Reply #3: I suspect that the twinning of Oxford and Leon is because they're both university towns

[LeftishBrit]

And yes, I think that twin towns tend to be chosen for pleasantness and convenience of mutual visits, rather than need. But the idea is a nice one in principle.

'They lost the council back in 2003 partly due to their persistant failed attempts to have Christmas de-Christianised'

Really? How did they do that? I realize you're in Watford and I'm not; but did you see this happen directly, or just hear campaigners about it? I ask because in many other places, such as Oxford where I do live, there have been religious-right and just-plain-right, allegations of 'wars on Christmas', which have turned out to be complete misrepresentations; e.g. in 2008 because the Oxfordshire charity 'Oxford Inspires' organized a 'Winter Lights Festival' (as an event, not replacing Christmas), a local paper put out a headline 'Council set to axe Christmas'. The Torygraph took it up as 'Christmas banned in Oxford by council-owned charity' and even the Observer reported that 'Christmas is axed in Oxford'. As Christmas in Oxford is a big thing, which tends to start in September, at least from the commercial point of view, this seemed bizarre. Anyway, here's what really happened:


http://www.oxfordinspires.org/news/Statement-on-WinterLight-031108.htm

Getting back to Oxford's twin towns, we are also twinned with Saskatoon in Canada.