FIRST inter-continental assignment last week for Worcester MP Mike Foster, following his recent elevation into Gordon Brown's ministerial ranks.

As if a £30,000 pay rise wasn't enough for the Labour man to put up with, he now also has to handle such arduous assignments as, erm, hanging out in beautiful Nepal.

Nice work if you can get it.

There was a serious point to Mr Foster's trip, of course, giving the minister the opportunity to view rapidly-disappearing glaciers and visit community projects in poverty-stricken areas - all worthy stuff, you'll agree.

But interestingly, our media-savvy MP is so down with the kids these days he even recorded a YouTube report of his trip – you can see it for yourself at dfid.gov.uk.

Fashionistas will note that Mr Foster has chosen an unusual ethnic hippy-cum-sports-casual clothing combo for his video report from the Nepalese forest, bravely marrying a long student-traveller-style bead necklace with a brown Worcester Warriors polo shirt.

And if that wasn't enough to scare off the good people of Nepal, check out the gun-toting armed guards who helped the MP make his way through the Kathmandu traffic.

Talk about cutting through the congestion – much more of this and Mr Foster won't need that Worcester ring road he's campaigning for after all...


YET more praise this week for those high-achievers up at County Hall, with the county council now officially the fastest-improving authority in the entire country.

Government inspectors are clearly impressed with the council's success in making millions of pounds in savings without too much obvious impact on services – give or take the odd pensioner hot lunch, of course.

But with fuel prices still sky-high, it might be worth the council checking the temperature gauges within County Hall to find further savings – a recent scrutiny meeting saw councillors overcome by the oppressive heat pouring from the radiators, with several forced to take cover on the far side of the room in a desperate bid to escape.

“If we're talking about efficiencies, I think the temperature of this room could be a good place to start – it seems to be something akin to the Gates of Hades, ” remarked the ever-eloquent Tory John Campion, as those around him wilted in the heat.