Category Archives: Birmingham

Birmingham broods over Tory treachery as Conservative party conference looms

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Tax cuts for the rich have not gone down well in Ladywood, the city constituency due to host the Conservatives’ annual gathering

Only the most bullish Conservative party strategist would have dared forecast the centre of Britain’s second-biggest city turning Tory anytime soon.

Yet as the real-life implications of the government’s mini-budget continued to crystallise on Saturday, anyone even contemplating a Conservative victory in central Birmingham should now be judged beyond delusional.

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Rail strikes leave Commonwealth Games city with almost no trains

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‘Special shuttle’ is only service running in Birmingham after the latest industrial action on the network in England and Wales

Rail strikes brought fresh misery for millions across the country on Saturday, including major disruption to Birmingham as it hosted one of the busiest days of the Commonwealth Games.

The latest round of strikes during a summer of chaos for passengers prompted bitter exchanges between union leaders and ministers.

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King Kong statue returns to Birmingham for Commonwealth Games

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Statue is recreation of pop art installation by Nicholas Munro displayed in city centre in 1970s

When the British pop artist Nicholas Monro was asked to make a public sculpture for Birmingham in the 1970s, he raised a few eyebrows when he produced an 18ft fibreglass statue of King Kong.

“It was really just a finger up to the system. They wanted something typical and boring, so he gave them a massive gorilla,” said Monro’s son Claude. “I think there was a certain amount of ‘Is this art? What is this?’” added Joe, Claude’s elder brother.

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Shooting at an Alabama church leaves two dead and one in hospital

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Police confirmed a suspect had been taken into custody after the attack at St Stephen’s Episcopal Church in Birmingham

A shooting at a church in a suburb of one of Alabama’s major cities left two people dead and two others wounded on Thursday, police said, adding a suspect was quickly taken into custody.

The shooting erupted inside St Stephen’s Episcopal church in the Birmingham suburb of Vestavia Hills.

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Tory MP apologises for calling Birmingham and Blackpool ‘godawful’

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Heather Wheeler, a minister in the Cabinet Office, made comments at technology event in London

A UK government minister has apologised after calling England’s second city and one of the country’s best-known seaside resorts as “godawful”.

Heather Wheeler referred to Birmingham and Blackpool during a launch of the government’s new digital strategy on Thursday. According to Chris Middleton, a technology journalist who was at the launch, the junior minister in the Cabinet Office said: “I was just at a conference in Blackpool or Birmingham or somewhere godawful.”

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Rail managers could join strikes across network in Britain

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TSSA union ballots could lead to complete national shutdown by time of Commonwealth Games in July

Managers and train drivers could join the strikes across the railway, potentially setting up a complete national shutdown by the time of the Commonwealth Games in July.

The Transport Salaried Staffs’ Association (TSSA) union, whose members manage control rooms, signalling and power for train operators and Network Rail, has launched its first strike ballot, while the Associated Society of Locomotive Engineers and Firemen (Aslef) union has called the first regional walkouts by drivers.

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Birmingham Hockley flyover murals get listed status

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Artworks by sculptor William Mitchell, designed to encourage public interaction, earn Grade-II accolade

A group of concrete murals on a flyover in Birmingham, known as a “brutalist climbing wall”, have been given listed status.

The three-banked mural walls flanking the entrance to the Hockley flyover underpass feature geometric shapes and abstract patterns and were designed by the sculptor William Mitchell to encourage public interaction.

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Birmingham communities feel ‘ignored’ by Commonwealth Games bosses

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Exclusive: panel says organisers have failed to engage city’s diverse groups in a meaningful way

Organisers of the 2022 Commonwealth Games in Birmingham have left diverse communities feeling “largely ignored” and have failed to engage them in a meaningful way, according to a report.

The Birmingham Race Impact Group (BRIG) commissioned a panel of race equality practitioners and consultants to assess the Games in a number of areas including legacy, community engagement and procurement.

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Police examining contracts related to Unite’s £98m Birmingham hotel project

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Union’s offices raided as part of investigation into allegations of bribery, fraud and money laundering

A police inquiry involving a Unite union official is examining contracts related to the construction of a £98m hotel and conference centre in Birmingham, the Guardian has learned.

South Wales police and HM Revenue and Customs raided the union’s offices in central London on Thursday as part of an investigation into allegations of bribery, fraud and money laundering.

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Environmental protesters block oil terminals across UK

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Activists climb on tankers and glue themselves to roads around London, Birmingham and Southampton

Hundreds of environmental protesters have blocked seven oil terminals across the country as part of a campaign to paralyse the UK’s fossil fuel infrastructure.

