On Thursday I had my first glimpse of the County Council's recently formed Standards Committee when it met to consider the Monitoring Officer's report into a complaint by Cllr Roy "six-foot-under" Folland (Ind) that Labour member Cllr Terry Mills had leaked confidential information about a review of the authority' Social Service Department to the Mercury.
Unfortunately, for Cllr Folland, no indication was given, either in the letter inviting Cllr Mills to the meeting to discuss the review, or during the meeting itself, that the information was confidential and it didn't take long for the Committee to come to the unanimous view that there was no case to answer.
In any case, someone other than Cllr Mills appears to have given the Mercury the actual document and his part in the affair was to merely respond, in fairly general terms, to questions from a reporter.
In the middle of the Standards Committee proceedings, in walked Cllrs Alwyn Luke and Brian Hall but, once it became clear which way the wind was blowing, they made a short sharp exit.
Summing up, the Chairman, Mrs Sarah Smith, tried to be as diplomatic as possible about this worthless complaint.
"I would say to members that complaints about one another arising from the cut and thrust of local politics are not something the Standards Committee wants to be wasting its time on.
We're here to deal with serious complaints - not mere technicalities".
Or, put another way, Folland had dug his own grave.
If I were Cllr Mills I would be taking a close look at Section 6(e) of the Code of Conduct, which provides that members "must not … make vexatious or malicious complaints against other persons".