We can all remember cringing when Gordon Brown revealed that he was a bit of a fan of the Arctic Monkeys - who were at the time the nation's coolest rock outfit. Monastic chanting would perhaps seem more appropriate for our former Prime Minister.

Before that we had failed rock star Tony Blair hanging out with Oasis, which was ultimately a cause for regret on all sides, and more recently toes were curling as David Cameron made the incredible claim that he spent his formative years at Eton and Oxford jumping about to The Smiths.

I have some sympathy with politicians over this. We expect them on the one hand to be 'in touch' to share the hopes, aspirations and even the likes and dislikes of the man on the Clapham Omnibus.

That is probably because as a quasi-judicial body it is generally above the nasty party politics and exists primarily to interpret planning applications against the backdrop of highly permissive set of policies and regulations.

One member, Bob 'Biggles' Beauchamp, the Tory with love of planes, cars and motorbikes, seems to have either owned a property or had significant business interest in just about every corner of the city. He only has to utter: "I know this area well" for groans to fly up from around the room.

Another, would-be newspaper headline writer, Peter Douglas Osborn tries with mixed success to bring a little wit to proceedings - again usually met with groans.

So now Councillor Barry Henley, who uses long words to confuse certain colleagues, is suggesting a change to committee standing orders to prohibit these cliched responses.

However he saves his best for the transport department official Paul Cowen, who it seems whenever an objector complains about parking congestion outside a school, Mosque or take away as a reason to refuse development, says that when the department visited the site there were ample parking spaces.

Coun Henley said: "I suggest that every member of the committee is entitled to one Christmas shopping trip a year with Mr Cowen, because without fail he always manages to find somewhere to park."

The decisions taken by Birmingham's Labour Cabinet this week have now been put on hold until reconsidered by special scrutiny committees to being convened this week.

First to be challenged is the introduction and consultation over wheelie bin rollout across the city following the award of a £30 million council grant. It is likely to be heard by the transport scrutiny committee on Friday.

Second is the cutting of free travel for faith school pupils and other cuts in home to school transport - which goes to education scrutiny on Wednesday.

And thirdly the cutting of production and jobs at the council-owned Erdington based upvc door and window maker Shelforce - a firm which specialises in the employment of disabled people. This appears at the jobs and economy committee on Tuesday.

Under normal circumstances wih Labour majorities on all the scrutiny committees it is unlikely the decisions will be completely overturned - but they may be amended.

But the Cabinet, in its last meeting before mid-January,had a bumper 30 item agenda last Monday to get through a lot of business which needed sorting before the end of the year.

This means that the challenges have come through a week before Christmas,with two of the meetings being scheduled at short notice.

The Tory challengers are hoping a couple of Labour councillors will have other plans and they can spring a surprise by stalling or stopping a policy.

Basically pointing out that a collection system now used by the majority of local authorities in England and the West Midlands has not brought about the end of civilisation as we know it and in fact driven up recycling rates.

Birmingham has always been put off the wheelie bin because as the largest local authority the level of up front investment - a million bins, new fleet of trucks and adaptations to depots - has been prohibitive. Now Eric Pickles has handed them the capital cash it's full steam ahead.

It recently came to my attention that the 'dramatic' and 'iconic' new Shard End Library, a bright red building with a giant spike sticking out the roof, had been short listed for the annual Carbuncle award for rubbish architecture.

Of course it could never win against such triumphant national design disasters like the ArcelorMittal Orbit tower at the Olympic Park or the eventual winner, the hovercraft skirt-like glass construction under the restored Cutty Sark.

But another conspiracy theory suggests why Shard End did not bag the top prize. With our new Centenary Square building set to open in 2013 they can't give the Carbuncle award to a Birmingham library two years running.

His eagerness to shout that the fall-out from the equal pay bombshell could leave the city council bankrupt, unless a government bailout is forthcoming, has particularly angered some backbenchers.

It is thought that he is softening up the comrades and preparing the ground for what will inevitably come as £600 million, about half the council's adjustable revenue budget, is cut and services previously taken for granted have to go.

The budget roadshow will take this message of doom to the masses at a series of public meetings next month.

The cuts need to start being made now so that the pain is lessened down the line is the argument being put.

This was the website which cost something in the order of £3 million to develop, from an initial projection of about £500,000.

Part of this was explained as underestimating the scale of the project at the outset as more and more services and features were added, but you also wonder if managers, bamboozled by technology and the hard sell from consultants, allowed costs to spiral.

