ONCE upon a time a very rich man lived on a hill in an old town. He hadn t always been rich, but some nice people in the old town decided that he should have lots of money given to him every month. The people said that they didn t have enough money to mak

ONCE upon a time a very rich man lived on a hill in an old town. He hadn't always been rich, but some nice people in the old town decided that he should have lots of money given to him every month. The people said that they didn't have enough money to make the man rich, but his friends said that they must give it to him, so they did.

Once the man's friends had given him all the money they didn't have enough left to look after some of the people who were old and ill. They had to stop doing some of the things that they were put there to do in the first place, but at least the man was rich now. His friends on the hill gave him £3,800 a week to make sure that all the services that should be provided were provided but, as there wasn't enough money left over to pay for them, the man on the hill couldn't manage it. But his friends said he was doing it well, so that was all right.

This would, of course, be funny if the chief executive on Cambridgeshire County Council on Castle Hill in Cambridge wasn't actually being given just under £200,000 a year for delivering what's left of the council's services.