The Tory MP has made it pretty clear she wants to stay on in Parliament, despite announcing she was standing down.

And now she's been endorsed by high-profile Liberal Democrat MP Lembit Öpik - who urged his own colleagues not to give her a hard time over her expenses claims.

Speaking to ITV Central, Lembit said: "I'm glad she's thinking about this. I know she's felt really shocked by the way she was treated in the media.

"She will have gone through this and decided, is there really something here so serious that I shouldn't stand again?

"I really hope that the Liberal Democrats in Bromsgrove will respect her wishes and not seek to make political gain out of this."

Of course, Lembit knows what it's like to be the centre of media attention, after dating first weather forecaster Sian Lloyd and then half of the Cheeky Girls (in a toe-curling Commons performance he told MPs: "I should point out that the other sister is still single").

Perhaps he sympathises. Or perhaps he's just taken a leaf from Chris Crocker's defence of Britney Spears.

Parents and school pupils will be told exactly what they have a right to expect from schools - and gain the right to take schools to court if they are failing to deliver.

The Children, Schools and Families Bill will allow them to complain to the head, then to the local authority, then to the Local Government Ombudsman and finally, if they are still not satisfied, to take a school to court in the form of a judicial review. The Association of School and College Leaders complained today that the Bill will become a "whingers' charter", encouraging litigious parents to complain.

A Financial Services Bill will hand new powers to the Financial Services Authority (FSA) designed to curb unreasonable bonuses, allowing it to void banker contracts and banks those that continue to offer unjustifiable sums.

The Government is once again promising to make parents of anti-social teenagers take responsibility for their child's behaviour. A new Crime and Security Bill will will encourage courts to impose parenting orders, which force parents to attend counselling or guidance sessions, when a child receives an ASBO.

Police will gain the power to evict people accused of domestic violence from their homes temporarily, even if they are not charged with any offence, "empowering victims to feel safe in their homes" according to the Government.

It will become a criminal offence to possess a mobile phone in prison, following reports that illicit mobile phones are common in Britain's jails. More than 300 illicit mobile phones and SIM cards were seized from inmates in Birmingham Prison last year, according to Government figures.

Broadcasting watchdog Ofcom will gain the power to appoint and fund "independently funded news consortia". These are partnerships of broadcasters, newspapers and bloggers, and the government is introducing the measure in an effort to stem the decline of regional media.

Culture minister Sion Simon (Lab Erdington), a Birmingham MP, is helping to oversee the policy. Ministers are expected to announce next month that he first consortia will be Scotland, Wales and North West England.

The Queen's Speech included a commitment to respond to the report setting out options for building a high speed rail line which will be published by the High Speed Two company in December.

The Government will press ahead with its Equality Bill, which includes measures to equalise pay between men and women.

Public bodies will be obliged to publish reports revealing average pay for men and women, so that disparities are easy to spot, and private businesses with more than 250 staff will be encouraged to do the same - with the threat of new legislation if the private sector fails to comply.

A new Child Poverty Bill is one of the most blatant "political" bills in the Queen's Speech. It will set out a target of eradicating child poverty by 2020, and require government to draw up a new "child poverty strategy" every three years. However, government frequently publishes strategies without requiring legislation to do so, and the Bill is really a statement of intent designed to highlight Labour's commitment to reducing poverty.

There is a victory for campaigners such as John Spellar (Lab Warley), who had demanded better rights for agency workers. They will receive the same employment rights as permanent staff if they are employed for more than 12 weeks in the same job.

Wheel clampers will be more strictly regulated to discourage "cowboy clampers" who target motorists unfairly, again dealing with an issue raised by a number of MPs.

The Government will once again press forward with creating an elected House of Lords - perhaps completing the reforms of the Lords it promised in its 1997 manifesto. Peers will also be allowed to resign and disclaim their peerage, allowing them to stand for election to the House of Commons.

This has led to questions about Business Secretary Peter Mandelson, currently Lord Mandelson, and whether he might become an MP once again, allwoing him to stand for the Labour leadership. Questioned this morning, he said he had "no present plan" to return to the Commons.

As widely trailed, a Personal Care at Home Bill will guarantee free personal care at home for up to 280,000 elderly and disabled people with the highest needs - although 166,000 do already receive free care. It's unclear why legislation is needed to increase the number of people receiving care.

