While Westminster self-combusts, we can be thankful we  have Oxfordshire Council to show us what real farce looks like. Last year they banned all meat and dairy products for councillors while providing councillors with exotic fruit, imported from around the world with massive carbon footprints. Tory councillors subsequently abandoned the taxpayer-funded lunches and headed to the nearby Wetherspoons instead…

Last Friday the Lib Dem-run council voted to maintain the ban. One of the councillors in favour of the ban, Bethia Thomas, outed herself as a high-steaks hypocrite when admitting on the floor of the chamber that she’s taken to smuggling milk in to the premises following the ban.

“I just wanted to clear up some confusion because there’s been talk about members of the opposition bringing in cows milk and I think that was me… it is a beef farm and it does honey and eggs and lots of other things too… I have brought things in from my local farms in my division, I have done that and I have offered it around. I’ve brought in milk the only time I haven’t done it is this time because last time county council stole my bottle.”

Surely Councillor Thomas should have stuck to her principles and voted against the ban. Or did she lose her bottle?