Early on Friday, supporters of Just Stop Oil began blockades at oil refineries around London, Birmingham and Southampton by climbing on top of tankers and gluing themselves to road surfaces.

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Birmingham to host six-month arts festival for Commonwealth Games

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More than 200 events to take place as city invests £12m in programme hoped to aid post-pandemic recovery

Birmingham will benefit from “the great gift of the mega-event”, said the creative officer of the Commonwealth Games at the launch of a concurrent six-month-long cultural festival.

Birmingham 2022 festival will include more than 200 events from March to September across the West Midlands and will involve more than 100,000 participants, making it one of the largest cultural programmes to ever surround the games.

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‘Go-to place for film lovers’: Birmingham’s Electric cinema reopens

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Owners want to bring venue up to date while maintaining heritage of cinema that first opened in 1909

In the 112 years since it began, the Electric cinema in Birmingham has lived through the history of film-making. When it first opened its doors in 1909 it showed silent movies with a piano backing, rolling newsreels and cartoons in the 30s, adult films in the 60s, and blockbusters in the 80s.

But the Covid pandemic nearly marked the end of what is believed to be the UK’s oldest working cinema when its owners decided to sell up after more than a year of continuous closure.

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Unite launches inquiry into building costs of Birmingham project

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Following leaked accounts, union’s new general secretary says possible ‘significant loss’ must be investigated

Unite is launching an independent inquiry into how the building costs of a hotel and conference centre in Birmingham spiralled into a “potentially significant loss” for the trade union.

The inquiry follows reports at the beginning of the year of leaked accounts seeming to indicate that the union had overspent on the 170-room hotel and 1,000-person conference centre.

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Millions of unjabbed a key concern as England scrambles to vaccinate

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Government’s ‘Get boosted now’ slogan means little in areas where up to 30% of people have had no vaccine at all

In the Newtown ward of central Birmingham, the government’s “Get boosted now” slogan means nothing to half of over-16s, because they have not had any vaccination against Covid at all.

It is a similar story in Westminster and Camden in London where among the over-12s, 30% have not had a single jab. In Nottingham, a quarter of the whole population face the coming Omicron “tidal wave” unvaccinated.

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‘You’ve got long hair, I’ve got long hair!’ The loud, joyful community of rock bars

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With strong drinks and stronger music, rock bars are fiercely independent havens for UK metalheads, who have been donating thousands to keep them alive after Covid

It’s Friday night in north London’s Black Heart, a rock and metal bar tucked away on a Camden side street. The walls and ceiling are – inevitably – painted black, the beer taps are furnished with antlers, and the speakers are blasting out Metallica’s Enter Sandman. As the chorus hits, the whole bar breaks into song, and the bartender turns down the volume so all that can be heard is a room full of joyous metalheads belting out: “We’re off to never-never land!”

As pints splash and voices echo, the scene feels poignant: pandemic lockdowns left rock fans wondering when they might have moments like this again, with the Black Heart nearly closing down until it was saved by a crowdfunding campaign with prize draws that raised more than £150,000 in seven weeks.

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‘We’ve signed Ronaldo’: could other banks follow Goldman Sachs to Birmingham?

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As the bank hires nearly 100 staff in the city, the region’s mayor hopes to attract more big firms

Investment bankers are rarely compared to football stars. But when the West Midlands mayor, Andy Street, formally welcomed Goldman Sachs to Birmingham this month, he likened its arrival to one of the summer’s big transfer moves.

“I hope this isn’t inappropriate,” he said, addressing a crowd of Goldman staff gathered at the city’s newly refurbished Grand Hotel. “I think you probably are the Cristiano Ronaldo moment. You’re the big one to secure.”

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Tom Cruise’s car stolen while filming in Birmingham

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Mission: Impossible star’s belongings reportedly missing from his BMW X7 when recovered in Smethwick

The Hollywood actor Tom Cruise’s BMW was stolen while he was filming in Birmingham.

The BMW X7 had been used to ferry around the star, who has been in the city filming scenes for the seventh instalment in the Mission: Impossible series.

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Man arrested after ‘appalling’ homophobic attack in Birmingham’s Gay Village

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West Midlands police still want to speak to Sohail Khan and Ishaaq Ayaz after a man, believed to be Mosin Mahmood, handed himself in

West Midlands police have arrested a man and are searching for two other suspects in connection to an “appalling” homophobic hate crime in Birmingham’s Gay Village in which two men were abused and then cut with broken bottles.

The man, believed to be Mosin Mahmood, 31, handed himself in following an appeal in which he was named along with two others. He was arrested on suspicion of wounding and remains in custody.

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