Birmingham Stands Alone

So there we have it. A week ago today, the BNP gained two seats in the European parliament in their most high-profile victories to date. Despite getting less votes than they did in 2004, they gained a bigger proportion of the vote in the North West and Yorkshire & Humber to take the last seats, allocated by proportional representation, in both. I do not think we should be so sure that an increased turnout in future elections under a likely Conservative government will necessarily happen; both the North West and Yorkshire & Humber were part of the postal voting experiment in 2004 designed to increase Labour turnout. We may have to turn to the opposition to the BNP which exists in this country to get them out in five years and remove the stain of electing them sixty years after British troops landed in Normandy in an attempt to remove fascists from Europe. European elections will become more exciting than they ever have.

It was not all bad news, however, as BNP no 2 Simon Darby got nowhere near getting a seat in the West Midlands constituency. The sixth seat went to UKIP, with the potential seventh, should Lisbon be ratified, going to a third Tory. Next would have been the BNP, but the population in the region is not big enough for us to get any more representation. Perhaps we need a few more immigrants?

This leave Birmingham, unlike London, Manchester and Leeds, free of fascist representation at any level, which is quite funny given the national press have tended to think we are one of the most likely places to elect Nazis. Just like Britain in 1940, Birmingham now stands alone as a bastion of freedom in the fight against fascism. Let us not underestimate how much fascists can damage the reputation of a city. Richard Barnbrook, elected to the London assembly under PR with just over 5% of the vote, has undermined England's 2018/22 bid for the World Cup and potentially embarrassed the Queen by attempting to take Nick Griffin to Buckingham Palace with him; both a direct consequence of his election. If it had been any other city other than Our Glorious Capital! no doubt the press would have been sneering. Perhaps all future events to promote the country should take place away from London to stop this happening in future. All we need is a major city that has refuted fascism at the ballot box at every opportunity.

How about Birmingham?

Spin City

I do worry about the BBC sometimes. Last Thursday Frank Luntz held one of his controversial focus groups on Newsnight to discover what floating voters think of the main party leaders. Absolutely nothing wrong with that. For some bizarre reason, however, they decided to hold it in Manchester.

Frank Luntz justifies it with the following opening:

"If you examine the election results from the last 50 year, the Conservatives could win the south, but still not win the election; Labour could take the north but not form the government; it's places like Manchester which make the difference (my emphasis)"

He then goes on to say that the focus group contains left-leaning voters from Manchester, presumably in order to discern whether they are any more likely to vote Conservative and hence form a path for the Tories to government.

The problem with this is his opening statement is poppycock. As Mike Smithson points out on Political Betting:

For me the programme was a massive missed opportunity - Luntz cannot come cheap and these things are costly to set up and make (his emphasis). Yet they chose to hold amongst existing and wavering Labour supporters in Manchester where, we were told, all the participants came from. If the producers had checked they would have discovered that there’s not a seat in city in the list of the top 200 Conservative targets. The main action will be two LAB-LD scraps. In Withington Labour will be hoping to regain the seat lost last time and Manchester Gorton could go on an 8.25% swing. Surely they should have found a location more relevant to the CON-LAB battle?

Anthony Wells has also previously noted in an article from 2005 (reproduced in comment 160 of this Political Betting article - I cannot find the original)

The increasing geographical concentration of the Conservative vote is more of a problem, while boundaries changes mean that the number of seats in the South is increasing and falling in the North, the Tories cannot win with the South alone. At the next election the Conservatives are likely to need about 115 seats to gain a majority - on my current calculations only 47 or so of their most winnable seats will be in the South East, South West, London or Eastern regions. The regions with the most target seats will likely be the North-West and West Midlands, both regions where the Tories went backwards at the election. The Conservatives cannot win without turning round their position in the North. While the undeniable fact that the Conservatives are irrelevant in many of the major cities - Manchester, Sheffield and Liverpool for example - is not a great problem, the Conservatives can easily win without any MPs in these cities, they do need urban seats in places like Birmingham, Bolton, Leeds and Dudley.

To further back this up, a recent survey of marginal seats did not hold one poll in the Manchester area.

The reality is that it is nonsense to suggest, as many media outlets including the BBC and ITV do, that Manchester is an important target for the Conservatives at the next election. I assume when political journalists for these organisations hear the word "North", they automatically default to the only place in t'North they know - Manchester - and claim that it then becomes an important battleground for the Tories. The reality is that Manchester, politically at least, is irrelevent to who will form the next government.

