THE Source has seen so many rabbits pulled out of hats over the past few days, one doesn't know where to start.

There was a time when doing a 'u-turn' was seen as a sign of weakness in politics, but not any more.

Not only have the sands of time shifted to such an extent that u-turns are vogue, actually not doing one these days carves you out as a bit of a weirdo.

For the best part of three months Worcestershire County Council's Conservative leadership has insisted it intends to get rid of its entire £3 million public transport subsidy.

But suddenly, after an unprecedented 8,500 comments during the public consultation, £1.1 million has been found to soften the blow come September.

The council had also hatched a plan to slash 60 per cent of a yearly £15 million pot for vulnerable people, but after pleas from all and sundry a £3 million 'transition' fund has been provided to quieten the disgruntled, at least for now.

This reverse trajectory has caught on like wildfire - at Worcester City Council we've now been told the once-threatened Saturday skips will no longer be axed, the Waterworks Road car park will stay free and not become chargeable, and football pitch rentals will not go up 45 per cent in one fell swoop.

From being on the agenda, it's now all off the agenda, or wax on, wax off as the Karate Kid might say.

County Hall is ran by staunch Conservatives, the Guildhall is controlled by Labour's socialist pact, but it appears this lot have much more in common than we first thought: an inclination to change tack when public mood demands it.

And this isn't a bad thing.

So on this day of love, as it's Valentines Day, let's not call this weakness, let us not accuse anyone of stirring up ideas that were bad in the first place, and instead let's hold out an almighty red rose for Hardman, Gregson, etcetera.

You told 'em, they listened, despite the ear wax.

Taxpayers of Worcestershire, councillors, pucker up!

* TONY 'Teflon' Blair was known to alter his language to suit his audience, like all good politicians should.

And boy has it caught on in Worcester, if Labour Councillor Richard Boorn is to be believed.

Cllr Boorn, the cabinet member for finance at the Guildhall and therefore the man who holds those all-important purse strings, said: "It's interesting that Councillor Geraghty (Simon, the former Tory city council leader) no longer calls them 'efficiency savings', he calls them cuts, and I probably don't call them cuts, I call them efficiency savings'."

Teflon, often said to be the best Prime Minister the Conservatives never had, would clearly be proud of both of them.