It’s sink or swim in civic vote race

THE FRIDAY THING: MOST of the liquids we had to contend with over the Christmas holidays were more “flood watery” than the warm and tasty variety.

Parts of Delph, Uppermill, Greenfield and Grotton were affected but in many ways were fortunate that flood damage was nowhere near as severe as in other parts of the region. Spare a thought for the man who had to SWIM across his living room to retrieve his slippers.

Away from the power and fury of the floods, Oldham Council has lost Jim McMahon to a plush seat in Westminster, with some speculation that the new leader will be long-standing local councillor Dave Hibbert.

Dave sees himself as a pocket battleship — a councillor who has long been outspoken on many issues.

I am told he is ready for battle, even though you might have to look around quite a bit before you spot him in the crowd of his council chamber colleagues.

Not surprisingly, after an often outspoken and fiery approach to local politics, Dave will probably have at least as many political foes as he has friends.

One “fan” suggested, perhaps more than a little unfairly, that he is perhaps old enough to be Jim McMahon’s grandad. But make no mistake: there’s plenty of life in his yet.