Birmingham Post

Despite Britain's monsoon weather, the John Bright Trophy just about managed to keep afloat this week with two games played and two cancelled in Birmingham's corporate cricket tournament.

Gig of the year, possibly, was at Symphony Hall last Friday when Ohio's oddest sons, Devo, played their first Birmingham date for donkeys' years.

Birmingham's new Walk of Stars, due to receive its first celebrity induction this week, is just the sort of PR stunt that leaves the city open to ridicule

Whisper it softly, but there's a stench of mutiny aboard the good ship Progressive Partnership.
Liberal Democrat backbenchers, upon whose support Birmingham City Council's Tory-Lib Dem coalition depends, are revolting. And they're not very happy either.

As a refreshing alternative to interminable corporate golf days (the exception being the Post's own, which is marvellous), accountants Baker Tilly chartered a plane to fashionable Le Touquet for lunch.
Unfortunately, most of the invited clients, staff and other freeloaders clearly didn't pay attention in history class, and assumed a Dakota DC3 was a slick private jet like the ones you see on the telly. Oh dear...

It's just too easy to be cynical about events such as Live Earth, questioning the motives of millionaire rock stars and pouring scorn on the rallying cry to hug a polar bear.

The supporters of Birmingham City Council leader Mike Whitby and Lord Jones of Birmingham, the newly ennobled Government Minister for something or other, preen themselves and strut around like medieval war lords.

So now the Government has given us Digby Lord Jones of Birmingham – or rather "Lord Rigsby" to his chums – the new Trade and Investment Minister.
But I am glad to hear that Diggers can still tell a story against himself.

The first question is: (a) what was your favourite drink when you were a child?

The choices might include Corona pop ("Every bubble's passed its FIZZical!"), Slush Puppies, cream soda, dandelion and burdock, cherryade, anything from a Sodastream, lager and lime, Tizer, Vimto or tap water.

Now consider this second question: (b) which drink from the above were you most likely to be given by your parents, particularly at meal times?

The untimely death of Ken Hardeman leaves a gaping hole in the Birmingham cabinet, which will not be easy to fill.
Hardeman held the regeneration portfolio, a sensitive position in a city which seems to see new buildings as a virility symbol – the bigger and taller, the better.

Look to the heavens, watch the rain lash down, wait 24 hours and marvel at the political opportunists as they emerge from their bolt-holes.

It didn't take long for them to break cover over the weekend, blaming anyone and everyone for the floods that have swept through the Midlands and - horror of horrors! - deluged posh places, too, like the Cotswolds and Berkshire

You had to be at the New Street Station funding announcement to appreciate the sheer ghastliness of it all.
Gathered in a cellar deep under the station, which bore more than a passing resemblance to a nuclear air raid shelter, were a pretty self-satisfied bunch of people – the Gateway project planning team.