You may know that the former Rover directors, known as the Phoenix Four, promised to turn what left of the business into cash to be distributed to former employees, when the carmarker collapsed in 2005.

So far there's been no money, and the official explanation is that the business could not be liquidated while an official government inquiry into its affairs was still taking place.

Now that the inquiry is over - it reported in September - Mr Burden wants the money transferred to the employees' fund as soon as possible.

Fair enough. But let's remember that there is no guarantee there will ever be any money at all.

The corpse of MG Rover has creditors as well as assets. It needs to pay them off first.

Some of the Government's critics have talked up the importance of the trust fund, claiming that the lengthy inquiry into Rover's affairs stopped former employees getting their cash.

But they may be guilty of raising false hopes. I hope former Rover staff receive compensation but I wouldn't assume anything until they have the money in their pockets.

Now it seems even Labour can't get its members on the Committee. The whole thing is rapidly descending into farce, despite the best efforts of the chairman, Birmingham MP Richard Burden (Lab Northfield).

There are supposed to be nine members of the West Midlands committee, which is currently investigating the effects of the recession on the people of the region.

Five of these are meant to be Labour, with three Tories and one Liberal Democrat.

But the Tories won't turn up, because they object to the whole idea of regional government.

The Lib Dems are also boycotting the committee, because they feel it is unfair they only get one member on the regional committee in places such as the south west where they have a lot of MPs (this doesn't really apply to the West Midlands, but local MPs are boycotting it anyway).

Mr Burden attempted to get independent MP Richard Taylor (Ind Wyre Forest) on the committee - but Lib Dems have managed to block this, by objecting to it in the House of Commons.

Now, Labour MP David Kidney (Lab Stafford) has left the committee, because he has got a Government job as an energy minister.

MP Janet Dean (Lab Burton) is meant to be his replacement.

But her appointment has also been blocked by opposition MPs, who appear determined to ensure the committee fails.

So out of nine committee places, only four are currently filled - and even Labour is only taking four of the five seats it is entitled to.

Or, as pertinently, where it all went to. This includes what the food companies chuck at source or in transit, the freegan stuff the supermarkets discard, the 30% we throw away, and the dung we produce.

A press release from the Tories claims that Villa will see business rates go up from £637,775 to £1,309,380, an increase of £671,605.

And rates paid by Blues will go up from £575,460 to £334,650, an increase of £240,810.

Between them, they'll be paying an extra £912,415 to the taxman. It's all a result of a revaluation of business properties which comes into effect next year.

For example, Villa Park's rateable value has increased from £1.3 million to £3.1 million (according to the inspectors who decide these things), as you can see here: http://www.2010.voa.gov.uk/rli/en/basic/find/assessment-history/2010/10341021000

St Andrews is now deemed to be worth £1.4 million rather than £700,000 - and here's the link: http://www.2010.voa.gov.uk/rli/en/basic/find/assessment-history/2010/11144765000

As revaluations occur every five years, and the last one was in 2005, I'm not sure how shocking this is. Conservatives claim it could lead to higher ticket prices.

But what makes me smile a little is the toe-curling comment from Tory Shadow Local Government Minister Justine Greening.

She is quoted in the press release saying: "Even football, our national sport, is not safe from Gordon Brown's tax rises.

"If clubs pass on these extra costs, it could mean even higher ticket prices for fans. I'm sure many will think it is time to show this Government the red card."

It's one of those phrases that nobody would ever actually use, except perhaps when speaking to the media.

But it also marks a rebirth, as the Post starts a new chapter in its
evolution as a multimedia brand and its new life as a must-read weekly
title.

I was led to the eloquent and engaging talk by the architect Carolyn Steel at the 2009 TED Conference in Oxford. She wrote Hungry City: How food shapes our lives.

These include a public consultation stage for new laws - after a Bill's second reading in the Commons but before it goes into committee stage, when amendments are drawn up - allowing the public to suggest changes

This will all be done online.

The Tories also plan to cut back on inspections of local authorities, and instead tell councils to publish every item of spending above £500 online.

The idea would be to replace the top-down accountability that exists at the moment with a bottom-up regime, where residents are able directly to scrutinise what their councils are doing.

While the aim is to let individuals get more involved in government, there will also be a role for mainstream media and bloggers in making sense of it all and providing forums for debate.

Of course, it also means there is a danger that people without internet access will be excluded from parts of the democratic process.