Dear readers — welcome to another week in paradise! As we enter week three of an all-out-bins strike, it appears some renters have become so desperate they are considering leaving Birmingham altogether (if estate agents in neighbouring authority areas are to be believed). Another cohort of deserters can be found in Dudley, where there’s been a sweep of resignations by Labour councillors in protest of the party’s welfare reforms. Is Starmer sweating yet? Probably not, but the pressure on the party is certainly mounting — Birmingham business owners are also up in arms about having to pay a double whammy of higher wages and national insurance contributions. There’s more on all of these stories in today’s Brum in Brief and Media Picks.
Our top story for today, however, is the news that the charity watchdog has closed an investigation into a local mosque where a preacher gave a sermon saying it is ok for husbands to hit their wives if they refuse to have sex. Unsurprisingly, this has caused controversy — read the full story below.
Catch up and coming up:
- Fancy a dive into the ancient nobility of Birmingham (if such a thing exists) — read Kate’s editor’s edition on the owners of the Calthorpe Estate in Edgbaston and their connections to Richard Branson.
- Just as noble, but nowhere near as ancient. On Thursday, Samuel told the story of Lord Edmiston (a life peer) and Richard Gamble’s mission to build a 51 metre high white concrete wall outside the M6. Read it here.
- On the other side of the tracks, Dan Cave went clubbing — weaving a nostalgic analysis of the decline of nightlife in the city.
- Did you read the recent Sunday Times investigation into the scandal at the heart of the Student Loans Company? Know anything about franchised colleges in Birmingham? Sloppy courses, non existent students? Email sam@birminghamdispatch.co.uk.
- Kate is covering the bin strikes. Send tips to kate@birminghamdispatch.co.uk
Fire Damage: Announcing the launch of a new Birmingham novel
Our friends at Floodgate, Birmingham's newest print publisher, have been up and running for two years, publishing collections of shorter works by local authors. In an exciting next step, they're now putting out their first novel. Fire Damage, by Nigel Proctor, is a gripping police procedural set over seven days during the Birmingham Blitz. Deeply researched, it's been described as 'historically vivid and humming with contemporary resonance' by author Charlie Hill.
The launch is next Thursday, 27th March at independent bookshop Voce Books in Digbeth. Tickets are just £3 (or £10.99, with a copy of the book) and you'll hear from Nigel about the inspiration for his book and what he thinks it tells us about Birmingham today. Tickets are available here.
This post was sponsored by Floodgate
Weather
🌥️Tuesday: Overcast with sunny patches. Max 14°C.
☀️ Wednesday: Bright and sunny. Max 16°C.
🌥️Thursday: Sunny with some light clouds. Max 15°C.
☔ Friday: A drop in temperature and light showers. Max 12°C.
🍃 Weekend: A mix of sun, cloud and a gentle breeze. Max 14°C.
We get our weather from the Met Office.
Photo of the week
Picture by @TheIronRoom. The above is a speculative skyscraper design for Birmingham submitted at the end of WWI. The tower was proposed for the centre of the city and was to be accompanied by a 35ft statue of a metal worker. Sadly, or not, depending on your opinion, the tower was never built. Does it put you in mind of interwar Manhattan — or maybe Stalinist Moscow? Let us know in the comments.
Brum in brief:
👑 The Charity Commission has been criticised after it closed an investigation into a Birmingham mosque, where a preacher claimed that men had the right to hit their wives if they refused sex. An-Noor Masjid and Community Centre based in Bordesley Green published a video to its YouTube account in September featuring Mahamed AbdurRazaq explaining the contexts in which it was “acceptable for a husband to beat his wife.” AbdurRazaq claimed that a beating to induce intercourse should: “not bruise and…not break bones.” The National Secular Society (NSS) registered a complaint with the commission after the video was published, registering a further complaint when the commission decided to only issue the masjid with ‘guidance’ rather than taking stronger action. Reports detail that the commission is dealing with a huge backlog of investigation requests — with former government anti-extremism advisors calling it “toothless.” An-Noor Masjid took the offending video down and has banned the speaker from further engagements. The NSS have claimed that the mosque is condoning ‘marital rape.’ An-Noor Masjid has not responded to requests for comment issued by The Times.
