COUNTY council leader and Conservative councillor Ian Hudspeth is clearly taking a leaf out of the book of his party’s national leadership. He and sidekick Arash Fatemian, the cabinet member for finance, put the finishing touches to the county council’s budget before it was approved on Tuesday.

The eagle-eyed among you will notice that in the picture they are munching on burgers much like Chancellor of the Exchequer George Osborne, also pictured, last year.

There was furore last year over the provenance of Mr Osborne’s burger – which came from upmarket burger chain Byron – but Mssrs Hudspeth and Fatemian opted for Cowley Road’s Atomic Burger. We always knew they were men of the people – though their meals obviously aren’t as slimline as their budgets.

SPEAKING of Mr Fatemian, the Conservative revealed during Tuesday’s meeting that he had just purchased a Euromillions ticket. Obviously a generous soul, he has gambled his own hard-earned cash in a bid to alleviate the county council’s cash-flow problems.

But while we should never look a gift horse in the mouth, it is perhaps slightly sobering to note that last night’s jackpot was only £12m. Even if Mr Fatemian were to be successful that would go nowhere near plugging the gap of £90m which has been taken out of the county council’s budget by central government. Maybe it would be better if the county council put aside some money to pay for Mr Fatemian to go to Las Vegas...

AS THE budget was passed, the name of each county councillor was read out and they responded with a “yes”, “no” or “abstain”.

There was much complaint from the Labour benches when the party’s former stalwart Les Sibley responded with a yes, voting for the budget. But perhaps the Labour Party can be accused of lacking foresight because only a year ago Mr Sibley was “dumped” by the party. In last year’s county council elections the North Oxfordshire Labour group decided to field Steve Sargeant as its candidate for Bicester West. Mr Sibley, who was first elected to the authority in 2001, successfully ran as an independent Mr Sargeant came, ahem, fourth. Since then Mr Sibley has been backing the Conservative Party – perhaps causing some Labour councillors to rue the decision.