Michael Gove has announced that commissioners are going to run Birmingham City Council after “elected members and officers have come and gone” all while failing to comply with their ‘Duty of Best Value’. There will also be a local inquiry. Gove wants to bring in local government veteran Max Caller to sort things out. In goes the squad…

Angela Rayner is defending the council’s leadership facing “difficult and complex” issues since May this year when it came in, while Jess Phillips suggests that the people of Birmingham should elect those running the council. Guido seems to remember that duly-elected council leader John Cotton was gallivanting in New York when the Section 114 notice was issued…

The council leadership has five working days to respond to proposals or suggest other commissioners. The decade-long fiasco is no closer to finishing…