A figure like her in British politics would be laughed out of town, what with her "hockey mom" schtick and shrill tone.

Until 2006, the only public office she had held was mayor of a town the size of Whitnash - yet she will be in charge of the world's most powerful nation should anything befall a future President McCain.

Even Whitnash's own Coun Bernard Kirton, for all his talent, may shirk at such a challenge.

I say none of this to denigrate her or her followers; her achievement is admirable, and there are many who justifiably acclaim her as representing a portion of the population who have been hitherto under-represented.

But her rise does emphasise that sharing a language and some aspects of popular culture does not necessarily make cousins of the UK and USA.

And, for the sake of balance, it is worth noting that some of Barack Obama's rhetoric would also be derided were he a British politician; for a man to declare himself the next president sounds, to us, damnably arrogant and presumptuous, yet he can do it while claiming humility.

Good news for political anoraks closer to home, however: it's all getting a bit fractious at Warwick District Council.

Years of relative calm and cosy cross-party arrangements (which have mostly worked well) have been abruptly ended with the appointment of Coun Mike Doody as its leader.

While the past three incumbents - Ian Dove, Bob Crowther and Michael Coker - have been calm, conciliatory figures, Doody is anything but (hence the Lib Dem group leader's talk this week of "ferrets fighting in a sack"). Confrontation is not necessarily the enemy of good governance, however, and none of this is necessarily bad.

The Police 6, Asda 5. It's one of the stranger football scorelines to have appeared in our pages and hopefully presages more matches between our emergency services and our supermarkets. Firemen may have physical prowess, but Tesco, with its formidable market research powers, would be able to predict their every move. I'd watch.