Jungle fever (From Swindon Advertiser)

Jungle fever

we're out of here Taking part in the I'm A Councillor Get Me Out of Here were, Stan Pajak(Pictured),Peter Mallinson,Dale Heenan and Michael Dickinson A YOUNG Conservative who could have a big future has been asked about his past drug taking.

And the Swindon Advertiser can now reveal, in a world exclusive, that he has at last come clean and revealed what he has taken.

Dale Heenan, 25, winner of this year's I'm A Councillor...Get Me Out Of Here, run as part of Local Democracy Week, together with his fellow competitors, faced up to a grilling from youngsters and told them he had taken codeine for a headache recently.

Throughout the online competition Coun Heenan (Con, Covingham and Nythe) made a shameless play for the youth vote by claiming: "My car is full of dance/trance CDs with the odd Old Skool rave."

In a fascinating insight into the political mind Coun Heenan, an Everton supporter, said that on Thursdays "I usually just chill out."

Although he has turned out be a winner, don't listen to his gambling tips. He was backing Liam Fox in his party's leadership battle.

Maureen Caton (Lab, Moredon) put in a storming performance. Despite not answering any questions at all she managed to finish in fourth place, ahead of former mayor Stan Pajak (Lib, Eastcott).

Coun Heenan pulled no punches in his outrage at her behaviour. "Its a disgrace," he wrote. "The whole point of "I'm a councillor" is to take part and if one of the councillors is not even willing to type a few lines, that is a real shame."

Coun Caton sighed when reminded of the comments.

"Oh to be 25 again without any responsibilities."

Coun Caton, aged marginally over 25, said: "I'm not very happy that those councillors made remarks about me before they knew the whole story.

"When I was first asked I wasn't aware of the fact you have to be online, and I'm not."

For Coun Pajak, 48, the competition could not be seen as a stunning success. It's hard to put a gloss on losing to somebody who didn't even take part.

He said: "It's a fix. I demand a recount. Perhaps I'm appealing to the wrong audience."

Sticking up for Coun Caton could have been part of his downfall, but perhaps the Swindon-born, Swindon Town supporting, cycling to work family man just came across as too normal.

Although he did make a late play for the target audience by arguing "the case for legalising canabis has its merits" it was all to no avail.

Second place was taken by Michael Dickinson (Con, Central). He's obviously not too concerned about his street credibility as he happily admitted to owning every Queen album ever made.

Coun Dickinson, 36, wrote: "Sometimes I just enjoy crashing in front of the TV and doing nothing with my fianc." It's a mystery why he would bring his VW Polo into the living room. I wouldn't hold out great hopes for that relationship as he also claims to attend four or five evening meetings every week. Intriguingly he didn't answer the question about drug-taking, but this is unlikely to attract the same intensity of media interest as David Cameron has recently.

Taking third place in the competition was Coun Peter 'Two-Jags' Mallinson (Lab, Walcot).

Third place is another remarkable result for the 69-year-old councillor because he exercised his rights deciding he would 'get out of here' before it finished.

He deleted all the answers he had given and left the virtual council chamber.

Before the eradication of his answers he had revealed that he had two Jaguars, as well as the Peugeot he normally drives something he was grilled on.

He said: "I pulled myself out. I didn't like some of the things that were said by other councillors.

"I thought it was to engage young people in understanding politics but when I saw the denigration of Labour and Liberal Democrats, I realised it wasn't what I thought I'd signed up to.

"My answers had no bias and that's what I expected others to do."

The gallant Labour councillor also made it clear he was not happy with the criticism of his opponent Maureen Caton.

So it just goes to show that politicians are as likely to fall out with each other in cyberspace as they do in the real world.

Results

Dale Heenan (Con) 69%

Michael Dickinson (Con) 26%

Peter Mallinson (Lab) 4%

Maureen Caton (Lab) 2%

Stan Pajak (Lib) was evicted first