WITH a General Election around the corner, politicians across Oxfordshire are getting hungry for power.

And Witney MP and Prime Minister David Cameron is clearly more hungry than the rest.

The Tory was “papped” taking a bite out of a Big Mac at the Headington branch of McDonald’s late last week.

Hopefully, healthy living won’t form the basis of his re-election campaign next year.

  • THE Insider likes an election as much as anybody else but Oxford City Council’s Labour Party seems to be taking things to extremes.

Three councillors have handed in their resignations, triggering three separate by-elections costing the taxpayer around £4,000 each.

The excitement of an election would normally be too much to bear for The Insider.

But 10 out of the 11 candidates who have stood or are standing in the Cowley and Carfax by-elections have failed at least once to gain election already.

The Insider applauds this political recycling but hopes that they manage to be a bit more imaginative in the upcoming Quarry and Risinghurst by-election, with the deadline for candidate nominations falling tonight

Shopkeepers in Frideswide Square appeared alarmed when the nearby road was dug up nearly two weeks before the square’s £5m redevelopment is due to start on September 1.

After asking the county council, one of The Insider’s colleagues found out that these roadworks were actually being carried out by Oxford University in preparation for the square’s redevelopment.

A spokesman for the county council insisted work hadn’t started on the actual redevelopment itself, but the university is just moving pipes and cables so the work can take place.

So it seems that the roadworks actually form part of the upcoming roadworks.

Confused? You ain’t seen nothing yet!