Only last week, The Insider was lamenting the lack of originality in Oxford’s student protests.

But it seems the radicals have taken the call for creativity to heart.

First, inspired by county council leader Keith Mitchell’s put-down that they were “badly dressed”, they returned to County Hall in their Sunday best, with the odd bowler hat to boot.

They also came armed with cartoon masks of their new nemesis (the aforementioned Mr Mitchell) and had penned a verse or two to sing in his honour.

The song – that called for Keith to apologise or, better still, retire – was to be sung to the tune of Blue Danube in C minor.

Only in Oxford do campaigners stipulate the key in which to sing the songs of protest.

If, like the Insider, council jargon leaves you baffled and you don’t know your ALS from your ECS, rest assured: you are not alone.

For it turns out staff at County Hall are equally confused, so much so that Oxfordshire County Council has an acronym-buster on its internal website.

Staff can look up such mysteries as SPPO (strategic purchasing partnership for Oxfordshire) or LSIS (learning and skills improvement service).

But some explanations of acronyms need further explanation – a sort of acronym-buster-buster.

For instance, staff are told that an MFD is a multi function device, and that translates as a printer/scanner.

And other acronyms look like shorthand for ‘mix up’ – the acronym-buster points out that OCC can stand for both Oxfordshire County Council or Oxford City Council.

It does beg the question: if your own staff don’t know what the acronyms stand for, then why are they used in the first place?

We are “all in it together”, the Government keeps telling us. What ‘it’ is depends on your politics. We are also told growth is the key to economic redemption.

So it is good to see Oxfordshire MPs playing their part and putting something back into the local economy – as revealed by their expenses Wantage MP Ed Vaizey, right, tops the effort list after claiming a 60p pay-and-display ticket at a car park within his constituency.

He was closely followed by Andrew Smith who charged the taxpayer £2 so he could park his car.

Stationers will be grateful to Witney MP and PM David Cameron...after he ran up £11 on pens.

Thanks for helping us help ourselves.