Anyone who didn't vote in the recent elections has absolutely no place in moaning if the voting didn't go the way they wanted.

It was an odd one, wasn't it? That Labour won nearly two-thirds of the seats with just a third of the popular vote.

In fact, if you drill down into the numbers, it looks like the weirdest maths lesson on the planet.

I was glad that Dan and Stephanie kept their seats because I know how hard the both of them work. It never fails to surprise me though that whatever party get in, they begin to believe their own hype, think they are beyond reproach, however noble their initial intentions.

How else could you explain the sheer stupidity and arrogance of creepy Cummings driving up to Barnard Castle to test his eyes, and those cheese and wine parties while the rest of us were isolating.

Like you all, I live in hope that changes we want to see will be made, that money will be pumped into the NHS for one and no old person has to wait ten hours for a bed because I'll tell you one day the full extent of what we had to put up with regarding my own parent; it makes The Exorcist look like Andy Pandy.

But it looked like an unclear victory because Labour didn't so much win as the Tories lost. Lot of ‘protest voting’ going on in this election - probably more than ever before.

Let us remain positive and look to a rosier future under a government that doesn't become inflated by its own smugness and ends up being just the other side of the Tory coin but with red ties.

Please god, save us from that.

I was incredibly saddened to hear of the death of one my mum's neighbours Brian Moxon, known affectionately as Blue.

From the moment he arrived on their estate, he just fitted in as if he the estate had been built up around him and his lovely wife Kath.

He hadn't been well for a long time and yet when mum died, he made it up to the crematorium service to pay his respects and I was really touched by that.

And I shall be at his funeral to pay my respects to him. The world gets a little sadder doesn't it for the people we lose, the nice ones who make our days go just a little smoother for a friendly word, a hello and a wave.

Goodbye, dear Blue - may heaven be a place where you can breathe in big lungfuls of fresh, clean air without a moment's pain.

A heads up that I will be signing my new pink paperback of The Happiest Ever After at the Book Vault on Market Street in the town centre on July 18 between 10am and 12.

As it's my 21st book in my 60th (ahem) year, I have goody bags for buyers until stocks last, of course.

But they are really nice ones, if I say so myself. And very pink. So I do hope I see some of you there to say hello because I do try an look after my Barnsley readers - although the bookshop can post out if you can't get there in person with a couple of extra things in the parcel.

You can reserve a copy by ringing the shop on 281945 if you can't get in and yet you would like one signed or personalised.

I'm also in Meadowhall’s Waterstones on July 19 between 1pm and 2pm should you be shopping for summer clothing (ie cagoules/umbrellas).