Isn't it great when you hear someone mutter those immortal words "don't you know who I am?" - especially when in a spot of difficulty.

So it was for Liberal Democrat Alan Bryden, veteran county councillor for Abingdon North, who was spotted in Lloyds TSB in Oxford earlier this week getting a bit hot under the collar.

Why the Scot was getting so animated remains unclear, but what was indisputable was that Mr Bryden was heard telling a bank clerk "I'm a county councillor, you know".

As if that would have made any difference to the bemused woman.

Mr Bryden was last seen being ushered towards a customer service adviser by an equally dumbfounded member of staff.

We are very much looking forward to Peter Tatchell, the Green Parliamentary candidate for Oxford East, performing a citizen's arrest on Labour's Andrew Smith if the pair ever bump into each other on the campaign trail.

Mr Tatchell, the left-wing, gay and human rights campaigner, twice famously tried to put the handcuffs on Zimbabwe dictator Robert Mugabe - an ill-advised action if ever there was one.

Mr Tatchell said he was as pumped up now as he was when he was 20.

Who said politics was boring?

This week it was revealed that Her Majesty The Queen supports Arsenal Football Club.

But what about David Cameron, who is also said to have a little blue blood in him?

'Dave', the Witney MP and Tory Party leader is not a Chelsea or Manchester United fan, as one might have suspected, but an avid Aston Villa supporter, apparently.

Bad news for him perhaps that the 'Villains' started off the season well under new management, tailed off in the middle and now face the difficult task of replicating early season promise throughout next term.

A bit like the Tories, perhaps?

What makes a councillor tick? It's one of life's unanswered questions, but an insight into the "interests" of some of Oxfordshire County Council's finest is found by thumbing through a copy of the County Hall publicity rag Who and How, which gives a small biography of each of the 74 members.

For example, did you know Green group leader Larry Sanders was born in New York, that Labour's Liz Brighouse, pictured, was learning Russian and that Lib Dem councillor Dermot Roaf was a retired maths Fellow at Exeter College?

As you read this, the authorities are putting the finishing touches to their May Morning fun-stopping - closing Magdalen Bridge to stop drunk students leaping into the River Cherwell below.

But the tradition of jumping has given The Insider an idea - next year how about a plank on the bridge which councillors are forced to walk after a public vote.

Now, that would be democracy in action - and solve the problem of voter apathy too.