Regional rescue needed

THUNDERBIRDS - where are you when we need you?

A bit of International Rescue certainly would have come in handy at the launch of Merseyside’s new “super council” - otherwise known as the Liverpool City Region Combined Authority.

The event reminded me of Peter Gabriel’s Games Without Frontiers: leaders playing silly games.

I loved Thunderbirds, and I was lucky enough to meet its creator Gerry Anderson - no relation to Joe Anderson, Liverpool’s outspoken Mayor.

Anderson (G) told me Thunderbirds had a mission to make society a better place.

The super council claims to have the same grand idea.

The Merseyside group has six key figures (or that could be seven if you count local government minister Eric Pickles hovering just out of frame).

They are the leaders of Wirral, Halton, Knowsley, St Helens and Sefton councils along with the Mayor of Liverpool, Anderson (J).

Its inaugural meeting was a shambles. Joe claimed the vote for who should be chairman was taken as he was on his way to the meeting and out of the room.

Others present claimed the Mayor deliberately had failed to show up on time, as he knew he wasn’t going to be chosen. Who knows what actually went on?

But the unedifying start will not have given those who elected them much confidence.

Merseyside has suffered from political rows many time before, painting an unflattering picture to the rest of the country We need a dynamic authority that really is a super council acting with real vision and tackling the important issues that affect us all.

Thunderbirds not Dunderbirds

Our political leaders should have supported each other from the outset. We are their puppet masters and there are serious strings attached...our votes at the May elections.

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Roger and out

Roger Lyon, the BBC radio presenter who compered our Golden Globes awards, is limbering up for his 25th London Marathon. And he says it will be his last one. Roger told the Inferno that in past years he has raised money for the Guide Dogs for the Blind, which was founded in New Brighton.

On that occasion good sport Roger even dressed up in costume for the 26-mile trek, with a black doggy nose and floppy hound ears. He looked quite a picture as a six-foot something canine.

After the run he got the tube back to his hotel but was asked by a fellow passenger: “have you been running in the marathon?”

To which he politely barked back: “No, I always go out dressed like this.”

Next Sunday he is raising money for the Liverpool - based Pony Sanctuary in Buckley Hill - and unfortunately he won’t be dressing up as a pony Roger - over and out and enjoy your last marathon. Give yourself a carrot.

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Royal flush

Good to see my favourite royal Princess Anne opening the superb new Wallasey Seafearers club.

The last time I “met” her was at the Grand National and I cheekily asked her if she had any tips.

She walked right past me while one of her royal bodyguards sternly wagged a finger at me and said: “Protocol”.

I looked everywhere on the race card for a horse called Protocol.

Then I realised that I should only have spoken to her to her if she had spoken to me first.

That experience gave me a right royal flush.

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And finally, talking of flushes, the touring menopause musical Hot Flush, starring Lesley Joseph, has already had people talking about its near-the knuckle content.

On the poster advertising its tour, which comes to Wirral on April 30, audiences are warned: “You may laugh your knickers off, girls.”

Think I’ll give that one a miss.

Might be washing my hair instead that night.