WHAT a difference a couple of weeks makes.

The last time I wrote this column for the Evening Mail I was thinking that my goalkeeping skills and the sad state of affairs at Blackburn Rovers were the big issues for the coming weeks.

Two weeks later, we are already mid election, my wife and children have seen more of me on TV and Youtube than they have at home. But that is the life of a politician when a general election gets under way I am afraid.

Actually, this election was announced mid-way through the Cumbria County Council election campaign so for many of us it really means four extra weeks of knocking on doors that we hadn’t planned on.

Actually, I believe the election is coming at a good time as we are beginning to see the shape of the current government’s plans for us and our public services.

I have written here about the cuts planned to the education being provided for our children. With the savings equivalent to 625 teachers’ salaries being asked of schools across Cumbria. This at a time when the government had announced plans for extra investment to provide new grammar and other types of schools.

You can add to this the government’s plans to make south Cumbria one of only six areas in the country where they want to fast track their Sustainability and Transformation plans. In theory these plans could be good as they are about keeping us all healthy and out of hospital. However, we all know that the risk is that we will see cuts to our health services without any investment in the services needed to help keep us out of hospital.

I’m afraid that they really don’t have a great track record in spending on social care or any of the other services we urgently need. The doctors’ organisation the BMA has warned that these plans are being "used as a cover for delivering cuts, starving services of resources and patients of vital care". So I really am not filled with optimism.

As if this was not enough, I read the other day that Cumbria is one of only two places in the country where GPs are actually being incentivised to reduce the numbers of people they refer to hospital for heart operations. This really cannot be good news.

This all comes after we have already seen plans to cut services like our police and justice services with the closure of the courts in Kendal.

But what worries me most is that if the current government is re-elected they won’t face proper opposition. That is why I will be working very hard indeed over the coming six weeks to ensure we don’t simply see a Conservative landslide at the election. I really cannot see how that would be good for any of us.

So I must apologise to my children but they really cannot expect to see much of me for quite some time to come. I hope they will understand.