Iron Angle, comment on Birmingham CC & politics

Iron Angle: A farewell to arms - the final Iron Angle column Dec 16 2011

Birmingham City Council was passing through one of its pretty regular states of anxiety when this column began 10 years ago.Read

Iron Angle: Fighting the market forces in Birmingham Dec 09 2011

Even by Birmingham City Council’s woeful communications standards, the Wholesale Markets saga has been handled appallingly.Read

Iron Angle: Alan Rudge puts the boot into city council call centre Dec 02 2011

This month’s HR committee meeting was enlivened by the presence of cabinet member Alan Rudge, who not for the first time veered off-message in a spectacular fashion. Read

Iron Angle: Mike Olley gets serious in bid to be police commissioner Nov 25 2011

The debate about whether Birmingham should have a directly elected mayor has so gripped the chattering classes that another of the Government’s equally ground-breaking proposals to transform public governance has attracted little in the way of comment.Read

Iron Angle: The war of the websites Nov 18 2011

Embarrassing for John Hemming MP, who made a fortune from writing computer programmes, but the website he helped set up to campaign against an elected mayor for Birmingham appears both to have broken down and to be totally lacking in any useful information.Read

Iron Angle: Boondoggle blues at the city council Nov 11 2011

Brandwood Labour councillor Dr Barry Henley is a clever chap, possibly a touch too clever for his own good.Read

Iron Angle: Lord Mayor Anita restores order at the council Nov 04 2011

The Lord Mayor of Birmingham had her strict, no nonsense, head on at this week’s meeting of the full city council.Read

Iron Angle: Birmingham coalition's big names show staying power Oct 28 2011

When the history of Birmingham’s Conservative-Liberal Democrat coalition is finally written, it will be instructive to spend time admiring the determination and sheer staying power of personalities at the heart of the partnership.Read

Iron Angle: Birmingham's sale of the century - time for the Council House to go? Oct 21 2011

There is an obvious way of making some money that does not yet appear to have occurred to Birmingham City Council’s bean counters.Read

Iron Angle: Whitby's credit rating Oct 14 2011

Mike Whitby delivered his seventh city council leader’s speech this week. It wasn’t much of an improvement on the previous six, which is a pity since he has quite a good story to tell about some of the achievements of his Tory-Liberal Democrat coalition.Read

Iron Angle: Birmingham prepares for a change of direction Oct 07 2011

The left wing establishment among the officer corps at Birmingham City Council is becoming a little gung ho over the near certainty of Labour returning to power at next May’s civic election after an eight year absence.Read

Iron Angle: Mayor of Birmingham wanted - experience not necessary Sep 30 2011

I’d have liked to have been at the debate held by Birmingham Labour Party activists on the merits of having an elected city mayor.Read

Iron Angle: An unlikely conspiracy at the Birmingham Post Sep 09 2011

It is pointless arguing with a conspiracy theorist, because you will never win. The more effectively their grotesque claims are demolished, the more they become convinced that you must be part of the plot.Read

Iron Angle: Mullaney keeps on as defender of the faith Sep 02 2011

August was notable for two episodes where poor presentational skills resulted in an avalanche of bad publicity for the city council, despite the best efforts of the cabinet’s self-appointed spin doctor, Martin Mullaney.Read

Iron Angle: Fighting market forces in Birmingham Aug 26 2011

You know things are bad when Birmingham City Council’s infamous myth-busting team springs into action.Read

Iron Angle: A victory for democracy at the council Aug 18 2011

An angry cross-party backbench revolt appears to have been responsible for saving Birmingham City Council from the preposterous position of discussing the impact of last week's riots behind closed doors.Read

Iron Angle: Mike's back at the crease Aug 12 2011

Mike Whitby is back from holiday in Barbados, just in time to take control of Birmingham in what may be his last nine months as city council leader.Read

Iron Angle: Just the job for Alan Rudge Jul 29 2011

Mike Whitby is away on his annual holiday to Barbados, but leadership of the council appears to have bypassed his deputy. Read

Iron Angle: Tired old scare stories about elected mayors Jul 21 2011

And so it has come to this. The campaign against a Birmingham mayor is based around the hoary old scare story that the job will go to a power-crazed “elected dictator”.Read

Iron Angle: A very English revolt over HS2 Jul 14 2011

An opinion poll to gauge the views of people living close to the proposed HS2 line through Birmingham produced a fascinating result. But the city council, desperate to spin-up the findings in favour of high speed rail, missed the bigger picture.Read

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