Middle-Class Inner City Gun Crime

I am thinking about live blogging the Heaven and Earth show on Sunday mornings. In a discussion about gun crime which centred on Manchester (of course), I have just heard some muppet claim that middle-class footballers, or upper-class footballers will not help solve gun crime.

He is quite right; that's because they don't exist.

Middle-class (or upper-class) armchair critics talking nonsense on semi-religious shows won't solve gun crime either.

Then Nina Myskow chips in, claiming she lives in North London and has never seen a Street Pastor.

I should hope not. If Nina Myskow was seeing Street Pastors, they are probably patrolling the wrong streets at the wrong time.

Why exactly do middle-class media-whores believe they live in the 'hood?

The Curse of Brown

It really has been a baptism of fire for Gordon Brown (with the attempted car-bomb at Glasgow airport)...

... and water (with the flooding in Sheffield and Gloucester)...

... and just when you think things can't get any worse, foot and mouth disease makes a comeback.

Has anyone seen TB?

New Street?

Reading up on the long-overdue £128 million investment announced by the Government yesterday, I noticed the following things:

1) It is only £128 million and not £350 asked for the complete redevelopment of the station. It will be spent "underground" on the rail infrastructure and platforms, so this naturally lighted glass structure has not yet been agreed.

2) Most of the money is coming from increased fares. The Government has actually cut funding for the railways so the passenger will be paying 75% of the costs in 2014 rather than 50% now.

3) The Government was interested in the more sensible Grand Central Station idea

4) There will be no decision until 2012 at the earliest whether or not to build a new line between London and Birmingham, despite the fact that the current route is predicted to be full by 2016. There is talk of resurrecting the disused Grand Central route, but this would have the same maximum speed (125mph) as now and there are no plans for a high speed rail link, which has previously been mooted (see link for 2)

All in all, not such a great deal then. It is good that there will be some investment in the station of course, but it is likely in 10 years we will still have a concrete station stuck between a car park and a shopping centre.

A far cry from the station that was once written about in the following manner:

"that station alone is enough to make one proud of being a modern Englishman".

Lies, Damned Lies..?

I was very suspicious of the news this week detailing evidence from one hospital in one month that the liberalization of the drinking laws had led to a three-fold increase in alcohol-related A&E admissions. Very suspicious because i work as an information analyst at a hospital close to Birmingham City Centre and have done two studies into this which suggest there has been absolutely no impact. My colleague looked at the subject again this week as a result of this story breaking and came to the same conclusion. I really suspect there is a hidden agenda behind this story, because it is questionable to present data based only on one month. I looked at a years worth of data, and in one of the reports took into account many conditions that may be related to increased alcohol consumption, but found no significant changes.

It should also be noted that it is not very easy, at my hospital at least, to produce this information, as the data from A&E is pretty difficult to interrogate. I doubt it is very different at St. Thomas' hospital because of the nature of A&E data. I would put this down to an increased awareness and recording of alcohol problems by the medical staff in A&E, as opposed to a genuine increase.

The Perfect Role

Former Prime Minister Tony Blair took up his role as Middle-East envoy today. Many people have criticised his appointment due to his perceived bias towards Israel during the war on Lebanon, but I believe he has exactly the right experience for the job.

In the Middle-East, talk is cheap and no-one delivers on their promises.

Ken Hardeman Dies Aged 72

After spending three weeks at City Hospital, Birmingham with a chest infection and breathing difficulties, Ken Hardeman died today aged 72. Currently a Conservative councillor for Brandwood and in charge of regeneration, he popularity spanned the political divide.

From a personal point of view, Ken was the first politician I ever voted for in a time when the Conservatives had a chance of winning the ward of Moseley and Kings Heath. It is sad to hear of his illness and death.

The Birmingham Post have a tribute here.

Prince of Formats

Prince gave away his new album Planet Earth free with the Mail on Sunday today, to cries of protest from the music industry. How can he slap in the face the shops that have built his career they cry. Why will people buy a CD by a top artist for £10 when they can get one for free?

All completely irrelevant. The music industry has been deliberately trying to hold back new methods of distributing music in vain attempts to try and make more money. They seem to delude themselves into believing people actually want to buy CD's; they don't and the tide has been moving from CD's to digital downloads for quite a while now. Of course, the music industry hate digital downloads, not because much of it is being done illegally (as a response to the music industry trying to hold it back) but because they can charge us much more for a CD for very little reason. Instead of us buying a track we want for 79p from iTunes, they insist on filling the CD with up to three B-side songs we do not particularly want so they can put it on a portable medium and charge us five times as much for it. A CD only costs about 50p to make, but after all the marketing, packaging and salaries are paid for, suddenly the cost shoots up to around £4 for a single, or £10 for an album.

The truth is the music industry is becoming irrelevant. The Internet has democratized music. Artists that would not have been give a chance by the "experts" provide their music on sites like Myspace to people who are prepared to listen to it. No longer are we told what we can listen to by middlemen making a quick buck out of other peoples talents. We can decide what we want and pay a reasonable price for it, if there is a price at all. It is an example of good capitalism (giving the people what they want) defeating bad capitalism (big business restricting the market and bumping up prices) - and long may it continue.

What about the music shops and the middleman? Well they will just have to get used to it. They can either embrace it and continue in the business, or they can die out.

After all, you can't stop progress.

ID Cards and Segregation in the Real World

I have not been blogging much recently because I have become addicted to the phenomenon of web 2.0 know as Facebook. If you read blogs, you probably know that this is a social networking site where you can post information about yourself and associate with you friend letting them know you are alive and what you are up to. It got me thinking that if the government wanted to create a bottom-up version of a national identity database, facebook would be a pretty useful model - but let's not overestimate the intelligence of our democratically elected officials.