Which makes it even more puzzling why Labour are holding so many of their conferences in there. In 2006, they decided to move away from Blackpool to host their conference in the city, followed up this year and they plan to be there again in 2010. Presumably the excellent conference facilities are the main reason they are holding so many conferences there, but one cannot help feeling they are missing a trick. In the US for example, the Democrats recent conference venue in Denver, Colorado and the Republicans venue of St Pauls-Minneapolis, Minnesota were picked due to their importance as swing states. Although the political map has changed somewhat from when these venues were chosen, with Minnesotta and nearby target Wisconsin looking like solid Democratic territory in 2008, the Democrats choice of Denver looks set to carve a path to the White House using current opinion polls; wins for Barack Obama in the Kerry states plus Iowa, Colorado and nearby New Mexico give him 273 electoral votes, three more than the 270 required.

The Conservatives will also be hosting their conference in the Manchester next year. If Anthony Wells above is to be believed, Leeds might have been a more sensible choice provided they could find a conference facility in the region up to the required standard.

Birmingham Media

The Stirrer is reporting that Equity is launching a campaign to save the BBC Drama Village in Birmingham as another decision to move the programmes to Salford has been put off. Most of my criticisms of the BBC are not the usual nonsense one will find in the blogosphere that it is biased to the left and the Labour party, but that it fails to represent all of the country in its programming and opinions, a position which is hard to justify because we all pay the same license fee. While I welcomed the move by the BBC to create a new major centre away from London in Greater Manchester, I do not think it is fair that programmes made in smaller BBC centres such as Birmingham and Bristol are being moved to justify its cost; the programmes should be moved from London and more smaller regional centres built. The way things are going, there will be very few BBC programmes produced outside London, Salford and Cardiff. This is hardly representative broadcasting.

Another thing about the BBC is the way it has bought into Brand Manchester, and often refers to its proposed Salford facility as "Manchester" rather than referring to the City of Salford in which it is actually located. On Radio Five Live the other day, they even asked whether the newly promoted Salford City Reds would be changing their name to Manchester! I am confused as to why the BBC want to promote geographical counties rather than proper cities; perhaps many of them are still confused by living in London.

The BBC's proposed flight from Birmingham is not the only one, however. Adrian Goldberg has consistently reported on his Stirrer website how local radio stations are shunning locally produced programmes to broadcast networked shows from London (even BBC WM moved a late night show from the city to Nottingham; Radio 2's late shows which were produced in the Mailbox have moved to London, as has the One Show despite the fact it was successfully piloted in Brum). Birmingham has always been very bad at promoting itself outside the region and the moves over the past few months seem to confirm that the city is seen as a broadcasting backwater.

It is not all bad news however. The steady stream of blows to Birmingham's media has led the creative community to look at the creation of a new radio station in Birmingham, Rhubarb Radio, which is probably going to be loosely based on Resonance FM in London and is hoping to start broadcasting soon from the Custard Factory. And Channel 4 will be opening its new digital media HQ in Birmingham. It seems that while the traditional media may be shunning Birmingham, new media looks set to embrace it. Whether this is the way forward remains to be seen.

Duncan Edwards 1936 - 1958

Today is the 50th anniversary of the Munich air disaster. Regular readers may know that I am not much of a Manchester United fan; indeed you could say the reverse. Some things however transcend football's tribal nature.

Probably the most famous victim was Duncan Edwards, who I only recently discovered was a son of the West Midlands. He was born and is buried in Dudley. I discovered this website, which is a useful guide to anyone who is interested in exploring Duncan's life and roots.

The Manchester derby is on Sunday in which the commercial behemoth that is Manchester United will play in a replica of the 1950's kit without any sponsorship. Manchester City will also be playing in a special kit. Let's hope the fans also mark the occasion with an impeccably observed minute's silence.

Brumney Spears

According to the Daily Star, Britney Spears adopted her boyfriend's Brummie accent as doctors tested her sanity in the Cedars-Sinai Medical Center a few weeks ago.

She was admitted to hospital yesterday as a result of ongoing mental health problems. Rumours suggest that the doctors decided to act quickly after discovering she really was mad (for it) when she started speaking in Mancunian.

Supercasino Plans Scuppered?

A smile was raised in the People's Republic a week ago when the Lords voted down plans which included the building of a super casino in Manchester. Mancunian MP's and Councillors piled onto every media outlet in sight decrying the "unelected house" for ignoring the will of the elected representatives. What they failed to mention is that the party in power, which held their autumn conference in Manchester last year, have had ten years to reform the House of Lords in which they have failed to do so and indeed all of their favoured options included an unelected element.

The defeat was caused by supporters of the Blackpool bid, who were regarded as favourites to get the super casino ever since the Government announced it was only going to allow one to be built. Thought for the Day on Radio 4 had an excellent suggestion. Why don't the Mayor of Blackpool and the Lord Mayor of Manchester play a game of poker to decide who gets the rights to host the Super Casino? After all, if gambling is not good enough to make such a decision, why is it such a good method of redeveloping a deprived area?

