Birmingham Post

We learn that Mirza has a Masters Degree in Business Administration and an LLM Masters Degree in Employment Law and Industrial Relations, that he deals with high level corporate legal and management issues and is a recognised national expert on the Human Rights Act.
The spiel goes on: "Mr Ahmad has joined a select group of great international lawyer leaders - such as Nelson Mandela, Mahatma Ghandi and Muhammad Ali Junnah (the Founder of Pakistan).
"Mr Ahmad was also lawyer of the month in April 2006 for the Black Lawyers Directory. Mr Ahmad leads the UK's largest local authority legal department - consisting of about 300 members of staff - and has been recognised as Legal Team of the Year 2005 by the Local Government Chronicle.
"The department also became the first legal practice in the UK to attain Investors in Excellence, Most Improved Organisation and Corporate Social Responsibility awards."
Goodness me, we are indeed lucky to have someone of such wisdom and eminence.
Would it be improper to suggest that, were Birmingham to have a directly elected mayor, Mirza might consider running for office?
Candidates do not have to be elected councillors, they simply have to show the necessary qualities of leadership and management – which Mirza would appear to possess in abundance.
Mirza for Mayor? He'd certainly get my vote.
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 More tales from Mipim, the Cannes property fair attended by any public sector free-loader worth his salt.
The apparent veneer of co-operation between Birmingham City Council and regional development agency Advantage West Midlands is nowhere near as glossy as we have been led to believe, it would seem.
AWM were crowing about having hired Top Gear presenter Richard Hammond to glad-hand guests at their Mipim stand.
But Hammond was photographed enjoying hospitality at the city council stand instead.
The hapless snapper, who shall remain nameless, found himself on the receiving end of trenchant phone calls from AWM who were insisting that "under no circumstances" should images of Hammond on the council stand be published.
Too late. A pic of a beaming Hammond and cabinet regeneration member Ken Hardeman duly appeared in this newspaper.
Perhaps the property fair should be renamed Vanity Fair.
Advantage Birmingham City Council, I think.
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 The Standards Board for England, which investigates improper behaviour by councillors, is taking a long time to decide whether to investigate formally a complaint levelled against Birmingham City Council leader Mike Whitby.
The board, which aims to reach a view about complaints within ten working days, has been mulling over Whitby's schizophrenia jibe, when he suggested that Labour councillor Marj Bridle might be mentally ill, since March 1. Did Whitby breach the code of conduct by failing to treat Bridle with respect? We shall have to wait and see.