The Aston election court has none of the high drama of the 2005 "banana republic" trial, which exposed extensive Labour-organised postal ballot fraud.
This is a drab affair, with Liberal Democrat supporters trying to convince a judge that their candidate lost the 2007 election as the result of a Labour smear campaign.
Tedious in the extreme, the Elections Commissioner can only be relieved the matter has been adjourned until January and that he can have some respite from witnesses who appear to have forgotten anything they ever knew, even in one instance whether an uncle still lives nine doors down the road.
There is, though, much riding on the outcome of this case.
The Lib Dems are desperate to cling on in inner city wards and are acutely aware of the likelihood that Councillor Ayoub Khan, the only Muslim in the cabinet, will be defeated by Labour in May 2008 – unless, of course, the election court finds evidence of Labour corruption and sacks sitting councillor Muhammed Afzal, in which case Khan could get in on an anti-Labour backlash.
Next year's council elections could be an extremely difficult time for the Conservative-Liberal Democrat coalition, given that Lib Dem candidates in Aston, Springfield, Bordesley Green and Washwood Heath are defending once safe Labour seats won off the back of public unease over the war in Iraq and postal vote fraud. If the Lib Dems were to lose four seats, taking their strength in the council chamber down to 28, they might be expected to sacrifice a cabinet position to the Tories.
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There's a conspiracy theory doing the rounds with regard to the future of Birmingham Central Library, which the city council wants to demolish because it stands in the way of a lucrative redevelopment of Paradise Circus.
Several years ago, when Labour ran the council, attempts were made by library supporters to have the building listed, thereby preventing it from being knocked down.
English Heritage inspector Nigel Thurley, not noted for his love of brutalist architecture, paid a visit to Birmingham and was "bowled over" by the Central Library, according to 20th Century Society spokeswoman Eva Ling.
Thurley told his bosses the building must certainly be listed as an important example of 1970s civic architecture. Strangely, his recommendation was turned down by the Secretary of State.
Mrs Ling is not alone in suspecting the decision not to list owed much to political pressure from a Labour-run council to a Labour Government.
Today, we have a Conservative-led council wishing to demolish the library and a Labour Government that must decide whether to list the building.
It remains to be seen whether English Heritage will again recommend listing. And if that is the case, will the Department for Culture, Media and Sport feel inclined to ride to the rescue of a Tory council?
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An outbreak of poppy fascism at a Birmingham City Council meeting, with boorish Tory John Lines shouting across the chamber at the sight of Labour's Carl Rice without a poppy.
"Have you lost it?" Lines enquired, sarcastically.
Well, yes, actually he had. Rice explained later that he had already bought two poppies and managed to mislay both of them. I can subscribe to that. Most years I have to buy at least three or four poppies for fear of being singled out in the street as a remembrance-denier by the likes of Lines and his right-wing mates.
Oddly, Lines steered clear of tackling Lib Dem scrutiny chief Alistair Dow, who as usual at this time of the year was sporting his white peace poppy. Perhaps Lines feared he might lose complete control of himself by addressing such conchie behaviour, or maybe he was simply abiding by the rule that members of the Tory-Lib Dem Progressive Partnership don't fall out in public.
Incidentally, is Dow the last person in Birmingham, or even the whole country, to wear a white poppy?