The headline on the story trumpeted Veejay’s “Era of Openness”, and it’s something I tested this week.

I requested some data through the press office which, on analysis, may or may not prove controversial. Nevertheless, it was easily accessible and should have already been compiled into the required format.

Unsurprisingly, the press office told me I had to submit the request as an FOI, because there was too much data to compile. I was faced with a potential delay of a month to access council information.

Pulling out the tattered copy of the story which I always have to hand on my desk, I fired off an email to Veejay questioning the decision given his previous promise.

Within two hours I received an email from his assistant with the relevant figures.

He may only been in office for a few months, but so far he’s upholding his pledge of openness. Long may it continue.

With just 45 hours to go until the polls opened, Sood slammed the leader of his own party. As every media outlet in the country picked up the story, Peter Mandelson picked up the phone – and gave Manish an ear-bashing.

The phonecall ended on bad terms, and one of them hung up. Mandelson then toured the TV channels, making some questionable slurs on Sood’s character.

We all thought that was the end of the matter.

However word reaches me that Lord Mandelson, in his rage, forgot to withhold his mobile telephone number when he made the call.

Suddenly, the hyperactive councillor had a personal hotline to the Labour Party’s chief strategist. And, predictably, he’s been using it.

Lord Mandelson will presumably dial 141 before calling off-message candidates in future.

City cabinet member Sarah Russell has started a

In her first post she says that trying to fit blogging into her hectic day might prove tough, as a mother of two who juggles work and politics. I struggle to update this blog every day and all I do after work is eat Cherry Garcia ice-cream in bed while watching 30 Rock.

As a journalist I can say that of all the cabinet members I speak to on a regular basis, she’s got the best grasp of her portfolio, so her promise to explain issues to readers will be useful.

But as she’s a cabinet member she’s got to stick to the party line, so don’t expect too many juicy snippets from the inside.

If only she could encourage her rambunctious partner Andy to start blogging on local politics.

Now that would be a must-read…

“If you want to be buried in Leicester, you’d better hurry up and die.”

I turned up to last night’s Castle by-election count in my finest overcoat, a new shirt and pair of jeans, and took a seat. “Have you come straight from the boozer David?” he asked.

Presumably he was more flattering to Castle constituents when out on the doorstep, because Labour managed to claw back the seat from the Greens.

But while Labour managed to win by more than 100 votes, don’t think of this as an easy win. Twenty minutes before the result was announced Patrick Kitterick, hovevering around in his Barcelona shirt, said it was still too tight to call.

And although the turnout was tiny, the votes were counted and the results announced pretty sharpish, by about 11pm.

“Perry [Holmes] had to do a quick job this time, after the shambles at the General Election count back in May,” one councillor noted.

A very naughty councillor, who is clearly a fan of Channel 4’s Countdown, got in touch last night.

He’d spotted that the name of the Lib Dem candidate in tonight’s Castle by-election is (almost) a coalition-themed anagram.

Troy Lavers becomes Tory Slave. Almost.

Thursday 22nd July:

10:00  -  Lord Mayor & Guests  -  Buckingham Palace Garden Party

Stay away from Prince Philip, he’ll only be a bad influence.

On Sunday Lord Mayor Colin Hall used his Twitter account to warn the Mercury to expect a “fiery week”.

If I was Coun Hall, I’d put a lottery ticket on this weekend, because he clearly has the power to see into the future:

• On Monday his attack post against me and the newspaper was pulled by council bosses.
• On Tuesday his trousers fell down in front of a library full of schoolchildren.
• On Wednesday the story made international headlines.
• On Thursday the leader of the opposition said he had undermined the historic office.

A ‘fiery week’ indeed. Have a good weekend everyone, and I’ll be back on Wednesday.

A brief text said simply: “The Lord Mayor ignored advice from civic staff to wear belt. They had even bought him one.”

I approached the city council’s press office with the claim at 3pm yesterday. They responded just before 3pm today with the following response:

“We have no further comment to make on this matter.”

That’s a ten word statement which took 24 hours to prepare.

In other news, the council’s desperate hunt for inefficient non-frontline services to cut continues…

It doesn’t just happen to international superstars, it happened to our very own Lord Mayor yesterday.