David Cameron has recognised the work of Birmingham bloggers and other volunteers who run "social media surgeries" to help community groups, by awarding them the Prime Minister's Big Society Award.

Entrepreneur and blogger Nick Booth, owner of Digbeth-based firm Podnosh, received the award on behalf of volunteers who have taken part in the surgeries since they began in 2008.

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Grag Clark, the Minister for the Cities, urged Birmingham residents to vote "yes" to an elected mayor, after signing the order telling Birmingham to hold a referendum on May 3.

In an article, originally published in abbreviated form by the Birmingham Mail, he said "the choice is yours" - but argued that a Birmingham Mayor would give the city a strong and accountable leader "who fights their corner - batting for Birmingham on a national and international level."

Mr Clarke is a Minister in the Department for Communities and Local Government. He writes:

Yesterday I was delighted to sign an order which will give residents here in Birmingham the chance to put a directly-elected mayor at the helm.

Putting pen to ballot paper, voters here, and those in the nine other cities, hold the power to bring in a new politics on May 3rd.

Why is this such a great opportunity?

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Cannock MP Aidan Burley receives a right telling off from the Speaker in this video, as he heckles Dudley MP Ian Austin. The Black Country MP was demanding to know when an inquiry into Mr Burley's involvement in a Nazi-themed stag do would report its findings.

John Bercow, the Speaker, tells Mr Burley (Con Cannock Chase) to keep quiet after Mr Burley shouts "disgrace". Only Mr Austin had his microphone on, but Mr Burley's words were more audible in the Chamber than they are in this clip from the TV broadcast.

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Labour should hold open primaries allowing casual supporters to choose the party's candidate for mayor of Birmingham, according to senior Labour figure David Miliband.

Mr Miliband, the former Foreign Secretary and ex-Labour leadership contender, said the candidate for a Birmingham mayor could be decided in an open primary where anyone can vote if they sign a declaration saying they support Labour and pay a nominal fee of £1.

At the moment, the decision will be made just by party members, who so far have a choice of three candidates - Gisela Stuart, Sion Simon and Sir Albert Bore.

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Candidates hoping to stand for mayor of Birmingham will be set a strict spending limit of just over £47,000 each - but it's unclear where they will get the money from.

The parties have given no indication that they will actually be willing to fund mayoral campaigns. And with elections for police commissioners also taking place at the same time as the mayoral vote in November, they may simply not have the cash to splash out for leaflets and traditional mailshots.

The funding cap was revealed by Local Government Minister Andrew Stunell, who said candidates would be allowed to spend £2,362 plus 5.9p for every voter.

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How does Ed Miliband know what anyone is saying about him?

One thing that struck me as odd in an interview the Labour leader has given to The House Magazine (edited by one Gisela Stuart) is that he doesn't read the papers or watch the television news.

The interviewer, Paul Waugh (here he is on Twitter), reports:

Does he read the newspapers? "No, not really." Does he watch the TV news? "When you get home, the thing I most want to do is spend time with my kids.".

The commentariat are another group that don't trouble him. "You know I think the thing you learn most in this job is you let the commentators, the people who give you advice, to take their own view and you carry on doing the right thing as you see it."

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MP Tom Watson has forgiven a researcher who plunged him into an internet row by pretending to be him - and making a joke about rape.

Mr Watson (Lab West Bromwich East), Labour's internet guru in his role as deputy party chair, said he had accepted an apology from the 21-year-old researcher and would not fire her, even though she sent an offensive message in his name.

The MP has also issued an apology after the researcher sent a message on Internet service Twitter stating: "I should log out of my twitter so that my intern doesn't twit-rape me..."

She used Mr Watson's Twitter account, which has 65,000 followers, so that the comment appeared to come from the MP himself.

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Business Secretary Vince Cable has hinted at a division within the coalition over plans to introduce controversial regional pay deals.

Proposals to end national pay agreements in the public sector were a surprise announcement in George Osborne's Autumn Statement last year. The policy is opposed by unions and Labour - but Dr Cable, one of the most senior Lib Dems in the Cabinet, has now warned there are "practical problems" with the proposal, calling it "a subject we'll have to approach with very great care".

In today's Birmingham Post we've published a lengthy interview with Dr Cable, who spoke to representatives of regional newspapers about a wide range of topics including high speed rail, city mayors and the failure of big cities to match the economic success of their equivalents on the Continent.

But he also hinted that he had doubts about regional pay, a policy which is supposedly designed to help private sector employers in regions outside London to compete to staff.

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The order which forces Birmingham to hold a referendum on creating a directly elected mayor was approved by the House of Commons today - although it was formally opposed by the Labour Party.

Shadow local government minister Chris Williamson demanded a division and then voted against the measure, which obliged the city to hold a referendum on May 3.

The order was discussed at a Commons delegated legislation committee, which is a Commons committee set up to consider detailed changes to the law which do not require an Act of Parliament. The general power to force cities to hold referendums is contained in the Localism Act, which became law last year, and the Government has drawn up orders for each city which are now being considered in committees, one at a time.

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