Congratulations to fellow blogger The Stirrer for making the Power 50, the Birmingham Post's list of the 50 most influential people in the West Midlands. However, doesn't it tell you something about the political inertia in Birmingham, with it's so-called 'progressive partnership', when the Leader of Birmingham City Council, the ineffective Mike Whitby doesn't make the top ten but his predecessor, Labour Leader Sir Albert Bore is in there at No. 8. The fact that Whitby's sworn enemy Digby Jones tops the list will hardly settle his blood pressure as he relaxes on his Caribbean holiday beach.

It says even more about the relationship between the coalition 'partners' when John Hemming, formerly Whitby's whipping boy as Deputy Leader, doesn't make the list, and the puffed-up self-important Paul Tildsley, the current Deputy Leader, don't even make the top 50, although jazz saxophonist Soweto Kinch does!

UPDATE: Just to rub salt into Tildsley's wounds, it would appear that fresh faced youth James North, Mike Whitby's ambitious and forceful bag carrier, has actually made the list at No. 40.