*PROTECTING children must be a concern for us all, but The Insider is worried at how distorted the fear of child molesters lurking around every corner is becoming.

Last week one of my colleagues was tasked with looking for children who turned 11 on Friday – 11/11/11, much like most newspapers in the Western World.

Resourcefully she contacted, amongst others, leaders in the Oxfordshire scouting movement.

This is the (badly spelt) reply she received from someone whose name we’ll withhold: “Please pass this request through the Scout Association as I do not answer random e-mails as you may be a peodo (sic) on the lookout for a new conquest”

*HOW times have changed for Government Ministers. Once upon a time it was a fact that you could rely on having a Jag or two, and if you were lucky, you would get a Daimler to ferry you from meeting to photo opp and back to another meeting.

Then the green wind came blasting in, and no Minister would dare be seen in anything but an eco-friendly Toyota Pious.

Now the times are sterner still. As Nick Hurd MP came on a tour of Oxford’s Big Society projects this week, he was ferried around with county councillors inside a Thrifty rental van.

Perhaps ‘thrifty’ could replace ‘prudence’ as the Government’s favoured mantra.

*AND if students like their late night antics, why shouldn’t pensioners join in too? It is good news for nightlife-loving oldies, after the county council changed an odd anomaly that stopped over-60s using their bus passes between the hours of 11pm and midnight.

“Pensioners can live it up all night on the buses if they want to,” 65-year-old council leader Keith Mitchell told his Cabinet this week.

Well, he will soon be at a loose end once he quits as leader next May.