How the Mighty Have Fallen

I have only just recovered from the last weekend of sport which saw another poor England performance against Israel in the "European" Championship qualifiers. A 3-0 victory against the mighty Andorra midweek has hardly raised spirits and quite frankly, until Steve McClaren leaves the England job I will not be watching this joke of a national team again.

Meanwhile in the Cricket World Cup Bangaldesh and Ireland qualified for the Super Eight stage taking the place of those two subcontinent powerhouses of world cricket, India and Pakistan. The Aussies must be loving it. It also appears that sadly, Bob Woolmer was murdered and the hunt is on to find his killer. Inzamam-ul-Haq has been questioned twice, and CCTV footage has been examined.

This joke may be in poor taste but it can't have been Inzy, otherwise it would be obvious from the CCTV footage...

As he was running from the scene he would have forgotten to ground his bat...

Brown Blows Last Budget

Gordon Brown delivered what was likely to be his final budget yesterday and the People's Republic remains unimpressed. The consensus is that the headline 2p income tax cut actually means the poorer are paying more tax due to the abolition of the 10p rate. PragueTory claims anyone earning less than £17935 more than £5000 is actually paying more tax (not taking into account any tax credits). Not like the Tories to give a damn about the poor, and not like me to agree with them. Circumstance makes strange bedfellows.

This time last week HP stopped producing its sauce in Aston, Birmingham and moved production to the Netherlands where corporation tax has recently been cut to 25.5%. In what can only be described as shutting the door after the horse has bolted, Brown cut corporation tax to 28p yesterday, making up the shortfall by tightening up the rules and raising taxes on small business. We are still quite a way off Ireland's corporation tax rate of 12.5%.

Oh and tax goes up on beer by 1p a pint on Sunday.

Better tank up before then...

A Super Weekend of Sport

What a weekend of sport! The fun started on Saturday when a double shock in the Cricket World Cup saw Ireland beat Pakistan and Bangladesh beat India. Unfortunately the former result took its toll on Pakistan's former Warwickshire coach Bob Woolmer, who was later found unconscious in his hotel room and died later in hospital. I would have loved to see him back at the Bears and the World Cup will be overshadowed by this tragedy.

Meanwhile post-Schumacher Formula 1 is more exciting than ever (unsurprisingly) with Kimi Raikkonen beating Fernando Alonso in the first race of what promises to be an exciting season. And forget Jenson Button; third place Lewis Hamilton staked his claim to become Britain' best racer with an excellent podium on his debut.

Poor Sleep Cloud Moral Judgement

Poor Sleep Clouds Moral Judgement reports the BBC in its health section today. Margaret Thatcher famously survived on only 4 hours sleep a night when Prime Minister.

Explains a lot.

US Athletes to be Based in Brum

On the day the European Indoor Athletics Championships came to an end it was announced that Birmingham will be the base of the USA athletics team for London 2012. Hopes are high that the Chinese team will follow.

Perhaps the People's Republic was wrong to believe only London would benefit from the Olympics. Now all they need to do is get ready on time and on budget...

Birmingham holds (another) Sporting Event

No football at the community hall at the NIA this week as Europe's top Athlete's descend on the city for the European Indoor Athletics Championships that will take place over the weekend. It will be the most significant athletics event to be held in Great Britain before London 2012, and the London 2012 campaign acknowledge the contribution that Birmingham's hosting of the Indoor Athletic Championships has made to their bid. Birmingham has held more sporting championships than any other European city in the last four years. And when we hold a sporting championship, we don't just invite the nations we've conquered.

Unlike some cities...

Don't Mention the Poll

As if the title of second city can be decided by a poll. The monkeys must be mistaking this country for a democracy. As people have mentioned since, our city is not great at promoting itself so here are some aspects of Birmingham to be proud of.

1) The Lord of the Rings. The three books (along with the Hobbit) that created the whole fantasy genre were written by a Birmingham author, JRR Tolkien, inspired by Moseley Bog.

2) Black Sabbath. I am fed-up of listening about how influential bands from Manchester are (in any case, sporting and musical achievement is greater in Liverpool). They only dominated in this country for a small section of the 90's. Black Sabbath are one of the most influential bands in the world with Tony Iommi credited with inventing the heavy metal riff. And can you imagine an MTV show called "the Gallaghers"?

3) The Mini. This characterful car was first developed and built in Birmingham in 1959 until production ended in 2000? The new Mini was developed in Birmingham but is now built in Cowley by BMW.

4) The Lunar Society. In one of his books on the history of industrial Britain, Adam Hart-Davis devotes an entire chapter to Birmingham in which he states you cannot write a proper history of Britain without mentioning Birmingham and in particular the work of the Lunar Society.

5) Modern architecture. Birmingham may not have the tallest skyscrapers (in fact I believe we cannot because of the nature of the soil round these parts) but that has not stopped us creating some of the most recognisable buildings in the country. The Rotunda is being redeveloped, while the new Selfridges building may be controversial, but at least it is different.

