Brummies

James Higham writes how the nation likes to look down on the humble Brummie. Having lived here for over 30 years, I should like to say something in reply, as no doubt he knew I would:

First, I think the affected contempt for Brummies is a displaced scorn for industrial labour perhaps impermissible to express so baldly in relation to Yorkshiremen and Lancastrians. Imagine such contempt shown for miners!

This is not universal: German engineers put Ing. in front of their names, and may have a kudos similar to that of the medical profession; but British engineers are treated with patrician condescension. Think squaddies in oil-stained Khakis. No place for officers there.

Or picture Repton-educated (though expelled) Jeremy Clarkson, cheerfully displaying his ignorance as he drives the latest wonder constructed by "four blokes bashing metal in an industrial unit". Decades of regarding going into industry as the wooden spoon in life's competition, has brought Britain to our current sorry pass.

Thickos associated with Birmingham include Matthew Boulton, James Brindley, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, JRR Tolkien, John Baskerville, Sir Edward Burne-Jones etc.

But mostly, Birmingham was too busy making its own and the nation's prosperity - the "cheap tin trays" of Masefield's "Cargoes". Ugh, the proles. Who also made the chain, the anchors, the presses, the lathes and so on that liberated us from guarding sheep as we read our Bibles with frozen fingers.

There may be a London-centric jealousy because Birmingham is not Britain's Second City, but, technically speaking, its first in geographical area and population. It is the largest local authority by a country mile (the "Mayor of London" controls a larger budget, but that "London" is an sort of urban conglomeration imprecisely related to the City of London, the surrounding boroughs, and other local authorities in the greater metropolitan area).

As to accents, few outsiders could pass for Brummies. Attempts to imitate the accent usually sound like a Scouser being strangled; and what is often thought of as a Brummie accent (say, Timothy Spall's Barry in "Auf Wiedersehen, Pet", or Julie Walters' Mrs Overall in "Acorn Antiques") is more like West Bromwich.

The Black Country abounds in accents; when I first came to Birmingham a Black Country-born history teacher told me that it was once possible to identify by his speech not only the village of the interlocutor, but sometimes even his street.

My personal preference is Sedgley, an exceptionally musical tone. Their pronunciation of the word "flowers" makes me think there must indeed have been a Golden Age in which men sang rather than spoke.

Sovereign wealth funds and national prosperity

I have had a comment (on an earlier piece about sovereign wealth funds) from a Shromon Das, who gives his view on SWFs here and a follow-up today here.

Without pretending to technical expertise in this area, I can envisage implications for a growing ownership of equities by governments. One effect may be to reduce volatility in large-capitalisation stocks, since national treasuries can take a longer view than the individual investor.

But there must also be concern about the possible use of ownership for political purposes. For example, I wonder at the UK's having allowed foreign enterprises to take over some of our energy and water supply companies.

I began this blog for investors, but increasingly I think the real story is not about how some may make (or protect) their fortunes, but about the implications for ordinary citizens.


Today I drove past the site of the former Rover car plant in Longbridge, Birmingham. The firm was on its way out years ago and a venture capital company called Alchemy offered to take it over, cut its size and specialise in a line of sports cars. The rest of the land could be redeveloped - housing and retail. The surplus workers would have their pension rights and redundancy payouts honoured, and some could still look around for employment in other plants.

But there was an election coming (2000), so the government chose to encourage a management buyout instead. Thousands of jobs were saved, supposedly. Besides, it was said (I seem to recall) that the site was too polluted for residential development, anyhow.

Well, Rover did go bust anyway (after a £6.5 million "bridging loan" to prevent its collapse immediately before the 2005 General Election). The workers didn't get the redundancy payments they'd have had from Alchemy in 2000, and their pensions were hit too. Anyone still interested in car work elsewhere would then be five years older, in an industry that some believe discriminated on the basis of age prior to new legislation in 2006.

A Chinese firm, SAIC, has picked over the carcase, with special attention to any designs and other paperwork that might help with setting up an alternative in the Far East. And now the site is being cleared - for residential and retail development.

There is a big, shiny new building on the Bristol Road in Longbridge - a JobCentre Plus.


Where, in all this, were the working people's long-term interests really considered, even by their political representatives?