Here are the words that Gordon Brown used most in his speech to the Labour Party conference in Manchester today:

A funny thing happened the other day at the press launch of designs for the £600 million New Street Gateway scheme.
A journalist from a railway magazine decided to ask city council leader Mike Whitby where the Midland Metro tram extension fitted into the glittering new station with its "cathedral-like" atriums and reflective steel cladding.
Whitby didn't answer the question. No surprise there, then. He had been given two or three sound bites to repeat and the Metro wasn't on the list.
Even so, the total absence of the Metro from what is supposed to be the next major stage in an integrated transport policy for Birmingham and the West Midlands spoke volumes.

I'm hoping you will indulge me in a quick "Look Mum, see what I made," moment:

This is a little device that can use our content but can be embedded on any website, blog, Facebook or iGoogle homepage.

It's commonly known as a widget and this one was produced using a natty free website called Sprout Builder.

Just noticed that a Parliamentary candidate is in the Guinness Book of Records for making it to the north pole on foot - with his mother.

Dan Byles and his mum have also rowed across the Atlantic Ocean in a wooden boat together.

He's the Tory candidate for North Warwickshire and Bedworth, where he'll try to unseat Labour MP Mike O'Brien, the Pensions Minister.

Labour has a majority of 7,553, putting the seat well within reach of the Tories, so perhaps Mr O'Brien should be worried - particularly if Mrs Byles plans to join her son on the campaign trail.

Coming towards the end of an 11-hour day working through the 1001 things I need to do before The Post relaunches as a compact on Monday October 20. Sometimes the days pass quickly and much is achieved and sometimes I seem to work flat out and still only clip a few things off the list.
Today has been quite productive

Having just started blogging yesterday, I had committed myself to keeping a regular dialogue about how I am involved in redesigning the Birmingham Post. But I am just about to break that rule on day two. And it is all Andris Nelson's fault.

You may not realise it, but this is an important moment.
Not only is this my first blog, it is also the start of a guided tour - hopefully lasting a few weeks and led by me - through the redesign of the Birmingham Post.
Led by my editor, Marc Reeves, designer Terry Watson and me - the Executive Editor of the paper - have now produced a 24-page dummy of how the Post looks in its historic change from broadsheet to compact (I don't like the word 'tabloid').

In one of the most important exercises for years, the city council is asking people how many new houses and flats should be built in Birmingham over a 20-year period and whether the additional dwellings should impinge on green field and green belt land.
But councillors of all political colours know deep down that the consultation, if not exactly a sham, is somewhat superfluous.
Ask the people of Birmingham whether they want development on the green belt and the answer will be a resounding no.
But that is exactly what will happen if the Government, in the shape of Housing Minister Baroness Andrews, forces the council to identify sufficient land to accommodate 65,000 new dwellings between 2006 and 2026.

As we report, Labour Edgbaston MP Gisela Stuart has written a scathing review of Gordon Brown's performance over the past 12 months. It will be published in a special edition of The House Magazine, to be distributed to delegates at Labour's annual conference.

This is what she said:

Twelve months ago Labour MPs humming "Things can only get better" was a sign of confidence and optimism with just a touch of nostalgia - invoking the spirit of 1997.

Today it's more likely to mean "surely it can't get much worse".

Gordon Brown succeeded Tony Blair as Party Leader and Prime Minister. Not only was there no election, the mere suggestion of mounting a challenge was interpreted as a sign of disloyalty. So the deputy leadership campaign became the proxy playing ground for thrashing out ideas.

For the first few months it seemed as if we had succeeded to renew ourselves in government. We won the Ealing South by-election, beating the Conservatives into third place. The Prime Minister was firm in the face of adversity of foot and mouth, terrorist attacks and floods. David Cameron trailed in the polls and the word on the street was that he would have to deliver the speech of a life time to survive as Party leader. Plus ca change!

Our troubles didn't start with the election that wasn't. It started when it became clear that not only had we failed to renew ourselves with fresh ideas - we also seemed to have lost the knack to tell a good story.

