Some mistake Ed?

Has nobody told culture minister Ed Vaizey about the curse of the silly photo? David Milliband suffered under the curse of the badly held banana, and now the Culture secretary has been lured into some truly silly positions at the opening of the latest initiative at Birmingham’s Custard factory.

This has almost everything – weird flying creatures overhead, man in a fur coat (Custard Factory founder Bennie Gray), and that strange embarrassed expression.

As if that weren’t enough, he also posed on an internal bridge:

And teh project is called Zellig – memories of Woody Allen’s film, and the man who wanted to be someone else! Bad move, Ed – shurely shome mistake?

Saving houses

Coming out shortly is Mark Hines’ report for SAVE on ‘Life after Pathfinder’, a really imaginative approach to how to save back to back houses by adding additional, prefabricated elements.

Certainly a much greener solution than demolition. From the perspective of the overcrowded south in particular, it seems mad that any property is surplus to requirements. But I was in Birmingham last week, where Digbeth has an immense amount of unwanted industrial property – ready to become ‘free schools’ perhaps?