Usual suspects line up for mayor

Each of them, I am reliably informed, gives some of the region's top council officers nightmares.

Lord Jones of Birmingham, as we should properly designate him, is one of the names bandied about whenever the idea of a Mayor of Not-Greater-Birmingham is being discussed.

The lawyer, former CBI boss and ex-trade minister in the last Labour Government fancies the job of being top man at some new combined authority covering much of the West Midlands.

It would put him at the head of an organisation desperate to take over the powers of Whitehall and the local authorities stretching from Wolverhampton to Warwickshire.

Another feared candidate is Liam Byrne. He's notorious for leaving a note behind when he left the Treasury at the 2010 General Election.

It said: 'Dear Chief Secretary, I'm afraid there is no money. Kind regards – and good luck! Liam.'

An amusing joke, perhaps, but a bit too near the truth and something of a confession.

A third, equally unpalatable option, for Mayor of Not-Greater-Birmingham is Britain's most expensive politician, David Jamieson, the West Midlands Police and Crime Commissioner, whose election cost at least £3.7 million.

The Government won't let us have the autonomy local politicians want unless we agree to have the whole show run by an elected representative.

Sadly Boris Johnson isn't in the market. Nor, I should guess, would the world's most famous Black Countryman Robert Plant be. The former Led Zeppelin singer undoubtedly has better things to do.

Why would a multi-millionaire musician subject himself to the whines and whims of a bunch of local politicians and the day-to-day scrutiny of the media?

He'd get my vote, though I have no idea what his political views might be. But as I can't believe he will be putting himself up for election any time soon, that's pretty irrelevant.

The historian Carl Chinn might throw his hat into the ring and he, at least, would be a popular and well-known choice. But having discussed this with one or two of the public servants who will have to deal with an elected Mayor, they are not convinced we have a pool of talent, fresh ideas and sparkling personalities to choose from.

As one of them said: "It's the usual suspects. Tired politicians who have been round the block too many times and won't have any charisma or new ideas. God forbid it's Digby Jones, a man of many words, or Liam Byrne."

Council officials won't really have any choice in the matter and, as good public servants, they will have to work with whoever they get lumbered with. And it will almost certainly be either a local Labour or Conservative politician few people outside the parties themselves have ever heard of, selected by a tiny number of party members. They will fight it out for the top job to an audible yawn of indifference from the voters.

The winner will be the candidate representing the party which is not in Government at the time because nobody has any idea what an elected Mayor of Not-Greater-Birmingham would be for. Just as we have no idea why we've got a police commissioner.

The idea is that the Mayor will suddenly put Not-Greater-Birmingham on the global map. The problem is the job won't attract candidates with the skill, ability and charisma necessary to turn the squabbling councils of the West Midlands into a united force for economic prosperity.

Such people are, in any case, few and far between. Not many are attracted by the thrills and spills of subjecting themselves to the whim of the electorate. Even fewer can put up with the backbiting and in-fighting of local politics.

For instance, one potential Mayor is 52-year-old Andy Street, managing director of the John Lewis department stores and chairman of the Greater Birmingham and Solihull Local Enterprise Partnership.

A Brummie who was last year voted Britain's most admired business leader, he would bring all the skills, knowledge and understanding gained over an entire career in retail to the job of developing the region's economy.

But why would he do it? He says: "I'm quite a humble, self-effacing chap. I am not a great one for showmanship. I know I have to do some of it. But do I enjoy it? Categorically no." Why would somebody like that give up his £750,000-plus salary on the off-chance of getting elected to an authority few people will ever hear of or care about? For the Mayor to be a success, we need someone like Mr Street, with a genuine track record of business success, who commands respect and who would be listened to locally and in Westminster.

We won't get him. Instead it will just be another round-up of the usual suspects and we will wonder why we ever bothered in the first place.