Route to confusion
5:01pm Wednesday 2nd April 2008
- Predictably, perhaps, the free bus pass scheme for over-60s that came into force on, erm, April Fools' Day, has turned out to be something of a farce in Oxford.
Passes for the scheme that now allows OAPs to travel on buses anywhere in England have failed to arrive on time at some homes.
The excuse from Oxford City Council, which administers the scheme in the city, was "systems problems", whatever that means.
A letter that landed on many pensioners' doorsteps read: "Unfortunately, systems problems mean that a small number of people will not receive their passes by the day the scheme starts."
So, if you see OAPs thumbing lifts on the hard shoulder of the A34, now you know why.
- It is good of Oxfordshire County Council leader Keith Mitchell, who lives in a country pile in Adderbury, to agree there is a housing crisis in the county.
Stating the obvious, he writes: "On the face of it, the potential for slightly lower house prices, as a result of the much talked about credit crunch, ought to be a good thing for the many people hopeful of getting on to the property ladder in Oxfordshire.
"It cannot be right that a whole generation of people are struggling to do what their parents and grandparents before them were able to do with little complication - buy a house."
But is this the same Mr Mitchell who has consistently dismissed the idea of a new housing estate on the southern outskirts of Oxford, which could help thousands of people climb on to the housing ladder?
- Peter Tatchell, the gay human rights activist who is the Parliamentary candidate for the Green Party in Oxford East, must be chomping at the bit awaiting the result of Zimbabwe's painfully drawn-out general election.
Mr Tatchell, you may recall, was the gentlemen who tried to perform a citizen's arrest on President Robert Mugabe not once, but twice.
We assume he will raise a glass if opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai and his Movement for Democratic Change wins the poll.
- Liberal Democrat leader Nick Clegg has boasted of bedding "no more than 30" women during a frank interview with Piers Morgan in GQ magazine, which is due to be published next month.
One suspects that Mr Clegg, who really should have known better, is trying to sex up the otherwise crusty image of the also-ran party.
But if a similar interview had been conducted with The Insider, rest assured Mr Clegg's efforts would have paled into insignificance.