The turnout for the West Midlands Mayoral election on 2nd May, 2024 was a pathetic 29.8%. Now read on ...
A few years ago I was having a drink in The Queen's, Newhall Street, Brum with a co-volunteer on the much-loved "Hidden Spaces" series of events. The bright young person asked me for my thoughts on the (then) proposed formation of a "West Midlands Combined Authority" (WMCA). Cue a rant of epic proportions on the failure of the disastrous West Midlands County Council and its unlamented demise. Needless to say I went on to be vocal in opposition to the new talk shop, and I pride myself upon being the ONLY protester to actually attend the inaugural meetings at the ICC to, er, protest. Oh, and Birmingham didn't want a WM Mayor and in 2012 voted AGAINST having one. But by 2016 a "mare" was forced upon the people regardless - so much for listening to the public. The first was elected in 2017.
There is a school of thought that as much government as possible should be "devolved", and this nonsense - like the laughable "levelling-up agenda" - seems to have been accepted by the political commentariat as gospel. But why? In these high-tech times, and with AI about to transform our lives still further, clever people know instantly if I even think of buying a new washing machine. Why is decision making not centralised and, more particularly, efficiency-driven? If I want a repair done to my Council house, to report a pothole or require a dog-turd to be cleared why can't I contact a national organisation as efficient as, say, Amazon rather than bureaucrats "shirking from home" who may not even live in my Council area? (Take deeply corrupt Sandwell as an example. Most top management - and even some Labour Councillors - wouldn't dream of living in such a sh*thole themselves, and so how is their supposed "local knowledge" any better than others who don't live in the area?) And when the quality of West Mids councillors is so appalling do you trust them to run a whelk stall, let alone a City or Borough?
The Tory levelling-up agenda - insofar as it is it actually exists - is pure "socialist" dirigiste drivel motivated by an apparently doomed attempt to prevent the reconstruction of Labour's "red wall". The sound economic policy would be to use available funds to improve infrastructure, housing etc. in successful areas like London and South-East rather than waste taxpayers' money on open cesspits like Rochdale or "Donny". Large parts of the north and places like Sandwell should simply be abandoned like former pit villages, and rewilded. This is part of the reason the Tories - yes, the Tories - are now taxing us all until the pips squeak.
The real winners from "levelling-up" have been the consultancy firms. As there is no sensible planning, they devise the "bids" for pots of money to be "won" by local authorities whether there is a sound economic case or not. Take Sandwell again. Wednesbury is an horrific, deprived, area but millions have been blown on the most pathetic project ever - to "improve" the "historic centre" of the troubled town, whatever that is, and build a laughable new market there. The Tories stumped-up for this inevitable fiasco with OUR money having won the local Parliamentary seat in 2019.
The WMCA is a totally artificial political construct with the only nexus between its constituent parts being geographical proximity. Compare and contrast Solihull and Sandwell - only a few miles apart on the map, but worlds apart. Solihull is full of attractive, healthy, achievers whereas Sandwell has a diseased, uneducated, population of knuckle-draggers. Solihull has more in common with leafy Warwickshire (from whence it was begat) and Sandwell with the neighbouring urban dystopia of ghost-City, Wolverhampton. Solihull may be possibly the most boring place in England but at least it's not a ghastly midden.
There was no logical realignment of the political structure when the new talk shop was created. The disparate local councils retain most of their powers, their bloated bureaucracies and a surfeit of elected councillors. Once again, the Dictatorship of Sandwell had 72 councillors before the formation of the WMCA (three per ward) and now has, er, 72 councillors. Why? Why does each Council retain its own legal department, housing section, public health service etc. if a strong WM region is really the answer to our woes. The answer, of course, is all to do with turkeys and their aversion to Christmas. No politician wants to cede his/her limited powers to someone else.
Our first, unwanted, "Metro Mayor" was the Trumpian Tory braggart, Andy Street, whom the Conservative Government showered with our money. This was then blown on nonsense like the z-list Commonwealth [sic] Games. (Meanwhile, Labour has bankrupted Birmingham!) The security for the meaningless event alone cost over £90 m. Yes, you read that right - 90 million pounds which was NOT used to create jobs and wealth in our region - and that's just the tip of the iceberg. Hundreds of millions have been wasted on a variety of vanity projects. And those perennial Tory donors, property developers and house-builders have also done very well under Street courtesy of the taxpayer forking our for land remediation and the political easing of any nasty planning issues.
Anyone who remembers Edwina Currie will know that she was adept at inserting the name of her South Derbyshire constituency into every public utterance she made, and Street also thought that if he boasted about Greater Brum often enough people would actually believe his El Dorado fantasy. And some did. Compare and contrast Street with another flawed individual, Albert Bore, a man who did genuinely transform the (former?) Second City - at least temporarily - for the better.
Rishi Sunak promised (though failed) to "Stop the Boats" but the national Tory collapse has at least stopped Street's boasts - at least for a short while. Although he is blue-blooded Street disowned his own Party in a desperate attempt to save his own skin and created the meaningless - and now tarnished - "Brand Andy". But all to no avail for the show-off Non-Con Conman.
There has been much wailing and gnashing of teeth at Street's defeat, not just from Tories but from many in Brum who should know better. I pointed out in my post:
https://crowmultimedia.blogspot.com/2024/04/ozymandias-birminghams-bullshtting-mayor.html
that foolish local Conservative councillors were so blinded by his braggadocio that they spent hours campaigning for him instead of trying to hold on to their own seats. Happily, many of these buffoons lost out.
On social media celebrity chefs, some business folk and even a ragbag of greasers from the "third sector" have placed an onion beneath their eyes and bemoaned The Brand's defeat. But when asked to list his actual achievements there has been a marked silence. Often these characters have simply fallen back on the mantra that he was a fine "ambassador" for the region. Ambassador to whom exactly? For all his dishing-out of the Ferrero Rocher he did not - as The Economist put it - "even move the dial" over seven years. But as with Trump there are those who are susceptible to a load of old b*lls and blind to reality. Most people in other parts of the country do not see Greater Brum as some sort of economic powerhouse despite the propaganda.
The actual fact is that most of us couldn't care less about the Mayoralty and the vast majority of locals absolutely didn't want any more of Street. Nearly 1.8 m voters could not face any more of his own trumpet-blowing. Yes folks only 11.1% of the electorate believed the hard sell from, well, a salesman. 88.9% couldn't face any more of him.
It is hard to see the collapse of the WMCA anytime soon or any meaningful local government reform in our region. We can only hope (!) that our new Mayor will have a more strategic plan and work with the local councils to implement it. The problems ahead are immense and our streets will remain caked in dog-sh*t rather than paved with gold for some years to come.
Meanwhile there is talk of The Brand being elevated to the unelected House of Lords when Sunak departs, or being selected for the Party he turned his back on in Solihull or Sutton Coldfield. But as some sections of the media have pointed out, Andy's giant ego is unlikely to suit a life on the green benches, especially in opposition. With the Party of Brexit about to face humiliating defeat he would be a very small fish in a very small pond. Whatever - at least he won't be doing any more damage to our backward and enfeebled region. Don't shed any tears - he is a very rich man owning at least three and a half properties and won't be suffering the consequences of the multi millions or our money he has p*ssed up the wall.
Crow Multimedia
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Ian Crow Multimedia Limited