However, let us be a bit more balanced. Manchester had the best bid and deserves to hold the casino, you cannot throw the rattle out of the pram just because you do not like the result of the outcome of the selection process. Wolverhampton and Solihull will lose the rights to two of the sixteen smaller casinos which are also included in the bill, which would be bad news for the West Midlands. I suspect if the plans would not have been voted down if the casino had been awarded to Greenwich, London.

My personal view is that super casinos are a good way to redevelop inner city areas, but there should not be just one; there should be as many as necessary. Then the market can decide where they will be placed, rather than having controverdial decisions made by committees whose decision then needs to be scrutinised. The Government does not really need to interfere in such processes, except to liberalise the law.

It would also mean a 50% tax on them, as imposed by Gordon Brown in the budget, would mean less investment coming into the country and would not be economically acceptable.

Porn Kings

Birmingham City's association with pornography is well-known, in that Messrs Gold and Sullivan made their money from dirty magazines before purchasing the sleeping giant. But apparently now the City of Birmingham has an association with porn - according to this story by the BBC, web surfers in Birmingham are more likely to search for porn on google than any other city in the world.

In a surprise development, Manchester was for once the second city (that is the only time you will see those words together on this blog).

Apparently West Brom topped the charts for the town with the most web surfers looking for porn (cannot find a link to this but here is some evidence).

I am not sure if this is related to the West Midlands particularly poor season in the Premiership.
But would it be cause or effect?

Brummies on a Cup Run

All-in-all, I think it was a good day in the FA Cup for Birmingham. City fortuitously reached the quarter-finals for the first time in 22 years after a jammy win over the old enemy Stoke, including two world-class saves from goalkeeper Maik Taylor to deny the Potteries side. Meanwhile across the city Villa almost pulled off a jammy win of there own, scoring against the run of play against Manchester City only to be denied by a last-minute goal from Richards, who is apparently a Brummie but sounded suspiciously like a Manc to me.

Especially after he swore in the post-match interview.

BBC Weather Acknowledges Brum

The new BBC weather maps have caused a lot of controversy, not least with the People's Republic. Originally they were not showing the second city while showing Manchester and London although this soon changed. Now they have started showing it on the summary map, which includes such urban centres as Plymouth, Norwich and Aberdeen. Is there a Brummie resistance movement who has been complaining (the People's Republic denies all knowledge).

Meanwhile BBCi Weather are years ahead of there terrestrial tele rivals, showing the three biggest cities in Britain, London, Brum and Leeds. Or at least the biggest two; after all my garden shed is bigger than the city of London.

And I don't even have one.

Convicts Win Reprieve

You know times have changed when the Aussies start celebrating a draw. Never mind the result - we whooped their ass, and if it wasn't for the Manchester weather, we would have destroyed them.

If we'd won this, not only would it have been more exciting than Edgbaston, but we also would have been only one win away from winning the Ashes. As such, the People's Republic is concerned that Australia will regroup to retain the Ashes at Trent Bridge, with us wining at the Oval to level the series 2-2 - a result we predicted at the beginning.

Given the way this series has gone however, it wouldn't surprise me if it went to the last Test.

United, United now for sale

Malcolm Glazer has announced how he plans to make money out of his purchase of Manchester United. Among them are plans to raise ticket prices, cap transfer spending to £25 million a year, and to play a match in Tampa each year.

The People's Republic are not sure this will be enough to cover the debts made from the initial purchase of the club, so we offer Mr. Glazer the following advice free of charge (after all, we wouldn't want to bankrupt them). Firstly, to make maximum income from their yearly tour of the States and also to make sure they do not get sued for use of the term "football", we propose that they should rename the club "Soccer Club United's of Manchester" (or S.C.U.M. for short). Secondly, they should relocate to Birmingham, or perhaps even London where there will be a bigger natural fan base. Alternatively, big Mal could relocate them to Milton Keynes, exactly halfway between the two, so that they could play their new city rivals the MK Dons in a money-spinning match that would be known as "the franchise derby".

Manchester United fans may be upset over the purchase, and while the People's Republic sympathizes with the true fans that have supported the club man-and-boy for several decades, the truth is they have had it coming. Man United has been for sale ever since they put the club on the stock market in the early 90's. Their previous owner, Martin Edwards, continually attempted to make money out of the shares he inherited from his father, selling them again and again to anyone who offered a decent price and even at one point attempting to sell the club to the Devil's own company, Sky Sports. Add to this the merchandising tie-up with the New York Yankees, the summer tours to the Far-East and the U.S., and the infamous episode where they played in the World Club Championships instead of the oldest cup competition in the world, it was only a matter of time before something like this happened.

Of course Mr Glazer turned around the fortunes of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers who used to be the laughing stock of American football, but the difference is Man Utd are (were?) a successful club already.

If he wanted to turn around the laughing stock of English soccer, he should have taken over Birmingham City.