He’s been off the radar for a while, but this week stirring deep in the background Birmingham’s only big beast, Lord Digby Jones, made one of his occasional forays into commenting on this city’s status.

He didn’t actually say anything very new – yes, we know Birmingham has appalling unemployment, a lack of workforce skills and that its football teams will probably never rank alongside Manchester United.

But Digby took it a stage further when speaking to the BBC, by stating that poor civic leadership was a contributory factor to Birmingham losing its second city status to Manchester.

Birmingham City Council’s Tory leader, Mike Whitby, breaking cover after a week of uncharacteristic silence following disastrous local election results, was on to this slur like a shot, accusing Lord Jones of never missing an opportunity to put the boot into Birmingham.

Or in the original Whitbyspeak: “Digby will stab a little pin into the brand of Birmingham at any given time.”

Lord Jones’s intervention is being seen by some of the chattering classes as an indication that the former CBI director general and government minister may be planning to run for mayor of Birmingham. I have no idea whether this is probable or not; but what I do know is that Lord Jones has consistently refused to answer media questions about any interest he may have in being Birmingham’s first elected mayor.

He hasn’t said yes, and he hasn’t said no. Not in public, at any rate.

Were he to throw his heavyweight hat into the ring, all bets would be off and we’d have to go scuttling to Ladbrokes to get the odds for a flutter on a truly independent figure who might just make the mayoral election worth tuning into.

The question is: has Lord Jones got the nerve to put his mayoral nomination papers where his mouth is?

Come off it Digby, Birmingham deserves an answer one way or another. Are you content to continue as an armchair critic, or are you up for the top job?

This also happens to have been the week when Mike Whitby made his first comment about whether he would put himself forward for his party’s mayoral nomination. His reply, preposterously, was that he has no view even though he is on course to become shadow mayor of Birmingham with the powers of a mayor when the Localism Bill passes into law later this year.

It is a little difficult for Coun Whitby, having campaigned heavily against elected mayors 10 years ago when he succeeded in derailing the possibility that Birmingham could follow London by becoming the second English city to have a mayor.

Has he changed his mind since then? He’d be mad if he hadn’t, since the shadow mayoralty looks like being his on a plate guaranteeing him the job until May 2013 at least.

Some things, however, never change. Sir Albert Bore, The Great Survivor, saw off the latest challenge to his leadership of Birmingham’s Labour group in the manner of someone swatting a noisy but very small fly, sending the annoying insect spinning lifelessly to the floor.