Shropshire MP Mark Pritchard was moving in heady circles this week, chalking up meetings with the head of the Roman Catholic Church, the head of the Church of England and the head of the UK Government.

On Wednesday, The Wrekin MP had a meeting with David Cameron in his capacity as secretary of the Conservative backbench 1922 committee.

And yesterday he was invited by the Queen to a somewhat more historic occasion in Edinburgh as part of the welcoming party for the state visit of Pope Benedict XVI.

For good measure, he lunched with the Archbishop of Canterbury, Rowan Williams, afterwards.

Mr Pritchard is the only Anglican member of the All Party Parliamentary Group for the Holy See, and was at Holyrood Palace for the first ever state visit to Britain by a Pope.

Pope John Paul’s highly successful tour in 1982 was a pastoral visit rather than one made at the invitation of the Queen, and I remember the tremendous ecumenical atmosphere when I went to cover his visit to Canterbury.

Pope Benedict’s visit has proved controversial but Mr Pritchard was eager to finally meet the Roman Catholic leader, having had to decline three previous opportunities.

The Wrekin MP was invited to join the parliamentary Holy See group because of his strong pro-life views, and is now the group’s joint vice-chairman. He has also written and spoken widely on social and church-related matters.

“Whilst imperfect, the Roman Catholic Church is a huge force for good in this world,” said Mr Pritchard, who has no plans to follow the likes of Tony Blair and Ann Widdecombe in converting from the Church of England.

And what of the heady mix of Queen, Pope and PM?

“I doubt there will be another week like it,” he said.

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The Coalition Government’s plan to reduce the number of MPs from 650 to 600 might appear attractive as a cost-cutting exercise, although critics doubt that any money will be saved at all.

Attractive, that is, until suggestions are put forward about which 50 constituencies would disappear or be absorbed by neighbouring seats.

A little over a decade ago, the Boundary Commission thought Shropshire was under-represented, and that the over-sized constituency called The Wrekin should be divided into two, with most of the growing new town being split off to form the new seat of Telford.

The Electoral Reform Society came up with a plan for four new Shropshire constituencies this week, which, for all the local knowledge it contained, might just as well have been drawn up the Society of Wheeltappers and Shunters.

Unless we want Shropshire’s MPs spending most of their time in their cars travelling long distances across their constituencies, the county needs to retain five MPs.

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Three of those MPs ­ Philip Dunne, Owen Paterson and Daniel Kawczynski (now parliamentary aide to the farms minister) ­will find themselves on the wrong side of popular with the general public by backing the cull of badgers announced by the Government this week.

They will, however, win approval from the farming community, which is convinced that badgers are spreading tuberculosis to cattle, creating a very real threat to Shropshire herds and therefore to the livelihoods of farmers, farm workers and connected businesses across the county.