The housing chair had a habit of always falling asleep during council meetings. His political colleagues decided that at the next council meeting they would take a vote to exclude any member committing this sin. As the meeting began our housing chair dosed off. The mayor immediately called for a special vote to evict from the chamber any councillor who fell asleep during the proceedings. As the vote was being taken by a show of hands our councillor awoke, noticed the hands of his colleagues in the air and joined in the vote!

The Chair of Housing of a London Borough was incensed, “I want that young woman evicted”. The woman was living in a block with elderly neighbours who were convinced she was ‘on drugs’. Relations of the elderly neighbours were friends of the Chair of social services, and had informed him that the woman’s flat had been raided by the police who had taken away samples of a ‘white substance’. The housing manager explained the legal difficulty of attempting to evict anyone at this stage with the evidence yet to be identified. The politician was not convinced. Some weeks later the substance was identified as garlic salt! Do you think the politician thanked the officer for his professional advice?!