It was fascinating catching up with people I have not seen for the best part of 10 years. I was surprised to find that many of my asian friends were still unmarried. If you believe the press, at the age of 18 (or sometimes younger), they are shipped to the subcontinent against their will where they are forceably married to someone they have never seen before. Well actually, no. For second and third generation immigrants, the truth is closer to this - caught between two worlds that leave the individual at a loss. I should know - as an asian catholic I too have struggled to find a suitable future spouse.

While we are at dispelling media myths about ethnic-minority communities, particularly in the wake of the Glasgow-London terrorist attacks, you might be interested to know that none of my muslim friends appeared to be involved in terrorism, and many seemed to be more integrated than me! One was actually dating a white girl, while another had actually joined the group opposing the academic boycott of Israel.

But of course, these kinds of stories do not sell newspapers, so it will be up to blogs like this to inform interested British people what really is going on.

Londres 2012

London is currently not parte de angleterre apparently. In an astonishing piece of treachery, even for the cockneys, they have decided to take entente cordial a bit to far and are hosting the opening stages of this year's Tour de France. Which in French means "Tour of France". I.e. currently London is part of France.

Presumably this means Birmingham is currently the nation's capital?

This is all in aid of London 2012 apparently. "Promoting sport" is part of the official excuse, but I suspect the France have decided to pull out all stops to host the 2012 Olympics. After Paris' failure this time two years ago, they have decided simply to annex the winner.

I've always maintained there is an advantage to an independent nuclear deterrent.

We Shall Never Surrender

The recent terror attack attempts in London and Glasgow are sickening, seemingly designed to corner the new British administration into a more antagonistic position.

It is refreshing to see no links to Birmingham in this one though.

I have added a terror alert status to my sidebar, but I will not be taking down my links to Taking Liberties.

After all, maintaining civil liberties and fighting terrorism are not mutually exclusive.

Three is the Magic Number

Fascinating. With Brown's new cabinet grabbing the attention of all the media, you would have had to look very carefully to notice this interesting piece of news. It has previously been alleged that Blair threatened to resign if he was question under caution by police as Prime Minister. I can't find any evidence that this was under caution, but it would make sense.

Perhaps Blair is still writing his legacy from beyond Number 10.

Britain Welcomes Regime Change

After over 10 years in power, the only Prime Minister I have experienced in my adult life has finally decided to hand over the reigns to his best mate Gordon Brown, signaling the end of an era, and the start of another. If I can be bothered, I might bore you with my thoughts on Blair's legacy. As for Brown, I think it is only fair to give him a chance. Let's hope he is a wise and popular leader.

I await the announcement of the new cabinet with interest. Are we finally going to have the important but historically overlooked role of Secretary of State for Birmingham. After all, the Conservatives have a shadow Secretary Minister for the City (no kidding).

Gosh, they do get excited when they win a seat in a city north of the glorious capital don't they?

Birmingham's Heavy Metal Legacy

When I heard about the BBC TV series the Seven Ages of Rock, I was interested in watching it until I found out that the first episode was about Jimmy Hendrix. No true history of rock could start at the rock adolescence of Jimmy Hendrix as one Points of View viewer put it; rock started in the 1950's with the likes of Bill Hailey and the comets.

When I heard they were going to have an episode on heavy metal however, I had to watch. Would they mention Birmingham's pivotal role in this successful genre. Amazingly they surpassed my expectations, and effectively attributed the founding of heavy metal to Birmingham.

Tony Iommi, lead guitarist for Black Sabbath, lost his fingers in an industrial accident. To help him play the guitar, he slackened the strings which produced a heavier sound. The music was inspired by the hard working-class sounds of the industrial factories. And it was a conversation between two of the band members which bravely asked the question: people go to see horror movies - why don't they listen to horror music?

So Black Sabbath's role in the origins of heavy metal were shown. Along with Deep Purple, they went on to pioneer the genre. And just like their home city Birmingham, while the music soon got a hard-core following, the "critics" and "experts" panned it.

So far so good (so what?). What I did not know is the influence of another Birmingham band, Judas Priest on the genre. They embraced the term heavy metal, and gave it the leather-clad look (here London gets a mention; the lead singer of Judas Priest came up with the idea for the apparel after visiting a bondage shop in Soho. Typical of the cockneys to lower the tone).

So there you have it. Sod the "Madchester" indy revolution, Birmingham produced one of the longest running music genres of modern times, and along with fantasy books (inspired by JRR Tolkien's Lord of the Rings) the city really has given a fantastic albeit dark legacy to the world.

Why not celebrate Birmingham's Heavy Metal musical heritage at the Metal symposium on Friday 13th July 2007 (it had to be that date didn't it?).

Taking Liberties

I went to see the film "Taking Liberties" today, which has been extensively advertised by bloggers and has been heralded as Britain's answer to Fahrenheit 9/11.

If you have not seen it yourself I would certainly recommend it. You probably will not find out anything you did not already know, but it is a useful consolidation of the many reports of heavy-handed policing in the British post 9/11 era.

I can't help thinking that someone was trying to prevent me from seeing the film however. When my friend and I went to purchase tickets for the film, we were helpfully informed "You do know it is a documentary don't you?" Yes, that was why I was buying the ticket. Did they ask potential viewers of Pirates of the Caribbean if they knew it starred Johnny Depp? How strange.

Then I noticed the paper flyers which give a description of the film incorrectly summarised the plot of Oceans Thirteen on the Taking Liberties flyer! Was this so people would walk out in disgust after five minutes? When I left the screen after the film, the flyer had disappeared! It's a conspiracy I tell you!

There was not that many people watching the film but it was a 3.15 showing. Regular readers will note that I have been posting a few articles on freedom of speech recently, but this one certainly did focus the mind. Instead of attacking the right about "the right to offend", perhaps I should be working with them to stop the erosion of freedom being perpertrated by those who seek to destroy our way of life; the Blair administration. On the other hand, it does annoy me that many opposition websites seem to spend more time defending the Iraq war and sticking up for the right to call people gay/black bastard/ ginger than concentrating on the very real threat to freedom of speech that was taking place in our parliament. As some might say, the rules of the game are changing.

