THE Insider has learnt something about the listening habits of Wantage MP Ed Vaizey.

In his capacity as culture minister Mr Vaizey was attending the Radio Festival in Salford when he admitted that he prefers Classic FM to BBC Radio 3.

He told the audience that he finds its output “accessible and informal”.

The Insider wonders if Mr Vaizey’s constituents feel the same about their MP.

THERE seems to be a bit of confusion about who is doing what at Oxfordshire County Council.

At this week’s cabinet meeting the Labour spokesman for finance, Nick Hards, began putting his question to the council’s leader Ian Hudspeth, pictured.

This was before realising that he should actually have been questioning the new cabinet member for finance Lawrie Stratford.

Mr Stratford is new to his post but in the confusion that followed Mr Hudspeth admitted he could have designs on Mr Stratford’s position.

YOUR opinion of whether planners at Oxford City Council are any good at their job will depend on your point of view – sometimes literally if a building is put outside your house. But one thing is clear: spelling is not their strong suit.

They have recently put together the Northern Gateway area action plan proposed submission which sets out how the area in Wolvercote will be developed and which they have submitted to the Secretary of State for approval.

What do they expect the Government’s opinion to be when a civil servant picks up the document and sees, on the front cover, that they have actually picked up the “Northern Gateway area action plan proposed submision”.

YESTERDAY saw Oxford’s Lord Mayor inspect the City Walls in a ceremony that dates back to the 14th Century and is held every three years.

Lord Mayor Mohammed Abbasi was joined by the rest of Oxford’s city councillors – who are now overwhelmingly Labour compared to the Conservative-run county council.

In fact it is now 12 years since a Conservative was last elected to the city council and it is made up of only Labour, Green and Lib Dem councillors.

The idea of inspecting the City Walls may seem outdated now, but with county council leader Ian Hudspeth floating plans for a unitary authority across Oxfordshire maybe Mr Abbasi is planning to keep those pesky Tories out of Oxford.