THE stakes are getting higher in this month’s planned protest over the bedroom tax, which is taking place in Worcester on August 24.

Angry campaigners are using Facebook to try and cajole disgruntled Joe Public into packing Croft Road car park to ‘send a message’ to the powers-that-be.

Nobody really knows whether it will go down with a bang or be a damp squib, but the heat is certainly being turned up on city MP Robin Walker.

The Tory stuck his neck out last week to defend the controversial ‘spare room subsidy’, as its officially known, saying it was a fair way of saving public dosh and easing housing waiting lists.

Mr Walker has now received a letter from the campaigners, furious at his stance, which manages to criticise Margaret Thatcher, the bankers, councils and MPs pay packets all in one 700-word breathless rant.

Meanwhile, the Facebook page aimed at drumming up support for it has been liked over 2,200 times, and nearly 50 cities have also signed up to hosting similar protests.

So what are some Conservatives locally saying about this in whispered tones?

“Let’s hope we have a spell of wet weather,” says one. “If it rains nobody will turn out.”

* TWITTER is a novel way of telling the world what you’re up to at the touch of a button.

But what Police and Crime Commissioner Bill Longmore was doing last Wednesday, when he posted a message saying ‘zzz’, lord knows.

It’s now been deleted. Was he sleeping on the job?

Are meetings with Barrie Sheldon really that dull?

* GOOD news for Worcestershire’s digital revolution this week, after County Hall signed a deal with BT for superfast broadband to be brought to 55,000 properties.

One politician making very loud noises over how desperately the county needs this investment is West Worcestershire’s Harriett Baldwin, who has constantly been on the warpath over the dire need for faster speeds.

At a press conference for the contract signing this week, BT’s Bill Murphy, an American-born director in charge of the £20m project, had a swing at the Tory MP. He told the room, with more than a hint of sarcasm in his voice, that “one of your MPs Harriett Baldwin will be very pleased” with the investment, rolling his tongue at the word ‘very’ in his New Jersey drawl.

Touchy.