A lot of doctors and politicians could learn from Dr Michael Mosley’s approach - Sarah Todd

In mitigation, this correspondent is hardly hightailing it around the country, but the general election is only a matter of weeks away and not a single sign has been seen. No party foot soldiers have knocked on the door for a chat, no leaflets have been pushed through the letterbox.

The absence of signs shows such a stark contrast to when we first came to live in our corner of Yorkshire 20-odd years ago.

Somebody banged in Conservative posters all the way along our hedge that fronts onto the road without asking. While that may well have been where our cross was going come election day, we asked them to take them up. There was something annoying and arrogant about the party faithful presuming this then young couple would be blue.

The Son recently came home from university for The Husband’s birthday and conversation turned to the election. He will be working the harvest season on a large farm down south and his mother nattered about the importance of making sure to arrange a postal vote.

At coming up to 21, it was interesting - though also rather sad - to hear him say that he didn’t trust anybody, concluding that “all politicians are in it for themselves”.

He certainly had no time for Rishi Sunak or Sir Keir Starmer and didn’t know the name of the Liberal Democrat leader, declaring them all as bad as each other. Hardly an official poll, but he and his mates all rate Nigel Farage as being the best of a bad lot. Apparently, he “talks in a way you can understand; straight and to the point”. The fact he dares to mention tricky subjects such as immigration hasn’t gone unnoticed either. How a wealthy former private school boy can appeal to such a wide cross-section of the population while wearing an old wax jacket could be a mystery. But then, just look at Jeremy Clarkson …

Anyway, talking of being straight and to the point, that is exactly what the late Doctor Michael Mosley was. So sad to hear of the tragedy of his death last week, while on holiday on a Greek island with his wife.

He had a way of speaking to the general public that made him one of us.

Undoubtedly a very clever man, he never patronised or preached. Even when horrified at the food Brits were shovelling into their mouths he never looked down his nose at them. Instead, he rolled up his shirt sleeves, or sat behind a supermarket checkout as in his most recent television programme Secrets of Your Big Shop, and was more like a friendly football coach, working to get the team in tip-top form.

In tribute, the common sense he spoke about sugar should be put into the next Government’s medical policy. The way he lifted the lid on the secret sugars in everyday items, such as breakfast cereals or so-called healthy yoghurts, and kindly encouraged people - however overweight - to just try and move more must have changed many thousands of lives for the better. It was a common-sense miracle as he repeatedly reversed people eating their way towards type two diabetes, heart attacks and other problems.

Thinking aloud, he was like those old-fashioned family doctors that so many of us can remember from our childhoods. He was kind and friendly and - this is the most important thing - he had time.

Of course, he was making television programmes so wasn’t confined to the slots some computer-generated appointments system was filling up for him.

Everybody who appeared on his programmes seemed to get their blood pressure taken, along with other basic analysis and investigations that could make a very real life or death difference to people’s lives going forward.

In the real world, accessing medical support is a battle. There is the initial stand-off with receptionists to try and get an appointment. Of course, that’s just for a few minutes telephone chat with a doctor or nurse if luck is on the caller’s side. To actually pull up a chair in front of a medical professional takes research, tactics and the patience and determination of the most formidable of chess players.

A prescription for politicians? Like Dr Mosley, speak in simple language and strive to improve everyone’s lives.