While the cattle are still parading at the Great Yorkshire Show, all is well with the world - Sarah Todd

Yes, walking onto that hallowed Harrogate turf remains one of the finest feelings in the world.

But thoughts of Reform’s immigration and justice spokesperson - most media seem to have missed out this title and referred to her only as a former Conservative minister (the party that didn’t send her to the House of Lords) - were never more than a cat’s whisker away. She shared her life with a ginger tom called Aloysius and, as an aside, there will be more than yours truly pleased to hear he is being looked after.

The only saving grace is Miss Widdecombe’s strong faith. In interviews she spoke about being reunited in heaven with her parents and her dearly departed feline friends.

References to her height in obituaries - she was five foot one and-a-half inches and always used to quip ‘don’t forget the half’ - did raise a smile. Measuring in at five foot and that oh-so-important half-an-inch there has been countless occasions when this columnist has had to elbow her way past a load of lanky lefties at press conferences.

From now on, the next time some social media influencer pushes in front ‘for a quick video’ a statuesque redheaded reporter will set them straight.

What a grump. But there is a very real risk of putting style above substance. Pushing popularity onto a podium. Clicks over clarity.

YouTube, Instagram, TikTok and all the podcasters have their place, but we must never tip the scales too far in their direction and leave the thousands of others out on a limb because they don’t download apps. Printed catalogues, listing exhibitors and all animals breeding, must be preserved at all costs. If Ed Miliband doesn’t like a bit of paper being used, he can net zero off. Told you, the future is forthright.

With it being an early harvest, there would be many farmers who had to give the show a miss this year. Not for them formal networking and lunching like those attending on big salaries.

However flat out its lads and lasses have been, it’s to farming’s credit how many have downed tools over the last week or so to rush to the aid of neighbours hit by a series of frightening fires.

From ferrying water to ploughing firebreaks and moving livestock. Farming really has stepped up to the crease and - in this instance - even miseries like your correspondent can’t deny the effectiveness of social media. Appeals for help on the likes of Facebook very probably saved lives.

And back to the showground. The Yorkshire Agricultural Society does education very well. Farm safety and dealing with the threat of fires was given a real platform at the event, which attracted a record-breaking total of 150,000 visitors.

Maybe it’s those rose-tinted spectacles slipping, but there seems to be less of an evening atmosphere on the showground now it’s spread over four days.

So here’s an idea, how about booking Britain’s Got Talent winners The Hawkstone Farmers’ Choir for a stirring hometime sing-song on the President’s Lawn next year?

While we’re on, we really must be overdue a Royal visit. Also, with all the stress his party put the farming community through with its proposed inheritance tax raid, that chap from Manchester who is taking over the reins as Prime Minister on Monday would have won some respect if he’d popped up the M62.

Please our Andy, save us from yet more men and women in suits who have never had any interest in or connection with agriculture and the rural way of life. Love hunting - or not, like the late Miss Widdecombe - it would take a heart of stone not to paws for thought at the hundreds of years of tradition among the hounds and their handlers taking part in this week’s show.

Thought didn’t seem to come into BBC presenter Chris Packham’s recent comments about aforementioned Hawkstone Choir founder Jeremy Clarkson’s farm.

Appearing on an episode of Celebrity Gogglebox at the beginning of the month he accused the title sequence of the television hit Clarkson’s Farm of giving viewers an unrealistic picture of farming.

"That’s not what a farm looks like," he said, continuing: “Most farms are horrible monocultures which have been sprayed with deadly chemicals.

"The ground has been pumped full of fertiliser and most of the animals are indoors, in crates, being crushed and kept in the dark."

Let us, in Miss Widecombe’s memory, follow her example of debating and disagreeing. But out in the open, not nameless behind keyboards or one-sided from positions of privilege like an appearance on a primetime television programme.

Finally, to the hundreds of volunteers who make all agricultural shows possible, we tip the Great Yorkshire’s iconic bowler and straw hats to you.

Football’s most famous trophy might not be coming home, but while there are cattle parading and Whitakers still showjumping in that magnificent main arena all is pretty much well with the world.

Sarah Todd is a journalist specialising in farming and country life. Read her weekly column in Wednesday’s edition of The Yorkshire Post.