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Hero Mike has a last-minute attack of modesty

Mike Whitby’s florid account of the resumption of production of MG sports cars at Longbridge bore more than a passing resemblance to the efforts of another Tory wordsmith, Lord Jeffrey Archer. Read

Neville trips over the green belt

Neville Summerfield, Birmingham cabinet member for regeneration-lite, had a big day last Monday. Read

Civic Society in a muddle over Colmore Row

Another embarrassing crisis has rocked the hallowed portals of the Birmingham Civic Society. Read

Council stuck in the bus lane when it comes to decisions

It is four years since transportation cabinet member Len Gregory decided to suspend “temporarily” the A38 Tyburn Road bus lanes. Read

Birmingham Labour's talent for talking rubbish

Unfortunately, I could not attend last week’s Birmingham City Council meeting. Well, you can only have so much of a good thing. Read

Council warns staff to steer clear of the cannibalism website

Jobsworths at Birmingham City Council have compiled a fascinating list of websites that local authority staff are banned from using while at work. Read

Summerfield spotlight alerts Whitby's wrath

Neville Summerfield, the Birmingham cabinet member for regeneration-lite, has suffered another humiliating put-down at the hands of city council leader Mike Whitby. Read

John Lines avoids Cairns-like censure over 'scumbag' comment

While most Conservatives never forgave Theresa May for describing Tories as the nasty party and still fewer understood why she believed that to be the case, her comments forced a change in attitude among the image-conscious backers of David Cameron. Read

Labour risk losing Ladywood to Ayoub Khan

Labour, having split its own ranks with a spectacularly botched selection of a candidate to replace Clare Short MP in Ladywood at the next General Election, is quickly waking up to the fact that this once rock-solid seat could be lost to, of all people, the Liberal Democrats. Read

The wait for that Lib Dem inquiry goes on ...

More than two months have passed since Elections Commissioner Timothy Straker QC criticised the character and motives of Birmingham Lib Dem cabinet member Ayoub Khan and the party’s Aston council candidate Saeed Aehmed. Read

Too much information, Keely

I am fascinated to read the latest Facebook entry from Keely Huxtable, who is the prospective Conservative parliamentary candidate for Northfield. Read

Birmingham Labour can't escape the threat of mutiny

Birmingham Labour councillor Yvonne Mosquito has been deposed as vice-chairman of the West Midlands Police Authority. Read

Grundy shows her credentials for leading Birmingham Labour

Don’t you just love it when politicians standing for high office say ’it’s nothing personal’? Read

School's out for the next generation of Tories

It’s not just the policemen that are getting younger, Birmingham’s new generation of politicians are little more than teenagers. Read

Aston election campaign gets nastier and nastier

With under a week to go to the city council elections Labour and the Liberal Democrats continue to hurl insults at each other in one of the grubbiest campaigns for years. Read

Hughes stars in council's video nasty

The latest attempt by Birmingham City Council to sell its pay and grading review to 5,000 employees whose wages are being cut smacks of utter desperation. Read

Legalese excuse for red route debacle

Airza Ahmad, Birmingham City Council's irrepressible Chief Legal Officer, has been in magisterial form on the matter of the Stratford Road red route. Read

Confusion all round for Labour in Kingstanding

Grundygate - the will-she-won’t-she-stand saga surrounding Kingstanding Labour councillor Cath Grundy - continues to be a huge talking point for Birmingham’s politicos. Read

Biased reporting? Read all about it!

A measure of desperation is creeping into the Liberal Democrat election campaign in Sparkbrook, where the party is distributing its own shock-horror tabloid newspaper Read

Wake-up call for the city planners

The bizarre prosecution by the Standards Board of Birmingham councillors Martin Mullaney and Ernie Hendricks after they filmed the interior of a listed building said to be at risk of collapse put the planning department in a very bad light. Read

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