Birmingham may be the UK's multi-ethnic "third city" (formerly the "second city") but it's the white folks who control the Socialist nirvana that is the southern suburb of Kings Heath (KH), as this image of those running a local forum meeting a couple of years ago amply demonstrates:
Formerly a working class area with a strong Irish community the area is undergoing gentrification. The growth of the state as an employer, and of the Brum universities, has led to an influx of bourgeois "socialists". You can tell this by the number of white middle-aged women wandering about wearing keffiyehs. And you can also buy something called "artisan" bread ...
The newbies are wealthy by Birmingham standards - which may not be saying much when a shaming 25% of the Labour city's working age population is in receipt of out-of-work benefits. But the property is - relatively - cheap and most of these folks are only moderately well-off. These are people who have never made any real money in the public sector, but are used to sucking from the state's nipple. Thus they can't live anywhere that is actually "nice", and chose to eke out their sinecures and pensions in an area which is only a couple of steps up from a public convenience.
Despite never having run a whelk stall "socialists" have the crazed and fallacious belief that they can organise communities. The primary example of this in KH is an incessant war on motorists which has happily resulted in "the Left" managing to exclude traffic from the more agreeable areas where they, er, live. They have forced ever greater traffic to clog the roads where the poorer folk huddle in their hovels.
As avowed anti-capitalists (although not when it comes to their own material well-being) the rather faded Reds have waged war on KH's once famous High Street. This straddles a major arterial route but economic considerations do not apply with these people, and the plan is to force everyone onto public transport and prevent vehicles using the road at all. This is only a part of the nonsense, believe me.
As someone who shops and drinks in KH on a regular basis there is no doubt that it is becoming a sh*thole. Yet it remains busy and shops and pubs are making so much money they actually pay extra tax to trade there. How much longer this will last as the socialists deliberately drive businesses away remains to be seen.
Yes, the local pubs and businesses pay extra tax - in the form of a levy - to a Labour Party-front organisation called, laughably, Kings Heath Business Improvement District (the BID), calculated as a percentage of a property's rateable value.
Now here is the curious thing. The media is awash with cries for help from publicans and the hospitality industry as the current Labour Government is throttling it with extra taxes and regulations. Business rates are a major bone of contention and the pub industry is crying-out for a VAT cut. The minimum wage and national insurance increases have been hollowing out pub businesses. New duty rules mean ever weaker beers are being served. Pubs are closing around the country (or operating much reduced opening hours if they are limping along). Staff are put out of work. Yes there are exceptions, of course, but these are few and far between. Yet the higher taxes, rates and costs are NOT a problem for KH pubs which are delighted to pay the BID levy on top! Why?
Crow Multimedia wrote the following press enquiry to a random sample of three KH boozers asking what the secret of their success is:
"The pub and music venue trades have suffered grievously in recent years and the current Labour Government appears to pile on the pain. Two well-known Brum pubs closed in January to my knowledge.
Social media is awash with complaints from publicans about tax generally, minimum wage increases, NI increases, and business rates. Yet Kings Heath is bucking the trend and you guys opt to actually pay more tax (in the form of a BID levy) on top of the current burden. Why are KH pubs doing so well that they can afford extra tax when many others appear to be struggling?"
Alas, the Loco Lounge, The Juke, and the Hare & Hounds declined to respond.
Usually higher taxes on businesses are passed on to consumers. Does that mean that KH pubs are charging higher prices to reflect this? As no-one is yet speaking-up, we can only guess! Just check the price of your pint next time you go out on KH's Tarnished (formerly Golden) Mile.
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| Another failed High Street business. |