Anyway, enough of my pontificating. The film has inspired me to do two things:

1) I am going to join Liberty (and I urge you to do as well).

2) I am going to join Amnesty International (unless I find out they have dropped their neutral stance on abortion)

If this is my last post, you know what happened.

Dale's End

I seem to have been removed from Iain Dale's Blogroll. It happened sometime after I posted this article attacking his position on, of all things, freedom of speech.

There would be an irony if I was removed from the blogroll of someone who believes freedom of speech is the right to offend because, well, I offended them by pointing out (using freedom of speech) that they were wrong?

I really do not have time for right-wing hypocrites. Iain Dale follows Guido Fawkes in being dumped from the select few who make the national People's Republic blogroll.

Fun Facts about Birmingham

I wanted to do another post about why Birmingham is such a great city, but found so many interesting facts that I might just link to the sites themselves and summarise my top 5:

1) Birmingham has more trees than Paris, more miles of canals than Venice and more parks than any other European City. Concrete Jungle my arse.

2) Birmingham City Council is the biggest local authority in Europe, and employs twice as many people as the European commission.

3) Birmingham is the UK’s largest manufacturing and engineering centre and accounts for 25% of the country's exports. F.W Lanchester built the first four-wheeled petrol driven car in Birmingham, hence the nickname Brum.

4) The Jewellery Quarter is the largest concentration of dedicated jewellers in Europe. Half of all jewellery made in the UK comes from Birmingham's Jewellery Quarter, with a third of jewellery manufactured in the UK made within one mile of the city centre.

5) The City's annual St. Patrick's day celebration is the third biggest outside Dublin and New York and the largest Vaisakhi celebration outside Asia. Eat your heart out "cosmopolitan" London

For more reasons why Birmingham is great, please see this post. The inspiration for this article came from here, here and here.

Fast Cars & Women

The title of this post is what supposedly every red-blooded male lusts after. So how does Birmingham measure up in these two departments?

According to the news, not too well in the female department. A model from Stoke-on-Trent was chosen to represent Brum because beauty contest officials claim there was no-one gorgeous enough to represent us from the City itself. Surely nonsense. I think it is well known that Brummie women are amongst the best in Britain for their looks. Come on girls; if anyone thinks they could represent Brum why don't you send some photos to me and I will, ahem, promote you on my website. Can't fault a guy for trying, eh?

Not doing as badly in the fast cars stakes however. MG restarted production today under its new owner Nanjing Automotive. It is great to see car production restarted at Longbridge again. Wouldn't it be great if 10 years from now Longbridge was famed for its efficient production of competitive cars rather than the redundancies and union versus management battles that have plagued the factory for the last 30 years.

Edgbaston Lord's it Over the Rest

Just over a week ago I was at a sporting event in our "glorious capital". No, it wasn't the 3rd/4th place play-off for the Champions League, which was held at a new stadium they've apparently built in the area. I went to the traditional home of cricket; Lords.

Now being a big cricket fan I was very excited to see a Test Match at Lords on Saturday against the Windies of all teams. Unfortunately, as usual, one of the capital's main attractions failed to live up to the hype. Some bright spark decided that most of the seating at Lord's should be covered. Completely pointless at a cricket stadium given that if it is raining there will not be any play. So despite the fact it was a sunny day, we were left freezing as the wind blew under the concrete tier above us; it was like watching cricket under the Spaghetti Junction.

The play was not up to much either. The West Indies may not be half the team they used to be, but apart from Monty Panesar the bowling was rather tepid. We watched the Windies bat all day with the loss of 6 wickets. To be fair, I was comparing this to my Test match experiences at Edgbaston, the last of which was the Sunday of the 2005 Ashes. Not really a fair contest. However, I did watch the West Indies on the Sunday in 2004 where I saw both sides bat and the loss of 17 wickets.

If any further evidence is needed that Edgbaston is a better Test ground, guess which English ground has the best record for the home team? And 1902 - present has not exactly been a golden age of English cricket.

It was not all bad in the capital however. We walked around Regent's Park which is quite nice for London. Walking around North London, we found a shrine to the people who had been killed by the Edgware Road bomber which was saddening. A couple of things that I noticed since I last went to London (which was nearly 10 years ago) was that you now have to buy tickets before you board the bus there, and the amount and variation of foreigners that one can meet in the city, which obviously gives it a cosmopolitan feel. Not a complete waste of time all-in-all, but I was glad to leave the police-saturated Euston (or New Street without the charm as I call it), to get back to good old Brum.

The Far-Right to Offend

Iain Dale wrote an article today regarding The Right to Offend. It repeated the right-wing myth, also proposed by the liberal hawks of Harry's Place that freedom, if anything, means the right to tell people what they don't want to hear. Interestingly enough, this is a position they share with those "great defenders of free speech", the BNP.

This is nonsense. Freedom of speech means the right to say anything you want without fear of persecution from the government. With that freedom comes responsibility. This means that although you can in theory say anything, some things are better left unsaid. If freedom of speech is not used with discretion, pressure mounts on the government to take it away in certain circumstances; and as soon as a government starts legislating on a certain area, they have a habit of not stopping.

A great example is holocaust denial. In my opinion it should not be an offence to deny the holocaust, because there should be the opportunity to have a full debate on the history if new evidence emerges. Unfortunately though, most, if not all people who deny the holocaust are idiots. Despite the overwhelming evidence that it occurred, they claim it is part of a Jewish conspiracy of one sort of another. So several European countries have made holocaust denial a criminal offence, and it is difficult to argue against it given the type of person who actually make these statements in public.

Freedom of speech is not an excuse to persecute minorities verbally, because they do not have any legitimate way of stopping you criticising them (although they can take the law into their own hands of course). The only organisation that can stop you saying something is the government, who can legislate against statements they do not like. I repeat then that freedom of speech is not the right to make offensive statements, but the right to criticise the government without fear of persecution.