🗑️ Attention from the national media has finally ramped up as we enter the third week of an all out bin strikes. The Guardian, The Financial Times, The Times and JOE have all made the pilgrimage from Euston to New Street to stare at piles of rubbish (well not The Guardian, they actually pay for a Midlands correspondent). The Financial Times have reported that rubbish build-up near care homes have caused alarm about public health dangers to vulnerable residents, that local businesses are increasingly worried about the knock-on effects to footfall, and that Craig Cooper, director of city operations at Birmingham City Council has advised people to look into purchasing private collection services. Many rubbish pile ups are so bad that they’re blocking off windows and doors leading to both health and fire risks, with people having to abandon the use of rooms near binbags, according to The Guardian.
Scenes of chaos have gripped Birmingham and the media this month. Most notably, an event described as ‘binmageddon’ by the BBC on Anderton Park Road in Moseley where hundreds of residents swarmed a lone refuse truck with police being called and the collection cancelled. In response, many people simply dumped their rubbish on the street and left. Consternation at both Birmingham City Council and the binworkers union (Unite) have only increased in the last couple of weeks. Preet Gill, the MP for Edgbaston, has declared that the strikes are becoming a “public health emergency.”
Over at the bin depots, picket lines have been forming in an attempt to block agency workers driving trucks from reaching collection routes — including a tactic called ‘go slow’ where striking workers walk incredibly slowly in front of vehicles. Unite has made the claim that BCC are sacking agency workers for talking to strikers, claiming the restructuring of the workforce would replace secure employment with an “insecure agency workforce.” Unite boss Sharon Graham has stated that: “The arrogance and vindictiveness of Birmingham’s commissioner-led council towards low-paid hard-working refuse workers is astounding.”
🥀 Dudley’s Labour Party has experienced a cascading run of resignations over the last couple of days. The landslide started last week on Tuesday when Dudley Council Labour Party leader Pete Lowe quit the party after 41 years, citing disagreements over PIP reform, the WASPI women and winter fuel payment means testing. In response to Lowe deciding to sit as an independent, three more Labour councillors resigned the Labour whip last Thursday. On Saturday, yet another councillor, Luke Hamblett also resigned from Labour bringing the total to five in 2025. These ex-Labour politicians will sit as an independent group in opposition to “Labour austerity.” The national party has called these Dudley resignations "disappointing."
🌳 The Birmingham Tories are hoping to win the hearts and minds of the city by getting five new candidates aged under-25 elected in next year’s race. On Sunday, young Hugo Rasenberg launched his campaign at O’Neill’s pub in Harborne where the Tories, clearly keen to win the punters over, had put money behind the bar. Harborne is a strategic choice: Labour lost one of two sitting members in the area last December when Martin Brooks went independent, blaming the party’s poor governance and multiple “fiascos.” Clearly, Rasenberg is on a similar page, telling The Dispatch: “If [Labour] had a plan to ruin Birmingham, they couldn’t have done a better job.” In Rasenberg’s corner was a respectable crowd of people including locals who pledged their support. Also in attendance was his grandad who said: “I don’t actually live here, I live in Buckinghamshire and I’m actually Hugo’s grandad. But I’ve come to support him but I’m not too sure about the whole story.”
🚨And finally, it seems like we’re now part of the city’s furniture, according to one Brummie meme maker over at Reddit. We’ll be aiming to keep you from your pitchworks over the coming weeks…
Quick Hits:
🛍️ After many calls and a long campaign, a Uniqlo outlet is finally coming to Birmingham. The Japanese retailer will be based at the Bull Ring.
⛹️♀️ Birmingham City FC’s wealthy American owners Knighthead Capital have bought a significant stake in the new netball team the Birmingham Panthers. Co-founder Thomas Wagner said netball is a “sport on the rise” and this is another step towards the firm’s “ultimate ambition” of creating a sports quarter in East Birmingham.
✂️ Disability campaigners Crips Against Cuts will take to Victoria Square on Saturday at 1pm to protest the government’s upcoming “biggest shake up to the welfare system in a generation to get people working.”
🌼 Hyper local news site Inside Handsworth is reporting that “lovingly tendered” planters set up by a local community group to deter fly-tippers have been torn out at the orders of a local councillor. Reportedly, Councillor Mahmood Hussain ordered contractor Kier to remove the greenery prompting a complaint to the council by secretary of Handsworth Helping Hands, Simon Baddeley.
