Here we go again. The local government elections are looming and Birmingham's political classes are getting themselves into a right old lather over allegations of malpractice in, inevitably, Aston.

The latest claims are complex, have an anorakish feel to them and resemble in some ways a plot from the Keystone Cops.

Ayoub Khan, a Liberal Democrat councillor for Aston, who will be defending his seat on May 1, delivered 200 postal vote application forms and 150 voter registration forms to the council elections office at 4.45pm on Wednesday, 15 minutes before the deadline for registrations expired. There is nothing remotely illegal about this, Coun Khan is perfectly entitled to collect such forms and hand them in to be processed, although given Aston's past reputation as a hot bed of fraud the question must remain as to whether he was wise to handle personally such a large number of applications.

After that, the plot thickens. Someone at the elections office took it upon themselves to phone the Liberal Democrat office to query Coun Khan's behaviour, but instead mistakenly contacted Labour's West Midlands regional office and spoke to Keith Hanson, Labour's Birmingham organiser, before realising their mistake.

The information given to Mr Hanson was speedily passed to Sir Albert Bore, leader of the council Labour group, who lost no time in demanding a police investigation. But what is it Sir Albert wants the police to probe? The application forms must be scrutinised, certainly, in the same way that all forms must be carefully checked given this city's unfortunate reputation for electoral shenanigans. But to demand at this stage that the police be called in smacks of political opportunism.

And on the matter of opportunism, the claim by John Hemming MP that the council elections office has a record of pro-Labour bias must be backed by firm evidence if it is to be taken seriously. Mr Hemming believes the telephone call to Labour was deliberate, although he has been unable to prove this, and that staff at polling stations routinely go out of their way to assist the Labour Party. But these are serious allegations calling into question the motives of public servants, particularly so when being levelled by a Member of Parliament.

With the council elections a little under two weeks away, the leaders of Birmingham's Liberal Democrat and Labour parties resemble Great War generals determined to pound each other into submission. It is not an edifying sight.