Parochial arguments hinder not help

19th May 2011, by Jacqui Lennon

Lord Jones of Birmingham was on Radio 5 Live earlier this week once again gaining publicity for his home city. But while Digby has a commendable history of championing Birmingham, on this occasion he’s regurgitated a tired old topic that quite frankly does the city no favours.

His view was that Birmingham is in danger of being relegated as Britain’s second city. So what? In this day and age, what does our geography actually mean?

Look at our business. We’re based in Birmingham and we enjoy all that the location offers, but it’s not something that’s ever discussed with those we do business with: they come to us because we excel, not for our location.

So I can’t help but think this whole city status argument is parochial and counter productive.

We don’t worry about being compared with London, so why would we worry about being compared with Manchester or Glasgow? And I’m sure vice versa must apply - do our colleagues in other cities have conversations about this?

In any case, I’m sure they’ll agree that there’s a certain shallowness in building your fame points on the back of football and pop music.

Like any major conurbation, Birmingham has a rich heritage that has created its culture together with great, OK and bad bits. There’s also a host of attributes that do benefit us, not least the fact that this is Europe’s youngest city. For a growing company looking to employ tomorrow’s talent, this is of course a huge benefit.

The reality is most of our businesses began here because it’s where our founders lived when they had their entrepreneurial urge. It wasn’t a decision based on our so-called rankings in the hierarchy of UK cities.

So sorry Digby, this isn’t an argument I think we should be wasting our time on. I’m very happy with the city I call home, but I’ll promote it because it’s great, not because of its ranking.

Being here and aiming to be the very best in the field in which we operate is the most productive thing we can do for Birmingham – not squabbling about a podium position.