A disappointingly low "Global City with a Local Heart" count during Mike Whitby's state of the city speech at last week's Birmingham City Council meeting.
The council leader could only manage a couple of GCLH moments, although he did weave in Cushman & Wakefield, progressive partnership and fiscal responsibility a few times.
In fact, he could have stood up and recited a knitting pattern for all the interest that the comatose opposition Labour councillors were taking. They really are a sorry shower now.
At least Whitby managed to clear up a mystery about his explosion-in-a-paint factory tie.
It was not chosen by his bagman, James North, but by Mrs Whitby some three years ago.
"Whilst I, like everyone else, admire sartorial style and inimitable individualism, I have a mind of my own and my wife does too," added Whitby somewhat cryptically.
Meanwhile, a new Whitby word of the day appeared during what passed for a debate on the speech. Social prosperity was "fimbriating" out to all corners of the city of Birmingham, he insisted.
Tory backbenchers nodded sagely at such breadth of language.
But what is fimbriating, or to fimbriate?
There are two definitions for fimbriate in the Oxford English Dictionary: having a fringe or border of hair-like or finger-like projections; having a narrow border. Neither appears to fit what the council leader was trying to say.
James North, sadly, was not in the council chamber to admire his master's oratory.
Wild horses would not drag from me the name of the very senior councillor who accused North of being "scruffy" because he was in shirtsleeves and no jacket.
James North scruffy? It will never be glad confident morning again.
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I worry about the Labour group on Birmingham City Council.
It is bad for democracy when the opposition simply gives up, which to all intents and purposes is what has happened in the council chamber. Out of power for another four years at least, most Labour councillors are doing little more than going through the motions – and collecting their expenses, of course.
And when Labour does try to discomfort the Tory-Lib Dem coalition, boy do they get it wrong.
A coalition resolution at last week's council meeting urging the Government to halt the closure of post offices was always likely to prove embarrassing for Labour. When you are in a hole you should stop digging, but Labour ignored this advice and ploughed on with a lengthy amendment defending rationalisation of the post office network and adding, incredibly, that the Government had "some justification" in proposing that up to 2,500 post offices out of the current total of 14,000 would need to close.
Tory and Lib Dem councillors could hardly believe their luck. I imagine leaflets for next year's council elections are already being designed, along the lines of Labour Backs Post Office Closures.
The amendment certainly didn't do much for Labour's drooping spirits. When it came to voting, only 28 out of the 41-strong group could summon the enthusiasm to vote in favour of closing post offices.