There is a popular misconception in Greater Birmingham that the mechanical bull plonked on the concourse of nasty New Street Station is named after a Brummie notorious for having been a drug-addled p*sshead (although this would be about the level of persons of note in our failing city).
In fact, "Ozzie" is named for Brum's very own Ozymandias, our bullsh*tter-in-chief, Andrew "Andy" John Street. Many of you will be familiar with Percy Bysshe Shelley's poem, "Ozymandias", described thus in Wikipedia:
The poem explores the worldly fate of history and the ravages of time: even the greatest men and the empires they forge are impermanent, their legacies fated to decay into oblivion. "Look on my Works, ye Mighty and despair!" exemplifies the arrogance and hubris of a leader who believed his dominion would endure indefinitely.
New Street Station already hosts one of the hubristic Street's decaying monuments - the monstrous failed John Lewis store from the time when Street ran the bourgeois soft-furnishings etc. empire. It lasted all of 5 minutes before failing.
Street may be diminutive (which will seemingly make him fair game for vicious attacks from Angela Rayner) but he has a giant-size ego. The Master Blagger (as someone recently described him on social media) boasts daily of his supposed accomplishments, but the respected Economist magazine recently pointed out that despite the millions the Tory Government has given him to blow, "he has barely shifted the dial". This is a man who put the "V" and "P" in "Vanity Project".
When he became Mayor an early promise was that he would tackle homelessness. At the time, Street owned at least three and a half properties. His pad in London, a house in rural Northants, his penthouse in The Cube, in Brum, and a half share in a cottage in Wales (co-owned by his very close friend - but NOT partner - Michael Fabricant). He would not need to venture far from his Brum penthouse to begin learning about homelessness, but that wouldn't be flash enough for this poseur. He decided the taxpayer would be better served by him going on an in-depth, er, 18-hour trip to (wait for it ...) Finland. This obscene farce cost us £2,216.88p of which £500 was for chauffer-driven "luxury" transport from Brum to Heathrow and back.
Of course, homelessness is still yet another dire problem which Mr Three and a Half Homes has not solved. Labour are currently pointing out that the bullsh*tter promised 1,700 "social homes" for the West Mids whereas only a pathetic 46 have actually been built. Promises, promises ...
Toryism is in Street's blood but such is the personality cult he has tried to create around himself that he has tried to distance himself from the Party on more than one occasion. But don't be fooled by that. Look instead at him simpering in the audience at Tory Conferences when Party leaders [sic] big him up.
In his first election he faced Labour's moronic Sion Simon, but spent liberally to keep the Nuneaton neanderthal squatting in his North Warwickshire cave. Next time-up the pathetic Labour liar, Liam Byrne, still managed a close contest despite a dramatic imbalance in finances. The Conservatives put up a stonking £1.7m for Street's campaign (against Byrne's £332,000) but "Andy" turned round and sh*t upon them. He had Jasper Carrott [Who he? - Ed] urge voters to elect the man, and not the Party. Sound familiar? Street is trying the same stunt this time when the Tory Party nationally is in meltdown.
One thing that IS certain in politics is that everyone loves a winner no matter how appalling the person is. Witness the love (yes, love) of Labour politicians at national and local level for the late Darren Cooper in Sandwell despite the fact that he was a well-known wifebeater. Electoral success trumps moral considerations. And so it is with local Tories and Street. They see him as electoral viagra, and pray they may benefit by hanging on to his coat tails. And whilst Street is pretending to distance himself from the failing Party, local Tories tell me he is assiduously courting every councillor and candidate promising their areas good things if HE gets elected again. However, they must work for HIS election campaign - and many are. Hope springs eternal even in the face of the forthcoming Tory rout. And if I was a Conservative candidate I would be pissed off by someone denigrating their Party whilst shrieking, "Just vote for me. For me!"
He influence in local Tory politics has been pernicious with the formation of cliques to back his interests whilst warring with other Party members. There are wild rumours that he was involved in the appalling decision to move the disastrous Nicola Richards MP out of her West Brom constituency and into the supposedly safe seat at Solihull - a massive two fingers up to the voters who brought the "Red Wall" crashing down in 2019. Whatever the truth of this, the pariah Richards has been out campaigning for him this week and must still be hoping he uses his influence to get her the Solihull gig.
Every single job that has been created in our area in recent years is claimed by Street as his doing. There is no bandwagon that rolls by where he does not hitch a lift eg. his absurd claim to have been involved in West Bromwich Albion FC being "saved". Meanwhile, as the Economist points out, his many years in office have achieved almost nothing.
In the early days of his underperforming mayoralty Street could not open his mouth without saying the words, "Midlands Engine". This is a mythical slumbering manufacturing machine which only needs a quick smearing of Street's bullsh*t to lubricate it into an industrial leviathan driving the local economy. Eat your hearts out, Beijing and Berlin - the Black Country is coming!
Of course this is all, well yes, a myth. Some advanced manufacturing firms have done well but the region's industrial powerhouse remains well and truly in the doldrums. And, in any event, Britain moved from an industrial economy to a service-based one a long-time ago. In services there have been some bright-spots locally - HSBC, Goldman Sachs and even the ailing Deutsche Bank, but nothing much to write home about. Education standards are low in many areas (usually Labour ones) and young folk are seemingly incapable of meeting the employment demands of a high-tech future. The productivity of the Birmingham area is a colossal 14% below the national average despite Street's braggadocio. Economic inactivity is higher than almost anywhere in the country [the Economist]. Areas of severe deprivation, like corrupt Labour Sandwell, pockmark the region.
"Andy" is hardly ever seen without a hard hat and high-vis jacket standing on a building site. Yet even where housing is being built, such as on poisoned land at Friar Park, Wednesbury, the process is being rushed to provide kudos for Street whereas little thought is given to wider infrastructure difficulties which arise with large new developments. With Street it's all icing, and no cake.
Despite his meaningless boasts of "brownfield first" for development his Tory acolytes in Sandwell shafted the lovely green space at Brandhall where 86% of locals polled were against development. And Street is close to developers like his friend "Jeremy" (Jeremy Knight Adams - pictured) who has fallen out big-style with Dudley Tories over a large development project and who wants to destroy a whopping 19 ha in the urban dystopia of Oldbury to build a shopping centre in a bent deal with Labour. Did I forget to mention that his pal, Jeremy, is a big donor to the Tory Party?
It is not clear where Street imagines new industry will actually spring-up. In a bizarre twist he wants to destroy an industrial site in Sandwell and backs a housing development there on the wholly unsuitable site under the ruse that this is a "heritage" project. Ironically, given Street's burgeoning reputation as a pathetic chancer, the site was formerly occupied by Chance Glass!
Greater Birmingham has a wonderfully diverse population and it is a sad indictment of local politics that the real contest next Thursday is between two rich, white, blokes. The Tories have been jumping-up and down claiming that Labour's Richard Parker (formerly of that bastion of socialism, PricewaterhouseCoopers, the rapacious accountancy firm) has his main residence in wealthy Barnt Green but, as above, Street too has multiple properties. Those in penthouses shouldn't throw stones ...
