IT'S been an arduous few days for Worcester Councillor Richard Boorn, who has taken self-torture to a whole new level.

The Labour man's footie team, disaster-prone Birmingham City, suffered a club record 8-0 defeat to Bournemouth last weekend, a loss so horrific even Worcester City fans were taking the mickey about it on Twitter.

But Cllr Boorn's personal anguish over the result pales into insignificance compared to the absolutely agonising root canal treatment he's had recently.

After enduring the dreadfully painful procedure last week, upon going home it emerged the treatment had been cocked up by dental staff, which meant he had to go through it all over again.

Triple ouch!

* TALKING about football, Labour's parliamentary candidate Councillor Joy Squires is well known for her love of Worcester City and is a regular at Aggborough.

While waiting in the queue for a cheese and onion pie at last week's match, she edged to the front only to find the final one had been snapped up by our health reporter, Ian 'the doctor' Craig.

Prospective parliamentary princesses' political pie-snub pandemonium?

* HEADY days at Worcester City Council this week, where the Tory leadership agreed to splash around £200,000 on transforming the cemetery and crematorium.

And you thought the only corpses in need of a bit of love and attention were those frequenting the Guildhall!

* WORCESTERSHIRE County Council has become so desperate for the public to see the kid-glove-like PR guff it vomits out on Twitter, it has resorted to CAPPING UP some of its tweets.

WE CAN HEAR YOU LOUD AND CLEAR.

* AFTER the anger around Worcester's traffic census chaos comes the hilarity, with the county council insisting it was only following Department for Transport advice, and really had no other option in its pursuit of much-needed Government dosh.

What on earth does the DFT 'best practice' textbook say? 'In order to get a penny from us, you must ensure you bring your city to its knees'.

Someone in London has a great sense of humour.