Keith Mitchell’s outspoken views on student protesters have created quite a stir online. When the county council leader called demonstrators an “ugly, badly dressed student rabble” Twitter and other portals buzzed with reaction.

But it appears the attention has taken its toll on Cllr Mitchell’s website (krmcbe.co.uk), which is “temporarily disabled” due to a lack of bandwidth.

We hope the pedantic Tory, who rails against poor grammar, had nothing to do with the errant apostrophe in the site’s out-of-action message, which confuses ‘its’ with ‘it’s’.

“I felt a snowball hit me on the back and I turned round to see it had come from a grinning Timmy Mallett.”

That’s how one of our reporters described their most surreal moment of the Christmas break.

Ardent Oxford United fan Mr Mallett was one of about 50 supporters who helped clear the Kassam Stadium pitch of snow ahead of Tuesday’s game against Macclesfield.

Our man at the ground’s retaliatory shot fell limply short of the children’s TV host who, it seems from the photos, clearly shares a love of daft hats with club secretary Mick Brown.

Congratulations to the unnamed Christmas shopper who got into the festive spirit by handing over £1 for a copy of the Big Issue and marching off with a “no I insist” wave of the hand.

The dumbfounded salesman looked on in disbelief... why? The cover price is £2.

The irony of being voted ‘best’ festive tweeter for re-writing a popular Christmas carol to spread a sexual health message seems to have been lost on NHS Oxfordshire.

Using the social networking site Twitter, the health authority sent out 12 ‘tweets’ – on the theme of the Twelve Days of Christmas – warning of the consequences of unprotected sex.

The tweets included “On the first day of Christmas my true love sent to me, condoms in a pack of three.” Another said: “On the tenth day of Christmas my true love sent to me, tests to check we’re STI free.”

The organisation thanked the Guardian newspaper for its tongue in cheek award for Best Christmas Twitter for Christmas-related health advice, in a further tweet. What a bunch of tweets.