Visitors to the Oracle have been greeted by the spectacle of the Winter Wonderland Ice Rink. Unlike previous years where an artificial surface was used, this year the rink is using real ice and council health and safety inspectors will be keeping a close eye in it with orders to shut it down if there is a real danger of people falling over.

However, a political row has broken out over the rink after Labour councillors insisted that skaters are only to be permitted to skate anti-clockwise around it which has angered their political opponents. Squadron Leader Rik Willis told us: "I'm skating on thin ice here." Liberal Parliamentary candidate Gareth Epps went as far as to suggest that: "It's a slippery slope to disaster." Anneliese Dodds was seen at the scene of her disasterous Politics Show appearance collecting signatures for a petition, the subject of which was yet to be decided by Stuart Singleton-White.

As well as being open to the public a special exhibition ice hockey match is being staged which will see the Vice Chair of the Pakistani Community Association Saeed Chaudhury face-off against Tory councillor Wazir Hussain.