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| Birmingham seen from the Lickey Hills. Author=JimmyGuano |
Birminghan city centre by A Aardvark
My home town Birmingham comes in for a lot of stick in England for its multiculturalism and its history of industry and manufacture. The way we speak has become a media metaphor for feeble mindedness and a cultural marker for stupidity (especially in the south of England).
It is the most populous British city outside the capital London with 1,074,300 residents (2011 census), an increase of 96,000 over the previous decade.
In Wikispeak:-
In Wikispeak:-
The city lies at the heart of the West Midlands conurbation, the second most populous urban area in the United Kingdom with a population of 2,284,093 (2001 census). Its metropolitan area is also the United Kingdom's second most populous with 3,683,000 residents. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Birmingham#Music
So the figure given in this video for the population is not now the correct one, but unless you include the West Midlands Conurbation area it gives an unclear picture of the area anyway.
Here's the video which speaks for itself:-
Here's the video which speaks for itself:-
I found it interesting that there is a clear north/south divide betweeen those down south who consider us dirty here in the Midshires, to those up north who have never considered us at all it seems.
This I think is evidence for my long held contention that [a] Birmingham is more like a colonial city than a British city and [b] Brummies lack a regional persona which makes Birmingham the most self effacing city in England. Neither of these are bad things in my view.
Given that the Greater Birmingham connurbation is the second-largest economy in the United Kingdom and the 72nd-largest in the world, half our fellow countryman have hardly heard of us and the other half think we are funny dimwits and hold us in utter contempt.
This is what makes the city what it is today....really we'd be better off with a new Republic of Mercia as an autonomous region of Europe - like Barcelona and all the rest of Catalonia has done and Wales and Scotland are presently trying to do.
Birmingham has never needed Britain in the way that Britain has needed Birmingham so perhaps it is time the for West Midlands to consider seccession from the crumbling UK and to go it alone?
The region couldn't be in a worse mess than the Westminster politicians and the Whitehall mandarins have made it between them, Brummies don't need anyone else to survive, we can do it ourselves without carrying the rest of the country as we have been doing for centuries! Long Live the Republic of Mercia!
Birmingham has never needed Britain in the way that Britain has needed Birmingham so perhaps it is time the for West Midlands to consider seccession from the crumbling UK and to go it alone?
The region couldn't be in a worse mess than the Westminster politicians and the Whitehall mandarins have made it between them, Brummies don't need anyone else to survive, we can do it ourselves without carrying the rest of the country as we have been doing for centuries! Long Live the Republic of Mercia!
19th century back-to-back houses in central Birmingham now a museum
How nice to learn a little bit about your home AA.
ReplyDeleteThanks Lia for visiting and leaving your comment, it's lovely to see you :-)
ReplyDeleteA very interesting take on England's historical and vibrant "Workshop of the Empire", AA. Birmingham seems to suffer from stereotypes similar to what the city of Oakland has had for years in comparison to the other main metropolis of northern California, San Francisco. (San Jose is not so much a metropolis as a cluster of suburbs, so let's skip my hometown in this case.) Oakland like Birmingham is a multi-ethnic city not without its problems but also a very talented and (for the USA) integrated city. But old school stereotypes die hard--very hard. I was frankly surprised how modern your city looks and how many "southies" STILL seem to think it's still locked in their imaginations as a dirty heap. They will miss you Brummies if you ever left, that's for darn sure!
ReplyDeleteThanks Doug, it sounds as if Birmingham should twin with Oakland. It is true that some people still imagine smoking chimneys and smog hidden streets of ragamuffins begging for their mother's gin, but its not like Wales at all nowadays....only joking one of my granddad's was Welsh.
DeleteI never visited Oakland when I was in the area, I wish I had now Doug and San Jose too. But places get a bad reputation for whatever reason and the mud sticks. Thanks again for your comment Doug.
And here I thought all the gin-hustling "street arabs" had been rounded up in the 1880s from Wales and London and shipped by tramp steamer to New York and Halifax, AA. ;-) Your right about the "mud sticking". When I was living and working in Oakland and Berkeley back in the 80s, the city council of the former city even adopted an anti-crime campaign called "Let's Get the hell out of Oakland." The local wags had a field day with that one. I was back in Oakland last year and even places we East Bay types considered decidedly unsafe a quarter century ago look and feel a lot better now. But the stigma is still there.
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