To be fair, Iain's article is not about something as serious as holocaust denial. It is about a state-regulator criticising Jeremy Clarkson for calling something "a bit gay". It is not a surprise with this kind of ruling that more and more people are starting to confuse freedom of speech with the right to offend.

Brown Crowned

Gordon Brown will be crowned the next leader of the Labour party, and therefore Prime Minister of the UK after his left-wing rival John McDonnell failed to get the requisite amount of nominations. This means the next Prime Minister will not be elected, either by the public or even his own party. I find this quite astonishing. With six people fighting it out for the deputy leader, it appears the Labour party is now full of rather spineless politicians who are not prepared to fight as the underdog.

Of course, part of this is because Blair systematically got rid of anyone in his cabinet who dared to speak against him (or more conveniently they resigned), instead promoting yes-men who have said yes to GB. Robin Cook has died; David Blunkett was embroiled in too many scandals; Charles Clarke failed at the home office; Iain Dale announce the reasons why Reid did not stand. and presumably Alan Milburn has been out of the circle for too long. Alan Johnson and David Milliband were the last genuine chance for a contest but bottled it, the former looking at the easier deputy leadership instead.

I remember speaking to some Germans last year who I advised not to bet on Brown, because the favourite often falls short in the end (Heseltine/ Clarke/ Davis; maybe it's a Tory thing). I could not have been more wrong. I hope he leads Britain in a better direction than his predecessor, but I won't be holding my breath.

Does anyone know why Blair should continue to hold office now the party has spoken coup has taken place?

The Rise of Social Mobility

Current affairs seemed to come to me this week. First of all in the terror swoops on Wednesday, along with the widow of one of the July 7th bombers, two people were arrested in Birmingham, one in Lozells and one in Victoria Halls on Grange Road, just around the corner from Birmingham University. I myself used to have a couple of friends living in these halls of residents and was surprised to here it was being searched in connection with terrorism. The rooms are not cheap, all being on-suite and tend to attract the richer students in the University, hardly the kind of clientele associated with terrorism.

Meanwhile, David Cameron has moved in with a Muslim family for a couple of days in Balsall Heath, where I have recently bought a house. I hope he does not stay too long.

I don't want the property prices to drop.

Update 13/05: An excellent post by the West Brom Blogger notes that Cameron's visit was not exactly all that it appeared to be.

When Two Tribes Go to War

Birmingham did not win the Championship, but West Brom and Wolves both made the playoffs and will face each other in the semi-finals.

It was not all bad news last week however, as Manchester and London both failed to get representatives in the champions league final. As for us brummies, we are just happy to have two teams in the top flight.

As Birmingham is twinned with Milan, I claim we will have representation in the Champions League final. There is a growing breed of latte-drinking football fan who will claim I am being unpatriotic by not supporting English teams in Europe. It is a club competition. Every red-blooded working-class football fan understands that football is tribal, and we fight against other tribes in our country.

Like Wolves and West Brom. The loser will not wish the winner good luck and hope that the Black Country has some representation in the Premiership next season. They will cheer on the winner of Derby-Southampton, even though it will be to the detriment of West Midlands football.

However, I'm a Brummie first and then an Englishman. I hope at least one of them gets into the Premiership so that the West Midlands has something to shout about again.

Update 13/05: I should be shot for not mentioning Walsall's excellent League 2 Championship win. The appointment of Dicky Dough was truly on the money.

Politics and the Real World

That was a party political broadcast by the Labour/ Conservative/ Liberal Democratic Party. (Delete as applicable)

I wish.

The People's Republic is currently relocating (that is arrogant blogger speak for I've bought a new house). Unfortunately, as the United Nations do not currently recognise my independent status, I am still forced to pay taxes to the old country. Hitherto, I have managed to avoid paying council tax my claiming political asylum in my parents house, but that is now going to change. On the same day I cast my last vote in Moseley & Kings Heath, I received a council tax bill for my new address (in the Respect stronghold of Sparkbrook if you are interested). Funnily enough, I actually welcomed it (along with my water and energy bills; they do not waste any time do they?). It means I am now contributing to society/ my community and I am only paying the tax because I now own a pretty expensive asset, so it can be regarded as a mark of success (I appreciate not everyone will agree with this analysis, particularly pensioners and those on low-incomes who struggle to pay this badly-collected tax). It has also brought home the reality that my vote in a council election will from now on directly affect me, and my vote seems to matter more. Of course, council elections do affect me in less obvious ways, but there is nothing like a tax to focus the mind.

Of course, thanks to Margaret Thatcher's ridiculous obsession with centralisation, the only important issue now at stake in local elections is how frequently the bins should be collected. My opinion is that if it is going to involve the council, I suggest never. Let us contract our waste disposal from the private sector. We could decide how often we want our rubbish collected rather than have it decided for us, and we could choose exactly how to get rid of our waste e.g. some private companies might decide to provide a service (for a fee of course) where they take all our trash and sort it for recycling. I suspect recycling rates would improve dramatically, and if we did not want our binman to work on Bank Holiday's or pay them £900 for the privilege, we would have the choice to switch our waste removal services to someone else, or stump up the extra cash for the extra service. After all, our gas and electricity is provided by private companies; isn't it ridiculous that garbage collection is still provided by the state?

Of course, this would then leave us paying large amounts of poll tax for very little governing. If we elected a mayor, we would have even less for our councillors to do. Presumably we could then sack two-thirds of our councillors and have an election every 4 years (after all, one councillor per constituency is surely enough?). This will not be a very popular idea amongst councillors, or amongst people who aspire to be councillors, so I guess they will oppose the mayor and keep garbage collections under their responsibility.

I've said it before, and I'll say it again, democracy simply doesn't work.

There has been a lot of analysis about what the local election results in England, and the devolved assemblies of Scotland and Wales actually mean. The Conservatives believe they are on the path to power, while Labour and the Liberal Democrats are playing down what are generally considered to be disappointing results.

