (I cannot express enough my frustration at not being able to eat all the cow’s milk cheese. But I have less of a reaction to goat, sheep and buffalo milk. Same with eggs. I can’t do chicken’s eggs any more but I have hopes for duck eggs. Though trying to find them locally is proving a tricky. Any providers seem to be at least an hour away from Eyemouth.)
Without realising it, I have quietly been supporting local producers for decades. In this pic, the marmalade is from Floors Castle in Kelso, a favourite visiting and shopping spot for decades. My mum and I were some of the earliest visitors to the Terrace Cafe, at a time when the delicious menu was bumped up with items from big dinners at the Castle the nights before, like the best ever French Onion soup, and we’d buy game pies, still warm from the oven and not quite set, on strict instruction to keep them upright and not drive over bumps in the road, to live off for the week ahead. I adore Floors Castle marmalade, and this pot is probably pretty ancient, as I generally stockpile preserves at times of bounty to eat when there is not much coming in. Same with the excellent Northern Edge coffee, from just over our mercifully still open Border in England: it’s several years old but still packs a taste and caffeine punch. The bread is frozen sourdough from the Coop in Eyemouth, probably from last year: again, I stockpile in a very low energy freezer for when I have fewer readies to spend on daily fresh food. And the mug is from the RSPB about a decade ago, an organisation that I have long been a fan of, starting as a Young Ornithologist in Cambridgeshire when I was in single figures in 1970s. In essence, I remain very consistent in my views and values, and I have never needed a mendacious political party or specious political ideology to tell me what to say or think or do for our constituency. I get as best I can what we constituents need overall, and how our needs fit into the greater scheme of things at Westminster and beyond, and I will try to get what I see as vital priorities for the region done, if you vote for me today to be your MP, by postal vote or on 04 July at a polling station!
Finally, if I was not up here rampaging happily around the rural beauty of Berwickshire, Roxburgh and Selkirk, I would be down in London at the march to #RestoreNatureNow
