Greater Birmingham not on your nellie | Vital Football

Greater Birmingham not on your nellie

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There are proposals by a bunch of entrepreneurs to turn the Black Country into Greater Birmingham to create more business for the West Midlands area.Now as a Black Country lad I find this quite insulting and totally unacceptable.Us Black Country lads spend a lifetime explaining to outsiders that we aye Brummies.Years ago the rivalry between us and Brummies was fierce and quite violent at times now I feel it's a love hate relationship as both sides have accepted each other now.But what do Brummies feel about this idea for me it's all about my identity I feel that it would be taken away.
 
Absolutely ridiculous! How the hell can the Black Country be 'greater' than Birmingham? These idiots need to have a reality check and get real!

The amount of times people have said to me that I don't sound Brummie is amazing. The reason why of course is that comedians etc who are supposed to be 'taking it out of' the Brummie accent are actually taking it out of the Black Country accent.

Don't get me wrong, I love the Black Country and it's accent as much as me being a proud Brummie, but Greater Birmingham? Forget it!

 
Absolutely Pride one of the people behind this scheme is the Lichfield Tory MP Michael Fabricant well how does he fit into this when as nice a City Lichfield is it's neither Brummie or Black Country another one is the manager of John Lewis I wonder where he comes from.They are giving assurances that identities will not be lost well how's that when the Black Country will be known as Greater Birmingham.So what is Greater Manchester known as other than Greater Manchester absolute Bollox.
 
PC?
Me?
Norman Tebbitt is probably more PC than I am!
A while back, I mentioned to a very PC person something about my wife.
"You mean your partner, don't you?" she said.
"No, I mean my wife," was my prompt response.
 
It's all down to seat rigging in the House of Parliament. It's been going on for years. For donkeys years my part of the world was known as East Riding of Yorkshire. Then came the boundary changes in the mid 70s all over the UK. Suddenly we had new counties created like Avon in the Bristol area and up here they took North Lincolnshire and renamed it South Humberside and East Yorkshire and created North Humberside. After almost 30 years of fighting we have regained our heritage of East Yorkshire and North Lincolnshire.

Why did they do it in the first place? Because it was a way of improving chances of getting seats in Parliament. For example: Hull has its own council seperate from the greater region of East Yorkshire that has a borough council. The outskirts of Hull and the East Riding district have always been Tory strongholds but the city of Hull and the town of Goole, 20 miles down the road (the only 2 urban areas of East Yorkshire as the rest of the county is rural) are staunchly Labour. So if you can merge a bit of Hull and Goole into a new borough or seat with a bit of the more rural East Riding seats, you can increase your party's chances of winning that seat from your opponent.. At the next general election it is proposed that the town of Goole and the district of Haltemprice/Howden (2 areas outside the Hull boundary) are to be merged to compete for one seat in Parliament. Currently the MP for Haltemprice is David Davis, a top Tory minister. If you take away the effectiveness of a labour safe seat (in this instance Goole) you get rid of that party's chances of having a representative in Parliament. What makes this proposal all the more ridiculous is the fact that Goole is no where near Haltemprice and Haltemprice and Howden are some distance apart from each other too. Had they said Howden and Goole to merge then that would make more sense as they are maybe 6 miles apart. The village I live in is classed as part of the Haltemprice area, and we live a good 20 miles from Howden and maybe 25 miles from Goole. That's like expecting the good folk of Dudley to be part of the Coventry electorate.
 
I would of thought you Black Country bumpkins should be honoured with the association :91:

Though as a proud Silhillian, I see no need for the surrounding areas of Birmingham to lose their individual identities. Nor do I really see how calling an area Greater Birmingham as opposed to the West Midlands brings more investment into the area.
 
Starchild this is not boundary changing it's more dropping the Black Country name as certain business's feel being a part of Birmingham will bring about more business to the area.Mcgrath4pope bumpkins lol couldn't be further from the truth really.But like you I can't see how it will dramatically change things business wise if John Lewis don't like it then piss off down sarf.
 
Mad.

Then again I am not a Brummie, I was born in Sutton Coldfield whilst under Warwickshire. So I'm a Suttonarian and part of my remit is that I am meant to look down on you all.

It is a tough but necessary role. :103:

And seriously, these people need to get a grip and stop wasting time on things that don't need changing.
 
It's only changing the name from west Midlands to Greater Birmingham, but it would make a difference to the regions status and opportunities. would do a huge favour to the likes of the Black Country and Coventry as these places are dying on their arses - it's certainly helped places like Salford and other small former lancastrian towns - even if the old fellas in the pubs still try to deny it (most of them havent worked since they closed the pit!).

For me though, as a proud Silhillian, no thanks. We certainly dont need it and dont desire to be grouped with all that unwashed lot from the overspills - even if it is just in name.
 
If there is to be a "Greater Birmingham" then it really only makes sence that it is the equivalent of Greater Manchester or the now disolved Greater London, ie a county in it's own right and as such it should incorporate what is now the West Midlands. This would elevate the status and profile of yhe City and the region which is badly needed imo as contrary to the belief of many, it is still the country's second city, it's not Manchester. Anything short of this would be a poinless waste of time.
 
Mind you, it would confuse the heck out of those poor folk in Coventry, they still think they are in Warwickshire.......then again, it migh finally force the good folk of Sutton to admit that they are no longer outside Birmingham, the poor souls, it only changed 40 years ago :56:


 
They can call it whatever they like for me.
I`ll carry on calling it what it is,The Black Country.
Christ, some people have got nothing better to do !
Someone needs to shove a rocket up these twats` arses.
Is there any financial gain to be had by the dicks who dream these things up ?
 
The thing is, Shirley is still Shirley and Hall Green is still Hall Green. No one is suggesting removing a local name/identity, just creating a larger umbrella to increase national/international profile, bargaining power and influence. If an authority can represent 1.1 million it has a lot of influence but not nearly as much as one that can speak for nearly 3 million.

Incidentally Brum is the most populous city in the UK, with London actually having a population of less than 8000, less than Shirley. When people talk about London having a population of 8 million, that's not the City but the county, also know as Greater London.
 
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