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Funnily enough when I joined Oxford East Lib Dems it was almost completely run by sexual deviants. When I hesitated to answer "I am gay" on my vetting question for city councillors "Is there anything else you want to tell us that, if it became public, might bring embarrassment to the party" I was reassured to find that not only were my two vetters also a little light in their loafers, but so were most of my fellow candidates and at least half of the constituency executive.

So, don't get me wrong, I think gay rights, and more generally the right of people to live their lives how they want pretty much, are crucial parts of a liberal ideology, and yes, it's an international battle. But for someone like Peter Tatchell who has pledged his troth to fight Oxford East for the Green Party on local issues, I would suggest that means doing your bit for the international cause of human rights by making sure we ditch the government that now promises us "Suss Laws" not unlike those under which one might suspect Mr Tatchell has been vexatiously held in Moscow this weekend.

Oxford East has problems a-plenty for someone seriously wanting to represent us at Westminster to get to grips with, and full time too. They may not always get you onto national television, but we are looking for an MP at the next election, not a C list celebrity media whore.

Merseyside police work with Revenue and Customs and other agencies to stop £166m of drugs entering the country

...and the powers that be may be talking.

But bugger that, the IDF needs something to do so they are practicing on anything that moves in Beit Hanoun, Gaza:

The town of Beit Hanoun in the northern Gaza Strip has been under siege since early Wednesday.

The Israeli army says it is trying to root out Palestinian rocket squads, who fire from Gaza into Israel.

Ibrahim al-Za'anin, a 55-year-old Palestinian Authority employee, describes conditions for him and his family in his hometown.

Lest we forget why the world sometimes seems out to get us. I cannot imagine what it must be like to live anywhere within Israel's sphere of influence when they decide to project their power.

For all those people who claim that alternate weekly residual waste collection has given rise in Oxford to a plague of rats and who believe they can demonstrate that by pointing to the 5% increase in the number of callouts to the council's pest control department in the second half of the year (despite a 20% drop in the first half of the year) comes less comforting news from elsewhere in the country:

BBC NEWS | England | Shropshire | Rat complaints double in a year:

Mr Rodgers says other areas have experienced the same problem

Shrewsbury and Atcham Borough Council received 118 calls in 2006 and they have had 255 so far in 2007.

Rat-catcher Geoff Rodgers said the animals love decking, water features and bird seed but he believes climate change is also a factor.

"We've seen a marked increase this year in the amount of calls this autumn but this area is no different to other areas in the country," he said.

He added: "They've all experienced the same problem. It's just something that we have got to work with and bear in mind.

"With climate change these creatures adapt to it like they adapt to other things."