Posts Tagged ‘ politics ’

Conference protests banned?

"Anger is growing at West Midlands police over their decision to prevent demonstrators marching past the Tory Party conference in Birmingham on Sunday 3 October." Socialist Worker

Referendum on Brum Elected Major – The Stirrer

The Stirrer digs up news that the Tories may well be planning a vote next year, Mr Mike Whitby won't be happy.

Marc Reeves of The Birmingham Post spends a couple of hours talking shop, blogging and council newspapers with Michael Grimes on Sunday Local — the weekly local news show on Rhubarb Radio: It’s intelligent, honest and unafraid — something of media at its best — is it only volunteer-led internet media that has the space and motivation for this?

Deirdre Alden forms the Republic of Quinton

"Mentioned as far back as the 1840s (when it was referred to as The Quinton), and a part of Birmingham since November 1909, this month the Royal Mail has officially recognised Quinton as a postal address… many people (me included!) had sometimes been adding the word "Quinton" to B32 addresses anyway, but… it wasn't part of the official postal address."

Rainbow Meeting

As you should all know by now The Rainbow pub in Digbeth is fighting for survival as it’s been served with a noise abatement order. They’ve got tons of support (joining the Facebook Group is a painless way to do that, actually going is better) and held a meeting tonight. Landlord Kent Davis gave a speech that was impassioned enough to stand the cliché of being called an impassioned speech: Pete Ashton recorded it and shared it for all, so listen.

Brum is having a new Lord Mayor. Beowulf playing, hobbit fan (and Professor) Coun Michael Wilkes was “handed the chain” on the 19th. Previous Lord Mayor Coun Chauhdry Rashid is now deputy mayor. Coun Rashid, you may recall has a website — the wonderfully URL’d lordmayor.org — we were hoping for blogging from him, but sadly the site isn’t updated much (nor does it look to be council run, official stuff is here). Is he going to hand over the virtual keys, no sign yet? And while were at it Coun Wilkes, do you fancy setting up a blog? I’ve just grabbed birminghammayor.wordpress.com and you can have it whenever you like. Image from lolitics.

If you can’t Beat ‘em

Tom Lennon pulls a great anecdote out of this month’s Uncut (reading dad-rock magazines so you don’t have to) all about the fine brummie band The Beat: “It’s 1980, and The Beat are scheduled to play “Stand Down Margaret” on the early evening kids’ TV show, Cheggers Plays Pop. “We had to get the song on by stealth,” laughs lead singer Dave Wakeling. “Our genial old Jamaican saxophonist, Saxa, explained to presenter Keith Chegwin that The Stand Down Margaret was an old Caribbean dance. ‘Come now, Cheggers,’ he was saying. ‘Let me show you how to dance The Stand Down Margaret…’ and he invents some ridiculous little dance routine. Then we start playing the song and unzip our jackets and we’ve all got T-shirts emblazoned with pictures of Maggie Thatcher…” Tom’s also collected loads of Beat videos over at his blog.

Bright Lights, Big City

You know how big and complex Birmingham is, well it is. Very. Sometimes things like even knowing who owns a building is tricky (that falling into itself one by the Silver Blades opposite the indoor Market — I’m guessing the owners might be sealed inside) — so how do you make huge decisions about the whole of the City Centre that will affect things for the next 20 years? Well, you’ve got to have a plan. And in this instance it’s The Big City Plan (which we’ve mentioned before) — an overarching document that is attempting to make big and brave decisions about how the city centre will work in the future. At the moment, there’s a consultation process about it — which lasts until the 6th of February. I’ve been involved, with a number of other bloggers, in putting together a blog-site version where we hope some of the “wisdom of crowds” will help pull together Brum’s finest minds and crack some of the problems. It’s at bigcitytalk.org.uk and you’re invited to link to it, copy chunks of the blogged version for your own use, but most of all go discuss and comment and feedback to the Council...

Step aboard the Big City Plan Bus today

The “Beyond Midnight” bus, which has more info about the Big City Plan (that will decide what happens in Birmingham over the next 20 years), is in the city centre today and Highgate tomorrow. Only just heard about this and we’re too late to let you know that it was in Ladywood yesterday. Please go along if you can, in great numbers, to find out more about the Big City Plan, have your say and show the council that we really care about our city. The details: Tuesday 13 January City Centre * 9am – 3pm, Edgbaston Street, Markets area * 3pm – 8pm, Victoria Square Wednesday 14 January Highgate * 12 noon – 3pm, Joseph Chamberlain College * 3pm -5pm, Gooch Street shops * 5pm – 7pm, Stanhope St Youth and Community Centre * 7pm – 9pm, St Martins Youth Centre Gooch Street, Highgate, Birmingham B12 Not quite sure why it’s called the “Beyond Midnight” bus, as it only seems to be open during the day and early evening. Oh well, I suppose 9am is beyond midnight. If you can eat After Eights at any time of day, we’re sure you can visit the Beyond Midnight bus too...

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Is Brum Happy?

Birmingham's emotional wellbeing* on Saturday 11th of February 2012 12:30: 55.3 % (average)