Spotted in a café in Redfield recently was monk-haired Lib Dem councillor for Eastville, STEVE ‘IN A’ COMER, furtively in conflab with an unknown man.

We understand that the two had an intriguing conversation, the highlight of which was Comer quietly pronouncing that:

Of course, you don’t need to have compulsory redundancies…

Just what could that enigmatic comment mean? And what was Comer’s erstwhile pie-loving, one-man seventies TV cop show tribute GARY HOPKINS doing in the same café a few days later, so far away from his own stomping ground in Knowle?

Far be it from us at The BRISTOLIAN to suggest reasons why Comer, a former member of the national executive of civil servants’ union PCS, might be so keen to point out easier ways of making people jobless – but certainly his colleagues in the UK Border Agency might like to ask him…