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.

Lord Mayor Colin Hall branched out into online publishing, of sorts, last year.

He signed up to a service called Paper.li which uses links shared by the folks you follow on Twitter or Facebook to create an online newspaper which is updated daily.

You don’t have to lift a finger to compile content – it’s done automatically – but that can prove to be a double-edged sword. In today’s edition of Coun Hall’s Leicester Daily, nestled among posts about the healthiest foods on the planet and dementia care, is an embedded YouTube video of a poledancer dressed as Harry Potter, gyrating around a pole.

The woman in the video, known as “lethalblond0911″ coos to her followers in the comments below: “I’m glad you find it sexy, but it is artistic.”

Let’s hope the 870 followers of the city’s first citizen are open-minded enough to appreciate her artistic merits.

One Lord Mayor. One deputy Lord Mayor.

Now it looks like neither of them will be a councillor after next May’s local elections.

Deputy Rob Wann will bring to an end 25 years of public service next year by stepping from the stage without spending a year as the city’s first citizen.

He calls it the “hardest decision of his life”, but made the tough call last weekend.

Meanwhile Colin Hall, the current ceremonial leader of the city, has not been reselected by New Parks’ Labour chiefs to stand again in May.

Markets campaigner Dawn Alfonso wins the nomination instead.

Having withdrawn from the Belgrave selection in which he once tied with John Thomas – he finds himself facing a desperate scramble to find a seat elsewhere. But after an extended spell of bad publicity, things look tough.

So who’s third-in-line to the throne? Abdul Osman, the city’s High Bailiff.

But as reported here last week, he’s thrown his hat into the ring to become elected leader of Leicester.

Who will step forward to take up the city’s most historic public role next year?

Last night Lord Mayor Colin Hall Tweeted, in relation to an earlier (deleted) comment:

Earlier tweet re. journalists was misconstrued. Many apologies for any offence caused. The stoning is unacceptable + no reason for humour.

This blogger knows exactly what he wrote, and it related to controversy elsewhere in the country where a politican had called for the stoning of a journalist.

Unfortunately, I didn’t manage to get a screengrab of the comment. So if you did hit “print screen” in time and saved the update, then do send it my way.

UPDATE: FOI may have the answer… “Under the Freedom of Information Act could I please request copies of all emails and internal communication made by Cllr Colin Hall, senior council officers and members on November 11 and 12 2010, which regarded the contents and use of the Lord Mayor’s Twitter account.”

Richard and Stacie Newton were being given the prestigious honoured citizens award on Tuesday afternoon for their part in helping to close a neighbourhood drugs den.

Their inspiring story of standing up for community values struck a chord with him, and he was enjoying his time entertaining them in the parlour on Tuesday afternoon.

Council officials entered – cynics would say they’d chosen a time when he was at his most unguarded – asking him to give the nod to an emergency council meeting.

The emergency meeting would be used to mark the start of an attempt by Labour to ram through a last-minute consultation process in preparation for installing an all-powerful elected mayor next May.

These things are usually a formality. The officers must have fancied their chances. To an outside observer, it would look like he was being bounced.

But he wasn’t ready to accede to them. He did what any responsible mayor would have done.

“I’d like to see the constitution before deciding,” he said.

And that’s where the trouble began.

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The previous evening, the city’s Labour councillors had met for their regular group meeting.

In essence, this group meeting is about as powerful as the monthly assembly of all councillors.

With a chunky majority in the chamber, what they say goes.

After a blog post by myself on the issue of elected mayors, and a feature on last Sunday’s politics show, anticipation had built for the vote on whether to have a directly elected leader of the city.

Whichever way the vote went would help shape the city’s political scene for years to come.

One cabinet member, Paul Westley, had already broken cover. He’d told the BBC he was against the idea – but leader Veejay Patel had made up his mind and pushed for consensus.

The vote was carried, but by a smaller margin than expected. Councillors who’d left the four-hour meeting early could have made the vote even closer.

Deputy leader Vi Dempster, Veejay’s right-hand woman, was one of more than ten councillors who voted against the plan.

All was not well. Things needed to be pushed through quickly.

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It needn’t have been such a rush.

Many councils carried out and completed the consultation process months ago. Leicester City Council’s was a last minute rush job.

Why? Some claim former leader Ross Willmott put it on the back-burner for too long. But Veejay has been in office for nine months. Many don’t buy that line.

A proposal almost universally opposed by most party figures – save for Sir Peter Soulsby – just a few weeks ago was suddenly gaining support in the run-up to this week’s vote.

Why? Everything in politics happens for a reason. Whispers began that some sort of deal had been done.

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Some have asked: “Why would Peter Soulsby want to be mayor of Leicester? He’s an MP is Parliament on a chunky salary.”

Because it would make him the second most powerful directly elected politician in the country, and the most powerful politician Leicester has ever had.

Expect an elected mayor’s salary to quickly rise, too. The workload is much more significant than that of council leader – an independent pay panel will no doubt find – further down the line, before hiking the salary.

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To ram through a decision before the December 31 deadline, and avoid the plan biting the dust, a consultation must be carried out. It needs to be raised as an issue at three full council meetings before a decision can be made. The first to start the consultation, the second to hear the results, and the third to rubber-stamp any decision.

Colin Hall’s stance on the emergency meeting – he was still rightly or wrongly concerned about constitutional issues – was blocking the leadership’s attempt to start the consultation.

Without the meeting, the plans of the party’s influencers would be scuppered.

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A brief word of background here. Colin Hall is one of the Labour councillors who is against the elected mayor idea.

In the past, he hasn’t seen eye-to-eye with Soulsby, the current favourite to win any mayoral election.

“He sees Soulsby as partly responsible for his years when he wasn’t on the council,” one of his colleagues told me.

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The situation culminated with a day of arm-twisting on Thursday. Allies of Veejay say he had to step up and show leadership.

Whether he’s acted rightly or wrongly in the past 24 hours, no-one can argue that he showed leadership. He also showed a ruthless streak, which could come in handy during any mayoral election.

Formidable whip Barbara Potter was dispatched to persuaded the Lord Mayor to change his mind.

Those close to Veejay admitted that they could easily circumvent the mayor by asking four councillors to sign a document forcing a meeting to be held. But there was never any plan to do that. It would have been embarrassing and signalled a crippling weakness in Veejay’s authority.

“Every option is open if we don’t get our way on this.” one party high-flyer confided. Hours of silence then ensued.

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At 4pm my mobile-phone buzzed with a text. “It’s all back on. Emergency meeting is on November 19. Now we’re moving…”

Belgrave Labour party members recently met to select their candidates for the 2011 elections.

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.