The Insider is always indefatigable in its pursuit of a story, but this week’s task of “Kanye-Catching” took it to a new level.

The normally publicityhungry rapper, notorious for storming stages and hogging the limelight, was surprisingly coy when he came to the city.

He banned students from taking photos during his speech at the Museum of Natural History and was far from friendly when he zoomed off in his blacked-out Mercedes.

That left The Insider in a wrestle with a horde of paparazzi and an even bigger group of diehard teenage fans desperate to get a pic.

Unsurprisingly, the fans came out on top and left The Insider battered and bloody, with an ego just as bruised.

THE process of Government is sometimes derided as being like the blind leading the blind.

But The Insider learned that the Lib Dem candidate for Oxford West and Abingdon Layla Moran will take things a bit too literally later today.

Ms Moran will take part in a blindfold walk around Oxford to raise awareness of the challenges blind and partially sighted people face. Her party will be hoping it isn’t the first step to walking the plank come the General Election in May.

WEST Oxfordshire District Council has picked up a slice of the property market by buying two Pizza huts.

In a bid to offset a 40 per cent cut in government grants since 2010, the council has turned property speculator and has bought two of the pizza restaurants in Braintree, Essex, and Poole in Dorset.

Simon Hoare, the council’s cabinet member for finance, said the council has engaged in a “deliberate strategy” of investing in properties so that it could insulate itself against the cuts.

Presumably he meant insulating with extra money, rather than pizza dough.

Well done to Izzy Dowling, a pupil at Wantage’s King Alfred’s Academy, for landing work experience with Wantage MP Ed Vaizey.

The Culture Minister featured the work placement on his Twitter feed.

With talk of young people being disenfranchised and turning away from politics, it’s good to see young people taking an interest.

Impressive to see Miss Dowling already has her own Twitter feed, @IzzieDizzied, in which she is pictured with a mug sporting the banner ‘Keep Calm and Read Harry Potter’.

The far-fetched tales will provide a welcome distraction from all the election leaflets that keep dropping through the Insider’s door.