I THOUGHT we would start 2010 with a quiz. As you will be marking it yourself, I will have to put the Caribbean prize on hold.

Right, pencils at the ready: Question one, who are the recently elected President and Foreign Secretary of the European Union (a clue – Mr and Mrs Whatstheirname)?

Nearer to home, can you name the leader of Lancashire County Council?

I suspect many readers will have as much idea with this one as the previous question.

Let’s get really local: can you name your county councillor?

Have you got the point yet?

I read that the leader of Lancashire County Council has decided to abandon the Lancashire Local meetings.

These were the meetings where residents could ask questions of county councillors.

The meetings even had (limited) decision-making abilities.

To a degree, I have to agree with County Councillor Driver (he’s the county council leader whose name you were searching for).

Lancashire Local meetings were a good idea, but because of the way local government works, they have been effectively neutered.

Lancashire Locals don’t work and very few people know about or attend councillors’ surgeries.

I only hope Councillor Driver also cancels the very expensive and pointless “cabinet roadshows” and looks again at the self- serving propaganda newsletters that regularly issue forth from County Hall via our homes to the recycling bins.

I also believe that once you elect someone, you should let them get on with it.

The problem is that politicians, particularly our local ones, are becoming increasingly anonymous and disengaged from voters.

Therefore, we still need some kind of forum where residents can simply find out what is going on and let councillors know what they think.

Over to you, Councillor Driver.

By the way José Manuel Barroso is President of the European Commission and Baroness Catherine Ashton the Foreign Secretary.

Hands up all those who got that one. Hmm, not so many!