THE Insider breathed a sigh of despair when all of Oxfordshire’s MPs towed their respective party lines on the Leveson report.

Nicola Blackwood, John Howell, Tony Baldry and Ed Vaizey have all backed, right, Cameron’s call for independent regulation, with no new laws to back it up.

And Labour’s Andrew Smith took the Labour line, calling for statutory underpinning just like Mr Leader Ed Miliband, pictured.

Maybe one day a major issue will actually show our MPs’ true colours here in Oxfordshire.

DLAYED commuters were given an unexpected sightseeing tour of Oxford after drivers from the city’s open-top buses were drafted in to meet demand during the flooding.

One driver taking passengers on a rail replacement service from Didcot to Oxford travelled all the way around to the north of the city before taking the Woodstock Road to get into the centre.

He told bemused passengers he knew the route from his tours in the city and was less likely to get lost that way. You know what they say, better the devil you know… lInformation got lost in translation as council officers and waste company staff battled to commend plans to increase recycling rates at Sutton Courtenay to councillors.

A representative of applicant FCC Environment gave a short speech about the proposal, which was followed up by a slide-show and positive recommendations from a county council staff member.

But the two speakers, although seemingly equally in favour of the plans, clearly weren’t singing from the same hymn sheet. The council officer assured councillors on the authority’s planning and registration sub-committee that there would be “no increase” in traffic serving the site, after FCC’s representative had admitted there would be a “minimal increase” in vehicles travelling AWAY from the site. It makes the Insider wonder which organisation was more in favour of the increased recycling rates, the FCC, or the council.

THE usually sombre mood of the city council’s east area planning committee this week was lifted by the sound of hundreds of angelic voices resonating through the Town Hall.

The committee, not known for its light atmosphere, met on Tuesday night in the Old Library, but elsewhere in the historic building, children from primary schools across Oxford had gathered for the “big sing”.

Maybe more meetings at the Town Hall should be given their own live backing track.