DESPERATE for anything that saves a few quid, earlier this year Worcestershire County Council decided to outsource its IT functions - with quite bizarre consequences.

Any councillor or worker inside County Hall after an in-house IT engineer must now call an extension which automatically re-routes to Durham, where a Hewlett Packard bod 223 miles away pings an online message back down to Spetchley Road, asking said engineer to walk down the corridor.

And you thought staff screaming at their computer screens was due to George Osborne's summer Budget.

* NOT every politician gets on with social media, in fact The Source is increasingly amazed at why so many around Worcestershire are yet to convert - but it's clear who the outright winner is.

Busy Harriett Baldwin now boats a whopping 10,100 Twitter followers, at least half of whom appear to be finance bods hanging on her every word as City Minister.

I don't know if she's any good at pin-the-tail-on-the donkey but it certainly puts the likes of Robin Walker (3,500, room for improvement), Nigel Huddleston (1,050, the only way is up), Karen Lumley (1,400, underwhelming) and even Mark Garnier (5,200, must be the rugged looks) in the shade.

Is our Harriett taking tips from Justin Bieber or something?

* A COUPLE of weeks after blocking the nutty Monster Raving Loony Party's Baron Fullstop on Twitter, council chiefs barred anti-incineration campaigners from asking questions at a County Hall meeting.

Meanwhile, yet another mini-investigation's been going on in the corridors of power, this time over who 'leaked' this newspaper the news that three council workers have been suspended over the Ketch, spreading fears of dire consequences for any perpetrators.

Kim Jong-un would love it!

* ON the subject of the county council, our irrepressible Tory chums aren't half annoyed at the Chancellor, saying George Osborne has given Worcestershire an unfair hand in suddenly slashing £200 million from a key public health budget.

I'll tell you what, if anyone in the cabinet can stump up for some toy vampire fangs and a cloak we'll post it personally to Gideon.