JUDGE kicks the bucket in courtroom blackout drama, the headline could read. When a power cut hit Oxford Crown Court last Friday, a senior judge who has sat at Oxford for many years left the bench until the problem was fixed.

Unfortunately dodgy electrics are not the court’s only sign of its age.

For some weeks, a leaking roof has meant a bucket has been strategically placed to collect dripping rain water.

Clang!

THERE was only one subject of discussion when The Insider visited the County Hall canteen this week.

On Saturday, the Oxford Mail revealed that the council was getting thrice-weekly deliveries of sandwiches made in London, because they were cheaper than getting them made anywhere in Oxfordshire.

And it seemed that staff were thinking again about whether to buy the imported produce.

“No wonder they sometimes taste stale,” one council officer was overheard saying.

DAVID Cameron certainly will be cutting down on the sandwiches, after revealing he is going on a new health drive in 2012.

The Prime Minister and Witney MP has revealed that he has piled on pounds since moving into No 10.

Not a surprise, given he recently let slip that he had completed every level of the computer game Angry Birds while taking time off from running the country.

Now he has made a New Year’s Resolution to lose weight.

He is going on early-morning runs with a personal trainer, and has put his aides on “bun watch” during official engagements.

AND it looks like the MP for Wantage may lose some weight too. Culture Minister Ed Vaizey has not always shown his delight at the Oxford Mail publishing his expense claims in the interests of transparency – particularly those for sums of 8p, 18p and 23p for short car journeys made by his staff.

But on a visit to Abingdon Road in Drayton to meet parents worried about their children having to walk to school alongside a busy road, he quipped to the Oxford Mail reporter: “This is the first time I’ve ever walked 0.8 of a mile – I’ll have to claim it on expenses.”

Our correspondent reminded him he had to walk back as well.

PLOUGHLEY county councillor Catherine Fulljames has spent years fighting in vain against plans for a waste incinerator to be built in her division at Ardley.

Now those of her electorate living in the far north-eastern outposts of Oxfordshire look set to get the High Speed 2 Rail line cutting past their homes on the former route of the Great Central Railway.

So councillors had a bit of fun at her expense during Tuesday’s meeting of the council’s cabinet, suggesting a nuclear power station or a wind farm could also be built in her division.

“Or a loony farm!” came a cry from the back of the room.