Deputy city council leader Paul Tilsley must have found it difficult to control his famously short temper when forced to listen to Hodge Hill Labour MP Liam Byrne's analysis of the state Birmingham finds itself in.
Byrne, who is the Chief Secretary to the Treasury and a former West Midlands Minister, was giving a keynote speech at the annual summit of Be Birmingham - the city strategic partnership chaired by Coun Tilsley.
If anyone thought this would be the usual back-slapping gathering of the great and good, they were quickly disabused by Mr Byrne.

The inquiry into the collapse of MG Rover has completed its work - but we may still have to wait to discover what it says.

My colleagues on the business desk are working on a story reporting that the inquiry into the collapse of MG Rover has been completed, at a cost of almost £16 million, four years after it began.

The collapse of the Birmingham carmaker in 2005 directly cost around 5,200 jobs according to the National Audit Office, which measured the number of former MG Rover staff who signed on for Jobseekers Allowance. Their 2006 report (a 1.38mb PDF download) is here.

The Government has revealed that a new report setting out the findings of an official inquiry into MG Rover is now in the hands of Lord Mandelson, the Business Secretary, in a Parliamentary written answer to Richard Burden (Lab), the Northfield MP who has been increasingly vocal in demanding its publication.

Business Minister Ian Lucas said in the written answer: "The inspectors delivered their report on 11 June 2009. It will be for my noble Friend the Secretary of State to consider its findings and next steps."

The steps Lord Mandelson will take obviously depend on what the report says.

I say there could be a delay before it is published because the report's findings will determine whether any further action is needed. If it is needed, then the publication of the report could be considered prejudicial to that action.

This morning I and two fellow-conspirators set to work creating the long list for the judging of the 2009 Birmingham Post / Birmingham Future Power 50 list. To find out more about this initiative, go here.
Being a stats junkie, I thought it would be interesting to see what the balance is between different sectors: public / private, education vs arts etc.
This is what we've found so far, but please bear in mind the long list isn't completed until tonight (Monday June 22).

• Arts & Culture 17
• Business 41
• Media 10
• Public Sector 23
• Science & Tech 2
• Sport 3
• Third Sector 6
• Academia 7
• Grand Total 109

Coverage of MPs' expenses has understandably focused on the way that key details were blanked out.

Some of the worst excesses were only spotted because a newspaper obtained unofficial copies of MPs' receipts, with all the details intact.

As I have said in the Birmingham Post in the past, I was one of those people who had doubts about whether the Daily Telegraph was right to publish advance, leaked details of expenses claims - but was soon forced to agree that they were.

We always knew that the receipts would be censored before the official release. You can see how the process works in the video I made a few weeks back.

But I think some of the reports in today's papers, which suggest MPs simply got to choose what to delete, give the wrong impression.

I've written today, in a story which should go up on this website before long, about two MPs - Andrew Mitchell (Con Sutton Coldfield) and Liam Byrne (Lab Hodge Hill) - who actually asked for information to be public, and were told by the Commons fees office that it would be censored whether they liked it or not.

You've seen what journalists make of MPs' expenses claims. And you may have seen some of the claims themselves, when individual MPs chose to place them on their websites.

But on Thursday, June 18, the great British public will at last be allowed to examined every claim, in detail, when the House of Commons finally gets around to making them officially available.

The whole lot is going up on the website for people to examine.

Well, kind of. Because what you're going to get is the censored version (officially called the "redacted" version"), missing out details such as the addresses of homes MPs are claiming subsidies on.

So you won't know, for example, if MPs are claiming cash for properties in their constituency, or in London, or somewhere else entirely.

Neither will it be possible to tell if they have "flipped" properties - buying furniture for one home and then designating another one as their second residence, allowing them to get a second sofa.

Perhaps it doesn't matter - as the newspapers have already uncovered all the dirt.

But I'm betting people won't see it that way. This is a chance for the nation's bloggers to prove Gordon Brown is right about the power of the interweb and spot the stories the traditional media have missed.

At least, assuming they're not already sick to the back teeth of expenses.

The mind-numbing futility of life on the backbenches at Birmingham City Council has been exposed yet again, this time by the hand-wringing and gnashing of teeth over £15,000 salaries to the local authority's non-executive NEC directors.
When the matter came before the full council last week - with a recommendation to make the payments to city leader Mike Whitby, his deputy Paul Tilsley, cabinet member Neville Summerfield and opposition Labour leader Sir Albert Bore - most of the cannon-fodder councillors far removed from the very small Whitby-loop didn't have a clue what they were being asked to vote for.

No show at the leisure scrutiny committee from Birmingham city councillor Martin Mullaney.
The new cabinet member for leisure, sport and culture declined an invitation to come along and give his views on the sprawling portfoilo.
It was possibly the first time that the normally outspoken Moseley Liberal Democrat has refused to share his thoughts with anyone who is prepared to listen.
He was also unusually quiet at Monday's cabinet meeting, his second since being appointed, where he made no verbal contribution.

