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The price of integrity

SPARE a thought for weary Edgbaston MP Gisela Stuart, currently facing the wrath of the Labour leadership. Read

Adrian Goldberg

What made Coun Rudge budge?

SOMETHING stinks about Birmingham City Council offer-ing a secret pay deal to refuse workers in the same week as their colleagues voted to strike - and that funny whiff has nothing to do with rotting rubbish. Read

Buck stops at no 10

WHO'S to blame for the Single Status fiasco? Read

'If you have a mayor, it gets people off their backside to vote'

ONE of Britain's most controversial political pundits has accused Birmingham of punching below its weight - and says the city needs a London-style elected mayor. Read

Cheap, but maybe not cheerful

RYANAIR'S massive expansion at Birmingham Airport will be welcomed by passengers looking forward to cheap flights to a wider range of destinations. Read

Doctor, this patient shouldn't be moved

MY EXCLUSIVE story in yesterday's Birmingham Mail about the BBC's plans to transfer production of Doctors to Manchester and close the Drama Village in Selly Oak could yet have a happy ending. Read

Probe into course delays

BIRMINGHAM Tradi ng Standards o fficers have launched an investigation into a language school causing severe delays to students desperate to become British citizens. Read

Birmingham's own opera faces the final curtain

BIRMINGHAM Opera Company, which thrilled thousands of concert-goers at the NIA in October with two acclaimed performances of La Traviata, has almost certainly sung its final note. Read

Language school with questions to answer

DOZENS of migrants desperate to become British citizens after settling in Birmingham have had their hopes dashed by the mysterious collapse of a Hockley-based language school. Read

Being bloody-minded with our money

SORRY seems to be the hardest word for Birmingham City Council. Read

Ofcom ruling on C4 mosque documentary shows police should stick to tackling crime

WHOSE interests were being served when West Midlands Police turned grass and reported Channel 4’s Undercover Mosque programme to the telly watchdog Ofcom? Certainly not mine. Read

ID cards not quite so safe after all

WHENEVER identity cards are mentioned, you can guarantee that someone will trot out the argument that “if you’ve got nothing to hide there’s nothing to fear.” Read

Log on to support our troops

CAROL Jones understands only too well the value of a parcel sent to a British squaddie serving abroad. She still has the box of Christmas presents she’d prepared a couple of years ago for her son John when he was serving in Iraq. Read

Caught between a rock and a hard place

IT’S no surprise that Birmingham council workers are threatening strike action over a pay deal that will leave 8,000 of them worse off. Read

Library plan's not written in stone

BIRMINGHAM'S new Central Library hasn't had a brick laid - but already the cost is soaring. Read

End this cancer drug postcode lottery

OUTSPOKEN radio presenter James Whale is backing The Stirrer's campaign to get the 'wonder drug' Sutent prescribed for cancer patients in the Birmingham area. Read

Brown's postcode lottery challenge

GORDON Brown has done his Grand Old Duke Of York act, leading us up to the top of the hill to the brink of an election before leading us down again. Read

Big noise debate for Digbeth

THE Stirrer Summit to discuss the future of Digbeth takes places tonight – and all Birmingham Mail readers are welcome to attend. Read

Way to go with Oyster

LONDON Mayor Ken Livingstone has introduced a wonderful cut-price travel scheme – but he's keeping it to himself. For the last four years, commuters in the capital have been using an electronic swipe card called the Oyster, which always guarantees the cheapest fare. Read

Ding-dong over tit-for-tat graffiti

GRAFFITI is a scourge of the modern age. So when two council-funded street wardens in Birmingham spotted a pub car park covered with garish images, they decided to turn vigilante and play the vandals at their own game. Read