Anyway despite this huge outlay the website remains a bit of mess - of course having the most sophisticated platform is only worthwhile if the content is up to scratch.

The Labour councillor for Acocks Green, in charge of commissioning, contracting and improvement, was sent packing after only a couple of minutes in front of the partnership, contract and performance scrutiny committee.

The incredulous members of the cross-party committee were furious that there had been no report on his work in advance of the hearing, and only a couple of sheets seemingly cut and pasted from his general job description on the council's constitution.

Coun Leddy's tale of woe was related during a discussion on performance of the council's call centre which is run by Capita Service Birmingham - and the need to get less people making calls, and more using the less expensive internet to make inquiries.

After the article appeared Service Birmingham was quick to say that it was not their phone system, but one operated independently by the council.

This line has been shut down in the last couple of weeks precisely because it was leaving callers frustrated.

Service Birmingham seemed incredulous that anyone could believe it was their system.

But at dozens of these meetings we have been told time and time again that anything the City Council does either online or on the phone has to be developed with or approved by Service Birmingham under the strict terms of their contract.

They shortened the event to about four hours, thus cutting the need for a slap-up tea in the Lord Mayor's banqueting suite.

A couple of hours were shaved off by cutting the Cabinet member reports, which basically allowed the top ten councillors to tell everyone what they had been doing for the last few months.

The question time session was extended, ensuring the leader and deputy leader would be challenged, rather than passed over for a series of questions about ward committees.

COUNCIL Labour leader Sir Albert Bore has been urged to 'be bold' and look for new ways of working to protect services in Birmingham.

The call came from Liberal Democrat group leader Paul Tilsley who said that the city should be looking for innovative ways of raising money to add to funding initiatives already in the pipeline such as enterprise zones and the new homes bonus.

Alongside that he urged the Labour leader to look at new ways of running services - including outsourcing.

Coun Tilsley said: "They have got to take the opportunity and break out of the straight jacket of dependency on Government funding.

"As far as cutting goes we should not be ruling anything in or out."

Tory group leader Mike Whitby accused Labour of seeing 'apocolyptic threats' from budget cuts instead of 'challenges'.

He argued that his administration, which ran the council until May this year, had already lined up many of the cut backs.

"We dealt with more than £300 million cuts in two years without closing libraries and swimming pools," he said.

And he added that the job loss figures were 'scaremongering' as many would be vacant posts or voluntary redundancy.

There was angry reaction from trade unions, whose members jobs are at risk.

Unison regional secretary Ravi Subramanian said: "This budget situation is very worrying and it is a mess jointly created by the previous Tory Lib-Dem council and the current Tory Lib-Dem Government.

"UNISON will be asking the Labour Council to campaign jointly with us to approach Eric Pickles and ask for a Fair Deal for Birmingham."

He added that further job losses would harm any prospect of economy recovery and have a knock on effect on local businesses.

GMB unions said the cuts were a huge blow during the recession. Senior organiser Amanda Gearing said "Vulnerable citizens in Birmingham cannot live with these cuts which even the Leader says will lead to front line services being ended."

This committee is expected to go into seven options for the markets, including make do and mend the current rotten building, or various redevelopment and relocation proposals and recommend a course of action for the Cabinet.

The committee heard passionate evidence from various market traders highlighting their place in the city centre's economy, society and culture as well as its long history.

"Birmingham was founded around the markets," it was pointed out.

They argued forcibly and with conviction for the wholesalers to remain located in, or very near, to the current site.Few were more passionate than indoor market trader of 50 years, Alan Doherty who talked about the hard work that goes into the business - up at all hours, lugging produce about, modest profit margins, while providing an essential service for the citizens of Birmingham.

"Do you know how hard we work selling all day every day?" he asked.

But committee chairman Carl Rice, bearing in mind the low esteem in which politicians are generally held, was quick to reply: "You sell fruit and veg, meat, fish - produce that people want. That's easy. I have to sell ideology, now that's difficult."

Although the talks were private, leaks revealed that his radical plans included the council walking away from all but those services it was legally obliged to deliver such as social care and refuse collection.

And even those could be contracted out to private or third sector organisations or the staff handed over to private companies or co-operatives.

While the leisure centres, libraries and swimming pools would either be centralised or handed over to others to run - perhaps with volunteer staff.

Recently the monthly (well ten times a year) full council meeting has been cut from an average of over six hours to about four.

Partly this was used to justify cutting the council dinner, which had become a bit of an embarrassment.

Coun Tilsley is not happy that Britain's largest local authority only meets in its entirety for four hours a month.