Remember this post?

It shows Tower Hamlets mayor Lutfur Rahman and some of his associates being lavished with praise by city Labour politicians for helping with the election campaign in May.

They included Leicester East MP Keith Vaz, Jon Ashworth, who later that day was declared the new Leicester South MP, and Sir Peter Soulsby who was later voted in as elected mayor. Several of Labour’s city councillors are in attendance.

When I first highlighted this video in the summer I had to dance around Mr Rahman’s background.

I can be slightly more blunt this morning. The PCC has ruled that describing him as an “extremist-backed” politician, with “close links” to an extremist Islamic organisation, is “not misleading”. He denies the links.

Ask your local Labour politician whether they were aware of these claims when he joined them on the campaign trail…

(It’s worth pointing out that he’s off on a long-planned break – rather than fleeing the country!)

It’s never been a problem before, of course. Yes, a grumpy story might pop-up in the Mercury when a councillor pay rise is first announced, people will be temporarily disgruntled, but then it blows over in time for full council where elected members happily accept the proposals for a pay hike.

Start mucking around on these panels by suggesting pay freezes or cuts and you’d quickly find yourself sidelined.

The shock move to almost double the mayor’s salary to £100,000, and his deputy’s pay to £75,000, has a completely different feel to rises which have gone before. Some backbench councillors are outraged and have threatened to quit the party, while city centre vox pop participants are unanimous in their opposition, a sign no doubt of the strong public opinion in general.

Peter Soulsby won’t be drawn one way or the other on the £100k proposal, but has swiftly kicked the can down the street and well into the new year.

Martin Traynor, chair of Leicester’s pay panel, is bravely standing by his recommendations just as every politician in town frantically distances themselves from them. He was due to appear on BBC Radio Leicester this morning to justify his findings.

It’s hard not to get the feeling that Martin’s going to become the fall guy for all of this.

Former Lord Mayor Colin Hall bills his website – launched in June – as ‘the blog Leicester’s been waiting for’.

But now it’s arrived, it turns out the waiting has been in vain – there have only been five posts since the summer.

His latest article is about the departure of Mercury editor Keith Perch, in which he levels various accusations about news priorities at the paper.

In the topsy turvy world of Colin Hall the potential closure of the children’s heart unit at Glenfield – the subject of a four-month Mercury campaign and a 3,000 name petition – was ‘marginalised and overlooked’ by us.

Meanwhile an incident where his trousers fell down in public – which made just 200 words at the bottom of page two when it happened, plus passing references during his bizarre year as mayor – was the subject of ‘unremitting focus’.

The rest of his article sees him complain about our declining circulation, the community no longer seeing the Mercury as an essential read, our misuse of influence, the public’s distaste for our political coverage and an obsession with pet causes.

All allegations which would have had slightly more impact if he hadn’t happily used the pages of the Mercury to settle a few old scores just five months ago. Very principled, Colin.

In Leicester City Council’s internal newsletter Face this month, news of chief executive Sheila Lock’s impending departure has been relayed to staffers.

A short article headed Decision on chief executive post reads:

“After a very long meeting last month, councillors agreed to remove the position of chief executive.

“Sheila Lock’s redundancy has been approved and she will leave the council in the next couple of months. Sheila has been with Leicester City Council for five years. Sheila joined the council in 2006 as corporate director of children and young people’s services and became chief executive two years later when Rodney Green retired. She oversaw the creation of a new senior management team in 2008 and the reshaping of the council into the structure we have today.

“This decision marks the first phase of a wider review of the council’s senior management. Over the coming months the city mayor will review the next two levels of management with a view to finding further efficiencies and savings. It is a legal requirement that all local authorities have a ‘head of paid service’ – pending the outcome of the senior management review this role has passed temporarily to Andy Keeling, deputy chief executive.”

No thank you, no goodbye, no good luck. No more than 200 words.