IN the few short weeks since I was elected, I have visited numerous schools, businesses and community organisations across the newly-extended constituency.

From CRFM, to the Borders Rail Campaign group, to Castle Chocolates, the thing they have in common is optimism and determination to change things for the better.

Criticising the efforts of others is easy. But, putting down the keyboard and delivering something better, that’s real work.

That’s the work Keith at Castle Chocolates has put in relentlessly over the past five years. Building a fantastic small business that this week moved into larger premises on Carlisle’s Fisher Street.

Castle Chocolates is a great local success story, but amid the plaudits, the siren call of the pessimist can still be heard complaining the city centre doesn’t have any shops anymore, when it clearly does.

Yes, our city centre could have more, but talking down what we do have isn’t the way to deliver it. 

And there’s Simmo. I was there for his last game on Saturday, as I am for most Saturday home games, and yes it was disappointing, but if football management was easy they’d let us fans do it. Paul Simpson didn’t have to ride to our rescue (again) in 2022, he did it because he has confidence, optimism and pride in our club and our city.

The sort of pride and optimism that inspires new owners. That’s game changing.

Addressing members of both houses of Parliament in 1982, US President Ronald Reagan said “Optimism comes less easily today, not because democracy is less vigorous, but because democracy's enemies have refined their instruments of repression.”

Back then the enemy of optimism was communism. Today it’s populism. And populism doesn’t start up successful local shops or community radio stations.

Which is why I’m a radical optimist. I believe that things can change for the better. It’s why I started the group to save Carlisle Turkish Baths. And it was that experience of coming up against the pessimistic ‘can’t do’ attitudes of individuals in positions to ‘do’, that prompted me to stand for election.

Optimism isn’t easy. It means confronting harsh realities. But as Reagan also said in the same speech: “If history teaches us anything, it teaches self-delusion in the face of unpleasant facts is folly."