The fantasy genre. Heavy metal-riffing. One of the most (if not the most) iconic cars in the world. Power when Britain was emerging into a superpower. Modern Landmarks. Birmingham's greatness transcends the city.

Tell you friends how great Birmingham, England is.

First or Second?

There has been a lot of coverage this week of the petition opposing the introduction of congestion charges, which in the end managed to accumulate 1.8 million signatures. While on the Number 10 petition site however I managed to find a more important campaign.

For the less ambitious, this petition might be more relevant.

Convicts Return to Roots

The England Cricket teams physio was robbed at knife-point in the Sydney Hotel where the England team were staying.

Surely there was an easier way for the Aussies to get their hands on the Commonwealth Bank Trophy?

Blog Updates

The People's Republic of Birmingham has finally upgraded to the new version of blogger. You may notice some changes to the blog as a result of this over the next few weeks and indeed some changes have already taken place. On the links section of this blog I have removed some of the more right wing blogs that have started to annoy me, and a left wing one which has deteriorated in quality. As a result of the new blogger, you will notice tags which I plan to put on all previous 139 posts so that you can find related topics more easily. Nice to see Google are taking recommendations from the People's Republic seriously.

Also, you may have noticed a lack off updates on this blog recently. This is due to my new pet project, Support City Hospital which is a campaign blog to keep acute services in Birmingham from being damaged by short-sighted government and local healthcare policy. Pop by if you have some time and don't forget to sign the petition.

Some topics PRoB would have mentioned include Lynne Jones unfortunate announcement to retire at the next election as a result of boundary changes, leaving an inferior Blairite (Brownite) MP to "represent" Birmingham Selly Oak, Manchester winning the Super Casino (I wish I had put a bet on that!), the London Olympic finance fiasco, the spare Wembley pitch that Blues tried to unsuccessfully lay at St. Andrews and probably a lot of others that I can't remember.

Those of you who know me probably could guess what I was going to say anyway.

Birmingham or Baghdad?

Birmingham was once again the centre of a terrorist plot in the land that has become Al-Qaeda's number one target as a result of our glorius leader's "prescient" (spelled president?) foreign policy. A plan hatched by disillusioned muslims to kidnap a Muslim British soldier and behead him on television was allegedly foiled by the police, leading to 9 arrests and numerous houses across the city being searched. Leaving Big Brother to fill a gap in the market.

The media is full of angry muslims or so the national press would have us believe. On a local report I saw a lot of Muslims supporting the police action, but presumably this would not go down well in the rest of the country. So instead we are treated to the assorted cranks and nutters you can find in immigrant communities, who presumably would vote UKIP or Conservative under Michael Howard if they were white and middle-class (maybe the latter is a bit harsh).

One such nutter unfortunately is chairman of Birmingham Central Mosque, Dr Mohammed Naseem. In a previous post I took his side against Khalid Mahmood, but I was glad to see I did not support his views unequivocally. In his latest outburst he compares treatment of Muslims to that of Jews in Nazi Germany, and claims that the arrest were an example to the government justifying its political agenda.

Not quite Dr Naseem. Although I am no fan of this government, I am also no fan of those who seek to exploit their idiocy with their own brand of tomfoolery. These were not comments that helped the community, and not a great advert for British or Birmingham Muslims. Perhaps Khalid Mahmood is right after all.

Events Take a Turner the Worst for Blair

Ruth Turner's arrest by the police has been criticised by Labour MP's Tessa Jowell and David Blunkett, although I am not exactly sure what there grounds are other than she is close to Tony Blair and so should be untouchable. This is outrageous. They did not have much to say when an innocent man was shot in the head eight times as a result of incompetent policing, nor did they worry much about David Kelly's death. Does New Labour's arrogance never end? It is a real pity Ruth Turner was not charged; what would really have been great is to see these two idiots charged with contempt of court.

After a 90-day detention under suspicion, of course.

A Whitewash Christmas

Glenn McGrath has been predicting it for years, but even the most pessimistic England fan could not have believed the current crop of England players would go down 5-0 to the Convicts. Even when we had the worst team in the world, and they had the best which ever played Test cricket (captained by the almighty Steve Waugh) we managed to win one (usually the last one - and I am beginning to think perhaps they let us).

After winning the Ashes back 14 months ago, they have been relinquished in the worst defeat ever. We may have lost 5-0 86 years ago but we should remember that England team had been decimated by the Great War. And I bet they did not get any MBE's either...

Looking towards the future, things do look brighter. Young England players like Alastair Cook and Ian Bell have learnt a lot from this Test and are both younger than 25, as is Kevin Pietersen who looks like he could become one of the best batsmen in the world, in the vein of Lara and Tendulkar. The bowling attack was lightweight this time, but at 21 and 24 there is a lot more cricket ahead for Mahmood and Panesar. And I have not even mentioned Plunkett (21), Broad (19), Simon Davies (that elusive wicket-keeper batsman from Worcesteshire, 19) who will surely break through into the team in the next two-and-a-half years. Hopefully Simon Jones will also shake of his injuries and we will have a crop of players who will gain confidence because they will not play a team anywhere near as good as this Australian team until the next Ashes, when Australia probably will not be as good.