The reality is that council elections prove very little. Everyone know we all vote differently in general elections. It matters little what percentage of the vote the Conservatives got, how many seats that will translate into, who won the popular vote, or all the other party political bickering we have seen on the pages of the political blogosphere. The reality is the biggest winner by far was apathy. The I-could-not-care-less-one-way-or-the-other party romped home with about 75% of the (non-)vote. And I can't even remember them campaigning in my area.

My personal opinion, not necessarily born out by the election results, is that the next general election will result in a hung parliament.

I'll start building the gallows...

Love Lifts Us Up Where We Belong

Former Blues striker Clinton Morrison helped Crystal Palace beat Derby which put the second-city Blues back in their rightful place in the top-flight. Hopefully Birmingham will seal the Championship next week (there is a sentence you do not get to write often!) Even sweeter: three London clubs might take our place in the second tier. Is this part of a general malaise that will require more lottery funding to improve sports facilities in our glorious capital?

In other news, the convicts won a hatrick of world cups in ludicrous conditions. I stand by my predictions that this is the beginning of the end.

I hope.

Rocks in the Garden of England

Has the world ended in the South East? The reporting of the earthquake in Kent rivals that of the Tsunami in South East Asia a couple of years ago. It was not even as big as the on that centred on Dudley in 2002, which measured 4.8 on the richter scale compared to Kent's "at least 4.3". Am I incorrect in recalling that the bigger Dudley 'quake was generally called a (small-scale) tremor back then?

Next week on the BBC, as a pebble falls from a roof in London:

"Meteor strikes Worlds Greatest City"

Death of a Legend

When the right-wing talk about the West's victory over communism, they usually credit the victory to those three great heroes of the right in the 1980's - Ronald Reagan, Margaret Thatcher and Pope John Paul II. Yesterday, the man who was actually responsible for the collapse of communism died; Boris Yeltsin (1931-2007).

The West loved to portray him as a mad Russian drunk, but the reality is he defeated communism when the West did not have a clue where to start. How did Ronald Reagan defeat communism? By bullying governments of small islands in his own backyard who had the audacity to look after the poor? Did Thatcher bring down communism by defeating Arthur Scargill? Did Pope John Paul's repression of liberation theology strike fear into the hearts of Marxists across the world? More likely, it depressed us Catholics who see support for it in nearly every book in the Bible, and perhaps moved some into the arms of the atheist leftists.

Boris Yeltsin famously stood on a tank to defy a coup by communists trying to overthrow another man who was pivotal in overthrowing communism, Mikhail Gorbachev. Unlike Reagan, Thatcher and Pope John Paul II there was a real chance he could have paid with his life. He could have looked the other way. He didn't, and as a result millions of people are freer than they used to be.

The West never defeated communism. Just like the Chinese adopting privatisation, in Russia it was an inside job.

Time For Fletch to Go?

The England Cricket team's humiliating defeat to South Africa has brought a barrage of criticism from the assorted ex-England players, coaches and writers who played cricket in a very different time and in some cases with a lot less success than the current captain. The consensus seems to be that Fletcher and Vaughan should step down, the latter from the one-day version of the game at least.

Now although I do believe Fletch has taken the side as far as he can, and Vaughan should not be selected for the one-day side, let us get things in perspective. We are likely to finish 5th in this World Cup; in the last two, we have gone out in the first round (including in 1999 when we hosted it). Our record in one-day cricket is rubbish; we are ranked seventh, in the last year we have been whitewashed by both Sri Lanka and Australia and drew a distracted Pakistan team 2-2. If it was not for the Commonwealth Bank Series, which was, let's be quite clear, a freak result we have achieved nothing in this format of the game over the last couple of years. So why did people expect us to beat South Africa!? The reality is the best four teams in the world are now in the semi-finals, a testament to the format of the competition.

There are many problems with the one day side, including selection and coaching. Nixon has done well but was never a long term solution; Panesar is not a one day player; there are no pinch-hitters like Mal Loye in the top order; and what the hell is the selection of Sajid Mahmood all about!? Fletch has never taken the one-day format seriously. Perhaps a specialist one-day coach could manage a one-day side, or perhaps Fletch will reconsider his position after the summer.

However, finishing 5th at the moment is par for the course.

Friendly Neighbourhood Fascists

The local elections are coming up in May. If you click here you will find a map of the Moseley & Kings Heath, Acocks Green, Springfield and Sparkhill wards with the address of each election candidate marked on the map.

Notice the four candidates who live no where near the constituencies they are standing for. Here are a group of foreigners we should gladly send home empty handed on May 3rd.

The British Nazi Party. Your friendly neighbourhood fascists.

Hat-tip: Brum Blog, Moseley Free

Tennis Troubles

This weekend saw the NEC host the Davis Cup clash between Great Britain & the Netherlands which ended in a 4-1 victory to the British team. The Great Britain team included all three ranked players that have represented Great Britain over the last twenty years: Tim Henman, Greg Rusedski and Andy Murray. Greg Rusedski used the occasion to announce his retirement from the game after his doubles victory on Saturday.

It is sad that Britain has only produced one decent tennis player in 20 years, namely Tim Henman. Andy Murray gave up on the Lawn Tennis Association and went to learn his trade on clay in Spain; Greg Rusedski famously defected from Canada in 1995. So despite all the money and projects spent on encouraging our next Wimbledon champion over the last decade or so, not one has come through. I am not sure how much has been spent in total, but I am sure we could have managed to bribe Roger Federer to defect for a fortnight to win our first Wimbledon Championship in 25 years.

This is a damning indictment of the opportunities we give to the children of this country. It is not really a surprise that we came out as the worst place to grow up in that UN report recently.

Rocky VII: Adrian's Revenge

Last night saw a real-life Rocky story at the Millennium stadium in Cardiff, albeit without the ending. Peter Manfredo Jr, runner-up on the American reality TV show the Contender, challenged Joe Calzaghe, the undefeated Welsh Super-Middleweight WBO and IBF champion.

