Interesting events up in Middlesbrough, where it appears someone has taken a dislike to some of the local councillors:

A Middlesbrough councillor whose car was set alight by arsonists has hit back at those responsible.

In attacks carried out over the Jubilee weekend, two councillors’ cars were torched in the early hours.

Hmmmmm.

Mr Cole, who chairs the authority’s planning committee, said his wife woke up when she heard a car alarm and saw flames through the curtains.

Most curious.

The council is to hold a special meeting on 20 June to discuss other instances of harassment and intimidation.

Other instances? Just what is going on here? What was the result of the meeting?

Councillors in Middlesbrough are being given police protection after cars were petrol-bombed by “political obsessives”, mayor Ray Mallon has said.

Mr Mallon said the spate of attacks was a “sinister” hate campaign to drive out certain Labour representatives.

Why Labour? Just what is going on here? It seems unlikely to me that someone, even a nutter, isn’t going to do this without some sort of catalyst.

Other councillors around Middlesbrough have reported damage to their homes and a car was set alight earlier this year.

So it’s not just Labour then.

Mr Mallon believes radical “community-type activists” angry at the town’s social and economic problems are behind the attacks.

What the bloody hell is a “community-type activist”? Is there perhaps an ethnic profile we’re not being told about? That’s just a guess, the statement is devoid of any sense.

Independent councillor Joan McTigue, who has endured several years of vandalism to her property and cars, said: “If we start crying about it, these people have won. We should get the message out them ‘to Hell with you’, we are going to continue doing our job.

So they’ve been going after the indies as well. This gets odder and odder.

Council chairman Stephen Bloundele said he believed that a small number of individuals and organisations were behind the incidents.

He added: “Members must be free to make difficult decisions which are for the benefit of all of the people of Middlesbrough without having to look over their shoulders in fear.”

Whoa, that last statement is telling, obviously the council has made a decision that has really pissed someone off. I’d love to know what it is. I would never condone damaging anyone’s property, but that line has something chilling about it, when people talk about ‘difficult decisions’ and ‘benefit of all the people’ then there’s something afoot. If there’s one thing that is true of politics it is that no decision can ever benefit all people, all policies will result in a winner and loser.

The thing is, try as I might I can’t find anything controversial enough to attract this sort of response.

There’s more to this than meets the eye.