THE Insider admits to having been caught up in some of the furore surrounding the hunt for mad/racist UKIP candidates.

Ever the good journalist, he (or is it she?) tracked down a few of Oxford’s “kippers” on the internet to see what tales they could tell.

Perhaps The Insider shouldn’t be surprised when he discovered that a number of them, including Hinskey Park city candidate Stuart O’Reilly, have put their Twitter accounts on private.

What are they hiding?

Oxford Mail:

UKIP candidate Stuart O’Reilly

ON the topic of the elections, The Insider’s, well, insiders tell him that today’s EU debate in Culham was a close run thing.
The debate at the European School is set to feature three sitting MEPs and several candidates but there was almost a scramble for a new venue.
That’s because of rules on holding political events on government property in the run-up to elections.
The event was finally given permission to go ahead by the Cabinet Office.
UKIP complains about bureaucracy in Europe but there’s plenty at home.

HERE at Oxford Mail towers we were interested to receive a communique from the Green Party telling us how successful they could be.
In it, they informed us that they could take advantage of the slump in Lib Dem support, become the city council’s second biggest party – and so the official opposition.
The party’s arithmetic is undoubtedly correct but was it wise to count chickens?
There’s still plenty of time for the party to fall flat on its face.
Maybe The Insider should print off the email and keep it for future reference.

Oxford Mail:

Ed Vaizey (right)

WANTAGE MP Ed Vaizey is always careful to avoid getting stung by any controversy affecting the Department for Culture, Media and Sport.
But the Parliamentary Under Secretary for Culture, Communications and Creative Industries was quite happy to live dangerously by appearing in this publicity shot highlighting the Government’s consultation on a proposed national pollinator strategy for bees in England.
During a recent event at the House of Commons, Mr Vaizey learnt that two of the 25 bumblebee species have become extinct in recent years and others have greatly reduced in numbers – unlike Tory MPs who show no signs of dying out.