The Americans widely predicted the fairytale would happen, but were incensed when Brummie referee Terry O'Connor stopped the fight in the third round. Most commentators believed it had been stopped too early for a title fight without a punch really hurting the young pretender, but most agreed it would only have been a matter of time before Calzaghe won the match. Supporters of the decision noted that Manfredo was not throwing any punches back, so the referee had no option.

It is difficult to understand why the Americans thought Manfredo had a chance against Calzaghe. After the match Manfredo himself implied this was perhaps a step too far. Many in Britain regard Calzaghe as pound-for-pound the best boxer in the world today. He has seen off tougher, more experienced opponents than Manfredo who has lost a couple of bouts against lesser opposition. Either the Americans have a deep-rooted belief in the American Dream, or they do not give Calzaghe the respect he deserves. Barry Mcguigan asked the question: when are they going to realise just how good Calzaghe is?

Probably only if he takes US citizenship.

Final Resting Place

The best news story last week was Keith Richards claim that he snorted his dad's ashes with some blow.

Why couldn't he just sprinkle it over his cappuccino like a normal person?

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.

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.

The Land of the Free

The links to Electoral-Vote.com on the right-hand side will alert you to the fact that the People's Republic takes a keen interest in major elections on the other side of the pond. As part of Britain, it usually decides our foreign policy. Despite their break with an unelected head-of-state however, you cannot help feeling the American's just do not get democracy.

Take this link. It reminds me off the story of the Bush campaign using pictures of John McCain with his adopted Vietnamese daughter to the same effect in the primaries of 1999 when things were going bad for the President-in-waiting. As the writer of electoral-votes.com points out, normally elections are decided on taxation, education, health and foreign policy - but not in America.

Meanwhile on YouTube VideotheVote.com are among the featured links on the front page. They operated in 2004 with some interesting stories but received little coverage from the mainstream media, leaving it to sites like michaelmoore.com to cover their reports. It will be interesting to see whether YouTube could follow blogs and set the agenda rather than just report it. YouTube has democratised the media, allowing the average man in the street with a camcorder to take on the big corporations whose news fits their agenda. Will it finally break the story of the state-sponsored polling bias in America?

Which brings me onto another link on the right-hand side, 18 Doughty Street. Fed-up with the dumbed down news we receive on the mainstream channels in the UK, a group of bloggers have taken it upon themselves to start their own free internet news channel. I've never watched it (I doubt my computer could take much video streaming) but the People's Republic wishes them well. As far as we are concerned, the more independent sources of news we have, the better.

Birmingham "Most Ready for Disaster"

According to the Reader's Digest Birmingham is the most ready of all the major English cities to cope with a major terrorist attack or disaster. Maybe a little too ready..?

Paul Hunter 1978 - 2006

It seems to be the year for talented young sportsmen dying before their time. After Richard Burns earlier this year, Paul Hunter lost his battle against cancer yesterday a year-and-a-half after being diagnosed. When he first burst onto the scene it seemed obvious to all snooker fans that he was destined to be a world champion, and we al looked forward to some titanic battles between him and Ronnie O'Sullivan.
Unfortunately, it was not to be, and it we are left to ponder on what might have been.

Nutters on YouTube 2

These guys really are sad. Get a life.

Nutters on YouTube 1

When I first saw this I thought it might be a new Bin Laden video. The problem with YouTube is it allow any idiot to post films.

Munich Day 5: Olympia, Oktoberfest and English Garden

On our final day on Munich last week we started off by visiting the BMW building and Olympic Park which comprised the Stadium, Swimming Hall, Ice Rink and Olympic Hall. We climbed the Olympic Mountain which gave us a magnificent view of the entire complex. We visited the temporary BMW Museum inside the Olympic Park; BMW World, the new Museum is under construction and will not be completed until 2007. After the mist of the morning the sun came out and we could finally see the top of the Olympic Turn.

From there we hastened to Oktoberfest where we managed to get served inside one of the tents of Lowenbrau, famous in Bavaria for having the worst beer (which tastes like Carling!). From there we had a final beer at the Chinese Turn in the English Garden. We rushed back to the hotel to pick up our bags, and took the underground for the last time to the Airport (via Marienplatz and the S-bahn) where we encountered a surprisingly inefficient German check-in system. Of course, it would not have been a holiday if the plane back had not been overbooked or delayed, but I did manage to make it home just before midnight.

Munich Day 4: Salzburg

The mist in Bavaria scuppered our plans to visit Zugspitze, Germany's highest mountain where on a clear day one can see four countries so we instead set off to Salzburg, just across the border in Austria where we were immersed in Mozart and the Sound of Music for the Day. The city is dominated by a fort on the hill above from which you can see the entire old quarter. The sun never stopped shining in the Costa del Salzburg.

We finished the evening back at Augustiner in Munich City Centre were we ate traditional Weisswurst tourist style.

Munich Day 3: Neuschwanstein Castle

On day 3 we took to the road (or the rather more efficient train actually) where up to 5 people could take the regional train to anywhere in Bavaria for only €27. We went to Fuessen, and then took the bus to Hohenshwangau where we took the Royal Tour of Neuschwanstein Catle and it's baby brother Howenshwangau where Ludwig II, the fairytale king, spent his childhood. Neuschwanstein castle is a candidate for one of the seven modern wonders of the world, and the inspiration for Disney's fairytale castle. We got back to Munich late and attempted to get into the English Garden which was unfortunately already closed, so we went back to the Hotel to rest for the next day.

Munich Day 2: Deutches Museum, Glyptothek & Oktoberfest

On day 2 of out tour of Munich, we started off in the biggest science museum in Europe, the Deutches Museum. It had an excellent area on mining in the basement, and apparently has a good planetarium which we unfortunately did not see because we did not have time to get the extra ticket before the 12 O'Clock show started. A walk along the River Isar and back into the old centre was followed by a visit to the Glyptothek, a museum of Greek and Roman artifacts. We then rushed across town to Therensienwiese to experience Oktoberfest where we had to sit outside in the rain as we could find no room in any of the tents. We spoke to a couple of German guys about a variety of topics, and then walked home from the old town back to our hotel through the University district.

