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Full marks to Bodmin councillor Ann Kerridge, for allowing me to take her confession about her late payment of council tax:

"I am one of the one in seven. If I paid by direct debit I wouldn't be. However I made a choice quite a long time ago to pay in person at my local post office so they get a little revenue. One month I confess to forgetting, got a CC letter and paid almost immediately."

I think Ann is demonstrating commendable wisdom here, not least because she's a front bencher who speaks (for the Lib Dems) on finance issues. Within County Hall there are sheets of paper with the names of 17 late-payers. Some councillors have copies and some do not. This is unfair. While the council's reason for not releasing the information to everyone might well be motivated by a bureaucratic desire to observe the Data Protection Act, it defies every known law of political common sense.

PS: Before anyone asks, can I also confess to having once been late with the return of some library books.