Carmarthen County Council has hit the Beijing headlines and not in a good way, either. And what a PR disaster it's turned out to be.

It's all to do with a lady blogger taking photographs of a councilmeetingand preparing to twitter about it. Described by a councillor as a 'thorn' in theCouncil'sside, she refused to leave the building when asked. Patience andpoliteness might have been employedat this point, but sadly, not.The policewere called andshe was arrested. In no time, the story sped around the globe like wild fire.A lawyer, writing a column ina London newspaper, has asked forall the relevant facts.

After asuggestion thatcamerasbeinstalled to make the meetings 'open',the cost of doing so was queried.Other authoritiesrecord meetings on camera, Parliament and the Welsh Assembly is televised andthe public can judge foritself what happens in debate.It's a smallprice to pay for democracy, surely.

On to minor irritants now.Are we tiring of people rattling collecting boxes when we're out shopping?

MacMillan Breast Cancer charity were selling tickets for a raffle in town this morning.We put some money in thebox, Peter mentioning we makea Direct Debit each month to Cancer Research. '

That's good' replied the collector, not quiteunderstanding that my husband's pointwaswe'd already given, via the bank account.The collector was on to 'goodbye', when I saidI hadn't hadthe raffle ticket. The response was:

'Oh, mostpeople havesaid they don't want the ticket.'

All I can say is, ifit'sa donation they're after, whydo they call it a raffle?