It was a fitting way for the remnants of the greatest Test side ever to go, winning 5-0 against the old enemy (the b*stards put us in prison!). They have got some great players coming through, but like England after the 2005 Ashes they should not rest on their laurels as things could turn round very quickly. The Australian four-man bowling attack will no longer have two world class bowlers to turn to when they are in trouble. Who will replace Warne and McGrath? Maybe Stuart Clark can step up for the latter, but the former is irreplaceable (it would have been 4-0 this series, and England would have won more comfortably in 2005 without him). Phil Jacques will be a more than able replacement for Langer but surely Symonds is still not Test standard. Hayden and Gilchrist can not be far from retirement, and finding a Wicketkeeper-batsman as good as the latter could be a problem, changing the whole balance of the team. The replacements for these old guys will take a few years, with some players being tried and not working and they themselves being replaced. Fielding positions that have been the preserve of certain players for the best part of a decade will suddenly be up for grabs and with all due respect, Ricky Ponting's (lack of) captaincy skills have been covered up by a great set of players.
Who is the first team they will test out the new generation against? India, away in November. Not exactly your ideal starter tour, given they beat the greatest Test side ever a few years back. After this series however, the Aussies will believe they are ready to take on the world.

Here's hoping they lose.

Merry Christmas!

The People's Republic would like to wish all our readers a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.

Be prepared for more subversive Second City blogging in the New Year...

Birmingham Born, but not a Hero

Listening to the Ashes is truly depressing (especially on Radio 4 LW where they keep interupting it at 9am every day to bore us with the "highlights" from the previous day at Westminster). There is however some delight in seeing Birmingham-born Andrew Symonds turned-convict giving his wicket away on a regular basis for the Aussies.

Andy Symonds turned down the chance to play for England A so he could be selected for Australia. To show that he is a fair dinkum Aussie he says.

"I had the Baggy Green in my hand a few days ago and smelt it. I love the smell - it smells of sweat and beer."

And traitors.

It's Terrorism John, but Not as we Know it

Over the last couple of weeks we have had a man murdered with a radioactive chemical and an attempted terrorist attack on Stormont, the home of the parliament of Northern Ireland. Yet the silence from Prime Minister Tony Blair and Home Secretary John Reid has been deafening.

Shall I start a rumour on here now that Islamic terrorist groups were involved? That will ensure a string of government pronouncements and further attacks on our civil liberties and race relations that will last long after Christmas.

If we survive Christmas...

Mad Hattersley

I've always had a lot of respect for former Birmingham MP Roy Hattersley, being as he is an unashamed proponent of left wing values and perennial thorn in the side of New Labour. However, this morning on the Heaven and Earth show he made a bit of a fool of himself. Firstly he tried to gain the moral high ground by asking someone who dared to disagree with his position on the new anti-discrimination gay rights laws if she was gay. His face was a picture when she said yes. During this argument, he quoted a statistic from a report in the 1940's which claimed that 12% of the population was gay. Another member of the panel pointed out the this report had been discredited several times since, and the figure was closer to 3% which he then claimed proved his point! Finally, he rubbished the idea that if everyone followed the Catholic churches teachings to the letter, there would be no AIDS but failed to give any indication of why that was such a stupid comment.


It must show my age when I am starting to agree with Tony Blair (yes you read that correctly) that we need to take on conservatives on both sides. Roy is an Old Labour dinosaur who would be eaten alive in the House of Commons today. I do not disagree with everything he says, but perhaps he is a ladder it is time to kick away.

Ashes Burnt

I do not really have the enthusiasm for the Ashes this time unlike in 2005. There are several reasons for this:

1) It is in Australia during the middle of the night
2) It is on Sky anyway and the highlights are late
3) The Aussies are on home ground and really fired-up
4) Injuries to Vaughan and Simon Jones means England have a weakened team
5) Our run-in to this series has not been exactly inspiring

It was no surprise to me therefore that the convicts dominated the first day. We need to be more attacking, bringing in Monty Panesar and Chris Read for Ashley Giles and Geraint Jones. We may not win the series, but we'd certainly put it up them.

Saddamed Republicans

On Radio 4 on Sunday I woke up to the following words:

"Today is te 5th November 2006, the day that will go down in history as the day Saddam Hussein was sentenced to death."

Was it a coincidence it happened three days before the US Mid-term elections? Was it a coincidence that the Afghan Elections results were due to come out at a similar time two years ago when Bush was seeking re-election before the UN monitors delayed the announcement? We are told US troops are in these countries for democracy, but whose - theirs or America's?

Anyway, as I write, the Democrats have won the House of Representatives, they are likely to effectively control the Senate and Donald Rumsfeld has left his post as Defence secretary.

Mission Accomplished.

Problems on Blogger

Apologies for the strange posts/ removal of posts that have been occurring on these pages recently, I am having some problems publishing with blogger that I thought were due to html errors but are actually issues with the blogspot server. At one point I thought it was the end of the People's Republic. You Cockneys won't get rid of us that easily...

Anyway, hopefully normal service will resume soon.