It was Parish Council tonight. We had a very long agenda and my bum is numb. So, I think, is my mind, but I can't be certain . . .

I have served nineteen years on this august body - I think it must be genetic beause I certainly don't do it for the fun of it, but the quickest of glances at the family tree shows generation after generation of civic minded types - preachers, teachers, councillors and magistrates. My dear Papa has been a councillor since before I was born (that's over half a century!) and I sometimes wonder how he has stood it all these years, but he loves it. He still loves it, and as a County Councillor attends vast numbers of meetings including all the Parish Councils in his area, sometimes two or three in an evening! I find my six a year quite enough.

However, I digress from what I was going to say.

Looking at the agenda I decided to found SPUMA - the Society for the Prevention of Unnecessary and Meaningless Acronyms.

So I did this.

Of course, under the terms of the constitution I had immediately to disband the society, but not before I had minuted the case of a mixed race, computer literate rural beat officer with a horse mad daughter, otherwise known as the PC PC at a PC with a PC and a daughter at the PC or the politically correct Police Constable at a Parish Council with a personal computer and a daughter at the Pony Club.

And it's Parochial Church Council (PCC) next Tuesday.