🏓 The BBC has followed up on Alex’s Sutton Coldfield paddle board feature for The Dispatch. Angry residents abound.
🧳Renters are “deserting Birmingham” according to a letting agent in Solihull. Lettings agents in Solihull, Sutton Coldfield and the Black Country have seen an uptick in interest from renters in Birmingham as rubbish piles up in the city.
🏆The suburb of Harborne has the distinction of being the only Birmingham postcode in this year's Times ‘Best Places to Live’ list. The newspaper has complimented the area for its “attractive period homes, plentiful parks, top primary schools, and food scene.”
🏗️ A huge 29-storey tower is planned for Gas Street Basin in the city centre, with claims that the structure will produce more energy than it consumes. The Narrowhouse project has claimed it will cover the tower in solar panels, feeding excess energy back into the grid. The design has proven controversial with some.
Home of the week
Someone with a spare £950,000 should buy this warehouse in Digbeth and turn it into a club…or a really big house (if that’s your style). Samuel has been inside the structure and can testify to its spaciousness…
Media picks
📰 Steven Knight is becoming as known for his steadfast promotion of his hometown as he is for Peaky Blinders. The writer/director from Small Heath was recently spotted in the pages of the Financial Times once again flying the flag for a booming Birmingham TV and film industry. He’s put his money where his mouth is too, by developing a 19 acre plot of a dilapidated banana warehouse in Digbeth into state of the art studios (not without some controversy, we should add — read this Dispatch to hear about the grumbles by local grassroots arts organisations). He isn’t deterred, however, describing how he wants to bring a fresh swathe of industry to the neighbourhood where his father worked as a blacksmith. “Mostly it was a den of iniquity where stolen goods would disappear and reappear, “ he says. “I remember as a kid meeting the people in the scrap metal yards, and I just loved it. I wanted to do something here as a consequence.”
🎞️ Local filmmaker Red Wade’s series of short films about libraries in Birmingham have been shared a lot online lately. As part of a campaign to save the community spaces from cuts and closures, Wade takes you inside the history of each institution, featuring interviews with local figures, collaged video and eye-catching text. So far, they’ve covered Handsworth, Harborne, Northfield and Shard End, documenting the quirks of each space and the people who use them. Check out their latest here.
📰 Birmingham businesses are dreading the rise in the minimum wage and national insurance contributions they'll have to fork out for when Labour’s new budget comes in next month. According to this Times feature from the weekend, the bigger firms are likely to be able to absorb the costs but owners of smaller businesses are frantic. David Dindol, 66, owns the sandwich bar Harrington in the city and the gay quarter pub Missing and described the government’s actions as “very stressful.” “I don’t know what they want from this. Yes, they need to get more money, but at what expense?”
Our to do list
🎶 Start the week off with some funky soul tonight at the Hare and Hounds where South African musician Moonchild Sanelly will be performing. Tickets £16.50, plus you get 20 percent off your bill if eating.
🎤 Jokes more your thing? Comedian Max Amini jets in from Los Angeles to perform live at Symphony Hall tonight. Get your tickets from 40.
🎻 Irish trad heads, you know where you need to be on Tuesday: at the Alexandria Theatre for Seven Drunken Nights the story of iconic band The Dubliners. Tickets from £28.
🎹 For a gloriously atmospheric gig in the company of the Burnes-Jones stained glass windows, visit Birmingham Cathedral on Tuesday for Sounds of Prague by a trio of young classical musicians. Tickets £6.13.
📖 Local writer and this week’s sponsor of The Dispatch Nigel Proctor will unpack his debut crime novel at Voce Books on Thursday. Fire Damage is a blistering crime story set during the Birmingham Blitz. Tickets from £3.
🎭 Catch three short plays by writers Yusra Warsama, Magero and Anyebe Godwin at the Legacy Centre of Excellence on Friday night. Get tickets for Everywhere: Triple Bill from £7.21.
🩰 The prestigious Elmhurst Ballet School will host a cracking show of classical and modern dance on Friday, featuring one of the most successful pieces of contemporary ballet from the 1930s, Vakhtang Chabukiani’s Laurencia. Tickets are available from £15.
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