Gordon Brown's first Queens Speech was an opportunity to put down his own priorities but he also had to deal with what some saw as some of Tony Blair's "unfinished business"; mainly the legislation about detention without trial and the Lisbon Treaty.

The way Parliament dealt with the Lisbon Treaty will come back to bite us. All three political parties had gone into the 2005 general election promising a referendum on what was then called the Constitution. All three parties in 2008 reneged on that promise in their different ways - and for selfish party political reasons.

This is a mock-up of what the Post's new M-site may look like - if we manage to get the dev work, programming and processes set up in time to coincide with the launch of the new compact paper on October 20.

There's a lot to update you on since my last detailed post, so I'll try to be brief. Here goes:

"It's a bit like throwing your kid to the wolves" is how one of my colleagues described sending their child to secondary school.
And he's right. Parents across the land currently deciding which secondary to send their precious ones to will understand what he means.

I may well promote the benefits of proactive health care, regular check-ups are as vital to us humans as regular servicing is to our cars.
But after a routine visit to my dentist today I am beginning to wonder if ignorance really is bliss, after an x-ray revealed my only wisdom tooth - which has been growing at a glacial speed for nearly a year - needs to be removed.
Now as The Post's health correspondent I have found myself in operating theatres watching everything from kidney transplants to key hole surgery, and every time have marvelled at the miracles performed there.
However I also know I am not "at one" with pain, on any level.
So the various tales I've heard so far about dentists using pliers while kneeling on patients' chests and people ending up looking like they've gone ten rounds with Tyson are not helping!
But I am fully aware that as a specialist I should have been at the business end of a surgery at some point in my life, but so far I guess I've just been very lucky.
Plaster casts are fine, scans are cool... but pointy, sharp implements and being sedated are totally new concepts to me. And perhaps I'm a little bit nervous, possibly even a bit scared.
So does anyone out there have any friendly tips or advice before I get into the dentist's chair next week?
This was not the return from a relaxing holiday that I was hoping for.
I

Fancy a cut-price trip to The Rocket Club, an exclusive "gentleman's club" in Broad Street?

I've got a voucher here offering £10 off the entrance fee, for use during the Conservative Party conference beginning later this month.

It's included in a booklet sent to me along with my pass for the event, taking place at the ICC.

The booklet, distributed by the Conservative Party but produced specially for the conference by the city council, includes an introduction by Mike Whitby, the council leader.

As well as cheap entry to the lap-dancing club, there are vouchers giving discounts in a range of bars and restaurants.

But including an up-market strip joint seems to me to be a pretty poor advert for Birmingham.

I guess, however, that some delegates might be interested. I'm not, so if anyone wants my voucher, it's up for grabs.

There will be plenty around, as the booklet has gone out to everyone attending the conference - MPs, business leaders, charity and pressure group officials, and journalists from across the country.

Whatever anyone else says about Gordon Brown's visit to Birmingham, Liam Byrne - the Minister for the West Midlands and Home Office Minister - insists it was a success.

He issued a statement claiming that the Cabinet heard the hopes and concerns of local people when they came to the city. The statement reads: "The Cabinet got a chance to hear what I hear in my day job every week."

To which some bright spark has added: "Does he hear these issues in his HO (Home Office) job?"

Presumably, this was a note added to a draft copy of the statement by someone in the press office, who remembered that Liam's main "day job" involves dealing with immigration at the Home Office, not representing the West Midlands.

But the Central Office of Information, the Government's PR factory, has simply gone ahead and published the question as part of the statement, along with Mr Byrne's words. It's currently up on their website (I suspect it will be taken down or fixed soon after I post this, however).

Anyone can make a mistake, not least journalists, so I don't want to go too far in mocking whoever was responsible for this one.

But it does add to the general impression that the Government is giving up the ghost. The spin machine has stopped working.

Update (On September 12): The press release I refer to has been removed and replaced by a new version without the error. We also ran a version of the corrected statement from Mr Byrne in today's Birmingham Post.

