Cllr Chris Ash, Peterborough Liberal Party leader: A look on the brightside '“ sort of

So this time I thought I’d have a go at a bit of optimism or at least my attempts at optimism .

After all if you are going to set to work within a community you need to take a look on the bright side of life once in a while and not get bogged down by the worry of not moving forward.

Congratulations go to all the Olympic winners and of course to everyone that took part in Rio to make it all come together.

I hope that in spite of news stories regarding the pulling back of some sports in the Paralympics, the various bodies and countries can work together to help the Paralympics in Rio match previous successes at Games in previous years in London and Beijing.

I gather that official honours will be dished out to all the successful competitors, they put their all into it.

But we can’t have winners without all those coming up behind so let’s give a cheer to all those who work hard to make it all a great success.

We should also give a big cheer to everyone who is doing their bit (not how small) to make Peterborough a better place.

But not just here but to make the wide world a better place – now that does need optimism. Don’t give up - we need you.

We should of course not gloss over nor expect those in authority to gloss over the actions of those that bring the Games or any other activity for that matter into disrepute. It’s a shame that a few seem to mar the feel good factor and they deserve our condemnation.

In spite of that I don’t think we should let the bad guys colour our views on entire communities and groups or events at home and abroad.

Bad publicity always makes big news and can reflect badly on the many people who work behind the scenes to make good things come together.

August always used to be known as the silly season when there weren’t any news stories worth chasing – but over the last few years things seem to have worsened and bad news always seems to be with us.

Bad guys work on fear and our fears make things less bearable and harder to handle. They won’t go away but let’s try to keep a brighter perspective and work to a brighter future.

Above all, for those of us who are having reasonably good times we should not forget those who struggle or are going thorough a bad patch or hit rock bottom.

A little thought and consideration for others and our surroundings from all of us goes a long way. We may not all be able to rule our own destiny but we can hope and aim for a brighter future for all of us.

Let’s go for it and get ourselves a taste of the feel-good factor.