How law and journalism works – frustration!

I haven’t been very good at blogging recently, thanks to a combination of laziness and too much other work to take care of. I’m also finding my twitter stream has been taking care of a lot of the little things I want to let people know about.

But here’s something that’s moved me to write, after nearly six months of frustration. A story I’m trying to pin down that is being held back from publication by – who knows, it wouldn’t be fair of me to speculate.

I’m not trying to big myself up here – this isn’t the Thalidomide scandal or sexing up dodgy dossiers, but this is a tale where innocent people at their most vulnerable point have been messed around. And still the news can’t come out properly, not because of secrecy of anything malign, just because the system doesn’t work very well. It’s almost perverse.

Solar powered community radio station in Kings Heath/Moseley

This has had a mention before (original link doesn’t seem to work) but community organisers are looking for support for the UK’s first solar-powered community radio station, starting in Kings Heath, Moseley, Brandwood and Billesley.

Organisers Peni Whelan and Nick Shough hope to get the community-run station a trial run in June/July this year, and are currently looking for funding. If you live in South Birmingham, the more people that get in touch the more likely it will be to go ahead.

They also hope to be bringing in local people to DJ if it takes off, so if you’ve always wanted to be South Brum’s next Jon Gaunt (or whoever) then give it your support.

Contact Peni on sbcradio@talktalk.net or go to www.e-voice.org.uk/southbirminghamcommunityradio for info. (Website is a bit out of date but will be updated momentarily I’m told.)

More to come in next Monday’s Media and marketing in the Post. Or read the Post copy here.

Where is the Black Country then, really?

Today I was talking to the Black Country Chamber of Commerce about their plans to get the region officially recognised by the Ordinance Survey maps.

The hardest part of the whole business is deciding what and where the Black Country actually is though. Although it’s obviously got it’s own identity – probably more so than the surrounding areas of other cities of similar size.

I don’t know about Gateshead or Salford being so keen to distance themselves from their larger conurbations to nearly the same extent as the Black Country seems to.

I’m a relative newcomer to the West Midlands, so all these references to yam yams, Slade, bostin, faggots and peas, brummagem and the like passes over my head a bit. So someone take a guess, help me out: where does Birmingham end and the Black Country start? And why is it so important to everyone?

Why the Jewellery Quarter doesn’t need to be a World Heritage Site

Very few, it seems, and certainly nothing particulary tangible. This has already been discussed on some of the usual places but I’ve been writing and talking to people about it all day (see in full here and here), so I’ve decided to stick my oar in anyway.

One thing that seems to come up a lot is that people can’t seem to see any actual benefit to it. From talking to a number of people round Birmingham – and also at the Ironbridge Gorge WH site over in Shropshire, it seems that the only benefits anyone mentions in increased tourism, and some kind of nebulous “community” spirit.

Of course no-one can really predict the effect that the extra exposure this might have on tourism numbers, extra shoppers, that sort of thing, but given that the vast majority of people don’t even know much about what WHSs are, it can’t be that much of a pull. THe head of the Ironbridge WH site even said to me that there aren’t many in the world that this makes any difference to.

And in terms of a community spirit… The WHS classification gives very little actual legal protection or guidance, if any, to an area. In terms of creating and protecting communities in Birmingham, that’s a job for the people that live and work in them, not the UN.

And the most important thing: this is just absolutely not going to happen, apart from anything else. To become a WHS, this would have to be approved by the planning committe, the full council, English Heritage and the Department of Culture Media and Sport, beating the likes of Shakespeare’s Stratford. It ain’t gonna happen. And it’s hard not to be cynical and wonder if this is just a big plug for the Quarter without much intention of it working – viral marketing from the council?

The top pub in Birmingham

The Anchor Inn, by Digbeth Coach Station, has been named the best pub in Birmingham. Good call too. It’s got a fantastic atmosphere, though I’d imagine it’s a bit quiet now the coach station is closed. And the beer list is second to none, with the possible exception of the Wellington.

I’m planning to go out there some time soon to re-start the sadly neglected pint-sized blog I write, which was going great guns until work and Christmas just took it over.

Looking for a business to take part in a series of web/paper articles

As the enterprise editor of the Birmingham Post, I try to cover as many of the issues relating to startups and small and medium enterprises in the weekly enterprise section of the paper as possible. But I also do case studies of a lot of small businesses in the region.

Now I’m trying to take that one step further, as well as create something that would hopefully be a good read for anyone interested in the problems of starting and running your own business. I’m hoping to find an entrepreneur/just-started business who wants to work with me on a regular series of articles (monthly perhaps) giving a diary of the highs and lows they face running their business.

Obviously monthly (or whatever) updates in the paper can only go into so much detail, so I’m hoping that whoever I might be able to get involved will be keen to run a blog (with me or by themself) to go into more details of the say-to-day problems faced by small business owners in these difficult economic times.

If you know – or if you are – someone who’d be interested in taking part in this, or if you’ve got any comments or suggestions, it’d be great to hear from you, either here, or at my work contact details: tom_scotney@mrn.co.uk, 0121 234 5576/5506