Why all the fuss over Obama, McCain, Palin and Biden?

This whole country seems to have taken leave of its senses and become obsessed with a political soap story that's got nothing to do with us.

Gordon Brown will set out his plans to help people pay their fuel bills in his Downing Street press conference tomorrow.

But it won't include what many of his MPs want - a windfall tax on fuel companies, so that they subsidise our bills out of their profits (about £30 billion last year).

Birmingham's Roger Godsiff (Sparkbrook & Small Heath), Khalid Mahmood (Perry Barr) and Richard Burden (Northfield) are among Labour MPs calling for energy firms to pay out.

Mr Brown has rejected this (although I suspect he'll give the impression it hasn't been ruled out entirely), and will instead talk about plans spend a modest sum helping people get new boilers and insulation.

I had a hand in the Post's leader for tomorrow's paper, in which we'll say the Government can't just slap an extra tax on firms for making too much money.

But it should look at why energy companies are continuing to increase charges - even when the price of oil actually falls.

We're supposed to have a competitive market, in which energy companies battle for our custom.

That should mean trying to offer households a better deal than their rivals, surely?

But it doesn't seem to happen.

The market isn't working. Given that re-nationalising the energy suppliers is not a realistic option, the best the Government can do to control prices is to examine this is, and how the problem can be fixed.

In the run up to The Big Debate: Are our young leaders our green saviours?, Professor Richard Green - director of the Institute for Energy Research and Policy at the University of Birmingham - discusses the challenges faced by those which aim to keep energy supplies secure and limit the damage we do to the environment

Energy has been in the news a lot recently - price rises, climate change and power cuts have all featured, along with wind farms and nuclear power.

No consumer wants high energy prices, nobody wants to damage the environment, and no one wants to turn a switch and find that there's no power, but there are few decisions we can make about energy that do not run the risk of making one of these things worse.

The Post reports more angst about what to call the region from policy wonkdom. Post Political Editor Jon Walker underlines the continuing confusion about how the Big Wide World sees us West Midlanders - or should that be Greater Brummies? The policy wonks (sensibly for once) say we need a snappier name for the region to sell better abroad. But there seems as much chance of agreeing this as Kevin Keegan sending a Christmas card to the Newcastle club chairman.

Feeling puzzled by protons or bamboozled by bosons?

Well the Large Hadron Collider rap could help clear some of that confusion.

I have resisted writing about my encounter with the Prime Minister earlier this week in the hope that the passage of time would have left a more favourable impression.
Unfortunately, that is not the case.
After spending an excruciating hour or two in the confines of the International Convention Centre on the occasion of Labour's "historic" Cabinet meeting in Birmingham, I have come to the conclusion, to borrow a phrase from Lady Thatcher, that Gordon Brown is frit.

This has to be one of the most amazing things I have seen on the Internet for a while. Picture after picture of Birmingham citizens sporting hairstyles ranging from the surreal to the ridiculous are displayed on photo-sharing website Flickr.

But why?

Liam Byrne, MP for Birmingham Hodge Hill and Minister for the West Midlands, delivered a presentation to the Cabinet when it met in Birmingham's International Convention Centre today.

Above are the slides form his presentation.

If nothing else, Gordon Brown's trip to Brum has put paid to suggestions that Trade Minister Digby Jones has fallen out of love with the Prime Minister.

Lord Jones of Birmingham compered the "public engagement" event at the ICC today, in which Government Ministers met the public to hear their ideas and complaints.

As well as informal discussions - with reporters kept firmly out of earshot as politicians rubbed shoulders with ordinary folk - there was a formal question and answer session, in which the Prime Minister talked about how Britain could turn the rising price of fuel to its advantage by leading the world in greaner, more efficient technologies.

After he had finished, Lord Jones told the congregation: "It is that vision, that you have just heard for ten minutes, which persuaded me 15 months ago to give up what I was doing and become one of his Ministers."

He's either a genuine fan or a great actor.