Birmingham MP Liam Byrne has been handed a poisoned chalice in one of his first tasks as Chief Secretary to the Treasury.

The MP for Hodge Hill will appear before a House of Lords Committee to discuss the Barnett formula, which helps determine how public spending is allocated to the nations of the United Kingdom.

Unless the Government is about to announce a major change of policy, it means he will have to defend a system which means regions such as the West Midlands make do with less money for public services than Scotland - even though average wealth in Scotland is higher.

The system has been in place since 1978, so it's not new. But it's become increasingly controversial since Scottish devolution.

Downing Street has released the official list of Cabinet members following the reshuffle:

HER MAJESTY'S GOVERNMENT: THE CABINET

The Queen is pleased to approve the following Ministerial appointments.

The Queen has also been pleased to approve that Lord Adonis and Ben Bradshaw MP be sworn of Her Majesty's most honourable Privy Council.

Cabinet

Prime Minister, First Lord of the Treasury and Minister for the Civil Service

The Rt Hon Gordon Brown MP

Leader of the House of Commons and Lord Privy Seal; Minister for Women and Equality (and deputising for the Prime Minister at PMQs)

The Rt Hon Harriet Harman QC MP

First Secretary of State, Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills and Lord President of the Council

The Rt Hon Lord Mandelson

Chancellor of the Exchequer

The Rt Hon Alistair Darling MP

Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs

The Rt Hon David Miliband MP

Secretary of State for Justice and Lord Chancellor

The Rt Hon Jack Straw MP

Secretary of State for the Home Department

The Rt Hon Alan Johnson MP

Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs

The Rt Hon Hilary Benn MP

Secretary of State for International Development

The Rt Hon Douglas Alexander MP

Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government

The Rt Hon John Denham MP

Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families

The Rt Hon Ed Balls MP

Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change

The Rt Hon Ed Miliband MP

Secretary of State for Health

The Rt Hon Andy Burnham MP

Secretary of State for Northern Ireland

The Rt Hon Shaun Woodward MP * and #

Leader of the House of Lords and Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster

The Rt Hon Baroness Royall of Blaisdon

Minister for the Cabinet Office, and for the Olympics and Paymaster General

The Rt Hon Tessa Jowell MP

Secretary of State for Scotland

The Rt Hon Jim Murphy MP

Secretary of State for Work and Pensions

The Rt Hon Yvette Cooper MP

Chief Secretary to the Treasury

The Rt Hon Liam Byrne MP

Secretary of State for Wales

The Rt Hon Peter Hain MP

Secretary of State for Defence

The Rt Hon Bob Ainsworth MP

Secretary of State for Transport

Lord Adonis

Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport

Ben Bradshaw MP

Other Cabinet attendees

Chief Whip (Parliamentary Secretary to the Treasury)

The Rt Hon Nick Brown MP

Minister of State, Foreign and Commonwealth Office

The Rt Hon Lord Malloch-Brown

Minister of State (Housing), Department for Communities and Local Government

The Rt Hon John Healey MP

Minister of State (Business), Department for Business, Innovation and Skills

The Rt Hon Pat McFadden MP

Minister of State (Science and Innovation), Department for Business, Innovation and Skills

The Rt Hon Lord Drayson*

Attend Cabinet when their Ministerial responsibilities are on the agenda
Attorney General

The Rt Hon Baroness Scotland of Asthal QC

Minister of State (Children), Department for Children, Schools and Families

The Rt Hon Dawn Primarolo MP

Minister of State (Employment), Department for Work and Pensions

The Rt Hon Jim Knight MP

Minister of State (Regional Economic Development and Co-ordination) Department for Business, Innovation and Skills

The Rt Hon Rosie Winterton MP

The Queen has accepted the following resignations:

Cabinet resignations

The Rt Hon Hazel Blears MP
The Rt Hon Geoff Hoon MP
The Rt Hon John Hutton MP
The Rt Hon Paul Murphy MP
The Rt Hon James Purnell MP
The Rt Hon Jacqui Smith MP

Other resignations

The Rt Hon Tony McNulty MP**
The Rt Hon Margaret Beckett MP**
The Rt Hon Beverley Hughes MP**

* unpaid
** attended Cabinet
# Provides Ministerial support to the Prime Minister in the Cabinet Office on the coordination of Government Policy and Strategy