Munich Day 1: Hofbrauhaus

A week ago PRoB did a five day tour of Munich and the surrounding areas. I will record here brief highlights of each day including some pictures I took.

On day one, after a delay at Birmingham Airport which meant we had to change planes and fly via Zurich, we finally got to the Hotel around 9pm. A quick tour of the old city was followed by a trip to the city Beergarten of the state brewerey Hofbrauhaus, where we feasted on pretzels and beer.

iSoft Target

Working for the NHS means unfortunately I have a fair amount of contact with iSoft, the company currently under investingation for accounting irregularities. Yesterday I came across a mousemat from the company with the following strapline (or words to this effect):

"Creating tomorrow's Healthcare solutions today"

Apparently this is also how they report their profits.

Bring Back the Birmingham Mafia

Channel 4 has a piece on its 7 O'Clock news programme this week claiming that the current trouble Blair has were concocted in a West Brom Balti House between Tom Watson, MP for West Brom East, Khalid Mahmood, MP for Perry Barr and possibly the MP for Birmingham Edgbaston, Gisela Stuart.

If true, this could be the second most significant restaurant meeting in the history of the Labour Leadership - and without a potential Labour leader in site.

Update: Of course Gisela Stuart would not be involved in a plot against Blair. It was the MP for Birmingham Erdington, Sion Simon. Finally, the restaurant was in Wolverhampton, not West Brom. The People's Republic is happy to apologise for any offense caused.

Brumwatch

Why didn't this show get a second series!?

Birmingham by Bus

I cannot really be bothered to blog at the moment and news is a bit thin on the ground anyway. In an attempt to move this blog away from just writing, here is a video from the new net craze YouTube. It is called Broad Street by Bus. Unfortunately I cannot bring you the aroma of cannabis on the top deck, or the litter on the floor, but I know this blog has an international readership and hopefully it will bring back a few memories.

Not all bad hopefully.

Incidentally I have resumed using the buses on my break from work this week after six months of using almost nothing but the car for longer-than-walking-distance journeys. I was amused to see the signs up asking for passengers to smile and say thank you if the driver got you to your destination safely and on time, because "it is not easy being a bus driver".

I know how they felt - on Travel West Midlands, it is not easy being a passenger either.

Talebrum from the Sun

Just as Birmingham became the centre of a new Al-Qaeda terrorist plot (Talebrum was the classic headline from the Sun) my computer packed in to stop me blogging about it.

There is no evidence that this was linked to the plot, or any ongoing police investigations around it.

More likely, it was a dodgy internet connection.

Martin O'Neill in at Villa

After what seems like months Martin O'Neill has been appointed manager of the Second City Superclub with the backing of all potential future investors. The People's Republic believes this could be the turning point in the history of Aston Villa, the point at which they changed from being also rans to a competitive Premiership team. The spreads are offering 45 points for a buy at the moment.

Get your money on now.

Al-Qaeda to Buy Villa?

Apparently a group of Arabs are involved in a fourth bid to take over the club. The People's Republic speculates it could be the Saudi king, the only person in the world who could improve Ellis' amazing record at the club. He's sacked more managers. And contrary to some stories, Cleveland Brown's Randy owner is still interested in buying the club - he just isn't interested in dealing with Ellis.

Is he a former Villa manager?

Feeling Hot, Hot, Hot!

Phew! The World Cup series of posts took longer than expected (and I was actually planning to have a round-up of the groups and the progress of each participant which I have now shelved). This is mainly because of a mini-heatwave that is affecting Birmingham (and my computer) at the moment, making it among the hottest places in the country just a week ago. Among the news I have failed to comment on are the sale of Emile Heskey and Jermaine Pennant at Blues, the fact that they are favourites for the Championship in the fortcoming season with Albion second, and an exclusive from West Brom: I have from a reliable source that Mr Robson will have 10 games to turn the fortunes of the club round when the new season starts, otherwise he will be shown the door.

Meanwhile at Villa there are enough rumours going on for an entire article to be devoted to it. In summary, some newspaper reports suggested that Villa players were unhappy at the cost-cutting going on at the club (apparently a physio was not allowed to claim back the price of a cup of airport coffee from the company's expenses, the Villa players had to personally pay a masseuse after the club stopped funding them and a new training facility was scrapped). This story transmogrified into one player egged-on by Mr O'Leary. This led to an investigation and a "parting of company with the club on amicable terms". While the search for a new manager goes on three interested parties are attempting to buy the club: an American called Randy who owns the MBNA brand of credit cards, local Solihull business man Mr Neville, and Sven Goran Eriksson's agent. Maybe we will see Beckham in Brum after all...

Elsewhere in the city the Dubliner pub was burnt down in an apparent arson attack a couple of nights ago. Worldwide, Israel has gone over the top in attacking everything that moves in Lebanon as the result of a couple of soldiers being kidnapped, and as usual America and Britain haven't got the leadership to tell them to stop. Question marks over the Metropolitan Police have resurfaced - ridiculously, no-one will be charge over the Jean Charles de Menezes incident, although the Met will be charge under Health and Safety Legislation (because they shot the wrong man) and a BBC documentary claims a senior policeman involved in the initial investigation of the Stephen Lawrence murder was bribed by a relative of one of the suspects. And we thought the serious crime squad was bent.

Anyway hopefully normal service will soon be resumed.

The Strikers

Here is where we lost the world cup. We only took four - two who were crocked and one who had never played a Premiership game.

9 Wayne Rooney - Sven had to take him for the unpredictability factor (and as it turned out he was not badly injured anyway). A mistake to play him up front on his own, as he was isolated and his frustration led to him being sent off.

10 Michael Owen - a confidence player who a brave manager would not have been taken - so Sven definitely had him in the squad.