Lord Jones also offered a plug to the Birmingham Post (the cheque's on its way), as he introduced West Midlands Minister Liam Byrne (Lab Hodge Hill).

He said: "Those of you who read the Birmingham Post will know that Liam was voted the most powerful person in the West Midlands this year." He joked: "I hate him!"

Here is a slideshow of pictures of the Government's cabinet meeting in Birmingham taken from Downing Street's Flickr stream.

That's the question Marc Reeves decided to ask readers on micro-blogging service Twitter today:

The response? Well it was, rather predictably, lukewarm when it came to the PM.

Straight to the point: here's a video I shot inside the new offices of the Post & Mail (soon to be renamed BPM Media) the other day at Fort Dunlop.

This is where all departments - editorial, advertising, pre-press, accounts etc - will be housed by the end of November. The mood in our current home in Weaman Street in the city centre is pretty grim at the moment, given the re-organisation and editorial job losses we recently announced - so to be honest it was good to get out for a couple of hours for a preview of what the future will look like.

The hypocrisy of the two main political parties over the culling of the post offices network is staggering.
Both Labour and the Conservatives privately accept that the existing number of outlets is unsustainable in an age when more and more business is being transacted over the internet. How could they think anything else? The facts speak for themselves and as the years roll by the staple diet of post offices - paying pensions, car tax and welfare benefits - will be routinely conducted on-line through bank accounts, even by older people who are becoming far more computer-literate than was the case even three or four years ago.

As reported in the Post the rail regulator is leaning on Network Rail to clean up its act on disruptions to the rail network. This summer may not have brought much sun, but it's been a bumper season for shutting down the line to London and telling passengers they need to get on a bus (not what they paid their over-priced fares for...)

Having suffered a 3 hour nightmare bus journey to London from East Anglia recently, I sympathise. To be fair to NR, problems they may create by poor maintenance or unnecessary line closures are magnified by incompetent handling of passengers by train operators once we are forced to get off the train. In my case no information was given about journey time or destinations, so many of us got on a bus that stopped at all the intermediate stations to London when we should have been on the other bus that was heading straight to the Smoke. To cap it all, our driver didn't know where the stations were and we eventually decanted at Romford tube station after a very unmagical mystery tour courtesy of train company National Express East Anglia.

The national passenger body, Passenger Focus, has demanded a national code to tackle disruption. This will set out the sort of information passengers need and the plans each operator should have in place to manage any disruptions. But should it really be necessary to tell all these well-paid train managers how to manage?

One of the most difficult and politically high-risk tasks faced by Birmingham City Council's Conservative-Liberal Democrat coalition since taking office in 2004 has involved changing the process by which grants totalling £10 million are handed out annually to voluntary organisations.
Cabinet members were shocked at the unfair system they inherited, where large sums of money were dispensed on the basis that if a group had always received funding it was highly likely to continue to do so, regardless of how the money was used or the performance of the organisation concerned.
This resulted in the development of what became to be seen as almost a closed-list system - a charmed magic circle of beneficiaries whose good fortune was based on historical decisions rather than any rational assessment of need.

The Post Story about over-zealous security folk banning visitors from taking snaps at the Mailbox has its echo on rail. Rail Magazine (www.rail-magazine.com) is running a bit of a campaign about the harassment of snappers at stations and other rail sites. This usually comes from contractors working on the railway, as Network Rail says it welcomes spotters and gricers.

Apparently innocent rail-spotting folk have been frog-marched off stations by security guards and the like having been told, Dad's Army ARP style, "'Ere, you can't do that !.."
A snapper on a public road overlooking current West Coast mainline works was also told not to take pictures by contractors - who sent a van to intercept him!

Interestingly, the British Transport Police Chief Constable says there is no power to stop genuine members of the public taking pictures on rail premises and (unlike at the Mailbox) there is a long tradition of photography in and around stations. Clearly the cops (who are best placed to assess any threats) are relaxed about snappers, but have some rail staff sacrificed another of our liberties to George W's War On Terror?