What could be worse than losing your job? How about this – learning that your boss has spent £7,500 to give a speech boasting about sacking you?

It may sound far-fetched but that’s the situation Birmingham City Council workers facing unemployment find themselves in.

The authority, as we’ve reported, plans to cut spending by £320 million and lose 7,000 positions by 2015.

Residents who use council services will also be hit. The council hopes to reduce spending in adult social services by £118 million over the next four years, for example, while children’s social services will lose £69 million.

So why is it, when money is tight, that the authority feels able to sponsor a London conference to discuss the cuts with a £7,500 deal?

In the context of the council’s overall budget, £7,500 may not sound like a lot of money.

But one can only assume – and hope – that this is not the attitude taken in any other aspect of the city council’s work. When services for vulnerable children are being scaled back, staff should be willing to use fewer paperclips if it will save a few pennies for things that really matter.

Sponsoring a conference organised by think-tank Reform looks like an extravagance that the authority can ill-afford. And it also looks like an exercise in vanity.

Is there a connection between the fact that the council has got out its chequebook and the fact that Reform has invited Birmingham Council cabinet member Alan Rudge to speak?

Reform is an independent think tank and its conference will hear speeches from both Eric Pickles, the Local Government Secretary, and Caroline Flint, his Labour shadow.