LIKE a naughty boy who bunked off school, ex-Worcester Mayor Councillor Alan Amos, the new chair of the city's planning committee, was nowhere to be seen during the crucial Middle Battenhall Farm debate last week.

In situations like this, with the chair AWOL, they usually contact the deputy chair well in advance so they can prepare to take charge on the big day.

Unfortunately, our former first citizen didn't whisper a single word to Councillor Geoff Williams, leaving him to find out the bad news from surprised planning officers during a routine private briefing as the day of the crunch vote was looming.

Daggers at dawn!

*THE fairer sex has stolen two Worcestershire MPs, including Mark 'dog-end voters' Garnier, who is the new chair of Women2Win, a campaign to elect more Conservative women to parliament.

Robin Walker's new role alongside Education Secretary Nicky Morgan, meanwhile, means he is also having to regularly round up all the females in the Commons, as Mrs Morgan is minister for women and equalities.

As far as The Source is aware these two burly county MPs are certainly men, including at weekends.

How long until they call each other sister?

* HARRIETT Baldwin, who as City Minister now mixes in even more exclusive circles than before, addressed 'richer than yow' financial services chiefs at a big annual conference this week.

"There’s a few of us in the Commons who moved from the financial services sector to stand for parliament," she told 'em, detailing her 20-years in banking.

"We often joke among ourselves that we must be the only people in the chamber who have switched to a more popular career."

* SOME gems from Lib Dem parliamentary candidate Dennis Wharton, in the week of the General Election: "The Conservatives will starve services of cash for years to come in West Worcestershire."

"The Tories won't keep the economy on the right track."

"If we get a Tory majority, we will have massive cuts to our public and welfare services and an uncertain future for the NHS."

He's now joined the Conservatives, saying his new party is turning the country around and that he's utterly fed up of his old party.

What a sorry, cruddy unmitigated sham this has turned out to be – another bloody nose for poor old Mother Democracy who yet again, has been tied up and slapped around the face with a wet kipper.

And that’s not to mention the 5,245 hardy souls who trotted along to the polling stations in May to vote for this bloke.

Have you been to drama school, Mr Wharton?