21 Peter Crouch - what is going on with this player - he simply isn't international class. Presumably in the team because he plays for Liverpool, but that in itself is a mystery, particularly as Djibril Cisse, a far superior player, has just be loaned out by the same club. How can you take a striker who failed to score in the first fourteen games for his new club, and then missed a penalty?

23 Theo Walcott - again what is going on? How can you take a player who you have never seen and has never played a Premiership game? Sven clearly panicked after Rooney's injury - but then never had the guts to play him. His inclusion is comparable to Ronaldo in 1994 - the difference being he could remain on the bench for the experience because they had a fit, in form strike force that won the World Cup.

You have got to feel sorry for Darren Bent. Top English scorer in the season and does not get a look in. Jermaine Defoe did not become a bad player in one season. Andy Johnson made a big mistake staying with a Championship club - he certainly is international class but needs the Premiership experience, which he will get this year with Everton

The Midfielders

There are far to many of these:

4. Steven Gerrard. Nothing wrong with this one. Should fit the other players around him.

7. David Beckham. Never a wide-right player, and should not be in the team let alone captain. A case of Sven picking the best players rather than the best team

8. Frank Lampard. A poor world cup. 24 shots (more than anyone else), none hit the back of the net. Cannot play alongside Gerrard (except with a holding midfield player if these two bomb forward, which they didn't).

10. Joe Cole. Excellent World Cup but not a wide-left player. Should have tried him in the Rooney role. Perhaps try in centre in future.

16. Owen Hargreaves. Jury out. Had a good tournament, but even Nicky Butt looked good in the holding midfield role four years ago. Useful in squad due to versatility - and at least he can score a penalty.

17. Jermaine Jenas. Why was he in the squad? He was never going to play, and we should have had a fifth striker instead.

18. Michael Carrick. My choice for the holding midfield role - he can certainly pass the ball.

19. Aaron Lennon. One for the future. Should have taken Beckham's place on merit.

20. Stewart Downing. Should have picked Kieran Richardson in my opinion

The Defenders

Usually the strength of the England team, the defence looked unusually suspect against Sweden particularly on set pieces. However, they didn't concede a goal in the other games so generally it was a case of job done.

2. Gary Neville - not a lot of competition for his right-back role but the United player showed his age missing a couple of games through injury. Certainly justified for selection, and much better than Luke Young who for me, regardless of what the London press say has never done it in an England shirt.

3. Ashley Cole - again undoubtedly first choice, but defensively still suspect.

5. Rio Ferdinand - had an good tournament and cannot question his inclusion

6. John Terry - future captain, and a rock we should build the team around

12. Sol Campbell - some people would have preferred to see Dawson after question marks over the old war-horses mentality, but I would let Eriksson off on the fact that experience is useful in the squad.

14. Wayne Bridge - a case of picking the name rather than the player in form. If I'm correct had an injury hit average season, and Paul Konchesky should have been named ahead of him.

15. Jamie Carragher - definitely one for the squad and arguably a first teamer. Perhaps could fit him in at right-back but has never really performed as well as centre back in that role for his club. Definitely not a holding midfielder.

The Goalkeepers

The People's Republic doesn't have a football team, so unfortunately we are stuck with supporting England. A country which once produced the likes of Banks and Shilton between the sticks it appears that we are going through a rather barren spell with the following three stooges.

1. Paul Robinson - before the world cup mine and probably most people's number one choice to wear the gloves. Unfortunately he seems to be training too much with David James, flapping at crosses and generally making bad decisions. Given the dearth of top quality keepers at the moment a good tournament could have given him the goalkeeping jersey for the next ten years. With other managers he may not have lasted the tournament, but luckily his competition was not that fierce.

13. David James - never has been and never will be international class. An excellent shot stopper, but then most keepers are. It is decision making which separates the men from the boys. Probably needed in the squad because of his experience, but that alone is due to the loyalty of the bespectacled one. Surely time to train up another.

22. Robert Green. Had a shocking season with Norwich in the Championship, but unfortunately (for him) was injured before the tournament and replaced with 20-year-old Scott Carson, who doesn't have enough experience. If Chris Kirkland can keep himself fit, he has a great chance of getting into this setup.

But it is a big if.

23 Reasons Why England Failed

The strange thing about Sven is that as an international manager he seems to have got worse. Quarter-Finals against the eventual winners four years ago when we nearly didn't qualify was acceptable. Losing two years ago to the hosts at the same stage was also excusable - but the cracks were beginning to show. Picking the best players not the best team; keeping faith with underperforming big names; going one goal up and trying to hold the match; the wrong substitutions at the wrong time. So it came as quite a surprise when he announced his 23 man squad which from the start looked strange. Over the next few days I will look at his selection and record where he went wrong for posterity.

In any case the mistakes are too numerous for one post.

The Azzurri Give Les Bleus the Blues

Congratulations to Italy on their fourth World Cup win - nice to know at least one nation can learn to take penalties. I can now resume blogging again. Watch out for reviews of the tournament in the week ahead and then we can all get ready for the new season.

No rest for the wicked.

World Cup Fever

The World Cup is in full swing (which is part of the reason I haven't been updating this blog much). Quite simply, I'm loving it.

I was going to have another rant at out ConDem council, because they have stopped showing England matches on the big screen in Chamberlain Square due to trouble during 2004. Conveniently however, they have set up a fans park at the Millennium Point where you can watch them and they will charge you £3.50 for the privilege. Given that we are the only city in the country with a big screen doing this I was going to have a go at them - until I found this article which states that London and Liverpool have banned the showing of all live matches on their big screens due to crowd trouble.

I wonder whether this was the ConDem councillors defending their decision?

School Knife Attack

In the news a few weeks ago was this article on the stabbing of a young boy outside his school. What surprised me about this was that he was taken across the city to City Hospital, rather than the A&E on his doorstep at Heartlands Hospital.

Presumably this was because City hospital have become specialists at this sort of incident.