* Thames Valley Police’s most prolific Twitter user continues to fire out pearls of wisdom in 140 characters.

Witney copper Chief Inspector Colin Paine pricked his followers’ festive fervour with a cautionary tale this week, telling them: “If you hear sleigh bells & the sound of someone coming down the chimney. Then remember its (sic) three weeks till Christmas. Its (sic) probably a burglar.”

* A hapless criminal got a double penalty at his sentencing hearing at Oxford Crown Court this week.

Marin Popa was jailed for two years for possessing a card-skimming device in Oxford, but that wasn’t the end of the 23-year-old’s woes.

The Romanian national, and resident of Middlesex, was arrested in the city centre on November 2 and taken straight to a police station before being remanded in custody by magistrates.

All the while his car remained marooned in St Giles. That is until the Remembrance Day commemorations, when it was duly towed away by the city council.

He was told of its fate just moments before the judge sent him off to Bullingdon Prison.

* The Insider is glad to see Prime Minister and Witney MP David Cameron wading into the Corn Exchange debate.

The Grade-II listed building was closed last month because of health and safety fears.

But we hope the PM doesn’t wade into the building itself, given this week’s revelation that the balcony is propped up by metal rods and the masonry near the entrance is dodgy.

The saga of the building rolls on as Witney Town Council releases information like some sort of nightmare advent calendar.

We wonder what revelation lies behind tomorrow’s door.

* Is Chipping Norton resident and professional loudmouth Jeremy Clarkson looking for a new job?

Speaking on the BBC (the publicly funded channel on which his programme Top Gear is shown and presumably the channel that pays his wage) he offered the measured view that striking public sector workers should be shot in front of their families.

So, man famed for controversial and offensive outbursts in controversial and offensive outburst shocker. No news there.

But The Insider’s hunch is the Chippy set is hungry for more political power.

With the outspoken Keith Mitchell set to quit as leader of Oxfordshire County Council next May, surely Jezzer has all the perfect PR credentials and ideological bent to succeed him.