AFTER five days in Camp Bastion I am finally starting to get a feel for life here.
Dozens of journalists from all nations and all platforms are currently passing through the huge base looking for their own unique story.
I have been here to tell the tale of the Territorial Army's Kings Heath 202 Field Hospital who are currently running the medical unit at the British base in Helmand Province.
Their story is incredible, and I have already given an insight into the work done by these warm hearted and truly expert professionals in my stories about baby Hamdia and the treatment of seriously wounded soldiers in the Emergency Department.
But there is much more to life here that people at home rarely hear about.
Since my arrival in the country on Sunday morning, three British soldier's have died and many more have been seriously injured.
Flags are constantly at half mast and vigils and repatriation ceremonies are becoming common-place.
Operation minimise, where all communications are cut off with the outside world until an injured (or deceased) serviceman's family have been notified, is now in effect so often that soldiers lose track of who it is for.
So how do these brave young men and women keep themselves going?
There's no alcohol to take the edge off the strain.
Exercise is a hobby that reminds them they are in an inescapable military world.
And family and friends are thousands of miles away at home, oblivious to the true extent of the roller-coaster ride that is life in Afghanistan.
From what I have seen so far, passion and belief is the glue that holds Bastion together.
Today I had five minutes with 28-year old Sergeant Andrew McNulty from Two Mercian.
Exhausted to the point of tears, this lion-heart of a man could barely gather the strength tell me about his past two days.
His company had battled with insurgents seven times in 24 hours.
The Afghan army, who were supporting them, were hit by three roadside bombs, killing one and seriously injuring five more.
But his company carried on, determined to completed their mission of providing vital supplies to forward operating bases in key strategic positions.
Two things struck me about Sgt McNulty.
His complete workman-like. no-nonsense attitude was summed up when he told me that the way they prepared to return back to camp after the mission, which would involve more dangerous battles with the Taliban, was by playing rounders.
A simple playground game was their only escape from the world of war that could, at any point, put an end to their fledgling lives.
Secondly, I was struck by his modesty.
As a dad who had to leave Britain just two days after seeing the birth of his first child, he showed little anger at being ordered to do such dangerous tasks so far from home.
How many of us would have snapped, broken down, or capitulated?
I for one know I would not have the mental strength to continue in these incomprehensible circumstances for anywhere near the six months that is demanded of these men and women.
So as I returned to my air-conditioned tent I reflected that writing about my personal experiences so far was not quite appropriate.
Indeed, there is the serious danger for all journalists that a week in Helmand may be treated like a week in the Med.
We bounce round the exciting and dangerous battles, meet the heroes and angels, and bounce back to our comfortable lives in civvy street.
But this is serious business, with families' lives at risk, and the temptation to glamorize war must be averted.
So be under no illusion, no matter how sexy reporters' articles like mine may look on your computer screens and in your morning paper, war is exhausting, filthy, heartbreaking and often without reward.

Gordon Brown's allies have been busy reminding journalists and Labour MPs that, under party rules, they can't get rid of him even by gathering the 75 or 80 signatures they supposedly have lined up.

It remains to be seen whether reports that Labour plotters really do have a long list of MPs ready to stick the knife into Mr Brown after the elections.

They are apparently drafting a letter calling on him to go, for colleagues to sign, but this may be an exaggeration or wishful thinking on their part.

If they can get the numbers, however, Labour rules won't help the Prime Minister.
Tony Blair's friends made the same point about the Labour rulebook when he was clinging on to office.

It didn't save Mr Blair, because the rules aren't the point. If a significant part of your Parliamentary Party wants you gone, then you have to go.

For seven weeks medics from the Kings Heah Field Hospital have been saving lives and limbs at Camp Bastion - the British military base in Helmand Province, Afghanistan.

What makes these men and women so extraordinary is that they are Terrirotial Army reservists, sent out from civvy street.
Normally you would find these hard working, passionate and warm-hearted people working in the NHS.
They are the people who would deliver your baby, operate on you in A&E and nurse you back to health again.

But here in the middle of the desert in Southern Afghanistan, they deal with the most severe trauma patients any doctor or nurse could ever encounter.

They say every week working at the hospital in Camp Bastion is the equivalent of a year at a civilian hospital. That is the scale of the task that faces them.

Spending a week embedded with these Midlanders is humbling. Military patients here tell me they have nothing but their utmost respect for them.

I stood and waited at the front of the hospital with them after we were told that casualties were being flown in from the battlefield.
Amazingly, the hospital is kept up to date with all military movements in the province that may result in an injury.
A complex computer system tickers updates on a widescreen television, with red words indicating an injured soldier.
This time the injuries were only fairly minor but there is always the fear that the worst news is just around the corner.

One patient I saw walked into the Emergency Department from the back of an ambulance, chatting and smiling, but obviously in pain.
I heard doctors muttering something about how lucky he was as they evaluated his injuries and assessed what was to be done with him next.
It was only later, when I bumped into him on the ward, that I found out just how lucky he was.

An insurgent had shot him in the arm but, amazingly, the bullet had passed between all the bones in his shoulder and flown out the other side.
Not only had this patient survived (the bullet only missed his head by a matter of a couple of centimetres) but his injuries were so minor that he did not need surgery.

Medics here have just passed "the hump" this week - they are now more than half way through their three month tour.
I asked Major Kathryn Rickers if she was missing home.
She told me that of course she was but if I offered her a flight home tomorrow she wouldn't take it.
"None of us would," she said.
"We are here for a reason and we want to play our part.
"And we actually quite like it here too."