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This is my take on politics in the Midlands - a region of five and a half million people with a diverse, exciting political landscape
11:53 UK time, Tuesday, 14 May 2013
"The government was to blame."
It's one simple, chilling sentence in the suicide note left by Stephanie Bottrill from Solihull early on the bank holiday weekend before the 53-year-old was hit by a lorry on the M6 near her home.
15:43 UK time, Wednesday, 8 May 2013
There are times when what is not in a Queen's Speech causes as much of a stir as what is.
A year ago, a welter of speculation followed an address in which high-speed rail was conspicuous by its absence.
16:28 UK time, Monday, 22 April 2013
In theory, high-speed rail or HS2 has nothing to do with next week's county council elections. Neither do most of the debates which will, in practice, exert a heavy influence on the outcome.
Yet if there is one subject that is inflaming political debate in two of our major local authority areas where they're going to the polls next Thursday, it's HS2.
11:10 UK time, Tuesday, 16 April 2013
At last the story can be told: Margaret Thatcher got me my job at the BBC.
She had just become the Opposition Leader. I had recently graduated from university and was entering the hallowed portals of Broadcasting House in London for the first time. I was one of the candidates shortlisted for a news traineeship, the equivalent of an apprenticeship in broadcast journalism.
12:04 UK time, Tuesday, 9 April 2013
With more than 300 seats at stake in "whole council" elections at four county and one unitary authority, it is one of the biggest tests of Midlands political opinion in this famous electoral battleground area outside of a general election.
These councils are significant players in their own right, they are responsible for major services including schools, roads and refuse disposal.
12:20 UK time, Tuesday, 26 March 2013
Successive governments have talked about reforming the benefits system and ending the culture of welfare dependency.
The Labour government ran into trouble over lone parents' and disabled people's benefits. I remember talking to an employment secretary in the Blair government while the debate was raging over their "Welfare to Work" programme.
15:49 UK time, Wednesday, 20 March 2013
Chancellor George Osborne's first three budgets were all about austerity. The man from Number 11 had his hair shirt on as he unveiled his plans for getting on top of the deficit and reducing borrowing.
For his fourth, his choice of outfit had changed. Not for him the blandishments of the Lib Dem Business Secretary Vince Cable in support of "good borrowing" for spending aimed at triggering growth.
13:37 UK time, Tuesday, 12 March 2013
It's been variously described as "a recipe for chaos" and "a developers' charter".
Alternatively it's seen as a prescription for "sustainable development" with "strong protections" for the environment.
15:33 UK time, Tuesday, 5 March 2013
"This is not a trial," declared the Labour MP for Walsall South, Valerie Vaz as the Commons Health Select Committee began questioning of the boss of the NHS in England, Sir David Nicholson, about his part in the Stafford Hospital scandal.
But it did not take long for her to launch into a salvo of quickfire questions during which he looked for all the world like the man in the dock.
20:57 UK time, Wednesday, 27 February 2013
Suddenly ministers are showering vast sums of government money on local councils.
Suspend your disbelief.
13:43 UK time, Friday, 22 February 2013
There's an element of "Back to the Future" about recent fanfares for the Enterprise Zone (EZ) in Birmingham, and not just because Tarzan himself, Lord Heseltine, has been in town to find out what local leaders are doing to turn pious principles into practical measures to create growth.
EZ's were one of his big ideas for regeneration when he was in the Thatcher government in the 1980s.
12:11 UK time, Wednesday, 13 February 2013
"This must never happen again."
It is what we all say after any catastrophic event and we have been chorusing it again and again in the days since publication of the Francis Report on Stafford Hospital last week.
16:46 UK time, Wednesday, 6 February 2013
It's a measure of the gravity of the report by Robert Francis QC into the Stafford Hospital scandal that the government's response should be delivered by the Prime Minister. This places it alongside the inquiries into Bloody Sunday and the Hillsborough Disaster.
And once again, David Cameron used what is no longer the hardest word in politics. He said he was "truly sorry" for what had happened to the patients and their families who had been victims of these "appalling" failures.
16:17 UK time, Tuesday, 29 January 2013
"For the first time in a generation, striving councils now have licence to go full steam ahead and grab a share of the wealth of their local areas and to seize the opportunities of enterprise, growth and prosperity."
Eric Pickles MP.
16:22 UK time, Wednesday, 23 January 2013
Politics is full of ironies. Take the rise and rise of the UK Independence Party.
Their poll rating has never been higher: 16% according to a recent Survation poll in 'The Mail on Sunday'. Nigel Farage's party will undoubtedly be buoyed by their increasing popularity. But it's Labour who have the biggest cause for celebration.
19:12 UK time, Thursday, 17 January 2013
Patrick added analysis to:
Bill Longmore accuses party politicians of "sour grapes" as they ramp up the pressure on him to resign.
Is it, as he implies, a question of party politicians trying to get their own back because he was elected as an Independent?
10:56 UK time, Wednesday, 16 January 2013
It was meant to be the offer you couldn't refuse.
"If you keep your council tax frozen, we'll give you a grant equivalent increasing it by 1%."
18:46 UK time, Tuesday, 8 January 2013
Patrick added analysis to:
This is not just another spending cut and neither is it just Birmingham that will be affected.
Last summer, the government announced the current council tax benefit system was to be scrapped and that councils would need to have their own replacement schemes in place from April.
14:50 UK time, Tuesday, 8 January 2013
By the end of January or the beginning of February, Robert Francis QC is expected to have published the long-awaited report of his public inquiry into the Stafford Hospital scandal.
Hundreds of patients died needlessly while health managers were slashing their budgets in pursuit of NHS foundation trust status during a four-year period until 2008.
12:02 UK time, Tuesday, 11 December 2012
It's not just Labour which says George Osborne has no strategy for growth. Could Birmingham be about to show him how to deliver one?
With the UK braced for a threatened 'triple dip' recession and in danger of losing its cherished AAA credit rating, the boss of British Airways Willie Walsh has now added his voice to the criticisms of the chancellor.
First experience of Parliament as a young BBC journalist was a session of PMQ's when Harold Wilson was being interrogated by Margaret Thatcher.
Reported on The Troubles in Northern Ireland for four years including the worst-ever IRA attack on the army at Warrenpoint.
First became a Lobby journalist at Westminster as part of a team of correspondents which included such legendary figures as John Cole and John Sergeant.
He has been on the "inside track" at Westminster from the "high water" mark of the Thatcher period, through the Blair/Brown era to the unfolding drama of the Cameron/Clegg coalition.
Patrick grew up in Birmingham and went to university in Manchester. He has lived in Birmingham for 25 years.
John Hess
Political editor, East Midlands
Political musings from the East Midlands to Westminster
Paul Barltrop
Political editor, West of England
Thoughts and analysis on politics in the West of England
Andrew Neil
Daily and Sunday Politics
People and policies that make Westminster tick
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