HERE’S a big tip for taxi-guzzling councillors.

The meter is on now and you are being clocked. Countdown to May 7 is less than 100 days.

According to a Freedom of Information request (God Bless that public right) Labour councillors have spent almost £3,000 on taxi expenses.

As Scrooge would say: “Is there no public transport?”

Councillor Leader Phil Davies told the Globe that some of his members don’t have cars.

Stop at the red lights here, Phil.

Councillors are there to serve the public - they are not there to be taxied to the well-carpeted, cosseted town hall for meetings. The taxpayers are paying these fares. Getting to a crucial meeting for a vote that affects everyone should be in their diaries.

Booking a cab in an emergency is allowed…but just once.

There are bus and train timetables for everyone to see.

In an age of austerity, councillors should show some reality and decency.

Job seekers have to pay out of their meagre benefits to get to an interview otherwise they will be sanctioned.

I pray that councillors who use the system and then also get a taxi home from a meeting will now pay for it out of their own pockets.

Councillors claiming taxi fares on expenses at this scale is a disgrace.

The Inferno, on behalf of those who wait at railway stations, cope with bus replacement services and suffer every day with getting from A-to-B, says enough is enough.

STOP TAKING US FOR A RIDE.

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AS I swanned through a shop in Meols avoiding the arrival of Easter Eggs, I sighed at the shelves displaying the forthcoming celebration of February 14 - Saint Valentine's Day - the patron saint of commercialism.

I stood there dreaming - (cue Daydream Believer by The Monkees) - a dream that I had received a plethora of passionate cards from the "Valentine Vote Vultures".

But whose card deserved the place on my apolitical mantle piece?

The first one I opened was blue.

It said: "To the one I love" (from a pack of ten) it declared: "I want to get in bed with you … if another coalition comes through."

Next a flowery labour of love: “Roses are red, Violets are blue Who cares about others…? "When we can woo you?"

The third was all in mellow yellow, “Hey diddle diddle This much is true "We're stuck in the middle … with you." 

Then came a cute card, one with a bulldog drinking a pint barking: "I could do with a Kip how about U?"

Then someone in the shop queue gave me a dig in the ribs, and I awoke.

So the Inferno tells you, come May 7, I will put a big X smacker on a ballot paper. I am not saying for whom.

But I will send my own Valentine card featuring The Muppets I will write inside: "Saw this and thought of you. Sincerely, from me to all of you."

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I SUPPORT any scheme that seriously aims to get people back to work. But are job fairs the answer?

Or are they fair grounds where your chance of winning a job is on par with bagging a coconut?

One visitor last week went to an event in Birkenhead called Working on Wirral.

He left dismayed that, after spending a lot of money on photo-copying CVs, they told him he should have applied on-line.

What a pity there wasn’t a table manned by vote-hungry MPs on how to have a career in politics. Ironically, the Anger Management “stall” proved to be very helpful for our jaded job-seeker Maybe every Jobcentre Plus should have one.

 

AND finally ... David Cameron had a "cold call" from a spoof spy.

But if only it was a real random phone pest - imagine the scenario: DC talking to a foreign leader forced to break off to say: "Can I take this call?" 

Silence.

"Mr Cameron, you have been awarded up to £10,000 PPI insurance?”

Mr C would then know what a nuisance caller really is.

Peter Grant