Russell Grant on local government

Astrologer Russell Grant has just appeared on The Daily Politics to discuss how local government administration erodes our sense of identity. Honestly, I was just watching it. Ask Andrew Neil - he'll back me up.

Grant had made a little introductory film on the subject (you can watch it here) in which he strode around a model village like something out of Attack Of The 50ft Camp Vicar, making jokes about sat-nav. His point seemed to be that, sometimes, people's bins are collected by a council that isn't their own, and this way madness lies.

He seems to know what he's talking about (he's even written a book on all this), but this is what happens when you're the only person in the UK who cares about a particular cause - suddenly you're the country's leading expert.

And it's hardly surprising that he assumes he'll be taken seriously - the man has built a career on talking nonsense while everyone around him tries to keep a straight face. "Oh really, you say Pinner is in Middlesex not Harrow? How interesting. And what's this about the moon being in Uranus? *Splutter*... I'm sorry, I had a bit of sandwich in my throat. Do carry on."