COUNTY council budget meetings are not normally overflowing with high drama. And Friday was no exception. The meeting featured quite possibly the worst attempt at political protest since Guy Fawkes’s sparkler wouldn’t light.

Half-way through a Keiron Mallon soliloquy on the importance of something or other, chairman Patrick Greene suddenly stopped him and called for order.

Councillors looked around to see what was the reason for the interruption to proceedings.

In the public gallery, two protesters had unfurled a banner saying: “Oxford students say NO: PROTEST, OCCUPY, STRIKE. Fight the cuts.”

“Could you take that down please?” asked Cllr Greene.

“Not until everyone has read it,” replied one of the protesters politely, who, if she was an Oxford student, was mature in years, if not in political tactics.

A louche Nick Carter, idling at the back of the chamber, made a half-hearted tug to pull it down.

And then it was quietly rolled up, and the “PROTEST, OCCUPY, STRIKE” duo silently left the building.

They had protested. They sort of occupied. For a bit. The strike? Not really.

Oxford’s property-owning classes can rest safely in their beds for now.

HENLEY county councillor Peter Skolar came under fire last year for continuing to claim his £1,197-a-month council allowance during his three-month “holiday of a lifetime” cruise to South America and the Pacific aboard P&O’s Aurora.

The former GP said he had been advised to take the trip last year by his hospital consultant, in case his health deteriorated, and insisted he had been able to stay in touch by spending cash on hi-tech satellite communication systems so he could still handle correspondence from his electorate.

The Insider is glad to report that his “holidays of a lifetime” keep on coming... Dr Skolar sent his apologies to the county council budget meeting on Friday because, once again, he is on a cruise. Just for two months this time, though.

LABOUR county councillors proposed halving members’ allowances to provide more cash for services during Friday’s budget debate.

Liberal Democrat John Goddard challenged the party’s councillors, asking them how many of them had handed back half their allowances on principle.

“I’ve handed mine to my wife,” John Tanner quipped.

One of Oxford City Council’s defences over concerns about plans to record all taxi passengers’ conversations is that a sign inside cabs will make it clear to passengers that council-imposed snooping is taking place.

Let’s hope they do better than Thames Travel.

The Insider spotted a sign on its X40 Reading to Oxford bus which read: “CCTV images are being recorded and monitored for the purposes of public safety, crime prevention and accident investigation. For further information contact XXXX XXXXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX.”