This is a city spawned by the industrial revolution and its hallmark was that it made things that people wanted to buy. Birmingham made cars, one of the biggest manufacturers in Europe if not the world, until the eventual collapse in 2005 of Austin Rover.
We made motor cycles at BSA, short for Birmingham Small Arms, and its name gives evidence of our other major industry - we made guns. We made bicycles, jewellery, chocolate and glass. We had something tangible to offer, a disparate range of production items we could sell to the world.
We lost our major car plant in 2005, motor bikes to the Italians and later the far east years before that. Other industries simply became redundant but, it seems to me, have never been replaced. Everything the consumer wants - TVs, DVD players, washing machines, cars, bikes - all made in the far east or somwhere not in the UK
Now we seem to sell that intangible of intangibles - 'services'. We sell conference space and arena shows and all the peripheral stuff - the pretty girls and the razzmatazz that goes with it. We are a dependency economy, dependent on other companies outside the city - and many from abroad - seeing Birmingham as a market stall on which to lay out their goods. So we are Mr 10% - we take the commission for providing a pretty setting for other people to sell stuff.
In a current review of Birmingham, two of its industries are described as finance and tourism. Well forgive me, love my city though I do, I would hardly count on its future as a tourist destination and , even if it were the Rome of the Midlands, what sort of an industry is 'tourism'.? That's for the likes of Majorca and the Bahamas,with precious little else going for it, not a major city with a massive potential workforce.
It was announced this week that Birmingham has suffered more than most under the recession. Well I don't think that's greatly surprising. When you have what was once a major manufacturing city now vulnerable to the whims of other people's businesses because we specialise in service industries and entertainment, then in a recession those are going to be cut back pretty quickly.
I have watched the renaissance of Birmingham with some admiration and more than a little worry. The bars, restaurants and clubs which have sprung up on our canal side are very impressive and a joy to take visitors.
But I come back to where the money comes from? What is sustaining this growth of leisure and entertainment, these comparitively rich kids who come into the city and spend £25 on a meal and £4 on a pint of lager? Where does their money come from? And is this recession, now seen to be the worst since the second world war and counting, going to finally blow apart the apparent prosperity of Birmingham as a facade that cannot be sustained?
2 comments:
Gil Scott Heron, in his 'B Movie' song about Ronald Reagan said...
"What has happened is that in the last 20 years, America has changed from a producer to a consumer. And all consumers know that when the producer names the tunethe consumer has got to dance. That's the way it is. We used to be a producer very inflexible at that, and now we are consumers and, finding it difficult to understand. Natural resources and minerals will change your world. The Arabs used to be in the 3rd World. They have bought the 2nd World and put a firm down payment on the 1st one. Controlling your resources we'll control your world. This country has been surprised by the way the world looks now. They don't know if they want to be Matt Dillon or Bob Dylan. They don't know if they want to be diplomats or continue the same policy - of nuclear nightmare diplomacy. John Foster Dulles ain't nothing but the name of an airport now."
That was written 28 years ago! Seems even more true now.
Yes it does, and the takeover has grown apace. It was said, jokingly I hope but you never know, that if China called in all its tabs on the US America would be finished..its only hope being to take China out in a nuclear strike and thus realign the world again. Godo job Bush has gone..he might have listened :)
I like Gil Scott Heron too.
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