Tom Bates 21st November 2025 There are a few constants in British life. Rain on bank holidays. Train strikes. And people (usually from London), telling you how awful Birmingham is. Show them a photo of Venice, tell them it’s Brindleyplace, and they’d still mutter something about concrete. Because that’s Birmingham’s national reputation: traffic jams, 1960s buildings, and an accent critics seem convinced was invented as a joke. But yesterday, something happened that might finally force people...