Have you seen Peter Tatchell, the Green Party Prospective Parliamentary Candidate for Oxford East?

We only ask because an email popped up on our screens this week with a link asking for donations towards his campaign. And that got us thinking.

When Mr Tatchell was unveiled as the Greens’ great hope, a couple of years back, he promised to move to Oxford. But we have rarely seen him here. Have you?

Perhaps the answer is that he has decided to stay in London and travel infrequently to Oxford in a bid to save the environment and reduce his carbon footprint? Just a thought.

We get the feeling that Oxfordshire County Council might well regret publishing an appeal for two independent members of its watchdog Standards Committee.

The Insider has been told that maverick former city and county councillor John Power has applied for one of the roles, which would last for four years.

We would love to have been a fly on council leader Keith Mitchell’s office wall when he heard the news.

The Standards Committee is responsible for promoting and maintaining high standards of conduct and dealing by county councillors, apparently.

Mr Power sounds just like the man for the job to us.

LAST week, you might remember, we asked for readers to come up with a noun to describe Oxford City Council after The Insider was told off by council leader Bob Price for describing the authority as a shambles.

And while no one did, one correspondent suggested the acronym UNOBUB.

He said: “This acronym is produced from the words I always use to describe the council: UNable, Organise, Booze-Up and Brewery.”

Brilliant. Keep them coming.

THE giant electronic travel information signs that you might have seen popping up on main roads around the city, right, seem at odds with a county council which, not so long ago, was hell-bent on “de-cluttering” areas of road signs.

They are meant to provide “real time” travel information to motorists, we are told.

But the information will probably not be much use to drivers who, on most days, find themselves stuck in heavy jams as they try to negotiate their way into Oxford.

We wonder whether the massive signs will display the sky high cost of parking in a city centre car park?

Probably not.

A couple of years ago Mary Clarkson sloped off to Australia for a holiday. The lucky thing. This year, we learn, she took the family to the Isles of Scilly, off the Cornish coast, for a summer sojourn.

Is the recession biting? Or is the Oxford Lord Mayor doing her best to support the British tourist trade?